The Paranoid Strain

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The Paranoid Strain

Fearful Jesuit

187 episodes

3 weeks ago

The podcast that explains why so many people believe ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Society & Culture

All content for The Paranoid Strain is the property of Fearful Jesuit and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

The podcast that explains why so many people believe ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...

Society & Culture

Episodes (20/187)

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--The cold war gets hot with Sputnik and the Integratron

Don'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.

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3 weeks ago

36 minutes 22 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

Unidentified--Sorry! The alien was behind door number 3

We 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.

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1 month ago

38 minutes 28 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Troy McClure and the Close Encounters Man

We 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!

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1 month ago

30 minutes 1 second

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Art Bell, John Mack, and Whitley Strieber

This 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.

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2 months ago

43 minutes 41 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Alien Abductions and Art Bell

As 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.

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2 months ago

47 minutes 14 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Maury says the alien IS the daddy...abductees and their alien hybrid children

Maybe 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!

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3 months ago

30 minutes 43 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--So, what really happened with that Manhattan alien abduction?

Oops! 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.

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3 months ago

35 minutes

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Budd Hopkins and the Manhattan Alien Abduction

In this episode, we wrap with the sad end of John Mack's once-fine career, then dive deeply into the most "important" "alien" "abduction" that pioneering researcher Budd Hopkins ever covered. Yes, this is the story of a woman who was abducted by aliens from a Manhattan apartment tower into a flying saucer in front of 23 witnesses! Except, spoiler alert, maybe not. More Budd and then some sensible people next week.

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4 months ago

34 minutes 1 second

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--John Mack's abduction theories fall apart

In which we review the downfall of a once-respected psychiatrist, as John Mack publishes his findings only to have them completely torn apart by a wide variety of critics. Worse, we learn how he was taken in by an undercover skeptic who fed him a totally unbelievable story which, as you might expect, he believed. Next time--we do a deep dive on the elder statesman of abduction research, Budd Hopkins.

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4 months ago

32 minutes 3 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--The Harvard psychiatrist who believed in abductions

In this episode, we wrap up the last bit of Strieber, before turning our attention to John Mack, a celebrated and respected psychiatrist who, late in his career, turned his attention to investigating, and then advocating for alien abductions. We learn why John Mack became obsessed, and how his friends, colleagues, and especially the vaunted institution he worked for tried to deal with this pillar of the psychiatric establishment embracing woo-woo nonsense. More on Mack next time.

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5 months ago

34 minutes 26 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Lightning strikes versus alien abductions

Hearkening back to high school English class, we compare and contrast my and Whitley Strieber's unusual experiences. Also, we hear from my real-life parents, who do their best to recall what really happened with my lightning strike. I hope you find them as adorable as I do.

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5 months ago

36 minutes 22 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Fearful Jesuit's shocking encounter

Whitley Strieber's alien abduction gets a whole lot weirder, but no more convincing. And to try to help us understand what is, and isn't, believable about that whole tale, Fearful Jesuit tells a strange but (he swears) true story that happened to him. Why is his story more believeable than Whitley's? We'll find out next episode.

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6 months ago

34 minutes 47 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Christopher Walken dances with aliens

We're back, baby. With cowbell! Seriously, though, we're ready to walk through one of the most famous abduction stories of the 1980s, the influential story of author Whitley Strieber and the aliens who brought him along for a quick visit. We also talk about the film version, which yes, stars Christopher Walken. As Strieber. So it's Christopher Walken dancing with aliens. Fun!

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6 months ago

28 minutes 32 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Close Encounters of the X-Files Kind

We're done with Betty and Barney, but not with the subject of abductions. Not by a long shot. This episode, we talk about two different pieces of media, and how they talked about abductions. Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind has a more optimistic view, but by the time Mulder and Scully came around, alien abduction had become a completely terrifying experience. Why is that? Well, you'll have to wait for next episode to find out...We're taking one episode off, so we'll see you at the end of April.

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7 months ago

36 minutes 57 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--What Barney and Betty Hill actually saw (it wasn't a UFO)

The final part of our story of the Hills' strange encounter. We discuss the cheap hatchet job that Saint Carl Sagan did on the Hills' story, which came out quite tawdry in spite of Sagan's good intentions. Plus, we provide our suggestion for the best bet as to the real-life phenomenon that generated the Hills' legendary experience.

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7 months ago

32 minutes 12 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--The aliens attempt to kidnap Darth Vader

This episode, we deep dive into a TV movie adaptation of the Barney and Betty Hill story, starring and produced by James Earl Jones. An interesting film, and well intended, we examine the ways that it compromised the Hills' own conclusions about their experience in favor of a story designed to normalize interracial couples for a mainstream 1970s US audience. Enjoy!

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8 months ago

29 minutes 31 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Interracial relationships and alien abduction in 1960s America

Barney and Betty's story goes public, and the US media decides they made up this alien story because of how hard it was to be an interracial couple in 1960s America. It's infuriating. Enjoy!

theparanoidstrain.com

facebook.com/groups/theparanoidstrain

patreon.com/theparanoidstrain

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

8 months ago

32 minutes 17 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Dreams, hypnosis, and the first American alien abduction

Barney and Betty Hill had a weird night on September 19, 1961. Of that there's no doubt. But in this episode we investigate how the mid-century embrace of hypnosis as a psychological tool may have helped to generate the abduction story that would set the stage for the abduction mania of future decades.

theparanoidstrain.com

facebook.com/groups/theparanoidstrain

patreon.com/theparanoidstrain

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

9 months ago

28 minutes 9 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--Barney, Betty, and the UFO they saw

We're ready to take on the story of Barney and Betty Hill, whose UFO encounter launched the abduction phenomenon, and whose personal story is even more fascinating.

More on the Hills in two weeks.

theparanoidstrain.com

facebook.com/groups/theparanoidstrain

patreon.com/theparanoidstrain

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

9 months ago

28 minutes 35 seconds

The Paranoid Strain

New! Unidentified--No ETs for Christmas

We're back for 2025. This episode, we wrap up the story of The Seekers, the failure of their 1950s UFO prophecy, and the book that made them famous. We also dive into the ways cognitive dissonance theory interacts with other prophetic movements, including the early Christians. See you in two weeks.

theparanoidstrain.com

facebook.com/groups/theparanoidstrain

patreon.com/theparanoidstrain

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

10 months ago

33 minutes 27 seconds