Peculiar Book Club Podcast

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 What's Gotten Into You, we are discussing the 80's science fiction comedy Innerspace.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this silly yet action packed movie as we discuss believing in yourself, how wacky Martin Short can get, why pilots are just cooler then all of us, and robot arm attachments you wouldn't expect in a PG movie.

You know those amazing science document-aries you love so much? National Geo-graphic, Discover, Science, and History Channels? Yeah, you need to thank Dan Levitt—responsible for producing such shows as Unsolved History (2002), Great Transitions: The Origin of Birds (2015) and Naked Science (2004). That one sounds right up our street. Well, now Dan has decided to give us a new kind of scientific candy crunch: WHATS GOT INTO YOU, a book about, well, YOU. A 150-pound human body contains 60 elements, including “enough carbon to make 25 pounds of charcoal, enough salt to fill a saltshaker, enough chlorine to disinfect several backyard swimming pools, and enough iron to make a three-inch nail.” On the open market, our body chemicals would bring about $2,000. And.. here’s the kicker… the stuff that makes up you and me has been evolving since the Bing Bang. You are made of actual bang dust. “Carl Sagan once famously said we are made of star stuff,” Levitt writes in his introduction. “This is the improbable story of how it happened.” It’s a journey of atoms, astronomy, physics, biology, and chemistry—and you are invited! Join us to chat live with the author on April 11, only on the Peculiar Book Club! (Of COURSE there will be cocktails).

Episode was recorded live April 11, 2024.

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 Unscientific America, we are discussing the recent dark comedy Don't Look Up.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this funny yet terrifying look at a possible natural disaster, how science fails to communicate with politicians, the media, and the public, and Adam McKay's unique style of making movies.

The earth is not flat. Vaccines work and they don’t make you magnetic. Global warming is real. Covid is airborne. But you will hear a great deal to the contrary, too, from vaccine and climate deniers, flat-earthers, and plenty of conspiracy theorists willing to die on the hill of their chosen belief. Why? What happened? I thought it might be interesting to do a little time travel. What if we looked a book arguing for science and the humanities to join forces and stop science misinformation… BEFORE Covid. Heck, before Twitter was much of thing, even. Before the social media monoliths we explored in Cory Doctorow’s recent work. Let’s go all the way back to 2009—when I was still a graduate student—and revisit a collaboration between a journalist and a scientists: Unscientific America. We’ll talk live to Sheril Kirschenbaum, host of SERVING UP SCIENCE on PBS, executive director of ScienceDebate, a national nonprofit that encourages politicians to address science and innovation, and director of The Energy Poll at The University of Texas at Austin. A prolific writer and scientific thinker, she brings a lot to the table when it comes to getting science on the ballot (and into the public). How has Unscientific America changed? What do we make of this new, science denying world? Bring your questions and your debate hat and let’s get political! Only on PBC.

Episode was recorded live March 14, 2024.

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 Doctors and Distillers, we are discussing the 80's Tom Cruise "classic" Cocktail.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this fun movie as we discuss the mindset of the 80's, does the drama of this movie hold up or is it all just the flair, and is Tom Cruise's smile sexy or creepy?

From journalist and drag historian Elyssa Maxx Goodman, an intimate, evocative history of drag in New York City exploring its dynamic role, from the Jazz Age to Drag Race, in queer liberation and urban life.

Let’s imagine you’re nestling down for a good nap. You’ve already been to the market for food stuffs, you have filled your larder, and you even managed to get some brand new bedding. It’s cold out, and you are definitely ready for a long winter’s nap—when suddenly, someone rudely breaks into your home. Screaming. And maybe standing on a chair. Even though you’re just a common house mouse, minding his own business in someone’s sock drawer. Yes, we think of mice and rates and other critter as “pests”—vermin—the bad guys. Are they, though? Bethany Brookshire tackles this question in PESTS: How humans create animal villains. “Pests — the mice, raccoons, and seagulls of the world — are not irritating by nature,” Brookshire begins. Rather, she explains, “they are animal winners on a planet full of loss. When your habitat is full of parking lots, brick apartment buildings, and carefully tended gardens, survival isn’t about staying sweetly in the woods and meadows. Instead, evolutionary success looks a lot like raiding our trash, nesting on our buildings, and eating our gardens down to nubs.” Nature, you see, evolves WITH us. We learned a bit about this in The Natural History of the Future last year; we make these environments; we destroy natural ones. And sometimes, the animals we like (our beloved cats, for instance) are actually little destruction machines wreaking havoc on natural fauna. What we call a pest and what we call a PET comes down to how we personally interact—but there’s so much more to the story. Join us on Jan 25th for a livestream and chat with Bethany Brookshire as she breaks down the science of our imagined foes.

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 Internet Con, we are discussing the early 2000's tech thriller Antitrust.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this internet, tech company thriller and the themes of Big Tech, stealing IP, knowledge belonging to the people, and why Tim Robbins is smashing potato chips the whole movie.

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, for a little bit of fun during the Holiday season, we are discussing the Stop Motion Animated classic The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Join Davey Berris for a solo adventure, as he takes a deep dive into this sometimes a Halloween movie, sometimes a Christmas movie, as he looks into the themes of can we change from our nature and the idea that maybe not everyone knows about Christmas and it's traditions.

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 Amanda Deibert's work on the new animated He-Man show, we are discussing the 80's cult classic movie Masters of the Universe.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this fantasy, superhero movie, as we look into the themes of destiny and power, plus a discussion on the whys and hows of how this movie got made.

We are THRILLED to have the multi-talented and best selling Amanda Deibert on our show! Author, screenwriter, and much more--AND her newest book, the daily guided gratitude journal, YOU ALREADY HAVE THE ANSWERS is currently available for pre-order. At PBC, we will be talking to Amanda about the world of comics and graphic novels! Amanda’s comic book writing includes multiple DC Super Hero Girls graphic novels, a story in the New York Times I #1 Bestseller Love is Love, Serving Up Justice featuring Serena Williams and Wonder Woman, Flash Facts, Wonder Woman Agent of Peace, Teen Titans Go!, Wonder Woman ’77, Batman and Harley Quinn, DC’s The Doomed and the Damned, Wonderful Women of History, and Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman, for DC Comics, Hyperspace Stories for Lucas Film/Disney/Darkhorse comics and multiple stories in John Carpenter’s Tales for A Halloween Night volumes 2, 3, 4, 5 , & 6 for Storm King Comics, Red Sonja Black, White, Red for Dynamite, Work for a Million for McClelland & Stewart and more. ANd because that isn't enough, her television work includes writing for the animated series He-Man and The Masters Of The Universe for Netflix as well as work for CBS, SyFy, OWN, PIVOT, HULU and 4 years as writer for former Vice President Al Gore’s international climate broadcast, 24 Hours of Reality. WOW~! Musical Guest: The ever weird and wonderful CORD RAVENSWOOD, who happens to be a BIG FAN!

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 Aroused by Randi Hutter Epstein, we are discussing the TV Show House. Specifically we are watching Season 1, Episode 16 "Heavy", then Season 2, Episode 13 "Skin Deep", and finally Season 3, Episode 1 "Meaning".

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this classic medical drama.  We'll be looking into hormonal diseases, and how each medical mystery challenges House and his team.

How about a guided tour through the strange science of hormones and the age-old quest to control them? Metabolism, behavior, sleep, mood swings, the immune system, fighting, fleeing, puberty, and sex: these are just a few of the things our bodies control with hormones. Armed with a healthy dose of wit and curiosity, medical journalist Randi Hutter Epstein takes us on a journey through the unusual history of these potent chemicals from a basement filled with jarred nineteenth-century brains to a twenty-first-century hormone clinic in Los Angeles. Brimming with fascinating anecdotes, illuminating new medical research, and humorous details, Aroused introduces the leading scientists who made life-changing discoveries about the #hormone imbalances that ail us, as well as the charlatans who used those discoveries to peddle false remedies. Epstein exposes the humanity at the heart of hormone science with her rich cast of characters, including a 1920s doctor promoting vasectomies as a way to boost libido, a female medical student who discovered a pregnancy hormone in the 1940s, and a mother who collected pituitaries, a brain gland, from cadavers as a source of growth hormone to treat her son. Along the way, Epstein explores the functions of hormones such as leptin, oxytocin, #estrogen, and #testosterone, demystifying the science of endocrinology. A fascinating look at the history and science of some of medicine’s most important discoveries, Aroused reveals the shocking history of hormones through the back rooms, basements, and labs where endocrinology began.

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, as a special treat for Halloween, we are discussing the iconic folk horror movie The Wicker Man.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this classic british .  We'll be looking into the themes of religion vs. temptation, being accepting of others' beliefs, and sacrificing virgins to pagan gods for a good apple harvests.

It's our annual HALLOWEEN show! Costume contest (see our FB for how to sign up and vote), give-aways, candy, prizes, game--and how about some circus performance? SURE! A kooky evening of music and mayhem, with guests Charming Disaster and Sarah Mack (squid facts!) Don't miss it! James Taylor is the planet’s foremost authority on sideshow. You saw James Taylorand SHOCKED AND AMAZED! on The Learning Channel’s “Sideshow: Alive on the Inside,” “The Jerry Springer Show,” “Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel,” and Fox Television’s “Fox Files.” Sword swallowers, fire eaters, regurgitators, human pin cushions, torture kings, contortionists and motordrome riders look to James Taylor’s SHOCKED AND AMAZED! With him on this FABULOUS evening is sword-swallowing wonder The Lady Aye (who has been on our show before with her book THE RED MENACE!) MUSIC: IT WOULD NOT BE HALLOWEEN WITHOUT CHARMING DISASTER, WOULD IT? No. It would not. So a new and exciting song by our favorite duo "Time Machine!"

"What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that―the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my lap-top?" In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die. MUSICAL GUEST: the marvelous Susan Hwang! ***NOTE: This show is available as a livestream for subscribers. AFTER the live show, it will be free to view on YouTube. If you are not subscribed, but would like to join the live-stream and chat with the author, please visit our Patreon page: https://patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator

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 Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian, we are discussing the movie The Pale Door.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this witchy western movie.  We'll be looking into the themes of meshing genres, found family, and having a pure soul.

Join us for the LAUNCH of RED RABBIT! Alex Grecian is the New York Times bestselling author of The Yard and its sequels The Black Country, The Devil’s Workshop, The Harvest Man, and Lost and Gone Forever, as well as the contemporary thriller The Saint of Wolves and Butchers, and the ebook The Blue Girl. He has also written multiple award-winning graphic novels, including Proof, and Rasputin. MUSICAL GUEST: The Mary Lous! Ukey, Sometimes Kooky RiotGhoooul from Nowhere, New Jersey. https://themarylous.bandcamp.com/merch

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 Golem Girl by Riva Lehrer, we are discussing the movie The Bride of Frankenstein.

Join Davey Berris (unfortunately Darren couldn't make it this month, but he'll be back), for a deep dive into this classic monster movie.  We'll be looking into the themes of longing for connection and friendship, being monsters and gods, and how in 1935 they knew a thing or two about making movies.

What do we sacrifice in the pursuit of #normalcy? And what becomes possible when we embrace monstrosity? Can we envision a world that sees impossible creatures? Lehrer was born with spina bifida, essentially a hole in the spine. In spina bifida patients, the spine does not fuse properly, leaving a fissure or lesion, creating an easy entry point for infections that risk going directly to the patient’s brain. Riva's parents and doctors were determined to “fix” her, sending the message over and over again that she is "broken." That she will never have a job, a romantic relationship, or an independent life. Enduring countless medical interventions, Riva tries her best to be a good girl and a good patient in the quest to be cured. Everything changes when, as an adult, Riva is invited to join a group of #artists, writers, and performers who are building Disability Culture. Their work is daring, edgy, funny, and dark—it rejects tropes that define disabled people as pathetic, frightening, or worthless. They insist that disability is an opportunity for creativity and #resistance. Emboldened, Riva asks if she can paint their portraits—inventing an intimate and collaborative process that will transform the way she sees herself, others, and the world. Each portrait story begins to transform the myths she’s been told her whole life about her body, her sexuality, and other measures of normal. This is the vividly told, gloriously illustrated memoir of an artist born with #disabilities who searches for freedom and connection in a society afraid of strange bodies MUSIC: Charming Disaster presents us with a single-- "Ouroboros" - alchemy, transformation, metamorphosis! Don't miss out!

In this bonus episode of the Peculiar Book Club, suggested by Mary Roach, we got a chance to sit down with author Daniel Kraus for a preview conversation of his new book Whalefall. Don't worry, Brandy and Davey have not read the book yet, so there will be no spoilers, but you will get a great conversation about Daniel's inspirations and process for writing the book and the themes that come up often throughout his writing career.

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 Memory Thief by Lauren Aguirre, we are discussing the movie Little Fish.

Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this tragic movie.  We'll be looking into the themes of what makes a relationship, our memories or our feelings, plus how to build a future together, and why it's impossible to photograph dogs.

Could you lose your entire memory overnight? If so--what does it mean for the rest of us? The day neurologist Jed Barash sees the baffling brain scan of a young patient with devastating amnesia marks the beginning of a quest to answer those questions. First detected in a cluster of stigmatized opioid overdose victims in Massachusetts with severe damage to the hippocampus - the brain’s memory center - this rare syndrome reveals how the tragic plight of the unfortunate few can open the door to advances in medical science. After overcoming initial skepticism that investigating the syndrome is worth the effort - and that fentanyl is the likely culprit - Barash and a growing team of dedicated doctors explore the threat that people who take opioids chronically as prescribed to treat severe pain may gradually put their memories at risk. At the same time, they begin to grasp the potential for this syndrome to shed light on the most elusive memory thief of all - Alzheimer’s disease. Through the prism of this fascinating story, Aguirre goes on to examine how researchers tease out the fundamental nature of memory and the many mysteries still to be solved. Where do memories live? Why do we forget most of what happens in a day but remember some events with stunning clarity years later? How real are our memories? And what purpose do they actually serve? MUSIC: That's right, all this memory talk means CHARMING DISASTER's "Disembodied Head" is coming your way!

Maybe you're a fan of DOCTOR WHO. Or perhaps you were a fan of ELEVENTH HOUR with Patrick Stewart (Or Silent Witness. Or Rosemary and Thyme. Or Murder Rooms.) Perhaps thrillers are more your thing, books like KINGDOM OF BONES or BEDLAM DETECTIVE--or scifil, supernatural, graphic novels. Then YOU, my friend, are a fan of STEPHEN GALLAGHER! A novelist, screenwriter, and director with a list of books that runs right off the shelf, Stephen is also patient, kind, giving, and supportive of new writers everywhere. He is ALSO going to be on our show to talk about... well. All the things? DO NOT MISS! "This is the end! Making a public spectacle of yourselves. I couldn't have believed you could have behaved like this, either of you. Just hauling like brooligans." Genevieve, film, 1953 MUSIC provided by the marvelous CHARMING DISASTER! Don't miss "Hellebore" (from their newest endeavor, Super Natural History!)

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 Saving Yellowstone by Megan Kate Nelson, we are discussing the movie How the West Was Won.

Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this epic western adventure.  We'll be looking into the themes of western expansion, the treatment of Indigenous people in real life and Hollywood, and how nature and the land threw up road blocks all along the way.

Each year nearly four million people visit #Yellowstone National Park—one of the most popular of all national parks—but few know the fascinating and complex historical context in which it was established. In late July 1871, the geologist-explorer Ferdinand Hayden led a team of scientists through a narrow canyon into Yellowstone Basin, entering one of the last unmapped places in the country. The survey’s discoveries led to the passage of the Yellowstone Act in 1872, which created the first national park in the world. Now, bestselling author Megan Kate Nelson examines the larger context of this #American moment, illuminating Hayden’s survey as a #national project meant to give Americans a sense of achievement and unity in the wake of a destructive civil war. Saving Yellowstone follows Hayden and two other protagonists in pursuit of their own agendas: Sitting Bull, a #Lakota leader who asserted his peoples’ claim to their homelands, and financier Jay Cooke, who wanted to secure his national reputation by building the Northern Pacific Railroad through the Great Northwest. Hayden, Cooke, and Sitting Bull staked their claims to Yellowstone at a critical moment in Reconstruction, when the Ulysses S. Grant Administration and the 42nd Congress were testing the reach and the purpose of federal power across the nation. MUSIC: The zany CORD RAVENSWOOD (Our Peculiar in the Field) joins us for a nice little song about YELLOWSTONE

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 Evening Hero by Marie Myung-Ok Lee, we are discussing the movie Minari.

Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this family and immigrant tale.  We'll be looking into the themes of the American Dream, what makes a real Grandma, and saving each other in a marriage.

We don't do much fiction, but sometimes there is a story that begs to be read. This one is a medical humanities style tale; Marie Myung-OK Lee writes a sweeping, lyrical novel following a Korean immigrant pursuing the American dream who must confront the secrets of the past or risk watching the world he’s worked so hard to build come crumbling down. Dr. Yungman Kwak is in the twilight of his life. Every day for the last fifty years, he has brushed his teeth, slipped on his shoes, and headed to Horse Breath’s General Hospital, where, as an obstetrician, he treats the women and babies of the small rural Minnesota town he chose to call home. He immigrated from Korea after the Korean War, forced to leave his family, ancestors, village, and all that he knew behind. But his life is built on a lie. And one day, a letter arrives that threatens to expose it. He begins to question the very assumptions on which his life is built—the so-called American dream, with the abject failure of its healthcare system, patient and neighbors who perpetuate racism, a town flawed with infrastructure, and a history that doesn’t see him in it. Toggling between the past and the present, Korea and America, Evening Hero is a sweeping, moving, darkly comic novel about a man looking back at his life and asking big questions about what is lost and what is gained when immigrants leave home for new shores. MUSIC: By the wonderful and talented Susan Hwang! http://susanhwanglalala.com/

Ed Yong PROBABLY needs no introduction--but just in case: he is a Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer on the staff of The Atlantic, where he also won the George Polk Award for science reporting, among other honors. His first book, I Contain Multitudes, was a New York Times bestseller. We are SO grateful to have him with us! In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved. MUSIC: Charming Disaster, performing (appropriately, we think, "Forces of Nature" from their album Our Lady of Radium! CDs, vinyl, digital albums: https://charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com/album/our-lady-of-radium  Physical lyrics book: https://charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com/merch/our-lady-of-radium-lyrics-and-art-book Digital lyrics book: https://charmingdisaster.gumroad.com/l/ourladyofradium

The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) The Universe had a beginning, and it will have an end. Modern cosmology — the study of the nature and evolution of the cosmos itself — has allowed physicists to explain the history of the Universe from the first tiny fraction of a second until today. But what’s next? We now have the tools to extend our knowledge into the distant future and speculate about the ultimate fate of all reality. ALSO: I mean, it's KATIE MACK! Squeeeee Music for the Event is provided by our favs: Charming Disaster! Appropriately, the song will be "Days are Numbered" Their music is available on all the major platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, etc.) but Bandcamp is the best (artist-friendliest) way to get it.

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 Ordinary Equality by Kate Kelly, we are discussing the movie On the Basis of Sex.

Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this legal drama, biography movie.  We'll be looking into the themes of gender equality, the anatomy of a legal drama, and the early life of the legend Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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 Heartbreak by Florence Williams, we are discussing the movie Eat Pray Love.

Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this heartbreak (maybe midlife crisis) movie.  We'll be looking into the themes of learning to live alone, ruin and transformation, and of course heartbreak.

Is there a SCIENCE for SADNESS? When twenty-five-year marriage suddenly falls apart, journalist Florence Williams expects the loss to hurt. But when she starts feeling physically sick, losing weight and sleep, she sets out in pursuit of rational explanation. She travels to the frontiers of the science of “social pain” to learn why heartbreak hurts so much―and why so much of the conventional wisdom about it is wrong.  Soon Williams finds herself on a surprising path that leads her from neurogenomic research laboratories to trying MDMA in a Portland therapist’s living room, from divorce workshops to the mountains and rivers that restore her. She tests her blood for genetic markers of grief, undergoes electrical shocks while looking at pictures of her ex, and discovers that our immune cells listen to loneliness. Searching for insight as well as personal strategies to game her way back to health, she seeks out new relationships and ventures into the wilderness in search of an extraordinary antidote: awe.  

With warmth, daring, wit, and candor, Williams offers a gripping account of grief and healing. Heartbreak is a remarkable merging of science and self-discovery that will change the way we think about loneliness, health, and what it means to fall in and out of love.  

Music for the event provided by CHARMING DISASTER! The song is "Cherry Red" and it's right up our street. Their music is available on all the major platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, etc.) but Bandcamp is the best (artist-friendliest) way to get it.

Your Backstage Pass Beyond the Veil! A full sensory experience... "The Secret Music of Lily Dale" is both book and album.  

This is a rare peek inside the famed little town that talks to the dead— with both sights and sounds. An unprecedented project, Jill Tracy reveals a sonic exploration of Lily Dale, the private community of mediums and Spiritualists in upstate New York. These are her elegant, mystical, late-night piano recordings channeled alone on an antique grand inside the 1883 auditorium, site of séances and spirit communication for over 100 years.  

Bask in the vast, otherworldly ambience, the magical Leolyn Woods, nighttime thunderstorms, Lily Dale's beloved bells, chimes, and nature. During her nights alone at the piano, you’ll witness mysterious sounds that appeared on the recording that defy explanation. Beautiful, contemplative, and mysterious... be transported into a truly magical place few ever get to experience. 

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 Gilded Edge by Catherine Prendergast, we are discussing the movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this love triangle movie.  We'll be looking into the themes of love, relationships, and living that artist lifestyle.

“The Gilded Edge is a compelling read from start to finish. Gripping, suspenseful, cinematic. This is narrative nonfiction at its best.”—Lindsey Fitzharris, bestselling author of The Butchering Art  

No, it isn't fiction. But you will think it MUST be--sex, death, poetry, women's rights:  Nora May French and Carrie Sterling arrive at Carmel-by-the-Sea at the turn of the twentieth century with dramatically different ambitions. Nora, a stunning, brilliant, impulsive writer in her early twenties, seeks artistic recognition and Bohemian refuge among the most celebrated counterculturalists of the era. Carrie, long-suffering wife of real estate developer George Sterling, wants the opposite: a semblance of the stability she thought her advantageous marriage would offer, threatened now that her philandering husband has taken to writing poetry. I bet you can see where this is going!   

We are super excited that music for the show will be provided by our FAVORITE BAND! Charming Disaster! "Paris Green" comes from their newest endeavor: _Super Natural History_ music is available on all the major platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, etc.) but Bandcamp is the best (artist-friendliest) way to get it.

What the Dog Knows tells the stories of cadaver dogs, drug and bomb detecting K9s, tracking and apprehension dogs—even dogs who can locate unmarked graves of Civil War soldiers and help find drowning victims more than two hundred feet below the surface of a lake. Working dogs sometimes seem magical, as they distinguish scent, cover territory, and accomplish tasks that no machine is yet capable of. With an additional chapter included in the paperback, What the Dog Knows reveals the science, the intense training, and the skilled handling that lie behind those abilities—and shows why we keep finding new uses for the wonderful noses of working dogs.  

MUSICAL GUEST: Charming Disaster! Their music is available on all the major platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, etc.) but Bandcamp is the best (artist-friendliest) way to get it: https://charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com/  

Tonight's song comes from their Our Lady of Radium album!      CDs, vinyl, digital albums: https://charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com/album/our-lady-of-radium      Physical lyrics book: https://charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com/merch/our-lady-of-radium-lyrics-and-art-book     Digital lyrics book: https://charmingdisaster.gumroad.com/l/ourladyofradium

Welcome to the first episode of 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 Bitten by Kris Newby, we are discussing the movie 28 Days Later.

Join co-host Davey Berris, as he brings in his former movie podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this haunting movie.  We'll be looking into the themes of infection, bioweapons' potential effect on a population, and of course, have fun with an iconic zombie movie.

The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons: A riveting thriller reminiscent of The Hot Zone, this true story dives into the mystery surrounding one of the most controversial and misdiagnosed conditions of our time—Lyme disease—and of Willy Burgdorfer, the man who discovered the microbe behind it, revealing his secret role in developing bug-borne biological weapons, and raising terrifying questions about the genesis of the epidemic of tick-borne diseases affecting millions of Americans today.

Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for a conversation inspired by philosophy, literature, and private life, exploring the paradoxes of the bedroom with Damon Young, author of On Getting Off! In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction.  

Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for a journey through the decisions we make every day and a less stressful way forward with Timothy Caulfield author of Relax, Dammit! In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction.  

Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for the science and business of turning waste into wealth and health with Lina Zeldovich, author of The Other Dark Matter! In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction.  

Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for a glimpse into an activist’s journey and continued fight for disability justice with Alice Wong, author of Year of the Tiger! In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction.