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The Paranoid Strain
New: Secret Societies I, Part 7 - Cathars 2
Season 4, Ep. 7
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I know that most of you woke up this morning and had that same thought you do every time you open your eyes. "How am I going to face the day without a podcast about a medieval French heresy, its violent persecution by the Church, and its eventual passage into legend and conspiracy?" Well, today is the day you've been waiting for. We're gettin' all Cathar up in this bitch, and it's gonna get toasty. By which I mean that the Cathars mostly got burned to death on pyres by their theological enemies. But that's pretty awful, so let's focus on how interesting the history is! Plus, we'll cover all of the misapprehensions and nonsense that conspiracy theorists have attached to the Cathars since they were stamped out. Next time: The ridiculous Da Vinci code gets the lightning round treatment. See you in two weeks.
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7. New! Unidentified, Episode 7: Zecharia Sitchin's made-up Ancient Aliens history
36:08We finally introduce arguably the second-most-important ancient aliens conspiracy theorist, shipping executive, amateur researcher, and adorable little old man Zecharia Sitchin. He's just as wrong and bull-headed as von Daniken, but we find him both more imaginative and more pleasant than his Swiss rival. Plus, we have an expert, Dr. David Miano, who's ready to shed some much-needed knowledge over Sitchin's nonsense cavalcade. Enjoy!
6. New! Unidentified, Episode 6: It was the Ancient Alien, with the Crystal Skull, in the Metal Library
37:02Somehow, we're still talking about Ancient Aliens, This time, we're continuing with our examination of Philip Coppens' work in this area. We consider his best arguments for the idea, find them wanting, and then tear apart the crystal skull and metal library nonsense. Come on along. It's a good time. See you in two weeks.
5. New! Unidentified, Episode 5: Do the Ancient Aliens enthusiasts have a point?
28:41Don't let our title fool you. We haven't gone soft on the horsefeathers that is Ancient Aliens theory. But in this episode, we do find the best, most rigorous book on the topic written by an enthusiast, try to give him the benefit of the doubt, and then realize that his worldview is still fatally flawed. Plus, we talk strawmen versus steelmen arguments. Fun is had by all!
4. New! Unidentified, Episode 4: O-negative blood type? You're probably an Ancient Alien
36:32Episode 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
32:30We'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
32:52Introductions 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
29:30Seems 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
34:55And 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?
31:38We'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.