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PODCAST

Wide Atlantic Weird

Wide Atlantic Weird: an Irish podcast about why people believe weird things. Now defunct, enjoy these episodes of investigating the world of the strange, remaining critical, not cynical. And enjoy the final episodes under the guise of the Lost Valley podcast too!

science social sciences

All Episodes

01:02:11

Roots Of Horror: John Wyndham And The Day Of The...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/07/18

An empty, apocalyptic London, survivors proposing radical utopias - and all while 9-foot, monstrous carnivorous plants roam the streets? It must be THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, the most famous novel by John Wyndham, the mid-century British author famous for penning so-called 'cozy catastrophes.' Cian is joined at the Cabin In The Woods by Mr Neil Philips from the UK Wildlife Podcast to discuss Wyndham and the book, Soviet science, Cold War paranoia, mad botany, and 1950s apocalypse fiction. Grab

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01:28:00

Fake News: The Fictional Life Of Hulk Hogan Part 1...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/07/15

Like arch-conspiracy fiend Alex Jones, wrestler Hulk Hogan has had to claim in court that his real self is seperate from his in-ring persona - and that's just the beginning of his self-fictionalisation. Join Cian and his BROTHER Donal at the Cabin In The Woods for a somewhat off-topic episode of Wide Atlantic Weird where the lads delve into the extremely weird world of professional wrestling in FAKE NEWS: THE FICTIONAL LIFE OF HULK HOGAN PART 1.

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00:06:10

BONUS MICRO-EPISODE: The Vanishing Hitchhiker of Cobh

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/07/12

Since we were in the area - a very brief ghost story/urban legend for you from County Cork.

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00:24:10

St Kevin's: Cork's Abandoned Victorian Asylum

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/07/11

Every town has that one spooky abandoned building, the one that seems to naturally gather scary stories and urban legends. On the west side of Cork City, the great Victorian redbrick section of the Our Lady's complex, St Kevin's, has a real-life history of scandal and tragedy. In this episode, Cian takes a trip to the empty, fire-scarred structure that still stands above the Lee Valley onto the city. We'll discuss the Victorian origins of the complex, the scandals that went on inside, and the

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01:13:05

The Jewel Of Seven Stars: Bram Stoker's Spooky Egypt...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/07/02

*NOW UPDATED WITH EXTRA BONUS MATERIAL!* On this episode, enter the Wide Atlantic Weird cabin-in-the-woods to find the place stuffed with mummified cats, cursed relics and forbidden idols as we delve into THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS! This 1903 book from Dublin-born Bram ‘Dracula’ Stoker affords us the perfect excuse to doff a pith helmet, drink cognac, and tell mystical tales of turn-of-the-century Gothic London and spooky, mysterious Egypt! Come to find out when the Western world actually decided that

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01:20:48

Ancient Astronauts, Religion & Science In Prometheus...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/06/26

Prometheus, made with a decent amount of creative control by increasingly-eccentric director Ridley Scott, is a sorta-maybe prequel to the Alien movies, and a rather divisive entry into the franchise. Cian invites Prometheus fan Daffy to the Cabin In The Woods on a rainy summer's night to discuss the ups and downs of this visually-stunning but thematically confusing film. The guys discuss racism in Ancient Astronauts theory, the place of religion in science, bad plot tropes, and lots of other good

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01:26:21

Rumour Control: The Unbelievable Development Hell Of...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/06/17

Christ on a bicycle, you just wouldn't believe the madness that went on behind the scenes during the making of ALIEN 3. An astonishingly bleak, gothic entry into a big-budget franchise that killed off most of its beloved cast, Alien 3 was hated by fans upon release and has only very slowly gained a slightly better reputation over the years. Cian and Stokes enjoy some fine German beer (and Kinsale Pale Ale - recommended!) while getting into the almost incredible reasons why this film spent so long in

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01:46:35

From The Vaults: The History Of KISS

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/06/14

From the vaults, we bring you a VERY special episode of Wide Atlantic Weird (before it was WAW). Back in 2017, Cian was reunited with his brother Donal in snowy Montreal to talk about the history of the band KISS. Donal has long been a card-carrying member of the KISS army, and Cian has had to live with the results of this obsession, so there's a lot to talk about! And the guys came up with a special concept just for the occasion: instead of reviewing a book or movie, they each read two of the four

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00:40:28

The Land Beyond The Forest: The Mythical World Of The...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/06/12

Digging up an old script at the Cabin In The Woods, Cian addresses an old topic, a suitably spooky and Gothic one for an unseasonably cold summer’s evening: the Uberwald, the mythical imaginary version of Central and Eastern Europe where Gothic tales of the macabre traditionally take place. On this journey we take on the Fighting Fantasy books, The White Wolf Of The Harz Mountains, Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, and of course Dracula. Grab your torch, pitchfork, and a can of Nightcrawler milk stout

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00:56:38

A Franchise Nobody Wanted: The Rest Of The Blair...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/05/30

Some months ago we did an episode solely about the first Blair Witch movie from 1999. We're doing everything else in the franchise (two movies and a bunch of video games) in one episode. While this might give you an idea of the level of quality we're dealing with, there are interesting things to notice within these films and games. Perhaps the take-home lesson is simply that not everything needs a franchise. But grab a beer and join us at the Cabin In The Woods to see whether there's anything

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01:09:36

Edwardians And Dinosaurs: The Prehistory Of 'The Lost...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/05/17

Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World is the proverbial ‘not-terrible’ dinosaur story. Let’s face it, besides Jurassic Park, there aren’t many. And Conan Doyle knocked it out of the (ahem) park back in 1912 when he brought prehistoric creatures of literary age in this tale of daring Englishmen, led by the infuriating Professor Challenger, finding dinosaurs alive and well on a flat-topped mountain in the jungles of South America. The book is a seminal text in the colonial-era adventure genre. In this

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01:17:32

The Shores Of Hell: History And Memories of DOOM...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/05/10

In 1993, the world of gaming was changed forever by Doom, a fast-paced game with action and horror elements that was hugely controversial for its violent and Satanic plot. Joining Cian for a beer and a chat about the history of the game is Ian Stokes, the Wide Atlantic Weird resident IT guy. Grab yourself a brew for a conversation about the wild and woolly days of cowboy game developers, space marines and imps from Hell, connections to moral panics and school shootings, a film so bad even the Rock

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01:12:47

It Never Gets Respect: Metallica and the making of St...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/05/06

Another strange tale from the world of music here as Cian and Donal delve into Metallica’s infamously difficult phase during the recording of their much-maligned St Anger album. Metallica stand head and shoulders above most other groups in the metal world, and at the time they were making this record their star was still shooting up. But personal problems left them wracked with insecurity and an identity crisis that played out onscreen in the documentary Some Kind Of Monster. The film is full of

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01:20:39

Twisted Pair: Is Neil Breen Self-Aware? (with Ali Keane)

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/05/01

A proper, enjoyable 'bad movie' needs to have been made with by someone who truly believes in what they're doing, without irony. Cian and Ali enjoy a beer and return to the subject of their very first episode: the so-bad-they’re-good films of visionary ‘auteur’ Neil Breen. This time they finally discuss his divisive 2018 movie Twisted Pair, an effort that had them wondering whether Breen had finally become self-aware and if the game was finally up. Would Breen now become another Tommy Wiseau,

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00:42:07

Dead Men Working In The Cane Fields: The Zombies of...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/04/29

As something of a follow-up to our last episode about the birth of the ‘Spooky New Orleans’ archetype, join Cian for a lockdown bottle of ale on the porch at the Cabin in the Woods for a reading from the book ‘The Magic Island’ by William Seabrook. In 1929, Seabrook’s book was a massive success, telling dark tales about Haiti and its voodoo secrets, and in particular popularising the word ‘zombie’ among Western audiences. Having always been haunted by a story about zombified sugar-cane plantation

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00:36:51

Lafcadio Hearn In New Orleans

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/04/26

The popular image of New Orleans as a spooky, mysterious city full of witchcraft and voodoo needs no introduction. But few know that the city owes this image largely to the work of an Irishman named Lafcadio Hearn – a Victorian-era writer and traveller who sought out magic and mystery wherever he went, a collector of folklore and stories of everyday life. During his ten years writing about life in the Crescent City, he emphasised its sensuality and difference from the rest of America. Today, the

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01:09:27

What You Did Not Create: Slipknot And Nu-Metal Nostalgia

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/04/21

Get ready for a look back at a strange world: 2001 was a different time. A time of baggy jeans, wallets on chains, and a strangely heavy, angry, and proudly stupid style of music that inexplicably became mainstream. It was the era of Nu-Metal: a subgenre now so hated and disgraced that even those of us who were fans are happy to pretend it all just never happened. For myself and my brother Donal, one of our key memories of this bizarre time is the book Slipknot: Behind The Sickness Inside The Masks

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01:29:43

Restless Dreams: 90s Survival Horror Nostalgia (with...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/04/09

Video games have played a key role in the evolution of horror storytelling over the last couple of decades. And if you have fond memories of pre-rendered backgrounds, polygonal zombies, bad controls and even worse voice acting, then this episode RESTLESS DREAMS: 90S SURVIVAL HORROR NOSTALGIA is for you! Cian and Aodh get misty-eyed recalling the highs (and hilarious lows) of the Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Dino Crisis franchises. The 90s and early 00s were something of a boomtime for big-budget,

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00:22:52

Choose-Your-Own-Satanic-Panic: Fighting Fantasy And...

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/04/05

Join Cian for a quarantine session of brandy and nostalgia at the cabin in this much-delayed episode. If you fondly remember reading (and cheating) through Fighting Fantasy gamebooks in the 80s, this installment has you covered, as Cian talks us through House Of Hell, his favourite FF adventure. It's a haunted house game that really goes into far more disturbing territory than most. Cian spots the influences of Dennis Wheatley in this creepy Satanists-for-kids adventure, and wonders as to the

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00:19:31

Geraldine Cummins: The Cork Psychic

Wide Atlantic Weird ·

2020/04/04

With the world in the midst of difficulties and upheaval, we bring you a brief update on the Wide Atlantic Weird status, as well as a short episode about a woman from County Cork who was famous in the 1920s for her mediumship, automatic writing, her follow-up books to the Bible (!) and for telling fortunes for the great and the good. Her name was Geraldine Cummins, and while not well-remembered today, her success during her lifetime tells us much about the state of belief in these ideas in Ireland

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152 results

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