Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Peculiar Book Club Podcast
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| We're bringing the Pain with Leigh Cowart (and Rachel Feltman) and Hurt So Good | 16 Nov 2024 | 01:07:02 | |
Can pain… be pleasure? I was never one to experience a runner’s high, or to enjoy ‘feeling the burn’ after a workout. But are there ways—or times—when pain provides something extra, or even extraordinary? Leigh Cowart sets out to ask and to answer this very question. Sure, we might first think of masochism as something to do with sex—but it gets out of the bedroom plenty. Cowart talks about Black Plague flagellants, ballerinas dancing on broken bones, ice bathers, and competitive eaters choking down hot peppers while they cry. Why do people engage in masochism? What are the benefits and the costs? And what does masochism have to say about the human experience? Cowart gives us a fascinating, at times hilarious, exposition on something they (a science writer) chooses to experiment with as well. We follow Leigh on surprising journeys into the pain/pleasure matrix as they unravel how our minds and bodies find meaning and relief in pain. Call it a quirk in the programming. Call it sexy. Call it natural. Pain for pleasure certainly provides food for thought—and some awesome cocktail ideas, too, for that matter. And that’s not all! Also joining us will be alum Rachel Feltman, as part of our Author’s Hosting Authors events! You won’t want to miss these two as they talk about the intimate details of our pain/pleasure sensory system. Episode was recorded live November 14, 2024. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC | |||
| We're on the case with An Inspector Calls (Peculiar Movie Club) | 02 Nov 2024 | 00:56:34 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of The Framed Women of Ardemore House, we are doing the 2015 BBC One made-for-tv adaptation of An Inspector Calls. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into this British Thriller. We'll discuss the themes of Capitalism vs. Socialism, the ominous warning of the story, and all the twists and turns along the way. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub | |||
| The chase is on for Moby Dick (Peculiar Movie Club) | 03 Aug 2024 | 01:02:02 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book Whalefall, we are discussing the greatest tale of Whales ever told, the classic Moby Dick. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this classic tale of temptation, obsession, was Gregory Peck right for the role of Ahab (he didn't think so), and what are our white whales. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub | |||
| An Explosive Conversation with Thomas Morris! | 20 Oct 2021 | 00:58:37 | |
Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for a night of curiosities from the history of medicine with Thomas Morris, author of The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth! In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction. Episode recorded live on September 9th, 2021. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instragram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! For show merchandise, including T-Shirts, Coffee Mugs, and More, visit our shop at https://peculiarbookclubstore.com/collections/all. | |||
| Cool off this summer with Sam Kean and The Icepick Surgeon! | 20 Oct 2021 | 00:53:18 | |
Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for a night of dastardly deeds perpetrated in the name of science with Sam Kean, author of The Icepick Surgeon! In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction. Episode recorded live on August 26th, 2021. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instragram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! For show merchandise, including T-Shirts, Coffee Mugs, and More, visit our shop at https://peculiarbookclubstore.com/collections/all. | |||
| Science meets Fiction with Chuck Wendig! | 20 Oct 2021 | 00:55:57 | |
Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for a night of exploring the worlds of science and fiction with author Chuck Wendig! In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction. Episode recorded live on August 12th, 2021. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instragram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! For show merchandise, including T-Shirts, Coffee Mugs, and More, visit our shop at https://peculiarbookclubstore.com/collections/all. | |||
| Sharpen your wits with Wendy Moore and The Knife Man! | 20 Oct 2021 | 00:57:30 | |
Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for a night of bloody surgery with Wendy Moore, author of The Knife Man! In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction. Episode recorded live on August 12th, 2021. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instragram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! For show merchandise, including T-Shirts, Coffee Mugs, and More, visit our shop at https://peculiarbookclubstore.com/collections/all. | |||
| Exploring Life's Edge with Carl Zimmer! | 20 Oct 2021 | 00:59:11 | |
Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for a book club date with Carl Zimmer, author of Life’s Edge: The Search for What it Means to be Alive. In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction. Episode recorded live on July 22nd, 2021. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instragram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! For show merchandise, including T-Shirts, Coffee Mugs, and More, visit our shop at https://peculiarbookclubstore.com/collections/all. | |||
| Get Macabre with Lindsey Fitzharris and the Butchering Art! | 20 Oct 2021 | 01:08:57 | |
Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for a night of morbid history with Lindsey Fitzharris, author of The Butching Art! In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction. Episode recorded live on July 8th, 2021. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instragram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! For show merchandise, including T-Shirts, Coffee Mugs, and More, visit our shop at https://peculiarbookclubstore.com/collections/all. | |||
| An Evening with Mary Roach! | 20 Oct 2021 | 01:00:39 | |
Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for a book club date with Mary Roach, author of STIFF: the curious lives of human cadavers. In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction. Episode recorded live on June 24th, 2021. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instragram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! For show merchandise, including T-Shirts, Coffee Mugs, and More, visit our shop at https://peculiarbookclubstore.com/collections/all. | |||
| We're having a Whale of a Time with Daniel Kraus (and Mary Roach) and Whalefall | 26 Jul 2024 | 01:03:05 | |
Just imagine for a moment—you are swimming in the cold dark of the Pacific Ocean, trying to find the lost remains of your father. But you aren’t alone. There are shapes moving in the gloom, great, dark shapes. Shapes with mouths. That’s what happens to Jay Gardiner in the latest novel by award winning author (and collaborator with Guillermo del Toro) Daniel Kraus. Caught first by a giant squid, then swallowed whole by a Sperm whale, Jay has one hour to get out alive. If he can get out of his own head, first. The thing is, If you were swallowed by a whale… it would be a VERY big GULP. And you know who can tell us about gulps, right? Mary Roach. Because on tonight’s special VIP edition of Authors Hosting Authors, Mary will talk to Daniel about the ins and outs of being, well, in—and out. Because while the story might be fiction, the trial of our protagonist is based in scientific FACT. Join us for a wild night and learn the best possible escape routes out of an 80 ft, 60 ton whale. You never know when that will come in handy! Episode was recorded live July 25, 2024. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC | |||
| This episode will be a real Beauty with Zara Stone and Killer Looks | 14 Jul 2024 | 00:59:37 | |
How much do looks really matter? In society, whether we like it or not, how we look affects how we are treated—and even what opportunities we might have in life. A one-time New York prison commissioner, Henry Solomon, once stated that “physical defects…might conduce to crime” because a man with a poor physical appearance would have an easier time stealing a dollar than getting hired to earn one. That outlook wasn’t new then, and it hasn’t really gone away. In Zara Stone’s amazing book KILLER LOOKS, she writes that “people have instinctively understood the societal benefits of conventional beauty” as a kind of social currency. It’s literally like having money in the bank. “Beauty privilege is real,” she writes, “and it’s real uncomfortable.” By the early 1980s, cosmetic surgery was firmly established as a path to economic success. Looks were so important that a new branch of therapy was created: cosmetic behavior therapy. If that sounds strange, just wait. Imagine a program that offers cosmetic changes to inmates as a means of lowering the crime rate—that instead of teaching us to lose out biases about looks, society is pretty willing to give in to it. Do looks really affect crime rates? More likely, appearance bias instead creates a situation where a person is both less likely to have opportunities AND more likely to be accused or arrested for a crime. What does appearance bias mean for us now, or for the future? Find out on July 11th, live with Zara Stone only on the Peculiar book club! Episode was recorded live July 11, 2024. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams | |||
| Make sure to Scrub In for Anthony Chin-Quee and I Can't Save You | 01 Jul 2024 | 01:04:49 | |
What happens when racism is not a bug in the system—but in fact IS the system? And the Health System, at that. Imagine being a high-achieving person of color, courted by prestigious medical institutions, but then denied the support you needed when you got there? Fighting through burnout and the grueling pace of residency, only to wind up a cog in a bureaucracy that sees patients as broken bits on an assembly line. “With] ninety-ninth percentile MCAT and Step and Board scores as entrance keys to the profession,” writes author Anthony Chin-Quee, “we too often neglect to screen for traits that truly matter: the self-awareness and strength of character necessary to weather the devastating emotional trials that are sure to come; the humility and grace required to be an effective, collaborative, and avid lifelong learner.” Chin-Quee’s memoir, I CAN’T SAVE YOU, doesn’t just present the trauma of our medical education system, but the trauma of living and of caring in a narrative described by NPR as “messy” but provocative—an “assemblage of shifting narrative perspectives, poetry, anecdotes, and hallucinatory performance, represents the structural equivalent of a mixtape.” Guess what, y’all, it’s Medical Humanities. Yes, like that journal I happen to be the editor in chief of… and I cannot WAIT to chat live with Anthony about how we have lost—and how to regain—the human at the center of medicine. Don’t miss this livestream on Jun 27th, only on the Peculiar Book Club. Episode was recorded live June 27, 2024. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub | |||
| We are traveling the stars with 2001: A Space Odyssey (Peculiar Movie Club) | 27 Jun 2024 | 01:05:41 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book The Computer's Voice, we are discussing maybe the most iconic computer voice in cinema history with Hal 9000 and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this legendary Kubrick film and discuss man's evolution from apes, what the star child means, how this film was made, and why people in the 60's really started to dig this movie (wink, wink). Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub | |||
| Hey Siri, put on the Peculiar Book Club with Liz Faber (and Rebecca Gibson) and The Computer Voice | 14 Jun 2024 | 01:02:09 | |
“Siri, what does it mean to have gender?” We have become very used to the dis-embodied voices that surround us, from the voice answering to ‘Siri’ to the one giving us directions on our GPS apps. But have you ever stopped to wonder why some of these voices are coded “male” and others “female?” The tech isn’t gendered, but the voices are—and it’s true in fiction as well as fact. Consider “Vicki” from I, Robot, or HAL from Space Odyssey. Why does Star Trek have a female-coded central ship computer? Is it because, as Faber suggests, space is hostile and the ship womb-like and nurturing against the coldness of space? Food for thought, isn’t it? Modern science understands gender as a social construct rather than an actual difference between one sex and another (and another)—that’s why it has been so subject to change over the centuries. Consider the 18th century gent with his hair curlers and lace, tights and heels, penchant for poetry and fainting with feeling. So why bother “gender coding” our technology at all? What’s it doing for us—or against us? To find out, we’re reading THE COMPUTER’S VOICE by Liz Faber, a brilliant analytical romp through feminist psychoanalysis and trippy space operas. Join us live—and you also get to speak with our guest host Rebecca Gibson, author of THE BAD CORSET, A FEMINIST REIMAGINING (hint, the corset wasn’t as bad as you think). Join us for an AUTHORS HOSTING AUTHORS event! There will be feminist cocktails. Episode was recorded live June 13, 2024. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub | |||
| We are making contact with Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Peculiar Movie Club) | 29 May 2024 | 01:00:53 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book We Are Not Alone, we are discussing the legendary alien encounter movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this classic Spielberg movie as we discuss parallels between alien encounters and mental health, how practical effects can be so effective and scary, and some really great trivia about this film. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub | |||
| We're following the Law with AJ Jacobs and The Year of Living Constitutionally | 18 May 2024 | 00:32:27 | |
A.J. Jacobs learned the hard way that donning a tricorne hat and marching around Manhattan with a 1700s musket will earn you a lot of strange looks. In the wake of several controversial rulings by the Supreme Court and the on-going debate about how the Constitution should be interpreted, Jacobs set out to understand what it means to live by the Constitution. In The Year of Living Constitutionally, A.J. Jacobs tries to get inside the minds of the Founding Fathers by living as closely as possible to the original meaning of the Constitution. He asserts his right to free speech by writing his opinions on parchment with a quill and handing them out to strangers in Times Square. He consents to quartering a soldier, as is his Third Amendment right. He turns his home into a traditional 1790s household by lighting candles instead of using electricity, boiling mutton, and—because women were not allowed to sign contracts— feebly attempting to take over his wife’s day job, which involves a lot of contract negotiations. | |||
| We're Invading your Minds with Marc Hartzman and We Are Not Alone | 10 May 2024 | 01:05:32 | |
Ever look up at the night sky and wonder what else is really out there? Or, like me, do you watch shows like Resident Alien with Alan Tudyk and realize you might actually be the extra-terrestrial (I mean, it would SO much sense). Seriously, though, do we just laugh off the X-files and move on? Note: we did have X-files producer Frank Spotnitz on our first season). Are UFOs hogwash? We have all been prepared to say so, at one time or another. Then, After decades of cover-ups and denials, in a June 2021 report, the US government finally admitted that UFOs are real. WHAT? Little green men? Not quite! It’s exactly what hey stand for: flying things that we cannot identify. If you hope for a way to sift through the fact and fiction of outer-space possibilities… you’re in luck. I can’t think of any higher praise that being labeled “one of America’s leading connoisseurs of the bizarre” but that’s all in a day’s work for Marc Hartzmann, who returns to MBC with his latest: WE ARE NOT ALONE. Are their alien abductions really? Is Area 51 hiding something? Life might be out there—and it probably won’t be anything like we expect. Episode was recorded live May 9, 2024. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub | |||
| You'll really Dig our conversation with Greg Melville and Over My Dead Body | 01 May 2024 | 01:04:04 | |
Grave yard. Cemetery. These are some of my favorite things! But walking through graveyards isn’t just about getting your goth on. Cemeteries tell our human history—and they tell national history, too. Take central park for instance. In 1857, it was Seneca Village, a “rare haven of Black ownership” stretching from West 82nd to 89th Streets. NY took it over, seizing it for a park. And that means part of the park is also a burial ground, and tells the story of how black people were treated even in the supposedly free north. And that’s just one little tidbit from a book that is sure to be near and dear to our Peculiar family: Over my Dead Body by Greg Melville. The chapters take us on a journey, via cemeteries, around the country, from the mass graves at Colonial Jamestown to Brooklyn’s Green-Wood cemetery, the racially segregated Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, Ga., Hollywood Forever and even a digital graveyard, i.e., Facebook. Aptly put by the NYT, the book is a social history: “What does the act of memorializing, who is remembered and who is left out, tell us about how people lived, what they valued, and the way we live now?” Also… did I mention there are cemeteries? Join us live to chat with Greg through our YouTube livestream—I can promise you a themed cocktail! Only on the PBC. Episode was recorded live April 25, 2024. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub | |||
| You're going to need a drink to watch Grabbers (Peculiar Movie Club) | 31 Oct 2024 | 00:39:02 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, for some Halloween fun, we are discussing the Irish Horror Comedy film Grabbers. Join Davey Berris as he takes a deep dive into this fun monster movie. There aren't many deep themes in this movie but we will talk about did it hit the comedy and horror marks, the fun bits in the movie, and connections to some legendary horror/action movies. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub | |||
| We are getting Microscopic with Innerspace (Peculiar Movie Club) | 24 Apr 2024 | 00:55:01 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book What's Gotten Into You, we are discussing the 80's science fiction comedy Innerspace. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this silly yet action packed movie as we discuss believing in yourself, how wacky Martin Short can get, why pilots are just cooler then all of us, and robot arm attachments you wouldn't expect in a PG movie. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub | |||
| You'll fall in love with Wendy Moore and Jack and Eve | 18 Apr 2024 | 00:27:06 | |
In this bonus episode of the Peculiar Book Club we got a chance to sit down with author Wendy Moore for a preview conversation of her new book Jack and Eve. Jack and Eve: Two Women in Love and at War, is published by Atlantic Books in the UK. It tells the story of Vera 'Jack' Holme and Evelina Haverfield, pioneering suffragettes who became lovers. Jack was an actress who specialised in cross-dressing roles. She became official chauffeur to suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst. Eve, who was born into the British aristocracy, was an intrepid traveller who became one of the suffragettes' most active speakers and agitators. In the First World War they went to Serbia with the Scottish Women's Hospitals (SWH) voluntary organisation to provide medical aid to the Serbian Army. When Serbia was invaded they were taken prisoners of war. After being freed, they travelled to Russia with the SWH to drive ambulances right up to the firing line on the Dobruja front. They were devoted lifelong partners but also pioneers of new ways of living and loving. Jack enjoyed numerous liaisons with other women - detailed in her diaries - and especially favoured three-way relationships. But when Eve died, in Serbia soon after the war ended, Jack was devastated. Jack and Eve is a love story set against the backdrop of intense acts of bravery during the First World War. | |||
| We are Positively Charged to talk with Dan Levitt and What's Gotten Into You | 18 Apr 2024 | 01:05:25 | |
You know those amazing science document-aries you love so much? National Geo-graphic, Discover, Science, and History Channels? Yeah, you need to thank Dan Levitt—responsible for producing such shows as Unsolved History (2002), Great Transitions: The Origin of Birds (2015) and Naked Science (2004). That one sounds right up our street. Well, now Dan has decided to give us a new kind of scientific candy crunch: WHATS GOT INTO YOU, a book about, well, YOU. A 150-pound human body contains 60 elements, including “enough carbon to make 25 pounds of charcoal, enough salt to fill a saltshaker, enough chlorine to disinfect several backyard swimming pools, and enough iron to make a three-inch nail.” On the open market, our body chemicals would bring about $2,000. And.. here’s the kicker… the stuff that makes up you and me has been evolving since the Bing Bang. You are made of actual bang dust. “Carl Sagan once famously said we are made of star stuff,” Levitt writes in his introduction. “This is the improbable story of how it happened.” It’s a journey of atoms, astronomy, physics, biology, and chemistry—and you are invited! Join us to chat live with the author on April 11, only on the Peculiar Book Club! (Of COURSE there will be cocktails). Episode was recorded live April 11, 2024. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| We're on a Collision Course with Don't Look Up (Peculiar Movie Club) | 22 Mar 2024 | 01:07:03 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book Unscientific America, we are discussing the recent dark comedy Don't Look Up. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this funny yet terrifying look at a possible natural disaster, how science fails to communicate with politicians, the media, and the public, and Adam McKay's unique style of making movies. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| You won't be able to Deny what you learn from Sheril Kirshenbaum and Unscientific America | 19 Mar 2024 | 01:00:20 | |
The earth is not flat. Vaccines work and they don’t make you magnetic. Global warming is real. Covid is airborne. But you will hear a great deal to the contrary, too, from vaccine and climate deniers, flat-earthers, and plenty of conspiracy theorists willing to die on the hill of their chosen belief. Why? What happened? I thought it might be interesting to do a little time travel. What if we looked a book arguing for science and the humanities to join forces and stop science misinformation… BEFORE Covid. Heck, before Twitter was much of thing, even. Before the social media monoliths we explored in Cory Doctorow’s recent work. Let’s go all the way back to 2009—when I was still a graduate student—and revisit a collaboration between a journalist and a scientists: Unscientific America. We’ll talk live to Sheril Kirschenbaum, host of SERVING UP SCIENCE on PBS, executive director of ScienceDebate, a national nonprofit that encourages politicians to address science and innovation, and director of The Energy Poll at The University of Texas at Austin. A prolific writer and scientific thinker, she brings a lot to the table when it comes to getting science on the ballot (and into the public). How has Unscientific America changed? What do we make of this new, science denying world? Bring your questions and your debate hat and let’s get political! Only on PBC. Episode was recorded live March 14, 2024. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| ASK US ANYTHING! Our first open show! | 23 Feb 2024 | 01:06:47 | |
Surely you have questions… Weird, pressing questions. Tonight, we host our first ever AMA! You can try to stump Davey! You can inquire about my weirder exploits… we can talk movies and books and cocktails! We can talk about who we might want to join us in future! Free to all! | |||
| We're showing off our flair bartending with Cocktail (Peculiar Movie Club) | 20 Feb 2024 | 01:02:20 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book Doctors and Distillers, we are discussing the 80's Tom Cruise "classic" Cocktail. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this fun movie as we discuss the mindset of the 80's, does the drama of this movie hold up or is it all just the flair, and is Tom Cruise's smile sexy or creepy? Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| Glam up for revolution with GLITTER AND CONCRETE - A Cultural History of Drag in New York by Elyssa Max Goodman. | 13 Feb 2024 | 00:38:15 | |
From journalist and drag historian Elyssa Maxx Goodman, an intimate, evocative history of drag in New York City exploring its dynamic role, from the Jazz Age to Drag Race, in queer liberation and urban life. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| You're Guaranteed to get Tipsy with Camper English and Doctors and Distillers | 09 Feb 2024 | 01:00:12 | |
Ever read The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart? I have. Several times, actually. Well, guess what book SHE is reading? “At last,” she writes, “a definitive guide to the medicinal origins of every bottle behind the bar! This is the cocktail book of the year, if not the decade.” What hallowed tome is she referring to? Folks, it’s a book so perfect for Peculiar Book Club that if it didn’t exist, I’d have to make it up: Doctors and Distillers by Camper English, the MEDICINAL history of beer, wine, spirits, and cocktails. BE STILL MY HEART. It’s true that, as a medical historian, I’ve always known alcohol was among our earliest medicines—and that it remains crucial to not a few today. But this story goes all the way back—to Egypt—and then a bit forward—to alchemists and monastic apothecaries. It takes a side road into germ theory, and then pops back out in forensics and the dangers of risky prohibition cocktails. What was alcohol meant to cure? Let’s see; wounds, worms, snakebite, malaria, scurvy, plague… Of course, we at the Peculiar Book Club feel it helps prepare you to read more weird books. | |||
| You're really bugging us for Bethany Brookshire and Pests | 26 Jan 2024 | 01:05:44 | |
Let’s imagine you’re nestling down for a good nap. You’ve already been to the market for food stuffs, you have filled your larder, and you even managed to get some brand new bedding. It’s cold out, and you are definitely ready for a long winter’s nap—when suddenly, someone rudely breaks into your home. Screaming. And maybe standing on a chair. Even though you’re just a common house mouse, minding his own business in someone’s sock drawer. Yes, we think of mice and rates and other critter as “pests”—vermin—the bad guys. Are they, though? Bethany Brookshire tackles this question in PESTS: How humans create animal villains. “Pests — the mice, raccoons, and seagulls of the world — are not irritating by nature,” Brookshire begins. Rather, she explains, “they are animal winners on a planet full of loss. When your habitat is full of parking lots, brick apartment buildings, and carefully tended gardens, survival isn’t about staying sweetly in the woods and meadows. Instead, evolutionary success looks a lot like raiding our trash, nesting on our buildings, and eating our gardens down to nubs.” Nature, you see, evolves WITH us. We learned a bit about this in The Natural History of the Future last year; we make these environments; we destroy natural ones. And sometimes, the animals we like (our beloved cats, for instance) are actually little destruction machines wreaking havoc on natural fauna. What we call a pest and what we call a PET comes down to how we personally interact—but there’s so much more to the story. Join us on Jan 25th for a livestream and chat with Bethany Brookshire as she breaks down the science of our imagined foes. Episode was recorded live on January 25th, 2024. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| You are all Suspects with Brandy Schillace and The Framed Women of Ardemore House | 26 Oct 2024 | 01:10:34 | |
An abandoned English manor. A peculiar missing portrait. A cozy, deviously clever muder mystery, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Anthony Horwitz. Jo Jones has always had a little trouble fitting in. As a neurodivergent, hyperlexic book editor and divorced New Yorker transplanted into the English countryside, Jo doesn’t know what stands out more: her Americanisms or her autism. After losing her job, her mother, and her marriage all in one year, she couldn’t be happier to take possession of a possibly haunted (and clearly unwanted) family estate in North Yorkshire. But when the body of the moody town groundskeeper turns up on her rug with three bullets in his back, Jo finds herself in potential danger—and she’s also a potential suspect. At the same time, a peculiar family portrait vanishes from a secret room in the manor, bearing a strange connection to both the dead body and Jo’s mysterious family history. With the aid of a Welsh antiques dealer, the morose local detective, and the Irish innkeeper’s wife, Jo embarks on a mission to clear herself of blame and find the missing painting, unearthing a slew of secrets about the town—and herself—along the way. And she’ll have to do it all before the killer strikes again… Episode was recorded live October 24, 2024. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC | |||
| Trust us, there's a lot of fun things to talk about with Antitrust (Peculiar Movie Club) | 18 Jan 2024 | 00:58:52 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book The Internet Con, we are discussing the early 2000's tech thriller Antitrust. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this internet, tech company thriller and the themes of Big Tech, stealing IP, knowledge belonging to the people, and why Tim Robbins is smashing potato chips the whole movie. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| We're pulling a Job with Cory Doctorow and The Internet Con | 14 Jan 2024 | 00:56:18 | |
Remember when wasting time on Twitter and Facebook was… fun? When we thought a future of connection awaited us, with endless promise? Those hopes have not aged well, have they? Twitter, Facebook and other Big Tech platforms made things easier… and then, when we weren’t looking, those easy-buttons became bricks in a prison wall. Just try leaving, they seem to say (I have left FB and then had to come back again for work, so I know this first hand). As Cory Doctorow puts it in The Internet Con, “They hold hostage the people we love, the communities that matter to us, the audiences and customers we rely on. The impossibility of staying connected to these people after you delete your account has nothing to do with technological limitations: it’s a business strategy in service to commodifying your personal life and relationships.” He says we need to take control of this mess. But how? The solution, it would seem, is “interoperability.” A really simple example is demanding that Apple make their power ports compatible with the ports that work on everything else. “Use any ink in your printer with any paper, use any socks with your shoes, anyone’s gasoline in your car, put any lightbulb in your light socket,” he tells us. The platform prison is built of deep separation, and it builds divisive-ness right into the design. Join us January 11th and talk live to Cory Doctorow about this award winning, eye-brow raising, con-busting book! But that’s not all!! We will also talk about his new SciFi novel about fear and hope for the future: The Lost Cause. Maybe we can start 2024 by taking the internet by storm. | |||
| Getting into the Peculiar Holiday Spirit with The Nightmare Before Christmas (Peculiar Movie Club) | 25 Dec 2023 | 00:31:49 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, for a little bit of fun during the Holiday season, we are discussing the Stop Motion Animated classic The Nightmare Before Christmas. Join Davey Berris for a solo adventure, as he takes a deep dive into this sometimes a Halloween movie, sometimes a Christmas movie, as he looks into the themes of can we change from our nature and the idea that maybe not everyone knows about Christmas and it's traditions. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| We have the Power with Masters of the Universe (Peculiar Movie Club) | 21 Dec 2023 | 01:00:10 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of Amanda Deibert's work on the new animated He-Man show, we are discussing the 80's cult classic movie Masters of the Universe. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this fantasy, superhero movie, as we look into the themes of destiny and power, plus a discussion on the whys and hows of how this movie got made. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| Wonder Woman? He-Man? Yes, please! An evening with Amanda Deibert! | 18 Dec 2023 | 00:58:06 | |
We are THRILLED to have the multi-talented and best selling Amanda Deibert on our show! Author, screenwriter, and much more--AND her newest book, the daily guided gratitude journal, YOU ALREADY HAVE THE ANSWERS is currently available for pre-order. At PBC, we will be talking to Amanda about the world of comics and graphic novels! Amanda’s comic book writing includes multiple DC Super Hero Girls graphic novels, a story in the New York Times I #1 Bestseller Love is Love, Serving Up Justice featuring Serena Williams and Wonder Woman, Flash Facts, Wonder Woman Agent of Peace, Teen Titans Go!, Wonder Woman ’77, Batman and Harley Quinn, DC’s The Doomed and the Damned, Wonderful Women of History, and Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman, for DC Comics, Hyperspace Stories for Lucas Film/Disney/Darkhorse comics and multiple stories in John Carpenter’s Tales for A Halloween Night volumes 2, 3, 4, 5 , & 6 for Storm King Comics, Red Sonja Black, White, Red for Dynamite, Work for a Million for McClelland & Stewart and more. ANd because that isn't enough, her television work includes writing for the animated series He-Man and The Masters Of The Universe for Netflix as well as work for CBS, SyFy, OWN, PIVOT, HULU and 4 years as writer for former Vice President Al Gore’s international climate broadcast, 24 Hours of Reality. WOW~! Musical Guest: The ever weird and wonderful CORD RAVENSWOOD, who happens to be a BIG FAN! Episode was recorded live on December 14th, 2023. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| It's a Differential Diagnosis with the TV Show House (Peculiar Movie Club) | 16 Nov 2023 | 01:13:19 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book Aroused by Randi Hutter Epstein, we are discussing the TV Show House. Specifically we are watching Season 1, Episode 16 "Heavy", then Season 2, Episode 13 "Skin Deep", and finally Season 3, Episode 1 "Meaning". Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this classic medical drama. We'll be looking into hormonal diseases, and how each medical mystery challenges House and his team. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| AROUSE yourself with Randi Hutter Epstein and the history of HORMONES | 11 Nov 2023 | 01:07:56 | |
How about a guided tour through the strange science of hormones and the age-old quest to control them? Metabolism, behavior, sleep, mood swings, the immune system, fighting, fleeing, puberty, and sex: these are just a few of the things our bodies control with hormones. Armed with a healthy dose of wit and curiosity, medical journalist Randi Hutter Epstein takes us on a journey through the unusual history of these potent chemicals from a basement filled with jarred nineteenth-century brains to a twenty-first-century hormone clinic in Los Angeles. Brimming with fascinating anecdotes, illuminating new medical research, and humorous details, Aroused introduces the leading scientists who made life-changing discoveries about the #hormone imbalances that ail us, as well as the charlatans who used those discoveries to peddle false remedies. Epstein exposes the humanity at the heart of hormone science with her rich cast of characters, including a 1920s doctor promoting vasectomies as a way to boost libido, a female medical student who discovered a pregnancy hormone in the 1940s, and a mother who collected pituitaries, a brain gland, from cadavers as a source of growth hormone to treat her son. Along the way, Epstein explores the functions of hormones such as leptin, oxytocin, #estrogen, and #testosterone, demystifying the science of endocrinology. A fascinating look at the history and science of some of medicine’s most important discoveries, Aroused reveals the shocking history of hormones through the back rooms, basements, and labs where endocrinology began. Episode was recorded live on November 9th, 2023. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| It's an extra Halloween Treat with The Wicker Man (Peculiar Movie Club) | 31 Oct 2023 | 00:56:43 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, as a special treat for Halloween, we are discussing the iconic folk horror movie The Wicker Man. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this classic british . We'll be looking into the themes of religion vs. temptation, being accepting of others' beliefs, and sacrificing virgins to pagan gods for a good apple harvests. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| Get SHOCKED and AMAZED for HALLOWEEN! | 31 Oct 2023 | 01:09:58 | |
It's our annual HALLOWEEN show! Costume contest (see our FB for how to sign up and vote), give-aways, candy, prizes, game--and how about some circus performance? SURE! A kooky evening of music and mayhem, with guests Charming Disaster and Sarah Mack (squid facts!) Don't miss it! James Taylor is the planet’s foremost authority on sideshow. You saw James Taylorand SHOCKED AND AMAZED! on The Learning Channel’s “Sideshow: Alive on the Inside,” “The Jerry Springer Show,” “Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel,” and Fox Television’s “Fox Files.” Sword swallowers, fire eaters, regurgitators, human pin cushions, torture kings, contortionists and motordrome riders look to James Taylor’s SHOCKED AND AMAZED! With him on this FABULOUS evening is sword-swallowing wonder The Lady Aye (who has been on our show before with her book THE RED MENACE!) MUSIC: IT WOULD NOT BE HALLOWEEN WITHOUT CHARMING DISASTER, WOULD IT? No. It would not. So a new and exciting song by our favorite duo "Time Machine!" Episode was recorded live on October 26th, 2023. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| Get SPOOKY with Mary Roach! | 13 Oct 2023 | 01:09:20 | |
"What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that―the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my lap-top?" In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die. MUSICAL GUEST: the marvelous Susan Hwang! ***NOTE: This show is available as a livestream for subscribers. AFTER the live show, it will be free to view on YouTube. If you are not subscribed, but would like to join the live-stream and chat with the author, please visit our Patreon page: https://patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator Episode was recorded live on October 12th, 2023. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| You're going to be Obsessed with Maria Dong and Liar, Dreamer, Thief | 16 Oct 2024 | 01:02:09 | |
Katrina Kim may be broke, the black sheep of her family, and slightly unhinged, but she isn’t a stalker. Her obsession with her co-worker, Kurt, is just one of many coping mechanisms—like her constant shape and number rituals, or the way scenes from her favorite children’s book bleed into her vision whenever she feels anxious or stressed. But when Katrina finds a cryptic message from Kurt that implies he’s aware of her surveillance, her tenuous hold on a normal life crumbles. Driven by compulsion, she enacts the most powerful ritual she has to reclaim control—a midnight visit to the Cayatoga Bridge—and arrives just in time to witness Kurt’s suicide. Before he jumps, he slams her with a devastating accusation: his death is all her fault. Horrified, Katrina combs through the clues she’s collected about Kurt over the last three years, but each revelation uncovers a menacing truth: for every moment she was watching him, he was watching her. And the past she thought she’d left behind? It’s been following her more closely than she ever could have imagined. Don’t miss this gripping thriller of a novel that explores the tenuous nature of our mental health—and might just cause us to question our own seeming realities. Live chat with author Maria Dong on Oct 10th—the perfect book for starting off the spooky season! Episode was recorded live October 10, 2024. Website: https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ixJJ2Y Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeculiarBookClub/membership Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams Twitter: @peculiarBC | |||
| Ride along with the Dalton Gang and The Pale Door (Peculiar Movie Club) | 05 Oct 2023 | 00:49:45 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian, we are discussing the movie The Pale Door. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this witchy western movie. We'll be looking into the themes of meshing genres, found family, and having a pure soul. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| Find your THRILL with Alex Grecian and Red Rabbit! | 30 Sep 2023 | 01:05:21 | |
Join us for the LAUNCH of RED RABBIT! Alex Grecian is the New York Times bestselling author of The Yard and its sequels The Black Country, The Devil’s Workshop, The Harvest Man, and Lost and Gone Forever, as well as the contemporary thriller The Saint of Wolves and Butchers, and the ebook The Blue Girl. He has also written multiple award-winning graphic novels, including Proof, and Rasputin. MUSICAL GUEST: The Mary Lous! Ukey, Sometimes Kooky RiotGhoooul from Nowhere, New Jersey. https://themarylous.bandcamp.com/merch Episode was recorded live on September 28th, 2023. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| It's a classic monster movie with The Bride of Frankenstein (Peculiar Movie Club) | 29 Sep 2023 | 00:42:49 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book Golem Girl by Riva Lehrer, we are discussing the movie The Bride of Frankenstein. Join Davey Berris (unfortunately Darren couldn't make it this month, but he'll be back), for a deep dive into this classic monster movie. We'll be looking into the themes of longing for connection and friendship, being monsters and gods, and how in 1935 they knew a thing or two about making movies. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| Go Back to the FUTURE (of life on Earth) with Rob Dunn! | 22 Sep 2023 | 01:00:47 | |
What if the world went on without us? Guess what. It will. A leading# ecologist argues that if humankind is to survive on a fragile planet, we must understand and obey its iron laws Our species has amassed unprecedented knowledge of #nature, which we have tried to use to seize control of life and bend the planet to our will. In A Natural History of the Future, biologist Rob Dunn argues that such efforts are futile. We may see ourselves as life’s overlords, but we are instead at its mercy. In the evolution of antibiotic resistance, the power of natural selection to create biodiversity, and even the surprising life of the London Underground, Dunn finds laws of life that no human activity can annul. When we create artificial islands of crops, dump toxic waste, or build communities, we provide new materials for old laws to shape. Life’s future flourishing is not in question. *Ours is.* Episode was recorded live on September 14th, 2023. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| Be Peculiar with Riva Lehrer, the Artist behind GOLEM GIRL! | 30 Aug 2023 | 01:11:21 | |
What do we sacrifice in the pursuit of #normalcy? And what becomes possible when we embrace monstrosity? Can we envision a world that sees impossible creatures? Lehrer was born with spina bifida, essentially a hole in the spine. In spina bifida patients, the spine does not fuse properly, leaving a fissure or lesion, creating an easy entry point for infections that risk going directly to the patient’s brain. Riva's parents and doctors were determined to “fix” her, sending the message over and over again that she is "broken." That she will never have a job, a romantic relationship, or an independent life. Enduring countless medical interventions, Riva tries her best to be a good girl and a good patient in the quest to be cured. Everything changes when, as an adult, Riva is invited to join a group of #artists, writers, and performers who are building Disability Culture. Their work is daring, edgy, funny, and dark—it rejects tropes that define disabled people as pathetic, frightening, or worthless. They insist that disability is an opportunity for creativity and #resistance. Emboldened, Riva asks if she can paint their portraits—inventing an intimate and collaborative process that will transform the way she sees herself, others, and the world. Each portrait story begins to transform the myths she’s been told her whole life about her body, her sexuality, and other measures of normal. This is the vividly told, gloriously illustrated memoir of an artist born with #disabilities who searches for freedom and connection in a society afraid of strange bodies MUSIC: Charming Disaster presents us with a single-- "Ouroboros" - alchemy, transformation, metamorphosis! Don't miss out! Episode was recorded live on August 24th, 2023. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| We're taking a deep dive with Daniel Kraus and Whalefall! | 08 Aug 2023 | 00:30:37 | |
In this bonus episode of the Peculiar Book Club, suggested by Mary Roach, we got a chance to sit down with author Daniel Kraus for a preview conversation of his new book Whalefall. Don't worry, Brandy and Davey have not read the book yet, so there will be no spoilers, but you will get a great conversation about Daniel's inspirations and process for writing the book and the themes that come up often throughout his writing career. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| It's a memorable episode with Little Fish (Peculiar Movie Club) | 03 Aug 2023 | 00:58:25 | |
Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book The Memory Thief by Lauren Aguirre, we are discussing the movie Little Fish. Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this tragic movie. We'll be looking into the themes of what makes a relationship, our memories or our feelings, plus how to build a future together, and why it's impossible to photograph dogs. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||
| Catch The Memory Thief with Lauren Aguirre! | 28 Jul 2023 | 01:05:56 | |
Could you lose your entire memory overnight? If so--what does it mean for the rest of us? The day neurologist Jed Barash sees the baffling brain scan of a young patient with devastating amnesia marks the beginning of a quest to answer those questions. First detected in a cluster of stigmatized opioid overdose victims in Massachusetts with severe damage to the hippocampus - the brain’s memory center - this rare syndrome reveals how the tragic plight of the unfortunate few can open the door to advances in medical science. After overcoming initial skepticism that investigating the syndrome is worth the effort - and that fentanyl is the likely culprit - Barash and a growing team of dedicated doctors explore the threat that people who take opioids chronically as prescribed to treat severe pain may gradually put their memories at risk. At the same time, they begin to grasp the potential for this syndrome to shed light on the most elusive memory thief of all - Alzheimer’s disease. Through the prism of this fascinating story, Aguirre goes on to examine how researchers tease out the fundamental nature of memory and the many mysteries still to be solved. Where do memories live? Why do we forget most of what happens in a day but remember some events with stunning clarity years later? How real are our memories? And what purpose do they actually serve? MUSIC: That's right, all this memory talk means CHARMING DISASTER's "Disembodied Head" is coming your way! Episode was recorded live on July 27th, 2023. To join future broadcasts check out our Book Club schedule at https://brandyschillace.com/peculiar/. Follow us on Twitter (@peculiarBC), Facebook (facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub), Instagram (@thepeculiarbookclub), and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub)! | |||