Daniel Loxton reflects on the value of listening in order to first understand paranormal beliefs and then communicate effectively with those who hold them.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/skeptical-virtue-of-being-quiet/
There is growing conspiracy theory belief that the Earth is not a globe, but a flat disc. According to believers, government forces promote a completely fictitious model of the cosmos in order to...
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/flat-earth-conspiracy-theory/
Did a family in Kentucky get drunk and mistake owls for ‘space-goblins’, or was something much more complex going on that hot August night in 1955?
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/astonishing-legends-questionable-facts/
Guest writer Steve Cuno shares an insider's view on the ethics of advertising in a world full of false claims.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/confessions-of-a-skeptical-marketer/
Guest writer Robert Blaskiewicz reports on the early days of the ongoing battle to protect American patients from cynically fraudulent quack "medicine."
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/the-century-long-fight-against-american-quackery/
Daniel Loxton explains that skepticism attracts mixed groups of people with complementary expertise because fringe claims require a multidisciplinary approach.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/multidisciplinary-nature-of-fringe-claims/
Daniel Loxton considers some of the commonalities that unite the broad portfolio of fringe topics studied by scientific skepticism.
Daniel Loxton considers a recent Scientific American blog post which argues that skeptics should "bash homeopathy and bigfoot less" and concentrate on "harder targets" such as an end to war.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/bigfoot-versus-the-quest-for-world-peace/
Richard III grave was excavated in 2012. The story of the discovery is incredible, particularly the account of Philippa Langley's extraordinary flash of intuition while visiting an ordinary parki...
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/the-discovery-of-richard-iiis-grave-and-the-fallibility-of-memory/
The Viking exhibition that has just opened in New York wants to bust myths, but the exhibit's spokespeople are busting myths that aren't myths.
Blake Smith presents a possible solution to a 1996 photograph of a purported phantom cowboy rising from the grave.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/taking-a-shot-at-the-boot-hill-ghost/
Mike McRae considers our often mistaken tendency to interpret non-human animals as exhibiting human thoughts and emotional states.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/good-grief-skip-murder-mourning-or-anthropomorphism/
Is buying a lottery ticket irrational? Is any gambling rational? What makes one bet fair while another is a sucker's bet?
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/is-it-irrational-to-play-the-lottery/
Blake Smith interviews archaeologist Sara Head, co-host of a podcast that debunks the fringe claims of pseudo-archaeology.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/uncovering-archaeology-fantasies/
Don Prothero considers a conjecture proposed to explain a supposed periodicity in mass extinctions.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/dark-matter-and-periodic-mass-extinctions-not-so-fast/
Daniel Loxton describes recent research "On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-Profound Bullshit," and reflects on the communications chasm that can exist between skeptics and believers.
Daniel Loxton considers four arguments for the value of scientific skepticism's core focus on pseudoscientific and paranormal claims.
Bob Schadewald was the leading skeptical authority on the history of flat-Earth advocacy. Now the book he left unfinished has been prepared and published online.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/noted-skeptics-posthumous-flat-earth-book/
Have you heard that we only use 10 percent of our brains? Imagine what we could accomplish if we could discover how to use that other 90 percent! There’s only one problem: none of that is true....
Guest author John Rael discusses his criticism of claims by comic and actor Patton Oswalt, and Oswalt's unexpectedly gracious response.
Jim Lippard reports on the ongoing book tour of a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/tony-ortegas-scientology-book-tour/
Are subtle individual memory differences evidence of alternate universes? Michael Shermer considers the claim.
Can skeptics change minds? Daniel Loxton considers the cynicism of 19th century astronomer, science popularizer, and skeptic Richard Anthony Proctor.
Daniel Loxton considers how fuzzy folkloric phenomena come to be crystallized as "cryptids."
Barbara Drescher discusses how to think about research findings that disagree.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/resolving-conflicts-in-findings-vaccine-promotion-is-tricky/
An anthropologist has argued that Shakespeare used cannabis for inspiration. Shakespeare may have been a stoner, but the physical evidence is weak and the literary analysis is dreadful.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/one-toke-over-the-line-sweet-shakespeare/
Donald Prothero pays a visit to Bigfoot's traditional American stomping grounds in California's Klamath Mountains.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/pilgrimage-to-bigfoot-country/
Blake Smith revisits the mystery of the "Goddard's Squadron Ghost" in light of new evidence.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/new-facts-concerning-goddard-squadron-photo/
Donald Prothero reveals that headlines about a "coming ice age" are just so much hot air.
https://www.skeptic.com/insight/a-new-ice-age-no-bad-journalism-run-amok/
Donald Prothero describes encouraging science-based developments on the California political stage.