The annual convention opened March 29, 2018 and runs through April 1, 2018.
Yesterday, I was introduced to Yvette D’entremont, who goes by the moniker SciBabe. She gave a workshop on fact-checking and lawsuit prevention as she writes about dubious medical claims, naturopathy and pseudoscience. Since I don’t want to get sued either, I’ll not go in to too much detail, but look for her on Twitter at Yvette @TheSciBabe.
Suffice it to say, she has tackled some subjects that not only have questionable value, but may actually cause physical harm to a person, finding such ingredients as cyanide and lead in substances or products claiming to improve health and/or longevity. Scary to say the least.
Next, we popped into a workshop on Street Epistemology (SE) led by Anthony Magnabosco. It was packed and included a one-on-one with a random partner that proved to be fun but challenging. Magnabosco also gave a more formal address on the main stage which was very well received. He explained to an interested crowd that SE is useful among family members and friends, as well as with total strangers. It is not a form of evangelism as some critics have claimed.
Talk Heathen, hosted by Eric Murphy and Jamie, a podcast based out of Austin, did a live show and brought on a couple of more experienced podcasters: Cecil from Cognitive Dissonance and Noah Lugeons from The Scathing Atheist. While they giggled and entertained a lot, they touched upon the rather serious topic that podcasts are now reaching people throughout the world in places where it might be the only atheist content they were able to hear.
More later!