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 I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show.
(00:25):
My name is Matt, my name is Noel. They called
me Ben. We are joined as always with our super
producer Paul Mission Controlled deconds. Most importantly, you are you,
You are here, and that makes this the stuff they
don't want you to know. It's the most wonderful time
of the week. If you're tuning in when today's show
comes out, then it is Thursday, which means it is
(00:48):
time for our listener mail segment. We have been receiving
some incredible correspondence. As always, Thank you to everyone who's
written in, Thank you to everyone email, thank you to
everyone who's called um, and thanks to thanks to the dentist.
Actually that um No. I don't know if you go
(01:09):
to this one, but Matt and I go to a
dentist in town and have for years, and every so
often I'll be a little loopy today because I just
got back, but every so often this dentist, who's a
wonderful guy, will like ask me questions about conspiracies and
slam his hand in my mouth while you're under the drill.
That's that's kind of sinister. Dr Presley. You know who
(01:32):
you are. You know you are Dr Presley. His name
is Dr Pressley, Yeah, first Presley. Yeah, his first name
is literally doctor. Yeah. Well I'm kidding, of course, that
makes me of course, that makes me think of Steve
Martin's character in Horrors, who does an Elvis kind of
bit and is like a statistest. That's such a That
(01:55):
song is a banger um. Yeah, so you know, just
picture this is what our lives are like outside of
the air, folks. Picture picture faithful correspondent going to the
dentist and then it's like, oh, hey, I do have
a good you know, summer or whatever. Yeah, it was fine,
and then we killed Kennedy. Uh, but he's doing well
(02:18):
since his regards, hope everybody else is doing well. Uh
as well, since we're getting paid by how many times
we say the word well apparently at the beginning here, uh,
we're going to explore some disturbing stories. We're going to
explore some topical stories. We're going to hear some messages
(02:38):
from you, some of which are stranger than others fellow
conspiracy realists. UM, I haven't talked to you guys about
this off air, but I'm still loving the people are
sending in ghost stories. I am beat me here, Paul,
I am thinking all about it. You know what I mean.
It's always Halloween in America when you think about it.
(02:58):
I'm not letting it lie. There's one that's gonna appear today.
The ghost it's gonna appear. It's going to make it
a spooky impiance. Yes, like possibly, I too enjoy the
stories to continue to float their way in. Yes, yes,
uh so much so that who knows. Maybe we'll just
have a cavalcade of ghost stories one day soon. No promises,
(03:22):
but we're we're not rolling it out either. We're going
to look into a We're gonna go to some dark
places today. UM, and I propose that we maybe we
start with something a little topical, something that's been on
everybody's mind for the past. Gosh, when did this happen?
(03:44):
It wasn't It was like a few days ago, right,
astra a World, Yeah, yeah, I was just last week.
So we have um, as as you can imagine, folks,
we've been we've been tuned into social media. We've been
tuned into our various conspiracy forums where we skull around
or skulk about on the internet, and this is something
(04:04):
that everybody's been talking about. As a matter of fact.
You know what, I had some I know about you guys.
I had some family members ping me about this and
say like, hey, what do you guys think? What's what's
on your mind? And there's so much noise here um.
But we're still I think, collectively getting the facts and
separating those from you know, the I don't know social
(04:27):
trends or exaggerations. But no, you uh, you clocked a
really interesting letter from a returning conspiracy realist. I believe
that's correct. I I thought that the name seemed familiar.
It's from z S. Chaser. I think that's so. I'm
going to choose to pronounce it, and I will begin
with reading the email in full, because it's a it's
a nice, pithy short one. Um Hey guys, z s
(04:48):
here um spelled triple z U. Lately, videos of the
Travis Scott Astro World concert have been showing up on
my Reddit feed. The videos show Travis Scott telling members
of the crowd to inflict harm on an individual. The
individual did try to steal Travis Scott's shoe, but some
crimes can often be paid off. In other words, I
(05:11):
think z is implying that if you are a person
of means, like a giant music star like Travis Scott,
that even if you are inciting violence, it's possible that
you can, you know, grease some palms and get away
with just paying a fine without serving jail time. The
things Travis Scott has done in the past similar a
million UM. Even if inciting violence, the thing is how
(05:33):
far can it go? Are there cases of music artists
whose fans have pushed it too far? Seeing Travis Scott
up there with the fans felt a little cult dish.
Don't know if you feel that vibe. Thanks guys, love
the show. UM. First of all, I just want to
clarify the video in question here that ZS is talking
about wasn't from the Astro World show. It was from
(05:53):
a different concert that that took place UM in a
previous year. UM. But Travis Scott has the reputation for
UM asking fans to jump barricades, UM encouraging fans to
break in two over sold shows. You know, because they
he honestly does behave in a cult leader ish way
(06:14):
in the way he talks to his fans. And as
we know, with massive crowds like that, there can be trouble,
you know, if if people aren't kept under control, or
if there is a mob mentality. Um case in point
limb Biscuit at wood Stock. Uh right, yeah, I would
stuck nine where they you know, literally asked the crowd
(06:35):
to break uh. And granted those are the lyrics to
an absolute banger of a song by Limp Biscuit, but
they did not do anything to call him the crowd
down when they saw that there were fires being set
in craziness ensuing um and Yeah. This video shows Travis
Scott after Ace crowdsurfing and a fan apparently takes his shoe.
He says, I'm quoting here. Believe me, if you would
(06:57):
Paul like bring that motherucker over here, um too, at
which point of the crowd grabs said mofo and like
you know, essentially hauls him over to the front um
where he then says that guy up. That's what Travis
Scott says, um, implying he wants them to give this
person to administer Uh. Some sort of vigil anti justice
(07:20):
to this guy who was a young, skinny, white male. Um,
none of that matters. I'm just describing this the scene. Uh,
And you don't really see what happens because the angle
of the video is sort of above the crowd and
you can't quite see into it. But I would imagine
this dude got a few licks before he was passed
over to security and then Travis Scott instructed a security
(07:42):
to get him out of there. Um. Yeah, he took
the guy's shoe. And that's a pretty stupid move. Um.
But also, you know, crowdsurfing is a dangerous endeavor, and
you know you often see like women crowdsurfing who get
groped and not saying that they they have it coming
or something, but it is something when you enter into
a situation where literally thousands of hands are passing over
(08:03):
your body. Uh, you might lose a shoe, you might
get felt up in in an uncomfortable way. I mean,
you know, certainly there are individuals who might take advantage
of the situation and really you know, actually try to
perpetrate some sort of sexual assault or at the very least,
you know, uh, an inappropriate um form of touching. But
if you're gonna throw yourself onto a crowd, you're gonna
(08:24):
get touched and you might get a garment ripped, or
you might get a shoe pulled off because you never know,
like if the guy might be holding onto his foot
trying to pass him and someone pulled them. And these shoes,
you know a lot of these shoes that are elastic
at the top, some of these fancy sneakers, they could
come off, you know. UM, So it's unclear as to
whether this kid intended to steal Travis Scott's shoe. UM,
(08:45):
in my opinion, Yeah, and there's this, there's also you know,
it's it's unfortunately not surprising, uh or triple Z that
there are videos that people are thinking come from Astro
were old when they actually come from an earlier incident,
because there have been quite a few incidents at Travis
(09:06):
Scott concerts in this UM, there's something that I wanted
to go back to in the in the letter that
you sent us, which is the idea of those crimes
being paid off. I think that specifically referring to seventeen,
where he was arrested in Arkansas charged with inciting a
riot endangering miners and disorderly conduct because injuries resulted when
(09:32):
he told people to rush the stage. But some of
those charges were dismissed in eighteen and when he pled
guilty to disorderly conduct, he paid like a little under
seven thousand dollars to the two people who said they
were injured. So maybe that's what we're talking about when
we say crimes are paid off. He hasn't done, He
hasn't done any jail time. But it is um. I
(09:55):
love the point out Limp Biscuit. It is illegal for
people too. You can be charged with inciting a riot
if the if the law judges that you have done that.
You know, even and sometimes I'm sure musicians might say, well,
as part of the performance, you know, our song was
this is us inciting a riot? We were just playing
(10:15):
our song, you know. But I don't know how much
water that holds in court. Well, and we know, you know,
with the whole trump um uh storming of the capital thing,
it was very hard for folks to pin on him
and the language that he used that he was inciting
a riot. That was very difficult. Uh. He you know,
you can always frame it in terms of he was
speaking conceptually or whatever, like you know, and not not
(10:38):
necessarily encouraging people to take physical action, uh, to you know,
commit physical acts of violence. It could just be like
you know, shut up in theory, like you know, with
your with your minds and your attitudes or whatever. Not
necessarily right now, um, but just really quickly to double
back in case anyone's not been paying attention. Astro World
(10:58):
was a festival ald in Houston, Texas, and this concert
took place over the weekend on on a Fridays. When
this happened, UM fifty people roughly were in attendance when
headliner Travis Scott took the stage and UM, according to
multiple accounts that are all over the internet if you
want to find them, UM, when he began to play,
(11:19):
the crowd surge to the point where folks that were
kind of stuck in the middle of it couldn't move
and they were just and I've felt this before if
anyone's been in like a submash pit or like a
surging crowd, it's it's very intense sensation where you feel
your body literally being pulled and you're not able to
control that. Um, that's its own thing, and that can
be exhilarating and kind of fun. But what's not fun
(11:41):
is when um, people are literally being suffocated by human bodies,
and like, you know, there's descriptions of like layers of
bodies being trampled underfoot and people not being able to
catch their breath, um, and all of this stuff. And
in this case, it resulted in the death of I
believe nine people and injuries to hundreds of people, um
(12:05):
who were caught up in this search. And there is video,
you know showing members of the crowd jumping the barricade
and begging, pleading with security and an event personnel to
stop the concert, um that people need help, and and
it just seems to be falling on deaf ears and
even like at one point when an ambulance kind of
pulls out into the crowd, UM, Travis Scott appears to
(12:27):
continue performing. UM. Instead of like saying, hey, what gives
so every there was everyone okay? Uh, he seems to
continue performing, and at some point I believe he does
kind of take a beat and try to see what's
going on, but it seems to have gone on much
longer than makes any sense. UM. There's video of a
woman who like jumps out of the crowd and hops
(12:49):
the barricade is by a camera person and is pleading
with like an event personnel to stop the concert. That
person does not uh does not take heed. Um. Yeah,
that this is one I want to bring up. I
see all of the shade pretty firmly focused on the
performer who's on stage. There's plenty of blame to go around,
(13:12):
but I think I know where you're going with it.
People to inject other folks with drugs. Yeah, but but
this part just I'm familiar with being on stage and
allowed area and not knowing, especially if you're a musician
or if you're you know, you've got monitors in your ears,
just your your unawareness of what's happening, especially when it's
(13:36):
a sea of people right you look out and it
is that many people in front of you. I've never
been in front of fifty people, but I know just
from like a couple of thousand that it it does
something to your mind. Your your awareness is shifted. So
I'm just saying it's up to the event personnel, people
who are running the boards, people who are monitoring via
security or other you know, whatever whatever the staff is,
(13:59):
It's would be up to them. To let Travis the
performer know that there's an emergency. We need to do
something right. There's a decision that wasn't made at something.
How can you tell if someone like how can you
watch every falling sparrow? I've I've been in front of
large crowds before, and the point you bring up is excellent.
It is very, very difficult to even see a person
(14:21):
past you know, past Broten as an individual, you know them,
and how would you how would you tell if someone
is unconscious versus dead? How would you know how seriously
someone was injured unless security or medical staff was telling you.
I mean, it did get wild, like a law enforcement
(14:42):
officer was injected with something they had to give the
guy Narcand I doubt that Scott was out there saying, hey,
you know, you guys want to rage inject people with stuff.
I doubt it was anything like that, you know, but
I was not at astro world. I completely agree and
this is coming fodder for conspiracy theories galore. Uh. There
(15:05):
is an article on the Daily beast Um with the
headline TikTok and qan on panic over Satanism conspiracies at
deadly Travis Scott concert referring to upside down crosses are
things that could be perceived as upside down crosses on
the stage. If you've seen his kind of iconic it's
like his head, but it's like an open mouth. That's like, um,
(15:26):
the insurance to the festival. I think it was the
cover of his album or it was part of his
like set when he when he first came out. Um,
and it looks a lot like this horonymous Bosh painting
of a giant like open mouth, kind of demon head,
and it's one of those paintings of ronomous boshes that's
meant to, you know, depict what hell would be like. Um.
So this stuff is just going absolutely bananas on the internet.
(15:48):
May well deserve uh its own episode once we find
out more about all of this. Um. But I still
do think based on the pattern of Scott's behavior, the
whole telling a crowd to beat up as an individual
person for supposedly stealing his shoe, that's just irresponsible. Um.
(16:10):
He also, like you said, he did you know, obviously
Greece some palms at a previous concert for inciting a riot.
I mean that is something that you have the power
to do with your words. Um. He's also got it
his his team has a really bad track record for
safety um from various incidents, you know, throughout his career.
So I do think there's some responsibility, not all rests
(16:32):
with with with Scott himself. UM. I think that Live Nation,
you know, the promoter and also the venue UM, they
did not appear to have a contingency plan in place
for a crowd surge like this, UM. And it does
appear that Scott himself is in total damage control mode.
I'm sure the guy's distraught. I would hope. UM. He
he has offered to pay for the funeral expenses of
(16:55):
everyone that was that was killed at at the at
the festival, and he's made some deal. This is a
little weird. I don't know, Maybe I'm just being cynical,
but it's made it better better help Yeah, which is
one of the sponsors of the show Full Full Disclosure
UM to you know, give free therapy to those that
were traumatized life changingly so um at this event. So
(17:17):
it's it's it's something to watch the whole drug injection thing.
It's just adding insult to injury for the whole thing,
just to show how out of control this whole scene
was and you know, I just it's wild man and
then and all of these uh Satanism conspiracies, you know,
um getting kind of nuts and apparently TikTok's not doing
(17:38):
much to shut them down, um, which you know they
don't have to. That's what it's. It's the kind of
place where these things do kind of you know, grow from.
And uh, that's what the Internet is. You know, We're
not gonna shut down every crackpot theory on the Internet
or else it wouldn't really be the Internet with um.
But yeah, it's like so there's some there's some ideas
that there's invoked invocations of astrology and the sacred yah matree,
(18:01):
uh like um scorpio season, you know, um iconography and
things like that, and yeah, it's it's interesting stuff. I
don't know, what do you guys think. I hear where.
I hear your position completely, Matt, and I've been in
a similar situation. It is nearly impossible to figure out
what's going on in that situation. But when you see
an ambulance riding out into the crowd, to me, I
(18:24):
think that would be a pretty good reason to maybe
stop the concert. Though there is some stuff from promoters
saying or police saying that they didn't want to shut
the concert down because they thought that would further cause
a riot, which I also understand. Yeah, and I'm certainly
not meaning to lessen, you know, Travis Scott's involvement here.
I just I'm just pointing out that it's not solely
(18:46):
his responsibility to make sure everyone at that concert is safe.
They're literally people whose jobs it is to keep people
safe when they're at a venue like that. Um, it's
a terrible tragedy. Did you guys notice I think Chandler
somebody posted on our internal communications that the brain stuff
video that Josh made way back in the day about
(19:09):
crowd crushes. I think I wrote that one. Actually yeah, UM,
it was weird to go back and watch that and
Paul directed it and shot it. Paul. Uh. But um,
let's move on for now, but something to keep an
eye on, um as these as as more information you know,
(19:30):
uh gets released. UM, and obviously are our thoughts are
with the families of those who lost their lives and
those who were injured. And you know, it really made
me think twice I brought my daughter to a concert
just the other weekend same weekend. Actually, it was always
been a couple of days before the span one hundred
gecks and she and her friend really wanted to go
down into the pit, and she's old enough. I was like,
(19:52):
it's cool. We kept an eye on her, and it
was she was with two other friends. And now it's
kind of making me think twice about that. Um, you know,
and again I don't want this to be fearmongering type. Story.
Is certainly an indoor kind of like club type concert
with room to breathe. It seems like for these you
know now that clubs are rebody back up, they're not
overbooking them. Is a little different than fifty people. Um,
(20:14):
but it still makes you think twice. So, um, keeping
on your kids these concerts. Make sure they're not getting
injected with weird secret trucks. Okay, everybody, quick update. The
police have in fact corrected their original claim about the
alleged injections. They now are saying that the person in
question was in fact pinched and non injected. Of course,
the story continues to unfold, and we will have a
(20:35):
full episode on this in the very near future. And
take a break and we back with some more Listener
melt and we're back. Now we're going to quickly listen
to a ghost story. Then we'll move on to another voicemail.
We're gonna do too, so prepare yourselves. Here we go.
(20:58):
First one. This message comes from P. Yes, you've heard
me P. Like the letter P. The letter P as
friends of P. Thank you, Yeah, your friends of P
and your friends with me. Hey, folks, this is P
from Southwest Virginia. Uh. I kind of wanted to call
(21:18):
and let you guys know about a story that I
have of my own. UM. When I was in college,
I went to a small, liberal, large college tucked in
the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The college is very old.
A lot of the buildings on campus have, you know,
lots of stories associated with them, you know, like like
most colleges do. UM one building in particular, though, seems
(21:40):
to have I'm much more high concentration of stories about it.
And that building is the chapel, custodio, staff, pastors, students, professors,
alumni of the college. Pretty Much everyone you talk to
has some kind of story, and I myself have a
story that I have tried to explain away but can ut.
(22:01):
When I was a sophomore in college. One night, um,
I had been playing Dungeons and Dragons with some friends
of mine until pretty late, uh still about two am,
and I was still commuting at this time, and so
I thought to myself, well, I need to use the
restroom before I go home. I can stop in at
the chapel because I know the doors are always unlocked,
and the church has three levels, the balcony, the main level,
(22:23):
and then the fellowship holl in the basement. Well, I
went into the basement door into fellowship Hall and it's
this huge dark room two pianos, and so I walked
into the room and one of the pianos was broken
and the other was pushed up against the wall, covered
up into things, and I was acquired in turn of
the time as I knew they didn't work. One of
the pianos started playing, and I was like, that's weird,
but someone's playing a prank, So I want to use
(22:44):
the restroom. I came back out. When I set foot
into the fellowship poll, the pianos began playing erratically, and
as I walked across the room, it evolved very quickly
into sounded like someone just slamming their fists and the keyboard.
I basically called out to stop, you know you're gonna damage.
The piano was slamming on it like that. I hear
the key cover slam shut. I look over and that
(23:06):
this whole time there's been known there, and then I
hear footsteps take off running dressing towards me. Um. I
quickly ran outside and got the baseball bat out on
my truck and came back inside because I thought someone
was like trying to ras me or whatever, and time
back inside and there was nobody there. I can't explain it.
I've tried for a long time, but yeah, that's my
(23:26):
my paranormal story. There you go, po Yeah, there you go,
and pee my pants if that happened to me. I mean,
I've been in many church and chapel at night when
the lights are dim and the pianos are amongst us.
I've never had anything like that occur. I'm just wonder,
(23:50):
I wonder how you guys would react to that. I
don't think I'd get a bat and go back inside.
I love this kind of stuff, you know. I've I've
been um trying not to, you know, make any of
these stories about myself. I don't think that's useful for
us to listen to. But uh, I'm surely not the
(24:13):
only person in the audience today who enjoys investigating those
kinds of things. And you when you start with the mundane,
is there maybe a speaker system, is someone playing a prank?
Is there's someone in a nearby structure or room that
could have been playing something? But this sounds like Conlin
nan Caro type chaos. P look up that guy in
(24:36):
a N C A R R O W and let
us know if that's kind of what it sounds like.
Have you guys ever heard that that piano composer it's sanity.
It's like the band Square Pusher, but it's this guy
who purposely wrote these compositions that could not be played
by human hands. Um, because people get into wild stuff. Um. Yeah,
(24:59):
I would say, there's uh. First, the big question P
and I don't mean to RaSE you here. A phrase
I love is uh, what would you have done with
the bat? Like if it was a ghost? Well maybe,
but I guess the idea is maybe it wasn't a ghost. Right.
It sounds like, yeah, it sounds like pie'ce initial reaction
with somebody's you know, trying to scare me, or maybe
(25:21):
it was you know, meant to hurt me and like
got me out of there. Well, I'm gonna defend myself
in this chapel, so I'm going back inside. That's peace, Yeah,
I see that. I also think that there's a really
common belief in in uh, instruments, in particular musical instruments,
becoming repositories for some sort of energy, whether you want
(25:43):
to call that piano paranormal or whether you want to
say it's a cultural psychological framing thing. Uh, but p
it sounds like you have not had a history of
auditory hallucinations. It sounds like this is you set up
the story so well by saying that other people have
reported that friends of p have reported seeing or experiencing
(26:08):
paranormal activity in this vicinity. So I wonder if anybody
else reported hearing something, and if they did, which I'm
altto certainly have right given the storied history here, if
they did, how amazing would it be if they heard
the same song? You know. That's that's a good That's
an interesting place to start. What do you guys think? Yeah, perfect, hey,
(26:31):
did you did you go to a liberal arts college
and the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains right to us
and let us know about your chapels. Piano. I had
to quickly just chim And I didn't have my haunting
experience at this place, but I feel like I should have. Um.
I went to a fine arts magnus school in the
town where I grew up, Augusta, Georgia, called Davidson Fine Arts.
And uh, the last year of the existence of the old,
(26:55):
old decrepit building that it was in for many many
years was my first year there. I was or for
like fifth fifth grade, I think, and then if we
moved to a brand new building, but um, it remained
derelict and like you know, um they had us asbestos
and it was like a real problematic building and it
was like a blight. And I finally got like bulldozed,
but me and some friends like snuck into it and
(27:15):
the auditorium all the seats were covered with like tarps
and stuff, and there was all this like you know,
just um asbestos dust everywhere. It's really stupid thing to
have done. But there were like in the halls just
piles of like old textbooks, just like massive mountains of them,
and like desks just piled like and you know lay
miss like the barricade or something like that. And it
(27:36):
was the spookiest thing ever. And then you know, we
had like all of these uh um iso booths where
you could practice, you know, like um quiet rooms, and
those were still there. Uh And there were also lots
of old, weird, decrepit out of tune pianos there. And
I wish I had had a spooky event. Nothing spooky
happened except for just the existence of this place, but
(27:56):
would've been a perfect opportunity for a haunting, real missed opportunity.
Ghosts definitely. So yeah, right to us about Europeano huntings,
we want to hear them. We're indi instrument, you know, bassoon, harmonica.
I'll take a steel drum. Everyone knows the bassoon is
the spookiest of band instruments, you know, I quite I
quite love the spookiness of the cello. You know, it's
(28:19):
all like heartbreak and goth and crumbling fingertips on statues.
It's cooetic. Yeah, give us those haunted harp stories. We're
all about them, all of them harpsichords bring it on.
But hey, that's an all p Thank you. For letting
us know about your story. We're gonna jump to one
more message that comes from Starlight. Hey guys, you can
(28:41):
call me Starlight. I just listen to the least episode
and you're talking about the Felis Cartel and Bals now
expert on ld BALB, but I do have a lot
of experience with using them just with my job, and
I do another thing or two by lectron it and
(29:03):
led is absolutely can last, you know, thirtyurs, like that's
just how they work. But I think how they limit
the lifespan of these LED bulbs is actually with the
capacitors inside, and if you look up the capacitor temperature
versus lifespan chart, what you'll see is as they run hotter,
(29:23):
they last a shorter amount of time. And how these
drivers circuits work inside these bulbs is if that capacitor fails,
the whole bulb goes out or starts the flicker. So
I think, I think that's what they're doing because I've
never seen an ld babb at last, you know, thirty
fifty hours, but I've seen L E d s and
(29:46):
other things that have been lit up for decades, so
I know that they can last a long time, And
I think the way they're artificially limiting the lifespan is
by running them bout a higher temperature, so they way
I enjoy the shell. Feel free to use this on
the air. And uh, you guys later, thanks? Interesting Do
(30:10):
you think running them at a higher temperature makes them brighter? Well,
it's weird because LED bulbs don't run on heat, right.
LED bulbs run on electricity, just the amount you're sending
into them, so like its limits the flow of electrons. Right,
And it's but it's not like a filament, right that's
actually heating up to generate the light. I misspoke, by
(30:33):
the way. Um, it is a pretty easy mistake to make.
But a capacitor, uh stores and releases electricity. It's a
resistor that can like dissipate electric energy. So the capacitor
literally like you know, can store it and then release
it as needed. And a resistor is something that like
causes resistance between two points in a circuit and limits
(30:53):
or like slows the flow of electricity. But yes, uh,
starlight is correct here. If you go to green lighting
dot ceo dot UK, you can read this quick little
blurb about how LED lighting generally both impressive life spans,
at least compared to traditional bulbs and other forms of bulbs.
(31:13):
And the main issue here is the quality of the components.
So it's not the actual l ed light itself that
is the thing that's going to burn out the way
a filament would burn out in a traditional bulb. It
is the capacitor. And how long this light last depends
directly on the capacitors and the other components within that bulb.
(31:34):
I mean, it's just right there on the face of it.
You can find that on a ton of other websites
that tell you all about that depends on whether or
not that capacitor is made of plastic or ceramic or
some other substance. Generally, ceramic capacitors are gonna last a
lot longer, and you will pay more for that bulb
that has a ceramic capacitor. In a lot of ways,
it's you get what you pay for. So if it's
(31:57):
cheaper components to make each individual bulb, they're going to
go out suster so it is, and running amid a
higher temperature is going to be more damaging. That's just
how any mechanic, like any electronic or mechanical device works,
it's the same reason why you know, um, it's the
same reason why tires on race cars wear out so
much more quickly than tires on your local Honda Civic
(32:18):
or camera or god forbid, Honda Odyssey. Don't buy, God,
just don't do. And yes, Ben to what you were saying. Generally,
LED bulbs function the best when they're between sixty five
degrees fahrenheit and seventy five degrees fahrenheit And if you like, like,
that's their best operating temperature essentially, not for the bulb itself,
(32:40):
but their environment. And if you go above that seventy
five degrees, that's when those components are not going to
function to their best ability essentially. That you can find
out on Bob Vila dot com everybody. That's exciting, and
I want to recommend an article for people to read.
It's in hack a Day dot com h A C
K A d A y dot com. There's an article
(33:03):
called what Happened to the one thousand hour LED Bulbs
posted February five, two thousand nineteen by Ted Yappo y
A p O. There's it's just a great breakdown of
several different LED bulbs that were on the market in
two thousand nineteen, bulbs that were supposed to last sent
some that were supposed to last fifteen thousand hours, and
(33:26):
another was supposed to last twenty five thousand hours. And
it actually they take the bulb part off right, the
part that looks like a light bulb, and they look
at the components inside and really break down how each
one functions and why it may perform for a longer
amount of time. Oh, and there is I would advance starlight.
(33:47):
There is another l e ED conspiracy that you should
be aware of. If you're like, I'm sleeping too easily
at night? Why am I just can't you encount past four? Sheep?
It's this h In addition to the ability to illuminate
the darkness, l e ED fixtures can be used to
spy on people. No way, like like they can be repurposed,
(34:08):
Yes way, ted they can? Yeah, yeah. This has been
reported in places like Computer World as far back as
U l A. L e ED lights can covertly listen,
so they can hear audio. Some can send that audio
a relatively short distance, like three away to somebody else. Uh,
(34:32):
it's not just closed circuit television anymore. So, I guess
I guess something like an Alexa was around before, right,
we just called them lightbulbs. I don't know if these
are the kinds you can buy it at stores, but um.
A while back, The New York Times reported that almost
two hundred L e ED fixtures hundred seventy one light
(34:55):
bulbs in Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport were
quote unquote watching the crowd. I never thought of this
is very weird. Well, hey, Starlight, thank you for writing
in for giving us that info. We hope everybody out
there has good lighting wherever you are, keep it dim,
turn it off when you're not around. You can save
(35:17):
some some money. And uh, the various light bulb cartels
don't want you to know that you can save your
bulbs by just not using them. It's crazy, right, That's
that's the heart of the conspiracy there. Yeah. I mean
you make a really really good point, Matt, which is
that um, because of because of the way they function.
(35:38):
I think L e ED bulbs, right, can dim or
diminish over time? Is that correct? Yes? Yeah, Uh, they're
they're like, there's so much to read and to know
about the l D bulbs, and they're also very vastly
different in their construction and the components within them. So
I would just say do do your own research if
(35:59):
you're interested and like finding the best bulbs and things.
We're not going to recommend one to you, but a
bunch of the companies make them, including GE, which is
being up into three different companies now, Yes, Aviation, Healthcare,
and the wonderfully vaguely named Energy. So what is that.
That's just reactors the reactors, right, Yeah, for sure. But
(36:21):
but GE and Phillips were two of the major players
in that initial Phoebus cartel story, and Phillips is one
of the leaders in um l e ed bulbs today
with their whole hue line. I have them from my
whole house and I love them. But they're also like
seventy five bucks a pop um, so they damn well
(36:41):
better last longer than a thousand hours, or last longer
than a traditional light bulb that costs, like, you know,
a couple of bucks. Yeah, and we should also mention
if you want to learn more about the entire dirty
story of the Phoebus cartel and the fundamental role it
played in what we call planned obsolescence, please check out
the YouTube video we did a number of years ago.
(37:02):
Please also check out our full audio episode that we
did uh number of years ago. It's an historic event,
so the facts aren't really going to change. They did
the industry dirty and they made a lot of money.
Yes they did, and we hope we didn't do you dirty.
P or Starlight. Thank you for sending in your voice
(37:23):
so we can play it on here. We'll be right
back after another word from our sponsors, and we have
returned for our final piece or pieces of listener mail today. UM,
I'm gonna do something different today. I'd like to share
(37:45):
a story that's a bit of a palate cleanser, and
then I'd also like to explicitly ask our fellow conspiracy
realist for help. And some you know a lot of
us in the crowd will reach out to me on
on social media, UM to ask a certain question or
to follow up with something, and that's invaluable. You're the
most important part of this show. And more often than not,
(38:08):
and I'm just I can't speak for everyone here, but
more often than not, I run into situations where I
genuinely not only do I not know the answer, but
the guesses I can make just become increasingly disturbing, and
so stay tuned for At the end, we're gonna ask
specifically for your opinion on something. But in the meantime,
(38:28):
how about a palate cleanser. You guys, we received the
most delightful email from somebody who has decided to call
themselves chicken Guy. Seven seven five six seven seven four.
I guess that's There are a lot of chicken guys
out there, man, but you're our chicken guy. To be
very clear, hope that's not a phone number, Uh, it's
(38:56):
I guess we could consult some numerologists to figure out
what area code is represented by the linguistic phrase chicken guy.
So Matt, I could tell you're on the case here. Um, so,
chicken guy, here's what you said. I'm you're gonna paraphrase
a little here. Hey, gang, big fan of the show.
(39:19):
I love the way you all dive into crazy subjects
and pick them apart and look at them rationally. Really
refreshing and fun way to look at conspiracy theories. Thank you,
Chicken Guy seven seven five six seven seven four. The
reason I am contacting you all today is a strange story.
My girlfriend told me. It's not as big or as
fancy as the other listeners stories you've gotten, but it's
(39:39):
just too strange not to share. The story goes like this,
and Matt Noll, if you haven't read this email, this
is great. I am having so much fun with this one. Uh.
We were eating lunch, says chicken guy seven seven five
six seven seven four with my family after church, and
somehow the conversation landed on the subject of churches chicken.
(40:01):
Pausing here, Noll, Matt, we know churches Chicken. We got
those here in Atlanta. Are you guys fans of churches Chicken?
It's all right? I mean the way they have those
honey biscuits that I really like. They have like honey
like flavored, kind of like basted biscuits. They're quite good. Yeah, Chicken,
they do spicy chicken. You never hear of churches. Yeah,
(40:22):
I'm I'm I'm I tend to be a Popeye's guy,
but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna turn I like
how I like how we have at our office. We're
right down the street from this awesome Popeye's with some
very very blunt people working there. So I don't know
(40:42):
abou Jangles. Yeah, that's why well, that's how the triumvirate dissipates.
We'll go off to our respective chicken places. Anybody now,
And I do like a Cajun filet biscuit from bouj Angles.
Do That's that's what I want right now. I don't
think I've ever been to a Bojangles, to a lot
of I've been to a lot of chicken shacks in
my time, but I was just like enamored of the
(41:06):
Popeye's next to our office when I pulled up one day,
just in a hurry to get lunch, and the person
at the drive through just said, what When I rolled up,
it was amazing. So anyway, that's that's nothing to do
with this story from Chicken Guy. I just wanted to
gauge you guys opinions for the next time I bring
you lunch. Um. Alright, so chicken Guy says. The conversation
(41:31):
landed on the subject the church's chicken. My girlfriend immediately
lit up and told us all the story about a
church's chicken from her hometown in Mansfield, Ohio. The story
goes that there was a church's chicken that she and
her family went to a lot, and then one day
it just mysteriously shut down. All the windows were boarded up,
(41:51):
the building was painted gray. Signs were taken down and
painted over. The crazy part is when she told me
that there was an article about the church's chicken never
actually existing legally in the first place. Thinking this is
too much to be true, I looked it up and
sure enough, it is true. A reporter went on and
tried to find the truth behind why this was shut down,
(42:14):
and in the end this reporter and uh chicken guy
links us to the article. Uh couldn't find anyone who
could explain why it was closed, couldn't find the manager.
The staff went to Church's Chicken corporate and they said
they don't know what happened. They don't know why there
was never a church's Chicken in the town, the entirety
(42:35):
of this town in Ohio to begin with. And there's
one line from the reporter. He says, as boke with
a man named Luise who told me there was no
active church's Chicken in Mansfield. When I asked if there
ever had been one, he told me there was not
a Church's Chicken in Mansfield in the system at all.
And so he says, I don't want to be dishonest.
I might be wrong about the whole restaurant never existing,
(42:55):
but he says there's not one in the system currently.
He also asked if there's ever been one. The guy
says no. But if I'm reading it correctly, it sounds
like they're saying there was never an actual official Church's
Chicken in Mansfield, Ohio. So if it wasn't Church's Chicken,
then what was it? Are you kidding? O Jangles in disguise?
(43:17):
Right like the Transformers theme, but it's chicken. This is
um so. I I enjoyed this because, first off, first off,
thank you Chicken guy for sending this this letter our way.
These are the kind of regional mysteries. I don't know
about you guys, but these are kind of regional mysteries
I really dig because it sounds like someone started a
(43:40):
fake Church's Chicken and then like left when the heat
got too close. Are you sure they're not talking about
the Church of Chicken the Lesser the Little Known Cult? Yeah?
Is it? Is it spelled c h U r C
H apostrophe s or yes? I think r H. You know,
(44:03):
I've never really given this much thought. I believe it's uh. Yes,
Oh I gues. It's just yes, it's apostrophes. Is that okay?
All right, you're right, you're right. So I'm wondering if
there was a differently spelled churches chicken. Right, that's someone No, wait,
(44:24):
hold on, yeah, hold the phone. I'm looking at the
link that was said to us. Yeah, yep, yep, that's
a real picture of a closed down like regular logo
churches chicken. Yeah. Oh yeah, they got away. This is something.
I mean, I don't know why we talked about this
on on stuff they want you to know, but something
(44:44):
fascinates me. Counterfeit fast food places. I don't know, we
could do it. We could do a non harrowing episode
one day and just choose something like explore counterfeit fast
food places because there are a lot of like internationally,
it's so fascinating, dude. There are countries that do to sanctions,
can't have things like a McDonald's, etcetera. Right, and so
(45:07):
they have these local variations that are almost exactly like McDonald's.
The language is different, but I you know, like think
of like Burger Kang with the ag or burger crane.
If we want to do teenage mutant Ninja Turtles there's
a really great episode of Nathan for You where he
uses a parody law to create essentially a Starbucks clone
(45:28):
called Dumb Starbucks. Yes, he uses all of the same
branding and apparently I just looked it up and it
says dumb Starbucks forced to close after owner reveals himself
as Comedy Central show host. I remember that. That's a
great show and that episode is amazing. I love that show.
It's so clever. So the good news is or the
(45:50):
weird news is chicken guy, you are correct, sir, Give
the man a Give the man a sandwich and a biscuit, because, uh,
this this does it here to be some kind of
very weird. I'm thinking. I'm thinking it was a very
weird scam. I'm thinking maybe somehow somebody just got just
(46:12):
decided to maybe make a church's chicken without paying the
franchise fee. Franchising is its own weird thing, by the way. Um,
and then they got maybe they got caught. Maybe maybe
an actual churches man blew into town and checked his
great map of all the church's chickens and said, there's
(46:33):
something amiss, you know what I mean, like a chicken,
like a fake fast food location. Bounty hunter like Dog
the bounty Hunter, but with chicken shacks church. Yes. Uh
so the issue is that this reporter according this link
(46:58):
that Chicken Guy sent us. This reporter even called the
Secretary of State, who was able to verify that a
company named BAM Enterprises based in Columbus, Ohio owned the
actual building. Uh. BAM Enterprises is uh, it was founded
in two thousand and eight. It's only got one to
five employees. Private it's private business. Uh. You can read
(47:22):
a little bit about their um, you know, their business profile,
but they don't. You know, there's not really a statement
about church's chicken. And now I've just this reminds me
of that time we were looking through New York to
find fake buildings. I wonder like, was it a front
for something? Surely not, because Chicken Guy's girlfriend went there
(47:45):
on a regular basis for years. Someone was just for
some reason, it appears, pretending to be a church's chicken.
How do you how do you get you ever see,
you ever hear about someone's life and you think, no judgment,
But how did they get to that moment? How did
they get to that? You know what George Bush would
(48:05):
call a decision point what in their life made them
look around one day and say, I want to fake
having a church's chicken. That's my thing. Well, they I'm
just remembering a certain chicken place from a certain television
show about Yes, wait, it's just the your brain thing. No, no,
(48:32):
this is this is the Breaking Bad Chicken place. Is
a real place. I always I think, yeah, I always
think they're the same. Um. By the way, unrelated but
somewhat related. UM. I recently did a Halloween movie marathon,
like I'm sure we all sort of did, and I
(48:54):
watched the Stephen King adaptation of the short story Trucks
that was made into a very very bad eighties movie.
The King himself directed, likely under the influence of a
meth like substance that he was very into at the
time called Maximum Overdrive, and in it, UM, these trucks
get possessed by like aliens from another dimension unclear, very
very convoluted plot, but a cameo appearance in the first
(49:17):
one of the first scenes in the truck stop arcade
is none other than the actor who plays Gus Spring
in UM Breaking Bad. When he's like, you know, maybe
in his early twenties. Uh, he gets spoiler alert he
gets fried by some very bad painted on electricity that
comes out of like a Space Invaders machine or something.
And you see you say you didn't like that film,
(49:38):
but this is the second time you've mentioned it. I
liked it a lot. It was so bad that it
was good, very bad. Yeah. The trailer trailer itself, it's
Stephen King, and he's like, all he's here. People direct
tried to direct Stephen King films, and I just decided
if he wants something dead right, do your self, like
(50:04):
I'm not going to, but I know I think we are.
It is wild, you guys, And clearly he never directed
another film again, but yeah, he gave his best shot.
That actor is Giancarlo Esposito, I believe, Yeah, that's exactly. Yes,
major shout out to far Christ Sis anybody. He's playing
(50:27):
that right now, because he plays the big bad he's
all stand up in it too, like it looks like
him the character, which usually it's just the voice actors,
but they've been doing a lot more like Likenesses was
that other one with the guy from Walking Dead where
he's very much like up in it, standing something like that.
So I'm not sure how to segue back to Church's Chicken.
(50:49):
But I am going to finish this up. So this,
uh this, if you want to see the remains of
this building for yourself, like cannot um, we cannot legally
tell you to snoop around there and see what you
can find. But all you have to do is go
to two seven six Park Avenue West there in Mansfield, Ohio.
(51:12):
This is public information. Big thanks to Chicken Guy. Big
thanks to Noah Jones, the reporter who wrote the Richland
Source article on this. As far as the other as
far as the other threads we will pull, Honestly, we
would have to take some time to figure out what's
going on. It is unusual. Two, it is unusual to
(51:38):
trace these stories. And then there rabbit holes that I
immensely enjoy. We do want to point out that the
reporters found an oil company was involved. The place based
in Delaware called Humble Oil and Refining Company sold the
property back in the day to something I entifying itself
(52:00):
as Church's Fried Chicken with a po box in San Antonio,
Texas back in two Uh, nobody nobody knew really uh
what happened? Oh, Matt, you gotta that's a revelation face.
I know you will. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
What is it? I went to Google Maps. I went
(52:22):
to the location that you just mentioned. If if you're
on the main street going down uh next to this location,
it is a gray building all great out, gray painted
over particle board that's up on the all the windows.
If you go forward just a little bit and you
(52:43):
take oh yep, if you go forward just a little bit,
you can see the entire churches the way it used
to stand if you go down North Benton Street, Uh.
And it is so stark and strange to see the
two build things. They're together at the same time as
we're hearing about the story. Weird. Yeah, yeah, good eye man,
(53:07):
because I had Um, I looked around there too. That's
so I like, this is where this is what we're
talking about. We're saying, send us your local mysteries. Send it,
you know, your local cryptids. Send us these strange stories. Um.
I hope, Matt Noel, I hope you guys are into them,
(53:27):
because I'm just gonna be optionate about this. I want
to know, like if there's something I like the guy
wrote in about the closed Walmart housing military equipment. Those
are stories that don't really make you know national news
and every so often there's something strange about So please
please right to us, call us, email us, give us
(53:48):
your stories, these local mysteries, whether sinister, whether absurd, whether amusing,
whether you think they are possibly paranormal. Would love to
read them. But four we wrap up today. They want
to make good on what I said earlier. Uh, this,
this is a request, This may be a this may
(54:11):
lead everybody into unpleasant territory. But I recently received a
question via my personal social media regarding the possibility of
Dylan Roof being not just a lone actor, but the
question asking whether or not he was ordered by some
(54:33):
group or organization to perpetrate the the horrific mass killing
of nine people there in Charleston. And I've done some
digging on this. I'm thinking this is part of a
bigger story, possibly secret secret societies or secret organizations existing
(54:57):
in different levels of of power, structures that may be
ideologically motivated by by racist beliefs. The question is how
deep does it go? The question is was Dylan Roof
involved or was he as the official media narrative states,
was he someone who self radicalized online? That's what you'll hear. Now, however,
(55:20):
I do want to point out before we all get
to hunting down this idea or to you know, thinking
of our own theories or walking through the possibilities. Uh,
do you want to point out that a friend of
Dylan Roof's was was facing conspiracy charges from the FBI. Now,
(55:41):
the legal definition of a conspiracy is not necessarily the
same thing as the casual conversational tone we use when
discussing conspiracies. So at this point, would love to hear
your thoughts. UM, gonna do some more digging on this
end and then circle back, But in the meantime, UM,
(56:01):
please provide your insight. Uh, please give us your ideas.
Do you think this is maybe alarmist? Do you think
there's something more to this story? Uh? I cannot wait
to hear from you again. You are the most important
part of this show. And you might be saying, yes,
you tell me that all the time every Thursday, But
(56:21):
how the hell do I talk to you? Well, we're
going to give you the answer. If you want to
take a page from uh Starlight and p and Triple
Z and Chicken Guys book and contact us directly, we'd
love to hear from you. We try to be easy
to find online. On the Internet, you can find us
in all the usual places of note. You can find
(56:42):
this on Facebook, um where where. We also have a
Facebook group called Here's Where It Gets Crazy. You can
find us on Twitter. You can find us on YouTube
under the handle Conspiracy Stuff. On Instagram, we go by
Conspiracy Stuff Show. You can also find us by dialing
us up on the telephone. We are one three three
s E D W y t K. Yes. When you
(57:02):
call in, please give yourself a cool nickname. You have
three minutes. Use them however you wish. Really that time
is yours. We will hear it, and we will either
be pleased, very happy, disappointed, uh, scared. They're all the
things you can make us feel however you want to
make us feel. We are excited at getting to feel
something via your voice. That's a weird, okay. If you
(57:27):
need more than three minutes, you can instead send us
a good old fashioned the email. We are conspiracy at
I heart radio dot com. Stuff they Don't Want You
(57:54):
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