Tara is joined by Dr. Christopher Smith (christopherclaytonsmith.com)--friend, colleague, and horror buff--to discuss the enduring tradition of campfire tales and even tell some of the classics. Pull up a log and enjoy a story that involves spooks, slashers, and the Boy Scouts of America.
There's some "movie talk" in this episode, particularly about the Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp franchises. Spoilers are signaled in the dialogue, mild for Friday the 13th(s) and major for Sleepaway Camp(s). If you want to learn more about the politics and implications of the movies we discuss here, we recommend the podcasts You Are Good with hosts Alex Steed and Sarah Marshall, and This Ends at Prom with hosts BJ Colangelo and Harmony Colangelo. The Midnight Seminar does not have an association with these shows, although if the hosts ever see this and want to be friends, please get in touch.
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Other References:
"How Conversations Around Campfires Came To Be" by Robin I. M. Dunbar, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2014:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1416382111.
See links on the Wikipedia page for "Campfire Story" (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campfire_story), specifically "Campfire Stories: Sleeper Tells of Release," The Delta Independent (Colorado), June 7, 1912:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86063206/1912-06-07/ed-1/?sp=7&r=-0.036,-0.275,1.223,0.586,0
Boy Scouts Handbook, first edition (1911):
Playing Indian by Philip J. Deloria
"URBAN LEGENDS" and the Urban Legend Hotline episodes of the American Hysteria podcast with host Chelsea Weber-Smith
"Urban Legends Spectacular!" and "Urban Legends and Urban Legend (1998) with Chelsea Weber-Smith" on theYou're Wrong About podcast with host Sarah Marshall
The Encyclopedia of Urban Legends by Jan Harold Brunvand
"The Hook and Other Teenage Horrors" in The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings by Jan Harold Brunvand
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz (Drawings by Stephen Gammell)
Meatballs (1979) campfire story scene:
