April 26, 2021 • 54 mins
It turns out the late Prince Philip was a huge UFO buff. The guys explore the deeply troubling, worsening situation in Myanmar following the recent military coup -- a coup that has already cost more than 600 lives, with no end in sight. All this and more in this week's strange news.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome back to
(00:25):
the show. My name is nol Our compatriot Matt is
on adventures and will return. They called me Ben. We
are joined as always with our superproducer Alexis code named
Doc Holiday Jackson. Most importantly, you are you, You are here,
and that makes this stuff they don't want you to know.
It's the top of the week, so we are exploring
(00:48):
strange news and we've got some We've got some strange
stuff going on here. We've got UH. We had a
lot of response to our earlier reports about cargo, cults
and Prince Philip. So our adventures today involve UH Royalty,
they involve UFOs, they involve democracy for the lack thereof,
(01:10):
We're We're going in many directions with today's show, nol
If people do Matt proud. But my first question for
you is, UH, I saw a headline we're researching ahead
of this UH that that you hit the team to
about Prince Philip. And this is something I did not
know about the late UK royal Yeah. In addition to
(01:32):
you know, dabbling and casual racism, it turns out that
he's super into UFOs. Who knew. Yeah. He also looks
like that character from that one Buffy the Vampire Slayer
episode that everyone likes where nobody can talk, and they're
these like creepy like sinister dudes and suits that say,
you know, sure whatever I think that was. That's called
hush actually, Um, but yeah, creepy looking guy, very very
(01:56):
problematic guy. Um. I also found that the name of
his biography is the like driest name in the history
of biographies. It's called Prince Philip The Turbulent Early Life
of the Man who married Queen Elizabeth the Second. Oh
yeah that this is like a real page turner. Um.
(02:17):
But uh. The gentleman Philip d who wrote this biography
or worked on this biography with Prince Philip UM apparently
found the conversations going in somewhat unusual directions. Um he Uh.
It came after he had um worked previously on a
(02:39):
book about some prominent UFO experts or ufologists if you will. Um.
And this was actually after World War Two, So this
is like super old school, you know, UFO talk and
Prince Philip, it turns out, has a massive collection of
book on UFOs subscribes to a British quarterly magazine called
(03:04):
Flying Saucer Review that seems so antiquated. The idea of
Flying Saucer Review, it seems in the name itself would
make you know, people don't take it super seriously saucers anymore.
Adding review to things makes them feel like academic. That's
a good point. Then that author, by the way that
we're talking, there are two Philips in this story. I
(03:26):
think there's Prince Philip and then the author Philip D Right.
And yeah, and in the process of researching, you know,
this book, he found out all this stuff. Um. And obviously,
as we know, by the way this is, there's a
great article that runs down a lot of this there's
a few actually, um. It seems like it just came
out after uh, the the Duke of Edinburgh's passing. Um.
(03:50):
But yeah, the Vice has as an article that kind
of goes through a lot of this stuff. Um, that
I definitely used as a primary research source for this
this conversation. Um. But it's super interesting, man, because like,
especially considering the way he behaved towards those whole cargo
cult situations, you know, like kind of leaning into it
(04:12):
a little bit, and you know, posing for selfies and
all of that. Right then, Yeah, so we Uh, I
want to thank everybody who wrote in about that earlier story.
Not everybody had the same perspective, but I think we
can all agree, regardless of your opinions about Prince Philip
or the monarchy in general. Uh, the people who are
(04:35):
part of the royal family lead very different and oftentimes,
as odd as it may sound, very demanding lives. Like
they're not in coal mines, you know, they're not stealing
stripping copper from abandoned warehouses, but they are held to
some rigid social standards. They're required to, uh do all
(04:58):
sorts of diplomatic functions and so on. With a story
like this, what I think is really interesting is that
it's not one of those things. It's something that the
guy was clearly personally into, and I get the feeling
checking out this Vice article and a couple of other things,
I get the feeling that he was the kind of
(05:19):
person who if you were at one of those diplomatic functions,
or if you just saw him around the house and
you wanted to strike up a conversation. I bet the
best icebreaker was, uh, you know, what do you think
about UFOs? Dude? You couldn't call him dude because he's
the Duke of Edinburgh, but sire, my lord, my liege,
(05:40):
what do you call a guy like that? Your your
duke ship totally yeah, that would be yeah, the very least.
I think he would appreciate the goal, the audacity of it,
the outright audacity. Um, and you you're right then, like
these you know, we we've talked about the royal family
and people have opinions. It's obviously a great source of
like kind of reality show ask entertainment for many people,
(06:01):
and they get a lot of flak because there's sort
of these figureheads that don't you know, have a lot
of direct uh influence over policy, but they certainly have
indirect influence over policy, as is evidenced by the story
that apparently Prince Philip uh was always talking about UFOs
to his equerry. Equerry which is an officer within the
(06:26):
royal household. I guess sort of like a valet, you know,
but like more like official and this the gentleman has
the most British name of all times, Sir Peter Horseley. Uh.
And he went on to become the Deputy Commander in
Chief of the Royal Air Force Strike Command, which sounds
really epic. Um. But apparently after Queen Elizabeth was was coronated.
(06:47):
Is that is that? Okay? Can you see corinated? Yeah?
I've ever heard that word used in that form. After
her coronation um. In nineteen fifty three, he privately asked
hoarsely or dare I say kind of instructed Horsely to
look into quote credible accounts of alien encounters or UFO
(07:08):
sightings um. And he, prince Ville himself is quoted as saying, uh,
there are many reasons that extraterrestrials exist because there is
so much evidence from reliable witnesses. And he said this
like a long time ago, way before any of this
disclosure stuff. What do you think do you think there's
(07:29):
like information sharing between the US and British government, or
that there's British intelligence about the alien encounters just like
we have. You know, some of the stuff that's starting
to kind of trickle out. I know you generally work
with horses owned, boy, but to go and digging and
tell me about these extra terrest deals. Yeah, you know,
(07:52):
it's it's interesting because at that level, what you'll see
is that information sharing can become pretty informal. So there
are formal classified information sharing agreements, especially in the Anglo sphere,
the country between countries and the Anglo sphere. But also
if you're Prince Philip and you're on good terms with
(08:14):
the US president or the president of some other country,
you will be at a dinner party somewhere and you
can just say, what's your take on UFOs? What do
you guys got to say anything interesting? And doesn't have
to be the president. It could be the Director of
National Intelligence and then they could conceivably, off the record,
share some stuff, have a conversation. Technically that would probably
(08:37):
be illegal, but I'm sure it's happened before, and I'm
not surprised because we have to remember Prince Philip grew
up and and lived in a time when, especially like
leading up to World War two. Post World War two,
people were intensely interested in the idea of unidentified flying objects,
(09:00):
so I think it makes sense. Also, it's interesting because
I wonder, and this may be a question for our
British listeners. I wonder how much he would have known
about classified classified aircraft research in the UK. Would it
be need to know? Basis, does he count as someone
(09:21):
who needs to know? Can he just pull rank and
learn everything? Or how compartmentalized is their information? Also points
for nominative determinism. The Equerry is back in the day,
the Equerry was in charge of the horses, I believe.
And this guy's name is Horseley. Oh yeah, exactly, of
course that makes sense Equine. Yeah, that's I didn't even
(09:43):
think about that then, in the Equerry. But why is
he the why is he the UFO guy? Or does
Prince Philip? My question is, does Prince Philip believe that
horses and UFOs are related? Because if so, that's very
interesting and I want to hear his take on it. Oh,
I'm sure he got many takes that will never hear.
But I'm fascinated by this biography. I'm sure there's some
(10:04):
interesting quotes in there. Um. It certainly seems like it
went in an unconventional direction. But this guy hoarsely is
quoted quite a few times, and you know, publicly talking
about this um where he he has a really great,
uh quippy kind of little British wit about him, there's
no question. Um. He is quoted in saying that Prince
(10:29):
Philip had him invite individuals to Buckingham Palace to talk
about their encounters with extraterrestrial life or UFOs um, and
he said that he and uh Philip thought this was
a quote method as effective as any truth serum, because
(10:51):
no one would dare uh tell a lie in front
of the royal family. I think the phrase the excellent
vice article, uh Jelissa Castordale uses is chat in front
of a member of the royal family, which that's just right.
And I actually I was gonna mention that too, because
I thought that was me Horsely himself talking, which sounded
(11:13):
like so uh super British and like and witty. But
now I realized that this is totally just creative licensed
by the by the writer here, but excellent phrase. And
I'm definitely gonna add that to my vocabulary and will
pause for a word from our sponsor. Then we'll return
with more strange news and we're back. It's funny too,
(11:37):
because I think I believe this direction we're going with Horseley.
But I think it's so fascinating how often the public
forgets that people, even people in high positions of worldly power,
are still just human and have hobbies and eccentricities and quirks.
Like Horsely was far from a skeptic to my understand Andy.
(12:00):
He believed in uf He believed in aliens who believed
in UFOs. He also believed in telepathy, and he actually
believes he met an alien named Mr Janice. Like, oh
that's right, yeah, yea, yeah, yeah exactly. I was just
talking about that with with our friend Victor last night,
about whether it's pronounced Janice or Janis. I think the
(12:24):
day The argument was that he thinks it's Janice, and
I definitely have heard it pronounced both with but I
always say a Janis too because I like the soft
day as well. Ben, But yeah, Mr Janie or Janis
if you want it that way. Um was like this
apparently this dude who is supposedly had had like an
(12:45):
encounter with an alien there, you know, because he he
was like vetting people. He was basically like grooming and
vetting these like UFO encounter people to come hang out
of bucking impalace. It was like a thing, I guess
whether I don't know, you could argue with for his
own amusement. Prince phil up or if it was genuinely
he was like, you know, the truth is out there
kind of vibe. But he obviously took it pretty seriously
(13:06):
and had this guy go out and find these people
with these stories to share. And Horsely said, um, basically
said that the guy had like borderline telepathic abilities and like,
you know, had this uncanny ability to read his thoughts.
Um and he uh is a quote from Horsely. He wrote,
I asked him why he wanted to meet Prince Philip,
(13:28):
and he replied, Prince Philip is a man of great vision,
a person of world renown and a leader in the
realm of wildlife and the environment. He is a man
who believes strongly in the proper relationship between man and nature,
which will prove of great importance in future galactic harmony.
(13:50):
Who and then you know, Horsely goes on to say
that he, like you, had these kind of dead eyes,
you know, and he believed him self to be some
sort of extraterrestrial being or extra dimensional whatever. Right. Um, yeah,
he told the Daily Mail. He didn't say he was
a visitor from another planet, but I had that impression.
(14:14):
I believe he was here to observe us. I never
saw him again, and there's not other other than his
account Horseley's account, I don't believe there there are any
other real traces of Mr J. So we don't know
the veracity of horsely statement. I don't think he has
(14:35):
a reason to lie. But also I when I see
quotes like the longer one that you read from Mr J,
I don't believe those are that's a little too clean.
I think at the very least horse Lease maybe paraphrasing
from memory. But the evidence here is the implication that
(14:58):
the vibe that Horseley got was he was and alien.
And you know, he said he's here to observe us.
I never saw him again. I think that's a fascinating story.
And I'm not saying telepathy is impossible, but I am
saying cold reading is very well proven. It is possible
to like a lot of people. No matter how you
(15:18):
feel about psychic powers, there are people who purposely pretend
to have psychic powers and they're really just doing a
cold read on you. Right, I feel like you may
have been in love at some point with someone was gone.
It's ah, it did their name, it's a it's a, Woa,
(15:38):
it's a man. It's a man. His name is but Gary, Gary,
his name is Gary. And then people are like, whoa,
that's amazing and this guy. You know, I'm just saying,
we don't know how this idea of reading thoughts goes
about or because I I don't know if there were
(16:00):
more specific examples. I think daily Mail that's from right.
He talks a little bit more about that. But I
didn't see I didn't see something like we're horsely said.
I tested him. I thought of a number. He told
me the number. Kind of thing that's also such a
Daily Mail thing to print, isn't it? You know what
I mean? Like utter? You know, I'm sure that the
(16:22):
headline was like Prince Philip meets alien, you know, or whatever,
or or Prince Philip's best horseman meets alien, uh in
London flat. Um. But apparently this obsession, I don't know.
I don't think we have enough information to call it
an obsession quite yet. But certainly was an enthusiasm for
(16:42):
all things um extraterrestrial came. Uh, he kind of came
honestly by um. Was was encouraged by his uncle. All
the best British names in this story Lord Lewis Dicky
mount Batten, um, who, according to the Vice article, is
in that show The Crown, which I have not seen. Um,
but I keep hearing, you know, it's it's such a
(17:03):
part of the conversation right now. I feel like i'm
I'm I'm missing out a little bit. But he is
the one who got him into Flying Saucer Review in
the first place, because he himself was a subscriber. Uh.
And he wrote a letter. UM. I almost want to
say it was like to Flying Saucer Review. It's a
little unclear, but anyway, and in some correspondence, I would
(17:24):
love the idea of like, you know, British royals writing
in to like a Flying Saucer Review magazine, like in
those you know at the end they always have like
letters from from readers and stuff like at the end
of comic books. Um. But he said that he believed
that anyone who was piloting these these alien craft, again
very specific, like he's referring to something that we were
(17:47):
not privy to, had to have come from another planet. Um.
And his his a quote from the letters, his motions Venusians,
Jupiterians or what have you. Uh, that that's who was
piloting these alien craft. Uh, he says, why should life
in another planet with entirely different conditions in any way
resemble life on our planet. That's a really good point, uh,
(18:10):
Lord Lewis Dickey Mount Batton. It's something that always comes
up in conversations about aliens, where it's like, how silly
are we to think that like some magical gold LP
that we sent out into space is going to be
of any use to another alien civilization. They're not going
to have the technology that we have. They're not one
to one. They've if they've got their own thing, they're
(18:30):
probably in their own little technological bubble, either like super
advanced or maybe you know, just completely different terms and uh,
you know equipment like physiologically right. Well, that's that's why
the primary goal in alien contact or attempts to communicate
is math based, primarily physics. Fundamental rules of the game
(18:53):
of the universe as we know it that don't change.
That's that's some of the stuff that subscribed on on
those disks that you mentioned. It's funny because the human
species is so self obsessed that there there is a
lot of stuff being sent out there that's just probably
(19:14):
not gonna make sense at all to a non human
intelligence without a ton of context. But you know, the
more I think about it, looking into this a little
bit before we recorded it went what's the line between
like a hobby or enthusiasm and obsession? This this also
(19:37):
seems to be something that has a little bit of
nostalgia to the Prince because he and his uncle corresponded
and chopped it up so often about UFOs. So there's
there's a social bond there, and there's also, unfortunately, there's
there's a little bit of evidence that members of UM,
(20:01):
the British scientific elite, saw these guys as kind of
batty when uh, when mont Batton wrote to the Ministry
of Defense's chief scientific advisor, a guy named Lord Sally Zuckerman,
which is fun to say, Zuckerman said, here's what I
think of UFOs. They're in the same category as a
(20:22):
ghost or the Locknest monster, because there's no evidence that
any of them actually exists. And maybe this was somewhat
um a little bit of cold water for Montbatton because
he later, according to according to the records, seemed to
gradually drift away from interest in UFOs to other interests.
(20:43):
First off, you know, I love self directed research. I
love when people have passions and interests, and you know,
I think it's fair to assume that these guys would
have had the juice the pool to learn more than
the average UFO enthusiasts. But was there ever any like
revelation that they disclosed in their lifetimes? Yeah, I mean
(21:05):
there's certainly were. Uh, they had some pretty specific theories.
I still specifically Mountain Botton. Um. He I sort of
started off with him just saying, like, you know, what
is generally considered probably a pretty progressive you on on
what alien or extra tracial life by look like like
(21:25):
he was saying then that there would be very little
frame of reference or recognition between you know, humanoid forms
and languages and constructs and you know what would exist
so so very far away and disconnected from us. But
he um, I believe this is a conversation he was
having with um with Prince Philip but talked about like
(21:46):
he really gets into some some serious detail where he
says that these creatures might be gaseous or circular or
very large. They certainly can't breathe I mean right out, Uh,
and they may not have to eat, And I doubt.
If they have babies, bits of their great discs may
(22:07):
break away and grow into a new creature. If the
human race wishes to survive, they may have to band together,
I guess against these gelatinous UH cubes from outer space. Um.
I'm not trying to be dismissive. It's just really interesting.
And I'm also kind of shocked that this uh, this
chief Science Minister or whatever, Lord Sally Zuckerman had the
(22:32):
stones to go up against the royal family like that
and openly, I guess discredit him, or you know, at
the very least kind of negg his whole thing. Right, Well,
it's just giving you I would say, he's just giving
his opinion. He's paid to be a scientific advisor, so
I suppose. But it just feels like that's tricky territory.
You know, if you're really out openly criticizing a member
(22:55):
of the royal family like that, it just it just
seems a little ballsy, It's all. I see what you're saying.
But you know, he's also of the upper class. He
is a lord, so he's got he's probably got a
little more leeway in that regard. But it's you know,
there is a good point about the some of the
description there when they say life form might be possibly circular,
(23:18):
because if you if you imagine let's say, a space
faring species, or you imagine something that somehow evolved in
a vacuum of space right without the same kind of
gravitational constraints terrestrial species will have, then that radial symmetry
(23:39):
makes sense. There's nothing incentivizing you to like pushing against
drew growing in a specific direction. So I could see
that I'm down for space jellyfish. I I would not
be surprised if a lot of if there are somewhere
out there in the universe. Uh, there's more than one
kind of life form that does look similar to the
(24:01):
forms we recognize in the deep oceans. I just don't
think reality is uh creative enough on the based ons
of physics to come up with brand new stuff if
it doesn't have to. That's a good point, Ben, that's
a good point. You know. Philip, until the day he died,
presumably UM never lost his fervor for UM alien exploration.
(24:26):
UM and he apparently uh as recently as last summer
read a book about the Randall Sham Forest incident. Have
we done an episode on this. Ben, I don't know
that Randall sham Forrest incidents, but apparently it's one of
England's most well known UFO sighting. Uh yeah, I don't
remember if we have, but it's cut up. It's one
(24:46):
of those things I would call a phantom topic. It
happened in December of nineteen eighty. Uh. If we haven't,
if I haven't done a video on it, then yeah,
we should definitely do an episode on it. Yeah, agreed.
But all this to say that, you know, he definitely
up until the end was was super into this stuff
and and didn't let any uh you know, back talking
(25:08):
science people dissuade him. Um. The writer of this vice
piece who you mentioned, just Julissa Castra Dale a lot
of cool names in this made a really good point that, like,
aside from this one, you know science schmuck who you
know kind of poured the cold water on Uh lord,
what does it? Bat Batten? Him bought Mount Batten. Excuse me? Um.
(25:33):
She points out that you know, people of the upper crust,
you know who maybe have country estates and uh you know,
are members of of the royal family or adjacent at
the very least, you know that that old old, old
moneyed you know, British high society. When they talk about
stuff like this, they're like praised for being open minded
(25:55):
and freethinking, you know. But when more like blue collar
folks talk about they're you know, asked politely to leave
the wenbies. This same says the difference between being uh
noted eccentric and a raging loon is it really comes
(26:16):
down to social status and income. That's the point of
making earlier when you hear when you hear about very
powerful people being very human, right for all the things
that being very human means, uh, it's it shouldn't be surprising.
Like I guarantee you everybody is weird on some level.
(26:38):
And and the people who look like they are in
charge of the world or hold the reigns of a country.
I hope everyone listening finds it reassuring to know this
and hear this very well. They are just as weird
as you, if not weirder, because there are more opportunities
to get to get real eccentric, more opportunities for weirdness,
(27:00):
and a lot of yes people surrounding you and kind
of encouraging your every you know, whim um that that's
a recipe for for eccentricity, to be sure, but I
thought this was a lot of fun, uh and an
interesting way to remember uh, someone who history baby hasn't
quite settled in on. Uh. You know how how we
(27:20):
feel about this guy. Um, you know this whole like
racist comment that he kind of got, like a quote
unquote racist comment about you know talking well, yes, exactly.
I think he didn't specifically use that word. He just asked,
there's like some some envoy or and some diplomatic trip.
He he was that there was a group of Indigenous
people that performed some sort of the you know, dance
(27:43):
of situation, and he just like very casually says, you
still throw spears at each other. Um, which is obviously,
you know, super weird and problematic. But I actually found
an article I don't know how it came up, but
it said, Uh it was an article from ABC where
one of the indo visuals who he said this too,
(28:03):
felt that the comment was not racist. But I don't
necessarily think it's always up to the person um. And
it's so yeah, that's why again I want to go
circle back to the cargo cults thing Ben, because he
obviously had this weird there's a weird reverence towards this
man from some you know, indigenous people, right yep, uh yeah,
(28:23):
I mean that's not that's not uncommon. Uh. There there
was reverence from a specific indigenous community, but their reverence.
There's reverence for all sorts of celebrities or noted political figures.
There's another example. Always think of uh, I did I
did some something on I can't remember which show this
(28:46):
was for. You know who's big in Paraguay, Rutherford B.
Hayes U S President. People love him there, their statues,
they celebrate him on a yearly basis. They don't think
he's a god. He's not a mythical figure, but he
is a national hero. So I can I can see, uh,
just celebrity and renowned. It's a it's a very it's
(29:08):
a very weird thing. I don't know what Rutherford B.
Hayes thought of UFOs. I I know nothing about him
other than the fact that he's got a pretty memorable name.
And then that's about all I remember. Um in this
same ABC article, and then I know we gotta move on. Um.
And by the way, the comment that that Prince Philip
made was it was an Australian visit to Queensland, Australia.
(29:31):
Um and he uh, the one of the gentlemen. He
said that too. Totally defended him and said, oh, he's
a he's a lovely man. He didn't mean anything by
it and um and then goes on to really gush
about the guy. Uh and in Australia he is he
it wasn't is still beloved, And largely it had to
do with the fact that he was so open and
(29:54):
uh kind of free speaking and presumably free thinking. Uh
and and would kind of just say whatever his mind,
as opposed to the Queen who has seen as being
very um you know, closed off and and formal. Uh.
He was favored that this is a quote from this
uh the way he was perceived by Australians historian um
who literally heard about specific specializations. Uh. She is a
(30:18):
historian on royal visits to Australia. Um and she said
that he was famous quote for for being more open
than the very guarded queen. So when he was young
and fairly handsome, he was seen as dynamic with he
and a breath of fresh air. All this kind of
tracks but uh, like I said, very very interesting dude.
A lot of kind of mixed messages around this guy
(30:42):
over time, but UH, I love the fact that he
was a big UFO head. And so there we leave
the story of the Duke of Edinburgh. UH, Fellow UFO enthusiasts,
We're gonna pause for a word from our sponsor, who
may or may not be illuminate Asian Global Unlimited, and
will be right back and half a world away. But
(31:04):
we're staying on Earth for this next one, and we've returned.
This is an ongoing story that you may have heard
mentioned in Western news to varying degrees of specificity. It's
(31:25):
also something you may have heard us mentioned in the
course of earlier episodes. Our next piece of strange news
is quite unfortunate, and it takes us to mean Mar
mean Mar is a country that doesn't hit the US
news too often. If you're the average resident of the US,
(31:46):
you're probably most familiar with me and Mar through the
story of the democracy activists on Young Succhi. Uh. Myanmar
is if you look at a map, it's directly to
the left of Thailand, the erectly to the right of Bangladesh.
It's it's between those two countries. It shares a border
with several other countries, including China. This has been um
(32:11):
of famously troubled, infamously troubled country for a long time.
It's been ruled by a military junta for most of
our lifetimes for those of us making the show, and
it's something we've talked about before, militaries and their responsibilities
for function and stability of government, which are usually outlined
(32:36):
in the country's constitution. Here's what happened recently. Amid the pandemic.
There was a time of what is often described as
quasi democracy. Russell Goldman, writing for The New York Times,
has a great explainer piece on this February first, there
(32:57):
was a coup de tap in the country, and it
brought back full military rule. I I am the first
to admit I've dunked a little bit on Myanmar's military,
primarily because of their decision a number of years ago
to move the country's capital based on the advice of
(33:18):
an astrologer. That is, yeah, that's a true story. And again,
I think the last time I mentioned I was trying
to be really fair and I was saying, hey, before
you before anybody looks down their collective noses at that decision.
Let's remember that U S presidents like Ronald Reagan have
also taken advice from astrologers, so it's not it's not
(33:39):
restricted to just one country. The military had been in
power in Myanmar since nineteen sixty two and the period
of quasi democracy begins in two thousand eleven, so there
was a long multigenerational history of this being a country
ruled by a military. When democracy came into power in
(34:04):
two thousand eleven, they were implementing reforms, parliamentary elections. It
became very complicated very quickly. The trouble, the recent trouble,
began on November eight. The National League for Democracy is
the leading civilian party and there were elections held on
(34:26):
November eight. National League for Democracy n LD won eight
three per cent of the vote of the seats in parliament.
And what did the military do. They said it was
a sham. They said it was a fraud, They said
this was a kangaroo court election wise, Uh, they said
(34:47):
that the National League for Democracy did not in fact,
when three of the seats um And of course A
San Succi is the head of that democratic party. She's
been as a result, the leader since she's like a
real people's candidate, right, I mean, she's absolutely beloved, and
(35:08):
it's almost like the military resents that kind of you know,
adoration of this individual, who, if I'm not mistaken, I mean,
is a pretty interesting figure and like not not super problematic.
I mean, all politicians have two sides or whatever, but
it's my understanding that she very much was kind of
humanitarian individual and someone who you know, the adoration of
(35:32):
the people kind of makes sense, right, Yeah, But unfortunately
it's it's a little it gets a little complicated when
you say she's the people's candidate. That qualifies as long
as those people are not Rohinga, which is the Muslim
ethnic minority group uh in Myanmar. The country launched a
(35:54):
deadly campaign against this ethnic group UH, and she supported it.
Upon her release from house arrest, Oh, she was also
locked up for years and years and years. UH. She
defended this, this campaign of brutality against the Rohinga in
like the International Court of Justice. So it wasn't just
(36:17):
a throwaway comment in an interview, and a lot of
her supporters said, this is really a pragmatic move to
cooperate with the military because it will accelerate the evolution
toward full democracy. But then when the coup occurred on
February one, it appeared that whatever cooperation or olive branch
(36:39):
she had extended was not enough in their opinion. So
here's what happened when when they said the November eight
elections were bogus, the military went to the country's Supreme
Court and they said, not only are these results fraudulent,
but we are going to take action because it's our
(37:01):
job as the military. We're gonna surround the houses governmental
bodies with soldiers. Sounds troublingly familiar to some of the
actions on January six, right, although those were you know, protesters, rioters,
not paid soldiers totally, And I was, I was remembering
half of the story. She did have a early kind
(37:25):
of period as this golden you know, human rights kind
of beacon, protesting against the regime that m was very
poor with their human rights record essentially, but then essentially
went on to kind of become the thing that she hated, right,
Like that's sort of the complexity of this individual. Yeah. Yeah, Unfortunately, Um,
(37:48):
the you know, the the closer you looked at historical figures,
the more well you know, the more reputational warts you
are likely to find. And that's kind of the case
with Prince Philip as well. You know, people at the
top again are are just as human as everyone else.
(38:09):
The military detained on San Succi, also President you and Mint,
also cabinet ministers, chief ministers of several regions, opposing politicians, writers, activists.
They were locking people up left and right. It was
the hottest new thing. Uh. The coup was pretty much
(38:29):
announced to the public on the military owned TV station
Milwauite TV news anchor there sited the constitution, which had
come into effect in two thousand and eight and said,
you know, the military can legally declare a national emergency,
and this state of emergency that they have declared is
going to stay in place for one year. After that point,
(38:53):
the military took control of the communications infrastructure of Myanmar.
They suspended most TV broadcasts, They canceled flights international and domestic.
I mean, this sounds this sounds sort of par for
the course if you're thinking about it as another country
very far away. But it's important to think about how
(39:14):
you would feel if this occurred in your country, whether
that's the UK, Australia, India is getting close with some
of their authoritarian measures or you know, whether it happened
in the US, what would you do? Telephone, internet access
all suspended, the stock market, the banks, they were closed.
There were long lines outside of a t m s
(39:36):
because people were rushing to get hard currency. People ran
to the markets to stock up on food and supplies.
People were panicking, and their panic proved to be correct.
The public responded with a number of peaceful protests, but
on February the first official deaths occurred to unarmed protesters
(40:01):
were killed by security forces. One of those was a
sixteen year old boy. There was a general strike then
on February, millions of people left their jobs, took to
the street, and then they tried to fight back financially.
This civil disobedience movement crippled the banking system, so it
(40:24):
was tougher for the military to get stuff done. But
then the military became more violent and and that trend increases.
The military at this point has killed more than six people,
and according to international monitoring agencies, they've assaulted, detained, or
(40:44):
tortured thousands of others. And now one of the one
of the other evolutions people are seeing as these peaceful
protesters are mobilizing into what some journalists are describing a
guerrilla force. So remember when we talked about the farm protests,
A lot of the protesters were building barricades to protect themselves.
(41:07):
This is happening in Myanmar, but there they're not traveling
to cities to build these barricades. They're building barricades around
their own neighborhoods, and they're learning how to make smoke
bombs their training and basic forest warfare. This is an untenable,
unsustainable situation, and it could have regional ramifications. It's already
(41:34):
going to have regional ramifications. I mean you have to
imagine the larger countries surrounding the m are all very
well aware of this situation and pretty pretty spooped, and
rightly so. I mean the military like they began a
secret trial on February sixt for all song SUCHI uh,
(41:56):
who to further complicated legacy, by the way, I think
we should mend. And she did win the Nobel Peace
Prize before the Rhinga stuff. Yeah, yeah, no, it's super interesting,
um to see someone kind of devolved in this way,
and and and there's two sides to it all, you know,
I'm sure, But yeah, the I mean is she directly
(42:17):
responsible for human rights violations after being such a proponent
for human rights or is it more just like by association.
I'm a little unclear on that aspect of her. Yeah,
So it goes back to seen people wanted her Nobel
prize to be revoked because she was silent about the
persecution of the Rohinga people in the country. But then
(42:39):
she went on to say that she did not believe
it was ethnic cleansing. She said there was a climate
of fear uh, and that there was a worldwide perception
about global Muslim power that was affecting the military's position. So, yeah,
it gets it gets complicated. The economist famously said her
(43:00):
halo has even slipped among foreign human rights lobbyists, disappointed
at her failure to make a clear stand on behalf
of the Rohinga minority. So it makes you wonder like,
is this a crime of neglect? Is this a crime
of or is this an active crime would be a
better way to say it, like is she making the
(43:20):
laws that allow for this persecution? Well, this time, the
law is definitely not on her side, at least the
way the military is thinking about it. Because imagine this, Okay,
you're the president of a country, or you're the leader
of a country. We should say a leader of a
political party. Military coup occurs and boom, go directly to jail.
(43:41):
Do not pasco, do not collect two hundred dollars. This
trial is bonkers, so she doesn't get any legal representation.
So imagine you went from being one of the most
powerful people in your country to having a secret trial.
Your lawyer is not told that the trial has started.
This trial is believed to take up to a year,
(44:03):
but we have no idea like the reason that she
is on trial. The crime she's accused of has nothing
to do with human rights violations. It's actually she is
accused of violating import restrictions because military forces when they
went into her compound they found walkie talkies. She's also
(44:27):
in trouble for having for interacting with a crowd during
the pandemic, and that's a charge that hadn't been publicly
disclosed before. So we still don't know. If you wanted
to be really cynical a Macavellian about it, you could
say that maybe the military is just looking for an
excuse to keep her jammed up for that year of
(44:50):
military rule, right, now the army chief, Senior General men
On Klong, is the it's sort of the active ruler
of the country. He was supposed to kind of age
out or retire this summer, but he's in trench now
there's there's a possibility for him to become a strong
(45:12):
man because he also has a network based on what
really profitable family businesses, and now if he retires, they
might not be able to make as much of a viig.
So he's probably staying on for a while, even though
he is a business tycoon, a senior military official and
(45:34):
now the ruler of the country. And there was always
I don't know. I mean, you've seen the stories before
where the military intervenes in in a country's state level affairs.
It's always a very dicese situation. It's never well, it's
usually not supposed to be permanent the way it's phrase.
(45:57):
But at this point I have to wonder. My question,
Funeral is do you think there's foreign involvement in this coup?
Do you think, for instance, another regional power broker is
aiding the military or like what prompted this? I don't know, man,
that's a good question. I guess the thing to look forward,
(46:18):
be who who is benefiting from this unrest? Like, is
it regionally destabilizing in a way that benefits any any
other governments or or you know, entities. Yeah, that's that's it.
That's a good that's a good way to look at it.
We BoNT know who benefits. Uh, follow the money, right.
(46:42):
The money may be drying up as well because the
EU and some other international players are sanctioning mean Mar's
leaders in an attempt to depower them, essentially. But it's
funny because the well, when I say funny, it's it's
(47:02):
it's a terrible situation, just to be clear. But one
thing I thought was interesting is that the leaders of
Myanmar officially warned the world not to call this a coup.
That's one of the first things they said internationally. They said, look,
if you are describing this state of emergency, don't call
(47:24):
it a coup. We're doing the right thing. We're doing
legal things. And here's the little add on, And if
you use incorrect words to describe this state of emergency,
that could be seen as an act of instigation. It
could be breaking the law. So be very careful what
(47:45):
you say. Luckily, our podcast is not based in Myanmar
at this point. Yeah, it's sort of like the geopolitical
equivalent of calling a water pipe a bong in a
tobacco store and being asked to leave right, right, right,
but leaving to j L and probably get tortured. Yeah, yeah,
I had to say it out loud. Then don't call
it a coup. We've been here for years, right right?
(48:08):
Uh and and shout out to shout out to some
of my favorite hip hop groups, the Coup and of
course Mighty Haiku based here in Atlanta. Uh, neither of
whom are to my knowledge, involved in overthrowing democratically elected governments.
Just throwing down Swede bars. Yeah. Absolutely, that's where their
(48:29):
passion is. But what about China's passion. I mean, that's
the that's the specter right cast over this entire affair.
The military has conspired to overthrow an elected government. China
has to know about it, right. China has been kind
of playing both sides for a long time. They've got
(48:51):
good relationships with the military hierarchy. They've got good relationships
with the Democratic Party there. They're just you know, they're
playing the long game. And there official statement was pretty interesting.
It's well, I'll read it, I'll share it with you,
and then I don't want to get everybody's take so loong.
(49:12):
When Bin who is the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry
of China, said China and Myanmar are friendly neighbors. We
hope that all parties will properly handle their differences under
the constitution and legal framework to maintain political and social stability.
That is a very polite way to say, not our problem.
(49:32):
In my opinion, what do you think they're just not
They said, this is uh, this is something a problem
you will work out in your own house more or less.
The issue here is that when they've instituted that one
year period, we don't know how far. We don't know
(49:53):
how far we'll go with one year, you know what
I mean? Like, will it what what will happen after
that year? Will there be another election that maybe has
results the military fields are more accurate, or you know,
also favor them a little bit more, or will they
say the state of emergency continues and for the good
(50:13):
of the country, for the greater good, we have to
continue uh military rule. It's just it's so rare for
a group that takes power in this way to voluntarily
give it up. You know what I mean, it's it's
very dangerous water. The other big regional player in the
mix here. The other two big ones are Japan and India.
(50:35):
India is the world's largest democracy. Japan also is worried
that this shift, or this return to authoritarian military rule,
is going to sway Myanmar away from democratic nations and
towards what they call the League of China. And this
(50:57):
has been something Japan was very frightened about were a
long long time because they didn't want Myanmar to become
a vassal state of China. They thought it would be
a danger to the country's prospects for democracy, and Japan
went out of their way to be friendly here. Um.
You know we mentioned two thousand eleven, that's where we
(51:17):
see democracy come into power. The very next year, Japan
canceled a ton of Meamar's debt and then they gave
them another loan to help them clear out their debts
with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank. They were
trying to make like a fresh start for the country.
And at this point it's an ongoing story, but it's
(51:39):
a story I feel like more people should be aware
of because we're going to hear more about it. Um.
I I don't know what the predictions will be. I
hope that, uh, you know, the politicians who have been
locked up, even if even if some of them were corrupt,
I hope that they are safe and incarceration and they
(52:03):
don't get you know, a Russian style illness or something
like that. I hope an accident doesn't occur to them.
But this, this is unsustainable, and because the country is
so poor, it doesn't get as much attention as it should.
So at this point we're gonna We're gonna call it
a day. We'll be back with more strange news next week.
(52:23):
Want to hear from you. Who are your favorite prominent
UFO enthusiasts and do you have family in Myanmar or
have you visited the country? What is your take? If
you are listening to this show and you are in
the country right now, please be safe. We would love
to hear from you. We try to make it easy
(52:44):
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(53:06):
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(53:29):
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(54:02):
want you to know is a production of I heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
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your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome back to
(00:25):
the show. My name is nol Our compatriot Matt is
on adventures and will return. They called me Ben. We
are joined as always with our superproducer Alexis code named
Doc Holiday Jackson. Most importantly, you are you, You are here,
and that makes this stuff they don't want you to know.
It's the top of the week, so we are exploring
(00:48):
strange news and we've got some We've got some strange
stuff going on here. We've got UH. We had a
lot of response to our earlier reports about cargo, cults
and Prince Philip. So our adventures today involve UH Royalty,
they involve UFOs, they involve democracy for the lack thereof,
(01:10):
We're We're going in many directions with today's show, nol
If people do Matt proud. But my first question for
you is, UH, I saw a headline we're researching ahead
of this UH that that you hit the team to
about Prince Philip. And this is something I did not
know about the late UK royal Yeah. In addition to
(01:32):
you know, dabbling and casual racism, it turns out that
he's super into UFOs. Who knew. Yeah. He also looks
like that character from that one Buffy the Vampire Slayer
episode that everyone likes where nobody can talk, and they're
these like creepy like sinister dudes and suits that say,
you know, sure whatever I think that was. That's called
hush actually, Um, but yeah, creepy looking guy, very very
(01:56):
problematic guy. Um. I also found that the name of
his biography is the like driest name in the history
of biographies. It's called Prince Philip The Turbulent Early Life
of the Man who married Queen Elizabeth the Second. Oh
yeah that this is like a real page turner. Um.
(02:17):
But uh. The gentleman Philip d who wrote this biography
or worked on this biography with Prince Philip UM apparently
found the conversations going in somewhat unusual directions. Um he Uh.
It came after he had um worked previously on a
(02:39):
book about some prominent UFO experts or ufologists if you will. Um.
And this was actually after World War Two, So this
is like super old school, you know, UFO talk and
Prince Philip, it turns out, has a massive collection of
book on UFOs subscribes to a British quarterly magazine called
(03:04):
Flying Saucer Review that seems so antiquated. The idea of
Flying Saucer Review, it seems in the name itself would
make you know, people don't take it super seriously saucers anymore.
Adding review to things makes them feel like academic. That's
a good point. Then that author, by the way that
we're talking, there are two Philips in this story. I
(03:26):
think there's Prince Philip and then the author Philip D Right.
And yeah, and in the process of researching, you know,
this book, he found out all this stuff. Um. And obviously,
as we know, by the way this is, there's a
great article that runs down a lot of this there's
a few actually, um. It seems like it just came
out after uh, the the Duke of Edinburgh's passing. Um.
(03:50):
But yeah, the Vice has as an article that kind
of goes through a lot of this stuff. Um, that
I definitely used as a primary research source for this
this conversation. Um. But it's super interesting, man, because like,
especially considering the way he behaved towards those whole cargo
cult situations, you know, like kind of leaning into it
(04:12):
a little bit, and you know, posing for selfies and
all of that. Right then, Yeah, so we Uh, I
want to thank everybody who wrote in about that earlier story.
Not everybody had the same perspective, but I think we
can all agree, regardless of your opinions about Prince Philip
or the monarchy in general. Uh, the people who are
(04:35):
part of the royal family lead very different and oftentimes,
as odd as it may sound, very demanding lives. Like
they're not in coal mines, you know, they're not stealing
stripping copper from abandoned warehouses, but they are held to
some rigid social standards. They're required to, uh do all
(04:58):
sorts of diplomatic functions and so on. With a story
like this, what I think is really interesting is that
it's not one of those things. It's something that the
guy was clearly personally into, and I get the feeling
checking out this Vice article and a couple of other things,
I get the feeling that he was the kind of
(05:19):
person who if you were at one of those diplomatic functions,
or if you just saw him around the house and
you wanted to strike up a conversation. I bet the
best icebreaker was, uh, you know, what do you think
about UFOs? Dude? You couldn't call him dude because he's
the Duke of Edinburgh, but sire, my lord, my liege,
(05:40):
what do you call a guy like that? Your your
duke ship totally yeah, that would be yeah, the very least.
I think he would appreciate the goal, the audacity of it,
the outright audacity. Um, and you you're right then, like
these you know, we we've talked about the royal family
and people have opinions. It's obviously a great source of
like kind of reality show ask entertainment for many people,
(06:01):
and they get a lot of flak because there's sort
of these figureheads that don't you know, have a lot
of direct uh influence over policy, but they certainly have
indirect influence over policy, as is evidenced by the story
that apparently Prince Philip uh was always talking about UFOs
to his equerry. Equerry which is an officer within the
(06:26):
royal household. I guess sort of like a valet, you know,
but like more like official and this the gentleman has
the most British name of all times, Sir Peter Horseley. Uh.
And he went on to become the Deputy Commander in
Chief of the Royal Air Force Strike Command, which sounds
really epic. Um. But apparently after Queen Elizabeth was was coronated.
(06:47):
Is that is that? Okay? Can you see corinated? Yeah?
I've ever heard that word used in that form. After
her coronation um. In nineteen fifty three, he privately asked
hoarsely or dare I say kind of instructed Horsely to
look into quote credible accounts of alien encounters or UFO
(07:08):
sightings um. And he, prince Ville himself is quoted as saying, uh,
there are many reasons that extraterrestrials exist because there is
so much evidence from reliable witnesses. And he said this
like a long time ago, way before any of this
disclosure stuff. What do you think do you think there's
(07:29):
like information sharing between the US and British government, or
that there's British intelligence about the alien encounters just like
we have. You know, some of the stuff that's starting
to kind of trickle out. I know you generally work
with horses owned, boy, but to go and digging and
tell me about these extra terrest deals. Yeah, you know,
(07:52):
it's it's interesting because at that level, what you'll see
is that information sharing can become pretty informal. So there
are formal classified information sharing agreements, especially in the Anglo sphere,
the country between countries and the Anglo sphere. But also
if you're Prince Philip and you're on good terms with
(08:14):
the US president or the president of some other country,
you will be at a dinner party somewhere and you
can just say, what's your take on UFOs? What do
you guys got to say anything interesting? And doesn't have
to be the president. It could be the Director of
National Intelligence and then they could conceivably, off the record,
share some stuff, have a conversation. Technically that would probably
(08:37):
be illegal, but I'm sure it's happened before, and I'm
not surprised because we have to remember Prince Philip grew
up and and lived in a time when, especially like
leading up to World War two. Post World War two,
people were intensely interested in the idea of unidentified flying objects,
(09:00):
so I think it makes sense. Also, it's interesting because
I wonder, and this may be a question for our
British listeners. I wonder how much he would have known
about classified classified aircraft research in the UK. Would it
be need to know? Basis, does he count as someone
(09:21):
who needs to know? Can he just pull rank and
learn everything? Or how compartmentalized is their information? Also points
for nominative determinism. The Equerry is back in the day,
the Equerry was in charge of the horses, I believe.
And this guy's name is Horseley. Oh yeah, exactly, of
course that makes sense Equine. Yeah, that's I didn't even
(09:43):
think about that then, in the Equerry. But why is
he the why is he the UFO guy? Or does
Prince Philip? My question is, does Prince Philip believe that
horses and UFOs are related? Because if so, that's very
interesting and I want to hear his take on it. Oh,
I'm sure he got many takes that will never hear.
But I'm fascinated by this biography. I'm sure there's some
(10:04):
interesting quotes in there. Um. It certainly seems like it
went in an unconventional direction. But this guy hoarsely is
quoted quite a few times, and you know, publicly talking
about this um where he he has a really great,
uh quippy kind of little British wit about him, there's
no question. Um. He is quoted in saying that Prince
(10:29):
Philip had him invite individuals to Buckingham Palace to talk
about their encounters with extraterrestrial life or UFOs um, and
he said that he and uh Philip thought this was
a quote method as effective as any truth serum, because
(10:51):
no one would dare uh tell a lie in front
of the royal family. I think the phrase the excellent
vice article, uh Jelissa Castordale uses is chat in front
of a member of the royal family, which that's just right.
And I actually I was gonna mention that too, because
I thought that was me Horsely himself talking, which sounded
(11:13):
like so uh super British and like and witty. But
now I realized that this is totally just creative licensed
by the by the writer here, but excellent phrase. And
I'm definitely gonna add that to my vocabulary and will
pause for a word from our sponsor. Then we'll return
with more strange news and we're back. It's funny too,
(11:37):
because I think I believe this direction we're going with Horseley.
But I think it's so fascinating how often the public
forgets that people, even people in high positions of worldly power,
are still just human and have hobbies and eccentricities and quirks.
Like Horsely was far from a skeptic to my understand Andy.
(12:00):
He believed in uf He believed in aliens who believed
in UFOs. He also believed in telepathy, and he actually
believes he met an alien named Mr Janice. Like, oh
that's right, yeah, yea, yeah, yeah exactly. I was just
talking about that with with our friend Victor last night,
about whether it's pronounced Janice or Janis. I think the
(12:24):
day The argument was that he thinks it's Janice, and
I definitely have heard it pronounced both with but I
always say a Janis too because I like the soft
day as well. Ben, But yeah, Mr Janie or Janis
if you want it that way. Um was like this
apparently this dude who is supposedly had had like an
(12:45):
encounter with an alien there, you know, because he he
was like vetting people. He was basically like grooming and
vetting these like UFO encounter people to come hang out
of bucking impalace. It was like a thing, I guess
whether I don't know, you could argue with for his
own amusement. Prince phil up or if it was genuinely
he was like, you know, the truth is out there
kind of vibe. But he obviously took it pretty seriously
(13:06):
and had this guy go out and find these people
with these stories to share. And Horsely said, um, basically
said that the guy had like borderline telepathic abilities and like,
you know, had this uncanny ability to read his thoughts.
Um and he uh is a quote from Horsely. He wrote,
I asked him why he wanted to meet Prince Philip,
(13:28):
and he replied, Prince Philip is a man of great vision,
a person of world renown and a leader in the
realm of wildlife and the environment. He is a man
who believes strongly in the proper relationship between man and nature,
which will prove of great importance in future galactic harmony.
(13:50):
Who and then you know, Horsely goes on to say
that he, like you, had these kind of dead eyes,
you know, and he believed him self to be some
sort of extraterrestrial being or extra dimensional whatever. Right. Um, yeah,
he told the Daily Mail. He didn't say he was
a visitor from another planet, but I had that impression.
(14:14):
I believe he was here to observe us. I never
saw him again, and there's not other other than his
account Horseley's account, I don't believe there there are any
other real traces of Mr J. So we don't know
the veracity of horsely statement. I don't think he has
(14:35):
a reason to lie. But also I when I see
quotes like the longer one that you read from Mr J,
I don't believe those are that's a little too clean.
I think at the very least horse Lease maybe paraphrasing
from memory. But the evidence here is the implication that
(14:58):
the vibe that Horseley got was he was and alien.
And you know, he said he's here to observe us.
I never saw him again. I think that's a fascinating story.
And I'm not saying telepathy is impossible, but I am
saying cold reading is very well proven. It is possible
to like a lot of people. No matter how you
(15:18):
feel about psychic powers, there are people who purposely pretend
to have psychic powers and they're really just doing a
cold read on you. Right, I feel like you may
have been in love at some point with someone was gone.
It's ah, it did their name, it's a it's a, Woa,
(15:38):
it's a man. It's a man. His name is but Gary, Gary,
his name is Gary. And then people are like, whoa,
that's amazing and this guy. You know, I'm just saying,
we don't know how this idea of reading thoughts goes
about or because I I don't know if there were
(16:00):
more specific examples. I think daily Mail that's from right.
He talks a little bit more about that. But I
didn't see I didn't see something like we're horsely said.
I tested him. I thought of a number. He told
me the number. Kind of thing that's also such a
Daily Mail thing to print, isn't it? You know what
I mean? Like utter? You know, I'm sure that the
(16:22):
headline was like Prince Philip meets alien, you know, or whatever,
or or Prince Philip's best horseman meets alien, uh in
London flat. Um. But apparently this obsession, I don't know.
I don't think we have enough information to call it
an obsession quite yet. But certainly was an enthusiasm for
(16:42):
all things um extraterrestrial came. Uh, he kind of came
honestly by um. Was was encouraged by his uncle. All
the best British names in this story Lord Lewis Dicky
mount Batten, um, who, according to the Vice article, is
in that show The Crown, which I have not seen. Um,
but I keep hearing, you know, it's it's such a
(17:03):
part of the conversation right now. I feel like i'm
I'm I'm missing out a little bit. But he is
the one who got him into Flying Saucer Review in
the first place, because he himself was a subscriber. Uh.
And he wrote a letter. UM. I almost want to
say it was like to Flying Saucer Review. It's a
little unclear, but anyway, and in some correspondence, I would
(17:24):
love the idea of like, you know, British royals writing
in to like a Flying Saucer Review magazine, like in
those you know at the end they always have like
letters from from readers and stuff like at the end
of comic books. Um. But he said that he believed
that anyone who was piloting these these alien craft, again
very specific, like he's referring to something that we were
(17:47):
not privy to, had to have come from another planet. Um.
And his his a quote from the letters, his motions Venusians,
Jupiterians or what have you. Uh, that that's who was
piloting these alien craft. Uh, he says, why should life
in another planet with entirely different conditions in any way
resemble life on our planet. That's a really good point, uh,
(18:10):
Lord Lewis Dickey Mount Batton. It's something that always comes
up in conversations about aliens, where it's like, how silly
are we to think that like some magical gold LP
that we sent out into space is going to be
of any use to another alien civilization. They're not going
to have the technology that we have. They're not one
to one. They've if they've got their own thing, they're
(18:30):
probably in their own little technological bubble, either like super
advanced or maybe you know, just completely different terms and uh,
you know equipment like physiologically right. Well, that's that's why
the primary goal in alien contact or attempts to communicate
is math based, primarily physics. Fundamental rules of the game
(18:53):
of the universe as we know it that don't change.
That's that's some of the stuff that subscribed on on
those disks that you mentioned. It's funny because the human
species is so self obsessed that there there is a
lot of stuff being sent out there that's just probably
(19:14):
not gonna make sense at all to a non human
intelligence without a ton of context. But you know, the
more I think about it, looking into this a little
bit before we recorded it went what's the line between
like a hobby or enthusiasm and obsession? This this also
(19:37):
seems to be something that has a little bit of
nostalgia to the Prince because he and his uncle corresponded
and chopped it up so often about UFOs. So there's
there's a social bond there, and there's also, unfortunately, there's
there's a little bit of evidence that members of UM,
(20:01):
the British scientific elite, saw these guys as kind of
batty when uh, when mont Batton wrote to the Ministry
of Defense's chief scientific advisor, a guy named Lord Sally Zuckerman,
which is fun to say, Zuckerman said, here's what I
think of UFOs. They're in the same category as a
(20:22):
ghost or the Locknest monster, because there's no evidence that
any of them actually exists. And maybe this was somewhat
um a little bit of cold water for Montbatton because
he later, according to according to the records, seemed to
gradually drift away from interest in UFOs to other interests.
(20:43):
First off, you know, I love self directed research. I
love when people have passions and interests, and you know,
I think it's fair to assume that these guys would
have had the juice the pool to learn more than
the average UFO enthusiasts. But was there ever any like
revelation that they disclosed in their lifetimes? Yeah, I mean
(21:05):
there's certainly were. Uh, they had some pretty specific theories.
I still specifically Mountain Botton. Um. He I sort of
started off with him just saying, like, you know, what
is generally considered probably a pretty progressive you on on
what alien or extra tracial life by look like like
(21:25):
he was saying then that there would be very little
frame of reference or recognition between you know, humanoid forms
and languages and constructs and you know what would exist
so so very far away and disconnected from us. But
he um, I believe this is a conversation he was
having with um with Prince Philip but talked about like
(21:46):
he really gets into some some serious detail where he
says that these creatures might be gaseous or circular or
very large. They certainly can't breathe I mean right out, Uh,
and they may not have to eat, And I doubt.
If they have babies, bits of their great discs may
(22:07):
break away and grow into a new creature. If the
human race wishes to survive, they may have to band together,
I guess against these gelatinous UH cubes from outer space. Um.
I'm not trying to be dismissive. It's just really interesting.
And I'm also kind of shocked that this uh, this
chief Science Minister or whatever, Lord Sally Zuckerman had the
(22:32):
stones to go up against the royal family like that
and openly, I guess discredit him, or you know, at
the very least kind of negg his whole thing. Right, Well,
it's just giving you I would say, he's just giving
his opinion. He's paid to be a scientific advisor, so
I suppose. But it just feels like that's tricky territory.
You know, if you're really out openly criticizing a member
(22:55):
of the royal family like that, it just it just
seems a little ballsy, It's all. I see what you're saying.
But you know, he's also of the upper class. He
is a lord, so he's got he's probably got a
little more leeway in that regard. But it's you know,
there is a good point about the some of the
description there when they say life form might be possibly circular,
(23:18):
because if you if you imagine let's say, a space
faring species, or you imagine something that somehow evolved in
a vacuum of space right without the same kind of
gravitational constraints terrestrial species will have, then that radial symmetry
(23:39):
makes sense. There's nothing incentivizing you to like pushing against
drew growing in a specific direction. So I could see
that I'm down for space jellyfish. I I would not
be surprised if a lot of if there are somewhere
out there in the universe. Uh, there's more than one
kind of life form that does look similar to the
(24:01):
forms we recognize in the deep oceans. I just don't
think reality is uh creative enough on the based ons
of physics to come up with brand new stuff if
it doesn't have to. That's a good point, Ben, that's
a good point. You know. Philip, until the day he died,
presumably UM never lost his fervor for UM alien exploration.
(24:26):
UM and he apparently uh as recently as last summer
read a book about the Randall Sham Forest incident. Have
we done an episode on this. Ben, I don't know
that Randall sham Forrest incidents, but apparently it's one of
England's most well known UFO sighting. Uh yeah, I don't
remember if we have, but it's cut up. It's one
(24:46):
of those things I would call a phantom topic. It
happened in December of nineteen eighty. Uh. If we haven't,
if I haven't done a video on it, then yeah,
we should definitely do an episode on it. Yeah, agreed.
But all this to say that, you know, he definitely
up until the end was was super into this stuff
and and didn't let any uh you know, back talking
(25:08):
science people dissuade him. Um. The writer of this vice
piece who you mentioned, just Julissa Castra Dale a lot
of cool names in this made a really good point that, like,
aside from this one, you know science schmuck who you
know kind of poured the cold water on Uh lord,
what does it? Bat Batten? Him bought Mount Batten. Excuse me? Um.
(25:33):
She points out that you know, people of the upper crust,
you know who maybe have country estates and uh you know,
are members of of the royal family or adjacent at
the very least, you know that that old old, old
moneyed you know, British high society. When they talk about
stuff like this, they're like praised for being open minded
(25:55):
and freethinking, you know. But when more like blue collar
folks talk about they're you know, asked politely to leave
the wenbies. This same says the difference between being uh
noted eccentric and a raging loon is it really comes
(26:16):
down to social status and income. That's the point of
making earlier when you hear when you hear about very
powerful people being very human, right for all the things
that being very human means, uh, it's it shouldn't be surprising.
Like I guarantee you everybody is weird on some level.
(26:38):
And and the people who look like they are in
charge of the world or hold the reigns of a country.
I hope everyone listening finds it reassuring to know this
and hear this very well. They are just as weird
as you, if not weirder, because there are more opportunities
to get to get real eccentric, more opportunities for weirdness,
(27:00):
and a lot of yes people surrounding you and kind
of encouraging your every you know, whim um that that's
a recipe for for eccentricity, to be sure, but I
thought this was a lot of fun, uh and an
interesting way to remember uh, someone who history baby hasn't
quite settled in on. Uh. You know how how we
(27:20):
feel about this guy. Um, you know this whole like
racist comment that he kind of got, like a quote
unquote racist comment about you know talking well, yes, exactly.
I think he didn't specifically use that word. He just asked,
there's like some some envoy or and some diplomatic trip.
He he was that there was a group of Indigenous
people that performed some sort of the you know, dance
(27:43):
of situation, and he just like very casually says, you
still throw spears at each other. Um, which is obviously,
you know, super weird and problematic. But I actually found
an article I don't know how it came up, but
it said, Uh it was an article from ABC where
one of the indo visuals who he said this too,
(28:03):
felt that the comment was not racist. But I don't
necessarily think it's always up to the person um. And
it's so yeah, that's why again I want to go
circle back to the cargo cults thing Ben, because he
obviously had this weird there's a weird reverence towards this
man from some you know, indigenous people, right yep, uh yeah,
(28:23):
I mean that's not that's not uncommon. Uh. There there
was reverence from a specific indigenous community, but their reverence.
There's reverence for all sorts of celebrities or noted political figures.
There's another example. Always think of uh, I did I
did some something on I can't remember which show this
(28:46):
was for. You know who's big in Paraguay, Rutherford B.
Hayes U S President. People love him there, their statues,
they celebrate him on a yearly basis. They don't think
he's a god. He's not a mythical figure, but he
is a national hero. So I can I can see, uh,
just celebrity and renowned. It's a it's a very it's
(29:08):
a very weird thing. I don't know what Rutherford B.
Hayes thought of UFOs. I I know nothing about him
other than the fact that he's got a pretty memorable name.
And then that's about all I remember. Um in this
same ABC article, and then I know we gotta move on. Um.
And by the way, the comment that that Prince Philip
made was it was an Australian visit to Queensland, Australia.
(29:31):
Um and he uh, the one of the gentlemen. He
said that too. Totally defended him and said, oh, he's
a he's a lovely man. He didn't mean anything by
it and um and then goes on to really gush
about the guy. Uh and in Australia he is he
it wasn't is still beloved, And largely it had to
do with the fact that he was so open and
(29:54):
uh kind of free speaking and presumably free thinking. Uh
and and would kind of just say whatever his mind,
as opposed to the Queen who has seen as being
very um you know, closed off and and formal. Uh.
He was favored that this is a quote from this
uh the way he was perceived by Australians historian um
who literally heard about specific specializations. Uh. She is a
(30:18):
historian on royal visits to Australia. Um and she said
that he was famous quote for for being more open
than the very guarded queen. So when he was young
and fairly handsome, he was seen as dynamic with he
and a breath of fresh air. All this kind of
tracks but uh, like I said, very very interesting dude.
A lot of kind of mixed messages around this guy
(30:42):
over time, but UH, I love the fact that he
was a big UFO head. And so there we leave
the story of the Duke of Edinburgh. UH, Fellow UFO enthusiasts,
We're gonna pause for a word from our sponsor, who
may or may not be illuminate Asian Global Unlimited, and
will be right back and half a world away. But
(31:04):
we're staying on Earth for this next one, and we've returned.
This is an ongoing story that you may have heard
mentioned in Western news to varying degrees of specificity. It's
(31:25):
also something you may have heard us mentioned in the
course of earlier episodes. Our next piece of strange news
is quite unfortunate, and it takes us to mean Mar
mean Mar is a country that doesn't hit the US
news too often. If you're the average resident of the US,
(31:46):
you're probably most familiar with me and Mar through the
story of the democracy activists on Young Succhi. Uh. Myanmar
is if you look at a map, it's directly to
the left of Thailand, the erectly to the right of Bangladesh.
It's it's between those two countries. It shares a border
with several other countries, including China. This has been um
(32:11):
of famously troubled, infamously troubled country for a long time.
It's been ruled by a military junta for most of
our lifetimes for those of us making the show, and
it's something we've talked about before, militaries and their responsibilities
for function and stability of government, which are usually outlined
(32:36):
in the country's constitution. Here's what happened recently. Amid the pandemic.
There was a time of what is often described as
quasi democracy. Russell Goldman, writing for The New York Times,
has a great explainer piece on this February first, there
(32:57):
was a coup de tap in the country, and it
brought back full military rule. I I am the first
to admit I've dunked a little bit on Myanmar's military,
primarily because of their decision a number of years ago
to move the country's capital based on the advice of
(33:18):
an astrologer. That is, yeah, that's a true story. And again,
I think the last time I mentioned I was trying
to be really fair and I was saying, hey, before
you before anybody looks down their collective noses at that decision.
Let's remember that U S presidents like Ronald Reagan have
also taken advice from astrologers, so it's not it's not
(33:39):
restricted to just one country. The military had been in
power in Myanmar since nineteen sixty two and the period
of quasi democracy begins in two thousand eleven, so there
was a long multigenerational history of this being a country
ruled by a military. When democracy came into power in
(34:04):
two thousand eleven, they were implementing reforms, parliamentary elections. It
became very complicated very quickly. The trouble, the recent trouble,
began on November eight. The National League for Democracy is
the leading civilian party and there were elections held on
(34:26):
November eight. National League for Democracy n LD won eight
three per cent of the vote of the seats in parliament.
And what did the military do. They said it was
a sham. They said it was a fraud, They said
this was a kangaroo court election wise, Uh, they said
(34:47):
that the National League for Democracy did not in fact,
when three of the seats um And of course A
San Succi is the head of that democratic party. She's
been as a result, the leader since she's like a
real people's candidate, right, I mean, she's absolutely beloved, and
(35:08):
it's almost like the military resents that kind of you know,
adoration of this individual, who, if I'm not mistaken, I mean,
is a pretty interesting figure and like not not super problematic.
I mean, all politicians have two sides or whatever, but
it's my understanding that she very much was kind of
humanitarian individual and someone who you know, the adoration of
(35:32):
the people kind of makes sense, right, Yeah, But unfortunately
it's it's a little it gets a little complicated when
you say she's the people's candidate. That qualifies as long
as those people are not Rohinga, which is the Muslim
ethnic minority group uh in Myanmar. The country launched a
(35:54):
deadly campaign against this ethnic group UH, and she supported it.
Upon her release from house arrest, Oh, she was also
locked up for years and years and years. UH. She
defended this, this campaign of brutality against the Rohinga in
like the International Court of Justice. So it wasn't just
(36:17):
a throwaway comment in an interview, and a lot of
her supporters said, this is really a pragmatic move to
cooperate with the military because it will accelerate the evolution
toward full democracy. But then when the coup occurred on
February one, it appeared that whatever cooperation or olive branch
(36:39):
she had extended was not enough in their opinion. So
here's what happened when when they said the November eight
elections were bogus, the military went to the country's Supreme
Court and they said, not only are these results fraudulent,
but we are going to take action because it's our
(37:01):
job as the military. We're gonna surround the houses governmental
bodies with soldiers. Sounds troublingly familiar to some of the
actions on January six, right, although those were you know, protesters, rioters,
not paid soldiers totally, And I was, I was remembering
half of the story. She did have a early kind
(37:25):
of period as this golden you know, human rights kind
of beacon, protesting against the regime that m was very
poor with their human rights record essentially, but then essentially
went on to kind of become the thing that she hated, right,
Like that's sort of the complexity of this individual. Yeah. Yeah, Unfortunately, Um,
(37:48):
the you know, the the closer you looked at historical figures,
the more well you know, the more reputational warts you
are likely to find. And that's kind of the case
with Prince Philip as well. You know, people at the
top again are are just as human as everyone else.
(38:09):
The military detained on San Succi, also President you and Mint,
also cabinet ministers, chief ministers of several regions, opposing politicians, writers, activists.
They were locking people up left and right. It was
the hottest new thing. Uh. The coup was pretty much
(38:29):
announced to the public on the military owned TV station
Milwauite TV news anchor there sited the constitution, which had
come into effect in two thousand and eight and said,
you know, the military can legally declare a national emergency,
and this state of emergency that they have declared is
going to stay in place for one year. After that point,
(38:53):
the military took control of the communications infrastructure of Myanmar.
They suspended most TV broadcasts, They canceled flights international and domestic.
I mean, this sounds this sounds sort of par for
the course if you're thinking about it as another country
very far away. But it's important to think about how
(39:14):
you would feel if this occurred in your country, whether
that's the UK, Australia, India is getting close with some
of their authoritarian measures or you know, whether it happened
in the US, what would you do? Telephone, internet access
all suspended, the stock market, the banks, they were closed.
There were long lines outside of a t m s
(39:36):
because people were rushing to get hard currency. People ran
to the markets to stock up on food and supplies.
People were panicking, and their panic proved to be correct.
The public responded with a number of peaceful protests, but
on February the first official deaths occurred to unarmed protesters
(40:01):
were killed by security forces. One of those was a
sixteen year old boy. There was a general strike then
on February, millions of people left their jobs, took to
the street, and then they tried to fight back financially.
This civil disobedience movement crippled the banking system, so it
(40:24):
was tougher for the military to get stuff done. But
then the military became more violent and and that trend increases.
The military at this point has killed more than six people,
and according to international monitoring agencies, they've assaulted, detained, or
(40:44):
tortured thousands of others. And now one of the one
of the other evolutions people are seeing as these peaceful
protesters are mobilizing into what some journalists are describing a
guerrilla force. So remember when we talked about the farm protests,
A lot of the protesters were building barricades to protect themselves.
(41:07):
This is happening in Myanmar, but there they're not traveling
to cities to build these barricades. They're building barricades around
their own neighborhoods, and they're learning how to make smoke
bombs their training and basic forest warfare. This is an untenable,
unsustainable situation, and it could have regional ramifications. It's already
(41:34):
going to have regional ramifications. I mean you have to
imagine the larger countries surrounding the m are all very
well aware of this situation and pretty pretty spooped, and
rightly so. I mean the military like they began a
secret trial on February sixt for all song SUCHI uh,
(41:56):
who to further complicated legacy, by the way, I think
we should mend. And she did win the Nobel Peace
Prize before the Rhinga stuff. Yeah, yeah, no, it's super interesting,
um to see someone kind of devolved in this way,
and and and there's two sides to it all, you know,
I'm sure, But yeah, the I mean is she directly
(42:17):
responsible for human rights violations after being such a proponent
for human rights or is it more just like by association.
I'm a little unclear on that aspect of her. Yeah,
So it goes back to seen people wanted her Nobel
prize to be revoked because she was silent about the
persecution of the Rohinga people in the country. But then
(42:39):
she went on to say that she did not believe
it was ethnic cleansing. She said there was a climate
of fear uh, and that there was a worldwide perception
about global Muslim power that was affecting the military's position. So, yeah,
it gets it gets complicated. The economist famously said her
(43:00):
halo has even slipped among foreign human rights lobbyists, disappointed
at her failure to make a clear stand on behalf
of the Rohinga minority. So it makes you wonder like,
is this a crime of neglect? Is this a crime
of or is this an active crime would be a
better way to say it, like is she making the
(43:20):
laws that allow for this persecution? Well, this time, the
law is definitely not on her side, at least the
way the military is thinking about it. Because imagine this, Okay,
you're the president of a country, or you're the leader
of a country. We should say a leader of a
political party. Military coup occurs and boom, go directly to jail.
(43:41):
Do not pasco, do not collect two hundred dollars. This
trial is bonkers, so she doesn't get any legal representation.
So imagine you went from being one of the most
powerful people in your country to having a secret trial.
Your lawyer is not told that the trial has started.
This trial is believed to take up to a year,
(44:03):
but we have no idea like the reason that she
is on trial. The crime she's accused of has nothing
to do with human rights violations. It's actually she is
accused of violating import restrictions because military forces when they
went into her compound they found walkie talkies. She's also
(44:27):
in trouble for having for interacting with a crowd during
the pandemic, and that's a charge that hadn't been publicly
disclosed before. So we still don't know. If you wanted
to be really cynical a Macavellian about it, you could
say that maybe the military is just looking for an
excuse to keep her jammed up for that year of
(44:50):
military rule, right, now the army chief, Senior General men
On Klong, is the it's sort of the active ruler
of the country. He was supposed to kind of age
out or retire this summer, but he's in trench now
there's there's a possibility for him to become a strong
(45:12):
man because he also has a network based on what
really profitable family businesses, and now if he retires, they
might not be able to make as much of a viig.
So he's probably staying on for a while, even though
he is a business tycoon, a senior military official and
(45:34):
now the ruler of the country. And there was always
I don't know. I mean, you've seen the stories before
where the military intervenes in in a country's state level affairs.
It's always a very dicese situation. It's never well, it's
usually not supposed to be permanent the way it's phrase.
(45:57):
But at this point I have to wonder. My question,
Funeral is do you think there's foreign involvement in this coup?
Do you think, for instance, another regional power broker is
aiding the military or like what prompted this? I don't know, man,
that's a good question. I guess the thing to look forward,
(46:18):
be who who is benefiting from this unrest? Like, is
it regionally destabilizing in a way that benefits any any
other governments or or you know, entities. Yeah, that's that's it.
That's a good that's a good way to look at it.
We BoNT know who benefits. Uh, follow the money, right.
(46:42):
The money may be drying up as well because the
EU and some other international players are sanctioning mean Mar's
leaders in an attempt to depower them, essentially. But it's
funny because the well, when I say funny, it's it's
(47:02):
it's a terrible situation, just to be clear. But one
thing I thought was interesting is that the leaders of
Myanmar officially warned the world not to call this a coup.
That's one of the first things they said internationally. They said, look,
if you are describing this state of emergency, don't call
(47:24):
it a coup. We're doing the right thing. We're doing
legal things. And here's the little add on, And if
you use incorrect words to describe this state of emergency,
that could be seen as an act of instigation. It
could be breaking the law. So be very careful what
(47:45):
you say. Luckily, our podcast is not based in Myanmar
at this point. Yeah, it's sort of like the geopolitical
equivalent of calling a water pipe a bong in a
tobacco store and being asked to leave right, right, right,
but leaving to j L and probably get tortured. Yeah, yeah,
I had to say it out loud. Then don't call
it a coup. We've been here for years, right right?
(48:08):
Uh and and shout out to shout out to some
of my favorite hip hop groups, the Coup and of
course Mighty Haiku based here in Atlanta. Uh, neither of
whom are to my knowledge, involved in overthrowing democratically elected governments.
Just throwing down Swede bars. Yeah. Absolutely, that's where their
(48:29):
passion is. But what about China's passion. I mean, that's
the that's the specter right cast over this entire affair.
The military has conspired to overthrow an elected government. China
has to know about it, right. China has been kind
of playing both sides for a long time. They've got
(48:51):
good relationships with the military hierarchy. They've got good relationships
with the Democratic Party there. They're just you know, they're
playing the long game. And there official statement was pretty interesting.
It's well, I'll read it, I'll share it with you,
and then I don't want to get everybody's take so loong.
(49:12):
When Bin who is the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry
of China, said China and Myanmar are friendly neighbors. We
hope that all parties will properly handle their differences under
the constitution and legal framework to maintain political and social stability.
That is a very polite way to say, not our problem.
(49:32):
In my opinion, what do you think they're just not
They said, this is uh, this is something a problem
you will work out in your own house more or less.
The issue here is that when they've instituted that one
year period, we don't know how far. We don't know
(49:53):
how far we'll go with one year, you know what
I mean? Like, will it what what will happen after
that year? Will there be another election that maybe has
results the military fields are more accurate, or you know,
also favor them a little bit more, or will they
say the state of emergency continues and for the good
(50:13):
of the country, for the greater good, we have to
continue uh military rule. It's just it's so rare for
a group that takes power in this way to voluntarily
give it up. You know what I mean, it's it's
very dangerous water. The other big regional player in the
mix here. The other two big ones are Japan and India.
(50:35):
India is the world's largest democracy. Japan also is worried
that this shift, or this return to authoritarian military rule,
is going to sway Myanmar away from democratic nations and
towards what they call the League of China. And this
(50:57):
has been something Japan was very frightened about were a
long long time because they didn't want Myanmar to become
a vassal state of China. They thought it would be
a danger to the country's prospects for democracy, and Japan
went out of their way to be friendly here. Um.
You know we mentioned two thousand eleven, that's where we
(51:17):
see democracy come into power. The very next year, Japan
canceled a ton of Meamar's debt and then they gave
them another loan to help them clear out their debts
with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank. They were
trying to make like a fresh start for the country.
And at this point it's an ongoing story, but it's
(51:39):
a story I feel like more people should be aware
of because we're going to hear more about it. Um.
I I don't know what the predictions will be. I
hope that, uh, you know, the politicians who have been
locked up, even if even if some of them were corrupt,
I hope that they are safe and incarceration and they
(52:03):
don't get you know, a Russian style illness or something
like that. I hope an accident doesn't occur to them.
But this, this is unsustainable, and because the country is
so poor, it doesn't get as much attention as it should.
So at this point we're gonna We're gonna call it
a day. We'll be back with more strange news next week.
(52:23):
Want to hear from you. Who are your favorite prominent
UFO enthusiasts and do you have family in Myanmar or
have you visited the country? What is your take? If
you are listening to this show and you are in
the country right now, please be safe. We would love
to hear from you. We try to make it easy
(52:44):
to find us online. You can find us on the
Internet and multiple places. We are Conspiracy Stuff on Twitter
and Facebook, Conspiracy Stuff Show on Instagram. You can also
give us a call at our hotline. The people still
call him a hotline one three three as td w
y t K. You've got three minutes to leave a message. Uh,
and if you're cool with it, please let us know.
(53:06):
We might just feature it on one of our weekly
listener mail episodes and please let us know what to
call you and all that. And while you're on the internet,
why don't you do us a solid and leave us
a nice sight tunes review or what do they call
it these days, Apple podcasts? Uh? It really does help, um,
you know, people discover the show, and it also supplants
some of the trolley reviews that are on there that
we you know that hurt our feelings very much. I'm
(53:29):
just kidding. We're tough as nails, but yeah, seriously do
that thing. And then if I'm not mistaken, there's also
another way people can get in touch with us. They
don't want to do any of that stuff. They can
send us a good old fashioned email where we are
conspiracy at i heart radio dot com. Stuff they don't
(54:02):
want you to know is a production of I heart Radio.
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