New podcast revisits Exeter’s UFO past
Lara Bricker, Edge Radio | Apr 3, 2020 at 5:08 PM
DURHAM - The mysterious case of Betty and Barney Hill, a Portsmouth couple who believed they were abducted by extraterrestrials, will be featured in “Strange Arrivals,” a new 10-episode podcast, which launched March 31.
Hosted by Durham resident Toby Ball, the podcast begins on a September night in 1961 when the Hills encountered something they could not explain. It goes on to explore the psychology of skepticism and belief using the Hills’ experience as a case study.
Betty and Barney were returning home to Portsmouth from a vacation on Sept. 19, 1961, when they saw a bright light and what looked like a flying saucer as they drove through Franconia Notch. They later recounted under hypnosis an account of being abducted by aliens. Their experience became the first widely publicized account of an alien abduction, and led to a book, “The Interrupted Journey,” and a TV movie “The UFO Incident.”
Ball is a panelist on the true crime review podcast “Crime Writers On,” and author of “The City Trilogy,” a noir crime series. The concept of why some people are such strong believers in UFOs and aliens, while others remain steadfast skeptics, intrigued him.
“The University of New Hampshire has the Betty and Barney Hill papers in their library, and I thought it might be a cool way to look at those issues,” Ball said. “How do you think about it if you don’t think there are aliens? How do you think about a story like this and explain it?”
Ball acknowledges he falls into the skeptic camp, and said he realized many believers he interviewed for the podcast did not fit the stereotype.
“The people I talked to who were believers are smart people, some of them are academics and they’ve spent a lot of time researching this, but they are coming at it from a different angle than I am,” he said. “What is it that gets people like this to so strongly believe and, in some cases, spend their life on a subject?”
Ball had access to Betty Hill’s notes, tapes of the couple and other records that are held in a permanent collection at UNH.
“They do have a lot of material, including radio interviews and presentations, mostly by Betty over the years,” said Ball, who added the podcast will feature audio not widely heard before now. “Barney died in 1969, he died quite young, but in the beginning, Barney did a lot of the talking.”
The podcast’s first few episodes will take listeners through the Hills’ story, while later episodes pivot to interviews with believers and skeptics. Some of those who will be featured include the Hills’ niece, Kathleen Marden, who wrote a book “Captured!” about their experience as well as the late Stanton Friedman, a nuclear physicist and noted UFO expert. Friedman, who died in May 2019, was the original civilian investigator of the Roswell UFO incident. UNH psychology lecturer Mark Henn lends his insight into examining belief, especially in the paranormal, which is a research interest of his. Kendrick Frazier, longtime editor of Skeptical Inquirer Magazine, also will join the podcast.
Ball’s doubt comes into play as the podcast progresses. “My approach was to be respectful, be interested in what they had to say, and be open to their reasoning, but my inclination was to be more skeptical,” he said.
Ball began working on the podcast almost two years ago, noting it is a completely different style than “Crime Writers On,” a weekly true crime and pop culture review show that features himself and three other crime writers. He also hosts “Toby Ball’s Deep Dive Book Club,” an offshoot of “Crime Writers On.”
Last summer, Rebecca Lavoie, his fellow “Crime Writers On” podcaster, connected him with Aaron Mahnke, who is best known for the “Lore” podcast and TV series on Amazon Prime. That meeting led to the new podcast’s release by Mahnke’s production company, Grim & Mild Entertainment, and iHeart Radio.
Ball worked with a production team at iHeart in the final stages of the podcast’s production, and said listeners can expect an atmospheric and immersive sound experience as the Hills’ story unfolds.
“The first episodes are in-depth about their story and why it was so unique with a lot of archival footage of them telling the story themselves. I think you should get a really good sense of what they believe happened,” he said.
Along the way, Ball says listeners can expect their own attitudes about belief and skepticism to be challenged. “How do you evaluate the things that you hear? When you hear something compelling, how do you go about evaluating whether it’s actually accurate or not? How do you challenge your own beliefs about certain things?”
The first episode of “Strange Arrivals” was released March 31 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and most other podcast platforms.
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For more information:
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http://www.grimandmild.com/strangearrivals
