The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Jeff Koons is, without a doubt, the quintessential artist of our age: as bland and reassuring as a bowl of oatmeal, about as deep as a puddle, and more concerned about how much his work sells for than what it says. A hater's guide.

https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-balloon-doggies-demanded-it Key sources for this episode include Don Thompson's The $12 Million Stuffed Shark; Jed Perl's "The Cult of Jeff Koons"; Hans Werner Holzwarth's Koons monograph; Norman Rosenthal's Jeff Koons: Conversations with Norman Rosenthal; Robert Hughes's American Visions; and so many gallery catalogues, including the ones for his 2000 Easyfun-Ethereal exhibition, his 2002 Kunsthaus Bregenz exhibition, his 2014 Whitney Retrospective, and the Tate Modern's 2009 "Pop Life" exhibition.

Photo by Neil R. (Cropped every so slightly from original)

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

Email: [email protected] Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/uEVrmKZzq2 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

For a long time it was just a hole in the ground. Then, for twelve months, it was the fifth-largest city in Pennsylvania and the biggest oil field in the world. And then, just as abruptly, it was a hole inthe ground again.

https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/skeedaddled-and-gone-to-hell

Key sources for this episode include Brian Black's Petrolia: The Landscape of America's First Oil Boom; Ernest C. Miller's Pennsylvania's Oil Industry; John J. McLaurin's Sketches in Crude Oil; the autobiography of Ida M. Tarbell; and most importantly, William C Darragh's Pithole: The Vanished City.

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

• Email: [email protected]
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com
• Discord: https://discord.gg/uEVrmKZzq2
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

Welcome to the Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Chocolope, where I dive into topics too nerdy for a Chocolate Snobs episode and too chocolate-oriented for an Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope entry. Today, we ask: "How much chocolate is in your chocolate?"

https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/how-much-chocolate/ https://chocolate-snobs.com

In the 1940s, while trying to rebut Freud, psychoanalyst Immanuel Velikovsky decided the reason ancient history didn't make any sense was simple: it was all the fault of the planet Venus.

https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/no-heretic-has-suffered-less

Key sources for this episode include Immanuel Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision, Earth in Upheaval, and Ages of Chaos; Alfred de Grazia's Cosmic Heretics; Kendrick Frasier's Paranormal Borderlands of Science; and Michael D Gordin's The Pseudo-Science Wars. But most importantly: the collected works of Henry H. Bauer, includng "The Velikovsky Affair," Beyond Velikovsky, and Science or Pseudoscience?

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

• Email: [email protected]
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com
• Discord: https://discord.gg/uEVrmKZzq2
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

Thomas Lake Harris channeled the greatest poets in history to produce some of the worst poetry you've ever read... and then those same poets told him he was the new Messiah, who would unite the physical and spiritual worlds and usher in a new cycle of the ages.

https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/with-fairies-wise/

Key sources for this episode include Adam Morris's American Messiahs: False Prophets of a Damned Nation; Arthur A. Cuthbert's The Life and World-Work of Thomas Lake Harris, Written from Direct Personal Knowledge; Joseph W. Slade's "Historical Sketch of Thomas Lake Harris, Laurence Oliphant, and the Brotherhood of the New Life"; Margaret Oliphant's Memoir of the Life of Laurence Oliphant and of Alice Oliphant, His Wife; Philip Jenkins' Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History; the collected writings of Thomas Lake Harris; and contemporary newspaper reports, especially from the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

Email: [email protected] Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

In 1975, an idealistic Soviet political officer decided it was time to restart the Communist Revolution, and that the best way to do that was by fomenting mutiny on a state-of-the-art anti-submarine destroyer with nuclear capabilities.

https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/mutiny-on-the-storozhevoy/

Presented by #42, Alex Baumans. Alex is pathologically interested in anything unusual and obscure. He's a closet goth, armchair general and amateur theologian. His favorite animals are ducks, octopodes and pigs. You will also find him surprisingly knowledgable about K-Pop girl groups.

Key sources for this episode include Michael Fredholm Von Essen's The Hunt for the Storozhevoy and Gregory D. Young and Nate Braden's The Last Sentry.

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

Email: [email protected] Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

As part of its centennial celebration in 1970 the Museum of Fine Arts Boston acquired a spectacular trove of golden bronze age jewelry... The problem was they had no idea where it came from and showed no interest in finding out.

https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/all-that-glitters

Key sources for this episode include articles published by Cornelius Vermeule III and Emily Vermuele in Horizon and the Illustrated London News; and contemporary newspaper reporting in the Boston Globe, expecially by Robert Taylor and Edgar Driscoll, Jr.

We are appearing at Intelligent Speech 2026 on February 28, 2026! This year's theme is "Companions & Rivals" and it's not too late to get tickets! https://intelligentspeechonline.com

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

Email: [email protected] Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

Thanks to a chance meeting on a train James Mellaart stumbled across a treasure trove that challenged everything we knew about ancient Anatolia... only to be left holding the bag when it disappeared under mysterious circumstances. (Or maybe he just made it all up.)

https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/not-science-but-vendetta/

Key sources for this episode include Kenneth Pearson and Patricia Connor's The Dorak Affair; Michael Balter's The Goddess and the Bull; numerous articles by Susan Mazur; and several academic papers by Eberhard Zangger.

We are appearing at Intelligent Speech 2026 on February 28, 2026! This year's theme is "Companions & Rivals" and it's not too late to get tickets! https://intelligentspeechonline.com

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

Email: [email protected] Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

In 1897 "the Reverend Electrolycist" Prescott Ford Jernegan claimed he could extract gold from seawater for pennies on the dollar. It was a classic something for nothing scam... So why did so many people fall for it?

https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/theres-gold-in-them-thar-waves

Key sources for this episode include Carl Sifakis's Hoaxes and Scams: A Compendium of Deceptions, Ruses, and Swindles; contemporary newspaper reports; and Carrie C. Bang's The Great Gold Swindle of Lubec, Maine.

We're presenting at Intelligent Speech 2026: Companions & Rivals! Join us on Febuary 28! Speakers will explore friendships that changed the course of events, rivalries that pushed people to greatness or to ruin and partnerships that proved stronger than armies. Roundtables on unlikely alliances and spirited debates about history's fiercest rivalries are sure to delight and intrigue. Tickets available now at https://intelligentspeechonline.com/!

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

• Email: [email protected]
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/order-of-the-jackalope.com
• Discord: https://discord.gg/Mbap3UQyCB
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@orderjackalope

Greetings, initiates. #13 here.

You are expecting an episode of the Ancient Order of the Jackalope, the secret society/podcast about uncovering hidden stories and sharing them with the world, and I am here to explain why you're not getting one.

I have a lot of stuff going on in my life right now.

You don't need to know what it all is, you just need to know that it's not all good.

I had thought I was coping with everything quite well, and then I had a moment that made it very clear that I was not really coping at all.

Looking back, I could see this has been a problem for a while. I have been setting myself up for a massive spectacular meltdown, and I have been lucky that it has been averted.

Long story short, I need to step back from almost everything that I'm doing and try to set a path forward. Hopefully one that doesn't lead to inevitable burnout, stress-related ulcers, and sleepless nights.

Everything includes this podcast.

Now, it isn't not going away. It's just going on hiatus for a short while. In fact, I'll will guarantee you that right now there will be an episode of this podcast in the first week of January 2026. Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.

Until then, I need to rest and relax and reprioritize and that's exactly what I'm going to do. Hopfelly when I see you in January I will be a happier, healthier #13.

Until then, maybe you could go listen to some other podcasts. The Constant is always great, it's hard to go wrong there. Or on any show with Michael Hobbes on it, like Maintenance Phase or If Books Could Kill. Maybe Lateral or No Such Thing as a Fish? Our Fake History or Imperfect Men or Pontifacts? You have hundreds of great options.

We'll be back.

Until then, remember: that which is least known, is best to know.