Perry DeAngelis

Perry J. DeAngelis (August 22, 1963 – August 19, 2007) was an American podcaster. He is best known for co-hosting the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast, which he helped found. DeAngelis is known for his and Steve Novella's investigation into Ed and Lorraine Warren's ghost hunting claims. He was also co-founder and executive director of the New England Skeptical Society, and was very active in the skeptical movement and paranormal investigations until his death from scleroderma in 2007.

Early life DeAngelis was born in 1963 to parents Lawrence and Marie Cook DeAngelis in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He had an older sister, Marie and brother Derald, and a younger sister Celeste. According to his close friend Steven Novella, DeAngelis worked for his father as a property manager until his death in 2007.

Novella remembers DeAngelis as someone who was "interested in having extreme experiences . . [having] a joie de vivre . . . just wanted to grab life by the horns." For several years in his late teens he competed in the local demolition derby, creating a persona called Dr. Demo. "He would sign surgical masks and hand them out after his races".

DeAngelis graduated from Joel Barlow High School and attended New York University.

As Evan Bernstein tells it, "One night sometime in late 1995, Perry was over [at] Steve's condo, casually flipping through a copy of SI (Skeptical Inquirer). He was reading through the list of local groups, and commented to Steve: 'There's no local skeptics group in Connecticut. We should start one.'" Steve states that he [Steve] took on the majority of the "heavy lifting" but Perry was "right there" the whole time. "He was in love with the big ideas, the logistics and the details that was for other people to worry about, which is why Perry and I worked really well together. Because I quickly became the detail and logistic person that made things happen," but he gets the credit for having the original big idea. and the New Hampshire Skeptical Resource to form the New England Skeptical Society (NESS). In an article for the Sydney Morning Herald that examined whether supernatural films are really based on true events, that investigation was used as evidence to the contrary. As Novella is quoted, "They (The Warrens) claim to have scientific evidence which does indeed prove the existence of ghosts, which sounds like a testable claim into which we can sink our investigative teeth. What we found was a very nice couple, some genuinely sincere people, but absolutely no compelling evidence..." While neither DeAngelis nor Novella thought the Warrens would intentionally cause harm to anyone, they did caution that claims like the Warrens' served to reinforce delusions and confuse the public about legitimate scientific methodology.

According to an interview with DeAngelis and Novella for the Connecticut Post, the NESS report on the Warrens found the couple to be very nice people, but their claims of demon and ghosts to be "at best, as tellers of meaningless ghost stories, and at worst, dangerous frauds." They took the $12.50 tour and looked at all the evidence the Warrens had for spirits and ghosts. The watched the videos and looked at the best evidence the Warrens had. "Their conclusion: It's all blarney." They found common errors with flash photograph and nothing evil in the artifacts the Warren's have collected. '"They have... a ton of fish stories about evidence that got away... They're not doing good scientific investigation; they have a predetermined conclusions which they adhere to, literally religiously"' according to Novella. The Warrens were hurt that the skeptics did not take their work seriously, Lorraine Warren said that the problem with Perry and Steve "is they don't base anything on a God".

Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast A 3 min 42 sec extract of the August 24, 2007, podcast featuring Perry DeAngelis. DeAngelis was instrumental in getting the podcast started and is credited with coming up with the name. As fellow SGU panelist Bob Novella tells it, "In 2005 emails flew back and forth for days as we tried to think of a name for our show. He sent an email with a final salvo of ideas and embedded in there was “The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe.” The Douglas Adams reference resonated with us instantly and we made it so." Jay Novella agrees with his brother, Bob, “Perry sent this awesome list of a bunch of different names and “The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe” was on there, and it just seemed like the perfect name.”

DeAngelis took his involvement with the podcast so seriously that during the two weeks before his passing, he recorded his Skeptical Quote segment via phone from his hospital room. Steven Novella said "it gave his life a tremendous amount of meaning. He participated in most of the first 108 episodes. He took his involvement seriously and during the two weeks before his passing, he recorded his Skeptical Quote segment via phone from his hospital room."

During the second annual live SGU show at NECSS in 2009, Steven Novella said, "We still get emails... it's been two years... from listeners who are listening to the shows in order from the beginning. They get Perry, they totally connect to him, they can see his personality coming through the podcast and they experience the loss over again... We are very happy to have the podcast that preserves who Perry was."

At the 2010 NECSS live SGU show, Steve Novella said "We still get emails, on a regular basis, from people who are listening back through our archives, and are losing Perry for the first time. It amazes us how much he can emotionally affect people... for them the loss is still fresh... it touches us but we lose Perry all over again."

Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS)

Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS), pronounced "nexus", is a three-day conference focusing on science and skepticism held each April in the New York City area. Founded in 2009, it is a joint conference between the New York Skeptics and the New England Skeptical Society (NESS).

According to Steven Novella and Evan Bernstein, the NESS was asked to speak for the New York Skeptics September 12, 2009. That lecture was a tribute to DeAngelis, and as it was near the anniversary of both his birth and death in August, they continued the tradition of celebrating DeAngelis at each conference. Even after the organizers decided to move the conference to April, they continue to celebrate the life of DeAngelis each year at NECSS.

The first episode after DeAngelis's death, the crew of the SGU shared memories of their friend and colleague. Steven Novella felt that if people had the facts of DeAngelis's death it would help the grieving process. Novella stated that "Perry always told me that I could basically tell everybody anything that they wanted to know about his medical condition." He also had access to his medical records. DeAngelis did have type 2 diabetes, and he was diagnosed with scleroderma in 1997. In the end he was having problems with his fingers as they would curl, also shortness of breath and trouble with any exertion.

In another SGU episode recorded at NECSS in 2013, Novella said, "Perry was a huge presence on the show and we think about him every day he's been gone and we miss his presences on the show. We make sure we always pause to remember what he meant to us and what he meant to the SGU." In the July 19, 2016, episode of the Skepticality podcast, Susan Gerbic discussed DeAngelis, his life and death, his contributions to the skeptical movement, and his key role in starting The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast. Gerbic said "[We need] to keep his very important contributions to our movement alive. We should not forget him. We need many more Perry DeAngelis's out there. People with big thoughts, and with a giant heart. He inspires me."

A 2018 book on the subject of scientific skepticism, written by Steve Novella and DeAngelis' Skeptics' Guide co-hosts, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake, was dedicated as follows: "Dedicated to Perry DeAngelis, A friend and skeptic of some note." The book also contains a chapter, "Dennis Lee and Free Energy – Perry's Adventure" which uses material which DeAngelis wrote for the NESS in 2001. Novella had previously written of DeAngelis in his Neurologica blog:

During his 2018 interview of Jay Novella for Skeptical Inquirer, Rob Palmer provided one example of the impact of DeAngelis' death on a podcast fan when he told Novella:

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