Title	Excerpt	Author	Date	Total Comments	Recent Comment
My Prediction of the Cleveland Abduction Situation, and the Tragic Failure of Psychics	I wrote this article for LiveScience.com four years ago, after psychics failed to find Jaycee Dugard, who had been abducted, confined, and horrifically abused for nearly two decades. My final two paragraphs were sadly prescient: The fact of the matter is that right now—as you are reading these words—it is virtually certain…	Ben Radford	05/09/13	1	05/09/13
Skeptical Commentary Following Tragedy: Exploitation or Education?	A few weeks ago, after the Boston marathon bombing, I wrote a two-sentence Facebook post pointing out that psychics had failed to predict the attack, and suggesting that if they had the powers they claim innocent lives could have been saved. I didn’t write a long blog or column about…	Ben Radford	05/08/13	8	05/08/13
The Biography of America’s Lake Monster	Robert Bartholomew and his brother Paul grew up near the shores of Lake Champlain, sparking an early interest not only in the lake monster said to dwell within the lake but also steeped in the social and cultural context of the mysterious beastie. In his new book The Untold…	Ben Radford	04/25/13	0
Trance: Trainwreck from a Trainspotting Director	Trance Directed by Danny Boyle 2 stars Starring James McAvoy and Rosario Dawson In the new film Trance, James McAvoy plays Simon, a London art auctioneer who is struck on the head by an art thief (Vincent Cassel) during a heist. Simon recovers in hospital (as the British say), and…	Ben Radford	04/14/13	1	04/26/13
The Scope of Skeptical Activism: A Personal Story   Part 2 of 2	I’ve been working at the Center for Inquiry’s Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP) for fifteen years. I’m best known for my skeptical investigations and research into paranormal subjects such as ghosts, lake monsters, chupacabras, near-death experiences, crop circles, psychics, and all that. It’s not surprising that people tend to…	Ben Radford	04/02/13	8	04/04/13
The Scope of Skeptical Activism: A Personal Story Part 1 of 2	Part 1 of 2 I’ve been working at the Center for Inquiry’s Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP) for fifteen years. I’m best known for my skeptical investigations and research into paranormal subjects such as ghosts, lake monsters, chupacabras, near-death experiences, crop circles, psychics, and all that. It’s not surprising…	Ben Radford	03/13/13	0
Film review: Oz the Great and Powerful	Oz the Great and Powerful, a prequel to the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz, tells the story of how the titular wizard came to find his way down the yellow brick road. Apparently he was a low-rent carnival magician and scamp named Oz (James Franco) before taking off in…	Ben Radford	03/08/13	1	03/09/13
Noah Nez, The Native Skeptic	I first heard about the Native Skeptic from Desiree Schell, the host of the Skeptically Speaking podcast. She mentioned a writer named Noah Nez who blogged about skepticism within the Native American community. In my roles with the Skeptical Inquirer magazine and the Skeptical Briefs, I have often tried to give…	Ben Radford	03/05/13	0
Being ‘Over It’-And the Lack of Charity	Last week I wrote what I thought was a fairly straightforward piece titled “Over It.” It was an introduction to a poem, and then a poem. It was short, in three parts, and about an anti-rape poem by Eve Ensler, and her One Billion Rising campaign to encourage women to dance as a way…	Ben Radford	02/19/13	85	02/22/13
‘Over It’ Follow-Up: Why Would Anyone Criticize an Anti-Rape Poem?	In November 2011, award-winning playwright and feminist activist Eve Ensler wrote a poem about rape called “Over It” (the first line is “I am over rape”). A few days ago I wrote a poem based on “Over It,” using the same title, the same structure, and some of the same lines-echoing, expanding…	Ben Radford	02/18/13	113	02/19/13
Over It.	I’ve read some of Eve Ensler’s work, I’ve attended performances of her acclaimed play The Vagina Monologues, and I wrote about her in my 2003 book Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us; she came up in my research of activists who use misleading statistics to support their social agendas.…	Ben Radford	02/15/13	189	02/19/13
Did Joseph Smith Predict Doomsday?	In 2009 I wrote an otherwise routine piece for LiveScience.com about doomsdays and apocalyptic beliefs. It’s pretty standard stuff, and a subject I have written about many times over the years. And yet it remains in some ways one of my more controversial pieces, generating at least a handful of…	Ben Radford	02/01/13	4	02/04/13
Tripping on the Trebuchet: An Interview with George Hrab	Not long ago, when George Hrab’s latest CD Trebuchet came out, I sat down (not actually, literally, or even metaphorically) and asked him about his music and skeptical influences. And, really, things I probably shouldn’t have asked, but there you go. And here you go.   1) So why Trebuchet? What attracted you to…	Ben Radford	01/15/13	0
Trigger Warnings: Public Service or Fallacious Fad?	I recently read two interesting blogs and articles by women challenging the validity and usefulness of “trigger warnings,” disclaimers before discussions and descriptions of potentially traumatic events in articles and blogs. I posted a link to one of them on my Facebook page, noting that it was an interesting and skeptical look…	Ben Radford	01/06/13	11	01/09/13
Questioning a Local Landmark	Whether in TV ads, on billboards or in magazines, one of Albuquerque, New Mexico’s, claims to fame is the Sandia Peak Tramway. The twin red and blue cars make their way up the cables to the top of the mountain where tourists, skiers and diners can find magnificent views and…	Ben Radford	01/02/13	0
A Skeptic’s Brief Conversation With a TV Producer	The following is a near-verbatim conversation I recently had with a producer who contacted me wanting me to appear on a cable TV show. In its second season, they were looking for an experienced investigator to appear semi-regularly. We exchanged several e-mails and finally arranged a telephone conversation so I…	Ben Radford	12/20/12	3	12/20/12
‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’s’  Macabre Mistake	On December 2, 2012, Ripley’s Believe It or Not published a factoid in national newspapers that read, “You are more likely to die on your birthday then any other day of the year.” There are few things wrong with this (not counting that they misspelled “than”). The statement is technically…	Ben Radford	12/08/12	15	12/30/12
In Science, Whose Department is the Ethics Department?: Part 2	There clearly exists an admittedly somewhat arbitrary (but nonetheless discernible) continuum of responsibility for the consequences of indirect actions. By way of analogy, gun manufacturers are not held responsible for crimes committed with their products. A gun is as harmless as a stapler unless it is loaded with a bullet…	Ben Radford	12/04/12	0
Life of Pi: A Skeptical Review	The Life of Pi begins almost as a nature documentary, with footage of a lavish Indian zoo where Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) grows up with his family. Eventually the Patel family (and many of the zoo animals) board a freighter headed for Canada. A storm sinks the ship (in what…	Ben Radford	11/26/12	7	12/14/12
In Science, Whose Department is the Ethics Department?: Part 1	The role of ethics in science was the subject of a popular 1960s song by American songwriter and satirist Tom Lehrer. In his song about German rocket engineer Wernher von Braun, he sang a catchy and biting tune which includes the phrase “Once the rockets are up, who cares where…	Ben Radford	11/23/12	1	11/23/12
Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln: A Man (and a Film) for the Ages	Lincoln Directed by Steven Spielberg Starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln is a compelling drama that focuses on the 16th President’s tumultuous final months in office. The rough outlines of the story (or, at least, its conclusions) are known by all, but Lincoln nicely fills in the…	Ben Radford	11/07/12	0
Memories of Paul Kurtz	I heard with a heavy heart that CFI founder Paul Kurtz has died. A statement issued by the American Humanist Association said, in part, “Humanists and atheists are mourning the death of humanist Dr. Paul Kurtz, former editor of the American Humanist Association’s Humanist magazine and founder of the Council…	Ben Radford	10/21/12	4	10/29/12
‘The Master’	In The Master, Freddie, a disturbed drifter fresh from World War II (played by Joaquin Phoenix) meets Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the leader of a quasi-religious sect called The Cause. Freddie is a stowaway on a Dodd boat hired for the wedding of his daughter, and soon the pair enter…	Ben Radford	09/30/12	1	10/01/12
Sexism, Activism, and All-Male Clubs	In a TED talk on “Reinventing Feminism” I saw on YouTube, writer Courtney Martin discussed her middle-class Colorado upbringing by two social activists, saying that her mother founded a women’s film festival-and that she was not the only feminist in the house. For example: “My dad actually resigned from the male-only business…	Ben Radford	09/28/12	9	10/01/12
The Zanzibari Cat	Stone Town, Zanzibar There are many wondrous and curious sights in Zanzibar, a small island off the coast of Tanzania in East Africa. There’s the huge Portuguese fort built in 1560 by a sultan; there are the caves at the northern tip of the island, where slaves once waited to…	Ben Radford	09/24/12	4	09/27/12
Public Figures Who Lie About Sports Achievements	Recently a vice-presidential candidate was caught in a lie. This is probably not newsworthy, but what’s interesting is what he lied about. According to The New York Times, “Representative Paul D. Ryan has taken back his claim that he had run a marathon in under three hours, an assertion that had drawn…	Ben Radford	09/13/12	1	09/13/12
Bearing the Burden: On Being Chosen to Suffer	About five years ago, while on a vacation at a resort in Ambergris Caye, Belize, two friends and I struck up a conversation with the couple in the next room over, who were also lounging lazily in hammocks and deck chairs as the afternoon turned to night. We swapped travel…	Ben Radford	09/06/12	1	09/07/12
Another Abduction/Rape Highlights Glaring Failure of Psychic Detectives	I regularly write about the failures of psychic detectives because I believe it’s important to remind the public as often and as loudly as possible what sort of damage these grief vampires do, and lay bare their false claims. I recently thought of it again when I read an Associated Press…	Ben Radford	08/27/12	0
One Month After ‘Batman’ Massacre, Still No Evidence of Film Influence	One thing I try to do as a journalist and skeptic is revisit claims and predictions that appear at one point to see if they were true or not. I’ve done this with many different topics, including psychic predictions, predictions about whether Barack Obama planned to outlaw guns, and whether…	Ben Radford	08/22/12	14	08/27/12
MacOzymandia: Visit to a Scottish Cemetery	Inverness, Scotland, April 23, 2006 As the Ness River slowly weaves and wends through the town of Inverness on its way to Loch Ness, it passes under a white metal bridge walkway. That walkway continues across a small road and soon narrows into a brick-paved alleyway between two churches…	Ben Radford	08/03/12	1	08/06/12
Real-Life ‘Dark Night’: Did Batman Inspire Killings?	A mass shooting at the premiere of the new Batman film has cast a pall on the franchise and raised questions about media-inspired violence. According to an ABC News piece, “A lone gunman dressed in riot gear burst into a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., at a midnight showing of the…	Ben Radford	07/20/12	10	08/07/12
Science, the New Age, and the Search for Truth	Good science is universal. Properly controlled scientific experiments should yield the same results regardless of who is doing the testing. Male or female, British or Turkish, young or old, Muslim or Jew, it doesn’t matter. Science’s universality is one of its greatest attributes.  In this way is profoundly democratic and…	Ben Radford	07/18/12	2	07/20/12
Seth MacFarland’s “Ted”: Rude Living Teddy Bear Takes Boston by Storm	Ted, Seth MacFarlane’s first feature film, tells the heartwarming story of a little boy named John whose Christmas wish comes true one year, and his teddy bear comes to life: Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane). He is delighted, though his parents are understandably alarmed and horrified. Fast-forward thirty years: John…	Ben Radford	06/29/12	1	07/16/12
Film Review: Pixar’s “Brave” Aims High But Falls Short	Brave Directed by Mark Andrews and Starring Emma Thompson, Kelly Macdonald, and Billy Connolly I had high hopes for Brave; it’s Pixar Studios’ first film focused on a female character. She’s a wild-maned young warrior princess named Merida (Kelly Macdonald) whose massive father the king of Scotland (Billy Connolly) has a…	Ben Radford	06/21/12	4	06/23/12
Still Skeptical of Blogs	When the Free Thinking blogs began a few years ago, I was asked to contribute a blog. My very first blog post was about why, in my opinion, most blogs are generally worthless. Excerpts of my first post are below: • • • As I write my first entry for…	Ben Radford	06/13/12	20	06/23/12
How Not to Unexplain a UFO Debunking	Along with chupacabras, ghosts, and other weirdness, I also investigate the human mind. My background in psychology reveals how people approach these topics-and evidence for these topics-through their own prisms, perceptions, and pre-conceptions. People filter new information through a particular set of beliefs; few people truly have an open mind…	Ben Radford	06/04/12	6	06/05/12
Is The ‘Real-Life Barbie’ a Media Myth?	Over the past few weeks, photos of a supposed real-life Barbie have shocked many around the world. The controversy surrounds a young Russian model named Valerie Lukyanova (or Valeriya Lukianova, also known by her YouTube handle Amatue), who according to some sources spent over half a million dollars and endured dozens of…	Ben Radford	05/14/12	7	06/01/12
People Don’t Read, and Why It Matters to Skepticism	A lot of the time people simply don’t read; it’s sad but true. (Feel free to skip to the last paragraph if you don’t have time to read this.) I’m not talking about functional literacy, which is quite high in America. Nearly everyone can read bus schedules, menus, and everyday…	Ben Radford	04/30/12	26	05/03/12
A Skeptical Look at ‘Balance’	One popular concept in the New Age is balance. It’s a buzzword that, like natural, is universally desirable but poorly defined. Pills offer emotional balance, books offer spiritual balance, alternative medical therapies offer chi or vibrational balance. The idea, of course, is that in a perfect world, everything is balanced…	Ben Radford	04/16/12	3	04/16/12
Labyrinths, New Age Feminism, and Skepticism	Across America—and indeed across the world—curious designs are appearing on the landscape. The patterns have spread from back yards to churches, public parks, and even medical centers.  Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of people have created and used the designs as meditative, spiritual, and even therapeutic tools. The pattern is…	Ben Radford	03/21/12	2	03/26/12
Rush Limbaugh, Being a Dick, and Skepticism	When conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” last week for her Congressional testimony about birth control, it caused a national uproar that continues to rage. Limbaugh has since (however reluctantly and insincerely) apologized, but a closer look at his…	Ben Radford	03/08/12	51	03/15/12
Oscar-Winning Film Highlights Acid Attack Domestic Violence	While most of the Academy Awards attention focused on the big categories like Best Picture and Best Actress, the best film of the year may be “Saving Face,” which won Best Documentary Short Subject. It’s about women whose faces and eyes have been burned off in acid attacks. The film was directed…	Ben Radford	02/28/12	0
A Skeptic’s Visit to Macchu Picchu	In 1997 I visited one of the great mystical “energy centers” of the world, the Peruvian ruins of Macchu Picchu in the highlands of the Andes mountains. The ruins sit atop a steep verdant mountain, surrounded by lower hills peeking out of cottony white clouds. The huge ruins, remnants of…	Ben Radford	02/22/12	0
The Woman in Black: A Classic Ghost Story	The Woman in Black Directed by James Watkins In the new horror/thriller The Woman in Black, Arthur Kipps, a lawyer whose grief over his dead wife has put his career in jeopardy, is sent to a remote English village to sort out the affairs of a recently deceased woman. Upon…	Ben Radford	02/06/12	3	02/10/12
The Mayan Calendar, 2012, and Doomsday: A Primer	It’s no secret that the ancient Mayans (as opposed to the modern ones, some of whom work in offices and use cell phones) had a famous calendar that “runs out” in December of this year. Just what that means—if anything—is the question. Does it hold any particular significance for Doomday, the…	Ben Radford	01/25/12	4	02/10/12
RileyGate: Lessons Learned	A blog I recently wrote has caused a furor in some skeptic circles. I wrote a piece for Julia Lavarnway’s “We Are SkeptiXX” site about a viral video about a little girl named Riley. Julia responded to some of my comments, and we were discussing the topic for several days. All was…	Ben Radford	01/11/12	41	01/15/12
‘Expert Eyewitness’ Shoots Dog Walker: Skeptical Lessons from Tragedy	From a recent news article: NORTON, Mass.—A woman was mistakenly shot by a hunter while walking her dogs in Norton. It was an agonizing 911 call after the accident on New Year’s Eve 66-year-old Cheryl Blair wounded. The call was placed by the hunter who accidentally shot her. “I just shot a…	Ben Radford	01/05/12	4	01/12/12
Rebecca and Riley: Tempest in a Doll’s Tea Party	A fresh new year and Rebecca Watson is already upset about something I wrote. Is it January already? Rebecca recently wrote a piece for her Skepchick blog called “Intellectual Cage Match: Ben Radford Vs. A 4-Year-Old,” in which she critiqued a blog piece I wrote for Julia Lavarnway’s recently-launched blog “We Are…	Ben Radford	01/02/12	198	01/08/12
Five Solved ‘Unexplained Mysteries’ of 2011	Each year brings new puzzles and mysteries to challenge skeptics and put our wits to the test. Sometimes mysteries take weeks, months, or even years or decades to solve, and while most of the public’s attention naturally focuses on the still-mysterious, it’s always worth reflecting on former mysteries. This past…	Ben Radford	12/27/11	4	12/31/11
Poll Holds Surprises About Teen Self-Image, Reality TV Effects	A new survey from the Girl Scout Research Institute issued a report titled “Real to Me: Girls and Reality TV” which came to a variety of conclusions about the effects of reality TV on beliefs and attitudes of teen girls. The survey was conducted in April 2011 with the research…	Ben Radford	12/08/11	11	01/04/12