
Advertise on podcast: Peculiar Book Club Podcast
Rating
4.8from
This podcast has
187 episodes
Language
EnglishPublisher
Peculiar Book Club PodcastExplicit
No
Date created
2021/10/23
Latest episode
2026/10/04
Average duration
60 min.
Release period
15 days
Description
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 with Dan Aykroyd, for oddities, oddballs, and the unexpected! If you're weird, you're family!
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We're feeling the juice with Requiem for a Dream (Peculiar Movie Club), plus a quick review of Brilliant Minds (TV show)
2026/10/04
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 Human History on Drugs we are reviewing the addiction movie Requiem for a Dream. Davey will also briefly discuss the TV Show Brilliant Minds and why we decided to skip it.
Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into what has been called one of the most realistic examples of drug addiction ever put on film. We'll discuss the themes of addiction, how it doesn't have to just be drugs, and how institutions fail our main characters.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
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VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
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Bluesky: @peculiarbookclub.bsky.social
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub
Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub
We'll sign autographs after the show with Jack El-Hai and The Case of the Autographed Corpse
2026/10/01
The true-crime saga of the intertwined lives of a Native spiritual leader and a prominent literary figure—and their shared work in their pursuit to right a tragic wrongful conviction.Silas John Edwards—a charismatic Apache medicine man—was known as a controversial figure on Apache reservations in Arizona and New Mexico, where white authorities determined to maintain control over reservation life. When his wife, Margaret, was brutally murdered in 1933, Silas John was tried and convicted—receiving a sentence of life in prison. The key piece of evidence against Silas John was a rock found near Margaret's body, scratched with his initials, “S. J. E.".Were the scratched initials an attempt to frame a man whose independent path was deemed troublesome? Eighteen years into Silas John’s sentence, the celebrated writer of the Perry Mason mysteries, Erle Stanley Gardner, received a desperate letter from the incarcerated medicine man. Gardner and Silas John met in prison and joined forces to reinvestigate the case. Under the auspices of Gardner’s Court of Last Resort, an organization like today’s Innocence Project that investigated cases of wrongful conviction, Gardner traveled through Arizona’s varied reservation landscapes to hunt for clues.Together Silas John and Gardner attempted to unravel the flimsy evidence—including dubious footprint casts and questionable claims of Apache custom—to shatter the "cement silence" of prison and fight for the freedom of a historically important spiritual leader. The Case of the Autographed Corpse details a dramatic and little-known episode in American history and two men’s unwavering commitment to the truth.
We're going to be wrong with Rebecca Gibson and The Bad Corset
2026/09/25
In 1908, a French book, Le Corset by Ludovic O'Followell, told of the terrible suffering of women tormented by and subject to their corsets. X-ray Pictures showed injury, the text spoke of illness and disarray. It had a profound effect. But it was also… wrong. In THE BAD CORSET, Rebecca Gibson takes us on a fascinating exploration to upend O’Followell’s work. Approaching the topic from a scientific perspective, and reproducing facsimiles of the original text, with translations and annotations, tells a different story. What we see instead are the presumptions and anxieties of male medical professionals. The women who wore these perceived instruments of torture were not victims or dupes—they had agency, which after all, is what a turn of the century doctor most feared from his lady patients. Join us to talk about this feminist approach to female agency and choice, a revised look at how women shape their bodies and their lives.
Episode was recorded live September 24, 2026.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
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VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
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Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub
Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub
We're doing mental exercises with Angus Fletcher and Primal Intelligence
2026/09/12
How 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, renowned for collaborations with NASA, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley, announced they had the answer. They named it Primal Intelligence. And they published scientific proof that Primal Intelligence was impossible for computers—but could be strengthened in humans. The human brain, and not AI, has this superpower, if only we could reach it. And that’s how the US Army Special Ops got involved.Imagine being Angus Fletcher, in the Ohio State English Department, and having the military swing by to pick your brain. What resulted, however, was a peculiar alliance. With Fletcher’s help, they developed Primal training for its most classified units. The training succeeded. The Operators saw the future faster. They healed quicker from trauma. In life-and-death situations, they chose wiser. Soon it was being tested on civilians—and then school children—with the same results. What was this amazing training all about? Actually, it’s about you. Your brain. It’s basic operating system was built to run on uncertainty through future-leaping intuition, and we’ve been breaking it down through education systems trying to ape computer learning. Turns out, AI is NOT the future. The human brain is. So join us live to talk to Angus about your own PRIMAL INTELLIGENCE.
Episode was recorded live September 10, 2026.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
Newsletter: https://peculiarbookclub.kit.com/newsletter
VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams
Bluesky: @peculiarbookclub.bsky.social
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub
Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub
Take two Tylenol before listening to Tom Zeller and The Headache
2026/08/15
Did you know that chronic head pain, from blinding migraines to severe headache disorders known as “clusters,” affects 40% of the population? And that science, largely, shrugs over the cause? Many suffer in silence, afraid of being chided as “merely” having a headache, when in fact this is a horrifically debilitating disorder. If you are one of them, or know someone who is, this is a book for you. In The Headache, science journalist Tom Zeller reveals the struggling science behind a group of disorders that is as much a curse as a cultural punchline, and leads to key insights into the nature of pain itself.Guided by his own decades-long struggle with cluster headaches, Zeller gives the inside track. He visits cutting-edge clinics; interviews dozens of doctors, neurologists, and fellow headache patients; participates in clinical trials for multi-million-dollar new medicines; and even experiments with psilocybin in search of relief. Along the way, Zeller traces the longer arc of mystery around headaches, from prehistoric skull surgery to Virginia Woolf’s assertion that, in the throes of a migraine, “language runs dry,” to reveal how headaches became one of the most under-researched afflictions in medicine—and how that is slowly starting to change. Join us to talk live with Zeller about all things headache, and take a journey into the inner workings of the human nervous system.
Episode was recorded live August 13, 2026.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
Newsletter: https://peculiarbookclub.kit.com/newsletter
VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams
Bluesky: @peculiarbookclub.bsky.social
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub
Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub
We're taking the cannolis with The Godfather (Peculiar Movie Club)
2026/08/03
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 Custodians of Wonder, we are reviewing the legendary mafia film The Godfather.
Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into one of the greatest movies of all time. We'll discuss the themes of passing things down to your children, how Michael couldn't stay away from the family business, and making offers that people can't refuse.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
Newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/schillacenews
VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams
Bluesky: @peculiarbookclub.bsky.social
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub
We're going to get so high with Sam Kelly and Human History on Drugs
2026/07/29
Every so often, I find myself reading history and thinking ‘were they on DRUGS?’ Well, the probably answer is: Yes! Alexander the Great was a sloppy drunk and William Shakespeare was a stoner; Steve Jobs believed taking LSD helped him create the Apple computer, and Sigmund Freud loved cocaine so much he took it all the time and prescribed it to his patients. Hard to believe? Don’t worry, in Human History on Drugs, Sam Kelly gives us the receipts. Here’s more of that peculiar history your teachers never told you. With chapters spanning from Ancient Greece (“The Oracle of Delphi Was Huffing Fumes”) to modern times (“Carl Sagan Got Astronomically High”), Kelly's research covers all manner of eras, places, and, of course, drugs.History is rife with drug use and drug users, and Human History on Drugs takes us through those highs (pun intended) and lows on a witty and entertaining ride that uncovers their mind-boggling impact on our past. Join us to chat live with Sam, and get a preview of the book by visiting his mega-hit TikTok!
Episode was recorded live July 23, 2026.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
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VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
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Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub
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Video by Luis Humanoide from Pixabay
Video by Ha Nguyen from Pixabay
Psychedelic Witch Track Filmy Ghost & JackCote
Psychedelic Dream by Geoff Harvey - Purple Planet Music source (Free Music Archive) and license type (CC BY-NC-ND)
You might not recognize us with Sadie Dingfelder and Do I Know You?
2026/07/01
Science writer Sadie Dingfelder has always known that she’s a little quirky. But while she’s made some strange mistakes over the years, it’s not until she accosts a stranger in a grocery store (whom she thinks is her husband) that she realizes something is amiss.With a mixture of curiosity and dread, Dingfelder starts contacting neuroscientists and lands herself in scores of studies. In the course of her nerdy midlife crisis, she discovers that she is emphatically not neurotypical. She has prosopagnosia (faceblindness), stereoblindness, aphantasia (an inability to create mental imagery), and a condition called severely deficient autobiographical memory.As Dingfelder begins to see herself more clearly, she discovers a vast well of hidden neurodiversity in the world at large. There are so many different flavors of human consciousness, and most of us just assume that ours is the norm. Can you visualize? Do you have an inner monologue? Are you always 100 percent sure whether you know someone or not? If you can perform any of these mental feats, you may be surprised to learn that many people—including Dingfelder—can’t. Her book DO I KNOW YOU offers a lively blend of personal narrative and popular science, and you can chat with Sadie live, ask questions, and share experience!
Episode was recorded live June 25, 2026.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
Newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/schillacenews
VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
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Bluesky: @peculiarbookclub.bsky.social
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub
Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub
We're getting quite animated with Princess Mononoke (Peculiar Movie Club)
2026/06/22
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 Nightfaring, we are reviewing the Japanese animated film Princess Mononoke.
Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into this Anime classic. We'll discuss the theme of Rebirth, Redemption, and who exactly are the bad guys in this movie.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
Newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/schillacenews
VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
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Bluesky: @peculiarbookclub.bsky.social
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub
We'll let you in on the secret with Eliot Stein and Custodians of Wonder
2026/06/02
Did you know there’s a man saving the secret ingredient in Japan's 700-year-old original soy sauce recipe? Or that the world’s rarest pasta is made in Italy, and only a few women alive still know the recipe? Or that in India, a family makes a mysterious metal mirror believed to reveal your truest self? These are disappearing secrets, the magical element of culture being precariously preserved by the few for the many. Join us for a live chat with author Eliot Stein, who traveled the globe in search of remarkable people who are preserving some of our most extraordinary cultural rites. From shadowing Scandinavia's last night watchman to meeting a 27th-generation West African griot to tracking down Cuba's last official cigar factory “readers” more than a century after they spearheaded the fight for Cuban independence, Stein uncovers an almost lost world. From Inca bridge masters to those who still speak to bees, CUSTODIANS OF WONDER is a treasure trove of peculiar and heart-warming traditions—and those preserving them from brink of disappearance.
Episode was recorded live May 28, 2026.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
Newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/schillacenews
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Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub
We'll break our silence on The Artist (Peculiar Movie Club)
2026/05/05
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 Nightfaring, we are reviewing the Japanese animated film Princess Mononoke
Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive classic Anime film. We'll discuss the theme of rebirth, battling curses, and who exactly are the bad guys in this movie.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
Newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/schillacenews
VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeculiarBookClub/streams
Bluesky: @peculiarbookclub.bsky.social
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub
We'll journey into the dark with Megan Eaves and Nightfaring
2026/05/02
People, plants and animals all depend on the natural night – both its darkness and its starlight – for everything from regulating our sleep cycles to providing the inspiration for myths and legends. But darkness is disappearing, and with it, our view of the stars. The constant glow of streetlights, of headlights streaming down highways, and wasteful glare from skyscrapers left shining all night have created so much light pollution that the majority of Americans can no longer see the Milky Way or experience the restful embrace of a natural night. As the dark becomes ever more elusive, it is a critical moment to stop, look up, and consider what we lose with the disappearing stars. In NIGHTFARING, journalist and dark sky advocate Megan Eaves-Egenes travels around the world to better understand our deep connection to the dark. From New Zealand to Uzbekistan, Italy to Japan, Germany to the Himalaya, she explores the many ways humans have depended on, feared, and mythologized darkness. Blending travel and nature writing with history and self-discovery, Megan writes of how the stars have helped her chart the course of her own life – just as they’ve guided humankind for as long as we’ve slept beneath them. Join us for a peculiar night of live chat with Megan about the disappearing dark.
Episode was recorded live April 23, 2026.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
Newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/schillacenews
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We're pushing the limits with Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein and The Edge of Space-Time
2026/04/06
In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shared with her audience an abiding sense of wonder at the cosmos, while imagining a world without the entrenched injustice that plagues her field. Now, in The Edge of Space-Time, she embraces that cosmic wonder, taking readers on a mind-altering journey to the boundaries of the universe, inviting us to spend time at the edge of what we know about space-time and about ourselves.Guided by her conviction that for humanity to go forward we must know our cosmic past, and drawing on poetry and popular culture—from Langston Hughes, Queen Latifah, and Lewis Carroll, to Big K.R.I.T., Sun Ra, and Star Trek—Prescod-Weinstein renders accessible some of the most abstract concepts of theoretical physics to tell fascinating stories about the history and fundamental nature of our universe. Here we meet the quantum cat that is both dead and alive, learn the difference between dark matter and dark energy, explore the inner workings of black holes, and investigate the possibility of a unified theory of quantum gravity, following our guide out to the far reaches of the cosmic event horizon and down to the tiniest (and queerest) neutrino. Along the way, she calls on us to resist colonial approaches to space exploration and instead imagine a better path forward in our pursuit of humanity’s undeniable connection with the stars.Through Prescod-Weinstein’s clear-eyed and unique perspective, and informed by her deep knowledge of postcolonial history and Black feminist thought, The Edge of Space-Timeargues that physics is an essential way for everyone to look at the universe and presents a compelling case that “the edge” is a powerful vantage point from which to see the big picture.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
Newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/schillacenews
VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
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Facebook: facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub
Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclu
There will be plenty of finger pointing with Damon Young and Immortal Gestures
2026/03/27
There is an old Buddhist adage: the teachings are like a finger pointing to the moon. To achieve enlightenment, you are not supposed to look at the finger. You are supposed to look to the celestial light. I am asking you to look at the finger. The finger is also the moon.These words, from Damon Young, ask us to rethink the casual gesture: A tilted head. A finger to the lips. A wave that could mean emphasis or dismissal. A raised palm of piety and fellowship.These movements do not simply point to our thoughts, they are our thoughts made flesh. They can be instinctive, intuitive, or calculated―or all three. They exist in the briefest moment and through history, in a gently turned wrist and across whole nations. Our gestures drag stories with them, whether they mean to or not. They are invitations to think about how our worlds are larger than they seem―how we are much larger than we seem.Join us live with award-winning philosopher Damon Young as he sheds light on thirteen curious gestures. Drawing equally from classical poetry and science-fiction, heavy metal and ballet, Young illuminates our varied humanity from prehistory to today.
Episode was recorded live March 26, 2026.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
Newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/schillacenews
VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
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Instagram: @thepeculiarbookclub
Your curiosity will be peaked with Carly Anne York and The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog
2026/03/15
Why would anyone research how elephants pee? Or study worms who tie themselves into a communal knot? Or quantify the squishability of a cockroach? It all sounds pointless, silly, or even disgusting. But NOT TO US! This is going to be a Peculiar fan favorite, I am certain.
In The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog, Carly Anne York shows how unappreciated, overlooked, and simply curiosity-driven science has led to breakthroughs big and small. Got wind power? You might have humpback whales to thank. Know anything about particle physics? Turns out there is a ferret close to the heart of it all. And if you want to keep salmon around, be thankful for that cannon! The research itself can seem bizarre. But that’s why it’s awesome. Join us live for a night with Carly to talk about the weird heart of science, where it’s a good thing to let your curiosity run wild.
Episode was recorded live March 12, 2026.
Website: https://peculiarbookclub.com/
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VIP Membership: https://payhip.com/PeculiarBookClub
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Podcast reviews
Read Peculiar Book Club Podcast podcast reviews
someneutralcafe 2022/03/20
A quirky good time with brilliant minds
Brandy is a wonderful host and effortlessly creates a warm and inviting atmosphere for “peculiars” where we can get to know some of our favorite autho...
LizzieBordello 2022/01/15
Great concept...disappointing result
I love this idea - a deep dive into the weird and unusual, and creating community around that. I've been really excited about several of the books/au...
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