It’s (not) all in your head – Dr Anna Fieldwalker

Chronic pain affects over 40% of the UK population, including around 18% of adolescents, with up to 6% of young people experiencing severe chronic pain. Despite its high prevalence, understanding and education around chronic pain remain limited. Long-term pain is strongly linked to reduced quality of life, increased healthcare use, and poorer long-term physical and psychological outcomes. In young people especially, chronic pain can disrupt school, social development, and emotional wellbeing. Yet, awareness and support remain lacking in both clinical and everyday settings. This talk aims to provide a clear overview of what chronic pain is, explore key risk factors that contribute to its development and persistence, and discuss current approaches to treatment and management. We’ll also touch on emerging strategies and the importance of early intervention. In short, we’ll explore why chronic pain sucks so much - and what the heck we’re trying to do about it. Anna Fieldwalker (she/her) is a postdoc research associate at Great Ormond Street Hospital, working on a new pain management programme for young people with all kinds of chronic pain. Her background is in psychology, with a keen interest in pain, VR, music, videogames, and swearing at computer screens. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

Jack the Ripper is one of the most well-known serial killers in history, with stories of his gruesome exploits permeating popular culture to an unprecedented degree. Despite almost 150 years having passed since the appalling Whitechapel murders, we are still none the wiser about who he was, what drove his terrible crimes, or why they suddenly stopped. But could that be about to change? At the start of 2025, several news outlets reported that the identity of Jack the Ripper had been finally confirmed, using astonishing DNA evidence. But is it all really as it appears? Should we just learn to let Jack the Ripper go? Mike Hall is a web developer and Doctor Who fan (not in that order). He is a founding member of the Merseyside Skeptics Society, where he currently serves as secretary and treasurer. Since 2009 he has been producing and presenting the popular skeptical podcast Skeptics with a K, the longest running skeptical podcast in the UK. He is also on the organising team for QED, the UK's premier skeptical conference, which is now in its final year. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

Nearly one in four Britons has a disability, and many of them would benefit from a mobility aid or other piece of assistive technology. However, studies show a consistent trend of low compliance, sometimes as little as 50% depending on demographics. Non-use and underuse of needed aids has a host of negative impacts, including excess pain and disability for the individual, as well as social effects such as the inefficient use of finite medical resources. This talk will give an overview of some of the reasons for underuse, the varying impact they can have on different demographics, and some of the things that we can do, both as individuals and as a society, to improve health outcomes. Cass Peters is a former professor of sociology and current professional sick person. In between migraines he continues to research subjects that take his fancy, with a particular emphasis on disability, identity, and stumbling head first into random historical and cultural rabbit holes. He maintains that his pets are cuter than yours and will not be taking any questions at this time. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

From biodynamic veggies to detox cures, our supermarkets are full of products that are pure woo. One moment you’re picking up cold medicine, the next you’re eyeing a bottle of homeopathic sugar pearls. You finally decide to get started with a skin care routine, a moment later your money ends up in the pocket of an anthroposophical brand. And those carrots … are they just organic or are they grown in tune with moon cycles and fertilized with some magic concoction made of a shit-stuffed cow horns? Let’s unpick why pseudoscience is so at home among ordinary goods like apples and aspirin and why, at times, products that are gobbledygook end up in the shopping baskets of even the savviest skeptical minds. Rebecca is an Austrian Studies Scholar who one day woke up as a marketing executive. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London, where she has previously been a lecturer in German and European Studies, as well as a literature enthusiast and a material culture geek. Her main areas of interest are Austrian literature and culture, consumer culture, and the construction and portrayal of identities. In her PhD research (completed in 2021 at King's) she examined consumer objects, identities, and author brands in post-2000 Austrian literature, unpicking the emergence of the national brand of Austria and introducing the concept of ""Consumer Literacy"" - the skill of reading the narrative value of consumer objects - to literature research. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

In this talk, Noah Lugeons combines two of his passions; video game history and terrible Christian media. In so doing, he explores both the history of Christian video games and the larger role that Christianity has played in the development of secular games. In a who’s who of the worst video games of all time, Noah will guide the audience through a half century of digital cross-gathering, Sunday school attending, Christ-praising, Bible-verse collecting, and baby throwing. Noah Lugeons is a podcaster, author, and atheist activist. He’s the host of The Scathing Atheist, the 2014 Podcast Award winner for Best Religious Podcast, and God Awful Movies, which has been recorded live at the largest atheist conferences in the US, the UK, and Australia. He’s the author of several books on the subject of atheism. His most recent book, Outbreak: A Crisis of Faith - How Religion Ruined Our Global Pandemic examines religion’s role in America’s error riddled response to the COVID-19 crisis. He temporarily resides in rural South Georgia, but not temporarily enough. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

What adults do for children today is shaping how humanity will ultimately fare. How can parents and other adults leverage information and resources to oppose bigotry and do the best for kids? In this presentation, Kavin Senapathy will discuss their book, The Progressive Parent: Harnessing the Power of Science and Social Justice to Raise Awesome Kids. From protecting babies and children from harmful chemical exposures to the truth about the gender and sex binaries, they will shed light on how to level up individual and collective approaches to raising children. Kavin Senapathy is an award-winning science journalist and author of The Progressive Parent: Harnessing the Power of Science and Social Justice to Raise Awesome Kids (Hanover Square Press). Senapathy’s writing can be found in SciShow, Scientific American, SELF, Salon, Forbes, and more. A member of the National Association of Science Writers and the American Society of Journalists and Authors, their work delves into a slew of seemingly disparate but interconnected beats, from genomics to racism in society and medicine to food and health. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

We’re all members of a very strange species. But where lots of human peculiarities – from art to warfare and beyond – have analogues across the animal kingdom, we stand alone as the only religious species. Yet, within our otherwise religious species, atheism is currently flourishing in large parts of the world. I’ll discuss research highlighted in my recent book (Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species), showing how people’s intuitions about morality lead them to assume the worst of atheists – with problematic implications for our scientific understanding of atheism, religion, and human nature. Will Gervais (Centre for Culture and Evolution, Brunel University London) is a cultural evolutionary psychologist and has been a global leader in the scientific study of atheism for over a decade. Dr. Gervais’s research has been featured in media such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, Der Speigel, Psychology Today, Vox, and Scientific American. His interdisciplinary work, lying at the intersection of cultural evolution, evolutionary psychology, and cognitive science, has garnered international scientific recognition. He was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science and is the recipient of the Margaret Gorman Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association and the SAGE Young Scholar Award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology. Will likes cooking, camping, and his dog. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

This audio is a part of the Skepticamp 2024 event, that happened on October 18th 2024 in Mercure Piccadilly Hotel, Manchester and was livestreamed at https://www.twitch.tv/sitp About the talk: In spite of advancements in the field of forensic science, questionable practices and outright unproven methods still often get admitted into American court rooms. We'll explore some examples of this happening, some intractable problems in some methods that may seem reliable, and the reasons why there's even a chance of nonsense being admitted into court. About the speaker: Ben O'Brien (BSc, MSc) has a masters in Forensic Science from Virginia Commonwealth University and currently works as a forensic DNA analyst for a private company based out of northern Virginia, primarily analyzing sexual assault kits to aid Illinois State Police in preventing backlogs by ensuring all cases have evidence processed within 6 months. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

This audio is a part of the Skepticamp 2024 event, that happened on October 18th 2024 in Mercure Piccadilly Hotel, Manchester and was livestreamed at https://www.twitch.tv/sitp About the talk: 1 in 8 people globally are affected by a mental disorder, yet despite research, knowledge and awareness efforts, mental health is still increasing at an alarming rate. Could there be something misleading us in the data, an underlying reason why so many are identifying as mentally ill these days that is being overlooked? I will explain the concept of the “psychiatrization of society” as a possible explanation, in particular exploring social media’s role in the increasing pathologization of normality. About the speaker: Shayna is a PhD student at the University of Birmingham studying the gendered nature of modern mental health discourse & the psychiatrization of society. Her goal is to uncover and expose pseudoscience and sexism within psychiatry. The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.

This audio is a part of the Skepticamp 2024 event, that happened on October 18th 2024 in Mercure Piccadilly Hotel, Manchester and was livestreamed at https://www.twitch.tv/sitp About the talk: The dubious rants of an aging teacher, regarding discipline and punishment in schools and why we've never had it so bad, or good, depending on who you listen to. About the speaker: Caradoc is returning to Skepticamp for another year, hoping to prove that quantity is not necessarily quality. This year, fresh from joining a new school in September, he is embarking on his 24th year destroying the hopes and dreams of children in education. A keen lover of sport, vegetables and politics, he is extremely glad his brother lasted longer as Welsh First Minister than Liz "Lettuce" Truss. Will His daughters get a mention in this year's talk? Who knows! His favourite Gladiator is Fury The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.