This is the second of a two-part piece. The recent Clint Eastwood film Richard Jewell holds interesting lessons about skepticism, media literacy, and both the obligations and difficulties of translating real events into fictional entertainment. Reel...
News
Misleading Polls And Bad Statistics: Do Republicans Think Education Is Bad?
A June 6, 2018, article from ChurchandState.org titled “Propaganda Works – 58 Percent of Republicans Believe Education Is Bad” was shared on social media by liberals and Democrats, gleeful that their assumptions about conservative anti-intellectualism had been borne...
Squaring the Strange # 110: The Head Show
The new episode of Squaring the Strange is out, it's "The Head Show!" It's all about heads--too many and too few. Folklore about multi-headed or headless monsters, multi-headed people throughout history, beheadings, experiments on heads, and shrunken heads. Oh, and...
Squaring the Strange #106: Leo Igwe on Modern Witchcraft Accusations
Human rights advocate Dr. Leo Igwe joins us to discuss the dangers posed by so-called "witch hunters" in his home nation of Nigeria and other parts of Africa today. He discusses the entrenched nature of magical beliefs in the region, as well as the complicated power...
Imagining the End: The Apocalypse in American Pop Culture
I have a new book out! Or at least some contributions in a new book: Imagining the End: The Apocalypse in American Pop Culture. I wrote several sections including on the Antichrist, the Mark of the Beast, the Rapture, Latter-Day Saints Prophecy, and more. ...
‘Why Are You Asking?’ Reporting The Black Santa Story
In a previous blog I discussed my research into an ugly episode of racial hatred that tainted the 2016 holiday season. The Mall of America hired its first African-American Santa Claus, an Army veteran named Larry Jefferson. A local newspaper, the Minneapolis Star...
The True, Heartwarming Story Of The Mall Of America’s Black Santa
Amid the encroaching commercialization of Christmas, Black Friday sales, and annual social media grumblings about the manufactured controversy over whether “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” is appropriate, an ugly episode of racial hatred tainted the beginning of...
Squaring the Strange #106: Leo Igwe on Modern Witchcraft Accusations
Celestia and I are especially pleased with a recent episode of Squaring the Strange, in which we spoke to Leo Igwe, the tireless skeptic, humanist, and human rights advocate in Nigeria. His work on behalf of people persecuted as witches in sub-Saharan Africa...
Trudeau, Cherry, and Canadian Racism Polls
The issue of racism in Canada was recently brought into sharp focus when, shortly before the Canadian election, photos and videos of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in blackface and brownface emerged. They had been taken on at least three occasions in the 1990s and...
2019 Halloween Candy Tampering Case Revealed As Hoax
Last month a Maine man made national news for finding tampered Halloween candy. He posted on social media that he found a needle in candy his son had bitten into. Police investigated and found he lied, hoaxing the whole thing (probably for attention). He's now been...