This year, the NZ Skeptics conference goes international, joining the Australian Skeptics in Skepticon – a joint venture across the Tasman with a contingent of speakers from both countries and from around the world (UK, USA, Russia and Sudan). Speakers include New Zealander of the Year Siouxsie Wiles, Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield, American forensic pathologist & author Judy Melinek and Professor Richard Wiseman.
Skepticon will be run as an online event on November 20-21, 2021.

Topics to be covered are drawn from today’s headlines, ranging from COVID lies, Ivermectin scandals and dodgy data to communicating climate change and adapting to it, the ethics of self-driving cars, Alzheimer’s drugs, “parasitic ideas”, and women’s wellness and woo (that’s pseudoscience, for the non-skeptic).

A highlight of the conference will be the unveiling of the results of the Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project – probably the world’s largest project, using an international panel to evaluate the work of hundreds of psychics and thousands of predictions over a period of 20 years. How accurate do you think the psychics have been?

As part of Skepticon, the NZ Skeptics will announce our annual awards, including the Bent Spoon award, which goes to the person or organisation which has shown the most egregious gullibility or lack of critical thinking in public coverage of, or commentary on, a science-related issue.

The winner of our Bravo awards, and Skeptic of the Year, will also be announced.

This event will run the gamut of true critical thinking applied to science, medicine, communications, skepticism, pseudoscience and the paranormal.

More details and bookings are available at www.skepticon.org.au.
 

© Scoop Media