Ben Goldacre, science writer

Ben Goldacre is a best-selling author, broadcaster, medical doctor and academic who specialises in unpicking dodgy scientific claims from drug companies, newspapers, government reports, PR people and quacks.

His first book, Bad Science, has sold over 400,000 copies, is published in 18 countries, and reached #

1 in the UK paperback non-fiction charts. It spawned from his weekly Bad Science column in the Guardian which he has written since 2003.

Ben is a highly experienced public speaker, his renowned TED talks attract over a million views on YouTube. He has also made several television and radio documentaries as well as appearing on many TV and radio shows ranging from Newsnight and Watchdog to QI and the Now Show. See some of his TV and lectures here: http://www.badscience.net/how-to-use-this-website/audio-and-video/

He will be speaking about his latest book, Bad Pharma, and will be doing a book signing afterwards (copies will be available on the night).

26th November, 8pm
Location: Oxford Union
Free for OMS members, Union members and BioSoc members.

IMPORTANT In order to attend the event, you must be a member of Oxford Media Society, the Oxford Union or BioSoc.

Ballot and ticket sales for the event are now closed. All those who entered/paid will have a seat reserved, which they can access by giving their name on the door.

Looking forward to seeing you all tonight!

Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Channel 4 News presenter

Krishnan Guru-Murthy is a television presenter and journalist currently working for Channel 4. He currently presents Channel 4 News and the foreign affairs programme Unreported World.

Krishnan started on BBC's Newsround while he was still studying PPE at Hertford College and remained there from 1991 until 1994. While at the BBC he also worked on Newsnight, BBC News 24 and BBC World before joining Channel 4 in 1998.

Over the course of his distinguished career, Krishnan has fronted the reporting of monument

al events such as 9/11 and the Omagh bombing and has covered five general elections.

Krishnan blogs at http://blogs.channel4.com/gurublog/

20th November, 8pm
Location: Shulman Auditorium, Queen's College
Free for Media Society members, £2 non-members
All welcome

Mary-Kay Wilmers, editor of the London Review of Books

15th November, 8pm
Lecture Room XI, Brasenose College

Mary-Kay Wilmers is an editor and journalist. She has edited the London Review of Books since 1992.

Before working at the LRB, she read modern languages at Oxford University, where she was friends with Alan Bennett. She was a secretary at Faber and Faber, typing up T.S. Eliot’s letters before moving on to edit for the publisher. She has written for the Listener, the TLS, the New Review and the New Yorker. She helped to found the London Review of Books in 1979, and has since worked with writers including Hilary Mantel, Alan Hollinghurst, Seamus Heaney, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, and Colm Tóibín.

She has also written The Eitingtons, a book which explores her family’s past, including a KGB killer, a psychoanalyst protégé of Freud and interrogations under the Bolsheviks and the FBI.

This talk is a must for anyone interested in writing, editing or journalism.

Free to Oxford Media Society (£10 for a year)
£2 to non-members

All Welcome

Kate Spicer, journalist for The Sunday Times

12th November, 8pm
Brasenose College (tbc) 

Kate Spicer is a journalist, blogger, broadcaster and documentary-maker.

Over her career as a freelance journalist she has written for a number of publications, including The Times, The Independent, The Daily Mail, The Sunday Times’ Features section and Style magazine, and The Stylist. She features regularly as a food and wine critic, also judging on Masterchef. As a lifestyle journalist she writes on everything from abortion to MDMA, and fashion to facelifts. She recently produced the documentary-film Mission to Lars, which follows her brother Tom, who a rare form of autism called Fragile X syndrome, as he and his siblings try to fulfil his dream of meeting Lars from Metallica.

This talk is a must for anyone interested in journalism, fashion, food or film-making.

Free to Oxford Media Society (£10 for a year)
£2 to non-members

All Welcome