Interview with Blake Smith and Karen Stollznow of The MonsterTalk Podcast

Step into the fascinating world of monsters and mystery with the hosts of The MonsterTalk Podcast, a trailblazing show that has been at the forefront of promoting science and critical thinking since 2009. Blake Smith, the podcast's host and producer, is not just a computer nerd and occasional adventurer but also an accomplished writer whose work has been featured in prestigious publications like Fortean Times and Skeptic Magazine. Joining him is Dr. Karen Stollznow, a prolific author, researcher, and Ph.D. linguist, whose work spans Scientific American Mind, Psychology Today, and Fortean Times. Together, they navigate the realms of skepticism and curiosity, exploring mysterious experiences reported by people while maintaining a keen eye on scientific inquiry.

Where are you from? What is your background?

KS: I’m an Australian-American from Sydney originally. I’ve lived in the Bay Area, California, and I’m currently located in Denver, Colorado. I’m a linguist, researcher, podcaster, and author with a passion for language, history, culture, and the paranormal. I’ve been fascinated by the paranormal since I was 5 years old!

BS: I’m from north Georgia but I traveled a lot for business and when I was in the Navy so I’ve been to most of the US, spent some time in Spain, and lived a couple years in Bahrain. I’m a lifelong learner with particular interest in topics of computer history, innovation, and “weird shit.”  I care deeply about why people experience strangeness and always want to learn more. I guess I’m just maniacally curious about almost everything and feel lucky to have been born in an age where we have access to more answers and information than at any time in human history.

What inspired you to do a podcast on Paranormal subjects?

KS: Blake was the inspired one! He founded the show in 2009 and was kind enough to invite me to join him. We first met at Dragon Con back in 2008 and immediately bonded over our love of classic ghost tales, like Borley Rectory, Lord Dufferin’s ghost, and Gef the Talking Mongoose.

BS: All that’s true. My “paying career” is as an IT professional, and I had all the tech skills to do a podcast and had the good fortune of meeting someone who also never got tired of talking about this stuff. Doing it as a podcast just seemed like a natural step. But at the heart of it, Karen and I both were haunted as kids by a variety of monster fears. “Things that scared the crap out of us as kids,” is how we often term it. Our show very frequently helps alleviate people’s fears and absolutely the greatest reward I’ve gotten from this work has been the heartfelt letters of people for whom we’ve removed some major fear or explained some haunting mystery.

Do you think of yourself as a believer or a skeptic?

KS: I think of myself as a skeptic, but not one of those cynical, closed-minded types. I identify as a critical thinker with an open-mind who approaches the paranormal with a love of folklore, urban legends, and stories.

BS: I think of myself as a “pro-reality activist.” I think there’s a real material world out there but that humans have all this culture and belief structure in addition to faulty perception gear so I like to try—when possible—to figure out if something natural is behind the paranormal, or if there are real creatures behind cryptid sightings. We are so easy to fool that my decades of looking into this stuff not only eroded my belief in many supernatural topics, but it led me to be far more concerned about our legal system which is so heavily dependent on centuries—old mistakes about how people perceive the world. I’m far less frightened of monsters than of people misunderstanding their perceptions.

Have you had a guest that was belligerent about their beliefs? Or feedback that creeped you out?

KS: We’re choosy about our guests so most are in line with our beliefs and approach. However, we’ve occasionally had a guest who expressed some surprising beliefs, or who exhibited racism or sexism. That’s what the “edit” button is for!

BS: We typically have very good conversations with our guests prior to them being recorded so that they know what to expect, but we’ve had a couple of interviews where things got a little tight. If they’d gotten really nasty, I wouldn’t have aired it but we don’t have any darkives. Is that a word? If it isn’t, it does seem to effectively combine archives with the “shelved content” concept. We’ve had some guests that we knew ahead of time held beliefs we didn’t—but we don’t have an issue talking with folks who believe all sorts of weird stuff so long as we can politely discuss possible explanations besides the paranormal ones. Civility is the glue that allows many beliefs to share a table in peace. Or a microphone.

What performer or artist/writer inspires you the most?

KS: I’m a writer, but I’m mostly inspired by artists in other artistic fields. I grew up on the comedy of Monty Python and the music of The Beatles and other ‘60s and ‘70s rock. I watched Get Back as soon as it was released and was deeply inspired by the documentary. I also love art, especially that of the surrealists like Salvador Dali and the Australian artist James Gleeson. I like to think my writing is in the ‘spirit’ of these artists.

BS: My tastes are insanely eclectic but I’ve a huge passion for horror films, especially Hammer Horror and 1970s Italian horror. I like all sorts of reading and am inspired by science communicators like Carl Sagan, monologists like Spalding Gray and David Sedaris, and investigators like Joe Nickell. I love the stuff that people create and am fond of espousing humanist optimism. I like to say, “I don’t believe in much… but I believe in you.”  And that’s sincere.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to start a podcast?

KS: Don’t! (That’s a joke. Perhaps.) There are so many podcasts out there already and many don’t last terribly long. It’s a lot of hard work with little glory. If you’re going to start a podcast yourself, find a topic you’re truly passionate about and can stick to, through thick and thin, and then stick with it. But do it for love, not money.

BS:  Making a highly successful podcast is both subjective and highly unlikely. But at the end of the day, a podcast is a medium for sharing your voice. If you have something to say, the vastness of the podcasting ecosystem means that somebody out there will be interested in your work. The original premise (and promise) of podcasting was that through the magic of “microcasting” you could find your audience or they would find you. That was definitely true before SERIAL came along and made a much larger audience aware of the medium. Now people in their basement are competing with NPR and mega-stars. Hardly fair – but, guess what!? Microcasting still works. If you have a passion and something to say about it, the barrier to entry in the podcasting world is insanely low. Finally, I’d advise trying to record 3 or 4 episodes before bothering to try and do all the tech work of uploading it. PROVE you can stick to it otherwise you do all that work setting up the show and sites and have no content to show for it. Better to record first and get over all the hiccups and challenges.

What long term goals do you have?

KS: We’ve been around for over a decade but I’d like to continue to grow the show and reach as many listeners as possible. We’re steadily building our YouTube channel right now with several playlists like “Debased on a True Story” in which we look at the fact and (mostly) fiction behind classic paranormal movies, like The Exorcist and The Entity. I’ve done a lot of TV work for other shows, so it’d be nice to get our own TV show someday. At any rate, I’m happy just to keep on truckin’ with the podcast!

BS: A TV show would be fun. I’d definitely like to get out a “MonsterTalk Book” of some sort about the stuff we’ve learned while doing the show. We say the show is a springboard to talk about science using monsters as the theme. But the truth is many of episodes have been almost like little notes we wish we could send back to ourselves when we were kids and scared, under the cover, worrying about that noise under the bed. My 14 year old self would actually LOVE the work we do. My 19 year old self would be screaming that I’ve let my body go so badly – but I’m going to ignore him and keep making content for the 14 year old me.

What do you think the popular culture will be like in ten years?

KS: In terms of the paranormal, everything is cyclic, from the interest in ghost hunting to UFOs and aliens to Bigfoot and other cryptids. The interest in these areas waxes and wanes over the years, but never goes away. I predict more of the same cycling over the coming decade.

BS: The future will not just be dumber than you imagine, it will be dumber than you can imagine.

What other things would you like to explore as a podcast?

KS: I’m content with the topics we explore right now. We have a broad definition of monsters, including not only mythical beasts, legendary creatures and cryptids, but monstrous people like Hitler and Rasputin, and also monstrous things like aging and disease. From famous ghost stories and conspiracy theories to deja vu, we have a long bucket list of topics that we’re steadily working through.

BS: After doing shows for more than a decade, the weird urge I have now is to go back and revisit old topics with new guests and see what’s changed. Science moves things along. When we started there was no such thing – so far as I know – as eDNA research. Now biologists can sample a watering hole and get vast amounts of data about the various life in that area. When you’re looking for “monsters” – that’s a game changer. What other changes has progress wrought? Worth having a look, I think.

What projects are you working on now?

KS: I’ve just released a book about the “monster” of infertility; it’s called Missed Conceptions: How we make sense of infertility. I’m currently writing a book about profanity. I have published a bunch of nonfiction and fiction books, including short stories. Please check them out at karenstollznow.com and, of course, check out Monster Talk!

BS: I formed a company called Monster House, LLC to manage my media projects and in addition to MonsterTalk I also produce a show called In reSearch Of… wherein archaeologist Dr. Jeb Card and I watch the old 1970s show In Search Of… and add in stuff the producers left out. Sometimes that’s just new findings, like with their episodes on Carlos the assassin and Joseph Mengele. Sometimes it’s more about injecting more science and history into paranormal topics. Monster House is also about to release a book by Joe Nickell as our first non-podcast production. I’m hoping to have that completed very soon and it’s almost finished with final production work. And I also do a very tiny and humble show that deserves more attention from me. It’s called The Horror Podcast and I’m working on the next episode. I swear.