February 15, 2024 • 47 mins
An anonymous listener shares the unpleasant consequences of Ben, Matt and Noel's prank from years ago. Scurvy Earl prompts a renewed, long-running conversation about the broken healthcare system. Rob asks for more information about Operation Overmatch. Emma H weirds Ben out with compliments, and JBB1351 responds with key information about cartels and US military ordnance. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noah.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Lexus code named Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly,
you are you. You are here. That makes this the
stuff they don't want you to know. It's the beginning
of February. It's actually the day after Valentine's Day, so
hope everything worked out for all those who celebrate. We
(00:49):
are going to hear some amazing correspondence from our friends
around the world. Before we do any of that, however,
we have a special announcement from an anonymous listener who
reached out to us. As you know, fellow conspiracy realist,
we like to release classic episodes every week. We recently
(01:11):
released a classic episode on asymmetrical warfare called the ghost
Net from twenty eighteen, and in that episode we played
a bit of a prank on our fellow conspiracy realist.
We had not heard anything about this prank for years
and years and years until quite recently. As a matter
(01:33):
of fact, last night before we recorded this episode, we
in how much context should we give here, guys?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I don know, man, I think I think you pretty
much just set the tone. But it was more like
the wee hours of the morning. It was like, what
three forty five am Standard time Eastern Center.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Time came through in my phone like one something I
don't know.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Okay, should we just read it?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Why don't you open it up?
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Matt.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Right, here's a dramatic reenactment of the email. Hey, guys,
I've listened to your show for over a decade. Now
I like to listen to the podcast as I fall asleep.
In the last episode, your jokes about Google's assistant caused
multiple devices in my house to go off. Multiple people
were woken up. The assistant would not stop freaking repeating
(02:22):
that they didn't understand you executed random commands. I have
to be at work in four hours and I'm not
gonna get another second of sleep. My boyfriend is not
able to go back to sleep. I'll never listen to
another episode. I'm freaking furious. Fuck you guys, freking idiots.
I can't convey the absolute insane level of outried hatred.
(02:47):
I have for you fting morons right now, few me,
here's my phone number.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And then four minutes later we receive another missive from
a non this like, seriously, you guys up these no loop,
inconsiderate pieces of I hope you have flat tires, wet
socks every second of every day for the rest of
your lives. Uttered nincompoops, nimrods, buffoons, knuckle draggers. I hope
(03:19):
you all's day tomorrow is as as ours will be. Facts.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Wow, that's flowery talk. Oh wow, I really.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Hope we bleeped all those those a lot of bleeps.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Oh, my goodness, points for creativity on the swears. First
of all, I mean my goodness.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Best Valentine's Day card ever.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Yeah, thank you, I mean a ten year listener and
this is all it takes.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Oh man, Well, you know, exercise and empathy is important.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, it stinks that that happened. Let's just really quickly
talk about something we discussed off air. Well, we made
this episode what do we call these things home assistance?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, in twenty eighteen, because we all listen back to
the episode to find the specific code for so spoilers
for anybody tuning into that this stuff Anonymous is referencing
occurs about twenty four minutes and thirty seconds in, and
it's pretty quick.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well, and Google Home had come out two years prior
to this episode releasing originally, right, this was a brand
new technology, a new piece of hardware that not a
lot of people had yet when we released that episode.
And I guess it's proliferated enough now that there's way
more of a chance that something like this could happen.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Well, I mean, I think the fact that we didn't
hear a peep about it for lo those many years
speaks to that very thing. Granted, we haven't heard many peeps.
This is the only very loud peep that we've heard,
but yeah, they're just everywhere now. And I can totally
understand how someone would be annoyed by this, But you know,
this isn't how we talk to our friends of ten years.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I love that this person put their phone number at
the end after signing purpose or.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Is it just like an automatic No, No, you're right
they did put it by hand, because it wasn't in
the reply. It's so funny.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
It feels like an impulsive reaction to something very unpleasant,
which unfortunately also proves our point about the growing ubiquity
of those devices and the fact that they are indeed
always listening.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Very true even while you're asleep and listening to this show. Emrods.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I haven't heard that one in a while. Income poops either.
Knuckle draggers is a fun one. That's a nice sent
in a very rich imagery. This guy's got a potential
career as a poet, second career. Hope you made it
work on time, though, I truly, I mean, we're being
a little silly about this because it is kind of funny,
but also like we never intended to, you know, to
(05:55):
do any harm, and I think none of us remember
this bit was even in there. Frankly, it's not like
writ large in the name of the episode, or like
you know, inherent within the topic of ghost Nat and Green.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, guys, should we celebrate by going to the phone lines? Well, yeah,
let's let's let's do here we go, let's hear a
message from Rob Rob.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
Hello, gentlemen, you can call me Rob. I'm from Central
Illinois on the way to work. Just heard something about
Operation Overmatch. This was put forth by mad Dog Matdow
and I think that you guys would be really interested
(06:40):
in finding out more about this. I am intrigued. Has
to do with next generation weaponry being green live with
billions and billions of extra dollars added to our budget
to make basically a bunch of gay guns and stuff
by the Wars of tomorrow today. It's really out uplifting
(07:05):
and uh, you know, I'm sure it hasn't happy. I
think somewhere around the corner wanted to fill you guys
in and wish you the best. It is rainy and
cold here in the Midwest, and it's such as usual
the armpit of America, Central Illinois. Love you, guys, Thanks
(07:26):
for all you to keep on keeping on.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Good day, good day, and good day to you, sir,
oh most certainly, I hope you're having a good day
in the place that you live that you seem to
dislike so much.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Now he put a woohoo in there, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
There was a woo Who I heard it all right, So, guys,
Operation Overmatch brought to us by mad Dog Madow. Is
that a gamer tag that I'm not aware of? Or
is he referring to Rachel Madow.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
I was thinking I was wondering the same thing Matt
is is it Rachel Maddow? But even more so, gamer
tag kind of makes sense given that nature of this.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Right, Hey, there we go.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Also, if you say it with enough of a draw,
it sounds like you're saying madow madaw.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yes, so ray guns, guys? Is that on the way?
Is that real? What is Operation Overmatch? Is this an
actual thing? Well? It is, And when you search around,
you're gonna get really confused because there's also Project Overmatch,
which is not the same thing.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Similar Overwatch, which is definitely not the same thing.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Nope, excellent game.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
There's also Overmatch, which is I think I think a
new feature on Tender Is there?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Really?
Speaker 4 (08:43):
It's like speed dating.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
They give you way too.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
You gotta pay extra. No, it's.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Okay. So let's talk about what Operation overmatches? Do you
guys remember a long time ago we talked about something
called America's Army is a video game.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
To be confused with America's Armbit exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
America's Army a video game that was created by the
US Army to essentially train and recruit folks to be
in the Army. Recruit folks to be in it, and
train them to function within it once they're there. So
the development organization, the game developers that created that game
also reportedly, starting in twenty seventeen, we're working on a
(09:28):
different type of game, a different type of combat simulation
that they titled Operation Overmatch. And in this simulation, at
least in the beginning in twenty seventeen, when it was started,
according to the US Department of Defense, they recruited like
one hundred people initially who were combat veterans, people who
(09:51):
already have seen combat. They got them to try out
this new simulator and within that simulator test out like
prototype weapons, theoretical weapons that the US Armies are in
d side and you know, probably DARPA and other organizations
connected to the Pentagon, what they would spend their time
(10:12):
and money on to develop. Basically, if these new types
or family, this new family of weapons functioned really well
for these actual members of the armed forces in that simulation,
then maybe they would work really well in an actual
field of battle. Right. Fascinating concept. Fascinating concept. But I
(10:35):
haven't seen anything written anywhere that says Operation Overmatch, this
concept of testing out prototype weapons in a virtual environment
has moved in any way to a real environment. I
don't know if you guys have seen anything. I haven't
seen anything written about that.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Well, I don't understand why would it. Isn't it sort
of meant to be the sort of like virtual program.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Or so Operation Overmatch Action is a simulated environment. Does
that make sense? What the way that Rob was speaking
about it made it seem as though it's actually testing
things like regulars and future weapons prototypes. So the question here,
I think is has it moved since twenty seventeen when
(11:19):
the project was beginning from the virtual environment to the
real environment or.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Is it a thing where the game players rating or
experience with This just enables the real world version of
the project to be greenlit under a different name, so
that it's like no longer attached to Operation Overmatch.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Oh yeah, you guys remember that Robin Williams movie Toys
from the nineties. Oh lord, Yes, Well there's a whole
thing where the company wouldn't make war toys. And then
like the creator of the company dies and his brother
comes in to run it, and he's this like war
hawkish general and they make all these crazy war things.
And as part of the movie where there's kid's playing
video games and they're actually like controlling real war machines,
(12:04):
you know, like perhaps that's something like there were these
This is pivoting to maybe being a remote controllable you know,
video game operation of drones or something I don't.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Know, or shot injurs game. Just get in front of
the emails if we don't mention an injuries game unclear.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Just I see the connections there. The what did they
call it? They've got a really great name for it.
They talk about it here early synthetic prototyping, Early synthetic prototyping.
So again like what the name says, right, it's early
stages prototyped weapons. Theoretically a laser gun. Let's say, like,
(12:44):
what if we could make a laser gun? How would
that work? How would it function if you're in a
cover situation, right, and you're firing at someone who's you know,
X yards away and they're elevated in their position. Would
it actually work in that way or would it not?
Would that weapon be good if it was attached to
an APC, right, or some kind of vehicle. Would that
(13:07):
weapon be better if it was in a helicopter? Right?
This is me spitballing and imagining what it would be
like is. I've played a lot of video games, and
I've played with a lot of different weird weapons in
virtual environments.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I wonder if they do loop crates someone.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I doubt it.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Do, but that might be too much fun. I mean,
it does make sense, though it doesn't it just from
a procedural standpoint or the order of operations of development,
because now you're potentially saving a lot of time and
money because you don't have to actually physically build out
the thing. You just have to build software that represents it.
(13:49):
And then maybe maybe it's a faster way to identify
like perks or problems or stumbling blocks before you actually
get to, you know, creating your handheld rail.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Gun or whatever. Well, think about how much money you
would spend in the R and D phases to create
something like a functional handheld laser weapon, a ray gun
or whatever you want to call it, a rail gun
that could actually be attached to a jeep, you know,
or a hum vy or something like that. That's we're
we're talking millions, if not billions of dollars to research, develop,
(14:26):
and then produce that thing. And if you find out
it doesn't work, by running the simulation a bunch of times.
Oh god, this simulation. I can't have another sleepless night
guys thinking about how I'm not real. Okay, I don't know,
(14:46):
you're super real. You're super real.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Definitely keeps it real.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
When keeping it real goes wrong.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I don't like people playing on my phone.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Nobody does. And don't change the radio in my car
when I'm driving.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Okay, sorry, we have Okay, let me just put this
out there. There's a lot. Actually, there's not that much
to discuss here. It's you can find a bunch of
cool writing on it back from twenty seventeen. I would
recommend the Atlantics piece titled The Video Game That Could
Shape the Future of War by Aiden Dobkin, that was
(15:24):
written in October twenty six, twenty seventeen. You can find
that and read it right now. It's a cool look
at it. You can also find a lot of official
writing from the DoD on their website, on National Defense's
website and Army Dot Mill, the official website of the
US Army, very very cool stuff. You can learn more
(15:45):
about the developers as well. It's called the Army Game
Studio And I'm going to read you, guys really quickly,
how they describe it on Army Dot Mill. The Army
Games Studio located at the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command,
Aviation and Missile Centers, Software Simulations, Systems, Engineering and Integration Directorate.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Take a breath, good Gravy, I can see you turning blue.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
It's best known for creating America's Army, the official video
game of the US Army.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Do you guys remember when I say that text When
I was at like TJ Max and they had these
like Army like branded toys, you know, like there were
tanks and aircraft carriers, and it was like official US
Army merch. I wonder if that's part of this like
similar kind of program. This is very unusual.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Well, this one is specifically for for like training purposes.
This one, so America's Army is for training and recruitment
kind of thing. This one is specifically for prototyping with
active soldiers. Mostly active soldiers, right, people who have actually
you know, they know what it's like to take fire
from an elevated position. So when they're in the game,
(16:55):
they're like, Okay, this is these are the tactics I
would use the guys that I'm with, and how we
would position ourselves and then with these new weapons, what
can we do right? The other thing to look up
if you have some time is Project over Match. This
one has to do with the Navy, and this one
(17:16):
is all about data collection and data sharing when operating
on the high seas. Or it's a little more sush.
You can find a great article in Popular Mechanics that
was written last year in April titled Everything we Know
about Project Overmatch, the Navy's secret maritime program. I would
(17:41):
highly recommend you check it out. This is what the
article says, quote. The project is part of the Pentagon's
multi billion dollar joint All Domain Command and Control effort,
which is intended to establish seamless communication and give warships
better awareness of adversaries at sea. Cool. Basically, they want
to have a better understanding of where the other ships
(18:04):
and submarines are right, and planes and probably spacecraft because
space is now one of the domains that is included
in that all domain what title. Weird stuff, guys, But
I think it's time to take a break, hear a
word from our sponsor and contemplate everything we've learned. Thank you, Rob,
I will not sleep tonight. We'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
And we've returned with another piece of listener mail, this
one with zero swears. Zero swears in this one from
Scurvy Earl, which is a really great nickname. And I
know we say all the nicknames are great, but they
really are. Most of them are truly, truly creative. So
we'll jump right in. Hey boys, scurvy Earl here, I
(18:54):
have some thoughts about the US healthcare system I wanted
to share. Have you ever noticed how doctors really only
tree symptoms and never the root cause? Why, yes, scurvy Earl,
I do believe we have. I'll give you an example.
Say you go to your primary care physician because you've
been dealing with a bad bout of depression. The doctor
is going to probably ask you a few vague questions,
then go right into prescribing some meds. We got some
(19:17):
lexapro that I'll fix you right up in no time.
Might make the giggle stick stop working, but we got
cialis for that too. Or say you've been feeling super
low energy and find out your thyroid isn't functioning properly.
This is actually very close to home for me, Scurvy Earl,
because I've been through this exact situation, and I am,
in fact taking said meds for the rest of my life.
(19:38):
Bad news. You got hypothyroidism. Not sure why, but there's
some thyroid compounds you'll have to take for the rest
of your life. But your thyroid will be purring like
a kitten in no time. I don't know what my
thyroid's doing. I don't really ever hear it purring much.
But I'm being hyperbolic, he says, But you get it.
I think the cause of this issue is multi dimensional.
Let's start with the hospitals. Institutions are here to help people,
(20:01):
but also, and maybe more importantly, to the board, to
make a stupid amount of money. IU Health, the largest
healthcare conglomerate in my dear home state of Indiana, had
a profit just shy of one billion dollars in twenty
twenty two. That's one billion left over after all operating expenses.
(20:23):
Hospitals aren't allowing doctors the time to sit with a
patient and dig a little deeper into the health story.
You go to an appointment and the doctor talks with
you five to ten minutes fifteen tops, then they are
off to the next patient. Because number of patient appointments
a day equals dollars in the piggy bank. Then there's
the whole relationship between ordering providers, hospitals, and drug reps.
(20:46):
It always has rubbed me the wrong way whenever I
see reps creeping around the medical offices slash hospitals, same
vibes I get with lobbyists to be honest man man
after our own heart, my own bias, no doubt. Also,
I think that the schools of medicine don't teach the
new doctors new ways of practicing medicine, just doing the
(21:08):
same old thing that's always been done, because that's just
how it goes. Then my final point is the general
stereotype of holistic healthcare and homeopathic medicine. Most people, physicians
and general public alike view this type of medicine as
either quack new agy or just for hippies. Because of
these stereotypes, there doesn't seem to ever be funding to
(21:30):
do some high level research into some of the medical
claims that homeopathic practitioners believe in. In my opinion, seems like
a bit of a conspiracy between healthcare and pharmaceutical companies
to keep the population medicated instead of cured. Why cure
someone when you could have a lifelong consumer of your products. Anyway,
(21:51):
big fan of the show, Cuba, great work, guys, Midwest
sends its best, Scurvy Earl, oh Man, Bang Bang Bang
bang bag. This is stuff we've talked about over the years,
and you know, we certainly have done episodes on big pharma,
the cozy relationship between pharmaceutical reps and the healthcare system.
The idea like do cures exists that they're keeping from us.
(22:12):
Maybe that's like a bit, you know, on the extreme
end of the spectrum. But I just think all of
our eyes are lighting up with one after the other
of these points that Scurvy Earl here is making.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, it's weird because in a lot of other countries
that one billion dollar profit the scurvy Earl, and we
do hope you get that scurvy taking care of At
some point, Earl, that profit would not exist, right, You
would have operating expenses that would be paid in tax dollars. Generally,
that's how we function correct me if I'm wrong, there
(22:43):
anybody out there listening. But I think that's how it
works most of the world over. You pay in collectively
and you get healthcare.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
And we pay plenty. Let me tell you in terms
of taxes here in this country and are always you know,
railing online what exactly we get and we don't know
where it goes in terms of what government projects it's funding,
you know, what military pursuits, what have you. And we
certainly do not feel that it goes to providing quality
(23:14):
of life, you know, guarantees for our loved ones, you know,
and our families.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
And the response is, well, do you want ray guns
or do you want to take care of that problem
you're having with your thyroid? You know, I'm just joking.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
That's like, yeah, there's a scurvy earl. You're absolutely correct.
This is something that we have, we have clocked for years,
and it's something that global experts largely agree on. You know,
we can't blame anybody who perhaps is a little bit
(23:47):
too credulous about some hyperbolic cure because the reality is
from a from a budgetary standpoint, it makes sense that
a large for profit entity would rather have someone subscribe
to a service than by a one time cure, you know,
make your quality of life something like a monthly Netflix bill.
(24:10):
We do have to say we've heard from some people
on the inside of what we'd loosely call big pharma,
and they have made the point that especially for some
very high value, widespread diseases or conditions, if a pharmaceutical
company did have a cure, logically they would probably bring
(24:30):
it to market because it would be an absolute windfall
for them. But it does seem that there is a
lot of the question is how much emphasis does a
system put on preventative care versus treating something after the fact? Right, Like,
there's not to the point, there's not a lot of
(24:51):
impetus in privatized insurance systems for preventative care. There's a
lot of lip service for it, but it doesn't it
doesn't get widely supported. And without going to political everybody
should check out Project twenty twenty five because one of
the big things for Project twenty twenty five is the
(25:14):
unprecedented acceleration of privatized healthcare for people who would ordinarily
be on Medicare in the United States. And I feel like,
you know, I feel like even just say medicare kind
of makes people's eyes glaze over and turns it into
a snoozefest. But it is a really important thing.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Is it? Project twenty twenty five the one that's just
trying to push Republican younger Republican candidates into like local
positions and move them up the ladder in governmental positions.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And give them marching orders on behalf of the Heritage
Foundation and one of the primary planks there is to
make all Medicare enrollment default to privatized plans. I know,
I know, right again, it's bad news. People don't talk
about it because it's boring. But this idea of prescribing
(26:08):
a medicine that treats a symptom but then also creates
a symptom like that excellent what was it, lexapro sialis,
and then that thing that treats a symptom creates a
side effect that has to be treated with something else
that creates.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
A side effect for every ill and even a pill
for the pills.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Ills and ill with every pill. You know what I mean.
It is I think a known problem, and it's weird
because we get into this kind of black box situation,
Like obviously we don't want to think of people working
in these industries as sort of like ghoulish monsters planning
(26:50):
to keep folks sick and addictive. But you could say
it's part of the larger move we see throughout the
West to rob people of the right to ownership society
and make everyone an unending subscriberber.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, well it all it's all competition, right guys. I mean, ultimately,
that's what it comes down to. Each one of those
consultants we're talking about, this shows up. They're competing against
the other consultants from the other drug companies, right and
all the healthcare organizations are competing against the other ones
to get more business.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
And that's why it you know, I mean it should
be public. Let me see whatever. Look, we're not here
to propose a new system exactly, but it does feel like,
you know, and whatever big government being what it is,
you know, it can be its own problem. But it
does feel like when you have that marketplace mentality. Well
you're talking about, Matt, the competition, you know, the rivalries,
(27:44):
all of that stuff, and the very accurately depicted in
the email lobbying esque kind of pharma reps, it's not
in the best interest of the consumer. But then people
that are proposing to the system say, no, this is
exactly what makes it in the best interest of the consumer,
because this competition yields better quality stuff. But I just
don't buy that, man, I just don't.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
But to Men's point, they're each individual person, as you're saying,
we're not aligning anybody individually. Each individual person is just
competing in their own lane, right, So they're not doing
anything wrong, especially in their own eyes. They're just they're
doing the thing they're supposed to do, and they're doing
it as best as they can.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
So are the Nazis. I'm being a jerk, but I'm
just saying, following orders, you know, you're part of the system. Look,
I'm not saying health caver reviders are like Nazis. I'm
just saying it's like a it's a slippery slope, you know,
if you're saying, I was just doing what I was told.
But it's impossible to be a part of the system
if you don't play by those rules. So I don't know.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I read this old Turkish proverb recently that I had
never encountered before, and it said the forest is dwindling
because the trees keep getting chopped down, and they keep
voting for the axe because the axe has a wooden handle.
I think it's one of them.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 7 (29:02):
That's good, be right, But It is true though, that
when we're talking about these systemic problems, we're talking about
things that don't necessarily have an easy instant fix, and
that's what people want.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
We want an easy instant fix, and we have to
look at the stakes that people look. Every time I
hear a politician of any stripe touting the benefits of
things that seem clearly against the interest of the public,
one of my first questions is who's funding them? Right,
(29:43):
who pay for that campaign, what fundraisers are they going to?
And quite often we have to admit, in the US,
privatized healthcare has a lot of pull. They invest a
lot of the money they take from the premiums and
the various like employer dependent deals, they take a lot
(30:04):
of that profit and they put it right back into
DC and they've had excellent results with that. The problem
is those excellent results for those companies do not seem
to bear or do not seem to translate into excellent
results for the American public using those healthcare plans.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Also, when we see the results of things like what
happened with Purdue Pharma, you know, and we know that
they were put how hard they were pushing, and how
hard those reps were pushing, and how susceptible the healthcare
system and the providers were to being pushed in that way.
That makes us extra suspicious of this kind of stuff continuing.
I don't know, that's it.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I yield my time, get THEMN booster shots, boys steal
my coffee.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
And went every quarter. Hey, you can subscribe for Booster plus.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Booster Max. It is weird because we do in the
United States, We really do have this like leveled system
for health care. It depends on what you can afford initially, right,
and then what can you afford over time? And then
you have to decide, now, what can I afford? What
do I think I can afford? How healthy do I
(31:12):
think I'm gonna be in the next year? How healthy
is my family gonna be? It should be okay, I
think I can exist on this level this year. But
you're literally gambling and that something comes up and then
you're trapped in debt for the rest of your life.
But not only are you trapped, all of the people
that come after you and your family lion are trapped
(31:32):
in that medical debt because it don't go away unless
you do a really cool thing like did you hear
about New York's awesome move they made. There's a nonprofit
that was working with the City of New York and
they erased the medical debt of tens of thousands of people.
It was incredible.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
I'm wondering. I've been counseled by when my mother passed away,
by some folks who are smarter than me, saying that
they couldn't come after me for her medical debt because
of the way we out with her estates and whatever. Again,
this is above my pay grade. But yeah, I hope
I don't need to rethink that, because she definitely passed
away with you know, some some medical debt.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
You shouldn't be culpable for that.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
No, But it depends. That's the scary thing. I think.
It depends what state are you in, how good of
an estate planner slash you know, whoever's dealing with finances
at the end of someone's life, how much information was collected,
and how much was preemptively set aside right for when
that occurs, if you're caught unawares in a situation like that,
(32:35):
especially if someone gets very sick right and then is
very sick and needs to be hospitalized for a long time.
It can be a horrible situation for an entire family. Man,
I'm obviously emotionally right going through that with someone who's sick,
but then the bills that can come afterwards, it can
destroy an individual or a family.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Absolutely, Absolutely, am I supposed to like reach out to
my mom's debtors, Like.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I'm overstating. I'm overstating on purpose, like.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
A hyperbolically in my head about.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
This, because they, depending on the situation, they can pull
that and then if you don't have a good attorney
or somebody who's on your side that is really good
with money, then you can get raked.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Basically, what they try to do is they try they
use intimidation.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
And it goes down. Well, if you just give us this,
we'll leave you alone.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
It has already been sold sold to a party, so
they're on commission. They're sleep so gross, so gross, you guys.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
It's like mafioso tactics. It's bad.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
You're safe, man.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
Yes, this is all I think on Mike, because this
is this is our country. This sucks. It's like that
we have to worry about this stuff, you know. Not
not to mention the treatment aspect that is subpar in
the first place, then you have to deal with all
of this crazy amount of rapacious debt.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I'd love to hear from everybody who has been in
these similar situations, because this is definitely predatory.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Right.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
We've outlined several circumstances in which this is which encounter
provable predatory conspiracies. Right, it's so easy to lose ourselves
in the noise of like political affiliation or these ideologies
of you know, what is or is not correct behavior,
(34:30):
But the reality of it is that the system is broken.
I likewise yield my time.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, I got it to say.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
I'm on the edge of being emotional about this stuff
now that we've gone the full gamut with it.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
Oh, we've got a nice one we can end on.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
I think that's probably a good idea. Why don't we
take a quick break and then we'll come back with
a nice one.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
And we have returned. First, we're going to hear from
JBB thirteen fifty one, just a quick note, an excellent
response to our conversation about the cozy relationship cartels have
with us hardware. Don't worry, guys, this is not the
nice one yet. This is just an important announcement. Our
(35:18):
pal JBB, who is the creator of a podcast called
Federal Bites, noticed something that I realized we didn't point
out the ATFS operation Fast and Furious, also known as
the gun Walking scandal. We had talked about this in
previous episodes, but we didn't mention the conspiracy that JBB
(35:43):
points out, which is even today there are long running
questions over whether the DEA and the Sonola drug cartel
made a secret conspiratorial deal to run hardware. Because one
of our big questions, of course, was yes, it is
technically possible to have a huge network of people right
(36:07):
going through gray market buying, buying heavy and convenient to
purchase hardware, knowing there's a certain rate of attrition and
counting on a certain percentage of those folks to get
away and move the hardware. But that's so many moving parts,
it just seems somewhat implausible, Right, It'd.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Be more likely there'd be a direct conduit, right.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
I mean, that's that would be the easier way to
do it. If we asked chat GPT, chat GPT with
us to make friends with the DEA, Right.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
The red button who cares.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Right escally in an unpredictable way, never let them see
you coming. So we just wanted to say shout out
to JBB on that we have talked about fast Furious
in the past, but we definitely want to draw attention
to that in the conversation whenever you're hearing this news,
because it is a piece that needs to be there.
So thank you JBB. Here's the fun one, A bit
(37:01):
of a conversation. Dear Ben, Nol and Matt. Hello, my
name is Emma and I'm a twenty three year old
new nurse and recent college graduate. Congratulations, Emma, nurses are
the good nurses are some of the good guys, as
we say, so, thank you for helping save the world.
Emma says, I'm a huge fan of the podcast. I'm
extremely passionate about politics. I love learning. I have begun
(37:23):
to try to spark my own change by writing to
my congress folks when I feel particularly moved on a
subject such as the mental health field. While I wish
I had a cool conspiracy to inform you all of
I come with questions how did you all come to
be as informed as you are? The more I listen,
I realize how big the world truly is. And there's
(37:45):
so many things I don't know. I aspire to make
systemic change in the healthcare world someday using my own
experiences as a nurse and hopefully someday as a doctor.
Don't worry, Emma, You're going to get there. I am
truly inspired by the research you do for your show
and wish to continue on and expanding my own worldview,
be those conspiracies or whatnot. I understand you all are
(38:07):
busy and just appreciate you taking the time to read
my email. Thank you so much for the wonderful content
you provide. We'll call you nurse Emma. So one thing.
First off, thank you so much for the kind note.
I'm pretty confident, at least in my reply here. How
did you all come to be as informed as you are?
I am one of the least informed people I have
(38:28):
ever met. There's so much stuff I have no idea.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
About, Like, well, I got to know what you don't know?
But I mean it's his repetition, is what does it?
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Just as Emma heard the conversation we have where all
three of us tried with middling success to understand how
magnets work.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, Wow, you're.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
Making self deprecating then, and I do appreciate it, but
I would argue that you're much more informed than you
give yourself.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
What for listen to this week's Strange News episode and
hear me attempt to describe the large Hadron collider in
particle physics. Good luck understanding any of that, because I
don't understand it. But the cool thing, Emma. Honestly, just
to be serious about this, we have been tremendously lucky
for over ten years, and for Ben and I much
(39:14):
longer than that. We have been tasked with learning things
to then take that information. And I was going to say,
regurgitate it, speak speak what we have learned into a
camera or microphone. Right, That's been our job to take
in information and say it back, particularly in a way
(39:35):
that is more easily understandable than very complicated maybe jargon
that would exist within a specific set of knowledge. Right,
we are.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Professional novices, exactly.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
I think that it reminds me too of one of
the one of the things that always stayed with me is,
you know, the mark of great understanding of something, and
many human areas have said this. The mark of great
understanding of something is to be able to explain it
in an understandable way, in a simple, uncomplicated way. And
(40:10):
so a lot of what we have done is I
think most important thing we could say. In any field
of study, any industry, any personal interest, the main differentiator
between the great learners and the dabblers is that you
must be passionately, unendingly curious. Yes, you should be incredibly
(40:34):
excited when you don't know something, and the world is
both understandable and worth understanding. Stole our life from our.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
Exactly, So flick with it.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It's so slick with it.
Speaker 4 (40:46):
And the moment you think you know everything is the
moment you're kind of of no use to anybody because
you don't. It's not possible, and uh, you're probably going
to come off as insufferable, and you just you're doing
you're shooting yourself in the foot by closing yourself off
to new experiences and new perspectives, you know. So I
just I think we always talk about two about being
(41:08):
self aware, and again, like I was saying a minute ago,
knowing what you know and knowing what you don't know
and what you have left to learn, and just being
a lifetime learner and just always being open to new
perspectives and new experiences, and we're very lucky we get
to do this. We're grateful that. We're grateful to you
for listening and for first of all, speaking so kindly
and highly about what we do. And it means the
(41:29):
world to hear that.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
I thought this was a nice book end given.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
YEA give an emotion a little different way.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Now. Yeah, we're just a bunch of curious little cat
boys and we're just out here batting away.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
You know, I know that come out. I'm like a
dog with a ball.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
This is the this is the fun horrible joker.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
That's great. This this is.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
The funniest thing to ema or one of the most
fun things I should say. Uh, when we hang out
with our cohort, you can ask anybody what's one weird
unusual fact you heard this week, and it'll be any
number of things. And the four of us doc holiday
and all that. Myself, we all come from pretty different
(42:13):
backgrounds and so we have a we have different worldviews,
we have different areas of expertise, and we I think
it's safe to say, I don't know how often it
happens for you guys, I think it's safe to say
we often lean on each other and say like, hey,
what do you think about this? Or what is this thing?
And we do that with everybody. I don't know if
(42:36):
you can do that with everybody you meet, if you
can without falling into platitudes, If you can treat everyone
you meet as a teacher, then you're gonna find they
have something to teach you. And then that is the
best way to be informed, especially if you disagree with
some of those people.
Speaker 4 (42:55):
And the three of us each have our own kind
of flavor that we bring to the conversation and the
our own particular little realms of curiosity. There's a lot
of overlap, sure, but I mean, I think the reason
that it's fun that we have all three of us
on the show is that we're able to kind of
have this holistic representation and maybe a lot of questions
that folks in the audience have because we're asking the
(43:16):
same questions you are.
Speaker 6 (43:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
There you go, And I think it's appropriate to have
to have us end on this email. Emma, I'm keeping
my time here pretty short tonight because you are a
healthcare professional, right and the pandemic has proved to us
something that was obvious to healthcare professionals well before the
(43:38):
rest of the world caught on, which is that it's
often a thankless job, right and unfortunately the good guy
jobs are often thankless jobs. So with that, I want
you to know everybody working in the medical field in
any capacity, we are grateful that you are here, and
(44:00):
we know you have war stories. Dudes, tell us tell
us the stuff inside the medical industry that they don't
want you to know. I got to tell you. One
of the biggest hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia is Grady. Grady
Hospital has a bit of a reputation. It's one of
the top burn wards in the country.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
Is Shady Grady. Nobody calls it that. I think I
maybe made that up. Maybe someone's called also used.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
To be home to one of the most surreal McDonald's
that I've ever visited, and I've been to a lot
of McDonald's.
Speaker 4 (44:31):
But also, can we point out that it's weird that
in the United States there are McDonald's and hospitals that's
a little weird.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Like next to it. But it's like I was in there.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Are the Children's hospital in fact, and there was a
McDonald's for the longest and maybe it's still there, but
it's a little you know.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
So yeah, I was in line behind people, probably should
have still been in the hospital.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
So having these.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Friends in Grady, I got to tell you one thing
you will find, Emma, as your continue to pursue the
field of medicine, your sense of humor is going to change.
I don't want to spoil it too much, but get ready,
your sense of humor is going to take a turn.
And speaking of taking a turn, we're going to turn
(45:18):
the page on tonight's program. We will be back next
evening with even more stuff they don't want you to know.
Thank you to Emma, Thank you to Scrivy Earl, thank
you to Rob, thank you to JBB, and of course
thank you to Anonymous. We hope that you join the
show with us in the future. We try to be
(45:38):
easy to find.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
Online, correct Wendo. You can find us at the handle
Conspiracy Stuff on Facebook, x FKA, Twitter and YouTube, where
there's tons of great video content coming at you every
single week. You can find it to the handle Conspiracy
Stuff Show. However, on Instagram and Dick doc.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
We do a quick spin on the words of our
initial emailer. Here in this episode, we cannot convey the
absolute insane levels of outright love we have for you,
you fantastic human. We hope you have full tires and
dry socks every second of every day for the rest
of your lives. Wow, that was really nice.
Speaker 6 (46:16):
Man.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Hey, if you want to call and say something nice
or mean, I guess call one eight three three STDWYTK.
That's our voicemail system. You've got three minutes. Give yourself
a cool nickname and let us know if we can
use your name and message on the air. If you've
got more to say than can fit in that message,
why not instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
We are the people who read every single email we
get conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Stuff they don't want you to know. Is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noah.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Lexus code named Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly,
you are you. You are here. That makes this the
stuff they don't want you to know. It's the beginning
of February. It's actually the day after Valentine's Day, so
hope everything worked out for all those who celebrate. We
(00:49):
are going to hear some amazing correspondence from our friends
around the world. Before we do any of that, however,
we have a special announcement from an anonymous listener who
reached out to us. As you know, fellow conspiracy realist,
we like to release classic episodes every week. We recently
(01:11):
released a classic episode on asymmetrical warfare called the ghost
Net from twenty eighteen, and in that episode we played
a bit of a prank on our fellow conspiracy realist.
We had not heard anything about this prank for years
and years and years until quite recently. As a matter
(01:33):
of fact, last night before we recorded this episode, we
in how much context should we give here, guys?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I don know, man, I think I think you pretty
much just set the tone. But it was more like
the wee hours of the morning. It was like, what
three forty five am Standard time Eastern Center.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Time came through in my phone like one something I
don't know.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Okay, should we just read it?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Why don't you open it up?
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Matt.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Right, here's a dramatic reenactment of the email. Hey, guys,
I've listened to your show for over a decade. Now
I like to listen to the podcast as I fall asleep.
In the last episode, your jokes about Google's assistant caused
multiple devices in my house to go off. Multiple people
were woken up. The assistant would not stop freaking repeating
(02:22):
that they didn't understand you executed random commands. I have
to be at work in four hours and I'm not
gonna get another second of sleep. My boyfriend is not
able to go back to sleep. I'll never listen to
another episode. I'm freaking furious. Fuck you guys, freking idiots.
I can't convey the absolute insane level of outried hatred.
(02:47):
I have for you fting morons right now, few me,
here's my phone number.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And then four minutes later we receive another missive from
a non this like, seriously, you guys up these no loop,
inconsiderate pieces of I hope you have flat tires, wet
socks every second of every day for the rest of
your lives. Uttered nincompoops, nimrods, buffoons, knuckle draggers. I hope
(03:19):
you all's day tomorrow is as as ours will be. Facts.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Wow, that's flowery talk. Oh wow, I really.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Hope we bleeped all those those a lot of bleeps.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Oh, my goodness, points for creativity on the swears. First
of all, I mean my goodness.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Best Valentine's Day card ever.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Yeah, thank you, I mean a ten year listener and
this is all it takes.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Oh man, Well, you know, exercise and empathy is important.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, it stinks that that happened. Let's just really quickly
talk about something we discussed off air. Well, we made
this episode what do we call these things home assistance?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, in twenty eighteen, because we all listen back to
the episode to find the specific code for so spoilers
for anybody tuning into that this stuff Anonymous is referencing
occurs about twenty four minutes and thirty seconds in, and
it's pretty quick.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well, and Google Home had come out two years prior
to this episode releasing originally, right, this was a brand
new technology, a new piece of hardware that not a
lot of people had yet when we released that episode.
And I guess it's proliferated enough now that there's way
more of a chance that something like this could happen.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Well, I mean, I think the fact that we didn't
hear a peep about it for lo those many years
speaks to that very thing. Granted, we haven't heard many peeps.
This is the only very loud peep that we've heard,
but yeah, they're just everywhere now. And I can totally
understand how someone would be annoyed by this, But you know,
this isn't how we talk to our friends of ten years.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I love that this person put their phone number at
the end after signing purpose or.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Is it just like an automatic No, No, you're right
they did put it by hand, because it wasn't in
the reply. It's so funny.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
It feels like an impulsive reaction to something very unpleasant,
which unfortunately also proves our point about the growing ubiquity
of those devices and the fact that they are indeed
always listening.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Very true even while you're asleep and listening to this show. Emrods.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I haven't heard that one in a while. Income poops either.
Knuckle draggers is a fun one. That's a nice sent
in a very rich imagery. This guy's got a potential
career as a poet, second career. Hope you made it
work on time, though, I truly, I mean, we're being
a little silly about this because it is kind of funny,
but also like we never intended to, you know, to
(05:55):
do any harm, and I think none of us remember
this bit was even in there. Frankly, it's not like
writ large in the name of the episode, or like
you know, inherent within the topic of ghost Nat and Green.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, guys, should we celebrate by going to the phone lines? Well, yeah,
let's let's let's do here we go, let's hear a
message from Rob Rob.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
Hello, gentlemen, you can call me Rob. I'm from Central
Illinois on the way to work. Just heard something about
Operation Overmatch. This was put forth by mad Dog Matdow
and I think that you guys would be really interested
(06:40):
in finding out more about this. I am intrigued. Has
to do with next generation weaponry being green live with
billions and billions of extra dollars added to our budget
to make basically a bunch of gay guns and stuff
by the Wars of tomorrow today. It's really out uplifting
(07:05):
and uh, you know, I'm sure it hasn't happy. I
think somewhere around the corner wanted to fill you guys
in and wish you the best. It is rainy and
cold here in the Midwest, and it's such as usual
the armpit of America, Central Illinois. Love you, guys, Thanks
(07:26):
for all you to keep on keeping on.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Good day, good day, and good day to you, sir,
oh most certainly, I hope you're having a good day
in the place that you live that you seem to
dislike so much.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Now he put a woohoo in there, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
There was a woo Who I heard it all right, So, guys,
Operation Overmatch brought to us by mad Dog Madow. Is
that a gamer tag that I'm not aware of? Or
is he referring to Rachel Madow.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
I was thinking I was wondering the same thing Matt
is is it Rachel Maddow? But even more so, gamer
tag kind of makes sense given that nature of this.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Right, Hey, there we go.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Also, if you say it with enough of a draw,
it sounds like you're saying madow madaw.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yes, so ray guns, guys? Is that on the way?
Is that real? What is Operation Overmatch? Is this an
actual thing? Well? It is, And when you search around,
you're gonna get really confused because there's also Project Overmatch,
which is not the same thing.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Similar Overwatch, which is definitely not the same thing.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Nope, excellent game.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
There's also Overmatch, which is I think I think a
new feature on Tender Is there?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Really?
Speaker 4 (08:43):
It's like speed dating.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
They give you way too.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
You gotta pay extra. No, it's.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Okay. So let's talk about what Operation overmatches? Do you
guys remember a long time ago we talked about something
called America's Army is a video game.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
To be confused with America's Armbit exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
America's Army a video game that was created by the
US Army to essentially train and recruit folks to be
in the Army. Recruit folks to be in it, and
train them to function within it once they're there. So
the development organization, the game developers that created that game
also reportedly, starting in twenty seventeen, we're working on a
(09:28):
different type of game, a different type of combat simulation
that they titled Operation Overmatch. And in this simulation, at
least in the beginning in twenty seventeen, when it was started,
according to the US Department of Defense, they recruited like
one hundred people initially who were combat veterans, people who
(09:51):
already have seen combat. They got them to try out
this new simulator and within that simulator test out like
prototype weapons, theoretical weapons that the US Armies are in
d side and you know, probably DARPA and other organizations
connected to the Pentagon, what they would spend their time
(10:12):
and money on to develop. Basically, if these new types
or family, this new family of weapons functioned really well
for these actual members of the armed forces in that simulation,
then maybe they would work really well in an actual
field of battle. Right. Fascinating concept. Fascinating concept. But I
(10:35):
haven't seen anything written anywhere that says Operation Overmatch, this
concept of testing out prototype weapons in a virtual environment
has moved in any way to a real environment. I
don't know if you guys have seen anything. I haven't
seen anything written about that.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Well, I don't understand why would it. Isn't it sort
of meant to be the sort of like virtual program.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Or so Operation Overmatch Action is a simulated environment. Does
that make sense? What the way that Rob was speaking
about it made it seem as though it's actually testing
things like regulars and future weapons prototypes. So the question here,
I think is has it moved since twenty seventeen when
(11:19):
the project was beginning from the virtual environment to the
real environment or.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Is it a thing where the game players rating or
experience with This just enables the real world version of
the project to be greenlit under a different name, so
that it's like no longer attached to Operation Overmatch.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Oh yeah, you guys remember that Robin Williams movie Toys
from the nineties. Oh lord, Yes, Well there's a whole
thing where the company wouldn't make war toys. And then
like the creator of the company dies and his brother
comes in to run it, and he's this like war
hawkish general and they make all these crazy war things.
And as part of the movie where there's kid's playing
video games and they're actually like controlling real war machines,
(12:04):
you know, like perhaps that's something like there were these
This is pivoting to maybe being a remote controllable you know,
video game operation of drones or something I don't.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Know, or shot injurs game. Just get in front of
the emails if we don't mention an injuries game unclear.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Just I see the connections there. The what did they
call it? They've got a really great name for it.
They talk about it here early synthetic prototyping, Early synthetic prototyping.
So again like what the name says, right, it's early
stages prototyped weapons. Theoretically a laser gun. Let's say, like,
(12:44):
what if we could make a laser gun? How would
that work? How would it function if you're in a
cover situation, right, and you're firing at someone who's you know,
X yards away and they're elevated in their position. Would
it actually work in that way or would it not?
Would that weapon be good if it was attached to
an APC, right, or some kind of vehicle. Would that
(13:07):
weapon be better if it was in a helicopter? Right?
This is me spitballing and imagining what it would be
like is. I've played a lot of video games, and
I've played with a lot of different weird weapons in
virtual environments.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I wonder if they do loop crates someone.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I doubt it.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Do, but that might be too much fun. I mean,
it does make sense, though it doesn't it just from
a procedural standpoint or the order of operations of development,
because now you're potentially saving a lot of time and
money because you don't have to actually physically build out
the thing. You just have to build software that represents it.
(13:49):
And then maybe maybe it's a faster way to identify
like perks or problems or stumbling blocks before you actually
get to, you know, creating your handheld rail.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Gun or whatever. Well, think about how much money you
would spend in the R and D phases to create
something like a functional handheld laser weapon, a ray gun
or whatever you want to call it, a rail gun
that could actually be attached to a jeep, you know,
or a hum vy or something like that. That's we're
we're talking millions, if not billions of dollars to research, develop,
(14:26):
and then produce that thing. And if you find out
it doesn't work, by running the simulation a bunch of times.
Oh god, this simulation. I can't have another sleepless night
guys thinking about how I'm not real. Okay, I don't know,
(14:46):
you're super real. You're super real.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Definitely keeps it real.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
When keeping it real goes wrong.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I don't like people playing on my phone.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Nobody does. And don't change the radio in my car
when I'm driving.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Okay, sorry, we have Okay, let me just put this
out there. There's a lot. Actually, there's not that much
to discuss here. It's you can find a bunch of
cool writing on it back from twenty seventeen. I would
recommend the Atlantics piece titled The Video Game That Could
Shape the Future of War by Aiden Dobkin, that was
(15:24):
written in October twenty six, twenty seventeen. You can find
that and read it right now. It's a cool look
at it. You can also find a lot of official
writing from the DoD on their website, on National Defense's
website and Army Dot Mill, the official website of the
US Army, very very cool stuff. You can learn more
(15:45):
about the developers as well. It's called the Army Game
Studio And I'm going to read you, guys really quickly,
how they describe it on Army Dot Mill. The Army
Games Studio located at the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command,
Aviation and Missile Centers, Software Simulations, Systems, Engineering and Integration Directorate.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Take a breath, good Gravy, I can see you turning blue.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
It's best known for creating America's Army, the official video
game of the US Army.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Do you guys remember when I say that text When
I was at like TJ Max and they had these
like Army like branded toys, you know, like there were
tanks and aircraft carriers, and it was like official US
Army merch. I wonder if that's part of this like
similar kind of program. This is very unusual.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Well, this one is specifically for for like training purposes.
This one, so America's Army is for training and recruitment
kind of thing. This one is specifically for prototyping with
active soldiers. Mostly active soldiers, right, people who have actually
you know, they know what it's like to take fire
from an elevated position. So when they're in the game,
(16:55):
they're like, Okay, this is these are the tactics I
would use the guys that I'm with, and how we
would position ourselves and then with these new weapons, what
can we do right? The other thing to look up
if you have some time is Project over Match. This
one has to do with the Navy, and this one
(17:16):
is all about data collection and data sharing when operating
on the high seas. Or it's a little more sush.
You can find a great article in Popular Mechanics that
was written last year in April titled Everything we Know
about Project Overmatch, the Navy's secret maritime program. I would
(17:41):
highly recommend you check it out. This is what the
article says, quote. The project is part of the Pentagon's
multi billion dollar joint All Domain Command and Control effort,
which is intended to establish seamless communication and give warships
better awareness of adversaries at sea. Cool. Basically, they want
to have a better understanding of where the other ships
(18:04):
and submarines are right, and planes and probably spacecraft because
space is now one of the domains that is included
in that all domain what title. Weird stuff, guys, But
I think it's time to take a break, hear a
word from our sponsor and contemplate everything we've learned. Thank you, Rob,
I will not sleep tonight. We'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
And we've returned with another piece of listener mail, this
one with zero swears. Zero swears in this one from
Scurvy Earl, which is a really great nickname. And I
know we say all the nicknames are great, but they
really are. Most of them are truly, truly creative. So
we'll jump right in. Hey boys, scurvy Earl here, I
(18:54):
have some thoughts about the US healthcare system I wanted
to share. Have you ever noticed how doctors really only
tree symptoms and never the root cause? Why, yes, scurvy Earl,
I do believe we have. I'll give you an example.
Say you go to your primary care physician because you've
been dealing with a bad bout of depression. The doctor
is going to probably ask you a few vague questions,
then go right into prescribing some meds. We got some
(19:17):
lexapro that I'll fix you right up in no time.
Might make the giggle stick stop working, but we got
cialis for that too. Or say you've been feeling super
low energy and find out your thyroid isn't functioning properly.
This is actually very close to home for me, Scurvy Earl,
because I've been through this exact situation, and I am,
in fact taking said meds for the rest of my life.
(19:38):
Bad news. You got hypothyroidism. Not sure why, but there's
some thyroid compounds you'll have to take for the rest
of your life. But your thyroid will be purring like
a kitten in no time. I don't know what my
thyroid's doing. I don't really ever hear it purring much.
But I'm being hyperbolic, he says, But you get it.
I think the cause of this issue is multi dimensional.
Let's start with the hospitals. Institutions are here to help people,
(20:01):
but also, and maybe more importantly, to the board, to
make a stupid amount of money. IU Health, the largest
healthcare conglomerate in my dear home state of Indiana, had
a profit just shy of one billion dollars in twenty
twenty two. That's one billion left over after all operating expenses.
(20:23):
Hospitals aren't allowing doctors the time to sit with a
patient and dig a little deeper into the health story.
You go to an appointment and the doctor talks with
you five to ten minutes fifteen tops, then they are
off to the next patient. Because number of patient appointments
a day equals dollars in the piggy bank. Then there's
the whole relationship between ordering providers, hospitals, and drug reps.
(20:46):
It always has rubbed me the wrong way whenever I
see reps creeping around the medical offices slash hospitals, same
vibes I get with lobbyists to be honest man man
after our own heart, my own bias, no doubt. Also,
I think that the schools of medicine don't teach the
new doctors new ways of practicing medicine, just doing the
(21:08):
same old thing that's always been done, because that's just
how it goes. Then my final point is the general
stereotype of holistic healthcare and homeopathic medicine. Most people, physicians
and general public alike view this type of medicine as
either quack new agy or just for hippies. Because of
these stereotypes, there doesn't seem to ever be funding to
(21:30):
do some high level research into some of the medical
claims that homeopathic practitioners believe in. In my opinion, seems like
a bit of a conspiracy between healthcare and pharmaceutical companies
to keep the population medicated instead of cured. Why cure
someone when you could have a lifelong consumer of your products. Anyway,
(21:51):
big fan of the show, Cuba, great work, guys, Midwest
sends its best, Scurvy Earl, oh Man, Bang Bang Bang
bang bag. This is stuff we've talked about over the years,
and you know, we certainly have done episodes on big pharma,
the cozy relationship between pharmaceutical reps and the healthcare system.
The idea like do cures exists that they're keeping from us.
(22:12):
Maybe that's like a bit, you know, on the extreme
end of the spectrum. But I just think all of
our eyes are lighting up with one after the other
of these points that Scurvy Earl here is making.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, it's weird because in a lot of other countries
that one billion dollar profit the scurvy Earl, and we
do hope you get that scurvy taking care of At
some point, Earl, that profit would not exist, right, You
would have operating expenses that would be paid in tax dollars. Generally,
that's how we function correct me if I'm wrong, there
(22:43):
anybody out there listening. But I think that's how it
works most of the world over. You pay in collectively
and you get healthcare.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
And we pay plenty. Let me tell you in terms
of taxes here in this country and are always you know,
railing online what exactly we get and we don't know
where it goes in terms of what government projects it's funding,
you know, what military pursuits, what have you. And we
certainly do not feel that it goes to providing quality
(23:14):
of life, you know, guarantees for our loved ones, you know,
and our families.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
And the response is, well, do you want ray guns
or do you want to take care of that problem
you're having with your thyroid? You know, I'm just joking.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
That's like, yeah, there's a scurvy earl. You're absolutely correct.
This is something that we have, we have clocked for years,
and it's something that global experts largely agree on. You know,
we can't blame anybody who perhaps is a little bit
(23:47):
too credulous about some hyperbolic cure because the reality is
from a from a budgetary standpoint, it makes sense that
a large for profit entity would rather have someone subscribe
to a service than by a one time cure, you know,
make your quality of life something like a monthly Netflix bill.
(24:10):
We do have to say we've heard from some people
on the inside of what we'd loosely call big pharma,
and they have made the point that especially for some
very high value, widespread diseases or conditions, if a pharmaceutical
company did have a cure, logically they would probably bring
(24:30):
it to market because it would be an absolute windfall
for them. But it does seem that there is a
lot of the question is how much emphasis does a
system put on preventative care versus treating something after the fact? Right, Like,
there's not to the point, there's not a lot of
(24:51):
impetus in privatized insurance systems for preventative care. There's a
lot of lip service for it, but it doesn't it
doesn't get widely supported. And without going to political everybody
should check out Project twenty twenty five because one of
the big things for Project twenty twenty five is the
(25:14):
unprecedented acceleration of privatized healthcare for people who would ordinarily
be on Medicare in the United States. And I feel like,
you know, I feel like even just say medicare kind
of makes people's eyes glaze over and turns it into
a snoozefest. But it is a really important thing.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Is it? Project twenty twenty five the one that's just
trying to push Republican younger Republican candidates into like local
positions and move them up the ladder in governmental positions.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And give them marching orders on behalf of the Heritage
Foundation and one of the primary planks there is to
make all Medicare enrollment default to privatized plans. I know,
I know, right again, it's bad news. People don't talk
about it because it's boring. But this idea of prescribing
(26:08):
a medicine that treats a symptom but then also creates
a symptom like that excellent what was it, lexapro sialis,
and then that thing that treats a symptom creates a
side effect that has to be treated with something else
that creates.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
A side effect for every ill and even a pill
for the pills.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Ills and ill with every pill. You know what I mean.
It is I think a known problem, and it's weird
because we get into this kind of black box situation,
Like obviously we don't want to think of people working
in these industries as sort of like ghoulish monsters planning
(26:50):
to keep folks sick and addictive. But you could say
it's part of the larger move we see throughout the
West to rob people of the right to ownership society
and make everyone an unending subscriberber.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, well it all it's all competition, right guys. I mean, ultimately,
that's what it comes down to. Each one of those
consultants we're talking about, this shows up. They're competing against
the other consultants from the other drug companies, right and
all the healthcare organizations are competing against the other ones
to get more business.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
And that's why it you know, I mean it should
be public. Let me see whatever. Look, we're not here
to propose a new system exactly, but it does feel like,
you know, and whatever big government being what it is,
you know, it can be its own problem. But it
does feel like when you have that marketplace mentality. Well
you're talking about, Matt, the competition, you know, the rivalries,
(27:44):
all of that stuff, and the very accurately depicted in
the email lobbying esque kind of pharma reps, it's not
in the best interest of the consumer. But then people
that are proposing to the system say, no, this is
exactly what makes it in the best interest of the consumer,
because this competition yields better quality stuff. But I just
don't buy that, man, I just don't.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
But to Men's point, they're each individual person, as you're saying,
we're not aligning anybody individually. Each individual person is just
competing in their own lane, right, So they're not doing
anything wrong, especially in their own eyes. They're just they're
doing the thing they're supposed to do, and they're doing
it as best as they can.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
So are the Nazis. I'm being a jerk, but I'm
just saying, following orders, you know, you're part of the system. Look,
I'm not saying health caver reviders are like Nazis. I'm
just saying it's like a it's a slippery slope, you know,
if you're saying, I was just doing what I was told.
But it's impossible to be a part of the system
if you don't play by those rules. So I don't know.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I read this old Turkish proverb recently that I had
never encountered before, and it said the forest is dwindling
because the trees keep getting chopped down, and they keep
voting for the axe because the axe has a wooden handle.
I think it's one of them.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Oh wow, yeah.
Speaker 7 (29:02):
That's good, be right, But It is true though, that
when we're talking about these systemic problems, we're talking about
things that don't necessarily have an easy instant fix, and
that's what people want.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
We want an easy instant fix, and we have to
look at the stakes that people look. Every time I
hear a politician of any stripe touting the benefits of
things that seem clearly against the interest of the public,
one of my first questions is who's funding them? Right,
(29:43):
who pay for that campaign, what fundraisers are they going to?
And quite often we have to admit, in the US,
privatized healthcare has a lot of pull. They invest a
lot of the money they take from the premiums and
the various like employer dependent deals, they take a lot
(30:04):
of that profit and they put it right back into
DC and they've had excellent results with that. The problem
is those excellent results for those companies do not seem
to bear or do not seem to translate into excellent
results for the American public using those healthcare plans.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Also, when we see the results of things like what
happened with Purdue Pharma, you know, and we know that
they were put how hard they were pushing, and how
hard those reps were pushing, and how susceptible the healthcare
system and the providers were to being pushed in that way.
That makes us extra suspicious of this kind of stuff continuing.
I don't know, that's it.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I yield my time, get THEMN booster shots, boys steal
my coffee.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
And went every quarter. Hey, you can subscribe for Booster plus.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Booster Max. It is weird because we do in the
United States, We really do have this like leveled system
for health care. It depends on what you can afford initially, right,
and then what can you afford over time? And then
you have to decide, now, what can I afford? What
do I think I can afford? How healthy do I
(31:12):
think I'm gonna be in the next year? How healthy
is my family gonna be? It should be okay, I
think I can exist on this level this year. But
you're literally gambling and that something comes up and then
you're trapped in debt for the rest of your life.
But not only are you trapped, all of the people
that come after you and your family lion are trapped
(31:32):
in that medical debt because it don't go away unless
you do a really cool thing like did you hear
about New York's awesome move they made. There's a nonprofit
that was working with the City of New York and
they erased the medical debt of tens of thousands of people.
It was incredible.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
I'm wondering. I've been counseled by when my mother passed away,
by some folks who are smarter than me, saying that
they couldn't come after me for her medical debt because
of the way we out with her estates and whatever. Again,
this is above my pay grade. But yeah, I hope
I don't need to rethink that, because she definitely passed
away with you know, some some medical debt.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
You shouldn't be culpable for that.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
No, But it depends. That's the scary thing. I think.
It depends what state are you in, how good of
an estate planner slash you know, whoever's dealing with finances
at the end of someone's life, how much information was collected,
and how much was preemptively set aside right for when
that occurs, if you're caught unawares in a situation like that,
(32:35):
especially if someone gets very sick right and then is
very sick and needs to be hospitalized for a long time.
It can be a horrible situation for an entire family. Man,
I'm obviously emotionally right going through that with someone who's sick,
but then the bills that can come afterwards, it can
destroy an individual or a family.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Absolutely, Absolutely, am I supposed to like reach out to
my mom's debtors, Like.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I'm overstating. I'm overstating on purpose, like.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
A hyperbolically in my head about.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
This, because they, depending on the situation, they can pull
that and then if you don't have a good attorney
or somebody who's on your side that is really good
with money, then you can get raked.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Basically, what they try to do is they try they
use intimidation.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
And it goes down. Well, if you just give us this,
we'll leave you alone.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
It has already been sold sold to a party, so
they're on commission. They're sleep so gross, so gross, you guys.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
It's like mafioso tactics. It's bad.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
You're safe, man.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
Yes, this is all I think on Mike, because this
is this is our country. This sucks. It's like that
we have to worry about this stuff, you know. Not
not to mention the treatment aspect that is subpar in
the first place, then you have to deal with all
of this crazy amount of rapacious debt.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I'd love to hear from everybody who has been in
these similar situations, because this is definitely predatory.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Right.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
We've outlined several circumstances in which this is which encounter
provable predatory conspiracies. Right, it's so easy to lose ourselves
in the noise of like political affiliation or these ideologies
of you know, what is or is not correct behavior,
(34:30):
But the reality of it is that the system is broken.
I likewise yield my time.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, I got it to say.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
I'm on the edge of being emotional about this stuff
now that we've gone the full gamut with it.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
Oh, we've got a nice one we can end on.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
I think that's probably a good idea. Why don't we
take a quick break and then we'll come back with
a nice one.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
And we have returned. First, we're going to hear from
JBB thirteen fifty one, just a quick note, an excellent
response to our conversation about the cozy relationship cartels have
with us hardware. Don't worry, guys, this is not the
nice one yet. This is just an important announcement. Our
(35:18):
pal JBB, who is the creator of a podcast called
Federal Bites, noticed something that I realized we didn't point
out the ATFS operation Fast and Furious, also known as
the gun Walking scandal. We had talked about this in
previous episodes, but we didn't mention the conspiracy that JBB
(35:43):
points out, which is even today there are long running
questions over whether the DEA and the Sonola drug cartel
made a secret conspiratorial deal to run hardware. Because one
of our big questions, of course, was yes, it is
technically possible to have a huge network of people right
(36:07):
going through gray market buying, buying heavy and convenient to
purchase hardware, knowing there's a certain rate of attrition and
counting on a certain percentage of those folks to get
away and move the hardware. But that's so many moving parts,
it just seems somewhat implausible, Right, It'd.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Be more likely there'd be a direct conduit, right.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
I mean, that's that would be the easier way to
do it. If we asked chat GPT, chat GPT with
us to make friends with the DEA, Right.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
The red button who cares.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Right escally in an unpredictable way, never let them see
you coming. So we just wanted to say shout out
to JBB on that we have talked about fast Furious
in the past, but we definitely want to draw attention
to that in the conversation whenever you're hearing this news,
because it is a piece that needs to be there.
So thank you JBB. Here's the fun one, A bit
(37:01):
of a conversation. Dear Ben, Nol and Matt. Hello, my
name is Emma and I'm a twenty three year old
new nurse and recent college graduate. Congratulations, Emma, nurses are
the good nurses are some of the good guys, as
we say, so, thank you for helping save the world.
Emma says, I'm a huge fan of the podcast. I'm
extremely passionate about politics. I love learning. I have begun
(37:23):
to try to spark my own change by writing to
my congress folks when I feel particularly moved on a
subject such as the mental health field. While I wish
I had a cool conspiracy to inform you all of
I come with questions how did you all come to
be as informed as you are? The more I listen,
I realize how big the world truly is. And there's
(37:45):
so many things I don't know. I aspire to make
systemic change in the healthcare world someday using my own
experiences as a nurse and hopefully someday as a doctor.
Don't worry, Emma, You're going to get there. I am
truly inspired by the research you do for your show
and wish to continue on and expanding my own worldview,
be those conspiracies or whatnot. I understand you all are
(38:07):
busy and just appreciate you taking the time to read
my email. Thank you so much for the wonderful content
you provide. We'll call you nurse Emma. So one thing.
First off, thank you so much for the kind note.
I'm pretty confident, at least in my reply here. How
did you all come to be as informed as you are?
I am one of the least informed people I have
(38:28):
ever met. There's so much stuff I have no idea.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
About, Like, well, I got to know what you don't know?
But I mean it's his repetition, is what does it?
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Just as Emma heard the conversation we have where all
three of us tried with middling success to understand how
magnets work.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, Wow, you're.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
Making self deprecating then, and I do appreciate it, but
I would argue that you're much more informed than you
give yourself.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
What for listen to this week's Strange News episode and
hear me attempt to describe the large Hadron collider in
particle physics. Good luck understanding any of that, because I
don't understand it. But the cool thing, Emma. Honestly, just
to be serious about this, we have been tremendously lucky
for over ten years, and for Ben and I much
(39:14):
longer than that. We have been tasked with learning things
to then take that information. And I was going to say,
regurgitate it, speak speak what we have learned into a
camera or microphone. Right, That's been our job to take
in information and say it back, particularly in a way
(39:35):
that is more easily understandable than very complicated maybe jargon
that would exist within a specific set of knowledge. Right,
we are.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Professional novices, exactly.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
I think that it reminds me too of one of
the one of the things that always stayed with me is,
you know, the mark of great understanding of something, and
many human areas have said this. The mark of great
understanding of something is to be able to explain it
in an understandable way, in a simple, uncomplicated way. And
(40:10):
so a lot of what we have done is I
think most important thing we could say. In any field
of study, any industry, any personal interest, the main differentiator
between the great learners and the dabblers is that you
must be passionately, unendingly curious. Yes, you should be incredibly
(40:34):
excited when you don't know something, and the world is
both understandable and worth understanding. Stole our life from our.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
Exactly, So flick with it.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It's so slick with it.
Speaker 4 (40:46):
And the moment you think you know everything is the
moment you're kind of of no use to anybody because
you don't. It's not possible, and uh, you're probably going
to come off as insufferable, and you just you're doing
you're shooting yourself in the foot by closing yourself off
to new experiences and new perspectives, you know. So I
just I think we always talk about two about being
(41:08):
self aware, and again, like I was saying a minute ago,
knowing what you know and knowing what you don't know
and what you have left to learn, and just being
a lifetime learner and just always being open to new
perspectives and new experiences, and we're very lucky we get
to do this. We're grateful that. We're grateful to you
for listening and for first of all, speaking so kindly
and highly about what we do. And it means the
(41:29):
world to hear that.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
I thought this was a nice book end given.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
YEA give an emotion a little different way.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Now. Yeah, we're just a bunch of curious little cat
boys and we're just out here batting away.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
You know, I know that come out. I'm like a
dog with a ball.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
This is the this is the fun horrible joker.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
That's great. This this is.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
The funniest thing to ema or one of the most
fun things I should say. Uh, when we hang out
with our cohort, you can ask anybody what's one weird
unusual fact you heard this week, and it'll be any
number of things. And the four of us doc holiday
and all that. Myself, we all come from pretty different
(42:13):
backgrounds and so we have a we have different worldviews,
we have different areas of expertise, and we I think
it's safe to say, I don't know how often it
happens for you guys, I think it's safe to say
we often lean on each other and say like, hey,
what do you think about this? Or what is this thing?
And we do that with everybody. I don't know if
(42:36):
you can do that with everybody you meet, if you
can without falling into platitudes, If you can treat everyone
you meet as a teacher, then you're gonna find they
have something to teach you. And then that is the
best way to be informed, especially if you disagree with
some of those people.
Speaker 4 (42:55):
And the three of us each have our own kind
of flavor that we bring to the conversation and the
our own particular little realms of curiosity. There's a lot
of overlap, sure, but I mean, I think the reason
that it's fun that we have all three of us
on the show is that we're able to kind of
have this holistic representation and maybe a lot of questions
that folks in the audience have because we're asking the
(43:16):
same questions you are.
Speaker 6 (43:17):
You know.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
There you go, And I think it's appropriate to have
to have us end on this email. Emma, I'm keeping
my time here pretty short tonight because you are a
healthcare professional, right and the pandemic has proved to us
something that was obvious to healthcare professionals well before the
(43:38):
rest of the world caught on, which is that it's
often a thankless job, right and unfortunately the good guy
jobs are often thankless jobs. So with that, I want
you to know everybody working in the medical field in
any capacity, we are grateful that you are here, and
(44:00):
we know you have war stories. Dudes, tell us tell
us the stuff inside the medical industry that they don't
want you to know. I got to tell you. One
of the biggest hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia is Grady. Grady
Hospital has a bit of a reputation. It's one of
the top burn wards in the country.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
Is Shady Grady. Nobody calls it that. I think I
maybe made that up. Maybe someone's called also used.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
To be home to one of the most surreal McDonald's
that I've ever visited, and I've been to a lot
of McDonald's.
Speaker 4 (44:31):
But also, can we point out that it's weird that
in the United States there are McDonald's and hospitals that's
a little weird.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Like next to it. But it's like I was in there.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Are the Children's hospital in fact, and there was a
McDonald's for the longest and maybe it's still there, but
it's a little you know.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
So yeah, I was in line behind people, probably should
have still been in the hospital.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
So having these.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Friends in Grady, I got to tell you one thing
you will find, Emma, as your continue to pursue the
field of medicine, your sense of humor is going to change.
I don't want to spoil it too much, but get ready,
your sense of humor is going to take a turn.
And speaking of taking a turn, we're going to turn
(45:18):
the page on tonight's program. We will be back next
evening with even more stuff they don't want you to know.
Thank you to Emma, Thank you to Scrivy Earl, thank
you to Rob, thank you to JBB, and of course
thank you to Anonymous. We hope that you join the
show with us in the future. We try to be
(45:38):
easy to find.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
Online, correct Wendo. You can find us at the handle
Conspiracy Stuff on Facebook, x FKA, Twitter and YouTube, where
there's tons of great video content coming at you every
single week. You can find it to the handle Conspiracy
Stuff Show. However, on Instagram and Dick doc.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
We do a quick spin on the words of our
initial emailer. Here in this episode, we cannot convey the
absolute insane levels of outright love we have for you,
you fantastic human. We hope you have full tires and
dry socks every second of every day for the rest
of your lives. Wow, that was really nice.
Speaker 6 (46:16):
Man.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Hey, if you want to call and say something nice
or mean, I guess call one eight three three STDWYTK.
That's our voicemail system. You've got three minutes. Give yourself
a cool nickname and let us know if we can
use your name and message on the air. If you've
got more to say than can fit in that message,
why not instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
We are the people who read every single email we
get conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
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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