Archive for category Skeptics in the Pub
Dr Clare Allely – The Psychology of a Mass Shooter
Posted by Alice in Skeptics in the Pub on August 1, 2019
When: Thursday, October 17th 2019, 7.30pm – 11.00pm
Where: The Casa Bar, 29 Hope Street
In this talk, the Path towards Intended Violence will be applied in the case of the mass shooting perpetrated by Dylann Roof on June 17, 2015 at an Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. This perspective is important since it attempts to build on
accounts regarding how he progressed towards his mass shooting, beyond the information presented in the forensic evaluations already available. Forensic evaluations will also be explored. Finally, the Path towards Intended Violence will be discussed as a potential way forward towards trying to identify individuals who may be more vulnerable and at-risk, so that appropriate interventions and supports can be put in place in order that such extreme violence can be prevented.
Dr Clare Allely is a Reader in Forensic Psychology at the University of Salford and an affiliate member of the Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre (GNC) at Gothenburg University, Sweden. Dr Allely holds a PhD in psychology from the University of Manchester, having previously graduated with an MA (hons.) in Psychology from the University of Glasgow, an MRes in Psychological Research Methods from the University of Strathclyde and an MSc degree in Forensic Psychology from Glasgow Caledonian University
More information:
Marlon Solomon – Conspiracy Theory: A Lizard’s Tale
Posted by Alice in Skeptics in the Pub on August 1, 2019
When: Thursday, September 19th 2019, 7.30pm – 11.00pm
Where: The Casa Bar, 29 Hope Street
Conspiracy Theory: A Lizard’s Tale
Marlon’s a Jew. This didn’t bother him much until he discovered that some people he knew didn’t believe the Holocaust happened. From 9/11 to shape-shifting lizards and Holocaust denial, this is a darkly comic tale of one man’s journey through the conspiracy underworld. Marlon explores why conspiracy theories are more popular than ever; examines how fake news gives fresh currency to ancient slander and how this all related to current issues in the Labour Party. A comic tale which is no laughing matter.
WINNER: Best Spoken Word – Greater Manchester Fringe Festival 2018
“A devastating show. Informative, absorbing and very funny. The funniest show about antisemitism on the fringe. Or anywhere I suspect” – David Schneider.
“Compelling, shocking, essential.” – Al Murray
Marlon Solomon is an actor/musician from Manchester. His first one-man show has hit the zeitgeist and has been picking up accolades wherever it has been performed, discussed in political pages in The Guardian, New Statesman as well as being featured on Channel 4 News and even becoming the first one-person show to be in The Houses of Parliament.
WATCH the trailer here: https://vimeo.com/274454949
More information:
Rebecca Fox – How to Change Minds
Posted by Alice in Skeptics in the Pub on July 23, 2019
When: Thursday, August 15th 2019, 7.30pm – 11.00pm
Where: The Casa Bar, 29 Hope Street
Rebecca Fox is a skeptical advocate, podcaster and comic book maker who has probably tried every possible way to convince people to be reasonable.
In this talk she will draw on the philosophy and science of communication and her own experience to give you practical tips on how to talk to believers in pseudoscience, religion and the paranormal.
Rebecca is an ex-believer herself so her focus is on how to effectively challenge someone’s beliefs without resorting to snark. She has found that understanding the psychology of belief and understanding yourself is essential to having thoughtful conversations that actually encourage change.
More information:
Steve Barrett – How do we know we really went to the moon?
Posted by Alice in Skeptics in the Pub on June 20, 2019
When: Thursday, July 18th 2019, 7.30 – 11.00 PM
Where: The Casa Bar, 29 Hope Street
There’s no shortage of people who will tell you that the Apollo moon landings of the late 1960s and early 1970s were faked by NASA. But what exactly is the ‘evidence’ that supports this conspiracy, and does it stand up to scientific scrutiny?
Steve Barrett is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Physics at the University of Liverpool. With long-standing interests in astronomy and photography, it is no surprise to find that many of the twenty or so outreach talks that he gives have an astronomical flavour.
More information:
Tom Chivers – The AI does not hate you
Posted by Alice in Skeptics in the Pub on May 16, 2019
When: Thursday, June 20th 2019, 7.30 – 11.00 PM
Where: Frederiks, Hope Street
A DEEP-DIVE INTO THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL WORLD OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
‘The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made of atoms which it can use for something else’
This is a book about AI and AI risk. But it’s also more importantly about a community of people who are trying to think rationally about intelligence, and the places that these thoughts are taking them, and what insight they can and can’t give us about the future of the human race over the next few years. It explains why these people are worried, why they might be right, and why they might be wrong. It is a book about the cutting edge of our thinking on intelligence and rationality right now by the people who stay up all night worrying abou
t it.
Along the way, we discover why we probably don’t need to worry about a future AI resurrecting a perfect copy of our minds and torturing us for not inventing it sooner, but we perhaps should be concerned about paperclips destroying life as we know it; how Mickey Mouse can teach us an important lesson about how to program AI; and how a more rational approach to life could be what saves us all.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Chivers was BuzzFeed UK’s science writer between 2015 and 2018. Before joining BuzzFeed, he spent seven years at the Telegraph, where he once interviewed Terry Pratchett and was told he was ‘far too nice to be a journalist’. He has struggled on despite this handicap, winning a British Health Journalism award and an American Psychological Society media award, being shortlisted for an Association of British Science Writers award and being highly commended in the Royal Statistical Society’s annual journalism prizes. He tweets @TomChivers.
‘Beautifully written, and with wonderful humour, this is a thrilling adventure story of our own future’
Lewis Dartnell author of The Knowledge and Origins
More information:
Michael Marshall – Circular Reasoning: The Rise of Flat Earth Belief
Posted by Alice in Skepticism, Skeptics in the Pub on April 11, 2019
When: Thursday, May 16th 2019, 7.30 – 11.00 PM
Where: The Casa Bar, 29 Hope Street
In 2013, when Michael Marshall first interviewed the Vice President of the Flat Earth society for his show Be Reasonable, people could scarcely believe that anyone could genuinely think the Earth was flat. Five years later, Flat Earth belief has gone mainstream, spawning thousands of hours of YouTube videos, gaining widespread international media coverage, and attracting countless followers. How did we get here?
In this talk, Marshall will talk through his experiences of the Flat Earth movement, take a look at the leaders and some of their reasoning, and report back from the weekend he spent at the UK’s first ever Flat Earth convention.
Michael Marshall is the Project Director of the Good Thinking Society and the Vice President of the Merseyside Skeptics Society. He regularly speaks with proponents of pseudoscience for the Be Reasonable podcast.
His work has seen him organising international homeopathy protests, going undercover to expose psychics and quack medics, and co-founding the popular QED conference. He has written for the Guardian, The Times and New Statesman.
More information: