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- S04E42 – You Don’t Know Jackalopes!
Blake is joined by regular contributor Matt Baxter, and special guest Kara Van Hoose from the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife to discuss the (not that mysterious) outbreak of “tentacle bunnies” in Colorado this summer.
News reports of “rabbits with tentacles”
Deer wasting disease (zombie deer)
“Colorado Cannibal” Alfred Packer
Colorado Parks & Wildlife
Karl Shuker’s blog about Jackalope
99% Invisible episode on Jackalope
Wall Drug
The post S04E42 – You Don’t Know Jackalopes! appeared first on MonsterTalk.
35 min - S04E41 – Karen and Matt in Scotland
Karen and Matt are back from their book tour in the UK and they got to have some real MonsterTalk moments! Loch Ness, Boleskine House and more plus Blake wrestles with gremlins!
The post S04E41 – Karen and Matt in Scotland appeared first on MonsterTalk.
59 min - Flashback: Shaver Mysteries Super-Cut
It’s Hollow Earth, UFOs, the birth of Sci-Fi, and more wierdshit than you can believe as we present a super-cut of our 2-part interview with Jerry Drake and Jeb Card about one of the foundational stories of “weirdshitology” in a new ginormous single episode.
And there’s a little bit of reading if you want to follow us down the rabbit hole…
I can’t remember how rowdy our language gets so I’m slapping the explicit tag on just in case. And If you’ve got friends who would enjoy or benefit from this episode, I’ve made it “free” for anybody without commercials but I’m not publicizing that on our ad-supported feed. You know what to do!Some links from the Hollow Earth introduction:- Duane Griffin’s academic research on Hollow Earth history (From archive.org snapshot)
- 1665 — Athanasius Kircher — review of The Subterranean World (Mundus Subterraneus)
- 1692 — Edmond Halley’s paper “An account of the cause of the change of the variation of the magnetical needle with an hypothesis of the structure of the internal parts of the Earth”, Philosophical transactions, xvi (1692), 563–87
- 1721 — An Account of a Voyage from the North Pole to the South Pole via the Centre of the Earth (Anonymous French volume)
- 1741 — The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground
- 1818 — John Cleves Symmes issues tract urging exploration of the poles and hollow earth
- 1820 — Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery
- 1826 — James McBride — Symme’s Theory of Concentric Spheres
- 1838 — The Great United States Exploring Expedition
- 1833 — E.A. Poe’s MS Found in a Bottle
- 1864 — Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth
- 1869 — Cyrus “Koresh” Teed starts Koreshanity
- 1871 — (more on this in pt2) Bulwer Lytton’s The Coming Race
- 1888 — Helena Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine
- 1905 — Frederick Oliver’s A Dweller on Two Planets
- 1906 — William Reed’s Phantom of the Poles
- 1909 — Cook & Peary race for the Pole!
- 1913 — Marshall Gardner’s A Journey to the Earth’s Interior, or Have the Poles Really Been Discovered?
- 1914 — Edgar Rice Burroughs At The Earth’s Core
- 1931 — Harvey Spencer Lewis’s Lemuria: The Lost Continent of the Pacific
- 1934 — Guy Ballard’s Unveiled Mysteries
There’s lots more discussed in the episode and in part 2’s show notes. Here are a few more helpful links:
- Dan Loxton’s Junior Skeptic Hollow Earth coverage Part 1 and Part 2 were very helpful.
- Wired magazine’s 2014 Hollow Earth article was also useful for me.
- I haven’t read it, but 2004’s book-length bibliography of Hollow World texts Subterranean Worlds looks both comprehensive and interesting.
Here are some more links to dig deeper into the topic:- The Man from Mars: Ray Palmer’s Amazing Pulp Journey — a biography of Ray Palmer by Fred Nadis
- War Over Lemuria: Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer and the Strangest Chapter of 1940s Science Fiction — a biography of Richard Shaver and much about the impact and history of the Shaver Mystery by Richard Toronto
- Scientifiction or Science-Fiction? STF vs SF? Gernsback coined scientifiction back in 1926 but by the mid 1930s science fiction had effectively won the terminology war. Thankfully nobody argues or complains about that today!
- Fancyclopedia.org has a lot of interesting lore and history around the early days of fandom from Gernsback’s era to current times.
- Long John Nebel featuring Ray Palmer and Richard Shaver from the ever useful website Archive.org.
- Some additional audio from Palmer and Shaver from the Long John Nebel show — via Archive.org, and collected by Wendy Connors (Faded Disks)
- A fascinating overview of Nazis and the Hollow Earth. There is a messy intermingling of genuine history of Nazi fascination with the occult, and a modern belief that the Nazis had real occult power. This includes a lot of strange ideas around Nazis on the moon, in a hollow earth, flying around in flying saucers — that sort of thing.
- Reification — making an idea or abstract into something more concrete
- Shibboleth — a common word that can serve as a code for identifying “in-group” members
Some famous UFO cases referenced in part two
- Dulce Base Conspiracy — this is a complicated tale of real craft, government manipulation, mental illness and expanding conspiracy narrative. Some of it is covered in the documentary Mirage Men which is available on Amazon Prime.
- The Aztec UFO Crash — notable (to me) for being part of the famous UFO book Behind the Flying Saucers by Frank Scully. Although the case was a hoax (perpetrated on, not by Scully) and used as part of a criminal conspiracy confidence-game, Scully’s book about the story tied his name firmly to the foundational UFO lore in America. While there are many references online to Chris Carter naming his FBI character Dana Scully of the TV show The X-Files, apparently he actually named her after Vin Scully, the baseball announcer. (As of this posting, you’ll find conflicting info on Wikipedia but the article on Dana Scully says Vin is the source. Meanwhile the page on Frank Scully says he is the source. The Dana article doesn’t cite a source — but I linked to the LA Times on that. The Frank article links to a source but that 2007 book doesn’t seem to contain the reference as listed. I’m going to trust the LA Times on this.) [Additional update: Here is Carter saying where he got the name for Scully confirming the Vin Scully story.]
- Ashtar — A space entity “channeled” by various UFO Contactees — most notably, George Van Tassel. GVT is famous for organizing the Giant Rock Space Conventions.
- An interview with contactee Woody Derenberger. (Famous of The Mothman Prophecies)
- The Philadelphia Experiment — the obsessive work of someone unwell becomes the basis of a huge bit of paranormal lore as well as a movie. I’ve linked to Brian Dunning’s nice skeptical summary of the case.
- We also briefly discussed The Montauk Project — a “real” case where yet another unreliable set of stories become part of urban legend and fiction and were inspirational to Stranger Things.
Books behind this episode
- The Man from Mars: Ray Palmer’s Amazing Pulp Journey by Fred Nadis
- War Over Lemuria: Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer and the Strangest Chapter of 1940s Science Fiction by Richard Toronto
- The Shaver Mystery books themselves — You can get quite a lot of them inexpensively as digital downloads, but probably should start with I Remember Lemuria, the first volume in the series.
- Mr. Toronto, who authored War Over Lemuria, also manages the (ongoing) magazine of all things Shaver, called Shavertron. He also wrote another book which appears to be a primer for the Shaver universe called Shaverology. I haven’t read that one — but Toronto knew Shaver and also has a book about the rock-art Shaver turned to later in life.
- The book Jeb was trying to remember the name of — the book Lovecraft read that got him started on Atlantis — was The Story of Atlantis and The Lost Lemuria by William Scott-Elliot.
Music
- Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys
The post Flashback: Shaver Mysteries Super-Cut appeared first on MonsterTalk.
2 hr 51 min - S04E40 – Catching Up: UK Edition
Karen and Matt check in from the UK! Karen is on tour promoting her new book Bitch: The Journey of a Word. (affiliate link)
Islands are engines of language diversity
Borley Rectory
Mentioned for future coverage (but touched on before):
The Black Monk of PontefractEpisodes covering Enfield and Poltergeists
Boleskine House
Some Nessie & Scotland coverage
The post S04E40 – Catching Up: UK Edition appeared first on MonsterTalk.
44 min - S04E38 Robert the Doll Revisited
Blake recounts his recent visit to see Robert the Doll, and his findings after a deep dive into newspapers and other literature. Patrons get follow-up info from the girl who was the subject of the “true doll haunting” from episode #114! Plus – see the attached PDFs for some of the research material used to craft this episode.
Karen’s latest book: Bitch: The Journey of a Word
Recent death “associated” with demonic doll Annabelle
Official website of the museum hosting Robert the Doll
Call for Papers: Of Gods and Monsters II (July 15, 2025 – November 1, 2025)
The post S04E38 Robert the Doll Revisited appeared first on MonsterTalk.
29 min - Flashback: 114 – Demon Dolls
Flashback to October 2016! Updated content on Robert coming soon.
In this week’s episode of MonsterTalk, we talk about demonic or evil dolls, and look into the history of one of America’s most famous creepy playthings: Robert the Doll. Our interview is with Dr. Cori Convertito, Curator of the Key West Art and Historical Society, which oversees the Fort East Martello Museum, home of Robert the Doll.
Robert the Doll links
- dramatized film (now “Films” as of 2025)
- authorized history book
- novel
- Facebook page
- Twitter account
- official website
- Stories about Robert — Lore podcast
Videos
- Child’s Play (not based on Robert the Doll. See episode for details.)
- Twilight Zone — Season 5, Episode 6: Living Doll
(watch Episode 6 on Amazon)- Twilight Zone — Season 3, Episode 33: The Dummy
(watch Episode 33 on Amazon)- Trilogy of Terror — a creepy doll classic
Further Reading
- The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs by Bruce M. Hood
Music
- Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys
- Additional music: Creepy Doll by Jonathan Coulton.
The post Flashback: 114 – Demon Dolls appeared first on MonsterTalk.
1 hr 7 min - Flashback: Alien Intrusion and the UTH
Flashback to January 2018:
In this episode of MonsterTalk, we return to discussion of the Ultraterrestrial Hypothesis (UTH) and what seems to be its growing influence in paranormal circles. It’s been used to explain UFOs, mothman, bigfoot, fairies, dogman, ghosts and many other phenomena which defy scientific demonstrability. Now it crops up again in a new film event titled Alien Intrusion which turned out to be a stealth evangelical creationist film which suggests that aliens and UFOs are actually demonic. We are joined by MonsterTalk alum Joe Laycock, Natasha Mikles and Jeb Card to discuss the UTH and Jeb’s Paranormal Unified Field Theory (PUFT) as it relates to this film and the work of John Keel and others.
In Research Of…
MonsterTalk
Joe Laycock
Natasha Mikles
Jeb Card
Music
- Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys
The post Flashback: Alien Intrusion and the UTH appeared first on MonsterTalk.
1 hr 20 min - Flashback: Zombies, Cults & Demons
FLASHBACK to December 2013:
A FAMILIAR VOICE returns to MonsterTalk as Dr. Karen Stollznow joins us to discuss her (then new) book, God Bless America.
Items of Interest
Haunting America on Amazon
More information on the case of Anneliese Michel
Wade Davis’s book on Haitian zombies — The Serpent and the Rainbow
More reading on the Satanic Panic — In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult
Music
Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing MonkeysThe post Flashback: Zombies, Cults & Demons appeared first on MonsterTalk.
0 min - Flashback: The Warren Omission
We will be playing some episodes from our archives for a few weeks this Summer – let’s kick it off with this classic from October 2013! THE WARREN OMISSION.
WAS THE STORY OF The Conjuring the true story of how Ed and Lorraine Warren fought demonic forces in Rhode Island? In this special episode of MonsterTalk, we hear a different side to the story of America’s first family of ghost hunting. Features interviews with investigators Joe Nickell and Steven Novella.
Interviewed for this episode:
Dr. Steven Novella is a neurologist and notable skeptical activist, a founder of the New England Skeptics Society, and the host of The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe.
Dr. Joe Nickell is a researcher and scientific paranormal investigator, and author of numerous books and articles related to the field.
Ray Garton is an author of many horror books, including In a Dark Place, the novel based on the allegedly real-life events behind The Haunting in Connecticut. He has distanced himself from that marketing approach, and now says that he had to make up much of the story at the behest of the Warrens.
Marvin Scott is a senior reporter for WPIX, New York. He brought the Warrens to the site of The Amityville Horror and says that nothing noteworthy took place. Ed and Lorraine claim that it was one of the most traumatic events in their lives. (We interviewed Martin Scott but the resulting audio was too poor for inclusion in the episode.)
Articles
- The New England Skeptics Society—an investigation into the Warrens
- Joe Nickell—Demons in Connecticut
- Rocky Mountain Paranormal interviews Lorraine Warren
- A highly critical look at the Warren’s involvement with the Amityville case
- The town of Dudley is besieged by ghost hunters after a write up by the Warrens
Books
- The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren, an unskeptical look at The Warren, by Gerald Brittle
- The Science of Ghosts: Searching for Spirits of the Dead, by Joe Nickell
Videos
- The Sally Jesse Raphael show about The Haunting in Connecticut
- Ed Warren claimed in a video that the Simon Necronomicon is a book of shadows of the occult. (It isn’t.) (Note: YouTube has closed the account of the original poster of the VHS tour of Ed’s museum.)
- Marvin Scott interviews Hans Holzer about The Amityville Horror:
- Inside WPIX News 11—Marvin Scott Pt. 1
- WPIX News 11—Marvin Scott Pt. 2
Music
- Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys
The post Flashback: The Warren Omission appeared first on MonsterTalk.
1 hr 22 min - S04E37 High Weirdness with Erik Davis
We’re joined by Erik Davis to discuss his book High Weirdness – a history of psychedelics and counterculture as a triptych embodied with three prominent figures: Terrence McKenna, Philip K. Dick, and Robert Anton Wilson. From Blade Runner to the Illuminati to Magic Mushrooms these three laid down foundational blocks decades ago that underpin (or perhaps undermine?) our present.
Terrence McKenna
Philip K. Dick
Robert Anton Wilson
Pyrrho – ancient Greek skeptic
Our coverage of Operation Mindf*ck (part 1 and part 2)
Erik Davis links:Burning Shore (Substack)
Techgnosis (huge web archive)
Techgnosis (Book – Affiliate Link)
High Weirdness (Affiliate Link) – the Audiobook read by the author is very good. -B.The post S04E37 High Weirdness with Erik Davis appeared first on MonsterTalk.
49 min
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