Customer Reviews

Skeptoid: Critical Analysis Of Pop Phenomena

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Brian Dunning is fantastic at taking a critical perspective on popular topics such as hauntings, science, new age movements, organics, and more, and conveying it to believers and disbelievers alike. Whether you're a hardened skeptic, a new age hippie who wakes up every morning to organic wheat-grass juice while discussing chemtrails on your blog, or somewhere in the middle, you cannot afford to miss this book. Highly recommended.

This is a remarkable collection of incorrect beliefs laid bare. Brian has a knack for finding these nuggets of BS, researching the truth, and presenting the unbiased evidence mixed with insightful opinion. It's also very entertaining - I laughed out loud many times. Highly recommended.

Skeptoid by Brian Dunning is indeed a great book. It is a fairly quick read, and made for great quick breaks at work and around the house. As a fairly recent subscriber to the podcast (last 3 months) I hadn't read or heard most of the first 50 which are included here. My favorite was #29, Orbs in the camera. This one holds a special place in my heart, my brother and I would go out to graveyards when we were younger and take polaroids of this "phenomenon" and be excited that we captured ghosts on film. After getting older (and thanks to some critical thinking) Ive always wondered what those things actually were, and now I know. Hopefully we can look forward to Skeptoid #51-100 in book form soon.

Skeptoid provides a significant number of real life examples that help to remove the mystery of critical thinking.

Mr. Brian Dunning is making his incredibly well researched podcast more accessible to everyone. I bought this for a professor of mine and she loved it! I must say that Brian, aside from being incredibly cool in person, is totally committed to skeptical inquiry and critical thought and this book really shows that commitment, in trying to reach the widest audience possible. The transcripts are short and to the point, no unnecessary blabbering. So, if you have an interest in understanding the REAL details behind pop culture pseudoscience, or wish additional details to help in your daily fight against psychics, UFO's, and bigfoot, look no further!

Brian Dunning takes a thoughtful, scientific approach to dissecting faulty thinking. He is an equal-opportunity critic of flawed logic. His coverage of a certain topic will lead you to believe he's a paid consultant for a particular political group. Then the next topic will point the other direction. I guess the bottom line is that no political group has cornered the market on pseudo-scientific thinking. He's changed my mind on several issues. He's informative, persuasive, and funny. Judge for yourself.

Brian focuses on the existing scientific evidence. If you don't buy into his presented conclusion, you're always encouraged to look up information on your own.

A fun and informative read, and terrific podcast.

My 14 year old has enjoyed this immensely as well.

Brian Dunning is one of the fairest and most reasonable people who speak publicly about rational thinking.

His book is a written compilation of the first 50 episodes of his podcast of the same name, from the Web site [...]. It's almost a word-for-word transcript of those programs (in fact, I'm guessing he wrote the material first and then reads it out on the podcast), but it's still engaging even for those who've heard the podcast.

Each of the 50 chapters is only about 3-4 pages long, but he still manages to squeeze in a fairly rigorous reasoning process each time. The short chapters make it handy if you have friends who believe in homeopathy, pond magnets, the supposed benefits of organic food, the dangers of mercury filings or haunted houses. If they are open-minded, simply open the book to that chapter and discuss the facts and reasoning presented there. Because Dunning takes a reasoned view, it is possible to have a civilised discussion about the topics!

Well written, concise and to the point. Dunning has a wonderful sense of humor that makes this a pleasant very informative read.

Extremely entertaining and valuable book to read! I will say that through reading this book I am very much surprised to realize how many faulty ideas and generalizations there are floating around. Through reading this book I was able to learn about errors in my own personal thinking and generalizations that I have been making all my life. Many of these generalizations or accepting ideas just because they are common things that many people do. These are all areas I can apply critical thinking and skepticism. Due to media, gimmicks, appeal to authoritative figures or a catchy phrase such as this food item is all-natural, people are susceptible to faulty thinking. These are all examples where one needs to be a skeptic to filter out fact from false claims and thinking for your self. I am grateful to gain this knowledge and will approach situations in my life differently after reading this book. I can now say i have knowledge and experience to be a far more intelligent person, especially with my ability to apply reason and critical thinking on superior level!
Fantastic book Brian Dunning!