Lauren Lane

“What is cosplay? How do I get started if it sounds like fun? Do I have to sew? Join Jay Justice, Jashin Lee, and Emily Finke as they discuss how to start making and putting together costumes, and how to be a good cosplay citizen.“

And our panelists:

**Emily Finke**

By training a forensic anthropologist, but by passion a science communicator. Emily is happiest when they are in a creek, teaching 10 year olds how to catch crayfish and look for tardigrades, or in the desert, surrounded by dinosaur skeletons. They love to teach everything from entomophagy to exoplanets (or exoplanet-phagy, if you need a Science of Galactus talk) and will happily speak about science anywhere that there’s an interested audience: Sci-Fi conventions, Steampunk gatherings, Science in the Pub event, sometimes dressed as Batgirl.

**Jay Justice**

Jay Justice is a Jamaican-American cosplayer, editor, and advocate. Her work has been featured by SyFy, BBC America, and Marvel Comics, and she has been the inspiration for new characters in DC Comics and Boom Studios. Since 2009 she has crafted over 70 costumes and created panels at conventions across the country on the topics of comics, gaming, diversity in media and costuming. As an outspoken POC, LGBTQIA+ and disability advocate, Jay is dedicated to creating lasting change within her community & inspiring others to do the same.

**Jashin Lin**

Jashin makes pictures and words and sounds. Sometimes she puts them together.

Join us on Saturday, August 15th at 4pm CST for this amazing panel! RSVP to the Facebook event here — we’ll put the link you need in the description!

Love,

Skepticon

P.S. – Donate to Skepticon here! All donations go directly to hosting this event.

By Lauren Lane, 2 months2 months ago

Featured

SK12 Panel: How to Fix Everything

Hello Skepticoners!

We’re happy to announce a panel for this year’s virtual event. Introducing: How to Fix Everything

About the panel:

“There is too much to fix. No one can do it all, no matter how important it all is. That’s why we organize. But organizations still need your help. (Needing your money is a different panel.) Come find out what orgs are asking you to do when they send an action alert—and what they do to amplify your voice when you answer their call.“

And our panelists:

**Debbie Goddard**

Debbie Goddard is an organizer with experience in secular and skeptic organizing, queer activism, and racial justice work. Recently hired as VP, Programs at American Atheists, she now oversees American Atheists’ organizing, activism, and outreach programs and is a senior member of the leadership team. Before joining American Atheists, Debbie worked at the Center for Inquiry directing Campus & Community Programs and African Americans for Humanism. While there, she launched a national billboard campaign highlighting black freethinkers, coordinated an international campaign on blasphemy laws and free expression, and organized the Women in Secularism 4 conference and the annual CFI Leadership Conferences.

**Jen Scott**

Jen Scott is a community organizer and grassroots activist who has planned several protests including the Ark Encounter Protests, actions countering the KKK & the Westboro Baptist Church, and is an organizer for March for Science Cincinnati and Cincinnati Pride. She received the 2018 American Atheists Activist of the Year award at the national convention in Oklahoma City for her work as Kentucky State Director.
In 2019, she co-founded the Community of Reason (COR): Atheists and Humanists of Ohio and Kentucky based in Cincinnati. COR envisions a secular society that values science, reason, integrity, compassion and true equality for everyone.
She currently works for Equality Ohio as the Southwest Ohio Regional Organizer.

**Sam McGuire**

Sam McGuire has a varied background in counseling, education, event planning and volunteer management. As American Atheists’ National Field Director, she works with local grassroots activists, volunteers and affiliates to help them engage on emerging local civil rights issues, advocate for state level legislation, and build thriving communities.
Sam became involved in secular organizing and activism following the 2012 Reason Rally, first becoming a founding member of the Southern Maryland Chapter of the Washington Area Secular Humanists (WASH) and later President of the regional organization. Sam has volunteered for the American Humanist Association, Camp Quest Chesapeake, and the Secular Coalition for America. In 2016, she was the volunteer coordinator for over 200 volunteers for Reason Rally, as well as helping coordinate on-site logistics. She was elected to the Board of Directors and as President of the Reason Rally Coalition. Sam previously served as a volunteer regional director overseeing the local activism in the Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland areas for American Atheists, earning her the Atheist Activist of the Year award in 2019.
Sam has a Bachelor’s of Science in Neuropsychology from the University of Massachusetts and a Master’s of Science in Counseling from Johns Hopkins. She is a National Certified Counselor and a Certified Humanist Celebrant.

**Ashton P. Woods**

Unapologetically Black, same gender loving, HIV positive & atheist. All of these descriptors speak to the identity of the New Orleans native who at age fifteen took part in the founding of one of the first Gay/straight alliances ever in a New Orleans area high school. That was the genesis of his work as a civil rights activist. He knows what being marginalized looks and feels like which informs his philosophy that Black liberation and justice must be inter-sectional. Ashton’s belief in Black liberation and inter-sectional justice is highlighted by his active involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement, racial justice, feminism, LGBTQ rights and secular activism.
Ashton is currently based in Houston, TX and is the Co-Founder & lead organizer for Black Lives Matter: Houston. When he isn’t organizing, Ashton acts as Co-Chair for the Black Humanist Alliance, which is a coalition of secular activists under the American Humanist Association. In the LGBT community Ashton is very involved in the fight for equality and his efforts led to a recent appointment to the City of Houston’s first LGBT advisory board. As the founder of the Strength In Numbers Project and blog he writes about issues affecting the Black community while implementing the tenets set forth in the main project (more info). In addition to his own blog, Ashton writes as a blogger for POZ magazine and has contributed to many publications like The Humanist, The Body, Houston Press, and many others on a myriad of subjects.

Join us on Saturday, August 15th at 2:30pm CST for this amazing panel! RSVP to the Facebook event here — we’ll put the link you need in the description!

Love,

Skepticon

P.S. Every time you donate to Skepticon a dino heathen gets their wings.

By Lauren Lane, 2 months2 months ago

Featured

SK12 Panel: Who Gets to Be a SuperHero?

Hello Skepticoners!

We’re happy to announce a panel for this year’s virtual event. Introducing: Who Gets to Be a SuperHero?

About the panel:

“The whole point of a superhero is that they’re “super”. They are more than the rest of us somehow. Stronger, faster, better equipped, braver. What has that meant for who gets to be a superhero, and which writers and characters have challenged the limits of our imaginations?”

And our panelists:

**Sigrid Ellis**

Sigrid Ellis is co-editor of the Hugo-nominated Queers Dig Time Lords and Chicks Dig Comics anthologies. She edits the best-selling Pretty Deadly from Image Comics. She is the flash-fiction editor of Queers Destroy Science Fiction, from Lightspeed Press. She edited the Hugo-nominated Apex Magazine for 2014. She lives with her partner, their two homeschooled children, her partner’s boyfriend, and a host of vertebrate and invertebrate pets in Saint Paul, MN.

**Lathan Murrell**

Lathan likes science, history, comics, anime, B movies, martial arts, and music. Most of his time is spent studying or enjoying one of these things.

**Alix Jules**

Alix is a secular activist in the Dallas – Ft. Worth area commonly involved in issues and topics regarding the role of diversity in the atheist community as well as atheism in diverse communities.
He’s the chair of the Dallas – Fort Worth Coalition of Reason’s Diversity Council, Organizer for Black Nonbelievers of Dallas, and is a founding member of the largest family-based secular humanist organization in Texas, the Fellowship of Freethought. Alix has been featured in Ebony magazine, “One Man’s Journey into Atheism,” Godless – the documentary, ia a regular co-host on Dogma Debate (he’s the funny one), and is a contributing writer on Patheos, The Orbit, and other outlets where he provides social commentary and critique on race, religion, politics, and pizza.

Join us on Saturday, August 15th at 1pm CST for this amazing panel! RSVP to the Facebook event here — we’ll put the link you need in the description!

Love,

Skepticon

P.S. Donate here to keep Skepticon happening every year!

By Lauren Lane, 2 months2 months ago

Featured

Skepticon 12 Registration!

Hi Skeptifronds,

Registration for Skepticon 12 is going to work differently than how we’ve done it in the past as we’re moving to the Internet! Here’s how it’ll go:

RSVP to the SK12 Facebook event you want to go to
A zoom link will be in the Facebook event description
Click on the link when it’s time for the event you want to go to!

Here are the Facebook Events for our currently planned activities so you don’t miss out:

We may or may not add more as the week goes on because we’re fancy like that. Keep your eyes peeled on that FB events page!

All the hearts,

Skepticon

P.s. Help us pay for our fancy zoom account to bring you the Skepticonness by donating here!

By Lauren Lane, 2 months2 months ago

Featured

Skepticon 12 Trivia Night

Hello Skeptifolks!

Join us for an evening of trivia and merriment this upcoming Friday, August 14th at 9pm CST.

Hosted by Eli Heina Dadabhoy, this trivia night is sure to tickle your funny bones and also test your knowledge of all things. Yes, all of them.

Click here to RSVP to the Facebook event! A link will be shared in the event description so that you can join in and test your knowledge.

Do you have what it takes to win Skepticon trivia?

See you there!

Love,

Skepticon

P.S. All donations to Skepticon go directly to hosting the event, can you spare a few dollars?

By Lauren Lane, 2 months2 months ago

Featured

Introducing: The SkepTonight Show with Keith Lowell-Jensen!

Hello Skeptifriends!

Skepticon is officially making its first foray into late night tele-zoom-vision with The SkepTonight Show!

Illustrious Host Keith Lowell-Jensen will be chatting with special guests Eli Heina Dadabhoy, Leighann Lord, and Greta Christina late-night style. Each guest will share a special (and hilarious) story. You don’t want to miss this!

More About our hosts and guests:

***Keith Lowell-Jensen***

Comedian and connoisseur of silly straws, Keith Lowell-Jensen is a master of the funnies. This will be his second appearance at Skepticon because we promised him high-quality coffee (Note to self: find high-quality coffee). You can find all things Keith on his hilarious youtube channel, his very shiny website, his spectacularly caffeine fueled twitter, or take a part of him home forever by purchasing one of his DVDs or CDs.

**Eli Heina Dadabhoy**

Eli Heina Dadabhoy is an ex-Muslim atheist feminist who has written at Skepchick and Freethought Blogs. They now blog at The Orbit, a social-justice oriented network of which they are a co-founder. You may have heard them at Skepticon, the American Atheists National Convention, the Huffington Post Live, and Have Your Say on the BBC World Service or read about them in the New York Times.

**Leighann Lord**

Leighann Lord was the New York City face of the African Americans for Humanism outreach campaign sponsored by the Center for Inquiry and it’s Millions Living Happily Without Religion Campaign. Author Chris Johnson featured her in The Atheist Book: A Better Life. Leighann has been a co-host on the Emmy-nominated StarTalk with Neil de Grasse Tyson. Leighann is also a CFI certified Secular Celebrant; officiating at milestone life events commemorated with a nonreligious worldview. Most recently Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. named her one of the Northeast Region’s Significant Seven for her contribution in the field of entertainment. As a veteran stand-up comedian, Leighann has been seen on: Lifetime, VH-1, Comedy Central, HBO, and The View. She is a contributor to the Huffington Post and the author of Leighann Lord’s Dict Jokes: Alternate Definitions for Words You’ve Probably Never Heard of But Will Definitely Never Forget and Real Women Do It Standing Up: Stories From the Career of a Very Funny Lady.

**Greta Christina**

Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, and has been writing about atheism since 2005. She is author of several books, including “The Way of the Heathen: Practicing Atheism in Everyday Life,” “Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God,” “Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why, and “Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless.” She blogs at Greta Christina’s Blog, at The Orbit, and is on both Facebook and Twitter. She lives in San Francisco with her wife, Ingrid.

Also, Lauren will be there but please don’t expect any clapping push-ups. I mean, hey – those are difficult to capture with a laptop camera!

Click HERE to RSVP to the Facebook event page so you’re sure to enjoy the latest in Skepticon late-night entertainment!

Love,

Skepticon

P.S. – Keep our event running by donating here! All donations are greatly appreciated.

By Lauren Lane, 2 months2 months ago

Featured

Skeptiprom 12: MASKERADE

Hello Skeptitownville!

We’re taking our prom out of the building and into your browser this year when we host Skepticon 12: MASKERADE! (Get it? MASKerade??)

Mark your calendars for Saturday, August 15th at 9pm CST (or RSVP to this Facebook event) so that you won’t miss out on the coolest, most dino-iest, skeptiprom-iest dance of the year.

Let’s dance some cares away in 2020 together!

Love,

Skepticon

P.s. Donations can be made here to support our nonprofit!

By Lauren Lane, 2 months2 months ago

Featured

Are You There, Internet? It’s Me, Skepticon

Hello Skepticoners!

Wow, it’s been a minute or a week or a month or 5 million years (????) since we last chatted. What can we say? Pandemic time makes no sense.

We hope you are staying safe and healthy wherever you are. Times are wild and hard and we’re right there with you working in our communities and trying to keep ourselves and our families safe. Our dino hearts are with you, always.

We’re writing today because we have news: SKEPTICON 12 IS STILL HAPPENING.

That’s right. It’s. Still. Happening.

While we won’t be able to do Skepticon in person like we usually do, we are planning on doing some things here on the internet. Who’s excited to stare at more screens?! YAY! US, TOO!

We’ll be releasing details in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned and safe. Feel free to RSVP to our Facebook event to stay up to date, too!

All our love,

Skepticon HQ

P.s. – Donations can be made here to keep Skepticon running.

By Lauren Lane, 2 months2 months ago