May 16, 2014 • 42 mins
Have you written to the guys on Facebook or Twitter? Sent an email? Then tune in as they answer your questions and more on air in this special listener mail edition of Stuff They Don't Want You To Know.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs two, Ghosts and government cover ups. History is
writtled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Hello, everyone,
welcome back to the show. My name is Matt and
I am Ben and that makes this stuff they don't
(00:21):
want you to know yet. You know, earlier when we
had we had a couple of issues that made us
need to restart our recording here, which happened sometimes, and
you had you had a really nice sort of theme
song intro to it, right, Yeah, you know, I decided
not to try it again the first time. It was
just out of boldness. I felt like I should just
(00:42):
go for it, but it was it was the wrong decision. Well,
fortune favors the bold, right. Uh. So we're doing something
a little bit different on two days episode, isn't that right, Matt?
That's correct. We are looking back through our archives for
all the messages that you have sent us, and we're
going to go through as many of them as we
possibly can and address issues talked about a couple of things,
(01:05):
and uh, hopefully it's going to be a good time.
Oh definitely. We'll also just have some stories that some
of you have written to us about and uh, we
wanted to tell these stories to the rest of the audience.
And some of these are fascinating and waiting to get
into it. And we'll be looking at stuff across Facebook
(01:26):
and some Twitter and some emails. So, uh, Matt, I
feel mind? Would you like to do the honors? All right?
We can get this started. This is a message from
Chris with a K, and I'm just gonna go through it,
he says. Matt and Ben. I've had somewhat of an
eerie feeling about the capabilities of my cell phone in
(01:48):
the past several years because of my dystopian view of
what others can do with any personal information that can
be accessed. When I saw your video on neuromarketing, I
had several nuggets of information come flooding into my head.
Tom plead a bigger picture. We all know that our
cell phones are hot beds of personal information, and I've
just accepted the fact that somebody can get access to
anything they want from it. Thank you, Edward Snowdon. That's
(02:11):
pretty great and personal person of interest. But what do
you guys think about this? Almost all recent smartphones have
a rear facing camera that can see your face as
you use your phone. Do you think it's possible for
somebody to be able to know what you're doing or
looking at on your phone and see your reaction to
these things and make an advertisement profile. So this is
(02:33):
really interesting, Ben, I just want to point out here
that my cell phone that is not in here while
we're recording for possible RF interference, has taped over the
front facing or I guess is the rear facing camera
that looks at me while I'm on my phone. Yeah.
I I have the webcam in my laptops taped over too,
(02:55):
but not on the phone because, UM, sure, I'll make
us stupid face. I imagine we're reading something on Reddit.
But if someone catches me doing that, then you know
they'll they'll probably be disappointed. Or maybe you know what,
maybe I should just start making incredibly exaggerated reactions. Uh.
(03:18):
When you look at things that would would increase your
profile in positive ways for you, like we were saying earlier, Um,
when you look at some kind of market research, make
these faces that you're genuinely interested and when a cab
video comes on, just be disgusted. Uh. We could become
the uh the saboteurs, right, but yeah, but okay, So
(03:40):
Chris makes a really good point here, do you think
there's any kind of market research that could be done
with this? With using technology? Okay, this is what the
person is browsing at this time, and here is here's
our facial recognition software running. Do you think there's anything
in the future? Oh? Yeah, First before you answer that,
(04:00):
because I do have an answer for that. He's got
a couple more questions could be end I wanted to read?
He said, Uh, could neuromarketers gather and test this info
in order to sell their services to others in the future?
Could this info be used for something more sinister? Would
that be illegal? Uh? It seems like it should be.
But does anybody actually read what kind of permissions they
(04:21):
allow on their phones and what the end result of
granting these permissions could possibly be. So to answer your
your first question, and I Matt, Uh, it's completely possible
for a phone to be hacked and for the camera
abilities of that phone to be exploited without knowledge, the
(04:41):
same way that it's completely possible for a laptop. In
some cases, it could be even easier to hack a
cell phone in that regard. But what we're talking about,
And what I think Chris s here is talking about
is not so much hacking as people through negligence allowing
um a program that's a little bit too nosy onto
(05:03):
their phone. So there are two ways this could happen, uh,
And one is not entirely your fault as the phone owner,
right because someone has illegally acquired these capabilities. And the
other one is totally your fault for not reading terms
and agreements and guys, yeah, no one does it. No
(05:24):
one reads all And there's part of you know, it's
to the advantage of a lot of those companies asking
people to agree to something to have a touse language
that no one wants to read. There was a as
a professor in town while back who was embarking on
a project to make terms and agreement documents more readable
(05:48):
more Yeah, yeah, I just think it's it was more
like an infographic or the the information was arranged so
that you knew, in layman's terms, what you were allowing
company A or app X to do to your information
on your phone. Of course, as you can imagine, there
wasn't a lot of impetus of two to help him
(06:10):
out on the business. Nobody's going to give him a
lot of money to do this. So if you agree
to this kind of stuff, um in your terms and permissions,
in your terms of agreements, then it is not necessarily illegal.
Good neuromarketers gather and test this sort of info. Chris
also mentions responses to heart rate monitors embedded allegedly embedded
(06:34):
in some phones. Uh. The truth is that, yes, this
kind of information could be used. It is possible. Is
somebody doing it right now? That we don't know. We
do know, however, that there are some ongoing studies, um
that have been conducted regarding biometric signs or biometric data
(06:56):
related to advertising. So well, yeah, that's the whole neuromarketing aspect.
If you haven't watched it random plug here. If you
haven't watched it, watch a neuromarketing series. It's great. Yeah,
and we'd like to christens that with I'd like to
hear where you guys take this one. Uh, we would
like to explore more of this in the future. What
(07:17):
I think bold both of us over met was the
realization of the degree to which this stuff is being pursued.
Oh yeah, well, and the dollars that are there for
potential companies that would develop this kind of technology. It's
just kind of waiting for somebody to reach out and
(07:37):
grab so it in my in my opinion, if it
is not already active and we're just not aware of it,
it will be active and we will probably be aware
of it very soon. So you know, guys, Uh, make
crazy faces at your phone just doesn't matter in public
by yourself. Tell tell them that, Tell them you're doing
(07:57):
it for science. That's right. Yeah, that's the newest vague
excuse of the age. As people like to say, Oh,
don't worry, it's for science. Yeah, with an exclamation mark. Yeah,
pardon me, officer, that was for science. Um. But speak
of reaching out to grab something, you wanna grab us?
One from Facebook? Yes, here's a message from Ian that
we got on Facebook. He says, Hey, guys, have you
(08:20):
heard of this new batch of oddness yet? Search web
driver Torso for more info. I'd love to see what
you guys think. So, oh yeah, we actually read this
and we had heard about it. I think simultaneously as
Ian sent this message and we actually posted it on Facebook.
It's a YouTube page that has some curious things going
(08:41):
on with it. It's random tones and shapes, yeah, red
and blue squares, rectangles. Uh. The The other thing about
this is that this channel post numerous videos. Um, there's thousands,
no other way to say, yeah, uh, way too many videos.
(09:03):
And people are asking themselves, is this uh? Is this
just performance art for the sake of pretentious performance art? Um.
We should note also that it seems that this video
is acquainted with France or the video uploaders acquainted with France,
because there is one non square video, right, one non
tone and shape video where they say, oh, so and
(09:26):
so is a smart guy and the Eiffel Towers in
the background or something. Uh. There's another possibility, which is
of course much more exciting, and that is the idea
that this YouTube channel maybe an evolution in the uh
in in the path of number stations. Um. Sure, that's
(09:47):
a that's a fascinating idea. You just need the internet
connection or uh, you know, a connection to some kind
of satellite service and there you go. Now you have
all your secret spy information that you needed for that
thing you have to do and health sinky Yeah right,
Uh they said that the thing you have to do
in Helsinki. Um. For anyone who doesn't know what a
(10:07):
number station is it's a brilliant example of how older
technology can still function perfectly in in the modern world.
Numbers stations are these radio transmissions that occur on specific frequencies,
and every so often sporadically, on some of these Russian
(10:30):
number stations, somebody with okay an accent will come on
and say a series of numbers in Russian. Just you
don't know when it's going to happen. I'm sure someone does, uh,
but they'll come on and they'll say, you know, twelve,
fourteen two, Well yeah, and there will also be alphabet
sequencing sequences. So it's just it's really great. I think
(10:55):
it's the Content Project, Is that correct? Noel? Are you
listening to me? The Connate project that actually did the
all the things with the number stations where it's music
with the number three, Yes, Yankee Hotel, Fox Shot. It's
great stuff. Think you know that's our producer, Noel, who
is not just a great producer, but also a fount
(11:17):
of knowledge that we uh we we check in with
and sometimes you guys will hear us refer to know.
I hope you keep this one in. I know that
sometimes you cut it out when we talk to you.
On the show, he's going to so the uh so.
The interesting thing with those number stations is that, while
we don't have conclusive proof of what they do, uh,
(11:38):
the best one of the best guesses is that, due
to the times in which they began transmitting, and due
to the secrecy surrounding them, UH, it seems fairly safe
to say that they are somehow related to espionage. And
if you think about it, it's an uncrack herble code
(11:58):
because if it is ladd espionage, then these sequences of
numbers and letters are guides to a cipher, uh, some
sort of code book that people are looking at to
learn messages or receive information. And if you don't have
that book, then there's no way that you could crack
(12:19):
this code. The big question then, is web driver web torso,
web driver Torso, webdriver torso one of these sorts of
endeavors And if so, this is quite exciting because YouTube
might be one of the perfect places for that. Or
is it just some kind of random generator that's being
uploaded on some kind of weird schedule through an algorithm
(12:41):
that some some person just decided to try out right?
Is it just an elaborate art project which is equally
possible or just a troll right see? Or is it
maybe someone's trying to make a music video but they're
doing it very strangely and out of sync. And then
once once you put the whole thing together where it's
just going to be this beautiful, symphonic piece, maybe that's
(13:03):
what it is. That's really nice, you know what. I'm
gonna choose to believe that for a while, um, at
least until the end of this episode. Next thing comes
to us from Zach, and Zach wrote to us on email, Zack,
you said, hey, guys, can't get enough of your show.
I did end up looking into jury nullification. Definitely something
everyone should be aware of. But anyways, I was thinking
(13:24):
Australia often gets left off the radar for most Americans,
myself included, until I moved to Tasmania. There's a story interesting,
that's interesting. Uh, And Zach goes on st needless to say,
there is a lot of the big wigs here don't
like open discussion about. First off, Australia is not actually independent.
It's pretty amazing, but the Queen of England can ask
Australia to go to war and we have to go
(13:47):
she appoints a Governor General who oversees a lot of
stuff of what happens down under. It's worth noting that
the ground often doesn't intervene or make orders, but they
still have the ability to do so if they choose.
Another very dark moment that for a long time was
covered up was Nolan known as the Stolen Generation, active
between nineteen o nine to nineteen sixty nine. Australian officials
(14:09):
who go into Aboriginal communities and take away children to
adopt out to white prosperous families and an attempt to
I'm putting finger quotes in here civilized them. From their perspective,
here's where it gets crazy. Thanks. A hundred thousand children
may have been taken over the years. I would look
at the movie Rabbit Proof Fence as it details one
of the amazing escape stories of some of those children.
(14:31):
There are many parallels between what happened to Native Americans
and Aboriginals. The thing is that in Australia this all
happened much more recently and was still hidden from the
public for a while. Just to pitch something people don't
often hear about. Thanks again for the show. That's uh.
What was it rabbit proof fence. Yeah, rabbit proof fence.
(14:52):
To write that down and make sure so. The stolen
generation is something that I had read about in Zach
your spot on with identifying the parallels between Native American
families and Aboriginal families in Australia, because in the United States,
although it's often glossed over in the history books, a
(15:13):
very very similar thing occurred and people who were often
guided by missionary principles would take uh these quote unquote
heathen children and try to civilize them or teach them
some sort of religion thing. Often, of course, taking a
child from her or his family is way more traumatic
(15:39):
than allowing that family unit to continue to exist. Yeah,
not not only for the child, but for the rest
of the family. Uh God, dude, makes me think about
the current Nigerian situation. Yeah, with Boko Haram. Yeah, just
that idea of taking children. It's one of the most
horrendous acts that you can think of well, and happens
(16:01):
with a appalling regularity. One interesting and extremely depressing statistic
is that in raw numbers, there are more slaves alive
today than there have been at any point in human history.
And that again that's raw numbers, so that statistic can
be a little misleading because they're also way more people
(16:24):
around than there have been in the past. That the
ways of humanity haven't changed that much. Unfortunately, that's true.
That's true. We can't leave just that horrible statistics standing.
It is also true that this is, believe it or not,
one of the most peaceful times in human history, which
is not saying that this is a great time, just
(16:46):
saying that other times were bananas in the worst possible way.
One last point there with the effect of this stolen
generation activity by the Australian government, it's this the effects
of those sorts of practices regardless. You know, maybe they
were well intentioned and most people don't think of themselves
(17:08):
as villains, so maybe the people stealing these children thought
they were doing a good thing. But regardless of their intention,
the truth is that this has had long lasting intergenerational effects,
not just upon Aboriginal communities in Australia, but also upon
Australian culture as a whole. And there's no easy fix
(17:32):
for this, but I think one of the first steps
is making this a well known story. So uh, thank
you for bringing this to light, and we hope that
our other listeners guys. Uh, I guess everybody, but Zach,
if you haven't seen rabbit Proof Fence, do check it out,
and uh, hopefully we can we can cover this. Yeah,
(17:52):
I'm interested. Yeah, we'll definitely cover this one. And uh,
as always, when you start digging a little bit beneath
or between the line of history textbooks, you find a
frightening number of skeletons. Yeah. Just depending on where you live,
there will be nice little redacted marks all over one
specific area. Okay, so let's let's bring it back to
(18:12):
Facebook really fast, bend. Oh wait, but before I do that,
I just want to give a shout out to Heather,
who has written us numerous very kind things. Yeah, but
I really didn't I don't want to read. Ben and
I both decided we don't really want to read the email,
one of the main ones that you said. It's just
because it's very nice and it's awesome. Thank you for
(18:33):
sending it. But I don't think anybody wants to hear
us just get complimented by ourselves, you know, by you
through ourselves. Well, Matt, it wasn't all just uh compliments,
because Heather also had some great suggestions that if we
haven't mentioned in, if we haven't mentioned on the air yet,
I might just be saving those that we can do
(18:55):
a series on them. But Heather, if you are listening,
thank you for checking in with us. We are responding
to your email. Um, and now I'd just like to say, Heather,
I hope uh, well, obviously you're not right now at
this moment enjoying listening to Ben's voice, But just that
whole time earlier, when you're listening to Ben's voice, I
hope you enjoyed that. Oh come on, man says I
(19:17):
have to read it, Ben, I have to read it,
just one tiny little excerpt. Uh, Heather says Ben, you
have one of the sexiest non British accented voices I've
ever heard. Have you ever considered doing audio books? Have you?
Are you asking me? Yeah? Have you? Um? You know what,
Maybe you and I can do an audio book one day, Matt.
(19:39):
Maybe I don't know if you need me. Because she
says she would pay real, actual dollars to get audio
of you reading public Domain works, Well, that's that's so kind.
I would recommend you know that how Stuff Works does
have a couple of audio books by our buddies Josh
and Chuck. Yes, they're great, highly produced. You'll you'll love it.
It feels kind of like radio Lab. Yeah. Their guide
(20:01):
to Happiness is great. That's one of my favorites. Um,
which reminds me of this. Uh. Lizzie writes to us
and says, Hi, guys, nice work on shining light on
stuff they wants to know. Just wondering how was it
fair to bring up what you claim to be an amazing,
impressive ghost story and then decided not to tell us
anything about it. Can I please, please pulease get a
(20:22):
copy of this story, you know, the one I'm talking about.
You said it was too long to read on air,
and uh, then she said, so apparently wiki leaks released
cables about aliens is trending right now. I'd be down
to hear more about aliens, so would we, of course. Um.
And this is a note that made me think of this.
Here she said, you guys rock. I love that you
occasionally mentioned Josh and Chuck from stuff you should know
(20:44):
because I get happy thinking about you all being friends
and hanging out. We we do actually hang out. We
we sit around in the in the same office and uh.
Some of the big News today, just for a peak
behind the scenes. Is that Chuck recently out of skateboard? Oh? Man,
here he got he got another skateboard since the ones
(21:04):
that he had when he was younger. I guess, yeah, yeah, yeah,
he was. He had been skating for while as a teenager,
and now he's back on the board. Oh way, yeah,
he assures me. It's not like getting back on a bicycle. Sure. Um, okay,
So about this ghost story, Lizzie. I actually went back
and looked for the copy of the ghost story. But
(21:26):
if if I can find it, because it was long,
you know, it was pretty cool. If I can find it,
then I am going to send it to you post taste.
But you know, I do have a copy of that.
Do you have a copy? I think we should. I
still want to do a special audio podcast where we
just read that story. Okay, oh man, that's great. I
forget the name of the person who sent it in,
(21:46):
but I hope hopefully wouldn't mind. We'll will shoot him
an email and yeah, absolutely. Okay. So what's next, Matt,
where do you Yeah? Yeah, let's go back to Facebook.
I was gonna do that earlier. Sorry, this is a
really fast one. This is from carl Mose and I'm
not gonna use your last name, Carlos, but I will
say that you are the lunatic with an A on
(22:07):
the He asks what movie software do y'all use for
your videos? Please get back at me. Um, Well, Carlos,
just to address that quickly, we use an old version
of Final Cut Final Cut seven that's no longer supported,
and that's just because we we developed the show uh
around that format, and it's just honestly, we haven't had
(22:29):
time to switch anything over to ten, or or to
switch it over to Premiere any of the other things.
We're going to be doing that in the future, but
that's still what we use. Uh. We use a bunch
of photoshop and after effects motion um that those are
the main ones. MPEG stream clip is when we use.
And that's about it. And also for those who are
(22:52):
not acquainted with this, and we'll be preaching to the
choir for Final Cut fans, uh, the Final Cut version
we're using is pure ear to Final Cut ten. So well, okay,
you might get some flak about that. I I think
it is okay, um, and that's only because I've been
using Final Cut that is has at least been close
(23:12):
to that version for a long time. For what you
want to do, it's superior. Yes, that's fair. Okay. Yeah,
so if somebody else thinks it's perfect for something else
and they're doing something different, alright. So we have another
letter from uh our listener, Drew v Drew. You said, Hey,
(23:32):
they're been a fan for quite some time. Just finished
up are you part Neandertal our newest episode? He said,
early human history has always been something and fascinating me greatly,
so I'm glad to see some work by you on
the topic. Second, you mentioned at the very very end
of the episode that if anyone in anyone wanted to
shout out to drop you an email. So this is
me doing that. Oh and you put his whole name,
(23:54):
whole name in here, so I'll go ahead and say
my name is Drew Vulcan. Would be quite awesome to
hear somebody and the crew say it out loud on
an episode. Drew Vulcan did that, Drew Vulcan, oh man
so many times? Yeah, um, thanks for time. I appreciate it. Uh,
you know what, we appreciate your time, Drew. We're a
(24:15):
free show, all of our except for our mysterious sponsor. UM.
All of our best ideas come from listeners, and we
have had numerous listeners right into us before about especially
when news about the real life Hobbits and Dennis Silvis
came out. UM. Most of our great ideas come from listeners.
(24:35):
So thank you guys, Thank you Drew. Here's another one
from Facebook, Ben. This is from Anthony. He says, Hey,
I really enjoy your show. I was wondering if you
guys could make an episode on a A Alcoholics, Anonymous,
and twelve step programs, this one in particular being a cult,
and he says, I mean the first step is to
accept that you're powerless, so right away they're breaking the
(24:57):
person down as they would in a cult. What do
you I think? You know what, this is a very
interesting point that you're raising because and thank you for
raising it, because case by case on an a A
meeting from because I looked into some of this, like
is a occult right? Uh? And case by case, it
(25:19):
appears that some groups take on cultish characteristics and from
what I understand, these are in no way representative of
the entirety of a A. It's just because it's built
as sort of a decentralized organization. It's easy for people
to drift away under a charismatic leader, and you know,
(25:41):
isolation a charismatic leader UM an abiding problem and only
one way to get saved through a certain predescribed path.
Uh does sound a lot like a cult. I'm just
gonna just gonna be honest. Yeah, it's culty. It's a
bit culty. Um. Another thing that's interesting that this makes
me think of is, uh, what is it narcanon narcotic
(26:02):
users anonymous in a UM because that has been uh
linked with scientology, which causes uh it's It's caused a
lot of criticism for people who also disagree with scientology
and say that this is not actually helping drug addicts,
(26:23):
it's trying to convert them. Yeah. Man, that's fascinating. There's scientology.
I know they are very anti drugs in scientology as
well as psychiatry. I believe the thing that we do
have to say is that methods of breaking addiction are
not always going to be the same for all people
(26:45):
or for all types of addictions. You know, and UM,
this it is it is quite possible that they're isolated
groups that have taken on cult characteristics. It's an interesting
question diggin too, and if we if we find enough
to make an episode about something like that, uh, then
we'd be glad to because you know, uh, you and
(27:07):
I have found things that turn out to be cults
under the strangest front, like pet rescue places out in
the middle of the desert somewhere or at least at
least Okay, all right, Matt, you and I are always
gonna be We're gonna be talking about four pie for
such a long time. Dude, we can't talk about four pie. Oh,
(27:30):
that's right, that's the first rule for um. Okay, So
we have another uh email here from Unice. Oh and
Unice says, hi, I'm anna Avid follow your show. Could
I get a shout out for all your British viewers please? Okay,
So I'm gonna tackle your full name here, Unice, and
I hope I don't mess it up. Unice lamare lamare
(27:55):
o l A y e m E r E. So
I am probably butchering that, but thank you so much.
Right into us, Unice. Uh, Unice says, I found your episode,
are you part neandertal fascinating? I am from Nigeria and
therefore probably not genetically related to Neanderthal But why did
Neanderthal's not go west like Homo sapiens? And you know
(28:18):
how it's been hammered into our generations heads growing up
that we're all the same by implication? Does that mean
we are not in in parentheses? Slippery slope? Maybe we
are all a mismash mishmash of different types of early
humans war regards massive respect for the show. Uh, these
are some fantastic questions. Uh, what we're learning and we
(28:43):
as a species, as we're delving into the murky origins
of the early stages of humanity, that moment where we
start to become what would be the modern human. What
we're finding is that it is it possible that entire
regions of the world have genetic lineage descended from other
(29:07):
other versions of early man. And currently there there's ongoing
debate about how similar to or different from modern Homo
sapiens that Neanderthals, or the Dennis Savans or the real
life Hobbits actually were. I think it's fascinating then that
(29:27):
the further we get away from the time you know
that we were separate versions of humanity, only only the
further and further we get will we learn more and
more about the past. I think that's very interesting if
you look at it from a fourth dimensional perspective, that
that's this loop that has to be created almost. I
know this sounds a little weird and trippy, and I'm
(29:49):
not or listeners, but no, I think that's very interesting,
just that sometimes the further you get from something, the
more you're gonna learn about it. Absolutely, absolutely, because let's
not forget that. In the course of doing this show,
for as long as we've done it, we have found things,
(30:09):
historical things that clearly we're a conspiracy, not a theory,
you know, not circumstantial evidence. We know who did what
and when, and it was all hush hush for you know,
decades or even centuries, and then when it came out,
usually after everyone had passed away, then it was an
(30:34):
obscure huh, who to thunk it type of historical thing.
But it is it is true that, you know, that's
one of the reasons, especially when you and I first started,
that we stuck with older, older instances of conspiracy because
there's a wider view. And speaking of that, here is
(30:55):
a message from j m uh Jay says, hey, guy,
as I love the show as a team stir. I
think it'd be great to see an episode on Jimmy Hoffa.
I love him or hate him, what happened to Halfa
is definitely something they don't want us to know. Best wishes.
That's awesome. That's awesome halfa episode for sure. I'm gonna
(31:16):
write that down. Yeah, that's one of those topics that
should have been covered by us already, and we keep
finding those that they're there are topics that we just
haven't done yet that are just kind of staring at
us in the face, but we can't see them because
we're just looking at something else. Isn't that how it
always happens, Ben, That's how it happens so far, at least.
I'm not gonna give up yet. All Right, we've got
(31:37):
another email here from Jack. You Hi, guys. I'm Jack
from Southwest Tasmania, Australia. Huge fan of your channel podcast.
You handle even the most out there conspiracies with respect,
which I think is awesome. To keep up the good work,
Hey Jack, thank you. We really appreciate you. Uh so,
Jack says, we have a few conspiracies here which you
(31:59):
may want to look into, one being the disappearance in
nineteen sixty seven of our seventeen Prime Minister Harold Holt.
The official stories that he drowned while swimming in the ocean,
but for almost forty years there's been conjecture over what
really happened. One theory is that it was killed by
the c i A. Another theory was that it was
gathering intelligence for the Chinese and a small submarine picked
(32:22):
him up off the coast for resettlement. It sounds crazy,
but some intelligence people actually give some weight to some
of these theories. Another strange conspiracy is from my home state,
the sightings of the extinct Dialcene or Tasmanian tiger as
he's known across the water. This subject divides the island
state like none other. A lot of the old timers
(32:44):
tell the bands of tigers in the hills, which are
always one step ahead of the humans. Keep up the
cool work, Jack, Yeah, it's it's interesting because we know,
we know sometimes that animals were suspected of being extinct
have been rediscovered. Uh As for something the size of
(33:04):
a Tasmanian tiger. That is very very interesting because you know,
when we did cryptozoology, we learned about how much space
large animals need just for just for survivals, and how
improbable some of those statistics at least make it seem
uh some of the cryptozoological creatures unfortunately, because I want
(33:27):
to believe Ben, but I want to learn more about
Harold Holt. That's that's fascinating as well. Oh oh one
other thing. Oh man, he would kill me if I
forgot this. Jack said, I would love a shout out
to my partner in crime, Andrew A. K A deep throat. Interesting.
(33:49):
I don't think it's the Watergate guy. Oh it's a
different deep throat. It might be a different one. Uh.
One other short one here before you go back to Facebook.
Brandon M wrote to us and said, I would like
to see an episode about hidden African archaeology, suppression or
right supremacy, which we have. We have touched on a bit.
(34:09):
We touched on a bit of it um when we
did some ancient namely in architecture topics and some lost cities.
I think we referred to it. But I would always
love to do more of that because as we're finding
the newest satellite technology, or at least the newest publicly
acknowledged satellite technology, is showing us amazing stuff about the
(34:32):
ancient world. I mean, we are finding so many ruins nowadays,
just with light ar which is actually liars. Is one
of the coolest things that exists right now. Another really
short one from Daniel. Daniel, you have one of the
coolest last names. I wish I could say it, but
I'm gonna not say it. Um he said, I think
you should do an episode on chem trails and contrails.
(34:54):
I think it make a very interesting video and lots
of people would enjoy it. Well, guess what, DA know,
you're in luck because we already have an episode on
that and you can find it on our channel. Just
search chem trails and maybe stuff. Don't Maybe that's a
good way. I'm not sure. Uh yeah, it can be
tricky to find some of those older ones. And you
know what meant, I would love another crack at that
(35:15):
topic because that was back in our our early day. Yeah,
um yeah, I wouldn't mind doing that. All right, I'm
gonna jump back over to Facebook one more time really fast.
Uh this is from Bing. Thank you for writing. Bing.
Bing says, would you investigate more about the possible chance
that Hitler survived World War Two and then being gave
(35:37):
us a link to this new information released by the
FBI in regards to a possible hiding location in Argentina.
So we've talked a little bit about the subject, but
we haven't really focused on Hitler. That's true because we
there's so many strange conspiracies and notice I say conspiracies,
(35:58):
not theories. There's so many strange things about the Nazi
Party in World War Two that later turned out to
be completely true that we've been We've been always careful
too before we uh delve into those, because we don't
we don't want to run out of the frankly, the
kind of easy topics. Um. But we have never done
(36:21):
a Hitler episode at all, and I think, I think,
especially given the recent revelations about the skull and what
may or may not have happened to Hitler's body, I
think it bears investigation now. Now for the record, uh,
the majority of scholars who study this sort of stuff
dismissed the idea of Hitler's survival as a conspiracy theory.
(36:46):
But even if the even if he just died in
a different way, it would still be revelatory news. And
at least there's fascinating information about the ratlines and Argentina,
all of which is real. Yeah, so it's at least
couched and enough. Here are the facts. Then the here's
where it gets crazy part would be great. So guess
(37:09):
what I think we're gonna have to do that. Yeah,
We're definitely gonna have to do that. Let's also go
ahead and thank Nick. In advance. Nick wrote to us
and said, uh well, Nick said, Hi, guys, Jim, Matt,
and Ben. I've been enjoying your video podcast. I like
the longer format on the podcast. Have a couple of
show ideas for you, and he gave us one of
(37:29):
the greatest ones. As we said earlier, a lot of
our great ideas come from our listeners, come from you, guys,
and Nick said, do the Octopus. And that's how I
had heard about it before, but this is the reason
that I delved into it. Yeah, and much deeper than
I had ever before. So if you enjoy our series
(37:52):
on the Octopus, which includes both audio and video podcasts,
then you have Nick to thank and we have to
thank Nick too. So he recommended another thing that I
think my interests some listeners, and that is the Gemstone File.
Let's just read a quick bit of this. Uh. The
Gymstone File is a document, says Nick, created over several
(38:12):
years by a man named Bruce Roberts. The file first
began circulating around nineteen sixty nine. Because this file is
over one thousand pages, a skeleton key to the Gymstone
File was released in nineteen seventy five by Stephanie Caruna.
The file centers around Aristotle Onassis. Onassis has said to
have kidnapped Howard Hughes, gotten Kennedy elected, and later at
(38:35):
Kennedy killed, among many other things. The file and key
began in the thirties, with Onassis and Joseph Kennedy striking
a bootlegging deal. The key runs all the way to
nineteen seventy five, when it was released. Fascinating. Yeah and
He says that both the Octopus and the gym style
uh Stone File are examples of mega conspiracies and overarching
(38:56):
conspiracy incorporating several smaller theories. Um and you know. As
another example, he points to the Illuminati. You know, Nick,
thank you for these fantastic suggestions. I'd love to cover
the Gemstone File as well, assuming of course, that you
and I don't don't disappear after the octopus stuff, right man,
(39:20):
I don't say that. Are you feeling paranoid? Mat Yeah,
feeling I always feel paranoid. But when we cover something
like the octopus, that just feels it. It feels so real.
And you know, people people died, whether or not, whether
or not actually had anything to do with the conspiracy,
maybe maybe not, but people died there. Numerous people died
(39:44):
around the octopus. Well that is, it is true that
numerous people have died. I don't know if it's all related, though,
I'm a little bit I'm a little bit more skeptical
on that one. Certainly I as well reserve some of
my s however, Um, Danny Castelero's death is something's rotten
(40:05):
in Denmark? Are there? Okay? Well, we are going to
wrap up this episode of Listener Mail. Thanks to Ian
Nick Eunice, Jack, Drew, Heather, Brian Brandon, Daniel Carlos, Jay
Zack and being for writing to us. To everyone who
has written to us that hasn't made out on the
air yet, we would love to bring your stories to
(40:29):
the rest of the audience as soon as we can
in an upcoming episode, because again, uh not only do
all of our best ideas come from you, guys, but
also some of the most important stuff that you will
hear on this show comes from listeners just like you.
Well yeah, and it also brings a little bright to
(40:50):
our day when we're stuck in a cave reading about
some horrible thing that happened in history, you know, getting
a message from one of you is uh, it's a
It's a huge positive part of my day. At least
speak for yourself. I'm kidding and and and speaking of
because we like, we love interacting with with you guys.
(41:10):
So in that light, I'm gonna read one last thing
from someone named Chris who wrote to us on Facebook
Ben and he says, Hey, Ben and Matt, I was
just wondering if you guys are ever thinking about doing
a meet up at all in or around Atlanta. He's
just wondering, what do you think it's a trap? No,
I'm kidding, I'm getting, I'm getting I want to do
(41:31):
this if yeah, if people are interested, we would love
to do that. We have talked about doing a live
Google hang out again. That was that was pretty cool.
It was nice to put the faces with the names
of listeners. Um and we found some great topics that
we later made into some kick ass episodes. But you know,
let us know you guys right to us. As Matt
said on Facebook and Twitter, visit our website ww dot stuff.
(41:56):
They don't want you to know dot com. That's right,
the longest U r L and the business And if
you want to be on the air. In a later
episode of Listener Mail, go ahead and send us an email.
Our address is conspiracy at Discovery dot com. From more
on this topic, another unexplained phenomenon, visit test tube dot
(42:19):
com slash conspiracy stuff. You can also get in touch
on Twitter at the handle at conspiracy stuff.
From UFOs two, Ghosts and government cover ups. History is
writtled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Hello, everyone,
welcome back to the show. My name is Matt and
I am Ben and that makes this stuff they don't
(00:21):
want you to know yet. You know, earlier when we
had we had a couple of issues that made us
need to restart our recording here, which happened sometimes, and
you had you had a really nice sort of theme
song intro to it, right, Yeah, you know, I decided
not to try it again the first time. It was
just out of boldness. I felt like I should just
(00:42):
go for it, but it was it was the wrong decision. Well,
fortune favors the bold, right. Uh. So we're doing something
a little bit different on two days episode, isn't that right, Matt?
That's correct. We are looking back through our archives for
all the messages that you have sent us, and we're
going to go through as many of them as we
possibly can and address issues talked about a couple of things,
(01:05):
and uh, hopefully it's going to be a good time.
Oh definitely. We'll also just have some stories that some
of you have written to us about and uh, we
wanted to tell these stories to the rest of the audience.
And some of these are fascinating and waiting to get
into it. And we'll be looking at stuff across Facebook
(01:26):
and some Twitter and some emails. So, uh, Matt, I
feel mind? Would you like to do the honors? All right?
We can get this started. This is a message from
Chris with a K, and I'm just gonna go through it,
he says. Matt and Ben. I've had somewhat of an
eerie feeling about the capabilities of my cell phone in
(01:48):
the past several years because of my dystopian view of
what others can do with any personal information that can
be accessed. When I saw your video on neuromarketing, I
had several nuggets of information come flooding into my head.
Tom plead a bigger picture. We all know that our
cell phones are hot beds of personal information, and I've
just accepted the fact that somebody can get access to
anything they want from it. Thank you, Edward Snowdon. That's
(02:11):
pretty great and personal person of interest. But what do
you guys think about this? Almost all recent smartphones have
a rear facing camera that can see your face as
you use your phone. Do you think it's possible for
somebody to be able to know what you're doing or
looking at on your phone and see your reaction to
these things and make an advertisement profile. So this is
(02:33):
really interesting, Ben, I just want to point out here
that my cell phone that is not in here while
we're recording for possible RF interference, has taped over the
front facing or I guess is the rear facing camera
that looks at me while I'm on my phone. Yeah.
I I have the webcam in my laptops taped over too,
(02:55):
but not on the phone because, UM, sure, I'll make
us stupid face. I imagine we're reading something on Reddit.
But if someone catches me doing that, then you know
they'll they'll probably be disappointed. Or maybe you know what,
maybe I should just start making incredibly exaggerated reactions. Uh.
(03:18):
When you look at things that would would increase your
profile in positive ways for you, like we were saying earlier, Um,
when you look at some kind of market research, make
these faces that you're genuinely interested and when a cab
video comes on, just be disgusted. Uh. We could become
the uh the saboteurs, right, but yeah, but okay, So
(03:40):
Chris makes a really good point here, do you think
there's any kind of market research that could be done
with this? With using technology? Okay, this is what the
person is browsing at this time, and here is here's
our facial recognition software running. Do you think there's anything
in the future? Oh? Yeah, First before you answer that,
(04:00):
because I do have an answer for that. He's got
a couple more questions could be end I wanted to read?
He said, Uh, could neuromarketers gather and test this info
in order to sell their services to others in the future?
Could this info be used for something more sinister? Would
that be illegal? Uh? It seems like it should be.
But does anybody actually read what kind of permissions they
(04:21):
allow on their phones and what the end result of
granting these permissions could possibly be. So to answer your
your first question, and I Matt, Uh, it's completely possible
for a phone to be hacked and for the camera
abilities of that phone to be exploited without knowledge, the
(04:41):
same way that it's completely possible for a laptop. In
some cases, it could be even easier to hack a
cell phone in that regard. But what we're talking about,
And what I think Chris s here is talking about
is not so much hacking as people through negligence allowing
um a program that's a little bit too nosy onto
(05:03):
their phone. So there are two ways this could happen, uh,
And one is not entirely your fault as the phone owner,
right because someone has illegally acquired these capabilities. And the
other one is totally your fault for not reading terms
and agreements and guys, yeah, no one does it. No
(05:24):
one reads all And there's part of you know, it's
to the advantage of a lot of those companies asking
people to agree to something to have a touse language
that no one wants to read. There was a as
a professor in town while back who was embarking on
a project to make terms and agreement documents more readable
(05:48):
more Yeah, yeah, I just think it's it was more
like an infographic or the the information was arranged so
that you knew, in layman's terms, what you were allowing
company A or app X to do to your information
on your phone. Of course, as you can imagine, there
wasn't a lot of impetus of two to help him
(06:10):
out on the business. Nobody's going to give him a
lot of money to do this. So if you agree
to this kind of stuff, um in your terms and permissions,
in your terms of agreements, then it is not necessarily illegal.
Good neuromarketers gather and test this sort of info. Chris
also mentions responses to heart rate monitors embedded allegedly embedded
(06:34):
in some phones. Uh. The truth is that, yes, this
kind of information could be used. It is possible. Is
somebody doing it right now? That we don't know. We
do know, however, that there are some ongoing studies, um
that have been conducted regarding biometric signs or biometric data
(06:56):
related to advertising. So well, yeah, that's the whole neuromarketing aspect.
If you haven't watched it random plug here. If you
haven't watched it, watch a neuromarketing series. It's great. Yeah,
and we'd like to christens that with I'd like to
hear where you guys take this one. Uh, we would
like to explore more of this in the future. What
(07:17):
I think bold both of us over met was the
realization of the degree to which this stuff is being pursued.
Oh yeah, well, and the dollars that are there for
potential companies that would develop this kind of technology. It's
just kind of waiting for somebody to reach out and
(07:37):
grab so it in my in my opinion, if it
is not already active and we're just not aware of it,
it will be active and we will probably be aware
of it very soon. So you know, guys, Uh, make
crazy faces at your phone just doesn't matter in public
by yourself. Tell tell them that, Tell them you're doing
(07:57):
it for science. That's right. Yeah, that's the newest vague
excuse of the age. As people like to say, Oh,
don't worry, it's for science. Yeah, with an exclamation mark. Yeah,
pardon me, officer, that was for science. Um. But speak
of reaching out to grab something, you wanna grab us?
One from Facebook? Yes, here's a message from Ian that
we got on Facebook. He says, Hey, guys, have you
(08:20):
heard of this new batch of oddness yet? Search web
driver Torso for more info. I'd love to see what
you guys think. So, oh yeah, we actually read this
and we had heard about it. I think simultaneously as
Ian sent this message and we actually posted it on Facebook.
It's a YouTube page that has some curious things going
(08:41):
on with it. It's random tones and shapes, yeah, red
and blue squares, rectangles. Uh. The The other thing about
this is that this channel post numerous videos. Um, there's thousands,
no other way to say, yeah, uh, way too many videos.
(09:03):
And people are asking themselves, is this uh? Is this
just performance art for the sake of pretentious performance art? Um.
We should note also that it seems that this video
is acquainted with France or the video uploaders acquainted with France,
because there is one non square video, right, one non
tone and shape video where they say, oh, so and
(09:26):
so is a smart guy and the Eiffel Towers in
the background or something. Uh. There's another possibility, which is
of course much more exciting, and that is the idea
that this YouTube channel maybe an evolution in the uh
in in the path of number stations. Um. Sure, that's
(09:47):
a that's a fascinating idea. You just need the internet
connection or uh, you know, a connection to some kind
of satellite service and there you go. Now you have
all your secret spy information that you needed for that
thing you have to do and health sinky Yeah right,
Uh they said that the thing you have to do
in Helsinki. Um. For anyone who doesn't know what a
(10:07):
number station is it's a brilliant example of how older
technology can still function perfectly in in the modern world.
Numbers stations are these radio transmissions that occur on specific frequencies,
and every so often sporadically, on some of these Russian
(10:30):
number stations, somebody with okay an accent will come on
and say a series of numbers in Russian. Just you
don't know when it's going to happen. I'm sure someone does, uh,
but they'll come on and they'll say, you know, twelve,
fourteen two, Well yeah, and there will also be alphabet
sequencing sequences. So it's just it's really great. I think
(10:55):
it's the Content Project, Is that correct? Noel? Are you
listening to me? The Connate project that actually did the
all the things with the number stations where it's music
with the number three, Yes, Yankee Hotel, Fox Shot. It's
great stuff. Think you know that's our producer, Noel, who
is not just a great producer, but also a fount
(11:17):
of knowledge that we uh we we check in with
and sometimes you guys will hear us refer to know.
I hope you keep this one in. I know that
sometimes you cut it out when we talk to you.
On the show, he's going to so the uh so.
The interesting thing with those number stations is that, while
we don't have conclusive proof of what they do, uh,
(11:38):
the best one of the best guesses is that, due
to the times in which they began transmitting, and due
to the secrecy surrounding them, UH, it seems fairly safe
to say that they are somehow related to espionage. And
if you think about it, it's an uncrack herble code
(11:58):
because if it is ladd espionage, then these sequences of
numbers and letters are guides to a cipher, uh, some
sort of code book that people are looking at to
learn messages or receive information. And if you don't have
that book, then there's no way that you could crack
(12:19):
this code. The big question then, is web driver web torso,
web driver Torso, webdriver torso one of these sorts of
endeavors And if so, this is quite exciting because YouTube
might be one of the perfect places for that. Or
is it just some kind of random generator that's being
uploaded on some kind of weird schedule through an algorithm
(12:41):
that some some person just decided to try out right?
Is it just an elaborate art project which is equally
possible or just a troll right see? Or is it
maybe someone's trying to make a music video but they're
doing it very strangely and out of sync. And then
once once you put the whole thing together where it's
just going to be this beautiful, symphonic piece, maybe that's
(13:03):
what it is. That's really nice, you know what. I'm
gonna choose to believe that for a while, um, at
least until the end of this episode. Next thing comes
to us from Zach, and Zach wrote to us on email, Zack,
you said, hey, guys, can't get enough of your show.
I did end up looking into jury nullification. Definitely something
everyone should be aware of. But anyways, I was thinking
(13:24):
Australia often gets left off the radar for most Americans,
myself included, until I moved to Tasmania. There's a story interesting,
that's interesting. Uh, And Zach goes on st needless to say,
there is a lot of the big wigs here don't
like open discussion about. First off, Australia is not actually independent.
It's pretty amazing, but the Queen of England can ask
Australia to go to war and we have to go
(13:47):
she appoints a Governor General who oversees a lot of
stuff of what happens down under. It's worth noting that
the ground often doesn't intervene or make orders, but they
still have the ability to do so if they choose.
Another very dark moment that for a long time was
covered up was Nolan known as the Stolen Generation, active
between nineteen o nine to nineteen sixty nine. Australian officials
(14:09):
who go into Aboriginal communities and take away children to
adopt out to white prosperous families and an attempt to
I'm putting finger quotes in here civilized them. From their perspective,
here's where it gets crazy. Thanks. A hundred thousand children
may have been taken over the years. I would look
at the movie Rabbit Proof Fence as it details one
of the amazing escape stories of some of those children.
(14:31):
There are many parallels between what happened to Native Americans
and Aboriginals. The thing is that in Australia this all
happened much more recently and was still hidden from the
public for a while. Just to pitch something people don't
often hear about. Thanks again for the show. That's uh.
What was it rabbit proof fence. Yeah, rabbit proof fence.
(14:52):
To write that down and make sure so. The stolen
generation is something that I had read about in Zach
your spot on with identifying the parallels between Native American
families and Aboriginal families in Australia, because in the United States,
although it's often glossed over in the history books, a
(15:13):
very very similar thing occurred and people who were often
guided by missionary principles would take uh these quote unquote
heathen children and try to civilize them or teach them
some sort of religion thing. Often, of course, taking a
child from her or his family is way more traumatic
(15:39):
than allowing that family unit to continue to exist. Yeah,
not not only for the child, but for the rest
of the family. Uh God, dude, makes me think about
the current Nigerian situation. Yeah, with Boko Haram. Yeah, just
that idea of taking children. It's one of the most
horrendous acts that you can think of well, and happens
(16:01):
with a appalling regularity. One interesting and extremely depressing statistic
is that in raw numbers, there are more slaves alive
today than there have been at any point in human history.
And that again that's raw numbers, so that statistic can
be a little misleading because they're also way more people
(16:24):
around than there have been in the past. That the
ways of humanity haven't changed that much. Unfortunately, that's true.
That's true. We can't leave just that horrible statistics standing.
It is also true that this is, believe it or not,
one of the most peaceful times in human history, which
is not saying that this is a great time, just
(16:46):
saying that other times were bananas in the worst possible way.
One last point there with the effect of this stolen
generation activity by the Australian government, it's this the effects
of those sorts of practices regardless. You know, maybe they
were well intentioned and most people don't think of themselves
(17:08):
as villains, so maybe the people stealing these children thought
they were doing a good thing. But regardless of their intention,
the truth is that this has had long lasting intergenerational effects,
not just upon Aboriginal communities in Australia, but also upon
Australian culture as a whole. And there's no easy fix
(17:32):
for this, but I think one of the first steps
is making this a well known story. So uh, thank
you for bringing this to light, and we hope that
our other listeners guys. Uh, I guess everybody, but Zach,
if you haven't seen rabbit Proof Fence, do check it out,
and uh, hopefully we can we can cover this. Yeah,
(17:52):
I'm interested. Yeah, we'll definitely cover this one. And uh,
as always, when you start digging a little bit beneath
or between the line of history textbooks, you find a
frightening number of skeletons. Yeah. Just depending on where you live,
there will be nice little redacted marks all over one
specific area. Okay, so let's let's bring it back to
(18:12):
Facebook really fast, bend. Oh wait, but before I do that,
I just want to give a shout out to Heather,
who has written us numerous very kind things. Yeah, but
I really didn't I don't want to read. Ben and
I both decided we don't really want to read the email,
one of the main ones that you said. It's just
because it's very nice and it's awesome. Thank you for
(18:33):
sending it. But I don't think anybody wants to hear
us just get complimented by ourselves, you know, by you
through ourselves. Well, Matt, it wasn't all just uh compliments,
because Heather also had some great suggestions that if we
haven't mentioned in, if we haven't mentioned on the air yet,
I might just be saving those that we can do
(18:55):
a series on them. But Heather, if you are listening,
thank you for checking in with us. We are responding
to your email. Um, and now I'd just like to say, Heather,
I hope uh, well, obviously you're not right now at
this moment enjoying listening to Ben's voice, But just that
whole time earlier, when you're listening to Ben's voice, I
hope you enjoyed that. Oh come on, man says I
(19:17):
have to read it, Ben, I have to read it,
just one tiny little excerpt. Uh, Heather says Ben, you
have one of the sexiest non British accented voices I've
ever heard. Have you ever considered doing audio books? Have you?
Are you asking me? Yeah? Have you? Um? You know what,
Maybe you and I can do an audio book one day, Matt.
(19:39):
Maybe I don't know if you need me. Because she
says she would pay real, actual dollars to get audio
of you reading public Domain works, Well, that's that's so kind.
I would recommend you know that how Stuff Works does
have a couple of audio books by our buddies Josh
and Chuck. Yes, they're great, highly produced. You'll you'll love it.
It feels kind of like radio Lab. Yeah. Their guide
(20:01):
to Happiness is great. That's one of my favorites. Um,
which reminds me of this. Uh. Lizzie writes to us
and says, Hi, guys, nice work on shining light on
stuff they wants to know. Just wondering how was it
fair to bring up what you claim to be an amazing,
impressive ghost story and then decided not to tell us
anything about it. Can I please, please pulease get a
(20:22):
copy of this story, you know, the one I'm talking about.
You said it was too long to read on air,
and uh, then she said, so apparently wiki leaks released
cables about aliens is trending right now. I'd be down
to hear more about aliens, so would we, of course. Um.
And this is a note that made me think of this.
Here she said, you guys rock. I love that you
occasionally mentioned Josh and Chuck from stuff you should know
(20:44):
because I get happy thinking about you all being friends
and hanging out. We we do actually hang out. We
we sit around in the in the same office and uh.
Some of the big News today, just for a peak
behind the scenes. Is that Chuck recently out of skateboard? Oh? Man,
here he got he got another skateboard since the ones
(21:04):
that he had when he was younger. I guess, yeah, yeah, yeah,
he was. He had been skating for while as a teenager,
and now he's back on the board. Oh way, yeah,
he assures me. It's not like getting back on a bicycle. Sure. Um, okay,
So about this ghost story, Lizzie. I actually went back
and looked for the copy of the ghost story. But
(21:26):
if if I can find it, because it was long,
you know, it was pretty cool. If I can find it,
then I am going to send it to you post taste.
But you know, I do have a copy of that.
Do you have a copy? I think we should. I
still want to do a special audio podcast where we
just read that story. Okay, oh man, that's great. I
forget the name of the person who sent it in,
(21:46):
but I hope hopefully wouldn't mind. We'll will shoot him
an email and yeah, absolutely. Okay. So what's next, Matt,
where do you Yeah? Yeah, let's go back to Facebook.
I was gonna do that earlier. Sorry, this is a
really fast one. This is from carl Mose and I'm
not gonna use your last name, Carlos, but I will
say that you are the lunatic with an A on
(22:07):
the He asks what movie software do y'all use for
your videos? Please get back at me. Um, Well, Carlos,
just to address that quickly, we use an old version
of Final Cut Final Cut seven that's no longer supported,
and that's just because we we developed the show uh
around that format, and it's just honestly, we haven't had
(22:29):
time to switch anything over to ten, or or to
switch it over to Premiere any of the other things.
We're going to be doing that in the future, but
that's still what we use. Uh. We use a bunch
of photoshop and after effects motion um that those are
the main ones. MPEG stream clip is when we use.
And that's about it. And also for those who are
(22:52):
not acquainted with this, and we'll be preaching to the
choir for Final Cut fans, uh, the Final Cut version
we're using is pure ear to Final Cut ten. So well, okay,
you might get some flak about that. I I think
it is okay, um, and that's only because I've been
using Final Cut that is has at least been close
(23:12):
to that version for a long time. For what you
want to do, it's superior. Yes, that's fair. Okay. Yeah,
so if somebody else thinks it's perfect for something else
and they're doing something different, alright. So we have another
letter from uh our listener, Drew v Drew. You said, Hey,
(23:32):
they're been a fan for quite some time. Just finished
up are you part Neandertal our newest episode? He said,
early human history has always been something and fascinating me greatly,
so I'm glad to see some work by you on
the topic. Second, you mentioned at the very very end
of the episode that if anyone in anyone wanted to
shout out to drop you an email. So this is
me doing that. Oh and you put his whole name,
(23:54):
whole name in here, so I'll go ahead and say
my name is Drew Vulcan. Would be quite awesome to
hear somebody and the crew say it out loud on
an episode. Drew Vulcan did that, Drew Vulcan, oh man
so many times? Yeah, um, thanks for time. I appreciate it. Uh,
you know what, we appreciate your time, Drew. We're a
(24:15):
free show, all of our except for our mysterious sponsor. UM.
All of our best ideas come from listeners, and we
have had numerous listeners right into us before about especially
when news about the real life Hobbits and Dennis Silvis
came out. UM. Most of our great ideas come from listeners.
(24:35):
So thank you guys, Thank you Drew. Here's another one
from Facebook, Ben. This is from Anthony. He says, Hey,
I really enjoy your show. I was wondering if you
guys could make an episode on a A Alcoholics, Anonymous,
and twelve step programs, this one in particular being a cult,
and he says, I mean the first step is to
accept that you're powerless, so right away they're breaking the
(24:57):
person down as they would in a cult. What do
you I think? You know what, this is a very
interesting point that you're raising because and thank you for
raising it, because case by case on an a A
meeting from because I looked into some of this, like
is a occult right? Uh? And case by case, it
(25:19):
appears that some groups take on cultish characteristics and from
what I understand, these are in no way representative of
the entirety of a A. It's just because it's built
as sort of a decentralized organization. It's easy for people
to drift away under a charismatic leader, and you know,
(25:41):
isolation a charismatic leader UM an abiding problem and only
one way to get saved through a certain predescribed path.
Uh does sound a lot like a cult. I'm just
gonna just gonna be honest. Yeah, it's culty. It's a
bit culty. Um. Another thing that's interesting that this makes
me think of is, uh, what is it narcanon narcotic
(26:02):
users anonymous in a UM because that has been uh
linked with scientology, which causes uh it's It's caused a
lot of criticism for people who also disagree with scientology
and say that this is not actually helping drug addicts,
(26:23):
it's trying to convert them. Yeah. Man, that's fascinating. There's scientology.
I know they are very anti drugs in scientology as
well as psychiatry. I believe the thing that we do
have to say is that methods of breaking addiction are
not always going to be the same for all people
(26:45):
or for all types of addictions. You know, and UM,
this it is it is quite possible that they're isolated
groups that have taken on cult characteristics. It's an interesting
question diggin too, and if we if we find enough
to make an episode about something like that, uh, then
we'd be glad to because you know, uh, you and
(27:07):
I have found things that turn out to be cults
under the strangest front, like pet rescue places out in
the middle of the desert somewhere or at least at
least Okay, all right, Matt, you and I are always
gonna be We're gonna be talking about four pie for
such a long time. Dude, we can't talk about four pie. Oh,
(27:30):
that's right, that's the first rule for um. Okay, So
we have another uh email here from Unice. Oh and
Unice says, hi, I'm anna Avid follow your show. Could
I get a shout out for all your British viewers please? Okay,
So I'm gonna tackle your full name here, Unice, and
I hope I don't mess it up. Unice lamare lamare
(27:55):
o l A y e m E r E. So
I am probably butchering that, but thank you so much.
Right into us, Unice. Uh, Unice says, I found your episode,
are you part neandertal fascinating? I am from Nigeria and
therefore probably not genetically related to Neanderthal But why did
Neanderthal's not go west like Homo sapiens? And you know
(28:18):
how it's been hammered into our generations heads growing up
that we're all the same by implication? Does that mean
we are not in in parentheses? Slippery slope? Maybe we
are all a mismash mishmash of different types of early
humans war regards massive respect for the show. Uh, these
are some fantastic questions. Uh, what we're learning and we
(28:43):
as a species, as we're delving into the murky origins
of the early stages of humanity, that moment where we
start to become what would be the modern human. What
we're finding is that it is it possible that entire
regions of the world have genetic lineage descended from other
(29:07):
other versions of early man. And currently there there's ongoing
debate about how similar to or different from modern Homo
sapiens that Neanderthals, or the Dennis Savans or the real
life Hobbits actually were. I think it's fascinating then that
(29:27):
the further we get away from the time you know
that we were separate versions of humanity, only only the
further and further we get will we learn more and
more about the past. I think that's very interesting if
you look at it from a fourth dimensional perspective, that
that's this loop that has to be created almost. I
know this sounds a little weird and trippy, and I'm
(29:49):
not or listeners, but no, I think that's very interesting,
just that sometimes the further you get from something, the
more you're gonna learn about it. Absolutely, absolutely, because let's
not forget that. In the course of doing this show,
for as long as we've done it, we have found things,
(30:09):
historical things that clearly we're a conspiracy, not a theory,
you know, not circumstantial evidence. We know who did what
and when, and it was all hush hush for you know,
decades or even centuries, and then when it came out,
usually after everyone had passed away, then it was an
(30:34):
obscure huh, who to thunk it type of historical thing.
But it is it is true that, you know, that's
one of the reasons, especially when you and I first started,
that we stuck with older, older instances of conspiracy because
there's a wider view. And speaking of that, here is
(30:55):
a message from j m uh Jay says, hey, guy,
as I love the show as a team stir. I
think it'd be great to see an episode on Jimmy Hoffa.
I love him or hate him, what happened to Halfa
is definitely something they don't want us to know. Best wishes.
That's awesome. That's awesome halfa episode for sure. I'm gonna
(31:16):
write that down. Yeah, that's one of those topics that
should have been covered by us already, and we keep
finding those that they're there are topics that we just
haven't done yet that are just kind of staring at
us in the face, but we can't see them because
we're just looking at something else. Isn't that how it
always happens, Ben, That's how it happens so far, at least.
I'm not gonna give up yet. All Right, we've got
(31:37):
another email here from Jack. You Hi, guys. I'm Jack
from Southwest Tasmania, Australia. Huge fan of your channel podcast.
You handle even the most out there conspiracies with respect,
which I think is awesome. To keep up the good work,
Hey Jack, thank you. We really appreciate you. Uh so,
Jack says, we have a few conspiracies here which you
(31:59):
may want to look into, one being the disappearance in
nineteen sixty seven of our seventeen Prime Minister Harold Holt.
The official stories that he drowned while swimming in the ocean,
but for almost forty years there's been conjecture over what
really happened. One theory is that it was killed by
the c i A. Another theory was that it was
gathering intelligence for the Chinese and a small submarine picked
(32:22):
him up off the coast for resettlement. It sounds crazy,
but some intelligence people actually give some weight to some
of these theories. Another strange conspiracy is from my home state,
the sightings of the extinct Dialcene or Tasmanian tiger as
he's known across the water. This subject divides the island
state like none other. A lot of the old timers
(32:44):
tell the bands of tigers in the hills, which are
always one step ahead of the humans. Keep up the
cool work, Jack, Yeah, it's it's interesting because we know,
we know sometimes that animals were suspected of being extinct
have been rediscovered. Uh As for something the size of
(33:04):
a Tasmanian tiger. That is very very interesting because you know,
when we did cryptozoology, we learned about how much space
large animals need just for just for survivals, and how
improbable some of those statistics at least make it seem
uh some of the cryptozoological creatures unfortunately, because I want
(33:27):
to believe Ben, but I want to learn more about
Harold Holt. That's that's fascinating as well. Oh oh one
other thing. Oh man, he would kill me if I
forgot this. Jack said, I would love a shout out
to my partner in crime, Andrew A. K A deep throat. Interesting.
(33:49):
I don't think it's the Watergate guy. Oh it's a
different deep throat. It might be a different one. Uh.
One other short one here before you go back to Facebook.
Brandon M wrote to us and said, I would like
to see an episode about hidden African archaeology, suppression or
right supremacy, which we have. We have touched on a bit.
(34:09):
We touched on a bit of it um when we
did some ancient namely in architecture topics and some lost cities.
I think we referred to it. But I would always
love to do more of that because as we're finding
the newest satellite technology, or at least the newest publicly
acknowledged satellite technology, is showing us amazing stuff about the
(34:32):
ancient world. I mean, we are finding so many ruins nowadays,
just with light ar which is actually liars. Is one
of the coolest things that exists right now. Another really
short one from Daniel. Daniel, you have one of the
coolest last names. I wish I could say it, but
I'm gonna not say it. Um he said, I think
you should do an episode on chem trails and contrails.
(34:54):
I think it make a very interesting video and lots
of people would enjoy it. Well, guess what, DA know,
you're in luck because we already have an episode on
that and you can find it on our channel. Just
search chem trails and maybe stuff. Don't Maybe that's a
good way. I'm not sure. Uh yeah, it can be
tricky to find some of those older ones. And you
know what meant, I would love another crack at that
(35:15):
topic because that was back in our our early day. Yeah,
um yeah, I wouldn't mind doing that. All right, I'm
gonna jump back over to Facebook one more time really fast.
Uh this is from Bing. Thank you for writing. Bing.
Bing says, would you investigate more about the possible chance
that Hitler survived World War Two and then being gave
(35:37):
us a link to this new information released by the
FBI in regards to a possible hiding location in Argentina.
So we've talked a little bit about the subject, but
we haven't really focused on Hitler. That's true because we
there's so many strange conspiracies and notice I say conspiracies,
(35:58):
not theories. There's so many strange things about the Nazi
Party in World War Two that later turned out to
be completely true that we've been We've been always careful
too before we uh delve into those, because we don't
we don't want to run out of the frankly, the
kind of easy topics. Um. But we have never done
(36:21):
a Hitler episode at all, and I think, I think,
especially given the recent revelations about the skull and what
may or may not have happened to Hitler's body, I
think it bears investigation now. Now for the record, uh,
the majority of scholars who study this sort of stuff
dismissed the idea of Hitler's survival as a conspiracy theory.
(36:46):
But even if the even if he just died in
a different way, it would still be revelatory news. And
at least there's fascinating information about the ratlines and Argentina,
all of which is real. Yeah, so it's at least
couched and enough. Here are the facts. Then the here's
where it gets crazy part would be great. So guess
(37:09):
what I think we're gonna have to do that. Yeah,
We're definitely gonna have to do that. Let's also go
ahead and thank Nick. In advance. Nick wrote to us
and said, uh well, Nick said, Hi, guys, Jim, Matt,
and Ben. I've been enjoying your video podcast. I like
the longer format on the podcast. Have a couple of
show ideas for you, and he gave us one of
(37:29):
the greatest ones. As we said earlier, a lot of
our great ideas come from our listeners, come from you, guys,
and Nick said, do the Octopus. And that's how I
had heard about it before, but this is the reason
that I delved into it. Yeah, and much deeper than
I had ever before. So if you enjoy our series
(37:52):
on the Octopus, which includes both audio and video podcasts,
then you have Nick to thank and we have to
thank Nick too. So he recommended another thing that I
think my interests some listeners, and that is the Gemstone File.
Let's just read a quick bit of this. Uh. The
Gymstone File is a document, says Nick, created over several
(38:12):
years by a man named Bruce Roberts. The file first
began circulating around nineteen sixty nine. Because this file is
over one thousand pages, a skeleton key to the Gymstone
File was released in nineteen seventy five by Stephanie Caruna.
The file centers around Aristotle Onassis. Onassis has said to
have kidnapped Howard Hughes, gotten Kennedy elected, and later at
(38:35):
Kennedy killed, among many other things. The file and key
began in the thirties, with Onassis and Joseph Kennedy striking
a bootlegging deal. The key runs all the way to
nineteen seventy five, when it was released. Fascinating. Yeah and
He says that both the Octopus and the gym style
uh Stone File are examples of mega conspiracies and overarching
(38:56):
conspiracy incorporating several smaller theories. Um and you know. As
another example, he points to the Illuminati. You know, Nick,
thank you for these fantastic suggestions. I'd love to cover
the Gemstone File as well, assuming of course, that you
and I don't don't disappear after the octopus stuff, right man,
(39:20):
I don't say that. Are you feeling paranoid? Mat Yeah,
feeling I always feel paranoid. But when we cover something
like the octopus, that just feels it. It feels so real.
And you know, people people died, whether or not, whether
or not actually had anything to do with the conspiracy,
maybe maybe not, but people died there. Numerous people died
(39:44):
around the octopus. Well that is, it is true that
numerous people have died. I don't know if it's all related, though,
I'm a little bit I'm a little bit more skeptical
on that one. Certainly I as well reserve some of
my s however, Um, Danny Castelero's death is something's rotten
(40:05):
in Denmark? Are there? Okay? Well, we are going to
wrap up this episode of Listener Mail. Thanks to Ian
Nick Eunice, Jack, Drew, Heather, Brian Brandon, Daniel Carlos, Jay
Zack and being for writing to us. To everyone who
has written to us that hasn't made out on the
air yet, we would love to bring your stories to
(40:29):
the rest of the audience as soon as we can
in an upcoming episode, because again, uh not only do
all of our best ideas come from you, guys, but
also some of the most important stuff that you will
hear on this show comes from listeners just like you.
Well yeah, and it also brings a little bright to
(40:50):
our day when we're stuck in a cave reading about
some horrible thing that happened in history, you know, getting
a message from one of you is uh, it's a
It's a huge positive part of my day. At least
speak for yourself. I'm kidding and and and speaking of
because we like, we love interacting with with you guys.
(41:10):
So in that light, I'm gonna read one last thing
from someone named Chris who wrote to us on Facebook
Ben and he says, Hey, Ben and Matt, I was
just wondering if you guys are ever thinking about doing
a meet up at all in or around Atlanta. He's
just wondering, what do you think it's a trap? No,
I'm kidding, I'm getting, I'm getting I want to do
(41:31):
this if yeah, if people are interested, we would love
to do that. We have talked about doing a live
Google hang out again. That was that was pretty cool.
It was nice to put the faces with the names
of listeners. Um and we found some great topics that
we later made into some kick ass episodes. But you know,
let us know you guys right to us. As Matt
said on Facebook and Twitter, visit our website ww dot stuff.
(41:56):
They don't want you to know dot com. That's right,
the longest U r L and the business And if
you want to be on the air. In a later
episode of Listener Mail, go ahead and send us an email.
Our address is conspiracy at Discovery dot com. From more
on this topic, another unexplained phenomenon, visit test tube dot
(42:19):
com slash conspiracy stuff. You can also get in touch
on Twitter at the handle at conspiracy stuff.
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