August 8, 2014: The Shoppes at Rose Hall, Montego Bay, Jamaica I was done. I’d arrived at the gated tourist mini-mall about half an hour earlier, and couldn’t take any more of the servile shopkeepers shilling shelf after shelf of schlocky tchotchke of unrivalled...
Media Literacy
The True Story of ‘The Bye Bye Man’
A new horror film titled The Bye Bye Man scared up $16 million in box office sales over the past week. The film is based on the chapter “The Bridge to Body Island” in Robert Damon Schneck’s nonfiction book The President’s Vampire (reissued last year as The Bye Bye...
Kazoo Magazine Aims to Encourage Girls in Science
A crowdfunding project has helped launch a new magazine, Kazoo, to empower girls and (in part) help steer them toward STEM careers. Kazoo focuses on girls and women, according to its website: “All of our stories are either developed or inspired by top female artists,...
Fortean Flashback: Crop Circle Investigations
I wrote about a mysterious crop circle that fooled "experts; you can read about it HERE. You can find more on me and my work with a search for "Benjamin Radford" (not "Ben Radford") on Vimeo.
The Nature and Appeal of Authenticity
What do Bob Dylan, Shakespeare, Eminem, Donald Trump, Sartre, Eazy-E, Amy Schumer, Roger Waters, and Simone de Beauvoir have in common? They’re all mentioned in my new Unco Junto blog on the subject of authenticity, with contributions by David Koepsell, Eve Siebert,...
Ghost Hunting Book Excerpt: The Psychology of Significance
An excerpt from my upcoming book on ghost hunting: It’s important to realize that apparently odd, peculiar, or strange things happen in our everyday lives—and usually pass unnoticed. The cat or dog acts strangely for no apparent reason; we discover we had more (or...
My Guest Appearance on the SETI ‘Big Picture Science’ Show
In case you missed my recent appearance on the "Big Picture Science" show talking about aliens and UFOs, it's HERE! You can find more on me and my work with a search for "Benjamin Radford" (not "Ben Radford") on Vimeo.
The Nature and Appeal of ‘Authenticity’
In my latest blog I and three guests examine the nature of "authenticity," which played a role in Donald Trump's election. But what is authenticity, and why do we value it? The New York Times noted that "Trump... has polled as one of the most authentic candidates in...
My Appearance on the Project: Archivist Show!
I was recently on the Project: Archivist show, it's always great to talk to those guys. Here's what they said about it: "Ben Radford returns this week to talk about his new book “Bad Clowns” those malicious misfits of the midway who terrorize, haunt, and threaten us....
Errors in AP News Reports on Clown Scares: Correcting the Record
Reporter Mike Balsamo has an error in his Associated Press story about clowns: Aurora Colo. theater shooter James Holmes did not in fact dress up as the Joker during his attack (as I explain in my "Bad Clowns" book, pp. 115-119 and also in this CFI blog). There...