Ben, Matt and Noel learn about the mysterious, secret 'billionaire summer camp' in Sun Valley Idaho (oh, to be in the 'room where it happens!'). A daredevil couple gets in hot water for scaling the Empire State Building. Explosive diarrhea takes over Michigan. An Iranian funeral. Uncle Sam says PFAs are fine. Oh, and for better or worse, we just created synthetic life. Tune in for all this and more in this week's strange news segment.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is not They call me Ben, and you
can too.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
We're joined with our super producer, back to the Frey Train, Williams.
Most importantly, you are you. You are here. That makes
this the stuff they don't want you to know. Welcome
to our strange news program. We are recording Wednesday, July eighth.
You are hearing this on Monday, July thirteenth, and you
(00:53):
just might be in Idaho. Have you, guys, ever been
to Idaho?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I don't think I am traveled through it.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
We've flown over it, flown over, traveled through I'm kind
of in the same boat with you guys. I don't
think any of us have been to a place named
Sun Valley, Idaho, which is a shame because it turns out,
as as we recently learned through various news reports, it
turns out Sun Valley, Idaho, is the home of what
(01:25):
we could call a little bohemian grove, a little fancy
Ted Talk get together, a mini Davos, or what Business
Insider describes as a billionaire summer camp. Had any of
us heard of Alan and Coe's big conference in Sun Valley, Idaho?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
No, but Sun Valley sounds like a nice place. Is
it a nice place?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
It's a place billionaires love to have summer camp. This
is this is described as a summer camp for billionaires.
It's an invite only gathering that usually is going to
draw the biggest of the biggest names, especially in tech, Amazon, Apple, Meta,
open Ai, a lot of major media companies, including one
(02:12):
of the co founders of our old Overlord's Discovery. Apparently,
hundreds of private jets descend upon this pretty small place,
pretty posh resort. They were expecting at the nearby Sun
Valley Friedman Memorial Airport, which is quite small. They were
(02:34):
expecting three hundred to three hundred and fifty aircraft each
day of the conference. Because people go in and out
and this is this is the back room, which it's
strange that it's not more widely reported, but some of
the biggest minds in tech, or some of the biggest
(02:57):
moneymen in technology go here. They hang out, they make deals.
I'd never heard about this, you guys. It is legendary
for being the room where it happens for any fellow
Hamilton fans.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
God, that's so creepy because I feel like we've learned
more and more about more of these rooms where it
happens across the world, and they're always quiet, Like this
isn't that weird?
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yes it is. It is always kind of under the
fold of the headlines. This one, unlike Bohemian Grove, does
allow more reporters than you might expect. I'm sure security
is super dupes tight, but we do know that we
do know that a lot of a lot of companies
(03:45):
are going to walk out of this summer camp with
with some bold new ideas that are typically in this
iteration going to hinge on Ai and further consolidation aka
monopolization of all the stuff you love. And just to
put the quiet part out loud there, when we say
(04:09):
a founder of ours that we personally have met, we're
talking about David's aslov also in the mix.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I wonder if the head of Pfizer ever headed out
that way. Are you guys? Are you guys looking at
this building in Manhattan East second Street, Second Avenue and
the Yeah, it's like looks like it's prepared to at
least partially interiorly collapse.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Wait what Yeah, yeah, because it used to be the
Pfiser building, it's being moved toward a more residential thing,
and it's just absolutely not up to code. They evacuated
the residents.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So I think we talked about where it's companies trying
to figure out what to do with all of that
retail space they once had, or you know office buildings
that just remain empty or mostly empty, and so the
plan is, what's turn it into more apartments and you know,
condominiums and things like that. And as they were going
through renovating it, they realized, oh, these these upper floors
are sagging. And then they looked at some of the
(05:10):
you know, the interior structure and realized, oh, yeah, this
thing's kind of crumbling. Now New York's like just trying
to figure out a way to recover the building so
it doesn't cause a ton of damage. It's a block
from the Chrysler building.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
That's insane. Yeah, I'm in New York right now, I
might check it out. It says it's clear to re
enter as of an hour ago. That's the latest. I
had not heard about that, a fifteen hundred unit luxury
rental complex.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And temporary evacuation. And we will have I think more
New York related strange news here in a moment, just
real quick before we move on, going back to Sun Valley, Yeah,
we said Zaslov, But also the CEO of General Motors,
chairman of open Ai, CEO of YouTube, CEO of the
(05:55):
Bob Eiger, former CEO of the Disney Company, the man
who runs the House, co CEO of Netflix, co founder
of Home Depot, the chairman and senior executive of i AC,
the MLB Commissioner, the owner of the Fenway Sports Group,
Michael Eisner, another former Mouse CEO, UH, the chair of
(06:18):
the Federal Reserve, Kevin Walsh has arrived at Sun Valley,
as as the CEO of Pallanteer and Uber, and the
current CEO of Disney, and of course Tim Cook. It
just it goes on and on and on, and obviously
the CEO of Apple is there, the CEO Meta, the
guy who co founded LinkedIn ah to be in the
(06:41):
room where it happens, will.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, as long as Alex Karp is there, we're gonna
be fine.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, Yeah, real, real people person until they get rid
of the people. We're going to We're going to learn
more about some strange news of a religious bent. We're
going to learn about the bleeding edges of what can
or cannot be called life. Of course, we've got some
explosive diarrhea and spy news for you. But before we
(07:10):
do any of that, Philas, what say we stay with
the United States because I think there's a story that
went viral that we all maybe saw a picture or
a headline about. But Noel, you're the man, You're the
bag man to break it down for us.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Huh oh gosh, I don't know. This is a little
above my bag man pay grade as far as heists
are concerned, but it is a heist adjacent Yeah, let's
do it. Why don't we take a quick break and
we'll come back with the story of love on top
of the world. And we're back and Matt, you were
(07:49):
trying to come up with a song about being on
top of the world.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, I don't remember, man.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Well, Carpenters. There's the Carpenters, of course, on top of
the world, on top of the world, you know, but
surely there's another one isn't top of the World Top
of the Isn't that like a like a Leah song
or something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I'm looking it up, but I can't find it.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Imagine dragons, That's what it's Randy, Top of the World
Brandy featuring Mace, a staple nineties R and B hip
hop crossover featuring a smooth verse from Mace.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I didn't know Mace had a dollar sign as the S.
I was today years old when I found that out.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It represents ten percent, So sorry.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Even after he became super religious, okay, gave well.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
The operative word here is love and the top of
the world is referring to some pretty spectacularly high heights
and some dangerous shenanigans taking place at the Empire State Building,
which for a time long ago was I believe, one
of the tallest buildings in the world, but now it
pales in comparison.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
To Technically, it's still one of the it's.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
One of them, for sure, but it used to be
a little more, you know, globally impressively higher. And the
rankings correct. So the NYPD is currently reviewing footage taken
at the Empire State Building of a couple of daredevils
who scaled the antenna at the top of this building,
(09:20):
the spire at the top, wearing like kind of pretty
bad ass like black catsuits and balaklava masks to fly
a flag reading when the power of Love beats the
love of power, the world knows peace. That would be nice.
And this couple are a couple of pretty well regarded
(09:42):
and very well known daredevils who are famous online for
posting these kind of videos doing like parkour kind of
stuff and you know, getting into places super super high
up they're not supposed to. Angela Nicolau who's thirty three,
and Ivan Koots and nets Off thirty two. They have
been charged with multiple felony counts after they climbed up
(10:05):
to the top of their in order to fly that flag.
And I believe Ivan proposed to angela while up there,
and there's footage of it you can see or you
can kind of see him presenting the ring too, or
it's all pretty romantic and pretty badass. The charges they've
been hit with include burglary, reckless endangerment, violation of local laws,
(10:27):
criminal mischief which is always a fun one, and possession
of burglars tools as well as criminal trespass, disorderly conduct,
and criminal tampering. An elite division of the NYPD which
I had actually not heard about until reading into this story.
(10:48):
They receive special training. They are called the Emergency Service Unit,
and they're trained for, you know, dealing with rescues and
super dangerous high up situations. They met them about halfway
down the spire, not exposed to the elements. They were
wearing harnesses as they climbed in side you know, protected
(11:10):
parts of the spire where you climb up to get
to the top, and met them where they placed the
couple in custody just before one pm. This was last week.
I'm bringing it to today because it was a new
story to me and there are some new developments. The couple,
who I believe collectively have millions of followers on social
media platforms including TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, posted footage that
(11:36):
they took of this daring stunt I guess you could
call it, and the NYPD has also posted bodycam footage
that you can see as well. The NYPD is now
looking over the footage and they believe that the couple
entered this is pretty well through a locked maintenance hatch
on one hundred and second floor observation deck, and they
(11:59):
had been kind of like you know, in heist like fashion,
observing the staff and their movements in order to get
a foothold, and then you know, spirit their way inside.
And then they apparently spent the night there and then
exited and climbed to the top where police and helicopters
(12:20):
flew around and tried to talk them down, but they
were not to be swayed. They were there to make
a statement and to do their think. Julie Morris, who
was on the observation deck at the time, this is
a civilian witness, said, along comes these two people, opened
the mesh, assumed they worked there, and nobody stopped them.
So this did cause some of the top floors to
(12:44):
be evacuated because obviously, you know, I mean, I get it,
there's certainly some safety ramifications, not only for the safety
of these individuals, but for you know, if you don't
know the intentions of folks that are up that high,
there could be you know, dangerous ramifications for the structure
of you know, the soundness of the building itself. People.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, you could also end up, I mean one of
the big reasons to said, example here is you could
also end up creating a precedent such that other people
with maybe less noble intentions would say, oh, it is
actually doable here.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
That's exactly right. And they certainly found some loopholes in
order to make their way up to this very very
inaccessible by design area, and this is of course not
open to the public. They were the subject of a
Netflix documentary that came out last year called Skywalkers a
Love Story. The tagline is what will they risk to
(13:46):
touch the sky? So I guess their whole you know,
romance is part of their stick as well. In a statement,
the owners of the Empire State Building wrote there was
at no time danger to tenants, visitors, and Empire State
Building Observation Deck guests. It is to be emphasized if
the Empire State Building Observation Deck atop the world's most
(14:06):
famous building in the center of New York City does
offer a practical way for the most memorable marriage proposals.
So they're saying, you know, maybe just stop there next time.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Just slide it in there. And then also like we're saying,
nip that precedent setting in the butt, right, everybody's fine
everything's cool, but noel I love uh, I love how
that last sentence in the quotation you read where they say,
also you can get married here. Yeah, like we will
still take your money for this.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Well, that's a good example of them, you know, turning
a difficult pr moment into an opportunity to promote the
stuff that they do, encourage and permit. This is wild, guys.
I didn't know this, but are one of our kai.
We're all not particularly huge fans of whether it be
an acting form, some of us movies are okay or
(14:59):
in life. Jared, as a member of the rock I
guess kind of emo rock outfit thirty Seconds to Mars,
was once given permission to climb to the base of
the antenna from the eighty sixth floor back in twenty
twenty three, in order to promote a tour of his
band Beautiful It Is. You know, and I don't know
(15:21):
if you guys, this stuff always really gives me the hebgb's.
If you ever see any of these really crazy urban
spelunker type videos where they'll have one of those wide
angle kind of fish eye views either attached to their
head and you see them walking really close to the
edge and sometimes jumping across gaps and buildings and stuff
like that. I mean, there is a whole culture of this.
These guys are not alone in this world of you know,
(15:43):
urban exploration. A lot of the craziest ones that I've
seen are from Russians and Ukrainians.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Free climbers.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Free climbers is thank you, man, that's exactly right. And
there's not one of these videos that I've seen where
they're up at the top that doesn't kind of make
me a little sick to my st I do have
a bit of a fear of heights though, But I
don't know, man, I'm of two minds at this. On
the one hand, you can call it a victimless crime,
but I'm also with you, Ben, that does set precedent
in a time where, you know, I mean, we've got
(16:12):
a lot of people that maybe would would would seek
to do harm on a large scale in a city
like New York that maybe time and place kind of stuff. Guys,
I don't know, what, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I think it's way more likely that people would do
it to chase clout right, to do something that's a
little naughty. It's like something a naughty kid would do, right,
But it's not dangerous to other people. It is potentially
dangerous depending on the person's motivations, right, But it it's
weird that the book would be thrown at them so
(16:43):
hard when simultaneously, in New York City you've got these
intense internal investigations in like former heads of the NYPD.
You've got major corruption scandals happening with the heads of government,
you know, on the on the mayoral side there, there's
it's just it's so interesting that there's so many terrible
(17:05):
things going on a couple of people doing this stunt
to get themselves more clout on their social media channels. Ultimately,
it doesn't feel like that big of a deal. If
they fell and their bodies impacted somebody, that's putting others
in danger, right.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Or say something off that's a good point. I mean,
even if they dropped something or whatever, when you're exposed
to the elements like that, anything that you've dropped that
could plummet to the streets below could potentially you know,
kill somebody.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah, I mean, that is a real a dangerous thing.
It's just it is weird to weigh it against the
other really horrible things that are going down and then
how much you know, how much do you prosecute somebody
for doing that?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Have you guys seen Nirvana the band? The movie? It's
really good, Matt. I think Ben you enjoyed it as well.
Not to anything, but there is a sequence in that
film that reminds me of this to a degree in
terms of stunt type stuff. I don't want to spoil anything,
but okay, I'm gonna do a little little countdown and
(18:11):
then a little spoiler for anyone that hasn't seen it,
maybe just skip ahead thirty seconds three. One spoiler. Well,
there's a part where these guys climb to the top
of a tower I believe it's called the cn Tower
in Toronto, where they go out on this observation deck
and they bring bolt cutters and they cut the restraints
that they're in and then they skydive. And the idea
(18:32):
is that they're going to skydive through the open roof
of the stadium down below, but the roof closes due
to coming inclement weather and they end up just landing
on the roof. But they very clearly did that for real.
Then do you have any sensor, if you read anything,
as to whether that would be something that they would
get charged for. Do they have permission to do that,
because it seems like some pretty intense guerrilla style filmmaking
that these guys are all about.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, right on, Noel, I do not have insider info
permits were obtained or even if I mean, I imagine
at that level you would have to have a permit
so you don't end up under the legal system. But
you can get away with a lot of stuff in
film production so long as you have the juice, as
(19:16):
so long as you have the cash. But free climbing.
I think, like all of us, we've been I've been
fascinated with this for quite some time, and to the
point earlier about whether or not this is being overly
focused on instead of real problems like violent crimes that
(19:38):
definitely impact New Yorkers, whether or not a penny or
a person falls off the empire state building. I think
that's a valid point, and I'm pretty sure that's on
the mind of a lot of the journalists who are
covering this. Do we know so No, we know that
this couple newly engaged, as you said, we know that
(20:01):
they have been taken into custody on this litany of charges,
and thankfully they're both alive and they're both safe, and
everybody involved is alive and safe. Do we know if
they're going to get sentencing or like, what kind of
real world consequences this? Is this a matter of a
bunch of fees or is this like are they looking
(20:22):
at jail time?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Well, they did plead not guilty, and Jason Krinsky, who's
an attorney representing the couple, said that they are being
significantly to your point, Ben, they're to both of your points,
being overcharged and that they are being used to be
made an example of after the court appearance about the
prosecutor's charges. As far as what I've seen, he said,
(20:45):
and I'm sure you have all seen it as well.
It was a message of love. You know, that's a
nice thing. Krinsky told ABC News This is by the
way from ABC News Kira Phillips Thursday afternoon, that a
plea negotiation could be a possibility and that the threat
of deportation to your auntie, your question, Ben, is the
couple's primary concern. I see, Okay, you know they are
(21:05):
here legally though by the way, they are here legally,
but as we know, if you're here legally, there are
things and crimes that you can commit that can put
things like that in jeopardy depending on the nature of
your immigration status.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Right here here legally but not not born citizens.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
They really missed out, man.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
They could have had a meeting with Netflix and turn
this in this thing into a live you know event
where they climb the outside of the Empire State Building
like the Alex Hanaud free solo.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Guy, my god.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
They could have made millions and still climbed the thing
and still gotten married on a live Netflix event.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
I'm gonna wrap this up.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Nicolau's father, A Dmitri Nicolau, claimed ABC News on Thursday
that the couple were already married, and he said the
stunt was just a performance. Interesting. Security at the the
Empire State Building was supposed to have been strengthened following
previous attempts to folks doing things like this. You guys
might have heard of, like what do they call those,
Like there's a famous spider man of New York who would, like,
(22:09):
you know, use little suction pads and club up the
side of buildings.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
And the netflake special that uh man on Eli.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
That one for sure correct. And then there was, of
course the case of the French tightrope walker who did
something very similar with a whole crew, and they actually
made a narrative version of it with Joseph Gordon Levitt.
I forget the man's name, but the documentary is far superior.
He tight wrote walked between the World Trade Center towers
and he does something similar where he broke into one
of the towers, slept the stayed there overnight, and then
(22:38):
you know, had a whole crew that helped him erect
the wire and then did a whole walking across. So
there's there's a history and a precedent of Daredevil to
doing stuff like this, and one of the most viewed
cities in the in the world, makes a lot of
sense they do it there. But the couple also just
said that they love New York and that they you know,
we're doing this kind of as a as a homage
(23:00):
to the city they love, So yeah, I will. It
will be interesting to see how much of an example
they are made of. And obviously they knew there were
going to be some consequences. They certainly didn't have a
clean getaway planned. So it does seem like the media
hooplus surrounding all this in the court case is sort
of part of it, so it'll be interesting to follow.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Guys agreed and to the earlier points about clout. Of course,
the question always becomes they kind of wanted to get
in trouble, no question, right.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah, it's it's part of the whole deal.
And you know, you have to wonder if there's a
calculation involved about how much this is going to boost
their presence and what kind of to your point, Matt,
Netflix or whatever future deals this could lead to, is
it even worth being deported? Potentially, but it will be
(23:53):
interesting story to follow. Just to mention really quickly before
I sign off for this segment, there was another story
I thought was kind of interesting. A California farmer is
giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of nectarines
that he's not allowed to sell after a dispute with
a fruit distributor that he had. So this company, or
(24:16):
actually this individual, this farmer, Caesar Mora in Central California,
had a disagreement with this fruit distributor company, the Guyomara
Brothers Fruit Co. And they are suing him. The suit
centers on the company's claims of an exclusivity agreement that
was breached by the farmer with nectarines and accusations that
(24:41):
he broke the contract by selling the fruit to other packers. However,
Mora claims that this company did not honor their end
of the agreement and that they were not doing right
by him financially. So essentially, because of the nature of
the court case, he is not permitted to sell these fruits.
So he is making a statement by giving away thousands
(25:01):
of fruits, thousands of hundreds of thousands of believe of nectarines,
and this is rather than allow them to rot, which
I think is a noble thing to do in a
time where food scarcity is such a very real thing.
We always hear about these cases where, you know, big
companies are allowing warehouses of foods to go to waste
(25:23):
rather than send them to countries perhaps that need them. So,
you know, you do hate to see anything like that
where food has gone to waste. It's nice to see
that he's going about this in a more humanitarian way.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
They need to contact the presidents of the United States
of America and make a new song about nectarines instead
of the speeches.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Quite I don't know that's going to be a tough
one for the for the rhyme scheme.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Well, I'm just if you could get enough jars those nectarines,
you know, you could do something with them.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Well, that's for sure, millions of peaches, peaches for free,
nectarines for free. I see where you're going with this, Matt,
I love it. That's it for me. Let's take a
break here, we're more sponsored, and then we'll come back
with more strange news.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
And we've returned. Guys, this isn't one of the things
I'm going to cover today. But did we all see
coverage of former Iranian leader Iatola Kameni's funeral? Yes, of course,
Holy crap. There's a lot made of footage of crowds
of people recently as a way of showing off, Hey,
(26:32):
this is how many people agree with me or my thing,
or are excited about this event, or you know, especially
when you see recently the all of these huge sporting
events with the World Cup and just how many human
beings will turn out to event or something like that,
all of these pale in comparison to at least the
footage that has been available of this funeral procession and
(26:55):
the just the number of people I want to ask you, guys.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
One notable absence, by the way, the air apparent of
the current Arudian government, who we still have a lot
of analysts trying to figure out if the guy's actually
cognitive at this point.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Well, yeah, and you probably wouldn't be there just from
a safety perspective, as we know. On today, Wednesday, July eighth,
we all woke up to news of the United States
and Iran bombing the absolute living shit out of each
other again, deciding that you know, hey, cease fires off.
We're going to keep killing each other for a while.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Prices, A lot of nasty words being thrown around doesn't seem.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Very productive, a lot of manipulation.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah, it's all read today, every last bit of it,
and there's been some good days. Seems like this is
giving it all back market wise, and I'm sure there
are people that will benefit from that, because I mean,
I just gonna understand the point of that level of
heated rhetoric other than to get that kind of response
of martial wise.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yeah, look at the timing towards the weekends, especially on
the US side of the of the aggression of the
moves and Matt you said there was a question on
your mind.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
There is a question, but really it's an observation before
the which is just that with all these people in
high rises and palaces and bunkers in secured locations across
the world making these decisions and dropping bombs, decisions to
drop bombs and attack each other, we're all just left here,
(28:32):
you know, on the surface level, to look up and go, wow,
what the hell are they doing? What the hell are
they thinking? And there's not much we can do about it.
It's a really crappy feeling. Just wanted to see what
you guys thought about, specifically the footage of the funeral
and whether or not it's a form of manipulation or propaganda,
or if it seems to be a well, I know
(28:54):
it's your opinion, but a genuine response to the death
of a leader versus Hey, every buddy, get outside. You
have to be outside and you have to come to
this thing. Where do you think that line is or
do you have any inklings?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
So the question being, like, you know, the implication being
that the general population of Iran despised this leader, and
that they would not necessarily have organically turned up to
honor this man, and that this seems like it's telling
a different story.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
We're certainly fed that line, correct, right, We're meant to
believe that, But we also know some of the reality
that we've mentioned before, we did our episodes in the
past on Iran, in the complexity of everything going on there,
especially the relationship between Iran and the US and Israel
and just all of the complexity of the relationship. Is
(29:45):
just the way I think about it. Do you think
it were being do you think it's smoking mirror has
been or do you think it's a genuine reaction.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Well, the bag of badgers here is that both things
can be true at once. So compliance with a notoriously
internally belligerent regime could be a path of survival for families.
You know, a lot of we can say this out
loud now, yeah, like a lot of our a lot
(30:18):
of our friends who were living in the area have
managed to leave Oran and are living in different countries now,
obviously not the United States. But one of the things
that we hear calls back to mind some of the
actions in North Korean parades or in stalinistic parades where
(30:41):
you know, in famously installin speeches. I used to think
this was total hogwash, But it turns out was true
famously installin speeches the standing ovations would go on forever
because everybody was worried that the secret police would get
them if they were the first dude to set down.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
What could some of the reactions from Trump's cronies in
the background when he makes these ridiculous statements about being
number one on TikTok and things like that, and just
the cringe that you can see on the faces of
a lot of his cabinet members that you can't hide
past a certain point. So it's not like we don't
have president even here in this country. For our folks
just towing the line for fear of being politically damaged
(31:22):
or otherwise worse, of course than a place like Iran,
where you might be towing that line to keep your family,
you know, safe.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Right, would be authoritarian governments, which by definition most theocracies
are do love the performative, big deal thing like the
United States made a very interesting choice during the official
July fourth celebration to not do what some of the
(31:53):
administration wanted, which was a parade of tanks and military
might earlier parade, and it didn't. It didn't get the
ratings for lack of a better word, that they wanted geopolitically,
so instead they paraded around some of the oldest living
United States veterans and that was was sad. I don't
(32:15):
know how much consent all of these guys were able
to give. There were multiple but going going back to
uh the funeral for Kameni, the former Supreme Leader right
of Iran, what we see were a lot of questions.
We also know that given the fact that many players
(32:39):
in this current iteration of the conflict have apparently thrown
out the old rules of war with the Bathwater, we
know that the leadership of Iran has a very very
valid interest in not putting out leadership locations because they
(33:00):
know that, especially even if the US in its highly weakened,
highly fragmented state, even if the US still had a
modicum of restraint, the other countries with which it is
allied simply do not. So they will kill those people,
just like they killed the scientist.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Oh damn.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Okay, And with that we're going to pivot to our
next story. According to Iran, twelve million human beings showed
up for the funeral of one man. And now we're
going to talk about a group of several hundred men
and women who affect or have the potential to directly
(33:50):
affect the health of three hundred something million. What was
the population of America that we looked at pretty recently,
It was three hundred and fifty.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
It's a little south of three hundred and fifty million.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, we're going to talk about several hundred people who
work in a sizeable office building complex right off Mayhan Road,
m A H A N Road out there on the
outskirts of northeastern Washington, d C. Folks at the US
Food and Drug Administration, who are going to have an
(34:23):
effect on three hundred and forty somewhere in there million people.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
That's all of us.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
That's that's you if you're listening to this in the US.
Before we get into the story, quick reminder about forever chemicals.
Per floral alkyl and polyfloral alkyl substances also known as pfas,
are class of at least sixteen thousand compounds, most frequently
used to make products water stain and grease resistant, have
(34:51):
been leaked linked to cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, high cholesterol,
kidney disease, and a range of other serious health problems.
Forever chemicals because they can persist four thousands of years
in the environment and are designed to be indestructible, designed
to be indestructible. Pfas get into food because it's commonly
(35:13):
used in pesticides, in food packaging, and in sewage sludge
that's used as a fertilizer. It's often found in nonstick
cookware and kitchen products, and in polluted water used in
processing or growing, and it can easily contaminate food. Okay,
we've talked about this before. Check out our earlier episodes.
(35:34):
Here's the story out of The Guardian from Tom Perkins
July eighth. Today, as we record, the US Food and
Drug Administration rejects the petition to set pfas limits in food.
They have rejected a legal petition demanding that the organization
sets limits on toxic pfas in food. The agency is
(35:57):
refusing to set these limits despite a growing body of
science and the Environmental Protection Agency, another government federal agency.
They're findings that the biggest source of PFAS exposure is
not water, it is food.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
It is food.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Recent testing has found that levels of pfas in a
single serving of some contaminated foods is the equivalent to
drinking many, many glasses of fully contaminated water. While regulators
have focused on raining in pfas in water, which is
important as hell. That's me talking. These chemicals are used
(36:35):
widely throughout the food system, and there was hope that
the agency, which remember is being led by Robert F.
Kennedy Junior, that Robert would take this threat more seriously
because his whole Make America Healthy Again movement they put
these kinds of toxic elements at the top of their
list of things to protect humanity Americans from. Right, make
(36:58):
America healthy again. We can't have these things in our stuff.
So there are a lot of officials high up in
places that thought, hey, this maybe this administration is the
one that's going to do it and protect us. Well,
it seems like maybe that's not going to happen. The
Tucson Environmental Justice Task Force or the TEJTF, filed a
(37:18):
legal petition, this binding legal petition back in November twenty
twenty three, and they are now planning to sue and
try and get a court to order the FDA to
set some form of thresholds for pfas in inedible foods.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
That you'll find at the grocery store.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
This petition called on the FDA to check on thirty
PFAS compounds in a range of produce fish, eggs, milk,
and bread. And well, here's the thing. They didn't respond
within the six month timeframe that was required by law.
So this group went back to their petition and they
(37:57):
scaled back their requirements on it, and they're like, Okay,
well we don't have to do as much, but please
just do this. Here's the deal. Recent FDA tests found
seventy percent of seafood samples, seventy percent of seafood samples
contain these forever chemicals. Independent milk testing recently found that
twelve percent of all milk samples fifty samples that they
(38:20):
looked at included levels of this stuff. Especially within Whole
Foods and Kirkland signature brands, they had extremely high levels
of forever chemicals. You know, you imagine the Whole Foods.
We've talked about this before. You imagine Whole Foods. It's
more expensive, it feels bougie. Just to walk into one
of those places, you feel you feel like you're maybe
making a health choice. I'm gonna spend more money on
(38:42):
my food. Here, it's gonna be better for me. It's
gonna be keep me healthier, it's gonna be safer.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Whoops.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
The FDA rejected the revised petition stating at plans to
take action on setting standards for pfas and there is
quote insufficient evidence to support the request that the petition
is making. The agency did say it plans to set
less non binding quote action levels that do not require
contaminated food to be removed from shelves. Right just to
(39:11):
let you know, hey, it's in there.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Was there a rationale for rejecting? What I would say,
not as a public health expert, is a pretty easy win.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Too much work, too much work, not enough robots to
get the work done. Now, Yeah, it's a lot of work,
it's a lot of requirements, and there is a huge
pushback against any government organization regulating anything right now, at
least within the current administration. And we'll have to wait
for a sea change of sorts for that for anything
to occur. Finalizing this guy's and then we'll get out
(39:45):
of here. Independent testing has found that high levels of
pfas exist in blueberries, kale, and other water rich produce
because the chemicals are attracted to water. An other independent
testing found that beer, much of beer is contaminated with
this stuff. Again because of the water and because of
the things that you use to create the mash and
(40:05):
the stuff that you need to make a.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
Beer and all.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
You know, if you imagine the hops and the oats
and all the stuff whatever it is, you would end
up using the barley and EPA testing. The EPA's own
testing of seafood found the chemicals in all but one
sample that they looked at. Just think about that, guys,
We're eating this food every day, and we know these
things stick around forever. We know they stay inside the
human body. We know they cause cancer and do all
(40:31):
these terrible things.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Is this a pr nightmare for Whole Foods? It just
seems like this if be something that they need to
get ahead of, especially Whole Food's also owned by Amazon.
Have their standards slippeds or is this just something that
was knowing we were never saved from. It's all an illusion,
this idea of like high end grocery stores and organic
(40:52):
food like as it just there's really no barrier against
this kind of stuff, Like are we just cooked?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
It's weird because Whole Foods and Costco, which is they
own the Kirkland brand, which is the other arms. Of course,
these are massive corporations that have to source food all
over the place from a ton of different farms, from
a ton of different you know, organizations that then they
trust to have all this stuff. And then you know,
(41:20):
it's it's a massive chain of trust that goes into
all this stuff. And then theoretically you have something like
the FDA that comes through and tests the stuff at
some point along the chain and says, hey, this is
this is okay. It checks out, this is safe. You're
good to go. Enjoy your blueberries. That kale salad looks delicious.
(41:41):
Why not put blueberries in it? But you know, at
this point it's it's filled with this crap. It's not
filled again, we're talking. It's so weird to talk about
this stuff because trace amounts can be so devastating, right,
it doesn't take much at all. So the word contamination
is so import If it's in the food, if it's
(42:01):
in the fertilizer, if it's in the pesticide, if it's
in all this other stuff along that chain, it's going
to get into us too. And what the hell do
we do about it?
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Great your own food?
Speaker 4 (42:14):
I guess yeah, I think.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
I said this previous lign episode. But it reminds me
a lot about asbestos exposure right because there is no
there is no real time window yet to have the
research that is needful on the long term effects of
the pfas. Do check out our microplastics episodes as well
(42:39):
as our mentions on Strange News or listener mail. But
the bill is coming due, and it doesn't help that
the world's scientific collaboration is increasingly breaking down, and also
that the United States seems to have real hard on
for getting rid of scientific institutions.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Well, and I said grow your own food, but I
mean stuff like this also penetrates the soil and can
cause all kinds of contamination, and it could become less
viable an option depending on how far away from civilization
we're able to get. I mean, it does start to
feel like living off the grid is the only answer
(43:20):
for this kind of stuff. But that also is, as
we know increasingly more and more difficult, nion impossible.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
As long as it's not in the water you're using
to water your crops or the fertilizer you're using to
grow those crops, right, then you're good. Last couple of
paragraphs from this article. An analysis of FDA and EPA
fish testing data by the Environmental Working Group, which is
a nonprofit, found that eating a single serving of the
(43:46):
fish they tested, this is US fresh water fish contaminated
with these pfas, would be equivalent to drinking highly contaminated
pfas water every day for a month. One serving of
fish a month of contaminated water. These two things are
the same.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
They found.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Still, the FDA only conducts limited annual testing, and in
twenty nineteen they adjusted their methodology, so it's only going
to catch what consumer groups say are quote extremely high
contamination levels unquote, and they're going to ignore relatively low
to moderate levels that might still pose a health risk.
(44:26):
In twenty nineteen, the FDA initially found one hundred and
eighty two food samples to be contaminated with pfas, but
after changing its methodology part way through the study, that
figure one eight two dropped to seventy eight and a
lot of people accused that it was intentionally covering up contamination,
which kind of it was. Guys, there's a quote that
(44:49):
I think sums all of this up from a guy
named Brian Ronholm. He is a former Deputy Under Secretary
of Food and Safety at the US Department of Agriculture.
Here's his quote. Imagine using a radar gun to detect
speeding in cars, but while you're doing it, manipulate the
radar so it only detect speeding cars.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Going over one hundred miles per hour.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
There's still a shitload of cars speeding way over what
they should be going, but you're only seeing the worst
of the worst. And with that, we'll be right back
afterwards from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Hope everybody's enjoying a apparently healthy snack. By way of segue,
here a few more things before we close out our
weekly Strange news segments, following up on our earlier exploration
of poop crimes last week and our recent exploration of
(45:54):
PFA's or returning exploration thereof. Please do be aware that
the CDC, despite massive funding cuts, does still exist and
they have warned of explosive diarrhea on the rise in
the United States. As if things weren't getting worse, watch
out for cyclo pariasis, a gastro intestinal illness. It has
(46:18):
sickened dozens of people in Michigan. That's for you, freight train.
It is popping up in clusters around the country as
we speak. It's been growing since May so be careful
and for more info on that, please check out obviously
our friends at the CDC, and check out our friends
at AP News and other people are just trying not
(46:41):
to poop their pants. As far as we know, it
has not arrived at the billionaire summer camp in Sun Valley, Idaho,
but I respectfully posit that would be a hilarious short film.
I just want to see a bunch of billionaires pooping
like control.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
You know what, if you want to see something close
to the I highly recommend the movie Triangle of Sadness.
Not poopin but Buchan.
Speaker 4 (47:07):
I can't handle that on screen.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
It's a real cool movie and the scene is.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
It's a good film. It's still it still leaves you
with some questions. Other questions that we are left with
concern Again, we've been a little politically heavy in this.
That's just because there's a lot of strange political stuff happening.
Other questions concern the recent travel of Elay and Chow,
most famously known as a philanthropist and the spouse of
(47:35):
Kentucky's own Mitch McConnell, who remains hospitalized for a mysterious
medical condition. He was hospitalized on June fourteenth. He is
still in hospital, as our British friends would say. Two
days before McConnell was hospitalized, his spouse, Chow, left the
(47:59):
United States and visited China. As she said, she met
with a number of people, representatives of Uncle Ji being
some of those people, including the US ambassador. She just
released two hours before we came to record with you
here on July eighth, twenty twenty six. She just released
(48:20):
a statement about her husband's long hospital stay. While the
governmental political mechanics of Kentucky and of the Republican Party
are trying to call in the waters and saying everything's fine,
the guys just in recovery. The public is not accepting this,
(48:43):
you guys. The public thinks something is up, especially with
the timing. I think we all saw a lot of
reports that Senator McConnell may have been incapacitated by cardiac arrest,
which at his age, when you're that old, it has
a very low survival rate, especially without significant brain damage.
(49:05):
So there's been a lot of scuttle but about it.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
Well, I mean, Laura Lumer Ben even came out and
said that she had on good authority that he was
completely brain dead.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
I didn't know about Laura Lumer. I knew about Marjorie
Taylor Green.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
Okay, Yeah, but it's interesting because I don't understand why
she in particular would want to spread that rumor because
it's not very good for her political ideology, right Ben,
Because I'm sure that's where you're getting The issue here
is how he might be able to be replaced were
he to be considered incapacitated before a certain political deadline.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
Yeah. The timing all goes back to the Governor of
Kentucky's powers to create essentially an emergency senator versus having
an election and pal free trading just says Luber wants clicks.
A lot of politicians do want clicks. I think the
(49:57):
timing is interesting here. Of course, without being a sinophobic,
we know that missus Chow has come under intense scrutiny
in the past for allegations of a high level trade craft. Honestly,
you know, like it's not every not every Chinese American
gets to visit China and say hey, uncle, gee, what
(50:21):
are you doing later? You want to kick it? You
want to play pong? Do you do you have the
new control resonent before it published, Let's play that. Not
everybody can, but missus Chow can. So I wanted to
ask ask all of us tuning in tonight, do we
think there is something to the timing there or the speculation.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
Well, one high profile example ben I saw that I
thought was super interesting was Scott Jennings who said that
he was a political advisor that he spoke to Mitch McConnell,
and he did one of those things where he kind
of like gave way too much detail to the point
where you almost like, is he making this up? Like
he said, oh, we talked about this, we talked about this,
talked about Iran and all of this stuff, and it
(51:05):
just kind of seemed like grasping its straws a little
bit to say, no, no, really, really, he's fine. I
think it's really odd. I think they're definitely covering something.
Speaker 1 (51:13):
Up something there, because Chow did meet with essentially the
vice president of China, and Chow is from a billionaire
shipping dynasty for sure, So maybe it's just a matter
of having more access, but all the who who?
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, Yeah, then I didn't. I don't know anything about
lane Chaw. I just went through her Wikipedia, Yeah, yep, yeah,
and I'm seeing she was a commission She was the
Commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission, Yes, factoring in the
Reagan administration.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Then she was the United.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
States Labor Deputy Secretary of Transportation Federal Maritime Commission. Again
the chair like she's hold on and she comes from
that background though that you're talking about, like a yes,
what did you say?
Speaker 1 (52:05):
It was shipping family, shipping dynasty, geez man. Her father
is James C. Chan Machau. Who is He's ninety eight,
so talked about great genes, but he is the guy
who created this big shipping dynasty. It's called Foremost Group.
(52:27):
They're a conglomerate based in New York and they're actually
they're really well known for being environmentally friendly and bringing
in what we call green design into their fleet, which
includes some of the world's largest cargo ships. Bulk carriers.
Would be what they're called very connected. Sounds great, It
(52:51):
is just very connected.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
Didn't she say that their trip had been planned long
in advance and that it was to do with philanthropic
effort's sure, yes.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
Well, think about the kind of money involved here. If
you're you know, if this is your family and are
the these are the things you've been doing with your
life in these circles. Right, We're not just talking about
the billionaire circles. We're talking about the governmental circles that
she's been in for decades and not that Chow is in.
I'm not trying to put this all on her. Ultimately,
we're talking about an eighty four year old man that
(53:25):
is still serving, you know, as one of the highest
government officials in the United States, whose health is.
Speaker 4 (53:34):
Waning, and.
Speaker 2 (53:36):
He's eighty four years old. I mean, it's just like,
what are we what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (53:42):
The word for that would be gerontocracy, rule by the elderly,
and it is historically not ideal. Child's meeting is also
interesting on another on another page, because just after that meeting,
the nation of Indonesia and Singapore reached a new agreement
(54:03):
about the Strait of Malacca, which is like Southeast Asia's
sort of Panama Canal or Strait of War Moves. It's
a choke point for the all the expensive things that
make the world flow. I think there's an episode on
this in the future.
Speaker 2 (54:19):
Ben, Wasn't there a recent missile test ICBM test that
put China in a little bit of hot water? Again,
just thinking we the world has forgotten somehow that that
is like the true real flash point is.
Speaker 4 (54:37):
What we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
When this really hits the fan, it will be because
of stuff that's happening there.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
Yeah, yeah, the Middle East there, I mean the United States.
Every time we do a ridiculous history episode about the
Civil War, we have to remember Robert Evans's novel it
could happen here. These things do occur, but it's so
difficult for a lot of us out there to unless
it's your job for some reason, to keep an eye
(55:06):
on all these flashpoints. It's understandably difficult to do so.
Like if you put out if even something as simple
as the right net or web of Google alerts, you
are going to lose your entire day getting updates about
maritime conflicts in the East Asian seas. You know, it's
(55:31):
just it's going to happen. There's so much money, there's
so much power, there's so much power inequality, and the
US has fallen asleep at the helm, you know, which
the US very imperfectly have been called the world's police
force for quite some time and wasn't a corrupt police force, absolutely,
but it also did things like ensure the safety of
(55:53):
shipping lanes. And that is increasingly not to say right,
just so, just so and straight of Malacca. To your point,
Matt is going to be another another aspect of that,
and with that we're gonna pivot. We're gonna save that
for an episode. Please do right to us Conspiracy iHeartRadio
dot com and let us know what you think about
(56:15):
the Chow McConnell China connection. Is there anything to it
or is it just the fact that rich people tend
to hang out. Before we get to one of our
last big stories, we do have an update that is
personally important to us that we all stay plugged in here.
Forget the Strait of Malacca, everybody, Forget the World's Cup,
(56:36):
forget the straight of Horne moves. Let's remember the most
noble sport in all of modern civilization, Nathan's hot dog
eating Contest. The legendary Joey Chestnut has won his eighteenth
hot dog eating contest. He absolutely, as our pal Tim
Robinson would say, housed sixty six hot dogs? What's the
(57:02):
largest Look, nobody needs to compromise himself selves, but what's
the uh, what's the biggest number of hot dogs any
of us is eaten at one city?
Speaker 4 (57:13):
Four?
Speaker 3 (57:14):
Whoa, that's right, even that's the extreme.
Speaker 1 (57:18):
Yeah, I got I got the six and it was
not a good idea, dude.
Speaker 2 (57:22):
My uh, my partner's daughter is like fifty five pounds,
soaking wet and she can do two and a half.
Like she'll just put them away. I'm like, wow, how
where are they going?
Speaker 3 (57:34):
Where does it go? And that's that's well, that's true
of these competitive eating cats. They're little, little little guys. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
And the next one is that the next crazy stat
is that Joey aka Jaws Chestnut h he ate those
sixty six hot dogs with buns in ten minutes. That
feels as a non religious entity. That does feel like
a sin of some sort or.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
A miracle or a miracle.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
I guess there's special a special place in heaven or hell. People,
it depends on who wins the great War in Heaven.
Also shout out to Miki Sudo who defended her title
in the women's division. These people are fascinating. There's a
lot of scuttle butt or a lot of side conversation
you can hear us having over the years about competitive eating.
(58:25):
We've been obsessed with it. One thing that we have
to tease because this is another thing that could be
an episode in the future. We talked briefly at the
very end of our previous Strange News about something called
spud cell, and we have to let you know. For
everybody who enjoyed or was frightened by our mirror life episode,
(58:48):
it is official. Scientists have made cells out of whole
cloth that can feed, grow, and Reproduceanity is now one step,
one huge step closer to building life from scratch, not
mirror life, just like regular life. Yay good to me.
(59:11):
Yeah yeah, yeah, I think. I think the interrogative interrogative
toad there is perfect. So there's a there's a study
you can read online in full courtesy of bio r XIV.
It came out on July second a team led by
a synthetic biologist named Kate Adamala of the University of Minnesota.
(59:32):
They say they have transformed a soup of raw chemicals
into self sustaining life. These things cannot make all the
mesa yeah, yeah, cosmic gumbo. Nolan and I used to
call it that on the set. We used to be like,
this is a cosmic gumbo. It's very Michael man Adamala
and Teamer quick to note that these cells they have
created can't make all their necessary machinery just yet or
(59:57):
they and they also can't divide I successfully add infinitum.
But they're doing a lot of the stuff that we thought,
you know, the humans couldn't figure out. It's really lazy
or sorry, that is the correct word. I'm saying it
(01:00:17):
with great respect. It is lazy in comparison to cells
on Natural. It's kind of like Frankenstein's monster right after
it gets created in that Promethean style with the lightning.
You know, the guys like clunky, not really great at dancing,
et cetera. These new cells are not as robust, they're
(01:00:40):
not as fast, they're not as good at most of
their functions as again, a cell on Natural. But it
shows that humans can now make molecules that can at
least replicate behaviors that previously up to earlier this month,
we're only associated with living cells.
Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
I can't wait to see what the AI does with
these new cells we've created. Yeah, as the South Korean
stock market plants.
Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
Yeah, that's a chip price. Yeah. Oh, And I was
talking about this with some folks online, totally unrelated, and
I don't want to derailize the guys. It's shocking that
as an etymology nerd in English, at least for years
and years, I thought, let the chips fall where they
may literally meant potato chips. I thought it meant like
(01:01:36):
you get so hungry that you're you're just snarfing them
like an animal. And I looked up the actual etymology, which,
as we know is actual etymology is often murky. I
like the potato chip explanation. Better, don't splash the pot
don't splish the button.
Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
Yes, I think it. Yeah, let the chips fall where
they may means that you're being willingly about your betting.
Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Right, he beat me straight up the main he's money.
Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
There's a great story from Matt Damon about the first
time here that accent from John Malcovinch and the table read.
But these these things, if we're letting the biological chips
fall where they may, uh, these things that are being
called spud cell uh maybe a game changer. They may
be a high value chip. Spud cell is called this
(01:02:32):
because of its potato like appearance, and it's an homage
get this guy's to Sputnik and the dawn of the
space age. Also a little funny thing. I really like
doctor Adamala's style. In a conversation with The Guardian, she
added another reason. She said, we also call it spud
(01:02:53):
cell because of my heritage. I'm Polish, so I'm mostly
made of potatoes. Hey, nice, I always love a little
you know, I like a dash of humor in my
mad science, especially a potato pun. Yes, yes, especially a
potato pud. What they did was they created these spud
(01:03:14):
cells and again you can read the study. We'll give
you the name of it here in just a moment.
And then they put them in laboratory flask that were
filled with that kind of primordial soup we always talk
about when we're debating the origin of life on Earth.
Outside of the pan Spermia idea, which is gen a
(01:03:35):
hilarious name, they found that spud cell was able to
act like pac man, was able to gobble up the
really important stuff like adenosyne triphosphate, which is the They
call it the energy currency for all known life they
were able to fuse with feeder substances liposomes, and then
(01:03:59):
that led them to enzymes. As they were eating, they
expanded and within hours they were able to replicate. Luckily again,
just to call them the waters here, call them the
primordial ooze. They're not replicating at some kind of gray
goo level. They're not replicating anywhere near an exponential rate.
(01:04:21):
They have the necessary genes, but they can't make their
own ribosomes. Those are the things that your cells need
to build proteins. Instead, the scientists have to come in
and supply them with ribosomes. And even then, after five
or ten generations, our spud cell goes coukputs. Their potato
(01:04:42):
gets fried.
Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
But which is like the best way for a potato
to go?
Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
This is the best, It is the dream. It is
a noble death for all potatoes. And this is strange
because first off, the timing for us doing mirror life
right is fascinating. We're not saying there's a choojie thing here.
But secondly, it indicates that we as a civilization are
(01:05:12):
close to breaking some of the fundamental laws that multiple
civilizations folklore has warned us about, like don't make the homolocus.
Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Right, dude, Ben, It's almost as if the Earth has
a singular organism, has a fever, like it's heating up.
It's it's turning on all of its defense mechanisms to
shed itself of the parasite that infects it.
Speaker 3 (01:05:41):
Yes, and the only thing that can cure is more
cow Bell.
Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
Or Tyler Dirden.
Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
It's the it's the gay a super organism argument. Check
out our episode Oh God years ago on that one.
We have We have a lot of questions ahead, and
we think you probably will have a lot of questions
as well. If you want to learn more about the
spud cell, please check out an excellent article by K. R.
(01:06:08):
Callaway not related to the Kingdom of Callaway as far
as we know from the New York Times, the title
scientists made a cell with most of the hallmarks of life.
Here's what to know. The actual study, which is again
available on bio rxiv dot org, is titled a chemically
defined synthetic cell capable of growth and replication. It's to
(01:06:34):
be honest, it's some pretty heavy scientific writing. But you
can also if you're paywalled by New York Times, or
if you don't want to read the study. There's another
great article in the Smithsonian containing the primer of the information.
Shout out to journalists Sumya Seger with the headline scientists
say they've made cells that feed, grow, and reproduce, bringing
(01:06:57):
them one step closer to building life scratch insert Alfred E. Newman,
What me worry? What could go wrong? Absolutely nothing? Ten? Ten,
no notes. Thank you so much for tuning in. Everybody.
We can't wait for you to join us in the
future with your thoughts. Big thanks to everybody writes to us.
(01:07:17):
Step up, join the fray into the breach, find us
on the lines, call us on a phone, send us
an email.
Speaker 3 (01:07:24):
Yes, come with us into the breach. You can reach
us at the handle conspiracy Stuff. Our conspiracy stuff show
on your social media platform choice.
Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
Our phone number is one eight, three three std WYTK.
Turn the letters into numbers, make the call, and then
take three minutes. Tell us what cool nickname you want
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If you want to send us an email, we are.
Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
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give us a lead on an episode. Do you think
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Send us a random fact. We will send you one
(01:08:13):
in return. I think we mentioned this before, but it
bears repeating. Random fact of this week, the CIA has
officially stopped creating the World Factbook, So get your copy
as soon as you can. We're just gonna leave it there.
We'll see you in the dark conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is not They call me Ben, and you
can too.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
We're joined with our super producer, back to the Frey Train, Williams.
Most importantly, you are you. You are here. That makes
this the stuff they don't want you to know. Welcome
to our strange news program. We are recording Wednesday, July eighth.
You are hearing this on Monday, July thirteenth, and you
(00:53):
just might be in Idaho. Have you, guys, ever been
to Idaho?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I don't think I am traveled through it.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
We've flown over it, flown over, traveled through I'm kind
of in the same boat with you guys. I don't
think any of us have been to a place named
Sun Valley, Idaho, which is a shame because it turns out,
as as we recently learned through various news reports, it
turns out Sun Valley, Idaho, is the home of what
(01:25):
we could call a little bohemian grove, a little fancy
Ted Talk get together, a mini Davos, or what Business
Insider describes as a billionaire summer camp. Had any of
us heard of Alan and Coe's big conference in Sun Valley, Idaho?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
No, but Sun Valley sounds like a nice place. Is
it a nice place?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
It's a place billionaires love to have summer camp. This
is this is described as a summer camp for billionaires.
It's an invite only gathering that usually is going to
draw the biggest of the biggest names, especially in tech, Amazon, Apple, Meta,
open Ai, a lot of major media companies, including one
(02:12):
of the co founders of our old Overlord's Discovery. Apparently,
hundreds of private jets descend upon this pretty small place,
pretty posh resort. They were expecting at the nearby Sun
Valley Friedman Memorial Airport, which is quite small. They were
(02:34):
expecting three hundred to three hundred and fifty aircraft each
day of the conference. Because people go in and out
and this is this is the back room, which it's
strange that it's not more widely reported, but some of
the biggest minds in tech, or some of the biggest
(02:57):
moneymen in technology go here. They hang out, they make deals.
I'd never heard about this, you guys. It is legendary
for being the room where it happens for any fellow
Hamilton fans.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
God, that's so creepy because I feel like we've learned
more and more about more of these rooms where it
happens across the world, and they're always quiet, Like this
isn't that weird?
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yes it is. It is always kind of under the
fold of the headlines. This one, unlike Bohemian Grove, does
allow more reporters than you might expect. I'm sure security
is super dupes tight, but we do know that we
do know that a lot of a lot of companies
(03:45):
are going to walk out of this summer camp with
with some bold new ideas that are typically in this
iteration going to hinge on Ai and further consolidation aka
monopolization of all the stuff you love. And just to
put the quiet part out loud there, when we say
(04:09):
a founder of ours that we personally have met, we're
talking about David's aslov also in the mix.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I wonder if the head of Pfizer ever headed out
that way. Are you guys? Are you guys looking at
this building in Manhattan East second Street, Second Avenue and
the Yeah, it's like looks like it's prepared to at
least partially interiorly collapse.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Wait what Yeah, yeah, because it used to be the
Pfiser building, it's being moved toward a more residential thing,
and it's just absolutely not up to code. They evacuated
the residents.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So I think we talked about where it's companies trying
to figure out what to do with all of that
retail space they once had, or you know office buildings
that just remain empty or mostly empty, and so the
plan is, what's turn it into more apartments and you know,
condominiums and things like that. And as they were going
through renovating it, they realized, oh, these these upper floors
are sagging. And then they looked at some of the
(05:10):
you know, the interior structure and realized, oh, yeah, this
thing's kind of crumbling. Now New York's like just trying
to figure out a way to recover the building so
it doesn't cause a ton of damage. It's a block
from the Chrysler building.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
That's insane. Yeah, I'm in New York right now, I
might check it out. It says it's clear to re
enter as of an hour ago. That's the latest. I
had not heard about that, a fifteen hundred unit luxury
rental complex.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And temporary evacuation. And we will have I think more
New York related strange news here in a moment, just
real quick before we move on, going back to Sun Valley, Yeah,
we said Zaslov, But also the CEO of General Motors,
chairman of open Ai, CEO of YouTube, CEO of the
(05:55):
Bob Eiger, former CEO of the Disney Company, the man
who runs the House, co CEO of Netflix, co founder
of Home Depot, the chairman and senior executive of i AC,
the MLB Commissioner, the owner of the Fenway Sports Group,
Michael Eisner, another former Mouse CEO, UH, the chair of
(06:18):
the Federal Reserve, Kevin Walsh has arrived at Sun Valley,
as as the CEO of Pallanteer and Uber, and the
current CEO of Disney, and of course Tim Cook. It
just it goes on and on and on, and obviously
the CEO of Apple is there, the CEO Meta, the
guy who co founded LinkedIn ah to be in the
(06:41):
room where it happens, will.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, as long as Alex Karp is there, we're gonna
be fine.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, Yeah, real, real people person until they get rid
of the people. We're going to We're going to learn
more about some strange news of a religious bent. We're
going to learn about the bleeding edges of what can
or cannot be called life. Of course, we've got some
explosive diarrhea and spy news for you. But before we
(07:10):
do any of that, Philas, what say we stay with
the United States because I think there's a story that
went viral that we all maybe saw a picture or
a headline about. But Noel, you're the man, You're the
bag man to break it down for us.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Huh oh gosh, I don't know. This is a little
above my bag man pay grade as far as heists
are concerned, but it is a heist adjacent Yeah, let's
do it. Why don't we take a quick break and
we'll come back with the story of love on top
of the world. And we're back and Matt, you were
(07:49):
trying to come up with a song about being on
top of the world.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, I don't remember, man.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Well, Carpenters. There's the Carpenters, of course, on top of
the world, on top of the world, you know, but
surely there's another one isn't top of the World Top
of the Isn't that like a like a Leah song
or something like that.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I'm looking it up, but I can't find it.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Imagine dragons, That's what it's Randy, Top of the World
Brandy featuring Mace, a staple nineties R and B hip
hop crossover featuring a smooth verse from Mace.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I didn't know Mace had a dollar sign as the S.
I was today years old when I found that out.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It represents ten percent, So sorry.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Even after he became super religious, okay, gave well.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
The operative word here is love and the top of
the world is referring to some pretty spectacularly high heights
and some dangerous shenanigans taking place at the Empire State Building,
which for a time long ago was I believe, one
of the tallest buildings in the world, but now it
pales in comparison.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
To Technically, it's still one of the it's.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
One of them, for sure, but it used to be
a little more, you know, globally impressively higher. And the
rankings correct. So the NYPD is currently reviewing footage taken
at the Empire State Building of a couple of daredevils
who scaled the antenna at the top of this building,
(09:20):
the spire at the top, wearing like kind of pretty
bad ass like black catsuits and balaklava masks to fly
a flag reading when the power of Love beats the
love of power, the world knows peace. That would be nice.
And this couple are a couple of pretty well regarded
(09:42):
and very well known daredevils who are famous online for
posting these kind of videos doing like parkour kind of
stuff and you know, getting into places super super high
up they're not supposed to. Angela Nicolau who's thirty three,
and Ivan Koots and nets Off thirty two. They have
been charged with multiple felony counts after they climbed up
(10:05):
to the top of their in order to fly that flag.
And I believe Ivan proposed to angela while up there,
and there's footage of it you can see or you
can kind of see him presenting the ring too, or
it's all pretty romantic and pretty badass. The charges they've
been hit with include burglary, reckless endangerment, violation of local laws,
(10:27):
criminal mischief which is always a fun one, and possession
of burglars tools as well as criminal trespass, disorderly conduct,
and criminal tampering. An elite division of the NYPD which
I had actually not heard about until reading into this story.
(10:48):
They receive special training. They are called the Emergency Service Unit,
and they're trained for, you know, dealing with rescues and
super dangerous high up situations. They met them about halfway
down the spire, not exposed to the elements. They were
wearing harnesses as they climbed in side you know, protected
(11:10):
parts of the spire where you climb up to get
to the top, and met them where they placed the
couple in custody just before one pm. This was last week.
I'm bringing it to today because it was a new
story to me and there are some new developments. The couple,
who I believe collectively have millions of followers on social
media platforms including TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, posted footage that
(11:36):
they took of this daring stunt I guess you could
call it, and the NYPD has also posted bodycam footage
that you can see as well. The NYPD is now
looking over the footage and they believe that the couple
entered this is pretty well through a locked maintenance hatch
on one hundred and second floor observation deck, and they
(11:59):
had been kind of like you know, in heist like fashion,
observing the staff and their movements in order to get
a foothold, and then you know, spirit their way inside.
And then they apparently spent the night there and then
exited and climbed to the top where police and helicopters
(12:20):
flew around and tried to talk them down, but they
were not to be swayed. They were there to make
a statement and to do their think. Julie Morris, who
was on the observation deck at the time, this is
a civilian witness, said, along comes these two people, opened
the mesh, assumed they worked there, and nobody stopped them.
So this did cause some of the top floors to
(12:44):
be evacuated because obviously, you know, I mean, I get it,
there's certainly some safety ramifications, not only for the safety
of these individuals, but for you know, if you don't
know the intentions of folks that are up that high,
there could be you know, dangerous ramifications for the structure
of you know, the soundness of the building itself. People.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, you could also end up, I mean one of
the big reasons to said, example here is you could
also end up creating a precedent such that other people
with maybe less noble intentions would say, oh, it is
actually doable here.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
That's exactly right. And they certainly found some loopholes in
order to make their way up to this very very
inaccessible by design area, and this is of course not
open to the public. They were the subject of a
Netflix documentary that came out last year called Skywalkers a
Love Story. The tagline is what will they risk to
(13:46):
touch the sky? So I guess their whole you know,
romance is part of their stick as well. In a statement,
the owners of the Empire State Building wrote there was
at no time danger to tenants, visitors, and Empire State
Building Observation Deck guests. It is to be emphasized if
the Empire State Building Observation Deck atop the world's most
(14:06):
famous building in the center of New York City does
offer a practical way for the most memorable marriage proposals.
So they're saying, you know, maybe just stop there next time.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Just slide it in there. And then also like we're saying,
nip that precedent setting in the butt, right, everybody's fine
everything's cool, but noel I love uh, I love how
that last sentence in the quotation you read where they say,
also you can get married here. Yeah, like we will
still take your money for this.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Well, that's a good example of them, you know, turning
a difficult pr moment into an opportunity to promote the
stuff that they do, encourage and permit. This is wild, guys.
I didn't know this, but are one of our kai.
We're all not particularly huge fans of whether it be
an acting form, some of us movies are okay or
(14:59):
in life. Jared, as a member of the rock I
guess kind of emo rock outfit thirty Seconds to Mars,
was once given permission to climb to the base of
the antenna from the eighty sixth floor back in twenty
twenty three, in order to promote a tour of his
band Beautiful It Is. You know, and I don't know
(15:21):
if you guys, this stuff always really gives me the hebgb's.
If you ever see any of these really crazy urban
spelunker type videos where they'll have one of those wide
angle kind of fish eye views either attached to their
head and you see them walking really close to the
edge and sometimes jumping across gaps and buildings and stuff
like that. I mean, there is a whole culture of this.
These guys are not alone in this world of you know,
(15:43):
urban exploration. A lot of the craziest ones that I've
seen are from Russians and Ukrainians.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Free climbers.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Free climbers is thank you, man, that's exactly right. And
there's not one of these videos that I've seen where
they're up at the top that doesn't kind of make
me a little sick to my st I do have
a bit of a fear of heights though, But I
don't know, man, I'm of two minds at this. On
the one hand, you can call it a victimless crime,
but I'm also with you, Ben, that does set precedent
in a time where, you know, I mean, we've got
(16:12):
a lot of people that maybe would would would seek
to do harm on a large scale in a city
like New York that maybe time and place kind of stuff. Guys,
I don't know, what, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I think it's way more likely that people would do
it to chase clout right, to do something that's a
little naughty. It's like something a naughty kid would do, right,
But it's not dangerous to other people. It is potentially
dangerous depending on the person's motivations, right, But it it's
weird that the book would be thrown at them so
(16:43):
hard when simultaneously, in New York City you've got these
intense internal investigations in like former heads of the NYPD.
You've got major corruption scandals happening with the heads of government,
you know, on the on the mayoral side there, there's
it's just it's so interesting that there's so many terrible
(17:05):
things going on a couple of people doing this stunt
to get themselves more clout on their social media channels. Ultimately,
it doesn't feel like that big of a deal. If
they fell and their bodies impacted somebody, that's putting others
in danger, right.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Or say something off that's a good point. I mean,
even if they dropped something or whatever, when you're exposed
to the elements like that, anything that you've dropped that
could plummet to the streets below could potentially you know,
kill somebody.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah, I mean, that is a real a dangerous thing.
It's just it is weird to weigh it against the
other really horrible things that are going down and then
how much you know, how much do you prosecute somebody
for doing that?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Have you guys seen Nirvana the band? The movie? It's
really good, Matt. I think Ben you enjoyed it as well.
Not to anything, but there is a sequence in that
film that reminds me of this to a degree in
terms of stunt type stuff. I don't want to spoil anything,
but okay, I'm gonna do a little little countdown and
(18:11):
then a little spoiler for anyone that hasn't seen it,
maybe just skip ahead thirty seconds three. One spoiler. Well,
there's a part where these guys climb to the top
of a tower I believe it's called the cn Tower
in Toronto, where they go out on this observation deck
and they bring bolt cutters and they cut the restraints
that they're in and then they skydive. And the idea
(18:32):
is that they're going to skydive through the open roof
of the stadium down below, but the roof closes due
to coming inclement weather and they end up just landing
on the roof. But they very clearly did that for real.
Then do you have any sensor, if you read anything,
as to whether that would be something that they would
get charged for. Do they have permission to do that,
because it seems like some pretty intense guerrilla style filmmaking
that these guys are all about.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, right on, Noel, I do not have insider info
permits were obtained or even if I mean, I imagine
at that level you would have to have a permit
so you don't end up under the legal system. But
you can get away with a lot of stuff in
film production so long as you have the juice, as
(19:16):
so long as you have the cash. But free climbing.
I think, like all of us, we've been I've been
fascinated with this for quite some time, and to the
point earlier about whether or not this is being overly
focused on instead of real problems like violent crimes that
(19:38):
definitely impact New Yorkers, whether or not a penny or
a person falls off the empire state building. I think
that's a valid point, and I'm pretty sure that's on
the mind of a lot of the journalists who are
covering this. Do we know so No, we know that
this couple newly engaged, as you said, we know that
(20:01):
they have been taken into custody on this litany of charges,
and thankfully they're both alive and they're both safe, and
everybody involved is alive and safe. Do we know if
they're going to get sentencing or like, what kind of
real world consequences this? Is this a matter of a
bunch of fees or is this like are they looking
(20:22):
at jail time?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Well, they did plead not guilty, and Jason Krinsky, who's
an attorney representing the couple, said that they are being
significantly to your point, Ben, they're to both of your points,
being overcharged and that they are being used to be
made an example of after the court appearance about the
prosecutor's charges. As far as what I've seen, he said,
(20:45):
and I'm sure you have all seen it as well.
It was a message of love. You know, that's a
nice thing. Krinsky told ABC News This is by the
way from ABC News Kira Phillips Thursday afternoon, that a
plea negotiation could be a possibility and that the threat
of deportation to your auntie, your question, Ben, is the
couple's primary concern. I see, Okay, you know they are
(21:05):
here legally though by the way, they are here legally,
but as we know, if you're here legally, there are
things and crimes that you can commit that can put
things like that in jeopardy depending on the nature of
your immigration status.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Right here here legally but not not born citizens.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
They really missed out, man.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
They could have had a meeting with Netflix and turn
this in this thing into a live you know event
where they climb the outside of the Empire State Building
like the Alex Hanaud free solo.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Guy, my god.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
They could have made millions and still climbed the thing
and still gotten married on a live Netflix event.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
I'm gonna wrap this up.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Nicolau's father, A Dmitri Nicolau, claimed ABC News on Thursday
that the couple were already married, and he said the
stunt was just a performance. Interesting. Security at the the
Empire State Building was supposed to have been strengthened following
previous attempts to folks doing things like this. You guys
might have heard of, like what do they call those,
Like there's a famous spider man of New York who would, like,
(22:09):
you know, use little suction pads and club up the
side of buildings.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
And the netflake special that uh man on Eli.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
That one for sure correct. And then there was, of
course the case of the French tightrope walker who did
something very similar with a whole crew, and they actually
made a narrative version of it with Joseph Gordon Levitt.
I forget the man's name, but the documentary is far superior.
He tight wrote walked between the World Trade Center towers
and he does something similar where he broke into one
of the towers, slept the stayed there overnight, and then
(22:38):
you know, had a whole crew that helped him erect
the wire and then did a whole walking across. So
there's there's a history and a precedent of Daredevil to
doing stuff like this, and one of the most viewed
cities in the in the world, makes a lot of
sense they do it there. But the couple also just
said that they love New York and that they you know,
we're doing this kind of as a as a homage
(23:00):
to the city they love, So yeah, I will. It
will be interesting to see how much of an example
they are made of. And obviously they knew there were
going to be some consequences. They certainly didn't have a
clean getaway planned. So it does seem like the media
hooplus surrounding all this in the court case is sort
of part of it, so it'll be interesting to follow.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Guys agreed and to the earlier points about clout. Of course,
the question always becomes they kind of wanted to get
in trouble, no question, right.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah, it's it's part of the whole deal.
And you know, you have to wonder if there's a
calculation involved about how much this is going to boost
their presence and what kind of to your point, Matt,
Netflix or whatever future deals this could lead to, is
it even worth being deported? Potentially, but it will be
(23:53):
interesting story to follow. Just to mention really quickly before
I sign off for this segment, there was another story
I thought was kind of interesting. A California farmer is
giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of nectarines
that he's not allowed to sell after a dispute with
a fruit distributor that he had. So this company, or
(24:16):
actually this individual, this farmer, Caesar Mora in Central California,
had a disagreement with this fruit distributor company, the Guyomara
Brothers Fruit Co. And they are suing him. The suit
centers on the company's claims of an exclusivity agreement that
was breached by the farmer with nectarines and accusations that
(24:41):
he broke the contract by selling the fruit to other packers. However,
Mora claims that this company did not honor their end
of the agreement and that they were not doing right
by him financially. So essentially, because of the nature of
the court case, he is not permitted to sell these fruits.
So he is making a statement by giving away thousands
(25:01):
of fruits, thousands of hundreds of thousands of believe of nectarines,
and this is rather than allow them to rot, which
I think is a noble thing to do in a
time where food scarcity is such a very real thing.
We always hear about these cases where, you know, big
companies are allowing warehouses of foods to go to waste
(25:23):
rather than send them to countries perhaps that need them. So,
you know, you do hate to see anything like that
where food has gone to waste. It's nice to see
that he's going about this in a more humanitarian way.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
They need to contact the presidents of the United States
of America and make a new song about nectarines instead
of the speeches.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Quite I don't know that's going to be a tough
one for the for the rhyme scheme.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Well, I'm just if you could get enough jars those nectarines,
you know, you could do something with them.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Well, that's for sure, millions of peaches, peaches for free,
nectarines for free. I see where you're going with this, Matt,
I love it. That's it for me. Let's take a
break here, we're more sponsored, and then we'll come back
with more strange news.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
And we've returned. Guys, this isn't one of the things
I'm going to cover today. But did we all see
coverage of former Iranian leader Iatola Kameni's funeral? Yes, of course,
Holy crap. There's a lot made of footage of crowds
of people recently as a way of showing off, Hey,
(26:32):
this is how many people agree with me or my thing,
or are excited about this event, or you know, especially
when you see recently the all of these huge sporting
events with the World Cup and just how many human
beings will turn out to event or something like that,
all of these pale in comparison to at least the
footage that has been available of this funeral procession and
(26:55):
the just the number of people I want to ask you, guys.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
One notable absence, by the way, the air apparent of
the current Arudian government, who we still have a lot
of analysts trying to figure out if the guy's actually
cognitive at this point.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Well, yeah, and you probably wouldn't be there just from
a safety perspective, as we know. On today, Wednesday, July eighth,
we all woke up to news of the United States
and Iran bombing the absolute living shit out of each
other again, deciding that you know, hey, cease fires off.
We're going to keep killing each other for a while.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Prices, A lot of nasty words being thrown around doesn't seem.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Very productive, a lot of manipulation.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah, it's all read today, every last bit of it,
and there's been some good days. Seems like this is
giving it all back market wise, and I'm sure there
are people that will benefit from that, because I mean,
I just gonna understand the point of that level of
heated rhetoric other than to get that kind of response
of martial wise.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yeah, look at the timing towards the weekends, especially on
the US side of the of the aggression of the
moves and Matt you said there was a question on
your mind.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
There is a question, but really it's an observation before
the which is just that with all these people in
high rises and palaces and bunkers in secured locations across
the world making these decisions and dropping bombs, decisions to
drop bombs and attack each other, we're all just left here,
(28:32):
you know, on the surface level, to look up and go, wow,
what the hell are they doing? What the hell are
they thinking? And there's not much we can do about it.
It's a really crappy feeling. Just wanted to see what
you guys thought about, specifically the footage of the funeral
and whether or not it's a form of manipulation or propaganda,
or if it seems to be a well, I know
(28:54):
it's your opinion, but a genuine response to the death
of a leader versus Hey, every buddy, get outside. You
have to be outside and you have to come to
this thing. Where do you think that line is or
do you have any inklings?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
So the question being, like, you know, the implication being
that the general population of Iran despised this leader, and
that they would not necessarily have organically turned up to
honor this man, and that this seems like it's telling
a different story.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
We're certainly fed that line, correct, right, We're meant to
believe that, But we also know some of the reality
that we've mentioned before, we did our episodes in the
past on Iran, in the complexity of everything going on there,
especially the relationship between Iran and the US and Israel
and just all of the complexity of the relationship. Is
(29:45):
just the way I think about it. Do you think
it were being do you think it's smoking mirror has
been or do you think it's a genuine reaction.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Well, the bag of badgers here is that both things
can be true at once. So compliance with a notoriously
internally belligerent regime could be a path of survival for families.
You know, a lot of we can say this out
loud now, yeah, like a lot of our a lot
(30:18):
of our friends who were living in the area have
managed to leave Oran and are living in different countries now,
obviously not the United States. But one of the things
that we hear calls back to mind some of the
actions in North Korean parades or in stalinistic parades where
(30:41):
you know, in famously installin speeches. I used to think
this was total hogwash, But it turns out was true
famously installin speeches the standing ovations would go on forever
because everybody was worried that the secret police would get
them if they were the first dude to set down.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
What could some of the reactions from Trump's cronies in
the background when he makes these ridiculous statements about being
number one on TikTok and things like that, and just
the cringe that you can see on the faces of
a lot of his cabinet members that you can't hide
past a certain point. So it's not like we don't
have president even here in this country. For our folks
just towing the line for fear of being politically damaged
(31:22):
or otherwise worse, of course than a place like Iran,
where you might be towing that line to keep your family,
you know, safe.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Right, would be authoritarian governments, which by definition most theocracies
are do love the performative, big deal thing like the
United States made a very interesting choice during the official
July fourth celebration to not do what some of the
(31:53):
administration wanted, which was a parade of tanks and military
might earlier parade, and it didn't. It didn't get the
ratings for lack of a better word, that they wanted geopolitically,
so instead they paraded around some of the oldest living
United States veterans and that was was sad. I don't
(32:15):
know how much consent all of these guys were able
to give. There were multiple but going going back to
uh the funeral for Kameni, the former Supreme Leader right
of Iran, what we see were a lot of questions.
We also know that given the fact that many players
(32:39):
in this current iteration of the conflict have apparently thrown
out the old rules of war with the Bathwater, we
know that the leadership of Iran has a very very
valid interest in not putting out leadership locations because they
(33:00):
know that, especially even if the US in its highly weakened,
highly fragmented state, even if the US still had a
modicum of restraint, the other countries with which it is
allied simply do not. So they will kill those people,
just like they killed the scientist.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Oh damn.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Okay, And with that we're going to pivot to our
next story. According to Iran, twelve million human beings showed
up for the funeral of one man. And now we're
going to talk about a group of several hundred men
and women who affect or have the potential to directly
(33:50):
affect the health of three hundred something million. What was
the population of America that we looked at pretty recently,
It was three hundred and fifty.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
It's a little south of three hundred and fifty million.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, we're going to talk about several hundred people who
work in a sizeable office building complex right off Mayhan Road,
m A H A N Road out there on the
outskirts of northeastern Washington, d C. Folks at the US
Food and Drug Administration, who are going to have an
(34:23):
effect on three hundred and forty somewhere in there million people.
Speaker 4 (34:29):
That's all of us.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
That's that's you if you're listening to this in the US.
Before we get into the story, quick reminder about forever chemicals.
Per floral alkyl and polyfloral alkyl substances also known as pfas,
are class of at least sixteen thousand compounds, most frequently
used to make products water stain and grease resistant, have
(34:51):
been leaked linked to cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, high cholesterol,
kidney disease, and a range of other serious health problems.
Forever chemicals because they can persist four thousands of years
in the environment and are designed to be indestructible, designed
to be indestructible. Pfas get into food because it's commonly
(35:13):
used in pesticides, in food packaging, and in sewage sludge
that's used as a fertilizer. It's often found in nonstick
cookware and kitchen products, and in polluted water used in
processing or growing, and it can easily contaminate food. Okay,
we've talked about this before. Check out our earlier episodes.
(35:34):
Here's the story out of The Guardian from Tom Perkins
July eighth. Today, as we record, the US Food and
Drug Administration rejects the petition to set pfas limits in food.
They have rejected a legal petition demanding that the organization
sets limits on toxic pfas in food. The agency is
(35:57):
refusing to set these limits despite a growing body of
science and the Environmental Protection Agency, another government federal agency.
They're findings that the biggest source of PFAS exposure is
not water, it is food.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
It is food.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Recent testing has found that levels of pfas in a
single serving of some contaminated foods is the equivalent to
drinking many, many glasses of fully contaminated water. While regulators
have focused on raining in pfas in water, which is
important as hell. That's me talking. These chemicals are used
(36:35):
widely throughout the food system, and there was hope that
the agency, which remember is being led by Robert F.
Kennedy Junior, that Robert would take this threat more seriously
because his whole Make America Healthy Again movement they put
these kinds of toxic elements at the top of their
list of things to protect humanity Americans from. Right, make
(36:58):
America healthy again. We can't have these things in our stuff.
So there are a lot of officials high up in
places that thought, hey, this maybe this administration is the
one that's going to do it and protect us. Well,
it seems like maybe that's not going to happen. The
Tucson Environmental Justice Task Force or the TEJTF, filed a
(37:18):
legal petition, this binding legal petition back in November twenty
twenty three, and they are now planning to sue and
try and get a court to order the FDA to
set some form of thresholds for pfas in inedible foods.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
That you'll find at the grocery store.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
This petition called on the FDA to check on thirty
PFAS compounds in a range of produce fish, eggs, milk,
and bread. And well, here's the thing. They didn't respond
within the six month timeframe that was required by law.
So this group went back to their petition and they
(37:57):
scaled back their requirements on it, and they're like, Okay,
well we don't have to do as much, but please
just do this. Here's the deal. Recent FDA tests found
seventy percent of seafood samples, seventy percent of seafood samples
contain these forever chemicals. Independent milk testing recently found that
twelve percent of all milk samples fifty samples that they
(38:20):
looked at included levels of this stuff. Especially within Whole
Foods and Kirkland signature brands, they had extremely high levels
of forever chemicals. You know, you imagine the Whole Foods.
We've talked about this before. You imagine Whole Foods. It's
more expensive, it feels bougie. Just to walk into one
of those places, you feel you feel like you're maybe
making a health choice. I'm gonna spend more money on
(38:42):
my food. Here, it's gonna be better for me. It's
gonna be keep me healthier, it's gonna be safer.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
Whoops.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
The FDA rejected the revised petition stating at plans to
take action on setting standards for pfas and there is
quote insufficient evidence to support the request that the petition
is making. The agency did say it plans to set
less non binding quote action levels that do not require
contaminated food to be removed from shelves. Right just to
(39:11):
let you know, hey, it's in there.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Was there a rationale for rejecting? What I would say,
not as a public health expert, is a pretty easy win.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Too much work, too much work, not enough robots to
get the work done. Now, Yeah, it's a lot of work,
it's a lot of requirements, and there is a huge
pushback against any government organization regulating anything right now, at
least within the current administration. And we'll have to wait
for a sea change of sorts for that for anything
to occur. Finalizing this guy's and then we'll get out
(39:45):
of here. Independent testing has found that high levels of
pfas exist in blueberries, kale, and other water rich produce
because the chemicals are attracted to water. An other independent
testing found that beer, much of beer is contaminated with
this stuff. Again because of the water and because of
the things that you use to create the mash and
(40:05):
the stuff that you need to make a.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
Beer and all.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
You know, if you imagine the hops and the oats
and all the stuff whatever it is, you would end
up using the barley and EPA testing. The EPA's own
testing of seafood found the chemicals in all but one
sample that they looked at. Just think about that, guys,
We're eating this food every day, and we know these
things stick around forever. We know they stay inside the
human body. We know they cause cancer and do all
(40:31):
these terrible things.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Is this a pr nightmare for Whole Foods? It just
seems like this if be something that they need to
get ahead of, especially Whole Food's also owned by Amazon.
Have their standards slippeds or is this just something that
was knowing we were never saved from. It's all an illusion,
this idea of like high end grocery stores and organic
(40:52):
food like as it just there's really no barrier against
this kind of stuff, Like are we just cooked?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
It's weird because Whole Foods and Costco, which is they
own the Kirkland brand, which is the other arms. Of course,
these are massive corporations that have to source food all
over the place from a ton of different farms, from
a ton of different you know, organizations that then they
trust to have all this stuff. And then you know,
(41:20):
it's it's a massive chain of trust that goes into
all this stuff. And then theoretically you have something like
the FDA that comes through and tests the stuff at
some point along the chain and says, hey, this is
this is okay. It checks out, this is safe. You're
good to go. Enjoy your blueberries. That kale salad looks delicious.
(41:41):
Why not put blueberries in it? But you know, at
this point it's it's filled with this crap. It's not
filled again, we're talking. It's so weird to talk about
this stuff because trace amounts can be so devastating, right,
it doesn't take much at all. So the word contamination
is so import If it's in the food, if it's
(42:01):
in the fertilizer, if it's in the pesticide, if it's
in all this other stuff along that chain, it's going
to get into us too. And what the hell do
we do about it?
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Great your own food?
Speaker 4 (42:14):
I guess yeah, I think.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
I said this previous lign episode. But it reminds me
a lot about asbestos exposure right because there is no
there is no real time window yet to have the
research that is needful on the long term effects of
the pfas. Do check out our microplastics episodes as well
(42:39):
as our mentions on Strange News or listener mail. But
the bill is coming due, and it doesn't help that
the world's scientific collaboration is increasingly breaking down, and also
that the United States seems to have real hard on
for getting rid of scientific institutions.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Well, and I said grow your own food, but I
mean stuff like this also penetrates the soil and can
cause all kinds of contamination, and it could become less
viable an option depending on how far away from civilization
we're able to get. I mean, it does start to
feel like living off the grid is the only answer
(43:20):
for this kind of stuff. But that also is, as
we know increasingly more and more difficult, nion impossible.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
As long as it's not in the water you're using
to water your crops or the fertilizer you're using to
grow those crops, right, then you're good. Last couple of
paragraphs from this article. An analysis of FDA and EPA
fish testing data by the Environmental Working Group, which is
a nonprofit, found that eating a single serving of the
(43:46):
fish they tested, this is US fresh water fish contaminated
with these pfas, would be equivalent to drinking highly contaminated
pfas water every day for a month. One serving of
fish a month of contaminated water. These two things are
the same.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
They found.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Still, the FDA only conducts limited annual testing, and in
twenty nineteen they adjusted their methodology, so it's only going
to catch what consumer groups say are quote extremely high
contamination levels unquote, and they're going to ignore relatively low
to moderate levels that might still pose a health risk.
(44:26):
In twenty nineteen, the FDA initially found one hundred and
eighty two food samples to be contaminated with pfas, but
after changing its methodology part way through the study, that
figure one eight two dropped to seventy eight and a
lot of people accused that it was intentionally covering up contamination,
which kind of it was. Guys, there's a quote that
(44:49):
I think sums all of this up from a guy
named Brian Ronholm. He is a former Deputy Under Secretary
of Food and Safety at the US Department of Agriculture.
Here's his quote. Imagine using a radar gun to detect
speeding in cars, but while you're doing it, manipulate the
radar so it only detect speeding cars.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Going over one hundred miles per hour.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
There's still a shitload of cars speeding way over what
they should be going, but you're only seeing the worst
of the worst. And with that, we'll be right back
afterwards from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Hope everybody's enjoying a apparently healthy snack. By way of segue,
here a few more things before we close out our
weekly Strange news segments, following up on our earlier exploration
of poop crimes last week and our recent exploration of
(45:54):
PFA's or returning exploration thereof. Please do be aware that
the CDC, despite massive funding cuts, does still exist and
they have warned of explosive diarrhea on the rise in
the United States. As if things weren't getting worse, watch
out for cyclo pariasis, a gastro intestinal illness. It has
(46:18):
sickened dozens of people in Michigan. That's for you, freight train.
It is popping up in clusters around the country as
we speak. It's been growing since May so be careful
and for more info on that, please check out obviously
our friends at the CDC, and check out our friends
at AP News and other people are just trying not
(46:41):
to poop their pants. As far as we know, it
has not arrived at the billionaire summer camp in Sun Valley, Idaho,
but I respectfully posit that would be a hilarious short film.
I just want to see a bunch of billionaires pooping
like control.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
You know what, if you want to see something close
to the I highly recommend the movie Triangle of Sadness.
Not poopin but Buchan.
Speaker 4 (47:07):
I can't handle that on screen.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
It's a real cool movie and the scene is.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
It's a good film. It's still it still leaves you
with some questions. Other questions that we are left with
concern Again, we've been a little politically heavy in this.
That's just because there's a lot of strange political stuff happening.
Other questions concern the recent travel of Elay and Chow,
most famously known as a philanthropist and the spouse of
(47:35):
Kentucky's own Mitch McConnell, who remains hospitalized for a mysterious
medical condition. He was hospitalized on June fourteenth. He is
still in hospital, as our British friends would say. Two
days before McConnell was hospitalized, his spouse, Chow, left the
(47:59):
United States and visited China. As she said, she met
with a number of people, representatives of Uncle Ji being
some of those people, including the US ambassador. She just
released two hours before we came to record with you
here on July eighth, twenty twenty six. She just released
(48:20):
a statement about her husband's long hospital stay. While the
governmental political mechanics of Kentucky and of the Republican Party
are trying to call in the waters and saying everything's fine,
the guys just in recovery. The public is not accepting this,
(48:43):
you guys. The public thinks something is up, especially with
the timing. I think we all saw a lot of
reports that Senator McConnell may have been incapacitated by cardiac arrest,
which at his age, when you're that old, it has
a very low survival rate, especially without significant brain damage.
(49:05):
So there's been a lot of scuttle but about it.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
Well, I mean, Laura Lumer Ben even came out and
said that she had on good authority that he was
completely brain dead.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
I didn't know about Laura Lumer. I knew about Marjorie
Taylor Green.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
Okay, Yeah, but it's interesting because I don't understand why
she in particular would want to spread that rumor because
it's not very good for her political ideology, right Ben,
Because I'm sure that's where you're getting The issue here
is how he might be able to be replaced were
he to be considered incapacitated before a certain political deadline.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
Yeah. The timing all goes back to the Governor of
Kentucky's powers to create essentially an emergency senator versus having
an election and pal free trading just says Luber wants clicks.
A lot of politicians do want clicks. I think the
(49:57):
timing is interesting here. Of course, without being a sinophobic,
we know that missus Chow has come under intense scrutiny
in the past for allegations of a high level trade craft. Honestly,
you know, like it's not every not every Chinese American
gets to visit China and say hey, uncle, gee, what
(50:21):
are you doing later? You want to kick it? You
want to play pong? Do you do you have the
new control resonent before it published, Let's play that. Not
everybody can, but missus Chow can. So I wanted to
ask ask all of us tuning in tonight, do we
think there is something to the timing there or the speculation.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
Well, one high profile example ben I saw that I
thought was super interesting was Scott Jennings who said that
he was a political advisor that he spoke to Mitch McConnell,
and he did one of those things where he kind
of like gave way too much detail to the point
where you almost like, is he making this up? Like
he said, oh, we talked about this, we talked about this,
talked about Iran and all of this stuff, and it
(51:05):
just kind of seemed like grasping its straws a little
bit to say, no, no, really, really, he's fine. I
think it's really odd. I think they're definitely covering something.
Speaker 1 (51:13):
Up something there, because Chow did meet with essentially the
vice president of China, and Chow is from a billionaire
shipping dynasty for sure, So maybe it's just a matter
of having more access, but all the who who?
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, Yeah, then I didn't. I don't know anything about
lane Chaw. I just went through her Wikipedia, Yeah, yep, yeah,
and I'm seeing she was a commission She was the
Commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission, Yes, factoring in the
Reagan administration.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Then she was the United.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
States Labor Deputy Secretary of Transportation Federal Maritime Commission. Again
the chair like she's hold on and she comes from
that background though that you're talking about, like a yes,
what did you say?
Speaker 1 (52:05):
It was shipping family, shipping dynasty, geez man. Her father
is James C. Chan Machau. Who is He's ninety eight,
so talked about great genes, but he is the guy
who created this big shipping dynasty. It's called Foremost Group.
(52:27):
They're a conglomerate based in New York and they're actually
they're really well known for being environmentally friendly and bringing
in what we call green design into their fleet, which
includes some of the world's largest cargo ships. Bulk carriers.
Would be what they're called very connected. Sounds great, It
(52:51):
is just very connected.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
Didn't she say that their trip had been planned long
in advance and that it was to do with philanthropic
effort's sure, yes.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
Well, think about the kind of money involved here. If
you're you know, if this is your family and are
the these are the things you've been doing with your
life in these circles. Right, We're not just talking about
the billionaire circles. We're talking about the governmental circles that
she's been in for decades and not that Chow is in.
I'm not trying to put this all on her. Ultimately,
we're talking about an eighty four year old man that
(53:25):
is still serving, you know, as one of the highest
government officials in the United States, whose health is.
Speaker 4 (53:34):
Waning, and.
Speaker 2 (53:36):
He's eighty four years old. I mean, it's just like,
what are we what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (53:42):
The word for that would be gerontocracy, rule by the elderly,
and it is historically not ideal. Child's meeting is also
interesting on another on another page, because just after that meeting,
the nation of Indonesia and Singapore reached a new agreement
(54:03):
about the Strait of Malacca, which is like Southeast Asia's
sort of Panama Canal or Strait of War Moves. It's
a choke point for the all the expensive things that
make the world flow. I think there's an episode on
this in the future.
Speaker 2 (54:19):
Ben, Wasn't there a recent missile test ICBM test that
put China in a little bit of hot water? Again,
just thinking we the world has forgotten somehow that that
is like the true real flash point is.
Speaker 4 (54:37):
What we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
When this really hits the fan, it will be because
of stuff that's happening there.
Speaker 1 (54:44):
Yeah, yeah, the Middle East there, I mean the United States.
Every time we do a ridiculous history episode about the
Civil War, we have to remember Robert Evans's novel it
could happen here. These things do occur, but it's so
difficult for a lot of us out there to unless
it's your job for some reason, to keep an eye
(55:06):
on all these flashpoints. It's understandably difficult to do so.
Like if you put out if even something as simple
as the right net or web of Google alerts, you
are going to lose your entire day getting updates about
maritime conflicts in the East Asian seas. You know, it's
(55:31):
just it's going to happen. There's so much money, there's
so much power, there's so much power inequality, and the
US has fallen asleep at the helm, you know, which
the US very imperfectly have been called the world's police
force for quite some time and wasn't a corrupt police force, absolutely,
but it also did things like ensure the safety of
(55:53):
shipping lanes. And that is increasingly not to say right,
just so, just so and straight of Malacca. To your point,
Matt is going to be another another aspect of that,
and with that we're gonna pivot. We're gonna save that
for an episode. Please do right to us Conspiracy iHeartRadio
dot com and let us know what you think about
(56:15):
the Chow McConnell China connection. Is there anything to it
or is it just the fact that rich people tend
to hang out. Before we get to one of our
last big stories, we do have an update that is
personally important to us that we all stay plugged in here.
Forget the Strait of Malacca, everybody, Forget the World's Cup,
(56:36):
forget the straight of Horne moves. Let's remember the most
noble sport in all of modern civilization, Nathan's hot dog
eating Contest. The legendary Joey Chestnut has won his eighteenth
hot dog eating contest. He absolutely, as our pal Tim
Robinson would say, housed sixty six hot dogs? What's the
(57:02):
largest Look, nobody needs to compromise himself selves, but what's
the uh, what's the biggest number of hot dogs any
of us is eaten at one city?
Speaker 4 (57:13):
Four?
Speaker 3 (57:14):
Whoa, that's right, even that's the extreme.
Speaker 1 (57:18):
Yeah, I got I got the six and it was
not a good idea, dude.
Speaker 2 (57:22):
My uh, my partner's daughter is like fifty five pounds,
soaking wet and she can do two and a half.
Like she'll just put them away. I'm like, wow, how
where are they going?
Speaker 3 (57:34):
Where does it go? And that's that's well, that's true
of these competitive eating cats. They're little, little little guys. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
And the next one is that the next crazy stat
is that Joey aka Jaws Chestnut h he ate those
sixty six hot dogs with buns in ten minutes. That
feels as a non religious entity. That does feel like
a sin of some sort or.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
A miracle or a miracle.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
I guess there's special a special place in heaven or hell. People,
it depends on who wins the great War in Heaven.
Also shout out to Miki Sudo who defended her title
in the women's division. These people are fascinating. There's a
lot of scuttle butt or a lot of side conversation
you can hear us having over the years about competitive eating.
(58:25):
We've been obsessed with it. One thing that we have
to tease because this is another thing that could be
an episode in the future. We talked briefly at the
very end of our previous Strange News about something called
spud cell, and we have to let you know. For
everybody who enjoyed or was frightened by our mirror life episode,
(58:48):
it is official. Scientists have made cells out of whole
cloth that can feed, grow, and Reproduceanity is now one step,
one huge step closer to building life from scratch, not
mirror life, just like regular life. Yay good to me.
(59:11):
Yeah yeah, yeah, I think. I think the interrogative interrogative
toad there is perfect. So there's a there's a study
you can read online in full courtesy of bio r XIV.
It came out on July second a team led by
a synthetic biologist named Kate Adamala of the University of Minnesota.
(59:32):
They say they have transformed a soup of raw chemicals
into self sustaining life. These things cannot make all the
mesa yeah, yeah, cosmic gumbo. Nolan and I used to
call it that on the set. We used to be like,
this is a cosmic gumbo. It's very Michael man Adamala
and Teamer quick to note that these cells they have
created can't make all their necessary machinery just yet or
(59:57):
they and they also can't divide I successfully add infinitum.
But they're doing a lot of the stuff that we thought,
you know, the humans couldn't figure out. It's really lazy
or sorry, that is the correct word. I'm saying it
(01:00:17):
with great respect. It is lazy in comparison to cells
on Natural. It's kind of like Frankenstein's monster right after
it gets created in that Promethean style with the lightning.
You know, the guys like clunky, not really great at dancing,
et cetera. These new cells are not as robust, they're
(01:00:40):
not as fast, they're not as good at most of
their functions as again, a cell on Natural. But it
shows that humans can now make molecules that can at
least replicate behaviors that previously up to earlier this month,
we're only associated with living cells.
Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
I can't wait to see what the AI does with
these new cells we've created. Yeah, as the South Korean
stock market plants.
Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
Yeah, that's a chip price. Yeah. Oh, And I was
talking about this with some folks online, totally unrelated, and
I don't want to derailize the guys. It's shocking that
as an etymology nerd in English, at least for years
and years, I thought, let the chips fall where they
may literally meant potato chips. I thought it meant like
(01:01:36):
you get so hungry that you're you're just snarfing them
like an animal. And I looked up the actual etymology, which,
as we know is actual etymology is often murky. I
like the potato chip explanation. Better, don't splash the pot
don't splish the button.
Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
Yes, I think it. Yeah, let the chips fall where
they may means that you're being willingly about your betting.
Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Right, he beat me straight up the main he's money.
Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
There's a great story from Matt Damon about the first
time here that accent from John Malcovinch and the table read.
But these these things, if we're letting the biological chips
fall where they may, uh, these things that are being
called spud cell uh maybe a game changer. They may
be a high value chip. Spud cell is called this
(01:02:32):
because of its potato like appearance, and it's an homage
get this guy's to Sputnik and the dawn of the
space age. Also a little funny thing. I really like
doctor Adamala's style. In a conversation with The Guardian, she
added another reason. She said, we also call it spud
(01:02:53):
cell because of my heritage. I'm Polish, so I'm mostly
made of potatoes. Hey, nice, I always love a little
you know, I like a dash of humor in my
mad science, especially a potato pun. Yes, yes, especially a
potato pud. What they did was they created these spud
(01:03:14):
cells and again you can read the study. We'll give
you the name of it here in just a moment.
And then they put them in laboratory flask that were
filled with that kind of primordial soup we always talk
about when we're debating the origin of life on Earth.
Outside of the pan Spermia idea, which is gen a
(01:03:35):
hilarious name, they found that spud cell was able to
act like pac man, was able to gobble up the
really important stuff like adenosyne triphosphate, which is the They
call it the energy currency for all known life they
were able to fuse with feeder substances liposomes, and then
(01:03:59):
that led them to enzymes. As they were eating, they
expanded and within hours they were able to replicate. Luckily again,
just to call them the waters here, call them the
primordial ooze. They're not replicating at some kind of gray
goo level. They're not replicating anywhere near an exponential rate.
(01:04:21):
They have the necessary genes, but they can't make their
own ribosomes. Those are the things that your cells need
to build proteins. Instead, the scientists have to come in
and supply them with ribosomes. And even then, after five
or ten generations, our spud cell goes coukputs. Their potato
(01:04:42):
gets fried.
Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
But which is like the best way for a potato
to go?
Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
This is the best, It is the dream. It is
a noble death for all potatoes. And this is strange
because first off, the timing for us doing mirror life
right is fascinating. We're not saying there's a choojie thing here.
But secondly, it indicates that we as a civilization are
(01:05:12):
close to breaking some of the fundamental laws that multiple
civilizations folklore has warned us about, like don't make the homolocus.
Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Right, dude, Ben, It's almost as if the Earth has
a singular organism, has a fever, like it's heating up.
It's it's turning on all of its defense mechanisms to
shed itself of the parasite that infects it.
Speaker 3 (01:05:41):
Yes, and the only thing that can cure is more
cow Bell.
Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
Or Tyler Dirden.
Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
It's the it's the gay a super organism argument. Check
out our episode Oh God years ago on that one.
We have We have a lot of questions ahead, and
we think you probably will have a lot of questions
as well. If you want to learn more about the
spud cell, please check out an excellent article by K. R.
(01:06:08):
Callaway not related to the Kingdom of Callaway as far
as we know from the New York Times, the title
scientists made a cell with most of the hallmarks of life.
Here's what to know. The actual study, which is again
available on bio rxiv dot org, is titled a chemically
defined synthetic cell capable of growth and replication. It's to
(01:06:34):
be honest, it's some pretty heavy scientific writing. But you
can also if you're paywalled by New York Times, or
if you don't want to read the study. There's another
great article in the Smithsonian containing the primer of the information.
Shout out to journalists Sumya Seger with the headline scientists
say they've made cells that feed, grow, and reproduce, bringing
(01:06:57):
them one step closer to building life scratch insert Alfred E. Newman,
What me worry? What could go wrong? Absolutely nothing? Ten? Ten,
no notes. Thank you so much for tuning in. Everybody.
We can't wait for you to join us in the
future with your thoughts. Big thanks to everybody writes to us.
(01:07:17):
Step up, join the fray into the breach, find us
on the lines, call us on a phone, send us
an email.
Speaker 3 (01:07:24):
Yes, come with us into the breach. You can reach
us at the handle conspiracy Stuff. Our conspiracy stuff show
on your social media platform choice.
Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
Our phone number is one eight, three three std WYTK.
Turn the letters into numbers, make the call, and then
take three minutes. Tell us what cool nickname you want
to be known as, and tell us in the message
if we can use our name and message on the air.
If you want to send us an email, we are.
Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
The entities the Redeach piece of correspondence we receive. Be
well aware yet unafraid. Sometimes the void rights back. Give
us your thought on these and related topics. Most importantly,
give us a lead on an episode. Do you think
your fellow conspiracy realist will enjoy or need to know about.
Send us a random fact. We will send you one
(01:08:13):
in return. I think we mentioned this before, but it
bears repeating. Random fact of this week, the CIA has
officially stopped creating the World Factbook, So get your copy
as soon as you can. We're just gonna leave it there.
We'll see you in the dark conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
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