Category Archives: Westminster Skeptics
Mark Henderson at Westminster Skeptics
Mark Henderson, author of the Geek Manifesto, talks about the book and takes questions from the audience. Also featuring Evan Harris and Lord Taverne.
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Westminster Skeptics – David Allen Green on Privacy
In this edition of the Westminster Skeptics podcast David Allen Green casts a critical eye over privacy and libel law, and on where developments in libel and privacy are going well and going badly.
Is it the end of the NHS as we know it? (Westminster Skeptics)
Recorded at Westminster Skeptics on 23rd January 2012, Colin Leys spoke about the proposed NHS reforms.
The government maintains that the Health and Social Care Bill doesn’t mean the privatisation of the NHS. Is this true? What are the main changes implied by the Bill, and what do they imply for patients and taxpayers? What are the reasons for the changes, and do they add up to a persuasive case?
Colin Leys is an emeritus professor of political studies at Queen’s University, Canada, and an honorary professor at Goldsmiths University of London. His most recent books include Market-Driven Politics: Neoliberal Democracy and the Public Interest (2001) and (with Stewart Player) The Plot Against the NHS (2011).
Westminster Skeptics – Juliet Jacques thinking critically about transgender issues
The emergence of gender variant people, practices and identities following the publication of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Transvestites (1909) and the inter-war invention of sex reassignment technologies posed considerable challenges to conservative, socialist, feminist and gay/lesbian politics: if ‘male’ and ‘female’ were no longer true, then what was?
Consequently, transgender people became an object of fascination, and plenty was written about them – by the mainstream media, feminists and the medical establishment whose management of transsexualism has proved especially controversial – with transgender people themselves frequently excluded from the conversation, with their identities erased or discounted, or having their experiences framed by people or outlets with no lived experience of being transgender.
Juliet Jacques author of the Guardian’s Transgender Journey series which documents the gender reassignment process from a first-person perspective, critically examines some of the ideas and myths that grew around transgender people, and the gulf between mainstream political and media discussions of transgender issues and the autonomous transgender theory and identities that developed in response.
Westminster Skeptics – Paul Lewis on the riots
Kindly recorded by Simon Bennett on 22nd August, Paul Lewis talks about the recent riots that have hit London.
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Westminster Skeptics – Phone Hacking (Hackgate)
Former Daily Star journo Rich Peppiatt (previously interviewed here), James Ball from the Guardian, former Tory Westminster PPC & lawyer Joanne Cash and founder of the Skeptic Magazine Wendy Grossman join David Allen Green to discuss the implications of the phone-hacking scandal on journalism.
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Westminster Skeptics – Mark Henderson on ‘The Geek Manifesto’
Recorded on February 7th, Times Science Editor Mark Henderson and Westminster Skeptics President Evan Harris talk about Mark’s forthcoming book ‘The Geek Manifesto’, for which he was soliciting ideas.
Sorry the sound is a bit ropey – the recording wasn’t very good, so I’ve had to wrangle it into something audible, even if it is difficult at times.
You can hear a more succinct interview with Mark on the book on Episode 71 of the Pod Delusion.
Westminster Skeptics – Belinda Brooks-Gordon and Brooke Magnanti
Critical thinking and an evidence based approach about sex work with Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon and Dr Brooke Magnanti, otherwise known as Belle Du Jour. Here are the slides Belinda used:
(Thanks to Teela Sanders for providing the first few slides!)
After the Digital Economy Act – Cory Doctorow and Tom Watson MP
Last night’s Westminster Skeptics discussed the Digital Economy Act with two of it’s most eminent critics – author and blogger Cory Doctorow and Labour MP Tom Watson.
[Direct MP3 Link]
Westminster Skeptics – Heather Brooke
Freedom of Information campaigner Heather Brooke (of MPs expenses scandal fame) speaking about FOI and evidence based policy. Kindly recorded on Monday 13th September by Craig Lucas for us.
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