Tyler Ham returns to discuss growing up during the Reagan Era Cold War, and how it affected us as children. Tyler categorizes  classic atomic age sci-fi movies, offering historical perspective from the earlier days of the Cold War. Russian kids weren’t so different from us. Here

In childhood development, transitional objects provide comfort in difficult or unique situations. We’re joined by Stacey Rader, of Adventures of a Geeky Vixen, to discuss some of the toys that helped us through some tricky times growing up and into adulthood. We laugh,

More audio Halloweenery! We’re joined by Joey Gallimore, aka Dr. Jose, of cameraviscera.com, to dig up our childhood memories of being afraid of the dark. We talk about things that scared us on television and in the movies, and examine how those fears mutated into a want to make

May is one of my favorite months. The New England winter thaw is complete, and spring is underway. Most importantly, May brings with it Free Comic Book Day, a religious holiday for acolytes of the four-color media. Since 2002, on the first Saturday in May, participating comic shops se

Anyone  familiar with Bobcat Goldthwait might consider him an odd role model for a thirteen year old, but in 1987 his tremulous blend of humor and frustration was just the sort of influence that helped me harness my angst and find some self-esteem. By the time I was thirteen, I had bo

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is in vogue these days. People toss around phrases like “my OCD is acting up,” or “I’m so OCD” as a way to express their fastidiousness or propensity for cleaning, safety, organization, matching, and the like. OCD is th

The TSA agent didn’t seem to notice the tiny B.A. Baracus that rode on the x-ray conveyor belt along with my wallet, phone, belt, shoes, and carry on bag. I dropped him into the basket designated for the contents of my pockets just before crossing through the metal detector. I m

In most situations, I tend to imagine the worst case scenario. This delightful character trait is a bit of behavior I learned from my father, a catastrophist whose glass is perpetually half-empty. My talent for negative thinking has been honed to a fine art when it comes to medical or

In the daylight, there wasn’t much that scared the kids in my quiet suburban neighborhood in the early 1980s. The most we feared were cooties from the opposite sex and earwigs, which were fabled among us kids to crawl into your ear and lay eggs in your brain like those ear worms