Category Archives: General

Mal Vickers coming to Skepticon 2023

Posted in Alternative "medicine" scams, General, Science, Skeptic, Skeptical Activism by

Mal Vickers is a skeptical activist with a singular focus on shonky so-called treatments, and the much-to-be-desired responses of regulators responsible for keeping our community safe.

In 2016 Mal received the ‘Skeptic of the Year’ award, jointly with Dr Ken Harvey for complaints about chiropractors. While studying towards a Master of Public Health, Mal investigated the complementary medicines market using the complaints made about its advertising and products. Mal is a mild-mannered bio-medical engineer and enjoys photography and tinkering in his workshop.

Working with Dr. Ken Harvey Mal has been instrumental in targeting false claims that can harm consumers. They reported on persistent non-evidence based claims in breach of the Chiropractic Board and AHPRA guidelines, and the absence of appropriate responses from these regulators.

Mal and Ken published the first review of the TGA’s Complaints Resolution Panel over its entire 19 year life. The analysis comprehensively demonstrated the failure of the TGA to ensure regulatory compliance by advertisers of complementary medicines.

While our regulatory system is meant to rein in violations, from 1999 to 2018 complaints and established breaches of the law greatly increased. 
At Skepticon, Mal will peel back the layers of misleading advertising that ultimately wastes people’s time and money. 

How do the companies behind these products get away with it? And, who tops the list for unethical behaviour? 

Mal is also on social media:

You can still get tickets to Skepticon for either the physical or online experience.

Liam Mannix coming to Skepticon 2023

Posted in General, Media, Skeptic by

Liam Mannix is one of Australia’s most accomplished science journalists, writing for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, as well as Nine’s other mastheads. His website is here.

Liam Mannix

Liam won the 2022 Press Club Quill Award for Excellence in Science, Medical and Health Reporting, the 2020 Walkley Award for Short Feature Writing, and the 2019 Barry Williams Award for Skeptical Journalism.

His investigation into the nerve pain drug Lyrica, resulted in Liam winning the 2019 Eureka Prize for Science Journalism, and he has twice won the Walkley Young Journalist of the Year (Innovation) award. He has even found time for Facebook and can be found on X here.

A quick visit to the Skepticon 2023 website reveals you can:

Join Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz (Health Nerd) and the award-winning science journalists Melissa Davey and Liam Mannix in this panel discussion looking at science in the media and how to avoid being misled by the headlines you read.

Tickets are available here.

Annie McCubbin coming to Skepticon 2023

Posted in General, Skeptic by

Would you like to know why smart women make bad decisions? If so, buying Annie McCubbin’s book, Why Smart Women make Bad Decisions would be a great start.

Annie published it in 2020, then in May this year she published Why Smart Women Buy the Lies. Annie is more than a little annoyed that critical thinking is so often side-lined, whilst pseudoscience and New-Age waffle is instead shaping decision-making. Consequently, Annie focuses on helping women avoid being conned by the feel-good vibes of self-help promises.

Annie McCubbin

Annie trained and worked as a professional actor appearing in major theatre productions and Australian TV dramas.  In 2001, Annie founded COUP – a corporate development and communication consultancy – with her husband, David.  They have pioneered skills-based training drawn from theatre practice, critical thinking, and business principles, delivered to companies across Australasia in finance, professional services, pharma, resources, telecoms, FMCG, government and the profit-for-purpose sector.

Having trained and coached thousands of women leaders, it became blindingly apparent to Annie that understanding cognitive flaws and unconscious biases is the best protection from the deceptions and distortions that cause unwelcome drama in business. 

You can hear Annie speak at Skepticon 2023. Tickets for the convention and/or online viewing are available here.

Dr. John Cook will be at Skepticon 2023

Posted in climate change, General, Skeptic by

John Cook is a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne.

Dr John Cook

In 2013, John published Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature, an award-winning paper quantifying the 97% scientific consensus on climate change. The paper has been highlighted by President Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron. 

In 2007, John founded Skeptical Science, a website that won the 2011 Australia Museum Eureka Prize for the Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge. He has an interest in using critical thinking to counter the effects of misinformation.

Tickets for Skepticon 2023 live and online, available here.

Zafir Ivanov and Reason’s Fulcrum coming to Skepticon 2023

Posted in General, Science, Skeptic by

The fact that two individuals can form opposite conclusions when faced with the same evidence, is something that Zafir Ivanov has pondered most of his life.

Zafir has devoted a great deal of time to understanding how we form beliefs. Why are some people immune to counter-evidence? Why are some easily swayed by weak arguments, and others unmoved by strong evidence? In fact, people respond to evidence quite differently.

Zafir’s interest led him to study research literature, experiment with difficult conversations and to become an amateur ethnographer. He writes, gives presentations, and talks about why we believe and why he thinks it best we believe as little as possible. Zafir has collaborated with the Cognitive Immunology Research Initiative and The Evolutionary Philosophy Circle.

At Skepticon 2023 he will introduce a modified version of a concept called Reason’s Fulcrum. Zafir will use this to demonstrate Bayesian Reasoning, and thinking in ratios in addition to how this can help one appropriately adjust when faced with new evidence. He will argue in support of rejecting absolute certainty and Truth (with a capital T).

Zafir Ivanov

In November last year Zafir presented the below TEDx talk, Our worldview alters our view of the world.

  • Skepticon 2023 runs over 2nd and 3rd of December. Live and online convention tickets, as well as tickets to the Saturday night dinner, are available here.