Episode 19: Running Through the Crazy Fields With John Keel

We had the idea to do a special episode celebrating why John Keel looms so large in the field of paranormal research back in January. Considering that we’re baby podcasters who are learning with every episode we create, it as an ambitious move to even think about it, much less put it all together.

But we did it! With lots of help from a lot of friends, we managed to put together a celebration of John Keel and here we can thank everyone who helped us along with this episode.

First, thank you to the authors, researchers, podcasters and friends who gave us their thoughts on why John was an inspiration to them and their work. I’m thanking them in order of appearance because I’m looking at the script and that way I won’t forget anyone.

Thank you, Joshua Cutchin, for have such eloquent ideas on what makes Keel special and for kindly sharing them with us.. It’s always grand talking with you. And once again, thank you for writing wonderful indexes for your wonderful books. We are grateful.

Thank you, Rob Morphy and Marc Storrs of the Cryptonaut Podcast. Rob—your characterization of Keel as The Gonzo Journalist of the Paranormal is spot-on and I will forever more think of him that way. Marc—I’m with you—Keel’s unified field theory of the paranormal by way of the Ultraterrestrials is my jam, too. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.

Thank you, Greg Bishop for sharing all of your stories about meeting John, and talking with him. And, thank you for the great title for the episode—it was originally going to be titled “Belief is the Enemy,” but after your comment about “Running through the crazy fields,” our minds were changed. And seriously, that blurb from John on the back of Wake Up Down There is totally why I bought that book when I first saw it.

Thank you, Timothy Renner for stating so clearly why Keel means so much to you—because it articulates in part why we decided to name our podcast after him. As always, we have a great time talking with you.

Thank you, Brent Raynes for your story about getting messages from something that claimed to be Keel from a spirit box. The irony of such communication is delicious and I am glad that you feel that irony and yet, recognize that the incident still has meaning, and so reported it. Your generosity is always great.

I’m also going to take the time to thank Zak Kramer for his work on the sound editing for this episode as well as composing new music. The task was large, and considering this type of episode we envisioned, complicated. But you did a great job and working together, we came up with an episode we could be proud of. And the music is wonderfully creepy and fun.

The art is a painted collage by myself, Barbara Fisher—it took me about a week of work to finish. It’s paper collage, with layers of sheer acrylic glazes, interference gold and silver acrylic paint on the UFO’s the Eye and the hand, heavier washes of acrylic and pen and ink, and will be finished with many thin coats gloss varnish. It was a lot of fun to do.

The clips of John Keel giving a lecture in 1967 are from The Internet Archive. All three clips are from the same lecture, which likely took place sometime during the Saucer News Convention that ran from June 22nd-25th of that year.

It’s great to hear him talk about Mothman and UFOs while it was all happening, before he had the benefit of hindsight as he did when he wrote the book.

Finally, thank you to Morganna Marks for all of the help in working out the structure of the episode and adding to the script. It was an easier process to have two heads making editorial decisions instead of one.

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed coming up with it. Thank you all!