For Halloween, we bring you an ode to three quintessentially creepy creatures: bats, arachnids, and snakes. First, bat researcher Elena Tena joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe tracking the greater noctule bat in flight and learning that it can feed on migratory birds. Then, arachnologist Paula Cushing describes the camel spider, which is neither a camel nor a spider. And herpetologist Sara Ruane highlights one of her favorite snakes, the tiger keelback, which is both venomous and poisonous.

Plus, what makes a lake spooky? A pond possessed? Flora talks with Geo Rutherford, creator of the Spooky Lake Month series on TikTok and Instagram, to learn about some of the spookiest, most mysterious lakes on the planet.

Guests:

Dr. Elena Tena is the national coordinator for the Spanish Bat Atlas project.
Dr. Paula Cushing is senior curator of invertebrate zoology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, Colorado.
Dr. Sara Ruane is curator of herpetology at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.
Geo Rutherford is the author of Spooky Lakes: 25 Strange and Mysterious Lakes That Dot Our Planet and the creator of Spooky Lake content TiKTok and Instagram. You can find her @geodesaurus.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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There’s an established playbook for getting one’s affairs in order before death—create a will, name legal guardians, and so on. But there’s also a newer consideration: what will happen to our digital presences, like social media accounts, files, photos, videos, and more. So how do we manage them, and make sure we’re not turned into AI chatbots without permission? (It does happen.)

Information scientist Jed Brubaker studies digital afterlives, and joins Host Flora Lichtman to discuss how we can manage our digital legacies.

Guest: Jed Brubaker is an information scientist and head of the Digital Legacy Clinic at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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At first blush, the plots of many horror movies don’t seem particularly appealing. Take “The Shining”: A murderous psychopath tries to kill his family in a haunted, secluded hotel. But horror movies have had devoted fans for as long as they’ve been around, and lately, scary movies and television shows like “Sinners” or “The Walking Dead” have made a big splash. Why? What draws us to horror? And why are some people more thrill-seeking or morbidly curious than others?

Host Flora Lichtman talks with two psychologists on opposite poles of horror fandom to flesh out some of the answers: horrorphile and behavioral scientist Coltan Scriver, and psychology professor Ken Carter, who’s horrified by horror.

Guests: Dr. Ken Carter is a psychology professor at Emory University and the author of Buzz!: Inside the Minds of Thrill-Seekers, Daredevils, and Adrenaline Junkies.
Dr. Coltan Scrivner is a behavioral scientist at Arizona State University and the author of Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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