Travel Writer Speaks at Skeptics

Author Stephanie Elizondo Griest was the featured Society of Skeptics speaker on November 14. An Internet site of travel writers noted that Griest has “belly danced with Cuban rumba queens and volunteered at a Russian children’s shelter…” In that on-line interview, she said, “Wanderlust is in my genes. My great-uncle was a hobo who rode the rails; my father drummed his way around the world with a U.S. Navy band.” Vowing to travel the globe after hearing a speech by a CNN correspondent, she learned Russian and, as she says, “Four years later, I jetted off to Moscow as an exchange student and have since traveled to a dozen countries that experimented with communism at some point in the past century. These adventures are the subject of my travelogue/memoir, Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana [published by Villard/Random House in 2004].”

Griest regaled a full house of students with stories about her travels and offered suggestions on the number of foundations and scholarship programs available to them for travel abroad and at home. She suggested they try as many avenues as possible to enrich their life experiences by learning other languages (she speaks three!) and gaining perspective on other cultures. She noted how similar yet how different the various citizens of this world actually are. By presenting her program with humor and enthusiasm and gearing it to their age group, she provided a history lesson as well as a travelogue about the people and places she has met and seen along the way.

The Society of Skeptics lecture series occurs on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. in Cowan Auditorium. Click here for a full listing of scheduled speakers.

Updated 11/15/06

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