Speaker 1: Monster House presents.
Speaker 2: The Monster Talk is combining forces with the popular skeptical
Speaker 2: podcast Skeptoid as we Brave the Bermuda Triangle in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five. I'll be one of the skeptic celebrities participating
Speaker 2: in this adventure in the warm waters off the coast
Speaker 2: of Florida. Will we find the Missing Flight nineteen? Will
Speaker 2: we find proof of Atlantis? Will sea musters pilot us
Speaker 2: through these mystery filled waters? No? But I promise you
Speaker 2: there will be science and history filled discussions and plenty
Speaker 2: of puns if I have anything to do with it.
Speaker 2: Early bird pricing is still available, so come get some sun,
Speaker 2: visit beautiful places, or roll your eyes at my terrible puns,
Speaker 2: and raise money to fund Skeptoid and Monster Talk shared
Speaker 2: mission of promoting epticism in science while still enjoying a
Speaker 2: good mystery. Early bird pricing ends January thirty first, so
Speaker 2: hurry up and sign up. Check the show notes for
Speaker 2: a link, or go to Skeptoid dot com and click
Speaker 2: events to find your way onto Braving the Bermuda Triangle
Speaker 2: a Skeptoid adventure. It's actually quite unlike anything we've ever
Speaker 2: seen before.
Speaker 3: A giant, hairy creature part Ape part Matt in Luckness,
Speaker 3: a twenty four mile long bottomless lake in the Highlands
Speaker 3: of Scotland, get the creature known as the Luckness Monster.
Speaker 3: Monster Tall.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Monster Talk, the science show about monsters. I'm
Speaker 2: Blake Smith and I'm Karen Stolsner. Hey, they're Monster Talkers.
Speaker 2: So we did an end of the year live stream
Speaker 2: last weekend. This episode is an audio rebroadcast of that
Speaker 2: without the movie pictures that you would see on the YouTube.
Speaker 2: It's been a hectic week for me as I wind
Speaker 2: out my holiday break. I got a ton of work
Speaker 2: done on my technology book. I worked on rearranging my
Speaker 2: recording studio. I built a new writer's corner so I
Speaker 2: can hopefully focus on finishing my first draft this winter.
Speaker 2: And I started trying to teach my kids to drive.
Speaker 2: I built some shelves for what I'm calling Cosplay Corner,
Speaker 2: a place that will encourage my children to make their
Speaker 2: own stuff instead of buying everything online. I finished recording
Speaker 2: season four of In Research of with Jeb Card, though
Speaker 2: there's lots of editing to do. I cleaned out my garage.
Speaker 2: I helped my parents with some electrical issues, and I
Speaker 2: completely rearranged my bedroom furniture. Now, why am I telling
Speaker 2: you all this? Because what I didn't do was save
Speaker 2: enough time to edit this episode, so I'm having to
Speaker 2: post it as is. And I can't remember if we
Speaker 2: said any naughty things that would warrant an explicit tag.
Speaker 2: I don't think we did, but I don't know, So
Speaker 2: I'm airing on the side of caution and I'm slapping
Speaker 2: the explicit tag on this episode just in case. But
Speaker 2: don't be disappointed if you find there's nothing too naughty
Speaker 2: in the content. I'm sure we'll have Ken Faeder on
Speaker 2: again soon enough. We hope to do more of these
Speaker 2: live episodes in twenty twenty five, and we definitely enjoy
Speaker 2: it when you good folk are able to join into
Speaker 2: the chat and discussion. So stay tuned and I'll try
Speaker 2: to make sure you get a invite ahead of time.
Speaker 2: Now here's our previously recorded more.
Speaker 4: Obstrutal exactly what we are live.
Speaker 2: We are live, excellent? All right, Hi everyone, it was live.
Speaker 4: It's still said setting up your meeting, but we know
Speaker 4: it's live.
Speaker 2: But we know it's live. This is all being recorded,
Speaker 2: and so anything embarrassing, Oh is there something on my nose? Okay?
Speaker 2: Ultra professional, ultra visial.
Speaker 1: That's us.
Speaker 2: Welcome the Monster Chop.
Speaker 4: Welcome everybody, Welcome to our twenty twenty four Year and
Speaker 4: Review episode. I'm Matthew Baxter, and sitting with me is
Speaker 4: Blake Smith. Hey, doctor Karen Stoles.
Speaker 2: Now hi, all right, I'm going to try to join
Speaker 2: the chat without messing everything up locally, hopefully hopefully. All right,
Speaker 2: here we go. Well, hey, I'm in all right, cool,
Speaker 2: We're able to chat and we're able to talk. So
Speaker 2: thanks for joining us, everybody. This is our twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four year in review.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we wanted to fit in one more of these
Speaker 1: live shows, and we do want to do them more frequently.
Speaker 1: It's just difficult sometimes to rally the troops, isn't it,
Speaker 1: to get proverbials together? But we'll try and do more
Speaker 1: of things again.
Speaker 2: It's true. It's true that that's one of our mini
Speaker 2: goals of twenty twenty five, which we'll talk about if
Speaker 2: we go along.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, it's been a good year in a year
Speaker 1: in some ways, but in terms of Cryptids and Monster Talk,
Speaker 1: I think collectively we've achieved a lot. We've done a
Speaker 1: lot of interesting things and lots of fun topics and
Speaker 1: stuff outside of Monster Talk too. I guess everything is
Speaker 1: part of Monster Talk.
Speaker 2: We're trying to do things weekly w ee k l y,
Speaker 2: but not weekly w e A k l y.
Speaker 4: So yeah, you know, and I think were succeeding because
Speaker 4: you know, Karen Blake and I were talking before you
Speaker 4: came on that. I think Monster Talk is having a
Speaker 4: really good impact on everybody because, as you know, Karen,
Speaker 4: you and I were doing a search for like the
Speaker 4: top ten you know, cryptid sightings, the top ten paranormal
Speaker 4: things that happened in twenty twenty four, and every time
Speaker 4: we started the video, it would go this first video
Speaker 4: in twenty eighteen or shot in twenty nineteen. It demonstrates
Speaker 4: that not much happened in twenty twenty four because Monster
Speaker 4: Talk was teaching science.
Speaker 2: Also because I've been out killing cryptids with my guns, right.
Speaker 1: So oh yeah, that makes me think of that story
Speaker 1: that we read about today. Yeah, it can be the
Speaker 1: dangerous wope to go out and do that.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, we had We went almost all
Speaker 2: year without anybody dying from bigfoot hunting. But right here
Speaker 2: at the end, you want to talk about that a
Speaker 2: little bit because that's still it's very sad because I
Speaker 2: think looking for bigfoot is a very fun thing to do,
Speaker 2: even though I don't think you're going to find a bigfoot.
Speaker 2: It's a great way to get out in the wild unless.
Speaker 1: And I don't know all the details, Matt don't Collidier.
Speaker 4: I did not get an opportunity to read it. It's
Speaker 4: been a crazy day. Yeah, I've been trying to hang
Speaker 4: a TV in the basement. I've been trying to clean
Speaker 4: up the garage. So yeah, no, I did not get well,
Speaker 4: I did read the article.
Speaker 2: My recollection, without fact checking, is that it was two
Speaker 2: Oregonians who went out just before Christmas and that didn't
Speaker 2: return on Christmas Eve when they were expected, and sadly
Speaker 2: they both died of exposure to the cold, which is
Speaker 2: very unfortunate, and I'm very sorry to hear about it.
Speaker 2: I'm always sorry to hear about people's deaths. But you know,
Speaker 2: when people are out doing something that is fun and mysterious,
Speaker 2: it's especially impactful for me considering how many stupid things
Speaker 2: I've done in this field. So yeah, yeah, oh.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And I mean there are certainly dangers, whether it's ghost
Speaker 1: hunting or for big food or you know, whenever people
Speaker 1: do these kinds of things, it can land with hot
Speaker 1: border and it's just something not worth it.
Speaker 2: No, certainly not. But on a more pot note, I
Speaker 2: mean over the course of twenty twenty four, we covered
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff. I mean I was just looking
Speaker 2: back at the list. Vampires, ghosts, conspiracies, dog man, archaeological hope.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to read the whole list, but boy,
Speaker 2: go to monster talk dot org and check out the
Speaker 2: year because it's we've We've covered a lot of neat stuff. Well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's an impressive collection of things that
Speaker 1: we've covered. And I think doing the show weekly, not
Speaker 1: w E A K L L Y, but weekly, I
Speaker 1: think we were able to cover a lot more ground
Speaker 1: and a lot more topics that we want to cover.
Speaker 1: And I think we want to go into our bucket
Speaker 1: list stuff for next year a little bit at some
Speaker 1: point too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, that's a great idea.
Speaker 4: But you, Matt, you're going to say something, Well, I
Speaker 4: was just gonna say I noticed that one of the
Speaker 4: things we covered was Silver City Cemetery ghosts. Was that
Speaker 4: supposed to be silver Cliff Cemetery? Close? It was okay,
Speaker 4: because I was gonna say, I totally missed that one somehow.
Speaker 1: It probably is a silver city somewhere peer as well.
Speaker 4: And the cemetery is probably Yeah.
Speaker 2: That was me writing for Memory. It wasn't very.
Speaker 4: Good, No worries.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 4: Blake. What were some of your favorite episodes from twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four?
Speaker 2: Boy, I liked a lot of them. I mean, I
Speaker 2: love doing the show and I'm amazed that after all
Speaker 2: these years we could still find new things to talk
Speaker 2: about in new angles. But I think one of the
Speaker 2: surprising ones, and I think this is probably on CAREN's
Speaker 2: list too, was the episode on the wallet and gnomes
Speaker 2: that was so peculiar. I'd never heard of it before,
Speaker 2: so I was really happy to cover that. The Zimbabwe Goblins,
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and I like sort of you know, getting
Speaker 2: that sort of cultural context to where these stories come
Speaker 2: from is really cool and I want to keep like
Speaker 2: for as a goal going forward. I want to get
Speaker 2: more global monsters that we tend to be. And this
Speaker 2: is my fault is from an editorial perspective, we don't
Speaker 2: get enough global monsters Asia, Africa, South America, Central America.
Speaker 2: We need to get out of the United States and Europe.
Speaker 2: I think a little bit especially out of the English
Speaker 2: speaking world. That's where we can easily read a lot
Speaker 2: of the stories. But the monsters are everywhere, the stories
Speaker 2: are everywhere. I'd like to make sure we cover all those.
Speaker 4: Monsters bring us all together.
Speaker 2: That's right, they're the forest, they're the great uniters.
Speaker 1: Seem to be a universal, but I think we have
Speaker 1: touched upon other cultures. We've looked at Japanese ghosts, and
Speaker 1: we've looked at Bolkan ghosts. But yeah, I mean there's
Speaker 1: still so many more to cover, And yeah, that's absolutely
Speaker 1: on the bucket list for me as well. And excuse me,
Speaker 1: I'm still nursing a cold here. I really want to
Speaker 1: cover Australian magpies, so not American magpies. Apparently there's a
Speaker 1: difference between the two. But I just know I spent
Speaker 1: many many days in Australia dodging magpies who like to
Speaker 1: kind of fly down and attack you when they're when
Speaker 1: they're protecting their babies. And my mother had an experience
Speaker 1: when I was quite young where she almost had her
Speaker 1: I taken out by a magpie. So I think that
Speaker 1: they're really interesting birds and they're so clever as well.
Speaker 1: And I know we've touched upon birds here and there.
Speaker 1: The cassowary this year. That was a really interesting topic
Speaker 1: and we looked at owls and certainly lots of ours
Speaker 1: as an explanation for a lot of phenomenon.
Speaker 2: Make Joe Nicol proud.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, but yeah, I like to treat that. And
Speaker 1: the greenland shark. I think that's kind of like the
Speaker 1: Meger pythons. Do you remember how much difficulty we had.
Speaker 2: Yes. And there's such weird animals too, and I love
Speaker 2: the first of all, the fact that they live for
Speaker 2: hundreds of years is peculiar. Oh the fact that people
Speaker 2: you can't eat them because they're full of ammonia, but
Speaker 2: if you bury them for a year or so, you
Speaker 2: can do stuff to make them edible. But why would you,
Speaker 2: But they do, people do. But the weirdest thing to
Speaker 2: me is their eyes and what goes on with so
Speaker 2: many of them have their eyes replaced by parasites, and
Speaker 2: that's just super freaky. Oh my gosh, yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I was reading that there was one that was discovered
Speaker 1: that had been around since the time of the Tudor
Speaker 1: history in England and Henry the eighth, and I just
Speaker 1: thought that is just incredible.
Speaker 2: We have to oh the things he's seen. Oh no
Speaker 2: he hasn't because he's got worm fries.
Speaker 1: Okay, years then, but I really want to cover as well.
Speaker 1: Matt and I have been watching some videos on bothies
Speaker 1: haunted Bothy's. Are you familiar with those?
Speaker 2: Like, I'm not even sure what word you're saying? What
Speaker 2: is that?
Speaker 1: What's a Celtic world hut? And they're these little kind
Speaker 1: of structures how oh.
Speaker 2: Like the little stone houses up in the mountains and
Speaker 2: then they have ghosts in them. Yes, yes, absolutely Scotland.
Speaker 4: I think I don't think they've ever been described quite like.
Speaker 2: That, but yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I think what's the
Speaker 2: British radio show Uncanny they've covered one in particular.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd like to get him on too as well,
Speaker 2: the host of that, but we'll talk about that later. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there are I think of over a hundred of
Speaker 1: them around the British Isles, and a lot of people
Speaker 1: going to them. So they're free and people can just
Speaker 1: kind of camp overnight there. They're open to just open
Speaker 1: to the public and a lot of low a lot
Speaker 1: of history surrounding these places, and there's something kind of
Speaker 1: eerie they're very remote, just out in the middle of nowhere,
Speaker 1: and there's lots of ghost stories attached to them, so
Speaker 1: I think it would be really fun too.
Speaker 2: We just need that, we need to find a Buffy Buffer,
Speaker 2: who's bof Buffy Boffin, who's BOFO for skepticism, that's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of those.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but.
Speaker 1: I think that'd be a fun topic too. And I
Speaker 1: wrote a short story this year too about Abraham Lincoln
Speaker 1: and his ghost train, and I think we should cover
Speaker 1: that topic because just so many ghost stories attached to
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln. So that's another lot of my bucket list. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, just as you say, Blake, just just more
Speaker 1: kind of cultural cryptids from other cultures and across time.
Speaker 1: This is so much more out there. I mean, even
Speaker 1: after all of these years, since two thousand and nine
Speaker 1: doing the show, there are a lot of other topics
Speaker 1: that we have not covered yet that we are yet
Speaker 1: to get around to.
Speaker 2: People in the chatter are discussing my practical maybe doing
Speaker 2: a tongue twister kind of thing. Maybe I shouldn't. The
Speaker 2: one thing I did notice when I was looking back
Speaker 2: over the year is how many episodes we had on
Speaker 2: repeat guests I don't think we're repeating any content, but
Speaker 2: I just love like these people that I consider to
Speaker 2: be friends of the show, like Chris French during the
Speaker 2: Chris Woodyard, Joe Laycock, Joe Nickel, Brian Reegal, Justin Mallas,
Speaker 2: Laura Krantz. I mean, there's so many people that have,
Speaker 2: like they take their time in academia or other professional
Speaker 2: investigation approaches and are willing to come back and talk
Speaker 2: with us, and I just I think it's so great.
Speaker 2: There's so many people who love this stuff like we do,
Speaker 2: but still approach it through rationality and trying to understand
Speaker 2: it culturally and socially without necessarily being afraid of it,
Speaker 2: which is nice. I do want to promote science, but
Speaker 2: I also like the idea that we're somehow maybe subduing
Speaker 2: fear a little bit too. I know it certainly helped
Speaker 2: me personally as we've done these shows.
Speaker 1: So that's why we've explored these topics ourselves, and we
Speaker 1: got into it, and certainly takes a village to create
Speaker 1: monster Talk. It's not just us, it's all of the
Speaker 1: guests that we have. And yeah, we certainly do have
Speaker 1: a lot of good friends, and you know they're always
Speaker 1: doing interesting stuff, and it's so lucky to know these
Speaker 1: people and that they grace us with their presence on
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 4: Well what about great ideas coming from the Patreon members?
Speaker 2: They Yeah, yeah, we've great ideas. Absolutely, We've We've created
Speaker 2: a new form where people can submit story ideas or
Speaker 2: episode ideas, and that's already been actively being used, which
Speaker 2: I love. And we've got lots of stuff to research.
Speaker 2: So every time we do one of those episodes, we'll
Speaker 2: call out who managed to get it on the list
Speaker 2: first if we can find it. And and just I
Speaker 2: appreciate our patrons so much in the fact that they've
Speaker 2: helped literally keep the lights on for us. So that's
Speaker 2: been great.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 1: And that's where I think we've got the idea for
Speaker 1: the bulletin gnomes as well.
Speaker 2: That was one of buy that's right, that's absolutely right.
Speaker 4: Did anything fun happen with Monster House in general this year?
Speaker 2: Well, it's been a pretty crazy year. We got out
Speaker 2: our first publication through our imprint, Joe Nichols, The Science
Speaker 2: of Monsters, and I'm excited to say to Nichol, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's what an amazing thing. And Joe is so generous
Speaker 2: because every every issue or what's the right, every publication
Speaker 2: of that, every copy of that book supports the show,
Speaker 2: like all the He's not taking a dime for that,
Speaker 2: which is great, so very generous. Joe's been such a friend.
Speaker 2: I feel so lucky because I was a skeptic and
Speaker 2: a researcher for so many years without talking to Joe,
Speaker 2: and when I finally got in touch with him, it's
Speaker 2: just been such a treat and he's treated me so
Speaker 2: much like a colleague and never like an annoyance, which
Speaker 2: is very kind. So I appreciate that. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: That's a huge achievement for Monster House, for monst A Toll,
Speaker 1: really exciting and has the performing.
Speaker 2: Pretty well, I mean, especially considering the most of the
Speaker 2: advertising has just been through the show, so I'm very
Speaker 2: proud of that. I do need to actually put some
Speaker 2: money down, and I'm working on the audiobook still, so
Speaker 2: I think when the audiobook comes out, I will probably
Speaker 2: renew my efforts at advertising, so we'll see. And then
Speaker 2: I'm working on my own book too, on technology, which
Speaker 2: is not really a Monster topic, although I will be
Speaker 2: covering ancient aliens and how that stuff integrates with the
Speaker 2: whole concept of people why people don't understand where inventions
Speaker 2: come from.
Speaker 4: So interesting.
Speaker 2: Interesting, Matthew, What have you been up to this year?
Speaker 4: Oh man, Well, I have to say, you know, in
Speaker 4: terms of episodes that I absolutely love this year, my
Speaker 4: top ones Vampires with Brian Sharpless. Really enjoyed that episode.
Speaker 4: That was a great one, Late Night with the Devil,
Speaker 4: so much fun. Really enjoyed that. It was such a surprise,
Speaker 4: you know, in terms of you know, I mean, in
Speaker 4: terms of visiting an Academy Award winning movie. Well no,
Speaker 4: but did I have a blast watching it and watching
Speaker 4: that episode or being a part of that Monster Talk episode.
Speaker 1: Yes, And then that led to ghost Watch as well.
Speaker 4: Yes, ghost Watch is another one. It was just so
Speaker 4: much fun to have these both of these be twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four kind of topics.
Speaker 2: Also, I love that we covered that and then it
Speaker 2: showed up on Shutter. Now it's a lot easier to
Speaker 2: find a good copy of it. So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: Now I jumped back into public speaking this year, and
Speaker 4: I did a quick talk for Ignite Ignite Denver and
Speaker 4: they happen around the country, so hop on those if
Speaker 4: you get a chance. If you want to do any talking,
Speaker 4: sign up. They are very fun to do. And then
Speaker 4: I spoke at Darkness Con, so frig night I talked
Speaker 4: about the skeletons at at Chieesman Park, and for Darkness Con,
Speaker 4: I talked about the Aliens and UFOs and and why
Speaker 4: they're probably not and that was fun. So it was good.
Speaker 4: And I watched the drone conspiracy theories with the complete disinterest.
Speaker 4: Not much more to say about that.
Speaker 1: And then there was the trip to the watchtown UFO Watchtown.
Speaker 4: You went to the UFO Watchtower and oh, my lord,
Speaker 4: what a junk yard that is? It is. Uh. Literally,
Speaker 4: if you get a chance to go to the watch tower,
Speaker 4: I do recommend it because you usually don't get charged
Speaker 4: just to look at a junk yard. So, uh, it's
Speaker 4: an experience in itself.
Speaker 2: I don't see it's it's it to get in.
Speaker 4: What's happened?
Speaker 2: Does it cost much to get in?
Speaker 4: Five bucks?
Speaker 2: I think, oh that's not bad.
Speaker 4: Okay, Well it was close.
Speaker 1: When we're there, And when we did the episode recently
Speaker 1: with Aaron, I was talking about it too, so I
Speaker 1: think a lot of our listeners will be familiar with that.
Speaker 1: But wasn't it strange how it just seemed like all
Speaker 1: of these altars to UFOs and extraterrestrials and people leaving
Speaker 1: behind coins and perfume and beads and little statues of
Speaker 1: aliens and just all kinds.
Speaker 4: Of stuff and say money out there.
Speaker 1: Like a kind of law of attraction, a law of
Speaker 1: attraction thing that they had going there, where if you
Speaker 1: left something and then you prayed or asked the universe for.
Speaker 2: Something that would meditate. Yeah, yeah, it.
Speaker 1: Was really interesting how that's that belief is transforming and
Speaker 1: becoming a lot more kind of spiritual. And we've talked
Speaker 1: about the parallels between uithology and a lot of the
Speaker 1: cults and religion, and you could certainly say that signing
Speaker 1: full force there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's Pasulka who's talking about it a
Speaker 2: new emergent religion, which I could see that, especially around
Speaker 2: the sort of UAP that sort of side of things,
Speaker 2: you know that there. But also it was always religious
Speaker 2: in some sense, I mean the contact ease. You know,
Speaker 2: they had so many ties to theosophy. So I find
Speaker 2: that very interesting, and it's not it's funny because religious
Speaker 2: studies people don't really have a clear definition for what
Speaker 2: religion is per se, but whether or not it's a
Speaker 2: matter of faith. It certainly seems to be. There's certain
Speaker 2: practices at play here and some of the sort of
Speaker 2: UFO air quoting technologies around contacting aliens with flashlights and
Speaker 2: thinking your thoughts into the universe and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: It does come across as super spiritual and quasi religious.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't think it's that ambiguous, honestly, you know, Bolts.
Speaker 1: There are some groups that we've talked about before, like
Speaker 1: Share International there with Benjamin Krem and yes, yes, like
Speaker 1: the kind of Jesus figure and they talk about space
Speaker 1: brothers and space sisters, and there are a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of overlap with euphology there, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: and another other colts groups too, I think have had
Speaker 1: ties to extraterrestrials, probably for as long as those leaps
Speaker 1: that have been around.
Speaker 2: Even if you don't give a damn ski, there's something there.
Speaker 4: I want to talk really briefly about something that's not
Speaker 4: necessarily a monster talk thing. Actually two things. The first
Speaker 4: one is is that a gaming chair behind you, like
Speaker 4: it is.
Speaker 2: I don't actually game in it, but it is a
Speaker 2: gaming chair.
Speaker 4: Okay, Well, I want to say that my parentolia is
Speaker 4: really working overtime because it looks like you have a
Speaker 4: che there.
Speaker 2: With a cheer ohia, yes, yeah, totally cheradolia because it
Speaker 2: looks like a pair of like, uh, ski pants.
Speaker 4: That are kind of like resting over the chair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can see that now. Now, I wouldn't have
Speaker 2: seen that had not someone from a place where you
Speaker 2: actually do see ski pants regularly shows up. I mean,
Speaker 2: like you won't see those in Georgia, right, but I
Speaker 2: can see what you're talking about. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really disturbing. And that leads me into my
Speaker 4: next topic. Twenty twenty four was a huge year for
Speaker 4: my mental health good and uh yeah, and and and
Speaker 4: I'm I'm questioning my mental health at the moment because
Speaker 4: I am seeing you know, Santa ski pants. But I
Speaker 4: did that. There you go, that's so much better. No,
Speaker 4: it's uh probably hardly anybody knows that I've got borderline
Speaker 4: personality disorder and uh pression in anxiety and things like
Speaker 4: that ADHD. Turns out, twenty twenty four was an amazing
Speaker 4: year for me in terms of recovery therapy all that
Speaker 4: that kind of stuff. I been seeing a DBT therapist
Speaker 4: and that's not the same as DMT. Although I heard
Speaker 4: that's good therapy as well. But seeing a DBT therapist
Speaker 4: for it's been eleven months now and it's it's been transformative,
Speaker 4: and I've been having a really good year in that sense.
Speaker 4: Because of that, I think I'm going to have a
Speaker 4: lot more to contribute to the YouTube channel this next year.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be able to get back in and have
Speaker 4: some good focus and feel pretty darn good about things.
Speaker 2: That's amazing, man, I really that's amazingly brave to come
Speaker 2: out and say something like that. But I'm really glad
Speaker 2: it's working for you. That's awesome. Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 2: It really is.
Speaker 4: I just hope that it's making life easier for Karen
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's you know, it's difficult to live your whole
Speaker 1: life and think there's nothing wrong, and then everything's fine
Speaker 1: and everyone else is the problem, and then to turn
Speaker 1: inwardly and look to yourself.
Speaker 4: And I did spend almost every day thinking that Blake
Speaker 4: was the problems, Oh my god, and then it turns
Speaker 4: out it was actually me.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, people don't know, I mean people. You
Speaker 2: live an internal life and you struggle, and if you
Speaker 2: don't talk to somebody, nobody even knows what you're going through.
Speaker 2: So I I that's it's it's it's very commendable, and
Speaker 2: I hope I hope it's effective, you know. I mean,
Speaker 2: I hope it gets you what you'all need.
Speaker 1: The treatment that is undergoing is the gold star treatment
Speaker 1: for this condition, and it's so misdiagnosed. People commonly confuse
Speaker 1: it with a lot of other things that are out there,
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of people suffering and they
Speaker 1: don't need to. This particular treatment is really successful. And
Speaker 1: I think Matt just regrets that he hadn't got this
Speaker 1: diagnosis earlier and found some support earlier. And so I
Speaker 1: guess we encourage everyone out there, if you're troubled in
Speaker 1: any way, to try and get some support. I think
Speaker 1: we can all do with some support.
Speaker 4: It's easy an assessment, Just get an assessment. I guess.
Speaker 4: It is hard work. You've got to put in the work.
Speaker 4: And while I was working hard all of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 4: Karen was sitting on her hands doing nothing.
Speaker 1: It's very usual.
Speaker 4: Can you say more about that, Karen?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can speak. Yeah. So I've done a ton
Speaker 1: of different things this year. The episode of Netflix's Father
Speaker 1: of the Unexplained where I spoke about Myrtle's plantation in Louisiana.
Speaker 1: That episode finally came out. So I've done a lot
Speaker 1: of media work this year, a lot of interviews, and
Speaker 1: another fun thing that I did, I did a number
Speaker 1: of interviews for Universal Studios. I've got some more coming
Speaker 1: up as well for Blu ray editions of movies that
Speaker 1: they've released this year, and one of them was for
Speaker 1: The Wolfman, the twenty ten version, and another was The
Speaker 1: Last Voyage of the Demeter, which came out that was
Speaker 1: last year, and so that's why we tackled I think
Speaker 1: were wolves and vampires so much because I was doing
Speaker 1: research for those interviews. So that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: And one of the main things for this year was
Speaker 1: releasing this book book. I really hope everyone's going to
Speaker 1: go and check this book out. It's not just a
Speaker 1: book about etymology and word origins. It really is a
Speaker 1: deep dive into this word and the pop culture surrounding it,
Speaker 1: and I go into there's a real feminist approach to it,
Speaker 1: but I really do look at the way that the
Speaker 1: word is used, it's meaning and usage over time, and
Speaker 1: I guess I've I've turned Matt off you.
Speaker 2: You're relentless and dogged pursuit of the origins, right.
Speaker 1: Yes, very nice. I see what you did there. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so. I look at the controversy surrounding the word
Speaker 1: the house, how much it's been banned over time, But
Speaker 1: it really does go down a lot of rabbit holes too,
Speaker 1: about insults in general, and just.
Speaker 4: Oh please be my guess, better you than me at
Speaker 4: the moment. Bitch is a bitch of a word. It
Speaker 4: used to be a straightforward insult, but today, after so
Speaker 4: many variations and efforts to reject or reclaim the word,
Speaker 4: it's not always entirely clear what it means. Bitch is
Speaker 4: a chameleon. There are good bitches and bad bitches, sexy
Speaker 4: bitches and psycho bitches, boss bitches, and even perfect bitches.
Speaker 4: This eye opening, deep dive account takes us on a
Speaker 4: journey spanning a millennium, from its humble beginnings as a
Speaker 4: word for a female dog through to its myriad meanings today,
Speaker 4: proving that sometimes you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Speaker 4: To see what she did there? I do I do
Speaker 4: It praises the colorful history and ever changing meaning of
Speaker 4: this powerful and controversial word and its relevance within broader
Speaker 4: issues of feminism, gender, race, and sexuality. Despite centuries of
Speaker 4: censorship and attempts to ban it, bitch has stood the
Speaker 4: test of time. You may wonder, is the word going
Speaker 4: away anytime soon? Bitch? Please?
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's great. I'm pretty proud of it. It's
Speaker 1: it encompasses a lot of research, a lot of work,
Speaker 1: and I'm getting some good reviews for it.
Speaker 4: And number one, number one in the Cambridge University bookstore.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's very cool.
Speaker 4: One for months now.
Speaker 2: It took courage to write it, and we're not trying
Speaker 2: to hound you, but do get a copy, right, Oh.
Speaker 1: Very well done, Very well done. So I'm working on
Speaker 1: another book now and it's Jays Blake.
Speaker 4: That is my problem.
Speaker 1: I'm working on another book now, sorry, called Beyond Words,
Speaker 1: and it's how we learn, use, and lose language. So
Speaker 1: I'm looking at language acquisition. How do we learn languages,
Speaker 1: language from scratch? And where does language come from? How
Speaker 1: did we develop an evold language through to how do
Speaker 1: we learn multiple languages? And how do we speak? And
Speaker 1: what happens when things go wrong if we have a
Speaker 1: disorder or a condition or develop something like dementia later
Speaker 1: in life? How do we lose language? So it's another
Speaker 1: deep dive and just a personal interest of mine. It's
Speaker 1: an area of non psycho linguistics. It's language and psychology.
Speaker 4: From psycho bitch to cygno linguistics exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and yeah, we're going to lose our monetization if indeed.
Speaker 3: We have it.
Speaker 4: We don't have monetization.
Speaker 1: How many times we use the B word there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the YouTube stuff is really weird to me.
Speaker 2: But I'm glad that it exists as a platform for
Speaker 2: us to be able to get out and do stuff
Speaker 2: like this. But boy, I've yet to figure out how
Speaker 2: people make money at it. Well, they seem to do
Speaker 2: a lot less intellectual stuff. So maybe we should have
Speaker 2: a fart machine. It's part of our something. Well, Matt,
Speaker 2: I hope that things work out that you're able to
Speaker 2: generate more content in twenty twenty five then, because I
Speaker 2: think you're as comparential investigator. Videos are well received, and
Speaker 2: I certainly appreciate all the work you do helping us
Speaker 2: get these live shows out because I am, as much
Speaker 2: as I'm decent at video editing, I am no good
Speaker 2: at multitasking in moving angles and yo and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's too much for me.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's always been championing the YouTube channel and
Speaker 1: just saying we've got to put out content. And so
Speaker 1: he's really been he spearheaded this whole thing. And I'm
Speaker 1: excited to see what he's going to do next year
Speaker 1: and to really get back into.
Speaker 4: It and to utilize my adhdu Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's monetizing your obsessions is super awesome when
Speaker 2: you can do it. That is a fact.
Speaker 4: Can I say everybody in the chat room, thank you
Speaker 4: guys so much. You guys will be in lovely tonight
Speaker 4: and kind and I do appreciate it. I just wanted
Speaker 4: to say that.
Speaker 2: So, speaking of people in the chat discord, we've added
Speaker 2: for our patrons. We turned on a discord channel, so
Speaker 2: if you support us on Patreon, you can now interact
Speaker 2: with other fans or supporters.
Speaker 4: Of the show.
Speaker 2: I guess is a better way of putting it. I
Speaker 2: don't know. I appreciate the support, whether their fans or not.
Speaker 2: I'm very grateful. So yeah, and it's it's really neat.
Speaker 2: I like it because you can chat live if people
Speaker 2: are online, but you can also chat asynchronously if they're
Speaker 2: you know, you can respond to posts in the past,
Speaker 2: So it's unlike a lot of platforms where people interact.
Speaker 2: There's no artificial intelligence or algorithms hiding posts or you know,
Speaker 2: making It is threaded and it's persistent, and if you
Speaker 2: happen to catch people when they're on there, it's live.
Speaker 2: So it's very fun and I appreciate all the people
Speaker 2: who've been on there and chatting. So that's been a
Speaker 2: lot of a lot of fun to get into.
Speaker 1: Google, not Blue Sky. Well we finally joined you.
Speaker 2: Like thanks, Yeah, yeah, I really I've enjoyed Blue Sky.
Speaker 2: It it has there's the peril that it will succumb
Speaker 2: to politics and despair, but I've I've there's been plenty
Speaker 2: of very fun and pleasant threads about monsters or cats,
Speaker 2: a lot of cats. There's a shockingly number of dog photos.
Speaker 2: But boy, there's cat people. Man. Cat people love to
Speaker 2: get on the internet.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well yeah, I'm finding it to be less
Speaker 1: of a viper's den than the other alternative.
Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly I'm.
Speaker 1: Seeing a lot of monster talk business on there. So
Speaker 1: if you're you're on Blue Sky, do you track us
Speaker 1: down and we follow.
Speaker 2: Back yeah, so I should if you if I put
Speaker 2: a post to the Discord invite and it expires like
Speaker 2: every I don't know how long. So if you're a
Speaker 2: patron and don't have an active invite, just email me
Speaker 2: and I will be glad. Doctor Alanis at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: I'll be glad to get you an invite. It's not
Speaker 2: a problem. So I can.
Speaker 1: On Facebook as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just I can't. I can't make a non
Speaker 2: expiring link as near as I can tell. But everybody
Speaker 2: who is as a patron is invited to join as
Speaker 2: far as I can tell, So yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'll also look into that see if there's any work
Speaker 2: around for that. But I am happy to send people
Speaker 2: an active link that's not.
Speaker 4: There's a discord expert that's listening right now, feel free
Speaker 4: to pop that in the chat.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. And I'm an automation guy. I mean, I probably
Speaker 2: could just do a thing where figure out what the
Speaker 2: expiration date is and automate updating the posts every X
Speaker 2: amount of time with a new link, but I have
Speaker 2: I have not pursued that yet. So I know how
Speaker 2: to do lots of things. I'm good at figuring out
Speaker 2: things it's just finding time. That's where where I sort
Speaker 2: of fall apart. So yeah, yeah, So what'd you get
Speaker 2: for Christmas? Like I got a hug? I don't know,
Speaker 2: you know, honestly, it's it's kind of sad. The uh,
Speaker 2: my lovely wife who's in the chat right now, she
Speaker 2: got COVID over the holidays, so we had a rather
Speaker 2: dude Christmas. So I suspect some of what you gave
Speaker 2: her for Christmas, you know, honestly, I was I was
Speaker 2: supposed to bring one of my Christmas presents to this call,
Speaker 2: and I messed up and lifted upstairs. But I got
Speaker 2: a a yetti in a in a rock it's like,
Speaker 2: and you put water on it and then over over
Speaker 2: seventy two hours, it emerges from the stone.
Speaker 1: Uh, you know, we need one of those.
Speaker 2: Jesus do that I might, Yes, pulled the yetti from
Speaker 2: the stone. It's one of the best miracles of the Bible. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I believe my wife got that from Second in Charles,
Speaker 2: which is.
Speaker 4: Jesus submerged from after seventy two hours.
Speaker 2: Yes, seventy two hours later, Yes, the stone is rolled away,
Speaker 2: revealing the Yedi and Jesus Christ. Yeah, it sounds vaguely blaspheming,
Speaker 2: So I'm going to stop or getting.
Speaker 4: Getting a piggyback ride from the Yetnie I see.
Speaker 2: Prior to this this chat, like two hours ago, I
Speaker 2: was having a very peculiar conversation issue with my parents
Speaker 2: where I guess I was fed up with just keeping
Speaker 2: stuff inside and they my parents are very developed and
Speaker 2: faithful religious people, but very conservative, and my dad started
Speaker 2: talking about dinosaurs and younger creationism, and I just I
Speaker 2: couldn't do it anymore. I just I gave them a
Speaker 2: thirty minute lecture on how we can know that evolution
Speaker 2: is or natural selection is a working mechanism. I don't
Speaker 2: know what they made of all that, because I was
Speaker 2: on a rant and I could not stop. Once it
Speaker 2: got going, I could not stop. But I thought, my god,
Speaker 2: I'm being coaching for being so angry. So they didn't.
Speaker 2: They didn't perform an exorcism or kicked me out of
Speaker 2: their house. I think it was all good. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it was all good.
Speaker 4: So Kara and I, Karan, and I still see your beauty.
Speaker 2: You know. The thing is what I'm leaning towards in
Speaker 2: my research on my book is the idea that natural
Speaker 2: selection processes are relevant. This is not my unique idea.
Speaker 2: Kevin Kelly and a few other Matt Ridley and a
Speaker 2: few other writers have sort of touched on this. But
Speaker 2: part of what I'm writing about is the parts of
Speaker 2: natural selection that are applicable to technology. And so I
Speaker 2: think I've had some pretty good insights, which I hope
Speaker 2: to get into my book. I'm not going to spoil
Speaker 2: them here, but it's the kind of stuff that has
Speaker 2: calmed me the hell down because a lot of things
Speaker 2: about the world really annoy me when technology of the
Speaker 2: present day is crap compared to five years ago. But
Speaker 2: now that at least I can understand how it fits
Speaker 2: into that model, it's helping me be less RANTI allegedly.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think my kids have, yeah, pouring it
Speaker 2: into the book instead of into my kid's ears, because
Speaker 2: my kids really don't care turns out.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that they do. But yeah, that's
Speaker 1: interesting because I think that the conversation with your parents
Speaker 1: was a long time coming, wasn't it.
Speaker 3: Really?
Speaker 1: You could say that, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Because my tolerance for smug sanctimony has run low.
Speaker 1: Well, I occasionally have conversations with members of my family
Speaker 1: about skepticism or there's things and it seems like they're
Speaker 1: very minable to it in that moment. Yeah, then when
Speaker 1: they have exposure to other people, it's like everything just
Speaker 1: washes away and they go right back to where they
Speaker 1: are came from. And I guess watching Sky News, which
Speaker 1: is the Australian equivalent of.
Speaker 2: Fox ah, well, you know, it comes down Nobody wants
Speaker 2: to use the word epistemology, but it comes down to epistemology,
Speaker 2: like how do you know what's true? How do you
Speaker 2: know what's the mechanism that gets you to your certitude
Speaker 2: if you have certitude. And I think scientific skepticism doesn't
Speaker 2: give people a lot of certitude, but it gives you
Speaker 2: a lot of confidence that at least maybe you're less
Speaker 2: wrong than other people.
Speaker 1: Maybe you know, And I think it depends on your socialization,
Speaker 1: how you're raised, you know, what your beliefs are, and
Speaker 1: just what you're being brought up with over decades and decades,
Speaker 1: it's going to be really hard to cast aside those
Speaker 1: the shackles, you know, whether it's religion or talking about
Speaker 1: mental health as well, these things to change is one
Speaker 1: of the hardest things to do, especially as you get older.
Speaker 2: Well, and people want to be confident and they want
Speaker 2: a simple, understandable explanation for things. And it turns out
Speaker 2: that the world is actually really complicated, and I hear so.
Speaker 1: At the same time in some ways.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and how many times have you seen on the
Speaker 2: internet people saying, well, I don't know much about that.
Speaker 2: But here's what I think, Well, what are you doing,
Speaker 2: Like if you don't know much about it, why are
Speaker 2: you interjecting your opinion? Because maybe what you should do
Speaker 2: instad it Because I don't know much about that, so
Speaker 2: maybe I should do some actual research. You know, I
Speaker 2: don't know much about that, so maybe I should keep
Speaker 2: my thoughts aside.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think often the more opinionated they are are, the
Speaker 1: less you know, research that they've done on a topic.
Speaker 1: And it's I guess, emotion coming from a place of
Speaker 1: emotion and belief.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it was that Dunny Krueger, like, your certitude
Speaker 2: might be inversely proportional to your competency, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think that these are things that we
Speaker 1: all fight, you know, we've all got blind spots, and
Speaker 1: even the skeptics we see all the time. I tried
Speaker 1: to fight it in myself and you know, when you've
Speaker 1: got good people around you too, they can identify.
Speaker 2: It in you.
Speaker 1: And but yeah, I think it's a it's part of
Speaker 1: the human condition as well.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: Okay, back to monsters for just a minute. I wanted
Speaker 2: to mention that I managed to go see the new
Speaker 2: Nosferatu movie and I wait, yea, was that this is
Speaker 2: this Nospara three?
Speaker 1: I've heard that joke before.
Speaker 2: They should have Yeah, they could have made not Sharah too,
Speaker 2: But no, No, it was glorious. And I know my
Speaker 2: wife this is a vampire hater, uh in in a
Speaker 2: big way. But the this was one of the most
Speaker 2: relentlessly brutal Gothic masterpieces of horror I've seen in some time.
Speaker 2: Uh I love it. I love a horror movie where
Speaker 2: you actually feel a sense of horror, and that's what
Speaker 2: we got here. It was. It was glorious. I loved
Speaker 2: every minute of it. Yeah, no, it was great. I
Speaker 2: really I went in with I didn't watch any of
Speaker 2: the trailers, any of the previews, I didn't read any
Speaker 2: of the reviews. I just went in cold and with
Speaker 2: a little apprehension, honestly, and uh I was. I was
Speaker 2: enormously pleased. I was unhappy. I mean I was. It
Speaker 2: was as bleak as hell Jesus is bleak, but it
Speaker 2: was exactly what I wanted. And uh, that was great.
Speaker 2: I really loved it. So I'm just going to say
Speaker 2: as a monster lover, as a lover of the history
Speaker 2: of how people have interacted with these creatures folklore and history, boy, yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean I'm glad that I don't believe on these
Speaker 2: things are real, but if they were real, this is
Speaker 2: about how I would expect it to play out. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: And is it some.
Speaker 1: Very different from the classic movie or the.
Speaker 2: But I don't want to spoil anything about it. But
Speaker 2: but uh, it tracks true to the original Nosatu, which
Speaker 2: itself was a sort of illegal bastardization of Dracula. So
Speaker 2: it hits a lot of the same notes, but it
Speaker 2: tends to hit them in a gothic chord. It's it's
Speaker 2: really really good. It's really good.
Speaker 4: So oh coolked it up.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see it.
Speaker 2: You won't regret it. You won't regret it. I mean,
Speaker 2: unless you're looking for comedy, then you will totally regret it,
Speaker 2: because it is not a comedy.
Speaker 4: We were talking about it that we might go check
Speaker 4: it out of the next fewme.
Speaker 2: Did you did you guys see Midsummer that the sort
Speaker 2: of the full corror moving I think so it's very bleak.
Speaker 2: I mean so, I just just as long as you
Speaker 2: go in knowing you're you're getting bleak, and you're mentally
Speaker 2: prepared for bleak, and that's what you're looking for, you'll
Speaker 2: be very happy you're looking.
Speaker 1: Thinks that we should do some more episodes of based
Speaker 1: on a true story.
Speaker 2: Oh for sure. Yeah, I think yeah.
Speaker 1: As well, and yeah regular and blood tempests and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think those. I don't want to
Speaker 2: spoil anything. I'm not going to say anything, but yeah,
Speaker 2: this this this movie has some great historical notes. It
Speaker 2: has some great ties to real history, has some great
Speaker 2: ties to the novel Dracula, has some great ties to
Speaker 2: the original black and white silent film. So yeah, it's
Speaker 2: it's a treat. I liked it a lot.
Speaker 1: So yeah, want to watch in the New year for us,
Speaker 1: I think at this point, But yeah, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: we've tackled both of things that we had on our
Speaker 1: list of things to discuss. So have we got any
Speaker 1: questions from there? Anything anyone's talking about that they.
Speaker 4: I did have to ban somebody or block them. But seriously, Yeah,
Speaker 4: there was a troll in there and a bunch of garbage.
Speaker 1: Oh I think that's a first. Yeah. I don't remember.
Speaker 2: We've had to ban one other hop control, but I
Speaker 2: think you know, it's not common, So I got rid
Speaker 2: of him. Okay, that's going to see. We could mention
Speaker 2: that we managed to get to I managed to get
Speaker 2: to Cryptic Coon this year thanks largely to support from
Speaker 2: our listeners. So because at the last minute in my situation, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and I really appreciate the support on that. But I
Speaker 2: want to try to do some trips, maybe through like
Speaker 2: a GoFundMe or a kickstar or something thing where we
Speaker 2: can somehow manage to meet up and go do a
Speaker 2: peranial investigation. I don't know what that would.
Speaker 1: Be, but fantastic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would really love to do that, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe like bring cameras, do a video, you know, make
Speaker 2: make a big, make a big deal of it, you know.
Speaker 1: No, I'd love that idea. That would be great. And
Speaker 1: not certainly like to get to more conferences.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well sure for sure.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: Also from News of the Year, we changed our advertising
Speaker 2: platform and partnered with iHeartMedia, and that's been I know
Speaker 2: some users don't like our Listeners don't like the uh
Speaker 2: the number of ads or where they fall in. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to get that's largely on me because I don't
Speaker 2: know the platform is well enough. I'm working on trying
Speaker 2: to make those more uh seamless when they pop in
Speaker 2: with the ads. So but it has been tremendously helpful
Speaker 2: for us. And remember, if you hate the ads, I
Speaker 2: hope that you will at least consider joining the Patreon
Speaker 2: because that's not super expensive. I think we have a
Speaker 2: three dollars tier, three dollars a month, and I believe
Speaker 2: that the content quality we give is pretty significant. Week.
Speaker 2: I don't remember an episode where we phoned it in.
Speaker 2: I mean, like, we really always do a lot of
Speaker 2: work on these, and I'm very proud of the work.
Speaker 1: A lot of research if it, admin and sourcing guests
Speaker 1: and all the production work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you hate ads thirty six dollars a year and
Speaker 2: get an episode every week, it ain't bad. Plus the
Speaker 2: patrons get commercial free and extended content.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I think a lot of people don't realize that.
Speaker 4: You know the thing about Monster Talk is you've got
Speaker 4: some other podcasts out there where these some of these
Speaker 4: people do this for a living, you know, Brian Dunning
Speaker 4: is an example. But so they have all this time
Speaker 4: to dedicate and money to dedicate and to get things done,
Speaker 4: and Monster Talk doesn't. We're on our own. We're having
Speaker 4: to work jobs to survive and support our families on
Speaker 4: top of the fact that that takes away from time
Speaker 4: to do research and everything else. So we really do
Speaker 4: appreciate how you guys support us. We really do, because
Speaker 4: we're you know, we're we're competing with people that I
Speaker 4: think have it a little easier, to be honest my perspective, anyway,
Speaker 4: they don't. You know, we don't get to dedicate the
Speaker 4: amount of time that we would like to do this,
Speaker 4: and just think, do we get to a point to
Speaker 4: where we could afford to do this for a living,
Speaker 4: Just think how stellar things would be.
Speaker 2: Then I would have twice as many posters back here.
Speaker 4: Fanta ski Pants.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is certainly a labor of love, and we
Speaker 1: really do dedicate a lot of time to the show,
Speaker 1: but we we certainly have lots of things that we're
Speaker 1: doing concurrently. But we really do appreciate the support and
Speaker 1: we just love hearing from people. We hear from people
Speaker 1: all the time, and with coggestions for shows for various topics,
Speaker 1: and we just level the feedback. I mean, particularly during
Speaker 1: COVID and the aftermath, just hearing from so many people
Speaker 1: saying that monster talk got them through that period, or
Speaker 1: talking of mental health, other people saying that monster talk
Speaker 1: gets them through whatever issues they have.
Speaker 4: Whatever.
Speaker 1: Whatever things are getting them down, and that's just so
Speaker 1: meaningful to us. I think, like you talking earlier about
Speaker 1: how you want to help people who are scared of
Speaker 1: sleep paralysis or the idea of demons or just all
Speaker 1: the topics that we tackle, I think it's really important
Speaker 1: to me too that we're there for people getting them
Speaker 1: through these things that are getting people through life and
Speaker 1: everything that life throws at. It's really important to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I personally, and I know you do too.
Speaker 2: I have so much empathy because I was once a
Speaker 2: person who was afraid of all these things. I was
Speaker 2: interested in them, I was fascinated by them, but I
Speaker 2: didn't know if they were real or not. But they
Speaker 2: scared me or in my case, I had real world
Speaker 2: experiences that tracked absolutely perfectly with paranormal experiences and figuring
Speaker 2: out that there was a natural explanation for all that
Speaker 2: stuff freed me from that fear. And that is so
Speaker 2: powerful and I'm so happy. We've had so many emails
Speaker 2: from listeners who've had similar experiences where something weird was
Speaker 2: happening to them, or there was a story they were
Speaker 2: afraid of or they couldn't stop thinking about, and we
Speaker 2: explained that no, no, no, there's a really normal explanation for this,
Speaker 2: is rational explanation of this. You're not imagining it, but
Speaker 2: maybe you're misinterpreting it. That just having somebody out there, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're not alone exactly exactly, and I and I don't
Speaker 2: we're not here to make fun of people for their
Speaker 2: beliefs because well we don't do that. Well, not only
Speaker 2: do we not do that, but I mean so many
Speaker 2: things have I mean it's people making fun of people
Speaker 2: for believing in Bigfoot, for example, Well, people have strange
Speaker 2: experiences in the woods, people have strange experiences at home
Speaker 2: with ghosts or ghosts like things, and understanding that there
Speaker 2: might maybe don't think of ghosts as the explanation, think
Speaker 2: of all the individual elements and try to figure out
Speaker 2: what's causing them just that one little step can make
Speaker 2: a big difference, you know. But once you start thinking
Speaker 2: in terms of a ghost or a bigfoot, or cheop
Speaker 2: of copper or these these become the explanation and now
Speaker 2: you're just adding to the evidence. Everything you find is
Speaker 2: just one more supporting being for your belief system, instead
Speaker 2: of them being individual, discrete elements that probably have their
Speaker 2: own explanations, and just changing that thinking and like trying
Speaker 2: to figure out if you can understand the individual elements
Speaker 2: alone can be liberating, you know, intellectually liberating and emotionally liberating,
Speaker 2: but you're not alone, and you can leave that world
Speaker 2: of fear and come into a world where it's more
Speaker 2: calm and rational and you understand the world better. And
Speaker 2: I hope we're helping to guide.
Speaker 4: People back off of that, you know. I have to
Speaker 4: say that the Monster Talk family, you know, the Mushtak listeners,
Speaker 4: the Patreons, everybody, it feels to me like a huge
Speaker 4: group of friends. That's what's so great to me, Especially
Speaker 4: when we do these live shows. It's like getting to
Speaker 4: hang out with just a ton of my best friends,
Speaker 4: and it's these live shows have been some of the
Speaker 4: best experiences that I've had over the past few years,
Speaker 4: and I really want to thank all the listeners for that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, people talk about skeptics and athees not having
Speaker 1: a sense of community, Well, you don't have that support system,
Speaker 1: and that's just not true. I really feel like with
Speaker 1: our patreons and people who watch these episodes listen to
Speaker 1: months to talk in general, I really feel like we've
Speaker 1: got just a good base the people, really good group
Speaker 1: of people who are like minded and just I'm really
Speaker 1: grateful for all the friends that we've made over the
Speaker 1: years doing this. It's been just very incredible, very valuable,
Speaker 1: and it is good for good for my mental health,
Speaker 1: let's put it that way.
Speaker 2: Well, I have to say, I mean, as someone who's
Speaker 2: let me be blunt, I never finished college, and being
Speaker 2: able to talk with so many academics and intellectuals on
Speaker 2: the show about stuff that I love and it helps
Speaker 2: you better understand it has been like the extra college
Speaker 2: classes I never could have gotten. I mean, a lot
Speaker 2: of the material we cover here is not part of
Speaker 2: a degree program, but we've lucked into finding lots of
Speaker 2: really qualified people to talk about material in a way
Speaker 2: that is more than just an interesting story. It textualizes
Speaker 2: it culturally, academically, scientifically, and boy, it makes me feel
Speaker 2: more smarter.
Speaker 1: Now what we've learned a lot over the years, that's
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I think we often come to an episode with some
Speaker 1: kind of preconceived ideas or some you know, an understanding
Speaker 1: of a topic. And I just don't think we've ever
Speaker 1: had a single episode where haven't been blown away by
Speaker 1: learning new things. And it's just such a thrill every
Speaker 1: time to do every episode and just learn new things
Speaker 1: about a topic and different perspectives. And I think that's
Speaker 1: a good thing about being a skeptic, is that you're
Speaker 1: happy to be disproved or you're happy to be proven
Speaker 1: wrong about things, and you're not scared with to find
Speaker 1: out that you're wrong about something and to accept a
Speaker 1: different point of view. It's just really talking about freedom
Speaker 1: of thought, and I think that's just a really freeing
Speaker 1: thing to be corrected and to learn new things, and
Speaker 1: you know, to know there's more just a lot of
Speaker 1: people very opinionated in this industry, and it's not prepared
Speaker 1: to accept new evidence or different opinions or perspectives. And
Speaker 1: I think that that's if you're open minded skeptic, A
Speaker 1: good skeptic. I think you're going to be have to
Speaker 1: be open two new ideas.
Speaker 2: I certainly found it very humbling. I mean I I
Speaker 2: sometimes say I have a surplus of doubtless, surfeit of certainty.
Speaker 2: And that's not as catchy as I wish it was,
Speaker 2: but it is something I say, so stop wanting it.
Speaker 2: I just I don't know of any episode we've done
Speaker 2: where I haven't learned something, you know, And I don't
Speaker 2: know of any topic we've covered where, either in researching
Speaker 2: or interviewing, we haven't learned something new, And like, there's
Speaker 2: so much more to the world and so many more
Speaker 2: mysteries out there to be explored. And I think, I just,
Speaker 2: you know, I think we agree that scientific skepticism is
Speaker 2: the right framework to approach this material. But it is humbling,
Speaker 2: and it is it's it's it reminds you constantly that
Speaker 2: arrogance and certitude are really rarely warranted. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: even in debates where I'm really confident that I'm on
Speaker 2: the right side of it, I always try to listen
Speaker 2: to the other person more than I ever would when
Speaker 2: I was younger. And a lot of that comes from
Speaker 2: you know, understanding that there's a ton of stuff I
Speaker 2: don't know, you know, and and there's a lot of
Speaker 2: ways that people experience things that may seem impossible but
Speaker 2: might actually have a reasonably normal explanation. But I think
Speaker 2: that's the lesson I've learned from this show more than
Speaker 2: anything is is you know, have a lot of empathy,
Speaker 2: have a lot of humility.
Speaker 1: So yeah, good advice. So do we have any New
Speaker 1: Years resolutions?
Speaker 2: Then you mean related to this or just in general?
Speaker 2: Because I always have. Last year, can I just say
Speaker 2: for twenty twenty four, I had I committed to doing
Speaker 2: push ups and crunches every day, and I got up
Speaker 2: to doing fifty a day, and then I had some
Speaker 2: surgery in November. I've had to cut back because, like
Speaker 2: the healing from the surgery has sucked. But I'm kicking
Speaker 2: off things again pain or no for January, and boy,
Speaker 2: I feel so much fitter and healthier. It's been great.
Speaker 2: That really has nothing to do with monsters. But as
Speaker 2: far as keeping me in the chair and able to
Speaker 2: talk for another year healthily, I think I'm on the
Speaker 2: right track.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. Yeah, I think Matt and I have lost
Speaker 1: a bit of waight of the past a year or
Speaker 1: so on. So I think I've got to be renewed
Speaker 1: commitment to that as well. Just health is so important
Speaker 1: the older you get, health is wealth, health is everything,
Speaker 1: all of those old adages. It's just so so critical.
Speaker 1: Especially having a young child still we need to stick
Speaker 1: around for him and just take good care of ourselves
Speaker 1: physical and mental.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one of the big things I think is the
Speaker 4: way we eat, you know, not necessarily being on a diet,
Speaker 4: but having our dial life and that's that's been a huge,
Speaker 4: huge one of cutting out a lot of things that
Speaker 4: we didn't realize were so bad before. And uh, it's
Speaker 4: it's it's been making a good difference.
Speaker 1: And vegetables.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I looked at as I ran across somewhere. I
Speaker 4: wrote our weight goals a while back, and I can
Speaker 4: say that both Karen and I have surpassed our weight
Speaker 4: goals a considerable amount, and I'm proud of both of
Speaker 4: us for that. And it just seems like the three
Speaker 4: of us have just been dropping the poundage.
Speaker 1: You could make another human or.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, there we both.
Speaker 2: Well, that's one of my goals is to cover more
Speaker 2: on alchemy and dive a little deeper, so Homunculus is
Speaker 2: very appropriate.
Speaker 1: We need to find a nick spit on that. I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's someone out there.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you a funny story before we go. The
Speaker 2: When I was watching uh not Saratu, there was four
Speaker 2: of us in the front row, and me and my
Speaker 2: friend and then a married couple next to us, and
Speaker 2: we were all because now you select your seats, but
Speaker 2: you don't know who else is. Anyway, it turned out
Speaker 2: we're all crunched together and the movie is going along,
Speaker 2: and there's a scene where the vampires hit the town
Speaker 2: and it's a plague situation. There's bodies in the street,
Speaker 2: it's grim, it's really dark, and the door to the
Speaker 2: theater opens and a grandmother and a little kid of
Speaker 2: five or six comes in and they walk in and
Speaker 2: they sit down, and I'm just thinking, what is going on? Like,
Speaker 2: what kind of hardcore horror fan are you that you're
Speaker 2: going to bring like a five year old to see
Speaker 2: this movie? This movie? There's this is not well well,
Speaker 2: hold on, honestly, hold on? What is there on the movie? Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's rated R. Is rated R as hell, it's really
Speaker 2: really super R. Anyway, she she sits down and I'm like,
Speaker 2: am I watching a woman trying to force a five
Speaker 2: year old to watch this nightmare? And then she before
Speaker 2: I can even say anything, she gets up and comes
Speaker 2: over to us and she's like, this is not Mowana
Speaker 2: is it?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: No, get out, run run, get out? And uh. When
Speaker 2: the movie gets over, my friend leans over and says, man,
Speaker 2: Mawana two went hard. Holy crap. Yeah, I was so
Speaker 2: worried about that kid. I was like, I don't want
Speaker 2: to interfere in anybody's parenting, but no, get this kid
Speaker 2: out of here. Holy cow. Nothing.
Speaker 1: Blade wants to see it, but it sounds like it's
Speaker 1: a a little too mature.
Speaker 2: For it's it. I would not take anyone under thirteen
Speaker 2: to see this movie. Yeah, I don't care how much
Speaker 2: here they are. So yeah, that's my take, but I'm
Speaker 2: you know, that's that's just that. So anyway, well, I
Speaker 2: guess we have to wrap up, and I just want
Speaker 2: to say happy New Year. I think twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: was a big success and I'm looking forward to twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five and continue to work with you guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, we like it's just a pleasure to
Speaker 1: know you and an honor to work with you, and
Speaker 1: just look forward to twenty twenty five and what the
Speaker 1: new year is going to bring, and it's.
Speaker 2: Exciting very much, so very much, so we'll take care,
Speaker 2: Karen get well. Yeah, thanks to everybody in the chat
Speaker 2: who showed up to do this live. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and happy New Year to you all and
Speaker 1: we'll well, we'll see you soon.
Speaker 2: All right, have a good one. Monster you've been listening
Speaker 2: to Monster Talk, the science show about monsters. I'm Blake
Speaker 2: Smith and I'm Karen Stolsner. You just heard our twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four year in review episode. Was the explicit tech needed?
Speaker 2: I can't remember, but I hope you enjoyed our chat.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned because next week we'll be talking with the
Speaker 2: organizers of the Green Ice Festival and find out how
Speaker 2: they managed to knock together an impressive get together in
Speaker 2: rural North Georgia using nothing but their college educations, hard work,
Speaker 2: and a rather ambiguous monster. The Monster Talk is combining
Speaker 2: forces with the popular skeptical podcast Skeptoid as We Brave
Speaker 2: the Bermuda Triangle in twenty twenty five. I'll be one
Speaker 2: of the skeptic celebrities participating in this adventure in the
Speaker 2: warm waters off the coast of Florida. Will we find
Speaker 2: the Missing Flight nineteen? Will we find proof of Atlantis?
Speaker 2: Will sea musters pilot us through these mystery filled waters? No,
Speaker 2: but I promise you there will be science and history
Speaker 2: filled discussions and plenty of puns if I have anything
Speaker 2: to do with it. Early bird pricing is still available,
Speaker 2: so come get some sun, visit beautiful places, roll your
Speaker 2: eyes at my terrible puns, and raise money to fund
Speaker 2: Skeptoid and Monster Talks shared mission of promoting skepticism and
Speaker 2: science while still enjoying a good mystery. Early bird pricing
Speaker 2: ends January thirty first, so hurry up and sign up.
Speaker 2: Check the show notes for a link, or go to
Speaker 2: skeptoid dot com and click events to find your way
Speaker 2: onto Braving the Bermuda Triangle, a Skeptoid adventure. Monster Talk's
Speaker 2: theme music is by Pete Stealing Monkeys from the Monster
Speaker 2: Talk family. We wish you a happy, prosperous, and healthy
Speaker 2: new year, and may your.
Speaker 4: Enemies be punished in direct proportion to their opposition to.
Speaker 2: Your will, or you know, just have a good year.
Speaker 1: This has been a Monster House presentation