Weird Earth, Donald R. Prothero
Weird Earth, Donald R. Prothero
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Weird Earth
Debunking Strange Ideas about Our Planet

Author: Donald R. Prothero

Narrator: Neil Hellegers

Unabridged: 8 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/01/2020

Synopsis

Aliens. Ley lines. Water dowsing. Conspiracies and myths captivate imaginations and promise mystery and magic. Whether it's arguing about the moon landing hoax or a Frisbee-like Earth drifting through space, when held up to science and critical thinking, these ideas fall flat.

In Weird Earth: Debunking Strange Ideas About Our Planet, Donald R. Prothero demystifies these conspiracies and offers answers to some of humanity's most outlandish questions. Applying his extensive scientific knowledge, Prothero corrects misinformation that con artists and quacks use to hoodwink others about geology—hollow earth, expanding earth, and bizarre earthquakes—and mystical and paranormal happenings—healing crystals, alien landings, and the gates of hell. By deconstructing wild claims such as prophesies of imminent natural disasters, Prothero provides a way for everyone to recognize dubious assertions. Prothero answers these claims with facts, offering historical and scientific context in a lighthearted manner that is accessible to everyone, no matter their background.

With a careful layering of evidence in geology, archaeology, and biblical and historical records, Prothero's Weird Earth examines each conspiracy and myth and leaves no question unanswered.

About Donald R. Prothero

Donald R. Prothero is a research associate in vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He has taught college geology and paleontology for forty years at institutions such as Columbia University, Vassar College, Knox College, and Pierce College, and currently at Cal Poly Pomona. For twenty-seven years, he was professor of geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles and lecturer in geobiology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He earned his MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees in geological sciences from Columbia University. He is the author of over 300 scientific papers published in leading journals and over thirty titles in geology, paleontology, and evolutionary biology.

Reviews

Goodreads review by John on April 21, 2021

Reviewed for Foreword Books INDIES Awards. First of all, when you're writing a book about debunking pseudoscience, you might want to avoid quoting "renowned scholar" Paracelsus. Second, this "purple-haired weirdo" doesn't appreciate being lumped in with the crystal believers--in fact, I bet if the au......more

Goodreads review by The Inquisitive Biologist on September 21, 2021

Weird Earth is an entertaining slaying of geological fringe ideas that educates the reader on the actual evidence and how we gather it. See my full review at [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Prooost on January 13, 2022

We come into the world with whatever basic genetic equipment we have, and we're immediately beset with what comes in through our senses. We're born into a set of circumstances, for better or worse. Perhaps our parents take us to church; we go to school one place or another. In addition, as we grow u......more

Goodreads review by Vasilis on November 05, 2020

Overall good but there are two mistakes. In the chapter for the Hollow earth the author says: "A similar idea was pushed by “Dr. Raymond Bernard” in his 1964 book, The Hollow Earth. He claimed that flying saucers and UFOs emerge from the earth’s interior and that Atlantis is connected to the earth’s......more

Goodreads review by Fatima on August 23, 2023

Having just read a lengthy book arguing the case for a creator, it's a bit jarring to return to the scientific adage of: evolution explains all and we're just a bunch of atoms whizzing on a planet of atoms with zilch purpose. The author's extremely sarcastic tone in the book is off putting and while......more

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