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MonsterTalk.org - Word!

Monster Talk: Episode #020 - The Columbus Poltergeist

Episode Link Live - Wed July 21, 2010:
MonsterTalk Episode #20

TinaResch-FRAME-25-flying-phone.jpg

Early in March of 1984, the Ohio newspaper The Columbus Dispatch began to tell the tale of a 14 year old girl who was undergoing a terrible ordeal. Objects in her house began to fly across the room and smash. Clocks ran faster than normal. Silverware and china flew and broke. Several witnesses reported seeing these terrifying events and a newspaper man caught photos of a telephone flying through the air in front of the frightened teen.

Tina Resch, a foster child, was in the care of a couple who, over the course of 31 years would take care of over 250 foster children. Was she just seeking attention? Or was she being plagued by the terrifying paranormal phenomena known as a POLTERGEIST?

We talk with James “The Amazing” Randi on his recollections of this case and on the tragic life of a poltergeist victim. Randi highlights the case in his upcoming book, A Magician in the Laboratory (digital excerpt).

Additional Reading

Tina Resch
The Tina Resch (Christina Boyer) legal case
William Roll, Parapsychologist
The Guyra Ghost (Australian Poltergeist)
The Enfield Ghost (Australian Poltergeist)
Poltergeist (The Skeptic’s Dictionary)

Music

Restless Spirits: Underscore by David Beard
Restless Spirits: Beat C by David Beard
Churchyard by David Beard
Monstertalk Theme: Monster
by Peach Stealing Monkeys
 
MonsterTalk #021 - Cryptozoology & Science

Direct Link to episode:
http://traffic.libsyn.com//skeptic/021_Monstertalk.mp3

DARREN NAISH is a palaeozoologist, freelance author and science writer of the Tetrapod Zoology column on ScienceBlogs. Affiliated with the university of Portsmouth, he obtained a degree in geology and then gained a PhD in vertebrate palaeontology at this institution. He mostly works on Cretaceous dinosaurs and pterosaurs, and “also messes around with swimming giraffes, fossil marine reptiles, British big cats and stuff like that.”

naish.jpg


Darren joined us on MonsterTalk to talk about the intersection of mainstream science and cryptozoology. Topics include:
  • How did a credentialed scientist become involved in cryptozoology?
  • The relationship between cryptozoology and ethnobiology
  • A discussion of “Caddy”
  • The most plausible cryptids in Darren’s POV?
  • Old photos, rotting creatures, alien big cats, hominids, creatures of the deepest sea — and much, much more…
This is part 1 of a 2 part discussion of the relationship of science and cryptozoology.

Related Links

BBC Timeline of Alien Big Cat sightings
Info on the Orang Pendek

Music

Music for today’s episode includes a sample from the theme from the Commodore-64 video game “Mail Order Monsters” and our regular theme by Peach Stealing Monkeys.
 
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MonsterTalk #023 - Just Scratching The Surface

Direct Link to Episode
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IN THIS EPISODE we get under the skin of the chupacabra legend, and find out more about the lice that cause the hairless canids the media loves so much. It’s okay to scratch — but don’t skip this episode! Once you get past the disgust factor, there is some amazing science going in parasitology. Our guide into this fascinating world is acarologist Dr. Barry O’Connor, of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan.

Topics include:

What is acarology?
The origin of mange & scabies
The difference between the two diseases
Why does mange cause hair loss?
Why does mange cause death?
What is the life cycle of a mite?
What is the evolutionary origin of dust mites?
Why does the media get excited by hairless animals?

Music
Intro music by David Beard

Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys



The views expressed on this program are not necessarily the views of the Skeptics Society or Skeptic magazine.
 
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Monster Talk: Episode #025 - THE RISE OF BAT BOY

THE RISE OF BAT BOY
Direct Link to Show. Won't be active until show goes live at midnight PST.
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IN THE PANTHEON OF AMERICAN MONSTERS, only one truly dominated the newspapers of the 1990s. Checkout lines everywhere were haunted by the bald-headed, wide-mawed visage of Bat Boy.

What was Bat Boy, and where did he come from? The MonsterTalk team interviews cartoonist Tye Bourdony, a former employee of the Weekly World News and creator of the online comic “The Lighter Side of Sci-Fi”. Bourdony has had his comics published in Cracked, Sci-Fi and Star Trek magazines. He provides a behind-the-scenes look at the rise and fall of the famous tabloid paper the*World Weekly News*and shares his insights about the paper’s most popular recurring character: Bat Boy.

On Wikipedia
Weekly World News
Bat Boy

In this episode:
  • How much of the content of WWN was just made up?
  • Did the readers know that the paper wasn’t “for real?”
  • What is the origin of Bat Boy?
  • What was the role of Bigfoot, Nessie and other cryptids at WWN?
Plus lots of stories about what it was like to work at one of the country’s most unusual newspapers.

Music
Monstertalk Theme:*Monster*by*Peach Stealing Monkeys
Grocery-store ambient sound effects by ZuluT via*freesound.org, used with permission under*Creative Commons License.
 
Yes! Excellent!

Bob Saget with the BFRO, new skeptical book on Bigfootery, Monster Talk with Matt... Xmas isn't for another three weeks, but I'll take it.

Thanks, Doc. I'll comment after listening to the show. I love talking with Matt. He's easily one of the most interesting people to ever be connected to the wild world of Woods & Wildmen.
 
The highlight of the show was the gonzo ride with the lights out and finding the rocks and then the tiny mouse. I lol'ed at that point. and when Moneymaker was deposed from the driver's seat, obviously by the only sane person in the vehicle.... and when Bob Saget is the only sane guy, you got trouble.
 
Here's the link to the show notes:

http://www.skeptic.com/podcasts/monstertalk/10/12/01/

There's a short clip of Bernard Heuvelmans talking about the Iceman which I hadn't seen before, but it didn't include anything particularly novel. The podcast is a tad long, probably because I forced myself to slow down so as not to overwhelm those unfamiliar with the subject with too much novel information too quickly.
 
I haven't listened to the episode yet but here is a clip showing Peter Byrne explaining and an Iceman at a carnival. At 6:50.
 

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When I was a kid my mom bought a copy of Argosy to read the article about the iceman. I still remember being fascinated by the story and pictures. To this day I have fond memories of Argosy -- though I'm sure in reality it was a pretty crappy pulp at the end of its life.

I started listening to Monster Talk because of this thread and I dig it. Great fun podcast.
 
MonsterTalk #028 - A Lizard's Tale

http://traffic.libsyn.com/skeptic/029_Monstertalk.mp3

In this episode, the MonsterTalk crew interviews Dr. Tony Russell, a professor at the University of Calgary who studies evolutionary and functional morphology in geckos. Dr. Russell’s work includes ethnobiology — the utilization of folklore to guide his research. He discuss the uses and limitations of this mode of research, as well as the remarkable features of the lizards that he studies.
 
I liked this interview a lot. The professor is a good talker. I never realized Geckos were so cool.
 
Bitter Monk said:
It should be noted that at this point there is no original Elkins Creek cast to examine. The original was sent to Meldrum for analysis. He made a copy of the cast and it was destroyed in shipping back to James Akin. The cast Chilcutt examined would have had to have been Meldrum's copy (or a subsequent generation of that copy).
Click to expand...

I need to make a correction. I've learned since making the above statement that Chilcutt did indeed examine the original Elkins Creek Cast. I don't want to derail the thread but you can find the details of the Elkins cast chain of custody on my blog.

Smash show by the way. Matt's Minnesota Ice Man episode was hands down one of the best bigfoot related podcast episodes for any show ever.
 
Bitter Monk said:
I need to make a correction. I've learned since making the above statement that Chilcutt did indeed examine the original Elkins Creek Cast. I don't want to derail the thread but you can find the details of the Elkins cast chain of custody on my blog.

Smash show by the way. Matt's Minnesota Ice Man episode was hands down one of the best bigfoot related podcast episodes for any show ever.
Click to expand...

Checked out your blog. Ironically, I made the same kind of observations about the snow tracks in my yard. I should have taken measurements like you did, but saw for myself the amazing amount of deformity in the tracks over a few days. Dog tracks turned into big hoof-sized tracks, for example. Very cool.
Of course it's all gone today. Rained away...
 
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