I recently gave a Zoom talk titled 'America the Fearful: Navigating the Media's Phantom Fears,' based on my new book: "News and social media provide a steady diet of things to fear: COVID. Vaccinations. Immigrants. Kidnapping rings. Satanists. QAnon. Mass shootings....
Media Appearances
Visting the Zak Bagans (Non) Haunted ‘Museum’
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...
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!...
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...
Guest on ‘New Mexico Living’ for ‘America the Fearful’
For those who didn't see it: I was a recent guest on 'New Mexico Living', talking about my new book 'America the Fearful: Media and the Marketing of National Panics.' You can watch the short interview HERE!
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...
Parsing America’s Ubiquitous Referenda
In the wake of the recent 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...
Guest on ‘New Mexico Living’ Talking on ‘America the Fearful’
I'm a guest on 'New Mexico Living', talking about my new book America the Fearful: Media and the Marketing of National Panics. You can watch the short interview HERE!
Squaring the Strange as Lab Mice!
A lovely 5th anniversary podcast gift from Celestia Ward of the Squaring the Strange crew by the ridiculously talented Lar de Souza!
Investigating the ‘Stonehenge Surprise’ Crop Circle
The new issue of Skeptical Inquirer magazine features my investigation into the amazing crop circle that appeared near Stonehenge in 1996. It's unique in its complexity and that it's said to have been created in under an hour during daytime. I offer a different...