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The full QED schedule is now available, for you to start planning your weekend!

Unfortunately, Wally Funk will no longer be able to join us for the Book Shambles podcast, which will go ahead with her co-author Sue Nelson. Wally will be replaced by broadcaster Dallas Campbell. But we are pleased to add one further main-stage speaker to the QED line-up, on top of those already announced: Deborah Hyde, on the history of Poltergeists.

In our Truth Hertz panel, we'll reflect some of the wisdom of science on the mystics of music, the audiophiles and the numerologists who would otherwise run amok.

If there were really a god, would he inspire such god awful cinema? Join Noah Lugheons, Heath Enwright and Eli Bosnick as they tackle the 2001 moon landing denial masterpiece A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon.

On this special live recording of Serious Inquiries Only, Thomas will speak with prison and public law solicitor Emma McClure about her experiences dealing with the justice system, the ethics of incarceration, and the extent to which compassion and empathy play a role when dealing with people who have committed even abhorrent crimes.

Twenty years after Columbine, ‘violent video games’ are still a hot-button topic. Despite studies failing to show any clear link between gaming and violence, the moral panic continues. Joining host Lana Donaghy to ask "Won’t anyone think of the children?!" will be Elle Osili-Wood, Ash Webster, and Dr Steve Novella.

QED has its own Slack team, to offer another way of chatting to fellow QED attendees, making plans and sharing your thoughts about the event.

Anthony Holloway looks at how you can get started in stargazing, what you can do with the naked eye or binoculars and what the options are for moving on to using telescopes and the new objects you can observe.

Episodes of the InKredulous podcast are as rare as hen’s teeth so don’t miss your opportunity to laugh along with our panel at some of your favourite/least favourite topics

What are the risks posed by plastic waste in our oceans? Are single-use plastic straws merely a convenient media scapegoat, or will eliminating them really help? What practical steps can people take to reduce the amount of plastic waste they produce? Joining Nicola Throp to discuss these issues at QED will be Dr Sarah Clement, Dr Helen Czerski and Dr Matt Winning.

The European Skeptics Podcast, a weekly podcast hosted by members from several European skeptic organisations, will be doing a live show in the podcast room at QED.

According to MIND, the mental health charity, each year an estimated one in four people will suffer from some kind of mental health issue. With public awareness of mental health issues seemingly growing, there are plenty of treatment options available – but how many of them are backed by evidence, and how can we know what is effective? Discussing mental health at QED will be Robin Ince, Ariane Sherine, Navneet Kapur, and Thomas Smith

From the archive! Physicist Tim O’Brien tells the story of how technology has allowed us to extend our senses to see beyond the visible and reveal a universe stranger than we ever imagined at QED 2017.

It’s three weeks until QED, and we hope you’re looking forward to it as much as we are! While the official QED programme starts at 9am on Saturday 13th October, over the years a fun and varied series of fringe events have grown up around the QED weekend, which this year offers a little something for everyone.

When QED organiser Andy Wilson was a young teenager, his brother converted to Mormonism, a world Andy realised he knew very little about. In this panel we’ll explore The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from a historical perspective as well as how it stands up to modern societal values. Featuring Cara Santa Maria, Bryce Blankenagel, Greg Rattey, and chair Andy Wilson.

In this year‘s Skeptics in the Pub Workshop we aim to score a glorious hat-trick of Skeptics in the Pub fundamentals. The spirit, as always, will be one of interaction and participation as the facilitators will be relying on you to put some flesh on the bones of information that they‘re laying out for you. Come along, share your expertise, get involved!

As the pseudoscience landscape continues to change, is the current skeptical movement fit for purpose? What are we doing right, and what are we doing wrong? What challenges do skeptics around the world face, and what can we learn from each other?

From the archives! David Gorski, surgical oncologist and managing editor of the blog Science-Based Medicine, talks about the re-branding of quackery and existing medical lifestyle interventions, such as diet and exercise, as ‘integrative medicine’ at QED 2017.

Social media has become one of the most influential communication tools of our age, capable of shaping opinion, swinging elections and sparking rebellions. While the ease of access to social media platforms provides an unprecedented opportunity for science communicators and skeptics to spread evidence-based information, it also poses a serious threat. Discussing this at QED will be Jonathan Jarry, Pixie Turner, Eli Bosnick, and Michael Marshall.

In the last decade, podcasting has gone truly mainstream. A recent study claimed that more Americans know what a podcast is than who know the identity of the vice-president. But are these shows activism, or just echo chambers doing nothing but reinforcing existing biases?

From the archives! Kavin Senapathy, science journalist and co-author of The Fear Babe: Shattering Vani Hari’s Glass House, explores how anti-GMO sentiment hinders social justice, at QED 2017.

We are delighted to be able to announce the final two additions to the QED main stage: fire scientist Dr Claire Benson and historian Dr Heather Ellis.

Join award-winning comedian and bibliophile Robin Ince for a live version of the acclaimed Book Shambles podcast. The very special guests for this episode will be pioneering aviator and member of the Mercury 13, Wally Funk, and writer and broadcaster Sue Nelson, author of the new book Wally Funk’s Race for Space: The Extraordinary Story of a Female Aviation Pioneer.

From the archives! In this talk from QED 2017, journalist James Ball tries to dissect what’s gone wrong with our information ecosystem, who’s to blame for fake news and misinformation (spoiler: all of us), and what we can do to fight back.

With QED just six weeks away, we are pleased to announce two further speakers to add to the line-up: Pixie Turner, on her journey away from food and nutrition pseudoscience, and Michael Marshall on the rise of flat earth belief.

Archeologist and stand-up comedian Paul Duncan McGarrity is returning to QED to offer his very own Practical Guide to Attacking Castles. Just in case, you know, you come across any castles that really need some attacking.

From the archives! In this talk from QED 2017, author Caroline Rance examines the colourful history of quack medicine, how patent medicine vendors of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries attracted customers, and how anti-quackery campaigners attempted to put a stop to their lucrative activities.

The Cosmic Shambles Network team are back to host another edition of the hugely popular QED Friday night quiz. The theme for this year’s quiz is space. Everything from moon landings to nonsense conspiracy theories and science fiction to space stations will be on the agenda. It doesn’t matter if you have a PhD in astrophysics or half remember seeing an episode of Star Trek once, there’ll be something for everyone.

As part of our QED workshop programme, Marianne Talbot from the University of Oxford will be giving a workshop on an Introduction to Critical Reasoning. The workshop will be an interactive session designed to help attendees understand how to recognise, analyse and evaluate arguments.

At QED we couldn’t make our event work without the excellent help of our volunteers who help us make sure the conference runs smoothly for all our speakers and attendees. With this year’s event just two months away, we’re putting out a call to all our attendees to ask that anyone who would like to volunteer gets in touch.

As QED has grown over the years, so too has the QED Fringe—the series of events and get-togethers which take place before QED starts on Saturday morning. In previous years, we‘ve had quizzes, social events, and unofficial fringe events from our friends at the Greater Manchester Skeptics, and QED 2018 is going to be no exception.

Each year at QED, we like to give our attendees the opportunity to experience something different. In previous years, we’ve had a high-end Tesla available to test drive, and we’ve had a room filled with mind-bending visual illusions courtesy of Richard Wiseman. With that in mind, this year we’ll be giving attendees the opportunity to enjoy a Virtual Reality experience.

We are delighted to be able to announce the latest exciting addition to the QED main stage line-up for 2018: J WiIlgoose Esq, the creative talent behind the band Public Service Broadcasting.

For the fifth year running, we are pleased to be hosting Skepticamp at QED, where the attendees are responsible for the creation and delivery of the days content, and anyone is welcome to present a talk.

Saturday nights at QED are always special, and this year we are delighted to bring you the Ockham Awards, magician Eli Bosnick, comedian Alun Cochrane, and a special performance of The Broad Street Score by George Hrab.

The QED team are thrilled to be able to announce our next speaker for QED 2018, head of the Speech Communication Group at University College London’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Professor Sophie Scott.

With a little over three months until QED 2018—the last QED of the decade—we’re pleased to add two more fantastic speakers to our line up: mathematician and broadcaster Hannah Fry, and co-founder of CICAP Massimo Polidoro.

Tickets to QED 2018 are now on sale, priced £113, or £75 for students and under 18s. QED 2018 takes place on the 13th-14th October 2018, with Friday 12th October again featuring a free Skepticamp event.

Each year at QED, we’ve held our Gala Dinner on Saturday evening as an opportunity for some of our attendees to enjoy a three-course meal in the company of our speakers. This year, however, rather than our normal Gala Dinner, we’re introducing the Charity Dinner, as an opportunity to raise some money for an organisation doing the kind of skeptical work our community can be proud of.

QED, the UKʼs largest celebration of science, reason and critical thinking, will return for its eighth year on the 13th–14th October, with guests including performer and podcaster George Hrab, comedian and self-professed nerd Helen Arney, and the award-winning science podcast ‘The Skepticsʼ Guide to the Universe’.