Episode 159 - Monster Mash

This week, we lift our spirits (oooOOOooo) with a round-up of monsters. We explore their origins and effects on us, with examples ranging from memories of very real things in the past to a hypothesis that doesn't quite have legs (unlike griffins).

• Why we'll always be obsessed with – and afraid of – monsters (The Conversation)

• Why the scariest monsters look almost human (Wellcome Collection)

• Why We Still Need Monsters (Nautilus)

• Why Are So Many Monsters Hybrids? (Nautilus)

• A History of Monsters (Aeon)

• Why do we want to feel sorry for monsters that scare us? (Gizmodo)

• Why Frankenstein is the story that defines our fears (BBC)

• Neanderthals, Scandinavian trolls, and troglodytes (Norwegian American)

• Ōnamazu (Yokai.com)

• Namazu-e: Earthquake catfish prints (Pink Tentacle)

• Namazu (World History Encyclopedia)

• Giant catfish and a legacy of disaster in one of the world's most seismically active regions (Phys.org)

• Folklore and earthquakes: Native American oral traditions from Cascadia compared with written traditions from Japan (Geological Society, London, Special Publications via ResearchGate)

• Why Protoceratops almost certainly wasn't the inspiration for the griffin legend (Mark Witton)

• Griffin Bones (American Museum of Natural History)

• Andrewsarchus, "Superb Skull of a Gigantic Beast" (American Museum of Natural History)

• Jumbies of the West Indies (The Brown Geeks)

• Rare Book Library Summons Tales of World’s Oldest Monsters (Smithsonian)

• The evolution of monsters in children’s literature (Nature)

• A Visual History of Society’s Monsters (Hyperallergic)

• The Nazi Werewolves Who Terrorized Allied Soldiers at the End of WWII (Smithsonian)

• Doin’ The Mash (Tedium)

• The strange tale of ‘Monster Mash’, the graveyard smash that will never die (NME)

Image: 15th century illustration of a griffin