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SKEPTIC
Print subscriptions & back issues
Stephen Jay Gould called Skeptic magazine “The best journal in the field.” The definitive skeptical journal, Skeptic magazine makes a perfect gift that lasts all year (we publish 4 issues, 1 approximately every 3 months). Promoting science and critical thinking, our in-depth articles explore and inform. As the leading international publication in the realm of skeptical inquiry, it serves as an educational tool for those seeking a sound scientific viewpoint. Buy it. Read it. Share it. Help us make the world a more rational place by defending the role of science in society! Subscribe to the print edition now and save 25%!
Skeptic magazine examines extraordinary claims, and serves as an educational tool for those seeking a sound scientific viewpoint. Don’t miss this opportunity to complete your collection by getting the back issues you’re missing in your library. Order a back issue for a friend and introduce them to skepticism! Some back issues have completely sold out in print format and will not be printed again. Most of our back issues are available in digital format via PocketMags.com (currently not on sale).
BLACK HOLE BLUES
and Other Songs from Outer Space
In 1916, Einstein predicted the presence of gravitational waves. One century later, we are recording the first sounds from space, evidence of the waves’ existence caused by the collision of two black holes. An authoritative account of the headline-making discovery by theoretical astrophysicist and award-winning writer Janna Levin, Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space recounts the fascinating story of the obsessions, aspirations, and trials of the scientists who embarked on an arduous fifty-year endeavor to capture these elusive waves.
THE HUMAN INSTINCT
How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will
Brown University biologist Kenneth R. Miller “confronts both lay and professional misconceptions about evolution” (Publishers Weekly), showing that while evolution explains how our bodies and brains were shaped, that heritage does not limit or predetermine human behavior. In fact, Miller argues in this “highly recommended” (Forbes) work that it is only thanks to evolution that we have the power to shape our destiny. Equal parts natural science and philosophy, this book makes an “absorbing, lucid, and engaging … case that it was evolution that gave us our humanity” (Ursula Goodenough).
THE GREAT LEVELER
Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century
Only violence and catastrophes have consistently reduced inequality throughout world history. Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world.
BRAINWASHED
The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience
What can’t neuroscience tell us about ourselves? Since fMRI was introduced in the early 1990s, brain scans have been used to help politicians understand and manipulate voters, determine guilt in court cases, and make sense of everything from musical aptitude to romantic love. But although brain scans and other neurotechnologies have provided groundbreaking insights into the workings of the human brain, the increasingly fashionable idea that they are the most important means of answering the enduring mysteries of psychology is misguided — and potentially dangerous.
THE WEATHER MAKERS
How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth
An international best seller embraced and endorsed by policy makers, scientists, writers, and energy industry executives from around the world, Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers helped bring the topic of global warming to national prominence. For the first time, a scientist provided an accessible and comprehensive account of the history, current status, and future impact of climate change, writing what has been acclaimed by reviewers everywhere as the definitive book on global warming. The Washington Post called it “An authoritative, scientifically accurate book on global warming that sparkles with life, clarity, and intelligence…”
THE MAGIC OF MATH
Solving for x and Figuring Out Why
The Magic of Math is the math book you wish you had in school. Using a delightful assortment of examples — from ice cream scoops and poker hands to measuring mountains and making magic squares — this book empowers you to see the beauty, simplicity, and truly magical properties behind those formulas and equations that once left your head spinning. You’ll learn the key ideas of classic areas of mathematics like arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus, but you’ll also have fun fooling around with Fibonacci numbers, investigating infinity, and marveling over mathematical magic tricks that will make you look like a math genius!
UFOS, CHEMTRAILS, AND ALIENS
What Science Says
In this double-award-winning book, Donald R. Prothero and Tim Callahan explore why demonstrably false beliefs thrive despite decades of education and scientific debunking. Employing the ground rules of science and the standards of scientific evidence, Prothero and Callahan discuss a wide range of topics including the reliability of eyewitness testimony, psychological research into why people want to believe in aliens and UFOs, and the role conspiratorial thinking plays in UFO culture. Winner of the 2017 Robert P. Balles Award in Critical Thinking, and Winner of the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Award.
THE MAGIC DETECTIVES
Join Them in Solving Strange Mysteries!
Want to encourage scientific awareness in children and have them see it as challenging, interesting, and just plain fun? Science-based paranormal investigator Joe Nickell presents thirty brief mystery stories with clues embedded in each story. At the end of each mystery, the reader can turn the book upside down and see if they have come to the same conclusion reached by the professional “magic detectives.” Included are examinations of the “mummy’s curse”, bigfoot, haunted stairways, walking on fire, ancient astronauts, the Reverend Peter Popoff, the Amityville Horror, the Loch Ness monster, poltergeists, and more.
THE NEW AGE
Notes of a Fringe Watcher
This book is a classic of skeptical literature and a bountiful offering of the delightful drollery and horse sense that has made Martin Gardner the undisputed dean of the critics of pseudoscience. It is also a quick way to get up to speed on many topics. Thirty-three chapters examine topics as diverse as Project Alpha, magicians in the Psi lab, perpetual motion, psychic surgery, the face on Mars, psychokinesis, channeling, primetime preachers, and creationism. Gardner is not afraid to examine the process of critical examination itself in chapters on debunking, relevance of belief systems, and chicanery in science.
AUTOGRAPHED 1st EDITION HARDCOVER
75 Collected essays from bestselling author Michael Shermer’s Scientific American columns
AUTOGRAPHED HARDCOVER $28
AUDIO CD $19.95
For fifteen years, bestselling author Michael Shermer has written a column in Scientific American magazine that synthesizes scientific concepts and theory for a general audience. His trademark combination of deep scientific understanding and entertaining writing style has thrilled his huge and devoted audience for years. Now, in SKE?TIC, seventy-five of these columns are available together for the first time; a welcome addition for his fans and a stimulating introduction for new readers.
Praise for the book
“Dense with facts, convincing arguments, and curious statistics, this is an ingenious collection of light entertainment for readers who believe that explaining stuff is a good idea.”
“Shermer makes a strong case for the value of the scientific endeavor and the power of rational thinking in 75 brief essays…. Each entry is insightful, informative, and entertaining.”
“Michael Shermer is a beacon of reason in an ocean of irrationailty.”
Also by Michael Shermer
AUTOGRAPHED PAPERBACK
Why People Believe Weird Things
In this age of supposed scientific enlightenment, many people still believe in mind reading, past-life regression theory, New Age hokum, and alien abduction. This book is a no-holds-barred assault on popular superstitions and prejudices, debunking these nonsensical claims and exploring the very human reasons people find otherworldly phenomena, conspiracy theories, and cults so appealing. Why People Believe Weird Things is an eye-opening resource for the most gullible among us and those who want to protect them.
AUTOGRAPHED PAPERBACK
Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia
Heavens on Earth is a scientific exploration into humanity’s obsession with the afterlife and quest for immortality from the bestselling author and skeptic Michael Shermer. In his most ambitious work yet, Shermer sets out to discover what drives humans’ belief in life after death, focusing on recent scientific attempts to achieve immortality along with utopian attempts to create heaven on earth.
JUNIOR SKEPTIC
Download select issues in PDF format
$1.99 ea.
Created in 1998 by Skeptics Society co-founders Pat Linse and Michael Shermer, and helmed since 2002 by national award-winning children’s science book author Daniel Loxton, Junior Skeptic boasts lively illustrations, in-depth ideas, and deep research. Each 10-page story offers a simple but thorough primer on a fringe claim, scientific mystery, or critical thinking theme, all told in Junior Skeptic’s engaging, easygoing signature style.
Here are 8 suggested issues of the 31 that are currently available:
Junior Skeptic 58: Haunted Houses
In this issue of Junior Skeptic, we’ll summon our courage, light a candle, and venture inside the ancient horror of haunted houses. Imagine walking dark hallways, peering into abandoned rooms. We strain to recognize unfamiliar shapes in the shadows. A cold draft stirs the cobwebs; outside, wind moans through the trees. We climb creaking stairs up into the unknown. Ahead of us, we — wait, did you hear something? Were those…footsteps? Our skin prickles with fear and tension. Breathless, trembling, we call into the darkness, “Is somebody there?” Let’s find out!
Junior Skeptic 67: Perpetual Motion
In this issue of Junior Skeptic, we’d like you to imagine two impossible, magical machines: The first machine runs forever. You may picture a complex tangle of gears and wheels, or something as simple as a spinning top, but imagine that it never runs down — once started it just keeps going without ever needing more energy. Now imagine a second machine. This one may require fuel or energy to run, but somehow, through some fantastic process, it generates more energy than it consumes. We aren’t the first to imagine these two types of “perpetual motion” machines. Inventors have dreamed of such devices for centuries. How has their search unfolded? Let’s find out!
Junior Skeptic 37: Top 10 Busted Myths
Welcome to a whirlwind tour of busted paranormal myths! In this issue of Junior Skeptic, we’ll review a few topics from previous issues, and take a peek at some we’ll explore in greater detail in the future. For now, I hope you’ll enjoy the ride: 10 myths in 10 pages! From Roswell to homeopathy, dowsing to ghost orb photography, this issue explores some of the worst paranormal cases of all time!
Junior Skeptic 6: Halloween
In this issue of Junior Skeptic, Pat Linse looks at what’s behind Halloween traditions, and what purpose ghosts serve. Learn some tricks psychics use when they seem to talk to the dead and how to detect ghostly fingerprints. How does Halloween fun help us learn to deal with fear? Let’s find out!
Junior Skeptic 63: Chemtrails
We’ve all heard the story of Chicken Little — a fanciful tale about panic and jumping to conclusions (“The sky is falling!”). But how would it feel to truly believe that the sky is out to get you? For believers in one strange conspiracy theory, it’s scary to see a blue sky crossed by wispy white contrail lines from passing jet planes. They claim some of those contrails are not clouds or exhaust from jet engines as they appear, but sinister “chemtrails.” Supposedly, an evil government conspiracy uses jet planes to secretly spread poison across skies worldwide. Is there any possibility this paranoid claim could be true? Let’s find out!
Junior Skeptic 33: Cold Reading
In this issue, you’ll discover the work of Ian Rowland, an expert on “cold reading” — sneaky techniques for convincing complete strangers that you know know all about them. As a performer on stage, Ian Rowland creates the illusion that he has psychic powers like “telepathy.” Learn how someone who is not psychic can pretend to be so using a set of psychological strategies. Rowland always admits that he uses trickery on stage. Unfortunately, some people use cold reading techniques to take advantage of others. How do they do it — and how can we keep from being fooled? Let’s find out!
Junior Skeptic 43: Mighty Moa!
In this issue of Junior Skeptic, we’ll learn the story of some amazing animals! The flightless moa birds of New Zealand were among the largest birds ever to exist. They evolved striking similarities to other animals from other times and places, before vanishing from the Earth. But if moas are extinct, why are they (according to claims) still spotted alive in the wild? Let’s find out!
Junior Skeptic 66: Pet Psychics
Have you ever wished you could ask your dog what she’s really thinking? Wouldn’t it be great if you could have a genuine twoway conversation with your cat, hamster, or turtle? There are people who claim to have the ability to do just that. “Pet psychics” say that they can speak with all sorts of animals using telepathic powers. They charge money to read animals’ minds and tell the owners what those animals supposedly said. Many pet psychics also claim they can locate lost pets, heal their illnesses, and even communicate with pets who died long ago. Are these claims realistic? Let’s find out!
In total, there are 31 issues of Junior Skeptic currently available in PDF format (two of which are free to download!). We will be making more Junior Skeptic PDFs available for sale in 2020. Check our online store periodically for new additions!
WINNER OF TWO AWARDS
Evolution: How We & All Living Things Came to Be
Can something as complex and wondrous as the natural world be explained by a simple theory? The answer is yes, and now Evolution explains how in a way that makes it easy to understand. Based on the acclaimed articles from Junior Skeptic (Skeptic magazine’s science magazine for kids), and combining lavish illustrations, breezy prose, and deep science, this spectacularly illustrated introduction to the theory of evolution (written for ages 8–13) takes us from Charles Darwin to modern-day science. Along the way, Evolution answers common questions (and clears up misunderstandings) that sometimes confuse people about the history of life on Earth. This book has been applauded by expert reviewers including the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Center for Science Education.
Awards for the book
- WINNER: Best Books for Kids & Teens, Starred Selection, Canadian Children’s Book Centre (2011)
- WINNER: Lane Anderson Book Award, Fitzhenry Family Foundation (2011)
- Finalist: Norma Fleck Award, Canadian Children’s Book Centre (2011)
- Finalist: Silver Birch Award, Ontario Library Association (2011)
WINNER: BEST BOOK FOR KIDS
Ankylosaur Attack
This mind-blowing feast for the eye depicts photorealistic CGI dinosaurs in their natural environment. A young ankylosaur (a plant-eating, heavy-plated dinosaur) living along the lush banks of a lake encounters an old ankylosaur. Gently, he endeavors to make contact, only to be rebuffed. Then a T. rex attacks, and old dinosaur is in grave danger. Will the T. rex triumph? It looks that way, until the young ankylosaur comes to the rescue, tail club swinging. This is book one in the Tales of Prehistoric Life series. Dramatic stories + eye-popping visuals = a surefire hit with young dinosaur lovers.
“Even by current high standards, the full-spread art is uncommonly photorealistic.”
Awards for the book
- WINNER: Selected for Vancouver, British Columbia’s 2015 Reading Lights Program (2015)
- WINNER: Best Books for Kids & Teens, Canadian Children’s Book Centre (2012)
- Finalist: Silver Birch Express Award, Ontario Library Association (2013)
WINNER: CHILDREN’S BOOK PRIZE
Pterosaur Trouble
This science-informed followup to Ankylosaur Attack tells a dramatic paleofiction tale of perhaps the largest flying animal ever to exist — the mighty pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus. While stalking a riverside for breakfast, the giraffe-sized pterosaur finds himself on the menu for a pack of small but ravenous feathered Velociraptor-like dinosaurs called Saurornitholestes. Can the giant escape from his Lilliputian assailants? Inspired by real-world fossil discoveries, this photorealistic adventure will delight and astonish.
“[A] riveting picture book…visually stunning…intriguing and original…an imaginative, scientifically based gem…”
Awards for the book
- WINNER: Victoria Children’s Book Prize Winner (2014)
- Finalist: Lane Anderson Award for the Canadian Science Book Prize (2013)
FINALIST: LANE ANDERSON BOOK PRIZE
Plesiosaur Peril
A group of plesiosaurs — ocean-dwelling cousins of the dinosaurs — keeps safe by swimming in a family pod. But then a baby plesiosaur swims too far from its mother, attracting the attention of something very large and hungry. The struggle for survival is on! A unique blend of digital artwork and landscape photography illustrates this thrilling encounter. This is the third and final book in the Tales of Prehistoric Life series, and a Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award for Best Science Book for Young Readers in 2014.
“It is apparent from the accurate appearance of the plesiosaurs that they were thoroughly researched. …the same is true for other prehistoric creatures… ichthyosaurs, ammonites, belemnites…. They are the best I’ve seen in any book of this kind. …this is a lovely and visually striking book that makes the perfect bedtime story for any child…”
Award for the book
- Finalist: Lane Anderson Award for the Canadian Science Book Prize (2014)
SMART READS FOR $3.75 EACH!
On baloney detection, climate change, and debating creationists
The Baloney Detection Kit
Designed to hone your critical thinking skills, includes suggestions on what questions to ask, what traps to avoid, specific examples of how the scientific method is used to test pseudoscience and paranormal claims, 25 fallacies of thinking, a list of highly-recommended skeptical books, a how-to guide for developing a class in critical thinking, and more… This booklet has 16 pages.
A Skeptic’s Guide to Global Climate Change
Distinguish climate change skepticism from climate change denialism; get 25 answers to classic climate denier arguments; examine a summary of the scientific evidence and climate data and discover what’s behind the debate on climate change; find out why scientists think climate is changing and how we know global warming is real and human caused. This booklet has 28 pages.
How to Debate a Creationist
Perfect for anyone who wants to know how to converse with a creationist. It contains 25 creationist arguments and 25 evolutionist answers (some philosophical and some scientific); describes what the theory of evolution is and isn’t and explains why creationism is not science; provides an in-depth understanding of Intelligent Design, its pitfalls and logical fallacies, and much more. This booklet has 28 pages.
STICK IT TO ’EM
Skeptic Lapel Pin
$10
We’d like to see this lapel pin become world-famous, and we need your help to make that happen! Every skeptic (and his/her best friends) should have one of these lapel pins. They feature elegant gold-colored SKEPTIC letters, with a contrasting black background. They’re a great size for a lapel or tie-tack — about 25mm × 6mm (1" × .25"). The pin comes in a classy little plastic box suitable for gift-giving. At this price, why not get one for every jacket you own!
AMERICAN APPAREL
Unisex Short Sleeve T-Shirts
$18
Made of 100% fine jersey knit cotton, ring-spun and combed for superior softness and strength. Our unisex fine jersey short sleeve T-shirts, by American Apparel, are the softest, smoothest, best-looking T-shirts available anywhere. If you are not familiar with how American Apparel fits, refer to the sizing chart before placing your order. If you don’t like a snug fit, we suggest ordering a size larger than you would normally order from other manufacturers.
eGIFT CERTIFICATES
Take the guess work out of giving
If you’re not sure what to get your favourite skeptic, then why not give a Skeptic eGift Certificate and he/she can redeem it on anything we sell at shop.skeptic.com. eGift Certificates are available in amounts from $10 to $250.
- Choose your eGift amount.
- Enter the eGift Recipient’s email address.
- Type a personalized message.
- Checkout!
Skeptic eGift Certificates arrive instantly by email to your recipient, and can be redeemed for anything in our online store: books, Skeptic back issues, Skeptic magazine print subscriptions, audio books, cool clothing and swag, and more!
Skeptic eGift Certificates cannot be redeemed for Skeptic magazine digital editions, since those are sold through PocketMags.com or via Apple or Google within the Skeptic Magazine App.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
Help us promote science & reason worldwide
2019 was another banner year for the Skeptics Society, as we revamped our efforts in promoting science, skepticism, and critical thinking as we move into our second quarter century of activism in the name of science. Thanks to your continued support, we are looking forward to 2020 and are pleased to report on what we have been doing with your donations the past year…
[Message from Michael Shermer continues]
Read the full letter from Michael
Ways to make your tax deductible donations
You can make a donation online using your credit card, or by calling 1-626-794-3119. You may also mail us a cheque along with your completed printable donation form. The Skeptics Society is registered US 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization. Your donations are tax deductible.