Shows
The Impossible ArchiveIntimate Alien (w/ David Halperin)Religion scholar David Halperin stops by to discuss his book Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO. David shares his own history as a young ufologist, and how he later came back to ufology as a scholar. Tangents include: the cover of Whitley Strieber's Communion, the Jungian quaternity, and "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel."
Links/sources mentioned:
David Halperin, Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO (Stanford University Press, 2020)
Carl Jung, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky (1959)
Gray Barker, They Knew Too...2022-07-1653 min
The Impossible ArchiveWeird Documentaries (w/ Brad Abrahams)Documentary filmmaker Brad Abrahams comes on the show to discuss his terrific films "Love and Saucers," "Telos or Bust," and "Do You See What I See?" Topics include alien abduction, Mt. Shasta, conspiracy theory rabbit holes, and Austin.
You can watch "Love and Saucers" (2017) on YouTube, "Do You See What I See?" (2021) on Vimeo, and the trailer for "Telos or Bust" (2021) on Vimeo. For more of Brad's work, go to bradabrahams.net. Also check out the Mt. Shasta episode he did with QAnon Anonymous.
more links/sources:
Budd Hopkins, "Missing Time" (1981)
...2022-05-241h 07
The Impossible ArchiveAncient AstronautsBill and Eddie unpack the "ancient astronaut" theory popularized by Erich von Däniken. Why do so many people want to attribute the Pyramids or Teotihuacan to long-ago extraterrestrials? Tangents include: Nazi ghostwriters, cargo cults, and Superman.
They focus on the 1973 TV special In Search of Ancient Astronauts (narrated by Rod Serling), and also touch on the 1976 TV special Mysteries of the Gods (starring William Shatner).
LINKS:
In Search of Ancient Astronauts (1973): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJd756bz2Ak
Mysteries of the Gods (1976): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k...2022-03-211h 07
The Impossible ArchiveThe Troy SentinelBill reads today's issue (or at least this day in 1823) of the Troy Sentinel. The issue includes beekeeping tips, hogsheads of rum, an enormous pig, news on the Morales expedition, a Christmas poem from an anonymous reader…
Links/sources:
Troy Sentinel (Dec. 23, 1823): https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83031777/1823-12-23/ed-1/seq-3/
Victor Herbert's Orchestra, "Nutcracker Ballet: Chinese Dance / Dance of the Mirilitons" (1913): https://archive.org/details/Voices_of_Christmas_Past_1898_to_1922/16_NutcrackerBalletChineseDanceDanceoftheMirilitons.flac
"O Tannenbaum": https://archive.org/details/78_o-tannenbaum_orchefter-mit-gloden_gbia0010664b
K...2021-12-2321 min
The Impossible ArchiveThe MegalodonHow did an extinct shark become a modern-day cryptid? Eddie explains.
Digressions include: U-Haul SuperGraphics, Yeti nomenclature, and 1990s Bin Laden.
Citations/links:
Edward Guimont, "The Megalodon: A Monster of the New Mythology," M/C (2021): https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/2793
Michael J. Gaynor, "The Town without Wi-Fi," Washingtonian (2015): https://www.washingtonian.com/2015/01/04/the-town-without-wi-fi/
Harry Turtledove's "State of Jefferson" stories: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove_bibliography#State_of_Jefferson_Stories
Stev...2021-12-1957 min
The Impossible ArchiveHalloween III (w/ Robert Skvarla)Bill and Eddie chat with Robert Skvarla about the 1982 film "Halloween III: Season of the Witch," a bizarre piece of techno-folk horror. Tangents include the Havana Syndrome, Bowling Green's Wikipedia page, and the politics of Stonehenge.
Citations/links:
Martin Harris and Kathryn Conner Bennett, "You Can't Kill the Boogeyman: Halloween III and the Modern Horror Franchise," Journal of Popular Film and Television (2004): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3200/JPFT.32.3.98-120
Ronald Hutton, "The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain" (Oxford UP, 1996)
2021-10-281h 01
The Impossible ArchiveOle J. SneideBill has a surprise story for Eddie, involving crank letters, Theosophy, Napoleon, continental drift, and the far side of the moon.2021-09-191h 10
The Impossible ArchiveLovecraft the Astronomer (w/ Horace Smith)Horace Smith, professor emeritus of astronomy at Michigan State University, joins the show to discuss a book he's writing with Eddie about H.P. Lovecraft and astronomy. They talk telescopes, gravity repulsion, the ether, life on Venus, and Planet X. Bill realizes that some of the astronomy he learned as a child is out-of-date now.
You can find Smith's article on Lovecraft and the moon (which will become a chapter in the book) here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/268685832021-08-141h 00
The Impossible ArchiveProject Blue Book (w/ Kate Dorsch)The podcast welcomes its first-ever guest, historian Kate Dorsch. Kate is a postdoctoral lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and is writing a book about the U.S. Air Force's UFO investigations from 1947 to 1969, including Project Blue Book.
How should we understand these investigations within the context of the Cold War? How weird was Project Blue Book, really? How did J. Allen Hynek become J. Allen Hynek? And what does Kate think about that show on the History Channel?
You can read Kate's dissertation here: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3231/
...2021-07-241h 29
The Impossible ArchiveAt the Mountains of MadnessIn H.P. Lovecraft's 1936 novella "At the Mountains of Madness," a scientific expedition to Antarctica accidentally uncovers evidence—both archaeological and biological—of an ancient, perhaps otherworldly civilization. Eddie and Bill discuss how they first encountered Lovecraft, why his imagination was drawn to the polar regions of the earth, what the story tells us about early-20th-centuries anxieties about race and civilization, the influence this story had on "The Thing" and the modern ancient aliens myth, and more.
Citations/links:
Kate Dorsch's dissertation, which will be discussed in the next episode (2019; no pay...2021-07-1555 min
The Impossible ArchiveThe Fourth of JulyA collage of sorts.
Sources:
“Rip Van Winkle” performed by the Famous Theatre Company with the Hollywood Studio Orchestra: https://archive.org/details/lp_rip-van-winkle_the-famous-theatre-company-the-hollywood-s/disc1/01.01.+Rip+Van+Winkle.mp3
Trailer for “Ancient Aliens,” S03E11: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2065068/
“You’re a Grand Old Flag” performed by the American Quartet (1917): https://archive.org/details/78_youre-a-grand-old-flag_american-quartet-geo-m-cohan_gbia0238326b/
Douglas MacArthur’s speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, May 12, 1962: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/gazettee...2021-07-0524 min
The Impossible ArchiveThe Latest in Ghosts and SaucersEddie and Bill swap ghost stories, go off on a few tangents, and go over the latest reporting on the Pentagon/UFO/Blink-182 story.
They discuss this article by Bryan Bender: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/05/28/ufos-secret-history-government-washington-dc-487900
Check out the Wide Atlantic Weird podcast: https://anchor.fm/cian-gill
More on the haunted Blacksmith Tavern in Glastonbury: https://thecutmag.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/blacksmiths-ghosts-2/2021-06-2541 min
The Impossible ArchiveNon-Materialists and the PentagonWho's the real protagonist in the recent UFO kerfuffle: the Department of Defense, or the "invisible college" it funded?
Bill and Eddie discuss a recent article by Jason Colavito: https://newrepublic.com/article/162457/government-embrace-ufos-bad-science
In the previous episode, Bill and Eddie discussed this New Yorker article, which Colavito is rebutting: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously
The article Colavito cites re: Luis Elizondo's belief in a "demon [anti-demon?] cabal": https://newrepublic.com/article/158823/tom-delonge-warped-ufo-aliens
Joe Rogan's interview with David Fravor: https://www.youtube.com/w...2021-06-1058 min
The Impossible ArchiveThe Big UFO Article in The New YorkerBill and Eddie introduce themselves and how they became interested in The Weird. Then they walk through a major New Yorker article on UFOs.
You can read Gideon Lewis-Kraus's article here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously
Here's the 2017 New York Times article that kickstarted the current UFO moment: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html
Reporting from The Intercept casting doubt on Luis Elizondo's past: https://theintercept.com/2019/06/01/ufo-unidentified-history-channel-luis-elizondo-pentagon/2021-06-061h 25