An article in the March 4, 2019, New Yorker gave the regrettable impression that some people could do what science—and common sense—say cannot be done: see something (usually a tragedy) before it has occurred. magazine followed other outlets that have recently hawked paranormal claims—The New York Times regarding UFOs in 2017 and 2018 [Nickell 2018a; Nickell and McGaha 2018] and CBS’s Sunday Morning touting ESP in 2018 [Frazier 2018].)
At issue here is the aforementioned New Yorker article, Sam Knight’s “The Premonitions Bureau.” While one might expect therefrom a lesson in critical thinking regarding pseudoscientific views, Knight has adopted a “who-knows?” attitude, for which I intend this article as a corrective. (Thanks to psychologist Stuart Vyse— author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry—for suggesting this topic to me.)