"The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit" by John V. Petrocelli

 

Publisher:  St. Martin's Press

Copyright:  2021

ISBN:  9781250271624

This book was quite informative, and well worth having to wait to get my hands on. The examples, and explanations for how people are fooled, and react when presented with even subtle forms of bullshit was very well done. I've always thought that I was pretty good at detecting false claims, and other misdirections, but this book opened my eyes to a number of things that I had never even considered.

Mr. Petrocelli dives the book into a  number of different sections such as the "Costs of Bullshit" in which he discusses price markups, wine tasting, and psychological testing.  "Why People Bullshit"  in which he discusses how you can detect their lies. He then gives the reader some examples of some rather famous Bullshit Artists such as Douglas Biklen, Donald Trump, and Deepak Chopra. Following this he takes on various common examples of bullshit such as TED Talks (some of which are quite valuable, but others which are ripe examples of bullshit), and more.

Throughout this book I was presented with lots of information that was very valuable, and I would seriously recommend this title to anybody who is interested in getting to the truth.

"Don't Swallow You Gum: Myths, half-truths, and out right lies about your body and health" by Dr. Aaron E. Carroll and Dr. Rachel C. Vreeman

Publishers: St. Martin’s Griffin

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 9780312533878

This is the second book of Dr. Carroll's I've reviewed. The first "Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully" was very good as well.

In this book he is joined by Dr. Rachel Vreeman, and it is a collection that reviews 62 health related myths about your body. It is separated into six sections entitled: Myths About Your Body, Myths About How We Contract and Treat Diseases, Myths About Sex and Pregnancy, Myths About Babies and Children, Myths About What We Eat and Drink, and finally Myths That Sparked Controversy and Debate.

The book itself is very well written and should be easy to understand for people of any educational background. Both the authors are practising paediatricians, and did extensive literature based research in working on this book. All of the 62 myths that are debunked are nice and short and to the point.

Some of the myths that are debunked include: only using 10% of your brain, ruining your eyesight if you read in the dark, you can beat a breathalyzer test, Cold and wet weather making you sick, a dogs mouth is cleaner than humans, flu shots can cause the flu, losing most of your body heat through your head, singles having better sex than marry people, not being able to get pregnant using the withdrawal method, prediction of gender, baby Einstein making your baby smarter, alcohol consumption by breast-feeding women, sugar making kids hyper, the good old five second rule, chewing gum is better than brushing your teeth, double dipping, poisoning and Hallowe'en candy, newer drugs are always better, and vaccines causing autism. All of which were debunked!

This book also has extensive citations, and references for those who want to check up and read more about the various subjects.

Highly recommended as a very good book, looking forward to reading Drs. Carroll and Vreeman's next book.