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PODCAST

Peculiar Book Club Podcast

Peculiar Book Club Podcast

Weird Science, Bizarre History, & Strange Medicine: we host authors of PECULIAR nonfiction! Want to know why animals evolved to suck blood? Or the secrets of sword-swallowers? Curious about Vagina Obscura? Or the astrophysics of a dying universe? We"ve 3 shows to tempt you: the PBC podcast (from Mary Roach to Ed Yong), Peculiar at the Movies with Davey Berris (where factoids meet celluloid); and Peculiar in Mystery (thrillers + true crime!) Join host Brandy Schillace, as seen on THE UNBELIEVABLE

arts books

All Episodes

00:32:14

Slow down, take a breath with Carl Zimmer and Air-Borne

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2025/02/20

The fascinating, untold story of the air we breathe, the hidden life it contains, and invisible dangers that can turn the world upside downEvery day we draw in two thousand gallons of air—and thousands of living things. From the ground to the stratosphere, the air teems with invisible life. This last great biological frontier remains so mysterious that it took over two years for scientists to finally agree that the Covid pandemic was caused by an airborne virus.In Air-Borne, award-winning New York

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01:05:49

We'll Discover the Possibility of LIFE with Jaime Green!

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2025/02/14

Featuring:JAIME GREEN, The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the CosmosOne of the most powerful questions humans ask about the cosmos is: Are we alone? While the science behind this inquiry is fascinating, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It is a reflection of our values, our fears, and most importantly, our enduring sense of hope. In The Possibility of Life, acclaimed science journalist Jaime Green traces the history of our understanding, from the days of Galileo

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00:32:48

We'll have you believing in Lydia Kang and Pseudoscience

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2025/02/06

From the authors of Quackery, a visual and narrative history of popular ideas, phenomena, and widely held beliefs disproven by science. From the easily disproved to the wildly speculative, to straight-up hucksterism, Pseudoscience is a romp through much more than bad science—it’s a light-hearted look into why we insist on believing in things such as Big Foot, astrology, and the existence of aliens. Did you know, for example, that you can tell a person’s future by touching their butt? Rumpology

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01:07:24

Our minds and bodies will be linked with Pamela...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2025/01/24

I loved this book so much that I wrote the Wall Street Journal review for it! It’s an absolutely madcap and unexpected take on history I thought I knew… But I hadn’t yet encountered Candace Pert. This amazing scientist stood at the dawn of three revolutions: the opioid crisis, the AIDS crisis, and the mind-body movement. A troubled genius, beleaguered, beguiling, and not above bedeviling, her visionary work shaped history - for good and, inadvertently, for evil.She discovered the opiate receptor

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01:09:12

We've got the optics on The Invisible Man (Peculiar...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2025/01/23

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 Invisibility, we are doing the 2020 reboot of The Invisible Man. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into this inventive horror/thriller. We'll discuss the themes of gaslighting, the technology of invisibility, and strategies for fighting an invisible man. Website:

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01:03:16

You might struggle to see us with Gregory Gbur and...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2025/01/10

It’s like that Monty Python Sketch… There are good reasons to know how not to be seen, and Gregory Gbur is ready to tell us all about the SCIENCE. Come now, you say, it isn’t really possible to be made invisible! Or is it? You’ll be surprised! In this book, science writer and optical physicist Gregory J. Gbur traces the science of invisibility from its sci-fi origins in the nineteenth-century writings of authors such as H. G. Wells and Fitz James O’Brien to modern stealth technology, invisibility

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00:55:35

We've got some real bite with Interview with the...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2025/01/07

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 Bite, we are doing the 1994 horror/romance film Interview with the VampireJoin Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into this 90's classic. We'll discuss the themes of morality, vampire nihilism, and how great Kirsten Dunst was as a child actor and Tom Cruise was as a villian. Website:

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01:02:45

We'll give you something to Chew On with Bill Schutt...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/12/16

If you follow the Peculiar Book Club Facebook group, you’ll know Bill Schutt is EXACTLY our kind of weird. He’s a vertebrate zoologist and author of six nonfiction and fiction books, including Pump, Cannibalism, and Dark Banquet! Recently retired from his post as professor of biology, Bill’s now a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. He knows ever so much about bats (our favorite night wings) and in this latest book, an “incisive” history of teeth (from hagfish to humans),

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01:02:34

We'll dance around the issues with Black Swan...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/12/11

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 Hurts So Good, we are doing the 2010 psychological thriller Black Swan.Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into the world of ballet and pain. We'll discuss the themes of perfectionism, the effects on mental health from that competitive environment, and what was the most painful moment. Website:

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01:07:02

We're bringing the Pain with Leigh Cowart (and Rachel...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/11/16

Can pain… be pleasure? I was never one to experience a runner’s high, or to enjoy ‘feeling the burn’ after a workout. But are there ways—or times—when pain provides something extra, or even extraordinary? Leigh Cowart sets out to ask and to answer this very question. Sure, we might first think of masochism as something to do with sex—but it gets out of the bedroom plenty. Cowart talks about Black Plague flagellants, ballerinas dancing on broken bones, ice bathers, and competitive eaters choking down

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00:56:34

We're on the case with An Inspector Calls (Peculiar...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/11/02

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 Framed Women of Ardemore House, we are doing the 2015 BBC One made-for-tv adaptation of An Inspector Calls.Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into this British Thriller. We'll discuss the themes of Capitalism vs. Socialism, the ominous warning of the story, and all the twists and turns along the way. Website:

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00:39:02

You're going to need a drink to watch Grabbers...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/10/31

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, for some Halloween fun, we are discussing the Irish Horror Comedy film Grabbers.Join Davey Berris as he takes a deep dive into this fun monster movie. There aren't many deep themes in this movie but we will talk about did it hit the comedy and horror marks, the fun bits in the movie, and connections to some legendary horror/action movies. Website:

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01:10:34

You are all Suspects with Brandy Schillace and The...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/10/26

An abandoned English manor. A peculiar missing portrait. A cozy, deviously clever muder mystery, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Anthony Horwitz.Jo Jones has always had a little trouble fitting in. As a neurodivergent, hyperlexic book editor and divorced New Yorker transplanted into the English countryside, Jo doesn’t know what stands out more: her Americanisms or her autism. After losing her job, her mother, and her marriage all in one year, she couldn’t be happier to take possession of a

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01:02:09

You're going to be Obsessed with Maria Dong and Liar,...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/10/16

Katrina Kim may be broke, the black sheep of her family, and slightly unhinged, but she isn’t a stalker. Her obsession with her co-worker, Kurt, is just one of many coping mechanisms—like her constant shape and number rituals, or the way scenes from her favorite children’s book bleed into her vision whenever she feels anxious or stressed. But when Katrina finds a cryptic message from Kurt that implies he’s aware of her surveillance, her tenuous hold on a normal life crumbles. Driven by compulsion,

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01:10:03

You're wondering what we have to say about Professor...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/10/03

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 Tremors in the Blood, we are discussing a movie about the invention of the lie detector with Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this sexy origin story of the lie detector and Wonder Woman. We'll discuss themes such as Dominance and Submission, Polyamorous relationships,

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01:05:47

One thing will lead to another with Lucy Santos and...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/09/30

Tracing uranium’s past, and how it intersects with our understanding of other radioactive elements, this book aims to disentangle our attitudes and to unpick the atomic mindset. Chain Reactions looks at the fascinating, often-forgotten, stories that can be found throughout the history of the element. Ranging from glassworks to penny stocks; medicines to weapons; something to be feared to a powerful source of energy. This global history explores the scientific history of the element, but also shines

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01:04:10

Amit Katwala (Tremors in the Blood) and Patti...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/09/19

You asked and we delivered! Pulitzer-prize winning science journalist Deborah Blum—author of The Poisoner’s Handbook—returns to PBC! This time, she comes to us as HOST! Two additional authors will be joining us, picked by Deborah herself: Amit Katwala as author of TREMORS IN THE BLOOD and Patti McCracken for ANGEL MAKERS. Where did lie detectors come from? Are they really accurate? The history isn’t just fascinating, it’s evocative—and bears an interesting connection to artificial intelligence

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00:55:27

We've got trouble, right here on the Peculiar Book...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/09/10

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 A Gentleman and a Thief, we are discussing our own gentleman conman with The Music Man.Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this classic Hollywood (and Broadway) musical to discuss our favorite songs, finding our someone, and seeing the good in someone else. Website:

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01:00:03

We'll confess our crimes with Dean Jobb and A...

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/08/23

Suave and movie-star handsome, Arthur Barry charmed New York celebrities as he planned and executed some of the most brazen and lucrative heists of the 1920s. Think Cary Grant’s character was clever and slick in the Hitchcock classic To Catch a Thief ? This gentleman thief was smarter, smoother. It sounds like fiction. But it isn’t. Barry was real-life con artist who donned a tuxedo to crash the parties of the rich and famous as he planned his burglaries. Known as a “second-story man,” he could even

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01:02:02

The chase is on for Moby Dick (Peculiar Movie Club)

Peculiar Book Club Podcast ·

2024/08/03

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 Whalefall, we are discussing the greatest tale of Whales ever told, the classic Moby Dick.Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this classic tale of temptation, obsession, was Gregory Peck right for the role of Ahab (he didn't think so), and what are our white whales. Website:

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