Dr Flint Dibble, an archaeologist who earned international plaudits when he appeared on Joe Rogan’s show to debate and comprehensively debunk lost city of Atlantis claims, has today been named the 2024 recipient of the Ockham Award for Skeptical Activism.
After the airing of the Netflix show Ancient Apocalypse, there was a boom in myths about Atlantis and the existence of a highly advanced but long-extinct ancient civilisation. The star of the show, writer and pseudoarchaeologist Graham Hancock, was often to be found giving interviews to advance his ahistorical theories, especially in arenas unaccustomed to assessing and critiquing outlandish and sensationalist claims – including the most prominent such arena, the Joe Rogan podcast, where his claims were comprehensively debunked in conversation with Dr Flint Dibble.
Michael Marshall said: “Dr Flint Dibble’s four-hour appearance on the Joe Rogan show in April showed that it is possible to offer an authoritative, comprehensive and persuasive retort to even the most sensationalist of claims. What’s more, to do this on Joe Rogan’s show – whose audience has arguably been primed and conditioned to reject reason when more exciting and eye-catching explanations are on offer – was enormously impressive. Dr Dibble went into the belly of the beast, and gave a calm, well-reasoned and enormously patient account of himself and of the evidence, showing that skepticism can be brought to even the most theoretically hostile of audiences, if presented thoughtfully and skillfully.
“With Netflix recently releasing a second series of Ancient Apocalypse, this time inexplicably featuring Keanu Reeves, I’m sure Dr Dibble’s comprehensive knowledge and incredible reserves of patient will once again be invaluable.”
The ‘Skeptical Activism’ award was announced as part of The Skeptic’s annual Ockham Awards at a ceremony that took place during Saturday’s QED conference on science and skepticism in Manchester. Also awarded during the event was the 2024 Rusty Razor award for pseudoscience, which went to Twitter owner Elon Musk, with entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den star Steven Bartlett claiming the runner-up spot.
