In Research Of

I recently appeared on a podcast called The Plastic Plesiosaur Podcast.   They asked me for a copy of the theme to this show and I realized I never made that available?  So... here it is! The music is by Greig Johnson and the singing is by Rachel Lackey. The lyrics are by me, Blake Smith.  And in case you have trouble following them for your sing-alongs, here they are: "In Research of" We talk and...

Jeb and Blake continue their coverage of the influential film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Part two of this session is exclusive to our wonderful Patrons.   Full show notes includes additional images and material with background on the science and nonsense behind this movie. Quftis : "men from the Upper Egyptian town of Qift who were trained and became skilled excavators and foremen who went on to wor...

Jeb and Blake tackle the Ooky world of Monster Hunters.     Nimoy in the forest shadows...   Peter Byrne  and Tim Dinsdale - two legendary monster hunters meet. Monsters in the intro to this episode are from the TV film Manbeast! Myth or Monster   For reasons I can't explain, some of the images in this episode reminded me of 1970s album covers...   Arch Buckley 2007 Obituary   Warren Thompson 2013...

Jeb and Blake discovered that S03E08 - The Great Lakes Triangle - has disappeared into a temporal anomaly. But we dare not leave you adrift in Lake Eerie, so instead we usher you through a mysterious temple to a VHS tape on a stone pedestal... as we go in research of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Discussed in this episode: The story conception tapes of Raiders (Lucas, Spielberg, Kasden)   Same thing, b...

Jeb and Blake consider the possibility that the Tunguska Event was caused by an extraterrestrial  atomic craft.  An old friend returns. A SciFi icon cameos. Atoms are split.    Mr. Leonard Nimoy!   Charles Cole   Ronald Oriti   And Dr. Isaac Asimov   News about Golden Globes scandals Asteroid Monitoring (NASA) Tunguska in Pop Culture (Wiki) Basic coverage of Tunguska and theories (Wiki) Leonid Kul...

AIPT Comics - is putting on a free online convention Sunday July 18th.  The online convention starts at 10 am and I'll be participating in a couple of ways if you're interested. At noon , I've got a special interview with Stephen R. Bissette.  You might know him as a key artist on Alan Moore's run of Swamp Thing in the 80s - but if you've been subscribing to BIG FOOTAGE the Patreon bonus cast, you...

Jeb and Blake head into cold as we look at the episode titled "Cryogenics."  Yes, there is a lot of legitimate discussion of the science of freezing - but there's also a lot of optimistic coverage of "Cryonics," the much more questionable idea of freezing people for a later thawing and restoration.   CONTENT WARNING:   This episode contains images of dead people, frozen semen, animal harm, terribl...

Jeb and Blake crawl through the cobbled streets of 1978 television to find out what was going on when IN SEARCH OF went looking for Jack the Ripper.  A lot of this episode is about "The Royal Conspiracy" - the idea that Prince Albert Victor (aka "Prince Eddy") was secretly Jack the Ripper.   This was largely derived from a book called Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution , an ironic title since it...

Jeb & Blake discuss the ways that Jack the Ripper has been adapted in fiction and documentary over the years. The strange convergence of Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde merge into a weird mix of fact and fantasy through the decades. A variety of media are discussed. And you can be sure that in the foggy gas-lit, cobbled streets of London there lurk...

Grab your sticks and join Jeb and Blake as they go looking for water flowing underground. Same as it ever was? Not hardly. Special content in this episode courtesy Sharon Hill. Be sure and check out her article on dowsing for water at Spooky Geology . The "earth, air, fire, and water" idea comes from Empedocles .  Early in the episode Francis Hitching holds up a stack of paperbacks. I looked them...

We'll be taking a look at ISO's coverage of cloning in this episode. We'll be taking a look at ISO's coverage of cloning in this episode.  Content warning (for ISO watchers) there is animal experimentation and surgery video in this TV episode.  Jeb asked me to include a gif of the "groovy" 1970s video effects from this episode: In the 1970s the idea of "test tube babies" was still quite controvers...

Get to your shelters and turn on your weather radios as Jeb and Blake watch IN SEARCH OF...'s episode on Tornadoes .  Discussed in this episode: NOAA   Dr. Ernest Agee   National Severe Storms Lab (NSSL) Twister (1996) - Amazon Affiliate Link  John Weaver    Bob Davies-Jones    Kelvin Droegemeir    Edwin Kessler    Poorly lit Nimoy Fashion:  

Jeb and Blake have a close encounter of the In Search Of ... kind.  We look at two UFO abduction cases that you may not have heard of - and that definitely have more details to them than ISO covers. Flying Saucers and the Three Men ( Amazon Affiliate Link ) Communion (AAL)   King Kong 76 animatronics  Above Top Secret - Isaac Koi (UFO Barrister) Catalina UFO Case on YouTube   APRO   CUFOS   NICAP...

Season 2 of IRO is over and we take a few hours to talk about the movie  Close Encounters of the Third Kind .  There's three more hours of discussion beyond what's in this preview and you can get access to that as well as our other Patreon exclusives by subscribing here.

Jeb and Blake stare at spreadsheet graphs - and what could be better? Fashion Forensics. A look at  season 3. Tease of our next Bonus Episode.  And more!  Note:  The fashion forensics segment needs visuals. Those are in the attached PDF but if I can make time I will knock together a little video to make it better.  If I manage it, you'll know first.    

Jeb and Blake go looking for The Garden of Eden and bring along professor Nathan French of the Miami University, Ohio to shed some extra insight during the journey. Nathan is the author of And God Knows the Martyrs (affiliate link) and is Associate Professor of Comparative Religion at Miami.     Meanwhile back in Eden...     Nimoy walks in the Garden with a bible and his wholly white vestments.  ...

Jeb and Blake are joined by climate scientist Dr. John Cook to discuss this infamous episode of In Search Of ... You may have noticed that since the 1970s we did not descend into a frozen ice age. In fact - quite the opposite. Dr. Cook was kind enough to join us to talk about both the history of the science discussed in this episode, and the many challenges of dealing with science denialism. It's...

Jeb and Blake discuss ants and the "deadly" fire ant invasion of the southern United States. Jeb struggles with ANTipathy towards the topic despite being an ANThropologist. (If you're looking for more wordplay like this in the episode, you'll find it ANTiclimactic.)  It probably won't last but you can currently catch this episode of ISO on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXpM23ikcx0...

You can catch this episode of ISO on YouTube (for the moment). Warning: This episode contains major spoilers for the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid .  Let's be honest - this episode of ISO wouldn't exist if it weren't for the classic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . - certainly ended up with a bitter attitude towards them and accused them of all manner of shenanigans. Butch doesn...

Jeb and Blake watch In Search Of 's take on the world of traditional medicine through the lens of "Witch Doctors."  We were pleasantly surprised at what we found. YouTube continues to crackdown on "In Search Of" episodes.  You can get the DVDs (just like Jeb and I use to make the show!) on Amazon.  ( Affiliate Link - a small % of sales from using this link goes to support my crippling coffee habit...

Jeb and Blake tackle the history of Heinrich Schliemann's legendary search for the ancient city of Troy.   Content Warning - this episode of In Search Of contains footage that may be objectionable to some viewers. Viewers should be aware that A&E is pulling episodes of In Search Of... down off YouTube quite frequently. At the time of posting, you can see Part 1 of the episode  here. Part 2 is here...

Warning : This episode does discuss suicide. If you're feeling any kind of despair or hopelessness, help is available.  Call 1-800-273-8255 and talk to someone. You can't listen to our fine show if you're dead - so we don't want that! SOLVED -  the mystery of the unknown cemetery has been solved. It's the Trinity Church Cemetery in the Washington Heights neighborhood of NYC. Thanks to patron Donal...

Link to the ISO episode (YouTube)   Jeb, Blake and return guest Alex French are getting sleepy... sleepy ... as we fall under the spell of Leonard Nimoy discussing HYPNOSIS.  Nimoy Fashion Alert :   Mentioned in this episode:  Trilby (novel) - the source of Svengali   Dr. William Kroger (and his amazing red chair) Dr. Joseph Barber   Franz Mesmer  (of "mesmerism" fame) - the print is titled Le mag...

Watch this ISO episode on YouTube.     Jeb and Blake figuratively return to the bayou to look for the mysterious legendary monster of Honey Island Swamp. Discussed in this episode: CB Radio and TV Bleedover   It's not a perfect match, but this is the closest we've (so far) come to finding a Sears entry for Nimoy's clothing.  He was probably shopping at a higher-end shop but the style was out there...

Watch the ISO ep on YouTube   Jeb and Blake take a look at research into life extension including the therapeutic value of eating live embryos and having younger life forms surgically attached to one's body to leech off of their vigor.   The running boom of the 70s   Jim Fixx   Fitness Culture   Serge Voronoff   John Romulus Brinkley   Documentary NUTS by director Penny Lane Adventure of the Creep...