Desert Oracle Radio

Rain on the ground, a chill in the air, ghosts on the prowl. We're back from the Midwest with strange tales from the desert to the cornfields. Hosted by Ken Layne with soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver, with some of our Pygmalion Festival appearance for good measure. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Support the show: htt...

We're back from the road with a new episode to celebrate the most glorious time of year: October, Autumn, Harvest, Fall, whatever you all it. With new nocturnal gospel music from RedBlueBlackSilver and strange tales phoned in from our listeners, recorded live in Chicago at Illuminated Brew Works Lodge #1. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for pri...

Congratulations, you people! It is Fall. You made it. Might take another month or two, until you really notice, but summer is officially over. It's a new episode for a new season, with new soundscapes by you-know-who (RedBlueBlackSilver). Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertor...

It's officially Autumn, at least if you believe the meteorologists -- Meteorological Fall began this week on September 1. Portents and signs, everywhere we look. But signs of  what ? Oh, the usual: plague, disaster, but at least we have social media to make it worse. New sounds by RedBlueBlackSilver, hosted by Ken Layne. Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2021 http://DesertOracle.com Support the show...

Summer's in the rearview but robots are blocking the road. What kind of world is this?  The world of the Future . It's time for Episode #136 of Desert Oracle Radio, with your host Ken Layne and soundscapes from RedBlueBlackSilver. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracl...

Tonight we come to you from Theatre29 in sweltering Twentynine Palms, California. Flash floods, heat domes, weird animals, RedBlueBlackSilver, what else could you want? Other than a livable planet, we mean. Thanks to everyone who came out for the live shows, and everyone who supports the show on Patreon or through magazine subscriptions or however you do it. Stay hydrated but please don't attempt...

Heat domes and sultry Palm Springs mornings, weird ravens and odd dreams of wildlife appearances. The brain boils in the desert summer. It boils our very thoughts. Plus: A late edition of the Desert Oracle Mailbag, and all you need to know about our July 10-11 2021 live shows at Theatre29 in Twentynine Palms. (Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.) Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=260...

Night has fallen on the desert, the desert at its most brutal. The punishing desert, the earthly purgatory, the sun-blasted wilderness so many heroes had to get across alive. Or die trying: Moses, Laurence of Arabia, C-3PO and R2D2, Beavis and Butthead, Allan Quartermain, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver and a survival-training presentation by our friends at th...

What happens when the perfect solo day hike becomes the ultimate disaster? How do we arrange things better, so that we don't wind up feeding the vultures? Author Claire Nelson joins us to talk about her harrowing fall and long, long wait for help -- a story of fear and bravery and figuring out your life, told in her new memoir,  Things I Learned From Falling . Support the show: https://www.pa...

Well it finally happened, just like every year. All the sudden, it’s hot again. A week ago, it was pleasant out. Now, we cry in the frying pan. Or we will cry, in the weeks to come. October's somewhere on the horizon. Unless it's a mirage. Plus: The Legend of Tahoe Tessie, which you can read here in Alta Magazine . Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/...

There's lots of chatter in the media about some Navy encounters with some sort of mystery drones, but meanwhile in the Western United States we've been having a good old-fashioned flying-saucer flap. Seen by regular people with their own eyes! New sounds from RedBuleBlackSilver. Desert Oracle Radio #130 (c)(p) 2021 — https://DesertOracle.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2...

Seasons change in the desert, but it's always Rat Time. Kangaroo rats, wood rats, deer mice full of hantavirus, it's just a feast for the rats all year long. New sounds from RedBlueBlackSilver. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...

We have been sick, and we need the medicine of the show. Campfire stories, tent revivals, Shakespeare in the Park, knife fights at the honky-tonk, etc.  Now that performance is returning to the stage, whether theater or movies or street dancers, we spend some time at the campfire to follow the long thread from ancient-world traveling players to the Old West medicine shows that continued into...

As we come out of our holes and return to our beloved American Desert, it's time to remember a dozen simple rules to keep your day hike from becoming a disaster.  Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is this episode  about Mojave Spaceport? Well, it's a place on the journey, to put in in "hobbit speak." Tonight we get on the road, wander some small desert towns, make some real-estate schemes, and plan for a better future. Which starts now. New tracks by RedBlueBlackSilver and some archival audio from our favorite radio priestess of the Western Airwaves, a century ago. Support the show: ht...

What made the Owens Valley the way it is, in our time? An accident of history, of water grabs, of one group of humans using easy money to buy out another group of humans, that's what preserved the most beautiful place in the world from the fate of the Central Valley. The same sort of accidental miracle that saved so much of the American southwest's mountains and deserts from wide-scale development...

What does the cave art of 30,000 years ago have to do with the new Solar Orbiter we sent from Planet Earth to explore our star? Quite a lot, it turns out. Hosted by Ken Layne, with new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio...

Are the mystery drones back? Did they ever leave? We travel from the desert to the sea and back again, chasing those odd manifestations that have lately been surrounding Navy destroyers. And what does any of this have to do with L. Ron Hubbard? New tunes from RedBlueBlackSilver. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Support t...

Where there are mountains, there are mysteries. Tonight we visit with some old friends who've long haunted the Indians, the Spaniards and the Americans. They are called the Dark Watchers, and as usual their world is part of ours, tied up in our own recent history of desert mystics such as Aldous Huxley and the ancient culture of the Esselen. Hosted by Ken Layne, with new soundscapes by RedBlueBlac...

The middle of the country might be frozen solid all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, but here in the Great Mojave Wilderness the weather is fine, the skies are blue, and the first hints of so many little green something-or-others are now apparent on the desert sands. Will we finally come out of our holes? With new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26...

Some people like it, some people don't. We are talking about the desert. And this week—challenged by a listener to stop romanticizing the desert southwest—we are joined by Phoenix writer Jason P. Woodbury to give a couple places a real hard time. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Support the show: https://www....

You ever drive the "Loneliest Road In America"? That's what they call U.S. 50, across the Great Basin Desert through the middle of Nevada. Not many people out there, not a lot going on. Just as we like it. The mystery visitors like it, too. They like the quiet, they need the wild mountains and desert valleys of the Basin and Range. And way back in 1952, so the story goes, 15 little alien friends w...

There's a leak in the studio roof and the only way we know is because an  atmospheric river is bearing down upon the American Southwest. So get a bucket or a cereal bowl or something and we'll all paddle to Hell together . . . . with new soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver to keep us company. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...

Get in the truck, we're taking a night drive to the Dragoon Mountains in Cochise County, Arizona. Get ready for the weird times. New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver as we cover some difficult terrain with the Apache leader Cochise, the strange granite of his stronghold, and the mystery craft seen on many nights around these mysterious 78-million-year-old mountain spires. Support the show: https:...

Might be a nutty new year on the national news, but here in the desert we are just trying to get along and not got crushed. With guest Brendan Maze and new sounds by RedBlueBlackSilver. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26080998 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...