Pseudoscience: An Amusing History of Crackpot Ideas and Why We Love Them by Lydia Kang, MD & Nate Pederson

Myths and legends. The unexplained. The macabre. The paranormal. These are all subjects that I like to read about. This book by Lydia Yang, MD and Nate Pederson looks at an assortment of strange and unusual phenomena and attempts to disprove it through scientific fact. Your usual suspects are explored here: UFOs, ghosts, cryptids and the Bermuda Triangle. Then you have your lesser known unsolved mysteries like spontaneous combustion and ley lines. Then you have things that even a lifelong lover of all things this side of Ripley's Believe It Or Not have never encountered such as the all but forgotten 20th century school of thought/cult of Lawsonism.

For the most part the writers are fair and even a touch open minded. Right off the bat, they promise to not disprove any mainstream religions. Things like Atlantis could be real and while the authors destroy the concept of astrology based on the fact that Pluto is no longer a major planet in our solar system, they admit to sometimes reading their horoscopes because 'its fun.'

One subject that I felt did show a bias was the chapter on climate deniers. Personally, I agree that something is wonky with our weather. But I don't blame it solely on the human race. I really think something is off with our planet's axis because I don't remember it still being sunlight at 9:30pm during the summer when I was a kid. Yet, while the authors expressed hopes that maybe there really is a Loch Ness Monster, they both seem to close the door on any other explanation to climate change than it's all because of fossil fuels and deforestation. I agree that has something to do with it. But I feel like there's an unspoken element out there that is also contributing to climate change and that it's being kept hush-hush.

The authors have a pair of similar books that I actually have been wanting to read for some time now. After reading this 2025 book, I am still open to getting those sister volumes. There is a light-hearted element to (most of) this book. Mostly, it's relegated to the captions for the photos and some were really funny. I liked how the majority of the chapters details events and happenings as factual before going back and tearing down the subject matter with a scientific approach. It helps to give this book a very open minded feel to it because who knows, maybe one day we will be visited by aliens flying around in a flying saucer. It's doubtful. But it's not a concept that has been 100% disproven yet.

If only the authors had kept this approach to every chapter. I wouldn't have felt like I was tricked into a promise of scientific exploration of the unknown and wound up attending a very fierce-toned TED talk on climate change.

Ripley's Believe It or Not!: Great and Strange Works of Man

I think my love of the great and strange came to me honestly. My mother and her father were big fans of Ripley's Believe It or Not. I remember my grandfather had an entire series of the Ripley's paperbacks that reprinted decades of odd and macabre strips to the general populace. Then there was the TV series on ABC hosted by the great Jack Palance. It was a documentary series that often scared the pants off me... in a good way.

The comic strip has been running strong for over 105 years. It's been nearly 65 years since creator Robert Ripley died and newspapers worldwide are still running accounts of unusual people, freaky coincidences and brain teasers that defy explanation. And let's not forget those Ripley's museums and aquariums. Those can be some fun places to spend a day exploring the world of the unknown.

This 1992 paperback was released as part of a series of anthologies honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of franchise founder, Ripley. However, Mr. Ripley was actually born in 1890! Though, I guess such oversights are allowed. Thanks to Ripley's 1929 strip that confirmed at the time that America had no official National Anthem, a campaign championed by John Philip Sousa helped correct that oversight through a 1931 act of Congress finally making the Star-Spangled Banner our nation's official song thanks to President Hoover's signature. But that all sounds so much like Robert Ripley. To him, the journey to knowledge was more important that the facts, as bizarre as they might be. 

This TOR paperback focuses on the varying creations of man. From colossal statues made of solid pieces of marble to microscopic works that fit on a grain of rice, there's virtually no limit as to the imagination of the human race. 'Great and Strange Works of Man' wasn't my favorite collection of strips. It wasn't because a bunch of these cartoons came about after Ripley died. Instead, I was sickened by how much wasted wealth and resources went into making these monuments of pride and gluttony. 

For example, towards the end of the book, there's mention of a 300lb solid gold bath tub in the shape of a phoenix which wealthy bathers can use in a hotel in Japan. Based on the price of gold today (June 30, 2024), that bath tub is worth over $8.3 million dollars. Could you imagine how much that precious metal could be used to help Japan's homeless population instead of being used so the ultra-wealthy was stew in their own bubbly filth? Maybe 15 or 20 years ago, such facts about opulence might enthrall me. Instead, as a public school teacher married to a social worker, I see how much so many struggle with so little in today's world and it's off-putting.

Does this book swear me off seeking out other Ripley's material? Not in the least. There were 5 other books in the centennial series of paperbacks. I think I'd be more open to reading about prehistoric creatures, odd places or those strange coincidences than giving this book on excess a permanent home in my comic book and graphic novel collection.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.