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Showing posts from October, 2015

Monsters I've Met - Airs Oct 28th

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The Hand of Fate from Tales of the Frightened Boris Karloff recites us a spooky tale from mystery writer Michael Avallone . Recorded in 1963. A Cold Freezin' Night by Katie Mingle Was it just a dream? The story of a chance meeting with "the enigmatic man." Why We Tell Ghost Stories by Michael Kraskin David Terry of UNC- Chapel Hill describes the narrative structure of ghost stories and why we are drawn to them. True Vampires by Eric Molinsky Twilight, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries – there seems to be no end to the vampire craze . But the existence of real vampires isn’t so glamorous . Actual vampires are nothing like the ones we see depicted in movies like Dracula. In fact, most of them are just trying to get by. Melaina Hates Clowns from Columbia College Radio Some scary things are fun, others can be kinda disturbing, and then there's terrifying clowns . For student producer Melaina de la Cruz, facing her coulrophobia  was one of the hardest,...

Double Feature: Night Frights - Also Airs Oct 21st

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Night Frights from Vox Humana It’s the middle of the night. You wake up with a start. There’s a presence in the room -- watching you. You sense that it is evil . But you are paralyzed and powerless. It’s your worst nightmare. Is there help? Producer Michele Ernsting explores the strange and surprisingly common condition of sleep paralysis with Dr. Al Cheyne , a leading expert on the subject and several victims of “night frights."  KFAI will be broadcasting this double dose of the Listening Lounge in lieu of Art Matters  this evening. Night Frights will air at 7pm. Painting:  The Nightmare  ( 1781) by Henry Fuseli.

Murder at Midnight - Airs Oct 21st

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Murder Is a Lonely Business from Murder at Midnight A study of crime by a difficult duet written by William Norwood. Originally broadcast December 16th, 1946 on the Mutual Network . This episode stars Helen Shields, Wendell Holmes , & Carl Emery. It was directed by Anton M. Leder, hosted by Raymond Morgan, and features the effective creepy organ stylings of Charles Paul . "Midnight, the witching hour when the night is darkest, our fears the strongest, and our strength at its lowest ebb. Midnight, when the graves gape open and death strikes."

The Crow - Airs Oct 14th

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Birds of a Feather from Israel Story Every summer tourists flock to the beautiful beaches of Eilat, Israel . But a new kind of tourist has made its way down south: crows . This invasive species wreaks havoc during the summer months. During June alone, the municipality hotline received over 60 calls reporting crow attacks . The city needed to do something - that's where Yoram comes in, Eilat's first hit man for crows. Do Crows Mourn Their Dead? from Here Be Monsters When a bird dies, crows swarm, squawk loudly and gather as many feathered friends as they can to come and see 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 grad student Kaeli Swift are trying to get to the bottom of these strange phenomena . Producer Jeff Emtman examines the strange behaviors of crows and how they might be able to teach humanity about the origins of funerals and e...

Noise, Pt. 9 - Airs Oct 7th

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Master and Servant   from Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening Grand town houses in the eighteenth century seemed to promise privacy. But in fact they offered anything but – the family home often included not just parents and children, but also elderly relatives, unmarried sisters, paying lodgers, and the nosiest neighbors of the lot… the servants . Professor   David Hendy of the University of Sussex  eavesdrops on the whispers, gossip and scandal of the eighteenth century house, and tells the salacious tale of John Burt, a navy captain from Canterbury, who took his young wife Harriet to court for impropriety - on the evidence of his cook.   Slavery and Rebellion  from Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening Many slaves would have heard the  sounds  of home for the last time as they waited at Ghana’s  Gate of No Return  for a  ship  to the new world. Far away on the Carolina plantations they were expected ...