Wide Atlantic Weird

Jeb Card joins us to discuss the supposed witchcraft connections to the murder of Charles Walton on Valentines Day, 1945. Important players include (returning podcast fave) Margaret Murray, Egyptologist and writer of 'The Witch Cult In Western Europe' and Robert Fabian, Detective Superintendent of the London Met and early true crime tv celebrity. Both took the murder as a clue that something sinis...

Cian is joined by YouTuber 'Truth Is Scarier Than Fiction' to discuss the making of the Cryptid Iceberg videos and more! NOTES Buy Me A Coffee, or I'll wood knock-you out! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic Truth Is Scarier Than Fiction Youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/Truthisscarierthanfiction/videos Truth Is Scarier on Twitter https://twitter.com/TruthScarier The Allure of Vintage Dinosa...

Could this be ... the Final Fantasy of Fawcett? In this last episode of Fawcettmania, Cian sits by a stream and flicks the pages of 'Brazil That Never Was' by A.J. Lees, as well as articles by arch Fawcett-dismisser John Hemming. In an episode as thrilling as a mid-Victorian face-off between rival explorers at a packed RGS debate, we conclude: -confirmation (probably) of the date when Conan Doyle...

So there's a lot of Lost World in our Fawcett this episode, but it's not my fault that the two won't stay a Stegosaurus length apart! In this episode, our boy Percy gets down on the British Empire following the First World War, is quite polite about a certain odious British biologist, hints at sightings of living dinosaurs yet again, and lays out his alternative history of South America before goi...

Lauren returns to the cabin to discuss all things H.R. Haggard, especially his deep obsession with ancient Egypt. We cover: -Haggard in 'Who's Who in Egyptology' -his own visits to Egypt -his writing of 'Cleopatra' -his mania for collecting Egyptian rings -his dislike for modern, changing Egypt -his friendship with Howard Carter -his attempts to exonerate Western archaeologists @gothicbookworm (In...

It's 'Not Your Father's Fawcett!' The journey continues with our dive into the first part of EXPLORATION FAWCETT, the 1953 book of Colonel Percy Fawcett's own notes and journals, as tidied up, illustrated and edited by his son Brian Fawcett. Featuring: -my visit to a Fawcett-related address in London -the infamous giant snake sighting! -Fawcett's links to living dinosaurs and other crypto-critters...

In which we're asked to audition for Metallica, endorse the George Foreman grill, and wrestle over 365 days in a year. We also cover: -Hogan's years at WCW -the infamous Monday Night Wars between WWF and WCW -the meta writing of Vince Russo -Hogan's comeback match against the Rock Buy Me A Coffee, Brother! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic Part 1 https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/wide-atl...

Dr Eoghan Aherne visits the cabin to talk about the early medieval period, and some things we might believe about it that might not be true! Topics include: -modern myths about the medieval period -were medieval people particularly credulous? -a medieval flat Earth? -classical ideas during the medieval period: the four elements -the scientific revolution as continuity rather than revolution -the i...

Arthur Conan Doyle and Professor Challenger make a welcome return to the show, as we turn once again to the worlds of Edwardian fantastic Imperial fiction, and the history of still-living dinosaurs in literature. Dr Richard Fallon joins us to talk all things LOST WORLD, in particular the vision Conan Doyle had for a subtle, restrained presentation of the tale via the illustrations of his brother-i...

Cian welcomes Dr Edward Guimont back to the cabin for a chat about two seminal 1951 flying saucer movies. There'll be saucers skipping across water (whyever would you do that?), McCarthyism, and pulp-era sci-fi authors acting like jerks. Topics include: -our history with both movies -the short story 'Farewell To The Master' and 1930s pulp Sci-fi origins -Robert Wise and Star Trek: The Motionless P...

Cian returns to the cabin to tackle a subject that he should have tackled long ago: the life and mysterious disappearance of Percy Harrison Fawcett. First part (fingers crossed) of a series attempting to contrast the various books about Fawcett that are out there. Featuring: -extended thank yous to all the nice folks who've sent me books and things during the hiatus -in-depth breakdown of the 2009...

Tyler Greenfield visits the cabin to chat about sightings of supposed living extinct creatures. We discuss early 20th century origins of living Megalodon stories, the French Pterodactyl trapped in rock, the bizarre 'Triassic Kraken,' and how the mysterious Cadborosaurus got its type specimen. (Episode picture thanks to Tyler! It's a full-size replica of our titular beast) Links: Buy Me A Coffee ht...

Ancient chalk figures, Arctic exploration, pendulums, and emotions 'recorded' onto the landscape: TC Lethbridge dabbled in them all, and remains an important figure in mid-20th century alternative thinking. Lisa from the Beer Ladies Podcast joins us at the cabin to talk about Lethbridge. We cover: -Lethbridge’s early archaeological career -Lethbridge as an institution figure vs an outsider -The im...

Cian is joined at the cabin by David & Mercedas from the Worker’s Cauldron to talk about a variety of paranormal topics and their cultural/political influences. Subjects include: -evolution of Wicca -social context and the paranormal -alien abduction in the 90s -creating episodes -David’s trip to Bluff Creek -colonial literature’s influence on Forteana -Demonic possession and economic anxietie...

Sharon Hill joins us to speak about Spooky Geology and Ley Lines! We discuss the origins of the lines before they became associated with mystical ideas, leys as a way to connect with landscape, how they’re thought of in the paranormal community today, connections to UFOs (of course!), a little bit of Stone Tape Theory, and some real geological processes that might have been an influence on the ide...

The history of beliefs regarding lost cities and civilizations beneath the Earth's surface is as vast and winding as the caverns of Agartha itself. In this episode we welcome Edward Guimont back to the cabin for a chat about some of the most interesting characters who have contributed to Hollow Earth thinking. Beginning with an apocryphal  tale of American pilot Admiral Byrd encountering a su...

Pack your harmonica and join an expedition into the murky world of 1970s low-budget docudrama-making as we take a look at Bigfoot hunter Robert Morgan's 1974 'American Yeti' Expedition into the Pacific Northwest, and the recobbled film 'Bigfoot: Man Or Beast' that chronicles this epic event! NOTES: Sasquatch hunters need coffee. Help me out here: https://buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic Bigfoot: Man...

Cian and Victoria discuss the definitive Dracula of their childhood, Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 'Bram Stoker's Dracula!,' which is a mouthful. NOTES: Buy Me A Coffee because I never drink wine! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic Victoria's Twitter https://twitter.com/vpearsonduffy The Impossible Archive, Project Blue Book episode https://impossiblearchive.podbean.com/e/project-blue-book-ft...

Recorded at the tail (aha!) end of an uncharacteristic Irish heatwave, and following a spot of solo camping that accidentally strayed into mystery big cat territory, Cian marshalls some thoughts on the subject of ABCs or Alien Big Cats. With some detail on the Exmoor Beast and the Surrey Puma, as well as thoughts on whether this is a flesh-and-blood happening, or something more mystical.

In a MUSICAL episode long delayed, Cian welcomes Leanne from The Strange Ways blog to talk about the special place the chilly polar extremes have always held in fact and specifically horror fiction. The poles themselves become mirrors through which colonial-era Europeans saw themselves and measured their achievements. We discuss Dan Simmons' book The Terror, the more recent TV adaptation, the clai...

Take THAT, Bembridge scholars! Cian is delighted to welcome Lauren the Gothic Bookworm to the cabin for an awesome chat about all things Mummy, curses, and of course, Victorian Gothic! So many of our favourite writers, books, historical topics and more appear, including but not limited to: -the mummy in comparison to other 'classic' monsters -The Victorian/Edwardian fascination with Egypt and mumm...

Best remembered today for his incredible output of genre-defining early science fiction novels during the 1890s, for much of his career Herbert George Wells was perhaps better known for other things. From the early 1900s he positioned himself as a man who would predict the future. Cian and Dónal chat about War of The Worlds, When The Sleeper Wakes, Well' ideas about progress and eugenics, and abou...

From the vaults, comes a Crichton-adjacent bonus episode in which Cian and Chris 'The Voice' Joyce discuss Jurassic Park: Trespasser, a famous over-reaching early open-world game that pretty much disappointed everybody upon its release. But, sifting through the wreckage of this abandoned dream, the guys discover that somehow, life ... has found a way. NOTES: After much consideration, you have deci...

Cameron McCormick, writer on marine monster mysteries and sea serpent superfan, drops into the cabin to talk about the work and influence of Bernard Heuvelmans, remembered as the 'father of cryptozoology.' Heuvelmans was important as an early figure in the codification of cryptozoology, but many of his ideas were to remain unique to him in the decades that followed. Despite his respected status as...

Michael Crichton had a habit of recycling various Victorian-era fringe beliefs and obsessions in his techno-thriller fiction. With Eaters Of The Dead, he created a faux-academic 'translation' of the travels of the real-life Ibn Fadlan. The resulting novel has echoes of Beowulf, elements of cryptozoology, relic hominids, and a positive portrayal of Vikings as part of America's changing process of s...