Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Being a unilingual English speaker, as is typical for many Americans, the audio and video content I consume is limited to material available in that one language. This makes it difficult to know what is going on in the non-English speaking world regarding topics of skeptical interest, such as alt-med beliefs, conspiracies, paranormal claims, and the like. Luckily, there is one long-running podcast (with 521 episodes as of this writing) that strives to improve that situation: The European Skeptics Podcast—cleverly shortened to just The ESP.
This podcast’s slogan is “Building a bridge for skeptics,” and it does just that by collecting information and news of interest to skeptics from all over the European continent regardless of the originating language and presenting that material in English in an entertaining way. The hosts, who both hail from countries where English is not their native language, are András Pintér of Hungary and Pontus Böckman of Sweden, and the two recently agreed to be interviewed about The ESP and their other skeptical activism.
We had difficulty arranging a mutually available time for a virtual interview as we live on “three different corners of the globe” as Pintér put it, but we finally made it work. The three of us had a wide-ranging discussion on everything from their first meeting to the birth of their podcast (including its quirky name), to the danger of alt-med influencers, to UfOlogy belief, to the influence of American pseudoscience on other nations.
Being a unilingual English speaker, as is typical for many Americans, the audio and video content I consume is limited to material available in that one language. This makes it difficult to know what is going on in the non-English speaking world regarding topics of skeptical interest, such as alt-med beliefs, conspiracies, paranormal claims, and the like. Luckily, there is one long-running podcast (with 521 episodes as of this writing) that strives to improve that situation: The European Skeptics Podcast—cleverly shortened to just The ESP.
This podcast’s slogan is “Building a bridge for skeptics,” and it does just that by collecting information and news of interest to skeptics from all over the European continent regardless of the originating language and presenting that material in English in an entertaining way. The hosts, who both hail from countries where English is not their native language, are András Pintér of Hungary and Pontus Böckman of Sweden, and the two recently agreed to be interviewed about The ESP and their other skeptical activism.
We had difficulty arranging a mutually available time for a virtual interview as we live on “three different corners of the globe” as Pintér put it, but we finally made it work. The three of us had a wide-ranging discussion on everything from their first meeting to the birth of their podcast (including its quirky name), to the danger of alt-med influencers, to UfOlogy belief, to the influence of American pseudoscience on other nations.
