Some Other Sphere

My guest for this episode is author and folklore blogger Icy Sedgwick. Icy has written several novels and short stories, many of which involve the supernatural. She is also a keen folklorist, writing a blog on an array of fascinating subjects and regularly contributing to "Folklore Thursday" on Twitter. We talked about her interests in the paranormal and writing, how the concept of a haunting varies in the writings of authors such as Charles Dickens, M.R James and Shirley Jackson, the depiction of the supernatural in books and on film and how that can influence theories on unknown phenomena in the "real" world. Icy's excellent website, where you can find her blog and details on how to get her books can be found here.

For this episode, my guest is comedian and Cryptozoologist Matt Kessen, who combined a lifelong obsession with monsters with his natural funnybones to create the phenomenon that is “ Reverend Matt’s Monster Science” – a regularly updated comedy show he presents that has covered an impressively broad range of subjects, most notable of which is perhaps “What to do in the event of a Dinosaur attack”. Matt has received praise from no other than Guillermo Del Toro for his work (“You’re my kind of guy!”) , so it was a real privilege to get him on the podcast. We talked about Dinosaurs, The Devil, Dragons, Kaiju and a whole lot more, it was a great chat. Enjoy! To find out more about Matt and his work, you can find his website at: https://revmattsmonsterscience.com/

Firstly, Happy New Year! My guest for this episode is Madra Banrion, who discusses her experiences with Ancestor Veneration and Animism. Going into the recording, I only new the basics about these subjects but Madra was an excellent guest and led a really interesting conversation about these practices, which at first might seem esoteric but in reality, are probably something we already have at least a little experience of in our everyday lives. Madra's excellent website is: https://madrabanrion.com/ Her article about Ancestor Veneration on the Plentiful Earth website is definitely worth a read and can be found here: https://plentifulearth.com/what-is-ancestor-veneration/ Enjoy!

My guest for this episode is Andy McGrath, a UK based Cryptozoologist with over 25 years of research experience investigating reports of unknown creatures living right under our noses here in the British Isles. He's the author of an excellent blog called "Beasts of Britain", has brought out a book of the same name and is now working on a TV series. He's also spoken at events such as CryptidCon and the International Cryptozoology Conference. We talked about how his interest in Cryptozoology started and discussed some of his favourite investigations in the UK, which include a creature in Lake Windermere (Bownessie), Bigfoot reports in Surrey and Staffordshire and a very odd, very large winged thing seen late at night in a Scottish Graveyard... LINKS: Andy's Beasts of Britain blog can be found here: http://beastsofbritain.blogspot.com/2018/ The Beasts of Britain book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beasts-Britain-Andrew-M-L-McGrath/dp/1549938983 The BoB post on Bownessie: http://beastsofbritain.blogspot.com/2017/02/ The BoB post on "The Black Country Stalker": http://beastsofbritain.blogspot.com/2018/07/

In this episode I talk to Dr Alan Montgomery who is the creator of the "My Search for Magic" blog. Alan has traveled across the United Kingdom and Europe visiting various sites, both man made and natural, that have a legend attached to them and possess an otherworldy quality. He writes about the people, places and things which bring magic into his life. In his own words, he describes it as "looking for magic in the modern world". We talked about what inspired him to start the blog, some of the favourite places he's been to and how to start your own search. The MSFM blog can be found here: https://mysearchformagic.com/ Here is the blog post about Yester Castle: https://mysearchformagic.com/2013/01/03/yester-castle-east-lothian/