Peculiar Book Club Podcast

From Sarah Weinman, author of Scoundrel and The Real Lolita, comes an eye-opening story about the first major spousal rape trial in America and urgent questions about women’s rights that would reverberate for decades.

In December 1978, Greta Rideout bravely testified that her husband, John, whom she still lived with, had raped her. She was the first woman in United States history to do this, at a time when the idea of “marital r...

Ghosts spoke. Women listened. Everything changed.It began with whispers in a dimly lit room. In the 1840s, the Fox Sisters―and the legions of mediums they inspired―ignited the Spiritualist movement that swept through Victorian parlors and presidential campaigns alike. Contacting the dead wasn't merely a parlor trick: It was a political statement, a declaration of self that still echoes. Séances attracted suffragists and scienti...

The story of the wildest experiments in early photography and the wild people who undertook them.Today it’s routine to take photos from an airplane window, use a camera underwater, watch a movie, or view an X-ray. But the photographic innovations more than a century ago that made such things possible were experimental, revelatory, and sometimes dangerous—and many of the innovators, entrepreneurs, and inventors behind them were memo...

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 Holy Food, we are reviewing the cooking comedy Julie and Julia.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into this dual story of chefs. We'll discuss the themes of finding your purpose, the kitchen is for everyone, and why making a point holding...

Featured : CHRISTINA WARD, Holy Food: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat — An American HistoryDoes God have a recipe? I know who to ask! Independent food historian Christina Ward’s highly anticipated Holy Food explores the influence of mainstream (and fringe) religious beliefs on modern American food culture. It's the story of true believers and charlatans, of idealists and visionaries, and of t...

New laws limit access to abortion and threaten doctors with prison. Religious zealots and opportunistic politicians team up to ban books about sex and to “protect” children from their “corrupting” influence. Sound familiar? Welcome to America in the late 19th-century under the Comstock Act, a federal law that prohibited the distribution of information about sex, contraception, or abortion through the U.S. Mail.

SEX RADICAL, the...

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 having some Halloween fun, we are reviewing the horror comedy An American Werewolf in London.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into the themes of transformation, anger and rage, and what's the best song with moon in the title.

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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 League of Lady Poisoners, we are reviewing the revenge drama A Vigilante.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into the themes of Domestic Violence being bad, men's obsession with gender roles, and circumstances and skill sets.

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Featured : BRANDY SCHILLACE, The Dead Come to StayBrandy’s back with a sequel! Jo Jones can't catch a break. She'd hoped that trading her city life for the cozy, peaceful hills of North Yorkshire to inherit a crumbling family estate would finally be her chance for a "fresh start" and a new future. Instead, she's been thrust further into the past than she ever imagined possible. The estate property is littered ...

From Dr Nicholas Wright, leading neuroscientist and adviser to the Pentagon, discover the new science behind warfare.Why did France lose to the Nazis, despite its defenders having more tanks, troops, and guns? How did we bring peace to Germany after World War Two? How do you know if you can trust an ally? How can we make clearer decisions under pressure?In Warhead, Nicholas Wright takes us on a fascinating journey through the brain...

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 Brandy's book The Intermediaries, we are reviewing the biopic Milk.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into this moving but tragic film. We'll discuss the themes of fighting for your rights in the face of oppression, the person Harvey Milk was ...

Featured : THERESA MACPHAIL, Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing WorldAllergies are a PROBLEM. Hay fever. Peanut allergies. Eczema. Most of us have an allergy to something, but what causes them and why do they seem to be getting worse? And why do some allergies kill? Meet medical anthropologist Theresa MacPhail; she is, herself, an allergy sufferer—and lost her father to a bee sting. It doesn’t make sense that a part of ou...

Al Ridenour, creator and host of the popular podcast Bone and Sickle and author of The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas extends his study of Winter folk celebrations to the Spring, exploring the Old-World Carnival in A Season of Madness.Sumptuously illustrated with over one hundred historical and modern images, Ridenour ushers readers into cultural hinterlands where celebrations still echo the cruel realities of the old, agricul...

Boy, do I have news for you! On September 11, Mary Roach has agreed to join us to talk about her brand new release: Replaceable You! It’s a fabulous book absolutely enthralling – I am presently reviewing it for the Wall Street Journal! I can’t wait for you to see the fascinating things she has uncovered in the world of replacement parts. Free show!

Episode was recorded live September 11, 2025.

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Tap into your hidden intelligence and transform your lifeHow are some people so much smarter than the rest of us? Where do visionary creatives and savvy decision-makers like Vincent van Gogh, Steve Jobs, Abraham Lincoln, Maya Angelou, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Wayne Gretzky, Warren Buffett, and William Shakespeare get their extraordinary mental abilities?In 2021, researchers at Ohio State’s Project Narrative, reno...

For more than two centuries the United States constitution has given Americans the right to live in a society where church and state exist independently and without conflict. So why is Christianity suddenly being co-opted by far-right groups, politicians, friends, and family members to justify oppressive and unequal policies? And how do we fight back against those acting—literally—in bad faith?Separation of Church and Hate, by come...

Featured : LISA PERRIN, The League of Lady Poisoners: Illustrated True Stories of Dangerous WomenDescribed as a feast for the senses, this sumptuously illustrated book will introduce you to some of the most infamous women throughout world history, united by their shared taste for poison. Welcome to the League of Lady Poisoners. Lisa Perrin will join our peculiar little group to chat about the stories of more than twenty-five accuse...

A lively, hilarious, and entirely truthful look at the druggie side of history’s most famous figures, including Shakespeare, George Washington, the Beatles, and more
Did you know that Alexander the Great was a sloppy drunk and William Shakespeare was a stoner? Or how about the fact that Steve Jobs believed taking LSD helped him create the Apple computer, or that Sigmund Freud loved cocaine so much he took it all the time and pre...

Featured : HANNAH CARLSON, Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close Okay, million dollar question: Who gets pockets, and why? It is definitely peculiar and frankly, I have a lot of questions. Why do men’s clothes have so many pockets and women’s so few? And why are the pockets on women’s clothes often too small to fit phones, if they even open at all? GOOD NEWS: Hannah Carlson, a lecturer in dress history at the Rho...