Speakers

Kenny Biddle

Kenny Biddle is the chief investigator for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and a CSI fellow. He is a former ghost hunter turned science enthusiast and skeptical activist. He routinely investigates various claims of the paranormal: psychic superpowers, ghost hunting gadgets, eerie photos, spooky videos, monsters, and UFOs sightings—oh my! His investigations are featured in his Skeptical Inquirer column “A Closer Look,” as well as his video series, Ghosts in the Machine. Kenny hosts a weekly livestream show, the Skeptical Help Bar, every Friday night, where he blends skepticism and science with the atmosphere of a local bar. Kenny frequently hosts workshops on how to deconstruct and understand paranormal photography/video and lectures on his methods to investigate (and solve) various mysteries and how to approach and engage with people of opposing beliefs.

Robyn Blumner

Robyn 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 CEO of the Center for Inquiry. She comes 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.

Laura Davis

Laura and Tjardus specialize in making impactful documentaries about science and medicine. Their latest project, Virulent: The Vaccine War, examines the history of vaccine hesitancy and the galvanizing effect COVID-19 has had on anti-vaccination activists. It is their follow-up to the CINE Golden Eagle–winning A Shot to Save the World about the creation of the Salk polio vaccine, which featured an exclusive interview with Bill Gates and streamed on Paramount+ throughout 2020. The film originally premiered on the Smithsonian Channel and BBC Four and was honored by the CDC Foundation on World Polio Day 2013.

Laura also produced the documentaries Everest: On Location in the Death Zone (Miramax) and The Chef & The Architect (Food Network), and the telefilms, Someone Else’s Child (ABC) and Still Holding On: The Legend of Cadillac Jack (CBS). She got her start as an interviewer on NBC Radio and later for Showtime/The Movie Channel following her graduation from Cornell University.

Dutch-born Tjardus is currently prepping The Shot, a narrative feature about Dr. Jonas Salk and his creation of the polio vaccine, based on A Shot to Save the World. He successfully straddles documentary and narrative filmmaking, bringing to both a love for authenticating detail and character-driven stories.

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is one of the most respected scientists in the world and an internationally best-selling author. Among his books are The Selfish Gene, The God Delusion, and his autobiography A Brief Candle in the Dark. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Society of Literature.

Dustin Dean

With an average of ninety-five minutes per day spent by each user on social media apps such as TikTok, social media has become the “new TV.” Psychics have found an easy way to reach and influence millions of people (including the young and impressionable) with their self proclaimed “abilities.”

Fame and fortune can be found by charlatans more easily than ever before in this new age. Hashtags such as #telekinesis, #witchtok, and #psychicmedium are on the rise with millions of views for each. But about three years ago, Dean started to battle these with #debunktok.

Dean uses his experience as a mentalist and magician to not only challenge these claims but to replicate and expose how these abilities are easily faked.

Kathleen Dyer

Kathleen Dyer, PhD, is professor and department chair in Child and Family Science at the California State University, Fresno. Her research is in the areas of parenting and infant sleep, as well as critical thinking and pedagogy in higher education. Her teaching is focused on research methods. Her most recent book is Research Foundations in Human Development and Family Science: Science versus Nonsense.

Erika Engelhaupt

Erika Engelhaupt is a freelance science journalist, editor, and author. Her book Gory Details: Adventures on the Dark Side of Science explores some of the strangest real-life science stories she has uncovered in her career. She has written for and edited top science magazines, newspapers, and websites, including National Geographic, NPR, Science News, and Popular Mechanics. She holds MS degrees in biology and environmental science and is currently collaborating on a physician’s guide to delusions of infestation. She is writing her next book for National Geographic, Go to Hell, a traveler’s guide to the mythology, science, and history of the underworld. She lives in Washington, DC, and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Dave Farina

Dave Farina is a science communicator and generalist best known for his YouTube channel, Professor Dave Explains (which has 2.5 million subscribers). While the channel is primarily a database of academic tutorials to help students with a variety of subjects, Dave is also passionate about neutralizing disinformation and science denial, from flat earthers and creationists to anti-vaxxers and medical hoaxes. Dave hopes to serve as a beacon toward the rehabilitation of public science literacy.

Paul Fidalgo

Paul Fidalgo is editor of Free Inquiry and executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism. For ten years he served as communications director of the Center for Inquiry. He holds a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University, and his writing has appeared in outlets such as Religion News Service, CNN, USA Today, Dark Mountain, and Android Police. Fidalgo is also an actor and musician whose work includes five years performing with the American Shakespeare Center.

Craig Foster

Craig A. Foster is a former professor with a PhD in social psychology. Foster has a passion for inhibiting pseudoscience and enhancing critical thinking. He also time travels occasionally to write a column for Skeptical Inquirer (“The Time Warp: Skepticism Revisited—from the Future”).

Tjardus Greidanus

Laura and Tjardus specialize in making impactful documentaries about science and medicine. Their latest project, Virulent: The Vaccine War, examines the history of vaccine hesitancy and the galvanizing effect COVID-19 has had on anti-vaccination activists. It is their follow-up to the CINE Golden Eagle–winning A Shot to Save the World about the creation of the Salk polio vaccine, which featured an exclusive interview with Bill Gates and streamed on Paramount+ throughout 2020. The film originally premiered on the Smithsonian Channel and BBC Four and was honored by the CDC Foundation on World Polio Day 2013.

Laura also produced the documentaries Everest: On Location in the Death Zone (Miramax) and The Chef & The Architect (Food Network), and the telefilms, Someone Else’s Child (ABC) and Still Holding On: The Legend of Cadillac Jack (CBS). She got her start as an interviewer on NBC Radio and later for Showtime/The Movie Channel following her graduation from Cornell University.

Dutch-born Tjardus is currently prepping The Shot, a narrative feature about Dr. Jonas Salk and his creation of the polio vaccine, based on A Shot to Save the World. He successfully straddles documentary and narrative filmmaking, bringing to both a love for authenticating detail and character-driven stories.

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.

George Hrab

George Hrab is best known in his hometown of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as the longtime drummer for The Philadelphia Funk Authority. Hrab is internationally beloved as the sparkling personality behind more than 750 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, D.C., 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.

Stephen Hupp

Stephen Hupp, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. His books include Investigating Pop Psychology (with Richard Wiseman), Investigating Clinical Psychology (with Jonathan Stea), Pseudoscience in Therapy (with Cara Santa Maria), and Dr. Huckleberry’s True or Malarkey? Superhuman Abilities: Game Book for Skeptical Folk.

Glenn Kessler

Glenn Kessler has been editor and chief writer of The Fact Checker since 2011, making him one of the pioneers of political fact-checking. In a journalism career spanning nearly four decades, Kessler has covered foreign policy, economic policy, the White House, Congress, politics, airline safety, and Wall Street. He was The Washington Post’s chief State Department reporter for nine years, traveling around the world with three secretaries of state. Before that, he covered tax and budget policy for The Washington Post and also served as the newspaper’s national business editor. He joined the Post in 1998 from Newsday, where he was part of two reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in spot reporting.

He is the author of The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy (2007) and Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President’s Falsehoods, Misleading Claims and Flat-Out Lies (2020).

He earned a B.A. in history from Brown University (1981) and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (1983).

Leighann Lord

Standup Comedian and author Leighann Lord was the New York City face of the African Americans for Humanism outreach campaign sponsored by the Center for Inquiry and its Millions Living Happily Without Religion campaign. Author Chris Johnson featured her in The Atheist Book: A Better Life. Leighann is a former cohost of the Emmy-nominated StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

She has shared her comedic and hosting talents at many secular conferences, including American Atheists, American Humanists, Center for Inquiry, CSICon, DragonCon’s Science and Skeptical Tracks, The PA Freethought Society, NECSS: The Northeast Conference on Science & Skepticism, PASHTACon, and Skepticon. Leighann was honored with the 2019 Humanist Arts Award from the American Humanist Association.

She currently cohosts the Center for Inquiry’s Skeptical Inquirer Presents.

Paul Offit

Paul A. Offit, MD, is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as well as the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

He is a recipient of many awards, including the J. Edmund Bradley Prize for Excellence in Pediatrics from the University of Maryland Medical School and the Young Investigator Award in Vaccine Development from the Infectious Disease Society of America. Dr. Offit has published more than 160 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety. He is also the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, recommended for universal use in infants by the CDC in 2006 and by the WHO in 2013.

He is also the author of ten medical narratives, including Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All (Basic Books, 2011), which was selected by Kirkus Reviews and Booklist as one of the best nonfiction books of the year; and Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine (HarperCollins, 2013), which won the Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and was selected by National Public Radio as one of the best books of 2013.

His newest book, Tell Me When It’s Over: Living with COVID in a Post-Pandemic World, is expected from National Geographic Press in 2024.

Naomi Oreskes

Naomi Oreskes is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She is an internationally renowned earth scientist, historian, and author of both scholarly and popular books and articles on the history of earth and environmental science, including most recently* Why Trust Science? (2019) _and* Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean (2021). Her opinion pieces have been published in leading media outlets around the globe, including _The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times (London), and the Frankfurter Allgemeine. _In 2015, she wrote the Introduction to the Melville House edition of the Papal Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality, _Laudato Si.

Natalia Pasternak

Natalia Pasternak is a Brazilian microbiologist, science writer, and communicator. She brought crucial, life-saving scientific information to millions of people in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic through her press columns, books, and radio and TV appearances. Pasternak is also founder and current president of Instituto Questão de Ciência (Question of Science Institute), a Brazilian nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of scientific evidence in public policies. Her book Science in Our Daily Lives, coauthored with science journalist Carlos Orsi, won the Brazilian Book award for best science book in 2021. Currently she is a professor of science and policy at Columbia University.

Penn & Teller

Penn & Teller are perhaps magic’s most legendary duo. In their humble beginnings they were busking on the streets of Philadelphia. Today, they have hosted acclaimed sold-out runs on Broadway and are the longest running—and one of the most-beloved—resident headline acts in Las Vegas history. Penn & Teller continue to defy labels—and at times physics and good taste—by redefining the genre of magic and inventing their own very distinct niche in comedy. The duo has its own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The controversial Showtime series Penn & Teller: BS! was nominated for thirteen Emmys and was the longest-running series in the history of the network. The show highlighted the pair’s ardent skepticism by tackling the fakes and frauds behind such topics as alien abduction, psychics, and bottled water.

Massimo Polidoro

Massimo Polidoro is a writer and an internationally recognized “mystery investigator.” He began his career as James Randi’s apprentice and is the cofounder and head of the skeptics group CICAP in in his native Italy, where he is a TV personality. A research fellow for CSI, he has been a columnist for its magazine, the Skeptical Inquirer, since 2002. He taught “Scientific Method and Anomalistic Psychology” at the University of Milan and now teaches “Science Communication” to Padua University’s PhD students. He has an ever growing following on social media (200,000 subscribers on YouTube) and is the author of over fifty books. In his latest one, Brilliant, he shares thirteen lessons in critical thinking and in the art of living that he learned from Randi.

Rina Raphael

Rina Raphael is a journalist who specializes in health, wellness, tech, and women’s issues. She covered the wellness industry for Fast Company magazine and has also written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine, among other publications. Her wellness industry newsletter, Well to Do, covers trends and offers market analysis. Previously, she served as a senior producer and lifestyle editor at TODAY.com and NBCNews.com.

Eugenie Scott

Dr. Eugenie C. Scott 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, Dr. 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.

Eddie Tabash

Edward 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.

Melanie Trecek-King

Melanie Trecek-King is the creator of Thinking Is Power, an online resource that provides engaging and accessible critical thinking content. Trecek-King is an associate professor of biology at Massasoit Community College, where she teaches a general-education science course designed to equip students with empowering critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy skills. An active speaker and consultant, Trecek-King loves to share her “teach skills, not facts” approach with other science educators and to 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-three years. She is the education director of the Center for Inquiry, which currently includes three projects: the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science, ScienceSaves, and Generation Skeptics.

Stuart Vyse

Stuart Vyse is a psychologist and author who, since November 2022, has served as the interim editor for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, where he also writes its “Behavior & Belief” column.

Mick West

Mick West is the author of Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect. A retired software engineer, he is the creator of the site Metabunk, which utilizes crowdsourcing and technical analysis to investigate UFO cases. West uses his background in coding 3D graphics, physics, and linear algebra—honed by decades in the videogame industry—to create custom tools to recreate, simulate, visualize, and analyze UFO videos.

Richard Wiseman

Richard Wiseman has been described by Elizabeth Loftus (past president, Association for Psychological Science) as “one of the world’s most creative psychologists.” His books (including The Luck Factor, 59 Seconds and Paranormality) have sold over three million copies worldwide, and his psychology-based YouTube videos have attracted over 500 million views. He holds Britain’s only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, is one of the most followed psychologists on Twitter, and the Independent on Sunday chose him as one of the top 100 people who make Britain a better place to live. Wiseman is a member of the highly exclusive Inner Magic Circle and has published over 100 academic papers (including those on magic and illusion). His most recent book is coauthored with legendary illusionist David Copperfield and explores the history of magic.

Seema Yasmin

Seema Yasmin is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, medical doctor, author, and Director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative.