Curated Video
Popular Words Invented by Authors
Authors often create words just for a one-time usage... but a special few will gain traction and become full-fledged parts of our shared lexicon!
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Kasogonagá: Sky Deity and Absolute Cutie
A sky deity falling from the sky sounds bad, right? Not if it’s the Kasogonagá! From the mythology of the Toba peoples of South America, this god of lightning, thunder, and rain appears as a small, hairy anteater-like creature and needs...
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Windigo: The Flesh-Eating Monster of Native American Legend
Explore the symbolic interpretations of the windigo with Dr. Zarka as she explains how this Native American legend can teach us about the spiritual beliefs and social values of the early indigenous peoples of North America.
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Mari Lwyd: The Skeleton Horse's Deep Past with Christmas
The coastal villages of Wales around the winter holidays have a unique nighttime visitor. A grim skeletal equine monster roams the streets with a rag tag group and demands entry to the homes of the citizenry, demanding food and drink....
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The Hidden Origins of Nixie, the Scariest Little Mermaid
The half-human half-fish Nixie may look very familiar at first. But these shape-shifting monsters with their eerie songs that lure humans to the watery depths are much older, and much scarier, than the mermaids we know from pop-culture.
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Creepy Clowns: The Horror Behind the Laughter
When did clowns—the characters who filled our childhoods with juggling and balloons—become so creepy? For centuries, clowns have worn two faces: as irreverent entertainers, and tricksters who could break social norms. So when stories of...
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Beyond the Supernatural Horror of the Nishi Daak Ghost
The lines between demon, spirit, and deity are often blurred in the cultures of the Indian subcontinent, where the clear “good vs. evil” dualism that is seen more commonly in the Western hemisphere don’t exist in quite the same way. The...
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Are Cyborgs Really Monsters?
Advances in technology are always met with some degree of technophobia – and villainization. Anxieties about humans being replaced by machines immediately emerged alongside voices praising their life-enhancing benefits. What is it about...
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How Bloody Mary Turns Fear Into Fun
By some accounts, she’s hideously mutilated but in others she is beautiful but bloody—more commonly though—every aspect of her appearance is vague. There’s even versions where she was a witch burned at the stake in Salem. In some...
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Is Yuki-onna the Most Terrifying Snow Monster?
Yuki-Onna, the icy snow maiden of Japanese lore, might steal your heart, or your life. This harsh winter monster is beautiful and dangerous, the incarnation of winter storms - as beautiful and pale as the falling snow. She may have black...
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Can All Monsters Be Traced Back to Tiamat?
Across multiple mythologies, the term “mother of monsters” is used frequently on the likes of women such as Echidna, Lamia, and Angrboda. But in Mesopotamian mythology, the mother of monsters is Tiamat, who’s less of a woman, and more of...
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Tikbálang: The Filipino Nightmare Shapeshifter
A malevolent spirit lurks in the shadows of forests and the darkest mountains of the Philippines. Capable of adopting physical form, the most terrifying of which being a massive half-human, half-horse hybrid, the Filipino Tikbálang...
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How Cthulhu Transcended its Creator, H.P. Lovecraft
The tentacle-faced creature Cthulhu is H.P. Lovecraft’s most enduring eldritch creation. But while Lovecraft may be Cthulhu’s inventor, this monster has outgrown its creator, impacting both horror fiction and the real world in...
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Is Siren Head the Ultimate Modern Monster?
Lumbering through the countryside blasting its eerie messages from metal speakers perched atop a forty-foot wooden humanoid frame, Siren Head is a prime example of modern folklore born on the internet. Featuring insights from Siren...
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What Hellhounds Reveal about Humans' Oldest Companion
Hellhounds, the fearsome canine beasts of the underworld who often serve as guardians to the very gates of hell, pop up in a wide variety of cultural folklore throughout history. They're also fairly commonplace in the stories we tell in...
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Mapinguari: Fearsome Beast and Protector of the Amazon
Deep within the Amazon rainforest lurks a mysterious creature called the Mapinguari. Notoriously elusive, this cave-dwelling giant leaves a trail of broken trees and trampled ferns in its wake. Massive, hairy, and pungent, this beast...
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Why Has the Majestic Griffin Been Forgotten?
The Griffin is a half-lion, half-eagle creature that is commonly seen adorning royal crests and perched menacingly atop buildings. Why is this ancient creature that many of us see every day largely forgotten?
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Have Humans Always Feared Sharks?
Despite the extreme rarity of attacks on humans, Sharks have become perhaps the most widely feared animals on the planet. How did this happen? They're not naturally aggressive towards humans and kill fewer people each year than falling...
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Why the Dragon is Central to Chinese Culture
The Chinese dragon is one of the world’s most globally recognized monsters. Playing a major role throughout Chinese history, they were both creators and destroyers and controlled the elements. They've influenced everything from politics...
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Adze: the Shapeshifting Firefly from West Africa
For many of us, the firefly is a mystical, enchanting creature of the twilight. To the people of some West-African cultures, however, the firefly brings to mind a malevolent, shapeshifting, blood-sucking monster of lore: the Adze.
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The Enchanting Fairies of Celtic Lore
The fairies of Celtic traditions trace their origin back to an ancient race of otherworldly royalty - the Tuatha Dé Danann. As fairy nobility, the Tuatha Dé Danann were alternatively seen as gods, monsters, demons, and even the real...
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Krampus: Origins of the Yuletide Monster
You better watch out, you better not cry, and you certainly must behave—or else face the brutal beating of the Krampus. Why does this demonic, horned Yuletide monster exist? This episode looks at the historical origins of Krampus in the...
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El Silbón: The Deadly Whistler of the South American Grasslands
The “Terror of the Plain,” this emaciated, whistling devil is cursed to wander the South American countryside carrying the bones of his victims. Intimately tied to the cattle ranching history of Latin America, the myth of El Silbón...
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The Macabre Origins of the Grim Reaper
There are fewer images of Death personified than the scythe-wielding skeletal form of the Grim Reaper. But where did it come from? You may have heard that this haunting figure emerged as a result of the Black Plague, but that’s only a...