January 22, 2026 • 65 mins
In this week's listener mail segment: SC updates the crew on recent news related to Havana Syndrome. Don Quixote needs someone to talk about these tankers and Trojan Horses. Grady asks about corruption and conspiracy in the world of 'standardized testing,' inspiring an episode in the future.
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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 the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is noelh.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They called me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Faga. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff
they don't want you to know. It is the return
of our weekly listener mail segment, and folks, we couldn't
(00:51):
be more pleased to answer a lot of the emails
that came through over the break. You reached out to
us on voicemail, reached out to us on social meds, Tennessee.
We love the Knoxville OUTI Yo. You've just got to
do it for the people. Can you give us that
route of Bega?
Speaker 4 (01:15):
This is considering all the things. I'm your host, Pepper
Pelican Schmidt. Our guest today is jan Warmouth, Professor of
fastrophysics at Granston State. Professor Warmouth has shocked the world
with this discovery that not only is an asteroid going
to at our planet, but it is actually a route
to bega. Thank you for being here, professor.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
It's a breath of fresh air to be taken. Seriously, Now,
is there anything we can do about this? This is
a large and complex issue, but the steaks have never
been higher for humanity. We have our brightest minds at
work day and night trying.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
To find a solution.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Does that include driller aj Frost? I'm sorry, I'm unfamiliar. Well,
aj encountered something similar in nineteen ninety eight. It was
an asteroid the size of Texas. Along with this mentor
Harry Stamper, and a man only known as Rockhound, they
were able to set off a nucle bomb inside of
the asteroid. Are you recounting the plot of the movie Armageddon?
Was that not a documentary?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Man?
Speaker 4 (02:08):
I had my assistant Rudy compiled these notes. Sorry, let
me dig through these again.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh God, you got to dick through those. Rudy begas.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
The man, the legend, the Tennessee pal, Dylan Fagan. Uh, Dylan,
can you give yourself an applausecue right here? Because I
know you don't.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Come on, don't give yourself applause.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Don't let that never never do that.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
No, I can't help but remember the DVD commentary that
Ben Affleck did on the DVD release of Armageddon where
he kind of poo poosed the plot of the whole movie. Uh,
and I recently saw a Deadline article where he is
shocked that they let him do that. He says, I
asked Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers
to become astronauts than was to train astronauts to become
(03:00):
and he told me to shut the cup.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
That's what we're doing here, Matt the program, which whichever
one you are.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Thanks for the uh, thanks for the beef there till it,
because we are so excited and so thankful to be
hanging out with all of you this evening. Now, we've
got a lot of what Loupole family time coming up
in tonight's listener mail program. Uh, We've got some folks
(03:31):
who want to talk about water. We've got some folks
who want to talk about pizza, one of our favorite subjects.
It's pizza is like just on the cusp of becoming
a Casadia. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
It also I feel like it should be one of
the elements that are spoken for in Captain Planet.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Right and Captive planet, Yeah, Earth, fire, air, water, Heart,
and then you should have pizza.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
You should have don't forget wind.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Well there's wind. There was something. Yeah, what's going on, Matt,
You're having some So there was some cell phone anomalies.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Oh no, it's still happening right now. I'm sure there
are a lot of people who went through this on
Well today it is Wednesday, January fourteenth at to thirty
pm ET, and my cell phone has been down at
least for the service that is supposed to get oh
several hours now.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Not down in a cool way, not like I want
to be down down to clown, but.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Oh man, it is down with o PS other people's
services and SOS. Yeah it is SOS instead of bars.
So and then if you go on down detector, it
shows that I.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Was not familiar with this website until you sent it
in the group tex So if anyone out there doesn't
know what he's talking about. This is a site that
tracks outages in various web services and cell providers all
over the.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
World, right meta analysis.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yes, it's powered by Club, the same people that if
you ever just type into Google the speed test, you
will find their speed test. It's usually sponsored. But yeah,
it was Verizon, T Mobile AT and T Infinity, Google
AWS and Apple Support. We're all down kind of at
the same time with the same spike, and it made
us all just go, huh happening.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
We postponed recording fifteen whole minutes just to make sure
the world listening.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, here we are, dude, and here we are. And
it is January fourteenth. It is now two thirty one
pm local ET, and we're going to talk about tankers.
We appreciate the correspondence there. We're going to have a
lot of like several cool letters from home. We're going
(05:46):
to talk about institutional conspiracies. This is one for all
our college students in the crowd, former, current and future.
Before we get to any of that, we're gonna we're
gonna take a break for a word from our sponsors
and Nolat. I have to tell you, man, I'm very
(06:09):
excited about this. When we were talking off air, I
use some inappropriate language walk a room, talk about how
I need our pal Jack O'Brien from Daily's Guys to
hear this piece of news.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Hopefully he's tuned in.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Oh yeah, I bet he is.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
And we're back and uh yeah, let's take a little
trip courtesy of our listener. Sc not going to drop
real names because they did not give permission to use
their name or give themselves a cool nickname tisk, but
basically just dropped us a link to a very interesting
piece over on CNN, and they summed it up thusly.
DHS Department of Homeland Security purportedly bought the device that
(06:57):
is thought to be the source of Havana syndrome. And
I think we all clocked some version of this piece.
But the CNN piece that was updated as of yesterday,
written jointly by Katie bo Lilis, Natasha Bertrand, Priscilla Alvarez,
Jim Scluto, and Zachary Cohen headline Pentagon bought device through
undercover operation some investigators suspect is linked to Havana syndrome.
(07:23):
I feel like this might be worth further exploration and
update because I also have another bit of correspondence regarding
an unusual syndrome. But essentially, let's just kind of give
get into the gist of the article here. The Defense
Department has been testing a device that they purchased in
an undercover operation that other outside investigators seem to think
(07:45):
might have been the cause of these mysterious ailments impacting
US spies and diplomats and ground troops that have collectively
been referred to as Havana syndrome or colloquially as the
word they use there. But it is kind of a
that was the problem, and when we've talked about this,
we talked about it with Jack. It's really hard to
pin down something that doesn't have a through line or
(08:08):
like common symptoms, and there were a lot of varying
symptoms that were associated with this history, this time and
history and this place, which is of course Havannah, and
so we kind of catch all terms of Havana syndrome
has been the one that's been thrown around. A division
of the Department of Homeland Security. Homeland Security Investigations is
(08:29):
the agency that bought the device for believe, eight figures
is the term that they use. Declining inside sources speaking
to this UH, these reporters declined to give further details
about the number. Is what we have. It's right, that's right,
I mean, you believe it. It's apparently still being studied,
(08:49):
and there is ongoing debate in certain areas of the
government as well as skepticism over the potential link to
these dozens of again amlus health incidents that to this
day remain officially unexplained and yet lumped in to this
concept of Havana syndrome. CNN spoke to the Pentagon, HSI
(09:12):
and DHS for comment. The CIA did not return. That's
another lack of surprise. So the device acquired by Homeland
Security investigations matches some of the theories that we've seen
thrown around about Savannah syndrome, Havana syndrome, this idea of
(09:35):
radio waves, this idea of like the kinds of a
a an escalation of weapons of used for crowd control
that we're all aware that exists, This idea of sonic
weapons that can cause people to drop to their knees
and not be able to think straight. It's these like weaponized,
very very focused beams of sound or radio waves. In
(09:55):
this case, there are some officials, as CNN says, and
academics that have speculated this this kind of thing could
well have been the cause of these incidents. And this device,
while not entirely originating from Russia, does contain many Russian components,
according to one of the sources for this piece. So
(10:18):
we have talked about guys, and I'll throw to the
group here the idea of based on what we know
about these types of sonic weapons or radio weaponized with
radio ways, the big issue was how could it affect
people from such distances?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Is a big.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Crux of the arguments or the question around how could
a thing like this that we don't currently have evidence
is technologically possible? How could that exist? And how could
this have caused that? It would seem that this is
the kind of stuff they don't want you to know
in terms of government weaponry that maybe is being tested
but that has not made its way out into the
(10:55):
public sphere yet. A lot of theories behind various upas
and such, often you know, linked to testing of vehicles
that maybe again the public is not entirely aware of.
This tracks for me, guys, what do you think?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, I think the two biggest takeaways for me about
this are that one, they've been testing it for over
a year, right, so these officials have been they first
of all, they learned about it well over a year,
right because they ran some whole undercover operation to even
acquire the thing, which takes time. Then they've had it
(11:31):
for over a year. They've been testing it for that
year's long time. They've realized that it uses pulse radio
signals to deliver some of the same sensations it looks
like or feelings or you know, stuff that would be
audible and also not audible that's affecting a human body
with directed energy of some sort in this case post
radio waves, and.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Some of the symptoms, including things like vertigo and headaches
and nausea, and then some things that even you know
held on much longer, not just in the immediate aftermath
of being hit by something like this exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
The thing number two is that this device is portable.
It fits in a backpack, right, which means anybody could
strap on their backpack and walk around wherever they're going
to be. They could go into a car with the
backpack with them, they could be in a crowded space.
It would be very difficult to identify someone who is
taking this device somewhere to place it somewhere, right, and
(12:27):
then even looking for a device, you we heard for
a while it was officials looking on rooftops for a
device large enough that would be powerful enough to have
these directed energy weapon effects right right.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
In this case too to be diplomatic sc This goes
to Knowle's earlier points from our conversation or our episodes
about have that a syndrome. The idea of dispersing verse
is concentrating over over space.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
Right, It's quite difficult, and I think maybe the version
of things that we pictured and that was being discussed
was almost like a sniper kind of situation, someone like
pointing this and focusing it. Whether as this is more
like a device that might disrupt you know what do
you call it an EMP or whatever? You know what
I mean, like some sort of device that you place
(13:27):
and then it just does its thing and you leave it.
That seems a little more like what this is like AoE.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
But we don't have enough information because we don't know
if it is directed or if it is AoE. We
just don't know, right, they're not. It does seem like
something that would have if it is the device responsible
for Havana syndrome reports, it would have to be somewhat directed.
I guess that's true because it was specific, like building
(14:00):
where people were reporting a specific.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Right, right, this is I forgot about them. Yeah. This
is also loosely called internally anomalist health incidents or Ahi's
in Havana syndrome is great for a headline, right because
(14:23):
it accuses or villainizes Cuba, And as we discussed in
our previous episodes or previous Strange News listener mail programs.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
Sc.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Look, the science is still not out there. But to
your point, and thank you again for writing, it is curious, right,
It's a little bit curious that Uncle Sam would capture
a device publicize the capture after experimenting with it a
(14:59):
little bit.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
It's is this not a leak or did they actually
release information about this or is this not like something
that maybe they didn't mean to get out quite yet.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I think the leaks are controlled. I think sometimes they
think they want people to know the calls are coming
from inside the house. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
So the big takeaway here is that we do know
is that based on the way HSI purchased this device,
it would seem as though could have been purchased by
any other numerous other countries and potential bad actors. So
you know, this thing, whatever it is, is probably out
(15:38):
in the wind and has the potential to be weaponized
to inflict what the CNN piece refers to as career
ending injuries on high level individuals within government, within military,
you know, within the echelons of power.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Interestingly enough, guys Homely Security Investigations HSI. They if you
go to their website, they are that group that is
Department of Homeland Security that is highly involved with immigration
enforcement in the United States and directly tied to ICE,
which is just a fun thing to remember.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It's cool to remember stuff. For sure, you got you
got her.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Yeah. Remember. I'll wrap this this segment because I do
think we can we can look deeper into this, uh
as maybe more information comes out, and I don't it's
not quite clear from this piece as to whether this
was like a public.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Like a press release. I don't.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
I feel like it's it's it's it's kind of like
fo yeah, okay, there you go. Thank you very much. Man,
appreciate that miss that detail. But again to your point, Ben,
one person's leak is another person's press release. If you
do it right, you know, if you're if you're in
control of it. But the big takeaway here is comes
from a quote from an individual that was afflicted by
(17:00):
the Havana sentdrome. One of the first CIA officers to
go public with his injuries, Mark Paul Mayrapolis, who I
believe we've discussed in the story in the past. He says,
if the US government has indeed uncovered such devices, and
the CIA owes all the victims of major and public apology,
apology for how we have been treated as pariahs, and that,
(17:22):
my friends, I think we can all agree with. This
next piece that was linked from another listener, going by
the Babel Effect, is so very in depth. It was
almost like a thirty minute read from the BBC that
I think I'm just going to do a little summation
of it, mention what this is and how it relates
as an update to a story we talked about in
Strange News in the past, and then we'll save this,
(17:44):
I think for a deeper dive episode. But this is
from the Babel Effect. Hi, guys, I remember you covered
this story in Strange News sometime in the past year
or so. Story referring to a mysterious brain disease found
in a pretty rural part of Canada. Interesting new twist
what if the brain disease didn't exist at all? And
(18:07):
this reporting comes from the BBC In the headline from
a piece by Joel Gunter and Nadine Yusef Joel Gunter
being the senior international reporter for New Brunswick there in
Canada and naden Usef, senior Canada reporter also in New Brunswick.
The answer cannot be nothing the battle over Canada's mystery
(18:28):
brain disease. So just you know, for a little bit
of a backstory catch up refresher. In the early in
early twenty nineteen, officials at a hospital in the small
Canadian province of New Brunswick saw two patients that had
contracted this incredibly rare brain disease known as Kreutzfeld Jacob
disease or c JD, which is can be fatal or
(18:52):
is fatal and also potentially contagious. So this leads to
a task force called Task Force being assembled and you know,
looking into this and fortunately, as a result of this
the or you know, reportedly the disease did not spread.
But this actually was just the beginning of the story.
(19:13):
One of these experts, Alier Morrero, a Cuban born neurologist
who'd been working in the area for around six years,
shared a fact that was quite troubling with other members
of this group or this task force. He'd been seeing
patients with unexplained CJD like symptoms for years, he said,
and that included young people who showed signs of a
(19:36):
rapidly progressing form of dementia. And the number of cases
or the cluster as they refer to it, and the
piece had already reached more than twenty and several of
these patients had already died, And then you start to
see these incredibly an amorphis is maybe the wrong word,
(19:58):
but just unconnected, not particularly contiguous arrays they refer to
it of symptoms among the patients dementia, weight loss, unsteadiness,
facial twitches, muscle spasms, blurred vision, limb pain, atrophying muscles,
(20:19):
dry skin, hair loss.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
This really connect to have an syndrome.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
There's so many various symptoms that don't seem to be
directly connected. That's when you start calling things a syndrome,
and it starts to feel like, you know, we don't
really know what this is, and yet there is geographical
reason to believe that they are in some way, shape
or form connected bable effect.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Thank you so much for writing.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
No, it's a big deal to have this update, and
I really want to dig deeper into it. But like
I said, this is incredibly important and in depth reporting,
and I really really would love for us to all
take a look and dig a little deeper. And perhaps
since we only just mentioned the condition in the first
place via Strange News, there's more than enough here and
other sources cited to do a deep dive on it.
(21:05):
But Matt, I think you had some thoughts on this
as well.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Well.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I just remember this really well. It's almost exactly four
years ago to the day January eighteenth, twenty twenty two,
when we made that Strange News episode, or when it
came out rather, and it was very much a mystery
then in Cruxfield Yakub disease. And I'm only saying it
that way because I literally last night watched X File
(21:31):
season two Our Town, and I don't want to spoil
too much here, but it has to do with a
preon prion disease that is past like.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
A brain parasite.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Right, It's cool, it's eating cannibal It involves cannibalism and
a brain disease where you eat the brain of somebody
who has this thing. Theoretically it could transfer on. That's
what the X Files episode is about. But it is
all about CJD, which is really interesting that it's coming
(22:03):
back up right now all of a sudden, and that's
just me doing the whole no coincidences thing. But go
back and listen to episode for sure if you haven't
heard it, or just check this out, because guys, you're right, Noel,
this deserves an entire deep dive.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, this deserves an actual episode. And one of the
best things about our Strange News listener mail segments is
that they they create for us the episodes in the future,
and Nol, I've got to thank you for bringing this
here and Babbel Effect. This is something that has been
on our minds or in our brains for some time
(22:44):
and it is more than worth the more than worth
the attention to look into a novelist health incidents as
they are so euphemistically deemed, And the.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Name of this thing or this mystery disease is pretty wild.
They are referring to it as New Brunswick neurological Syndrome
of unknown cause.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Sounds like an album name, it really does.
Speaker 5 (23:10):
And a lot of the details of this sound like
a movie like Outbreak or something like that. But the again,
way too much to get into here. But I did
just want to broach this in the hopes that you
guys were into and I'm glad you are looking into
this a little bit deeper. The question then becomes again
something that we can also transfer to our conversation around
Havana syndrome. Is this just a cluster of different diseases
(23:33):
that seem to have a connection or is there an
actual connection? And I think that's what these researchers are
hoping to prove the patients are real. A quote says,
but the clustering as a mystery disease is not right.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah. Is there now a powerful term or word that
functions like a coat rack where you can hang any
fabric of malaise upon it right and say this is
the thing that's good.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Now, you guys. The the BBC here is reporting that
several patients have reported that the doctor, doctor Morrero, I
think is the guy who's noted in here, has at
times put his hand up when he's having a conversation
with a patient, say to say stop talking, and then
(24:21):
he'll go look outside a door and say, I believe
we're being recorded, and like not like be conspiratorial about
this stuff.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Yeah, it's got those kind of undertones to it, So
I think we'll definitely pick this one back up at
a later date, but I just want to want to
bring it up and give props to Babel Syndrome for
hitping us to this update. So that's it for me, y'all.
Let's take a break, hear a word from our sponsor,
and then we'll be back with more messages from you.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
All right, we are back, and we're gonna jump to guys.
I think one of the best voicemails you've gotten in
a long time. You ready for this?
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
No, no, setup know anything. We're just gonna hear this
and then we're gonna get into it. Here we go.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
Just a second. You gotta stop the tankers Trojan Horse.
Why would they have that Russian tanker and turn it
back over to us so easily, and it's been five
days since we took over. How would they just be
trying to sneak another tanker out? Now it's the Trojan Horse,
(25:35):
one of those tankers we're going to take home to
our port, and it's going to blow up or it's
got guys on it. We're getting these ships too easy.
You've got to tell somebody. I don't know who to call.
I've tried to call everybody, Tell somebody blow up the bankers. Yes,
call me don Quixote.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
And there we have it. Wow, thank you DoD is
in that an interesting message. It's some don Quixote was
watching the news. I suppose it sounded like you could
hear it in that clip and just had just that
moment realization, right, I think we've all had about a
great number of things, and then said, oh, I got
(26:16):
a call. I'm gonna call anybody, and he called us.
So thank you don Quixote for putting the call into us.
And Uh, I gotta say I I see his logic there,
at least in that that nervousness that perhaps he's feeling
that some of these tankers are being let go, even
(26:37):
though we know it's a delicate situation right geopolitically to
make any big moves there. The US is certainly not
having a problem making some big moves with regards to
the tankers. Uh, it seems seems a little weird, like
like could you can't you can you guys foresee or
like can you imagine that picture where there ends up
(26:59):
being a dirty bomb on one of these or even
perhaps a full fledged nuke on one of them.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
Sounds like the plot of a nineties Steven Sagal movie.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Right, Dodd, I'm with you. Beat me here, Dylan Dodd,
I'm with you. Win Mills swing at them, always shout
out to nerds like don Quiohote.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Mills and tankers of the mind.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
But what do you guys think about this?
Speaker 3 (27:22):
For real?
Speaker 5 (27:23):
I'm serious. It sounds like the kind of thing that
would be dramatized in like a Steven Sagall thing. It's
like a plot of like, how would you do this?
I'm I'd love some more contexts, but I do think
it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, don again, just to finish this out, addressing directly
your concern and thank you for sending us the the
voicemails here. The trojan horse argument, uh decays a little
bit when we consider the amount of security applied in
the acquisition of a tanker. So look, is it good
(27:58):
news that piracy is back in vogue? Probably not. Is
it bad news that the people or the forces acquiring
these tankers illegally in violation of international law? Is it
bad news that they check everything? It is not. It
is not out of the realm of possibility that some
(28:24):
sort of bad variable could sneak past that kind of
security check, but it is highly implausible at this point.
I will say, what interests us here don is the
idea that it wasn't just oil, right. So in a
couple of the tankers situations from Russia's shadow fleet, the
(28:48):
question is the cargo right, which has not been largely publicized.
To be quite honest, that's the opinion from publicly available information.
But again, Matt, I love that you brought this to us,
because it does it does beg the question about the
Trojan horse maneuver, which is you know it's old because
(29:10):
it works.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
I guess I'm just I'm sorry I keep harping on this,
but it just really seems like I'm surprised we haven't
seen this in like a political thriller, like espionage type movie,
like some plot surrounding this kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
And interestingly enough, guys, according to g Captain, I don't
know anything about the website and I couldn't find it
reported anywhere else. But the tanker that we discussed on
this show, known as the Bill of One or the
Marinara Marinaro is today again on Wednesday, January fourteenth. Currently
it is two fifty nine pm. It is in UK
(29:51):
territorial waters and it is going into port there. If
there was going to be a situation, now would be
the time right today as we're recording. So I guess
we'll have to wait and find out.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Also what's going on, what's going on with what are
the four creepiest boeings in the US arsenal or in
the US fleet stopping by California a few days back.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
And y'all just on a cursory google of like trojan
Horse terrorism and things like that, there is you know,
this is something that's discussed and debated, this idea of
cargo containers being used to smuggle nuclear weapons into the
countries using commercial shipping vessels in a modern day Trojan
Horse esque maneuver.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Well, yeah, imagine if you got one of these into
you know, a major port that also has a major
US city or a major UK city.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
I remember when we were at the port in there
in Florida. I had never been to a port like
that before. And the security is very similar to like
the airport, you know. I mean it's because of how
vulnerable it is.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
It makes I suggest. I liked when Noel called it
Savannah syndrome. Right yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
So guys, I think we will switch to one more
listener mail. This one comes to us from Chef Ben.
Chef Ben, constant caller of the show and uh beloved
by us here, I think, right, I think it's unanimous,
oh big time.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
A lot of I'm super biased, Chef. Uh, you know
why I can't comment.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
He comes by it honestly though. The admiration, I think
it's not just it's not just nominative.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Always has something interesting to say.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
There's something about a lot of experience in the hospitality
industry that lends itself to either an understanding specifically of
stuff that we talk about in that industry or tangentially
to other industries, and then understanding how they function and work.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
And we'll not to mention that if you're in the
hospitality industry, you're often privy to a lot of comings
and goings of like powerful people and you know, events
and things like I mean, you're you're kind of got
like the inside scoop on a lot of things because
people often don't they don't notice that you're paring potential.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Some of the some of the most dangerous people I've
met actually work in hospitality, you know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (32:15):
Though, like you're you're you're kind of situations, your sort
of background, and oftentimes you you will steal witness things,
not to mention people that work at like events in Washington,
d C. In various places like that.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Just out of curiosity without outing anybody. What type of
hospitality jobs are we talking about?
Speaker 5 (32:35):
I think it's hotels largely.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Yeah, it's going to be it's going to be hospitality.
It's going to be catering. Know is uh to on
that one? Hing?
Speaker 5 (32:46):
Catering for big old of diplomatic type of events.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
What are you talking about? Talk about a trojan horse,
forget the tank, get a waiter.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
The days back in the days of Kings, you'd have
a food taster.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
A lot of a lot of people play assassin as well, right,
hit man, whatever, But it's less of forty seven. It's
more about gathering information. Always gush. We're introducing one of
our favorite chefs and we still haven't gotten to his voicemail.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Hey, well let's do that right now. Here's Chef Ben.
Speaker 7 (33:27):
Hello, good morning, Chef Ben in Chicago. Call him back.
I know I just called yesterday. I listened to you
a lot, not sorry, So you're talking about tracking pizza
deliveries to depenagon if they are using a pizza delivery
service and they're not sending staffers out to go to
the pizza restaurant itself. I do know that there are
a number of different pieces of software in hospitality that
(33:48):
are integrated in such a way that it's like your
point of sale ordering system, it's your credit card processor,
it's your inventory system, it's your delivery mapping and schedule device,
right so that your deliveries are as efficient as possible. Now,
having said that, I'm no hacker, which I'm aware is
(34:10):
a very dated nineties kind of a term, but I imagine
that it's possible to gain access to that software surreptitiously
or otherwise and know how pizza restaurants are scheduling their
deliveries within a radius just based on getting into that
whatever that software is. There's a number of different softwares,
and they're generally run out of like a square system,
(34:33):
right like out of their pos point of sale system.
So that could be your ticket to real time where
are pieces being delivered right now? And is this an uptick?
Because I'm sure there's historical data built into that system.
Is this an uptick over yesterday? Is this an uptick
because things in hospitality go up and down so much.
Is this an uptick over a comparable day last week?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Right?
Speaker 7 (34:55):
You sell more pizza on a Friday than you do
on a Tuesday. That's just pizza. Pizza economics are not complicated.
So yeah, you don't want to look at the day before.
You want to look at the same day of the
week before, the same day of the year before, that
kind of thing. So yeah, that software, if it is hackable,
is probably the key to having real time data on
(35:15):
that kind of stuff. As always, feel free to use
this on your show. Thank you so much and glad
to have you as back.
Speaker 5 (35:21):
That's so cool, man, because I was just couldn't wrap
my head around, like how are they finding this information?
And like it It ultimately boiled down to observational calling
the place, going there in person, maybe looking at Google
mappee type results like like peak business times and like
foot traffic and stuff like that. But this is ultimately
what you'd want.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I think. So the only problem is in Chef Man.
In all of the reporting about attacks on POS systems,
I've only really seen them used to gather credit card
data or personal information of individuals who let's say, swipe
their card or af their card on a POS system.
(36:01):
It recently happened with Jimmy John's beloved Jimmy Johns, the
sandwich maker Hunter. Well, I really loved it. Maybe I'm wrong.
Is they're bad? Did they get canceled?
Speaker 5 (36:16):
Jimmy Johns is a great sandwich. But I believe that dude,
Jimmy john is like a notorious, like big game type hunter.
Speaker 8 (36:22):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Also, I just like a hot sandwich. You know, if
we're paying for it, throw it, throw it in the microwave.
That's heard and background, folks, So everybody knows. For years
upon years, belough, these many evenings, our office was located
very close to a Jimmy Johns. So we were sandwich rich.
(36:47):
We were not financially rich. Smell yeah, we got free smells.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
Yeah. There were some images of him, like posing with
dead elephants and rhinos and leopards and stuff that not.
We're not a particularly good look back in twenty fifteen. Well,
dang it, whatever, you can still enjoy the sandwich.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
But as you were saying that, this story actually isn't
recent and I'm sorry you guys. I took the two
zero one four for a two zero two four when
I glanced at it as I'm going through. That actually
happened in twenty fourteen, so that was a long time ago,
just before the elephant rhino pictures. Maybe that's why those
were leaked.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Yeah, pos is are are not hardened devices necessarily. And
to your point about like hacking or what you call it,
chef hackability, hackable stuff, I love that phrase. In scraping
that information, that credit card information, one could potentially also
(37:44):
gather metadata absolutely well.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yeah, and you can get logins for folks who are
in charge of the pos right, those people who are
logging in to actually run it during the day, somebody
who's got a shift there. And if you got that,
then potentially you could get in to the inner workings
of that software and actually look at as you're talking
about year of a year statistics and things like that.
(38:07):
I just haven't seen I haven't seen that be the thing,
at least as nobody's reported on that being the thing.
But it's a really it's really smart thinking there, Chef Ben.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Yeah, Chef. My question from our earlier conversations remains, and
you address that a little bit in the voicemail here,
what is the baseline, right, three hundred percent increase from
you know, if someone's selling one pizza and then they
sell thirty, right, is that magnificent indicative increase? How many
(38:40):
basil leaves are we reading here? Also, I'm going to
go back on record, I do think it's I do
think it's a bit of theater obviously, Like if you
have the one of the biggest office buildings in the world,
or you have some of the most dangerous office buildings
in the world world, and you have a food court,
(39:02):
why are you ordering outside? Also check out the Friday
traffic before you know, sometimes people just get home for
the holidays and they don't want to cook. I just
I would caution us from putting too much credulity into
the idea that the world's most dangerous military can be
(39:25):
prognosticated without its knowledge based on pizza deliveries. A fun story, though.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Wholeheartedly agreed, and it reminds me a lot of our
little exploration of down detector earlier in the episode. Remember
we were talking about that. If you go to down
Detector right now at three ten pm on January fourteenth.
It's showing that the spike has subsided substantially, But there
was one, and it felt weird, right, and we're just
(39:54):
putting pieces together or taking a look and thinking about
what could that mean? That seems odd that that would
happen in t and them, But ultimately it looks like
it was nothing or at least an unsuccessful something, right.
Speaker 5 (40:09):
Anyway, I mean, think about how many times unsuccessful something's
happened every day that either get thwarted by the powers
that be, you know, who were supposed to thwart things
like that, and we just never.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
I had an ex girlfriend who called me an unsuccessful something.
Speaker 5 (40:22):
There you go. Well, I'm just saying, you know, there's
plenty of attempts of this nature, like you know, And
to your point, Matt about not having heard anything about
any hacking attempts into point of sales software like this,
maybe they just did a good job and we haven't
heard about it, ye, because they haven't.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
There were lots of Again, there were lots of lots
and lots and lots for god, the past fifteen years
successful attacks on POS systems for these purposes. Yes, well, anyway,
that's all I've got for you today. Let's jump to
our next break, and then our next message is from you.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
And we have returned. Folks. We don't have a ton
of time right now, but we've got to share with
you a pretty awesome story that will be an episode
in the future.
Speaker 5 (41:13):
I hope.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Let's pitch it to each other. This comes from Grady.
Grady says, hello, I'm a fellow conspiracy realist. I only
recently started listening to the show, but have found much
of what you all talk about to be incredible. I
am curious if you have done any shows on shady nonprofits.
Let's pause there.
Speaker 5 (41:37):
Incredible isn't really cool or not credible?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Ah? The levels do it, right, Joel, and we have
talked about nonprofits in the past, right for sure. Oh
many a time and check out our episodes Grady on
some of those conversations, as well as strange news and
listener mail programs. You continue, you say, I am a
(42:02):
student applying to American universities and recently did some digging
into the college Board nonprofit. Now that's college board all
one word. I was thinking about them, says Grady. As
lots of colleges are going back to requiring tests, which
will greatly benefit the College Board again all one word.
(42:25):
The conspiracy side of me began to wonder if College
Board could potentially be donating to universities and colleges as
an active bribery. However, it's also entirely possible that schools
simply aren't able to gauge students as well without these metrics.
Lots of top universities have seen the number of applicants
(42:47):
more than double in the past ten years, and these
metrics could be essential. So pause there, We all had
to take something like an SAT or an ace, right,
barrenel Sat? How did you guys feel about it?
Speaker 5 (43:06):
I always I did a couple of times, and I
did way better on verbal than on math. But that's
how I couldn't tell you what my score was. To
be honest, I think it was like thirteen hundred or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Nice, Yeah, nice.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
I got into Georgia State University. That's all you need
to know. What are you talking about? You can learn
about it just means I did fine.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
And if you need any more information from our brother Matthew,
you will have to come with a warrant and a Supeda.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
My bachelor's is on the wall over there, if you
want more info.
Speaker 5 (43:42):
Oh, you got a frame, it's up on the wall
of that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
Oh yeah, well I think we matriculated into similar institutions. Okay,
so college Board, this really bugs me, you guys. Before
we return to the conversation with you, Grady, we got
to say, like, regardless of the institutionalized testing regimes, which
are weirdly quasi public quasi private, everybody who goes to
(44:11):
any higher education institution is going to get absolutely reamed
on textbook prices. That's a grip. Do you guys remember
having to buy textbooks?
Speaker 5 (44:24):
Of course, and then the resell valued plummets.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Now you gotta keep them. You got to keep them,
and then they're they're they're gonna be worth something. One
day you can sell them to the Atlanta Vintage Books.
It'll be like, oh, look at this one from two
thousand and six. Oh it's meant.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Yeah, yeah, here, let me find one Theories of Personalities,
third edition worthless. Now I'm sure because the appendix changed.
This idea of college Board is interesting because there may
be an institute utional conspiracy at play the College Board.
(45:04):
What do we say about innocuous names they develop and
administer the standardized test not just used in higher education,
but in the curricula used from kindergarten to twelfth grade
to senior year of high school. These folks are making money.
Handover fist, Yeah, baby, I do. I still have a
(45:27):
stack of mine upstairs. I was looking at him the other.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Day, and it does feel like the ones that I've
kept around could be useful or have some kind of use,
you know. But I do remember, I think, did you
guys ever have to get an updated version while you
were in the class? So like you had a version
three or something.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
Addition for whatever?
Speaker 5 (45:48):
Ye yah, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Yeah, And that was like an extra sixty five seventy
five hundreds of dollars, Like it just depended on what
it was.
Speaker 5 (45:55):
Holton Nifflin.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Yeah, yeah, big textbook. That's the name of the episode.
It's got to be so. So, Grady is asking us
a question that a lot of people have probably thought
about lightly in the past. Grady, We're gonna paraphrase a
(46:21):
little bit of this for time, But you ask us,
why is a US public serving nonprofit keeping so much
of its profits outside of the United States. You point
to this particular issue, You say, I did find some
interesting articles talking about how the College Board apparently has
(46:45):
anywhere from get this, guys, two hundred and fifty million
to one point five six billion US dollars under management
in the Caribbean. So the US nonprofit that is in
charge of so many standardized tests, you know, they get
(47:09):
a little bolt hole out in the islands.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Is it Panama specifically down there somewhere?
Speaker 3 (47:16):
We'd have to look at the papers.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
They have some really nice banks down there.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
They've got some great banks, you know. I always think,
because we're all in love with the Caribbean now like
all of us, uh, Tennessee has been the most recently returned.
But uh, I think we could agree. You know, we
were sitting out there on a boat and we all
had that cool Ghostbusters look at the license plate moment,
(47:45):
and we said we should start a bank if podcasting
doesn't work.
Speaker 5 (47:48):
Out going down old Dimny Road.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
That's a reference. I love. We have more to say
about this. Grady has more to say about this. Grady
is giving this background. Gray do you say? College Board
underwent a regime change in twenty twelve when a new
CEO named David Coleman stepped in and many board members
left Coleman made over two million dollars last year, which
(48:16):
would be twenty twenty five, and most of the chief
executives made upward of five hundred thousand US dollars. A
little bit odd for a nonprofit. Yeah, jents tell me.
Speaker 5 (48:29):
A lot of profit to me, right, And I know
nonprofit it doesn't involve like making zero money.
Speaker 3 (48:37):
But that's just out of step with the stated goals.
Speaker 5 (48:41):
Of what a nonprofit typically should represent.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Yeah, I agree with you. On another note to Dovetail
that it's why we have a separate thing called not
for profit. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Wait a second, those two things are different.
Speaker 5 (48:56):
I think there's some slight differences in their bylaws or
in their Yeah, what's the word I'm looking for. You know,
they're they're charters.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
It's a ven diagram. Oh my gosh. We got to
get back to our accountains and say, oh, whoops, sorry, guys,
we were on a boat. It was crazy. We kind
of started a thing we meant not for profit. Oh god,
all right, we'll text.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
The Powell's coming for me. That's a different thing.
Speaker 3 (49:29):
Oh boy, They're all related, you know. At the top.
Speaker 5 (49:33):
Not for profits can be things like like professional groups,
you know, business leagues and social clubs and stuff like that,
whereas nonprofits typically have more abilities for tax deductions, and
they are meant to have a bit of a like
mission that benefits, you know, the greater good in the pubble,
which ones for cults.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
That's us. Let's just do the religion thing, guys, let's
cross that rube find. We've been dancing around it. I
think it's time, you know, I'll shave the mustache.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
I'm gonna say keep it. I mean, it's at this point.
Speaker 5 (50:13):
It'll be like when Alex Trebek shaved his mustache and
I lost all trust in the man. Now, I would
never lose trust in You've been but it would be jarring.
I've grown to really love that little guy.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
Yeh man, he is kind of perfect.
Speaker 7 (50:23):
Man.
Speaker 5 (50:24):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (50:25):
I got a weird chin. It works out, but we'll
will table that one. We want to go back to you, Grady,
because you point out that the ap exam has gone
up in price every year since twenty twenty to almost
one hundred dollars per test. Okay, so this is a
nonprofit with a ton of money in the Caribbean, and
(50:49):
the test remained largely the same. Right, the concept of
how they score and what they're looking for, but the
cost to the student and the students parents keeps increasing.
Did you guys ever take okay? Uh, thank you for
the subtitles there, Matt, Wait, is that you, Dylan?
Speaker 2 (51:13):
Yeah, I'm.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Okay, okay, well, I but I appeal for a different subtitle.
That'll be a joke for us. But but Noel, just
so you can see in the subtitle there you are
the chill cult leader, and Matt, you are the charismatic
cult leader. Yeah. Yeah, and I am currently in negotiations
(51:40):
with tennessee about that.
Speaker 5 (51:41):
Okay, forward to seeing how now that shakes out.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
Yeah, so say we all, Uh, this is a pretty
crazy question about about where the money goes because it
may be indeed, uh, I don't know, guys, it may
be a choke for opportunity of education. Like imagine you've
got brilliant kids, but you can't pay one hundred dollars
(52:08):
a pop for your kid to get the tests they need.
That's pretty crooked.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Well, that's not that's going to be the first and
no offense, but the tiniest hurdle that they'll face right
when you get into the secondary schools and like higher education, and.
Speaker 5 (52:24):
Are they're not scholarships that also cover maybe the cost
of some of those tests. But I guess that's the deal, right,
You're not necessarily going to get the scholarship unless you're
taking the tests.
Speaker 3 (52:32):
Yeah, that's the Yeah.
Speaker 5 (52:35):
But maybe let us know anybody out there in higher education.
Surely there must be organizations out there that will help,
you know, qualified students, you know, who have excellent grades
in school get what they need in terms of the
testing that will get them to the place where they will,
you know, get get a full ride if they're the
kind of student that would get one of those.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Is there a college book assistance program the way there
is fratuition?
Speaker 5 (53:00):
Yeah, it can be built into it will be a
stipend that will be built into certain types of scholarships.
Speaker 3 (53:05):
When we're going to write to you in full, Grady
at Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com, because you you've brought
up some fascinating statistics and one point we want to
leave you with here, folks, is the idea of endowments. Right.
Why has Why have endowments for a lot of storied
(53:27):
universities increased massively over time in step with the pay
for say the Dean or the president. And why have
the students not seen the advantages of those massive amounts
of money. Not to be all black Monday murders about it,
but something is happening with higher education.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
I guess it is good that we compensate the publishers
of the books that the learned folks sure create. Wait,
as long as the authors slash, you know, teachers, researchers, professors,
people who actually write the books. As long as they're
getting a nice bit of that money, I'm actually okay
(54:12):
with it. But if it's just the publisher doing their
thing in the Caribbean, like, man, this my tie is
so good? Aren't you glad we rose? We raised their
prises by twenty percent year every year.
Speaker 3 (54:25):
Cheers to all those young chumps in high school.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
Yeah, all right, professors out there writing giant tomes.
Speaker 3 (54:35):
Okay. McGraw hill says, we'll just change this one appendix
and then we'll we'll we'll get these folks for one
hundred and twenty five dollars that they don't have.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
Oh crap, the Cabana Fund is getting low, guys. Oh
my god, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (54:51):
It's just me, guys, but I just can't imagine that
being a textbook writer is like nearly as lucrative occupation
is being textbook publisher. I just don't know that kickdowns, kickbacks, whatever.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
But theoretically wouldn't a textbook creator be incredibly lucrative just
because it's required purchasing, right, it's built into the system.
Speaker 5 (55:15):
I just think they're getting paid a fee to write
the thing, and then the actual per unit that I mean,
I just don't know that they would have the leverage
unless it's like an incredibly niche that only one type
of individual could write, Like, if it's more broad, they're
going to find that they're not going to be paying
top dollars.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
West thunder Mifflin was around, so we could consult them
about paper press.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
That is what you guys. Oh I can I can
help us, just sus out a little bit of this.
We need your help, fellow academics. There is a dividing
line between professors. There are professors who will make you
buy the most recently updated textbook even if very little
(56:03):
is changed. The cool professors.
Speaker 2 (56:06):
Make you buy their own book.
Speaker 3 (56:09):
The cool professor. Okay, a couple of them did, and
they were cool, but they were kind of militant. I'm
just gonna be awesome. I'm gonna be honest about that.
Speaker 5 (56:18):
It doesn't appear that there are certain situations where if
you can command it, you might get a royalty.
Speaker 3 (56:24):
Right.
Speaker 5 (56:24):
Maybe, but typically it seems like these Reddit posts, it's
individuals that are getting paid salary or a per project. Yeah,
paper collected, referenced, bibliography and so on. But the really
cool professors, and I'm sure we can all agree with this,
the really cool professors are the ones who rock up
(56:47):
to your class and they say the publishing is a
grift in a conspiracy. I can't tell you officially that
this book is free at the library. I can't tell
you officially that the printer costs this much for page.
(57:07):
I can't tell you officially that we can hang out later.
Speaker 2 (57:14):
Don't do that. Don't do that.
Speaker 3 (57:15):
No, no professor, after hours. Oh my gosh. Come on,
all right, guys, we have just enough time for a
couple of letters from home. If it's okay, we got
to shout out Netflix. Are we all right with that?
Speaker 5 (57:32):
Yeah? We love Netflix.
Speaker 3 (57:34):
We sure do this. Coming Monday, January twenty sixth, you
will be able to hang out with us on Netflix.
Now if you want to give us a little attaboy,
we would love it if you hit the little look
us up on Netflix. Stuff they don't want you to know,
hit the little bell reminder, and then on Monday, January
(57:57):
twenty sixth, wherever it is is in your neck of
the woods, you're going to see us live and direct
with our two episodes a week. We also got to
shout out our hometown boy, the comedian Dedrick Flynn, who
recently got on Netflix himself and did a great job
(58:19):
on a on a thing called Kill Tony.
Speaker 2 (58:22):
Kill Today, a really quick actionable thing you could do
if you do open up your Netflix on whatever device
you've got. In the search bar, just type stuff. You'll
see us, stuff to blow the mind, stuff.
Speaker 3 (58:35):
Stuff, history class lass.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
You can hit the little bell that'll give you a
reminder when we launch on January twenty sixth, And I mean,
that's the best way to at least make sure you
don't miss it.
Speaker 5 (58:46):
Ring that bell as they ring that bell on another
platform which we shall not name.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
No, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (58:55):
We've got we've got some cool new cameras and lightning
stuff and you can be able to see our faces
and our you guys, little set pieces. It's a lot
of fun, and it's been a nice injection of new
energy into the show for the new year. So I'm
personally super loving and excited to bring these two full
episodes to y'all in video form every single week.
Speaker 3 (59:15):
Yeah, and I know we love that. We're returning to
our video roots where we got away with a lot
of cool, off color stuff. In the spirit of that,
we've got two quick things letters from home that we
just had to share. The following may not be appropriate
(59:37):
for all audiences. Being very biased, I gotta bring Chef
Ben back because he did a really cool joke, and
then we'll end with a really nice thing as well.
Are we ready?
Speaker 5 (59:52):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (59:52):
Oh yeah, Good morning fellows. This is Chef Ben in Chicago,
just listening to the Shrunken Head episode, and I'm proud
of you, guys. Took you a long long time to
get to a head joke, but Ben, you did it,
so really, this is for you. This isn't even for
the show because this is probably too off color for you, guys,
but you did make a reference to nobody likes bad head.
Head of course being the oral a gesture of love
(01:00:16):
between consenting adults. So here's the joke. I've got a
joke for you, guys. It goes like this, Hey, did
I ever tell you about the worst job I ever got?
Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
It was awesome.
Speaker 7 (01:00:26):
That's the whole joke. It's best told in a bar,
several beers deep. Have a good one, fellows. It's snow
in at Chicago and I'm driving really slow, so kind.
Speaker 5 (01:00:36):
Of board Chef Ben saucy boy?
Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
Can I get away with that?
Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
I like how he said it's probably not for the show.
Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
So no joke left behind, Thank you, chef, And yeah,
that is on the show now. So we're gonna end
this week's Strange News segment with a surprise for our
pal Tennessee Dylan Fagan. Man, We've we've got something for you.
(01:01:12):
We gotta we got a crazy route to bega pitch man,
and uh, we're just gonna play it, and if you
would be so kind, we would like to hear your, uh,
your honest reaction. Okay, so don't give us any guff, Dylan,
are you ready? I am ready give us the straight
bega on this. All right?
Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Okay, Hey, what's up, guys.
Speaker 7 (01:01:35):
It's spurring lane right here.
Speaker 6 (01:01:37):
You can use it if you want.
Speaker 9 (01:01:39):
It's not really something that I figured you want you
use on UH on the show. But so I'm like
catching up a little bit. I'm like seven months backlogs,
and UH just recently got into that thing where we
all do this like the Rude Bega thing, and one
of the episodes said, if you have any ideas for
the Rubega, just.
Speaker 7 (01:01:58):
Call in and give it.
Speaker 9 (01:01:59):
You know that song by Blue Swade, I think it's
called Hooked on Feeling. I think it's a cover, but
in the beginning they start off.
Speaker 7 (01:02:07):
Like Uga Choka Uga Choka.
Speaker 9 (01:02:09):
You could do you could have your boy do something
like rude of Big Rude of Vega and then have
then have like the Blue Swave music in the background
or like.
Speaker 7 (01:02:18):
Kick into it or something.
Speaker 9 (01:02:19):
But yeah, I just I just thought y'all might like that.
That kind of popped into my head, and I just
wanted to let you know I love what you guys do.
Speaker 6 (01:02:26):
I'll listen to you all the time.
Speaker 9 (01:02:27):
It's not a bad thing that I'm seven months back log.
I think I'm I'm up to like May twenty five
right now, and here it is December. So I just
listened to it all the time when I'm driving.
Speaker 7 (01:02:38):
From work and everything.
Speaker 9 (01:02:39):
But I appreciate what y'all do and take care of
if y'all have a very very merry Christmas, a happy
holiday and uh yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:02:47):
And a fine rude bega tu as well, what do
you think, Dylan, a weird dancing cgi.
Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
A dancing baby.
Speaker 5 (01:02:54):
Yeah, if you made it, we had, we'd have to
do an animation where he's a dancing rude of baby.
Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
I love it.
Speaker 8 (01:03:00):
So here here's the thing, like I want crowdsource rude
Vegas and I love this idea like we did a
rudebago a little while ago, and that was a suggestion
from I think listeners zvus Rex.
Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
So yeah, man, thank you, Thank you everybody, and thank
you Dylan for your yes, incredible skills in the rudebega field.
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (01:03:23):
I can't believe you all let me do this, but
it makes me very happy.
Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
So you're just the best man. Uga Chaka to you.
Happy rude bega, Mary, rude bega to everyone. Big thanks
to Grady, Big thanks of course, the Chef, Ben Spurvying,
Wayne Wright, Dedrick Flynn, Don Quixote, sc and the Babble Effect.
Most importantly, big thanks to you folks. We can't wait
(01:03:48):
to hear your uga chakas, your ruda begas. We can't
wait to hear your thoughts. Find us on the lines,
give us a call, send us an email.
Speaker 5 (01:03:58):
That's right. You can find us on all the social
medi platforms of note at either Conspiracy Stuff or Conspiracy
Stuff show New Era new CTA. That means cooling action.
We're tightening that one up a little bit. You can
also find us in other places.
Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
Use your phone, pick it up. Go ahead, pick up
the phone dial one eight three three st d wytk.
It will be a voicemail. Just you can figure it out.
You could do that if you want to send us
an email.
Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
We are the entities. Read each piece of correspondence we receive.
Be well aware, yet out afraid. Sometimes the void writes back,
uga chaka, uga chaka, uga chaka as for random fact,
and you shall receive. Join us out here in the
dark conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
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 the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is noelh.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They called me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Faga. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff
they don't want you to know. It is the return
of our weekly listener mail segment, and folks, we couldn't
(00:51):
be more pleased to answer a lot of the emails
that came through over the break. You reached out to
us on voicemail, reached out to us on social meds, Tennessee.
We love the Knoxville OUTI Yo. You've just got to
do it for the people. Can you give us that
route of Bega?
Speaker 4 (01:15):
This is considering all the things. I'm your host, Pepper
Pelican Schmidt. Our guest today is jan Warmouth, Professor of
fastrophysics at Granston State. Professor Warmouth has shocked the world
with this discovery that not only is an asteroid going
to at our planet, but it is actually a route
to bega. Thank you for being here, professor.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
It's a breath of fresh air to be taken. Seriously, Now,
is there anything we can do about this? This is
a large and complex issue, but the steaks have never
been higher for humanity. We have our brightest minds at
work day and night trying.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
To find a solution.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Does that include driller aj Frost? I'm sorry, I'm unfamiliar. Well,
aj encountered something similar in nineteen ninety eight. It was
an asteroid the size of Texas. Along with this mentor
Harry Stamper, and a man only known as Rockhound, they
were able to set off a nucle bomb inside of
the asteroid. Are you recounting the plot of the movie Armageddon?
Was that not a documentary?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Man?
Speaker 4 (02:08):
I had my assistant Rudy compiled these notes. Sorry, let
me dig through these again.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh God, you got to dick through those. Rudy begas.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
The man, the legend, the Tennessee pal, Dylan Fagan. Uh, Dylan,
can you give yourself an applausecue right here? Because I
know you don't.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Come on, don't give yourself applause.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Don't let that never never do that.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
No, I can't help but remember the DVD commentary that
Ben Affleck did on the DVD release of Armageddon where
he kind of poo poosed the plot of the whole movie. Uh,
and I recently saw a Deadline article where he is
shocked that they let him do that. He says, I
asked Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers
to become astronauts than was to train astronauts to become
(03:00):
and he told me to shut the cup.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
That's what we're doing here, Matt the program, which whichever
one you are.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Thanks for the uh, thanks for the beef there till it,
because we are so excited and so thankful to be
hanging out with all of you this evening. Now, we've
got a lot of what Loupole family time coming up
in tonight's listener mail program. Uh, We've got some folks
(03:31):
who want to talk about water. We've got some folks
who want to talk about pizza, one of our favorite subjects.
It's pizza is like just on the cusp of becoming
a Casadia. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
It also I feel like it should be one of
the elements that are spoken for in Captain Planet.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Right and Captive planet, Yeah, Earth, fire, air, water, Heart,
and then you should have pizza.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
You should have don't forget wind.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Well there's wind. There was something. Yeah, what's going on, Matt,
You're having some So there was some cell phone anomalies.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Oh no, it's still happening right now. I'm sure there
are a lot of people who went through this on
Well today it is Wednesday, January fourteenth at to thirty
pm ET, and my cell phone has been down at
least for the service that is supposed to get oh
several hours now.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Not down in a cool way, not like I want
to be down down to clown, but.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Oh man, it is down with o PS other people's
services and SOS. Yeah it is SOS instead of bars.
So and then if you go on down detector, it
shows that I.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Was not familiar with this website until you sent it
in the group tex So if anyone out there doesn't
know what he's talking about. This is a site that
tracks outages in various web services and cell providers all
over the.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
World, right meta analysis.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yes, it's powered by Club, the same people that if
you ever just type into Google the speed test, you
will find their speed test. It's usually sponsored. But yeah,
it was Verizon, T Mobile AT and T Infinity, Google
AWS and Apple Support. We're all down kind of at
the same time with the same spike, and it made
us all just go, huh happening.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
We postponed recording fifteen whole minutes just to make sure
the world listening.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, here we are, dude, and here we are. And
it is January fourteenth. It is now two thirty one
pm local ET, and we're going to talk about tankers.
We appreciate the correspondence there. We're going to have a
lot of like several cool letters from home. We're going
(05:46):
to talk about institutional conspiracies. This is one for all
our college students in the crowd, former, current and future.
Before we get to any of that, we're gonna we're
gonna take a break for a word from our sponsors
and Nolat. I have to tell you, man, I'm very
(06:09):
excited about this. When we were talking off air, I
use some inappropriate language walk a room, talk about how
I need our pal Jack O'Brien from Daily's Guys to
hear this piece of news.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Hopefully he's tuned in.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Oh yeah, I bet he is.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
And we're back and uh yeah, let's take a little
trip courtesy of our listener. Sc not going to drop
real names because they did not give permission to use
their name or give themselves a cool nickname tisk, but
basically just dropped us a link to a very interesting
piece over on CNN, and they summed it up thusly.
DHS Department of Homeland Security purportedly bought the device that
(06:57):
is thought to be the source of Havana syndrome. And
I think we all clocked some version of this piece.
But the CNN piece that was updated as of yesterday,
written jointly by Katie bo Lilis, Natasha Bertrand, Priscilla Alvarez,
Jim Scluto, and Zachary Cohen headline Pentagon bought device through
undercover operation some investigators suspect is linked to Havana syndrome.
(07:23):
I feel like this might be worth further exploration and
update because I also have another bit of correspondence regarding
an unusual syndrome. But essentially, let's just kind of give
get into the gist of the article here. The Defense
Department has been testing a device that they purchased in
an undercover operation that other outside investigators seem to think
(07:45):
might have been the cause of these mysterious ailments impacting
US spies and diplomats and ground troops that have collectively
been referred to as Havana syndrome or colloquially as the
word they use there. But it is kind of a
that was the problem, and when we've talked about this,
we talked about it with Jack. It's really hard to
pin down something that doesn't have a through line or
(08:08):
like common symptoms, and there were a lot of varying
symptoms that were associated with this history, this time and
history and this place, which is of course Havannah, and
so we kind of catch all terms of Havana syndrome
has been the one that's been thrown around. A division
of the Department of Homeland Security. Homeland Security Investigations is
(08:29):
the agency that bought the device for believe, eight figures
is the term that they use. Declining inside sources speaking
to this UH, these reporters declined to give further details
about the number. Is what we have. It's right, that's right,
I mean, you believe it. It's apparently still being studied,
(08:49):
and there is ongoing debate in certain areas of the
government as well as skepticism over the potential link to
these dozens of again amlus health incidents that to this
day remain officially unexplained and yet lumped in to this
concept of Havana syndrome. CNN spoke to the Pentagon, HSI
(09:12):
and DHS for comment. The CIA did not return. That's
another lack of surprise. So the device acquired by Homeland
Security investigations matches some of the theories that we've seen
thrown around about Savannah syndrome, Havana syndrome, this idea of
(09:35):
radio waves, this idea of like the kinds of a
a an escalation of weapons of used for crowd control
that we're all aware that exists, This idea of sonic
weapons that can cause people to drop to their knees
and not be able to think straight. It's these like weaponized,
very very focused beams of sound or radio waves. In
(09:55):
this case, there are some officials, as CNN says, and
academics that have speculated this this kind of thing could
well have been the cause of these incidents. And this device,
while not entirely originating from Russia, does contain many Russian components,
according to one of the sources for this piece. So
(10:18):
we have talked about guys, and I'll throw to the
group here the idea of based on what we know
about these types of sonic weapons or radio weaponized with
radio ways, the big issue was how could it affect
people from such distances?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Is a big.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Crux of the arguments or the question around how could
a thing like this that we don't currently have evidence
is technologically possible? How could that exist? And how could
this have caused that? It would seem that this is
the kind of stuff they don't want you to know
in terms of government weaponry that maybe is being tested
but that has not made its way out into the
(10:55):
public sphere yet. A lot of theories behind various upas
and such, often you know, linked to testing of vehicles
that maybe again the public is not entirely aware of.
This tracks for me, guys, what do you think?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, I think the two biggest takeaways for me about
this are that one, they've been testing it for over
a year, right, so these officials have been they first
of all, they learned about it well over a year,
right because they ran some whole undercover operation to even
acquire the thing, which takes time. Then they've had it
(11:31):
for over a year. They've been testing it for that
year's long time. They've realized that it uses pulse radio
signals to deliver some of the same sensations it looks
like or feelings or you know, stuff that would be
audible and also not audible that's affecting a human body
with directed energy of some sort in this case post
radio waves, and.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Some of the symptoms, including things like vertigo and headaches
and nausea, and then some things that even you know
held on much longer, not just in the immediate aftermath
of being hit by something like this exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
The thing number two is that this device is portable.
It fits in a backpack, right, which means anybody could
strap on their backpack and walk around wherever they're going
to be. They could go into a car with the
backpack with them, they could be in a crowded space.
It would be very difficult to identify someone who is
taking this device somewhere to place it somewhere, right, and
(12:27):
then even looking for a device, you we heard for
a while it was officials looking on rooftops for a
device large enough that would be powerful enough to have
these directed energy weapon effects right right.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
In this case too to be diplomatic sc This goes
to Knowle's earlier points from our conversation or our episodes
about have that a syndrome. The idea of dispersing verse
is concentrating over over space.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
Right, It's quite difficult, and I think maybe the version
of things that we pictured and that was being discussed
was almost like a sniper kind of situation, someone like
pointing this and focusing it. Whether as this is more
like a device that might disrupt you know what do
you call it an EMP or whatever? You know what
I mean, like some sort of device that you place
(13:27):
and then it just does its thing and you leave it.
That seems a little more like what this is like AoE.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
But we don't have enough information because we don't know
if it is directed or if it is AoE. We
just don't know, right, they're not. It does seem like
something that would have if it is the device responsible
for Havana syndrome reports, it would have to be somewhat directed.
I guess that's true because it was specific, like building
(14:00):
where people were reporting a specific.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Right, right, this is I forgot about them. Yeah. This
is also loosely called internally anomalist health incidents or Ahi's
in Havana syndrome is great for a headline, right because
(14:23):
it accuses or villainizes Cuba, And as we discussed in
our previous episodes or previous Strange News listener mail programs.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
Sc.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Look, the science is still not out there. But to
your point, and thank you again for writing, it is curious, right,
It's a little bit curious that Uncle Sam would capture
a device publicize the capture after experimenting with it a
(14:59):
little bit.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
It's is this not a leak or did they actually
release information about this or is this not like something
that maybe they didn't mean to get out quite yet.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I think the leaks are controlled. I think sometimes they
think they want people to know the calls are coming
from inside the house. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
So the big takeaway here is that we do know
is that based on the way HSI purchased this device,
it would seem as though could have been purchased by
any other numerous other countries and potential bad actors. So
you know, this thing, whatever it is, is probably out
(15:38):
in the wind and has the potential to be weaponized
to inflict what the CNN piece refers to as career
ending injuries on high level individuals within government, within military,
you know, within the echelons of power.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Interestingly enough, guys Homely Security Investigations HSI. They if you
go to their website, they are that group that is
Department of Homeland Security that is highly involved with immigration
enforcement in the United States and directly tied to ICE,
which is just a fun thing to remember.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It's cool to remember stuff. For sure, you got you
got her.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Yeah. Remember. I'll wrap this this segment because I do
think we can we can look deeper into this, uh
as maybe more information comes out, and I don't it's
not quite clear from this piece as to whether this
was like a public.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Like a press release. I don't.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
I feel like it's it's it's it's kind of like
fo yeah, okay, there you go. Thank you very much. Man,
appreciate that miss that detail. But again to your point, Ben,
one person's leak is another person's press release. If you
do it right, you know, if you're if you're in
control of it. But the big takeaway here is comes
from a quote from an individual that was afflicted by
(17:00):
the Havana sentdrome. One of the first CIA officers to
go public with his injuries, Mark Paul Mayrapolis, who I
believe we've discussed in the story in the past. He says,
if the US government has indeed uncovered such devices, and
the CIA owes all the victims of major and public apology,
apology for how we have been treated as pariahs, and that,
(17:22):
my friends, I think we can all agree with. This
next piece that was linked from another listener, going by
the Babel Effect, is so very in depth. It was
almost like a thirty minute read from the BBC that
I think I'm just going to do a little summation
of it, mention what this is and how it relates
as an update to a story we talked about in
Strange News in the past, and then we'll save this,
(17:44):
I think for a deeper dive episode. But this is
from the Babel Effect. Hi, guys, I remember you covered
this story in Strange News sometime in the past year
or so. Story referring to a mysterious brain disease found
in a pretty rural part of Canada. Interesting new twist
what if the brain disease didn't exist at all? And
(18:07):
this reporting comes from the BBC In the headline from
a piece by Joel Gunter and Nadine Yusef Joel Gunter
being the senior international reporter for New Brunswick there in
Canada and naden Usef, senior Canada reporter also in New Brunswick.
The answer cannot be nothing the battle over Canada's mystery
(18:28):
brain disease. So just you know, for a little bit
of a backstory catch up refresher. In the early in
early twenty nineteen, officials at a hospital in the small
Canadian province of New Brunswick saw two patients that had
contracted this incredibly rare brain disease known as Kreutzfeld Jacob
disease or c JD, which is can be fatal or
(18:52):
is fatal and also potentially contagious. So this leads to
a task force called Task Force being assembled and you know,
looking into this and fortunately, as a result of this
the or you know, reportedly the disease did not spread.
But this actually was just the beginning of the story.
(19:13):
One of these experts, Alier Morrero, a Cuban born neurologist
who'd been working in the area for around six years,
shared a fact that was quite troubling with other members
of this group or this task force. He'd been seeing
patients with unexplained CJD like symptoms for years, he said,
and that included young people who showed signs of a
(19:36):
rapidly progressing form of dementia. And the number of cases
or the cluster as they refer to it, and the
piece had already reached more than twenty and several of
these patients had already died, And then you start to
see these incredibly an amorphis is maybe the wrong word,
(19:58):
but just unconnected, not particularly contiguous arrays they refer to
it of symptoms among the patients dementia, weight loss, unsteadiness,
facial twitches, muscle spasms, blurred vision, limb pain, atrophying muscles,
(20:19):
dry skin, hair loss.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
This really connect to have an syndrome.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
There's so many various symptoms that don't seem to be
directly connected. That's when you start calling things a syndrome,
and it starts to feel like, you know, we don't
really know what this is, and yet there is geographical
reason to believe that they are in some way, shape
or form connected bable effect.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Thank you so much for writing.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
No, it's a big deal to have this update, and
I really want to dig deeper into it. But like
I said, this is incredibly important and in depth reporting,
and I really really would love for us to all
take a look and dig a little deeper. And perhaps
since we only just mentioned the condition in the first
place via Strange News, there's more than enough here and
other sources cited to do a deep dive on it.
(21:05):
But Matt, I think you had some thoughts on this
as well.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Well.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I just remember this really well. It's almost exactly four
years ago to the day January eighteenth, twenty twenty two,
when we made that Strange News episode, or when it
came out rather, and it was very much a mystery
then in Cruxfield Yakub disease. And I'm only saying it
that way because I literally last night watched X File
(21:31):
season two Our Town, and I don't want to spoil
too much here, but it has to do with a
preon prion disease that is past like.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
A brain parasite.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Right, It's cool, it's eating cannibal It involves cannibalism and
a brain disease where you eat the brain of somebody
who has this thing. Theoretically it could transfer on. That's
what the X Files episode is about. But it is
all about CJD, which is really interesting that it's coming
(22:03):
back up right now all of a sudden, and that's
just me doing the whole no coincidences thing. But go
back and listen to episode for sure if you haven't
heard it, or just check this out, because guys, you're right, Noel,
this deserves an entire deep dive.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, this deserves an actual episode. And one of the
best things about our Strange News listener mail segments is
that they they create for us the episodes in the future,
and Nol, I've got to thank you for bringing this
here and Babbel Effect. This is something that has been
on our minds or in our brains for some time
(22:44):
and it is more than worth the more than worth
the attention to look into a novelist health incidents as
they are so euphemistically deemed, And the.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Name of this thing or this mystery disease is pretty wild.
They are referring to it as New Brunswick neurological Syndrome
of unknown cause.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Sounds like an album name, it really does.
Speaker 5 (23:10):
And a lot of the details of this sound like
a movie like Outbreak or something like that. But the again,
way too much to get into here. But I did
just want to broach this in the hopes that you
guys were into and I'm glad you are looking into
this a little bit deeper. The question then becomes again
something that we can also transfer to our conversation around
Havana syndrome. Is this just a cluster of different diseases
(23:33):
that seem to have a connection or is there an
actual connection? And I think that's what these researchers are
hoping to prove the patients are real. A quote says,
but the clustering as a mystery disease is not right.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah. Is there now a powerful term or word that
functions like a coat rack where you can hang any
fabric of malaise upon it right and say this is
the thing that's good.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Now, you guys. The the BBC here is reporting that
several patients have reported that the doctor, doctor Morrero, I
think is the guy who's noted in here, has at
times put his hand up when he's having a conversation
with a patient, say to say stop talking, and then
(24:21):
he'll go look outside a door and say, I believe
we're being recorded, and like not like be conspiratorial about
this stuff.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Yeah, it's got those kind of undertones to it, So
I think we'll definitely pick this one back up at
a later date, but I just want to want to
bring it up and give props to Babel Syndrome for
hitping us to this update. So that's it for me, y'all.
Let's take a break, hear a word from our sponsor,
and then we'll be back with more messages from you.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
All right, we are back, and we're gonna jump to guys.
I think one of the best voicemails you've gotten in
a long time. You ready for this?
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (25:04):
No, no, setup know anything. We're just gonna hear this
and then we're gonna get into it. Here we go.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
Just a second. You gotta stop the tankers Trojan Horse.
Why would they have that Russian tanker and turn it
back over to us so easily, and it's been five
days since we took over. How would they just be
trying to sneak another tanker out? Now it's the Trojan Horse,
(25:35):
one of those tankers we're going to take home to
our port, and it's going to blow up or it's
got guys on it. We're getting these ships too easy.
You've got to tell somebody. I don't know who to call.
I've tried to call everybody, Tell somebody blow up the bankers. Yes,
call me don Quixote.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
And there we have it. Wow, thank you DoD is
in that an interesting message. It's some don Quixote was
watching the news. I suppose it sounded like you could
hear it in that clip and just had just that
moment realization, right, I think we've all had about a
great number of things, and then said, oh, I got
(26:16):
a call. I'm gonna call anybody, and he called us.
So thank you don Quixote for putting the call into us.
And Uh, I gotta say I I see his logic there,
at least in that that nervousness that perhaps he's feeling
that some of these tankers are being let go, even
(26:37):
though we know it's a delicate situation right geopolitically to
make any big moves there. The US is certainly not
having a problem making some big moves with regards to
the tankers. Uh, it seems seems a little weird, like
like could you can't you can you guys foresee or
like can you imagine that picture where there ends up
(26:59):
being a dirty bomb on one of these or even
perhaps a full fledged nuke on one of them.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
Sounds like the plot of a nineties Steven Sagal movie.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Right, Dodd, I'm with you. Beat me here, Dylan Dodd,
I'm with you. Win Mills swing at them, always shout
out to nerds like don Quiohote.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Mills and tankers of the mind.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
But what do you guys think about this?
Speaker 3 (27:22):
For real?
Speaker 5 (27:23):
I'm serious. It sounds like the kind of thing that
would be dramatized in like a Steven Sagall thing. It's
like a plot of like, how would you do this?
I'm I'd love some more contexts, but I do think
it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, don again, just to finish this out, addressing directly
your concern and thank you for sending us the the
voicemails here. The trojan horse argument, uh decays a little
bit when we consider the amount of security applied in
the acquisition of a tanker. So look, is it good
(27:58):
news that piracy is back in vogue? Probably not. Is
it bad news that the people or the forces acquiring
these tankers illegally in violation of international law? Is it
bad news that they check everything? It is not. It
is not out of the realm of possibility that some
(28:24):
sort of bad variable could sneak past that kind of
security check, but it is highly implausible at this point.
I will say, what interests us here don is the
idea that it wasn't just oil, right. So in a
couple of the tankers situations from Russia's shadow fleet, the
(28:48):
question is the cargo right, which has not been largely publicized.
To be quite honest, that's the opinion from publicly available information.
But again, Matt, I love that you brought this to us,
because it does it does beg the question about the
Trojan horse maneuver, which is you know it's old because
(29:10):
it works.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
I guess I'm just I'm sorry I keep harping on this,
but it just really seems like I'm surprised we haven't
seen this in like a political thriller, like espionage type movie,
like some plot surrounding this kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
And interestingly enough, guys, according to g Captain, I don't
know anything about the website and I couldn't find it
reported anywhere else. But the tanker that we discussed on
this show, known as the Bill of One or the
Marinara Marinaro is today again on Wednesday, January fourteenth. Currently
it is two fifty nine pm. It is in UK
(29:51):
territorial waters and it is going into port there. If
there was going to be a situation, now would be
the time right today as we're recording. So I guess
we'll have to wait and find out.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Also what's going on, what's going on with what are
the four creepiest boeings in the US arsenal or in
the US fleet stopping by California a few days back.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
And y'all just on a cursory google of like trojan
Horse terrorism and things like that, there is you know,
this is something that's discussed and debated, this idea of
cargo containers being used to smuggle nuclear weapons into the
countries using commercial shipping vessels in a modern day Trojan
Horse esque maneuver.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Well, yeah, imagine if you got one of these into
you know, a major port that also has a major
US city or a major UK city.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
I remember when we were at the port in there
in Florida. I had never been to a port like
that before. And the security is very similar to like
the airport, you know. I mean it's because of how
vulnerable it is.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
It makes I suggest. I liked when Noel called it
Savannah syndrome. Right yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
So guys, I think we will switch to one more
listener mail. This one comes to us from Chef Ben.
Chef Ben, constant caller of the show and uh beloved
by us here, I think, right, I think it's unanimous,
oh big time.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
A lot of I'm super biased, Chef. Uh, you know
why I can't comment.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
He comes by it honestly though. The admiration, I think
it's not just it's not just nominative.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Always has something interesting to say.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
There's something about a lot of experience in the hospitality
industry that lends itself to either an understanding specifically of
stuff that we talk about in that industry or tangentially
to other industries, and then understanding how they function and work.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
And we'll not to mention that if you're in the
hospitality industry, you're often privy to a lot of comings
and goings of like powerful people and you know, events
and things like I mean, you're you're kind of got
like the inside scoop on a lot of things because
people often don't they don't notice that you're paring potential.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Some of the some of the most dangerous people I've
met actually work in hospitality, you know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (32:15):
Though, like you're you're you're kind of situations, your sort
of background, and oftentimes you you will steal witness things,
not to mention people that work at like events in Washington,
d C. In various places like that.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Just out of curiosity without outing anybody. What type of
hospitality jobs are we talking about?
Speaker 5 (32:35):
I think it's hotels largely.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Yeah, it's going to be it's going to be hospitality.
It's going to be catering. Know is uh to on
that one? Hing?
Speaker 5 (32:46):
Catering for big old of diplomatic type of events.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
What are you talking about? Talk about a trojan horse,
forget the tank, get a waiter.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
The days back in the days of Kings, you'd have
a food taster.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
A lot of a lot of people play assassin as well, right,
hit man, whatever, But it's less of forty seven. It's
more about gathering information. Always gush. We're introducing one of
our favorite chefs and we still haven't gotten to his voicemail.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Hey, well let's do that right now. Here's Chef Ben.
Speaker 7 (33:27):
Hello, good morning, Chef Ben in Chicago. Call him back.
I know I just called yesterday. I listened to you
a lot, not sorry, So you're talking about tracking pizza
deliveries to depenagon if they are using a pizza delivery
service and they're not sending staffers out to go to
the pizza restaurant itself. I do know that there are
a number of different pieces of software in hospitality that
(33:48):
are integrated in such a way that it's like your
point of sale ordering system, it's your credit card processor,
it's your inventory system, it's your delivery mapping and schedule device,
right so that your deliveries are as efficient as possible. Now,
having said that, I'm no hacker, which I'm aware is
(34:10):
a very dated nineties kind of a term, but I imagine
that it's possible to gain access to that software surreptitiously
or otherwise and know how pizza restaurants are scheduling their
deliveries within a radius just based on getting into that
whatever that software is. There's a number of different softwares,
and they're generally run out of like a square system,
(34:33):
right like out of their pos point of sale system.
So that could be your ticket to real time where
are pieces being delivered right now? And is this an uptick?
Because I'm sure there's historical data built into that system.
Is this an uptick over yesterday? Is this an uptick
because things in hospitality go up and down so much.
Is this an uptick over a comparable day last week?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Right?
Speaker 7 (34:55):
You sell more pizza on a Friday than you do
on a Tuesday. That's just pizza. Pizza economics are not complicated.
So yeah, you don't want to look at the day before.
You want to look at the same day of the
week before, the same day of the year before, that
kind of thing. So yeah, that software, if it is hackable,
is probably the key to having real time data on
(35:15):
that kind of stuff. As always, feel free to use
this on your show. Thank you so much and glad
to have you as back.
Speaker 5 (35:21):
That's so cool, man, because I was just couldn't wrap
my head around, like how are they finding this information?
And like it It ultimately boiled down to observational calling
the place, going there in person, maybe looking at Google
mappee type results like like peak business times and like
foot traffic and stuff like that. But this is ultimately
what you'd want.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I think. So the only problem is in Chef Man.
In all of the reporting about attacks on POS systems,
I've only really seen them used to gather credit card
data or personal information of individuals who let's say, swipe
their card or af their card on a POS system.
(36:01):
It recently happened with Jimmy John's beloved Jimmy Johns, the
sandwich maker Hunter. Well, I really loved it. Maybe I'm wrong.
Is they're bad? Did they get canceled?
Speaker 5 (36:16):
Jimmy Johns is a great sandwich. But I believe that dude,
Jimmy john is like a notorious, like big game type hunter.
Speaker 8 (36:22):
Dude.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Also, I just like a hot sandwich. You know, if
we're paying for it, throw it, throw it in the microwave.
That's heard and background, folks, So everybody knows. For years
upon years, belough, these many evenings, our office was located
very close to a Jimmy Johns. So we were sandwich rich.
(36:47):
We were not financially rich. Smell yeah, we got free smells.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
Yeah. There were some images of him, like posing with
dead elephants and rhinos and leopards and stuff that not.
We're not a particularly good look back in twenty fifteen. Well,
dang it, whatever, you can still enjoy the sandwich.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
But as you were saying that, this story actually isn't
recent and I'm sorry you guys. I took the two
zero one four for a two zero two four when
I glanced at it as I'm going through. That actually
happened in twenty fourteen, so that was a long time ago,
just before the elephant rhino pictures. Maybe that's why those
were leaked.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Yeah, pos is are are not hardened devices necessarily. And
to your point about like hacking or what you call it,
chef hackability, hackable stuff, I love that phrase. In scraping
that information, that credit card information, one could potentially also
(37:44):
gather metadata absolutely well.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yeah, and you can get logins for folks who are
in charge of the pos right, those people who are
logging in to actually run it during the day, somebody
who's got a shift there. And if you got that,
then potentially you could get in to the inner workings
of that software and actually look at as you're talking
about year of a year statistics and things like that.
(38:07):
I just haven't seen I haven't seen that be the thing,
at least as nobody's reported on that being the thing.
But it's a really it's really smart thinking there, Chef Ben.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Yeah, Chef. My question from our earlier conversations remains, and
you address that a little bit in the voicemail here,
what is the baseline, right, three hundred percent increase from
you know, if someone's selling one pizza and then they
sell thirty, right, is that magnificent indicative increase? How many
(38:40):
basil leaves are we reading here? Also, I'm going to
go back on record, I do think it's I do
think it's a bit of theater obviously, Like if you
have the one of the biggest office buildings in the world,
or you have some of the most dangerous office buildings
in the world world, and you have a food court,
(39:02):
why are you ordering outside? Also check out the Friday
traffic before you know, sometimes people just get home for
the holidays and they don't want to cook. I just
I would caution us from putting too much credulity into
the idea that the world's most dangerous military can be
(39:25):
prognosticated without its knowledge based on pizza deliveries. A fun story, though.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Wholeheartedly agreed, and it reminds me a lot of our
little exploration of down detector earlier in the episode. Remember
we were talking about that. If you go to down
Detector right now at three ten pm on January fourteenth.
It's showing that the spike has subsided substantially, But there
was one, and it felt weird, right, and we're just
(39:54):
putting pieces together or taking a look and thinking about
what could that mean? That seems odd that that would
happen in t and them, But ultimately it looks like
it was nothing or at least an unsuccessful something, right.
Speaker 5 (40:09):
Anyway, I mean, think about how many times unsuccessful something's
happened every day that either get thwarted by the powers
that be, you know, who were supposed to thwart things
like that, and we just never.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
I had an ex girlfriend who called me an unsuccessful something.
Speaker 5 (40:22):
There you go. Well, I'm just saying, you know, there's
plenty of attempts of this nature, like you know, And
to your point, Matt about not having heard anything about
any hacking attempts into point of sales software like this,
maybe they just did a good job and we haven't
heard about it, ye, because they haven't.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
There were lots of Again, there were lots of lots
and lots and lots for god, the past fifteen years
successful attacks on POS systems for these purposes. Yes, well, anyway,
that's all I've got for you today. Let's jump to
our next break, and then our next message is from you.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
And we have returned. Folks. We don't have a ton
of time right now, but we've got to share with
you a pretty awesome story that will be an episode
in the future.
Speaker 5 (41:13):
I hope.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Let's pitch it to each other. This comes from Grady.
Grady says, hello, I'm a fellow conspiracy realist. I only
recently started listening to the show, but have found much
of what you all talk about to be incredible. I
am curious if you have done any shows on shady nonprofits.
Let's pause there.
Speaker 5 (41:37):
Incredible isn't really cool or not credible?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Ah? The levels do it, right, Joel, and we have
talked about nonprofits in the past, right for sure. Oh
many a time and check out our episodes Grady on
some of those conversations, as well as strange news and
listener mail programs. You continue, you say, I am a
(42:02):
student applying to American universities and recently did some digging
into the college Board nonprofit. Now that's college board all
one word. I was thinking about them, says Grady. As
lots of colleges are going back to requiring tests, which
will greatly benefit the College Board again all one word.
(42:25):
The conspiracy side of me began to wonder if College
Board could potentially be donating to universities and colleges as
an active bribery. However, it's also entirely possible that schools
simply aren't able to gauge students as well without these metrics.
Lots of top universities have seen the number of applicants
(42:47):
more than double in the past ten years, and these
metrics could be essential. So pause there, We all had
to take something like an SAT or an ace, right,
barrenel Sat? How did you guys feel about it?
Speaker 5 (43:06):
I always I did a couple of times, and I
did way better on verbal than on math. But that's
how I couldn't tell you what my score was. To
be honest, I think it was like thirteen hundred or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Nice, Yeah, nice.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
I got into Georgia State University. That's all you need
to know. What are you talking about? You can learn
about it just means I did fine.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
And if you need any more information from our brother Matthew,
you will have to come with a warrant and a Supeda.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
My bachelor's is on the wall over there, if you
want more info.
Speaker 5 (43:42):
Oh, you got a frame, it's up on the wall
of that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
Oh yeah, well I think we matriculated into similar institutions. Okay,
so college Board, this really bugs me, you guys. Before
we return to the conversation with you, Grady, we got
to say, like, regardless of the institutionalized testing regimes, which
are weirdly quasi public quasi private, everybody who goes to
(44:11):
any higher education institution is going to get absolutely reamed
on textbook prices. That's a grip. Do you guys remember
having to buy textbooks?
Speaker 5 (44:24):
Of course, and then the resell valued plummets.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Now you gotta keep them. You got to keep them,
and then they're they're they're gonna be worth something. One
day you can sell them to the Atlanta Vintage Books.
It'll be like, oh, look at this one from two
thousand and six. Oh it's meant.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Yeah, yeah, here, let me find one Theories of Personalities,
third edition worthless. Now I'm sure because the appendix changed.
This idea of college Board is interesting because there may
be an institute utional conspiracy at play the College Board.
(45:04):
What do we say about innocuous names they develop and
administer the standardized test not just used in higher education,
but in the curricula used from kindergarten to twelfth grade
to senior year of high school. These folks are making money.
Handover fist, Yeah, baby, I do. I still have a
(45:27):
stack of mine upstairs. I was looking at him the other.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Day, and it does feel like the ones that I've
kept around could be useful or have some kind of use,
you know. But I do remember, I think, did you
guys ever have to get an updated version while you
were in the class? So like you had a version
three or something.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
Addition for whatever?
Speaker 5 (45:48):
Ye yah, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Yeah, And that was like an extra sixty five seventy
five hundreds of dollars, Like it just depended on what
it was.
Speaker 5 (45:55):
Holton Nifflin.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Yeah, yeah, big textbook. That's the name of the episode.
It's got to be so. So, Grady is asking us
a question that a lot of people have probably thought
about lightly in the past. Grady, We're gonna paraphrase a
(46:21):
little bit of this for time, But you ask us,
why is a US public serving nonprofit keeping so much
of its profits outside of the United States. You point
to this particular issue, You say, I did find some
interesting articles talking about how the College Board apparently has
(46:45):
anywhere from get this, guys, two hundred and fifty million
to one point five six billion US dollars under management
in the Caribbean. So the US nonprofit that is in
charge of so many standardized tests, you know, they get
(47:09):
a little bolt hole out in the islands.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Is it Panama specifically down there somewhere?
Speaker 3 (47:16):
We'd have to look at the papers.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
They have some really nice banks down there.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
They've got some great banks, you know. I always think,
because we're all in love with the Caribbean now like
all of us, uh, Tennessee has been the most recently returned.
But uh, I think we could agree. You know, we
were sitting out there on a boat and we all
had that cool Ghostbusters look at the license plate moment,
(47:45):
and we said we should start a bank if podcasting
doesn't work.
Speaker 5 (47:48):
Out going down old Dimny Road.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
That's a reference. I love. We have more to say
about this. Grady has more to say about this. Grady
is giving this background. Gray do you say? College Board
underwent a regime change in twenty twelve when a new
CEO named David Coleman stepped in and many board members
left Coleman made over two million dollars last year, which
(48:16):
would be twenty twenty five, and most of the chief
executives made upward of five hundred thousand US dollars. A
little bit odd for a nonprofit. Yeah, jents tell me.
Speaker 5 (48:29):
A lot of profit to me, right, And I know
nonprofit it doesn't involve like making zero money.
Speaker 3 (48:37):
But that's just out of step with the stated goals.
Speaker 5 (48:41):
Of what a nonprofit typically should represent.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Yeah, I agree with you. On another note to Dovetail
that it's why we have a separate thing called not
for profit. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Wait a second, those two things are different.
Speaker 5 (48:56):
I think there's some slight differences in their bylaws or
in their Yeah, what's the word I'm looking for. You know,
they're they're charters.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
It's a ven diagram. Oh my gosh. We got to
get back to our accountains and say, oh, whoops, sorry, guys,
we were on a boat. It was crazy. We kind
of started a thing we meant not for profit. Oh god,
all right, we'll text.
Speaker 2 (49:24):
The Powell's coming for me. That's a different thing.
Speaker 3 (49:29):
Oh boy, They're all related, you know. At the top.
Speaker 5 (49:33):
Not for profits can be things like like professional groups,
you know, business leagues and social clubs and stuff like that,
whereas nonprofits typically have more abilities for tax deductions, and
they are meant to have a bit of a like
mission that benefits, you know, the greater good in the pubble,
which ones for cults.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
That's us. Let's just do the religion thing, guys, let's
cross that rube find. We've been dancing around it. I
think it's time, you know, I'll shave the mustache.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
I'm gonna say keep it. I mean, it's at this point.
Speaker 5 (50:13):
It'll be like when Alex Trebek shaved his mustache and
I lost all trust in the man. Now, I would
never lose trust in You've been but it would be jarring.
I've grown to really love that little guy.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
Yeh man, he is kind of perfect.
Speaker 7 (50:23):
Man.
Speaker 5 (50:24):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (50:25):
I got a weird chin. It works out, but we'll
will table that one. We want to go back to you, Grady,
because you point out that the ap exam has gone
up in price every year since twenty twenty to almost
one hundred dollars per test. Okay, so this is a
nonprofit with a ton of money in the Caribbean, and
(50:49):
the test remained largely the same. Right, the concept of
how they score and what they're looking for, but the
cost to the student and the students parents keeps increasing.
Did you guys ever take okay? Uh, thank you for
the subtitles there, Matt, Wait, is that you, Dylan?
Speaker 2 (51:13):
Yeah, I'm.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Okay, okay, well, I but I appeal for a different subtitle.
That'll be a joke for us. But but Noel, just
so you can see in the subtitle there you are
the chill cult leader, and Matt, you are the charismatic
cult leader. Yeah. Yeah, and I am currently in negotiations
(51:40):
with tennessee about that.
Speaker 5 (51:41):
Okay, forward to seeing how now that shakes out.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
Yeah, so say we all, Uh, this is a pretty
crazy question about about where the money goes because it
may be indeed, uh, I don't know, guys, it may
be a choke for opportunity of education. Like imagine you've
got brilliant kids, but you can't pay one hundred dollars
(52:08):
a pop for your kid to get the tests they need.
That's pretty crooked.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Well, that's not that's going to be the first and
no offense, but the tiniest hurdle that they'll face right
when you get into the secondary schools and like higher education, and.
Speaker 5 (52:24):
Are they're not scholarships that also cover maybe the cost
of some of those tests. But I guess that's the deal, right,
You're not necessarily going to get the scholarship unless you're
taking the tests.
Speaker 3 (52:32):
Yeah, that's the Yeah.
Speaker 5 (52:35):
But maybe let us know anybody out there in higher education.
Surely there must be organizations out there that will help,
you know, qualified students, you know, who have excellent grades
in school get what they need in terms of the
testing that will get them to the place where they will,
you know, get get a full ride if they're the
kind of student that would get one of those.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Is there a college book assistance program the way there
is fratuition?
Speaker 5 (53:00):
Yeah, it can be built into it will be a
stipend that will be built into certain types of scholarships.
Speaker 3 (53:05):
When we're going to write to you in full, Grady
at Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com, because you you've brought
up some fascinating statistics and one point we want to
leave you with here, folks, is the idea of endowments. Right.
Why has Why have endowments for a lot of storied
(53:27):
universities increased massively over time in step with the pay
for say the Dean or the president. And why have
the students not seen the advantages of those massive amounts
of money. Not to be all black Monday murders about it,
but something is happening with higher education.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
I guess it is good that we compensate the publishers
of the books that the learned folks sure create. Wait,
as long as the authors slash, you know, teachers, researchers, professors,
people who actually write the books. As long as they're
getting a nice bit of that money, I'm actually okay
(54:12):
with it. But if it's just the publisher doing their
thing in the Caribbean, like, man, this my tie is
so good? Aren't you glad we rose? We raised their
prises by twenty percent year every year.
Speaker 3 (54:25):
Cheers to all those young chumps in high school.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
Yeah, all right, professors out there writing giant tomes.
Speaker 3 (54:35):
Okay. McGraw hill says, we'll just change this one appendix
and then we'll we'll we'll get these folks for one
hundred and twenty five dollars that they don't have.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
Oh crap, the Cabana Fund is getting low, guys. Oh
my god, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (54:51):
It's just me, guys, but I just can't imagine that
being a textbook writer is like nearly as lucrative occupation
is being textbook publisher. I just don't know that kickdowns, kickbacks, whatever.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
But theoretically wouldn't a textbook creator be incredibly lucrative just
because it's required purchasing, right, it's built into the system.
Speaker 5 (55:15):
I just think they're getting paid a fee to write
the thing, and then the actual per unit that I mean,
I just don't know that they would have the leverage
unless it's like an incredibly niche that only one type
of individual could write, Like, if it's more broad, they're
going to find that they're not going to be paying
top dollars.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
West thunder Mifflin was around, so we could consult them
about paper press.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
That is what you guys. Oh I can I can
help us, just sus out a little bit of this.
We need your help, fellow academics. There is a dividing
line between professors. There are professors who will make you
buy the most recently updated textbook even if very little
(56:03):
is changed. The cool professors.
Speaker 2 (56:06):
Make you buy their own book.
Speaker 3 (56:09):
The cool professor. Okay, a couple of them did, and
they were cool, but they were kind of militant. I'm
just gonna be awesome. I'm gonna be honest about that.
Speaker 5 (56:18):
It doesn't appear that there are certain situations where if
you can command it, you might get a royalty.
Speaker 3 (56:24):
Right.
Speaker 5 (56:24):
Maybe, but typically it seems like these Reddit posts, it's
individuals that are getting paid salary or a per project. Yeah,
paper collected, referenced, bibliography and so on. But the really
cool professors, and I'm sure we can all agree with this,
the really cool professors are the ones who rock up
(56:47):
to your class and they say the publishing is a
grift in a conspiracy. I can't tell you officially that
this book is free at the library. I can't tell
you officially that the printer costs this much for page.
(57:07):
I can't tell you officially that we can hang out later.
Speaker 2 (57:14):
Don't do that. Don't do that.
Speaker 3 (57:15):
No, no professor, after hours. Oh my gosh. Come on,
all right, guys, we have just enough time for a
couple of letters from home. If it's okay, we got
to shout out Netflix. Are we all right with that?
Speaker 5 (57:32):
Yeah? We love Netflix.
Speaker 3 (57:34):
We sure do this. Coming Monday, January twenty sixth, you
will be able to hang out with us on Netflix.
Now if you want to give us a little attaboy,
we would love it if you hit the little look
us up on Netflix. Stuff they don't want you to know,
hit the little bell reminder, and then on Monday, January
(57:57):
twenty sixth, wherever it is is in your neck of
the woods, you're going to see us live and direct
with our two episodes a week. We also got to
shout out our hometown boy, the comedian Dedrick Flynn, who
recently got on Netflix himself and did a great job
(58:19):
on a on a thing called Kill Tony.
Speaker 2 (58:22):
Kill Today, a really quick actionable thing you could do
if you do open up your Netflix on whatever device
you've got. In the search bar, just type stuff. You'll
see us, stuff to blow the mind, stuff.
Speaker 3 (58:35):
Stuff, history class lass.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
You can hit the little bell that'll give you a
reminder when we launch on January twenty sixth, And I mean,
that's the best way to at least make sure you
don't miss it.
Speaker 5 (58:46):
Ring that bell as they ring that bell on another
platform which we shall not name.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
No, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (58:55):
We've got we've got some cool new cameras and lightning
stuff and you can be able to see our faces
and our you guys, little set pieces. It's a lot
of fun, and it's been a nice injection of new
energy into the show for the new year. So I'm
personally super loving and excited to bring these two full
episodes to y'all in video form every single week.
Speaker 3 (59:15):
Yeah, and I know we love that. We're returning to
our video roots where we got away with a lot
of cool, off color stuff. In the spirit of that,
we've got two quick things letters from home that we
just had to share. The following may not be appropriate
(59:37):
for all audiences. Being very biased, I gotta bring Chef
Ben back because he did a really cool joke, and
then we'll end with a really nice thing as well.
Are we ready?
Speaker 5 (59:52):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (59:52):
Oh yeah, Good morning fellows. This is Chef Ben in Chicago,
just listening to the Shrunken Head episode, and I'm proud
of you, guys. Took you a long long time to
get to a head joke, but Ben, you did it,
so really, this is for you. This isn't even for
the show because this is probably too off color for you, guys,
but you did make a reference to nobody likes bad head.
Head of course being the oral a gesture of love
(01:00:16):
between consenting adults. So here's the joke. I've got a
joke for you, guys. It goes like this, Hey, did
I ever tell you about the worst job I ever got?
Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
It was awesome.
Speaker 7 (01:00:26):
That's the whole joke. It's best told in a bar,
several beers deep. Have a good one, fellows. It's snow
in at Chicago and I'm driving really slow, so kind.
Speaker 5 (01:00:36):
Of board Chef Ben saucy boy?
Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
Can I get away with that?
Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
I like how he said it's probably not for the show.
Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
So no joke left behind, Thank you, chef, And yeah,
that is on the show now. So we're gonna end
this week's Strange News segment with a surprise for our
pal Tennessee Dylan Fagan. Man, We've we've got something for you.
(01:01:12):
We gotta we got a crazy route to bega pitch man,
and uh, we're just gonna play it, and if you
would be so kind, we would like to hear your, uh,
your honest reaction. Okay, so don't give us any guff, Dylan,
are you ready? I am ready give us the straight
bega on this. All right?
Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Okay, Hey, what's up, guys.
Speaker 7 (01:01:35):
It's spurring lane right here.
Speaker 6 (01:01:37):
You can use it if you want.
Speaker 9 (01:01:39):
It's not really something that I figured you want you
use on UH on the show. But so I'm like
catching up a little bit. I'm like seven months backlogs,
and UH just recently got into that thing where we
all do this like the Rude Bega thing, and one
of the episodes said, if you have any ideas for
the Rubega, just.
Speaker 7 (01:01:58):
Call in and give it.
Speaker 9 (01:01:59):
You know that song by Blue Swade, I think it's
called Hooked on Feeling. I think it's a cover, but
in the beginning they start off.
Speaker 7 (01:02:07):
Like Uga Choka Uga Choka.
Speaker 9 (01:02:09):
You could do you could have your boy do something
like rude of Big Rude of Vega and then have
then have like the Blue Swave music in the background
or like.
Speaker 7 (01:02:18):
Kick into it or something.
Speaker 9 (01:02:19):
But yeah, I just I just thought y'all might like that.
That kind of popped into my head, and I just
wanted to let you know I love what you guys do.
Speaker 6 (01:02:26):
I'll listen to you all the time.
Speaker 9 (01:02:27):
It's not a bad thing that I'm seven months back log.
I think I'm I'm up to like May twenty five
right now, and here it is December. So I just
listened to it all the time when I'm driving.
Speaker 7 (01:02:38):
From work and everything.
Speaker 9 (01:02:39):
But I appreciate what y'all do and take care of
if y'all have a very very merry Christmas, a happy
holiday and uh yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:02:47):
And a fine rude bega tu as well, what do
you think, Dylan, a weird dancing cgi.
Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
A dancing baby.
Speaker 5 (01:02:54):
Yeah, if you made it, we had, we'd have to
do an animation where he's a dancing rude of baby.
Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
I love it.
Speaker 8 (01:03:00):
So here here's the thing, like I want crowdsource rude
Vegas and I love this idea like we did a
rudebago a little while ago, and that was a suggestion
from I think listeners zvus Rex.
Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
So yeah, man, thank you, Thank you everybody, and thank
you Dylan for your yes, incredible skills in the rudebega field.
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (01:03:23):
I can't believe you all let me do this, but
it makes me very happy.
Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
So you're just the best man. Uga Chaka to you.
Happy rude bega, Mary, rude bega to everyone. Big thanks
to Grady, Big thanks of course, the Chef, Ben Spurvying,
Wayne Wright, Dedrick Flynn, Don Quixote, sc and the Babble Effect.
Most importantly, big thanks to you folks. We can't wait
(01:03:48):
to hear your uga chakas, your ruda begas. We can't
wait to hear your thoughts. Find us on the lines,
give us a call, send us an email.
Speaker 5 (01:03:58):
That's right. You can find us on all the social
medi platforms of note at either Conspiracy Stuff or Conspiracy
Stuff show New Era new CTA. That means cooling action.
We're tightening that one up a little bit. You can
also find us in other places.
Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
Use your phone, pick it up. Go ahead, pick up
the phone dial one eight three three st d wytk.
It will be a voicemail. Just you can figure it out.
You could do that if you want to send us
an email.
Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
We are the entities. Read each piece of correspondence we receive.
Be well aware, yet out afraid. Sometimes the void writes back,
uga chaka, uga chaka, uga chaka as for random fact,
and you shall receive. Join us out here in the
dark conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
Stuff they Don't Want you to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News
Hosts And Creators
Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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