The least-used app on my phone is “phone.” The diverse functionality of the smartphone—texting, talking, video streaming, gaming, social networking—has changed the way we work, play, and communicate. I still wonder if Steve Jobs, when he introduced the iPhone at the Macworld San Francisco Keynote Address in 2007, anticipated the influence Apple’s revolutionary creation would have on human behavior. He probably did. Just fifteen years after its release, numerous copycat devices have made the smartphone nearly ubiquitous.

• The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science book: https://www.nbtiller.com
• Skeptical Inquirer magazine: https://www.skepticalinquirer.org
• Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/the-physical-toll-of-your-smartphone-addiction/

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All doctrines have demons, some more literal than others. What I mean by this is that ideologies tend to endure because they’ve a common antagonist against whom proponents can rally. For example, the Abrahamic religions brandish the Devil; politicians demonize members and policies of the opposing party; athletes and supporters unite against an opposing sports team; homeopaths fuel fear of “big pharma”; and proponents of the keto diet denounce carbohydrates, or “big carb,” for their role in diabetes, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease. In the world of barefoot running, it’s the modern sneaker industry, condemned for supplying generations of runners with highly cushioned soles that have weakened their leg muscles, collapsed the arches of their feet, and predisposed them to high rates of injury.

• The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science book: https://www.nbtiller.com
• Skeptical Inquirer magazine: https://www.skepticalinquirer.org
• Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/barefoot-running-conspiracies-and-controversies/

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Health and wellness scams have endured the ages by exploiting (1) scientific naiveté and (2) our innate desire for simple solutions to complex problems. The Mesopotamians made substantial contributions to science and technology. They were the first to use irrigation in agriculture, the first to forge tools from bronze and iron, and the first to use looms to weave cloth from wool. But despite these accomplishments, they were known to treat illnesses by offering amulets and incantations to the gods and evil spirits that they believed inflicted disease in retribution for the “sins of mankind.”

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• Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/health-wellness-and-the-quick-fix-fallacy/

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The media backlash was swift and severe. More severe, in fact, than if an Olympic athlete had tested positive for a banned substance. For years, Brian Johnson—a.k.a. The Liver King—has marketed his brand on the core values of primal living founded on his self-derived “Ancestral Tenets.” Primarily through viral social media coverage, Johnson purportedly made more than $100 million per year. But leaked emails recently revealed that his astounding physique wasn’t due to his diet of raw animal organs and powerful supplements, as he claimed, but instead his extensive use of anabolic steroids.

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• Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/the-liver-king-lies-and-logical-fallacies/

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In terms of medical knowledge, the ancient world was primitive by modern standards. It had no germ theory to prevent the spread of disease, no anesthetics to pacify patients before surgery, and no evidence-based medicine to counteract the belief that “humors”—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—influenced the body and its emotions. The ancients were also highly superstitious: Greeks and Romans would drink the blood of fallen gladiators, believing it to confer strength and vitality and that it was a cure for epilepsy.

• The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science book: https://www.nbtiller.com
• Skeptical Inquirer magazine: https://www.skepticalinquirer.org
• Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/the-backward-world-of-retro-walking/

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Earlier this year, the world’s most successful male tennis player, Novak Djokovic, was deported from Australia—not for misconduct on the court or for doping, but for violating Australia’s border policy that mandated COVID-19 vaccinations.1 Djokovic is one of many professional athletes who have refused the vaccine, a list that includes Czech tennis player Renata Voráčová; NBA players Kyrie Irving and Jonathan Isaac; American golfer Bryson DeChambeau; and professional footballers Aaron Rodgers, Cole Beasley, Vernon Butler, and Star Lotulelei.

• The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science book: https://www.nbtiller.com
• Skeptical Inquirer magazine: https://www.skepticalinquirer.org
• Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/is-sport-a-breeding-ground-for-pseudoscience/

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If my recent work as a health and wellness skeptic could be distilled into a single message, it would be this: Marketing companies understand our biases better than we do. In a commercialist culture, saturated by big business and bad science, I believe this to be a fundamental lesson in determining objective truths and making sound judgments.

• The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science book: https://www.nbtiller.com
• Skeptical Inquirer magazine: https://www.skepticalinquirer.org
• Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/ten-health-and-wellness-fallacies-every-skeptic-should-know/

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The luminous greens, oranges, and blues immediately draw the eye. Particularly when tracing the contours of athletic shoulders and thighs. Of course, that is the point—to be conspicuous and identifiable wherever it’s used.

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• Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/kinesio-tape-a-magnificent-marketing-machine/

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He is one of the most talented and recognizable athletes on earth. He is also one of the most well paid, earning £25 m ($30 m) per year playing soccer for Manchester United. Yet by endorsing an array of brands and businesses, including Coca-Cola, LiveScore, Free Fire, Nike, Herbalife Nutrition, and Tag Heuer, on his Instagram account, Christiano Ronaldo nearly doubles his soccer salary. With approximately 460 million followers, he is Instagram’s most influential celebrity—more popular than Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Taylor Swift.

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• Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/social-media-fitness-influencers-from-pseudoscience-to-psychopathology/

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When the ancestors of modern reptiles emerged from the water and committed to air breathing, they triggered an approximate .300-million-year evolutionary journey that led us to the wonderfully complex network of tubes, membranes, and muscles we presently call the human respiratory system (West, Watson, and Fu 2007). Its primary purpose: the movement of oxygen (O2) from the air we breathe into our blood and then carbon dioxide (CO2) in the opposite direction. Under normal conditions, human respiratory machinery is considered “overbuilt” for the demands typically placed upon it (Dempsey, La Gerche, and Hull 2020).

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• Skeptical Inquirer magazine: https://www.skepticalinquirer.org
• Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/when-medicines-go-rogue-part-2-oxygen/

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