July 10, 2025 • 54 mins
Sloth inspires a round-up of recent news stories from the world of birds. Fae shares a story of real-life bars inside gas stations. Kevin prompts an exploration of hidden history -- the earth shaking Battle of Blair Mountain, and the resulting cover-up from the Powers That Be. Plus puns. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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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 (00:25):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noa.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They call me Ben.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
We're joined as always with our super producer, Dylan the
Tennessee pal Fagan.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Most importantly, you are you. You are here.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
Welcome back, friends and neighbors, fellow conspiracy realist. This is
July tenth, twenty twenty five, and as always with our
much beloved superproducer returning from adventures out west in the Territories.
(01:00):
He couldn't think of a better way to start tonight's
program than to learn a little bit about Ruda Bega's
Dylan if you could, yes.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
Yes, I'm sure you knew.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
When I Bega, I could.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Shoot Wow, more Rude Bega than I could choose. That's
a mouthful.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I was really hoping you would, uh, you would try
and match the voice there, Dylan rue to Bega.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
Dylan Dylan is uh tremendously gifted vocalist here and Dylan.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I gotta thank you man, first for.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Going with that weird idea, and second for being the
grown guy in the conversation who said, we don't need
to do the whole parody version.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Of the song, just get to just get to the
the matter.
Speaker 6 (01:58):
We we do have the full here if you are interested.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
That Sinatra.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
They that was oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, big
Rudabiga fan of days of.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
Your big energy from Sinati, right.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
And we we are fans of yours, folks. We are
gonna hear from Faye, from Chef Ben, from Wayne Kevin.
And before we do any of that, we're gonna pause
for a word from our sponsors, and we'll get to
a conversation, an Avian discourse with our pal.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Sloth, and we'll be right back with sloughy.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
And we have returned with slough. We haven't teasted enough. Boy,
oh boy, here it comes. He said. You know, actually
their name is not necessarily sloth, but they start the
email out with hey you guys and said to read
it as sloth. So I've just taken a little bit
of creative liberty and decided to bestow the nickname of
(03:00):
Sloth onto this individual.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Feel free to.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
Read that, like Sloth I did. The Goonies is one
of those movies that I've seen like in pieces over
the years, but probably not in one sitting and in
the correct order. So I need to do something about that,
because it's a fun movie. Sloth goes on. I've been
watching and listening to you for like thirteen years now.
Thank you for your service, Sloth, and for your time invested.
(03:24):
As Ben would say, time is the only currency that
we truly have even gotten the oldest to the point
where he wants to listen when it's just him and
I in the truck. We love to hear that so
very much, and part of the reason we try to
keep it pg. Thirteen. I'm trying to be linear with
my following, so sadly at this moment, I'm still stuck
in twenty twenty three. I think we all are a
little bit stuck in twenty twenty three. But I promise,
(03:47):
with lots of window time traveling to and from work now,
I'll get caught up. Anyways.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I always thought.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Noel was a bit nutty, how dare you when he
talks about his fear of birds? But then I saw
this meme had to share it. Keep up up the
great work, and said meme is as follows. It is
a infographic with three columns, and in column one we
have a little image of every planet in the Solar system.
Column two and it says planet to the top. That's
(04:14):
the heading for that colm Column two is deaths. Column
three is has birds? Can you guys guess where this
one's going? Tops off? By the way, with wake up sheeple,
every planet except for Earth, no birds. Earth has birds,
zero deaths elsewhere. One hundred and twenty billion, three hundred
and fifteen million, six hundred and seventy two eight hundred
(04:36):
and ninety six plus deaths on planet Earth. Clearly, if
we're doing a correlation causation kind of situation, entirely the
fault of birds. That is at least the takeaway from
this infographic. Guys, what do you think?
Speaker 7 (04:51):
Are?
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Are they onto something here? Should we wake up?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
The science is.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
There, I've got it.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I gotta tell you, hey, you guys, Sloth, this is
this is a meme that I feel like pops up
every so often because the science is just in arguably
sound agreed.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, yeah, to be fair, to be fair, Sloth and
everybody else, we have yet to prove how many people
died on Mars when it was you know, inhabited millions here,
perhaps billions of years ago.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Yeah, and we have which means we also have no
proof for or against avian involvement in the ball of
that ancient civilization.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Yes, that's true. And uh, you know, I've always found
the connection between birds and dinosaurs fascinating, as laid out
brilliantly and scientifically unquestionably in the Jurassic Park series by
the great scientists and Michael Crichton. Yeah, some more unimpeachable
science there. I just thought this would be a fun
(05:55):
opportunity to talk about a few bird stories that that
that came up when I was doing a little googling
after being inspired by Sloth's email. We did recently discuss
on a previous Strange News episode the climate change implications
on migratory birds, Ben, I believe that was one that
(06:17):
you brought to the table. A study by BirdLife Grease
showing that climate change is making bird migration more and
more dangerous. This is published by the Hellenic Ornithological Society
aka BirdLife Grease, which has discovered a stark warning and
this is according to a piece on BirdLife dot Org,
the warning being that climate change is rapidly making the
(06:40):
treacherous journey of migratory birds even more deadly. They say
for millions of birds traveling between Africa and Europe that
Sahara Desert presents one of the toughest challenges. A vast
arid expanse where survival depends on reaching the few scattered oases. Oases,
I think is how they put it, and vegetated areas
for rest and ref fueling once past, much like the
(07:02):
situation we've talked about with rural areas and gas stations.
This formidable barrier, they face another dangerous crossing point, which
is the Mediterranean Sea. The study shows that the Sahara
and Mediterranean regions become increasingly inhospitable, These very very crucial
stopover sites in North Africa beginning to shrink and dry
up due to climate change. The fewer and fewer of
(07:25):
these safe havens for birds are there and are viable.
So I didn't want to go too far into that
one since we already discussed it, Ben, but I just
wanted to bring that one up again. If there was
anything that you'd seen in the news to update that one.
We've got the Ecological Restoration Fund partnering with this organization
in a three million pounds joint project which is led
(07:46):
by BirdLife International and the RSPB. So they're trying to
kind of figure out how to mitigate some of these
threats that are posed to these protected areas.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Yeah, it's definitely a herculean struggle, right, and it's uphill
because as we all know, if you like me and
several of us are big fans of birds, the avian
respects no human jurisdiction. I just like the gravitas of
that statement, but it is true. You've nailed it their nol.
As we discussed previously, human scientists are still trying to
(08:21):
figure out how migratory birds are able to, like how
their internal GPS functions, and it gets into quantum mechanics,
which is super fascinating, but also due to the nature
of a migratory existence. And you see the same thing
with salmon right swimming back to the spawning grounds. So
(08:43):
you see the same thing with the mysterious eel. Due
to this human made rules and human systems require a
level of cooperation that is historically pretty challenging. I mean
it's asking a lot for policymakers and for world leaders
to say, hey, I know we're fighting about everything else increasingly,
(09:06):
you know, water rights, but let's cooperate to make sure these.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Geese get home safe.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It's just unfortunately it's a low priority for a lot
of world leaders.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Yeah, it would seem so. And it also obviously there
are positive climate activities that themselves can be a hazard
for birds, like the wind turbines that can generate you know,
wind energy and be a very viable alternate source of electricity,
and we know those can cause real problems for migratory
birds as well. So I just wanted to bring that
(09:40):
one up at the top. But to your point then
about birds wanting to spread their wings and all of
that and have this migratory life just by their very nature.
Where I come to you from. In New York City,
new legislation from the New York City Council would ban
the sale of birds in pet stores city wide. A
bill banning the retail sale of birds and shops across
(10:03):
New York is under consideration by the Council, introduced by
council Member Diana Ayala this week. This would amend a
local Law one point thirty two from twenty twenty four
by adding birds to the list of animals banned from
being sold if it were to pass, this would include
(10:23):
species such as parrots, finches, parakeets, cockatils, stuff like that.
But in case you're wondering, this would not include poultry
birds like chickens. Poultry breeders get an exemption from the bill,
and we'll still be able to sell birds. Only stores
in the city would be barred from displaying, selling, auctioning,
(10:47):
and transferring birds. It would become the very first piece
of legislation banning the sale of birds's pets in the
state of New York. And this comes to us from
the president of Voters for Animal Rights at Taylor, who's
been working on the bill with Ayala and had this
to say to Ben's point, and I think an accurate one,
(11:08):
because I don't know, it's funny that a lot of
listeners send funny memes about, you know, bird terror and
all of that stuff with me in mind, because I
definitely have historically had this fear of birds. But I'm
really only half joking when I say that, through the
enjoyment of the board game Wingspan, I really have begun
to appreciate our avan brothers and sisters. Truly. Like it
(11:32):
sounds silly, but the way this game works, it teaches
you about different species, and I can actually start to
recognize them in the wild. And while as I've said before,
I still don't want them to come at me or
fly up in my face, I may well be on
my way to becoming a proper birder in New York City,
in Brooklyn in particular, there are some parks here where
birders are absolutely in heaven. I believe Prospect Park is one.
(11:55):
A friend of mine told me that that's a spot
where he goes and has this little field journal. So
I might get myself a pair of binoculars and get
to burden. But anyway, they respond, don't mess with the
birders exactly. Thanks Ben, You're absolutely right. But Ali Taylor,
as I said, had this comment on the subject of
migratory birds and how it is cruel to keep them
(12:17):
as pets. These are birds that in the wild, they
fly hundreds of miles every day. They're crossing rainforests, savannahs,
tropical mountain scapes that are rich in diversity. They are
not meant to be sitting in your living room cage
in Chelsea. This legislation, by the way, this is from
a piece from a local city paper here called The City.
(12:38):
This is by Chanelle Tissera, reporting for that publication. A legislation,
she says, comes on the heels of a ban of
the sale of guinea pigs and stores from the city
council back in twenty twenty three. A similar bill that
would ban the sale of birds statewide was introduced this
year in the State Assembly by State assembly Member Linda Rosenthal,
which is currently in committee. The piece then does go
(13:02):
to describe a very similar situation with bird breeding to
what has been referred to often as puppy mills, very
very harsh, often inhumane conditions in breeding for commercial sale
of these animals as pets. They're called mills for these birds.
(13:23):
This idea of curbing the sale of exotic birds would
halt the financial support of these types of facilities, which
are apparently rampant in the city and in the region.
Liz Carbrera Holtz, who is a senior campaign manager at
the World Animal Protection Organization and Animal Rights Group, have
this to say. Birds suffer right from their birth in
(13:44):
the mill to when they get transported from the mill
to life in the store and then to a person's home.
Any bird sale drives the wildlife trade and increases demand
for it. Animal rights advocates such as Carbrera Holts argue
that birds shouldn't be demandesticated, which often involves things like
clipping their wings, which does not allow them to you know,
(14:05):
live out their lives as intended, and confinement in cages.
They should rather be free to roam the air as
they please out in nature. And I got to say, y'all,
I grew up with a pet bird. I had a
weird brief period where a friend of mine had a
pet cockatile and I kind of liked it and sort
of got over my fear of birds, and then got
a pet cockatial and then sort of got re scared
(14:27):
of the thing, and it became my mom's pet, and
I didn't really have anything to do with it. And
my mom did continue to get pet birds until you know,
she passed away. So that is something that I've been around,
and I fully am on board with this. I think
it is odd the amount of space these birds have
in these cages. It just seems cruel. I mean, having
pet cats and pet dogs. At least they get the
(14:49):
full run of the house, you know, and they're not
just kept in such a tiny, confined space. These birds,
by their very nature, are meant to flourish in these
endless environments, you know, out in the world. So it
just seems to me to be inherently pretty cruel. So
I'm on board with this stuff. What do you guys think?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Ah, I who knows? Looking at pictures from one of
the articles you posted here, Noll of the Coney Island
birdwalk man.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
There are bird sanctuaries that are cool, and there are
larger situations that I think are great. But yeah, tell
me about the bird walk man. He is a local character.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Well he at least was in twenty sixteen when this
photo was taken of him with it looks like maybe
three different parrots and he's just got them. He's hanging
out with him on the boardwalk. So you can come
hang out with the parrots for a second, I guess
if you're a tourist or something that seems lovely to me.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
You'll notice his bucket also says tips for animal rescue,
So this is a dude that's also concerned with conservation
and he is obviously hanging out outdoors on the Coney
Island boardwalk with these creatures.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
It also occurs to me that this is city rules
and laws, right, But as you stated, you could just
go a little ways outside of New York City and
you could purchase your birds, and you know it.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
I just everything's legal in New Jersey, that's true.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I just don't know what it really does.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
A drop in the bucket. I get what you're saying.
I guess I'm going to say. I think what it
represents is sound. I just do sure I'm on board
with this idea of birds. Maybe you shouldn't be kept
in cadus. I'm always reminded of the Maya Angelou book
titled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and it
is quite a powerful image if you think about it.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Oh yeah, I did stumble on something.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I don't know if you've talked about this for ridiculous history,
but the Coney Island Flying Man of eighteen eighty.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah, yeah, ridiculous history. But we got deep into the
idea of inventors who died at the hands of their
own inventions, and our very first foray into that, Matt
was ended up being a two part series on the
sheer number of people who have died trying to fly. Yeah,
(17:07):
and so I think.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
We a birdman of Alcatraz, right.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
He owned he befriended.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Well, yeah, just according to this article from Brownstoner. And
if we are to believe them, they are talking about
a New York Times article from September eighteen eighty where
there was a quote aerial mystery where a man was
seen by a bunch of people hanging out at Coney
Island who had quote bats wings and improved frog legs
(17:39):
and a quote cruel and determined expression on his face,
lying he was flying around one thousand feet. They said
in eighteen eighty.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
What is happening? Saying what a daredevil?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
It's a cool thing.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
You love to see those stories that pop up, especially
in the age of yellow journalism, where like check out
our episode on lost civilizations.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
In the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Back in those days when your editor was a lot
more into improv and just sort of yes, ANDed you
whatever kind of thing you.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Would say as long as they sold the papers.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Look, birds are amazing, and they are not quite like
amphibians who are on the front lines of mass extinction.
We are in global mass extinction event as we record.
But birds, I would say, especially the migratory ones, are
a key piece of Earth's natural ecosystem. Not for nothing
(18:37):
are there so many idioms like canary in a coal mine?
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Right?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
You can see a little bit into the future, a
little bit further into the horizon based on how your
birds are doing. And I one hundred percent agree as
someone who also had to spend time with birds as
an honorary member of a local corvid crew neighborhood. I
(19:02):
it's the same old argument of zoos as animal jails
versus conservation efforts. These migratory populations are especially vulnerable, now,
you know, and I applaud. I think we were often,
at least in the West, we're often dismissive of moves
that seem symbolic. This is very much every little every
(19:26):
little feather helps, you know what I mean. Eventually the
idea is it could break the camel of climate change.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
That's exactly right, Ben, and I do appreciate that point
really quickly. I know we're running a little along with
all this bird talk. Thanksloth for getting this going. I
just wanted to mention there was a piece that published
this very morning in the Washington Post bird Lover's flock
to adopt parrot who is rated R Parental advisory required.
He says thank you, and you give him snacks, but
(19:52):
we'll also tell you to shut the up, said Chantel Rogers,
who works at the Animal shelter in Fall River, massach
Sits animal shelter employees were enjoying a quiet moment in
the lobby when a yell came from a room designated
for small animals. Stfu Hendrix, a blue and gold macaw
who came to the shelter the prior month surrendered by
(20:14):
his longtime owner. Is this is the culprit. The cursing
only became louder after that late May afternoon. And if
you adopt Hendrix, Chantelle, says Chantell Rogers, the administrative assistant
at the Forever Pause Animal Shelter, you're basically adopting Samuel L. Jackson.
This bird's language is not for the feint of heart.
(20:35):
It was a post that went viral on the internet
and folks have been literally flocking to try to be
the one that can take Hendricks home to have a
little pottymouth bird in their lives. And it's funny because
he apparently comes and goes. Rogers had this to say.
One day he will call you baby, and the next
day he's calling you mfor I guess is the politest
(20:55):
way to type it out. He says, thank you when
you give him snacks, but we'll also tell you to
up the bird. It's rated. Our parental advisory required a
real sour patch kid if one side with sugar and
the other side was our snack, and there's a happy
ending of this story. In June twelfth, nearly twenty eight
hours after posting the advertisement online, the shelter added to
the top of the post Applications now closed, And just
(21:18):
like that, Roger said, I learned way more about most
people than I wanted to. Shelter employees narrowed the applicants
to the five most qualified and invited them to meet Hendrix.
One woman, who already had a room and toys in
her house for birds she previously owned, was the perfect fit.
Rogers said, So I want to backtrack a little bit
and say, there are, of course animal rescue situations that
(21:39):
we always talk about the zoo jail analogy. The Atlanta
Zoo is almost entirely rescue animals who would not survive
in the wild. So I do think that folks like
whoever this owner was are absolutely great and a big
help for these types of creatures who perhaps are injured
and would not make it in the wild. Rogers, said
(21:59):
the owner email or a few days later, saying that
Hendrix is beginning to feel comfortable. He might soon be
ready to let out a new torrent of obscenities. And
he will, you will, God willing, he will. Why don't
we pause here, We'll go to a break here, work
from our sponsor, and then come back with more messages from.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
You, and we've returned. Guys, got a quick right at
the top. Old man Frederick's corner signed on to Facebook
just randomly to make sure nobody's trying to reach out
to me or something, or you know, I missed one
of those random messages from an old friend. Sure, and
(22:39):
I did. I did the wrong thing, guys, what you do?
I clicked on something that was clearly an ad, but
it was too enticing for me. The ad, which looked
like a post, said Dice Legend going out of business.
Everything on sale zero dollars. Just pays shipping costs.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
And I said, Dice, we're talking like like twelve sided dice,
like like nerd dice.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Like twenties?
Speaker 5 (23:06):
How is how many?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
You know what I mean, all the sides.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
So I said, oh my god, let me get in
on this. While they're going out of business. Maybe I
can get some incredible dice I would jump on. I'm
on my phone, I click through, I start adding dice
to my cart like it's nobody's business. Because they all, right, yes,
they all say zero dollars. I'm like, oh my god,
how am I getting away with this right now?
Speaker 5 (23:30):
It's too good to be true? If it seems too
good to be true? Was it?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Dude?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Well, I get my cart filled, and as of right now,
I'm paying zero dollars and I'm getting more dice than
I can fit in a giant box. I have to
buy a new box for all these dice. And then
my head goes, wait a second, wait a second, this
is this feels too good.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
So I did, just like the Columbia House deal, the
Penny Penny cassettes, that's gotta be well.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I did a little search and I found a couple
of subreddits that had specific posts about this company from
years ago when they were going out of business. Then
and then years before that when they were out out
of business, and everybody saying, this is a scam, don't
do this, don't don't do this, Please don't do this.
And I closed the tab and.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Did you did you crack the conspiracy?
Speaker 5 (24:23):
No?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
I didn't crack the conspiracy. It's just somebody's offloading really
cheaply made dice. And you know, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
A good friend of the show who plays Dungeons and
Dragons with Dylan and myself, a guy named Joe McCormick
from Stuff to Blow your mind. Uh, he got a
deal on a gigantic mason jar of a sortid die
and it's Uh, it's fascinating because I had no idea
what a big industry this is. For a lot of us,
(24:53):
this may be a somewhat familiar experience. A company you
don't know from a can of paint will offer you
a deal that, as he said, Matt, may seem a
little too good to be true. I ran into this
recently with some COVID communication devices. I cannot believe that's
a real sentence. But one way that this can happen
(25:14):
is that the item itself, this will be familiar to
anybody on say eBay, the item itself is of free
or of negligible cost, but the shipping is extravagant and
they're counting on you not to pay attention to the shipping.
And then the other more sith Lord side of it
is to obtain banking or financial details or maybe even
(25:38):
just your home address. Yeah, so it's probably something like that.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
It feels like it. It's got a giant sign on
the top that says hurry up, sale ends in, and
it's got a counter that starts at sixteen minutes or
so every time you reload the website every time.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
I will just say that I am often taken in
by appealing Instagram ads and nine times out of ten good,
but I have been taken by some like really poorly
printed T shirts for example, or like just just something
that was not as advertised. I ordered something that was
supposed to be a fully manipulatable lament configuration from the
(26:14):
hell Raiser movies, and it looks real cool, but the
pieces do not move, y'all. And in the video on
the ad, it was somebody moving it around and flipping
all the pieces like the puzzle box from the movie.
And it came and there are no movable joints in
this thing, so I would argue that's a bit of
a rip, but it still looks badass. But it was
a bit of a bait and switch.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Micro Whistle works awesome.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
Heck yeah, it just took forever to gay awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
I really want that now.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
It's way better than my natural accent.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Anything that you do see on Instagram or things like
that that ship through Shopify or a similar app like that,
you can usually rely on as being decent quality, something
that's like, you know, legit to just saying, don't be
completely turned off by the idea of getting things like
based on those ads, because sometimes they're really cool things.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Yeah, just do do like you did, Matt.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Realize that caution is often the better part of valor
and get out of the act now, sandbox right, don't
let them psychologically push you, and just check on those
reviews because odds are Now, if you're seeing an ad,
you are not unique in seeing that ad.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
You should always check right what what? What is? Somebody?
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Reddit is actually really great for this. What do people
on Reddit say when they bought that jacket? Or what
did they say when they applied for Let me pull
up a sponsored ad, an easy way to this is
what I got today, an easy way to gain residents
in Paraguay. What do we know about that country? My
sponsored ads are getting super weird.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Now, sorry, guys. Last thing I just wanted to say.
I have recently been getting a lot of texts that
are exactly the language from Scam Factory that we talked
to Denise Chan, the incredible creator and host of that show,
about exactly the same type of language, talking about pay
ranging from five hundred hundred dollars a day, almost the
(28:09):
exact same setup, and saying things like oh, I found
you through a recruiter, and I had not been getting
those in the past. So just guys, be careful. Scams
are very real, and some of them are are going
to take more than your money.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Well, you know what's not a scam If you happen
to be rolling through certain parts of our great country here, guys,
you stop to get some gas, fill up the old car,
and you walk inside and there's actually a bar in there.
That's not actually a scam. I thought it could be,
but it's not, at least.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
In the gas stations.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah, this stood out to be too.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Cool, at least according to our listener Faye.
Speaker 8 (28:47):
Hey, y'all, this is Fay. I was listening to y'all
current episode about gas stations, and I thought it was
really funny because you guys are debating currently about how
gas stations don't serve alcohol. I'm from western North Carolina
and there's a gas station out in the var that
serves alcohol like it's a whole, Like there's a bar there.
(29:10):
They have a bar at a gas station, and everybody
knows you need to go to get pizza and some
drinks and chill. It's right by the river. But it
started out as a gas station and then morph into
the bar. But there is a place in western North
Carolina where you can crack the cold line on the
(29:32):
premises or they'll pour you a cold line. You can
buy your six packs and go on the porch and
start drinking. So I don't know what it's like in
the cities, but out here in the hallers, our gas
stations are our bars. Well, thanks, guys, and you can
use this if you want. I call y'all all the
(29:53):
time and I'm so sorry.
Speaker 6 (29:54):
Bye, awesome, Okay, see you there.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
Faith, Thanks for the tell you there.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
So look, guys, I don't know if I located the
exact one that Fay is talking about, but I did
find a place called Riverside Bar in Pizga Forest, is
how you say that? And I was looking all around
trying to find a gas station that just you know, says,
at least on Google Maps when you search it up,
hey we have a bar here too and gas, and
(30:24):
it's great, but I couldn't. I did, however, find three
particular places in somewhat western North Carolina that I want
to shout out because they just fit the bill perfectly.
The first one is called the Brew Pump. It is
in fact a gas station in Asheville, North Carolina, and
(30:45):
it is also a bar restaurant, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
There's also the old Haywood filling Station out in Mills River,
North Carolina. That one seems just super cool. And finally,
the Mountain River tap Room in Fletcher, North Carolina that
appears to have gas and a bar.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
I think that's look.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
A lot of people are gonna say that's problematic, right,
because a gas station is directly associated with operating operating
a motor vehicle. But also, you know, we did point
out that a lot of gas stations already sell packaged alcohol.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
So where's the line there?
Speaker 4 (31:29):
You know, are they near hotels matt or are they
near like places where people could walk to sleep.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I don't know. I really don't know. But I mean again,
any any establishment that is selling alcohol like that, you
gotta imagine there's a ton of risk there. That's why
designated drivers exist. All of us who have taken up
the mantle and said I shall drive this eve. We're
(31:56):
doing God's work out there.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
I love it, you know, for some reason, when it's
not like your full time job, when it's an act,
the voluntary heroism, you get that little shine to your
soul on.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
It, right, that's right, that is right. And honestly, the
pictures are beautiful. On some of these, there's an exon.
It's got exon gas, so it's exon. We talked about
this in our episode on gas stations. Xon's company, the
gas company that's providing the gas there. But then the
other part of it, where the convenience store would be.
That's all separate thing like at the brew pump. But
(32:31):
it's funny to see a big old shell sign out
there with a bunch of people hanging out just enjoy
and brew.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
I wonder if there's a service station attached to these
as well, because now I'm constructing my own kind of
like headcannon origin story. Let's say we've got this amazing mechanic,
maybe he's the owner, operator or she or what you know,
and and eventually they they get in a fight at
the at the local bar and they say, screw you,
(33:00):
you guys, I'm going to build a bar of my
own at my job. I'm so tired of, you know,
walk it up the street to you all. So here
by the way, if you come in and you need
your oil change, you know, grab a beer while you're
at it, you.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
Know, well remind you too. In Atlanta, I mean, I'm
sure this is the case in other places. I'm certain
it is, but there are a handful of Kroger locations
that have a proper tap room connected to them. You know,
they actually jokingly in Atlanta, we sort of have like
shorthand for the different Krogers. There used to be, of course,
the famous Murder Kroger, which they tried very desperately to rebrand,
(33:38):
but one was called Crowbar, and that was again these
are just locals calling it that, But that was the
one that had like a whole, you know, bar situation
in the back. So I don't see how, at least
regulation wise, it's that different. As we mentioned too, grocery
store chains often have gas stations as well connected to them.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I'm looking at the crowbar on glen Wood Avenue in Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
That's the lamp.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
They call it the crowbar.
Speaker 6 (34:06):
They do, they leaned into it because I think it
started as a local shorthand that's funny.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
I didn't know they didn't, right.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Well, they're careful about what they what they adopt, right,
and they like Kroger. Kroger chain really took it on
the chin when they were trying to rename Murder Kroger
to Beltline Kroger.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
You guys know, he's lived very.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Very close to there, and the local population just didn't
accept it. So maybe they learned a lesson and decided
to lean into crowbar. The disco Kroger as it was
called in Buckhead also started to lean into those Appalachians
apple Machian appalations. I'm going to use that phrase for something,
I just don't know what yet, but fae, that's awesome.
(34:49):
We've got to learn more about gas station bars. I'm
kind of ethically on the fence. I just feel like
I have a lot of questions about this. Imagine musco
state by state dat aside. This is a great way
to make money, you know what I mean? So too
total income streams.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
So thank you so much Fay for sending us that message.
But speaking of ethical quandaries, we're gonna play a really
quick message from the returning champion, Chef Ben. I call
it that because I've at least been using a lot
of his messages, so it's not favoritism. Chef Ben just
always chimes in with the bangers. So here here is
(35:32):
another one. Oh, parental advisory for this. He doesn't use
language that is upsetting. It's just some of the concepts
that might go into your mind after listening to his
message may not be for kids. So here we go.
Parental advisory.
Speaker 7 (35:46):
Chef Ben Fellos, Good morning, Chef Ben and Chicago. As always,
feel free to use this on your lovely show if
you find this to be titillating in any sense. Again,
catching up on pack episodes. Doing a lot of driving
these days with my new job, so I'm three years behind,
but I did just listen to your neuralink episode. The
first thing that popped into my head about that is,
(36:08):
I wonder how far away from those things generating a
local network really is. Right, So, like they would talk
directly to each other via proximity. Right instantly, my brain
get my brain goes to military applications of that. If
you've got a squadron that are all neuralink to each other,
(36:28):
there's no need for hand signals or radio commands or
any of that. They're just talking directly to each other
through their brains. If that sounds like the borg from
Star Trek, Yeah, that's what direct we're going. So that
was my first thought. Now I am also like nearly
a professional dirt bag. So here was my second thought,
and this one, maybe there is a benefit to humanity
(36:50):
in this potential technology. Let's say you've got the neuralink.
Let's say your romantic partner has the neuralink and you
take your romantic partner to Poundtown. Amazing benefit there potentially
sure to be able to at least partially join with
(37:12):
your romantic partner in receiving some of their sensations during
your trip to Poundtown. What you're trying something new, man,
don't like trying something new. You'll know right away if
it's having the desired effect or not.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
Right.
Speaker 7 (37:28):
Uh, we're all all about instant gratification these days. Anyway,
that's the next step. That would be the way. That's
the way to get to that, you know, if the
thing you're doing is working. So that's my thought. I
went directly from neuralink, which sounds weird, to Boord to Poundtown.
You're welcome, thanks for shuttling me around Chicago, fellas.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Take it demolition man first reference. Oh yeah, would they
have sex? And demolition man ideal when they do something
very much like neurallyin, but they don't have physical activity.
So Chef, it's always great to hear from you. I
got to recuse myself because I'm cartoonishly pro.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
Bit, y'all. It really does remind me of the episode
of Black Mirror Striking Vipers, where I believe someone is
able to gender swap and engage in virtual sex in
very interesting ways that impact their actual real life relationships
because they kind of can't function anymore outside of this
(38:30):
neuralinky kind of augmented reality situation. It does address some
of the things that Chef Ben was talking about. I
do recommend checking that one out. It's season seven, episode four, amazing.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
I just wanted to play that because I enjoyed the
way Chef Ben navigated talking about all of those things
together in Without Downtown, Well, specifically the way he described
the act of loves.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Oh, I agree, Chef Ben's the best.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
There we go. Hey, well that's it for now. Thank you, Faye,
Thank you, Chef Ben. We'll be right back with more
messages from you.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
And we have returned a little peak behind the curtain,
friends and neighbors, fellow conspiracy realist. We record our Strange
news and listener mail segments on Wednesdays typically, and as
we're recording on Wednesday, July second, twenty twenty five, a
for our weekly listener mail segment that will publish on
(39:34):
the tenth of July. And here's what happened. And it
happened just a few minutes ago as we were hearing
from Fay. As of noon local time, we are closer
to the year twenty to fifty than we are to
the year two thousand. Jeez, the times.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
I don't make people do things. Kevin, as he would say,
the Devil's Advocate. It's its own thing, but the.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
This is this is one of those fascinating things, at
least on my end, I wanted to share with all
of us tonight because between the year two thousand and
noon today July second, there are eight thousand, seven hundred
and sixty days from two thousand and one to twenty
(40:29):
twenty four. It's a weird milestone. I don't know what
we do with it. It's the kind of thing that
would interest our pals at Mental Floss or aj Bahamas Jacobs,
the legend. It's just it's strange. And I was looking
into this because I remember a previous episode or maybe
just a conversation held about the nineteen nineties and how
(40:52):
far away that was right nineteen ninety is now Gosh,
people born in nineteen ninety are.
Speaker 5 (41:02):
Thirty five. God, oh god, you're doing it again. Then no, no,
it's me, it's me.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
So yeah, yeah, just so for my perspective personally, I
just wanted to share that, and I hope everybody feels
maybe inspired. If you're hearing this, you've made it this
far and can't wait to have some more new strange
math in twenty fifty At which point we hope that
(41:30):
podcasts are still being made somewhat by humans. With that, Nope,
why possibly right, or maybe our ghost will will be
part of it. With that, we wanted to share a
message from you.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Kevin.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
You gave us the go ahead to share your message.
I'm gonna end up pitching you some cool official nicknames
or monikers at this, but first let's let's share what
you wrote. You said Hello. First, let me say that
I love your show. Thank you, Kevin. The way you
take seriously sometimes absurd claims and dive into the unknown
(42:07):
is delightful. Oh my gosh, keep going. We love validation.
Stop go please, so Kevin, you continue, you say more importantly,
I have a suggestion for a show. The West Virginia
Mine Wars where the Battle of Blair Mountain. If you
are not familiar, this was the result of an organizing
(42:27):
push over one hundred years ago in West Virginia and
ended with all out warfare between miners, m I n
ers and the companies supported by the US military, which
even used planes to bomb these miners. It has a
lot of random connections to other things. Sid Hatfield of
(42:47):
the Hatfield McCoy's feud was killed during it. Mother Jones
was involved, not the magazine, the person, the historical figure
that the magazine's named after. Kevin, you continue, you say
there was also a literal attempt to remove this from
the history books of West Virginia. The governor of West
(43:08):
Virginia fought with the WPA to have it removed from
the history of the state. And then Kevin, you go
on to mention the fantastic West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.
We love a specific museum, and you sign off with
hope you like this idea. So with that, but before
we dive in, I gotta be honest. I think this
(43:30):
is a full episode. We just need to figure out
what show we want it on. Have either of you
guys heard about this incident before.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
It's new to me.
Speaker 5 (43:39):
No, But when you first said it, I pictured it
as the Mine Wars, which sounds terrifying and amazing, but
not what's going on here? But please do tell.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Yeah, this is so.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
This is the at the time, it's the largest armed
uprising we could call it since the Civil War. This
happens from August to September of nineteen twenty one. It's
pretty short. It's like late August August twenty fifth to
September two. But it fundamentally rocks the nation's understanding of itself.
(44:16):
It evolves worker rights, it involves, you know, the powers
of monopolies and government suppression. We're talking like ten thousand
coal miners who strapped up and got armed because they
were tired of the horrific conditions they were forced to
work in. And earlier I did say miners with an E,
(44:37):
but the way child labor laws functioned at the time,
a lot of these miners were probably under age as well.
These ten thousand, the small army of miners, they beef
up with three thousand strike breakers, and then that number
also includes local authorities. A lot of this comes about
(44:59):
because the miners were attempting to unionize, and you know,
the US has always had a complicated relationship with unions.
It reminds me of I don't know this. This story
might sound like an interesting historical footnote if not for
what Kevin pointed out, the concerted efforts to the powers
(45:21):
that be to remove this story from history. And it
seems like it's pretty effective. Right, Like, if you're outside
of West Virginia or you're not like some of our
other pals deep into studying the history of unions.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
You might never hear of this. There's a reason it's
not in your textbook.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
I realized I have heard of this before, guys. I
I was doing research on this thing called the Molly mcguires,
which oh yeah, yeah, yeah, a secret society. But it
was much earlier than this, than this event in West Virginia.
But it was specifically about organizing within communities of right
(46:01):
and then having this kind of secret society thing going
on in the background where you could fight back against
the establishment a little bit.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
And was to be clear, I love that you're bringing
that up, Matt. To be clear, the secrecy was absolutely necessary.
The conspiracies were real. The companies controlling mining in particular
at this point, and to a lesser degree even now,
they had compromised the legal structure of the United States.
(46:32):
So if you are maybe too much of a union leader,
forget getting fired, you could they beat the tar out
of you war then they would just kill you, you
know what I mean, maybe your family as well. So
these are very very high stake things, and the conversation
about the concept of workers' rights and unions has been
(46:53):
so heavily politicized, especially in recent decades. Right that the
U word feels like depending on your personal framework, the
U word can feel like a curse word at.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
Times, like saying poundtown for instance. Right. But the.
Speaker 4 (47:11):
Reason it's important to remember this sort of stuff is
that it directly informs pretty much everything you enjoy if
you work in the United States today. Like the reason
you have some days off, it's unions. Right, The reason
there are certain holidays are also unions. Like this is
(47:32):
how effective the cover up has been. Remember the formation
of Labor Day. A lot of people growing up now
in the modern United States, I'll include myself in that number,
incorrectly assumed that Labor Day was not about workers' rights,
but was just like commemorating the incredibly difficult experience of
(47:55):
being a mom going through labor total. I thought it
was like another version of Mother's Day. You know, I
could get behind that.
Speaker 5 (48:01):
I could too.
Speaker 4 (48:04):
It's not I'm not the brightest crayon in the box,
but I do feel like that's a reasonable assumption. And
so I come to you guys humbly here with this idea,
should we do a full episode on this? I think
it's stuff they don't want you to know, and it's
stuff more people should know, especially now.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
I feel like, didn't we talk about minds on the show,
like pretty extensively in some episode.
Speaker 5 (48:30):
We definitely did, because of just the absolute brutal conditions
and so many of the deaths and black lung disease
and all of that stuff, and the fact that that
was an industry that really did lead to a lot
of labor movements because of its inherent, you know, brutality.
I'm certain we did talk about it maybe in the
history of labor movements, but this specific topic I think
might be worth it.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, I think there's plenty here.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
Yeah, we're gonna so that sounds like a unanimous vote here, guys.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
It was the Ludlow massa when he talked about the
masker back in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (49:05):
You can find that, yeah, and that is related in
the same milieu. But the Battle of Blair Mountain, I
think can be its own standalone thing. So we want
to hear about that. We want to hear always about
cover ups and moments where the powers that be attempted
to erase history. You could argue with that in the
(49:25):
age of information, it's more difficult to stop the signal,
as they say in Serenity recently rewatched Banger, But it
turns out as counterintuitive as it may sound, there's a
solid argument that it's easier now to erase history. It's
easier to change the presence understanding of the past. Heady stuff.
(49:50):
Heady stuff, folks. We're so grateful that you are with
us on this journey. We've got one last thing as
we're wrapping up here, and it is from our pal Wayne. Wayne,
you say I'm super behind on my podcast. Work has
gotten busier. Congratulations, by the way, so I can't jam
out to your velvety tones as much as I'd like.
(50:13):
I'll catch up eventually, but I wanted to share some
random thoughts I had recently. Other possible meanings the acronym
st d WYTK, show them danger, warn your trusted kid,
send the data? Would you take knowledge? Those are just
two great acronyms to send us on our way, I think,
(50:35):
So tell us your favorite acronyms, tell us your favorite
stories of hidden history, your neurolink demolition Man experiences. Please
do rewatch demolition Man and put a link to that
weird love scene I mentioned.
Speaker 6 (50:50):
Sea shells, right, sea shells. That's that's the poop part,
which is also ageless and increasingly relevant.
Speaker 4 (50:58):
As anybody who's met a Japanese toilet, we'll understand.
Speaker 5 (51:01):
Oh yeah, I never met a Japanese toilet. I didn't
like that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Guys, kind of do a shameless plug really fast, just
really fast. We're talking about Serenity and Firefly in that series.
If you are, if you're a fan of those things,
get ready because this summer coming to a podcast near you.
Listen to the show Havoc Town that's coming out in August.
(51:26):
It stars Jewels State as one of the main characters
in that who played Kaylee on Serenity and Firefly.
Speaker 5 (51:33):
I love Kaylee. What a great series. Can't wait to
hear that, Matt.
Speaker 4 (51:36):
Yeah, Havoc Town's going to be a banger. Full disclosure,
we are met matter you ep on that show.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Everyone of the Manky Verse World series.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Yeah, and our good friend, the legendary Nick Takowski I
believe is involved as well writer director. Yes, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah, And he's not paying us to say that.
We are actual fans, so check that out. Thank you
to and Manky. Thank you to Nick. Thank you to
you Matt. Thanks also again to Kevin Twayne de chef
beIN de Fay and to Sloth. Hey you guys, if
(52:09):
you want to be part of the show, why not
join you up with us for our weekly listener mail segment.
You can reach us online, You can call us on
the phone. You can always send us an email or
should thou sip the social needs at your local gas
station bar.
Speaker 3 (52:24):
You can always find us online.
Speaker 5 (52:27):
Why not top off your social needs at the hand
of Conspiracy Stuff where we exist on Facebook with our
Facebook group Here's where it gets crazy, on YouTube with
video content galore for your perusing enjoyment, and on xfka, Twitter,
on Instagram and TikTok. However, we're Conspiracy Stuff Show and
there's more.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
Yes, we have a phone number that goes to a
voicemail system. Please call it and give us your take
one eight three three std WYTK. When you call in,
give yourself a cool nickname and let us know within
the message if we can use your name and message
on the air. If you'd like to send us words, pictures, links,
anything of the sort, why not instead send us an email.
Speaker 4 (53:06):
We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence
we receive, be well aware yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
writes back, uh. Following up on our conversation with Wayne,
we might we might talk about this later.
Speaker 3 (53:19):
But hey, Wayne, this is for you.
Speaker 4 (53:22):
A little quote from our friends are half Baked. I'm
gonna take your little Mexican friend here and I'm gonna
kill him.
Speaker 3 (53:28):
Yo, I'm cubanb ha.
Speaker 4 (53:29):
Yes, cubanbe, Cuban be Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
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 (00:25):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noa.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They call me Ben.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
We're joined as always with our super producer, Dylan the
Tennessee pal Fagan.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Most importantly, you are you. You are here.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
Welcome back, friends and neighbors, fellow conspiracy realist. This is
July tenth, twenty twenty five, and as always with our
much beloved superproducer returning from adventures out west in the Territories.
(01:00):
He couldn't think of a better way to start tonight's
program than to learn a little bit about Ruda Bega's
Dylan if you could, yes.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
Yes, I'm sure you knew.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
When I Bega, I could.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Shoot Wow, more Rude Bega than I could choose. That's
a mouthful.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I was really hoping you would, uh, you would try
and match the voice there, Dylan rue to Bega.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
Dylan Dylan is uh tremendously gifted vocalist here and Dylan.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I gotta thank you man, first for.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Going with that weird idea, and second for being the
grown guy in the conversation who said, we don't need
to do the whole parody version.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Of the song, just get to just get to the
the matter.
Speaker 6 (01:58):
We we do have the full here if you are interested.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
That Sinatra.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
They that was oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, big
Rudabiga fan of days of.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
Your big energy from Sinati, right.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
And we we are fans of yours, folks. We are
gonna hear from Faye, from Chef Ben, from Wayne Kevin.
And before we do any of that, we're gonna pause
for a word from our sponsors, and we'll get to
a conversation, an Avian discourse with our pal.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Sloth, and we'll be right back with sloughy.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
And we have returned with slough. We haven't teasted enough. Boy,
oh boy, here it comes. He said. You know, actually
their name is not necessarily sloth, but they start the
email out with hey you guys and said to read
it as sloth. So I've just taken a little bit
of creative liberty and decided to bestow the nickname of
(03:00):
Sloth onto this individual.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Feel free to.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
Read that, like Sloth I did. The Goonies is one
of those movies that I've seen like in pieces over
the years, but probably not in one sitting and in
the correct order. So I need to do something about that,
because it's a fun movie. Sloth goes on. I've been
watching and listening to you for like thirteen years now.
Thank you for your service, Sloth, and for your time invested.
(03:24):
As Ben would say, time is the only currency that
we truly have even gotten the oldest to the point
where he wants to listen when it's just him and
I in the truck. We love to hear that so
very much, and part of the reason we try to
keep it pg. Thirteen. I'm trying to be linear with
my following, so sadly at this moment, I'm still stuck
in twenty twenty three. I think we all are a
little bit stuck in twenty twenty three. But I promise,
(03:47):
with lots of window time traveling to and from work now,
I'll get caught up. Anyways.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I always thought.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Noel was a bit nutty, how dare you when he
talks about his fear of birds? But then I saw
this meme had to share it. Keep up up the
great work, and said meme is as follows. It is
a infographic with three columns, and in column one we
have a little image of every planet in the Solar system.
Column two and it says planet to the top. That's
(04:14):
the heading for that colm Column two is deaths. Column
three is has birds? Can you guys guess where this
one's going? Tops off? By the way, with wake up sheeple,
every planet except for Earth, no birds. Earth has birds,
zero deaths elsewhere. One hundred and twenty billion, three hundred
and fifteen million, six hundred and seventy two eight hundred
(04:36):
and ninety six plus deaths on planet Earth. Clearly, if
we're doing a correlation causation kind of situation, entirely the
fault of birds. That is at least the takeaway from
this infographic. Guys, what do you think?
Speaker 7 (04:51):
Are?
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Are they onto something here? Should we wake up?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
The science is.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
There, I've got it.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I gotta tell you, hey, you guys, Sloth, this is
this is a meme that I feel like pops up
every so often because the science is just in arguably
sound agreed.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, yeah, to be fair, to be fair, Sloth and
everybody else, we have yet to prove how many people
died on Mars when it was you know, inhabited millions here,
perhaps billions of years ago.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Yeah, and we have which means we also have no
proof for or against avian involvement in the ball of
that ancient civilization.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Yes, that's true. And uh, you know, I've always found
the connection between birds and dinosaurs fascinating, as laid out
brilliantly and scientifically unquestionably in the Jurassic Park series by
the great scientists and Michael Crichton. Yeah, some more unimpeachable
science there. I just thought this would be a fun
(05:55):
opportunity to talk about a few bird stories that that
that came up when I was doing a little googling
after being inspired by Sloth's email. We did recently discuss
on a previous Strange News episode the climate change implications
on migratory birds, Ben, I believe that was one that
(06:17):
you brought to the table. A study by BirdLife Grease
showing that climate change is making bird migration more and
more dangerous. This is published by the Hellenic Ornithological Society
aka BirdLife Grease, which has discovered a stark warning and
this is according to a piece on BirdLife dot Org,
the warning being that climate change is rapidly making the
(06:40):
treacherous journey of migratory birds even more deadly. They say
for millions of birds traveling between Africa and Europe that
Sahara Desert presents one of the toughest challenges. A vast
arid expanse where survival depends on reaching the few scattered oases. Oases,
I think is how they put it, and vegetated areas
for rest and ref fueling once past, much like the
(07:02):
situation we've talked about with rural areas and gas stations.
This formidable barrier, they face another dangerous crossing point, which
is the Mediterranean Sea. The study shows that the Sahara
and Mediterranean regions become increasingly inhospitable, These very very crucial
stopover sites in North Africa beginning to shrink and dry
up due to climate change. The fewer and fewer of
(07:25):
these safe havens for birds are there and are viable.
So I didn't want to go too far into that
one since we already discussed it, Ben, but I just
wanted to bring that one up again. If there was
anything that you'd seen in the news to update that one.
We've got the Ecological Restoration Fund partnering with this organization
in a three million pounds joint project which is led
(07:46):
by BirdLife International and the RSPB. So they're trying to
kind of figure out how to mitigate some of these
threats that are posed to these protected areas.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Yeah, it's definitely a herculean struggle, right, and it's uphill
because as we all know, if you like me and
several of us are big fans of birds, the avian
respects no human jurisdiction. I just like the gravitas of
that statement, but it is true. You've nailed it their nol.
As we discussed previously, human scientists are still trying to
(08:21):
figure out how migratory birds are able to, like how
their internal GPS functions, and it gets into quantum mechanics,
which is super fascinating, but also due to the nature
of a migratory existence. And you see the same thing
with salmon right swimming back to the spawning grounds. So
(08:43):
you see the same thing with the mysterious eel. Due
to this human made rules and human systems require a
level of cooperation that is historically pretty challenging. I mean
it's asking a lot for policymakers and for world leaders
to say, hey, I know we're fighting about everything else increasingly,
(09:06):
you know, water rights, but let's cooperate to make sure these.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Geese get home safe.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It's just unfortunately it's a low priority for a lot
of world leaders.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Yeah, it would seem so. And it also obviously there
are positive climate activities that themselves can be a hazard
for birds, like the wind turbines that can generate you know,
wind energy and be a very viable alternate source of electricity,
and we know those can cause real problems for migratory
birds as well. So I just wanted to bring that
(09:40):
one up at the top. But to your point then
about birds wanting to spread their wings and all of
that and have this migratory life just by their very nature.
Where I come to you from. In New York City,
new legislation from the New York City Council would ban
the sale of birds in pet stores city wide. A
bill banning the retail sale of birds and shops across
(10:03):
New York is under consideration by the Council, introduced by
council Member Diana Ayala this week. This would amend a
local Law one point thirty two from twenty twenty four
by adding birds to the list of animals banned from
being sold if it were to pass, this would include
(10:23):
species such as parrots, finches, parakeets, cockatils, stuff like that.
But in case you're wondering, this would not include poultry
birds like chickens. Poultry breeders get an exemption from the bill,
and we'll still be able to sell birds. Only stores
in the city would be barred from displaying, selling, auctioning,
(10:47):
and transferring birds. It would become the very first piece
of legislation banning the sale of birds's pets in the
state of New York. And this comes to us from
the president of Voters for Animal Rights at Taylor, who's
been working on the bill with Ayala and had this
to say to Ben's point, and I think an accurate one,
(11:08):
because I don't know, it's funny that a lot of
listeners send funny memes about, you know, bird terror and
all of that stuff with me in mind, because I
definitely have historically had this fear of birds. But I'm
really only half joking when I say that, through the
enjoyment of the board game Wingspan, I really have begun
to appreciate our avan brothers and sisters. Truly. Like it
(11:32):
sounds silly, but the way this game works, it teaches
you about different species, and I can actually start to
recognize them in the wild. And while as I've said before,
I still don't want them to come at me or
fly up in my face, I may well be on
my way to becoming a proper birder in New York City,
in Brooklyn in particular, there are some parks here where
birders are absolutely in heaven. I believe Prospect Park is one.
(11:55):
A friend of mine told me that that's a spot
where he goes and has this little field journal. So
I might get myself a pair of binoculars and get
to burden. But anyway, they respond, don't mess with the
birders exactly. Thanks Ben, You're absolutely right. But Ali Taylor,
as I said, had this comment on the subject of
migratory birds and how it is cruel to keep them
(12:17):
as pets. These are birds that in the wild, they
fly hundreds of miles every day. They're crossing rainforests, savannahs,
tropical mountain scapes that are rich in diversity. They are
not meant to be sitting in your living room cage
in Chelsea. This legislation, by the way, this is from
a piece from a local city paper here called The City.
(12:38):
This is by Chanelle Tissera, reporting for that publication. A legislation,
she says, comes on the heels of a ban of
the sale of guinea pigs and stores from the city
council back in twenty twenty three. A similar bill that
would ban the sale of birds statewide was introduced this
year in the State Assembly by State assembly Member Linda Rosenthal,
which is currently in committee. The piece then does go
(13:02):
to describe a very similar situation with bird breeding to
what has been referred to often as puppy mills, very
very harsh, often inhumane conditions in breeding for commercial sale
of these animals as pets. They're called mills for these birds.
(13:23):
This idea of curbing the sale of exotic birds would
halt the financial support of these types of facilities, which
are apparently rampant in the city and in the region.
Liz Carbrera Holtz, who is a senior campaign manager at
the World Animal Protection Organization and Animal Rights Group, have
this to say. Birds suffer right from their birth in
(13:44):
the mill to when they get transported from the mill
to life in the store and then to a person's home.
Any bird sale drives the wildlife trade and increases demand
for it. Animal rights advocates such as Carbrera Holts argue
that birds shouldn't be demandesticated, which often involves things like
clipping their wings, which does not allow them to you know,
(14:05):
live out their lives as intended, and confinement in cages.
They should rather be free to roam the air as
they please out in nature. And I got to say, y'all,
I grew up with a pet bird. I had a
weird brief period where a friend of mine had a
pet cockatile and I kind of liked it and sort
of got over my fear of birds, and then got
a pet cockatial and then sort of got re scared
(14:27):
of the thing, and it became my mom's pet, and
I didn't really have anything to do with it. And
my mom did continue to get pet birds until you know,
she passed away. So that is something that I've been around,
and I fully am on board with this. I think
it is odd the amount of space these birds have
in these cages. It just seems cruel. I mean, having
pet cats and pet dogs. At least they get the
(14:49):
full run of the house, you know, and they're not
just kept in such a tiny, confined space. These birds,
by their very nature, are meant to flourish in these
endless environments, you know, out in the world. So it
just seems to me to be inherently pretty cruel. So
I'm on board with this stuff. What do you guys think?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Ah, I who knows? Looking at pictures from one of
the articles you posted here, Noll of the Coney Island
birdwalk man.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
There are bird sanctuaries that are cool, and there are
larger situations that I think are great. But yeah, tell
me about the bird walk man. He is a local character.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Well he at least was in twenty sixteen when this
photo was taken of him with it looks like maybe
three different parrots and he's just got them. He's hanging
out with him on the boardwalk. So you can come
hang out with the parrots for a second, I guess
if you're a tourist or something that seems lovely to me.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
You'll notice his bucket also says tips for animal rescue,
So this is a dude that's also concerned with conservation
and he is obviously hanging out outdoors on the Coney
Island boardwalk with these creatures.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
It also occurs to me that this is city rules
and laws, right, But as you stated, you could just
go a little ways outside of New York City and
you could purchase your birds, and you know it.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
I just everything's legal in New Jersey, that's true.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I just don't know what it really does.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
A drop in the bucket. I get what you're saying.
I guess I'm going to say. I think what it
represents is sound. I just do sure I'm on board
with this idea of birds. Maybe you shouldn't be kept
in cadus. I'm always reminded of the Maya Angelou book
titled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and it
is quite a powerful image if you think about it.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Oh yeah, I did stumble on something.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I don't know if you've talked about this for ridiculous history,
but the Coney Island Flying Man of eighteen eighty.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah, yeah, ridiculous history. But we got deep into the
idea of inventors who died at the hands of their
own inventions, and our very first foray into that, Matt
was ended up being a two part series on the
sheer number of people who have died trying to fly. Yeah,
(17:07):
and so I think.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
We a birdman of Alcatraz, right.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
He owned he befriended.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Well, yeah, just according to this article from Brownstoner. And
if we are to believe them, they are talking about
a New York Times article from September eighteen eighty where
there was a quote aerial mystery where a man was
seen by a bunch of people hanging out at Coney
Island who had quote bats wings and improved frog legs
(17:39):
and a quote cruel and determined expression on his face,
lying he was flying around one thousand feet. They said
in eighteen eighty.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
What is happening? Saying what a daredevil?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
It's a cool thing.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
You love to see those stories that pop up, especially
in the age of yellow journalism, where like check out
our episode on lost civilizations.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
In the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Back in those days when your editor was a lot
more into improv and just sort of yes, ANDed you
whatever kind of thing you.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Would say as long as they sold the papers.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Look, birds are amazing, and they are not quite like
amphibians who are on the front lines of mass extinction.
We are in global mass extinction event as we record.
But birds, I would say, especially the migratory ones, are
a key piece of Earth's natural ecosystem. Not for nothing
(18:37):
are there so many idioms like canary in a coal mine?
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Right?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
You can see a little bit into the future, a
little bit further into the horizon based on how your
birds are doing. And I one hundred percent agree as
someone who also had to spend time with birds as
an honorary member of a local corvid crew neighborhood. I
(19:02):
it's the same old argument of zoos as animal jails
versus conservation efforts. These migratory populations are especially vulnerable, now,
you know, and I applaud. I think we were often,
at least in the West, we're often dismissive of moves
that seem symbolic. This is very much every little every
(19:26):
little feather helps, you know what I mean. Eventually the
idea is it could break the camel of climate change.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
That's exactly right, Ben, and I do appreciate that point
really quickly. I know we're running a little along with
all this bird talk. Thanksloth for getting this going. I
just wanted to mention there was a piece that published
this very morning in the Washington Post bird Lover's flock
to adopt parrot who is rated R Parental advisory required.
He says thank you, and you give him snacks, but
(19:52):
we'll also tell you to shut the up, said Chantel Rogers,
who works at the Animal shelter in Fall River, massach
Sits animal shelter employees were enjoying a quiet moment in
the lobby when a yell came from a room designated
for small animals. Stfu Hendrix, a blue and gold macaw
who came to the shelter the prior month surrendered by
(20:14):
his longtime owner. Is this is the culprit. The cursing
only became louder after that late May afternoon. And if
you adopt Hendrix, Chantelle, says Chantell Rogers, the administrative assistant
at the Forever Pause Animal Shelter, you're basically adopting Samuel L. Jackson.
This bird's language is not for the feint of heart.
(20:35):
It was a post that went viral on the internet
and folks have been literally flocking to try to be
the one that can take Hendricks home to have a
little pottymouth bird in their lives. And it's funny because
he apparently comes and goes. Rogers had this to say.
One day he will call you baby, and the next
day he's calling you mfor I guess is the politest
(20:55):
way to type it out. He says, thank you when
you give him snacks, but we'll also tell you to
up the bird. It's rated. Our parental advisory required a
real sour patch kid if one side with sugar and
the other side was our snack, and there's a happy
ending of this story. In June twelfth, nearly twenty eight
hours after posting the advertisement online, the shelter added to
the top of the post Applications now closed, And just
(21:18):
like that, Roger said, I learned way more about most
people than I wanted to. Shelter employees narrowed the applicants
to the five most qualified and invited them to meet Hendrix.
One woman, who already had a room and toys in
her house for birds she previously owned, was the perfect fit.
Rogers said, So I want to backtrack a little bit
and say, there are, of course animal rescue situations that
(21:39):
we always talk about the zoo jail analogy. The Atlanta
Zoo is almost entirely rescue animals who would not survive
in the wild. So I do think that folks like
whoever this owner was are absolutely great and a big
help for these types of creatures who perhaps are injured
and would not make it in the wild. Rogers, said
(21:59):
the owner email or a few days later, saying that
Hendrix is beginning to feel comfortable. He might soon be
ready to let out a new torrent of obscenities. And
he will, you will, God willing, he will. Why don't
we pause here, We'll go to a break here, work
from our sponsor, and then come back with more messages from.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
You, and we've returned. Guys, got a quick right at
the top. Old man Frederick's corner signed on to Facebook
just randomly to make sure nobody's trying to reach out
to me or something, or you know, I missed one
of those random messages from an old friend. Sure, and
(22:39):
I did. I did the wrong thing, guys, what you do?
I clicked on something that was clearly an ad, but
it was too enticing for me. The ad, which looked
like a post, said Dice Legend going out of business.
Everything on sale zero dollars. Just pays shipping costs.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
And I said, Dice, we're talking like like twelve sided dice,
like like nerd dice.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Like twenties?
Speaker 5 (23:06):
How is how many?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
You know what I mean, all the sides.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
So I said, oh my god, let me get in
on this. While they're going out of business. Maybe I
can get some incredible dice I would jump on. I'm
on my phone, I click through, I start adding dice
to my cart like it's nobody's business. Because they all, right, yes,
they all say zero dollars. I'm like, oh my god,
how am I getting away with this right now?
Speaker 5 (23:30):
It's too good to be true? If it seems too
good to be true? Was it?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Dude?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Well, I get my cart filled, and as of right now,
I'm paying zero dollars and I'm getting more dice than
I can fit in a giant box. I have to
buy a new box for all these dice. And then
my head goes, wait a second, wait a second, this
is this feels too good.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
So I did, just like the Columbia House deal, the
Penny Penny cassettes, that's gotta be well.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I did a little search and I found a couple
of subreddits that had specific posts about this company from
years ago when they were going out of business. Then
and then years before that when they were out out
of business, and everybody saying, this is a scam, don't
do this, don't don't do this, Please don't do this.
And I closed the tab and.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Did you did you crack the conspiracy?
Speaker 5 (24:23):
No?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
I didn't crack the conspiracy. It's just somebody's offloading really
cheaply made dice. And you know, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
A good friend of the show who plays Dungeons and
Dragons with Dylan and myself, a guy named Joe McCormick
from Stuff to Blow your mind. Uh, he got a
deal on a gigantic mason jar of a sortid die
and it's Uh, it's fascinating because I had no idea
what a big industry this is. For a lot of us,
(24:53):
this may be a somewhat familiar experience. A company you
don't know from a can of paint will offer you
a deal that, as he said, Matt, may seem a
little too good to be true. I ran into this
recently with some COVID communication devices. I cannot believe that's
a real sentence. But one way that this can happen
(25:14):
is that the item itself, this will be familiar to
anybody on say eBay, the item itself is of free
or of negligible cost, but the shipping is extravagant and
they're counting on you not to pay attention to the shipping.
And then the other more sith Lord side of it
is to obtain banking or financial details or maybe even
(25:38):
just your home address. Yeah, so it's probably something like that.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
It feels like it. It's got a giant sign on
the top that says hurry up, sale ends in, and
it's got a counter that starts at sixteen minutes or
so every time you reload the website every time.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
I will just say that I am often taken in
by appealing Instagram ads and nine times out of ten good,
but I have been taken by some like really poorly
printed T shirts for example, or like just just something
that was not as advertised. I ordered something that was
supposed to be a fully manipulatable lament configuration from the
(26:14):
hell Raiser movies, and it looks real cool, but the
pieces do not move, y'all. And in the video on
the ad, it was somebody moving it around and flipping
all the pieces like the puzzle box from the movie.
And it came and there are no movable joints in
this thing, so I would argue that's a bit of
a rip, but it still looks badass. But it was
a bit of a bait and switch.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Micro Whistle works awesome.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
Heck yeah, it just took forever to gay awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
I really want that now.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
It's way better than my natural accent.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Anything that you do see on Instagram or things like
that that ship through Shopify or a similar app like that,
you can usually rely on as being decent quality, something
that's like, you know, legit to just saying, don't be
completely turned off by the idea of getting things like
based on those ads, because sometimes they're really cool things.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Yeah, just do do like you did, Matt.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Realize that caution is often the better part of valor
and get out of the act now, sandbox right, don't
let them psychologically push you, and just check on those
reviews because odds are Now, if you're seeing an ad,
you are not unique in seeing that ad.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
You should always check right what what? What is? Somebody?
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Reddit is actually really great for this. What do people
on Reddit say when they bought that jacket? Or what
did they say when they applied for Let me pull
up a sponsored ad, an easy way to this is
what I got today, an easy way to gain residents
in Paraguay. What do we know about that country? My
sponsored ads are getting super weird.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Now, sorry, guys. Last thing I just wanted to say.
I have recently been getting a lot of texts that
are exactly the language from Scam Factory that we talked
to Denise Chan, the incredible creator and host of that show,
about exactly the same type of language, talking about pay
ranging from five hundred hundred dollars a day, almost the
(28:09):
exact same setup, and saying things like oh, I found
you through a recruiter, and I had not been getting
those in the past. So just guys, be careful. Scams
are very real, and some of them are are going
to take more than your money.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Well, you know what's not a scam If you happen
to be rolling through certain parts of our great country here, guys,
you stop to get some gas, fill up the old car,
and you walk inside and there's actually a bar in there.
That's not actually a scam. I thought it could be,
but it's not, at least.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
In the gas stations.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah, this stood out to be too.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Cool, at least according to our listener Faye.
Speaker 8 (28:47):
Hey, y'all, this is Fay. I was listening to y'all
current episode about gas stations, and I thought it was
really funny because you guys are debating currently about how
gas stations don't serve alcohol. I'm from western North Carolina
and there's a gas station out in the var that
serves alcohol like it's a whole, Like there's a bar there.
(29:10):
They have a bar at a gas station, and everybody
knows you need to go to get pizza and some
drinks and chill. It's right by the river. But it
started out as a gas station and then morph into
the bar. But there is a place in western North
Carolina where you can crack the cold line on the
(29:32):
premises or they'll pour you a cold line. You can
buy your six packs and go on the porch and
start drinking. So I don't know what it's like in
the cities, but out here in the hallers, our gas
stations are our bars. Well, thanks, guys, and you can
use this if you want. I call y'all all the
(29:53):
time and I'm so sorry.
Speaker 6 (29:54):
Bye, awesome, Okay, see you there.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
Faith, Thanks for the tell you there.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
So look, guys, I don't know if I located the
exact one that Fay is talking about, but I did
find a place called Riverside Bar in Pizga Forest, is
how you say that? And I was looking all around
trying to find a gas station that just you know, says,
at least on Google Maps when you search it up,
hey we have a bar here too and gas, and
(30:24):
it's great, but I couldn't. I did, however, find three
particular places in somewhat western North Carolina that I want
to shout out because they just fit the bill perfectly.
The first one is called the Brew Pump. It is
in fact a gas station in Asheville, North Carolina, and
(30:45):
it is also a bar restaurant, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
There's also the old Haywood filling Station out in Mills River,
North Carolina. That one seems just super cool. And finally,
the Mountain River tap Room in Fletcher, North Carolina that
appears to have gas and a bar.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
I think that's look.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
A lot of people are gonna say that's problematic, right,
because a gas station is directly associated with operating operating
a motor vehicle. But also, you know, we did point
out that a lot of gas stations already sell packaged alcohol.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
So where's the line there?
Speaker 4 (31:29):
You know, are they near hotels matt or are they
near like places where people could walk to sleep.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I don't know. I really don't know. But I mean again,
any any establishment that is selling alcohol like that, you
gotta imagine there's a ton of risk there. That's why
designated drivers exist. All of us who have taken up
the mantle and said I shall drive this eve. We're
(31:56):
doing God's work out there.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
I love it, you know, for some reason, when it's
not like your full time job, when it's an act,
the voluntary heroism, you get that little shine to your
soul on.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
It, right, that's right, that is right. And honestly, the
pictures are beautiful. On some of these, there's an exon.
It's got exon gas, so it's exon. We talked about
this in our episode on gas stations. Xon's company, the
gas company that's providing the gas there. But then the
other part of it, where the convenience store would be.
That's all separate thing like at the brew pump. But
(32:31):
it's funny to see a big old shell sign out
there with a bunch of people hanging out just enjoy
and brew.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
I wonder if there's a service station attached to these
as well, because now I'm constructing my own kind of
like headcannon origin story. Let's say we've got this amazing mechanic,
maybe he's the owner, operator or she or what you know,
and and eventually they they get in a fight at
the at the local bar and they say, screw you,
(33:00):
you guys, I'm going to build a bar of my
own at my job. I'm so tired of, you know,
walk it up the street to you all. So here
by the way, if you come in and you need
your oil change, you know, grab a beer while you're
at it, you.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
Know, well remind you too. In Atlanta, I mean, I'm
sure this is the case in other places. I'm certain
it is, but there are a handful of Kroger locations
that have a proper tap room connected to them. You know,
they actually jokingly in Atlanta, we sort of have like
shorthand for the different Krogers. There used to be, of course,
the famous Murder Kroger, which they tried very desperately to rebrand,
(33:38):
but one was called Crowbar, and that was again these
are just locals calling it that, But that was the
one that had like a whole, you know, bar situation
in the back. So I don't see how, at least
regulation wise, it's that different. As we mentioned too, grocery
store chains often have gas stations as well connected to them.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I'm looking at the crowbar on glen Wood Avenue in Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
That's the lamp.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
They call it the crowbar.
Speaker 6 (34:06):
They do, they leaned into it because I think it
started as a local shorthand that's funny.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
I didn't know they didn't, right.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Well, they're careful about what they what they adopt, right,
and they like Kroger. Kroger chain really took it on
the chin when they were trying to rename Murder Kroger
to Beltline Kroger.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
You guys know, he's lived very.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Very close to there, and the local population just didn't
accept it. So maybe they learned a lesson and decided
to lean into crowbar. The disco Kroger as it was
called in Buckhead also started to lean into those Appalachians
apple Machian appalations. I'm going to use that phrase for something,
I just don't know what yet, but fae, that's awesome.
(34:49):
We've got to learn more about gas station bars. I'm
kind of ethically on the fence. I just feel like
I have a lot of questions about this. Imagine musco
state by state dat aside. This is a great way
to make money, you know what I mean? So too
total income streams.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
So thank you so much Fay for sending us that message.
But speaking of ethical quandaries, we're gonna play a really
quick message from the returning champion, Chef Ben. I call
it that because I've at least been using a lot
of his messages, so it's not favoritism. Chef Ben just
always chimes in with the bangers. So here here is
(35:32):
another one. Oh, parental advisory for this. He doesn't use
language that is upsetting. It's just some of the concepts
that might go into your mind after listening to his
message may not be for kids. So here we go.
Parental advisory.
Speaker 7 (35:46):
Chef Ben Fellos, Good morning, Chef Ben and Chicago. As always,
feel free to use this on your lovely show if
you find this to be titillating in any sense. Again,
catching up on pack episodes. Doing a lot of driving
these days with my new job, so I'm three years behind,
but I did just listen to your neuralink episode. The
first thing that popped into my head about that is,
(36:08):
I wonder how far away from those things generating a
local network really is. Right, So, like they would talk
directly to each other via proximity. Right instantly, my brain
get my brain goes to military applications of that. If
you've got a squadron that are all neuralink to each other,
(36:28):
there's no need for hand signals or radio commands or
any of that. They're just talking directly to each other
through their brains. If that sounds like the borg from
Star Trek, Yeah, that's what direct we're going. So that
was my first thought. Now I am also like nearly
a professional dirt bag. So here was my second thought,
and this one, maybe there is a benefit to humanity
(36:50):
in this potential technology. Let's say you've got the neuralink.
Let's say your romantic partner has the neuralink and you
take your romantic partner to Poundtown. Amazing benefit there potentially
sure to be able to at least partially join with
(37:12):
your romantic partner in receiving some of their sensations during
your trip to Poundtown. What you're trying something new, man,
don't like trying something new. You'll know right away if
it's having the desired effect or not.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
Right.
Speaker 7 (37:28):
Uh, we're all all about instant gratification these days. Anyway,
that's the next step. That would be the way. That's
the way to get to that, you know, if the
thing you're doing is working. So that's my thought. I
went directly from neuralink, which sounds weird, to Boord to Poundtown.
You're welcome, thanks for shuttling me around Chicago, fellas.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Take it demolition man first reference. Oh yeah, would they
have sex? And demolition man ideal when they do something
very much like neurallyin, but they don't have physical activity.
So Chef, it's always great to hear from you. I
got to recuse myself because I'm cartoonishly pro.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
Bit, y'all. It really does remind me of the episode
of Black Mirror Striking Vipers, where I believe someone is
able to gender swap and engage in virtual sex in
very interesting ways that impact their actual real life relationships
because they kind of can't function anymore outside of this
(38:30):
neuralinky kind of augmented reality situation. It does address some
of the things that Chef Ben was talking about. I
do recommend checking that one out. It's season seven, episode four, amazing.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
I just wanted to play that because I enjoyed the
way Chef Ben navigated talking about all of those things
together in Without Downtown, Well, specifically the way he described
the act of loves.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Oh, I agree, Chef Ben's the best.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
There we go. Hey, well that's it for now. Thank you, Faye,
Thank you, Chef Ben. We'll be right back with more
messages from you.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
And we have returned a little peak behind the curtain,
friends and neighbors, fellow conspiracy realist. We record our Strange
news and listener mail segments on Wednesdays typically, and as
we're recording on Wednesday, July second, twenty twenty five, a
for our weekly listener mail segment that will publish on
(39:34):
the tenth of July. And here's what happened. And it
happened just a few minutes ago as we were hearing
from Fay. As of noon local time, we are closer
to the year twenty to fifty than we are to
the year two thousand. Jeez, the times.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
I don't make people do things. Kevin, as he would say,
the Devil's Advocate. It's its own thing, but the.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
This is this is one of those fascinating things, at
least on my end, I wanted to share with all
of us tonight because between the year two thousand and
noon today July second, there are eight thousand, seven hundred
and sixty days from two thousand and one to twenty
(40:29):
twenty four. It's a weird milestone. I don't know what
we do with it. It's the kind of thing that
would interest our pals at Mental Floss or aj Bahamas Jacobs,
the legend. It's just it's strange. And I was looking
into this because I remember a previous episode or maybe
just a conversation held about the nineteen nineties and how
(40:52):
far away that was right nineteen ninety is now Gosh,
people born in nineteen ninety are.
Speaker 5 (41:02):
Thirty five. God, oh god, you're doing it again. Then no, no,
it's me, it's me.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
So yeah, yeah, just so for my perspective personally, I
just wanted to share that, and I hope everybody feels
maybe inspired. If you're hearing this, you've made it this
far and can't wait to have some more new strange
math in twenty fifty At which point we hope that
(41:30):
podcasts are still being made somewhat by humans. With that, Nope,
why possibly right, or maybe our ghost will will be
part of it. With that, we wanted to share a
message from you.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Kevin.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
You gave us the go ahead to share your message.
I'm gonna end up pitching you some cool official nicknames
or monikers at this, but first let's let's share what
you wrote. You said Hello. First, let me say that
I love your show. Thank you, Kevin. The way you
take seriously sometimes absurd claims and dive into the unknown
(42:07):
is delightful. Oh my gosh, keep going. We love validation.
Stop go please, so Kevin, you continue, you say more importantly,
I have a suggestion for a show. The West Virginia
Mine Wars where the Battle of Blair Mountain. If you
are not familiar, this was the result of an organizing
(42:27):
push over one hundred years ago in West Virginia and
ended with all out warfare between miners, m I n
ers and the companies supported by the US military, which
even used planes to bomb these miners. It has a
lot of random connections to other things. Sid Hatfield of
(42:47):
the Hatfield McCoy's feud was killed during it. Mother Jones
was involved, not the magazine, the person, the historical figure
that the magazine's named after. Kevin, you continue, you say
there was also a literal attempt to remove this from
the history books of West Virginia. The governor of West
(43:08):
Virginia fought with the WPA to have it removed from
the history of the state. And then Kevin, you go
on to mention the fantastic West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.
We love a specific museum, and you sign off with
hope you like this idea. So with that, but before
we dive in, I gotta be honest. I think this
(43:30):
is a full episode. We just need to figure out
what show we want it on. Have either of you
guys heard about this incident before.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
It's new to me.
Speaker 5 (43:39):
No, But when you first said it, I pictured it
as the Mine Wars, which sounds terrifying and amazing, but
not what's going on here? But please do tell.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Yeah, this is so.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
This is the at the time, it's the largest armed
uprising we could call it since the Civil War. This
happens from August to September of nineteen twenty one. It's
pretty short. It's like late August August twenty fifth to
September two. But it fundamentally rocks the nation's understanding of itself.
(44:16):
It evolves worker rights, it involves, you know, the powers
of monopolies and government suppression. We're talking like ten thousand
coal miners who strapped up and got armed because they
were tired of the horrific conditions they were forced to
work in. And earlier I did say miners with an E,
(44:37):
but the way child labor laws functioned at the time,
a lot of these miners were probably under age as well.
These ten thousand, the small army of miners, they beef
up with three thousand strike breakers, and then that number
also includes local authorities. A lot of this comes about
(44:59):
because the miners were attempting to unionize, and you know,
the US has always had a complicated relationship with unions.
It reminds me of I don't know this. This story
might sound like an interesting historical footnote if not for
what Kevin pointed out, the concerted efforts to the powers
(45:21):
that be to remove this story from history. And it
seems like it's pretty effective. Right, Like, if you're outside
of West Virginia or you're not like some of our
other pals deep into studying the history of unions.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
You might never hear of this. There's a reason it's
not in your textbook.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
I realized I have heard of this before, guys. I
I was doing research on this thing called the Molly mcguires,
which oh yeah, yeah, yeah, a secret society. But it
was much earlier than this, than this event in West Virginia.
But it was specifically about organizing within communities of right
(46:01):
and then having this kind of secret society thing going
on in the background where you could fight back against
the establishment a little bit.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
And was to be clear, I love that you're bringing
that up, Matt. To be clear, the secrecy was absolutely necessary.
The conspiracies were real. The companies controlling mining in particular
at this point, and to a lesser degree even now,
they had compromised the legal structure of the United States.
(46:32):
So if you are maybe too much of a union leader,
forget getting fired, you could they beat the tar out
of you war then they would just kill you, you
know what I mean, maybe your family as well. So
these are very very high stake things, and the conversation
about the concept of workers' rights and unions has been
(46:53):
so heavily politicized, especially in recent decades. Right that the
U word feels like depending on your personal framework, the
U word can feel like a curse word at.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
Times, like saying poundtown for instance. Right. But the.
Speaker 4 (47:11):
Reason it's important to remember this sort of stuff is
that it directly informs pretty much everything you enjoy if
you work in the United States today. Like the reason
you have some days off, it's unions. Right, The reason
there are certain holidays are also unions. Like this is
(47:32):
how effective the cover up has been. Remember the formation
of Labor Day. A lot of people growing up now
in the modern United States, I'll include myself in that number,
incorrectly assumed that Labor Day was not about workers' rights,
but was just like commemorating the incredibly difficult experience of
(47:55):
being a mom going through labor total. I thought it
was like another version of Mother's Day. You know, I
could get behind that.
Speaker 5 (48:01):
I could too.
Speaker 4 (48:04):
It's not I'm not the brightest crayon in the box,
but I do feel like that's a reasonable assumption. And
so I come to you guys humbly here with this idea,
should we do a full episode on this? I think
it's stuff they don't want you to know, and it's
stuff more people should know, especially now.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
I feel like, didn't we talk about minds on the show,
like pretty extensively in some episode.
Speaker 5 (48:30):
We definitely did, because of just the absolute brutal conditions
and so many of the deaths and black lung disease
and all of that stuff, and the fact that that
was an industry that really did lead to a lot
of labor movements because of its inherent, you know, brutality.
I'm certain we did talk about it maybe in the
history of labor movements, but this specific topic I think
might be worth it.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, I think there's plenty here.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
Yeah, we're gonna so that sounds like a unanimous vote here, guys.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
It was the Ludlow massa when he talked about the
masker back in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (49:05):
You can find that, yeah, and that is related in
the same milieu. But the Battle of Blair Mountain, I
think can be its own standalone thing. So we want
to hear about that. We want to hear always about
cover ups and moments where the powers that be attempted
to erase history. You could argue with that in the
(49:25):
age of information, it's more difficult to stop the signal,
as they say in Serenity recently rewatched Banger, But it
turns out as counterintuitive as it may sound, there's a
solid argument that it's easier now to erase history. It's
easier to change the presence understanding of the past. Heady stuff.
(49:50):
Heady stuff, folks. We're so grateful that you are with
us on this journey. We've got one last thing as
we're wrapping up here, and it is from our pal Wayne. Wayne,
you say I'm super behind on my podcast. Work has
gotten busier. Congratulations, by the way, so I can't jam
out to your velvety tones as much as I'd like.
(50:13):
I'll catch up eventually, but I wanted to share some
random thoughts I had recently. Other possible meanings the acronym
st d WYTK, show them danger, warn your trusted kid,
send the data? Would you take knowledge? Those are just
two great acronyms to send us on our way, I think,
(50:35):
So tell us your favorite acronyms, tell us your favorite
stories of hidden history, your neurolink demolition Man experiences. Please
do rewatch demolition Man and put a link to that
weird love scene I mentioned.
Speaker 6 (50:50):
Sea shells, right, sea shells. That's that's the poop part,
which is also ageless and increasingly relevant.
Speaker 4 (50:58):
As anybody who's met a Japanese toilet, we'll understand.
Speaker 5 (51:01):
Oh yeah, I never met a Japanese toilet. I didn't
like that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Guys, kind of do a shameless plug really fast, just
really fast. We're talking about Serenity and Firefly in that series.
If you are, if you're a fan of those things,
get ready because this summer coming to a podcast near you.
Listen to the show Havoc Town that's coming out in August.
(51:26):
It stars Jewels State as one of the main characters
in that who played Kaylee on Serenity and Firefly.
Speaker 5 (51:33):
I love Kaylee. What a great series. Can't wait to
hear that, Matt.
Speaker 4 (51:36):
Yeah, Havoc Town's going to be a banger. Full disclosure,
we are met matter you ep on that show.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Everyone of the Manky Verse World series.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Yeah, and our good friend, the legendary Nick Takowski I
believe is involved as well writer director. Yes, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah, And he's not paying us to say that.
We are actual fans, so check that out. Thank you
to and Manky. Thank you to Nick. Thank you to
you Matt. Thanks also again to Kevin Twayne de chef
beIN de Fay and to Sloth. Hey you guys, if
(52:09):
you want to be part of the show, why not
join you up with us for our weekly listener mail segment.
You can reach us online, You can call us on
the phone. You can always send us an email or
should thou sip the social needs at your local gas
station bar.
Speaker 3 (52:24):
You can always find us online.
Speaker 5 (52:27):
Why not top off your social needs at the hand
of Conspiracy Stuff where we exist on Facebook with our
Facebook group Here's where it gets crazy, on YouTube with
video content galore for your perusing enjoyment, and on xfka, Twitter,
on Instagram and TikTok. However, we're Conspiracy Stuff Show and
there's more.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
Yes, we have a phone number that goes to a
voicemail system. Please call it and give us your take
one eight three three std WYTK. When you call in,
give yourself a cool nickname and let us know within
the message if we can use your name and message
on the air. If you'd like to send us words, pictures, links,
anything of the sort, why not instead send us an email.
Speaker 4 (53:06):
We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence
we receive, be well aware yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
writes back, uh. Following up on our conversation with Wayne,
we might we might talk about this later.
Speaker 3 (53:19):
But hey, Wayne, this is for you.
Speaker 4 (53:22):
A little quote from our friends are half Baked. I'm
gonna take your little Mexican friend here and I'm gonna
kill him.
Speaker 3 (53:28):
Yo, I'm cubanb ha.
Speaker 4 (53:29):
Yes, cubanbe, Cuban be Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
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
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Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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