Here Be Monsters

This episode is a follow-up to Here Be Monsters Episode 40, in which producer Emile B Klein talks to the pastor of The Reformation Puritan Bible Church, an anti-papal and white supremacist organization. If you haven't already heard that episode, go ahead and listen to it first: http://www.hbmpodcast.com/podcast/hbm040-the-reformation-bible-puritan-baptist-church-explicit In this episode, Elle Farmer and Anise Hotchkiss offer their thoughts on the show. One argues for justified hatred and the other argues for compassion in every circumstance. In her letter to the show, Anise offers the example of Rabbi Weisser and former KKK leader Larry Trapp, who managed to create a friendship formed out of compassion. You can read that full story from the New York Times or listen to Re:Sound, in podcast form: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/nyregion/05rabbi.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& https://soundcloud.com/thirdcoast/resound-165-the-enemies-to-friends-show-originally-aired-2012 Keep your thoughts and questions coming. We're on our season break right now, but still answering emails. http://HBMpodcast.com/contact/

This episode is a follow-up to Here Be Monsters Episode 40, in which producer Emile B Klein talks to the pastor of The Reformation Puritan Bible Church, an anti-papal and white supremacist organization.

This episode is a follow-up to Here Be Monsters Episode 40, in which producer Emile B Klein talks to the pastor of The Reformation Puritan Bible Church, an anti-papal and white supremacist organization.

Eric Jon Phelps knows a lot of things.  He knows that the Pope controls the world.  He knows that it was the Jesuits who poisoned him in Tampa.  And he knows that we can avoid the Vatican's plans to incite global race wars is to keep the races separate. Eric is the pastor of rural Pennsylvania's Reformation Bible Puritan Baptist Church. Content Note: Explicit content including bigotry, historical inaccuracies and language. The strange thing about Eric is that he's completely open he is about his views--and he doesn't shy from criticism.  He's exceedingly knowledgeable about the Protestant Christianity which makes him a fantastic and outspoken preacher.  However, the teachings of his church have landed him a spot on the Hate Map of America, which is where HBM Producer Emile B Klein found him. In this episode, Emile visits the church to investigate the story of Eric's rise and fall in the bizarre, radical, niche world of anti-papal internet talk radio and finds out how Eric's upbringing in the Civil Rights Era informed his views on white supremacy. Emile also speaks with Mark Potok, who is a Senior Fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, who thinks that Eric should be ostracized and shunned by society. This episode, more than any other in our archive, is morally troubling, for many reasons.  One resource on that Emile recommends as supplementary reading for this episode is Jonathan Haidt's wonderful book, The Righteous Mind The Righteous Mind was essential for Emile's epiphany [spoiler alert] that hating hate is unproductive.  Emile says: "All in all, I know that I am taking a pretty unlikable stand, but it's a stand I think is decent in the long run." This episode contains a 6 minute excerpt from a roundtable intervention between multiple First Ammendment Radio hosts. It has been highly edited for time.  The original intervention lasted 2 hours and can be heard in its entirety right here. We tread on some pretty delicate subjects on this episode, please let us know how we're doing. Emile B Klein and Jeff Emtman co-produced this piece.   Emile is a radio producer and a painter who’s been touring the country by bike for the last 4 years.  He is the Director at You’re U.S., which is a non-profit that highlights the qualities that tie together modern Americans through arts and craftsmanship.  This episode is Dedicated to Roy Silberstein, who always fought for the underdog. Music on the show fromThe Black Spot, Olecranon Rebellion, Serocell, Cloaking, Lucky Dragons

In this episode, Emile visits the church to investigate the story of Eric's rise and fall in the bizarre, radical, niche world of anti-papal internet talk radio and finds out how Eric's upbringing in the Civil Rights Era informed his views on white...

HBM039: A Goddamn Missionary

In this episode of Here Be Monsters, Terry often refers to Manic Depression, a condition that, per the DSM 5 has been reclassified as Bipolar Disorder.

In this episode of Here Be Monsters, Terry often refers to Manic Depression, a condition that, per the DSM 5 has been reclassified as Bipolar Disorder.

Crows have really strange habits around death. When a bird dies, crows gather, squawking loudly and gathering as many other birds as they can find to come and look at the dead body. Much of what we know about crow funerals comes from the work of John Marzluff, a biologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. He and Kaeli Swift (one of his grad students) are trying to get to the bottom of these strange phenomena using taxidermy crows and masks and Cheetos and raw peanuts. On this episode of Here Be Monsters, We look at and listen to the strange behaviors of crows and how they might be able to teach humanity about the origins of funerals and emotions. Many thanks to David Kestenbaum of NPR's Planet Money for his help on a short version of this piece made for radio...keep your ears peeled. Also, many thanks to Brian Emtman for tipping us off to this story. Some of the crow sounds in this episode came from Cornell's Macaullay Library. Citation: macaulaylibrary.org/audio/45291http…org/audio/45291 In this episode there are some amazing recordings of funeral practices from around the world, including Laos (LukeIRL), Bali (RTB45), Colombia (renatofarabeuf), and Ghana (Klankbeeld). via Freesound. Music from Flower Petal Downpour, Serocell, and The Black Spot.

On this episode of Here Be Monsters, we look at the strange behaviors of crows and how they might be able to teach humanity about the origins of funerals and emotions.

On this episode of Here Be Monsters, we look at the strange behaviors of crows and how they might be able to teach humanity about the origins of funerals and emotions.

This episode is a recording from a live storySLAM organized by The Moth. However, this is *not* from The Moth's podcast.

This episode is a recording from a live storySLAM organized by The Moth. However, this is *not* from The Moth's podcast.

Recent episodes of Here Be Monsters have been largely about death.  So, on this episode David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg teach us about the exact opposite—immortality, living forever.  Their documentary film, The Immortalists, follows a small community of scientists who think of aging as a preventable disease, not an inevitable outcome.    Seeking immortality is nothing new, in fact, the oldest known text, The Epic of Gilgamesh, is largely about a king's quest to live forever.  And further, it seems to be a quest of the rich and powerful.  Today, the community of bio-gerontologists is largely white, rich, and male.  Co-director Jason Sussberg calls aging a "first world problem," associating it with Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs.   One of the film's protagonists is Aubrey de Grey, an incredibly vocal advocate of anti-aging.  He's a computer programmer turned bio-gerontologist.  In 2012, he participated in an Oxford debate against Sir Colin Blakemore where the motion was to defeat aging entirely.  A clip from this debate appears in the episode, and the whole debate is certainly worth watching. The Immortalists is not yet available for download, but it will be soon (release date is Fall 2014).  In the meantime, you can check your local film festivals and theaters to see if there will be showings.  Also, visit TheImmoratlists.com, @theimmortalists on Twitter, and The Immortalists on Facebook.

On this episode David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg talk about the exact opposite--immortality, living forever.