“A tour de force . . . [Storr’s] dogged approach to nailing many of the most celebrated skeptics in lies and misrepresentations is welcome.” —Salon Why, that is, did the obviously intelligent man beside him sincerely believe in Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden and a six-thousand-year-old Earth, in spite of the evidence against them? It was the start of a journey that would lead Storr all over the world—from Texas to Warsaw to the Outer Hebrides—meeting an extraordinary cast of modern heretics whom he tries his best to understand. Storr tours Holocaust sites with famed denier David Irving and a band of neo-Nazis, experiences his own murder during “past life regression” hypnosis, discusses the looming One World Government with an iconic climate skeptic, and investigates the tragic life and death of a woman who believed her parents were high priests in a baby-eating cult. Using a unique mix of highly personal memoir, investigative journalism, and the latest research from neuroscience and experimental psychology, Storr reveals how the stories we tell ourselves about the world invisibly shape our beliefs, and how the neurological “hero maker” inside us all can so easily lead to self-deception, toxic partisanship and science denial. “The subtle brilliance of The Unpersuadables is Mr. Storr’s style of letting his subjects hang themselves with their own words.” —The Wall Street Journal “Throws new and salutary light on all our conceits and beliefs. Very valuable, and a great read to boot, this is investigative journalism of the highest order.” —The Independent, Book of the Week

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The town of Devil was hosting a talk by John Mackay, an Australian who had traveled far to give the audience his book The Bible, which was filled with visions, violence, and lore. The audience was asked to choose between Darwin and God. #2 The town of Gympie, Australia, is named after a local tree called the gympie-gympie. It is a place of early closing and close community. The locals know the town as Gympie, an Aboriginal word meaning Devil. #3 John Mackay, a Christian evangelist, has come to north Australia to give a talk on the obsession that has run through his life like a burning wick: evolution and all the reasons it is wrong. To accept evolution is to call the entire Bible a lie. #4 The Gympie Christian church is a small, local congregation that believes in creationism. When I attended their meeting, I was presented with a six-thousand-year-old news report about the world being perfect and without pain or struggle until Eve ate the apple with Adam.

The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain responds to storytelling Stories shape who we are. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions and mold our beliefs. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human. So, how do master storytellers compel us? In The Science of Storytelling, award-winning writer and acclaimed teacher of creative writing Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can write better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers—and also our brains—create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change. Will Storr’s superbly chosen examples range from Harry Potter to Jane Austen to Alice Walker, Greek drama to Russian novels to Native American folk tales, King Lear to Breaking Bad to children’s stories. With sections such as “The Dramatic Question,” “Creating a World,” and “Plot, Endings, and Meaning,” as well as a practical, step-by-step appendix dedicated to “The Sacred Flaw Approach,” The Science of Storytelling reveals just what makes stories work, placing it alongside such creative writing classics as John Yorke’s Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey into Story and Lajos Egri’s The Art of Dramatic Writing. Enlightening and empowering, The Science of Storytelling is destined to become an invaluable resource for writers of all stripes, whether novelist, screenwriter, playwright, or writer of creative or traditional nonfiction.

While excavating fossils in the tropics of Australia with a celebrity creationist, Will Storr asked himself a simple question. Why don't facts work?

Media Literacy teaches readers how to navigate through the overwhelming flood of information found in today’s media-saturated world. Drawing from thousands of media research studies, author W. James Potter explores the key components to understanding the fascinating world of mass media. Potter presents numerous examples and facts to help readers understand how the media operate, how they attract attention, and how they influence the public. The Ninth Edition has been thoroughly updated to evolve with the ever-changing media landscape and features a new chapter on fake news, debating what we as news consumers can do to recognize fake news in order to avoid its influence. Each chapter concludes with a set of exercises to help readers apply the chapter material to everyday life and engage in a step-by-step process to increase their own media literacy.

Help students discern fact from fiction in the information they access not only at school but in the devices they carry in their pockets and backpacks. The advent of the 24-hour news cycle, citizen journalism and an increased reliance on social media as a trusted news source have had a profound effect not only on how we get our news, but also on how we evaluate sources of information, share that information and interact with others in online communities. When these issues are coupled with the “fake news” industry that intentionally spreads false stories designed to go viral, educators are left facing a new and challenging landscape. This book will help them address these new realities, providing strategies and support to help students develop the skills needed to effectively evaluate information they encounter online. The book includes: • Instructional strategies for combating fake news, including models for evaluating news stories with links to resources on how to include lessons on fake news in your curricula. • Examples from prominent educators who demonstrate how to tackle fake news with students and colleagues. • A fake news self-assessment with a digital component to help readers evaluate their skills in detecting and managing fake news. • A downloadable infographic with mobile media literacy tips. The companion jump start guide based on this book is Fighting Fake News: Tools and Strategies for Teaching Media Literacy.

"In The Joy of Science, Jim Al-Khalili presents eight lessons that serve as a guide to thinking and living life a little more scientifically. It is a gentle entrâee to the conceptual core of what science is and the spirit of how it is practiced, which will help any reader understand how to live a more rational life and benefit from doing so. The book will connect the lay public with what science fundamentally is - not knowledge per se, but rather a way of thinking, which gives us the power to turn encounters with the unknown into greater insights into the true nature of reality. In an engaging, conversational tone, and writing from the perspective of a practitioner of science, Al- Khalili invites readers to engage with the world in a new way and to think as scientists are trained to do about unsolved mysteries; the nature of truth, uncertainty, and the role of doubt; the value and dangers of simplification; the challenges of complexity or too little information; the importance of evidence-based thinking; the value of guarding against bias (in oneself and others); the importance of being able to change one's mind, and more. By the end, the reader will come away with a clear sense of how the ideas at the heart of the scientific method are deeply relevant to our current times, lives, and personal decision making. Knowing how to think and live more scientifically can make our all of our lives better, and this short book gives non-specialists a welcoming introduction to this knowledge, sharing 'the joy' that science can bring."--