William Poundstone is an American author, columnist, and
skeptic
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the ...
. He has written a number of books including the ''
Big Secrets
''Big Secrets'' is a series of books written by William Poundstone, and also the title of the series' first book.
History
In each book, Poundstone seeks to explore a number of mysteries, and reveal "the uncensored truth about all sorts of stuff ...
'' series and a biography of
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ext ...
.
Early life and education
Poundstone attended MIT and studied physics.
Personal life
An enthusiast of
Harry Stephen Keeler
Harry Stephen Keeler (November 3, 1890 – January 22, 1967) was a prolific but little-known American fiction writer, who developed a cult following for his eccentric mysteries. He also wrote science fiction.
Biography
Born in Chicago in 1 ...
, he maintains the
Keeler homepage and contributed to the anthology ''A to Izzard: A Harry Stephen Keeler Companion'' (2002).
He is a cousin of comedian
Paula Poundstone
Paula Poundstone (born December 29, 1959) is an American stand-up comedian, author, actor, interviewer, and commentator. Beginning in the late 1980s, she performed a series of one-hour HBO comedy specials. She provided backstage commentary durin ...
.
Bibliography
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* reprints ''Big Secrets'' and ''Biggest Secrets''
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* Released as ''How to Predict Everything'' in the UK
Descriptionarrow/scrollable preview.Also summarized in Poundstone's essay
"Math Says Humanity May Have Just 760 Years Left,"''Wall Street Journal'', updated June 27, 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
References
External links
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Fortune's Formula official siteWilliam Poundstone's talk at Skeptics Distinguished Lecture Series (Video)
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Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American columnists
American biographers
American information and reference writers
American skeptics
MIT Department of Physics alumni