About us
"Scientific Skepticism" is a social movement that began in the 1970s to investigate & debunk topics like ESP, faith healing, astrology, UFOs, ghosts, and other "paranormal" phenomena. Skepticism was essentially a pro-science movement in reaction against the rise of New Age mysticism on the left and Christian fundamentalism on the right. Over time, the skeptic movement has addressed other debates about the dividing lines between science & pseudoscience, medicine & quackery, history & mythology, reason & faith, etc., and has tried to ascertain why people often hold irrational beliefs and how they might be persuaded to adopt more evidence-based beliefs.
"Skeptics In The Pub" started in London in 1999 as an informal social event designed to promote fellowship and social networking among scientific skeptics, free thinkers, rationalists, science enthusiasts, and other kindred spirits. The group is now held in various forms around the world, with well over a hundred local chapters.
The Philadelphia chapter of "Skeptics in the Pub" was founded back in 2014 and hosts bi-weekly group discussions on a range of topics related to science and rationality. There's several things that set our group apart from many other skeptic groups out there:
(1) While most Skeptics in the Pub chapters rely on guest lecturers, we're primarily an intellectual discussion group. That means that our regular bi-weekly meetups have a discussion topic and require some preparation and involve active participation.
(2) Most other chapters of Skeptics in the Pub host their events in "pubs" as the name suggests, but we found them to be too loud and shifted to cafes in 2017. However, since the COVID pandemic began in 2020, most of our events have moved online. Even with the pandemic over, we've found that online events have a big advantage in terms of being able to attract participants from all over America and even overseas, rather than just catering to people in the Philly metro area.
(3) When it comes to addressing pseudoscience & the paranormal, we tend to address controversies among serious scientists & scholars that aren't clear cut rather than just debunking fringe beliefs like homeopathy, Flat Earth, Bigfoot, ghosts & alien abductions for the hundredth time. We typically only address pseudo-scientific beliefs once they become widespread enough to cause major risks or interfere with major benefits to society (e.g. the anti-vaccine, anti-flouride, anti-GMO, anti-nuclear power, AI doomer, AIDS denial, COVID denial, and climate change denial movements). We also try to understand the social & psychological factors behind pseudoscientific beliefs.
(4) While we champion the scientific approach to empirical questions, we're careful to avoid a common pitfall of some skeptic groups -- i.e. "scientism" -- the application of science to non-empirical questions in fields like ethics, aesthetics & political philosophy. Also, while we generally defer to the scientific establishment, we also occasionally act as critics when it comes to issues like funding biases, academic fraud, and the replication crisis.
(5) When we cover conspiracy theories, we tend to focus less on bizarre beliefs about "Men in Black" and the "Illuminati" in favor of somewhat more plausible allegations of political corruption, corporate malfeasance, police cover-ups, covert military actions, domestic spying, etc. We also look at how low science literacy & internet echo chambers lead many normal people to go beyond realistic concerns about Big Government & Big Business and embrace irrational conspiracy theories.
(6) We tend to cover "pseudo-history" more than other skeptic groups. While the skeptic movement has done a fairly good job debunking far-out claims about "ancient aliens" & lost civilizations like Atlantis, we tend to focus more on dubious historical claims that have bigger implications for modern-day politics like the various cases of genocide denial (e.g. Holocaust, Holodomor), Neo-Confederate "Lost Cause" apologetics about the Civil War, the 1619 Project's revisionism, the antisemitic theories of the Black Hebrew Israelites & the Nation of Islam, and historical conspiracy theories about Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, the Apollo moon landing, the 9/11 attacks, etc. We also occasionally cover lighter topics related to mythology, folklore & urban legends from both a historical & socio-psychological perspective.
(7) When we address problems with the news media, instead of debunking obvious hoaxes from junk tabloids & "fake news" websites, we tend to focus on problems within the mainstream media coverage, such as the exaggeration of scientific findings in "pop science" journalism, political biases that corrupt journalistic objectivity, and the fear-mongering that drives "moral panics". We also try to help members cut through conflicting accounts of highly polarizing events, like foreign wars or domestic social turmoil, and find out what's probably true and what's unwarranted speculation or outright disinformation.
(8) Although we occasionally address ethical & political issues, we do so from a non-partisan, empirical approach. Any politician, pundit or political party that makes claims that are unsupported by logic & evidence are open for criticism. There's also no expectation that members have specific ethical or political commitments, beyond a commitment to the use of reason & empiricism to make arguments and support for free inquiry & open debate. Whether or not atheists should adopt specific secular philosophies like "ethical humanism", "objectivism", "transhumanism", "longtermism", "effective altruism", etc., or even whether or not a scientific worldview can support certain ethical or political principles is an open question as far as this group is concerned.
(9) While most skeptic groups double as atheist groups, this meetup doesn't require members to have any particular position on abstract metaphysical questions like the existence or non-existence of a "higher power” or "ground of being", free will vs determinism, the nature of the "self", the hard problem of consciousness, panpsychism, the simulation hypothesis, the multiverse, etc. While many of the supernatural claims made by traditional organized religions are either unfalsifiable or don't withstand scientific scrutiny, the skeptic movement's major figures have had a variety of metaphysical positions, from Carl Sagan's pantheism to Richard Dawkins' anti-theism, and from Paul Kurtz's "ignosticism" to Martin Gardner's "fideism". When we cover religious issues, rather than debating the existence of God or creationism vs evolution for the thousandth time, we often focus on topics related to the psychology & sociology of religion, or we look at the ways in which the frontiers of physics can inform metaphysical speculation.
If this sounds interesting to you, we hope you'll join us!
Upcoming events
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M.A. Lecture: "Haunting the Self"
·OnlineOnlineEvent Title: "Haunting the Self: Ghosts, Grief, and the Second Half of Life" with Scott Bryson, PhD
Event Date: Monday, Mar. 9, 2026 at 7:00 PM EST
Ticketing Info: FREE - but you must still register at: https://www.morbidanatomy.org/events-tickets/p/free-online-talk-haunting-the-self-ghosts-grief-and-the-second-half-of-life-with-scott-bryson-phd
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email info.morbidanatomy@gmail.com. (Video playback of this event is only available to Morbid Anatomy's Patreon members.)
Event Description:
Hauntings don’t always involve rattling chains or Victorian attics. The ghosts that follow us are often quieter—and far more intimate. For those of us in our 40s, 50s, and 60s, they tend to show up as regrets, old identities we’ve outgrown, versions of ourselves we never inhabited, and the unresolved stories we inherited from the families who shaped us.Drawing from world mythology, depth psychology, literature, and personal narrative, this lecture will reframe ghosts as psychological companions—messengers from the margins of the self. Together we will explore the “ghosts” of the unlived life: the paths we did not take, the talents we abandoned, and the versions of ourselves that hover just outside who we became, asking why these specters grow louder in the second half of life.
We will consider ancestral hauntings in the form of generational patterns and emotional legacies carried unconsciously, tracing how family stories become folklore and how folklore hardens into identity. We will meet mythic ghosts and underworld encounters, from Persephone’s seasonal return to Toni Morrison’s grief-haunted Beloved to Johnny Cash’s “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” suggesting that phantoms rarely seek revenge so much as recognition. We will look at Jung’s shadow as a kind of “personal ghost,” made of the disowned pieces of ourselves that trail us like a cold spot in an old house, before turning to narrative itself as a form of exorcism—or invitation—asking why telling a story can sometimes lay a ghost to rest and at other times call it closer so we can finally hear what it has been trying to say.
Throughout this talk, we’ll consider what ghosts actually want: attention, integration, and (sometimes) release. And we’ll ask a central question of midlife psychology: What if haunting is simply the psyche’s way of refusing to let us live a life that’s smaller than the one we’re meant for?
Participants will leave with a deeper sense of how to listen to their ghosts—personal, familial, and mythic—and how to transform haunting into insight.
About the Speaker:
- Scott Bryson has been an English professor and literary critic in Los Angeles for two decades, though he grew up in a small Texas farm town—making him “culturally bilingual,” equally at home talking myth and meaning or swapping stories over burritos and beer. His work ranges from ecopoetry to LA literature to how narrative shapes identity, always with an eye toward helping people see themselves inside the stories we tell. His current project—a mythology-based dissertation for a second PhD—uses songwriting to reimagine old myths as guides for modern life. For more info, check out his bio page on the Mount Saint Mary's University website - https://www.msmu.edu/directory/scott-bryson/
About the Event Host:
This event is hosted by the Morbid Anatomy Blog & Library, a website dedicated to interstices of art and medicine, death and culture. Morbid Anatomy was created in 2007 as a blog by Joanna Ebenstein, a multi-disciplinary artist, curator, writer, lecturer and graphic designer. It later expanded to include a library of lectures, exhibitions, classes, spectacles, symposia, field trips, books, parties, and films. It is best known for its brief incarnation as the critically acclaimed Morbid Anatomy Museum (2013-2016) in Brooklyn, New York.........................................................................................................................................................................................................
4 attendees
Skeptical Inquirer Presents: "Bad Science in the 21st Century"
·OnlineOnlineWhat is "Skeptical Inquirer Presents"?
Skeptical Inquirer is a bimonthly American magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry dedicated to promoting science and reason. They've recently introduced "Skeptical Inquirer Presents" - live online presentations from leading experts in science, skepticism, medicine, media, activism, and advocacy, all devoted to the cause of advancing science over pseudoscience, media literacy over conspiracy theories, and critical thinking over magical thinking.Every two weeks, Skeptical Inquirer Presents will bring you a new live event, emceed by the brilliant and hilarious comedian Leighann Lord, co-host of the Point of Inquiry podcast. And it’s all happening from the comfort of your laptop (or any other screen), wherever you are in the world, because big ideas can’t be contained in conference halls.
How can I participate?
Free registration is required for these online lectures. See below for details and registration, and check back for additional events.For full details and to register for this event, go to:
https://skepticalinquirer.org/video/the-rise-of-bad-science-in-the-twenty-first-century-david-robert-grimes/Once you register, keep an eye out for a confirmation email from Zoom with instructions on how to join the presentation.
If you have difficulties registering or logging into Zoom for the event, please submit any questions to: zoom@centerforinquiry.org
Event Title: "The Rise of Bad Science in the Twenty-First Century" with David Robert Grimes
Details for this event:
Science has been integral to human prosperity, and medical science in particular has been transformative to our well-being. But there are worrying signs that a confluence of factors could undermine that progress: in biomedicine, 87% of research is considered waste, either too poorly described or too poorly conducted to be useful (and potentially misleading enough to cause harm). We’ve seen an alarming rise in the number of fabricated papers in the aftermath of COVID-19, causing chaos everywhere from Alzheimer’s research to cancer treatment. And a new administration, openly hostile toward science, has medicine held hostage.Join us on Thursday, March 19, at 7:00 p.m. ET for a Skeptical Inquirer Presents livestream with David Robert Grimes. The ascendant “Make America Healthy Again” movement has elevated pseudoscience, conspiracy theory, and fringe beliefs into actual policy and boosted dubious science to promote an ideological project. But how did we get here, and what can we do about it? In this talk, David Robert Grimes, an expert in the public understanding of medical science, will join us to illuminate the problem—and tell us how we can solve it.
NOTE: This live Zoom event is free, but advance registration is required, so sign up right now.
About the Speaker:
* David Robert Grimes is a scientist, broadcaster, and author of Good Thinking: How Flawed Logic Puts Us All At Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World. Grimes has contributed to many outlets, including The Guardian, Scientific American, The New York Times, the BBC, and more. His research focuses on public understanding of science, medical disinformation, research integrity, and mathematical modeling. Grimes was a joint recipient of the 2014 Nature/Sense about Science John Maddox Prize for standing up for science and is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
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SITP Online: "When Healthy Eating Turns Harmful"
·OnlineOnlineEvent Title: "When healthy eating turns harmful: How ultra-processed food panic fuels anxiety and disordered eating" – Maeve Hanan
How to Watch:
Join us at the Skeptics in the Pub channel on Twitch:
https://m.twitch.tv/sitp/New to Skeptics in the Pub or Twitch or both?
Twitch or SitP may be new for some of you, so SITP will have early doors at 1:45 to welcome new attendees and answer any questions you may have before the presentation begins at 2:00. You can find a useful guide to Twitch here: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-twitch-4143337You don't need a Twitch account to watch the talk only if you want to take part in the chat. You won't need an account to ask questions in the Q&A period though.
Note: If you have questions, please refer to the SITP Online event page - but note the event time is listed for BST, i.e. British Summer Time, which is 5 hours ahead of EDT:
https://sitp.online/show/when-healthy-eating-turns-harmful-how-ultra-processed-food-panic-fuels-anxiety-and-disordered-eating-maeve-hanan/Event Description:
From best-selling books to viral TikToks and food documentaries, ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have become public enemy number one in the world of nutritional ‘wellness’. But is the panic justified – or are we being fed a different kind of harmful message?In this talk, registered dietitian Maeve Hanan will break down what UPFs actually are, the roots of UPF panic and what the evidence really says about them. We will also explore how the cultural obsession with purity and perfection in eating can do more harm than good, all too often spiralling into food anxiety and disordered eating. This talk challenges black-and-white thinking around food, encourages a more balanced perspective, and asks: what if our fear of food is more dangerous than the food itself?
About the Speaker:
- Maeve Hanan is a Registered Dietitian who specializes in disordered eating and food freedom. She’s the founder of dieteticallyspeaking.com, a platform offering evidence-based information, practical tools, courses, and one-to-one support to help people build a healthier relationship with food. Maeve advocates for a compassionate, weight-inclusive approach to nutrition, and is passionate about cutting through the online noise by sharing clear, evidence-based messages (primarily via her newsletter and Instagram page via @dieteticallyspeaking).
About the Event Host:
"Skeptics in the Pub Online" is a FREE online event series organized by a UK-based coalition of skeptic groups. Formed when Covid-19 lockdowns stopped them meeting in pubs, they are working to deliver high-quality events based on science, reason, and critical thinking. To find out more about their online events, go to: https://www.skepticsinthepub.org/online-safety/...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
1 attendee
Past events
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