"Skyline Drive" Podcast: Astrology & Skepticism Clash In This First Season

  A podcast on astrology? Really? How about a podcast on phrenology? Or alchemy? 

For many, astrology is that belief that tends to mark an acolyte as someone "a little bit out there."

When Mangesh Hattikudur (Part-Time Genius podcast and Humans Growing Stuff) set out to do a big, sweeping show on astrology, he didn’t realize the first interview would change the course of his life. But as he tries to put his world back together, he realizes the incredible ways that astrology presents itself in modern society: from NASA employees who keep their belief in astrology in the closet, to world leaders who’ve used astrologers to guide foreign policy, to moneyball statisticians who use astrology more than statistics to build baseball teams, to a little shop in India where your fortune was written for you centuries ago, and is waiting for you to come to claim it. 

Over the course of eight episodes, Mangesh is attempting to decipher why we keep looking to the stars for answers, and what happens when you don’t believe in astrology, but astrology keeps happening to you.

The name of this podcast, which began November 29, 2022 is Skyline Drive by iHeart.   

The podcast is running its first season now, with eight episodes planned in addition to several minisodes already released. The latest episode -- George and the Experience Treadmill -- introduces us to George, whose dating life is full of women who are into astrology, which George is most definitely not. Then the host's mother explains a bizarre curse that has plagued their family for generations, and why your astrologer might ask you to marry a tree. If you do, pick an oak. They're much more reliable and trustworthy in a long-term, 400-year-long relationship.

The host of this weird mix is Mangesh Hattikudur, an American businessman who is the co-founder of the American humor magazine Mental Floss, which he started with Will Pearson when both were students at Duke University. In June 2017, Will and Mangesh Hattikudur began producing the podcast Part Time Genius, a variety style knowledge show, created in partnership with HowStuffWorks. 

If you're skeptical of astrology and its relevance, consider that research dating back as far as 400 B.C blamed the behavioral changes on the pull of the moon. The word ‘lunatic’ after all, came from the idea that changes in the mental state were related to lunar cycles, according to Healthline. 

So far in this first season, Hattikudur has introduced us to a therapist who uses astrology to better understand her clients. In mid-December, the podcast explored the astrological beliefs of one, President Ronald Reagan. According to The New Yorker, “Reagan consulted an astrologer before ‘virtually every major move and decision’ including his reelection announcement.” Before Reagan, President Theodore Roosevelt would also often quote horoscopes and kept his birth chart in his drawing-room. 

Then, a late December episode introduced readers to baseball astrology while in early January the host released the first minisode, a shorter, 18-minute episode. In this case, the show spoke to Maxine Taylor, who is billed as CNN's first astrologer. Does Wolf Blitzer know about this?

In a mid-January 2023 episode, Hattikudur learns how astrology is affecting the world of C-sections and discusses reading babies' palms in utero. Will the baby use a binky? Will it be born a Republican or a Democrat?

Astrology as we know it originated in Babylon. Some of the first astrological records date back as early as 4000 BCE, in the cultural region known as Babylonia. Babylonians observed and recorded the movement of planets and stars. These astrologers built the foundation for the Greek and Hellenistic astrological practices, and now influencing Western Astrology.

For context, each of the twelve Zodiac signs is associated with one of four elements: water, fire, air, and earth. The qualities of these elements link directly to the qualities of the signs.

 Many assume that they have only one sign that’s based on their date of birth. That sign is known as the sun sign, but there are many others, including a sign for each planet and 12 different houses. The “big three” are your sun, moon, and rising sign, revealing information around your personality, emotions, vulnerability and how you love. You need your birthdate, birth location, and time (as accurate as possible) in order to retrieve your birth chart that will help reveal your “big three.”

Clearly, you have to check out this podcast. You may doubt, scoff, or ridicule, but listen first. 

In episode one, host Mangesh Hattikudur began his journey into the weird, wonderful world of astrology with a little help from: his mom, a science writer, a famous musician, and one very sneaky author. But when an ominous prediction suddenly comes true, his life turns upside down.

Don't deprive your ears of a podcast that mixes science, astrology, ancient curses, family secrets, presidential prognosticating, and uncannily precise predictions into a slurry of self-discovery, skepticism, historical review, and family drama.

Finally, let me read your daily horoscope. Today, you will read this article, curse the writer, but then click on the link and listen to Skyline Drive.