Skeptical Inquirer

12/22/2025

For the current check, the team analyzed 2,099 predictions from fifty-two sources—ranging from classic psychics, astrologers, and spiritual counselors to tabloid and online media, and social media on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

Press release Annual forecast check 2025: The GWUP forecast check team evaluated 2,099 annual predictions from fifty-two sources—more than ever before. One ...

12/12/2025

"A journal that last year corrected a paper claiming to show a homeopathic intervention improved quality of life and survival for people with advanced lung cancer has now retracted the article after the Committee on Publication Ethics got involved in the case. "

A journal that last year corrected a paper claiming to show a homeopathic intervention improved quality of life and survival for people with advanced lung cancer has now retracted the article after…

12/10/2025

Meanwhile, Alejandro Borgo of CFI Argentina has a special report on a recent anti-vaccine event at the Argentine National Congress.

When ridicule and danger collide, a catastrophe can ensue, which can result in a health and educational disaster of scandalous proportions. Seven scientific ...

12/10/2025

Quackwatch's William Matthew London has a new Skeptical Inquirer feature examining “The CDC’s ‘Autism and Vaccines’ Webpage and the Negative Evidence Principle.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made egregious changes to its “Autism and Vaccines” information webpage. The key points summarizing ...

12/09/2025

Benjamin Radford writes: "Two high-profile mysterious incidents have recently been resolved—and in both cases careful investigation debunks the wild conspiracy theories surrounding them. While the initial incidents and conspiracies made headlines, the more sober follow-ups rarely do, so it’s worth revisiting them."

Two high-profile mysterious incidents have recently been resolved—and in both cases careful investigation debunks the wild conspiracy theories surrounding t ...

12/08/2025

"Indeed, RFK Jr. and the chiropractor industry have had a close and fruitful relationship for years, and now it’s growing more important for both sides. ... And for alternative health practitioners like chiropractors, it’s a chance to win the kind of legitimacy they’ve long struggled to claim among the medical establishment."

12/08/2025

Columnist Autumn Sword digs into the story behind a viral TikTok clip that claims " plans for a new ballroom at the White House under President Donald Trump could interfere with the Freemasonic design of Washington, DC."

There has been no shortage of rumor, speculation, and bizarre conspiracy theories surrounding President Donald Trump’s construction of a lavish ballroom in ...

12/05/2025

Nick Tiller writes: "You see, blanket denialism is obvious. Like a sports team using the same formation match after match or relying too heavily on their star player, it becomes predictable and easy to counter. Strategic denialism is different. It’s more discriminatory and opportunistic. MAHA uses science when it’s convenient, rejects it when it’s not, and cloaks its core narrative in a veneer of rationality. That makes it harder to anticipate and harder to challenge."

A broken clock is right twice a day. MAHA’s record on health policy is far less prolific. Still, the movement’s scattergun approach to wellness occasionally ...

12/04/2025

"Some readers may be surprised to learn that, despite its ghoulish reputation, ECT is an evidence-based technique for the treatment of severe depression used by an estimated 100,000 Americans per year."

It is the stuff of horror movies. Electroshock treatment, or what is now known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), was first portrayed on screen in the 1948 ...

12/03/2025

"Meanwhile, at the FDA, confusion reigns. Which is exactly what you don’t want in such a regulatory agency. The FDA needs clarity and consistency, firmness of purpose and to ability to let everyone know where everyone stands. Clinical trial designs, manufacturing oversight, fast-track designations, drug approvals (and conditional approvals and rescinded approvals). . .there is no room for winging it."

It is next to impossible to keep up with all the chaos in the Trump administration’s staffing of the public health agencies (NIH, FDA, and all the ones under them). I haven’t tried to cover it all blow-by-blow, because it would exhaust me and exhaust you the readers, and to what end? You can mak...

11/28/2025

Wicked Part II just dropped. It's fairytale on screen + cognitive bias off screen.

Malorie Mackey investigates the weird. Michael Maldonado reads brains for a living.

On Dec 4, 7pm ET, they’re talking about what happens when a believer and a skeptic share a life and why changing minds is slower than any song.

Free. Register:

Science has advanced enormously in the past 500 years, guided by experimental tests of theory and practice. In that same time, science teaching and education—guided primarily by tradition and dogma—has remained largely medieval. Carl Wieman will discuss research from university classrooms that r...

11/26/2025

The ancient aliens hypothesis is disrespectful.

Kenneth Feder meets a fan at a Sinagua cliff dwelling who’s sure the Maya needed six-fingered visitors from space to count.

Reality here:

The archaeological record shows clearly that our human ancestors were enormously intelligent and resourceful. They were more than capable of developing soph ...