For newcomers to the series, we start out with some biographical info on who Nick Redfern is and how he ended up writing about the esoteric. Nick talks about what went into the decision to make "Memoirs" a more personal book as opposed to a straight profile piece on various esoteric mysteries.

We dig into one of the big picture concepts in the book, Nick's thoughts on what is behind esoteric phenomena. This leads to a discussion on the splintering of esoterica and how that trend may be turning back towards a more unified field. We then talk about how Nick gets various leads on new stories and how he separates the proverbial wheat from the chaffe and determines which stories are worth investigating. He also tells us about trends in feedback and story leads he gets.

Nick then tells about his investigation of the Big Thicket in Texas, where he saw a ghost light. This leads to us talking about the strange effect, attributed to the Bigfoot, where witnesses are induced with feelings of overwhelming terror.

Next we cover the backlash, from within Ufology, to Nick's previous book "Bodysnatchers in the Desert". This segues into Nick talking about the problem of elevating Roswell to the "Holy Grail of Ufology" and how that could be tremendously detrimental to the UFO field. We discuss the whole issue of researchers having their set perspective on what the UFO phenomenon is all about and how failing to look outside of set comfort zones could cause good cases to fall through the cracks. Looking at the Roswell case as a whole, Nick speculates on why it seems like Roswell has become the lynchpin of the UFO scene. We talk about the big problems with Roswell, as a whole, and the potentially disastrous implications if Roswell gets disproven as a UFO crash.

Following that, we discuss Nick's two trips to Puerto Rico to investigate the Chupacabra, how they showed the evolution of his investigation into the mystery, and how the 2nd trip changed Nick's thoughts on what is going on in Puerto Rico. Nick shares some great stories about his two trips to PR, interviewing people with Chupacabra reports. We talk about some of the dangerous elements of taking a trip to a foreign land including the frightening bats in Puerto Rico.

We cover Nick's filming an episode of Penn and Teller's "Bullshit" and his experience dealing with media that begin with a skeptical approach. He also talks about the hazards of doing TV shows. We then look at one of the big themes of "Memoirs", the strange synchronistic events that seem to follow Nick around during his investigations.

Next we look at the big picture issue of comparing and contrasting UK field research v. US field research. Nick has done both and tells us about some of the key similarities and differences. We find out what esoteric mysteries Nick hasn't looked into yet and would like to examine more. Looking at another big picture issue, we talk about the "lost mysteries of esoterica", stories that were once wildly popular but have since become rather dormant.

After that is a fun segment where binnall presents some questions from BoA's Lesley and Regan Lee along with questions from our UK correspondent Richard in Wales. Richard queries about the Wales UFO flap of 1977 and the alien big cat phenomenon and binnall has a follow up regarding why it seems like the ABC phenomenon seemed to take off in England. We get Nick's take on deserts as breeding grounds for esoteric phenomena and the latest controversy over crop circles in England, courtesy of questions from Regan Lee. Following that, we find out, via Lesley's questions, about the Taos Bigfoot story from "Memoirs" and what Nick likes to do when he isn't trying to solve esoteric mysteries.

Wrapping it up, we find out if there is any news on the story from last year about the film rights being picked up for "Three Men Seeking Monsters". Finally, we find out from Nick what he has coming for 2008, including some new books, speaking engagements, and written work.

Nick Redfern started his writing career as an eighteen-year-old in 1982 on a British-based music, fashion, and entertainment magazine called "Zero." His interest in UFOs was prompted by his father, who worked on radar with the British Royal Air Force, and who was personally aware of several UFO encounters investigated by the British Government in the 1950s.

Nick is the author of several books on unsolved mysteries and UFOs: "A Covert Agenda;" "The FBI Files;" "Cosmic Crashes;" "Strange Secrets" (with Andy Roberts); "Three Men Seeking Monsters;" "Body Snatchers in the Desert;" "On the Trail of the Saucer Spies;" "Celebrity Secrets;" "Monkey Man;" and "Memoirs of a Monster Hunter". He has written for UFO Magazine; Fortean Times; Fate Magazine; and the British Daily Express newspaper.

Nick has spent weeks chasing the vampire-like Chupacabras in Puerto Rico for the Sci-Fi Channel and Canada's Space Channel; roamed around the old base at Roswell, New Mexico in search of decaying, smelly, alien corpses; tried to conjure up Tulpa-style thought-forms of Bigfoot, lycanthropes, and lake monsters in his home-country of England; and was once less-than-politely turned away from the fringes of Area 51, Nevada by a fat and humorless security guard.

His website is nickredfern.com

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2 Hr 5 Min.
12.30.07
311
Nick Redfern