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Journey to the Fringe

Journey to the Fringe

by Journey to the Fringe

News Commentary Society & Culture

Season 6

Fringey Mini: Ice, Ice Maybe

This week, we look at the Antarctic tour guides who loved the ice… right up until they couldn’t. Between collapsing glaciers, overwhelmed penguins, and tourists cheering at all the wrong moments, the moral math stopped mathing. So we dig into what happens when your dream job turns into an existential crisis — and why Antarctica might need fewer visitors and more boundaries. https://theconversation.com/i-cant-work-in-the-farce-of-climate-change-cruise-tourism-anymore-why-antarctic-guides-quit-their-dream-jobs-286216 Music credits: Piotr Pacyna- Corduroy and Cheese

History of Aliens? Pray you find out (part 2 of 2)

From DMT visions to lucid dreams and real-world encounters, Taylor and Chelsea dive deep into the bizarre world of mantis aliens — exploring firsthand accounts of telepathic insectoid beings, cosmic surgeries, and mysterious meditations that blur the line between consciousness and contact. We return for a follow-up on their mantis alien series — this time venturing into the strangest corners of experiencer testimony. From a DMT traveler meeting a mantis in a cosmic control room to meditative brain “cleanings” and lucid dream conversations with a being named Tat‑Kern, the hosts unpack stories that range from healing encounters to chilling abductions. They even touch on a real-world case from England where a cyclist claims telepathic contact with a seven‑foot mantis after spotting a UFO. It’s a mix of the mystical, the terrifying, and the oddly philosophical — a deep dive into how people describe meeting the mantids that might be watching from beyond the veil.

Fringey Mini: Blood and urine for the space scientists!

We dive into a wild piece of space research showing that potato starch — yes, the same stuff in your pantry — can make concrete bricks on Mars or the moon that are twice as strong as the concrete we use on Earth. The University of Manchester team behind “StarCrete” found that potatoes outperform earlier experiments using astronaut blood and urine, offering a far more practical path to building off‑world habitats. We break down the science, the implications for future colonies, and the surprisingly emotional role human tears might still play in Martian construction. In this episode, we explore one of the strangest and most promising breakthroughs in extraterrestrial construction: StarCrete, a potato‑starch‑based concrete that could help astronauts build durable structures on Mars and the moon. According to researchers at the University of Manchester, mixing potato starch with simulated Martian or lunar soil produces bricks with strengths of 72 MPa and 91 MPa, more than double that of conventional concrete on Earth . Even better, just 25 kilograms of dehydrated potatoes can produce over 200 bricks, making it a lightweight, resource‑efficient option for space missions where every kilogram counts. We also revisit the team’s earlier experiments using astronaut blood and urine as binders — a method that worked but came with obvious drawbacks, including the need for astronauts to repeatedly donate bodily fluids . As lead researcher Aled Roberts put it, “Astronauts probably don't want to be living in houses made from scabs and urine” Current pageCurrent page. "Astronauts probably don't want to be living in houses made from scabs and urine," he said in a statement .. But human biology isn’t entirely off the hook: the magnesium chloride used in StarCrete can be sourced from Martian soil or from human tears, meaning future spacefarers might still contribute a little piece of themselves to their homes on other worlds. We unpack the science, the humor, and the huge implications of this research — from in‑situ resource utilization to the future of sustainable off‑world living — all sparked by the humble potato. https://www.space.com/space-bricks-potato-starch-mars-moon-dirt

History of Aliens? Pray you find out (part 1 of 2)

We explore the eerie overlap between alien abduction lore and psychedelic experience — focusing on the mysterious “Mantis” beings. From 1980s abduction research to modern DMT entity studies, the episode traces how insectoid overseers became fixtures of both UFO narratives and altered states. Are they cosmic caretakers, hallucinations, or archetypes of consciousness itself? In this episode, Journey to the Fringe dives deep into one of the strangest intersections of ufology and psychedelia: the rise of the Mantis (or mantid) Alien archetype. These towering, insect‑like figures first appeared in 1980s abduction literature, described by researchers like Budd Hopkins, Karla Turner, and David Jacobs as calm, telepathic overseers directing the smaller Greys. Later, psychiatrist John E. Mack reframed them as consciousness‑based intelligences — symbols of ecological awareness and spiritual transformation rather than literal extraterrestrials. Fast‑forward to modern psychopharmacology, and the same mantis‑like entities re‑emerge in DMT encounter surveys, where thousands report meeting insectoid beings who communicate telepathically and radiate peace. The parallels between abduction accounts and psychedelic visions raise unsettling questions: are these experiences tapping into the same layer of reality, or the same layer of mind? We unpack the cultural evolution of the Mantid — from mythic mantis gods in Africa and Egypt to the “praying mantis alien brain surgeons” of DMT lore — and examine what these stories reveal about human perception, belief, and the boundaries of consciousness. oh ya here is the source I forgot to include in my script: Survey of entity encounter experiences occasioned by inhaled N,N-dimethyltryptamine: Phenomenology, interpretation, and enduring effects - Alan K Davis, John M Clifton, Eric G Weaver, Ethan S Hurwitz, Matthew W Johnson, Roland R Griffiths, 2020

Fringey Mini: Disgraced British Andy's perfect pizza memories questioned

A deep dive into the infamous Pizza Express alibi — we unpack The Sun’s latest findings on Prince Andrew’s Woking visit, exploring how this decades-old claim continues to shape public perception and royal accountability. In this episode, we revisit one of the most peculiar details from Prince Andrew’s 2019 Newsnight interview — his claim that he was at a Pizza Express in Woking on the night he was accused of misconduct. The Sun now reports that the restaurant found “no evidence” of his visit, reigniting debate over memory, credibility, and the strange intersection of royalty and scandal. We break down the article’s revelations, the public’s reaction, and what this says about how institutions handle truth under scrutiny. Join us as we explore how a single slice of pizza became a symbol of modern royal controversy. Article: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/39661119/pizza-express-prince-andrew-visit-woking-claim/?shem=rimspwouohc,

Sightings

TLDR; Bigfoot steals weed, snacks on squash, maybe hitchhikes on a UFO, and possibly carries a kid in a red shirt. Sources; https://phantomsandmonsters.com/post/2415617470251950933 https://phantomsandmonsters.com/post/shawano-wisconsin-bigfoot-disc-ufo-encounter-two-hairy-figures-vanish-after-craf#google_vignette https://phantomsandmonsters.com/post/outdoorsman-reports-possible-bigfoot-carrying-child-in-red-clothing-at-colorados What is left of the LOMA PRIETA FACE FUCKER https://www.reddit.com/r/cryptids/s/XsaAlEBtsV Music credit: Space Jazz Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Fringey Mini: Good news there's a new monkey

I think the most important question here is why is Mokele-Mbembe sour? But just incase you came here for it, here's the arctile for the upgraded cryptid to real animal monkey: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15y5wgj4x8o

Bigfoot MIB?

A deep dive into the strangest pattern in Bigfoot lore: whenever someone finds evidence — bodies after Mount St. Helens, DNA in the Sierras, tracks in the Blue Mountains, or creatures in Glacier and Virginia — two mysterious men show up. One polite. One enormous. Both determined to make witnesses forget what they saw. These aren’t Men in Black. They’re Men in Plaid. When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, rumors spread that recovery crews found more than dead elk — they found large, hairy bodies quietly air‑lifted away under military supervision. That story became the first thread in a much larger pattern. This episode follows that thread across decades of sightings and suppressed evidence. From Justin Smeja’s Sierra encounter and the DNA sample that government‑linked labs refused to classify, to Paul Freeman’s confiscated tracks and hair samples in the restricted Mill Creek Watershed, to park workers and hunters intimidated by towering, bearded “officials” who arrive in government vehicles with one message: you didn’t see what you think you saw. Across California, Montana, Virginia, and the Pacific Northwest, witnesses describe the same duo — a clean‑cut man who asks calm questions, and a massive enforcer who delivers the warning. They’re not the sleek Men in Black of UFO mythology. They’re rougher, louder, dressed like loggers or rangers. Men who appear whenever Bigfoot evidence gets too close to daylight. This episode explores the stories, the witnesses, and the unsettling possibility that folklore’s strangest creatures aren’t the only ones hiding in the woods.

Fringey Mini - Let's talk to aliens

Scientists have crafted a new cosmic “hello” — a modernized message meant to reach alien civilizations. In this episode, we unpack how researchers are updating humanity’s interstellar calling card, what it says about us, and whether anyone out there might actually answer. In this episode, we explore Scientific American’s feature on the latest attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence. Researchers have designed a new digital message — a successor to the famous Arecibo transmission — that encodes math, science, and human identity in hopes of sparking first contact. We discuss how this message differs from past efforts, the ethics of broadcasting our presence to the cosmos, and what it reveals about our enduring curiosity to connect beyond Earth. Join us as we weigh the science, symbolism, and speculation behind humanity’s newest cosmic outreach. News article: Researchers Made a New Message for Extraterrestrials | Scientific American

Charles Fort, Pretty Self Explanitory

This week, we crack open the life and legacy of Charles Fort — the original librarian of the weird, patron saint of “wait… what?” and accidental founder of a movement he wanted nothing to do with. From fish falling from the sky to early UFO musings, Fort spent decades cataloguing the world’s strangest leftovers while side‑eyeing science, roasting astronomers, and joking his way through theories he didn’t even believe. We trace his begrudging brilliance, his cult‑following he never asked for, and the massive shadow he still casts over all things anomalous. It’s skeptical, it’s silly, it’s surprisingly wholesome. Fortean, some may say.

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