For your podcast pleasure: My recent guest appearance on the Project: Archivist show! Episode 101, Kidney Thieves and Urban Legends with Ben Radford. I return to the show to talk about urban legends. We talk about all the good ones from Disney’s frozen head, kidney...
Urban legends
CFI Blog: Secular Sacred Sites and Ghost Hunting
It is not hard to find sacred religious sites; churches, synagogues, shrines, mosques, and other such places dot the landscape, offering a place for followers of one religious faith or another to join with others and worship. There is another kind of secular sacred...
Who’s Afraid of Bloody Mary?
I wrote this for Halloween, but it's a classic urban legend year-round: The history and mystery of Bloody Mary! You can read my Discovery News piece on it HERE.
A History of Halloween
What better time for a review of the history of Halloween? HERE is a look at the holiday's curious past...
African Hospital Sells Body Parts for Magic Use
The second-largest hospital in the Southern African country of Swaziland may be operating a black market in human body parts used in magic spells, according to claims made by a reverend and others. Weird, creepy, and not really surprising if you understand the magical...
My new LiveScience.com article on alchemy is now out!
Most people have heard of alchemy, but many don't know much about it... Alchemy is an ancient practice shrouded in mystery and secrecy. Its practitioners mainly sought to turn lead into gold, a quest that has captured the imaginations of people for thousands of years....
The ‘Eyeball Licking’ Fad and other Media Scares
A “weird news” story circulated in June about a trend among Japanese schoolchildren licking each other’s eyeballs and supposedly spreading the highly contagious disease pink eye. But was it too good to be true? Find out HERE.
My new column on the pseudoscience of gender prediction
As you probably heard, Duchess Kate Middleton gave birth to a baby boy recently. But for the past weeks and months there have been countless predictions about the regal infant’s gender — much of it based on folklore and superstition. HERE's my look at the subject, on...
How I Covered the Bangladesh Toilet Ghost Hysteria Story
I'm sometimes asked for insight into how my articles and columns come about, what the process is for assembling them. HERE's one recent example....
Dolphin-Assisted Birth a New Age Trend
The decision made by expectant couples to have their births in water attended by dolphins has raised eyebrows; it's part of a New Age "natural birthing" trend, but it may be dangerous; you can read more HERE.