November social
Join us from 7.30 pm on Tuesday 4th November 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!
XX/XY – not always what you think
Thursday 13th November 2025, 7.30pm
Tyneside Irish Centre, NE1 4SG
Pay-as-you-feel tickets (suggested £5)
How is the complex and widely variable physical state that we call ‘sex’ determined at the levels of genetics and embryological development? In this talk, Dr Stewart will share her experiences from a career in the medical management of the developmental problems that can arise during the various process by which our bodies acquire the features of sex. She will examine the diagnostic and treatment dilemmas that arise when sex turns out not to be as simple as we widely expect, and will explore the related complexities which surround sexuality and gender dysphoria.
Jane Stewart (MD, BSc (Hons), MRCOG, FRCOG) is a specialist in trans-people’s reproductive health. Now retired, she was an NHS Consultant in Reproductive Medicine at the Newcastle Fertility Centre (Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust), a centre with a long history of helping the LGBTQ community with fertility. A longstanding member of the British Fertility Society, she was responsible for the application for the world’s first licence for mitochondrial replacement treatment.
December social
Join us from 7.30 pm on Tuesday 2nd December 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!
Apostasy in the UK: on leaving a high-control religion
Thursday 4th December 2025, 7.30pm
Tyneside Irish Centre, NE1 4SG
Pay-as-you-feel tickets (suggested £5)
This talk explores the personal and social challenges of leaving religion behind in contemporary Britain. Despite an increasingly secular society, walking away from faith — especially from fundamentalist or high-control religious communities — can carry serious consequences. Apostasy isn’t just a private decision; it can lead to fractured families, lost friendships and, in some cases, total ostracism. Drawing on lived experiences, including her own journey as a former Jehovah’s Witness, Dr Locke examines what it really means to stop believing in a world where religion still shapes identity, culture, and community.
Dr George Locke is a member of Peterborough Humanists, and previously ran Sheffield’s Café Scientifique. She now works at Trinity College, Cambridge as an administrator. She is an active volunteer with Faith to Faithless, a Humanists UK programme that supports individuals leaving high-control religions. George is part of the programme’s research team, and also organises peer-led support groups both online and in person. Drawing on her own lived experience of apostasy as a former Jehovah’s Witness, she regularly speaks about the personal impact of leaving religion and the challenges faced by others on similar journeys.
Past events archive
| 10 Oct 2024 | Nikolas Lloyd – How your body lies to you about pain |
| 14 Nov 2024 | Michael Marshall – Using data to counter quackery and alternative medicine |
| 12 Dec 2024 | Professor Anqi Shen – When blessings turn to curses: scammers’ exploitation of supernatural beliefs |
| 09 Jan 2025 | Dr Rebecca Woods – What’s a question to start with?: Why interrogatives are so weird (in English) |
| 13 Feb 2025 | Dr Tom Nicholson – “We’re all just a little bit ADHD, right?!” – How the world makes life harder for neurodivergent adults |
| 13 Mar 2025 | Dr Alex Niven – How to Get a Rise out of the North-East: A History of the Future in the Deep North |
| 10 Apr 2025 | Brian Eggo – The Truth is Nowt There |
| 15 May 2025 | Professor Richard Wiseman – How to Transform a Tea Towel into a Chicken and Other Mysteries |
| 12 Jun 2025 | Dr Joel Wallenberg – Stealing money from old people slowly, or How We Came to Charge for the Future |
| 10 Jul 2025 | Shayna Weisz – What’s wrong with me? How mental health awareness might actually be making us feel worse |
| 14 Aug 2025 | Maeve Hanan – When healthy eating turns harmful: How ultra-processed food panic fuels anxiety and disordered eating |
| 11 Sep 2025 | Professor Jamie Tehrani – The Natural History of Narratives: how stories evolve, spread and survive, and how they decay and die |
| 09 Oct 2025 | Dr. Darrel Ray – Sexy Evolution: What the Pope Doesn’t Know About Human Sexuality |