Honestly, I really wanted to like <i>Quack Quack</i> far more than I actually did. This thing is, addressing the problems of pseudoscience and how they impact the people in this world negatively is an important topic to discuss and one that I would love to see more people become aware of. I don’t know that this book truly addresses it, though.

<i>Quack Quack</i> honestly feels like one of those books that exists merely to feed the egos of those who recognize this so called “quackery” already. It’s not going to appeal to those who have fallen for it from time to time nor will it do anything for those who are deeply entrenched in the nonsense. People like that mostly likely aren’t going to pick this book up and if by some chance they ever did, they’d immediately put it back down for how patronizing it is. And then, for those of us who already recognize this issue and want to do something about it—the book doesn’t really do anything to put forth an understanding of how we can address this problem in any meaningful way.

Instead, we simply follow Dr. Joe Schwarcz as he tries out one various concerning pseudoscientific remedy after another, debunking them—more or less—along the way. He calls out the problematic sorts who push these false remedies solely to profit off the gullible, which is good to do, but I don’t think it has the impact it should.

Maybe I am expecting too much from a book like this?

I’m not sure.

The narrator did a decent job, I suppose. I didn’t really have any problem with him, perse, but I did get rather tired of his voice after a while. Not sure if that was related to his voice insomuch as it was really just my frustration with the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for access to the audiobook of Quack Quack: The Threat of Pseudoscience by Dr. Joe Schwartz in exchange for an honest review.

Boy oh boy does this man love the words "charlatans" and "hucksters".

As an eating disorder therapist, I am constantly aware of the rampant problem of pseudoscience, particularly when it comes to health and wellness information. So I was excited to see this title available on NetGalley for me to review and potentially recommend to my clients as a resource for recognizing the pseudoscientific assertions that are working against their recovery efforts.

Unfortunately, in execution, this book fell flat. Schwartz does very little other than call attention to anecdotal evidence of very clearly incorrect pseudoscience. He does next to nothing in terms of analysis, he doesn't discuss the research about the mental and psychological toll that believing pseudoscientific claims can have on people, He also doesn't touch on how sneaky and manipulative some of these assertions are, how to identify such sneaky pseudoscience, and he doesn't address the role of capitalism in perpetuating such myths.

Overall, this book got veeerryyyyy repetitive and didn't provide the kind of in-depth examination of pseudoscience that I was looking for.

As long as illness has afflicted people there have been people trying to take advantage and sell a variety of fake and ineffective cures to those illnesses. This book goes over the long history of these and other so called wellness tools. It covers a large variety of fake cures and pseudoscience (including but not limited to acupressure, alkaline water, homeopathy, snake oil cures, and a myriad of supposed cures for cancer and other illnesses) and breaks down what is wrong with them and why they shouldn’t and don’t work.

I absolutely loved this book. The author covers a large amount of things that are well known but also more obscure topics. He goes into the history of all of the “remedies”, why the people promoting them claim they work, and why they in fact don’t. The author lays out ways he has tested some of the objects and theories tested in the book. He goes into the science behind each topic but does so without making things too hard to understand for the common reader. I liked that many of the more well know topics were covered and I loved reading about the more obscure topics that I hadn’t heard about before I read this book.

I listened to the audiobook version of this and i recommend that version of you can listen to it. The narrator had a very engaging way of speaking that really kept my interest over the course of the book.

I haven’t read anything else written by the author but if the other books he has written are anything like this I can’t wait to read them. Highly recommend this for nonfiction readers and fans of science of all ages.

Quack Quack: The Threat of Pseudoscience is a collection of short and lighthearted essays written by Dr Joe Schwarcz (an author and professor with a PhD in chemistry). This book debunks many different manipulative products and theories people are profiting off in the name of “science.”

Before even starting this book I was a huge skeptic when it came to any of these remedies and concepts. Maybe it’s because of my medical background, maybe it’s because I don’t believe in things like ghosts or the supernatural, I’m not really sure. But because of this, it felt like beating a dead horse - he didn’t have to convince me. I do see the need/interest for a book like this though, as I have many friends who’ve tried some of the more popular products like ear candles, alkaline water, detoxes and crystals. So there definitely are people buying these products.

I listened to this as an audiobook provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The narrator, Jonathan Yen, did an exceptional job. His voice definitely pulls you in and makes you want to keep listening.

I feel I would’ve enjoyed this book more if I had a hard copy instead and could read it at my leisure. It would be a good coffee table book, or need I say bathroom book, due to the quick chapters that each have their own focus. It felt a bit long to me and I had to work to get through it. But don’t worry Dr Schwarcz, I won’t buy any raw water.

Long before there were infomercials that try to convince us that their products will work with various heath issues, there were medicine shows. These shows, wagons would travel from town to town hawking tonics and elixirs promising to cure everything from warts to serious illnesses. Interesting factoid: Harry Houdini, before he became the famous magician, actually hawked these pseudo cures. The one thing both these ways of selling have in common is that there was no scientific evidence to back them up. Of course, in the past, little was known, but now due diligence is possible and if there is any scientific evidence it can easily be found online. These money making so called cures bank on the naiveness and desperation of people.

The author takes us from the old medicine shows, the Kellogg health sanitarium in Kalamazoo to modern day scams, such as alkaline water. He tries put some of the modern products and one by one debunks their claims. Informative and well done, this is an interesting look at how these products are marketed and how they fool so many.

The narration by Jonathan Wen was very good and clear.

An interesting and well researched audiobook about pseudo scienze, called quackery. I appreciated the humour and the clarity of th explanations.
The narrator did a good job.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thanks to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for the audiobook ARC!

Dr Joe Schwarcz doesn't hold back in this fairly exhaustive review of quack medicine. Though his scathing criticisms are cut somewhat with corny humor, which softens the blow a little, Schwarcz leaves no doubt as to where he stands on the issue of junk science. Some very interesting anecdotes here!

An interesting audiobook and well narrated, some excellent examples of quakery from back in the day to today. For anyone interesting in learning about some of these dogy snake-oils and cure-alls, this could be for you. But beware, they come at you think and fast!! Nice one :))

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for the audio version of this book. Everything I I write is of my own personal feelings and opinions.

I absolutely love and adore this book! The author debunks so many quack quack medical and other theories. I had several laugh out loud moments with this book.

I really enjoyed this audiobook! As a person who works in the science field it was a great book to inform myself on the issues with psuedo-science. The book was very well structured and I learned a lot from this book.

Quack Quack: The Threat of Pseudoscience discusses various conspiracies and misinformation, especially in the medical field. Dr Joe Schwarcz focuses on the deluge of anecdotes, cherry-picked data, pseudoscientific nonsense, and seductive baseless health claims that undermine efforts to educate the public about evidence-based science. The wide scope of the topics drawn from past and present aims to cast a life preserver to people drowning in a sea of misinformation.

Quack Quack is a very interesting read. It is an anthology debunking pseudoscientific health claims that can lead to serious harm. I can recommend this book to anyone who loves a scientific-based approach.

The narrator of the audiobook has a good voice and was pleasant to listen to.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

This is a fun and educational guided tour by a 'skeptical inquirer' cast from the same mold as James Randi or Joe Nickell. The author actually lies on the bed of nails, buys the purported miracle device, and tells us what it actually is and isn't. I doubt if anything here would convert anyone, it feels more like laughing at the snake oil salesmen with him. Schwarcz generally brings in as much history as possible, which I like, and definitely brings in the starts of quackery, such as and border blaster pioneer. He also brings in newer things I have been curious about, like these alkaline water storefronts I see popping up as well as the Omega XL I see advertised on late-night TV. (1/40 the fish oil found to be efficacious and a lot of green-lipped mussel extract with unverified claims.) I like that he admits non-mainstream claims can become future medical fact, such as the bacterium helicobacter pylori is one of the major causative factors of peptic ulcer disease -- more so than stress itself. Schwarcz educated me that such nontraditional medicines are even investigated with government funding by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). I subscribed to the newsletter!

I really enjoy learning about medicine and I also find conmem to be fascinating so this was perfect for me. I was interested the whole time and I found it really cool to learn why exactly certain "treatments" don't work. The author clearly has a ton of knowledge about this subject and magic. It made the whole thing very compelling.