Share

cover art for New: Secret Societies I, Part 18 - The Freemasons 4

The Paranoid Strain

New: Secret Societies I, Part 18 - The Freemasons 4

Season 4, Ep. 18

Here's where the Masons story runs smack into 'MURICA! From the founding fathers' relationship to the Craft, to the very strange interplay between Mormonism (the most American religion of faiths) and Freemasons, and finally to the sad, yet inspiring story of how Black Freemasons carved their own unique version of the brotherhood out in the face of implacable white opposition, it's amazing the degree to which the nation and the secret society have impacted each other. Just...you know, not the way the conspiracists think they have. Enjoy, and we'll talk to you again soon.

More episodes

View all episodes

  • 4. New! Unidentified, Episode 4: O-negative blood type? You're probably an Ancient Alien

    36:32
    Episode 4 is all up in that Basque. Ok, so that joke deson't work. But the episode does! Learn why von Daniken acolyte Nick Redfern is pretty sure the Basque people of Northern Spain and Southern France are totes aliens, you guys. Oh, and if you have a "negative" instead of a "positive" blood type--guess what? You're an ET, too. Come explore this very dumb idea with us.
  • 3. New! Unidentified, Episode 3: Jesus Christ, Ancient Astronaut

    32:30
    We're still digging down into the Erich von Daniken rabbit hole, touching on some other authors who have followed EvD's lead in speculating about the extrarrestrial origins of the stories underpinning Judaism and Christianity. In other words, you're about to learn why Jesus isn't just your co-pilot--he's in charge of the whole goddanged UFO. Also, we'll learn why a trained Christian minister has spent the past fifty years or so explaining how a hidden UFO performed all of the miracles of the Exodus. Including the big special effects moment with the sea parting, the Jews passing, and the Egyptians drowning. It's a hoot. See you in a couple of weeks.
  • 2. New! Unidentified, Episode 2: Ancient Aliens, Chariots of the Gods, and the Swiss Felon

    32:52
    Introductions done, we dive into our first subject in this grand UFO series--that is, Ancient Aliens and the man most responsible for bringing them to us, Erich Von Daniken. In addition to being a hilariously self-regarding fabulist, EVD is also just a very weird dude with quite a checkered legal past. We get into all of that, as well von Daniken's extremely weird inter-stellar sex orgy theory of space exploration. It's nice to be back.
  • 1. New! Unidentified, Episode 1: In which we narrowly evade an anal probing

    29:30
    Seems like we've been promising this for ages, but it's finally here. Welcome to our next (very) long series, which we've called "Unidentified", because we think it's a cool name, but also because if we just called it "UFOs", or something, we'd be selling our ambition short. Yes, we're going to cover all of the standard "are aliens visiting us" stuff--abductions, ancient aliens, Roswell, and seemingly a million other topics. But we're also intending this set of shows to be about a lot more. The whole concept of human and non-human intelligence--what it means for a piece of the universe that experiences itself to meet another, very different intelligence. Anyway, we've got lots of ambitious stuff to cover. We hope you like it as much as we like creating it. Welcome to Unidentified.
  • New! Quick-ish hit! Paul is Dead? Part 2

    34:55
    And here's the second part of our rundown of the Paul is Dead musical conspiracy theory. In this episode, we consider the long-term implications of this brief mania, as well as the modern conspiracists who just won't let it go. UFOs start in two weeks.
  • New! Quick-ish hit! Paul is Dead?

    31:38
    We're back! But we're not doing UFOs yet. First, we're doing a two-parter on one of the most famous music-related conspiracies in modern history--that is, the sudden mania that gripped The Beatles fandom, who for very confusing reasons in 1969 started thinking that Paul McCartney had secretly died and been replaced with a doppelganger, whose voice also somehow was a dead ringer for the tragically dead young genius. This whole thing burned out and became an in-joke quickly enough, but its brief era of cultural mania is super-interesting and a lot of fun. We hope you agree. Happy to be back with you. The second part hits in two weeks, and then it's UFOs as far as the eye can see.
  • Archive: PKD Part 6

    44:54
    To keep you company while we work on new content, we're breaking apart one of our classic episodes into digestible chunks. Enjoy one of our personal favorite episodes, and we'll be back with you in the new year with great new stuff.www.theparanoidstrainfacebook.com/groups/theparanoidstraintheparanoidstrain at gmailpatreon.com/theparanoidstrain
  • Archive: PKD Part 5

    40:29
    To keep you company while we work on new content, we're breaking apart one of our classic episodes into digestible chunks. Enjoy one of our personal favorite episodes, and we'll be back with you in the new year with great new stuff.www.theparanoidstrainfacebook.com/groups/theparanoidstraintheparanoidstrain at gmailpatreon.com/theparanoidstrain
  • Archive: PKD Part 4

    33:19
    To keep you company while we work on new content, we're breaking apart one of our classic episodes into digestible chunks. Enjoy one of our personal favorite episodes, and we'll be back with you in the new year with great new stuff.www.theparanoidstrainfacebook.com/groups/theparanoidstraintheparanoidstrain at gmailpatreon.com/theparanoidstrain