Truth or Total BS?

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Every week, co-hosts Alex and Maya pick a viral claim, debate both sides with real evidence, and deliver a verdict. Casual, fast-paced, and always grounded in facts.

  1. 5D AGO

    The 10% Brain Myth: Where Did This Even Come From?

    This is one of the most persistent myths about the brain, but it is definitively false. Modern brain imaging (fMRI, PET scans) shows that humans routinely use all parts of their brain — not just 10%. Even during rest, widespread neural networks remain active. Harvard Health calls the claim "100% fiction," and MIT's McGovern Institute confirms we use our entire brain every day. The brain consumes roughly 20% of the body's energy, which would be biologically wasteful if 90% were unused.

  2. APR 28

    Flattened Fields and Alien Myths: The Real Story Behind Crop Circles

    The scientific and journalistic consensus overwhelmingly supports this claim. Doug Bower and Dave Chorley publicly confessed in 1991 to creating over 200 crop circles, and numerous independent teams have since replicated intricate designs using documented tools. No credible evidence links any crop circle to extraterrestrial origin. While a small number of researchers propose natural atmospheric mechanisms for some formations, these alternative explanations themselves contradict UFO attribution rather than support it.

  3. APR 21

    Birds Aren't Real: The Joke That Flew Too Close to the Sun

    This claim is entirely false. "Birds Aren't Real" is a well-documented satirical movement founded in 2017 by Peter McIndoe as absurdist commentary on conspiracy culture — not a genuine assertion. Its founder publicly confirmed it was a hoax in 2021. Centuries of ornithological science confirm birds are biological animals. No credible, independent evidence supports the idea that birds are government surveillance drones. The claim's cultural popularity reflects its success as satire, not any factual basis.

  4. APR 14

    Ten Thousand Hours of Nonsense?

    The 10,000-hour rule does not reliably predict expertise. Meta-analyses show deliberate practice explains only 18–26% of skill variance across domains. Individual variation is enormous — chess masters have achieved mastery in as few as 3,016 hours while others never reached it after 25,000+. The "rule" is a popularized oversimplification of one violinist study's average, and its originator, K. Anders Ericsson, distanced himself from this framing. Genetics, instruction quality, and learning rates matter significantly.

  5. APR 7

    Ultra-Processed and Overblown? The Insulin Resistance Debate

    The claim is directionally accurate but overstated. Multiple peer-reviewed studies, mechanistic reviews, and clinical guidance consistently link ultra-processed food consumption to insulin resistance markers. However, most evidence uses associative language ("linked to," "associated with"), not definitive causal proof. Key confounders — obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and overall diet quality — remain inadequately separated from the independent effect of processing. The claim also says "processed food" broadly, while the evidence specifically addresses "ultra-processed foods," a narrower category. The relationship is strong and biologically plausible, but the word "causes" goes beyond what current science has firmly established.

  6. MAR 31

    Did James Webb Kill the Big Bang?

    This claim is false. As of March 2026, no peer-reviewed scientific body or credible institution has concluded that JWST disproved the Big Bang theory. NASA explicitly rejects this framing. JWST has revealed unexpectedly bright and mature early galaxies, prompting refinements to galaxy formation models — but the Big Bang's core evidence (cosmic microwave background, expansion, primordial nucleosynthesis) remains uncontradicted. The "disproof" narrative traces to fringe sources, creationist outlets, and a mischaracterization of normal scientific model adjustment as theoretical falsification.

  7. MAR 24

    The Three-Year Love Myth

    The claim conflates early-stage passionate intensity — which research does show fading within roughly 1–3 years — with romantic love broadly. Multiple high-authority sources, including the American Psychological Association and Harvard Medical School, explicitly distinguish these constructs. Neuroimaging studies show couples married over 20 years can exhibit the same dopamine-rich romantic brain activity as newly in-love individuals. The blanket assertion that romantic love "typically lasts no more than three years in most relationships" is not supported by the preponderance of scientific evidence.

  8. MAR 17

    The Sugar Parasite Myth: What's Really Making You Crave Sweets?

    This claim is not supported by credible evidence. No peer-reviewed studies link parasitic infections to sugar cravings in healthy adults. The CDC does not list sugar cravings as a parasitic symptom, and a PubMed search returns zero direct evidence for this connection. The only sources asserting this link are low-credibility wellness blogs and holistic clinic websites citing no clinical research. Well-established causes of sugar cravings include stress, sleep deprivation, hormonal fluctuations, and dietary patterns.

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Every week, co-hosts Alex and Maya pick a viral claim, debate both sides with real evidence, and deliver a verdict. Casual, fast-paced, and always grounded in facts.

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