A Journalistic Perspective on the Unexplainable with Steve Volk

Steve Volk currently serves as a Stoneleigh Fellow with Resolve Philly. In this role, he is working towards transforming the way child welfare is reported on by deepening the media narrative and elevating solutions. He is a 20-year veteran Philadelphia journalist and author of Fringeology: How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable and Couldn’t.

Steve explores how mainstream media handles stories of the unexplained and why skepticism and belief often clash in reporting the paranormal. He discusses his investigations into lucid dreaming, after-death communication, and the psychological challenges that follow extraordinary experiences. Volk shares how personal encounters—from family hauntings to precognitive dreams—reshaped his understanding of reality and journalism’s responsibility to portray it fairly.

00:01 Introduction
03:06 Defining the paranormal and media avoidance
06:52 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and the broken filter
12:03 UAPs and the limits of mainstream journalism
14:01 Personal experiences and the family ghost
18:36 Lucid dreaming and connection beyond death
25:25 Induced after death communication therapy
33:00 Journalism, skepticism, and belief
45:03 Precognition and the journalist’s dilemma
53:07 Conclusion

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science.

(Recorded on November 6, 2025)

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