The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

Episode Notes for
A Serpent’s Tale (episode 103)

Tales of enormous snakes have been a part of folklore for thousands of years. From myths to legends, to eyewitness testimony and photographs, these stories slither through our culture and seem inescapable. Prepare to recoil in horror as we talk about giant snakes with John C. Murphy, co-author of the fascinating book Tales of Giant Snakes. Do giant man-eating snakes lurk out there waiting to swallow the unwary? The answer is more complicated than you might suspect.

John C. Murphy is a Research Associate of the Division of Amphibians and Reptiles at the Field Museum of Natural History. He has recently retired from a 38-year science teaching career to:

• write about reptiles, amphibians, and biodiversity;
• do photography; and
• research whatever topics attract his attention.

Articles about the evolution and the innate fear of snakes by humans

• The Fear of Snakes and Spiders as Evolutionary Byproduct (National Geographic)
• Monkey Brains Wired to Fear Snakes (NPR)
• Are Humans Preconditioned to Fear Snakes? (Human Evolution Blog)

Related material

• Titanoboa (the largest snake found, so far)
• Giant Snake of the Congo (video from Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World
• Recent Fake Giant Snake Story: Giant Snake Hoax (Doubtful News)

Music

• Intro music credits: Crypto by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
• Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys

The views expressed on this program are not necessarily the views of the Skeptics Society or Skeptic magazine.