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

July 22, 2025 35 mins
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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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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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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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 em...

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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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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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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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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 ...

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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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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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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!


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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.


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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.


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January 7, 2025 33 mins

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.


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January 3, 2025 72 mins

The last part of our encore presentation. hope you enjoyed it--see you next week.


In which Fletcher slowly loses what matters most to him, secures his legend, and goes down, senselessly, in a hail of bullets.


Full lyrics, credits, and gorgeous fold-out album style artwork (it's a .zip file): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zj0Mbk4JNrHajuAwHC3fOGzY8ZHeTDOg/view?usp=share_link


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January 2, 2025 53 mins

Part IV of our re-post of the best thing we've done.


In which Fletcher finally gets on the radio, tells us what 2001: A Space Odyssey is really about, and sees his life begin to fall apart.


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Listen to the music as an album on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/paranoidstrainorchestra/sets/upon-a-red-horse-act-iv-five-minutes-to-midnight


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January 1, 2025 44 mins

In part 3, we discuss our hero's magnum opus.


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Listen to the music as an album on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/paranoidstrainorchestra/sets/upon-a-red-horse-act-iii-the-red-horse-and-the-sword


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Like it? Please do spread the word.


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December 31, 2024 54 mins

Part 2 of our repeat posting of Upon A Red Horse in honor of the New Year. Original liner notes follow


In which Fletcher, our hero, becomes a big deal in the UFO world. And reveals what really happened to JFK.


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Listen to the music as an album on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/paranoidstrainorchestra/sets/upon-a-red-horse-act-i-the-rider


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December 30, 2024 52 mins

Because it's the holidays, and because we know many of you haven't had the chance to hear it, we re-present the best thing we've ever done. Part 1 of 5. The original liner notes follow:


In which we hear the origin story of Marvell James Fletcher.


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Listen to the music as an album on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/paranoidstrainorchestra/sets/upon-a-red-horse-act-...

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It's time for us to review one of the most fascinating after-effects of the UFO mania that followed the Arnold sighting. We'll learn how some incredibly lucky social scientists wrote a book about perhaps the world's first apocalyptic new age UFO cult, the Seekers. It's cognitive dissonance a go-go on this week's Paranoid Strain. We're skipping next episode for the holiday--see you in early January.

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