Optophobia

In our Season 2 opener, we meet co-hosts and deep state experts Muriel Woland and Clifford Hanger. Muriel discusses how she came to write the Deep State anthem in exchange for a couple of the Shovelmen's first-born. And Ford remembers an event from his childhood in which Gisele Bündchen saved his parents' marriage. And his foreskin.

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Credits:

Liz Sanders played Muriel Wolland. Liz performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble.

Jamal Newman played Clifford Hanger. Jamal performs with Lena Dunham and NIXON. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @hell0newman, and find him at jamalnewman.com.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley. 

Website by Chance Griffin. 

The deep state is real. And it’s just that — a 51st state, hidden from the American people and unacknowledged by the federal government, even as it pulls Washington's most important levers. How do you hide an entire state? You bury it. Deep.

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Credits:

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw. 

Cover art by Claire Smalley. 

Website by Chance Griffin. 

In the season finale, we learn the truth about what was really going on at Kagnew Station, and what STONEHOUSE was for. Debra and Hassan have a hard time coming to terms with the hard evidence as it’s presented to them by Victor Sifuentes.  

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Credits:

Liz Sanders played Debra. Liz performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble.

Jamal Newman played Hassan Gray. Jamal performs with Lena Dunham and NIXON. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @hell0newman, and find him at jamalnewman.com.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley. 

Website by Chance Griffin. 

Terry Timmons was cruise director aboard Shimmer of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's Indian Ocean flagship, in the early 1980s. Each time Timmons and his crewmates began responding to mysterious Russian transmissions — likely from the STONEHOUSE project antennas — they lost consciousness and woke up unharmed in their bunks.

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Credits:

Denny Johnson  played Terry Timmons. Denny performs with Ugh, an all-gay improv troupe in DC, often seen at Washington Improv Theatre. He also just launched a new talk show, “Wake Up, Late, with Denny and Kate” — America’s only nighttime morning show — at Colony Club in Washington.

Liz Sanders played Debra. Liz performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley. 

Website by Chance Griffin. 

In 1979 Convoy Jack Lafarge, legendary roadie for  psychedelic San Francisco bands of the 1960s, found himself driving the bus for Bob Marley's 1979 tour of Africa. After the Wailers' final show in Addis Ababa, Marley insisted on recording an all-star synth-pop album in a mysterious studio he'd heard about: Kagnew Station.

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Credits:

Luke Hennig  played Convoy Jack Lafarge. Luke performs with The Lodge, a legendary Washington, DC indie improv team.

Jamal Newman played Hassan Gray. Jamal performs with Lena Dunham and NIXON. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @hell0newman, and find him at jamalnewman.com.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley. 

Website by Chance Griffin. 

Cupcake designer Nancy Schwan was playing Scrabble with her boyfriend one romantic evening, when her tiles came up "Kagnew." It happened again the following night, and soon the owner of Nancy's Fancies was obsessed with painting watercolors of beautiful African desert landscapes she'd never seen before.

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Credits:

Jenny Koch played Nancy Schwan. Jenny performs with DC-based improv teams, The Quitters and The Lodge.

Liz Sanders played Debra. Liz performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble.
Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley. 

Website by Chance Griffin. 

What if everything you thought you knew about your orientation on this planet was wrong? Not just wrong, but exactly 180 degrees wrong. Kim Ingram, a talent scout from Mustardton, SC, believes the STONEHOUSE antennas are actually powerful magnets designed by the government to disrupt the way we think about directions, injecting chaos and confusion into society as a way to make us more docile. That stop sign ahead of you? It really means "go."

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Credits:

Krystal Ramseur played Kim Ingram. Krystal performs at Washington Improv Theater with ensemble teams Hellcat and Lena Dunham. Follow her on instagram at @speshlkram.

Jamal Newman played Hassan Gray. Jamal performs with Lena Dunham and NIXON. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @hell0newman, and find him at jamalnewman.com.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley. 

Website by Chance Griffin. 

When Father Richard Thomas’s dad was stationed at Kagnew, he found that STONEHOUSE was concealing a supernatural government discovery: the Gates of Hell. And he succumbed to the Prince of Darkness. When the U.S. Navy officer finally returned to San Diego, his own son was forced to perform a secret exorcism.

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Credits:

Mikey Blunschi played Father Richard Thomas. Mikey performs with Lizard Girl at Washington Improv Theater. Follow him on Instagram at @Boyz_Nite or Twitter at @pizzapartymikey.

Liz Sanders played Debra. Liz performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley. 

Website by Chance Griffin. 

After a traumatic childhood audition for "Oliver!" that blacked out his community theater, Dan Hammer had a feeling someone, or some thing, was controlling the world's electronic grid. Despite his conviction that STONEHOUSE was the cause of every bad thing that happened in his life, Dan persevered with his acting career. And he found love. Tragically, electronics found her too.

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Credits:

Reaves McElveen played Dan Hammer. Reaves performs with his teams NIXON and Colossus at various improv theaters in Washington, DC.

Jamal Newman played Hassan Gray. Jamal performs with Lena Dunham and NIXON. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @hell0newman, and find him at jamalnewman.com.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley. 

Website by Chance Griffin.

In 1975, Gary Belt and his brother were stationed at Kagnew when Gary’s brother was beamed in the face with a space laser from the STONEHOUSE antennas. Gary, now a ghost writer at the Farmer’s Almanac, believes the content of his brother’s brain was the first of thousands that STONEHOUSE sucked into a mysterious black box, a massive database we now call ... The Internet.

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Credits:

Kevin Mahoney played Gary Belt. Kevin performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble. Follow him on Instagram at @kev_mahoney.

Liz Sanders played Debra. Liz also performs with Madeline. 

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw. 

Cover art by Claire Smalley. 

Website by Chance Griffin.