Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Think First,
where we don't follow the script
.
We question it Because, in aworld full of poetic truths and
professional gaslighting,someone's got to say the quiet
part out loud.
What if one of the most iconicmoments in human history never
actually happened?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Listen, Tranquility
Base here.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Or maybe it did, and
it's only now, decades later,
that we're being dared toquestion it.
The moon landing, the black andwhite footage, the astronauts
saluting the flag on a worldwith no wind, the famous spoken
with a bit too much confidence.
If you ask some people, Twelvemen walked on the moon between
(00:50):
1969 and 1972, or so we're told.
But here we are, over 50 yearslater, and something still feels
off, not just to internettrolls and tinfoil hatters, but
to people who just know howpower works and how stories
stick.
So let's do something dangerous.
Let's think, not to confirm,not to deny, but to question the
(01:14):
way we've been told to neverquestion, because where there's
smoke, there might not be fire,but there might be something
smoldering just below thesurface.
First, no stars.
We've all seen the photos Starkshadows, perfectly crisp
astronauts, a jet black sky Withnot a single star, not even one
(01:38):
.
Why weren't stars visible In asky with no atmosphere?
Why do the shadows run indifferent directions?
Why do some crosshairs appearbehind the objects they're
supposed to overlay?
Some say it's just camerasettings, others say it's studio
lighting.
Either way, why were we neverallowed to ask?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Okay, we've had a
problem here.
This is Houston.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Say up the flag, the
American flag, allegedly planted
in one-sixth gravity on anairless rock.
And yet it moves, ripplesflutters even.
How does a flag flutter in avacuum?
Is it inertia or illusion, or afan off-camera?
(02:41):
We're told there was a rigidrod holding the flag out, that
the ripples were just leftovermomentum.
But if it was truly motionlessair, shouldn't it have stopped?
The second they let go?
Radiation, the invisible killerwe just skipped over.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
We choose to go to
the moon in this decade and do
the other things, not becausethey are easy but because they
are hard, Because that goal willserve to organize and measure
the best of our energies andskills, Because that challenge
is one that we're willing toaccept, one we are unwilling to
(03:20):
postpone and one we intend towin, and the others too.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Between Earth and the
Moon sits the Van Allen
radiation belt, a swirling soupof charged particles, deadly in
high doses.
And yet the astronauts passedthrough it twice in lightweight
aluminum capsules with 1960stechnology, and they came home
with no radiation sickness, noteven a sunburn.
(03:47):
Did they go fast enough toavoid exposure?
Did their suits somehow shieldthem better than what we have
today?
And if so, why haven't we sentanyone back with our better tech
?
And my personal favorite, themissing crater.
The lunar module descended with10,000 pounds of thrust, yet
(04:08):
left no crater, just a gentledusting.
Meanwhile, the astronauts' bootprints Sharp, deep, almost
sculpted, like someone hadpressed them into clay.
Why didn't the lander's engineblow the dust away?
Why did the pads leave barelyan impression, while boots left
perfect ones?
Shouldn't the descent haveblasted out a scorched crater
(04:31):
beneath the nozzle?
Or is that what would happen ona soundstage?
Now let's talk tech.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
That's one small step
for man, one giant leap for
mankind.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
It was the 60s no GPS
, no Wi-Fi, no touchscreens.
And yet we navigated a quartermillion miles through space, hit
a moving rock, landed safely,took off again, rendezvoused in
lunar orbit and flew home withcomputers less powerful than the
phone in your sock drawer.
Did NASA really solve all thaton the first try?
(05:17):
Did we master space travel,then forget how to do it for 50
years?
And if this was possible in 69,why can't we live stream a Zoom
call from the Sahara withoutbuffering?
Ah, yes, the tapes.
Nasa Lost the originaltelemetry tapes, the moon
landing master footage Recordedover, misplaced, gone.
(05:40):
How do you misplace the mostimportant footage in human
history?
How does that not triggeraudits, hearings or I don't know
, panic?
We're told they used the tapesto save money, that no one
realized what was on them.
Maybe that's true, or maybe theoriginal was never meant to be
found again.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And, finally, the
silence.
I believe that this nationshould commit itself to
achieving the goal, before thisdecade is out, of landing a man
on the moon and returning himsafely to the earth 400,000
people worked on the Apolloprogram Scientists, engineers,
contractors, soviets tracked it,australians received
transmissions and no one not onewhistleblower ever cracked.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Could that many
people keep a lie this big for
this long?
Or is it possible that onlysome people needed to know?
A need-to-know operation Withlayers of truth, enough truth to
hide the rest?
So here we are, still circlingthe moon, still asking questions
.
We're told not to ask, stillwondering whether the biggest
(06:51):
leap for mankind was a littletoo clean, a little too perfect,
a little too poetic.
Maybe we went, maybe we didn't,but when the answers were given
, stop making sense.
It's not denial to doubt it'ssurvival.
You don't need all the answers,but you should question the
(07:14):
ones you're handed, especiallywhen they come in black and
white with perfect lighting.
Stay sharp, stay skeptical andmaybe look up.
Tonight.
The moon's still out there.
Want more?
The full six-step framework weuse is at Gaslight360.com.
You can also dive into thedeeper story, the bio, the
(07:35):
podcast and the mission atjimdetchincom.
And if you like this one, tagit, save it, share it.