Paranoia Happy Hour

Join me for happy hour with Gabe and Jason for the tale of a bachelor party interrupted! We hear about their midnight sojourn to seek medical treatment in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, after Gabe injured himself break dancing. When they say leave it all on the dance floor, this is NOT what they were talking about. The overall lesson of this journey is “have fun, don’t try too hard, and it’s ok to grow up!” 

WARNING: This episode may be cringey for folks who don’t do well with gross medical stuff (we also use the brand new terms “lip meat” and “dangle lip” a lot, which might be off putting for different reasons).

Gabe’s Boo Club Pick: Los Espookys
Description from HBO: “Created by Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega, and Fred Armisen, Los Espookys is a Spanish-language (with English subtitles) comedy following a group of friends who turn their love for horror into a peculiar business, providing horror to those who need it, in a dreamy Latin American country where the strange and eerie are just part of daily life.”

Gabe’s Shares not Scares: Therapy
Go to therapy! Talk about your feels! Stop reliving past traumas! If you won’t take it from us, here’s an article on the benefits of therapy and how to go about finding the right therapist for you: The Benefits of Therapy for Yourself, Family, and Relationships.

Join me and Edwin Battistella for our first animal themed happy hour! Ed is my former English professor and college advisor and also an extremely talented writer and published author. Ed shares how two small animals wreaked havoc in his life: a cockroach nearly got him shot by a pistol packing landlord and a goldfish brought up philosophical issues and nearly resulted in his firing. Stay away from small creatures, Ed!

Ed’s Boo Club

Slough House series by Mick Herron

Penguin Randomhouse’s description of Slow Horses, the first book in the series: “London, England: Slough House is where washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what’s left of their failed careers. The ‘slow horses,’ as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated there. Maybe they botched an Op so badly they can’t be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing they have in common, though, is they want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there─even if it means having to collaborate with one another.”

Pignon Scorbion & The Barbershop Detectives by Rick Bleiweiss

Description from Blackstone Publishing’s site: “For fans of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, author Rick Bleiweiss’s quirky new detective and ensemble cast of characters set against the backdrop of small-town England in the 1910s will feel both comfortingly familiar and thrillingly new.”

Ed’s Shares not Scares

Oregon Humanities is committed to starting interesting conversations in unusual places. Check out their upcoming events or sign up for their free magazine!

Oregon Cultural Trust is “as uniquely Oregonian as public beaches and the bottle bill, the Oregon Cultural Trust was established 21 years ago by the Oregon Legislature as an ongoing funding engine for arts and culture across the state.” 

Join me for happy hour with Roanne! Roanne was a photographer on a horror movie film set. Oh, also that film set was haunted. The movie, The Smudging, was filmed at the American Indian Arts Center in Chicago (formerly a Masonic Lodge). The Center was home to “at least one murder” and old times child ghosts. No, thank you.

Roanne’s Boo Club: Sci Fi Carnival podcast

Two up and coming science fiction authors, Maryck (pronounced Mark) Allyson and Harley J. Robinson, talk about all things science fiction, old and current. You can find the podcast on Audible, Spotify, Apple podcast, and Amazon.

Share’s Not Scares: Roaming Closet

Check out Roanne’s vintage reselling clothing business! You can find Roaming Closet on Poshmark, Mercari, and Depop. Clothes, shoes, bags, vintage postcards, and more! Follow Roaming Closet on Instagram @roamingcloset. 

Join me for happy hour with Amanda! Amanda used to be a bartender at East Chinatown Lounge in Portland, Oregon. She tells the tale of seeing a dark, amorphous shape (like out of a Miyazaki film) that gave her extremely malevolent vibes. Don’t mind me while I join Amanda in backing verrryyyy slowly out of the room. 

Amanda’s Boo Club: The Trojan Horse Affair Podcast

Overview from their site: “A strange letter appears on a city councilor’s desk in Birmingham, England, laying out an elaborate plot by Islamic extremists to infiltrate the city’s schools. The plot has a code name: Operation Trojan Horse. The story soon explodes in the news and kicks off a national panic. By the time it all dies down, the government has launched multiple investigations, beefed up the country’s counterterrorism policy, revamped schools and banned people from education for the rest of their lives.”

Amanda’s Shares not Scares: Water conservation! 

Many of us take water for granted; it’s a precious resource and we can all do our part to conserve water and help out our planet. Some resources:

• Laundry-to-Landscape Greywater System - The laundry-to-landscape system is a simple system with easy distribution of greywater to multiple plants. It is relatively low cost, and easy to install.
• 10 Easy Ways to Save Water in Your Yard and Garden by loveyourlandscape.org 
• Backyard Habitat Certification Program - Learn how to create a habitat for local plants and species to thrive! 
• Tank Girl - Not so much a resource as a 1995 sci fi/post-apocalyptic film about the importance of water and the impact of draughts. 

Join me for happy hour with Dr. Carol Queen! Carol is a staff sexologist at Good Vibrations and was also my mom’s college roommate. We talk about her fame in my family, how she stumbled onto this unique career path, and how her weirdest thing is landing her dream job from attending a masturbation workshop. 

Dr. Queen’s Boo Club: Betty Dodson My Sexual Memoir: From Monogamous Wife to Sexual Explorer to Feminist Revolutionary

Description from Thriftbooks: “America's Most Honest Memoir Betty Dodson's memoir is the story of one woman's struggle to liberate female sexuality while enjoying her own. In the 70s, as the feminist movement evolved, focusing on various platform issues including equal pay and voter registration, Betty latched on to sexual liberation as a symbol for self-empowerment. Realizing that so many women weren't enjoying sex, she asked, "How could women ever be truly equal if they were reliant on men for their sexual satisfaction?" She quickly became the leader of the sex-positive feminist movement. And the rest is history.”

Dr. Queen’s Shares not Scares: Sex Ed for all! 

Dodsonandross.com 

Description from their website: “Betty Dodson and [Carlin Ross] launched this site in 2007 to promote the "Betty Dodson" method of self love and independent orgasm. All of our content is based on user-submitted questions collected over the last several decades. What is clear is that all women lack basic information about their bodies and the female model of sexual response.”

Scarleteen.com 

Description from their website: “Sex ed for the real world! Inclusive, comprehensive, supportive sexuality and relationships info for teen and emerging adults.”

Dr. Queen's Happy Hour Beverage

The Cherry Tart: a splash of tart cherry juice, a shot of sake, ginger ale to sweeten it just enough, and spiced cherry bitters. Delish. 

Join me and Emma for a rousing good time! We drink one of the strangest “beers” I’ve ever had and Emma shares her tale of spotting a trio of UFOs with her dad while driving in backwoods Vermont. 

Beer: Claim 52 Pineapple Strawberry Guava Purée Gose. Check out Emma's beer instagram @emmalikesbeer!

PSA: Don’t drink your booze with a straw. No good can come from it.

Emma’s Boo Club Pick: Franz Ferdinand 

Franz Ferdinand is a Scottish indie band from the 2000s. Don’t worry - they still hold up. They just released a greatest hits compilation that you can check out here.

Emma’s Shares not Scares: Street Dog Hero

Street Dog Hero’s mission is to “serve dogs in need around the world and their communities through rescue, adoption, wellness, spay/neuter, and education.” Check them out to learn how you can help support their important mission! 

Join me for the first story of coincidence on Paranoia Happy Hour! A plot plucked straight from a RomCom, Ashley recounts a tale from her days in Edinburgh when she meets a stranger in the pub. It turns out they have a lot  in common. Like... a lot.

Ashley’s Boo Club Pick: Scary Stories from Camp Roanoke

If you listen to Paranoia Happy Hour, you’re bound to enjoy this delightful podcast! Two best friends, Katie and Morgan, are the hilarious hosts of a podcast where they tell each other scary stories from books they’ve read, shows they’ve watched, etc. 

Ashley’s Shares not Scares: Save the Bees!

Do you like eating food? Me, too! Well, bees are an integral part of us eating food. Bees are under duress from climate change, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, air pollution, drought, habitat destruction, and much more. 

Learn how to help! 

• Project Honey Bees
• Beesponsible 
• Oregon Bee Project

Pile into the Mystery Machine for the first episode of Paranoia Happy Hour’s second season! An Elysian IPA in hand, Justin recounts a night in October 1998 when, in true Scooby Doo style, a bunch of teenagers drove a minivan to a potentially haunted house in Laurelwood, Oregon, in the middle of the night. Armed with only a candle and a University of Michigan windbreaker, what could possibly go wrong? Join us for happy hour to find out!

Justin’s Boo Club: 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s

Looking for more variety in your podcasts than solely mainlining murder stories (cough, me, cough)? Check out 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s! Description from their site: “‘The 1990s were a turning point in music: with the increasingly connected world enabling an unprecedented coalescence of various styles and genres, the decade featured the rapid evolution of sonic artistry — and subsequently shaped the soundscape of eras that followed. Listen along as The Ringer’s preeminent music critic Rob Harvilla curates and explores 60 iconic songs from the ‘90s that define the decade.”

Justin’s Shares not Scares: PushBlack

Info from pushblack.org: “PushBlack is the nation's largest non-profit media organization for Black Americans, currently serving 9 million people across all platforms.

We use the power of narrative, especially Black history and news, to educate and activate our subscribers to build their personal power and create lasting economic and political change.”

Sign up for PushBlack’s daily dose of Black News & History here!

It’s the last happy hour of season one! Join me for my very first Paranoia Happy Hour recording with my dad. He retells a late Sunday afternoon of driving in St. Helens, Oregon, in 1973 where he and some friends spotted a UFO. And then the UFO started circling them. That’s some scary shit. 

And, for those who don’t know (because I sure didn’t), here are the classification of “encounters:”

• Close encounter of the first kind: Someone simply observes a UFO but it leaves no evidence.
• Close encounter of the second kind: A UFO leaves physical traces it was present, such as burns on the ground or broken branches.
• Close encounter of the third kind: A person makes contact with a UFO or other life form.

See you all for Season 2 on April 3. Cheers!

Join me for this rapid fire story time happy hour with Ken! Y’all, Ken is a TREASURE TROVE of weird stories. This happy hour has three UFO sightings and Ken’s experience inside the Bermuda Triangle (think creepy, abandoned boats). To top it all off, Ken once had a ghostie roommate in the form of an old, crotchety lady ghost named Mrs. Wallenstein. Fun fact: bad garage grunge rock did not work to exorcize her from the property.

Some questions we posited: 

• Do aliens know about us?
• Were these UFOs or military experimentation or helicopters? 
• Did the shrooms cause shared hallucinations?
• Why don’t ghost roommates pay rent?

Ken’s Boo Club: Archive 81

IMDB description: “An archivist hired to restore a collection of tapes finds himself reconstructing the work of a filmmaker and her investigation into a dangerous cult.” Check it out for time travel, cults, and an enthralling good time!

Ken’s Shares not Scares: Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

As a nonprofit organization, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is driven by a powerful mission and five core values which guide us to serve our community and foster artistic development in Southwest Washington and beyond. Check out their 2021-22 Season Tickets (also streaming online!).