An email hips the guys to the global conspiracy of the Atlas Network -- a think tank that creates think tanks. Fun Crusher looks for more information on allegations of a serial murderer in Austin. Wayne makes a great point about Ben and Matt's earlier 'get out of trouble with scopolamine' idea. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt.
Our colleague NOL will be right back, and.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
He will no doubt return with some awesome adventure stories.
We look forward to them. They call me Ben. We
are joined as always with our super producer Alexis codename
Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly, you are you. You are
here That makes this the stuff they don't want you
to know. It is Thursday if you're hearing this when
(00:50):
it comes out, which means long time conspiracy realist. This
is our moment for messages from you, Matt, Doc and
I are gonna play it a little bit shoot from
the hip, fast and loose. Today we thought we would
dive into a couple of emails, couple of letters from home,
(01:12):
a couple of voicemails, and let's see Matt before we
get going, just checking in, how's everything on your end?
No poop balloons from the neighbors, hopefully No.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I did this fun thing though. I'm going to tell
you about it right now. Has nothing to do with
the show. Congratulations. Here's the story from Matt's life. My
son and I got one of these water slide things.
It's not a water slide when you think about one,
if you go to Whitewater or one of these parks, right,
it's a slipping slide. That's a reference that kids from
the eighties and nineties would probably get. Well, we got
(01:45):
one of those things, set it up in the old
front yard there, set it off, and spent two days
just going to town on it. Was amazing. And in
between those two days there was a thunderstorm, so there
was a lot of ground moisture on top of all
the water that this slip and slide thing was already.
You connect a hose up to it and it sprays
(02:05):
water on itself to keep it all I guess, lubricated,
so you can slide down it. Well, what I didn't
realize is that my old big body is not like
a kid going down a slip and slide anymore. And
when the weight of my body impacts the ground, it
pushes all of that mud that's being generated out of
(02:26):
the way. So basically, my son and I had a
great time on Memorial Day and ruined my front lawn.
There's a story from Matt's life. How's the lawn doing destroyed? Currently?
You do anything fun for a Memorial Day or any
(02:48):
anything interesting?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I've been with me the whole time. I'm not sure
what would interest other folks. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I do not know what you mean. You're a fascinating individual.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
That's very kind. We've got some got some cool fiction
coming out, hopefully, We've got some stories that are very
true that may show up, and stuff they don't want
you to know, presents and like you, Like many people
in this part of the Global Woods, I also witnessed
(03:17):
with great awe and astonishment the storms that rolled in.
Who's our buddy? Who always says the fog rolls in?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Viking?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Viking? Yeah, shout out to you. Viking thought of you.
When the rains came through, it's usually it's always the fog,
the fog rules. We have received so much fascinating correspondence.
Matt Dock thought it would be interesting to learn about
something that I had never heard of before. And perhaps
(03:52):
you have, perhaps you're read onto it, man, But I
had never heard of something called the Atlas Network. You
heard of this.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
What is that? I know Atlas games and that's it.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, I know Atlas, the big BattleMech you know, I
know Atlas the mythological figure. Right. But to answer this
question we have to go to Concerned Kiwi. Concerned Kiwi
writes in and says the following, Hey, guys, longtime listener,
love the show. I was wondering if you, gentlemen could
(04:26):
take a deep dive into the Atlas Network. They're the
head of an international far right network of five hundred
plus think tanks and lobby groups that manipulate democracies globally.
They're known as the think tank that creates think tanks.
They have links back to the Koch Brothers, Philip Morris, Tobacco,
(04:49):
an ex On Mobile, to name but a few. They're
extremely active in my country, New Zealand, which isn't that
surprising since New Zealand is often used a as a
political testing ground by foreign bad actors. Since this is
a bit of an in depth piece of correspondence off air,
(05:10):
we decided we would round robinet. It's quite a tale.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
The Atlas Network are associated with numerous lobby groups and
businesses here, including the taxpayers Union.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I'm assuming super innocuous name.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I think that's what it is. It says taypayers, but
I think it's taxes and most concerningly, the New Zealand Initiative,
which reads like a who's who of prominent New Zealand
businesses and business elites. They've also groomed and supported David Seymour,
leader of our local libertarian party Act ACT, who regularly
(05:45):
and currently share power in government. But you can't ask
Seymour any questions about the Atlas Network or he'll call
you a conspiracy theorist, even even though he worked for
Atlas members in his youth. Was photographed during an Atlas
Network event and called the Atlas Network quote old friends
in a speech that can be found on his own
(06:07):
party's website. The Atlas Network is also prevalent in Australia,
Germany and other countries around the world. Sounds like five
eyes to me, Come on, guys, what's going on? And
it concludes in this paragraph, I'm not aware of their
activities in the US.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So apparently neither were we concerned. Kiwi. The missive continues
the Atlas Network and their associated organizations attempt to feign
political neutrality, but as their name would suggest, they support
the tired old libertarian ideas of small government, big business,
(06:45):
free markets, market solutions of widespread the regulation. I don't
know why I'm doing that voice. That voice is editorial anyway,
continues so as you'd expect, they consistently prioritize corporate interest
over public welfare. The at list network supports, trains, consults,
(07:05):
and sometimes directly funds their member groups and allegedly manipulate
some political parties directly act, projecting undue influence on local
politics and interfering with the policy making process.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Boy, everybody loves a lobbying group. Let's go on to
the next paragraph. They sometimes coordinate overarching strategies designed to
influence the public vote, often preying on fear in division
dog whistling about populist issues, most notably around issues pertaining
to indigenous rights. Interesting In New Zealand, their local mouthpieces
(07:45):
took part in a fear mongering campaign against various proposed
policies that would have benefited Maori. In Australia, there's evidence
they helped organize a widespread disinfo campaign to manipulate the
public into voting against the Voice Australia, which is an
initiative designed to give Aborigines an increased political presence in Germany.
(08:06):
There are claims they were involved in the criminalizing of
climate protesters.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
So much for freedom.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
In Africa, they've been criticized for their alleged support of
authoritarian regimes.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Alleged nice one. Concerned Kiwi continues, the global influence of
the Atlass network seems pretty pervasive to say the least,
yet we never hear much about them. It would be
great if you guys could help change that. It seems
to me that the Atlass Network, with their level of
undue power and influence, is definitely not something that should
(08:39):
be met with a shrug. And here Concerned Kiwi provides
several fantastic links. Like we always say in the email,
take us to the edge of the rabbit hole, will
do the rest, and says concludes with thanks for consistently
holding power to account. Concerned, Kiwi and Matt did a
(09:02):
little bit of digging here first off, thanks to ck
on this one. The Atlas Network is definitely a real thing,
possibly a future episode in my opinion. It was formerly
known as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and it's been
around for a while. It was created in nineteen eighty one,
(09:25):
but oh by a guy who's called the quote Johnny
Appleseed of anti regulation groups. What a nerd street name.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
What a horrible idea.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
It's also is it based on Atlas Shrugged? It's it
leads us to a fascinating and perhaps disturbing conversation because,
as Kiwi points out as concerned, Kiwi rightly notes, this
is an incubator for other think tanks. And just like
(09:58):
walking through a grocery store, buy in different flavors of cereal,
if you are not careful, you won't know that they
are associated together. I learned about another thing called the
State Policy Network, which is across It's like Alec again. Man,
(10:19):
I just doc if you could please beat me here.
The conspiracy is real. It seems there is Korea foot Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Might I read from mister Anthony Fisher's little bio here
on atlasnetwork dot org.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Oh please please please.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
This is under the heading our creation story. Now you
got to get through this first part in order to
really feel the impact of the second paragraph. Here we go.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Take us there, let's get in the moment.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Atlas Network's founder, Anthony Fisher knew what it meant to
find your own place in the world. After his father
was killed in the First World War when Antony was
only two yearsyears old, he went on to serve as
a pilot in the Royal Air Force in World War Two.
Seeing Britain embrace a socialist economic agenda. At the end
of the war, Antony was dismayed by the subdivision of
(11:12):
individual enterprise in service of a government led centralized policy.
He came across an abridged edition of Fa hayex The
Road to Serfdom, which proposes that central planning inevitably erodes
individual liberty and enables tyranny. Hayek's philosophy not only influenced
(11:33):
Fisher's own career trajectory, but also inspired him to think
a ways to drive grassroots level change that promoted free
market opportunities.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
All right, So also for context here before we moved
to the second paragraph where things get really juicy. Frederick
Ayek is an old school Austrian economist. He's thought to
be a member of a leading luminary of what we
call the Austrian school. And I would say that they
(12:03):
got treated as gurus rather than as social scientists. So
I'd say there's a lot of ideology at play here.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, dude. Apparently he went to the United States in
nineteen eighty one and established the thing that became Atlas Network,
and it calls it a process. What the Atlas Network
does is in institute a process that helps think tanks quote,
unshackle the power of individual liberty and enterprise. Yeah that
(12:36):
sounds great, man, it sure does. And they partner with
almost five hundred think tanks in over one hundred countries
that drive change in ideas, culture, and policy, remove barriers
to opportunities, and empower individuals to live a life of choice.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Do you know why I stopped you, young man? Well, officer,
I guess we're both removing barriers to opportunity.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Well, yeah, we're both just living lifes of choice man.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Yeah. So, Also, Fisher is fascinating because in nineteen fifty
two he went to the US for the first time
and he visited a thing called the Foundation for Economic Education.
So this guy, the progenitor of Atlas Networks, has been
ten toes down for quite a while. He made his
(13:27):
money off chicken farms. True story. He started England's first
battery chicken farm. This is coming from source Watch, which
is a fantastic, if imperfect resource for a lot of this,
a lot of this larger context. And like you said, Matt,
(13:47):
he keeps going back and forth with the US and
with these various somewhat ephemeral institutions, these incubators of ideological thought.
It was through this thing called the Atlas network. Now,
it was through that that he was able to extend
(14:08):
his beliefs worldwide. Remove the barriers, we suppose, remove the
barriers and allow people the opportunity to hear him say
his opinions as though those opinions were facts. And we
see that, We see that this guy was not just
(14:28):
instrumental in the creation of this specific species of think tank,
but indeed instrumental in the concept of think tanks overall.
And you know, we've talked about this off air time
or two, but if the dice had rolled slightly differently,
(14:50):
your faithful correspondence may well have been in think tanks
now instead of doing our little show.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Oh not me. They would never let me in one
of those.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yet, no, they would get it. They would want you.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
They'd be like, you have to think in here, Frederick,
and I'd be like.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I'd make it a condition for hiring me, I'd be like, no.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
They've got a what do they call this a style? No,
a unique approach? I guess uh, it's their strategic model.
Coach compete celebrate trademark.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
That is the weirdest in olive garden I have ever
heard of.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
You coach others, then you compete out there on the
grid iron, and when you're done, you throw that gatorade
on your coach.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And now like, what what is the complex acronym for celebrate? Right,
everybody tell us what celebrate really means. We also want
to shout out one last thing about Fisher, a little
known story. He is a failed turtle farmer. Oh yeah,
(15:59):
So if you want to be fun at parties, especially
at an Atlas Network sponsored soiree, ask them about the
turtle far man. I don't know. It's an episode of
the future. Though we still have to do Project twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Oh man, I can't wait for that one. He said again. Ai,
I said it sarcastically.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Again, sarcastically in any language. And with that, we're going
to pause for a word from our sponsors, and we'll
be back with more messages from our fellow listeners.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
And we've returned and we're jumping into yie old phone lines.
We got a message recently from fun Crusher. Uh oh boy,
we're in for it. Let's see what fun Crusher has
to say.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Hey, gang, you can call me fun Crusher. This is
something that might lead to an episode, or it might
just be a segment. I don't know because I haven't
really looked into it. But here in beautiful Austin, Texas,
there was recently, within the last year, I want to say,
maybe two years, the series of deaths that were like
(17:13):
all kind of like young professional men who drowned in
Town Lake, which is our little section of.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
The Colorado River.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
And the conspiracy is that these deaths were actually the
work of a serial killer and that the city, for
whatever reason, is calling them accidental. They all happened in
the same kind of section of downtown Austin where there's
(17:48):
like a lot of nightlife, and the theory that these
guys are being drugged and then chuffed into the drink
by the supposed killer. Now again, this is all hearsay,
This is all rumor, This is all just word on
the street. This is my girlfriend's uber drivers brother cousin
(18:13):
I don't know was a victim. This is just I
haven't lookeden to it at all. I'm leading that up
to you guys if you want to so. But ask
pretty much anyone around Austin if they've heard of the
Rainy Street Ripper, and most people have heard something or
other about it, So maybe something to look into. Thanks
(18:35):
for everything, I'll do, peace.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Fun Crusher. Indeed, thank you so much for taking the
time to call in. Sir Matt. Initial reactions would be this,
this reminds me a little bit of the smiley face theories.
Real lost.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, I just want to check we haven't covered this right,
this specifically.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Not cover the Rainy Street Ripper allegations.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Okay, again, it does sound so familiar to that those
other cases, and I know people have called in before
about other towns where there's been a killer. I think
somebody did mention Austin specifically as like a place where
there were potentially some bodies being found. Because this has
been going on for over twenty two twenty three months now,
(19:26):
I've gotten an article up here. There's one thing just
to point out here, fun Crusher, you said town Lake,
and maybe that's what it's called where you are, or
what's Lady Lake. Yeah, Ladybird Lake is what I'm seeing
in all the reporting, and they're reporting for twenty two months.
(19:47):
Since July twenty twenty two, there have been twelve bodies,
at least twelve bodies that have been recovered from this
central Texas lake and in the immediately surrounding area land
around the lake. This is nuts. Several were found in
April twenty twenty four, and it dates all the way
back to July twenty twenty two. You can find a
(20:09):
list of names of these of the twelve people who
the bodies have been recovered. Each one is a separate
story that we would have to look into, I think,
for a larger episode if we wanted to really do this.
It is very, very odd. People are reporting on it everywhere.
Apparently the public in the area a lot like yourself
and people around you fun crusher. They're nervous about. It
(20:33):
doesn't feel good when that many bodies are being recovered
in a lake right by you. The theories, as you stated,
possible serial killer or a group of people who are
you know, maybe robbing people like we did in that
story in Atlanta recently, or in New York where individuals
going out for drinks, were getting drugged and robbed and
(20:53):
sometimes killed. Maybe there's something like that happening. It's really scary.
There's one story from Fox Evan Austin that is detailing
a specific family of one of the victims saying, hey, authorities, police,
we need you to look into these various hypotheses, the theories
that are coming up to put an end to this,
(21:14):
because this is unacceptable and we are not only scared,
we want to know what the heck happened.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah, and for anyone unfamiliar the idea of the smiley
face murder theory, which I think both of us instantly
thought of this we heard this story. The smiley face
murder theory is the idea that in certain parts of
the United States, multiple deaths of young men that have
(21:44):
been recorded or reported as drownings are indeed the result
of homicide, possibly due to the predation of a serial
killer or group of murderers. We can say at the
very beginning that it is quite rare for the things
that we call serial killers, which I do not consider people.
(22:07):
It is quite rare for those entities to cooperate. They're
a bit egoistic in that regard in terms of Ladybird
Lake and the idea of the Rainy Street ripper. You
can find stuff. You can find statements from the Austin
Police Department. This is active investigation. You can find any
(22:32):
number of locals who are talking with great concern about
what exactly has happened to these innocent people. Now, obviously,
let's get it out of the way. It is completely
possible for somebody to fall into a body of water,
you know, a lake, a river and ocean whatever, and
(22:53):
to die, right, it is entirely possible for those deaths
to occur accident. The question here is whether there is
someone actively committing homicides. And you can go to any
number of outlets now, especially in the past. Honestly, in
the past few months, I'm seeing stuff from February twenty
(23:16):
twenty four. I'm seeing things from a few years earlier,
just a month ago. The Daily Mail surely the stellar
reporting source in all of the United Kingdom. I'm kidding.
If there is a language translation app currently deployed, please
note I said that sarcastically. You can see you can
(23:39):
see maps of people who have disappeared most recently, like
dating back to twenty twenty two, So several years, but
also the scuttle butt says far before then, and we
spent time in Austin, Matt, We've had boots on the ground.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Well on Rainey's this is where south By occurs. We
ate at the ihop that's right at the end of
Rainy Street in Driscoll. Like, yes, we are highly aware
of this, and I'm looking for Lady Bird Lake just
to make sure I understand, like how far that is
away from here? And it is. It's basically the Colorado
(24:23):
River that has been dammed up just a little bit,
I guess, or stopped somewhere down north Pleasant Valley Road.
It looks like I mean, it's right there by Rainy Street.
You could basically follow Rainy Street near down to the
Rainy Dumpster Rental Austin and you could be in that
(24:44):
at least that part of the Colorado River that then
dumps into the lake.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
So going back to now that we have the benefit
of the map, what we could see is there is
a stretch of Colorado River right that has clear become
a big part of Austin. Right. It's the place where
the tourists go. And if you look at this map
(25:08):
from again, I'm going to go back to the Daily
Mail here. If you look at this map in the reporting,
what you can see is a clear note of the
identity of people who have died, the time or the
day their body was found, and the address of where
the body was discovered. And so we'll get back to
(25:32):
this one at the end. But they're clearly I don't
want to say immediately that there's a murderer about that's
targeting people, but there are clearly people dying along this
stretch of river.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Right, That's correct. If you want to look more into this,
there's apparently a bartender somewhere in Austin that claims they
have spoken with this quote Rainy Street Killer's again, it's
like a social post. Who knows if it's real or not.
Hopefully it's being fully investigated, but we're going to keep
an eye on this and it might be worth our
(26:07):
time to go through some of this in a deeper way.
So thank you so much fun Crusher for crushing the
fun and that voicemail. We'll be right back with more
messages from you.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
And we have returned another piece of correspondence. Before we
get to some letters from home, we're going to hear
from a little bit Space, who says the following, Hi, guys,
I just finished our episode on online pornography, very dark stuff,
little bit Space. We agree, but says little bit Space,
(26:46):
that's not why I'm emailing you. At the beginning of
the episode, you mentioned aski art and described it it
as a block of text characters usually shared on meme
and text forums. Specifically mentioned spacing, but spacing is not
typically fiddled with. Aski art is most commonly drawn using
(27:07):
a monospaced font, although gatekeepers want to dictate which fonts
are allowed. It's a long story the way you speak
about it, and then we're gonna paraphrase this part little Space,
as we basically need to.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Learn more about the art and the scene the.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Art and the scene, and little Space continues.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I'm not the best person to educate you on this topic,
but I know the basics. First, aski art is one
of the main genres of text mode arts, and under
aski art goes lots of different subgenres, usually restricted to
a specific retro computing system such as Commodore sixty four
or Amstrad. Yes, we are aware of the Commodore sixty four.
(27:52):
Asking this is very cool. Secondly, you should draw a
line between ASKI and ASKI art, as they are very
disc from each other. I happen to be an artist
working on this very medium and see lots of ASKI
people call art. The subgenres I work in typically are
modern ASCI font choice not restricted to hardware fonts and
(28:14):
with not limited to eighty. Haters will hate pet Ski
the Commodore sixty four ASKI so to speak, and custom
pet Ski with a custom eight bit font. Okay, Anyhow,
text mode arts is a scene that's alive and kicking,
and you can make real art using ASKI, not just
some meme forum content.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yeah, and I think there's a solid point there. One
cannot dictate the medium of art, right, So little Bitspace
ends with you can find me with the handle little
bit Space, and they have any number of ways to
get in touch with them. They want to be easy
to find online. We thought that was an interesting point
(28:59):
because as Ski holds a great deal of nostalgia for
many of us in the crowd. It reminds me a
little bit, Matt of the fantastic work I hope this
is not a hot take, but the fantastic work I've
seen with Lego bricks, you know when people make phenomenal
sculptures using lego, So we really appreciate your time, little
(29:23):
bit space. We also we also want to hear and
see and witness the works of art that you have created,
fellow conspiracy realists, so please do send those to us.
Email us, drop us ald on the internet, give us
a call. We'll tell you how to find us at
the end. But we thought that we thought that for
(29:45):
this evening we might wrap up with a little bit
of a letter from home from our pal Wayne. We
all remember Wayne.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Oh Wayne, former security guard, magic gay, enthusiastic mary.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Guy, classic Wayne. Let's that jinx Wayne.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I don't know if you're married or if you're just
a fiancee. IM not sure you're talking to Wayne betrothed. Yeah,
I'm not. I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
So everybody else please listen in. This is a nice
little letter from home we got from our pal Wayne.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
They don't want you to know this stuff. They don't
want you to stand which I want to apologize to
Ben even though Matt's probably hearing this one. But then
if you're listening to this guy, I always assume Matt's
the one listen, so I always kind of had him
as my audience, but you probably listen to all my
college You're like, who the heck is this guy? Thinking
that all the Matt listens and just hung up immediately,
(30:43):
which I wouldn't blame. But if indeed Ben is listening
to this, yeah, please, I accept my apology. Second, I'm
listening to the Scholar episode. Skull means the drug one,
the one that makes you susceptible if you were to
hit yourself with scull, I mean in a defensive act
to say that you were on schol. I mean, couldn't
(31:05):
they just ask you if you did that and you'd
be compliant? But yeah with me, Yeah, like if it
makes you susceptible to persuasion, I mean, I don't know
if it also tells you the truth or it makes
you tell the truth, But I don't know. It just
seems like there might be some holes in this in
this defensive place. Either way, have a leveling time. I
(31:28):
have a good one, guys.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Oh, but no apologies necessary. We're just glad that you
made it, like everybody else, hoping you have safe travels
and may it What a good reminder, What a nice
hold shower refresher on our earlier joke about whether or
not you could drug yourself to get out of awkward
(31:51):
social situations, right because they would ask, you know, did
you do detrah it you can be like, yeah, maybe
I guess.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Did you hit your yourself in the noggin? Yep?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
So that's our friendly reminder not to drug yourself to
get out of unpleasant conversations. If the police come knocking,
or if the IF at LISS network send some folks
to your door, you can't say, hold on a moment,
let me take this amnesiac serum or whatever, which I
(32:25):
don't know whether that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, Like that brings you right back, so you get
your memories all back.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Yeah, I don't know. It's weird because many years ago
I was in a situation I thought, you know, there's
an insidious product you could sell. A lot of people,
especially in the West, seem to sit through parts of
their life, parts of their day to day life, just
get a participation grade, you know what I mean. You
(32:53):
gotta wait in line, or you gotta sit around and
have a meeting where people are going to say all
the same stuff they've told you before. I wondered whether
people would buy some kind of product or service that
let you just do that participation grade that freed you
up to check all the boxes and a social interaction,
(33:16):
but put your mind somewhere else, like automating your physical presence.
I think it would work. I also think it's evil.
I don't know what are your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
No thanks, I want to be in the moment with
people I'm around, Ben, I think that would be lovely.
I'm usually stuck in my own head doing the other thing.
When I'm I'm doing what you're describing. So I've already
given myself this dang whatever it is that we're thinking
about here, and I wish I could be more present,
present in the moment. Yeah, just like this moment now
(33:50):
because I'm over here looking up sandwiches in Chicago something
called the gym shoe, just because I wanted to make
a note about Wayne's moniker. He uses stuff in I
want you to sand sandwich. Dang.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Well, that's why we get letters from home. It's a
good check in, folks. If you are having those difficult, strange,
awkward conversations, it is better to be in the moment.
I am. I guess I'm what they would call happy
to have, not sold some sort of evil product or
service that lets people escape those moments that gives you
(34:27):
that participation grade.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
They're called a cell phone, by the way.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Although, funny story, there was a company, I think in
South Korea for a few years where if you had
to fire someone, or you had to quit your job,
or you had to break up with a romantic partner,
you could call this company and they would send someone
to do it for you.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
That's a sketch, right, I've seen that.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
It was a real service for a minute, but I
think it's kind of evil, you know what I mean.
That's somehow worse than breaking up with some one via text.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Hi, we've never met, but you know Claudia right, well,
she's done. Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Here's the five dollars she owed you.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Here's the five dollars she owed you.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Your stuff's outside your apartment.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Her stuff is outside your apartment. I guess the last
thing we say is we got We asked for some
funniest reptile pictures, and we got a bunch of them, Matt.
My favorite is probably from our pal Darcy.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Darcy sent us a picture of what appears to be
the actor Marty Friedman. Though I may be wrong, Darcy,
I'm not sure. It looks as though it's a picture
of Marty Friedman in a film that I cannot identify,
though I probably should be able to.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
So we've confirmed at least that the guy's not a
the guy is not a reptile technically or no, where
are we with this one?
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Yeah, I don't think he's a reptile, but I think
it's a play on Often if you see a social
media post and say, hey, reptile reptilian confirmed, it has
something to do with the eyes or the eyes are
not circular, they've got the slit, kind of like a
cat or like a reptile. But in this case, it's
just eyes that are clearly not going in the same direction,
(36:21):
let's say in bulging Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
We've been getting a lot of feedback on our reptilian
reptilian conspiracy episode, and one of the things that gave
me my version of endless delight was how many people
wrote to us and said, Hey, the following insert celebrity
(36:44):
here describes themselves as a reptile, which is interesting. But
also I have not found a case of a celebrity
claiming to be a reptilian and also getting any kind
of medical to confirm that. I think maybe, and not
to sound like a jerk, I think maybe they're saying
(37:05):
it for attention. Oh dear, I know that's that's our
hot shot. Iess boom boom, And we have so much
more to follow up on. We're gonna call it an
evening for now and get back to some crazy work
that we hope you enjoy in the future. We have
a long conversation ahead of us, perhaps about Job's daughters,
(37:28):
a lot of responses to that, mysterious holes, reptilian conspiracies,
and much much more. We can't wait for you to
join us on the journey. We try to be easy
to find online Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, twitterx, dot com, et cetera,
all the hits, or just you know, go to your
(37:49):
favorite crossroads at midnight say the right words, we'll find you.
You can also call us on the phone.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Yes, our number is one eight three three st d
w y TK. When you call in, give yourself a
cool nickname and let us know if we can use
your name and message on the air. If you've got
more to say than can fit in that couple of minutes.
Why not instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
We are the entities that read every single email we get.
It makes our evening when you specifically you write to us.
Give us the links, give us the photos. Share the
funniest reptile you've seen. We can't wait to read it all.
Be well aware. Sometimes the void writes back conspiracy at
(38:33):
iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt.
Our colleague NOL will be right back, and.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
He will no doubt return with some awesome adventure stories.
We look forward to them. They call me Ben. We
are joined as always with our super producer Alexis codename
Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly, you are you. You are
here That makes this the stuff they don't want you
to know. It is Thursday if you're hearing this when
(00:50):
it comes out, which means long time conspiracy realist. This
is our moment for messages from you, Matt, Doc and
I are gonna play it a little bit shoot from
the hip, fast and loose. Today we thought we would
dive into a couple of emails, couple of letters from home,
(01:12):
a couple of voicemails, and let's see Matt before we
get going, just checking in, how's everything on your end?
No poop balloons from the neighbors, hopefully No.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I did this fun thing though. I'm going to tell
you about it right now. Has nothing to do with
the show. Congratulations. Here's the story from Matt's life. My
son and I got one of these water slide things.
It's not a water slide when you think about one,
if you go to Whitewater or one of these parks, right,
it's a slipping slide. That's a reference that kids from
the eighties and nineties would probably get. Well, we got
(01:45):
one of those things, set it up in the old
front yard there, set it off, and spent two days
just going to town on it. Was amazing. And in
between those two days there was a thunderstorm, so there
was a lot of ground moisture on top of all
the water that this slip and slide thing was already.
You connect a hose up to it and it sprays
(02:05):
water on itself to keep it all I guess, lubricated,
so you can slide down it. Well, what I didn't
realize is that my old big body is not like
a kid going down a slip and slide anymore. And
when the weight of my body impacts the ground, it
pushes all of that mud that's being generated out of
(02:26):
the way. So basically, my son and I had a
great time on Memorial Day and ruined my front lawn.
There's a story from Matt's life. How's the lawn doing destroyed? Currently?
You do anything fun for a Memorial Day or any
(02:48):
anything interesting?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I've been with me the whole time. I'm not sure
what would interest other folks. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I do not know what you mean. You're a fascinating individual.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
That's very kind. We've got some got some cool fiction
coming out, hopefully, We've got some stories that are very
true that may show up, and stuff they don't want
you to know, presents and like you, Like many people
in this part of the Global Woods, I also witnessed
(03:17):
with great awe and astonishment the storms that rolled in.
Who's our buddy? Who always says the fog rolls in?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Viking?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Viking? Yeah, shout out to you. Viking thought of you.
When the rains came through, it's usually it's always the fog,
the fog rules. We have received so much fascinating correspondence.
Matt Dock thought it would be interesting to learn about
something that I had never heard of before. And perhaps
(03:52):
you have, perhaps you're read onto it, man, But I
had never heard of something called the Atlas Network. You
heard of this.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
What is that? I know Atlas games and that's it.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, I know Atlas, the big BattleMech you know, I
know Atlas the mythological figure. Right. But to answer this
question we have to go to Concerned Kiwi. Concerned Kiwi
writes in and says the following, Hey, guys, longtime listener,
love the show. I was wondering if you, gentlemen could
(04:26):
take a deep dive into the Atlas Network. They're the
head of an international far right network of five hundred
plus think tanks and lobby groups that manipulate democracies globally.
They're known as the think tank that creates think tanks.
They have links back to the Koch Brothers, Philip Morris, Tobacco,
(04:49):
an ex On Mobile, to name but a few. They're
extremely active in my country, New Zealand, which isn't that
surprising since New Zealand is often used a as a
political testing ground by foreign bad actors. Since this is
a bit of an in depth piece of correspondence off air,
(05:10):
we decided we would round robinet. It's quite a tale.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
The Atlas Network are associated with numerous lobby groups and
businesses here, including the taxpayers Union.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I'm assuming super innocuous name.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I think that's what it is. It says taypayers, but
I think it's taxes and most concerningly, the New Zealand Initiative,
which reads like a who's who of prominent New Zealand
businesses and business elites. They've also groomed and supported David Seymour,
leader of our local libertarian party Act ACT, who regularly
(05:45):
and currently share power in government. But you can't ask
Seymour any questions about the Atlas Network or he'll call
you a conspiracy theorist, even even though he worked for
Atlas members in his youth. Was photographed during an Atlas
Network event and called the Atlas Network quote old friends
in a speech that can be found on his own
(06:07):
party's website. The Atlas Network is also prevalent in Australia,
Germany and other countries around the world. Sounds like five
eyes to me, Come on, guys, what's going on? And
it concludes in this paragraph, I'm not aware of their
activities in the US.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So apparently neither were we concerned. Kiwi. The missive continues
the Atlas Network and their associated organizations attempt to feign
political neutrality, but as their name would suggest, they support
the tired old libertarian ideas of small government, big business,
(06:45):
free markets, market solutions of widespread the regulation. I don't
know why I'm doing that voice. That voice is editorial anyway,
continues so as you'd expect, they consistently prioritize corporate interest
over public welfare. The at list network supports, trains, consults,
(07:05):
and sometimes directly funds their member groups and allegedly manipulate
some political parties directly act, projecting undue influence on local
politics and interfering with the policy making process.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Boy, everybody loves a lobbying group. Let's go on to
the next paragraph. They sometimes coordinate overarching strategies designed to
influence the public vote, often preying on fear in division
dog whistling about populist issues, most notably around issues pertaining
to indigenous rights. Interesting In New Zealand, their local mouthpieces
(07:45):
took part in a fear mongering campaign against various proposed
policies that would have benefited Maori. In Australia, there's evidence
they helped organize a widespread disinfo campaign to manipulate the
public into voting against the Voice Australia, which is an
initiative designed to give Aborigines an increased political presence in Germany.
(08:06):
There are claims they were involved in the criminalizing of
climate protesters.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
So much for freedom.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
In Africa, they've been criticized for their alleged support of
authoritarian regimes.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Alleged nice one. Concerned Kiwi continues, the global influence of
the Atlass network seems pretty pervasive to say the least,
yet we never hear much about them. It would be
great if you guys could help change that. It seems
to me that the Atlass Network, with their level of
undue power and influence, is definitely not something that should
(08:39):
be met with a shrug. And here Concerned Kiwi provides
several fantastic links. Like we always say in the email,
take us to the edge of the rabbit hole, will
do the rest, and says concludes with thanks for consistently
holding power to account. Concerned, Kiwi and Matt did a
(09:02):
little bit of digging here first off, thanks to ck
on this one. The Atlas Network is definitely a real thing,
possibly a future episode in my opinion. It was formerly
known as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and it's been
around for a while. It was created in nineteen eighty one,
(09:25):
but oh by a guy who's called the quote Johnny
Appleseed of anti regulation groups. What a nerd street name.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
What a horrible idea.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
It's also is it based on Atlas Shrugged? It's it
leads us to a fascinating and perhaps disturbing conversation because,
as Kiwi points out as concerned, Kiwi rightly notes, this
is an incubator for other think tanks. And just like
(09:58):
walking through a grocery store, buy in different flavors of cereal,
if you are not careful, you won't know that they
are associated together. I learned about another thing called the
State Policy Network, which is across It's like Alec again. Man,
(10:19):
I just doc if you could please beat me here.
The conspiracy is real. It seems there is Korea foot Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Might I read from mister Anthony Fisher's little bio here
on atlasnetwork dot org.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Oh please please please.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
This is under the heading our creation story. Now you
got to get through this first part in order to
really feel the impact of the second paragraph. Here we go.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Take us there, let's get in the moment.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Atlas Network's founder, Anthony Fisher knew what it meant to
find your own place in the world. After his father
was killed in the First World War when Antony was
only two yearsyears old, he went on to serve as
a pilot in the Royal Air Force in World War Two.
Seeing Britain embrace a socialist economic agenda. At the end
of the war, Antony was dismayed by the subdivision of
(11:12):
individual enterprise in service of a government led centralized policy.
He came across an abridged edition of Fa hayex The
Road to Serfdom, which proposes that central planning inevitably erodes
individual liberty and enables tyranny. Hayek's philosophy not only influenced
(11:33):
Fisher's own career trajectory, but also inspired him to think
a ways to drive grassroots level change that promoted free
market opportunities.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
All right, So also for context here before we moved
to the second paragraph where things get really juicy. Frederick
Ayek is an old school Austrian economist. He's thought to
be a member of a leading luminary of what we
call the Austrian school. And I would say that they
(12:03):
got treated as gurus rather than as social scientists. So
I'd say there's a lot of ideology at play here.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, dude. Apparently he went to the United States in
nineteen eighty one and established the thing that became Atlas Network,
and it calls it a process. What the Atlas Network
does is in institute a process that helps think tanks quote,
unshackle the power of individual liberty and enterprise. Yeah that
(12:36):
sounds great, man, it sure does. And they partner with
almost five hundred think tanks in over one hundred countries
that drive change in ideas, culture, and policy, remove barriers
to opportunities, and empower individuals to live a life of choice.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Do you know why I stopped you, young man? Well, officer,
I guess we're both removing barriers to opportunity.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Well, yeah, we're both just living lifes of choice man.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Yeah. So, Also, Fisher is fascinating because in nineteen fifty
two he went to the US for the first time
and he visited a thing called the Foundation for Economic Education.
So this guy, the progenitor of Atlas Networks, has been
ten toes down for quite a while. He made his
(13:27):
money off chicken farms. True story. He started England's first
battery chicken farm. This is coming from source Watch, which
is a fantastic, if imperfect resource for a lot of this,
a lot of this larger context. And like you said, Matt,
(13:47):
he keeps going back and forth with the US and
with these various somewhat ephemeral institutions, these incubators of ideological thought.
It was through this thing called the Atlas network. Now,
it was through that that he was able to extend
(14:08):
his beliefs worldwide. Remove the barriers, we suppose, remove the
barriers and allow people the opportunity to hear him say
his opinions as though those opinions were facts. And we
see that, We see that this guy was not just
(14:28):
instrumental in the creation of this specific species of think tank,
but indeed instrumental in the concept of think tanks overall.
And you know, we've talked about this off air time
or two, but if the dice had rolled slightly differently,
(14:50):
your faithful correspondence may well have been in think tanks
now instead of doing our little show.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Oh not me. They would never let me in one
of those.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yet, no, they would get it. They would want you.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
They'd be like, you have to think in here, Frederick,
and I'd be like.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
I'd make it a condition for hiring me, I'd be like, no.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
They've got a what do they call this a style? No,
a unique approach? I guess uh, it's their strategic model.
Coach compete celebrate trademark.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
That is the weirdest in olive garden I have ever
heard of.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
You coach others, then you compete out there on the
grid iron, and when you're done, you throw that gatorade
on your coach.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And now like, what what is the complex acronym for celebrate? Right,
everybody tell us what celebrate really means. We also want
to shout out one last thing about Fisher, a little
known story. He is a failed turtle farmer. Oh yeah,
(15:59):
So if you want to be fun at parties, especially
at an Atlas Network sponsored soiree, ask them about the
turtle far man. I don't know. It's an episode of
the future. Though we still have to do Project twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Oh man, I can't wait for that one. He said again. Ai,
I said it sarcastically.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Again, sarcastically in any language. And with that, we're going
to pause for a word from our sponsors, and we'll
be back with more messages from our fellow listeners.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
And we've returned and we're jumping into yie old phone lines.
We got a message recently from fun Crusher. Uh oh boy,
we're in for it. Let's see what fun Crusher has
to say.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Hey, gang, you can call me fun Crusher. This is
something that might lead to an episode, or it might
just be a segment. I don't know because I haven't
really looked into it. But here in beautiful Austin, Texas,
there was recently, within the last year, I want to say,
maybe two years, the series of deaths that were like
(17:13):
all kind of like young professional men who drowned in
Town Lake, which is our little section of.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
The Colorado River.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
And the conspiracy is that these deaths were actually the
work of a serial killer and that the city, for
whatever reason, is calling them accidental. They all happened in
the same kind of section of downtown Austin where there's
(17:48):
like a lot of nightlife, and the theory that these
guys are being drugged and then chuffed into the drink
by the supposed killer. Now again, this is all hearsay,
This is all rumor, This is all just word on
the street. This is my girlfriend's uber drivers brother cousin
(18:13):
I don't know was a victim. This is just I
haven't lookeden to it at all. I'm leading that up
to you guys if you want to so. But ask
pretty much anyone around Austin if they've heard of the
Rainy Street Ripper, and most people have heard something or
other about it, So maybe something to look into. Thanks
(18:35):
for everything, I'll do, peace.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Fun Crusher. Indeed, thank you so much for taking the
time to call in. Sir Matt. Initial reactions would be this,
this reminds me a little bit of the smiley face theories.
Real lost.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, I just want to check we haven't covered this right,
this specifically.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Not cover the Rainy Street Ripper allegations.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Okay, again, it does sound so familiar to that those
other cases, and I know people have called in before
about other towns where there's been a killer. I think
somebody did mention Austin specifically as like a place where
there were potentially some bodies being found. Because this has
been going on for over twenty two twenty three months now,
(19:26):
I've gotten an article up here. There's one thing just
to point out here, fun Crusher, you said town Lake,
and maybe that's what it's called where you are, or
what's Lady Lake. Yeah, Ladybird Lake is what I'm seeing
in all the reporting, and they're reporting for twenty two months.
(19:47):
Since July twenty twenty two, there have been twelve bodies,
at least twelve bodies that have been recovered from this
central Texas lake and in the immediately surrounding area land
around the lake. This is nuts. Several were found in
April twenty twenty four, and it dates all the way
back to July twenty twenty two. You can find a
(20:09):
list of names of these of the twelve people who
the bodies have been recovered. Each one is a separate
story that we would have to look into, I think,
for a larger episode if we wanted to really do this.
It is very, very odd. People are reporting on it everywhere.
Apparently the public in the area a lot like yourself
and people around you fun crusher. They're nervous about. It
(20:33):
doesn't feel good when that many bodies are being recovered
in a lake right by you. The theories, as you stated,
possible serial killer or a group of people who are
you know, maybe robbing people like we did in that
story in Atlanta recently, or in New York where individuals
going out for drinks, were getting drugged and robbed and
(20:53):
sometimes killed. Maybe there's something like that happening. It's really scary.
There's one story from Fox Evan Austin that is detailing
a specific family of one of the victims saying, hey, authorities, police,
we need you to look into these various hypotheses, the theories
that are coming up to put an end to this,
(21:14):
because this is unacceptable and we are not only scared,
we want to know what the heck happened.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah, and for anyone unfamiliar the idea of the smiley
face murder theory, which I think both of us instantly
thought of this we heard this story. The smiley face
murder theory is the idea that in certain parts of
the United States, multiple deaths of young men that have
(21:44):
been recorded or reported as drownings are indeed the result
of homicide, possibly due to the predation of a serial
killer or group of murderers. We can say at the
very beginning that it is quite rare for the things
that we call serial killers, which I do not consider people.
(22:07):
It is quite rare for those entities to cooperate. They're
a bit egoistic in that regard in terms of Ladybird
Lake and the idea of the Rainy Street ripper. You
can find stuff. You can find statements from the Austin
Police Department. This is active investigation. You can find any
(22:32):
number of locals who are talking with great concern about
what exactly has happened to these innocent people. Now, obviously,
let's get it out of the way. It is completely
possible for somebody to fall into a body of water,
you know, a lake, a river and ocean whatever, and
(22:53):
to die, right, it is entirely possible for those deaths
to occur accident. The question here is whether there is
someone actively committing homicides. And you can go to any
number of outlets now, especially in the past. Honestly, in
the past few months, I'm seeing stuff from February twenty
(23:16):
twenty four. I'm seeing things from a few years earlier,
just a month ago. The Daily Mail surely the stellar
reporting source in all of the United Kingdom. I'm kidding.
If there is a language translation app currently deployed, please
note I said that sarcastically. You can see you can
(23:39):
see maps of people who have disappeared most recently, like
dating back to twenty twenty two, So several years, but
also the scuttle butt says far before then, and we
spent time in Austin, Matt, We've had boots on the ground.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Well on Rainey's this is where south By occurs. We
ate at the ihop that's right at the end of
Rainy Street in Driscoll. Like, yes, we are highly aware
of this, and I'm looking for Lady Bird Lake just
to make sure I understand, like how far that is
away from here? And it is. It's basically the Colorado
(24:23):
River that has been dammed up just a little bit,
I guess, or stopped somewhere down north Pleasant Valley Road.
It looks like I mean, it's right there by Rainy Street.
You could basically follow Rainy Street near down to the
Rainy Dumpster Rental Austin and you could be in that
(24:44):
at least that part of the Colorado River that then
dumps into the lake.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
So going back to now that we have the benefit
of the map, what we could see is there is
a stretch of Colorado River right that has clear become
a big part of Austin. Right. It's the place where
the tourists go. And if you look at this map
(25:08):
from again, I'm going to go back to the Daily
Mail here. If you look at this map in the reporting,
what you can see is a clear note of the
identity of people who have died, the time or the
day their body was found, and the address of where
the body was discovered. And so we'll get back to
(25:32):
this one at the end. But they're clearly I don't
want to say immediately that there's a murderer about that's
targeting people, but there are clearly people dying along this
stretch of river.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Right, That's correct. If you want to look more into this,
there's apparently a bartender somewhere in Austin that claims they
have spoken with this quote Rainy Street Killer's again, it's
like a social post. Who knows if it's real or not.
Hopefully it's being fully investigated, but we're going to keep
an eye on this and it might be worth our
(26:07):
time to go through some of this in a deeper way.
So thank you so much fun Crusher for crushing the
fun and that voicemail. We'll be right back with more
messages from you.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
And we have returned another piece of correspondence. Before we
get to some letters from home, we're going to hear
from a little bit Space, who says the following, Hi, guys,
I just finished our episode on online pornography, very dark stuff,
little bit Space. We agree, but says little bit Space,
(26:46):
that's not why I'm emailing you. At the beginning of
the episode, you mentioned aski art and described it it
as a block of text characters usually shared on meme
and text forums. Specifically mentioned spacing, but spacing is not
typically fiddled with. Aski art is most commonly drawn using
(27:07):
a monospaced font, although gatekeepers want to dictate which fonts
are allowed. It's a long story the way you speak
about it, and then we're gonna paraphrase this part little Space,
as we basically need to.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Learn more about the art and the scene the.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Art and the scene, and little Space continues.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I'm not the best person to educate you on this topic,
but I know the basics. First, aski art is one
of the main genres of text mode arts, and under
aski art goes lots of different subgenres, usually restricted to
a specific retro computing system such as Commodore sixty four
or Amstrad. Yes, we are aware of the Commodore sixty four.
(27:52):
Asking this is very cool. Secondly, you should draw a
line between ASKI and ASKI art, as they are very
disc from each other. I happen to be an artist
working on this very medium and see lots of ASKI
people call art. The subgenres I work in typically are
modern ASCI font choice not restricted to hardware fonts and
(28:14):
with not limited to eighty. Haters will hate pet Ski
the Commodore sixty four ASKI so to speak, and custom
pet Ski with a custom eight bit font. Okay, Anyhow,
text mode arts is a scene that's alive and kicking,
and you can make real art using ASKI, not just
some meme forum content.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yeah, and I think there's a solid point there. One
cannot dictate the medium of art, right, So little Bitspace
ends with you can find me with the handle little
bit Space, and they have any number of ways to
get in touch with them. They want to be easy
to find online. We thought that was an interesting point
(28:59):
because as Ski holds a great deal of nostalgia for
many of us in the crowd. It reminds me a
little bit, Matt of the fantastic work I hope this
is not a hot take, but the fantastic work I've
seen with Lego bricks, you know when people make phenomenal
sculptures using lego, So we really appreciate your time, little
(29:23):
bit space. We also we also want to hear and
see and witness the works of art that you have created,
fellow conspiracy realists, so please do send those to us.
Email us, drop us ald on the internet, give us
a call. We'll tell you how to find us at
the end. But we thought that we thought that for
(29:45):
this evening we might wrap up with a little bit
of a letter from home from our pal Wayne. We
all remember Wayne.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Oh Wayne, former security guard, magic gay, enthusiastic mary.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Guy, classic Wayne. Let's that jinx Wayne.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I don't know if you're married or if you're just
a fiancee. IM not sure you're talking to Wayne betrothed. Yeah,
I'm not. I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
So everybody else please listen in. This is a nice
little letter from home we got from our pal Wayne.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
They don't want you to know this stuff. They don't
want you to stand which I want to apologize to
Ben even though Matt's probably hearing this one. But then
if you're listening to this guy, I always assume Matt's
the one listen, so I always kind of had him
as my audience, but you probably listen to all my
college You're like, who the heck is this guy? Thinking
that all the Matt listens and just hung up immediately,
(30:43):
which I wouldn't blame. But if indeed Ben is listening
to this, yeah, please, I accept my apology. Second, I'm
listening to the Scholar episode. Skull means the drug one,
the one that makes you susceptible if you were to
hit yourself with scull, I mean in a defensive act
to say that you were on schol. I mean, couldn't
(31:05):
they just ask you if you did that and you'd
be compliant? But yeah with me, Yeah, like if it
makes you susceptible to persuasion, I mean, I don't know
if it also tells you the truth or it makes
you tell the truth, But I don't know. It just
seems like there might be some holes in this in
this defensive place. Either way, have a leveling time. I
(31:28):
have a good one, guys.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Oh, but no apologies necessary. We're just glad that you
made it, like everybody else, hoping you have safe travels
and may it What a good reminder, What a nice
hold shower refresher on our earlier joke about whether or
not you could drug yourself to get out of awkward
(31:51):
social situations, right because they would ask, you know, did
you do detrah it you can be like, yeah, maybe
I guess.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Did you hit your yourself in the noggin? Yep?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
So that's our friendly reminder not to drug yourself to
get out of unpleasant conversations. If the police come knocking,
or if the IF at LISS network send some folks
to your door, you can't say, hold on a moment,
let me take this amnesiac serum or whatever, which I
(32:25):
don't know whether that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, Like that brings you right back, so you get
your memories all back.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Yeah, I don't know. It's weird because many years ago
I was in a situation I thought, you know, there's
an insidious product you could sell. A lot of people,
especially in the West, seem to sit through parts of
their life, parts of their day to day life, just
get a participation grade, you know what I mean. You
(32:53):
gotta wait in line, or you gotta sit around and
have a meeting where people are going to say all
the same stuff they've told you before. I wondered whether
people would buy some kind of product or service that
let you just do that participation grade that freed you
up to check all the boxes and a social interaction,
(33:16):
but put your mind somewhere else, like automating your physical presence.
I think it would work. I also think it's evil.
I don't know what are your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
No thanks, I want to be in the moment with
people I'm around, Ben, I think that would be lovely.
I'm usually stuck in my own head doing the other thing.
When I'm I'm doing what you're describing. So I've already
given myself this dang whatever it is that we're thinking
about here, and I wish I could be more present,
present in the moment. Yeah, just like this moment now
(33:50):
because I'm over here looking up sandwiches in Chicago something
called the gym shoe, just because I wanted to make
a note about Wayne's moniker. He uses stuff in I
want you to sand sandwich. Dang.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Well, that's why we get letters from home. It's a
good check in, folks. If you are having those difficult, strange,
awkward conversations, it is better to be in the moment.
I am. I guess I'm what they would call happy
to have, not sold some sort of evil product or
service that lets people escape those moments that gives you
(34:27):
that participation grade.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
They're called a cell phone, by the way.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Although, funny story, there was a company, I think in
South Korea for a few years where if you had
to fire someone, or you had to quit your job,
or you had to break up with a romantic partner,
you could call this company and they would send someone
to do it for you.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
That's a sketch, right, I've seen that.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
It was a real service for a minute, but I
think it's kind of evil, you know what I mean.
That's somehow worse than breaking up with some one via text.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Hi, we've never met, but you know Claudia right, well,
she's done. Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Here's the five dollars she owed you.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Here's the five dollars she owed you.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Your stuff's outside your apartment.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Her stuff is outside your apartment. I guess the last
thing we say is we got We asked for some
funniest reptile pictures, and we got a bunch of them, Matt.
My favorite is probably from our pal Darcy.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Darcy sent us a picture of what appears to be
the actor Marty Friedman. Though I may be wrong, Darcy,
I'm not sure. It looks as though it's a picture
of Marty Friedman in a film that I cannot identify,
though I probably should be able to.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
So we've confirmed at least that the guy's not a
the guy is not a reptile technically or no, where
are we with this one?
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Yeah, I don't think he's a reptile, but I think
it's a play on Often if you see a social
media post and say, hey, reptile reptilian confirmed, it has
something to do with the eyes or the eyes are
not circular, they've got the slit, kind of like a
cat or like a reptile. But in this case, it's
just eyes that are clearly not going in the same direction,
(36:21):
let's say in bulging Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
We've been getting a lot of feedback on our reptilian
reptilian conspiracy episode, and one of the things that gave
me my version of endless delight was how many people
wrote to us and said, Hey, the following insert celebrity
(36:44):
here describes themselves as a reptile, which is interesting. But
also I have not found a case of a celebrity
claiming to be a reptilian and also getting any kind
of medical to confirm that. I think maybe, and not
to sound like a jerk, I think maybe they're saying
(37:05):
it for attention. Oh dear, I know that's that's our
hot shot. Iess boom boom, And we have so much
more to follow up on. We're gonna call it an
evening for now and get back to some crazy work
that we hope you enjoy in the future. We have
a long conversation ahead of us, perhaps about Job's daughters,
(37:28):
a lot of responses to that, mysterious holes, reptilian conspiracies,
and much much more. We can't wait for you to
join us on the journey. We try to be easy
to find online Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, twitterx, dot com, et cetera,
all the hits, or just you know, go to your
(37:49):
favorite crossroads at midnight say the right words, we'll find you.
You can also call us on the phone.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Yes, our number is one eight three three st d
w y TK. When you call in, give yourself a
cool nickname and let us know if we can use
your name and message on the air. If you've got
more to say than can fit in that couple of minutes.
Why not instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
We are the entities that read every single email we get.
It makes our evening when you specifically you write to us.
Give us the links, give us the photos. Share the
funniest reptile you've seen. We can't wait to read it all.
Be well aware. Sometimes the void writes back conspiracy at
(38:33):
iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News
Hosts And Creators
Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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