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--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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New! Unidentified--Alien Abductions and Art Bell

August 19, 2025 • 47 mins
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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New! Unidentified--Maury says the alien IS the daddy...abductees and their alien hybrid children

August 5, 2025 • 30 mins
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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New! Unidentified--So, what really happened with that Manhattan alien abduction?

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

July 8, 2025 • 34 mins
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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New! Unidentified--John Mack's abduction theories fall apart

June 24, 2025 • 32 mins
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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New! Unidentified--The Harvard psychiatrist who believed in abductions

June 10, 2025 • 34 mins
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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New! Unidentified--Lightning strikes versus alien abductions

May 27, 2025 • 36 mins

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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New! Unidentified--Fearful Jesuit's shocking encounter

May 13, 2025 • 34 mins
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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New! Unidentified--Christopher Walken dances with aliens

April 29, 2025 • 28 mins
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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New! Unidentified--Close Encounters of the X-Files Kind

April 1, 2025 • 36 mins
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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New! Unidentified--What Barney and Betty Hill actually saw (it wasn't a UFO)

March 18, 2025 • 32 mins
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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New! Unidentified--The aliens attempt to kidnap Darth Vader

March 3, 2025 • 29 mins

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

February 18, 2025 • 32 mins

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

February 5, 2025 • 28 mins

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

January 21, 2025 • 28 mins

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.

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New! Unidentified--No ETs for Christmas

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.


theparanoidstrain.com


facebook.com/groups/theparanoidstrain


patreon.com/theparanoidstrain


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