The Mysteries of the Red Planet Explored on The Paracast
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM (Central Time) on the GCN radio network.
The Paracast Humbly Requests Your Donations: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network. So we hope you'll be willing to help fill the gap if you can to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch. No contribution is too small (or too large
. We have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, right below our logo. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.
Attention U.S. Listeners: Let's Bring The Paracast to Your City! Last summer, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. Now we want your help to add more affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact directly. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
You Can Now Order The Official Paracast T-Shirt: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and a collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt, just pay a visit to our new online store at Welcome to The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We now also offer a lineup of other premium merchandise featuring The Paracast logo.
Sunday, March 20, 2011: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast hosts interview long-time researchers in the field, to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join us as we explore the realms of the known and unknown, and hear great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present an encore appearance by plasma physicist Dr. John Brandenburg, author of "€œLife and Death on Mars: The New Mars Synthesis."€ What's the source of our endless fascination with the Red Planet, and was Mars ever the source of intelligent life?
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Reminder: Don't forget to visit our always-active Discussion Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal (and note our new Internet address): The Paracast Community Forums.
The Perils and Pitfalls of Success
By Gene Steinberg
I do not want to boast, but it’s clear to me that The Paracast has seriously altered the dialogue in the paranormal field. It wasn’t so long ago that radio shows covering offbeat subjects largely pandered to their audience. They’d bring on guests with outrageous and unproven claims, and ask them softball questions that failed to provide any useful information. It was all about entertainment and ratings.
I have nothing against being paid a fair salary for one’s labors. It’s also necessary to present information in an entertaining fashion to attract and keep a loyal audience, but I will not surrender my principles and state opinions that I do not feel are genuine. We also strive to get the most knowledgeable guests on any of the subjects we cover. Some you will agree with, others you’ll dismiss out of hand simply because you don’t buy their claims.
When we started The Paracast in 2006, we realized we had to be different to be intellectually honest. That’s the source behind the “separating signal from noise” motto, which basically means that we will hold a guest’s feet to the fire, metaphorically speaking, and make sure they respond not just to our probing questions, but to those submitted by you listeners.
At the same time, ganging up on a guest simply because they hold unacceptable or untenable viewpoints isn’t the best approach either. In the past The Paracast has been accused of just that sort of behavior, but, as a matter of fact, there have been precious few debates that rose to the level of shouting on the show. We prefer to let deceitful guests hang themselves, if that’s the way it has to be.
As the result of our forthright approach, many guests who seldom go on radio shows of this sort have made The Paracast a regular listening habit, and have joined us for extended interviews. But I’m also sure that some potential guests would prefer a less challenging environment.
It’s also true that some other radio shows and publications evidently feel threatened by us, although we seldom mention the “competition” by name. I remember where one podcast host kept complaining that we were constantly attacking him on the air, even though he was never discussed in any way. Perhaps he was seeking attention. But as far as I’m concerned, everyone has the right to be heard, and I actually applaud dedicated people who have given of their time and energy for what is often a thankless task.
In my online travels, I’ve also seen message boards and blogs that contain utter rubbish, filled with lots of false information about me, my co-hosts, the show, and our message boards. If I try to correct them, as I’ve done on a few occasions, they resort to personal attacks and denials. So I usually just leave well enough alone. Someone once said, “you can’t argue with idiots,” and I’ll leave it at that.
Indeed, some of these falsehoods are blatant examples of the theater of the absurd. I read a comment to a blog post the other day that suggested that I had been financed by an alleged cabal of millionaires who hang out at The Paracast Community Forums. At one time, a former co-host was branded a government disinformation agent.
It’s hard to answer such ludicrous claims without giving them more weight than they deserve. If you must know, I haven’t a clue about the personal financial status of any of our forum members or listeners. Beyond occasional modest donations with no strings attached, I haven’t been enriched in any way. Besides, someone else’s wealth or lack thereof is really none of my business anyway.
The other claim is that we are receiving loads of money as the result of getting a radio syndication deal with the GCN network. The truth is less impressive. As with most deals with small or medium-sized networks, what a show gets is distribution. Nothing more. We aren’t paid for network ads, but we have to run them as part of the contract. There are a total of three minutes per hour allotted to our own ads, and that’s our only source of revenue. Indeed, we’ve been hard on the trail of a crack online and broadcast salesperson who can help make those minutes count.
What I can assure you is that we won’t change. Although the co-host lineup has altered from time to time, we will never lose sight of the reasons The Paracast was created in the first place. There’s far too much noise in this field, and we’re going to do our level best to find the signal behind it.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2011 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
Special Announcement: The Paracast is heard Sundays from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM (Central Time) on the GCN radio network.
The Paracast Humbly Requests Your Donations: Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the show by our network. So we hope you'll be willing to help fill the gap if you can to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch. No contribution is too small (or too large
. We have a Donate link on our home page, below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, right below our logo. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) theparacast (dot) com.Attention U.S. Listeners: Let's Bring The Paracast to Your City! Last summer, The Paracast joined the GCN radio network. This represented a huge step in bringing our show to a larger, mainstream audience. Now we want your help to add more affiliates to our growing network. Please ask one of your local talk stations if they are interested in carrying The Paracast. Feel free to contact us directly with the names of programming people we might be able to contact directly. With your help, The Paracast can grow into one of the most popular paranormal shows on the planet!
You Can Now Order The Official Paracast T-Shirt: You asked, and we answered. We are now taking orders for The Official Paracast T-Shirt and a collection of other specially customized merchandise. To get your T-Shirt, just pay a visit to our new online store at Welcome to The Official Paracast Store to select your size and place your order. We now also offer a lineup of other premium merchandise featuring The Paracast logo.
Sunday, March 20, 2011: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.
Set Up: The Paracast hosts interview long-time researchers in the field, to shed light on the mysteries and complexities of our Universe and the secrets that surround us in our everyday lives.
Join us as we explore the realms of the known and unknown, and hear great stories of the history of the paranormal field in the 20th and 21st centuries.
This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present an encore appearance by plasma physicist Dr. John Brandenburg, author of "€œLife and Death on Mars: The New Mars Synthesis."€ What's the source of our endless fascination with the Red Planet, and was Mars ever the source of intelligent life?
Christopher O'Brien's Site: Home - Our Strange Planet
Reminder: Don't forget to visit our always-active Discussion Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal (and note our new Internet address): The Paracast Community Forums.
The Perils and Pitfalls of Success
By Gene Steinberg
I do not want to boast, but it’s clear to me that The Paracast has seriously altered the dialogue in the paranormal field. It wasn’t so long ago that radio shows covering offbeat subjects largely pandered to their audience. They’d bring on guests with outrageous and unproven claims, and ask them softball questions that failed to provide any useful information. It was all about entertainment and ratings.
I have nothing against being paid a fair salary for one’s labors. It’s also necessary to present information in an entertaining fashion to attract and keep a loyal audience, but I will not surrender my principles and state opinions that I do not feel are genuine. We also strive to get the most knowledgeable guests on any of the subjects we cover. Some you will agree with, others you’ll dismiss out of hand simply because you don’t buy their claims.
When we started The Paracast in 2006, we realized we had to be different to be intellectually honest. That’s the source behind the “separating signal from noise” motto, which basically means that we will hold a guest’s feet to the fire, metaphorically speaking, and make sure they respond not just to our probing questions, but to those submitted by you listeners.
At the same time, ganging up on a guest simply because they hold unacceptable or untenable viewpoints isn’t the best approach either. In the past The Paracast has been accused of just that sort of behavior, but, as a matter of fact, there have been precious few debates that rose to the level of shouting on the show. We prefer to let deceitful guests hang themselves, if that’s the way it has to be.
As the result of our forthright approach, many guests who seldom go on radio shows of this sort have made The Paracast a regular listening habit, and have joined us for extended interviews. But I’m also sure that some potential guests would prefer a less challenging environment.
It’s also true that some other radio shows and publications evidently feel threatened by us, although we seldom mention the “competition” by name. I remember where one podcast host kept complaining that we were constantly attacking him on the air, even though he was never discussed in any way. Perhaps he was seeking attention. But as far as I’m concerned, everyone has the right to be heard, and I actually applaud dedicated people who have given of their time and energy for what is often a thankless task.
In my online travels, I’ve also seen message boards and blogs that contain utter rubbish, filled with lots of false information about me, my co-hosts, the show, and our message boards. If I try to correct them, as I’ve done on a few occasions, they resort to personal attacks and denials. So I usually just leave well enough alone. Someone once said, “you can’t argue with idiots,” and I’ll leave it at that.
Indeed, some of these falsehoods are blatant examples of the theater of the absurd. I read a comment to a blog post the other day that suggested that I had been financed by an alleged cabal of millionaires who hang out at The Paracast Community Forums. At one time, a former co-host was branded a government disinformation agent.
It’s hard to answer such ludicrous claims without giving them more weight than they deserve. If you must know, I haven’t a clue about the personal financial status of any of our forum members or listeners. Beyond occasional modest donations with no strings attached, I haven’t been enriched in any way. Besides, someone else’s wealth or lack thereof is really none of my business anyway.
The other claim is that we are receiving loads of money as the result of getting a radio syndication deal with the GCN network. The truth is less impressive. As with most deals with small or medium-sized networks, what a show gets is distribution. Nothing more. We aren’t paid for network ads, but we have to run them as part of the contract. There are a total of three minutes per hour allotted to our own ads, and that’s our only source of revenue. Indeed, we’ve been hard on the trail of a crack online and broadcast salesperson who can help make those minutes count.
What I can assure you is that we won’t change. Although the co-host lineup has altered from time to time, we will never lose sight of the reasons The Paracast was created in the first place. There’s far too much noise in this field, and we’re going to do our level best to find the signal behind it.
The Paracast Copyright 1999-2011 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
