Julia Belluz on the FDA cracking down on companies that sell bogus dietary supplements. These pills have not been scientifically proven to work — in fact, they cause harm, because they’re not tested as rigorously as they should be. Before USPLabs agreed to pull OxyElite Pro from store shelves, the product sickened dozens of people, […]
After attending this summer’s Amazing Meeting, I mentioned that this was probably the last annual event presented by the James Randi Educational Foundation. Now comes this announcement: Since James Randi’s retirement earlier this year, the Board has considered how to continue the Foundation without his direct involvement. The Board has decided that it will convert […]
Two years ago, I wrote of my tremendous respect for Sanal Edamaruku, the Indian rationalist who was forced to leave his country under a death threat from the Catholic Church because he had exposed the fakery behind one of its iconic religious statues. Not long after, another Indian rationalist named Narendra Dabholkar was killed after […]
John Oliver has taken on some serious subjects on his HBO “Last Week Tonight” show, from net neutrality to payday loans to gay rights in Uganda to Dr. Oz’s ridiculous science-free endorsements of nutritional supplements. Oliver infuses them with just enough comedy to make them interesting to a mainstream audience. The big segment on his […]
Here’s my conversation with Tim Caulfield, author of “Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?”
I saw Dan Ariely speak at The Amazing Meeting two years ago about dishonesty, a subject he has researched as a behavioral psychologist at Duke University. It was so fascinating that I went out and got his book, “The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty” and devoured it. That book became the basis of a documentary, which […]