Debunking Pseudo-Archaeology (and Why Atlantis Isn’t Real) w/ Flint Dibble

This episode originally aired on February 1, 2025. Get new episodes early at patreon.com/CurrentAffairs!

Today we are joined by Flint Dibble, who last year attempted the ambitious task of explaining science and critical thinking to Joe Rogan. Rogan has been a promoter of the pseudo-archaeology of a man named Graham Hancock, who argues that mainstream archaeologists are covering up the evidence of a lost advanced civilization in the Ice Age that could have been the real-life Atlantis. Dibble went on The Joe Rogan Experience to debate Hancock and show why Atlantis isn't real. He may not have succeeded in convincing either Rogan or Hancock to accept the findings of mainstream archaeology, but he did very effectively present the case for real science over crankery.

Today, Flint Dibble joins to explain how ordinary people can avoid being taken in by pseudo-experts and why real science is so much more interesting and powerful than pseudoscience. He situates the war over Atlantis within the greater context of the doubt that people like Rogan have that mainstream expertise on a subject can ever be trusted, which leads to the embracing of many beliefs that are dangerous and faulty. But in a world filled with charlatans, how do you know who is telling the truth? Flint tells us what archaeologists really do so that we can think critically when confronted with wild claims by people who insist that all of the experts are covering up the truth.

Nathan's article on Joe Rogan and Atlantis is here.