February 2, 2026 • 60 mins
ICE hunts children.The guys warn the Deep State is aiming to halt midterm elections in the United States, weird shrooms make people see tiny figures, the guys explore events in Iran. All this and more in this week's strange news segment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Is no They call me Ben.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
We're joined as always with our super producer Dylan the
Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you are here that makes
this these stuff they don't want you to know. Although
we are recording, we're well recording. On Wednesday, January twenty eighth.
This is publishing. Our weekly Strange news segment is publishing
(00:51):
on February second. So welcome to Monday, every body. Since
I'm just going to keep that, keep that slip of
the tongue for a few more.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Princess Ben, I love it. Thank you. It's funny you
did that. I've been talking that way all morning because
I have this ridiculous, tiny white dog wearing a little
pink bow princess outfit. So I've been talking like that myself.
So a man after my own heart. Oh thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
It might just be the might just be the radical
sleep deprivation, like the old creepy pasta about that.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Uh, what was that? When the Russian sleep experiment? Do
you guys remember that? Oh? I don't know about that.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Oh yeah, I'll send it to you.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It's it's a heck of a read. I've been enjoying
a lot of these memes where it's like, my sleep
paralysis demon is Guy Fieri? Stuff like that? You know, Yeah, yeah, exactly.
He's just he's just lurking in the background. But it's
anyone that can be kind of like identified by their silhouette.
It's just been become kind of a format. Cool.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Did you guys see the pretty good I'm pretty sure
it had to be Ai. But there was a recent
thing with a guy who had a birthday coming up
where apparently he posted a picture where he changed his
look entirely so that he looked like a real life
family guy. Cause player, let me see if I.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Can find amazing You think it was a I kind
of believed it, But boy, oh boy, I've mentioned this
how AI is really causing me to distrust just about everything?
But is it? Can we confirm him? Because it looked like, okay,
he looked like he just maybe shaved and put on
a square outfit and his hair different here.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Let me share the pictures so we can see it
in folks, you can look it up as well. Just say,
just go to your platform of choice and put Guy
Fieri new.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Look. There we go. I hope it's real. I want
it to be real. I hope it's real too. But
let let us know what you think.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
What am I on point when I say possible family
guy couse playing Peter Griffin a little?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I mean he's definitely yeah, giving that for sure.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Anyway, that's that's obviously that's the most important thing that's
happened in the past few weeks. Sorry, Minnesota, Iran, Texas,
AI psychedelics and plagues.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Kidding well, I've got a little quick story we could
just briefly mention here if you guys don't mind mil nuts.
Do you remember that thing called the Line out in
Saudi Arabia?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I was really hoping. I was.
I'm not being I'm not joking.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I was sincerely hoping that one would work out and
reach completion of some sort.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Is that like the secret? What is the line? I
don't know about it.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
The line is this massive one point five trillion dollar
project that got put in place to create basically a
horizontal skyscraper. Yeah, in but not just a skyscraper. Imagine
a skyscraper that's like hallowed out and then broken into
two parts, and then there's a river going down the
center of it.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yeah, it's like weird flex But okay, it's like it's
almost like Discworld or Rendezvous with Rama. It's that it
would be this a miniature internal biome. Right, it gets
really close to being like a biosphere. That was some
of the science there was really really interesting to all
of us.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
But or like the documentary Biodome with polychor yeah, but
in a line.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And in the it was across the desert.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Everybody was skeptical when it was initially being proposed, just
because of the scale and the ambition of the project.
But it was so ambitious that if even a portion
of it, a significant portion got realized, it would still
be a tremendous monumental literally a monumental achievement.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
But what's the update, man.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Okay, the update comes to us from futurism. Oh, an
article written by Christy Neome and eom different a k
R I S T I N e O M, which
is r EP or unfortunate but well, she's writing here
and saying, I'm just gonna read this. It turns out
(05:12):
it's not going great. The one hundred miles in length
line construction. It's just facing all kinds of right, it's
going way over cost already. It's not it looks like
it's not gonna happen. But they do appear to be shifting.
I'm gonna read directly from this. According to new reporting
from The Financial Times, the Saga may have yet one
more twist in store for us. The Saudi government is
(05:34):
now considering drastically downsizing Yeah, this linear city skyscraper, so
it can instead turn into a hub for we swear
we're not kidding data centers, right, AI data centers?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah, any more of those? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Well, I mean also, it's a some cause fallacy because
we've put I don't know why I'm saying we they've
put so much stuff, time and blood and treasure into
this that it would be a great loss of face
and money and it would be a great embarrassment if
they didn't do something.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Sometimes you gotta pivot, right.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
I've tried to remember the last member of our corporate
top brass who said that to us over the years,
there had to be someone.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Did we ever have a pivot conversation? Always, Yeah, you
gotta pivot, You got to You gotta be able to
read the room and pivot. I was listening to public
radio the other day. I haven't really been listening to
it very much lately, but for whatever reason, my phone
was dying, so I just listened to the radio and
there was a piece on Marketplace about data centers and
I heard the most icky corporate term I think I've
(06:40):
ever heard the CEO of this data center company. I
believe they're called like dig Digy Garage or something along
those lines. I'm not quite getting it right, but he
said that the industry was quote frothy.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, like people frothing at the mouth.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I think there's It's sort of like when the corporate
people say churn. But I think churn is bad, but crothe.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Is good, can be good, depending on the depending on
what is churning, right, investment churning.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Well, churn makes froth is what I know.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
And then the churn could be bad if it is, uh,
chaos sure could be bad if it means that you're
losing a lot of your top people constantly. Also can
refer to like a just art artsy language, kind of
dairy based, very dairy based.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yes, churn the butter, but churn can also just mean
like a chaotic situation where there's too much back and
forth and not enough is getting done. But these that's
the thing though, these corporate terms are very flexible and
kind of oddy. Sorry, I didn't mean to do it.
The data center thing reminded me of that.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah, and we know that there are a lot of
controversial centers around in the US and abroad. In one
of the kinds of centers that has a lot of
people worry and has been drawing a great deal of headlines.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
A great deal of a frankly horror.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Around the United States are what we call ice detention centers.
Maybe we take a break for a word from our
sponsors and get to that story which has been on
everybody's mind for a while now, and we have returned.
(08:27):
There's a thing that happens sometimes when we're working on
our weekly Strange news segment where there are stories we
don't get to and we try to save them, or
there are stories that are a small snapshot of a
much larger conversation. Right, the kind of thing that you
can't just chat with your pals about for fifteen minutes
(08:47):
and get to everything. And one of the things that
we have been like the rest of the world, in
the United States, one of the things that we have
been reading about and very concerned about for quite some
time are the activities of ice here in the United States,
specifically the detention centers. And guys, do we remember how
(09:13):
long ago it was now when the first big ice
detention center started hitting the news?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Is that alligator Alcatraz noe? That was just a weird
one in the middle there was.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
It was back in Portland, Oregon. I know, I think
in like twenty twenty two or something like that, where
there was that was the biggest you know, ice cerfuffle
that I can remember. But I don't know that that
was necessarily to do with detention centers.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
What do you got back, Well this, Yeah, we know
that those centers are some kind of detention center or
immigration center. Has been around in one form or another
since the eighteen nineties or so. When I think when
we're talking about the detention centers now nowadays, the ice
detention centers, we're talking about a very specific kind of
(10:04):
modern phenomena, and one headline that came out from a
report from the ACLU. But way back in twenty eighteen,
this was first reported that made headlines. Again, ICE detention
centers have said they're not responsible for the staff's sexual
(10:25):
abuse of detainees. That has been a precedent set for
years now.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, yeah, and I mean yeah, and now with the
net being cast so much more widely, I think that
is it's horrific in any way, shape or form. But
now it's like people that absolutely shouldn't be there in
any fashion are there, and just by virtue of getting
rolled up, you may well find yourself there for weeks
(10:53):
and months before you're even processed, and have things happen
to you that are beyond description.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Yeah this, I mean in a lack of accountability, terrible
things can occur. That's why oversight is so important. And
that's why even in the most cinematic episodes we've done
on things like the OSS or secret government programs, we
do have to have that three boring guys moment where
(11:23):
we say, hey, also, you know, you should be accountable
for stuff. And then that's why you shouldn't just dose
unsuspecting American citizens with massive amounts of LSD just cuz
you know.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, or you know incarcear eight one hundred and twenty
thousand Japanese US citizens because there's a war going.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Right right, and it seems like what we're describing here
taking on a certain level is tantamount to institutionalized sexual assaults.
If it's you're getting a pass. There's almost this inherent like,
you know, do do your damn dist you know, do
whatever you want because we're not going to hold you accountable,
which seems to me like war crimes.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
And this brings us to this brings us to our
more recent headline. Just yesterday in the United States January
twenty seventh, twenty twenty six, Daniel Viarel, writing for the
LGBTQ Nation, has reported that at least twenty ice and
(12:25):
CBP officials have been charged with sex crimes against children.
CBP being Customs of Border Patrol, obviously ICE, immigration and
customs of Enforcement. This comes to us via a list
published by the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. And it looks like
(12:46):
it looks like this is just the tip of an iceberg.
Because we've all heard, you know, jokes on late night
talk shows. The snarky internet efemera wad about how the
bar for admittance into ICE like joining up with ICE,
(13:08):
it's not a very high bar.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I saw a video of a left wing reporter who
has a little experiment submitted an application for ICE to
become a you know whatever, a deportation agents. There's a
name for the position that she applied for, and it
is one of the lower tier positions that still pays
quite well. We'll get to maybe about the bonus stuff
(13:32):
in a little bit, but she said that she went
in for a like a seven minute interview and felt
like they were definitely going to google her. She had
a very googleble name and a background that would you know,
let them know that she was clearly doing a bit
of a you know, a test or doing something for
purposes of reporting, and so she didn't really think anything
of it, and then realized that an email had been
buried in her inbox that was a packet dev of
(13:56):
documents to fill out in order to get the job
that she had based got an offer letter. Then she
didn't fill out those things. I think she did do
a drug test, and then she looked in the portal,
the hiring portal, saw that she was officially hired and
they had not processed her background check, nor had she
signed an affidavit saying that she was not had not
been charged or under a suspicion of domestic violence. So
(14:20):
the implication there is that that's happening across the board,
which means that we've got a lot of potential violent
people that are not being vetted properly, that are out
there just you know, doing their worst.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Yeah, and this is that's a that's a great example,
that's a great snapstright here. It's part of ICE's one
hundred million dollar effort to attract new recruits. They're sending
GEO targeted advertisements directly to people's mobile phones if they're
located near mixed martial arts fights, shout out to a
(14:53):
few of US NASCAR races, gun shows. Again, this is
per the journalist Daniel. We also know that with this
massive influx or this attempt, this initiative to hire so
many people, they are losing quality control of candidates. Members
of this list that we mentioned to have been charged
(15:15):
with sex crimes have also been charged with other stuff,
things like sexual assault at gunpoint, child sex trafficking, aggravated assault, robbery, torture, kidnapping,
possession and production of CSAM. It gets dark really quickly.
People might say this is a hit piece, or people
(15:38):
might say this is trying to spin the situation worse
than it actually is. But I would argue, if even
even a portion of that stuff is true, then that
makes very real concerns. You know, they're also let's not
even we won't have time to talk about the people
who are claiming to be Ice in playing clothes right
(16:00):
with no real identification, but strapped up and demanding that
people go with them to be transported to a center.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
This is non ideal. I remember when this stuff first
came out, like in the fact that they were masked
and all of that, that was a big concern that
was raised. Is anybody a bad actor wanting to do
a kidnapping, wanting to do a robbery, can just say
that they're Ice in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles and
(16:31):
just do what they do, whatever they want, and that
there's so much fear now that that is absolutely on
the table. And thankfully there's people out there, you know,
watching and filming, and of course you know, we already
have two people, Renee Good and Alex Pretty who have
lost their lives doing this very thing, you know, trying
to hold these individuals, this paramilitary force accountable. And that
(16:56):
is those.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Are two specific example of a larger pattern of innocent
people dying with state due to state sponsored violence. We're
also going to see, as we can tell with the
with the reactions of the current administration. And look, I
know this is a political point, and I usually avoid these,
(17:20):
but this, I think it's a humane point for me.
That yeah, yeah, humanist and political. I think it is
ethical necessary to point out that this is bolk, this
is non ideal. There's not a fig lee for an
alive branch involved or figuely for the administration to hide
(17:41):
behind and or in all of branch for the administration
to extend. We're getting very close. We're no, forget it,
We're not getting close to Orwellian double speak. We're in
or an Orwellian environment now with official statements that incorporate
AI that clearly ignore hard concrete evidence. They tell you
(18:06):
not to believe what happened, but to buy some sort
of flim flam story. And hopefully we as Americans and
we as a civilization are better than that. I'm going
to get off the soapbox. This is concerning, but also
there are members of There are members not just of
the public, but of the political class and the and
(18:28):
you know, the legal boffins who are utilizing the mechanisms
of the courts and of governance to try and write
the ship. And some of this is happening at your
local and state level.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
One hundred percent. And Ben, just last thing for me,
on to your point about the Orwellian stuff, the idea
of running investigations into these events internally, it's just beyond
absurd not to mention this notion, and that the administration
is going to wait for the facts to come out,
(19:03):
and yet leading with casting these people as domestic terrorists
in instant rhetoric before any investigation. That's just counterintuitive and
complete double speak. And what you're saying about not believing
the evidence of your eyes and ears, yeah, I hear you.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Man.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
I try again. I try so ardently not to put
in like my own unqualified personal opinion, but this one
is just this is not going to end well.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I agree, And I wonder if you guys are seeing
the same thing. We've mentioned it before a lot on
this show. But it's the old thing that Bill Hicks
warned us about the US government basically sliding a gun
over towards you and saying, go ahead, pick up the gun.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Sure, pick it up, Smoke them if you got.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Daring, daring some kind of some kind of pushback or
you know, during some kind of violent response.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
That's what I'm thinking, man.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
It's an attempt to It's an attempt to push whether
through agent provocateurs check out our episode on that, or
whether through rationalized violence.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Right.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
It's an attempt to push for causes belly right, a
reason to go to war, an attempt to make some
kind of flimsy rhetorical support for inciting the Insurrection Act, right,
and therefore holding off on midterm elections. But folks, the
(20:40):
elections are supposed to happen. That is something everybody is
supposed to agree on. If the United States could carry
out elections during the literal Civil War, then it should
still have. There's no reason to stop elections other than
to purposefully attack democracy.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
You guys, do you've been no? You do see that coming, right?
The push to completely just hold off those elections like it's.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Or to further the terror that is being instilled in
folks in some of these blue states and potentially have
ice patrolling nearby polling places. Yeah, so that people stay
home and don't vote. I mean it's it ain't for
nothing that these are blue states that they're you know, targeting,
that'll be part of it.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
Yeah, that's a good point, because like the idea then becomes,
you know, we've got people or we've got ice or
some sort of other ice esque thing patrolling polling points
for your safety. But then some kind of violence occurs
at these polling stations, maybe key polling stations in certain districts. Right,
(21:51):
and because that violence occurs, now the polling station has
to be shut down for public.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
It's an active crime stity, right and certain.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yeah, we'll count the votes later after we kick the
can over to the right friendly courts, and when those
courts get the decision, then it'll be something. It could
be irrationale similar to the debacle in Florida.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Right back between what was it Gore hanging Chad, Sit
hang Chad.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Cool name for a dumb idea, but I like everything
is precedent. I feel like it keeps saying that anyway. Sorry, sorry, Just.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Lastly, while we're on this, the postmark rules have changed.
As of January of this year, and no longer is
a piece of US mail postmarked when you hand it
in to be mailed. It is postmarked when it is processed,
which can take several days beyond that. So vote in
ballots have the potential if people didn't get the memo
on that, to not be counted as well. So just
(22:50):
educate yourself know about that. That's all I'm saying. I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to continue better. I think that's an
important piece of information.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
I just I just want us to send up the
signal to you listening right now. We don't can't. We
don't know things about the future, right We're just analyzing
news stories and looking at the past and seeing what
could happen given all of these variables.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
We don't know anything more than anyone else. But we
are seeing stories like this simple, very quick story that
came out of ABC KCR channel seven on January twenty third.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
It is.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Someone Charlotte Hazard, writing about the words of Attorney General
Chris Mays out of Arizona, making a pretty pretty simple
statement about the rights of citizens US citizens who live
in Arizona, and just putting out there that this is
a stand your ground state and saying that residents could
(23:54):
fire upon ICE agents if they are masked and if
that individual that civilian feels there danger and it is
because of those laws, those state laws on self defense,
which which is pretty terrifying to imagine that you could
have a situation where, let's say, ICE agents are pretending
to be public utility workers as they have done in
(24:14):
the past, and it was reported on very recently in
the news, where where individuals agents pretend to be public
utility workers gain access to a home and then raid
that home in a place like Arizona or oh, I
don't know, Georgia, a bunch of places around here. If
masked agents enter your home and they do not have
(24:35):
anything visible on them stating that they're agents, they are
not saying that they're agents. Even if they are saying that,
and you are fearful of your life, the state law
then goes directly up against whatever you know, federal statutes
and laws are put out there by the administration.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
And civil war stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
That's powder, Yeah, that's exactly what I think we are
just trying to put out there to everyone just to
be away that this is occurring and it doesn't feel
like this is just accidentally happening.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Absolutely right, Yeah, absolutely not. I appreciate that. I also
want to again, everything is precedent. We want to tell
you all signs indicate that stuff like this will continue occurring. Right,
this is not These are not little lips, right, like
(25:25):
little drops of oil from a deep fryer if you
work in the kitchen. Sorry, I skipped lunch or I
skipped whatever time it's I'm supposed to eat, But it is.
Here's another example of precedent, the idea of these hotels
that are refusing to house ice operatives or take their
(25:46):
business their custom.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Could we say.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
This goes back to the Quartering Act of seventeen sixty
five and seventeen seventy four, back when the absolutely back
when the Brits would require us, well, that will require
people living in the colonies to house the soldiers.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Again.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Look, I think it's fine that we went long on
this part of our weekly Strange News segment. There are
two other awesome stories are unrelated, that I really want
us to get to later.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
So how about this.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Tune in at the very end of our show today
and we'll give you We'll give you one of those,
but for now. We can't wait to hear from you
with your thoughts. Be safe out there, how your loved
ones drop us an email conspiracy dieheartradio dot com. We're
gonna pause for word from our sponsors and let's get
to something completely different that I'm really excited about one
(26:45):
of these.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
And we're back. And you know, I've never fancied myself
a writer, per se. I work in public media, having
to you know, file stories and things, audio stories, and
I would ocasionally have to write a headline. But I'm
proud of this one. I made this one up, guys.
Flesh eating fly infestation heading for us further proof these
are the end times? Well done? Yeah yeah. The CDC
(27:16):
is warning doctors to look for the symptoms brought on
by an organism called the screw worm, because we are
all screwed doctors. This is from a piece from the
Hill Are on Alert as a dangerous, potentially deadly parasite.
The New World screwworm inches its way close to the
(27:37):
United States album name. That's an album name for sure,
New World screw the New World screw Worm. It's a
bit of a mouthful tool. Dead On Ben dead On,
the screw worm has moved into the Mexican state of
Tomi leap Us, which is just across the border from Texas.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issue to health
alert this week, notifying clinicians and public experts to look
(27:58):
for signs of the parasite its presence and guys, this
is a bad boy. They lay their eggs in wounds, noses, eyes,
mouths ears, and the eggs then develop into parasitic larvae
or maggots that feed on the surrounding flesh as they
(28:19):
burrow their way deeper and deeper into your body. Do
you remember the first time we talked about these guys.
I don't. This is new to me. We talked about
so much, like kind of spaced on it if we did.
But cattle, they are a big problem for lifestyle.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
It's our dairy and gap episode because in twenty twenty two,
so for a long time, the give it to us
to get the new world screw worm right. The dairy
and gap function is a fire break. So the cattle
that were infected, the people that were infected honestly as well,
(28:54):
couldn't get through that mess of Central America. But I
believe since two that natural barriers no longer worked, so
the plague is on the way.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Right, And just to go off topic really quickly, if
anyone hasn't seen the Apple TV Vince Gilligan show Pluribus
there it's excellent. I think we all love it. But
there is an episode that is all about the dairying
gap and involves a traversal of the dairying gap showing
just exactly how inhospitable and dangerous that very unsettled. You know,
(29:29):
part of the world is so out that you're interested just.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Bringing up the dairying gap because in that episode and
then in scientific literature, the boffins have been warning people
about this plague as we're calling it, for.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
A long time. You got to listen to the nerds man.
There's a reason you do nerds well. And speaking of
the plague of it all, let's just go quickly through
some of the symptoms. We're talking visible larvae or egg masses,
which might be wounds, ears, eyes, nos mouths, or another
body orifice, destruction of healthy tissue, people reporting a sensation
(30:05):
of movement in a wound or orifice, foul odor, bloody discharge,
swelling or pain around a wound or orifice and look
out for folks who have recently traveled to areas where
the screwworm is present, like Mexico and Central America. CDC's
advising the clinicians remove all the eggs and larvae from
(30:26):
the person's body, which may require surgery if the maggots
have burrowed deep enough.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Hey, this sounds like a call for more ivermectin. Remember
that old fella ivermectin.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Wasn't that like a horse dewormer or something like that.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Or it's an anti parasite, that parasitic treatment, famous for
its COVID nineteen ure through it.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Around for a little bit.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
This basically injectable ASP cures everything that ails you. So
it is not medical advice, and we are not doctors.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
No, don't take tilent all, but also take enough aspirin
that you can blame that on your rotting flesh. And
have you noticed Dud's wearing one glove now? Oh, yeah,
the press he's wearing one glove over the hands, probably
because of the yeah that's what I'm saying. Like he's
wearing wal blow also, which is some doctor evil type stuff.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Also, folks, friends, neighbors, fili conspiracy, realists. The one of
the reasons that we've been keeping an even closer eye
on public health concerns like outbreaks of measles or infestations
things of that nature is due to the massive cartoonish
(31:45):
cutting of science funding and cutting of funding to things
like the CDC and the other institutions that normally would
handle this. We're also talking off air rewatching the digital Ghostbusters.
Uh do you guys remember that the bad boogieyman in
(32:07):
Ghostbusters one? Uh, the secondary antagonist is the EPA.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Is the regularly mean guy. Yeah, right, is he's in
charge shutting down their ghost container unit. That's right, that's
I totally forgot that the EPA with the big bad
that's pretty funny. Ben, this is code, yeah, to shut
it down.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
But just trying to find some levity here. But I
think that to the point here that we're discussing, it's frightening.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
It's frightening that we're now in a situation in twenty
twenty six where the New World screw worm could finally
succeed in its multi generational scheme to infest the United States,
and we're literally asleep at the switch. We got rid
of the people who could fight it. It's like, oh,
(33:03):
World War two, scubby, let's get rid of the air Force.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Not great. We're gonna pivot, as we talked about earlier,
to another science story that is a little more whimsical.
Let's just say, unless you're an unsuspecting participant in this
particular kind of whimsy. The BBC headline from Rachel Newer
says this they saw them on their dishes when eating
(33:29):
the mushroom, making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans. This
is in China, and I can't help but get some
similarities with the incredible adult swim show Common Side Effects,
which is about this cure all mushroom that is discovered
(33:51):
in the Amazon by the main protagonist of the show,
whose name is Escaping Me. But he's like a mycologist
studies mushrooms and it causes people to hallucinate these little, tiny,
psychedelic kind of machine elve type creatures little humans. Yeah,
I couldn't help but think about that. Let's go to
(34:11):
the piece here from the BBC. And then there's another
great piece on Vice that I'll pull from as well.
Only recently described by science, the mysterious mushrooms are found
in different parts of the world, but they give people
the same exact vision. That's so crazy wild to me.
It points to something there, It points to a barrier,
(34:34):
some sort of cosmic barrier being breached. And maybe I'm
being hyperbolic there, but that commonality is so fascinating, and
it's the kind of when I talked about machine elves.
It's the kind of stuff that people report from DMT trips,
seeing these little creatures that are like, you know, manipulating
the fabric of time space. Going back to the BBC,
(34:56):
every year, doctor's at a hospital in the Yunnan province
of China and embrace themselves for an influx of people
with an unusual complaint. It's been going on for a minute.
The patients come with a strikingly odd symptom, visions of
pint sized elf like figures marching underdoors, crawling up walls,
and clinging to furniture. The hospital treats hundreds of these
(35:19):
cases every year. All share a common culprit. Lan Moa
asiatica asiatica a type of mushroom that forms symbiotic relationships
with pine trees in nearby forests, and is a locally
popular food known for its savory umami packed flavor. It's
sold in markets and often appears on restaurant menus and
(35:40):
is served at home during foraging season, which is between
June and August. However, it is the kind of thing
much like the fugufish, you know that you have to
prepare very specifically in order not to ingest the toxin
that it contains with it. Right, that I hadn't read,
(36:01):
but I don't doubt that that's true. Ben. At a
mushroom hot pot restaurant there, the server set a timer
for fifteen minutes and warned ust don't eat it until
the timer goes off, or you might see little people.
That's from a doctoral candidate in biology at the University
of Utah and the Natural History Museum of Utah named
Colin Domnauer, who is studying this particular fungus. He says,
(36:26):
it seems like a very common knowledge in the culture there.
There were many accounts about the existence of the psychedelic
mushroom and many people who looked for it, but they
never found the species. This is from a mycologist named
Jiuliana Furkey, the founder and executive director of the Fungi Foundation,
which is a nonprofit dedicated to discovering new species and
(36:48):
different uses and conserving fung Guy, this is very much
like the character I was describing in Common side Effects.
I can't recommend that enough. Yeah, I don't know, guys,
I had not heard about this. Apparently it was maybe
common knowledge in the region, but has only recently kind
of made its way over here. I mean, it's been
(37:09):
described as far back as nineteen ninety one in a
paper where two researchers from a Chinese Academy of Science
described cases of people specifically in that region, the Unn province,
who'd eating a certain mushroom and experience what they referred
to as Liliputian hallucinations, which is all which is in
fact it's a psychiatric term. Yeah, I didn't know that.
(37:29):
Beened fantastic the perception of tiny human animal or fantasy figures,
so named, of course after the little creatures, the little
people from Gulliver's Travels who inhabit lily Put Islands.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
You know how you get amber alerts in some parts
of the US if there's like a missing child or
someone gets kidnapped. This part of China apparently has something
like an amber alert for these mushrooms. They have mushroom
alerts during mushroom season. They send messages to locals on
their on their cell phone say watch out, don't get
(38:04):
poisoned by this mushroom. I think Fugu is a great
comparison you've made there. And I was also astonished man
to learn that lil of pudding hallucinations are indeed a genre.
It also calls to mind the the what is it?
The commonality of the type of hallucination upon consumption of
(38:25):
these mushrooms definitely calls to mind the work of Graham Hancock.
I loved when we were doing Graham Hancock.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
He's the omnivorous dilemma.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
He's the guy who, among many other things, and not
everybody agrees with him. Definitely not mainstream science, but he's
one of the guys. Palin on the Red tell Us
about Graham, So Michael Paulin is Omnivore's dilemma. Graham Hancock
wrote a bunch of books as well. He talks a
lot about machine ls and the commonality of certain hallucinations
(38:56):
like d MT or I think EBA gain as well.
But he's the guy who said, maybe our junk DNA
contains ancient messages from aliens that get activated upon consumption
of d MT or ingestion of mushrooms like these psychedelics.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
So yeah, it definitely makes me think of some sort
of breach of whether it be a cosmic something or
something within ourselves. And I know I'm sounding a little
wooo about that, and I don't get woo about much,
but sometimes psychedelic experiences cause me to go there, especially
with mushrooms, as we know, they're the closest thing to frickin'
aliens that we know about in the way they communicate
(39:37):
with one another. Apparently this also reminds me of the
work of Terrence McKenna. But Matt, I could see that
the I can see the machine elves working in your
mind right now.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
We're no, I want to know what are these things wearing? Well,
you know what I mean, Like, what do they look like?
Do they have human heads and faces? Do they have
hands and fingers? Or do they have pants?
Speaker 4 (40:00):
It seems like, yeah, it seems like they're humanoid like
human shape, but I haven't seen specifics that say like
they're known for their nazzy turtlenecks and their leather breakers.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
I've been looking. I've been looking everywhere for you know,
a more full description, right, just somebody who's giving you
exactly what visually you are seeing when let's say on
your plate and the artists rendering, well, yeah, what is
the perspective like if you move your head over your plate,
does the perspective of that little humanoid change as though
(40:39):
it's there in real time?
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Out?
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Oh god, I can't, man, my brain can't handle it.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Legal to consume this, by the way, yeah, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Oh okay, Well that does not change the way.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Your brain will react, Matt, because it's a psychedelic It
might because consuming an illegal thing.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
If that triggers some fear mechanisms in you, they can
share give you setting. So maybe this helps make it
feel a little bit more likely to be a good trip.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Weirdly, we have evidence of something very similar to this
as far back as the nineteen sixties in Papua New
Guinea and in some other parts of that region. But
it is not psilocybin, lest you were wondering, and the
hallucinations can take twelve to twenty four hours to begin
and can last for a very long time. So it's
(41:31):
also not DMT because as we know, DMC hits you
instantly and does not last very long at all, So
don't have what are those these edibles? Eight moments? No, No,
you can always take more, you can take it less. Yeah,
it says the trip can last so long that it's
impractical as a recreational drug, which is why no culture
seems to use the mushroom intentionally as a psychedelic.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Man, I'm trying to imagine doing research or something while
you've got a little little humanidid's running across the monitor,
you know.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Check out the work of Terrence McKenna, the God God
Molecule as I think a book of his, where he
spends a lot of time in the Amazon and in
deep jungle climates or trains experimenting with d m T
and these like frogs that produce that substance from their skin,
and he approaches it very scientifically. But he's also trip
(42:24):
and balls a lot. So it's a fascinating intersection between
science and spiritualists.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
Yeah, and also check out David J. Brown, author of
the Illustrated Field Guide to d MT Entities. Can't say
I can't say enough about how interesting Graham Hancock is.
We can tell you though, that researching under the influence
(42:49):
of eddie substance can affect the nature of your research,
like coffee right or like adderall for instance, And you know,
and diplomatically put research on psychedelics will lead you to
some very interesting research. The problem is going to be
focus because you may come back down to earth in
(43:10):
several hours and realize that you have written an amazing
twenty page paper that is absolutely not about the thing
you were supposed to be writing about.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Totally. Yeah, if anyone's ever tried to take psychedelics and
like do something creative results very widely. You know, certain
individuals like Jimi Hendrix's and Grateful Deaths of the World
were super good at that and very interested and the effects.
But then there are others that it is just going
to cause them to flail.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
Yeah, and many And then we also have to ask ourselves,
without waxing philosophical about the nature of creativity in the
way of the artists. We have to ask ourselves those
people seem like they excelled on psychedelics because that's the case,
or where we just see what they did despite intoxication.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
You know, that's a good point. The chicken or the
egg kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
Yeah, like Manary Keenan from Tool, said, you could do
the drugs once, but the rest of it is trying
to get to that state without.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Them, because I just guessed it on that more like
Ancient Aliens show, and we had a whole discussion about
genius because there was an apparently an Ancient Aliens episode
in season nine about genius and how it might be
a divine inspiration, only not divinity, aliens and the concept
of creativity and where does that come from? Right, because
(44:32):
often often what people are looking for when you're going
to use hallucinogens or another drug to you know, do
something creative, it is to get that creative spark, right,
that thing that might come from outside of us somehow,
or at least happen internally. But we don't really understand
the mechanisms of all of that signals going across the
corpus colosum. What do you think, guys, maybe aliens?
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Well, I said, I think mushrooms are aliens. I truly
believe that's something to that effect, and that the way
they unlock some of that stuff within us or introduce
it from you know, without it is fascinating to me.
And I don't know how it works, but it's it's
wild stuff.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Do we start from that stuff?
Speaker 3 (45:14):
I don't know. There you go, yeah, well that's that's
sort of one of the uh the god molecule is
a sort of an argument that makes that it's some
sort of like primordial substance. That's all I got for today, y'all.
When do we take a quick break and hear a
word from our sponsor, and then we'll return with our
last strange news segment.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Welcome back. It's eighty five seconds to midnight. Don't worry
about that. It's just the thing the bulletin of the
atomic scientists like to do. They mean, well, yeah, why
is it.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Never like mid afternoon? Guys? Start the bar lower?
Speaker 3 (45:52):
But I guess that.
Speaker 4 (45:53):
I guess honestly if it was one am, it would
be a pre nuclear civilization, which would be in worldwick.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
Whatever goes happened, all right, never never buy.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
So it's all good. Speaking of eighty five seconds to midnight,
let's jump to the Guardian and here's something that Patrick
Wintour wrote on Wednesday, January twenty eighth. Threat of US
Iran war escalates as the US President Warren's time is
running out for a deal I'm gonna read verbatim from
a little bit of this, you guys. It's kind of boring,
(46:26):
but it is kind of important. Here we go, the
threat of a US Iranian war maybe looming closer after
the US President Warren time was running out for Tehran
and said a massive US armada was moving quickly towards
the country quote with a great power, enthusiasm, and purpose unquote.
Some we'll see the sudden ramping up of the threat
as a useful piece of distraction at a time when
(46:48):
the US government is under domestic political pressure over the
violence administered by Homeland security officers in Minnesota. As we
have talked about, yes, Iran's foreign minister said he was
not prepared to negotiate under threats, but he was willing
to talk without preconditions, terms that he had relayed to
numerous intermediaries to US Special Envoy Steve Whitcoff, Iran has
(47:12):
reportedly been using its diplomatic channels to speak with Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
and Egypt, and all three of these states were very
critical in persuading the US President to hold back from
mounting an attack three weeks ago. You know, as of
the writing on January twenty eighth. Sorry, I'm just holding
(47:33):
back some emotions right now, some feelings, getting some deep
feelings about this. There's currently a deep suspicion in Tehran
about talking to the US since the two sides were
in the middle of talks last June when Israel was
given clearance by the US to mount an attack on
Iran designed to decapitate its leadership and destroy its civil
nuclear sites. You'll remember the Big kerfuffle, the Big to
(47:56):
do that was made about the bunker Busters and how
they allegedly destroyed a bunch of infrastructure on Iran's largest
enrichment site, although perhaps they didn't do any damage at all.
We don't know. Well.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
Also, we'll also recall, of course, the historic role the
United States and the United Kingdom have played in sowing
chaos in Iran throughout history, throughout recent history. And then
we can't forget the nuclear deal that was made under
one administration and seemed to propose an imperfect path forward
(48:32):
to lowering the temperature in the region, only for the
US to renege on the deal and instantly erase whatever
trace of goodwill had somehow survived in their relationship. This
is again I keep saying this. It's the most diplomatic
way I can put it. This is non ideal finger.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Quotes fully agreed, ben non ideal. Jumping back here. Almost
all the Gulf states currently fearful of Iranian reprisals with
things like, you know, large missiles, not necessarily nukes, but
large scary missiles and other types other forms of asymmetrical warfare.
(49:15):
They've said that they're not willing to allow the US
to use their airspace or bases to mount any attack
on Iran. However, there is one base. There is one
base that is being used and will be used and
has been used by the United States to mount attacks,
and it's also been the target of Iran's attacks. Just
(49:35):
finish it off right here. Iranian officials said, quote, we
will target the same base and the same point from
which air operations against US are launched, and we will
not attack other countries because we do not consider them
to be enemy countries. We will increase our level of
defense readiness against the US military build up to the
highest level. If the Americans want negotiations without predetermined outcomes,
(49:57):
Iran will accept it. So jumping in a weird we're
doing a time warp thing here. When you're hearing this,
what day did we say it is?
Speaker 3 (50:10):
This will be Monday, February second.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
Okay, well, if we jump through time when you're hearing this,
I am currently in Doha, in Qatar. The bass that
is mentioned there within this story is about an hour
drive from the exact convention center where I will be,
which is making me not terrified, guys, that's not the
(50:35):
right word for it.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
Weary.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Yeah, there's an awareness of several different things that we're
about to get into. But the first one is we
know where attacks will happen, if they happen, if there
is a further escalation of this situation within the time
between when I'm saying these words and when you are
hearing them, which just makes me a little bit, I
(50:58):
don't know, weird. I feel weird about it.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Do we want to break that down really quickly? Why
I might be in Qatar? Can I? Can I bring
some stuff up really quickly just so everybody has an understanding.
Of course, you guys got an awesome opportunity to do
something last year. You know, we often we've been working
for this same kind of basic organization for a long
time that has had many owners over the years, and
(51:24):
one of those, one of those groups asks us to
go places sometimes, and you guys got to go to Qatar.
Why why were you sent there?
Speaker 3 (51:33):
There's a big tech conference called what is it called
Web Summit Quitar international type event, and we were Ben
and I were lucky enough to join some of our
other podcast colleagues and you know execs and folks that
work in various parts of our podcast network and run
(51:53):
some sessions, some kind of seminar type sessions with Middle
Eastern content creators where podcasting isn't as big as it
is over here. It's a little bit more of a
burgeoning kind of medium. And it was fascinating to be there,
and it was really great to meet a lot of
those folks, and it was an incredible experience and I'm
super super stoked that you get to have it this year. Matt.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
Well, I'm very excited to do it too, and I
only know about it because you guys got to do it.
And I'm going there with Jordan Runtalg and a Mere
Questlove Quest Love is going to be there too, So
we're we're going there. We are there now as you
hear this, and I don't know what if this last
thing I record with you guys. Yeah, it's gonna be fine, man,
(52:41):
I'm just thinking about that.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Anyway, that's the main story I wanted to talk about today, guys,
because it does feel as though the US and Iran
are finally going to get into some kind of thing,
because we've seen the current administration in the United States
uses this kind of major action to distract from things
like the Epstein files and US citizens being murdered by
federal agents in Minnesota. So we'll see.
Speaker 4 (53:10):
Yeah, there fell things in the wind, like the USS
Abraham Lincoln Carrier Group is a key asset.
Speaker 3 (53:19):
In the region.
Speaker 4 (53:21):
We know that this administration leans more on the sticks
rather than the carrots of diplomacy.
Speaker 3 (53:30):
And in some personal news.
Speaker 4 (53:34):
I've been trying to keep things on a positive note,
you guys, wish is luck. But in personal news, some
old friends in Iran who had gone dark for a
long time reached out and it's good news because they
are alive, Okay, and a couple of these folks I
(53:55):
thought they were dead. But it is also pretty staggering
to see or to hear from people who are not
getting bubbled by Western media, who are on the ground
talking to us directly and just to provide you. So
first off, Matt, Future Matt, I hope you're having a
(54:16):
great time in Doha and Cutter and I hope I
know things things are gonna be okay man.
Speaker 3 (54:24):
That's for future Matt.
Speaker 4 (54:25):
So we want to recommend us some places to check out.
If you're on Instagram, go to pages like Iran International English.
You can also check out pa Lavi Comms. That's p
A h l a v I CEO m ms. That
is the profile of the Crown Prince just for background
(54:48):
for other news. That's little more in the style of
our pal Jake's outfit popular front check out from long
Underscore Iran. Those are those are resources that will help.
Those are some of the things that will help you
get past sort of the info war of Western propaganda
(55:09):
as well as other countries propaganda and probably you know,
Iranian propaganda.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
So our thoughts are.
Speaker 4 (55:16):
With you, everybody involved, and hopefully we can, hopefully we
will see a de escalation. Hopefully the negotiations will work.
It's it's gonna be. It's dicey, though there's no other
way to say it.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
Frothy, it's very dicey, did you guys sign up for
the STEP program and some of the State Department stuff
to like get alerts and they are alerted if something happens.
Speaker 4 (55:42):
Yeah, I mean, if you're if the circumstances allow you
to sign up for State Department monitoring. I genuine I
generally say it's a very good idea no matter where
you're going.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
Okay, that's a good thing just to remember when you're
traveling in different places, especially now as an American.
Speaker 4 (56:03):
Did I tell you the old the old trick we
used to do in uh, Central Central America, which seems
like such a much more innocent time.
Speaker 3 (56:12):
That's not the case, but it's nostalgia, right. Uh.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
The trick was to sw a Canadian patch of a
Canadian flag onto your backpack. And it genuinely worked because
people who were anti us would be way less likely
to mess with you because they'd be like, Oh, he's
just you know, he's from Vancouver.
Speaker 3 (56:32):
I'm sure he's cool. Nice. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 2 (56:35):
That base, by the way, is the Alu Did Air
Base uh in Katar. So there we go, which is
being evacuated, by the way, isn't that fun some personnel?
Speaker 3 (56:48):
Yeah? Cool? Cool, cool, cool cool, cool cool.
Speaker 2 (56:51):
Do we have anything else we want to talk about
before we exit today?
Speaker 4 (56:54):
Yes, I've got some stuff, but as I said at
the first act of our weekly Strange New segment, we're
not going to be able to get to it.
Speaker 3 (57:02):
There was this great there is.
Speaker 4 (57:05):
A great conspiracy at play regarding the Maduro raid, or
a great series of conspiracies where in the current US
president referenced a secret weapon used to disable Venezuelan equipment
used a very fun doctor Sussian word. We're going to
(57:26):
have to talk about that one in the future. We've
got one other story we're going to drop at the
very very end here, so listen all the way to
the end. But for now, we'd love to hear your thoughts.
You can find us online along with all those other
pages that we've mentioned as resources for information. You can
(57:47):
call us on the phone, and you can always send
us an email.
Speaker 3 (57:51):
That's right. You can find us on the social media
platform of your choosing at either Conspiracy Stuff or Conspiracy
Stuff Show. You can also give us a call.
Speaker 2 (58:02):
Our number is one eight three three std WYTK.
Speaker 3 (58:07):
Give yourself a.
Speaker 2 (58:07):
Cool nickname and let us know if we can use
your name and message on the air. If you want
to send us an email, you can do that too.
Speaker 4 (58:13):
We are the entities the read each piece of correspondence
we receive before we continue this, folks, is the congratulations
were listening to the end of our weekly Strange news segment?
What are the stories we didn't get to? The Texas
citate is replacing official money, you know, the US currency
(58:34):
the people who live in the United States use all
the time they're creating. They want to create an alternative
currency for Texas, a streamlined digital currency directly linked to
gold and silver as legal tender.
Speaker 3 (58:50):
Oh sick, yeah, did see that? And I'm not gonna
lie ben another. The price of gold is that I
think up to five thousand dollars an ounce, And with
all the craziness going on in the markets, it did
occur to me that maybe cold is the better investment.
But that also sounds like crazy talk. I don't know,
and you don't want to buy it when I said
it's peak.
Speaker 4 (59:09):
So we've got to do a ridiculous history about the
old Wild West days of free banking, back when anybody could.
Speaker 3 (59:16):
Just set up a bank, right, you can flip a cooid.
Am I going to be the dentist in town, the
salute owner, or the banker.
Speaker 4 (59:24):
Several other states, including Louisiana and Oklahoma, have filed similar legislation.
Speaker 3 (59:30):
We are bulkanizing the currency. What a time to be alive.
Let's hang out. Hit us up for a random fact.
Speaker 4 (59:37):
Can't wait to hang out with you soon, Folks conspiracy
at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
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production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Is no They call me Ben.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
We're joined as always with our super producer Dylan the
Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you are here that makes
this these stuff they don't want you to know. Although
we are recording, we're well recording. On Wednesday, January twenty eighth.
This is publishing. Our weekly Strange news segment is publishing
(00:51):
on February second. So welcome to Monday, every body. Since
I'm just going to keep that, keep that slip of
the tongue for a few more.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Princess Ben, I love it. Thank you. It's funny you
did that. I've been talking that way all morning because
I have this ridiculous, tiny white dog wearing a little
pink bow princess outfit. So I've been talking like that myself.
So a man after my own heart. Oh thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
It might just be the might just be the radical
sleep deprivation, like the old creepy pasta about that.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Uh, what was that? When the Russian sleep experiment? Do
you guys remember that? Oh? I don't know about that.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Oh yeah, I'll send it to you.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It's it's a heck of a read. I've been enjoying
a lot of these memes where it's like, my sleep
paralysis demon is Guy Fieri? Stuff like that? You know, Yeah, yeah, exactly.
He's just he's just lurking in the background. But it's
anyone that can be kind of like identified by their silhouette.
It's just been become kind of a format. Cool.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Did you guys see the pretty good I'm pretty sure
it had to be Ai. But there was a recent
thing with a guy who had a birthday coming up
where apparently he posted a picture where he changed his
look entirely so that he looked like a real life
family guy. Cause player, let me see if I.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Can find amazing You think it was a I kind
of believed it, But boy, oh boy, I've mentioned this
how AI is really causing me to distrust just about everything?
But is it? Can we confirm him? Because it looked like, okay,
he looked like he just maybe shaved and put on
a square outfit and his hair different here.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Let me share the pictures so we can see it
in folks, you can look it up as well. Just say,
just go to your platform of choice and put Guy
Fieri new.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Look. There we go. I hope it's real. I want
it to be real. I hope it's real too. But
let let us know what you think.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
What am I on point when I say possible family
guy couse playing Peter Griffin a little?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I mean he's definitely yeah, giving that for sure.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Anyway, that's that's obviously that's the most important thing that's
happened in the past few weeks. Sorry, Minnesota, Iran, Texas,
AI psychedelics and plagues.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Kidding well, I've got a little quick story we could
just briefly mention here if you guys don't mind mil nuts.
Do you remember that thing called the Line out in
Saudi Arabia?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I was really hoping. I was.
I'm not being I'm not joking.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I was sincerely hoping that one would work out and
reach completion of some sort.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Is that like the secret? What is the line? I
don't know about it.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
The line is this massive one point five trillion dollar
project that got put in place to create basically a
horizontal skyscraper. Yeah, in but not just a skyscraper. Imagine
a skyscraper that's like hallowed out and then broken into
two parts, and then there's a river going down the
center of it.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yeah, it's like weird flex But okay, it's like it's
almost like Discworld or Rendezvous with Rama. It's that it
would be this a miniature internal biome. Right, it gets
really close to being like a biosphere. That was some
of the science there was really really interesting to all
of us.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
But or like the documentary Biodome with polychor yeah, but
in a line.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And in the it was across the desert.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Everybody was skeptical when it was initially being proposed, just
because of the scale and the ambition of the project.
But it was so ambitious that if even a portion
of it, a significant portion got realized, it would still
be a tremendous monumental literally a monumental achievement.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
But what's the update, man.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Okay, the update comes to us from futurism. Oh, an
article written by Christy Neome and eom different a k
R I S T I N e O M, which
is r EP or unfortunate but well, she's writing here
and saying, I'm just gonna read this. It turns out
(05:12):
it's not going great. The one hundred miles in length
line construction. It's just facing all kinds of right, it's
going way over cost already. It's not it looks like
it's not gonna happen. But they do appear to be shifting.
I'm gonna read directly from this. According to new reporting
from The Financial Times, the Saga may have yet one
more twist in store for us. The Saudi government is
(05:34):
now considering drastically downsizing Yeah, this linear city skyscraper, so
it can instead turn into a hub for we swear
we're not kidding data centers, right, AI data centers?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah, any more of those? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Well, I mean also, it's a some cause fallacy because
we've put I don't know why I'm saying we they've
put so much stuff, time and blood and treasure into
this that it would be a great loss of face
and money and it would be a great embarrassment if
they didn't do something.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Sometimes you gotta pivot, right.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
I've tried to remember the last member of our corporate
top brass who said that to us over the years,
there had to be someone.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Did we ever have a pivot conversation? Always, Yeah, you
gotta pivot, You got to You gotta be able to
read the room and pivot. I was listening to public
radio the other day. I haven't really been listening to
it very much lately, but for whatever reason, my phone
was dying, so I just listened to the radio and
there was a piece on Marketplace about data centers and
I heard the most icky corporate term I think I've
(06:40):
ever heard the CEO of this data center company. I
believe they're called like dig Digy Garage or something along
those lines. I'm not quite getting it right, but he
said that the industry was quote frothy.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, like people frothing at the mouth.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I think there's It's sort of like when the corporate
people say churn. But I think churn is bad, but crothe.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Is good, can be good, depending on the depending on
what is churning, right, investment churning.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Well, churn makes froth is what I know.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
And then the churn could be bad if it is, uh,
chaos sure could be bad if it means that you're
losing a lot of your top people constantly. Also can
refer to like a just art artsy language, kind of
dairy based, very dairy based.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yes, churn the butter, but churn can also just mean
like a chaotic situation where there's too much back and
forth and not enough is getting done. But these that's
the thing though, these corporate terms are very flexible and
kind of oddy. Sorry, I didn't mean to do it.
The data center thing reminded me of that.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah, and we know that there are a lot of
controversial centers around in the US and abroad. In one
of the kinds of centers that has a lot of
people worry and has been drawing a great deal of headlines.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
A great deal of a frankly horror.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Around the United States are what we call ice detention centers.
Maybe we take a break for a word from our
sponsors and get to that story which has been on
everybody's mind for a while now, and we have returned.
(08:27):
There's a thing that happens sometimes when we're working on
our weekly Strange news segment where there are stories we
don't get to and we try to save them, or
there are stories that are a small snapshot of a
much larger conversation. Right, the kind of thing that you
can't just chat with your pals about for fifteen minutes
(08:47):
and get to everything. And one of the things that
we have been like the rest of the world, in
the United States, one of the things that we have
been reading about and very concerned about for quite some
time are the activities of ice here in the United States,
specifically the detention centers. And guys, do we remember how
(09:13):
long ago it was now when the first big ice
detention center started hitting the news?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Is that alligator Alcatraz noe? That was just a weird
one in the middle there was.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
It was back in Portland, Oregon. I know, I think
in like twenty twenty two or something like that, where
there was that was the biggest you know, ice cerfuffle
that I can remember. But I don't know that that
was necessarily to do with detention centers.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
What do you got back, Well this, Yeah, we know
that those centers are some kind of detention center or
immigration center. Has been around in one form or another
since the eighteen nineties or so. When I think when
we're talking about the detention centers now nowadays, the ice
detention centers, we're talking about a very specific kind of
(10:04):
modern phenomena, and one headline that came out from a
report from the ACLU. But way back in twenty eighteen,
this was first reported that made headlines. Again, ICE detention
centers have said they're not responsible for the staff's sexual
(10:25):
abuse of detainees. That has been a precedent set for
years now.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, yeah, and I mean yeah, and now with the
net being cast so much more widely, I think that
is it's horrific in any way, shape or form. But
now it's like people that absolutely shouldn't be there in
any fashion are there, and just by virtue of getting
rolled up, you may well find yourself there for weeks
(10:53):
and months before you're even processed, and have things happen
to you that are beyond description.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Yeah this, I mean in a lack of accountability, terrible
things can occur. That's why oversight is so important. And
that's why even in the most cinematic episodes we've done
on things like the OSS or secret government programs, we
do have to have that three boring guys moment where
(11:23):
we say, hey, also, you know, you should be accountable
for stuff. And then that's why you shouldn't just dose
unsuspecting American citizens with massive amounts of LSD just cuz
you know.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, or you know incarcear eight one hundred and twenty
thousand Japanese US citizens because there's a war going.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Right right, and it seems like what we're describing here
taking on a certain level is tantamount to institutionalized sexual assaults.
If it's you're getting a pass. There's almost this inherent like,
you know, do do your damn dist you know, do
whatever you want because we're not going to hold you accountable,
which seems to me like war crimes.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
And this brings us to this brings us to our
more recent headline. Just yesterday in the United States January
twenty seventh, twenty twenty six, Daniel Viarel, writing for the
LGBTQ Nation, has reported that at least twenty ice and
(12:25):
CBP officials have been charged with sex crimes against children.
CBP being Customs of Border Patrol, obviously ICE, immigration and
customs of Enforcement. This comes to us via a list
published by the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. And it looks like
(12:46):
it looks like this is just the tip of an iceberg.
Because we've all heard, you know, jokes on late night
talk shows. The snarky internet efemera wad about how the
bar for admittance into ICE like joining up with ICE,
(13:08):
it's not a very high bar.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I saw a video of a left wing reporter who
has a little experiment submitted an application for ICE to
become a you know whatever, a deportation agents. There's a
name for the position that she applied for, and it
is one of the lower tier positions that still pays
quite well. We'll get to maybe about the bonus stuff
(13:32):
in a little bit, but she said that she went
in for a like a seven minute interview and felt
like they were definitely going to google her. She had
a very googleble name and a background that would you know,
let them know that she was clearly doing a bit
of a you know, a test or doing something for
purposes of reporting, and so she didn't really think anything
of it, and then realized that an email had been
buried in her inbox that was a packet dev of
(13:56):
documents to fill out in order to get the job
that she had based got an offer letter. Then she
didn't fill out those things. I think she did do
a drug test, and then she looked in the portal,
the hiring portal, saw that she was officially hired and
they had not processed her background check, nor had she
signed an affidavit saying that she was not had not
been charged or under a suspicion of domestic violence. So
(14:20):
the implication there is that that's happening across the board,
which means that we've got a lot of potential violent
people that are not being vetted properly, that are out
there just you know, doing their worst.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Yeah, and this is that's a that's a great example,
that's a great snapstright here. It's part of ICE's one
hundred million dollar effort to attract new recruits. They're sending
GEO targeted advertisements directly to people's mobile phones if they're
located near mixed martial arts fights, shout out to a
(14:53):
few of US NASCAR races, gun shows. Again, this is
per the journalist Daniel. We also know that with this
massive influx or this attempt, this initiative to hire so
many people, they are losing quality control of candidates. Members
of this list that we mentioned to have been charged
(15:15):
with sex crimes have also been charged with other stuff,
things like sexual assault at gunpoint, child sex trafficking, aggravated assault, robbery, torture, kidnapping,
possession and production of CSAM. It gets dark really quickly.
People might say this is a hit piece, or people
(15:38):
might say this is trying to spin the situation worse
than it actually is. But I would argue, if even
even a portion of that stuff is true, then that
makes very real concerns. You know, they're also let's not
even we won't have time to talk about the people
who are claiming to be Ice in playing clothes right
(16:00):
with no real identification, but strapped up and demanding that
people go with them to be transported to a center.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
This is non ideal. I remember when this stuff first
came out, like in the fact that they were masked
and all of that, that was a big concern that
was raised. Is anybody a bad actor wanting to do
a kidnapping, wanting to do a robbery, can just say
that they're Ice in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles and
(16:31):
just do what they do, whatever they want, and that
there's so much fear now that that is absolutely on
the table. And thankfully there's people out there, you know,
watching and filming, and of course you know, we already
have two people, Renee Good and Alex Pretty who have
lost their lives doing this very thing, you know, trying
to hold these individuals, this paramilitary force accountable. And that
(16:56):
is those.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Are two specific example of a larger pattern of innocent
people dying with state due to state sponsored violence. We're
also going to see, as we can tell with the
with the reactions of the current administration. And look, I
know this is a political point, and I usually avoid these,
(17:20):
but this, I think it's a humane point for me.
That yeah, yeah, humanist and political. I think it is
ethical necessary to point out that this is bolk, this
is non ideal. There's not a fig lee for an
alive branch involved or figuely for the administration to hide
(17:41):
behind and or in all of branch for the administration
to extend. We're getting very close. We're no, forget it,
We're not getting close to Orwellian double speak. We're in
or an Orwellian environment now with official statements that incorporate
AI that clearly ignore hard concrete evidence. They tell you
(18:06):
not to believe what happened, but to buy some sort
of flim flam story. And hopefully we as Americans and
we as a civilization are better than that. I'm going
to get off the soapbox. This is concerning, but also
there are members of There are members not just of
the public, but of the political class and the and
(18:28):
you know, the legal boffins who are utilizing the mechanisms
of the courts and of governance to try and write
the ship. And some of this is happening at your
local and state level.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
One hundred percent. And Ben, just last thing for me,
on to your point about the Orwellian stuff, the idea
of running investigations into these events internally, it's just beyond
absurd not to mention this notion, and that the administration
is going to wait for the facts to come out,
(19:03):
and yet leading with casting these people as domestic terrorists
in instant rhetoric before any investigation. That's just counterintuitive and
complete double speak. And what you're saying about not believing
the evidence of your eyes and ears, yeah, I hear you.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Man.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
I try again. I try so ardently not to put
in like my own unqualified personal opinion, but this one
is just this is not going to end well.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I agree, And I wonder if you guys are seeing
the same thing. We've mentioned it before a lot on
this show. But it's the old thing that Bill Hicks
warned us about the US government basically sliding a gun
over towards you and saying, go ahead, pick up the gun.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Sure, pick it up, Smoke them if you got.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Daring, daring some kind of some kind of pushback or
you know, during some kind of violent response.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
That's what I'm thinking, man.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
It's an attempt to It's an attempt to push whether
through agent provocateurs check out our episode on that, or
whether through rationalized violence.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Right.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
It's an attempt to push for causes belly right, a
reason to go to war, an attempt to make some
kind of flimsy rhetorical support for inciting the Insurrection Act, right,
and therefore holding off on midterm elections. But folks, the
(20:40):
elections are supposed to happen. That is something everybody is
supposed to agree on. If the United States could carry
out elections during the literal Civil War, then it should
still have. There's no reason to stop elections other than
to purposefully attack democracy.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
You guys, do you've been no? You do see that coming, right?
The push to completely just hold off those elections like it's.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Or to further the terror that is being instilled in
folks in some of these blue states and potentially have
ice patrolling nearby polling places. Yeah, so that people stay
home and don't vote. I mean it's it ain't for
nothing that these are blue states that they're you know, targeting,
that'll be part of it.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
Yeah, that's a good point, because like the idea then becomes,
you know, we've got people or we've got ice or
some sort of other ice esque thing patrolling polling points
for your safety. But then some kind of violence occurs
at these polling stations, maybe key polling stations in certain districts. Right,
(21:51):
and because that violence occurs, now the polling station has
to be shut down for public.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
It's an active crime stity, right and certain.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yeah, we'll count the votes later after we kick the
can over to the right friendly courts, and when those
courts get the decision, then it'll be something. It could
be irrationale similar to the debacle in Florida.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Right back between what was it Gore hanging Chad, Sit
hang Chad.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Cool name for a dumb idea, but I like everything
is precedent. I feel like it keeps saying that anyway. Sorry, sorry, Just.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Lastly, while we're on this, the postmark rules have changed.
As of January of this year, and no longer is
a piece of US mail postmarked when you hand it
in to be mailed. It is postmarked when it is processed,
which can take several days beyond that. So vote in
ballots have the potential if people didn't get the memo
on that, to not be counted as well. So just
(22:50):
educate yourself know about that. That's all I'm saying. I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to continue better. I think that's an
important piece of information.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
I just I just want us to send up the
signal to you listening right now. We don't can't. We
don't know things about the future, right We're just analyzing
news stories and looking at the past and seeing what
could happen given all of these variables.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
We don't know anything more than anyone else. But we
are seeing stories like this simple, very quick story that
came out of ABC KCR channel seven on January twenty third.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
It is.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Someone Charlotte Hazard, writing about the words of Attorney General
Chris Mays out of Arizona, making a pretty pretty simple
statement about the rights of citizens US citizens who live
in Arizona, and just putting out there that this is
a stand your ground state and saying that residents could
(23:54):
fire upon ICE agents if they are masked and if
that individual that civilian feels there danger and it is
because of those laws, those state laws on self defense,
which which is pretty terrifying to imagine that you could
have a situation where, let's say, ICE agents are pretending
to be public utility workers as they have done in
(24:14):
the past, and it was reported on very recently in
the news, where where individuals agents pretend to be public
utility workers gain access to a home and then raid
that home in a place like Arizona or oh, I
don't know, Georgia, a bunch of places around here. If
masked agents enter your home and they do not have
(24:35):
anything visible on them stating that they're agents, they are
not saying that they're agents. Even if they are saying that,
and you are fearful of your life, the state law
then goes directly up against whatever you know, federal statutes
and laws are put out there by the administration.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
And civil war stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
That's powder, Yeah, that's exactly what I think we are
just trying to put out there to everyone just to
be away that this is occurring and it doesn't feel
like this is just accidentally happening.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Absolutely right, Yeah, absolutely not. I appreciate that. I also
want to again, everything is precedent. We want to tell
you all signs indicate that stuff like this will continue occurring. Right,
this is not These are not little lips, right, like
(25:25):
little drops of oil from a deep fryer if you
work in the kitchen. Sorry, I skipped lunch or I
skipped whatever time it's I'm supposed to eat, But it is.
Here's another example of precedent, the idea of these hotels
that are refusing to house ice operatives or take their
(25:46):
business their custom.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Could we say.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
This goes back to the Quartering Act of seventeen sixty
five and seventeen seventy four, back when the absolutely back
when the Brits would require us, well, that will require
people living in the colonies to house the soldiers.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Again.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Look, I think it's fine that we went long on
this part of our weekly Strange News segment. There are
two other awesome stories are unrelated, that I really want
us to get to later.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
So how about this.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Tune in at the very end of our show today
and we'll give you We'll give you one of those,
but for now. We can't wait to hear from you
with your thoughts. Be safe out there, how your loved
ones drop us an email conspiracy dieheartradio dot com. We're
gonna pause for word from our sponsors and let's get
to something completely different that I'm really excited about one
(26:45):
of these.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
And we're back. And you know, I've never fancied myself
a writer, per se. I work in public media, having
to you know, file stories and things, audio stories, and
I would ocasionally have to write a headline. But I'm
proud of this one. I made this one up, guys.
Flesh eating fly infestation heading for us further proof these
are the end times? Well done? Yeah yeah. The CDC
(27:16):
is warning doctors to look for the symptoms brought on
by an organism called the screw worm, because we are
all screwed doctors. This is from a piece from the
Hill Are on Alert as a dangerous, potentially deadly parasite.
The New World screwworm inches its way close to the
(27:37):
United States album name. That's an album name for sure,
New World screw the New World screw Worm. It's a
bit of a mouthful tool. Dead On Ben dead On,
the screw worm has moved into the Mexican state of
Tomi leap Us, which is just across the border from Texas.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issue to health
alert this week, notifying clinicians and public experts to look
(27:58):
for signs of the parasite its presence and guys, this
is a bad boy. They lay their eggs in wounds, noses, eyes,
mouths ears, and the eggs then develop into parasitic larvae
or maggots that feed on the surrounding flesh as they
(28:19):
burrow their way deeper and deeper into your body. Do
you remember the first time we talked about these guys.
I don't. This is new to me. We talked about
so much, like kind of spaced on it if we did.
But cattle, they are a big problem for lifestyle.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
It's our dairy and gap episode because in twenty twenty two,
so for a long time, the give it to us
to get the new world screw worm right. The dairy
and gap function is a fire break. So the cattle
that were infected, the people that were infected honestly as well,
(28:54):
couldn't get through that mess of Central America. But I
believe since two that natural barriers no longer worked, so
the plague is on the way.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Right, And just to go off topic really quickly, if
anyone hasn't seen the Apple TV Vince Gilligan show Pluribus
there it's excellent. I think we all love it. But
there is an episode that is all about the dairying
gap and involves a traversal of the dairying gap showing
just exactly how inhospitable and dangerous that very unsettled. You know,
(29:29):
part of the world is so out that you're interested just.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Bringing up the dairying gap because in that episode and
then in scientific literature, the boffins have been warning people
about this plague as we're calling it, for.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
A long time. You got to listen to the nerds man.
There's a reason you do nerds well. And speaking of
the plague of it all, let's just go quickly through
some of the symptoms. We're talking visible larvae or egg masses,
which might be wounds, ears, eyes, nos mouths, or another
body orifice, destruction of healthy tissue, people reporting a sensation
(30:05):
of movement in a wound or orifice, foul odor, bloody discharge,
swelling or pain around a wound or orifice and look
out for folks who have recently traveled to areas where
the screwworm is present, like Mexico and Central America. CDC's
advising the clinicians remove all the eggs and larvae from
(30:26):
the person's body, which may require surgery if the maggots
have burrowed deep enough.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Hey, this sounds like a call for more ivermectin. Remember
that old fella ivermectin.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Wasn't that like a horse dewormer or something like that.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Or it's an anti parasite, that parasitic treatment, famous for
its COVID nineteen ure through it.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Around for a little bit.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
This basically injectable ASP cures everything that ails you. So
it is not medical advice, and we are not doctors.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
No, don't take tilent all, but also take enough aspirin
that you can blame that on your rotting flesh. And
have you noticed Dud's wearing one glove now? Oh, yeah,
the press he's wearing one glove over the hands, probably
because of the yeah that's what I'm saying. Like he's
wearing wal blow also, which is some doctor evil type stuff.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Also, folks, friends, neighbors, fili conspiracy, realists. The one of
the reasons that we've been keeping an even closer eye
on public health concerns like outbreaks of measles or infestations
things of that nature is due to the massive cartoonish
(31:45):
cutting of science funding and cutting of funding to things
like the CDC and the other institutions that normally would
handle this. We're also talking off air rewatching the digital Ghostbusters.
Uh do you guys remember that the bad boogieyman in
(32:07):
Ghostbusters one? Uh, the secondary antagonist is the EPA.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Is the regularly mean guy. Yeah, right, is he's in
charge shutting down their ghost container unit. That's right, that's
I totally forgot that the EPA with the big bad
that's pretty funny. Ben, this is code, yeah, to shut
it down.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
But just trying to find some levity here. But I
think that to the point here that we're discussing, it's frightening.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
It's frightening that we're now in a situation in twenty
twenty six where the New World screw worm could finally
succeed in its multi generational scheme to infest the United States,
and we're literally asleep at the switch. We got rid
of the people who could fight it. It's like, oh,
(33:03):
World War two, scubby, let's get rid of the air Force.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Not great. We're gonna pivot, as we talked about earlier,
to another science story that is a little more whimsical.
Let's just say, unless you're an unsuspecting participant in this
particular kind of whimsy. The BBC headline from Rachel Newer
says this they saw them on their dishes when eating
(33:29):
the mushroom, making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans. This
is in China, and I can't help but get some
similarities with the incredible adult swim show Common Side Effects,
which is about this cure all mushroom that is discovered
(33:51):
in the Amazon by the main protagonist of the show,
whose name is Escaping Me. But he's like a mycologist
studies mushrooms and it causes people to hallucinate these little, tiny,
psychedelic kind of machine elve type creatures little humans. Yeah,
I couldn't help but think about that. Let's go to
(34:11):
the piece here from the BBC. And then there's another
great piece on Vice that I'll pull from as well.
Only recently described by science, the mysterious mushrooms are found
in different parts of the world, but they give people
the same exact vision. That's so crazy wild to me.
It points to something there, It points to a barrier,
(34:34):
some sort of cosmic barrier being breached. And maybe I'm
being hyperbolic there, but that commonality is so fascinating, and
it's the kind of when I talked about machine elves.
It's the kind of stuff that people report from DMT trips,
seeing these little creatures that are like, you know, manipulating
the fabric of time space. Going back to the BBC,
(34:56):
every year, doctor's at a hospital in the Yunnan province
of China and embrace themselves for an influx of people
with an unusual complaint. It's been going on for a minute.
The patients come with a strikingly odd symptom, visions of
pint sized elf like figures marching underdoors, crawling up walls,
and clinging to furniture. The hospital treats hundreds of these
(35:19):
cases every year. All share a common culprit. Lan Moa
asiatica asiatica a type of mushroom that forms symbiotic relationships
with pine trees in nearby forests, and is a locally
popular food known for its savory umami packed flavor. It's
sold in markets and often appears on restaurant menus and
(35:40):
is served at home during foraging season, which is between
June and August. However, it is the kind of thing
much like the fugufish, you know that you have to
prepare very specifically in order not to ingest the toxin
that it contains with it. Right, that I hadn't read,
(36:01):
but I don't doubt that that's true. Ben. At a
mushroom hot pot restaurant there, the server set a timer
for fifteen minutes and warned ust don't eat it until
the timer goes off, or you might see little people.
That's from a doctoral candidate in biology at the University
of Utah and the Natural History Museum of Utah named
Colin Domnauer, who is studying this particular fungus. He says,
(36:26):
it seems like a very common knowledge in the culture there.
There were many accounts about the existence of the psychedelic
mushroom and many people who looked for it, but they
never found the species. This is from a mycologist named
Jiuliana Furkey, the founder and executive director of the Fungi Foundation,
which is a nonprofit dedicated to discovering new species and
(36:48):
different uses and conserving fung Guy, this is very much
like the character I was describing in Common side Effects.
I can't recommend that enough. Yeah, I don't know, guys,
I had not heard about this. Apparently it was maybe
common knowledge in the region, but has only recently kind
of made its way over here. I mean, it's been
(37:09):
described as far back as nineteen ninety one in a
paper where two researchers from a Chinese Academy of Science
described cases of people specifically in that region, the Unn province,
who'd eating a certain mushroom and experience what they referred
to as Liliputian hallucinations, which is all which is in
fact it's a psychiatric term. Yeah, I didn't know that.
(37:29):
Beened fantastic the perception of tiny human animal or fantasy figures,
so named, of course after the little creatures, the little
people from Gulliver's Travels who inhabit lily Put Islands.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
You know how you get amber alerts in some parts
of the US if there's like a missing child or
someone gets kidnapped. This part of China apparently has something
like an amber alert for these mushrooms. They have mushroom
alerts during mushroom season. They send messages to locals on
their on their cell phone say watch out, don't get
(38:04):
poisoned by this mushroom. I think Fugu is a great
comparison you've made there. And I was also astonished man
to learn that lil of pudding hallucinations are indeed a genre.
It also calls to mind the the what is it?
The commonality of the type of hallucination upon consumption of
(38:25):
these mushrooms definitely calls to mind the work of Graham Hancock.
I loved when we were doing Graham Hancock.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
He's the omnivorous dilemma.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
He's the guy who, among many other things, and not
everybody agrees with him. Definitely not mainstream science, but he's
one of the guys. Palin on the Red tell Us
about Graham, So Michael Paulin is Omnivore's dilemma. Graham Hancock
wrote a bunch of books as well. He talks a
lot about machine ls and the commonality of certain hallucinations
(38:56):
like d MT or I think EBA gain as well.
But he's the guy who said, maybe our junk DNA
contains ancient messages from aliens that get activated upon consumption
of d MT or ingestion of mushrooms like these psychedelics.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
So yeah, it definitely makes me think of some sort
of breach of whether it be a cosmic something or
something within ourselves. And I know I'm sounding a little
wooo about that, and I don't get woo about much,
but sometimes psychedelic experiences cause me to go there, especially
with mushrooms, as we know, they're the closest thing to frickin'
aliens that we know about in the way they communicate
(39:37):
with one another. Apparently this also reminds me of the
work of Terrence McKenna. But Matt, I could see that
the I can see the machine elves working in your
mind right now.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
We're no, I want to know what are these things wearing? Well,
you know what I mean, Like, what do they look like?
Do they have human heads and faces? Do they have
hands and fingers? Or do they have pants?
Speaker 4 (40:00):
It seems like, yeah, it seems like they're humanoid like
human shape, but I haven't seen specifics that say like
they're known for their nazzy turtlenecks and their leather breakers.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
I've been looking. I've been looking everywhere for you know,
a more full description, right, just somebody who's giving you
exactly what visually you are seeing when let's say on
your plate and the artists rendering, well, yeah, what is
the perspective like if you move your head over your plate,
does the perspective of that little humanoid change as though
(40:39):
it's there in real time?
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Out?
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Oh god, I can't, man, my brain can't handle it.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Legal to consume this, by the way, yeah, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Oh okay, Well that does not change the way.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Your brain will react, Matt, because it's a psychedelic It
might because consuming an illegal thing.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
If that triggers some fear mechanisms in you, they can
share give you setting. So maybe this helps make it
feel a little bit more likely to be a good trip.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Weirdly, we have evidence of something very similar to this
as far back as the nineteen sixties in Papua New
Guinea and in some other parts of that region. But
it is not psilocybin, lest you were wondering, and the
hallucinations can take twelve to twenty four hours to begin
and can last for a very long time. So it's
(41:31):
also not DMT because as we know, DMC hits you
instantly and does not last very long at all, So
don't have what are those these edibles? Eight moments? No, No,
you can always take more, you can take it less. Yeah,
it says the trip can last so long that it's
impractical as a recreational drug, which is why no culture
seems to use the mushroom intentionally as a psychedelic.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Man, I'm trying to imagine doing research or something while
you've got a little little humanidid's running across the monitor,
you know.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Check out the work of Terrence McKenna, the God God
Molecule as I think a book of his, where he
spends a lot of time in the Amazon and in
deep jungle climates or trains experimenting with d m T
and these like frogs that produce that substance from their skin,
and he approaches it very scientifically. But he's also trip
(42:24):
and balls a lot. So it's a fascinating intersection between
science and spiritualists.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
Yeah, and also check out David J. Brown, author of
the Illustrated Field Guide to d MT Entities. Can't say
I can't say enough about how interesting Graham Hancock is.
We can tell you though, that researching under the influence
(42:49):
of eddie substance can affect the nature of your research,
like coffee right or like adderall for instance, And you know,
and diplomatically put research on psychedelics will lead you to
some very interesting research. The problem is going to be
focus because you may come back down to earth in
(43:10):
several hours and realize that you have written an amazing
twenty page paper that is absolutely not about the thing
you were supposed to be writing about.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Totally. Yeah, if anyone's ever tried to take psychedelics and
like do something creative results very widely. You know, certain
individuals like Jimi Hendrix's and Grateful Deaths of the World
were super good at that and very interested and the effects.
But then there are others that it is just going
to cause them to flail.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
Yeah, and many And then we also have to ask ourselves,
without waxing philosophical about the nature of creativity in the
way of the artists. We have to ask ourselves those
people seem like they excelled on psychedelics because that's the case,
or where we just see what they did despite intoxication.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
You know, that's a good point. The chicken or the
egg kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
Yeah, like Manary Keenan from Tool, said, you could do
the drugs once, but the rest of it is trying
to get to that state without.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Them, because I just guessed it on that more like
Ancient Aliens show, and we had a whole discussion about
genius because there was an apparently an Ancient Aliens episode
in season nine about genius and how it might be
a divine inspiration, only not divinity, aliens and the concept
of creativity and where does that come from? Right, because
(44:32):
often often what people are looking for when you're going
to use hallucinogens or another drug to you know, do
something creative, it is to get that creative spark, right,
that thing that might come from outside of us somehow,
or at least happen internally. But we don't really understand
the mechanisms of all of that signals going across the
corpus colosum. What do you think, guys, maybe aliens?
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Well, I said, I think mushrooms are aliens. I truly
believe that's something to that effect, and that the way
they unlock some of that stuff within us or introduce
it from you know, without it is fascinating to me.
And I don't know how it works, but it's it's
wild stuff.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Do we start from that stuff?
Speaker 3 (45:14):
I don't know. There you go, yeah, well that's that's
sort of one of the uh the god molecule is
a sort of an argument that makes that it's some
sort of like primordial substance. That's all I got for today, y'all.
When do we take a quick break and hear a
word from our sponsor, and then we'll return with our
last strange news segment.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Welcome back. It's eighty five seconds to midnight. Don't worry
about that. It's just the thing the bulletin of the
atomic scientists like to do. They mean, well, yeah, why
is it.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Never like mid afternoon? Guys? Start the bar lower?
Speaker 3 (45:52):
But I guess that.
Speaker 4 (45:53):
I guess honestly if it was one am, it would
be a pre nuclear civilization, which would be in worldwick.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
Whatever goes happened, all right, never never buy.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
So it's all good. Speaking of eighty five seconds to midnight,
let's jump to the Guardian and here's something that Patrick
Wintour wrote on Wednesday, January twenty eighth. Threat of US
Iran war escalates as the US President Warren's time is
running out for a deal I'm gonna read verbatim from
a little bit of this, you guys. It's kind of boring,
(46:26):
but it is kind of important. Here we go, the
threat of a US Iranian war maybe looming closer after
the US President Warren time was running out for Tehran
and said a massive US armada was moving quickly towards
the country quote with a great power, enthusiasm, and purpose unquote.
Some we'll see the sudden ramping up of the threat
as a useful piece of distraction at a time when
(46:48):
the US government is under domestic political pressure over the
violence administered by Homeland security officers in Minnesota. As we
have talked about, yes, Iran's foreign minister said he was
not prepared to negotiate under threats, but he was willing
to talk without preconditions, terms that he had relayed to
numerous intermediaries to US Special Envoy Steve Whitcoff, Iran has
(47:12):
reportedly been using its diplomatic channels to speak with Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
and Egypt, and all three of these states were very
critical in persuading the US President to hold back from
mounting an attack three weeks ago. You know, as of
the writing on January twenty eighth. Sorry, I'm just holding
(47:33):
back some emotions right now, some feelings, getting some deep
feelings about this. There's currently a deep suspicion in Tehran
about talking to the US since the two sides were
in the middle of talks last June when Israel was
given clearance by the US to mount an attack on
Iran designed to decapitate its leadership and destroy its civil
nuclear sites. You'll remember the Big kerfuffle, the Big to
(47:56):
do that was made about the bunker Busters and how
they allegedly destroyed a bunch of infrastructure on Iran's largest
enrichment site, although perhaps they didn't do any damage at all.
We don't know. Well.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
Also, we'll also recall, of course, the historic role the
United States and the United Kingdom have played in sowing
chaos in Iran throughout history, throughout recent history. And then
we can't forget the nuclear deal that was made under
one administration and seemed to propose an imperfect path forward
(48:32):
to lowering the temperature in the region, only for the
US to renege on the deal and instantly erase whatever
trace of goodwill had somehow survived in their relationship. This
is again I keep saying this. It's the most diplomatic
way I can put it. This is non ideal finger.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Quotes fully agreed, ben non ideal. Jumping back here. Almost
all the Gulf states currently fearful of Iranian reprisals with
things like, you know, large missiles, not necessarily nukes, but
large scary missiles and other types other forms of asymmetrical warfare.
(49:15):
They've said that they're not willing to allow the US
to use their airspace or bases to mount any attack
on Iran. However, there is one base. There is one
base that is being used and will be used and
has been used by the United States to mount attacks,
and it's also been the target of Iran's attacks. Just
(49:35):
finish it off right here. Iranian officials said, quote, we
will target the same base and the same point from
which air operations against US are launched, and we will
not attack other countries because we do not consider them
to be enemy countries. We will increase our level of
defense readiness against the US military build up to the
highest level. If the Americans want negotiations without predetermined outcomes,
(49:57):
Iran will accept it. So jumping in a weird we're
doing a time warp thing here. When you're hearing this,
what day did we say it is?
Speaker 3 (50:10):
This will be Monday, February second.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
Okay, well, if we jump through time when you're hearing this,
I am currently in Doha, in Qatar. The bass that
is mentioned there within this story is about an hour
drive from the exact convention center where I will be,
which is making me not terrified, guys, that's not the
(50:35):
right word for it.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
Weary.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Yeah, there's an awareness of several different things that we're
about to get into. But the first one is we
know where attacks will happen, if they happen, if there
is a further escalation of this situation within the time
between when I'm saying these words and when you are
hearing them, which just makes me a little bit, I
(50:58):
don't know, weird. I feel weird about it.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Do we want to break that down really quickly? Why
I might be in Qatar? Can I? Can I bring
some stuff up really quickly just so everybody has an understanding.
Of course, you guys got an awesome opportunity to do
something last year. You know, we often we've been working
for this same kind of basic organization for a long
time that has had many owners over the years, and
(51:24):
one of those, one of those groups asks us to
go places sometimes, and you guys got to go to Qatar.
Why why were you sent there?
Speaker 3 (51:33):
There's a big tech conference called what is it called
Web Summit Quitar international type event, and we were Ben
and I were lucky enough to join some of our
other podcast colleagues and you know execs and folks that
work in various parts of our podcast network and run
(51:53):
some sessions, some kind of seminar type sessions with Middle
Eastern content creators where podcasting isn't as big as it
is over here. It's a little bit more of a
burgeoning kind of medium. And it was fascinating to be there,
and it was really great to meet a lot of
those folks, and it was an incredible experience and I'm
super super stoked that you get to have it this year. Matt.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
Well, I'm very excited to do it too, and I
only know about it because you guys got to do it.
And I'm going there with Jordan Runtalg and a Mere
Questlove Quest Love is going to be there too, So
we're we're going there. We are there now as you
hear this, and I don't know what if this last
thing I record with you guys. Yeah, it's gonna be fine, man,
(52:41):
I'm just thinking about that.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Anyway, that's the main story I wanted to talk about today, guys,
because it does feel as though the US and Iran
are finally going to get into some kind of thing,
because we've seen the current administration in the United States
uses this kind of major action to distract from things
like the Epstein files and US citizens being murdered by
federal agents in Minnesota. So we'll see.
Speaker 4 (53:10):
Yeah, there fell things in the wind, like the USS
Abraham Lincoln Carrier Group is a key asset.
Speaker 3 (53:19):
In the region.
Speaker 4 (53:21):
We know that this administration leans more on the sticks
rather than the carrots of diplomacy.
Speaker 3 (53:30):
And in some personal news.
Speaker 4 (53:34):
I've been trying to keep things on a positive note,
you guys, wish is luck. But in personal news, some
old friends in Iran who had gone dark for a
long time reached out and it's good news because they
are alive, Okay, and a couple of these folks I
(53:55):
thought they were dead. But it is also pretty staggering
to see or to hear from people who are not
getting bubbled by Western media, who are on the ground
talking to us directly and just to provide you. So
first off, Matt, Future Matt, I hope you're having a
(54:16):
great time in Doha and Cutter and I hope I
know things things are gonna be okay man.
Speaker 3 (54:24):
That's for future Matt.
Speaker 4 (54:25):
So we want to recommend us some places to check out.
If you're on Instagram, go to pages like Iran International English.
You can also check out pa Lavi Comms. That's p
A h l a v I CEO m ms. That
is the profile of the Crown Prince just for background
(54:48):
for other news. That's little more in the style of
our pal Jake's outfit popular front check out from long
Underscore Iran. Those are those are resources that will help.
Those are some of the things that will help you
get past sort of the info war of Western propaganda
(55:09):
as well as other countries propaganda and probably you know,
Iranian propaganda.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
So our thoughts are.
Speaker 4 (55:16):
With you, everybody involved, and hopefully we can, hopefully we
will see a de escalation. Hopefully the negotiations will work.
It's it's gonna be. It's dicey, though there's no other
way to say it.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
Frothy, it's very dicey, did you guys sign up for
the STEP program and some of the State Department stuff
to like get alerts and they are alerted if something happens.
Speaker 4 (55:42):
Yeah, I mean, if you're if the circumstances allow you
to sign up for State Department monitoring. I genuine I
generally say it's a very good idea no matter where
you're going.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
Okay, that's a good thing just to remember when you're
traveling in different places, especially now as an American.
Speaker 4 (56:03):
Did I tell you the old the old trick we
used to do in uh, Central Central America, which seems
like such a much more innocent time.
Speaker 3 (56:12):
That's not the case, but it's nostalgia, right. Uh.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
The trick was to sw a Canadian patch of a
Canadian flag onto your backpack. And it genuinely worked because
people who were anti us would be way less likely
to mess with you because they'd be like, Oh, he's
just you know, he's from Vancouver.
Speaker 3 (56:32):
I'm sure he's cool. Nice. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 2 (56:35):
That base, by the way, is the Alu Did Air
Base uh in Katar. So there we go, which is
being evacuated, by the way, isn't that fun some personnel?
Speaker 3 (56:48):
Yeah? Cool? Cool, cool, cool cool, cool cool.
Speaker 2 (56:51):
Do we have anything else we want to talk about
before we exit today?
Speaker 4 (56:54):
Yes, I've got some stuff, but as I said at
the first act of our weekly Strange New segment, we're
not going to be able to get to it.
Speaker 3 (57:02):
There was this great there is.
Speaker 4 (57:05):
A great conspiracy at play regarding the Maduro raid, or
a great series of conspiracies where in the current US
president referenced a secret weapon used to disable Venezuelan equipment
used a very fun doctor Sussian word. We're going to
(57:26):
have to talk about that one in the future. We've
got one other story we're going to drop at the
very very end here, so listen all the way to
the end. But for now, we'd love to hear your thoughts.
You can find us online along with all those other
pages that we've mentioned as resources for information. You can
(57:47):
call us on the phone, and you can always send
us an email.
Speaker 3 (57:51):
That's right. You can find us on the social media
platform of your choosing at either Conspiracy Stuff or Conspiracy
Stuff Show. You can also give us a call.
Speaker 2 (58:02):
Our number is one eight three three std WYTK.
Speaker 3 (58:07):
Give yourself a.
Speaker 2 (58:07):
Cool nickname and let us know if we can use
your name and message on the air. If you want
to send us an email, you can do that too.
Speaker 4 (58:13):
We are the entities the read each piece of correspondence
we receive before we continue this, folks, is the congratulations
were listening to the end of our weekly Strange news segment?
What are the stories we didn't get to? The Texas
citate is replacing official money, you know, the US currency
(58:34):
the people who live in the United States use all
the time they're creating. They want to create an alternative
currency for Texas, a streamlined digital currency directly linked to
gold and silver as legal tender.
Speaker 3 (58:50):
Oh sick, yeah, did see that? And I'm not gonna
lie ben another. The price of gold is that I
think up to five thousand dollars an ounce, And with
all the craziness going on in the markets, it did
occur to me that maybe cold is the better investment.
But that also sounds like crazy talk. I don't know,
and you don't want to buy it when I said
it's peak.
Speaker 4 (59:09):
So we've got to do a ridiculous history about the
old Wild West days of free banking, back when anybody could.
Speaker 3 (59:16):
Just set up a bank, right, you can flip a cooid.
Am I going to be the dentist in town, the
salute owner, or the banker.
Speaker 4 (59:24):
Several other states, including Louisiana and Oklahoma, have filed similar legislation.
Speaker 3 (59:30):
We are bulkanizing the currency. What a time to be alive.
Let's hang out. Hit us up for a random fact.
Speaker 4 (59:37):
Can't wait to hang out with you soon, Folks conspiracy
at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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