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Speaker/Guest wish list for the next Amazing Meeting

larry Kusche

How about Larry Kusche? His definitive book on the Bermuda Triangle has just been republished. His book on Flight 19 is also remarkable. I've never heard him speak, though he is a professor last I heard. It might be nice to have someone that isn't heard from very often.
He also wrote a popcorn cookbook, and I like a well rounded man!
 
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Reginald "Infidel Guy" Finley - Hey, some of you were saying there should be more ethnic diversity at the Amazing Meeting. You want a black skeptic? Infidel Guy is your man. Reginald is creator and webmaster of "Black Atheists" a site dedicated to dispelling the myth that there are NO black atheists and establishing a method for black atheists to contact each other.
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There are actually people who believe that no black people are atheists? HUH?


But then again...


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Due to inactivity. The Infidel Guy has decided to shutdown the Black Atheist website. I have not received a email in over a year from interested black freethinkers that would like to be added to the page.
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Dang!

My hubby beat me to the punch...

Naturally, I love all of his speaker suggestions (and Labi Siffre cannot be beaten for really feiry material -- in a dry-as-the-Sahara delivery). But I am really pushing for the Trinity Foundation, too, in the interest of broadening the audience for TAM and acknowledging that religious people can be skeptics, too. Here's some particular info from the website:

TELEVANGELIST INVESTIGATIONS

An early skepticism about the way religious programming is bought and sold prompted Trinity to conduct a controversial research project on the audience demographics and ratings of religious broadcasting. By the time scandals rocked the religious television industry in the 1980s, Trinity was already monitoring religious programming and reporting abuses of the public trust. In the 1990s Trinity Foundation became the leading "watchdog" of religious media, conducting investigations and providing information used to expose fraud and abuses committed in the name of God.

The foundation regularly provides assistance to print and electronic journalists investigating suspected fraud or other abuses of the public trust by members of the religious media. The foundation maintains a private investigative license with the State of Texas and frequently provides undercover operatives to news programs like PrimeTime Live, 60 Minutes, Dateline, CNN Special Reports, 20/20, British Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Inside Edition, among many others. We have also worked with The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Economist, London Independent, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, U.S. News & World Report, and The Dallas Morning News.

Foundation representatives have testified for Congressional hearings examining abuses by America's television evangelists. The foundation has also provided investigative reports to various agencies of state and federal government.

Victim's Helpline: The foundation sponsors and staffs America's only nationwide toll-free help line (1-800-229-VICTIM) for people who believe they or a loved one has been victimized by a televangelist.

Media Archive: Trinity Foundation maintains a nationally recognized video archive of televangelism broadcasts, a print-media clip-file and extensive direct-mail files on approximately 300 televangelists. Information requests are met regularly from local, regional, national and worldwide media outlets.
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They have put out some educational videotapes about this investigational work, which can be ordered from the website Buddyh quoted above.
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It would certainly be a hit if we could persuade the aliens to release Elvis for a day or so.... :D
 
Michiu Kaku would be a great guest, I think. He's done a lot to debunk "Bad Physics" (with a nod to Phil) on the former Art Bell show, and is very good at explaining advanced concepts in sub-atomic physics (especially super-string theory) to lay people (and when it comes to super-string theory, I suspect most of us are "lay people.")
 
How about Stephen Barrett. He is the best resource that I know when I want to find out about alternative medicine chicanery.
 
I'm with Quinn on Ian Rowland. And with any luck, he'll bring copies of his cold reading book which never seems to be available on his web site!

Another suggestion I have may seem a little strange, but I'd like to see Morris Dees. A mini bio here.

I recommend him because racism is severly lacking in critical thinking and is astronomically more harmful to our society than some stupid spoon bender.
 
A few suggestions:

Dr. Oliver Sacks -- neurologist, author of "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and "Awakenings," and recently "Uncle Tungsten," in which he talks about growing up during WWII and finding the growing realm of chemistry and the periodic table to be an alluring alternative to the harsh realities of life during wartime. In my correspondence with him (he lives in NYC now -- we get some of 'em, too! :D ), he's been charming and generous. Maybe we can get him to the A!M!

I concur about Bill Nye. I think he'd rock. Of course, I don't know the man personally.

George Carlin probably wouldn't be interested -- he's very outspoken about how pessimistic he is about humanity's potential. I don't think he would consider the "fight" to be worth the effort. Dommage...

Yeah, Julia Sweeney, that would rock. I asked Shermer about the Skeptic Society's Julia Sweeney video, and he said it's great. I bet she could deliver a great presentation!

Hofstadter rocks... but is he a good presenter?

I think it's important to make sure that the presenters are entertainers as well as educators. Why did everyone like Phil Plait's performance so much? Was it because of the astronomy? No, it was bad astronomy! ;) People liked Phil's performance because of the yuks! Damnit, a sense of humor is what separates the skeptics from the believers!

How about Ann Druyan?

More as it occurs to me...


John
 
How about Ralph Nader? Certainly his stance on consumer product safety and advertising would fit into the category of skeptical thinking. And since he's in politics now, he should be eager to put in a free appearance.
 
arcticpenguin said:
How about Ralph Nader? Certainly his stance on consumer product safety and advertising would fit into the category of skeptical thinking. And since he's in politics now, he should be eager to put in a free appearance.
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If we could get anyone to speak on a subject regarding safety, I might be able to get my employer to pay for my trip.

*strokes chin* Maybe I should deliver my own paper on a safety related topic next year. I suck at public speaking though.........but maybe if a few skepchicks got on stage with me and held my hand I could do it. At least I have a few months to think about it. :)

BTW, there are several excellent recommendations for speakers in this thread. I'd like to see Ian Rowland myself. He seems like a rather pleasant fellow from what I've observed of him over at the Straight Dope Message Board.
 
Mr. Skinny said:

If we could get anyone to speak on a subject regarding safety, I might be able to get my employer to pay for my trip.

*strokes chin* Maybe I should deliver my own paper on a safety related topic next year. I suck at public speaking though.........but maybe if a few skepchicks got on stage with me and held my hand I could do it. At least I have a few months to think about it. :)

BTW, there are several excellent recommendations for speakers in this thread. I'd like to see Ian Rowland myself. He seems like a rather pleasant fellow from what I've observed of him over at the Straight Dope Message Board.
Click to expand...

Well, I'll be happy to sit there in abject worship on the stage if it would help! :D The best thing would be to do a demonstration or something, right? ;)

G6
 
arcticpenguin said:
How about Ralph Nader? Certainly his stance on consumer product safety and advertising would fit into the category of skeptical thinking. And since he's in politics now, he should be eager to put in a free appearance.
Click to expand...

Ralph Nader would be an interesting and controversial choice. But something to consider is that next year at conference time it will be early in the 2004 Presidential race. That may make it harder to get Nader since he'll want to do whatever he thinks will help his campaign. But then again if the JREF could get him it might generate some publicity for the JREF since he'll probably be a Presidential candidate at the time. My guess is that he wouldn't want to do the JREF because it's not directly related to politics.
 
Massimo Pigliucci writes some good columns in "Free Inquiry" and "Skeptical Inquirer" as well as his own monthly column, "Rationally Speaking". I think he'd be a pretty interesting speaker on evolution, humanism, philosophy, the scientific method or whatever he wanted to talk about.
 
Lawrence M. Krauss - author of "The Physics of Star Trek" - a physicist who has spoken out against attempts in Ohio to incorporate teaching of "intelligent design" in classrooms and who gave an excellent talk last year here at Vanderbilt about that and other pseudoscience and the general scientific illiteracy of the American public.
 
not Ralph...

Hey, I get to meet Nader and everyone else running for free and almost against my will sometimes. I once almost ran over Tom Harkin, he ended up splayed across the hood of my car....
NH is fun
 
Re: not Ralph...

kittynh said:
I once almost ran over Tom Harkin, he ended up splayed across the hood of my car....
NH is fun
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Let's see if I've got this right: you can hardly drive anywhere during election season in NH without running over a politician, and that's what makes driving in NH so popular? ;)

--James
 
Re: Re: not Ralph...

Electric Monk said:
Let's see if I've got this right: you can hardly drive anywhere during election season in NH without running over a politician, and that's what makes driving in NH so popular? ;)

--James
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Absolutely...there are points multipliers according to party affiliation and position in the polls...:D
 
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