Writer Jon Silman at Oxygen has a new article out on John Wayne Gacy's role in the scary clown phenomenon, and I'm briefly quoted: Before we explore that it’s worth looking into the psychology of why clowns are scary. We spoke to Benjamin Radford, author of the...
Bad Clowns
Bad Clowns Addendum: Trump
My book "Bad Clowns" was completed before Trump ran for office, but if there's a second edition he'll have a long section devoted to him... You can find more on me and my work with a search for "Benjamin Radford" (not "Ben Radford") on Vimeo, and please...
Squaring the Strange Archives: Bad Clowns
In the latest in a series highlighting past episodes and archives of Squaring the Strange, here's a look back at a show you might have missed: For week 3 of our spooky Halloween series, Ben, Celestia and Pascual delve into the spooky and fascinating topic of...
I’m Quoted in ‘USA Today’
For those who missed it, I was recently quoted in 'USA Today' talking about scary clowns: "It’s a mistake to ask when clowns turned bad because historically they were never really good. They’ve always had this deeply ambiguous character,” he said. “Sometimes they’re...
Review of ‘Bad Clowns’ in the Journal of Folklore Research
Santa brought me a great gift: A nice review of my book in a prominent folklore journal: "Bad Clowns is a thorough, useful survey of the history of bad, creepy, and evil clown narratives and imagery, and one that could prove a timely and accessible teaching text for...
The West Palm Beach Killer Clown Case: A Closer Look
A decades-old murder in one of the strangest clown-related mysteries in history may have been solved. I wrote about this case in my 2016 book Bad Clowns... It happened in West Palm Beach in the spring of 1990 when a woman named Marlene Warren heard a knock on...
The West Palm Beach Killer Clown Case
A decades-old murder in one of the strangest clown-related mysteries in history may have been solved. I wrote about this odd story in my book Bad Clowns.... It happened in West Palm Beach in the spring of 1990 when a woman named Marlene Warren heard a knock on her...
I’m quoted in Gizmodo on Evil Clowns!
I'm quoted in Gizmodo on the topic of evil clowns, check it out HERE! You can find more on me and my work with a search for "Benjamin Radford" (not "Ben Radford") on Vimeo, and please check out my podcast Squaring the Strange!
Return of Pennywise the evil clown!
My new CFI blog on the return of Pennywise the evil clown! Horror fans around the world have waited for years to see one of the most terrifying clowns in cinematic history, and finally Pennywise returns later this week in the new version of Stephen King's It....
My Strange Appearance in the ‘Journal of Law and Social Deviance’
I'm quoted in the August 2017 Journal of Law and Social Deviance on the topic of evil clowns, which was the topic of a popular CSI Special Report last year. You can read the law journal article HERE. You can find more on me and my work with a search for...