Unleashing a Wandering Black Hole and Chasing the Solar Eclipse

[00:00:00] This is Space Time Series 29 Episode 92 for broadcast on the 3rd of August 2026. Coming up on Space Time, the monster that's been let out of its cage, counting down to next week's solar eclipse, and a major setback for NASA's Swift Space Telescope rescue mission. All that and more coming up on Space Time. Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary.

[00:00:43] Astronomers have for the first time discovered a monstrous supermassive black hole wandering alone near the edge of a galaxy. These giants of the universe, which can be millions to billions of times the mass of our Sun, are usually found at the centres of galaxies. A report in the astrophysical journal Letters claims the newly identified behemoth was only discovered as it released a flash of light while destroying and consuming a nearby star in a tidal disruption event.

[00:01:10] It's the first time scientists have detected a supermassive black hole so far away from a galaxy centre. The study's lead author, Robert David Stein from the Joint Space Science Institute, says the new discovery will have huge implications. Until now, the assumption was that supermassive black holes always reside at the centres of their galaxies. The new discovery means astronomers will be able to better understand how galaxies and their black holes merge and how they build up over time.

[00:01:41] Theorists have predicted that wandering black holes would exist roaming along the outskirts of galaxies as a result of galaxy collisions and mergers. But the thing is, many of these black holes would be quiescent, meaning they're not swallowing material and consequently not emitting any light, literally tiptoeing around the universe undetected. This newly discovered black hole was detected by the Zwicky transient facility which searches the skies looking for transient objects.

[00:02:07] Zwicky scans the entire northern sky every two days using a pair of telescopes at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego. Mind you, it's virtually impossible to check for black holes in each of the hundreds of thousands of celestial events that Zwicky documents every evening. So astronomers developed an artificial intelligence program which identifies a characteristic light signature that occurs when a black hole shreds a star.

[00:02:32] These tidal disruption events are well documented at galaxy centres, but the AI looked for similar flares elsewhere in the sky. The authors launched the artificial intelligence program back in August 2025 and made their first black hole discovery using it just three months later. In this case, the supermassive black hole was located some 30,000 light years from the galactic centre.

[00:02:55] It's around 4 million solar masses, about the same as Sagittarius A star, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It likely ended up at its current location following a collision between two galaxies. One possibility is that a larger galaxy cannibalised a smaller one and then slowly stripped away all its stars until only the core remained.

[00:03:20] But a more intriguing second possibility is that one galaxy already had two black holes orbiting close to the centre in a binary system, having already merged with another galaxy. Then, if a third black hole from yet another galaxy merger enters the mix, complex three-body interactions could kick the smallest one out. Continued observations of this tidal disruption event would eventually favour one of these two hypotheses.

[00:03:46] Characterising how quiescent black holes behave is important, because most black holes, including the one at the centre of the Milky Way, are dormant for most of the time. In other words, you only know they're there when they start feeding. The authors are now scanning the skies for more wandering black holes so they can determine just how common they really are. This is Space News Today. Still to come, counting down to next week's solar eclipse, and a major setback for NASA's Swift Space Telescope rescue mission.

[00:04:16] All that and more still to come on Space News Today. Spain, Portugal, Greenland, Iceland, Russia and the Arctic are about to experience a total solar eclipse as the moon's shadow sweeps across the surface of the Earth.

[00:04:42] Other parts of Europe, from the British Isles and France, across to Greece, Italy and Lithuania, as well as Northern Africa, will experience a partial eclipse during the event. Depending on where you are, the celestial spectacular will begin around 3.34 in the afternoon of August 12th, with totality occurring at 5.46 and the show ending just before 8 o'clock in the evening. Solar eclipses happen when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun.

[00:05:09] You see, the moon's orbit around the Earth is inclined by 5 degrees compared to the Earth's orbit around the Sun. So, normally, the moon appears to cross the sky slightly above or below the path of the Sun. But about every 18 months or so, the lunar orbit places the moon directly between the Sun and Earth, resulting in a solar eclipse.

[00:05:31] Eclipses happen because the moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, but it's also 400 times closer to the Earth, and so the two appear to be about the same size in the sky as seen from Earth. And when the Sun, Moon and Earth line up exactly, the Earth experiences a total solar eclipse. As this occurs, the moon begins to slowly pass in front of the Sun, and a partial lunar shadow or penumbra crosses the surface of the Earth.

[00:05:58] This can last for more than an hour, as more and more of the Sun is hidden by the face of the Moon. Then, just before totality occurs, the crescent sun converges into a single bright white diamond of sunlight, as the last bit of the Sun's bright disk shines along the edge of the Moon. And the first glimpses of the faint corona create a ring around the Moon, an effect known as the Diamond Ring.

[00:06:21] In the last fleeting moments before totality, the diamond ring breaks up into a string of beads created by the Sun's rays shining through the low-lying valleys between the mountains along the limb or edge of the Moon. Once this effect, known as Bailey's Beads, comes to an end, the Moon has completely covered the entire disk of the Sun, and you're in totality. During totality, the largest part of the Moon's shadow, the umbra, crosses the Earth's surface.

[00:06:49] People along the path of totality view a total eclipse, which can last up to 7 minutes and 31 seconds, but is usually far shorter. During this period, the sky goes dark, stars will appear, and it will suddenly get noticeably cooler, birds will start roosting, shadows will take on an unusual crescent shape, and you'll be able to see the Sun's tenuous outer atmosphere, the corona, glowing milky white.

[00:07:13] Often, explosions on the Sun's surface, called prominences, will appear as spectacular bright pink or red clouds stretching above the lunar limb. The path of totality can be up to 272 kilometers wide, although it's usually a lot less, and the further away you are from the center of the path, the shorter the eclipse duration will be. Now, if you're outside the line of totality, either to the north or south of it, you'll only see a partial eclipse, in which only part of the Sun's disk will be covered by the Moon.

[00:07:42] The reason each eclipse is only visible over a small part of the Earth is because the Moon's shadow is relatively small when it falls on the Earth's surface. Now, another important factor is that, on average, the Moon orbits about 384,400 kilometers away from the Earth. But the Moon's orbit around the Earth isn't a perfect circle. It's slightly elliptical. That means one part of the orbit may be a bit closer to the Earth, maybe 357,000 kilometers, that's known as perigee, while another part of the orbit will be a bit further away,

[00:08:12] around 406,000 kilometers, known as apogee. And when the Moon's orbit takes it a bit further away, the Moon looks a bit smaller in the sky. And if that coincides with a solar eclipse, it doesn't cover the entire face of the Sun. So instead of a solar eclipse, the Moon's passage across the Sun creates an annulus, a ring of fire, as light from the Sun surrounds the dark Moon, resulting in an annular eclipse. Solar eclipses are accompanied by a lunar eclipse

[00:08:40] occurring either two weeks before or after the main event. That's due to the same alignment which caused the solar eclipse. So lunar and solar eclipses occur with equal frequency. But lunar eclipses are seen over a far broader area because the Earth's shadow is far larger and therefore covers more of the lunar surface. A lunar eclipse occurs during full Moon when the Sun, Earth and Moon align. During this event, the Moon passes completely through the Earth's dark shadow or umbra.

[00:09:08] Even though the Earth completely blocks out sunlight from directly reaching the surface of the Moon, the Moon is still visible during a total lunar eclipse. You'll see the Moon gradually get darker, then take on a rusty or blood-red colour, as the light from the Sun refracts through Earth's atmosphere and undergoes rarely scattering, leaving only the longer red wavelengths, as all the Earth's sunsets and sunrises happen at once to indirectly reflect on the lunar surface. A turtle lunar eclipse can also look yellow,

[00:09:37] orange or even brown in colour, depending on how different types of dust particles and clouds in Earth's atmosphere allow different wavelengths of light to reach the lunar surface. During next week's event, science teams will be chasing the Moon's shadow with one of NASA's high-altitude WB-57 research jets and with scientific balloons. They'll investigate the Sun's dynamics and how the temporary darkening of our skies affects the atmosphere. A suite of four cameras mounted in the nosecone

[00:10:05] will take high-resolution images of the Sun's corona in different wavelengths of visible and infrared light. The cameras will capture at least 20 images per second, recording structures, outflows and rapid changes in the corona during the total eclipse. These images will allow scientists to learn more about the formation of prominences, better understand the corona and how it gets heated to nearly a million degrees, and the relationship between material in the corona and in the solar wind, the continuous stream of charged particles

[00:10:34] flowing out from the Sun and bathing the Earth and rest of the solar system. By chasing the Moon's shadow, the jet will extend how long cameras can observe the corona. See, on the ground, the longest anyone will be able to see the corona is 2 minutes and 18 seconds. But by flying along the eclipse path of totality, the WB-57's view of the corona can last nearly 3 minutes. NASA's WB-57 will fly at 50,000 feet, that's above any clouds, that might obscure the view of the corona from the ground.

[00:11:04] The altitude will also allow cameras to observe some of the infrared wavelengths that get absorbed by the lower atmosphere before reaching the ground. The corona's only been observed at those wavelengths a few times before. The key instrument is called a multispectral airborne imager. It was developed by the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and was also used during the April 2024 solar eclipse, where it provided valuable observations. This report from NASA TV. For most people,

[00:11:32] a total solar eclipse lasts just a few minutes. But NASA's pilots find a way to make it last longer by trying to outrun the moon's shadow with an airplane. The truth is it's actually chasing us. We get out in front of it and let it overtake us. Once we're in totality, then we'll advance the throttles to max and try and stay in totality for as long as we can. Making that happen takes extreme precision. Scientists calculate exactly where the airplane needs to be at each moment. We do a lot of missions

[00:12:01] where being in the right point in time and space are critical, and this is one of them. On eclipse day, the WB-57 aircraft climbs more than 50,000 feet into the stratosphere. That's above most of Earth's atmosphere, where clouds, dust, and water vapor could obscure the view. Viewing an eclipse from 50,000 feet provides a really clear shot of the sun. And that allows the scientists to have confidence that the data that they're seeing is from the sun rather than distortions from the atmosphere.

[00:12:30] When the moon's shadow arrives, it engulfs the aircraft. It's weird. Right where you're at, it's dark, but everywhere you see, it's twilight. And the temperature in the cockpit drops, so it's very noticeable. As the eclipse unfolds, the pilot keeps the aircraft on course, while the sensor operator fine-tunes the cameras, capturing every second of data. You're very, very, very busy, and it's very high pressure because, of course, there's no do-overs. You only get one opportunity to get all these instruments trained on the right spot.

[00:13:00] For the aircraft crew, it's a chance to witness one of nature's most spectacular events while helping scientists better understand our sun. I'm sitting in the best seat in the house. It's pretty exciting. And in that report from NASA TV, we heard from WB-57 pilot Tom Parnett and WB-57 sensor equipment operator Carrie Clem. Meanwhile, a NASA-funded nationwide eclipse ballooning project led by Angela Desjardins from Montana State University will be sending students from several American universities

[00:13:29] to Iceland and Spain to launch scientific balloons before, during, and after the eclipse in order to better understand how an eclipse affects the atmosphere. In Iceland, two teams will launch 80 balloons starting 18 hours before the eclipse until 8 hours after the event in order to study how the eclipse affects Earth's boundary layer. That's the part of the atmosphere that touches the ground. You see, the thickness of the boundary layer changes depending on factors such as surface temperature and air humidity. Previous balloon flights during solar eclipses

[00:13:59] in October 2023 and April 2024 showed that the boundary layer either collapsed or decreased in thickness in locations with clear skies, but not where there were cloudy skies. Scientists want to see if that will be any different in Iceland next week. Changes in the boundary layer are driven by the day-night cycle. However, in Iceland in August, the days are long and the nights are short, so the nighttime influences might not be as strong as in 2023 or 2024. Meanwhile, in Spain,

[00:14:28] three balloon teams will launch a total of six balloons with 360-degree cameras in order to image the eclipse's shadow from above. These balloons will also include instruments designed to measure levels of ozone in the atmosphere which requires sunlight to form. Previous balloon experiments in April 2024 showed that ozone decreases during totality. And scientists want to determine if there are any differences with this eclipse, especially as it's happening much later in the day and during a different season. Teams of students from across the United States

[00:14:58] have a unique vantage point of total solar eclipses thanks to scientific balloons. The Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project is a NASA mission-like adventure in collecting data from balloons that go high up into the atmosphere. Started in 2014, the project engages college students and high schoolers in one of two distinct paths. One is the engineering track that has mostly engineering students that get to tinker on different payloads. And the other track

[00:15:28] is an atmospheric science track where they'll actually be launching weather sensors to study the impact of the eclipse. Atmospheric science teams launch helium-filled weather balloons, the same as those used by the National Weather Service, every hour for hours before and after an eclipse. Engineering teams fly larger balloons laden with cameras and experiments they build themselves 100,000 feet up into the stratosphere. From there, they study a variety of things

[00:15:57] such as incoming cosmic radiation and ozone levels, as well as offering dramatic views of the moon's shadow on our planet. The project is really a unique one in that it's both in education but also doing amazing science that's both about the eclipse itself and also the atmospheric response of the eclipse. student balloon teams made a historic first during the 2019 eclipse. They measured eclipse-driven atmospheric gravity waves in Earth's stratosphere

[00:16:26] or large ripples in the air caused by the temporary cooling due to the drop in sunlight. What excites me the most about this project is thinking about the experiences that the students have that they'll remember forever. And in that report from NASA TV, we heard from Nationwide Eclipse balloon project principal investigator Angela Desjardins. And this is Space Time. Still to come, NASA's Swift Space Telescope Rescue mission suffers a major setback. Later in the science report,

[00:16:56] former Biden administration chief health advisor Anthony Fauci faces the US Senate and pleads the fifth. All that and more still to come on Space Time. NASA's link mission to try and save the Swift Space Telescope has suffered a major setback

[00:17:26] with a sudden loss of attitude control putting the rescue craft into an uncontrollable spin. Link is on a mission to rendezvous with Swift and boost the orbiting observatory back up to a higher altitude. Launched in 2004, Swift was designed to survey the skies looking for short-lived events like gamma-ray bursts. Although they're the most powerful explosions in the universe, gamma-ray bursts only last a few seconds before fading away. Swift acts like an early warning system

[00:17:56] detecting the burst first and then quickly messaging astronomers to turn their telescopes towards the location of the blast. However, recent space weather events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections have blasted charged particles from the sun towards the Earth causing our planet's atmosphere to wobble like a jelly blubber expanding one way contracting another. As Swift travels through the expanded part of the atmosphere a process called atmospheric drag slows the spacecraft down decaying its orbit.

[00:18:25] The thing is, engineers weren't expecting the impact of the current space weather cycle to be as big as it is and so the probe wasn't equipped with a repulsion system in order to boost itself back up into its intended 600km high orbit. Without help, Swift will fall back into Earth's atmosphere and burn up in a matter of months. The Link spacecraft was launched last month on a Pegasus rocket with the aim of catching up to and then locking onto Swift using its three robotic arms and then firing its onboard engine to boost the telescope

[00:18:55] back up to its original orbit. However, mission managers say Link's now started experiencing attitude control problems causing the spacecraft to spin uncontrollably and sporadically losing communication with mission managers. Preliminary investigations suggest that two of Link's three reaction wheels which control the spacecraft's attitude and orientation in space have stopped working and there's also some loss of functionality with its cold gas thruster system. But neither Link's operator, catalyst or NASA

[00:19:24] are giving up hope. At least not yet. Mission managers are working on a plan to stop Link's spin using the spacecraft's electric propulsion thrusters and once they've re-established a stable attitude and better understand the spacecraft's status they'll then uplink a new set of guidance, navigation and control commands to accommodate the spacecraft's new configuration. They'll then evaluate revised plans to approach and capture Swift depending on the safety of the approach and Link's health. And needless to say we'll keep you informed.

[00:19:54] This is Space Time. And time now to take a brief look at some of the other stories making news insights this week with a science report. The former Biden administration National Institutes of Health chief advisor Anthony Fauci has faced a United States Senate

[00:20:24] Homeland Security Committee hearing accused of repeatedly lying to the American public about the causes and origins of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Here's part of his interaction with Senator Josh Hawley. Well, nothing says honesty like taking the fifth, huh, Doc? Let's try something. What day of the week is it today? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. What color tie are you wearing? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under

[00:20:54] the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. What color is the carpet in front of you? On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Let's just get one thing straight. You don't have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you've been pardoned. As you very well know, as the Supreme Court has been clear for a century and more, Brown versus Walker, 1896, when he has been pardoned, he may not stand upon his privilege. You know that. Your lawyers sitting behind you now shifting nervously in their chairs. They know it. This isn't about the Constitution.

[00:21:23] This isn't about the law. This is about contempt. Contempt for this body and contempt for the American people. With the threat of real jail time now hanging over his head, like the proverbial sword of Damocles, Fauci pleaded the Fifth on no less than 111 occasions in order not to incriminate himself. However, statements he wrote in his personal diary have already done that for him. Fauci's diary confirms that he was funding gain-of-function research into the Corona Bat virus at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, and that 10 scientists

[00:21:53] from his own team supported the lab leak hypothesis. That is, a biologically engineered COVID-19 virus escaped from the Chinese lab and quickly spread globally. Over more than 10,000 pages, the diary, retrieved from government computer servers in recent months, exposes Fauci's deepest thoughts and darkest secrets. His obsession with the media, his infatuation with his own growing fame and perceived importance, and his schoolgirl-like besotted giddiness with celebrities.

[00:22:22] But more importantly, Fauci's diary entries confirmed that he knew or at least suspected COVID-19 didn't originate in the local wet markets, despite him continuously and vigorously pushing that line publicly. Fauci's January 2020 diary entry states categorically in his own words that we know the market was not the source. About a week later, he referenced a conference call in which several top infectious disease experts all thought the coronavirus might not have originated in nature.

[00:22:51] He even writes of the possibility of a lab leak as the likely source of the virus, but kept that opinion to himself as millions of people died. In fact, Fauci's notes show that he deliberately covered up evidence supporting this lab leak hypothesis. Fauci's diary entries also confirm that he personally recommended lockdowns and closing schools to politicians and their advisors during the pandemic, something he publicly strenuously denied doing. These included California Governor Gavin Newsom's Chief of Staff

[00:23:21] Anna Leary, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Mark Gailey, the Deputy Director of Community Health for the LA County Department of Health Services. Earlier testimony by Dr Richard Ebright, a professor of biology at Rutgers, says Fauci will have to answer why his own advisors told him it was a lab origin, and yet he publicly went against that. Why Fauci pleaded the fifth at the hearing makes no sense as he's already been given an autopend pardon by President Joe Biden for his actions during the pandemic, raising questions about what he's been up to

[00:23:51] since that time. Unusually, that pardon goes all the way back to 2014. That's the same year he began funding gain-of-function research into the SARS virus in China. The World Health Organization says over 7.1 million people have now been killed by the COVID-19 coronavirus since it was first detected among workers at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology back in September 2019. The Lancet Medical Journal estimates the true global death toll is likely to be more than 18 million

[00:24:20] and with over three-quarters of a billion confirmed cases globally. A new study is warning that antimicrobial resistance in children is rising globally. The findings, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest the level of superbug resistance will worsen over the next decade, threatening the effectiveness of life-saving antibiotics. The findings, led by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in collaboration with the University of Sydney, analyzed more than 106,000 infection samples

[00:24:50] from kids up to the age of 18 across 82 countries, discovering that resistance has increased in every region between 2004 and 2022. New aerial imaging surveys of the southwestern Amazon have revealed 432 earthwork patterns in the ground, which scientists say may represent the footprint of an ancient civilization. The findings, reported in the journal Nature, show earthworks were found in an area previously inhabited by the ancient oriculture.

[00:25:19] The authors extrapolated their findings with existing satellite evidence to suggest that this region may have as many as 30,000 earthworks that could have supported between one and a quarter and three million people between the years 100 and 300. They say this small area appears to have more earthworks than previously predicted for the entire Amazon basin. Paleontologists in outback Queensland have unearthed the spectacular new fossil discovery, displaying a cretetious-era marine food web involving a giant

[00:25:48] mosasaur, a large ixiosaur and a flying reptile known as a pterosaur. This amazing 100 million year old snapshot depicts life and death at its most brutal during the age of the dinosaurs. The finds, reported in the journal Gone Wonder Research, use neutron scattering to image what is a complicated find, showing the remains of a dolphin-like marine reptile called an ixiosaur, which contained the preserved remains of its last meal, fish, cephalopods and fragments of the lower jaw of a pterosaur. And the ixiosaur itself

[00:26:18] appears to have been attacked and preyed upon by an even larger reptile, a mosasaur, an enormous marine apex predator, possibly the giant phylosaur Cronosaurus quinslandicus, which could reach lengths of 10 metres or 33 feet. The ixiosaur vertebrae were split, ribs were missing and numerous bones displayed large crushing bite marks. One vertebrae even preserved a rib jammed against a broken margin, strongly suggesting forceful jaw processing rather than simply post-mortem damage. The fossils were uncovered

[00:26:47] at the Eromanga Sea dig site near Richmond. So-called paranormal psychic Dolly Anderson has won the Australian Skeptic's 2026 Ben Spoon Award as the most shocky practitioner of the year. Adamson claims to be able to talk to the ghosts of murdered children and their killers. She beat a colourful clutch of equally illustrious runners-up, including the Perth Vivacious Living Centre, which charged people to diagnose and treat their illnesses using an unregistered dodgy body scanning device from Russia, which apparently could scan a bunch

[00:27:17] of non-existent frequencies. There was also Monica and Lisa Smith who were selling Orgon energy devices that claimed to protect you and your home from electromagnetic frequency radiation. Then there were David the Medium and Chesidenyer who claimed to be able to talk to the dead. Past winners for displaying their own lack of scientific understanding include the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for demonstrating new lows in journalistic standards with their ever-faithful motto Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. There was the University of Wollongong

[00:27:47] for proving you don't need to be smart or right or even scientifically accurate in order to get a doctorate. Adelaide psychic Anne Dankbar for her discovery of the Colossus of Rhodes which created something of a media frenzy until it was shown to be nothing more than modern builder's rubble. The ABC won it again for their television show Second Opinion which promoted so much unscientific quackery they really should have sought a few more opinions. Southern Cross University was also a past winner offering a degree course in naturopathy. Former CSIRO Chief Larry Marshall

[00:28:16] was also a past winner receiving his bent spoon for supporting water divining. And the ABC won yet another bent spoon for spending lots and lots of taxpayers' money on psychic investigators. Then there was racing car driver Peter Brock whose highly touted energy polariser generated more heat in the motoring media than water did in his car. And the special broadcasting service SBS once won a bent spoon for their TV program Medicine or Myth for promoting alternative medical treatments as if they actually had some scientific credibility.

[00:28:46] There was Melbourne's Metropolitan Board of Works who hired a US psychic archaeologist to detect a non-existent electromagnetic photo field. The ABC won another bent spoon this time for their television show The New Inventors which seriously considered the pseudoscientific benefits of the so-called anti-biowater conditioning system. The ABC that's $1.4 billion annually of taxpayer money. But of course one of the bent spoon winning stars of the past is Paleo Pete Evans for his promotion of the biocharger

[00:29:15] which claims to restore health, vigor, stamina, coordination and mental clarity. Evans also won a bent spoon for his paleo diet which included promoting bone broth as a formula replacement for babies and his campaigns against fluoridation and vaccination. The sceptic's Tim Mendon says you'll always find people out there with claims that fly in the face of science the face of reason the face of logic and simple common sense. It's one of the least sought after awards in the Australian world. It's given every year by Australian sceptics.

[00:29:45] It's been given since 1981 and it's for the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo-scientific piffle. Ah, you've rehearsed that. I have rehearsed that. It's very hard to say three times after a drink. But basically it means anyone who's making ridiculous claims in the pseudo-scientific or paranormal world sometimes silly sometimes quite serious is up for the running and this year for the 2026 award there are quite a few candidates people charging for particular medical equipment gear that doesn't really do a lot they're all going energy machines which don't really do a lot couple of people talking to the dead

[00:30:15] which don't really do a lot the person was in that last field actually but it was a particularly noteworthy person called Dolly Adamson she was the winner of the 2026 Bent Spoon Award and the Bent Spoon Award is obviously on a plaque that made out of gopher wood from Noah's Ark bent by Erie Geller so this lovely award went to Dolly Adamson of Kyneton Paranormal in Victoria very formal doesn't it Kyneton Paranormal sounds like a huge organisation obviously the kitchen table in the back of someone's house I think it is yeah does sound like a law firm but anyway

[00:30:44] she's a lady who's been promoting the fact that she can talk to the dead there are a number of people who come out here and claim they can talk to the dead and basically what the dead say is the most inane stuff you've ever heard nothing like I buried the money under the floorboard they always forgive you don't they the dead they always forgive you and they say you're always one of my favourites and it's really nice up here down there wherever they are and don't get worried about me something you can just make up and say to anybody which I think they do anyway Dolly specialises in high profile dead children Australians will know some of these cases

[00:31:13] of kids that went missing the Beaumont children three of them disappeared in Adelaide Beach in 1966 William Tyrrell a little child who disappeared in New South Wales it's really evil when they do that isn't it it is it's not just entertainment it's a pretty low low blow that they're doing they also talk to their killers well she does she claims she does to get messages from their killers as well which is even worse right this is what you call they've actually identified themselves it's exploitation insulting to the grieving families their friends

[00:31:42] it's referred to as grief vampires people who come to people who are mourning especially in little kids cases and they just take advantage of it and say I can speak to your child she only deals with famous people famous cases she doesn't go out and deal with the ordinary kid down the road who's disappeared it has to be someone that's a high profile Princess Diana Michael Jackson Heath Ledger Marilyn Monroe Nancy Guthrie who we're not able to try to if she's dead or not Harold Holt Australian Prime Minister Joan of Arc is a good one and the crew with Amari Celeste Ned Kelly Ned Kelly's another one yeah

[00:32:11] so the passengers of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 that disappeared in the Indian Ocean that would have been handy to have to know where they are but one of the best ones that she's spoken to was someone who's well known in the Australian media a sovereign citizen by the name of Desi Freeman who some police were investigating him so he shot two of them killed them and then went on the run Dolly got in touch with Desi and was saying where are you the trouble is he was still alive he was shot later but she was talking to a dead person who wasn't dead some of the people who got the awards in the past are quite fun things

[00:32:41] UFO fanatics and psychic dentists and that sort of stuff but some of them are quite serious and she's definitely in that area so she was a very well deserved winner of the 2026 Ben Spoon Award do you actually get in touch with these people and know they've won the award and they're wrathfully no they do know some of them react very quickly Pete Evans he's won it twice the famous chef and new ager he was quite dismissive Ross Coulter the journalist who's now a UFO fanboy he was pretty upset he's become very famous in the States

[00:33:10] for all that too now he has he's got regular programs and he's positioned himself as a leading commentator of a field which there's no new evidence to talk about see kiddies this is where you can end up if you win a Walkley Award that's right he's an award winning journalist he's won several times the Walkley Award being the top award for journalists in Australia and he's won it a couple times at least what does that say about Australian talent in terms of journalists people don't like pulling journalists out to highlight them because other journalists don't like covering that that's because they're all scared that they're about to be named themselves for the same thing probably

[00:33:40] but there are people out there who are health practitioners who can actually hurt people there's some doozies out there unfortunately but we keep sort of pointing them out that's the sceptics Tim Indham and this is Space Time and that's the show for now Space Time is available every Monday

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