THIS WEEK on MonsterTalk, author Stephen Asma (Professor of Philosophy at Columbia College Chicago) speaks about his comprehensive book surveying Western monster-lore. Is humankind’s fascination with monsters broader than any single cause? Asma’s On Monsters examines hundreds of legends — and their cultural, psychological and social implications. In this episode the roots of fear the fascination some find with birth defects the saint […]
IN THE PANTHEON OF AMERICAN MONSTERS, only one truly dominated the newspapers of the 1990s. Checkout lines everywhere were haunted by the bald-headed, wide-mawed visage of Bat Boy. What was Bat Boy, and where did he come from? The MonsterTalk team interviews cartoonist Tye Bourdony, a former employee of the Weekly World News and creator of the online comic “The Lighter Side of Sci-Fi”. Bourdony has had […]
THIS WEEK’S EPISODE was recorded before a live studio audience at Dragon*Con’s Skeptrack 2010 (in Atlanta, Georgia). MonsterTalk hosts Ben Radford and Blake Smith bravely faced the horror of live questions from listeners — including Australian skeptical activist Dr. Rachael Dunlop, Skeptoid’s Brian Dunning, and others! MonsterSwag Cryptozoological Figure Set Stretchy Shapes Silly Bands (a 24-pack of animal bands including: Big Foot,Loch Ness Monster, Jersey Devil, […]
IN THIS EPISODE we get under the skin of the chupacabra legend, and find out more about the lice that cause the hairless canids the media loves so much. It’s okay to scratch — but don’t skip this episode! Once you get past the disgust factor, there is some amazing science going on in parasitology. Our guide into this fascinating […]
THIS WEEK, MonsterTalk continues its discussion of the intersection between science and cryptozoology. The hosts interview Dr. Donald Prothero and Daniel Loxton, who are working on a book (Abominable Science!) that will give a deep overview of the field of cryptozoology and how it intersects with actual science. This interview was recorded at The Amaz!ng Meeting 8 in Las Vegas. Topics discussed […]
DARREN NAISH is a palaeozoologist, freelance author and science writer of the Tetrapod Zoology column (and Podcast!). Affiliated with the university of Portsmouth, he obtained a degree in geology and then gained a PhD in vertebrate paleontology at this institution. He mostly works on Cretaceous dinosaurs and pterosaurs, and “also messes around with swimming giraffes, fossil marine reptiles, British big […]
FRAME 25: Famous photo of Tina Resch and the “flying phone.” Copyright © 1984 by The Dispatch Printing Company. Photographer: Fred Shannon. James Randi (1928 – 2020) Early in March of 1984, the Ohio newspaper The Columbus Dispatch began to tell the tale of a 14 year old girl who was undergoing a terrible ordeal. Objects in her house began to fly across […]
That is not dead which can eternal lie And with strange aeons even death may die. —H.P. Lovecraft,The Call of Cthulhu The literary work of Howard Phillips Lovecraft is dark and macabre. It casts a long shadow in American Literature, influencing such writers as Rod Serling, Steven King, Bob Howard, Robert Bloch, and many others. In his stories he wove a tapestry […]
In this episode, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP) investigator Joe Nickell joins the MonsterTalk crew for a look into the West Virginian legend of Mothman — allegedly a human-sized creature with wings and glowing red eyes. Nickell discusses the ways monsters evolve following a community’s initial reports, and the cyclical nature of spates of sightings. About this episode Joe Nickell is the senior […]
In this week’s episode, MonsterTalk looks once again at genetics and creatures created in the laboratory. Dr. Marcus C. Davis joins the hosts to discuss what constitutes a “monster.” In his work, Davis deals with paleontology, as well as embryological manipulation — which, by some definitions, means he literally creates monsters. What kinds of creatures are scientists making in labs today? What […]
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