Since my last missive, Donald Trump has been inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States, and I have returned from a trip to California. I leave it to you to judge which of these events is more important.

I had a wonderful visit to Los Angeles. I spent time with my dear friends Hank Schlinger, Alex Hybel, and their families, and I gave a talk at the Center for Inquiry West. At CFI West, I got to spend some time with the amazing Executive Director, James Underdown. It was quite a thrill.

My talk was entitled, “The Latest in Autism Claptrap,” and it is now available on YouTube. Among other things, I covered the immensely popular Telepathy Tapes podcast. See below. I enjoyed using the word claptrap in the title of the talk, but more importantly, it was an honor to give a presentation in CFI West’s Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Theater. Carl Sagan was the greatest inspiration for my interest in skepticism, and he remains a model of how to present science to the general public,

My latest article for Skeptical Inquirer, “Why I’m Not Sold on Mental Immunity,” may earn me

some blowback. Mental Immunity is a new theory of how we defend against misinformation and fake news, but in my opinion, it is not supported by evidence. The supporters of mental immunity theory are aimed at a noble goal, the rejection of misinformation, but I believe it is important to speak the truth. As of this moment, there is no evidence of a mental immunity system. I argue that the mental immunity theory is a metaphor in search of an anchor in reality. We shall see what others say.

I leave you with some pictures from my trip to California.

My friends Alex & Jan Hybel

Hank Schlinger is both a psychologist and a remarkably talented musician.

That’s it for now. Happy Spring.

SV