Optophobia – Details, episodes & analysis

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Optophobia

Solar Driftwood

Comedy

Frequency: 1 episode/12d. Total Eps: 46

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.

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Apple Podcasts

🇬🇧 Great Britain - improv
21/07/2026
#85
🇬🇧 Great Britain - improv
20/07/2026
#78
🇬🇧 Great Britain - improv
19/07/2026
#63
🇬🇧 Great Britain - improv
18/07/2026
#42

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http://www.bartwarshaw.com/
39 shares
http://clairesmalley.com/
39 shares
https://witdc.org/ensembles/madeline/
26 shares

https://www.facebook.com/nixonimprov/
23 shares
https://www.facebook.com/thelodgeimprov/
13 shares

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RSS feed quality

Good

Score global : 78%

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Introducing: Optophobia

Season 1

Wednesday, September 4, 2019 • Duration 02:43

In 1965, the U.S. Army Security Agency began a secret U.S. intelligence project on a shuttered military base in the Horn of Africa called Kagnew Station. The project — codenamed STONEHOUSE — included two 15-story parabolic antennas that made for optimal for stable military radio communications during the Cold War. Declassified Defense Department documents show, however, that for the next decade the true purpose of STONEHOUSE was to intercept Soviet space research data. But is that all the U.S. was keeping secret at Kagnew Station?

The world is demonstrably not the way it’s portrayed to us. On this podcast, we’re in search of facts obscured by a web of “official” narratives pushed by shady organizations intent on attaining obscure, malevolent goals.

Each season, we’ll tackle a new investigation into what many dismissively call a “conspiracy theory.” Our co-hosts are experts on each season’s investigation. And every week, a new guest — scientists, historians, ex-dictators, intelligence officers and everyday people — will join us to discuss their startling, often groundbreaking, research.

Our first stop: Kagnew Station outside of Asmara, Eritrea and about 50 miles from the Red Sea.

See you there, on September 30.

CREDITS:
Featuring the vocal pizzazz of Liz Sanders, Jamal Newman, Erin Murray, Eva Lewis, Saleh Karaman and Kristina Martinez
Music by Bart Warshaw
Cover art by Claire Smalley

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S1Ep1 | Meet Season One's Co-hosts

Season 1 · Episode 1

Monday, September 30, 2019 • Duration 31:14

We introduce the show's Season One co-hosts: Hassan Gray, a Verizon Fios sales analyst and host of the "Not My Problem" podcast & Debra, former host of the syndicated radio program "Debra," and author of "I Can't Go for Mind Control (No Can Do): Hall, Oates and the Soviet Roots of Blue-Eyed Soul" available in free-thinking bookstores everywhere.

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Credits:

Liz Sanders played Debra. Liz performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble.

Jamal Newman played Hasaan Gray. Jamal performs with Lena Dunham and NIXON. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @hell0newman, and find him at jamalnewman.com.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley.

Website by Chance Griffin.

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S1Ep10 | From Cupcakes to Landscapes to Kagnew

Season 1 · Episode 10

Monday, November 25, 2019 • Duration 31:12

Cupcake designer Nancy Schwan was playing Scrabble with her boyfriend one romantic evening, when her tiles came up "Kagnew." It happened again the following night, and soon the owner of Nancy's Fancies was obsessed with painting watercolors of beautiful African desert landscapes she'd never seen before.

***

Credits:

Jenny Koch played Nancy Schwan. Jenny performs with DC-based improv teams, The Quitters and The Lodge.

Liz Sanders played Debra. Liz performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble.
Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley.

Website by Chance Griffin.

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S1Ep11 | Bobert's Babylon by Bus

Season 1 · Episode 11

Monday, December 2, 2019 • Duration 28:40

In 1979 Convoy Jack Lafarge, legendary roadie for psychedelic San Francisco bands of the 1960s, found himself driving the bus for Bob Marley's 1979 tour of Africa. After the Wailers' final show in Addis Ababa, Marley insisted on recording an all-star synth-pop album in a mysterious studio he'd heard about: Kagnew Station.

***

Credits:

Luke Hennig played Convoy Jack Lafarge. Luke performs with The Lodge, a legendary Washington, DC indie improv team.

Jamal Newman played Hassan Gray. Jamal performs with Lena Dunham and NIXON. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @hell0newman, and find him at jamalnewman.com.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley.

Website by Chance Griffin.

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S1Ep12 | Olga Shimmers On the Sea

Season 1 · Episode 12

Monday, December 9, 2019 • Duration 31:34

Terry Timmons was cruise director aboard Shimmer of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's Indian Ocean flagship, in the early 1980s. Each time Timmons and his crewmates began responding to mysterious Russian transmissions — likely from the STONEHOUSE project antennas — they lost consciousness and woke up unharmed in their bunks.

***

Credits:

Denny Johnson played Terry Timmons. Denny performs with Ugh, an all-gay improv troupe in DC, often seen at Washington Improv Theatre. He also just launched a new talk show, “Wake Up, Late, with Denny and Kate” — America’s only nighttime morning show — at Colony Club in Washington.

Liz Sanders played Debra. Liz performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley.

Website by Chance Griffin.

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S1Ep13 | Stonehouse Is Stonestraw? Zero Stars!

Season 1 · Episode 13

Monday, December 16, 2019 • Duration 37:21

In the season finale, we learn the truth about what was really going on at Kagnew Station, and what STONEHOUSE was for. Debra and Hassan have a hard time coming to terms with the hard evidence as it’s presented to them by Victor Sifuentes.

***

Credits:

Liz Sanders played Debra. Liz performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble.

Jamal Newman played Hassan Gray. Jamal performs with Lena Dunham and NIXON. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @hell0newman, and find him at jamalnewman.com.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley.

Website by Chance Griffin.

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Season 2: "Deep State" | Trailer

Season 2

Tuesday, January 21, 2020 • Duration 03:12

The deep state is real. And it’s just that — a 51st state, hidden from the American people and unacknowledged by the federal government, even as it pulls Washington's most important levers. How do you hide an entire state? You bury it. Deep.

***

Credits:

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley.

Website by Chance Griffin.

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S2Ep1 | Gisele Bündchen Speaks the Latin of the Pigs

Season 2 · Episode 1

Monday, February 3, 2020 • Duration 29:52

In our Season 2 opener, we meet co-hosts and deep state experts Muriel Woland and Clifford Hanger. Muriel discusses how she came to write the Deep State anthem in exchange for a couple of the Shovelmen's first-born. And Ford remembers an event from his childhood in which Gisele Bündchen saved his parents' marriage. And his foreskin.

***

Credits:

Liz Sanders played Muriel Wolland. Liz performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble.

Jamal Newman played Clifford Hanger. Jamal performs with Lena Dunham and NIXON. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @hell0newman, and find him at jamalnewman.com.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley.

Website by Chance Griffin.

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S2Ep2 | The Mole People Elite Are the 1% (for mole people)

Season 2 · Episode 2

Monday, February 10, 2020 • Duration 32:35

Martina Kratchlekov has worked in the New York City subway system since she was 16, and along the way she picked up information about its permanent residents: the Mole People. In the 20th century, the elite class of this underground society used parliamentary procedure and ranked-choice voting, according to Kratchlekov. Its leaders have since tunneled west to run the Deep State.

***

Credits:

Molly Graham played Martina Kratchlekov. Molly performs around DC in iMusical (@imusical_improv) and The Quitters (@thequittersdc). You can also catch her onstage with Story District (@storydistrict)

Jamal Newman played Clifford Hanger. Jamal performs with Lena Dunham and NIXON. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @hell0newman, and find him at jamalnewman.com.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley.

Website by Chance Griffin.

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S2Ep3 | Will Trade Custodian Duties For Ayahuasca

Season 2 · Episode 3

Monday, February 17, 2020 • Duration 24:41

What WOULDN'T you do for family? Like, for instance, your beloved aunt who moved "out west" to live on the land and participate in ayahuasca ceremonies until she ran out of money so had to take a job as a cleaning lady in a vast underground bunker somewhere in maybe southern Wyoming, and some vapors or fumes or just plain soot got in her lungs and ... Amber Hudgins makes the class action case against the Deep State on behalf of her beloved Aunt Krystal.

***

Credits:

Georgina Gustin played Amber Hudgins. Follow her on Twitter at @georgina_gustin.

Liz Sanders played Muriel Wolland. Liz performs with Madeline, a Washington Improv Theater house ensemble.

Produced by Tim Townsend.

Theme music by Bart Warshaw.

Cover art by Claire Smalley.

Website by Chance Griffin.

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Optophobia – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Optophobia – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other60

Facebook20

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other60

Facebook20

Instagram21