In the first hour, filmmaker Marc McPherson joined guest host Richard Syrett (Twitter) to discuss high strangeness associated with Canada's Nahanni National Park, including a region called The Valley of Headless Men. "The area has a lot of strange acclaim to it," McPherson said. There are legends about giants, including one about Yamoria who is said to have fought giant beavers, he reported. One of the tribal elders McPherson spoke to told him about sightings of Bigfoot in his village. The creature he described was much larger and differently shaped than the black bears that are common in the area, he explained. McPherson shared the story of prospectors Willie and Frank McLeod, whose bodies were found with their heads missing in the early 1900s. He recounted other tales of decapitated people found in the valley, including Swiss prospector Martin Jorgenson.
During the second hour, award-winning comic book-style illustrator and pop culture expert Arlen Schumer talked about Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone. Schumer described Serling as the first creative person to run a television show at the dawn of the 1960s. Serling's achievement was ushering the cult fields of science fiction and fantasy into the new medium of television, and filling his taut storylines with philosophical and existential meaning, he explained. According to Schumer, cinematographer George T. Clemens convinced Serling to resist the network's insistence The Twilight Zone be done in color, as it would ruin the feeling of the show. "These stories deserve to be in beautiful black and white," he said. Schumer also spoke about his webinar, The Twilight Zone: Ahead of its Time, which touches on the show's eerily prescient post-apocalyptic scenarios and themes of loneliness and isolation.
Open Lines followed in the latter half of the program. Willie in San Diego talked about his favorite episode of The Twilight Zone, "Once Upon a Time," which featured silent film star Buster Keaton in the role of an unlikely time traveler. Willie highlighted a humorous scene from the episode which has Keaton's character show up in middle of an intersection in his boxer shorts. Gordon from Plant City, Florida, commented on student loan debt issues and a petition by frequent Coast guest Alan Collinge. Gordon passionately urged listeners to visit studentloanjustice.org and sign the petition calling on President Trump to cancel student loans by executive order. "We own the loans, forgiving them would cost nothing," Gordon said. Bill in Hoover, Alabama, claimed he and his entire family were abducted while traveling by car on Christmas Day in 1967. According to Bill, the craft was shaped like a goose egg, there was a flash of bright light, and they lost over an hour of time. Bill believes his father's role at NASA may have had something to do with abduction.
News segment guest: Tim Binnall