Date & Time: 11th November 2025 7:30pm

Venue: The Wardrobe Theatre, 25 West St, Bristol BS2 0DF

The wellness industry is worth an estimated $4.5 trillion dollars, stretching out into the worlds of fitness, health, beauty, sleep, stress and nutrition. Promises of self-improvement permeate every element of our lives, with all manner of tips, tricks and products targeted at optimising our homes, work lives, health, and diet often with the promise of empowerment and fulfilment. But what does wellness actually mean? In this talk Dr Alice Howarth will talk about the complex intersection between women’s empowerment and the wellness industry. She will also shine a spotlight on the pervasive influence of medical bias, a deep-seated issue that disproportionately affects women’s health and wellness choices. Discover how stereotypes and systemic imbalances and medical biases shape the wellness landscape, often driving women towards harmful trends and practices

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Bristol Skeptics Society is delighted to present another instalment of Skeptics in the P̶u̶b̶… Theatre!
Skeptics in the Pub is a monthly lecture series, hosting academics from the world of science and skepticism, to share their unique research and insights. The goal is for every talk to delight and inspire, and help us understand our complex world a little better.

In May we will be welcoming Dr Alice Howarth! Dr Howarth is cancer cell biologist, science communicator, podcaster and writer. She has been part of the skeptical community for more than a decade, and is co-host of Skeptics with a K, vice president of the Merseyside Skeptics Society, deputy editor of The Skeptic Magazine, co-organiser of the QED conference and co-founder of Skeptics in the Pub Online. Alice has delivered lectures on the topics of science and skepticism all over the world, written for publications such as The Guardian, and worked on numerous investigations into pseudoscientific claims. In her day job, Alice is an open research advocate for the University of Liverpool and the UK Reproducibility Network, working to make research available beyond academia. She believes that accessibility and inclusivity is crucial to how we engage with science and critical thinking.