Getting into character and scaring people silly is one of Campbell Harmon’s favorite things in life. But his relationship to being a monster goes deeper than playing one in a haunted attraction.
Author: Vanessa Lowe
Like a Light Bulb
Kristin’s daughter was just 16 years old when she began to struggle with drug addiction – methamphetamine, heroin, and more. It brought Kristin to her knees. Of all the painful challenges, the worst was not knowing where her daughter was in the middle of the night.
In Magdalenian Footsteps
There is a cave in southern France that contains some of the world’s most deeply hidden secrets. To get there you must crawl on your belly through a long tomb-like passage, with your only light held between your teeth.
The Sound of Moonlight
There are over 3500 species of crickets and each has a different song. One man fills his apartment in Brooklyn with their music, and then takes them out in public to perform alongside them. And then he eats them.
Elk River Road
Zoe and Sarah were young, free explorers on a spontaneous summer road trip. As darkness began to fall, the map on Zoe’s phone directed them to a short cut that would speed up their drive and get them to a safe place to spend the night. But that’s not what happened.
The Dark Revolt
Ever since he was a child, Clark Strand has awoken in the middle of the night and gone out walking. One night a voice spoke directly in his ear, saying, “Don’t go out tonight. Remain calm and be very very still.” His life has never been the same.
Overnights (Bonus Episode)
What is it about the night, about what happens in the darkness, when most people are asleep? Vanessa and radio host, Rod Quinn muse about this and much more, on this week’s bonus episode. They also chat with callers from across Australia sharing their feelings and observations about the night, in an excerpt of Overnights from ABC Radio in Australia.
On The Air
There’s really nothing else like late night call in shows on the radio – other humans, in real time, just chatting. It can bring comfort and normalcy to the hours that can feel like anything but comforting or normal.
Big Life
Katie Nelson is a journalist based in Kenya, where she covers human rights and global health issues. Her work puts her in dangerous and challenging situations, far from home. But not that long ago, Katie could barely get out of bed.
The Blue Time
For two months a year, in a small Norwegian city, the sun never goes above the horizon. One researcher visits to find out why its citizens are happy despite the lack of light.
Quiet Transmission
Poetry and the night are some of the last remaining domains of “unknowing”; places where it’s acceptable to digest the world slowly and without conclusion, and where one can linger in, and traverse, experiences like solitude, impermanence, and wonder. Poets Cecily Parks and Tom Harding are both drawn to explore the intersection between the quiet tender moments of night and…
Finding the Void
What makes a place home? Is it a place that feels like a refuge? Is it somewhere you sleep really, really well? What if the place that feels like home is a secret apartment in the bowels of a giant mall?
Stay Warm, Be Careful
This crazy thing happens in NYC as night approaches – as rush hour picks up and the streets get evermore hectic than normal, delivery men on bikes start racing through the streets to get people their restaurant food while it’s still hot. Many New Yorkers expect this service that is intrinsic to the city, yet they often view these men on bikes as a menace and a threat to public safety. Cesar works 60 hours a week delivering food, mostly for tips. He says they hate him until they need him.
I Don’t Get Lost
Sometimes it takes losing your way in the dark, to realize that you were already lost.
Ubiquitous Terrifying Force
Something is happening to the animals. Can we all coexist on a crowded planet?
Into the World
The shift into the darkness of night triggers our bodies to relax. Perhaps this is why so many babies begin their journey into the world at night. That adds a whole new dimension when they’re born at home.
Careening
Traveling at night as a passenger is an act of trust. As the sensations of movement lull you to the edge of sleep or beyond, you surrender to dislocation; disconnecting from place and time. The only constant is motion. As your consciousness bobs up into the present moment, in the darkness you could be anywhere, or nowhere at all.
Candle Hour
There has never been a world without tragedy and heartache and injustice. But there has also never before been a time when human beings have had constant access to the breadth of human suffering. Our technology bathes us in this information, and it can be a challenge to not dissolve into a mass of emotion, or just go numb. Julia Scott found herself facing this dilemma, and intuitively creating a ritual for herself, the seeds of which were planted decades earlier.
The Dark Triad
Research in 2013 found a connection between night owls and those with a sinister constellation of personality traits, ominously labeled, “The Dark Triad”. The study got a lot of attention in the media, with headlines claiming that night owls are more likely to be psychopaths and narcissists. There was just one problem.
Blackfish
Malcolm Saunders is a fisherman in Cornwall, on the southern tip of the UK. While most of the old fishing ports have transformed into tourist attractions, there are still some working fishing boats, manned by seasoned weathered fisherman. They’re holding onto to an almost forgotten way of life – one that ties their livelihood to nature, with all of the thrill and hardship that goes along with it. Their lives are governed by tides, and weather, and time – A fisherman goes out where and when the fish are, day or night. There’s nothing else to it.