Strange Nature for Strange People
The CryptoNaturalist is a scripted fiction podcast all about real love for imaginary nature. It’s about cryptids and other weird and wild topics. Featuring poetry and field reports to make our world a richer, stranger place.
New episodes on the 1st and 15th of each month.
Support our work on Patreon.
Today we visit an elusive cryptid that hides in plain sight and borrows human voices.
Alice Pow allegedly saw Mothman in a Chicago neighborhood during the summer of 2017. She is a writer of prose, poetry, and the upcoming podcast Stone Soup for the Gut. Find her on twitter @Alicepow and if you like her work, feel free to reach out. She is always in search of the most abundant, yet elusive cryptid: friends.
We’re all made of star stuff, some of us more literally than others.
Lauren Dee was played by Julia Schifini. Julia is a podcaster, historian, and big fan of professional wrestling. She is the co-host of Spirits Podcast, a boozy tour of mythology, legends, and folklore, as well as a voice actor on several audio dramas. To find out more about her work, visit juliaschifini.com
Lauren Dee was named for Patreon supporter Lauren Dermody. Thanks to Lauren for her support.
Thanks to Phoebe Wagner for contributing the poem “Glacial.” Phoebe Wagner grew up in Pennsylvania, the third generation to live in the Susquehanna River Valley. She currently lives in Reno, Nevada with her tree-climbing husband Andy and their two cats: Mab and Mith. When not writing, you can find Phoebe at the nearest riverbank.
This week we visit home territory and visit a special grove of sassafras trees.
Hidden Lore segment poetry by Suzannah Dalzell. Suzannah lives on Whidbey Island north of Seattle, Wa where she divides her time more or less equally between writing and land conservation. Among the journals her work has appeared in are Flyway, Pilgrimage Magazine, About Place, Earthspeak and The Raven Chronicles. She is currently working on a collection of poems that explore the places where her ancestry bumps up against race, class and environmental damage.
What creature swims through the ocean of the sky? What could graze within the storm? I know the answer. Listen and you will too.
Poetry by Priyanka Sacheti. Priyanka is a writer based in Bangalore, India. Raised in Oman and educated in United Kingdom, she has been been published in Guardian, Art Slant, The Establishment, Gulf News, and Brownbook among others. She is presently an editor at Mashallah News. Her literary work has appeared in various journals and anthologies. She tweets @priyankasacheti1. A collection of her writing can be found at priyankasacheti.contently.com
When you find the dirt road with the unnamed creature, obey the rules, respect the emptiness, and make peace with the fact that not everything is there for your convenience.
Cara Ehlenfeldt is a writer, sound studies grad student, and co-creator of the upcoming audio drama podcast the Godshead Incidental. She originally hails from the New Jersey Pine Barrens, although she considers the forests of the Pacific Northwest to be her true home. The Indegogo campaign for Godshead Incidental can be found at: https://igg.me/at/godsheadpod (Launching on Monday, 9/17/18).