His is the voice — almost a frequency —of the liminality before sleep. I am a creature of far northeastern forests and ice oceans, a shadow skulker and rain prayee, basically I’m lichen: and so nurse an immediate, unreasonable & loathing of the desert, especially in socal. But I think in listening to this guy I didn’t go far enough past the quote spas, tattoo parlors, and jacked up huff trucks. I didn’t clear humanity for the wild things. The kitchen sink: paranormal, folklore, history, and an environmental— awareness is too clinical a word — devotion. And yet: funny, thanks god.

Simply the best podcast ever

The best, takes a bit to understand the logic and sometimes a few days to process but it’s always on point and timely.

The tribute to Mojo Nixon moved me to tears in places, which I suppose is a necessary catharsis. I had already stenciled out a banner for my cabin and rehung one of the cruise flags he signed a couple years back. His outlaw country broadcasts of boat shows always put the landlubbers right there in the action. Thanks for your perspective. You brought it all back home.

Living in the Mojave, but not being able to tune in to listen to these on the FM is unfortunate for me, so I’m glad for this podcast. But if you would like to listen on Friday nights, you can go to 107.7 FM’s website and stream the broadcast live. I love Ken’s show, and have listened to every back episode, and am on my second trip through the episodes.

I do love a hood hermit tale.

I’m a huge fan of Ken’s profound, rambling desert musings. But I have to say re. the Dec. 8 podcast that it’s hard to grok the profundity if the ramblings are inaudible. It could be that in my dotage, my hearing isn’t up to the task but I haven’t experienced a completely inaudible monologue except for this episode. If it’s too hard to engineer a live episode to the point that the musings are audible, just not posting it might save listeners some frustration.

It’s like the doctor- psychiatrist on twin peaks with his radio show. I has a weird comfortable feeling. I enjoy this show a lot.

A great episode for the 200 th installment of the voice of the desert. The Poe poem Alone was an excellent celebration for this milestone.

This guy is my spirit animal

This is my favorite podcast. If the desert calls to you like it does me, this is it, you’re home. Thanks, Ken!

I’ve been listening for a few years and this show never disappoints! Ken has a great way of finding fun and interesting subjects and delivering them in a way that makes you want to listen. He researches topics well and includes all of the details you need to really understand and enjoy each story. Definitely my favorite podcast!

There’s just something about the southwest U.S. deserts: The tough-as-nails flora and fauna, the wide-open views with the big skies and the dazzling sunsets, and —best of all— the unique, creative people who choose to live or spend time there. Once you develop an affinity for the desert and it’s inhabitants, you can’t get enough. Ken Layne’s Desert Oracle scratches that itch. It’s the second-best thing to a desert road trip in a car full of interesting people. Every episode is fun, interesting, and leaves you wanting more. Even after years of production, each new episode continues to be fresh and different. Highly recommended, especially for those who like the desert and all of its weirdness.

Ken Layne is a wonderful storyteller with a unique voice. He does local history right. I’ve lived in the Mojave and he captures the pace of things… brings me back there instantly. More please! 🩷🎵

Great content but background music is distracting which makes listening difficult.

One of the finest creative projects around the american deserts

I've been around deserts off and on for decades, and this show evokes the awe and wonder that they bring. Some of the stories stretch believability, but just enough to leave me wondering "Could that be true?" and anxiously waiting for another episode that might bring resolution.

A glimpse into the world I frequent with a touch of magic. Love Love Love !

So glad I stumbled across this show…absolutely mesmerizing and engaging. Thank you for sharing your love of a biome I have not spent nearly enough time in. 🌵

The Great Mojave Desert can be a scary place. If you aren’t having to dodge alien visitors to our planet, you’re probably dealing with airbnb’s or rattlers. Mr. Lane manages to discuss just about everything that happens around his Joshua Tree bunker. Each week during Coved, I needed to drive across the Mojave Desert and I would leave my own bunker in Joshua Tree to make that moonlit drive, but I wasn’t alone (even aside from space aliens). Mr. Lane was with me each week to educate me about how to survive in this vast ocean of sand we call home. Did I get scared sometimes? I’d say chilled to the bone, but it’s brave enough of me to drive 247 late on Friday nights as it is. The sound of that coyote howling let me know it was time to begin. I’d drive pretty slowly so I’d hear most of the show before I was out of radio range. If I drove too fast Alice Cooper would strangely take over the airwaves and I’d miss the end of the show. Alice triggered all sorts of bad memories I’d like to forget. Growing up with radio shows like Doctor Dimento taught me the value of radio programs. Covid would not have been the same had it not been for Ken Lane and the Desert Oracle. I no longer make that drive each week, but I do still listen to the show.

Just found my copy of Desert Oracle #10, someone (something?) squirreled it away on my bookshelf shoehorned between “A Crow Doesn’t Need A Shadow” and “Steal Like An Artist”. After three weeks of fruitless searching, I resolved to go out to Cactus Mart to buy a replacement copy. I live in Lakewood, but my wife is always glad for any excuse to go up there. Plus we get to have date shakes at Hadleys. Anyway, found it, saved gas, and enjoyed the booklet! Keep up the great work!

Let’s pretend there was a world in which I was allowed only one podcast it would be Ken Layne’s Desert Oracle. Ken Layne’s dedication to high strangeness and the American Southwest wilderness is unparalleled. Head and shoulders above anyone else taking a stab at these topics on any media platform ever. The production is top notch and a unique approach to anything you’ll see on TV, hear on the radio or in podcast world. See, in an undisclosed location somewhere in a Joshua Tree bunker Mr. Layne drops these shows on Friday night to a local Joshua Tree radio station and then subsequently to the podcast world. Understand, a majority of podcasts are a couple of dudes yelling at each other in an echo chamber. Desert Oracle has the occasional guest but be prepared for our desert narrator to be accompanied by ambient music and a time stamp of a murder of crows or crying coyotes. This all adds to the atmosphere not unlike an old-timey AM radio show you’d hear overnight on a lonesome American highway. If I had to make a comparison: Time Life Mysteries of the Unknown, aspects of early National Enquirer, Lenard Nimoy’s In Search of, Arthur C. Clark’s Mysterious World, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, The X Files, Radio’s Coast to Coast. However, with all that being said, Desert Oracle puts a hard focus on America’s Mojave and Sonoran deserts. Mix in a bit of current events, lesser known American history, a splash of conservationist conversation (in a more contemporary Edward Abbey approach.) That said It’s not preachy or hokey. Desert Oracle is high brow but served in an off-the-beaten-path desert dive bar. It isn’t scary as much as it’s spooky and that is part of its allure. It’s less Slayer and more early Misfits. As a byproduct, you’ll learn some stuff but it’s not pushing it on you. Be forewarned: If you have wanderlust, approach with caution because you’ll want to load up the car and see some of this stuff for yourself and he’ll be the first to tell you bring a lot of water and make sure your car’s in good working order. You’re in good hands on this journey whether literally or metaphorically. Mr. Layne is the perfect narrator for this ride.

to my knowledge, there's no show being made in america that compares. the highs are as high as radio has ever gotten. the lows are B+. been listening since episode 1. the real standout episodes are from the early years. episode 13 if you could pick only one.

I have loved the deserts of the American southwest ever since I first arrived in Canyonlands as a very young, supremely ignorant college grad from the mountains of Appalachia. Spent a long first night huddled in a sleeping bag reading Desert Solitaire by flashlight. Ken takes me back to that first night in the rocks again and again. Best listened to under an open night sky, no desert needed.

This podcast is perfect. A wry, charismatic desert eccentric discussing nature, mythology, UFOs, history, literature, the macabre, and whatever else comes into his head, all in a in a sardonic growl that could only come from a late-night radio show from the heart of the Mojave. When I first discovered it, I couldn’t believe that something like it existed. It’s the very epitome of something or other. I have the book, a patreon subscription, a copy of the newest issue, and it’ll never be enough. It’s the 157th thing that makes me wish I still lived in Moab, a kindred community to Ken’s, where his show broadcasts on KZMU.

Desert Oracle is incomparable. I’ve looked for something, anything, that strikes the same tone, and I have yet to find it. I would tell you it’s like Tom Waits meets the best of Art Bell meets the finest of our nature thinkers and philosophers, but this would not be fair to Ken Layne, who has carved out something truly unique and worthwhile amidst the blasted and bleak ruins of our current media landscape. Take the time to really listen. You will not be disappointed.

As a resident of cold, damp, New England, this is one of my favorites podcasts. It reminds me that warmth exists, even if it’s extreme warmth at times.

The Desert Oracle is almost always enjoyable, and truly beautiful at times. I think it’s an audio treasure, and I hope that it’s around for many years to come. Recently though, I listened to an episode that troubled me greatly in which Ken went deep on climate change. In an attempt to assuage fears, he stated many incorrect and non-contextualized “facts” about how quickly and easily climate change could be reversed. It was very troubling, because it is flat-out misinformation coming from a beloved and popular figure. While I completely understand why he wants to soothe people troubled by climate change, he is just flatly ignorant and wrong. He also overlooked the irreversible damage done every day to both habitat and wildlife populations—many of which will likely never be able to recover. It’s a disservice to your audience to tell them that the horrible truth is really not so bad at all and can be magically fixed practically overnight. That’s just not true Ken, and I sincerely hope you will do better in the future.

Five stars for the desert and weirdness episodes, one star for the opinion and complaint-sociology episodes.

This show eventually got to me in a negative way. Saying, “Let’s bring on the science guy who will indoctrinate our diabetic, autistic and emotionally stunted children…” is a rabbit hole of bitterness & judgment that I’m not into & not having. Done. Moving along. 3 stars is partial credit for the time period that I liked the show.

This is radio. Very interesting perspectives and the presentation is amazing. I usually listen to it in the wilderness. Echos from the quiet corners of reality seldom spoken of. Judgements upon a world gone awry. An auditory experience. Good medicine. This show makes me and my friends laugh.

I might live in New England but this feels like something I’d listen to on lonely nights driving home under the changing stars of a desert. Just make sure the lights in the sky don’t get to close

I look forward to every episode and love following the peregrinations of Ken Layne’s big mind. Plus, he’s often very funny.

I thought I was the only one who thought these thoughts.

Can’t believe it’s been five years of history, lore, tall tales, characters, spiritual musings, thoughts in the night, curious observations and devotion. God (or the higher power/distant civilization/secret government agency of your choice) bless The Desert Oracle and here’s to many more.

Ride the wings of rah over the desert as you you meet the neurons that connect the still night air with the chaos of the coyote howl. I live in an insane giant metropolis and this sends me to a place where i ought to be.

I like to listen late at night, when Ken's stories of UFOs and skinwalkers and climate collapse can burrow deepest into my skull.

I am having a psychic emotional affair with this podcast. If you want good listening for a lonely night drive or sitting on the porch with a view of the sky, you’ve found it.

If Stan Ridgeway and Ed Abby had a baby it would be KL. Pure delight. Long live Desert Oracle!!

I began listening to these episodes several years ago and tho I live in the northern mountains, they get me thru the times till I can return to the desert southwest. Ken Layne has a remarkable talent for creating a fresh mix of lore, news, science and observation that is so good, even relistening to earlier episodes is a real delight. I keep waiting to find the latest copy of Desert Oracle in my mailbox but till then, the podcasts are my fix. Thanks, Ken. You’re the best.

I grew up in the high desert, but no longer live there. Desert Oracle is a welcome trip back to the places of my youth. Thank you!

Although I grew up in the Midwest and have lived around the globe, I’ve always been drawn to the desert. Much to the chagrin of my family

Sounds scapes add to the atmospheric ambiance of this informative and entertaining podcast. Just a mere 30 minutes and you are teleported to the Great Mojave. Greatly appreciated during these times of restricted travel. Thank you Ken Layne and Red Blue Black Silver.

minus the schmaltz

One of the best podcasts out there

I hope this podcast inspires hundreds more like it, in every region of the world and I hope everyone who does it sees how important it is to bring this level of professional production to it. This is better than church

…respect the kink.

Could be good,Terrible sound quality and cheesy sound effects ruin it

Really enjoy the persons voice and pace of the show.

Nothing trendy nor cute about this incredibly addictive gateway into the mind of poetic conservationist Ken Layne. This is not a tiktok recounting of the best weekend warrior destinations, although if you’re into travel and mystery there’ll be something for you. This is an author with a purpose, and he has raised the perfect rooftop from which to yell at us all about his mission to conserve the Mojave desert. This is better than true crime and doesn’t stick to the same norms as the rest of the podcast realm. Give into your hottest desires and I’ll see you in the sand...