Episode 54: Monsters, Caesar, and Ghosts, Oh My! with Heather Moser

Detail from mixed media collage: “Monsters, Caesar, and Ghosts, Oh My!” by Barbara Fisher 2021

It’s the 21st century—why is it that we still see monsters? And why is it important for us to still study the classics of Roman and Greek literature? And why, oh why do modern people go out ghost-hunting in droves? Aren’t we past all of this?

Well, no.

Why do we still see monsters? Well, maybe because the monsters are part of us, and never went away?

Why do we still study Classical literature, philosophy, poetry and art? Because they are all foundational to our Western culture and they still have relevance to our lives today.

Why do more and more people hunt ghosts? Because we want answers to the question of what happens after death just as much now as we ever did.

The fact is—humanity hasn’t changed all that much in over 21 centuries.

Join Kendra and I as we interview a fascinating woman—a Classics professor at Kent State University, a ghost hunter and a researcher for a remarkable indie documentary film company—Small Town Monsters.

Heather Moser is so knowledgable, erudite, down to earth and fun that we talked for nearly two hours and, really, could have talked for even longer, but we all had to get up early the next day. We got into so many topics in this episode, I can’t even recount them all—but it isn’t just monsters, Caesar and ghosts—there’s the psychology of experiencers, talking with experiencers, digging into old folklore and following emergent folklore. There’s translating Cicero, writing a poem in the style of Ovid and ghost hunting techniques, witches, moral panics, Dionysian cults, New England vampires, Mothman and so much more.

It was so fun. And we hope you enjoy it. And we sure hope we can talk Heather into coming back—I’ve already thought of about umpteen different topics I’d love to hear her thoughts on.

If you haven’t watched any of the Small Town Monsters documentaries, do yourself a favor and watch one right after listening to this episode. I love both of the Mothman documentaries, but after I finish writing this, I’m fixing to watch Skinwalker: Howl of the Rougarou. (I love werewolf stories.)