What I dont get though is if this started apparently 15 years ago, and theres been so much of it (court appearances, disgruntled co-hosts, monies owed to dozens of folk, etc) is how the show has kept going and going?
Gene seems to make his podcast (formerly podcasts) a big priority. I think part of it is a way of connecting with the world, part of it is / was a way of seeming legitimate while having a platform from which to beg, and part of it, who knows, just OCD or habit maybe.
I agree with the disclaimer you can't believe everything Gene says. I do believe though that he got himself and his family evicted and had to live in motel rooms for months following that. No matter how dicey he'd claim his personal situation had become (see: tales of begging for handouts at restaurants), the podcast showed up every week like clockwork. I think he would have recorded it out of his car if he had to.
Cranking out a weekly podcast is a lot of work, even when one is resolutely unemployed. But Gene never seems to be short of volunteers to put in the bulk of the actual effort (booking guests, interviewing). Those volunteers are increasingly serious bottom of the barrel types, but they're there. Gene has to show up and go through motions he got down pat over a decade ago. If the guest wrote a book, do you think Gene bothered to read it? He did not. He'll make sure the commercials are played and throw in some of his favorite pop culture references and make some stock observations about the UFO mystery and there you go.
Gene got away with behaving as he did for as long as he did because people tolerated it, and he wasn't necessarily breaking any laws, or at least nothing more than some nuisance laws. He can still get away with begging for disposable income (while claiming the money is for an immediate dire emergency) while billing himself as a serious and legitimate journalist if he likes and I suspect that he will again someday.
Gene seemed committed to the grift and the call of easy money. Check out, if you can find it, the episode where an obvious troll on Twitter claimed he'd meet Gene in a McDonald's parking lot with a bag of cash and Gene frantically raced to not one but two different McDonald's to meet the guy before realizing he was being jerked around. Gene later posted his checking account info on Twitter in response to another troll who claimed he would wire Gene money.
Is it possible some kind of substance abuse or mental health issue was impairing Gene's judgment? I don't know.
Gene is not to be trusted and never was any serious journalist, researcher, investigator or the like. He had a lot of good fortune to start the Paracast when he did, and with David Biedny pulling the plow for him. He has burned a tremendous amount of goodwill over the years, and wound up living out of a motel room while claiming persecution. But the show went on, week after week.