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SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: Doppelgängers: Hey you, you're me!

September 18, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Doppelgängers: Hey you, you're me!

The photographer François Brunel has spent twenty years assembling photographs of doppelgangers—people who already knew they had a look-alike or whom he found on the street—and bringing them into his studio. He poses and dresses them to create a sense of intimacy, and the results are so convincing that some of his subjects look like identical twins. "It's just weird to think that you can walk down the street one day and meet someone who looks exactly like you," says Josh. Brunel's project, called I'm Not a Look-Alike!, caught the attention of a researcher who wanted to know whether these uncanny resemblances had a genetic basis.

What a doppelganger actually is

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (02:35) **Welcome & Setting Up the Doppelgänger Concept** - Josh and Chuck introduce the topic of doppelgängers, framing it as a real phenomenon with fascinating stories.
  • 2 (06:55) **Historical & Folklore Roots of Doppelgängers** - The hosts explore the long-standing superstitions and literary history of doppelgängers.
  • 3 (11:55) **Historical Figures and Their Doppelgänger Encounters** - True stories of famous people who believed they saw their double.
  • 4 (17:42) **The Science of Doppelgängers: The Esteller Study** - The hosts dive into a groundbreaking genetic study on real human doppelgängers.
  • 5 (25:33) **The Statistical Probability of a Doppelgänger** - The hosts discuss a controversial study that claims finding a true double is extremely rare.
  • 6 (29:00) **How Our Brains Recognize Faces (and Get Fooled)** - The hosts explain the cognitive shortcuts that make doppelgängers seem more common.
  • 7 (33:52) **Real-Life Doppelgänger Encounters: Neil Douglas and Others** - Josh and Chuck share viral stories of strangers meeting their exact doubles.

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Show Notes

Seeing your near twin is probably pretty weird. But could there be a genetic commonality as well? You bet  there could!  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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