Conspiracy Realist scbuggeek writes in with an inside look at Big Bug. Lauren writes in for more information on the raid of a Fuyao factory raid in Dayton, Ohio. C provides an Irish perspective on potential future automotive speed limiters. In tonight's letters from home, Ben asks the guys about their ideal last meals. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noel.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They call me Ben. We're joined with our guest superproducer
Max the Freight Train Williams. Most importantly, you are you.
You are here that makes this the stuff they don't
want you to know. It is Thursday, August seventh, No
August eighth, as you are hearing this this evening, and
(00:49):
we're so glad that you joined us. Folks, this is
where we get to hear from the best part of
our show, our fellow conspiracy realists. We're going to We're
going to learn about bugs, big bugs. We're going to
have a discussion about factories, a little bit about dangers,
dangers that we clocked a while back in private industry
(01:12):
and DNA before we get to any of that. Boy, howdy,
as they say in the US, we've received a lot
of response to our concerns about speed limits or limits governors. Yes, indeed, and.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
We will get to that after just a quick word
and we're back, and boy, Ben, did you nail it.
We got a lot of response from our EU listeners
about a story that Matt brought to the table about
technology potentially on the table to be added to vehicles
(01:54):
that would limit the maximum speed of cars, of consumer cars,
much like the governors that are placed on commercial vehicles
like trucks or.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I believe they're called lories over there school.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Buses, well, school buses one hundred percent, and the term
there is governors.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I think that's what they're still referred to.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
We did get a couple of messages saying we have
we didn't quite nail the geography around that conversation. I
think we may have even already printed or spoken to
that in terms of you know, it was the difference
between Scotland and Ireland.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And that the United Kingdom is not the EU exactly.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
But this one specifically comes to us from an Irish
listener that goes by see hey guys. Unlike what Luke
from the Netherlands said, unfortunately, some people in Ireland aren't
happy about the speed limit regulations. Ireland doesn't have a
great public transport system like mainland Europe. The majority of
people drive as it is unfortunately necessary. I don't drive
(02:55):
and it does limit me a lot. I live in
Cork City and can walk or get the bus most places,
but limited by the terrible bus service where you don't
know if the bus will show up or even go
to your destination, as they have a habit of just
stopping in the middle of the routes. At times there
is no connection either, so if you need to get
somewhere that could be less than thirty minutes away by car,
(03:17):
it could take ninety minutes by bus. The speed limit
changes for cars instituted by the RSA Road Safety Authority
are changing speed limits on the roads. Mainly, what people
are annoyed by is that they are decreasing rural roads
from eighty kilometers an hour to fifty kilometers an hour,
and roads closer to towns and villages from fifty kilometers
(03:40):
an hour to thirty kilometers an hour. This is really
needed on rural roads, as some of them are literally
big enough to fit one small car and would have
grass growing on them. It is the fifty to thirty
that is annoying everyone, as some of those roads are
newer and wider and don't need to be reduced for Matt. Yes,
grocery shopping can be a real pain without a car,
(04:02):
but maybe it's different in the US. A lot of
Irish would do a main shop once every four to
six weeks and a smaller one weekly which can easily
be carried by bus or train. I get my main
food shop delivered once every six weeks. And grocery delivery
I just want to point out like has been much
more of a thing in other parts of the world
(04:22):
and in bigger.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Cities, perhaps in the United States.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Than the advent of things like instacart have kind of created.
So it's become a lot more common for folks that
I know and myself included to get grocery delivery. But
in Europe and places like New York, for example, grocery
delivery has.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Been a thing for a lot longer.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Also, just to note, Ireland is very car centric and
Cork they were looking at changing the whole bus networks
to bus connects, which prior to public intervention, would have
vastly improved the service in Cork, but it was destroyed
by people who don't use public transit, and now it's
basically back to where it.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Which is pretty much useless.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
I absolutely love the show and you guys' best ce
so you know, And there's also I'm gonna maybe save
this last little bit if we wanted to talk about
something else, but I did want to throw to you, Matt,
since it was your story that you brought. Does this
change your perspective at all on this type of legislation
(05:23):
or is it still kind of a matter of, like,
you know, this this should be something that's left up
to individuals.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I'm still trying to process how I feel about the
government changing speed limits.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Ben.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
I would defer to you a little bit just because
we've I know you've talked extensively about the types of
roads that get certain speed limits, basically the standards I
guess at least here in the US, where you know,
depending on how many lanes, depending on what type of
street or road or what highway or whatever it is,
it gets their own standardized speed limits. And like coming
(06:01):
through with this Road Safety authority coming through and nerfing
basically the speeds on all of the roads. I can
imagine that maybe happening in the US and maybe having
a little more safety, But I also know directly the
experience right after getting home driving forty five on a
(06:22):
thirty five because I'm trying to keep up with traffic
and still having vehicles behind me, like a giant ram
truck trying to get like through my vehicle somehow, because somehow,
if they got.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Through my vehicle, they could get through all the other ones.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
So yeah, I appreciate that really quickly. Did I screw up?
Is there no technological aspect to this conversation?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
For some reason, I thought there was also conversation maybe
just came up, you know, as a part of the
conversation that the idea of technology that could limit yeah
max speeds, This isn't.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Okay, Okay, that's inherently part of it. Making sure, that's
a huge part because it's been an ongoing debate. And
you can go check out earlier episodes of Car Stuff
wherein you can see the history of this discourse on
the American continent Canada, US, Mexico or North American continent.
(07:14):
We've received some great correspondence that shows us how regionally
different parts of Europe and well Europe entire, the UK
and the EU can be in some places it is
almost American. It is very difficult to live without your
own personal transportation. In other places, a car, weirdly enough,
(07:39):
does seem to be a burden, right, and you run
into that in some large conurbations here in the US,
like Boston or New York City. It's kind of why
would you own a car if it wasn't your job
to somehow have a car. The technological aspect is fascinating
because history proves it is somewhat inevitable, especially in countries
(08:05):
that are already highly developed. This is seen as a
number one way to prevent unnecessary death.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Yeah, and I mean, you know, it's actually a friend
of the show, Andy who's written into us. He's in
a band called Sky Trumpets, and I believe he actually
grew up in County Cork and I had the privilege
of hanging out with him on a European trip a
few years ago in Berlin, and he talked a bit
about life in the village. I mean, this is kind
(08:34):
of a much more rural area, and I can see
how the public transportation aspect could be really iffy, you know.
I mean, even like in my hometown Augusta, Georgia, it
is nearly impossible to get an uber when you actually
need it because the infrastructure is just not there. And
Augusta is actually the second largest metro area in the
(08:54):
state of Georgia, second to Atlanta, and Georgia, of course,
is largely pretty rural.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
So even a.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Place that is considered a pretty big metro area, it
just isn't the demand for it, or there aren't the drivers,
or whatever the case might be. And very similar the
buses in Augusta. They just don't run predictably and you
really can't bank on them to get places on time.
And I've you know, been out with friends and Augusta
drinking or whatever and tried to get a lift or
(09:23):
an uber and it just it just won't come. It'll say,
looking for a driver, you'll find one, and it'll say
fifty minutes before the car will come. And so it's
just you can't really depend on stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
But the bus system, I would say here in the US,
especially in the South, there's not the necessary amount of
political will for the infrastructure of public transportation, and a
lot of that is unfortunately tied up in historic racism.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
M you know, that makes me think of the whole
concept of the other side of the tracks, you know,
like development, you know, on the other side of like
a rail thoroughfare for you know, a movement of goods.
That term has inherent racism to it as well, the
idea of you know, having a community that was on
(10:09):
the other side of the train tracks that would often
be a more impoverished and minority community, and so that
term probably even a little problematic, And it hadn't occurred
to me until recently. Here in Atlanta, in the city
of Decatur, there was a pretty racist, i believe, lawmaker
who made a big deal about, you know, developing properties
like only on one side of the train tracks there.
(10:30):
And I think there was a middle school that was
named after him, but then they changed the name Renfro
But that was probably a conversation for another day.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, I think these are very good points. And see again,
thank you so much for taking the time to give
us this invaluable perspective. We know that one of the
one of the biggest issues with the idea of public transportation,
or the idea with a bunch of people driving their
own vehicles together, is that it requires a public covenant,
(11:01):
It requires a level of trust, right, And this idea
of a speed limitter is you know, ideology aside. It
is the idea of reinforcing that covenant of public trust.
Part of the reason there's not a lot of public
infrastructure or transit, I should say here in the US,
is because that level of trust is simply not there yet. However,
(11:27):
always forward to the future. One thing I really like
about C's letter here, Noel, is that it's not just
about the speed governors, is it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I left out the final paragraph of the letter from C,
and I think we'll bring it up here now. Lastly,
Se says, it is crazy to me how much targeted
ads are happening. I have been going to talk therapy
and we've been discussing childhood trauma and learning to love
and listen to the inner child to help overcome a
lot of emotional the neglect in childhood. The week after
(12:02):
starting and using this language, Instagram has been showing me
ads for apps and therapy groups for childhood drama and
reconnecting with the inner child. It's actually kind of funny
and sick all at the same time. Presumably not sick
in the parlance of like Surfer Talk. I absolutely love
the show, and you guys, see, so we've talked about this,
(12:26):
the idea. I think it came up recently about someone
in a therapy type situation making notes in their phone
about like improvements or things that they wanted to change,
or keeping maybe a diary about medication or something like that,
and that once they stopped doing it in their phone
and put the phone aside and started writing it down
on pad and paper, they stopped getting these bizarrely intrusive
(12:50):
targeted ads that were relating to very very personal stuff.
So I really do fully believe that there's listening going
on and that you know it is interpreting it and
actually feeding you targeted ads. I would argue that's probably
not the best thing in the world to have your
phone anywhere near you when you're doing talk therapy. But
(13:11):
that does bring up the question about what about online
therapy where maybe you're using your phone or your computer,
and like, how is Google or Instagram or Meta or
whatever keyed into that, Because we also know that Chrome,
you know, from from a recent discussion on Google's kind
of shady search engine optimization practices and the murkiness behind that,
(13:32):
and you know the idea that they're potentially even using
Chrome as a key logger in a way to you know,
feed you more accurate advertising, you know, from your Gmail
terms and your search terms and all of that. Does
that extend to audio? And like, do we need to
be in a quiet room where there's no access, you know,
for these devices to listen in, you know, because again
(13:55):
in the conversation we had Ben in the previous Strange
News episode about the porn tokens or whatever you know
in Spain, the promise by these government entities that they're
going to delete this stuff about you. And that's similar
promise that comes from these giant, you know, conglomerates, these
corporations that are you know, in the tech trade, in
(14:16):
the in the data mining trade.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Their promise that they will delete this stuff.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
The promise of the TSA that they will delete those
photos they take of you that matches your face, your
biometrics to your passport, that those will be deleted. I
don't want to like be scare mongerie, but I just
have a real hard time believing that that's happening unless
it's like absolutely forced, you know, like like an adult
(14:41):
in the rooms and show me you put throwing that
in the in the trash and then hitting empty trash.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
You know, I just I don't believe it. Man. The
EU does have legislation in this regard that has the
kind of teeth and bite, the tooth and claw that
simply would not be allowed to exist in the US
to lobbying. One thing I really like about your note
there see if you haven't checked it out, please check
(15:07):
out an earlier conversation I outline part of why this
has become modern folklore. It's not so much the idea
of your phone entire listening to you. It's the implicit
privacy permissions you give to any app on your phone.
That's a big part of it, and it's often obscured purposely.
(15:31):
I would argue within the TOCs or within the sorry,
the terms of use and the terms and conditions, and
that kind of stuff. You know, the thing you scroll
past because it's purposely written to be nigh unreadable. One
other thing that can happen without being too redundant. Here,
one other thing that. One other way this process occurs
(15:53):
includes Wi Fi spots. The ISPs are able to monitor
this and you are. That's why your ads may change
depending upon the Wi Fi you are using. And it
can be an interesting thing because if you leverage it correctly,
it's a way to learn about other people around you.
(16:15):
Nothing weird.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
Yeah, see, I don't think you have anything to worry about.
I think your phone's not listening. Everything's fine.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
What you need.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
Just can give you a quick recommendation. Head on over
to the black Market on Monahan Road, pick yourself up
a fromo one of their signature mixes of slushies and
ice creams. It'll be delicious, and then just take a
quick walk over to the black Rock Castle Observatory. It's
I mean, come on, you're not getting get anything better
than a sixteenth century castle home that's also home to
(16:44):
a science center and observatory. It's open from ten to
seventeen o'clock.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Well, gee, that sounds delightful. I want to go to there.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Just if you happen to find yourself in Cork.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Thanks, targeted ads.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
All right, we're gonna take a quick break and then
come back with another piece of listener man.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
And we've returned just as I have recently returned from Ohio. Guys,
and we all saw this in our email inbox, a
message from Lauren. So it has to do with Ohio.
So we're gonna get to it. Lauren says, Hey everyone,
my name is Lauren, and I live in the Dayton,
Ohio area. You're all over Ohio these days, Matt, I
(17:31):
am so skippity Ohio.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
A big local news story. This is Lauren again.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
A big local news story this week is a giant
Homeland Security investigation into a local factory called fu yow
I think that's how you would say it, fu Yao
fo yow hm. Nearly thirty houses and the factory were
rated the other day as a part of a criminal
investigation involving labor exploitation and financial crimes. There's also a
(18:00):
possibility of money laundering and human smuggling. If Fuyao seems familiar,
it's because this factory was the one featured in the
Academy Award winning film American Factory from twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I'm sorry, I'm laughing just because I'm not familiar with
this film. That's also a really dull name for a
film that decids what is this about?
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Well, it's I watched the trailer that was available on
Netflix because that's where it was, and it looks like
a story of investors coming in from another country who
basically turn a factory around because of this small area
or the small town is basically dependent for jobs on
(18:42):
this one factory that was just going to go under,
and some investors came through and changed it.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
But changed it means they also get it for a song,
yesite a few tax incentives and they story as old
as time, very American.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Oh yeah, they changed it a lot and brought a
lot of people over that replaced a lot of the
factory workers that were existing in there.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
So it's an.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Interesting story of like, what is the whole job dependent
life thing that we all exist on?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Right? What is this?
Speaker 5 (19:14):
What does it really mean to have a dependable job
and be a good old battery going to continue? Lauren says,
just thought this was an interesting connection. There's definitely some
fishy stuff going on with the whole place. People who
lived near the houses rated said there would be like
ten to twenty men living in there, keeping to themselves
except when they left the house in vans to apparently
(19:36):
go to work. I would say, guys, we have seen
stories about that before in several other specific businesses and
in situations of you know, human smuggling, human trafficking, where
people are kept in places, oftentimes in factories and then
basically shuttled to work and shuttled back.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
In agricultures and others.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
We've seen that time and time again. So we're going
to find out here as we continue a long if
that's actually happening. Just to finish out Lauren's message, they
say it also seems to be that many of the
houses were owned by the same LLC, according to the
local news. Then Lauren gave us a link to a
whio dot com article that, well, I guess we can
(20:25):
just pull that up right now. It is titled Fuyau
Plant nearly thirty other area locations rated in massive homeland
security investigation. It was posted by the Whio staff on
July twenty sixth. Guys, should we just go ahead and
dive into it and see what the see what the
(20:46):
news is saying. Sure, so they are saying HSI, which
is Homeland Security in collaboration with IRS, criminal investigations and
other law enforcement agencies, executed federal search warrants at Fuyau
Glass America. They are, by the way, a factory that
produces automotive class so glass for all types of different
(21:08):
vehicles of all shapes and sizes, and twenty seven other
locations in Dayton, Liberty Township, Miamisburg, I didn't know that
was a place that.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Sounds made up New York'sville.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
Yeah, Moraine, and West Carrollton. That all occurred, I guess,
very soon before that was posted on July twenty sixth.
The search warrants were part of a quote ongoing criminal
investigation looking into the very things that Lauren told us,
financial crimes, allegations of labor exploitation and the like. They
(21:44):
were also investigating allegations of money laundering and specifically human smuggling.
Is that's how they refer to it here on WHIO
the news center seven crews.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I guess, I'm not.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
Sure who they are with regards to WHIO, but they
are Channel seven, so we're assuming it's their cruise. They
reported seeing members of the US Border Patrol at several locations,
in addition to Homeland Security investigators and yeah, they were
on the scene in several locations as it was happening.
They did they confirmed, I guess that it is happening.
(22:17):
They saw agents detain people at several homes. So these
are like residential houses where they searched the house and
they brought people out with zip ties, like their arms
clasped you can imagine and about a dozen people at
a home in Dayton, Ohio. Gosh, I don't know, guys.
Homeland Security apparently would not confirm if anyone was taken
(22:40):
into custody because.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Sh this is not going investigation.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
But again, they are attempting to identify in the case
of the human smuggling aspect of whatever's going on here.
They're trying to identify victims, right, people who are being
exploited by some one, who are either being kept or forced,
you know, into a labor situation, or you know, often
people whose passports and other travel documents get taken when
(23:11):
they arrive into the US from another country. That's a
very common thing. I'm assuming that's what this is all about.
And again that's an assumption on my part. When WHO
News Center seven was reaching out to the people who
run the factory, the people at Fuyao, they did not
respond to requests for comment, but they did respond a
(23:32):
little while later. On July twenty ninth, the AP News
carries a story titled Chinese glassmaker says it wasn't the
target of raid at US plant featured an Oscar.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Winning film Q Shacky. It wasn't me, It wasn't me.
I'm just I'm just a glass. I can't do it.
I can't do it.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Then they caught me on the assumably all right, the
factory floor.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, caught me on the factory floor.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
It was I got it. But that is the important part,
is the blanket denial that we are not the target
of this thing, right.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
Yes, because it did have to shut down all of
its production at its factory, a huge factory you can
see pictures of on Google Maps. You can also see
it in that documentary, massive plant that is producing this glass.
They are saying, fu out Glass America. That is that
they were told by authorities that a third party employment
(24:33):
company was at the center of the criminal investigation.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Hmm, similar to, for instance, the provable cases of child
labor yep in America's abbatois.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
Yeah, the idea that, Okay, you're a company that owns
a factory producing a good, you need cheap labor. Well,
you as the factory, as the company, aren't going to
hire that labor. You're going to hire a third party
that helps you get that labor. And if this is
the way, and if anything goes down, those are the
(25:09):
guys they get raided, and those are the guys, they
get blamed for all of it, even though you're benefiting
as the company in the factory.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Yeah, with a little vigorous all around to grease the wheels.
But the idea that vigor is just for retreat, right.
The idea then here just to outline the process, and
and Lauren, I think I think you will find it
darkly surprising how often and how widely this process can
(25:37):
be applied to any given industry. The idea is that
your subcontractor your third party will be able to create
a Matroshka doll of other sub subcontractors, and each time
that occurs, some portion of the hot potato of legal
responsibility and blame gets tossed to the next team. So really,
(26:01):
what you're paying people for is just as much in
dimnification as it is ease of service and finding people. Mmm.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
There you go, Hi, guys, I'm gonna give you a
little more context on here about the documentary and about
the factory itself. According to the AP, this factory was
originally a General Motors factory. Over ten years ago. It
was going it was shuttered, like it was shutting down.
They also got a ton of incentives from the state
and local government, and according to Fuyo, the Ohio plant
(26:36):
is the largest autoglass production facility, Like the largest, that's
what you say.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Because aren't they the second largest overall glass manufacturer.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
They're massive. Yes, and guys get this. Don't want to
get too conspiratorial, but the please do. But the documentary
titled American Factory that came out in twenty nineteen and
won a twenty twenty OSCAR for Best Feature Length Documentary,
it was it was produced by a production company that's
(27:08):
backed by Barack and Michelle Obama.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
And that's our show. Thanks for tuning a What was
that well done?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
There was Obama's There was a huge There was a
lot of conspiratorial talk, at least on our conspiracy in
a couple other places about some movie that came out.
I can't remember the name of it. I think it
was on Netflix and it was backed by one of
these production companies that is backed by the Obamas, and
it was about the technology and the world shutting down.
(27:42):
I specifically remember this shot of all these teslas that
were like automated and just running into each other on
the road. Can't remember the name of it. Somebody write
to us and remind us what that was and what
was about. But it was a bunch of hubbub about
the Obama's basically putting money into telling a narrative.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Also, yeah, I vaguely recall what you're speaking about there,
matt let us. Also note something, and this happens on
all sides of the political aisle most often. When you hear, oh,
this powerful political figure finance this thing, what that usually
means is that a very wealthy person who is active
(28:24):
in politics has some sort of financial portfolio, right, and
that touches on the thing. They might not know what
they are actually funding, right, They might think, oh, Vanguard
has their fingers and all sorts of bags of badgers.
And then you know, when you find that connection, then
you can say, ooh, you know insert insert political figure
(28:48):
I already didn't care for is clearly planning to make
these weird toilets or you know, whatever the weird thing is. Also,
you know, to be completely fai, sometimes yes, there is
a concerted effort at an agenda.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
In this case, I don't know, I don't know that agendimen.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I don't I don't know, I mean, like, can't can
these individual This is a question, can the these individuals
really keep their eye on every falling financial Sparrow, I
guarantee you that in many I feel like that guy
who sold the suits. I guarantee you that in many
(29:29):
of these cases, the people being accused of conspiracy are
not really aware of where their money's going. They're aware
of the percentage of money that comes back to them
in terms of quarterly profits. I don't know, But then again,
I'm arguing against myself here because guys, the Clinton's got
(29:49):
into some really sketchy stuff during Bill Clinton's governorship, right,
I don't know, It's a pickle.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
I want to end the segment here, guys, with a
quick word from one of the people that worked at
the factory and was there when all this went down.
His name is Miles Smith. He, at least as of
the time of this reporting on July twenty sixth, had
worked as a forklift driver there at the factory for
two years. And this is what he had to say.
(30:20):
I seen the FBI, like Homeland Security. They said, go
back in the building. We got a warrant to search
the place, and so he spoke with some agents. Then
he said, we couldn't do nothing. We couldn't go nowhere.
They said, you got to go to the bathroom. Well
we got to escort you to the bathroom. Basically, they
had us lockdown, shut down and sweating. And then he said,
(30:40):
a couple of weeks before they came some of Homeland
I believe came in and got some of the immigrants
that were working here. Then he said, I saw them
going through lockers, going through the equipment, checking the bathroom.
And then according to Smith, the agents made everyone fill
out cards to identify themselves. So not just whatever your
picture ID that you have on you, as like, actually
(31:00):
fill out your information. Then they had to get in
four lines, and these agents took all the cards. They
id'd everyone basically to verify who everyone was there.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Also too, Also that's a very brilliant countermeasure. Uh, not
only like, Okay, anybody can have fake paperwork, right, but
can you yourself replicate that paperwork when asked?
Speaker 5 (31:28):
Yeah, exactly in the moment they're doing when you're in
their stress. M yep, that's a big deal. But Smith
said he watched several people get detained from those lines
after everybody you know, was trying to prove their identity. Guys,
I don't have a bunch more on this, uh, Lauren,
if you hear anything more, please let us know. We
(31:50):
hope all else is going well in the Dayton area
and where you are. And uh yeah, just to enjoy Ohio,
gotta say, guys, went I went to a place called
put In Bay and I had never been there before.
I didn't know anything about it. According to the locals,
it is a big old party island that people go
(32:10):
to just to get nice and schwasty.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
But it was lovely. Ohio was lovely.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
My son who is caught up in the Ohio thing
like using Ohio, I guess in some kind.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Of shrugatory progatory.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
Yeah, I mean, he was like, I'm going to tell
all my friends Ohio is amazing.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
And I again, I want to do this on air
accountability moment. I apologize for bugging you about both pictures.
I'm just very excited by boats and water and you're
an excellent photographer.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
Oh I got some great stuff. If you haven't seen
it yet, I will send it your way. Also got
some interior cave footage, guys, that I tried to replicate
some of the seventies eighties, like shooting a model of
a train station or a city, you know, where you
have a little camera and you'd move it over the
little model and make it look like it's a huge city.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
I did it.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
I did that upside down in a cave interior, and
I made it look like it's the ground of the cave.
But it looks like I have an unending like helicopter
shot over a canyon or something.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
It's awesome, beautiful. Please send it, oh I will.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
All right, that's it for now, Thanks Laren. We'll be
right back with more messages from you.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
And we have returned shout out to our guest producer
Freight Train, who, as a michigan or himself, notes that
he regards Ohio as the frozen swamp of America. Okay, hey,
all right, I got family from there also. I don't
like this anti swamp rhetoric. So unless you meant it
as a compliment, which perhaps you did, here we go.
(33:53):
We've got We've got an email, and then we've got
a letter from home, and we need all hands on
deck for this one. If you are hearing this, that
applies to you as well. Our next piece of correspondence
arrives to us from sc bug Geek that's all one word,
s C. Bug Geek. We're kind enough to begin your
(34:14):
letter with the following, Hey, guys, I love the show.
You all have explored Big Sugar, Big Death, and such,
but you all have yet to discuss Big bug slight
editorial note here. As my colleagues know, I am incapable
of saying certain contractions in this language. I am paraphrasing
(34:36):
you a bit sc bug Geek. SC bug Geek continues.
I am an associate certified entomologist and a master termite
technician in South Carolina. I have been in the bug
biz pest control for going on ten years. There is
an ongoing technique where large think global pest control companies
(34:57):
buy up smaller companies and mom and popshop like me.
The new parent company keeps the original name and forward
facing workers, much like Big Death. And here here are pal.
The bug Geek is referring to our earlier episodes on
the funeral a mortician industry, wherein we discovered that unfortunately,
(35:21):
monopoly laws don't seem to apply to that industry. They're
buying up all these supposedly mom and pop funeral services
or funeral homes, and they're letting them keep their original branding,
but they are essentially franchises and subsidiaries of a larger
hidden hand. So apparently the same thing is happening with
(35:44):
the pest control industry. And I didn't look through the
entirety of our episode catalog, but guys, I know we
have discussed this in the past, the serious problems with
the modern pesticide industry overall, and a lot of our
fellow listeners are in that industry or have had some
(36:07):
pretty disturbing experiences with it. Right.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
Oh, yeah, that's a little I'm trying to apply it
to the same context here, right, So, when these larger
companies in the funeral business are buying out the smaller
ones there, I kept trying to I remember thinking about that,
like thinking about the profit motive for all of those
(36:31):
and in my head, I swear it goes back to
the McDonald's thing we talked about, where it's buying up
the property, and the property was the thing. It wasn't
even the funeral services or the company or the people
that's generating some kind of profit. It's just now they
own a crap ton of pretty big property. If you
think about a funeral home, I wonder if that's happening here.
(36:55):
But you know, these pest control companies must be generating
quite a bit of profit.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Yeah, very much so, especially when we consider that just
like how the big boys in the funeral industry can
control resources, right, kind of like how Walmart can set
the prices or dictate prices for supplies and lower costs
for everything just so yeah, and also operate at a
(37:19):
loss if they need to drown the local mom and pops.
And that seems to be what bug geek is arguing
is occurring in the pesticide industry, which I honestly find unsurprising,
and I believe this may be worth an episode because
we know that we know that the American public will
(37:40):
have concerns when it comes to visible monopolies, right someone says, hey,
Google does kind of run a lot of stuff, or like, hey,
why can't I have a different internet provider here? Oh?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Exactly.
Speaker 5 (37:57):
It makes so much sense now in some of that contact,
because I can imagine, especially if you're talking about investor
money rather than like an arrow exterminators, which is a
really big one here at least in our section of Georgia.
Like if you imagine them, this is theoretical but imagine
them buying up a mom and pop store, right, That
(38:18):
doesn't make much sense, I guess unless there are major
investors in a company that are making money by somehow
a publicly traded.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Price going way up.
Speaker 5 (38:31):
If they are expanding, right, and they're making acquisitions and
all that stuff, that makes sense to me.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Yeah, And I actually want to save some of what
bug geek is telling us here, because you have hit
upon something that most people don't know, and I think
it's a thing this industry in particular would rather the
public not know, because it's not a sexy thing to
talk about, you know what I mean, It's not as
(38:57):
fun as as on as pop culture conspiracies, because it
is monopolization is an actual conspiracy. And we have to
remember a lot of the substances getting supplied here are
provably carcinogenic. Well, with that note, Buggy, please be safe.
You're obviously a professional in your field. We'd love to
hear your war stories. And Matt, I think you absolutely
(39:20):
nail it in terms of the danger of private equity.
Just like Unilever really is a corporate chameleon. You know,
its tentacles are so disparate and unidentifiable until you get
to the hive brain and then you go, oh wait.
Speaker 5 (39:39):
Yeah, it's you guys all along, and it's just got
a giant mouth like a whale though that kind of
combs through the ocean of companies and some of them
go in and some of them it spits right out.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
With its bailing plates. Yes, private equity, Yes, that seems
to be what is happening. And here then is a
and call right now, This is kind of a think
of this, folks. As ats. We get a lot of
episodes from strange news and listener mail, from your suggestions,
from your input. We want to hear from anybody's worked
(40:13):
with Big Bug in one capacity or another. We also
want to hear about people who have had dangerous experiences
with pesticides. And also their lobby is huge, the power
the pesticide lobby. It is a sleeping giant, and there's
a reason it's not in the press all that often.
So that's the downer. But we don't want to leave
(40:35):
you without some good news to step to, or at
least something interesting, So we will end tonight's exploration with
a letter from home. This one is a little bit different.
I'm putting the spotlight on you guys tonight and all
our fellow listeners. Do you know how I have like
(40:57):
I don't want to say mental dysfunctions. I got quirks, right,
you know, I get a little obsessive about stuff. That's
you know what. We all go a little mad sometimes.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Ben, It's fine, well, Ben, as I will. I just
I'm gonna give context if you don't mind.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Ben.
Speaker 5 (41:13):
Ben's name currently in our recording session is Ben in
an accent.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
That's it's for a different show, a different thing for Ben.
Thank you, Matt, thank you Blackstone Enthusiast, which we'll get
to next week. By the way, that's a really juicy one.
And uh Noel, I give you so many monikers and nicknames.
I like to think you take some of them. Oh
(41:39):
I dig them all? All right? All right, back man
shovel so here as they call him in the Eus Spade. Yes, yeah,
Here is our our letter from home again. This is
a spotlight on you guys and freight Trainer. I hope
you joined this conversation. One of my new obsessions, and
(41:59):
I've been talking with a lot of people about this
on social media and on different shows that we do.
Famous Last Meals. Context while back, went to a weird
museum in New York called the Museum with two MS
at the front, two ms at the back, and they
had an exhibit entirely about famous last meals. And I
(42:22):
have to ask you guys, starting with you first, then
we'll get to the listeners. If you had a fame
it if you had a last meal defined as the
last thing you eat noel holds barred before a state
or powerful entity executes you, what would that be? And
(42:44):
freight train for you. Since this is a thought experiment,
you do not have the condition in this scenario, So
what would be your dream last meal?
Speaker 6 (42:54):
Well, if I'm going to jump in, uh, this is
very much not a thing I can't I can eat
with the condition. It would just a Caesar salad, a
small one of big a big Caesar salad, no chicken
or hunt.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
That just that could be the death salad. That would
be the execution and of itself, it would kill you dead.
Speaker 6 (43:09):
I also, like you know, because the condition, I haven't
been able to eat caesar salad for almost two years now,
so I really eencrave in one right now.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
So thank you for date. It is delicious.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Just the case, I gotta.
Speaker 5 (43:20):
There's one in my fridge that I'm going to eat
immediately following this recording.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
You bastard. We need you to have Fomo max.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yeah, I can FaceTime you while I consume it if
you want.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
There's a fetishy internet name for that map. Yeah, it's
like that lady who makes millions of dollars just rolling
her face and bread. Hm you know, bang right bang. Yeah,
it's similar. Yeah, it's heavily in that genre.
Speaker 5 (43:45):
I've been looking to diversify my revenue streams boys, so hey,
it's a big economy.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Yeah, I don't know. Bread Lady might have been first
to the post on that. Uh, but the so it's weird.
I've been fascinated with the history of last meets. It
actually dates back our earlier conversation about the Olympics, right,
and the pseudo controversial Paris opening game ceremony. Last meals
(44:12):
are kind of an ancient Greek thing, and they predate
the idea of probably the most famous last meal in
the West, which is, you know, the Last Supper of
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5 (44:22):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
The that's the most famous last meal right now. But
when I'm looking back through the history of this, it's
quite common throughout the world for people to give someone
a last meal. And we're going to have a hopefully
fascinating episode on this for Ridiculous History coming up pretty soon.
(44:45):
But I just I immediately thought of you guys. I
was so fascinated. I've been thinking through what you all's
like based on my understanding of your favorite foods, what
your favorite what your last meal would be. Uh, there's
no holds barred. Let's pretend that, like, there's no budget,
there's no cutoff. It could be anything. I think the
gold should be barred, choke hold should be you want
(45:07):
to eat a choke hold?
Speaker 4 (45:08):
Well, I told you a joke that I stole from
the I guess that was on the Adam Friedland podcast
where he said he had this is like a whole
like hack. He said his last meal, he would choose
to eat the electric chair every time, and and then
they have to, you know, eat the electric chair. Then
it wouldn't function and they'd have to, you know, give
him a stay of execution and then presumably a new
(45:30):
last meal, and then he'd do it again every time.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
I thought this cute. There's the all you can eat
buffet hack. The intent right, like I'm getting you know,
all you can eat crab legs in case dias, I'm
just never quite done. I'm taking a break.
Speaker 5 (45:44):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
The execution apparatuses of the world are hipped to that one. Unfortunately,
a lot of people wait, so are you saying you're
joking or would you you would try to do that?
I couldn't. I couldn't get down any any part of
an electric chair. Just think of the fiber in the
minerals and the minerals. Think of the minerals. There's also
(46:06):
this goes state by state here in the US. But
the one thing that's really heartbreaking that you may find
is that typically when people are on death row, whether
or not they were guilty of the crime that they're
being executed for, typically after they've spent that much time
in lock up, the things they want become relatively simple.
(46:28):
I was talking about this on Daily Zeitgeist. You know,
you might imagine something opulent like ortilon, or you know,
give me a tiger. I want tiger meet Most people
are like, I want a burger and fries and some
ice cream, or I'd like a three piece fried chicken.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
But maybe I really like a double double animal style
from In and Out that'd be good. I think i'd request.
I think I'm finally on board with the idea that
in and out fries or trash. I always try to
defend them, but they really aren't that good, like the
crispy bits at the bottom of the fry bag. So
I think i'd ask I request fries from outside a
different place. Yeah, some nice seasoned fries.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
All right? So uh, in and out double animal style
seasoned fries from somewhere else TBD. Caesar salad for freight train, Matt,
Do you have a pick? Oh?
Speaker 5 (47:20):
Yeah, sure, green curry tie, hot stinged rice and jasmine.
Need some spring rolls in there, for sure. The kind
of haves shrimp in them, like the.
Speaker 4 (47:32):
Like the like the fresh spring rolls or the fried
spring rolls. Fresh spring rolls, Yeah, with the nice papery
kind of sticky.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
The rice paper all day.
Speaker 5 (47:41):
And I'm gonna need tofu in that green curry as
it will absorb the deliciousness. And we gotta make sure
it's not that runny watery. No, you's gotta have some
got some body and the tofu. Do you like a
little seer on your tofu? Ye?
Speaker 3 (47:56):
Yeah, exactly, thank you? What are we playing otherwise now
sometimes kind of like a custardy tofa. Sometimes I don't
need to see her for the last meal.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
Oh no, I get a really rad dish from There's
a place called High Chinese here that does this thing
called Mapo tofu. Yeah, it's fabulous, but the tofu is
this custardy consistency. It's not fried at all, and I
love it, But for the most part, I would prefer
a little a little crispiness on my tofu.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
I'd be worried if you're eating slovenly tofu. It's it
holds together. It's custardy. Custardy. That's a pleasant that's a
pleasant mouth feel, guys.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
But if you feed that to me, you can just
take me away. I'm good to go there.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
They are also tragic stories because this gets into the
larger conspiracy and problems with the death penalty. Like there
there's at least one case I know of a mentally
impaired person who, upon being led to their execution, saved
their cake for afterwards, and they asked the guard to
(49:01):
keep an eye on it because they didn't understand what
was happening to them. Wow, But in good news, in
good news, there are for a while. It seems there
were no limits on what people could order, and our
buddy Miles from Daily Zeitgeist and Jack from Daily Zeitgeist
(49:21):
they pointed out, maybe this was a show of conscience
on the part of the prison staff or the executors.
You know, I think they have empathy, you know, especially
when facing down the reaper.
Speaker 5 (49:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
It's a little too late, too little though, maybe so
I'm just you know, just be a devil's advocate. Yeah,
I think that's appropriate. But it's like, hey, sorry, we're
going to kill you, even though the state has serious
questions about whether you did the crime. Here is a cheeseburger.
(49:59):
Best we can do as long as it's a double
double animal style baconator baconator, right, because you don't have
to worry about the calories. Oh boy, that went dark.
This is This is a fascinating thing to me because
food is such a fundamental part of human culture, and
(50:19):
this would be your last chance to participate in that
universal interest. And this is where we throw it to you, folks.
We want to hear your story, not even your stories.
What is your ideal last meal? Please? Please do tell us,
take all the time, all the detail, you need check
(50:41):
out earlier conversations about this in different shows. Stay tuned
for our Ridiculous History episode that dives into the origin
story of Last Meals, along with notable episodes in the future.
I hope you are never in this situation, but please
do remember Last Meals in the US do go state
by state. For instance, in Florida, you have to have
(51:04):
local ingredients and it can't be over forty dollars. In Oklahoma,
it can't be over twenty five dollars. In Louisiana, the
warden sits down and eats with you. Oh damn, which
bothers me. It's a little weird. I feel like that's
I would I would request that I would give a
(51:26):
pass on that. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. And in
Texas they don't do it anymore.
Speaker 4 (51:33):
What if there was a thing in Texas, like an
episode of King of the Hill where you have to
eat the biggest giant t bone steak and if you
finish the whole thing in less than thirty minutes, your
whole meal is free. Oh and you don't get executed.
That Okay, that would be such a Texas thing. Man,
wouldn't that be like a man? And then you get
(51:53):
your picture up on the board too.
Speaker 3 (51:55):
You know, Oh my god, he's got a picture of
the board. Yeah, we want to hear your stories about this, folks,
and as always, we greatly appreciate your time. Big thanks
to Laura and big thanks to See, big thanks to
sc bug Geek. Let us know, seriously, tell us in
detail last meal. You will be referenced on on a
(52:16):
future show perhaps And you might be thinking, Hey, that
sounds like a fantastic idea. I'd love to tell you
I've been thinking about this, But how do I get
in touch with your show? Well, will tell you.
Speaker 4 (52:29):
You can find us all over the internet at the
handle Conspiracy Stuff, where we exist on Facebook.
Speaker 3 (52:33):
Where you can join our Facebook group Here's where it
gets crazy.
Speaker 4 (52:36):
On YouTube, you can find us at that handle, and
we've got video content coming at you on the regular,
as well as on XFKA, Twitter.
Speaker 3 (52:44):
On Instagram and TikTok. However, we are Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 5 (52:48):
We have a phone number. It is one eight three
three std WYTK. If you're not driving, go ahead and
pause and put that number into your as a contact.
Call it anything and once you call, be prepared for
a callback. You might get one When you do call in,
(53:09):
you've got three minutes, give yourself a cool nickname and
say whatever you'd like. Just do include whether or not
you give us permission to use your voice and message
on one of these listener mail episodes. If you've got
more to say then can fit in three minutes. Why
not instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (53:25):
We are the entities that read every piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, fellow conspiracy realist. At times,
the void writes back, sometimes with such pithy observations as quote,
a friend guilted me into watching an episode of Bridgerton that,
while I was diplomatic about it, there is a severe
(53:47):
lack of actual bridges in this show. Conspiracy at iHeartRadio
dot com.
Speaker 5 (54:11):
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.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noel.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They call me Ben. We're joined with our guest superproducer
Max the Freight Train Williams. Most importantly, you are you.
You are here that makes this the stuff they don't
want you to know. It is Thursday, August seventh, No
August eighth, as you are hearing this this evening, and
(00:49):
we're so glad that you joined us. Folks, this is
where we get to hear from the best part of
our show, our fellow conspiracy realists. We're going to We're
going to learn about bugs, big bugs. We're going to
have a discussion about factories, a little bit about dangers,
dangers that we clocked a while back in private industry
(01:12):
and DNA before we get to any of that. Boy, howdy,
as they say in the US, we've received a lot
of response to our concerns about speed limits or limits governors. Yes, indeed, and.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
We will get to that after just a quick word
and we're back, and boy, Ben, did you nail it.
We got a lot of response from our EU listeners
about a story that Matt brought to the table about
technology potentially on the table to be added to vehicles
(01:54):
that would limit the maximum speed of cars, of consumer cars,
much like the governors that are placed on commercial vehicles
like trucks or.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I believe they're called lories over there school.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Buses, well, school buses one hundred percent, and the term
there is governors.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I think that's what they're still referred to.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
We did get a couple of messages saying we have
we didn't quite nail the geography around that conversation. I
think we may have even already printed or spoken to
that in terms of you know, it was the difference
between Scotland and Ireland.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And that the United Kingdom is not the EU exactly.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
But this one specifically comes to us from an Irish
listener that goes by see hey guys. Unlike what Luke
from the Netherlands said, unfortunately, some people in Ireland aren't
happy about the speed limit regulations. Ireland doesn't have a
great public transport system like mainland Europe. The majority of
people drive as it is unfortunately necessary. I don't drive
(02:55):
and it does limit me a lot. I live in
Cork City and can walk or get the bus most places,
but limited by the terrible bus service where you don't
know if the bus will show up or even go
to your destination, as they have a habit of just
stopping in the middle of the routes. At times there
is no connection either, so if you need to get
somewhere that could be less than thirty minutes away by car,
(03:17):
it could take ninety minutes by bus. The speed limit
changes for cars instituted by the RSA Road Safety Authority
are changing speed limits on the roads. Mainly, what people
are annoyed by is that they are decreasing rural roads
from eighty kilometers an hour to fifty kilometers an hour,
and roads closer to towns and villages from fifty kilometers
(03:40):
an hour to thirty kilometers an hour. This is really
needed on rural roads, as some of them are literally
big enough to fit one small car and would have
grass growing on them. It is the fifty to thirty
that is annoying everyone, as some of those roads are
newer and wider and don't need to be reduced for Matt. Yes,
grocery shopping can be a real pain without a car,
(04:02):
but maybe it's different in the US. A lot of
Irish would do a main shop once every four to
six weeks and a smaller one weekly which can easily
be carried by bus or train. I get my main
food shop delivered once every six weeks. And grocery delivery
I just want to point out like has been much
more of a thing in other parts of the world
(04:22):
and in bigger.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Cities, perhaps in the United States.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Than the advent of things like instacart have kind of created.
So it's become a lot more common for folks that
I know and myself included to get grocery delivery. But
in Europe and places like New York, for example, grocery
delivery has.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Been a thing for a lot longer.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Also, just to note, Ireland is very car centric and
Cork they were looking at changing the whole bus networks
to bus connects, which prior to public intervention, would have
vastly improved the service in Cork, but it was destroyed
by people who don't use public transit, and now it's
basically back to where it.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Which is pretty much useless.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
I absolutely love the show and you guys' best ce
so you know, And there's also I'm gonna maybe save
this last little bit if we wanted to talk about
something else, but I did want to throw to you, Matt,
since it was your story that you brought. Does this
change your perspective at all on this type of legislation
(05:23):
or is it still kind of a matter of, like,
you know, this this should be something that's left up
to individuals.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I'm still trying to process how I feel about the
government changing speed limits.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Ben.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
I would defer to you a little bit just because
we've I know you've talked extensively about the types of
roads that get certain speed limits, basically the standards I
guess at least here in the US, where you know,
depending on how many lanes, depending on what type of
street or road or what highway or whatever it is,
it gets their own standardized speed limits. And like coming
(06:01):
through with this Road Safety authority coming through and nerfing
basically the speeds on all of the roads. I can
imagine that maybe happening in the US and maybe having
a little more safety, But I also know directly the
experience right after getting home driving forty five on a
(06:22):
thirty five because I'm trying to keep up with traffic
and still having vehicles behind me, like a giant ram
truck trying to get like through my vehicle somehow, because somehow,
if they got.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Through my vehicle, they could get through all the other ones.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
So yeah, I appreciate that really quickly. Did I screw up?
Is there no technological aspect to this conversation?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
For some reason, I thought there was also conversation maybe
just came up, you know, as a part of the
conversation that the idea of technology that could limit yeah
max speeds, This isn't.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Okay, Okay, that's inherently part of it. Making sure, that's
a huge part because it's been an ongoing debate. And
you can go check out earlier episodes of Car Stuff
wherein you can see the history of this discourse on
the American continent Canada, US, Mexico or North American continent.
(07:14):
We've received some great correspondence that shows us how regionally
different parts of Europe and well Europe entire, the UK
and the EU can be in some places it is
almost American. It is very difficult to live without your
own personal transportation. In other places, a car, weirdly enough,
(07:39):
does seem to be a burden, right, and you run
into that in some large conurbations here in the US,
like Boston or New York City. It's kind of why
would you own a car if it wasn't your job
to somehow have a car. The technological aspect is fascinating
because history proves it is somewhat inevitable, especially in countries
(08:05):
that are already highly developed. This is seen as a
number one way to prevent unnecessary death.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Yeah, and I mean, you know, it's actually a friend
of the show, Andy who's written into us. He's in
a band called Sky Trumpets, and I believe he actually
grew up in County Cork and I had the privilege
of hanging out with him on a European trip a
few years ago in Berlin, and he talked a bit
about life in the village. I mean, this is kind
(08:34):
of a much more rural area, and I can see
how the public transportation aspect could be really iffy, you know.
I mean, even like in my hometown Augusta, Georgia, it
is nearly impossible to get an uber when you actually
need it because the infrastructure is just not there. And
Augusta is actually the second largest metro area in the
(08:54):
state of Georgia, second to Atlanta, and Georgia, of course,
is largely pretty rural.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
So even a.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Place that is considered a pretty big metro area, it
just isn't the demand for it, or there aren't the drivers,
or whatever the case might be. And very similar the
buses in Augusta. They just don't run predictably and you
really can't bank on them to get places on time.
And I've you know, been out with friends and Augusta
drinking or whatever and tried to get a lift or
(09:23):
an uber and it just it just won't come. It'll say,
looking for a driver, you'll find one, and it'll say
fifty minutes before the car will come. And so it's
just you can't really depend on stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
But the bus system, I would say here in the US,
especially in the South, there's not the necessary amount of
political will for the infrastructure of public transportation, and a
lot of that is unfortunately tied up in historic racism.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
M you know, that makes me think of the whole
concept of the other side of the tracks, you know,
like development, you know, on the other side of like
a rail thoroughfare for you know, a movement of goods.
That term has inherent racism to it as well, the
idea of you know, having a community that was on
(10:09):
the other side of the train tracks that would often
be a more impoverished and minority community, and so that
term probably even a little problematic, And it hadn't occurred
to me until recently. Here in Atlanta, in the city
of Decatur, there was a pretty racist, i believe, lawmaker
who made a big deal about, you know, developing properties
like only on one side of the train tracks there.
(10:30):
And I think there was a middle school that was
named after him, but then they changed the name Renfro
But that was probably a conversation for another day.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, I think these are very good points. And see again,
thank you so much for taking the time to give
us this invaluable perspective. We know that one of the
one of the biggest issues with the idea of public transportation,
or the idea with a bunch of people driving their
own vehicles together, is that it requires a public covenant,
(11:01):
It requires a level of trust, right, And this idea
of a speed limitter is you know, ideology aside. It
is the idea of reinforcing that covenant of public trust.
Part of the reason there's not a lot of public
infrastructure or transit, I should say here in the US,
is because that level of trust is simply not there yet. However,
(11:27):
always forward to the future. One thing I really like
about C's letter here, Noel, is that it's not just
about the speed governors, is it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I left out the final paragraph of the letter from C,
and I think we'll bring it up here now. Lastly,
Se says, it is crazy to me how much targeted
ads are happening. I have been going to talk therapy
and we've been discussing childhood trauma and learning to love
and listen to the inner child to help overcome a
lot of emotional the neglect in childhood. The week after
(12:02):
starting and using this language, Instagram has been showing me
ads for apps and therapy groups for childhood drama and
reconnecting with the inner child. It's actually kind of funny
and sick all at the same time. Presumably not sick
in the parlance of like Surfer Talk. I absolutely love
the show, and you guys, see, so we've talked about this,
(12:26):
the idea. I think it came up recently about someone
in a therapy type situation making notes in their phone
about like improvements or things that they wanted to change,
or keeping maybe a diary about medication or something like that,
and that once they stopped doing it in their phone
and put the phone aside and started writing it down
on pad and paper, they stopped getting these bizarrely intrusive
(12:50):
targeted ads that were relating to very very personal stuff.
So I really do fully believe that there's listening going
on and that you know it is interpreting it and
actually feeding you targeted ads. I would argue that's probably
not the best thing in the world to have your
phone anywhere near you when you're doing talk therapy. But
(13:11):
that does bring up the question about what about online
therapy where maybe you're using your phone or your computer,
and like, how is Google or Instagram or Meta or
whatever keyed into that, Because we also know that Chrome,
you know, from from a recent discussion on Google's kind
of shady search engine optimization practices and the murkiness behind that,
(13:32):
and you know the idea that they're potentially even using
Chrome as a key logger in a way to you know,
feed you more accurate advertising, you know, from your Gmail
terms and your search terms and all of that. Does
that extend to audio? And like, do we need to
be in a quiet room where there's no access, you know,
for these devices to listen in, you know, because again
(13:55):
in the conversation we had Ben in the previous Strange
News episode about the porn tokens or whatever you know
in Spain, the promise by these government entities that they're
going to delete this stuff about you. And that's similar
promise that comes from these giant, you know, conglomerates, these
corporations that are you know, in the tech trade, in
(14:16):
the in the data mining trade.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Their promise that they will delete this stuff.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
The promise of the TSA that they will delete those
photos they take of you that matches your face, your
biometrics to your passport, that those will be deleted. I
don't want to like be scare mongerie, but I just
have a real hard time believing that that's happening unless
it's like absolutely forced, you know, like like an adult
(14:41):
in the rooms and show me you put throwing that
in the in the trash and then hitting empty trash.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
You know, I just I don't believe it. Man. The
EU does have legislation in this regard that has the
kind of teeth and bite, the tooth and claw that
simply would not be allowed to exist in the US
to lobbying. One thing I really like about your note
there see if you haven't checked it out, please check
(15:07):
out an earlier conversation I outline part of why this
has become modern folklore. It's not so much the idea
of your phone entire listening to you. It's the implicit
privacy permissions you give to any app on your phone.
That's a big part of it, and it's often obscured purposely.
(15:31):
I would argue within the TOCs or within the sorry,
the terms of use and the terms and conditions, and
that kind of stuff. You know, the thing you scroll
past because it's purposely written to be nigh unreadable. One
other thing that can happen without being too redundant. Here,
one other thing that. One other way this process occurs
(15:53):
includes Wi Fi spots. The ISPs are able to monitor
this and you are. That's why your ads may change
depending upon the Wi Fi you are using. And it
can be an interesting thing because if you leverage it correctly,
it's a way to learn about other people around you.
(16:15):
Nothing weird.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
Yeah, see, I don't think you have anything to worry about.
I think your phone's not listening. Everything's fine.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
What you need.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
Just can give you a quick recommendation. Head on over
to the black Market on Monahan Road, pick yourself up
a fromo one of their signature mixes of slushies and
ice creams. It'll be delicious, and then just take a
quick walk over to the black Rock Castle Observatory. It's
I mean, come on, you're not getting get anything better
than a sixteenth century castle home that's also home to
(16:44):
a science center and observatory. It's open from ten to
seventeen o'clock.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Well, gee, that sounds delightful. I want to go to there.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Just if you happen to find yourself in Cork.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Thanks, targeted ads.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
All right, we're gonna take a quick break and then
come back with another piece of listener man.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
And we've returned just as I have recently returned from Ohio. Guys,
and we all saw this in our email inbox, a
message from Lauren. So it has to do with Ohio.
So we're gonna get to it. Lauren says, Hey everyone,
my name is Lauren, and I live in the Dayton,
Ohio area. You're all over Ohio these days, Matt, I
(17:31):
am so skippity Ohio.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
A big local news story. This is Lauren again.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
A big local news story this week is a giant
Homeland Security investigation into a local factory called fu yow
I think that's how you would say it, fu Yao
fo yow hm. Nearly thirty houses and the factory were
rated the other day as a part of a criminal
investigation involving labor exploitation and financial crimes. There's also a
(18:00):
possibility of money laundering and human smuggling. If Fuyao seems familiar,
it's because this factory was the one featured in the
Academy Award winning film American Factory from twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I'm sorry, I'm laughing just because I'm not familiar with
this film. That's also a really dull name for a
film that decids what is this about?
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Well, it's I watched the trailer that was available on
Netflix because that's where it was, and it looks like
a story of investors coming in from another country who
basically turn a factory around because of this small area
or the small town is basically dependent for jobs on
(18:42):
this one factory that was just going to go under,
and some investors came through and changed it.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
But changed it means they also get it for a song,
yesite a few tax incentives and they story as old
as time, very American.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Oh yeah, they changed it a lot and brought a
lot of people over that replaced a lot of the
factory workers that were existing in there.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
So it's an.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Interesting story of like, what is the whole job dependent
life thing that we all exist on?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Right? What is this?
Speaker 5 (19:14):
What does it really mean to have a dependable job
and be a good old battery going to continue? Lauren says,
just thought this was an interesting connection. There's definitely some
fishy stuff going on with the whole place. People who
lived near the houses rated said there would be like
ten to twenty men living in there, keeping to themselves
except when they left the house in vans to apparently
(19:36):
go to work. I would say, guys, we have seen
stories about that before in several other specific businesses and
in situations of you know, human smuggling, human trafficking, where
people are kept in places, oftentimes in factories and then
basically shuttled to work and shuttled back.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
In agricultures and others.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
We've seen that time and time again. So we're going
to find out here as we continue a long if
that's actually happening. Just to finish out Lauren's message, they
say it also seems to be that many of the
houses were owned by the same LLC, according to the
local news. Then Lauren gave us a link to a
whio dot com article that, well, I guess we can
(20:25):
just pull that up right now. It is titled Fuyau
Plant nearly thirty other area locations rated in massive homeland
security investigation. It was posted by the Whio staff on
July twenty sixth. Guys, should we just go ahead and
dive into it and see what the see what the
(20:46):
news is saying. Sure, so they are saying HSI, which
is Homeland Security in collaboration with IRS, criminal investigations and
other law enforcement agencies, executed federal search warrants at Fuyau
Glass America. They are, by the way, a factory that
produces automotive class so glass for all types of different
(21:08):
vehicles of all shapes and sizes, and twenty seven other
locations in Dayton, Liberty Township, Miamisburg, I didn't know that
was a place that.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Sounds made up New York'sville.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
Yeah, Moraine, and West Carrollton. That all occurred, I guess,
very soon before that was posted on July twenty sixth.
The search warrants were part of a quote ongoing criminal
investigation looking into the very things that Lauren told us,
financial crimes, allegations of labor exploitation and the like. They
(21:44):
were also investigating allegations of money laundering and specifically human smuggling.
Is that's how they refer to it here on WHIO
the news center seven crews.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I guess, I'm not.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
Sure who they are with regards to WHIO, but they
are Channel seven, so we're assuming it's their cruise. They
reported seeing members of the US Border Patrol at several locations,
in addition to Homeland Security investigators and yeah, they were
on the scene in several locations as it was happening.
They did they confirmed, I guess that it is happening.
(22:17):
They saw agents detain people at several homes. So these
are like residential houses where they searched the house and
they brought people out with zip ties, like their arms
clasped you can imagine and about a dozen people at
a home in Dayton, Ohio. Gosh, I don't know, guys.
Homeland Security apparently would not confirm if anyone was taken
(22:40):
into custody because.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Sh this is not going investigation.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
But again, they are attempting to identify in the case
of the human smuggling aspect of whatever's going on here.
They're trying to identify victims, right, people who are being
exploited by some one, who are either being kept or forced,
you know, into a labor situation, or you know, often
people whose passports and other travel documents get taken when
(23:11):
they arrive into the US from another country. That's a
very common thing. I'm assuming that's what this is all about.
And again that's an assumption on my part. When WHO
News Center seven was reaching out to the people who
run the factory, the people at Fuyao, they did not
respond to requests for comment, but they did respond a
(23:32):
little while later. On July twenty ninth, the AP News
carries a story titled Chinese glassmaker says it wasn't the
target of raid at US plant featured an Oscar.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Winning film Q Shacky. It wasn't me, It wasn't me.
I'm just I'm just a glass. I can't do it.
I can't do it.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Then they caught me on the assumably all right, the
factory floor.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, caught me on the factory floor.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
It was I got it. But that is the important part,
is the blanket denial that we are not the target
of this thing, right.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
Yes, because it did have to shut down all of
its production at its factory, a huge factory you can
see pictures of on Google Maps. You can also see
it in that documentary, massive plant that is producing this glass.
They are saying, fu out Glass America. That is that
they were told by authorities that a third party employment
(24:33):
company was at the center of the criminal investigation.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Hmm, similar to, for instance, the provable cases of child
labor yep in America's abbatois.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
Yeah, the idea that, Okay, you're a company that owns
a factory producing a good, you need cheap labor. Well,
you as the factory, as the company, aren't going to
hire that labor. You're going to hire a third party
that helps you get that labor. And if this is
the way, and if anything goes down, those are the
(25:09):
guys they get raided, and those are the guys, they
get blamed for all of it, even though you're benefiting
as the company in the factory.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Yeah, with a little vigorous all around to grease the wheels.
But the idea that vigor is just for retreat, right.
The idea then here just to outline the process, and
and Lauren, I think I think you will find it
darkly surprising how often and how widely this process can
(25:37):
be applied to any given industry. The idea is that
your subcontractor your third party will be able to create
a Matroshka doll of other sub subcontractors, and each time
that occurs, some portion of the hot potato of legal
responsibility and blame gets tossed to the next team. So really,
(26:01):
what you're paying people for is just as much in
dimnification as it is ease of service and finding people. Mmm.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
There you go, Hi, guys, I'm gonna give you a
little more context on here about the documentary and about
the factory itself. According to the AP, this factory was
originally a General Motors factory. Over ten years ago. It
was going it was shuttered, like it was shutting down.
They also got a ton of incentives from the state
and local government, and according to Fuyo, the Ohio plant
(26:36):
is the largest autoglass production facility, Like the largest, that's
what you say.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Because aren't they the second largest overall glass manufacturer.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
They're massive. Yes, and guys get this. Don't want to
get too conspiratorial, but the please do. But the documentary
titled American Factory that came out in twenty nineteen and
won a twenty twenty OSCAR for Best Feature Length Documentary,
it was it was produced by a production company that's
(27:08):
backed by Barack and Michelle Obama.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
And that's our show. Thanks for tuning a What was
that well done?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
There was Obama's There was a huge There was a
lot of conspiratorial talk, at least on our conspiracy in
a couple other places about some movie that came out.
I can't remember the name of it. I think it
was on Netflix and it was backed by one of
these production companies that is backed by the Obamas, and
it was about the technology and the world shutting down.
(27:42):
I specifically remember this shot of all these teslas that
were like automated and just running into each other on
the road. Can't remember the name of it. Somebody write
to us and remind us what that was and what
was about. But it was a bunch of hubbub about
the Obama's basically putting money into telling a narrative.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Also, yeah, I vaguely recall what you're speaking about there,
matt let us. Also note something, and this happens on
all sides of the political aisle most often. When you hear, oh,
this powerful political figure finance this thing, what that usually
means is that a very wealthy person who is active
(28:24):
in politics has some sort of financial portfolio, right, and
that touches on the thing. They might not know what
they are actually funding, right, They might think, oh, Vanguard
has their fingers and all sorts of bags of badgers.
And then you know, when you find that connection, then
you can say, ooh, you know insert insert political figure
(28:48):
I already didn't care for is clearly planning to make
these weird toilets or you know, whatever the weird thing is. Also,
you know, to be completely fai, sometimes yes, there is
a concerted effort at an agenda.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
In this case, I don't know, I don't know that agendimen.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I don't I don't know, I mean, like, can't can
these individual This is a question, can the these individuals
really keep their eye on every falling financial Sparrow, I
guarantee you that in many I feel like that guy
who sold the suits. I guarantee you that in many
(29:29):
of these cases, the people being accused of conspiracy are
not really aware of where their money's going. They're aware
of the percentage of money that comes back to them
in terms of quarterly profits. I don't know, But then again,
I'm arguing against myself here because guys, the Clinton's got
(29:49):
into some really sketchy stuff during Bill Clinton's governorship, right,
I don't know, It's a pickle.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
I want to end the segment here, guys, with a
quick word from one of the people that worked at
the factory and was there when all this went down.
His name is Miles Smith. He, at least as of
the time of this reporting on July twenty sixth, had
worked as a forklift driver there at the factory for
two years. And this is what he had to say.
(30:20):
I seen the FBI, like Homeland Security. They said, go
back in the building. We got a warrant to search
the place, and so he spoke with some agents. Then
he said, we couldn't do nothing. We couldn't go nowhere.
They said, you got to go to the bathroom. Well
we got to escort you to the bathroom. Basically, they
had us lockdown, shut down and sweating. And then he said,
(30:40):
a couple of weeks before they came some of Homeland
I believe came in and got some of the immigrants
that were working here. Then he said, I saw them
going through lockers, going through the equipment, checking the bathroom.
And then according to Smith, the agents made everyone fill
out cards to identify themselves. So not just whatever your
picture ID that you have on you, as like, actually
(31:00):
fill out your information. Then they had to get in
four lines, and these agents took all the cards. They
id'd everyone basically to verify who everyone was there.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Also too, Also that's a very brilliant countermeasure. Uh, not
only like, Okay, anybody can have fake paperwork, right, but
can you yourself replicate that paperwork when asked?
Speaker 5 (31:28):
Yeah, exactly in the moment they're doing when you're in
their stress. M yep, that's a big deal. But Smith
said he watched several people get detained from those lines
after everybody you know, was trying to prove their identity. Guys,
I don't have a bunch more on this, uh, Lauren,
if you hear anything more, please let us know. We
(31:50):
hope all else is going well in the Dayton area
and where you are. And uh yeah, just to enjoy Ohio,
gotta say, guys, went I went to a place called
put In Bay and I had never been there before.
I didn't know anything about it. According to the locals,
it is a big old party island that people go
(32:10):
to just to get nice and schwasty.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
But it was lovely. Ohio was lovely.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
My son who is caught up in the Ohio thing
like using Ohio, I guess in some kind.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Of shrugatory progatory.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
Yeah, I mean, he was like, I'm going to tell
all my friends Ohio is amazing.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
And I again, I want to do this on air
accountability moment. I apologize for bugging you about both pictures.
I'm just very excited by boats and water and you're
an excellent photographer.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
Oh I got some great stuff. If you haven't seen
it yet, I will send it your way. Also got
some interior cave footage, guys, that I tried to replicate
some of the seventies eighties, like shooting a model of
a train station or a city, you know, where you
have a little camera and you'd move it over the
little model and make it look like it's a huge city.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
I did it.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
I did that upside down in a cave interior, and
I made it look like it's the ground of the cave.
But it looks like I have an unending like helicopter
shot over a canyon or something.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
It's awesome, beautiful. Please send it, oh I will.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
All right, that's it for now, Thanks Laren. We'll be
right back with more messages from you.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
And we have returned shout out to our guest producer
Freight Train, who, as a michigan or himself, notes that
he regards Ohio as the frozen swamp of America. Okay, hey,
all right, I got family from there also. I don't
like this anti swamp rhetoric. So unless you meant it
as a compliment, which perhaps you did, here we go.
(33:53):
We've got We've got an email, and then we've got
a letter from home, and we need all hands on
deck for this one. If you are hearing this, that
applies to you as well. Our next piece of correspondence
arrives to us from sc bug Geek that's all one word,
s C. Bug Geek. We're kind enough to begin your
(34:14):
letter with the following, Hey, guys, I love the show.
You all have explored Big Sugar, Big Death, and such,
but you all have yet to discuss Big bug slight
editorial note here. As my colleagues know, I am incapable
of saying certain contractions in this language. I am paraphrasing
(34:36):
you a bit sc bug Geek. SC bug Geek continues.
I am an associate certified entomologist and a master termite
technician in South Carolina. I have been in the bug
biz pest control for going on ten years. There is
an ongoing technique where large think global pest control companies
(34:57):
buy up smaller companies and mom and popshop like me.
The new parent company keeps the original name and forward
facing workers, much like Big Death. And here here are pal.
The bug Geek is referring to our earlier episodes on
the funeral a mortician industry, wherein we discovered that unfortunately,
(35:21):
monopoly laws don't seem to apply to that industry. They're
buying up all these supposedly mom and pop funeral services
or funeral homes, and they're letting them keep their original branding,
but they are essentially franchises and subsidiaries of a larger
hidden hand. So apparently the same thing is happening with
(35:44):
the pest control industry. And I didn't look through the
entirety of our episode catalog, but guys, I know we
have discussed this in the past, the serious problems with
the modern pesticide industry overall, and a lot of our
fellow listeners are in that industry or have had some
(36:07):
pretty disturbing experiences with it. Right.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
Oh, yeah, that's a little I'm trying to apply it
to the same context here, right, So, when these larger
companies in the funeral business are buying out the smaller
ones there, I kept trying to I remember thinking about that,
like thinking about the profit motive for all of those
(36:31):
and in my head, I swear it goes back to
the McDonald's thing we talked about, where it's buying up
the property, and the property was the thing. It wasn't
even the funeral services or the company or the people
that's generating some kind of profit. It's just now they
own a crap ton of pretty big property. If you
think about a funeral home, I wonder if that's happening here.
(36:55):
But you know, these pest control companies must be generating
quite a bit of profit.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Yeah, very much so, especially when we consider that just
like how the big boys in the funeral industry can
control resources, right, kind of like how Walmart can set
the prices or dictate prices for supplies and lower costs
for everything just so yeah, and also operate at a
(37:19):
loss if they need to drown the local mom and pops.
And that seems to be what bug geek is arguing
is occurring in the pesticide industry, which I honestly find unsurprising,
and I believe this may be worth an episode because
we know that we know that the American public will
(37:40):
have concerns when it comes to visible monopolies, right someone says, hey,
Google does kind of run a lot of stuff, or like, hey,
why can't I have a different internet provider here? Oh?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Exactly.
Speaker 5 (37:57):
It makes so much sense now in some of that contact,
because I can imagine, especially if you're talking about investor
money rather than like an arrow exterminators, which is a
really big one here at least in our section of Georgia.
Like if you imagine them, this is theoretical but imagine
them buying up a mom and pop store, right, That
(38:18):
doesn't make much sense, I guess unless there are major
investors in a company that are making money by somehow
a publicly traded.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Price going way up.
Speaker 5 (38:31):
If they are expanding, right, and they're making acquisitions and
all that stuff, that makes sense to me.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Yeah, And I actually want to save some of what
bug geek is telling us here, because you have hit
upon something that most people don't know, and I think
it's a thing this industry in particular would rather the
public not know, because it's not a sexy thing to
talk about, you know what I mean, It's not as
(38:57):
fun as as on as pop culture conspiracies, because it
is monopolization is an actual conspiracy. And we have to
remember a lot of the substances getting supplied here are
provably carcinogenic. Well, with that note, Buggy, please be safe.
You're obviously a professional in your field. We'd love to
hear your war stories. And Matt, I think you absolutely
(39:20):
nail it in terms of the danger of private equity.
Just like Unilever really is a corporate chameleon. You know,
its tentacles are so disparate and unidentifiable until you get
to the hive brain and then you go, oh wait.
Speaker 5 (39:39):
Yeah, it's you guys all along, and it's just got
a giant mouth like a whale though that kind of
combs through the ocean of companies and some of them
go in and some of them it spits right out.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
With its bailing plates. Yes, private equity, Yes, that seems
to be what is happening. And here then is a
and call right now, This is kind of a think
of this, folks. As ats. We get a lot of
episodes from strange news and listener mail, from your suggestions,
from your input. We want to hear from anybody's worked
(40:13):
with Big Bug in one capacity or another. We also
want to hear about people who have had dangerous experiences
with pesticides. And also their lobby is huge, the power
the pesticide lobby. It is a sleeping giant, and there's
a reason it's not in the press all that often.
So that's the downer. But we don't want to leave
(40:35):
you without some good news to step to, or at
least something interesting, So we will end tonight's exploration with
a letter from home. This one is a little bit different.
I'm putting the spotlight on you guys tonight and all
our fellow listeners. Do you know how I have like
(40:57):
I don't want to say mental dysfunctions. I got quirks, right,
you know, I get a little obsessive about stuff. That's
you know what. We all go a little mad sometimes.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Ben, It's fine, well, Ben, as I will. I just
I'm gonna give context if you don't mind.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Ben.
Speaker 5 (41:13):
Ben's name currently in our recording session is Ben in
an accent.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
That's it's for a different show, a different thing for Ben.
Thank you, Matt, thank you Blackstone Enthusiast, which we'll get
to next week. By the way, that's a really juicy one.
And uh Noel, I give you so many monikers and nicknames.
I like to think you take some of them. Oh
(41:39):
I dig them all? All right? All right, back man
shovel so here as they call him in the Eus Spade. Yes, yeah,
Here is our our letter from home again. This is
a spotlight on you guys and freight Trainer. I hope
you joined this conversation. One of my new obsessions, and
(41:59):
I've been talking with a lot of people about this
on social media and on different shows that we do.
Famous Last Meals. Context while back, went to a weird
museum in New York called the Museum with two MS
at the front, two ms at the back, and they
had an exhibit entirely about famous last meals. And I
(42:22):
have to ask you guys, starting with you first, then
we'll get to the listeners. If you had a fame
it if you had a last meal defined as the
last thing you eat noel holds barred before a state
or powerful entity executes you, what would that be? And
(42:44):
freight train for you. Since this is a thought experiment,
you do not have the condition in this scenario, So
what would be your dream last meal?
Speaker 6 (42:54):
Well, if I'm going to jump in, uh, this is
very much not a thing I can't I can eat
with the condition. It would just a Caesar salad, a
small one of big a big Caesar salad, no chicken
or hunt.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
That just that could be the death salad. That would
be the execution and of itself, it would kill you dead.
Speaker 6 (43:09):
I also, like you know, because the condition, I haven't
been able to eat caesar salad for almost two years now,
so I really eencrave in one right now.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
So thank you for date. It is delicious.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Just the case, I gotta.
Speaker 5 (43:20):
There's one in my fridge that I'm going to eat
immediately following this recording.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
You bastard. We need you to have Fomo max.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yeah, I can FaceTime you while I consume it if
you want.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
There's a fetishy internet name for that map. Yeah, it's
like that lady who makes millions of dollars just rolling
her face and bread. Hm you know, bang right bang. Yeah,
it's similar. Yeah, it's heavily in that genre.
Speaker 5 (43:45):
I've been looking to diversify my revenue streams boys, so hey,
it's a big economy.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Yeah, I don't know. Bread Lady might have been first
to the post on that. Uh, but the so it's weird.
I've been fascinated with the history of last meets. It
actually dates back our earlier conversation about the Olympics, right,
and the pseudo controversial Paris opening game ceremony. Last meals
(44:12):
are kind of an ancient Greek thing, and they predate
the idea of probably the most famous last meal in
the West, which is, you know, the Last Supper of
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 5 (44:22):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
The that's the most famous last meal right now. But
when I'm looking back through the history of this, it's
quite common throughout the world for people to give someone
a last meal. And we're going to have a hopefully
fascinating episode on this for Ridiculous History coming up pretty soon.
(44:45):
But I just I immediately thought of you guys. I
was so fascinated. I've been thinking through what you all's
like based on my understanding of your favorite foods, what
your favorite what your last meal would be. Uh, there's
no holds barred. Let's pretend that, like, there's no budget,
there's no cutoff. It could be anything. I think the
gold should be barred, choke hold should be you want
(45:07):
to eat a choke hold?
Speaker 4 (45:08):
Well, I told you a joke that I stole from
the I guess that was on the Adam Friedland podcast
where he said he had this is like a whole
like hack. He said his last meal, he would choose
to eat the electric chair every time, and and then
they have to, you know, eat the electric chair. Then
it wouldn't function and they'd have to, you know, give
him a stay of execution and then presumably a new
(45:30):
last meal, and then he'd do it again every time.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
I thought this cute. There's the all you can eat
buffet hack. The intent right, like I'm getting you know,
all you can eat crab legs in case dias, I'm
just never quite done. I'm taking a break.
Speaker 5 (45:44):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
The execution apparatuses of the world are hipped to that one. Unfortunately,
a lot of people wait, so are you saying you're
joking or would you you would try to do that?
I couldn't. I couldn't get down any any part of
an electric chair. Just think of the fiber in the
minerals and the minerals. Think of the minerals. There's also
(46:06):
this goes state by state here in the US. But
the one thing that's really heartbreaking that you may find
is that typically when people are on death row, whether
or not they were guilty of the crime that they're
being executed for, typically after they've spent that much time
in lock up, the things they want become relatively simple.
(46:28):
I was talking about this on Daily Zeitgeist. You know,
you might imagine something opulent like ortilon, or you know,
give me a tiger. I want tiger meet Most people
are like, I want a burger and fries and some
ice cream, or I'd like a three piece fried chicken.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
But maybe I really like a double double animal style
from In and Out that'd be good. I think i'd request.
I think I'm finally on board with the idea that
in and out fries or trash. I always try to
defend them, but they really aren't that good, like the
crispy bits at the bottom of the fry bag. So
I think i'd ask I request fries from outside a
different place. Yeah, some nice seasoned fries.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
All right? So uh, in and out double animal style
seasoned fries from somewhere else TBD. Caesar salad for freight train, Matt,
Do you have a pick? Oh?
Speaker 5 (47:20):
Yeah, sure, green curry tie, hot stinged rice and jasmine.
Need some spring rolls in there, for sure. The kind
of haves shrimp in them, like the.
Speaker 4 (47:32):
Like the like the fresh spring rolls or the fried
spring rolls. Fresh spring rolls, Yeah, with the nice papery
kind of sticky.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
The rice paper all day.
Speaker 5 (47:41):
And I'm gonna need tofu in that green curry as
it will absorb the deliciousness. And we gotta make sure
it's not that runny watery. No, you's gotta have some
got some body and the tofu. Do you like a
little seer on your tofu? Ye?
Speaker 3 (47:56):
Yeah, exactly, thank you? What are we playing otherwise now
sometimes kind of like a custardy tofa. Sometimes I don't
need to see her for the last meal.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
Oh no, I get a really rad dish from There's
a place called High Chinese here that does this thing
called Mapo tofu. Yeah, it's fabulous, but the tofu is
this custardy consistency. It's not fried at all, and I
love it, But for the most part, I would prefer
a little a little crispiness on my tofu.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
I'd be worried if you're eating slovenly tofu. It's it
holds together. It's custardy. Custardy. That's a pleasant that's a
pleasant mouth feel, guys.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
But if you feed that to me, you can just
take me away. I'm good to go there.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
They are also tragic stories because this gets into the
larger conspiracy and problems with the death penalty. Like there
there's at least one case I know of a mentally
impaired person who, upon being led to their execution, saved
their cake for afterwards, and they asked the guard to
(49:01):
keep an eye on it because they didn't understand what
was happening to them. Wow, But in good news, in
good news, there are for a while. It seems there
were no limits on what people could order, and our
buddy Miles from Daily Zeitgeist and Jack from Daily Zeitgeist
(49:21):
they pointed out, maybe this was a show of conscience
on the part of the prison staff or the executors.
You know, I think they have empathy, you know, especially
when facing down the reaper.
Speaker 5 (49:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
It's a little too late, too little though, maybe so
I'm just you know, just be a devil's advocate. Yeah,
I think that's appropriate. But it's like, hey, sorry, we're
going to kill you, even though the state has serious
questions about whether you did the crime. Here is a cheeseburger.
(49:59):
Best we can do as long as it's a double
double animal style baconator baconator, right, because you don't have
to worry about the calories. Oh boy, that went dark.
This is This is a fascinating thing to me because
food is such a fundamental part of human culture, and
(50:19):
this would be your last chance to participate in that
universal interest. And this is where we throw it to you, folks.
We want to hear your story, not even your stories.
What is your ideal last meal? Please? Please do tell us,
take all the time, all the detail, you need check
(50:41):
out earlier conversations about this in different shows. Stay tuned
for our Ridiculous History episode that dives into the origin
story of Last Meals, along with notable episodes in the future.
I hope you are never in this situation, but please
do remember Last Meals in the US do go state
by state. For instance, in Florida, you have to have
(51:04):
local ingredients and it can't be over forty dollars. In Oklahoma,
it can't be over twenty five dollars. In Louisiana, the
warden sits down and eats with you. Oh damn, which
bothers me. It's a little weird. I feel like that's
I would I would request that I would give a
(51:26):
pass on that. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. And in
Texas they don't do it anymore.
Speaker 4 (51:33):
What if there was a thing in Texas, like an
episode of King of the Hill where you have to
eat the biggest giant t bone steak and if you
finish the whole thing in less than thirty minutes, your
whole meal is free. Oh and you don't get executed.
That Okay, that would be such a Texas thing. Man,
wouldn't that be like a man? And then you get
(51:53):
your picture up on the board too.
Speaker 3 (51:55):
You know, Oh my god, he's got a picture of
the board. Yeah, we want to hear your stories about this, folks,
and as always, we greatly appreciate your time. Big thanks
to Laura and big thanks to See, big thanks to
sc bug Geek. Let us know, seriously, tell us in
detail last meal. You will be referenced on on a
(52:16):
future show perhaps And you might be thinking, Hey, that
sounds like a fantastic idea. I'd love to tell you
I've been thinking about this, But how do I get
in touch with your show? Well, will tell you.
Speaker 4 (52:29):
You can find us all over the internet at the
handle Conspiracy Stuff, where we exist on Facebook.
Speaker 3 (52:33):
Where you can join our Facebook group Here's where it
gets crazy.
Speaker 4 (52:36):
On YouTube, you can find us at that handle, and
we've got video content coming at you on the regular,
as well as on XFKA, Twitter.
Speaker 3 (52:44):
On Instagram and TikTok. However, we are Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 5 (52:48):
We have a phone number. It is one eight three
three std WYTK. If you're not driving, go ahead and
pause and put that number into your as a contact.
Call it anything and once you call, be prepared for
a callback. You might get one When you do call in,
(53:09):
you've got three minutes, give yourself a cool nickname and
say whatever you'd like. Just do include whether or not
you give us permission to use your voice and message
on one of these listener mail episodes. If you've got
more to say then can fit in three minutes. Why
not instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (53:25):
We are the entities that read every piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, fellow conspiracy realist. At times,
the void writes back, sometimes with such pithy observations as quote,
a friend guilted me into watching an episode of Bridgerton that,
while I was diplomatic about it, there is a severe
(53:47):
lack of actual bridges in this show. Conspiracy at iHeartRadio
dot com.
Speaker 5 (54:11):
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.
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News
Hosts And Creators
Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Show Links
RSSStoreAboutLive ShowsPopular Podcasts
1. Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
2. Stuff You Missed in History Class
Join Holly and Tracy as they bring you the greatest and strangest Stuff You Missed In History Class in this podcast by iHeartRadio.
3. Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.