Benjamin Radford (born October 2, 1970) is an American writer, investigator, and skeptic. He has authored, coauthored or contributed to over twenty books and written over a thousand articles and columns on a wide variety of topics including urban legends, unexplained mysteries, the paranormal, critical thinking, mass hysteria, and media literacy. His book, Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Enchantment, was published in the summer of 2014 and is a scientific investigation of famous legends and folklore in the state of New Mexico. In 2016 Radford published Bad Clowns, a 2017 IPPY bronze award winner, and he is regarded as an expert on the bad clowns phenomenon.
Radford has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, The History Channel, the National Geographic Channel, the Learning Channel, CBC, BBC, ABC News, The New York Times, and many other outlets.
Radford characterizes himself as one of the world's few science-based paranormal investigators, and has done first-hand research into psychics, ghosts, exorcisms, miracles, Bigfoot, stigmata, lake monsters, UFO sightings, reincarnation, crop circles, and other topics. "I'm open-minded. I never said I don't believe ghosts exist. But I can say I've looked at the research that's been done, and I've done personal investigations. In each particular case there either is or isn't good, compelling evidence, and so far I haven't seen it."
He regularly speaks at universities and conferences across the country and internationally about his research, folklore and about science and skepticism. Radford's books and investigations have been incorporated into several college and university courses on critical thinking, including at Western Washington University and the University of New Mexico.
Radford is also a contributor to the website Snopes.com, where he has researched and written articles debunking fakelore and a variety of popular myths including The Amityville Horror, and the claim that humans only use 10% of their brains.
Early life Radford became interested in "the mysterious and the unexplained" as a child from reading books about, "monsters and dragons, the Bermuda Triangle, psychics in Russia that could move automobiles with their mind", etc. He also became interested through television shows such as That's Incredible and Ripley's Believe It or Not. He grew disenchanted with the lack of scientific rigor in the books and television shows because there seemed to be little or no investigation or proper references.
Radford's first encounter with formal skepticism came as a result of a fruitless search for beer in a "dry" county in Utah. Winning a regional essay contest while at the University of New Mexico, he was flown to present his paper at a college town in Utah. He and his colleagues came across a tiny used bookstore where he acquired an old issue of Skeptical Inquirer featuring an article on the prophesies of Nostradamus penned by none other than James Randi. He relates that this was the first article he'd read criticizing Nostradamus and offered "skeptical, logical, and reasonable explanations for the prophecies apparent accuracy".
Radford holds a bachelor's degree in psychology (graduating magna cum laude) with a minor in professional writing from the University of New Mexico where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society in 1993. He also has a master's degree in education from the University at Buffalo where his focus was on Science and the Public, and his masters thesis was titled Misinformation in Eating Disorder Communications: Implications for Science Communication Policy. Radford stated that he chose this topic because it "involved several of my longstanding interests such as myths and misinformation ... eating disorders (a subject I first became involved with when helping an ex-girlfriend struggle with bulimia); and the news media".
He graduated from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in 2022, earning a master's degree in Public Health. He was inducted into the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health, and was the recipient of a 2022 Social Justice Award from the Dartmouth Institute.
Career Journalism Radford served as managing editor of the science magazine Skeptical Inquirer from 1997 until early 2011, when he was promoted to deputy editor. He is also a regular columnist at the magazine. Until it suspended publication in 2009, he was editor-in-chief of the Spanish-language magazine Pensar, published in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Radford has been a regular columnist for Discovery News, LiveScience.com, and the Skeptical Briefs newsletter.
Radford is a co-founder and former co-host of MonsterTalk, a podcast, which critically examines the science and folklore behind cryptozoological (and legendary) creatures such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and werewolves. MonsterTalk won the 2012 Parsec podcast award for the “Best Fact Behind the Fiction” category.
Radford is a Research Fellow with the non-profit educational organization Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He presented at the American Folklore Society's annual conference on Folklore of the Chupacabra. in 2011 and 2024 He presented at several conferences of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research (San Antonio in 2015, Brussels 2018, Sheffield 2023 and Logan 2024)
Radford's writings also focus on topics related to women and minorities, particularly in South America and Africa. Through his books, articles, blogs, and podcasts he has raised awareness of many social problems that disproportionately affect women, including modern witchcraft in India, Nepal, and Pakistan; the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in 2014; acid attack victims in Pakistan; and sex trafficking.
Guy P. Harrison reviews Radford's 2016 book Bad Clowns saying, "Who knew naughty clowns could be so interesting?" Radford spends time on the "unfounded hype and hysteria" of stories of clowns in journalism including John Wayne Gacy and the Aurora Colorado shooter James Holmes.
Scientific paranormal investigator Described as a "professional skeptic", Radford works at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry investigating all manner of unusual claims and events. His work includes investigation, reporting, journalism, science literacy education, and public speaking.
Radford explains his approach by saying "I am not paid to doubt things; I am paid to promote science and investigate unusual claims. Our approach is empirical, evidence- and science-based. Science has proven itself incredibly successful in explaining and finding out about the world. If we wish to know why a certain disease strikes one person and not another, we turn to medicine instead of a witch doctor. If we wish to know how to build a bridge that can span a river, we turn to physics instead of psychics. Paranormal or “unexplained” topics are testable by science: either a psychic's prediction comes true or it doesn't; either ghosts exist in the real world or they don't. My job is not to doubt, nor debunk; it is to investigate. I have no vested interest in proving or disproving any unexplained phenomena; I get paid the same either way. But the cardinal rule is that an investigator must eliminate all the natural explanations before accepting supernatural ones, and must use sound science."
When asked "Have you ever been stumped by a mysterious claim?" Radford responded, "No". He responded more fully that there are times with some claims there isn't enough information or the information given to him wasn't correct. Radford compares these investigations to a crime scene investigating where there exists "a positive correlation between the quality of the available evidence and solving the mystery". Radford states he has a "high bar for what I am willing to concede is 'unexplained' or truly mysterious".
Paranormal researcher Brian D. Parsons in a review for Investigating Ghosts, praised the book, stating, "Radford is not saying ghosts do not exist. He's merely explaining and demonstrating that ghost researchers have been going about things wrong for a very long time".
Awards As of 2023 Radford has been a finalist or winner of eight book awards. Book Awards Year Award From Title 2011 Finalist New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore 2011 Finalist Foreword Reviews Book of the Year award Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore 2012 Finalist New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries 2014 Winner Southwest Book Award Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Enchantment 2017 Bronze Independent Publisher Book Awards Bad Clowns 2018 Winner, Science Category New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits 2021 Finalist, Nonfiction General New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards Big-If True: Adventures in Oddity 2023 Winner, Politics/Current Events New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards America the Fearful: Media and the Marketing of National Panic
Squaring the Strange In April 2017 Radford and Pascual Romero launched the Squaring the Strange podcast with evidence-based analysis and commentary on a variety of topics ranging from the paranormal to the political. Frequent contributor and content producer Celestia Ward was later added as a cohost. The podcast features discussions on a wide variety of subjects including psychology, myths, hoaxes, folklore, and science. It has featured Radford's detailed analysis of the Blue Whale Challenge scare and his passionate criticism of the History Channel's Amelia Earhart documentary and its discredited photographic evidence.
Investigations
Over the years, Radford published the results of investigations on a variety of phenomena deemed strange or paranormal.
Psychic detectives Radford has researched and conducted investigations into claims made by psychics for over 20 years, concentrating on psychic detectives. Examples include John Edward, Sylvia Browne, Theresa Caputo, Noreen Renier, Brian Ladd, Allison DuBois, Pamela Ragland, Nancy Weber and Jane Duperow He has also researched both historic and contemporaneous missing persons cases to determine whether the victims were recovered through psychic means. He has also researched both historic and contemporaneous missing persons cases to determine whether the victims were recovered through psychic means. Examples include Laci Peterson, Nicola Bulley, Elizabeth Smart, Holly Bobo, Natalee Holloway, Osama bin Laden, Harley Dilly, Harsha Maddula, Lisa Stebic, Madeleine McCann, Ada Wasson and Mary Ellen Walters.
In 2010, in the wake of a devastating earthquake in Haiti, Radford issued a public plea for psychics to aid in finding missing victims, calling out several practitioners who claimed to have helped on missing person cases. None responded or helped.
From his investigations, Radford concluded that in virtually every case the missing person was found either by police and searchers, or random passersby, without assistance from specific information provided by psychics. In many cases, after a person or body is recovered through ordinary means, psychics will reframe some of their earlier vague clues and predictions to make them appear accurate and relevant.
Chase Vault coffins (2017-2019) Radford investigated 19th century reports of coffins that moved by themselves at the Chase Vault in the Barbados town of Oistins. He was able to determine the brick vault walls didn't show any of the damage would be expected from the movement of lead-lined coffins; there were also sourcing issues with the main testimony. Radford connected the legend with other similar stories in the region, showing the Chase Vault coffin tale is probably an adaptation of a story that has its point of origin elsewhere.
Dyatlov Pass deaths (2014)