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--Diane Pasulka and the Bigfoot on Mars

October 14, 2026 • 28 mins

Yeah, the title is weird, but trust me, it's in there. We transition this week from talking about Jacques Vallee to dig into DW Pasulka's American Cosmic, a book that's equal parts fascinating and frustrating. Plus, you know...Bigfoot on Mars. What more do you want, for god's sake.


PS: Sorry it's a day late, but Willem UFO needed an extra day, and I didn't want to post without his art. I think it was worth it. Hope you agree.

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New! Unidentified--Is the Lady of Fatima also a UFO?

September 29, 2026 • 37 mins
This time, we consider how our three authors (Jung, Vallee, and Pasulka) think and talk about the overlap between the Venn diagrams of religious revelation and UFO encounter. There's a surprising number of similarities between the two, and we have a lot of fun considering that. Hope you like it. See you in a couple of weeks.

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New! Unidentified--Uri Geller pretends to talk to UFOs

September 15, 2026 • 29 mins
We trek back to the 1970s, a ridiculous time when people believed all kinds of frivolous nonsense--not like our thoughtful, fact-based era, no siree! Anyway, a guy back then claimed to bend spoons with his mind. He also claimed to speak to aliens who were visiting Earth from UFOs. Our author Jacques Vallee believes some of this, which isn't great. But he doesn't believe all of it, which--thank goodness for small favors. Let's learn...

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New! Unidentified--Jacques Vallee's control thesis

September 1, 2026 • 36 mins
Vallee is an interesting guy, and he has one of the most fascinating takes I've heard on what UFOs might actually represent. I mean, I don't buy it, exactly, but it's at least semi-coherent, and unquestionably interesting. Enjoy!

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New! Unidentified--UFOs as Jungian archetype

August 18, 2026 • 39 mins
We're finished with the mirage men, and now we'll spend a few episodes considering what it all means, you know? And by "it all", I mean "UFOs". We'll start with one of the first books published about UFOs by a major cultural figure. Carl Jung's Flying Saucers--A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky was first published in 1957, at the height of the first UFO craze. He has some interesting things to say, and also a bunch of cranky d...

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New! Unidentified--The translator spills the beans on CIA "UFOs"

August 4, 2026 • 30 mins

Thanks to our interviewee Tanner Boyle, we wrap up the story of the fascinating Mr. Nedelcovic and the CIA mission that may have turned into the first modern alien abduction story. Next time, we get philosophical.


DON'T MISS: I was a guest on this excellent video--watch it, and I encourage you to subscribe. It's a great channel: Mirage Men - The Real UFO Coverup (it's not what you think)

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New! Unidentified--The CIA, the Translator, and the first modern abduction

July 21, 2026 • 35 mins
For this episode and the next, we're covering a story I thought we were going to skip. But then, I found out that a very mysterious figure may, way back in the 1970s, have explained this even older story in a way that can shed light on the full extent of CIA-funded UFO fuckery, well beyond the borders of the U.S. Featuring a fantastic interview with perhaps the world's foremost expert on Bosco Nedelcovic. What more could you want? ...

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New! Unidentified--Project Serpo is disinformation, but can we blame Doty?

July 7, 2026 • 31 mins
As we keep peeling away the many lies of Richard Doty and his Air Force handlers, we come to Project Serpo, a wild and essentially unbelievable story that nonetheless riled up the UFO world in the 2000s. Was Doty behind it? Hart to be sure, but the evidence seems strong.

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New! Unidentified--The disinformation agent versus Art Bell

June 23, 2026 • 41 mins
In an event that, for our tastes, amounts to Richard Doty's disinformation chocolate landing in Art Bell's kingdom of weirdness peanut butter, we dive deep on a 2005 episode of Coast to Coast AM where the supposedly former disinformation agent faces the music under the intermittently pointed questioning of the normally gregarious host. Next time, we wrap Mirage Men with more evidence that (all? most? a great deal) of the key events...

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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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