*Cancelled*  Apologies, but due to unforeseen circumstances this event has been cancelled. Do you have a blind spot? You’re probably sure that other people have. When Carmen started looking into the subject she found that sometimes, just when it’s important, our capacity for critical thinking goes out of the window and we make poor … Continue reading "*Cancelled* A Skeptics Guide To Spotting Bullshit *Cancelled*"

Brexit has highlighted the media world that we live in; television, newspapers, social media, podcasts; we all rely on these mediums for our ‘facts’. But what we also know from the Brexit debate is that much of what we see, read or hear isn’t fact; most is opinion, conjecture misinterpretation, or simply ‘fake news’. As … Continue reading "Crime, what crime?"

Neurotribes David Forsythe was a GP in Wateringbury for 30ish interesting years. When his mother, a primary school teacher, asked him ‘Have you read Jane Austin’s Persuasion’? he replied he'd never read a book from end to end. She dismissed him with a ‘Don’t be silly, you’re a GP!’. Having been diagnosed as being dyslexic … Continue reading "Neurotribes And The Pleasure Of Being Labelled"

Transylvania is a byword for vampires and gypsy magic – but there is so much more strangeness that makes Dracula look pretty tame. Lore is passed on through fireside tales of demons, underworlds and wicked spirits that exist alongside humans, of a creator God who has long abandoned his world. Transylvania has long been a … Continue reading "Myths and Legends of Transylvania"

Steiner School taken by Nigel Cox *Postponed due to illness* With Michael Gove and the coalition approving new Steiner Schools to open under the Free School Programme, it is timely to look closely at the origins and beliefs of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the occult movement of Anthroposophy. Steiner was a mystic who believed … Continue reading "*Postponed* What Every Parent Needs To Know About Steiner Schools"

Professor Chris French, head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, explores the myriad ways in which are our memories can fail us. Together we’ll consider the unreliability of eyewitness testimony and its consequences, as well as our tendency to create entirely false memories, either spontaneously or as a result of dubious forms of … Continue reading "Forgetting Ourselves: Reflections On Memory And Identity"

'Sell Off' is a film by Peter Bach about the selling off, privatisation of our health service, and dismantling of our NHS. The film is just under an hour long, and charts how successive governments have dismantled our health service over a 30 year period. This documentary is split into 10 chapters, and features many … Continue reading "Sell Off- Film Screening"

The vast majority of buildings are a mixture of ignition sources and materials that can act as fuel meaning fire risks have to be managed carefully. Tall buildings, especially where people live, are a particular challenge because of their shape and size. In this lecture Dr Claire M Benson will discuss the technical measures that … Continue reading "Tall Building Fire Safety: The Burning Issue"

When the Uncertainty Principle goes to 11. There are deep and fundamental links between quantum physics and heavy metal. I know that a Skeptics In The Pub audience will be deeply sceptical about that claim, but there are. Really. Far from being music for Neanderthals, as it’s too often construed, metal can be harmonically and … Continue reading "When The Uncertainty Principle Goes To 11"

Comedy writer and journalist Ariane Sherine created and organised the Atheist Bus Campaign, persuading Richard Dawkins and Humanists UK to support her – and buses with variations on the slogan ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life’ ran in 13 countries across the globe. As a result, Ariane received an Inbox … Continue reading "Talk Yourself Better"