Podcast Review: High Strange Season Two

Join me as I write about this new podcast about aliens! I really enjoyed season one, which you can peek at the review below.

Overall, as a note, Tenderfoot TV does something special. I'm always impressed by how they take a story, or a set of stories, and do this zoom in zoom out. When you start, they never seem that important or that big of an idea. Then they carefully roll you into it, and reflect something back. I always look forward to seeing podcasts from this producing body because of it.

As of writing this, High Strange has three episodes and a some bonus content out. The entirety could be listened to with a subscription, but if I pay for one podcast I feel like I'd have to pay for them all. So, we can wait together.

Review of High Strange from Tenderfoot TV

Every few years it feels like someone is asking "Did they just admit aliens are real, and no one is doing anything?"

I think it's important for me to say: I don't not believe in aliens. I somewhat subscribe to the idea that they exist, but until it gets in the way of me getting my groceries - it's not that important.

I really love the stories, though. I can balance this belief non-belief with my imaginative side pretty well at this point. The possibility of aliens among us versus out there in the wide universe is a type of spooky scary that digs its way into a nervous system differently. My mindset probably impacts this, but the stories? Yeah, those are invigorating.

I think the stories of question and possibility are more interesting than an open and shut case of aliens being real. As in, if we can't prove it, they're absolutely not real - and in most cases we can't. I don't think that's entirely what's important, and season two of High Strange is spinning this idea out brilliantly. With the scene first set around Congressional hearings, host Payne Lindsey and the team over at Tenderfoot do this beautiful thing of looking for a truth we don't usually want to acknowledge with tales of alien encounters: It's sometimes about the extraterrestrials, but it's always about the humans.

We might ask, and speculate, and debate whether or not aliens are real. But what what would belief do? What would sudden acceptance do? Validate the already ostrozied, maybe? Does it get resources to those who have been harmed, physically, mentally, socially or emotionally?

Yes, becuase these people have been hurt, and oftentimes in more ways than one. Do we need to lookat something else when examining these stories and claims? We know that multiple people have multiple types of encounters, sometimes at the same time. Some may accept, some may not. It creates a dissonance, and an unreliablilty. This isn't the only time this idea of different shared realities is real, though. It's not just aliens, it's all the time.

The question of a shared reality sits center to this podcast, one that is a message more important than if extraterrestrials are abducting people or mutilating our cows. It's this fact that many people can experience the same event, and walk away with more conclusions than there were witnesses. Can examining these stories, ones that feel fanastical and tantilizing, help us stretch some mental muscles of understanding and perhaps even empathy? These muscles feel atrophied lately, don't they?

If we can take moments to sit with these stories, that are very real to some and downright unbelievable to others, and reconcile those two realities - what other realities can we reconcile in 2026?

We can sit here and talk about aliens, and we can sit here and imagine so many scenarios of existence and possibility, of the otherworldy - but there are things on Earth that are much more immediate and serious that we need to tend to. That doesn't mean ignore and dismiss, it maybe means listen and use our brains for something better than doomscrolling.

The way this season is framed, with the seriousness of a talented journalist like Payne Lindsey, contrasting with the paranormal fantasy of extra terrestrial life, it makes us think without strain. Most importantly, it makes us more human by examining the strange. In these six nearly hour long episodes, of fantastic production quality, the team at Tenderfoot achieves their signature move. They bring us in, wrap us up, and unknowingly take us down a path of deep humanization of those who usually need it most.

Listen to High Strange Here

TLDR:

• Epsides: Six total, some bonus content
• Length: 45 - 60 Minutes long
• Vibes: Mysterious, fun, suspenseful, thoughtful

Read More Critic Reviews of High Strange on GreatPods

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