Wide Atlantic Weird

Latest Episodes:

Forest Of Fear: The Dechmont Woods UFO Encounter Jan 07, 2020

Show notes

Cian leaves his Essex cabin in search of mystery: join our host on the first Wide Atlantic Weird road trip as he travels to Scotland to investigate the site of the famous Dechmont Woods encounter of 1979.

This case has it all: a credible witness, a police investigation, and a sighting of craft and ‘creatures’ utterly unique in the UFO canon of alien greys and silver-suited Nordics. In all seriousness, it’s one of those classic ‘high strangeness’ cases that still baffles today, one so deeply odd that any attempt to explain it results in even less credible scenarios.

It’s going to take more than bad service station coffee for Cian to keep his nerve on his investigation into THE DECHMONT WOODS ENCOUNTER.

New Theme Music by Kevin Gill and Cian Gill

Video clips:

Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World

Sound:

She Is In The Woods by COAG

Monsters Of The Week: A Retrospective of The X-Files (with Chris Joyce) Jan 03, 2020

Show notes

NOTE: If you have a low tolerance for banter, you can safely skip the first 20 mins.

In the early 90s, when we didn’t really have much to worry about but didn’t appreciate it, our collective unconscious fears manifested in the form of The X-Files, a TV show that took inspiration from supposedly real paranormal encounters, and in turn helped to perpetuate the belief in UFOs and government-alien conspiracies.

Join Cian and Chris ‘Carter’ Joyce for a spoileriffic investigation into three classic (and one not-so-classic) episodes of season 1 to find out how this pop culture juggernaut helped to prepare us for the era of Trust No One, No Experts, and Post Truth. We’re both suffering from seasonal ailments so please excuse the various sniffles (and the rumbling in the background is a lovely warm fire).

Vegetable Horror: The Seed From The Sepulchre by Clark Ashton Smith Dec 17, 2019

Show notes

Cian digs out an old favourite from the days of pulp magazine adventure and horror: a short story by Clark Ashton Smith from 1933 about a trip down a South American river that goes very, very wrong. If you enjoy chaps in pith helmets going to forbidden lost cities and learning Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, if you like seriously disgusting body horror, and if you like Triffids and other kinds of vile, vicious vegetation that like to feast on man, then look no further! There's but a smidge of Cosmic Horror here, and perhaps a touch of Ancient Astronauts too. All in all, it's an astonishingly unsettling, horrible and entertaining tale to listen to while you sit round your Christmas hearth. Cian downs a green tea during the telling of this tale, but feel free to have something stronger yourself, if you think your stomach can take it.

Etext of the story

She Is In The Woods by COAG

The Ghost Trail: The Making Of A Youtube Show (with Faye Sewell) Dec 10, 2019

Show notes

Things are getting about as festive as they ever do in the Wide Atlantic Weird cabin: the forest around is bare, and the fire is roaring. It’s the right time for some ghost stories, so Cian is joined by Faye from the Youtube show The Ghost Trail. They brew a batch of Columbian coffee and get comfortable. The Ghost Trail is all about visiting spooky locations and telling ghost stories, so it’s an ideal time to talk about it!

Cian and Faye discuss the making of the series, as well as the state of paranormal shows in general (they agree that there’s a lot of bad ones out there). They get around to talking about the ‘recording’ theory of ghosts, infrasound, spontaneous human combustion, the ‘third man’ theory, time slips, crisis apparitions, and many other topics. In fact, it’s a veritable seasonal feast of paranormal subjects. WWW hasn’t touched too much on ghosts so far so this is a good place to get started!

Links:

The Ghost Trail Series

Faye's Books

Rain Sound Effect - Free Sound Library

VCR Sound Effect Some Sounds

All Those Who Wander: Unsettling Stories of Hiking And The Great Outdoors Sep 02, 2019

Show notes

Stories of hiking and camping in remote places frequently feature elements of isolation and horror. On a sunny day on the porch of the Wide Atlantic Weird cabin, Cian explores a few campfire-worthy examples. Are they true? Your host offers his 2 cents, but you can decide for yourself.

Cian brings you a few of his favourite scary (non-supernatural) outdoor tales, mostly culled from the darkest corners of Reddit. Loneliness, isolation, creeps, cultists and serial killers feature in this collection of odd stories. There's even a wistful, nostalgic element, as Cian reflects that, as horrifying as some of these narratives are, he is drawn to them as they remind him of his time living in the Great Outdoors in North America.

Grab yourself a can of Dr Pepper and join him in a skin-crawling, yet somehow comforting, bevy of stories from big countries: the US, Canada, and Australia - countries big enough to prove that not all those who wander are lost.

NOTE: There are a few bad words in this ep.

Music:

Ghost Story by Kevin McLeod

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36kwJ6mwgrk

The Coming Of The Greys: An Interrupted Journey (with Chris Joyce) Aug 30, 2019

Show notes

On a brilliantly starry, starry night, Cian leaves the Wide Atlantic Weird cabin to wander through the woods, sit by the railway tracks, and phone his friend Chris ‘Spooky’ Joyce. They have an important conversation to resume: The Coming Of The Greys! Yes, the interrupted journey is un-interrupted (?) at last in this sort-of follow-up to The Coming Of The Greys: One From The Vaults!

So where do those darned alien Greys come from anyway –and why are they so interested in probing us? (Hint: the answer ain’t Zeta Reticuli)

The guys dive back into the nitty-gritty of the infamous 1961 Hill case to get things started. So many threads – why did the ‘men’ the Hills reported in their creepy initial UFO sighting only morph into more alien-looking creatures after the weird dreams began? Did Barney Hill have unconscious memories of waking up on the operating table? And why in the blue blazes did anybody ever think that hypnotic regression was a reliable way of recalling real memories?

From there, the guys hit up the TV version with James Earl Jones, have Close Encounters Of The Christopher Walken Kind in 1989’s Communion(which has nothing to do with eating wafers), get paranoid untangling the influence of the X-Files, and generally try to figure out how the Grey came to represent the standard image of an extra-terrestrial.

Oh, and of course this episode should really have been titled Fifty Shades of Greys.

Sources:

The Iron Skeptic: What Did Barney See?

http://www.theironskeptic.com/articles/hill/chronology.htm

Entirely Unpredisposed, Martin Kottmeyer

http://www.debunker.com/texts/unpredis.html

Varicose Brains Part 3, Martin Kottmeyer

http://magonia.haaan.com/2009/headhunt/

Alien Abduction At The Outer Limits, Jason Colavito

http://www.jasoncolavito.com/alien-abduction-at-the-outer-limits.html

Doctoring Villas Boas, Eye Of The Psychic

https://www.eyeofthepsychic.com/ufo_fontes/

Fake News In Science: Tabloid Lies About Wildlife (with Neil Philips from UK Wildlife Podcast) Aug 27, 2019

Show notes

Poor public understanding of science is leading to an overall dumbing-down of decision-making around the world; environmental, political, and otherwise. So Cian leaves the cabin to visit ecologist Neil Philips in the woods to find out how sensationalist ‘journalism’ and fake news is affecting wildlife in the UK and abroad. Is hunting good for conservation? Are seagulls and foxes a menace to society? Why do we insist on demonising any and all non-domestic animals?

Cian and Neil investigate various recent wildlife-related media scandals including the work of Brian Ford, whose pseudoscience about dinosaurs has blown up yet again in the Twittersphere with the release of the 2ndedition of his book rehashing 19th-century ideas and presenting them as a brave new theory. We get angry, we get reighteous, and damn if it isn’t time for someone to call BS on this stuff before it’s too late! Neil is just the man to speak about these issues as he’s not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get into the trenches, using data and peer-reviewed research whenever possible to combat pseudoscience online.

It’s only a short leap between bad biology and the disasters of the 20th century folks, so get stuck in and listen to FAKE NEWS IN SCIENCE while it’s only in the headlines and not yet in your face …

Sources:

UK WIldlife Website

http://www.uk-wildlife.co.uk/talks/

Neil Philips on Twitter

https://twitter.com/UK_Wildlife

Bigfoot Before 1958 Part 2: It's Evolution, Baby! Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

Cian thinks longingly of his days in the Pacific Northwest while sipping on a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale round the campfire at the Wide Atlantic Weird Cabin. Join him to learn of the wonder and mystery, the lies and intrigue, behind the 1958 Bluff Creek footprints – the case that kickstarted a legend. Is it true that prankster logging manager Ray Wallace really invented the Bigfoot myth using giant wooden feet? Did William Roe’s report of seeing a busty Bigfoot inspire cowboy Roger Patterson to fake his infamous 1967 ‘Patty’ film? And what’s the connection between the bizarre 1924 Ape Canyon Sasquatch attack and later cop-out belief in the kind of mystical, magical, non-evidence-leaving Bigfoot that drives Cian up the wall?

Find out the answers to all these questions and more, in part 2 of BIGFOOT BEFORE 1958.

Sources:

The Roe Affadavit, 1957

Why Americans Need To Believe In Monsters, 2019 William Giraldi

William Roe Bigfoot Illustration, Cryptomundo

Abominable Science, Loxton & Prothero, 2015

Daniel Perez Article, Cryptomundo, 2013

Hunting Monsters, Darren Naish, 2016

Orgone Research Article

Bigfoot: The Life And Times Of A Legend, Joshue Bluh Buhs, 2009

On The Track Of Bigfoot, Marian Place, 1974

Wallace Hoax Behind Bigfoot?, BFRO

Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, Jeff Meldrum, 2007

Kevin McLeod, Scary Music

The Coming Of The Greys: One From The Vaults (with Chris Joyce) Aug 11, 2019

Show notes

We all know what aliens look like – small grey guys with big heads, right? Over coffee with sometime co-host Mr Chris ‘Spooky’ Joyce, Cian plans an episode about the origin of the grey alien trope. It’s going to be called ‘The Coming Of The Grays’ – but wait, it seems that some time ago, in early 2017, Cian and Chris already recorded an episode for an older ‘cast on this topic!

On a windy day at the cabin, when recording is not possible, Cian enters the vault and dusts off the tapes. We are proud to present his findings to you: The Coming Of The Grays Part 1: One From The Vaults! It’s a free-wheeling discussion about the pre-history of the UFO phenomenon. We discuss Victorian phantom airships, 1930s Swedish Ghost Rockets, the Kenneth Arnold sighting, and most importantly for the history of those nefarious grey aliens, the Hill abduction case of 1961.

How did a sighting that initially seemed to be of human-looking aliens in Nazi uniforms, with ‘Jimmy Durante noses,’ come to birth the phenomenon of the grey aliens? Find out in THE COMING OF THE GREYS: ONE FROM THE VAULTS!

Sphere Itself: Getting Your Head Round The Flat Earth Theory (with James Lynch) Jul 29, 2019

Show notes

The Flat Earth Theory – so obviously wrong, and bonkers, that it isn’t even worth talking about, right? While Cian enjoys a morning coffee on the porch of the Wide Atlantic Weird cabin, all-round man of science, engineering and medicine James Lynch calls to offer his expertise on this surprisingly important issue.

After all, if such a basic ‘fact’ can be thrown into doubt, then so could just about any other scientific fact or theory! Our Flat Earth adventure becomes an exploration of fringe beliefs and alternative facts. Why DO people believe weird things? What kind of evidence would they accept to falsify their theory? How is science different from other belief systems? We discuss the recent documentary Behind The Curve, talk about the psychological underpinnings of Flat Earth belief, the secret (possible) religious motivations behind the movement, and James provides technical expertise on astronomical phenomena, plane flight paths, atmospheric refraction, and expert commentary on a host of the usual Flat Earth claims.

Phew! There’s a lot packed into this episode. So make yourself a cup of good coffee and prepare to join us on our adventures into the realm of FLAT EARTH!

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