This post is part of the Teen Skepchick Interviews series, where TS writers talk with amazing women scientists, skeptics, and feminists about life, the universe, and everything.

This interview has appeared elsewhere. It is being reproduced with the full permission of the author, who prefers anonymity.

SB Morgaine (in the center of the featured image) was on of the American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters at the Reason Rally. As a result of some airline troubles on the part of other interpreters, she ended up working for far longer than planned, all the while in the rain. She’s kindly answered some questions about her experiences, accessibility, interpreting, and of course, how awesome it was to hang out with Tim Minchin.

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This post is part of the Teen Skepchick Interviews series, where TS writers talk with amazing women scientists, skeptics, and feminists about life, the universe, and everything.

Gwynne Shotwell is the powerhouse President of SpaceX, (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation), a space transport company founded in 2002. She was the seventh employee to be hired, and has remained on to build the company to the size it is today. In fact, this very month, the Falcon 9 will be launching from Cape Canaveral, and docking at the International Space Station. In between test-firing the Falcon 9 last week, and the upcoming excitement, Gwynne took some time to answer questions for Teen Skepchick. (And tell us that she’d love to do some space travel, herself.)

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This post is part of the Teen Skepchick Interviews series, where TS writers talk with amazing women scientists, skeptics, and feminists about life, the universe, and everything.

Dr Merrill Van Der Walt is a palaeontologist at the Origins Centre at WITS University in Johannesburg, South Africa. She studied many fields including evolution and genetics as well as a PhD in Palaeontology so it should be no surprise that we decided to approach her for an interview. In the course of the time spent with her we learnt who inspired her and the ultimate (if naked) truth about why she became a palaeontologist.

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This post is part of the Teen Skepchick Interviews series, where TS writers talk with amazing women scientists, skeptics, and feminists about life, the universe, and everything.

This is part 3 of my interview with Sadiqah, a formerly devout Muslim woman who began questioning Islam while living in a Muslim country and, after several years, left the country and her religious beliefs behind, returning to the western U.S. with her children.

In part 1 of this interview, she described her personal journey from religious woman to apostate, and in part 2, she discussed Amina, the Moroccan girl who killed herself after being forced to marry her rapist, and what we can do (and just as important, not do) to help abused Muslim women and girls.

n this final part of our conversation, Sadiqah talks about sexual identity in Muslim culture, discusses the fine line we walk in the name of religious tolerance, and dispels common myths and stereotypes about Muslims, particularly women. 

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This post is part of the Teen Skepchick Interviews series, where TS writers talk with amazing women scientists, skeptics, and feminists about life, the universe, and everything.

This is part 2 of my interview with Sadiqah, a formerly devout Muslim woman who began questioning Islam while living in a Muslim country and, after several years, left the country and her religious beliefs behind, returning to the western U.S. with her children.

In part 1 of this interview (here), she described her personal journey from religious woman to apostate. Today, Sadiqah discusses Amina, the Moroccan girl who killed herself after being forced to marry her rapist, and what we can do (and just as important, not do) to help abused Muslim women and girls. Then she broadens her scope to talk about the lives of Muslim women and girls in general.

In part 3, here, Sadiqah talks about sexual identity in Muslim culture, discusses the fine line we walk in the name of religious tolerance, and dispels common myths and stereotypes about Muslims, particularly women.

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This post is part of the Teen Skepchick Interviews series, where TS writers talk with amazing women scientists, skeptics, and feminists about life, the universe, and everything.

Sadiqah was born in the United States but lived, worked, and started a family in a Muslim country as an initially devout Muslim woman. While overseas, she began questioning Islam, and after several years, she left the country and her religious beliefs behind, returning to the West Coast with her children.

In part 1 of this interview, she describes her personal journey: what it was like to live the life of a Muslim woman during the process of questioning and ultimately abandoning her beliefs, and the difficulties and dangers of being an apostate, not only in her former home country but even where she’s living today, in the United States.

Next Thursday, in part 2, Sadiqah will talk in general about the lives of Muslim women and girls, including feminism and sexual identity in Muslim culture as well as common myths and stereotypes about Muslims, particularly women. We’ll also discuss Amina, the Moroccan girl who killed herself after being forced to marry her rapist, and what we can do (and just as important, not do) to help abused Muslim women and girls.

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This post is part of the Teen Skepchick Interviews series, where TS writers talk with amazing scientists and skeptics about life, the universe, and everything.

This week, we’re traveling back in time to “talk” with Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), the first female professional astronomer in the United States. In October 1847, she discovered comet C/1847 T1, which was named after her (Miss Mitchell’s Comet). She was the first woman elected to various organizations, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Philosophical Society.

As the first professor of astronomy at Vassar College, she was an active proponent of higher education for women and other women’s rights issues. She founded and was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Women, and she hosted lecturers on politics and science in the dome of the Vassar observatory.

This week, she talks with us about how she got into astronomy when she was growing up, her thoughts on religion, her run-in with the Vatican, and her advice for young women scientists.

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This post is part of the Teen Skepchick Interviews series, where TS writers talk with amazing women scientists and skeptics about life, the universe, and everything.

In this week’s interview, school psychologist Dr. Catherine Fiorello weighs in on what the research says about ADHD, cognitive assessments, full inclusion and treatment for students with disabilities, and more, as well as the civil rights issues involved in how our schools treat, label, and segregate students.

She talks about the background and the purpose of cognitive tests as well as how they are misused, common myths in psychology, and examples of some bogus treatments and techniques for people with disabilities, such as facilitated communication.

Do learning styles really exist? Are IQ tests still used in schools? Is ADHD overdiagnosed? Are you reading this with only 10% of your brain? Read on to find out . . .

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This post is part of the Teen Skepchick Interviews series, where TS writers talk with amazing women scientists and skeptics about life, the universe, and everything.

Our interview with Dr. Diana Williams, who researches neuroendocrine control of food intake, body weight, and metabolism (see part 1 here, and part 2 here), elicited some follow-up questions in the comments and on Facebook. So today, you are interviewing Dr. Williams. Read on to hear what she has to say about leptin-therapy research, whether leptin levels ever normalize after weight loss, muscle vs. fat, whether processed foods contribute more to weight gain, and more.

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This post is part of the Teen Skepchick Interviews series, where TS writers talk with amazing women scientists and skeptics about life, the universe, and everything.

Today’s interview is a continuation of last Thursday’s interview with Dr. Diana Williams, who researches neuroendocrine control of food intake, body weight, and metabolism (see part 1 here). Today, we discuss more about dieting, whether it can be harmful and when, as well as the connection between weight and health, whether there really is an obesity epidemic, and what we can do to separate truth from fiction when it comes to claims about weight, dieting, and health.

Does yo-yo dieting cause greater weight gain? Is there really such a thing as a sugar high? Do you need to be concerned about gaining the freshman 15 your first year of college? The answers may surprise you.

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