show episodes
 
Artwork

1
Peculiar Book Club Podcast

Peculiar Book Club Podcast

Unsubscribe
Unsubscribe
Monthly+
 
PECULIAR BOOK CLUB: ESTEEMED HOME OF THE QUIRKY, QUIZZICAL, CURIOUS, AND BIZARRE * Finally, a book club for the Peculiars! Join host Dr. Brandy Schillace for book club dates with your favorite authors of strange history, medical marvels, and weird science. In true book-club style, you will meet the author and participate in the discussion–so come with questions! Join us, too, for the PopCult Quizzer with host Davey Berris, where science fact meets science fiction. If you can't join us LIVE o ...
  continue reading
 
Loading …
show series
 
After having watched all six Sharknado films Adam decides to do some research into the science of these not at all ridiculous films, uncovering the truth about the plausibility and historical precedent for a tornado filled with living sharks. Darren gives us a book review of Renée DiResta’s Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality, w…
  continue reading
 
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-…
  continue reading
 
Have you done your bulb shopping yet? It’s ordering time—both for fall-blooming treats like Colchicum, which you can only buy now if you hurry, and for the ever-wider assortment of fall-planted, spring-into-summer blooming species. Ken Druse and I both have... Read More ›By Margaret Roach
  continue reading
 
This sermon explores Matthew 1:1-25 and discusses why Jesus’ verified credentials—his lineage as the Son of David and Abraham—set him apart as the true Messiah and Lord. We emphasize that Jesus’ unique origins and fulfilled prophecies demand a response from us: to repent, trust in him, and submit to his authority.…
  continue reading
 
Could meditation ever be harmful? Darren examines the evidence to determine if meditation, which can have many benefits, might sometimes have a negative impact on people’s lives. Adam looks at the idea of cavemen and wonders if, as their name suggests, that they really spent all that much time in caves.…
  continue reading
 
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, …
  continue reading
 
Just imagine for a moment—you are swimming in the cold dark of the Pacific Ocean, trying to find the lost remains of your father. But you aren’t alone. There are shapes moving in the gloom, great, dark shapes. Shapes with mouths. That’s what happens to Jay Gardiner in the latest novel by award winning author (and collaborator with Guillermo del Tor…
  continue reading
 
It’s Hydrangea season, and in the Northeast, in particular, this summer, it’s REALLY been a crazy hydrangea season in 2024, with billows of blue bloom from big-leaf hydrangeas on view everywhere, it seems—which is not always the case, in colder... Read More ›By Margaret Roach
  continue reading
 
What’s the difference between a bar of soap and the stuff we use to clean dishes, laundry and cars, and can you just use any of those in the shower? Adam tries to find out whether the stuff that’s fit for baby ducks if good enough for you skin. Darren gives us a review of Determined: The Science of Life Without Free Will by Robert Sapolsky, which a…
  continue reading
 
How much do looks really matter? In society, whether we like it or not, how we look affects how we are treated—and even what opportunities we might have in life. A one-time New York prison commissioner, Henry Solomon, once stated that “physical defects…might conduce to crime” because a man with a poor physical appearance would have an easier time s…
  continue reading
 
We look at some fundamental ways of cultivating critical thinking on the latest show. Darren looks at some common cognitive biases and logical fallacies and how to use these in order to have a better more accurate understanding of the truth of the things we face every day. Then Adam looks at the science behind the belief that you should let your le…
  continue reading
 
What happens when racism is not a bug in the system—but in fact IS the system? And the Health System, at that. Imagine being a high-achieving person of color, courted by prestigious medical institutions, but then denied the support you needed when you got there? Fighting through burnout and the grueling pace of residency, only to wind up a cog in a…
  continue reading
 
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 Computer's Voice, we are discussing maybe the most iconic computer voice in cinema history with Hal 9000 and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a dee…
  continue reading
 
Can we say that AI is going in the wrong direction, as it does our art and writing while we suffer doing laundry and dishes? It’s just Adam on the show this week as he overanalyzes a viral tweet by looking at how much the time and way we do chores has changed for the better over the centuries, while looking at what AI could do to improve the situat…
  continue reading
 
“Siri, what does it mean to have gender?” We have become very used to the dis-embodied voices that surround us, from the voice answering to ‘Siri’ to the one giving us directions on our GPS apps. But have you ever stopped to wonder why some of these voices are coded “male” and others “female?” The tech isn’t gendered, but the voices are—and it’s tr…
  continue reading
 
What were the first mammals like? Darren examines what characterizes a mammal and explores the world of early mammals, who coexisted with the dinosaurs. Adam investigates the discourse around a viral question which asks “Would you rather be stuck in a forest with a man or a bear?”, using some simple statistics to inform the issue.…
  continue reading
 
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 We Are Not Alone, we are discussing the legendary alien encounter movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this classic Spie…
  continue reading
 
Loading …

Quick Reference Guide