Lauren Lane

HELLO SKEPTICON FRIENDS!

O. M. G. have we missed you! What have you been up to? Did you do cool things? I certainly hope so.

We’re writing to you today from our hibernation caves to give you a little update on Skepticon 11. As we mentioned at the end of our last conference, we’re moving! While this is certainly exciting (are you ready St. Louis?!) — it’s taking some time. We’re not going to be able to host an event in 2018 so look for updates towards the end of this year regarding SK11 in 2019!

In the meantime our leadership team is going to take a small break and maybe take up knitting or karate or yoga or something. We certainly won’t be too far (after all, we’ve got some fun surprises coming up this summer! JUST YOU WAIT!), and we hope that you won’t wander to far away, either!

If you’re feeling it — send us a love note via Facebook, Twitter, Email, or carrier pigeon. OH, and donations are always welcome (lol lawsuits while lol fundraising).

We’re also always looking for fresh new faces to our leadership team, and if that could be you then drop us a line! We’d love to talk more.

Love always,

Skepticon

Hello Skepticon world!

We’re very super a lot excited to announce a last minute addition to our lineup: a panel!

Introducing: Diversifying Atheist Voices

 

Even after years of work on the problem, the atheist movement is still largely represented by white cishet men. We’ve put together a panel of podcasters whose guest lists are more diverse than the movement as a whole. We’ll talk about how and why they do that and whether it’s difficult in any way.

Say Hello to our Panelists:

Maddy Love

Maddy Love, transwoman living in Minnesota, talks with and about people in the trans, atheism, skepticism, and science communities. Then, since there’s no one to stop her, she talks about anything else she finds interesting or irritating – like podcast hosts writing summaries of themselves in the 3rd person. When not podcasting Maddy may be hosting Atheist Talk on the Minneapolis airwaves 9am, Sunday mornings at AM 950 KTNF. 

Marissa Alexa McCool

Chris Watson

Chris is the host of The Podunk Polymath, ‘a podcast dedicated to the sentiments of a secular, sarcastic, screwed up Southern SJW and skeptic.’ He wants to promote more diversity in his chosen medium, because the podcast community doesn’t need more cishet White guys.

WOOHOOO! Many thanks to the amazing Stephanie Zvan who will be hosting this awesome panel on Friday night from 9pm–10pm on the main stage.

See you all soon!

Love,

Skepticon

Hey Skepticon lovers!

Starting today and running until the very end of Skepticon (that would be Nov. 1st — Nov. 12th) Skepticon will be doing a matching donation challenge! 

That’s right, every dollar you donate until Skepticon 10 is over NOW COUNTS AS DOUBLE! Donate today and help us make this year happen!

Love,

Skepticon

Hello Skepticoners!

I bet you’d like to know what kind of awesome things our speakers are going to be talking about AND BY GOLLY YOU WILL KNOW!

• Dr. Samantha Montano
  • From Acts of Gods to Disasterology: This presentation will explore the evolution from considering disasters as “Acts of God” to studying them scientifically. For much of human history calamities were viewed as being outside human control. As a scientific understanding of natural hazards like hurricanes and earthquakes developed, a shift towards interpreting disasters as natural phenomena took hold. In ascribing the cause of disasters to God and/ or nature, human responsibility for preventing disasters was removed. A third shift among the scientific community has led us to view disasters as invoking the relationship between nature and society. This understanding, while relatively long held within the scientific community, has begun to permeate to the general public. After disasters like Hurricane Harvey and Irma, we see news stories with titles like “This was no natural disaster” as people begin to make the connections to how human action contributes to disasters. Soon the term “natural disaster” will likely become as obsolete as “Act of God”.
• Jessica Xiao
  • Fostering online communities/mobilizing them for action.
• Mandisa Thomas
  • Mandisa Thomas will be explaining why it’s important to effectively manage organizations, and the people in them.
• Mika McKinnon
  • Pre-Apocalyptic Party Planning: No where is safe from disasters, and it’s only a matter of time before catastrophe strikes. But you don’t need to passively await certain doom! This is a planning guide for hosting parties that enhance g personal preparedness and community resilience while having a good time. (Really!)
• Randall Jenson
  • Queering Violence
• Ross Blocher
  • Ross Blocher takes you on a wild journey through his interactions with various religious groups, alternative medical practitioners, fringe scientists and paranormalists. Along the way, learn by example (and counter-example) where you can have effective conversation and when it’s best to cut your losses.
• Leighann Lord
  • Stand Up Comedy!
• Laura Thomas
  • Why are some drugs legal and others not? Is strawberry-flavored meth really a thing? Come learn about drugs, people who use drugs, prohibition, and how to be a skeptical consumer of media reports about drugs.
• Nikki Jane
  • Mental health and the black community: Discussing what suicide/mental illness look like in the black community, and how we can make changes.

Do you guys know a good doctor? Because this LINEUP LOOKS SICK! Can’t wait to see these amazing speakers on stage!

See you all SOOOOON!

Love,

Team Skepticon

P.s. Did you know that we rely completely upon donations to keep Skepticon running? Donate today and help make our event happen!

My goodness! We’ve had a heck of a year trying to get the schedule locked down for Skepticon 10. BUT BY GOODNESS WE ARE READY TO SHARE AND I HOPE YOU ARE, TOO!

Oh and hey — we’re doing a few things different this year. For one, we’ve decided to add more workshops to our lineup. We want to be sure that if you’re coming to Skepticon that you’re not only learning but getting some hands-on experience doing the stuff that you care about. Saturday and Sunday are split in half with part of the day dedicated to awesome hands-on workshops and the other half to our classic main stage speakers.

AND THAT’S NOT ALL! On top of a Skepticon workshop track, we’re teaming up with Secular Woman and Foundation Beyond Belief to offer you three amazing tracks of workshops.

Look at the whole schedule here!

Love,
Skepticon

P.s. — Donate to Skepticon and help us keep this amazing event happening each year.

Hey all,

Kayley Whalen will be unable to join us for Skepticon this year. At this time, there are no plans to substitute another speaker but hey — you never know!

Stay tuned for more news on the SK10 Schedule!

Love,

Skepticon

Hello Skepticon Lovers!

Please welcome Jessica Xiao as the next speaker to the Skepticon 10 lineup!

Jessica Xiao is a Washington, DC-based writer, interested in activist culture, radical vulnerability, feminism, race and identity, mass incarceration, and climate injustice. You can find her work at Everyday Feminism, The Establishment, Huffington Post, TheHumanist.com, and Medium.

She is the Prison Book Club Coordinator at Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop, a nonprofit serving incarcerated youth tried as adults. She is also a grant writer for Artistri Sud, a Montreal-based nonprofit providing social entrepreneurship and leadership development training to Indigenous women artisans.

Previously, she was a Community Facilitator for McGill University’s “Social Learning for Social Impact” GROOC (massive open online course for groups) and the Marketing and Communications Lead for their environmental hackathon “On the Earth, For the Earth” at the 2016 World Social Forum.

From 2015 to 2016, Jessica was the Projects Assistant at the American Humanist Association, Operations Manager at Humanist Press, and Assistant Editor at TheHumanist.com. She is Co-Chair of the Feminist Humanist Alliance.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Economics and Psychology from McGill University. You can find her on Twitter @jexxicuh.

We’re so excited to have them join us for our tenth year and we hope you are, too. And hey — this completes our speaker name releases for this year. 10 amazing speakers for our amazing 10th year — how poetic and on theme!

Love,

Skepticon

P.S. — Please consider donating to Skepticon today and help us make this year amazing!

Hello Skepticon Lovers!

Please welcome Libby Cowgill as the next speaker to the Skepticon 10 lineup!

My research focuses on several different areas within the subdicipline of biological anthropology. Specifically, I study Pleistocene human evolution, human growth and development, human skeletal variation, and functional morphology. My current research program entails exploring the relationship between childhood activity patterns and the formation of adult skeletal morphology. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how much of variation in adult form is contingent on activity levels during development. I teach courses in human osteology, human biology and life history, methods of skeletal analysis, and the human fossil record.

We’re so excited to have them join us for our tenth year and we hope you are, too!

Love,

Skepticon

P.S. — Please consider donating to Skepticon today and help us make this year amazing!

Hello Skepticon Lovers!

Please welcome Mandisa Thomas as the next speaker to the Skepticon 10 lineup!

Mandisa Thomas is the founder and President of Black Nonbelievers, Inc. Although never formally indoctrinated into belief, Mandisa was heavily exposed to Christianity, Black Nationalism, and Islam. As a child she loved reading, and enjoyed various tales of Gods from different cultures, including Greek and Ghanaian. “Through reading these stories and being taught about other cultures at an early age, I quickly noticed that there were similarities and differences between those deities and the God of the Christian Bible. I couldn’t help but wonder what made this God so special that he warrants such prevalence in today’s society,” she recalls.

Mandisa has a number of media appearances to her credit, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CBS Sunday Morning, CNN.com, and JET magazine. She has been a guest on podcasts such as The Humanist Hour and Ask an Atheist, as well as the documentaries Contradiction and My Week in Atheism. Mandisa currently serves on the Boards for American Atheists and the Reason Rally Coalition, and previously for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Coalition for America. She also is an active speaker, and has presented at conferences/conventions for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Secular Student Alliance, and many others.

As the president of Black Nonbelievers, Inc., Mandisa works to encourage more Blacks to come out and stand strong with their nonbelief in the face of such strong religious overtones. “The more we make our presence known, the better our chances of working together to turn around some of the disparities we face. We are NOT alone.”

We’re so excited to have them join us for our tenth year and we hope you are, too!

Love,

Skepticon

P.S. — Please consider donating to Skepticon today and help us make this year amazing!