The Worker's Cauldron

In this episode of The Worker’s Cauldron, we look at how the military of the United States has exploited supernatural beliefs in the process of growing its empire. From the infamous use of the Filipino Aswang to suppress the hukbalahap rebellion to the equally infamous Ghost Tape Number 10 played into the rebel held areas of Vietnam, we explore the strange intersections of imperialism and folklore.

Bonus Content: Various things to say about pigs

Herbert Friedman, Superstition PSYOP

Max Boot: Operation Mongoose: The Story of America's Efforts to Overthrow Castro

The Aswang Phenomenon 

The Aswang Project

Heonik Kwon: Ghosts of War in Vietnam

Maximo D. Ramos, The Aswang Complex in Philippine Folklore

Network of Concerned Anthropologists

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Having discussed the first landmark cases of alien abduction in the last episode, this week we investigate the explosion of abduction claims in the 1980s and 1990s. We discuss the works of artist turned hypnotist Budd Hopkins, the strange encounters of author Whitley Streiber, the alien hybrid theories of historian David Jacobs, and the spiritual alien ideas of the late great John Mack. While alien abduction stories have existed since the 1960s, why did they become a pop-culture sensation during this era, with thousands of otherwise normal Americans claiming remarkable encounters with beings from other worlds?

Bonus content: When Baywatch went paranormal

Resources:

Jodi Dean, Aliens in America: Conspiracy Cultures from Outerspace to Cyberspace

Diana Tumminia (ed) Alien Worlds: Social and Religious Dimensions of Extraterrestrial Contact

Roger Luckhurst: The Science-Fictionalization of Trauma: Remarks on Narratives of Alien Abduction

Laura Thursby: The Trauma of Missing Time in Alien Abductions

Thomas Bullard: UFO Abduction Reports: The Supernatural Kidnap Narrative Returns in Technological Guise

Bridget Brown: The Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves: The History and Politics of Alien Abduction

Wide Atlantic Weird Podcast: Budd Hopkins' Intruders: How Alien Abductions Got So Popular

The Oprah Winfrey Show: Siblings' "Bizarre" Story of Being Abducted by Aliens

An introduction to Frederic Jameson's ideas on postmodernity

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Welcome to our first episode of our exploration of the very weird world of alien abductions. We talk about the strange mixture of Cold War anxiety, racial tension, emerging biotechnology that shaped the very first accounts of alien abductions--both in the movies and, allegedly, in real life. We cover the strange paranoia of Richard Shaver, the taking of Betty and Barney Hill, the very bizarre story of Travis Walton, and the very psychedelic abduction of Betty Andreasson.


Bonus Material: Getting to know your Orthons from your Quazgaas

Also check out our interview on the Wide Weird Atlantic Podcast!

Further Reading for the Curious:

Bridget Brown, They Know Us Better Than They Know Ourselves

Nigel Waston, Captured By Aliens?

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This week we are headed to Jamaica to discuss the role of Obeah, a sort of Afro-Caribbean magic practiced there, in the islands history.  We'll talk about how English writers used it to justify slavery, how it inspired slaves to rise up in arms, and how an infamous Obeah woman known as Queen Nanny inspired free Black settlements to resist the British Empire.

Sources:
Diana Paton, The Cultural Politics of Obeah. In The Cultural Politics of Obeah: Religion, Colonialism and Modernity in the Caribbean World

Eugenia O'Neal, Obeah, Race and Racism. Caribbean Witchcraft in the English Imagination

Karla Gottlieb,   The Mother of Us All: A History of Queen Nanny

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In this episode of the workers cauldron we talk about how rumors of living (non-avian) Dinosaurs in Central Africa and alleged glowing pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea are intricately linked to the history of racism and colonialism.

Bonus Content: Problematic LEGO sets, Human Zoos and Raquel Welch

References

Wide Atlantic Weird: Monsters of the Frontier
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-of-the-frontier-mokele-mbembe-and/id1448284008?i=1000502151641

Edward Guimont: Hunting Dinosaurs in Central Africa
https://contingentmag.org/2019/03/18/hunting-dinosaurs-africa/

Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero: Abominable Science!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12930972-abominable-science

Darren Naish: Hunting Monsters
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/my-new-book-hunting-monsters-cryptozoology-and-the-reality-behind-the-myths/

Allison Hopper: Denial of Evolution Is a Form of White Supremacy

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/denial-of-evolution-is-a-form-of-white-supremacy/

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As the world went into lockdown, people began to more ghosts and mysterious lights in the sky. And this wasn't the first pandemic to be followed by the paranormal.

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Are violent villagers really hunting vampires in the African country of Malawi? This week we discuss the history of this small nation,  how Western news outlets mischaracterized the movement against alleged vampires,  and look for the real bloodsuckers--social precarity, the forces of international finance capital, and neocolonialism.

Our sources are:
 Protesting unemployment and precarity? Mapping Community Perspectives on the Anti-bloodsucker Protests in Mulanje District, Malawi
By Daniel Kabunduli Nkhata

Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism
By David McNally

Speaking with Vampires: Rumor and History in Colonial Africa
By Luise White


As always, special thanks to Ian Lee for his spooky rendition of the Internationale.

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This week, we sweep away the stereotypes surrounding "genies," aka jinn, to see what they can teach us about the psychological and spiritual ramifications of the mass forced migrations in the age of the global “War on Terror.”

Bonus Content: Racist Danes and Sleep Paralysis

References:
Islam, Migration and Jinn: Spiritual Medicine in Muslim Health Management
Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar
The Jinn of Oman
Meet the Dutch Exorcist-Doctors treating the mental health of Muslim immigrants

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Mutilation Nation

This week, we discuss the cattle mutilation wave that hit the heartlands of the United States during the 1970s. This is how the near-collapse of the cattle industry and the end of the Vietnam War precipitated rumors of secret cults, extraterrestrials, cryptids, and a secret government conspiracy all hell-bent on slicing up cows. And also how this all relates to radical right-wing political movements in the American West.

Bonus Content: Close Encounters of the Doggy Kind and some Trotsky quotes

Primary Sources:
Michael J. Goleman, Wave of Mutilation: The Cattle Mutilation Phenomenon of the 1970s
Christopher O’Brien, Stalking the Herd: Unraveling the Cattle Mutilation Mystery
Bill Ellis, Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media
Kansas City 41 Action News, Rancher mystified by cattle mutilations
KFOR Oklahoma News 4, Ranchers on edge after cow found mutilated in Oklahoma pasture

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In 2012, workers building on a dam in Zimbabwe all walked off the job in protest of unsafe working conditions. What made this story international news was that the workplace danger was mermaids. This week, we discuss the spiritual significance of the njuzu, or the mermaid in Shona indigenous religion, how the country’s troubled history of colonialism informs this belief, and what it all has to do with a massive religious revival in the early 1990s.

Bonus: The Imperial Gaze in western paranormal podcasts

Thanks to Ian Lee for the Creepy Internationale theme song and here is that video about Mermaids in Zimbabwe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1o8lVP8fmI

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