PS: I wanted to add that I may be different than most. You do you. I don't do religion or horoscopes or ghosts or mercury in retrograde or the universe (except physics). When I hear an "answer" my first reaction is #skepticism. I believe that we are beings instinctively motivated by pleasant emotions. I believe all supernatural concepts are invented by humans for emotional reasons. I think that a lot of "this is how things are" talk is supernatural in the sense that it's beyond what we know.
Joe Nickell, legendary skeptical investigator, dies at the age of 80
The Skeptic says farewell to Joe Nickell, the enormously prolific skeptical writer and investigator, who died last week.
How to Persuade the Vaccine Hesitant
by: Andrew Miller
"So my wife is a pediatrician and works in some hospitals with high vaccine and intervention hesitation (suburban ones). She has found *tremendous* success by just letting the families know she will have to document the higher risk of specific, and often fatal illness, in the chart of their child".
https://kottke.org/25/02/how-to-persuade-the-vaccine-hesitant
Apple Cider Vinegar | Science-Based Medicine by Steven Novella
I just watched the new Netflix series, Apple Cider Vinegar, which tells the story of Belle Gibson, an Australian woman who launched a wellness business based largely on the false claim that she had survived “terminal brain cancer”. It is worth a watch, and overall I feel the writers (this is a fictionalized version, not a documentary) captured the industry of fake cancer cures and their victims very well. I have some quibbles, which I will get to, but in the end the telling serves the viewer well.
The series focuses mainly on three young women, including Gibson and two fictional characters facing serious cancer diagnoses. Together they represent different aspects of the wellness industry, and specifically the industry of dubious cancer treatments. David Gorski actually captured this spectrum quite well in his article, True believers, entrepreneurs, and scammers in alternative medicine. All are represented in this show.
Don’t Be A Dick: revisiting Phil Plait’s 2010 advice to skeptics
In a speech in 2010, Phil Plait implored skeptics to be more compassionate. 15 years on, his advice couldn't be more relevant.
https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2025/02/dont-be-a-dick-revisiting-phil-plaits-2010-advice-to-skeptics/
Project Blue Beam is finally happening… as long as you cherry pick very carefully
'Project Blue Beam' claimed there was proposed a four-step plan for the New World Order taking over, and conspiracy theorists think we're now seeing it
The Telepathy Tapes – More FC Pseudoscience | Science-Based Medicine
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-telepathy-tapes-more-fc-pseudoscience/
The GloPhi Center recently hosted Dr. Lars Leeten for a research talk on skeptical philosophy as an ethos of epistemic humility and critical inquiry. The discussion explored skepticism’s role in politics, democracy, academic institutions, and its historical connections to Buddhism.
Read more: https://s.gwdg.de/DV09Tw
The Trashing of Science by Robert F Kennedy Jr | Science-Based Medicine
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-trashing-of-science-by-robert-f-kennedy-jr/
I just listened to an episode of the Science Quickly podcast (link below has both audio and transcript) and it was very uplifting!
"Can Hopeful Skepticism Replace Harmful Cynicism?"
Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, history, and science as impractical, politically motivated, and even contemptible human pursuits. #MostDiscussed #Skepticism #Discrimination #Education #HigherEducation https://www.mostdiscussed.com/article/394852
Today's recommendation: wanna know the type of #disinformation and lies being peddled on the #JoeRogan show but don't want to give him listening profits or loose hours and hours of your precious time?
@Marsh and Cecil Cicirello got you covered!
Just listen to #TheKnowRoganExperience, be informed, and support a good project.
#Skepticism #TeamScience #TeamDemocracy #StopDisinformation #SciComm
https://www.knowrogan.com/
»#Crypto gets quick return on #Trump investment after funding campaign: However, the Trump family’s various #memecoins elicited #skepticism and sparked concern among industry and investors.« https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/25/crypto-gets-quick-return-on-trump-investment-after-funding-campaign.html?eicker.news #tech #media
"What other explanation can there be?" = "I have no evidence for my belief, so I'm just going to believe it anyway, and if someone calls me out for it, I'll shift the burden of proof onto them even though I'm the one making the claim."
I'd like to recommend a new skeptical podcast that goes over Joe Rogan episodes and points out the types of false information that is spread by the guests and Joe himself.
It's good skeptical thinking training and may help you when discussing these topics with people that heard about then from Joe rogan.
It's called: The Know Rogan Experience and it stars Michael Marshal from Skeptics with a K and Cecil Cicirello from Cognitive Dissonance.
https://www.knowrogan.com/episodes/
@piatpod #skepticism #science #podcast #disinformation #JoeRogan
There's a new podcast in town!
Cecil Cicirello and @Marsh created #TheKnowRoganExperience!
"It’s the show for those who are curious about Joe Rogan, his guests, and their claims, as well as for anyone who just wants to understand Joe’s ever growing media influence."
#JoeRogan #Skepticism #NewPodcast #FactChecking #PodcastRecommendation
https://www.knowrogan.com/
CW: Religion vs Critical Thinking and Skepticism in the US under a microscope.
I find this article fascinating, horrifying even. In some respects it's like looking at an alien culture; in other respects, it's stupidly familiar. It lays out the aspects of the problem and why what is happening in the world is so insidious. It's funny, when people think they are fighting for freedom and what they are fighting for is to be under the thumb of someone who treats them as unfit to think for themselves.
https://newrepublic.com/article/190049/evangelical-roots-censorship-critical-thinking
The "International Intrigue" newsletter shared this story today, with no comment other than the 
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Jimmy Carter's state funeral just took place, and there's been plenty written about his legacy as US president. But this wild Carter anecdote from a 2005 GQ interview really caught my eye, so I thought I'd share it with you here:
"We had a plane go down in the Central African Republic- a twin engine plane, small plane. And we couldn't find it. And so we oriented satellites that were going around the earth every ninety minutes to fly over that spot where we thought it might be and take photographs. We couldn't find it. So the director of the CIA came and told me that he had contacted a woman in California that claimed to have supernatural capabilities. And she went in a trance, and she wrote down latitudes and longitudes, and we sent our satellite over that latitude and longitude, and there was the plane."
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Translation for the mystically-minded:
The CIA found out where the plane was and they didn't want to tell Carter how they found it.
The world is messy. There is no view from nowhere, no perspective that is free from bias. Science sits within social discourses, not outside them (Kuhn).... Evidence has a provenance. It is irrevocably value-laden. Its generation and exchange involve social -- and often political -- processes. Knowledge is not limited to what we can abstract and generalize; it is also situated and embodied.
-- Trisha Greenhalgh
From @GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic on #Youtube:
Why I Turned Down Working With #RichardDawkins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n09JGRMfMds
#IDW #Atheism #Dockins #Skepticism
