234 – Toby Ball and Strange Arrivals S2
MonsterTalk Podcast
#234 – Toby Ball – Strange Arrivals
Guest: Toby Ball
Hosted by Blake Smith and Karen Stollznow
Notable Quotes
“This is my opinion, but I don’t think I’m alone thinking this, that there is an agenda in a lot of ufologists to undermine scientific materialism. They really don’t like it. They want to reject it. And if they can get wide acceptance that all of these strange things are real, then therefore scientific materialism can’t stand up to that. And therefore, it’ll collapse and something else can be built.” – Blake Smith
“If you look at the whole thing as a giant phenomenon, it’s just like ghosts. UFOs become an explanation for everything that you don’t understand.” Blake Smith
“I think what’s really interesting about ufology, and I hate to kind of make an exact comparison, but I think it’s, it’s similar to like spiritualism from back in the eighties. It’s like, ‘What is all this telling you about the world that you’re living in at the time?’” – Toby Ball
Episode Summary
Blake and Karen speak with Toby Ball, author and host of the Strange Arrivals, a podcast that presents a historical UFO event within a social and scientific context. They deep dive not just on the UFO phenomenon, but also on ufology, aspects of which Blake has strong feelings about, as he ardently shows throughout this episode.
Relevant Links
Strange Arrivals Podcast http://apple.co/strangearrivals
Rendlesham Forest incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendlesham_Forest_incident
Art Bell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Bell
Project Blue Book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book
J. Allen Hynek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Allen_Hynek
Mirage Men Documentary trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfR18lm4ADs
Mick West’s website https://www.metabunk.org/home/
The Secret of Bigfoot: Part 1 (The Six Million Dollar Man episode) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073677/
MonsterTalk 221 – Sarah Scoles
Some notes about Blake’s rant re: UFOs, UAPs, NYTs and NDEs
How Washington Got Hooked on Flying Saucers by Jason Colavito
Also by Jason – a blog post about UFOs, TTSA, and media coverage of these Bigelow-adjacent figures
The NYT article that kicked this current media blitz off.
Art Bell’s AREA 2000 on Archive.org
In this Episode of MonsterTalk
Introducing Toby
Discussing the Rendlesham Forest Case
Blake on current UAP phenomenon and media coverage
Project Blue Book: Sign, Grudge, the Robertson Panel, and J. Allen Hynek
“Weird-washing” and anti-materialism among ufologists
Art Bell’s Area 2000 and the Bigelow Foundation
Toby’s idea behind the new season of Strange Arrivals
Richard Doty, Paul Benowitz, and strategic disinformation within the UFO community
The Disclosure movement
Strange Arrivals episode details, and Toby’s favorite monster(s)
Toby on why ufology is important
Farewells
Catch Toby Ball on Twitter
Toby Ball’s website http://www.tobyball.com/