Carlos Orsi

I learned a whole bunch

about astrology by reading Astrology, the Cosmic Science by Isabel Hickey, Nevermind by Isabel Hickey, Jay Hickey, and Amy Shapiro, and What Science Says About Astrology by Carlos Orsi.

Photos and video by Elena Eberwein and Raquel Zaldivar with the New England News Collaborative.

Fact-checking by Dania Suleiman.

Here we bring you selected articles from The Skeptic since its relaunch as an online news source in September 2020.

I'm Michael Marshall, editor of The Skeptic, and first up this week from March 2024, it's It's in Our DNA: The Clichés That Only Confuse the Public About Genetics and Essentialism, written by Carlos Orsi and read here by Mary-Ann Baker.

Linguistic prejudice is an ugly thing, but I have to confess that every time I hear someone, whether it's a person or a legal entity, use the cliché, such and such a quality is in our DNA, I go into the overdraft on my benefit of the doubt account.

I'll explain.

What is essential, if anything, is something we share with the rest of the biosphere.

The cliche of what is in the DNA is therefore not only a worn-out cliche but also an inept metaphor that miseducates by reinforcing the spurious link between genetics and essentialism.

From March 2024, that was Mary-Ann Baker reading Carlos Orsi's article, It's in our DNA: The cliches that only confuse the public about genetics and essentialism.

Next up this week from March 2022, it's The raw feeding fad can cause real harm to your pets and to you, written by Dani Chambers and Robyn Law.