“Siri, what does it mean to have gender?” We have become very used to the dis-embodied voices that surround us, from the voice answering to ‘Siri’ to the one giving us directions on our GPS apps. But have you ever stopped to wonder why some of these voices are coded “male” and others “female?” The tech isn’t gendered, but the voices are—and it’s true in fiction as well as fact. Consider “Vicki” from I, Robot, or HAL from Space Odyssey. Why does Star Trek have a female-coded central ship computer? Is it because, as Faber suggests, space is hostile and the ship womb-like and nurturing against the coldness of space? Food for thought, isn’t it? Modern science understands gender as a social construct rather than an actual difference between one sex and another (and another)—that’s why it has been so subject to change over the centuries. Consider the 18th century gent with his hair curlers and lace, tights and heels, penchant for poetry and fainting with feeling. So why bother “gender coding” our technology at all? What’s it doing for us—or against us? To find out, we’re reading THE COMPUTER’S VOICE by Liz Faber, a brilliant analytical romp through feminist psychoanalysis and trippy space operas. Join us live—and you also get to speak with our guest host Rebecca Gibson, author of THE BAD CORSET, A FEMINIST REIMAGINING (hint, the corset wasn’t as bad as you think). Join us for an AUTHORS HOSTING AUTHORS event! There will be feminist cocktails.

Episode was recorded live June 13, 2024.

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Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book We Are Not Alone, we are discussing the legendary alien encounter movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this classic Spielberg movie as we discuss parallels between alien encounters and mental health, how practical effects can be so effective and scary, and some really great trivia about this film.

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A.J. Jacobs learned the hard way that donning a tricorne hat and marching around Manhattan with a 1700s musket will earn you a lot of strange looks. In the wake of several controversial rulings by the Supreme Court and the on-going debate about how the Constitution should be interpreted, Jacobs set out to understand what it means to live by the Constitution.

In The Year of Living Constitutionally, A.J. Jacobs tries to get inside the minds of the Founding Fathers by living as closely as possible to the original meaning of the Constitution. He asserts his right to free speech by writing his opinions on parchment with a quill and handing them out to strangers in Times Square. He consents to quartering a soldier, as is his Third Amendment right. He turns his home into a traditional 1790s household by lighting candles instead of using electricity, boiling mutton, and—because women were not allowed to sign contracts— feebly attempting to take over his wife’s day job, which involves a lot of contract negotiations.

Ever look up at the night sky and wonder what else is really out there? Or, like me, do you watch shows like Resident Alien with Alan Tudyk and realize you might actually be the extra-terrestrial (I mean, it would SO much sense). Seriously, though, do we just laugh off the X-files and move on? Note: we did have X-files producer Frank Spotnitz on our first season). Are UFOs hogwash? We have all been prepared to say so, at one time or another. Then, After decades of cover-ups and denials, in a June 2021 report, the US government finally admitted that UFOs are real. WHAT? Little green men? Not quite! It’s exactly what hey stand for: flying things that we cannot identify. If you hope for a way to sift through the fact and fiction of outer-space possibilities… you’re in luck. I can’t think of any higher praise that being labeled “one of America’s leading connoisseurs of the bizarre” but that’s all in a day’s work for Marc Hartzmann, who returns to MBC with his latest: WE ARE NOT ALONE. Are their alien abductions really? Is Area 51 hiding something? Life might be out there—and it probably won’t be anything like we expect.

Episode was recorded live May 9, 2024.

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Grave yard. Cemetery. These are some of my favorite things! But walking through graveyards isn’t just about getting your goth on. Cemeteries tell our human history—and they tell national history, too. Take central park for instance. In 1857, it was Seneca Village, a “rare haven of Black ownership” stretching from West 82nd to 89th Streets. NY took it over, seizing it for a park. And that means part of the park is also a burial ground, and tells the story of how black people were treated even in the supposedly free north. And that’s just one little tidbit from a book that is sure to be near and dear to our Peculiar family: Over my Dead Body by Greg Melville. The chapters take us on a journey, via cemeteries, around the country, from the mass graves at Colonial Jamestown to Brooklyn’s Green-Wood cemetery, the racially segregated Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, Ga., Hollywood Forever and even a digital graveyard, i.e., Facebook. Aptly put by the NYT, the book is a social history: “What does the act of memorializing, who is remembered and who is left out, tell us about how people lived, what they valued, and the way we live now?” Also… did I mention there are cemeteries? Join us live to chat with Greg through our YouTube livestream—I can promise you a themed cocktail! Only on the PBC.

Episode was recorded live April 25, 2024.

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Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book What's Gotten Into You, we are discussing the 80's science fiction comedy Innerspace.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as we take a deep dive into this silly yet action packed movie as we discuss believing in yourself, how wacky Martin Short can get, why pilots are just cooler then all of us, and robot arm attachments you wouldn't expect in a PG movie.

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In this bonus episode of the Peculiar Book Club we got a chance to sit down with author Wendy Moore for a preview conversation of her new book Jack and Eve.

Jack and Eve: Two Women in Love and at War, is published by Atlantic Books in the UK. It tells the story of Vera 'Jack' Holme and Evelina Haverfield, pioneering suffragettes who became lovers. Jack was an actress who specialised in cross-dressing roles. She became official chauffeur to suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst. Eve, who was born into the British aristocracy, was an intrepid traveller who became one of the suffragettes' most active speakers and agitators. In the First World War they went to Serbia with the Scottish Women's Hospitals (SWH) voluntary organisation to provide medical aid to the Serbian Army. When Serbia was invaded they were taken prisoners of war. After being freed, they travelled to Russia with the SWH to drive ambulances right up to the firing line on the Dobruja front. They were devoted lifelong partners but also pioneers of new ways of living and loving. Jack enjoyed numerous liaisons with other women - detailed in her diaries - and especially favoured three-way relationships. But when Eve died, in Serbia soon after the war ended, Jack was devastated. Jack and Eve is a love story set against the backdrop of intense acts of bravery during the First World War.

You know those amazing science document-aries you love so much? National Geo-graphic, Discover, Science, and History Channels? Yeah, you need to thank Dan Levitt—responsible for producing such shows as Unsolved History (2002), Great Transitions: The Origin of Birds (2015) and Naked Science (2004). That one sounds right up our street. Well, now Dan has decided to give us a new kind of scientific candy crunch: WHATS GOT INTO YOU, a book about, well, YOU. A 150-pound human body contains 60 elements, including “enough carbon to make 25 pounds of charcoal, enough salt to fill a saltshaker, enough chlorine to disinfect several backyard swimming pools, and enough iron to make a three-inch nail.” On the open market, our body chemicals would bring about $2,000. And.. here’s the kicker… the stuff that makes up you and me has been evolving since the Bing Bang. You are made of actual bang dust. “Carl Sagan once famously said we are made of star stuff,” Levitt writes in his introduction. “This is the improbable story of how it happened.” It’s a journey of atoms, astronomy, physics, biology, and chemistry—and you are invited! Join us to chat live with the author on April 11, only on the Peculiar Book Club! (Of COURSE there will be cocktails).

Episode was recorded live April 11, 2024.

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