Desert Oracle Radio

Storytelling Podcasts

Desert Oracle Radio is a weekly road trip through the weird American desert from the publisher of Desert Oracle, the pocket-sized field guide published in Joshua Tree, California. Hear tales of mysterious lights, missing tourists, lost mines, venomous creatures, weird history and weirder people. Hosted by editor Ken Layne and featuring a cast of intriguing mystics, oddballs, scientists and artists, Desert Oracle Radio is your soundtrack for a desert night. The program is broadcast on Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM in the Mojave high desert, with field reports from around and across the desert lands, and is distributed by Public Radio Exchange (PRX).

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Location:

United States

Description:

Desert Oracle Radio is a weekly road trip through the weird American desert from the publisher of Desert Oracle, the pocket-sized field guide published in Joshua Tree, California. Hear tales of mysterious lights, missing tourists, lost mines, venomous creatures, weird history and weirder people. Hosted by editor Ken Layne and featuring a cast of intriguing mystics, oddballs, scientists and artists, Desert Oracle Radio is your soundtrack for a desert night. The program is broadcast on Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM in the Mojave high desert, with field reports from around and across the desert lands, and is distributed by Public Radio Exchange (PRX).

Language:

English

Contact:

7609207099

Episodes

The Green Comet

2/3/2023
"What could it be? There was no balloon and there were no aeronauts. Some strange phenomenon had occurred in the higher zones of the atmosphere, a phenomenon of which neither the nature nor the cause could be explained. Today it appeared over America . . . ." Tonight we take a look at the life of George Ellery Hale, pioneering astronomer and the father of Palomar Observatory . . . where the mysterious new green comet was discovered, only 11 months ago and visible in the skies this week....

Duration:00:28:00

Encounters With Coyote-Man

1/27/2023
For as long as people have lived in the desert southwest, they have told stories of Coyote, that peculiar personality that's both a common wild canine and the devious trickster god who created the world. Also: A lot of people are seeing coyotes stand up and walk away like a man. This is EPISODE #179 of Desert Oracle Radio. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:28:00

Space Monsters & Other Earthly Demons

1/13/2023
Night has fallen on the desert. The year is still fresh and new. We don’t all have to talk about stoves, all the sudden. We can do better. Let’s do better. Let’s talk about monsters. Desert Oracle Radio (C)(P) 2017-2023 • http://DesertOracle.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:28:00

The Haunted Mountains

1/6/2023
Four decades ago, Betty and Barney Hill were driving back from a visit to Niagara Falls when they endured a strange assault in the deeply haunted White Mountains. Ever since their strange story went national in the mid-1960s, we all know the scene: a dark night on a lonesome highway, and something comes out of the sky, or out of the woods, and then it all becomes very hazy. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2023 http://DesertOracle.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:27:59

Christmas In Death Valley (With the Lost '49ers)

12/23/2022
"Gentlemen!" yelled their frontier guide, Captain Jefferson Hunt, "All I have to say is that if you take that route, you will all be landed in Hell!" So began the four-month-long "shortcut" that left the starving Lost '49ers in the middle of Death Valley at Christmas. Hopefully your holidays won't be quite so exciting, although it's generally better to have an adventure than just sit around eating pies. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver, written & hosted by Ken Layne, and broadcasting...

Duration:00:27:59

The Return of King Ludd

12/16/2022
Winter Solstice is coming and the Luddites are celebrating on their flip-phones. That's all we've got to say about it. Listen on your radio in Joshua Tree or Moab or Fresno or various other community stations. And don't forget to support Desert Oracle Radio when you're filling the Christmas stockings with money! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:28:00

The Old Desert Regular Gnostic Advent Calendar

12/2/2022
The desert is the kind of place you think maybe you might *discover* something. A treasure, maybe. The Lost Ark. Some old glass bottles, some old human bones. Maybe a secret history of the ancient world, hidden for 1,500 years in a sealed jar buried in a pile of guano. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Hosted by Ken Layne. Supported by fine listeners like yourself, on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:27:58

The Grouse and the Goddess

11/24/2022
It's Thanksgiving time in America and we are talking turkeys, and sage grouse, and we are taking your calls on our scary-story line. What does the arrival of the Northern Flicker mean, in augury? How has the Triple Goddess survived relentless persecution by the patriarchal religions of bureaucracy? And why did Benjamin Franklin adore the wild turkey? Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver, written and hosted by Ken Layne. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:27:58

The Library of Desert Secrets

11/11/2022
What sort of religious nut was John Muir? What was the mystical and spiritual argument for the creation of America's national parks system? Who planted the tall tales that would become global UFO mythology? And why did the cold voice of recorded robots tell Desert Oracle Radio to immediately leave the Los Angeles Central Library, last night? It's Episode #172 of Desert Oracle Radio, part of our final live-on-stage show, with RedBlueBlackSilver and Ken Layne. Thanks for supporting this...

Duration:00:27:54

Desolation Peak

11/4/2022
We are back in Joshua Tree with tales of desert creatures, snowy mountains, and the secret journals of Jack Kerouac newly published as Desolation Peak. ALSO: Our last stage show, coming up Nov. 10 (next week!) in Los Angeles, with Ken Layne & RedBlueBlackSilver. PLUS: Campfire Stories in the Utah desert, a benefit for KZMU FM in Moab. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2022 • https://DesertOracle.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:28:00

John Lennon's UFO (Some Time In New York City)

10/18/2022
Happy October, friends. This episode comes to you from the West Village, NYC. We'll see you next in Oakland (10/21/2022) and Portland (10/23/2022). Thanks to RedBlueBlackSilver for the magical soundscapes & to you for supporting this independent radio show via our Patreon page. Keep the desert in your hear & your money in your front pocket. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Duration:00:28:00

Famous For Nothingness

9/30/2022
It's tourist season in the Mojave again, never mind the lingering heat and $6-a-gallon gasoline. What's the attraction to this dried-up old desert? Did the fad peak in 2020? Now is the time for Desert Oracle Radio #169: FAMOUS FOR NOTHINGNESS. Soundscapes and Old Desert Regular haunted-gospel organ by RedBlueBlackSilver. PLUS: Details of our October tour, New York on October 6 [Get Tickets] and the West Coast starting October 21. Thank you for supporting this humble radio ministry in the...

Duration:00:27:58

Like a Hurricane

9/9/2022
Night has fallen on the desert, and if you’re in the Western Mojave around Joshua Tree National Park and all the way out to Kelso and Las Vegas, you might already have the buckets out for any newly discovered leaks in the roof, because rain is in the forecast for the whole region. Up to 80% chance of heavy rain tonight in Yucca Valley, and really getting soaked along the Mexican border, flood watch in effect from Yuma to Lake Havasu City. All because of Hurricane Kay, our tropical...

Duration:00:27:58

Down in the Flood

8/19/2022
An interesting thing about a raging flash flood is how quiet it is, for the most part. Sometimes you’ll hear a pinyon log sort of bonk against a boulder, but the silt and the mud absorbs most of the sound. Sometimes, you feel a rumble from the ground below, a pleasing sort of rumble. Like it’s far away, a distant freight train. But it’s right there, ready to pull you down to the Underworld. You can preorder our new audiobook, Desert Oracle Vol. 1, wherever you get audiobooks. Support the...

Duration:00:27:59

Death Valley's 1,000-Year-Flood

8/12/2022
It sure has been a wild week or two, especially here in the Mojave. Just a few days after massive flash floods washed out a number of roads within Mojave National Preserve — the completely washed-out Baker-Kelso road in particular — Death Valley got it hard. Weather chaos, monsoon deluges, UFOs and the supernatural world of science, all in tonight's new episode of Desert Oracle Radio, hosted by Ken Layne & with new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. You can now pre-order the Desert Oracle...

Duration:00:28:00

Guidestones of the End Times

7/22/2022
The Hoover Dam, already dealing with a severe lack of water on the reservoir side, suffered an explosion and fire this week. And somebody predicted the Hoover Dam was "next" after the mysterious Georgia Guidestones were blown up by some anonymous Taliban cosplayers. Welcome to another summer on Earth! At least we have the sanctity of the night, if we allow ourselves the luxury. Being a night owl might even mean you're some kind of tortured genius, so that's good. Maybe. It's Episode #165...

Duration:00:28:00

Owl-Eye's View

7/8/2022
What has horns and flies overhead at night? The Great Horned Owl, that's who. Although they're horn shapes and not actual horn material. As far as science knows. Join us at 10 p.m. tonight on KCDZ 107.7 FM or use your phone as the world's most expensive pocket radio, as we examine the bird's-eye view of the world, and what it can do for your state of mind. Hosted by Ken Layne with new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See...

Duration:00:27:00

Area 51's Mysterious Petroglyph: Pahranagat Man

6/24/2022
Now that it's good & hot outside, let's wander the high desert boulder-strewn hills of Nevada's Lincoln County. Home to Pahranagat Man, a very specific rock-art figure that fits right in with what this land would become in the 20th Century: Area 51, dreamland for the believers in the E.T. mythology. Hosted by Ken Layne, with soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See...

Duration:00:27:59

The Time of the Roadrunner

5/27/2022
In wintertime, in springtime, and in the magic months of late Autumn, the desert is the finest place in the world. But now we are coming to the other part — the “Bad Place,” as they say in the Bible. A time for weeping and a time for gnashing of teeth. While the humans hide in their air-conditioned mechanical prisons, the roadrunners are having the times of their lives. They love the heat of summer, because there's a feast of lizards and snakes in the daytime, and the usual desperate...

Duration:00:28:00

Some New Kind of Kick

5/20/2022
Tonight we are joined by Kid Congo Powers, legendary guitarist from the Golden Age of The Cramps, The Gun Club, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and his longtime band Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds. We talk about his new home in the Tucson desert, his 14-minute desert-groove "He Walked In" from 2021, and the importance of Magick & Alchemy. ALSO: Desert Oracle Radio live in Wonder Valley, with Ken Layne and RedBlueBlackSilver. You can pre-order Kid Congo Powers' new memoir, Some New Kind of...

Duration:00:28:00

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