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Dr. Phil,

As a T.V. psychologist, your oft-repeated advice to viewers is “get real.” But the content of your Jan. 10 show was anything but. Instead of taking your own advice, you gave an uncritical platform to phony ‘psychics’ who abuse people’s emotions in order to fool them.

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About a decade and a half ago, I spent roughly 16 percent of my childhood in Shanghai, China, while my father worked in the leather industry. I would easily recommend that anyone go and see China; for a young foreigner like myself it was quite literally another world and very conceptually broadening. Now in my early 20’s and embarking on what I assume will be a skeptical/scientific journey that will occupy the rest of my life, I had the idea to use my frequent trips to China (to visit my father) to gain insight into what many skeptics surely think is the origin of a multitude of pseudoscientific beliefs, specifically doubtful medical beliefs.

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Next week, James Randi returns to the famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. He will be continuing his conversation with magician Max Maven about his remarkable life and work, and he may even share a trick or two. Randi's last appearance at the Castle was standing room only, and this Monday evening's will surely be one of the most well-attended events in the Magic Castle's storied history. The James Randi Educational Foundation is proud to be a co-sponsor.

You can watch part one of Max and Randi's conversation below, and be sure to keep an eye on Randi.org for video of part two very soon.

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[Editor's Note: This is the first in a three part 2011 Year In Review. Watch for the next two installments on the following two Wednesdays.]

With the end of the year we must mark the passing of many personalities that shape skepticism.  The year 2010 was overshadowed by the passing of Martin Gardner, and in 2011 the person most talked about is certainly Christopher Hitchens.  Many tributes to him have been posted across the skeptic and atheist blogosphere, with more no doubt to come.  

But as I research skeptic history I think it is important we also pay attention to the other lesser-known personalities that help shape both the skeptic community as well as our cultural competitors, who we lost in 2011.  These people helped shape what we know as skepticism.

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Watch this incredible talk on neuroscience and consciousness by JREF Senior Fellow Steven Novella, M.D. at The Amaz!ng Meeting 6, new on the JREF's Youtube channel. Stay tuned to Randi.org for more videos from previous TAMs, provided free by the JREF.

  1. Combing the Fringe: Barack Obama vs. the Martians
  2. Last Week at Science-Based Medicine
  3. James Randi Visits the Porchlight Storytelling Series
  4. The Randi Show: Psychic Charlatans