We’re setting the table for the year ahead in Ghost Stories, and to do so we’ll be following a number of threads that may or may not have much to do with each other. Key to this one is the UK’s relationship with the US, which we use to explore how unnerving it feels to be alive in the Hermit Kingdom in the last days, its mind blown out by redundant upper management and a deep state that no longer has any purpose. We mainline the DMT released from the dying spider’s brain, exploring Keir Starmer as the Last Man, dreams in the imperial core, surveillance, terrorism, the dregs of empire, classified US-UK programs like GHOSTHUNTER and APPARITION, temporal dislocation, and long-dead spree killers haunting the Yorkshire moors. 

People try to be the king but the ace is back, with a banging new theme tune and a story that explores the decadence of the Palermo Belle Époque. The mafia is now well entrenched and reaching ever further into the Italian system; a banking crisis exposes industrial-scale fraud and leads to the first eminent corpse.

This episode is free to all but most subsequent BOW episodes will be available ONLY ON PATREON, which is HERE:

https://www.patreon.com/GhostStoriesForTheEnd

Check out the imposing walls of sound I have erected to accompany various episodes and miniseries here:

https://ghoststoriesfortheendoftheworld.bandcamp.com/

It's been too long since last we took the Saucer of Insight out for a spin through the feverish Caverns of the Mind, so tonight we're finally getting weird again to talk about those lovable scamps in human skin in black suits: THE MEN IN BLACK. Who they? Where be? What is? And but? All these questions and more will be answered as our good friend Robert Skvarla joins myself and Bradley to explore the social, cultural and political history of the MIB phenomenon.

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This one goes off the rails in a major way because I'm out of practice and it's been a very long month. We begin with an overview of where the main show is heading and our plans for the future, then we talk about (in no particular order here): poison eurodwarf Polanski, occultism and control, Aktion T4, Yorkshire Aunties, pandemics, apartments, left wing thinkpieces, serial killers, if Boris Johnson really had covid, exorcism, the Catholic Church, escaped nazis, lockdowns, American voters, generational warfare, Ira Levin, my Donald Trump impression, homeworking, Satanic panics, hippies, the importance of commute time, and more besides. I am running on fumes and I need sleep. I love you all.

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BELGIAN X-FILES SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE HERE:

https://ghoststoriesfortheendoftheworld.bandcamp.com/album/the-belgian-x-files-a-soundtrack

"A couple travel to Sweden to visit their friend's rural hometown for its fabled midsummer festival, but what begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult."

None of the synopses really get the pitch right but what the hell, this'll do.

Dir: Ari Aster

Joined for this one by Marcus and Seb of THE RETURN OF THE REPRESSED podcast

"Set against the backdrop of Belgium's most notorious unsolved crime spree, 1985 begins as three friends - Vicky, her brother Franky, and his best friend Marc - begin a new chapter of their lives, when they set off from their hometown to Brussels. But as their adulthood and careers in the big city commence, the trio risks losing their innocence and noble illusions, as they find themselves caught in the middle of the horrifying events that shocked a generation and will come to leave a scar on the entire country."

Nic joins me for an epilogue of sorts to talk about the very good TV show 1985 and kickstart MOVIE SEASON the right way.

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BELGIAN X-FILES SOUNDTRACK HERE:

https://ghoststoriesfortheendoftheworld.bandcamp.com/album/the-belgian-x-files-a-soundtrack

Join Nic and I for the final Belgian X-File.

This is how it ends.

UNLOCK THE REST OF THE EPISODE HERE:

https://www.patreon.com/GhostStoriesForTheEnd

SOUNDTRACK NOW AVAILABLE HERE

Myself and @IRC_NIC discuss the sheer size of the case and consider what The Sprawl means. We go long on how the cops and the media conspired to kill the network angle, and then we look at the truly global scale of the Dutroux Affair and break down what, exactly, the Network was, its historical origins, the social context, how it worked, where it came from, and how it dealt with the threat of exposure.

**SUPPORT THE SHOW HERE**

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EXTREME CONTENT WARNING

Regina Louf talks about her experience in the network, the pressure mounts on the investigating team, people continue to die, the families of the victims are pushed to the edge of madness, and Belgium finds itself on the brink of revolution.

**UNLOCK THE FULL EPISODE HERE**

https://www.patreon.com/GhostStoriesForTheEnd

Seemed fitting to unlock these two episodes, solder them together through the miracle of sound editing, and make them free to all given the news this week of Oasis reforming. Enjoy.

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