Speakers

SKeptics’ Guide to the Universe Team

 Individual Speakers

Panel Participants

Dr Steven Novella

Dr. Steve Novella is the primary host and the producer of The Skeptics’s Guide podcast. By day he is an academic clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine. He has been an activist skeptic for over 20 years, starting with the co-founding of the New England Skeptical Society. He has spent years investigating paranormal claims, conspiracy theories, and exposing pseudoscience and bad logic, and is an internationally recognised science communicator.

He authors the NeuroLogicaBlog, which covers news and issues in neuroscience, general science, scientific skepticism, philosophy of science, critical thinking, and the intersection of science with the media and society. He is also the senior editor of the group health blog Science Based Medicine.

Dr. Novella has made multiple appearances on NPR: All Things Considered and is a frequent guest on radio talk shows and science podcasts. His television credits include The Dr. Oz Show, Penn & Teller Bullshit, 20/20, Inside Edition, The History Channel, The Unexplained on A&E, Ricki Lake, and Exploring the Unknown.

He has produced two video courses for The Teaching Company, including Medical Myths and Your Deceptive Mind, combining his medical training with his knowledge and experience as a science communicator and skeptic. He is also the author of a book (with his fellow SGU hosts) titled after their podcast, The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe.

Jay Novella

Jay Novella is a skeptical activist, a science populariser, author and co-host of The Skeptics’ Guide To The Universe, a top 10 science podcast with over 700 episodes. He also produces and hosts Alpha Quadrant 6, a science fiction review show.

Jay is co-author of The Skeptics’ Guide To the Universe, a book which covers critical thinking, the scientific method and how to understand logic. For the past 10 years Jay has served on the board of directors for the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS) held yearly in New York City.

Cara Santa Maria

Cara Santa Maria is a Los Angeles Area Emmy and Knight Foundation Award winning journalist, science communicator, television personality, producer, and podcaster.

Cara is a correspondent on National Geographic’s Explorer and Netflix’s Bill Nye Saves the World. She is the creator and host of a weekly science podcast called Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria and co-hosts the popular Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast. She is a founding member of the Nerd Brigade and co-founded the annual science communication retreat #SciCommCamp.

Previously, Cara was a regular contributor to TechKnow on Al Jazeera America and Real Future on Fusion. She also hosted the digital companion series for the popular competition reality show America’s Greatest Makers on TBS. Cara cohosted Brain Surgery Live on National Geographic Channel, and she was a co-host and producer of TakePart Live on Pivot TV and FabLab on Fox. Before that, she was the Senior Science Correspondent for The Huffington Post and costarred in Hacking the Planet and The Truth About Twisters on The Weather Channel.

Cara has made appearances on BBC America, CBS, CNN, Current TV, Fox, Fox News, G4tv, Nat Geo WILD, Science Channel, SundanceTV, and the Travel Channel. She is also a contributor to The Young Turks.

Prior to her career in media, Cara taught biology and psychology courses to university undergraduates and high school students in Texas and New York. Her published research has spanned various topics, including clinical psychological assessment, the neuropsychology of blindness, neuronal cell culture techniques, and computational neurophysiology.

Bob Novella

Bob Novella is a co-founder and Vice-President of the New England Skeptical Society. He co-hosts the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast and blogs for SGU’s Rogues Gallery. He has also written numerous articles that are widely published in skeptical literature. Bob’s scientific interests lie in the extremes, from the gargantuan to the infinitesimal: astronomy and cosmology to particle physics and quantum mechanics. He is especially fascinated by the human capacity for self-deception and anticipated future technologies such as nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and human augmentation.

Evan Bernstein

Evan Bernstein is a co-host of the award-winning science podcast The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe (SGU) and is the co-author of the book by the same title. He also serves as the Connecticut Chapter Chairperson of the New England Skeptical Society (NESS). Evan is a technical adviser for official NESS investigations. He has been published as part of The Skeptical Blog Anthology book (The Young Australian Skeptics). Traveling the world with his co-hosts, Evan has given live presentations to private corporations and at educational seminars on topics including; the direct harms of pseudoscience, woo in the martial arts, and the truth behind paranormal investigations. Evan earned his BA in Communications from Central Connecticut State University, and by day, owns and manages his financial services corporation. He has been an active participant in the modern skeptical movement since 1996.

Other Speakers

Susan Gerbic

 Susan Gerbic has a strong track record of skeptical activism. A recent New York Times article outlines Susan’s current focus which is working to expose people claiming to be clairvoyant mediums. She has organised and participated in stings that expose how the information the so-called psychics source their information. She has worked to provide an information regarding reading techniques and organised protests giving out leaflets outlining failed psychic predictions.

She is also the founder and leader of Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia. The group sets out to improve skeptical content on Wikipedia. The group includes more than 120 editors from around the world including those from Australia.

Susan lives in California and has retired from her work as a professional photographer.

Mark Edward

Mark Edward is a professional mentalist who specialises in magic of the mind. He has spent over thirty-five years in world class venues from high-end night clubs and theaters to hundreds of private parties and corporate events. He travels internationally as a skeptical activist, using his skills as a mentalist to teach and promote critical thinking.  

As one of only five specially chosen and trained “psychic mediums” in the history of Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle, he performed fifteen years of séance performances that helped him perfect the role of spirit medium and psychic entertainer. As a writer he has written books on these subjects and lectures extensively as a teacher of magic, mentalism and psychic fraud.

He has most recently appeared on television as both primary consultant and on-air performer on truTV’s “Adam Ruins Everything,” National Geographic’s “Brain Games,” “Inside Edition,” and “Nancy Grace.” 

Assoc Prof Fiona FIdler

Associate Professor Fiona Fidler has a joint appointment in the Schools of BioSciences and the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne.  She is broadly interested in how experts, including scientists, make decisions and change their minds.

Her past research has examined how methodological change occurs in different disciplines, including psychology, medicine and ecology, and developed methods for eliciting reliable expert judgements to improve decision making. She originally trained as a psychologist, and maintains a strong interest in psychological methods and statistical controversies. She is a current Australian Research Council Future Fellow focusing on Reproducibility, Replicability and Open Science.

Jo Thornely

“Jo Thornely is the host of Zealot, a podcast about cults, and author of a book by the same name. She’s written for the mainstream media, the middle-stream media, and a few woke puddles, and is obsessed with true crime and religious sleight-of-hand. Jo is, so far, too polite to start her own cult.”

Jo has researched cults from around the world, including a number of local Australian ones. She takes a skeptical approach in examining why anyone would apparently abandon their critical thinking skills at the compound door and furthermore, why they remain in what are sometimes some horrendous situations.

Whilst being respectful of the suffering of vulnerable cult members and ensuring attention to the facts, Jo takes a humorous approach to examining the motivations and manipulations of narcissistic cult leaders. This irreverence is deliberately in stark contrast to the way these leaders desire to be perceived.

Jo lives in Sydney and will be one of our key Australian presenters.

Dr Hannah Middleton

Dr Hannah Middleton has earned a PhD at the University of Birmingham, UK and works as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Melbourne as part of OzGrav (the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery). The group is searching for gravitational waves from spinning neutron stars, which have much longer lasting signals than the collisions observed so far. In collaboration with the Electrical and Electronic Engineering department they are applying signal processing techniques from engineering to gravitational wave data analysis.

Dr Middleton is also the editor of LIGO Magazine published online twice a year by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and details the latest research, news and personalities across the diverse group of members. The LIGO Magazine is free to read at online.

Sue Ieraci

Sue Ieraci is a specialist Emergency Physician who worked in NSW Public Hospitals for 35 years,and now works in telemedicine. She discovered the anti-vax world when previously involved in medical regulation. Joining the Stop the AVN FB page heralded her dive into Social Media activism.

She subsequently joined the Executive of Friends and Science in Medicine, and was involved in preparing their submissions to the NoJabNoPay Senate inquiry and the recent Victorian inquiry into chiropractic treatment of babies. Sue is now immersed in social media activism, and has heard every health-related conspiracy at least once.

Ross Balch

Ross Balch BAppSc(MedSc) BAppSc(Microbiol)  is an infectious diseases diagnosis researcher with a passion for tying together popular culture and science. He has been involved in the science and skepticism community for many years as the founding president of the Brisbane Skeptics Society and remains a committee member.

 Ross has been the host of multiple podcasts and has also recently appeared as a special guest on podcasts including the Non-Peer Reviewed Podcast, The Skeptics Studio and iFriends.

Ross is also a photographer and video producer and combines his science and media knowledge to speak at Skepticon 2019 about the famous monsters in movies and where the science meets the fiction”. 

Dr Brad McKay

Dr Brad is an Australian science communicator, TV host, and podcaster who also works as a GP in Sydney.

He’s an experienced broadcaster, interviewer, MC, and public commentator. He appears regularly on Australian TV and radio, and presents several medical podcasts for health professionals.

In 2013 Dr Brad hosted the Logie-nominated television program ‘Embarrassing Bodies Down Under’ (Foxtel/Channel 9), a show dedicated to decrease stigma and increase awareness of traditionally ‘taboo’ health topics.

He’s an Ambassador for the Immunisation Coalition, the Immunisation Foundation, and the Stroke Foundation.

Tina Hanigan

UK born and adopted Australian for 26yrs, Tina is a retired Tertiary Educator who specialised in Business Mentoring and Accountancy. Now living in country Victoria with her husband Graeme, who founded Mornington Peninsula and Mordialloc Skeptics groups, Tina has been a long-time supporter of skeptical gatherings and activism.

Tina has contributed to Skepticamps as a presenter in recent years tackling topics of Ethical Altruism and exposing over-priced Non-accredited Tertiary Training Courses, based on her personal experience of the industry.
Now into her third year of a BA in Modern History, a personal goal following a life-long passion for all things historical, she has researched the reaction, inevitably skeptical, to the post-Enlightenment Philosophers and Emerging Scientists of the mid to late nineteenth century.
Her recently submitted paper on how surprised Charles Darwin was when his published work, On the Origin of Species, stimulated the fledgling skeptics of 1860’s Europe, forms the basis of her presentation at the Convention. An unexacting look at historical skeptical behaviour when presented with the bombshell of Evolutionary Theory!

Brendan O’Brien

Brendan O’Brien is involved with a number of citizen science projects and is active in communities promoting citizen science. He lives in rural Victoria under extremely dark skies and is the host of the Astrophiz podcasts.  He has some science training, spent far too many decades in secondary and tertiary science education, and sometimes even gets how science works. 

He has great respect for the generosity, skills and humanity of the scientists he conducts interviews with each fortnight. With a popular podcast that is free, not-for-profit and self-sponsored, his aim is to build community understanding of science in general and astrophysics in particular, by interviewing a diverse range of astrophysicists, radio astronomers, space scientists, astro-photographers, aurora hunters, particle physicists and project managers.

Brendan often gets imposter syndrome when interviewing scientists,but is very pleased that his diversity policy has ensured a huge range ofguests being featured on the Astrophiz.com website

Matt Nurse

Matt Nurse is an Australian communications director with a masters degree in communications. For more than 20 years he has advised politicians and governments on media and communications. Now he’s a post grad student at the Australian National University’s Joint Colleges of Science, using his practical knowledge of the dark art of spin to research who falls for misinformation and why.

When he’s not reading fake news, Matt is doing science experiments with his kids and maintaining his unhealthy and illogical relationship with the Melbourne Demons AFL club.

Lee Murray

Lee Murray is a sociolinguist and linguistic anthropologist based at Monash University, Melbourne.  Her PhD research is on the kinds of decisions Australian English speakers make about each other based on how they speak.  She also teach linguistics to undergraduate students.

Lee has presented to the Skeptical Community on prior occasions. Most recently at the Australian Skeptics National Convention in Sydney in October 2018 she spoke on the topic of ‘What does(n’t) your speech say about you?: Examining speaker judgements in Australia’. Lee made her debut at Skepticamp in February 2018 in Airey’s Inlet with ‘Language ideologies: biases you didn’t know you had’.  

Nicholas J. Johnson

Nicholas J. Johnson is a professional speaker, magician, author and educator who specialises in improving the public’s understanding of deception, and helping them to identify scams, hoaxes and suspect science. This has earned him the moniker “The Honest Conman”.

Nicholas earned a BA Sociology in 2001 and for the past 20 years, has worked with businesses, universities and law-enforcement agencies to uncover the tricks behind the tricks.

He’s also appeared as an expert on Fraud and scams on shows including The Project, A Current Affair, Sunrise, TODAY and The Real Hustle.

Nicholas is the author of two best-selling novels, Chasing the Ace and Fast and Loose. Both books use fiction to explore the facts behind the world of professional con artists.

Panelists

Dr Ken Harvey

Dr. Harvey has been awarded life membership of the Australian Skeptics in recognition of his relentless campaigning against shonky medical products and claims. In 2016 he was awarded the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) Medal for, “the teaching of science throughout Australia and New Zealand and contributions to science which lie beyond normal professional activities.”

 In 2017 he was made a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia, “for significant service to community health and the pharmaceutical industry through roles in developing guidelines for the ethical use of antibiotics”. Dr Harvey is currently President of Friends of Science in Medicine and an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University.

Nick Heys

Nick Heys has been with the ACCC for the past 15 years in a number of roles, primarily in competition and consumer protection enforcement. Nick is responsible for setting the ACCC’s Compliance and Enforcement Priorities and runs the ACCC’s strategic enforcement work program policy team. Nick has previously managed the ACCC’s International; Policy; and Compliance teams.

 In previous roles, Nick has been involved in extensive capacity building programs with India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand, as well as involvement with ASEAN. Nick has qualifications in law and economics.

Adjunct Professor John Skerritt

Adjunct Professor Skerritt joined the Australian Department of Health in 2012 as a Deputy Secretary. He was formerly a Deputy Secretary in the Victorian Government, Deputy CEO of a Commonwealth Statutory Authority in the Australian overseas aid program and senior research manager in CSIRO and in industry joint venture partnerships.

 John has a PhD and a University Medal from the University of Sydney and is a graduate of the Senior Executive Programs of London Business School and of the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration of Australia (Vic). 

Dr Julie Wood

Dr Julie Woods is a Senior Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition at Deakin University. She has more than 30 years’ experience working in food policy and regulation at local, state and national levels and has taught food policy and food regulation for 17 years. As a previous convener and executive member of the Food and Nutrition Special Interest Group of the Public Health Association of Australia, Julie is actively involved in public health nutrition advocacy and she has represented this group on numerous food regulation and policy committees. 

Dr Woods was made a fellow of the Public Health Association of Australia in 2018 for her services relating to food policy and regulation. Her research interests include mapping and challenging the changing food and regulatory environment and the influence of ultra-processed foods on health and environmental sustainability.

Associate Professor Basia Diug

Assoc. Prof Basia Diug is a passionate epidemiologist and medical educator.  She joined the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (SPHPM) in 2006. Her work in medical education has a strong focus on improving research literacy amongst health professionals and through the development of key skills in evidence-based medicine. She oversees the Monash “Whack-a-mole” student project with Ken Harvey. 

Basia has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships most notably 2019 Dean’s Award in Excellence in Education – Technological Innovation in Learning and Teaching, 2017 Australian Medical Council (AMC) Commendation – Pedagogical principles and learning technology use and the 2015 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

Paulina Stehlik

Dr Paulie Stehlik is a Senior Research Fellow and Evidence Based Practice Professorial Unit Coordinator at Bond University, part-time community pharmacist, and Gold Coast Skeptics President. She has a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons I), Graduate Certificates in both Pharmacy Practice and Data Science, and a PhD.

She was a member of the 2012 Australian Skeptics National Convention organising committee. She has also taught pharmacy students skeptical concepts through several lecture series and in 2018 delivered a public forum during Bond Research Week.  

Paulie currently works with Gold Coast Health staff in Evidence Based Practice and Research Development. Her areas of interest include clinician research engagement and development, reducing waste in research and healthcare, using real-world data for research, regulation of health products, pharmacy practice and services.

Mal Vickers

After 17 years working as a medical technology engineer, Mal Vickers is now a postgraduate student studying Master of Public Health at Monash University. Mal served on the committee of the Victorian branch of the Australian Skeptics from 2008 to 2016 and is the complaints officer of the Friends of Science in Medicine. In 2016, he was co-awarded (with Dr Ken Harvey), Skeptic of the Year for his work highlighting misleading advertisements of chiropractors. 

Mal has presented on multiple occasions at Skeptics Groups of Victoria meetings, Skepticamp,

Skeptics Café and the Mordi Skeptics. He spoke at the ‘Good Thinking’ Australian Skeptics National Convention on chiropractic advertising in 2016.

Mal has authored numerous articles that can still be read in The Skeptic and on the Vic Skeptics Website. He was also one of the organisers of the 10:23 campaign in Melbourne.