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Bluesky
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Alternative Medicine
All
Acupuncture
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Cancer
Ivermectin is a genuinely great drug, but there’s no good evidence it can treat cancer
Jack Lawrence
-
21st August 2026
Alternative Medicine
Causality: how to prove it scientifically, and why it matters
Edzard Ernst
-
17th August 2026
Alternative Medicine
From growing basil to curing disease, pseudoscientists find support in the Qur’an
Stefano Bigliardi
-
22nd July 2026
Alternative Medicine
Aromatherapy, the NHS maternity crisis, and the obsession with “natural” birth
Michael Marshall
-
24th June 2026
Alternative Medicine
Autohemotherapy: blood pseudoscience with a Brazilian twist
Mauro Proença
-
15th June 2026
Health
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Ivermectin is a genuinely great drug, but there’s no good evidence it can treat cancer
Jack Lawrence
-
21st August 2026
Veterinary Medicine
Get a longer little doggy: can we really double our dog’s lifespan?
Robyn Lowe
-
20th July 2026
Conspiracy Theories
The conspiracy theorists who now hold local council seats across the UK
Brian Eggo
-
26th June 2026
Alternative Medicine
Aromatherapy, the NHS maternity crisis, and the obsession with “natural” birth
Michael Marshall
-
24th June 2026
Health
Rio Vista: the first city to start, and then stop, water fluoridation
Dayton Murphy
-
10th June 2026
Paranormal
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Hilary Evans Paranormal Library
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Helena Blavatsky, the psychic founder of Theosophy and Russian mother of the New Age movement
Michael Marshall
-
4th September 2026
UFOs
The seemingly impossible task of getting access to Ariel School’s ‘Impossible Archive’
Gideon Reid
-
31st July 2026
Parapsychology
Extraordinary claims, modest evidence: reincarnation, and the limits of parapsychology
Gabriel Andrade
-
27th July 2026
UFOs
The underwhelming reality of the White House’s own ‘Disclosure Day’
Dave Hahn
-
17th July 2026
Cryptozoology
Identifying the mysterious and legendary ground shark of the Timor Sea
Karl Brandt
-
13th July 2026
Conspiracy
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Flat Earth
The Power of the Flat Earth Idea: A distinctive historical perspective on a proverbially absurd belief
Glenn Branch
-
11th September 2026
Conspiracy Theories
Reptoids and lizard-like rulers: who truly owns a conspiracy theory?
Dave Hahn
-
26th August 2026
Conspiracy Theories
The conspiracy theorists who now hold local council seats across the UK
Brian Eggo
-
26th June 2026
Conspiracy Theories
Bill Hicks embodied all the good and bad of High Weirdness
Aaron Rabinowitz
-
3rd June 2026
Conspiracy Theories
Who’s afraid for Naomi Wolf? The fall of a feminist icon into a conspiracist rabbithole
Michael Marshall
-
29th May 2026
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Skeptics should not be so gullible as to believe Nathan Cofnas’ academic freedom is being stifled
Michael Marshall
-
9th September 2026
Cults
Helena Blavatsky, the psychic founder of Theosophy and Russian mother of the New Age movement
Michael Marshall
-
4th September 2026
Philosophy
How can we tell authentic writing, when even the Pope is suspected of using AI?
Aaron Rabinowitz
-
2nd September 2026
Society
Men’s liberation isn’t about upholding the patriarchy, but acknowledging it harms men, too
Dayton Murphy
-
28th August 2026
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When it comes to jargon, it should only ever be about using the right tool for the right job
Richard Glover
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12th August 2026
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Technology
The Turing test is no longer fit for purpose – we need a new benchmark for machine intelligence
Richard Glover
-
14th September 2026
Technology
Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Hype: Monorail, Monorail, Monorail…
Mark Honeychurch
-
7th September 2026
Philosophy
How can we tell authentic writing, when even the Pope is suspected of using AI?
Aaron Rabinowitz
-
2nd September 2026
Psychology
The problem with Myers-Briggs: personality can’t be put into such neat little boxes
Elissar Gerges
-
31st August 2026
Climate Change
Leaving aside the wonder and the doom, we should appreciate the real-world arithmetic cost of AI
Kevin Escoda
-
24th August 2026
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Placebo Effect
Placebo Effect
If we take away the statistical quirks and biases, is there any placebo effect left?
Mike Hall
-
22nd September 2025
Once you eliminate well-understood elements like bias and regression to the mean, there's no remarkable placebo effect left to explain
Placebo Effect
No, placebos probably aren’t getting stronger over time
Mike Hall
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16th July 2025
Placebo responses have not gotten stronger over the past 30 years – trials are just better at isolating treatment effects from noise
Health
Supplements and garlic won’t cure the common cold, despite what the BBC say
Mike Hall
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24th March 2025
The BBC reported on home remedies to fight the common cold – but what they gave us were weak, biased, and p-hacked studies
Placebo Effect
The Beecher story, the origin of the placebo effect myth, likely didn’t happen
Mike Hall
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26th February 2025
The most-cited example of the powerful placebo is Henry Beecher using saline instead of morphine... except, it likely never happened
Placebo Effect
An overdose on placebo pills can cause adverse reactions… but not because of the nocebo effect
Mike Hall
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3rd February 2025
A man who overdosed on experimental pills felt sure he was dying, until he found out he was in the placebo arm... but it was not a nocebo effect.
Placebo Effect
Placebo surgery: why performing fake operations doesn’t actually help anyone
Mike Hall
-
20th January 2025
Placebo surgeries do not work – if a surgery performs no better than placebo, it means that operation doesn't work, not that placebos are powerful
Placebo Effect
Does pill packet branding change the placebo response, or is this just another placebo myth?
Mike Hall
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16th December 2024
How expensive a pill packet looks is said to influence the size of its placebo effect but, once again, the evidence is sorely lacking
Placebo Effect
Pacemakers don’t work when they’re switched off – we should doubt studies that say otherwise
Mike Hall
-
25th November 2024
Among the many odd claims made about the placebo effect is that pacemakers work even before they're switched on - which obviously isn't true
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The Skeptic Podcast
The Skeptic Podcast – Episode 081
11th September 2026
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Latest news
From the archives: At the frontiers of science – cataloguing the anomalies and curiosities of nature
15th September 2026
The Turing test is no longer fit for purpose – we need a new benchmark for machine intelligence
14th September 2026
The Power of the Flat Earth Idea: A distinctive historical perspective on a proverbially absurd belief
11th September 2026
Skeptics should not be so gullible as to believe Nathan Cofnas’ academic freedom is being stifled
9th September 2026
From the archives: Faces on Mars and Earth – Tales of gargantuan interplanetary human portraiture
8th September 2026