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The Paranoid Strain
New: Secret Societies I, Part 10 - Holy Blood, Holy Grail 2
Season 4, Ep. 10
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Another fortnight, another episode about silly men and their silly book. Once again, we're discussing the work of Messrs. Lincoln, Baigent,and Leigh, who apparently never met a historical counterfactual they didn't immediately embrace. This time, we get neck-deep in the many, completely unrelated story threads that they rip out of context and stitch together into an unholy pantomime of historical scholarship. This is part three of our mini-series on the origins of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. We'll see you back here next time for the frankly astonishing conclusion, where we actually get to the bottom of all of this nonsense. Talk at you then.
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44. New! Unidentified--Hynek vs Sagan--two men enter, one man leave
37:44||Season 6, Ep. 44Hynek was a good dude. But like Icarus, he chose repeatedly to fly too close to Carl Sagan's sun. We cover Hynek's turn from skeptic to believer, and then his repeated and largely embarrassing run-ins with the greatest science communicator of the 20th century, who repeatedly pantsed Hynek in public debates over the course of decades. Next time, we wrap up Hynek and move on to Area 51! Happy Turkey day for our American listeners. Enjoy your Thursday, everyone else.
43. New! Unidentified--The UFO, the coeds, and the swamp gas
35:33||Season 6, Ep. 43This time, we explore perhaps the biggest UFO case of Dr. Hynek's career, which involved some farmers, some college students, and what in Dana Unicorn's words we might refer to as "marsh farts". Enjoy. Sorry for the brief hiatus. We're happy to be back. Oh, and it's my fault we don't have show art. I waited until the last minute to ask, and by that time, Willem UFO was a concert.
42. New! Unidentified--The cold war gets hot with Sputnik and the Integratron
36:22||Season 6, Ep. 42Don't let the episode title fool you--we're still covering J Allen Hynek. But we're considering the period of his career in which a number of important events transpired, including the launch of the Russians' bleeping ball of evil, as well as the construction of the mysterious, time-traveling sound bath, the Integratron. See you in a couple of weeks.
41. Unidentified--Sorry! The alien was behind door number 3
38:28||Season 6, Ep. 41We continue our exploration of J. Allen Hynek's life, but also take a sharp left turn to explore bayesian analysis, and how it can help us understand why aliens are not a particularly likely answer to the mystery of UFOs.
40. New! Unidentified--Troy McClure and the Close Encounters Man
30:01||Season 6, Ep. 40We move on from abductions with a look back at the greatest educational film host of all time, Phil Hartman. But then, in a more serious vein, we start our discussion of J Allen Hynek, a real and admirable astronomer who started out as the military's in-house scientist debunker, and eventually became one of the most prominent, authoritative, and dare we say it--sane voices in favor of the argument that UFOs deserved more serious attention than they were getting from the dismissive powers-that-be. Next time: more Hynek. He's a really interesting guy!
39. New! Unidentified--Art Bell, John Mack, and Whitley Strieber
43:41||Season 6, Ep. 39This is the second half of our Art Bell abduction coverage--this time, we're handling John Mack's and Whitley Strieber's appearances on the show. Art super-duper believes in this stuff, so there's not much push back, but these interviews really provide a flavor for each man's work and arguments, and I hope you'll agree that this is a great way to cap off our abduction mini-series. Next, we are diving deep into the Cold War. See you in a couple of weeks.
38. New! Unidentified--Alien Abductions and Art Bell
47:14||Season 6, Ep. 38As we wrap the science portion, we also stop into the High Desert, the Kingdom of Nye--in other words, we clip some classic Art Bell episodes to explore how Budd Hopkins promulgated his stories--including the Linda/Manhattan Alien Abduction, with Art as very friendly interviewer. Enjoy. We'll wrap the Art Bell stuff next time.
37. New! Unidentified--Maury says the alien IS the daddy...abductees and their alien hybrid children
30:43||Season 6, Ep. 37Maybe after all of this abduction talk, you've wondered what real scientists have to say about people being taken aboard alien spacecraft. And specifically, what to make of all of their reports of forced reproduction and alien-human hybrids. Fortunately, real, responsible professionals have indeed done the work and gotten to the bottom of these questions. And we're going to hear from them in this episode and the next one. Enjoy!
36. New! Unidentified--So, what really happened with that Manhattan alien abduction?
35:00||Season 6, Ep. 36Oops! Forgot to upload the episode. In this one, we get the denoument of the Budd Hopkins Manhattan alien abduction story. Next time, we hear from more skeptical, but still sympathetic, researchers who have examined abductions and abductees.