Appalachian Horror: Voices in the Woods

Are you an outdoorsy type? If so, you know the wilderness is beautiful and dangerous. Slippery terrain, lack of water, poisonous plants, wild animals and other humans can all be a threat... but out in Appalachia, folks are convinced there's another danger at play: supernatural, eerie voices in the woods, luring the unwary to their doom. Live from Baha Mar, Ben, Matt and Noel explore the mystery of the Appalachian Mimic Voice.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Now They called me Ben.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
We're joined with our super producer Max the Free Trade
Williams off camera right there, we see him the most importantly.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
You are you. You are here.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
So thanks for tuning in on Netflix, Thanks for tuning
in on podcast platforms of choice. Longtime listeners, you may
notice something a little bit different. Uh, the guys dragged
dragged me out during the day time and we're not
even in the United States right now.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, it's kind of weird. I notice we're wearing shorts
and look like we're going to the beach. You've got
a full suit on, Ben.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
It's a it's it's a regular suit. You guys, we are.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
I can't help but notice it seems like we're in
a beach setting.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
We are. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:18):
I wish I could see out the window here.

Speaker 6 (01:20):
It's like it's like Jurassic Park out there right before
the s hits the f there's foliage, there are water parks,
lciraptors opening doors.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, there are flamingos.

Speaker 4 (01:30):
That one's for you, but which are very veloc oh sure, yeah,
evolutionarily speaking, guys, let's reveal it.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
We are in Baja, Mar. We teased it a little bit,
uh aha, Mar, what is that?

Speaker 6 (01:44):
It's a it's a it's a magical place, okay, where
flamingo's roam free.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
What I would say, it's a state of mind.

Speaker 6 (01:52):
There's wave pools and other other fine attractions water slides, sure,
with exciting.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
Names some of those.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
But is there a casino?

Speaker 7 (02:01):
You know there's a casino, Matt, Okay, well then my
money is there that sort of.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
We could also say life is a casino.

Speaker 5 (02:08):
Yeah, yes, that's true.

Speaker 6 (02:10):
The Roll of the Dice true, guys, and the Bahamas
of Bahama is really cool. Thanks to the fine folks
at Bahamas for having us out and they got this
incredible podcast studio that we are privileged to be joining
you from.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
Absolutely and thank you for joining us folks. As you
can tell, we are having a great time. You can
also find us recording here for additional shows like Ridiculous History,
it's gonna feature our returning special guests, mister Matt Frederick.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
So, Matt, thanks for agreeing to that one.

Speaker 5 (02:41):
Talk about kooky pirates.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yes, yes, things they're ridiculous about pirates. And also just.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Because he hates it, you guys, just because he hates
certain celebrations. Can we say happy birthday to Max the
freight train William?

Speaker 5 (02:56):
Absolutely not. I won't do it. I want the birthday, Bax.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
He's in his thirties. I'm pretty sure somewhere half wait,
I think he's one past mid.

Speaker 6 (03:07):
Oh, closer and closer, creeping, closer and closer towards towards death.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Max, you are never mid in my book.

Speaker 5 (03:13):
You know what.

Speaker 7 (03:16):
Max's tops, Maximuely to all.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Of the pops and folks.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
While we've been hanging out here, we are still on
our continuing mission to explore the strange, right, the unexplained,
And this one, since we've been spending so much time outdoors,
is for our fellow lovers of the outdoors. It is
for the campers, right, This is for the hikers. This
is for the explorers. This is especially for a different

(03:44):
natural wonder. The estimated seventeen million visitors to the Appalachian
Trail every single year.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Have you guys ever walked the trail.

Speaker 5 (03:53):
I've never walked the trail.

Speaker 6 (03:55):
I do like trail mix, though I could do without
the raisins.

Speaker 7 (03:58):
I like a trail mix that's light on rais I
don't want.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
But you guys can't fight about raisins again.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Why if you I'll die on this. Why trail mix
if it doesn't have raisins in it?

Speaker 7 (04:11):
Says raisins or crazins.

Speaker 5 (04:15):
Raisins are my drive, fruit of a choice. Have hiked
or walk the trail.

Speaker 7 (04:20):
But you know there's that thing right where you get
the stick and.

Speaker 6 (04:22):
Then you get a little a little badge under stead
for depending on which leg of the trail you have completed,
and the complete ists out.

Speaker 5 (04:29):
There have a have a stick full of badges.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
My only argument here, Ben, is that I think it's
not just for people on the trail. It's also for
people who just end up camping at a campsite anywhere
along that whole eastern side.

Speaker 5 (04:41):
Of Scenic overlooks sprats.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Or renting a cabin maybe with a family vacation, which
I recently did in not exactly in this area. We're
going to talk about pretty close, but just there is
something to the environment. Any for any reason, you find
yourself there, even if you're driving through and let's say
you're cutting across the Appalachian Mountains and you your car

(05:05):
is like running out of gas or something, or your trouble.
You know, I'm just saying, if you find yourself there,
everything we're gonna talk about today is for you.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
You get in a situation, right, People get in situations.
And that reminds me what you were saying, Matt about
one of my one of my favorite pieces of advice,
old scout master, really weird ex military kind of guy.
What you would say to us was, what's the first
thing you do if you wake up and you find

(05:32):
yourself in the woods?

Speaker 5 (05:34):
You hang your groceries and garbage in a tree.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
It's a trick question.

Speaker 4 (05:40):
The first thing you do is ask yourself how you've
got in that situation?

Speaker 3 (05:45):
And right, how did I get here? This is not
my beautiful house, and so on.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
So we know that a lot of people are unprepared
for the while. That's gonna be a thing that we
go back to this the Appalachian Trail in particular.

Speaker 8 (06:00):
Though.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
The reason we're asking about whether you've hiked it or not,
folks is because it is world famous. It has stunning
natural beauty, and it's also genuinely wild. So you will
be potentially in situations that you wouldn't run into in
a city.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
You have to be prepared.

Speaker 4 (06:18):
I mean, they're the natural dangers, right of the elements
or forest creatures or of course human beings. Yeah up
there with the mosquito.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
But the ravines and ravines and dully hola. Sometimes that
is not good for you to be around.

Speaker 7 (06:38):
Guys, dare we say I take care the ghosts.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
Well, that's the thing that's according to some people, you
don't have to worry about just those mundane challenges. You
have to worry about another kind of danger. And the
old story goes that if you are walking the Appalachian
Trail or really anywhere in Appalachia and you hear a
voice in the woods calling your name, you should run

(07:03):
away from the voice.

Speaker 5 (07:04):
Though that was it, That was it.

Speaker 7 (07:06):
Sunglasses that paid off, and yeah, we're going to get
into it.

Speaker 6 (07:10):
Just be hear though away from the voice.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
I don't look, we don't know. There's a fantastic move.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Ben.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
I have also heard that that instead of just running
away one of the things you're supposed to do. Again,
these are all rumors. These are all things. You'll find
them on TikTok videos. They're so popular right now. Like
somebody giving you advice about what to do in a
police in the woods. Yeah, it's you.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
Slice your hand open, let the blood fall on the ground,
and then say, imagine what I'll do to you.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Okay, well no, a lot of people do. Say. What
you should do is state, plainly state your purpose for
being in the woods at that time of night where
you're going. Just stated as fact, this is what's happening,
don't want any trouble, and then just continue on what.

Speaker 5 (07:59):
Is is this voice like a cop?

Speaker 7 (08:01):
What are we talking about?

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Listen, Well, they think we're I think we're going to
get into like the pints and all the things that
potentially could be. But ultimately, if somebody's calling your name
in the woods at night, unless you're hiking with some
people or you got some really fun jokes or friends,
probably not pay much mind to.

Speaker 6 (08:23):
And if they if they pop out of the trees
and they look like your dead grandmother, it's not your granny.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
So again, if you hear someone calling out to you
in the woods. Run.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
We'll be right back after a word from Outward sponsors.
Here are the facts.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Okay, we got to set the seed right.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
We got to talk about the Appalachian Trail, this little
bit of history. It's very cool, weird stuff because did
you know that the Appalachian Trail was not like a
natural National Park Service thing at first.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
It was the idea.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
It's the brainchild of a forester and social activist named
Benton McKay.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
His strong name is pretty strong, it does. It's so
do you shake your this guy?

Speaker 4 (09:20):
Yeah, this guy is nuts. Though I think a lot
of people don't know this. We certainly didn't until we
started researching it. He first pitched the idea of a
I don't know if I can curse like this, first
pitch the idea of a cartoonishly long trail. Uh A
article called an Appalachian Trail, a project in regional planning,

(09:43):
and he was not.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
It's kind of like Walt Disney with Epcot.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
You know.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
Originally Epcot was supposed to be the city of the future,
and then it became a you know, it became a
theme park instead.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
But his idea was yeah, yeah, yeah, they got some
sick rides.

Speaker 4 (10:01):
They've got like a Buckminster type butler, Yeah, Buckminster Fuller
type of.

Speaker 5 (10:09):
Coded.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
So, this guy's original plan was to make a blueprint
for a comprehensive reassessment of American society because he was
seeing the divide between the herbid and the rural populations.
That thank you, Yeah, yeah, okay, stage magic.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
That makes sense because in this area of looking at
older maps of what is considered the you know, the
Appalachian Mountains area, and you can definitely see where it's
a lot of rural areas that go all the way
from New York down into Alabama. Yeah uh, And I
imagine that folks living in those hills on those mountains

(10:52):
and hills, well least the ones the folks that I've
encountered and the times that I've been out there living.
It feels like a completely different world, much like Bahamar. Right,
this is this is not normal for for us.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
That was a really good or it's less organic.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
But but in the mountains there's you know, you're you
don't there are a couple of cities that are along
this area, not the big metropolitan areas, and it's because
it's really difficult to do that.

Speaker 7 (11:24):
Probably like villages, you know what we would think of
as villages.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Or individual families that have been living there for hundreds
of hundred, two hundred years, let's.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Say communities.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
At hundred. A lot of the native populations that indigenous
peoples were pushed out of here. I mean, we've learned
about the trio tiers and all that stuff and where
indigenous people were pushed to. But many families, like you said,
are there for Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:50):
Oh, I don't know if I I think I may
have mentioned it to you guys, But having having roots
deep in the hollows of Appalachia, there is an HBO documentary.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
That is kind of about my family.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Nice. Is it called the Holler?

Speaker 3 (12:07):
It's called American Hollow Yay?

Speaker 4 (12:10):
Yeah, American Hollow, Hollow Holler. I think we could mention
that yeah spells slightly differently because of the illiteracy of
the time. For a while, watched it part way through
for the first time many years ago and felt bad

(12:30):
and didn't know what was going on. I was like,
why does this all seemed familiar? Why does this happen?
There's a kid who wants to get off the ridge
or off the holler, and at one pivotal moment in
this documentary, which again is a phenomenal one. He is
yelling at his parents, right, and he's saying, I forget

(12:52):
you guys.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
I'm gonna get out of here.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
I'm going to get out of this strange world, right,
and I'm going to go move to the city. And
I still don't know these people from cannap Hayton until
one guy.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
I think it's a dad. He's an older guy. He
leans back and he says he won't get out of here.
Ain't a bowlin make it off the ridge?

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Ain't a bowlin make it off the ridge?

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (13:15):
Interesting, Well it's a it's a weird tangent or I'm
glad you here. It's an interesting aside because it shows
us how isolated these places can be.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
Right.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Geography is more than just physical distance, Right. Geography can
be cultural, It can be folkloric, it can be altitude.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
It can be altitude as well. Yes, it canoe.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
So this guy McKay, Benton McKay, shake your fistl there
we goayot.

Speaker 6 (13:46):
This dancing outlaw guy from Appalachio.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
To the Dancing Outlaw.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
A lot of characters and Benton McKay is definitely one,
because he says, look, we need we need to reconcile
these two very different worlds. Right, Industrial progress is a
pyrrhic victory because we are as a civilization, we're making
great new things. Right, we've got the automobile, we've got
mass production. But we also are experiencing the consequences of that. Right,

(14:17):
We've got disgusting amounts of pollution. You know, we have
rural brain drain.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Right.

Speaker 4 (14:24):
We have communities shattered because their traditional ways of life
are ruined. So hiking in the Appalachian Trail the original pitch.
It's kind of an incidental thing. It's kind of like
when someone's selling you a car and they also sit
and they say, oh, we can also give you, you know,
a little net for the trunk.

Speaker 7 (14:44):
We're throwing some floor mats, we throw take you off.
Floor mats don't always come with the car.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
I didn't know that. I thought they always had like
a generic version and the youthing, maybe it's with used cars.

Speaker 6 (14:58):
I about a used ho fit long ago, and it
did not come with floor mats, And I was very.

Speaker 5 (15:01):
Apt to find that out.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, they were chintzy on the floor.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Did you have to go to O'Reilly auto parts, better parts,
better pizza.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
Wow. Yes, but yell, guys, this this is birthday boy.
Back that much you got?

Speaker 5 (15:21):
That's good?

Speaker 3 (15:22):
The Goldilocks. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (15:23):
So cr B has a folding picnic table in trunk. No,
incredibly incredible, but you should take it on the trail.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, but no chairs, chairs, all right, take it to
the trail.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Where we're going.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
We don't need chairs.

Speaker 5 (15:42):
We got we have we have ground right.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
So okay, so we've got this. Uh, we've got this
pitch right.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
And like any big plan, it starts really ambitious, he says,
or by our guy Benton McKay love a fish shake.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (15:57):
He says, We're going to make a trail from the
highest point in the northern east coast, Mount Washington, New Yorkshire,
to the highest point in the south Mount Mitchell, North Carolina.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
And then this again his opinion.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
And people have been talking about this idea of a
super duper trail, like a final form Pokemon kind of
trail for a while. So McKay's plan gets a lot
of support from the political class. People are even in
divided times, people are coming together just on this idea.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
They're like, we can't agree about anything right. We still
don't agree.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
About the civil War, but trails are kind of cool.
And then McKay is like, yeah, trails part of my idea,
and they're like, yeah, you trail guy, trail mix guy.

Speaker 6 (16:45):
So these are pre existing trails that he is hoping
to combine to connect.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yeah, it is so cool to me that this predates
the interstate highway system, like several years.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
Yes, yeah, I would have thought that this.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Was an idea that would have been spawned by this
concept of the interstate highway system.

Speaker 7 (17:05):
And it makes me ask the question was was this
more than recreation?

Speaker 5 (17:09):
Was this it was right, he was thinking of this.

Speaker 6 (17:11):
As more like, this is how we connect these civilizations.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yeah, it's an astonishing public works project. And I love
the comparison to the Interstate Highway system because of this
scale and the interstate highway system shout out to Eisenhower
really only occurred because it was seen as a matter
of national defense.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
Right, it was that.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
We talked about this the other day for some reason.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
Again oh yeah, yeah, yeah, so this is like, okay,
we got to so this part up the trail. Appalachian
Trail is one of the top ten most visited parks
in the country. It didn't end up being everything Benton
McKay wanted, but at least part of the reason it is.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
I think it's like number nine right now.

Speaker 4 (17:58):
One of the reasons it's a top ten part is
really just because it's so again cartoonishly long, like we
can't this is like what three thousand, five and forty kilometers.
That equates to two thousand, one hundred and ninety seven
point nine freedom units. Oh that's what I'm calling miles now, okay, great, Yeah,

(18:22):
that's not going to be off putting in the Bahamas.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
And it makes me think about the boys in those
freedom camps that they set up.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
Shout out tout voughts, suuse me?

Speaker 4 (18:34):
Yeah this okay, So now it doesn't It stretches from
Springer Mountain in Georgia, as.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
We know, known for their chicken Yes, that is true.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Wait is this originally it goes from Springer Mountain in Georgia.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, and it it passes through fourteen
states on the way to Maine. It also it also
interacts with a bunch of other extensions of the trail.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Right, So it's a franchise.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Because you can go out not just in a straight line.
You can yeah, go down towards the other bigger populated areas.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
Yeah, and you can go up to Canada, you know
what I mean. But really you can walk anywhere, I guess.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
So it's managed by the Forest Service.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
It's managed by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy RIP.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
The Forest Service, by the way, Oh my gosh, is
it gone.

Speaker 7 (19:25):
I believe it is being dismantled.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Like NASA.

Speaker 5 (19:30):
Sure based on the moon again.

Speaker 8 (19:31):
The EPA or gosh, pretty much forest Services in the
news recently a specific new effort to kind of you know,
jam up the Forest Service.

Speaker 6 (19:41):
And of course, like you said, Ben, do things with
the parks. Yeah, not in the best interest of parked them.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
If only we had like a project for the year
twenty five, Matt, you my.

Speaker 4 (19:52):
Little I'm over, you know, I think it's time for
us to start projecting twenty thirty.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
Five, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Yeah, look at it.

Speaker 4 (20:01):
Oh my gosh, twenty thirty five, Max, How old are
you going to be in twenty thirty five?

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Older?

Speaker 3 (20:09):
All right?

Speaker 4 (20:10):
Technically true, So this is a big ten freedom years older,
ten freedom years, ten freedom units older. So okay, A
few people do manage to hike the entirety of the
trail around three thousand attempts every year. Only about one
out of four of those succeed. So if you have
done this, congratulations, and we have to hear your weird

(20:33):
story because statistically, something beat me again here Max, something
very fucking strange happened to you while you were hiking
that long.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
We have known several people who have actually kind of
like decided not to go all the way, but you know,
go for a long period of time on the Appalachian Trail,
usually starting in Georgia. Because I've lived in Georgia my
whole life, I know mostly Georgia folks. But they start
there and they go up, but they don't a lot
of them don't always get to Maine. A lot of

(21:02):
them get north, like New York area up there. Yea,
not as far as it'll go.

Speaker 5 (21:07):
Well, they get that trail madness.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Well, I think it's just more like, okay, we did
this thing. This is good. I can say I hiked
the Appalachian Trail quite a bit.

Speaker 5 (21:15):
But they're not completed. They don't get all the badges.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
They do not get all the badges, and they also
the reason we're saying you probably have a weird story. Statistically,
it's because there is a dark side just to the
length of the trail, right just to the size of
the Appalachian region in general, things happen on the trail.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
So as in twenty twenty one, there have.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
Been ten officially acknowledged homicides on the trail, and that
number just goes from nineteen seventy four right up to
the present day.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Which is statistically is almost zero, right right, think about.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
But that's the other issue, because we also have to
think about the fact that the National Park servicetistically has
never kept track of disappearances.

Speaker 5 (22:04):
This is what what what was it?

Speaker 6 (22:05):
Oh gosh, the guy that wrote the book about in
the state parks.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
It's not pol of trades. It was missing for eleven.

Speaker 6 (22:13):
There you yeah, but not the deal with that was
the whole deal with that's correct, I believe. But the
whole deal with that guy's research was the lack of
reporting as well, and that they're likely more.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah, there are no real databases there.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
He wouldn't say bigfoot, he would not.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
Recently, listen to our earlier episode, David.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
Had look up David Politis it looks like polit E's
and then search for Bigfoot, there is a whole other thing.
There's a new thing. Yes, we don't want to. Yeah,
we should actually get him on.

Speaker 4 (22:49):
We had a great conversation in our previous interview segment
with him.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
But this is true.

Speaker 4 (22:55):
Like what you're saying that about statistically that being pretty
low is true. And what I'm saying about the database
lack or the lack of accountability in a very real
way is also true. So if we if we did
the math, that averages like zero point two one seven
murders a year zero point two one seven.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
And the thing is, how does one do a fraction
of a murder.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
One day at a time?

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Slice? Slice?

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah? Yeah, no, I got married once. So okay.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
People do disappear in the Appalachian Trail, and the reasons
for the disappearances are vary. You could have people purposely ghosting,
You could have accidents, you could have unacknowledged homicides. It
feels weird to say that on such a nice day,
I wish you could see it.

Speaker 6 (24:00):
Perhaps mountain lions carrying people away to their dance.

Speaker 4 (24:04):
Yeah, this is all old beans right to America's seasoned hikers.
But with any for a away from civilization. You got
to prioritize safety over everything. There's this other thing that's
haunting some of the best hikers in the United States.
It's the idea that the dangers here are not mundane crimes,

(24:24):
are not all accidents, that there is a supernatural factor
at play. That's right, We're getting to it. You spend
enough time talking with experienced hikers, just like we asked
you to send us messages, and you were going to
be surprised.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
Folks.

Speaker 4 (24:40):
There are a lot of people who tell you that
they've heard inexplicable sounds in the woods, voices sometimes calling
them by name.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
No, thank you, Yeah, we'll be.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
Back afterword from our sponsors. Here's where it gets crazy.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Can I just say, yeah, just returning from the Tennessee Hills.
Out there the hills, and as a guy who's pretty
experienced in cabining and in camping.

Speaker 7 (25:16):
And high cabinetry woodworking in.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
The Appalachian Mountains in northern Georgia, there are some very
weird sounds that you can hear, especially if you're higher
up in elevation and you're let's say there's like a
bit of a valley kind of down where you're looking at.

Speaker 6 (25:33):
I mean just the sonics of it, just like the
way sound moves and mountains.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yes, that's exactly what to get into really quickly. The
way sound functions in that environment is different, and it's weird,
especially if you're used to a place that has a
lot of sharp angles, right angles, places where audio reflects differently.
When you're out there, it can be the smallest and

(25:57):
even a squirrel rummaging through lead, yeah, sounds terrifying if
it's the right time of day or night. And if
there are two squirrels, Oh god, watch squirrel.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
Serious, the sound that's a passle of squirrels.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
The sound is tremendous. And if you can't see the
squirrel making the sound.

Speaker 5 (26:17):
Right, that's yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:20):
Also we should mention the parts of Tennessee that we
hang out in. Weirdly enough, the squirrels all have Jersey accents.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
So it's very strange.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
You know, when you're having a nice night out in
the woods and all of a sudden, this guy your voice.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
I'm gonna keep doing the joke. You hear a voice go, hey,
I'm walking in Wow wi my nuts.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah, I'm gathering over here.

Speaker 5 (26:46):
They're in your cheeks.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Look, come on, there are a lot of squirrels that
come down from that part of the United States to
Georgia because it's so much nicer in Tennessee Georgia. In
the South, it's just so nice.

Speaker 6 (26:55):
They got to get away from the from the hustle
and bustle of the big city.

Speaker 4 (26:58):
This episode is brought to you by Baja mar at
this World Tourism Born.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Just to put this out there before you even get
into the weirder stuff. They're even creatures like cranes. Sure
that will come through and you will hear a crane sound.
And when you're in the mountains hearing a crane that
you associate, you know, more with an ocean environment, like
for me it's Florida. I associate them with that. Yeah,
hearing them in the mountains, you don't. Your brain does

(27:27):
not go to that.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
It's an unexpected thing. It's a novelist.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
This is where like, okay, so to set the scene
of the folklore. This is the Appalachian mimic voice.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
That's what we're talking about.

Speaker 4 (27:39):
It's disturbing because it's similar to the old myths about sirens.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Right where you hear you know you hear or you see.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
What appears to be a beautiful lady singing a beautiful
song and tempting.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
Sailors right to their deaths.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
This is kind of a land based version of that
in folklore, right yeah.

Speaker 6 (28:04):
Yeah, And I mean, geez, guys, the the Appalachian Trail
and just like the mountainous areas, I think we've all
hung out at the cabin type stuff.

Speaker 7 (28:10):
There's a they're very Tolkien coded.

Speaker 5 (28:13):
Like the Misty Mountains.

Speaker 6 (28:15):
They're very like led Zeppelin a fig There's something mystical
and spooky and beautiful but also a little scary just
about the vibes out Oh yeah, and what you're describing here,
it just kind of fits right in with that.

Speaker 4 (28:27):
There's something beautiful and haunting about it, you know what
I mean, like a like a good acoustic song.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Just so, just so, but if you hear someone talking
out in the middle of the woods, and you know,
it is so interesting. We're talking about the difference between
daytime and night time, because I think in the daytime
and you heard voices in the woods, you're gonna immediately
initially think, oh, there's somebody else out there, there's some bikers, somebody.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Else's prey and stink doesn't kick in as quickly.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
But if you're in the dark, like the dark of
the woods in the mountains at night, that's a whole
different situation.

Speaker 4 (29:00):
And also consider how weird it is folks in the
Appalachian mimic voice folklore, the voice that.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Calls to you.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
Doesn't appear to be a stranger, right, it sounds like
someone else.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
It sounds like it's green, right, right.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
It isn't, doesn't. The folklore also say it's mostly going
to be your name that's being called.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
It's calling your name, and it's doing so in the cadence,
in the tonality of a loved one, a family member,
a neighbor right or a someone perhaps that you lost
earlier in life. So the people hearing these voices, the
pickle of it is that long lost relative is has

(29:47):
died or is one hundreds of miles away. There's nobody
else around that they're aware of. These voices seem to
occur far away from any permanent human habitation.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
And I want to point out that those are actual children. Yeah, yeah,
that is we're not doing a bit.

Speaker 7 (30:04):
There are people all around this place.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Baja Mar said, it's too beautiful on that side. So
you're not allowed to see on that side. It's too beautiful.
Don't look over there. But over here you can kind
of see shadows passing by me.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Stand up in the curtains, because then they'd be like,
glare do that for videos.

Speaker 4 (30:18):
But yeah, when you hear children laughing as we're talking about, those.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
Are actual children. They're having a great time.

Speaker 5 (30:28):
We are zoo animals right now. We are the flamingos.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
We've gotta you've gotta be the petting zoo you wish
to see in the world, touching.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Should we do such yoga in here? Like mid podcasts?

Speaker 5 (30:40):
We have the space. Man, I'm not doing that.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
You know.

Speaker 5 (30:42):
I'm a yoga guy, but I will not do yoga
with a flamingo. I don't know if I'm even gonna
get close.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
Enough in four cameras.

Speaker 4 (30:47):
Sure, so the other gad I want to go back
to what you're saying that the we were saying specifically earlier,
the idea that forested slopes or changes in geography may
lead to acoustic Shenanigans, and this phenomenon the Appalachian anomalies.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
Anomalies.

Speaker 4 (31:09):
Yes, this save this occurs on forested slopes in what
we call the hollers right, the deep gullies valleys, especially
apparently during late spring and early summer, which is another
clue for us, because then that might be maybe a
seasonal migration, maybe something as simple as the foliage. The

(31:34):
voices also seem to respond to your movements.

Speaker 7 (31:37):
So if you guys are what's because you're changing the space, you're.

Speaker 5 (31:41):
Changing the way. I mean like you are a part
of the sonic equation.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
Man, just moving your head a little bit can make
a big.

Speaker 6 (31:50):
It's fascinating how these little differences can make such a
huge effect, have such a huge effect on.

Speaker 5 (31:55):
The way you perceive sound.

Speaker 6 (31:57):
And think about just like shouting in a parking ground,
how cool and weird and echoing that can be. Blow
that up by all of these different surfaces and curving,
sloping areas, and the way that sound will travel and
echo and bounce, it becomes like a delay, you know,
like literally the way it's a repeated kind of echo

(32:17):
that then takes on a whole other sonic characteristic.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Can I take something really quickly that happened while we
were in Tennessee recently. So the house we were staying
at was at the top of a mountain and there
was a deck that went out on the back where
you could look out into one of these houlers that
Ben is describing.

Speaker 6 (32:36):
Where can you describe it a little because it's not
exactly the same as like out west right like this
is sure, we're at the top of a mountain.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
And then it slopes down to where you can see
a highway away in the distance, and then another mountain
rolls up, so that's what you're looking at, and then
there's mountains that go to the right and to the left.
When you're looking out at this kind of valley area, Ben,
I love how just almost like statue right now. This
is beautiful posture. It's just amazing. And you were so still.

(33:05):
Uh so you're we're looking out here at night. We've
been looking at the stars with these binoculars and yeah,
I've got these binoculars. Are they're designed to look at
the stars. They're incredible. So you didn't you let it
give us a go at those at your place when
we were looking at incredible that.

Speaker 7 (33:22):
Lives out in a wonderfully unlight polluted part of.

Speaker 6 (33:26):
Our fair metropolis and it's wonderful out there.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Okay, So there we are, We're there we're looking up
at the stars and then all of a sudden and
what you're hearing out there is nature. You can kind
of hear we all know the hum of a highway
in the distance, but it is imagine just the whisper
of a highway out in the distance, mostly silent, and
you can hear some it's not really birds. You just

(33:51):
hear just the wind moving through all the trees. Because
when we're talking about these mountains, they're covered with.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
Trees orchestra of insects.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
But the insects are not even that that loud at
this point, I would say the most distinct thing, though,
is the wind as it is moving through all of
these trees, because you can hear it coming and you
can hear it going, and sometimes you'll get cross winds
because of the topography there. And it sounds it has
a hiss to it, like the hulmost very human in

(34:22):
a way. And then we heard dogs or it was
some kind of canine animal that began howling, and you
could hear it begin to the right side, Yeah, and
it begins howling, and then the howls. You could it
sounds like they're growing and they're getting closer. But it's
because there are exactly there are other animals doing the
same thing. And then it went across the mountain and

(34:45):
it was one of the creepiest things. I knew what
it was in here, sure, but there was still something too.
But there was something to it that activated the more
lizard parts of my brain, right, those those parts of
our brain that were your response has.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
Occurred predator prey, especially at night, you know.

Speaker 4 (35:03):
We we also we can see a lot of anecdotal
evidence for this. But despite the many accounts of this phenomenon,
it seems no person who encountered the Appalachian mimic voice
ever found the source.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
Of the audio apparition.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
The people who think it's weird, the people who think
they've encountered a human entity or human like entity, they've
never actually found that thing, that's what you're saying. They've
never like found the person. Nobody went off the trail.
Also never go off the trail. Nobody went off the
trail and found some guy like hiding behind a bush

(35:45):
going nah, you got me, ye ah.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Well, no one's found that yet.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
But there's an interesting thing because if you grow up
in these areas, you're told, often by your parents some
of these pieces of folklore, and not even the folklore.
You're just told things like if you hear your name
being called in the woods, ignore it, pretend like it's
not there, continue on with your business, right, Like, that's
a thing that is told to kids, and it is

(36:12):
a cautionary tale. Right, Ultimately, that's a cautionary tale that's
told the kids. So if you grow up there, you're
not gonna you're not too worried about the woods. Probably
you're like, oh, yeah, I'm not. I'm not supposed to.
I'm not supposed to check it out and get curious
if my name is called. But people who live in
a city or something, they're on TikTok watching all these videos,
they're like, oh, snap, if I go in the woods

(36:34):
and somebody calls my name, I shouldn't go check it out.
And then I do wonder if it snowballs for people
who have no idea what it's like to actually be
there and live.

Speaker 4 (36:42):
Right, Yeah, we're talking about people being primed for an experience, right.
Part of the FOLKLRT. I'm glad we're bringing up that point.
Part of the folklore is rooted in much older oral
traditions that existed centuries before their trail was a thing, right,
And they're also the Old Appalachia, what we call Appalachia today,

(37:03):
was a region of intermixing myths and legends, some of
which date back to pre European contact Native Americans, right.
Some are carried across the world by European and African
migrants people arriving to this land. This is a place
of hanks and spirits h A I N T s.

(37:23):
This is a place where Christianity is technically your dominant religion.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
But it's a different version thereof you know what I mean.
I think we all know a.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
Lot of the vestiges of pre Christian belief that persists
in Appalachia. So the mimic voice exists. Before this, we've
already talked about how folklore serves a specific purpose, right
in legend, in making legends real. I can't wait to
get into more of the mimic voice.

Speaker 6 (37:53):
Well, yeah, I mean, should we take a quick break
and then come back and talk about the spooky ghosts
and monsters of it all?

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (38:00):
Great, per do that thing.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
And we have returned.

Speaker 4 (38:10):
So going back to this folklore point. Yeah, we said
in previous episodes, this serves an important social function, right,
keep the kids out of the woods. But we also
have to realize that when people are primed to expect
a thing, their perception of reality sort of morphs to

(38:33):
satisfy that desire or that expectation. Without getting into the psychology,
we can see this all throughout the fascinating tapestry that
is Appalachian folklore is folklore in general. The idea of
strange creatures in the woods are strange entities is universally

(38:54):
no off mic. Earlier, we were talking about.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
The Wind to Go, The Wind to Go.

Speaker 6 (38:58):
It's been on my mindly because of the Stephen King
adaptation it Welcome to.

Speaker 5 (39:03):
Dairy penny Wise.

Speaker 6 (39:06):
The clown isn't a wind to Go exactly, but he's
very Wind to Go esque, and the way they've sort
of elaborated on the lore of penny Wise, it is
more tied to Native American culture in the in the prequels, right,
it wasn't really stuff that was directly addressed in the
novel or in the in the films.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
I quite enjoyed it.

Speaker 7 (39:23):
I thought it was a little hit or miss in places,
but I did really dig.

Speaker 5 (39:26):
That Native American angle, and it penny Wise.

Speaker 6 (39:31):
Is a shape shifter, which is a mimic, right, yes,
And the Wind to Go is also something that's used
in other Stephen King novels, specifically pet Cemetery isn't really
addressed in the film, but in the book, the Wind
to Go is this shape shifting, tootemic demon that dwells
in the forest like, deer like and also can take

(39:54):
on like the voice of your loved ones and you know, beckon.

Speaker 5 (39:58):
You near and then you know.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
And then drag you and drag, drag you to hell
or this this guy.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Let's let's start about that, because I think there's something
to that mimic thing and to the Wind to Go,
like a shape shifting creature, because I think, and maybe
I'm wrong here, but I think the concept is that
it could be anything. Yes, if it's a mimic, it
could be anything. If if you're trying to warn a child,
let's say you danger, man, it's stranger danger too, because

(40:27):
it could be someone you know, sorry, please continue, Or
it could be any of the dangers that are represented
by living in a mountainous area that is heavily forested.

Speaker 5 (40:37):
Snake it would have bit you and it will bite
you to stay away.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Yes, yes, a snake, a coyote, air, anything that is
out there that potentially is dangerous to you. It could
be anything that's tempting you to get curious and go
check it out.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
Right, Yeah, that goes back.

Speaker 4 (40:54):
That's the that's the pitch for the the mimic voice.
It's old as civilization, right, it's tale as old as time.
It is sometimes portrayed as testing people.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
Right. So the idea is.

Speaker 4 (41:09):
That this thing will reward you for being wise right,
or as so many scholars have said, for first stating
your purpose, or for calmly proceeding, and it will punish
the unwise, right who run toward the voice. Yeah, and
so this this is sometimes portrayed in moralistic terms, but

(41:31):
those moralistic terms we have to realize are ultimately just
an awesome suit jacket.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
Over the survival terms.

Speaker 4 (41:39):
The moralism is ultimately going to be how to survive
in the woods.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (41:44):
Sure, it's packaged in storytelling, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Just so right, it's almost as awesome as the current
suit jacket or Ben Bolan is currently wearing.

Speaker 5 (41:53):
You think that was the implication matter?

Speaker 3 (41:55):
Yep, you're sure it's awesome to you. Guys are looking great.
Are you having a good time?

Speaker 7 (41:58):
It's so fun really to get out in them wave pools.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
Oh yeah, all right, yeah, listen, if you hear a
voice calling to you from the waves, shall I swim
towards it, stand.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
Up loudly and say, declare your purpose?

Speaker 5 (42:12):
Purpose? It's fun in the sun.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
I don't think we mentioned whistling whistling in the woods voices.
Because there's whistling, We've got to get to it.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Yeah, that's ok.

Speaker 4 (42:21):
Acoustics like phenomenon, right, because we've been talking perfect point.
We talking about voice exchanges, right, or what appears to
be voice exchanges, But we also should mention other incongruous.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
Sounds that appear to be responding.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
To you, yeah, or just general whistling. Whistling in general
is often seen as a very negative thing, especially at
night in the Appalachian Mountains.

Speaker 4 (42:45):
Area, even like a tuneful whistle, yes, even like Edward
the Magnetic Zeros guy, guy, I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
That's or just name your group that came out around
that time that does this a lot.

Speaker 6 (43:03):
Hey, yeah, the millennial yea.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
But whistling is considered another thing. Again. I think Appalachian
folklore is very anti curiosity and very pro don't mess
with stuff.

Speaker 7 (43:19):
Well, that makes a lot of sense again as a
cautionary tale.

Speaker 5 (43:22):
When you're out an amount amongst all of these.

Speaker 6 (43:24):
Things that can kill you, maybe curiosity isn't your friend.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Do you guys have a lot of family and Appalachian.

Speaker 5 (43:32):
No, no, no, just just the cabin times for me.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Yeah, it's a personal experience for me. But the but
the the thing with whistling is very interesting because it's
the same concept as the voices. If the whistling is
coming at you or it's happening out there, you just
don't respond to it, like with a whistle to mimic it,
or you don't. You don't pay any attention. You don't
pay it no mind, because if you do, that's when
you get in trouble. At least scoring to the folklore.

Speaker 4 (43:57):
Yeah, I mean people have different takes because you have
to remember this is active folklore too. So like I
could go out to I could go out to Johnson
City or some other place in East Tennessee and ask somebody,
ask two people at a waffle house about this, and
they would disagree. Yeah, you know, because they would have

(44:17):
their own takes and they would say you know, well,
the whistling.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
Thing is bs.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
But my buddy from when I was in the Vietnam
War just talked to me last night.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
They said, what did you do? He said, I kept walking.
I hate George.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
Wells. The spoiler alert. The mountains whistle. Some of those
trees make weird sounds when they rub together like that
is a thing. So especially pines and specific conifers and
trees like that. When those when some of those things
move together, you get a weird, high pitch sounds.

Speaker 7 (44:52):
Conifers are the ones that drop seed pods.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Correct, Matt, I have no idea. I don't even know
if I'm using the correct term there. I might be wrong.
I'm probably wrong. Pine trees, That's what I know. Trees
are weird. Those things make weird sounds when they move together.

Speaker 4 (45:07):
Sure, trees in general are weird, and I wish more
people talked about it.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
They're awesome, But what a bizarre life form. I'm looking
around off camera.

Speaker 4 (45:19):
But this brings us to the acoustic phenomenon. Right, if
we attempt to explain it as we as we sort
of tease or alluded to earlier, certain hollows, certain geographic
features are going to amplify and reflect sound in ways
that you might be unfamiliar with if you don't spend
a lot of time in those areas. If you've played

(45:40):
with acoustic anomalies, just like we're talking about with moving
the head or cup in the ear, then you already
know a microcosmic version of this. So in least it's
at least in some cases, it is possible people found
themselves in specific areas of the trail that cross through

(46:01):
existing geographic features valleys, hollers, watering caves, which is another
weird one, and this may have created something sounding to
them like a distorted human voice. Right, And this could
have depending on the person. You know, it's like it's
like doing hallucinogenic drugs. It's seen and setting right, depending

(46:25):
on the person's mood, Depending on you know, there are
extant relationships at the time, they may unconsciously be primed
right to encounter these sounds in a different way.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Up.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
That's there are issues with that explanation, though it can
answer a few tales of the mimic voice, but the
main issue is that geography is relatively static. Right, mountains
do move.

Speaker 6 (46:56):
They're slops and not to mention the wind and the
weathering effects it again, that takes a long time too,
as part of of the of the terrain and how
it changes over time.

Speaker 7 (47:05):
But guys, do you mind if we talk a little
bit about spear.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
Finger real quick? Though. We gotta see this this, this
is the point. Uh, we gotta we gotta see this
sear finger, that spear finger.

Speaker 5 (47:18):
No spear elbow.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
But the thing is the reason, the.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
Reason bringing up the geography is because if there were
certain spots, certain geographical features or geographic features, then multiple
people would be saying, hey, mile three of the trail, right,
this is where.

Speaker 6 (47:41):
Of those it's the confluence of those factors, like sort
of focusing on that one area repeating, making a repeatable phenomenon.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
People don't really have that, I guess. Yeah. It further
because there's not like there are sites that are infamous.

Speaker 5 (47:56):
You're saying, I got you, I got you.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
It doesn't seem to be producible.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
And if it was geography, then we could go and
measure it because we're sound nerds.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
We could bring the right equipment.

Speaker 6 (48:06):
Could we also maybe talk a little bit too before
we get to spear finger. Yeah, the human element of
memory and mourning and all of that stuff. That what
why do we keep hearing people talking about hearing the
voices of their dead.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
Loved one, right because it's on your mind.

Speaker 5 (48:24):
It's on your mind maybe or maybe not, but it is.
It is interesting that that's.

Speaker 7 (48:29):
The repeated claim.

Speaker 4 (48:30):
Yeah, people are never really very human saying you know,
well the scientific explanation like, let's fast forward past the murderers.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
Those happen.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
There have been cases where people have been stalked at
Appalachua on the trail.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
We hill people as a hill.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
Entity your time, what's the hills have eyes the hollows do.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
What a weird time to linger and look at the case,
so we could get past that. We know that animals,
we know that we know the animals. Geography and.

Speaker 4 (49:10):
Just natural sound, right, can can change or can behave
in ways that you wouldn't expect unless you're very familiar
with the wilderness. But we haven't talked about the need
to perceive patterns. I think that is the most likely
scientific explanation. Auditory periodelia paradelia. So no, before we get

(49:33):
this singer, you.

Speaker 6 (49:38):
Know, before we get the spear fingers and be confused
with spirit fingers, different fingers, different fingers.

Speaker 3 (49:45):
Before we get to that. I think that.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
I think it's the most plausible scientific explanation for most
of the folklore without sounding dismissive. It is your rains
tendency to interpret random, ambiguous things as meaningful patterns.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
So uh, you know.

Speaker 4 (50:08):
You ever like the reason that cars look like faces? Right,
the reason they have two headlights.

Speaker 5 (50:14):
There's a name for that too.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
Yeah, it's paradala, the same age.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
On that guy.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
Oh my god, I'm a marble. Go to the statue
and look at it from the back.

Speaker 5 (50:29):
Too many abs, twelve cock?

Speaker 7 (50:31):
Yeah, well, guys, is it one more break?

Speaker 2 (50:35):
We have?

Speaker 5 (50:35):
No?

Speaker 2 (50:36):
No?

Speaker 4 (50:36):
This is so so okay, what do we think? Have
you guys seen something? Another A fun example of this
would be for people who go out during the daytime
looking at clouds and seeing shapes in the clouds. So yeah,
Flight of Dragons, so we see patterns. Flight of Dragons
is an awesome film. Everybody should watch it.

Speaker 7 (50:58):
So you say I'm excited to see it, I will
watch it with you.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
Oh, let's do it.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
I will go to your house and have a Flight
of Dragon's watch party, will make.

Speaker 7 (51:05):
The popcorn, let's project it onto a mountain side.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
There we go let's do it. Let's do a big
if we're doing it.

Speaker 4 (51:13):
So do you guys, have you guys encountered this pariodolia before, Like,
have you seen things that appear to be patterns without
I don't want to sound dismissed, but do you think
do we think it's possible that people are in maybe
unfamiliar situations. They're thinking about things just like Daddy Frere,

(51:35):
and they have they have a moment where a sound.

Speaker 3 (51:39):
Transforms in their perspective.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
Yeah, I just watched a dove. It's crazy cool on
this side. You guys can't see it on the side
of the camera. I just watched it.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
Keep telling everybody how cool you can't see.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
This is an example though. A dove just fluttered down.
You can see its wings flapping, and it landed on
a table out here on the side of the camera.
Now I can see that dove. I can see it
doing it, and I'm on another I'm on the other
side of glass, so that doesn't bother me at all.
But if it was pitch black, oh yeah, and I
was sitting on one of those tables and I felt

(52:13):
and heard the flutter of a dove's wings come down
onto a table, and then the clink of claws landing
on that table and then fluttering off. I'm not going
to know what the hell that was, and that might
be terrified.

Speaker 7 (52:26):
Well, not to mention all of the sound emphasis and distortion.

Speaker 6 (52:30):
Caused by some of these, you know, various different circuses
and stuff.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
I mean, even the most innocuous sound, if you're not
expecting it can be very upsetting, unsettling. You know, you're
walking into the woods and all of a sudden, right
behind your left ear, you just hear.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
It's not a threatening noise, but also beat me here again, what.

Speaker 6 (52:53):
The well, not to mention that that I can't do
it. It was horrible, So sorry, I apologize that from a distance,
then refracted and reflected ounced around it can then take
on a whole other quality and become deeper and amplify.

Speaker 5 (53:12):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
But there is something to the wind in the area too,
because the wind has a I was gonna say a howl,
but it's not the right word of a whistle to
it as it flows through those trees in particular, and
I'm imagining hollowed out trees. Yeah, some of the stone
that is out there, if you find a stone face
where if wind cuts across that, I bet it makes tone.

(53:37):
And I've never sat there with a microphone and tried
to listen to it, but I guarantee it does at
least partially. And we're talking about paradealia. This this kind
of hearing other things. The human voice. There's such range
to it right when you hear the voice, and if
you hear tones kind of shifting up and down, even

(53:59):
if they're not four words, right, there is no enunciation
of words. Your brain is gonna try as hard as
heck to make words out of what you're here.

Speaker 6 (54:09):
Well, that's so funny that you say forming, because I'm
just to put on my sound nerd hat for a minute.
There is a term in sound design and in sound
analysis called foremants f O R M A n t S,
and it refers to an effect that's achieved by filtering
using filter which basically cuts off or emphasizes certain frequencies.
And if you boost what's called the resonance of the

(54:32):
filter certain frequencies, any sound can start to take on
this foremant quality, this human quality.

Speaker 7 (54:39):
Wow, Wow, that's what a format is.

Speaker 6 (54:41):
So we're talking about also formants as a unit of
human speech. But when you're talking about it in terms
of like the way a sound can become, have a
take on qualities of having foremants. That is what we're
talking about here, and what is the environment and.

Speaker 7 (54:55):
The world in the way surfaces move. If not a
big old filter, this is sound.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
Tho Well said that sounds like audio alchemy to me, and.

Speaker 6 (55:04):
That's why I'm such a nerd for these analog these
modular symphathizers and sound because it is magic. To me,
It's wonderful and it allows you to manipulate it in
a way that is super effective. And that's why with
film and cinema, sound design is more than fifty percent.

Speaker 5 (55:19):
Of the equation. You know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (55:20):
I mean it's like, we know how effective good quality
sound design is.

Speaker 5 (55:24):
There's this film that's out now that I haven't seen yet,
but it's.

Speaker 6 (55:27):
Actually about all about the audio podcasts, about the spiky
podcasts and.

Speaker 5 (55:33):
Gosh, what's it called. I'm trying to remember Undertone.

Speaker 6 (55:36):
Yes, I haven't seen it yet, but apparently the sound
design is like the private worth the price of en.

Speaker 4 (55:42):
Noorseman Peel said that the only difference between comedy and
horror is the soundtrack.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
I can remember that.

Speaker 7 (55:51):
Guys, can we talk about spirit fingers now?

Speaker 3 (55:54):
Fingers Damn.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
There's one last thing we talked a long time ago.
Something we had learned about schizophrenia and some of the
other issues with hearing voices. And one of the things,
because it I'm thinking about what you were talking about
with forming those those sounds.

Speaker 5 (56:12):
Try it right now. Just cut your ear and move
it around.

Speaker 6 (56:15):
A little bit, and you will start to hear some
of those formats happening.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
I bet, especially with wind or if you've got a
constant sound or a tone going, you.

Speaker 4 (56:22):
Can shape it like turn on a bathroom white noise
yes of any sort.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
Turn a bathroom fan on if you got on near you,
and do that. Every time I put a bathroom fan on,
I always sing a song.

Speaker 7 (56:32):
I'm listening to a shell. You know that's exactly past
the cock matt you have.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
The Oh there's this other thing, oh uh, specifically with schizophrenia,
we learned about a study that had to do with
jawbones and clenching of the jaw and what it does
to your ear now, what it changes your ear canal.
And they found that some uh, some folks who were
studied that were suffering from schizophrenia were able to or

(57:00):
they weren't able to me it was accident. They weren't
aware that they were shaping and forming words by tiny
micro movements with their jaw, makes sense, and it was
causing the background noise to form what their mind like
in combination what their mind is thinking and what their
ear is hearing, perfect sense things that are being said

(57:20):
to them, and they can audibly hear.

Speaker 3 (57:22):
Them sub vocalization, yes, yeah, but they don't.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
Realize they're not actually saying anything. They are just shaping
the way the ear is taking in white noise. That
was so fascinating to me to know that that's possible
to even occur.

Speaker 5 (57:36):
Incredibly cool, kind of freaky.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
All right, the time has come, Noel Brown, Oh, spearfinger ready.

Speaker 5 (57:41):
So it's when you're doing a cheer, that's.

Speaker 4 (57:47):
It's it's different spirit finger.

Speaker 5 (57:51):
Oh no, I'm sorry. Spear finger finger.

Speaker 6 (57:54):
Spearfinger is is a Cherokee uh cryptid that is very
much spoken of in the same breath as we're talking
about these mimics. And it's so cool because again in
that it welcome to dairy, there's all this like stuff
about like obsidian like like weapons and those like you know,
forged kind of obsidian like the daggers that function as

(58:17):
a gate, that function in some way as the wave
you can defeat the big bad, you know, because it's
sort of you're using a part of what brought it here,
Like it's like a piece of the meteorite or whatever
that brought it to Dairy. But spear Finger is this
like cryptid that essentially it's like made of almost like

(58:38):
made of stone, made of this really hard armored Obsitian
material and is described as having a long obsidian like forefinger,
a forefinger, forefinger right exactly this guy.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Pointer, okay, and it's used to cut.

Speaker 3 (58:57):
Weird because it should be like this one.

Speaker 5 (59:00):
That's the ring.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
No that makes sense you count from that way?

Speaker 6 (59:03):
Okay, Well it's the forefinger and it's it's it's designed
to cut out human livers. What yeas, It's definitely probably
comes in handy, you know, from the survival standpoint. But
it is often described this cryptid as the Stone Terror
of the Smokies and Max Stone Demon Baby Stone Stone

(59:25):
Demon is the most recent uh what is it bounty
pack for Borderlands Floor.

Speaker 4 (59:31):
To pretend that that is another one of our super
producer Street names.

Speaker 5 (59:36):
That's also a good one.

Speaker 6 (59:36):
But now this is a female cryptid as described and
it's often described as being a witch, a sort of
like a spooky witch that has these stone like adaptations.
So it's kind of giving Medusa a little bit. And
then to the point of the way folklore functions, it
just already has so many resonances of other oh witches

(59:58):
and legendary you know, demonic creatures that you know, like
can kind of use that siren song to beckon you
in and then cut out.

Speaker 5 (01:00:05):
Your liver with their plenty sharp finger.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
Yeah, and there's so there's so much.

Speaker 5 (01:00:10):
And it's also a shape shifter, by the way shift yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
But the but the finger always says the same.

Speaker 5 (01:00:15):
That's how you can tell.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
Yeah, the single long, spindly point.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
You've had a great time. Hey you out? Hey, can
I see your right hand? Oh no, I don't know
if I'm ready for that. Maybe maybe the second date.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
We have a second date here with Baja Mar. We're
going to be recording more in the future. There's so
much more to get.

Speaker 5 (01:00:38):
To that's going to be with us as well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Yeah, yes, uh, but before we leave really quick, can
I throw some things out of people? Can look up.

Speaker 6 (01:00:44):
Oh gosh, I was gonna say too, I want to
read more about spear Finger.

Speaker 5 (01:00:49):
There's a really cool thread on.

Speaker 6 (01:00:51):
Reddit uh for Knoxville, Tennessee that has a lot of
really good information about spear Finger and the Cherokee legends
of this gris slash Witch.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
All right, guys, let's throw out some read mores.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Oh yeah, okay, we'll read more about the moon eyed people.
That is a very interesting almost I don't know, almost Dwarven,
almost Elvin.

Speaker 5 (01:01:13):
They not talk about this. We just talk about the
mooneyed people. And I don't know about the mooneyed.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
I think it's one of those ben I think we've
done a lot of folklore, you know, we talk a
lot of about a lot of different folklore creatures and
cryptos and things like that. Mooneyed people feels like it
could be one, but I don't know if there's enough
material on it. They're just these small, little bearded, moon
eyed folks that alleged that exist, allegedly, that are nocturnal.

(01:01:37):
They do everything at night. They're out in the woods.
You don't want to mess with them. You don't want
to mess with.

Speaker 3 (01:01:41):
What they do subterranean.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Yeah, I mean again, that's why they're like chuds. But
but it's one of the things that people point to
is if you hear whispering, or if you're whistling or
your name, maybe it's the moon eyed people. Just don't
mess with the mooneyed people, and they won't mess with
you kind of thing.

Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
That's always the question too. It's like respect for nature.
Don't mess with the thing. Ye wouldn't like, I wouldn't
call it necessarily yeah, leave no trace. I wouldn't call
it necessarily anti curiosity. That what is kind of and
I see that perspective. It's much more, uh, it seems
much more as we said, survival rooted.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:02:22):
And the interesting tease will leave you with folks is
it turns out, at least in the what we call
the United States, there is a surprising amount of stories
about not quite human creatures or hidden populations that do
turn out to have more than a grain.

Speaker 3 (01:02:39):
Of truth to them.

Speaker 4 (01:02:41):
Check out our previous episode, which is Giants That Exist.

Speaker 7 (01:02:46):
Shout out to the Blair Witch Project.

Speaker 5 (01:02:49):
What you're saying, I mean that is sort of a film,
you know.

Speaker 7 (01:02:54):
Spooky voices in the woods luring you to your eyes,
you know.

Speaker 4 (01:02:57):
And shout out to East Tennessee as a region where
big fans. I'm legally required to say that as.

Speaker 5 (01:03:06):
A human is sponsored by their tourism board.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Yes, boy, shout out to not realizing one of your
buttons was undone the entire time this video has been
rolling and now you're gonna have to go back and realize,
Oh wow, it was me. Shout out to Tim Carmichael,
Echoes of Appalachia. Echoes of Appalachia, Tim Carmichael, you shout
out to him, and uh that actually, that whole website

(01:03:30):
is really interesting and also, weirdly enough, shout out to
Torrance High School. Uh, the Torrents News torch had a
really cool write up on specifics about some of these
bloggers or bloggers or TikTokers that are out there right
now in the past couple of years talking about this stuff,
you know, talking about this. Yes, but but again it's

(01:03:51):
high schoolers that are finding these videos in California, Yes, exactly,
but finding these things and then digging deeper and not
you know, choosing to not just take what the TikTok
video says at face value but doing some research. So awesome.

Speaker 8 (01:04:04):
Jow love that in our era like the mega shortest
form of content and shout out as well to things
that were invaluable in our outline our research for this episode,
Appalachian Trail dot Org, the Trek dot couh.

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
Weirdly enough, Uh, there.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
Were a lot of cool things like us folk tales
dot Com about the Appalachian mimic voice if you want
to learn more about that. And most importantly, shout out
to the national parts.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:04:33):
Shout out to keeping uh the natural beauty of the
world alive and allowing us to encounter it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
It makes me think of how beautiful the ocean is
out here by Baja mar you know, and.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
It makes me think of Leslie.

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
Nope, it makes me think of we'll.

Speaker 6 (01:04:52):
Have some of that later and I'm gonna get in
that ocean. I'm gonna put my toe in that ocean.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
Then you should put your whole spook finger, one.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
Toe at a time, my spear finger in.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
All that did a wink.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Uh, So I checked the rung.

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
I checked the wrong button when we're having the button conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
Thank you so much for tuning in, folks.

Speaker 4 (01:05:14):
We're going to be returning with more episodes, including paranormal stuff,
including government cover ups. But for now, inspired by the
story of the Appalachia Mimic Voice, we are going to
encounter the natural beauty of Baja Mar.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
Here's a little baby that came by kid.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
So we can't wait to hear your stories again.

Speaker 4 (01:05:38):
Please tell us your experience on the Appalachian Trail. Please
tell us the strangest things you have found into the forest.
Thank you so much for tuning in everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:05:48):
Oh, and shout out to this kid.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
Hey man, you won't know this, but we're talking about
on Netflix right now.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
Yeah, don't stop. I had to take my sunglasses off,
even the thumbs up to the dad just to let
them know. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:06:06):
So anyway, we can't wait to hear from you folks.
Big thanks and again a happy birthdays are super producer
mister Max every birthday, free trained Stone Demon Williams. And
big shout out to you folks, big shout out to
Baja Mar.

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
We will be.

Speaker 7 (01:06:22):
Maybe the most shout outs we've ever done.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
There's a lot. I'm so sorry. Yeah, I just wanted
to keep shouting. I wanted to, but I didn't.

Speaker 5 (01:06:32):
Say it was bad making an observation finger.

Speaker 4 (01:06:38):
Well, I think the shout outs gets positive energy. Uh,
how would you shout out?

Speaker 3 (01:06:43):
People want to find us on the line.

Speaker 6 (01:06:44):
My goodness, Ben, I'll tell you you can find us
in a couple of ways. If you're online, you can
look up the handles conspiracy stuff or conspiracy Stuff show,
depending on your social media platform of choice. Man, I
think there's another slightly more old school way.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
Oh there is. If you want to go fully old school,
just rent it. You can probably find it here on
Netflix somewhere.

Speaker 7 (01:07:04):
Talking about the video film.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
Oh yes, the video film Old School. We're going to
the quad. You remember that, You remember the whole thing
we're act Maybe I don't know if we're having the
time I ever seen it? Blue? Anyone remember Blue? Okay?
Shout out to blue like the color. Yeah yeah, old
Blue Mill. Shout out old Blue wrestling. It was a
whole wrestling miss app anyway. Okay, you can call one
eight three three std wyt K. That's our phone number.

(01:07:28):
It's a voicemail system. You'll hear Ben and some music
might sound familiar. Give yourself a cool nickname and let
us know if we can use your name and message
on one of our listener mail episodes that you can
only find on the audio version of the podcast currently,
but you may find them there. If you want to
send us an email, you can do that too.

Speaker 4 (01:07:45):
We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence
we received.

Speaker 3 (01:07:49):
Be well aware.

Speaker 4 (01:07:49):
Yeah, I go free sometimes the void right back. Send
us a random fact, we will send one in return.

Speaker 3 (01:07:56):
Tell us a spooky story. Join us out here in
the dark.

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
I don't know why I'm trying to stand up conspiracy
at iHeartRadio dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.