In two weeks, yours truly will be participating in the 2010 Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium at McGill University in Montreal. This year, the theme is Confronting Pseudoscience: A Call to Action. I’ll be speaking with Ben Goldacre and Michael Shermer on Monday, October 18 from 5 to 7 PM on the Threat of Pseudoscience. On Tuesday, October 19, the ever-amazing Randi will speak on investigating paranormal claims. Unfortunately, the organizers couldn’t get Randi on the same stage with us because he couldn’t make it to Montreal from TAM London in time for Monday night; so this is the next best thing. Randi deserves the stage to himself anyway.
Obviously, I can’t wait, although I must admit that I’m rather nervous. To share the stage with Michael Shermer and Ben Goldacre and to get to hang out with them plus Randi, well, that’s more than I could have hoped for or imagined. It leaves me feeling like Wayne in this clip, with Shermer, Goldacre, and Randi as Alice Cooper (very appropriate, given Randi’s history of having done the effects for Alice Cooper’s stage show back in the 1970s):
So, if you happen to be in the Montreal area or can get there on October 18 and/or 19, come on over to McGill. It’ll be a rousing good skeptical time. I don’t yet know what Ben Goldacre and Michael Shermer will be discussing, but I’ll be speaking about cancer quackery (although I probably won’t be able to resist a brief commentary on quackademic medicine). I’ll also be on Dr. Joe’s radio show on CJAD 1010.