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Teratology (MONSTERS) is a-liiiiiiiive, and up wherever you get podcasts! Dr. W. Scott Poole is just a wealth of information and charm when talking about the history of monsters, scary movies, cryptid myths and what it all says about us as people. This was suuuuuch a fun chat and a joy to compile so many clips and factoids.

Did you listen? What did you think? And what’s your favorite monster? Mine might be the Chupacabra because it lives in my house.

S-s-s-s-pooooooky,

Frankenward’s Podmonster

Files

Teratology (MONSTERS) with W. Scott Poole - alie ward

Frankenstein's Monster! Hungry ghosts! Moaning bloodsuckers! Goat draining goblins. Babadooks. Gorilla-whales. Slasher films. Body horror... and what these folk stories, films, and fandoms have to do about our hopes and fears. Also yes, you can watch monster movies as a job. Just ask the wonderfully c

Comments

Maria Armero

We had the best time listening to this episode and now I am so curious about this monster with the hands and heads that was talked about. Alie, we are enjoying this Spooktober so much! Thank you!

MB

I love this episode and this ologist! Bride of Frankenstein is also my favorite, and I share his disdain for true crime. I'm so disappointed a monster history class was not an option at my college. Does he offer online classes?

Jae Steinbacher

Okay I'm just here to say I had no idea Gremmy was so cute!! I don't think I've ever actually seen a photo 😭

Maria Kumro

Is it me or does Scott's voice sound kinda like Mr. Rogers'? Bit more Southern but I feel like I need to go change my shoes and chat up King Friday and I am HERE for this.

Alie Ward

That pic was straight from the shelter, where she was super skinny and shaved down. She has since been cuddled and fattened and to enjoy her crushing cuteness, see Instagram.com/insta_gremmie. I am rightly obsessed with her.

Alie Ward

What a vibe! Monstercore should be a fall style trend.

Dave Cannon

I never put the lynching together with the mad villagers. Crazy how blind to certain things you can be.

Alie Ward

Really interesting history with the NAACP's anti-lynching campaigns in the decades leading up to that, and how much that visibility worked to educate the wider U.S.

Michelle Head

I loved this episode! I am not a fan of horror movies and gore is a big nope for me BUT the connection between politics & life events of a time period and the the monsters created during that time 🤯 I would love to take a history class with Scott and I will be definitively try and watch some classic horror films soon.

Margaret Downs

This was a fascinating episode, made all the better by the fact that I'd listen to Scott read me the phone book.

Anne

I absolutely ADORE when you bring historians on. Please continue! They’re always my favourite guests 🫶🏻

Deborah L Blanton

This was a really wonderful episode! I didn’t think I’d be that interested, but I was!

Hope J 🏳️‍🌈

Didn’t know what to expect with this episode but I really enjoyed it! For anyone interested in LGBTQ+ horror, there was a great miniseries in 2022 called “Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror,” and I would highly recommend. Can be found on Shudder

Alie Ward

Which one will you start with??

Alie Ward

Oh his voice is butter on biscuits

Alie Ward

Especially the ones who LOVE what they do. Absolutely stellar interviews to conduct.

Alie Ward

Will you watch any spoooooky films this season?

Alie Ward

Oh that's awesome! Thanks for telling us!

Anne

They inspire me to be a better historian 🥹

Deborah L Blanton

Maybe! After listening to this episode. When I was a kid I watched Frankenstein and Dracula and all the old “scary” movies, but I kind of got away from it. Maybe I’ll actually get back to them! ❤️

G Connolly

What an amazing episode!! As a former monster-loving weirdo kid and current monster-loving weirdo adult I feel very seen by this ologist!

Iso partee

I am a new member of Patreon and I’m having so much fun on these discussion and question sections ! I would love in the future, more discussion on the feminine monster or the “monster mother” —I played Grendel’s mother in a school play haha in 7th grade ! (I took my stage death very seriously)

Pseudonym Jones IV

Well that was a delight! I generally come to any episode with an attitude of 'this could be fascinating!' but this one surpassed my hopes. I fear I;ll be trundling up to my local Indie bookstore to purchase some more books I don't have room for...

G Connolly

I’ve always loved the mothman and vampires!!

Alie Ward

I had never heard of this, but I just looked it up and you deserved a name that wasn't just Grendel's Mother! How about Denise? Or Barbara?

Alie Ward

I just loved it, too! Pass it along to pals -- I hope this one becomes an instant classic

Alie Ward

What's your corner of history about?

Iso Partee

I agree !!! I’m liking Denise ! Hahah. I wonder if I named her in 7th grade…I wish I remembered!

Anne

Well hopefully once I start my Masters, I will be studying Canadian/American history :) 🤞🤞🤞

Merryn Lush

This was such an insightful listen. I thoroughly enjoyed the part about desensitization/sensitization to violence and it really made me think a lot about everything going on in the world right now. I found his perspective about being exposed to so much gore made him hyper aware of real violence VS the way blockbuster superhero movies will absolutely level a big city with zero blood or bodies. It was one of the most thought provoking segments, especially after seeing so many very graphic videos on Instagram these past weeks of the horrors going on overseas (please don’t take this as an opening to debate - this podcast is a safe space for our exhausted minds and we should protect that). I’ve never thought about horror and gore in that way before, but after seeing some very real things it just made me have a lot of thoughts. Also the mutual fan club was special. And the Twilight shade. And Americanized Godzilla! Oh! And the Vietnam vet makeup artist also blew my mind. Oh boy. There were so many thought-provoking moments. This was one of my favourites. A new classic.

Kathryn Knopinski

There’s a Beowulf movie that really centers Grendel’s mother who is -incredibly- played by Angelina Jolie. I always think I’ve made that up, but it’s right there on IMDB. Sadly she’s still just credited as “Grendel’s Mother” so even Neil Gaiman didn’t give her a name. Rude. I need an Atlas Obscura course on female monsters. Hopefully it starts with Baba Yaga who is the best.

Nevena Georgieva

This ep was delightful. I might to have to listen to it again to write down the movies, books, etc. mentioned! The idea of monsters reflecting a particular cultural context reminded of reading Dracula in an English class long ago. There's a ton of scholarship about how Stoker's story expresses late 19th century fears of reverse colonization and the threat of foreign influence to British culture. Vampires come from old Slavic folk tales, after all, and Stoker's vamp travels from Transylvania to London, where he wreaks quite the havoc! 🧛‍♂️

ChickenChomper

grrrrrr-eat episode! ;)- loveed Dr. Poole as a guest as he was very knowledgable and profound. I also feel like he would be perfect as a voice in one of those old radio story-telling broadcasts... maybe not the lead, but as an assistant.

Michelle Head

Chronological :) I want to see how they evolve. Watched the short The House of The Devil & The Phantom Melody yesterday.

Milan Ilnyckyj

Not about this topic but... You're making a new Connections series with James Burke?!? That's the most exciting media-related thing I have heard in years. I have seen all the old episodes many, many times each and lines from "The Trigger Effect" are inside jokes with my friends.

Lillian Rolfe

Fantastic episode. Even as someone who cannot handle any modern horror on film. I do, however, read detailed synopsis of them because I find the genre so fascinating. “Endlessly curious” does not mesh well with “big major wuss”.

Claire

I finally got around to signing up to the patreon so I could come here and say how much I enjoyed this episode. And also to plug that Mary Shelly was a wildly badass genius as she was just a teenager still when she wrote Frankenstein and that she was hanging with two huge names and full of themself men and she came up with the most radical story of all of them. Also please somehow talk about her more in the future in some way - squeeze her in! - her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft who was an incredible badass who was a woman journalist in Paris during the French Revolution and wrote the declaration of the rights of women. Also, I was surprised the gothic novel didn’t get a mention by this ologist as part of the origin story of modern horror (unless I missed it) Loooooooove the show xxxxx

Connor they them

This was such a great episode. I listened to it at work and started freaking out when I was the first question. It was so cool. Also I have a recommendation of an ologist for you Alie. Cryptozoology is in the original credits of the show and was brought up again this week, but you have yet to do an episode on it. I can understand why, but if you were ever to do one you could do it from the same lens as the demonology episode. I think Dan Schreiber would be a great guest to have for that episode. Here are some facts about him. He is best known for being one of the cohosts of the hit UK podcast No Such Thing As A Fish and he is a QI elf. But he also has a fascination with the "weird." He hosts 2 other podcasts about the "weird" things in this world. One is The Cryptid Factor, which he hosts alongside Rhys Darby and Leon Kirkbeck. They talk about cryptids that have been in the news lately. His other podcast is called We Can Be Weirdos. Every week he interviews people with a public persona. He has them fill out the "batshit" list, which is a list of non pseudoscientific beliefs such as ghosts, cryptids, the sense of being stared at, etc... The guests mark what they believe in and then Dan discusses those beliefs with them. His book The Theory of Everything Else is a great companion to the podcast and helped to set up the structure of the podcast. He has traveled around the world collecting stories from people as well as books on the subject of the strange and unexplained. He has spent a massive amount time, energy and money devoted to researching these topics and the people involved. But in a recent episode of We Can Be Weirdos he said that out of the 25 options on the batshit list he believes in 0 of them. Which is why I think he could work with the lens of studying the concept and the people, but not necessarily the cryptids themselves. And the cherry on top... he was recently a guest on Hank Green's podcast Scishow Tangents, so you have a connection. Thank you for all your hardwork.

Meeps

I finally got my act together to join and start supporting because I LOVED this spoOoOoOktober’s eps so much! Dr. Poole has all but tossed me down a rabbit hole of monster film history from which I hope to never resurface.

Merryn Lush

🙋‍♀️ I also do this haha. My imagination can tolerate it but seeing it is an entirely different story

Carly Delavigne

Oh my gosh what an unexpectedly pleasantly-voiced guest! This was such a great listen

Pseudonym Jones IV

It was one of the booksellers there that introduced me to Ologies, and I have indeed already started spreading the word about this episode

Alie Ward

Thank you so so much, I feel like we enjoyed it for all the same reasons! I was debating cutting the mutual fanclub part out because I didn't want it to seem boastful of me, but I thought it was such cute context for why we were so excited to connect and chat

Alie Ward

Wait, have you HEARD the Vampirology episode? It's soooo good. We talk about all of that stuff in a 2-parter: alieward.com/ologies/vampirology

Alie Ward

Oh his voice is so lovely. I didn't know accents like that still exist!

Alie Ward

YES!!! It comes out on Nov. 9th and I may have a minisode with James about the new series! Any questions I should ask him?

Alie Ward

I am NOT good at watching horror films but loved hearing about the context historically, too

Alie Ward

Aaaah! Thank you for joining and leaving this note! Did you hear the 2-part Vampirology episode? We do talk more about that 1816 outing to the Italian villa and a lot of nonsense Lord Byron was up to! I thought it was interesting that Dr. Poole said she grew more conservative in her later years; I'm curious about her whole life arc now!

Alie Ward

Hellooooo, Connor! And yes he sounds wonderful! I've long wanted to interview Loren of the Cryptozoology museum up in Portland, Maine, too, so I've been saving that topic for years for that trip!

Alie Ward

Awww, thank you so so much for being here! Spooktober is my December; gotta find new topics for next year! But on Tuesday we have a good one...

Alie Ward

People LOVE his voice and I am one of those people.

Wren Beach

It was so good. I absolutely loved it.

Claire

I did listen to that episode <3 There is a brilliant double biography of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelly called Romantic Outlaws, by Charlotte Gordon. It interleaves their lives and is just fantastic, if shocking to see the brutality of the world for women in that period.

Rachel

this may be one of my favorite episodes ever. love it so much.

Merryn Lush

It didn’t come across boastful at all - those moments always seem very genuine. Part of what makes the show special is when the ologist is stoked to be there. Also, speaking of fan clubs, this feels like getting a slice of pie from the hypothetical dinner-with-an-interesting-person. Thanks for being such an engaging host!

Sasha

Love this episode! The point about horror helping us remember our humanity and the normal reaction to violence and death compared to super hero movies that normalize mass casualties in the name of a “greater good” really resonated with me

princenocturnal

I loved it. I have to be nitpicky though: It's called chai, not chai tea. Chai means tea. You essentially said tea tea. That bugged me a lot. Okay bye! Keep up the amazing work!

rebekah

Long time listener, first time patreon-er. I absolutely loved this episode. it was so interesting, with such an engaging guest. I’ve recommended it to everyone who will listen to me! I listened to it on an autumnal, rainy walk through my local woods, looking at all of the mushrooms that have sprung up recently, then went home and made a big batch of soup. It was a pretty idyllic pre-Halloween Sunday experience all round. Much love!

Emma is Rosey

i started reading Mary Shelley’s frankenstein because of this ep! love it!!!!

Gene Phillips

This episode was right up my alley, so many thanks. Before I retired, I taught a class called "The Monstrous and the Supernatural in Japanese Visual Culture." Japanese Monsterology would be a great topic, don't you think. Anyway, I'd like to recommend a book titled "Godzilla on my Mind," by William Tsutsui. The first illustration is of him at eight or nine in his home-made Godzilla costume, so it is definitely not a dry book, just filled with information and insights.

Rachel Cannon

Tree/leshi dating app would obviously be Timber: fall for someone.

Colby Evans

Hey, wait. You said you went as the Bride of Frankenstein for Halloween and we don't get a picture? Not acceptable.

Colby Evans

We used that bottle on the head trick for my daughter's Cindy Lou Who costume a few years back

Milan Ilnyckyj

I AM INTERVIEWING HIM on Wednesday - and watching some promo episodes right now. I can't over-stress how big a deal it is for me personally.

Milan Ilnyckyj

I read and thought a lot about his book The Axemaker's Gift, and I have watched all three Connections series' at least 20 times each, along with all the specials and additional content I have been able to find.

Milan Ilnyckyj

Maybe you and I could brainstorm a bit on what best to get out of his insight, knowledge, and unique point of view? I am personally looking to work out exactly how to devote the rest of my life to fighting climate change, so I have questions about where efforts can be most fruitfully directed there (as well as about very lateral career moves, like getting into nuclear weapon non-proliferation with the IAEA)

Milan Ilnyckyj

One more bit of holy-shit personal connectedness: If you have seen "The Trigger Effect" you know a power failure in New York is a scenario played to huge dramatic effect in the opening episode. I remember watching that episode particularly as an undergraduate with friends and partners to concisely and convincingly drive home his general point about vulnerability to technical failure. Then, I was in New York City for the first time in my life when the 2003 blackout happened: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sindark/5240333066/in/album-72157625546724068/ I walked from Greenwich Village to my HI hostel near Columbia University. On the way, I passed office executive types who carried the lobby sofas out onto the sidewalks to drink beers from the partners' fridge on. In every intersection there was one Good Samaritan directing traffic and two more orbiting with fancy cameras making documentary footage about it. Walking through Central Park with my headlamp on (standard everyday carry gear for travel), I was able to turn it off and watch fireflies.

Alie Ward

I need to dig it up! It was in 2009!

Colby Evans

Smartphones were definitely a thing, so it's out there somewhere!

Nevena Georgieva

Hey Dad, my bad. I promptly went back to listen, and happy to report vampirology two-fer was everything an Eastern European peasant could ask for and more. I was actually born and grew up in Bulgaria, so the factoid about Bulgarian vampires looking like bagpipes full of blood really tickled me. Thanks for the nudge & the link 🙏

Alie Ward

I knooooooow, of course, but if I just said "chai" I think some people may not have know,n so I opted for the redundant over the unclear!

princenocturnal

That's so valid! Also I'm fanboying very hard rn because you replied to my comment! 🎉 Made my day.

Alexis Reeves

I was pleasantly surprised at the connection to the AA/Black experience. It gave me a whole new lens to watch spookies. (Still terrified, but now it’s science) 😂

Wayne Halliburton

Thanks for the rec, I know I'm late to the party, but I'm playing catch up haha. I also came to recommend some queer horror info! I recently finished two books with extremely similar titles lol, It Came From the Closet, a personal essay anthology edited by Joe Vallase, and Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film by Harry M. Benshoff, a more academic read. The latter was written in 97, but still super insightful, and you can see so many current connections!

Loch Ness Voices

I finally got my ass into gear and signed up to Patreon after listening to this episode this morning. What an amazing voice he has! I know some people if you ever decide to do a Nessie and Loch Ness-ology episode 😁