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The Paranoid Strain — Society & Culture
The Paranoid Strain

The podcast that explains why so many people believe ridiculous conspiracy theories.

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Copyright: © 2017-2019

Latest Episodes:

New: Secret Societies I, Part 14 - The Rosicrucians and Foucault's Pendulum Sep 28, 2021

Show notes

We're fourteen goddamned episodes into this seemingly never-ending cavalcade of secret society information, and there are, at minimum, seven or eight episodes to go. We'd apologize for how long this series is getting, but we're not going to, because it continues to be just a goldmine of interesting information, and we won't rest until we've shared it all with you. Today, we wrap up the Rosicrucians, and take the opportunity to spoil the plot of perhaps the greatest conspiracy novel ever written. Why tie these two things together? Because they're both centered around conspiracies that were imagined into existence. Confused? Don't be! Just listen. Talk to you in a couple of weeks, when the topic will be...The Freemasons.

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New: Secret Societies I, Part 13 - The Rosicrucians 2 Sep 15, 2021

Show notes

More stories of the best darned secret society that didn't technically exist,! We return to the weird and wonderful world of the Rosicrucians this time, with stories of those who tried in vain to join the ephemeral brotherhood, and a number of folks who had to insist to their contemporaries that they weren't part of this group that nobody had ever seen in the first place. And a conspiracy theory involving the Rosies and the Bard. Oh, and we see the return of an old friend. A quick impactful visit, if you will. You'll know it when you hear it. We're busily producing our fantastic shows about the Freemasons right now, and look forward to sharing those with you in the near future. See you in a couple of weeks.

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New: Secret Societies I, Part 12 - The Rosicrucians Sep 01, 2021

Show notes

If you, like Mike Schmidt, believed that our final statement at the end of last episode meant we were done with Secret Societies...well, I guess you had understandable reasons for thinking that. But it's not true. That just ended our weird tale of the sources of Dan Brown's madness. Now, we're back to a more orthodox secret society tale, albeit one that once again embraces a group that isn't quite what it seems. This is the first of three-and-change episodes about these guys. We started out aiming for a short overview, but the deeper we got, the more interesting the story became. We hope you find them as fascinating as we do.

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New: Secret Societies I, Part 11 - Priory of Sion and Rennes-le-Chateau Aug 11, 2021

Show notes

And here we are--about to hear the final revelations of the misleading nonsense, con jobs, and pranks that eventually led to the edifice of bullshit that is The Da Vinci Code. We pick up with the story of Pierre Plantard (that's his gallic profile in the show art), and his bizarre scheme to make himself look like a king, how that misfired when he met Henry Lincoln, and how the whole thing intersects with a failing rural resort. Weird? Yes. Interesting? You betcha. Hope you love it, talk to you soon.

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New: Secret Societies I, Part 10 - Holy Blood, Holy Grail 2 Jul 27, 2021

Show notes

Another fortnight, another episode about silly men and their silly book. Once again, we're discussing the work of Messrs. Lincoln, Baigent,and Leigh, who apparently never met a historical counterfactual they didn't immediately embrace. This time, we get neck-deep in the many, completely unrelated story threads that they rip out of context and stitch together into an unholy pantomime of historical scholarship. This is part three of our mini-series on the origins of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. We'll see you back here next time for the frankly astonishing conclusion, where we actually get to the bottom of all of this nonsense. Talk at you then.

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New: Secret Societies I, Part 9 - Holy Blood, Holy Grail 1 Jul 14, 2021

Show notes

Episode 9 of the Secret Societies series, but also the second episode in our sub-series about the strange origins of the conspiracy theories that ended up powering Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. Now, though, we actually move past that book to turn our attention to the primary source for Brown's ludicrous historical and religious claims--an apparently non-fiction book published to significant hoopla in the early '80s and titled Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Can this book possibly be dumber than Brown's nonsense? You'll have to listen to find out. But also, yes it can. Very much so.

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New: Secret Societies I, Part 8 - The Da Vinci Code Jun 30, 2021

Show notes

YAY! We've reached Jesuit's favorite part of this series--a sort of 4-part sub-series of inter-connected conspiracy theories that build on each other to trace a tale that we think is honestly one of the most interesting subjects we've ever covered. So we understand you might be surprised to learn that this tale starts with the Da Vinci Code, an extremely silly, yet thoroughly self-serious book from the 2000s that spawned a series of virtually unwatchable movies. But trust us--this one's going places. Also, enjoy the return of the LIGHTNING ROUND! Enjoy, and we'll see you in a couple of weeks. By the way--if you haven't, check out the Paranoid Son, a sister podcast of ours, and which covers many similar topics from a different perspective.

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New: Secret Societies I, Part 7 - Cathars 2 Jun 15, 2021

Show notes

I know that most of you woke up this morning and had that same thought you do every time you open your eyes. "How am I going to face the day without a podcast about a medieval French heresy, its violent persecution by the Church, and its eventual passage into legend and conspiracy?" Well, today is the day you've been waiting for. We're gettin' all Cathar up in this bitch, and it's gonna get toasty. By which I mean that the Cathars mostly got burned to death on pyres by their theological enemies. But that's pretty awful, so let's focus on how interesting the history is! Plus, we'll cover all of the misapprehensions and nonsense that conspiracy theorists have attached to the Cathars since they were stamped out. Next time: The ridiculous Da Vinci code gets the lightning round treatment. See you in two weeks.

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New: Secret Societies I, Part 6 - Templars and Cathars Jun 02, 2021

Show notes

Yes, many of you, including notably the 40 Year Old Boy, Mike Schmidt, noticed that I made a typo in the numbering of the show last time. Regardless, we're back on track now, delivering the properly numbered 6th episode of our Secret Societies series, which bridges the gap between the Templars and the Cathars. On paper, the Knights of the Temple don't have much to do with the heretical Good Men, but they both ran afoul of the Catholic Church, which led to their demises. And not coincidentally, they're both the locus of historical conspiracy theories. We'll be spending more time with the Cathars next time, as well. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed creating it.

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New: Secret Societies I, Part 4 - Knights Templar 3 May 18, 2021

Show notes

And so we...nearly(?) come to the end of our coverage of the Knights Templar. I mean, there's a little bit that carries over to the next episode, but hardly any. And by the way, we know this one ends at kind of a weird point, at the end of a news clip. That's just the way the episode divided up--normally, we try to provide solid end-points for these things, but sometimes breaking into half-hour chunks is a tough business. But remember--once we're done with this monster, we're gonna put the whole thing out as one pristine chunk of seven-plus-hour audio. By the way, check out our sister show The Paranormal Son, on the That's Not Canon podcast network.

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