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  • S05E36 - The Chinnery Backseat Ghost

    S05E36 - The Chinnery Backseat Ghost
    2026/06/22
    A skeptical look at one of the most famous ghost photographs ever taken - the 1959 "backseat ghost" snapped by Mrs. Mabel Chinnery in Ipswich, England. This episode is distilled from a recent MonsterTalk Live stream with Blake, Karen Stollznow, and special guest Matt Baxter, who brought fresh research (and one neat new idea) to a very old mystery.

    It's also a companion piece to our Newby Church Ghost coverage and the spirit-photography episode of Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers (1985), which examined the Chinnery photo alongside the Cottingley Fairies and the Newby ghost.
    Extended show notes at our Patreon site.

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    58 分
  • S05E35 The Newby Church Specter

    S05E35 The Newby Church Specter
    2026/06/15
    Blake, Karen and Matt discover that this famous ghost photo isn't as old as they expected, and perhaps not as mysterious either. Do we get it right? Do you have a different explanation? Let us know in the comments.

    👻 The Spectre of Newby ChurchIn one black-and-white photograph of a church altar, a tall, hooded figure stands where the photographer swore no one was standing. The "Newby Monk" has haunted paranormal books, websites, and late-night clip shows for decades, and it remains one of the most reproduced ghost photographs ever taken. In this episode we dig into where the image really came from, who took it, when it was actually shot, and how a clever photographer might have made it.

    Extensive show notes at monstertalk.org

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.

    Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.
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    59 分
  • S05E34 - Rakshasas

    S05E34 - Rakshasas
    2026/06/08
    Most Americans meet the Rakshasa in exactly two places: a 1974 episode of a beloved horror TV series and the pages of the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Both versions give you a debonair, tiger-faced shape-changer with a taste for human flesh - but neither prepares you for how deep, how old, and how genuinely alive these creatures are. To dig us out of that pop-culture foxhole, we sat down with academic researcher Eric Zsebenyi for a tour that runs from the Rig Veda to the Ramayana, into Buddhism, through present-day Sri Lankan politics, and finishes at the tent-shaped tomb of a very naughty Victorian translator.

    🎙️ Our GuestEric Zsebenyi holds a master's degree from Naropa University (2000) and has pursued Buddhist studies as a lifelong avocation alongside a career as a civil servant. His path to the Rakshasas began with a Dharma protector named Vetali in his own meditation practice - which, as you'll hear, leads straight back to one of India's stranger monsters. Blake met Eric at the recent Gods & Monsters Conference, where Eric delivered a paper on the Vetala.

    You can find Eric's work here: Eric Zsebenyi on Academia.edu

    Extensive show notes at Monstertalk.org

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.

    Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.
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    53 分
  • S05E33 - The Devil Went Down to Devon

    S05E33 - The Devil Went Down to Devon
    2026/06/01
    On the morning of February 9, 1855, residents across south Devon, England, discovered strange hoof-shaped tracks in the snow. The prints - about 4 inches long, 3 inches wide, and spaced roughly 8 inches apart in single file - appeared to have been left by a biped with a donkey-like hoof. Reports came in from more than 30 locations across the county. Within days, the Illustrated London News published a letter from a correspondent calling himself "South Devon" that would define the legend for generations: a continuous 100-mile trail, identical prints in every parish, passage over rooftops and through haystacks, a crossing of the two-mile-wide River Exe. The Devil, some locals whispered, had walked through Devon.

    In this episode, Blake, Karen, and Matt dig into the original sources, trace how the story was embellished over 170 years of retelling, and examine the many theories - from wood mice to Romani conspiracies - that have been offered to explain the Great Devon Mystery.

    EXTENSIVE show notes at https://monstertalk.org

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    Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.
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    1 時間 8 分
  • S05E32 - Monsters of the Deep with Dr. Darren Naish

    S05E32 - Monsters of the Deep with Dr. Darren Naish
    2026/05/25
    Darren joins Blake and Karen to discuss his new article in Geology Today, which grew out of his work on the Monsters of the Deep museum exhibition. That exhibition originally opened at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, Cornwall in 2020, traveled to two additional venues, and most recently ran at the Aberdeen Art Gallery in Scotland. Darren describes how each venue's unique architecture required a complete redesign of the exhibition, changing both the visual layout and the narrative flow.

    Extensive show notes at monstertalk.org



    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.

    Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.
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    52 分
  • S05E31 - From Loup Garou to Rougarou (pt 2) with Louisiana Dread's Kyle Crosby

    S05E31 - From Loup Garou to Rougarou (pt 2) with Louisiana Dread's Kyle Crosby
    2026/05/18
    This is part two of our conversation with Kyle Crosby, creator and host of Louisiana Dread. In Part 1, we covered the history of the Acadians and how they carried the loup-garou legend from France to the bayous of Louisiana. Now, in Part 2, Kyle walks us through the transformation of the loup-garou into the Rougarou - from strict werewolf to all-purpose shapeshifting boogeyman - and takes us on a tour of Louisiana's other legendary creatures, from the Axeman of New Orleans to the feu follet to the Grunch.

    Extensive show notes at MonsterTalk.org

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.

    Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.
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    39 分
  • S05E30 - From Loup Garou to Rougarou with Louisiana Dread's Kyle Crosby

    S05E30 - From Loup Garou to Rougarou with Louisiana Dread's Kyle Crosby
    2026/05/11
    This is part one of a two-part conversation. Blake and Karen are joined by Kyle Crosby, filmmaker, historian, and founder of Louisiana Dread, a multimedia project dedicated to documenting the dark history, folklore, and culture of the Pelican State. Kyle is a native of Larose, Louisiana, who grew up in Lafourche Parish and on Grand Isle. He spent years working in the film industry before returning home to preserve the stories he felt were being lost to time. Through his popular YouTube channel and social media platforms, he bridges the gap between scholarly history and regional folklore - covering everything from the legend of the Rougarou and the Honey Island Swamp Monster to the real-life mysteries of the Cajun Coast. Kyle is currently adapting his historical deep dives into a scripted horror anthology series, with one episode in the festival circuit and a second in pre-production. Blake met Kyle at the second Gods and Monsters conference at Texas State University, where Kyle's presentation on Louisiana's history and folklore inspired Blake and Karen to finally tackle the Rougarou as a proper episode. In this first part, the conversation digs into the history of the Acadian expulsion, the cultural forces that produced Cajun and Creole Louisiana, and the Old World roots of the Rougarou legend. In part two, they'll get into what the Rougarou actually became - a shape-shifting boogeyman with regional variants, plus feux follets, and a monster that might have been born from a traveling circus.

    Extensive show notes at MonsterTalk.Org

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.

    Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.
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    38 分
  • S05E29 - Science of the Supernatural with Melissa Maffeo

    S05E29 - Science of the Supernatural with Melissa Maffeo
    2026/05/04
    Neuroscientist Dr. Melissa Maffeo joins Blake and Karen to discuss her new book Science of the Supernatural: Critical Thinking for the Mind and Brain (Cambridge University Press, 2026). Melissa is an associate teaching professor of psychology at Wake Forest University, where she also serves as Associate Director of the Neuroscience Program.

    In this episode, Melissa talks about using paranormal topics as an accessible entry point for teaching psychology and neuroscience, and shares her view that most supernatural experiences can likely be explained by what's happening in our brains - even if we don't yet have all the answers. The conversation covers a wide range of topics from the book, including the God Helmet experiments, the neuroscience of out-of-body experiences, how parasites can hijack behavior, and whether prior belief shapes what we experience.

    Extended show notes at our website.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.

    Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.
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    45 分