After about a year of exploring podcasts, there has been a clear winner, at least for me.
Last Podcast on the Left covers all the bases. Serial killers, true crime, UFOs, paranormal and cryptozoology. They mix facts with humor, sometimes making the very dark subject matter more easy to digest. They’ve become a household name….in this house. My husband has listened to every single episode as I’ve been slowing working through everything new they put out and catching up on the old stuff too.
So when they announced a live tour, with the nearest stop to Michigan being Cleveland, we bought tickets immediately. It was worth every penny and we’ll go see them anytime they come that close. It was my first comedy show and I laughed a LOT. (This is important as every time I’ve watched a comedian do stand up on TV, I maybe laugh out loud once….if they’re good.)
Now, I’ll be the first to admit, this podcast probably isn’t for everyone. If you don’t like swearing and dark subjects, stay away. Some people have accused them of being into murder porn because they really hit the details in every case, but as they’ve recently pointed out, thanks to the new Bundy tapes documentary on Netflix, the reason why they do is to show just what horrific monsters these people are/were. You may think, they’re serial killers of course they’re terrible, who would think otherwise? The answer: too many fucking people. For example, Netflix had to come out and tell people to stop romanticizing Ted Bundy (something that was an issue during his actual trial as well), but this was partially their fault. No where in the entire documentary did they say anything about his murders other than he committed them. They didn’t mention the rape, or the necrophilia. So I digress back to Last Podcast, they’re going to give you every single detail so you know exactly what kind of monster you’re hearing about.
The live show was much more light-hearted and fun. They talked about murder conspiracies, UFOs, and cryptids. The tour will run across the globe for most of the year and then they’ll probably do a recording available to purchase at the end of the year (like they did this past December) and next year, a new tour with new subjects.
If this all sounds up your alley, I highly recommend giving them a try.
Fantasy and sci-fi are my bread and butter of reading BUT I do enjoy a good non-fiction book now and again. Quite frankly, I’m very picky about them so I thought I’d share some that have made my TBR list. I haven’t read any of them yet so don’t come yelling at me if you don’t end up liking them. đ
Journalist Rachel Nuwer plunges the reader into the underground of global wildlife trafficking, a topic she has been investigating for nearly a decade. Our insatiable demand for animals–for jewelry, pets, medicine, meat, trophies, and fur–is driving a worldwide poaching epidemic, threatening the continued existence of countless species. Illegal wildlife trade now ranks among the largest contraband industries in the world, yet compared to drug, arms, or human trafficking, the wildlife crisis has received scant attention and support, leaving it up to passionate individuals fighting on the ground to try to ensure that elephants, tigers, rhinos, and more are still around for future generations.
Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon.
On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia’s brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade.
Nadia would be held captive by several militants and repeatedly raped and beaten. Finally, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety.
Today, Nadia’s story–as a witness to the Islamic State’s brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi–has forced the world to pay attention to the ongoing genocide in Iraq. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.
Dear Mr. Manson…
It started with a college course assignment, then escalated into a dangerous obsession. Eighteen-year-old honor student Jason Moss wrote to men whose body counts had made criminal history: men named Dahmer, Manson, Ramirez, and Gacy.
Dear Mr. Dahmer…
Posing as their ideal victim, Jason seduced them with his words. One by one they wrote him back, showering him with their madness and violent fantasies. Then the game spun out of control. John Wayne Gacy revealed all to Jason — and invited his pen pal to visit him in prison…
Dear Mr. Gacy… It was an offer Jason couldn’t turn down. Even if it made him…
The book that has riveted the attention of the national media, this may be the most revealing look at serial killers ever recorded and the most illuminating study of the dark places of the human mind ever attempted
In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen shows that whatâs happening in our country todayâthis post-factual, âfake newsâ moment weâre all living throughâis not something new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character. America was founded by wishful dreamers, magical thinkers, and true believers, by hucksters and their suckers. Fantasy is deeply embedded in our DNA.
Over the course of five centuriesâfrom the Salem witch trials to Scientology to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, from P. T. Barnum to Hollywood and the anything-goes, wild-and-crazy sixties, from conspiracy theories to our fetish for guns and obsession with extraterrestrialsâour love of the fantastichas made America exceptional in a way that we’ve never fully acknowledged. From the start, our ultra-individualism was attached to epic dreams and epic fantasiesâevery citizen was free to believe absolutely anything, or to pretend to be absolutely anybody. With the gleeful erudition and tell-it-like-it-is ferocity of a Christopher Hitchens, Andersen explores whether the great American experiment in liberty has gone off the rails.
From Waco to Heaven’s Gate, the past decade has seen its share of cult tragedies. But none has been quite so dramatic or compelling as the Jonestown massacre of 1978, in which the Reverend Jim Jones and 913 of his disciples perished. Deborah Layton had been a member of the Peoples Temple for seven years when she departed for Jonestown, Guyana, the promised land nestled deep in the South American jungle. When she arrived, however, Layton saw that something was seriously wrong. Jones constantly spoke of a revolutionary mass suicide, and Layton knew only too well that he had enough control over the minds of the Jonestown residents to carry it out. But her pleas for help–and her sworn affidavit to the U.S. government–fell on skeptical ears. In this very personal account, Layton opens up the shadowy world of cults and shows how anyone can fall under their spell. Seductive Poison is both an unflinching historical document and a riveting story of intrigue, power, and murder.
Imagine you’re the American dream. Midwestern housewife with two kids and a steady, reliable husband. He tinkers in the garage after work and you attend PTA meetings and after school events. Nothing rocks the boat for years and years. Until one day, someone accidentally drives their vehicle through your yard and into the garage revealing your quiet, dependable husband to be a ruthless serial killer. You have my attention.
The rest of the story is of a mother living in paranoia, trying desperately to keep her kids safe from people who want to hurt her and her children because they don’t believe she’s innocent, despite a trial that finds otherwise. They change their names, run and try to rebuild. Until someone in their new town begins murdering girls in the exact same manner as her ex-husband.
I’ll admit that this one was kind of a let down. I loved the concept and I was pumped to read it but it fell flat. Everything was predictable right down to the multiple red herrings. I knew fairly early on who the murderer was going to be and I was right. The âshockingâ ending wasn’t so shocking. I saw that one coming a mile away, knowing that this is a series and there would have to be something to explain a second book. Gwen, the mother, has super level paranoia but doesn’t think a certain curiosity from a near stranger was an odd question? Or that someone who has been helping her all along did it out of a sudden change of heart? She put too many eggs in baskets that I wouldn’t have touched with a ten foot pole if I were in her shoes.
cupcakesandmachetes 