Optophobia Podcast

Optophobia

Solar Driftwood
Optophobia is the fear of opening one’s eyes. Our show is dedicated to encouraging you — our listeners — to move beyond that fear. To solve riddles they don’t want us to unriddle. To investigate supposedly ironclad truths. To unearth evidence, buried for so long they believed it would stay buried. Each season we tackle a new investigation into what is often dismissively called a “conspiracy theory,” and each week a new guest weighs in. Are you bored by the lies? Open your eyes.
S4Ep10 | Hollywood Video® Loses a Legend
In the Season 4 finale, co-hosts Lydia CoffeeMaté and Jeffrey Dalmer discuss what we've learned after a deep dive into the story behind the 1989 Judd Nelson serial killer film, "Relentless." In airing his theory about "Relentless" director William Lustig's connection to mind control program MK-Ultra, Dalmer puts himself in the CIA's crosshairs, with dire results.
Mar 15, 2021
33 min
S4Ep9 | The Snack Aisle Strangler
With O'Boisies, Pizzarias, and Tato Skins, flavor architect Rosemary Caraway was winning awards in the 1980s for her work on the Keebler Company’s savory line of snacks. But when the company began favoring its sweet line instead, the “Relentless”-inspired Snack Aisle Strangler struck.
Mar 8, 2021
31 min
S4Ep8 | The Thong Song, SisQó and We
Some "Relentless"-inspired would-be serial killers have been celebrities. When Marrissa Horn, a tea shop owner from L.A. began dating SisQó, she had no idea that a visit to Victoria's Secret together would inspire the R&B legend's greatest hit, nor that he might try to use the song as a murder weapon.
Mar 1, 2021
31 min
S4Ep7 | With the Intent to Cause Mischief
Growing up on the road alongside her saleswoman mom, Jeri Jones believed she had a serene, peace-loving nature. But then, at 15, she watched "Relentless" and a something savage began stirring inside her. Armed with common household implements as agents of mischief and with a Rolodex she found while Dumpster diving as a guide, her rampage began.
Feb 22, 2021
32 min
S4Ep6 | Little Bulbs, Big Dreams
Around the time Darrell Klep first saw "Relentless" in the late 1980s, he also began his career as a farmer. Eventually, he started working weekend farmer's markets, following his customers and sitting in his car outside their homes. Creepy? Yes. Coincidence? Probably not.
Feb 15, 2021
32 min
S4Ep5 | 31 Flavors and a Kick in the Crotch
Baskin-Robbins greeter Alicia Nicely was just minding her own business, trying on a fitted purple sweatshirt at Gap, when she was attacked by a "Relentless"-inspired wanna-be serial killer. As happens in these situations, the attacker — Sarah Pinch — couldn't close the deal. But might there be an army of Sarah Pinches out there, stalking America's retail dressing rooms?
Feb 8, 2021
31 min
S4Ep4 | Deadlike Rasta
Buffalo, NY musician Brad Meglin was playing Black Sabbath covers with his band The Buffalo Soldiers in 1988, when William Lustig inexplicably got up on stage, mid-song, and asked Brad to compose music “that would make people want to kill” for his coming movie, “Relentless.”
Feb 1, 2021
33 min
S4Ep3 | Never Time the Markets
Lance Bloomberg's father was a big influence on his son. There was the fascination with money and finance that Lance inherited, and there was also the violence. Beaten regularly as a child with an abacus, Lance would eventually teeter between a career in financial analysis and serial murder. Seeing "Relentless" nearly sealed the deal.
Jan 25, 2021
29 min
S4Ep2 | MISSING: Tracy + Judds Nelson, Apatow and Judy (R.I.P.)
Dan Hammer, a community theater actor from upstate New York who told the harrowing tale of his fiancee Tracy's mysterious disappearance in Season 1, has decided to try and remake "Relentless" in a way that "feels more real" by filming it entirely in his mother's house, basement and backyard.
Jan 18, 2021
35 min
S4Ep1 | Some Dreamers of the Bloody Dream
Meet our Season 4 cohosts: Lydia Coffeematé worked on the "Relentless" set as a personal assistant to one of its producers. Jeffrey Dalmer works at the last Hollywood Video where he slips "Relentless" DVDs into the bags of unsuspecting customers...at the behest of a mysterious "they."
Jan 11, 2021
32 min
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