An Icelandic Volcano Nerd's recent travels to Iceland inspire an exploration of the terrifying Yule Lads. Replying to multiple episodes and interview segments about life after death, Inconspicuous shares his own near-death experience. Miro from Canada and Messenger point out the perils of price hikes and price controls. Aging Ginger may be surprised to learn that, yes, Ben, Matt and Noel did indeed pitch the idea of STDWYTK-branded tin foil. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nol.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff
they don't want you to know. Folks, fellow conspiracy realist,
friends and neighbors. This is our listener mail program. We
are pleased as a geomagnetic storm that you have joined us.
(00:54):
So if you're tuning in the evening, this weekly listener
mail segment publishes while welcome to Thursday, November thirteenth. Can
you believe it? Did you guys see the Aurora borealis?
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Wait? We should have been able to see it from
where we sit. No, no, cause that would have been wild. Okay, No, no,
I wish man. It's really migrated. No, I didn't see
it on the TV.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
But they were much further spread than they normally are
because the Earth as of yesterday. We're recording this on
November twelfth. As of yesterday, there were two CMEs that hit.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
And then be a coronal mass ejection.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yes, and there's a third one that is hitting us
today on November twelfth. So this is a scenario we've
talked about before on the show while back, but just
the concept of the Sun sending out some stuff, some
energy that messes with the Earth's magnetic thing that.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
It has with power, right, can't mess with grids, And.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yes, especially in Canada back in the mid nineteen eighties,
do check out our episode Slaves to the Sun, which
is a pretty click baby title. But yes, as far
as the humans can be concerned, it's easy to ignore
solar activity. But make no mistake fellow fellow Earth residents
(02:17):
fell sun worshippers or sun haters.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
You know, we got room for everybody to quote Phoebus
in butt heead the Sun sucks.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
There's really interesting stories that end up coming out when
there are storms like this in those more than northern territories,
about things like tractors and farming equipment. Sure it goes
you know, quote goes haywire and quote acts like it's
demon possessed.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Because mostly storms, most electronics are not hardened for this
kind of event. Make no mistake though, folks, it can happen.
It could happen today.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, dude, what is that Stephen King one about the electronics? No,
the electronics going sell okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And also, oh this is this is a cool one, folks,
if you are again listening the evening this publishes November thirteenth.
I want to take a little page from our pals
at Daily's Eye. Guys, get this. It is World Hindness Day,
So if you are feeling kind please do get thee
(03:20):
to thy platform of choice and maybe give us a rating.
We'd love five.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Stars and man to take a page out of some
other podcasts. Maybe if you do that and you leave
a nice way, but we'll read it on the listener mail.
We'll include that as a way as an additional form
of correspondence.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
So blind you know. I love it, and in the
spirit of World Kindess Day, I gotta tell you, guys,
it's it's similar to how if you report a cme
or weird stuff in the sky, certain organizations will send
you a nice letter and maybe a piece of candy. Nope,
you do not get to choose which piece of candy.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
And it will be a toutsy roll.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Yes, yes, for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
And how many licks does it take?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Do you guys know?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
They revamp that commercial the old it's like the same
but different with the with the mister Owl, you know,
and all that walk us through it. Oh, how many
licks does it take to get to the tutsi roll
center of a tutsi pop? Mister Owl? He licks it one, two, three,
and then he bites it and says a three, And
the tagline is how many licks does it take to
(04:30):
get to the tutsi roll center of a tootsy pop?
The world may never know.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Ah, yes, but we can find out together. We're we're
so grateful that you're here with us, folks. As we
I'll stop saying this next time we record as we
hurtle headlong toward six, which is.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Not into the sun.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
We're always it's a slow spiral toward illumination. Right, that's
one way to put it.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
We got some great feedback all selling souls. We got
some great feedback on grocery store inflation as well as
price controls, and then we got a We got so
much stuff, but one thing that definitely stood out to
us as a crew was a message about a cool
(05:21):
piece of holiday folklore that is not generally known in
the West. So what say we guys, do we want
to take a break for a word from our sponsors.
Find our missiletoe.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Or Christmas catnip?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Perhaps Christmas catnip definitely, And before we get to listener
mail this evening, there's one thing that I need Tennessee.
You know what this is. We got to get our
root of Vegas.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
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but to select fee need a machine built for the road.
List dug up. Since nineteen seventy one, Rudabaka farmers have
turned to the only suv that gets a job done,
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(06:17):
To top it all off, a four hundred and thirty
nine inch touchscreen, one and a half star nhtsa crash rating,
and seven miles to the gallon make it the best
in this class, a class of one that's not very good.
The Rudibaco. It's time to dig it up bow now.
Speaker 7 (06:37):
Attractive lease offer start at three thousand four hundred twenty
two dollars a month for eighty six months, with ten
thousand and five dollars to its signing. By hearing this ad,
you agree to our en user license agreement and we
have performed a hard inquiry on your credit. Rudebak is
not included, and.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
We returned with a message from Icelandic volcano nerd. Is
it nerd?
Speaker 6 (07:00):
It sure?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Is a message that Ben delightfully responded to and had
a nice little back and forth with our friend who
I believe has spent time in Iceland but does not
live there full time. Ben, you asked this individual some
fun questions that we'll get to at the end, just
about life in Iceland. But the crux of the original
(07:23):
email is this notion of some pretty dark and depraved
mule tied holiday themed characters throughout folklore there in that
part of the world where things get quite dark and
cold around that time of year, and like you know,
most other times of the year. The mule Lads is
(07:43):
something that we've talked about at length on the Ridiculous
History podcast. There's a holiday episode about that very topic
that you recommended to our buddy, Icelandic Volcano Nerd from
twenty twenty two, The yule Ads terrified children across Iceland.
These are sort of a macabre seven Dwarfs type situation,
each member of the mule Lads being representing a I guess,
(08:06):
sort of a vice. I guess, Ben, wouldn't you say,
like you got your sausage sniffer, your doorway liquor some
real specific kinks there that these mule Lads.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, they're all They're all like verbs toward a thing
goat sucker.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
I believe there's one that sucks goats, yes, but it
is also true, Matt, I think the mule Ads might
have the old chupa scooped on sucking of them goats.
And all of these things specifically were representative of fears
associated with scarcity in this part of the world, the
idea that if you had a mischievous mule lad coming
(08:40):
around sucking your goat's milk, that'd be none for you
and your family during these most brutal of months. But Ben,
there was another aspect of the mule Lads, of course,
their mother being this like demonic giant human eater named Gorilla.
If I'm not mistaken who was here. You can't balistic humanoid,
(09:01):
not a chud, but that didn't dwell underground, maybe you know,
in ice caves or something. But yeah, gnarly, gnarly creature
that would eat your children. If you misbehave apparently had
a bit of a familiar in the form of the
mule cat, then do you want to tell us anything
you know about the mule cat?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Oh, it's huge, it's a monster.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
It's it's on par with the size of gorilla. Who
is this giant you know chud creature?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah? Yeah, the mule cat sorry likeers, is the biggest
cat around and the skills in magic right and it's uh,
it's a cat with a two. And the thing that
really pisses off the yule cat is if it encounters
anyone who has not gotten new clothes or new clothing
(09:50):
to wear before Christmas Eve. If you don't have new duds,
then the cat will get you.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
That's right. The mule cat or turin forgive my lack
of native Icelandic pronunciation, is a fearsome creature from the
folklore of Iceland that is said to stalk the countryside
like almost like the beast of Godo remember that guy
the for yes, there you go. Jenival, the creature that
(10:19):
inspired the film Brotherhood of the Wolf. This this deadly,
uh cryptid basically that was murdering young women along the
countryside there in France. This one specifically stalks the countryside
of Iceland during the Christmas holiday season and it preys
on people who have not, like you said, been gotten
(10:39):
any new clothes for Christmas. All very bougie and prohibitive
for those with less meanings.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
We haven't got to the letter yet, but one thing
we do have to shout out for any uh any
fans of a quality right now is that Grila the
ogres you mentioned though, is more of a lilith character
than an a queen right because her husband guy named
(11:15):
I can't pronounce it Lepadugi. He is a.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Deadbeat dad, not a good dude.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
He stays at home and he's lazy, gotcha.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
And Gorilla's out there doing the work.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
She's out there eating the flesh.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Is not on the president eating it for sure. And yeah,
I mean, I hope I've made it clear that our
friend icelandic volcano nerd is who hipped us to yule
Cat or Jola Koturin and also referencing the mule ads,
and then Ben responded with that link to that old episode,
and now we're getting into what the Yule Cat's all about.
The mule Cat will meet out punishment for those who
(11:51):
have not gotten new duds for the winter months, and
in the form of death seems counterproductive.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Wait wait, wait, so, as you were saying Ben earlier
and right now, it will kill you if you you
don't have new clothes, or it will kill you if
you don't give new clothes to needy folks.
Speaker 8 (12:11):
No, if you.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Don't have new clothes, it's you know, and like a
lot of folklore, it is preventative.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Right. The idea here is to remind parents, and I
don't know, it is seemingly gonna affect the kids more
than anybody to get new clothes woolens, to dress properly
for the incredibly cold months of winter. It also, weirdly
(12:39):
is sort of like an antithesis to the idea, or
I don't know, non antithesis. Really, it is a punishment
for not being generous around the holiday season. But you
to your point, Matt, you think it would eat the parents,
not the children. Yeah, I have children always got to
suffer in these freaky folkloric murder.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
To well, it's an inhospitable climate. Child was pretty pretty
out the window for a lot of Iceland's history.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
So it's right, Yeah, he is.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Scare the kids when they're kids, and then by the
time they were adults.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
They're gonna remember that's right, they will. You got to
beat it into them when they're little. The tail was
traditionally used by farmers to encourage their workers to complete
their wool production.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Oh, now we've got a little extra wrinkle. It's about uh,
it's about big wool. Yeah, uh huh. Those who worked
hard were rewarded with new clothes, while those who didn't
were threatened with the yuleka. Almost like Donald Trump, and
has promised bonuses for air traffic controllers who stayed the course.
(13:43):
You know, but if you don't, if you didn't do it,
then you're on my list. Here, you're getting you're getting
a coal in your stocking this year. Air traffic controllers,
those who worked hard were rewarded with new clothes, while
those who didn't were threatened with the murderous rage of
the mule cat. And like a lot of these you know,
(14:04):
super effed up early versions of things like grim fairy
tales and all that. It's been sanitized a bit for
the modern day. The tradition to this day of getting
new clothes around Christmas in Iceland is a big deal,
as it is in a lot of places. You know,
we go get new sweaters. We have a lot of
clothing gift giving rituals here in the States as well. However,
(14:24):
of course, belief, true belief in the mule Cat is
likely pretty low today. It symbolizes the importance of generosity.
One way to appease this mythical cryptid is to give
new clothes to the less fortunate. To your point, there
is an aspect of charity to it as well as
(14:45):
you can't yeah, yeah, of course with that historical game
of telephone. And speaking of that, we do have a
pretty badass illuminated sculpture of the mule Cat that you
can see in a square not going to attempt to
pronounce the name of in downtown rake Yavic during the
holiday season. So yeah, it's one of the pets of
(15:07):
Gorilla the Ogris and mother of the Mule Lads. So
a bit of a familiar helping to spread terror amongst
the less fortunate children of the Icelandic country side, So man,
huge thing. I gotta read the letter. Gosh, we didn't
reverse here. I'm just gonna go ahead and read it
because we've got a few fun little back and forth
that you had with Icelandic Volcano Nerd. I recently took
(15:31):
my fourth trip to Iceland and saw all the seasonal
decor of the upcoming holidays out and about. I'm not
sure if you've heard the folklore about Yule Lads, more
specifically the ule cat, which is a familiar of the
Yule Lads. The tale behind it is quite entertaining, in
my opinion, but a fun tradition. Nonetheless, something funny about
a festive cat preying on children if they don't receive
new clothes for Christmas anyways, ought to be a cool
(15:53):
fun thing to cover towards the holidays. And boy were
you right to which Ben replied with some fun questions
about Icelandic Volcano Nerds time in Iceland, Ben, you said,
we'd love to hear more about your travels. It's been
on your vacation list for some time thanks to the
Yule Lads. None of us have been to Iceland to
my knowledge, is well, Ben, and here are the few
(16:14):
questions and the responses. One is the food as expensive
as people claim, which is something that we've often heard
from colleagues who have traveled to this part of the world.
What's the most interesting thing that you ate there, to
which Icelandic Volcano Nerd responded and to Ben, I'd love
to hear more of your thoughts about some of these responses.
Yes and no. In regarding the cost at a restaurant,
(16:36):
expect anything to cost at a minimum of twenty five
hundred krona about twenty two dollars. I'd say thirty to
fifty dollars per meal. If you're always eating out should
be expected. I'll add that a lot of promotions through
Iceland Air, including lodging right in the city center with
breakfast included, are big help. And you'll find great deals
(16:57):
on flight hotel packages as well. I'm not va again,
they say, but many restaurants are very vegan friendly. I'm
a huge foodie and we did a vegan taste testing
menu one night with a phenomenal beatroot carpaccio. If you
like seafood, you'll have the best fish and chips of
your life. Sam goes for lamb. There's all rome free
and have incredible tasting Lamb there, which I didn't know.
(17:20):
I always associate Lamb with New Zealand, which they reference
next saying we are told by a restaurant server that
the closest we can get to icelandic Lamb is in
New Zealand. Was any of that surprising to you, Ben?
The cost aspect? And then I didn't know Lamb was
a thing in Iceland.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Lamb is very much a thing in Iceland, Icelandic Volcano Nerd,
thank you for confirming. I also hear great things about
the hot dogs, especially from our brother in arms, our
longtime super producer Pull Mission Controlled Decand.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
They do Lamb hot dogs right, they do?
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Yeah, the hot good and so Volcano do. One thing
we really loved about this is that you kind of
course correct us on a thing a lot of Americans assume,
which is that the food is both bad and expensive,
which unfortunately a lot of Northern European climbs, unfortunately a
(18:18):
lot of them have to deal with that stereotype. No,
I was interested in something that we talked about, oh
a long time ago, about the belief of elves.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
However, and to that one Icelandic volcano. Nerd responded that
it was a great question, but that they didn't make it.
They didn't get to that topic of conversation in their
time in the country.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You have to go back for your fitness.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
You must, yes, rip the band aid off. Ask about
elves and your final question was regarding living there permanently,
to which our listener responded that they had considered it,
but that they're a bit risk averse, so probably not.
The main reason being this ties into their name the
(19:07):
volcanic awakening of the volcanic system on the same side
of Iceland as the major city civilization and airport. Yikes.
It is fascinating how they didn't populate the parts of
the country that aren't currently so close to active volcanoes,
mostly due to better fishing over near Grindovic. I don't
expect volcanic activity to die down in our lifetime, so
(19:27):
that's a big reason behind the unlikelihood of moving there.
I would, however, consider Norway. Yeah, you know, I hadn't
thought about that, Ben, but there are serious active volcano
systems there that could potentially, you know, have a bit
of a modern Pompeii outcome.
Speaker 8 (19:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Geothermal energy is arguably a Faustian bargain, is it not. Also,
there's another one of us in Norway that maybe we'll
meet in the future. I don't know, would you, guys
uh to to your question icelandic volcano nerd sight unseen?
Since none of us have visited modern Iceland, would we
(20:10):
ever consider living there as the climate changes? I mean,
is now the time to buy some short front property?
Speaker 4 (20:20):
M yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
Ben.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
That goes back into the Faustian bargain of like you know,
being sold to castle are There are other questions that
one might ask.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Guys, gotta admit I think I would live in Iceland
just so I can be in a band where my
singer does things like.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Are you talking about fictional language created by the famous
Icelandic post rock band?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
And if I can play drugs for somebody who did that,
I would. It would just be dream come true.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Yeah, dreamy indeed.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Also, the technical term for the elves in I think
of the Faroe Islands and Iceland is hudo folk, so
like the hidden folk. There was there was a brief
moment where we got obsessed with the idea we're going
through one of our cryptid phases Volcano Nerd and we
(21:16):
were trying to figure out whether modern residents of Iceland
genuinely believe in this idea of hidden people aka elves.
And one of the reasons we asked about this is
due to a couple of different surveys that went out
where people purported to believe in these supernatural beings. And
(21:40):
then the fact that sometimes construction projects get moved around
sacred sites like sacred springs or rocks, and they don't say, hey,
it's nature preservation. They say, hey, we can't mess with
these elves.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
That's one thing we've learned over time historically. Don't mess
with the l don't do it. Don't do it.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
We're at best half elves, I think. But but yeah,
I don't know. Man, it'd be kind of cool to
move to Iceland, or maybe it's just fantasy. We'd have
to check it out first. Guys, we've been international earlier
this year. Why stop now? Do we want to go
to Iceland? I think we're going to New York later?
Do we want to go to Iceland?
Speaker 4 (22:22):
Taylor's stop off. Yea, I definitely want to go. I've
got a handful of friends that have been said it's
gorgeous and that to them fascinated by the pop culture
of Iceland for various reasons. This is not to say
that Iceland and Finland are the same. But there is
a finish film that you've mentioned often on the podcast
Ben Rare Exports. Yeah, it's a really good holiday kind
(22:44):
of hidden folk kind of story. So do check that
out if you're interested in that type of lore. Well,
thanks again, icelandic Volcano ner. We're going to take a pause,
hear a word from our sponsor and then come back
with more messages from you.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
And we've returned.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Just now I'm in I'm in travel mode, and I
am still you guys looking at some temporary housing around Bimini,
because you know, it's only gonna be there for probably
a couple more years before it's.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Covered in water.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
But everybody, Matt said, looking at not licking at Sorry,
I'm still you'll.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Add, not not licking any of the peninsulas or islands
over there.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Everybody sick to have a road address.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Oh and it was gorgeous out there. It just uh,
I seriously, when I see places like that, now, I'm
just imagining what it's going to be like when when
the water just starts flowing through and it's scary and tragic.
And on that tip, just staying and travel for a moment.
Did you guys see that I've read about the exodus
(23:53):
that's happening from New Zealand to Australia to mainland Australia.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
I had not heard about that. It's it's such a.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Thing maybe just in the American zeitgeist that New Zealand
is the place to escape to in the Southern Hemisphere
when the nukes start going off and all this other stuff.
But then just reading up on it, a lot of
people because of whatever political stuff is happening, and some
of the more I guess you would call it like
state control, local laws and things about what you can
(24:24):
earn and how much you can work and what jobs
are available in New Zealand. People are just heading over
to Australia. But then Australia is saying we don't want
you go away, right.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Australia is getting very close to calling them and i'll
use this pejorative. I'm just quoting conservative Ossi politicians, so
I hope I don't offend anybody, but they're getting very
close to using the pejorative boat people, which has been
applied to folks from South Asia, Southeast Asia, a couple
(24:54):
of areas out in Oceana Micronesia, the idea being that
New Zealand or Kiwis might be treated as refugees.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Using similar terms around these parts, talking about those boats
that are getting blowed up, talking about ocean drugs, the
wolves on the way, for sure, dude.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
And then the whole thing is going down in the
UN recently again we're it's Wednesday, November twelfth right now,
which is recently about. I forget Mike Waltzer or whoever
was speaking of the UN got cut off by the
Cuban delegate.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
This isn't a signal chat.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, that was intense, no, for I mean really absolutely,
and it was they were speaking on the very thing.
Just all of the droning, bombing, extra judicial killings of
human beings on boats that you know, supposedly are drug
traffickers that end up in the bottom of the sea purportedly.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Also, it's super messing with already eroded intelligence cooperatives across
the world. The UK pulled out, they said, no, what
tasty secrets for you?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Can you see, ben, I thought about you this morning
when I read that news about the secret sharing, the
intelligent sharing, just that the United Kingdom, perhaps the primary
ally of the United States like getting cold feet when
it comes to what they're going to share with us.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
YI.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah, our Atlantic cousins are not tickety boo at the moment.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
All that said, let's jump into something that's completely different.
First of all, let's go with a message from Inconspicuous
that came in pretty recently. But I believe it's speaking
to an episode we made about near death experiences with
Dan Bush, friend of the show director, creator of Alive Again.
(26:43):
We had an interview with him. I believe that's what
this message is, you know, speaking to but specifically near
death experiences. So let's hear from Inconspicuous. Oh and note
here there's some lyrics in here that I'm gonna need
your guys help on. I don't really know the song
that's being mentioned or so I love the lyrics game. Yeah,
so need some help.
Speaker 9 (27:04):
Here we go, Hello, gentle people of stuff. They don't
want you to know. You guys are super talented individually,
and when you get together, I'll tell you what. It's
just an explosion of a creatively factual fun rabbit hole
every time. Kudos to you guys. You can call me inconspicuous.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
I experienced on.
Speaker 8 (27:29):
Your death experience.
Speaker 9 (27:31):
In this experience and experiment we call life, I've only
had one seizure in my life other than birth. My
eyes rolled in the back of my head and I
fell straight backwards, and I was caught by my gal
pal at the time. She saved my head from hitting
solid squared step floor. So yeah, she saved my life.
(27:55):
But I left. I went to someplace else, completely happy
and accepting everything that was going on. I was not
upset about passing away. I was just an observer on
a trip at this point, and I was being taken
and you know the lyrics to After the gold Rush.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Oh it come saying about the Queen. There were children
singing and drummers drumming, the archers split the tree. If
you can imagine that in you know, pure energy form,
like a medieval just made of energy. That's all right,
(28:40):
have a good night.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Right, Okay. It is a Neil Young tune. And I
think the part that blipped out a little bit was well,
I dreamed I saw the knights in armor come in
saying something about a queen. There were peasants singing and
drummers drumming, and the archer split the tree. There was
a fanfare into the sun that was floating on the breeze.
(29:02):
Look at Mother Nature on the run in the nineteen seventies.
Look at my mother Nature on the run in the
nineteen seventies. That's just beautiful interesting.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
So so a medieval scene, but in the nineteen seventies
and in energy format. Guys, your thoughts.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
I love the idea, I mean beautiful, a beautiful, a
beautiful near death experience. I love it when you hear
about these and there's a piece or a calm that
overtakes people.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Well, yeah, it's a very specific one to me, almost
like a parade for you know, one you newly reunited
with whatever that energy you know state is.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
I guess pretty wonderful.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
And it's interesting to have one just through a seizure
without having that impact right in conspicuous said, I guess
his head didn't actually make impact with that hard floor
that would have, you know, potentially caused serious damage, not
fullumbrain damage and the kind of thing that would get
you closer to death. It was just through a seizure event.
(30:09):
I just wonder how often that's the thing I've never
really heard of that guys going into another state via seizure.
The closest thing I've experienced is like a very intense
dream that feels like it lasts way longer than it
does when you briefly lose consciousness, like if you get
knocked out just for a moment through lack of oxygen
(30:29):
or something.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
It's also something people report in certain cases of high
powered hallucinogens like DMT, where it is a moment of
clock time that extends out to what feels like many
many hours to the person experiencing it.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
And I would add further inconspicuous. So glad you're okay,
and thank you for reaching out always, Love and Neil
Young references especially now if you know what I'm saying,
one thing to what you were saying earlier there, Matt
about seizures is that seizures, there's a very interesting theory
(31:08):
that bouts of epilepsy or bouts of traumatic brain injury
seizures may indeed inform religious encounters what we see of
profits of old right, the sears and the soothsayers. There's
definitely more under the hood of the engine that we
(31:30):
call the human brain than is currently understood and inconspicuous.
If you haven't listened yet, please tune in to our
episode from way back in twenty fifteen, what Happens When
We Die, In addition to our interview about Alive Again,
which is a show we think you'll love. What Happens
(31:52):
when We Die is a pretty fascinating exploration. You might
also like our shows about the nature, quantum mechanics, and
Dreaming to Knowle's earlier point.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Thank yeah, and also thanks for those really kind words
that you said to the being your message there, we
we greatly appreciate.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
It, y'all.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Let's jump to a message from messenger. You know who
you are, Messenger. This one is regarding the discussions we've
been having about grocery stores and having them for a
while now, talking about the various things that are going
to happen in the giant conglomerate companies that give us
all of the glorious food that we need to survive.
(32:34):
So here we go. Let's jump to Messenger.
Speaker 8 (32:37):
Hey, Matt Noel Ben Messenger here just to listen to
your strange news episode about grocery stores compiring against you.
You talked about them raising prices for rich people, and
I think that's the exact opposite direction. It will go
think about supply and demand. Go back to your beans model.
(32:58):
Can of beans. It's much more important to some, but
you maybe can't afford something else, so that price is
going to go up on that person who really needs
that Canna bem. He also talked about individual pricing as well.
I think one thing that grocery stores are moving to
is online shopping. Well, they can easily change the prices
(33:18):
on online shopping for individual buyers. In the dynamic pricing model,
we have something called rate tolerance. How much is somebody
willing to pay for the item. All they need to
do is inch that item up a few pennies here,
a few pennies there, and see how much that person
is willing to pay until they stop buying that product.
You can easily do that for something that's commonly bought
(33:39):
on somebody who's shopping online. Anyway, Thank you, love the show,
Appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Oh well, there we go. Okay, there's a lot to
respond to you there. I would just point out that
I did not know that term rate tolerance, and it's
actually been pretty hard to find rate tolerance, at least
through Google and how it relates back to dynamic pricing.
There's a weird little AI overview thing that gets served
to me, whether I like it or not, that talks
(34:07):
about it.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Well.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah, but again, if I go through and look at
the actual links that are set up here, nothing is
mentioning rate tolerance.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Think think of it more. Another convenient term here, messenger,
might be price tolerance. That would be it's essentially the
same thing, idea, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Or like rate hike tolerance referring to like public service commission,
you know, decisions around how much cost of energy might
be able to be increased incrementally before causing consumer backlash.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Yeah, it makes complete sense to me, like this concept
that you can only raise it so high in a
given set of circumstances, right that when you look at
median income or something, and inflation rates and all this
other stuff, like these company can choose to raise that
price up, but at some point they're going to hit
a ceiling where nobody's gonna buy that thing anymore, or
(35:05):
at least not enough people will buy that thing.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
I just saw a Piece and Fast company apparently I
got to look into the bona fides of the research,
but a twenty percent price hike as a result of
tariffs is about the max people will tolerate while in
retail products, which seems mega high.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, well, it makes you think of the egg prices
did we discuss on the show, you know, and we
all personally experienced that were happening there for a while
during the av and flu scare, and just about how
much more expensive eggs became and now kind of still are.
It makes you wonder about once you hit one of
those things, you figure out the rate tolerance for your
(35:47):
average customer for any given product in let's say a Kroger,
why would it ever come down right?
Speaker 4 (35:54):
Well, that's I think a point we all made once
that stuff was rolled out for COVID. It's not exactly
in the best interest or in the nature of business
to be like, well, actually, let's let's let's let's walk
it back. So it's really hard to get that to
happen once they've gotten a taste.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
And inconspicuous and put it this way, just to sort
of draw out the Venn diagram here, So price tolerance
means the absolute highest price consumers are willing to pay right.
So for a macro or microcosmic example picture, you're in
a city like Atlanta, which I have definitely just chosen randomly,
(36:34):
and buttered chicken is always going to be twenty dollars
because there's a limited number of restaurants that figured out
if we all sell buttered chicken for twenty bucks, then
people will determine the best buttered chicken. And we're too small.
We're below the threshold of monopoly and price fixing because
we're different restaurants. That is price tolerance. Rate tolerance is saying, okay,
(36:57):
we all have buttered chicken for fifteen dollars, how narrow
or how elongated is our window of time from getting
to fifteen bucks per to twenty bucks per So that's
the difference between retolerance and price tolerance. Also, I want
to go on record seeing I completely agree with the
notion of online shopping versus going into a brick and
(37:20):
mortar stores. The economy of scale kicks in. It's increasingly
convenient for people. And it used to be a fancy
pants let me put on my tuxedo thing, and now,
especially post COVID, more and more people are getting groceries delivered,
which makes dynamic pricing and pricing grifts way easier to accomplish.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
I mean, I remember back in the day working in retail,
when online retail was just sort of becoming a thing.
It was the bane of the existence of brick and
mortar retailers, but was also sort of a heralding of like,
this is gonna be the way because there's this sense
that it is best for consumers, but also at the
end of day, it is best for retailers.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Ben, I want to go off of an example, like
specifically you just gave because it pinged in my world
because we recently bought some butter chicken sauce at a Kroger,
And I think we can do a little experiment if
we all go in our search browsers and search for
a specific item and see if it costs the same
for all of us. Is that cool?
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Yes? Please?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
So this is the thing I'm looking for, is private
selection butter chicken simmer sauce.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
So it'll be the generic Kroger brand, yes, right, okay.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
Yes, yes, yes, it does appear to be out of stock. Okay,
so you really you got in right right under the wye.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Seat now shows me. I can pick it up right
now where I am.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
Oh, the plot thickens, as does the sauce.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Is there a price associated with Moore?
Speaker 4 (38:54):
Twenty nine is what I'm seeing?
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Okay, I'm seeing the same exact price here where I am.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
What you seeing, ben, Oh, I'll play reindeer games.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
These are not reindeer games. These are butter chicken games.
Just putting that point of order copy.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
So with the public browser, I'm seeing four thirty nine,
and with the proxies I'm seeing for twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Hang on a tick, I've got four to seventy nine
on Kroger's official website. But then in the little sidebar
in my Chrome browser, I'm seeing in stock Nearby for
seventy nine, door Dash for seventy nine. Okay, thatspicuous. I
told you, dude for Cary nine on Instacart. But that's
(39:38):
that's gonna probably wait wait waitter in their delivery fees.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Wait four ninety, I've got five nineteen on Instacart.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Well, Well, if we're talking about dynamic pricing, the grocery
delivery systems are going to be a black box and
are definitely going to take into account your ability to pay.
I have no question in my mind that that's the case.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
And I'm like, where this is going? Gay, I don't
know what character that.
Speaker 6 (40:05):
I have four thirty nine by the way, at my
local croker.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Oh, thank you, ten ten cents more for you ha ha.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Yeah, weird, I've got You can even sidebar further to
a price. Compare columned View and it goes all the
way from four to seventy nine to five twenty nine,
and all of them say they're out of stock online
except for uh one local Kroger. Oh jeez.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
And this doesn't even take into account the other spices.
You're gonna need to make that butter chicken delicious. Not
that butter chicken alone. It's not delicious. It just needs
a kick, right. Uh. Anyway, thank you so much messenger
for calling in. We're gonna move on. We're gonna hear
word from our sponsor, and then we'll be right back
with more messages from you.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Guys. We've returned in. Before we do the last act
of our weekly listener mail segment, wanted to share some
breaking news. The world's largest aircraft carrier, which Uncle Sam owns,
has been deployed to the Caribbean. This may not be
the best time to get a Bemeny road address. Is
(41:18):
this a negotiation tactic? Is this, as many of our
fellow conspiracy realists have asked us earlier, is this a
move toward a upcoming war. I've got to tell you
a shout out to Chance who asked us the following.
The bottom line for starting a war to secure the
(41:40):
democratic erosion of the United States government seems pretty far fetched,
but does it? These carriers are serious business, you guys.
You can't just willy nilly put them around, or can you?
Speaker 4 (41:53):
I don't know, can you?
Speaker 3 (41:56):
No?
Speaker 2 (41:56):
And something's been really helpful for me to visualize. This
is our little journey we took on a cruise liner.
If you just imagine the size of that thing, right,
the weight of it, you know, how fast it can travel.
I'm imagining now just the sheer, size and speed of
an aircraft carrier. And how long it takes to deploy
something like that. I'm assuming Ben, it would take a
(42:18):
long time.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Well, we're going to see for sure. That has nothing
to do with anything. It's just breaking news on November twelfth,
and we'll see how it goes. There may be an
episode about war in the future spoiler not to be
too judge holden about it, but there's always war. It's
a very human thing. Let's go, let's go to Miro
(42:42):
from Canada and Miro, you specifically yet something that's stuck
out regarding food price conspiracies a recent episode we did
that I believe speaks to our earlier conversation. So, Miro,
you say, I'm catching up on your podcast and regarding
your episode about the food price conspiracy, you guys mentioned
(43:06):
price controls. I am currently traveling in Europe and several
of the countries I've been in have this same issue.
They have tried price controls, specifically Serbia, Hungary and Romania.
The ultimate outcome is prices drop for a month or two,
and then prices return to their heavily inflated levels after
(43:29):
another month or two transpires a two month drop two
months later tickety boo, which I said, not you, Miro,
I just like the phrase. So multiple people, you say, Miro,
have told me that essentially, when price controls are brought in,
the logical outcome is an election is around the corner.
(43:49):
As multiple times they've been done for a government to
maintain support or regain support through an act of propaganda.
Now I want to pause there. That's why I'm set
there's a method to the madness. That's why I'm setting
up the idea of war before an election, or to
stop an election. Price controls could be a very similar thing.
(44:10):
In Miro, you are telling us that locals told you
this happens before elections in European countries. I don't know.
I think it's it reminds me of our gas prices conversations. Right,
that's one thing here in the United States, for anyone unfamiliar,
that's one thing that always goes to the forefront. In
(44:32):
recent decades, you got an independent, a Democrat, or Republican
running against each other. Whomever is currently you know, King
You of the Hill at the White House is going
to get what are those dumb political words they use
in both articles, snow compound over gas prices.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
Yeah, all that sounds dirty, especially the October surprise.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Yeah, I see that. I could see that as a thing.
I don't know that I've personally seen it here in
the US though, just but I know that though the
talking points become look how low the gas is right now,
Look how great the stock market is right now and
all that, So you need to vote for the incumbent
whoever's in.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
There, right. Yeah, those are two distinct examples. So the
gas price thing happens more often in the United States.
The grocery store or the food price thing. That grift
occurs more often with our friends across the pond. And
the reason it can't really occur here is because entering
(45:38):
in price controls in the modern political climate for the
United States would be political suicide for anyone proposing it.
It would have too many shades of Soviet era stuff
that could be weaponized against anybody acting in good faith.
We do know that there have been price controls in
(46:01):
the United States time and time again historically. Let's think
about you know, let us never forget our favorite secret
cheese cave, right, let us never forget price controls put
on things that went the wrong way in US history,
like the Great Depression. You know, we had people pouring
(46:22):
out milk. We had people slaughtering pigs in the countryside
while innocent folks starved in the cities. It's just it's
a very dangerous game. It's very It's like if mousetrap
wasn't fun, and I don't know how much fun mousetrap was.
It takes forever to set up.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
I always just like triggering it. I never actually played
the game once, I don't think. But Ben, is this
figure in any way, this idea of price control into
like all of the hullaballoo made about what the FED
does and a lot of like pressure on the FED
to lower interest rates? And is that a form of
price control? Is it effective?
Speaker 3 (47:01):
It's a great question, and I love to oppose you
this because maybe if we think through analogy of FED,
the Federal control of the basic rate, the lay of
the land financially, the FED control there is less like
directly controlling the cost of a commodity, good, or service.
(47:24):
Think of those as individual faucets, and the Fed's control
of the rate determines the water pressure. I am weirdly
in love with that analogy.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
It is so imperfect well that it's the closest I've
come to wrapping my head around, and so thank you.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
They change the water pressure, that's it, and empires rise
and fall off of it. I don't want to sound
too specifically on one side or another, but I think
we can all agree that price controls in an unnuanced
way can be disastrous, especially if antitrust laws hold. Now,
(48:05):
if we're entering an era similar to the Gilded Age,
right where one entity can control all of a given
thing in a market, then maybe price controls do need
to exist, you know, and unfortunately this country is rapidly
heading toward that horizon.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
You do we need, guys, we need two thousand dollars
a month for every American?
Speaker 3 (48:31):
Is it every month or is a one month every month? Yeah,
but that doesn't make economic sense because we're talking after
a certain amount of time, that's going to be more
expensive than the tariffs.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Huh Oh, that's weird.
Speaker 4 (48:45):
I don't understand money.
Speaker 3 (48:47):
I don't think we should have to understand money. It
is a religion and.
Speaker 4 (48:51):
A ten thousand dollars bonus every air traffic controller that
didn't ask questions?
Speaker 2 (48:56):
How about forty three thousand from every member of ICE.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
And a chicken in every pot, just like we said
during the Great Depression, which was awesome. Nobody will look
that up. Yeah, thanks, Still in two thousand ben bucks negotiable,
negotiable at your point of sale, point of origin, folks.
We want to hear from you. We want to hear
(49:20):
your experience, especially if you haven't, if you've lived other
in places that are not the US. We want to
hear your experience with price controls. We want to hear
your experience with the current debacle that we talked about
in a previous Strange News segment, the ongoing debate regarding
(49:40):
food assistance to Americans, especially innocent Americans children, forty two
million people who have Thanksgiving right around the corner. Tell
us what you think. Please feel free to be absolutely honest.
We would love to hear from you if you are
for it, if you're against it. Why we want to
(50:00):
know what you think about shrinkflation. That's a huge thing.
That's a little sneakier than a straight up price hike.
We can't wait for you to tell us your experience
with these episodes and what's going on in your neck
of the global woods. And guys, gents, my fellow Americans,
if it's okay, I would like for us to end
(50:23):
listener mail on a real quick letter from home. Oh please,
Aging Ginger writes to us, Yeah, and is accidentally in
our heads, or at least a mind from a weird
pitch a few years ago. Gentlemen, says Aging Ginger, I
truly hope this email doesn't get me blacklisted. I just
(50:46):
had a thought, as we are headed into the holiday season,
wouldn't it be a most excellent time for you all
to pick up a show sponsorship from Reynold's Aluminum foil
what strictly tongue in cheek yours, cheekily aging.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Ginger, didn't we try that or we want it?
Speaker 3 (51:04):
Yes? I just I don't know, we think I think,
uh well, we were first pitching that to each other.
We had that moment where, uh so we're we're not
the average bears, right, so we're cut from a different cloth,
and that sometimes works for us, and it sometimes puts
(51:24):
us in awkward situations in calls with our bosses. I'm
thinking specifically, at the time, we pitched a little bit
of foil uh to someone who told us no names here,
but someone who told us, you, guys, blue Sky it
anything is up, anything, just give us your best ideas.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
And they loved the idea too, right, They loved it
and like rentals rap, hit us up.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
We if I love it. I recall that after we
set the idea, we had this meeting of the stuff
we were most excited about we diplomatically got told yeah,
guys again, if you look at the earlier email, we
said send your best idea. Yeah, are these your best ideas?
(52:17):
And we were like, yeah, who doesn't use timfoil?
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Okay, look, we got a couple of assignments for you.
We said it at the top of this episode. Please
leave us a review wherever you're listening to this. The
second assignment, go to our Instagram Conspiracy Stuff Show and
go back to March seventeenth, twenty twenty three and watch
the reel that features our own mister Ben Bolin with
(52:42):
a lot of aluminum foil. It's incredible. It is worth
your time.
Speaker 3 (52:46):
It's a commercial that did not make it to the
Super Bowl, but we hope you enjoy it. We also
want you to know how much we enjoy hearing from you.
So thank you not only to Aging Ginger, who is
a brilliant advertiser, but thank you to Miro, thank you
doing conspicuous, to Icelandic Volcano Nerd, and of course to
(53:06):
Messager and everybody else. Picture us in a weird triumvirate
or quadjumvirant a word. We're just going to churchify here,
Uncle Sam. Type a sign pointing you directly, you specifically,
and saying join up with us, join stuff they don't
want you to know. Give us your thoughts on any
and all things. You can always send us an email.
(53:29):
You can always give us a telephone call. You can
always find us on the lines.
Speaker 4 (53:33):
That's right, find us on the lines. The handle Conspiracy
Stuff where we exist on Facebook with our Facebook group
here's where it gets crazy. On x fka, Twitter, and
on YouTube where we have videos for youtub perus to
your heart's content. On Instagram and TikTok. However, we're Conspiracy
Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
We have a phone number and you could call it
and reach our voicemail line. It is one eight three
three std WYTK Quick story. Guys, love that we're talking
about aluminum foil. My son and I have been listening
to a lot of weird al lately. Guess what our
favorite song is with.
Speaker 4 (54:06):
Alluminum fi Yes, it is an incredible song.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
Why don't you call in tell us your favorite weird
as song or your favorite song related to aluminum foil.
If you want to do that, you can told you
how to do it. If you want to send us
an email, you can do that too.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence
we receive. Now, folks went over a lot of stuff today.
I would love to hear your favorite kind of specific
holiday folklored. No spoilers, but write to us and it
may end up inform a bit of an adventure here
(54:47):
at the end of the year. Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nol.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff
they don't want you to know. Folks, fellow conspiracy realist,
friends and neighbors. This is our listener mail program. We
are pleased as a geomagnetic storm that you have joined us.
(00:54):
So if you're tuning in the evening, this weekly listener
mail segment publishes while welcome to Thursday, November thirteenth. Can
you believe it? Did you guys see the Aurora borealis?
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Wait? We should have been able to see it from
where we sit. No, no, cause that would have been wild. Okay, No, no,
I wish man. It's really migrated. No, I didn't see
it on the TV.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
But they were much further spread than they normally are
because the Earth as of yesterday. We're recording this on
November twelfth. As of yesterday, there were two CMEs that hit.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
And then be a coronal mass ejection.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yes, and there's a third one that is hitting us
today on November twelfth. So this is a scenario we've
talked about before on the show while back, but just
the concept of the Sun sending out some stuff, some
energy that messes with the Earth's magnetic thing that.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
It has with power, right, can't mess with grids, And.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yes, especially in Canada back in the mid nineteen eighties,
do check out our episode Slaves to the Sun, which
is a pretty click baby title. But yes, as far
as the humans can be concerned, it's easy to ignore
solar activity. But make no mistake fellow fellow Earth residents
(02:17):
fell sun worshippers or sun haters.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
You know, we got room for everybody to quote Phoebus
in butt heead the Sun sucks.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
There's really interesting stories that end up coming out when
there are storms like this in those more than northern territories,
about things like tractors and farming equipment. Sure it goes
you know, quote goes haywire and quote acts like it's
demon possessed.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Because mostly storms, most electronics are not hardened for this
kind of event. Make no mistake though, folks, it can happen.
It could happen today.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, dude, what is that Stephen King one about the electronics? No,
the electronics going sell okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And also, oh this is this is a cool one, folks,
if you are again listening the evening this publishes November thirteenth.
I want to take a little page from our pals
at Daily's Eye. Guys, get this. It is World Hindness Day,
So if you are feeling kind please do get thee
(03:20):
to thy platform of choice and maybe give us a rating.
We'd love five.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Stars and man to take a page out of some
other podcasts. Maybe if you do that and you leave
a nice way, but we'll read it on the listener mail.
We'll include that as a way as an additional form
of correspondence.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
So blind you know. I love it, and in the
spirit of World Kindess Day, I gotta tell you, guys,
it's it's similar to how if you report a cme
or weird stuff in the sky, certain organizations will send
you a nice letter and maybe a piece of candy. Nope,
you do not get to choose which piece of candy.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
And it will be a toutsy roll.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Yes, yes, for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
And how many licks does it take?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Do you guys know?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
They revamp that commercial the old it's like the same
but different with the with the mister Owl, you know,
and all that walk us through it. Oh, how many
licks does it take to get to the tutsi roll
center of a tutsi pop? Mister Owl? He licks it one, two, three,
and then he bites it and says a three, And
the tagline is how many licks does it take to
(04:30):
get to the tutsi roll center of a tootsy pop?
The world may never know.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Ah, yes, but we can find out together. We're we're
so grateful that you're here with us, folks. As we
I'll stop saying this next time we record as we
hurtle headlong toward six, which is.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Not into the sun.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
We're always it's a slow spiral toward illumination. Right, that's
one way to put it.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
We got some great feedback all selling souls. We got
some great feedback on grocery store inflation as well as
price controls, and then we got a We got so
much stuff, but one thing that definitely stood out to
us as a crew was a message about a cool
(05:21):
piece of holiday folklore that is not generally known in
the West. So what say we guys, do we want
to take a break for a word from our sponsors.
Find our missiletoe.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Or Christmas catnip?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Perhaps Christmas catnip definitely, And before we get to listener
mail this evening, there's one thing that I need Tennessee.
You know what this is. We got to get our
root of Vegas.
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Speaker 4 (06:54):
We returned with a message from Icelandic volcano nerd. Is
it nerd?
Speaker 6 (07:00):
It sure?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Is a message that Ben delightfully responded to and had
a nice little back and forth with our friend who
I believe has spent time in Iceland but does not
live there full time. Ben, you asked this individual some
fun questions that we'll get to at the end, just
about life in Iceland. But the crux of the original
(07:23):
email is this notion of some pretty dark and depraved
mule tied holiday themed characters throughout folklore there in that
part of the world where things get quite dark and
cold around that time of year, and like you know,
most other times of the year. The mule Lads is
(07:43):
something that we've talked about at length on the Ridiculous
History podcast. There's a holiday episode about that very topic
that you recommended to our buddy, Icelandic Volcano Nerd from
twenty twenty two, The yule Ads terrified children across Iceland.
These are sort of a macabre seven Dwarfs type situation,
each member of the mule Lads being representing a I guess,
(08:06):
sort of a vice. I guess, Ben, wouldn't you say,
like you got your sausage sniffer, your doorway liquor some
real specific kinks there that these mule Lads.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, they're all They're all like verbs toward a thing
goat sucker.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
I believe there's one that sucks goats, yes, but it
is also true, Matt, I think the mule Ads might
have the old chupa scooped on sucking of them goats.
And all of these things specifically were representative of fears
associated with scarcity in this part of the world, the
idea that if you had a mischievous mule lad coming
(08:40):
around sucking your goat's milk, that'd be none for you
and your family during these most brutal of months. But Ben,
there was another aspect of the mule Lads, of course,
their mother being this like demonic giant human eater named Gorilla.
If I'm not mistaken who was here. You can't balistic humanoid,
(09:01):
not a chud, but that didn't dwell underground, maybe you know,
in ice caves or something. But yeah, gnarly, gnarly creature
that would eat your children. If you misbehave apparently had
a bit of a familiar in the form of the
mule cat, then do you want to tell us anything
you know about the mule cat?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Oh, it's huge, it's a monster.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
It's it's on par with the size of gorilla. Who
is this giant you know chud creature?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah? Yeah, the mule cat sorry likeers, is the biggest
cat around and the skills in magic right and it's uh,
it's a cat with a two. And the thing that
really pisses off the yule cat is if it encounters
anyone who has not gotten new clothes or new clothing
(09:50):
to wear before Christmas Eve. If you don't have new duds,
then the cat will get you.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
That's right. The mule cat or turin forgive my lack
of native Icelandic pronunciation, is a fearsome creature from the
folklore of Iceland that is said to stalk the countryside
like almost like the beast of Godo remember that guy
the for yes, there you go. Jenival, the creature that
(10:19):
inspired the film Brotherhood of the Wolf. This this deadly,
uh cryptid basically that was murdering young women along the
countryside there in France. This one specifically stalks the countryside
of Iceland during the Christmas holiday season and it preys
on people who have not, like you said, been gotten
(10:39):
any new clothes for Christmas. All very bougie and prohibitive
for those with less meanings.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
We haven't got to the letter yet, but one thing
we do have to shout out for any uh any
fans of a quality right now is that Grila the
ogres you mentioned though, is more of a lilith character
than an a queen right because her husband guy named
(11:15):
I can't pronounce it Lepadugi. He is a.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Deadbeat dad, not a good dude.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
He stays at home and he's lazy, gotcha.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
And Gorilla's out there doing the work.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
She's out there eating the flesh.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Is not on the president eating it for sure. And yeah,
I mean, I hope I've made it clear that our
friend icelandic volcano nerd is who hipped us to yule
Cat or Jola Koturin and also referencing the mule ads,
and then Ben responded with that link to that old episode,
and now we're getting into what the Yule Cat's all about.
The mule Cat will meet out punishment for those who
(11:51):
have not gotten new duds for the winter months, and
in the form of death seems counterproductive.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Wait wait, wait, so, as you were saying Ben earlier
and right now, it will kill you if you you
don't have new clothes, or it will kill you if
you don't give new clothes to needy folks.
Speaker 8 (12:11):
No, if you.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Don't have new clothes, it's you know, and like a
lot of folklore, it is preventative.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Right. The idea here is to remind parents, and I
don't know, it is seemingly gonna affect the kids more
than anybody to get new clothes woolens, to dress properly
for the incredibly cold months of winter. It also, weirdly
(12:39):
is sort of like an antithesis to the idea, or
I don't know, non antithesis. Really, it is a punishment
for not being generous around the holiday season. But you
to your point, Matt, you think it would eat the parents,
not the children. Yeah, I have children always got to
suffer in these freaky folkloric murder.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
To well, it's an inhospitable climate. Child was pretty pretty
out the window for a lot of Iceland's history.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
So it's right, Yeah, he is.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Scare the kids when they're kids, and then by the
time they were adults.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
They're gonna remember that's right, they will. You got to
beat it into them when they're little. The tail was
traditionally used by farmers to encourage their workers to complete
their wool production.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Oh, now we've got a little extra wrinkle. It's about uh,
it's about big wool. Yeah, uh huh. Those who worked
hard were rewarded with new clothes, while those who didn't
were threatened with the yuleka. Almost like Donald Trump, and
has promised bonuses for air traffic controllers who stayed the course.
(13:43):
You know, but if you don't, if you didn't do it,
then you're on my list. Here, you're getting you're getting
a coal in your stocking this year. Air traffic controllers,
those who worked hard were rewarded with new clothes, while
those who didn't were threatened with the murderous rage of
the mule cat. And like a lot of these you know,
(14:04):
super effed up early versions of things like grim fairy
tales and all that. It's been sanitized a bit for
the modern day. The tradition to this day of getting
new clothes around Christmas in Iceland is a big deal,
as it is in a lot of places. You know,
we go get new sweaters. We have a lot of
clothing gift giving rituals here in the States as well. However,
(14:24):
of course, belief, true belief in the mule Cat is
likely pretty low today. It symbolizes the importance of generosity.
One way to appease this mythical cryptid is to give
new clothes to the less fortunate. To your point, there
is an aspect of charity to it as well as
(14:45):
you can't yeah, yeah, of course with that historical game
of telephone. And speaking of that, we do have a
pretty badass illuminated sculpture of the mule Cat that you
can see in a square not going to attempt to
pronounce the name of in downtown rake Yavic during the
holiday season. So yeah, it's one of the pets of
(15:07):
Gorilla the Ogris and mother of the Mule Lads. So
a bit of a familiar helping to spread terror amongst
the less fortunate children of the Icelandic country side, So man,
huge thing. I gotta read the letter. Gosh, we didn't
reverse here. I'm just gonna go ahead and read it
because we've got a few fun little back and forth
that you had with Icelandic Volcano Nerd. I recently took
(15:31):
my fourth trip to Iceland and saw all the seasonal
decor of the upcoming holidays out and about. I'm not
sure if you've heard the folklore about Yule Lads, more
specifically the ule cat, which is a familiar of the
Yule Lads. The tale behind it is quite entertaining, in
my opinion, but a fun tradition. Nonetheless, something funny about
a festive cat preying on children if they don't receive
new clothes for Christmas anyways, ought to be a cool
(15:53):
fun thing to cover towards the holidays. And boy were
you right to which Ben replied with some fun questions
about Icelandic Volcano Nerds time in Iceland, Ben, you said,
we'd love to hear more about your travels. It's been
on your vacation list for some time thanks to the
Yule Lads. None of us have been to Iceland to
my knowledge, is well, Ben, and here are the few
(16:14):
questions and the responses. One is the food as expensive
as people claim, which is something that we've often heard
from colleagues who have traveled to this part of the world.
What's the most interesting thing that you ate there, to
which Icelandic Volcano Nerd responded and to Ben, I'd love
to hear more of your thoughts about some of these responses.
Yes and no. In regarding the cost at a restaurant,
(16:36):
expect anything to cost at a minimum of twenty five
hundred krona about twenty two dollars. I'd say thirty to
fifty dollars per meal. If you're always eating out should
be expected. I'll add that a lot of promotions through
Iceland Air, including lodging right in the city center with
breakfast included, are big help. And you'll find great deals
(16:57):
on flight hotel packages as well. I'm not va again,
they say, but many restaurants are very vegan friendly. I'm
a huge foodie and we did a vegan taste testing
menu one night with a phenomenal beatroot carpaccio. If you
like seafood, you'll have the best fish and chips of
your life. Sam goes for lamb. There's all rome free
and have incredible tasting Lamb there, which I didn't know.
(17:20):
I always associate Lamb with New Zealand, which they reference
next saying we are told by a restaurant server that
the closest we can get to icelandic Lamb is in
New Zealand. Was any of that surprising to you, Ben?
The cost aspect? And then I didn't know Lamb was
a thing in Iceland.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Lamb is very much a thing in Iceland, Icelandic Volcano Nerd,
thank you for confirming. I also hear great things about
the hot dogs, especially from our brother in arms, our
longtime super producer Pull Mission Controlled Decand.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
They do Lamb hot dogs right, they do?
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Yeah, the hot good and so Volcano do. One thing
we really loved about this is that you kind of
course correct us on a thing a lot of Americans assume,
which is that the food is both bad and expensive,
which unfortunately a lot of Northern European climbs, unfortunately a
(18:18):
lot of them have to deal with that stereotype. No,
I was interested in something that we talked about, oh
a long time ago, about the belief of elves.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
However, and to that one Icelandic volcano. Nerd responded that
it was a great question, but that they didn't make it.
They didn't get to that topic of conversation in their
time in the country.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You have to go back for your fitness.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
You must, yes, rip the band aid off. Ask about
elves and your final question was regarding living there permanently,
to which our listener responded that they had considered it,
but that they're a bit risk averse, so probably not.
The main reason being this ties into their name the
(19:07):
volcanic awakening of the volcanic system on the same side
of Iceland as the major city civilization and airport. Yikes.
It is fascinating how they didn't populate the parts of
the country that aren't currently so close to active volcanoes,
mostly due to better fishing over near Grindovic. I don't
expect volcanic activity to die down in our lifetime, so
(19:27):
that's a big reason behind the unlikelihood of moving there.
I would, however, consider Norway. Yeah, you know, I hadn't
thought about that, Ben, but there are serious active volcano
systems there that could potentially, you know, have a bit
of a modern Pompeii outcome.
Speaker 8 (19:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Geothermal energy is arguably a Faustian bargain, is it not. Also,
there's another one of us in Norway that maybe we'll
meet in the future. I don't know, would you, guys
uh to to your question icelandic volcano nerd sight unseen?
Since none of us have visited modern Iceland, would we
(20:10):
ever consider living there as the climate changes? I mean,
is now the time to buy some short front property?
Speaker 4 (20:20):
M yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
Ben.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
That goes back into the Faustian bargain of like you know,
being sold to castle are There are other questions that
one might ask.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Guys, gotta admit I think I would live in Iceland
just so I can be in a band where my
singer does things like.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Are you talking about fictional language created by the famous
Icelandic post rock band?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
And if I can play drugs for somebody who did that,
I would. It would just be dream come true.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Yeah, dreamy indeed.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Also, the technical term for the elves in I think
of the Faroe Islands and Iceland is hudo folk, so
like the hidden folk. There was there was a brief
moment where we got obsessed with the idea we're going
through one of our cryptid phases Volcano Nerd and we
(21:16):
were trying to figure out whether modern residents of Iceland
genuinely believe in this idea of hidden people aka elves.
And one of the reasons we asked about this is
due to a couple of different surveys that went out
where people purported to believe in these supernatural beings. And
(21:40):
then the fact that sometimes construction projects get moved around
sacred sites like sacred springs or rocks, and they don't say, hey,
it's nature preservation. They say, hey, we can't mess with
these elves.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
That's one thing we've learned over time historically. Don't mess
with the l don't do it. Don't do it.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
We're at best half elves, I think. But but yeah,
I don't know. Man, it'd be kind of cool to
move to Iceland, or maybe it's just fantasy. We'd have
to check it out first. Guys, we've been international earlier
this year. Why stop now? Do we want to go
to Iceland? I think we're going to New York later?
Do we want to go to Iceland?
Speaker 4 (22:22):
Taylor's stop off. Yea, I definitely want to go. I've
got a handful of friends that have been said it's
gorgeous and that to them fascinated by the pop culture
of Iceland for various reasons. This is not to say
that Iceland and Finland are the same. But there is
a finish film that you've mentioned often on the podcast
Ben Rare Exports. Yeah, it's a really good holiday kind
(22:44):
of hidden folk kind of story. So do check that
out if you're interested in that type of lore. Well,
thanks again, icelandic Volcano ner. We're going to take a pause,
hear a word from our sponsor and then come back
with more messages from you.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
And we've returned.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Just now I'm in I'm in travel mode, and I
am still you guys looking at some temporary housing around Bimini,
because you know, it's only gonna be there for probably
a couple more years before it's.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Covered in water.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
But everybody, Matt said, looking at not licking at Sorry,
I'm still you'll.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Add, not not licking any of the peninsulas or islands
over there.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Everybody sick to have a road address.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Oh and it was gorgeous out there. It just uh,
I seriously, when I see places like that, now, I'm
just imagining what it's going to be like when when
the water just starts flowing through and it's scary and tragic.
And on that tip, just staying and travel for a moment.
Did you guys see that I've read about the exodus
(23:53):
that's happening from New Zealand to Australia to mainland Australia.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
I had not heard about that. It's it's such a.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Thing maybe just in the American zeitgeist that New Zealand
is the place to escape to in the Southern Hemisphere
when the nukes start going off and all this other stuff.
But then just reading up on it, a lot of
people because of whatever political stuff is happening, and some
of the more I guess you would call it like
state control, local laws and things about what you can
(24:24):
earn and how much you can work and what jobs
are available in New Zealand. People are just heading over
to Australia. But then Australia is saying we don't want
you go away, right.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Australia is getting very close to calling them and i'll
use this pejorative. I'm just quoting conservative Ossi politicians, so
I hope I don't offend anybody, but they're getting very
close to using the pejorative boat people, which has been
applied to folks from South Asia, Southeast Asia, a couple
(24:54):
of areas out in Oceana Micronesia, the idea being that
New Zealand or Kiwis might be treated as refugees.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Using similar terms around these parts, talking about those boats
that are getting blowed up, talking about ocean drugs, the
wolves on the way, for sure, dude.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
And then the whole thing is going down in the
UN recently again we're it's Wednesday, November twelfth right now,
which is recently about. I forget Mike Waltzer or whoever
was speaking of the UN got cut off by the
Cuban delegate.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
This isn't a signal chat.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, that was intense, no, for I mean really absolutely,
and it was they were speaking on the very thing.
Just all of the droning, bombing, extra judicial killings of
human beings on boats that you know, supposedly are drug
traffickers that end up in the bottom of the sea purportedly.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Also, it's super messing with already eroded intelligence cooperatives across
the world. The UK pulled out, they said, no, what
tasty secrets for you?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Can you see, ben, I thought about you this morning
when I read that news about the secret sharing, the
intelligent sharing, just that the United Kingdom, perhaps the primary
ally of the United States like getting cold feet when
it comes to what they're going to share with us.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
YI.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah, our Atlantic cousins are not tickety boo at the moment.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
All that said, let's jump into something that's completely different.
First of all, let's go with a message from Inconspicuous
that came in pretty recently. But I believe it's speaking
to an episode we made about near death experiences with
Dan Bush, friend of the show director, creator of Alive Again.
(26:43):
We had an interview with him. I believe that's what
this message is, you know, speaking to but specifically near
death experiences. So let's hear from Inconspicuous. Oh and note
here there's some lyrics in here that I'm gonna need
your guys help on. I don't really know the song
that's being mentioned or so I love the lyrics game. Yeah,
so need some help.
Speaker 9 (27:04):
Here we go, Hello, gentle people of stuff. They don't
want you to know. You guys are super talented individually,
and when you get together, I'll tell you what. It's
just an explosion of a creatively factual fun rabbit hole
every time. Kudos to you guys. You can call me inconspicuous.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
I experienced on.
Speaker 8 (27:29):
Your death experience.
Speaker 9 (27:31):
In this experience and experiment we call life, I've only
had one seizure in my life other than birth. My
eyes rolled in the back of my head and I
fell straight backwards, and I was caught by my gal
pal at the time. She saved my head from hitting
solid squared step floor. So yeah, she saved my life.
(27:55):
But I left. I went to someplace else, completely happy
and accepting everything that was going on. I was not
upset about passing away. I was just an observer on
a trip at this point, and I was being taken
and you know the lyrics to After the gold Rush.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Oh it come saying about the Queen. There were children
singing and drummers drumming, the archers split the tree. If
you can imagine that in you know, pure energy form,
like a medieval just made of energy. That's all right,
(28:40):
have a good night.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Right, Okay. It is a Neil Young tune. And I
think the part that blipped out a little bit was well,
I dreamed I saw the knights in armor come in
saying something about a queen. There were peasants singing and
drummers drumming, and the archer split the tree. There was
a fanfare into the sun that was floating on the breeze.
(29:02):
Look at Mother Nature on the run in the nineteen seventies.
Look at my mother Nature on the run in the
nineteen seventies. That's just beautiful interesting.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
So so a medieval scene, but in the nineteen seventies
and in energy format. Guys, your thoughts.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
I love the idea, I mean beautiful, a beautiful, a
beautiful near death experience. I love it when you hear
about these and there's a piece or a calm that
overtakes people.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Well, yeah, it's a very specific one to me, almost
like a parade for you know, one you newly reunited
with whatever that energy you know state is.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
I guess pretty wonderful.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
And it's interesting to have one just through a seizure
without having that impact right in conspicuous said, I guess
his head didn't actually make impact with that hard floor
that would have, you know, potentially caused serious damage, not
fullumbrain damage and the kind of thing that would get
you closer to death. It was just through a seizure event.
(30:09):
I just wonder how often that's the thing I've never
really heard of that guys going into another state via seizure.
The closest thing I've experienced is like a very intense
dream that feels like it lasts way longer than it
does when you briefly lose consciousness, like if you get
knocked out just for a moment through lack of oxygen
(30:29):
or something.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
It's also something people report in certain cases of high
powered hallucinogens like DMT, where it is a moment of
clock time that extends out to what feels like many
many hours to the person experiencing it.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
And I would add further inconspicuous. So glad you're okay,
and thank you for reaching out always, Love and Neil
Young references especially now if you know what I'm saying,
one thing to what you were saying earlier there, Matt
about seizures is that seizures, there's a very interesting theory
(31:08):
that bouts of epilepsy or bouts of traumatic brain injury
seizures may indeed inform religious encounters what we see of
profits of old right, the sears and the soothsayers. There's
definitely more under the hood of the engine that we
(31:30):
call the human brain than is currently understood and inconspicuous.
If you haven't listened yet, please tune in to our
episode from way back in twenty fifteen, what Happens When
We Die, In addition to our interview about Alive Again,
which is a show we think you'll love. What Happens
(31:52):
when We Die is a pretty fascinating exploration. You might
also like our shows about the nature, quantum mechanics, and
Dreaming to Knowle's earlier point.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Thank yeah, and also thanks for those really kind words
that you said to the being your message there, we
we greatly appreciate.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
It, y'all.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Let's jump to a message from messenger. You know who
you are, Messenger. This one is regarding the discussions we've
been having about grocery stores and having them for a
while now, talking about the various things that are going
to happen in the giant conglomerate companies that give us
all of the glorious food that we need to survive.
(32:34):
So here we go. Let's jump to Messenger.
Speaker 8 (32:37):
Hey, Matt Noel Ben Messenger here just to listen to
your strange news episode about grocery stores compiring against you.
You talked about them raising prices for rich people, and
I think that's the exact opposite direction. It will go
think about supply and demand. Go back to your beans model.
(32:58):
Can of beans. It's much more important to some, but
you maybe can't afford something else, so that price is
going to go up on that person who really needs
that Canna bem. He also talked about individual pricing as well.
I think one thing that grocery stores are moving to
is online shopping. Well, they can easily change the prices
(33:18):
on online shopping for individual buyers. In the dynamic pricing model,
we have something called rate tolerance. How much is somebody
willing to pay for the item. All they need to
do is inch that item up a few pennies here,
a few pennies there, and see how much that person
is willing to pay until they stop buying that product.
You can easily do that for something that's commonly bought
(33:39):
on somebody who's shopping online. Anyway, Thank you, love the show,
Appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Oh well, there we go. Okay, there's a lot to
respond to you there. I would just point out that
I did not know that term rate tolerance, and it's
actually been pretty hard to find rate tolerance, at least
through Google and how it relates back to dynamic pricing.
There's a weird little AI overview thing that gets served
to me, whether I like it or not, that talks
(34:07):
about it.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Well.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah, but again, if I go through and look at
the actual links that are set up here, nothing is
mentioning rate tolerance.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Think think of it more. Another convenient term here, messenger,
might be price tolerance. That would be it's essentially the
same thing, idea, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Or like rate hike tolerance referring to like public service commission,
you know, decisions around how much cost of energy might
be able to be increased incrementally before causing consumer backlash.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Yeah, it makes complete sense to me, like this concept
that you can only raise it so high in a
given set of circumstances, right that when you look at
median income or something, and inflation rates and all this
other stuff, like these company can choose to raise that
price up, but at some point they're going to hit
a ceiling where nobody's gonna buy that thing anymore, or
(35:05):
at least not enough people will buy that thing.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
I just saw a Piece and Fast company apparently I
got to look into the bona fides of the research,
but a twenty percent price hike as a result of
tariffs is about the max people will tolerate while in
retail products, which seems mega high.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, well, it makes you think of the egg prices
did we discuss on the show, you know, and we
all personally experienced that were happening there for a while
during the av and flu scare, and just about how
much more expensive eggs became and now kind of still are.
It makes you wonder about once you hit one of
those things, you figure out the rate tolerance for your
(35:47):
average customer for any given product in let's say a Kroger,
why would it ever come down right?
Speaker 4 (35:54):
Well, that's I think a point we all made once
that stuff was rolled out for COVID. It's not exactly
in the best interest or in the nature of business
to be like, well, actually, let's let's let's let's walk
it back. So it's really hard to get that to
happen once they've gotten a taste.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
And inconspicuous and put it this way, just to sort
of draw out the Venn diagram here, So price tolerance
means the absolute highest price consumers are willing to pay right.
So for a macro or microcosmic example picture, you're in
a city like Atlanta, which I have definitely just chosen randomly,
(36:34):
and buttered chicken is always going to be twenty dollars
because there's a limited number of restaurants that figured out
if we all sell buttered chicken for twenty bucks, then
people will determine the best buttered chicken. And we're too small.
We're below the threshold of monopoly and price fixing because
we're different restaurants. That is price tolerance. Rate tolerance is saying, okay,
(36:57):
we all have buttered chicken for fifteen dollars, how narrow
or how elongated is our window of time from getting
to fifteen bucks per to twenty bucks per So that's
the difference between retolerance and price tolerance. Also, I want
to go on record seeing I completely agree with the
notion of online shopping versus going into a brick and
(37:20):
mortar stores. The economy of scale kicks in. It's increasingly
convenient for people. And it used to be a fancy
pants let me put on my tuxedo thing, and now,
especially post COVID, more and more people are getting groceries delivered,
which makes dynamic pricing and pricing grifts way easier to accomplish.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
I mean, I remember back in the day working in retail,
when online retail was just sort of becoming a thing.
It was the bane of the existence of brick and
mortar retailers, but was also sort of a heralding of like,
this is gonna be the way because there's this sense
that it is best for consumers, but also at the
end of day, it is best for retailers.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Ben, I want to go off of an example, like
specifically you just gave because it pinged in my world
because we recently bought some butter chicken sauce at a Kroger,
And I think we can do a little experiment if
we all go in our search browsers and search for
a specific item and see if it costs the same
for all of us. Is that cool?
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Yes? Please?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
So this is the thing I'm looking for, is private
selection butter chicken simmer sauce.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
So it'll be the generic Kroger brand, yes, right, okay.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
Yes, yes, yes, it does appear to be out of stock. Okay,
so you really you got in right right under the wye.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Seat now shows me. I can pick it up right
now where I am.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
Oh, the plot thickens, as does the sauce.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Is there a price associated with Moore?
Speaker 4 (38:54):
Twenty nine is what I'm seeing?
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Okay, I'm seeing the same exact price here where I am.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
What you seeing, ben, Oh, I'll play reindeer games.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
These are not reindeer games. These are butter chicken games.
Just putting that point of order copy.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
So with the public browser, I'm seeing four thirty nine,
and with the proxies I'm seeing for twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Hang on a tick, I've got four to seventy nine
on Kroger's official website. But then in the little sidebar
in my Chrome browser, I'm seeing in stock Nearby for
seventy nine, door Dash for seventy nine. Okay, thatspicuous. I
told you, dude for Cary nine on Instacart. But that's
(39:38):
that's gonna probably wait wait waitter in their delivery fees.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Wait four ninety, I've got five nineteen on Instacart.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Well, Well, if we're talking about dynamic pricing, the grocery
delivery systems are going to be a black box and
are definitely going to take into account your ability to pay.
I have no question in my mind that that's the case.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
And I'm like, where this is going? Gay, I don't
know what character that.
Speaker 6 (40:05):
I have four thirty nine by the way, at my
local croker.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Oh, thank you, ten ten cents more for you ha ha.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Yeah, weird, I've got You can even sidebar further to
a price. Compare columned View and it goes all the
way from four to seventy nine to five twenty nine,
and all of them say they're out of stock online
except for uh one local Kroger. Oh jeez.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
And this doesn't even take into account the other spices.
You're gonna need to make that butter chicken delicious. Not
that butter chicken alone. It's not delicious. It just needs
a kick, right. Uh. Anyway, thank you so much messenger
for calling in. We're gonna move on. We're gonna hear
word from our sponsor, and then we'll be right back
with more messages from you.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Guys. We've returned in. Before we do the last act
of our weekly listener mail segment, wanted to share some
breaking news. The world's largest aircraft carrier, which Uncle Sam owns,
has been deployed to the Caribbean. This may not be
the best time to get a Bemeny road address. Is
(41:18):
this a negotiation tactic? Is this, as many of our
fellow conspiracy realists have asked us earlier, is this a
move toward a upcoming war. I've got to tell you
a shout out to Chance who asked us the following.
The bottom line for starting a war to secure the
(41:40):
democratic erosion of the United States government seems pretty far fetched,
but does it? These carriers are serious business, you guys.
You can't just willy nilly put them around, or can you?
Speaker 4 (41:53):
I don't know, can you?
Speaker 3 (41:56):
No?
Speaker 2 (41:56):
And something's been really helpful for me to visualize. This
is our little journey we took on a cruise liner.
If you just imagine the size of that thing, right,
the weight of it, you know, how fast it can travel.
I'm imagining now just the sheer, size and speed of
an aircraft carrier. And how long it takes to deploy
something like that. I'm assuming Ben, it would take a
(42:18):
long time.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Well, we're going to see for sure. That has nothing
to do with anything. It's just breaking news on November twelfth,
and we'll see how it goes. There may be an
episode about war in the future spoiler not to be
too judge holden about it, but there's always war. It's
a very human thing. Let's go, let's go to Miro
(42:42):
from Canada and Miro, you specifically yet something that's stuck
out regarding food price conspiracies a recent episode we did
that I believe speaks to our earlier conversation. So, Miro,
you say, I'm catching up on your podcast and regarding
your episode about the food price conspiracy, you guys mentioned
(43:06):
price controls. I am currently traveling in Europe and several
of the countries I've been in have this same issue.
They have tried price controls, specifically Serbia, Hungary and Romania.
The ultimate outcome is prices drop for a month or two,
and then prices return to their heavily inflated levels after
(43:29):
another month or two transpires a two month drop two
months later tickety boo, which I said, not you, Miro,
I just like the phrase. So multiple people, you say, Miro,
have told me that essentially, when price controls are brought in,
the logical outcome is an election is around the corner.
(43:49):
As multiple times they've been done for a government to
maintain support or regain support through an act of propaganda.
Now I want to pause there. That's why I'm set
there's a method to the madness. That's why I'm setting
up the idea of war before an election, or to
stop an election. Price controls could be a very similar thing.
(44:10):
In Miro, you are telling us that locals told you
this happens before elections in European countries. I don't know.
I think it's it reminds me of our gas prices conversations. Right,
that's one thing here in the United States, for anyone unfamiliar,
that's one thing that always goes to the forefront. In
(44:32):
recent decades, you got an independent, a Democrat, or Republican
running against each other. Whomever is currently you know, King
You of the Hill at the White House is going
to get what are those dumb political words they use
in both articles, snow compound over gas prices.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
Yeah, all that sounds dirty, especially the October surprise.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Yeah, I see that. I could see that as a thing.
I don't know that I've personally seen it here in
the US though, just but I know that though the
talking points become look how low the gas is right now,
Look how great the stock market is right now and
all that, So you need to vote for the incumbent
whoever's in.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
There, right. Yeah, those are two distinct examples. So the
gas price thing happens more often in the United States.
The grocery store or the food price thing. That grift
occurs more often with our friends across the pond. And
the reason it can't really occur here is because entering
(45:38):
in price controls in the modern political climate for the
United States would be political suicide for anyone proposing it.
It would have too many shades of Soviet era stuff
that could be weaponized against anybody acting in good faith.
We do know that there have been price controls in
(46:01):
the United States time and time again historically. Let's think
about you know, let us never forget our favorite secret
cheese cave, right, let us never forget price controls put
on things that went the wrong way in US history,
like the Great Depression. You know, we had people pouring
(46:22):
out milk. We had people slaughtering pigs in the countryside
while innocent folks starved in the cities. It's just it's
a very dangerous game. It's very It's like if mousetrap
wasn't fun, and I don't know how much fun mousetrap was.
It takes forever to set up.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
I always just like triggering it. I never actually played
the game once, I don't think. But Ben, is this
figure in any way, this idea of price control into
like all of the hullaballoo made about what the FED
does and a lot of like pressure on the FED
to lower interest rates? And is that a form of
price control? Is it effective?
Speaker 3 (47:01):
It's a great question, and I love to oppose you
this because maybe if we think through analogy of FED,
the Federal control of the basic rate, the lay of
the land financially, the FED control there is less like
directly controlling the cost of a commodity, good, or service.
(47:24):
Think of those as individual faucets, and the Fed's control
of the rate determines the water pressure. I am weirdly
in love with that analogy.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
It is so imperfect well that it's the closest I've
come to wrapping my head around, and so thank you.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
They change the water pressure, that's it, and empires rise
and fall off of it. I don't want to sound
too specifically on one side or another, but I think
we can all agree that price controls in an unnuanced
way can be disastrous, especially if antitrust laws hold. Now,
(48:05):
if we're entering an era similar to the Gilded Age,
right where one entity can control all of a given
thing in a market, then maybe price controls do need
to exist, you know, and unfortunately this country is rapidly
heading toward that horizon.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
You do we need, guys, we need two thousand dollars
a month for every American?
Speaker 3 (48:31):
Is it every month or is a one month every month? Yeah,
but that doesn't make economic sense because we're talking after
a certain amount of time, that's going to be more
expensive than the tariffs.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Huh Oh, that's weird.
Speaker 4 (48:45):
I don't understand money.
Speaker 3 (48:47):
I don't think we should have to understand money. It
is a religion and.
Speaker 4 (48:51):
A ten thousand dollars bonus every air traffic controller that
didn't ask questions?
Speaker 2 (48:56):
How about forty three thousand from every member of ICE.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
And a chicken in every pot, just like we said
during the Great Depression, which was awesome. Nobody will look
that up. Yeah, thanks, Still in two thousand ben bucks negotiable,
negotiable at your point of sale, point of origin, folks.
We want to hear from you. We want to hear
(49:20):
your experience, especially if you haven't, if you've lived other
in places that are not the US. We want to
hear your experience with price controls. We want to hear
your experience with the current debacle that we talked about
in a previous Strange News segment, the ongoing debate regarding
(49:40):
food assistance to Americans, especially innocent Americans children, forty two
million people who have Thanksgiving right around the corner. Tell
us what you think. Please feel free to be absolutely honest.
We would love to hear from you if you are
for it, if you're against it. Why we want to
(50:00):
know what you think about shrinkflation. That's a huge thing.
That's a little sneakier than a straight up price hike.
We can't wait for you to tell us your experience
with these episodes and what's going on in your neck
of the global woods. And guys, gents, my fellow Americans,
if it's okay, I would like for us to end
(50:23):
listener mail on a real quick letter from home. Oh please,
Aging Ginger writes to us, Yeah, and is accidentally in
our heads, or at least a mind from a weird
pitch a few years ago. Gentlemen, says Aging Ginger, I
truly hope this email doesn't get me blacklisted. I just
(50:46):
had a thought, as we are headed into the holiday season,
wouldn't it be a most excellent time for you all
to pick up a show sponsorship from Reynold's Aluminum foil
what strictly tongue in cheek yours, cheekily aging.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Ginger, didn't we try that or we want it?
Speaker 3 (51:04):
Yes? I just I don't know, we think I think,
uh well, we were first pitching that to each other.
We had that moment where, uh so we're we're not
the average bears, right, so we're cut from a different cloth,
and that sometimes works for us, and it sometimes puts
(51:24):
us in awkward situations in calls with our bosses. I'm
thinking specifically, at the time, we pitched a little bit
of foil uh to someone who told us no names here,
but someone who told us, you, guys, blue Sky it
anything is up, anything, just give us your best ideas.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
And they loved the idea too, right, They loved it
and like rentals rap, hit us up.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
We if I love it. I recall that after we
set the idea, we had this meeting of the stuff
we were most excited about we diplomatically got told yeah,
guys again, if you look at the earlier email, we
said send your best idea. Yeah, are these your best ideas?
(52:17):
And we were like, yeah, who doesn't use timfoil?
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Okay, look, we got a couple of assignments for you.
We said it at the top of this episode. Please
leave us a review wherever you're listening to this. The
second assignment, go to our Instagram Conspiracy Stuff Show and
go back to March seventeenth, twenty twenty three and watch
the reel that features our own mister Ben Bolin with
(52:42):
a lot of aluminum foil. It's incredible. It is worth
your time.
Speaker 3 (52:46):
It's a commercial that did not make it to the
Super Bowl, but we hope you enjoy it. We also
want you to know how much we enjoy hearing from you.
So thank you not only to Aging Ginger, who is
a brilliant advertiser, but thank you to Miro, thank you
doing conspicuous, to Icelandic Volcano Nerd, and of course to
(53:06):
Messager and everybody else. Picture us in a weird triumvirate
or quadjumvirant a word. We're just going to churchify here,
Uncle Sam. Type a sign pointing you directly, you specifically,
and saying join up with us, join stuff they don't
want you to know. Give us your thoughts on any
and all things. You can always send us an email.
(53:29):
You can always give us a telephone call. You can
always find us on the lines.
Speaker 4 (53:33):
That's right, find us on the lines. The handle Conspiracy
Stuff where we exist on Facebook with our Facebook group
here's where it gets crazy. On x fka, Twitter, and
on YouTube where we have videos for youtub perus to
your heart's content. On Instagram and TikTok. However, we're Conspiracy
Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
We have a phone number and you could call it
and reach our voicemail line. It is one eight three
three std WYTK Quick story. Guys, love that we're talking
about aluminum foil. My son and I have been listening
to a lot of weird al lately. Guess what our
favorite song is with.
Speaker 4 (54:06):
Alluminum fi Yes, it is an incredible song.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
Why don't you call in tell us your favorite weird
as song or your favorite song related to aluminum foil.
If you want to do that, you can told you
how to do it. If you want to send us
an email, you can do that too.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence
we receive. Now, folks went over a lot of stuff today.
I would love to hear your favorite kind of specific
holiday folklored. No spoilers, but write to us and it
may end up inform a bit of an adventure here
(54:47):
at the end of the year. Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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