Synopsis
The show where we watch the 1970s TV show "In Search Of..." and look at possible explanations the producers didn't consider.
Episodes
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S05E07
30/10/2026 Duration: 02h12minOriginal In Search Of... air date: November 1, 1980 (syndicated; see Deep Cuts) Hosts: Jeb Card and Blake Smith Guest: Sharon A. Hill, geologist, science writer, and author of Scientifical Americans: The Culture of Amateur Paranormal Researchers. Sharon also has a new cryptid-themed podcast out now called Pop Goes the Cryptid! Snag that RSS right here. Five and a half months after Mount St. Helens blew out its north flank, In Search Of... got a volcano episode on the air, and geologist (and almost-volcanologist) Sharon Hill returns to help us dig through the rubble.
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S05E06 - MOON MADNESS
17/08/2026 Duration: 02h20minJeb and Blake go in research of... MOON MADNESS! Does the full moon drive people mad? Will this episode drive your hosts mad? Was In Search Of... not able to afford a fact-checker in season five? SO MANY QUESTIONS! This is our Halloween Episode for season five. This is our TIME TRAVEL episode for season five. This is... MOON MADNESS. Nimoy Fashion Alert: Extended show notes freely available on our Patreon Site.
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S05E05 - Life After Life
24/07/2026 Duration: 02h02min⚠️ Heads up: this episode opens with combat footage from the Tet Offensive and includes graphic descriptions of battlefield injury, a child in medical crisis, and animal experimentation. If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text at 988.⚠️ Jeb and Blake look at the birth of NDE research: a field of study with a significant footprint in the metro-Atlanta area. Rats are bothered. Soldiers are wounded. Canadian teens are frozen. ...and we're here to talk about all of it.
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S05E04 - Daredevil Death Wish
28/05/2026 Duration: 01h48minNote: This episode briefly touches on the topic of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, please contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. Blake and Jeb crash headlong into S05E04 of In Search Of... on the topic of Daredevil Death Wish. Episode Summary This In Search Of episode asks a surprisingly straightforward question for this show: what drives daredevils to risk their lives? Rather than chasing aliens or cryptids, the episode plays it remarkably straight - functioning more as a documentary about stunt performers than the paranormal-adjacent fare we've come to expect. After a montage of vintage stock footage the episode profiles several working daredevils: Pat Jackson, a 42-year-old housewife who rides motorcycles through flaming boards; Roger Kober, a 22-year-old whose "slide for life" goes wrong on camera; Hank Wise and his "Iron Man" act (letting a truck drive over his body); and Chuck Strange, a demolition derby natural turned pickup-truck pilot whose Ast
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S05E03 - Lee Harvey Oswald
03/05/2026 Duration: 02h10minJeb and Blake tackle In Search Of...'s S05E03 topic of Lee Harvey Oswald. Episode Summary This In Search Of episode examines the assassination of President John F. Kennedy through the lens of (at the time this aired) newly discovered acoustic evidence and Cold War intrigue. Rather than accepting the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, the episode presents "new evidence" suggesting a conspiracy involving multiple gunmen, potential Soviet involvement, and even the extraordinary theory that the man killed by Jack Ruby may not have been the real Lee Harvey Oswald. The episode relies heavily on acoustic analysis of the Dallas police motorcycle tape (1978), testimony from KGB defector Yuri Nosenko, handwriting analysis of Oswald's Soviet diary, and the fringe theory of British investigator Michael Eddowes that a Soviet lookalike carried out the assassination. Notably, this episode aired just three weeks before the election of Ronald Reagan, and sits chronologically between two major
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S05E02 - Faith Healing (EXPLICIT)
20/04/2026 Duration: 01h51minBlake and Jeb discuss ISO's coverage of FAITH HEALING. The episode goes to places new and old. Jeb gives us historical context. Blake gets angry. Nimoy wears a lab coat. EXTENSIVE Show Notes on our free Patreon page
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BONUS: Weirdumentary with Gary Rhodes
08/03/2026 Duration: 55minWeirdumentary has a forward by Stephen Bissette who wrote a book also likely to be of interest to listeners: Cryptid Cinema (affiliate link) (A follow-up to that book is under construction and will include research by your's truly about the "4-walling" tour of the PGF.) I linked to Feral House's page for Weirdumentary above at the request of Gary. If you're curious about their catalog, we talked with their owner recently about monstrous food and they also produced Al Ridenour's new book about Carnival. This is not a complete list of the films in the book - and it also covers a few TV series including In Search Of... and Arthur C. Clarke's _____ (he had three ITV series covering topics similar to ISO with each season getting a slightly different name). 1970: Chariots of the Gods, The Unexplained 1971: The Hellstrom Chronicles, The Man Who Saw Tomorrow 1972: Bigfoot Man or Beast, Monsters! Mysteries or Myths?, The Devil's Triangle, The Legend of Boggy Creek 1973: In Search of Ancient Astronauts 1974: Deadly Fa
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S05E01 UFO Coverups
29/01/2026 Duration: 03h11minShow less Jeb and Blake kick off Season 5 of In Search Of... by researching UFO COVERUPS! Links: UFO Crash at Roswell Catalina UFO Footage and Reddit discussion of same Twilight Zone - A Small Talent for War Malmstrom UFO Incident Obit for Col. Donald Burggrabe Peter Gersten "the UFO Lawyer" Raymond Fowler Col. Robert Friend - and obit Jesse Marcel Sr. NASA Lifting Body Northrop Flying Wing Doak VZ-4 (not a saucer!) Avrocar Jupiter II (Lost in Space) Nimoy Fashion Alert! UFO Crash Sites in New Mexico: There is a lot of Top Secret in this episode: Col Donald Burggrabe Raymond Fowler Peter Gersten Donald Ritter Jesse Marcel Sr. Col Robert Friend And was the model UFO in this episode a guest star from Lost In Space?
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S04E24 - Past Lives
09/12/2025 Duration: 02h28minBlake and Jeb go In Research Of PAST LIVES with Leonard Nimoy. Subjects include reincarnation claims, past-life regression therapy, and some truly baffling Nimoy wardrobe choices. Link to YouTube Episode (while it lasts) Topics we cover include: Nimoy wandering a Los Angeles graveyard in a strange quasi-military sport coat, and Blake's detective work tying the filming location to Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights. The famous Pollock twins case from Hexham, England, where two girls were said to be the reincarnations of their deceased sisters — and how later research complicates the story. Dr. Lucia Capacchione's art-therapy / inner-child work and how the show uses regression narratives to explain modern psychological problems. Playwright A.J. Stewart (Ada F. Kay), who became convinced she was James IV of Scotland and wrote Falcon: The Autobiography of His Grace James IV King of Scots as if from the king's own perspective. Whether past-life regression therapy produces evidence of reincarn
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S04E22 - The Bimini Wall (Explicit)
19/07/2025 Duration: 01h48minJeb and Blake ponder Atlantis and "healing holes" in the waters off the coast of Bimini. (Weirdly this is almost literally true as Blake ended up actually in Bimini just a week before this ep released. More on that soon.) Links for Shownotes: Roby Yonge on "The Beatles Paul is Dead" Neptune Memorial Reef "Psychic" Irene Hughes Bimini Wall Edgar Cayce Beachrock The Healing Hole More on the crystal ball from 2010 (Cayce related) Nimoy Fashion Alert: Other interesting images from the episode: Hemingway's Healing Hole: Robey Yong and Irene Hughes re-enact their experiences. Doc Raymond Brown and his crystal ball Marcel Vogel and some crystals - he was also in S01E01 on talking plants.
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Alien Intrusion and the UTH
14/07/2025 Duration: 01h19minFlashback to January 2018:In this episode of MonsterTalk, we return to discussion of the Ultraterrestrial Hypothesis (UTH) and what seems to be its growing influence in paranormal circles. It’s been used to explain UFOs, mothman, bigfoot, fairies, dogman, ghosts and many other phenomena which defy scientific demonstrability. Now it crops up again in a new film event titled Alien Intrusion which turned out to be a stealth evangelical creationist film which suggests that aliens and UFOs are actually demonic. We are joined by MonsterTalk alum Joe Laycock, Natasha Mikles and Jeb Card to discuss the UTH and Jeb’s Paranormal Unified Field Theory (PUFT) as it relates to this film and the work of John Keel and others. In Research Of… MonsterTalk Joe Laycock Natasha Mikles Jeb Card Music Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys
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S4 Bonus: The Mothman Prophecies part 2
08/06/2025 Duration: 02h42minThis is part 2 of our 2-part coverage of The Mothman Prophecies movie. If you haven't listened to Part-1, please turn over the record and start again. Additional show notes available (for free) on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/s4-bonus-mothman-129987183
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S04 Bonus: The Mothman Prophecies Part 1
08/06/2025 Duration: 02h16minThis is part 1 of our 2-part coverage of The Mothman Prophecies movie. This is in lieu of S04E21 (see below) but we hope you enjoy the content and after part 2, we return to our regularly scheduled episodes list. "So... Air Disasters Predictions, Jeb? What do you think we'll get?" Well it turned out to be more than we expected. During our research for this episode we ran into a bit of a puzzle. It turns out that one of the key figures in the episode is still alive and has become an important figure in the world of conspiracy and out of an abundance of caution for our own sanity (as regards potential litigiousness) we've decided to shelve this one for a while. Will we come back and fill in the gap when we think the coast is clear? I don't know - but we didn't want to leave a hole in your listening so we decided to do something... more ambitious. So what we did instead was we recorded a 4+ hour deep dive into the 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies. Extensive show notes available (for free) at our Patreon pag
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S04E20 - In Search of John the Baptist
19/02/2025 Duration: 01h47minJeb and Blake go in search of John the Baptist's resting place. Content Warning: Human remains on screen. Discussion of murder. Beheading John the Baptist (wiki) Salome (play) In 2018 the murder of Bishop Epiphanius took place and rocked the religious community -- not important for this episode but it popped up a lot in my searching. San Silvestro "head" shown in intro Same - but wiki article Nimoy Fashion Alert (NFA Wardrobe consulting by The Hogtown Rake, Pedro Mendes) The "head" of John the Baptist at San Silvestro: Art historian Michael Patroconni (Petroccione?) I think Jeb and I found this to be the most fun part of the episode: Gerald Larue obituary Herod Antipas (the Herod that executed JTB) Wadi El Natrun The Cave of John the Baptist
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S04E19 - Earth Visitors (Explicit)
14/12/2024 Duration: 02h41minBlake tries to talk Jeb off the ledge as we return to the classic theme of "ancient astronauts" in this throwback episode titled: Earth Visitors. Some links relevant to our discussion: Dejah Thoris (character) MUFON/Harzan scandal Roman Dodecahedrons (archaeology) Frank Frazetta Boris Vallejo We mention Zecharia Sitchin. Research suggests humans grow more neurons than did Neanderthals. A bunch of this episode comes from the work of Maurice Chatelain, who we shall refer to as "Shadowlane." His book Our Cosmic Ancestors sports one of the more interesting book covers we've seen while researching this show. He also wrote Our Ancestors Came from Outer Space. Maurice Chatelain's credentials appear to have been somewhat overstated in the episode. We'll be talking about several "Out of Place Artifacts" or OOPAs in this episode. Let's start with the "Boot Print" aka The Meister Print. (pictured below) See also this article by Glenn Kuban. Very compelling stuff. I guess. I mean it sort of looks like show
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S04E18 In Search Of... The Ghost Ship
18/10/2024 Duration: 01h50minJeb and Blake head out to sea in research of the mystery of what happened to the crew of The Mary Celeste. Links: The Dei Gratia Nimoy Fashion Alert (NFA Wardrobe consulting by The Hogtown Rake, Pedro Mendes) Attorney Fred Flood In 1913, The Strand Magazine provided an alleged survivor's account from one Abel Fosdyk, supposedly Mary Celeste's steward. The Mary Celeste (1913 article) Per "WhatTheFont" website identifier, that font is (appropriately): JOLLY ROGER! Meanwhile on Skull Hut Island... Pop Culture: Dead Calm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_the_Mary_Celeste Read it, it’s a time. Hammer film -Jeb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chase_(Doctor_Who)
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S04E17 - Wild Children (Explicit)
12/09/2024 Duration: 02h05minJeb and Blake go into the jungles of California and France in search of WILD CHILDREN! This episode of ISO contains a lot of disturbing content and our commentary is laced with expletives, hence the Explicit tag. Tarzan is raised by a fictional ape species known as The Mangani The story of Mowgli is LOOOOSELY based on the real-life person Dina Sanichar. Frequently referenced ERB Zine article Ian Jackson obituary News coverage of David as adult (BBC) 2021 update on David 1985 story about search for "wild children" (and Sham Dev/Shamdeo) Christopher Hitchens on Mother Theresa Japanese quadrupedal runner The Green Children of Woolpit Victor of Aveyron Disturbing story of Genie - more neglected than feral NFA - Wild Children: It's supposed to be a Bear but it has some other possumbilities.
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S04E16 - Vincent van Gogh
25/08/2024 Duration: 02h29minHow could Vincent have been a creative genius - yet also "insane?" Jeb and Blake take a look at Nimoy's very personal thoughts about this question. This episode deals with the topic of self-harm and suicide. If you're struggling with thoughts of self harm, please get help immediately. You can reach trained and empathetic counselors (in the USA) by dialing 988 or 1-800-273-TALK. We care about our listeners and want you to be around for many years to enjoy life - and our work. Links for Show Notes: Nimoy's play VINCENT via Archive 81 Words - This American Life on the DSM The Book of Kells Bullshit or Not? Was JTR really Nessie? Article on Jo Bonger The Golden Gate Quartet Weird Al's Skipper Dan (YouTube) Doctor Who clip of Vincent at the art gallery Early montage sequence shows: Self Portrait (1888) Starry Night (1889) Vase with 15 Sunflowers (1888) Bedroom at Arles (1888) Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in Arles (1888) Encampment of gypsies with caravans (1888) Langlois Bridge at Arles
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S04E15 - The Missing Heir (Explicit)
31/07/2024 Duration: 01h47minJeb and Blake learn all about the riveting world of stock certificates and inheritance law! It may not be the most mysterious episode of In Search Of... but it's certainly one of the episodes we watched. Show Notes: Orson Welles Critic Clip Lot 249 Texas Pacific Land trust 1980 article The big 2014 Business Insider article Pembroke: http://www.oldlongisland.com/2008/02/pembroke.html http://www.oldlongisland.com/2011/10/pembroke.html http://www.oldlongisland.com/2009/07/pembroke-american-architect.html Pembroke tour (video) Alice de Lamar Failed lawsuit Contemporary article about the case Nimoy Fashion Alert (red-shift corrected) The case of the missing hair! Jeb was confounded by this man's barberian style choices.
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S04E14 - San Andreas Fault [EXPLICIT]
30/06/2024 Duration: 02h03sJeb and Blake are joined by Sharon Hill to get shook by the San Andreas Fault! Understanding the Richter Scale (logarithmic) Link (Netflix) to Earthstorm docu series YT video clip featuring geologist Dr. Kerry Sieh Classic Budweiser commercial from the 70s The Salton Sea Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Nuclear activist Ray Vrana Peter Gros of Wild Kingdom San Andreas movie with The Rock (Amz affiliate link) Cover to guide for SF geological tour: Dr. Tim Hall - One of the founders of the San Andreas Fault Trail in 1977. Featured in 2011 documentary available on YT. Dr. Kerry Sieh The very sexy VT52 from DEC. NFA San Andreas edition: