Steven Novella

Steven Novella is an American clinical neurologist and Associate Professor of Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine, where he completed his residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1995. He received his MD from Georgetown University and is board-certified in neurology. Novella is President of the New England Skeptical Society and is best known as the lead host of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast, which he co-founded in May 2005. He is also a co-founder and primary contributor to Science-Based Medicine, a blog dedicated to evaluating medical claims against scientific evidence. His weekly Neurologica blog, which he has maintained since 2007, covers neuroscience, critical thinking, and skeptical analysis of medical and scientific claims.

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe has run continuously since 2005 and is one of the longest-running and most influential science and skepticism podcasts in the world, covering everything from neuroscience and cognitive biases to specific pseudoscientific claims and media reporting on science. Novella co-authored the companion book The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, published in 2018. His work at Science-Based Medicine focuses specifically on applying evidence-based medicine standards to clinical practice, with particular attention to alternative medicine modalities, and the blog has become a major reference resource for clinicians and patients evaluating unconventional treatments.

Novella is recognized for making the tools of scientific skepticism accessible to professional and lay audiences alike, combining his clinical expertise in neuroscience with a deep grounding in philosophy of science and research methodology. In 2010 the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry awarded him the Robert P. Balles Prize for Critical Thinking for his body of work. His neurology background gives him particular authority to address brain and mind claims — including dubious neurotherapy, consciousness pseudoscience, and psychic phenomena framed in neuroscientific language.