I'm quoted in a new article about real estate omens and superstitions at Realtor.com! "An outdated kitchen and a lack of curb appeal aren't the only things that can keep buyers from biting. When it seems like there's just no explanation for a perfectly good home...
Skepticism
Neil Peart, Skeptic
Last month Neil Peart, the drummer and main lyricist for the rock band Rush, died. He’d been living in California and privately battled brain cancer for several years. The Canadian trio (Alex Lifeson on guitar, Geddy Lee on vocals, bass, and keyboards, and Neil...
‘1917,’ War, And The Frailty Of Knowledge
As advertised, the Oscar-nominated World War I film 1917 takes place in April 1917, when two British soldiers, William Schofield (George MacKay) and Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), are rousted from a weary daytime slumber. They’re ordered to cross enemy...
Squaring the Strange #111: Mothman Myths and Mysteries
In case you missed it, our recent show was on the Mothman, a creature first spotted in the 1960s in rural West Virginia. Ben takes us on a tour of the area and discusses his trip there to help research the creature for a German television show. Like many...
A Quick Example Of Quick Debunking
I’ve investigated hundreds—probably thousands—of things in my career as a skeptic and researcher, from misleading polls to chupacabra vampire legends. Some investigations take hours or days; others take weeks or months, and a rare few take years. It all depends on the...
‘Ghost Hunting For Dummies By Zak Bagans—And Many Others’
My buddy Kenny Biddle recently did a great investigation into a new book by TV ghost hunter Zak Bagans. You can read it HERE. Below is an excerpt: I really did not want to read the book this article is about. I know that will likely give away the...
Squaring the Strange #122: Literary Hoaxes
The new episode of Squaring the Strange is about literary hoaxes! I discuss some "misery memoirs," stories of victims triumphing over incredible hardships (Spoiler: "Go Ask Alice" was fiction). Celestia discusses newspaper reports of horny bat-people on the moon, and...
‘Richard Jewell,’ Skepticism, And Media Literacy -Part 1
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. It’s no secret that non-police security officers get...
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...