For reasons probably best left unexplained,*I have more or less lost hope in both of the major national skeptical organizations here in the United States. This is disheartening, of course, but as my friend Jim has suggested, we can always redirect our attention and efforts to growing grassroots skepticism instead. Very fortunately, loads of local stuff is happening around here in the coming weeks and months.
Skeptics in the Pub – September 8th – Oklahoma City
The speaker this month is Ellen Pogemiller, Director of the Oklahoma County Immunization Coalition. Her talk is titled “Community Immunity: My Responsibility?” There will also be fish and chips and booze, and James Garrison in a bowtie.
Skeptics of Oz – October 18th – Wichita, KS
Been out to this event every year, including that one time when it was in a creepy old church with the most frightening service elevator I’ve ever seen. Here is the Lanyrd page which is being updated as new speakers come on board.
SkeptOKon – October 25th – Edmond, OK
Oklahoma’s first ever conference dedicated to skepticism, unless I’m much mistaken. Certainly the first one since I moved back here, anyhow.
SkeptOKon is the first ever student-hosted skepticism and critical-thinking focused conference in Oklahoma! There will be multiple well-known speakers, a panel discussion, an interfaith panel, live entertainment, and enormous amounts of fun!
Confirmed speakers at this point include Seth Andrews (http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/), Aron Ra (http://www.aronra.com/), Dr. Caleb Lack (https://skepticink.com/gps), and Dr. Bryan Farha (http://www.csicop.org/author/bryanfarha). Topics covered will include the value of skepticism, evolution, pseudoscience in the world of autism, and others. Entertainment will be provided in part by Monty Harper (http://montyharper.com/).
The preferred pronounciation is “Skept-O-KHAAAAAAAN” in case you were wondering. Preferred pronoun is BAMF.
Skepticon – November 21st – Springfield, MO
Not exactly the most skeptical of cons these days, despite the increasingly atavistic name. Nevertheless, we have always had a really good time up there in previous years, and despite the occasional bout of online abuse, we will press on. Orac will be speaking, and that guy is brilliant. Here are the other speakers, two-thirds of whom have yet to block me on Twitter.
Those are just the upcoming events starting with S-K-E-P-T . . . did I leave anything off? If you’re planning to be at any of these, please do say hello, I’ll be the bald guy in the Skeptic Ink t-shirt who isn’t Caleb Lack.
* I would probably be happy to explain if prompted to do so.
