This week AP has a chat with his old friend Michelle Elmquist about The Simpsons- its cultural impact, the weirdness involved in some of the episodes, and how the early seasons captured a particular essence of the 1990s. Michelle had been the host of The Eternal Void, But With Jazz podcast for which AP was sometimes a guest host or cohost. The current show now owes much to Michelle in getting AP into podcasting!

They discuss themes of the ufological, cryptozoological, and conspiratorial within the first ten or so seasons of the classic show, how much people of a certain age are mentally wired by Simpsons references, and also explore some of the alleged predictions of future events that occurred in the series. It was a fun conversation, full of heart and laughs.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man."

On this week's show, the documentary series Strange Magick is discussed with director Bill Darmon and researcher and author Dave Goudsward. The film explores the connections between sites in New England, the odd connections between the magic of places and larger-than-life figures such as Aleister Crowley and H. P. Lovecraft, and even espionage during World War I.
In this conversation the focus is more specifically on Lovecraft and his likely connections to Mystery Hill, also known as "America's Stonehenge" in Salem, New Hampshire. Dave had been the manager at the site, and is also a historian of Lovecraft's life and works- in addition to also being a very fun guy to talk to! Bill and Dave get into Lovecraft's travels and possible romantic entanglements with a less well remembered writer named Myrna Little, and how these elements informed his weird fiction.

The pitch for the film, per Bill, goes like this: Aleister Crowley. Howard Phillips Lovecraft. New Hampshire. While they never met, new independent research has turned up intriguing connections between these two giants of the occult and a mysterious third party, a Radcliffe graduate who factors prominently in both of their writings- was it the same woman?
Could she have been their connection to strange stone sites linked to a German plot during World War I?
Strange Magick is both documentary and cinematic recreation of the work of researchers David Goudsward, Dr. Richard Spence and others- it is as much a story of the research as it is the research itself.
Watch it on YouTube at @StrangeMagickFilm

It was a fascinating and fun conversation, and a great one for Lovecraft fans. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

In addition to the YouTube channel, you can keep up with the documentary by following strangemagickfilm on instagram. Bill and Dave can both be found on Facebook as well.
Find Dave Goudsward's books here: http://goudsward.com/dave/

Fred Andersson returns to the show this week to discuss some wild cases from his home country of Sweden, including sightings of mummies, gnomes, and lake monsters! Fred had previously appeared on the show to discuss Jaws 3-D for one of the Third Time's the Charm (3xtC) episodes, but he just has too many cool stories to share to not have him back on for that. In addition, he's a wonderful researcher and just an absolute pleasure to talk to or listen to.

He and AP also get into "phantom stranger" encounters, with each sharing personal tales- and perhaps finding a new connection in one of Fred's strange stories! The conversation runs the paranormal gamut, and as always is the case with Fred it was an entertaining and illuminating chat.

Check out Fred's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Northern-Lights-High-Strangeness-Sweden/dp/1954528728
And follow his work on Medium here: https://medium.com/@fred-andersson