I was recently a guest on the 16Miles2Hell show, talking about conspiracy theories, the history of conspiracy dissemination, and the psychology of conspiracies... Put on your tinfoil hat and check it out! You can find more on me and my work with a search for...
Media Literacy
Stonehenge: Myths and Conspiracies
For those who didn't see it last week, here's my article on Stonehenge myths and how restoration efforts sparked conspiracy theories is now out, you can see it HERE. You can find more on me and my work with a search for "Benjamin Radford" (not "Ben Radford")...
Critical and Thinking: The Ian Harris Interview
Ian Harris is a Los Angeles based comic who has performed at the Center For Inquiry-Los Angeles and at CSI conferences. Blending comedy and skepticism is nothing new--it's been done on The Simpsons, South Park, and in Penn & Teller acts and TV shows for years--but...
The Post Hoc Fallacy: Vaccine Fears and Roosevelt-Menacing Indians
I recently read Candice Miller's book The River of Doubt, about Theodore Roosevelt's 1914 exploration of an unknown river in the Brazilian Amazon. It's a fascinating story of adventure, misadventure, murder, and more. In the book I also found an excellent real-life...
Quoted in New Report on Debunking Online Rumors
A journalism researcher named Craig Silverman published a report on best practices for debunking online misinformation in journalism and the skeptical community: “I recently completed a fellowship with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism that saw me study how news...
Using Satellites to Search for Bigfoot
When adventurer Steve Fossett went missing Sept. 3, 2007, Web users were enlisted to help in Fossett's rescue from the comfort of their own homes. Using a program called Mechanical Turk, high-resolution satellite imagery of the search area was collected from a company...
Was Screaming ‘Dead’ Honduran Teen Buried Alive?
I think I solved the bizarre mystery of a girl who was supposedly buried alive last week in Honduras... You can read my piece on Discovery News HERE.
Quoted in NPR Story on Farmer’s Almanac
In this NPR piece from a few years ago I was interviewed about the accuracy of the Farmer's Almanac (spoiler: I'm skeptical). An interesting look at "folk" predictions can be found HERE: Ben Radford, deputy editor of the science magazineSkeptical Inquirer, says...
Quoted in New Book on Critical Thinking
I'm quoted in a new book on critical thinking titled "Sharp Thinking." At least I think I am... it's in Hebrew. Here's the cover.
Circling the Pendulum: Conversations with a Dowser
Benjamin Radford Skeptics often encounter—or are cornered by—people making all sorts of claims. Most of them, such as those tested by me, Jim Underdown of CFI-West, the JREF, and others, are sincere people. They are very rarely hoaxers or liars but instead...