In Research Of

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**

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.

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

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

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?