February Social
Join us from 7.30 pm on Tuesday 4th February 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!
“We’re all just a little bit ADHD, right?!” – How the world makes life harder for neurodivergent adults – Dr Tom Nicholson
We’ve probably all noticed the rise in diagnoses of ADHD, the current abundance of ‘information’ on ADHD on Instagram and TikTok, and everyone having and stating an opinion on ADHD in everyday life. For someone familiar with the contemporary research on ADHD, however, it is clear that the vast majority of this talk is exaggerated, off-topic or completely incorrect: commentators tout certain behaviours as ADHD when they are not, gaslight people with ADHD, or spread deliberate misinformation, including that the condition is fictitious or at least over-diagnosed.
In this talk, Tom Nicholson will explore ADHD from an academic, clinical and personal perspective. For neurodivergent adults such as Tom, often the biggest barriers in life are not the symptoms of their neurodivergence but the societal response to their quirks, idiosyncrasies or impairments: for instance, punishing someone for forgetting, when this results from a neurocognitive impairment and when it’s impossible to choose not to forget. This talk will conclude with advice for ADHD people, other neurodivergent people and neurotypical people on how to push for greater equality and inclusion in a world that is still overwhelmingly devised by and for the neurotypical.
Dr Nicholson will talk for 50 minutes, followed by a 20-minute break and then a 20-30-minute question-and-answer session.
Dr Tom Nicholson is an AuDHD Assistant Professor of mental health nursing and a neurodiversity speaker, trainer, and advocate. Tom’s research explores the lived experiences of parents whose children are undergoing ADHD assessment, listening to and retelling their changing stories over a period of two years: from waiting list, to diagnosis, to living with a diagnosis. Tom is a registered mental health nurse with experience working within the neurodevelopmental assessment service within the Children and Young People’s service. Diagnosed with ADHD in childhood, Tom uses his personal lived experience of ADHD alongside his clinical and academic background to give a multitude of perspectives to his work.
How to Get a Rise out of the North-East: A History of the Future in the Deep North
How did England’s North become a place of lost potential and broken dreams? And what can be done to make it one of the most dynamic and forward-facing places in the world once again? Outlining a modernist history of the North in the last several decades, this talk will try to work out whether there is a such a thing as an essential northern English identity – and more importantly, whether such a thing might be used to renew and revise the ancient, conservative, profoundly regionally unequal set-up of British society. Drawing largely on cultural examples, this talk will explore the double-pull in the northern English imaginary between hubris and fatalism, and suggest that ultimately only a radical overhaul of British governance and cultural geography will allow the North to rise to parity with the South.
Alex Niven grew up in Northumberland. He has written frequently for the Guardian, Tribune and New Statesman, and has also contributed to publications including the New York Times, the Independent, Pitchfork, The Face and Tribune. As well as Folk Opposition (Zero, 2011), he is the author of an instalment in Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series (on Definitely Maybe by Oasis (2014)) and New Model Island (Repeater, 2019), a memoir of Englishness and regional identity. His most recent book is The North Will Rise Again (Bloomsbury, 2023). He is currently a Lecturer in English Literature at Newcastle University.