Most people assume their fascination with UFOs is something they arrived at on their own. Almost nobody considers that the cultural framework making flying saucers feel plausible was largely the product of one man sitting behind a desk in Wisconsin, editing a pulp magazine called Amazing Stories.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Introduction: Raymond Palmer & the Birth of UFO Belief
13:57 - How Palmer's Audience Was Ready Before Arnold's Sighting
45:37 - Who Was Raymond Palmer?
48:06 - Richard Shaver's Letters & the Deros
50:42 - The All-Shaver Mystery Issue & Kenneth Arnold's 1947 Sighting
52:57 - The Man Who Invented Flying Saucers
1:13:58 - Samantha's Wisconsin Upbringing & Home Movie Legend Trip
WHAT'S COVERED
Raymond Palmer:

Editor of Amazing Stories, one of the largest pulp magazines in America
Understood the line between a story and a belief is thinner than anyone wants to admit
Built an audience of hundreds of thousands ready to blur fiction and reality
John Keel called him the man who invented flying saucers in Fortean Times
The FBI's own investigating agent concluded Palmer and Shaver probably invented flying saucers

Richard Shaver & the Deros:

A welder who wrote letters claiming an ancient subterranean civilization called the Deros was controlling human behavior from beneath the Earth's surface
Palmer didn't file it away - he published it, promoted it, and let it breathe
The All-Shaver Mystery issue of Amazing Stories hit newsstands the same month Kenneth Arnold had his famous sighting over Mount Rainier
Palmer hired Arnold to write for him immediately after

Kenneth Arnold & the Flying Saucer Era:

June 1947: Arnold's sighting over Mount Rainier enters the public record
A misquote on the AP newswire gave the world the term flying saucer
The audience Palmer spent years cultivating was already primed and waiting
Palmer positioned himself to shape everything that followed

Palmer's Legacy & Modern Disclosure:

Is the disclosure conversation happening right now structurally similar to what Palmer engineered in 1947?
There is a version that says the government is finally being honest
There is another version that says this is just a more sophisticated form of exactly what Palmer was doing
Where does a historian land on that question?

Dr. Dean Bertram:

PhD in history, University of Sydney
Writings in Fortean Times, People Magazine, The Spectator, The Australian
Documentary short The Shaver Mystery: ten Best Short Documentary awards
Festivals include Fortean Film Festival, GenreBlast, Philip K. Dick Film Festival, Berlin Sci-Fi
Currently in production on feature length version: The Man Who Invented Flying Saucers
Runs MidWest WeirdFest and A Night of Horror International Film Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Samantha Krause:

Wisconsin native raised in Wausau
Co-creator of Home Movie Legend Trip web series
Brings local Wisconsin strangeness to screen in deeply personal and unsettling ways
Grew up on eighty acres of family land with legends, cryptid sightings, and haunted history

FIND DEAN & SAMANTHA

Home Movie Legend Trip: https://www.youtube.com/@HomeMovieLegendTrip
The Man Who Invented Flying Saucers: https://www.facebook.com/TheManWhoInventedFlyingSaucers

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