Cognitive Engineering

It has been a busy few months for weird news. First there were the multiple Chinese spy balloons across North America, then the Ohio train derailments and finally the mysterious Godzilla egg that washed up on a beach in Japan. But what is it that makes news weird and is there a correct level of scepticism to meet unexplained phenomena? In this week’s podcast, we discuss weird news. We start by investigating data on levels of trust in the media, Stanley Cohen’s theory of moral panics and theoretical physics. We discuss key case studies such as ball lightning, animal rain, and unexplained noises and disappearances. Nick also presents a general theory of weirdness and offers some potentially related responses. A few things we mentioned in this podcast: - The Fortean Times magazine https://subscribe.forteantimes.com/ - 2023 Chinese balloon incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_incident - Mystery sphere found on beach perplexes Japan https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64730255 - Crop