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Peculiar Book Club Podcast episodes
- You're Guaranteed to get Tipsy with Camper English and Doctors and Distillers
Ever read The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart? I have. Several times, actually. Well, guess what book SHE is reading? “At last,” she writes, “a definitive guide to the medicinal origins of every bottle behind the bar! This is the cocktail book of the year, if not the decade.” What hallowed tome is she referring to? Folks, it’s a book so perfect for Peculiar Book Club that if it didn’t exist, I’d have to make it up: Doctors and Distillers by Camper English, the MEDICINAL history of beer, wine, spirits, and cocktails. BE STILL MY HEART. It’s true that, as a medical historian, I’ve always known alcohol was among our earliest medicines—and that it remains crucial to not a few today. But this story goes all the way back—to Egypt—and then a bit forward—to alchemists and monastic apothecaries. It takes a side road into germ theory, and then pops back out in forensics and the dangers of risky prohibition cocktails. What was alcohol meant to cure? Let’s see; wounds, worms, snakebite, malaria, scurvy, plague… Of course, we at the Peculiar Book Club feel it helps prepare you to read more weird books.
1 hr 1 min - You're really bugging us for Bethany Brookshire and Pests
Let’s imagine you’re nestling down for a good nap. You’ve already been to the market for food stuffs, you have filled your larder, and you even managed to get some brand new bedding. It’s cold out, and you are definitely ready for a long winter’s nap—when suddenly, someone rudely breaks into your home. Screaming. And maybe standing on a chair. Even though you’re just a common house mouse, minding his own business in someone’s sock drawer. Yes, we think of mice and rates and other critter as “pests”—vermin—the bad guys. Are they, though? Bethany Brookshire tackles this question in PESTS: How humans create animal villains.
“Pests — the mice, raccoons, and seagulls of the world — are not irritating by nature,” Brookshire begins. Rather, she explains, “they are animal winners on a planet full of loss. When your habitat is full of parking lots, brick apartment buildings, and carefully tended gardens, survival isn’t about staying sweetly in the woods and meadows. Instead, evolutionary success looks a lot like raiding our trash, nesting on our buildings, and eating our gardens down to nubs.” Nature, you see, evolves WITH us. We learned a bit about this in The Natural History of the Future last year; we make these environments; we destroy natural ones. And sometimes, the animals we like (our beloved cats, for instance) are actually little destruction machines wreaking havoc on natural fauna. What we call a pest and what we call a PET comes down to how we personally interact—but there’s so much more to the story. Join us on Jan 25th for a livestream and chat with Bethany Brookshire as she breaks down the science of our imagined foes.Episode was recorded live on January 25th, 2024. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/.
Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)!
1 hr 6 min - Trust us, there's a lot of fun things to talk about with Antitrust (Peculiar Movie Club)
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book The Internet Con, we are discussing the early 2000's tech thriller Antitrust.
Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this internet, tech company thriller and the themes of Big Tech, stealing IP, knowledge belonging to the people, and why Tim Robbins is smashing potato chips the whole movie.
Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)!
59 min - We're pulling a Job with Cory Doctorow and The Internet Con
Remember when wasting time on Twitter and Facebook was… fun? When we thought a future of connection awaited us, with endless promise? Those hopes have not aged well, have they? Twitter, Facebook and other Big Tech platforms made things easier… and then, when we weren’t looking, those easy-buttons became bricks in a prison wall. Just try leaving, they seem to say (I have left FB and then had to come back again for work, so I know this first hand). As Cory Doctorow puts it in The Internet Con, “They hold hostage the people we love, the communities that matter to us, the audiences and customers we rely on.
The impossibility of staying connected to these people after you delete your account has nothing to do with technological limitations: it’s a business strategy in service to commodifying your personal life and relationships.” He says we need to take control of this mess. But how? The solution, it would seem, is “interoperability.” A really simple example is demanding that Apple make their power ports compatible with the ports that work on everything else. “Use any ink in your printer with any paper, use any socks with your shoes, anyone’s gasoline in your car, put any lightbulb in your light socket,” he tells us. The platform prison is built of deep separation, and it builds divisive-ness right into the design. Join us January 11th and talk live to Cory Doctorow about this award winning, eye-brow raising, con-busting book! But that’s not all!! We will also talk about his new SciFi novel about fear and hope for the future: The Lost Cause. Maybe we can start 2024 by taking the internet by storm.57 min - Getting into the Peculiar Holiday Spirit with The Nightmare Before Christmas (Peculiar Movie Club)
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, for a little bit of fun during the Holiday season, we are discussing the Stop Motion Animated classic The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Join Davey Berris for a solo adventure, as he takes a deep dive into this sometimes a Halloween movie, sometimes a Christmas movie, as he looks into the themes of can we change from our nature and the idea that maybe not everyone knows about Christmas and it's traditions.
Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)!
32 min - We have the Power with Masters of the Universe (Peculiar Movie Club)
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of Amanda Deibert's work on the new animated He-Man show, we are discussing the 80's cult classic movie Masters of the Universe.
Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this fantasy, superhero movie, as we look into the themes of destiny and power, plus a discussion on the whys and hows of how this movie got made.
Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)!
1 hr 1 min - Wonder Woman? He-Man? Yes, please! An evening with Amanda Deibert!
We are THRILLED to have the multi-talented and best selling Amanda Deibert on our show! Author, screenwriter, and much more--AND her newest book, the daily guided gratitude journal, YOU ALREADY HAVE THE ANSWERS is currently available for pre-order. At PBC, we will be talking to Amanda about the world of comics and graphic novels!
Amanda’s comic book writing includes multiple DC Super Hero Girls graphic novels, a story in the New York Times I #1 Bestseller Love is Love, Serving Up Justice featuring Serena Williams and Wonder Woman, Flash Facts, Wonder Woman Agent of Peace, Teen Titans Go!, Wonder Woman ’77, Batman and Harley Quinn, DC’s The Doomed and the Damned, Wonderful Women of History, and Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman, for DC Comics, Hyperspace Stories for Lucas Film/Disney/Darkhorse comics and multiple stories in John Carpenter’s Tales for A Halloween Night volumes 2, 3, 4, 5 , & 6 for Storm King Comics, Red Sonja Black, White, Red for Dynamite, Work for a Million for McClelland & Stewart and more.ANd because that isn't enough, her television work includes writing for the animated series He-Man and The Masters Of The Universe for Netflix as well as work for CBS, SyFy, OWN, PIVOT, HULU and 4 years as writer for former Vice President Al Gore’s international climate broadcast, 24 Hours of Reality. WOW~!Musical Guest: The ever weird and wonderful CORD RAVENSWOOD, who happens to be a BIG FAN!Episode was recorded live on December 14th, 2023. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/.
Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)!
59 min - It's a Differential Diagnosis with the TV Show House (Peculiar Movie Club)
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book Aroused by Randi Hutter Epstein, we are discussing the TV Show House. Specifically we are watching Season 1, Episode 16 "Heavy", then Season 2, Episode 13 "Skin Deep", and finally Season 3, Episode 1 "Meaning".
Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this classic medical drama. We'll be looking into hormonal diseases, and how each medical mystery challenges House and his team.
Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)!
1 hr 14 min - AROUSE yourself with Randi Hutter Epstein and the history of HORMONES
How about a guided tour through the strange science of hormones and the age-old quest to control them?
Metabolism, behavior, sleep, mood swings, the immune system, fighting, fleeing, puberty, and sex: these are just a few of the things our bodies control with hormones. Armed with a healthy dose of wit and curiosity, medical journalist Randi Hutter Epstein takes us on a journey through the unusual history of these potent chemicals from a basement filled with jarred nineteenth-century brains to a twenty-first-century hormone clinic in Los Angeles.Brimming with fascinating anecdotes, illuminating new medical research, and humorous details, Aroused introduces the leading scientists who made life-changing discoveries about the #hormone imbalances that ail us, as well as the charlatans who used those discoveries to peddle false remedies. Epstein exposes the humanity at the heart of hormone science with her rich cast of characters, including a 1920s doctor promoting vasectomies as a way to boost libido, a female medical student who discovered a pregnancy hormone in the 1940s, and a mother who collected pituitaries, a brain gland, from cadavers as a source of growth hormone to treat her son. Along the way, Epstein explores the functions of hormones such as leptin, oxytocin, #estrogen, and #testosterone, demystifying the science of endocrinology.A fascinating look at the history and science of some of medicine’s most important discoveries, Aroused reveals the shocking history of hormones through the back rooms, basements, and labs where endocrinology began.Episode was recorded live on November 9th, 2023. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/.
Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)!
1 hr 8 min - It's an extra Halloween Treat with The Wicker Man (Peculiar Movie Club)
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, as a special treat for Halloween, we are discussing the iconic folk horror movie The Wicker Man.
Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this classic british . We'll be looking into the themes of religion vs. temptation, being accepting of others' beliefs, and sacrificing virgins to pagan gods for a good apple harvests.
Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)!
57 min
About Peculiar Book Club Podcast
From the publisher's feed
Weird Science, Bizarre History, & Strange Medicine: we host authors of PECULIAR nonfiction! Want to know why animals evolved to suck blood? Or the secrets of sword-swallowers? Curious about Vagina…
Obscura? Or the astrophysics of a dying universe? We've 3 shows to tempt you: the PBC podcast (from Mary Roach to Ed Yong), Peculiar at the Movies with Davey Berris (where factoids meet celluloid); and Peculiar in Mystery (thrillers + true crime!) Join host Brandy Schillace, as seen on THE UNBELIEVABLE with Dan Aykroyd, for oddities, oddballs, and the unexpected! If you're weird, you're family!