The Paranoid Strain

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

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

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

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 be...

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

18 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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....

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

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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...

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

20 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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. Seriou...

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

06 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

We continue our exploration of the (actual) history of Area 51, this time emphasizing some of the truly awful, irresponsible, and dangerous stuff that...

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

23 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 s...

New! Unidentified--Willem and I visit Area 51

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

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

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

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

11 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

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

14 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 importan...

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

30 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

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

16 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 star...

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

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

New! Unidentified--Alien Abductions and Art Bell

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 explo...

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

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Maybe after all of this abduction talk, you've wondered what real scientists have to say about people being taken aboard alien spacecraft. And specifi...

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

22 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 mor...

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

08 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 pioneer...

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

24 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 wid...

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

10 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

New! Unidentified--Lightning strikes versus alien abductions

27 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 p...

New! Unidentified--Fearful Jesuit's shocking encounter

13 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 a...

New! Unidentified--Christopher Walken dances with aliens

29 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

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

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 medi...

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

18 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 cam...

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

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 fi...

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

18 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

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

05 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 embrac...

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

21 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 mor...

New! Unidentified--No ETs for Christmas

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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. W...

Encore: Upon a Red Horse, Part V

03 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Encore: Upon a Red Horse, Part IV

03 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, ...

Encore: Upon a Red Horse, Part III

01 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In part 3, we discuss our hero's magnum opus.theparanoidstrain.comfacebook.com/groups/theparanoidstrainListen to the music as an album on Soundcloud: ...

Encore: Upon a Red Horse, Part II

31 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Part 2 of our repeat posting of Upon A Red Horse in honor of the New Year. Original liner notes followIn which Fletcher, our hero, becomes a big deal ...

Encore: Upon a Red Horse, Part I

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

New! Unidentified--When UFO prophecy fails. Big time.

10 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 incredib...

New! Unidentified--The fascinating forgery of the MJ-12 UFO documents

26 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The lion's share of today's episode concerns the weird story of the MJ-12 (or Majestic-12) documents, which first surfaced in the early 80s, and purpo...

New! Unidentified--Art Bell's time travelers and antichrists

12 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Yes, this is part of our Unidentified UFO series, but it's also just a super-sized digression to share with all of you some of the craziest stuff Art ...

New! Unidentified--From the High Desert...it's time for Art Bell

29 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After a little housekeeping to wrap Roswell, we kick off what will be a regular visit to the library of the greatest conspiracy and weird stuff broadc...

New! Unidentified--Roswell--It wasn't aliens, dummies.

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the episode subtitle implies, we're gonna talk about why the Roswell "aliens" were almost certainly military test dummies. While we're at it, we'll...

New! Unidentified--Roswell: The mortician's tale, and the little alien bodies

01 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Continuing our skeptical look at Roswell, this time examine the story told by town mortician Glenn Dennis--a fascinating combination of real events, c...

New! Unidentifed--So, what really happened at Roswell?

17 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're back a week late, but I hope you agree it's worth it. Having heard the pro-UFO version of Roswell last time, we now seek to learn why so many de...

Unidentified--Interlude

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Hey. We need an extra week coming back from summer, so here's a little taster of Dana Unicorn doing something silly to tide you over. See you next wee...

New! Unidentified--The Roswell incident (as told by an expert UFO believer)

27 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This time, we hear the full story of Roswell--or, at least, the full story as it's told by those who are convinced that a UFO crashed there. This is a...

New! Unidentified--The pre-UFOs that set the stage for Roswell

13 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Roswell is right around the corner, but first let's consider the unidentified objects that appeared in the night skies before everybody decided they w...

New! Unidentified--Where are all the aliens? (The Fermi Paradox and Drake's Equation)

30 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're fully on the UFO beat now, and addressing one of the most vexing questions asked by any scientist in the previous century--Enrico Fermi's questi...

New! Unidentified--The 66 trillion year-old Shabazz UFO, and the still-unidentified Oumuamua

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As promised, we're finally talking about UFOs in the UFO series. This time, we cover the long-overdue return of the Mother Plane prophesied by the Nat...

New! Unidentified--Wait, is Cthulhu just an Ancient Alien?

02 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On our way out of the ancient aliens door, we explore a few miscellaneous but still really interesting sub-topics, including out-of-place artifacts, t...

New! Unidentified--Graham Hancock, Ancient Aliens, and the Chad Rogaine Experience

18 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We discuss the woe-is-me posturing of non-scientist Graham Hancock, and his ludicrous theories about an advanced civilization wiped out by the last ic...

New! Unidentified, Episode 9: Nibiru needs gold--and sperm, for some reason

04 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the end of the Zecharia Sitchin part of this very weird series. But there's still more Ancient Astronauts to come. This time, we learn more ab...

New! Unidentified, Episode 7: Fear of a 12th planet--Nibiru and the Ancient Astronauts

21 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're continuing our tour through the life's work of Zecharia Sitchin, this time exploring in-depth his very strange rendition of the ancient Babyloni...

New! Unidentified, Episode 7: Zecharia Sitchin's made-up Ancient Aliens history

07 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We finally introduce arguably the second-most-important ancient aliens conspiracy theorist, shipping executive, amateur researcher, and adorable littl...

New! Unidentified, Episode 6: It was the Ancient Alien, with the Crystal Skull, in the Metal Library

23 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Somehow, we're still talking about Ancient Aliens, This time, we're continuing with our examination of Philip Coppens' work in this area. We consider ...

New! Unidentified, Episode 5: Do the Ancient Aliens enthusiasts have a point?

09 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Don't let our title fool you. We haven't gone soft on the horsefeathers that is Ancient Aliens theory. But in this episode, we do find the best, most ...

New! Unidentified, Episode 4: O-negative blood type? You're probably an Ancient Alien

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 4 is all up in that Basque. Ok, so that joke deson't work. But the episode does! Learn why von Daniken acolyte Nick Redfern is pretty sure th...

New! Unidentified, Episode 3: Jesus Christ, Ancient Astronaut

12 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're still digging down into the Erich von Daniken rabbit hole, touching on some other authors who have followed EvD's lead in speculating about the ...

New! Unidentified, Episode 2: Ancient Aliens, Chariots of the Gods, and the Swiss Felon

27 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Introductions done, we dive into our first subject in this grand UFO series--that is, Ancient Aliens and the man most responsible for bringing them to...

New! Unidentified, Episode 1: In which we narrowly evade an anal probing

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Seems like we've been promising this for ages, but it's finally here. Welcome to our next (very) long series, which we've called "Unidentified", becau...

New! Quick-ish hit! Paul is Dead? Part 2

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

And here's the second part of our rundown of the Paul is Dead musical conspiracy theory. In this episode, we consider the long-term implications of th...

New! Quick-ish hit! Paul is Dead?

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're back! But we're not doing UFOs yet. First, we're doing a two-parter on one of the most famous music-related conspiracies in modern history--that...

Archive: PKD Part 6

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

To keep you company while we work on new content, we're breaking apart one of our classic episodes into digestible chunks. Enjoy one of our personal f...

Archive: PKD Part 5

26 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

To keep you company while we work on new content, we're breaking apart one of our classic episodes into digestible chunks. Enjoy one of our personal f...

Archive: PKD Part 4

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

To keep you company while we work on new content, we're breaking apart one of our classic episodes into digestible chunks. Enjoy one of our personal f...

Archive: PKD Part 3

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

To keep you company while we work on new content, we're breaking apart one of our classic episodes into digestible chunks. Enjoy one of our personal f...

Archive: PKD Part 2

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

To keep you company while we work on new content, we're breaking apart one of our classic episodes into digestible chunks. Enjoy one of our personal f...

Archive: PKD Part 1

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

To keep you company while we work on new content, we're breaking apart one of our classic episodes into digestible chunks. Enjoy one of our personal f...