From our Campfire Stories in Joshua Tree on May 23, 2026, here’s a special one-hour edition of Desert Oracle Radio live from the desert behind the Joshua Tree Retreat Center, with the High Desert's own Herb Benham IV opening the campfire festivities with a couple of proper cowboy songs. Ravens, rattlesnakes and other characters appear early and often in the stories & fables that follow.

From our Campfire Stories in Joshua Tree on May 23, 2026, here&rsquo;s a special one-hour edition of Desert Oracle Radio live from the desert behind the Joshua Tree Retreat Center, with the High Desert's own <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/6FnN62XtbVwOAwAyXioCvU?si=Fq7ssxEBShaac3kl-RMzKg%20https://open.spotify.com/artist/6FnN62XtbVwOAwAyXioCvU?si=Fq7ssxEBShaac3kl-RMzKg">Herb Benham IV</a> opening the campfire festivities with a couple of proper cowboy songs. Ravens, rattlesnakes and other characters appear early and often in the stories &amp; fables that follow.

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).

Desert Oracle Radio

Mysterious lights, missing tourists, lost mines, strange apparitions, magical rituals, false prophets & sinister characters. Weird tales from the wild places. This is Desert Oracle Radio, by Ken Layne, broadcasting from a Mojave mountaintop since 20&17.

Mysterious lights, missing tourists, lost mines, strange apparitions, magical rituals, false prophets &amp; sinister characters. Weird tales from the wild places. This is Desert Oracle Radio, by Ken Layne, broadcasting from a Mojave mountaintop since 20&amp;17.

Campfire Tales on a Half-Moon Night

With every passing day, scorcher or not, we are on the march towards Autumn, towards cooler days and longer nights, the time of graveyards and ghost stories. But it’s always time for ghost stories, of course. Especially on Desert Oracle Radio. So tonight, after the exciting Monsoon Season forecast and report, we spend a chilling evening in an old mansion with a writer who just wants some peace and quiet so he can finish his book . . . .

Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Thanks to our too-few patrons for keeping the lights on, for now.

Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2026 http://DesertOracle.com

With every passing day, scorcher or not, we are on the march towards Autumn, towards cooler days and longer nights, the time of graveyards and ghost stories.&nbsp;But it&rsquo;s always time for ghost stories, of course. Especially on Desert Oracle Radio. So tonight, after the exciting Monsoon Season forecast and report, we spend a chilling evening in an old mansion with a writer who just wants some peace and quiet so he can finish his book . . . .
Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Thanks to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle">too-few patrons</a> for keeping the lights on, for now.
Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2026 http://DesertOracle.com

Haunted Houses & Monsoon Rains

We're back with Midsummer Tidings from the Mojave, with solstice verse from Sam Clemens & Shakespeare, too. Plus a new campfire story from our recently concluded springtime series in Joshua Tree. 

Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2026 http://DesertOracle.com

We're back with Midsummer Tidings from the Mojave, with solstice verse from Sam Clemens &amp; Shakespeare, too. Plus a new campfire story from our recently concluded springtime series in Joshua Tree.&nbsp;
Desert Oracle Radio (c)(p) 2017-2026 http://DesertOracle.com

Summer Solstice Verse & the Desert Doctor's Weird Bird

If you love flying saucers, maybe you’ve been following the release of a bunch more UFO files. Maybe you're disappointed that E.T. isn't in there, signing a treaty with F.D.R. But it's a very interesting window on the American UFO era, which is now 80 years old! 

PLUS: A tale from Death Valley, told at our recent Campfire Stories event in Joshua Tree.

Desert Oracle Radio (C)(P) 2017-2026 http://DesertOracle.com

If you love flying saucers, maybe you&rsquo;ve been following the release of a bunch more UFO files. Maybe you're disappointed that E.T. isn't in there, signing a treaty with F.D.R. But it's a very interesting window on the American UFO era, which is now 80 years old!&nbsp;
PLUS: A tale from Death Valley, told at our recent Campfire Stories event in Joshua Tree.
Desert Oracle Radio (C)(P) 2017-2026 http://DesertOracle.com

Campfire Tales on a Half-Moon Night

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