My Appearance Last Night on "The Rundown Live"

5/29/2015

In lieu of a blog post today, please enjoy my appearance last night on The Rundown Live, where I discussed ancient astronauts, conspiracy theories, and giants. You can download an audio podcast here or watch the YouTube version below.

17 Comments

Scott Hamilton

5/29/2015 04:02:51 am

The audio version is less than 2 minutes long. Hopefully they'll fix that.

Jason Colavito link

5/29/2015 04:21:44 am

Sigh. Always errors. I posted the full audio on my "Jason in the Media" page (in the "About" tab) if you'd prefer to listen rather than watch. I'll let them know about the podcast error.

Jason Colavito link

5/29/2015 06:53:06 am

Update: The right audio is now up for download on their website.

redjsohuaman

5/29/2015 06:43:01 am

Hi Jason,
Long time reader of your blog but first time commenter.

You did a fantastic job on that show but I have one big question which is, what did you gain from doing it?

These guys obviously embrace some of the laughable conspiracy theories you have repeatedly refuted on your blog and articles. Whether they are the anti-Semitically tinged theories dealing with banking or the Rothschilds or just the laughable ones pulled from Scott Wolters wet dreams dealing with the Templars and the Americas.

They repeatedly showed themselves to be out of their depths on subjects and tried, painfully and obviously, to contort whatever you were saying to how its all "propaganda man".

They sounded like freshman college students who feel they have a grasp on how history is done but in reality don't have clue. It seems that all that was accomplished by allowing yourself come on their show was help them fulfill the fantasy that they're open minded and allow all sides and also give credibility to a program that indulges in the ridiculous, like the Jade Helm conspiracy.

Jason Colavito link

5/29/2015 07:02:38 am

I don't really gain anything from being on any of these shows, to be honest with you. If I tried to look at the listener to customer conversion rate, it is vanishingly small. But on the other hand, if I did anything for the profit, I'd have closed up shop years ago. I get a lot of radio appearance offers, but most of them want me to be on in the middle of the night, and that's too hard when I have a job to get up in the morning to do. I did this one because it was on at a decent hour. Yes, it helps the hosts to look fair and balanced, but if it means that I had a chance to speak to an audience that wouldn't typically visit my website or read my books, then it's worth it so long as at least some people in the audience might stop to think a bit about these kinds of claims. After all, there's no point in speaking only to people who already agree with me. They don't need to hear why these claims are wrong!

redjoshuaman

5/29/2015 07:29:19 am

Jason,
I didn't mean to imply monetary gain, sorry if that seemed to be the case.

I meant more along the lines of ground gained in the task of trying bring about a more fact and evidenced based look at history.

It just seemed like you might as well have been talking to one of the crazy placard guys in Times Square. Though you are correct that with a show like this it is about the fact there is an audience.

I just know that you're engaged in what is in many ways a sisyphean venture and of all the ways to accomplish this venture this seems that it gains the least amount of ground.

Your blog is amazing.

Your articles are amazing.

When you've been on TV shows that have allowed you to really get into the historical nitty gritty evidence, its been amazing and good.

I'm sure if you were ever allowed to do a segment on a science show like NPR's Science Fridays or similar it'd likewise be amazing as they'd really give you both the focus and time to really explain a lot of these things.

However this show due to the breadth they asked you talked about but also the innate problems with a talkshow format style show, really made it difficult for you to really get into the subject. Especially when they were the sort to obfuscate and dodge almost any real points you were making that were backed by real evidence.

I only wish a tv show like NOVA saw the whole Ancient Aliens/Nephillim/Junk History craze sweeping American media as harmful as the the creationism craze and would thus also do an episode on this subject..

Jason Colavito link

5/29/2015 07:50:16 am

The trouble is that there are few perfect forums, and even something like NPR has limited time, which necessarily limits the amount of evidence broadcasting can provide. This is one reason that radio and TV favor fringe ideas: Simple claims are easy to convey, while complex ones require evidence that can't be easily summarized in a sentence. I think you'll be pleased with my upcoming appearance on the Archy Fantasies Podcast (air date to be determined), though the people most likely to listen to it already agree that most fringe history is wrong!

Hypatia

5/29/2015 06:52:08 am

Good show, great synopsis from you for the allocated time on the subjects. There are a couple of times where these two guys actually went silent and can be almost heard listening and thinking.
I noticed though they cut you off when you pointed out it is racism and antisemitism under new clothes, and that the interviewer's last words were that he is still very much convinced of the "international bankers" conspiracy.
Funny that they consider your skeptical analytic approach to the subjects as 'alternative' point of view, as if theirs is mainstream, and you're the fringe.
Your synopsis was great, you should publish it as an article in mags too.

Jason Colavito link

5/29/2015 07:05:03 am

It did seem like they cut me off, but I can assure you that it was a pre-scheduled "hard" break--meaning that if they didn't cut me off the computer would to make sure that the commercials air on time. "Soft" breaks can be moved around, but the "hard" breaks are required for affiliated stations to insert their pre-programmed commercials at a fixed time.

Graham

5/30/2015 04:57:18 pm

I found it more interesting that they chose to change the subject when you exposed the 19th C underpinnings of their claims about Sun-Gods.

Colin Hunt

5/29/2015 07:39:23 am

Missed opportunity. Drawn into too many diverse subjects the presenters, knowledgeable or not on the subject, wanted contentious views for their audience. Should have picked one or two key issues to contest, with supporting evidence, to gain credibility. Too responsive. Towards end, good responses, but overall too many 'maybe's' that put you in the 'inconclusive category' and not the decisive category against alternative many theorists. Should we therefore put you in the indecisive category, which I have no doubt will no be exploited?

Generally good interview. Exploited. Regrettably, likely to be used against you considering audience is already against you.

Jason Colavito link

5/29/2015 07:53:23 am

I appreciate your point, but I don't think I equivocated on issues. I said there was no Noah's Flood, but I can't pretend that there aren't a whole battalion of scholars who believe flood myths were inspired by real (if smaller) floods. I also can't pretend that there aren't people who have reached 8 feet tall. There were and are. They just aren't a separate race or a separate tribe, or evil angel hybrids. There aren't clear cut "no" answers in many cases, only a complex series of assumptions that have to be taken apart piece by piece.

Colin Hunt

5/31/2015 08:21:48 am

Just input on a flood. See http://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/dec/09/mediterranean-formation-deluge for part of the story, and other authenticated archaeological sites about Black Sea underwater studies of migrated costal communities. You probably know that the current theory, based on recent underwater archaeological evidence, is that the barrier between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (the Bosphorus) formally a low fresh water lake, inhabited around its fringes, was breached millennia ago and the deluge probably took 20 years for water from the Mediterranean sea to fill the Black Sea. Nothing to do with religion, but undoubtedly, if true, the foundation of many flood stories. No religious interpretation, just geographic fact.

Only Me

5/29/2015 10:25:21 am

Loved the performance. This highlighted, for me, why guys, like yourself, are actively avoided by fringe proponents. You stunned both hosts, dissected their list of topics and really owned the show.

However, both hosts adamantly insisted on believing their individual conspiracy du jour, so...I guess all you can do is give it your best shot. I'll be glad when people finally acknowledge you've written more than just Cult of Alien Gods!

Zach

5/29/2015 11:00:03 am

Really loved the interview Jason and I was surprised by how respectful they were compared to some other proponents of conspiracies and pseudoscience that you have talked to in the past. It's nice to listen to people that sounded like they were actually interested in what you had to say.

David Bradbury

6/1/2015 08:33:04 pm

Yes, they were interested, but as Hypatia notes above they couldn't shake the notion that Jason's statements expressed a "point of view" rather than, as can clearly be seen each day in this blog, a close examination of what the sources for a given Fringe claim actually state.

Pacal

6/3/2015 11:16:50 am

Despite the two interviewers saying some pretty woo - woo stuff pretty good. Although it was pretty obvious that they didn't want to hear some of what you were saying Jason. For example that stuff you said about how the whole "Lost Race" idea of who built the mounds scattered all over the USA and how it was mainstream for most of the 19th century and actively promoted by many in positions of power, (Like Andrew Jackson). was stuff your interviewers didn't want to hear. In fact it was painfully obvious they really didn't like what you said about the intersection of racism and these fringe beliefs.

Good job.