This week, AP is joined by Simon Hesselager Johansen for a fascinating discussion about UFO contactees that are not well known outside of Denmark and other select locales within Europe. Simon is a writer and researcher with HidDenmark, a group which chronicles and maps high strangeness, folklore, and mystery throughout the country, and in his recent work on the site he has done a deep dive on those claiming contact with beings from other planets. In this conversation, he first explains the history of HidDenmark and his contributions to it, and a bit about some historical encounters with UFOs such as the Aarslev Enge case of 1600. He then presents his wonderful research into a Polish born Danish mechanic named Josef Maliszewki and his encounters with beings from Zutorn, which allegedly pre-date the earliest American contacts. AP and Simon then talk about a later contactee, a taxi driver named Knud Weiking and his channeled messages from Orthon. Simon explains how these contacts culminated in more recent claimed contacts in Czechia and Slovakia with another name familiar to those conversant in UFO history, Ashtar Command, through personalities such as Ivo Benda and a healer called Branjo.

Throughout the conversation comparisons are made to American contactee accounts, with a particular focus on George Adamski and his worldwide following through his contact with another Orthon. They also dissect origins of Space Brother narratives, making distinctions between those drawn from Theosophical traditions and others which seem to have a Christian focus. Along the way listeners will hear about anomalous light phenomena, doomsday bunkers, the finer points of extraterrestrial couture, and even Tintin's encounter with ancient astronauts!

It was a wide-ranging and in-depth chat, with Simon expertly presenting a history of Scandinavian ufology that's largely unknown or ignored by English speaking flying saucer enthusiasts!

To follow along with Simon's work, be sure to check out HidDenmark here: https://hiddenmark.dk/category/english/

This week, AP is joined by John C. Meyers for a wide-ranging and joke-filled discussion about movies, franchises, and fandoms. John is the co-host of two great movie based podcasts, John and Alexx Hate Stuff and This May Hurt a Bit. On the latter show, John and his co-host James Strayer review every movie in a horror franchise, so having John on was a prime opportunity to discuss sequels, reboots, and remakes, and the many ways those can go wrong. Along the way they get into topics such as what makes horror movies great, trends in movies more broadly, taking franchises into space, and the looming encroachment of AI.

Other topics covered include: the trickiness of making good horror comedy, whether or not M. Night Shyamalan is secretly as serial killer, comic book culture in the movies, the finer points of bouncing decapitated heads, and the evolving nature of the cinema going experience.

Make sure you check out John's podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-and-alexx-hate-stuff/id1241812993
and here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-may-hurt-a-bit/id1623226464

This week, Ben Roylance joins AP to discuss the writings, artwork, and paranormal life of Eugenia Macer Story- a fascinating researcher and artist whose insights into the highly weird blur the lines between UFOlogy, the ghostly, and the psychic, and also someone who is often overlooked in discussions about great voices in these strange realms. Ben is the co host of the wonderful podcast Consensus Unreality, and also the owner of Apport Used Books in Emmaus, PA. In conversation here he discusses his journey in discovering the work of Macer Story, and his personal quest to collect and preserve her creations.

This episode serves as a primer for the theories and viewpoints that Macer Story worked toward during her life, and gives the listener places to pull on threads and explore more about her life and work. It also touches on the personal impacts of EMS on Ben, and he talks about how formative her work has been for him as well as how much it has generated crazy synchronicities in his life. In a fun and informative way, listeners who are unfamiliar with her are encouraged to find and celebrate the work of Eugenia Macer Story, and perhaps think a little more fluidly about the nature of reality through the highly strange.

Follow Ben's store, Apport Used Books on instagram @apportusedbooks
...and be sure to check out Consensus Unreality!