One of the Phillipine’s most dangerous and bizarre aswangs, the viscera-sucking, self-segmenting monster hunts at night. A beautiful woman by day, this creature detaches its upper torso and grows wings after sunset. An intestine-dangling...

Connected to witchcraft, sexual predation, and mischief, the tokoloshe is a dominant myth in South Africa. There are different kinds of tokoloshe/tikoloshe, but one thing remains the same in all versions of the monster: they cause havoc...

In this episode, you’ll hear all about Homer’s Polyphemus and Hesiod’s one-eyed blacksmiths, but also a little about the role paleontology has played in creating monsters. Join Dr. Zarka and special guests Kallie Moore and Blake de...

Did you know there are two different types of chupacabras? Or that these bloodsucking monsters only starting popping up 25 years ago? Sightings of el chupacabras, the “goatsucker,” began in Puerto Rico in 1994 for a very real reason—the...

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...

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...

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...

This influential ancient monster from Chinese mythology predates the written word. Inspired by ancient bronze and jade iconography detailing the face of a bulging-eyed, gapping-mouthed beast, the Taotie creature is both mysterious and...

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...

The pontianak, or kuntilanak, has long been a staple of Malay horror. In addition to serving as an allegory for the tension between traditional and modern cultural and spiritual practices, these monsters gave name to a real city. In this...

Although able to appear as a beautiful young woman, the jorōgumo is really a deadly spider monster in disguise. This episode dives into the fascinating world of yōkai and the long history of beautiful women and spiders in Japanese...

This video explores how writers use the literary element of atmosphere to create specific feelings about a place or setting within a story. It distinguishes atmosphere from mood and uses examples from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and...

Famous American author Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting death may have been a result of cooping, a violent form of voter fraud practiced in the 19th century.

As strange as the creatures of the microcosmos are, their lives still revolve around the same fundamentals that ours do. There’s food, reproduction, and death. Yes, even microbes, hardy as they can be, experience death. In some ways,...

No Edgar Allan Poe biography would be complete without examining the frequently bizarre circumstances surrounding his life. Although today Poe is universally admired and respected, his journey was a difficult and frequently depressing...

In this video, the teacher explains the concepts of literary elements and literary techniques. They discuss the literary elements of theme and atmosphere, and the literary techniques of foreshadowing, diction, and anaphora. Through...

The Elements of Fiction - Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson . These are just three of the renowned authors whose work is cited in The Elements of Fiction, which explores: Plot elements, character, conflict, flashback,...