My journey as a skeptic, critical thinker, and science educator was paved by countless thinkers and communicators. I’m often asked for resource recommendations, so I compiled a list of some of my favorites that I thought would be the most useful to a broad audience (e.g., my general-education Science for Life students).

Whether you’re new to skepticism or well on your way, hopefully there’s something here to interest you. And this is a living list, so be sure to check back for more!

Note: The danger in compiling a list like this is that someone is going to be left out, likely because I simply forgot, but possibly because the resource was too advanced or too niche. Therefore, please do not consider this list to be exhaustive, and if your favorite book, podcast, YouTube channel, etc is missing, leave a comment below or send me an email. Finally, if you’re an active skeptic and don’t see your work included, from the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry!

DISCLOSURE: This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. Please know that I would not recommend resources that I haven’t personally used and find valuable.

Books

• The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan: Famed astronomer Carl Sagan is the father of the modern skeptic movement, and if you’re going to read one book about science and skepticism…this should be it. 
• The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake, by Steven Novella, et al.: Excellent primer on critical thinking, science, and how to combat bad reasoning and superstitious thinking. This is the book I recommend to my students as a resource for Science for Life.
• Good Thinking: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World, by David Robert Grimes: An educational book about how to protect ourselves from charlatans and bad thinking infused with compelling and entertaining stories.
• Think Again: The Power of Knowing What We Don’t Know, by Adam Grant: Using powerful stories, and backed by evidence, organizational psychologist and best-selling author Adam Grant explains that thinking like a scientist—being curious, willing to test your ideas, and able to change your mind—is the real path to wisdom.
• Good Thinking: What You Need to Know to be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, and Wiser, by Guy Harrison: One of the best introductory critical thinking books.
• Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity, by Sander van der Linden: One of the world’s leading misinformation researchers explains explains why we fall for misinformation and what we can do to protect ourselves and others. 
• Why People Believe Weird Things, by Michael Shermer: In our modern, scientific age, many people still believe in things that are decidedly not scientific. Shermer not only debunks these claims, he explores the reasons people find otherworldly phenomena, conspiracy theories, and cults so appealing. 
• The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths, by Michael Shermer: Best-selling author Michael Shermer explains his theory about the brain as a “belief engine”: Basically, we form beliefs first and then find reasons to justify our beliefs.
• How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life, by Thomas Gilovich: Psychologist Thomas Gilovich explains the biases and stereotypes that help us process an overload of complex information but that inevitably distort our understanding of reality. 
• How to Think about Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age, by Theodore Schick, Jr, and Lewis Vaughn: This text teaches the basic principles of good reasoning through an examination of widely held beliefs about the paranormal, the supernatural, and the mysterious. Excellent textbook for critical thinking courses.
• Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries, by Benjamin Radford: Radford, a real-life scientific paranormal investigator, explains how science-based methods are used to solve mysteries. 
• How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion, by David McRaney: With his trademark storytelling, well-known podcaster David McRaney explores why facts don’t change our minds…and what will.
• The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, by Jonathan Rauch: This groundbreaking book argues that knowledge comes from organized social systems, with checks and balances, and rules for determining what’s true and what isn’t. 
• On Disformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy, by Lee McIntyre: This pocket-sized guide by philosopher Lee McIntyre helps citizens defend democracy by learning how to fight disinformation.
• Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think, by Andy Norman: Dr Norman lays out the conceptual foundations of the emerging science of mental immune health.
• Mistakes Were Made (but Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson: How does our brain reduce the uncomfortable feelings of cognitive dissonance when we make mistakes, cling to bad ideas, or mistreat others? Social psychologists Tavris and Aronson take a look into how the brain is wired for self-justification. 
• Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World, by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West: You don’t need a lot of technical expertise to call out problems with data, just the powerful tools presented in this book. 
• Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman: In this mega bestseller, Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think.
• Why Trust Science?, by Naomi Oreskes: Science historian Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength―and the greatest reason we can trust it. 
• The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience, by Lee McIntyre: Dr McIntyre makes a clear and concise argument that what distinguishes science from its pretenders is “the scientific attitude”: caring about evidence and being willing to change with new evidence. 
• Think Straight: An Owner’s Manual for the Mind, by Jon Guy: Backed by the best available research, and written in clear and decisive language, Mr. Guy provides readers with the guidance and tools to improve your thinking, inform your decisions, avoid fraud and deceit, and make the world a better place.
• Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, by Terence Hines: Hines, a psychology professor, covers a wide range of pseudoscience and paranormal beliefs, explaining why we believe and how to evaluate the claims.
• Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions, by James Randi: The one-and-only Amazing Randi’s classic book in which he explores and exposes outrageous deceptions that have been promoted widely in the media.
• The Skeptics’ Guide to Sports Science: Confronting Myths of the Health and Fitness Industry by Nick Tiller: The health and fitness is largely unregulated and unsupported by evidence…and is worth an estimated $4 trillion! In this book, Dr Tiller provides a life-line to save you from the Snake Oil salesmen that prey on our hopes and irrational thinking.

Podcasts

• You Are Not So Smart: Host David McRaney explores the ways you and everyone else tend to develop an undeserved confidence in human perception, motivation, and behavior. 
• Science Vs:  Takes on fads, trends, and the opinionated mob to find out what’s fact, what’s not, and what’s somewhere in between.
• Thinking Clearly: Explores the process of critical thinking and related topics. From KMUD, a northern California community radio station.
• Hidden Brain: Explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world.
• Skeptoid: Takes on all of the most popular urban legends, revealing the true science, true history, and true lessons we can learn from each.
• Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: Promotes critical thinking and science literacy through insightful content.
• The Skeptic Zone: Host Richard Saunders and his team report on skeptical news and interview prominent skeptics.  
• The Unbiased Science Podcast: Dr. Jessica Steier and Dr. Andrea Love provide critical appraisal of available evidence on science and health-related topics.
• Think with Pinker (BBC Sounds): Steven Pinker shares his guidance on how to think bet

Note: Here are a few podcasts I’ve been on to discuss critical thinking and science education.

YouTube Channels

• SciShow: Explores the unexpected and makes us even more curious! 
• Be Smart: Dr. Joe Hanson gives you deep answers to simple questions about science and the rest of the universe.
• Crash Course: Produces high quality courses on a wide variety of subjects.
• Center for Inquiry: Provides thinkers the chance to speak and audiences the chance to learn.
• Derren Brown: Mentalist and illusionist Derren Brown blows your mind, no matter how smart you are. 
• Global Weirding with Katharine Hayhoe: Climate scientist and conservative Christian Dr. Hayhoe produces videos explaining what we know about climate change, how we know it, and why it matters.
• Bozeman Science: Science educator Paul Andersen explains concepts from a wide range of scientific fields
• Veritasium: Features experiments, expert interviews, cool demos, and discussions with the public about everything science.
• John Cook: Skeptical Science founder and Cranky Uncle creator Dr. John Cook explains how to think critically about misinformation. 
• Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell: Features animated videos about a variety of science based topics.
• ASAP Science: Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown produce weekly videos on a range of science topics. One of the largest educational channels on YouTube.
• Debunk the Funk with Dr. Wilson: Molecular biologist Dr. Wilson covers bad science while making good science accessible, focusing mainly on pseudoscience surrounding the anti-vaccine movement and COVID misinformation.

Websites/Blogs/Resources

• Center for Inquiry: A nonprofit that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal.
• The New England Skeptical Society NeuroLogica Blog: Neurologist Steven Novella blogs about neuroscience, skepticism, and critical thinking.
• Science-Based Medicine: Explores issues and controversies in the relationship between science and medicine.
• SkepDoc: Dr. Harriet Hall blogs about pseudoscience, alternative medicine, and science-based medicine.
• Sgt Scholar: Combat veteran Daniel Walsh blogs about STEM, logic, and critical thinking.
• The Logic of Science: Blogs about critical thinking and science.
• Skeptical Raptor: Blogs about a wide range of issues in the healthcare industry, science, and skepticism.
• The Skeptic’s Dictionary: Features definitions, arguments, and essays on hundreds of strange beliefs, amusing deceptions, and dangerous delusions. 
• Skeptical Science: Examines the science and arguments of global warming skepticism.
• Edzard Ernst: Blog by the most cited alternative medicine researcher.  
• SciBabe: Yvette d’Entremont blogs about science and health with a focus on debunking pseudoscience.
• Effectiviology: Helps you understand the world better, so you can think and act more effectively.

Games

• Cranky Uncle: Uses cartoons, humor, and critical thinking to expose the misleading techniques of science denial and build public resilience against misinformation.
• Get Bad News: Confers resistance against bad online information by putting players in the position of the people who create it.
• Go Viral: Infodemic game that teaches players how to spot coronavirus misinformation in 5 minutes. 

Publications/Journals

• Skeptical Inquirer: The Magazine for Science and Reason: A bimonthly magazine by the Center for Inquiry.
• Skeptic: A quarterly science education magazine by the Skeptics Society.
• The Skeptic: The UK’s longest-running publication offering skeptical analysis of pseudoscience, conspiracy theory and claims of the paranormal.

Online Courses

• The Great Courses: Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills with Steven Novella: Equips you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life.
• The Great Courses: Skepticism 101: How to Think Like a Scientist with Michael Shermer: Demonstrates how you can build a skeptical toolkit and apply this way of thinking to any claim or situation that arises.
• Coursera: Science Literacy from the University of Alberta: Teaches you about the process of science, how to think critically, how to differentiate science from pseudoscience, how indigenous wisdom can inform science, how to understand and design a scientific study, and how to critically evaluate scientific communication in the media. 
• Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data from the University of Washington: Professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West’s course on detecting and defusing bullshit. (Note: This course inspired their book of the same name.)
• Rationality: The one-and-only Steven Pinker general-education course explores logic, Bayesian reasoning, critical thinking, and more.
• Navigating Beliefs: A Learning Course for Rational Conversations: Not only have the inspirational folks at Street Epistemology figured out how to have difficult conversations, the’ve compiled what they’ve learned into a free course.

Documentaries

• Behind the Curve: Meet real Flat Earthers, a small but growing contingent of people who firmly believe in a conspiracy to suppress the truth that the Earth is flat.
• Merchants of Doubt: Inspired by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway’s book of the same name, this film traces the use of public relations tactics, originally developed by the tobacco industry, to forestall governmental regulations of their products. 
• Principles of Curiosity: By Brian Dunning and Skeptoid Media, this wonderful show offers a simple 3-step process to separate what’s real from what’s not.

For Kids

Are you a teacher or parent looking for fun and engaging educational content for kids?

• SciShow Kids: The team behind SciShow conducts experiments, researches new questions, and talks with experts to learn about the science-filled world around us. Ideal for early-elementary learners, Grades 1-3, and many episodes are structured around the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) curriculum.
• The Center for Inquiry has three wonderful programs: Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES), Generation Skeptics, and Science Saves.
• Critikid: Teaches kids the basics of critical thinking with lessons and activities.
• Critical Thinking Project: Former educator David Hundsness teaches aspects of critical thinking with game-like apps.
• The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True, by Richard Dawkins: In clear and accessible language, acclaimed evolutionary biologist and best-selling author Dr. Dawkins explains how science helped us figure out a wide range of natural phenomena.
• There’s No Such Thing as the Tooth Fairy, by Harriet Hall: Famed skeptic and retired US Air Force surgeon The SkepDoc’s illustrated story teaches young children how––not what––to think.
• The Magic Detectives: Join Them in Solving Strange Mysteries, by Joe Nickell: The world’s only full time, science-based paranormal investigator presents 30 “paranormal” investigations in the form of brief mystery stories for kids to solve. Included are suggestions for assignments and further reading.
• Strange but True: 10 of the world’s greatest mysteries explained, by Kathryn Hulick: Hulick explores 10 of the world’s great unsolved mysteries with the scientific method and critical thinking.
• Sasquatches from Outer Space: Exploring the Weirdest Mysteries Ever, by Tim Yule: An educator explores many famous strange and funny mysteries and teaches kids, through hands-on experiments, how to get to the bottom of these tall tales.
• Beyond Belief, by Dr. Ronald Crouch: A series of three books by a child psychologist that helps children learn critical thinking skills through a fun adventure story.
• Steve Trash Science: Is It Magic or Science?: Steve Trash teaches kids about science and ecology with fun and magic.
• Don’t Be Mean to 13, by Douglas Harris: Harris explains the historical roots of popular superstitions, such as the fear of Friday the 13th. Harris and his daughter have written several wonderful science and critical thinking books for kids.
• Bringing UFOs Down to Earth, by Philip J. Klass: The “Sherlock Holmes of UFOlogy,” is a fun book for kids, ages 9 and up. Klass emphasizes a healthy skepticism, critical thinking, and independent problem-solving as the best defense against unfounded and extraordinary claims.
• Dr. Huckleberry’s TRUE or MALARKEY? SUPERHUMAN ABILITIES: Game Book for Skeptical Folk, by psychologist Dr. Stephen Hupp: This fun family game teaches kids of all ages how to think about weird things.
• Think Like a Detective and Think Like a Scientist, by David Pakman: These two books teach students the basics of critical thinking and the process of science.

What do you think? Have you read/watched/listened to any of the resources, and if so, what do you think? Is one of your favorite resources not on the list? Please share in the comments!