NCAS
Public Lecture Series
America
the Fearful:
Media and the Marketing
of National Panics
Benjamin Radford
Research Fellow, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
Saturday, November 12, 1:30pm - 4:00pm
Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center
2nd Floor (West Room)
4805 Edgemoor Lane
Bethesda, MD [
map]
[
directions]
(Bethesda Metro station)
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members
National panics about
crime, immigrants, police, and societal degradation have
been pervasive in the United States of the 21st century.
Many of these fears begin as mere phantom fears, but are
systematically amplified by social media, news media, bad
actors and even well-intentioned activists. There are
numerous challenges facing the U.S., but Americans must
sort through which fears are legitimate threats and which
are amplified exaggerations. In
America the Fearful,
Benjamin Radford examines the role of fear in national
panics and addresses why many Americans believe the
country is in horrible shape and will continue to
deteriorate (despite contradictory evidence). Political
polarization, racism, sexism, economic inequality, and
other social issues are examined. Combining media
literacy, folklore, investigative journalism, psychology,
neuroscience, and critical thinking approaches, this book
reveals the powerful role that fear plays in clouding
perceptions about the U.S. It not only records the
repercussions of this toxic phenomenon, but also offers
evidence-based solutions.
Benjamin Radford is longtime deputy editor of
Skeptical
Inquirer science magazine, and a Research Fellow with
the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a non-profit
educational organization. Over the past twenty years he has
investigated dozens of mysterious and unexplained phenomena.
He is author of a dozen books and thousands of articles on
media and science literacy and co-host of the
Squaring
the Strange podcast.
Mr. Radford will be joining us remotely via Zoom.
Unfortunately, due to technical limitations,
this NCAS
lecture will not be livestreamed.
If there is no way you can attend, feel free to email
ncas@ncas.org with your
questions and comments...they'll be conveyed to our speaker
during the event.
Skeptics Return to the Desert After 3 Plague Years
By Grace and Chip Denman
A flock of seagulls. A murder of crows. A flamboyance of
flamingos.
But what do you call more than 600 skeptics at the Las Vegas
Flamingo at the end of October? CSICon 2022!
Robyn Blumner, Center for Inquiry president and CEO,
welcomed us to the first CSICon since 2019, pointing out
that we were likely the most vaccinated and boosted
conference attendees anywhere. The room was full of people
happy to be in each other’s company. There were many
familiar faces and a few forgotten names.
Neil deGrasse Tyson was the gravitational force in the room
as he delivered the keynote Thursday evening, sharing
thoughts and ideas from his new book Starry Messenger:
Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization. No one in the
audience minded at all that he ran overtime. A surprise
bonus for attendees was that we each received an autographed
copy of Neil’s book.
First thing Friday morning, psychologist and magician
Richard Wiseman made sure we were awake as he shared his
work “Investigating the Impossible.” Lee McIntyre’s
presentation “How to Talk to a Science Denier” echoed many
of the themes we presented in our pre-conference workshop
“Asking Good Questions”—first and foremost, be a good
listener. There were talks on the public understanding of
science, the science of human improvement, and science and
pseudoscience in health and wellness. The highlight of the
day was the presentation of the Richard Dawkins Award by
Richard Dawkins to Neil deGrasse Tyson. The respect,
admiration, and affection between the two men were evident
in their conversation.
Saturday morning Richard Wiseman hosted a panel of friends,
colleagues, and loved ones associated with the documentary James
Randi: An Honest Liar. Tyler Measom (filmmaker),
Banachek (mentalist supreme and one of Randi’s Project Alpha
kids), Massimo Polidoro (protégé and biographer), and
Randi’s spouse, artist Deyvi Orangel Peña Arteaga (aka José
Alvarez, aka “channeler” Carlos) shared memories and
stories. It was heartening to have Randi remembered so
fondly two years after his death.
Saturday evening, Penn Jillette was in conversation with
Julia Sweeney, two very funny people discussing Penn’s
latest novel, Random, as well as life, skepticism,
and family.
George Hrab brought his guitar and sense of humor each day
to keep us on time, introduce the speakers, and ensure the
audience was aware of what was next up on the agenda. The
Q&A after each speaker was eliminated this year. I was
happy to have that time given to the speakers, but I did
miss George’s oft repeated reminder to “Make sure your
question is in the form of a question.”
Prez Sez
By Scott Snell
I want to thank everyone who contributed to the two
membership meetings following the September and October NCAS
lectures. The resulting list of ideas for NCAS to
re-activate itself following the pandemic is a good start
and a work in progress.
I'll focus here on only one aspect: though ideally all of
our monthly lectures would be livestreamed for maximum
participation, we do have technical limitations. We can
livestream a speaker who is in our meeting room. But if our
speaker is joining us remotely, only the audience in the
meeting room can participate or even watch.
That was the case for our October 8 talk about fake news
(Professor Andie Tucher, who joined us from New York), and
it will also be the case for our November 12 event with Ben
Radford, joining us from New Mexico.
Almost all of our speakers allow their talks to be posted
later on the
NCAS YouTube
channel. But skepticism can be much more than a
spectator sport. I suppose if you think of a question or a
missed point after watching a video, you might contact the
speaker directly, or at least post below the video. I think
the best situation is to be able to pose your question to
the speaker during the event, so the question and answer
will be part of the posted video. And your question may
spark other interesting questions and remarks during the
event.
The absence of some of our members and guests is keenly
felt during our events now. Before the pandemic, we would
get 30 to 40 attendees, sometimes more. Now we get about
20.
I realize it's an investment of time and energy, and
involves some risk. But in return, as always, we have
refreshments and camaraderie awaiting you. And we offer an
opportunity to directly interact with authors and other
speakers. In comparison with the Smithsonian Resident
Associates program or events at Politics and Prose, or
"Profs and Pints," ours is a competitive service due to it
being free of charge, and due to J. D. Mack's technical
capabilities of bringing remote speakers into the room with
us.
Do you have an idea for a speaker or topic? Don't let
geography limit your ideas...we'll try to get that speaker!
And we'll be generally accessible again when our lectures
will be livestreamed online only (no meeting room) during
the winter months to avoid inclement weather and a possible
resurgence of COVID-19.
As an aside, I was disappointed and somewhat concerned to
hear that CSICon 2022 had no Q and A. Yes, that would allow
more speakers to participate, but first and foremost, we
skeptics are questioners. The irony of the Center for
Inquiry not allowing time for inquiry at its conference is
amusing but unfortunate.
It's true that there are sometimes poor-quality
questions, or the questioner may be nervous and having
trouble forming a concise question. Or that an interesting
concept for the speaker to consider may be difficult to
convey succinctly. And there are the inevitable
pontificators. But damn it, are we really supposed to just
watch people present and then applaud? Even the better
presentations may have interesting gaps, or an audience
member has important information unavailable to the
speaker. Just on principle, I think it's the right thing to
do to allow time for good and bad questions instead of
stacking speakers to fill the time. (Though of course, some
speakers may decide not to take questions.) Imitating
scientific conferences, which almost always have Q and A
segments unless the session runs long, is probably the best
model for skeptical conferences. On those occasions when a
presentation is so thorough (or inert) that no questions
emerge, the next speaker can begin early.
So yes...I hope we will see you on Saturday and we'll hear
your questions!
AmazonSmile:
Thanks to our members who are supporting NCAS!
When shopping at
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AmazonSmile's disbursements to NCAS in the second quarter of
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NCAS can put that money to good use, it's more than enough
to cover two hours of a Montgomery County lecture room
rental.)
Thanks again to our members who have chosen to support NCAS!
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Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society is a group that has
served the general public nationwide. On a daily basis, their
professional team is contacted by real people who are frightened
by weird and sometimes terrifying occurrences that happen in
their businesses and homes. It is their mission to help these
people, and to educate the public. This is achieved through
humor, creativity and compassion. For over two decades Rocky
Mountain Paranormal has examined a wide range of reported
paranormal phenomena, including ghosts, poltergeists, psychics,
UFOs, conspiracy theories, urban legends, cryptids, and much
more. Unlike others in the field, they have made sure not to run
around cemeteries, screaming and scaring the group with
over‐active imaginations. From the field to the lab, they test
bizarre beliefs and practices, conduct experiments and on‐site
investigations, and recreate unusual events. They have
confronted hauntings, Ouija board activity, levitation, psychic
readings, alien abductions, and telephones that try to talk to
the dead. With extensive experience and training, using a
collection of equipment and the most important tool--critical
thinking--they utilize stage magic, mentalism, history, and
science to seek the evidence to solve the mysteries and close
the cases. Their work has earned the respect of believers and
skeptics alike, and earned the fear of fraudsters and
charlatans.
