Interstellar Nonsense & Exploding Plastic

The Box of Oddities

John Elliott and Kat Walls

True Crime, Society & Culture, Comedy

4.9 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Or: How to Dismantle a UFO Cult and Melt Your Hairbrush at the Same Time Before Kat and Jethro usher in a spooky new host-swap adventure for Paraween, they’re here to crack open a box full of unhinged history and semi-combustible materials. 🛸 First up, Jethro introduces us to Dorothy Martin, a mild-mannered 1950s suburbanite who claimed to be receiving alien transmissions from the planet Clarion. According to her, the world was going to end—on Christmas, no less—but a group of spiritually-chosen humans (her Facebook group before Facebook) would be rescued by aliens. The spaceship never showed, the apocalypse got postponed, and psychologists lurking in the background coined the term “cognitive dissonance” to explain why nobody changed their minds. 🔥 Then Kat takes us on a wild ride through the volatile origins of early plastics—from celluloid billiard balls that exploded on impact, to asbestos-infused radios, and styrofoam that probably still exists in a landfill near you. It’s the horrifying, chemically unstable backstory of the objects we once thought were glamorous, but were really just slow-burning environmental crimes. Also featured:🎃 A sneak peek at next week’s Paraween: Invasion of the Host Snatchers episode with Christine Schieffer from And That’s Why We Drink🎸 Band names so questionable they might qualify as minor felonies🏓 Ping pong balls that (thankfully) don’t explode anymore Because when belief systems collapse and plastics ignite, you know you’ve found your people. Vote Box of Oddities For People's Choice Award Here! Live Show Info And Tickets Here! #TheBoxOfOddities #PlasticHistory #UFOCult #CognitiveDissonance #PodcastRecommendations #WeirdHistory #ClarionAliens #ExplodingBilliards #Parapods #Paraween #AndThatsWhyWeDrink #CultPsychology #OddlyHuman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you like this podcast, can we recommend another one? It's called Big Picture Science.
0:05.8	You can hear it wherever you get your podcast and its name tells part of the story.
0:10.2	The big picture questions and the most interesting research in science.
0:15.3	Seth and I are the host. Seth is a scientist. I am Molly and I'm a science journalist.
0:19.9	And we talk to people smarter than us and we have fun along the way. The show is called Big Picture Science. And as Seth said, you can hear it wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to from Beneath the Hollywood Sign. If you love old movies, Hollywood history or the golden age of filmmaking, you've come to the right place. This is the podcast that talks about amazing stories of Tinseltown from another era
0:41.3	and fascinating conversations with writer-producer Steve Kubine and actress writer Nan McNamara.
0:46.3	So Steve, did Ava Gardner and Howard Hughes have a good relationship?
0:50.3	Well, they did until he dislocated her jaw.
0:53.3	What? Well, don't worry he dislocated her jaw. What?
0:54.3	Well, don't worry. She hitting back with an ashtray.
0:56.5	From beneath the Hollywood sign is the chin joint for you.
1:01.2	What follows may not be suitable for all audiences.
1:04.0	Listener discretion is advised.
1:06.8	The world is full of stories.
1:12.6	Stories of mysteries. Of curiosities.
1:15.6	Of oddities.
1:18.6	Join Cat and Jethro Gilligan Toth for the strange,
1:23.6	the bizarre, the unexpected, as they lift the lid and cautiously peer inside the box of oddities.
1:35.9	I don't know if you know this not, but I am a very fancy lady.
1:40.8	Well, I don't think anybody can argue with that. If they do, I'll fight them. I am so excited that we were able to be a part of this. And I'm so excited to be able to share it with you now. So Peripods is the network started by and that's why we drink. Right. And this year, they are presenting Paro-ween
2:04.4	invasion of the host snatchers. You may have heard of this. And that's why we drink,
2:11.2	live laugh larceny, ladies and tangents, creeps and crimes, and us. There's a lot of host swapperooning going on.
	...

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