The Saucerian: UFOs, Men in Black and the Unbelievable Life of Gray Barker

Somewhere in the Skies

SpectreVision Radio

Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Science, Documentary

4.5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On episode 409, we are joined by librarian, author, and cultural historian, Gabriel McKee, to discuss his new book about the life of the ever-enigmatic Gray Barker. Barker founded and operated Saucerian Books, an independent publisher of books about flying saucers and other ideas at the fringes of popular discourse. In The Saucerian, Gabriel Mckee tells the fascinating story of Barker’s West Virginia–based press, the unique corpus of materials it published, and how office-copying and self-publishing techniques influenced the spread of paranormal beliefs and conspiratorial worldviews over the last century. Following the development of UFO subculture, Mckee explores the life and career of a larger-than-life hoaxer and originator of pseudoscientific ideas. Purchase the book at: https://a.co/d/acfi5b2 Please take a moment to rate and review us on Spotify and Apple. Book Ryan on CAMEO at: https://bit.ly/3kwz3DO Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/somewhereskies ByMeACoffee: http://www.buymeacoffee.com/UFxzyzHOaQ PayPal: Sprague51@hotmail.com Discord: https://discord.gg/NTkmuwyB4F Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ryansprague.bsky.social Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomewhereSkies Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somewhereskiespod/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryansprague51 Order Ryan’s new book: https://a.co/d/4KNQnM4 Order Ryan’s older book: https://amzn.to/3PmydYC Store: http://tee.pub/lic/ULZAy7IY12U Read Ryan’s articles at: https://medium.com/@ryan-sprague51 Opening Theme Song by Septembryo Copyright © 2025 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's time to get ready for whatever your day may bring.
0:03.0	So why not take a moment for you to nourish your skin?
0:06.0	Take time to de-stress and lava up with dove advanced care anti-stress body wash.
0:10.0	Our micro-moister droplets help leave your skin moisturised straight from your shower.
0:15.0	So whether you're trying to refresh your skin after a day spent in the sunshine,
0:19.0	or looking to feel your best the next time you hit
0:21.8	the town with friends. Show yourself you care with Dove Advanced Care Body Wash. Dove, let's change beauty.
0:32.1	Today on the show, we welcome Gabriel McKee. Gabriel is an author, librarian, curator, and researcher specializing in science fiction, religion,
0:43.9	theology, bibliography, and book history, and histories of the culture surrounding the paranormal.
0:51.2	We'll be discussing his brand new book, The Sossarian, UFOs, Men in Black,
0:57.6	and the unbelievable life of Gray Barker.
1:04.7	You are now somewhere in the skies with your host, Ryan Spray.
1:36.6	Yeah. with your host, Ryan Spray. When I saw that you were the guests on there, I'm like, oh my God, Gene is going to have a field day.
1:41.3	Because, like, his connections with Mosley and all that, it's crazy. I'm interested in like the actual like physical printing of these things.
1:45.2	He's like, yeah, I ran Barker's Press for, you know, for a year. So like he, he like, you know,
1:51.4	we kind of geeked out about printing techniques for a couple minutes. I was like, nobody is going to
1:54.7	care about this except you and I. But hey, I cared. It's so cool. And I should mention everyone, welcome to Somewhere in the Skies. I am here today with Gabriel McKee. We're going to be talking all about his brand new book, The Sossarian, UFOs, Men in Black, and the Unbelievable Life of Gray Barker. Gabe, welcome for the very first time to somewhere in the Skies. Thank you. Good to be here.
2:18.2	Yeah, yeah.
2:18.9	And, you know, when I saw that your book was coming out and it was on the life of Grey Barker,
2:24.2	my heart just got all warm because it's such a nostalgic era of uphology.
2:29.7	And for anyone who's been into this topic for a while, like, you're always on the hunt for that one book.
2:36.8	They knew too much about flying saucers.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from SpectreVision Radio, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of SpectreVision Radio and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.