USA Today recently published the U.S. Senate handbook, a 380 page document of rules intended to keep Senate offices running smoothly. On today’s show, from carpet color to telephone hold music, we reveal the handbook’s most confounding regulations.
Plus, ‘tis the season of ghosts, witches, and vampires. We’ll explore how cultures around the world interpret the supernatural.
Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments.
The U.S. Senate Secret Rule Book
- Paul Singer is the politics editor at USA Today, which recently acquired and published all but one section of the Senate handbook online.
Mainstream Magic
- Lev Grossman is book critic and lead technology writer for Time magazine – and author of The Magicians Trilogy. He says that sometime around the turn of the millennium, magic hit the mainstream.
Godzilla Lives in New Hampshire
- Godzilla is 17 feet tall and resides in a cave-like trailer in Dorchester, New Hampshire. He comes out on New Moons when the sky's at its darkest. Sean Hurley brings us the story.
- You can find a slide show of Godzilla at this link.
Supernatural Places Around The World
- Sarah Bartlett is the author of National Geographic’s Guide To The World’s Supernatural Places, which features more than 250 spine-chilling destinations around the globe.
The Truth About Dracula
- You know the story of Dracula, a man who lived on human blood and seduced innocent girls, turning them into the undead. But before Bram Stoker's novel came out in 1897, Dracula had a different lore. Stoker got the name from a 15th-Century count in Transylvania. He was known for impaling his enemies on spikes but he wasn't a vampire. Hillary Frank talks with a woman with Asperger's Syndrome who, for the last three decades, has spent every Halloween trying to set the record straight.
- You can listen to this story at PRX.org.