CSICon Speakers List

James Alcock

James E. Alcock is professor emeritus of psychology at York University, Toronto, Canada. He is author of Belief: What It Means to Believe and Why Our Convictions Are So Compelling, Parapsychology: Science or Magic?, and Science and Supernature. He is also coeditor of Psi Wars: Getting to Grips with the Paranormal. He is a member of CSI’s executive council and of the Skeptical Inquirer editorial board.

Meagan Ankney

Meagan Ankney is a geologist by training, a chemist by trade, and a lifelong Halloween enthusiast. In 2020, she took her love of all things spooky and her passion for science communication to the podcasting world when she founded the Spooky Science Sisters podcast with her ride-or-die sister-in-law, Paige Miller. Together, they coauthored Spooky Science: Dissecting the Mysteries of Ghosts, Cryptids, Aliens, and Other Oddities.

Banachek

Banachek is the world's leading mentalist. Banachek’s Mind Games Live is in Las Vegas at the prestigious Strat hotel, Casino and Skypod. Banachek has performed on major TV shows from CNN Live, to the Today Show and had hundreds of smaller appearances on TV shows the world over, including appearing on and producing over 100 TV shows for Criss Angel

Evan Bernstein

Evan Bernstein is cohost of The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe and the Which Game First podcasts. He is coauthor of the bestselling book The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake. He serves as the executive director of the New England Skeptical Society (NESS) and is a technical adviser for official NESS investigations. He has given live presentations to private corporations and at educational seminars on topics including the direct harms of pseudoscience, woo in the martial arts, and the truth behind paranormal investigations. He has been an active participant in the modern skeptical movement since 1996.

Kenny Biddle

Kenny Biddle is an accomplished investigator, skeptical thinker, and educator known for his work in the realm of paranormal research and skepticism. He is a CSI fellow and, in 2022, became the chief investigator for CSI. With a passion for uncovering the truth behind purported supernatural phenomena, Biddle has dedicated his career to applying critical thinking and scientific methodology to explore claims of ghosts, UFOs, psychic abilities, and other extraordinary occurrences. Drawing upon his background in photography, videography, and technical analysis, Biddle employs a multifaceted approach to investigate paranormal claims, meticulously examining evidence to separate fact from fiction. In addition to his investigative work, Biddle is a fervent advocate for science literacy and rational inquiry. Through his writing, speaking engagements, and extensive online presence, he seeks to empower others to think critically and question extraordinary claims, fostering a culture of skepticism grounded in evidence-based reasoning.

Timothy Binga

Timothy Binga has been director of libraries at the Center for Inquiry (CFI) since 1997 and has held many additional positions there. Currently he is the director of CFI Libraries, the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum, and the Freethought Trail. He also works as IT manager and runs the CFI online store. He is active in the local library community and was an adjunct instructor at the University at Buffalo. In addition to acquiring, curating, and preserving skeptical and freethought materials, he has assisted many researchers, producers, and authors. He has written for Skeptical Inquirer, Free Inquiry, the New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, the Encyclopedia of Time, the Dictionary of Early American Philosophers, and more.

Robyn Blumner

Robyn E. Blumner joined the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science as executive director in February 2014, and a year later she was promoted to president and chief executive officer. In January 2016, she became president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry. She came off a sixteen-year career as a nationally syndicated columnist and editorial writer at the Tampa Bay Times newspaper (formerly the St. Petersburg Times). Blumner is an expert on civil liberties and civil rights. She has written extensively on church-state separation, free speech, and privacy issues as well as economics and the diminishing power of the middle class. In 2012, she was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing along with three colleagues. Blumner was executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah from 1987 to 1989 and executive director of the ACLU of Florida from 1989 to 1997. In that role she led efforts to protect abortion and student free speech rights and to prevent the adoption of school vouchers, among dozens of public policy battles. Blumner attended Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, graduating with honors in 1982. Her law degree comes from New York University School of Law, where she graduated in 1985. She is a member of the New York State Bar.

Alejandro Borgo

Alejandro Borgo is director of the Center for Inquiry Argentina and a journalist, writer, and musician. He has written two books about pseudoscience and critical thinking. He is editor of Pensar magazine (pensar.org) and has been a speaker at several skeptics congresses and conferences.

Brian Brushwood

Brian Brushwood is a professional speaker and media creator who specializes in explaining how people actually make decisions in security-critical environments. Best known as the creator and host of Scam School and founder of The Modern Rogue, Brian draws on 25 years as a touring magician, television host (Hacking the System, National Geographic), and podcast storyteller (World’s Greatest Con) to explore persuasion, trust, and social engineering. His talks focus on the gap between rational policy and real human behavior—revealing why “easy-button” solutions fail, and how attackers exploit cognitive blind spots.

Perry Carpenter 

Perry Carpenter is a multi-award-winning author, podcaster, and speaker with a passion for deception and technology. With over two decades of experience in cybersecurity, Carpenter has dedicated his career to understanding how cybercriminals exploit human behavior. Through engaging storytelling and practical advice, Carpenter equips audiences around the world with the knowledge and tools needed to navigate the complexities of AI-driven deception. His latest book is FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions.

David Cowan

David Cowan is a filmmaker, science philanthropist, and venture capitalist. He is the producer and creator of the award-winning MTV Documentary Afghan Dreamers, trustee of the Center for Inquiry, and Board Member of the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He is the founder of VeriSign and Good Technology, and he was listed fourteen times on the Forbes Midas List in recognition of his early venture capital investments in dozens of successful technology startups, such as Rocket Lab, LinkedIn, and Twitch.

Brian Dunning

Science writer Brian Dunning is the host and producer of the Skeptoid podcast (skeptoid.com), one of the longest running and consistently most popular independent science podcasts, having surpassed 100 million downloads in 2017. He is also the writer and producer of the documentary films The UFO Movie THEY Don’t Want You to See (2023), Science Friction (2022), and Principles of Curiosity (2017). He has appeared on numerous radio shows and television documentaries and hosts the science video series inFact with Brian Dunning (infactvideo.com). He is the author of seven books, including Conspiracies Declassified (Simon & Schuster, 2018). Formerly a computer scientist, Dunning now uses new media to promote science literacy and critical thinking. He is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and lives in central Oregon.

Michael Edwards

Michael Edwards is a former teen magician and escape artist. In 1979 (while still a high school senior), he convinced an audience of 200 University of Northern Iowa psychology students and their professor that he was a genuine psychic. He used that professor’s letter of reference to be accepted as a subject at the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research in St. Louis. This started the infamous “Project Alpha” that later included James “The Amazing” Randi and Banachek. A successful businessman, Edwards is a frequent lecturer and guest speaker about psychic research and the ways that today’s advertising and press tries to manipulate viewers/readers.

Ruth Frazier

Ruth Frazier is the widow of Kendrick Frazier, the long-time editor of the Skeptical Inquirer, who died in 2022. Because the magazine was edited in their home, she had the opportunity to read many of the manuscripts as they were sent in and to meet many of the authors. She was trained as a community organizer and was the CEO of an international nonprofit that worked with Native American communities in the Southwest and in Central and South America. She consulted and taught fundraising and board development in Afghanistan, Kenya, and Lebanon, as well as to many Native American organizations. In later years she became an advocate to raise awareness and funds to eliminate HPV, a preventable and treatable cancer virus. The Fraziers’ daughter Michele Frazier Baldwin completed a successful expedition on the Ganga River in India before her untimely death from cervical cancer, one of the four caused by HPV. Ruth said of Ken’s work with CFI: “Perhaps like never before has the need for critical thinking been apparent. Ken’s love and knowledge of so many facets of science was, and continues to be, the heart of the skeptical movement. Perhaps the need to listen to real scientists has never been greater, so we can all consider this time to be filled with opportunities—to explain, to remind and to stand firm.”

Susan Gerbic

Susan Gerbic founded and manages About Time, a nonprofit organization focusing on scientific skepticism and activism. While her particular focus has been grief vampires (psychics), her activism encompasses all areas of skepticism. Affectionately called the Wikipediatrician, Gerbic is the founder of the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) project. She is a fellow of CSI and writes a column, “Guerilla Skepticism,” for Skeptical Inquirer online. She is also the cofounder of the Monterey County Skeptics. Gerbic is the winner of the 2019 CSI Robert P. Balles Prize for Critical Thinking. You can find out more at AboutTimeProject.org.

Raymond Edward Hall

Raymond Edward Hall, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Physics at California State University, Fresno, where he teaches courses in engineering physics, quantum mechanics, particle physics, critical thinking, and the philosophy of science. His current work focuses on the use of social media to promote public interest in physics and science. His Instagram page (@physicsfun) has more than 2 million followers.

Shawn Hardin

Shawn Hardin is an accomplished filmmaker and tech entrepreneur. He led three VC-backed, subsequently acquired tech startups, and his work as a producer, director, cinematographer, and editor encompasses over seventy productions with companies such as NBC, MTV, Columbia Tristar, and 20th Century Fox. He’s a director member of the Directors Guild of America and cofounder of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Interactive Media Group and The Producers Guild of America New Media Council. Recently, he founded and ran OnlySky Media, a new media company catering to the growing population of religiously unaffiliated Americans

Peter Hotez

Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also the codirector of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics. He is also University Professor at Baylor University. In 2022, Hotez and his colleague Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for “their work to develop and distribute a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine to people of the world without patent limitation.” His books include Blue Marble Health, Poverty and the Impact of COVID-19, Preventing the Next Pandemic, Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases, The Deadly Rise of Anti-science, and Science under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World (coauthored with Michael E. Mann).

George Hrab

George Hrab is best known in his hometown of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as the long-time drummer for The Philadelphia Funk Authority. Hrab is internationally beloved as the sparkling personality behind 950 episodes of The Geologic Podcast. With a knack for quick-witted improv and a deep appreciation of history and trivia, Hrab is also cocreator and host of both the multi-generational game show Boomer vs. Zoomer and the touring educational roadshow A Skeptical Extravaganza of Special Significance. He has published two books of humorous essays (Non-Coloring Book and Spiritual Healing & Balance through Colonic Regularity). Hrab’s commitment to science communication has led him to emcee countless conferences and conventions all over the world, including The Reason Rally on the mall in Washington, DC, and The Amazing Meeting and CSICon in Las Vegas. He’s been a TEDx speaker (“Rethinking Doubt: The Value and Achievements of Skepticism”) and has presented multiple talks about the importance of critical thinking, science appreciation, dealing with grief, and popular culture. His latest album Terpsichore is a funky throwback and homage to the infectious music he grew up with.

Stephen Hupp

Stephen Hupp, PhD, is the executive director of CSI and the editor of Skeptical Inquirer. He is also a psychology professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. His edited books include Investigating Pop Psychology (with Richard Wiseman), Investigating Clinical Psychology (with Jonathan Stea), Science-Based Therapy (with David Tolin), and Pseudoscience in Therapy: A Skeptical Field Guide (with Cara Santa Maria).

Leo Igwe

Leo Igwe holds an MA in philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria and a doctoral degree in religious studies from the University of Bayreuth in Germany. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department for the Study of Religions (Islam, African Publics, and Religious Values) at the University of Cape Town (2021/2022), with research interests in witchcraft and atheism/nonreligion in Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. Igwe founded the Nigerian Humanist Movement, now the Humanist Association of Nigeria, in 1996 and was the director of Center for Inquiry Nigeria. He shares his time directing the Advocacy for Alleged Witches, Critical Thinking Social Empowerment Foundation, and Humanist Enabling Life Project, as well as serving on the board of Humanists International.

Barry Karr

Barry Karr is a member of CSI’s executive council and served as the organization’s executive director until his retirement in 2025. CSI is one of the world’s leading organizations promoting scientific skepticism and critical thinking. Based out of Amherst, New York, Karr has been a central figure in the modern skeptical movement for more than three decades. He has worked to encourage the public understanding of science, support investigations into claims of the paranormal, and promote rational inquiry in education and the media. Karr has contributed to Skeptical Inquirer magazine and coordinated CSI’s investigations, outreach programs, and conferences (including CSICon). Known for his steady leadership and collaborative approach, he has helped guide CSI through its evolution into a global voice for evidence-based reasoning.

Scott Hamilton Kennedy

Scott Hamilton Kennedy is an Academy Award nominee and a multifaceted filmmaker known for his impactful documentaries that often delve into pressing social issues. As the founder of Black Valley Films, he has created critically acclaimed works, such as The Garden and Food Evolution, showcasing his commitment to science and truth in storytelling. His latest project, Shot in the Arm, addresses the intersection of health crises and misinformation, further establishing him as a vital voice in contemporary documentary filmmaking.

Leighann Lord

Leighann Lord (veryfunnylady.com), the emcee for the 2026 CSICon, is a seasoned New York City–based stand-up comedian. Lord is a former cohost of the Emmy-nominated StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson, and she can be seen in Showtime’s Even More Funny Women of a Certain Age. In addition to CSICon, she has shared her comedic and hosting talents at conferences for many secular organizations, including American Atheists, American Humanists, the Center for Inquiry, and The PA Freethought Society. She emceed DragonCon’s Science and Skeptical Tracks, NECSS: The Northeast Conference on Science & Skepticism, PASHTACon, and Skepticon. She was honored with the 2019 Humanist Arts Award from the American Humanist Association. Lord currently cohosts the Center for Inquiry’s live show Skeptical Inquirer Presents.

Andrea Love

Andrea Love is a biomedical scientist and science communicator with a PhD in microbiology and immunology. She has over a decade of experience in basic sciences, translational medicine, and clinical research. Love is a subject matter expert in infectious disease immunology, cancer immunology, and autoimmunity and is adept at translating complex scientific data and topics for the public and healthcare providers. She works full-time in life science biotechnology in the fields of vaccinology, immunology, immunotherapy, cancer, cell and gene therapy, and other relevant areas. While she will always be a biomedical scientist, Love has a passion for helping the public understand complex science topics to navigate the world better. She is the author of ImmunoLogic, a newsletter and science information hub that communicates evidence-based information on science and health topics. She is also the executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer, an advisory board member for POPSUGAR’s Condition Center, and was the 2023 American Medical Writers Association McGovern Award recipient. She also teaches continuing medical education courses for healthcare professionals. Love is passionate about improving science literacy starting from an early age and encouraging children toward a career in STEM.

Malorie Mackey

Malorie Mackey is an investigative journalist who studies anthropology with a specialization in mythology, occult studies, and folklore. As a member of the Explorers Club and host of the show and podcast Weird World Adventures, she is always excited to investigate the unknown. In 2025, she coauthored a cover story for Skeptical Inquirer about how the hit Broadway show Wicked mirrors real-world intersections between belief and skepticism.

Michael Mann

Michael E. Mann, PhD, is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. He also serves as vice provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media (PCSSM). He contributed, with other Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) authors, to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He’s author of numerous books, including Dire Predictions, The Madhouse Effect, The New Climate War, Our Fragile Moment, and Science under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World (coauthored with Peter J. Hotez).

Bob Novella

Robert Novella is the cohost of The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe and Alpha Quadrant 6 podcasts. He also cowrote the book The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake and contributed to the book The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future. Novella’s scientific interests lie in the extremes, from the gargantuan to the infinitesimal: from cosmology and multiverses to particle physics and quantum mechanics. He is especially fascinated by anticipated future technologies, such as nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and human augmentation.

Jay Novella

Jay Novella is a skeptic, podcaster, and coauthor who’s been fighting pseudoscience since the days of dial-up internet. He cohosts The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast where he’s spent decades expertly side-eyeing nonsense. He is also a coauthor of the best-selling books The Skeptics Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake and The Skeptics Guide to the Future. He produces several live and recorded shows, including the stage show A Skeptical Extravaganza of Special Significance, the quiz show Boomer vs. Zoomer, and the science fiction review show Alpha Quadrant 6. Novella is a cofounder and producer of the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS). Novella has enthusiastically spoken at conferences around the world and has committed himself to being a vocal activist for science, education, and critical thinking.

Steve Novella

Steven Novella, MD, recently retired from his position as an academic neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine. He is cohost of The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast, author of the Neurologica blog, and contributor to the Science-Based Medicine blog. His books include The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake and The Skeptics Guide to the Future. He is also a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

Bill Nye

Bill Nye is an American science educator, engineer, comedian, television presenter, inventor, keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Nye is a respected champion of scientific literacy who has challenged opponents of evidence-based education and policy on climate change, evolution, and critical thinking. In 2025, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he also guest-edited a special issue of Skeptical Inquirer.

Rob Palmer

Rob Palmer has had a diverse career in engineering, having worked as a spacecraft designer, an aerospace project engineer, a computer programmer, and a software systems engineer. Rob became a skeptical activist when he joined the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia team in 2016, and began writing for skepticalinquirer.org in 2018.

Rob can be contacted at TheWellKnownSkeptic@gmail.com

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Ben Radford

Benjamin Radford, MPH, MEd, is a research fellow at CSI, deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer, folklorist, podcaster, and author or coauthor of fourteen books and over a thousand articles on skepticism, critical thinking, and media literacy. His books include America the Fearful and Weird New Mexico (coming fall 2026). 

Rina Raphael

Rina Raphael is a journalist who specializes in health, wellness, and misinformation. She covered the wellness industry for Fast Company magazine and currently writes for the New York Times, LA Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Men’s Health, and The Free Press. Her book, The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop and the False Promise of Self-Care, explores Americans’ waning faith—and spiritual replacements (Macmillan/Henry Holt).

Daniel Reed

Daniel Reed is the founder of the West Virginia Skeptics Society and a frequent contributor to Skeptical Inquirer magazine and its website. He works as a counselor during the day, but in his free time he investigates the strange and unusual. He also regularly gives lectures and presentations on the importance of critical thinking and skepticism. In 2025, he wrote a cover story for Skeptical Inquirer about how the show Stranger Things mirrors real-world events, such as Project Alpha and the Stargate Project.

Mary Roach

Mary Roach is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers, including STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; GULP: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, and PACKING FOR MARS: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, FUZZ: When Nature Breaks the Law and her newest book Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy. Mary's books have been published in 21 languages, and her second book, SPOOK, was a New York Times Notable Book. Mary has written for National Geographic, Wired, The New York Times Magazine, and the Journal of Clinical Anatomy, among others. She was a guest editor of the Best American Science and Nature Writing series and an Osher Fellow with the San Francisco Exploratorium and serves as an advisor for Orion and Undark magazines. She has been a finalist for the Royal Society's Winton Prize and a winner of the American Engineering Societies' Engineering Journalism Award, in a category for which, let's be honest, she was the sole entrant. More at www.maryroach.net

Cara Santa Maria

Cara Santa Maria, PhD, is a licensed clinical health psychologist in the outpatient cancer center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She is also a Los Angeles Area Emmy and Knight Foundation Award–winning journalist, science communicator, television presenter, author, and podcaster. For over a decade, Santa Maria has been a cohost on The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast, and she coauthored their eponymous book. She also created and hosts the weekly science podcast Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria, producing over 575 episodes to date. Currently, she narrates the PBS SoCal series Earth Focus; additional television credits include National Geographic’s Brain Games and Explorer, Netflix’s Bill Nye Saves the World, Al Jazeera America’s TechKnow, and Participant Media’s TakePart Live, among others.

Amardeo Sarma

Amardeo Sarma is a CSI fellow and member of CSI’s executive council. He is founder and past chairman of the German skeptics organization GWUP. He has been involved in industrial research for more than thirty-five years and is currently general manager at NEC Research Laboratories Europe in Germany.

Richard Saunders

Richard Saunders is a renowned Australian skeptic, documentary filmmaker, and TV personality known for his incisive investigations and commentary. As the chief investigator of Australian Skeptics, he has made numerous television appearances, sharing his expertise on skeptical inquiries. Saunders hosts the Skeptic Zone podcast.

Eugenie Scott

Eugenie C. Scott, PhD, is the former executive director of the National Center for Science Education, Inc., a not-for-profit that works to improve the teaching of science as a way of knowing, the teaching of evolution, and the teaching of climate change. A former college professor, Scott is an internationally known expert on the creationism vs. evolution controversy and science denialism. She has received lifetime achievement awards from both the American Humanist Association and the Center for Inquiry, as well as the Skeptic Society’s James Randi Award. She also received the Richard Dawkins Award from Atheist Alliance International. In 2009, Scientific American named her “one of 10 outstanding leaders involved in research, business or policy pursuits that have advanced science and technology.” She holds ten honorary doctorates. Asteroid 249540 Eugeniescott was named for her in 2014.

Katie Suleta

Katie Suleta is a public health researcher and science writer. Suleta is known for her work in countering medical misinformation and pseudoscience within the wellness industry. Her research and writing often focus on health literacy, clinical research, and policy and regulation. She holds a doctorate of health sciences from George Washington University, an MS in Health Informatics from Boston University, and an MPH from DePaul University. Her work has been featured in Skeptical Inquirer, American Council on Science and Health’s publications, MedPage Today, and more.

Eddie Tabash

Eddie Tabash is a constitutional lawyer in Los Angeles. He is the chair of the Board of Directors for the Center for Inquiry. The son of an orthodox rabbi and an Auschwitz-surviving mother, after decades of research and reflection, he has concluded that the universe is natural with no supernatural beings or occurrences. He is known for his involvement in defending the separation of church and state and for representing the atheistic point of view in debates against religious advocates.

Nick Tiller

Nick Tiller is a physiologist on a mission to bring skepticism and scientific thinking to the Wild West of wellness. A research associate at the Lundquist Institute, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Tiller is a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer online and author of The Skeptic’s Guide to Sports Science. His new book, The Health and Wellness Lie, is described as “a blistering exposé of a trillion-dollar con.” In 2023, Tiller was named a CSI fellow for his work advancing science literacy and critical thinking.

Melanie Trecek-King

Melanie Trecek-King is the creator of Thinking Is Power—whose name is a riff on the old adage “knowledge is power”—which emphasizes learning the ability to find and use reliable information to make wiser decisions. Thinking Is Power uses accessible language and engaging graphics to demonstrate how to think, not what to think, and empowers learners to protect themselves from misinformation. Trecek-King is also an associate professor of biology at Massasoit Community College, where she teaches an award-winning science course designed to equip general-education students with essential critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy skills. An active writer, speaker, and consultant, Trecek-King loves to share her “teach skills, not facts” approach with other science educators and help schools and organizations meet their goals through better thinking.

Jim Underdown

Jim Underdown is executive director of Center for Inquiry West and the chair and founder of the CFI Investigations Group. He is also one of the co-hosts of CFI's flagship podcast, Point of Inquiry, available at pointofinquiry.org

Bertha Vazquez

Bertha Vazquez taught middle school science in Miami-Dade County Public Schools for thirty-four years. As a teacher, she was the recipient of several national and local honors, including the 2014 Samsung’s $150,000 Solve for Tomorrow Contest and the Charles C. Bartlett Award for the National Environmental Education Foundation in 2009. She was Miami-Dade County Public School’s Science Teacher of the Year in 1997, 2008, and 2017. She was also the winner of the NABT’s 2017 Evolution Education Award and NCSE’s 2023 Friend of Darwin award. Vazquez is the education director at the Center for Inquiry, a nonprofit organization that promotes science and reason. Her books include On Teaching Evolution (2021) and What Teachers Want to Know about Teaching Climate Change (2025).

Stuart Vyse

Stuart Vyse is a psychologist and author who, from November 2022 to July 2023, served as the interim editor for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, where he also writes its “Behavior & Belief” column. His books include The Uses of Delusion: Why It’s Not Always Rational to Be Rational, Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition, and Superstition: A Very Short Introduction.

Dan Wilson

Dan Wilson earned his PhD in biological sciences from Carnegie Mellon University. He works as a scientist in industry and spends some of his free time debunking vaccine and medical misinformation on YouTube with his channel Debunk the Funk with Dr. Wilson. He recently started writing a column for Skeptical Inquirer online called “Investigate the Fringe.”

Richard Wiseman

Professor Richard Wiseman has published over 100 academic papers examining the psychology of magic, illusion, luck, and self-development. He has written several popular psychology books (including The Luck Factor and 59 Seconds) that have been published around the world and created psychology-based YouTube videos that have attracted over 800 million views. He is one of the most followed psychologists on social media, and the Independent on Sunday chose him as one of the top 100 people who make Britain a better place to live. A member of the Inner Magic Circle, Wiseman acts as a creative consultant on several stage and television projects, including work with Derren Brown. Wiseman has been described by Elizabeth Loftus (past president, Association for Psychological Science) as “one of the world’s most creative psychologists.” The first season of his On Your Mind Podcast reached number one in Apple Podcast’s Science charts, and in 2023 Wiseman was given the Royal Society’s prestigious David Attenborough Award for his research and public engagement activities.

Justin Robert Young

Justin Robert Young is a broadcaster and podcast producer best known as the cocreator of World’s Greatest Con with Brian Brushwood. The acclaimed series explores deception and belief. Season three uncovered the full untold story of Project Alpha. Young began his career as the first intern at the James Randi Educational Foundation, which famously offered a Million Dollar Challenge to anyone who could demonstrate paranormal or supernatural powers under scientific conditions.