Talks
We hold regular speaking events each month in central Liverpool. Talks take place on the third Thursday of the month, starting from 7.30pm. Check the event listing to find the venue. Whether you're a seasoned skeptic or just curious, our talks are not to be missed. If youʼre planning to attend, why not let us know via our Meetup page?
You donʼt need to be a member to attend; if you want to come down and see what weʼre about, youʼll be made welcome.
Our Next Talk
Ultra-processed foods make up most of the food we eat in the UK, but are widely demonised and described as foods that 'are not food'. This new concept has become part of mainstream consciousness off the back of a bestselling book by a TV personality and medical doctor, but what does the science actually say? We will talk about how the underlying science has been misused for personal gain and how worried we should be about ultra-processed foods in our diets.
Safety & Comfort
We aim to be an inclusive organisation, welcoming attendees from all backgrounds, ethnicities, and genders. The directors reserve the right to remove any attendee whose continued presence represents a real or perceived threat to the smooth running of our events, or the security and comfort of other attendees. Anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated.
More Upcoming Talks
Whether you're a seasoned skeptic or just curious, our talks are not to be missed.
Each month we host an expert in their field who we think has a topic or story worth hearing about.
If you have any suggestions for future speakers, or particular topics that might be of interest, please email us (contact@merseysideskeptics.org.uk) or speak to one of our organisers at one of our talks or social events.
All our events are free to attend, however we do ask for donations after the talk. There is no obligation to donate, but we are a non-profit organisation, run exclusively by volunteers - donations are how we can continue to fund these talks and all our other events.
Recent Talks
Housing has become a crunch point in politics: a key issue on the doorsteps and at ballot boxes, a key reason for communities being ripped apart and a key site of tension in ever polarising debates. Whilst the housing crisis is often framed as inherently complex, there are very simple - some cost-free - solutions which the government could adopt that would change the face of the housing crisis overnight, improving millions of people's lives and achieving their main goal of boosting the economy. Yet, these common-sense policies are continually lambasted as 'radical' and/or framed as folk-devils to be buried out of sight and mind. In this talk Abi will explore why very mainstream solutions to the housing crisis are continually dismissed and explore a very possible alternative future in which houses are homes, not vehicles for profit.
Jack the Ripper is one of the most well-known serial killers in history, with stories of his gruesome exploits permeating popular culture to an unprecedented degree. Despite almost 150 years having passed since the appalling Whitechapel murders, we are still none the wiser about who he was, what drove his terrible crimes, or why they suddenly stopped. But could that be about to change? At the start of 2025, several news outlets reported that the identity of Jack the Ripper had been finally confirmed, using astonishing DNA evidence. But is it all really as it appears? Should we just learn to let Jack the Ripper go?
The focus of this talk will be around some of the main tools and techniques used by BBC Verify to establish the veracity of an event. Using a few examples from warzones and political campaigns, the talk will demonstrate some of the main ways that content has been challenged or confirmed, and touch upon some of the challenges posed by - and approaches to dealing with - generative AI.
Penny dreadful' is the nickname for a quirk of 19th-century publishing in Britain. They were short booklets, printed on thin, cheap paper, that could be sold for a penny. Many of the penny dreadfuls have since faded into obscurity, with the exception of Spring-Heeled Jack, Sweeney Todd, and Varney the Vampire.
These three penny dreadfuls have had a circular impact, being inspired by folklore and in turn contributing to the folklore about them. Spring-Heeled Jack's penny dreadful has in a large part fuelled the way people retrospectively view him, while Sweeney Todd's penny dreadful even had people convinced he was a real person. Meanwhile, Varney the Vampire drew on folklore, and in turn, went on to influence the way vampires were represented in popular culture.
This talk explores the ways in which these three penny dreadfuls created their own legends while drawing on existing tales, and in so doing explores how people can end up believing fictional characters are real, or that real characters behave like their fictional counterparts.
In a climate of increasing hostility towards trans and non-binary people, both in the UK and abroad, this talk will shed light on the nature of trans and non-binary experience, how we can understand them as part of the complex reality of human gender and sex, and place them in a wider historical and social context. This talk will look at gender diversity in history and around the world today, as well as the current context for trans and non-binary people in the UK.
All our events are free to attend, however we do ask for donations after the talk. There is no obligation to donate, but we are a non-profit organisation, run exclusively by volunteers - donations are how we can continue to fund these talks and all our other events.