Goose Chase Podcast

This week we're talking about NFTs, the latest crypto-blockchain-thingy that's got everyone swept up into a frenzy. What is an NFT? Well, it's kind of like a limited edition thing, like a trading card, that lives on the blockchain of a cryptocurrency. What it is to different people is more complicated. It's a collectible, an investment, or trying to own a piece of history. It's an attempt to create scarcity around things that tradi...

This week we're talking about a notable art feud, all started around the creation of the blackest black paint ever. Devised by Anish Kapoor, vantablack is the legendary darker-than-dark paint that sparked anger and controversy when he declared sole ownership and rights to use it. This spawned anger, commentary, and a pretty hilarious troll in response, as well as great and meaningful discussion about the nature of art and who it tr...

When you think of your beloved sleepytime tea, probably the last thing you think of is bizarre utopian cults. Boy, do we have a story for you. With incidental connections to the Kellogg family who we've talked about in the past, Celestial Seasonings has an odd history that they don't particularly like to talk about with the cult of Urantia, a belief centered around a racist lens on the world and a multi-planet, multi-universe schem...

This week we're talking about a "documentary" which is available online which purports to tell the story of a real life time traveler. "Confessions of a Time Traveler: The Man From 3036" is on Amazon Prime, and you could watch it right now. It's hard to tell exactly how seriously it wants you to take it, and we had a bunch of feelings about it. But the Nostradamus Brothers, as the producers call themselves, have made a few films an...

This week, we're talking about The Republic of Molossia, a micronation in Nevada that has been in the works for 40 years. Its co-founder and current leader, His Excellency President Grand Admiral Colonel Doctor Kevin Baugh, founded the nation with a friend at a young age and it has been through a turbulent series of wars, coups, takeovers and re-establishments, but Molossia still stands. A nation of 30 humans and 4 dogs, they have ...

This week, in this new year of 2021 where everyone's hoping for a bit of good luck, we're hoping you'll appreciate that your luck could not be worse than Roy Sullivan. The Guinness world record holder for most recorded lightning strikes (seven! or eight, depending on which ones you count), Roy Sullivan's story is a reminder of how improbably bad your luck can get. We felt sorry for Roy, but you can't help but laugh at the absurdity...

This week we're talking about gangstalking. If you haven't heard of it before, you're not alone, but it's a bit on the fringe, and it's a concerning concept. People who believe they're victims of gangstalking feel harassed and threatened by seemingly everyone -- at home, in the store, at work -- and they see themselves as the targets of a coordinated campaign of trouble. And when they find each other online to discuss this phenomen...

This week, we're talking about Ted Kaczynski. But not necessarily the Ted Kaczynzki story you know. Our special guest Kerstyn is here to talk with us about some of the more formative experiences that may have contributed to his development that are a lesser known part of the story, as well as breaking down some of the elements of his well-known manifesto. The nature of meaningful work, the changing nature of our society and technol...

This week, we're talking about a few people who are local legends. The kind of people who are interesting, eccentric, or just radiate personality. We're talking about Cleveland's own "Superpimp" a fixture of the club scene, as well as the late 19th century self-appointed "Emperor of the United States" and the two dogs associated with him. This episode is a trek into what happens when people decide to just go with something, without...

This week we're talking about predictive text AI models, specifically the new kid on the block: GPT-3. Most of us are familiar with chat bots: smarter child, Tay, and others that have been accessible for humans to interact with. Historically, they haven't been all that convincing, but all of that is beginning to change. While still not necessarily fully human, the capabilities inherent in the latest predictive text models are astou...

Disclaimer up front: This is a very sad, disturbing, and explicit episode. It all starts in 2010, when Sarah Lawrence student Talia Ray informs her dorm mates that her dad is getting out of prison and will be coming to stay with them. In the dorm. It would be the first instance in a decade-long campaign of manipulation, abuse, and tragedy. Lawrence Ray was introduced to his daughter's friends as a truth teller, a hero, and a great ...

This week we're talking about 5G, the latest wave in cellular evolution that is bound to make it to your phone within a few years. Every time there's a new "G" there's some kind of fear and paranoia around it, and 5G is already feared in this particularly uncertain time. We talk about what 5G is, what the conspiracy theories are, and also what you should really be paying attention to as the cellular wave of the future is being buil...

This week we're talking about some cryptography, hacking, and the crazy days where the phone company in the US was practically a god. We're joined by our most excellent guest and friend Kerstyn, who set out to answer the question: Does it ever really happen where those crazy scofflaw hackers are so good they get recruited by the feds? The answer to that ended up being hard to pin down, but we took a nice meandering goose walk inste...