Brian Dunning

Who is Brian Dunning?

Brian Dunning is an American writer and producer who focuses on skepticism. He has hosted a weekly podcast, Skeptoid, since 2006 and is an author of 5 books on the subject of scientific skepticism. The Skeptoid podcast has been the recipient of several podcast awards including the Parsec Award and Stitcher award.

Both a computer programmer and screenwriter by trade, he co-founded Buylink, a major Silicon Valley corporation that eventually stopped doing business due to the early 2000s recession. Following the collapse of Buylink, Dunning became a major eBay affiliate marketer, earning over $7 million; he has since been accused of making much of this money via wire fraud through a cookie stuffing scheme. In June 2010, Dunning was indicted on charges of wire fraud by a Federal grand jury. On April 15, 2013, Dunning pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a plea agreement with Federal prosecutors.

Despite his legal troubles, he remains a major figure in the geek community and skeptic communities. Skeptoid currently attracts 177,000 listeners weekly. Dunning has also created a spin-off video series and has written several books based on the podcast.