Wide Atlantic Weird

Latest Episodes:

From The Vaults: The Reincarnation of Bridey Murphy May 15, 2021

Show notes

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 ...

Red Sky At Night: Lost Cosmonauts (with Dr Tom Ellis) May 01, 2021

Show notes

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’

-Robert Heinlein and the Lost Cosmonauts

-‘Yurimania’ and promoting Yuri Gagarin as a sex symbol

-The Italian Battista brothers’ claims of recording lost cosmonauts

-The Lost Cosmonaut image in film and art as a representation of memories of the Soviet state

-Vladimir Komarov, the ‘real’ lost cosmonaut

-Lost cosmonauts as a political idea vs a cultural idea

LINKS

Buy Me A Coffee

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic

Tom Ellis on Twitter

https://twitter.com/Tomsomol

Tom Ellis’s Blog

https://redskyatdawn.wordpress.com/

Gagarin And The Lost Moon

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000v24g

Tsar-Bomb album

https://heimatderkatastrophe.bandcamp.com/album/hdk-68-bajkonur

Imogen Knox’ article on Haxan

https://terribleimaginations.wordpress.com/2021/04/24/haxan-rationalism-and-retrospective-diagnosis/

Bobcat Goldthwait’s American Bigfoot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTY8xinMrSI

Conspiracy Culture, Peter Knight, 2000

https://www.routledge.com/Conspiracy-Culture-From-Kennedy-to-The-X-Files/Knight-Knight/p/book/9780415189781

Hermann Oberth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Oberth

Roadside Picnics Article by darmon Richter: Chernobyl and the Falcon Lake UFO Incident

https://www.exutopia.com/chernobyl-ufos-falcon-lake/

The Space Suit Film, Gary Westfahl, 2012

https://books.google.ie/books/about/The_Spacesuit_Film.html?id=kej2ygAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

Supposed Lost Cosmonaut Recordings

http://web.archive.org/web/20180309024747/http://www.lostcosmonauts.net/man.htm

http://web.archive.org/web/20180309024745/http://www.lostcosmonauts.net/wom.htm

Sven Grahn’s Article about Torre Bert

http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/Torre/TorreB.html

Into The Silent Sea: Short Lost Cosmonaut Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2rmTVKU37Y

The Cosmonaut Who Couldn’t Stop Smiling, Andrew L. Jenks, 2012

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13226355-the-cosmonaut-who-couldn-t-stop-smiling

Early Modern Witchcraft Belief (with Imogen Knox) Apr 24, 2021

Show notes

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 the Reformation

-a case from Co Antrim and an earlier case it may be patterned after

-the role of Margaret Murray, Montague Summers and Dennis Wheatley in shaping modern ideas about witches

NOTES:

Buy Me A Coffee!! Please and thank you :)

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic

Imogen Knox on Twitter

https://twitter.com/Imogen_Knox

Imogen's Blog, Terrible Imaginations

https://terribleimaginations.wordpress.com/

Wonderful and True Tale of the Bewitching of a Young Girl in Ireland

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/B03653.0001.001/1:2?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

Alternative original version of the story

http://witching.org/production/brimstone/detail.php?mode=assertions&pid=153

Fantastic Fights Podcast, House of Hell episode

https://www.hauntedphonograph.com/fantastic-fights-and-where-to-find-them/tag/house+of+hell

BONUS EPISODE: The Origins Of Kong Apr 17, 2021

Show notes

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's 2005 version.

ORIGINAL KONG EPISODE

https://anchor.fm/cian-gill/episodes/Colonialism-And-Kong-Peter-Jacksons-Remake-Reconsidered-em557t

BUY ME A COFFEE :)

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic

Irish Burial Customs and 'Teig O'Kane and the Corpse' (with Dr Aoife Bhreatnach) Apr 10, 2021

Show notes

'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 the Censored Podcast to talk about Irish burial customs, the stories of Douglas Hyde, changelings, folkloric moving graveyards, sectarian burial rivalries, Irish fairy lore, and lots more!

LINKS

Censored Podcast

http://censored.ie/censored-podcast/

Irish Garrison Towns Blog

http://irishgarrisontowns.com/

Buy Me A Coffee

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic

Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellboy:_The_Chained_Coffin_and_Others

The original Taidhg O'Catháin story collected by Douglas Hyde

https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/yeats/fip/fip08.htm

The Burning of Bridget Cleary (Irish Times)

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/offbeat/the-story-of-the-last-witch-burned-alive-in-ireland-1.2880691

The Burning of Bridget Cleary by Angela Bourke

https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-burning-of-bridget-cleary-9781446412329

Creatures Out Of Time: Those Who Hunt The Skunk Ape Mar 27, 2021

Show notes

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. What kind of man does it take to hunt the skunk ape? We find out. A portrait of the renegade, outsider, throwback woodsman type monster obsessive. Episode includes:

-discussion about the various regional types of Bigfoot

-disagreement among cryptozoologists about how many species there might be

-Discovery Florida's video of a visit to the Skunk Ape headquarters

-Physical description of the skunk ape

-Upcoming film on the skunk ape, shot on location!

-Smithsonian article all about the Skunk Ape Headquarters

-Some reports from the 70s

-The 'outsider' traits of the cryptozoologist

-How a feud with the parks system became an origin story for the monster hunter ...

-Conspiracies in Bigfoot world ...

-Primate Products: are actual monkeys the answer?

-The amazing Myakka Ape photo

LINKS:

Buy Me A Coffee! Thanks :)

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic

Hunting Monsters by Darren Naish

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Hunting-Monsters-Audiobook/B074HDT4W3

Discovery Canada Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoQ0r2ligPg&t=138s

The Skunk Ape Research Headquarters

https://www.skunkape.info/

Skeptical Equirer, Skunk Ape, Joe Nickell, 2014

https://skepticalinquirer.org/newsletter/tracking-floridas-skunk-ape/

Smithsonian Article, Joseph Stromberg, 2014

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/trail-floridas-bigfoot-skunk-ape-180949981/

TheCryptozoologist.Webs Skunk Apes, 2011

https://thecryptozoologist.webs.com/apps/blog/show/7607338-skunk-apes-hairy-humanoids-of-north-america-s-southern-swamps-and-elsewhere-part-4

Darren Naish On The Myakka Ape

https://twitter.com/tetzoo/status/1302341705891446786?lang=en

The Digital Campfire: Looking Back At Creepypasta (with Chris Joyce) Mar 14, 2021

Show notes

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 stay away from cabins in the woods (present company excluded, of course). Conversation includes:

-personal memories of creepypasta

-origins of the name

-some famous Cpastas: Jeff the Killer, Ben Drowned, Slenderman, etc

-Candle Cove and short Cpastas vs epic, expanded ones

-our personal fave Cpastas

-NoSleep and the 'rules' for online creepy fiction

-the 2014 Slenderman attack and moral panics

-nostalgia and the obsession with old video games and pre-digital tech

-the legacy of Cpasta? Indie horror gaming & social media ghost stories

LINKS:

Buy me a coffee! A haunted coffee.

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic

Vox Possible's Bandcamp Page

https://voxpossible.bandcamp.com/

Finger Post Blog

https://finger-post.blog/

Creepypasta, Candle Cove, And The Digital Gothic, Jessica Balanzategui

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1470412919841018?journalCode=vcua

Slender Man Is Coming, Blank & McNeill

https://books.google.ie/books/about/Slender_Man_Is_Coming.html?id=J6NtDwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

Haunted PS1 Indie Game Horror

https://hauntedps1.itch.io/demodisc2020

The Ghost In My Machine Blog

https://theghostinmymachine.com/

Dear David in the Irish Times

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/dear-david-is-the-bone-chilling-online-horror-true-or-fake-1.3331231

The Russian Sleep Experiment

https://www.creepypasta.com/the-russian-sleep-experiment/

Sonic.exe

https://www.creepypasta.com/sonic-exe/

It Had My Mother's Voice

https://www.creepypasta.com/it-had-my-mothers-voice/

Tales From A Retired Cryptozoologist

https://www.creepypasta.com/tales-from-a-retired-cryptozoologist/

Return to Yowie Country: The Australian Apeman Again Feb 27, 2021

Show notes

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 yahoo? What's in a name ...

-Do cultures worldwide report 'hairy man' beings? An archetype?

-Colonial era 'Australian gorilla' reports and 19c newspaper hoax culture

-Why were there so few sightings in the early 20th century? Should we trust back-dated reports?

-Rex Gilroy and the emergence of the yowie into popular culture circa 1975

LINKS:

Buy me a coffee, ya bogan!

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic

The Yowie: In Search Of Australia's Bigfoot, Healy & Cropper, 2006

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-yowie/tony-healy/paul-cropper/9781933665160

The Hairy Man, Henry Lawson, 1907

http://www.telelib.com/authors/L/LawsonHenry/prose/trianglesoflife/hairyman.html

Video of Rex Gilroy (worth a look!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziwFN_aEnko

American Monster, William Giraldi

https://gen.medium.com/why-americans-need-to-believe-in-monsters-d5480ad9222e

A House That Eats Girls: House (1977) with James Harding Feb 20, 2021

Show notes

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 'House' theme (stick around till the end for the full track!)

-memories of limited access to Japanese cinema when we were younger

-memories of the Tartan Asia Extreme series

-Japanese cinema during the 1970s and the effect of Jaws & blockbusters

-Nobuhiko Obayashi's background in advertising

-The genesis of 'House' as a child's dream-logic

-Memories of the atomic bomb and clashes of culture in 20th-century Japanese films

LINKS:

BUY ME A COFFEE ;)

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wideatlantic

Check out the amazing work of Villainest, James' band, here:

https://villainest.bandcamp.com/

Listen to the Villainest cover of the House theme music

Listen here

https://soundcloud.com/villainest/theme-from-hausu-16-bit-sessions-15

Listen to the amazing Rex Viper doing Mighty Wings, with James on lead vocals!

Listen here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgksfOYP0SI

Invisible Empire: Mysticism And Colonialism in Joan Lindsay's Picnic At Hanging Rock Feb 13, 2021

Show notes

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, Miranda Must Go, and the Australian 'tabula rasa'

-why we love unresolved mysteries

-a post-colonial interpretation of PAHR

-a 1900s period piece or a 1960s new age classic?

-which characters 'transcend' and why?

-the 'great Australian novel', Joan Lindsay as a mystic

-Lindsay's obsession with time, her own background with Hanging Rock

-why St Valentine's day?

-the enigmatic final chapter!

LINKS: