Peculiar Book Club Podcast

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 ...

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 our...

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 ...

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 ca...

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 fe...

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 ...

Maybe you're a fan of DOCTOR WHO. Or perhaps you were a fan of ELEVENTH HOUR with Patrick Stewart (Or Silent Witness. Or Rosemary and Thyme. Or Murder Rooms.) Perhaps thrillers are more your thing, books like KINGDOM OF BONES or BEDLAM DETECTIVE--or scifil, supernatural, graphic novels. Then YOU, my friend, are a fan of STEPHEN GALLAGHER! A novelist, screenwriter, and director with a list of books that runs right off the shelf...

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 Saving Yellowstone by Megan Kate Nelson, we are discussing the movie How the West Was Won.

Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this epic western adventure.  We'll be looking into the themes of western expansion, the tr...

Each year nearly four million people visit #Yellowstone National Park—one of the most popular of all national parks—but few know the fascinating and complex historical context in which it was established. In late July 1871, the geologist-explorer Ferdinand Hayden led a team of scientists through a narrow canyon into Yellowstone Basin, entering one of the last unmapped places in the country. The survey’s discoveries led to the passa...

No, it's not a new Batman Villain! But you will love The Puzzler anyway! The New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically goes on a rollicking journey to understand the enduring power of puzzles: why we love them, what they do to our brains, and how they can improve our world. What makes puzzles—jigsaws, mazes, riddles, sudokus—so satisfying? Be it the formation of new cerebral pathways, their close link...

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 Evening Hero by Marie Myung-Ok Lee, we are discussing the movie Minari.

Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this family and immigrant tale.  We'll be looking into the themes of the American Dream, what makes a real...

We don't do much fiction, but sometimes there is a story that begs to be read. This one is a medical humanities style tale; Marie Myung-OK Lee writes a sweeping, lyrical novel following a Korean immigrant pursuing the American dream who must confront the secrets of the past or risk watching the world he’s worked so hard to build come crumbling down. Dr. Yungman Kwak is in the twilight of his life. Every day for the last fifty ...

Ed Yong PROBABLY needs no introduction--but just in case: he is a Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer on the staff of The Atlantic, where he also won the George Polk Award for science reporting, among other honors. His first book, I Contain Multitudes, was a New York Times bestseller. We are SO grateful to have him with us! In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the ...

The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) The Universe had a beginning, and it will have an end. Modern cosmology — the study of the nature and evolution of the cosmos itself — has allowed physicists to explain the history of the Universe from the first tiny fraction of a second until today. But what’s next? We now have the tools to extend our knowledge into the distant future and speculate about the ultimate fate of all re...

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 Ordinary Equality by Kate Kelly, we are discussing the movie On the Basis of Sex.

Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this legal drama, biography movie.  We'll be looking into the themes of gender equality, the anatomy...

THE BATTLE GOES ON! Ordinary Equality digs into the fascinating and little-known history of the women and queer people who have helped shape the U.S. Constitution for more than 200 years. Based on author Kate Kelly’s acclaimed podcast of the same name, Ordinary Equality recounts a story centuries in the making. From before the Constitution was even drafted to the modern day, she examines how and why constitutional equality for wome...

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 Heartbreak by Florence Williams, we are discussing the movie Eat Pray Love.

Join Davey Berris and his podcasting partner Darren Cross, for a deep dive into this heartbreak (maybe midlife crisis) movie.  We'll be looking into the themes of learning to live alone...

Is there a SCIENCE for SADNESS? When twenty-five-year marriage suddenly falls apart, journalist Florence Williams expects the loss to hurt. But when she starts feeling physically sick, losing weight and sleep, she sets out in pursuit of rational explanation. She travels to the frontiers of the science of “social pain” to learn why heartbreak hurts so much―and why so much of the conventional wisdom about it is wrong.  Soon Will...

Your Backstage Pass Beyond the Veil! A full sensory experience... "The Secret Music of Lily Dale" is both book and album.  

This is a rare peek inside the famed little town that talks to the dead— with both sights and sounds. An unprecedented project, Jill Tracy reveals a sonic exploration of Lily Dale, the private community of mediums and Spiritualists in upstate New York. These are her elegant, mystical, late-night pian...