Whatʼs On at QED

Civilisation is an analogue notion. For all the things that are civilised, there are – we are told – all the things and people that are uncivilised. This is particularly true when it comes to Western civilisation. In this talk, historian and writer Subhadra Das will combine histories of science with her own personal recollections of working as a museum curator to examine and question how the history of race science continues to shape our views of the West and ‘the rest’. Is it true that time is money? Who does the rule of law really protect? What even is ‘art’? And, at its heart, is the West as civilised as it claims to be?

Motherhood, Wellness and Conspiracy. The evolution of the manosphere, from a loosely organised set of blogs and forums to a highly lucrative recruitment vehicle for the international far right, has been well-documented. For a long time, similar attempts to create radicalising social media content aimed at women were clumsy and short-lived. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, however, there has been a rise in successful female influencers creating trendy and aesthetic ‘lifestyle’ content with an extremist or conspiratorial edge. Annie Kelly examines the dark side of motherhood and wellness content.

From cholera maps to coffee shop charts, data has always shaped how we understand the world - but it’s also open to distortion, bias, and even a little mischief. In this fast-paced and thought-provoking talk, Dr Suze Kundu takes us on a journey through the history of data visualisation and the stories it tells. We’ll explore what makes for good data (and what doesn’t), why democratising data matters, and how data stories can both enlighten and mislead. Along the way there’ll be games, surprising graphs, and a toolkit to help you spot bad data from good, with a healthy dose of skepticism. Because when it comes to data, the truth isn’t just in the numbers - it’s in how we use them.

Human beings have a tendency to underestimate their own gullibility while overestimating the gullibility of others. Over the course of a ten-card tarot ‘reading’, Noah Lugeons will demonstrate this. He'll explain the techniques of cold reading that allowed him to convince hundreds of people that tarot cards carried mystical powers. Along the way, he'll sheepishly admit that among the many people he managed to fool back then was himself.

As skeptics, it’s easy for us to warn people about the harms of alternative medicine at an individual level, but what can we do when quackery is being pushed by authorities, or when the problem is too widespread for a one-on-one approach? From NHS homeopathy to midwifery alt-med, via quack charities and dubious overseas cancer clinics, professional skeptical investigator Michael Marshall will explain how a dogged approach to analysing publicly-available data can help us understand what we’re up against, and provide the media with the evidence they need to publish stories that make a difference.

Time is running out for the most endangered group of birds on the planet – the vultures. With threats including persecution and poaching, over 70% of the world’s twenty-three vulture species are facing extinction. But vultures, often referred to as nature’s clean-up crew, are critical to sustaining healthy environments by controlling disease. We must fight desperately to save these maligned birds, starting with changing people’s minds (and hearts) about them. Emma McLachlan is a bird of prey specialist and a field worker with a research focus on raptor species found in Cumbria. She currently works as Head of Birds at Muncaster Hawk & Owl Centre.

‘Monkey Business’, is the amazing, strange-but-true story behind the weird stuff advertised in vintage American comics. Trickster Paul Zenon presents this deep-dive into the cynical sea of con tricks targeting kids - a world of wonder, promising the Moon on a stick, but which generally delivered just a stick. A really small one. Science-laced nostalgia with a darker twist than you might imagine!

Sian Norris will explore how the rise of the far right is interconnected with the global attack on reproductive rights, with conspiracy theories about race, gender and abortion travelling a pipeline from the darkest corners of the internet into government policy. She will look at what this means for UK politics today and ask how we can fight back against this attack on our rights. Sian is a writer and journalist, currently working as Senior Investigations Reporter at openDemocracy. Her book, also titled ‘Bodies Under Siege’, was published in 2023. She has reported from the UK, Ukraine, Poland, Kenya, Bangladesh and Romania for the Times, Observer, i news, the Guardian and many more.

In November 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of five counts of sex-trafficking of minors, and now faces 55 years in prison for the role she played in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse. The trial was meticulously covered by Lucia Osborne-Crowley, one of only four reporters allowed into the courtroom every day. In this talk, she gives her account of that trial and a blistering critique of a criminal justice system ill-equipped to deliver justice for abuse survivors. Centring the stories of four women and their testimonies, Lucia will bring this incendiary trial to life, question our age-old appetite for crime and punishment, and offer a new blueprint for meaningful reparative justice.

How Alternative Medicine’s Religio-Cultural Immunity is Killing Public Health and Patients. Behind India’s booming alt-med industry lies a trail of preventable deaths, liver failures, and cover-ups. When tradition and cultural dogmatism drive healthcare, patients pay the price. Dr. Cyriac Abby Philips, popularly known as The Liver Doc, takes us inside India’s liver wards, where ‘natural’ doesn’t mean safe. Drawing from clinical cases where patients arrive with terrifying liver diseases after consuming Ayurvedic and Homeopathic remedies, this talk illuminates the real-world stakes of medical science communication in a society driven by politics, religion, and nationalism – where questioning can mean cultural treason.

The English legal system is often considered a bastion of intellectual probity and rationality, with no time for supernatural matters. However, people have always believed in fantastical creatures, and their beliefs have led them to do strange and terrible things. When they appear before a judge, these beliefs are subject to the same harsh scrutiny as in any other legal case. As a result, the law has been confronted by everything from witches leaking war secrets, to ghosts solving their own murders. Criminal barrister Naomi Ryan takes us into this strange area of law where the Fortean meets the forensic, and the strange is investigated by the state.

Conspiracy theorists tell us that, for generations, a secretive elite has been planning to enslave the world. (Taking their time, aren’t they?) World domination often seems to be a family business. Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Soroses (Sorosi?) But, as Matthew Sweet will demonstrate, it is conspiratorial narrative that has been passed between generations. From the Protocols to Lyndon LaRouche to Alex Jones, Neil Oliver to John Mappin, he’ll trace the genealogy of these fantasies, and suggest how we might prevent them being handed on to the next generation. Matthew Sweet is a journalist, broadcaster, author, and cultural historian.

Fat bodies are subject to a host of social and medical commentary, often under the guise of concern for individual or national health. Yet, those same people are subject to significant stigma in general society and medical stigma which contributes to poorer health outcomes. With GLP-1 agonists dominating the discourse and celebrity weight-loss the focus of the media, are we really seeing a positive impact, or do the human costs outweigh any perceived benefits? Join host Alice Howarth as she discusses the impact of weight stigma on health, wellbeing and even body weight itself, with medical doctor Asher Larmie, dietitian Maeve Hanan and social psychologist Angela Meadows.

Free speech is a fundamental right in a free society, and one that must be defended. It is also an issue that has, in many cases, been co-opted by groups keen to mask their ideological positions from criticism, and to attack the rights of others. While some of the most high-profile and celebrated cases of free speech oppression are often not what they seem, there remain genuine threats to free expression and the right to protest that the most vocal ‘free speech absolutists’ remain noticeably silent on. How can those of us who passionately care about free speech tell the real threats from the manufactured culture war ragebait? Featuring Ruth Ehrlich, Thomas Smith, Lydia Smith, and Matthew Sweet.

At QED 2024 we asked, ‘do robots dream of ethical sheep?’, but twelve months is a long time when talking about the development of artificial intelligence. Twelve months is also a drop in the ocean across the course of AI history. What can we learn from the cybernetics that gave rise to artificial intelligence? What are the biggest concerns with the present forms and use of AI? And how can we use deeper thinking on these topics to shape the future of artificial intelligence? Joining host Rick Owen is Head of AI and Innovation at Manchester University, Ciaran Talbot, and transdisciplinary researcher and cybernetics expert Mark Johnson.

‘True Crime’ truly is a cultural phenomenon. Podcasts on the topic often rank among the most popular, and bookshop shelves overflow with investigations and criminal biographies. But when does legitimate public interest cross the line into harmful exploitation? This panel examines the dark side of our true crime fascination, tracing the roots of modern true crime entertainment from the salacious ‘penny dreadfuls’, through New Journalism and Jack the Ripper, to today’s digital platforms. We’ll explore how amateur sleuths can damage active investigations, the way conspiracy theories flourish in online crime communities, and ask how we can prevent the pursuit of mystery overshadowing the pursuit of truth. Featuring Icy Sedgwick, Dr Stella Gaynor, Lucia Osborne-Crowley, and host Mike Hall.

For years, academics, magicians, writers and many others have been skeptical about paranormal claims. They have carried out investigations, written articles and books, created films and podcasts, posted on social media, formed organisations and staged meetings across the globe. What have these activities achieved? Is critical thinking on the rise or in decline? What does the future hold for skeptics? Join our experts as they discuss the types of skeptical activity that have had the greatest impact, how skepticism has changed over the years, how our small community can continue to be relevant in the digital age, and much more. Featuring Prof Richard Wiseman, Prof Chris French, Dr Alice Howarth, and Michael Marshall.

It would be easy to see religion as in its dying throes, with successive generations of opinion polls showing an increasingly irreligious population in large parts of the world. Yet, in recent years, there has been an upsurge in social media trends glamourising traditional Christian lifestyles. In the US, wealthy religious extremists have been successful in pushing their regressive agenda all the way to the White House, overturning the legal right to abortion and eroding the country's foundational separation of church and state. Meanwhile, in the UK those same organisations fund legal challenges to the rights of gay and trans people, under the banner of 'free speech'. How did we get here, who are the groups responsible, and how do we push back against this rising tide of Christian Nationalism? Featuring Andrew Copson, Noah Lugeons, Sian Norris and Alice Howarth.

Why do so many skeptics have a particular fondness for horror films, a genre overflowing with pseudoscience, irrationality and the unknown? This panel will explore how horror provides a safe space to confront fears, explore cultural myths, and even let our critical thinking check out for ninety minutes. From brooding rustic terror to generic teen slashers, we’ll examine how horror can challenge beliefs, reflect societal anxieties, and offer skeptics a unique lens through which to explore the human psyche. Featuring Dr Joe Ondrak, Dr Stella Gaynor, David Alnwick, and Mark Horne.

When implementing national policies that impact communities across the UK, we often wish our politicians would make evidence-informed decisions that will have the greatest positive impact and the fewest unintended consequences. Yet, in recent years we’ve seen an uptick in MPs who are actively anti-evidence, with anti-vaxxers in the houses of parliament and Reform’s conspiracism dominating the social discourse. So how do we get better evidence into Parliament? What support do busy MPs get to make informed decisions? And how do discussion points make it into the houses of parliament? Join us as we discuss these topics and more with sitting MP Lizzi Collinge, science communicator Jamie Gallagher, UK parliament researcher Louise Thompson, and host Nicola Throp.

The award-winning European Skeptics Podcast has spent ten years covering skeptical news and promoting skeptical activism. Their back catalogue of around 500 episodes contains analyses of skeptical trends and concerns as well as hundreds of interviews with people from all over the world. The current hosts are András Pintér from Hungary, and Pontus Böckman from Sweden, and the show’s outreach is truly international with an active network way beyond Europe.

InKredulous is the skeptical, satirical panel show from the Merseyside Skeptics Society. Since the very first QED in 2011, the live taping of InKredulous has been one of the weekend’s highlights, with each show bringing together some of our favourite comic minds for an unpredictable ramble through a mix of topical tales and unlikely stories from pseudoscience history. This will be the final one featuring Andy Wilson as host, but, never ones to let sentiment get in the way of a decent gag, we're teaming Andy up with the merciless guys from God Awful Movies. We genuinely have no idea what will happen! Featuring Andy Wilson, with Eli Bosnick, Noah Lugeons, and Heath Enwright.

The Know Rogan Experience is the show where two podcasters with no previous Rogan experience get to know Joe Rogan, hosted by veteran podcasters Cecil Cicirello and Michael Marshall. Conceived in the wake of the 2024 US Presidential Election, where Rogan’s role in converting young white male listeners into Donald Trump voters, Know Rogan looks in depth at the role of the world’s most popular podcast in spreading misinformation and introducing millions of followers to conspiracy theories and the figures who promote them.

Skeptics with a K is produced by Skeptic Media in association with the Merseyside Skeptics Society, and features QED co-organisers Mike Hall, Dr Alice Howarth, and Michael Marshall.

First airing in August 2009, each episode features skeptical breakdowns of credulous newspaper stories, the latest health fads, myths and misconceptions, and reports on skeptical activism and undercover investigations. Over 400 episodes later, including multiple QED live shows, Skeptics with a K has become one of the most popular skeptical podcasts from the UK.

Hosted by fantasy and Gothic horror writer Icy Sedgwick, the Fabulous Folklore podcast explores folklore, legends, superstitions, mythology, and all things weird, occult and unusual. For her first live show, Icy will be looking at folklore attached to the Amityville Horror, and the films it has inspired.

In a world beset by misinformation and false, false claims and dodgy statistics, it’s more important than ever for skeptics to be prepared to dig into the research and separate truth from fiction. What tools are available for the would-be debunker, and how can skeptics go about getting to the bottom of the claims we see? Emma Monk is a writer and researcher specialising in fact-checking and debunking misinformation in politics, media, and public discourse. Her work examines how data and headlines are misrepresented, and she uses evidence-based analysis to give readers the tools to spot manipulation for themselves. Through her Substack Monk Debunks and workshops, Emma focuses on equipping people with practical skills for evaluating sources, spotting common misinformation tactics, and pushing back against narratives designed to mislead.

From Feynman diagrams to the tree of life to flat-packed bookshelf instructions, simple visuals can carry the biggest ideas. Yet drawing is too often seen as the reserve of artists and designers. Nobody thinks they need to be a novelist to write a good email, yet many lose confidence when switching from words to pictures. During this workshop, visualisation artist Matt Kemp will equip you with a starter kit of tools and principles to boost your confidence in expressing ideas through drawing, enabling non-artists to craft visual communications that punch well above their weight, making ideas more memorable and easier to understand. The workshop centres on a series of fun practical lessons and challenges. You’ll learn accessible techniques to draw basic pictures of objects, people, action scenes, the past and future, hidden details, emotion and character. You’ll come away with an understanding of the essential tools to start thinking and communicating with pictures.

Now more than ever, it is important that government policies are based on good, reliable evidence. So how can we, as members of the public help politicians to make the right decisions… or at least make it difficult for politicians to make bad decisions? Join public engagement specialist Dr Jamie Gallagher to understand what MPs have the ability to do, how laws are made in Westminster, how parliament functions, and how you can be part of the system and influence those discussions and decisions.

Stretch every synapse, attenuate your amygdala and nourish your neurons, as your team fights it out in a contest designed to sort the smart cookies from the daft biscuits. The winning team will receive the glory that is the QED Quiz trophy, and the eternal respect of the QED-going audience. This year’s quiz will again be presented by Ian Hawkins, The Ivy Club’s Resident Quizmaster, and a former writer for BBC Radio Four’s The News Quiz and The Now Show. Places will be strictly limited, but you can guarantee your place by registering in advance via this quick form (but only complete it if you have your QED ticket and are planning to attend!).