October 3, 2024 • 54 mins
Would you donate your body parts? Should nuclear facilities feed AI? What do more people need to know about addiction? All this and more in this week's strange news segment -- spoiler: stay tuned for the episode this Friday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my
name is Nolan.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
They call me Ben. We are joined as always with
our super producer Andrew Treyforce Howard. Most importantly, you are here.
That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
This is one of the best times of the week
for us. It's our favorite evening where we get to
hear from the best part of the show, you, specifically you,
(00:51):
fellow conspiracy realist. Now we're going to look at three
Mile Island. We're going to talk about gardening and adderall
and how the dead live on within us. But before
we do that, a lot of folks have been asking us,
you guys about recent calamities.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, we've experienced several personally, and I don't know, have
you guys noticed there are people out here, maybe listening
to this episode who are actually concerned with our safety,
and that feels really nice.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Yeah, it's definitely nice to be checked in on. Heard
from a couple of folks on Instagram. Been getting emails
about it, all three of us, and we hear you,
and we appreciate your concern, and it was well placed concern,
as it turns out.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, and so we're going to pause for a second
and we'll come back and update everybody on the recent
calamities as we dive in. All right, folks, we're back.
As you may have heard, Hurricane Helene walloped the absolute
(02:03):
bulldog nuts out of the southeastern United States.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, knocks the boiled peanuts right out of our.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Hands, right, And a lot of people in the affected
areas are way worse off than us. Entire communities in
the Carolinas have disappeared, and our own Noll Brown has
experienced disaster as well.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Yeah, I mean, you know, again, shout out in our hearts,
go out to folks from the Ashville area. The places,
I believe the town of Chimney Rock, a lovely little
tourist destination near Ashville, more or less wiped off the map.
And many folks in Ashville are still underwater, without power,
without potable water. People are using like water out of
(02:49):
pools to flush their toilets and stuff. You know, when
you when you see the reporting on this kind of
thing coming your way, you know. I mean, you try
to think, pause, you do what you can, but you know,
at the end of the day, it's like an act
of God. And we were very lucky here in Atlanta.
I know about you guys, but I just got some
minor basement water intrusion. I mean, it was just we
(03:12):
were pummeled with rain to the point where any roof
is gonna be overwhelmed and leak. And I gratefully had
my gutters cleaned pretty recently. So here at my house
in Atlanta, it wasn't so bad. But the Augusta, Georgia area,
where I grew up and where I also own a
house that I inherited from my mom when she passed
away a couple of years ago, absolutely obliterated by multiple trees.
(03:39):
I had been renting this home to a dear family friend.
My mom was a singer, an opera singer, and taught
voice lessons kind of in the last years of her life,
and a person who is for all intos and purposes
like a sister to me, was one of my mom's
best in favor of voice students. A real close, basically
family member, she escaped with her life and the life
(04:01):
of her two cats. Thankfully had to climb out a window.
Even told me she in a weird way, feels like
my mom woke her up twenty minutes before the trees
impacted the house at around five thirty am over the weekend.
And yeah, there's there's multiple trees inside of the house.
And part of the benefit of renting to this friend
(04:24):
she was she loved my mom, and my mom had
a lot of weird stuff, opera memorabilia and the like,
and grand piano and all that, and so a lot
of that stuff was able to stay in the house.
It's now open to the elements. I've you know, applied
for disaster relief and clean up through Crisis Cleanup dot org.
And there's just so many trees down in the Augusta area.
(04:46):
I'm not sure when they're going to get to my house.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
So yeah, got some family in Appalachia still without running
water or power. Luckily they have prepared in advanced The
bridge is right. There was a lot of flooding. Matt,
how are things going in your neck of the Global Woods?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Feeling relatively untouched up here. Most of my neighbors and
I didn't sleep all of my friends I was in
contact with. We know, none of us slept because it
looked like it was going to be horrific, and it
turns out it was just not for us. In particular.
This storm killed well over one hundred people. I think
(05:27):
one hundred and nineteen was the last estimate I saw
from CNN.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Most recent one. Yeah, likely to rise, yeah, yeah, I
think of the people who are disappeared currctly, oh yeah, or.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
You know, fallout from lack of resources, you know, lack
of hospital, lack of being able to be reached, lack
of medication for elderly folks.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
I mean, this number is going to rise.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
The effects of the storm are going to continue on
for weeks, if not months from now, and it's just horrifying. Yeah,
it's really horrifying.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
And then to add to that, there was a massive
leak of chlorine gas as we record here in the
fine metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia. Over in Conyers, just a
little bit east as the crow flies, a place called
(06:20):
Biolap which is notoriously slap dash in their infrastructure. As
a result of flooding to the point about knock on effects,
their compound was compromised and there is currently a huge
flume of chlorine gas moving through the city.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
And you know, we all initially saw the story. I
think we attributed it to some kind of negligence, which
is definitely not off the table. But this was also
in some ways flooding related, right, Like it was like
a building that had massive standing water on the roof
and it fell through and reacted with the chlorine, which
(07:01):
is if I think, if anyone knows when you write
chlorine and water, no, I mean, is that all it
takes for it to create chlorine gas?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
You need something else, right, Chlorine gas is incredibly dangerous
in an enclosed environment. It does dissipate fairly readily in
an open air environment. However, as we were talking about
earlier in our group chat, the effects appear to be
pretty widespread in the metro area. Noel, you were saying earlier,
(07:31):
you walked outside, you saw the haze, your nose started burning.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Yeah, I mean here in thirty miles away, he said,
to the east. But as we know, with things like
Chernobyl and three Mile Island, which we're going to get to,
that fallout, it travels with the winds.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
And I think we.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
All walked outside to a weird mist like haze, and Matt,
you're up a little closer to well, I guess you
used to being. Maybe you're in a different direction now,
but an area called Buford Highway or Lawrenceville. I saw
videos from there where it was just literally like the mists,
like the Stephen King story, just absolutely this very weird,
(08:12):
sickly kind of haze.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
I don't know, did you experience that.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I think maybe a little more densely than we did
here in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah, I'm significantly northeast of you guys in the city,
and I'm you know, that's where the wind was blowing.
So my son's school sent out a big notice that
they were keeping all the kids inside and they were canceling,
you know, a bunch of activities outside and everything like that.
And if you look out, yep, you get that haze
and you take a whiff. Didn't hurt my lungs or
(08:40):
anything like that, but you your body knows you shouldn't
be breathing whatever.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
This is Spidey sense.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And again we are saying this to keep everyone informed,
and we are immensely grateful for everybody who checked in.
Our primary point here is that there are other people
who are much more adversely affected, So please do check
in on your friends and relatives in the area. Please
(09:09):
do also consider if you have the means and inclination
helping out if you can, And every little bit matters,
you know what I mean. It doesn't have to be
a social media post, it doesn't have to be a
gofund me. When people need help, they are often frightened
to ask for it, and it is a tremendous good
(09:31):
to contribute to some organization.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And I'm really lucky that I have really dear friends
near my mom's house that are checking in on it
for you. But they literally can't get to it yet,
and it's not safe to go in the house. Power
is out in Augusta and then they can't drink the
water is not flowing because of damage to the pumps.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
But back to the chlorine thing. I just wanted to
mention too.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
We all three got I think the same public safety
alert that reads. Interestingly, Georgia Emergency Management Agents the Homeland
Security Agency on behalf of the Environmental Protection Division Local
Area Emergency Local Area Emergency due to Rockdale County biolab fire.
The EPA is monitoring air quality for chlorine and related compounds.
(10:13):
Chemical levels are unlikely to cause harm to most people.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Right, and make sure make sure to check that out, folks,
so you can study the gratuitous use of capital letters
in that text message right, most people is in capital letters,
just to say again the focus is on the other
people who have been more versely affected. We are here,
(10:39):
We appreciate you. Please, please please help our community. Don't
worry about us.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, and keep your ear to the ground because in
both of these instances, if you look at Biolab, the
company that's responsible for the fire here in Rockdale County
slash Conyers Slash east of Atlanta, you can look back
at the history of this company and see that there
have been very similar spills, slash fires, slash basically toxic
(11:08):
chemicals that have been released in mass from this group
and from this facility many times. Exactly twenty years ago,
there was a very similar fire that's been written about
in a lot of places, at least Atlanta publications and
several other that are not so local. This is a
quote from Rockdale County Fire Chief Marion McDonald. This person said,
(11:31):
I've been with a county for seven years and this
is probably the third event of this magnitude that that
person is aware of, and the other thing to keep
in mind. There are currently three tropical storm cyclones that
are forming in the Atlantic right now, with around a
forty percent chance at least estimated right now to the
best of what I've been seeing, of forming another storm,
(11:54):
if not more than one storm that rolls back through
that same area of the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
As we record on the evening of September thirtieth, twenty
twenty four. So again, we want to check in. I
love that you say, keep your ear to the ground.
Help us be informed as well, folks, because a lot
of things are not quite making the news, and you
(12:20):
know it's it's a sticky subject, right The idea of
when it rains, it pours does apply here. We are safe.
We hope you are safe as well. We wanted to
spend this time with you at the very top and
thank you for your time checking in with us. Do
you guys, before we go to an ad break, I
(12:41):
know we're running along. Do you want to hear a
Do you want to hear a weird message about dead people?
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
God, yess, this is why we hang out right, So
our returning guest. A frame is weighing in.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
Hey, dude, it's a frame. Now. I was listening to
an older Strange News episode and you mentioned as a
way to make people uncomfortable the thought of them having
someone else's teeth within their mouth. So because you did
that to me, I'm reminding you that you should think
about having someone else's teeth in place of your teeth.
(13:23):
Great to think about. But on a different note, I
had a knee surgery in twenty nineteen eight. It's starting
to hurt again and in a few years I'll probably
need a new replacement. But anyways, when that happened, they
added a cadaver ligament that runs from my kneecap to
my femur and normally there's not an extra ligament there,
(13:45):
and it was taken from either an mcl ACL or
LCL other like similar knee ligament from a cadaver. And
he even got a little card being like, you're the
benefactor of organ donation, Maybe think about saying yes at
the D and D, which I always have, but food
for thought that it is genuinely helpful to be an
(14:08):
organ donor. It's not all livers and kidneys and stuff.
It's also things.
Speaker 7 (14:13):
Like ligaments for people who wouldn't really really be able
to walk without it, and it's one.
Speaker 6 (14:19):
Of those things that has helped me avoid having a
similar knee injury. Ever, in that time, I do have
some pain from other.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
Parts of the surgery, but the dead guy parts doing fine.
And a lot of times when I say I have
a dead guy's ligament in my knee, it makes some
people uncomfortable, and other people are like, hell yeah, it's
like either one of the two who.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
They're like, Oh, They're like, oh yeah, we're.
Speaker 7 (14:43):
At dead guy and you, like, you know, at.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
A frame at all. I guess we should say, because
you have a dead man inside you, a frame and company,
thank you so much. That is an important point and
rem finds me Guys of our earlier conversations about organ donation. Remember,
we're talking about how strange it is that most people
(15:12):
in a country will be organ donors if they have
to opt out of organ donation, but most people in
a country or a great percentage of the population will
not be organ donors if they have to opt in.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah. Look, if you're hearing this in the future and
you've got my ligaments in you you're welcome. Yeah, yeah,
this is your ligament talking.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
You're welcome and sorry for the kidney.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Man.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I always think about like a lot of Japanese horror
around possessed people possessed by Oh.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, it's a big thing. Religion is a religion is
a huge factor in a law of Oregon donation.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
How about this, if any of us end up in
somebody else, let's see if we can come up with
some kind of message that we get the person's body
that we're inside now to like communicate to the other two.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah, the word is jed June at least that's what
I got the last two times. Okay, j E j
u n e.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
All right, got it?
Speaker 7 (16:29):
This?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
I mean, this is this is a great idea, Matt.
I really I really love that you're pointing this out
because there is a non zero chance that if you
are alive now, when you pass away, you may be
or parts of you may be in a real ship
of thesis situation. And the question is are you married
(16:53):
to this idea your body? Do you want to help
other people? Is there an article Like a body is
a set of clothing, right, so is there an article
of your clothing that you would not want to part
with you. Guys. Remember when I tried to donate an
eye or a cornea as a as a living, non
(17:14):
accident victim and they wouldn't let me.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, you're weird, Ben and I love it.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
It's both of you.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
It's not a great eye. I'm not giving them a
good one.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
You never give them that good one.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I've given them like the nineteen eighty four Toyota Corolla
version of a cornea. You know what I mean? Like
it works?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
I was gonna say, does it drive?
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Let's go all the speaking of going. Folks, please write
into us with your stories, your opinions on organ donation.
We know it is a very sticky subject. It also
makes a great deal of difference to a lot of people.
And without sounding to Nosferatu, right now, as we record,
going back to recent calamities, the humans need blood. There
(18:03):
is a definite need for plasma across the southeastern United
States in wake of the current disasters. So we're going
to pause for a word from our sponsors and we'll
be back with more messages from you.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
And we're back with a pretty sobering and heavy message
from a listener. I'm going to leave their name out
of it. They didn't say one way or the other.
But it is a very personal story that they gave
us permission to share. But you know, with things like
the opioid epidemic and just so much rampant addiction in
(18:51):
this country, and now of course deaths resulting from adulterated
drugs and pills that are pressed to look like a
certain ruption, opioids that are laced with fentanyl, and all
of that. I mean, addiction is just a real problem
in this country. And I don't think that's a hot take,
But I wanted to read this because it is the
(19:13):
perspective of someone who's really been through it, and someone
who has a sense from their own life as to
maybe where the origins of their kind, of their brains
craving for something else, something extra, came from.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
I don't know, let's just get into it. My name
is X.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
I am thirty years old and now live in a
very small Colorado town called what's redacted where in the
late eighteen well, I'm not going to redact because this
is interesting.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Called Lake City?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Is that Lake City?
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Quiet pills, guys, Lake City, Colorado? Where was Lake City
in that story? Was that Colorado comment fair enough. Well, anyway,
there's another association with Lake City. This Lake City in
Colorado where in the late eighteen hundreds a man named
Alfred Pac allegedly eight some people. I want to look
into that further, but that's a discussion for another day.
(20:05):
I have been severely addicted to opiates and other drugs
for my entire adult life. Very early in my addiction
I contracted hepatitis C and I am now dying of
liver cancer as a result.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
I have been to.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Prison for the possession of heroin. I left there with
PTSD and an addiction to a drug they put me
on called Gaba pentin, which is in the class of
drug called Gabba pentenoids, of which Lyrica is one.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
That is the drug that is often given to cats
to calm them down.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
That's right, yeah, it is.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
It is a supposedly it's a non opioid drug with
opioid like properties, is my understanding. Lyrica A is one
that you may have heard of. Continuing, I was forced
by my public school as a small child to take
dextro amphetamine salt adderall or I would not be allowed
(20:58):
to return to school. I have been told by addiction
specialists that the effect of amphetamines on my developing mind
is the reason I have.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
Such an addictive personality.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
The point of this email is I do not have
much time left in this world, and it is my
dream to share my story in the.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Hopes that I could help someone.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
I have been to six very different types of drug
rehabilitation facilities, and for whatever reason, was never able to
gain anything from these places. But I have met many
addicts of all different types. I have watched friends overdose
and die, and I have found friends dead after days.
I was in a very cultish Christian rehab called Victory Outreach,
(21:42):
where I saw people try to pray away a friend's
seizures brought on by alcohol withdrawal. That friend had a seizure,
fell and broke his neck on a toilet and died
later the very same day. I'm not sure how my
story fits into your podcasts, but I very much would
like to share my story in some way and was
hoping that in some way you all could possibly help.
(22:05):
Thank you guys very much for what you do. I
know this hits me really hard directly. I grew up
in a town in the midst of the opioid epidemic
where there was a lot of OxyContin and those kinds
of things just rolling around on the streets and people
were selling their prescriptions. It was just an absolute epidemic
(22:26):
in my hometown. It was very, very, very serious. And
I also had a lot of friends who succumbs to
addiction and ultimately died from various things. You know, as
we've talked about, a lot of people would get addicted
to OxyContin and things like that, and then when it
became less available because of changes in regulation, they just
(22:47):
pivoted directly to heroin. It's a very common story and
it's heartbreaking.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
I don't know, guys.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Back to the I guess the crux of this email,
which is the notion that prescribing young people such a
powerful drug as it's called amphetamine salts guys. It says
it on the on the bottle. How can it not
have a significant impact on the developing brain of a
young child and leads to a situation where that brain
(23:19):
is just used to being overclocked, for lack of a
better term, in some way.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Well, yeah, it's a tough thing because it's prescribed to
those kids. Because their bodies react differently to those drugs,
those stimulant drugs than other people's bodies. Right, there's a
calming effect rather than an upper effect.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
That is what they say.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yes, well, I mean that is I know theoretically why right.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
But you cannot deny that.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Whatever the effect is, it's the same drug and your
brain gets used to it, and it's not something that
you usually take for your whole life. And I just
have to wonder when a young person decides they're not
going to take that anymore or taper off of it,
if that leaves sort of like a want in their
brain for other stuff that they then seek out.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Agreed. The idea that we're talking about here, heavy substances
applied to developing brains is mission critical because the hellothellow humans.
The development of a brain in the human body does
(24:28):
You could call it rehearsal. It rehearses. There's a reason
that your brain grows at a slower rate than your body.
The neurons in your brain can form pathways just as
you're outlining there, guys, And when you hit a human
brain with these very heavy things, like we all some
(24:53):
of us are old enough to recall when heavy psychoactives
were applied to human brain in developmental stages, right, Like,
there's a good question over when a human brain is
done developing. And to your point, Noel, and with great affection, anonymous,
it does seem that there are lasting consequences. You can
(25:18):
inculcate addiction, you can inculcate pattern and behavior right with
the dosing of heavy narcotics or heavy drugs in a
developing human brain. And it's something that a lot of
people like to pretend is not true. But shout out
to the kids who got dosed with zoloft in middle school.
You know what I mean, that has a lasting effect.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
No, it makes perfect sense, you know. I mean, it's
kind of intuitive to think that that how could such
a powerful drug not have an impact? You know, and
we know from things like the opioid epidemic brought on
by the sacklers, the notion that these companies we'll say
(26:00):
things like this is not addictive or it's totally fine.
It's like we've we've learned through patterns of this kind
of stuff that that's not always to be taken at
face value, not to be all like, don't trust big pharma.
Maybe now now maybe to be don't trust big pharma guys,
because a lot of these these these studies are very
(26:22):
self serving.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
The data can be manipulated in numerous ways. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Absolutely, there are very real and also fictional scenarios that
end up in TV shows and movies where it's concepts
of how is a company that's publicly traded, let's say,
massive organization, how are they able to get narcotics in right,
(26:48):
like the poppies that create heroin, to then create a
drug that they can sell above board to patients rather
than you know, to a user and.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
To children in this case you're selling it to their parents.
But let's be honest.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
I mean, there was an absolute just rash of like
Willy Nilly some prescriptions of Adderall.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
And Middland children in those days. It was everywhere. It
was just like it was the thing you did, you know, to.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
The question about opiates, you could also ask the same
thing about coca cocaine, like the remember the time we
almost got kicked out a podcast movement or something because
I was yelling name me one coca field right in
the United States. We know that there is a supply chain.
(27:41):
Look at the way it works. What you're outlining there,
Matt reminds me quite a bit, to a disturbing degree
of the old Catch twenty two with resurrection men in
the United Kingdom back in the day. Right, it's illegal
to get the body, but it is legal to use
a body if you happen upon it. So it is
(28:03):
illegal to It is illegal to propagate opium and other
dangerous substances unless you get the right loopholes in place.
And this does arguably, I think science will support this.
This does arguably endanger people, especially when we're considering, like
(28:25):
you know, talking earlier about the idea of opioids going
through parts of the US like a natural disaster. It
absolutely waxed a huge portion of the Midwest and the Appalachians.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yes, yes, and amphetamines the same.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Right, hillbilly heroin amphetamines. The reason you can't buy certain
truck or speed or certain cold relief things in bulk.
There is a problem that could be addressed, and for
some reason, who are we to say what that reason
may be. For some reason, the people who could prevent
(29:07):
this have chosen not to do so.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Not only chosen not to do so, chosen to capitalize
on it. To Matt's point, I mean, it's it does
feel like and We've talked about this in Big Pharmat
episodes and it's not even a particularly hot take, but
it does feel like a legalized drug cartel distribution network.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
You can't be a pusher if you don't have users,
and you got to foster those users and make sure
they're hooked and need more of your product. And that
doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what that product is. Got
to have people hooked. And to that note, And if
you're uncomfortable this, and we will just tell me, I'm
genuinely asking. I want to know how did you get
(29:49):
out of that world, that situation you were in where
you had friends that were going through stuff that our
anonymous writer was writing to us about. What was there something?
So I know, how did you escape that? Because I
didn't go through that when I was younger, I say.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
I mean, it's a good question, and I mean, I'll
be completely honest.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
I mean I was.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
I was swept up in that to a degree. I mean,
I'm just going to be real, and I did escape
it through a lot of things. I mean, ultimately I
got out of that town. My life changed in many
ways and I changed along with it.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
And but a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Just get stuck in these small towns and that's like
all there is to do, and it's just an easy
escape from malaise of life and just from like the
boredom of living in a small town. And that's why
the towns you're talking about, Ben in the Midwest were
so horribly affected because it's just I don't know, I
don't want to sound reductive, but there's just not much
(30:49):
going on.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
And well that's the old the old troope, right, or
the old truism that many of us have heard. Stuck
in a small town. You have church, you have fans,
or you have vices, right, and those can be self
limiting factors.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
And the saddest thing too is, guys, a lot of
these people that I know from those days, they didn't
die then, they died many years later because of continued
involvement with that kind of stuff.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
Because of the evolution of addiction.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
You know, oxycoton went away, so a lot of these
people replace that with another vice. A lot of these
people would do anything they could to get their hands on,
you know, other prescription pharmaceuticals or like I said, many
people pivot to heroin. So an epidemic like this, like
the death toll isn't immediately visible because this stuff follows
(31:45):
people around. Our listener here is talking about being on
their deathbed many many years later, after being incarcerated, you know,
after being to multiple types of rehab facilities. This is
a person coming to us at the end of their life,
and they're not going to die from an overdose. They're
they're likely going to pass away due to a resulting
(32:06):
factor of I presume intervenous drug use. And this is
many many years removed, of course, many decades removed from
the adderall, you know, but like many many years removed
from the initial like addiction to the opioids, you know.
So it's a lot of the people that I know,
some people that I know just died a handful of
(32:27):
years ago, and I found out about it, that they overdosed,
that they just were so malnourished and living horrible lives
in terms of taking care of themselves.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
It's it's real, y'all. It's it's real.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
It is, it is real. There are you could say,
conspiracies of foot beyond that. We do know that right
now there are people whose lives can be saved.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
It's interesting I heard recently on the radio that there
is a bill at play or there's some something to
do with public health where they are now. I don't
know if it's past or whatever it is, but I
think it's a good suggestion, the idea that if opioids
are ever prescribed, then they also prescribed nar can like
(33:20):
at the same time, so that you have that around,
because a lot of this stuff is from kids taking
their parents' medication and using it recreationally.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
So to be in that situation and.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Then not have that life saving drug around, that's where
the death comes from. I mean, again, I don't know
the statistics of how what effect that might have, but
it does seem like a pretty good idea to me.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
So anyway, thank you, and we do hope you're still
with us.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
I know this was a bit of a downer one,
but I think it's an important thing to talk about,
and thank you guys for your perspectives on this as well.
Let's take a quick break and hear from our sponsor,
and then we'll come back with one more piece of.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
Listener noun.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
And we've returned and we are going to jump to
the phone lines and hear a message from Silver.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
Hey guys, Silver, you can use this message in my
name if you would like to.
Speaker 8 (34:23):
Just kind of a forty hour has water or tests.
While I was in there, I saw an article about
the restart of Three Mile Island, the giant nuclear plants
that will have been cause some issues in Pennsylvania so
many years ago. But I saw that they're going to
restart one of the reactors, which is like thirty three
hundred megawatts, and the sole purpose is the Constellation Energy
(34:45):
is making a deal so that Microsoft can buy all
the energy that that nuclear power plant produces to power
their AI servers. Just an interesting article. I thought it
might be something you guys might want to look into.
If they were to react this facility, it would be
the first one ever that's the Nuclear Regulatory Committee approved
(35:07):
for coming out of off fall status. It's like a
one point six billion dollar project at Microsoft, and I
think Amazon zump in on it too, So they're they're
looking to produce power again in like twenty twenty eight,
I think.
Speaker 7 (35:20):
Which is not that far away to get. Obviously they're
not going to do the one that blew up, but
the other reactor's still good next to it.
Speaker 8 (35:27):
That would be pretty interesting. And it's all just for
powering the AI.
Speaker 7 (35:30):
Servers and things like that.
Speaker 8 (35:31):
All right, well the show always listening to you, guys,
so I'm going.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Tight tie fascinating, right, We've been talking about the big
brain on the grid from all this stuff. So there's
part of me that's like, this isn't an awful idea.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, maybe, Thank you Silver exactly. Silver, You're awesome. Thank
you so much for sending this our way.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
Uh so fascinating on so many levels.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
To be honest, guys, I saw a little blip about
this passed through and I wanted to talk about it
for Strange News, but I was like, I don't know,
there's other stuff we got to talk about first, and Silver,
you came in with the wind. So Silver, okay. So
first thing we have to get through here is that
(36:18):
Unit two bad, Unit one good plus. So Unit two
is the reactor there at the three Mile Island facility
in Middletown or Middleton maybe Pennsylvania. That occurred on March
twenty eighth, nineteen seventy nine. That's when it was a
partial meltdown, and it was very, very serious. It's the
(36:40):
most serious accident in US commercial nuclear power plant operating history.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Hey, partial though only a little gin up, guys, got's
just a little meltdown, the whole meltdown.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
It wasn't.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
I mean, you know, let's just credit where credit is due.
Maybe is the wrong expression, but it wasn't like Chernobyl level.
It was not like a an absolute fallout apocalyptic you know,
drifting nuclear material situation.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
They contained it relatively.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Sure, sure, sure, yeah, but unit too bad.
Speaker 5 (37:14):
You know one Still it's still pertly good. It's still good.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
It's still good double plus.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
So when I when I saw this headline, Matt, I
thought they were.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Just like using the the facility, like repurposing it to
make chips. I did not at all realize they were
talking about relaunching a reactor. And like, this is also unprecedent,
because have you ever heard of a private company having
their own nuclear reactor?
Speaker 5 (37:43):
I mean, who do.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
You think builds them?
Speaker 5 (37:46):
Westinghouse?
Speaker 4 (37:47):
You know, but I'm talking about like these are giant
energy companies. I don't know of any like manufacturing facility
that has an on site nuke reactor.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yes, we're on the forefront.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Of this file.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
It's happening now, and it's a bunch of companies that
have massive data centers that are going to run their
AI applications, whatever those are going to be. It is
happening across the board right now.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Well, we'll talk about a second one, but let's stay
on just the tip, the news tip that Silver gave
us there after.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
The test tip.
Speaker 5 (38:25):
Just theoling.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Okay, so we're jumping to a CNBC article from September
twentieth titled Constellation Energy to restart a three Mile Island
nuclear plant, sell the power to Microsoft for AI. Now
it expects, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and several
other journalists they have got access to what's going on
over there, it is a deal between Constellation Energy and
(38:51):
Microsoft primarily, and the company, Constellation Energy, expects Unit one
reactor to be ready twenty twenty eight, just like Silver said,
subject to approval, of course, by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
sure sure.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
And Constellation Energy owns three Mile.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yes, correct, correct, And they had to shutter it in
twenty nineteen because it couldn't keep up with cheap natural
gas all the energy that was being produced around the
United States, and they're like, gosh, we can't, we can't
make energy at that at that price point. So I
guess we got to shut this thing down. And Microsoft said,
hold on one second.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Microsoft said, deer.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
And by the way, if it does get approved by
the NRC and begins operations in twenty twenty eight, they
plan to have a contract to run it until twenty
fifty four. I think you.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Have to you have to bake that kind of stuff
in for the deal to work.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
M and long term leases on commercial property, you know,
I mean.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yes, bit, yeah, yes, And again we're talking this in
mid September this month. We were at the end of
the month as we're recording this on the thirtieth. But
when this announcement came through, Constellation Energy stock jumped twenty
two percent in the positive. So people are into it.
They're saying, I got a customer. It's a built in customer.
(40:17):
It's going to pay for all of the power for
a long place. There's a place for it to go.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Well S, Constellation is already a pretty big energy company. Oh,
you have interest in natural gas, and they know the
old jazz. They just want to get this nuclear jaloppy
up and running.
Speaker 5 (40:35):
That's the question that Matt.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
I mean, since you said they shut it down because
it wasn't efficient enough for actual contribution to the grid.
Let's just say, for like, you know, constellations purposes of
actually providing energy to its customers. Is this an interesting
and reasonable use of it because it will also take
some strain off of the grid from all this AI nonsense.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Well yeah, think about it. If you could make spoke
nuke plants for all of these companies trying to get
their AI stuff off the ground.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
There are new small, quote unquote modular nuke reactors that
are starting to be rolled out.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
And think about the government's interest. You guys are spinning.
You need some stuff to get spun up. Hey, yeah,
for if you're a reactor, we can use some of that.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Guys. This is just for our artificial intelligence.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, Okay.
Speaker 5 (41:27):
I'm making those memes.
Speaker 8 (41:28):
You know.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
This is literally for meme generation.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
It does answer, it does answer one of the great
dilemmas which is on the horizon, which is how do
we power these very thirsty machines, right, And the cleanest answer,
obviously is going to be something like solar power, something
like hydroelectric or geotherbal power. However, nuclear power is super
(41:55):
tasty because all you need is well, you need a
lot of yeah, but it is still cleaner than being
dependent upon fossil fuels. That is, that is the great
Achilles heel, right, just like the Achilles heel of so
many podcasts is advertising. So if in that terrible example,
(42:20):
the idea of powering, we saw this again with things
like bitcoin mining, right, also very thirsty, very energy intensive.
If you cannot create an easy solar power, hydroelectric or
geothermal source, then nuclear energy is still theoretically way more
bang for your buck. And I don't know if everybody
(42:43):
is aware of just like the nuts and bolts of
nuclear energy, it's making water steam and then turn turbine.
I feel like people are afraid of the word until
they know what it is.
Speaker 5 (42:58):
Well, they should be afraid of the word. Be the waste.
That's this part of the problem, the equation that we
haven't solved yet.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
They didn't bury it in the desert, Like there's no
good way of dealing with nuclear waste.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
And if you're still using rods, they can still burn
their way right through whatever it is you put below them.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
It does just what a meltdown is, yeah, right, it's
when it melts.
Speaker 5 (43:18):
Down into the damn Earth.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
You know, I'm so excited about our future episode on
how to warn other generations about nuclear waste.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
I'm excited about the next party we go to together.
We're gonna have so much new material.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Guys, nuclear material and so. Ben, when you were talking
about how do we feed these thirsty machines, I really
thought you were going to say, build a simulation of
the year nineteen ninety nine in New York City, then
build pods for human beings to grow up inside and
fill those with some kind of goo, and then make
(43:53):
sure all of those humans are batteries connected to your system.
Speaker 5 (43:57):
Wait, is this the plot of the movie that mate?
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Hey, spoilers come on. That's Matt's favorite film.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
It really is. So it's gonna cost one point six
billion dollars just to get this reactor up and started
and working again by twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
So yeah, they shut it down, But like, does that
mean it's it's just it's falling into disrepair. They got
to like do some referb to it or what.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Very expensive to maintain? I mean just the it's not
like this is the equivalent of not just finding a
rusted out car that you know could be good. This
is the equivalent of finding the rusted out hulk of
a car or the chassis of a car and then say, eh,
(44:41):
let me look at the engine.
Speaker 5 (44:42):
When was it taken offline?
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Again, Matt, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
But that's that's not that long ago that I don't
understand this billions situation.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Well there, Look, they they want a brand new nuclear power.
Speaker 5 (44:54):
They're gonna do it up.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
It's whether you want. Because Unit two so bad. Unit
one has to be real, real good. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Right?
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Yeah, But they're not going to build a new reactor.
It takes I mean, we talked about this.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
It's still more expensive to build a new reaction. Oh yeah,
was the crazy.
Speaker 5 (45:09):
Thing, that's right.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
We talked about like how long you know, so a
southern company here in Georgia has been trying to finish
an additional reactor at Plant Vogel for like ten years
and it just got finished and so over budget and
absolutely a nightmare is the regulatory process.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
And here's a little stat from that CNBC article. Guys,
just to keep us going down this track, they're investing
all this money. Right, The stock for Constellation Energy went
way up. Goldman sacks.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
You know them, you know them, I love them, you
have feelings about them.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
I'd say that in my head every time now every time.
Thank you for that, Ben, It's good. Data centers consume
an estimated three percent of all US electricity demand this
year as we're recording this, and Goldman Sachs says that
number is going to be closer to about eight percent,
if not exceeding eight percent, by twenty thirty. And this
(46:04):
thing comes online theoretically in twenty twenty eight, so it
could be a huge, huge difference in the strain on
the energy grid. As you guys were saying. But here's
the biggest thing CNBC article. I'm going to continue on
with you. Let's shout out Spencer Kimball you're the author
of this, because I'm reading some of your words verbatim here.
(46:26):
In March, Amazon Web Services bought a data center campus
from Talent Energy that's going to be powered by the
Susquehanna Susquehanna Nuclear Plant, which is also in Pennsylvania. It's
apparently a first of its kind deal. Oracle, another company
that's doing this very thing, said it's designing a new
data center that's going to be powered by three separate
(46:47):
small nuclear reactors. And there's another one, guys. The Palisades
Nuclear Reactor in Michigan is going to be returning to
service in twenty twenty five, and if this one is
going to have multiple users, but again, data centers are
going to be one of the primary things that it
is fueling with that rod technology house hot rods. It's weird, guys, cool, weird, scary, awesome.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
It's up to future historians perhaps, and it's definitely up
to current nuclear technicians to make sure we don't have
another unit one yeah, ever, or god forbid another chernobyl.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
We've been talking about how paranoid the US government is,
specifically about Chinese made vehicle components, software, and hardware, right
we're talking about just you know, there's so much paranoia
about the vulnerability of specifically water, electrical, and other utility services.
(47:52):
Bringing a bunch of more nuclear rods into the situation
just feels, I don't know, it feels scared. But maybe
it just feels that way because we've seen some dangerous
things happen, and generally humans or at least aware of
previous mistakes.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
It reminds me of the the concord jet controversy, right,
like remember when? Remember when? Yeah, yes, yeah, there was
once upon a time commercial jet capability. It no longer
(48:31):
exists because when this newer technology was rolled out in
this manner, it only took one bad thing to sink it. Right.
Think about how many commercial planes have a lot of
whoopsie daisies right now, shout out Boeing, and they are
embedded in current infrastructure. So the question with nuclear capability
(48:56):
is can you keep things jugged lean along until you
reach a moment when they are normalized? Right? What happens when?
How do you reach that threshold? Oh, we love this phrase?
How do you reach that inflection point? There we go
where where it's weird to have a coal plant and
(49:18):
it's normal to have a nuclear plant. The thing is
he can't make a nuclear weapon with coal.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Yes, it's true, guys. Quick correction. In the case of Palisades,
the other nuclear reactor there in Michigan, data centers are
not going to be one of the primary things. And
I know this because Spencer wrote another article that I
just found titled Michigan Nuclear Plant finalizes federal loan to
support first reactor restart in US history. And he states
(49:48):
here in the case of Palisades, that's the other reactor.
The power is spoken for by Wolverine Power Cooperative or
a co op, a nonprofit that provides electricity to rural
communities in Michigan. So not data centers for now.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
Yeah, but that's like when you hear a charity say
it gives a portion of the proceeds, like how much
of how much of that energy generated out of the
pie slices? How much of that is going to rural
michiganers in need?
Speaker 5 (50:21):
I mean, you know, great if true.
Speaker 4 (50:25):
Yeah, but also like it does become the question of,
like how do you feel about nuclear power in general?
You know, because they still haven't licked the waste problem.
There's literally a repository outside of Las Vegas, like Yucca Mountain.
It's just like a bunch of this stuff buried in
the desert. I'm not joking, and maybe everybody already knows that,
(50:45):
but it's a thing like there's it doesn't go away,
and it's very dangerous.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
I would say, never lick the waste problem. It's a
waste problem. Don't lick it.
Speaker 5 (50:56):
Ben earlier said that nuclear energy was tasty.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
It's not what he meant. That's what I meant. There
are there are species that are Okay, look, this is
a little sci fi fish. It is possible to create
as long as these pesky ethics get out of our way.
It is possible to create certain forms of life that
(51:21):
could indeed feed off things considered unusable waste. We already
see it with extremophiles, right.
Speaker 4 (51:29):
Like the glowing ghules in the Fallout.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Just so hopefully a smaller life form with fewer hit points.
Speaker 5 (51:37):
Wouldn't that be sick?
Speaker 6 (51:37):
Though?
Speaker 4 (51:38):
If there was some kind of like the way there's
certain microbes and things that can like eat.
Speaker 5 (51:41):
Oil, like in oil spills.
Speaker 4 (51:43):
Like if they created something like hybridized or whatever, a
thing that could actually feed on and digest nuclear waste
and then poop it out in some sort of non
nuclear form.
Speaker 3 (51:55):
I shout out this silver, This is great, great stuff. Seriously, Yeah,
and shout out to a frame. Shout out to anonymous,
Shout out to everybody tuning in tonight, thank you so
much for joining the show. And further, if we could
do like our little Uncle Sam thing where you point
at the this only works for us because we're recording video.
(52:18):
I want you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, try force. Can
we get like an Uncle Sam kind of thing? All right,
we're all pointing at you on the screen.
Speaker 5 (52:25):
Really you specific for an awkward amount of time.
Speaker 3 (52:29):
Conspiracy Realist. Yeah, we're feeling the vibe. We hope you
feel it as well. We can't wait for you to
reach out and touch faith. We try to be easy
to find online.
Speaker 5 (52:37):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (52:38):
You can find us the handle Conspiracy Stuff where we
exist all over the internet, including on Facebook where we
have our Facebook group Here's where it gets crazy, as
well as on x FKA, Twitter and on youtubehere we
have video content galore for your enjoyment. On Instagram and TikTok. However,
we are Conspiracy Touch.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
If you want to call us, we have a number
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you call in, it's a voicemail system. Give yourself a
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Then you've got three minutes say whatever you'd like. If
you've got more to say, they can fit in that message.
Why not instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (53:19):
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Speaker 2 (53:52):
Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my
name is Nolan.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
They call me Ben. We are joined as always with
our super producer Andrew Treyforce Howard. Most importantly, you are here.
That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
This is one of the best times of the week
for us. It's our favorite evening where we get to
hear from the best part of the show, you, specifically you,
(00:51):
fellow conspiracy realist. Now we're going to look at three
Mile Island. We're going to talk about gardening and adderall
and how the dead live on within us. But before
we do that, a lot of folks have been asking us,
you guys about recent calamities.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, we've experienced several personally, and I don't know, have
you guys noticed there are people out here, maybe listening
to this episode who are actually concerned with our safety,
and that feels really nice.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Yeah, it's definitely nice to be checked in on. Heard
from a couple of folks on Instagram. Been getting emails
about it, all three of us, and we hear you,
and we appreciate your concern, and it was well placed concern,
as it turns out.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, and so we're going to pause for a second
and we'll come back and update everybody on the recent
calamities as we dive in. All right, folks, we're back.
As you may have heard, Hurricane Helene walloped the absolute
(02:03):
bulldog nuts out of the southeastern United States.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, knocks the boiled peanuts right out of our.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Hands, right, And a lot of people in the affected
areas are way worse off than us. Entire communities in
the Carolinas have disappeared, and our own Noll Brown has
experienced disaster as well.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Yeah, I mean, you know, again, shout out in our hearts,
go out to folks from the Ashville area. The places,
I believe the town of Chimney Rock, a lovely little
tourist destination near Ashville, more or less wiped off the map.
And many folks in Ashville are still underwater, without power,
without potable water. People are using like water out of
(02:49):
pools to flush their toilets and stuff. You know, when
you when you see the reporting on this kind of
thing coming your way, you know. I mean, you try
to think, pause, you do what you can, but you know,
at the end of the day, it's like an act
of God. And we were very lucky here in Atlanta.
I know about you guys, but I just got some
minor basement water intrusion. I mean, it was just we
(03:12):
were pummeled with rain to the point where any roof
is gonna be overwhelmed and leak. And I gratefully had
my gutters cleaned pretty recently. So here at my house
in Atlanta, it wasn't so bad. But the Augusta, Georgia area,
where I grew up and where I also own a
house that I inherited from my mom when she passed
away a couple of years ago, absolutely obliterated by multiple trees.
(03:39):
I had been renting this home to a dear family friend.
My mom was a singer, an opera singer, and taught
voice lessons kind of in the last years of her life,
and a person who is for all intos and purposes
like a sister to me, was one of my mom's
best in favor of voice students. A real close, basically
family member, she escaped with her life and the life
(04:01):
of her two cats. Thankfully had to climb out a window.
Even told me she in a weird way, feels like
my mom woke her up twenty minutes before the trees
impacted the house at around five thirty am over the weekend.
And yeah, there's there's multiple trees inside of the house.
And part of the benefit of renting to this friend
(04:24):
she was she loved my mom, and my mom had
a lot of weird stuff, opera memorabilia and the like,
and grand piano and all that, and so a lot
of that stuff was able to stay in the house.
It's now open to the elements. I've you know, applied
for disaster relief and clean up through Crisis Cleanup dot org.
And there's just so many trees down in the Augusta area.
(04:46):
I'm not sure when they're going to get to my house.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
So yeah, got some family in Appalachia still without running
water or power. Luckily they have prepared in advanced The
bridge is right. There was a lot of flooding. Matt,
how are things going in your neck of the Global Woods?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Feeling relatively untouched up here. Most of my neighbors and
I didn't sleep all of my friends I was in
contact with. We know, none of us slept because it
looked like it was going to be horrific, and it
turns out it was just not for us. In particular.
This storm killed well over one hundred people. I think
(05:27):
one hundred and nineteen was the last estimate I saw
from CNN.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Most recent one. Yeah, likely to rise, yeah, yeah, I
think of the people who are disappeared currctly, oh yeah, or.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
You know, fallout from lack of resources, you know, lack
of hospital, lack of being able to be reached, lack
of medication for elderly folks.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
I mean, this number is going to rise.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
The effects of the storm are going to continue on
for weeks, if not months from now, and it's just horrifying. Yeah,
it's really horrifying.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
And then to add to that, there was a massive
leak of chlorine gas as we record here in the
fine metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia. Over in Conyers, just a
little bit east as the crow flies, a place called
(06:20):
Biolap which is notoriously slap dash in their infrastructure. As
a result of flooding to the point about knock on effects,
their compound was compromised and there is currently a huge
flume of chlorine gas moving through the city.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
And you know, we all initially saw the story. I
think we attributed it to some kind of negligence, which
is definitely not off the table. But this was also
in some ways flooding related, right, Like it was like
a building that had massive standing water on the roof
and it fell through and reacted with the chlorine, which
(07:01):
is if I think, if anyone knows when you write
chlorine and water, no, I mean, is that all it
takes for it to create chlorine gas?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
You need something else, right, Chlorine gas is incredibly dangerous
in an enclosed environment. It does dissipate fairly readily in
an open air environment. However, as we were talking about
earlier in our group chat, the effects appear to be
pretty widespread in the metro area. Noel, you were saying earlier,
(07:31):
you walked outside, you saw the haze, your nose started burning.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Yeah, I mean here in thirty miles away, he said,
to the east. But as we know, with things like
Chernobyl and three Mile Island, which we're going to get to,
that fallout, it travels with the winds.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
And I think we.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
All walked outside to a weird mist like haze, and Matt,
you're up a little closer to well, I guess you
used to being. Maybe you're in a different direction now,
but an area called Buford Highway or Lawrenceville. I saw
videos from there where it was just literally like the mists,
like the Stephen King story, just absolutely this very weird,
(08:12):
sickly kind of haze.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
I don't know, did you experience that.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I think maybe a little more densely than we did
here in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah, I'm significantly northeast of you guys in the city,
and I'm you know, that's where the wind was blowing.
So my son's school sent out a big notice that
they were keeping all the kids inside and they were canceling,
you know, a bunch of activities outside and everything like that.
And if you look out, yep, you get that haze
and you take a whiff. Didn't hurt my lungs or
(08:40):
anything like that, but you your body knows you shouldn't
be breathing whatever.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
This is Spidey sense.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And again we are saying this to keep everyone informed,
and we are immensely grateful for everybody who checked in.
Our primary point here is that there are other people
who are much more adversely affected, So please do check
in on your friends and relatives in the area. Please
(09:09):
do also consider if you have the means and inclination
helping out if you can, And every little bit matters,
you know what I mean. It doesn't have to be
a social media post, it doesn't have to be a
gofund me. When people need help, they are often frightened
to ask for it, and it is a tremendous good
(09:31):
to contribute to some organization.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
And I'm really lucky that I have really dear friends
near my mom's house that are checking in on it
for you. But they literally can't get to it yet,
and it's not safe to go in the house. Power
is out in Augusta and then they can't drink the
water is not flowing because of damage to the pumps.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
But back to the chlorine thing. I just wanted to
mention too.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
We all three got I think the same public safety
alert that reads. Interestingly, Georgia Emergency Management Agents the Homeland
Security Agency on behalf of the Environmental Protection Division Local
Area Emergency Local Area Emergency due to Rockdale County biolab fire.
The EPA is monitoring air quality for chlorine and related compounds.
(10:13):
Chemical levels are unlikely to cause harm to most people.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Right, and make sure make sure to check that out, folks,
so you can study the gratuitous use of capital letters
in that text message right, most people is in capital letters,
just to say again the focus is on the other
people who have been more versely affected. We are here,
(10:39):
We appreciate you. Please, please please help our community. Don't
worry about us.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, and keep your ear to the ground because in
both of these instances, if you look at Biolab, the
company that's responsible for the fire here in Rockdale County
slash Conyers Slash east of Atlanta, you can look back
at the history of this company and see that there
have been very similar spills, slash fires, slash basically toxic
(11:08):
chemicals that have been released in mass from this group
and from this facility many times. Exactly twenty years ago,
there was a very similar fire that's been written about
in a lot of places, at least Atlanta publications and
several other that are not so local. This is a
quote from Rockdale County Fire Chief Marion McDonald. This person said,
(11:31):
I've been with a county for seven years and this
is probably the third event of this magnitude that that
person is aware of, and the other thing to keep
in mind. There are currently three tropical storm cyclones that
are forming in the Atlantic right now, with around a
forty percent chance at least estimated right now to the
best of what I've been seeing, of forming another storm,
(11:54):
if not more than one storm that rolls back through
that same area of the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
As we record on the evening of September thirtieth, twenty
twenty four. So again, we want to check in. I
love that you say, keep your ear to the ground.
Help us be informed as well, folks, because a lot
of things are not quite making the news, and you
(12:20):
know it's it's a sticky subject, right The idea of
when it rains, it pours does apply here. We are safe.
We hope you are safe as well. We wanted to
spend this time with you at the very top and
thank you for your time checking in with us. Do
you guys, before we go to an ad break, I
(12:41):
know we're running along. Do you want to hear a
Do you want to hear a weird message about dead people?
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
God, yess, this is why we hang out right, So
our returning guest. A frame is weighing in.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
Hey, dude, it's a frame. Now. I was listening to
an older Strange News episode and you mentioned as a
way to make people uncomfortable the thought of them having
someone else's teeth within their mouth. So because you did
that to me, I'm reminding you that you should think
about having someone else's teeth in place of your teeth.
(13:23):
Great to think about. But on a different note, I
had a knee surgery in twenty nineteen eight. It's starting
to hurt again and in a few years I'll probably
need a new replacement. But anyways, when that happened, they
added a cadaver ligament that runs from my kneecap to
my femur and normally there's not an extra ligament there,
(13:45):
and it was taken from either an mcl ACL or
LCL other like similar knee ligament from a cadaver. And
he even got a little card being like, you're the
benefactor of organ donation, Maybe think about saying yes at
the D and D, which I always have, but food
for thought that it is genuinely helpful to be an
(14:08):
organ donor. It's not all livers and kidneys and stuff.
It's also things.
Speaker 7 (14:13):
Like ligaments for people who wouldn't really really be able
to walk without it, and it's one.
Speaker 6 (14:19):
Of those things that has helped me avoid having a
similar knee injury. Ever, in that time, I do have
some pain from other.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
Parts of the surgery, but the dead guy parts doing fine.
And a lot of times when I say I have
a dead guy's ligament in my knee, it makes some
people uncomfortable, and other people are like, hell yeah, it's
like either one of the two who.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
They're like, Oh, They're like, oh yeah, we're.
Speaker 7 (14:43):
At dead guy and you, like, you know, at.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
A frame at all. I guess we should say, because
you have a dead man inside you, a frame and company,
thank you so much. That is an important point and
rem finds me Guys of our earlier conversations about organ donation. Remember,
we're talking about how strange it is that most people
(15:12):
in a country will be organ donors if they have
to opt out of organ donation, but most people in
a country or a great percentage of the population will
not be organ donors if they have to opt in.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah. Look, if you're hearing this in the future and
you've got my ligaments in you you're welcome. Yeah, yeah,
this is your ligament talking.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
You're welcome and sorry for the kidney.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Man.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I always think about like a lot of Japanese horror
around possessed people possessed by Oh.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, it's a big thing. Religion is a religion is
a huge factor in a law of Oregon donation.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
How about this, if any of us end up in
somebody else, let's see if we can come up with
some kind of message that we get the person's body
that we're inside now to like communicate to the other two.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah, the word is jed June at least that's what
I got the last two times. Okay, j E j
u n e.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
All right, got it?
Speaker 7 (16:29):
This?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
I mean, this is this is a great idea, Matt.
I really I really love that you're pointing this out
because there is a non zero chance that if you
are alive now, when you pass away, you may be
or parts of you may be in a real ship
of thesis situation. And the question is are you married
(16:53):
to this idea your body? Do you want to help
other people? Is there an article Like a body is
a set of clothing, right, so is there an article
of your clothing that you would not want to part
with you. Guys. Remember when I tried to donate an
eye or a cornea as a as a living, non
(17:14):
accident victim and they wouldn't let me.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, you're weird, Ben and I love it.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
It's both of you.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
It's not a great eye. I'm not giving them a
good one.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
You never give them that good one.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I've given them like the nineteen eighty four Toyota Corolla
version of a cornea. You know what I mean? Like
it works?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
I was gonna say, does it drive?
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Let's go all the speaking of going. Folks, please write
into us with your stories, your opinions on organ donation.
We know it is a very sticky subject. It also
makes a great deal of difference to a lot of people.
And without sounding to Nosferatu, right now, as we record,
going back to recent calamities, the humans need blood. There
(18:03):
is a definite need for plasma across the southeastern United
States in wake of the current disasters. So we're going
to pause for a word from our sponsors and we'll
be back with more messages from you.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
And we're back with a pretty sobering and heavy message
from a listener. I'm going to leave their name out
of it. They didn't say one way or the other.
But it is a very personal story that they gave
us permission to share. But you know, with things like
the opioid epidemic and just so much rampant addiction in
(18:51):
this country, and now of course deaths resulting from adulterated
drugs and pills that are pressed to look like a
certain ruption, opioids that are laced with fentanyl, and all
of that. I mean, addiction is just a real problem
in this country. And I don't think that's a hot take,
But I wanted to read this because it is the
(19:13):
perspective of someone who's really been through it, and someone
who has a sense from their own life as to
maybe where the origins of their kind, of their brains
craving for something else, something extra, came from.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
I don't know, let's just get into it. My name
is X.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
I am thirty years old and now live in a
very small Colorado town called what's redacted where in the
late eighteen well, I'm not going to redact because this
is interesting.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Called Lake City?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Is that Lake City?
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Quiet pills, guys, Lake City, Colorado? Where was Lake City
in that story? Was that Colorado comment fair enough. Well, anyway,
there's another association with Lake City. This Lake City in
Colorado where in the late eighteen hundreds a man named
Alfred Pac allegedly eight some people. I want to look
into that further, but that's a discussion for another day.
(20:05):
I have been severely addicted to opiates and other drugs
for my entire adult life. Very early in my addiction
I contracted hepatitis C and I am now dying of
liver cancer as a result.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
I have been to.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Prison for the possession of heroin. I left there with
PTSD and an addiction to a drug they put me
on called Gaba pentin, which is in the class of
drug called Gabba pentenoids, of which Lyrica is one.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
That is the drug that is often given to cats
to calm them down.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
That's right, yeah, it is.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
It is a supposedly it's a non opioid drug with
opioid like properties, is my understanding. Lyrica A is one
that you may have heard of. Continuing, I was forced
by my public school as a small child to take
dextro amphetamine salt adderall or I would not be allowed
(20:58):
to return to school. I have been told by addiction
specialists that the effect of amphetamines on my developing mind
is the reason I have.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
Such an addictive personality.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
The point of this email is I do not have
much time left in this world, and it is my
dream to share my story in the.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Hopes that I could help someone.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
I have been to six very different types of drug
rehabilitation facilities, and for whatever reason, was never able to
gain anything from these places. But I have met many
addicts of all different types. I have watched friends overdose
and die, and I have found friends dead after days.
I was in a very cultish Christian rehab called Victory Outreach,
(21:42):
where I saw people try to pray away a friend's
seizures brought on by alcohol withdrawal. That friend had a seizure,
fell and broke his neck on a toilet and died
later the very same day. I'm not sure how my
story fits into your podcasts, but I very much would
like to share my story in some way and was
hoping that in some way you all could possibly help.
(22:05):
Thank you guys very much for what you do. I
know this hits me really hard directly. I grew up
in a town in the midst of the opioid epidemic
where there was a lot of OxyContin and those kinds
of things just rolling around on the streets and people
were selling their prescriptions. It was just an absolute epidemic
(22:26):
in my hometown. It was very, very, very serious. And
I also had a lot of friends who succumbs to
addiction and ultimately died from various things. You know, as
we've talked about, a lot of people would get addicted
to OxyContin and things like that, and then when it
became less available because of changes in regulation, they just
(22:47):
pivoted directly to heroin. It's a very common story and
it's heartbreaking.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
I don't know, guys.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Back to the I guess the crux of this email,
which is the notion that prescribing young people such a
powerful drug as it's called amphetamine salts guys. It says
it on the on the bottle. How can it not
have a significant impact on the developing brain of a
young child and leads to a situation where that brain
(23:19):
is just used to being overclocked, for lack of a
better term, in some way.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Well, yeah, it's a tough thing because it's prescribed to
those kids. Because their bodies react differently to those drugs,
those stimulant drugs than other people's bodies. Right, there's a
calming effect rather than an upper effect.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
That is what they say.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yes, well, I mean that is I know theoretically why right.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
But you cannot deny that.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Whatever the effect is, it's the same drug and your
brain gets used to it, and it's not something that
you usually take for your whole life. And I just
have to wonder when a young person decides they're not
going to take that anymore or taper off of it,
if that leaves sort of like a want in their
brain for other stuff that they then seek out.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Agreed. The idea that we're talking about here, heavy substances
applied to developing brains is mission critical because the hellothellow humans.
The development of a brain in the human body does
(24:28):
You could call it rehearsal. It rehearses. There's a reason
that your brain grows at a slower rate than your body.
The neurons in your brain can form pathways just as
you're outlining there, guys, And when you hit a human
brain with these very heavy things, like we all some
(24:53):
of us are old enough to recall when heavy psychoactives
were applied to human brain in developmental stages, right, Like,
there's a good question over when a human brain is
done developing. And to your point, Noel, and with great affection, anonymous,
it does seem that there are lasting consequences. You can
(25:18):
inculcate addiction, you can inculcate pattern and behavior right with
the dosing of heavy narcotics or heavy drugs in a
developing human brain. And it's something that a lot of
people like to pretend is not true. But shout out
to the kids who got dosed with zoloft in middle school.
You know what I mean, that has a lasting effect.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
No, it makes perfect sense, you know. I mean, it's
kind of intuitive to think that that how could such
a powerful drug not have an impact? You know, and
we know from things like the opioid epidemic brought on
by the sacklers, the notion that these companies we'll say
(26:00):
things like this is not addictive or it's totally fine.
It's like we've we've learned through patterns of this kind
of stuff that that's not always to be taken at
face value, not to be all like, don't trust big pharma.
Maybe now now maybe to be don't trust big pharma guys,
because a lot of these these these studies are very
(26:22):
self serving.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
The data can be manipulated in numerous ways. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Absolutely, there are very real and also fictional scenarios that
end up in TV shows and movies where it's concepts
of how is a company that's publicly traded, let's say,
massive organization, how are they able to get narcotics in right,
(26:48):
like the poppies that create heroin, to then create a
drug that they can sell above board to patients rather
than you know, to a user and.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
To children in this case you're selling it to their parents.
But let's be honest.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
I mean, there was an absolute just rash of like
Willy Nilly some prescriptions of Adderall.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
And Middland children in those days. It was everywhere. It
was just like it was the thing you did, you know, to.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
The question about opiates, you could also ask the same
thing about coca cocaine, like the remember the time we
almost got kicked out a podcast movement or something because
I was yelling name me one coca field right in
the United States. We know that there is a supply chain.
(27:41):
Look at the way it works. What you're outlining there,
Matt reminds me quite a bit, to a disturbing degree
of the old Catch twenty two with resurrection men in
the United Kingdom back in the day. Right, it's illegal
to get the body, but it is legal to use
a body if you happen upon it. So it is
(28:03):
illegal to It is illegal to propagate opium and other
dangerous substances unless you get the right loopholes in place.
And this does arguably, I think science will support this.
This does arguably endanger people, especially when we're considering, like
(28:25):
you know, talking earlier about the idea of opioids going
through parts of the US like a natural disaster. It
absolutely waxed a huge portion of the Midwest and the Appalachians.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yes, yes, and amphetamines the same.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Right, hillbilly heroin amphetamines. The reason you can't buy certain
truck or speed or certain cold relief things in bulk.
There is a problem that could be addressed, and for
some reason, who are we to say what that reason
may be. For some reason, the people who could prevent
(29:07):
this have chosen not to do so.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Not only chosen not to do so, chosen to capitalize
on it. To Matt's point, I mean, it's it does
feel like and We've talked about this in Big Pharmat
episodes and it's not even a particularly hot take, but
it does feel like a legalized drug cartel distribution network.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
You can't be a pusher if you don't have users,
and you got to foster those users and make sure
they're hooked and need more of your product. And that
doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what that product is. Got
to have people hooked. And to that note, And if
you're uncomfortable this, and we will just tell me, I'm
genuinely asking. I want to know how did you get
(29:49):
out of that world, that situation you were in where
you had friends that were going through stuff that our
anonymous writer was writing to us about. What was there something?
So I know, how did you escape that? Because I
didn't go through that when I was younger, I say.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
I mean, it's a good question, and I mean, I'll
be completely honest.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
I mean I was.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
I was swept up in that to a degree. I mean,
I'm just going to be real, and I did escape
it through a lot of things. I mean, ultimately I
got out of that town. My life changed in many
ways and I changed along with it.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
And but a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Just get stuck in these small towns and that's like
all there is to do, and it's just an easy
escape from malaise of life and just from like the
boredom of living in a small town. And that's why
the towns you're talking about, Ben in the Midwest were
so horribly affected because it's just I don't know, I
don't want to sound reductive, but there's just not much
(30:49):
going on.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
And well that's the old the old troope, right, or
the old truism that many of us have heard. Stuck
in a small town. You have church, you have fans,
or you have vices, right, and those can be self
limiting factors.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
And the saddest thing too is, guys, a lot of
these people that I know from those days, they didn't
die then, they died many years later because of continued
involvement with that kind of stuff.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
Because of the evolution of addiction.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
You know, oxycoton went away, so a lot of these
people replace that with another vice. A lot of these
people would do anything they could to get their hands on,
you know, other prescription pharmaceuticals or like I said, many
people pivot to heroin. So an epidemic like this, like
the death toll isn't immediately visible because this stuff follows
(31:45):
people around. Our listener here is talking about being on
their deathbed many many years later, after being incarcerated, you know,
after being to multiple types of rehab facilities. This is
a person coming to us at the end of their life,
and they're not going to die from an overdose. They're
they're likely going to pass away due to a resulting
(32:06):
factor of I presume intervenous drug use. And this is
many many years removed, of course, many decades removed from
the adderall, you know, but like many many years removed
from the initial like addiction to the opioids, you know.
So it's a lot of the people that I know,
some people that I know just died a handful of
(32:27):
years ago, and I found out about it, that they overdosed,
that they just were so malnourished and living horrible lives
in terms of taking care of themselves.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
It's it's real, y'all. It's it's real.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
It is, it is real. There are you could say,
conspiracies of foot beyond that. We do know that right
now there are people whose lives can be saved.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
It's interesting I heard recently on the radio that there
is a bill at play or there's some something to
do with public health where they are now. I don't
know if it's past or whatever it is, but I
think it's a good suggestion, the idea that if opioids
are ever prescribed, then they also prescribed nar can like
(33:20):
at the same time, so that you have that around,
because a lot of this stuff is from kids taking
their parents' medication and using it recreationally.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
So to be in that situation and.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Then not have that life saving drug around, that's where
the death comes from. I mean, again, I don't know
the statistics of how what effect that might have, but
it does seem like a pretty good idea to me.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
So anyway, thank you, and we do hope you're still
with us.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
I know this was a bit of a downer one,
but I think it's an important thing to talk about,
and thank you guys for your perspectives on this as well.
Let's take a quick break and hear from our sponsor,
and then we'll come back with one more piece of.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
Listener noun.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
And we've returned and we are going to jump to
the phone lines and hear a message from Silver.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
Hey guys, Silver, you can use this message in my
name if you would like to.
Speaker 8 (34:23):
Just kind of a forty hour has water or tests.
While I was in there, I saw an article about
the restart of Three Mile Island, the giant nuclear plants
that will have been cause some issues in Pennsylvania so
many years ago. But I saw that they're going to
restart one of the reactors, which is like thirty three
hundred megawatts, and the sole purpose is the Constellation Energy
(34:45):
is making a deal so that Microsoft can buy all
the energy that that nuclear power plant produces to power
their AI servers. Just an interesting article. I thought it
might be something you guys might want to look into.
If they were to react this facility, it would be
the first one ever that's the Nuclear Regulatory Committee approved
(35:07):
for coming out of off fall status. It's like a
one point six billion dollar project at Microsoft, and I
think Amazon zump in on it too, So they're they're
looking to produce power again in like twenty twenty eight,
I think.
Speaker 7 (35:20):
Which is not that far away to get. Obviously they're
not going to do the one that blew up, but
the other reactor's still good next to it.
Speaker 8 (35:27):
That would be pretty interesting. And it's all just for
powering the AI.
Speaker 7 (35:30):
Servers and things like that.
Speaker 8 (35:31):
All right, well the show always listening to you, guys,
so I'm going.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
Tight tie fascinating, right, We've been talking about the big
brain on the grid from all this stuff. So there's
part of me that's like, this isn't an awful idea.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, maybe, Thank you Silver exactly. Silver, You're awesome. Thank
you so much for sending this our way.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
Uh so fascinating on so many levels.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
To be honest, guys, I saw a little blip about
this passed through and I wanted to talk about it
for Strange News, but I was like, I don't know,
there's other stuff we got to talk about first, and Silver,
you came in with the wind. So Silver, okay. So
first thing we have to get through here is that
(36:18):
Unit two bad, Unit one good plus. So Unit two
is the reactor there at the three Mile Island facility
in Middletown or Middleton maybe Pennsylvania. That occurred on March
twenty eighth, nineteen seventy nine. That's when it was a
partial meltdown, and it was very, very serious. It's the
(36:40):
most serious accident in US commercial nuclear power plant operating history.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Hey, partial though only a little gin up, guys, got's
just a little meltdown, the whole meltdown.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
It wasn't.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
I mean, you know, let's just credit where credit is due.
Maybe is the wrong expression, but it wasn't like Chernobyl level.
It was not like a an absolute fallout apocalyptic you know,
drifting nuclear material situation.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
They contained it relatively.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Sure, sure, sure, yeah, but unit too bad.
Speaker 5 (37:14):
You know one Still it's still pertly good. It's still good.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
It's still good double plus.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
So when I when I saw this headline, Matt, I
thought they were.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Just like using the the facility, like repurposing it to
make chips. I did not at all realize they were
talking about relaunching a reactor. And like, this is also unprecedent,
because have you ever heard of a private company having
their own nuclear reactor?
Speaker 5 (37:43):
I mean, who do.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
You think builds them?
Speaker 5 (37:46):
Westinghouse?
Speaker 4 (37:47):
You know, but I'm talking about like these are giant
energy companies. I don't know of any like manufacturing facility
that has an on site nuke reactor.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yes, we're on the forefront.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Of this file.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
It's happening now, and it's a bunch of companies that
have massive data centers that are going to run their
AI applications, whatever those are going to be. It is
happening across the board right now.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Well, we'll talk about a second one, but let's stay
on just the tip, the news tip that Silver gave
us there after.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
The test tip.
Speaker 5 (38:25):
Just theoling.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Okay, so we're jumping to a CNBC article from September
twentieth titled Constellation Energy to restart a three Mile Island
nuclear plant, sell the power to Microsoft for AI. Now
it expects, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and several
other journalists they have got access to what's going on
over there, it is a deal between Constellation Energy and
(38:51):
Microsoft primarily, and the company, Constellation Energy, expects Unit one
reactor to be ready twenty twenty eight, just like Silver said,
subject to approval, of course, by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
sure sure.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
And Constellation Energy owns three Mile.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yes, correct, correct, And they had to shutter it in
twenty nineteen because it couldn't keep up with cheap natural
gas all the energy that was being produced around the
United States, and they're like, gosh, we can't, we can't
make energy at that at that price point. So I
guess we got to shut this thing down. And Microsoft said,
hold on one second.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Microsoft said, deer.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
And by the way, if it does get approved by
the NRC and begins operations in twenty twenty eight, they
plan to have a contract to run it until twenty
fifty four. I think you.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Have to you have to bake that kind of stuff
in for the deal to work.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
M and long term leases on commercial property, you know,
I mean.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yes, bit, yeah, yes, And again we're talking this in
mid September this month. We were at the end of
the month as we're recording this on the thirtieth. But
when this announcement came through, Constellation Energy stock jumped twenty
two percent in the positive. So people are into it.
They're saying, I got a customer. It's a built in customer.
(40:17):
It's going to pay for all of the power for
a long place. There's a place for it to go.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Well S, Constellation is already a pretty big energy company. Oh,
you have interest in natural gas, and they know the
old jazz. They just want to get this nuclear jaloppy
up and running.
Speaker 5 (40:35):
That's the question that Matt.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
I mean, since you said they shut it down because
it wasn't efficient enough for actual contribution to the grid.
Let's just say, for like, you know, constellations purposes of
actually providing energy to its customers. Is this an interesting
and reasonable use of it because it will also take
some strain off of the grid from all this AI nonsense.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Well yeah, think about it. If you could make spoke
nuke plants for all of these companies trying to get
their AI stuff off the ground.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
There are new small, quote unquote modular nuke reactors that
are starting to be rolled out.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
And think about the government's interest. You guys are spinning.
You need some stuff to get spun up. Hey, yeah,
for if you're a reactor, we can use some of that.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Guys. This is just for our artificial intelligence.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, Okay.
Speaker 5 (41:27):
I'm making those memes.
Speaker 8 (41:28):
You know.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
This is literally for meme generation.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
It does answer, it does answer one of the great
dilemmas which is on the horizon, which is how do
we power these very thirsty machines, right, And the cleanest answer,
obviously is going to be something like solar power, something
like hydroelectric or geotherbal power. However, nuclear power is super
(41:55):
tasty because all you need is well, you need a
lot of yeah, but it is still cleaner than being
dependent upon fossil fuels. That is, that is the great
Achilles heel, right, just like the Achilles heel of so
many podcasts is advertising. So if in that terrible example,
(42:20):
the idea of powering, we saw this again with things
like bitcoin mining, right, also very thirsty, very energy intensive.
If you cannot create an easy solar power, hydroelectric or
geothermal source, then nuclear energy is still theoretically way more
bang for your buck. And I don't know if everybody
(42:43):
is aware of just like the nuts and bolts of
nuclear energy, it's making water steam and then turn turbine.
I feel like people are afraid of the word until
they know what it is.
Speaker 5 (42:58):
Well, they should be afraid of the word. Be the waste.
That's this part of the problem, the equation that we
haven't solved yet.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
They didn't bury it in the desert, Like there's no
good way of dealing with nuclear waste.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
And if you're still using rods, they can still burn
their way right through whatever it is you put below them.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
It does just what a meltdown is, yeah, right, it's
when it melts.
Speaker 5 (43:18):
Down into the damn Earth.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
You know, I'm so excited about our future episode on
how to warn other generations about nuclear waste.
Speaker 4 (43:28):
I'm excited about the next party we go to together.
We're gonna have so much new material.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Guys, nuclear material and so. Ben, when you were talking
about how do we feed these thirsty machines, I really
thought you were going to say, build a simulation of
the year nineteen ninety nine in New York City, then
build pods for human beings to grow up inside and
fill those with some kind of goo, and then make
(43:53):
sure all of those humans are batteries connected to your system.
Speaker 5 (43:57):
Wait, is this the plot of the movie that mate?
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Hey, spoilers come on. That's Matt's favorite film.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
It really is. So it's gonna cost one point six
billion dollars just to get this reactor up and started
and working again by twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
So yeah, they shut it down, But like, does that
mean it's it's just it's falling into disrepair. They got
to like do some referb to it or what.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Very expensive to maintain? I mean just the it's not
like this is the equivalent of not just finding a
rusted out car that you know could be good. This
is the equivalent of finding the rusted out hulk of
a car or the chassis of a car and then say, eh,
(44:41):
let me look at the engine.
Speaker 5 (44:42):
When was it taken offline?
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Again, Matt, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
But that's that's not that long ago that I don't
understand this billions situation.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Well there, Look, they they want a brand new nuclear power.
Speaker 5 (44:54):
They're gonna do it up.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
It's whether you want. Because Unit two so bad. Unit
one has to be real, real good. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Right?
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Yeah, But they're not going to build a new reactor.
It takes I mean, we talked about this.
Speaker 3 (45:06):
It's still more expensive to build a new reaction. Oh yeah,
was the crazy.
Speaker 5 (45:09):
Thing, that's right.
Speaker 4 (45:10):
We talked about like how long you know, so a
southern company here in Georgia has been trying to finish
an additional reactor at Plant Vogel for like ten years
and it just got finished and so over budget and
absolutely a nightmare is the regulatory process.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
And here's a little stat from that CNBC article. Guys,
just to keep us going down this track, they're investing
all this money. Right, The stock for Constellation Energy went
way up. Goldman sacks.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
You know them, you know them, I love them, you
have feelings about them.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
I'd say that in my head every time now every time.
Thank you for that, Ben, It's good. Data centers consume
an estimated three percent of all US electricity demand this
year as we're recording this, and Goldman Sachs says that
number is going to be closer to about eight percent,
if not exceeding eight percent, by twenty thirty. And this
(46:04):
thing comes online theoretically in twenty twenty eight, so it
could be a huge, huge difference in the strain on
the energy grid. As you guys were saying. But here's
the biggest thing CNBC article. I'm going to continue on
with you. Let's shout out Spencer Kimball you're the author
of this, because I'm reading some of your words verbatim here.
(46:26):
In March, Amazon Web Services bought a data center campus
from Talent Energy that's going to be powered by the
Susquehanna Susquehanna Nuclear Plant, which is also in Pennsylvania. It's
apparently a first of its kind deal. Oracle, another company
that's doing this very thing, said it's designing a new
data center that's going to be powered by three separate
(46:47):
small nuclear reactors. And there's another one, guys. The Palisades
Nuclear Reactor in Michigan is going to be returning to
service in twenty twenty five, and if this one is
going to have multiple users, but again, data centers are
going to be one of the primary things that it
is fueling with that rod technology house hot rods. It's weird, guys, cool, weird, scary, awesome.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
It's up to future historians perhaps, and it's definitely up
to current nuclear technicians to make sure we don't have
another unit one yeah, ever, or god forbid another chernobyl.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
We've been talking about how paranoid the US government is,
specifically about Chinese made vehicle components, software, and hardware, right
we're talking about just you know, there's so much paranoia
about the vulnerability of specifically water, electrical, and other utility services.
(47:52):
Bringing a bunch of more nuclear rods into the situation
just feels, I don't know, it feels scared. But maybe
it just feels that way because we've seen some dangerous
things happen, and generally humans or at least aware of
previous mistakes.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
It reminds me of the the concord jet controversy, right,
like remember when? Remember when? Yeah, yes, yeah, there was
once upon a time commercial jet capability. It no longer
(48:31):
exists because when this newer technology was rolled out in
this manner, it only took one bad thing to sink it. Right.
Think about how many commercial planes have a lot of
whoopsie daisies right now, shout out Boeing, and they are
embedded in current infrastructure. So the question with nuclear capability
(48:56):
is can you keep things jugged lean along until you
reach a moment when they are normalized? Right? What happens when?
How do you reach that threshold? Oh, we love this phrase?
How do you reach that inflection point? There we go
where where it's weird to have a coal plant and
(49:18):
it's normal to have a nuclear plant. The thing is
he can't make a nuclear weapon with coal.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Yes, it's true, guys. Quick correction. In the case of Palisades,
the other nuclear reactor there in Michigan, data centers are
not going to be one of the primary things. And
I know this because Spencer wrote another article that I
just found titled Michigan Nuclear Plant finalizes federal loan to
support first reactor restart in US history. And he states
(49:48):
here in the case of Palisades, that's the other reactor.
The power is spoken for by Wolverine Power Cooperative or
a co op, a nonprofit that provides electricity to rural
communities in Michigan. So not data centers for now.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
Yeah, but that's like when you hear a charity say
it gives a portion of the proceeds, like how much
of how much of that energy generated out of the
pie slices? How much of that is going to rural
michiganers in need?
Speaker 5 (50:21):
I mean, you know, great if true.
Speaker 4 (50:25):
Yeah, but also like it does become the question of,
like how do you feel about nuclear power in general?
You know, because they still haven't licked the waste problem.
There's literally a repository outside of Las Vegas, like Yucca Mountain.
It's just like a bunch of this stuff buried in
the desert. I'm not joking, and maybe everybody already knows that,
(50:45):
but it's a thing like there's it doesn't go away,
and it's very dangerous.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
I would say, never lick the waste problem. It's a
waste problem. Don't lick it.
Speaker 5 (50:56):
Ben earlier said that nuclear energy was tasty.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
It's not what he meant. That's what I meant. There
are there are species that are Okay, look, this is
a little sci fi fish. It is possible to create
as long as these pesky ethics get out of our way.
It is possible to create certain forms of life that
(51:21):
could indeed feed off things considered unusable waste. We already
see it with extremophiles, right.
Speaker 4 (51:29):
Like the glowing ghules in the Fallout.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Just so hopefully a smaller life form with fewer hit points.
Speaker 5 (51:37):
Wouldn't that be sick?
Speaker 6 (51:37):
Though?
Speaker 4 (51:38):
If there was some kind of like the way there's
certain microbes and things that can like eat.
Speaker 5 (51:41):
Oil, like in oil spills.
Speaker 4 (51:43):
Like if they created something like hybridized or whatever, a
thing that could actually feed on and digest nuclear waste
and then poop it out in some sort of non
nuclear form.
Speaker 3 (51:55):
I shout out this silver, This is great, great stuff. Seriously, Yeah,
and shout out to a frame. Shout out to anonymous,
Shout out to everybody tuning in tonight, thank you so
much for joining the show. And further, if we could
do like our little Uncle Sam thing where you point
at the this only works for us because we're recording video.
(52:18):
I want you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, try force. Can
we get like an Uncle Sam kind of thing? All right,
we're all pointing at you on the screen.
Speaker 5 (52:25):
Really you specific for an awkward amount of time.
Speaker 3 (52:29):
Conspiracy Realist. Yeah, we're feeling the vibe. We hope you
feel it as well. We can't wait for you to
reach out and touch faith. We try to be easy
to find online.
Speaker 5 (52:37):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (52:38):
You can find us the handle Conspiracy Stuff where we
exist all over the internet, including on Facebook where we
have our Facebook group Here's where it gets crazy, as
well as on x FKA, Twitter and on youtubehere we
have video content galore for your enjoyment. On Instagram and TikTok. However,
we are Conspiracy Touch.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
If you want to call us, we have a number
for that. Call one eight three three std WYTK. When
you call in, it's a voicemail system. Give yourself a
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Then you've got three minutes say whatever you'd like. If
you've got more to say, they can fit in that message.
Why not instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (53:19):
We are the entities that read every piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
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conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
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