Neil Denny is the producer and presenter of the Little Atoms Radio Show and podcast.  Neil was the recipient of a Travelling Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and in May 2012 he embarked upon a month long, 6614 mile road trip across America.

The aim of the trip was to produce a series of podcasts which present a wide-ranging overview of science and skepticism from an American perspective. Driving from San Francisco to Boston and calling in at Phoenix, Santa Fe, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York along the way,  Neil recorded 39 interviews with scientists and science writers including Ann Druyan, Leonard Susskind, Kip Thorne, Priya Natarajan, Paul Davies, George Church, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Mary Roach, Edward Stone and Sara Seager.

He recorded interviews at some major sites of scientific interest, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, The Los Alamos National Laboratory, and The American Museum of Natural History. He also spent a less scientific day visiting Kentucky’s Creation Museum. The podcasts from Neil’s trip can be found at the following website:http://feeds.feedburner.com/littleatomsroadtrip. Find out more about Little Atoms here: www.littleatoms.com, and follow Neil on Twitter @littleatoms.

One of the greatest strengths of the human species from an evolutionary perspective is our ability to perceive meaningful patterns and cause and effect relationships in our surroundings. Our cognitive systems have evolved to allow us to make relatively quick decisions that are right most of the time as opposed to slower, more reflective, decisions that are right slightly more often.

In terms of the evolutionary cost-benefit analysis, our cognitive systems are optimised for biological survival not for apprehending “Truth”.  One consequence of our evolutionary history is that we are prone to a number of cognitive biases that may well underlie our predisposition towards supernatural and paranormal beliefs. Because we are poor at recognising randomness and often see meaning and significance where there is none, it is not surprising that such beliefs are so prevalent and persistent.

Chris French is a Professor of Psychology and Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths. He has published over 100 articles and chapters covering a wide range of topics within psychology. His main current area of research is the psychology of paranormal beliefs and anomalous experiences. He frequently appears on radio and television casting a sceptical eye over paranormal claims. He a special advisor and former editor-in-chief of The Skeptic.

Psychologists have shown that most of us, whatever our conscious convictions, are prone to implicit (unconscious and automatic) biases against members of groups that are stigmatised in our societies.

Jennifer will show how this can be seen as giving rise to a new sort of scepticism, throwing into doubt much of what we think we know in a way that very much demands action.

Co-Editor for Feminism entries for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and on the Editorial Board for Symposia in Gender, Race, and Philosophy, Jennifer is also Director of the Society for Women in Philosophy UK, and she is on the Analysis Committee.

Jennifer has supervised PhD students working on names, implicature, gender, sexual objectification, vagueness, indexicals, reference, justice, cosmopolitanism and feminism, epistemic/communicative injustice and autonomy. She runs the Feminism reading group every semester, and sometimes she also runs a philosophy of language reading group. She has just completed a book entitled Lying, Misleading and What is Said: An Exploration in Philosophy of Language and in Ethics (forthcoming, Oxford University Press).

Jennifer is honoured to have received the 2011 Distinguished Woman Philosopher Award in Washington, DC.  But her proudest accomplishment is nonetheless having been a consultant on a zombie movie.

Scientology has been described in the States as “ruthless, litigious and lucrative” and in this country as “corrupt, sinister and dangerous”, yet it boasts global success and has made hundreds of millions of dollars.

Thanks to the Internet, it now faces an unprecedented global opposition. The scary secrets of Scientology and its recruitment methods will be exposed in this talk. It will be useful for anyone wanting to set up their own lucrative cult.

Martin Poulter first encountered skepticism while a teenager. He has a Philosophy and Psychology degree from Oxford University and a PhD in Philosophy of Science from the University of Bristol. He has been a Scientology-watcher since 1995, when he was threatened with legal action over material he posted online. He is an ordained minister in the Church of the SubGenius, which offers eternal spiritual salvation or triple your money back.