I’ve been listening to the wonderful Calling Bull (well, actually, they don’t use “bull” but the whole word), course. I’ve had it on in the background as I work. There is a part of me that thinks that this should be required for everyone. It is a great reminder of logical fallacy and the importance of thinking clearly. 

What is Calling Bull?  Well, let’s take a look. 

Our learning objectives are straightforward. After taking the course, you should be able to:

• Remain vigilant for bull contaminating your information diet.
• Recognize said bull whenever and wherever you encounter it.
• Figure out for yourself precisely why a particular bit of bull is bull.
• Provide a statistician or fellow scientist with a technical explanation of why a claim is bull.
• Provide your crystals-and-homeopathy aunt or casually racist uncle with an accessible and persuasive explanation of why a claim is bull.

We will be astonished if these skills do not turn out to be among the most useful and most broadly applicable of those that you acquire during the course of your college education.

Now, the structure of the course is a pretty traditional college lecture class. I would love to see this reimagined as something a bit more entertaining. (To be clear, I’m enjoying the heck out of this just the way that it is. I just think that another delivery method would help with those less likely to seek out this kind of information). 

The course features two presenters who do a good job of handing off the lecture back and forth. There are lots of good, realistic, relatable examples. They discuss why identifying and calling BS is so important and crucial. 

I know a few people who regularly share BS stories “just in case it is true”. I’ve tried referring them to Snopes, but still they persist. These are good people who aren’t dumb. They just don’t realize how dangerous sharing some of these things are. 

Please check out the wonderful Calling Bull site. It is good exercise for those thought muscles that we all need to exercise once in a while.