#5SmartReads - February 26, 2021

On thinking critically, one of the best books I've read recently, and sperm. Yes, sperm.

Don’t Go Down the Rabbit Hole (New York Times)

“…at this very moment, more people are fighting for the opportunity to lie to you than at perhaps any other point in human history.”

Ashley Spivey shared this on her Instagram Stories yesterday, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

We live in a time where fact and falsehoods are nearly impossible to discern and we are bombarded by “news” that triggers emotional responses and is carefully worded to grab and hold onto our attention.

Professional fact-checkers employ SIFT (Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context), and doing so can certainly help you be a more informed news reader.

Another option is to improve your media diet. Avoid Twitter and Facebook (the News Feed Eradicator is a game changer) for news consumption, read a variety of outlets (The Atlantic and The Dispatch are two of my favorites for liberal and conservative viewpoints, respectively).

This piece is very much wort…