The Paranoid Strain

The Paranoid Strain

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

Recent Episodes

New! Unidentified--How the military destroyed Paul Bennewitz's sanity
June 9, 2026

New! Unidentified--How the military destroyed Paul Bennewitz's sanity

We continue our quest to learn how and why the air force's intelligence agents--specifically one Richard Doty--fed the UFO delusions of scientist and entrepreneur Paul Bennowitz until his brain broke. It's a fascinating and s...
New! Unidentified--The Air Force invents a UFO conspiracy
May 27, 2026

New! Unidentified--The Air Force invents a UFO conspiracy

This time, we start telling the sad story of Paul Bennewitz, a brilliant if somewhat eccentric engineer and entrepreneur who shared his UFO findings with the government, only to have them use his fascination with these phenom...
New! Unidentified--Hunting cows from black helicopters
May 12, 2026

New! Unidentified--Hunting cows from black helicopters

We continue considering cows, contemplating cattle carnage as coordinated by clever cads in copters. In other words, we explore alternate explanations for cattle mutilations, like secret military missions by classified, silen...
New! Unidentified--Don't Storm Area 51. They definitely can stop all of you.
April 14, 2026

New! Unidentified--Don't Storm Area 51. They definitely can stop all of you.

This time, we leave Bob Lazard as he does a victory lap around Joe Rogan's studio, and then recall the peak late-20 teens moment when a bunch of Internet randos decided to Naruto run at the gates of Area 51. There's a Netflix...
New! Unidentified--Wait...you're saying Bob Lazar might be full of crap?
March 31, 2026

New! Unidentified--Wait...you're saying Bob Lazar might be full of crap?

Bob Lazar messes with the bull and gets the horns when he goes public with what he (claims that he) knows. We wrap up Lazar's own narration of his biography, and then we consult some other perspectives that throw his claims i...