A cargo ship hits the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, utterly destroying the bridge. Over in Japan, the notorious curse of the Colonel may have finally been lifted. Lastly -- and perhaps most disturbingly -- a horrific attack on a Moscow music venue leaves more than 100 dead. IS terrorists claim responsibility, Putin accuses the West, and the story grows ever stranger the deeper you dig. All this and more in this week's strange news segment.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nolan.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Alexis code named Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly,
you are here. That makes this the stuff they don't
want you to know. And by the way, folks, if
you live in the fair metropolis of Los Angeles, we
got to say we like it here. Three fourths of
us are on the road. But the strange news continues.
(00:52):
We've got what you call Nola heavy sandwich today. We've
got stories of like a lot of news broke right
as we were recording last week, right after we recorded,
the tragic cancer diagnosis of Kate Middleton came out. We
also learned about a very suspicious Moscow attack, also heartbreaking,
(01:15):
which we're going to dive into. We've got a fun
superstition story from Japan. Before we do any of that,
there's something we've been talking about off air that occurred
quite recently in Maryland.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yes, and actually I just got an update as we
began rolling here, so we will work that into the story.
But let's begin with what occurred in the early hours
of Tuesday, March twenty sixth, and we will give you
some of this information from an NPR article titled what
We Know and Don't Know about Baltimore's Key Bridge collapse. So,
(01:50):
in those early morning hours of Tuesday, March twenty sixth,
twenty twenty four, it's yesterday as we record this episode,
a ship called the Dolly. This is DLI. It's a
nearly one thousand foot container ship. It's registered in Singapore.
It departed from the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore, Maryland,
(02:13):
traveled a very short distance, and then at around one
thirty am Eastern Time, it appeared to lose power, at
least according to some of the video footage that was
captured of this incident. Then it shifted course towards one
of the key areas of the Francis Scott Key Bridge,
(02:34):
which goes across the river there right near Baltimore, Maryland,
and it was traveling about nine point two miles per
hour and it impacted the bridge when it hit the bridge.
The entirety of the bridge collapsed. It's a tragic, otherworldly,
film like thing to behold. It doesn't seem real. It
(02:57):
looks like something that happened years ago, and you would
watch it on some kind of documentary or something. It
just again, it doesn't appear real, but it actually happened, thankfully.
There was a may day signal that was sent out
by the crew of that large container ship, the Dolly,
so police were they literally had ninety seconds to shut
(03:18):
down traffic flowing onto the bridge from either side, which
they were able to do so. There were very few,
if any vehicles actually traveling across the bridge when it collapsed.
But there was a crew of at least eight people,
possibly more working on that bridge repairing potholes when it collapsed,
And as we were recording this, there is right now
(03:40):
recovery efforts for those people. Two of them were recovered,
one seriously injured, one injured but not as badly as
the first person. And there are six or seven people
presumed dead who are still currently.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Missing, just because of the time that collapsed.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Right exactly, and the temperatures of the water and a
lot of again, the drop from where that bridge was exactly.
Right now, federal investigators are trying to figure out what
the heck happened? How did the power go out on
this huge ship right after leaving port. When it did
go out, why did it go in that trajectory, like
(04:18):
directly towards one of these huge columns that is a
fairly small target when you look at the length of
the river there, right.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
It sounds like the rudder got frozen when they lost.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Power exactly, and they were able to recover power at
least according to some of the theories that are being
the postulations. Let's say that they were able to recover
some power but not to the engines, so they weren't
able to get thrust or they didn't have the ability
to move that rudder to then change the ship's trajectory
(04:48):
or to slow it down.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Do we have a sense of who's responsible or who
is going to be held responsible for this?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
It's tough at this point.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, right now, it's trying to figure out what the
heck happened?
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Is it dirty fuel? That's one of the theories that's
come out that somehow messed with the engines so they
were unable to perform properly. Was it someone at the
helm that did something improperly. But either way, it seems
like a tragic accident. At least it seems that way now,
although you will find people online talking about how it
appears deliberate because there is. It does again it feels
(05:23):
like there's something off the way if you watch the
full video, guys. I linked to a YouTube video that
shows the entire like several minutes prior to the crash
and collapse, and it does feel weird. It feels like
it goes on target to this pillar, even though that
doesn't seem like what actually occurred.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Right. Yeah, we were talking about this bit off air,
and I was also talking with a bunch of folks
on Twitter or x or whatever, some of whom live
and work in the Baltimore area. And it's the thing
again where we want to make sense of a track, right,
We want to have an explanation, ideally with a very
(06:04):
clear good or bad side.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
But from what people are saying, from the analysis that
I've read, I haven't traveled to this bridge the analysis
I've read and from what people on the ground have
been saying, I haven't spoken with anybody who's actually on
the ship. But they're they're saying, it looks like the
power loss occurred while the rudder was in one direction,
and then the captain or the crew gave the order
(06:29):
to try to drop anchor to swing a little bit
more astute leave right because or to prevent that curving
toward the pillar. And it's simply you know, as we
as we said off air, it's really hard to turn
those suckers. They're absolutely beast and even if a bridge
looks big, it's not built to withstand an impact like that.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
And I'm sorry, guy, this isn't one of those bridges
that can like open up to make way for large,
taller ships, is it.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It has the section as a clear set kind of
in the center of it that has clearance for these
larger container ships. But it was built at a time
when container ships were much smaller than this.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
True.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
True, it has what was it guys? Oh man, I'm
have to find it in one of my other links here.
But it has the capacity to carry like ten thousand
of these container what do we call these things?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Cargo containers?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Cargo containers. It has a way again, it's a thousand
feet long and it's way larger way bigger, and you know,
it doesn't have anything to do with the height. It
could have made it just fine underneath that bridge if
it had gone in the right place, like gone underneath
the right place.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
It can carry almost ten thousand of those cargo containers.
So if you've ever seen a train going by each
one of those cargo containers, imagine ten thousand of those
on a ship that's large enough to keep itself afloat
and maneuver in the ocean. So these things are these
(08:00):
things are very difficult to turn. It's possible to turn
them on a dime, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Well, yeah, and again, they lost power multiple times in
a very short time span. I think it was a
couple of minutes where they lost power, recovered it through
a generator, then lost power again. The voyage data recorder
has been recovered, at least according to the National Transportation
Safety Board, So we will be getting, I guess, a
better idea or they will be getting a better idea
(08:27):
of what exactly occurred, like minute by minute, second by
second actions that were taken on the ship itself. There's
been a lot said about previous safety issues with the ship.
According to NPR, it's had twenty seven previous inspections, and
in twenty sixteen, this is a Quote it sustained significant
damage to its hull after hitting a dock while leaving
(08:49):
a port in Antwerp, Belgium. And then last year it
was found to have a problem with quote propulsion and
auxiliary machinery. But again, who knows.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
It's just like a Boeing quality control issue that might
be even company wide with these types of shit.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I just wondered, I haven't seen that.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, Dolly's made by marisk and marisk Is they're a
Danish company. They make a ton of these things, a ton,
but they, like any company of their size, they've had issues,
but not at the frequency, you know, like they contained
frequency of Boeing. And also, honestly, cargo ships function under
(09:29):
such tremendous wear and tear and stress that it would
be kind of surprising for an inspection to occur and
not find a couple of problems, right, because there's just
so much stuff that could go wrong.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, for sure, really quickly, Alexis. I don't know if
you're recording audio, if you're available for comment, but just
since this is like the Baltimore area, and I wonder
if you've had any if you've ever hung out over
there in the Baltimore area at all, or you guys,
have you spent much time over there. I just want
to learn more about the Potapsco or potaps Go, I think,
(10:00):
is how you would say it. The river that this
bridge was spanning across, and I've never I don't think
I've ever driven across it or been in that area much.
Just wonder if any of you guys are if Alexis has.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I've been there before, but I don't have any noteworthy
affiliation with the area.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Okay, okay, cool.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Everything I know about it I learned from I think
season two of The Wire, where it's all about the shipping,
you know, and the what sort of they called longshoremen
and the union and all that stuff, and they talk
about the Potapsco a lot in that season, and there's
definitely a lot of you know, it's about basically, like
you know, planned oversight. Let's just say, in shipping and
(10:43):
receiving that I could imagine could trickle down to safety
measures in terms of getting things through. Maybe that should
probably be given a little more attention just for the
sake of keeping things running, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah, just to jump out of that. I have been
to I've been to Baltimore. I've spent some time Maryland.
But Matt, if you drove over this bridge, you would
absolutely remember it because it's so long. It's like more
than a mile long.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
That freaks me out.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah, six or something miles. And then also, if you're
not familiar with the area in general, and I think
a lot of us probably aren't, the Baltimore shipping the
magnitude of that industry cannot be overstated. This is a
huge blow. And I'm sure we've all seen the photos
(11:31):
in the aftermath of the literal waiting line of shipping
containers that formed within just I mean fewer than twenty
four hours after this.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Well, yeah, so let's talk about that. The port where
this ship left is further in towards Baltimore, right, So
if you imagine coming in from the sea through then
the river then to get to the port, the bridge
was standing between entrance to that area and the port
right So effectively, right now there is just a bunch
(12:03):
of metal shrapnel and shards of a giant bridge that
is all the way across. So it is preventing ships
from going in and out of port right now, at
least for the most part, and the story really shifted
quickly from tragedy to an a story about economic impact
because eighty billion dollars worth of cargo goes through this
(12:24):
port every year, including, according to NPR, eight hundred and
fifty thousand cars and trucks. So imagine that, first of all,
that's like shipping manufacturing vehicles. It also provides fifteen thousand
jobs to human beings that work there in the port,
in about three point three billion dollars in personal income
(12:48):
to families right to people who actually work there, and
two point six billion dollars in business revenue, and lastly
four hundred million dollars in tax revenue according to the
state of Maryland. The President went on television and discussed
this like, we're going to get this up and running again.
We're gonna get the port going, we're going to clean
this up, we're going to rebuild the bridge, and he
(13:10):
also stated that the federal government would be paying for
the rebuilding process.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
That answer is part of the who's responsible.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
It's not who's responsible per se, but this is something
that's larger than just one company making a mistake or
you know, the city itself having to take charge of
the reconstruction. This is like practically like a state of
emergency situation, right, like a act of God.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Certainly it's a massive tragedy for the eight to ten
people possibly more who were affected or you know, injured
or killed by this event. There were twenty people who
were on the cargo ship. All of them have been
accounted for. It is still a mild unknown about the
number of human beings that were actually on the bridge
(13:53):
when it collapsed. So that's something we're going to continue
following and if we hear anything more, we'll definitely we'll
talk about it. Just the last couple of things to
point out here. If you want to watch the full
seven minutes twenty seconds of before the crash and the crash,
I would highly recommend you search for Francis Scott Keybridge
(14:14):
collapses in Baltimore on the First Coast News YouTube channel.
You can find it right now and watch the whole thing.
It's a camera from down below, like if you imagine
up the perspective of another boat maybe sitting on the
water and watching everything happen. It's very very intense. And
also if you want to keep up with just news
(14:35):
that's breaking with regards to the story. There's an AP
news feed that has been updated that we've been following
basically since this began. You just search for AP news
Baltimore Bridge collapse, and it'll give you a live feed
of like every time something new comes in, it just
pops up on that page. It's very very helpful. Anything else, guys.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I will say, you know that we take allegations of
bad faith actors pretty seriously and looking into this at
this point knowing that there's still a lot of information
out there. At this point, there does not seem to
be any plausible support for some of the speculation or
some of the more out there conspiracies that are floating around,
(15:17):
like floating around poor choice words, but like a false
flag attack or you know, the investigation has to keep going,
so we have to be careful. Even if a story
sounds really juicy and you're hearing on the internet, we
have to be careful to dig in and prove things
before we make those kind of claims.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I mean, chances are like as case in point with
the k Middleton stuff, if those things are coming out
really quickly after an event like this, probably some of
these professional speculators just doing what they do on the internet.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Well, yeah, again, it feels not real, right, So, as
you said, Ben, we look for any kind of explanation
that would satisfy whatever that thing is that makes it
so extraordinary or feel so extraordinary to us. But yeah,
we'll just keep an eye on it, as we hope
you will too. Let us know if you find anything,
we'll be right back with more strange news.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
And we returned with a decidedly light her story after
if that one about the bridge collapse. And again, our
hearts are with anyone who's missing loved ones, with the families,
and it's just a really horrible situation. But let's take
a little trip over to Japan, where they love. There's
a lot of American cultural crossovers. Obviously, we import a
(16:41):
lot of Japanese culture over here on a ma and
manga and tons of video games and technology and all
of that stuff. Is huge fascination in the United States
with Japanese culture that does go both ways for some things.
Two of those things are baseball and Kentucky Fried Chicken
and away. Back in the earliest days of another show
(17:02):
that Ben and I do together called Ridiculous History, we
did an episode on what's called the curse of the
Kernel in Japan, especially Ben, correct me if I'm getting
this wrong. Around the holidays, around Christmas time, KFC is
hugely popular. They sell these like family holiday dinner combo
things like Reserve. I'm sure they're great, and I know
(17:24):
from my understanding too, KFC over there operates at a
little bit of a higher level than it does over here,
and it's kind of considered plussed up fast food and
more of like a family restaurant.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah right, yeah, pretty much every And this is oddly enough.
This is a rule of thumb that applied a rule
of wing or drum that applies to uh, that applies
to a lot of fast food places in different countries,
like McDonald's is the fancy place in a lot of countries,
and KFC is To your point, it can be culturally
(17:56):
fascinating to see what a big deal it is. It
became tied with Christmas. The you can go to go
to any kind of website mental floss Atlas Obscure probably
has some great rite ups on it and read the
read the meal, like the big thing is the Christmas
cake that they get, right, Yeah, that's that's what's over here.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
I don't even know they do pop pies anymore.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Anyway, though these meals are so popular, then to your
point of these holiday combo things that you have to
reserve your as well and invest and they sell out
of them and then anyway, But so KFC and baseball baseball,
you wouldn't think there'd necessarily be a connection between KFC
and baseball, but a baseball team in the Nipon Professional
Baseball Franchise and NPON just means Japan, I believe.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
Yeah, I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
There has been active since nineteen thirty five known as
the Hanshin Tigers. Have sort of a little bit of
lore that's tied up with with Colonel Sanders him himself,
who is in fact a real person, Harland David Sanders,
And now I think he himself actually appeared in the
(19:07):
earliest of KFC ads when it was you know fully
Kentucky Fried Chicken. Since his passing in nineteen eighty he's
been personified in different ways by actors and animation.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
And what have you.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
But yeah, much like Orville Reddenbacher, this was in fact
the founder of the company and the secret of the
spices or whatever the blend is that they keep so guarded. Apparently,
when he was still alive, there was a beef between
my chicken, shall we say, between him and the new
managers of the company, where they changed the recipe and
he got infuriated by it, and then they had to
(19:38):
like kind of make nights, and then they didn't have to,
but they made nice with him and changed it back
and then kind of brought him back in the fold.
And then he did pass away in nineteen eighty. But
we know him by his kind of like the branding
of KFC, and that extends even over here. It used
to to these like plastic statues that would be outside
of KFC franchises. But the Hunch and Tigers from nineteen
(20:00):
thirty six to nineteen forty nine were very successful in
their league, and they won four titles in that time frame.
They reached the what's called the Japan Series, which I
guess into our World Series for the very first time
in nineteen sixty two. They won the Central League in
nineteen sixty four, but then lost one.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
More of these Japan Series.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
It wasn't until nineteen eighty five that they won another
Central League pennant and it was such a big deal
that fans of this franchise, who are kind of known
to be a little on the fanatical side, all dove
into the De Tombori Canal in Osaka, which is a
highly polluted and very deep canal that sort of splits
(20:42):
up the city, the downtown kind of part of the city.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
Maybe think of like.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
The San in France a little bit, or sort of
like the you know, the Thames, but it's a little
it's narrower.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Obviously not as dirty as the ganjis, but still as dirty.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
But high highly filthy even back then and now even worse.
Apparently it's been described as, you know, something akin to
sewer water. That didn't stop these Tigers fans, and they
won the pennant. They jumped in and at the same time,
a particularly zealous fan spotted a one of these Colonel
(21:16):
Sanders statues outside of the local Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise,
and they thought that it looked a lot like the
first Baseman's right anty path.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
So you uprooted it, ripped it up out of its
perch or whatever, and threw it in the river which
was pretty deep, or the canal. It was sucked down
into the mud and the muck and lost presumably forever
until two thousand and nine. But anyway, when this happened, though,
it is believed by you know, those who believe that
(21:48):
this started a curse on the Hunshin Tigers, and they
didn't win a single thing. It's like angels on the
outfield type vibes for eighteen years.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
One quick interjection in the defense of the guy who
throws the statue in or the crew did it. It
wasn't everybody all the fans jumping in. They were yelling
out the individual names of players, and they were looking
around the crowd to see who most looked like a player,
and they were like, jump in the river, or you'll
get jumped into it. And then Randy Bass. You know,
(22:22):
this is Japan. They're looking around and there's not a
lot of people that you would see it immediately think
Randy Bass. So that's why they grabbed the statue.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
And I'd totally forgotten that detailed then, and I think
that really kind of gives a sense of the energy
that was going around. So it wasn't for eighteen years
the Tigers won another Central League title, at which point
fans did dive into the Dosnbore Canal once again, sadly
ending with the man losing his life. Because this is
again i'm sure exactly whether he drowned. There's probably some
(22:52):
drinking involved, or whether it was sepsis or something, but.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
That's neither here nor there. He did lose his life.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
But then fast forward two thousand and nine when the
city was doing some dredging of the canal and they
recovered the original statue, which is a little rough looking,
all the paint worn off and quite worse for wear
and missing a hand, but they did get it, and
they believe that this at least was the very beginnings
(23:20):
of lifting the curse of the Colonel, because that year
the Tigers finished fourth, which is better than they had done.
In twenty fourteen, KFC moved the statue to their Japanese
corporate headquarters and the Tigers made it to the Japan Series,
but they did unfortunately lose to the Fukuwaka SoftBank Hawks.
But the news today, the update to this story, which
(23:41):
we did cover on Ridiculous History, is that the Hanshin
Tigers just won the twenty twenty three championship for the
first time in many, many years, leading some to believe
that the curse has now officially been lifted. After they won,
fans did jump into the river disgustingly polluted river once again.
(24:03):
But here's the part that I think is really neat
the statue, which has since been moved from the corporate
headquarters to another franchise. It has been officially retired and
is essentially being treated like a sacred religious relic, whether
it be a publicity stunt or I don't know what
(24:24):
you want to call it, but it was essentially exercised
in a ceremony at a nearby shrine, in a cleansing
ritual that is.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Usually I think to look into.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
This a little bit more, maybe been you know this
from the time you spent over there, but in a
ceremony that's usually reserved for dolls, because I know that
they certainly is a lot of belief in Japanese culture
of objects being able to hold evil spirits and things
like that. So maybe, I don't know, why would there
be a specific ceremony just for dolls they felt was
just appropriate enough to do on the old Colonel Stole sculpture.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah, I mean it goes back into the into some
really deep folklore, you know, the idea that an object
can be imbued with the spirit or sentience, especially if
in some cases there's this idea that even just your
furniture at your house, if you take care of it
and it gets the age of one hundred, then it
(25:22):
acquires a spirit. So the idea also goes into the
concept of respect.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Right.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
So part of the curse of the of the kernel
comes from the idea of public disorder and breaking, you know,
breaking the expected rules of society, so cleansing. This is
also a sort of apology to offending the character of
the of the spirit the shrine or the effigy.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Makes sense and is really quickly credit where credits do.
This actually comes from a sports reporter named Julian Real
who is a brit living in Japan. It lived in
Japan for about the last twenty five years and he's
sort of a lifestyle and culture writer and has a
really neat article called Curse of the Colonel lifted Japan's
Hanjin Tigers Hope ritual ceremony bats away years of bad
(26:14):
luck and just last last thing for me. This ritual
was performed at Sumi Yoshi Taishot Shrine and a priest
did this cleansing ritual, and a president of KFC Holdings Japan,
Takayuki Hanji, was there and he laid flowers on an altar.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
And may, I'm sorry if I'm laughing.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
I know this is an offering food to send this
to the thing, but this is screams publicity stunt. He
offered a portion of KFC chicken as well, and did
you know, call it what it was? You gotta at
least appreciate the openness.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Was it an original recipe or extra crispy doing unclear?
Speaker 5 (26:53):
I don't even know if you can get the two,
if there's a distinction anymore.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
But he did say that he was very aware that
this whole saga, this whole like lore, has contributed to
the raising of the value of their brand name. So
I don't know, guys, any thoughts on this. It's just
it's such a neat, weird story to begin with. And uh,
the you know, baseball is in general such a superstitious
(27:16):
sport in America, even where people are you know, won't
change their socks or have certain pregame things or you know,
rituals or chewing the same piece of gum or whatever.
It's really interesting to see these kind of cultural things
sort of collide in a very interesting amalcam of American
and Japanese culture in this story.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I don't have too much, guys. I was just having
fond memories as you were discussing it, seeing no Norm
McDonald as the Colonel like back in the day, and
Darryl Hammond and a bunch of other actors got to
like do cameos, and I was just having fond memories
of that. And I hope this, uh, I hope the
team does well.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
I miss this. Do we know where the statue will
ultimately find its resting place?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Yeah, I'm sorry, but I didn't get to that. The
whole thrust of the ceremony is that it ends in
the burial. The ceremonial burial of this sculpture, I can
only assume it is on site at the shrine that
I mentioned, the Taishi Shrine, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
In Osaka.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
So you know, it certainly would also be another great
branding play to have it's the final resting site marked
so people can go leave KFC buckets and flowers.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
You know, I'm looking at photos. I've been to the shrine.
It is dope. It is amazing. If you can go.
But the kernel wasn't there when I when I.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
Saw no, No, this is pretty new.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I also predict, on the note of superstition and folklore,
that there will be a new relic of power or
an objective powers. They're called in control in the Nation
of Japan. The search continues for the left hand of
the kernel, right.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
And the glasses. I forgot glasses had also been knocked
off or whatever.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Which is weird because I don't I don't ever think
of the glasses as being a separate part of a
of a sculpture.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
I wouldn't think so either, But maybe maybe it was,
like it's plastic, so maybe it was sort of you know,
hotblood or something.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Where is the left hand? Man, I'm gonna be thinking
about that, you know, like the old hand of glory
in an infernal magic. I would love to hand remains
where someone finds the hand of the kernel and the
there's a curse or it has power. What I'm just
going to write it?
Speaker 6 (29:35):
What was it?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
You know?
Speaker 4 (29:35):
What was that movie with the hand? The recent movie
Speak to Me, Talk to Me?
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that was Maybe they find the hand.
It's in beauty with some sort of melodical. Excellent.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Yeah, Infernal Powers. I really liked that movie a lot
as well.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
Guys.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Another great example of like, you know, kind of like
the Daniels, how they started kind of do it as
like real low five practical kind of music video things
like I can't remember the dude's names, but it's a
brother twins then the Philipoo Brothers is their name. They
have a YouTube presence of like really crazy cool YouTube
kind of videos that are like artsy and bizarre, and
they are now making giant movies that did well, so
(30:12):
good for them. But yeah, that's it for the Curse
of the Colonel. Hopefully it's lifted.
Speaker 5 (30:16):
Let's take a quick.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Break and then we'll return with one more piece of
strange news.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
And we have returned a couple of things in our conversation.
Just to respond to the conversation about the Baltimore Bridge,
I think we should do an episode on the shipping
the cargo manufacturer that created that, because I'm looking into
the conspiracies they've been tangled up with in the past,
(30:47):
and there are quite a few. So that's just like
a note to the universe. I think there's an episode there. Awesome,
and I wanted to start out by I'm not going
to put you too much on the spot, Doc, but
I want to thank you on air for making my
day earlier today and sending me a joke that we
will never never mention on the on the show, you
(31:12):
remember what we're talking about.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I audibly guess, Okay, maybe we won't never.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Mind anyway, just to tell you that even in our case,
there is some stuff. There are some jokes. We don't
want you to know some stuff. Yeah, yeah, but that
was a real Gallows humor there, Doc, Respect and salute.
Our final story for this week's Strange News program is
(31:41):
like the Baltimore Bridge, it is an ongoing story and
the tragic mystery is afoot. On March twenty second, again
as we were recording previously, a small band of terrorists
attacked a music venue in Moscow, and as of now
at this moment, there are an estimated one hundred and
(32:03):
forty deaths with north of three hundred and sixty injuries,
either as a result of the gunshot as poisoning of
the fire that happened shortly thereafter. There were four terrorists
involved in pretty soon after the news broke is the
Islamic state claimed responsibility. The Putin administration continues to claim
(32:28):
that this was actually this was actually an operation by
Ukraine or some agent of the West through a proxy.
And they're claiming, I mean, they're all but explicitly saying
they believe they believe that the West and or Ukraine
(32:50):
managed to use is the Islamic State as kind of
a false flag, right, or a patsy to blame this odd.
So if we go to the timeline here, what we
see is that the Crocus City Hall, that's the music venue.
It's in a place called Krasnogorsk, and I'm mispronouncing that
(33:13):
it started right before a Russian band called Picnic was
scheduled to play a sold out show. And this is
a very very big venue. We know that it gets
stranger and stranger the deeper you dig. Okay, at first,
we know the basic timeline. These masked gunmen in combat
(33:37):
fatigues came in the open fire on the crowd using
ak style assault rifles. They also apparently had pistols and knives.
And put yourself in this situation. If you've been to
a concert that has a lot of theatrical sound design,
then you might hear gunshots and think it's part of
the opener, you know what I mean, Travis Skull or whatever, right,
(34:05):
And I also want to stop there. Do you guys
are you familiar with the Russian band Picnic? I was
not Picnic. Yeah, yeah, okay, Well they're pretty big because
this is there is a huge venue. Unfortunately at the
time also there were children and teenagers in this venue
(34:25):
for an unrelated ballroom dance competition, So that gives us
a sense of the size, the fact that they can
have these two big events going on at once. And
there is a little bit of video footage that shows
these people firing into the crowd. It appears they were
wearing baseball caps. The assailants are apparently heard shouting to
(34:50):
each other in Arabic and then they escape after deploying
sendury devices we should mention gas bombs to start a
fire in the audit, which led to even more injuries.
The authorities responded as quickly as they could, but the
gunman initially escaped and then they got captured per Russian
(35:14):
authorities attempting to exit Russia via the poorous western border
in the war with Ukraine. Does that jibe with what
you guys have seen reporting.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, it's just been really complicated to follow because there
have been several high level conspiracy theories that have put
out by the Kremlin which are fascinating just about again
often placing blame on the West, have like instead of
ISIS or ISIS as the cover. But it's really changed
(35:50):
a lot since this story first broke again, Like last
time we were recording one of these strange news it
happened like right after that. Yeah, it's just confusing if
it feels weird and a very high level tragic attack
on civilians m m.
Speaker 5 (36:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
And I was talking with was talking with some people
familiar with this situation doing like just a vibe tech
you know, what can you tell us about this? And
even if you are just looking through a cursory kind
of like forensic Google investigation of the context and how
this situation came to be, then you see a lot
(36:30):
of troubling things. It is a fact that the West
warned Russia that some attack was imminent. They were it
was Canada and the United Kingdom and the US warned
any of their citizens in Russia there seemed like there
was an attack. The US privately warned Russian officials that
(36:54):
this spin off, this franchise of the Islamic State was
going to attack because they had gathered intelligence earlier in March,
like earlier that month, this was fresh baked information, and
Putin apparently roundly ignored it because the US intelligence community
(37:14):
officially they have something called the duty to warn requirement,
which means that if there is a dangerous attack on
civilians that is imminent and actionable, then it doesn't matter
if you're friends with the country where it's going to happen,
you are supposed to let them know. Because the innocence evolved.
You know, they have nothing to do with the larger wars.
(37:37):
So Putin and Putin's circle, or I guess, I say,
the Putin administration, they dismissed this, and they didn't just
say it was incorrect. They said it was blackmail. They
said it was a threat. So they're saying. They didn't
take this as a hey, let's at least work together
to save lives. They took it as I guess, a
(37:58):
very sinister move right, and that may be part of
why Putin is accusing Ukraine, which he did immediately, and
Zelenski came out from Ukraine immediately and said no, absolutely not.
We did not do this. And let's think about the
people the countries that were warning Russia, Canada, the UK,
(38:23):
the US. This feels five I to me, right because
for the US, I don't know the conspiracy theories being
floated by Russia. Tell me what you think about this
one is that you'll see people on the internet going,
you know, it's interesting how ISAIS seems to be attacking
(38:44):
enemies of the West now and the concept being, the
implication being that the Islamic state itself is heavily compromised,
and maybe now the terrorist has become a puppet of
Western forces. I think that's a lot that seems kind
of complicated, right, well.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Overly so to the point where it seems, you know,
it's that thing whenever a conspiracy has way way too
many moving parts or way too many parties that need
to be in perfect sink and cooperation, chances are the
reality is.
Speaker 5 (39:15):
Something a little more streamlined.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
It's a little route Goldberg esk right, yea yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
But it is an organization that has largely fallen out
of popular coverage in media, right yeah. So, I don't know,
when you feel like there's an armed somewhat organized group
like that. I'm not saying there's any sand of the
accusations that it's being used as some kind of puppet organization,
but it does feel weird when you don't hear about
(39:40):
it very often. Then something this high profile comes along, right,
that appears to have a lot of planning, a lot
of strategy to get all those people you know, into
where they were, to have the weapons they had, and
to pull it all off. Yeah, it feels even more
organized than you imagine a group like that would be.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Yeah, and also not just to the point of organization,
but if you look at the fingerprints of previous is activity,
this doesn't match their moone. This is a change. You know,
they usually, without sounding to crass, they usually send folks
on a one way trip when they're sowing this kind
(40:19):
of tragedy in chaos. And maybe it's because this is
a regional branch or a subsidiary of the larger Islamic state.
This is is KP Islamic State, Corrusan province. But the
idea that they would make an attack and it not
be a suicide attack, that is it is just markedly different.
(40:43):
You know, previous Islamic State things like we had discussed
a little bit off air the attack in Iran which
led to more than one hundred people dead. That was
to that was two suicide bombers. So it seems or
at least you know, I don't know how much we
read into it, but it is worth noting that their
(41:06):
tactics have changed at this point. They attempted to have
an exit plan. And then also why would their exit
plan be Ukraine? Is it because the border is more
porous due to conflict, But then knowing you would have
to drive through bloody swaths of the military, the military
(41:27):
that you just attacked, or is country you just attacked,
it's I don't like it. It's dodgy, it's suspect. And
there's another. There are even more pieces that get stranger
and stranger. You guys, remember the apartments, right, How Putin
came to power? Oh man, it's not a story. The
Jedi will tell you.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Okay, can you tell us here?
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Yeah? Sure. In nineteen ninety nine, there was a series
of explosions for apartment blocks in different cities around Russia, Moscow, Polnaksk, Vogodunksk.
More than three hundred people were killed, thousands of people
were injured, and this became one of the events that
(42:14):
led Putin to his current level of power, because after
those bombings occurred, Putin used as the pretext to launch
a second war in Chechnya, and this became a long
protracted war. It wasn't just a special military operation. History
is proving that is apparently never the case. And for
(42:36):
a long time Putin's critics and Putin's rivals and journalists,
they maintained that Vladimir Putin may have pulled like a
p and Ac or even something even something more evil,
that he either planned the attacks or allowed the attacks
(42:58):
to happen so that he could gather power, consolidate power,
and launch this war in Chechnya. This also led to
the Yeltsin losing power and stepping down in nineteen ninety nine.
So if you believe that there is more to the
story than the official narrative right now of what's happening
with the Moscow attacks, then you look at prior events
(43:23):
like this, and I've got to tell you, I don't
know the answers in this specific regard, but surely, just
with the things we've outlined in less than fifteen minutes here,
it's suspect, right, it's fishy. Does this not seem fishy?
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (43:37):
Yeah, highly. The question is like what, ooh, why? When? Where?
Speaker 3 (43:43):
Now?
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah? What kind of fish? What kind of fish is it?
Speaker 3 (43:46):
It's unfortunately a good question. We're going to have to
We're going to have to think about it, and we
need your help, folks, So let us know what you
think of the official narrative. Obviously, the Putin administration is
going to use this as for the rationalization for the
conflict in Ukraine. We still don't know how much force
(44:07):
Russia can put, like how much extra force or additional
force they can put into play. And a quick lass note,
Putin did quite recently, like as we're recording, come out
and say that he blamed radical Islamic extremists. He believes
they were operating at the best of Ukraine. But we'll
leave you with this. Those terrorists, those four guys killed
(44:33):
world one hundred people and then got back in a car,
drove almost two thousand miles, passed multiple military checkpoints before
they were caught. The Islamic state doesn't do stuff like that,
or they didn't.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Makes you think just goes back to the what trained
by the West. Basically isis did it? But they were trained,
that's the claim that's being made there. I mean it
does sound tactics that you'd hear about with special forces
training or something. But again that's complete speculation.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
We don't have the proof, you know. We just know
that are there are things that complicate or that call
into question this official narrative we're getting. And we now
have two competing narratives from the superpowers of old. Right,
we warned you, no, you threatened us, and now we
(45:27):
will respond. And when elephants make war, its the grass
that suffers. We want to hear your thoughts, fellow conspiracy realist,
tell us what is on your mind, what is going
on in Moscow? Would love to hear from you if
you're in the Baltimore area or if you're in the
Moscow area as well. And we're wishing your friends, families,
and yourself safe travels and adventures and good health. We
(45:52):
hope that you do not get cursed by a fast
food mascot. That's a good way to end it. And yeah,
let us know your thoughts. We try to be easy
to do.
Speaker 4 (46:00):
Like or even like a serial mask guy like that
to can Sam or Lucky the Leprecaun Man the book
Come for You Careful, you can find us. Let us
know what your favorite fast food or cereal mascot is.
You can find it the handle Conspiracy Stuff on Facebook,
on YouTube, where we have delightful videos rolling out every week.
I think we've got it on another installment of the
(46:22):
George Washington saga, as he travels through time and discovers
products of the modern day that plunge him into existential dread.
You can find this also at that handle on XK, Twitter,
on Instagram, and TikTok where at Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
We also have a phone number one eight three three
std WYTK. When you call in, you've got three minutes,
give yourself a cool nickname and let us know if
we can use your message on the air. If you
don't want to do that, you got more to send us?
Maybe I don't know links, attachments? Why not send us
a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
We are the folks who read every single email. We
get to be careful the void it may write back,
send us the links, put it on record, put it
in writing, send us the pictures, send us the audio.
It's one of our favorite parts of the show. Reading
your emails so help us out conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Stuff they Don't want you to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nolan.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Alexis code named Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly,
you are here. That makes this the stuff they don't
want you to know. And by the way, folks, if
you live in the fair metropolis of Los Angeles, we
got to say we like it here. Three fourths of
us are on the road. But the strange news continues.
(00:52):
We've got what you call Nola heavy sandwich today. We've
got stories of like a lot of news broke right
as we were recording last week, right after we recorded,
the tragic cancer diagnosis of Kate Middleton came out. We
also learned about a very suspicious Moscow attack, also heartbreaking,
(01:15):
which we're going to dive into. We've got a fun
superstition story from Japan. Before we do any of that,
there's something we've been talking about off air that occurred
quite recently in Maryland.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yes, and actually I just got an update as we
began rolling here, so we will work that into the story.
But let's begin with what occurred in the early hours
of Tuesday, March twenty sixth, and we will give you
some of this information from an NPR article titled what
We Know and Don't Know about Baltimore's Key Bridge collapse. So,
(01:50):
in those early morning hours of Tuesday, March twenty sixth,
twenty twenty four, it's yesterday as we record this episode,
a ship called the Dolly. This is DLI. It's a
nearly one thousand foot container ship. It's registered in Singapore.
It departed from the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore, Maryland,
(02:13):
traveled a very short distance, and then at around one
thirty am Eastern Time, it appeared to lose power, at
least according to some of the video footage that was
captured of this incident. Then it shifted course towards one
of the key areas of the Francis Scott Key Bridge,
(02:34):
which goes across the river there right near Baltimore, Maryland,
and it was traveling about nine point two miles per
hour and it impacted the bridge when it hit the bridge.
The entirety of the bridge collapsed. It's a tragic, otherworldly,
film like thing to behold. It doesn't seem real. It
(02:57):
looks like something that happened years ago, and you would
watch it on some kind of documentary or something. It
just again, it doesn't appear real, but it actually happened, thankfully.
There was a may day signal that was sent out
by the crew of that large container ship, the Dolly,
so police were they literally had ninety seconds to shut
(03:18):
down traffic flowing onto the bridge from either side, which
they were able to do so. There were very few,
if any vehicles actually traveling across the bridge when it collapsed.
But there was a crew of at least eight people,
possibly more working on that bridge repairing potholes when it collapsed,
And as we were recording this, there is right now
(03:40):
recovery efforts for those people. Two of them were recovered,
one seriously injured, one injured but not as badly as
the first person. And there are six or seven people
presumed dead who are still currently.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Missing, just because of the time that collapsed.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Right exactly, and the temperatures of the water and a
lot of again, the drop from where that bridge was exactly.
Right now, federal investigators are trying to figure out what
the heck happened? How did the power go out on
this huge ship right after leaving port. When it did
go out, why did it go in that trajectory, like
(04:18):
directly towards one of these huge columns that is a
fairly small target when you look at the length of
the river there, right.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
It sounds like the rudder got frozen when they lost.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Power exactly, and they were able to recover power at
least according to some of the theories that are being
the postulations. Let's say that they were able to recover
some power but not to the engines, so they weren't
able to get thrust or they didn't have the ability
to move that rudder to then change the ship's trajectory
(04:48):
or to slow it down.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Do we have a sense of who's responsible or who
is going to be held responsible for this?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
It's tough at this point.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, right now, it's trying to figure out what the
heck happened?
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Is it dirty fuel? That's one of the theories that's
come out that somehow messed with the engines so they
were unable to perform properly. Was it someone at the
helm that did something improperly. But either way, it seems
like a tragic accident. At least it seems that way now,
although you will find people online talking about how it
appears deliberate because there is. It does again it feels
(05:23):
like there's something off the way if you watch the
full video, guys. I linked to a YouTube video that
shows the entire like several minutes prior to the crash
and collapse, and it does feel weird. It feels like
it goes on target to this pillar, even though that
doesn't seem like what actually occurred.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Right. Yeah, we were talking about this bit off air,
and I was also talking with a bunch of folks
on Twitter or x or whatever, some of whom live
and work in the Baltimore area. And it's the thing
again where we want to make sense of a track, right,
We want to have an explanation, ideally with a very
(06:04):
clear good or bad side.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
But from what people are saying, from the analysis that
I've read, I haven't traveled to this bridge the analysis
I've read and from what people on the ground have
been saying, I haven't spoken with anybody who's actually on
the ship. But they're they're saying, it looks like the
power loss occurred while the rudder was in one direction,
and then the captain or the crew gave the order
(06:29):
to try to drop anchor to swing a little bit
more astute leave right because or to prevent that curving
toward the pillar. And it's simply you know, as we
as we said off air, it's really hard to turn
those suckers. They're absolutely beast and even if a bridge
looks big, it's not built to withstand an impact like that.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
And I'm sorry, guy, this isn't one of those bridges
that can like open up to make way for large,
taller ships, is it.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It has the section as a clear set kind of
in the center of it that has clearance for these
larger container ships. But it was built at a time
when container ships were much smaller than this.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
True.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
True, it has what was it guys? Oh man, I'm
have to find it in one of my other links here.
But it has the capacity to carry like ten thousand
of these container what do we call these things?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Cargo containers?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Cargo containers. It has a way again, it's a thousand
feet long and it's way larger way bigger, and you know,
it doesn't have anything to do with the height. It
could have made it just fine underneath that bridge if
it had gone in the right place, like gone underneath
the right place.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
It can carry almost ten thousand of those cargo containers.
So if you've ever seen a train going by each
one of those cargo containers, imagine ten thousand of those
on a ship that's large enough to keep itself afloat
and maneuver in the ocean. So these things are these
(08:00):
things are very difficult to turn. It's possible to turn
them on a dime, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Well, yeah, and again, they lost power multiple times in
a very short time span. I think it was a
couple of minutes where they lost power, recovered it through
a generator, then lost power again. The voyage data recorder
has been recovered, at least according to the National Transportation
Safety Board, So we will be getting, I guess, a
better idea or they will be getting a better idea
(08:27):
of what exactly occurred, like minute by minute, second by
second actions that were taken on the ship itself. There's
been a lot said about previous safety issues with the ship.
According to NPR, it's had twenty seven previous inspections, and
in twenty sixteen, this is a Quote it sustained significant
damage to its hull after hitting a dock while leaving
(08:49):
a port in Antwerp, Belgium. And then last year it
was found to have a problem with quote propulsion and
auxiliary machinery. But again, who knows.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
It's just like a Boeing quality control issue that might
be even company wide with these types of shit.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I just wondered, I haven't seen that.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, Dolly's made by marisk and marisk Is they're a
Danish company. They make a ton of these things, a ton,
but they, like any company of their size, they've had issues,
but not at the frequency, you know, like they contained
frequency of Boeing. And also, honestly, cargo ships function under
(09:29):
such tremendous wear and tear and stress that it would
be kind of surprising for an inspection to occur and
not find a couple of problems, right, because there's just
so much stuff that could go wrong.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, for sure, really quickly, Alexis. I don't know if
you're recording audio, if you're available for comment, but just
since this is like the Baltimore area, and I wonder
if you've had any if you've ever hung out over
there in the Baltimore area at all, or you guys,
have you spent much time over there. I just want
to learn more about the Potapsco or potaps Go, I think,
(10:00):
is how you would say it. The river that this
bridge was spanning across, and I've never I don't think
I've ever driven across it or been in that area much.
Just wonder if any of you guys are if Alexis has.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I've been there before, but I don't have any noteworthy
affiliation with the area.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Okay, okay, cool.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Everything I know about it I learned from I think
season two of The Wire, where it's all about the shipping,
you know, and the what sort of they called longshoremen
and the union and all that stuff, and they talk
about the Potapsco a lot in that season, and there's
definitely a lot of you know, it's about basically, like
you know, planned oversight. Let's just say, in shipping and
(10:43):
receiving that I could imagine could trickle down to safety
measures in terms of getting things through. Maybe that should
probably be given a little more attention just for the
sake of keeping things running, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah, just to jump out of that. I have been
to I've been to Baltimore. I've spent some time Maryland.
But Matt, if you drove over this bridge, you would
absolutely remember it because it's so long. It's like more
than a mile long.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
That freaks me out.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah, six or something miles. And then also, if you're
not familiar with the area in general, and I think
a lot of us probably aren't, the Baltimore shipping the
magnitude of that industry cannot be overstated. This is a
huge blow. And I'm sure we've all seen the photos
(11:31):
in the aftermath of the literal waiting line of shipping
containers that formed within just I mean fewer than twenty
four hours after this.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Well, yeah, so let's talk about that. The port where
this ship left is further in towards Baltimore, right, So
if you imagine coming in from the sea through then
the river then to get to the port, the bridge
was standing between entrance to that area and the port
right So effectively, right now there is just a bunch
(12:03):
of metal shrapnel and shards of a giant bridge that
is all the way across. So it is preventing ships
from going in and out of port right now, at
least for the most part, and the story really shifted
quickly from tragedy to an a story about economic impact
because eighty billion dollars worth of cargo goes through this
(12:24):
port every year, including, according to NPR, eight hundred and
fifty thousand cars and trucks. So imagine that, first of all,
that's like shipping manufacturing vehicles. It also provides fifteen thousand
jobs to human beings that work there in the port,
in about three point three billion dollars in personal income
(12:48):
to families right to people who actually work there, and
two point six billion dollars in business revenue, and lastly
four hundred million dollars in tax revenue according to the
state of Maryland. The President went on television and discussed
this like, we're going to get this up and running again.
We're gonna get the port going, we're going to clean
this up, we're going to rebuild the bridge, and he
(13:10):
also stated that the federal government would be paying for
the rebuilding process.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
That answer is part of the who's responsible.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
It's not who's responsible per se, but this is something
that's larger than just one company making a mistake or
you know, the city itself having to take charge of
the reconstruction. This is like practically like a state of
emergency situation, right, like a act of God.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Certainly it's a massive tragedy for the eight to ten
people possibly more who were affected or you know, injured
or killed by this event. There were twenty people who
were on the cargo ship. All of them have been
accounted for. It is still a mild unknown about the
number of human beings that were actually on the bridge
(13:53):
when it collapsed. So that's something we're going to continue
following and if we hear anything more, we'll definitely we'll
talk about it. Just the last couple of things to
point out here. If you want to watch the full
seven minutes twenty seconds of before the crash and the crash,
I would highly recommend you search for Francis Scott Keybridge
(14:14):
collapses in Baltimore on the First Coast News YouTube channel.
You can find it right now and watch the whole thing.
It's a camera from down below, like if you imagine
up the perspective of another boat maybe sitting on the
water and watching everything happen. It's very very intense. And
also if you want to keep up with just news
(14:35):
that's breaking with regards to the story. There's an AP
news feed that has been updated that we've been following
basically since this began. You just search for AP news
Baltimore Bridge collapse, and it'll give you a live feed
of like every time something new comes in, it just
pops up on that page. It's very very helpful. Anything else, guys.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I will say, you know that we take allegations of
bad faith actors pretty seriously and looking into this at
this point knowing that there's still a lot of information
out there. At this point, there does not seem to
be any plausible support for some of the speculation or
some of the more out there conspiracies that are floating around,
(15:17):
like floating around poor choice words, but like a false
flag attack or you know, the investigation has to keep going,
so we have to be careful. Even if a story
sounds really juicy and you're hearing on the internet, we
have to be careful to dig in and prove things
before we make those kind of claims.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I mean, chances are like as case in point with
the k Middleton stuff, if those things are coming out
really quickly after an event like this, probably some of
these professional speculators just doing what they do on the internet.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Well, yeah, again, it feels not real, right, So, as
you said, Ben, we look for any kind of explanation
that would satisfy whatever that thing is that makes it
so extraordinary or feel so extraordinary to us. But yeah,
we'll just keep an eye on it, as we hope
you will too. Let us know if you find anything,
we'll be right back with more strange news.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
And we returned with a decidedly light her story after
if that one about the bridge collapse. And again, our
hearts are with anyone who's missing loved ones, with the families,
and it's just a really horrible situation. But let's take
a little trip over to Japan, where they love. There's
a lot of American cultural crossovers. Obviously, we import a
(16:41):
lot of Japanese culture over here on a ma and
manga and tons of video games and technology and all
of that stuff. Is huge fascination in the United States
with Japanese culture that does go both ways for some things.
Two of those things are baseball and Kentucky Fried Chicken
and away. Back in the earliest days of another show
(17:02):
that Ben and I do together called Ridiculous History, we
did an episode on what's called the curse of the
Kernel in Japan, especially Ben, correct me if I'm getting
this wrong. Around the holidays, around Christmas time, KFC is
hugely popular. They sell these like family holiday dinner combo
things like Reserve. I'm sure they're great, and I know
(17:24):
from my understanding too, KFC over there operates at a
little bit of a higher level than it does over here,
and it's kind of considered plussed up fast food and
more of like a family restaurant.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah right, yeah, pretty much every And this is oddly enough.
This is a rule of thumb that applied a rule
of wing or drum that applies to uh, that applies
to a lot of fast food places in different countries,
like McDonald's is the fancy place in a lot of countries,
and KFC is To your point, it can be culturally
(17:56):
fascinating to see what a big deal it is. It
became tied with Christmas. The you can go to go
to any kind of website mental floss Atlas Obscure probably
has some great rite ups on it and read the
read the meal, like the big thing is the Christmas
cake that they get, right, Yeah, that's that's what's over here.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
I don't even know they do pop pies anymore.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Anyway, though these meals are so popular, then to your
point of these holiday combo things that you have to
reserve your as well and invest and they sell out
of them and then anyway, But so KFC and baseball baseball,
you wouldn't think there'd necessarily be a connection between KFC
and baseball, but a baseball team in the Nipon Professional
Baseball Franchise and NPON just means Japan, I believe.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
Yeah, I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
There has been active since nineteen thirty five known as
the Hanshin Tigers. Have sort of a little bit of
lore that's tied up with with Colonel Sanders him himself,
who is in fact a real person, Harland David Sanders,
And now I think he himself actually appeared in the
(19:07):
earliest of KFC ads when it was you know fully
Kentucky Fried Chicken. Since his passing in nineteen eighty he's
been personified in different ways by actors and animation.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
And what have you.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
But yeah, much like Orville Reddenbacher, this was in fact
the founder of the company and the secret of the
spices or whatever the blend is that they keep so guarded. Apparently,
when he was still alive, there was a beef between
my chicken, shall we say, between him and the new
managers of the company, where they changed the recipe and
he got infuriated by it, and then they had to
(19:38):
like kind of make nights, and then they didn't have to,
but they made nice with him and changed it back
and then kind of brought him back in the fold.
And then he did pass away in nineteen eighty. But
we know him by his kind of like the branding
of KFC, and that extends even over here. It used
to to these like plastic statues that would be outside
of KFC franchises. But the Hunch and Tigers from nineteen
(20:00):
thirty six to nineteen forty nine were very successful in
their league, and they won four titles in that time frame.
They reached the what's called the Japan Series, which I
guess into our World Series for the very first time
in nineteen sixty two. They won the Central League in
nineteen sixty four, but then lost one.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
More of these Japan Series.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
It wasn't until nineteen eighty five that they won another
Central League pennant and it was such a big deal
that fans of this franchise, who are kind of known
to be a little on the fanatical side, all dove
into the De Tombori Canal in Osaka, which is a
highly polluted and very deep canal that sort of splits
(20:42):
up the city, the downtown kind of part of the city.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
Maybe think of like.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
The San in France a little bit, or sort of
like the you know, the Thames, but it's a little
it's narrower.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Obviously not as dirty as the ganjis, but still as dirty.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
But high highly filthy even back then and now even worse.
Apparently it's been described as, you know, something akin to
sewer water. That didn't stop these Tigers fans, and they
won the pennant. They jumped in and at the same time,
a particularly zealous fan spotted a one of these Colonel
(21:16):
Sanders statues outside of the local Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise,
and they thought that it looked a lot like the
first Baseman's right anty path.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
So you uprooted it, ripped it up out of its
perch or whatever, and threw it in the river which
was pretty deep, or the canal. It was sucked down
into the mud and the muck and lost presumably forever
until two thousand and nine. But anyway, when this happened, though,
it is believed by you know, those who believe that
(21:48):
this started a curse on the Hunshin Tigers, and they
didn't win a single thing. It's like angels on the
outfield type vibes for eighteen years.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
One quick interjection in the defense of the guy who
throws the statue in or the crew did it. It
wasn't everybody all the fans jumping in. They were yelling
out the individual names of players, and they were looking
around the crowd to see who most looked like a player,
and they were like, jump in the river, or you'll
get jumped into it. And then Randy Bass. You know,
(22:22):
this is Japan. They're looking around and there's not a
lot of people that you would see it immediately think
Randy Bass. So that's why they grabbed the statue.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
And I'd totally forgotten that detailed then, and I think
that really kind of gives a sense of the energy
that was going around. So it wasn't for eighteen years
the Tigers won another Central League title, at which point
fans did dive into the Dosnbore Canal once again, sadly
ending with the man losing his life. Because this is
again i'm sure exactly whether he drowned. There's probably some
(22:52):
drinking involved, or whether it was sepsis or something, but.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
That's neither here nor there. He did lose his life.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
But then fast forward two thousand and nine when the
city was doing some dredging of the canal and they
recovered the original statue, which is a little rough looking,
all the paint worn off and quite worse for wear
and missing a hand, but they did get it, and
they believe that this at least was the very beginnings
(23:20):
of lifting the curse of the Colonel, because that year
the Tigers finished fourth, which is better than they had done.
In twenty fourteen, KFC moved the statue to their Japanese
corporate headquarters and the Tigers made it to the Japan Series,
but they did unfortunately lose to the Fukuwaka SoftBank Hawks.
But the news today, the update to this story, which
(23:41):
we did cover on Ridiculous History, is that the Hanshin
Tigers just won the twenty twenty three championship for the
first time in many, many years, leading some to believe
that the curse has now officially been lifted. After they won,
fans did jump into the river disgustingly polluted river once again.
(24:03):
But here's the part that I think is really neat
the statue, which has since been moved from the corporate
headquarters to another franchise. It has been officially retired and
is essentially being treated like a sacred religious relic, whether
it be a publicity stunt or I don't know what
(24:24):
you want to call it, but it was essentially exercised
in a ceremony at a nearby shrine, in a cleansing
ritual that is.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Usually I think to look into.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
This a little bit more, maybe been you know this
from the time you spent over there, but in a
ceremony that's usually reserved for dolls, because I know that
they certainly is a lot of belief in Japanese culture
of objects being able to hold evil spirits and things
like that. So maybe, I don't know, why would there
be a specific ceremony just for dolls they felt was
just appropriate enough to do on the old Colonel Stole sculpture.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah, I mean it goes back into the into some
really deep folklore, you know, the idea that an object
can be imbued with the spirit or sentience, especially if
in some cases there's this idea that even just your
furniture at your house, if you take care of it
and it gets the age of one hundred, then it
(25:22):
acquires a spirit. So the idea also goes into the
concept of respect.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Right.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
So part of the curse of the of the kernel
comes from the idea of public disorder and breaking, you know,
breaking the expected rules of society, so cleansing. This is
also a sort of apology to offending the character of
the of the spirit the shrine or the effigy.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Makes sense and is really quickly credit where credits do.
This actually comes from a sports reporter named Julian Real
who is a brit living in Japan. It lived in
Japan for about the last twenty five years and he's
sort of a lifestyle and culture writer and has a
really neat article called Curse of the Colonel lifted Japan's
Hanjin Tigers Hope ritual ceremony bats away years of bad
(26:14):
luck and just last last thing for me. This ritual
was performed at Sumi Yoshi Taishot Shrine and a priest
did this cleansing ritual, and a president of KFC Holdings Japan,
Takayuki Hanji, was there and he laid flowers on an altar.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
And may, I'm sorry if I'm laughing.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
I know this is an offering food to send this
to the thing, but this is screams publicity stunt. He
offered a portion of KFC chicken as well, and did
you know, call it what it was? You gotta at
least appreciate the openness.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Was it an original recipe or extra crispy doing unclear?
Speaker 5 (26:53):
I don't even know if you can get the two,
if there's a distinction anymore.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
But he did say that he was very aware that
this whole saga, this whole like lore, has contributed to
the raising of the value of their brand name. So
I don't know, guys, any thoughts on this. It's just
it's such a neat, weird story to begin with. And uh,
the you know, baseball is in general such a superstitious
(27:16):
sport in America, even where people are you know, won't
change their socks or have certain pregame things or you know,
rituals or chewing the same piece of gum or whatever.
It's really interesting to see these kind of cultural things
sort of collide in a very interesting amalcam of American
and Japanese culture in this story.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I don't have too much, guys. I was just having
fond memories as you were discussing it, seeing no Norm
McDonald as the Colonel like back in the day, and
Darryl Hammond and a bunch of other actors got to
like do cameos, and I was just having fond memories
of that. And I hope this, uh, I hope the
team does well.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
I miss this. Do we know where the statue will
ultimately find its resting place?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Yeah, I'm sorry, but I didn't get to that. The
whole thrust of the ceremony is that it ends in
the burial. The ceremonial burial of this sculpture, I can
only assume it is on site at the shrine that
I mentioned, the Taishi Shrine, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
In Osaka.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
So you know, it certainly would also be another great
branding play to have it's the final resting site marked
so people can go leave KFC buckets and flowers.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
You know, I'm looking at photos. I've been to the shrine.
It is dope. It is amazing. If you can go.
But the kernel wasn't there when I when I.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
Saw no, No, this is pretty new.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I also predict, on the note of superstition and folklore,
that there will be a new relic of power or
an objective powers. They're called in control in the Nation
of Japan. The search continues for the left hand of
the kernel, right.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
And the glasses. I forgot glasses had also been knocked
off or whatever.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Which is weird because I don't I don't ever think
of the glasses as being a separate part of a
of a sculpture.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
I wouldn't think so either, But maybe maybe it was,
like it's plastic, so maybe it was sort of you know,
hotblood or something.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Where is the left hand? Man, I'm gonna be thinking
about that, you know, like the old hand of glory
in an infernal magic. I would love to hand remains
where someone finds the hand of the kernel and the
there's a curse or it has power. What I'm just
going to write it?
Speaker 6 (29:35):
What was it?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
You know?
Speaker 4 (29:35):
What was that movie with the hand? The recent movie
Speak to Me, Talk to Me?
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that was Maybe they find the hand.
It's in beauty with some sort of melodical. Excellent.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Yeah, Infernal Powers. I really liked that movie a lot
as well.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
Guys.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Another great example of like, you know, kind of like
the Daniels, how they started kind of do it as
like real low five practical kind of music video things
like I can't remember the dude's names, but it's a
brother twins then the Philipoo Brothers is their name. They
have a YouTube presence of like really crazy cool YouTube
kind of videos that are like artsy and bizarre, and
they are now making giant movies that did well, so
(30:12):
good for them. But yeah, that's it for the Curse
of the Colonel. Hopefully it's lifted.
Speaker 5 (30:16):
Let's take a quick.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Break and then we'll return with one more piece of
strange news.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
And we have returned a couple of things in our conversation.
Just to respond to the conversation about the Baltimore Bridge,
I think we should do an episode on the shipping
the cargo manufacturer that created that, because I'm looking into
the conspiracies they've been tangled up with in the past,
(30:47):
and there are quite a few. So that's just like
a note to the universe. I think there's an episode there. Awesome,
and I wanted to start out by I'm not going
to put you too much on the spot, Doc, but
I want to thank you on air for making my
day earlier today and sending me a joke that we
will never never mention on the on the show, you
(31:12):
remember what we're talking about.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I audibly guess, Okay, maybe we won't never.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Mind anyway, just to tell you that even in our case,
there is some stuff. There are some jokes. We don't
want you to know some stuff. Yeah, yeah, but that
was a real Gallows humor there, Doc, Respect and salute.
Our final story for this week's Strange News program is
(31:41):
like the Baltimore Bridge, it is an ongoing story and
the tragic mystery is afoot. On March twenty second, again
as we were recording previously, a small band of terrorists
attacked a music venue in Moscow, and as of now
at this moment, there are an estimated one hundred and
(32:03):
forty deaths with north of three hundred and sixty injuries,
either as a result of the gunshot as poisoning of
the fire that happened shortly thereafter. There were four terrorists
involved in pretty soon after the news broke is the
Islamic state claimed responsibility. The Putin administration continues to claim
(32:28):
that this was actually this was actually an operation by
Ukraine or some agent of the West through a proxy.
And they're claiming, I mean, they're all but explicitly saying
they believe they believe that the West and or Ukraine
(32:50):
managed to use is the Islamic State as kind of
a false flag, right, or a patsy to blame this odd.
So if we go to the timeline here, what we
see is that the Crocus City Hall, that's the music venue.
It's in a place called Krasnogorsk, and I'm mispronouncing that
(33:13):
it started right before a Russian band called Picnic was
scheduled to play a sold out show. And this is
a very very big venue. We know that it gets
stranger and stranger the deeper you dig. Okay, at first,
we know the basic timeline. These masked gunmen in combat
(33:37):
fatigues came in the open fire on the crowd using
ak style assault rifles. They also apparently had pistols and knives.
And put yourself in this situation. If you've been to
a concert that has a lot of theatrical sound design,
then you might hear gunshots and think it's part of
the opener, you know what I mean, Travis Skull or whatever, right,
(34:05):
And I also want to stop there. Do you guys
are you familiar with the Russian band Picnic? I was
not Picnic. Yeah, yeah, okay, Well they're pretty big because
this is there is a huge venue. Unfortunately at the
time also there were children and teenagers in this venue
(34:25):
for an unrelated ballroom dance competition, So that gives us
a sense of the size, the fact that they can
have these two big events going on at once. And
there is a little bit of video footage that shows
these people firing into the crowd. It appears they were
wearing baseball caps. The assailants are apparently heard shouting to
(34:50):
each other in Arabic and then they escape after deploying
sendury devices we should mention gas bombs to start a
fire in the audit, which led to even more injuries.
The authorities responded as quickly as they could, but the
gunman initially escaped and then they got captured per Russian
(35:14):
authorities attempting to exit Russia via the poorous western border
in the war with Ukraine. Does that jibe with what
you guys have seen reporting.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, it's just been really complicated to follow because there
have been several high level conspiracy theories that have put
out by the Kremlin which are fascinating just about again
often placing blame on the West, have like instead of
ISIS or ISIS as the cover. But it's really changed
(35:50):
a lot since this story first broke again, Like last
time we were recording one of these strange news it
happened like right after that. Yeah, it's just confusing if
it feels weird and a very high level tragic attack
on civilians m m.
Speaker 5 (36:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
And I was talking with was talking with some people
familiar with this situation doing like just a vibe tech
you know, what can you tell us about this? And
even if you are just looking through a cursory kind
of like forensic Google investigation of the context and how
this situation came to be, then you see a lot
(36:30):
of troubling things. It is a fact that the West
warned Russia that some attack was imminent. They were it
was Canada and the United Kingdom and the US warned
any of their citizens in Russia there seemed like there
was an attack. The US privately warned Russian officials that
(36:54):
this spin off, this franchise of the Islamic State was
going to attack because they had gathered intelligence earlier in March,
like earlier that month, this was fresh baked information, and
Putin apparently roundly ignored it because the US intelligence community
(37:14):
officially they have something called the duty to warn requirement,
which means that if there is a dangerous attack on
civilians that is imminent and actionable, then it doesn't matter
if you're friends with the country where it's going to happen,
you are supposed to let them know. Because the innocence evolved.
You know, they have nothing to do with the larger wars.
(37:37):
So Putin and Putin's circle, or I guess, I say,
the Putin administration, they dismissed this, and they didn't just
say it was incorrect. They said it was blackmail. They
said it was a threat. So they're saying. They didn't
take this as a hey, let's at least work together
to save lives. They took it as I guess, a
(37:58):
very sinister move right, and that may be part of
why Putin is accusing Ukraine, which he did immediately, and
Zelenski came out from Ukraine immediately and said no, absolutely not.
We did not do this. And let's think about the
people the countries that were warning Russia, Canada, the UK,
(38:23):
the US. This feels five I to me, right because
for the US, I don't know the conspiracy theories being
floated by Russia. Tell me what you think about this
one is that you'll see people on the internet going,
you know, it's interesting how ISAIS seems to be attacking
(38:44):
enemies of the West now and the concept being, the
implication being that the Islamic state itself is heavily compromised,
and maybe now the terrorist has become a puppet of
Western forces. I think that's a lot that seems kind
of complicated, right, well.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Overly so to the point where it seems, you know,
it's that thing whenever a conspiracy has way way too
many moving parts or way too many parties that need
to be in perfect sink and cooperation, chances are the
reality is.
Speaker 5 (39:15):
Something a little more streamlined.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
It's a little route Goldberg esk right, yea yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
But it is an organization that has largely fallen out
of popular coverage in media, right yeah. So, I don't know,
when you feel like there's an armed somewhat organized group
like that. I'm not saying there's any sand of the
accusations that it's being used as some kind of puppet organization,
but it does feel weird when you don't hear about
(39:40):
it very often. Then something this high profile comes along, right,
that appears to have a lot of planning, a lot
of strategy to get all those people you know, into
where they were, to have the weapons they had, and
to pull it all off. Yeah, it feels even more
organized than you imagine a group like that would be.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Yeah, and also not just to the point of organization,
but if you look at the fingerprints of previous is activity,
this doesn't match their moone. This is a change. You know,
they usually, without sounding to crass, they usually send folks
on a one way trip when they're sowing this kind
(40:19):
of tragedy in chaos. And maybe it's because this is
a regional branch or a subsidiary of the larger Islamic state.
This is is KP Islamic State, Corrusan province. But the
idea that they would make an attack and it not
be a suicide attack, that is it is just markedly different.
(40:43):
You know, previous Islamic State things like we had discussed
a little bit off air the attack in Iran which
led to more than one hundred people dead. That was
to that was two suicide bombers. So it seems or
at least you know, I don't know how much we
read into it, but it is worth noting that their
(41:06):
tactics have changed at this point. They attempted to have
an exit plan. And then also why would their exit
plan be Ukraine? Is it because the border is more
porous due to conflict, But then knowing you would have
to drive through bloody swaths of the military, the military
(41:27):
that you just attacked, or is country you just attacked,
it's I don't like it. It's dodgy, it's suspect. And
there's another. There are even more pieces that get stranger
and stranger. You guys, remember the apartments, right, How Putin
came to power? Oh man, it's not a story. The
Jedi will tell you.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Okay, can you tell us here?
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Yeah? Sure. In nineteen ninety nine, there was a series
of explosions for apartment blocks in different cities around Russia, Moscow, Polnaksk, Vogodunksk.
More than three hundred people were killed, thousands of people
were injured, and this became one of the events that
(42:14):
led Putin to his current level of power, because after
those bombings occurred, Putin used as the pretext to launch
a second war in Chechnya, and this became a long
protracted war. It wasn't just a special military operation. History
is proving that is apparently never the case. And for
(42:36):
a long time Putin's critics and Putin's rivals and journalists,
they maintained that Vladimir Putin may have pulled like a
p and Ac or even something even something more evil,
that he either planned the attacks or allowed the attacks
(42:58):
to happen so that he could gather power, consolidate power,
and launch this war in Chechnya. This also led to
the Yeltsin losing power and stepping down in nineteen ninety nine.
So if you believe that there is more to the
story than the official narrative right now of what's happening
with the Moscow attacks, then you look at prior events
(43:23):
like this, and I've got to tell you, I don't
know the answers in this specific regard, but surely, just
with the things we've outlined in less than fifteen minutes here,
it's suspect, right, it's fishy. Does this not seem fishy?
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (43:37):
Yeah, highly. The question is like what, ooh, why? When? Where?
Speaker 3 (43:43):
Now?
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah? What kind of fish? What kind of fish is it?
Speaker 3 (43:46):
It's unfortunately a good question. We're going to have to
We're going to have to think about it, and we
need your help, folks, So let us know what you
think of the official narrative. Obviously, the Putin administration is
going to use this as for the rationalization for the
conflict in Ukraine. We still don't know how much force
(44:07):
Russia can put, like how much extra force or additional
force they can put into play. And a quick lass note,
Putin did quite recently, like as we're recording, come out
and say that he blamed radical Islamic extremists. He believes
they were operating at the best of Ukraine. But we'll
leave you with this. Those terrorists, those four guys killed
(44:33):
world one hundred people and then got back in a car,
drove almost two thousand miles, passed multiple military checkpoints before
they were caught. The Islamic state doesn't do stuff like that,
or they didn't.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Makes you think just goes back to the what trained
by the West. Basically isis did it? But they were trained,
that's the claim that's being made there. I mean it
does sound tactics that you'd hear about with special forces
training or something. But again that's complete speculation.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
We don't have the proof, you know. We just know
that are there are things that complicate or that call
into question this official narrative we're getting. And we now
have two competing narratives from the superpowers of old. Right,
we warned you, no, you threatened us, and now we
(45:27):
will respond. And when elephants make war, its the grass
that suffers. We want to hear your thoughts, fellow conspiracy realist,
tell us what is on your mind, what is going
on in Moscow? Would love to hear from you if
you're in the Baltimore area or if you're in the
Moscow area as well. And we're wishing your friends, families,
and yourself safe travels and adventures and good health. We
(45:52):
hope that you do not get cursed by a fast
food mascot. That's a good way to end it. And yeah,
let us know your thoughts. We try to be easy
to do.
Speaker 4 (46:00):
Like or even like a serial mask guy like that
to can Sam or Lucky the Leprecaun Man the book
Come for You Careful, you can find us. Let us
know what your favorite fast food or cereal mascot is.
You can find it the handle Conspiracy Stuff on Facebook,
on YouTube, where we have delightful videos rolling out every week.
I think we've got it on another installment of the
(46:22):
George Washington saga, as he travels through time and discovers
products of the modern day that plunge him into existential dread.
You can find this also at that handle on XK, Twitter,
on Instagram, and TikTok where at Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
We also have a phone number one eight three three
std WYTK. When you call in, you've got three minutes,
give yourself a cool nickname and let us know if
we can use your message on the air. If you
don't want to do that, you got more to send us?
Maybe I don't know links, attachments? Why not send us
a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
We are the folks who read every single email. We
get to be careful the void it may write back,
send us the links, put it on record, put it
in writing, send us the pictures, send us the audio.
It's one of our favorite parts of the show. Reading
your emails so help us out conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Stuff they Don't want you to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News
Hosts And Creators
Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Show Links
RSSStoreAboutLive ShowsPopular Podcasts
1. The Podium
The Podium: An NBC Olympic and Paralympic podcast. Join us for insider coverage during the intense competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the run-up to the Opening Ceremony, we’ll bring you deep into the stories and events that have you know and those you'll be hard-pressed to forget.
2. In The Village
In The Village will take you into the most exclusive areas of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to explore the daily life of athletes, complete with all the funny, mundane and unexpected things you learn off the field of play. Join Elizabeth Beisel as she sits down with Olympians each day in Paris.
3. iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2024 Olympics.