I've been published in a book!

Humanist Canada has just published a collection of essays in Humanism: Canadian Perspectives | Humanisme : Perspectives canadiennes which includes two contributions from me.

One is a personal essay, entitled Humanism over Atheism, that is an updated version of my 2011 post, Why I don't describe myself as an atheist. The second is on behalf of the Centre for Inquiry Canada, and summarizes the findings of the Cost of Religion in Canada research reports I helped write a few years ago. 

I'm looking forward to receiving my copy; feel free to support Humanist Canada by purchasing one for yourself as well.

Come see me perform stand up comedy!

Hello, friends!

I am taking the Advanced Stand-Up course at Comedy Bar, and the showcase for our class is coming up later this month. It's a funny group, and I'm looking forward to performing all new material. Come see me!

When: Wednesday, October 22nd at 7:00 PM

Where: Comedy Bar, 2800 Danforth Avenue, Toronto

Price: $15. You can buy ticket in advance here or at the door. 

I hope to see you there!

My first professional stand up comedy gig

 In April and May, I took an Introduction to Stand Up Comedy course at Comedy Bar. My first attempt was dreadful (though opinions may differ), but with the insightful guidance of my classmates and teacher, Dan Galea, I put together a "tight five" set that I am pretty proud of.

The class performance went well enough that in June I was asked to be one of a dozen comics at a subsequent show for budding comedic talents. I think my first professional stand-up gig went quite well; you can judge for yourself below. 

I hope you enjoy. 

Come see me perform stand up comedy!

 On June 10th, I'll be part of a cabaret showcase of comedic talent from across Toronto. Come see my five-minute set next Tuesday at 7:30 PM at the Comedy Bar on Bloor a couple block west of Ossington. Advance tickets are available here. I hope to see you there!

Podcast for Inquiry S02B01: Leslie Rosenblood on Humanism in Children and Women's Rights

The Centre for Inquiry Canada was invited to give a presentation on Humanism in Children and Women's Rights at the third International Humanism Conference for Social Justice in September 2022. I spoke on Humanism in Children and Women's rights. This bonus episode of Podcast for Inquiry is my speech at the conference.

Subscribe to Podcast for Inquiry today wherever you listen to podcasts (Spotify iTunes Google Deezer Stitcher Player.fm) or listen here: 

A video recording is also available:

I've been censored!

On February 20 2020, I gave a public talk at Nerd Nite Toronto called Stab Everyone You Love. It was about the "ZYX of Vaccine Denialism" (because anti-vaxxers get everything backward). At the time, we knew that there was an outbreak of some disease in China, but not that it would soon become a global pandemic.

My son recorded my speech, which debunked several myths about the supposed dangers of national immunization programs. I uploaded the video to YouTube one day after my talk, and posted the video (and the subsequent Q&A session) to this blog the following month. 

One pandemic and two years later, on April 26, 2022, I received a letter from YouTube. It stated that they think my presentation violated their "medical misinformation policy", and thus removed my video from YouTube. 

YouTube has an appeals process. I clicked on the link, and wrote that my presentation debunked medical misinformation - I explained several erroneous beliefs about vaccines in my presentation so my audience would be more effective at rebutting them. 

Seconds after submitting, YouTube sent a second email stating they had "reviewed your content carefully, and had confirmed that it violates our medical misinformation policy. [...] We won't be putting your content back up on YouTube." Clearly, this was an automated process - there was no time for a human to read my appeal before I received the email stating it had been denied.

This experience highlights several problems with any censorship (or "moderation") regime:

1. Who decides what's acceptable?
2. How do you ensure none of the bad stuff escapes your filter?
3. How do you ensure none of the acceptable stuff gets caught in your filter?

I'm pretty sure I'm an accidental victim of 3). I doubt that anyone at YouTube watched my presentation. It probably contained enough keywords that an algorithm determined it was "medical disinformation" based on a machine-generated transcript. I wasn't peddling medical misinformation, but no one at YouTube will watch the video to find out. And now, nobody else will, either.

I presented Stab Everyone You Love for the Centre for Inquiry Canada and Toronto Oasis virtually later that year. Those videos are still online - so far. It may just be a matter of time before they are taken down as well, for the same reason. 

Take care before endorsing censorship regimes. They tend to target the very communities they were ostensibly set up to protect.

Come hear me speak next week about talking with anti-vaxxers!

On Thursday, February 20, I will be giving a talk at the Tranzac Club entitled, "Stab Everyone You Love". It's part of Toronto Nerd Nite, which I have been attending for the past couple of years. Doors open at 7 PM.

I'll be discussing my online experiences conversing with anti-vaxxers, describe arguments they use (and why they are fallacious), and provide some advice on how to engage (should you choose to do so). I'll  also delve into human psychology and cognitive biases, how to distinguish between objective information and propaganda trying to masquerade as such, and what you can do to educate those in your social circle (in real life or online) on this topic (and many others).

I have designed the talk to be entertaining and informative, and if you're in Toronto next week I hope you can join me.

Kate Cayley wins the Trillium Award

On Wednesday, June 17, the 2015 Ontario Trillium Book Awards were announced. Finalists included literary heavyweights Margaret Atwood and Thomas King.

I am delighted to say that the Kate Cayley was the winner of the prize for her collection of short stories, How You Were Born.

There was a brief flurry of media articles announcing the award. It is an excellent collection, definitely worthy of the prize, and I am delighted that Kate Cayley won over far more well known and established writers.

I may not be the most objective person to judge, however; Kate is my sister-in-law, and I couldn't be prouder.

Decide for yourself - buy a copy of How You Were Born from your local bookstore, borrow a copy from the library, or order it online. Reading the collection is well worth your time.

I am sure you will enjoy How You Were Born, by Kate Cayley.

4:02:06

Today I accomplished what is certainly the acme of physical prowess in my life to date. I ran the Berlin Marathon, and completed 42.2 kilometres in just over four hours.

I have run a few half marathons, most recently in May. After each one, I was exhausted, and could not contemplate turning around and running back to the start line. This morning, I effectively did just that.

After spending the summer training for this event, I believed I could reasonably expect to run the race in 4:45, and if I had an exceptionally good day, I would achieve four and a half hours. Needless to say, I am extremely proud of my time. I managed to run the entire course without breaking stride, except at drink stations and when there was a glut of people in front of me moving at a slightly slower pace than I was maintaining.

There are two large differences between Toronto half marathons and the Berlin marathon. The sheer number of people running in this event means that one is constantly jostling against others and constant awareness of your surroundings is required to avoid colliding with fellow runners. In Toronto it is possible to pretty much run on autopilot after the first couple of kilometres. In today's race, there were people lining the streets for the entire 42 km, with music (drummers, live bands, and loudspeakers) keeping everyone's spirits up for the whole way as well, except for perhaps a total of 2 kilometres.

There were minor differences, as well. Runners and spectators from Denmark were everywhere - there was never a point where there was not a group of Danes in front of me. In addition to water and Powerade, there was also fruit (bananas and apples) available at most stations. At one station about 25 km in, there were gel packets given to runners. I don't know what is in them (I am in no way a professional runner), but based on the effect it had on me I would guess some combination of analgesic, heroin, and amphetamines. (I suppose that the right mix of proteins, carbohydrates, and sugars might achieve similar results, though until today I was rather skeptical of the efficacy of the numerous running products hyped at the booths when I pick up my chip and bib.)

Right now, I am sore and tired, very proud of my accomplishment and enjoying a glass of red wine. I'm off now to enjoy dinner with my family and look forward to sampling numerous German beers in the days to come.