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Peculiar Book Club Podcast episodes
- Hauling like a Brooligan with Stephen Gallagher!
Maybe you're a fan of DOCTOR WHO. Or perhaps you were a fan of ELEVENTH HOUR with Patrick Stewart (Or Silent Witness. Or Rosemary and Thyme. Or Murder Rooms.) Perhaps thrillers are more your thing, books like KINGDOM OF BONES or BEDLAM DETECTIVE--or scifil, supernatural, graphic novels. Then YOU, my friend, are a fan of STEPHEN GALLAGHER!
A novelist, screenwriter, and director with a list of books that runs right off the shelf, Stephen is also patient, kind, giving, and supportive of new writers everywhere. He is ALSO going to be on our show to talk about... well. All the things? DO NOT MISS!"This is the end! Making a public spectacle of yourselves. I couldn't have believed you could have behaved like this, either of you. Just hauling like brooligans." Genevieve, film, 1953MUSIC provided by the marvelous CHARMING DISASTER! Don't miss "Hellebore" (from their newest endeavor, Super Natural History!)Episode was recorded live on July 13th, 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 6 min - We're on an epic journey with How the West Was Won (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 Saving Yellowstone by Megan Kate Nelson, we are discussing the movie How the West Was Won.
Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this epic western adventure. We'll be looking into the themes of western expansion, the treatment of Indigenous people in real life and Hollywood, and how nature and the land threw up road blocks all along the way.
Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)!
1 hr 7 min - Trek Your Way to Saving Yellowstone!
Each year nearly four million people visit #Yellowstone National Park—one of the most popular of all national parks—but few know the fascinating and complex historical context in which it was established. In late July 1871, the geologist-explorer Ferdinand Hayden led a team of scientists through a narrow canyon into Yellowstone Basin, entering one of the last unmapped places in the country. The survey’s discoveries led to the passage of the Yellowstone Act in 1872, which created the first national park in the world.
Now, bestselling author Megan Kate Nelson examines the larger context of this #American moment, illuminating Hayden’s survey as a #national project meant to give Americans a sense of achievement and unity in the wake of a destructive civil war. Saving Yellowstone follows Hayden and two other protagonists in pursuit of their own agendas: Sitting Bull, a #Lakota leader who asserted his peoples’ claim to their homelands, and financier Jay Cooke, who wanted to secure his national reputation by building the Northern Pacific Railroad through the Great Northwest. Hayden, Cooke, and Sitting Bull staked their claims to Yellowstone at a critical moment in Reconstruction, when the Ulysses S. Grant Administration and the 42nd Congress were testing the reach and the purpose of federal power across the nation.MUSIC: The zany CORD RAVENSWOOD (Our Peculiar in the Field) joins us for a nice little song about YELLOWSTONEEpisode was recorded live on June 22nd, 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 4 min - Get Puzzled with A.J. Jacobs!
No, it's not a new Batman Villain! But you will love The Puzzler anyway!
The New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically goes on a rollicking journey to understand the enduring power of puzzles: why we love them, what they do to our brains, and how they can improve our world.What makes puzzles—jigsaws, mazes, riddles, sudokus—so satisfying? Be it the formation of new cerebral pathways, their close link to insight and humor, or their community-building properties, they’re among the fundamental elements that make us human. Convinced that puzzles have made him a better person, A. J. Jacobs—four-time New York Times bestselling author, master of immersion journalism, and nightly crossworder—set out to determine their myriad benefits. And maybe, in the process, solve the puzzle of our very existence. Well, almost.MUSIC: This show will feature guests THE MARY LOUS! Spooky, Ukey, Sometimes Kooky RiotGhoooul from Nowhere, New Jersey. https://themarylous.bandcamp.com/Episode was recorded live on June 15th, 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 13 min - We're getting a full serving of veggies with Minari (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 Evening Hero by Marie Myung-Ok Lee, we are discussing the movie Minari.
Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this family and immigrant tale. We'll be looking into the themes of the American Dream, what makes a real Grandma, and saving each other in a marriage.
Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)!
1 hr 5 min - Join us for THE EVENING HERO--a PBC fiction book choice!
We don't do much fiction, but sometimes there is a story that begs to be read. This one is a medical humanities style tale; Marie Myung-OK Lee writes a sweeping, lyrical novel following a Korean immigrant pursuing the American dream who must confront the secrets of the past or risk watching the world he’s worked so hard to build come crumbling down.
Dr. Yungman Kwak is in the twilight of his life. Every day for the last fifty years, he has brushed his teeth, slipped on his shoes, and headed to Horse Breath’s General Hospital, where, as an obstetrician, he treats the women and babies of the small rural Minnesota town he chose to call home. He immigrated from Korea after the Korean War, forced to leave his family, ancestors, village, and all that he knew behind. But his life is built on a lie. And one day, a letter arrives that threatens to expose it.He begins to question the very assumptions on which his life is built—the so-called American dream, with the abject failure of its healthcare system, patient and neighbors who perpetuate racism, a town flawed with infrastructure, and a history that doesn’t see him in it.Toggling between the past and the present, Korea and America, Evening Hero is a sweeping, moving, darkly comic novel about a man looking back at his life and asking big questions about what is lost and what is gained when immigrants leave home for new shores.MUSIC: By the wonderful and talented Susan Hwang! http://susanhwanglalala.com/Episode was recorded live on May 20th, 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 12 min - Search the Hidden Realms in An Immense World
Ed Yong PROBABLY needs no introduction--but just in case: he is a Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer on the staff of The Atlantic, where he also won the George Polk Award for science reporting, among other honors. His first book, I Contain Multitudes, was a New York Times bestseller. We are SO grateful to have him with us!
In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved.MUSIC: Charming Disaster, performing (appropriately, we think, "Forces of Nature" from their album Our Lady of Radium!CDs, vinyl, digital albums: https://charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com/album/our-lady-of-radiumPhysical lyrics book: https://charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com/merch/our-lady-of-radium-lyrics-and-art-bookDigital lyrics book: https://charmingdisaster.gumroad.com/l/ourladyofradiumEpisode was recorded live on May 11th, 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 12 min - Let's Get (Astro)Physical with Katie Mack!
The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)
The Universe had a beginning, and it will have an end. Modern cosmology — the study of the nature and evolution of the cosmos itself — has allowed physicists to explain the history of the Universe from the first tiny fraction of a second until today. But what’s next? We now have the tools to extend our knowledge into the distant future and speculate about the ultimate fate of all reality.ALSO: I mean, it's KATIE MACK! SqueeeeeMusic for the Event is provided by our favs: Charming Disaster! Appropriately, the song will be "Days are Numbered"Their music is available on all the major platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, etc.) but Bandcamp is the best (artist-friendliest) way to get it.Episode was recorded live on April 27th, 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 10 min - We're learning about the legendary RBG with On the Basis of Sex (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 Ordinary Equality by Kate Kelly, we are discussing the movie On the Basis of Sex.
Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this legal drama, biography movie. We'll be looking into the themes of gender equality, the anatomy of a legal drama, and the early life of the legend Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)!
1 hr 1 min - Fight for your Rights with Ordinary Equality!
THE BATTLE GOES ON! Ordinary Equality digs into the fascinating and little-known history of the women and queer people who have helped shape the U.S. Constitution for more than 200 years. Based on author Kate Kelly’s acclaimed podcast of the same name, Ordinary Equality recounts a story centuries in the making. From before the Constitution was even drafted to the modern day, she examines how and why constitutional equality for women and Americans of all marginalized genders has been systematically undermined for the past 100-plus years, and then calls us all to join the current movement to put it back on the table and get it across the finish line.
MUSIC: a chatty little number by Cord Ravenswood, our Peculiar in the Field, talking about Hawks and Doves!Episode was recorded live on March 23rd, 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 7 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!