Catch a selection of recent podcasts (new nonfiction, mystery, and movie of the month) below, then like and subscribe to get our newest episodes!
A journey through human festivity, told through colorful travel narratives set at some of the world's most eye-catching festivals and interweaved with insights from the fields of anthropology, history, psychology, and folklore, examining why we celebrate festivals in the ways we do. Fiesta explores the vibrant tapestry of human festivity, delving into the extraordinary lengths […]
Dr. Ashely Alker is a self-described death-escapologist–or, in more familiar terms, an emergency medicine doctor. She has seen it all, from flesh-eating bacteria to the work of a serial killer to the more mundane but no less deadly, and her work keeping people from dying (or being unable to) has uniquely prepared her to write […]
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book Rise of the Zombie Bugs, we are reviewing the high school horror film The Faculty. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a […]
On February 1, 1910, the vivacious, diamond-adorned music hall performer Belle Elmore suddenly vanished from her home, causing alarm among her friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild. Their demands for an investigation would lead to the unearthing of a gruesome secret and trigger a fevered international manhunt for Belle’s husband, medical fraudster […]
Lipstick today is as messy—and fascinating—as changing attitudes towards femininity. Mining the experience of women across culture, class, and generation, this book tosses out expired ideas about beauty and power like so many tubes of melted wax. From Max Factor to Glossier, from Marilyn to Chappell Roan, lipstick is as shape-shifting and elusive as femininity […]
Have you ever wanted to build your own submarine? I admit, I was a little shocked to find out how many men and women—but mostly men—who feel almost obsessively compelled to sink into the deep sea. Despite the 2023 fatal implosion of Stockton Rush's much more highly funded submarine, Titan, these amateur backyard enthusiasts are […]
Jessica McCann is an award-winning historical novelist and has worked as a professional writer and journalist for more than 35 years. One of her earliest assignments as a freelance writer was covering a new surgical radiation technique for destroying brain tumors, during which she donned scrubs and observed inside the operating room. Since then, her […]
You’ve seen the movies. But did you know that zombies are in fact all around us? Insect zombies, that is. In Rise of the Zombie Bugs, Mindy Weisberger explores the eerie yet fascinating phenomenon of real-life zombification. The truth is stranger than fiction: these parasites reproduce by rewriting their victims' neurochemistry, transforming them into the […]
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book When We Spoke to the Dead, we are reviewing the romance film Ghost. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive […]
From Sarah Weinman, author of Scoundrel and The Real Lolita, comes an eye-opening story about the first major spousal rape trial in America and urgent questions about women’s rights that would reverberate for decades. In December 1978, Greta Rideout bravely testified that her husband, John, whom she still lived with, had raped her. She was […]
Ghosts spoke. Women listened. Everything changed.It began with whispers in a dimly lit room. In the 1840s, the Fox Sisters―and the legions of mediums they inspired―ignited the Spiritualist movement that swept through Victorian parlors and presidential campaigns alike. Contacting the dead wasn't merely a parlor trick: It was a political statement, a declaration of self […]
The story of the wildest experiments in early photography and the wild people who undertook them.Today it’s routine to take photos from an airplane window, use a camera underwater, watch a movie, or view an X-ray. But the photographic innovations more than a century ago that made such things possible were experimental, revelatory, and sometimes […]
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book Holy Food, we are reviewing the cooking comedy Julie and Julia. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into this […]
Featured : CHRISTINA WARD, Holy Food: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat — An American HistoryDoes God have a recipe? I know who to ask! Independent food historian Christina Ward’s highly anticipated Holy Food explores the influence of mainstream (and fringe) religious beliefs on modern American food culture. It's the story […]
New laws limit access to abortion and threaten doctors with prison. Religious zealots and opportunistic politicians team up to ban books about sex and to “protect” children from their “corrupting” influence. Sound familiar? Welcome to America in the late 19th-century under the Comstock Act, a federal law that prohibited the distribution of information about sex, […]
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of having some Halloween fun, we are reviewing the horror comedy An American Werewolf in London. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive […]
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book The League of Lady Poisoners, we are reviewing the revenge drama A Vigilante. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive […]
Featured : BRANDY SCHILLACE, The Dead Come to StayBrandy’s back with a sequel! Jo Jones can't catch a break. She'd hoped that trading her city life for the cozy, peaceful hills of North Yorkshire to inherit a crumbling family estate would finally be her chance for a "fresh start" and a new future. Instead, she's […]
From Dr Nicholas Wright, leading neuroscientist and adviser to the Pentagon, discover the new science behind warfare.Why did France lose to the Nazis, despite its defenders having more tanks, troops, and guns? How did we bring peace to Germany after World War Two? How do you know if you can trust an ally? How can […]
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of Brandy's book The Intermediaries, we are reviewing the biopic Milk. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into this moving but tragic […]
Featured : THERESA MACPHAIL, Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing WorldAllergies are a PROBLEM. Hay fever. Peanut allergies. Eczema. Most of us have an allergy to something, but what causes them and why do they seem to be getting worse? And why do some allergies kill? Meet medical anthropologist Theresa MacPhail; she is, herself, […]
