Shows
A Paranoid's History of the United StatesBill Cooper in WacoIn 1993, the 51-day standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas ended in tragedy with 76 people dead, including 25 children. For William Cooper, former Naval Intelligence officer turned conspiracy broadcaster, this wasn't just another government operation gone wrong—it was the smoking gun that validated everything he had been warning his listeners about.This episode examines how Waco transformed Cooper from a UFO researcher into one of the most influential voices in the American militia movement. We explore how Cooper's military background shaped his worldview, his complex relationship with the UFO community, and how his ra...2025-04-1931 min
Failed State Update71. A Failed Coup and a Failed Reality TV Show with Rocco Castoro and Emily MolliWe keep hoping that the Trump administration will become old news, but the stories of its incompetence and corruption keep coming. One of our favorites is Seven Days in January, a new podcast about Mark Burnett and Elizabeth Koch's failed attempt to turn the Presidential Inauguration into a reality series for Amazon Studios. According to our guests, the deal "evaporated as quickly as it appeared, leaving ominous questions to linger around F.T.C. oversight of Amazon’s $8.5 billion MGM Studios acquisition and their knowledge of 20 hours of unaired footage." A new investigative journalism outlet called The Knows got it...2022-06-161h 26Failed State Update67. Failed State (Cult) Jukebox with Mark Jacobson (Pale Horse Rider) and Shy BoyzWe had so much fun doing the Failed State Jukebox a few weeks ago that we thought we'd try it again. Thanks to my (Lenny's) terrific administrative skills, J.G. Michael wasn't on the call. But don't worry, he'll be back next week!
With author and journalist Mark Jacobson as our guide, we prevailed through 90 minutes of cult music, including:
TaliasVan & the Bright & Morning Star Band: Let's Be Lovers (live)
Jeremy Spencer: Can You Hear The Song
Charles Manson: Cease to Exist
The Beach Boys: Never Learn Not to Love
Boney M...2022-04-231h 32
Failed State Update38. Mark Jacobson: QAnon, crisis cults, LSD cults, and moreThe return of Mark Jacobson. We expand on our previous conversation to talk about the zeitgeist. We get into QAnon, the Ghost Dance, and of course, Bill Cooper.
Mark Jacobson on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/palehorseriderbook/
Pale Horse Rider music video by William Cooper (the rapper): https://youtu.be/Mp5pSU5jYC0
Joseph L. Flatley website: https://www.lennyflatley.net
Joseph L. Flatley twitter: https://twitter.com/lennyflatley
Coming soon! My latest book, New Age Grifter. Available for pre-order from BOOKSHOP.ORG: https://bookshop.org/books/new-age-grifter-the-true-story-of-gabriel-of-urantia-and-his-cosmic-family/9781627311106
...2021-01-181h 08Failed State Update37. Mark Jacobson, author of Pale Horse RiderWe are living in a time of unprecedented distrust in America…
Faith in the government is at an all-time low, and political groups on both sides of the aisle are able to tout preposterous conspiracy theories as gospel, without much opposition. “Fake news” is the order of the day. This book is about a man to whom all of it points, the greatest conspiracist of this generation and a man you may not have heard of.
A former U.S. naval intelligence worker, Milton William Cooper published his manifesto Behold a Pale Horse in 1991. Since then i...2021-01-1845 min
LongformEpisode 422: Nilay PatelNilay Patel is editor-in-chief of The Verge and hosts the podcast Decoder.
“The instant ability—unmanaged ability—for people to say horrible things to each other because of phones is tearing our culture apart. It just is. And so sometimes, I’m like, Man, I wish our headline had been: ‘iPhone Released. It’s A Mistake.’ … But I think there’s a really important flipside to that … a bunch of teenagers are able to create culture at a scale that has never been possible before. Also, a bunch of marginalized communities are able to speak with coordinated voices and make change very rapidly...2020-12-1657 minFailed State Update18. Failed State, Cult State w/Mark LaxerMark Laxer is an author and former follower of the cult leader Frederick Philip Lenz. He broke away from Lenz some time ago, only to realize recently that Trump's base is going through the same process that he went through as a member of a destructive cult.
Mark has written about this in two books: Take Me for a Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult (1993) and his latest, Rama Trauma Trump: I Left the Cult and Now Look What Happened.
Mark Laxer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/marklaxer
Read Rama Trauma...2020-08-2354 min