Welcome to the next in the Podcast Showcase series, where we share podcasts with you in the words of the podcasters themselves. This time, we talk to Oh No, Ross and Carrie.
Sum up your podcast in three sentences
At Oh No, Ross and Carrie, we investigate fringe science, spirituality, alternative medicine and claims of the paranormal… so you don’t have to. Our first-hand investigations (and follow-up interviews) put us in some strange and sometimes uncomfortable situations, and we share them in great detail. We look for the humor and the positive lessons to be learned, and try to match those beliefs up with what science tells us about the world.
Who is your ideal listener? Who loves your show?
Our ideal listener has an open mind, a quirky sense of humor, and loves to geek out on odd and obscure beliefs, cults, and extraordinary marketing claims. They would just rather someone else take part and describe the experience for them, so they can learn the details vicariously. Or virossly.
What made you start this podcast?
We met each other at the Center for Inquiry, an organization that provides space and activities for people without religious beliefs. Both Carrie and myself (Ross here) are former evangelical Christians, and we attended lectures and the book club together. Carrie invited everyone to join her once for a Kabbalah Center lecture on astrology, and I was the only one who jumped at the chance. The next time we met with the group, everyone wanted to ask us a ton of questions about our experience. We realized that we had something in common that was rare and [hopefully] interesting. We also wanted to inject our reporting with equal parts humor and compassion.
What have you learned about your subject thanks to this podcast?
Oh goodness, so much. We’ve met a lot of fascinating personalities within the various paranormal/religious/alt-med groups, and learned to spot a lot of commonly shared beliefs, tactics and approaches that we can now compare and contrast when we encounter new versions of them.
What has your experience of podcasting been? What do you love / hate about the process?
While we’ve kept our format fairly consistent over the years, we love to experiment with the boundaries of our topics and how we present them. We love that the show gives us the opportunity to join seminars and buy products that we’d never be able to justify otherwise: to our significant others or to our bank accounts. Keeping up with a weekly format is hard work, and we always have a bunch of investigations in progress, so it’s a challenge to identify the ideas that are ready to present and to get them recorded and produced while juggling the rest.
If someone wants to start listening to your podcast, which episode would you recommend they start with? Why?
Usually we tell people to scan through our many dozens of topics and start with one that you’ve always wanted to know more about. Some perennial favorites include our multi-part investigations of Scientology, Mormonism, the Flat Earth movement, the Ozark Mountain UFO Conference, and Ayahuasca. You probably don’t want to start with the urine therapy episodes: you’ve got to work your way up to that one.
Which other podcasts do you love listening to?
I know Carrie has a bunch of favorites, but I’ll answer for myself: my current faves are Reading Glasses, Go Fact Yourself, Sawbones, Skeptoid and Big Picture Science. Special shout-outs to Carrie’s other show Hidden Mickeys, as well as Drew Spears’ (friend of the show and Carrie’s fiancé) This Podcast is Self Care.
If people want to find you online, where can they do so? Drop all your links here (social media, podcast subscription, etc.)
- On Twitter at https://twitter.com/OhNoPodcast
- On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ONRAC/
- Our home at Maximum Fun: https://maximumfun.org/shows/oh-no-ross-and-carrie
- Our website: https://ohnopodcast.com/
Do you have a podcast that should be showcased in this spot? Email editor@globalcomment.com with more details.