What happens when a creature thought to be extinct is spotted alive in the swamps of Arkansas? Can such a creature have survived? Can scientists verify the story? And when a town’s hopes and a school’s grant money are on the line, to what lengths will people go to find proof? This week on MonsterTalk we discuss these issues with Scott Crocker, […]
What does neuroscience have to say about the possibility of consciousness or mind existing outside the body — or continuing on after the body has died? This episode’s guest is neurologist Dr. Steven Novella (veteran of on-site ghost investigations, and host of the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast, who shares his insights on brains, minds, and specters from beyond […]
Author Greg Long discusses his book The Making of Bigfoot which chronicles his search to get to the bottom of the Patterson-Gimlin film. His findings destroy the image of Roger Patterson as a simple country man looking for Bigfoot at the right place and right time. And it provides at least one plausible answer to the question “What did Patterson film that […]
This week on MonsterTalk we talk with fingerprint expert and self-described Bigfoot research “cheerleader” Jimmy Chilcutt. Chilcutt, a retired Texas lawman and crime-scene investigator, came to prominence in the Bigfoot community when he joined Dr. Jeff Meldrum in the documentary Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science making the pronouncement that his research had found evidence that some Bigfoot track-castings showed signs of dermal ridges — the […]
There were Giants in the earthin those days… —Genesis 6:1 Giants appear in cultures around the world: Biblical tales of giants more than ten feet tall; Roman and Greek stories of titans and heroes; European stories of giants of mountain and hill. They all have one thing in common: enormous monsters. On this episode of MonsterTalk we chat with archeologist […]
🎙️ Blake Smith and co-hosts Benjamin Radford (managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer) and Karen Stollznow (skeptical blogger, linguist, and mystery investigator) welcome astronomer, science writer, and then-president of the James Randi Educational Foundation, Dr. Phil Plait, to talk about one of skepticism’s perennial headaches: the claim that extraterrestrials are not only out there, but are making regular house calls — complete with livestock surgery and uncomfortable medical procedures. Before […]
Benjamin Radford shares his findings on completion of his manuscript for his Chupacabra book. An article about his findings will be in the next issue of Fortean Times. Topics include: What is a Chupacabra according to lore? What is the history of the creature? How does it tie in with livestock mutilations? Why does it appear to have two different […]
🎙️ Blake Smith, Ben Radford (managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer), and Dr. Karen Stollznow (linguist and skeptical investigator) tackle one of mythology’s oldest obsessions: the hybrid creature. From the animal-headed gods of Egypt to the satyrs of Greece to modern alien-abduction narratives, the idea of something part-human, part-other has never lost its grip on the imagination. This episode asks whether any of it could actually be […]
Blake Smith, Ben Radford, and Dr. Karen Stollznow welcome historian of science Dr. Brian Regal of Kean University in New Jersey to discuss what Darwin’s theory of natural selection did — and didn’t — do to the werewolf. Dr. Regal is an assistant professor for the history of science, technology, and medicine, with a Ph.D. in American intellectual history. His research into […]
🎙️ Blake Smith, Karen Stollznow and Ben Radford are joined by Dr. Dave Martill, reader in paleobiology at the University of Portsmouth, to discuss one of evolution’s most spectacular experiments in flight: the pterosaurs. The occasion is the MonsterQuest episode on the Ropen — a cryptid from Papua New Guinea described by proponents as a bioluminescent, still-living pterosaur — which brought Dr. Martill to PNG as the resident skeptical expert. What […]