The Believer - (Project Book Club)

Need To Know with Coulthart and Zabel

Welcome to the first episode of Project Book Club, where hosts Bryce Zabel and Chrissy Newton launch a fresh kind of conversation around the books that shape the UFO and consciousness landscape. This isn’t your typical late-night podcast. It’s a morning-show-style book club made for readers who want to explore the unknown with a hot drink in hand and curiosity on full blast. In this episode, Bryce and Chrissy dive into The Believer by Ralph Blumenthal, the biography of Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John Mack. Mack rose to prominence for his Pulitzer Prize-winning work, but his legacy shifted dramatically when he began studying alien abduction phenomena. Bryce and Chrissy unpack the book’s layered portrait of Mack, exploring his courage, contradictions, and the firestorm he faced from Harvard when he chose to publicly validate the experiences of abductees. The discussion touches on the emotional depth of Mack’s journey, including his personal flaws, academic brilliance, and the spiritual and philosophical questions that guided his work. They examine how Mack challenged the limits of Western scientific thought, his interest in consciousness, and how his openness to Eastern philosophies influenced both his worldview and research methods. Bryce and Chrissy also reflect on some of the major events in Mack’s life, like his involvement in the Ariel School incident in Zimbabwe, and his controversial interviews on national television. They take time to discuss his critics, his supporters, and the legacy he left behind when he died unexpectedly in 2004. Through thoughtful insights and a bit of morning humor, this episode sets the stage for what Project Book Club is all about: digging deep into powerful stories, asking big questions, and creating a community where readers can explore the unknown together. ProjectBookClub.net

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