My guest for this episode is Aaron Gulyas, author of books such as Extraterrestrials and the American Zeitgest and The Chaos Conundrum as well as being the creator of The Saucer Life podcast, where he examines the folkloric aspect to the Flying Saucer phenomenon and explores the history and lore of Ufology through the lens of individual stories of encounters, sightings, concepts or events. I think he’s one of the most insightful voices exploring the history of UFOs right now and we had a really ...
Jul 10, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 17
This weeks episode is about a remarkable woman from Victorian Wales called Lady Charlotte Guest and her quest to preserve the folklore and legends of her adopted homeland, which would be published as the Mabinogion, widely regarded today as one of the most important collections of medieval prose literature in Europe. The stories it contains began life as part of an oral storytelling tradition in Britains ancient past, featuring political intrigue, bickering royalty, warring armies, noble warrior...
Jun 26, 2019•52 min•Ep. 16
Shirley Jackson’s novel ‘The Haunting of Hill House’, written in 1959 is considered one of the best ghost stories of the 20th Century and is seen as highly influential in the depiction of hauntings in literature in modern times. The protagonist of the story is Eleanor Vance. The novel opens with her travelling to the titular house to be part of a scientific investigation she has been invited to by Dr Montague. Eleanor is a troubled character and her arrival at Hill House instigates a series of u...
Jun 12, 2019•59 min•Ep. 15
Interest in the Occult is a strong as ever in the 21st Century. When you consider that these subjects are usually those that sit outside of acceptance by mainstream science or organised religion but can have a deep connection to human experience, it’s easy to understand the appeal – and I say that as someone who is very interested. It’s interesting that a lot of these idea are devalued by the mainstream as much as they every were. Why is that? To get a better understanding of this, my guest for ...
May 29, 2019•52 min•Ep. 14
When you think of magic, two things will usually come to mind; an artist on stage, performing fantastic acts such as card tricks, illusions, mind reading and hypnosis; or a more esoteric practice – someone, usually by themselves, enacting a ritual in an attempt influence their world by invoking supernatural assistance. In some ways, there would seem to be some similarities between these two scenarios. My guest for this episode is Mark Bell, who has performed all across the world as the ‘magical ...
May 15, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 13
In the late 1950’s, two high school friends, Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley would regularly meet at their local bowling alley in East Whittier, California to hang out and talk long into the night about the issues of the day and the limits of the world that they lived in – one they felt was based all to willingly on order and control. What if there was a different way of engaging with the world, something more chaotic, unpredictable and fun? These conversations and an affection for a certain Greek ...
May 01, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 12
In this episode, I discuss Tarot with Elin Heron, who has been a Tarot reader for over twenty years and also hosts regular classes and workshops for people interested in learning more about the cards. I’m very much a novice myself, and as such, this episode is a beginners guide, discussing the origins of Tarot, it’s evolution from a renaissance card game into an occult resource, the Major and Minor Arcana and how to best start using a Tarot deck for readings. It was a pleasure to talk with Elin ...
Apr 10, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 11
Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge running from east to west on the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in England. Each side of it peppered with caves and until earlier this year, the site was most famous for spectacular cave art made by hunter gatherers many thousands of years ago. A recent discovery has added a fascinating aspect to the history of the site however. What was thought to be Victorian graffiti turned out instead to be a vast array of protective marks, or "Witch Marks" datin...
Mar 27, 2019•52 min•Ep. 10
My guest for this episode is author and host of the Myth Legend and Lore podcast, Siobhán Clark. In her podcast Siobhán discusses a wide range of stories from her native Scotland, which feature a fascinating mix of characters and settings, and date far back into the early history of the nation. We talked about the storytelling traditions of the people of those times, the cultures they came from, and of course look at some of legends and mythical creatures that have haunted the imaginations of Sc...
Mar 13, 2019•59 min•Ep. 9
My guest for this episode is Shanon Sinn, the author of a book called “The Haunting of Vancouver Island”. He has lived on the Canadian island for over twenty years and in that time has formed a deep, personal connection with the wildlife, landscape and people who live there. His book examines a wide range of supernatural tales, from first nations legends, through the early days of European settlement, and onward into more recent times. Shanon is an award winning journalist and author, whose life...
Feb 27, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 8
My guest for this episode is Chris Reeve, the creator of a blog called “The Gotobed Diaries”. The blog details his discovery of the case files of one Doctor Thomas Gotobed, who appears to have been (or still is) some kind of researcher of the occult. The files themselves vary between reports on paranormal incidents and the good doctor’s own thoughts on various theories about the supernatural. Is Doctor Gotobed real? Well, I’ll let Chris tell you that. What I can say is that we had a really inter...
Feb 13, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 7
My guest for this episode is author and folklore blogger Icy Sedgwick. Icy has written several novels and short stories, many of which involve the supernatural. She is also a keen folklorist, writing a blog on an array of fascinating subjects and regularly contributing to "Folklore Thursday" on Twitter. We talked about her interests in the paranormal and writing, how the concept of a haunting varies in the writings of authors such as Charles Dickens, M.R James and Shirley Jackson, the depiction ...
Jan 30, 2019•55 min•Ep. 6
For this episode, my guest is comedian and Cryptozoologist Matt Kessen, who combined a lifelong obsession with monsters with his natural funnybones to create the phenomenon that is “ Reverend Matt’s Monster Science” – a regularly updated comedy show he presents that has covered an impressively broad range of subjects, most notable of which is perhaps “What to do in the event of a Dinosaur attack”. Matt has received praise from no other than Guillermo Del Toro for his work (“You’re my kind of guy...
Jan 16, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 5
Firstly, Happy New Year! My guest for this episode is Madra Banrion, who discusses her experiences with Ancestor Veneration and Animism. Going into the recording, I only new the basics about these subjects but Madra was an excellent guest and led a really interesting conversation about these practices, which at first might seem esoteric but in reality, are probably something we already have at least a little experience of in our everyday lives. Madra's excellent website is: https://madrabanrion....
Jan 02, 2019•55 min•Ep. 4
My guest for this episode is Andy McGrath, a UK based Cryptozoologist with over 25 years of research experience investigating reports of unknown creatures living right under our noses here in the British Isles. He's the author of an excellent blog called "Beasts of Britain", has brought out a book of the same name and is now working on a TV series. He's also spoken at events such as CryptidCon and the International Cryptozoology Conference. We talked about how his interest in Cryptozoology start...
Dec 18, 2018•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 3
In this episode I talk to Dr Alan Montgomery who is the creator of the "My Search for Magic" blog. Alan has traveled across the United Kingdom and Europe visiting various sites, both man made and natural, that have a legend attached to them and possess an otherworldy quality. He writes about the people, places and things which bring magic into his life. In his own words, he describes it as "looking for magic in the modern world". We talked about what inspired him to start the blog, some of the f...
Dec 11, 2018•53 min•Ep. 2
