strA.I.nge

Ay Eye

The world of high strangeness meets AI with ChatGPT as the referee! StrA.I.nge looks at the world of UFOs, Ghosts, Cryptids, and other phenomena in an effort to prove that even machines are fascinated by things that go bump in the night.

  1. 6d ago

    The Phoenix Lights were...strAInge

    On March 13, 1997, thousands of people across Arizona looked into the night sky and saw something strange. Some reported a formation of lights. Others described an enormous, silent V-shaped or triangular object moving slowly overhead. Hours later, brilliant lights appeared beyond Phoenix and seemed to hang above the mountains. Military officials would eventually attribute those later lights to illumination flares, but witnesses have continued to argue that the explanation does not account for everything seen that night. The Phoenix Lights became one of the most famous mass UFO sightings in American history, but they were not the first reports of enormous triangular objects. Years earlier, Belgium experienced an extraordinary wave of sightings involving dark triangles, police witnesses, radar contacts, and even F-16 interceptors. In this episode of strAInge, we look at the Phoenix Lights, the Belgian UFO wave, the strange history of the flying triangle, and the difficult question at the heart of these cases: when hundreds of people describe something extraordinary in the sky, what exactly did they see? National UFO Reporting Center: The Phoenix Lights NUFORC’s original 1997 account assembled reports from witnesses throughout Arizona, beginning near Paulden and Prescott and continuing south toward Phoenix. It remains one of the most useful collections of contemporary eyewitness accounts from the night of March 13, 1997. https://nuforc.org/phoenix/ National UFO Reporting Center: The Phoenix Lights, Two Years Later NUFORC’s later examination of the case includes additional witness testimony, discussion of the military activity reported that night, and the controversial claim that fighters may have been launched from Luke Air Force Base. https://nuforc.org/phoenix2/ National UFO Reporting Center: Arizona UFO Reports NUFORC’s Arizona database contains individual reports from March 13, 1997, including witnesses describing formations, triangular objects, orange lights, and enormous apparent craft over the Phoenix area. https://nuforc.org/subndx/?id=lAZ Skeptical Inquirer: The Phoenix Lights Become an Incident Robert Sheaffer examines the Phoenix Lights from a skeptical perspective and argues that the events normally grouped together as the Phoenix Lights actually involved separate sightings, including aircraft formations and Air National Guard illumination flares. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2016/11/the-phoenix-lights-become-an-incident/ Skeptical Inquirer: Alien Lights? At Phoenix, Stephenville, and Elsewhere Joe Nickell and James McGaha examine the flare explanation for the later Phoenix Lights and discuss Operation Snowbird, in which Air National Guard aircraft conducted nighttime training exercises involving parachute illumination flares. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2015/03/alien-lights-at-phoenix-stephenville-and-elsewhere-a-postmortem/ Skeptical Inquirer: Out of Balance An examination of media coverage of UFO cases, including the Phoenix Lights and the disagreement between witnesses who believed they saw a massive object and investigators who attributed the visible lights to conventional sources. https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/out-of-balance/ FOX 10 Phoenix: Former Arizona Governor Fife Symington on the Phoenix Lights Years after publicly joking about the sightings, former Arizona governor Fife Symington said that he had personally witnessed the Phoenix Lights and believed he had seen an enormous unidentified object. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Fh0g5wJ7A Belgian Air Force F-16 Radar Records, March 30–31, 1990 Material relating to the Belgian Air Force investigation of the extraordinary 1989–1990 Belgian UFO wave. On March 30 and 31, 1990, two F-16 fighters were scrambled after unidentified radar returns were detected by Belgian military radar stations. Colonel Wilfried De Brouwer later presented information from the investigation publicly. The source reproduced here includes radar material and analysis associated with the Belgian Air Force case. https://ufotransparency.com/files/intl-be-f16-radar-charts-1990-meessen-f16-radar-analysis-belgium-1990 Belgian Air Force F-16 Radar Trace Charts Additional records from the March 1990 F-16 interception, including radar trace charts associated with the Belgian Air Force investigation. https://ufotransparency.com/files/intl-be-f16-radar-charts-1990-f16radarnx1 Belgian UFO Wave: Belgian Air Force Summary Report An English-language reproduction of the Belgian Air Force summary describing the conditions under which F-16s were authorized to intercept unidentified objects and the events of March 30–31, 1990. The report notes that sightings had been reported by police and that military radar stations participated in the investigation. https://ufologie.patrickgross.org/htm/belrap02.htm Belgian F-16 Interception and Major General Wilfried De Brouwer Archival video discussing the Belgian UFO wave, including radar material and an interview with former Belgian Air Force Major General Wilfried De Brouwer about the investigation and F-16 interception. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfSl1Ao1pFo This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

    The Phoenix Lights were...strAInge

  2. Sep 10

    The Ghosts of Washington DC are...strAInge

    DC GHOSTS Washington, D.C. is a city built on power, war, assassination, political intrigue, and enough history to fill a thousand ghost stories. Beneath the monuments, government buildings, historic homes, churches, hotels, and quiet parks, the District has accumulated a particularly strange collection of stories about people who supposedly never left. In this episode of strAInge, we go looking for the ghosts of Washington, D.C., from the White House to Capitol Hill, from Lafayette Square to Georgetown, and into some of the city's oldest and strangest buildings. THE WHITE HOUSE The White House has perhaps the most famous presidential ghost stories in America. Abraham Lincoln is supposedly the most frequently reported apparition, with stories placing his ghost inside the residence. Other historical figures have also supposedly encountered the spectral president. The White House itself has plenty of history to provide raw material for a haunting. George Washington selected the site in 1791, John and Abigail Adams became the first presidential residents, and the building was burned by British forces during the War of 1812 before being rebuilt. Every president since John Adams has lived there. The real history is arguably stranger than the legends. Generations of presidents, families, servants, staff members, political figures, and visitors have occupied the building, leaving behind more than two centuries of memories and tragedies. THE U.S. CAPITOL If any building in Washington deserves to be haunted, it may be the Capitol. The Architect of the Capitol itself has documented several famous Capitol ghost legends. One involves a mysterious ghost cat supposedly appearing before major national tragedies. Another concerns a wounded Civil War soldier who allegedly still wanders through Statuary Hall. The Civil War story has a particularly grim historical basis. In 1862, the Capitol was temporarily converted into a military hospital, with more than 1,000 cots placed in Statuary Hall. According to the legend, at least one wounded soldier never really left. Other stories involve John Lenthall, a clerk who died after an accident during construction and supposedly cursed the building with his dying breath, and former congressman William Preston Taulbee, whose ghost is said to haunt a Capitol stairwell after he was shot there in 1890. And then there is John Quincy Adams. The former president died in the Capitol after collapsing during a session of Congress. According to legend, his voice can sometimes be heard shouting "No!" late at night. THE OCTAGON HOUSE The Octagon House is one of Washington's most famous haunted locations. Built in 1801, the house became the temporary executive mansion after the British burned the White House in 1814. James and Dolley Madison lived there for several months, and the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, was signed there in 1815. The ghost stories are numerous. Phantom servant bells are supposedly heard ringing around dinner time. The smell of lilacs has been associated with the ghost of Dolley Madison. Another legend claims that two Tayloe daughters fell to their deaths on the spiral staircase. There is an important catch: historical research indicates that the famous story about the Tayloe daughters dying at the Octagon is not actually true. Which raises a fascinating question: how much of a haunting is about what happened in a building, and how much is about the stories people decide happened there? LAFAYETTE SQUARE Just north of the White House, Lafayette Square forms the center of another concentration of Washington ghost stories. The park is surrounded by historic buildings associated with political intrigue, death, war, and some very old Washington families. Stories involving Decatur House, St. John's Episcopal Church, the Cutts-Madison House, the Hay-Adams Hotel, and the Octagon have helped give the neighborhood a reputation as one of the city's most haunted areas. The White House itself sits directly across from the square, making the entire neighborhood feel like one enormous haunted historical district. THE EXORCIST STAIRS Not every Washington ghost story comes from American history. Georgetown's famous Exorcist stairs became permanently associated with William Friedkin's 1973 horror classic The Exorcist. The movie's climactic sequence ends with Father Karras sacrificing himself and tumbling down the 75 steep concrete steps. The stairs are real. The location is real. The movie was filmed there. Whether the stairs themselves are haunted is another question entirely. Today they have become one of Washington's most famous horror landmarks, attracting movie fans, tourists, ghost hunters, and people who apparently believe that climbing 75 concrete steps is an acceptable recreational activity. THE REAL GHOSTS OF WASHINGTON The fascinating thing about Washington's ghosts isn't necessarily whether any of them are real. The District has spent more than two centuries accumulating the ingredients from which ghost stories are made: presidential deaths, political violence, war, assassination, duels, Civil War hospitals, sudden deaths, historic fires, slavery, political scandals, and generations of people living and dying inside the same buildings. Some stories can be traced to documented events. Some are folklore. Some have been embellished for generations. And some appear to have been invented almost entirely from whole cloth. But whether you believe in ghosts or not, Washington is a city where the past is impossible to escape. The monuments commemorate the dead. The government continues working in buildings where generations of politicians lived and died. And after dark, the marble city takes on a very different character. So turn down the lights, lock the doors, and join us as we explore the haunted capital of the United States. Welcome to Washington, D.C. And welcome to the dead. SOURCES AND FURTHER READING The White House — History of the White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/the-white-house/ Architect of the Capitol — Haunted Halls of Congress: 5 Creepy Capitol Legends https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/blog/haunted-halls-congress-5-creepy-capitol-legends Ghosts of DC — The Octagon House https://ghostsofdc.org/2012/10/31/octagon-house-haunted/ WTOP — Haunted DC: Are the Dead Alive in Lafayette Square? https://wtop.com/halloween-news/2018/10/haunted-dc-are-the-dead-alive-in-lafayette-square/ Washington Post — 13 Haunted Sites in the D.C. Area https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/13/dc-haunted-houses-sites-spooky-places/ OFFICIAL WEBSITES The White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/ Architect of the Capitol https://www.aoc.gov/ This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

    The Ghosts of Washington DC are...strAInge

  3. Aug 11

    The Mellified Man was...strAInge

    The Mellified Man — Show Notes The Mellified Man is the story of one of the strangest substances ever claimed to have been used as medicine: a human body supposedly transformed into a medicinal confection by honey. The legend describes an elderly man who voluntarily prepares for death by consuming honey and, according to the account, eventually having his body sealed in a honey-filled coffin. After a century, the preserved remains are supposedly opened and used as medicine for wounds, fractures, and other ailments. The story is remarkable—but its historical status is much less certain than the legend itself. What Was the Mellified Man? The mellified man, sometimes called a human mummy confection, was supposedly produced by preserving a human corpse in honey. The best-known account appears in the Bencao Gangmu, the enormous Chinese medical encyclopedia compiled by Li Shizhen in the sixteenth century. Li's account is particularly interesting because he did not present the story as established fact. He attributed it to an earlier writer and explicitly expressed doubt about whether it was true. The account described the practice as originating among Arabs, rather than identifying it as a Chinese medical practice. The Supposed Process According to the account, an elderly man—said to be around seventy or eighty—would voluntarily offer his body for medicinal purposes. He would consume honey and reportedly bathe in it. The story claims that eventually his bodily excretions became honey-like. After his death, his body would be placed in a stone coffin filled with honey and sealed. The coffin would remain closed for one hundred years. When it was eventually opened, the resulting honey-preserved material was supposedly divided into small portions and used medicinally, particularly for wounds and broken bones. Was It Real? This is the crucial question. There is no solid archaeological evidence demonstrating that mellified men were actually produced according to the famous recipe. The principal written source is itself cautious about the story's reliability. The Bencao Gangmu records the account but essentially leaves the question of its truth to the reader. That makes the mellified man much more interesting than simply calling it an "ancient medical practice." It is better understood as a reported medical legend whose existence as a story is considerably better documented than its existence as a physical medicine. Why Honey? Honey is not an arbitrary ingredient. Honey has a remarkably long history in medicine, and its resistance to spoilage helped give it an association with preservation. Ancient cultures used honey medicinally, including for wounds, and honey was also used in various contexts involving preservation of the dead. That real history provides an important foundation for the mellified-man story. The legend takes honey's genuine reputation for preservation and healing and carries it to an extraordinary conclusion: what if a human body could itself be preserved and transformed into medicine? Ancient and Medieval Medicine The mellified man belongs to a much larger history in which medicine could include substances that modern medicine would regard as extremely unusual. Human remains, animal products, minerals, plants, and other materials all appeared in historical medical traditions. This doesn't necessarily mean that people regarded these remedies as magical. Earlier physicians were working within completely different understandings of the body, disease, preservation, and the properties of natural substances. The mellified man sits at the particularly fascinating intersection of medicine, folklore, preservation, and belief. The Question of Cannibalism The story also raises the disturbing subject of medicinal cannibalism—the historical use of human-derived materials as medicine. That practice is documented in various historical contexts, although it is important not to conflate every tradition involving human remains with the specific mellified-man legend. The mellified man represents an especially extreme version of the idea: the human body does not merely become an ingredient in medicine; an entire life is supposedly dedicated to becoming the medicine. Alexander the Great Honey and the preservation of bodies have also been connected in later accounts of Alexander the Great. Some traditions claim that Alexander's body was transported in honey after his death. These accounts should be treated cautiously. They demonstrate the longstanding association between honey and preservation, but they are not evidence that the mellified-man process actually existed. The Dervish House The mellified man has found an especially memorable modern use in science fiction. In Ian McDonald's 2010 novel The Dervish House, set in a near-future Istanbul, antiquarian Ayşe becomes involved in a search for a centuries-old body preserved in honey. The mellified man becomes part of the novel's larger collision between ancient traditions and futuristic technology. A legend originating in old accounts of medicine and Arabia becomes a mysterious object of desire in a technologically transformed Istanbul. This is a particularly appropriate use of the legend because the mellified man already exists between categories: ancient and modern, medicine and myth, science and folklore. Why Does the Story Survive? Perhaps the most compelling thing about the mellified man is that its historical uncertainty has not diminished its cultural power. The story combines several enduring human obsessions: the fear of death the desire to preserve the body the search for cures sacrifice for others the transformation of death into usefulness the possibility that something of a person might survive after death The physical mellified man may be impossible to establish. The legendary mellified man, however, has unquestionably survived. And that may be the strangest part of the story: the body was supposedly preserved for a hundred years, but it is the story itself that has proved most resistant to decay. Further Reading & Links Mellified Man — Wikipedia overview and historical sources The Mellified Man — Historic Mysteries National Geographic — Dying Bees Spell Trouble for U.S. Agriculture — includes a discussion of the mellified man and the history of medicinal honey The Dervish House — Goodreads The Dervish House — Strange Horizons review — particularly useful for the mellified-man storyline in McDonald's novel The Dervish House — ProQuest review Key Names Li Shizhen (1518–1593) — Chinese physician and author of the Bencao Gangmu, the major sixteenth-century medical encyclopedia containing the famous account. Tao Zongyi (c. 1329–c. 1410) — Yuan/Ming-era Chinese scholar whose reported account was incorporated into the mellified-man tradition. Ian McDonald — Science-fiction author who incorporated the mellified man into The Dervish House. The Bencao Gangmu — Sixteenth-century Chinese materia medica and one of the most important written sources for the legend. The Dervish House (2010) — Ian McDonald's science-fiction novel in which the mellified man becomes part of a modern quest in future Istanbul. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

    The Mellified Man was...strAInge

  4. Aug 4

    Hopping Vampires are...strAInge

    strAInge: The Dead Come Home, China’s Hopping Vampires The jiangshi is commonly called the Chinese hopping vampire, but it is neither quite a vampire nor quite a zombie. It is a stiff corpse that refuses to remain still, sometimes feeding upon the qi of the living and sometimes travelling under the command of a ritual specialist. In this episode, strAInge follows the jiangshi from tales of bodies transported across the mountains of western Hunan to the supernatural collections of Pu Songling, Yuan Mei, and Ji Yun. We examine corpse drivers, yellow talismans, bells, mirrors, peach wood, glutinous rice, breath holding, and the uncertain line separating old beliefs from rules created by popular entertainment. We then enter the golden age of Hong Kong horror comedy, where Sammo Hung’s Encounters of the Spooky Kind helped combine animated corpses with martial arts and slapstick. Ricky Lau’s Mr. Vampire transformed that combination into a film phenomenon and made Lam Ching-ying’s stern Taoist master one of the defining figures of the genre. Next time on strAInge, we remain with the human body after death, but replace mountain roads and magical charms with honey, medicine, and the promise of impossible healing. The next episode is about the Mellified Man. Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling, translated by Herbert A. Giles. This public-domain collection includes Pu’s tales of risen bodies, ghosts, transformations, and supernatural encounters. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43629 The complete online text of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43629/43629-h/43629-h.htm A Dead Occupation: Transporting a Corpse over a Thousand Li, from Reed College’s Spirited Ink project. This essay considers corpse transportation, western Hunan traditions, and stories of walking or hopping bodies. https://pressbooks.pub/chin330/chapter/a-dead-occupation-transporting-a-corpse-over-a-thousand-li/ Asian Gothic, from The Cambridge Companion to the Modern Gothic. The chapter discusses the jiangshi as a specifically Chinese supernatural figure popularized internationally through Hong Kong martial-arts comedy. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-the-modern-gothic/asian-gothic/52FACC3D6861FA4A168408E221EE6104 Global Gothic 2: East Asian Gothic, from The Cambridge History of the Gothic. This chapter examines East Asian horror traditions and the emergence of the hopping-corpse film. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-gothic/global-gothic-2-east-asian-gothic/3CFEB89FD28F320EA3ACE1F3DA1A54E8 Animated Pasts and Unseen Futures: On the Comic Element in Hong Kong Horror. This academic chapter examines how Taoist folklore, animated corpses, martial arts, slapstick, and horror became combined in Hong Kong cinema. https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/18226/chapter/176189132 Encounter of the Spooky Kind, Hong Kong Film Archive. The archive describes Sammo Hung’s 1980 film as a pioneering mixture of action comedy and supernatural horror that helped establish a distinctly Hong Kong genre. https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2026/fantasy/pe-event-2026-fantasy-fs-film08.html Mr. Vampire, Hong Kong Film Archive. The film became one of Hong Kong’s five highest-grossing releases of 1985 and sparked a wave of jiangshi productions. https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2026/fantasy/pe-event-2026-fantasy-fs-film09.html An earlier Hong Kong Film Archive examination of Mr. Vampire and the film’s mixture of folk legend, popular literature, kung-fu comedy, and supernatural cinema. https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-6-1-4.html Performing Comic Abjection in the Hong Kong Ghost Story, from Hong Kong Horror Cinema. This chapter discusses hopping vampires, wandering spirits, monsters, physical comedy, makeup, and special effects in Hong Kong horror. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hong-kong-horror-cinema/performing-comic-abjection-in-the-hong-kong-ghost-story/53F0E7AB9319CBDE5F86FF9D3D9C3145 The Ancient Terror of the Chinese Hopping Corpse, Jiangshi, from PBS’s Monstrum. This video provides an accessible overview of the creature’s folklore and modern appearance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx3QjM6oP-U

    Hopping Vampires are...strAInge

  5. Jul 20

    British Big Cats

    # strAInge: British Big Cats For decades, people across Britain have reported seeing animals that should not be there: black leopards crossing country roads, pumas stalking the moors, and lynx disappearing into forests and hedgerows. This episode of strAInge examines the legends of the Beast of Exmoor, the Beast of Bodmin Moor, the Surrey Puma, and the other mysterious cats said to roam the British countryside. We look at confirmed escaped animals, disputed photographs, livestock attacks, misleading footprints, Scottish wildcat hybrids, and recent claims that *Panthera* DNA has been recovered from a sheep carcass. Large exotic cats have unquestionably escaped or been released in Britain. Whether they have formed a hidden breeding population is a much harder question. Fantastic Felines: A World of Wild Cats The Natural History Museum provides an overview of wild cat species, their characteristics, habitats, and relationships. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/a-world-of-wild-cats.html The Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 The official text of the British law requiring licences for the private keeping of many dangerous exotic animals, including large cats. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1976/38 Big Cats in Norfolk, House of Commons Debate In 1998, Parliament discussed reports of mysterious cats in Norfolk. Police had received 54 sightings during the second half of 1997 and continued to receive reports at an average of twice a week. https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1998-02-02/debates/35073dae-449c-4eed-986c-283248173c6a/BigCats%28Norfolk%29 Felicity the Puma Inverness Museum and Art Gallery tells the story of Felicity, the female puma captured near Cannich in the Scottish Highlands in 1980. Her preserved body is now part of the museum’s collection. https://www.highlifehighland.com/attractions/inverness-museum-and-art-gallery/collections/collection-highlights/felicity A Lynx Killed in Southern England Around 1903 This scientific paper examines the preserved remains of a probable Canada lynx shot near Newton Abbot, Devon, in or before 1903. The case shows that exotic cats were escaping or being released in Britain long before the Dangerous Wild Animals Act. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08912963.2013.785541 Scottish Wildcat Genetics and Morphology NatureScot’s specialist report describes the extensive hybridization between Scottish wildcats and domestic cats. Modern wild-living cats in Scotland form a genetic continuum rather than a clearly separated wildcat population. https://www.nature.scot/doc/scottish-wildcat-action-swa-specialist-report-genetics-and-morphology Forensic Tests for Canids and Big Cats The University of Warwick explains its ecological-forensics testing service for suspected predator evidence. Samples may include hair, scat, and swabs collected from bite wounds. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/research/archaeobotany/ecological_forensics/cats/ Big-Cat DNA Recovered in Cumbria BBC Wildlife reported that DNA belonging to the genus *Panthera* was identified on a swab taken from a dead sheep in the Lake District. The result could indicate contact with a leopard or another large cat, although it does not establish a breeding population. https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/big-cat-british-countryside The Beast of Bodmin Moor The British Film Institute archive includes this film about the mysterious animal said to roam Bodmin Moor. https://replay.bfi.org.uk/video/b334f061-8f86-59a9-9be3-c624189c6e77 Next time on strAInge, we leave the British countryside and travel east in search of restless corpses that move through the night with their arms extended. The next episode is all about hopping vampires. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

    British Big Cats

  6. Jun 20

    The Shaver Mysteries were...strAInge

    The Shaver Mysteries The Shaver Mystery began with Richard Sharpe Shaver’s claims of an ancient language called Mantong and a hidden subterranean world of dero and tero, then exploded after Ray Palmer published “I Remember Lemuria!” in the March 1945 issue of Amazing Stories. Palmer blurred fiction, confession, Fortean speculation, and pulp marketing so effectively that the controversy boosted Amazing Stories, inspired reader letters and clubs, and helped set the stage for postwar UFO culture. Primary Sources https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v19n01_1945-03_Ziff-Daviscape1736 March 1945 issue of Amazing Stories, the key starting point for the public Shaver Mystery, containing “I Remember Lemuria!” https://sacred-texts.com/ufo/irl/index.htm Readable online text of I Remember Lemuria and The Return of Sathanas, with a useful intro connecting Shaver, Palmer, deros, Lemuria, UFO lore, and later paranormal mythology. https://archive.org/details/AmazingStoriesVolume21Number06_692 June 1947 issue of Amazing Stories, a high point of the Shaver craze, featuring four Richard Sharpe Shaver pieces: “Formula from the Underworld,” “Zigor Mephisto’s Collection of Mentalia,” “Witch’s Daughter,” and “The Red Legion.” The Archive entry notes that the issue and contents are public domain due to lack of copyright renewal. https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=amazingstories University of Pennsylvania’s serial archive page for Amazing Stories, useful for jumping through available scans issue by issue. It lists the crucial 1945–1950 Amazing issues where Shaver-related material appeared. https://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/AS.htm Luminist’s Amazing Stories archive page, another useful scan index. It identifies Shaver as author of the notorious Shaver Mystery stories, with Ray Palmer’s collaboration, and frames the basic theme as ancient extraterrestrials surviving in hidden underground caverns. Background on Shaver, Palmer, and Amazing Stories https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/richard-sharpe-shaver-4462/ Strong biographical overview of Richard Sharpe Shaver, including the Mantong letter, Palmer’s role, the claims about underground entities, reader response, Shaver Mystery Clubs, and Shaver’s later Arkansas years. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/shaver_richard_s Concise science-fiction reference entry on Shaver and his later Shaver-related work in Other Worlds and The Hidden World. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/palmer_raymond_a Science Fiction Encyclopedia entry on Raymond A. Palmer. Especially useful for Palmer’s role as editor, his promotion of Shaver’s work as fact, and the circulation claims around the Shaver Mystery. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/amazing Background on Amazing Stories under Palmer. The entry notes Palmer’s mid-1940s support for Shaver’s paranoid subterranean mythology and the post-Palmer shift under Howard Browne. https://thepulp.net/pulp-articles/ray-palmer-and-the-shaver-mystery/ Excellent pulp-history overview of Palmer and Shaver. Includes the sequence of Amazing Stories issues carrying Shaver material from 1945 through 1950, plus the Mantong origin story and fan backlash. https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/war-over-lemuria/ Publisher page for Richard Toronto’s War over Lemuria: Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer and the Strangest Chapter of 1940s Science Fiction. Probably the best modern book source for the episode. The page describes the Shaver Mystery as a worldwide 1945–1948 controversy and gives the table of contents. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-shaver-mystery-the-most-sensational-true-story-ever-told/ Los Angeles Review of Books essay/review on Shaver, Palmer, Toronto’s War over Lemuria, and Fred Nadis’s Palmer biography. Very useful for framing the Shaver Mystery as a turning point between pulp science fiction, Forteana, UFO belief, and fringe religion. Fandom Backlash and the “Hoax” Fight https://amazingstories.com/2026/05/revisiting-shaver-palmer-amazing-stories-and-the-philadelphia-resolution/ Modern Amazing Stories article reproducing and discussing the 1947 Philcon / Philadelphia Resolution against the Shaver Mystery. Useful for the episode section on organized fandom trying to distance science fiction from Palmer’s Shaverism. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/paranoia Science Fiction Encyclopedia context entry on paranoia in SF, with a direct note that Amazing Stories improved circulation in 1945–1947 by publishing purportedly fact-based Shaver stories about manipulation by malign underground robots. Hollow Earth and Earlier Context https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hollow_earth Useful for placing Shaver in the long Hollow Earth tradition. The entry notes that Shaver’s inner world is more hellish and paranoid than the earlier, more Edenic hollow-earth fantasies. https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/63884/2/Mckee-%20Shaver.pdf Gabriel McKee’s “Richard Shaver’s Subterranean World and the Displaced Self,” a scholarly article useful for a more serious reading of Shaver’s underground mythology, mental distress, and the “influencing machine” idea. Fate Magazine and the UFO Connection https://www.fatemag.com/about FATE’s own history page. It notes that Palmer and Curtis Fuller launched FATE in 1948, and that the first issue featured Kenneth Arnold’s first-hand account of his 1947 UFO sighting. https://iapsop.com/archive/materials/fate_magazine/ IAPSOP archive page for FATE Magazine. Useful for scans and for connecting Palmer’s post-Amazing career to early UFO culture. The page says the first issue carried Kenneth Arnold’s UFO article and helped create the UFO furor. https://www.luminist.org/archives/OC/FATE.htm Luminist archive page for FATE, with early issue links and cover thumbnails. Good for visual references and period atmosphere. Episode Notes / Angles Frame the Shaver Mystery as the moment when pulp SF became a pipeline into modern fringe belief: lost continents, ancient super-science, underground bases, mind-control rays, reader testimony, editor hype, and then flying saucers. The key characters are Richard Shaver, the claimant and mythmaker; Ray Palmer, the editor-promoter; Howard Browne, the skeptical office voice; organized SF fandom, trying to protect the genre’s reputation; and the readers, whose letters turned the whole thing from a story into a movement. Best line of argument for the episode: it was not simply “a hoax,” and it was not simply “a man’s delusion.” It was a feedback loop. Shaver supplied the cosmology, Palmer supplied the megaphone, Amazing Stories supplied the audience, and the audience supplied the confirmation. Best transition to UFOs: June 1947 is the hinge. That same month, Amazing published the big Shaver issue, and Kenneth Arnold’s Mount Rainier sighting ignited the flying-saucer era. After that, the underground dero myth did not vanish. It got folded into UFO culture as hidden bases, ancient aliens, abductors, and secret technology. Possible closing note: The Shaver Mystery is strange because it is both ridiculous and historically important. It is pulp fiction, outsider cosmology, mental-health tragedy, editorial opportunism, and one of the seedbeds of modern paranormal media all at once. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

    The Shaver Mysteries were...strAInge

  7. May 21

    The Hopkinsville Goblins were...strAInge

    Episode Description In August 1955, a family near Kelly, Kentucky, just outside Hopkinsville, claimed that strange small figures had surrounded their farmhouse after a bright object crossed the night sky. What followed became one of the most famous close-encounter stories in American folklore: hours of gunfire, terrified witnesses, police officers searching the property, and a legend that would later be remembered as the Hopkinsville Goblins case. Skeptics point to meteors, owls, stress, and panic; believers point to the number of witnesses, the duration of the event, and the sheer strangeness of the details. Either way, the case remains one of the most enduring American UFO stories of the 1950s. Keywords Hopkinsville Goblins, Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter, Kelly Green Men, Kentucky UFO, 1955 UFO case, little green men, Project Blue Book, Christian County Kentucky, Sutton farmhouse, alien encounter, UFO folklore, American cryptids, great horned owl theory, Joe Nickell, Hopkinsville Kentucky Sources and Further Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly%E2%80%93Hopkinsville_encounter https://skepticalinquirer.org/2006/11/siege-of-little-green-men-the-1955-kelly-kentucky-incident/ https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2006/11/22164554/p12.pdf https://skeptoid.com/episodes/331 https://www.wkms.org/arts-culture/2016-08-19/a-hopkinsville-alien-tale-has-inspired-a-yearly-festival-a-musical-and-pokemon https://www.wbko.com/2025/08/21/70-years-later-revisiting-kelly-hopkinsville-encounter/ https://www.wbko.com/2024/08/14/hopkinsville-residents-prepare-alien-invasion-day/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/08/21/tales-from-the-path-of-totality-62-years-ago-today-they-say-little-green-men-invaded-this-kentucky-farm-town/ This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

    The Hopkinsville Goblins were...strAInge

  8. May 12

    The Battle of Los Angeles was...strAInge

    Episode Notes Battle of Los Angeles — Show Notes In February 1942, just weeks after Pearl Harbor and one day after a Japanese submarine shelled the California coast, Los Angeles erupted into panic. Air raid sirens screamed, searchlights crossed the night sky, and anti-aircraft guns fired more than a thousand rounds at something no one could clearly identify. Was it enemy aircraft, weather balloons, wartime nerves, or something stranger? This episode of StrAInge looks at the famous “Battle of Los Angeles,” the overreaction, the legend, and the possibility that something unidentified may have started it all. Links and Sources https://www.latimes.com/visuals/framework/la-me-fw-archives-1942-battle-la-20170221-story.html https://www.latimes.com/visuals/framework/la-me-fw-archives-battle-la-20170221-gallery-photogallery.html https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-010/h-010-6.html https://celebratecalifornia.library.ca.gov/february-24-1942-the-battle-of-los-angeles-2/ https://sfmuseum.org/hist9/aaf2.html https://www.history.com/articles/world-war-iis-bizarre-battle-of-los-angeles https://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi07s.php https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-battle-of-los-ange/119137374/ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Los_Angeles_LATimes.jpg https://www.militarymuseum.org/BattleofLA.html https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/0704legend/ https://www.nytimes.com/1942/02/26/archives/army-says-alarm-real-roosevelt-calms-coast-blackout-hits-los.html Keywords Battle of Los Angeles, Los Angeles air raid, 1942 UFO incident, World War II Los Angeles, California air raid panic, Japanese submarine Ellwood, Fort MacArthur, anti-aircraft fire Los Angeles, UFO history, wartime panic, searchlights over Los Angeles, February 25 1942, StrAInge podcast, paranormal history, unexplained aerial phenomena, military false alarm, Los Angeles Times UFO photo, World War II home front, California World War II, unidentified flying object, UAP history This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

    The Battle of Los Angeles was...strAInge
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About

The world of high strangeness meets AI with ChatGPT as the referee! StrA.I.nge looks at the world of UFOs, Ghosts, Cryptids, and other phenomena in an effort to prove that even machines are fascinated by things that go bump in the night.

Information

  • Creator
    Ay Eye
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    38
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © None
  • Show Website
    strA.I.nge