Episode 118 - Our Third Anniversary! (While Sheltered in Place)
Squaring the Strange
For anyone who has been craving an episode with far less research, facts, or formality, this is the episode for you! Ben, Pascual, and Celestia, reflect on their various circumstances during the coronavirus national emergency, and then we talk about this, our third year in podcasting. We dish on past guests and future guests we have in the works, answer a couple of listener questions, and Ben quizzes Pascual about the finer points of air guitar. Enjoy the podcast--it's almost as fun as other people!
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Episode 117 - Testing Psychic Detectives in Real Time, part 2
Squaring the Strange
Part 2 finishes our discussion on three missing persons cases that Ben, Celestia, and Kenny followed in real time and tracked with psychic detective predictions. This episode features Ben's examination of the Harley Dilly case, and the same content warning applies: we discuss some details of the case that may be disturbing to some listeners. It's clear that well-meaning (and sometimes not-so-well-meaning) psychics waste police time and cause distress to families at their most vulnerable times.
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Episode 116 - Testing Psychic Detectives in Real Time, part 1
Squaring the Strange
After some discussion on the pandemic and social distancing most of us now face, special guest Kenny Biddle joins us (remotely!) to look at some missing person cases as they unfold in real time and how psychics have helped (or interfered). This first part has cases Celestia and Kenny looked into, and we talk about why debunking this type of psychic activity falls to grassroots skeptics. Content warning: missing child cases and psychic pronouncements on what happened to these victims are discussed.
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Episode 115 - A Few Angles on the Bermuda Triangle
Squaring the Strange
Ben still gets calls regularly from students eager to ask him questions about the Bermuda Triangle, a perennial favorite for seekers of the strange. We look into its history and a few factors that influenced its popularity. What does the Bermuda Triangle have to do with a college French class? What does a bit of 2020 shipwreck sleuthing have to do with the legend? The one thing the Bermuda Triangle does seem to attract is a kitchen sink of weird, from Atlantis to UFOs to magnetic time-space anomalies.
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Episode 114 - The Minnesota Iceman with Ron Pine
Squaring the Strange
Ben and Celestia discuss one of the most memorable fakes in Bigfoot history: a side-show exhibit that ended up the center of multiple origin stories, a tale about a reclusive California millionaire, and a possible homicide. Dr. Ron Pine, zoologist and former curator at the Smithsonian, tells us about what it was like to see the Patterson-Gimlin footage as well as the Minnesota Iceman for the first time, from the point of view of a scientist reviewing "evidence" from hopeful Bigfoot enthusiasts.
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Episode 113 - Coronavirus (COVID-19) Myths & Misinfo, Plus a Virus Lesson from Doctor Dan
Squaring the Strange
Due to the late-breaking nature of the Wuhan/novel coronavirus (now officially named COVID-19), Ben discusses the latest misinfo in terms of recurring folklore, distrust of foreigners, and the psychology of why people grasp for simple memes over complex medical science. Then special guest Doctor Dan Ketterer goes over some of the nuances of viruses and how we treat them. There's a lot we don't yet know about COVID-19, but the public health measures should be making us feel safer, not create more panic.
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Episode 112 - Literary Hoaxes, part 1 of ?
Squaring the Strange
The field of literary hoaxes is rich indeed! Ben discusses "misery lit," stories of a victimhood: She Said Yes and Go Ask Alice are two prominent examples of teenage martyrdom that aren't what they seem. Celestia summarizes a 19th-century newspaper hoax involving randy bat-people on the moon, and we break down some cultural factors. Ben ends with a heart-wrenching literary version of Munchausen by proxy and the puzzling search for a very popular (and very ill) boy, one that moved both Oprah and Mr. Rogers.
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Episode 111 - The Mothman
Squaring the Strange
Ben recounts his investigation into the Mothman, first spotted in the 1960s in West Virginia. We discuss his trip there to research the creature for a German TV show. Like many cryptids, Mothman has gone through several incarnations, from men-in-black conspiracies to Native American curses. And what do Point Pleasant residents think of their hometown monster, who brings with him a museum and annual festival? From its glowing red eyes to its comic book abs and grey wings, we examine what makes Mothman tick.
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Episode 110 - The Head Show
Squaring the Strange
This is a long one, and be advised that this episode contains some grisly details. Ben and Celestia go on a sometimes quirky, sometimes bone-shivering tour of heads (or lack thereof). We have headless or multi-headed creatures in folklore, conjoined twinning, Miracle Mike the headless chicken, experiments on heads fresh from the guillotine, the Frozen head of Walt Disney, and shrunken heads. No matter how you slice it, that's a lot of heads.
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Penis Castles, Teletubby Purses, and Suicidal Larpers
Squaring the Strange
We are joined by Erik Kristopher Myers to discuss a particular sort of easter egg: "hidden subversive elements" hidden in kids' entertainment, by a perverse animator or some sinister coalition bent on corrupting kids. There is a cottage industry of hiding filth in Disney cartoons--whether real, imagined, or hoaxed. And rumored dangers in D&D both plagued and popularized the once-obscure RPG. From pareidolia to pranks to the people who wring hands over such dangers, we break down some memorable legends.
info_outlineFresh from a convention of caricature artists and with heads full of pareidolia, Ben and Celestia discuss a few topics of the day and then dig into crystal skulls. Can we trust what Dan Ayrkroyd tells us on his fancy vodka bottle? Are there really thirteen of these ancient and powerful relics? What is the Skull of Doom, and does it have strange properties that baffle scientists? These skulls provide a fascinating look into rewritten histories and the power of priming. We even look at an ill-conceived lawsuit against Steven Spielberg involving the crystal skulls featured in the latest Indiana Jones installment.