Wide Atlantic Weird

A classic episode about the fascination 1950s America had with a woman who relived a past life as a 19th century woman from Cork! Hypnotism, regression, and a time in podcasting history ...

Dr Tom Ellis talks about the myth of the Lost Cosmonauts, why this symbol has had such staying power, and what it tells us about Western perceptions about the Soviet Union and its space programme. Topics include: -American reactions to Yuri Gagarin’s flight -The secrecy of the Soviet space programme breeding rumours and myths -The idea of the ‘communist mind’ and communism as a ‘secular religion’...

Cian is joined by Imogen Knox for a chat about witchcraft belief during the early modern period. Subjects covered: -stereotypes about medieval vs early modern witch trials -witch hunts as a 'top down' or 'bottom-up/ phenomenon? -vomiting of pins, apports, and other witch-related phenomena -the role of authorities in witch hunts -Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General -witch-hunting before/after...

This is a find from the vault - an old patreon episode that's an addendum to our COLONIALISM AND KONG episode, which you can find below. Loads more info about Willis O'Brien and the 1933 King Kong, the history behind the 'lost world' genre and 'jungle' pictures, my own background with stop-motion animation, O'Brien's lost projects, plus the bizarre expanded ecology of Skull Island in Peter Jackson...

'I FOUND it hard to place Mr. Douglas Hyde's magnificent story. Among the ghosts or the fairies? It is among the fairies on the grounds that all these ghosts and bodies were in no manner ghosts and bodies, but pishogues--fairy spells. One often hears of these visions of Ireland.' Taking, of all things, the Hellboy story 'The Corpse' as a starting point, Cian is joined by Dr Aoife Bhreatnach from t...

From what might become a semi-regular miniseries focusing on the monster-hunters of cryptozoology, this episode is about a man who had a sighting of the Florida 'skunk ape,' a regional type of Bigfoot, and it changed his life. Obsessed with the creature, he spent every day for six months sitting in his stand in the swamp until he captured photographs - and eventually footage - of the creature. Wha...

Cian and Chris host a campfire chat to remember the heyday of creepypasta: bad grammar, juvenile topics - and yet occasionally incredibly effective bite-size (ok, sometimes epic) slices of crowd-sourced digital horror. Creepypasta ruled the roost in the early days of Web 2.0, back when folks wondered whether Ted really was a caver, whether N64 cartridges really could be haunted, and why you should...

Cian returns to the subject of the Australian 'yowie' with more detail, more opinions, and possibly more conclusions, giving an in-depth take on the most thorough piece of literature on the subject, the 2006 book The Yowie: In Search Of Australia's Bigfoot by Healy & Cropper. Subjects include: -aboriginal and pre-colonial tales of the 'yahoo' -links to contemporary US bigfoot culture -Yowie or...

Cian invites James Harding from Toronto 16-bit rockers Villainest to the cabin for a chat about the 1977 Japanese movie 'House.' Frequently noted for its strangeness, Cian and James push past appearances to discuss the context in which the film was made in order to appreciate the creativity and joy this experimental haunted house movie brings! Topics include: -Villainest's amazing reworking of the...

Join Cian at a chilly Cabin In The Woods for a Valentine's chat about the ever-mysterious Picnic At Hanging Rock. Whether you're more familiar with the book or the film, you'll be fine in terms of spoilers here, so grab an ale (no Fosters, please) and get ready for a disappear (ahem) into: -the tradition of 'Australian Gothic' -Picnic as a still-relevant urban legend -whiteness in the novel, Miran...

The podcast returns to the topic of flat Earth, and Cian is joined once again by Dr Edward Guimont from snowy New York to cover the history of who exactly believed the earth was flat, when did they believe it, and why did they believe it? A litany of topics are covered in this wide-ranging episode, including: -the infamous Bedford Level experiment naturalist with Alfred Russell Wallace -Flat earth...

In which Cian & Dónal once again take a headlock to the Hulkster's life and career by taking the claims of his 'auto-biography' to task. In this long-awaited follow-up we tackle: -Hogan joining the WWF and his relationship with Vince McMahon -The first Wrestlemania -Hogan and Mr T visit some kids to promote Wrestlemania -Rowdy Roddy Piper makes Hogan cry by ripping off his crucifix -Hogan and...

In this episode, Cian and Ali discuss 80s domestic terrorist group who called themselves THE ORDER, in a direct lift from the 1978 white supremacist text The Turner Diaries. The MAGA goons who caused chaos at Washington this month contained at least a core of serious, organised, far-right insurrectionists whose ideas can be traced to this underground 'white supremacist bible' . They committed robb...

Cian returns to the mystical, mythical, WW1-era pastoral English fairyland only to find that it's become a weird British indie film hellscape of death, hallucinations, and poor life decisions in the SECOND of his Cottingley Fairy film analyses, this time talking about the 1997 movie PHOTOGRAPHING FAIRIES. Plus, as the film section is a bit short this time around, enjoy a bit of background about th...

It's early January at the cabin, before the snow. Cian watches the 1997 movie Fairy Tale: A True Story in the first of two investigations into the 1997 double-bill of Cottingley Fairy films. Grab yourself whatever you may need to get through a schmaltzy 90s kid film. Along the way we'll talk about: -how Victorians & Edwardians were obsessed with fairies -why Theosophists, Spiritualists, and Ar...

Join us at the cabin for a semi-seasonal late-December big-budget sci-fi extravaganza as we tackle Spielberg's 1977 film Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and its inspirations from the real-life world of UFOlogy. We cover: -Close Encounters vs Star Wars -The Paranormal boom of the 70s -Themes of religion and spirituality in UFOlogy -J Allen Hynek, 'secular' UFOlogy, and the ETH -Small-town Americ...

Dónal returns to the cabin to discuss Kenneth Branagh's 1994 film 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.' It's a spoilerfest so beware - we take the film apart into it constituent elements (it's primarily constructed of hubris and bare chest real estate) to find out whether it's ALIVE or rather a cobbled-together monster. BUT, what if the real monster was John Cleese all along?

Cian is delighted to welcome Dr Edward Guimont to the cabin for a wide-ranging chat about monster hunters and strange beliefs in the context of post-colonial Africa and the American frontier. Dr Guimont teaches at the University of Connecticut and has written about archaeology in Zimbabwe, cryptozoology, myths of living mammoths, and is now working on the Flat Earth idea within the colonial period...

Cian is joined by Emmy & Steve from the Misfits & Mysteries podcast, direct from NYC, to talk about New York state's pet 'window area' and myth cycle, the Montauk Project. The chat features: -the Philadelphia Experiment -kidnapped psychic children -Stranger Things -the Montauk Monster -Time travellers LINKS: Misfits & Mysteries Blog & Podcast: https://www.misfitsandmysteries.com/

Cian and Ali return to the American Militia miniseries, and take a look at the life and crimes of Timothy McVeigh, a man who was inspired by the events of Ruby Ridge and Waco to strike against the federal government himself, committing the terrible Oklahoma City Bombing. We cover: -the Turner Diaries -the conspiracy that McVeigh was a patsy and was never executed -McVeigh's military experience -Mc...

It's flying saucer time once again! Join Cian at the cabin for a chat about the Pepper Transcript, a forgotten bit of UFO lore. There's UFOs in space, Apollo astronauts, and a secret UFO base on the moon. Featuring: -James McDivitt's 1965 earth orbit UFO sighting -Apollo 11's anomalous sighting -The Pepper Transcript -Alleged sighting by Armstrong and Aldrin of giant UFOs 'parked' in a lunar crate...

Cian enjoys a coffee (forgot to mention the beverage but hey the episode's long enough already) at the cabin in the woods and pores over Michael Crichton's seminal 90s dino-stuffed techno-thriller. He still loves Crichton ... but discovers more troubling themes within the story this time around. Join us for a slightly uncomfortable, and extra-long, revisiting of a classic. Come for the dinosaurs,...

Cian is a massive Kong fan, and after years of resigning Peter Jackson's 2005 remake to the 'dud' bin, he dusts off this 3-hour love letter to the original and gives it another shake. Join us at the cabin in the woods as we discuss: -my history with the original and Jackson's Kong -the history of CGI used for creature effects -Jackson's bloated, indulgent nature -Jackson's love for Kong -The histo...

Our Halloween mega-episode: the entire twisted history of Borley Rectory, the infamous Most Haunted House in England! -we cover the four eras of Borley including its history with the divisive ghost-hunter Harry Price Here's our fabulous new Patreon! Take a look! Sources: The Enigma of Borley Rectory by Ivan Banks The Most Haunted House in England by Harry Price Haunted Houses, Maple & Myring

A sample bonus episode of Wide Atlantic Weird Extra, which will be available only to supporters of our new Patreon! Cian & Dónal talk KISS - in particular the 80s and early 90s, their wilderness no-makeup years! Snubbed by fans until recently, the lads go through your fav superhero clowns' every album from that era! Get ready to LICK IT UP! Patreon here!