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[desert-oracle]

Dr. John Milton Bigelow did not shy away from hard work or adventure. At the age of 46, he signed on as surgeon and botanist for the Mexican Boundary Survey, following the U.S.-Mexican War that fulfilled the gold-hungry manifest destiny of the Americans.  This expedition of discovery took him through the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Colorado deserts, where he catalogued the great variety of desert…

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EPISODE #220: STANDING WITH GIANTS, AT MARIPOSA GROVE

This is EPISODE #220: STANDING WITH GIANTS, AT MARIPOSA GROVE. Mariposa Grove was a sacred forest for millennia before it became part of the U.S. Yosemite Grant, lovingly tended by Yosemite Guardian Galen Clark for more than a quarter century. Sacred groves and forests are protected for their spiritual and ecological importance. Such groves are found today throughout India (home of more than a…

[desert-oracle]

EPISODE #219: THE OLD, WEIRD AMERICA

On this Easter weekend, let’s do our best to bring back the ghosts, the supernatural. Let us recognize and respect the mysterious entities that come not from some imagined, distant star system in the cold lifeless vacuum of space, but from right here where we experience them: backroads, mountains, spooky desert trails at dusk. Jesus loved wilderness and often talked to ghosts, after all. And…

[desert-oracle]

EPISODE #118: SPOOKY TALES FOR THE ST. PATRICK'S STORM

The pyramids of Guinness 12-packs at our High Desert grocery stores reminded us of St. Patrick’s Day coming up, but the grey cloudy skies and green hillsides of the Mojave Desert this month are reminders that the old pagan tales are with us still, wherever the landscape is haunted and strange. And that supernatural entities always gather in their ancient homes: wild forests, dramatic outcroppings…

[desert-oracle]

EPISODE #217: VOICE OF THE DESERT

The storms continue, the wildflowers begin to appear, and Chantel (our mysterious PCT through-hiker) probably made it to the Canadian border without any kind of Mountain Monster getting her, which is good. Also: What is the Voice of the Desert? This is EPISODE #217: VOICE OF THE DESERT Listen to the radio broadcast Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM in Joshua Tree & all over the Mojave…

[desert-oracle]

EPISODE #216: MAKE IT SACRED

Nothing is sacred unless we set it aside as sacred. As Americans rapidly abandon organized religion, and the formerly sanctified church and temple sites go up for sale as designer homes, where are the places that are truly sacred? The places set aside for contemplation, meditation, festivals, the rituals of life & death? There ain’t much. Not nearly enough. But that can be fixed. New soundscapes…

[desert-oracle]

EPISODE #215: AMONG THE STATELY TREES

Where’s the beautiful part, anyway? Well, start by walking about a mile past the last parking lot or dirt road or residential car-parts dump or informal halfway house or accidental pit-bull breeding farm, and keep going in the direction of the difficult terrain: the hills and the mountains and the boulders. Not the hills covered in radio relay towers, but the ones with nothing up there at all,…

[desert-oracle]

EPISODE #212: THE TYPING LIFE, w/ GUEST MATT WELCH

We are releasing this beast from the Patreon Archives — where you can find many more Patreon-only/Patreon-first episodes). A month ago, our old friend & collaborator Matt Welch joined us by telephone from New York City to talk about a magical time in California. Between 1999 and 2002, a wave of “news bloggers” washed over the calcified Los Angeles media landscape, and the effects were both…

[desert-oracle]

EPISODE #213: THE BALLAD OF MOJO NIXON

Our old friend and mentor Mojo Nixon passed away this week, after playing a blistering set of rock ‘n roll for his fans aboard a hillbilly cruise ship. Tonight, we remember the showman, songwriter and deejay who was a towering figure in American underground culture for a long, long time. RIP Mojo Nixon. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free show via our Desert Oracle Patreon. Soundscapes…

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EPISODE #110: THE HERMIT'S LIFE

For some of us, the only peace of mind comes in absolute solitude, in those still numerous places where the calamitous noise of our civilization is mostly kept at bay. Ask anybody who completed a long hike — such as the PCT up the Western Spine of America — what they loved most, what made it such an unforgettable time. The solitude, they will often say. The quiet. Not the absence of sound, that’s…

[desert-oracle]

EPISODE #211: HORROR ON THE CALIFORNIA BACKROADS

The first new Desert Oracle Radio of the year: The strange true tale of a missing child, a newspaper that hired a talk-show psychic to find that child, and the cops reporter who covered the grim & baffling end of the case. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free show via our Desert Oracle Patreon. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver; written & produced by Ken Layne. This is This is: EPISODE…

[desert-oracle]

EPISODE #209: GADZOOKS, IT'S SOLSTICE-TIME!

A wet winter is visiting the American High Desert this Week of the Winter Solstice … which used to be the same day as Christmas and New Year’s and the Birthday of Dionysus, until Big Government caused the chaos and disorder of the present. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free show via our Desert Oracle Patreon. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver; written & produced by Ken Layne. This is…

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EPISODE #208: LIVE FROM EARTH

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. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free show via our Desert Oracle Patreon. PS — SPOTIFY HAS REMOVED THIS…

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EPISODE #207: DESERT TRIVIA NIGHT

“Known as the ‘apostle of the cacti,’ this advocate for the creation of desert national parks was named after this ancient Roman goddess ….” If that’s a question you can answer, without even thinking about it, then you may enjoy this Thanksgiving Weekend episode featuring DESERT ORACLE TRIVIA NIGHT, something that really happened at the Tiny Pony on Thanksgiving Eve. Thanks for supporting this…

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EPISODE #206: SONGS OF THE DOOMED

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. BUT . . . it also also likely time for a…

[desert-oracle]

EPISODE #205: ODE TO HARRY OLIVER, KING OF THE DESERT RATS

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…

[desert-oracle]

I attended the live show in Twentynine Palms tonight (7/10), it was incredible. Thank you for that experience. It made me feel alive for the first time since the pandemic started & I didn't realize how much I needed that. Something that draws me to the show is the underlying hum of hopefulness. The belief in other possibilities, from the more supernatural to something as temporal as knowing the heat will die down again. I'm wondering how intentional (if at all) that is. Thanks again. - A.

Thank you for attending that show, and apologies for the very late reply . . . did not realize there were some unanswered comments here. It's an optimistic project, we hope for the best & will deal with what happens.