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10/29/25 - Beyond the Veil: UFOs, Cryptids, and the Paranormal with Dr. Dean Bertram

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10/29/25 - Beyond the Veil: UFOs, Cryptids, and the Paranormal with Dr. Dean Bertram

Paranormal Among Us with Paranormal Paul

2025/10/30
Paranormal Among Us with Paranormal Paul

Paranormal Among Us with Paranormal Paul

2025/10/30
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Dean Bertram has a PhD in history from the University of Sydney, Australia. His doctoral dissertation was titled “Flying Saucer Culture: An Historical Survey of American UFO Belief”. His writings have featured in a range of publications, including Fortean ...

Highlights

In this episode, historian and filmmaker Dr. Dean Bertram explores the tangled roots of modern UFO belief—not as a story of alien visitation, but as a cultural phenomenon shaped by pulp fiction, Cold War secrecy, personal trauma, and deliberate disinformation.
08:08
They decided to start the Night of Horror Short Film Festival about 20 years ago because there was no horror festival in Australia.
13:35
Used a Super 8 camera to make The Revenge of Joey Barbagallo as a kid, inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark stunts
18:58
Reading Edith Fiore's book made the speaker reinterpret childhood 'little man' memories as potentially related to alien abduction narratives
32:59
People's experiences with grey extraterrestrials are influenced by cultural expectations from UFO documentaries, books, and movies
46:43
People report shooting Bigfoot and Dogman with no physical evidence—suggesting they may not be flesh-and-blood creatures
54:06
William Moore admitted at a MUFON symposium that he was an Air Force intelligence asset
1:02:19
The Roswell recovery was likely a lost test balloon used to detect Soviet nuclear tests
1:13:35
When Kenneth Arnold had the first flying-saucer report in June 1947, the June 1947 issue of Amazing Stories was all about the Shaver Mystery.
1:22:42
Congressman Tim Burchett discussed deep-sea alien bases, echoing Richard Shaver and Raymond A. Palmer's decades-old ideas about oceanic extraterrestrial habitation
1:28:16
Ghost stories will be shared on Halloween night

Chapters

How a childhood Super 8 film and a Sydney horror festival launched a lifelong obsession with the weird?
00:00
From Raiders of the Lost Ark to international film festivals: What sparked a career in genre cinema?
10:36
What made a private investigator pause in a bookstore—and change the course of his academic life?
16:23
Was that 'little man' at my bedside real, remembered, or something else entirely?
25:08
Why do we see gray aliens—and not, say, Victorian ghosts or Mesopotamian deities—when we 'encounter' the unknown?
35:34
If the government knows about UFOs, why would they tell us—or would they even know what to believe themselves?
49:08
How did an Air Force intelligence officer help invent the modern UFO myth—and why did believers refuse to let go?
56:42
What did pulp magazines know about flying saucers before anyone saw one—and why did it matter so much?
1:07:32
Could Atlantis, Lemuria, and deep-sea aliens all be echoes of the same ancient story?
1:19:57
What happens when Halloween isn’t just a holiday—but a doorway into how we make sense of the unexplained?
1:28:16

Transcript

Dr. Dean Bertram: Craving something specific? From global flavors to viral snacks, TikTok has it all. If you can dream it, you can make it. Right at home. Find your next favorite dish on TikTok. Paul: Yes, you can. A five-minute, quick and easy calorie-bu...