Humanism Now | Secular Ethics, Curiosity and Compassionate Change 52. Michael Marshall on Compassionate Skepticism: Empowering Critical Thinking, Beyond Being Right
“Being a skeptic doesn’t make me smarter or infallible—it just means I’m trying to fail slightly less often.”
Michael Marshall has spent more than 15 years investigating pseudoscience, conspiracy theories and the psychology that sustains them. As Project Director of the Good Thinking Society, President of the Merseyside Skeptics Society and Editor of The Skeptic, Marsh has gone undercover at flat-earth conventions, exposed fake psychics, and campaigned successfully to end NHS funding for homeopathy. In this conversation, he explores how “compassionate skepticism”, leading with empathy and curiosity rather than confrontation can help us counter misinformation and connect more deeply with one another.
Connect with Michael
Topics we cover
✔︎ Skepticism as practice, not a badge of superiority
✔︎ The ethics of “compassionate skepticism”
✔︎ How pseudoscience harms—and why empathy works better than ridicule
✔︎ What Flat Earth believers reveal about human psychology
✔︎ The legacy of QED and building communities grounded in reason
Resources & further reading
- The Skeptic – Marshall’s author archive: skeptic.org.uk/author/michael
- Wikipedia – Michael Marshall (skeptic)
- Skeptical Inquirer interview: “Marsh Interview”
- BBC News – “NHS homeopathy funding to end”: bbc.co.uk/news/health-43373817
- The Guardian – “The Universe is an Egg and the Moon Isn’t Real”: Read article
- PBS Independent Lens – Exposing
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Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.