The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

Episode Notes for
2012—The Year in Monsters

TO WIND UP 2012, MonsterTalk welcomes back Sharon Hill, founder of the Doubtful News website, to talk us through a year’s worth of monstrous topics.

Topics in this episode

1. Bigfoot

Ketchum project

Sasquatch: Ketchum If You Can (MonsterTalk # 60)

Sykes Oxford DNA project

• http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/academic/GBFs-v/OLCHP

Sierra Kills episode

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2011/10/the-sierra-kills-episode-bigfoot-individuals-shot/

Hoaxer killed in Montana

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/08/the-danger-of-pretending-to-be-bigfoot-you-can-get-hit-by-a-car-and-die/

Russian yeti claims

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/10/russians-claim-yeti-hair-identified-doubt-abounds/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/09/yeti-again-russian-bigfoot-in-the-news/

Chinese expedition for Yeren

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/03/chinas-bigfoot-the-yeren-used-in-tourism-ploy/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/07/research-expedition-in-china-on-the-look-out-for-the-yeren/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/08/the-yeren-chinese-wild-man-to-be-featured-in-film/

Prize money offered by Spike

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/10/finding-bigfoot-just-got-really-serious/

Continued popularity of Finding Bigfoot

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/08/finding-bigratings-animal-planet-ditches-reality-for-docudrama-dollars/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/03/keep-squatching-more-finding-bigfoot-on-the-way/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/03/bigfoot-is-big-in-popular-culture-today-many-things-to-many-people/

2. Mammoth video hoax

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/02/wacky-wednesday-viral-video-mr-snuffleupagus/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/02/mammoth-video-hoax-original-film-revealed/

3. Icelandic worm video

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/02/is-this-an-iceland-river-monster/
• http://news.discovery.com/animals/icelandic-river-monster-121302.html
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/08/icelandic-river-monster-video-investigated-as-evidence-to-claim-prize-money/

4. Unidentified carcasses

East River monster

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/07/first-hairless-bloated-dead-monster-of-the-season-found-along-nys-east-river/

Beach body

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/03/prehistoric-looking-fish-surprises-south-carolina-beach-goers/

San Diego Demonoid

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/02/washed-up-beast-in-san-diego-or-what-the/

5. Mermaids

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/07/government-public-service-assure-people-mythical-things-are-not-real/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/05/animal-planet-sciences-up-mermaids-with-a-body-found/
• http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/mermaids-embodies-the-rotting-carcass-of-science-tv/

6. Zombies don’t exist says the CDC

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/06/a-rash-of-flesh-eating-incidents-sparks-cdc-clarification-zombies-dont-exist/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/03/surviving-catastrophe-learn-what-to-do-when-zombies-attack/

7. Crypto adventure to the congo fails

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/04/cryptozoology-expedition-to-congo-is-on-kickstarter/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/05/kids-off-to-the-congo-to-look-for-dinos-and-giant-spiders/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/06/desperately-seeking-dinos-on-ill-concieved-congo-adventure/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/10/whatever-happened-to-the-trip-to-the-congo-to-look-for-mokele-mbembe/

8. Loch Ness George Edwards humpty hump photo

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/08/new-picture-of-loch-ness-monster-raises-more-questions/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/08/doing-the-humpty-hump-edwards-nessie-photo-matches-fiberglass-prop/

9. Local terrors

Sulawesi attack

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/11/a-stinking-badger/

Man eating leopard

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/11/fifteen-people-in-nepal-victim-of-serial-killer-leopards/

Chupacabras

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/03/sheep-deaths-in-mexico-blamed-on-chupacabra/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/07/mangy-animal-mistaken-for-chupacabra-in-texas-again/

Giant eyeball

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/10/eye-gasped-when-i-saw-this-thing/

Goblins in Zimbabwe

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/05/goblins-blamed-for-unfortunate-incidents-in-zimbabwe/
• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/06/goblins-continue-to-run-amok-in-zimbabwe/

Namibia magic creature

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/02/mysterious-black-magic-creature-scares-namibian-village/

Aswang

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/04/aswang-ghoul-in-philippines-is-not-real-says-skeptical-archbishop/

Scary creatures in Mumbai

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/02/people-fear-scary-creatures-roam-in-the-mumbai-night/

10. Big cat reports

Essex lion

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/08/police-looking-for-lion-in-essex-u-k/

Puyallap tiger

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/05/tiger-reported-by-two-witnesses-in-puyallup-washington/

11. Vampire in Serbia

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/11/vampire-concerns-reported-in-serbia/

12. Thylacine video hoax

• http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/04/thylacine-video-hoax-making-the-rounds/

Music

• Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys
• Excerpt from Auld Lang Syne by JELLI

The views expressed on this program are not necessarily the views of the Skeptics Society or Skeptic magazine.