March 25, 2024 • 50 mins
A new docuseries brings long-standing allegations of gruesome abuse at Nickelodeon to the mainstream. An airport executive dies in a bizarre shootout with the ATF. A man purposely loses his legs to frostbite in a strange insurance scam. All this and more in this week's strange news segment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noel.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Alexis code named Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly,
you are you. You are here. That makes this the
stuff they don't want you to know. It is the
top of the week, it's the evening where we like
to explore what we call strange news. We're going to
(00:49):
learn about some very grisly things today, some quite disturbing things.
So for anybody listening along with the young leans and
the kiddos, please know this following commerce station may not
be appropriate for all audiences. We're talking about ghoulish insurance scams,
a mystery that is unraveling as we record, and we're
(01:12):
talking about I don't know, there's a There's so much
dark stuff today, guys, that I was thinking we could
just say one piece of nice news at the very beginning.
Is that, okay, very short, I got a nice thing, Okay,
and this is sort of an apology to the good
people of Worcester because for a long time, on multiple
(01:35):
shows we have joked about how.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
It's unfil.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Uh. There we go. We've done that one. We've got
we did that with just now. Congrats Matt. We also
we also gave them a hard time about the misleading
spelling and pronunciation of the name. So both as good news,
a little dosa good news, and as a an all
of branch to the good people of Worcester or Wooster,
(02:03):
depending on your accents, as an olive branch to our
fellow conspiracy realists in that part of the world, we
are proud to announce that the library fees in this
town have fundamentally changed. If you have a late fee
at a library in this community, or you're getting a
(02:23):
fee for a damaged book or you lost something, et cetera,
you no longer have to pay for it in cash.
All you need to do, according to Boston dot Com,
is bring a cute picture of a cat.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Dang, do you think they're going to adopt that policy?
At my video store, there's so many late fee Yeah, dude,
I think I'm single handedly keeping that place in business
with my late fees because.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Of your late fees.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, I mean Video Drome. Okay, we could do an
episode of Video dro It's awesome.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
It's also an incredibly fantastic David Cronenberg movie. But like,
you know, the thing, we're so we're so spoil by
like streaming, that we forget. You know, we're on a schedule.
You got to read these books, watch these movies in
a reasonable timeframe, not just whenever you feel like it.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
And yeah, Video Drome, named after the film, is a
longstanding local rental institution. Right, we love Video Drome here.
I also am grateful, I think we all are to
their policy of giving you a discount on the late fees.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
They do do that. I was about to say, that's awesome,
but I'm glad to do that. I thought it was
special for a second. But how dare I think that?
You know what, when I get home from travels this evening,
I'm going to watch both of them and return them
to as Sweet tomorrow. Maybe I'll bring a cat picture
just for good measure. What do you think?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Just do it? Yeah, just you know, grease the wheels
a little bit. This is the kind of lobbying I
like the library there in Massachusetts is calling this program
March me Owdness, and it applies to all seven branches
of the library system. So please let us know if
that we're for you, and you may have you may
(04:03):
join us on a future listener mail program. You also
may have a spidy sense. We started with something so innocuous,
so wholesome, and now we're like, we're like in the
Willy Wonka boat in the chocolate factory. There's no earthly wave.
Things are about to get dark, you guys. Have We
(04:24):
have talked about this on a couple of different shows,
and we've mentioned it in the past. Things are going
poorly for Nickelodeon the recent well. The long standing allegations
of toxic work environments, conspiracies and retaliation, and sexual abuse
(04:44):
are becoming mainstreamed with an explosive new docuseriies called Quiet
on Set. Have you guys watched this?
Speaker 4 (04:52):
I haven't watched it, but I've seen a lot of
the fallout that has resulted from it, including some pretty
ir responsible and INCENTI set of things said by some
former Nickelodeon co stars and the names of Escaping me.
But there was one former colleague of one of the
people that came out and you know, basically described some
of these experiences. And this former co star just had
(05:15):
some really gross stuff like mad it made a joke
out of it, and there's nothing to be joked about here.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Yeah. Yeah, And this again, this is the deep Water.
This series has four parts out now in various different platforms,
and it goes into things that apparently were an open
secret or acknowledged pre Internet all throughout the industry. The
name that you will hear most often associated with this
(05:44):
is the producer Dan Schneider, who was kind of the
kingmaker at Nickelodeon for a long time. The allegations range widely.
Here are some of the most explosive. These are coming
to us from an article by Wesley writing for Entertainment Weekly.
It's disturbing stuff. There was a production assistant on all
(06:08):
that and a program called The Amanda Show in the
early two thousands named Jesse Handy, who apparently was a
self proclaimed pedophile and was sending sexual pictures of him
pleasuring himself to actors as young as eleven. He had
(06:30):
been arrested in April of two thousand and three after
a tip, like an anonymous tip to the authorities and
police found over ten thousand images of erotic material or
what we call CSAM child sexual abuse material. He was
(06:51):
sentenced to prison in two thousand and four. And this
is one of the allegations, but only one, and it
doesn't even touch on Dan. Before we go on, do
we want to talk a little bit more about the
allegations regarding Schneider, I mean Nol in particular. We had
been discussing this. We're hanging out with Gandhi on her
(07:11):
show's Sauce on the Side.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Yeah, and that episode may or may not be out, Yeah,
but do take a look. It was a really wide
ranging conversation that did venture to this territory. I just
really quickly want to double back and see. The person
I was referring to was actor and musician Drake Bell,
who was featured in the documentary and one of his
they were in. He was in a show that was
Past My Time. Well, he was in all that, which
(07:34):
was kind of part of my Nickelodeon upbringing in the
Amanda show, as you mentioned, but some other Nickelodeon colleagues,
stars of a show called Neds Declassified, a guy named
Devin Werkheiser, Lindsay Shaw and Daniel Curtis Lee have a
podcast and they are the ones who said some pretty
gnarly stuff, almost like victim blamey, kind of just gross
things on their podcast in a TikTok that they posted.
(07:57):
But he had allegations against Brian, who was a dialogue coach,
is one of the dialogue coaches. Yeah, but no, I
mean as far as Schneider, that was brooming the highest
of the highest order, right and you know assault.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, since we brought in Brian Peck, now, let's let's
go to that and we'll get to Schneider later. So
Drake Bell was repeatedly sexually abused by Nickelodeon employee dialogue
coach Brian Peck. And this was during his teenage years
where he was a cast member of The Amanda Show.
(08:32):
And we're not going to give you the full details
of what was happening, but it appears that it was
happening in a it appears that it was happening in
an open, secret kind of way. We've talked about plausible
deniability before. It appears that in this situation the fig
(08:56):
leaf of plausible deniability simply cannot cannot be used or
rationalized by other people in these productions. Peck was also
convicted of child molestation in two thousand and four. He
pled no contest to some pretty gnarly and disturbing charges.
(09:16):
And I didn't know you could plead no contest to
things of that magnitude. I thought that was for traffic court,
you know, like here's your money. But I wasn't speeding
kind of stuff. I didn't know it could go to
that level of just despicable crime.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, in order where what were the years again, Ben
that this was happening.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
The years that this was happening were during the during
the course of the Amanda Show, So the convictions for
crimes of a similar nature didn't come about till two
thousand and four. But the Amanda Show itself ran from
nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and two, got it,
And that was starring Amanda Binds, which became another another
(10:02):
mother load of very nasty allegations to which Schneider has responded,
but not very convincingly.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
And if I'm not mistaken, Amanda Bynes went on to
have some pretty public mental health issues that you know,
were widely reported, and one can't help but wonder if
that kind of thing that is related to things that
she witnessed, you know, while on set. I'm just conjecturing here,
and I don't know that's for a fact, but it
(10:32):
does seem like that is a common trope with child
actors who have experienced difficult situations when they were very young.
It can lead to difficulties later in.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Life, and the allegations continue. There's also sl Channel, who
was a Nickelodeon employee who worked at the company's Burbank lot.
He was convicted of bringing in minor a young boy
to the lot and abusing him on site. And that
gets even more to stur because it turns out Channel
had a prior conviction and was a registered sex offender
(11:07):
before applying to work at Nickelodeon. They hired him, and
it just gets it gets stranger and stranger. You know.
There's the point. There's the point that we haven't had
a full episode on about the tremendous psychological dangers posed
to child actors. You know, it's unfortunately, it's I'm not
(11:30):
going to say, of course, something hyperbolic. It's obviously not
every child actor. You can see people who have great,
storied careers and they had awesome parents who are helping
them along the way. But there are also a lot
of dark things that occurred. A lot of kids got
who slipped through the cracks or were treated as objects
(11:52):
or things to be abused, and that has series consequences
later in life, you know, in terms of mental health,
in terms of substance abuse. It is a story so
common indeed that it has become part of American folklore.
And with this, when I was watching through this series,
(12:13):
I was reading through these allegations. It was after it
was after some of our previous discussions where we jokingly,
we jokingly talked about the kind of internet meme that
kept saying Dan Schneider has a weird thing for feet,
remember that? And then I realized the logo of Nickelodeon
(12:34):
was a foot.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Yeah orange slime foot yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yeah yu yeah, yuck indeed, yuck to the max. And
then there were also there were also super cuts that
have been released in recently and in recent years of
kids in these programs doing things under the guise of
comedy that, while not explicitly sexual, are seen as disturbing
(13:04):
by some critics. Do you do you remember hearing about
any of this, you guys.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Well, I mean I suppose I just heard about just
kind of you hear about the worst of it, and
then you can only assume that what led to the
worst of it was a culture of inappropriate behavior and
just these folks not being good stewards of the young
people they were meant to be looking out for.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yeah, the normalization that allows escalation, right, and shifts the
overtone the Overton window. And there are also, of course,
there are allegations that are maybe sexually based or misogynistic,
but they are not sexually explicit or sexual abuse claims,
like the stories of female writers or female identifying writers
(13:49):
who were working on this show and said, you know,
we were retaliated against. There were the Amanda Buying Show
or the Amanda Show had only two female writers on
the first season, right, and it's supposed to be a
female centric show, right, They're looking for a certain demographic.
And these two writers, Jenny Kilgan and Christy Stratton are
(14:12):
interviewed describing their experiences, and what they talk about is
really hostile stuff. There's one quote where it's like, right
when they first start the writer's room and they're breaking
stories and they say, Dan Schneider, his manifesto, his thesis
statement is he doesn't think women are funny, and then
in front of these female writers, he says, name one
(14:35):
funny female writer, which is pretty that's kind of a
bully tactic.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Isn't it, Sarah Silverman. Yeah, And then he sorry, just
one of the funniest writers on the planet.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And yeah, we're Earthlings. Let's blow up earth things. Shout
out Sarah Silverman. He also goes on to like the
accusations again, these are allegations against the It hasn't been
there hasn't been a big court conviction of stuff like
this for Schneider. But apparently he would show female writers
pornography on his computer. He would try to pressure people
(15:12):
into giving him massages to get their sketches on the air.
And these are the actual writers saying it. There was
also dirty financial shenanigans going on, like splitting the pay
that you were supposed to give to a single writer
between two writers so you could get like a buy one,
get one free deal. And then, in all fairness to Nickelodeon,
(15:36):
Schneider left in twenty eighteen. It's twenty twenty four, and
these things are like, these stories are still coming out
and I'm wondering, guys, do you think they're sand to this?
Do you think there's credibility to this? Yes?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Unfortunately, I mean, yeah, I haven't seen the things you've
looked at, but it certainly sounds like it.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
I've certainly been aware of the story for a long time,
and I grew up as a Nickelodeon kid, and so
I suppose I had a vested interest. And unfortunately it
does feel all too real.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah, and this is where we pass the torch to you, folks,
fellow conspiracy realist, especially people who were in the demographic.
When you're watching shows during this time period, we want
to hear from you. If you have any experience in
the industry, tell us your take on these allegations. Tell
us how deep, how far this might go? Was this
(16:32):
an active conspiracy against these employees and these children? And
you can always reach us conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Say it along at home one ay through three, std WYTK.
We're going to take a pause for a word from
our sponsors and we'll be back with more strange news.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
And we've returned with another piece of strange. This one
is a Bomer kind of non the same, not quite
the same aggnitude as the previous one, But it's just
an example of someone going way, way, way off the
deep end to try to perpetrate a fraud and losing
out in the most grandiose way imaginable. And it involves
(17:15):
a student in Taiwan who had a not so great
friend who apparently was in over his head in crypto,
and the friend, known only in the press as Lao,
apparently convinced his buddy Xiang to perpetrate an insurance fraud
(17:37):
with him to help get him paid because he it
would appear, this Jang, you know, had a soft spot
in his heart for his buddy Lao, and he Lao
told him that he was being pursued by gangsters because
of crypto debts that he had, which unclearest whether that's
the case or not, but whatever the case, it appears
(17:59):
that the two hatched an elaborate insurance fraud scheme that
involved not Lao the person in debt I guess taking
one for the team, but rather Zang. I can only
imagine that they had agreed to split some of these
insurance proceeds, but it was Jang who agreed to amputate
his own legs. Both of them, both of them, yes,
(18:22):
legs plural and file an insurance claim. Well, it didn't
exactly go as planned. Apparently. What happened was on January
twenty sixth, twenty twenty three, Leao and Xang took out
a motorbike and rode around Taipei so that they would
have an alibi or a cover story for this idea
(18:47):
that Xiang had become due to exposure to the elements
afflicted with frostbite due to their evening ride. I don't
know about you, guys. I'm not an expert on the
climate of Taipei, but never really thought of it as
a subarctic kind of situation. Ben, I believe you've spent
some time in that part of the world. Does they
get that chili at night?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
It depends on the season.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
It is January, you know, it's probably quite cold. Yeah,
but either way, this was their cover story. Several days
before this, Jang took out several quite lucrative insurance policies
for life travel and accident insurance is. According to prosecutors,
After this night ride, Jang soaked his legs in a
(19:33):
bucket of dry ice and was admitted to the hospital.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
So that would actually give you frostbite. But there's something
there's something interesting there at all. Yeah, January is comparatively
a cold month for type A. But it's not that cold, dude,
It's really not. It's like, I'm gonna just look this
up real quick. The average low temperature is ten gree celsius,
(20:00):
which is like fifty degrees fahrenheit. It's colder at night
in New York now right.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
According to Business Insider, the low of the night of
the supposed accident was forty two degrees fair night.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yes, that would be that would be slightly lower than
the average low, but still that's that feels like a stretch.
So they tried to manufacture the frostbite by this this
dry ice process, as you're describing to frostbite sucks. It's
not cool.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Like, oh yeah. If anybody saw the most recent season
of True Detective, there was something referred to by the
lead investigators in that series as a corpse sickle. It
was some men who froze to death naked out in
the the Alaskan you know, tundra, and your fingers turned black,
(20:51):
your extremities turned black, and and you know, you basically
get it's almost like getting gangreen. But it's it's it's frostbite,
but it's it's not pretty and it is quite painful.
The problem here is that there are certain telltale signs
of a legitimate case of frost bite. Right His legs
had no markings indicating that he had shoes or socks on.
(21:15):
All of his injuries appeared completely symmetrical, which is of
course consistent with you know, soaking your legs in a
bucket rather than being exposed to the elements, which would
be a lot more you know, amorphous and not along
a certain line. To your point, Matt, the weather on
January twenty sixth was not anywhere near below freezing. It
(21:37):
only got two round forty two degrees fahrenheit, quite chiley.
But as the Taiwan Bureau of Criminal Investigation said in
a statement, Taiwan is a subtropical region and frost bite
of this level is pretty much unheard of. By this level,
we mean we're requiring amputation just due to the nature
(21:57):
of the climate in that region.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Like non manufactured frostbite.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
By non exactly, Zang's legs did have to be amputated
below the calf because of these injuries that he had sustained.
But this was absolutely, absolutely sketchy and a lot of
questions needed answering. Police did seek out those answers and
investigated Jang and Lao.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
It wasn't until.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
November, and with that much time having passed, you think
the guys would have gotten rid of the evidence, but no,
they found the plastic bucket that was used to freeze
Jang's feet. Apparently, insurance documents were just strown about the apartment,
willy nilly, and a white polystyrene box used for transporting
(22:42):
dry ice, in addition to eight mobile phones and a
tablet computer. I imagine maybe those were of interest because
of the crypto stuff. Maybe there was indication on those
that this guy was in debt. Lao and Jang were
arrested on January seventeenth and charge with fraud and aiding
and abetting serious injury according to the Bureau. And here's
(23:08):
the kicker why this story is a bummer. This is
obviously idiotic behavior. Kicker, Yeah, the kid, Sorry, my mistake
in poor taste, accidental. This is obviously an example of
some very idiotic behavior. You know, no one likes being
backed into a corner, and no one likes being in debt.
(23:28):
Whether or not there were gangsters or you know, members
of organized crime involved or not, it can feel very
scary and like you're back into a corner and you
have nowhere to go. But this seems like a pretty
hair brained scheme. And I can't believe Jang wasn't even
the one that was in debt and he somehow talked
his buddy into having his own legs amputated. The claim
(23:49):
they filed was for upwards of American one point five
million dollars. They filed the claim and actually only received
seventy two hundred dollars from one of the insurers, And
of course now that money is going to have to
be returned and those legs ain't growing back, guys.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Not with current medical technology.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
When done seem so I just, I don't know. I
can't exactly say I call this heartbreaking, but surely there
are better ways to perpetrate an insurance fraud. Turned down
a building or something. I don't know that it was
just I mean, I can only imagine they would have
been this one guy would have been absolutely terrified for
his life. But there does seem to be a little
(24:35):
sense in the reporting on this that he took his
buddy for a ride.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, there is a bit I agree with you, because
you are the person who hit me to this story. Initially,
you know.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
We're sitting there when I discovered popped up my phone.
I think we both looked at it the exact same time.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
It's just we're like, wow, okay, well, well for the
for the stuff they will want you to know ahead,
KAD and credit were due. You introduced me this and uh,
and it's there is there's also kind of an implication
of possible gambling addiction, with the idea that hey, if
I can just get enough money to get right on
(25:10):
these outstanding debts, then I can improve my life so
much so that I will still have a really great
quality of life despite this grievous injury I've given myself.
But it's also kind of an ultimatum thing, right, would
you rather lose your life or lose your legs? I
am wondering whether whether there's something like the psychology of
(25:34):
addictive gambling involved, whether the guy was being conned, And
I thought in one of the articles you posted from
Business Insider by Matthew Low, there's an interesting larger global
snapt snapshot I should say, of what they're calling opportunistic fraud,
Like it's kind of a golden age right during the
(25:55):
pandemic to commit insurance scams. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
I actually talking about this with friend of the show
Jordan run Talk a little earlier. Why might that be?
You know, maybe people are thinking that there's too much
going on and that they're gonna be able to slide past,
you know, the authorities. I don't know. I didn't mention this, guys,
but on Daily Mail and elsewhere he documented this process
(26:21):
and they found pictures. You can find pictures of this guy.
He's got his legs in his bucket of dry eyes,
and he's like wrapped his legs in zip ties, presumably
so he won't like try to pull him out. It's
like he's built a torture device of his own making.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
I mean, first off, try not to document your crimes
as much as possible. And then secondly, maybe maybe they
were planning to make that an income stream or like
a revenue streams. The dark levis gross.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Also, do document your crimes. Please keep them on your
phone and share them with all of your followers.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Go on Instagram, Go on Instagram live. Hey, guys.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Snapchat is the best.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Snapchat's the best. Yeah, gotta keep her streak going.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
But they'll never see anything.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
No one can do it. You're so safe because you
changed your name a little bit.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yep, uh, just quickly. This is so weird. Okay. So
earlier I was in the studio here with Pain and
Chuck Payne, Lindsay from Up and Vanished and all the
other shows, and then Chuck Bryant from Stuff you should know.
They were discussing. A documentary called Vernon, Florida came up.
(27:39):
It's a documentary by yeah, yeah, but Errol Morris, and
it's about what you're talking about, Noel, I forgot.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
About this one.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
It's not the whole town where this has happened a
lot of times.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yes, insurance fraud for like by way of amputating limbs.
And that's why Errol Morris originally went to that town
to make a documentary, but he ended up making it
about a different aspect of the town, just like interviewing
individuals and telling their stories. But this they were talking
about this very thing and how like it's raised its
(28:13):
head again as like ways to get fraudulent insurance claims
by like getting rid of body parts.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Right, and also you have to think, right, in a
time of massive rising unemployment coupled with rising inflation, the average,
even if you have a job, you get less money
for that job than you would have in the grand
scheme of things. People are looking for people who are
increasingly desperate or looking for alternate means of income. And
(28:44):
this is often lionized right by the Boffins and the
Thomas Friedman's of the world as a quote unquote gig economy, like, oh,
how great it is. You know, it's not great. A
gig economy is not optimal nor awesome. And there's another
thing in this article they shared here that surprised me
(29:09):
and then instantly didn't surprise me. Quote the FBI estimates
that four hundred to seven hundred dollars from the average
US families insurance premiums goes solely to covering insurance fraud cost?
Is the problem?
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Then?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Like? Is it the problem privatized insurance? Or like how
would you? I don't know, do you guys think there's
gonna be more of this in the future? Will escalate?
Speaker 4 (29:35):
It does seem you know, Now, we just had a
really cool conversation with a really cool director who's a
big fan of body horror, and I can't help but
think of the films of David Cronenberg where there's this
future that's depicted often where surgery is almost like a
fetish or something like that, and people, you know, like
(29:57):
sacrifice limbs almost as a lifestyle. And there is a
part of me that's like, is the is the future
a future where like, in the future, we won't even
need legs because everything's on the computer. And maybe, like
I don't I'm being a little silly, not silly, I mean,
maybe I'm being fatalistic, but uh, there I would maybe
(30:17):
think that the answer to that question, Ben is yes,
maybe for different reasons than we might think.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yeah. And that's and then we see I guess some
analogus too with uh with the stories of the red
market and uh monetized organ donation, right, all those all
those villages and rural areas across the world where people
have sold their kidneys, and their kidneys have been sold
at a dramatic markup. I don't know, man, I don't
(30:44):
know if I like this wet wear dystopian sci fi
civilization that we're headed toward.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Now, I don't either. And then again, I'm sorry. I
just want to make sure I'm not saying that everyone's
like these are all fetishistic weirdos that just want to
cut off their limbs for pleasure, like the Corona work.
There's obviously also people that are up against a wall
and have nowhere to go and this is the only
recourse to get that money. But I'm just kind of
doing a thought experiment where like, maybe there is a
future where this stuff goes up for other reasons. Sorry, man,
(31:11):
I didn't mean to drop.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Well, that's okay. I was just having flashbacks to the
Bad Blood episodes we just did where we're talking about,
you know, giving away our life blood for small amounts
of money because we need it.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Ugh.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
If limbs can be produced in a lab, then people
won't have to donate their limbs, right unless it's some
kind of regeneration thing where you could you could donate
your arm and then regrow a new own and then
donate that one. Yikes. I don't want to think about
that either.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Well, lots to think about, whether you want to or not.
And I guess we'll take a quick break and hear
a word from our sponsor and then come back with
one more piece of strange.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
News and we're back. Okay, guys, this is breaking news.
I think we all just saw this because it was
just posted for the first time as we're kind of
as we're recording, but we're going to talk about it,
see what we can figure out, and then we hope
(32:18):
to hear from you as the situation develops. So here
it begins. This is posted on the website of NBC News.
It is written by Patrick Smith and Dion Hampton. And
here's the title. Airport executive shot in firefight with federal
agents at his home in Arkansas. Here's the subtitle. Brian Malinowski,
(32:41):
fifty three, executive director at the Bill and Hillary Clinton
Airport in Little Rock, was injured after six am Tuesday.
So this is an airport executive.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Not an airline executive.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
No no, no doting. Yeah yeah, it's not has none to
do of Boeing, at least that we're aware of right now.
This is the executive director at the Bill and Hillary
Clinton Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, and he was shot
by federal agents who were arriving at his home to
serve a search warrant. Why, well, we don't know yet.
(33:16):
We do not know here's a statement from Arkansas State Police.
This is within that NBC article. He was quote injured
with gunshot wounds and treated on scene by paramedics before
being transported to a local hospital. Very strange. It appears,
at least through statements of his family, he was shot
(33:36):
in the head during this firefight. He is on life
support at least as we're recording this on Wednesday, March twentieth,
at four pm that's Eastern time. And we have no
idea why. We know that Brian again as an executive,
made a pretty good amount of money around two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars a year, and we don't know
(34:00):
why the ATF was hanging out at his place and
trying to serve a search warrant early at early hours
in the morning.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
We can maybe, yeah, because Matt with the source you shared,
like NBC and then also local affiliates there, there isn't
a ton of information. But I think maybe we can postulate,
I want to say speculate, but postulyly. The the ATF
(34:27):
has a specific area of focus and expertise. Could it
have possibly had something to do with alcohol, tobacco or firearms?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Probably firearms we know from that NBC article that other
people in the neighborhood, this is a residential neighborhood where
this was occurring. Other people saw quote guns and ammunition
being loaded onto a trailer while firefighters carried a circular saw,
crowbars and other tools into the house as though they
(34:59):
are attempting to gain access to some room or safe
or area that they could not gain access to traditionally.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Right, sounds like gun running, then it sounds like.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
It could be it's an executive director of an airport.
And what we have learned, at least through the let's say,
let's say allegations that come out of Emena, Arkansas about
gun and drug running out of an airport there, that
there are allegations that have to do with the Clintons,
by the way, ps and this happens to be the
(35:32):
director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport. Maybe
it's just all coincidence, and maybe that's weird. Who knows.
I'm not seeing anyone talking about gun running right now,
like through the airport or through use of.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
The airport, right or the authorities. Yeah, but then you
know the idea, like the scene we're describing, as reported
from the neighbors even discounting eyewitness testimonies problem that seems
more likely. One of the first questions people would have
is if there is illegal firearm trade, er, if there
(36:10):
is gun running, what is it related to? Like, you know,
gun running doesn't work if you're just one person. It's
not like the card game Solitaire. You run the guns
from point A two point z where there are other people.
So who are those other people? This is all if
then stuff. But also, Matt, I have never been a
(36:31):
confession moment of accountability. I've never been an airline or
airport executive. Are they well to do? Do they make
good money?
Speaker 4 (36:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Well yeah, I mean it's stated in that NBC News
article I think as a statement from his brother, this
gentleman Brian Melanowski's brother saying that he earned around two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, you know, core
a million dollars a year. Not too chabby. But you
know who, who's to say if he's got that much money.
I don't understand why you would need extra income, you know,
(37:03):
doing some drug running. If you've got a legitimate job
that pays you that much money, you know, unless there's
some greed aspirations or political connections that were not yet seeing. Also,
according to his brother, he had just met with Arkansas
senators last week in Washington for quote official airport business.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
That is such a that is such a vague term.
I would have written that in sketch comedy. I'm sorry,
this is official airport business.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Well, yeah, and the brother said, quote that tells you
the circles he's running in unquote, And again, we look,
we have to say it this way on the show
for many reasons, some of them are legal. There are
a ton of allegations about stuff that goes down with
state politics in Arkansas that goes it dates way back
(37:53):
into the eighties, right, and it's even further back than that,
And you know, we've we've talked about a lot of
those things openly on this show, where we've explored some
of those allegations. It does make you wonder if any
of it continues on, right, and if there is an
organized crime element of some sort that could be involved here,
wasn't there's.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Something familiar about that town And I'm trying to was
it a ron contra?
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Which town are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Mina, Arkansas?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah? This wait, this one isn't in Mina, though, this.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
One isn't in Mina. Okay, I'm thinking, I'm just think now,
I'm thinking just wild Arkansas accusations.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Mina, Arkansas touches on. Lord, I'm I don't know for sure. Mina,
Arkansas is one of the places where we did our
Clinton episode back in twenty sixteen. That's when we discussed
that airport, specifically drug running.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Drug running related to Ron Contra through the AES. I
remembering that now, okay. But also because for a certain
for a certain demographic of people in the U having
the Clinton name attached to something immediately makes it super sus.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Right, Well, it weirdly it does. Yeah, even though it
doesn't necessarily mean anything. It's just for the it's just
again because of allegations of corruption within Arkansas and the
state government, and because Bill Clinton was the head of
the state government there for a while as governor.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
And then again also because there was so much is
the problem, you know, and even knowing that some of
that has to necessarily be political hit pieces because of
the nature of American political discourse. There's a lot of smoke,
that's all we can say. There's a lot of smoke
(39:44):
from this time period. I don't know, man, I've never
heard of an airport executive in the United States being
in as our pal Lauren would say, an actual facts shootout,
like that's not in their skill set nor their CV.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Oh yeah, Like what what's the implication exactly? There's some
kind of sex secret life like a like what would
lead one occupying a position and of such legitimacy and
prominence to go this route?
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Well?
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Yeah, according to some of the reporting and some of
the statements, Brian Melanowski did collect guns like weapons. Perhaps
some of those were caught up in some kind of
investigation and the ATF was coming to search the home.
We don't know. This is all speculation on my part.
Maybe that's why they showed up for this with the
search warrant. Maybe it has something to do with something.
(40:40):
Little Rock Public Radio or it's Little Rock Arkansas's NPR
station reported on about this weird property dispute that was
happening with Brian Melanowski in a neighbor that's really it's
it's too much to even talk about right now. It
has to do with a mailbox that Brian melanows Ski
(41:00):
was like, this is on my property. And then there's
a winding maze of strange things that occurred, and at
the end, Brian Malanowski failed to get this mailbox removed
from what he says was his property. You can look
that up. It's titled Airport director involved in shootout previously
at center of property dispute. It's on ual Rpublic Radio
(41:24):
dot org.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
Nice I was looking at some of the local sources here,
but I want to because as you said at the top,
that we the public do not have a ton of
information about the mechanics of this event. I think we
can safely say though, that any rational actor getting into
(41:48):
a shootout, a home game shootout with something on the
level of the ATF, they have to know that's a
suicide run. Like you don't walk out of that.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
No, Yeah, so that is.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
What would it have been that could make this guy
do that? Suicide runs is like a setup of some kind?
Speaker 4 (42:07):
Is this a distraction from something else that's going on
with this guy that he'd get over his head with
somebody like it just seems like secret life kind of
stuff to me.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
It's wild.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
If it's true what Matthew Melanowski's saying, that's the brother
of the victim here and Brian did meet with quote
Arkansas senators last week in Washington for quote official airport business.
I would love to know the minutes of that meeting,
or at least the general nature of.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
The seconds, just the tenor of the discussion. Oh yeah, yeah,
if not the minutes, the seconds, I like that. Yeah,
it's like the conversation between Uncle Gee and Uncle Joe
right where they're just saying, hey, a good one. We'd
like if you read just the minutes of those guys conversations,
it would seem relatively innocuous because you're missing so much
(42:58):
in tone. But you're right, this is the information that
we would need to figure out what happened, and we
can't forget. You know, there's a family that's had their
lives horrifically upended, and regardless of what we conclude about
this or what we're all thinking as we're hearing the story,
we have to remember that there are there are human
(43:20):
beings affected by this who are most likely innocent and
uninvolved in whatever the hell is going on or was
going on with Malanowski.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Well, yeah, and we have to state maybe Brian Melanowski
was surprised by armed men showing up at his house. Right,
he just defended his home and himself and anybody else
who's in the house and he didn't know.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Has a bit of a standard ground kind of situation.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Perhaps, Yeah, well, that's.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
Not why people have firearms in their home.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
It's true, break.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
Ins and violence do occur. I also wonder, like, do
we It feels like there are some more official statements
maybe that should be on the way. I can only assume.
And he was also, Yeah, because he would have been
He would have been competent with a firearm because he's
an enthusiast and a collector, so surely that means he
(44:17):
goes to the range and doesn't let a skills atrophy.
Were there any ATF wounds or injuries.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah? One ATF officer was I guess shot or wounded,
but in non critical condition, was taken to the hospital. Okay, guys,
I don't know what else there is to say here.
We've done so much speculation already, simply because this is
such a new story. We cannot wait to hear what
you find as you're listening to this, and maybe new
stuff has come out right to us, let us know details.
(44:46):
We can't wait to hear from you.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Yes, and we have one thing to add. This is
a This is a special message for my pal Jack,
for our pal Jack over at the Daily Zeitgeist, and
for our fellow conspiracy realists who have been checking out
the Havana syndrome. There's a new update. Ah, Jack is
(45:09):
gonna love this. You know, we were going back and
forth on Twitter about this. There is a new study
that has been conducted over the course of five years
that finds there are no brain injuries among Havana syndrome patients.
Really really, I know, right, that's that's the sound our
pals are making on the West Coast right now. But yes,
(45:32):
as you said, Matt, let us know what is going
on with all of the stuff we discussed in Strange
News this evening is Havannah syndrome, psychosomatic, attic, insane is
the pressure?
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Sorry guys on that note, for real, I've been getting
terrible sleep for the past like four nights and I've
woken up at three am.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Exactly free Na time.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Yeah, it's exactly at three am. And there is an
I don't know if you guys have this weird sinastasia
thing where you can hear electricity yes, sometimes like the
buzz of that field, that electromagnetic field. Not everybody can hear.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
That, by the way, Oh, it's like cilantro.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
It is like seriously, but I wake up at three
am and I hear this super high pitched elect like
electrical sound is the only way I can describe it.
So then I actually did some recordings at the house
to be like, what the heck is this thing? And
it is. You can see it in the upper levels
of frequency that like you guys know Adobe audition, right,
(46:39):
it will show you like that upper echelon if you
look at the spectral vision. Yeah, there is something penetrating
my house. Boys, can you send it?
Speaker 3 (46:47):
I would love to. I would love to dig into
that off air.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
I think I'm gonna I'm gonna save it, put it
on some hard drives, back it up a couple of times,
and then hide it in various places so authorities can find.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
It good for their comments publicly, right, Yeah, I just
wanted to say here, guys.
Speaker 4 (47:03):
It really makes me want to pull the trigger on
buying that mic I mentioned in our Infrasound episode. Company
called Soma Electronics makes a mic called ether that is
a wide band receiver that allows you to perceive the
electromagnetic landscape around you. It's an anti radio and it
picks up nothing but that interference that other mics are
(47:25):
designed to filter out.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
We need a reason to hang out of my place.
Bring it over, I'm going to do it. Order right now.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
How much room for activities? Also, I'm with you there, Matt.
As everybody knows, I do not practice normal human sleep
patterns and have had some some weird stuff going on too.
So if we ever sound a little loopy, that's that's
part of it, and we're keeping it as part of
the show. Folks, do be safe out there. Also, let
(47:52):
us know what you think about the rise in potential
opportunistic fraud as the insurance industry is called. And you know, also,
please please please not blowing smoke. Let us know what
your take on the dark side of Nickelodeon allegations is.
And let us know how far how deep you believe
(48:15):
this may go. Is there a cover up, is it active?
What else does it tell us about the darker side
of entertainment in Hollywood? We want to hear all this
and more, especially leads on new topics. You think your
fellow conspiracy realist will enjoy. We try to be easy
to find online.
Speaker 4 (48:31):
Sorry. You can find us in the handle conspiracy Stuff,
where we exist on YouTube, where we have videos early
on every single week, on x FKA, Twitter, and on
Facebook where you can join our Facebook group Here's where
it gets crazy. On Instagram and TikTok. We are Conspiracy
Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
Hey, do you like to leave voice messages? I know
you do. Call one eight three three STDWYTK when you
call in. You've got three minutes. Give yourself a cool
nickname and let us know if we can use your
name and message on the air. If you've got more
to say than could fit in that three minutes, why
not instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
We are the folks who read every single email we
get and be careful. Sometimes the void writes back twenty
four hours a day, seven days a week, or I
should say twenty four hours a night, seven days a week.
Take the sun down a notch. We can't wait to
see your links. To see your pictures here audio you
want to send us, all you have to do is
(49:27):
drop us a line conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noel.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Alexis code named Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly,
you are you. You are here. That makes this the
stuff they don't want you to know. It is the
top of the week, it's the evening where we like
to explore what we call strange news. We're going to
(00:49):
learn about some very grisly things today, some quite disturbing things.
So for anybody listening along with the young leans and
the kiddos, please know this following commerce station may not
be appropriate for all audiences. We're talking about ghoulish insurance scams,
a mystery that is unraveling as we record, and we're
(01:12):
talking about I don't know, there's a There's so much
dark stuff today, guys, that I was thinking we could
just say one piece of nice news at the very beginning.
Is that, okay, very short, I got a nice thing, Okay,
and this is sort of an apology to the good
people of Worcester because for a long time, on multiple
(01:35):
shows we have joked about how.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
It's unfil.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Uh. There we go. We've done that one. We've got
we did that with just now. Congrats Matt. We also
we also gave them a hard time about the misleading
spelling and pronunciation of the name. So both as good news,
a little dosa good news, and as a an all
of branch to the good people of Worcester or Wooster,
(02:03):
depending on your accents, as an olive branch to our
fellow conspiracy realists in that part of the world, we
are proud to announce that the library fees in this
town have fundamentally changed. If you have a late fee
at a library in this community, or you're getting a
(02:23):
fee for a damaged book or you lost something, et cetera,
you no longer have to pay for it in cash.
All you need to do, according to Boston dot Com,
is bring a cute picture of a cat.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Dang, do you think they're going to adopt that policy?
At my video store, there's so many late fee Yeah, dude,
I think I'm single handedly keeping that place in business
with my late fees because.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Of your late fees.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, I mean Video Drome. Okay, we could do an
episode of Video dro It's awesome.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
It's also an incredibly fantastic David Cronenberg movie. But like,
you know, the thing, we're so we're so spoil by
like streaming, that we forget. You know, we're on a schedule.
You got to read these books, watch these movies in
a reasonable timeframe, not just whenever you feel like it.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
And yeah, Video Drome, named after the film, is a
longstanding local rental institution. Right, we love Video Drome here.
I also am grateful, I think we all are to
their policy of giving you a discount on the late fees.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
They do do that. I was about to say, that's awesome,
but I'm glad to do that. I thought it was
special for a second. But how dare I think that?
You know what, when I get home from travels this evening,
I'm going to watch both of them and return them
to as Sweet tomorrow. Maybe I'll bring a cat picture
just for good measure. What do you think?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Just do it? Yeah, just you know, grease the wheels
a little bit. This is the kind of lobbying I
like the library there in Massachusetts is calling this program
March me Owdness, and it applies to all seven branches
of the library system. So please let us know if
that we're for you, and you may have you may
(04:03):
join us on a future listener mail program. You also
may have a spidy sense. We started with something so innocuous,
so wholesome, and now we're like, we're like in the
Willy Wonka boat in the chocolate factory. There's no earthly wave.
Things are about to get dark, you guys. Have We
(04:24):
have talked about this on a couple of different shows,
and we've mentioned it in the past. Things are going
poorly for Nickelodeon the recent well. The long standing allegations
of toxic work environments, conspiracies and retaliation, and sexual abuse
(04:44):
are becoming mainstreamed with an explosive new docuseriies called Quiet
on Set. Have you guys watched this?
Speaker 4 (04:52):
I haven't watched it, but I've seen a lot of
the fallout that has resulted from it, including some pretty
ir responsible and INCENTI set of things said by some
former Nickelodeon co stars and the names of Escaping me.
But there was one former colleague of one of the
people that came out and you know, basically described some
of these experiences. And this former co star just had
(05:15):
some really gross stuff like mad it made a joke
out of it, and there's nothing to be joked about here.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Yeah. Yeah, And this again, this is the deep Water.
This series has four parts out now in various different platforms,
and it goes into things that apparently were an open
secret or acknowledged pre Internet all throughout the industry. The
name that you will hear most often associated with this
(05:44):
is the producer Dan Schneider, who was kind of the
kingmaker at Nickelodeon for a long time. The allegations range widely.
Here are some of the most explosive. These are coming
to us from an article by Wesley writing for Entertainment Weekly.
It's disturbing stuff. There was a production assistant on all
(06:08):
that and a program called The Amanda Show in the
early two thousands named Jesse Handy, who apparently was a
self proclaimed pedophile and was sending sexual pictures of him
pleasuring himself to actors as young as eleven. He had
(06:30):
been arrested in April of two thousand and three after
a tip, like an anonymous tip to the authorities and
police found over ten thousand images of erotic material or
what we call CSAM child sexual abuse material. He was
(06:51):
sentenced to prison in two thousand and four. And this
is one of the allegations, but only one, and it
doesn't even touch on Dan. Before we go on, do
we want to talk a little bit more about the
allegations regarding Schneider, I mean Nol in particular. We had
been discussing this. We're hanging out with Gandhi on her
(07:11):
show's Sauce on the Side.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Yeah, and that episode may or may not be out, Yeah,
but do take a look. It was a really wide
ranging conversation that did venture to this territory. I just
really quickly want to double back and see. The person
I was referring to was actor and musician Drake Bell,
who was featured in the documentary and one of his
they were in. He was in a show that was
Past My Time. Well, he was in all that, which
(07:34):
was kind of part of my Nickelodeon upbringing in the
Amanda show, as you mentioned, but some other Nickelodeon colleagues,
stars of a show called Neds Declassified, a guy named
Devin Werkheiser, Lindsay Shaw and Daniel Curtis Lee have a
podcast and they are the ones who said some pretty
gnarly stuff, almost like victim blamey, kind of just gross
things on their podcast in a TikTok that they posted.
(07:57):
But he had allegations against Brian, who was a dialogue coach,
is one of the dialogue coaches. Yeah, but no, I
mean as far as Schneider, that was brooming the highest
of the highest order, right and you know assault.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, since we brought in Brian Peck, now, let's let's
go to that and we'll get to Schneider later. So
Drake Bell was repeatedly sexually abused by Nickelodeon employee dialogue
coach Brian Peck. And this was during his teenage years
where he was a cast member of The Amanda Show.
(08:32):
And we're not going to give you the full details
of what was happening, but it appears that it was
happening in a it appears that it was happening in
an open, secret kind of way. We've talked about plausible
deniability before. It appears that in this situation the fig
(08:56):
leaf of plausible deniability simply cannot cannot be used or
rationalized by other people in these productions. Peck was also
convicted of child molestation in two thousand and four. He
pled no contest to some pretty gnarly and disturbing charges.
(09:16):
And I didn't know you could plead no contest to
things of that magnitude. I thought that was for traffic court,
you know, like here's your money. But I wasn't speeding
kind of stuff. I didn't know it could go to
that level of just despicable crime.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, in order where what were the years again, Ben
that this was happening.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
The years that this was happening were during the during
the course of the Amanda Show, So the convictions for
crimes of a similar nature didn't come about till two
thousand and four. But the Amanda Show itself ran from
nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and two, got it,
And that was starring Amanda Binds, which became another another
(10:02):
mother load of very nasty allegations to which Schneider has responded,
but not very convincingly.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
And if I'm not mistaken, Amanda Bynes went on to
have some pretty public mental health issues that you know,
were widely reported, and one can't help but wonder if
that kind of thing that is related to things that
she witnessed, you know, while on set. I'm just conjecturing here,
and I don't know that's for a fact, but it
(10:32):
does seem like that is a common trope with child
actors who have experienced difficult situations when they were very young.
It can lead to difficulties later in.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Life, and the allegations continue. There's also sl Channel, who
was a Nickelodeon employee who worked at the company's Burbank lot.
He was convicted of bringing in minor a young boy
to the lot and abusing him on site. And that
gets even more to stur because it turns out Channel
had a prior conviction and was a registered sex offender
(11:07):
before applying to work at Nickelodeon. They hired him, and
it just gets it gets stranger and stranger. You know.
There's the point. There's the point that we haven't had
a full episode on about the tremendous psychological dangers posed
to child actors. You know, it's unfortunately, it's I'm not
(11:30):
going to say, of course, something hyperbolic. It's obviously not
every child actor. You can see people who have great,
storied careers and they had awesome parents who are helping
them along the way. But there are also a lot
of dark things that occurred. A lot of kids got
who slipped through the cracks or were treated as objects
(11:52):
or things to be abused, and that has series consequences
later in life, you know, in terms of mental health,
in terms of substance abuse. It is a story so
common indeed that it has become part of American folklore.
And with this, when I was watching through this series,
(12:13):
I was reading through these allegations. It was after it
was after some of our previous discussions where we jokingly,
we jokingly talked about the kind of internet meme that
kept saying Dan Schneider has a weird thing for feet,
remember that? And then I realized the logo of Nickelodeon
(12:34):
was a foot.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Yeah orange slime foot yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yeah yu yeah, yuck indeed, yuck to the max. And
then there were also there were also super cuts that
have been released in recently and in recent years of
kids in these programs doing things under the guise of
comedy that, while not explicitly sexual, are seen as disturbing
(13:04):
by some critics. Do you do you remember hearing about
any of this, you guys.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Well, I mean I suppose I just heard about just
kind of you hear about the worst of it, and
then you can only assume that what led to the
worst of it was a culture of inappropriate behavior and
just these folks not being good stewards of the young
people they were meant to be looking out for.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yeah, the normalization that allows escalation, right, and shifts the
overtone the Overton window. And there are also, of course,
there are allegations that are maybe sexually based or misogynistic,
but they are not sexually explicit or sexual abuse claims,
like the stories of female writers or female identifying writers
(13:49):
who were working on this show and said, you know,
we were retaliated against. There were the Amanda Buying Show
or the Amanda Show had only two female writers on
the first season, right, and it's supposed to be a
female centric show, right, They're looking for a certain demographic.
And these two writers, Jenny Kilgan and Christy Stratton are
(14:12):
interviewed describing their experiences, and what they talk about is
really hostile stuff. There's one quote where it's like, right
when they first start the writer's room and they're breaking
stories and they say, Dan Schneider, his manifesto, his thesis
statement is he doesn't think women are funny, and then
in front of these female writers, he says, name one
(14:35):
funny female writer, which is pretty that's kind of a
bully tactic.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Isn't it, Sarah Silverman. Yeah, And then he sorry, just
one of the funniest writers on the planet.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And yeah, we're Earthlings. Let's blow up earth things. Shout
out Sarah Silverman. He also goes on to like the
accusations again, these are allegations against the It hasn't been
there hasn't been a big court conviction of stuff like
this for Schneider. But apparently he would show female writers
pornography on his computer. He would try to pressure people
(15:12):
into giving him massages to get their sketches on the air.
And these are the actual writers saying it. There was
also dirty financial shenanigans going on, like splitting the pay
that you were supposed to give to a single writer
between two writers so you could get like a buy one,
get one free deal. And then, in all fairness to Nickelodeon,
(15:36):
Schneider left in twenty eighteen. It's twenty twenty four, and
these things are like, these stories are still coming out
and I'm wondering, guys, do you think they're sand to this?
Do you think there's credibility to this? Yes?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Unfortunately, I mean, yeah, I haven't seen the things you've
looked at, but it certainly sounds like it.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
I've certainly been aware of the story for a long time,
and I grew up as a Nickelodeon kid, and so
I suppose I had a vested interest. And unfortunately it
does feel all too real.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah, and this is where we pass the torch to you, folks,
fellow conspiracy realist, especially people who were in the demographic.
When you're watching shows during this time period, we want
to hear from you. If you have any experience in
the industry, tell us your take on these allegations. Tell
us how deep, how far this might go? Was this
(16:32):
an active conspiracy against these employees and these children? And
you can always reach us conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Say it along at home one ay through three, std WYTK.
We're going to take a pause for a word from
our sponsors and we'll be back with more strange news.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
And we've returned with another piece of strange. This one
is a Bomer kind of non the same, not quite
the same aggnitude as the previous one, But it's just
an example of someone going way, way, way off the
deep end to try to perpetrate a fraud and losing
out in the most grandiose way imaginable. And it involves
(17:15):
a student in Taiwan who had a not so great
friend who apparently was in over his head in crypto,
and the friend, known only in the press as Lao,
apparently convinced his buddy Xiang to perpetrate an insurance fraud
(17:37):
with him to help get him paid because he it
would appear, this Jang, you know, had a soft spot
in his heart for his buddy Lao, and he Lao
told him that he was being pursued by gangsters because
of crypto debts that he had, which unclearest whether that's
the case or not, but whatever the case, it appears
(17:59):
that the two hatched an elaborate insurance fraud scheme that
involved not Lao the person in debt I guess taking
one for the team, but rather Zang. I can only
imagine that they had agreed to split some of these
insurance proceeds, but it was Jang who agreed to amputate
his own legs. Both of them, both of them, yes,
(18:22):
legs plural and file an insurance claim. Well, it didn't
exactly go as planned. Apparently. What happened was on January
twenty sixth, twenty twenty three, Leao and Xang took out
a motorbike and rode around Taipei so that they would
have an alibi or a cover story for this idea
(18:47):
that Xiang had become due to exposure to the elements
afflicted with frostbite due to their evening ride. I don't
know about you, guys. I'm not an expert on the
climate of Taipei, but never really thought of it as
a subarctic kind of situation. Ben, I believe you've spent
some time in that part of the world. Does they
get that chili at night?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
It depends on the season.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
It is January, you know, it's probably quite cold. Yeah,
but either way, this was their cover story. Several days
before this, Jang took out several quite lucrative insurance policies
for life travel and accident insurance is. According to prosecutors,
After this night ride, Jang soaked his legs in a
(19:33):
bucket of dry ice and was admitted to the hospital.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
So that would actually give you frostbite. But there's something
there's something interesting there at all. Yeah, January is comparatively
a cold month for type A. But it's not that cold, dude,
It's really not. It's like, I'm gonna just look this
up real quick. The average low temperature is ten gree celsius,
(20:00):
which is like fifty degrees fahrenheit. It's colder at night
in New York now right.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
According to Business Insider, the low of the night of
the supposed accident was forty two degrees fair night.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yes, that would be that would be slightly lower than
the average low, but still that's that feels like a stretch.
So they tried to manufacture the frostbite by this this
dry ice process, as you're describing to frostbite sucks. It's
not cool.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Like, oh yeah. If anybody saw the most recent season
of True Detective, there was something referred to by the
lead investigators in that series as a corpse sickle. It
was some men who froze to death naked out in
the the Alaskan you know, tundra, and your fingers turned black,
(20:51):
your extremities turned black, and and you know, you basically
get it's almost like getting gangreen. But it's it's it's frostbite,
but it's it's not pretty and it is quite painful.
The problem here is that there are certain telltale signs
of a legitimate case of frost bite. Right His legs
had no markings indicating that he had shoes or socks on.
(21:15):
All of his injuries appeared completely symmetrical, which is of
course consistent with you know, soaking your legs in a
bucket rather than being exposed to the elements, which would
be a lot more you know, amorphous and not along
a certain line. To your point, Matt, the weather on
January twenty sixth was not anywhere near below freezing. It
(21:37):
only got two round forty two degrees fahrenheit, quite chiley.
But as the Taiwan Bureau of Criminal Investigation said in
a statement, Taiwan is a subtropical region and frost bite
of this level is pretty much unheard of. By this level,
we mean we're requiring amputation just due to the nature
(21:57):
of the climate in that region.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Like non manufactured frostbite.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
By non exactly, Zang's legs did have to be amputated
below the calf because of these injuries that he had sustained.
But this was absolutely, absolutely sketchy and a lot of
questions needed answering. Police did seek out those answers and
investigated Jang and Lao.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
It wasn't until.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
November, and with that much time having passed, you think
the guys would have gotten rid of the evidence, but no,
they found the plastic bucket that was used to freeze
Jang's feet. Apparently, insurance documents were just strown about the apartment,
willy nilly, and a white polystyrene box used for transporting
(22:42):
dry ice, in addition to eight mobile phones and a
tablet computer. I imagine maybe those were of interest because
of the crypto stuff. Maybe there was indication on those
that this guy was in debt. Lao and Jang were
arrested on January seventeenth and charge with fraud and aiding
and abetting serious injury according to the Bureau. And here's
(23:08):
the kicker why this story is a bummer. This is
obviously idiotic behavior. Kicker, Yeah, the kid, Sorry, my mistake
in poor taste, accidental. This is obviously an example of
some very idiotic behavior. You know, no one likes being
backed into a corner, and no one likes being in debt.
(23:28):
Whether or not there were gangsters or you know, members
of organized crime involved or not, it can feel very
scary and like you're back into a corner and you
have nowhere to go. But this seems like a pretty
hair brained scheme. And I can't believe Jang wasn't even
the one that was in debt and he somehow talked
his buddy into having his own legs amputated. The claim
(23:49):
they filed was for upwards of American one point five
million dollars. They filed the claim and actually only received
seventy two hundred dollars from one of the insurers, And
of course now that money is going to have to
be returned and those legs ain't growing back, guys.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Not with current medical technology.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
When done seem so I just, I don't know. I
can't exactly say I call this heartbreaking, but surely there
are better ways to perpetrate an insurance fraud. Turned down
a building or something. I don't know that it was
just I mean, I can only imagine they would have
been this one guy would have been absolutely terrified for
his life. But there does seem to be a little
(24:35):
sense in the reporting on this that he took his
buddy for a ride.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, there is a bit I agree with you, because
you are the person who hit me to this story. Initially,
you know.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
We're sitting there when I discovered popped up my phone.
I think we both looked at it the exact same time.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
It's just we're like, wow, okay, well, well for the
for the stuff they will want you to know ahead,
KAD and credit were due. You introduced me this and uh,
and it's there is there's also kind of an implication
of possible gambling addiction, with the idea that hey, if
I can just get enough money to get right on
(25:10):
these outstanding debts, then I can improve my life so
much so that I will still have a really great
quality of life despite this grievous injury I've given myself.
But it's also kind of an ultimatum thing, right, would
you rather lose your life or lose your legs? I
am wondering whether whether there's something like the psychology of
(25:34):
addictive gambling involved, whether the guy was being conned, And
I thought in one of the articles you posted from
Business Insider by Matthew Low, there's an interesting larger global
snapt snapshot I should say, of what they're calling opportunistic fraud,
Like it's kind of a golden age right during the
(25:55):
pandemic to commit insurance scams. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
I actually talking about this with friend of the show
Jordan run Talk a little earlier. Why might that be?
You know, maybe people are thinking that there's too much
going on and that they're gonna be able to slide past,
you know, the authorities. I don't know. I didn't mention this, guys,
but on Daily Mail and elsewhere he documented this process
(26:21):
and they found pictures. You can find pictures of this guy.
He's got his legs in his bucket of dry eyes,
and he's like wrapped his legs in zip ties, presumably
so he won't like try to pull him out. It's
like he's built a torture device of his own making.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
I mean, first off, try not to document your crimes
as much as possible. And then secondly, maybe maybe they
were planning to make that an income stream or like
a revenue streams. The dark levis gross.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Also, do document your crimes. Please keep them on your
phone and share them with all of your followers.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Go on Instagram, Go on Instagram live. Hey, guys.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Snapchat is the best.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Snapchat's the best. Yeah, gotta keep her streak going.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
But they'll never see anything.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
No one can do it. You're so safe because you
changed your name a little bit.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yep, uh, just quickly. This is so weird. Okay. So
earlier I was in the studio here with Pain and
Chuck Payne, Lindsay from Up and Vanished and all the
other shows, and then Chuck Bryant from Stuff you should know.
They were discussing. A documentary called Vernon, Florida came up.
(27:39):
It's a documentary by yeah, yeah, but Errol Morris, and
it's about what you're talking about, Noel, I forgot.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
About this one.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
It's not the whole town where this has happened a
lot of times.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yes, insurance fraud for like by way of amputating limbs.
And that's why Errol Morris originally went to that town
to make a documentary, but he ended up making it
about a different aspect of the town, just like interviewing
individuals and telling their stories. But this they were talking
about this very thing and how like it's raised its
(28:13):
head again as like ways to get fraudulent insurance claims
by like getting rid of body parts.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Right, and also you have to think, right, in a
time of massive rising unemployment coupled with rising inflation, the average,
even if you have a job, you get less money
for that job than you would have in the grand
scheme of things. People are looking for people who are
increasingly desperate or looking for alternate means of income. And
(28:44):
this is often lionized right by the Boffins and the
Thomas Friedman's of the world as a quote unquote gig economy, like, oh,
how great it is. You know, it's not great. A
gig economy is not optimal nor awesome. And there's another
thing in this article they shared here that surprised me
(29:09):
and then instantly didn't surprise me. Quote the FBI estimates
that four hundred to seven hundred dollars from the average
US families insurance premiums goes solely to covering insurance fraud cost?
Is the problem?
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Then?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Like? Is it the problem privatized insurance? Or like how
would you? I don't know, do you guys think there's
gonna be more of this in the future? Will escalate?
Speaker 4 (29:35):
It does seem you know, Now, we just had a
really cool conversation with a really cool director who's a
big fan of body horror, and I can't help but
think of the films of David Cronenberg where there's this
future that's depicted often where surgery is almost like a
fetish or something like that, and people, you know, like
(29:57):
sacrifice limbs almost as a lifestyle. And there is a
part of me that's like, is the is the future
a future where like, in the future, we won't even
need legs because everything's on the computer. And maybe, like
I don't I'm being a little silly, not silly, I mean,
maybe I'm being fatalistic, but uh, there I would maybe
(30:17):
think that the answer to that question, Ben is yes,
maybe for different reasons than we might think.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yeah. And that's and then we see I guess some
analogus too with uh with the stories of the red
market and uh monetized organ donation, right, all those all
those villages and rural areas across the world where people
have sold their kidneys, and their kidneys have been sold
at a dramatic markup. I don't know, man, I don't
(30:44):
know if I like this wet wear dystopian sci fi
civilization that we're headed toward.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Now, I don't either. And then again, I'm sorry. I
just want to make sure I'm not saying that everyone's
like these are all fetishistic weirdos that just want to
cut off their limbs for pleasure, like the Corona work.
There's obviously also people that are up against a wall
and have nowhere to go and this is the only
recourse to get that money. But I'm just kind of
doing a thought experiment where like, maybe there is a
future where this stuff goes up for other reasons. Sorry, man,
(31:11):
I didn't mean to drop.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Well, that's okay. I was just having flashbacks to the
Bad Blood episodes we just did where we're talking about,
you know, giving away our life blood for small amounts
of money because we need it.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Ugh.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
If limbs can be produced in a lab, then people
won't have to donate their limbs, right unless it's some
kind of regeneration thing where you could you could donate
your arm and then regrow a new own and then
donate that one. Yikes. I don't want to think about
that either.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Well, lots to think about, whether you want to or not.
And I guess we'll take a quick break and hear
a word from our sponsor and then come back with
one more piece of strange.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
News and we're back. Okay, guys, this is breaking news.
I think we all just saw this because it was
just posted for the first time as we're kind of
as we're recording, but we're going to talk about it,
see what we can figure out, and then we hope
(32:18):
to hear from you as the situation develops. So here
it begins. This is posted on the website of NBC News.
It is written by Patrick Smith and Dion Hampton. And
here's the title. Airport executive shot in firefight with federal
agents at his home in Arkansas. Here's the subtitle. Brian Malinowski,
(32:41):
fifty three, executive director at the Bill and Hillary Clinton
Airport in Little Rock, was injured after six am Tuesday.
So this is an airport executive.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Not an airline executive.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
No no, no doting. Yeah yeah, it's not has none to
do of Boeing, at least that we're aware of right now.
This is the executive director at the Bill and Hillary
Clinton Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, and he was shot
by federal agents who were arriving at his home to
serve a search warrant. Why, well, we don't know yet.
(33:16):
We do not know here's a statement from Arkansas State Police.
This is within that NBC article. He was quote injured
with gunshot wounds and treated on scene by paramedics before
being transported to a local hospital. Very strange. It appears,
at least through statements of his family, he was shot
(33:36):
in the head during this firefight. He is on life
support at least as we're recording this on Wednesday, March twentieth,
at four pm that's Eastern time. And we have no
idea why. We know that Brian again as an executive,
made a pretty good amount of money around two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars a year, and we don't know
(34:00):
why the ATF was hanging out at his place and
trying to serve a search warrant early at early hours
in the morning.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
We can maybe, yeah, because Matt with the source you shared,
like NBC and then also local affiliates there, there isn't
a ton of information. But I think maybe we can postulate,
I want to say speculate, but postulyly. The the ATF
(34:27):
has a specific area of focus and expertise. Could it
have possibly had something to do with alcohol, tobacco or firearms?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Probably firearms we know from that NBC article that other
people in the neighborhood, this is a residential neighborhood where
this was occurring. Other people saw quote guns and ammunition
being loaded onto a trailer while firefighters carried a circular saw,
crowbars and other tools into the house as though they
(34:59):
are attempting to gain access to some room or safe
or area that they could not gain access to traditionally.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Right, sounds like gun running, then it sounds like.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
It could be it's an executive director of an airport.
And what we have learned, at least through the let's say,
let's say allegations that come out of Emena, Arkansas about
gun and drug running out of an airport there, that
there are allegations that have to do with the Clintons,
by the way, ps and this happens to be the
(35:32):
director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport. Maybe
it's just all coincidence, and maybe that's weird. Who knows.
I'm not seeing anyone talking about gun running right now,
like through the airport or through use of.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
The airport, right or the authorities. Yeah, but then you
know the idea, like the scene we're describing, as reported
from the neighbors even discounting eyewitness testimonies problem that seems
more likely. One of the first questions people would have
is if there is illegal firearm trade, er, if there
(36:10):
is gun running, what is it related to? Like, you know,
gun running doesn't work if you're just one person. It's
not like the card game Solitaire. You run the guns
from point A two point z where there are other people.
So who are those other people? This is all if
then stuff. But also, Matt, I have never been a
(36:31):
confession moment of accountability. I've never been an airline or
airport executive. Are they well to do? Do they make
good money?
Speaker 4 (36:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Well yeah, I mean it's stated in that NBC News
article I think as a statement from his brother, this
gentleman Brian Melanowski's brother saying that he earned around two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, you know, core
a million dollars a year. Not too chabby. But you
know who, who's to say if he's got that much money.
I don't understand why you would need extra income, you know,
(37:03):
doing some drug running. If you've got a legitimate job
that pays you that much money, you know, unless there's
some greed aspirations or political connections that were not yet seeing. Also,
according to his brother, he had just met with Arkansas
senators last week in Washington for quote official airport business.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
That is such a that is such a vague term.
I would have written that in sketch comedy. I'm sorry,
this is official airport business.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Well, yeah, and the brother said, quote that tells you
the circles he's running in unquote, And again, we look,
we have to say it this way on the show
for many reasons, some of them are legal. There are
a ton of allegations about stuff that goes down with
state politics in Arkansas that goes it dates way back
(37:53):
into the eighties, right, and it's even further back than that,
And you know, we've we've talked about a lot of
those things openly on this show, where we've explored some
of those allegations. It does make you wonder if any
of it continues on, right, and if there is an
organized crime element of some sort that could be involved here,
wasn't there's.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Something familiar about that town And I'm trying to was
it a ron contra?
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Which town are we talking about?
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Mina, Arkansas?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah? This wait, this one isn't in Mina, though, this.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
One isn't in Mina. Okay, I'm thinking, I'm just think now,
I'm thinking just wild Arkansas accusations.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Mina, Arkansas touches on. Lord, I'm I don't know for sure. Mina,
Arkansas is one of the places where we did our
Clinton episode back in twenty sixteen. That's when we discussed
that airport, specifically drug running.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Drug running related to Ron Contra through the AES. I
remembering that now, okay. But also because for a certain
for a certain demographic of people in the U having
the Clinton name attached to something immediately makes it super sus.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Right, Well, it weirdly it does. Yeah, even though it
doesn't necessarily mean anything. It's just for the it's just
again because of allegations of corruption within Arkansas and the
state government, and because Bill Clinton was the head of
the state government there for a while as governor.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
And then again also because there was so much is
the problem, you know, and even knowing that some of
that has to necessarily be political hit pieces because of
the nature of American political discourse. There's a lot of smoke,
that's all we can say. There's a lot of smoke
(39:44):
from this time period. I don't know, man, I've never
heard of an airport executive in the United States being
in as our pal Lauren would say, an actual facts shootout,
like that's not in their skill set nor their CV.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Oh yeah, Like what what's the implication exactly? There's some
kind of sex secret life like a like what would
lead one occupying a position and of such legitimacy and
prominence to go this route?
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Well?
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Yeah, according to some of the reporting and some of
the statements, Brian Melanowski did collect guns like weapons. Perhaps
some of those were caught up in some kind of
investigation and the ATF was coming to search the home.
We don't know. This is all speculation on my part.
Maybe that's why they showed up for this with the
search warrant. Maybe it has something to do with something.
(40:40):
Little Rock Public Radio or it's Little Rock Arkansas's NPR
station reported on about this weird property dispute that was
happening with Brian Melanowski in a neighbor that's really it's
it's too much to even talk about right now. It
has to do with a mailbox that Brian melanows Ski
(41:00):
was like, this is on my property. And then there's
a winding maze of strange things that occurred, and at
the end, Brian Malanowski failed to get this mailbox removed
from what he says was his property. You can look
that up. It's titled Airport director involved in shootout previously
at center of property dispute. It's on ual Rpublic Radio
(41:24):
dot org.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
Nice I was looking at some of the local sources here,
but I want to because as you said at the top,
that we the public do not have a ton of
information about the mechanics of this event. I think we
can safely say though, that any rational actor getting into
(41:48):
a shootout, a home game shootout with something on the
level of the ATF, they have to know that's a
suicide run. Like you don't walk out of that.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
No, Yeah, so that is.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
What would it have been that could make this guy
do that? Suicide runs is like a setup of some kind?
Speaker 4 (42:07):
Is this a distraction from something else that's going on
with this guy that he'd get over his head with
somebody like it just seems like secret life kind of
stuff to me.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
It's wild.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
If it's true what Matthew Melanowski's saying, that's the brother
of the victim here and Brian did meet with quote
Arkansas senators last week in Washington for quote official airport business.
I would love to know the minutes of that meeting,
or at least the general nature of.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
The seconds, just the tenor of the discussion. Oh yeah, yeah,
if not the minutes, the seconds, I like that. Yeah,
it's like the conversation between Uncle Gee and Uncle Joe
right where they're just saying, hey, a good one. We'd
like if you read just the minutes of those guys conversations,
it would seem relatively innocuous because you're missing so much
(42:58):
in tone. But you're right, this is the information that
we would need to figure out what happened, and we
can't forget. You know, there's a family that's had their
lives horrifically upended, and regardless of what we conclude about
this or what we're all thinking as we're hearing the story,
we have to remember that there are there are human
(43:20):
beings affected by this who are most likely innocent and
uninvolved in whatever the hell is going on or was
going on with Malanowski.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Well, yeah, and we have to state maybe Brian Melanowski
was surprised by armed men showing up at his house. Right,
he just defended his home and himself and anybody else
who's in the house and he didn't know.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Has a bit of a standard ground kind of situation.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Perhaps, Yeah, well, that's.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
Not why people have firearms in their home.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
It's true, break.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
Ins and violence do occur. I also wonder, like, do
we It feels like there are some more official statements
maybe that should be on the way. I can only assume.
And he was also, Yeah, because he would have been
He would have been competent with a firearm because he's
an enthusiast and a collector, so surely that means he
(44:17):
goes to the range and doesn't let a skills atrophy.
Were there any ATF wounds or injuries.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah? One ATF officer was I guess shot or wounded,
but in non critical condition, was taken to the hospital. Okay, guys,
I don't know what else there is to say here.
We've done so much speculation already, simply because this is
such a new story. We cannot wait to hear what
you find as you're listening to this, and maybe new
stuff has come out right to us, let us know details.
(44:46):
We can't wait to hear from you.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Yes, and we have one thing to add. This is
a This is a special message for my pal Jack,
for our pal Jack over at the Daily Zeitgeist, and
for our fellow conspiracy realists who have been checking out
the Havana syndrome. There's a new update. Ah, Jack is
(45:09):
gonna love this. You know, we were going back and
forth on Twitter about this. There is a new study
that has been conducted over the course of five years
that finds there are no brain injuries among Havana syndrome patients.
Really really, I know, right, that's that's the sound our
pals are making on the West Coast right now. But yes,
(45:32):
as you said, Matt, let us know what is going
on with all of the stuff we discussed in Strange
News this evening is Havannah syndrome, psychosomatic, attic, insane is
the pressure?
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Sorry guys on that note, for real, I've been getting
terrible sleep for the past like four nights and I've
woken up at three am.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Exactly free Na time.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Yeah, it's exactly at three am. And there is an
I don't know if you guys have this weird sinastasia
thing where you can hear electricity yes, sometimes like the
buzz of that field, that electromagnetic field. Not everybody can hear.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
That, by the way, Oh, it's like cilantro.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
It is like seriously, but I wake up at three
am and I hear this super high pitched elect like
electrical sound is the only way I can describe it.
So then I actually did some recordings at the house
to be like, what the heck is this thing? And
it is. You can see it in the upper levels
of frequency that like you guys know Adobe audition, right,
(46:39):
it will show you like that upper echelon if you
look at the spectral vision. Yeah, there is something penetrating
my house. Boys, can you send it?
Speaker 3 (46:47):
I would love to. I would love to dig into
that off air.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
I think I'm gonna I'm gonna save it, put it
on some hard drives, back it up a couple of times,
and then hide it in various places so authorities can find.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
It good for their comments publicly, right, Yeah, I just
wanted to say here, guys.
Speaker 4 (47:03):
It really makes me want to pull the trigger on
buying that mic I mentioned in our Infrasound episode. Company
called Soma Electronics makes a mic called ether that is
a wide band receiver that allows you to perceive the
electromagnetic landscape around you. It's an anti radio and it
picks up nothing but that interference that other mics are
(47:25):
designed to filter out.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
We need a reason to hang out of my place.
Bring it over, I'm going to do it. Order right now.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
How much room for activities? Also, I'm with you there, Matt.
As everybody knows, I do not practice normal human sleep
patterns and have had some some weird stuff going on too.
So if we ever sound a little loopy, that's that's
part of it, and we're keeping it as part of
the show. Folks, do be safe out there. Also, let
(47:52):
us know what you think about the rise in potential
opportunistic fraud as the insurance industry is called. And you know, also,
please please please not blowing smoke. Let us know what
your take on the dark side of Nickelodeon allegations is.
And let us know how far how deep you believe
(48:15):
this may go. Is there a cover up, is it active?
What else does it tell us about the darker side
of entertainment in Hollywood? We want to hear all this
and more, especially leads on new topics. You think your
fellow conspiracy realist will enjoy. We try to be easy
to find online.
Speaker 4 (48:31):
Sorry. You can find us in the handle conspiracy Stuff,
where we exist on YouTube, where we have videos early
on every single week, on x FKA, Twitter, and on
Facebook where you can join our Facebook group Here's where
it gets crazy. On Instagram and TikTok. We are Conspiracy
Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
Hey, do you like to leave voice messages? I know
you do. Call one eight three three STDWYTK when you
call in. You've got three minutes. Give yourself a cool
nickname and let us know if we can use your
name and message on the air. If you've got more
to say than could fit in that three minutes, why
not instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
We are the folks who read every single email we
get and be careful. Sometimes the void writes back twenty
four hours a day, seven days a week, or I
should say twenty four hours a night, seven days a week.
Take the sun down a notch. We can't wait to
see your links. To see your pictures here audio you
want to send us, all you have to do is
(49:27):
drop us a line conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News
Hosts And Creators
Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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