Earlier this week a story spread widely on social media about an Alabama pastor, Allen Joyner, who allegedly told a high school football game crowd he was announcing for that people who don't stand for the national anthem should be killed. In a Facebook post, a woman...
Benjamin Radford
My Original Sketch for “Tracking the Chupacabra”
I recently found my original idea for the cover art for my book "Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore." I wanted something interesting and evocative, and my publisher UNM Press did a great job on it. Below is my original sketch,...
My Work Cited in Research Paper on Human Error in Nuclear Accidents
I got a Google Scholar alert telling me that my work has been cited in a research paper titled "Human Error: Crucial Failure in Nuclear Accidents." As an undergraduate in UNM's General Honors program, I wrote an award-winning essay analyzing the role of human error in...
Meeting Sci-Fi Legend Ben Bova at Bubonicon
I was a guest last month at New Mexico's premiere science fiction and fantasy convention, Bubonicon. I gave a talk titled Contacting the Dead: Séances From the Victorian Era To Modern Times, described below Though TV shows like Ghost Hunters have raised the profile of...
Colin Kaepernick and the National Anthem
A few thoughts on the recent furor over a pro football player refusing to stand for the National Anthem. I couldn’t care less what Colin Kaepernick does and don’t question his right to protest as he sees fit. But I do find it bizarre that he believes that standing for...
My new CFI blog: HeadOn? More like HeadDesk!
"Apply directly to the forehead," infamously commanded a TV commercial for HeadOn, a pain reliever introduced in 2006 by a company called Miralus Healthcare. The product, which costs $25 and is sold in drug stores and online, claims to relieve headache and migraine...
Phantom Clown Reports: Real or Rumor?
Creepy clowns have recently been reported in Greenville, S.C., allegedly luring children into the woods behind a block of apartments. It's scary and alarming -- but whether they're real is another matter. Most of the handful of reports are from children, though a few...
Nice Review of “Bad Clowns” in the Times Literary Supplement
My book "Bad Clowns" got a nice review in the "Times Literary Supplement"! You can find more on me and my work with a search for "Benjamin Radford" (not "Ben Radford") on Vimeo.
Dowsing Questions and Answers
Recently a journalist contacted me with three or four questions about dowsing. I've written about dowsing several times, and last year I wrote a CFI blog about a conversation I had with a dowser. Here's a transcript of the interview: 1) Why do you believe dowsing is...
Excerpt From My Upcoming Book on Ghost Investigation
An excerpt from my upcoming book on ghost investigation: "The quantity and variety of alleged spirit images has exploded over the years, but the quality of the evidence remains as disappointingly ambiguous as ever. Some are shadowy, human-like figures; others are...