Steven Novella

Steven Paul Novella (born July 29, 1964) is an American clinical neurologist and associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine.

Novella is best known for his involvement in the skeptical movement as a host of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast and as the president of the New England Skeptical Society.

He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).

Novella was born July 29, 1964 to Joseph Novella and Patricia Novella née Danbury.

He was raised in New Fairfield, Connecticut, and has four siblings.

Novella considered becoming a lawyer prior to attending college but decided to go into medicine as a teenager.

As an undergraduate, he pursued premed and science.

In 1991, Novella earned a medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine.

He spent the first year of residency at Georgetown University Hospital/Washington Hospital Center in internal medicine.

He completed his residency in neurology at Yale–New Haven Hospital in 1995.

The group began to organize in late 1995, when DeAngelis and Novella noticed a lack of listings for their area in Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

The group later joined with the Skeptical Inquirers of New England (SINE) and the New Hampshire Skeptical Resource to form the New England Skeptical Society (NESS).

Novella has served as the president of the NESS since inception.

Novella defines a skeptic as:

"... one who prefers beliefs and conclusions that are reliable and valid to ones that are comforting or convenient, and therefore rigorously and openly applies the methods of science and reason to all empirical claims, especially their own. A skeptic provisionally proportions acceptance of any claim to valid logic and a fair and thorough assessment of available evidence, and studies the pitfalls of human reason and the mechanisms of deception so as to avoid being deceived by others or themselves. Skepticism values method over any particular conclusion."

In 1996 Novella, his brother Bob, and Perry DeAngelis founded The Connecticut Skeptical Society.

Novella was board certified in neurology in 1998.

Novella's academic specialization is in neurology, including more specifically, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), myasthenia gravis and neuromuscular disorders, neurophysiology, and the treatment of hyperactive neurological disorders.

Novella is a proponent of scientific skepticism.

In May 2005, Novella started The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe (SGU) podcast with Perry DeAngelis, Evan Bernstein, and his brothers Bob and Jay Novella.

In July 2006, Rebecca Watson joined the podcast as a regular, staying through December 2014.

In response to a 2007 editorial in The New York Times in which Paul Davies concluded "until science comes up with a testable theory of the laws of the universe, its claim to be free of faith is manifestly bogus," Novella said,

"It's not actually true because science is not dependent upon faith in a naturalistic world. It just follows the methods as if it is naturalistic... it is not a system of beliefs. People often ask me and they will ask you as skeptics what do you believe? Well, it's not about belief. Do you believe in ESP? It doesn't matter if I believe in ESP. The only thing that matters is what is the evidence for ESP? ...It's very important I think to present skepticism as a method of inquiry not a set of conclusions, not a set of beliefs."Novella is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and has also been active in the organized skeptical community as a member of the executive committee of Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS).

In the early days of the New England Skeptical Society, Novella participated in investigations of paranormal claims, some of which were part of the screening process for the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge offered by the James Randi Educational Foundation.

Novella investigated such claims as Ouija boards (when the couple claiming they could operate one were properly blindfolded, their powers vanished), the ability to control the flipping of a coin (the claimant turned out to be making some common logical errors in thinking), a mind reader who got zero out of 20 correct, and many dowsers (typically found to be experiencing the Ideomotor phenomenon).

Novella and the NESS also examined some phenomena described by people who were not competing for the One Million Dollar prize, such as haunted houses, the ability to communicate with the dead, and recording the voices of ghosts, known as electronic voice phenomenon, or EVP.

DeAngelis remained with the show until his death in August 2007.

In 2007, Novella started a blog, Neurologica, for which he writes on a weekly basis covering subjects generally related to science or skepticism.

He is the executive editor of the blog Science-Based Medicine for which he is also a regular contributor, and he is a medical advisor to Quackwatch, an alternative medicine watchdog website.

In 2008, Novella signed the Project Steve petition, a tongue-in-cheek parody of the list of "scientists that doubt evolution" produced by creationists.

Novella is an associate editor of the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, and writes the monthly Weird Science column for the New Haven Advocate newspaper.

He created several Dungeons & Dragons campaign and expansion packs.

Writing for Skeptical Inquirer, Rob Palmer stated in a review of Novella's book, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, that it could serve as a kind of "operations manual" for critical thinking and skepticism.

Novella has appeared on several television programs, including Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, The Dr. Oz Show, and Inside Edition.

In 2008, he filmed a pilot for a television series called The Skeptologists along with Brian Dunning, Yau-Man Chan, Mark Edward, Michael Shermer, Phil Plait, and Kirsten Sanford.

The series has not been picked up by any network.

Cara Santa Maria joined the cast in July 2015.

Novella hosts the show and handles editing and post-production.

In an interview for the Books and Ideas podcast he described his work for the podcast as being a labor of love, and similar to a second job.

Novella said the SGU show primarily addresses controversial topics and topics on fringe science, with common content on paranormal or conspiracy theories, health fraud, and issues of consumer protection.