SkeptiCal is the scientific skepticism conference brought to you by Northern California Skeptics.

The list of individuals who have managed to escape the rabbit hole of conspiracism is short, but there is an even shorter list of individuals who have then gone on to become popular skeptical podcasters. Former conspiracy enthusiast Coleman Watts discusses why people fall for cults and cons, and how he managed to climb out of the rabbit hole. What’s the best way to talk to a conspiracy theorist to dissuade – and persuade – them from their views? Is misinformation taking over, and if so, why? Coleman Watts will talk about all of this and more in an engaging talk about his experiences debunking the views he used to embrace. About the Speaker: Coleman Watts is the host of Think This Through on YouTube. He debunks cons, cults, and conspiracies with a humorous flair. 🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5008091638136832

“The biology class you wished you could have taken”: Kitzmiller v. Dover, 20 years later 2025 is 100 years after the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, and 20 years after the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover court case, in which I participated while working at the National Center for Science Education. The Kitzmiller case included extensive expert testimony on the science of evolution, and the historical development of “intelligent design” and related antievolution efforts. While the case made in 2005 holds up very well, there have been interesting developments in both areas that I will review. These include work on the evolutionary origins of the bacterial flagellum done in a phylogenetic context, and work applying phylogenetic methods to trace the copying history of antievolutionist legislation. I will also reflect on lessons we learned during the case and how they remain relevant today. About the Speaker: Nick Matzke is a Senior Lecturer and Rutherford Discovery Fellow at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand. From 2004-2007 he was a Public Information Project Director at the National Center for Science Education, and was heavily involved in the 2004-2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover trial in Pennsylvania about the constitutionality of teaching “intelligent design” creationism in public school biology classes. See less 🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5008091638136832

Intelligent Design Theory (ID) is scorned by nearly all professional life scientists. Nevertheless, local and state boards of education throughout the United States have tried to mandate instruction in this “alternative” theory of evolution. Professor Nelson will discuss how ID succeeded politically even as it continues to fail scientifically. The secret to ID’s success draws from its advocates’ “recruitment” of consensus values like freedom and fairness, overshadowing the theory’s scientific shortcomings. Professor Nelson will focus on the communication strategies of ID advocates and opponents and will draw parallels between the ID battle and current controversies over climate change and vaccine resistance. About the Speaker Thomas E. Nelson is Professor of Political Science at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He received his PhD in social psychology from the University of Michigan in 1992. He is the head of the political psychology PhD program at Ohio State that examines how theories and research methods from psychology help us understand politics, and how the study of politics broadens psychological theory. He is the author of Political Persuasion: The Use of Values in Communication (Oxford University Press, 2024) that explores how political advocates leverage the power of social values to increase support for their causes. The book includes an extensive case study of the ID movement and its opponents, and Prof. Nelson will draw from this material for his presentation.

The “Monkey Trial” Centennial provides an opportunity to examine the widespread misunderstanding about how ideas of evolution and eugenics were implicated in the famous Scopes controversy. George William Hunter’s textbook Civic Biology was the focus of the case. It endorsed evolution, a theory “that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible” ---content prohibited by a 1925 Tennessee law. The Hunter text also contained a brief discussion of eugenics. In recent years an elaborate mythology has arisen suggesting that the case, and William Jennings Bryan’s advocacy at trial, represented a challenge to eugenics. That claim is not accurate. The teaching of eugenics in its many forms was supported not only by educators, but also by members of the clergy and politicians all across the United States. That support was evident before the Scopes case and continued for decades afterwards, persisting even in full awareness of the Nazi government program that sterilized almost ½ million Germans. This talk will explain that while William Jennings Bryan rejected the monkey- to-man account of evolution and the cruelties he associated with Darwinian “natural selection,” he made no blanket condemnation of eugenics. To the contrary, Bryan and his wife readily allied themselves with several famous eugenicists and supported eugenic ideology when it coincided with the social policies they favored. About the Speaker Paul A. Lombardo is an American legal historian known for his work on the legacy of eugenics and sterilization in the United States. Lombardo’s foundational research corrected the historical record of the 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case of Buck v. Bell. He found Carrie Buck’s school grades[1] and the grades of her child Vivian.[2] He was the last person to interview her, and he discovered the pictures of all three generations of the Buck family.[3] In 2002, he sponsored and paid for a memorial plaque that was installed in Buck’s hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Motivated reasoning – confirmation bias, disconfirmation bias, and related concepts – can get in the way of making well-reasoned decisions. And people certai...

An interview with Kyle Polich, an expert in modern data science, covering the state of artificial intelligence through the skeptical lens: What’s real, what’...

Skepardy! is our skeptically-themed version of the popular game show “Jeopardy!”.Host: Bill PattersonThe previous Skepardy! was so spectacular, we had to ha...

In the past decade, new studies of ancient DNA from fossils have shown that, until as recently as 40,000 years ago, our ancestors shared the planet with two ...