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The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio

June 22, 2025 — Larry Arnold: Spontaneous Human Combustion

The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio

The Paracast Company

Science, News, Society & Culture

3.4683 Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2025

⏱️ 110 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After 19 years, paranormal researcher Larry Arnold returns to talk with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about the strange and frightening phenomenon of spontaneous human combustion (SHC). He is regarded by many as the world’s expert on SHC, but others regard him  as a “mystery monger” and “world-class fool.” After leaving Lafayette College and a brief career in electrical engineering, Arnold founded PSI: ParaScience International in 1976 to pursue the exploration of Fortean anomalies and consciousness. His controversial article published in August 1978, titled “Meltdown…at TMI-2,” would 8 months later be termed “uncannily accurate” by The Philadelphia Inquirer in presaging the future of that nuclear power plant’s “impossible” Class IX meltdown near his home. The tragedy was best known as Three Mile Island. This discussion will cover both the nuclear incident and his 1995 classic title, “Ablaze!” This large book contains hundreds of unbelievable examples of The Fire Within, culled from long-forgotten obscure medical journals and never-before-published interviews with witnesses to the impossible. Arnold has been a guest on hundreds of radio and internet-radio programs and a number of radio and TV shows that include provocative radio host Howard Stern. He has also delivered lectures at a number of colleges and universities. His “unofficial” website is www.ParaScience.com. Caution: This episode has graphic descriptions of episodes of spontaneous human combustion.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

You're in the Paracast. You're in the Paracast, the gold standard of paranormal radio.

0:28.2

And now, here's Gene Steinberg.

0:32.7

So as listeners to the Paracast know, I have a tendency to run on with bad humor.

0:38.3

You know, the kind that in vaudeville, they would take the cane and pull you off the stage.

0:43.3

That's the kind of humor.

0:44.3

They don't have that anymore.

0:46.3

They just, you know, they just use a gong, I think.

0:50.3

Well, that's the unknown comic.

0:52.3

Anyway, I'm not, I'm not going to use puns.

0:55.0

Like, I could say this is going to be a really steaming hot discussion,

0:59.0

and it's rather warm in Arizona now at 110 degrees.

1:03.0

But because our guest, Larry Arnold, is considered an expert on spontaneous human combustion,

1:10.0

I am not going to heat up the works any further.

1:13.1

Oh, forget it. Larry, welcome to the powercast.

1:16.5

Thank you. It's our delight and honor to be with you gentlemen today.

1:20.5

I'm going to ask you a specific question here before we get on. We need to introduce you to our listeners.

1:26.4

What got you interested in following the world

1:29.4

of the paranormal? We grew up with what we thought was a rather open mind and a curiosity

1:36.9

about things that are scientifically documentable and of general interest to us, and that ranged anything

1:43.7

from geology to astronomy,

1:46.7

led us to do undergraduate work in mechanical engineering, later worked in electrical engineering,

1:53.3

but always thought we were fairly curious about some weird stuff. When we were in junior high

...

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