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The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine ⚠ You have javascript turned off. This site requires it to function properly. Please turn it on in your browser preferences. The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine Search Menu Skeptics Society News and Site Highlights Watch The Michael Shermer Show Shermer Speaks Out Skeptic Presents Follow Michael Shermer on Twitter Tweets by michaelshermer Latest e Skeptics e Skeptic delivers great articles, videos, podcasts, reviews, op-eds, event announcements, and more to your inbox. eSkeptic for January 22, 2021 In the fifth report from the Civil Unrest and Presidential Election Study (CUPES), we examine attitudes about censorship, in particular, peoples’ level of support for freedom of speech and freedom of thought. PLUS: In a lecture, recorded on October 24, 2010 for The Skeptics Society’s Distinguished Science Lecture Series, Sam Harris tears down the wall between scientific facts and human values, arguing that most people are simply mistaken about the relationship between morality and the rest of human knowledge. Read this e Skeptic eSkeptic January 19, 2021 In episode 153 Dr. Michael Shermer speaks with University of Oxford research psychologist Dr. Kevin Dutton about his new book Black-and-White Thinking: The Burden of a Binary Brain in a Complex World . Read this e Skeptic eSkeptic for January 17, 2021 In episode 152 of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael responds to critics, reminding us that whether a particular conspiracy theory is true or false very much matters — especially those in the realm of politics, economics, and ideology, which as we’ve seen matters very much to the stability of our democracy and trust in the institutions that keep society stable. Read this e Skeptic eSkeptic for January 15, 2021 In this cover story article (written in October 2020) for Skeptic magazine 25.4 (December 2020), Daniel Loxton considers the unsavory origins and rising threat of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Written prior to the deadly QAnon-led occupation of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021, this analysis exposes the conspiracy theory as baseless, unoriginal, and harmful for believers and society at large. Read this e Skeptic eSkeptic for January 12, 2021 In this monologue commentary on the events of January 6, 2021, Dr. Shermer applies causal inference theory to Trump’s speech that morning, the violent assault on the Capitol that followed, the banning of Trump off social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, the fears on the Right of social media censoriousness on the Left, the breaking up of big tech social media companies, and related topics, including what it means to “believe” a conspiracy theory. Read this e Skeptic latest additions to the reading room The Reading Room is a comprehensive, free resource of articles relating to science and skepticism. QAnon Is Just a Warmed Over Witch Panic — and It’s Also Very Dangerous In this cover story article (written in October 2020) for Skeptic magazine 25.4 (December 2020), Daniel Loxton considers the unsavory origins and rising threat of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Written prior to the deadly QAnon-led occupation of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021, this analysis exposes the conspiracy theory as baseless, unoriginal, and harmful for believers and society at large. Read this article Lizard People, 5G and the Nashville Bomber Perhaps one of the most bizarre beliefs rampant in modern times is that malign, shape-shifting reptilian extraterrestrial invaders, disguised as human beings, secretly control the governments of the world. It is possible that we recently experienced a violent consequence of that belief. Read this article Psychological Risks with COVID-19 Vaccines Reports about allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines will undoubtedly cause anxiety in people. Robert E. Bartholomew & Kate MacKrill remind us that, if history is a guide — and given the large number of people to be vaccinated — a mass anxiety event is not improbable. Read this article Havana Syndrome Skepticism A report by the National Academy of Sciences says microwaves caused an array of mysterious health complaints at the American embassy in Cuba. Robert E. Bartholomew reminds us why we should be skeptical. It was probably psychogenic. Read this article Respecting Nature, Respecting People A Naturalist Model for Reducing Speciesism, Racism, and Bigotry During a time when racism, bigotry, and even speciesism has become a topic of national conversation, evolutionary biologist and National Geographic photographer Mark Moffett @DoctorBugs considers how we might reduce them through what we’ve learned about how individual organisms within a species came to develop these characteristic. Read this article Listen to the Podcast The Michael Shermer Show (formerly Science Salon) is a series of long-form conversations between Dr. Michael Shermer and leading scientists, philosophers, historians, scholars, writers and thinkers about the most important issues of our time. Listen via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Stitcher , Amazon Music , iHeartRadio , and TuneIn . Kevin Dutton — Black-and-White Thinking: The Burden of a Binary Brain in a Complex World In episode 153 Dr. Michael Shermer speaks with University of Oxford research psychologist Dr. Kevin Dutton about his new book Black-and-White Thinking: The Burden of a Binary Brain in a Complex World . Listen to this episode Politics & Truth — Michael Shermer Responds to Critics of His Commentary “Trump & Truth” In episode 152, Dr. Michael Shermer responds to critics of episode 151, reminding us that the truth or falsity of a claim of any kind that can be adjudicated by science and reason applies not just to astrologers, psychics, UFO proponents, and Big Foot hunters (all of which we cover in Skeptic magazine), but to conspiracy theories, including and especially those in the realm of politics, economics, and ideology, which as we’ve seen matters very much to the stability of our democracy and trust in the institutions that keep society stable. Whether a particular conspiracy theory is true or false very much matters. Listen to this episode Trump & Truth — A Commentary by Michael Shermer In this monologue commentary on the events of January 6, 2021, Dr. Shermer applies causal inference theory to Trump’s speech that morning, the violent assault on the Capitol that followed, the banning of Trump off social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, the fears on the Right of social media censoriousness on the Left, the breaking up of big tech social media companies, and related topics, including what it means to “believe” a conspiracy theory. Listen to this episode Daniel Lieberman — Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding In episode 150 of The Michael Shermer Show, Harvard professor of human evolutionary biology Daniel Lieberman discusses his pioneering researcher on the evolution of human physical activity in his book Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding . Using his own research and experiences throughout the world, Lieberman recounts how and why humans evolved to walk, run, dig, and do other necessary and rewarding physical activities while avoiding needless exertion. Listen to this episode Latest INSIGHTS INSIGHT at Skeptic.com is a broadly accessible, evidence-based resource that offers critical perspective on mysteries of science, paranormal claims, and the wild, woolly, wonderful weirdness of the fringe. The Skeptical Virtue of Seriously Just Being Quiet Daniel Loxton reflects on the value of listening in order to first understand paranormal beliefs and then communicate effectively with those who hold them. Read this post Is the Earth Flat? 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 th...