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  • S05E05 - Life After Life

    S05E05 - Life After Life
    2026/07/24
    ⚠️ 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. 📺 Episode Summary Despite the title, this one isn't really about proving there's an afterlife - and that turns out to be the most interesting thing about it. In Search Of takes the near-death experience and, instead of building a case for Heaven, spends most of its runtime on a much stranger question: when, exactly, is a person dead? We get four threads. A grievously wounded Vietnam veteran who watched his own body being worked on and then went back to the battlefield to talk with the men he'd already put in bags. An Emory physiologist chilling rats into a state he calls clinically-but-not-biologically dead. A Manitoba teenager whose heart was stopped for well over two hours in a snowbank and who came back with nothing to report but darkness. And a woman recalling a 1952 polio vision full of white light, a dead grandmother, and a complete moral audit of her own life. Between those, the medical talking heads keep circling the same admission: nobody agrees where the line is. It's a surprisingly restrained ISO episode ... and there's a very large name conspicuously missing from it. 👔 Nimoy Fashion Alert (NFA fashion consultant, Pedro Mendes) 👥 Who's In This Episode Tommy Clack — Army captain, artillery forward observer with the 25th Infantry Division "Wolfhounds." Wounded 29 May 1969 near the Cambodian border, losing three limbs; 22 months at the Atlanta VA and 33 operations followed. He finished college as an honors graduate, spent a long career at the VA, and became one of the country's more relentless veterans' advocates. He talks about the out-of-body experience, but - as Jeb found - he almost never leads with it. As of our recording he's still out there supporting veterans. Dr. Michael Sabom — Atlanta cardiologist. He's here to say that medicine can't pin down the moment of death. Two years later he publishes Recollections of Death, built on 116 interviews which form the closest thing the field had to a quantitative baseline. His later work takes a considerably more explicitly Christian turn. Dr. Vojin "Voja" Popović — Yugoslav-born physiologist at Emory, and the episode's designated rat botherer. Central casting could not have done better. He chills rats into apparent death and brings them back, drawing his line between clinical and biological death at the two-to-three hour mark. His actual career is a wonder: hibernators, ground squirrels, tumor-bearing hamsters, cooled dogs, hamsters submerged in oxygen-rich fluorocarbon, and a rat experiment slated for a Spacelab flight that never happened. Frequently co-credited with his wife, Dr. Pava Popović. Ted Milligan — Sixteen, and a student at St. John's Cathedral Boys' School near Selkirk, Manitoba, whose curriculum included a 27-mile snowshoe hike in temperatures around forty below. Found with no heartbeat, no breathing, and a core temperature below 25°C. By the time of filming he's a private in the Canadian Armed Forces. His account of the experience is the shortest in the episode and, for a materialist, the most instructive: darkness, then waking up. Dr. Gerald "Gerry" Bristow — The episode calls him "James." He's not. Later Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba and a genuine world authority on hypothermia; he and Dr. Robert Smith declined to do the sensible thing and kept working on a boy every indicator said was gone. An eyewitness account from anesthesiologist Dr. Arnold Tweed fills in what the episode leaves out, including the documented duration of the cardiac arrest. Dr. Fred Schoonmaker (d. 2005) — Denver cardiologist at St. Luke's, former fighter pilot, developer of a less invasive cardiac catheter, and a driving force behind Denver air ambulance service. He marks the difference between patients who know their visions weren't real and patients who insist theirs were. Dr. Janette Rainwater — Introduced as "Janet." A significant figure in Gestalt therapy, Berkeley PhD (1964), author of You're in Charge!, and the veteran of several hundred workshops. Her polio experience is the most classic NDE in the episode - light, deceased relative, life review, a very symbolic climb. Jeb's research turns up a detail the reenactment gets badly wrong, and it changes how you hear the whole segment. Rev. Loren Young (d. 2003) — Methodist minister and theologian out of Oak Hill, West Virginia; Duke, then a Bachelor of ...
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    2 時間 3 分
  • S05E04 - Daredevil Death Wish

    S05E04 - Daredevil Death Wish
    2026/05/28

    Note: 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 Astrodome crash nearly killed him. The episode's most substantive segment features Kim Kahana's stunt school in California, where the veteran stuntman trains young performers in the difference between a daredevil ("a guy who just says, let's do it") and a professional who uses illusion and safety. Psychologist Dr. Samuel Z. Klausner provides the academic frame, describing stress-seeking as almost addictive - the euphoria of overcoming fear becomes a need that grows stronger with each attempt.

    Notably, the episode is produced by the same team behind That's Incredible!, yet takes a far more restrained, documentarian approach than that show's sensationalist style. The result is one of the most credible episodes of In Search Of we've encountered - and, consequently, one of the least weird.

    **EXTENSIVE NOTES AT PATREON**
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    1 時間 48 分
  • S05E03 - Lee Harvey Oswald

    S05E03 - Lee Harvey Oswald
    2026/05/03

    Jeb 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 investigations: Dr. James Barger's acoustic analysis work (1978) and the National Academy of Sciences' debunking of that analysis (1982).

    EXTENSIVE Show Notes at our Patreon site - free for reading.
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    2 時間 10 分
  • S05E02 - Faith Healing (EXPLICIT)

    S05E02 - Faith Healing (EXPLICIT)
    2026/04/20

    Blake 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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    1 時間 52 分
  • BONUS: Weirdumentary with Gary Rhodes

    BONUS: Weirdumentary with Gary Rhodes
    2026/03/08

    Weirdumentary 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 Fathoms, In Search of Ancient Mysteries, In Search of Dracula, UFOs: Past, Present and Future

    1975: Mysteries from Beyond Earth, The Force Beyond, The Legendary Curse of the Hope Diamond, The Man of Miracles, The Outer Space Connection

    1976: Beyond Belief, In Search of Noah's Ark, Mysteries of the Gods, The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena, The Legend of Bigfoot, The Legend of Loch Ness, The Miracle Healers, The Mysterious Monsters, World Beyond Death

    1977: Aliens from Spaceship Earth, Journey into the Beyond, Mysteries of the Great Pyramid, The Lincoln Conspiracy, The Underground Doctors, The Unknown Force

    1978: Are We Alone in the Universe?, Beyond and Back, Curse of the Mayan Temple, Manbeast! Myth or Monster?, Mysteries from Beyond the Triangle, Mysteries of the Mind, Mystery of the Sacred Shroud, Secret of the Bermuda Triangle, The Amazing World of Ghosts, The Late Great Planet Earth, The Lost City of Atlantis, The UFO Journals, UFO - Exclusive! , UFO: Top Secret, Unknown Powers, World of the Unknown

    1979: Attack from Outer Space, Charles Berlitz's The Bermuda Triangle, Death: The Ultimate Mystery, Encounter with Disaster, Hypnosis and Beyond, In Search of the Historic Jesus, The Doomsday Chronicles, The Prophecies of Nostradamus, UFOs Are Real, World of Mystery

    1980: Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (TV), Land of Celtic Ghosts, Mysteries of the Mind, UFO Syndrome

    1981: Search for the Titanic
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    56 分
  • S05E01 UFO Coverups

    S05E01 UFO Coverups
    2026/01/29
    Show 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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    3 時間 12 分
  • S04E24 - Past Lives

    S04E24 - Past Lives
    2025/12/09

    Blake 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 reincarnation or just vivid, therapist-shaped fantasy, and why skeptics are so wary of hypnosis-based "memories."

      NFA (Nimoy Fashion Alert):

      Cemetery Detective Work:

      Using the 2nd NFA shot, I was able to decipher the tex on the dark tombstone. It is a lot darker in real life with a modern shot.

      That "Find a Grave" entry includes the exact location where Nimoy was standing for this episode's cemetery shot.

      Jeb asked for an animated gif of the woman in the castle with secret doors:

      The cover of Robert and Loy Young's book about reincarnation:

      The twins at the heart of the British (Hexham!) reincarnation story:

      And I can't help but scream - DON'T GO NEAR THE EDGE!!! This episode is such a cliffhanger.


      Deeper reading & sources mentioned:
      Pollock twins case write-up at the Society for Psychical Research's Psi Encyclopedia

      Psi Encyclopedia on famous past-life claims (including A.J. Stewart / Ada F. Kay):

      Ada F. Kay / A.J. Stewart biography (reincarnation claim & Falcon background)

      Evergreen Cemetery (Los Angeles) – history and the Japanese "Garden of the Pines" section

      Lucia Capacchione and inner-child / expressive-arts therapy

      Skeptical overview of past-life regression therapy (Harriet Hall, Science-Based Medicine):

      General background on past-life regression and why psychologists consider it pseudoscientific
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    2 時間 28 分
  • S04E22 - The Bimini Wall (Explicit)

    S04E22 - The Bimini Wall (Explicit)
    2025/07/19

    Jeb 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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    1 時間 49 分