Links and stuff for the 3-session course I offered in August, 2025, followed by links to resources I suggested in Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking, which I started running in November, 2025.
Session 1: Thinking Fast and Slow
- Kahneman’s Book – I don’t usually cite Wikipedia pages, but it’s a comprehensive summary. If you buy the book, which I recommend, you can find it used at all the usual places online.
- 2 modes of thinking – First video I showed
- Guardian Interview – Nicely edited and clearly stated
- Steve Forbes Interview – Complete interview from which I ripped an excerpt
Session 2: Logic, Evidence and Science
- Logical Reasoning Flowchart video – From Let’s Get Logical, which has lots of well done videos on all things logical.
- Evidence Pyramid video – From Medical College of Wisconsin’s Library
Session 3: Fallacies and Biases
- School of Thought – Non profit organization dedicated to promoting critical thinking, reason, and understanding. Lots of great resources, including critical thinking cards, online tests, and micro sites like yourlogicalfallacyis.com, and yourbias.is. All their stuff is under a creative commons license, so you can download and use it as long as you cite where it came from.
- Logically Fallacious – Bo Bennett’s book and website, which document over 300 logical fallacies.
- Cognitive Biases – Extensive list from The Decision Lab, which has lots of other good stuff.
- 31 Logical Fallacies in 8 Minutes – Jill Bearup’s sprint through a nice sampling of fallacies.
- 31 Cognitive Biases in 9 Minutes – Dr. Zack Hassan’s slightly less hectic tour of biases. Not sure why they both settled on 31…
Useful resources for applying critical thinking skills
Two exemplary blogs that apply critical thinking to public health
- Good Vibes and Science – Morgan McSweeney’s Substack, where he “summarizes important and interesting topics in science, health, and medicine.” He has a PhD in Immunology and Pharmaceutical Sciences from U of North Carolina, and he calmly and clearly applies critical thinking to debunk charlatans like RFK, Jr.
- Jessica Knurick’s Substack – Registered Dietician Nutritionist (RDN) with a PhD in Nutrition Science from Arizona State. “Navigate nutrition science, public health, and misinformation—with tools to think critically and make informed decisions.”
Fact-checking sites
- FactCheck.org – Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the U of PA
- Politifact.com – Maintained by the Poynter Institute, “a global nonprofit that strengthens democracy by improving the relevance, ethical practice and value of journalism.”
- Snopes.com – Independent organization started in 1994 to investigate urban legends and hoaxes.
Global news agencies
- Reuters – UK
- Associated Press (AP) – US
- Agence France-Presse (AFP) – France
- United Press International (UPI) – US
Nonprofit, nonpartisan, non-advocacy sources
- USAFacts.org – Founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “We turn public data into public knowledge. USAFacts exists to make government data easier to access and understand. We don’t tell you what to think. We give you what you need to make informed decisions.”
- Pew Research Center – “We generate a foundation of facts that enriches public dialogue and supports sound decision-making. We are nonprofit, nonpartisan and nonadvocacy. We value independence, objectivity, accuracy, rigor, humility, transparency and innovation.”
- News Literacy Project – Nonpartisan nonprofit Aimed at providing educational resources for teachers school districts, states, libraries, and community organizations.
Al Biles 