After some discussion on a recent shooting in Las Vegas, Alex Jones being let back onto Twitter/X, and Napoleon's height, we dive into a look back at Absinthe. This exotic liquor has a surprisingly rich history filled with danger, exaggeration, fraud and propaganda. From it's supposed creativity-enhancing powers to its effect of bringing about madness and hallucinations, we go for a strange little journey into the evolution of the green fairy.

First Ben and Celestia discuss genetically modified potatoes, cougar kitties, and cocaine hippos. Then we are joined by Dr. Kristina Downs of the Texas Folklore Society to talk about a curious case that occurred in January 2023. A series of incidents at the Dallas Zoo escalated from a wandering clouded leopard to a critically endangered vulture turning up dead and a pair of kidnapped monkeys. Along the way we have parody Twitter accounts, cat humor, digs on local nuisances, and rumors of what's REALLY going on at the zoo -- in other words, folklore and conspiracy theories. Then, when the monkeys are found, we see, on a small scale, what happens when crime-solving communities online are faced with a disappointingly mundane answer to their puzzle.

Ben and Celestia discuss conspiracies, real and unreal, the conspiracy-backed arguments from a high-profile defense lawyer, a superconductor article retraction, and Barbra's opinion on the Streisand Effect. Then, gargoyles! How do these imposing gothic carvings differ from grotesques, and what do they do -- both functionally and symbolically? Who can see them so high up, and are hidden messages really carved into some of them? We learn about the guttural (literally) sense of humor on display in medieval times, and the possible connection gargoyles have to an ancient tradition of "gurning," or face-pulling. And yes, we do talk about the 90s cartoon too!

First, Celestia goes over her high points and low points of CSI Con 2023, then we move on to a few tidbits Ben came across. Sharon Hill joins us again, this time for a main segment on Gef the talking mongoose, a celebrity on the Isle of Man back in the 1930s. A new movie delves into (and somewhat mangles) the mystery, featuring Simon Pegg as Nandor Fodor and Christopher Lloyd as Harry Price. The "mystery" of Gef tapdances around so many facets of Forteana... a talking animal, "earth spirit," clairvoyance, poltergeists, psychic manifestations, and a clever young girl with time on her hands. With Sharon's help, we go over what the records say, what British libel law curtailed the records from saying, and what the movie tries to say today.

First we discuss a few skepticism-adjacent current events: the recent Colorado train spotting of Bigfoot, RFK Jr.'s bid for the presidency, and a new lawsuit naming "Sound of Freedom" hero Tim Ballard as a sexual predator who paid a psychic to help groom his victims. Then we dive into Slenderman, or "Slendy" as his friends know him. Professor Andrea Kitta, contributor to "Slender Man Is Coming" (Utah State University Press, 2018), brings her public health and folklore knowledge to bear on this created cryptid, born of photoshop in the pre-AI days and raised on the pent-up rage of cyberbullied adolescent girls. Part revenge fantasy and part rescuer, what is Slendy's game? Does he drive you insane or take you away to his secret mansion? While he was the focus of a tragic 2014 stabbing case in Wisconsin, since then he has faded slowly and may end up where many initially terrifying monsters go -- into the realm of child lore, as a spooky story for very young kids.

First we have a whole lot of current events that are dinging out skeptical radar: Nobels are being announced; a kidnapped girl was found (not by psychics); a yoga class was mistaken for a mass shooting; we survived a rapture AND a 5G-activated virus; Nevada's supreme court allows joint-custody father to vaccinate kids against wishes of antivax mother; Naomi Wolf says being near vaccinated people causes cramps; and Hasan Minhaj walks the line between storytelling and fabrication.

Then, thanks fo Mark Ditsler and Calico Cove LLC for the production of content and permission to distribute audio from our appearance at DragonCon's Skeptic Track earlier in September! We have a roundabout discussion on folkloric roots of modern conspiracies and how stories recur and recur and recur, then take some audience questions.

After discussing the more recent alien-related topics like signs of life on an exoplanet and signs of fraud displayed in the Mexican Congress, we meet up with Brian Dunning of Skeptoid fame. His newest feature film, The UFO Movie THEY Don't Want You to See, is out now on streaming services. We discuss the educational approaches Brian took and why, the "Christmas Tree Problem," and our excitement at the very real possibility of life elsewhere -- tempered, alas, with the very real constricts of physics, time, and space.

It's agritainment season, y'all! So get ready to pick apples, walk a corn maze, pet some goats and maybe get spooked at a rural haunted house! Folklorist and haunted house aficionado Betty Aquino joins Ben and Celestia to discuss themes in rural haunts and why the rural spaces have become romanticized by urban dwellers. We explore some themes of gender, power and politics in the haunted houses she sampled in the midwest, and discuss how this type of commodified spookiness differs from other types of theater. For starters, it's all run by amateurs and there's no fourth wall -- so you're part of the show!

From Romulus and Remus to Tarzan and Mowgli, children raised in the wild by animals is a popular tale in folklore. But what about feral kids in real life? There have been sideshow exhibits, hoaxes and recurring instances in literature and television. Do any of the tales reported as true have merit? And could a child raised by wolves walk on all fours or subsist -- even thrive? -- on raw meat? Why are we drawn to these tales? Some tell a romanticized story of the noble savage, raised safely away from the corruption of society, while others are a little closer to the tragedy that really occurs when a neglected child is starved of human contact. 

After some discussion of suspected sun bear cosplay and UAP fallout, Ben and Celestia are joined by Jeff Debies-Carl, who has just published "If You Should Go at Midnight: Legends and Legend Tripping in America" (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2023). What is legend tripping, and do we all do it -- even us skeptics? From a psychological and sociological perspective, what are the roots, motivations, and dangers involved? From ghost hunts to escape rooms, how we participate in legends helps shape and perpetuate the legend. Let's look at how.