Susan Gerbic Back on Tour | Skeptical Inquirer

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Being the good example I try to be, I spent most of the past two years safely hidden away in my home with my partner Mark Edward, my three cats, a wonderful garden, and the food of the gods, Milk Duds. I endured the lockdown better than almost everyone: I’m retired and didn’t really have to leave home much; I spent an enormous amount of time on social media and Zoom. That was a life-saver for my social personality. And what was supposed to be a one-off has turned into over a hundred Thursday night social trivia games with about thirty people mostly from the skeptic community. Contact me directly if you are interested (video playlist here). But also during the lockdown I and my various teams have been busy, very busy fighting against the nonsense that seems to be encroaching quicker than ever. Magical-Money-Making people have been using social media and Zoom to their advantage, so I and my teams did as well.

In 2019, I was honored by the National Capital Area Skeptics (NCAS) with the Philip J. Klass Award, which is given “for outstanding contributions in critical thinking and scientific understanding”—an honor that was bestowed on such luminaries as James Randi, Paul Kurtz, Ray Hyman, Phil Plait, and others. I was very honored, but the pandemic did not allow me to go to Washington, D.C., to pick up the award. They asked if they could mail it to me, but I held off hoping that the pandemic might be over soon. I was sadly wrong (as were all the psychics; yes we checked). So when it looked like things were improving and I had received my second booster shot (yay science!), I felt safe enough to leave my home in Salinas, California, and fly to Washington, D.C.

I encouraged the most recent addition to the About Time board, Adrienne Hill, to join me. She told people that I had “twisted her rubber arm,” but it wasn’t much of a twist. Hill is from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and has been very active in many projects including giving talks about Tourette’s syndrome. A tireless and important job educating students and teachers it is helping to end bullying of students that are living with this syndrome. Hill had many of her vacations canceled during the past couple years and was worried that joining me on a tour would end up being canceled as well. She crossed her fingers and, with a rabbit’s foot in her pocket, flew to Boston to visit with her children for a week. I flew out to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, April 26, 2022, she joined me there, and we were off on our adventure. And it was seriously almost all non-stop.

When preparing for this tour, naturally the NCAS was first, but where to go afterward? As with all my adventures, I want to visit as many skeptic groups as possible, even if they are a bit out of the way. I started asking around who was meeting in person yet and if they wanted me to come and give them a talk in early-mid May. I discovered that many groups have gone dormant or have lost their leadership or mojo. Their Facebook feeds had old posts; some group websites had outdated information on them. Very sad. One man I talked to said he is maintaining a blog on their website but didn’t think they would be meeting in person ever again. Another told me that they don’t have a venue anymore and didn’t seem interested in trying to find one anytime soon. Others said that they weren’t comfortable meeting in person until much later in the year. But a few said, “Please visit us, we would love for you to give us a talk.” I asked my friend Brian Dunning from the Skeptoid podcast about his travels in October 2021 visiting science and skeptic groups to show his recently released movie Science Friction. He told me he visited fourteen cities in fourteen days giving talks in each, traveling over 8,000 miles. That was when the Omicron variant was just starting to become massive. He said he had a terrific time though the turnout was much less than it would have been before the pandemic. He did give me advice on what groups might be open for a visit from me.

And so it begins.

The really great part of this tour was that I was able to spend quality time with people, actually sitting down together to catch up, or to get to know new friends. The first people Hill and I met up with were some of the original organizers of NCAS, Chip and Grace Denman. We went to one of their favorite pub hangouts that was near our hotel in Silver Spring to catch up. The next day, Hill and I spent the day walking the U.S. Capitol grounds, visited the botanical garden, and generally walked around looking for the places we had seen on the news after the 2020 election and 2021 insurrection. That night was the award dinner where I received the Philip Klass Award followed by entertainment from magician Peter Wood, Collector of the Impossible. I was completely spoiled. The Denman’s took us out afterward for a look at the memorials in the evening hours. If you visit the Washington, D.C., area, I highly recommend doing this; it’s far less crowded and feels more introspective. Thursday we spent the day at the National Zoo then dinner with CFI CEO Robyn Blumner, who took us to the wharf area of D.C. for dinner followed by ice cream where we talked until it was time to go back to the hotel for our trivia game. While I have been on tour, the Zoom game was run by The Well-Known Skeptic, Rob Palmer.

Friday we went to the Spy Museum, which according to their website should take a couple hours to go though. We barely got a quarter of the way though it in three hours, but we had to get back to our hotel to meet up with Guerrilla Skeptics on Wikipedia (GSoW) editor Kelly Burke who had driven over from Delaware to hang out with us. We went to Ford’s Theatre to see the museum and the musical Grace. The writer, composer, and lyricist of Grace, Nolan Williams, Jr. sat with us before the musical started and told us a bit about the inspiration of the musical and the various meanings of the title. Really interesting conversation, completely unplanned but set the tone for my entire tour of interesting interactions with people. The musical was full of amazing voices with a great story about family and food.

Saturday found us heading to the talk venue for the first of my five talks on this tour. NCAS made this video of my talk. It was great to be back in front of people again. Zoom has its limits; as the speaker, you can’t see the audience or their reactions as you talk. Kenny and Donna Biddle had driven a couple hours to catch my talk, as well as another one of my GSoW editors, William.

You never know what you are going to get during a Q&A, and one woman tried to tell me that I should be agnostic toward the paranormal because I haven’t investigated everyone, especially concerning remote viewing, which she says works well. She then went on to tell me that the remote viewers were able to locate potential boobie-traps and steer soldiers away. And that there is a lot of evidence that remote viewing works; the government has found planes in the desert, but they stopped using remote viewing because it was controversial. I answered her back, respectfully, and then had a conversation with her afterward. She said she has done a lot of reading on the subject, and when I asked if any of her reading was from the science or scientific skeptical world, she answered that there were problems with everything. I asked her to please read a bit more into the subject from the skeptical perspective. In conversation with William, she told him to look up Project Stargate. She said she had come to the NCAS talk because she had been reading about me on this website, skeptical about skeptics.

After the talk, several of us found a close-by food court and hung out for a few hours talking. One of the best parts is just hanging out with like-minded people. The NCAS people were great. My special thanks to everyone who came out to say hello, but especially the organizers, J.D. Mack, the Denmans, and NCAS President Scott Snell.

The next morning, HIll and I flew to Raleigh, North Carolina, to be hosted by the Triangle Skeptics, Faith and Ramiro Rodriguez and President Jeff Gehlbach. We visited downtown Raleigh, and from the top of a skyscraper where we had lunch, a lightning storm came in. That was pretty surreal for me living so far away from real weather. We visited an arboretum, the state museum, a graveyard (because why not), and the Mordecai Historic Park. I tried hush puppies for the first time, which were delicious. Hill is far more food adventuresome than I am and had catfish, grits, and fried green tomatoes. We might have gone to a few more places, but the heat and humidity were starting to get to me.

Hill recorded an interview with me about the tour and the NCAS award for The Skeptic Zone podcast, and then we went to the venue for my talk. It was very intimate with about fourteen attendees, but they were wonderfully friendly; one even brought me a dozen eggs from his farm. It was a fun talk with a lot of engagement and great questions. Nothing about remote viewing, but mostly about how the community can fight back against the nonsense that is everywhere. Many people attended the talk were brand new faces to the community. One woman said she had watched the Grief Vampire Thomas John’s show Seatbelt Psychic and googled information about it and found one of my many Skeptical Inquirer articles about it, then only later had she seen my name come up for the meetup and decided to come meet me. One of my GSoW editors, Rob G., came to hear my talk, and I’m hoping some of the people who lingered and asked a lot of questions will decide to join the team. Terrific Southern hospitality from everyone. Watch lecture here.

The next morning Hill and I flew into Buffalo, New York, to meet the gang at Center for Inquiry. I’ve known these people for years, but it was the first time Hill had met Barry Karr and Tim Binga and been to the Mecca of Skepticism. I spent most of my time in the building, looking through files and photographs. I photographed a pile of quack medical devices, unsure of what each item was, but hoping to use the photos on various Wikipedia pages. I’ve been to CFI several times over the years, and it is always evolving; these days it’s nearly empty. The ability to work from home has allowed CFI’s employees to remain safely at home during the pandemic. Tim Binga runs a giant research library with thousands of items, some very rare. They have the scrapbooks of Steve Allen, rare Ingersoll books, piles of The Truth Seekernewspapers, stacks of the Haldeman-Julius, Little Blue Book series, and all of Stephen Barrett’s Quackwatch archives. There are archives of just about anything that has happened in the freethought, humanist, and scientific skepticism world. Even during the lockdowns, Binga said he had researchers and scholars visit the library. The CFI library is one of my favorite places to spend a few days visiting.

The building even with the sizable library still has empty space. Remember that the magazines Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiryand others are published by CFI, but technology has made it possible that work can be done virtually; office space isn’t needed. So, what to do with all that space? Well, it apparently will be put to good use: CFI will be opening a museum. They have a sizable collection of amazing things to showcase. Remember all those quack devices I photographed? Well they will be part of the exhibit. It will be a couple years to bring this museum to fruition, but I’m very excited know that CFI is protecting our history and making it available for research.

Hill and I were able to spend quality time at the headquarters and learned quite a bit about an important project that gets very little attention, Secular Rescue. I don’t know all the ins and outs of how this works, but the goal is to get outspoken secular humanists, freethinkers, and skeptics out of countries that are threatening their safety. Obviously this takes a lot of patience and groundwork and did I say money, donate if you can help.

On Friday night, the CFI Western New York skeptic group sponsored my talk that came out to hear my lecture. They were really receptive and allowed me to show video footage from my latest psychic sting, Operation Onion Ring. I’ve written about the sting, but have not released the videos. I am waiting for Big Media to start paying attention. The only way I’m showing the videos are when you see me in person. The interactions with Grief Vampire Thomas John and children as young as six are heartbreaking.

After the lecture, a group of twelve of us met up at a local restaurant to get to know each other better. When Hill and I mentioned that we had a free day on Saturday and wanted to see Buffalo, one of the skeptics, Rebecca, gave me her business card and invited us to a tour of the children’s museum, Explore & More, where she is the exhibits manager, which located on the waterfront in downtown Buffalo. I asked if anyone else was interested in joining us, and we ended up having a wonderful tour and lunch with Julia Lavarnway, who is managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and also a new friend named, Will. Rebecca ran us all over the museum that had relocated just before the pandemic lockdown and then had to hang on until the city opened up again. We adults had a blast. Give it a visit if you are in the area.

We walked around the waterfront and ended up at the Buffalo Heritage Carousel where I insisted we had to have a ride. Will, Hill, and I continued on to visit the Buffalo History Museum where we had a good laugh at an exhibit that allows you to pretend to announce famous sport clips. I know nothing about sports, but apparently it’s a big deal in Buffalo. You can see clips of my announcing skill here as well as other videos I shot during the day. After we three purged on ice cream at a local parlor, Hill and I retreated and rested our toes at our hotel. The next day was Mother’s Day, and as we are both moms but far from our kids, we went for a long walk and then took each other out for lunch. The next morning Hill flew back home to Calgary and I flew on to my next destination, St. Louis, Missouri.

I’ve been to Missouri before, but to the Kansas City side of the state where I have family. One of the lasting memories of my last visit in 2002 was how hot and humid it was, and apparently it still is. Did I mention that I’m a weather wimp? Thankfully. I was well looked after by my good friend Karl Withakay, whom many of you might know as one of the photographers at CSICon. I got a hotel near his home, and every morning he picked me up and we went to explore St. Louis. We went to the science museum, an IMAX movie, the Jewel Box greenhouse, and the Missouri History Museum. One day we visited the Missouri Botanical Garden and was joined by John Russell, the president of The Skeptical Society of St. Louis, which organized my lecture. I just missed the tulip blooms and was too early for the dahlias, but still a beautiful garden. Withakay took me to the Gateway Arch, and we explored the museum but didn’t go up in the archway; just seemed like a bad idea to be in such close quarters with strangers even with masks on. What an imposing structure; you have to see it in person to really understand how big it is. So much history in the area; I’ll have to visit again when the weather is mild.

The turnout for my lecture was pretty good considering it was a weeknight and still a pandemic. The questions asked were terrific, and people seemed engaged. Met a lot of new people; my cousin Evelyn and her husband came out to see my talk, which was really exciting as we had never met before. A good friend, Ben, who plays trivia over zoom with us every Thursday came out for my talk, and the next day he brought his kids to hang out for a bit. The skeptic group seems to be finding its feet, and they are a great bunch of people and have a wonderful speaking space at Alpha Brewing Company on Fyler Ave.

Then on to my last speaking event on my tour. Now I was completely alone but heading to Denver, which used to be one of the biggest skeptic groups around. I’ve visited many times and always stayed in the downtown area. Things have changed. Downtown was dirty and scary; I had a terrific hotel room with a kitchen; I went to a store and got all I needed so I could hold up in my room until my lecture. This time I was hosted by the Secular Hub, which I’d spoken to years ago. They call themselves a humanist, atheist, and freethinker group and are very active and social. During the pandemic, they told me that their lease was up on the building they had been renting, so they decided to fundraise and purchase a building that had once been a small church. It’s a terrific space with a kitchen and large area for talks. They are a part of the American Humanist Association (AHA) and have really nailed it building a community of invested people.

The audience seemed receptive and asked good questions, but I didn’t pull the people from the skeptic community that I thought would show up. A few of us after the lecture walked down to a pizza restaurant and hung out for a bit afterward. The Denver leg of my tour was essentially pretty calm. The next morning I flew home to Salinas.

So let us sum up.

Looking back on all the photos from the trip, I’m amazed at all the things I managed to cram into the time I had. People were great; everywhere I went, people were helpful and welcoming. Our community is barely coming back to meeting in person and starting to schedule speakers. Now that the dust is starting to settle and we can see where we landed after two years, it’s clear that we lost some of our groups. Others thrived and grew, mainly using Zoom to keep in touch. What made the difference are the organizers and their helpers; the groups need strong leadership that are motivated. Once an organizer moves away or moves onto other things, most groups die out. Unless someone steps up, there isn’t enough to keep people active.

I know I spent a bunch of time in this article talking about all the things I did outside of the actual lectures I gave, but meeting each other outside of the lecture is equally important. Sharing an experience with others is how we build relationships with each other. And we can’t grow our community unless we have friendships.

Whether you are an established group that hands out awesome awards, have an extensive YouTube channel full of lectures going back years like the NCAS do or similar to groups like The Skeptical Society of St. Louis or the Triangle Skeptics that are still building their community, and mostly meet for pub events with an occasional talk, we have to get to know each other, share a drink, and talk.

The goals of the group may vary. Possibly the group is looking to grow and add book clubs, coffee socials, or game nights? Maybe hold a yearly SkeptiCamp or offer scholarships for members to CSICon? Possibly to deal with some kind of nonsense happening locally or something that educates the local community about something specific? Whatever the goals are for the group, the answer is always to find ways to get people to attend events, have some common experience, and allow people to form relationships.

I hope that speakers traveling to a location take what I’m saying to heart; this is just for you. Please try to reserve some time to interact before or after with the group. Ask the organizers to set up something else beyond the talk. Make it an excuse to go to that place or do that history ghost tour that walks the downtown area. Then meet up for drinks and snacks afterward. It’s not only about the talk you give, but it’s about you helping grow that group. And right now our group organizers badly need help to grow, to find excuses to get people together for them to interact and form the relationships needed to grow them into future organizers, future speakers, doers that we badly need if we are to grow our community.

So thank you everyone for your help and support. Especially Adrienne Hill for hanging with me for twelve days. You are a patient woman and look forward to traveling with you again. Note: I’m going to be doing a lot more of these tours. I’m devoting a lot more of my time to traveling to local groups. Please, please, please be in touch if you are interested in a visit. But remember, I’m going to want to explore your city. Visit your museums and gardens. Go on ghost tours. Eat burgers and pizza. And just hang out and get to know each other. Until then.