December 30, 2021 • 59 mins
What exactly is China doing on the African continent? How can we best interpret near-death experiences? Why did one listener happen to come across a ghostly episode of Stuff They Don't Want You To Know on the radio? All this and more in this week's listener mail.
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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 I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show.
(00:25):
My name is Matt, my name is Noel. They called
me Ben. We are joined as always with our super
producer Alexis code named Doc Holiday Jackson. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here, and that makes this the
stuff they don't want you to know. It is the
last listener mail segment of the year. It is twenty Yes,
(00:47):
the next time you hear this, it will be twenty
twenty two. If you are tuning into each of these
as these each come out, and uh, well keep these voicemails,
keep these emails coming. Uh we love hearing from you.
We have got some strange places to go in in
(01:08):
today's show. So we're going to see what lies beyond
the boundaries of death. We're going to see what lies
beyond the horizon the geopolitical future, and then we're going
to quite literally hear some strange things. You might see
some strange things as well. I suggest that we begin
at the end. For a great many people Uh, and
(01:31):
that that is the idea of death. I always know that. Unfortunately,
suicide does tend to spike towards the end of the year. Um.
People have a lot of challenging things. Everyone is fighting
a great battle that you probably don't know about unless
you are that person. And Uh, it makes me think
of Voltaire who famously asked, I believe it was Voltaire asked,
(01:55):
why are we afraid of death? Were we afraid of
being born? It's a question that's very difficult to answer.
But a lot of our fellow conspiracy realists listening along
today have had near death experiences. UM. And I I
think that, you know, without putting a spotlight on any
of us, I don't know about you guys, but I've
(02:17):
had some things like that that I can't explain because
I have often, you know, had some ill informed misadventures.
But we are here, we are with you. In the
last week, and uh, you know, we received this excellent
We had a lot of people writing into us about
things concerning reincarnation, things concerning you know the great question
(02:39):
of what happens when your body and your mind appear
to leave this mortal coil. Uh, And quite recently received
an excellent story about this, but I think no this
this also has a mention of something else you found
interesting that is more disease related than death related. Right
and times we're talking about death and disease um with
(03:01):
this listener mail. It's the double whammy. And it comes
from listener who'd like to be referred to as almost
widowed that as a specific nickname tied to this particular story,
Almost widowed rights. My husband was completely against the COVID
nineteen vaccine. I was vaccinated with a trial vaccine, novavax.
I'd love an episode on that, and I do believe
that it's very much worth that. Uh Well, in September,
(03:24):
our oldest son, fourteen, got sick from school. He was
COVID positive. We all got tested. My husband and youngest
son also tested positive. My daughter and I did not,
so we all tried to separate, but the damage was done.
We all ended up getting it. I went to the
hospital um September twenty nine. My husband came to the
hospital the same day and was admitted. Shout out to
my best friend for caring for the house, kids and
(03:46):
animals when we were both sick. I was on a
low amount of oxygen for a few days, went home
October three. On October four, however, my husband was placed
on a ventilator. UH. Things were very rough for us.
Then on October eleven, he was transferred up to Atlanta.
We live in Columbus, UH to go to Emory University
for e c M O ECMO, which is a thing
(04:06):
that was mentioned in the last Strange News episode. Been
your story about how pig anuses can help with oxygenation
of the blood potentially. UM, So if you haven't checked
that one out, very much worthwhile. Also shout out to
Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. Absolutely, it was a
long road do do do do with many d's, UM,
but I did get him back home on December two,
(04:29):
Thank the Lord. UM. Before we get to the near
death experience story, I just want to mention this um
no vax nova vax Rather, I did not realize this
was a experimental uh covid vaccine that held clinical trials
here in the US. And then the results from this
phase three clinical trial that enrolled around thirty thousand adults
(04:51):
in the US and Mexico showed that the quote investigational
vaccine known as nv x DASH c o V two
three seven three showed a ninety point four percent efficiency
in preventing symptomatic COVID nineteen disease UM, and the candidates
also showed a hundred percent protection against moderate and severe
(05:13):
disease UH and in people at high risk of developing
complications from COVID nineteen people sixty five years and older UH,
and people under the age of sixty five with certain
COMORBIDIT ease like regular exposure to COVID nineteen. The vaccine
also was very effective and showing ninety one percent efficacy
and preventing symptomatic COVID nineteen UH. The US clinical trial
(05:34):
results show that it is safe and it does appear
to be very close. This company, Novak's, which is based
in Maryland, is very close to getting approval for this vaccine,
which would make it UH the five I think UM
approved vaccine here in the United States. If I'm not mistaken,
maybe it's yeah, it's definitely EU. But this is something
(05:56):
that would potentially UM come to the United States. So
UH shout out to almost widowed for participating in this
clinical trial and it apparently worked so well. I guess
it could have been a placebo though, right, isn't that
part of the risky run in participating in a clinical
trial you might not get the real thing, right, Yeah,
Typically if you're part of the control group, then you
(06:18):
might not get the h the actual thing they're testing.
So we need to learn more about the specifics of
that trial. But just to be clear to everybody, yes,
novavax real vaccine. It works in a different way, which
is something we can talk about later, which if I'm fascinating,
But it is definitely not nova locks. That is something different.
(06:39):
It is not effective against against the COVID ninteam um
virus to Oh yeah, I'm saying if only it were,
I would be a happy boy. That is some good stuff.
I recently went to New York City for fun. I
got out of there too, which seems to be a
pattern for me. Right before the COVID hit the fan
(06:59):
he had again. Now literally week after I've been there,
everything is closing down again and people are not having
a particularly great time in New York City. Um. Anyway,
going to the death part of the story, back to
the letter, my husband I believe had a near death
experience when he was finally woken up from all the drugs.
He was asking for his Bible. Now, my husband has
(07:20):
never been a religious man, but I brought up two bibles,
my Bible along with his family's Bible. I also gave
the hospital staff some YouTube videos to quote read the
Bible to him. They would turn it on for him,
sit the computer on his shoulder, and every time a
nurse would come in he would get their attention. He
still couldn't talk, so all of this was mouthed. It
took quite some time before he could speak, and I
(07:43):
would ask him why he was asking for a Bible.
He told me that he had dreams over and over
again that he was dying and my father and I
were there and we went toward the light, and he
went to hell. He saw himself die multiple times, and
he could tell he was being tormented in Hell. He
doesn't talk about it much, and I don't want to
(08:03):
push the issue because I know he's still trying to heal.
But I certainly believe this falls into the quote near
death experience. I love the show. Y'all are amazing. Feel
free to use my email code name whatever you want.
Almost widowed. Um, Yeah, I mean this whole going into
the light thing like it's all so fascinating, uh, in
(08:26):
that it appears to be a shared experience for many,
many people who are on their deathbed or on death's door.
I guess as it were. Um. Not not making light
of this at all, but it reminds me of a
scene in my Obligatory Sopranos reference where Michael Imperioli's character
(08:47):
Christopher multi Santi Uh is in the hospital. Um. No spoilers,
but he is in the hospital, UM, and he says,
I saw the tunnel and the white light, I saw
my father in hell, and the bouncer said that I'd
be there too when my time comes, to which Pauli
Walnuts asked what bouncer, and then Christopher says, the Emerald Piper,
(09:08):
that's our hell. It's an Irish bar where at St
Patrick's day every day forever, um, because you know they're
Italian and they don't care for the Irish. But yeah,
I mean, it is such an interesting shared experience in
the same way that people who takes a d M
t UM apparently have very very similar experiences where they
(09:29):
have these like sort of spirit guides that sort of
you know, guide them through this very very intense psychedelic experience,
and oftentimes they emerge from it feeling like they have
learned this like unlearnable life lesson and a lot of
people that do that one time they say they don't
ever need to do it again because it's sort of
like a one and done kind of situation, and it
reminds me of of a near death experience. Almost. Yeah,
(09:52):
what was that? You know, Matt, We had a phenomenal
interview with Professor Ethan Needelman, the creator of the show Psychoactive,
and I don't remember if it's I don't think it's
come out yet, but he was he was telling us
much the same thing, not just with kadamine and d
(10:13):
m T, but there was there was another thing that
he hipped us to. Uh, you know what, fellow conspiracy realists,
We're just gonna have to wait till the interview comes
out because I don't I don't remember, well, I can't
wait to hear it because I was unfortunately not not
present for that one. But it sounded like a fascinating interview.
He's a great guy. But bringing that up to say,
(10:33):
you know, almost widowed first, thank goodness that your husband
pulled through a lot of people didn't um and to
hold him close while you can. Fascinating thing here is
that there is a lot of research on near death
experiences and like you said, no, uh, it is a
transformative experience for the majority of people who who have
(10:57):
a vision or come back with some sort of memory.
And you know, we often hear the stereotypes so widely
quoted in works of fiction of seeing the light of
being politely told that it's not your time to go.
But if you'd like to learn more about the other side,
distressing your death experiences, there is an excellent article in
(11:20):
Missouri Medicine, which is a journal from the Missouri State
Medical Association, called Distressing Your Death Experiences the Basics, and
they documented three types of these unpleasant in d ease, inverse, void,
and hellish. And this is a scientific journal, so yes,
so they've put they put the time in and I
(11:42):
recommend reading that to get some stats and to get
a sense of the pattern. I think you would find
especially interesting for you and your spouse. Uh, the way
they break down the responses, not just those three types
of experiences, but types of response which they categorize as
the turnaround or you know, saying I needed that and
(12:05):
I will be different now reductionism, which is saying like, well,
you know, I know a little bit about neuro chemicals,
and I know a little bit about the working of
the brain, so I can scientifically explain this away. Or
three the long haul, which is more of a big
picture Look what did I What did I do? Because
(12:26):
this experience stays with people. It doesn't have to even
if you consider yourself a hard hardcore atheists or whatever
you want to call it. The thing is that that
doesn't make the PTSD of these kinds of experiences any
less real, and it can stay with people, it can
haunt you, agreed. And it also not not to harp
on this whole psychedelic angle, but it makes sense that
(12:48):
psychedelic drugs are substances are very popular or apparently very
effective to ease people and end of life situations into
that transit ship into that light, the one where you
actually do go through. Because it does appear that people
can have these types of visions and types of you know,
(13:08):
transformative experiences with doses of certain doses of psychedelics. So
I definitely understand why that would be a valuable way
to kind of get someone to not maybe have a
hellish experience. You know, we recently got a call from John,
who's a person who talked to us before about ketamine
use and you know, yes, stopping addiction a couple of
(13:32):
other things, and he recently called back to talk to
us about reincarnation. But that conversation really actually dovetails nicely
into this, just with how in his use of the
substance he has found just a almost a oneness with
what he describes as infinite energy, and how it really
does as you're describing their noal, um, it's eased the
(13:54):
way he imagines life or existence upon corporeal death. Um,
So I can just see that matching up really well
and shout out to you or like or like Aldus Huxley,
who had one of the most baller ways of leaving
the mortal plane ever. You guys may remember the story.
(14:15):
Huxley was bedridden. He was he had been experimenting with
UH psychedelics later in life, and he was dying of
I believe, terminal cancer. So he requested that his wife
give him a hundred micrograms of LSD I. I think
that's a lot, right. What's the usual dosage of L
(14:38):
s D I think it's many many fewer micrograms than that.
I'm sure. Um. I've also heard that it's not the
best way to take the drug to have it injected. Uh,
and then it could maybe No, I don't know. No, No No,
it wasn't LSD. It was somebody injected themselves with psilocybin
(14:59):
and caused the spores to like grow inside of your
body and cause some kind of horrible, horrible blood infection.
Uh So maybe LSD being more of a you know,
synthesized substance rather than an organic thing that can grow
within you a fungus essentially, maybe it's better that way.
But also, you know, just in general, don't do drugs,
(15:21):
everybody know for sure. But unless you don't do don't
do drugs. Everybody is doing some sort of drug. It's
very rare to not be doing something, even if it's
like aspirin or caffeine. You know, caffeine is delicious. Yeah, um,
what is that? It's a boy? I would never I
(15:41):
would never. You will never catch me drinking? Okay, fair enough.
I don't care for the stuff. It tastes like vinegar. Um.
But thank you so much, Almost widowed and really glad
that your husband's doing better, and UM glad to hear
that in some way, perhaps this was a valuable experience.
UM if a little bit scary it. Um, we're gonna
take a quick break and then we'll be back with
(16:02):
some more messages from you. And we have returned as always.
I want to thank everybody who has reached out, especially
this past year, and in my case especially over over
(16:22):
the last month and change. Reached out just on a
personal level. You can always do so. I'm at ben
Bowling on Instagram at ben Bowling hs W and I
want to give a particular shout out to someone who
brought up a subject of endless fascination for me at
least I hope it will fascinating or fellow listeners as well.
(16:44):
This comes from S that pauses intentional. It is dot
dot dot st for the gravitas, right, So so they
got me. But here we go. Here's here's what S
wrote to us to say, Hey you all, uh fun fact,
(17:05):
I have a very difficult time pronouncing the contraction you all.
It's embarrassing. I've tried. Um. A lot of people assume
everyone in the South can say it. I cannot, So
hey can you? I just want to hear it. It's
really embarrassing. Yeah, really, Yes, you can ask our good
(17:27):
friend Lauren Vogelbaum if you need confirmation. Nola has probably
seen me try to pronounce it too. So I am
a North American white girl who recently had the benefit
of being educated on some going on in Africa by
my colleagues from Zimbabwe and Nairobi, specifically China. Apparently China
Chinese corporations have been supplying grants to African governments to
(17:51):
build infrastructure. This is confirmed by a couple of sources
linked below. And this is what I love about emails.
S I love when people are able to send us
those links, to send us those photographs of whatever you saw,
whether it's a strange thing in the sky or creepy
government installation. That I think is one of the primary
advantages of email. So we've got these links, and s says,
(18:14):
now here's where it gets crazy. The Diplomat article that
she said suggests this is not just global capitalism and action,
but it's a power grab. China is using these grants
to lean on African countries for those sweet, sweet U
N votes. But here's where it gets crazier. My colleagues
tell me these grants are actually being funneled back to
(18:36):
China as the infrastructure is built by Chinese corporations who
don't even hire locals, They just import their own staff
from Asia. And this extends after the project is done
due to the maintenance contracts. You need a wallpainted, no problem,
They'll fly in a painter from China. Now here's where
it gets crazy er er. They tell me that this
(18:57):
extends beyond the build site to the Chinese corporate rations,
even bringing street vendors into the community to replace the
local vendors. I wasn't able to verify this myself, so
I'm punting it to you. What do you think conspiracy
to basically turn African countries into Chinese satellite states wouldn't
be the first time Africa has been in this position
(19:17):
by reducing the population to vassals and the government's devoting
blocks or just good old global capitalism. Sorry for the
long email, Love the show. Feel free to read this
on air. You can call me s well S, just
just for the sake of dead air. I think we're
gonna hold on the pause now that we all know
you're the s we're talking about. Uh, this This segment
(19:41):
is brought to you by the letter in the person s.
We have talked about China in Africa in the past.
We have a classic episode on this highly recommend checking
it out. But this is going to become an increasingly
important issue as the years while on, as long as
people are still functioning under the current global power structure.
(20:03):
But the problem with this, like so many issues reported
in mainstream media, is that the view presented is often
pretty simplistic anti colonialism stance. People get that now, we
can all agree colonialism was bad, but there is zenobia
that goes into this. There's a lot of like big
bad China reporting, you know, and and look, don't get
(20:27):
us wrong, don't get it twisted here. China is doing
bad stuff. They're weaker concentration camps as we're recording. And
if saying that on air means that I can't get
to China, then that's fine because it's true, and I
would rather get you know, I would rather be prevented
from going to a country because I said something true,
you know what I mean. And that's just an ethical standpoint.
(20:50):
And of course the US has hasn't is doing terrible,
terrible things. Both domestically and abroad. So there is the
argument to be made there's a little bit of a
glasshouse situation sometimes, but that doesn't mean what it is
happening on the African continent is not true. We have
talked about the ways in which those infrastructures, those infrastructure
(21:13):
deals and loans can be used to boost the Chinese
economy at the expense of a lot of just the
regular people living in some of these countries and regions
on an enormous and diverse continent. You know, it's not.
The sad truth of the matter is often in international
(21:33):
deals with with authoritarian countries, at least the people at
the very top, at the tippy top will make gangbusters
about the money, and the people to bottom won't see
too much of a change. Like, yeah, you're building a road,
but what good is the road if it just goes
from the port to the mind, right, and there's not
(21:54):
there's not a road paved to like the place where
the people live. Uh, this is a problem. This does
accelerate racist attitudes on all sides and serious and I
would say valid concerns about inequality. But while that is
while while that complicated, nuanced system is true, it's in place,
(22:17):
and we'll talk about a bigger picture of this, something
called one Belt one Road, which you may have heard
of if you, you know, study Chinese foreign policy and
for an infrastructure, etcetera. Uh. One question that really stood
out to me that s has proposed here is the
idea that this economic assistance could be used to influence
(22:44):
conversation and policy in the United Nations. And after doing
just a little bit of reading, because this this definitely
One Belt one Road in the U n is its
own episode and it's one of those episodes that will
be I think of a creasing value over the next decade.
But one thing you released about is uh, I'm persuaded
(23:07):
that it's true. Now I'm persuaded the conspiracy is real.
There's a great Wall Street Journal article that came out
in September of last year called how China is taking
over international organizations one vote at a time. Now, this
is not the same thing, not not quite the same
thing as say, China Chinese officials going to Zimbabwe and
(23:30):
saying you need to vote this way on the weaker
situation or something like that. Uh. What it is a
piece of that, But it's also noting that Beijing is
exerting more control over the committees in the United Nations.
So United Nations has you know, you've heard things like
(23:53):
the Food and Culture Organization. They have things like the
Industrial Development Organization. Things like if you are if you're
a country and you're just a u N member, you
end up being a member of those organizations. Hopefully this
same way that senators and members of Congress get a
lot of power from the committees that they join. Right.
(24:14):
That's why people want to be on the Intelligence Committee
because it gives you some heft. You know you want
and you know you want to be on the Budget
committee to write, Always be on the Budget committee. Always
be on the budget and uh. This is to some
who are more averse to China's international growth, this has
been seen as a something like a sneaky tactic or
(24:38):
something even phrased as you know, a new front in
a new Cold War, which you could say as little alarmists.
But the tendencies are there. Uh. China has a pretty
good catbird seat in the U N. And some of
this development because it's the world's second largest economy, but
it's still often pays discounted funding rates because it is
(25:02):
considered a developing nation, so like in as Wall Street
Journal points out, and this article, by the way, is
by three authors Kato'keith, Drew Hinshaw at yaroslav Trophy, mov
this nice Russian accent, thanks man. Maybe maybe I can, uh,
maybe I can get into China from Russia. Problem for
(25:24):
another day. But so in China contributed one point three
billion US dollars equivalent to the U N and the
US the same year contributed ten billion. Uh. It's hard
to grasp the difference of billions, but just know that
a billion is a lot of money. A billion is
(25:44):
too much money for any one person. Basically, uh, maybe
I can, Maybe I can't get into Amazon now having
said that to Jeff, sorry Pale, thirty trials up, thirty days,
trial is up. I need my need my petition Prime service.
So so what do you guys think? First off, I've
made my initial conclusion clear, and of course I'm always
(26:07):
glad to go back and modify those opinions if new
information emerges. But do you think it's possible that China maybe,
uh maybe making these deals with African countries and then
later kind of voluntelling those countries. How to vote in
the UIT. I mean, I can totally see that position
(26:28):
right logically, those those things follow. I have a hard
time getting my mind out of the resource extraction argument
for why, you know, China's motivations behind their actions in
in Africa just from our previous conversation been about steel production,
and I think it's manganese that is needed that in
(26:49):
certain parts of Africa, cobalt that they're extracting, and what's
the coltan? Is that the one for electronics? There's another
C word that exists in a specific part of Africa
that China is just ripping out of the ground to
use an electronics manufacturing Yeah, Colton, Uh, they use gold
mining techniques and there's also a big slavery child slavery
(27:12):
problem with it, and like the DRC and so on. Yes,
but it's I remember that was one of the main
reasons we had covered China and their activities in Africa.
I'm just saying I'm having a difficult time ripping my
mind out of that being their primary reasoning. But I
can totally see I mean, if you're making that kind
of investment in a country, if there are actual benefits,
(27:36):
even to the upper echelon of the leaders of specific
countries within Africa. Then I can imagine them having that
kind of sway just just I mean, it doesn't need
to be as you know, it doesn't mean to be
super complicated. It's just they're bringing in tons of money
that a few key people are benefiting from, and then
they could have that diplomatic movement. I think, yeah, yeah,
(27:58):
And there's I mean, there's deathly resource extraction going on.
The position of the Chinese government is that there is
somewhat more altruistic, right that they're trying to help people
while also you know, making moves that are good for
their own economy. Uh. I believe it was. It was
(28:18):
an Indian academic, a guy named Brahma Chilani, who first
introduced them. The theory of a Chinese debt trapp diplomacy,
which is sort of company storing people into compliance that
has been at least by a lot of people in
(28:39):
the West. That has been considered debunked recently, and you
can read some interesting articles about that on the China
Africa project dot com, which, by the way, if you
can tell from the headline, is a somewhat bias source,
but there's also reporting from places like the BBC. There's
an excellent article assummation of this. UH are defensive this
(29:02):
position by dickens Alowe, who wrote an article called why
African Countries back China on Human Rights? I recommend reading
that at this point, the issue here is really one
of perspective. Yes, resource extraction is occurring. Yes, there is
(29:24):
the high potential for forming voting blocks, and that's not
something original to China though, right other countries do that,
the US does that UH and you can see it
in controversial issues. Almost any time un vote comes up
(29:44):
that goes for or against one country's interests, then they
both scramble to see how many clients states, let's be honest,
they can they can force to vote on their side.
So to me, that conspiracy is both plausible and real,
and it is probably happening. The question is to what
degree is that happening? And then the question also becomes
(30:09):
what what is the individual situation for each of those
countries who are maybe voting with the Chinese stance in
the u N are they Are they doing it because
they genuinely agree with some ideological point, or are they
doing that because it is a condition, even if not
explicitly written out. It's a condition of the deal they have.
(30:30):
It's hard to tell. Trying really hard not to be
extra super massively cynical about all of this been and
just like apply it to everybody and analyze how everyone's voting.
Which master is pulling the puppet strings in this scenario. Well, here,
here's here's the key, here's the key. Math. It's the
puppet that's pulling the puppet strings. You don't ever even
see the master. It's just another puppet. Yeah, it's puppets
(30:55):
all the way down and all the way up. That's
very special type of born. It's it's mitro Chica puppets. Man,
there's also a little puppet inside the other puppet. It's
like a puppet mech uh, We're I mean, but that like, honestly,
there is a complex web of stakeholders interest competing interests.
(31:16):
But here's why I love this questions, and here's why
this question is so incredibly important to ask. There is
right now an enormous global level infrastructure project that's happening,
and it's um I would say it's not getting to
due of fair reporting in the West. It's something called
(31:40):
the One Belt, One Road Initiative. We know about the
Silk Road, the famous transit route. Oh actually have some
books on that somewhere, the famous transit route from the
Chinese mainland through Central Asia getting to Europe. Right, that's
how Spice has moved so jade. Things like that, and
(32:02):
that occupies a place in history. Now, you will be
hard pressed to find someone who says Samarkand is these
days a hub of global trade. They're probably more likely
to name something like London, you know, and then shout
out to how this concern has been building for a while.
It made me re read one of these books, Africa's
(32:23):
Silk Road, which I'd like to recommend to us if
you haven't read, it's yet China and India's New Economic
Frontier by Harry G. Broadman. But once you note something
very interesting the printer the imprint on this, I don't
know if it's reversed or if you can read it.
It says the World Banks. When you get into these conversations,
(32:47):
uh right, Uh, you know, recently in recent years under
the Trump administration, uh, the US was told to withdraw
from some international organizations like the World Health Organization that
are known as the less famous who and this this
(33:08):
prompted fears that it would be an opportunity for the
for the government of China to expand into the vacuum
that was left behind. The One Belt, One Road initiative
is sort of a new Silk Road, and it's tremendously
fascinating if you are if you're into foreign policy and
(33:30):
you're into the long term effects of this, it will
affect you if you're in the US. By the way,
we just don't know how yet. The Silk Road economic
belt is. It's like this massive new on steroids version
in the Silk Road. We're talking rail, We're talking new
inner states that are providing all this ground transportation to
these landlocked areas going through these historical trade routes using
(33:54):
those old mountain passes. UH. This is incredibly controversial because
a lot of the countries affected by this, in Central
Asia are the people aren't necessarily behind it. They're big
protests in Pakistan as we're recording this UH and the
this system, this one Belt one Road is going or
(34:15):
is meant to go to Africa, to the African continent
as well, prompting no small amount of fear in local populations.
And each country is handling this differently because despite what
I know, I keep saying mainstream news here, but I'm
not using this hyperbolically, but mainstream news in the US
often has a terrible habit of acting like these countries
(34:39):
are not somehow very different from each other, you know, culturally, economically,
they're incredibly different, And it's weird for that oversight to occur.
I don't know if it's intentionally misleading or if they
just have a certain amount of time when they're talking
on the news, but it's like, everybody who lives in
(34:59):
the US knows that Mississippi is culturally very different from
New York. So why would we assume that a continent
of so many nations with huge populations in some cases,
why would they all be same e same? You think
people are usually saying that people have a tendency to
generalize overly, so because it's easier on their brains. Perhaps
(35:22):
it is absolutely a mistake to do that, Um, but
I think we all do it from time to time.
You're absolutely right, then, but something to always be self
aware about not not a good thing to do. Yeah,
you're right, you're right and well said. We know that
multiple countries in the Africa on the African count have
signed some kind of cooperation agreement for one Belt one Road.
(35:46):
The big question is how extreme will this support become.
Could could a sovereign nation be compelled to vote even
against its own interest in the international sphere year this
this can be dry for people who are maybe not
as nerdy about this as as some I guess by
(36:08):
me included, But but it is important. A lot of
the real conspiracies in the world, the things that have
the most power and that will affect you most. Adversely,
a lot of them are meant to be boring by design.
They're meant to sound boring. You are not supposed to
watch the hand behind the curtain. And with that, I
(36:28):
propose that we consider this a future episode. We just
have to work on the timing. But we need to
talk about this more. The world needs to talk about
this more, because this influence is is something that couldn't
have happened on this level before the dawn of the
age of information and before these massive, logistically byzantine global
(36:54):
trade networks. So stay tuned. Thank you so much. S.
You can take a page from his book We Are
a Conspiracy. Diheart Radio dot com went eight three three
st d w y t K anytime you want to
drop us alide, but don't do it get because we're
gonna pause for word from our sponsor, and then we're
gonna send you some strange signals I hear. All right,
(37:22):
we're back and we're going to hear a message. Hi, guys,
I love your show. My name is Maggie, and I
just wanted to tell you a short little tale. It's
not really anything weird or something you would cover on
your show, but I thought you would appreciate it. A
couple of months ago, I was taking a really long drive,
like partially across the country, and it ended up being
(37:43):
a lot longer than I had planned for because of
traffic and other horrible things that have happened. So I
was driving, like in the middle of the night, and
I was so tired, and I was sick of listening
to like audio books of podcasts, and I just wanted
something different. So I turned on the AM on the
car AM radio because I thought maybe there was a
(38:05):
chance I could pick up something weird or different. You know,
because of the sky wave propagation. I'm sure you guys
know about that, where AM signals can travel farther than
normal at night. It was really scratchy, of course, like
a m is. I was flipping through a little bit
and it's so dark, and I'm right on like Lake Erie,
(38:28):
like near like Ripley, like in between Erie and like Dunkirk,
New York, and it's like the black darkness to my left. Okay,
of like Lake Erie. There's no lights there, and I
hear voices and they're talking about something weird. Was oh,
what is this? It's scratchy, guys, It was you. It
(38:50):
was stuff they don't want you to know. And I
was delighted. I thought you would be too. That I
was looking for something strange and unusual to keep me
awake on AM radio, and I assume that somebody was
illegally broadcasting it. I don't think that you guys are
on on any terrestrial radio that I'm aware of. Maybe
(39:11):
you know, Um, I don't know. I thought you would
like that and appreciate it. I was looking for something
weird and I got it. It only lasted a few
minutes before the signal faded out, but it was really
enjoyable and I always think about it when I listened
to your show. Um, keep up the good work. Okay,
thanks guys. Bye. Hey, Yeah, now, Matt, I mean, I'm
not an expert on the way you know, AM FM
(39:34):
frequencies interact, but I wouldn't be surprised if it could
have possibly been some bleed into an AM frequency from
an FM station that was maybe playing one of our
episodes on Oh we get played on AM stations. Yeah,
that's how the first stations we've ever we were ever
played on on trestro radio. We're AM stations because of
(39:56):
coast to coast. Uh it maybe we'll just se talk
Talk talk yep, that's coast to coast syndicated, so it
gets on a bunch of AM stations too. But uh,
this is awesome pirate radio right up our alley. I
hope that's what it is, Matt. I uh, you know,
when you tell me not to listen to some of
the advance, I do because always an amazing surprise. Yes, yes, Maggie,
(40:20):
We Are show is on terrestrial radio at various times,
and to be honest with you, we don't always know.
But but the skywave phenomenon is interesting because I believe
it happens at night, right, Yeah, yeah, that's saying at night,
(40:41):
right at night, it can they can travel further because
of the bounts sphere bouts. Yeah, exactly, and that's why,
you know, it's one of the reasons that listening to
AM radio in a storm is so great. Yes, you
get the weird little now you mentioned it. I never
realize this, but I do a lot of. I do
(41:02):
a lot of when I'm on road trips, I go
nocturnal unless if I have time. Then I won't drive
during the day and I just drive at night because
that's always when you find the interesting AM stations. And
I can't believe I never put that together, but especially
rural areas, I love it. Uh. That is part of
hidden America, and if we can be a part of that,
(41:25):
regardless of how small, then that is a proud moment
for us. I would say, right, let's be part of
modern folklore. Let's be a ghost baby station, dude, exactly.
So one of those like one of those numbers stations,
you know, like Yankee Hotel. Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah,
(41:45):
I want that. So, Maggie, thank you so much for
that wonderful message. It was just wonderfully put together, and
you have a fantastic voice. Good job. I wanted to
play that for these guys because I was I happened
to be reading a bunch of YouTube comments on our
YouTube channel, and you know, it's pretty overwhelming, just saying like,
where where did these guys go? What's happening? Why are they?
(42:06):
Why do I see their faces all the time now?
And you know, it just strikes me that people who
are listening to this right now maybe have been listening
for a long time, maybe have been watching for a
long time, maybe you're new, and anybody could be jumping
on at any point really to the show. And every time,
you know, we we don't know who we're calling out to.
(42:27):
Necessarily when we say you are you and you are here,
we know it's you. We're just not sure who you are.
That's a weird statement. But I mean the royal you, right,
like the the all encompassing you of the ether. But
I wanted to take yes, oh dude, yes, Oh. We
(42:48):
got a great message about that from somebody. Oh man,
somebody just told us on voicemail about how they it
was John, the same person talked about Kenemy. First time
he saw his wife walk into the school room where
he was, he felt he knew her immediately. You have
no idea who this person was, but he knew her
and fascinating phenomenon. Um So the reason I want to
(43:09):
bring this up is just to kind of at the
end of the year, let you know, Maggie how much
that message means to me personally, and I hope to
you guys too, just when we think about where we
are and where we you know, where we started, uh
way back in the day, gosh, I think I think
eleven twelve years ago when we started creating stuff they
(43:31):
don't want you to know. Um So I just want
to go over some of it, and if you guys
could help me fill in and just tell the story
a bit. I figured this would be a time to
do it if there was any right, um So, Noel,
forgive me. We're gonna start with just Ben and I
because that's where it began. And then you're gonna jump in.
If that's okay, you got it. So, oh man, Ben's
pulling Scully over and and this will be this will
(43:55):
be important at the end of this Uh yeah, okay,
So it's not the past, but I think will end
in the future. Yes, exactly. Starting in the past, Ben, Uh,
we were making videos. We needed to create a show
with video footage that we had from Discovery Channel. We
needed to find a way to make a show around
that concept. We came up with a conspiracy Unsolved Mysteries
(44:19):
style show and we created stuff they don't want you
to know, and we started making videos that went on iTunes.
They went into the iTunes video podcast feed, and that's
how it all began. I was producing all of those videos,
so actually editing and shooting the videos, and Ben, you
were writing and starring in them. Is that accurate? Uh?
(44:41):
Starring is very kind? Um, I mean the truth. Likely
think of things as a group project, and that's sometimes
sometimes to my detriment, but not not in that case.
And uh, I'm not saying it wasn't a group project.
I'm saying, yeah, you were. You were the voice. You
both wrote the voice in you and you spoke the voice.
Well yeah, And we we worked together on finding things
(45:05):
that we thought people hadn't heard about and should hear about,
and asking questions, lying critical thinking to the concept of
conspiracy theories, and we went into some very strange places
very quickly. Because I think our very first, our very
first pilot episode was we went into working on we said, Okay,
(45:26):
let's do JFK assassination by far the most popular widely
believed conspiracy theory in the US. UH. And then we
stopped for a second, and you and I had a
moment where we said, no, let's get weird with it.
Other people have done that. There's other stuff and uventual
flora instead. UH. And eventually we decided we thought, I
(45:51):
don't know about you. I thought we were going to
get fired in two weeks, but we decided to We
ended up moving to YouTube, and then we're doing more
videos and for a new one who doesn't know, Matt
is a maestro as in video and audio and production,
and so we were making at some point multiple videos
(46:12):
per week, and we had different formats. And then I
remember you and I may remember this differently, but I
kept trying to drag you on camera with me because
I was a period on camera a lot. We're doing
a vlog style format, which for very concrete reasons, we
hope you enjoyed. Uh. And then we would do stuff
(46:33):
like we all love sketch comedy too, and we do
stuff where I think one of my favorites was we
did a very cynical impression of presidential debates. Do you
remember that we did very early on in our own
YouTube channel, uh for sure, and we did that for
for what four years something like that some of my
(46:53):
favorite times. But really that was what Ben and I did.
We we worked on side projects, you know, made some
other videos. Been you can search YouTube for Ben Bull
and you will find him. He's everywhere. Um and you
can see some of the stuff I produce around that time.
But really that was our job. We were making stuff
they don't want you to know. And then we started
the podcast and around that time is when Noel came
(47:15):
on board and Noel was was I think you were
making every single podcast on the network when you joined
everyone except Stuff you Should Know, um, which WASH was
and is produced by the original superproducer, Jerry the Mysterious
Jerry was also our boss during these Discovery Video UH
(47:35):
days and is now still a boss. Not necessarily are
maybe she has I forget how the org chart works,
but um she has stayed with and risen in the
ranks of the company through various acquisitions. UM, as have
we all, thankfully. And um, yeah, there was a time
where the podcasting aspect of how Stuff Works was kind
of just a blip. Discovery kind of didn't really know
(47:56):
what they had and they were focusing, you know, on
the YouTube side of things is and sort of you know,
pushing the podcast thing off to the side, not really
realizing what incredible asset that was going to ultimately be.
And I was the lucky devil that got to edit
just about every single one of them every single week
by myself, hitting stuff they don't want you to know,
that's right. And when we had shout Out Corner with
(48:18):
superproducer Nol, and I'm trying to center everybody here and
just to understand what we're doing right in these kind
of points in time. So we're still at that point
when Nol is here, he's making all the podcasts. I
happen to have a baby. Then we become this right
what you're hearing right now, the three of us on
Mike making a podcast every week now, five times a
(48:38):
week to producers. And that's what I'm saying. I have
to add, I mean, you never asked anyone's permission to
have me on. We just did it. And I sat
in while Matt was was away on paternity leave, and
then Matt came back and it was just like, what
the hell, let's just be a threesome. We we had
a threesome and we've been having threesomes every day ever since. Yes, yes, um,
(49:03):
But around around that time when we started making the podcast,
few years later, their shifts at the company that we
work for, How Stuff Works. Y'all, y'all remember this, hopefully
you do, a company called how Stuff Works. Uh, it
started making shifts and changing its business models. And remember
we're employees for that company at that time, and we
are you know, what we're doing every day is beginning
(49:26):
to shift. And I think it was around seventeen when
we officially stopped making our original stuff they don't want
you to know YouTube series on you know, at least
on a weekly basis. Ben, I think that's around the time,
and that is when the company really shifted to podcasting
as its primary way, like means of making money. Well,
(49:49):
that was after an acquisition from Discovery, who again, like
I said, kind of didn't know what they had. And
then we were acquired by another company that did realize
what we had, and that was what led to us
kind of letting the business off from the the podcast
side and the article side of How Stuff Works. Right, Yeah,
there's a there's a lot of minutia in there, and
it really just what you need to know is that
(50:10):
the business changed and and Ben and Nolan I have
been here for a long time, so what we're doing
on a daily basis changed a lot, and that's the
primary reason why we had to just spend our time
doing other things besides making this i think highly curated
video series called stuff they don't want you to know
that we were making on a weekly basis, and I
(50:32):
just wanted to like put that out there as like
that's the reason why things changed, because we started producing
podcasts of all different kinds of you know, running teams
and just having a very different job here than we
had in the past. I think we've intimated that here
and there, you know on Mike, But this is really
great to hear this kind of oral history, right, Yeah,
hopefully it's interested. Um the well, it's it's there are
(50:56):
so many people asking about it in the comments, Like
the majority of the comments are where the hell are
these guys? So I just want I want everyone to
have a moment to just hear, like what's going on.
It's It's not as though we just stopped making videos
because we didn't want to make videos anymore. It's because
our jobs against it um pretty hard. We did because
(51:17):
I loved it. It's uh. Those videos are some of
the my favorite things I've ever done here. Um. And
you know, if you're watching this and you're watching one
of the YouTube excerpts, then you'll see this will be
familiar to some of our fellow conspiracy realists there in
the back Scully, one of our first co conspirators and collaborators.
(51:38):
When the pandemic hit. I was not only you know,
like everybody else, busting my shadow to get to get
a recording set up outside of the office, but was
also asked every so often by people who come back
and say we want you to make more of these
videos and say, well, okay, we we need the time
to do so. Uh. And so I emptied out a
(52:01):
room in my house and now I live with a
giant skeleton where other people would you know, have a
bed or a television or something. And it's not even
in your closet. It's just like out right out in
the open. No, no, no, the real ones are in
the closet. This is a model skeleton for you know,
SCC purposes. But the uh, this story does go into
(52:25):
the future because without telling you any specifics, folks, um,
we can say that you should be tuned into this
YouTube channel and thank you for your patients. We are
and ever evolving enterprise, and there's always more stuff on
the way. We keep ourselves on our toes. There's always
(52:47):
a new project that we're doing as individuals or as
a group. I personally want to speak for everybody, but
I cannot wait for for you to see some of
the stuff that we're working way on. And this kind
of tom waits what's the building in their situation? And
when we when I say, can't wait, this is so serious.
(53:08):
We are paid to talk. Do you have any idea
how difficult it is for us to not talk about something,
to keep our things secret. We're trying. I think we're
doing okay, but you know, also at this point, you know,
we were careful not to be too teasy about it. Right,
So so whenever whenever you hear one of us say
(53:29):
something like that, whether it's about a show that's not stuff,
then once you know one of one of my illustrious
colleagues is working on or wherever, you hear us collectively
say like oh, just you wait, we're not blowing smoke.
There is stuff, uh and cannot cannot wait for you
to see it, but yeah, that's your history. We also
had we've done some live shows. We've been in very
(53:50):
weird situations, and we've been in you know, one point
we missed in the timeline here is that Gosh was
over the pandemic or before we went to becoming a
show that publishes something Monday through Friday, which is a
lot to do. It's a lot of fun. I know
about you, guys. I'm a dog with a ball, I'm
(54:12):
a badger with a bad It's a lot of fun,
but also just a lot of stuff. And thanks to
to everyone out there for listening to all of it,
because it's not like we have big drop offs between
each different type of episode, and I think we've tried
really hard to make them all interesting and engaging, even
the republished episode because as everyone knows, iTunes or whatever
(54:33):
we call an Apple podcast only shows three d of
the most recent ones, so there are definitely ones that
we're putting out from the beginning that a lot of
new folks have not heard yet, and maybe long running
folks are hearing again with fresh ears. Because we try
to add a little new context every time we put
one of those out. This is I just want to say,
this is a matter of great importance, at least from
(54:54):
my perspective. There's still going to be two episodes every week,
and we found a nice balance with the strange news
and listener mail segments. Get one of those every week,
and those classics can be hard to find, Like I
don't know about you get. I get a lot of
people writing to me that say, hey, what about this
thing from you know, twenty seventeen or whatever. That's why
(55:16):
we try to republish those because, as Nal said, Apple
will make it difficult to find those things. And sometimes
people have even asked if something has been pulled from
the Internet. That hasn't happened yet, but for sure, like
this would be immensely flattering if that occurred, whether you're
onto something. There are a few things you can't find
(55:37):
on our YouTube channel anymore, and the couple things that
are missing, uh from other places that are a bit mysterious,
But we're not going to get into that right now.
What I really want to do is just bring it
right back to Maggie's message, just to let you know,
for some guys who have been toiling away of this
thing for years and years and years because we're passionate
(55:57):
about it. We love it. And you know, thankfully, we
we make some money, we're still employed to do this.
But to hear a message from you that you just
randomly heard our voices on the actual radio, it's just wonderful.
It makes me very very happy. Video Star. It did
(56:17):
radio kill the video Star. It didn't kill anything. It
brought it back to life to It's fine. They can coexist.
These things can exist. But thank you, Maggie so much
from from all of us for for letting us know
that we're out there floating in the ether, even if
we don't know it. It's really cool to hear We'll
find your ears, folks, We'll find them. So this is
(56:41):
my cryptic nature aside. Yes, thank you so much, Matt.
Thank you for bringing that piece of what may well
be folklore at some point. Uh and I. We think
transparency is important and it's important answer those questions. Thank
you as well. To almost Widowed, Thank you as well too,
s And thanks to everybody. If if you would liar
(57:05):
he said you were going to ditch the pause, you
were glitch there, glitch also, since we're since we're having
a family time, and do stay tuned, we have we
have one more special message in an upcoming in an
upcoming show. But um, since we're having family time, we
should also tell you, Uh, it has been a real
bear to record today. Let's see who got kicked off
(57:29):
of our own show today, Matt, you got kicked off
of your own show. I got kicked off of my
own show. Uh. We came back because that's how important
this show is. You are the most important part of too.
What is us a very very important thing. We can't
wait to hear from you. If you want to take
a page from your fellow conspiracy realist book. We try
to be easy to find online. Oh online, you can
(57:51):
find us on Facebook, you can find us on Twitter,
and you can find us on YouTube as mentioned under
the handle at Conspiracy Stuff. We're at Conspiracy Stuff show
on Instagram. If none of those things do it for you,
which we hope they do in some uh form, small
or large, you can send us a voicemail. You can
(58:11):
read us speak to us through the telephone by giving
us a call. Yeah. Our number is one eight three
three st d w y t K. When you call
in you will hear Ben and then a tone, and
you will know it is your turn. Please give yourself
a cool nickname. You have three minutes say whatever you'd like.
Let us know if we can use your name and
(58:33):
your message on the air in one of these listener
mail episodes. And uh really, just do whatever you want
on there. If you've got too much to say that
won't fit in that three minutes, instead consider sending us
a good old fashioned email. We read every single one
that is sent to us. You can reach us. We
are conspiracy at iHeart radio dot com. Ye stuff they
(59:13):
don't want you to know is a production of I
heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show.
(00:25):
My name is Matt, my name is Noel. They called
me Ben. We are joined as always with our super
producer Alexis code named Doc Holiday Jackson. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here, and that makes this the
stuff they don't want you to know. It is the
last listener mail segment of the year. It is twenty Yes,
(00:47):
the next time you hear this, it will be twenty
twenty two. If you are tuning into each of these
as these each come out, and uh, well keep these voicemails,
keep these emails coming. Uh we love hearing from you.
We have got some strange places to go in in
(01:08):
today's show. So we're going to see what lies beyond
the boundaries of death. We're going to see what lies
beyond the horizon the geopolitical future, and then we're going
to quite literally hear some strange things. You might see
some strange things as well. I suggest that we begin
at the end. For a great many people Uh, and
(01:31):
that that is the idea of death. I always know that. Unfortunately,
suicide does tend to spike towards the end of the year. Um.
People have a lot of challenging things. Everyone is fighting
a great battle that you probably don't know about unless
you are that person. And Uh, it makes me think
of Voltaire who famously asked, I believe it was Voltaire asked,
(01:55):
why are we afraid of death? Were we afraid of
being born? It's a question that's very difficult to answer.
But a lot of our fellow conspiracy realists listening along
today have had near death experiences. UM. And I I
think that, you know, without putting a spotlight on any
of us, I don't know about you guys, but I've
(02:17):
had some things like that that I can't explain because
I have often, you know, had some ill informed misadventures.
But we are here, we are with you. In the
last week, and uh, you know, we received this excellent
We had a lot of people writing into us about
things concerning reincarnation, things concerning you know the great question
(02:39):
of what happens when your body and your mind appear
to leave this mortal coil. Uh, And quite recently received
an excellent story about this, but I think no this
this also has a mention of something else you found
interesting that is more disease related than death related. Right
and times we're talking about death and disease um with
(03:01):
this listener mail. It's the double whammy. And it comes
from listener who'd like to be referred to as almost
widowed that as a specific nickname tied to this particular story,
Almost widowed rights. My husband was completely against the COVID
nineteen vaccine. I was vaccinated with a trial vaccine, novavax.
I'd love an episode on that, and I do believe
that it's very much worth that. Uh Well, in September,
(03:24):
our oldest son, fourteen, got sick from school. He was
COVID positive. We all got tested. My husband and youngest
son also tested positive. My daughter and I did not,
so we all tried to separate, but the damage was done.
We all ended up getting it. I went to the
hospital um September twenty nine. My husband came to the
hospital the same day and was admitted. Shout out to
my best friend for caring for the house, kids and
(03:46):
animals when we were both sick. I was on a
low amount of oxygen for a few days, went home
October three. On October four, however, my husband was placed
on a ventilator. UH. Things were very rough for us.
Then on October eleven, he was transferred up to Atlanta.
We live in Columbus, UH to go to Emory University
for e c M O ECMO, which is a thing
(04:06):
that was mentioned in the last Strange News episode. Been
your story about how pig anuses can help with oxygenation
of the blood potentially. UM, So if you haven't checked
that one out, very much worthwhile. Also shout out to
Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. Absolutely, it was a
long road do do do do with many d's, UM,
but I did get him back home on December two,
(04:29):
Thank the Lord. UM. Before we get to the near
death experience story, I just want to mention this um
no vax nova vax Rather, I did not realize this
was a experimental uh covid vaccine that held clinical trials
here in the US. And then the results from this
phase three clinical trial that enrolled around thirty thousand adults
(04:51):
in the US and Mexico showed that the quote investigational
vaccine known as nv x DASH c o V two
three seven three showed a ninety point four percent efficiency
in preventing symptomatic COVID nineteen disease UM, and the candidates
also showed a hundred percent protection against moderate and severe
(05:13):
disease UH and in people at high risk of developing
complications from COVID nineteen people sixty five years and older UH,
and people under the age of sixty five with certain
COMORBIDIT ease like regular exposure to COVID nineteen. The vaccine
also was very effective and showing ninety one percent efficacy
and preventing symptomatic COVID nineteen UH. The US clinical trial
(05:34):
results show that it is safe and it does appear
to be very close. This company, Novak's, which is based
in Maryland, is very close to getting approval for this vaccine,
which would make it UH the five I think UM
approved vaccine here in the United States. If I'm not mistaken,
maybe it's yeah, it's definitely EU. But this is something
(05:56):
that would potentially UM come to the United States. So
UH shout out to almost widowed for participating in this
clinical trial and it apparently worked so well. I guess
it could have been a placebo though, right, isn't that
part of the risky run in participating in a clinical
trial you might not get the real thing, right, Yeah,
Typically if you're part of the control group, then you
(06:18):
might not get the h the actual thing they're testing.
So we need to learn more about the specifics of
that trial. But just to be clear to everybody, yes,
novavax real vaccine. It works in a different way, which
is something we can talk about later, which if I'm fascinating,
But it is definitely not nova locks. That is something different.
(06:39):
It is not effective against against the COVID ninteam um
virus to Oh yeah, I'm saying if only it were,
I would be a happy boy. That is some good stuff.
I recently went to New York City for fun. I
got out of there too, which seems to be a
pattern for me. Right before the COVID hit the fan
(06:59):
he had again. Now literally week after I've been there,
everything is closing down again and people are not having
a particularly great time in New York City. Um. Anyway,
going to the death part of the story, back to
the letter, my husband I believe had a near death
experience when he was finally woken up from all the drugs.
He was asking for his Bible. Now, my husband has
(07:20):
never been a religious man, but I brought up two bibles,
my Bible along with his family's Bible. I also gave
the hospital staff some YouTube videos to quote read the
Bible to him. They would turn it on for him,
sit the computer on his shoulder, and every time a
nurse would come in he would get their attention. He
still couldn't talk, so all of this was mouthed. It
took quite some time before he could speak, and I
(07:43):
would ask him why he was asking for a Bible.
He told me that he had dreams over and over
again that he was dying and my father and I
were there and we went toward the light, and he
went to hell. He saw himself die multiple times, and
he could tell he was being tormented in Hell. He
doesn't talk about it much, and I don't want to
(08:03):
push the issue because I know he's still trying to heal.
But I certainly believe this falls into the quote near
death experience. I love the show. Y'all are amazing. Feel
free to use my email code name whatever you want.
Almost widowed. Um, Yeah, I mean this whole going into
the light thing like it's all so fascinating, uh, in
(08:26):
that it appears to be a shared experience for many,
many people who are on their deathbed or on death's door.
I guess as it were. Um. Not not making light
of this at all, but it reminds me of a
scene in my Obligatory Sopranos reference where Michael Imperioli's character
(08:47):
Christopher multi Santi Uh is in the hospital. Um. No spoilers,
but he is in the hospital, UM, and he says,
I saw the tunnel and the white light, I saw
my father in hell, and the bouncer said that I'd
be there too when my time comes, to which Pauli
Walnuts asked what bouncer, and then Christopher says, the Emerald Piper,
(09:08):
that's our hell. It's an Irish bar where at St
Patrick's day every day forever, um, because you know they're
Italian and they don't care for the Irish. But yeah,
I mean, it is such an interesting shared experience in
the same way that people who takes a d M
t UM apparently have very very similar experiences where they
(09:29):
have these like sort of spirit guides that sort of
you know, guide them through this very very intense psychedelic experience,
and oftentimes they emerge from it feeling like they have
learned this like unlearnable life lesson and a lot of
people that do that one time they say they don't
ever need to do it again because it's sort of
like a one and done kind of situation, and it
reminds me of of a near death experience. Almost. Yeah,
(09:52):
what was that? You know, Matt, We had a phenomenal
interview with Professor Ethan Needelman, the creator of the show Psychoactive,
and I don't remember if it's I don't think it's
come out yet, but he was he was telling us
much the same thing, not just with kadamine and d
(10:13):
m T, but there was there was another thing that
he hipped us to. Uh, you know what, fellow conspiracy realists,
We're just gonna have to wait till the interview comes
out because I don't I don't remember, well, I can't
wait to hear it because I was unfortunately not not
present for that one. But it sounded like a fascinating interview.
He's a great guy. But bringing that up to say,
(10:33):
you know, almost widowed first, thank goodness that your husband
pulled through a lot of people didn't um and to
hold him close while you can. Fascinating thing here is
that there is a lot of research on near death
experiences and like you said, no, uh, it is a
transformative experience for the majority of people who who have
(10:57):
a vision or come back with some sort of memory.
And you know, we often hear the stereotypes so widely
quoted in works of fiction of seeing the light of
being politely told that it's not your time to go.
But if you'd like to learn more about the other side,
distressing your death experiences, there is an excellent article in
(11:20):
Missouri Medicine, which is a journal from the Missouri State
Medical Association, called Distressing Your Death Experiences the Basics, and
they documented three types of these unpleasant in d ease, inverse, void,
and hellish. And this is a scientific journal, so yes,
so they've put they put the time in and I
(11:42):
recommend reading that to get some stats and to get
a sense of the pattern. I think you would find
especially interesting for you and your spouse. Uh, the way
they break down the responses, not just those three types
of experiences, but types of response which they categorize as
the turnaround or you know, saying I needed that and
(12:05):
I will be different now reductionism, which is saying like, well,
you know, I know a little bit about neuro chemicals,
and I know a little bit about the working of
the brain, so I can scientifically explain this away. Or
three the long haul, which is more of a big
picture Look what did I What did I do? Because
(12:26):
this experience stays with people. It doesn't have to even
if you consider yourself a hard hardcore atheists or whatever
you want to call it. The thing is that that
doesn't make the PTSD of these kinds of experiences any
less real, and it can stay with people, it can
haunt you, agreed. And it also not not to harp
on this whole psychedelic angle, but it makes sense that
(12:48):
psychedelic drugs are substances are very popular or apparently very
effective to ease people and end of life situations into
that transit ship into that light, the one where you
actually do go through. Because it does appear that people
can have these types of visions and types of you know,
(13:08):
transformative experiences with doses of certain doses of psychedelics. So
I definitely understand why that would be a valuable way
to kind of get someone to not maybe have a
hellish experience. You know, we recently got a call from John,
who's a person who talked to us before about ketamine
use and you know, yes, stopping addiction a couple of
(13:32):
other things, and he recently called back to talk to
us about reincarnation. But that conversation really actually dovetails nicely
into this, just with how in his use of the
substance he has found just a almost a oneness with
what he describes as infinite energy, and how it really
does as you're describing their noal, um, it's eased the
(13:54):
way he imagines life or existence upon corporeal death. Um,
So I can just see that matching up really well
and shout out to you or like or like Aldus Huxley,
who had one of the most baller ways of leaving
the mortal plane ever. You guys may remember the story.
(14:15):
Huxley was bedridden. He was he had been experimenting with
UH psychedelics later in life, and he was dying of
I believe, terminal cancer. So he requested that his wife
give him a hundred micrograms of LSD I. I think
that's a lot, right. What's the usual dosage of L
(14:38):
s D I think it's many many fewer micrograms than that.
I'm sure. Um. I've also heard that it's not the
best way to take the drug to have it injected. Uh,
and then it could maybe No, I don't know. No, No No,
it wasn't LSD. It was somebody injected themselves with psilocybin
(14:59):
and caused the spores to like grow inside of your
body and cause some kind of horrible, horrible blood infection.
Uh So maybe LSD being more of a you know,
synthesized substance rather than an organic thing that can grow
within you a fungus essentially, maybe it's better that way.
But also, you know, just in general, don't do drugs,
(15:21):
everybody know for sure. But unless you don't do don't
do drugs. Everybody is doing some sort of drug. It's
very rare to not be doing something, even if it's
like aspirin or caffeine. You know, caffeine is delicious. Yeah, um,
what is that? It's a boy? I would never I
(15:41):
would never. You will never catch me drinking? Okay, fair enough.
I don't care for the stuff. It tastes like vinegar. Um.
But thank you so much, Almost widowed and really glad
that your husband's doing better, and UM glad to hear
that in some way, perhaps this was a valuable experience.
UM if a little bit scary it. Um, we're gonna
take a quick break and then we'll be back with
(16:02):
some more messages from you. And we have returned as always.
I want to thank everybody who has reached out, especially
this past year, and in my case especially over over
(16:22):
the last month and change. Reached out just on a
personal level. You can always do so. I'm at ben
Bowling on Instagram at ben Bowling hs W and I
want to give a particular shout out to someone who
brought up a subject of endless fascination for me at
least I hope it will fascinating or fellow listeners as well.
(16:44):
This comes from S that pauses intentional. It is dot
dot dot st for the gravitas, right, So so they
got me. But here we go. Here's here's what S
wrote to us to say, Hey you all, uh fun fact,
(17:05):
I have a very difficult time pronouncing the contraction you all.
It's embarrassing. I've tried. Um. A lot of people assume
everyone in the South can say it. I cannot, So
hey can you? I just want to hear it. It's
really embarrassing. Yeah, really, Yes, you can ask our good
(17:27):
friend Lauren Vogelbaum if you need confirmation. Nola has probably
seen me try to pronounce it too. So I am
a North American white girl who recently had the benefit
of being educated on some going on in Africa by
my colleagues from Zimbabwe and Nairobi, specifically China. Apparently China
Chinese corporations have been supplying grants to African governments to
(17:51):
build infrastructure. This is confirmed by a couple of sources
linked below. And this is what I love about emails.
S I love when people are able to send us
those links, to send us those photographs of whatever you saw,
whether it's a strange thing in the sky or creepy
government installation. That I think is one of the primary
advantages of email. So we've got these links, and s says,
(18:14):
now here's where it gets crazy. The Diplomat article that
she said suggests this is not just global capitalism and action,
but it's a power grab. China is using these grants
to lean on African countries for those sweet, sweet U
N votes. But here's where it gets crazier. My colleagues
tell me these grants are actually being funneled back to
(18:36):
China as the infrastructure is built by Chinese corporations who
don't even hire locals, They just import their own staff
from Asia. And this extends after the project is done
due to the maintenance contracts. You need a wallpainted, no problem,
They'll fly in a painter from China. Now here's where
it gets crazy er er. They tell me that this
(18:57):
extends beyond the build site to the Chinese corporate rations,
even bringing street vendors into the community to replace the
local vendors. I wasn't able to verify this myself, so
I'm punting it to you. What do you think conspiracy
to basically turn African countries into Chinese satellite states wouldn't
be the first time Africa has been in this position
(19:17):
by reducing the population to vassals and the government's devoting
blocks or just good old global capitalism. Sorry for the
long email, Love the show. Feel free to read this
on air. You can call me s well S, just
just for the sake of dead air. I think we're
gonna hold on the pause now that we all know
you're the s we're talking about. Uh, this This segment
(19:41):
is brought to you by the letter in the person s.
We have talked about China in Africa in the past.
We have a classic episode on this highly recommend checking
it out. But this is going to become an increasingly
important issue as the years while on, as long as
people are still functioning under the current global power structure.
(20:03):
But the problem with this, like so many issues reported
in mainstream media, is that the view presented is often
pretty simplistic anti colonialism stance. People get that now, we
can all agree colonialism was bad, but there is zenobia
that goes into this. There's a lot of like big
bad China reporting, you know, and and look, don't get
(20:27):
us wrong, don't get it twisted here. China is doing
bad stuff. They're weaker concentration camps as we're recording. And
if saying that on air means that I can't get
to China, then that's fine because it's true, and I
would rather get you know, I would rather be prevented
from going to a country because I said something true,
you know what I mean. And that's just an ethical standpoint.
(20:50):
And of course the US has hasn't is doing terrible,
terrible things. Both domestically and abroad. So there is the
argument to be made there's a little bit of a
glasshouse situation sometimes, but that doesn't mean what it is
happening on the African continent is not true. We have
talked about the ways in which those infrastructures, those infrastructure
(21:13):
deals and loans can be used to boost the Chinese
economy at the expense of a lot of just the
regular people living in some of these countries and regions
on an enormous and diverse continent. You know, it's not.
The sad truth of the matter is often in international
(21:33):
deals with with authoritarian countries, at least the people at
the very top, at the tippy top will make gangbusters
about the money, and the people to bottom won't see
too much of a change. Like, yeah, you're building a road,
but what good is the road if it just goes
from the port to the mind, right, and there's not
(21:54):
there's not a road paved to like the place where
the people live. Uh, this is a problem. This does
accelerate racist attitudes on all sides and serious and I
would say valid concerns about inequality. But while that is
while while that complicated, nuanced system is true, it's in place,
(22:17):
and we'll talk about a bigger picture of this, something
called one Belt one Road, which you may have heard
of if you, you know, study Chinese foreign policy and
for an infrastructure, etcetera. Uh. One question that really stood
out to me that s has proposed here is the
idea that this economic assistance could be used to influence
(22:44):
conversation and policy in the United Nations. And after doing
just a little bit of reading, because this this definitely
One Belt one Road in the U n is its
own episode and it's one of those episodes that will
be I think of a creasing value over the next decade.
But one thing you released about is uh, I'm persuaded
(23:07):
that it's true. Now I'm persuaded the conspiracy is real.
There's a great Wall Street Journal article that came out
in September of last year called how China is taking
over international organizations one vote at a time. Now, this
is not the same thing, not not quite the same
thing as say, China Chinese officials going to Zimbabwe and
(23:30):
saying you need to vote this way on the weaker
situation or something like that. Uh. What it is a
piece of that, But it's also noting that Beijing is
exerting more control over the committees in the United Nations.
So United Nations has you know, you've heard things like
(23:53):
the Food and Culture Organization. They have things like the
Industrial Development Organization. Things like if you are if you're
a country and you're just a u N member, you
end up being a member of those organizations. Hopefully this
same way that senators and members of Congress get a
lot of power from the committees that they join. Right.
(24:14):
That's why people want to be on the Intelligence Committee
because it gives you some heft. You know you want
and you know you want to be on the Budget
committee to write, Always be on the Budget committee. Always
be on the budget and uh. This is to some
who are more averse to China's international growth, this has
been seen as a something like a sneaky tactic or
(24:38):
something even phrased as you know, a new front in
a new Cold War, which you could say as little alarmists.
But the tendencies are there. Uh. China has a pretty
good catbird seat in the U N. And some of
this development because it's the world's second largest economy, but
it's still often pays discounted funding rates because it is
(25:02):
considered a developing nation, so like in as Wall Street
Journal points out, and this article, by the way, is
by three authors Kato'keith, Drew Hinshaw at yaroslav Trophy, mov
this nice Russian accent, thanks man. Maybe maybe I can, uh,
maybe I can get into China from Russia. Problem for
(25:24):
another day. But so in China contributed one point three
billion US dollars equivalent to the U N and the
US the same year contributed ten billion. Uh. It's hard
to grasp the difference of billions, but just know that
a billion is a lot of money. A billion is
(25:44):
too much money for any one person. Basically, uh, maybe
I can, Maybe I can't get into Amazon now having
said that to Jeff, sorry Pale, thirty trials up, thirty days,
trial is up. I need my need my petition Prime service.
So so what do you guys think? First off, I've
made my initial conclusion clear, and of course I'm always
(26:07):
glad to go back and modify those opinions if new
information emerges. But do you think it's possible that China maybe,
uh maybe making these deals with African countries and then
later kind of voluntelling those countries. How to vote in
the UIT. I mean, I can totally see that position
(26:28):
right logically, those those things follow. I have a hard
time getting my mind out of the resource extraction argument
for why, you know, China's motivations behind their actions in
in Africa just from our previous conversation been about steel production,
and I think it's manganese that is needed that in
(26:49):
certain parts of Africa, cobalt that they're extracting, and what's
the coltan? Is that the one for electronics? There's another
C word that exists in a specific part of Africa
that China is just ripping out of the ground to
use an electronics manufacturing Yeah, Colton, Uh, they use gold
mining techniques and there's also a big slavery child slavery
(27:12):
problem with it, and like the DRC and so on. Yes,
but it's I remember that was one of the main
reasons we had covered China and their activities in Africa.
I'm just saying I'm having a difficult time ripping my
mind out of that being their primary reasoning. But I
can totally see I mean, if you're making that kind
of investment in a country, if there are actual benefits,
(27:36):
even to the upper echelon of the leaders of specific
countries within Africa. Then I can imagine them having that
kind of sway just just I mean, it doesn't need
to be as you know, it doesn't mean to be
super complicated. It's just they're bringing in tons of money
that a few key people are benefiting from, and then
they could have that diplomatic movement. I think, yeah, yeah,
(27:58):
And there's I mean, there's deathly resource extraction going on.
The position of the Chinese government is that there is
somewhat more altruistic, right that they're trying to help people
while also you know, making moves that are good for
their own economy. Uh. I believe it was. It was
(28:18):
an Indian academic, a guy named Brahma Chilani, who first
introduced them. The theory of a Chinese debt trapp diplomacy,
which is sort of company storing people into compliance that
has been at least by a lot of people in
(28:39):
the West. That has been considered debunked recently, and you
can read some interesting articles about that on the China
Africa project dot com, which, by the way, if you
can tell from the headline, is a somewhat bias source,
but there's also reporting from places like the BBC. There's
an excellent article assummation of this. UH are defensive this
(29:02):
position by dickens Alowe, who wrote an article called why
African Countries back China on Human Rights? I recommend reading
that at this point, the issue here is really one
of perspective. Yes, resource extraction is occurring. Yes, there is
(29:24):
the high potential for forming voting blocks, and that's not
something original to China though, right other countries do that,
the US does that UH and you can see it
in controversial issues. Almost any time un vote comes up
(29:44):
that goes for or against one country's interests, then they
both scramble to see how many clients states, let's be honest,
they can they can force to vote on their side.
So to me, that conspiracy is both plausible and real,
and it is probably happening. The question is to what
degree is that happening? And then the question also becomes
(30:09):
what what is the individual situation for each of those
countries who are maybe voting with the Chinese stance in
the u N are they Are they doing it because
they genuinely agree with some ideological point, or are they
doing that because it is a condition, even if not
explicitly written out. It's a condition of the deal they have.
(30:30):
It's hard to tell. Trying really hard not to be
extra super massively cynical about all of this been and
just like apply it to everybody and analyze how everyone's voting.
Which master is pulling the puppet strings in this scenario. Well, here,
here's here's the key, here's the key. Math. It's the
puppet that's pulling the puppet strings. You don't ever even
see the master. It's just another puppet. Yeah, it's puppets
(30:55):
all the way down and all the way up. That's
very special type of born. It's it's mitro Chica puppets. Man,
there's also a little puppet inside the other puppet. It's
like a puppet mech uh, We're I mean, but that like, honestly,
there is a complex web of stakeholders interest competing interests.
(31:16):
But here's why I love this questions, and here's why
this question is so incredibly important to ask. There is
right now an enormous global level infrastructure project that's happening,
and it's um I would say it's not getting to
due of fair reporting in the West. It's something called
(31:40):
the One Belt, One Road Initiative. We know about the
Silk Road, the famous transit route. Oh actually have some
books on that somewhere, the famous transit route from the
Chinese mainland through Central Asia getting to Europe. Right, that's
how Spice has moved so jade. Things like that, and
(32:02):
that occupies a place in history. Now, you will be
hard pressed to find someone who says Samarkand is these
days a hub of global trade. They're probably more likely
to name something like London, you know, and then shout
out to how this concern has been building for a while.
It made me re read one of these books, Africa's
(32:23):
Silk Road, which I'd like to recommend to us if
you haven't read, it's yet China and India's New Economic
Frontier by Harry G. Broadman. But once you note something
very interesting the printer the imprint on this, I don't
know if it's reversed or if you can read it.
It says the World Banks. When you get into these conversations,
(32:47):
uh right, Uh, you know, recently in recent years under
the Trump administration, uh, the US was told to withdraw
from some international organizations like the World Health Organization that
are known as the less famous who and this this
(33:08):
prompted fears that it would be an opportunity for the
for the government of China to expand into the vacuum
that was left behind. The One Belt, One Road initiative
is sort of a new Silk Road, and it's tremendously
fascinating if you are if you're into foreign policy and
(33:30):
you're into the long term effects of this, it will
affect you if you're in the US. By the way,
we just don't know how yet. The Silk Road economic
belt is. It's like this massive new on steroids version
in the Silk Road. We're talking rail, We're talking new
inner states that are providing all this ground transportation to
these landlocked areas going through these historical trade routes using
(33:54):
those old mountain passes. UH. This is incredibly controversial because
a lot of the countries affected by this, in Central
Asia are the people aren't necessarily behind it. They're big
protests in Pakistan as we're recording this UH and the
this system, this one Belt one Road is going or
(34:15):
is meant to go to Africa, to the African continent
as well, prompting no small amount of fear in local populations.
And each country is handling this differently because despite what
I know, I keep saying mainstream news here, but I'm
not using this hyperbolically, but mainstream news in the US
often has a terrible habit of acting like these countries
(34:39):
are not somehow very different from each other, you know, culturally, economically,
they're incredibly different, And it's weird for that oversight to occur.
I don't know if it's intentionally misleading or if they
just have a certain amount of time when they're talking
on the news, but it's like, everybody who lives in
(34:59):
the US knows that Mississippi is culturally very different from
New York. So why would we assume that a continent
of so many nations with huge populations in some cases,
why would they all be same e same? You think
people are usually saying that people have a tendency to
generalize overly, so because it's easier on their brains. Perhaps
(35:22):
it is absolutely a mistake to do that, Um, but
I think we all do it from time to time.
You're absolutely right, then, but something to always be self
aware about not not a good thing to do. Yeah,
you're right, you're right and well said. We know that
multiple countries in the Africa on the African count have
signed some kind of cooperation agreement for one Belt one Road.
(35:46):
The big question is how extreme will this support become.
Could could a sovereign nation be compelled to vote even
against its own interest in the international sphere year this
this can be dry for people who are maybe not
as nerdy about this as as some I guess by
(36:08):
me included, But but it is important. A lot of
the real conspiracies in the world, the things that have
the most power and that will affect you most. Adversely,
a lot of them are meant to be boring by design.
They're meant to sound boring. You are not supposed to
watch the hand behind the curtain. And with that, I
(36:28):
propose that we consider this a future episode. We just
have to work on the timing. But we need to
talk about this more. The world needs to talk about
this more, because this influence is is something that couldn't
have happened on this level before the dawn of the
age of information and before these massive, logistically byzantine global
(36:54):
trade networks. So stay tuned. Thank you so much. S.
You can take a page from his book We Are
a Conspiracy. Diheart Radio dot com went eight three three
st d w y t K anytime you want to
drop us alide, but don't do it get because we're
gonna pause for word from our sponsor, and then we're
gonna send you some strange signals I hear. All right,
(37:22):
we're back and we're going to hear a message. Hi, guys,
I love your show. My name is Maggie, and I
just wanted to tell you a short little tale. It's
not really anything weird or something you would cover on
your show, but I thought you would appreciate it. A
couple of months ago, I was taking a really long drive,
like partially across the country, and it ended up being
(37:43):
a lot longer than I had planned for because of
traffic and other horrible things that have happened. So I
was driving, like in the middle of the night, and
I was so tired, and I was sick of listening
to like audio books of podcasts, and I just wanted
something different. So I turned on the AM on the
car AM radio because I thought maybe there was a
(38:05):
chance I could pick up something weird or different. You know,
because of the sky wave propagation. I'm sure you guys
know about that, where AM signals can travel farther than
normal at night. It was really scratchy, of course, like
a m is. I was flipping through a little bit
and it's so dark, and I'm right on like Lake Erie,
(38:28):
like near like Ripley, like in between Erie and like Dunkirk,
New York, and it's like the black darkness to my left. Okay,
of like Lake Erie. There's no lights there, and I
hear voices and they're talking about something weird. Was oh,
what is this? It's scratchy, guys, It was you. It
(38:50):
was stuff they don't want you to know. And I
was delighted. I thought you would be too. That I
was looking for something strange and unusual to keep me
awake on AM radio, and I assume that somebody was
illegally broadcasting it. I don't think that you guys are
on on any terrestrial radio that I'm aware of. Maybe
(39:11):
you know, Um, I don't know. I thought you would
like that and appreciate it. I was looking for something
weird and I got it. It only lasted a few
minutes before the signal faded out, but it was really
enjoyable and I always think about it when I listened
to your show. Um, keep up the good work. Okay,
thanks guys. Bye. Hey, Yeah, now, Matt, I mean, I'm
not an expert on the way you know, AM FM
(39:34):
frequencies interact, but I wouldn't be surprised if it could
have possibly been some bleed into an AM frequency from
an FM station that was maybe playing one of our
episodes on Oh we get played on AM stations. Yeah,
that's how the first stations we've ever we were ever
played on on trestro radio. We're AM stations because of
(39:56):
coast to coast. Uh it maybe we'll just se talk
Talk talk yep, that's coast to coast syndicated, so it
gets on a bunch of AM stations too. But uh,
this is awesome pirate radio right up our alley. I
hope that's what it is, Matt. I uh, you know,
when you tell me not to listen to some of
the advance, I do because always an amazing surprise. Yes, yes, Maggie,
(40:20):
We Are show is on terrestrial radio at various times,
and to be honest with you, we don't always know.
But but the skywave phenomenon is interesting because I believe
it happens at night, right, Yeah, yeah, that's saying at night,
(40:41):
right at night, it can they can travel further because
of the bounts sphere bouts. Yeah, exactly, and that's why,
you know, it's one of the reasons that listening to
AM radio in a storm is so great. Yes, you
get the weird little now you mentioned it. I never
realize this, but I do a lot of. I do
(41:02):
a lot of when I'm on road trips, I go
nocturnal unless if I have time. Then I won't drive
during the day and I just drive at night because
that's always when you find the interesting AM stations. And
I can't believe I never put that together, but especially
rural areas, I love it. Uh. That is part of
hidden America, and if we can be a part of that,
(41:25):
regardless of how small, then that is a proud moment
for us. I would say, right, let's be part of
modern folklore. Let's be a ghost baby station, dude, exactly.
So one of those like one of those numbers stations,
you know, like Yankee Hotel. Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah,
(41:45):
I want that. So, Maggie, thank you so much for
that wonderful message. It was just wonderfully put together, and
you have a fantastic voice. Good job. I wanted to
play that for these guys because I was I happened
to be reading a bunch of YouTube comments on our
YouTube channel, and you know, it's pretty overwhelming, just saying like,
where where did these guys go? What's happening? Why are they?
(42:06):
Why do I see their faces all the time now?
And you know, it just strikes me that people who
are listening to this right now maybe have been listening
for a long time, maybe have been watching for a
long time, maybe you're new, and anybody could be jumping
on at any point really to the show. And every time,
you know, we we don't know who we're calling out to.
(42:27):
Necessarily when we say you are you and you are here,
we know it's you. We're just not sure who you are.
That's a weird statement. But I mean the royal you, right,
like the the all encompassing you of the ether. But
I wanted to take yes, oh dude, yes, Oh. We
(42:48):
got a great message about that from somebody. Oh man,
somebody just told us on voicemail about how they it
was John, the same person talked about Kenemy. First time
he saw his wife walk into the school room where
he was, he felt he knew her immediately. You have
no idea who this person was, but he knew her
and fascinating phenomenon. Um So the reason I want to
(43:09):
bring this up is just to kind of at the
end of the year, let you know, Maggie how much
that message means to me personally, and I hope to
you guys too, just when we think about where we
are and where we you know, where we started, uh
way back in the day, gosh, I think I think
eleven twelve years ago when we started creating stuff they
(43:31):
don't want you to know. Um So I just want
to go over some of it, and if you guys
could help me fill in and just tell the story
a bit. I figured this would be a time to
do it if there was any right, um So, Noel,
forgive me. We're gonna start with just Ben and I
because that's where it began. And then you're gonna jump in.
If that's okay, you got it. So, oh man, Ben's
pulling Scully over and and this will be this will
(43:55):
be important at the end of this Uh yeah, okay,
So it's not the past, but I think will end
in the future. Yes, exactly. Starting in the past, Ben, Uh,
we were making videos. We needed to create a show
with video footage that we had from Discovery Channel. We
needed to find a way to make a show around
that concept. We came up with a conspiracy Unsolved Mysteries
(44:19):
style show and we created stuff they don't want you
to know, and we started making videos that went on iTunes.
They went into the iTunes video podcast feed, and that's
how it all began. I was producing all of those videos,
so actually editing and shooting the videos, and Ben, you
were writing and starring in them. Is that accurate? Uh?
(44:41):
Starring is very kind? Um, I mean the truth. Likely
think of things as a group project, and that's sometimes
sometimes to my detriment, but not not in that case.
And uh, I'm not saying it wasn't a group project.
I'm saying, yeah, you were. You were the voice. You
both wrote the voice in you and you spoke the voice.
Well yeah, And we we worked together on finding things
(45:05):
that we thought people hadn't heard about and should hear about,
and asking questions, lying critical thinking to the concept of
conspiracy theories, and we went into some very strange places
very quickly. Because I think our very first, our very
first pilot episode was we went into working on we said, Okay,
(45:26):
let's do JFK assassination by far the most popular widely
believed conspiracy theory in the US. UH. And then we
stopped for a second, and you and I had a
moment where we said, no, let's get weird with it.
Other people have done that. There's other stuff and uventual
flora instead. UH. And eventually we decided we thought, I
(45:51):
don't know about you. I thought we were going to
get fired in two weeks, but we decided to We
ended up moving to YouTube, and then we're doing more
videos and for a new one who doesn't know, Matt
is a maestro as in video and audio and production,
and so we were making at some point multiple videos
(46:12):
per week, and we had different formats. And then I
remember you and I may remember this differently, but I
kept trying to drag you on camera with me because
I was a period on camera a lot. We're doing
a vlog style format, which for very concrete reasons, we
hope you enjoyed. Uh. And then we would do stuff
(46:33):
like we all love sketch comedy too, and we do
stuff where I think one of my favorites was we
did a very cynical impression of presidential debates. Do you
remember that we did very early on in our own
YouTube channel, uh for sure, and we did that for
for what four years something like that some of my
(46:53):
favorite times. But really that was what Ben and I did.
We we worked on side projects, you know, made some
other videos. Been you can search YouTube for Ben Bull
and you will find him. He's everywhere. Um and you
can see some of the stuff I produce around that time.
But really that was our job. We were making stuff
they don't want you to know. And then we started
the podcast and around that time is when Noel came
(47:15):
on board and Noel was was I think you were
making every single podcast on the network when you joined
everyone except Stuff you Should Know, um, which WASH was
and is produced by the original superproducer, Jerry the Mysterious
Jerry was also our boss during these Discovery Video UH
(47:35):
days and is now still a boss. Not necessarily are
maybe she has I forget how the org chart works,
but um she has stayed with and risen in the
ranks of the company through various acquisitions. UM, as have
we all, thankfully. And um, yeah, there was a time
where the podcasting aspect of how Stuff Works was kind
of just a blip. Discovery kind of didn't really know
(47:56):
what they had and they were focusing, you know, on
the YouTube side of things is and sort of you know,
pushing the podcast thing off to the side, not really
realizing what incredible asset that was going to ultimately be.
And I was the lucky devil that got to edit
just about every single one of them every single week
by myself, hitting stuff they don't want you to know,
that's right. And when we had shout Out Corner with
(48:18):
superproducer Nol, and I'm trying to center everybody here and
just to understand what we're doing right in these kind
of points in time. So we're still at that point
when Nol is here, he's making all the podcasts. I
happen to have a baby. Then we become this right
what you're hearing right now, the three of us on
Mike making a podcast every week now, five times a
(48:38):
week to producers. And that's what I'm saying. I have
to add, I mean, you never asked anyone's permission to
have me on. We just did it. And I sat
in while Matt was was away on paternity leave, and
then Matt came back and it was just like, what
the hell, let's just be a threesome. We we had
a threesome and we've been having threesomes every day ever since. Yes, yes, um,
(49:03):
But around around that time when we started making the podcast,
few years later, their shifts at the company that we
work for, How Stuff Works. Y'all, y'all remember this, hopefully
you do, a company called how Stuff Works. Uh, it
started making shifts and changing its business models. And remember
we're employees for that company at that time, and we
are you know, what we're doing every day is beginning
(49:26):
to shift. And I think it was around seventeen when
we officially stopped making our original stuff they don't want
you to know YouTube series on you know, at least
on a weekly basis. Ben, I think that's around the time,
and that is when the company really shifted to podcasting
as its primary way, like means of making money. Well,
(49:49):
that was after an acquisition from Discovery, who again, like
I said, kind of didn't know what they had. And
then we were acquired by another company that did realize
what we had, and that was what led to us
kind of letting the business off from the the podcast
side and the article side of How Stuff Works. Right, Yeah,
there's a there's a lot of minutia in there, and
it really just what you need to know is that
(50:10):
the business changed and and Ben and Nolan I have
been here for a long time, so what we're doing
on a daily basis changed a lot, and that's the
primary reason why we had to just spend our time
doing other things besides making this i think highly curated
video series called stuff they don't want you to know
that we were making on a weekly basis, and I
(50:32):
just wanted to like put that out there as like
that's the reason why things changed, because we started producing
podcasts of all different kinds of you know, running teams
and just having a very different job here than we
had in the past. I think we've intimated that here
and there, you know on Mike, But this is really
great to hear this kind of oral history, right, Yeah,
hopefully it's interested. Um the well, it's it's there are
(50:56):
so many people asking about it in the comments, Like
the majority of the comments are where the hell are
these guys? So I just want I want everyone to
have a moment to just hear, like what's going on.
It's It's not as though we just stopped making videos
because we didn't want to make videos anymore. It's because
our jobs against it um pretty hard. We did because
(51:17):
I loved it. It's uh. Those videos are some of
the my favorite things I've ever done here. Um. And
you know, if you're watching this and you're watching one
of the YouTube excerpts, then you'll see this will be
familiar to some of our fellow conspiracy realists there in
the back Scully, one of our first co conspirators and collaborators.
(51:38):
When the pandemic hit. I was not only you know,
like everybody else, busting my shadow to get to get
a recording set up outside of the office, but was
also asked every so often by people who come back
and say we want you to make more of these
videos and say, well, okay, we we need the time
to do so. Uh. And so I emptied out a
(52:01):
room in my house and now I live with a
giant skeleton where other people would you know, have a
bed or a television or something. And it's not even
in your closet. It's just like out right out in
the open. No, no, no, the real ones are in
the closet. This is a model skeleton for you know,
SCC purposes. But the uh, this story does go into
(52:25):
the future because without telling you any specifics, folks, um,
we can say that you should be tuned into this
YouTube channel and thank you for your patients. We are
and ever evolving enterprise, and there's always more stuff on
the way. We keep ourselves on our toes. There's always
(52:47):
a new project that we're doing as individuals or as
a group. I personally want to speak for everybody, but
I cannot wait for for you to see some of
the stuff that we're working way on. And this kind
of tom waits what's the building in their situation? And
when we when I say, can't wait, this is so serious.
(53:08):
We are paid to talk. Do you have any idea
how difficult it is for us to not talk about something,
to keep our things secret. We're trying. I think we're
doing okay, but you know, also at this point, you know,
we were careful not to be too teasy about it. Right,
So so whenever whenever you hear one of us say
(53:29):
something like that, whether it's about a show that's not stuff,
then once you know one of one of my illustrious
colleagues is working on or wherever, you hear us collectively
say like oh, just you wait, we're not blowing smoke.
There is stuff, uh and cannot cannot wait for you
to see it, but yeah, that's your history. We also
had we've done some live shows. We've been in very
(53:50):
weird situations, and we've been in you know, one point
we missed in the timeline here is that Gosh was
over the pandemic or before we went to becoming a
show that publishes something Monday through Friday, which is a
lot to do. It's a lot of fun. I know
about you, guys. I'm a dog with a ball, I'm
(54:12):
a badger with a bad It's a lot of fun,
but also just a lot of stuff. And thanks to
to everyone out there for listening to all of it,
because it's not like we have big drop offs between
each different type of episode, and I think we've tried
really hard to make them all interesting and engaging, even
the republished episode because as everyone knows, iTunes or whatever
(54:33):
we call an Apple podcast only shows three d of
the most recent ones, so there are definitely ones that
we're putting out from the beginning that a lot of
new folks have not heard yet, and maybe long running
folks are hearing again with fresh ears. Because we try
to add a little new context every time we put
one of those out. This is I just want to say,
this is a matter of great importance, at least from
(54:54):
my perspective. There's still going to be two episodes every week,
and we found a nice balance with the strange news
and listener mail segments. Get one of those every week,
and those classics can be hard to find, Like I
don't know about you get. I get a lot of
people writing to me that say, hey, what about this
thing from you know, twenty seventeen or whatever. That's why
(55:16):
we try to republish those because, as Nal said, Apple
will make it difficult to find those things. And sometimes
people have even asked if something has been pulled from
the Internet. That hasn't happened yet, but for sure, like
this would be immensely flattering if that occurred, whether you're
onto something. There are a few things you can't find
(55:37):
on our YouTube channel anymore, and the couple things that
are missing, uh from other places that are a bit mysterious,
But we're not going to get into that right now.
What I really want to do is just bring it
right back to Maggie's message, just to let you know,
for some guys who have been toiling away of this
thing for years and years and years because we're passionate
(55:57):
about it. We love it. And you know, thankfully, we
we make some money, we're still employed to do this.
But to hear a message from you that you just
randomly heard our voices on the actual radio, it's just wonderful.
It makes me very very happy. Video Star. It did
(56:17):
radio kill the video Star. It didn't kill anything. It
brought it back to life to It's fine. They can coexist.
These things can exist. But thank you, Maggie so much
from from all of us for for letting us know
that we're out there floating in the ether, even if
we don't know it. It's really cool to hear We'll
find your ears, folks, We'll find them. So this is
(56:41):
my cryptic nature aside. Yes, thank you so much, Matt.
Thank you for bringing that piece of what may well
be folklore at some point. Uh and I. We think
transparency is important and it's important answer those questions. Thank
you as well. To almost Widowed, Thank you as well too,
s And thanks to everybody. If if you would liar
(57:05):
he said you were going to ditch the pause, you
were glitch there, glitch also, since we're since we're having
a family time, and do stay tuned, we have we
have one more special message in an upcoming in an
upcoming show. But um, since we're having family time, we
should also tell you, Uh, it has been a real
bear to record today. Let's see who got kicked off
(57:29):
of our own show today, Matt, you got kicked off
of your own show. I got kicked off of my
own show. Uh. We came back because that's how important
this show is. You are the most important part of too.
What is us a very very important thing. We can't
wait to hear from you. If you want to take
a page from your fellow conspiracy realist book. We try
to be easy to find online. Oh online, you can
(57:51):
find us on Facebook, you can find us on Twitter,
and you can find us on YouTube as mentioned under
the handle at Conspiracy Stuff. We're at Conspiracy Stuff show
on Instagram. If none of those things do it for you,
which we hope they do in some uh form, small
or large, you can send us a voicemail. You can
(58:11):
read us speak to us through the telephone by giving
us a call. Yeah. Our number is one eight three
three st d w y t K. When you call
in you will hear Ben and then a tone, and
you will know it is your turn. Please give yourself
a cool nickname. You have three minutes say whatever you'd like.
Let us know if we can use your name and
(58:33):
your message on the air in one of these listener
mail episodes. And uh really, just do whatever you want
on there. If you've got too much to say that
won't fit in that three minutes, instead consider sending us
a good old fashioned email. We read every single one
that is sent to us. You can reach us. We
are conspiracy at iHeart radio dot com. Ye stuff they
(59:13):
don't want you to know is a production of I
heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
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