Skeptic Check: Mummy Dearest

Big Picture Science

Shh …mummy’s the word! We don’t want to provoke the curse of King Tut. Except that there are many curses associated with this fossilized pharaoh – from evil spirits to alien malevolence. So it’s hard to know which one we’d face.

We’ll unravel secrets about the famous young pharaoh, including the bizarre events that transpired after the discovery of his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and learn what modern imaging reveals about life 3,000 years ago.

Plus, we dispel myths about how to make a mummy, while learning the origin of that notorious mummy curse. Also, discover why superstitions have survival value.

Guests:

• Jo Marchant – Author of The Shadow King: The Bizarre Afterlife of King Tut’s Mummy

• Andrew Wade – Physical anthropologist, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario

• Salim Ikram – Professor of Egyptology, American University, Cairo

• Stuart Vyse – Professor of psychology, Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut, author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition

• F. DeWolfe Miller – Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa

First released June 24, 2013.

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