🦕 S05E38 - Champ Across the Border
About this episode
The episode discusses the cultural perception of the Lake Champlain monster, Champ, from the French-speaking side of the border.
Champ Across the Border: Blake and Karen welcome back historian Dr. Joseph Gagné, a specialist in New France and the French colonial period of North America, to talk about Champ - the famous monster of Lake Champlain. Most of the lake sits between New York and Vermont, but about 7% of it lies in Quebec, and Joseph's upcoming paper in the ethnology journal Rabaska asks a question almost nobody else has: how does the French-speaking side of the border see this most American of lake monsters? The answer involves a fabricated Samuel de Champlain quote, a five-foot fish that really was a monster in its own way, nearly 300 years of digitized Quebec newspapers, and a curious case of cross-border monster pride - because why borrow Champ when you already have Ponik and Memphré ? Plus hoax serpents, colonial werewolf panics, and how Nessie taught every lake monster what a lake monster is supposed to look like. Extended show notes at MonsterTalk.org Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/monstertalk--6267523/support . Some product links may be affiliated with Amazon revenue sharing.
People in this episode
Hosts: Blake Smith, Karen
Guest: Dr. Joseph Gagné
Topics covered
- lake monsters
- historical analysis
- cross-border culture
- ethnology
- mythology
- colonial history
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Rabaska
Books & works: Ponik, Memphré, Nessie
Places: Lake Champlain, New York, Vermont, Quebec
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