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The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe

How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake

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The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe

By: Steven Novella
Narrated by: Steven Novella
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About this listen

An entertaining and all-encompassing guide to skeptical thinking for the age of misinformation.

In this tie-in to their popular The Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast, Steven Novella, along with 'Skeptical Rogues' Bob Novella, Cara Santa Maria, Jay Novella and Evan Bernstein, explain the tenets of skeptical thinking and debunk some of the biggest scientific myths, fallacies and conspiracy theories (anti-vaccines, homeopathy, UFO sightings and many more.) They'll help us try to make sense of what seems like an increasingly crazy world using powerful tools like science and philosophy.

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is your guide through this maze of modern life. It covers essential critical thinking skills as well as giving insight into how your brain works and how to avoid common pitfalls in thinking. They discuss the difference between science and pseudoscience, how to recognise common science news tropes, how to discuss conspiracy theories with that crazy colleague of yours and how to apply all of this to everyday life.

As fascinating as it is entertaining, this enthralling audiobook is your essential guide to seeing through the fake news and media manipulation in our increasingly confusing world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our Desktop Site.

©2018 SGU Productions LLC (P)2018 Hachette Audio
Biological Sciences Social Sciences Human Brain

Critic Reviews

"A fantastic compendium of skeptical thinking and the perfect primer for anyone who wants to separate fact from fiction." (Richard Wiseman, author 59 Seconds)

"Thorough, informative, and enlightening...If this book does not become required reading for us all, we may well see modern civilisation unravel before our eyes." (Neil deGrasse Tyson, author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry)

What listeners say about The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe

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Excellent, but...

I very much liked this book... except. I found the narrator's otherwise excellent presentation drove me crazy when he missed a 't' in certain words, such as 'impor-ant'. Drove me crazy. Apart from this, this was an excellent book.

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Excellent factual and enjoy experience

Mister Novela gave a great performance. The book is an extremely valuable resource, I learned a lot and found the experience enjoyable.

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Long read, but very worth it

Great book. Equips you with tools to deal with pseudo science and logical fallacies, among other things.

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Critical Thinking Can Be Taught!

With so much nonsense in the world masquerading as knowledge this book couldn’t be more timely. Recommend for everyone, but particularly those struggling to navigate the endless streams of pseudoscience, woo, fad diets, and science “breakthrough” headlines that never materialize. Inoculate yourself from errors in thinking, and be better at separating truth from falsehood. Becoming a “skeptic” is about thinking critically and careful discernment not naysaying. Let the SGU be your guide!

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brilliant way to start the day

I've been listening to this each morning on the drive to work and it's been enlightening to say the least. it made me think of facts that wouldn't normally come up in my everyday and its given me interesting conversation topics for my circle.

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Great skeptical guide by the SGU!

This book written by the SGU is an in depth look at skeptisim and the many pseudoscience, alternative therapy's and conspiracy theories that skeptics come up against on a daily basis. Full of facts and entertaining anecdotes, this book is a fun read from start to finish. I especially enjoyed the psychology of why we believe weird things, and all the different fallacies we can fall into.
I highly recommend it.

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Fantastic guide to skepticism

This is a an in depth guide to skeptical thinking. It provides the reader with well thought out explanations of what and how skeptics think. It’s brilliant at pointing out the misconception that people have about skeptics and putting them straight. My personal favourite part is the informal logical fallacies, of which I have been annoying my wife endlessly (lucky she loves me).

This book should be essential reading for school aged kids as it will set them up for a world almost trying to deceive them.

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Classic SGU

Narration was great, after years of listening to the SGU podcast, hearing more of Dr Steve was very familiar.
Unlike most books I've completed recently; this book may have been better read than listened to. So many occasions I caught my mind wandering after an interesting sentence, only to have to repeat the last minute or two, get caught wandering at the same spot, and around we go again...
I tend to disagree with the autbors and publishers choice of single narrator, single style. I really would have preferred to listen to each of them narrate their own part, as they had written it. This may however just be a text vs voice thing though.

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The podcast, cubed.

I bought this imagining an extended version of the podcast, which I enjoy. Nothing wrong with that. What I got for my money was a different vision of the SGU team; the book was genuinely surprising in its depth and novelty. Listening to the weekly show, the format is light and entertaining. The book reveals their understanding and deep research into skepticism, and the result was absorbing in a way that the podcast just cant be.
Great work.

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SGU ROCKS

As an avid listener of the weekly podcast for many years now, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on both the audio version and the hard cover. I was initially concerned that content from Steve’s great courses lecture series would be recycled which was quickly swept away once I saw they’d covered differnt aspects of woo.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn how to think critically in everyday life. Everyone, everywhere needs a little skepticism in their lives, why not learn how to do it properly.

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