Tonight's episode comes to you live from Los Angeles, where Desert Oracle Radio opened the show for "Seattle's Slowest," the legendary group EARTH on its 30th Anniversary Tour for the Sub-Pop album EARTH2, at Glendale's Alex Theater. Sounds by RedBlueBlackSilver, words by Ken Layne. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's better on a desert Thanksgiving weekend than 10 questions regarding the natural and human history of the Mojave High Desert? Get your pencil and notepaper, and enjoy Desert Trivia Night from Thanksgiving Eve at the Tiny Pony, with spooky November soundscapes from RedBlueBlackSilver. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2023http://DesertOracle.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Looking down the barrel at 2024, from our perch in the High Desert. Mojave thunderstorms, the strange maxims of the ancient temples, Christmas-tree shopping ideas, and old+new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. This is our 9/11 episode: Season 9, Episode 11. Please consider supporting this show via our Patreon before we go belly up, it's hard out there. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the World War II years to 1965, the artist and humorist and hugely influential architect Harry Oliver published his Desert Rat Scrap Book from a hand-built adobe in the California desert. He called it "the only newspaper you can read in the wind," because the whole thing was printed on a single sheet of sturdy colored cardstock, folded down to mailing size. UFO & Fortean author and Radio Misterioso host Greg Bishop joins us tonight to talk about our shared fascination with .... not...

Night has fallen on the desert, and here comes the ancient festival of Halloween, as the world begins to die again ... as it does at the tail end of every year. The leaves fall and decay, the green things wither, the sun hides away. And we remember the Dead. Tonight: Samhain tales of changelings and fire, and the Holy Mountain along the Mexican-American borderland. New (& classic!) soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2023...

One thing people like to do when they’re given some liberties — or when they take the liberty that’s usually there for the taking, if anybody wants it bad enough — is to go on a long walk. Whether you call it a pilgrimage or walkabout or "through-hike" or country ramble, such excursions really take you out of the day-to-day, even as you occasionally rub elbows with other people doing the same thing. PLUS: Information regarding the October 20 show at Jacumba Hot Springs and the October 29...

October is the time for ghost stories, in this season of growing darkness. Tonight we are visited by a mysterious geist, in an ancient old city that is notorious for such restless spirits. ALSO: Details regarding the October 20, 2023, show at Jacumba Hot Springs and the October 29, 2023, edition of Campfire Stories live at the Tiny Pony in Yucca Valley. Haunted new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver; written and produced by Ken Layne. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See...

This autumn is getting off to a strange start, as here in the Mojave High Desert there are carpets of little yellow wildflowers thanks to the hurricane, old Hurricane Hilary which soaked us all pretty good a month ago. Never seen so many weeds in late September. Happy Equinox from Desert Oracle Radio, celebrating 200 episodes with tonight's show. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Early September, Jupiter tucked under the 2/3 moon at midnight, heaviest of La Luna’s many forms and phases: low over the eastern horizon, like the Death Star under construction. The owls are hooting in three different octaves, a whole choir by relay, a choir of the night. The night air has turned cool again, the wind only whispering.This is Episode #199 of Desert Oracle Radio, broadcasting from Joshua Tree. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener...

Ever seen a water witch at work? It’s a beautiful thing to behold. We have ancient reserves of great power within us. This is Episode #198 of Desert Oracle Radio, after the hurricane. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you look at the big red danger zone in the middle of the Weather Service maps this evening, you will see that we are in it, right up at the north end of the highest predicted rainfall and flooding. Maybe that means we don’t get it as bad or for as long as our friends from the border zone up through Coachella Valley to Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs, maybe it means nothing of the sort. Prepare for a lot of rain, maybe a couple of years worth of rain. Prepare for a lot of water in a...

Real gods require no faith, they just are: expressed in the life force of the pronghorn herd racing across the High Desert, the mountain lion traveling hundreds of miles as master of its environment, the invigorating violence of a summer thunderstorm, the lightning strike of a rattler upon its prey, the mourning dove pair bringing up each of their dozen offspring with the same determination and patience and love, one after another, all summer long. Support the show:...

The United States military branches and intelligence agencies do not control what happens around the world all the time, much as they’d like to. The things we call UFOs occur in the backwoods and on backroads, over the lonely desert playas and mountain lakes, eternally floating around the sacred springs and sacred groves and sacred mountains of every culture and continent, for as long as human beings have existed. If you want to see something supernatural, go somewhere quiet, put down your...

If you want to cool off in this brutal desert summer, you need to get up someplace higher, around 7,000 feet — the high-desert plateau around Los Alamos is real nice, at an elevation of 7,320'. Lots of people have fallen in love with the climate and clean dry air up there, such as  J. Robert Oppenheimer & Gore Vidal & William S. Burroughs. Burroughs was supposed to be a War Captain, following orders, but it never quite worked out that way. Instead, he would go to war with Human...

Tonight we are talking about witches. And interesting religions, new & old. And especially California's incredible occult countercultures—the esoteric stuff that Los Angeles Times reporter Deborah Netburn covers for her official newspaper beat: "Faith, Spirituality and Joy." Some of the interesting tales we will discuss tonight: The working witches of Los Angeles just want you to be your best self Psychics and astrologers are huge on Instagram. Now scammers are impersonating them This...

Tonight we are talking about hidden things: secret societies, international conspiracies. Joining us by telephone from New York is the author Colin Dickey, who has written interesting books about a lot of our favorite topics: ghosts, flyings saucers, and especially the many reasons so many of us are drawn to the supernatural, the occult, the paranormal. His latest, in stores next week from Viking Books, is called Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy....

Welcome to the American Desert, where we've got a "champagne climate" (nine months of brutal summer), David Hockney's hidden Pearblossom Highway artworks, and wild gunfights in the streets. But springtime is very lovely, if you can catch it. New sounds by RedBlueBlackSilver, written & hosted by Ken Layne. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've got it all tonight: UFO calls from listeners, albino animals appearing worldwide, and something about reduced expectations and fried chicken. New soundscapes from RedBlueBlackSilver, and a clip from our morning appearance on Z107.7 FM's Up Close show. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are no visitor facilities. Roads are mostly washed-out jeep tracks. There is no water. And there's no way out, unless you come back the way you came in. The state line between Nevada and California is unmarked in the Mojave Wilderness, so it’s up to you to know what’s legal or not. Do not make a mistake. Subscribe to our pocket-sized print periodical and get our brand-new issue, #10! And thanks for supporting this ad-free podcast via our Patreon page. This is Episode #189, "The...

Where is she, tonight? It has been a month and ten days since she mailed this postcard from Idyllwild to Joshua Tree. All we can do is hope that the monster did not put an early end to her Pacific Crest Trail adventure, as so often happens in those movies with Reese Witherspoon. Because there's a real monster in the mountains around San Jacinto Peak, a real monster who murders people & eats their souls for dessert. It is called the Tahquitz.  Support the show:...

Tonight we are joined by Joshua Tree bookseller & publisher Jean-Paul L. Garnier of Space Cowboy Books, along with a transmission from poet & sci-fi author Michael Butterworth. To hear an earlier live broadcast with J-P Garneir and Ken Layne, just call up Episode #065, one of our occasional hour-long shows from 2019. The Micheal Butterworth exhibition at Art Queen opens on June 17, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for...

The waxing moon is moving through the constellation of Leo, Mars is fading, and Venus hangs heavy in the western sky. Venus seems enormous, especially late at night, low over our western mountains. Meanwhile on the desert floor, and splashed brightly up the desert hillsides, wondrous carpets of yellow and orange and violet wildflowers delight the eye & the soul. This is EPISODE #186 of Desert Oracle Radio, The Nature of Color & Vision, by Ken Layne and with lush new soundscapes by...

It's a beautiful spring in the desert, which naturally makes one dream of heading off to war. Maybe a secret war, a guerrilla war, an unknown soldier, wounded deep in psychic battle, like Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, like Che in Bolivia, like good old Ambrose Bierce headed to the deserts down in Mexico for one last campaign, one final outrage. With moody new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver and a travelogue from ancient Damascus, where Saul/Paul stumbled into town after being blinded by the...

On this Good Friday —which wasn't so great for the protagonist — let us be enlightened by the strange koans of the Desert Fathers. These were the 5th Century CE monks who started the whole "move to the desert" trend, leaving their elite lives in the cities for the hardship of a tiny hole dug in a limestone cliff.  With new spring soundscapes by our own musical monk, RedBlueBlackSilver, and hosted/written by Ken Layne. We wish you a very somber & festive Snakesgiving, as well. Thanks much...

During these many months of heavy rain & thick snowdrifts, we look around the southwest and notice all those playas, those alkaline dry lakes, blessed with a sheen of fresh water . . . and we remember this used to be a land of lakes, not so long ago. As the last Ice Age came to a close, some 12,000 years ago, immense freshwater lakes covered much of what we now call California and Nevada. What a paradise it must’ve been, with people living in pleasant villages on the shorelines, lots of...