Peculiar Book Club Podcast

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 Immortal Gestures, we are reviewing the Academy Award winning modern silent film The Artist.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into this dive into Hollywood history. We'll discuss the theme of pride, the technical achievements of the film, and is that the same dog that was in Frazier.

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People, plants and animals all depend on the natural night – both its darkness and its starlight – for everything from regulating our sleep cycles to providing the inspiration for myths and legends. But darkness is disappearing, and with it, our view of the stars. The constant glow of streetlights, of headlights streaming down highways, and wasteful glare from skyscrapers left shining all night have created so much light pollution that the majority of Americans can no longer see the Milky Way or experience the restful embrace of a natural night. As the dark becomes ever more elusive, it is a critical moment to stop, look up, and consider what we lose with the disappearing stars. In NIGHTFARING, journalist and dark sky advocate Megan Eaves-Egenes travels around the world to better understand our deep connection to the dark. From New Zealand to Uzbekistan, Italy to Japan, Germany to the Himalaya, she explores the many ways humans have depended on, feared, and mythologized darkness. Blending travel and nature writing with history and self-discovery, Megan writes of how the stars have helped her chart the course of her own life – just as they’ve guided humankind for as long as we’ve slept beneath them. Join us for a peculiar night of live chat with Megan about the disappearing dark.

Episode was recorded live April 23, 2026.
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In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shared with her audience an abiding sense of wonder at the cosmos, while imagining a world without the entrenched injustice that plagues her field. Now, in The Edge of Space-Time, she embraces that cosmic wonder, taking readers on a mind-altering journey to the boundaries of the universe, inviting us to spend time at the edge of what we know about space-time and about ourselves.
Guided by her conviction that for humanity to go forward we must know our cosmic past, and drawing on poetry and popular culture—from Langston Hughes, Queen Latifah, and Lewis Carroll, to Big K.R.I.T., Sun Ra, and Star Trek—Prescod-Weinstein renders accessible some of the most abstract concepts of theoretical physics to tell fascinating stories about the history and fundamental nature of our universe. Here we meet the quantum cat that is both dead and alive, learn the difference between dark matter and dark energy, explore the inner workings of black holes, and investigate the possibility of a unified theory of quantum gravity, following our guide out to the far reaches of the cosmic event horizon and down to the tiniest (and queerest) neutrino. Along the way, she calls on us to resist colonial approaches to space exploration and instead imagine a better path forward in our pursuit of humanity’s undeniable connection with the stars.
Through Prescod-Weinstein’s clear-eyed and unique perspective, and informed by her deep knowledge of postcolonial history and Black feminist thought, The Edge of Space-Timeargues that physics is an essential way for everyone to look at the universe and presents a compelling case that “the edge” is a powerful vantage point from which to see the big picture.

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There is an old Buddhist adage: the teachings are like a finger pointing to the moon. To achieve enlightenment, you are not supposed to look at the finger. You are supposed to look to the celestial light. I am asking you to look at the finger. The finger is also the moon.These words, from Damon Young, ask us to rethink the casual gesture: A tilted head. A finger to the lips. A wave that could mean emphasis or dismissal. A raised palm of piety and fellowship.These movements do not simply point to our thoughts, they are our thoughts made flesh. They can be instinctive, intuitive, or calculated―or all three. They exist in the briefest moment and through history, in a gently turned wrist and across whole nations. Our gestures drag stories with them, whether they mean to or not. They are invitations to think about how our worlds are larger than they seem―how we are much larger than we seem.Join us live with award-winning philosopher Damon Young as he sheds light on thirteen curious gestures. Drawing equally from classical poetry and science-fiction, heavy metal and ballet, Young illuminates our varied humanity from prehistory to today.

Episode was recorded live March 26, 2026.
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Why would anyone research how elephants pee? Or study worms who tie themselves into a communal knot? Or quantify the squishability of a cockroach? It all sounds pointless, silly, or even disgusting. But NOT TO US! This is going to be a Peculiar fan favorite, I am certain.
In The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog, Carly Anne York shows how unappreciated, overlooked, and simply curiosity-driven science has led to breakthroughs big and small. Got wind power? You might have humpback whales to thank. Know anything about particle physics? Turns out there is a ferret close to the heart of it all. And if you want to keep salmon around, be thankful for that cannon! The research itself can seem bizarre. But that’s why it’s awesome. Join us live for a night with Carly to talk about the weird heart of science, where it’s a good thing to let your curiosity run wild.

Episode was recorded live March 12, 2026.
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