A skeptical look at one of the most famous ghost photographs ever taken - the 1959 "backseat ghost" snapped by Mrs. Mabel Chinnery in Ipswich, England. This episode is distilled from a recent MonsterTalk Live stream with Blake, Karen Stollznow, and special guest Matt Baxter, who brought fresh research (and one neat new idea) to a very old mystery.It's also a companion piece to our Newby Church Ghost coverage and the spirit-photography episode of Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers (1985), which examined the Chinnery photo alongside the Cottingley Fairies and the Newby ghost.Extended show notes at our Patreon site.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.

Blake, Karen and Matt discover that this famous ghost photo isn't as old as they expected, and perhaps not as mysterious either. Do we get it right? Do you have a different explanation? Let us know in the comments.👻 The Spectre of Newby ChurchIn one black-and-white photograph of a church altar, a tall, hooded figure stands where the photographer swore no one was standing. The "Newby Monk" has haunted paranormal books, websites, and late-night clip shows for decades, and it remains one of the most reproduced ghost photographs ever taken. In this episode we dig into where the image really came from, who took it, when it was actually shot, and how a clever photographer might have made it.Extensive show notes at monstertalk.orgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.

Most Americans meet the Rakshasa in exactly two places: a 1974 episode of a beloved horror TV series and the pages of the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Both versions give you a debonair, tiger-faced shape-changer with a taste for human flesh - but neither prepares you for how deep, how old, and how genuinely alive these creatures are. To dig us out of that pop-culture foxhole, we sat down with academic researcher Eric Zsebenyi for a tour that runs from the Rig Veda to the Ramayana, into Buddhism, through present-day Sri Lankan politics, and finishes at the tent-shaped tomb of a very naughty Victorian translator.🎙️ Our GuestEric Zsebenyi holds a master's degree from Naropa University (2000) and has pursued Buddhist studies as a lifelong avocation alongside a career as a civil servant. His path to the Rakshasas began with a Dharma protector named Vetali in his own meditation practice - which, as you'll hear, leads straight back to one of India's stranger monsters. Blake met Eric at the recent Gods & Monsters Conference, where Eric delivered a paper on the Vetala.You can find Eric's work here: Eric Zsebenyi on Academia.eduExtensive show notes at Monstertalk.orgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.

On the morning of February 9, 1855, residents across south Devon, England, discovered strange hoof-shaped tracks in the snow. The prints - about 4 inches long, 3 inches wide, and spaced roughly 8 inches apart in single file - appeared to have been left by a biped with a donkey-like hoof. Reports came in from more than 30 locations across the county. Within days, the Illustrated London News published a letter from a correspondent calling himself "South Devon" that would define the legend for generations: a continuous 100-mile trail, identical prints in every parish, passage over rooftops and through haystacks, a crossing of the two-mile-wide River Exe. The Devil, some locals whispered, had walked through Devon.In this episode, Blake, Karen, and Matt dig into the original sources, trace how the story was embellished over 170 years of retelling, and examine the many theories - from wood mice to Romani conspiracies - that have been offered to explain the Great Devon Mystery. EXTENSIVE show notes at https://monstertalk.orgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.

Darren joins Blake and Karen to discuss his new article in Geology Today, which grew out of his work on the Monsters of the Deep museum exhibition. That exhibition originally opened at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, Cornwall in 2020, traveled to two additional venues, and most recently ran at the Aberdeen Art Gallery in Scotland. Darren describes how each venue's unique architecture required a complete redesign of the exhibition, changing both the visual layout and the narrative flow.Extensive show notes at monstertalk.orgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.

This is part two of our conversation with Kyle Crosby, creator and host of Louisiana Dread. In Part 1, we covered the history of the Acadians and how they carried the loup-garou legend from France to the bayous of Louisiana. Now, in Part 2, Kyle walks us through the transformation of the loup-garou into the Rougarou - from strict werewolf to all-purpose shapeshifting boogeyman - and takes us on a tour of Louisiana's other legendary creatures, from the Axeman of New Orleans to the feu follet to the Grunch.Extensive show notes at MonsterTalk.orgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.

This is part one of a two-part conversation. Blake and Karen are joined by Kyle Crosby, filmmaker, historian, and founder of Louisiana Dread, a multimedia project dedicated to documenting the dark history, folklore, and culture of the Pelican State. Kyle is a native of Larose, Louisiana, who grew up in Lafourche Parish and on Grand Isle. He spent years working in the film industry before returning home to preserve the stories he felt were being lost to time. Through his popular YouTube channel and social media platforms, he bridges the gap between scholarly history and regional folklore - covering everything from the legend of the Rougarou and the Honey Island Swamp Monster to the real-life mysteries of the Cajun Coast. Kyle is currently adapting his historical deep dives into a scripted horror anthology series, with one episode in the festival circuit and a second in pre-production. Blake met Kyle at the second Gods and Monsters conference at Texas State University, where Kyle's presentation on Louisiana's history and folklore inspired Blake and Karen to finally tackle the Rougarou as a proper episode. In this first part, the conversation digs into the history of the Acadian expulsion, the cultural forces that produced Cajun and Creole Louisiana, and the Old World roots of the Rougarou legend. In part two, they'll get into what the Rougarou actually became - a shape-shifting boogeyman with regional variants, plus feux follets, and a monster that might have been born from a traveling circus. Extensive show notes at MonsterTalk.OrgBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.

Neuroscientist Dr. Melissa Maffeo joins Blake and Karen to discuss her new book Science of the Supernatural: Critical Thinking for the Mind and Brain (Cambridge University Press, 2026). Melissa is an associate teaching professor of psychology at Wake Forest University, where she also serves as Associate Director of the Neuroscience Program.In this episode, Melissa talks about using paranormal topics as an accessible entry point for teaching psychology and neuroscience, and shares her view that most supernatural experiences can likely be explained by what's happening in our brains - even if we don't yet have all the answers. The conversation covers a wide range of topics from the book, including the God Helmet experiments, the neuroscience of out-of-body experiences, how parasites can hijack behavior, and whether prior belief shapes what we experience. Extended show notes at our website.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.

To announce (and celebrate) the Spanish language release of Chet Van Duzer's beautiful and informative book on map monsters, I'm re-releasing episode S01E69!Grab your copy in Spanish here:SPANISH LANGUAGE : Monstruos marinos en mapas medievales y renacentistas by Chet Van DuzerOr snag it in English here:Sea Monsters on Medeival and Renaissance MapsExtensive show notes here!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support.Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.

Blake and Karen are joined by Matt Baxter to discuss the strange case of the Cottingley Fairies.  https://www.monstertalk.org/?p=2706Hosts: Karen Stollznow, Blake SmithGuest: Matt BaxterIn this episode, the MonsterTalk crew tackles one of the most famous photographic hoaxes in history - the Cottingley Fairies. In 1917, two young cousins in West Yorkshire produced five photographs that appeared to show real fairies dancing in the garden behind their home. What began as a bit of childhood mischief spiraled into a worldwide sensation when https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle and the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophical_Society championed the images as proof of the supernatural. The team explores how layers of credibility - authentic negatives, expert validation, retouched reproductions, and celebrity endorsement - created a blueprint for how misinformation gains legitimacy. More than a debunking, this is a story about two girls swept up in forces far beyond their control, and the adults who used them.🧚 The Five Photographs1. Frances and the Dancing Fairies (July 1917) - The iconic first image. Frances gazes past four dancing fairies, one playing a pipe.2. Elsie and the Gnome (September 1917) - Elsie reaches toward a gnome who looks suspiciously like Rowan Atkinson.3. Frances and the Leaping Fairy (August 1920) - Taken with the new Cameo cameras and marked plates provided by Gardner.4. A Fairy Offering a Posy of Harebells to Elsie (August 1920) - Featuring a fairy with a very fashionable 1920s bob haircut.5. Fairies and Their Sun Bath (August 1920) - The most blurred and "ethereal" looking image. Frances maintained to her death that this one was genuine. Matt suspects the camera simply wasn't stable.🔍 The Story in BriefIn the summer of 1917, cousins Elsie Wright (15, turning 16) and Frances Griffiths (9) were living together at 31 Main Street, Cottingley, West Yorkshire. Frances and her mother had returned to the UK from South Africa because Frances's father, Arthur Griffiths, had gone to serve on the Western Front. The girls played constantly at the beck (stream) behind the house, and when scolded for getting wet, claimed they went there to see fairies.To prove it, they borrowed Elsie's father Arthur Wright's Midg quarter-plate camera - a glass-plate camera from around 1912 - and returned within the hour with one of the most iconic images in paranormal history: Frances gazing past a group of four dancing fairies, one playing a pipe. A second photograph followed - Elsie with a gnome (who, Karen notes, bears a striking resemblance to Rowan Atkinson).Elsie's father Arthur, a keen amateur photographer with his own darkroom, immediately suspected a prank. But Elsie's mother Polly believed the photographs were genuine. In 1919, Polly attended a lecture on "Fairy Life" at the Bradford Theosophical Society and shared the images. That brought them to the attention of https://theosophy.wiki/en/Edward_L._Gardner, president of the London lodge of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophical_Society, and eventually Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was already writing an article on fairies for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strand_Magazine.Gardner had the negatives examined by photographic expert Harold Snelling, who declared them "genuine" with "no trace of studio work" - technically true, since the trick was all done in-camera with cardboard cutouts and hatpins, not in a studio. Snelling then produced enhanced copies from the original negatives for publication - transforming evidence into what Matt calls "presentation artifacts," though they continued to trade on that original credibility claim.In 1920, Gardner returned to Cottingley with two Cameo cameras and secretly marked photographic plates. The girls produced three more photographs: Frances and the...