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#122: With Fairies Wise [Thomas Lake Harris and the Brotherhood of the New Life]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Release Date: 04/27/2026

#125: The Balloon Doggies Demanded It [why I hate Jeff Koons]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Jeff Koons is, without a doubt, the quintessential artist of our age: as bland and reassuring as a bowl of oatmeal, about as deep as a puddle, and more concerned about how much his work sells for than what it says. A hater's guide. Key sources for this episode include Don Thompson's The $12 Million Stuffed Shark; Jed Perl's "The Cult of Jeff Koons"; Hans Werner Holzwarth's Koons monograph; Norman Rosenthal's Jeff Koons: Conversations with Norman Rosenthal; Robert Hughes's American Visions; and so many gallery catalogues, including the ones for his 2000 Easyfun-Ethereal...

#124: Skeedadded and gone to Hell [Pithole]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

For a long time it was just a hole in the ground. Then, for twelve months, it was the fifth-largest city in Pennsylvania and the biggest oil field in the world. And then, just as abruptly, it was a hole inthe ground again. Key sources for this episode include Brian Black's Petrolia: The Landscape of America's First Oil Boom; Ernest C. Miller's Pennsylvania's Oil Industry; John J. McLaurin's Sketches in Crude Oil; the autobiography of Ida M. Tarbell; and most importantly, William C Darragh's Pithole: The Vanished City. The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted...

How Much Chocolate is In Your Chocolate?

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Welcome to the Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Chocolope, where I dive into topics too nerdy for a Chocolate Snobs episode and too chocolate-oriented for an Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope entry. Today, we ask: "How much chocolate is in your chocolate?" https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/how-much-chocolate/ https://chocolate-snobs.com

#123: No Heretic Has Suffered Less [Immanuel Velikovsky and Worlds in Collision]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

In the 1940s, while trying to rebut Freud, psychoanalyst Immanuel Velikovsky decided the reason ancient history didn't make any sense was simple: it was all the fault of the planet Venus. Key sources for this episode include Immanuel Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision, Earth in Upheaval, and Ages of Chaos; Alfred de Grazia's Cosmic Heretics; Kendrick Frasier's Paranormal Borderlands of Science; and Michael D Gordin's The Pseudo-Science Wars. But most importantly: the collected works of Henry H. Bauer, includng "The Velikovsky Affair," Beyond Velikovsky, and Science or Pseudoscience? The Ancient...

#122: With Fairies Wise [Thomas Lake Harris and the Brotherhood of the New Life]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Thomas Lake Harris channeled the greatest poets in history to produce some of the worst poetry you've ever read... and then those same poets told him he was the new Messiah, who would unite the physical and spiritual worlds and usher in a new cycle of the ages. Key sources for this episode include Adam Morris's American Messiahs: False Prophets of a Damned Nation; Arthur A. Cuthbert's The Life and World-Work of Thomas Lake Harris, Written from Direct Personal Knowledge; Joseph W. Slade's "Historical Sketch of Thomas Lake Harris, Laurence Oliphant, and the Brotherhood of the New Life";...

#121: Mutiny on the Storozhevoy [a second Communist Revolution] presented by #42 Alex Baumans

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

In 1975, an idealistic Soviet political officer decided it was time to restart the Communist Revolution, and that the best way to do that was by fomenting mutiny on a state-of-the-art anti-submarine destroyer with nuclear capabilities. Presented by #42, Alex Baumans. Alex is pathologically interested in anything unusual and obscure. He’s a closet goth, armchair general and amateur theologian. His favorite animals are ducks, octopodes and pigs. You will also find him surprisingly knowledgable about K-Pop girl groups. Key sources for this episode include Michael Fredholm Von Essen’s The...

#120.1: All that Glitters [MFA Boston's golden hoard]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

As part of its centennial celebration in 1970 the Museum of Fine Arts Boston acquired a spectacular trove of golden bronze age jewelry... The problem was they had no idea where it came from and showed no interest in finding out. Key sources for this episode include articles published by Cornelius Vermeule III and Emily Vermuele in Horizon and the Illustrated London News; and contemporary newspaper reporting in the Boston Globe, expecially by Robert Taylor and Edgar Driscoll, Jr. We are appearing at Intelligent Speech 2026 on February 28, 2026! This year's theme is "Companions & Rivals"...

#120: Not Science, But Vendetta [the Dorak Affair]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Thanks to a chance meeting on a train James Mellaart stumbled across a treasure trove that challenged everything we knew about ancient Anatolia... only to be left holding the bag when it disappeared under mysterious circumstances. (Or maybe he just made it all up.) Key sources for this episode include Kenneth Pearson and Patricia Connor's The Dorak Affair; Michael Balter's The Goddess and the Bull; numerous articles by Susan Mazur; and several academic papers by Eberhard Zangger. We are appearing at Intelligent Speech 2026 on February 28, 2026! This year's theme is "Companions &...

#119: There's Gold in Them Thar Waves [the Electrolytic Marine Salts Company of Lubec, ME]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

In 1897 "the Reverend Electrolycist" Prescott Ford Jernegan claimed he could extract gold from seawater for pennies on the dollar. It was a classic something for nothing scam... So why did so many people fall for it? Key sources for this episode include Carl Sifakis's Hoaxes and Scams: A Compendium of Deceptions, Ruses, and Swindles; contemporary newspaper reports; and Carrie C. Bang's The Great Gold Swindle of Lubec, Maine. We're presenting at Intelligent Speech 2026: Companions & Rivals! Join us on Febuary 28! Speakers will explore friendships that changed the course of...

#118: They Came from Inner Space [the weird life of Dr. Walter Siegmeister]

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Dr. Walter Siegmeister believed we could create a psychic master race by taking off our clothes, moving to the jungle, and consuming only fruit and megadoses of lecithin. And that wasn't even the weirdest thing about him. Key sources for this episode include Walter Siegmeister's The Hollow Earth: The Greatest Geographical Discovery in History; Walter Kafton-Minkel's Subterranean Worlds: 10,000 Years of Dragons, Dwars, the Dead, Lost Races & UFOs from Inside the Earth; and Professor Solomon's Visitors to the Inner Earth. Jenn Thorson: The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is...

More Episodes

https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/with-fairies-wise/

Key sources for this episode include Adam Morris's American Messiahs: False Prophets of a Damned Nation; Arthur A. Cuthbert's The Life and World-Work of Thomas Lake Harris, Written from Direct Personal Knowledge; Joseph W. Slade's "Historical Sketch of Thomas Lake Harris, Laurence Oliphant, and the Brotherhood of the New Life"; Margaret Oliphant's Memoir of the Life of Laurence Oliphant and of Alice Oliphant, His Wife; Philip Jenkins' Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History; the collected writings of Thomas Lake Harris; and contemporary newspaper reports, especially from the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to the idea that that which is least known is best to know. Each episode we share a strange story or amazing fact, and no topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll cover about it!

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