This issue is a two-fer. Two papers from the site.
What Is a Healthy Skeptic
This paper explains the foundations of healthy skepticism. You do not need it to read anything else on the site, but everything here rests on it, and it is where the name for readers of this newsletter comes from.
Two careful people read the same study and reach opposite conclusions. Neither has misread it. How is that possible? The paper answers that, with a vaccine argument, a drug advertisement, a tax audit, and a jury as the test cases.
What Is a Healthy Skeptic (PDF, 4 pages)
Is Nicotine Good for You?
The second paper is a case study, the kind this newsletter said it would take up: a claim in circulation, worked through. Nicotine pouches are being sold as a focus aid, a brain protector, and a safer habit, with a Stanford neuroscientist and a well-known investor among the promoters. “Nicotine is good for you” turns out to be four claims, and each of them has a true fact under it. The paper takes them one at a time and shows where the step from the fact to “good for you” goes wrong. Four of the six faults, in one product.
Is Nicotine Good for You? (PDF, 5 pages)