Desert Oracle Radio Podcast By Ken Layne cover art

Desert Oracle Radio

Desert Oracle Radio

By: Ken Layne
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About this listen

 Desert Oracle Radio is a weekly road trip through the weird American desert from the publisher of Desert Oracle, the pocket-sized field guide published in Joshua Tree, California. Hear tales of mysterious lights, missing tourists, lost mines, venomous creatures, weird history and weirder people. Hosted by editor Ken Layne and featuring a cast of intriguing mystics, oddballs, scientists and artists, Desert Oracle Radio is your soundtrack for a desert night. The program is broadcast on Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM in the Mojave high desert, with field reports from around and across the desert lands, and is distributed by Public Radio Exchange (PRX).2025 Ken Layne Philosophy Social Sciences Travel Writing & Commentary
Episodes
  • Don't Let Them Take Our Western Public Lands

    Don't Let Them Take Our Western Public Lands
    Jun 26 2025

    "God bless America, let's save some of it." — Edward Abbey

    One of the senators Utah sent to Washington has slipped in some very dangerous legal language into the big federal budgeting bill, language that’s vague enough to allow the beginning of the sell-off of our Western Public Lands. Including National Forests. Not including national parks, monuments, etc., but very much including Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands.

    In fact, that’s what this senator, “Based Mike Lee,” titled this section of the Senate legislation: MANDATORY DISPOSAL OF BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT LAND AND NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LAND. No, sorry, not gonna happen.

    Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    28 mins
  • Deployment From Twentynine Palms

    Deployment From Twentynine Palms
    Jun 17 2025

    The Mojave gets slow in the summertime, not much going on. So there was much excitement when the word spread on that early summer night: The Marines were shipping out to Los Angeles. Rumors of troop carriers and white buses, full of Marines with full kit, ready to go, and deeply annoyed to be called back early on a Saturday night. But, it was something to do, somewhere to go. Everybody wants to get out of the Mojave in summertime. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver.

    Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    28 mins
  • Who Got Eaten By the Old Gopher Snake?

    Who Got Eaten By the Old Gopher Snake?
    May 29 2025

    The reality of knowing the wild animals on your land is knowing that they generally live on an accelerated timeline. The new crop of Mojave cottontails and rock squirrels each spring will shrink to one or two lucky buddies by late summer, with the rest succumbing to reckless road crossings and red-tail hawks and rattlesnakes . . . the local ravens feasting on the remains, if there are any.

    Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Hosted and written by Ken Layne. Broadcasting Friday nights on KCDZ 107.7 FM in the High Desert, from Amboy to Zyzxx. Thanks for supporting this show at Patreon.com/DesertOracle

    Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
    Show more Show less
    28 mins
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Sermons and campfire stories from the high desert, harkening to a time when those were one and the same.

A wide variety of topics and moods, with the weird history, lore, and natural world of the Mojave and the greater desert Southwest representing a common thread, not sidebars.

Radio for a night drive on a desert highway.

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This podcast is such fun! A mix of folklore, Mojave magic, military history, Owens Valley tales and dreams of better, wetter times. As someone who frequents 395 and it’s offshoots as often as possible, listening to Ken reawakens memories of road-trips long passed, and adventures yet to come.

A Must Listen for all Desert Rats; Humans too

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