046 – SQUATCHING WITH THE KRAMPUS

By popular demand, we take a brief aside into fantasy to talk with one the more sinister figures associated with the Winter Holidays: The Krampus. Then we get a bit more serious as we welcome one of the co-hosts of the popular podcast The Bigfoot Show, documentarian and comedian, Scott Herriott. Scott has made several films about walking the Pacific Coast Trail and […]

045 – UNBOTTLING SOME JINN

IF YOU THINK GENIES ARE FUNNY like in Aladdin, or sexy like in I Dream of Jeannie get ready to have your assumptions challenged. In the Middle East, Jinn aren’t whimsical characters of fantasy. They are considered to be frightening, real entities that haunt desolate places and can perform terrible magic. In this episode of MonsterTalk we interview author Robert Lebling about his book Legends of […]

044 – PARANORMALITY: PSYCHIC DOGS, GHOSTS AND SILLY VOICES—AN INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD WISEMAN

Today on MonsterTalk, we share an interview with Dr. Richard Wiseman recorded at TAM9—the James Randi Educational Foundation’s “Amazing Meeting.” It is a wide-ranging interview that discusses Wiseman’s new book, Paranormality: Why we see what isn’t there, as well as ghosts, psychic dogs and the trouble with counting dolphins. It has naught to do with monsters, but it is an amusing interview […]

043 – CRYPT O’ ZOOLOGY: DINOSAURS IN AFRICA!

FROM THE LOST WORLD to Alley Oop to The Flintstones, the idea of dinosaurs and humans living together has captured the imagination of readers across the globe. But there are some who believe that this idea isn’t fictional. Is there a population of sauropod dinosaurs living in Africa in modern times? In this episode of MonsterTalk, we interview paleontologist Dr. Donald Prothero at TAM9 about his […]

042 – Bad Wolf

ON NOVEMBER 8, 2005 Canadian geological engineering student Kenton Carnegie went for a walk. He told people that he’d be back by 5 pm. When he hadn’t returned by 7 pm, a search party went out and discovered his remains in the woods. In this episode of Monstertalk (a follow-up to last week’s), we interview professor Valerius Geist about the true cause of […]

041 – THE BIG BAD WOLF

CHANCES ARE IF YOU LISTEN to MonsterTalk you probably like nature documentaries. No doubt you’ve seen stories about wolves and heard words to the effect that wolves are often maligned and that wolves have an undeserved reputation for being killers. Yet how does one reconcile the idea that dangerous wolves are a myth with the many myths and fairy tales which feature […]

040 – DEAD MEN ARE A GHOUL’S BEST FRIEND

IN THIS EPISODE of MonsterTalk we discuss Ghouls and their real world counterpart: cannibals. The hosts are joined by Carole A. Travis-Henikoff, author of Dinner With A Cannibal: The Complete History of Mankind’s Oldest Taboo. This episode also features guest MonsterTalker Adam Levenstein, a long-time friend of the show whose background combines anthropology and skepticism. Music Monstertalk Theme: Monsterby Peach Stealing Monkeys Intro music: 1_2_0 by Symbion Project […]

039 – A CONNECTICUT HAUNTING IN A KEEN AUTHOR’S COURT

The 2009 film The Haunting in Connecticut is purported to be based on true events. Similarly, there was the 2002 documentary A Haunting in Connecticut (which aired on The Discovery Channel and helped spawn the series A Haunting). These true events have been compiled by author Ray Garton into his book In A Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting. The shocking tale contains adult […]

038 – Ancient Alien Astronauts: Interview with Ken Feder

DID ANCIENT HUMANS gain their technological achievements through the assistance of creatures from other planets? This week on MonsterTalk, Dr. Feder, an archaeology professor who has taught a course on the topic, shares his thoughts. Feder is the author of Frauds, Myths and Mysteries—a book with more good scientific content on the cover than most TV shows have in an entire season. […]