During a recent visit to Las Vegas, Nevada, a few friends and I got the chance to visit the Zak Bagans Haunted Museum, said to house some of the most powerful and dangerous objects in the world, curated by the ghost-hunting star of several popular series...
Folklore
Squaring the Strange # 178: You Don’t Know Jack (alopes)! Michael Branch and the Art of the Hoax
Squaring the Strange features the JACKALOPE EPISODE! Yes, a favorite kitchy cryptid / hoax / souvenir / tall tale from the American West. Professor Michael Branch discusses his new book and brings us so many jackalope facts you may have to listen twice. Check it out!...
Bob Bartholomew on a Phantom Cat Killer in New Zealand
Interesting article in Psychology Today by my colleague and co-author Bob Bartholomew, about the strange case of a phantom cat killer in New Zealand... One feature of human psychology is that people tend to see what they expect to see. As meaning-oriented...
America the Fearful: Parsing America’s Ubiquitous Referenda
In the wake of the July verdict in the dueling defamation lawsuits between actors Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, there was of course much punditry, commentary, and crystal gazing. It was seen not merely as an outcome of one trial between two often-toxic celebrities but...
Squaring the Strange # 179: Deviant Death Rites and Bizarre Burials
Word around the campfire is that there's a new episode of Squaring the Strange! This week we dug up some strange ways people have sent off their deceased loved ones. As a medieval person, how would you keep Aunt Edna from coming back as a vampire or a bitey undead...
‘North American Monsters’ Wins Award
A book I contributed a chapter (and cover) to won a book award! Congratulation to the other authors and editor David Puglia for winning the Brian McConnell Book Award in folklore for 'North American Monsters'!
Squaring the Strange # 178: You Don’t Know Jack (alopes)! Michael Branch and the Art of the Hoax
For the recent episode of Squaring the Strange we are joined by Professor Michael Branch, who has just released his new book On the Trail of the Jackalope. What began as an idea for a taxidermy correspondence course 90 years ago has blossomed into a cultural...
Squaring the Strange # 179: Deviant Death Rites and Bizarre Burials
New episode of Squaring the Strange is out! This week we dug up some strange ways people have sent off their deceased loved ones. As a medieval person, how would you keep Aunt Edna from coming back as a vampire or a bitey undead plague-spreader? Or in the Victorian...
Squaring the Strange #174: A Musical History of the Devil
New episode of Squaring the Strange is out! This time the devil's not in the details, he's in the music! From violinists centuries ago to hard rock and even country music, the devil shows up quite a lot. Pascual takes us on a diabolical tour of musical folklore...
Chapter in New Book: ‘North American Monsters’
I'm delighted to have contributed a chapter in this new book on the folklore of monsters! I haven't read it yet but many of the other authors are brilliant friends and colleagues, and I'm looking forward to it. Mining a mountain of folklore publications, North...