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!
Skeptic magazine examines extraordinary claims, and serves as an educational tool for those seeking a sound scientific viewpoint. 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.
DARWIN AND HIS BEARS
How Darwin Bear and His Galápagos Islands Friends Inspired a Scientific Revolution
Scientist and Darwin scholar Frank J. Sulloway's delightful and deeply informative book imaginatively recounts the fabled adventure of Darwin’s first visit to “a shore fit for Pandemonium,” as Beagle Captain Robert FitzRoy described the Galápagos on their arrival in 1835. Sulloway reveals a crucial — yet little known — link that led to Darwin’s development of the theory of evolution: sixteen brilliant little bears residing on the sixteen archipelago islands. As Sulloway brings to life the story of Darwin’s scientific triumph, he also reveals the critical conceptual steps by which Darwin reached his theory of evolution by natural selection.
THE MAGIC OF REALITY
How Do We Know What’s Really True?
For years people have wanted the renowned evolutionary biologist to write a book for kids on evolution. He has done that — and much more — with this highly engaging and well-illustrated work that will also enlighten adults who read it. Filled with clever thought experiments and jaw-dropping facts, The Magic of Reality explains a stunningly wide range of natural phenomena. This is a page-turning detective story that not only mines all the sciences for its clues but primes the reader to think like a scientist as well.
STICK IT TO ’EM
Skeptic Lapel Pin
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!
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.
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.
AMERICAN APPAREL
Unisex Short Sleeve T-Shirts
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.
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.
SECRET ORIGINS OF THE BIBLE
How can such a widely studied book like the Bible still hold secrets?
Many intelligent and otherwise well informed readers will find much of the material in this book new and quite startling, although Bible scholars, and anyone with a background in comparative mythology will be familiar with it. Callahan gathers material together from many sources — literary analysis, archeology, and history — and uses comparative mythology to demonstrate how Bible stories that do not make much sense when taken literally can be understood when their mythic content is revealed.
AUTOGRAPHED 1st EDITION HARDCOVER
Giving the Devil His Due: Reflections of a Scientific Humanist
Who is the “Devil”? And what is he due? The devil is anyone who disagrees with you. And what he is due is the right to speak his mind. He must have this for your own safety’s sake, because his freedom is inextricably tied to your own. If he can be censored, why shouldn’t you be censored? If we put barriers up to silence “unpleasant” ideas, what’s to stop the silencing of any discussion? This book is a full-throated defense of free speech and open inquiry in politics, science, and culture by the New York Times bestselling author and skeptic Michael Shermer. The new collection of essays and articles takes the devil by the horns by tackling five key themes: free thought and free speech, politics and society, scientific humanism, religion, and the ideas of controversial intellectuals. For our own sake, we must give the devil his due.
Buy Michael Shermer’s other books
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!
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.
JUNIOR SKEPTIC
Download select issues in PDF format
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 our top 5 most downloaded issues of the 33 available:
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 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 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 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 47: Alien Invaders!
In this issue of Junior Skeptic, we look at the topic of alien invasions. Where did we get our ideas about being attacked from “outside” — from other lands, or from outer space? How has this idea been expressed in stories? How do exotic species here on Earth “invade” new regions? Can life forms from one planet really invade another? Let’s find out! And remember: space slugs are our friends!
33 of the most popular issues of Junior Skeptic are available in PDF (four of which are free to download!).
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)
HELP US CONTINUE PAT LINSE’S LEGACY
A Note from Michael Shermer — Executive Director of Your Skeptics Society
2021 has shaped up to be one of the most dramatic in recent history as we come out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdown of the economy. The Skeptics Society has been busier than ever dealing with the fallout of QAnon and rigged-election conspiracy theories, along with those that claim 5G causes COVID-19, that SARS-CoV-2 was invented by Bill Gates, that Big Pharma created a pandemic in order to sell us drugs and vaccines, not to mention antivaxxers and vaccine hesitancy.
On top of all this, and tragically, we lost our beloved and respected co-founder of the Skeptics Society and Art Director of Skeptic magazine, Pat Linse. Pat and I founded the organization and the magazine in 1992 and it became our life’s work.
In Skeptic 26.3 we devoted a special section to honoring Pat, including her on both the front cover (in upper-left corner) and back cover, along with tributes from myself, Daniel Loxton, Bill Nye, Carol Tavris, and many others whose lives she touched. Download and read the 18-page tribute to Pat Linse in PDF format.
Going forward we shall continue publishing Skeptic per usual, and maintaining our mission of promoting science, reason, and critical thinking. But we can’t do it without your support.
Donate $50 or more and we’ll send you a hardcover copy of Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown.
To this end, I ask you to please pay tribute to Pat Linse and help us continue her legacy of science and skepticism by making a donation to the Skeptics Society so that we may carry on into the future, long after any of us who run it now.
Your tax-deductible donations go not only to the day-to-day operation of the organization, but to our growing endowment so that the Skeptics Society may continue in perpetuity. Many years ago, I set up a stock investment portfolio that has grown in proportion to the market itself (even better, actually, as it is weighted in tech stocks).
Donate instantly online using the link above, or over the phone by calling 1-626-794-3119, or by mailing us a cheque along with your completed printable donation form to P.O. Box 338, Altadena, CA 91001.
Thank you,
Michael Shermer
Executive Director, Skeptics Society
Publisher, Skeptic magazine