The Paranoid Strain

We're back again, with the next installment of our historical review of American political conspiracy theories. This time, unfortunately, we have to talk about the hideous history of conspiracy theories centered around slavery, and the ways that they impacted both slaveowning, and even abolitionist societies prior to the Civil War. This one is, of course, upsetting. But, we hope, also super interesting. And, as our nation strives to reckon with its unfortunately and intensely racist history, we think it's really important. We hope you agree. Email us at theparanoidstrain at gmail dot com, join the FB group, and please tell anyone you think might enjoy the show that...well, you enjoy the show. See you in a couple of weeks.

Notes:

• Seen on Radio: Seeing White
• Kerry Walters: American Slave Revolts and Conspiracies
• Thomas Konda: Conspiracies of Conspiracies
• Jill Lepore: New York Burning

All music Copyright 2020, The Paranoid Strain Orchestra

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Brand. Spanking. New. Content.

Welcome back. This episode inaugurates a nice, long run of new stuff that should lead all the way up to the U.S. Presidential election, assuming we're still gonna go ahead and hold that thing. We figured that, for the back half of this historically weird year, it might be appropriate for us to focus on the fact that throughout our history, all the way back to the colonial period, Americans (especially white Americans) have been obsessed with conspiracies that they imagine one or another group to be scheming about in one or another smoke-filled back room. In this first part, we not only do our introductory skit thing, but go over a couple of important conspiracy phases of pre-America--Native American, and later the Salem Witch conspiracies. We hope you dig it. More to come in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, join our Facebook group, subscribe on Youtube, and drop us a line at theparanoidstrain at gmail.

Bibliography:

• The United States of Paranoia, by Jesse Walker

All music copyright 2020, The Paranoid Strain Orchestra

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PHASE TWO IS UPON US.

Please do not panic. We're ready for this. As promised, we're starting our new, more frequent content feed with the first two-thirds of our very first episode. It includes high-falutin discussions of what, exactly, we mean by conspiracy theories, why people believe them, and what this whole show is supposed to be about. The last bit of this one comes out in a week or two, with some special bonus content. As always, thanks for listening, and let us know what you think of the updated format.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yeah, I know. This wasn't the episode we promised last time. But coronavirus is, in addition to being a real asshole of a disease, also the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to frightened dipshits generating an endless panoply of new conspiracy theories.

This is another "Quick Hit", but it's over an hour. No, our nomenclature doesn't even make a lot of sense to us, but hopefully this is pretty up-to-date and comprehensive in terms of the biggest highlights of the current lay of the virus conspiracy land.

We'll be back with you soon, and we're still working on some big, exciting, totally non-virus-related stuff for the rest of the year. We hope this makes your sheltering in place more enjoyable, and as always, thanks for listening.

Oh, and if you wanna see that ridiculous video explaining how you can cure COVID with a blow-dryer, knock yourself out.

All original music copyright 2020 The Paranoid Strain Orchestra.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whaaaaaa? A new episode? But it's been just a few weeks? 

That's right, Strainiacs. We're back in the saddle, albeit an indoor, socially distancing, "shelter in place" kind of saddle, to spread some facts and debunk some nonsense around the pandemic plague that suddenly has the world's undivided attention. This is a true "quick hit", production to your ears in just a couple of weeks. We hope you enjoy it, and we look forward to sharing more quickly produced, up-to-the-minute content with you in the future.

Only one link this time, to a Vox story that explains all the reasons you shouldn't believe this virus is man-made

All original music copyright 2020 The Paranoid Strain Orchestra.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sorry about the delay, but we’re very pleased to present you, via our brand new podcast feed (which should, from your perspective, be completely indistinguishable from our original feed), the second half of our reality episode. This time, we’re orienting our discussion around the singular perspective of one of the most interesting and influential writers of the 20th century, Philip K Dick. You may know him as the Blade Runner guy, or the Total Recall guy, or just the guy who gets (rightly) credited with inspiring basically every good sci-fi idea you’ve ever heard of. But it turns out that Phil was a strange and fascinating dude, a man who believed the universe’s greatest secrets had been revealed to him in a bolt of pink light, and who then spent the rest of his life figuring out what the hell that light was trying to tell him. In the process of explaining his life and works, we’ll also incidentally delve into gnostic christianity, the modern theory of consciousness, and the work of some other super-influential, similarly mind-expanding writers. Hope you enjoy it. And if you do, let us know at theparanoidstrain at gmail dot com.

Bibliography:

Philip K Dick books referenced in the episode:

• The Exegesis

• Man in the High Castle

• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

• Ubik

• A Scanner Darkly

• The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

• Valis

Other books and such: 

• Divine invasions, A Life of Philip K Dick, by Lawrence Sutin
• Science Fiction: A Hopeless Case, With Exceptions, by Stanislaw Lem
• Beginner’s Guide to Reality, by James Baggott
• What Is It Like to Be a Bat?, by Thomas Nagel
• V.S. Ramachandran:

• • The Tell-Tale Brain

• • A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness

• • The Phantom Brain

• Great Courses: Gnosticism, by David Brakke

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Any of y’all remember, last year, when all of NPR’s podcast feeds got screwed up, and nobody knew what was going on? Well, we’re about to change hosts. Should be totally seamless on your end, but I know that if my favorite conspiracy podcast was about to do such a thing, I’d appreciate a heads-up. So, in the next day or two, you should see…nothing happening. But if suddenly everything goes haywire, our apologies, don’t panic, but do email us at [email protected], and we’ll work with our new provider to sort it out.

In more exciting news, we have the second “Reality” episode coming up in the next few days, a recap episode after that, and then we’re gonna make some major, positive changes to the way we put out content around here, sometime around the middle of the year. We look forward to sharing more about that in the coming months, but in the meantime, here’s hoping that…nothing happens until you get the next episode.

Thanks, as always, for listening.

FJ

PS: Spotify people–we’ve heard you loud and clear. We’re gonna get ourselves set up just as soon as we migrate the feed.