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Last year, for the first time, we added a dedicated podcast track to QED, featuring some of the biggest skeptical, atheist and science podcasts around. The track proved hugely popular, with standing room only for some of the recordings of shows like God Awful Movies, Cognitive Dissonance, Talk Nerdy and more.

This year, the track promises to be just as exciting, and we’re pleased to announce our first three live podcasts–including an exclusive first ever live show from the host of The Parapod!

Dr Dame Sue Ion is a leading figure in the UK’s nuclear industry and an internationally recognised expert on fuel recycling. During Tony Blair’s Labour government Sue was responsible for bringing about a change in policy on nuclear power, and remains a vocal advocate for nuclear power’s role in a future energy landscape.

With four months to go until QED 2017, we are working hard to put together an interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking line up for our attendees. Today, we can announce three more speakers to join our line-up: Tim O’Brien, Carol Tavris and Sophie Wilson!

Natalie Haynes is a comedian, author and humanist whose appearance at QED 2013 was noted by many as their highlight of the event. She’s a regular contributor to the Guardian and has written for The Times and The Independent. Before retiring from stand-up comedy in 2009, Natalie became the first female nominee for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Her 2014 novel ‘The Amber Fury’ served as a fiction-based follow-up to her previous non-fiction book ‘The Ancient Guide to Modern Life’ – exploring the lessons the modern world can learn from classical societies.

Dr Harriet Hall is a retired family physician and former Air Force flight surgeon who writes about medicine, alternative medicine, science, quackery, and critical thinking. She is one of the founders and editors of the ‘Science Based Medicine’ blog, a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and co-author of the textbook ‘Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions’.

Professor Marcel Dicke is professor of Entomology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. His book ‘The Insect Cookbook: Food for a Sustainable Planet’ argues that the Western world undervalues the contribution insects could make to our lives... and to our nutrition. In 2007 he was awarded the NWO-Spinoza award for his work researching the defence mechanisms of plants..

Noah, Heath and Eli dispense a comedic and withering critique on the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Great fun as a podcast. Unforgettable as a video.

Susan Blackmore is visiting Professor in psychology at the University of Plymouth. She has spoken extensively on the subject of memetics but at QED 2016 Susan portrayed a compelling history of how out-of-body experiences have been perceived over time through her own story.

The highlight of your May Bank Holiday is here: tickets to QED 2017 are now on sale! QED 2017 will take place on the 14th-15th of October, with tickets this year costing £109, or £75 for students and under 18s.

It’s less than a week until tickets go on sale for QED 2017, and so to get you in the mood for the next instalment of the UK’s biggest conference of science and skepticism we thought we’d remind you of one of the excellent talks from QED 2016. Last year was our biggest ever year, with a sell-out crowd of more than 650 attendees and five whole tracks of skeptical goodness, and we kicked the weekend off with a superb talk from the internet’s only video-hoax-slaying alien superhero, Captain Disillusion.

Last year’s QED saw more than 650 attendees converge in Manchester for our celebration of science, reason and critical thinking. We had pub quizzes, optical illusions, magic, music, films, comedy and five rooms filled to the brim with skeptical entertainment. It was the biggest and best QED so far... but don’t worry, we’re deep into plans for making this year’s event even better!

With that in mind, we can officially announce the date of QED 2017–get out your marker pens, and draw a big red circle around the 14th-15th October, 2017.