The Pirates Don’t Eat The Tourists: Jurassic Park & Prehistoric Fiction

You're in a canoe, sweating in thick jungle heat, and something enormous stirs in the water ahead. That's the mood pulling us into Mokele-mbembe, the legendary "living dinosaur" of Central Africa, and the bigger question we can't stop circling: why do we keep needing monsters, especially when the world feels like it's running out of mysteries?I'm joined by historian Eddie Guimont, whose research into dinosaur hunting, lost cities and conspiracy culture shows how cryptozoology ties into colonial exploration, museum prestige and the politics of who gets to call something a discovery. We talk about the okapi as a proof point for European audiences, Carl Hagenbeck's confidence in local reports, and the moment The Lost World lands in a culture already primed to believe extinct animals might still be out there.From there we jump to Michael Crichton's Congo recycling Victorian "dark continent" tropes, the 1970s and 80s boom in monster expeditions (including Young Earth creationist funding for living-dinosaur searches), and the pull of reptiles in conspiracy thinking, from lizard people to the wider ecosystem of pseudoscience, flat earth belief and anti-expert politics.GuestEddie GuimontInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/eddieguimont?igsi=MWd0MnFhZGl0NDM3Ng==Eddie's articleHunting Dinosaurs in Africa, Contingent Magazine (2019)https://contingentmagazine.org/2019/03/18/hunting-dinosaurs-africa/LinksThe Power of the Flat Earth Idea: History from the Marginalised (affiliate link)https://amzn.eu/d/0gJkqRkkWhen the Stars Are Right: H. P. Lovecraft and Astronomy(affiliate link)https://amzn.eu/d/0iKwNF3mFurther ReadingBeasts and Men, being Carl Hagenbeck's experiences for half a century among wild animals (1912) — free to read on the Internet Archivehttps://archive.org/details/beastsmenbeingca00hageNext episode will arrive on 16th SeptemberSend a message to the show. Questions, corrections, favourite dinosaursSupport the showEnjoying the show? A quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts would mean the world, it’s one of the best ways to help fellow Jurassic fans discover us.Presented and produced by Roland Squire☕️Buy Me A Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtorebiq🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jurassicpiratespod?si=DJOlBmPoF75YE8It📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jurassicpiratespod?igsi=cmswOTFwM29pOWhl&utm_source=qr🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)🎨 Cover artwork: @thejurassicartist

How did a self-described character actor become the beating heart of the biggest film franchise on Earth? At the beginning of July we lost our dinosaur man, Dr Alan Grant himself, Sam Neill. This is an episode I never expected to make, but I could not let the moment pass without turning a very sad event into a celebration of a remarkable life and career.I am joined by James Mottram, author of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World Ultimate Visual Histories and the Jurassic Park script book. James interviewed Sam Neill a handful of times across 25 years, from a London press day for The Dish in 2000 to a long lockdown phone call during the making of Jurassic World Dominion, and he shares every one of those encounters here!We go through the James Mason phone call that followed My Brilliant Career, the daredevil early years of Possession and Omen III, and the Dead Calm breakout that convinced Spielberg he had found his Alan Grant. We get into the extraordinary 1993 of The Piano and Jurassic Park, the Bond screen test that never was, the John Carpenter collaborations, the grumpy joys of Jurassic Park 3 and the late masterpiece of Hunt for the Wilderpeople. And we finish on Dominion and the reunion of the original trio, the future of the franchise, the essential Sam Neill films to seek out, and the lovely story of the signed cards he sent out to bookshops when he could not meet readers in person.Stay to the end for a listener message and my reflections on the Celebrating Sam Neill moment at DinoCon.GuestJames MottramInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/mottram101 James’s booksJurassic Park: The Ultimate Visual History (affiliate link)https://amzn.to/4wL0BYYJurassic World: The Ultimate Visual History (affiliate link)https://amzn.to/4wL0BYYThe World of The Odyssey: A Visual Journey (affiliate link)https://amzn.to/3UEFKc8Filming The Odyssey: Inside the Making of Christopher Nolan’s Modern Epic,(affiliate link)https://amzn.to/4xaHyrUThe Essential Sam Neill Films, as chosen in this episodeMy Brilliant Career (1979)Possession (1981)In the Mouth of Madness (1994)Event Horizon (1997)Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)LinksSam Neill, Did I Ever Tell You This? His wonderful memoir, read by Sam himself on audiobook (affiliate link)https://amzn.to/4zvljyCSend a message to the show. Questions, corrections, favourite dinosaursSupport the showEnjoying the show? A quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts would mean the world, it’s one of the best ways to help fellow Jurassic fans discover us.Presented and produced by Roland Squire☕️Buy Me A Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtorebiq🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jurassicpiratespod?si=DJOlBmPoF75YE8It📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jurassicpiratespod?igsi=cmswOTFwM29pOWhl&utm_source=qr🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)🎨 Cover artwork: @thejurassicartist

Who should direct the next Jurassic film now that Gareth Edwards has walked away? In this free sample of Hey, Roland!, the monthly bonus show for subscribers, I work through the director shortlist name by name, report back from DinoCon 2026 in Birmingham, and set up next week's very special tribute to Sam Neill with James Mottram.I also want your voice on that tribute episode. Tap the Fan Mail link at the bottom of these show notes and leave me your memories of Sam Neill, Jurassic or otherwise, and I will share them on the show.Links from this episode- Jurassic Outpost on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JurassicOutpost - The Hollywood Reporter on Gareth Edwards leaving the Rebirth sequel: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/jurassic-world-rebirth-sequel-loses-director-gareth-edwards-1236666236/- DinoCon UK: https://www.dinocon.co.uk/- Terrible Lizards with Dave Hone and Iszi Lawrence: https://terriblelizards.libsyn.com/- The Lost Valley Podcast with Cian Gill: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-lost-valley-podcast/id1448284008Send a message to the show. Questions, corrections, favourite dinosaursSupport the showEnjoying the show? A quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts would mean the world, it’s one of the best ways to help fellow Jurassic fans discover us.Presented and produced by Roland Squire☕️Buy Me A Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtorebiq🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jurassicpiratespod?si=DJOlBmPoF75YE8It📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jurassicpiratespod?igsi=cmswOTFwM29pOWhl&utm_source=qr🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)🎨 Cover artwork: @thejurassicartist

In 1912 Arthur Conan Doyle dragged four men to the far edge of the map and brought Dinosaurs back to reality! The Lost World is the first major work to put dinosaurs, rather than marine reptiles, at the centre of prehistoric fiction, and it remains the book that comes out on top whenever I ask a guest for their favourite.I am joined by Richard Fallon, research associate in natural history humanities at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge, author of Contesting Earth’s History and currently editing a new scholarly edition of the novel. He has read it roughly twelve times, six of those in the last year alone!Richard takes me through Edwardian palaeontology, the arrival of Dippy the Diplodocus, and the real men behind Challenger, Summerlee, Malone and Roxton. We get into the fake photographs and Doyle’s ambition to publish the whole thing as a hoax, the Piltdown Man connection, and what the manuscript gives away about Roxton’s voice. And we finish on the novel’s colonial logic, its homosocial heart, and the one illustration of Central Lake that Doyle cared about more than any other.GuestRichard FallonBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/richardfallon.bsky.socialCambridge profile: https://www.esc.cam.ac.uk/staff/dr-richard-fallonSedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences: https://www.sedgwickmuseum.orgThe Book: The Lost World (1912)Project Gutenberg, free, and the text Richard reads from in this episodehttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/139Richard’s booksCreatures of Another Age: Classic Visions of Prehistoric Monsters, Valancourt Books 2021 (affiliate link)https://amzn.eu/d/07x8bkXXContesting Earth’s History in Transatlantic Literary Culture, 1860-1935, Oxford University Press 2025 (affiliate link)https://amzn.to/4gbXuUDReimagining Dinosaurs in Late Victorian and Edwardian Literature, Cambridge University Press 2021 (affiliate link)https://amzn.to/4wysYdoRichard’s writing, free onlineProfessor Megalow’s Dinosaur Bones: Richard Owen and Victorian Literature, The Public Domain Review.https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/richard-owen-and-victorian-literature/Seen through Deep Time: Occult Clairvoyance and Palaeoscientific Imagination, Journal of Victorian Culturehttps://academic.oup.com/jvc/article/28/2/143/6759198Richard on his own book, Making Science Public bloghttps://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2025/04/03/contesting-earths-history/LinksE. Ray Lankester, Extinct Animals (1905), Doyle’s key source and the book Challenger quotes at Malone. Free on Internet Archivehttps://archive.org/details/extinctanimals1905lankAllen A. Debus, Dinosaurs in Fantastic Fiction: A Thematic Survey (affiliate link)https://amzn.to/4fCoPPHThe Lost World (1925) Free to watch on Internet Archivehttps://archive.org/details/TheLostWorldCompleteVideoQualityUpgradeNext time: a tribute to Sam Neill with James Mottram, 19 August.Send a message to the show. Questions, corrections, favourite dinosaursSupport the showEnjoying the show? A quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts would mean the world, it’s one of the best ways to help fellow Jurassic fans discover us.Presented and produced by Roland Squire☕️Buy Me A Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtorebiq🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jurassicpiratespod?si=DJOlBmPoF75YE8It📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jurassicpiratespod?igsi=cmswOTFwM29pOWhl&utm_source=qr🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)🎨 Cover artwork: @thejurassicartist

Can searching the rocks for sea dragons bring you back from the worst day of your life? In this week's episode I swap the underground for the shoreline with fossil hunter Matthew Myerscough, whose story starts with an avalanche on Yr Wyddfa and leads to the ancient seas of the Severn shores. Along the way we talk about Mary Anning and the two kinds of time travel, a plesiosaur paddle rescued from a Somerset boulder in fifteen pieces, and the fifty million dollar T. rex that sold at auction the very day we recorded.For the first time ever, you can also watch this conversation on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.GuestsMatthew [email protected] BookIn Search of Sea Dragons: A Fossil Hunter's Odyssey - buy direct from Seren Books@serenbooksLinksMudlarking by Lara Maiklem (affiliate link) - the book that inspired Matthew to write his ownNational Museum Cardiff - new home of the Lavernock pliosaur jawGuided fossil walks for beginners:Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre Fossilwise guided walks, Lyme Regis - https://www.fossilwise.com/Whitby fossil hunting guide - https://www.visitwhitby.com/blog/great-tips-finding-whitby-fossils/Wight Coast Fossils (Isle of Wight) - https://wightcoastfossils.co.uk/fossilwalks/The Fossil Collecting Code - https://charmouth.org/chcc/the-fossil-collecting-code/Next time: The Lost World with Richard Fallon - Wednesday 5th AugustSend a message to the show. Questions, corrections, favourite dinosaursSupport the showEnjoying the show? A quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts would mean the world, it’s one of the best ways to help fellow Jurassic fans discover us.Presented and produced by Roland Squire☕️Buy Me A Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtorebiq🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jurassicpiratespod?si=DJOlBmPoF75YE8It📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jurassicpiratespod?igsi=cmswOTFwM29pOWhl&utm_source=qr🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)🎨 Cover artwork: @thejurassicartist

In this weeks episode I head underground with The Lost Valley’s Cian Gill to trace how Jules Verne turns geology, ciphers and sheer wonder became the template for every lost world adventure. Along the way we talk about deep time dread, dodgy Victorian translations, and the sea-dragon spectacle that still makes modern monster stories work.GuestsCian [email protected] Book Episode Congo Movie EpisodeThe BookJourney to the Centre of the EarthF.A. Malleson 1877 TranslationOxford World Classics - William Butcher Translation (affiliate link)Penguin Classics - Frank Wynne Translation (affiliate link)The Ladybird Classics Edition (the one with the music!)Links Richard Fallon’s ‘Creatures from Another Age’  (affiliate link)Alan A. Debus’s ‘Dinosaurs in Fantastic Fiction’ (affiliate link)Tales from the Hollow Earth with Dr. Eddie Guimont - Wide Atlantic Weird Podcast (Cian’s other show and well worth a listen!)Send a message to the show. Questions, corrections, favourite dinosaursSupport the showEnjoying the show? A quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts would mean the world, it’s one of the best ways to help fellow Jurassic fans discover us.Presented and produced by Roland Squire☕️Buy Me A Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtorebiq🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jurassicpiratespod?si=DJOlBmPoF75YE8It📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jurassicpiratespod?igsi=cmswOTFwM29pOWhl&utm_source=qr🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)🎨 Cover artwork: @thejurassicartist

Dinosaurs are real, which is exactly why they are so hard to write. Humans never lived alongside them, so any prehistoric fiction that wants characters, conflict, and drama has to cheat time, bend geography, or invent new science. I’m joined by Adam Roberts, professor of nineteenth-century literature at Royal Holloway and a leading critic of science fiction, to unpack how writers solve that problem and what those solutions reveal about our fears and fantasies.The Book List:Jules Verne – Journey to the Centre of the EarthArthur Conan Doyle – The Lost WorldEdgar Rice Burroughs – The Land That Time Forgot TrilogyRay Bradbury – A Sound of ThunderAnne McCaffrey – Dinosaur PlanetHarry Adam Knight – CarnosaurMichael Crichton – Jurassic Park / The Lost WorldJames Gurney – DinotopiaGreg Bear – Dinosaur SummerRobert T. Bakker – Raptor RedStephen Baxter – EvolutionEthan Pettus – Primitive WarLee Murray – Into the MistGuestsAdam [email protected]://profadamroberts.substack.com/(Affiliate links below)The History of Science Fiction - https://amzn.eu/d/0g4lGWhJPre Order ‘Frankenstein Rex’ - https://amzn.eu/d/09joNsmMPre Order ‘An A-Z of J.R.R Tolkien’ - https://amzn.eu/d/0bjirGu0Send a message to the show. Questions, corrections, favourite dinosaursSupport the showEnjoying the show? A quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts would mean the world, it’s one of the best ways to help fellow Jurassic fans discover us.Presented and produced by Roland Squire☕️Buy Me A Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtorebiq🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jurassicpiratespod?si=DJOlBmPoF75YE8It📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jurassicpiratespod?igsi=cmswOTFwM29pOWhl&utm_source=qr🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)🎨 Cover artwork: @thejurassicartist

The Natural History Museum is the most visited attraction in the UK, and almost nobody looks up.In this episode I walk through the museum as two things at once: a beloved London landmark, and a working scientific institution with hundreds of researchers behind the galleries. We start in the cathedral-like main hall and work outward, taking in the terracotta animals hidden in the stonework, the Darwin myths that refuse to die, Hope the blue whale, and Dippy the Diplodocus, whose arrival in 1905 kicked off British dinosaur fever.Along the way we get into Hans Sloane and the British Museum roots, Richard Owen’s ambition to build a temple to nature, and what the museum is planning for its 150th anniversary.GuestsAlastair HendryTom LukerLinksNatural History Museum: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/Send a message to the show. Questions, corrections, favourite dinosaursSupport the showEnjoying the show? A quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts would mean the world, it’s one of the best ways to help fellow Jurassic fans discover us.Presented and produced by Roland Squire☕️Buy Me A Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtorebiq🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jurassicpiratespod?si=DJOlBmPoF75YE8It📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jurassicpiratespod?igsi=cmswOTFwM29pOWhl&utm_source=qr🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)🎨 Cover artwork: @thejurassicartist

Plymouth, summer of 1841. Richard Owen stepped before the British Association for the Advancement of Science and coined a word that would reshape our understanding of the deep past: Dinosauria. This episode follows that word from Owen’s meeting hall to South London, where sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins turned fragmentary bones into life-size stone giants.I am joined by palaeoartist and author Mark Witton for a conversation about the history of the site and then Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs trustee Andrew Brady, and Jurassic Outpost’s Caleb Burnett and I go for a walk through the world’s oldest surviving prehistoric animal park.For the extended interview with Mark Witton, you can hear it by subscribing to the Plus version of the podcast in Apple Podcasts or clicking the ‘support the show’ link below.GuestsMark WittonPalaeoartist, palaeontologist and authorMarkwitton.co.uk@mark_wittonAndrew BradyTrustee of the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, the charity formed in 2013 to conserve and celebrate the geological court at Crystal Palace Park. Follow the ongoing restoration and find out how to support the project.Cpdinosaurs.org@CPDinosaursFacebookLinksReport of the 11th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Plymouth 1841https://archive.org/details/reportofeleventh42londThe Art and Science of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs by Eleanor Michel and Mark WittonAll author proceeds go to the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.https://cpdinosaurs.org/projects/the-art-and-science-crystal-palace-dinosaursThe Dragon of St Paul’s by Reginald Bacchus and Cyril Ranger GullThe 1899 story referenced in the episode, in which a prehistoric creature thaws from a block of ice and runs amok across London. It can be found in Richard Fallon’a brilliant prehistoric story collection here:https://amzn.eu/d/0ceDiAs4 (this is an affiliate link so might earn commission when using)Send a message to the show. Questions, corrections, favourite dinosaursSupport the showEnjoying the show? A quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts would mean the world, it’s one of the best ways to help fellow Jurassic fans discover us.Presented and produced by Roland Squire☕️Buy Me A Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtorebiq🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jurassicpiratespod?si=DJOlBmPoF75YE8It📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jurassicpiratespod?igsi=cmswOTFwM29pOWhl&utm_source=qr🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)🎨 Cover artwork: @thejurassicartist

Charles Dickens opened Bleak House with a megalosaurus waddling up Holborn Hill. This episode traces the stories we told about the bones in the rock before we knew what they were. I’m joined by Bexhill Museum curator Julian Porter and author Natalie Lawrence.For the extended interview with Natalie Lawrence, you can hear it by subscribing to the Plus version of the podcast in Apple Podcasts or clicking the ‘support the show’ link below.A huge thank you to Guy Adams for the opening narration!GuestsJulian PorterCurator at Bexhill Museum and author of Bexhill on Sea: A Historyhttps://amzn.to/4wL8eQ6 (affiliated link so I might earn commission on items bought)https://www.instagram.com/bexhill_museum?igsh=ZXh5Mm12c2R6Z2puNatalie LawrenceAuthor of Enchanted Creatures, a history of the monsters we have made from the natural worldhttps://amzn.to/4dQqtuK (affiliated link so I might earn commission on items bought)https://www.nataliejlawrence.com/https://www.instagram.com/natalie.j.lawrenceLinksMark Witton: Unicorns, dragons, monsters and giantsNatalie references Mark’s work in this episode, picking apart the arguments for mythological creatures being derived from fossil discoveries.https://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2018/04/unicorns-dragons-monsters-and-giants.html?m=1Bexhill Museum: Dinosaurs and Geologyhttps://www.bexhillmuseum.org.uk/access-centre/museum-exhibitions-displays/dinosaurs-geology/Send a message to the show. Questions, corrections, favourite dinosaursSupport the showEnjoying the show? A quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts would mean the world, it’s one of the best ways to help fellow Jurassic fans discover us.Presented and produced by Roland Squire☕️Buy Me A Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtorebiq🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jurassicpiratespod?si=DJOlBmPoF75YE8It📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jurassicpiratespod?igsi=cmswOTFwM29pOWhl&utm_source=qr🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)🎨 Cover artwork: @thejurassicartist

Before Season 2 begins, here’s every film episode from Season 1 in one place!Season 1 of The Pirates Don’t Eat The Tourists was called Road to Rebirth. Over the course of the season, we worked our way through all seven Jurassic films, from Spielberg’s original in 1993 to Jurassic World Rebirth in 2025. This compilation brings together all seven film episodes as a single listen. Perfect for catching up before Stones to Stories begins on 3rd June, or for new listeners wanting to understand where the show came from.Episodes included: Jurassic Park (1993) with Derrick Davis · The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) with Caleb Burnett · Jurassic Park III (2001) with Daniel Stephen · Jurassic World (2015) with Brad Jost · Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) with Samantha Endres · Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) with Sam Phillips and Jack Ewins · Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) with James Mottram and Derrick DavisSend a message to the show. Questions, corrections, favourite dinosaursSupport the showEnjoying the show? A quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts would mean the world, it’s one of the best ways to help fellow Jurassic fans discover us.Presented and produced by Roland Squire☕️Buy Me A Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/roadtorebiq🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@jurassicpiratespod?si=DJOlBmPoF75YE8It📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jurassicpiratespod?igsi=cmswOTFwM29pOWhl&utm_source=qr🎵 Theme music: Caleb Burnett (@calebcomposed)🎨 Cover artwork: @thejurassicartist