Pseudo-Archaeology · The Archaeology Podcast Network

My Top 10 Favorite Cryptids - Ep 178

·36 min·2 clips

Slender Man begins as a 2009 creepypasta meme and later gets tied to a real stabbing case.

1. Pseudo-Archaeology episode 178 focuses on Andrew Kinkella’s top 10 favorite cryptids, from Nessie to Slender Man. 2. Andrew Kinkella hosts the episode as a solo segment, and he says the show is about “what’s fact, what’s fake, and what’s fun.” 3. The episode asks what a cryptid is, why people tell these stories, and how the stories change over time. 4. Kinkella says the Loch Ness Monster is one of the “top three most famous cryptids of all time,” and he links the modern image to a 1933 photo. 5. He says the Loch Ness story also reaches back to the seventh century and describes Nessie as a water-based creature that can look brontosaurus-like or eel-like. 6. Kinkella connects the 1933 Nessie photo to the release of King Kong and says a film can shape public sightings. 7. He says mermaids go back to Greek mythology and uses Scylla and Charybdis as a reference point for dangerous sea travel. 8. He calls the Kraken a Norway-based creature from the 1100s and describes it as an unconfirmed cephalopod that sinks ships. 9. Kinkella says the Chupacabra began in Puerto Rico in the 1990s and that the first version was influenced by Species. 10. He says the Duende is a Spanish-origin figure used in Belize to explain children who disappear in the jungle. 11. He describes Deer Woman as a Great Plains and Lakota figure tied to vengeance against men who harm women. 12. Kinkella says skinwalkers are associated with Navajo traditions in the Southwest and presents them as a witch-like opposite of a medicine man. 13. He defines the Wendigo as an eastern U.S. spirit linked to eating people after possession. 14. Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and the Yeti are presented as versions of a hairy wild man story from British Columbia, the Pacific Northwest, and the Himalayas. 15. Kinkella says the Bigfoot name comes from 1958 footprints and mentions wooden feet used to fake tracks. 16. He says the Mothman emerges in West Virginia in the 1960s and ties its image to a large bird seen at dusk. 17. The tone is casual, first-person, and humorous, with Kinkella pausing for commercials and joking about pseudoscience branches. 18. The format is a ranked list with short origin stories, cultural examples, and repeated side comments about movies, TV, and archaeology-adjacent folklore. 19. Listeners interested in folklore, pop-culture monsters, and modern mythmaking will get the most out of this episode. 20. Listeners wanting strict archaeology or a formal interview may skip this episode.

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