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Massimo Polidoro
Born (1969-03-10) March 10, 1969 (age 55)
Voghera, Italy
NationalityItalian
Occupation(s)Psychologist
Writer
Journalist
Known forco-founder and executive director of CICAP
Websitehttp://www.massimopolidoro.com/

Massimo Polidoro (born 10 March 1969) is an Italian psychologist, writer, journalist, television personality, co-founder and executive director of the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudoscience (CICAP).

Early life and career

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As a child in the 1970s, Polidoro was fascinated by magic and the claims surrounding psychic phenomena. He learned in his teens about the work of James Randi, and CSICOP through a TV series and a book by Piero Angela investigating parapsychology from a critical, skeptical point of view. Polidoro studied Randi and his publications. Randi, like Houdini, was a magician and investigator of mysteries who employed a scientific approach to his investigations.[1]

Polidoro corresponded with Randi and Angela by letter where they planned a skeptical organization in Italy based on CSICOP’s work in the United States. He was invited to meet both Angela and Randi and again later to a meeting in Rome as Angela's guest in 1988.[1][2]

After spending three days with Polidoro in Rome, both Angela and Randi agreed that Polidoro had the talent and passion to become an apprentice of Randi. During dinner at Angela’s house, they asked Polidoro if he was interested in learning how to investigate mysteries as Randi’s apprentice, a proposal which Polidoro gladly accepted. With a grant from Angela, Polidoro left for the United States and became Randi's only full-time apprentice in the art of paranormal investigation and psychic testing.[1]

After several years during which he helped Randi in his investigations, research, writings and lectures, Polidoro returned to Italy in 1990, where he founded CICAP. He studied psychology, and graduated from the University of Padua with a master thesis on the psychology of eyewitness testimony of anomalous phenomena.[3]

CICAP and CSI

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Massimo Polidoro participating in "The Investigators" panel at CSICon 2011 in New Orleans.

Polidoro is the Executive Director of CICAP,[4][5] and was the editor of its journal, Scienza & Paranormale, from its debut in 1993 to 2006.[6] In 1996 he became the European representative for the James Randi Educational Foundation.[7] In 2001, he became a member of the European Council of Skeptical Organisations (ECSO), and was nominated as a research fellow of CSICOP, the Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (now Committee for Skeptical Inquiry).[8] When Martin Gardner left his regular column "Notes from a Fringe Watcher" in The Skeptical Inquirer, the magazine of CSICOP, Polidoro was asked to take over, and the column was retitled "Notes on a Strange World".[9]

Polidoro continues to investigate and test alleged psychics, astrologers, clairvoyants, dowsers, mediums, prophets, psychic detectives, psychic healers, psychic photographers, telepaths and many others.[10] He has conducted historical investigations on famous cases and personalities of the past, including Eusapia Palladino, Margery and his childhood hero Houdini. Some of this work is collected in his books, two of which, Final Séance and Secrets of the Psychics, have been published by Prometheus Books.[9]

In 2004, Polidoro's passion for magic led him to start the magazine, Magia, devoted to the study of the history, science and psychology of conjuring.[11]

In 2017, Polidoro organized the first CICAP Fest, a festival of science and curiosity held annually in Padua and co-organized with the city and the University of Padua. CICAP Fest 2018 featured over 200 events and recorded an attendance of more than 12,000.[12]

University Courses

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In 2005 he became the first Italian to hold a course on "Scientific Method, Pseudoscience and Anomalistic psychology", as a member of the psychology faculty of the University of Milan Bicocca.[13]

Since 2018, Polidoro teaches a postgraduate course on science communication at the University of Padua.[14]

YouTube

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In October 2018, Polidoro was interviewed by Susan Gerbic for Skeptical Inquirer, and announced that he was starting an English language YouTube channel named Stranger Stories. Polidoro told Gerbic:

YouTube today is the best vehicle for reaching a wider, and mostly younger, audience. On YouTube I can talk to people who don’t usually read my books, hear my lectures, or see me on TV. So, last May I started a news series in Italian, "Strane Storie," where in ten to fifteen minutes I would tell you the story of a famous, or less famous, mystery... and then walk you through the solution.... I could find nothing of the sort on YouTube and so I thought there could be an audience for it... my plan is to start a new series in English, “Stranger Stories,” which will take the same approach but address an audience that is a gazillion times bigger.[15]

On October 20, 2018, Polidoro announced on his YouTube channel that the series would soon premier,[16] and the first episode, "Randi Tricks the Trickster", was posted on October 31.[17]

In 2019 Polidoro initiated a new YouTube series celebrating the legacy of Leonardo da Vinci.[18]

TV

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Polidoro is the host, special guest, author or consultant of many TV shows, both in Italy and abroad. His international series, Legend Detectives, devoted to the investigation of famous European legends, including Dracula, Robin Hood, the Pied Piper, Rennes-le-Château, the Blood of Saint Januarius[19] and the Man in the Iron Mask, was broadcast on the Discovery Channel.[20]

In 2006 he started a podcast in Italian I Misteri di Massimo Polidoro (Massimo Polidoro's Mysteries), dealing with investigation of mysterious subjects both by himself and by other colleagues that contribute to the show. The podcast was broadcast as a radio show for three years, through 2014, on an Italian-language Swiss radio station.[21]

In 2014, Polidoro started a new podcast in Italian, L'esploratore dell'insolito (The Explorer of the Unusual), which deals with strange or unusual, historical enigmas, unsolved crimes, methods for the exploration, and investigation of mysteries and writing.[21]

In print

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Polidoro at book signing TAM 2013

As a journalist, Polidoro is a contributor to the monthly Italian magazine, Focus. He is the author of over 50 books in Italian, some of which have been translated into other languages. These cover a variety of subjects related to mysteries, the paranormal, and historical enigmas. They cover a wide variety of topics, including a critical history of Spiritualism, a dictionary of Parapsychology, the wreck of the RMS Titanic, a biography of Houdini, famous unsolved crimes of the past, and legends related to the mysterious deaths of celebrities. In 2006 he published his first novel, Il profeta del Reich (The Prophet of the Reich), a thriller loosely inspired by the life of magician Erik Jan Hanussen.[22][23] His subsequent thrillers include Il passato è una bestia feroce (The Past is a Ferocious Beast), which won the Nebbia Gialla Award in 2015[24], and Non guardare nell'abisso (Don't Look into the Abyss).[25]

In mid-2007, Italian newspaper La Repubblica, one of the larger daily general-interest newspapers in circulation in Italy, reprinted six of Polidoro's books in a series that was sold at newsstands, along with the many local issues of the newspaper.

Final Séance (2001) deals with the strange friendship between Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, their friendly exchanges first, and then the quarrels over their opposing views of Spiritualism.[26][27]

Secrets of the Psychics (2003) is a collection of investigations carried out by Polidoro on psychic phenomena, including tests of psychics, poltergeists, miracles and other strange phenomena.[28] Both books are published by Prometheus Books, and have been translated into several languages.[9]

The publication of Polidoro's fiftieth book, Leonardo. Il romanzo di un genio ribelle (Leonardo: The Story of a Rebel Genius),[29] coincides with the 500th anniversary (in 2019) of Leonardo da Vinci's death.[15] Along with the book, Polidoro celebrated da Vinci's legacy with a new YouTube video series.[18] He also undertook a touring theatrical performance which mixes narrative, science, and art to highlight the man who was Leonardo, exploring how da Vinci came to be regarded as history's best-known polymath despite personal difficulties, societal resistance, and the limits of his own humanity.[30]

The James Randi Biography Project

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James Randi & Massimo Polidoro at CSICon 2016

At The Amaz!ng Meeting 2014 Polidoro announced that work on the biography of the life of James Randi was underway.[31]

The need for the biography was Penn Jillette’s brainchild, and in 2005 Jillette began interviewing Randi for this reason. Kim Scheinberg helped Jillette with his research for the book which included the search for stories, documents and clippings. This resulted in the collection of hundreds of hours of interviews and a large amount of material covering 60 years.[citation needed]

Polidoro began work on the biography in 2010, and spent time reviewing the material gathered by Jillette and Scheinberg, along with source material used for the documentary An Honest Liar,[citation needed] directed by Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom, which tells the story of Randi’s life. In an interview Polidoro stated, “One of the most interesting things is that going through the research about Randi's life, his stories, when he tells them, that's quite something because many times you see they are different, but the original ones, they're even more interesting, more surprising! And that's how memory works.”[32]

The biography will be co-authored by Scheinberg with an introduction by Jillette.

In September 2017, Polidoro was able to interview James Randi for attendees at the 17th European Skeptics Congress.[33]

Other interests

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Polidoro’s experiences investigating mysteries, legends and other paranormal phenomena[34] inspired the main character in a novel by Giacomo Gardumi, L’eredità di Bric (Bric’s Legacy). The character Mark Pollard of the Martin Mystere comic, The Great Houdini, created by Alfredo Castelli, was also inspired by Polidoro.[35]

During his teenage years, Polidoro started and led a Beatles fan club, Beatles Staff Organization, from 1984 to 1988. The club had approximately 100 members from around Italy and issued Help!, a fan magazine whose articles, in-depth reviews, and news were dedicated to the band. At the time, Polidoro didn’t have a personal computer, so he wrote the articles using a typewriter. In order to get the desired layout of the magazine pages, he would physically cut and paste, photocopy and hand-bind the magazine. A total of 24 issues of “Help!” were published.[36]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "SFR 260 – Anomalistic Psychology with Massimo Polidoro". Retrieved August 4, 2014.
  2. ^ Polidoro, Massimo. Secrets of the Psychics. Prometheus Books. 2003
  3. ^ Polidoro, Massimo. L’illusione del paranormale. L’inattendibilità del testimone oculare non-competente nella ricerca parapsicologica. Master Thesis, presented at the University of Padua, 1996.
  4. ^ "Interview with Massimo Polidoro (47:20)". SGU Productions. Retrieved July 10, 2014.
  5. ^ "TheESP - Ep.#018 - Massimo Polidoro by European Skeptics Podcast". soundcloud.com (Podcast). April 13, 2016. Event occurs at 24:17. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  6. ^ "Scienza & Paranormale" (in Italian). Retrieved July 10, 2014.
  7. ^ Randi, James. "Polidoro Hitched". Swift, September 13, 2002
  8. ^ Frazier, Kendrick. "CSICOP Elects Six New Fellows.(Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal)". The Skeptical Inquirer. Archived from the original on September 3, 2014.
  9. ^ a b c "Bio Notes". Retrieved August 20, 2014.
  10. ^ Nisbet, Matt (August 31, 2000). "Introducing Italy's Version of Harry Houdini". Generation SXeptic. Ithaca, N.Y.: Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved July 29, 2009.
  11. ^ Polidoro, Massimo. "Una rivista per chi ama la magia". Magia, n. 1, vol. 1, 2004
  12. ^ "TheESP – Ep. #140 – Massimo Polidoro and CICAP Fest 2018". soundcloud.com (Podcast). September 28, 2018. Event occurs at 07:30. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  13. ^ Leonardi, Fabrizio. "Intervista a Massimo Polidoro". PsicoLab.net, January 19, 2007
  14. ^ "Corsi opzionali — PhD in Crop Science". sciproveg.com. University of Padua. Archived from the original on March 4, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  15. ^ a b Gerbic, Susan (August 22, 2018). "Fifty Books and Counting". csicop.org. CFI. Archived from the original on November 14, 2018. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  16. ^ Massimo, Polidoro. "Stranger Stories: arriving October 31st!". YouTube: Massimo Polidoro. YouTube. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  17. ^ Polidoro, Massimo. "Randi Tricks the Trickster". YouTube: Massimo Polidoro. YouTube. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  18. ^ a b Polidoro, Massimo. "Leonardo. Genio ribelle". youtube.com. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
  19. ^ McMahon, Barbara. "No blood, sweat or tears". TheGuardian.com. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  20. ^ Kenning, David. "Legend Detectives". Evening Standard, Nov. 25, 2005
  21. ^ a b Polidoro, Massimo. "Riparte il mio Podcast! Si intitola "L'esploratore dell'insolito"" (in Italian). Retrieved August 9, 2014.
  22. ^ "Libri pubblicati" (in Italian). Retrieved August 20, 2014.
  23. ^ "Biografia" (in Italian). Retrieved August 20, 2014.
  24. ^ "Massimo Polidoro vince il NebbiaGialla 2015". nebbiagialla.eu (in Italian). September 14, 2015. Archived from the original on September 10, 2019. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
  25. ^ Polidoro, Massimo (July 1, 2016). Non guardare nell'abisso. Piemme. ISBN 978-8856653878.
  26. ^ "Reviews: Final Séance". Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  27. ^ Harwood, William. "Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle". Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  28. ^ "Secrets of the Psychics: Investigating Paranormal Claims". Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  29. ^ Polidoro, Massimo (2018). Leonardo. Il romanzo di un genio ribelle. Edizioni Piemme. ISBN 9788856668155.
  30. ^ "Debutto a Brescia per la conferenza-spettacolo teatrale su Leonardo da Vinci". arte.sky.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on September 10, 2019. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
  31. ^ Hill, Sharon. "Skeptics in Vegas: The Amazing Meeting 2014 brought cheers, smiles and a call for education". Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  32. ^ "Interview with James Randi and Massimo Polidoro (42:27)". SGU Productions. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
  33. ^ Gerbic, Susan. "Skeptical Adventures in Europe, Part 2". www.csicop.org. Committee for skeptical inquiry. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  34. ^ Polidoro, Massimo (December 1, 2017). "The Conspiracy of the Fairies". Skeptical Inquirer. 41: 24–25.
  35. ^ Ambrosi, Viviana. "Il Massimo del mistero" (in Italian). Retrieved August 9, 2014.
  36. ^ "La "Beatles Staff Organization": quando Massimo scriveva "solo" di Beatles" (in Italian). Retrieved August 9, 2014.
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Category:1969 births]] Category:Anomalistic psychology]] Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats]] Category:Critics of alternative medicine]] Category:Critics of parapsychology]] Category:Historians of magic]] Category:Living people]] Category:Italian male writers]] Category:Italian journalists]] Category:Italian male journalists]] Category:Italian psychologists]] Category:Italian skeptics]] Category:Fellows of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]] Category:Italian YouTubers]] Category:Male YouTubers]]

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