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2014 Episodes
- October 22nd: Fangs That Go Bump in the Night
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We’ve all seen the vampires of cinema and pop culture. Caped aristocrats, sparkling teens, monstrous revenants—which of these best corresponds to the real legends of vampires? Richard Sugg returns to talk about his fascinating research into historic vampire cases. He’s uncovered a recurring relationship between outbreaks of vampirism and poltergeist activity, which will be the subject of his next book.
- October 15th: Demon Purrsession: Tales of Demonically Possessed Cats
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Can a domesticated cat be a monster? What if it can talk, fly, predict the future and grow to enormous size? Get ready for some of the strangest lore we’ve ever covered on MonsterTalk as we interview art historian Dr. Paul Koudounaris about demonically possessed cats.
- October 8th: The Robot Apocalypse
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When the robots take over, will we all be forced to speak bocce? Author and robotics engineer Daniel H. Wilson visits MonsterTalk to discuss the nature of robots and the risk of a robot apocalypse. Steven Spielberg has purchased the rights to produce a film version of his New York Times bestseller, Robopocalypse.
- September 24th: Vampira
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In this episode of MonsterTalk, Blake conducts a pop-culture interview with historian Scott Poole on the first monstrous horror movie host, Vampira (Maila Nurmi). His new book is Vampira, Dark Goddess of Horror.
- September 10th: City Lion, Country Lion
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Was an African lion wandering the streets of Los Angeles? The case of the Norwalk Lion is solved beyond reasonable doubt—yet why do questions linger?
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Read a complete transcript of this episode - August 20th: More Brainssss
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What can a shambling zombie teach us about the human brain? According to Brad Voytek and Tim Verstynen, quite a lot. Their new book is called Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? and in this episode of MonsterTalk we’ll be talking “Brainssss…”
- July 30th: Slenderman & Tulpas
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They say Slenderman was created for a contest on a website. But the thin, faceless character has gone viral appearing in numerous art, stories, videos and even games. Some claim that all that combined focus has turned him real — a process known by ancient Tibetan Buddhists as forming a Tulpa. In this episode of MonsterTalk, Blake Smith interviews professor of religious studies Joe Laycock and doctoral student of Tibetan studies Natalia Mikels to discover the truth about Tulpas.
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Read a complete transcript of this episode - July 16th: Alienable Rites
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What causes a person to be possessed? Are there demons? Is it mental illness? Is it abnormal neurology? Does exorcism work? in this episode of MonsterTalk, paranormal researcher psychologist Dr. Chris French joins us to discuss the psychology of demonic possession and exorcisms.
- July 2nd: New MT on the Bounty
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The 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty television contest is over and we’re going to talk to the science advisers for the show to see how they felt about the outcome. Did science win the day? Did editing take away the good take-aways? Will Justin Smeja be getting in trouble for hunting feral humans? Check it out in this episode of MonsterTalk!
- June 18th: The Cures of the Mummy’s Tomb
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Unwrap the secrets of the Mummy’s tomb as we talk to “Mr. Mummy” Dr. Bob Brier about the history of mummies and the world’s fascination with Egyptology. And then, we discuss the strange history of mummies as medicine with Dr. Richard Sugg. Join as we learn about The Cures of the Mummy’s Tomb!
- June 4th: The Mongolian Death Worm
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The Mongolian Death Worm—its name conjures up images of fantastic beasts like the sand worms in Dune or the creatures from the film Tremors, but the actual legends are even stranger. We discuss the legends and facts behind this cryptid with the official zoologist for the Center for Fortean Zoology, Richard Freeman.
- May 7th: A Tiger by the Tale
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Are mysterious large cats killing livestock and stalking the wilds of Australia? Dr. David Waldron returns to MonsterTalk to discuss his research on alien big cats down under: Snarls from the Tea-Tree: Big Cat Folklore, co-written with Simon Townsend.
- April 2nd: A Wolf in the Fold
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Did it take a silver bullet to kill the beast of Gévaudan? Is that where Curt Siodmak got the idea for his film The Wolfman? Host Blake Smith reveals his findings from more than two years of werewolf research. This episode is the first to go live with a complete transcript and lengthy bibliography.
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Read a complete transcript of this episode - March 12th: Plesiosaur Parenting
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In this episode of MonsterTalk, Blake interviews Junior Skeptic author/artist Daniel Loxton on the final book in his prehistoric animal thrillogy, Plesiosaur Peril. We talk about dinosaur names, raising kids with science literacy, and the reboot of Cosmos.
- February 26th: Demons, Ghosts and Gary Indiana
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In this episode of MonsterTalk, Blake and Karen talk about how skeptics evaluate the Gary Indiana Demon case.
- January 29th: You Won’t Believe What These Skeptics Have To Say About Bigfoot
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Sharon Hill (Doubtful News) joins us to discuss the recent history of Bigfoot bodies. From bigfoot steaks to Russian slavers, it’s time to catch up on some sasquatch news.
- January 8th: Nature’s Rich Bounty
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If Bigfoot is real, would a $10,000,000 bounty be enough to bring the beast down? That’s the premise of a new show on Spike TV. In this episode, MonsterTalk interviews two of the scientists who are working on the show to find out if this is a serious search for Bigfoot, or just folks out in the woods raising cane.
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