Talks

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.

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.

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.

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.

Children and young people seeking asylum in the UK experience violence - not just in the persecutory circumstances or harmful threats that led them to seek asylum, but perpetrated by and within the State that purports to provide sanctuary. It is a violence that takes many forms: psychological, physical, emotional, financial, racial and gender-based. It is a violence that is hidden or euphemised as security, public order or even justice. It is violence that is embedded, legitimised and normalised through processes, law and policy, and through media reporting and political debates. This violence affects thousands of children who arrive in the UK unaccompanied every year. It stays with them for the rest of their lives and is passed on intergenerationally.

As the racist riots of summer 2024 highlight, so-called ‘hostile’ laws, policies and unrelenting media misrepresentation of asylum seekers readily feeds into direct, interpersonal violence that destabilises entire communities. Professor Helen Stalford calls for a shift in how we talk about our current asylum system to more accurately reflect and confront the political intentions of such policies and their direct effects on children and young people seeking asylum. Helen presents the case for characterising legal, policy and social responses to unaccompanied children seeking asylum as state-sanctioned and perpetrated violence, and identifies a series of ‘tipping points’ – moments at which legal and policy responses shift from being strategic and, for some, legitimate features of the so-called ‘hostile environment’, to acts of violence in flagrant breach of our international human rights obligations, particularly where children are concerned.

In June 1609, two judges departed Bordeaux for the French-Spanish border to investigate a growing witchcraft panic. In the French Basque Country, witches were said to abduct children, whisking them away to nocturnal gatherings where they worshipped the devil. Frightening tales of cannibalism, vampirism, and demonic sex terrified their parents. Within four months, the witchcraft commission had executed perhaps as many as 80 women men, and the growing panic spread into Spain. In 1612, one of the judges, Pierre de Lancre, published a sensationalist account of this diabolical underworld, shaping how the sabbat—the black, beating heart of Europe’s witch-hunt—has been imagined ever since. But what really happened at these supposed gatherings of witches? This talk uncovers the hidden truths behind these lurid legends.

Join us for another of our annual multiple speaker events, featuring some people you may have heard talk before (about different subjects), some you will have never heard speak before.

The full schedule is:

• Escaping the Jehovah’s Witness 'cult' - Joe Williams
• BDSM and the law - Emma McClure
• Elon Musk's misinformation - Phil Armstrong
• The Telepathy Tapes and “psychic” children - Michael Marshall
• EMDR Therapy: Is it real or bullshit? - Liz Shaw
• What’s wrong with the NCT - Frankie Spickernell
• Is The Chase rigged? - Tom Williamson
• Distortion of history for political ends - Mark Horne

Religion is unique to humans (as far as we can tell), and universal across cultures. But at the same time, religion clearly isn’t for everyone. How did our species evolve to have religion, and why are so many abandoning it? In this talk, I’ll showcase some of my lab’s work over the years on atheism – how atheists are perceived globally, how stigmatization of atheism distorts our scientific theories, and how understanding atheism can help us form better scientific questions about religion, morality, and human nature.