The Paranoid Strain

The Paranoid Strain

The podcast that explains why so many people believe ridiculous conspiracy theories. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

New! Unidentified--How the military destroyed Paul Bennewitz's sanity

June 9, 2026 • 34 mins
We continue our quest to learn how and why the air force's intelligence agents--specifically one Richard Doty--fed the UFO delusions of scientist and entrepreneur Paul Bennowitz until his brain broke. It's a fascinating and sad story. Next time--Doty answers for his crimes.

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New! Unidentified--The Air Force invents a UFO conspiracy

May 27, 2026 • 32 mins
This time, we start telling the sad story of Paul Bennewitz, a brilliant if somewhat eccentric engineer and entrepreneur who shared his UFO findings with the government, only to have them use his fascination with these phenomena to drive him insane. The real object? Confusing the broader UFO community. It's a fascinating story, if a rather dark one.

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New! Unidentified--Hunting cows from black helicopters

May 12, 2026 • 42 mins
We continue considering cows, contemplating cattle carnage as coordinated by clever cads in copters. In other words, we explore alternate explanations for cattle mutilations, like secret military missions by classified, silent helicopters. Plus more Linda Moulton Howe, who doesn't buy it. Enjoy!

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New! Unidentified--Why do these ETs keep cutting up our cows?

April 28, 2026 • 49 mins
This time, we wrap on "Storm Area 51", hear Bob Lazar meet his bullshitting match on Art Bell's show, and then learn all about how aliens are sneaking up on our unsuspecting cows in the middle of the night and carving them up for unknown, but presumably nefarious reasons. We also meet Linda Moulton Howe, one of the longest-serving and most dedicated journalists exploring weird UFO crap. More on her, and the fascinating concept of t...

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New! Unidentified--Don't Storm Area 51. They definitely can stop all of you.

April 14, 2026 • 36 mins
This time, we leave Bob Lazard as he does a victory lap around Joe Rogan's studio, and then recall the peak late-20 teens moment when a bunch of Internet randos decided to Naruto run at the gates of Area 51. There's a Netflix doc that's way too long, so we give you the good bits in about 10 minutes. Next time: Cattle mutilations. Yuck! See you then.

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New! Unidentified--Wait...you're saying Bob Lazar might be full of crap?

March 31, 2026 • 31 mins
Bob Lazar messes with the bull and gets the horns when he goes public with what he (claims that he) knows. We wrap up Lazar's own narration of his biography, and then we consult some other perspectives that throw his claims into sharp relief. In other words, we think his pants are just the most on-fire pants you've ever seen on a liar.

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New! Unidentified--Bob gets a job. Lazar at Area 51

March 17, 2026 • 32 mins
Bob Lazar, mild mannered physicist(?) and former brothel owner(?) goes to work at the world's most secret location, goes inside an alien craft, takes his friends out to see test flights of UFOs, gets canned, and has two guys shoot at his car. Also, nearly all of this is probably made up, because Bob Lazar is full of crap.

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New! Unidentified--UFOs over Russia, the Black Mailbox, and Meet Bob Lazar

March 3, 2026 • 34 mins
In case the Chads didn't bring enough bullshit about UFOs over Russia, we've got a few more tall tales about aliens from the Soviet Union. Then, we begin our miniseries on famous UFO "whistleblower" Bob Lazar, by way of the infamous Area 51 Black Mailbox. Enjoy.

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New! Unidentified--The Soviet Chads spill the beans on Comrade Stalin's UFO plan

February 18, 2026 • 40 mins
In this episode, we uncover the roots of the Stalin Roswell UFO conspiracy with the help of two very stupid Chads and one human thumb named Joe Rogan. I know half of my audience are groaning. But for the other half,--you're welcome.

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New! Unidentified--Annie Jacobsen's folly, and Art Bell takes on Area 51

February 3, 2026 • 78 mins
We continue the sad story of the very silly Stalin/Roswell story that the otherwise solid Annie Jacobsen decided was fit to print, and then we provide you with the minimum recommended daily requirement of Art Bell content, in this case specifically focused on the 51st Area. It's a long one, and we hope it's fun for you. See you in a couple of weeks with another epic episode, featuring some guests who may or may not be...stupid. See...

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New! Unidentified--The strangest Area 51 theory you've ever heard

January 20, 2026 • 31 mins
As promised, here's Annie Jacobsen's super-weird story about the *real* reason Area 51 was founded. It's super dumb. But fascinating. But dumb. Seriously. Real, real dumb. I don't know how she possibly believed this crap. Enjoy!

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New! Unidentified--Dirty bombs and dirty deeds at Area 51

January 6, 2026 • 32 mins
We continue our exploration of the (actual) history of Area 51, this time emphasizing some of the truly awful, irresponsible, and dangerous stuff that went on there--not just nuclear tests, but a simulated dirty bomb explosion with radiation that should clear up in about fifty thousand years, plus an nauseating story about poisoning employees and then refusing to acknowledge said poisoning because the place where they worked doesn'...

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New! Unidentified--U2. No, not that one. The spy plane.

December 23, 2025 • 30 mins
Merry Christmas, or Happy Hannukah, or like whatever you're into, folks. This time, we talk about Area 51's original raison d'etre, the notorious U2 spy plane. We learn how and why this odd-looking thing was built, how it played into one of the earliest crises of the Cold War, and how its weird shape and unbelievable maximum altitude essentially made sightings of it as a truly unidentified flying object nearly inevitable.

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New! Unidentified--Willem and I visit Area 51

December 9, 2025 • 36 mins
We put J Allen's story to bed, and begin our exploration of the most mysterious stretch of desert on earth, Area 51. This time, we learn what happened when show artist Willem UFO and I visited Rachel Nevada, the wide spot in the road nearest to the Groom Lake secret facility. More Area 51 in a couple of weeks!

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New! Unidentified--Hynek vs Sagan--two men enter, one man leave

November 25, 2025 • 37 mins
Hynek 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. En...

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New! Unidentified--The UFO, the coeds, and the swamp gas

November 11, 2025 • 35 mins
This 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.

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

October 14, 2025 • 36 mins
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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Unidentified--Sorry! The alien was behind door number 3

September 30, 2025 • 38 mins
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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New! Unidentified--Troy McClure and the Close Encounters Man

September 16, 2025 • 30 mins
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 at...

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

September 2, 2025 • 43 mins
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...

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