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PRETEND

S409: The Psychic Vampires

PRETEND

Javier Leiva

Society & Culture, True Crime, Technology

4.72.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2019

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Susan Gerbic says that psychics are grief vampires—taking advantage of our broken hearts. She asks, “Why isn’t anybody doing something about this?” Susan Gerbic is just like you and me. She has a normal job working as a baby photographer. But at night, she is a badass vigilante hunting psychics. Susan says, “One of my favorite things to do is try to expose people we call grief vampires. People who claim to speak to the dead.” Her motivation is not to settle a vendetta. In fact, she says she’s never really been the target of a psychic. Susan simply doesn’t like them and the way they profit off of people’s grief. The US market for psychic services is worth about $2 billion annually according to IBIS World, a market research firm based in Los Angeles California. On this episode of Pretend, Susan attempts to capture psychics lying on tape. These psychic hunters spent months setting up fake Facebook pages, hoping that a so-called psychic uses the falsified information during a psychic reading. It took a few tries, but she finally got one on tape. Links: Silvia Browne gets punked by skeptic Mark Edward Tim Braun (psychic) Chip Coffey (psychic) Thomas John (psychic) New York Times article: Inside the Secret Sting Operations to Expose Celebrity Psychics - The ...https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/magazine/psychics-skeptics-facebook.html Support for this episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Is there is something that interferes with your happiness or is preventing you from achieving your goals? Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Sign up today with discount code “PRETEND” to get 10% off your first month. Betterhelp.com/pretend ------- Story idea? If you have a story to share, email Javier a voice memo or short written description at info@pretendradio.org. For more episodes like this visit pretendradio.org. To get early releases and bonus episodes go to pretendradio.org/donate This episode was written and produced by Javier Leiva Theme music by Joe Basile with thechicken.net Additional music by Glad Rags Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Creative Apple.

0:07.0

This year at Azda in thousands of blind taste tests, hundreds of our products proved as tasty or tastier than M&S.

0:15.8

We asked our new Chief Quality Officer Michael Buble what he thought.

0:19.7

Well I could have told you that.

0:21.1

M&S tasted as the price, right?

0:23.0

Put on a show this Christmas.

0:25.0

AASDA, that's more like it.

0:28.0

Selected asda stores online subject to availability for verification see as the dot com

0:32.8

slash taste match independent tests from May 2023.

0:37.0

Vampires are cunning creatures. In the movies, they're attractive and appear to be highly sophisticated.

0:47.0

They're also manipulative, devious, and confident.

0:52.0

Vampires are driven by one. devious and confident.

0:53.0

Vampires are driven by one thing, blood.

0:57.0

They spend their nights stalking people in the dark,

1:00.0

but how do they pick their prey? Well, it's all about timing. A good vampire knows exactly the right time to strike.

1:10.0

Vampires are also intuitive. They know how to read their victims just by looking at their

1:15.7

demeanor, but they won't go after just anyone. Vampires take advantage of people's natural

1:22.4

instinct to trust.

1:24.0

Their victims almost have to believe that they're safe.

1:28.0

You see, it's also got to be easy.

1:31.0

The last thing a vampire wants is a fight. If the vampire senses any signs of

1:37.1

resistance, they're out of there and move on to their next victim. If you are the vampire's victim, it's not because you're weak. That's not it at all. That just

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