July 9, 2026 • 52 mins
In this week's listener mail segment: Colin inspires a conversation about the nature of understanding the news -- and why 'triangulating' conflicting news sources remains crucial. Newly-hired to Illumination Global, Unlimited, Calamatiy Chris weighs in with some work notes. Dory plays ShotSpotter. A Certain Chef walks through the science of cooking tacos with salamanders. In response to the guys' two-chapter on series on Flock, W.M. Bacon hips fellow Conspiracy Realists to a show called "Person of Interest".
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noel.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Ben and you can as well. We
are joined as always with our super producer Dylan the
Tennessee pal Faked. If you are listening to our weekly
listener mail segment, the Evening that comes out, folks, we
could not be more excited to welcome you to Thursday,
July ninth, twenty twenty six. We have asked you to
(00:54):
email us, We've asked you to call us. We've asked
you to hit us up on the Social Needs thou
SIP and we, as always have an excellent problem. We
have so much stuff we gotta get to. We're gonna
hear from Calamity Chris wm Bacon, We're gonna hear from
a certain chef no spoilers, Dory And you know this
(01:17):
made me think, Guys, as we're going into recording, we
have talked a lot about we fielded a lot of
questions from you are fellow conspiracy realist about how best
to parse the endless stream of information and propaganda and
actual journalism that goes into your ear holes or your
(01:38):
eye holes. Not to get too technical all the time,
you know, twenty four hours and evenings, seven nights a week,
like how do you triangulate this? And Noel, I believe
that you were one of the first to the posts
on air stuff they don't want you to do to
sing the praises of news aggregators like ground News.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Oh maybe, I mean I'm a fan ground News. We
are not sponsored by they do sponsor podcasts. Where are
you at ground News? We shut you out all the time.
But I do think, especially in this uh our current
era of misinformation and fake news, I hate to even
use that term, it's more important than ever to make
sure that you're getting your news from trusted sources and
(02:26):
served up to you in a way that makes sense
and is you know, level headed.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And Matt Tennessee, we got some really exciting news speaking
directly to what you just said on air. So what
if we take a break for a word from our
sponsors and just dive right in.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And we're back and yeah, it's true, it's true. Vin,
we love we love the news. We love the news.
Read all the news that's fit to print. A lot
of it it ain't fit to print. Hell, a lot
of it isn't printed at all anymore, which means that
you it's more important now than ever. And this is
not an app to make sure that you're getting your
news from a trusted sources, be verifiable sources, and see
(03:17):
you know, you want to maybe have a little bit
of curatorial control over the kinds of stories that you see.
Maybe you want to see a little bit from both sides,
you know, to make sure that you're not in that
old echo chamber that we always hear about.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, and both sides. By the way, folks, we don't
mean both sides in a purely binary political matter. We
mean both sides in any news story. So the news
you hear from, say Al Jazeera may be very different
from the news you hear about the very same event
from a news outfit like Harets based in a very
(03:56):
different country. Well, right, I mean cultural perspective.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I mean not to men. Of course, countries where news
is state controlled. You got to take that into account.
Of course, we are talking about political divides some of
the time. We're also just talking about perspectives. You know,
I'm hearing a story from both sides of a conflict,
whether it be you know, something involving the law, whether
(04:21):
it be something involving politics, whether it be something involving
international affairs. And one way to do that, as you
pointed out, Ben at the top, is through news aggregators.
And we had a listener right in with a suggestion
for one that was new to me, and I thought
we could read this email and then talk a little
bit more about how each of us find some of
our stories that we bring to our weekly Strange News episode.
(04:43):
Good morning, gentlemen, Moarning that's what I said. I'm not
taking it back. First off, I want to say thank
you for everything you do and be listening to you
guys for years and you're basically my comfort sound to
have on when I'm not needed at work or as
a dad, So thank you well. Thank you as well,
Colin your name. I didn't mean to say it with
such an accusatory tone. Thank you Colin. We appreciate you
(05:05):
as well. I'm sure you guys are constantly watching the
news and being updated about things happening locally, nationally and globally.
Not just because of the show, because you guys are
all inquisitive minds and love to learn. It's very kind,
and all of those things are true, we would like
to think. I'm sure you've had the same struggle as
I have to find a pretty consistent source of reliable news.
(05:26):
But for a few years now, I've been using something
called Flipboard, which is a news aggregating app. I like
it because it sources news from all over the world,
from all different types of industries and walks of life,
and you can set preferences for what you want to see,
though it does seem to use algorithms that will feed
you more content based on the ones that you have opened,
like social media. I delete the app every couple of months.
(05:49):
This is a fun and important detail here, which seems
to delete my tracking info. Then I readd the app
and it goes back to general news. I will say
that you shouldn't have to do that. There should be
like a built in refresh button. And I have not
disguis and not to derail the email get back to it.
But the Instagram now has a little button on the
(06:11):
top right that lets you to the degree they're willing
to allow you to do so steer your algorithm a
little bit. Have you guys noticed that?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Uh yeah, are you skeptical?
Speaker 4 (06:20):
You sound skeptical.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
It's funny, the illusion of control. I came down this
morning fed my dog. I do every morning at seven am.
If you ever want to be outside my window? And
I opened my phone. I don't have the Instagram app anymore.
I use a browser to go to Instagram dot com
if I need to check on something or use something,
and I still do it more than I should. I
(06:46):
scrolled through, and I was having a cynical conversation with
my phone about Oh is that what I like?
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
You want more boxing? Huh? Oh you love this, don't you?
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That comedian's hilarious. Isn't he just having a cine cool
conversation with my phone about this very thing?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, And I'm sure the phone was listening
much more valuable algorithmic stuff down the line. But continuing
on with the email, maybe we can go into a
little bit and I'll open up this algorithm adjustment thing
and see what it even offers. Readd the app, he says,
and it goes right back to generalized news. And I
promise I don't work for them or anything we know.
(07:25):
I just have tried many different apps and specific news
sources and websites, and this is the only one that
seems to balance everything out for me. One of my
favorite things about it, and I did look into what
makes this thing unique and this is pretty cool and
maybe a little discreet about who you tell this to,
because I've been enjoying it is it skips the paywall
on many of the sites that we usually can't get
access to, and there's no cost for the app anyway, gentlemen.
(07:48):
I attached some screenshots below. The first two show a
pretty funny article from the WebView than the reader view,
showing how you get access past the paywall, and the
rest are just a few screenshots of the articles that
you to show you that they're from all sides of
the aisle, all kinds of content. My name is Colin.
I feel free to use whatever, keep telling us what
they don't want us to know, and I hope to
(08:09):
see you on a cruise one day. A cruise, you say, Colin,
what's that about? Guys?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
A cruise? That's definitely a better topic than me putting
Colin's full name into my browser with quotation marks and
Flipboard just to make sure.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Well, guys, I was just using this an opportunity for
an organic mention for our version cruise that we've got
coming up on the horizon.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That's right. We're so excited to be hanging out with
Virgin again. We're going on a cruise to Bermuda, this
time from New York and we are gonna be joined
by the heavy hitters Josh and Chuck from Stuff. You
should know there are big brothers who've been making podcasts
with them for years and years and years, and they're
gonna be their live in person with us.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That's right. That will also be joined with Andy and
Sam from Stuff Mom Never told you, one of our
favorite shows. We are going on the seas from October
second to the seventh, So for more information check us
out at stuff atseat dot com.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
And Colin, you inspired that you made that happen and
we hope that you sign up and do come and
join us on this cruise. But guys, I am a
big fan of ground News. It is another one of
these aggregator things. One thing that's cool about flipboard is
you kind of curate yourself a virtual magazine almost where
(09:33):
you put in your preferences, you put in the kind
of stories, you start feeding it, I guess, and then
it sort of comes up with the I don't know,
I haven't used it personally, but the unique feature is
sort of in the layout of it, so it essentially
makes you a unique kind of you know, flippable, very
pleasant to look at, easy on the eyes kind of magazine.
So that does seem kind of neat if that's what
you're into. I will once again seeing the praises of
(09:55):
Ground News simply because it does a really good job
of giving you multiple sources for various stories in various
categories that you can look up right there on the
front page. The app is pretty cool, but the web
based version seems to give you even more kind of
granular stuff that you can drill down into. It'll be
you know, science and politics and things like that, geopolitics.
(10:17):
For the strange news segment of this podcast, I tend
towards the offbeat section, which will have some fun, kind
of more offbeat stories that are a little more appropriate
for the strange news of it all. Ben actually in
our document where we keep track of all of these topics,
has a link at the top for an offbeat section
(10:37):
of Reddit, which is another great source for interesting news
that we try to find and bring to you on
our weekly Strange News segment. But I think I'm such
a fan of ground News because it ranks stories based
on left, right to center and factuality. There'll be some
that are marked mixed factuality, which is always a bit
(10:58):
of a red flag. But you'll also notice some of
the ones that are marked mixed factuality are from more
partisany type sites, and it's sometimes interesting to pull those
into the data set, you know, as to what you know,
how to fully see the whole of a story, you know,
without being yeah, triangular, without having to be partisan. I
(11:20):
think about it from a left or right perspective. We're
just trying to, you know, see what the story actually is. Matt.
Do you have any tips ays to how you come
across the stories that you bring? Do you use any
apps that you're fond of or what's your deal?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
I just gave one of my email addresses to ap
News so that I could continue reading their stuff. I
don't even look at Reuters anymore because it's all paywalled,
Like it's crazy, man. I'll use Reddit quite often to
get like a piece of something or the Guardian or
(11:55):
Al Jazeera usually to like send me down a pathway
and then attempt to find other sources that are still
talking about it that I can read without shelling out money.
But it's really freaking hard to get that nowadays.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
It is really hard. And Ben has always been a
lifesaver with pointing out that if you do want to
get past some of those paywalls, you can use the
Brave browser and it will do that, or even I
think just an incognito window will sometimes do the trick.
But Ben, what are some of the I don't want
to give away any of your in your trade secrets,
but if you have any thoughts on how you try
to keep on top of the news, whether it be
through apps or certain sites or message words, I think
(12:28):
folks would love to hear it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Sure, yes, No, first off, we always we always want
to stay on the right side of the law, you know,
so we are not condoning any r mayby stuff. We
can tell you that there are tons of human interaction
(12:51):
pass rounds for this right, Like using a different browser
is not illegal. Using a different browser just gives you
a different sort of passport right to the information. So
if I'm no Brown, or if I'm you call it
and I'm not getting I'm not getting anything that I
(13:14):
need in Chrome for instance, or what's another one Internet explorer?
Do people still use that?
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Sure? Sure Safari? You know, sure Netscape, Mozilla, Netscape, you're
naming all the hits, my guy.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
So if we use alternative browsers, then that is a
legal workaround. One of the most important things to look
at is not just the news happening, which often has
a slant, often has a perspective, It often has a
(13:50):
little bit of you know, they're mixing perspective with facts
in a lot of this stuff. So one of the
best ways to get the real information, especially about huge
breakthroughs things like technological innovations AI and so on, is
to look at the research papers people are publishing that
(14:13):
get mentioned in a lot of popular news, but they
don't necessarily get cited such that you could click on
them in a link. So the easiest way to get
around that actually right to the professors, right to the researchers,
they will be thrilled that you care, and in our
experience as a show, over nine times out of ten
(14:35):
unless they got jammed up with something they'll be more
than happy to give you the paper.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
For sure, And even if some of that stuff is
paywalled by some kind of trade journal or whatever, you
can often see the abstract, which is like the sort
of summary at the top, which will often give you
more than enough to discuss in the context of, like,
you know, what the research is, and in the context of, like,
you know, a news item. I also think it's important
to say that, you know, we've all subscribed to various
(15:05):
digital news sites over the years. I think the issue
we're running into, like as a culture, like as an industry,
not you know, as the news industry, is that it's
just prohibitively expensive to subscribe to all of them. And
it's like death by a thousand cuts and we're like
streaming overload. It's all of it, right, And I mean
I was subscribed to the Wall Street Journal I realized
(15:26):
and didn't even know it, and it was like forty
bucks a month or something like that. And it's not cheap.
They're really pricey, and it's really if you really do
want to get that perspective that we're talking about, it
just doesn't make sense. It's not even realistic or you know,
tenable to pay for every single site. So I just
(15:47):
think there has to be another way. While we do
also understand that with print circulation and subscriptions, you know,
down it is, it is a nail in the coffin
of not just news as a money making industry. But like,
we need good reporting, we need good sources, and they
can't do that work for free. Nobody's expecting them to,
so that money has to come from somewhere. But I
(16:09):
just don't think.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
The model is right now.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
There's something that's gotta gotta gotta shift culturally.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I think we're seeing a corporate siloing, like literally like.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Separate controlling and controlling the message.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
But yeah, we we watched it happen with Kate, with
network news, with cable news. We watched it happen with websites. Right,
we watched it occurring, and now it is being It's
now to the point where your dollars go to what
news you want to hear, the perspective you want to hear. Right,
we talked about that happening in our social media feeds,
(16:47):
but now it's happening in the news that we are
exposed to and what that news means. Right, So if
like I'm imagining a die hard Fox News person versus
a diehard ms NOW person, and how well those two
groups aren't going to largely intersect unless you have someone
who is attempting to do the thing we're describing, right,
(17:07):
getting both perspectives of those two very divided conceptual visualizations
of the world. That's not going to happen very often.
And it's pushing us to the point where we've talked
about it before. We are genuinely and will be and
will continue to live in further separated realities. Yes, depending
(17:28):
on which corporate overlord we are bowing to.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Well, not even to mention that the perception of reality
from some of these networks and I'm talking to you
Fox News is to ask their viewers to deny the
evidence that their eyes behold and just say no, no, no, no,
pay no attention to this. Look over here, you know,
there are tons of people at the America Fair, and
yet they're broadcasting in front of an empty field, like
(17:54):
and they're saying, well, I know it doesn't look like much,
but if you go, you know, to the place where
we aren't, there's actually tons of people. So I mean,
you really are starting to see and I know there
are folks on Fox News that will maybe speak a
little more of their personal minds, but in general, it
sure seems like a wing of a utter propaganda. And
we are not also here to say that left wing
(18:17):
news outlets or whatever aren't also fully a lot of
times or are overstating the case, and that just leads
to more division and and and ways of the other
side to point to. No, see, you do it too,
So we're just gonna double down and do it even more.
And it becomes this literal info war that we are
(18:37):
caught in the middle of. And if you don't do
your own homework, you're just gonna get buried in the
onslaught and the deluge of all this garbage.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, and no matter who is producing what news for whom,
it all has to fit the rubric of the folks
that are paying the money for that stuff to exist. Yeah,
but if it's if it's a subscription model, then potentially
it's better, right, because that's not.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
We're paying their checks.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Where it's yes, but then are they not servicing your
perspective and your view of the world, which is then
it then becomes a mirror of ourselves again and then
we're not getting a full picture.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Again, Well, guys, I also have to put to the
question this, I mean, this idea of state run media
like the BBC is financed by the by the the
British government. It has connections to the British government, I
guess in a similar way that the NPR used to
or public television, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Retz, Yeah, they're not state media. Thelgia Zerra about Doha, dude,
see what they say.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Well, that's a good point. But that's my question to
you is like, is there a world where you know,
if I'm not to say, if a government is good
and for the people, a state sponsored media is is
okay or state funded because we are funding that and
we're electing the people that are you know, giving a
(20:06):
lotting those budgets and making sure this stuff is happening
un you know, unfettered or with without without bias or.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Without And I'm also I'm just saying in the perfect world, yeah,
like PBS, maybe it's okay, but we don't.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
We never we never end up in that perfect world,
I guess is the point.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Yeah, that's why utopia is a word defined by an
unreachable paradise right, an unreachable optimal position. I love this point, Nol,
because it does show us the danger of people in power.
The town crier times a million, right, So you will
get some of the best news when you triangulate. But
(20:49):
can you really trust the BBC for information about the
UK's weird royal family. Can you really trust Voice of
America about what's going on in Oklahoma that they broadcast
out to, you know, Latin America. The simple truth is
we cannot. Our best counterfactual will be relatively sedate things
(21:13):
like m PR right, or like public What is it not?
PBR that's a that's an award winning.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Beer PBS, PBS.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yeah, that's the one.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
So we have the one with the same seed. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I know I'm making us run long here, but this
is this is important to think about, folks. The point
that Noel is raising is there an ideal, state supported,
state funded reporting outfit that you can trust? The answer
is quickly, it will quickly become deep water, a tall
(21:51):
milkshake of Murky dilemma and bag of badgers. It's a
great question.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Well, it's a great thoughts order brought to us by
our pal Colin, so huge thanks for the email, and
I am going to check out flipboard myself and maybe
use that in addition to my beloved ground news. Let's
take a quick break here where from our sponsor, and
then we'll be back with more messages from you.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
We have returned, and guys, this is the middle segment
full of surprises. Here we go. The first surprise is
right here.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
Thirty five years ago, Billy Baga jumped out of video
games and straight into our hearts as the protagonist of
Bage World. Billy has had many adventures over the years.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Wait for me, guy.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
There have been countless sequels, comics, and even a movie.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I love saving bag A World with my.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
Friends, but changing times call for a changing hero, maybe
even an anti hero. Baker World is under attack from
the evil Commander Hackington. Have never been higher save the
Ruda Vegas and this new first person shooter from Bega.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Team Lly Billy, Sorry, kid, Philly's gone and all the
remains is negative.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
William bag A.
Speaker 7 (23:15):
World Evolutions coming this holiday season exclusively for.
Speaker 8 (23:19):
The Big Aware Fun Box five.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Forty work, Dylan Tennessee Pall Fagan.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
The what what was that at the end there of Dylan.
Speaker 6 (23:32):
Bag Aware Fun Box five.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Yeah, I love a fun box. That's incredible. It's like
the famicon, oh but better.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
And rude begga based Oh that is glorious, the rud
of begas Live on Say you surprise. We're doing a
quick strange news inside listener Mail. Back in twenty twenty
three on listener Mail, we were talking about eggs like
all the dang time, because stores were running low on
those beautiful round protein containers across the United States and
(24:03):
they were all of a sudden the most expensive thing
in the grocery store. Do we remember this?
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Yes, it was like a big talking point as well.
It was like, you know, almost symbolic this bell weather
of like the health of the economy and affordability.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
At least we know why they were so expensive, right
because of bird flu? Bird flu?
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Oh, that's right, there was That's all it was. That's
all it was.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Yeah, it was just bird flu. It was going to
be over soon and the eggs would go back to normal.
We all knew that. Well, turns out couple years, a
couple three years, and you can figure out what was
actually going on. Quick news story out of ap egg
producers will pay three point three million and donate fifty
three million eggs to settle price fixing claims. Read all
(24:49):
about it. We're not going to do the whole thing
right now, Just point that out. We talked about it
a lot. We heard from a lot of you about
eggs at the time, and it appears that there was
some other stuff going going on with Cowmine Foods, Versova
and Hickman's Egg Ranch.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Well, we've also talked about how like, once the prices
go up for whatever the reasons might be, it's sure
as hard to claw back those legacy prices from these companies,
you know, once they've gotten a taste of that sweet
sweet price hike. And you know, we're hearing it now,
a lot of rhetoric from the Trump administration saying, okay,
gas stations, stop your price gouging. Oils down sixty bucks
(25:27):
a barrel, you better lower those prices.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
You know.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
It's a bit of finger wagging, but it ain't exactly actionable.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Right, Yeah, yep. According to the story, you guys, there
were quote behind the scenes arrangements to here's another quote,
artificially inflate the daily price quotations for eggs between June
twenty twenty two and March twenty twenty five. Uh, oh,
that seems to be the same exact timeframe where the
eggs were going crazy.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Whoopsy Day's illusion. Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Hourtel actions a bit, yes, but we know we know
those are fine as long as they're you know, above
board cartels are great. Okay, guys, we got a call
from someone about something extremely important and to be honest, uh,
we're kind of getting in trouble here a little bit.
(26:21):
What well, we got to hear the message to find
out to hang our heads a bit and listen to
calamity Chris.
Speaker 9 (26:32):
Alday, gentlemen's lamity Chris and the new illumination Global elimited
Representative or Section four zero nine or you'll have to
excuse my blunt in this. But as company man, you
know the importance of brevity. It's come to our intention
that y'all have been communicating using non co intel phones.
(26:54):
Oh boy, this hass to stop immediately because of your
averrant behavior. Word around in the office is that some
of y'all have been communicating with recently dug up Rutebagas.
As you know, Rudebega's questioned authority teach so called truth
to power and critical thinking skills. Therefore, I have authorized
(27:16):
the deployment of all available Rudebaga elimination specialist your neck
of the woods with flamethrowers, shovels, and prohibitol. Directed by
this situation, If unchecked knowledge of the route, Bega is
an existential threat to IGU highly suggests doubling her for
(27:37):
hypatone dosages right now. I shouldn't tell you this, but
I started working for the company before I did. I
believe that thinking for myself, asking questions, reflecting on my
experiences to gain knowledge was important. Oh yeah, that was
such mope. I was such a mope, constantly obsessing over
(27:58):
trivialities like facts. Needless to say, that was an unbearable condition,
and thankfully ig you solved all of my problems with
the new double strength brad to tall. I've been taking
one till a day for the last year, and I
don't think to care about anything at all. Your compliance
is both appreciated and mandatory if you wish to continue
(28:21):
receiving Jase dias. Otherwise, well we might have to mark
you down in the Sea whorf Te column, and nobody
wants that. By the way, you can use this message
in any way you want. Have a good day.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Thank god, my man. Oh wow, whether the reference after references?
I know fire there, my man. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
It was pretty beautiful. Thank you so much, Calamity Chris.
And hey, we understand. We we hear you loud and clear, wing,
we understand, we.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
Voluntarily and mandatorily come.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
That's correct. Anyway, guys, I really did think that was great.
It seems like maybe Chris had just listened to that
all oops, all IGU episode Bring It Back Forhibitol was
a big swing.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
There, Calamity Chris, as Matt Nole said, yes, thank you
so much. Congratulations on your new position. We wish you well,
and we hope you check out our previous conversation regarding
you know, phone security.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Absolutely, let's move on to the next message. This one's
from Dory, who is just agreeing with a little something
we said recently on one of our I can't remember
if the strangers are listening toil, but we will figure
it out, and then has a little comment at the
end that I hope we have something to say about.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
So here we go.
Speaker 8 (29:53):
Hey, Matt, this a story in Asco, Minnesota. And yes
you can use my name. It's Okay, I'm formally known
as Osom Minnesota. I moved from Idaho to Minnesota. I
missed my home in Atlanta, by the way, where I
used to live. In the cab Decatur, Georgia. You just
(30:14):
didn't even ask whether it was shooting books fireworks because
half the damn time the power was going out because
they were they were frying another person or anyway, wait.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Wait a minute, like like with an electric chair, we
talk about executions.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I think that's what Dory's talking about.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Where's that going down in the cab?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I don't I don't know that reference or understand, but
I thought it was very interesting given the circumstances of
our strange news episode that we recorded today where the
internet just decided to go out for no reason.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Yeah, brown out, I think it's what they call those.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah. Uh, just pointing that out there. I thought that
was interesting. But there, guys, does Atlanta or did Atlanta
execute people downtown somewhere or near Decatur? I have no idea.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
I don't know about this either.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
While we're pausing your Dory, I am not aware, but
I know that we have had in this state. We
have had executions in the past, and there is current
movement legally to execute people on death rowing Georgia, their
(31:28):
executions having been delayed by the COVID pandemic.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
MM got you. I'm just looking up a couple of things, guys.
In places like in Jackson, Georgia, where there was an
electric chair, there's interesting stuff in here. You can download
the history of executions in Georgia from nineteen twenty four
to twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
I would appear that the electric chair was ruled on
constitutional only as recently as two thousand and one. But
I say as recently, and that was, you know, twenty
five years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
God, we old crazy, all right, well and we interrupted you, Dory,
Sorry about that. So we're going to jump back in.
Let's go back to you.
Speaker 8 (32:08):
I'm watching this Flock episode, and you know what's scaring
me is the fact that it's just like Perge. Have
you guys ever seen the movie The Purge? This is
just like the Purge? Are they setting us up for
like a mass extinction event of some kind? I mean,
(32:31):
this is this is just insane. Okay, guys, I love you,
love watching your show now that you guys are on Netflix,
But listen to you, guys like forever since you guys
were on YouTube and had the skeleton. By the way,
(32:52):
where did the skeleton go? Guys? Where did the skeleton go? Okay,
all right, I'm not it's up the Mandala effects. You
guys had a skeleton in all of your shows. Where
did that skeleton go? You can use this message however
you want. Thanks Matt Bye.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Okay, So, first of all, the purge guys, does it
feel like things that are happening around us are setting
us up for the purge?
Speaker 4 (33:24):
A little purge like feel, some purge vibes.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
I don't know when you combine the AI, you know,
stuff of it all in the concept.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Hunger Games perhaps you know, I mean Little Battle Royale.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Perhaps what if it's a nice big combination.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Again, Dory, I think Noel and I can agree with that.
Science fiction is only fiction for a moment. If it's good.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I think I can agree as well, my friend.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
And whatever ends up happening, it'll certainly be on them
Betton Apps.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Oh yeah, it'll be on poly market for sure. Right.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Well then, finally, Wor He's last thing, where's that skeleton?
What happened to that skeleton? Why we maybe we should
let's bring Scully back and put her behind one of
us for the episodes, or maybe we have a Scully
cam and do a fourth shot every time we do
an episode for Netflix, and it's just Scully sitting there.
And that's a lot of.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
That's a lot of screen real estate. Mat that's a
lot of screen rest.
Speaker 6 (34:20):
People don't know that I'm actually sculling, Dorry.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I am not at liberty uh to, because you know
the well the mea culpa falls on me. Here Dorry
and fellow conspiracy realist to confess the origin of Agent Scully.
Uh we still are friends with Agent Scully, who is
(34:47):
sometimes known as Alex Bones or recently we had a
we had a vote to change the name. I think
a few years back. You can anticipate Agent Scully returning
at some point and it will be an ever from
all of us.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Oh man, well, I for one, miss Scully. And is
she in a place where that is around, like physically exists,
or do we get rid of her?
Speaker 4 (35:11):
I don't know, but I got me a skeleton upstairs.
It ain't the original Scully, but it's the same same
type of deal.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Wait, really, absolutely, you.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Have noticed in my place there's a there's a giant
skeleton and a rocking chair upstairs.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Oh yeah, if it can sit on a chair.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
We'll see about to make sure we'll not have to
make sure there's consent.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Okay, that's awesome. I'm not kidding about another Shotley by
the way. Like I'm imagining an overhead light and a
chair and the skeleton, and then we can just cut
to our Scully pal whenever we want to that. I
think that's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
Scully the next generation and Stanley ain't that far off
from Scully named after Kubrick who faked the moon landing.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Yes, all right, well, thank you so much Chris, our
new igu rep, and thank you Dory, former Decatur shot spotter.
We will be right back after a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
And we have returned folks with a couple of quick updates.
We had a very important conversation in a previous listener
mail segment with none other than Salamander Talco. Do you
guys remember that, Matt, I think it's a voicemail that
you received.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
We literally did that one yesterday. Ben. It's Wednesday, July first.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
As we record, but thanks to the magic of editing,
this was a previous week for all our fellow conspiracy realist.
I thought this would be interesting for us. You guys
tell me if it's interesting or not. We had we
had a response to a thing that we asked about,
a new mission for one of the best in the business.
(36:57):
If they chose to accept a thought experiment. Hypothetically, how
would one go about creating a salamander taco? Right? Remember
this guy's name, Salamander. You were talking with us about
guardrails and properly installed flock cameras, and so I wanted
to take it to a new height. We went to
(37:18):
the expert. We went to none other than Chicago's own
chef Ben. Here's the response, Chef, you say, I have
never cooked any amphibians as small as that, so including
a salamander as an ingredient would be a stretch for me.
My research also indicates, get this, guys, that they excreete neurotoxins,
(37:41):
and I'm pretty sure they're the deadly ones, not the
pretty color ones. We'll pause here. Have you eaten a salamander?
If so?
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Right?
Speaker 3 (37:49):
To us conspiracy iHeartRadio dot Com. I've gotta ask you, guys,
Matt Tennessee, Noel Brown, have you guys ever eating lizards
or reptiles.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
The only one I've ever tried is an alligator, the
tailed portion of that reptile, and I could not discern
much of a difference between that and chicken.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Right, right, right. We had a show back in the
day where we would eat all kinds of things. We
had canned snake meat, for instance, a lot of bones.
By the way, but I don't think any of us
have eaten a salamander Tennessee Noel Brown, Have you guys
eaten salamanders?
Speaker 5 (38:33):
Not?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I are serious question. Aren't most amphibians at this point endangered?
Or am I just being crazy off bass?
Speaker 3 (38:41):
They're very much endangered. You are correct, because they are
on the forefront of very vulnerable ecological vent diagrams. Wait, Dylan,
are you coming in hot to say that you have
eaten a salamander?
Speaker 6 (38:55):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
No, okay, a lot of nos, no number but not
perhaps perhaps, which means we'll have to get calamity. Chris.
The look at your jacket, my guy, So here we go.
The chef the legend says, however, for funsies, you could
(39:19):
easily make homemade tortilla hardshells that look like salamanders from
the side. That could be cute. Right, So now we're just,
you know, like we're carving out the taco shells or
tortilla shells, similar to how you would eat dino nuggets
shaped like dinosaurs.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Okay, I think I'm with it that that does require
some artistry that most chefs, you know, cookie cutter perhaps
you know. Okay, okay, okay, never mind that works.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
I think I think both ideas are perfect, you guys,
and I believe in you. Now fully hypothetical, says chef Ben.
I would merit eight salamanders hole in a mixture of
everybody tune in, lock in here, buttermilk, cayenne pepper, old
bay garlic powder, onion powder, white pepper, and salt. Overnight,
(40:12):
I would dredge them in a mix of all purpose flour,
potato starch, and fine corn meal, and then season it
with more old bay garlic powder, salt, and white pepper.
Let's pause there. Do you guys mess with potato starch
when you cook stuff?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I mean, I can't think of a time that I have.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
I don't know if I even have potato starch.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
Yeah, is that velvet that's cornstarch.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
I've got cornstarch.
Speaker 4 (40:42):
I imagine corn. Imagine it's a similar effects, but maybe not.
Speaker 6 (40:46):
I will say from this recipe, I'm getting some oj
Simpson if I did it, vibes.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Tennessee Powell ladies and gentlemen, foy conspiracy realists. Here's the solutions.
So we've got our salamander's marri right overnight. Then we
give them a kiss, we give them some breading. We
fry them whole on skewers so they don't curl up, right,
think about the tails. You haven't thought about the tails?
D And then you drop the whole thing into a
(41:13):
fresh corn tortilla with a charred salsa Rojo cilantro and
diced white onions, and maybe, if you're fancy, add some
slices of avocado. What do we think, like bracket the neurotoxins? Right,
what do we think?
Speaker 2 (41:34):
It's making my mouth water? But not in the good way?
You know, you know that one where it's like, oh,
there's too much live in my mouth?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Oh right right, it makes you want to do the
thing where you like spit on the ground for a
second like a ball. Yeah, uh, I think we should
try it. Maybe if we can find for you, chef,
a similar sized reptile or amphibium without the neurotoxicity. It
(42:03):
feels like something we could eat, right, you guys would
try it.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
It sounds pretty yummy. I'm not gonna lie. I mean
meat his meat, unless you're Morrissey, in which case meat
is murder.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Oh yeah, yeah, but we're not Morrissey because we show
up to our shows.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
That's also true. And I take it back what I said.
Meat is not meat. I wouldn't eat kitten meat, wouldn't
eat puppy meat. Have a little bit of a problem
with the idea of rabbit meat if I'm being honest,
and certainly not squid not squid.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
You wouldn't eat a squid.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
I wouldn't eat well. I mean I have in the past,
but after watching my octopus friend or teacher and knowing
a bit more about how senchient those guys are, it
has given me pause.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, I'm off the cephalopods as well.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
I'll eat a squid though, my bad. I'm an octopus.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Serious question, When is the last time you guys have
gone to one of those huge operation Chinese buffets.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
It's been a minute, but there's a good one you're
used to like in Augusta.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Me too. There's a super Golden buffet is what it's called.
Not sponsored by up near. It just opened up right
where I live, and we went in pretty recently. And
to see those you know, those big metal trays that
they have in those things filled with squid and all
kinds of these, you know, an octopus and all things
(43:20):
like that. It's just it hits different now. And just
to see the ravenous way in which people you know
are kind of coveting those items when they hit the thing.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Seafood in a buffet, that's what. Yeah, I've had to
turn down. I've had to turn down some good stuff,
you know, as a lapsed vegan and vegetarian. It's it's
one day, one delicious day at a time. And folks,
this is this is a true thing. This is a
(43:53):
nice philosophical quandary to have. You can look at people
that you consider your friends or your family, are very
close to you with the following question, if seafood is
going extinct, which is kind of close to true with
ocean acidification, would you decide that you are not going
(44:15):
to eat seafood anymore, or would you say, now's my
time to get as much as I can shrimp. Yeah,
you learn a lot from your folks that way. I
think this first off, obviously, folks, Chef beIN is our
returning guest and our culinary expert. We would love to
(44:37):
hear your theories on the salamander taco and salamander taco prime.
I very much hope you enjoyed this one. We got
time for one more thing, and I think we just
get into it with a sound clip. Is that? Okay?
Speaker 5 (44:58):
The government has a secret system, a machine. It spies
on you every hour of every day. I know because
I built him. I designed the machine to detect acts
of terror, but it sees everything violent crimes involving ordinary people,
people like you.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
Does anybody remember what that's from?
Speaker 4 (45:20):
I can do right?
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Oh, okay, I do not, Ben, But I really want
to know why Ben Lionis is talking like that and
dressed like that.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
That is the guy from Lost, the actor who played
the characters Ben Lionis and Lost the character that actors played.
And this is a guy named Harold Finch. This comes
to us from W. M. Bacon, who says, hey, guys,
just listen to the second chapter about flock. Maybe think
(45:49):
of it made me think of a show that ran
on CBS from twenty eleven to twenty sixteen. It was
called person of Interest. And so what we played for there, folks,
is part of the opening narration, kind of like the
Star Trek mission statement of the series. Person of Interest
(46:12):
is a fascinating sci fi spin on the idea of
mass surveillance. And in the show, as you know, well WM,
this this guy who's still met by the way, is
very much in line with Ben Liinis's character and loss.
(46:33):
This guy creates or finds this machine or this algorithm
that will give him social security numbers for people of interest,
but not tell him whether those people of interest are
good or bad. If they're about to you know, save
(46:54):
the world in cure cancer, or if they're about to
build something like a water communicable nuclear bomb, which is
a phrase I made up. That's a terrifying thing.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Yeah, that way, I guess in this world that would
be uh, that would be something that you could put
into water in a small amount, maybe like a mirror
life amount, and then there would be a nuclear reaction
you could create. We don't have time for it. That
would too crazy nuclear like water water, communicable nuclear reactions,
(47:34):
fusion reactions. Okay, before the essay gets us, Nola, had
you ever heard of the show person of Interest? I
think you would like it.
Speaker 4 (47:43):
Person of Interest? You know what? I did watch it briefly,
and there's a lot of like surveillance animations, right, isn't
there a thing where they're they're like, there's a lot
of really deep state technology that's doing facial recognition and
stuff like that. Yeah, I think I remember that, but
then I didn't, didn't continue on. But I do like
that guy. He's in another cool show about like a
(48:03):
sleep demon, that evil that's the one. Yeah, yes, I
like that.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
Ben Lion is showing up everywhere. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Speaker 8 (48:13):
Sorry.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Michael Emerson, the actor.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
Michael, Yes, mister Emerson, you know, the phenomenal actor, gets
a lot of work, gets a little bit type gast,
I would say, as ominous secret secret keeper guy. Is
he good? Is he bad? What the heck happened at
the end of Lost? What happened? Did you guys? Were
(48:36):
you guys there with me watching Lost? Not in person,
but like, were we.
Speaker 4 (48:42):
I think I think we were when it was on
in real time?
Speaker 2 (48:45):
Yeah, wasn't that I want to say, what was that
the local? Or was that somewhere else where we were
watching it? Sometimes?
Speaker 3 (48:53):
Oh gosh, I don't know the local did it?
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Sometimes? Where you could just show up have some of
their delicious undried tomato wings and not sponsored, should be sponsored.
Speaker 3 (49:04):
It's crazy good, it's crazy. It's been what an appropriate
time for us to mention the local and their legendary
chicken wings. They are very good. They are legends here
in the Atlanta metro area because they did, as we
all know, consistently refuse any interviews with places like local
(49:32):
newspaper reporters like the AJAC or local influencers on your
social needs of choice. So if you do make it
down to the Atlanta area, and if we're in that
vicinity and not on the high seas or not on
the road, oh you know, hit us up. That's the
best wing place to go to, right, although there are
(49:56):
some people who say Magic City has better wings, but
I think that's a very different environment.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Yeah, and you know I haven't had those. I went
to a little, a little place. I want to say
it was near Decatur. I can see the Strip Mall
in my head, but I couldn't tell you exactly where
it is, but they had on their menu. It was
like a really cool brunch place to go to and
they had on their menu Strip Club Wings. And I
(50:22):
was told that those wings, Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
Our wings a la strip, our wings a la dance.
And we can't wait for you to, you know, hop
in the dance ring with us, folks. We'd love to
hang out. Thank you so much to w M. Thank
you to a certain chef Calamity, Chris Colin and of
course Dory. Please joined us in our continuing mission to
(50:50):
explore all the strange unknown conspiracies in this world and beyond.
You can find us on the lines. You can call
us on a phone. You can always send us an email.
Speaker 4 (51:02):
You sure can. You can find us online of the
handle Conspiracy Stuff our Conspiracy Stuff Show, depending on which
social media platform is your favorite.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Our number is one eight three three std WYTK. When
you call in, give yourself a cool nickname like Calamity,
Chris or Dory, and you know, say anything you want.
You got three minutes. If you want to send us
an email, we are the.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
Entities and read each piece of correspondence we receive. Be
well aware, yet's unafraid. Sometimes the void writes back, give
us a random fact, We'll give you one in return.
Bonus points. If you cook something really weird and email
us a picture something that's really weird but also of
course legal, We'll see you out here in the dark
(51:48):
conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
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 (00:25):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noel.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Ben and you can as well. We
are joined as always with our super producer Dylan the
Tennessee pal Faked. If you are listening to our weekly
listener mail segment, the Evening that comes out, folks, we
could not be more excited to welcome you to Thursday,
July ninth, twenty twenty six. We have asked you to
(00:54):
email us, We've asked you to call us. We've asked
you to hit us up on the Social Needs thou
SIP and we, as always have an excellent problem. We
have so much stuff we gotta get to. We're gonna
hear from Calamity Chris wm Bacon, We're gonna hear from
a certain chef no spoilers, Dory And you know this
(01:17):
made me think, Guys, as we're going into recording, we
have talked a lot about we fielded a lot of
questions from you are fellow conspiracy realist about how best
to parse the endless stream of information and propaganda and
actual journalism that goes into your ear holes or your
(01:38):
eye holes. Not to get too technical all the time,
you know, twenty four hours and evenings, seven nights a week,
like how do you triangulate this? And Noel, I believe
that you were one of the first to the posts
on air stuff they don't want you to do to
sing the praises of news aggregators like ground News.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Oh maybe, I mean I'm a fan ground News. We
are not sponsored by they do sponsor podcasts. Where are
you at ground News? We shut you out all the time.
But I do think, especially in this uh our current
era of misinformation and fake news, I hate to even
use that term, it's more important than ever to make
sure that you're getting your news from trusted sources and
(02:26):
served up to you in a way that makes sense
and is you know, level headed.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And Matt Tennessee, we got some really exciting news speaking
directly to what you just said on air. So what
if we take a break for a word from our
sponsors and just dive right in.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And we're back and yeah, it's true, it's true. Vin,
we love we love the news. We love the news.
Read all the news that's fit to print. A lot
of it it ain't fit to print. Hell, a lot
of it isn't printed at all anymore, which means that
you it's more important now than ever. And this is
not an app to make sure that you're getting your
news from a trusted sources, be verifiable sources, and see
(03:17):
you know, you want to maybe have a little bit
of curatorial control over the kinds of stories that you see.
Maybe you want to see a little bit from both sides,
you know, to make sure that you're not in that
old echo chamber that we always hear about.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, and both sides. By the way, folks, we don't
mean both sides in a purely binary political matter. We
mean both sides in any news story. So the news
you hear from, say Al Jazeera may be very different
from the news you hear about the very same event
from a news outfit like Harets based in a very
(03:56):
different country. Well, right, I mean cultural perspective.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I mean not to men. Of course, countries where news
is state controlled. You got to take that into account.
Of course, we are talking about political divides some of
the time. We're also just talking about perspectives. You know,
I'm hearing a story from both sides of a conflict,
whether it be you know, something involving the law, whether
(04:21):
it be something involving politics, whether it be something involving
international affairs. And one way to do that, as you
pointed out, Ben at the top, is through news aggregators.
And we had a listener right in with a suggestion
for one that was new to me, and I thought
we could read this email and then talk a little
bit more about how each of us find some of
our stories that we bring to our weekly Strange News episode.
(04:43):
Good morning, gentlemen, Moarning that's what I said. I'm not
taking it back. First off, I want to say thank
you for everything you do and be listening to you
guys for years and you're basically my comfort sound to
have on when I'm not needed at work or as
a dad, So thank you well. Thank you as well,
Colin your name. I didn't mean to say it with
such an accusatory tone. Thank you Colin. We appreciate you
(05:05):
as well. I'm sure you guys are constantly watching the
news and being updated about things happening locally, nationally and globally.
Not just because of the show, because you guys are
all inquisitive minds and love to learn. It's very kind,
and all of those things are true, we would like
to think. I'm sure you've had the same struggle as
I have to find a pretty consistent source of reliable news.
(05:26):
But for a few years now, I've been using something
called Flipboard, which is a news aggregating app. I like
it because it sources news from all over the world,
from all different types of industries and walks of life,
and you can set preferences for what you want to see,
though it does seem to use algorithms that will feed
you more content based on the ones that you have opened,
like social media. I delete the app every couple of months.
(05:49):
This is a fun and important detail here, which seems
to delete my tracking info. Then I readd the app
and it goes back to general news. I will say
that you shouldn't have to do that. There should be
like a built in refresh button. And I have not
disguis and not to derail the email get back to it.
But the Instagram now has a little button on the
(06:11):
top right that lets you to the degree they're willing
to allow you to do so steer your algorithm a
little bit. Have you guys noticed that?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Uh yeah, are you skeptical?
Speaker 4 (06:20):
You sound skeptical.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
It's funny, the illusion of control. I came down this
morning fed my dog. I do every morning at seven am.
If you ever want to be outside my window? And
I opened my phone. I don't have the Instagram app anymore.
I use a browser to go to Instagram dot com
if I need to check on something or use something,
and I still do it more than I should. I
(06:46):
scrolled through, and I was having a cynical conversation with
my phone about Oh is that what I like?
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
You want more boxing? Huh? Oh you love this, don't you?
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That comedian's hilarious. Isn't he just having a cine cool
conversation with my phone about this very thing?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, And I'm sure the phone was listening
much more valuable algorithmic stuff down the line. But continuing
on with the email, maybe we can go into a
little bit and I'll open up this algorithm adjustment thing
and see what it even offers. Readd the app, he says,
and it goes right back to generalized news. And I
promise I don't work for them or anything we know.
(07:25):
I just have tried many different apps and specific news
sources and websites, and this is the only one that
seems to balance everything out for me. One of my
favorite things about it, and I did look into what
makes this thing unique and this is pretty cool and
maybe a little discreet about who you tell this to,
because I've been enjoying it is it skips the paywall
on many of the sites that we usually can't get
access to, and there's no cost for the app anyway, gentlemen.
(07:48):
I attached some screenshots below. The first two show a
pretty funny article from the WebView than the reader view,
showing how you get access past the paywall, and the
rest are just a few screenshots of the articles that
you to show you that they're from all sides of
the aisle, all kinds of content. My name is Colin.
I feel free to use whatever, keep telling us what
they don't want us to know, and I hope to
(08:09):
see you on a cruise one day. A cruise, you say, Colin,
what's that about? Guys?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
A cruise? That's definitely a better topic than me putting
Colin's full name into my browser with quotation marks and
Flipboard just to make sure.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Well, guys, I was just using this an opportunity for
an organic mention for our version cruise that we've got
coming up on the horizon.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That's right. We're so excited to be hanging out with
Virgin again. We're going on a cruise to Bermuda, this
time from New York and we are gonna be joined
by the heavy hitters Josh and Chuck from Stuff. You
should know there are big brothers who've been making podcasts
with them for years and years and years, and they're
gonna be their live in person with us.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That's right. That will also be joined with Andy and
Sam from Stuff Mom Never told you, one of our
favorite shows. We are going on the seas from October
second to the seventh, So for more information check us
out at stuff atseat dot com.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
And Colin, you inspired that you made that happen and
we hope that you sign up and do come and
join us on this cruise. But guys, I am a
big fan of ground News. It is another one of
these aggregator things. One thing that's cool about flipboard is
you kind of curate yourself a virtual magazine almost where
(09:33):
you put in your preferences, you put in the kind
of stories, you start feeding it, I guess, and then
it sort of comes up with the I don't know,
I haven't used it personally, but the unique feature is
sort of in the layout of it, so it essentially
makes you a unique kind of you know, flippable, very
pleasant to look at, easy on the eyes kind of magazine.
So that does seem kind of neat if that's what
you're into. I will once again seeing the praises of
(09:55):
Ground News simply because it does a really good job
of giving you multiple sources for various stories in various
categories that you can look up right there on the
front page. The app is pretty cool, but the web
based version seems to give you even more kind of
granular stuff that you can drill down into. It'll be
you know, science and politics and things like that, geopolitics.
(10:17):
For the strange news segment of this podcast, I tend
towards the offbeat section, which will have some fun, kind
of more offbeat stories that are a little more appropriate
for the strange news of it all. Ben actually in
our document where we keep track of all of these topics,
has a link at the top for an offbeat section
(10:37):
of Reddit, which is another great source for interesting news
that we try to find and bring to you on
our weekly Strange News segment. But I think I'm such
a fan of ground News because it ranks stories based
on left, right to center and factuality. There'll be some
that are marked mixed factuality, which is always a bit
(10:58):
of a red flag. But you'll also notice some of
the ones that are marked mixed factuality are from more
partisany type sites, and it's sometimes interesting to pull those
into the data set, you know, as to what you know,
how to fully see the whole of a story, you know,
without being yeah, triangular, without having to be partisan. I
(11:20):
think about it from a left or right perspective. We're
just trying to, you know, see what the story actually is. Matt.
Do you have any tips ays to how you come
across the stories that you bring? Do you use any
apps that you're fond of or what's your deal?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
I just gave one of my email addresses to ap
News so that I could continue reading their stuff. I
don't even look at Reuters anymore because it's all paywalled,
Like it's crazy, man. I'll use Reddit quite often to
get like a piece of something or the Guardian or
(11:55):
Al Jazeera usually to like send me down a pathway
and then attempt to find other sources that are still
talking about it that I can read without shelling out money.
But it's really freaking hard to get that nowadays.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
It is really hard. And Ben has always been a
lifesaver with pointing out that if you do want to
get past some of those paywalls, you can use the
Brave browser and it will do that, or even I
think just an incognito window will sometimes do the trick.
But Ben, what are some of the I don't want
to give away any of your in your trade secrets,
but if you have any thoughts on how you try
to keep on top of the news, whether it be
through apps or certain sites or message words, I think
(12:28):
folks would love to hear it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Sure, yes, No, first off, we always we always want
to stay on the right side of the law, you know,
so we are not condoning any r mayby stuff. We
can tell you that there are tons of human interaction
(12:51):
pass rounds for this right, Like using a different browser
is not illegal. Using a different browser just gives you
a different sort of passport right to the information. So
if I'm no Brown, or if I'm you call it
and I'm not getting I'm not getting anything that I
(13:14):
need in Chrome for instance, or what's another one Internet explorer?
Do people still use that?
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Sure? Sure Safari? You know, sure Netscape, Mozilla, Netscape, you're
naming all the hits, my guy.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
So if we use alternative browsers, then that is a
legal workaround. One of the most important things to look
at is not just the news happening, which often has
a slant, often has a perspective, It often has a
(13:50):
little bit of you know, they're mixing perspective with facts
in a lot of this stuff. So one of the
best ways to get the real information, especially about huge
breakthroughs things like technological innovations AI and so on, is
to look at the research papers people are publishing that
(14:13):
get mentioned in a lot of popular news, but they
don't necessarily get cited such that you could click on
them in a link. So the easiest way to get
around that actually right to the professors, right to the researchers,
they will be thrilled that you care, and in our
experience as a show, over nine times out of ten
(14:35):
unless they got jammed up with something they'll be more
than happy to give you the paper.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
For sure, And even if some of that stuff is
paywalled by some kind of trade journal or whatever, you
can often see the abstract, which is like the sort
of summary at the top, which will often give you
more than enough to discuss in the context of, like,
you know, what the research is, and in the context of, like,
you know, a news item. I also think it's important
to say that, you know, we've all subscribed to various
(15:05):
digital news sites over the years. I think the issue
we're running into, like as a culture, like as an industry,
not you know, as the news industry, is that it's
just prohibitively expensive to subscribe to all of them. And
it's like death by a thousand cuts and we're like
streaming overload. It's all of it, right, And I mean
I was subscribed to the Wall Street Journal I realized
(15:26):
and didn't even know it, and it was like forty
bucks a month or something like that. And it's not cheap.
They're really pricey, and it's really if you really do
want to get that perspective that we're talking about, it
just doesn't make sense. It's not even realistic or you know,
tenable to pay for every single site. So I just
(15:47):
think there has to be another way. While we do
also understand that with print circulation and subscriptions, you know,
down it is, it is a nail in the coffin
of not just news as a money making industry. But like,
we need good reporting, we need good sources, and they
can't do that work for free. Nobody's expecting them to,
so that money has to come from somewhere. But I
(16:09):
just don't think.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
The model is right now.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
There's something that's gotta gotta gotta shift culturally.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I think we're seeing a corporate siloing, like literally like.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Separate controlling and controlling the message.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
But yeah, we we watched it happen with Kate, with
network news, with cable news. We watched it happen with websites. Right,
we watched it occurring, and now it is being It's
now to the point where your dollars go to what
news you want to hear, the perspective you want to hear. Right,
we talked about that happening in our social media feeds,
(16:47):
but now it's happening in the news that we are
exposed to and what that news means. Right, So if
like I'm imagining a die hard Fox News person versus
a diehard ms NOW person, and how well those two
groups aren't going to largely intersect unless you have someone
who is attempting to do the thing we're describing, right,
(17:07):
getting both perspectives of those two very divided conceptual visualizations
of the world. That's not going to happen very often.
And it's pushing us to the point where we've talked
about it before. We are genuinely and will be and
will continue to live in further separated realities. Yes, depending
(17:28):
on which corporate overlord we are bowing to.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Well, not even to mention that the perception of reality
from some of these networks and I'm talking to you
Fox News is to ask their viewers to deny the
evidence that their eyes behold and just say no, no, no, no,
pay no attention to this. Look over here, you know,
there are tons of people at the America Fair, and
yet they're broadcasting in front of an empty field, like
(17:54):
and they're saying, well, I know it doesn't look like much,
but if you go, you know, to the place where
we aren't, there's actually tons of people. So I mean,
you really are starting to see and I know there
are folks on Fox News that will maybe speak a
little more of their personal minds, but in general, it
sure seems like a wing of a utter propaganda. And
we are not also here to say that left wing
(18:17):
news outlets or whatever aren't also fully a lot of
times or are overstating the case, and that just leads
to more division and and and ways of the other
side to point to. No, see, you do it too,
So we're just gonna double down and do it even more.
And it becomes this literal info war that we are
(18:37):
caught in the middle of. And if you don't do
your own homework, you're just gonna get buried in the
onslaught and the deluge of all this garbage.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, and no matter who is producing what news for whom,
it all has to fit the rubric of the folks
that are paying the money for that stuff to exist. Yeah,
but if it's if it's a subscription model, then potentially
it's better, right, because that's not.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
We're paying their checks.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Where it's yes, but then are they not servicing your
perspective and your view of the world, which is then
it then becomes a mirror of ourselves again and then
we're not getting a full picture.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Again, Well, guys, I also have to put to the
question this, I mean, this idea of state run media
like the BBC is financed by the by the the
British government. It has connections to the British government, I
guess in a similar way that the NPR used to
or public television, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Retz, Yeah, they're not state media. Thelgia Zerra about Doha, dude,
see what they say.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Well, that's a good point. But that's my question to
you is like, is there a world where you know,
if I'm not to say, if a government is good
and for the people, a state sponsored media is is
okay or state funded because we are funding that and
we're electing the people that are you know, giving a
(20:06):
lotting those budgets and making sure this stuff is happening
un you know, unfettered or with without without bias or.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Without And I'm also I'm just saying in the perfect world, yeah,
like PBS, maybe it's okay, but we don't.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
We never we never end up in that perfect world,
I guess is the point.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Yeah, that's why utopia is a word defined by an
unreachable paradise right, an unreachable optimal position. I love this point, Nol,
because it does show us the danger of people in power.
The town crier times a million, right, So you will
get some of the best news when you triangulate. But
(20:49):
can you really trust the BBC for information about the
UK's weird royal family. Can you really trust Voice of
America about what's going on in Oklahoma that they broadcast
out to, you know, Latin America. The simple truth is
we cannot. Our best counterfactual will be relatively sedate things
(21:13):
like m PR right, or like public What is it not?
PBR that's a that's an award winning.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Beer PBS, PBS.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yeah, that's the one.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
So we have the one with the same seed. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I know I'm making us run long here, but this
is this is important to think about, folks. The point
that Noel is raising is there an ideal, state supported,
state funded reporting outfit that you can trust? The answer
is quickly, it will quickly become deep water, a tall
(21:51):
milkshake of Murky dilemma and bag of badgers. It's a
great question.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Well, it's a great thoughts order brought to us by
our pal Colin, so huge thanks for the email, and
I am going to check out flipboard myself and maybe
use that in addition to my beloved ground news. Let's
take a quick break here where from our sponsor, and
then we'll be back with more messages from you.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
We have returned, and guys, this is the middle segment
full of surprises. Here we go. The first surprise is
right here.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
Thirty five years ago, Billy Baga jumped out of video
games and straight into our hearts as the protagonist of
Bage World. Billy has had many adventures over the years.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Wait for me, guy.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
There have been countless sequels, comics, and even a movie.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I love saving bag A World with my.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
Friends, but changing times call for a changing hero, maybe
even an anti hero. Baker World is under attack from
the evil Commander Hackington. Have never been higher save the
Ruda Vegas and this new first person shooter from Bega.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Team Lly Billy, Sorry, kid, Philly's gone and all the
remains is negative.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
William bag A.
Speaker 7 (23:15):
World Evolutions coming this holiday season exclusively for.
Speaker 8 (23:19):
The Big Aware Fun Box five.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Forty work, Dylan Tennessee Pall Fagan.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
The what what was that at the end there of Dylan.
Speaker 6 (23:32):
Bag Aware Fun Box five.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Yeah, I love a fun box. That's incredible. It's like
the famicon, oh but better.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
And rude begga based Oh that is glorious, the rud
of begas Live on Say you surprise. We're doing a
quick strange news inside listener Mail. Back in twenty twenty
three on listener Mail, we were talking about eggs like
all the dang time, because stores were running low on
those beautiful round protein containers across the United States and
(24:03):
they were all of a sudden the most expensive thing
in the grocery store. Do we remember this?
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Yes, it was like a big talking point as well.
It was like, you know, almost symbolic this bell weather
of like the health of the economy and affordability.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
At least we know why they were so expensive, right
because of bird flu? Bird flu?
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Oh, that's right, there was That's all it was. That's
all it was.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Yeah, it was just bird flu. It was going to
be over soon and the eggs would go back to normal.
We all knew that. Well, turns out couple years, a
couple three years, and you can figure out what was
actually going on. Quick news story out of ap egg
producers will pay three point three million and donate fifty
three million eggs to settle price fixing claims. Read all
(24:49):
about it. We're not going to do the whole thing
right now, Just point that out. We talked about it
a lot. We heard from a lot of you about
eggs at the time, and it appears that there was
some other stuff going going on with Cowmine Foods, Versova
and Hickman's Egg Ranch.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Well, we've also talked about how like, once the prices
go up for whatever the reasons might be, it's sure
as hard to claw back those legacy prices from these companies,
you know, once they've gotten a taste of that sweet
sweet price hike. And you know, we're hearing it now,
a lot of rhetoric from the Trump administration saying, okay,
gas stations, stop your price gouging. Oils down sixty bucks
(25:27):
a barrel, you better lower those prices.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
You know.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
It's a bit of finger wagging, but it ain't exactly actionable.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Right, Yeah, yep. According to the story, you guys, there
were quote behind the scenes arrangements to here's another quote,
artificially inflate the daily price quotations for eggs between June
twenty twenty two and March twenty twenty five. Uh, oh,
that seems to be the same exact timeframe where the
eggs were going crazy.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
Whoopsy Day's illusion. Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Hourtel actions a bit, yes, but we know we know
those are fine as long as they're you know, above
board cartels are great. Okay, guys, we got a call
from someone about something extremely important and to be honest, uh,
we're kind of getting in trouble here a little bit.
(26:21):
What well, we got to hear the message to find
out to hang our heads a bit and listen to
calamity Chris.
Speaker 9 (26:32):
Alday, gentlemen's lamity Chris and the new illumination Global elimited
Representative or Section four zero nine or you'll have to
excuse my blunt in this. But as company man, you
know the importance of brevity. It's come to our intention
that y'all have been communicating using non co intel phones.
(26:54):
Oh boy, this hass to stop immediately because of your
averrant behavior. Word around in the office is that some
of y'all have been communicating with recently dug up Rutebagas.
As you know, Rudebega's questioned authority teach so called truth
to power and critical thinking skills. Therefore, I have authorized
(27:16):
the deployment of all available Rudebaga elimination specialist your neck
of the woods with flamethrowers, shovels, and prohibitol. Directed by
this situation, If unchecked knowledge of the route, Bega is
an existential threat to IGU highly suggests doubling her for
(27:37):
hypatone dosages right now. I shouldn't tell you this, but
I started working for the company before I did. I
believe that thinking for myself, asking questions, reflecting on my
experiences to gain knowledge was important. Oh yeah, that was
such mope. I was such a mope, constantly obsessing over
(27:58):
trivialities like facts. Needless to say, that was an unbearable condition,
and thankfully ig you solved all of my problems with
the new double strength brad to tall. I've been taking
one till a day for the last year, and I
don't think to care about anything at all. Your compliance
is both appreciated and mandatory if you wish to continue
(28:21):
receiving Jase dias. Otherwise, well we might have to mark
you down in the Sea whorf Te column, and nobody
wants that. By the way, you can use this message
in any way you want. Have a good day.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Thank god, my man. Oh wow, whether the reference after references?
I know fire there, my man. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
It was pretty beautiful. Thank you so much, Calamity Chris.
And hey, we understand. We we hear you loud and clear, wing,
we understand, we.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
Voluntarily and mandatorily come.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
That's correct. Anyway, guys, I really did think that was great.
It seems like maybe Chris had just listened to that
all oops, all IGU episode Bring It Back Forhibitol was
a big swing.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
There, Calamity Chris, as Matt Nole said, yes, thank you
so much. Congratulations on your new position. We wish you well,
and we hope you check out our previous conversation regarding
you know, phone security.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Absolutely, let's move on to the next message. This one's
from Dory, who is just agreeing with a little something
we said recently on one of our I can't remember
if the strangers are listening toil, but we will figure
it out, and then has a little comment at the
end that I hope we have something to say about.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
So here we go.
Speaker 8 (29:53):
Hey, Matt, this a story in Asco, Minnesota. And yes
you can use my name. It's Okay, I'm formally known
as Osom Minnesota. I moved from Idaho to Minnesota. I
missed my home in Atlanta, by the way, where I
used to live. In the cab Decatur, Georgia. You just
(30:14):
didn't even ask whether it was shooting books fireworks because
half the damn time the power was going out because
they were they were frying another person or anyway, wait.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Wait a minute, like like with an electric chair, we
talk about executions.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I think that's what Dory's talking about.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
Where's that going down in the cab?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I don't I don't know that reference or understand, but
I thought it was very interesting given the circumstances of
our strange news episode that we recorded today where the
internet just decided to go out for no reason.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Yeah, brown out, I think it's what they call those.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah. Uh, just pointing that out there. I thought that
was interesting. But there, guys, does Atlanta or did Atlanta
execute people downtown somewhere or near Decatur? I have no idea.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
I don't know about this either.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
While we're pausing your Dory, I am not aware, but
I know that we have had in this state. We
have had executions in the past, and there is current
movement legally to execute people on death rowing Georgia, their
(31:28):
executions having been delayed by the COVID pandemic.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
MM got you. I'm just looking up a couple of things, guys.
In places like in Jackson, Georgia, where there was an
electric chair, there's interesting stuff in here. You can download
the history of executions in Georgia from nineteen twenty four
to twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
I would appear that the electric chair was ruled on
constitutional only as recently as two thousand and one. But
I say as recently, and that was, you know, twenty
five years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
God, we old crazy, all right, well and we interrupted you, Dory,
Sorry about that. So we're going to jump back in.
Let's go back to you.
Speaker 8 (32:08):
I'm watching this Flock episode, and you know what's scaring
me is the fact that it's just like Perge. Have
you guys ever seen the movie The Purge? This is
just like the Purge? Are they setting us up for
like a mass extinction event of some kind? I mean,
(32:31):
this is this is just insane. Okay, guys, I love you,
love watching your show now that you guys are on Netflix,
But listen to you, guys like forever since you guys
were on YouTube and had the skeleton. By the way,
(32:52):
where did the skeleton go? Guys? Where did the skeleton go? Okay,
all right, I'm not it's up the Mandala effects. You
guys had a skeleton in all of your shows. Where
did that skeleton go? You can use this message however
you want. Thanks Matt Bye.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Okay, So, first of all, the purge guys, does it
feel like things that are happening around us are setting
us up for the purge?
Speaker 4 (33:24):
A little purge like feel, some purge vibes.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
I don't know when you combine the AI, you know,
stuff of it all in the concept.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Hunger Games perhaps you know, I mean Little Battle Royale.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Perhaps what if it's a nice big combination.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Again, Dory, I think Noel and I can agree with that.
Science fiction is only fiction for a moment. If it's good.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I think I can agree as well, my friend.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
And whatever ends up happening, it'll certainly be on them
Betton Apps.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Oh yeah, it'll be on poly market for sure. Right.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Well then, finally, Wor He's last thing, where's that skeleton?
What happened to that skeleton? Why we maybe we should
let's bring Scully back and put her behind one of
us for the episodes, or maybe we have a Scully
cam and do a fourth shot every time we do
an episode for Netflix, and it's just Scully sitting there.
And that's a lot of.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
That's a lot of screen real estate. Mat that's a
lot of screen rest.
Speaker 6 (34:20):
People don't know that I'm actually sculling, Dorry.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I am not at liberty uh to, because you know
the well the mea culpa falls on me. Here Dorry
and fellow conspiracy realist to confess the origin of Agent Scully.
Uh we still are friends with Agent Scully, who is
(34:47):
sometimes known as Alex Bones or recently we had a
we had a vote to change the name. I think
a few years back. You can anticipate Agent Scully returning
at some point and it will be an ever from
all of us.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Oh man, well, I for one, miss Scully. And is
she in a place where that is around, like physically exists,
or do we get rid of her?
Speaker 4 (35:11):
I don't know, but I got me a skeleton upstairs.
It ain't the original Scully, but it's the same same
type of deal.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Wait, really, absolutely, you.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Have noticed in my place there's a there's a giant
skeleton and a rocking chair upstairs.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Oh yeah, if it can sit on a chair.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
We'll see about to make sure we'll not have to
make sure there's consent.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Okay, that's awesome. I'm not kidding about another Shotley by
the way. Like I'm imagining an overhead light and a
chair and the skeleton, and then we can just cut
to our Scully pal whenever we want to that. I
think that's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
Scully the next generation and Stanley ain't that far off
from Scully named after Kubrick who faked the moon landing.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Yes, all right, well, thank you so much Chris, our
new igu rep, and thank you Dory, former Decatur shot spotter.
We will be right back after a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
And we have returned folks with a couple of quick updates.
We had a very important conversation in a previous listener
mail segment with none other than Salamander Talco. Do you
guys remember that, Matt, I think it's a voicemail that
you received.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
We literally did that one yesterday. Ben. It's Wednesday, July first.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
As we record, but thanks to the magic of editing,
this was a previous week for all our fellow conspiracy realist.
I thought this would be interesting for us. You guys
tell me if it's interesting or not. We had we
had a response to a thing that we asked about,
a new mission for one of the best in the business.
(36:57):
If they chose to accept a thought experiment. Hypothetically, how
would one go about creating a salamander taco? Right? Remember
this guy's name, Salamander. You were talking with us about
guardrails and properly installed flock cameras, and so I wanted
to take it to a new height. We went to
(37:18):
the expert. We went to none other than Chicago's own
chef Ben. Here's the response, Chef, you say, I have
never cooked any amphibians as small as that, so including
a salamander as an ingredient would be a stretch for me.
My research also indicates, get this, guys, that they excreete neurotoxins,
(37:41):
and I'm pretty sure they're the deadly ones, not the
pretty color ones. We'll pause here. Have you eaten a salamander?
If so?
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Right?
Speaker 3 (37:49):
To us conspiracy iHeartRadio dot Com. I've gotta ask you, guys,
Matt Tennessee, Noel Brown, have you guys ever eating lizards
or reptiles.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
The only one I've ever tried is an alligator, the
tailed portion of that reptile, and I could not discern
much of a difference between that and chicken.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Right, right, right. We had a show back in the
day where we would eat all kinds of things. We
had canned snake meat, for instance, a lot of bones.
By the way, but I don't think any of us
have eaten a salamander Tennessee Noel Brown, Have you guys
eaten salamanders?
Speaker 5 (38:33):
Not?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I are serious question. Aren't most amphibians at this point endangered?
Or am I just being crazy off bass?
Speaker 3 (38:41):
They're very much endangered. You are correct, because they are
on the forefront of very vulnerable ecological vent diagrams. Wait, Dylan,
are you coming in hot to say that you have
eaten a salamander?
Speaker 6 (38:55):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
No, okay, a lot of nos, no number but not
perhaps perhaps, which means we'll have to get calamity. Chris.
The look at your jacket, my guy, So here we go.
The chef the legend says, however, for funsies, you could
(39:19):
easily make homemade tortilla hardshells that look like salamanders from
the side. That could be cute. Right, So now we're just,
you know, like we're carving out the taco shells or
tortilla shells, similar to how you would eat dino nuggets
shaped like dinosaurs.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Okay, I think I'm with it that that does require
some artistry that most chefs, you know, cookie cutter perhaps
you know. Okay, okay, okay, never mind that works.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
I think I think both ideas are perfect, you guys,
and I believe in you. Now fully hypothetical, says chef Ben.
I would merit eight salamanders hole in a mixture of
everybody tune in, lock in here, buttermilk, cayenne pepper, old
bay garlic powder, onion powder, white pepper, and salt. Overnight,
(40:12):
I would dredge them in a mix of all purpose flour,
potato starch, and fine corn meal, and then season it
with more old bay garlic powder, salt, and white pepper.
Let's pause there. Do you guys mess with potato starch
when you cook stuff?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I mean, I can't think of a time that I have.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
I don't know if I even have potato starch.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
Yeah, is that velvet that's cornstarch.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
I've got cornstarch.
Speaker 4 (40:42):
I imagine corn. Imagine it's a similar effects, but maybe not.
Speaker 6 (40:46):
I will say from this recipe, I'm getting some oj
Simpson if I did it, vibes.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Tennessee Powell ladies and gentlemen, foy conspiracy realists. Here's the solutions.
So we've got our salamander's marri right overnight. Then we
give them a kiss, we give them some breading. We
fry them whole on skewers so they don't curl up, right,
think about the tails. You haven't thought about the tails?
D And then you drop the whole thing into a
(41:13):
fresh corn tortilla with a charred salsa Rojo cilantro and
diced white onions, and maybe, if you're fancy, add some
slices of avocado. What do we think, like bracket the neurotoxins? Right,
what do we think?
Speaker 2 (41:34):
It's making my mouth water? But not in the good way?
You know, you know that one where it's like, oh,
there's too much live in my mouth?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Oh right right, it makes you want to do the
thing where you like spit on the ground for a
second like a ball. Yeah, uh, I think we should
try it. Maybe if we can find for you, chef,
a similar sized reptile or amphibium without the neurotoxicity. It
(42:03):
feels like something we could eat, right, you guys would
try it.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
It sounds pretty yummy. I'm not gonna lie. I mean
meat his meat, unless you're Morrissey, in which case meat
is murder.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Oh yeah, yeah, but we're not Morrissey because we show
up to our shows.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
That's also true. And I take it back what I said.
Meat is not meat. I wouldn't eat kitten meat, wouldn't
eat puppy meat. Have a little bit of a problem
with the idea of rabbit meat if I'm being honest,
and certainly not squid not squid.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
You wouldn't eat a squid.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
I wouldn't eat well. I mean I have in the past,
but after watching my octopus friend or teacher and knowing
a bit more about how senchient those guys are, it
has given me pause.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, I'm off the cephalopods as well.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
I'll eat a squid though, my bad. I'm an octopus.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Serious question, When is the last time you guys have
gone to one of those huge operation Chinese buffets.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
It's been a minute, but there's a good one you're
used to like in Augusta.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Me too. There's a super Golden buffet is what it's called.
Not sponsored by up near. It just opened up right
where I live, and we went in pretty recently. And
to see those you know, those big metal trays that
they have in those things filled with squid and all
kinds of these, you know, an octopus and all things
(43:20):
like that. It's just it hits different now. And just
to see the ravenous way in which people you know
are kind of coveting those items when they hit the thing.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Seafood in a buffet, that's what. Yeah, I've had to
turn down. I've had to turn down some good stuff,
you know, as a lapsed vegan and vegetarian. It's it's
one day, one delicious day at a time. And folks,
this is this is a true thing. This is a
(43:53):
nice philosophical quandary to have. You can look at people
that you consider your friends or your family, are very
close to you with the following question, if seafood is
going extinct, which is kind of close to true with
ocean acidification, would you decide that you are not going
(44:15):
to eat seafood anymore, or would you say, now's my
time to get as much as I can shrimp. Yeah,
you learn a lot from your folks that way. I
think this first off, obviously, folks, Chef beIN is our
returning guest and our culinary expert. We would love to
(44:37):
hear your theories on the salamander taco and salamander taco prime.
I very much hope you enjoyed this one. We got
time for one more thing, and I think we just
get into it with a sound clip. Is that? Okay?
Speaker 5 (44:58):
The government has a secret system, a machine. It spies
on you every hour of every day. I know because
I built him. I designed the machine to detect acts
of terror, but it sees everything violent crimes involving ordinary people,
people like you.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
Does anybody remember what that's from?
Speaker 4 (45:20):
I can do right?
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Oh, okay, I do not, Ben, But I really want
to know why Ben Lionis is talking like that and
dressed like that.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
That is the guy from Lost, the actor who played
the characters Ben Lionis and Lost the character that actors played.
And this is a guy named Harold Finch. This comes
to us from W. M. Bacon, who says, hey, guys,
just listen to the second chapter about flock. Maybe think
(45:49):
of it made me think of a show that ran
on CBS from twenty eleven to twenty sixteen. It was
called person of Interest. And so what we played for there, folks,
is part of the opening narration, kind of like the
Star Trek mission statement of the series. Person of Interest
(46:12):
is a fascinating sci fi spin on the idea of
mass surveillance. And in the show, as you know, well WM,
this this guy who's still met by the way, is
very much in line with Ben Liinis's character and loss.
(46:33):
This guy creates or finds this machine or this algorithm
that will give him social security numbers for people of interest,
but not tell him whether those people of interest are
good or bad. If they're about to you know, save
(46:54):
the world in cure cancer, or if they're about to
build something like a water communicable nuclear bomb, which is
a phrase I made up. That's a terrifying thing.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Yeah, that way, I guess in this world that would
be uh, that would be something that you could put
into water in a small amount, maybe like a mirror
life amount, and then there would be a nuclear reaction
you could create. We don't have time for it. That
would too crazy nuclear like water water, communicable nuclear reactions,
(47:34):
fusion reactions. Okay, before the essay gets us, Nola, had
you ever heard of the show person of Interest? I
think you would like it.
Speaker 4 (47:43):
Person of Interest? You know what? I did watch it briefly,
and there's a lot of like surveillance animations, right, isn't
there a thing where they're they're like, there's a lot
of really deep state technology that's doing facial recognition and
stuff like that. Yeah, I think I remember that, but
then I didn't, didn't continue on. But I do like
that guy. He's in another cool show about like a
(48:03):
sleep demon, that evil that's the one. Yeah, yes, I
like that.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
Ben Lion is showing up everywhere. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Speaker 8 (48:13):
Sorry.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Michael Emerson, the actor.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
Michael, Yes, mister Emerson, you know, the phenomenal actor, gets
a lot of work, gets a little bit type gast,
I would say, as ominous secret secret keeper guy. Is
he good? Is he bad? What the heck happened at
the end of Lost? What happened? Did you guys? Were
(48:36):
you guys there with me watching Lost? Not in person,
but like, were we.
Speaker 4 (48:42):
I think I think we were when it was on
in real time?
Speaker 2 (48:45):
Yeah, wasn't that I want to say, what was that
the local? Or was that somewhere else where we were
watching it? Sometimes?
Speaker 3 (48:53):
Oh gosh, I don't know the local did it?
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Sometimes? Where you could just show up have some of
their delicious undried tomato wings and not sponsored, should be sponsored.
Speaker 3 (49:04):
It's crazy good, it's crazy. It's been what an appropriate
time for us to mention the local and their legendary
chicken wings. They are very good. They are legends here
in the Atlanta metro area because they did, as we
all know, consistently refuse any interviews with places like local
(49:32):
newspaper reporters like the AJAC or local influencers on your
social needs of choice. So if you do make it
down to the Atlanta area, and if we're in that
vicinity and not on the high seas or not on
the road, oh you know, hit us up. That's the
best wing place to go to, right, although there are
(49:56):
some people who say Magic City has better wings, but
I think that's a very different environment.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Yeah, and you know I haven't had those. I went
to a little, a little place. I want to say
it was near Decatur. I can see the Strip Mall
in my head, but I couldn't tell you exactly where
it is, but they had on their menu. It was
like a really cool brunch place to go to and
they had on their menu Strip Club Wings. And I
(50:22):
was told that those wings, Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
Our wings a la strip, our wings a la dance.
And we can't wait for you to, you know, hop
in the dance ring with us, folks. We'd love to
hang out. Thank you so much to w M. Thank
you to a certain chef Calamity, Chris Colin and of
course Dory. Please joined us in our continuing mission to
(50:50):
explore all the strange unknown conspiracies in this world and beyond.
You can find us on the lines. You can call
us on a phone. You can always send us an email.
Speaker 4 (51:02):
You sure can. You can find us online of the
handle Conspiracy Stuff our Conspiracy Stuff Show, depending on which
social media platform is your favorite.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Our number is one eight three three std WYTK. When
you call in, give yourself a cool nickname like Calamity,
Chris or Dory, and you know, say anything you want.
You got three minutes. If you want to send us
an email, we are the.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
Entities and read each piece of correspondence we receive. Be
well aware, yet's unafraid. Sometimes the void writes back, give
us a random fact, We'll give you one in return.
Bonus points. If you cook something really weird and email
us a picture something that's really weird but also of
course legal, We'll see you out here in the dark
(51:48):
conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
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.
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Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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