The United States is failing fast, taking many of its most storied institutions with it. As a child of the former Soviet Union, occult artist @AnimaNoira has seen this all before. Watch us discuss magick and decline live tonight! Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glqt06mGrco Sign up for the Failed State Update Newsletter: https://lennyflatley.substack.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnimaNoira Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anima.noira/ website: https://anima...
Sep 07, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 75
Oki is a Canadian documentarian with a keen eye for unusual subject matter. We spoke to him back in January when he infiltrated a cabal of conspiracy theorists who use hypnosis to "prove" that there is a secret space program operating throughout the universe. His latest doc, The King of Stolen Valor, is a must-see. It is the story of Jonathan "Jack" Idema, a former U.S. Army non-commissioned officer who was found guilty of running a private prison in Afghanistan and torturing Afghan citizens. Id...
Jun 30, 2022•54 min•Season 1Ep. 74
Ravi lives in Silicon Valley, he's a former Google employee, and he’s a Targeted Individual. That is, he believes he has been the subject of high-tech surveillance and harassment. Whatever the cause of the trauma he has experienced, the trauma is very real. “I felt like committing a crime” at one point, he says. “I felt like avenging what happened to me.” But after learning that there is a whole community of people like him out there, he doesn’t feel so alone anymore. Besides, to do something dr...
Jun 29, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 73
Long-time friend of the show Lucien Greaves will be on FSU tonight. What will be talking about? The arson at the Satanic Temple's HQ? Probably. Sovereign Citizen death threats? Youbetcha . Satanic Panic? That is to be expected. Lucien Greaves on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LucienGreaves Failed State Update on Twitter: https://twitter.com/failedstatenews Check out Failed State Update, the website: http://failedstateupdate.com Sign up for the newsletter: http://lennyflatley.substack.com...
Jun 24, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 72
We keep hoping that the Trump administration will become old news, but the stories of its incompetence and corruption keep coming. One of our favorites is Seven Days in January, a new podcast about Mark Burnett and Elizabeth Koch's failed attempt to turn the Presidential Inauguration into a reality series for Amazon Studios. According to our guests, the deal "evaporated as quickly as it appeared, leaving ominous questions to linger around F.T.C. oversight of Amazon’s $8.5 billion MGM Studios acq...
Jun 16, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 71
Jack Brewer is a freelance writer with a longtime interest in the UFO genre. He maintains the blog "The UFO Trail," where he posts credible info on incredible topics. Brewer is the author of "The Greys Have Been Framed: Exploitation in the UFO Community," in which he explores how public perception of the UFO phenomenon has been distorted by the intelligence community and suspect researchers. Neither a debunker nor a believer, Brewer integrates objectivity and critical thinking into his writing w...
Jun 13, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 70
Douglas P. Horne is a former staffer for the Assassination Records Review Board and the author of several books, including Inside the Assassination Records Review Board . In this episode of Failed State Update, J.G. and Douglas discuss Operation Northwoods, the Pentagon's (very real) plan to down aircraft, blow up ships, or possibly kill American civilians as a pretext for an invasion of Cuba. President Kennedy, wisely, thought the whole thing was nuts and prevented it from happening. Northwoods...
Jun 09, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 69
In Tumacácori, Arizona, a stone’s throw from the U.S. border with Mexico, roughly 85 “destiny reservists” await their fate. They are the followers of Gabriel of Urantia. Born Anthony J. Delevin in Pittsburgh in 1946, Gabriel’s life work is a community known as the Global Community Communications Alliance (GCCA). They live in a compound in the desert where they raise animals, harvest hemp, and study their prophet’s teachings. This is all in preparation for the end of this world, and the coming of...
May 06, 2022•51 min•Ep. 68
Daniel Muessig is a Pittsburgh folk hero, mostly because of his over-the-top ad for his law practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_iaugcJW7Q Any day now he will go to prison for five years for conspiring to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana and possession of marijuana. He was busted by an FBI task force who ID'd him through a wiretap. Of course he broke the law, but should we be sending anyone to jail over marijuana? The fact is, even though we live in a world where marijuana is...
Apr 08, 2022•2 hr 11 min•Ep. 66
Wayne Madsen is an investigative journalist, the author of twenty-one books, and the publisher of The Wayne Madsen Report . His latest book is The Rise of the Fascist Fourth Reich: The Era of Trumpism and the New Far-Right . Stories about Wayne Madsen on Failed State Update: "Did Wayne Madsen uncover a 2016 ‘Stop the Steal’ Plot?" "Wayne Madsen on the New Fourth Reich" Make sure you check out J.G.'s other podcast, Parallax Views ....
Feb 24, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 62
On February 10, Failed State Update co-hosts Joseph L. Flatley and JG Michael appeared on The Ochelli Effect live to discuss current events, conspiracy theories, JFK, Ozzy Osbourne, and more. Unfortunately, someone messed up the recording of the after-show that we did (that person being Joseph L. Flatley), but we do have the show itself here for your listening pleasure. If you dig it, please check out Chuck Ochelli's podcast, The Ochelli Effect, live at ochelli.com or on your podcast app of choi...
Feb 11, 2022•59 min
What do UFOs, the CIA, the conflict in Ukraine, and the Philadelphia Experiment have in common? Tune in to find out! Jack Brewer writes "The UFO Trail", a blog dedicated to publishing credible info on incredible topics. Brewer's research interests include the UFO subculture, the intelligence community, and related social dynamics, and he's here to discuss all these topics as well as his new book Wayward Sons: NICAP and the IC . NEW! INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: https://roundtable.io/failed-state-update...
Feb 10, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 61
In this episode of Failed State Update, Joseph L. "Lenny" Flatley goes toe-to-toe with the hosts of the Boys' Bible Study podcast. The Bible Boys, as we like to call them, wade deep into the murky waters of the Christian pop culture industry, reviewing the weirdest and most interesting independently produced films with a certain message. Since that message often includes far-right and Christian nationalist propaganda, their reviews should be of particular interest to Failed State Update listener...
Feb 08, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 60
You're in for a treat! For this edition of Failed State Update: The Podcast , J.G. Michael interviews author and extremism expert Spencer Sunshine on the Oath Keepers' role in January 6, the militia movement in general, and what happens when antisemites infiltrate leftist politics. Also, Joseph L. Flatley tells you about his recent reporting on sovereign citizens (and Satanists), and JG tells you what you can find on his other podcast , Parallax Views. Failed State Update: The Website: https://r...
Jan 27, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 57
Regular listeners of Failed State Update are in for a real treat. Our guest, Alfred W. McCoy , is an American historian and educator. Currently the Fred Harvey Harrington Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he specializes in the history of the Philippines, foreign policy of the United States, European colonization of Southeast Asia, the illegal drug trade, and CIA covert operations. His most recent book is To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change . And s...
Jan 11, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 4Ep. 58
Is the United States collapsing, or is all of civilization collapsing? To explore that question we bring you John Zerzan, an anarchist and primitivist author whose work has been compared to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, of all people. His books offer an alternative vision of history that focuses on the destructive nature of technology. And more importantly — and this is why we spoke to him — his work suggests a possible future free of the alienation and control of capitalism-run-amok. His most recent...
Dec 19, 2021•53 min•Season 1Ep. 57
Tom Mellett is a retired high school teacher of math and physics who delights in trolling UFO Twitter and Facebook because their emotional maturity is at a 9th grade level (as he puts it). He is also a cat butler in Los Angeles. We got on the phone after my story "The New Intergalactic Cold War" caused a (quite brief) firestorm on Twitter last week, and fortunately I recorded the conversation, because it really is podcast gold. On this episode of FAILED STATE UPDATE Tom and I discuss the philoso...
Oct 31, 2021•45 min
Anthony Russo is the author of Dragged Into the Light: Truthers, Reptilians, Super Soldiers, and Death Inside an Online Cult , and for the next fifty-three minutes we'll discuss his book about Sherry Shriner, an online cult leader in rural Ohio who preached a bizarre combination of reptilian conspiracies, orgone energy pseudoscience, and discredited "bible code" theories. She briefly made headlines in 2017 when one of her followers was murdered by another former follower. Shriner died earlier th...
Oct 16, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 55
Havana Syndrome is back in the news. On the one hand, it's clearly a psychogenic illness that's being misdiagnosed as the result of commie death rays. On the other hand, by treating it as an attack by America's enemies, politicians can use it to help further their foreign policy objectives. Which side do you think the media is going to take? Robert E. Bartholomew is a native New Yorker who teaches history at Botany College in Auckland, New Zealand. His many books include The Martians Have Landed...
Oct 04, 2021•52 min•Season 1Ep. 54
REPOST: After decades of accusations and a weeks-long federal trial, R. Kelly has been found guilty of charges including sexual exploitation of a child, bribery, racketeering and sex trafficking that will put him in prison from 10 years to life. I figure now is as good a time as any to repost this interview with journalist Jim Derogatis, who did as much as anyone to put him in jail. For fifteen years, DeRogatis was the pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. It was while there that Jim and h...
Sep 28, 2021•52 min•Season 1Ep. 53
The subject of political cults continues with Marley Clements, a writer, producer, and documentary filmmaker whose work includes Active Measures (2018) and QAnon: The Search for Q (2021). Her company Bunker Crew Media is responsible for the Kremlin File podcast. Kremlin File: https://pod.co/kremlin-file Erica Duggan on Lyndon LaRouche & the Mysterious Death of Her Son Jeremiah Duggan (Parallax Views podcast): https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/ep-62-erica-duggan-on-lyndon-larouche-the-myste...
Sep 20, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 52
Joshua Lilly is a former follower of Gabriel of Urantia, the subject of my book New Age Grifter . He’s also something of a “fan favorite,” so — due to popular demand — I am giving him an (almost 2 hours long!) episode of the FAILED STATE UPDATE podcast to tell us about his life and times in (and out of) a religious cult. This is a preview of an episode for FAILED STATE UPDATE newsletter subscribers. To subscribe for free, go to: https://lennyflatley.substack.com/ My book on the group, titled New...
Aug 26, 2021•18 min•Season 1Ep. 49
New Age Grifter is the story of Gabriel of Urantia, a self-proclaimed holy man who currently presides over a spiritual community (some call it a cult) in the desert of Southern Arizona. In a fenced-in compound, three generations of the Global Community Communications Alliance soak in Gabriel's teachings as they wait for the end of the world. My book on the group, titled New Age Grifter: The True Story of Gabriel of Urantia and his Cosmic Family is out today. Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/N...
Aug 24, 2021•13 min•Season 1Ep. 47
Less than a week until my book NEW AGE GRIFTER: THE TRUE STORY OF GABRIEL OF URANTIA AND HIS COSMIC FAMILY is released, and to get you in the mood I'm sharing a conversation that I had today on, of all things, the YouTube Grassroots #YangGang Show. We discussed the book a little bit, as wells things like: "What is the difference between conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact?" "How is Alex Jones a con artist?" And my favorite, "Does poverty lead to cults and QAnon?" Check out the rest of the show...
Aug 19, 2021•44 min•Season 1Ep. 46
Raymond Buckland founded The Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick in 1966. After visiting the late Gerald Gardner and his collection on the Isle of Man, Raymond was inspired to start a collection of his own. While working for British Airways, he was able to acquire many of the artifacts in this collection from all around the world. He initially displayed his museum on a few shelves in the basement of his Long Island, N.Y. home. However, over time, Raymond’s witchcraft collection rapidly grew...
Aug 15, 2021•44 min•Ep. 45
Joseph Daniel Casolaro (everyone knew him as Danny) was a journalist who died in Martinsburg, West Virginia, thirty years ago this August. He was in town working on a book tentatively titled The Octopus , which promised to tie together damn near every conspiracy theory of the decade: including the October Surprise, Iran-Contra, and the FEMA concentration camps. When Casolaro was found dead in room 517 of the Sheraton Hotel, his wrists slashed with a razor blade, the medical examiner ruled the de...
Aug 02, 2021•34 min•Season 1Ep. 44
A story crossed my desk recently: "Inside TikTok’s booming dissociative identity disorder community" (Input Magazine, July 6). The author, Jessica Lucas, looks at the unique world of social media influencers with multiple personalities. While it provides a unique look at a fascinating subculture, it does not portray the truth about Dissociative Identity Disorder (the clinical name for multiple personalities) and how the diagnosis has been abused by therapists over the years. Not only are these c...
Jul 28, 2021•34 min•Season 1Ep. 43
My book Satan Goes to the Mind Control Convention: Manchurian Candidates, Recovered Memories, and the Dark Side of Conspiracy Culture is finally available as an audiobook! From the back cover blurb: Satan Goes to the Mind Control Convention looks at the role that conspiracy theories play in American life and the current political climate. The audiobook begins at a convention for therapists who uncover “memories” of past lives, extraterrestrials, and government mind-control operations. From there...
Jun 28, 2021•10 min•Season 1Ep. 42
In the first half of this episode, I speak with Branko Marcetic, a staff writer for Jacobin magazine and a 2019-2020 Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting Fellow at In These Times. He is the author of Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. After the flip, I speak with Jeremy Kuzmarov, J.P. Walker assistant professor of history at University of Tulsa and the author of The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs and Modernizing Repression: Police Tra...
Feb 19, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 41
The notion of "repressed memories" has been widely discredited, yet it stubbornly persists—on trash TV, in poorly researched self-help books, and now on New York Magazine's website. In this episode of Failed State Update, Lucien Greaves, the co-founder of The Satanic Temple, breaks down "The Memory War" by Katie Heaney, a weird example of pro-conspiracy theory agitprop that has more to do with QAnon than legitimate reportage. "The Memory War" by Katie Heaney: https://www.thecut.com/amp/article/f...
Jan 20, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 39
