UPDATE: My investigation of the Santa Fe Courthouse Ghost video last year got picked up in an AP story, and went nationwide, including on CNN.com; you can see the story HERE .
NewsWith all the recent hype about an alleged Bigfoot body being found, I've been fielding calls from news media for the last week. (The pool of Bigfoot experts is small, and the list of credible Bigfoot skeptics is a short one indeed.) Anyway, I contributed to articles by several outlets including ABC News, the Kansas City Star, LiveScience.com, and the U.K. Times.
I appear on a current episode of History Channel's MonsterQuest show; the topic is the dreaded chupacabra, the fearsome, vampiric monster said to kill goats and livestock. I went to investigate a chupacabra attack first-hand, tune in to see what I found; the episode aired July 23 and will be repeated until the end of time.
I was recently interviewed on the Skeptico podcast, where we are talking about paranormal investigation, medium / contacting the dead "scientific" studies, and the track record of psychic detectives. You can listen to it HERE .
By a curious set of circumstances, I am Mr. February in the 2009 Skepdude Calendar. The calendars are available at www.Skepchick.org, and proceeds go to getting girls interested in science and skepticism.
As if all that wasn't enough, watch for the board game I created! It's called Playing Gods: The Board Game of Divine Domination, and should be out in September. The Web site is www.PlayingGods.com; see below.
At 7 pm on Wednesday 27 August 2008, I will be giving a talk titled something like, "Sea Monsters I Have Loved and Almost Known" for the Atlanta Freethought Society. The talk will be at 4775 N. Church Lane, Smyrna GA 30080, and it is FREE and open to the public, so come on out!
I will be giving a series of fundraising lectures to benefit the Corrales (NM) Community Library starting in August and ending in October. The schedule is below, all talks begin at 7 PM. Please support your local community library!
Weds August 20: Lake Monsters I Have Known
Join Skeptical Inquirer managing editor Benjamin Radford as he discusses his first-hand investigations into the world's lake monsters, including at Scotland's Loch Ness, New York's Lake Champlain, and Canada's Lake Okanagan. Find out how a scientific paranormal investigator searches for what's really in the cold, deep lakes around the world. Based on Radford's research and recent book Lake Monster Mysteries, the talk will include video clips of his investigations from National Geographic television and the Discovery Channel.
Weds Sept 24: Chupacabra in Fact and Fiction
The legend of the chupacabra started in Puerto Rico in the 1970s, and has since spread to a dozen other Spanish-speaking countries. Chupacabra means "goat sucker" in Spanish, and is so named for its fondness for killing goats and sucking out their blood. While many regard it as simply a myth of Hispanic folklore, others are certain that chupacabra do exist, and point to livestock mysteriously killed and drained of blood. New Mexico, of course, has its own chupacabra stories. Most are merely rumors and speculation about the fate of dead livestock, idle talk with no hard evidence. That is, until 2002, when a bizarre chupacabra carcass was found half-buried in the rocks and sand on the sun-baked West Mesa outside of Albuquerqueas well as two reports in November 2007. Investigator Benjamin Radford was asked by the History Channel to travel to Texas to examine what is claimed to be the remains of the world's first chupacabra body. Come hear the story, see and touch a "chupacabra" body, and discover what scientific investigation (including DNA analysis) reveals as we separate fact from fiction in the search for the fearsome vampire beast.
Weds Oct 29: Albuquerque's KiMo Ghost: The True Story
The historic KiMo theater opened in downtown Albuquerque on September 19, 1927 and became a successful moving picture palace in the bustling heyday of the city's early growth and through the second World War. Yet tragedy struck in 1951, when a six-year-old boy named Bobby was killed in a boiler explosion that demolished part of the original lobby. Since that time, Bobby has sometimes been seen running up and down the stairs where he met his terrible fate. The cast and crew of plays produced there are fearful that Bobby will ruin their show with his pranks, and leave doughnuts to appease the spirit boy. But are the reports of Bobby's antics simply the result of overactive imaginations and theater superstitions, or is there something more to this ghost story? The KiMo theater is the best-known haunted theater in New Mexico, if not the entire Southwest. The KiMo theater and its ghost have been the subject of dozens of magazine articles, book chapters, and even a few investigations by local ghost hunter groups. Yet the full story of how Bobby came to haunt the halls of the venerable theater has yet to be told. Albuquerque investigators Benjamin Radford and Mike Smith have spent six months investigating the story, and uncovered many new facts about the case. They will present the results of the first full scientific investigation into the famous KiMo ghost, with a fascinating analysis of the story and evidence for the ghost.
I will be a guest speaker at Dragon*Con, in Atlanta, Georgia (Aug. 28-Sept. 1) for the Skeptrack, giving presentations on lake monsters, a decade of paranormal investigation, and the truth about psychic detectives. Dragon*Con will also be the WORLD PREMIERE launch of my new game Playing Gods: The Board Game of Divine Domination. Come check it out!
Thanks for visiting!