The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

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eSkeptic for August 4, 2020

In Science Salon # 127, Michael Shermer speaks with William J. Perry, Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration and Tom Z. Collina, the Director of Policy at Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation in Washington, DC, as they share their firsthand experience on the front lines of the nation’s nuclear history.

eSkeptic for July 31, 2020

Do beliefs in the prevalence of inequality, and demand for equality, differ by political party affiliation? In the fourth report from the Skeptic Research Center, Attitudes on Inequality and Political Affiliation, Dr. Anondah Saide and Dr. Kevin McCaffree assessed attitudes on inequality among self-identified Republicans, Democrats, and those who reported no political party identification in particular.

eSkeptic for July 28, 2020

More than half a century since Roswell, UFOs have been making headlines once again. In Science Salon # 126 Michael Shermer speaks with Sarah Scoles about her new book They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers.

eSkeptic for July 25, 2020

In the third report from the Skeptic Research Center, Moral and Political Attitudes of the Least Tolerant, Dr. Anondah Saide and Dr. Kevin McCaffree asked the question: Are there attitudinal differences between people that are the most versus least tolerant towards people with opposite political views?

eSkeptic for July 21, 2020

In Science Salon # 125 Michael Shermer speaks Bjorn Lomborg about his new book False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet.

eSkeptic for July 17, 2020

Dr. Anondah Saide and Dr. Kevin McCaffree examine whether political party identification is associated with tolerant attitudes towards individuals with different political views. ALSO, Michael Shermer explains who believes conspiracy theories and why they believe them in an essay derived from a lecture on conspiracies and conspiracy theories.

eSkeptic for July 14, 2020

In Science Salon # 124 Michael Shermer speaks with David J. Halperin about what our fascination with UFOs tells us about ourselves as individuals, as a culture, and as a species.

Announcing the Skeptic Research Center

Announcing the Skeptic Research Center (SRC): a collaboration with qualified researchers to release digestible single-topic analyses of proprietary polling and survey data, detailing peoples’ attitudes about the important concerns of our time. Our data is open-source for full transparency. Our goal is to empower you with an understanding of what your fellow citizens really believe and how they really behave.

eSkeptic for July 7, 2020

Save 40% on new digital subscription via PocketMags.com, now thru July 25, 2020. PLUS, in Science Salon Podcast # 123, Michael Shermer and Gerald Posner discuss how Big Pharma conspires to hack FDA regulations, the Opioid crisis. addiction, greed, capitalism, drug patents, innovation, and the prospects for a COVID-19 vaccine.

eSkeptic for July 3, 2020

In this, the final lecture of his Chapman University Skepticism 101 course, Dr. Michael Shermer pulls back to take a bigger picture look at what science and reason have done for humanity in the realm of moral progress. Watch The Moral Arc: How Thinking Like a Scientist Makes the World More Moral.

eSkeptic for June 30, 2020

In Science Salon # 122 Michael Shermer speaks with Walter Scheidel as he recounts the gripping story of how the end of the Roman Empire was the beginning of the modern world. PLUS, Harriet Hall, M.D. sets the record straight on wearing face masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

eSkeptic for June 26, 2020

In a lecture, Dr. Michael Shermer addresses one of the deepest questions of all: what is truth? Following that, Lee McIntyre and Michael Shermer debate whether we are living in a Post-Truth era of fake news and alternative facts.

eSkeptic for June 23, 2020

In Science Salon # 121 Michael Shermer speaks with Harvard Psychologist and high-stakes poker player Maria Konnikova about her book The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win — the ultimate master class in learning to distinguish between what can be controlled and what can’t.

eSkeptic for June 19, 2020

In this lecture, Dr. Michael Shermer addresses the growing crisis of free speech in college and culture at large, triggered as it was by the title lecture, which he was tasked to deliver to students at California State University, Fullerton, after a campus paroxysm erupted over Taco Tuesday.

eSkeptic for June 16, 2020

In Science Salon # 120 Michael Shermer speaks with Andrew Rader about his book Beyond the Known: How Exploration Created the Modern World and Will Take Us to the Stars. PLUS is Göbekli Tepe, a 12,000 year old site in Turkey, proof of a lost civilization, or is there another answer?