Wellness misinformation didn’t explode just through the actions of influencers and profiteers; it’s been helped by health and science professionals who have conflated neutrality for diplomacy. Neutrality isn’t neutral; it is permission to deceive. Minimizing health misinformation delays diagnoses, increases healthcare costs, legitimizes dangerous wellness ideology, and causes real and tangible harm. Sanitizing snake oil in the name of “balance” doesn’t educate the public; it emboldens the very people eroding science and public health for profit.
","frontmatter":{"title":"Sanitizing Snake Oil Harms Public Health","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":"Andrea Love","slug":"sanitizing-snake-oil-harms-public-health","day":"Saturday","speakers":["love-andrea"],"startTime":540,"endTime":570}},{"html":"A quarter of the way through the twenty-first century, we’re in an age of unprecedented scientific progress. Yet as humanity bathes in a sea of scientific and technological abundance, we’re somehow drowning in pseudoscience. Nowhere is this paradox sharper than in the United States: a global leader in research and innovation that also tops the world in sales of dietary supplements, alternative therapies, spiritual “wellness,” and even tarot cards. What is it about American values that allow pseudoscience to thrive? Is there something in the nation’s cultural DNA that makes it uniquely susceptible to baseless claims? Join Rina Raphael and Nick Tiller as they pull back the curtain on the trillion-dollar wellness con and its implications for public health. Together, they’ll trace the roots of the American ideals that foster wishful thinking and examine how cultural diversity, political division, and religiosity shape health habits and policy. In the land of opportunity, has “irrational optimism” become a recipe for success or delusion?
","frontmatter":{"title":"The United States of Pseudoscience","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":"Rina Raphael and Nick Tiller","slug":"the-united-states-of-pseudoscience","day":"Saturday","speakers":["raphael-rina","tiller-nick"],"startTime":570,"endTime":600}},{"html":"Researching the paranormal is often seen as a fringe activity. However, this pioneering work has changed the course of science, uncovered exciting insights into how we think, and been a catalyst for many famous experiments. Celebrate the impact of critical thinking and discover why skepticism matters.
","frontmatter":{"title":"How Skepticism Changed Psychology, Science, and the World","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":"Richard Wiseman","slug":"how-skepticism-changed-psychology-science-and-the-world","day":"Saturday","speakers":["wiseman-richard"],"startTime":600,"endTime":630}},{"html":"","frontmatter":{"title":"Break","location":null,"paid":false,"fullspkr":null,"slug":"afternoon-break-friday","day":"Saturday","speakers":null,"startTime":630,"endTime":null}},{"html":"Richard Saunders (Chief Investigator of the Australian Skeptics) will host Leo Igwe (from Advocacy for Alleged Witches organization in Africa), Alejandro Borgo (from CFI Argentina in South America), Zhang Zhimin (from China Research Institute for Science Popularization), and Amardeo Sarma (CSI’s representative in Europe) to discuss organized skepticism from an international perspective.
","frontmatter":{"title":"International Panel (Richard Saunders hosts Amardeo Sarma, Alejandro Borgo, Leo Igwe, Zhang Zhimin)","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":null,"slug":"international-panel","day":"Saturday","speakers":["saunders","sarma","borgo-alejandro","igwe","zhimin"],"startTime":660,"endTime":735}},{"html":"Join this VIP luncheon featuring special guests Bill Nye, Michael Mann, and Peter Hotez. After the meal, CFI President and CEO Robyn Blumner will host a once-in-a-lifetime conversation with this panel of award-winning science communicators.
","frontmatter":{"title":"VIP Luncheon","location":"SkyView 3","paid":true,"fullspkr":null,"slug":"vip-luncheon","day":"Saturday","speakers":["nye-bill","blumner-robyn","mann-michael","hotez-peter"],"startTime":735,"endTime":840}},{"html":"There are many varieties of skepticism, from the philosophical skepticism of David Hume and Paul Kurtz to the pop culture skepticism of Penn & Teller and South Park. But just as important is the investigative skepticism embodied by Harry Houdini, James Randi, Joe Nickell, and others. CFI Research Fellow Benjamin Radford will reflect on his own decades of in-the-trenches work in investigative skepticism.
","frontmatter":{"title":"Reflections from the Frontlines: Investigative Skepticism in Action","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":"Benjamin Radford","slug":"reflections-from-the-frontlines-investigative-skepticism-in-action","day":"Saturday","speakers":["radford-benjamin"],"startTime":840,"endTime":870}},{"html":"In this cinematic talk, Academy Award–nominated filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy will be speaking on his two powerful and prescient documentaries, Food Evolution and Shot in the Arm, both of which foreshadowed what has become Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement. He will share clips, candid insights, and concrete tactics to counter misinformation and science denial with mankind’s greatest tool for solving difficult challenges: storytelling.
","frontmatter":{"title":"Science and Storytelling: An Essential Partnership for a Better World","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":"Scott Hamilton Kennedy","slug":"science-and-storytelling-an-essential-partnership-for-a-better-world","day":"Saturday","speakers":["kennedy-hamilton-scott"],"startTime":870,"endTime":900}},{"html":"Skeptics of pseudoscience are sometimes portrayed as close-minded “Debbie Downers,”\ndour and humorless, unwilling to entertain unconventional thinking. Skeptics of religion usually\ncome off even worse. Their relentlessly stern, angry demeanor masks a hollow core—a God-\nshaped hole that they stubbornly refuse to acknowledge. Ronald Lindsay begs to differ. He argues that declining to indulge in magical thinking, whether in matters of science or religion, leads to an exuberant existence, in which one can fully appreciate—and benefit from—the true wonders of science and pursue and craft one’s own life secure in the knowledge that one is not merely a cog in some mysterious cosmic plan.
","frontmatter":{"title":"The Joy of an Evidence-Based Worldview","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":"Ronald A. Lindsay","slug":"the-joy-of-an-evidence-based-worldview","day":"Saturday","speakers":["lindsay"],"startTime":900,"endTime":930}},{"html":"","frontmatter":{"title":"Break","location":null,"paid":false,"fullspkr":null,"slug":"afternoon-break-friday","day":"Saturday","speakers":null,"startTime":930,"endTime":null}},{"html":"Brian Brushwood will interview Banachek and Michael Edwards about their experience working with James Randi on Project Alpha. From 1979 to 1983, as teenagers, Banachek and Edwards convinced researchers at the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research that they had paranormal abilities. The revelation that these untrained mentalists were using tricks to pull off the deception had important implications for parapsychological research and all the people involved. This conversation will serve as the latest chapter in the story as it's told in season 3 of Brushwood’s World’s Greatest Con podcast.
","frontmatter":{"title":"Banachek and Michael Edwards in Conversation with Brian Brushwood","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":null,"slug":"in-conversation-with-brian-brushwood","day":"Saturday","speakers":["banachek","edwards-michael","brushwood-brian"],"startTime":960,"endTime":1020}},{"html":"Over dinner, drinks, and song, experience a celebration like never before for the fiftieth anniversary. The evening will be filled with mystifying magic, skeptical comedy, celebratory music, and genuine appreciation for science communication. CFI West Executive Director Jim Underdown will host Leighann Lord, Richard Wiseman, George Hrab, Malorie Mackey, and Daniel Reed. CFI Education Director Bertha Vazquez will present the Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking to Peter Hotez and Michael Mann. Dress up like it’s 1976, 2026, or even 2076. The choice is yours! Dinner options will be chicken or vegan.
","frontmatter":{"title":"50th Anniversary Awards Dinner and Mystifying Variety Show","location":"SkyView 5","paid":true,"fullspkr":null,"slug":"awards-dinner-and-mystifying-variety-show","day":"Saturday","speakers":[],"startTime":1080,"endTime":1200}},{"html":"Through the show Bill Nye the Science Guy, Nye has taught millions of children the value of science and critical thinking. His other shows—including The Eyes of Nye, Bill Nye Saves the World, and The End Is Nye—reached even more generations of emerging critical thinkers. From books, such as Everything All at Once, to his advocacy work, such as his role as the CEO of The Planetary Society, Nye’s enthusiasm for science always shines bright. The year 2025 was a big one for Bill Nye: in addition to guest editing a special issue of SI, Nye also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was even awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Experience the passion, beauty, and joy—or PB&J, as he calls it—of science with this one-of-a-kind champion of skeptical inquiry. He’ll be joined on stage by Stephen Hupp, the executive director of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and editor of Skeptical Inquirer.
","frontmatter":{"title":"Fireside Chat with Bill Nye and Stephen Hupp ","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":null,"slug":"fireside-chat-with-bill-nye-and-stephen-hupp","day":"Saturday","speakers":["nye-bill","hupp-stephen"],"startTime":1230,"endTime":1290}}]}}}