June Social
Join us from 7.30 pm on Tuesday 3rd June in the Library at the Town Wall on Pink Lane, near Newcastle Central Station, to meet fellow skeptics and to shape the future of skepticism in the North East.
Come for drinks, casual debunkings and maybe even some skeptical gaming!
Stealing money from old people slowly – Dr Joel Wallenberg
Note: We are in a different venue for this event
Thursday 12th June 2025, 7.30pm (doors at 7pm)
The Magic Hat Café, 3-5 Higham Place, Newcastle NE1 8AF (note change from usual venue)
Pay-as-you-feel ticketing (suggested price £5)
All civil humans are welcome
What do the farmers of ancient Babylonia and AirBnB have in common? This is one of the many questions we will answer in our exploration of the ways interest rates are used and abused. Loans at interest are a tool of financial planning so old that they actually predate money itself. Perhaps equally old is controversy around the moral use of interest rates, including the Catholic Church’s multi-century ban on ‘usury’, and controversy over the appropriate level of interest for different situations. Still older is one of the most wonderful adaptations in the evolution of human cognition: the ability to postpone immediate gratification in favour of future rewards. Interest can be seen as an expression of this basic human trait. Human cognition is not without its quirks, however, and while humans are better at waiting for rewards than capuchin monkeys are, they are not perfect in judging the “price of time”, as economic historian Edward Chancellor calls it. In this talk, we will explore the origins of interest in nature, and discuss some of the practical implications of these natural interest rates, including how they can be manipulated for gain. We will then move to how interest rates can be suppressed by force to suit the needs of governments, which curtails economic freedom, subverts business fundamentals, and as the Keeper of the Library of Mistakes, Russell Napier, terms it, “steals money from old people slowly”.
Dr Joel C. Wallenberg received his BA from Stanford University in 2003 and his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009, where he began his first career in academic quantitative linguistics and cognitive science. He worked at the University of Iceland, Newcastle University, and more recently, as Senior Lecturer at the University of York. In 2021, Joel began to apply his quantitative skills to finance and investing, with a focus on credit and fixed income (bonds), and began to consult as a portfolio manager for a select group of clients. Since 2024, he has been the (only) UK correspondent for a premier financial periodical based in New York, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer. He also works some of the time as a credit analyst for a local company, and maintains research contacts in cognitive science at Newcastle University.
‘What’s wrong with me?’ How mental health awareness might be making us feel worse – Shayna Weisz
Thursday 10th July 2025, 7.30pm (doors at 7pm)
Concert Room, Tyneside Irish Centre, Gallowgate St. NE1 4SG
Pay-as-you-feel ticketing (suggested price £5)
All civil humans welcome
We’re living through a boom in mental health awareness, where psychiatric diagnoses and psychological language have become part of everyday life. But what if this growing focus on labelling our dysfunctions and differences isn’t actually helping us feel better? What if, in turning inward to try and fix ourselves, we’re being quietly discouraged from questioning the world around us? In this talk, I’ll explore the shaky scientific foundations of modern psychiatry, the growing tendency to medicalise distress and difference, and the lesser-known cultural and political roots of therapeutic thinking. I’ll argue that as we increasingly look inward for solutions, rather than outward at the systems shaping our struggles, we risk losing sight of what’s really hurting us. This talk invites a critical rethink of the stories we tell ourselves – and each other – about mental health, identity, and what it really means to be “normal.”
Shayna Weisz is a PhD student from London researching the gender politics of mental health discourse. She is interested in how gender roles and expectations inform mental health narratives, and the explicit and more insidious harms they may (re)produce for women. With a background in psychology, philosophy, and sociology, Shayna aims to critically interrogate and expose the often overlooked social and political roots of psychiatric thinking. She is passionate about debunking pseudoscience, having uncomfortable conversations, and questioning the status quo in order to bring about real social change.