Sit down with Perry & Mason as they discuss the state of Digital Folklore! On today’s episode, our hosts pull back the curtain to talk candidly about season one of the podcast, the results of our survey, and the plans for season 2.

On today’s episode, Perry & Mason sit down with Mark Muncy. Mark is the author of Eerie Florida, Eerie Apalachia, Creepy Florida, and more. He also hosts a podcast called Eerie Travels. It’s a weekly show, where he and his co-host Erika Lance explore monsters, legends, history, and mysteries. Each episode, we invite you to explore destinations for your own Eerie Travels!

Today’s guest is Dr. Diane Rodgers. Diane is a senior lecturer in Media at Sheffield Hallam University where she specializes in Alternative Media and Storytelling in film and television. Her research interests relate to the communication of folklore and contemporary legend in the media including: folk horror; folklore on screen; the supernatural, ‘spooky’ television programming aimed at children, and other darkly fascinating topics.

Diane’s PhD research was on folk horror and hauntology in 'wyrd' 1970s British Film and Television. She’s also co-founder of the Centre for Contemporary Legend research group.

Digital Folklore episodes labeled as “Unplugged” will be much more like traditional interview-based podcasts. Whereas our standard episodes tend to focus on a fun way to present a single topic or set of tightly related topics, Digital Folklore ‘unplugged’ is about showcasing our interviewees… and so will often touch on a wide range of topics in a single interview.

Today’s guest is GennaRose Nethercott. She is a folklorist, an author, a poet, and is also a researcher & producer for the podcast Lore. She’s won a National Poetry Series award for her book, The Lumberjack’s Dove… and her most recent book, Thistlefoot, a reimagining of Baba Yaga that she somehow effortlessly weaves together with American road adventure, the complexity of sibling relationships, and puppetry…

We pick up here with a discussion of folklore, urban legends, and the interesting time we find ourselves in, which is enabled by social media and other forms of mass public online expression…

We're joined by veritable digital folklore superstar Lynne McNeill! We are also joined by innumerable technical gremlins, as well as some obvious problems as Perry discovers that Mason has bulldozed the inside of his studio in order to look good on the video chat. Dr. McNeill offers up an immense amount of knowledge and insight, while Perry and Mason barely hold things together.

We discuss: Lynne's brilliant definition of folklore, misinformation, disinformation, media literacy, and the dark side of folkloric transmission, how studying folklore might be more important now than ever, and the Folklorist’s Forensic Toolkit (how to think like a folklorist).

We relive unseen events from earlier this season through the eyes of a mysterious patient and a rather insufferable doctor. This episode covers defining folklore and related concepts, we finally find out where Digby is, we learn about “The Gutenberg Parenthesis”, talk about some behind-the-scenes stuff, and meet a mysterious doctor.

Perry is all alone in a massive Airbnb and is beginning to suspect that something supernaturally disturbing has been following himself and Mason. After all of the strange events this season, perhaps there is a reason for them to be nervous... Perry makes a call to Dr Francis Young, an expert in the history of religion and belief. Francis shares his knowledge of religious history, exorcism practices, the 'chicken and egg' debate around ritual and religion, fandoms, the ways in which the internet affects the generation and archival of folklore, and so much more.

Mason finds a mysterious VHS copy of Candle Cove. Not having a VCR, he heads to Perry's Airbnb mansion only to discover that Perry is also VCR-less. After a short debate, they hop into the FolksWagen and head to Todd's pawn shop. And that's where things get a bit strange...

There is so much more to LARP than fighting with foam weapons (although that in itself is extremely fun). It provides a safe space to engage in empathetic roleplay, a venue for self-improvement, and a community around the creation and sharing of lore and stories.

We’re keeping this here for archival and future investigation. This is a copy of the strange audio and text that appeared in our RSS feed at 10:53 Eastern time on February 22, 2023.

Perry picks up Mason from his house at 4:00am (yes… Four in the freaking morning) for a road trip to visit the gravesite of Elijah Bond — inventor of the Ouija Board. Along the way, they encounter quite a few remarkable folks with stories to tell…

Perry and Mason discover a mysterious canister in the trunk of Perry’s (new) car. It's a reel of tape, which turns out to be an interview that they did not conduct. All is not as it seems…

You never know what you might discover if you just #KeepYourEyesOpen. Perry and Mason venture into their local pawn shop where they meet the mysterious proprietor, Todd, as well as a handful of very interesting people who all happen to be connected…

This is the first of our 'Folk' episodes, where we share longer excerpts from our interviews! On this episode, we speak with Dr. Vivian Asimos about what makes a monster significant and how the circumstances around Slenderman’s creation catapulted a him into our collective consciousness. Then, we'll hear from author Kathleen Hale about her journey to uncover details around the Slenderman stabbings in Wisconsin. We also meet Mason's pet raccoon, Digby!

Join us as we take a look at Slenderman and Momo and learn about ostension, monster theory, moral panics, and the defining traits that make something folklore as opposed to just a simple online expression of creativity.