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Join us for a special performance by the CSICon singers led by Anthony-Trecek-King (awardee of both a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy).

","frontmatter":{"title":"The CSICon Singers with Anthony Trecek-King","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":null,"slug":"csicon-singers","day":"Sunday","speakers":["trecek-king-anthony"],"startTime":525,"endTime":540}},{"html":"

CFI Ambassador Susan Gerbic and Skeptical Inquirer columnist Rob Palmer host a new exceptional crop of science communication voices.

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    Sammy Shuster: Prebunking through Parody: The Holistic Quantum Activation Art Expo. The Holistic Quantum Activation Art Expo is a satirical, participatory art project designed to build public resistance to pseudoscience, wellness scams, and health misinformation. The 2025 show featured over thirty parody “vendors” offering exaggerated wellness products and services that mirror real-world misinformation tactics used in alternative health spaces. Grounded in inoculation theory, the project functions as a form of “prebunking,” exposing participants to weakened, visible versions of misleading strategies in a humorous environment.

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    Timothy J. Redmond: Building Our Ideological Immunity. This presentation will discuss political tribalism. In particular, it will explore how our party attachments can derail our ability to think critically and how we can gird ourselves against its adverse effects.

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    Jon Michael: Engaging Constructively with People Who Believe in the Paranormal. Most skeptics engage with believers from the outside, offering corrections that are rarely welcomed and even more rarely effective. This talk explores what becomes possible when a skeptic earns an invitation to speak from inside the community of people who believe in the paranormal. Drawing on his experience as a former paranormal investigator who regularly receives invitations from ghost hunters and paranormal conference organizers to present on critical thinking, Jon Michael will examine why personal experience and emotional narrative so often outweigh empirical evidence and offer a practical framework grounded in the classical rhetorical appeals of logos, pathos, and ethos in an easily digestible way.

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    Pamela Brunskill: Teaching News Literacy. Even though today’s youth are digital natives, they struggle to distinguish between different types of information—news, advertisement, opinion, and propaganda. If teens don’t know how to tell what information is credible, they can’t make informed decisions about their own lives on a variety of topics. This presentation will offer an approach for teaching news literacy during the school years and beyond.

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    Coleman Watts: What Skeptics Can Learn from Conspiracy Theories. A former believer in conspiracy theories, Coleman Watts shares “insider secrets” from the world of fringe beliefs. After exiting the rabbit hole and becoming a skeptic, he decided to “do his own research” and learned the secrets about conspiracy theories that “they” don’t want you to know. Drawing from his research and personal experience, Watts shares insights to help skeptics and believers understand each other—and the world—more clearly.

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","frontmatter":{"title":"Sunday Speakers Session Hosted by Susan Gerbic and Rob Palmer","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":null,"slug":"paper-session","day":"Sunday","speakers":["palmer","gerbic","watts-coleman","brunskill","michael-jon","redmond","shuster-sammy"],"startTime":540,"endTime":645}},{"html":"","frontmatter":{"title":"Private Film Screening by Pale Blue Dot Films","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":null,"slug":"heathens-movie-screening","day":"Sunday","speakers":null,"startTime":570,"endTime":705}},{"html":"

Comedian Justin Robert Young hosts a new event called Skeptical Inquirer Presents: The Fast Talkers, in which presenters will zip through lightning-fast presentations that will keep you on the edge of your seat!

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  1. Meagan Ankney: Monsters in the Machine: The Rise of Algorithm-Enhanced Folklore: Meagan Ankney, cohost of the Spooky Science Sisters podcast, reflects on the word folklore, which traditionally evokes thoughts of ancient tales told around campfires, passed down and reshaped across generations. But in the age of the internet, we’ve traded the campfire for comment sections, and we’ve fundamentally changed how new legends emerge and spread. This talk will explore the rise of digital folklore, from early creepypasta-era beings such as the Black-Eyed Children to newer phenomena such as the Not Deer and so-called “rules” for living in Appalachia. It will also examine the challenges skeptics face when these modern legends are mistaken for truth in online spaces, where rapidly shifting narratives and confirmation biases are fueled by powerful social-media algorithms.
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  2. Dan Wilson: Moving Forward in the Fight against the Anti-Vaccine Movement: The anti-vaccine movement has more power in America now than ever before. The scientific community needs to use every tool and opportunity available to push back. Over the past five years, Dan Wilson, host of the Debunk the Funk YouTube channel, has been in the trenches of vaccine misinformation online. He’ll share what he’s learned and his perspective on how we can do better in educating the public and debunking unscientific claims.
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  3. Malorie Mackey: Chasing Shadows: When Hope Blinds the Modern Explorer: Explorers venture into the unknown seeking discovery, but what happens when hope becomes our compass? Drawing from cases of collecting hard data and fieldwork in remote communities, this presentation examines how our desires—especially in emotionally charged scenarios such as species extinction or in delicate situations such as in dramatically different cultural settings—can subtly skew observations and corrupt data. Malorie Mackey will explore the delicate balance between maintaining scientific skepticism and respecting cultural knowledge, showing how the best exploration requires us to recognize when we’re chasing shadows instead of truth. Mackey recently coauthored a Skeptical Inquirer cover story about Wicked, in which she and her husband coauthor explored this delicate balance.
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  4. Katie Suleta: Skeptical Mentorship: Recruiting the Next Generation of Critical Thinkers: Every movement aspiring to sustain cultural influence and staying power must dedicate substantial resources to youth outreach and education. Amid a landscape marked by regressive leadership and policies in crucial areas such as science and health, the need for the skeptical community to proactively focus on cultivating and empowering young critical thinkers has never been more urgent. Skeptical mentorship is necessary and is a critical investment for safeguarding rational discourse in the future and training the next generation of critical thinkers. Katie Suleta recently appeared on the cover of Skeptical Inquirer (along with Bill Nye, Michael Mann, Peter Hotez, Bertha Vazquez, and Dan Wilson) to discuss disturbing attacks on science.
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","frontmatter":{"title":"Skeptical Inquirer Presents: The Fast Talkers","location":"SkyView 5","paid":false,"fullspkr":"Hosted by Justin Robert Young","slug":"skeptical-inquirer-presents-session","day":"Sunday","speakers":["young-robert-justin","suleta","ankney","wilson","mackey"],"startTime":660,"endTime":720}},{"html":"

Experience breathtaking views of Niagara Falls from the deck of the Maid of the Mist as the boat ferries from the American side to the “basin of Horseshoe Falls — the dramatic passage leading you through the roiling waterfall whitewater and massive rock formations” (you don’t even need a passport). Test your knowledge of science-themed trivia during the 30-minute bus ride to (or from) the falls with Brian Dunning – host of the Skeptoid podcast and leader of the Skeptoid Adventures tours – and some spooky trivia with Kenny Biddle – CSI’s Chief Investigator of Paranormal Claims. Discover Houdini’s connection to Niagara Falls while you explore the roar! Which CSICON speakers will join the journey? There’s only one way to find out!\nAdmission for this event is $125 and includes travel to and from Niagara Falls.

","frontmatter":{"title":"Niagara Falls Excursion and Maid of the Mist Boat Ride","location":"SkyView 5","paid":true,"fullspkr":"Brian Dunning and Kenny Biddle","slug":"niagara-falls-excursion-and-maid-of-the-mist-boat-ride","day":"Sunday","speakers":["dunning-brian","biddle-kenny"],"startTime":780,"endTime":1020}}]}}}