Episode 252 - Acronyms, Bacronyms and Questionable Etymologies
Squaring the Strange
We start off with a first-ever viewer mail taste test! Then our standard report on the state of public health and government functionality (spoiler, it ain't great). Our main topic is acronyms and some specific word-based folklore. Is the term "OK" really the greatest word ever created? And how was it created? Then, whether it's linking a rock band to Satan or lambasting a large bureaucratic organization, false "bacronyms" are mini stories all unto themselves. Finally, there's maritime and military terms like SOS, FUBAR and SNAFU, as well as the possibly acronym-related origins of Uncle Sam.
info_outline
Episode 251 - Incredible tales of survival!
Squaring the Strange
After some current events about dire wolves, dire outbreaks of measles, and dire science denial in the White House, we discuss some true (and some not-so-true) tales of people surviving dire circumstances. People have come back alive from the frigid ice of Antarctica, a shipwreck on the bottom of the sea, and the deep jungles of South America. Others have claimed to have survived well-known disasters but been found out as frauds. And still another category intrigues us . . . survivors that never were. In fairy tales from 500 years ago and in earthquakes today, sometimes we humans have a deep...
info_outline
Episode 250 - Cryptids go Pop! with Sharon Hill
Squaring the Strange
First we hit on a few current events, including a new monolith outside of Las Vegas and a "shadow" CDC website fake. Sharon Hill joins us again, this time to discuss her new "Pop Cryptid Spectator" and all the delightful cryptidabelia that inspires it. She's noticed a rise in paranormal thinking when it comes to cryptids, as opposed to the old-school zoological framing. How has the internet fed into cryptid spread as well as evolution? She also notes that any cryptozoological gatekeepers are now long gone, so it's a wild heyday of "anything goes" as cryptids turn into blobby, cute versions of...
info_outline
Episode 249 - Grab bag: Remembering Joe Nickell, real-time folklore, "transgender mice," and RFK Jr. vs. measles
Squaring the Strange
Ben has been on a cruise, and brings back an interesting story on how quickly rumors and conspiracy theories can form in that environment. We pay tribute to Joe Nickell, a truly versatile skeptic and investigator, and go over the Stand Up for Science marches that took place last week. Then we turn to current events wrought by the Trump administration: the kerfuffle over "transgender mice" is more complicated than you think; RFK's faint praise of the MMR vaccine; and the CDC's planned study on vaccines and autism.
info_outline
Episode 248 - Furries with Gail De Vos
Squaring the Strange
First, Ben and Celestia discuss an angler fish and a kayak-curious humpback whale in the news, as well as the measles outbreak, some cryptid legislation in California, and an update on the drone panic. Our main segment guest is Gail De Vos, who discusses the world of furries. Far older than most realize (around for 50 years now!), furries have been built into a political boogeyman and garnered a reputation of sexual degeneracy that is hard to shake. With similarities to both masquerade balls and biker gangs, furries are simply a community -- one that often raises money for charitable causes....
info_outline
Episode 247 - Love Lies and Potions
Squaring the Strange
First Ben and Celestia discuss the unending slew of bad news for skeptics, and our hopes that science and public health can survive this onslaught. And, do we all have a spoonful of plastic in our brains? Then we tackle love fortune telling, love languages, and aphrodisiacs. From apple peels to blood type, people just love prognosticating about love. And what is the allure of an aphrodisiac? The notion of a forbidden (or just expensive) food or spice that puts people in the mood is so common that just about everything, at some time or in some place, has been said to have this power.
info_outline
Episode 246 - Pop psych, superstitions, and luck with Stuart Vyse
Squaring the Strange
We start with some observations (ok, rants) about the press conference on the recent aircraft collision in D.C., the hearings to confirm RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the silencing of vital science and health institutions. Then we talk to eminent psychologist Stuart Vyse about his career and a handful of pop psychology topics. He weighs in on the Telepathy Tapes podcast and facilitated communication, the notorious Milgram experiment, and why baseball is rife with luck rituals. What is luck? It's an ever-present paranormal concept that most people don't associate with...
info_outline
Episode 245 - Maligning the BMI: What is Body Mass Index for?
Squaring the Strange
First Ben and Celestia discuss the LA fires (and a few of the many, many conspiracy theories already cropping up), and remember Jimmy Carter's clear-headed skepticism and humanitarianism. Then, since it's January and we're all trying to work on self-improvement, we talk about BMI -- which happens to be in the news this week for what turns out to be not really news. The Body Mass Index began almost two hundred years ago as a pet project by a Belgian statistician, but has evolved into one of the most accessible health metrics around. The average American can assess their BMI at home, for free,...
info_outline
Episode 244 - New Year's Day rituals, our yearly wrap-up, and some minor castration confusion
Squaring the Strange
For the first show of 2025, Ben and Celestia go over some of their favorite shows, the highlights and lowlights of the past year, and some stories we never got a chance to tell. Ben discusses the men who recently lost their lives on a Bigfoot hunt, and Celestia goes down a rabbit hole about children supposedly getting sex change operations and how different outlets report on that issue. But first, we kick off with a tour of new year rituals--most of which have to do with food (and we don't mean eating healthy).
info_outline
Episode 243 - Drones and Christmas Folklore
Squaring the Strange
We recap some news items, including Kreskin passing away, a witchcraft-motivated massacre in Haiti, and of course the Drone panic (?) over the Eastern U.S. Then Ben and Celestia dive into tales and urban legends with a Christmas theme. From playful punisher characters who will gleefully slit open German children's bellies to more modern urban legends about Nativity plays gone wrong or a deadly Dad prank. How did the storied Christmas truce of 1914 really play out? And what mysterious things do cows start doing on Christmas night? Would you bet your life to find out? Oh yeah, and Christmas...
info_outlineThis week we start with a discussion of Spike Lee's Black Klansman movie and the notion of holding narrative movies "based on" real events to some imagined standard of full accuracy. Then all aboard for the ghost train express! Ben and Celestia discuss the lure of the locomotive (and train wrecks) in the American imagination, the flickering lights said to be distant spiritual echoes of trains, and the dangers of ghost-trainspotting on elevated trestles. Ben looks into fabled "virtual underground" trains in Russia that have sprung up as folkloric pranks. We go over the legend of Abraham Lincoln's phantom funeral train, and Ben recounts a faked ghost train video he was tasked with examining.