September 25, 2025 • 48 mins
Killdeer Fake-out inspires Ben, Matt and Noel to create an episode on the radioactive scandal of Coldwater Creek. Chef Ben asks whether he crossed paths with a knife cult. Sydney prompts an anthropological exploration of the Nacirema. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noa.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff
they don't want you to know. Longtime listeners, new listeners,
friends and neighbors alike, Welcome to September twenty fifth, twenty
(00:50):
twenty five. We can't wait to hear from you. This
is our weekly listener mail program, which means it's time
fans demand it. We need an update on the rutabagas
Dunn if you could, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Were That Health Minute with Donnie La Boy is filmed
in front of a live studio audience. Hey everybody, it's
me Donnie, your favorite TV host. You might also remember
my hit song Hong Kong. I'm grooving here Today. On
Health Minute, we're speaking with doctor Craigorye Funston, who wants
to tell us about a nutritious delicious vegetable called the root.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Uh baga.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Now I've never heard of these? Are they new? Well, Donnie,
they've actually been around for a long time. Hmm, must
be pretty under the radar if I've never heard of them, Well,
I think you'd really like them. Goodness, super just mashed
up like potatoes. Interesting, And it says here there are
root vegetable, Yes, like a turn up or a radish. Well,
now you're just making up words. Come on, Craig, oh
(01:49):
and that's our time. Join us tomorrow when Farmer Tammy
is going to show us how to find a rutebega.
Supposedly you just dig them up.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I refuse to better and better, don't know?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
In love spend the effort in the time to create
something like that. Dylan warms our hearts greatly.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Amazing, phenomenal A word I've been over using often, but
it is appropriate in this conversation. Dylan, can you tell
us please look the I know the answer already, but
could you share with the audience a little bit of
the backstory of the legendary Donnie la Boy.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
Yeah, I believe that Donnie la Boy is a name
that came from this show, like seven or eight years ago.
I remember you tweeting about it that Donnie La Boy
was a new character on the show, and I sent
you a photoshop of myself and a pink blazer. I
was pointing at a watch and it said it's time
for Grooven. And ever since then, I've been a big
fan of the idea of Donnie and tried to work
(02:50):
him in as often as I can.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
It means Donnie the Boy.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
Also, fun fact, I sent you that text message of
the photoshop, but I actually and it's my grandfather first,
with no context.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
I love it. I love it. We love to see
it because we have had this long running inside joke
with each other. It makes it on the air sometimes
where one of us will come across a turn of
phrase and another one will say, that's an amazing album
name or that's an amazing band name. And guys, I've
been keeping a list.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Oh Man Well, and shout out to actor Peter the Boy,
who was apparently on Instagram because I just found him
as I was trying to find stuff on your lit
boy Boy.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
And also shout out to a friend of the show,
Paul Decance, who I believe did a nice photoshop in
the same vein of Ben with his pantaloons rolled up
standing in the sea, and it was the album cover
for the hot new group Soft Yes.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Oh yeah, that was Paul Good in his back. Paul
had a birthday recently, guys, Yeah, well Paul had. That
was Poll's soft getback for our photoshop prank war where
I had taken a photo of him and called it
Soft Yes with the album put Me.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Down, because he would often say put me down for
a soft yes.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yes. Well, we have a big family here and we
have a lot of stuff to get to, folks. We
have we have in full disclosure, come from a very
dark and troubling episode that we felt ethically required to
report on, and so this is going to be our
(04:38):
palate cleanser. We're going to pause for a word from
our sponsors, and then we're going to have a ton
of messages from you, and oh dang it. I tried
to set it up like we were not going to
be dark, but now we're going immediately to a story
about a cult.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Perfect that was me, that wasn't Dylan. I did that,
and we're back then.
Speaker 7 (05:09):
I didn't even know what you were talking about for
a second, but boy, are you right? Cults come in
all shapes and sizes and flavors and price points. Whatever
level you want to get in on, get on the
ground floor if you can.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
Boy, oh boy, do we.
Speaker 7 (05:24):
Have a fun one from a regular contributor to the show,
chef Ben here from Chicago. He says, have you ever
encountered Cutco knives?
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Cut cut cut cut, cut, cut, cut cut.
Speaker 7 (05:35):
Cut, cutting around with Cutco and or the extremely pushy
salespeople who come to your house. I recently had a
Cutco representative do a demo slash give a sales pitch
in my home. And since I've been listening to was
I in a Cult? On your excellent recommendation The Whole?
That's a podcast, by the way, and also we've done
episodes on this very topic as well, but do check
(05:57):
out the series. The Whole experience seemed very sus to
me as a professional cook chef. In fact, I have
no use for this particular brand of knives, and I'll
tell you why real quick, just to break out of
the email. They are apparently quite trash. They are apparently
stamped blades. They are made of lower grades steel basically,
(06:18):
and I've done some research into cut code and watch
some videos and never used one myself, but I'm a
big knife fan. And apparently they claim that it's the
same grade as like the kind of carbon surgical steel
that's used for surgical instruments.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
But apparently that is not the case. They dull very easily.
Speaker 7 (06:35):
The handles are quite cheap, et cetera. You know, so
moving on, it's easy to claim stuff. You know, I've
claimed to be in my forties. It's also and I
continue to claim that because it's true. I have no
use for this particular brand of knives, probably for the
reason that I just laid out, especially since you know
Ben has his chefly bona fides. But a family friend
(06:56):
asked us to humor her son, and let's put a
little pin in this her son situation, who is only
selling Cutco knives so he has some money while in college.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Everybody's been there well.
Speaker 7 (07:11):
In this in particular in terms of the model that
the Cutco brand has is a big part of the grift. Okay,
it's an easy way into making a little pocket cash,
and they really love targeting young people who are hard
up for funds. Sure fine, he says, Come to find
out he's been selling these things for like seven years,
(07:32):
which made me wonder if the do us a solid
request was part of the sales pitch spoilers. I didn't
buy anything, and the whole evening made me more and
more uncomfortable as I watched the manipulative sales tactics play out.
So you guys tell me. First, there was the love bombing. Okay,
big old cult leader tactic.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
What a beautiful.
Speaker 7 (07:53):
Kitchen, he says, you must make such wonderful dinners here.
You're so lucky to have a chef living in this house.
Then came the shaming. The salesfellow looked through my extensive
collection of knives, which no doubt are quality knives. Chef
Ben then honed in on the only one to have
a wooden handle. You know better than this, he said,
(08:15):
mocking that knife, which was a gift from twenty years ago.
He used that knife only as what he compared the
other knives to. After it became clear that we were
not interested in purchasing anything, he switched tactics. You'd be,
as a chef, a really good salesman for these knives, fellas.
I think he wanted to recruit me into his MLM
(08:37):
pyramid scheme cult he offered to cut me in, as
it were, to his territory share customer contacts.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
What do you call those guys' prospects?
Speaker 7 (08:48):
Yeah, with me, show me the secret spots where someone
could reel in lots of sales in the same subdivision
slash apartment complex slash retirement home.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
That's my question. Am I paranoid?
Speaker 8 (08:59):
Now?
Speaker 7 (08:59):
After hours are listening to people describing their CULTI culty
experiences double culty or did a family friend just make
a spirited attempt to induct me into their MLM port
one hundred thanks.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
I don't feel.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
Any better for having written this all out at all.
And then he just very helpfully links this to cutco
dot com apparently the Cutco Corporation, which is a I
believe the direct sales division of Vector Marketing, also Cubar
Knives Incorporated, and Shilling Forge with the Vector Marketing, I
(09:34):
think is the interesting part. They have quite the history.
They've been around since nineteen forty nine. It's founded by
Alcoa and Case Cutlery as Alcast Corporation, making stainless steel
knives for Alcoa's Wherever Cookware division. Then, of course, through
various acquisitions, et cetera. Nineteen eighty five is when Alcasts
(09:55):
acquired Vector Marketing, which was the primary seller of Cutco
cutlery products, and that expanded their sales effort and Cutco
as of two thousand and nine, changed its name or
the Outcast Corporation changed its name to cut Co Corporation.
This is a kind of seemingly outdated model of door
to door salesman ship, which just seems so odd in
(10:15):
this day and age, not to mention like with you know,
post COVID stuff. It's just I can't help but look
a scance at anyone that just cold knocks on my door.
I just I don't care for it. I find it
a little bit, you know, more than a little bit pushy.
I just find it to be an invasion of privacy.
I don't care for it.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
And I imagine that you know.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
People in this day and age who look at a
telephone call as being an invasion of privacy probably don't
much care for it either. But then I guess you
do have the older set of folks that maybe miss
this style. They remember it from yesteryear, and maybe it
does hit different for them.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
A lot of people are lonely as well also true
ability to exploit. I think we miss the halcyon era
of door to door sales Chef Ben, I really wish
someone had become a door to door door salesman.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Wouldn't that be fun?
Speaker 7 (11:05):
It's a joke I will never walk away from, kind
of like buying luggage at the airport, you know very much.
So we also, as we were diving into this when
Chef thank you so much for checking out was I
in a cult? I ep that along with our pal
and brother Paul Decant. So it's it's a very human show.
Anybody wants to learn more about cultic activity and tactics,
(11:30):
please do check out that show. And I guess that's
an interesting kind of segue Ben Ben Bowlin and Chef
Ben much like the episode that we just did that
Ben was mentioning there was such a bummer on the
idea of snuff films. There is some criteria surrounding what
is a cult and it can be a little murky sometimes.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
And you know, while a MLM may have.
Speaker 7 (11:54):
Cult like traits or tendencies, I don't know that I
would necessarily put it in the same category as you know,
something that's much more ideology oriented. I think it can
have some of the same structural qualities, but it doesn't
necessarily to me feel exactly the same. It just feels
like maybe praying on similar what's the word I'm looking.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
For, ignorances.
Speaker 7 (12:19):
Perhaps you know they're selling a bill of goods in
the same way that a cult is often selling a
bill of goods, and there is that recruitment tactic as well,
which of course is a big part of a cult
as well. So it's an interesting thing to think about.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Yeah, one thing that really blew my mind, guys and
Chef Ben and all of us together here tonight was
learning from the was I in a cult host that
a fitness group could still obey cult tactics, And years
ago we made a deep dive video on cult tactics.
And just like fascism, the idea of a cult needs
(12:55):
to be defined not by its own identification or self identification,
but by the methods it employs toward its followers. So
to your question, there, Noel, I could I could see
a ven diagram, not all MLMs being cults, but some
very much deploying those tactics of a cult of personality. Right,
(13:18):
A fearless unquestionable leader. Yes, motivation where wherein there's a
Kobeashi Maru unsolvable problems set up that happens in scientology,
that happens in a lot of you know, sketchy sketch
skirt skirt religions, So some MLMs can do the same thing.
I just we need an update from the chef on
(13:42):
his best knife. I love when people talk about their
best knives. Oh yeah, I mean that sounded weird out
of context, but we'll keep it.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well, several awesome ones.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
I'm a huge knife fan as well.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
My problem is that all of my really good knives
are completely dull now, and I need to go to
a professional sharpener. And I did just get hips to
one here in Atlanta, so I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
But my loved good knife.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
That's way more expensive than you think. I know, like
shears for hairdressers, and anybody who works in that industry
spent a crept on of money making those shears super sharp.
I found two things, guys. The first one on the
cutco website cutco dot com. It appears that if you've
received a catalog. On the back of your catalog, you
(14:27):
will find a customer number if you plug that customer
number into your what does this say? Uh, there's a
little thing you click on the website that says unlocked
special offers. If you click on that and then you
enter your customer number, you can you can unlock the
ownership rewards. It says here ownership has its rewards. Join
other Cutco owners by verifying with the form below. All
(14:50):
you got to do is put in all your personal
information and then you can unlock owner specials.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
I'm so curious, guys.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Oh gosh, I wonder if that went into their two
thousand innate lawsuit as well, because Cutco is claiming they
have sixteen million US customers. But to your question, Chef,
we're not being jerks. Maybe don't buy the knives. We
can't answer the cult question. But they have been accused
(15:18):
of being a pyramid scheme and they have been accused
of underpaid sales reps. You can read there's a great
subreddit about this too, in the anti MLM subreddit.
Speaker 7 (15:31):
And there's a great column from the La Times from
about five years ago by David Lazarus. Beware of this
important quote. Important opportunity for job seeking students. I'm just
gonna read a little bit from it. The letter, recently
sent to young people throughout southern California, arrives in a
plain white envelope with no return address, time sensitive information,
and closed.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
It says the single sheet.
Speaker 7 (15:51):
Of paper within claims to represent an important opportunity for
students in your area, with immediate openings for summer work.
The starting pay is excellent and the best part is
you don't need any experience. We'll train you and teach
you everything you need to succeed. Sounds great, except for
just a few tense ween sea things such as what
is this company and what does it do? The only
clue is the firm referring to itself as Vector, an
(16:13):
international company established in nineteen eighty one. It says it
has openings in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Specific Palisades, Venice, Marina,
del Rey, Beverly Hills, and surrounding areas. Is it a scam, No,
it's a real business.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Is this a dubious way to recruit people?
Speaker 8 (16:25):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (16:25):
Absolutely, Here's what you need to know if you or
your kid got one of these things. And then they
go into the hold spiel about what Vector is about,
the subsidiary Cutco, etc.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
So do check this out.
Speaker 7 (16:37):
And this actually is from around the pandemic and it
sort of talks about it in that context as well,
which I think is interesting. So do look up that
piece if you want to dig in a little deeper.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I got one last thing, guys. You remember a little
thing called the Society of Inquiry better known as the
Oneida Community.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I love it. I love this story that I don't
remember who started as a shaker outfit?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, I got a We did a whole episode in this.
I think it's a company started by cults. Part one
Maybe this is when we talked about them. Was a
while ago. But there is a cracked article you can
find right now if you want some want to do
some reading. It's titled Grandma's Fancy Silverware was made by
a poly Commie sex cult. Hey love it?
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Where can I get? Sign me up? I want some
POLYCOMMI sex cult cutlery?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Who wrote that one?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
That's Cedric votes vats votes?
Speaker 8 (17:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (17:37):
And can I just add real quick, Ben, you referenced this,
but this is from that Los Angeles Times piece as well.
In twenty eleven, Vector agreed to pay thirteen million dollars
to settle a lawsuit of edging it failed to pay
a salespeople minimum wages. Five years later, the company paid
six points seventy five million to settle a class action
pseudo ledging it failed to adequately compensate salespeople in southern
California and a handful of other states. A spokesperson for
(17:59):
the organization said, in the world of business, lawsuits happened.
We settled not as an admission of guilt, but to
better invest our time and energy into the hardworking managers
and reps that we serve on a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
That's so cool being a corporation, guys, even pre citizens United,
just being able to go nolo contendre for literally everything.
So chef, what we're saying, without being hyperbolic, is that
anyone in everyone who ever tries to sell you any
form of cutlery is part of a cult.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Just go to h Mart man.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
I love h Mart cults and.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
I love cost Co.
Speaker 7 (18:37):
And there are arguments and discussions about whether or not
cost Co is cult.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
Dish our podcast occult.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Is this a cult?
Speaker 7 (18:45):
Anything could be a cult if you look at it
the right way, and I'm you know, and you know.
But the thing is, we talk about this a lot.
The term cult is often thrown around in a negative connotation. Sure,
and that's sort of the nature of the way the
word is used, so any many religions could be looked
at as cults, especially in their early days.
Speaker 8 (19:01):
Right.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Well, again, check out our video which I think really
actually aged well and hopefully helps some people. And it's
entirely about the tactics deployed by cults. Please find it
YouTube dot com slash conspiracy stuff. It might take some digging,
but we we walk through it and it is not
as controversial as our episode, the Step by Step guide
(19:26):
on how to Get Away with Murder.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Guys, I got a pitch for some entrepreneur out there,
somebody somewhere, please do this. There's a man named John
Humphrey Noise and O y e s. He's the guy
that started the Onita thing in the Putney community, in
the Wallingford community, according to Wikipedia. Here he coined the
term complex marriage. Here's the pitch. Start a new company
(19:52):
called Noisy.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Noise Noise Noise.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Okay, just do the MLM thing all all the way.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Sure, I love it. I think a pun goes a
long way. We're actually gonna close listener mail with a
pun that we met Dylan beat me here. We've missed
it and it's a brilliant put. I don't want to
oversell it, but make sure you listen to the end
of this show.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
Well, Ben, I mean, we say no pun left behind,
so if we miss one, we've got to.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
Make it right. We got to make it right, man. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
Well, thanks Chef Ben for this thought provoking topic. And
we're gonna take a quick break here we're from our
sponsor and then come back with more messages from you.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And we've returned and we're jumping to the phone lines
to hear from Sydney. Sydney is going to recommend to
us something that I was unaware of, guys, but Sydney's
helping us out by making us aware, and then we're
gonna learn more.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Here we go.
Speaker 8 (20:47):
Hey, guys, this is Sydney from Iowa, and I wanted
to ask if you guys were familiar with the body
rituals of the NASAIMA.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Okay, we're gonna pause right here. Body rituals of the nasama.
Now before searching it, guys, I had to look up
a ton of stuff to know what this is. We'll
learn about it together. But did you know what that
was before?
Speaker 5 (21:10):
God, that's a note for me, dog, I don't know
that one.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Body ritual among the Nasarema.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Uh so, yeah, without knowing about body ritual stuff, Sydney
from anthropology classes, I am familiar with nacerema.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
Yeah, and I guess my mind immediately goes to some
sort of indigenous tribal ritual of some kind. I'm not
familiar and I'm just using context clues, so forgive me
if I'm way off base.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
All right, Well, hey, these are vizier good things to know,
and I'm glad we've got some understanding thus far. But
for anyone who doesn't know what this is and hasn't
googled it yet, I'm gonna read a brief piece of
this article was written by Horace Minor in nineteen fifty six.
Horses a part of the University of Michigan, and he
wrote body ritual among the Nacerema. This is going to
(21:55):
take a second, guys, but we've got to read this
just to have an understanding of this. This is just
a mild look at how perspective that we talk about
on the show a lot can change things. Right look out,
looking in from what direction. From what standpoint do you
look at something and how does that change how you
understand it? Here it goes quote Professor Linton first brought
(22:15):
the ritual of the Nacerema to the attention of anthropologists
twenty years ago. But the culture of this people is
still very poorly understood. They're a North American group living
in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and
the Tarahumehr of Mexico and the Caribe and Arawak of
the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, although tradition
(22:36):
states that they came from the East. According to Nacerema mythology,
their nation was originated by a culture hero, not a
genessaw who is otherwise known for two great feats of strength,
the throwing of a piece of wampum across the River
Potomac and the chopping down of a cherry tree in
which the spirit of truth resided. Okay, can kind of
(22:57):
get a sense of where we're going here?
Speaker 7 (22:59):
I found a on one about scraping the face with
a sharp implement.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yes, oh, yes, okay. So the article is titled body
Ritual of the Nacerema and what this is in fact
is ben, how would you describe it? And from what
you learned in because you actually learned this in class.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yes, Matt, that is correct for any fan of nerdy
anthropology stuff. And again, Sydney can't shout. I can't shout
you out enough, but shout out to you again. This
is about how one others or perceives or analyzes a culture.
The key is, Matt, if it's okay if I say
(23:40):
it on airic can we get the spoiler? Do you
want to tell people what nacerema is?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well, let's continue with the message here from Sydney, and
we'll have the illumination and it will be global mildly limited.
Just a bit here we go back to you, Sidney.
Speaker 8 (23:55):
In a perfect world, I would let you look it
up and then you'd call me and then you'd be like,
oh my god, I didn't realize that was America's fall backwards. Wow,
Kip all of that. It's supposed to be a distorted
view of America in the sense of like othering and anthropology.
We use it with the AGCOM students to try to
get them to think about things from a different perspective.
Speaker 7 (24:15):
A lot of people use it.
Speaker 8 (24:16):
A lot of different ways. I don't know. Yeah, I
thought that was something to look into. You guys talk
about all sorts of stuff, So I tell you guys later.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Ahh okay, So Sydney could have thrown us for a
loop there. Thank you for you kind of.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Gave it away in the message. Honestly, we had to
pause the.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Message then play it again next time. If y'all have
something really cool to show us that we probably don't
know about, go ahead and like, see if you can
stay away from spoiler territory and just let you know,
let us find it, because then we can all discover
it together on air. Is that do you think that's
an okay suggestion?
Speaker 8 (24:47):
You guys?
Speaker 5 (24:48):
I love doing that.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Take us I'm always saying it right, take us.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
To the edge of the love that night. But no, Ding, Sidney,
that's still awesome. Thank you so much. The reason, Noel,
you were asking about what did you say something.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
About scraping a sharp implement across the face as a
way of appearing I don't know. Basically, it's like sort
of this anthropological way of approaching like stuff that we
do that seems really normal, but when you put it
in those terms, it seems kind of weird.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yes, it seems strange. So if we jump a little
bit further into the original writing here again from nineteen
fifty six Maria a tiny bit more just so we
can feel, and then we'll examine a couple later things
that were written in the same vein. So this is
again body ritual among the nace Arima Naserrima culture is
characterized by a highly developed market economy, which has evolved
(25:42):
in a rich natural habitat. While much of the people's
time is devoted to economic pursuits, a large part of
the fruits of these labors, and a considerable portion of
the day are spent in ritual activity. The focus of
this activity is the human body, the appearance and health
of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos
(26:03):
of the people. The fundamental belief underlying the whole system
appears to be that the human body is ugly and
its natural tendency is to debility and disease. Incarcerated in
such a body, man's only hope is to avert these
characteristics through their use of ritual ceremony. Every household has
(26:23):
one or more shrines devoted to this purpose, and of
course there it's talking about bathrooms, places where a person
can change and go through all of these body rituals
to make us not so filled with debility and disease
and grapitude. Really fascinating. Just again, I'm trying to think
(26:47):
of the right word, guys. Just an exploration in all
these things that Sidney described there, and probably extremely fruitful
for someone studying anthropology, right, especially a younger student coming
through and perhaps having an interest in maybe indigenous cultures
and ancient cultures and things like that that do they're
(27:07):
written about like this, right, Like, Oh, look at these
curious groups of people who did these curious things, and
then just to have a mirror held up literally in
the bathroom to us all shaming and I guess putting
on concealer.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I like the bathroom reference there, Matt. It reminds me
of previous conversations we've had that Sydney you might enjoy.
I'm always baffled when I go into a large western
metropolitan area or a large metro area in general, because
we talk about what future historians will think about the
remnants of modern culture. Right, Will the interstate bridges be
(27:49):
confused with aqueducts? Will we all simply conclude that this
society worshiped penises. Is that how we explain skyscrapers, Is
that why everything looks phallic? We also accept so many
things when you're bubbled in a society. We accept so
many things as normal. And I'm not going to subject
us all to my rant about neckties. I still don't
(28:10):
get it. We did episodes about this. It's one of
the best examples of weird, relatively non functional things that
people accept us.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Okay, so absolutely, Ben. There is another piece based on
the Nocerama that was written in nineteen seventy two. This
is titled The Mysterious Fall of the Nocerema. This one,
I would say is equally as important because it is
it's that viewpoint that we've talked about before on the show,
looking back at especially the United States culturally, from all
(28:45):
of these years in the future and seeing what remains.
And it's that very thing you just said, Ben, talking
about what the air was like and subjected to and
altering the appearance of the environment to fit the Nocerama's
ideology was given such a hype priority that the community
completely controlled the amassing of resources, manpower, and intelligence for
(29:05):
this purpose. Here's a quick quote. On a more limited
territorial basis, The Nocerema spent great time and energy constructing
narrow ribbons called streets across the landscape. Some streets were
arranged in connected patterns, and in regions with a great
concentration of people. The patterns, when viewed from the air,
increased in size and became more elaborate. Other ribbons did
(29:26):
not follow any particular pattern, but aimlessly pushed from one
population center to another.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Like Anaska lias. Right, that's the vibe. It reminds me
too of the Sydney If you've listened before, you've probably
heard this. It reminds me of our conversations many years
ago regarding how dumb and weird traffic lines are going
to look to future historians. We always talk about that, right,
(29:53):
Imagine explaining a motor vehicle interaction to either an extra
terrestrial or someone from i'd say even just eight thousand
years in the future, and you say, what, there are
these painted lines on the road. Right. Anybody who gets
hit with one of these things will die, especially at
the speeds they're going. But we don't swerve like oh,
(30:16):
so the painted lines prevent you from hitting other people.
You say no, it's kind of an honor system, and
they're like, oh, so it was perfect. These were a righteous, noble,
empathetic civilization. They go, no, no, they killed each other
all the time because we want to go fast, because
we want to go fast and we want to be
first one. I mean, that's it, right, Oh, that was good.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Okay, we're weird. We're all kind of weird and awesome incredible. Right, Well,
we get together and we just do weird stuff and
we all think it's normal.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
I love it, and it's strange. That's all I have
to say.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
On that note.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Guys, I'm going to go to one of my ritual
centers probably and I'm not going to change my face
or anything, but do the other thing we do in bathrooms.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Poop fantasize about Dave and Busters wild peeing.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
I had a fifty to fifty chance of getting.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
All right, we'll be right back with more messages from you.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
And we have returned. We're going to go to kill
deer fake out who hipped us to something that Well,
I'll see if we're all aware of this beforehand, but
this was news to me. Kill deer. You say, hey, guys,
just recently heard a program on public radio about some
crazy contamination in cold Water Creek in Saint Louis, Missouri.
(31:51):
This piqued my interest because I spent the first four
years of my life in that area, and I promptly
checked with my parents to see whether we live near
that creek. Smart kill Deer, we would have done the
same thing. Looks like, I'm clear, that's fantastic news, but
it still gives me the willies to think about it. Apparently,
(32:11):
says kill Deer. The government was refining uranium in Saint Louis,
uranium later used in the first atomic bomb. However, the
government did not warn the local public of the effects
of living near this radioactive waste. The waste contaminated a
local stream, and the public was kept in the dark
about it for almost forty years. Forty years be next
(32:37):
to uranium enrichment in refinement, kill Deer says, I don't
remember all the details clearly from the radio program, but
it sounds like even in the nineteen nineties, not to
date myself with nineteen nineties, we checked, the area was
heavily contaminated and people were only just finding out. Let's
pause here before we go back to Kill Deer. Did
(32:58):
you fellas hear about this?
Speaker 5 (33:00):
Not this one?
Speaker 8 (33:01):
No?
Speaker 5 (33:01):
Oh aware?
Speaker 3 (33:02):
And it's a shame that we have to say.
Speaker 7 (33:04):
Yeah, I just found out, not to docks anybody, but
that this company I used to work out in my
hometown that the family that owned it also owned a
garbage dump that polluted a poison the water in a
whole neighborhood. And there's like a documentary about it. So
I'm just saying to your point, like this stuff is around.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
I am Jack's continual lack of surprise unfortunately, and I'm
sure I speak for all of us when I say
that I hope there's some kind of redress or justice done.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
I haven't seen the documentary. It was brand new information
to me. Gonna look into it, we'll report back. Yeah, yeah,
let us know what you find. I'd love to watch
it as well. Back to Kill Deer, Kill Deer, you continue,
you say I thought this was up your alley. With
it being a contamination site combined with a government secret,
it looks like clean up is ongoing and will continue
(33:54):
for at least another decade. And then here Kill Deer
recommends a book. We're going to shout it out because
we love reading a primary source. It's called newt Echoes
of the Hiroshima, Bob and Saint Louis by Linda C.
Maurice spelled Morice, so pardon any mispronunciation there.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
You're welcome to read this email on air. I'd love
for you to go into more detail on this topic.
Kill deer, fake out, well, guess why kill deer. We're
going into a little bit more of this as it
may be an episode. You are absolutely correct. The radio
program is true. I don't know the full timeline yet,
I don't think we do, but we can tell you
(34:38):
that nuclear waste, yes was stored outside of Saint Louis,
and as early as nineteen forty nine Boffins, an environmentalist,
and concerned citizens were saying, Hey, should we have all
this nuclear waste by the creek?
Speaker 5 (34:55):
Yeah, creek with the crawdads.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
I don't know. Should we like, I don't know, maybe
put up a sign or something that says don't go
in the creek. If you don't like nuclear way.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Why don't we walk down there and just take a
look around, see if anything's amiss and if it's.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Dip some Toes County eyes on the fish, you know
what I mean. See if we got Simpsons with it.
This comes to us. We want to recommend Missouri Independent
excellent journalism by Alison Kite, who pointed out in January
of last year that the contaminated creek is still contaminated,
but we'll finally have warning signs about seventy five years
(35:36):
after the fact. So we got the signs. Guys. It's
the little winds, it's the baby steps, so they are.
In two thousand and four, the US Army Corps of
Engineers said in a public statement, we're working with the EPA.
We're going to add signs along the creek to help
us monitor areas that may pose a risk if disturbed
(36:00):
in this sense. In this statement, I think we see
a little bit of purposely vague language. What does disturbed
mean exactly? Does that mean you dig up stuff, you
dig too deep or right? Or does it mean that
you just walk over there? Does that counts disturbing? Is
disturbing their?
Speaker 7 (36:20):
I mean, you know, like walking across someone's grave in
certain ways of looking at things, could be considered an
act of disturbing the dead.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
And this creek, by the way, you know, one thing
we always do, folks. We pull up we pull up maps,
we pull up sat Nav and stuff like that to
get a sense of the lay of the land. This
creek goes through a lot of very busy public place
It only has parks, schools, subs.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Guys, are there any bad yelp reviews on Google Maps?
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Out of okay? Well that's not as bad as out
of ten. I'm working on being more positive.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
But yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you on that, Ben,
doing our best.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Yeah, this is this is a genuine conspiracy because Uncle Sam,
for more than half a century resisted public concern, right
kept telling people there was nothing to worry about. But
the call was coming from inside the house. This area
is very clearly contaminated. The cleed up that is hopefully
(37:32):
occurring is coming about from a twenty nineteen conclusion from
the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, another government
agency that I think none of us knew existed. Nope, Ah,
so surprising. It's I feel like we're running into this
(37:56):
more and more often when you learn there's an official
statement from a thing that we didn't know existed. Like
how many government agencies are out there with those very
specific interest.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'm looking at the maps, Ben, as you're saying here,
just kind of tracing Coldwater Creek through all like behind
all of these neighborhoods, like you're saying, and then trying
to find, well, where is the source? And I'm finding
a couple of things that might be it, but I
haven't looked it up yet, So I think we just
needed to dig deeper here.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah, and we don't want to spoil it too much,
just like we asked everybody here not to spoil a
good story too much when you reach out to us.
So we know some of these answers, but we very
much feel this is going to be an episode and
guys peak behind the curtain how the sausage gets made.
(38:51):
We do know the official historian of Oak Ridge, so
probably going to reach out to him as well. Love
to hear what he has to say. You're meeting him,
such a nice guy, phenomenal storyteller. He was helping me
hunt down the missing head of a statue in Knoxville.
Speaker 5 (39:10):
Was it Jedediah Springfield?
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Close? Yeah, it was sevierv Yeah, it's kind of the
Jedediah Springfield of Knoxfield.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Wasn't that a plot in a Simpsons episode? Simpsons did it?
Speaker 7 (39:20):
There was a body part removed from the statue. I
want to say it might have been inspired by your story,
which I'm looking forward to hearing more about.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Oh geez, yeah, help us find the missing statue head
of Sevier. So what we can tell you right now, Killdeer,
is that Coldwater Creek is very much contaminated. In two
thousand and two, there is a very recent aspect of it.
(39:47):
Investigators found radioactive material at a local elementary school, the
Jana Elementary School ja n A. And they found not
just one instance of contaminating or radioactive substance, they found
a mixtape including lead to ten, radium, polonium, and uh rogues,
(40:08):
gallery of other less you know, headline grabby but equally
dangerous stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Equally firebars sells like a volume of Now that's contamination volume.
Speaker 5 (40:19):
That's what I call contamination. That can stop edition.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Now that's what I call rutebate radio radio.
Speaker 7 (40:27):
Do you know, Dylan, you gotta do that, now, you
gotta do Yeah, you gotta do like a fake infomercial
mixtape compilation version of remails.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Yeah, Dylan, I'm sorry, I said just so many dumb,
rutebate ideas. But it's just we're fans and folks. We
hope you're fans of Dylan's work as well, either as
Donnie Laboy or as Dylan Fagan, because uh, we're not
gonna stop doing this, just to be clear, like every like,
we are a democracy, okay, but we're limited democracy and
(40:59):
we dig this bit.
Speaker 7 (41:01):
It is a can style. Won't stop with the rude
begas kind of situation.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
So anything you have to say other than tremendous phrase
over our rudabag obsession will be roundly dismissed.
Speaker 5 (41:15):
Will be weird about.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
It will be abrupt and weird and way less diplomatic
than we usually are. We do want you to know
that the Army Corps of Engineers has been cleaning up
Holdwater Creek for lo these many years. We're talking about decades.
Even before they put up the signs, they were trying
to get in front of this. Yet even as we
(41:37):
record now, locals are saying that the authorities refuse to
share detailed information with the public about what they're finding
and how they are attempting to fix it. It reminds
me of the Turkey Point salt plume. To be honest,
totally what you got to hide?
Speaker 8 (41:55):
Do?
Speaker 3 (41:55):
We want to tell you just a recap for anybody
who hasn't heard that episode. The Turkey Point.
Speaker 7 (41:59):
Saw a salinity issue in the groundwater I believe caused
by an oddly structured nuclear site that was sort of
like cooled in an unusual way.
Speaker 5 (42:12):
I believe.
Speaker 7 (42:12):
We commented on how it was like, this didn't seem
like it was the best idea.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
It was, yeah, yeah, very much.
Speaker 8 (42:19):
So.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
It's a great description though, because Turkey Point attempted to
use existing water to create a complex system of canals
to cool their nuclear activity, and they did it because
they had some missteps and miscalculations and the original construction
(42:40):
of the nuclear part of the facility, and they kept trying
to bandiate it. And it's a huge issue, and it's
one that outside of that part of Florida, a lot
of people haven't heard about it. And this Cold Water
Creek debaccle seems quite similar. I don't know. It's weird
because every time friends and neighbors we ask you for
(43:03):
more stories of local contamination conspiracies, we get them how
much stuff is out there, you guys. We also recently
got an email about a debacle here in our home
state of Georgia, and I think we should go check
that out in person. Did you guys see that one?
Speaker 5 (43:21):
I don't think I know the one you're referring to.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
We'll follow up with that, pardon the cryptic teas we've
got more stuff to do. We received a great letter
we'll get to in our next listener mail about the
nature of optimism, but for now we're going to end
with a letter from a home that we set up
in the beginning. This is from the Shepherd. Just can
(43:44):
read it in full and then get a reaction before
we close out Listener Mail. Good evening, Jed's just a
quick suggestion for an alternative name for your upcoming conspiracy crews,
considering the nautical history of the places you will be visiting.
We'll get to that shut Up Triangle, the epicenter of
pirate shenanigans. Then surely you guys will be on a
(44:06):
wait for it, conspiracy cruise. Conspiracy Dylan, thank you for
the drum riff. How did we miss that one? You're welcome,
no pun left behind. I don't think I get it
because it's a conspiracy. But with the dash it becomes
CON's piracy piracy.
Speaker 5 (44:27):
Yes, I was thinking, yes, I got it. No, that's
good time.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
We miss that one. Keep up the great work and
looking forward to the Bermuda Triangle Live from the Bermuda Triangle.
Speaker 5 (44:38):
Feel free to.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
Use this if you wish. The Shepherd thank you so
much for having our six. We cannot believe we missed
that one. It was right there. It's the stuff that's
under your nose, right, like the PI said, investigating a mustache.
But uh so with that, we want to tell you
that we are indeed going to the high seas. This
was a great reference cons by receipt. How do we
(45:01):
miss that? Do we want to give the details about
our adventures on the on the ocean.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Oh, it's coming up quick, you guys. From October tenth
until the fifteenth, we will be on the high seas,
hanging out with Virgin Voyages, doing a true crime cruise.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
High seas as in the ocean. We're not just going
to get back into high sea and ecto cooler, but maybe.
Speaker 7 (45:26):
Hopefully they've got some on board. That's a delicious refresher.
Speaker 5 (45:29):
But it's true. We're going to be doing a live podcast.
Speaker 7 (45:32):
From the Red room, which is the flagship theater space
on the what is it the Valiant Lady. Yeah, and
pretty excited to do that. Looks like an amazing space.
And I think we're also going to be doing some
meet and greets and some trivia and just hanging around,
so you know, I think it's not too late. If
you want to book your voyage, you can check out
Virgin Cruise Lines website.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
And bring some Mecto coolers. Folks, thank you so much
for hanging out with us. We can't wait to see
you here on air or in person on our continuing
strange adventures, and we'd love to hear your thoughts. Big
thanks to Kill Deer, Fake Out the Shepherd, Big thanks
to Sydney and of course Chef Ben Join up, follow
(46:13):
their example, take a page from their book and reach
out to us. You may end up on listener mail.
You can find us online, you can call us on
the phone, you can send us email, email, do.
Speaker 5 (46:24):
It all the things, all the ways.
Speaker 7 (46:27):
You can find us online in fact of the handle
conspiracy Stuff, where we exist, on Facebook with our Facebook
group Here's where it gets crazy, on x FKA, Twitter,
and on YouTube, where we have lots of videos for
you to check out and enjoy on Instagram and TikTok. However,
we're Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
We have a phone number. It is one eight three
three st d w y TK. Go ahead and call it.
We have so many great voicemails lately. Call it like
Troglodyde and Joe and poor to Potty John. Don't forget
Sydney and KD. We're going to talk to you soon.
Call in the three minute voicemail. Say whatever you want
(47:02):
regarding one of our episodes, some we should cover in
the future, some hot take you've got, maybe a cold take,
how about those? Anything you want to say, Give us
a call, give yourself a cool nickname, and let us
know within the message if we can use your name
and message on the air. If you'd like to send
us an email, you can do that.
Speaker 5 (47:20):
We are the.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Entities that read each piece of correspondence we receive. Be
well aware, yet out afraid. Sometimes the void writes back
more and more often these days. Actually we're having some
great correspondents regarding all sorts of stuff that we cover
in our episodes. Want to give a quick shout out
to time Jockey who wrote just a really great question
(47:43):
that we're going to cover in a future listener mail,
or maybe when we hang out off air, if we're
still doing that in the meantime. Be a part of
the show. You're our favorite part, well, Dylan, sorry, the
audience is our favorite part. You're a very close second.
Speaker 6 (48:00):
Yeah, I totally get it.
Speaker 4 (48:01):
The audience is my favorite part too.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
So we can't. I'll wait to hear from you. Send
us the link, send us the images. Take us to
the edge of the rabbit hole. We'll do the rest.
We're out here until the lights go off. Conspiracy at
iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noa.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff
they don't want you to know. Longtime listeners, new listeners,
friends and neighbors alike, Welcome to September twenty fifth, twenty
(00:50):
twenty five. We can't wait to hear from you. This
is our weekly listener mail program, which means it's time
fans demand it. We need an update on the rutabagas
Dunn if you could, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Were That Health Minute with Donnie La Boy is filmed
in front of a live studio audience. Hey everybody, it's
me Donnie, your favorite TV host. You might also remember
my hit song Hong Kong. I'm grooving here Today. On
Health Minute, we're speaking with doctor Craigorye Funston, who wants
to tell us about a nutritious delicious vegetable called the root.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Uh baga.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Now I've never heard of these? Are they new? Well, Donnie,
they've actually been around for a long time. Hmm, must
be pretty under the radar if I've never heard of them, Well,
I think you'd really like them. Goodness, super just mashed
up like potatoes. Interesting, And it says here there are
root vegetable, Yes, like a turn up or a radish. Well,
now you're just making up words. Come on, Craig, oh
(01:49):
and that's our time. Join us tomorrow when Farmer Tammy
is going to show us how to find a rutebega.
Supposedly you just dig them up.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I refuse to better and better, don't know?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
In love spend the effort in the time to create
something like that. Dylan warms our hearts greatly.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Amazing, phenomenal A word I've been over using often, but
it is appropriate in this conversation. Dylan, can you tell
us please look the I know the answer already, but
could you share with the audience a little bit of
the backstory of the legendary Donnie la Boy.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
Yeah, I believe that Donnie la Boy is a name
that came from this show, like seven or eight years ago.
I remember you tweeting about it that Donnie La Boy
was a new character on the show, and I sent
you a photoshop of myself and a pink blazer. I
was pointing at a watch and it said it's time
for Grooven. And ever since then, I've been a big
fan of the idea of Donnie and tried to work
(02:50):
him in as often as I can.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
It means Donnie the Boy.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
Also, fun fact, I sent you that text message of
the photoshop, but I actually and it's my grandfather first,
with no context.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
I love it. I love it. We love to see
it because we have had this long running inside joke
with each other. It makes it on the air sometimes
where one of us will come across a turn of
phrase and another one will say, that's an amazing album
name or that's an amazing band name. And guys, I've
been keeping a list.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Oh Man Well, and shout out to actor Peter the Boy,
who was apparently on Instagram because I just found him
as I was trying to find stuff on your lit
boy Boy.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
And also shout out to a friend of the show,
Paul Decance, who I believe did a nice photoshop in
the same vein of Ben with his pantaloons rolled up
standing in the sea, and it was the album cover
for the hot new group Soft Yes.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Oh yeah, that was Paul Good in his back. Paul
had a birthday recently, guys, Yeah, well Paul had. That
was Poll's soft getback for our photoshop prank war where
I had taken a photo of him and called it
Soft Yes with the album put Me.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Down, because he would often say put me down for
a soft yes.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Yes. Well, we have a big family here and we
have a lot of stuff to get to, folks. We
have we have in full disclosure, come from a very
dark and troubling episode that we felt ethically required to
report on, and so this is going to be our
(04:38):
palate cleanser. We're going to pause for a word from
our sponsors, and then we're going to have a ton
of messages from you, and oh dang it. I tried
to set it up like we were not going to
be dark, but now we're going immediately to a story
about a cult.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Perfect that was me, that wasn't Dylan. I did that,
and we're back then.
Speaker 7 (05:09):
I didn't even know what you were talking about for
a second, but boy, are you right? Cults come in
all shapes and sizes and flavors and price points. Whatever
level you want to get in on, get on the
ground floor if you can.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
Boy, oh boy, do we.
Speaker 7 (05:24):
Have a fun one from a regular contributor to the show,
chef Ben here from Chicago. He says, have you ever
encountered Cutco knives?
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Cut cut cut cut, cut, cut, cut cut.
Speaker 7 (05:35):
Cut, cutting around with Cutco and or the extremely pushy
salespeople who come to your house. I recently had a
Cutco representative do a demo slash give a sales pitch
in my home. And since I've been listening to was
I in a Cult? On your excellent recommendation The Whole?
That's a podcast, by the way, and also we've done
episodes on this very topic as well, but do check
(05:57):
out the series. The Whole experience seemed very sus to
me as a professional cook chef. In fact, I have
no use for this particular brand of knives, and I'll
tell you why real quick, just to break out of
the email. They are apparently quite trash. They are apparently
stamped blades. They are made of lower grades steel basically,
(06:18):
and I've done some research into cut code and watch
some videos and never used one myself, but I'm a
big knife fan. And apparently they claim that it's the
same grade as like the kind of carbon surgical steel
that's used for surgical instruments.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
But apparently that is not the case. They dull very easily.
Speaker 7 (06:35):
The handles are quite cheap, et cetera. You know, so
moving on, it's easy to claim stuff. You know, I've
claimed to be in my forties. It's also and I
continue to claim that because it's true. I have no
use for this particular brand of knives, probably for the
reason that I just laid out, especially since you know
Ben has his chefly bona fides. But a family friend
(06:56):
asked us to humor her son, and let's put a
little pin in this her son situation, who is only
selling Cutco knives so he has some money while in college.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Everybody's been there well.
Speaker 7 (07:11):
In this in particular in terms of the model that
the Cutco brand has is a big part of the grift. Okay,
it's an easy way into making a little pocket cash,
and they really love targeting young people who are hard
up for funds. Sure fine, he says, Come to find
out he's been selling these things for like seven years,
(07:32):
which made me wonder if the do us a solid
request was part of the sales pitch spoilers. I didn't
buy anything, and the whole evening made me more and
more uncomfortable as I watched the manipulative sales tactics play out.
So you guys tell me. First, there was the love bombing. Okay,
big old cult leader tactic.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
What a beautiful.
Speaker 7 (07:53):
Kitchen, he says, you must make such wonderful dinners here.
You're so lucky to have a chef living in this house.
Then came the shaming. The salesfellow looked through my extensive
collection of knives, which no doubt are quality knives. Chef
Ben then honed in on the only one to have
a wooden handle. You know better than this, he said,
(08:15):
mocking that knife, which was a gift from twenty years ago.
He used that knife only as what he compared the
other knives to. After it became clear that we were
not interested in purchasing anything, he switched tactics. You'd be,
as a chef, a really good salesman for these knives, fellas.
I think he wanted to recruit me into his MLM
(08:37):
pyramid scheme cult he offered to cut me in, as
it were, to his territory share customer contacts.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
What do you call those guys' prospects?
Speaker 7 (08:48):
Yeah, with me, show me the secret spots where someone
could reel in lots of sales in the same subdivision
slash apartment complex slash retirement home.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
That's my question. Am I paranoid?
Speaker 8 (08:59):
Now?
Speaker 7 (08:59):
After hours are listening to people describing their CULTI culty
experiences double culty or did a family friend just make
a spirited attempt to induct me into their MLM port
one hundred thanks.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
I don't feel.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
Any better for having written this all out at all.
And then he just very helpfully links this to cutco
dot com apparently the Cutco Corporation, which is a I
believe the direct sales division of Vector Marketing, also Cubar
Knives Incorporated, and Shilling Forge with the Vector Marketing, I
(09:34):
think is the interesting part. They have quite the history.
They've been around since nineteen forty nine. It's founded by
Alcoa and Case Cutlery as Alcast Corporation, making stainless steel
knives for Alcoa's Wherever Cookware division. Then, of course, through
various acquisitions, et cetera. Nineteen eighty five is when Alcasts
(09:55):
acquired Vector Marketing, which was the primary seller of Cutco
cutlery products, and that expanded their sales effort and Cutco
as of two thousand and nine, changed its name or
the Outcast Corporation changed its name to cut Co Corporation.
This is a kind of seemingly outdated model of door
to door salesman ship, which just seems so odd in
(10:15):
this day and age, not to mention like with you know,
post COVID stuff. It's just I can't help but look
a scance at anyone that just cold knocks on my door.
I just I don't care for it. I find it
a little bit, you know, more than a little bit pushy.
I just find it to be an invasion of privacy.
I don't care for it.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
And I imagine that you know.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
People in this day and age who look at a
telephone call as being an invasion of privacy probably don't
much care for it either. But then I guess you
do have the older set of folks that maybe miss
this style. They remember it from yesteryear, and maybe it
does hit different for them.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
A lot of people are lonely as well also true
ability to exploit. I think we miss the halcyon era
of door to door sales Chef Ben, I really wish
someone had become a door to door door salesman.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Wouldn't that be fun?
Speaker 7 (11:05):
It's a joke I will never walk away from, kind
of like buying luggage at the airport, you know very much.
So we also, as we were diving into this when
Chef thank you so much for checking out was I
in a cult? I ep that along with our pal
and brother Paul Decant. So it's it's a very human show.
Anybody wants to learn more about cultic activity and tactics,
(11:30):
please do check out that show. And I guess that's
an interesting kind of segue Ben Ben Bowlin and Chef
Ben much like the episode that we just did that
Ben was mentioning there was such a bummer on the
idea of snuff films. There is some criteria surrounding what
is a cult and it can be a little murky sometimes.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
And you know, while a MLM may have.
Speaker 7 (11:54):
Cult like traits or tendencies, I don't know that I
would necessarily put it in the same category as you know,
something that's much more ideology oriented. I think it can
have some of the same structural qualities, but it doesn't
necessarily to me feel exactly the same. It just feels
like maybe praying on similar what's the word I'm looking.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
For, ignorances.
Speaker 7 (12:19):
Perhaps you know they're selling a bill of goods in
the same way that a cult is often selling a
bill of goods, and there is that recruitment tactic as well,
which of course is a big part of a cult
as well. So it's an interesting thing to think about.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Yeah, one thing that really blew my mind, guys and
Chef Ben and all of us together here tonight was
learning from the was I in a cult host that
a fitness group could still obey cult tactics, And years
ago we made a deep dive video on cult tactics.
And just like fascism, the idea of a cult needs
(12:55):
to be defined not by its own identification or self identification,
but by the methods it employs toward its followers. So
to your question, there, Noel, I could I could see
a ven diagram, not all MLMs being cults, but some
very much deploying those tactics of a cult of personality. Right,
(13:18):
A fearless unquestionable leader. Yes, motivation where wherein there's a
Kobeashi Maru unsolvable problems set up that happens in scientology,
that happens in a lot of you know, sketchy sketch
skirt skirt religions, So some MLMs can do the same thing.
I just we need an update from the chef on
(13:42):
his best knife. I love when people talk about their
best knives. Oh yeah, I mean that sounded weird out
of context, but we'll keep it.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well, several awesome ones.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
I'm a huge knife fan as well.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
My problem is that all of my really good knives
are completely dull now, and I need to go to
a professional sharpener. And I did just get hips to
one here in Atlanta, so I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
But my loved good knife.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
That's way more expensive than you think. I know, like
shears for hairdressers, and anybody who works in that industry
spent a crept on of money making those shears super sharp.
I found two things, guys. The first one on the
cutco website cutco dot com. It appears that if you've
received a catalog. On the back of your catalog, you
(14:27):
will find a customer number if you plug that customer
number into your what does this say? Uh, there's a
little thing you click on the website that says unlocked
special offers. If you click on that and then you
enter your customer number, you can you can unlock the
ownership rewards. It says here ownership has its rewards. Join
other Cutco owners by verifying with the form below. All
(14:50):
you got to do is put in all your personal
information and then you can unlock owner specials.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
I'm so curious, guys.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Oh gosh, I wonder if that went into their two
thousand innate lawsuit as well, because Cutco is claiming they
have sixteen million US customers. But to your question, Chef,
we're not being jerks. Maybe don't buy the knives. We
can't answer the cult question. But they have been accused
(15:18):
of being a pyramid scheme and they have been accused
of underpaid sales reps. You can read there's a great
subreddit about this too, in the anti MLM subreddit.
Speaker 7 (15:31):
And there's a great column from the La Times from
about five years ago by David Lazarus. Beware of this
important quote. Important opportunity for job seeking students. I'm just
gonna read a little bit from it. The letter, recently
sent to young people throughout southern California, arrives in a
plain white envelope with no return address, time sensitive information,
and closed.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
It says the single sheet.
Speaker 7 (15:51):
Of paper within claims to represent an important opportunity for
students in your area, with immediate openings for summer work.
The starting pay is excellent and the best part is
you don't need any experience. We'll train you and teach
you everything you need to succeed. Sounds great, except for
just a few tense ween sea things such as what
is this company and what does it do? The only
clue is the firm referring to itself as Vector, an
(16:13):
international company established in nineteen eighty one. It says it
has openings in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Specific Palisades, Venice, Marina,
del Rey, Beverly Hills, and surrounding areas. Is it a scam, No,
it's a real business.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Is this a dubious way to recruit people?
Speaker 8 (16:25):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (16:25):
Absolutely, Here's what you need to know if you or
your kid got one of these things. And then they
go into the hold spiel about what Vector is about,
the subsidiary Cutco, etc.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
So do check this out.
Speaker 7 (16:37):
And this actually is from around the pandemic and it
sort of talks about it in that context as well,
which I think is interesting. So do look up that
piece if you want to dig in a little deeper.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I got one last thing, guys. You remember a little
thing called the Society of Inquiry better known as the
Oneida Community.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I love it. I love this story that I don't
remember who started as a shaker outfit?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, I got a We did a whole episode in this.
I think it's a company started by cults. Part one
Maybe this is when we talked about them. Was a
while ago. But there is a cracked article you can
find right now if you want some want to do
some reading. It's titled Grandma's Fancy Silverware was made by
a poly Commie sex cult. Hey love it?
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Where can I get? Sign me up? I want some
POLYCOMMI sex cult cutlery?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Who wrote that one?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
That's Cedric votes vats votes?
Speaker 8 (17:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (17:37):
And can I just add real quick, Ben, you referenced this,
but this is from that Los Angeles Times piece as well.
In twenty eleven, Vector agreed to pay thirteen million dollars
to settle a lawsuit of edging it failed to pay
a salespeople minimum wages. Five years later, the company paid
six points seventy five million to settle a class action
pseudo ledging it failed to adequately compensate salespeople in southern
California and a handful of other states. A spokesperson for
(17:59):
the organization said, in the world of business, lawsuits happened.
We settled not as an admission of guilt, but to
better invest our time and energy into the hardworking managers
and reps that we serve on a daily basis.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
That's so cool being a corporation, guys, even pre citizens United,
just being able to go nolo contendre for literally everything.
So chef, what we're saying, without being hyperbolic, is that
anyone in everyone who ever tries to sell you any
form of cutlery is part of a cult.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Just go to h Mart man.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
I love h Mart cults and.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
I love cost Co.
Speaker 7 (18:37):
And there are arguments and discussions about whether or not
cost Co is cult.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
Dish our podcast occult.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Is this a cult?
Speaker 7 (18:45):
Anything could be a cult if you look at it
the right way, and I'm you know, and you know.
But the thing is, we talk about this a lot.
The term cult is often thrown around in a negative connotation. Sure,
and that's sort of the nature of the way the
word is used, so any many religions could be looked
at as cults, especially in their early days.
Speaker 8 (19:01):
Right.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Well, again, check out our video which I think really
actually aged well and hopefully helps some people. And it's
entirely about the tactics deployed by cults. Please find it
YouTube dot com slash conspiracy stuff. It might take some digging,
but we we walk through it and it is not
as controversial as our episode, the Step by Step guide
(19:26):
on how to Get Away with Murder.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Guys, I got a pitch for some entrepreneur out there,
somebody somewhere, please do this. There's a man named John
Humphrey Noise and O y e s. He's the guy
that started the Onita thing in the Putney community, in
the Wallingford community, according to Wikipedia. Here he coined the
term complex marriage. Here's the pitch. Start a new company
(19:52):
called Noisy.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Noise Noise Noise.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Okay, just do the MLM thing all all the way.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Sure, I love it. I think a pun goes a
long way. We're actually gonna close listener mail with a
pun that we met Dylan beat me here. We've missed
it and it's a brilliant put. I don't want to
oversell it, but make sure you listen to the end
of this show.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
Well, Ben, I mean, we say no pun left behind,
so if we miss one, we've got to.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
Make it right. We got to make it right, man. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
Well, thanks Chef Ben for this thought provoking topic. And
we're gonna take a quick break here we're from our
sponsor and then come back with more messages from you.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And we've returned and we're jumping to the phone lines
to hear from Sydney. Sydney is going to recommend to
us something that I was unaware of, guys, but Sydney's
helping us out by making us aware, and then we're
gonna learn more.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Here we go.
Speaker 8 (20:47):
Hey, guys, this is Sydney from Iowa, and I wanted
to ask if you guys were familiar with the body
rituals of the NASAIMA.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Okay, we're gonna pause right here. Body rituals of the nasama.
Now before searching it, guys, I had to look up
a ton of stuff to know what this is. We'll
learn about it together. But did you know what that
was before?
Speaker 5 (21:10):
God, that's a note for me, dog, I don't know
that one.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Body ritual among the Nasarema.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Uh so, yeah, without knowing about body ritual stuff, Sydney
from anthropology classes, I am familiar with nacerema.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
Yeah, and I guess my mind immediately goes to some
sort of indigenous tribal ritual of some kind. I'm not
familiar and I'm just using context clues, so forgive me
if I'm way off base.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
All right, Well, hey, these are vizier good things to know,
and I'm glad we've got some understanding thus far. But
for anyone who doesn't know what this is and hasn't
googled it yet, I'm gonna read a brief piece of
this article was written by Horace Minor in nineteen fifty six.
Horses a part of the University of Michigan, and he
wrote body ritual among the Nacerema. This is going to
(21:55):
take a second, guys, but we've got to read this
just to have an understanding of this. This is just
a mild look at how perspective that we talk about
on the show a lot can change things. Right look out,
looking in from what direction. From what standpoint do you
look at something and how does that change how you
understand it? Here it goes quote Professor Linton first brought
(22:15):
the ritual of the Nacerema to the attention of anthropologists
twenty years ago. But the culture of this people is
still very poorly understood. They're a North American group living
in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and
the Tarahumehr of Mexico and the Caribe and Arawak of
the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, although tradition
(22:36):
states that they came from the East. According to Nacerema mythology,
their nation was originated by a culture hero, not a
genessaw who is otherwise known for two great feats of strength,
the throwing of a piece of wampum across the River
Potomac and the chopping down of a cherry tree in
which the spirit of truth resided. Okay, can kind of
(22:57):
get a sense of where we're going here?
Speaker 7 (22:59):
I found a on one about scraping the face with
a sharp implement.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yes, oh, yes, okay. So the article is titled body
Ritual of the Nacerema and what this is in fact
is ben, how would you describe it? And from what
you learned in because you actually learned this in class.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yes, Matt, that is correct for any fan of nerdy
anthropology stuff. And again, Sydney can't shout. I can't shout
you out enough, but shout out to you again. This
is about how one others or perceives or analyzes a culture.
The key is, Matt, if it's okay if I say
(23:40):
it on airic can we get the spoiler? Do you
want to tell people what nacerema is?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well, let's continue with the message here from Sydney, and
we'll have the illumination and it will be global mildly limited.
Just a bit here we go back to you, Sidney.
Speaker 8 (23:55):
In a perfect world, I would let you look it
up and then you'd call me and then you'd be like,
oh my god, I didn't realize that was America's fall backwards. Wow,
Kip all of that. It's supposed to be a distorted
view of America in the sense of like othering and anthropology.
We use it with the AGCOM students to try to
get them to think about things from a different perspective.
Speaker 7 (24:15):
A lot of people use it.
Speaker 8 (24:16):
A lot of different ways. I don't know. Yeah, I
thought that was something to look into. You guys talk
about all sorts of stuff, So I tell you guys later.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Ahh okay, So Sydney could have thrown us for a
loop there. Thank you for you kind of.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Gave it away in the message. Honestly, we had to
pause the.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Message then play it again next time. If y'all have
something really cool to show us that we probably don't
know about, go ahead and like, see if you can
stay away from spoiler territory and just let you know,
let us find it, because then we can all discover
it together on air. Is that do you think that's
an okay suggestion?
Speaker 8 (24:47):
You guys?
Speaker 5 (24:48):
I love doing that.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Take us I'm always saying it right, take us.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
To the edge of the love that night. But no, Ding, Sidney,
that's still awesome. Thank you so much. The reason, Noel,
you were asking about what did you say something.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
About scraping a sharp implement across the face as a
way of appearing I don't know. Basically, it's like sort
of this anthropological way of approaching like stuff that we
do that seems really normal, but when you put it
in those terms, it seems kind of weird.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yes, it seems strange. So if we jump a little
bit further into the original writing here again from nineteen
fifty six Maria a tiny bit more just so we
can feel, and then we'll examine a couple later things
that were written in the same vein. So this is
again body ritual among the nace Arima Naserrima culture is
characterized by a highly developed market economy, which has evolved
(25:42):
in a rich natural habitat. While much of the people's
time is devoted to economic pursuits, a large part of
the fruits of these labors, and a considerable portion of
the day are spent in ritual activity. The focus of
this activity is the human body, the appearance and health
of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos
(26:03):
of the people. The fundamental belief underlying the whole system
appears to be that the human body is ugly and
its natural tendency is to debility and disease. Incarcerated in
such a body, man's only hope is to avert these
characteristics through their use of ritual ceremony. Every household has
(26:23):
one or more shrines devoted to this purpose, and of
course there it's talking about bathrooms, places where a person
can change and go through all of these body rituals
to make us not so filled with debility and disease
and grapitude. Really fascinating. Just again, I'm trying to think
(26:47):
of the right word, guys. Just an exploration in all
these things that Sidney described there, and probably extremely fruitful
for someone studying anthropology, right, especially a younger student coming
through and perhaps having an interest in maybe indigenous cultures
and ancient cultures and things like that that do they're
(27:07):
written about like this, right, Like, Oh, look at these
curious groups of people who did these curious things, and
then just to have a mirror held up literally in
the bathroom to us all shaming and I guess putting
on concealer.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I like the bathroom reference there, Matt. It reminds me
of previous conversations we've had that Sydney you might enjoy.
I'm always baffled when I go into a large western
metropolitan area or a large metro area in general, because
we talk about what future historians will think about the
remnants of modern culture. Right, Will the interstate bridges be
(27:49):
confused with aqueducts? Will we all simply conclude that this
society worshiped penises. Is that how we explain skyscrapers, Is
that why everything looks phallic? We also accept so many
things when you're bubbled in a society. We accept so
many things as normal. And I'm not going to subject
us all to my rant about neckties. I still don't
(28:10):
get it. We did episodes about this. It's one of
the best examples of weird, relatively non functional things that
people accept us.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Okay, so absolutely, Ben. There is another piece based on
the Nocerama that was written in nineteen seventy two. This
is titled The Mysterious Fall of the Nocerema. This one,
I would say is equally as important because it is
it's that viewpoint that we've talked about before on the show,
looking back at especially the United States culturally, from all
(28:45):
of these years in the future and seeing what remains.
And it's that very thing you just said, Ben, talking
about what the air was like and subjected to and
altering the appearance of the environment to fit the Nocerama's
ideology was given such a hype priority that the community
completely controlled the amassing of resources, manpower, and intelligence for
(29:05):
this purpose. Here's a quick quote. On a more limited
territorial basis, The Nocerema spent great time and energy constructing
narrow ribbons called streets across the landscape. Some streets were
arranged in connected patterns, and in regions with a great
concentration of people. The patterns, when viewed from the air,
increased in size and became more elaborate. Other ribbons did
(29:26):
not follow any particular pattern, but aimlessly pushed from one
population center to another.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Like Anaska lias. Right, that's the vibe. It reminds me
too of the Sydney If you've listened before, you've probably
heard this. It reminds me of our conversations many years
ago regarding how dumb and weird traffic lines are going
to look to future historians. We always talk about that, right,
(29:53):
Imagine explaining a motor vehicle interaction to either an extra
terrestrial or someone from i'd say even just eight thousand
years in the future, and you say, what, there are
these painted lines on the road. Right. Anybody who gets
hit with one of these things will die, especially at
the speeds they're going. But we don't swerve like oh,
(30:16):
so the painted lines prevent you from hitting other people.
You say no, it's kind of an honor system, and
they're like, oh, so it was perfect. These were a righteous, noble,
empathetic civilization. They go, no, no, they killed each other
all the time because we want to go fast, because
we want to go fast and we want to be
first one. I mean, that's it, right, Oh, that was good.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Okay, we're weird. We're all kind of weird and awesome incredible. Right, Well,
we get together and we just do weird stuff and
we all think it's normal.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
I love it, and it's strange. That's all I have
to say.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
On that note.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Guys, I'm going to go to one of my ritual
centers probably and I'm not going to change my face
or anything, but do the other thing we do in bathrooms.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Poop fantasize about Dave and Busters wild peeing.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
I had a fifty to fifty chance of getting.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
All right, we'll be right back with more messages from you.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
And we have returned. We're going to go to kill
deer fake out who hipped us to something that Well,
I'll see if we're all aware of this beforehand, but
this was news to me. Kill deer. You say, hey, guys,
just recently heard a program on public radio about some
crazy contamination in cold Water Creek in Saint Louis, Missouri.
(31:51):
This piqued my interest because I spent the first four
years of my life in that area, and I promptly
checked with my parents to see whether we live near
that creek. Smart kill Deer, we would have done the
same thing. Looks like, I'm clear, that's fantastic news, but
it still gives me the willies to think about it. Apparently,
(32:11):
says kill Deer. The government was refining uranium in Saint Louis,
uranium later used in the first atomic bomb. However, the
government did not warn the local public of the effects
of living near this radioactive waste. The waste contaminated a
local stream, and the public was kept in the dark
about it for almost forty years. Forty years be next
(32:37):
to uranium enrichment in refinement, kill Deer says, I don't
remember all the details clearly from the radio program, but
it sounds like even in the nineteen nineties, not to
date myself with nineteen nineties, we checked, the area was
heavily contaminated and people were only just finding out. Let's
pause here before we go back to Kill Deer. Did
(32:58):
you fellas hear about this?
Speaker 5 (33:00):
Not this one?
Speaker 8 (33:01):
No?
Speaker 5 (33:01):
Oh aware?
Speaker 3 (33:02):
And it's a shame that we have to say.
Speaker 7 (33:04):
Yeah, I just found out, not to docks anybody, but
that this company I used to work out in my
hometown that the family that owned it also owned a
garbage dump that polluted a poison the water in a
whole neighborhood. And there's like a documentary about it. So
I'm just saying to your point, like this stuff is around.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
I am Jack's continual lack of surprise unfortunately, and I'm
sure I speak for all of us when I say
that I hope there's some kind of redress or justice done.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
I haven't seen the documentary. It was brand new information
to me. Gonna look into it, we'll report back. Yeah, yeah,
let us know what you find. I'd love to watch
it as well. Back to Kill Deer, Kill Deer, you continue,
you say I thought this was up your alley. With
it being a contamination site combined with a government secret,
it looks like clean up is ongoing and will continue
(33:54):
for at least another decade. And then here Kill Deer
recommends a book. We're going to shout it out because
we love reading a primary source. It's called newt Echoes
of the Hiroshima, Bob and Saint Louis by Linda C.
Maurice spelled Morice, so pardon any mispronunciation there.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
You're welcome to read this email on air. I'd love
for you to go into more detail on this topic.
Kill deer, fake out, well, guess why kill deer. We're
going into a little bit more of this as it
may be an episode. You are absolutely correct. The radio
program is true. I don't know the full timeline yet,
I don't think we do, but we can tell you
(34:38):
that nuclear waste, yes was stored outside of Saint Louis,
and as early as nineteen forty nine Boffins, an environmentalist,
and concerned citizens were saying, Hey, should we have all
this nuclear waste by the creek?
Speaker 5 (34:55):
Yeah, creek with the crawdads.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
I don't know. Should we like, I don't know, maybe
put up a sign or something that says don't go
in the creek. If you don't like nuclear way.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Why don't we walk down there and just take a
look around, see if anything's amiss and if it's.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Dip some Toes County eyes on the fish, you know
what I mean. See if we got Simpsons with it.
This comes to us. We want to recommend Missouri Independent
excellent journalism by Alison Kite, who pointed out in January
of last year that the contaminated creek is still contaminated,
but we'll finally have warning signs about seventy five years
(35:36):
after the fact. So we got the signs. Guys. It's
the little winds, it's the baby steps, so they are.
In two thousand and four, the US Army Corps of
Engineers said in a public statement, we're working with the EPA.
We're going to add signs along the creek to help
us monitor areas that may pose a risk if disturbed
(36:00):
in this sense. In this statement, I think we see
a little bit of purposely vague language. What does disturbed
mean exactly? Does that mean you dig up stuff, you
dig too deep or right? Or does it mean that
you just walk over there? Does that counts disturbing? Is
disturbing their?
Speaker 7 (36:20):
I mean, you know, like walking across someone's grave in
certain ways of looking at things, could be considered an
act of disturbing the dead.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
And this creek, by the way, you know, one thing
we always do, folks. We pull up we pull up maps,
we pull up sat Nav and stuff like that to
get a sense of the lay of the land. This
creek goes through a lot of very busy public place
It only has parks, schools, subs.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Guys, are there any bad yelp reviews on Google Maps?
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Out of okay? Well that's not as bad as out
of ten. I'm working on being more positive.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
But yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you on that, Ben,
doing our best.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Yeah, this is this is a genuine conspiracy because Uncle Sam,
for more than half a century resisted public concern, right
kept telling people there was nothing to worry about. But
the call was coming from inside the house. This area
is very clearly contaminated. The cleed up that is hopefully
(37:32):
occurring is coming about from a twenty nineteen conclusion from
the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, another government
agency that I think none of us knew existed. Nope, Ah,
so surprising. It's I feel like we're running into this
(37:56):
more and more often when you learn there's an official
statement from a thing that we didn't know existed. Like
how many government agencies are out there with those very
specific interest.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'm looking at the maps, Ben, as you're saying here,
just kind of tracing Coldwater Creek through all like behind
all of these neighborhoods, like you're saying, and then trying
to find, well, where is the source? And I'm finding
a couple of things that might be it, but I
haven't looked it up yet, So I think we just
needed to dig deeper here.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah, and we don't want to spoil it too much,
just like we asked everybody here not to spoil a
good story too much when you reach out to us.
So we know some of these answers, but we very
much feel this is going to be an episode and
guys peak behind the curtain how the sausage gets made.
(38:51):
We do know the official historian of Oak Ridge, so
probably going to reach out to him as well. Love
to hear what he has to say. You're meeting him,
such a nice guy, phenomenal storyteller. He was helping me
hunt down the missing head of a statue in Knoxville.
Speaker 5 (39:10):
Was it Jedediah Springfield?
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Close? Yeah, it was sevierv Yeah, it's kind of the
Jedediah Springfield of Knoxfield.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Wasn't that a plot in a Simpsons episode? Simpsons did it?
Speaker 7 (39:20):
There was a body part removed from the statue. I
want to say it might have been inspired by your story,
which I'm looking forward to hearing more about.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Oh geez, yeah, help us find the missing statue head
of Sevier. So what we can tell you right now, Killdeer,
is that Coldwater Creek is very much contaminated. In two
thousand and two, there is a very recent aspect of it.
(39:47):
Investigators found radioactive material at a local elementary school, the
Jana Elementary School ja n A. And they found not
just one instance of contaminating or radioactive substance, they found
a mixtape including lead to ten, radium, polonium, and uh rogues,
(40:08):
gallery of other less you know, headline grabby but equally
dangerous stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Equally firebars sells like a volume of Now that's contamination volume.
Speaker 5 (40:19):
That's what I call contamination. That can stop edition.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Now that's what I call rutebate radio radio.
Speaker 7 (40:27):
Do you know, Dylan, you gotta do that, now, you
gotta do Yeah, you gotta do like a fake infomercial
mixtape compilation version of remails.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Yeah, Dylan, I'm sorry, I said just so many dumb,
rutebate ideas. But it's just we're fans and folks. We
hope you're fans of Dylan's work as well, either as
Donnie Laboy or as Dylan Fagan, because uh, we're not
gonna stop doing this, just to be clear, like every like,
we are a democracy, okay, but we're limited democracy and
(40:59):
we dig this bit.
Speaker 7 (41:01):
It is a can style. Won't stop with the rude
begas kind of situation.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
So anything you have to say other than tremendous phrase
over our rudabag obsession will be roundly dismissed.
Speaker 5 (41:15):
Will be weird about.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
It will be abrupt and weird and way less diplomatic
than we usually are. We do want you to know
that the Army Corps of Engineers has been cleaning up
Holdwater Creek for lo these many years. We're talking about decades.
Even before they put up the signs, they were trying
to get in front of this. Yet even as we
(41:37):
record now, locals are saying that the authorities refuse to
share detailed information with the public about what they're finding
and how they are attempting to fix it. It reminds
me of the Turkey Point salt plume. To be honest,
totally what you got to hide?
Speaker 8 (41:55):
Do?
Speaker 3 (41:55):
We want to tell you just a recap for anybody
who hasn't heard that episode. The Turkey Point.
Speaker 7 (41:59):
Saw a salinity issue in the groundwater I believe caused
by an oddly structured nuclear site that was sort of
like cooled in an unusual way.
Speaker 5 (42:12):
I believe.
Speaker 7 (42:12):
We commented on how it was like, this didn't seem
like it was the best idea.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
It was, yeah, yeah, very much.
Speaker 8 (42:19):
So.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
It's a great description though, because Turkey Point attempted to
use existing water to create a complex system of canals
to cool their nuclear activity, and they did it because
they had some missteps and miscalculations and the original construction
(42:40):
of the nuclear part of the facility, and they kept trying
to bandiate it. And it's a huge issue, and it's
one that outside of that part of Florida, a lot
of people haven't heard about it. And this Cold Water
Creek debaccle seems quite similar. I don't know. It's weird
because every time friends and neighbors we ask you for
(43:03):
more stories of local contamination conspiracies, we get them how
much stuff is out there, you guys. We also recently
got an email about a debacle here in our home
state of Georgia, and I think we should go check
that out in person. Did you guys see that one?
Speaker 5 (43:21):
I don't think I know the one you're referring to.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
We'll follow up with that, pardon the cryptic teas we've
got more stuff to do. We received a great letter
we'll get to in our next listener mail about the
nature of optimism, but for now we're going to end
with a letter from a home that we set up
in the beginning. This is from the Shepherd. Just can
(43:44):
read it in full and then get a reaction before
we close out Listener Mail. Good evening, Jed's just a
quick suggestion for an alternative name for your upcoming conspiracy crews,
considering the nautical history of the places you will be visiting.
We'll get to that shut Up Triangle, the epicenter of
pirate shenanigans. Then surely you guys will be on a
(44:06):
wait for it, conspiracy cruise. Conspiracy Dylan, thank you for
the drum riff. How did we miss that one? You're welcome,
no pun left behind. I don't think I get it
because it's a conspiracy. But with the dash it becomes
CON's piracy piracy.
Speaker 5 (44:27):
Yes, I was thinking, yes, I got it. No, that's
good time.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
We miss that one. Keep up the great work and
looking forward to the Bermuda Triangle Live from the Bermuda Triangle.
Speaker 5 (44:38):
Feel free to.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
Use this if you wish. The Shepherd thank you so
much for having our six. We cannot believe we missed
that one. It was right there. It's the stuff that's
under your nose, right, like the PI said, investigating a mustache.
But uh so with that, we want to tell you
that we are indeed going to the high seas. This
was a great reference cons by receipt. How do we
(45:01):
miss that? Do we want to give the details about
our adventures on the on the ocean.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Oh, it's coming up quick, you guys. From October tenth
until the fifteenth, we will be on the high seas,
hanging out with Virgin Voyages, doing a true crime cruise.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
High seas as in the ocean. We're not just going
to get back into high sea and ecto cooler, but maybe.
Speaker 7 (45:26):
Hopefully they've got some on board. That's a delicious refresher.
Speaker 5 (45:29):
But it's true. We're going to be doing a live podcast.
Speaker 7 (45:32):
From the Red room, which is the flagship theater space
on the what is it the Valiant Lady. Yeah, and
pretty excited to do that. Looks like an amazing space.
And I think we're also going to be doing some
meet and greets and some trivia and just hanging around,
so you know, I think it's not too late. If
you want to book your voyage, you can check out
Virgin Cruise Lines website.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
And bring some Mecto coolers. Folks, thank you so much
for hanging out with us. We can't wait to see
you here on air or in person on our continuing
strange adventures, and we'd love to hear your thoughts. Big
thanks to Kill Deer, Fake Out the Shepherd, Big thanks
to Sydney and of course Chef Ben Join up, follow
(46:13):
their example, take a page from their book and reach
out to us. You may end up on listener mail.
You can find us online, you can call us on
the phone, you can send us email, email, do.
Speaker 5 (46:24):
It all the things, all the ways.
Speaker 7 (46:27):
You can find us online in fact of the handle
conspiracy Stuff, where we exist, on Facebook with our Facebook
group Here's where it gets crazy, on x FKA, Twitter,
and on YouTube, where we have lots of videos for
you to check out and enjoy on Instagram and TikTok. However,
we're Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
We have a phone number. It is one eight three
three st d w y TK. Go ahead and call it.
We have so many great voicemails lately. Call it like
Troglodyde and Joe and poor to Potty John. Don't forget
Sydney and KD. We're going to talk to you soon.
Call in the three minute voicemail. Say whatever you want
(47:02):
regarding one of our episodes, some we should cover in
the future, some hot take you've got, maybe a cold take,
how about those? Anything you want to say, Give us
a call, give yourself a cool nickname, and let us
know within the message if we can use your name
and message on the air. If you'd like to send
us an email, you can do that.
Speaker 5 (47:20):
We are the.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Entities that read each piece of correspondence we receive. Be
well aware, yet out afraid. Sometimes the void writes back
more and more often these days. Actually we're having some
great correspondents regarding all sorts of stuff that we cover
in our episodes. Want to give a quick shout out
to time Jockey who wrote just a really great question
(47:43):
that we're going to cover in a future listener mail,
or maybe when we hang out off air, if we're
still doing that in the meantime. Be a part of
the show. You're our favorite part, well, Dylan, sorry, the
audience is our favorite part. You're a very close second.
Speaker 6 (48:00):
Yeah, I totally get it.
Speaker 4 (48:01):
The audience is my favorite part too.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
So we can't. I'll wait to hear from you. Send
us the link, send us the images. Take us to
the edge of the rabbit hole. We'll do the rest.
We're out here until the lights go off. Conspiracy at
iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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