In this workshop, Kenny will be going over his toolbox of strategies for solving mysteries – from apparitions and haunted houses to UFOs and Cryptids, even throwing in a ‘weeping statue.’ A detailed description of each strategy will be followed by an example or two of how it helped solve a mystery. In this extended workshop, we’ll also go over – and create – some viral TikTok videos that claim to show ghosts, disappearing people, objects “moving on their own,” and more.

This workshop will also be hosted by Richard Saunders.

Event Location

SkyView 3

Presented by

Kenny Biddle

“The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.”

—Claude Levi-Strauss (translated by John and Doreen Weightman from* Lu Cru et le Cuit*, 1964)

We like answers. We like to know them and give them. Sometimes we want others to think we are smart or knowledgeable, so we jump to give answers rather than ask questions. And the questions we do ask are sometimes more about our personal assumptions and biases than about getting to the real answer.

Good questions are a skeptic’s essential tools for finding good answers. In this participatory workshop, we will ask you to interact with us and fellow attendees to practice methods for posing questions that lead to better understanding and possibly rethinking ideas—maybe even your own.

Event Location

SkyView 3

Presented by

Chip Denman

Grace Denman

We are excited to announce that the Lilienfeld Alliance will be hosting its first half-day academic conference this year! We are calling it LiliCon. It will be held in conjunction with CSICon, Thurs Oct 24, 2024, 12-4pm, at the Horseshoe Las Vegas Resort and Casino. We hope to promote the scientific study of our work, to discover what is effective, and to promote it. Furthermore, we hope to build the strength of connections among academics who are working toward this end by providing an inspirational meeting of the minds.

We are soliciting two types of proposals:

1. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning - Research related to the teaching of rational skepticism in a higher education setting. Proposals must include data.

2. Teaching Demonstration - Description of a course focused on teaching rational skepticism, or an assignment, or an in-class activity. These must include some kind of audience-involved demonstration.

We will have both presentations and posters.

We hope that each of you will consider sharing your work, and help us solicit proposals from other scholars. A PDF of the call for proposals is attached. Feel free to share among your contacts and encourage students to submit as well.

Submit proposals by June 1. https://forms.gle/KwUzaYVm9Bo4ERXC8

LiliCon 2024 Planning Team

(Katie Dyer, Ray Hall, Rod Schmaltz, Natalia Pasternack, & Craig Foster)

Lilienfeld Alliance for the Teaching of Rational Skepticism in Higher Education 

Event Location

SkyView 2

Presented by

Raymond Edward Hall

Natalia Pasternak

They say memory is a fleeting thing, but it does not have to be. In this interactive workshop, Banachek will teach you how to boost your memory retention and recall abilities. Whether you struggle to remember names, important dates, information for exams, or anything else, this workshop is for you.

During this workshop, you will learn:

· The history of mnemonics

· Different systems of mnemonics

· Techniques for enhancing short-term memory

· Memory improvement strategies and exercises

· Tips for staying sharp and focused

In the end, you will blow your own mind with what you remember in a very short span of time. Guaranteed!

Don’t miss this opportunity to harness the power of your mind and improve your memory skills. Sign up now and take the first step toward a stronger, more reliable memory, presented by the Number One Mindreader in the World, Banachek!

Event Location

SkyView 3

Presented by

Banachek

Please join us for CSICon's opening reception

Event Location

Syview 2 & 3

Presented by

Robyn Blumner

Stephen Hupp

Eddie Tabash

Brian Cox will receive the 2024 Richard Dawkins Award

Afterwards Brian Cox delivers the CSICon 2024 Keynote speech.

Event Location

StarView 5 & 6

Presented by

Brian Cox

We all know what pseudoscience is and why it’s important to fight the good fight. Or do we? While some instances of pseudoscience are obvious (astrology, homeopathy), it turns out that it’s hard to draw a sharp line of demarcation. We want to fight the good fight, but, arguably, we go about it largely in the wrong way.

A dip into rhetoric, for instance, may be more useful than one in science communication. And our ultimate objective, the triumph of science over superstition, is very likely forever unreachable. We should instead pursue the more modest goal identified by Carl Sagan: to keep the light of reason alive, even if surrounded by darkness.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Massimo Pigliucci

Have you ever wondered why even smart people fall for hoaxes, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories? Or why giving people facts doesn’t change their minds? This presentation explores how our brains and social circles can make us vulnerable to false or misleading information and how curiosity and skepticism can help us navigate today’s information landscape … and even connect with people who disagree with us.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Melanie Trecek-King

Skeptics should largely agree about what science says, but that's not always the case. Exploring when and why skeptics disagree may be illuminating.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Steve Novella

Will the stream of science-free wellness nonsense ever stop? A recent and ubiquitous trend: the rising “longevity” industry, which includes everything from consumption of hundreds of supplements to “young blood” infusions to testicle tanning. Influencers in this space, who often have impressive credentials, often use the language of real science—a tactic I call “scienceploitation”—to give their claims legitimacy. And many lean into the growing “manosphere,” that growing and ideologically charged echo chamber where traditional masculine norms are celebrated and framed as a required element to a healthy lifestyle. These characteristics of the longevity business can make it more difficult to debunk. But debunk we must!

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Timothy Caulfield

How is the media fueling health misinformation--and why? Is it getting better or worse? And what do we need for better science literacy? Journalist Rina Raphael shares what goes on in the newsroom that leads to so much poor health reporting.

Event Location

Skyview 5

Presented by

Rina Raphael

Science is the most powerful tool we have for revealing objective “truths” about the natural world. As humanity grapples with existential threats such as climate change, COVID-19, and soaring obesity rates, science is our first and last hope for a solution. But what happens when the systems we’ve come to trust become part of the problem? Join Dr. Nick Tiller (research associate, Harbor-UCLA) to explore the shady side of scientific research and expose the spectrum of questionable practices, from basic procedural missteps to financially incentivized data fabrication. Using real-world examples from medicine, kinesiology, and nutrition, Tiller highlights the role of bad science in the spread of health and wellness misinformation and questions the reliability of Hanlon’s Razor—to assume ignorance over malice. In this call to action, Tiller makes recommendations for reform and challenges us to confront inconvenient truths, root out malpractice, and safeguard scientific integrity for generations to come.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Nick Tiller

Come join us for this VIP Luncheon featuring special guests Brian Cox, Neil Tyson, and Michael Mann. Seating is limited. Be sure to choose it when registering.

Event Location

SkyView 3

Presented by

Robyn Blumner

Brian Cox

Michael Mann

Neil deGrasse Tyson

The technologies under the umbrella of genetic engineering have provided everything from cheap cheese to COVID-19 vaccines to curing sickle cell disease. We are at a precipice where the newest technologies stand to drive incredible innovation in agriculture, medicine, and conservation. However, deployment of these technologies hinges on public acceptance. Those opposed to these technologies exploit social media to spread false information and break trust in genetic engineering, the companies that develop products, and the scientists that seek to educate a concerned public about them. Their goal is to vilify useful technology for political or ideological reasons; sadly even trusted organizations fall victim to promoting misinformation. While the pace of innovation is accelerating, the deployment of technology must navigate a formidable social hurdle. The scientific and skeptical communities play a central role in identifying legitimate concerns, while at the same time countering mis /disinformation before innovation may proceed to application. This presentation frames new technologies, the tactics used to defame them, and how you can participate in effective strategic communication to advance their acceptance.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Kevin Folta

Drawing from years of experience studying and teaching biology and his popular YouTube series Reacteria, Forrest Valkai explains the best techniques and most common pitfalls he encounters when explaining evolution to a creationist audience so that you can have more productive conversations with people who distrust science.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Forrest Valkai

Discover how to cut through misinformation and connect with diverse audiences. This presentation will explore the success of the Unbiased Science platform, highlighting how delivery and empathy are often as crucial as the scientific content itself. Learn about the power of motivational interviewing to build trust within science-hesitant communities. Additionally, the presentation will delve into how online spaces normalize medicalization and contribute to the spread of pseudoscience, particularly in the context of contested illnesses and gaps in the healthcare system—and ways to get through to people especially vulnerable to this type of misinformation.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Jessica Steier

In a society obsessed with commercial quick fixes and biohacking, the quest for healthy aging and longevity has taken center stage. From dietary supplements and anti-aging creams to wellness retreats and lifestyle programs, the market is saturated with promises of eternal youth. But what do the experts say about the science of longevity? Can pills, infrared saunas, and cryotherapy slow life’s relentless march toward entropy? Has the first human to live to 150 already been born? Join Nick Tiller, Timothy Caulfield, and Rina Raphael as they untangle the science and pseudoscience of longevity. Through interactive polling and audience Q and A, the trio will dissect the claims of “precision medicine,” delve into tech magnate Bryan Johnson’s quest for the fountain of youth, and challenge conventional wisdom surrounding diet and exercise.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Timothy Caulfield

Rina Raphael

Nick Tiller

How to use scientific rationality, coupled with a dose of cosmic perspective, to navigate our tribal divisions on gender, race, politics, and religion during holiday dinners.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Neil deGrasse Tyson

In recent years, ideology has been creeping into evolutionary biology, distorting facts in a way that gives people a false impression of what nature is like. In this talk, I explore two of the many ways this ideological erosion of biology has infected the field. The first is the increasingly widespread claim that biological sex is a “spectrum”: that there are not just two sexes, male and female, but a large number of them. This may be true of gender but not of biological sex itself, which is always binary, with just two sexes in all animals and vascular plants. Why has this distortion occurred? Probably to buttress the felt identities of people who are transsexual or non-binary. But this conflates sex and gender, and the sex binary, which has led to big advances in understanding evolution, should not be distorted in the service of ideology.

A similar phenomenon has occurred in biological discussions of race, though the term is fraught and I prefer to use populations. The popular argument that there are no meaningful genetic differences between human populations has led the American Medical Association, for instance, to state that “Race and ethnicity are social constructs without biological meaning.” This is in fact false: human populations over the globe have sufficient genetic differences that we can infer our ancestry with high accuracy—and even deduce one’s crude self-identified “race”—from a sample of DNA. These genetic differences evolved when early human populations lived in physical isolation, and have implications not just for deducing ancestry, but also tracing the history of human migration and for mitigating disparities in health and education. Again, the reason for the popular idea that race is nonexistent comes from a well-meaning desire to see nature as we would like it to be: with everyone in the world pretty much genetically identical.

But, in the end, we should not look to nature to buttress our ideology, politics, or morality, for this tactic not only distorts science, but also grounds our values on observations of biology rather than on the proper foundation—reason and humanism.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Jerry Coyne

“Family Constellation” is a pseudoscientific therapy in which the “quantum energy” of the family and relatives of the patient (dead or alive) manifests itself. Created in Germany, it became popular in Brazilian courts of law as a way to ease family disputes. The practice systematically blames women for refusing to submit to their male relatives.

Event Location

Skyview 5

Presented by

Natalia Pasternak

For most of its 4.54 billion years, Earth has proven it can manage just fine without human beings. Then came the first proto-humans, who emerged just a little more than two million years ago—a fleeting moment in geological time. What is it that made this benevolent moment of ours possible? Ironically, it’s the very same thing that now threatens us—climate change. The drying of the tropics during the Pleistocene period created a niche for early hominids, who could hunt prey as forests gave way to savannahs in the African tropics. The sudden cooling episode known as the “Younger Dryas” 13,000 years ago, which occurred just as Earth was thawing out of the last Ice Age, spurred the development of agriculture in the fertile crescent. The “Little Ice Age” cooling of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries led to famines and pestilence for much of Europe, yet it was a boon for the Dutch, who were able to take advantage of stronger winds to shorten their ocean voyages. The conditions that allowed humans to live on Earth are fragile, incredibly so. Climate variability has at times created new niches that humans or their ancestors could potentially exploit and challenges that at times have spurred innovation. But there’s a relatively narrow envelope of climate variability within which human civilization remains viable. And our survival depends on conditions remaining within that range. In this talk, I will arm attendees with the knowledge necessary to appreciate the gravity of the unfolding climate crisis, while emboldening them—and others—to act before it truly does become too late.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Michael Mann

Well, that depends on your definition of critical thinking. The term critical thinking means different things to different people. Who is right? Science teachers are trained to teach critical thinking, emphasizing that science is falsifiable and requires tested hypotheses, evidence, and consensus. They encourage students to engage in the scientific process through NGSS practices and project-based learning.

But here’s what they don’t teach: how our own flawed thinking and perceptions can get in the way of accepting facts. They do not teach that many of the things we each believe are tied more closely to our identities than to any facts. This reality that our worldview affects how we process new information and that science is the best way to put guardrails in place so we can seek the truth in the most objective way possible should be an ongoing theme in our classrooms.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Bertha Vazquez

David McRaney will talk about how, in the process of writing a book about the science of why it’s so hard to change people's minds, he changed his own mind about how minds change. In this talk, you'll not only learn what works when it comes to persuading, debunking, and challenging conventions to disagreeing well, you'll learn why it is vitally important to understand why some of us saw that photo of a dress as black-and-blue and others as white-and-gold (because it answers a whole of questions about how much of modern discourse can seem impossibly polarized).

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

David McRaney

Although the main research focus of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths was the development and, where possible, testing of non-paranormal explanations of ostensibly paranormal experiences, we have also over the years devoted considerable time and effort to directly testing paranormal claims. This talk will present an overview of these investigations including claims of psychic ability and mediumship, "human magnetism", dowsing, and precognition. Spoiler alert: I am still a sceptic.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Chris French

In a world increasingly polarized by differing ideologies, acceptance of scientific evidence becomes a battleground shaped not only by facts but also by the echo chambers of social and political beliefs. These insular groups and resultant identity communities cultivate selective trust in science, which substantially influence public and individual perceptions of scientific facts.

Drawing from case studies in contentious fields such as vaccines, food ingredients, and genetic technologies, this presentation explores and illustrates how ideological biases lead to the selective rejection of evidence. This rejection is further exacerbated by psychological phenomena such as confirmation bias and belief perseverance.

By shedding light on the challenges of effectively communicating science in a polarized society, this talk aims to propose strategies for bridging the ideological divide. It emphasizes the importance of fostering productive discussions on topics frequently targeted by misinformation campaigns in order to minimize far-reaching and pervasive harms to public health and science literacy.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Andrea Love

Daniel Simons will talk about how the cognitive abilities that usually serve us well can make us vulnerable to mistaken beliefs, misinformation, self-deception, and outright fraud. Even our abilities to focus intently and think critically can be turned against us when we fail to think about what falls outside our focus. His presentation will draw on topics ranging from visual attention and magic to science fraud and the exhilarating world of management consulting to show how easily we can be deceived—both by ourselves and by others—and what we can do about it.

Event Location

Scenic Ballroom

Presented by

Daniel Simons

The SGU dissects recent science news and controversies with a dose of critical thinking.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Evan Bernstein

Cara Santa Maria

Bob Novella

Jay Novella

Steve Novella

When it comes to the world of magic and mysticism, do you consider yourself a believer in the unknown? Well, it may surprise you that magician and master mentalist Banachek is a devoted nonbeliever—and trust us when we say that his skepticism is absolutely a gift to the world.

Banachek's current reputation as the world's leading mentalist began when he was just eighteen years old when he and a friend signed up for a “scientific” study called Project Alpha.

For the next four years, Banachek would use his arsenal of mentalist tricks to convince the researchers at the newly founded McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research of Washington University that he had psychic abilities. Some of these researchers were so convinced of Banachek's “abilities” that once he revealed the truth, they still refused to change their minds.

Banachek has also partnered with multiple investigators to expose fraudulent psychics, mediums, and spiritualists who take advantage of the suffering and emotions of others for monetary gain. One of his most famous investigations was of the American televangelist Peter Popoff, whom he unmasked on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Carson in 1986.

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Banachek

Paper Session

The Sunday Morning Papers session will recognize new voices and new ideas and showcase them in the spotlight of the CSICon stage. These are people who have had success in communicating scientific skepticism, teaching critical thinking, combating pseudoscience, or furthering the mission of CSI in some new and significant way.

Susan Gerbic and Rob Palmer as the moderators.

Click here to learn more

Event Location

SkyView 5

Presented by

Susan Gerbic

Rob Palmer