The Monster Mash - Where Legends Collide - Troubled Minds Radio

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
But I think you can develop them and avisial intelligence
the end of the y and race.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
It's a frying objective.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
We don't know what it is.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I would help. Somebody is checking it out.

Speaker 4 (00:14):
I don't know where the luck or whatever.

Speaker 5 (00:16):
But agree to be five, you know, uncle, would I could?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
They would be pay. I'm glad the Pentagon of Victim
is a opposing threat.

Speaker 6 (00:25):
I want them to.

Speaker 5 (00:27):
All the craft generates its own gravitational field.

Speaker 7 (00:31):
And you con't like guy, The internet has become the
comment send them for criminals and terrors.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
Let it happen, you know.

Speaker 8 (00:46):
That's that's what we're expected to side Rosser Area fifty one,
Avian Captain deep under the ground.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
The media.

Speaker 9 (01:12):
That's doesn't interest about the self sertain you're here flow
reason you're listening into Trump of Mines.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Radio broadcasting live from the Sicker Bunner, just off the
Extraterrestrial Highway, somewhere in the desert sands outside of Las Vegas,

(02:02):
from somewhere from space time loosely.

Speaker 10 (02:06):
Labeled Generation X on plenty of Earth and asking questions
of you in earnest.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Into the digital differs. Well, good evening, and welcome to
troubled minds. Radio. I'm your host, Michael Strange. We're streaming
on YouTube or rumble x, Twitch and kick. We are
broadcasting live on the Troubled Minds Radio Network. That's KUAP

(02:41):
Digital Broadcasting and of course eighty eight point four FM Auckland,
New Zealand. Tonight, we're doing something a little bit different
as usual. Look, I'm open to inspiration in all the ways,
and that's the point of all of this is not
just to inspire myself, but hopefully to inspire you guys
to create things, to dream in different ways, to just
see the world slightly differently, as if maybe we had

(03:02):
the wisdom of a child again. And this particular okay,
shout out Pete. Pete and Georgia chef. Pete gave me
this idea a couple of weeks ago and kind of
just suggested, Hey, Mike, I think this would be a
pretty cool idea if we put this together and did
it this way. And I thought about it and hell yeah,
let's go. Let's go. So well we're gonna do tonight.
It is a little different. Like I said, I'm calling

(03:23):
this the monster mash where legends collide. Now let's say
this goes back actually several years in a it was
an Axios piece. Yeah, I know, Axios. I punch yourself
in the face Axios. Yes, that Axios. But they had
this pretty cool series that they did for Halloween in
twenty twenty three, and it was it was basically this

(03:43):
was it was called Axios Halloween Bracket, Vote for your
favorite mythical creature, and they had all these you know,
like super super cool creatures. I'll read them to you
here because it's it's awesome and funny and amazing, but
we're going a little more archetypal with the creatures. But
they started with this, so it was basically this. They
did a series every week, took votes on you know,
the different brackets. Group one, group two. I'll just read

(04:05):
them to you. So Group one is the Chupacabra versus
the Skunk Cape. This is not what we're doing tonight.
This is where the inspiration came from, not just Pete,
but also this happened years ago, a few years back
from Axios. Group two would be the win to Go
versus the Jersey Devil. And you see what this head right.
Group three is the ruga Aru. I think it's how
you say that versus Lairona. We've talked about many of
these over the years on the show. Group four is

(04:27):
the Michigan dog Man versus Bigfoot, which seems like distant
cousins or something. Group five is the Loveland Frogman versus Mothman.
Group six is the Jackalope versus the Puck Wedgie. Group
seven is Champ versus the Snallygaster, and Group eight is
the Dover Demon versus the Frisno night Crawler, which is
super cool, but they just did it on votes. What

(04:47):
we're gonna do tonight is kind of a little D
and D action. We're gonna do it. I'm gonna simulate
the fights as we go. You guys tell me, We're
going to kind of take some votes in the chat
as we go who you think will win and for
whatever reasons. And of course we are taking your calls
all the way through this, because that's the whole point,
is to talk to each other about these wild ideas.
But as you know me, I don't like to look
at things in the most basic linear fashion because not

(05:10):
only one is it incredibly boring, Two, there's so much
more depth to life itself. And so I'm looking at
this and sort of the archetypal aspect. Now, if you
check the right up tonight, it is very good, per usual.
It's not not always that they're you know, bangers, but
you know, i'd say two out of three are pretty banging.
But I'm gonna read this straight from the thing because
it's it's better than me rambling on about this. But

(05:30):
we are taking your call tonight on the discord and
of course at seven oh two nine five seven one
zero three seven you and click the discord and link
at Troubled Minds dot org. All right, here we go.
So tonight we're doing something different. Eight creatures from folklore, mythology,
and the dark corners of human imagination enter a tournament
bracket where only one survives. This isn't about who's scariest
or most iconic. It's about which archetypal pattern proves strongest

(05:54):
when different manifestations of human fear are forced to collide.
Ah see, he is a troubled way to do this.
We spent millennia keeping these archetypes separate, safely confined to
their own mythologies and cultural contexts. Vampires haunt Eastern European castles,
where wolves proud Germanic forests, mummies guard Egyptian tombs. Demons

(06:15):
occupy theological hierarchies, which is practice in hidden corners. Bigfoot
hides in the Pacific Northwest wilderness, and Mothman appears before disasters,
and of course in Cape Cape Pleasant. I believe are
point pleasant, right, this is what it was called anyway.
Zombies represent our modern apocalypse anxieties. Each gets its own story,
its own rules, its own cultural framework that keeps it

(06:37):
from touching the others. But these aren't random horror tropes
collected from unrelated traditions. They're consciousness patterns that recur across
cultures because they map fundamental human fears and shadow aspects
we refuse to integrate. Very Carl Jung of course, right,
So Young identified archetype as inher inherited patterns, and the
collective unconscious structures the shape how we perceive and process

(07:00):
reality before conscious thought intervenes. Every monster we've created is
an archetype given form, an externalized aspect of psyche projected
onto something we can fight, flee, or at least name.
And that says it more succinctly than I ever could.
So instead of rambling on, that's the best way to
do it. But I have created my own little bracket
here and I'm calling it the monster Mash, and we'll

(07:23):
start like this. It's going to be the vampire versus
the zombie in the first bracket, the second's going to
be a werewolf versus a mummy, and the third is
going to be a witch versus a demon or celestial entity.
We don't have to go dark with demons. Let's call
it a celestial entity and go a second edition D
and D and then we'll go Bigfoot versus the moth Man.

(07:44):
There you go. There's the bracket. So we'll simulate these
fights as we go and looking for your votes. Who
do you think will win? Win it all? I talked
to missus Strange before we started. She said, I kind
of feel like that the werewolf is going to take
this whole thing down. So that's one vote for the werewolf.
But what do you guys think. I'm a little excited
to see where this leads because I don't know yet.
I haven't simulated any of this, but we'll do it

(08:05):
on the fly. We'll do like an AI simulation D
and D sort of thing and talk about not just
archetypes and monsters, but what is your favorite monster of
all time? Not just from folklore, mythology, modern space is
like Bigfoot and of course the Mothman, And that's where
we start. We start with this wild idea of not
just folklore and mythology and how all of it comes together,

(08:26):
but the archetypeal fears and how they match up against
each other. And that's what's on my mind tonight, normal random,
troubled mind style stuff. But what do you think? Yeah? Right,
A lot of things in play here, a lot of ideas,
and I do enjoy the sort of I don't know
where this leads what I'm doing, the show sort of thing.
So if you don't like it, forgive me. I got

(08:46):
to keep myself interested somehow sometimes. But yeah, so monster
Match tonight, and we're gonna we'll start on the top left.
We'll start with the vampire and the sorry of the zombie.
We'll do then we'll just go left again and then
jump to the right and then go to the bottom right,
so left top left, bottom, right, top right bottom, and
then yeah, so we'll finish up with tonight and again,
and then the brackets advance and then it will be

(09:08):
a semi final and then a final and then we
find out who wins it all. Okay, anyway, So that's
that's if you guys are interested, I'd love to hear
your thoughts again. Seven oh two nine five seven one
zero three seven and click the discord like a Trouble
Minds dot org will put you on the show. But
before we do any of that, we're going to do
get a word from our sponsor. In this case, it
is human inspiration, which is the entire point of these shows.
By the way, like I described when we started, human

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inspiration is what brings me here. I hope it's what
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Welcome back to Trolled Minds. I'm Michael Strange. Let us continue,
shall we? Okay, so this is what we're doing. We're
doing the bracket. We're doing the monster match. I think
eight's about right. I mean, we could have gone like
a full sixteen, but then there's no time for calls
and other interesting tidbits regarding the folklore of these different entities.

(11:06):
And remember I'm looking at this through my frame of
reference as sort of the archetypal fears and how they
match up against each other. And so the question additionally,
not just which is your favorite, not just of the
entities on this list tonight, but what is your favorite
of all time? What kind of monster do you do?
You just resonate with do you think is like super cool?
You've always really been into it, drawn to it for
some reason, and you can't explain why, or maybe you can,

(11:27):
and if you can, that's even better because I want
to hear you explain it. But here's the other question.
Is part of this which monster or archetype do you
think best represents modern anxieties? And why? Yeah, sounds like school, right,
sounds a little bit like school. And I got some
ideas on that. We'll talk about it as we go,
but I think there's a nice mix here that we
begin with. And before we do that, Robert has had

(11:48):
his hand up from a few minutes here, So we'll
go to the Robert and then well maybe do the
first simulated fight here and hopefully get some more calls
after that one more time seven oh two nine five
seven one zero three seven. You can click the discordingly
at Troubledminds dot org. Will put you on the show.
Once you're in there, just joined the show, chat put
your hand up if you want to be part of it,
or you could just sit there and listen and chat
with us anyway. The Roberts in Pennsylvania, what's some my

(12:09):
man you're in trouble minds? How are you, sir? And
go right ahead.

Speaker 5 (12:12):
I'm fine?

Speaker 1 (12:13):
How are you not?

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Pretty good? Thanks for asking. Having a nice time with
the monster mash so far, and I hope this one
turns out well. What's on your mind? Go ahead, sir.

Speaker 11 (12:22):
Well, my favorite monsters are none of those that are
up there. My favorite monsters were the kids in Filling
the Damned and Village of the Damned. They were That's
that's my favorites of all time in the monster movies.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Okay, brief be on that. What What were they and
what do they do? I don't think I've ever seen
those movies? What happened with those creepy lot kids?

Speaker 11 (12:44):
A quick synopsis? In these village? In these villages, these
women became spectacally pregnant, including ones that were versions. And
it turned out that they were impregnated by some sort
of alien spore, all right, and they raised these children.
And these children, whenever you tick them off, their eyes

(13:04):
would glow, and they would and they would cause you
to kill yourself.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
What that doesn't sound like the best, But welcome to morow.

Speaker 11 (13:16):
The Children of the Damn is nineteen sixty. Okaybe if
you want to check a look at it. And the
village of the dam was like nineteen sixty four, which
I thought was better than the first. Anyway, I asked
to ask for a personal privilege here. I just needed
to get across tonight. A dream I had last night

(13:37):
that's scared to live in.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
But jeez, sweet, I hope there's monsters in it. Love
to hear. Go ahead.

Speaker 11 (13:45):
It involves that.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
Three one atlas.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Oh no, that's bombing the guys with a clickbait nonsense. Yeah,
that one. I'm very familiar with it.

Speaker 11 (13:56):
Yeah, yeah, Well, I dreamed that the that the thing
took a a different course than came over the Earth,
and what it did is it sucked up the atmosphere
of the Earth. And an impression I got from the
dream was that their atmosphere was windling and they were

(14:19):
stealing ours.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Okay, that sounds very ancient astronaut there is say, yes,
I'm into that.

Speaker 11 (14:27):
Well, can you imagine if ever, I'm just it's going
to make its close as approach I think on the
thirtieth Yeah, it's coming up or sometimes yeah, I'm hoping
that the dream was not prophetic, because if they took
all of our atmosphere. We're all not going to be
able to watch Trouble Minds anymore.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
Well, that's the least of our worries. But you're absolutely correct.
I hope that does not happen. And I think the
initial mathematical estimates of these things flying by would have
been Remember, the alien invasion was December fifth, so that's
what we were told way back when. So look, I
don't believe it. I'm not endorsing that idea. I'm saying
that was the particular date. If I recall properly that

(15:08):
December fifth was the day when that would happen, so
we can at least mark it on our calendars, and
you know, hope nothing happens. What else, Regot sir?

Speaker 11 (15:17):
Yeah, I like breathing exactly exactly. Really, I just felt
that I got to get on tonight to tell her
talk about that dream because it was so vivid and
I woke up and I know, scary, see, but that
I thought, you know that's possible.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, well, well it's very like again, what's that that
old movie eighties movie that were the Maximum Overdrive where
the comic comes and all the machines wake up. I mean,
the troops are out there, and certainly there's a bunch
of things that they are in play as far as
that goes, and it is, I think, I think it's
actually good you bring that up, because we are dealing
with once again another archetypal fear of some alien entity

(16:01):
or craft flying by and changing how we perceive life
or experience life forever, and so it certainly maybe you
could add that into the lexicon of the bracket here
of monsters fighting monsters, because we're really talking about fears
challenging fears. But yeah, I love it. I love the
idea anyway, and maybe.

Speaker 11 (16:18):
Oh, that's that's another thing, another monster. See, I'm so
much older than you, young man, right, but I love
the old, the old monster movies that I used to
go in and watch and that you know, they would
run a three real or three three monster movies for
the price of a quarter back in those days. Anyway,

(16:40):
one of my favorite all time monster movies was I
Married a Monster from out of Space.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
I think I've seen part of that one. That's an oldie,
but yeah, I think I've seen part of that.

Speaker 11 (16:51):
As a really really matter of fact, Tom Tyron played
the lead role in that. He's the famous he became
a famous writer. It's the monsters themselves. You remember what
they look like.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
It's been a long time. I was little when I
saw this on a rerun, but I know I don't remember.
I can pull it up.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
Oh it's classic.

Speaker 11 (17:13):
I mean they look like nothing but slimy uh cardolick tubes.
They invaded the people's bodies to make them look like
they were earth people. And and that's how this woman
winds up not knowing that she inadvertently married one of

(17:33):
those monsters. They looked like her fiance o. Her friance
was in a was in a incubator basically a suspended
animation tou on one of their ships.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
That's creepy, more more alien archetype fears to dry drawing
on us. Yeah, one more time. List those again. I'm
gonna write these down so I don't uh. I might
have these to the lists, see if I can catch
up on them.

Speaker 11 (18:00):
Okay, Children of the Damned, Okay, Village of the Damned.
And I married a monster from outer space?

Speaker 2 (18:10):
Okay.

Speaker 11 (18:10):
One I recommend you, if you get a chance to
watch more than any other one is I married a
monster from outer space? Because when they kill those monsters
what happens to those monsters as they grade. We're talking
about special effects back in the sixties, but you know
that to me, that rivals whatever's here today.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, you have to do it the hard way. You
had to earn it. To convince anybody of anything, you
had to seriously earn it. Absolutely, Yeah, fire stuff, I've
got a Children of the Damned Village of the Damned,
and married a monster from outer space. Thank you for that, right.

Speaker 11 (18:44):
And the first and the first movie I ever saw
as a child who was at a theater here in town,
and it was h Dracula movie vers Cursive Dracula versus
Dracula with Peter Cushing, and I never forgot out it
because when he gets killed in the in the church,

(19:07):
I uh oh, he's uh anyway, when he gets killed,
he you know, he just melts into dust.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
And you know, I'm I'm of the generation where I
know Peter Cushing as the guy in Star Wars, he
was mof Tarkin. Yes, they resurrected him for Rogue one
as posthumously this digital entity which is a little more creepy,
and another the terrifying archetype of the Few the coming future,
fire stuff, what else.

Speaker 11 (19:36):
You got some that's about it. Some people come in
and I appreciate you. Uh sometimes when you're going to
shows that are trying to do competition dungeons and dragon stuff,
but uh, that's that's outside my my life experiences.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, that's okay, we're not we're not actually gonna do that.
I'm gonna let a I kind of simulate the fight
so or the Perplexity is going to be our dungeon
master tonight. So I'm not going to do anything. I'm
not rolling dice, I'm not doing anything I've got. So basically,
I'll put in I've got a prompt, I'll put in
the two monsters, and it'll write up a narrative in
like just a second or two, and then i'll read it.
Which matter of fact, I'm going to read the first
fight tonight as soon as you're off the phone here,
which is going to be let's set this up, the

(20:19):
vampire versus the zombie. That's what's coming up next.

Speaker 11 (20:22):
The best no question about the vampire win. Okay, he's
already and they're both they're both dead creatures, all right,
But there's no way that the zombies would appreciate eating
a vampire's brain because it's already dad.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yes, indeed, and all that comes into account, I'm sure
because I've a.

Speaker 11 (20:46):
Programmed the vampire win. And appreciate zombies because they don't
go any blood.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Exactly right, exactly right. Matter of fact, I'm putting it
in right now and I will read you the output
in just one moment. You're the best, rob. I appreciate
the call, Thanks for chiming in here, and thanks for sharing.

Speaker 11 (21:02):
That out all the stay tuned in and see what
are what you young people are up to.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
Right sounds good. Appreciate you very much. You know what
me love them. The Roberts a mentor of mind, a
mentor of us.

Speaker 12 (21:11):
All.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
Go check out his book, Stories from a Fractured of Mind,
The Robbert Collection. I know the title because he sent
me a couple of copies. I read it. It's very good.
You can find it at Troubledminds dot org. Forceised friends.
Scrolled down just a little bit and it'll say the Robert.
It's under te for the Robert. That's his writer's name,
his mentor name. And I appreciate you very much. Thanks
for the call tonight, thanks for kicking us off. Let's
do it. So we're going to go back to the
bracket and just reframe this real fast. It's going to

(21:33):
be a vampire versus a zombie coming up first. Then
we have be a werewolf and a mummy. We've got
a witch in a celestial entity, you know, demon if
you want to do that, I don't want to go
I'll do monic on you. And then Bigfoot versus Mothman,
because let's get some cryptids in here, and the first
battle is in. Let's read this and then this is
what we'll do for the rest of the night and
just kind of talk about these ideas. I still want
to know who your favorite crypti is or monster or whatever.

(21:54):
And what about archetypal fears facing each other. That's what
this is about anyway. So here we go. The Great
saveyard lay open beneath a sickly harvest moon, its stones
split like broken teeth. Moist earth breathed out the rot
of centuries. Among the crooked angels and crumbling crosses, the

(22:14):
vampire waited, once a lord, now a silhouette with blade
white eyes. He lingered at the boundary between the living
and the forgotten. His hunger sharpened in the silence a
patient thing, ancient and intelligent. Then came the shuffle from
the mists. Underbelly staggered the zombie, flesh sagging, mudcaked fingers

(22:38):
twitching with necrotic instinct. The vampire's nostrils curled at the
scent disease, sorrow, and carrion. Yet beneath that rot pulls
something ancient too, a whisper of the same darkness that
had once made humans fear their own graves. The vampire
saw it not as prey but his insult. They circled

(22:59):
amid moss and shattered gravestones. Crows stirred. The vampire lunged
first a blur of preternatural grace. Talons caught the air,
slicing where a zombie's skull should have been, But the
corpse's head bobbed loosely, almost detached, defying the precision of
a refined death with raw, blundering resilience, The vampire hissed,

(23:22):
twisting mid air, Landing upon a cracked tomb. He struck again,
fangs grazing dried flesh. The taste was foul, no pulse,
no life to claim. The zombie reached clumsily, tearing through
marble to swing at its tormentor. The blow connected not
skill but inevitability. The vampire staggered, bloodless yet breathless, more

(23:48):
offended than wounded. Realizing his charming speed offered little against
what felt no pain, the vampire changed approach. He blurred again,
this time vanishing into fog, calling storms from the air
his will. The wind rose, shaking the oak trees that
webbed the graves. The zombie single eye rolled as it
lumbered through the gale, mindless, barbelentless, guided only by the

(24:10):
gravity of hunger. The vampire reappeared behind it, seizing its head.
A whisper of sorcery bled into the corpse, an old
power of command over the dead. For a heartbeat, the
zombie froze, its jaw slack, but the spell faltered. The
stench of plague carried a resistance to charm. What was
once human could no longer hear the call of ancient blood.

(24:32):
And there's a couple more paragraphs here that we're out
of time. I'll read when we get back for the
exciting conclusion of the vampire versus the Zombie. Love you hear you, guys,
thoughts tonight, Thanks for being part of this so far.
Appreciate the call Robert seven two nine seven one zero
three seven click the discord like a Troubleminds dot org.
What is your favorite monster and what happens when archetypal
fears face off against each other? This is Troubled Minds on.

(24:54):
Michael Strange, be right back, more on the way.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
In the bool and fall, shadows rise weeping near Biggas,
listen to her, embodying every fear. They battle and Narita
where Wiscas wholds sway, not in a small thing, dancinger
in a ghostly ballet.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Trading those with the dress.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
Ancient terras collide, echoes up its names, haunts and dreams.
They confie him show down over the night, Pasty find
the chap beyond self pride in the town of Savaro
mines the greatest bats, sweet all line. Every shadow holds

(25:58):
a mirror freak like our soul.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
What we find in in the dark and seas to
make us whole.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
The night calls out a whisper, lost disguise in the
surilled arena, our truths begin to rise. Basically monsters born
from voices we suppress. Thank you, just straight playing in
darkness we address.

Speaker 6 (26:21):
In the showtime ternight, He's become the child beyond upright,
in the depth of our minds, the greatest passes.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
We are five.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Every fere a teacher innes SMUs night shads, merchant born,
learning wrong and right basic truth. We die, we learn
to satify. In the echoes of our fears, we find
our lives.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
This episode, Welcome back to Troubled Minds. I'm your host,

(27:35):
Michael Strange. We're streaming on YouTube, rumble x, Twitch, and Kick.
We are broadcasting live on the Troubled Minds Radio Network
and of course eighty eight point four FM Auckland, New Zealand. Tonight,
Ah tonight. Is it possible for folklore's monsters and ancient
archetypes to actually clash and reveal deeper truths about consciousness itself?
Can immortal predators and mindless ghouls, vengeful mummies and prophetic cryptids,

(27:59):
forbidden sore servers and cosmic spirits all throw their patterns
into battle and decide which fear matters most, or nat
as usual or na I remember others. There's no truth
to be found here, There's just wild ideas. I like
to call them philosophical constructs. To have larger conversations about
what it means to be human and in the past,
the present, and of course the coming future. That's what

(28:21):
this is about. That's what this has always been about.
And thanks for enjoying the journey with me. All right
back to this now, we left off with the vampire
and the zombie a couple paragraphs left. Let's read that
and get to the conclusion. Snarling, the vampire drove the
creature into an open grave. The earth swallowed both in
mud and bone. Cloud hands scrambled. The vampire, tore through

(28:44):
ribs like parchment, found nothing living, then thrust a sharpened
shart of coffin wood into what remained of the zombie's spine.
The body convulsed once twice, then fell still as the
muck claimed it. The vampire crawled out, his cloak tatters,
his eyes gleaming in triumph. Around him, the fog recoiled,
as if the land itself feared his endurance. Yet victory

(29:07):
had flavorless substance. He spit black eyecore onto the soil
and stared at the motionless pit. In destroying the ghoul,
he had tasted corruption beyond death. Even his immortal flesh
felt heavy, as if touched by plague. When the dawn's
first gray light touched the stones, the vampire was gone.
Only the churned grave remained, and now worms stirring beneath it,

(29:29):
whispering that death never ends, it only changes its shape.
And there you go. There's part one. So we've got
the vampire defeating the zombie and moving into the semi
final bracket. So there you go. Next up, we'll have
the a werewolf versus the mummy. Again, I have no
idea how this is going to turn out, because I'm
going to generate these on the fly. So what do
you guys think? Who's going to win the next one?

(29:50):
And the Robert predicted correctly that the vampire was going
to win that first battle, So what do you think
about a werewolf versus a mummy? That's part two coming
up next. I love to hear your thoughts though. Of course,
as part of this, we're taking your calls at seven
oh two nine. One's here three seventy and click the
discord like a Troubleminds dot org. Let's talk monster mash tonight.
Let's go to you and Philly. What's their brother? You're

(30:10):
on Trouble minds. How are you tonight? Go ahead?

Speaker 4 (30:14):
Oh hey, what's up? Mic U? Can you hear me?

Speaker 2 (30:17):
Lad and clear? You sound fantastic. Welcome to the joint.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (30:22):
I was not expecting to be on this MA, but
I wanted to give my input to the Witch murcers
or team if that's possible.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Sure, what do you got?

Speaker 4 (30:36):
All right? I think the win is always gonna win.
I'm one hundred no matter what. And I would like
say that, like the Wait is the only creature or
monster all that that I act simply as Nightmare is about.
And I don't know what that says about me, but

(30:58):
it's definitely a crew.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Okay. I like the odds of the Witch, the earth
bound magic and her first her first uhbout there is
with it with a celestial entity. So it's a earthbound
magic versus celestial magic. So that should be interesting to
see how that shakes out. But I do like the
Witch as a a dark horse favorite to win this
whole thing. I'm with you, great stuff. What else you got?
If you've got a poem or something, you want to

(31:21):
wait a little bit, we can. We can do that
and put you on hold. We can come back. I
didn't want to surprise you like that. But since it
was a nice stopping point after that first battle, you
were on the phone, so I answered it. But if
you need a little bit of time, we can definitely
accommodate that.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
Oh no, I got something I just like want to say, like,
you know, like the Witch, it's quite like you know,
the other monsters. You know, the other monsters are somewhat
like you know, or into their power, you know, or
transformed into their power, like you know, like the the
vampire and the Zmitie, they you know, kind of like

(31:56):
us or what they are. The waits. The Witch like
kind of like give something of herself where he makes
there's the toys to become with, you know. And uh,
I like something about that, like it's always like captivated

(32:16):
me and brought like a lot of fear into me.
But yeah, we can go to break or like that
if you want that.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
It's up to you. Like I said, if if you're
writing now poem or something and want to jump back
in in in like five or six minutes or whatever,
we can do that. That's I was just offering you
that because I didn't I didn't mean to stake up
on you. Boo. Here we are.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
Oh no, I actually like I wanted to like describe
a thing there that I have, which was, like, you know,
like I don't remember many of my dreams, but like
sometimes I do remember my dreams, and uh, one of
like the worst nightmares I ever had was about a
witch and I hope I like don't get like, you know,

(32:55):
like to clarify on a beer although there's close to
Halloween and see, like I think there's something about a
witch like her willingness to sacrifice herself and also to
sacrifice everything else where. I had this one nightmare where
it was dust in the woods and I knew that,

(33:18):
you know, I was with my my friends and my family,
and we couldn't go further into the wood to dusk
because it was like you know, with the woods and
the dust. But like you know, like my friends and
my family, they all wanted to go deeper into the woods,

(33:38):
so we subsequently did go deeper into the woods. But
I had heard that there was a witches pre there,
and I didn't know what the witches pree was at
the time, but eventually, like during this nightmare, we ended

(33:59):
up going the Wicked Tree and finding the Witness Tree,
which the witch has built herself. It wasn't the tree
like an actual tree of wood. It was like a
tree of life, first sacrifices like together. It was like
tired of holific, you know, but it's extremely Oh no,

(34:25):
that's that stuff like that. It was just verifying.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
No, no, it's good. I appreciate you sharing it was. Yeah,
thank you for sharing the experience. It is and this
is I think this is the point of all this
is uh, A lot of these these you know, monsters, critters, cryptids,
whatever you want to call them, they are again, uh
at that at the at the heart of what fear,
what it means to be afraid. And so certainly the
witch in the in the forest, you know, Hansel and Gretel,

(34:48):
that whole bit. It is one of those things that
stuck with us for a very long time, for thousands
of years. So valid there. I'm not to not discounting
that at all.

Speaker 4 (34:57):
I don't know what, like you know, like bring it
up that like I'm here and me from the way,
but there's something about that. You have something about it
that's definitely more than a minute out.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah, right on, right on fire stuff. I appreciate you
chiming in here. Thank you for listening, thank you for calling,
thanks for being part of this. Let me know what
is cool to share your substack and we'll certainly pass
that on unless you get anything.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
Else, my men, thankfully, thanks very much, Thanks for Colin.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Always a pleasure to you. For the best. We'll talk
to you soon. Have a great night, Tootles. There you go.
That's a the you and Philly, good friend for a
long time, the official poet of troubled minds. He does
have a substack. I know where to find it, but
I haven't shared it because he hasn't allowed me to
do that yet. But anyway, I appreciate the call, and
tonight I'm calling this a monster mash. We're talking about
these archetypal fears and kind of putting them in a bracket,

(35:46):
sort of fun Halloween style. And we started with the
vampire versus the zombie. The vampire one. I'm generating these
in real time, so I don't know how they turn out.
I'll just read them to you as we go. The
next is going to be a werewolf versus a mummy,
so let's do that. Pete got his hand up. We'll
talk to him momentarily, but let's get this out of
the way so we can kind of have a conversation
together instead of having to kind of put this on
the back burner and race through this at the back

(36:07):
end of the show.

Speaker 6 (36:08):
Here.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
But here we go, So what is it? It's a werewolf,
not right, and a mummy and there we go. Right,
it's generating and I'll read this in just a second here,
But yeah, this is pretty cool. Like I said, I
like being creative in different ways and being able to
kind of look at the world slightly differently, as I
like to talk about. But in this particular instance, we've
never done something like this. And again it goes back

(36:30):
to not just Pete, thank you for the inspiration, but
back to that Axios article where they did this whole
series a couple of years ago, where every week they
had people vote, you know, every week a Halloween you know,
these different groups Chopicabra, skuncape as I read earlier, too
much to do in one night, all that stuff. So
we boiled it down. I boiled it down to eight entities,
and we've got the vampires advanced, and now we're going
to find out if the werewolf or the mummy advances

(36:52):
and what do you think, what is your take on that?
Who wins this one? And how weird does this get
in the end? One more time? Seven or two ninety five,
seven zero three seventy and clicked the discordant with trouble
mind DOTG. But let me read this. This is from
here we go. Let's kill that, and this is the
werewolf versus the mummy. So let's get the the the

(37:13):
entry fights out of the way. Here we go. The
moon hung low and swollen above the Valley of Kings,
its silver lights spilling across a forgotten acropolis. The air
was dry as parchment. Wind whispered through topbled obelisks and
cracked sarcophag guy, as if the spirits of the old
gods watched in uneasy silence. At the threshold of a

(37:36):
crumbling burial chamber stood the mummy, linen strips fluttering like
desiccated wings. Its eyes glowed with buried sunfire, ancient and
accusing from the dunes below. A low growl ruptured the stillness.
The werewolf emerged, half shadow in sinew, its fur matted
with desert dust, its chest heaving with primal hunger. The

(38:01):
scent of decay had drawn it here the smell meant prey,
but this was no ordinary prey. The Mummy's presence carried
the weight of divine law and forbidden memory. The werewolf
lunged first, a blur of feral speed, across the moonlit sand.
The Mummy raised one bandaged arm and hissed a word
that had not been spoken since the Nile gods drowned

(38:23):
the world. Sand erupted like a wall, throwing the beast back.
Whirling sand coalesced into hands, reaching to restrain the lupine form.
The werewolf slashed through the shapes, shredding them savage persistence,
tearing through the magic of millennia. They circled a creature
bound to the moon's curse and another bound by a

(38:44):
pharaoh's command, one subject to rage, the other to ritual.
When they clashed again, claws raked linen, and the scent
of long dead oils filled the air. The mummy struck back,
with the skeletal hand wreathed in golden light, pressing his
against the werewolf's chest. The beast howled as hieroglyphs ignited

(39:04):
across its fur, sigils of binding drawn from the underworld's script.
But the desert wind shifted, the clouds parted, and the
full moon blazed unbridled above. The werewolf's muscles swelled with
a roar. It broke the seal, ripping free from the
luminous curse. In that moment, the mummy faltered. The sand

(39:26):
magic waned, its curse, unraveling in the open night. The
werewolf pounced, teeth meeting ancient throat, severing words older than King's.
Silence fell, The glowing eyes dimmed, and the linen figure
crumbled in the dust that shimmered briefly, then disappeared into
the wind. The werewolf stood panting over the ruin, the

(39:49):
scent of victory mixed with the tang of ancient jasmine.
Faint and sorrowful. It threw back its head and howled,
but the sound echoed strangely through the necropolis, triumph than
warning for a devouring cursed flesh. The beast had tasted
something eternal. When dawn and bled across the sand, the
werewolf was gone. Only paw Prince led away from the tomb,

(40:12):
ending abruptly at the edge of the dunes. There, half buried,
lay a single strip of linen, fluttering faintly, as if
waiting to bind again, and there you go. Part two.
We've got a werewolf defeating the Mummy as we continue
tonight again. Like I said, if you've got predictions on this,
I don't know what this is going to end. I
thought it'd be fun to do this, and again shout

(40:33):
out Pete. We'll talk to Pete in a moment here
for the inspiration for this. What is your favorite crypto
or monster or whatever and why? And very smartly by theo,
he was talking about the Witch. And I like the
Witch as a sleeper winner here because she's got some tricks.
But all these entities have tricks. So we're doing something
a little bit different, a little bit more fun than usual,
at least in my mind, because I don't know where

(40:54):
this is going to end either. That's what I like
about doing this is because I just don't really know,
and I'll be as surprised as you guys are. But
I love to hear your thoughts on this. We're taking
your calls. I'm calling this the monster mash tonight. And
when legends collide or where they collide, and we're talking
about archetypal fears and fear versus fear and where does
this end? Yeah, complicated, right as usual, which is exactly

(41:16):
where I like it. Thanks for hanging out, guys and
being part of this. Let's go to uh seven two
nine one zero three seven click the discord link of
Troubleminds dot org. Let's go to again the individual who
helped inspire this show with the idea a couple of
weeks back. Chef Pete, what's her brother? Pete? And Georgie,
you're on Trouble Minds. How are you, sir? Go right ahead? Oh, indeed,
welcome to the Welcome to the joint. We got plus

(41:38):
one for the vampire, plus one for the werewolf, which
sets up a vampire werewolf semi final. By the way,
in that bracket, that should be pretty hot.

Speaker 5 (41:46):
That's exciting.

Speaker 7 (41:47):
I'm excited for that one. I think I think the
I think it's going to be the Witch of the Werewolf.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
Honestly, okay, it takes it all down.

Speaker 7 (41:59):
I think the WII has some things in her pocket
that she can unleash, and I think that the where
wolf has his own set of.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
Things.

Speaker 7 (42:10):
As long as there's a full moon, I'm going were wolf.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Okay. And as it was going through this too and
kind of thinking about this myself, and you know, I
actually had like a stat cards pulled up and stuff,
and I was like, now, this is too much. We'd
have to do all this. But it was highly dependent
a lot of their powers on where they were or
when they were. Right again, so this the Mummy fought
fight happened in Egypt near the tomb, of course, because
that's where he would be. But if they were, you know,

(42:35):
in sort of a Germanic forest with a full moon,
maybe it would have been a very, very much shorter fight.
And that fits to a lot of these the full
moon with the vampire, or of course the different places
where these entities reside. Bigfoot, for instance, in the Pacific Northwest,
he's able to kind of blend in, disappear into the trees,
this type of thing. But if you put him in
the middle of Manhattan, maybe less right. And so, as usual,

(42:57):
home field advantage plays a ton in this particular space.
But thanks for inspiring the show, and what else you got?
There's a ton here to talk about, and uh, what's
on your mind, my man?

Speaker 7 (43:06):
You know, the other one I'm looking at is Bigfoot
versus Mathman Harry and Harry and the Henderson's he could
be anywhere.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
You know, yeah, that's back in the day. That was
a great movie.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
You know, he could.

Speaker 7 (43:21):
But he's a charming young guy. He was a charming guy.
So Mathman might have him on that one because he's
a little bit more mysterious. He's a little bit more
in the shadows, and uh, normally when he shows up,
good things don't happen.

Speaker 5 (43:37):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, bad things happened, Bad.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Things happen, yeah, Which is which is a lot of
these entities for sure? For sure? Do you have like
a particular sort of a scary uh, like a like
THEO talked about the Witch has sort of being a
recurring nightmare for him. Do you have one of those
ones that is kind of like your archetypal fear if
you had to boil it down to one particular entity.

Speaker 7 (43:59):
Shadow people. Shadow people are my one particular entity that
freaked me out, like the sleep demon. You know, like
you wake up and like maybe it's sleep paralysis, maybe
it's a little bit or whatever, but you see like
that shadow person and you can't really get out of it.

(44:20):
That kind of freaks me out. That that stuff freaks
me out big time, you know, we're all still alive,
so that's always a good thing.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. The shadow one again, like I can,
I can see a lot of this stuff, the shadow
one that out of the corner of your eye type
stuff or you look and it's there, but it's not there. Certainly,
that's creepy, af because how do you, you know, quantify
whether it's real or not? Is it is it your
your mind playing tricks on you, which always always turns

(44:50):
into that big fat maybe as part of this It
definitely could be.

Speaker 13 (44:53):
I mean, you know, we all don't sleep as much
as we should, and uh, we all don't get as
much rest as we should, and then you know, you
get your anxiety, you get your feelings on the inside,
and whether it be a.

Speaker 7 (45:09):
Real thing that's happening extra planar, plainerly, or if it's
just as you know, your mind imaging it. That's the
thing that's you know, the scariest. Is it real? Is
it not real?

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Exactly right? Sorry, I'm setting up the next next fight here,
but yeah, yeah, that's exactly the point here, and not
just the shadow figures. I think that plays with anything
paranormal and I almost put a ghost in here tonight.
But I thought it'd be a little bit weird because
how does a ghost kind of fight back? And you
know it and it's not really fair. So it's like, okay,
let's get this to kind of physical entities, and the
only one whose kind of a planer is that the
demon asked that the Gin or whatever that is. You

(45:45):
can label that whatever you like. But I almost put
a ghost in here, but instead I slipped in a
moth man instead, So we'll go with Mothman in a
second year. But so your prediction on the next fight,
what do you think regarding the Witch versus the celestial entity,
the Gin or the demon or however you want to quantify,
who think's gonna win that.

Speaker 7 (46:00):
I think the Witch is going to take it through.
I think she's got a bag for herself of protecting,
and I think that she's going to put that demon
or gin in his place. That's my prediction.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
Okay, I love it. We'll generate that when we come
back after the break and find out exactly. And again
we're flipping coins here because I don't really know. I
can see how it goes both ways, but we're just
generating in a real time like we did with that
choose your own adventure a little bit and so super cool.
Thanks again for inspiring the idea. Again, Pete, if you
guys don't know, sent me this this exact idea, very
similar anyway, like eighty five percent of it. A couple

(46:34):
weeks ago. Was like, Hey, Mike, do you think we
could do a show like this because that'd be kind
of cool. And I thought about it and was like, hell, yeah,
we could make this a troubledlind show. Let's do this.
So here we are tonight. So thank you for the
inspiration the ideas. That's why I'm here again to talk
to people and be inspired and to talk about wild
things by dark. And I appreciate the call my in
and let you get anything else.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
I'm good, Thanks Bike, I.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
Appreciate it very much. You take care and we'll talk
to you soon. Have a great night.

Speaker 5 (46:56):
You talk to you soon later.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Thanks take care. Yeah you know what me loving eat
in Georgia the chef Pete affectionately, which he actually does,
wake up very early in the morning and go do
that to type of work. More of the invisible process
as people eat, forgetting the people that cook the food
and brought the food in trucks and stalk the food
overnight in a grocery stores, et cetera.

Speaker 6 (47:15):
So on.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Okay, so back to this now. If you read the
write up, I do recommend it tonight. So I'm gonna
read just a little bit of this to kind of
buffer us for this next space and get into the
witch versus the celestial entity, the jan or whatever you
want to label it as. But check this out. This
is interesting because it's looking at these entities not just
as we know them, but sort of in the larger
archetype of what they are. In this case, we already

(47:38):
had the vampire victorious over the zombie, but the vampire
represents aristocratic predation, the creature that was once human but
chows immortality over mortality, trading in soul for eternal existence.
Eastern European folklore describes beans that return from death to
drain the living. But the vampire is more than bloodlust.
It's calculated intelligence, supernatural charm, masking absolute hunger. Every culture

(48:03):
that developed burial practices has some version of the restless dead,
but vampires stand apart because they maintain agency, They plan,
they manipulate, They select victims with purpose rather than mindlessly
consuming whatever crosses their path, and he emerged victorious versus
the zombie. Again the zombie archetype, which is what we're

(48:24):
talking about tonight. But of course, as usual, we can
take this anywhere we like, nonlinear, open ended, with the thought,
with the topas and the egregores as they come about.
But the zombie offers the opposite archetype. Where vampires retain cunning,
zombies embody pure entropy. Haitian folklore described the zombie z
NBI as a person stripped of will, enslaved through powder

(48:48):
and ritual. Modern interpretations lead toward viral infection, but the
core remains identical. The zombie is humanity reduced to base function,
stripped of everything that makes consciousness meaningful. It's the fear
that we might continue after death, not as spirits, but
as meat puppets, animated but empty. One zombie is manageable,

(49:10):
one hundred are inevitable, and the matchup, of course, reveals
something about how consciousness works. The vampire represents control maintained
past death. The zombie represents control utterly lost. Both are undead,
but one preserves identity while the other dissolves into collective hunger.
The vampire fear is becoming what the zombie already is.

(49:31):
The zombie can't fear because fear requires self awareness. When
these patterns collide, we're watching the philosophical confrontation about whether
individual consciousness persists after death or dissolves into base function. Yeah,
and there's more. I'll read some of these as we go,
but thanks again for being part of this. Thanks again
to Chef Pete for inspiring the show, giving me the idea,
and thanks for bearing with me as I have my

(49:52):
druthers and my fun and talk about entities by dark
of night as I like to do. Love he you
guys thots on the as usual, we're taking your calls.
I'm calling it the monster mash where legends collide And
just back to the the the thing here. If I
had more time, I'd make like a little interactive thing
where I could drag the vampire forward for winning. And
then you know, it's just too much time. I just

(50:13):
can't spend justify that much time, but I could. But anyway,
so the vampire has advanced in the bracket against the
zombie on the left side, the wherewolf has advanced against
the mummy on the left side, coming back after the break,
we've got the Witch versus the Celestial Entity, the gen
of the demon, and then below that, so I've had
some questions on whether that was a dog man or
a bigfoot. You decide, because we're talking archetypes. But it'll

(50:33):
be I'm calling it bigfoot versus Mothman on the bottom there,
So that's what that is. And there's some questions about
what that bottom one was, So it's it's mothman Chapstick
in the pocket. You guys, remember that Richard Gear in
that movie Super funny. The scene he's on the phone,
what's in my pocket? Chapstick? And he like pulls the
chapsick out and it's like the jump the Jump music.
He's like, ah, chapsticks in my bucket. It's like, okay,

(50:55):
we can get a little less corny, can't we. Anyway,
what are you guys thinking, who's gonna win this? Who's
your face favorite? We got the the the vampire has
moved on, the werewolf has moved on, the Witch versus
the celestial Entity and then we've got the the Bigfoot
and Mothman coming up, and of course we'll we'll generate
this as we go, and even I don't know what's
gonna happen? You're Michael Strange and Master of the Mysterious

(51:16):
is in limbo tonight. I do not know where this ends,
but I hope it ends in a fun way. I
love to hear you guys thoughts. If you want to
be part of the conversation, you know what to do.
Seven oh two nine five seven one zero three seven.
You click the discordingly at trouble minds dot org, and
don't forget the questions. The first question is who is
your favorite monster? Your your favorite or least favorite archetypal fear?

(51:37):
And then which monster or archetype do you think best
represents modern anxieties and why. I think there's probably a
ton of good answers to that, and that's how I'm
feeling tonight, a little little weird, little wild, little into this,
and I hope you guys are as well. I don't know.
I think I think my favorite is like I said,

(51:57):
I think the Witch has got like a sleeper chance.
I think she's like a sleeper in this. But I
don't know. The Vampire, I don't know. I don't know,
I don't know. Top three for me would be the
vampire sort of that celestial entity and the which that
bracket's going to be interesting. I'm not so sure about
like a big foot or mothman taking this all down.
That seems a little bit backwards, but I guess we'll

(52:18):
find out. Anyway, We're gonna take a break and we'll
be right back more coming up after the break. Here
we got Derek the nice talker with his hand up.
We'll talk to him momentarily. And your calls as well.
What do you know about it? If we're talking the
monster mash, who wins? And what about these archetypal fears?
Like I said, which monster or archetype do you think
best represents modern anxieties? And why? One more time? Seven

(52:40):
O two nine seven one zero three seven you click
the discord blank of troublelones dot org. Be right back
more on the way, do not go anywhere. Welcome back

(53:15):
to Troubled Minds. I'm your host, Michael Strange. YadA, YadA.
All the places, all the things were on KUAP Digital
Broadcasting and eighty eight point for fm Achland, New Zealand.
Check Troubleminds dot org for all the rest of the
things and all the rest of the places. Do follow
join the discord Again, lots of amazing people are part
of it and help the show, you know what to do,
spread the word all the rest of that stuff I
appreciate very much many of you have. Tonight we're doing

(53:37):
the yeah sort of a a bracket of which folkloric
entity wins. We started with the vampire versus the zombie,
and the vampire took it down. Then we moved on
to the werewolf versus the Mummy, and the werewolf took
it down. So setting up the semi finals of the
which which I'm sure everybody is excited to see. And
here the vampire versus the werewolf. But in the other

(53:59):
bride we still have the first round, which is going
to be the Witch versus the gin or demon, the
celestial entity, and then the Bigfoot versus the moth Man.
And yeah, so we'll send me like these as we go.
I'm using perplexity and just like I said, I don't
know what comes next, I don't know who wins where
we're going through this together and being shocked by the result.
Are we going to be shocked when the Mothman takes

(54:20):
it all down? The sports ball in us, right, We're
all like I wonder. I wonder, wouldn't that be a
wild twist of the tail that the Mothman takes it
all down. Don't forget he's a prophetic entity. He can
see the future. So I don't know. Yeah, no problem,
I copy that. Derek. Oh say, so okay, that's where
we're at. And again, like I said, check out, do
check out the right up. Let me read this little

(54:41):
bit here and then we'll go to Derek and we'll
simulate the rest of this after his call. But the
deal is this, right, so it not just goes to
that the aspect of the first fight. The second fight
is this because we did the werewolf versus the Mummy.
So where wolves exist in that uncomfortable space between human
and animal, curse to transform when the dictates. Norse berserkers

(55:02):
wore wolf pelts and channel beast consciousness in battle. European
folklore described men who became wolves under various conditions, always
against their will, always tragic. The werewolf represents the animal self.
We pretend civilization has tamed under the right circumstances, under
the wrong moon, the human masks slips, and what's underneath
remembers how to hunt. Silver became to prescribe remedy because

(55:24):
it's pure, incorruptible, and the metal of the moon itself
turned against the Moon's curse. The Mummy brings vengeance from antiquity.
Egyptian priests understood death as transition rather than ending, taking
elaborate precautions to ensure the deceased to reach the afterlife intact.
But disturb those preparations, violate the tomb, steal what was
buried with purpose, and you've invited something ancient to wake.

(55:46):
The Mummy's curse isn't random misfortune. It's directed wrath from
someone who had centuries to refine their hatred. Western archaeologists
plundering Egyptian graves weren't just thieves. They were intruders into
sacred space, and the curses documented in toombs inscriptions weren't superstition,
they were warnings. Both operate under curse, but their mechanisms
differ fundamentally. The Werewolve's curse is cyclical, tied to lunar

(56:09):
phases and celestial mechanics. It's nature asserting dominance over human pretension.
The Mummy's curse is targeted, intentional, the will of an
ancient consciousness refusing to stay buried. The other makes you
a one curse, makes you a victim of cosmic timing.
The other makes you the specific target of accumulated rage.
When these patterns meet, we're watching deterministic cycles face directed vengeance,

(56:30):
natural law versus concentrated will, which was the last fight
we saw. And that gets us up all up to
date in all the places and all the things. Thanks
again for being patient with me as we roll through this.
A lot of information here, Like I said, check out
the write up if you're interested in more. There's a
ton here and it's really good. Seven h two ninety
five seven one zero three seven you and click the
discord blank at Troubledminds dot org will put you on
the show. It is as easy as that. Let's go

(56:52):
to Derek Massachusetts, the Nightstalker. What's up, my man? Thanks
for popping in here, and colonists from work, as you
usually do. What's going on? How are you tonight's and
go right ahead. There's a lot here, a lot of
things to tackle, a lot of things to to really
get after. And uh, do you got a prediction of
who's going to take this all down? Before we before
we get into the call here? Oh, it's tough.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
It's tough to predict. I think I think the celestial
entity has like a pretty good chance, just like I
might be biased for for selecial entities or crafty old
one type things or just like cosmic al guitars and stuff.
It seems like like it might be the number one
slot if there's a bracket or whatever. But the Witch

(57:33):
is just a next factor. I feel like if if
it was like Mortal Kombat, if it was like like
Capcom versus DC or something like that, and they have
to it's a kind of like cap the powers of
each each character. So they're like like like the Flash,
the Flashes can time travel. He's so fast, but when
you put me in fighting video games, you gotta kind
of just he just kind of speeds around like sonic.
He's not he's not a.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
God like that.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
You gotta kind of power cap them a little bit.
So if the Witch was power capped, I think the
vamp Hire might take. I think the Witch beats the
Vampire if the Witch's capped. But if no cap just
pay us out there in the Marvel universe, the Scarlet
Witch is like can be anyone. It's like the can
beat the work, and it's like the like it's Dark
Phoenix versus Scarlet Witch is because like Scarlet Witch can

(58:16):
literally do anything. It's like it's like, can Danos with
all the Infinity stones beat the Scarlet Witch because she's
she's so powerful and who even knows, because you can
more reality and stuff. So with no cap, I might
have to go Witch. With a cap, I might have
to go sellectual entity. Yeah, great brawling. I think the
vampire might take it though, Yeah, variables.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
You're good, You're good. The interesting thing to me when
I was putting these brackets together is I was like, okay,
so basically the Witch and the celestial entity is I mean,
a witch would be the one to sort of tame
that entity. So if if the the the celestialentity went
through a different bracket, would probably breeze to the finals
until he met the Witch, right or again, it's difficult
to say. So if they're kind of facing off in

(58:57):
the same the same spot to start, then who really knows,
because nobody could really banish a demon or a gin
like that other than you know, anybody on this list
other than a witch. So I mean it's a it's
sort of certainly a counterbalance in the first fight here,
But don't let me ramble on what else you got
regarding any of this. There's stunts here, is.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
Is sleshal entity just the demon origin? Or are we
including like like cosmic horrors like like old ones.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Yeah, I think it's unfair to say Cthulhu is in
this bracket. Yeah, so it kind of kind of lets
the top it. Let's let's cap him at like a
gin power demon power yet.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Yeah, the demons as a gin's an next factor. If
they can possess thembody, if they can possess possess the
other characters, then it can really run amok. It's kind
of like pritted Hunger game like it cool. One quick meme,
I thought it's pretty funny. It's like it's like a tweet.
It's like two tweets. I think the Monster Math might
be actually about an orangergy and the next tweets yep,

(59:52):
just just re listen to it's definitely an orgy and
I haven't. I haven't listened to it once then, but uh,
it's pretty funny if if the lyrics fit the Monster
Mat being a giant monster cript sex party, it's pretty funny.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
We're doing it tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:00:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
But and just for for on the topic of like
monsters battling it out, I think this is really cool
and like the a lot of these are considered in
pop culture, the Universal monsters, like Universal has Frankettstein and
the Wolf Band, Dracula, all the kind of the creature
from the Bluck Lagoon, that family opera, that type of stuff,
and uh. In like twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, they tried

(01:00:28):
doing their Dark Universe when they got like Ruffll Crowe
and Johnny Depp and Poppy by Them and Penalopy Cruise
and stuff, and the only movie that came out was
The Mummy and the bombs chrism Tom Cruise My Mummy
movie and it bombed. It's kind of the it's kind
of the warning tall studios like don't don't like towny
Chickens before they have or whatever you can. It's one

(01:00:49):
movie at a time, don't go out here and put
a whole universe. And did a whole photo shoot with
all these apps and stuff. But essentially the Universal Monsters
are kind of dead. And I was thinking, like, how
would I we do Universal Monsters, and I would do
Universal Monster Hunters, where how do you like cryptids and
like skin walkers and window goes in like real world

(01:01:11):
quote unquote cryptis or the running wild, like the gates
of Hell have opened up, and the only way to
stop these is for the government to enlist the real
monsters or like how do you fight a monster? You
need a monster to fighte a monster. So they get
their Avengers or whatever, their Justice League of Dracula, the
Family Opera and that type of thing to go out
and fight, uh those monsters. I thought that it would

(01:01:32):
be kind of cool, you know, Okay, that's this League
of Losses. Yeah, Universal Monster Hunters.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
Yeah, And I was fucking that what you are describing too.
How they they were kind of trying to reboot all
these ancient monsters, not ancient, but like the old fifties
and sixties monsters even back to the forties, and they
had I saw one of those. It was Tom Cruise.
Was it the Mummy? Yuh mean yeah, yeah, I saw it,
and you know, like some of it was good that
it was actually had some elements of the Yeah it
wasn't terrible, but was it like enough to sort of

(01:01:57):
just kick off an entirely new like saga of you know,
two hundred million dollar movies. I don't know if it
was that good, which is why we're here. They didn't
do it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it was kind of right
at the beginning or before this current age of like
actively everyone rooting for celebrities in Hollywood and these studios
that fail. But it's kind of like a why they
did a real prestigee real like wait till you see
this type of photo shoot with all these A list
actors and stuff. So I think kind of the indiance
and it was ready to like nope, not gonna work bombed,
like you're not the MCU at the time or whatever.

(01:02:28):
But I think there's that they're still like in them.
As far as my favorite monster, I was a vampire
for Halloween a couple of times. And this is during
the age like the late nineties early two thousands where
there were a few kids in my high school who
like wanted to be vampires and stuff, which I think
is I'm not sure if that's around as much anymore,
but kind of felt Park may fund of it back

(01:02:48):
in the day, Like there was a time period I think,
like play nineties where vampire stuff was cool. I didn't
like vampires that much, but Buffy's some one of my
favorite shows. I like super I'm a big superhero person.
So Empires kind of have the if you can become
a good vampire somehow you have the superhero kind of
a lower to it, like the powers. Here you look

(01:03:09):
like a human, but you're like you can fight, like
like Captain America or whatever, which I think is cool,
but also kind of they can serve any medium that
you can kind of have your Twilight vampire. Uh which sidebar,
I'm ray looking much, but I just watched the Twilight
movies for the first time last week. I kind of
finished the while and I thought i'd seen the first one, but.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
I've never had I don't know anymore. We're not friends anymore.
They are right, They're real bad, Like I didn't really like, okay,
we're friends Capital.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
What what were your time? Capital? Like, I don't know
how they were such a phenomena, Like I can kind
of see a why, but just oh good lord. But
you can kind of do that version of a vampire
or or like the the em Buffy versions and stuff,
or you can go kind of no serratu and go
really scared. You can go midnight mass where they kind
of look like the demon angel things, or just you
can go kind of you can go. The the elites

(01:04:00):
are all bloodsuckers. The aristocrat thing you mentioned and stuff
is they can fit like Batman. They can kind of fit.
You can go can't be with it, or you can
go very very gothic and dark. And I think that's
cool just as far as characters. But they don't scare
me per se. And I think this isn't really a
crypto or a monster. But the thing that's always scared
me and I've never seen the movies are the hell
Raiser Pinhead thing like that terrifies me that just looking

(01:04:22):
at things that just seems like Clive Parker just took
the true that out of his dream. So that's that's
something that exists in some data hell somewhere, you know,
the Pinhead hell Raiser thing?

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
Yeah, was it like that, like a box like that
flew around and like cut people's heads off or someone?
What was that as like a like a relic in
that movie? I get I saw him a long time ago.
I can't remember exactly what it was, but yeah, certainly
the imagery there and the Pinhead stuff scares the hell
out of me just looking at it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
You right, Yeah, I've never seen him, but it was
on like Halloween costumes at like CBS back in the
day when you're browsing for costumes and stuff, and it
always gave me the creeps. And then I like learned
what it's actually I've never seen him. I learned what
they're actually about, and it's like these demon things that
maybe were once people or they is like I don't know,

(01:05:05):
the weird demon people things who they want pleasure. So
it's just weird sexual sexual aspect to it, where if
you are all about pleasure to the peak of it,
then don't get into pain. And it's like the weirdest
line between pain and pleasure and it's all about skinning
people having sex with people on I don't know, it's
just it's dark and it's like the worst thing to me.
It's like like Clyde Bucker, like I'm not I don't
want to be alone in a room with that guy

(01:05:27):
like that. Mont Oh. Yeah, I mean that's all I
really got. Uh, if you have any questions, I mean
I can only come on breaks, so I don't want
to ramble too much.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
But yeah, yeah, no, sweat good stuff here.

Speaker 4 (01:05:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
I think there's there's something to this, like, like again
weird that you can kind of very well said with
the vampire. They can kind of fit several different archetypes
within this singular you know, ancient European vampire that kind
of crawls out of the grave and as the blood sucker,
and some of these other ones are kind of kind
of don't they're you know, direct smack dab in the
middle of you know, like the like the zombie kind

(01:05:58):
of doesn't fit in any archetype other than so of that,
you know, the walking dead, the hunger for brains and
you know, sort of that. As I described earlier, it
is weird how a lot of this stuff is fungible
in some ways and you're able to kind of make
it whatever you want. But then some of this stuff
is very not So I think the more and actually
that's that's actually a great answer to the first question

(01:06:19):
I asked tonight, And I'll ask you that and let
me get a roll up here and one and a second.
So the first question was this, So which monster or
archetype do you think best represents modern anxieties and why?
And I think for the reasons you listed. It's probably
on this list again because you just made such a
such a great case in my mind for it is
the vampire because they fit pretty much anything you want

(01:06:40):
them to fit. That makes a ton of sense, at
least to me. What about you, I think so.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
And I think we definitely grew up in it with
like the an race error and stuff, and Buffy's a
direct descend in the all the in rice stuff. So
I think vampires have been the eighties and nineties and
early two thousands were dominated by that, and I think
probably still. But I think if you were, I think
we're going into like people would want to say, we're
entering the Wolfman stage where people are going crazy. They're
freaking out on planes, They're like just the Search of

(01:07:08):
Karen videos, they're all kind of people freaking out at
Walmart and just going seemingly like they're like possessed. So
I guess you can say that demon or flux planthathy
or whatever, And I think that's kind of a mystique
to it, kind of a similar to the vampire, where
you're human for most of the time, but then sometimes
you just freak out and you can kind of skew
that in like a masculine a way, taking my shirt
off with my hairy chest. Oh my man, I'm just

(01:07:28):
kind of wolf. I'm just gonna go into the woods
and like Wolverine, just freak out. You can kind of
do the sexier version like Twilight had had vampire there
their big rivalry for vampires refervals because they kind of
have the same archetype. You can go really be steal
with it. So I think if you were to add
poll people which full thinking, they would say we're like
wolfman stage or people are just freaking out, people are
going crazy, people are going feral again like you talked about.

(01:07:50):
But I think if you were to zoom out and
kind of like unbiased, it's more zombie. I think like
the media have been very is always that's never gone away.
People just love shooting zombies and Call of Duty or
Left four Dead and stuff. The Walking Dead was a
huge phenomena. And then I think just people are afraid
of being mindless and kind of having their brain sucked

(01:08:11):
out or just not having control of themselves, like and
the phone, like the people staring at their phones and
just kind of brain rot aspect of it. So I
think people want to say it's a wolfman where they're
kind of.

Speaker 4 (01:08:21):
Freaking out a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
It might be more like zombie where they're becoming more mindless,
with a hint of demon where people come possess a
little bit and doing doing a little freaks out freak
outs like empty it's a fusion of like zombies and
demons where with a bunch of empty shells walking around
looking at their phones, just trying to get to the
day or whatever, but they're empty huffed, and demons will
pop up to them in the freakout on playing to
the freakout at pgack Rider or something like that. Their
weight that's a long rainbow, but that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
Walmart Farrell. That's a T shirt right there.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah, totally. God, I could take off
the Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
Yeah, we'll get we'll get to the next bracket. So
before you go. Then, I appreciate the call things for
peeling out time from from work, which is.

Speaker 4 (01:08:59):
What we know you do.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Thank you so much for that. Uh we got the
witch and the uh I think we already asked you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:04):
I mean, I have a minute. I just I just
don't want to if it's a if it's a different show.
I don't want to like, Oh no, you're you're okay.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
So let's let's get your predictions on the on the
did you predict the witch and the demon already or no.

Speaker 1 (01:09:14):
I'm gonna go with you. I think the witch can
has the spells to bind the demon in some capacity
if it was Thulu se left deal. I think that
the witch will go incompetent and believe that they have
the spells to buying this thing. But then as soon
as Cthulhu heads into the ring or into the portal,
then it's they're going to be immediately eating. But I
think we're pre depowering that and bringing it down to
gin level that I think the witch might I.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
Think, so, I think, so, yeah, the same. I agreed. Well,
we'll see what happens. Because it is coin flippy, I'm
not generating this, but uh, I think that celestial power
is can be earth bound by somebody with powers in
that regard. What about U?

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
This is the the other ones.

Speaker 2 (01:09:52):
So the wild card about the whole thing is which
which I have no idea what to expect. It's Bigfoot
versus moth Man.

Speaker 1 (01:09:57):
What do you think that that's I think Mofman takes it.
I think big footage just that's the top powerful. It's
the closest we have to an actual animal. It's the
most possible because it's most animal, but the I think
in a fight that makes it the the most susceptible
magic and powers and stuff, unless you're talking into dimensional
big Foot, which is is a curve ball. I think

(01:10:18):
Mothman might be kind of the new cryptid of our
of our day. Like I think we could be a
mothman age as bar what people are fascinated by, like
a mask on, not necessarily like what we're becoming. And
I think would be cool to see a vampire verse
vers Mothman battle. It comes to that kind of a
batman versus man bat type of scenario, or like a
cloak cloak versus versus wings, or if it's a midnight

(01:10:39):
mass type of vampire, it looks like a Mothman almost.
I got a giant owl man or something like that. Yeah,
that'd be cool.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Yeah, I was looking at both sides of the bracket here.
There's also like the beastial aspect. What if the werewolf
skates to the finals and ends up fighting big Foot,
big Foot versus werewolf in the final It's it's cool.
It is a faral lalwmart all over again.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
Yeah, that'd be cool. I mean if we did like
a huge this is kind of like an elite crypted eight.
If we do kind of a bull marsh madness, which
maybe maybe a trouble minds marshal madness of doing like
a blown us out and sixty four crypt could be
cool and different, different like regions. So you can have
like the winged region where mofman uh it's all these
kind of flying things. You can have kind of the
ethereal region it's ghosts, demons, celest fields, that stuff. You

(01:11:19):
can do the animal ones, a dog man, wolf, like
a whole bracket of just furry breaches like in the
Goo Skinwalker, dog Man, wolf Man, Bigfoot, and then see
see what comes out. I think big Foot beats dog man,
Bigfoot beats a werewolf. Maybe possibly be a battle, but

(01:11:40):
I don't think it gets out of the fur bracket.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
Yeah, if this goes overwhelm when people want more of this,
we will do more of this down the line. That's
absolutely for certain. We suggestive, but I was brainstorming. It's
like you could do a whole series. I'm like, yeah,
I don't know if people even like one. Let's try
one first, that's cool.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
Yeah, I'm picturing just like different superhero teams, Like there
would be like a kind of how there's the there's
like the Avengers, but they also have the Defenders and
of the guy. Actually, I just love the I love
the idea of like a whole crew of of like
fur beasts, like Wolfman, dog Man, Bigfoot, all that kind
of stuff, all on a team. But just be thinking

(01:12:23):
that Wolfman I think might be the weakest. And I
don't want to hit the Twilight again because but it's
fresh from my mind. They're pack hunters. It's so it's
a wolf so it's they. They were vampire killers in
that in that series, again not a good series, very
poorly series, very very but there they one on one fight,

(01:12:44):
a vampire would hear its head off, but they travel
on packs. So in a one on one bout like this,
I think a wolf man might be one of the
may be the first to go, and the vampire could
last a little longer. And it just got one quick.
There's no ghosts, right, we don't have ghosts.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
Yeah, there's no I like I said, I thought about it,
but I was like, it doesn't seem fair because how
do you grab it and you know, kind of choke
it out or whatever. Like it's just it's just not fair.
So I left it out there intentionally because because it
kind of can't phase in and you kind of can't
phase to it, so maybe you just end up staring
at each other kind of having a conversation instead.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
Yeah, I see the audience is actually a big, big,
a big ghost crowd, you know. But I just heard
wanna tidbit about ghosts, so I'll leave you with I
guess people like ghosts were solid. Ghosts were like like
the when the dead visited you. They were like more
like zombies. They were more like people fully fully formed,

(01:13:35):
like you bump into them and stuff. And then it
became ethereal once photography became got into the into the
mix and the reason why people wouldn't smile in all
photographs because you have to, like it takes a long
time to uh, we're into the photo kind of. I's
like it on the term for the photo to fully
develop or whatever, and if you move, it creates this

(01:13:57):
kind of like see through version of view. So we're
like if you were to get up halfway through the
development of the picture, it would look like like you
sitting down for like a ghost version, and then you've
kind of standing up as a ghost version of view whatever.
Or if you were sitting down stationary and somebody walked
by the picture or whatever, it would be kind of
a solid version of you with kind of a ghost
in the back. People started seeing ghosts, thinking that they

(01:14:19):
were seeing ghosts in their photographs and they were faking
it on purpose, making it seem like intentionally. It became
a huge part form to like creat these ghosty pictures
by doing this intentionally messing the development. And since then
ghosts are just see through, like that's part of you,
like you just said it. I mean, I'm running bow
with the ghosts can't even get in this fight. But
they can't because they can't touch anything. But that's over

(01:14:40):
the last two hundred years. That's like the mid eighteen
hundreds before before cameras ghosts you can punch a ghost,
and a ghost could punch you because it's fascinating. But
now if you see a ghost, shout out, James, it's
see through. So kind of bringing it to how our
perception of things affects the actual phenomena. So that was
kind of cool, do you think.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
Yeah? Absolutely, I love it. And uh that that old
Uh again, taking forever to to do the photos. I
mean imagine sitting there for I don't know what it was,
an hour or two hours, whenever how long it took.
Like like I fidget, I fidget too much for even
for even that to be I'd be like a just
a blurry mess. But uh, and the ghosts kind of

(01:15:19):
phasing through those things. That's that's the old way. The
new way. We just you know, put a ghost in
our in our ai you know, prompts, and we're we're
good to go with a ghost in the back. So yeah,
here's here's a picture of me at the forest. Can
you put a ghost behind me? It's like, here you go,
this is what's coming.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
I'll take off though. I hope my internet wasn't too choppy.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
No, you're good, You're good, absolutely, absolutely fine. Appreciate the call.
I have a great night and check this soon. A
great call, you know me. Love him. That's Derek the
night Stalker. You know where to find him. Troubledminds Dot
org Ford sized Friends and his Night stalker s t
O c K e R. He does call us from
overnight from stalking at a grocery store, part of that
invisible process I'm always talking about again, Troubled minds dot
org Ford sized friends. Scroll down a little bit. It's

(01:15:58):
under end. So it's fellow night stocker there. Go check
out his YouTube channel, Go give him a follow, leave
him a nice comment, and let's inspire him to make
more content. He's all over the game and knows just
an unbelievable amount because he's been following this stuff and
thinking about this stuff forever. And he always blows my
mind every time he calls, and I know he always
blows your mind every time he calls. So he definitely
deserves a free follow on his YouTube channel. Please go

(01:16:19):
give him a follow, inspire him to do more stuff,
and thank you for the call. Be right back. We
got more coming up. I'm gonna as soon as we
get back, I'm gonna jump right into this the next fight.
And I've generated it and I skimmed it, and it
is very good. It is basically frame this as a gin,
so it's gonna be a witch versus a gin coming
up in the third bracket. Then we'll also do the

(01:16:39):
Bigfoot versus moth Man, and then when we come back
after the top of the hour, we'll get into the
semi finals. We're right back. More Troubled Minds coming up.
This is Troubled Minds on Michael Strange, be right back,
see you in just one Moment's welcome back to Troubled Minds,

(01:17:17):
all the places, all the things, Troubleminds Dot Org forward
sized friends, go follow all our friends and that place
there and let's spread the love. Tonight we're doing the
monster mash on, calling this where legends collide. Now, it
doesn't have to be the monster itself, could be the
archetype of the fear the monster embodies, which is you know,
very troubled minds, the very you know, very me. It's

(01:17:39):
it's kind of I look at these things not just
as they were wolf for a vampire, but more of
the fear that sort of the entity is representative of
and how we've named it, and it's become a thing
and not just modern culture but ancient culture as well,
and it's all fascinating to tell to me. But let's
get straight to it. So we're doing a bracket tonight

(01:17:59):
of the monster mash, so the vampire and the zombie.
First round, the vampire was victorious. As a recap the
werewolf and the Mummy, the werewolf was victorious. We'll have
a semi final with the werewolf and the vampire, which
should be super hot. But right now we have the
witch and the Gin. So I told it gin slash demon,

(01:18:21):
so it picked Gin as the entity. So here we go.
In the ruins of a Coptic church, sketched against the
bloodshot moon, a witch waited by the cracked altar. The
wind carried a tang of incense and storm. Her shadow
flickered unevenly along the shattered mosaics, alive with whispering glyphs.

(01:18:41):
Salt circles and char littered the floor where she had
rehearsed her conjurations. The air congealed from the hollow of
the nave. A sound like dry laughter spilled out. A
Gin emerged, coalescing from smoke and ember, his eyes the
color of burned copper. He smelled of lizard wind and
forgotten vows. Old covenant breaker, she said, her voice steady,

(01:19:06):
though her hands trembled slightly over the ash marked sigils.
You haunt the unclean. Yet here you walk into sanctity.
The Jin's voice rolled like a thunder caught in a jar,
and you, the borrow of spirits dared tether flame with chalk.
He slithered forward, not walking, but swelling through the air.

(01:19:28):
Firelight gathered around him, devouring the church's faint moon shadows.
The witch countered with gesture and word, her lips moving
through a rhythm older than Christianity. From her throat came
the voice of her ancestors, a low hum resonating with
the bones beneath the church. He struck first a cyclone
of heat, lashing outward. Stone liquefied her sart, her salt

(01:19:52):
circle shattered. Say that three times fast. She whispered to reversal,
calling to the buried waters below the church. Sweat rolled
down her temples, as vapor condensed overhead, and with a cry,
she brought rain into being. Steam roared into life as
the elements clashed, drenching them both in fury. She stassed
a shard of mirror from the floor, turning it toward him.

(01:20:15):
The gin's reflection shuddered inside, Fragmented for a heartbeat, he faltered,
glimpsing himself imprisoned, bound to his own image, but his
laughter cut through the illusion, echoing across centuries of conjurors
who had failed before her. The witch drew deeper into
her craft, her hands blackened as she drew power through
the soil, from roots, from smoldering saints, from grief itself.

(01:20:41):
The gin lunged, his burning arm, closing around her. The
scent of scorched silk filled the air, yet she smiled
through the pain. Every flame she breathed as a wick.
With the lass of her strength, she revealed a charm
hidden within her palm, a sprig of roue dipped in
her own blood. She pressed it against his chest. The

(01:21:02):
herb flared green, a cold that fire could not devour.
His roar turned through the nave. As light split him apart,
smoke ember silence. The witch collapsed to her knees. Dawn's
first beam pierced a broken window gold against the ruin.
Where the gin had stood. Only a faint scatter of

(01:21:23):
ash remained, etched with patterns like desert ruins. She traced
him once before gathering her satchel outside. The rain had stopped.
The world smelled be born, but her shadow no longer
moved like it used to. Somewhere in the shimmer of
puddled light. It smiled independently before fading from sight. And

(01:21:46):
there we go Part three. As we kind of guessed,
this is like the counterplay. If you've got it, you
put down the gin card. You want the witch or
the wizard or the conjuror to sort of counter that entity,
otherwise you might be in big trouble. But so the
Witch comes out on top here. So we've got the
vampire wins, the werewolf wins, the witch wins, and then

(01:22:07):
we've got any takers on this on predictions on the
actual Bigfoot versus Mothman, I don't even know what to
expect for that. I can kind of see the which
one coming. But it's super cool. Isn't this great that
you can just kind of click the thing and it
has like like just this unbelievable amount of like kind
of lower cooked into it because I've prompted it to

(01:22:28):
do that. But I mean, these things are getting smarter
and smarter, and I'm exclusively using perplexity these days because
it is just that much smarter than the rest of them.
It can do a ton of things all at the
same time. I'm not so sure. Some of the other
ones struggle a little bit. But anyway, what do you
guys know about this? We're talking, I'm calling this to
Monster Mash tonight, and I've got stuff to get to
from the right up, and of course we have to
get to the Bigfoot versus the moth Man at before

(01:22:49):
we go to the break here. But I'd love to
hear your thoughts. So what do you think? As we
started tonight, the first question was what is your favorite
entity folklore, mythology, otherwise, and of course your favorite or
least favorite archetypal fear? And beyond that, the question to
start tonight was also which monster or archetype do you
think best represents modern anxieties? And we had a great

(01:23:11):
conversation or about that exactly with the night Stalker. But
what do you guys think? That becomes the question on
my mind or we had time wise, I think so
we got we got to burn through. So once we
do the bottom one here with the Mothman and Bigfoot,
and we've got the semi finals on both sides in
a final, So one, two, three, four more left and
it's about we're about on time. We're about on time.

(01:23:33):
We can do it at the top of the hour,
So there's time if you guys want to jump in
here and call it. Won't rock the boat or anything.
But here we go. So I'm gonna I'm gonna do
this because this was where this if you read the
write up or followed any of it, this is kind
of where it drew this inspiration from as part of
these two entities kind of basing off against each other,
that larger context of the fear of what these entities represent.

(01:23:56):
So here we go. The witch stands apart because she's human,
or was or chose something else entirely. That's what Pete
was saying. Earlier. Folklore describes women occasionally men, of course,
who made packs with darker powers, who learned to manipulate
reality through ritual and will. The witch trials of Europe
and America targeted anyone who seemed too knowledgeable, too independent,

(01:24:18):
too strange, but beneath the persecution by something genuine. Mystery
school traditions across cultures taught that consciousness could be trained
to perceive and influence reality in ways that looked like
magic to the uninitiated. The witch represents forbidden knowledge, the
understanding that reality's rules are more flexible than we're told.

(01:24:40):
Demons come from every religious tradition that acknowledges spiritual hierarchy.
Christianity categorized them as fallen angels, Islam as jin who
refused to bow to humanity. Older traditions as nature spirits
turn malevolent, were simply indifferent to human welfare. The demon
operates outside physical laws because it exists primarily in others mentions,

(01:25:01):
manifesting here only when summoned or when barriers thin. Exorcism
rituals across cultures share common elements because they're addressing the
same phenomenon through different cultural frameworks. The demon is consciousness
without material form, intelligence, operating by rules we don't fully comprehend.
So the matchup that just happened that we just read.
This matchup pits stolen fire against the source of flame,

(01:25:24):
Prometheus versus the gods themselves. The Witch learn to access
power through study ritual negotiation with forces, forces that predate
human civilization. She's mortal, but is acquired immortal knowledge. The
demon is the force itself, never human, operating by rules
that don't acknowledge our limitations. The Witch knows the demon's

(01:25:46):
true name but the demon existed before names were invented,
which matters more knowledge or essence. I'll leave it there.
That's straight from the rite up. Like I said, the
right Up's very good. Do check it out. I'm excited
about this one tonight and wet with again. Shout out
Chef Pete for inspiring this. He kind of recommended this
a couple of weeks back. And it turns out in

(01:26:06):
October of twenty twenty three, Axios did this where they
did Chewpacabra versus a skun Cape, but it was all
based on vote. It was all based on people voting
and what's your favorite? And I think, let's see, it
got down to the final four. I'm not sure who
actually won here, but the final four was Yeah, so
it ended up being chewp Acabra versus Mothman and Bigfoot
versus the Jackalope. Like that was the final four, which

(01:26:28):
seems like like it seems less likely. I don't know,
but interesting. The Mothman made the final four, so maybe
our Mothman takes it down tonight. I guess we can
find out. We can find out right now, because I
have a take on this, any of this. I love
to hear your thoughts. As you know, we take this
anywhere we like because that's what we do. It's our show.

(01:26:49):
We just do what we want. I'm a growing I
do what I want seven two nine five seven and
one zero three seven click that di ascording like a
trouble Mines dot org. Love to hear what you think.
And otherwise we're going to get to Bigfoot versus the
off Man, which is, yeah, should be fire. Let me
get this set up here and we'll do that and
generate this and yeah, wild stuff, wild stuff here. And

(01:27:09):
like I said, I didn't know what to expect myself
other than you know, kind of my Michael Strange wizard
ways of just you know, it's interesting the folklore how
it kind of fits into the larger context of these
conversations and plays. It still plays even with the uh,
the entities of you know, large language models, like like
we're we're sort of in lockstep with what we expect

(01:27:30):
and you know when it comes to these these types
of entities or fights or whatever. So that's that. Okay,
So I'm gonna I'm gonna cue this up and we'll
we'll get back in just a second here, But let
me play just a quick little blurb here so I
can catch my breath and we'll be right back in
just a minute. Here, let's let's actually play a quick
blurb from the late great Terrence McKenna, because I really

(01:27:51):
like this, and I'll be right back with the next
fight between confrontation, fight between Bigfoot versus the mof Man.
Be right back, more trump minds after a quick blurb
from Terrence mcckenna, Be right back.

Speaker 5 (01:28:03):
It's just going to get weirder and weirder and weirder.

Speaker 12 (01:28:06):
And finally it's going to be so weird that people
are going to have to talk about how weird it is.
I look for the invention of artificial life, the cloning
of human beings, possible contact with extraterrestrials, possible human immortality,
and at the same time appalling acts of brutality, genocide,

(01:28:29):
race bating, homophobia, famine, starvation. The mushroom said to me once,
it said, this is what it's like when a species
prepares to depart for the stars. You don't depart for
the stars under calm and orderly conditions.

Speaker 5 (01:28:47):
It's a fire in a mad house. And that's what
we have.

Speaker 2 (01:28:51):
The fire in the mad house at the end of time.

Speaker 12 (01:28:53):
This is what it's like when a species prepares to
move on to the next dimension.

Speaker 2 (01:29:01):
Or something like that. Right, that's the late Great Terrence McKenna. Okay,
back to the monster mash. Now, I've got it to
set up. So we've got Mothman versus Bigfoot predictions out there.
Anybody in the chat, who do you think is going
to win this one? Does a Mothman go all the
way and it is shocked to everybody what is going on?
The main monster is missing from the list. Who's Who's

(01:29:21):
the main monster? Yeah? Exactly who is it? Who we missing? Okay?

Speaker 14 (01:29:25):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:29:26):
The tartarian monster, the titan from from below? Okay, here
we go. This is this is the the encounter between
Mothman and Bigfoot.

Speaker 4 (01:29:37):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
Fog poured down the hollows of an abandoned Appalachian grave graveyard,
clean to crooked tombstones like memory, reluctant to die. The
moon hung low in red swollen with omens. From the
pine thick ridge came the sound of snapping branches and
the wet thud of enormous feet. Bigfoot emerged through the mist,

(01:30:02):
shaggy and monumental eyes burning with primeval patience. His breath
steamed like incense beneath the ancient trees above him. The
silence rippled. Mothman unfurled from the canopy, wide black wings,
catching what little light remained his eyes. Two crimson orbs,

(01:30:23):
alive with precognition, regarded the intruder not his prey, but
his prophecy. Where Bigfoot embodied the forgotten earth, the weight
of hidden valleys, Mothman wore the curse of forewarning, the
omen of collapse. The air thickened between them. Bigfoot crouched
one massive hand, pressing into the soil. He could feel

(01:30:46):
the pulse of the land, old and stubborn, older than
man or message. Mothman's cry, metallic and distorted, broke the quiet.
Gravestones rattled. Bigfoot hurled a stone the size of a bold.
Mothman's wings folded inward to projectile, missing by inches. As
wind pressure surged like a sonic tide, the graveyard became

(01:31:09):
a storm of intention. Bigfoot lunged, tearing up saplings with
his bulk. Mothman swooped, low claws raking across matted fur,
A blur of feathers and red shimmer the beast roared
back his fury, shaking owls from the trees. He fought
with the raw physics, muscle, leverage, instinct, while Mothman fought

(01:31:29):
with angles and foresight, dodging before each blow landed, reading
paths not yet taken, but foresight bore a cost. The
longer Mothman glimpsed Bigfoot's next strike, the more his wings faltered,
burdened by the weight of every possible outcome. Bigfoot sensed
it a primal understanding that vision can be blinding. He fainted,

(01:31:54):
baiting reaction, then grasps they fallen iron cross from the earth,
and swung it wide. The blow caught Mothman square in
the chest, knocking him through a rotted crypt wall. Moonlight
burned through the dust. Bigfoot advanced, cautious but resolute. Mothsman
staggered up chest, pulsing with eery light, attempting to launch,

(01:32:16):
but one wing dragged torn by stone. The seer was grounded.
Bigfoot's shadow loomed immense as the graveyard fell quiet once more.
One final roar shook the pines, echoing through mist and memory.
When at last the silence returned, only the scent of
rain remained. Bigfoot stood over the broken crypt, panting, then

(01:32:39):
lowered his gaze. The red eyes still glowed faintly, not
in hatred, but in mourning. He turned and disappeared into
the forest dark heart. By dawn, the graveyard was whole again,
no tracks, no feathers, only a cracked cross pointing east
and two faint red lights fading with the light of morning.

(01:33:01):
There it is bingo and Bigfoot emerges triumphant. All right,
so we got in the bracket. We've got again completely
generated outside of me, I'm doing this in real time.
We've got the vampire beat the zombie. We've got the
werewolf beat the mummy, the witch beat the jan or
the demon, and then we've got Bigfoot beat Mothman. It

(01:33:22):
seems as if things are proceeding exactly as we have foreseen,
kind of unless Mothman was going to be the one
to take it all, but that was so now we
have coming up. We've got the vampire versus a were wolf,
and then we have the witch versus Bigfoot. That ought
to be hot. That ought to be hot. But yeah,
tons of stuff here to talk about. And like I said,
this is pretty cool that they did this like a
whole voting aspect of this back in twenty twenty three

(01:33:45):
on Axios. I'm not an Axios fan, by the way.
A lot of these modern media sites are just garbage.
But if you're gonna do cool stuff like this, I'll
give you. I'll give you a prop here or there.
So props to these guys for doing this back when
they did. Sarah Wise and calv Beharrage is the authors
that did this thing. But it was all votes, so
it wasn't really simulated or anything to that degree. But anyway,

(01:34:08):
did anybody see Bigfoot defeating him? Off?

Speaker 1 (01:34:10):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:34:11):
I wasn't sure what to expect at all.

Speaker 4 (01:34:13):
So what do we have?

Speaker 2 (01:34:14):
So we got to the semifinals coming up, and more
of you guys, if you have some ideas on this,
And back to the original question, what is your favorite
entity of folklore? What is your favorite entity of not
just let's see the archetypal fear, your favorite or least favorite?
And the original question was which monster or archetype do
you think best represents modern anxieties and why? Which seems

(01:34:36):
like a college question, right, But then also what about
personal monster stories or dreams? Which the Roberts started us
out with as well, or which archetype they relate to most.
But in this particular space, as we're kind of fighting
these monsters out and kind of you know, doing this
in the fantasy perspective that we do, the question really
becomes what happens when two of these archetypes are forced

(01:34:57):
into direct conflict. Because when we're looking at ourselves and
the sen of Carl Jung and that idea of the
shadow self and all all the things we've talked about
kind of confronting the shadow and the shadow work as
it's been known, and then these other ideas, these archetypes
that are fear fear manifest so sort of outside the

(01:35:17):
human space, when these things do come together and face off,
what does that look like? So for instance, the vampire
versus a zombie, where well versus mummy, which we did
all the rest of this stuff, but how about their
abilities and vulnerabilities shaping the outcomes we expect in folklore
or in our psyche. Now it all comes together. It's
it's incredible to think about, but like I said, it's

(01:35:38):
as usual. I even thought about doing this by D
and D rules and pulling you know, kind of the
D and D entities. But it's not fair because a
vampire and a zombie aren't really in the same league
depending on the the you know, the generation of D
and D airplane, so you need, you know, multiple zombies
to kind of even out against a vampire type of
thing depending on you know, hit dice and the levels
and all the stuff. So I don't know, I thought

(01:35:58):
it was probably more more more fun to just do
it Mono almano and this showdown versus this this entity
versus that entity. But yeah, pretty cool stuff so far.
And it's kind of going about as I expected, about
as I expected. And again I didn't rig the rules.
I didn't tell it this or that or anything else.
Like I said, I even tried to go as deep
as stat cards, like basic stat cards for each of

(01:36:21):
these these things, and there's their strengths and weaknesses. But
it's just too much like all I've probably probably born
you guys enough as it is. I'd to going into
like the D and D weeds of how this the
mechanics and stuff might work in combat. Is let's just
read the story instead. So anyway, lots here, lots to
talk about loss to think about. What else do I got?
So there's there's a lot of this stuff that came

(01:36:42):
out as part of the research, right, So what stereotypical
Halloween monster is legitimately the strongest. This is on Reddit,
you know, shut out, read it out there the sewer
of the Internet. But there's a bunch of stuff here.
We're a wolf and vampire top seven most Powerful Mythical Beasts,
which again I pulled this up because I wanted to
make sure we didn't do, you know, put dragons into this.
I mean, that's that's not fair, right, But this is

(01:37:05):
from a Dragons andbeastlive dot com top seven most Powerful
Mythical Beasts. And I'm not sure what it's based on,
but dragons are number one, Trolls are number two. Then
it's got griffins, basilisks, hydra, unicorns, and amarrocks. So I'm
gonna read this one because I don't know this. But
in Inuit folklore, amarocks are gigantic wolves that haunt alone.

(01:37:25):
Their size means they has super strength and exceptional endurance,
and they will devour anyone foolish enough to hunt themselves
by themselves at night. One story endows amarocks with the
ability to take a human soul from their body. And
there you go. So I'm not sure where this comes from.
It says dragons and beasts, mythical beasts live or whatever,
so it might be from a video game. But anyway, whatever,
what else but tons tons of information here if you're

(01:37:47):
into more of these, you know, powerful monsters ranked and stuff.
Like I said, I didn't take this stuff into account
other than it was part of the research, kind of
drumming up the idea of which monsters we should put
together and all the rest of it. But anyway, uh, yeah,
that's what's going on tonight. I got tons here to
talk about. And I'll get to the should I get
to the right up of that one? I think I should?
I think I should. Let's see which was weaknesses rituals.

(01:38:12):
We'll get to that in a second.

Speaker 1 (01:38:13):
Here.

Speaker 2 (01:38:13):
Yeah, let's get back to the right up here, so
the Bigfoot fight. Let me read this and then we'll
take a break and we'll come back and we'll get
into the semi finals and hopefully get calls from you guys.
What do you know about these these mythical creatures? What
about the archetypes of the creatures themselves? And what fear
versus fear would actually mean? Let's go so Bigfoot represents
the unknown that persists despite satellites and surveillance, the possibility

(01:38:35):
that massive creatures still evade detection in wilderness areas. Native
American traditions describe Sasquatch as people of the forest, sometimes dangerous,
sometimes helpful, always apart from human civilization. Modern sightings cluster
in Pacific Northwest forests, where old growth canopy creates vast
areas of deep shadow. The creature appears in blurry photographs

(01:38:55):
and reliable witness accounts, but never quite resolves into definitive proof.
Some researchers suggest interdimensional phasing, as was mentioned by Derek
and shout out apac apoc and I did a show
on Bigfoot a long time ago to check that out
as very good. We talked about the interdimensional phasing bit.
Others point to biology and terrain that favors concealment. Bigfoot
might not be the might be the last megafaun and

(01:39:17):
we haven't cataloged, or it might be something that chooses
when and how to be seen again. Archetypes right Mothman
emmerging Point, Pleasant West, Virginia in nineteen sixty six, heralding
the Silverbridge collapse that killed forty six people, and that
part's a true story. The Mothman part you know. Mileage
may vary, but anyway, Witnesses describe a seven foot creature

(01:39:37):
with wings and glowing red eyes appearing in the weeks
before disaster struck. Similar entities appear in folklore worldwide as
harbingers omens manifesting before catastrophe. The Japanese have their tengu
Native Americans their thunderbirds. European traditions they're black dogs. Some
witnesses report telepathic contact, premonitions and a sense of doom

(01:39:59):
proceed the bridge failure. Mothman might not cause disaster. It
might simply perceive probable futures more clearly than linear human
consciousness allows the c er ic type right. Both occupy
the cryptid space, but their opposites and function Bigfoot of
AIGs detection, maintaining mystery through deliberate concealment. It exists in
present tense, hidden but physical flesh and blood, refusing to

(01:40:21):
be cataloged. Mothman appears before disasters, exists partially in future tents,
operates across time in ways that make witnesses question whether
there's sing prophecy or causing it through observation the old
quantum bit. Right, when the hidden present confronts the visible future,
does being unknowable or knowing the unknowable confer advantage? And apparently,

(01:40:42):
and this is from straight from the right up, but
apparently perplexity thinks that it's the former rather than the latter. Wait,
I do that, right? Does being unknowable or knowing the
unknowable confer advantage? Yeah, being unknowable, I guess anyway, that's
puts us remedy to be just about before we take
a break here, Like I said, let me hear you
guys thoughts on this. Do you like the format? Do

(01:41:03):
you like the mono a mono versus these monsters and
the monster match? And like I said, I'm dealing with
working with the formats because I look, I want to
do fun stuff, but I don't want to just you know,
do the same thing over and over again. And it's
more and more weird ideas. It's turning me into a
I mean, I mean, I'm a weirdo, but you know
what I mean, Like, like how weirdo do you want
to be? Anyway? But yeah, that's what's going on tonight.

(01:41:25):
So we got to the semi finals coming up, the
vampire versus the wear Wolf that should be hot, and
then we've got the witch versus Bigfoot that should also
be hot, and then the finals will be well whatever
they shall be, sirahsurrah as they say, right, Yeah, I
think that puts us where we need to be. Tons
of stuff here, and we'll get to the archetypes of
the weaknesses of these monsters too, sort of the folkloric

(01:41:46):
aspect of it, and how not just it's emblazoned in
us as you know, we look at this bracket and
we're like, you know, this is kind of silly, kind
of fun. But then also we do really kind of
know what to expect from it based on the hierarchy
of archetypes in our minds and our hearts and our
souls as part of humans, right, the human tradition. So
that didn't surprise me. I'm not surprised by any outcome

(01:42:09):
other than I didn't know what to expect from Mothman.
But apparently apparently, and this is again completely speculative, because
you know me, philosophical constructs at all. It's possible to
bog the seaer down with too many possibilities about that,
how about that? Maybe maybe not somewhere in between. Love

(01:42:29):
to hear your thoughts on this. Seven oh two nine
five seven one zero three seven. You can click the
discord link of Troubleminds dot Org. Try something new. Tonight's
Mono Amano the Monster Mash. It's about that time. We're
a few days from Halloween. Here all hallow z as
we march inexorably on who wins? Is it the vampire,
is it the werewolf? Is it bigfoots? Or is it

(01:42:52):
the witch? Archetype? Here I have more Trouble Minds on
the way. Do not go anywhere. Welcome back to Troubled Minds.

(01:43:26):
I'm your host, Michael Strange. We're streaming on YouTube, rumble x, Twitch,
and kick. We are broadcasting live on the Troubled Minds
Radio Network. That's KAP Digital Broadcasting and of course eighty
eight point four FM Aakland, New Zealand. Tonight we're doing
I'm calling this the Monster Mash for obvious reasons. You
guys know the song you do the mash should are
the Monster Rash. But in this case where legends collide,

(01:43:46):
we're talking about the archetypes of these folklore monsters. Now
to me, that is far more fascinating. Well, I mean,
I guess that's unfair to say, because the entities themselves
are They're poignant, they are eternal. These are ancient, ancient
entities that have been drawn from all over the world
of our own anxiety, our own human anxiety. And you know,

(01:44:07):
you decide whether you think this stuff is real or not,
the folklore or whatever in different parts of the world.
That's not my game. My game is to look at
this as sort of through the human prism, that human lens,
and consider why we have sort of these perceptions of
these entities and why we could even probably kind of
eyeballing the actual bracket here predect who might win this.

(01:44:29):
I mean, so far, I haven't been surprised, other than
the weird mothman fight because I didn't know what to
expect there. But yeah, I don't know, You guys tell
me as usual, there's a lot here to talk about,
a lot to consider, But in the archetype space it
is in this particular case. Think of it this way,
is that for all the gifts that these entities have,
and I guess that means people too, which is again
where people and this is why people talk to each

(01:44:51):
other and grow and learn and change in all the things.
But there's these these legendary entities with these legendary powers
from folklore, they have these also legendary weaknesses. Whether it's
going to be iron, whether it's going to be silver,
whether it's going to be the sunlight, whether right, there's
always some way to defeat these evil archetypes, which is

(01:45:13):
interesting because you can't be all powerful in all the ways.
Otherwise it's almost as if you're breaking some sort of
larger universal law. Right, you're OP or as the kids say,
and maybe not just the kids, but which means overpowered
in the video game space or even in Dungeons and
Dragons or these type of tabletop games. You know they say,

(01:45:34):
you know, in modern D and D, the Barbarian is
OP overpowered or whatever. So we did again with Apoc,
and it was with Axel, and we did a whole
thing a ways back where it was super cool, but
I was playing the Barbarian. I just whooped everybody's ass
all the way through the thing. So a little overpowered, right,
but as usual without balance. It seems like the cosmic

(01:45:56):
balance is part of this, and you can't be too
powerful without some sort of maybe even obvious weakness. So anyway,
so it seems like it's a psychological and spiritual thing
where every monster or every entity with a gift pays
a price for that gift with some other sort of
archetypal weakness against over sunlight, all the rest of this stuff.

(01:46:18):
So look, I don't know's it's. It is strange that
and amazing all at once that all of this stuff
fits the world over. It fits like a glove back
to you know, Joseph Campbell. I'm always talking about Carl Jung,
the archetypes, the hero with a thousand faces, or tell
them the same story over and over and over again,
just with different faces, different ideas, different actual identities. And

(01:46:44):
so what does it mean that becomes the real bit?

Speaker 13 (01:46:46):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:46:47):
And let's see so real rituals, folk remedies as examples
of humanity's effort to reclaim agency against this archetypal danger,
which is cool, which which is why the Witch might
actually play heavily into this. So we're gonna get to
the umpire versus the werewolf in just a minute here,
and then we'll get to the witch versus a bigfoot
and then slay it there. But I'd love to hear
your thoughts on this. Do you guys like the format again?

(01:47:09):
Feedback on the show? What do you think about the bracket?
You got a prediction on whether the Bigfoot's going to
defeat the witch or the werewolf is going to defeat
the vampire? I don't know. You tell me, you tell me,
But here we go, so back of this. Let me
read this little blurb from the right up and then
set this bit up with we'll do the vampire versus
the werewolf, and we'll keep on trucking here. Lots lots

(01:47:30):
of things to get to, lots of things to do.
One second here, let me grab the prompt, move it
over to a new window so it doesn't, you know,
kind of spoil the old the other thing, you know,
keep it unspoiled together, and then we'll right up the
the thing of one second. One moment, please, one moment.

(01:47:50):
Damn it, that's not what I want to do. I
want to do this. Okay, here we go. All right,
so the witch or sorry, the vampire versus the werewolf.
Here we go generate this as I read you the
little blurb. Okay, yep, yes, I do type that slowly.
Uh okay, okay, so that's good. It is generating. Now

(01:48:11):
now back to this now, as I was saying, right,
so every monster carries these specific weaknesses because vulnerabilities define
the archetypes as much as the powers do. Vampires burn
in sunlight because they've rejected natural cycles. Weara wolves fall
to silver because they've corrupted the moon's pure metal. Mummies
fear fire because they've preserved what should decay. Demons recoil
from holy symbols because they've rejected divine order, which has

(01:48:33):
remain human and fragile. Despite accumulated power, Bigfoot can still
be wounded. Mothmann, despite prophetic site, couldn't prevent the collapse
that we're told ah and its own collapse. These vulnerabilities
aren't random, They're built into the archetypal structure. The shadow
side that balances the power. Immortality costs a vampire it's
ability to exist in daylight. The werewolf gains strength, but

(01:48:56):
loses control. The mummy gets revenge but remains bound to
its tomb. The demon wields cosmic power but can be
banished by simple salt. The witch masters reality manipulation, but
stays trapped in mortal flesh. The cryptids remain forever on
the margins, never fully entering consensus reality. You see, like
there's always a trade off, a give and take to

(01:49:17):
a power you gain something, It's almost as if you
have to lose something as part of it, as part
of the alchemical process. Right, So we'll get to that.
We'll get to the rest of this in a sect.
But I've got the actual bit generated up of the
vampire versus the Werewolf, which is probably the one we've
all been waiting for it to be honest, what do
you guys know about it? You've got predictions on who's
gonna win this one, or who's gonna win the Witch

(01:49:38):
versus Bigfoot. I'm looking forward to that as well. And
then of course the final how weird does this get?
Do we get a werewolf versus the witch face off?
A Bigfoot versus the vampire? I don't know? And what
does it look like? I'd love to hear your thoughts
seven two nine, one zero three seven click the discording
a troubleminds dot Org. Otherwise I'm going straight to straight
to Bigfoot. Big Foot, here you go, sorry, not Bigfoot,

(01:50:02):
the Werewolf and the vampire. Here we go. Moonlight shone
through the cracked rose window of the abandoned church, painting
the nave in silvery veins. The pews were rotted, the
altar toppled, and at its base stood the vampire, pale,

(01:50:24):
its frostbit marble, as red eyes caught the candle light
flickering from a row of melted stubs he'd lit himself,
symbols to mock the sanctity of his fallen faith. The
scent of old blood and stone filled the air. From
the shattered doorway came a low growl that carried through
the nave like thunder rolling over graves. The werewolf stepped

(01:50:48):
into view, fur bristling, shoulders thick as gravestones, eyes amber
with ancient rage. Beneath the full moon pouring through the room,
His breath smoked like a forge, his claws gouging the
old floorboards. They had hunted each other across centuries, the

(01:51:10):
vampire an aristocrat of death, the werewolf nature's wrath given flesh.
Silence stretched thick as fog between them. The vampire spoke first,
his voice's velvet and venom. Still the beast things claws

(01:51:31):
will conquer eternity. The well werewolf answered with a lunge.
Oak splintered as it slammed into the vampire, driving him
through the altar marble. Fragments scattered like teeth. The vampire
rolled with inhuman grace, landing in a crouch. Fanged lips
curved into an icy grin before he vanished into a

(01:51:53):
blur of movement. He reappeared behind the beast, raking his
sharpened nails through fur and flat black blood hissed where
it touched the earth. The werewolf wheeled around faster than
mortal eyes could follow, tearing a pew from the ground
and hurl hurdling it end over end. It caught the

(01:52:14):
vampire midleap, snapping ribs that re knit before the vampire
hit the ground. Hisssing, the creature of Night retreated into shadows,
body of reforming strategy shifting, he drew upon guile, now
his kind had always thrived on patience. While the beast
burned through fury, the church bell's long silence swayed and

(01:52:36):
rang out from the tower. The sound maddened the werewolf.
He pounded the floor and howled the vibration, shaking loose
dust from every beam. Yet that sound, a pure tone
of forgotten sanctity, seared the vampire's heightened ears. The wolf
saw his opening and struck. He bound forward, driving both

(01:52:59):
claws deep in he was oppon his torso, and flinging
him into a wall of stained glass. Shards fell like
frozen rain. The vampire struck back with desperation, seizing a
blade of glass and plunging it into the werewolf's chest,
seeking the heart. But no glass could kill the wild soul. Snarling,

(01:53:20):
the wolf crushed the vampire's wrist, driving him back. Sunlight
from the rising dawn cut through the east window. Pale
and fatal. The vampire's eyes widened, comprehension spreading like fear.
The beast saw that flinch, that mortal hesitation. With one
last burst of primal might, the werewolf tackled him into

(01:53:42):
the grout the growing light. The vampire's skin blistered, smoke
curling upper with the smell like burning incense. One final
hiss escaped the dying noble, before he withered to ash
against the cracked altar. The church fell quiet. The werewolf staggered,
breathing hard, the silver bell tone still reverberating faintly above

(01:54:06):
When the last member of the Vampire's body drifted away,
the wolf turned his face toward the dawn. For an instant,
his eyes softened to human sorrow. Then he vanished into
the forest beyond, leaving paw prints steaming in the dew.
We saw that coming, I didn't. That was a coin flippy.

(01:54:27):
This stuff needs to be turned into AI videos. Now,
that's how crazy this is. Yeah, okay, so we've got
our first entry into the finals, and that's going to
be the werewolf who defeated not just the Mummy but
also defeated the Vampire and is now going to face
off against either the Witch or Bigfoot, which should be
pretty interesting itself. What do you guys think, I don't know,
Like I said, feedback, do you like the format? Do

(01:54:48):
you like stuff like this? Do you like me being
creative to the nines and just trying to do things differently?

Speaker 6 (01:54:53):
Or is it.

Speaker 2 (01:54:54):
Exhausting and you're like, Mike, stop it whatever as usual?
Like that's the whole Look, I know, I know two
thirds of the stuff I do is massively cringe. Okay,
it's fine. I'm here for it, and I know you
guys are too, and it's okay. So but butt's let's
get better. Let's do cool stuff. Let's challenge ourselves and

(01:55:15):
maybe be creative enough to well, I don't know, maybe
one day create true art together. You tell me. Anyway, Yeah,
catch my breath and I'll be right back with We
got so, we got the exciting conclusion. We got one more.
We got an entry into the final, which is we'll
wear a wolf which is going to face off again.
Is that the fur League, as as Derek the nice

(01:55:36):
doctor was saying, it's gonna be Bigfoot versus the Witch
that's going to face off against a were wolf. And
our again, our little bracket here of weirdness, the bracket
of weirdness. I'm calling the monster match to night. But instead,
let's take a quick break and get a word from
our other sponsor. In this case, that's going to be
the stoic minute. So let me find this button here.
I've got all the things set up, and they don't

(01:55:57):
always work like I've got all the mini triggers and stuff,
and it's just kind of a pain in the ass
sometimes because it takes you anyway, whatever, let's do this
spere iPad more trouble minds in just one minute and
I guess I'd love to hear your thoughts instead of
me rambling on. But I'll be here all night. I'm
doing it anyway, so catch you on the other side
of the break. Be right back in exactly one minutes
after the Stoic Minute. Feeling stressed, overwhelmed and today's fast

(01:56:22):
paced world, it's easy to get swept away by our emotions.
Take a breath and find your inner strength with the
Stoic Minute. You have power over your mind, not outside events.
Realize this and you will find strength. The ancient Stoic
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(01:56:43):
we can control how we react. The happiness of your
life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. Focus on
what you can influence, cultivate the positive mindset, and let
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Live each day with courage, wisdom, justice, and moderation. Embrace

(01:57:09):
the Stoic virtues and find peace within. The Stoic Minutes
Brought to you by Jack in Oregon. Thank you to
Jack for sponsoring the show. Okay, the Monster Mash we
got so we got one final semi final to get
to The Werewolf is advanced to the finals, and in
the other bracket we've got the Witch versus Bigfoot, which

(01:57:31):
should be incredibly interesting, which I'll read in just a second,
but I'd rather hear from you, guys, because that's the
whole point of this is to talk to people and
share wild ideas by dark of night, as I like
to say, So let me. I'll get this queued up.
The next fight, which is going to be the Witch
versus Bigfoot, and we'll get to that either at the
bottom of the hour or right immediately if we don't

(01:57:53):
have any calls, nobody on the line, If you guys
want to jump in here, seven oh two nine one
zero three seven cl like the discording of Trouble Minds
dot Rouge as Usual, you got predictions. What do you
think of the format? Do you like doing creative stuff
like this sort of a generative AI on the fly
or do you think this is kind of cringe and
stupid as usual? All of it plays and it's okay
by me to be either way or be critical or whatever.

(01:58:15):
Like I said, I'm not I don't know, Like like
I like to say, my ego is fine either way.
You're not gonna hurt my feelings. If you're like Mike,
this kind of sucks. Yeah, that's fine, I get it.
But I was interested in it, and I think it's
a fantastic idea. And have you ever imagined what would
happen if a witch fought Bigfoot? Because I have at
least tonight I have, so one more time seven or

(01:58:37):
two nine, one zero three seven click the discord link
of Troubleminds dot Org. Here we go. Let's do it.
Let's generate the witch versus the Bigfoot and set up
the final four of the final segments and see eight
entities is good, and we could do this from all
over folklore and stuff. We could do dragons or all
manner of things. This is kind of cool, like I said,
and I don't even know the outcome, which is as

(01:59:00):
exciting for me, I hope, as it is for you.
Because here we go. Let's do the which versus Bigfoot,
generate this bad boy, and let's see what happens as
part of it. But let's see what else if I
got to get to Okay, here we go. Actually, so
it's a nice tournament. Forces these patterns out of isolation.
The balance right when you have actual the space of power.

(01:59:22):
There's also a weakness that comes with it in the
folklore aspect of these things and deep magic from the
dawn of time like I like to call that. But
when archetypes collide, when the structure's humanity uses to organize
its fear start interacting according to their own internal logic
rather than cultural separation, we learn something about what actually
frightens us. It's not the individual monsters. It's the possibility

(01:59:42):
that the boundaries we've drawn between different kinds of darkness
might be artificial, that all these patterns might be different
expressions of the same underlying truth about consciousness, mortality in
the things that exist in spaces we haven't mapped, which
has always been when trouble Mind has been about, and
think about it. Even way back I was saying things like, look,
an alien and bigfoot are indistinguishable until you get them,

(02:00:04):
you know, in a zoo next to each other, and
not suggesting you should put everything in a zoo, but
it's just a way to describe that until you can
kind of put your hands on something, it's ephemeral. It
is not of this realm, not of this earth, and
so until we can quantify it directly, then what are
we dealing with. And I think that the definitions we

(02:00:25):
get these things are more archetypal than they are direct
and specific, even though they take direct in specific form
with vampires and water wolves and the rest of this.
So yeah, anyway, that's what's all my mind side. I
hope you guys are doing well. What's up, Jade, New York?
I see they're gased in. What's up? Okay, let's do it.
Let's let's read the other semi final setting up the
final segments which will have the finals, which will be

(02:00:47):
the werewolf versus either the Witch or the Bigfoot. You
got predictions, predictions in the chat, Let's see them. What
do you think is about to happen? Let's read it
and find out the Witch versus Bigfoot. There we go,
the moon hung swollen over the pines, its light crawling
through the mist that moved like breath beneath it. The

(02:01:10):
ruins of an old chapel leaned, half swallowed by forest,
moss crept over its stones, and the graveyard behind hummed
with whispers from the half forgotten. In the clearing stood
the Witch. Black skirts brushed brushing dead leaves, eyes gleaming
with the cunning of forgotten tongues. She had come to

(02:01:30):
call spirits to heal, to claim dominion, where wilderness still rebelled,
but the forest ancient and aware at other guardians. A
shape peeled from the treeline, towering, fur matted with dew
and earth, fur matted not formatted, fur matted with dew

(02:01:50):
and earth. Bigfoot's eyes glowed with quiet anger. This was
his territory, older than crosses or graves. The wind shifted,
The Witch's voice slipped into the air like smoke, tracing
sigils invisible to mortal sight. Corvids stirred overhead, their cries

(02:02:12):
sharp and prophetic. Bigfoot crouched low and beat the ground
with one enormous hand, sending a shudder through the soil.
His presence warped the night's rhythm. The forest itself seemed
to listen to his heartbeat. The Witch raised a hand
from her nails spilled sparks of sickly green fire that

(02:02:34):
hissed as they touched damp air. She chanted words that
bent roots to her will, turning the forest floor into
writhing snares. Bigfoot grabbed a fallen log, using it to
tear through ropelike fines. He moved with sudden, blinding speed,
a beast's intuition cutting through her careful designs. The duel

(02:02:58):
became contrast intellect and preparation against his brute instinct and
raw connection to the living world. Lightning flashed, but it
came from her fingertips. She hurled it toward him, its
glow casting both in stark of the worldly relief the
witch's angular frame and crimson mouth the beast's silhouette like

(02:03:20):
a mountain come alive. Bigfoot roared a sound that scattered
the crows. As her spell struck. He seized a tombstone
and raised it as a shield. Stone cracked, flames, sputtered,
and the witch faltered for a heartbeat. In that moment,
he closed his distance. He struck with claws that carried

(02:03:43):
forest's strength. Not hatred, but inevitability. The witch screamed words
of power that snapped bones in distant graves, calling spirits
to her defense, but they hesitated. His primal presence was
older than their curses. He lifted her as easily as
a broken branch and hurled her through the rusted gates

(02:04:03):
of the chapel. Inside, the witch's laughter turned hollow, she
was fading the earth, reclaiming her escence. In her final breath,
she whispered a curse into the roots beneath the chapel,
a promise of return. When the forest burns, Bigfoot stood
over the ruins, watching the crows settle once again on

(02:04:26):
cracked stones. He touched one claw to the ground, as
if sealing the ward she had broken. Silence fell, the
forest exhaled, the witch was gone. The Guardian remained, watching
the stars filter through smoke, returning at last to shadow

(02:04:48):
among the trees. I guess we do have an all
fur face off. We've got a werewolf versus a bigfoot
in the final, as Bigfoot takes the east bracket. Did
you see that one coming? I'm not sure I saw
that one coming either. I wasn't sure what to expect.
And this is the cool part of it, as usual,

(02:05:10):
like this is just sort of like roll on dice
or whatever. But it's a generative AI kind of coming
up with the stuff on the fly and Jasa's Bigfoot
all the way. Maybe right, maybe, So we got the
all for final coming up, which is going to be
the werewolf versus Bigfoot, and of course the primordial monster
of pure strength, and one sort of being a nature

(02:05:32):
spirit of sorts, and one being sort of a bastardization
of nature and the light of the full moon. Yeah, interesting, right,
pretty cool how these kind of archetypes do come together
in the space and you're able to kind of look
at it from those perspectives at least I am, and
I know you guys are just way smarter than me,
so you certainly see it. And that becomes the point here,
like how weird is it? How cool does it get?

(02:05:54):
And Real JB says, my money's on Bigfoot. There it
is and Bigfoot did it? Yeah, what's up? Real JB?
Thank you? Over on Rumbo says, this has been a
very interesting original show tonight, and well done, Mike, thank you.
Just shout out to Pete Peats, the guy who gave
me the idea. And this is this is the type
of stuff, Like I said that of all the AI

(02:06:14):
haters out there, there's you know, I think when this
gets put together, I'm gonna cut out commercials and stuff
and that you guys listen to the podcast tomorrow or
whatever you do down the line in the future. This
is this is the type of stuff you can do
sort of on the fly, to create whatever you want
on the fly. You can just do things. And in
the past the stuff was impossible, sort of the choose
your adventure radio show type stuff. But now suddenly we're

(02:06:35):
gonna be able to create custom apps. It'll do this
stuff on the fly and you guys can vote real
time and sort of you know, steer the narrative on
what comes next, and like, that's that's the future. That's
the future of the Internet. It always has been. David
Bowie was talking about that before he passed a long
time ago, back in like the two thousand and one
or whatever. He was describing the internet as an alien entity,
as the line between the performer and the audience what

(02:06:58):
blurs to the point where everybody he was performing together
and so here we are. Here we are. So eventually
I'll get apps put together so we can just vote
on this stuff and kind of guide where the conversation goes.
You know, you want me to talk about this or this,
we'll go to that instead. Of course, the way we
do it is just to call instead. You can just
call and tell me this or that, and that's the point.
But I love to hear your thoughts. We got the

(02:07:20):
final coming up of the Monster Mash where Legends Collide.
It is going to be the All Fur final, which
I didn't see coming. Bigfoot versus Will Wear Wolf Co.
Do you think wins co? Do you think wins seven?
Two nine five seven one zero three seven Click to
discord and like at Troubleminds dot Org. We'll put you

(02:07:40):
on the show. It's as easy as that be. Right
back more on the way. It looks like we got
Jane New York and your calls as well, and the
conclusion of the Monster Mash. See you on the other
side of the break. Welcome back to Troubled Minds. I'm

(02:08:12):
your host, Michael Strange. All the things, all the places,
the Monster Mash tonight where Legends Collide. Now you know me.
I like to look at things as fractors, not just
a vampire, as a ghoul from the past it sucks blood,
but as the aristocratic presence of a parasitic idea within

(02:08:33):
the human mind and of course within the human physical space.
It's an interesting thing when you sort of break these
ideas down to Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell and look
at them a little differently, and then challenge them against
each other. What happens when you pit fear against fear,
That's what I want to know. We're talking to Monster
Mash tonight. If you've been listening, thanks for staying up

(02:08:55):
late and dealing with my nonsense, because I got a
ton of that. But we begin with the bracket of
the Monster Mash of the vampire versus the Zombie, the
werewolf versus the Mummy, the Witch versus the Ginner Demon,
and the Bigfoot versus Mothman, and chase it down to
the exciting conclusion, which will be the all fur final

(02:09:17):
of Werewolf versus Bigfoot? Who do you think wins? And
once again the natural world of Bigfoot is the guardian
of the ancient Oak or or sort of the cursed
version of himself the inversion. Yeah, supernatural power instead of

(02:09:38):
natural power. Strange odd how these things kind of come together.
Who do you predict Bigfoot or the Werewolf? And as usual,
as I said, the place where this happens in the
time certainly has the home field advantage aspect to it.
And you could probably change all this to different places
or times and have the outcomes be different. But they

(02:10:00):
both meet in the forest obviously. Is it a full moon, etcetera.
So on, I see you guys in the chat. Thanks
for being cool and show seven two nine one zero
three seven click the discord link at Troubledminds dot org.
Let's uh, let's go to Jay in New York. What's
up brother, been a minute. Welcome to the joint. How
are you tonight?

Speaker 5 (02:10:18):
And go right in, great Mike, right on. I'm really
enjoying it. It's fun.

Speaker 2 (02:10:23):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:10:23):
You know.

Speaker 5 (02:10:24):
I pitdle in my garage and make stuff and it's like,
this is funny.

Speaker 14 (02:10:30):
Originally I had Mothman and the Mummy because I figured
the vampire would win against the werewolf hands down. But
I left out the daylight. Dang, you know, long fight
days coming, damn it.

Speaker 4 (02:10:50):
But I don't know.

Speaker 5 (02:10:51):
I got my money on Bigfoot. I'm curious.

Speaker 2 (02:10:54):
Got money on Bigfoot, which which is the natural order,
right versus versus the super natural order, the cursed, the
cursed version. I mean, I never thought of it this way,
and we could probably kick this down down the road
for another time. But Bigfoot and a werewolf are basically
the same thing. One is cursed and one is sort
of a natural protector, the guardian of.

Speaker 5 (02:11:15):
The earth, and so yeah, like the planet wins.

Speaker 2 (02:11:19):
Yeah, so I'm with you. I'm going to go the
wholesome aspect of this is Bigfoot defeats the cursed entity,
which is the werewolf.

Speaker 5 (02:11:27):
But who knows when we when we're going to get
like seventy five cents for our dollar the odds the
other way?

Speaker 2 (02:11:34):
Yeah, may maybe, Yeah, I mean who knows.

Speaker 14 (02:11:37):
Well, we got three big foots right now, right, what
do you mean three three votes for a big Well,
I mean I've been looking at the chat and everything
else like that. We got three for the big Foot.
I mean, where are we standing right now? How are
we going to put the money down? You got a dollar, Mike?
Who are you putting your money on Bigfoot?

Speaker 2 (02:11:55):
Yeah? I think I will put mine. I'm going back.

Speaker 5 (02:11:58):
So if you're going to pick big Foot, I'll pick
wear wolf just for the sake of the bath.

Speaker 2 (02:12:03):
All right, And the odds are still seventy five cents
to me and that dollar twenty five.

Speaker 5 (02:12:07):
And you got to say it like Sunday, Sunday, Sunday,
the all for final Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:12:12):
There you go, right. I almost I almost had it
like set up where I was going to have like
a and in this quarter you know, hailing from Transylvania.
I was going to do all that. It's like, come on, Mike,
it's already cringing up without doing this.

Speaker 5 (02:12:24):
Was that guys what was that guy's name back when
we were kids, All Cogan and all those guys back then.

Speaker 2 (02:12:32):
It has a lot of them, mean Jeene and all
kind of well, I.

Speaker 5 (02:12:34):
Mean the announcer guy. I mean, he was like in
his own little spot too.

Speaker 2 (02:12:40):
I have no idea. I barely remember the rest of
his name. Littlone, that guy, I don't know.

Speaker 14 (02:12:46):
We had a ride our bikes over to the one
kid that had HBO in the neighborhood, and yeah, pretty good.
They'd let us stay there late.

Speaker 3 (02:12:53):
You know.

Speaker 2 (02:12:54):
Yep, the eighties. The eighties were a time, that's for sure.
It's funny, yeah, indeed. So you like the format, you
like the weirdness.

Speaker 14 (02:13:05):
I think it's great, But I'm not good at this,
you know, the whatever you call this, the Dungeons and
Dragons kind of thing, because I always clicked firewood and
the last time I played the game, I ended up
in prison indefinitely.

Speaker 2 (02:13:18):
Oh that's right, you were playing with us and we
ended up in prison. That was my bad decision. But
I'm a barbarian. I just fight my way out of everything.

Speaker 5 (02:13:24):
So that's all right. To prison whatever. It can't be
that bad Bookstreet, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:13:29):
Some cool three squares a day, Yeah, no problem.

Speaker 5 (02:13:33):
So I got this.

Speaker 2 (02:13:35):
Yeah, no sweat, no sweat, Yeah, pay taxes yeah yeah.
I mean I guess it depends on how how rough
it is inside if you're if you're the Epstein people
that you got, you got the easy prison, which seems weird, right,
I mean just saying not to get weird and to
peel this off to another place. But yeah, I guess
it depends on how how how bad it is on

(02:13:56):
the inside. Yeah, yeah, what else you got the archetypes
or anything else that as you don't take it anywherey Like, I.

Speaker 5 (02:14:03):
Just I don't know. I'm curious is to see how
it works out.

Speaker 2 (02:14:06):
I really am.

Speaker 5 (02:14:07):
You know, I got my money on, you know, Bigfoot,
just because I don't know how it is like Bigfoot.
He's also the Ohio grass Man and all that. You know.
Yeah there everywhere Florida, everybody talks about Bigfoot.

Speaker 2 (02:14:19):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 4 (02:14:21):
All right.

Speaker 2 (02:14:21):
I'm gonna add an additional to this prompt to to
have it be the epic finale of the Final. So
this may be a little longer than the others. So
let's let's try this and we'll get it set and
Bigfoot versus the Werewolf for the final itself, the Grand Finale,
and in this corner, hailing from the Pacific Northwest, waiting

(02:14:45):
in a six eight pounds sasquatch.

Speaker 5 (02:14:51):
What right, Let's see, wasn't it that guy that did
the lifestyles of the rich and famous? Wasn't he the guy?

Speaker 2 (02:14:58):
No, Robin Leech, Rob Robin Leach. No, that's a different guy,
different guy.

Speaker 5 (02:15:02):
I think he was the guy that announced the guys
that were coming into the ring as they came in.

Speaker 2 (02:15:06):
No, I think they're conflating things. And that's not wrong.
Somebody correct me from my I don't think it's the
same guy at all.

Speaker 5 (02:15:13):
And just I don't know that was what thirty years ago, forty.

Speaker 2 (02:15:17):
Years forty years. We're getting old Jay. We're getting old Jay. Yeah, no,
kidd okay, here we go.

Speaker 5 (02:15:24):
I don't know it's this will be a good fight.

Speaker 2 (02:15:28):
Yeah, well, have the all for final? Okay, here we go, all.

Speaker 5 (02:15:32):
Right, the all for Final Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Yeah, exactly, sure,
that's windows closed in ten minutes exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:15:41):
So, uh, who's got who? We're a wolf of the Bigfoot?
That's what I want to know. And like I said,
do you like this? Like I said, I'm not going
to do this all the time. I won't do the
Chooser and adventures all the time. But it's kind of
nice to just do something different and not you know,
you do the same thing every day and it feels
like you're punching a time clock and that's just not
it's just not fun, less fun and like and I
know if I'm had not as much fun, you guys
are not having as much fun. So yeah, anyway, so

(02:16:04):
uh appreciate the call. What else you got or otherwise
I'm gonna read this thing and we'll get to the
bottom of who.

Speaker 5 (02:16:11):
See what happens here?

Speaker 2 (02:16:13):
Okay, well you want to sit there and wait to
get a dollar on it.

Speaker 5 (02:16:15):
I'm gonna take the werewolf. I'm going to take Bigfoot.

Speaker 2 (02:16:19):
Right, I'm gonna take Bigfoot. And I haven't read it yet.
I'm not a I'm not a dirty better. Okay, all right,
here we go, all right, you're on here. It is
oh oh, this this is not voting well the very
first line. Under a full October moon, mist clung to
the pines like shrouds, and the forest breathed in long,

(02:16:40):
silent exhales. A crumbling chapel stood at the tree line.
It's spell long rusted to silence. The air polsted was
primal anticipation, the electric quiet, before something older than humanity
stirred to violence. A shape moved from the tree line,
mass upright, fur matted with dew and moss. Bigfoot, the

(02:17:06):
forests hidden sentinel. His presence carried the scent of cedar
and earth, A being closer to myth than animal. He
paused near the chapel's cracked door, sensing the trespasser before
he saw it. From the shadows, came a snarl, but
split the quiet like a blade. The werewolf stepped into

(02:17:26):
the pale light, eyes burning with feral intellect, Its sinews
rippled under its silver streaked pelt, jaws slick with hunger.
This was no cursed peasant, but the embodiment of the
moon's madness ferocity. Without restraint, they began to circle each other,

(02:17:47):
two legends bound by different covenants of wilderness. The werewolf
lunged first, quick as a thought, claws flashing, Bigfoot caught
the blow with a full arm that felt like stone.
The impact cracked the air, shredding bark and dust. The
werewolf's claws bit deep, but met muscle like tempered wood.

(02:18:09):
Bigfoot countered with a roar that sent crows screaming from
the tree tops. His fists were the forest's wrath made flesh.
He swung with the weight of ancient redwoods, hurling the
werewolf through a headstone. Soil churned and bones scattered. The
creature rose again, grinning with blooded teeth, moonlight burning in

(02:18:30):
its veins. They clashed again beside the fallen chapel. The
werewolf darted and struck, using speed and narrow arcs, each
movement a flash of lunar malice. Bigfoot stayed grounded, using
reach and terrain, tearing a marble angel from the grave's
edge to use as a cudgel. The statue shattered on
the werewolf's shoulder, but momentum carried the beast on It

(02:18:54):
raked Bigfoot's ribs, drawing a deep growl of pain. The
forest it self seemed to lean closer. Branches whispered old
packs as Bigfoot stepped back planting his feet in a
ring of mushrooms. The phase circle. His eyes glowed in
earthy amber. Power rippled beneath him, the living roots of

(02:19:16):
the woods awakening to their warden's call. Vines twisted from
the soil, grabbing the werewolf's limbs and dragging it down
into the loam. The beast tore free with howls that
split the night, but for the first time, its movement faltered.
Bigfoot struck while the moon dipped behind a thick cloud.
He slammed his palm into the werewolf's chest, sending it

(02:19:38):
sprawling against a chapel door. The door burst open, spilling
moonlight into the nave, where dozens of silver candlesticks had
been lit by pilgrims long ago. Light kissed one edge,
and Bigfoot, sensing the creature's bane, snatched it up. The
werewolf lunged again. The strike came true. This time, the

(02:19:59):
silver pierced through fur and hide, fiery smoke curling from
the wound. The creature's howl echoed through the valleys, dying
into a low growl, then silence. Bigfoot stood over the
fading body. As the wind shifted, the moonlight returned gentle
and cold. He looked down at the fallen predator, then

(02:20:20):
at his own wounded arm. The forest's voice murmured approval
through the leaves with a low grunt. The giant knelt,
pressed a hand to the soil, and the roots carried
the werewolf's remains into the earth. By dawn, only footprints remained,
some massive, some claud and the broken chapel bell now swaying,

(02:20:45):
giving voice again for the first time in centuries. And
there you have it. I don't think I would have
guessed did Bigfoot won at all? But hey, big Bigfoot
our champion of the monster on the twenty sixth, a
few days from from Halloweid. Yeah, pretty epic. I don't know.

(02:21:07):
I think I think that's the point, right, isn't the
natural order supposed to defeat the unnatural order? And again,
like I said, I didn't see this intentionally into anything.
I didn't give any expectation other than the same prompt
and then I put this entity versus that entity. So uh,
I don't know. It's almost as if we're a program
to have the good guy always win. Right in this case,

(02:21:28):
Bigfoot would be the good guy, right.

Speaker 14 (02:21:31):
Yeah, absolutely, the good guy's gotta win, Mike. And it's
weird that did you type that in like right as
we were talking about it.

Speaker 2 (02:21:42):
Yeah, yeah, like as as you and I were doing it,
I was queueing it up and then it enter and
then as soon as I was like, okay, let's do it,
it was done writing like it did it in that
amount of time.

Speaker 6 (02:21:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:21:52):
Yeah, that's why that's generative AI man, Like it cranked
the thing out in like three or five, three to
five seconds, the whole thing less than that.

Speaker 5 (02:21:58):
Maybe that's crazy talk right there, Mike.

Speaker 2 (02:22:01):
It's it's it's standard talk these days. That's not crazy
at all.

Speaker 14 (02:22:04):
Yeah, no kidding, Well, I mean dude is doing it NonStop.
He's getting eight nine thousand views, you know on his
crazy little AI generated shorts.

Speaker 5 (02:22:15):
How does that work?

Speaker 2 (02:22:17):
I don't know, having.

Speaker 14 (02:22:20):
The hammer down and the tool belt and maybe sit
as a computer for a little while.

Speaker 2 (02:22:25):
Yeah, if it's short though, it doesn't work quite that way.
It's not like the money comes rolling in. You got
to get millions and millions.

Speaker 5 (02:22:31):
Yeah, yeah, what do you have a five million.

Speaker 14 (02:22:36):
Have?

Speaker 2 (02:22:37):
Yeah, it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous to even get monetized. Yeah,
oh yeah, you know, oh yeah, it's all there, it's
all there.

Speaker 5 (02:22:46):
Yeah, these kids, these days, I tell you, Mike kids,
these days.

Speaker 4 (02:22:49):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (02:22:49):
I was really rooting for Bigfoot. Yeah, really was.

Speaker 6 (02:22:52):
You know.

Speaker 5 (02:22:53):
I bet the other way, just for the bet. I'll
send you the dollar, Send me the dollar. I got
a BET's a bet, you got a payout.

Speaker 2 (02:23:00):
It's only a buff, it's only a book, alright, all right,
all right, I absolve you from the dollar. But a
bet is a bet. So I look forward to.

Speaker 4 (02:23:11):
Sign it for you.

Speaker 5 (02:23:12):
So you think you keep it around? There you go
a I won one against Jay.

Speaker 2 (02:23:16):
Put it on the mantle. I'm pretty sure by the
time you send the dollar, and I'm not saying the
speed of the dollar, I'm saying by the time it
gets here, it'll be worth seventy five cents anyway, So
I mean because the rig we're going out this economy
but sixty yeah, yeah, who knows? Who knows? But the
fire stuff, brother, I appreciate you very much. Next for
jumping in here. What else you got regarding this or
anything else?

Speaker 1 (02:23:35):
You like?

Speaker 2 (02:23:36):
The format?

Speaker 14 (02:23:37):
I thought it was cool, I really did. I was
out there, you know, cleaning up my garage and getting
stuff organized for the week and so, you know, listen
to your show.

Speaker 5 (02:23:44):
I thought it was cool.

Speaker 4 (02:23:46):
It was fun.

Speaker 2 (02:23:47):
That's what we're going for.

Speaker 5 (02:23:49):
Well, I mean that's you know, hang out your buddies,
bet some money.

Speaker 1 (02:23:55):
Yeah, horribly, it was.

Speaker 2 (02:23:58):
It wasn't horribly. It could have been way worse than that.

Speaker 14 (02:24:00):
Oh yeah, yead I had the Mummy and the moth
Man picked out from the beginning.

Speaker 2 (02:24:04):
Okay, that's actually out. That's actually a good pick. And
the cool thing about generative A I don't think it'll
it'll randomize some so I think some of them will
kind of be, you know, at the superior creature, you know,
folklore wise will kind of come through, But I think
they'll it'll be randomized. If you did this again the
exact same way, the exact same order, I think it
would come out differently, which is kind of cool, which is,

(02:24:24):
you know, the the collapse of the wave function, the
potentiality of you know, the AI telling us about our
own folklore, about our own psyches. That's pretty wild stuff.

Speaker 14 (02:24:34):
Well, I mean it's unbelievable. People are sending me AI
generated things of what they want their restaurant and stuff
like that to look like.

Speaker 5 (02:24:42):
Now they like, can you build this. I'm like, whe're
the plans and they're like, oh this is all we
got from I.

Speaker 2 (02:24:47):
Okay, yeah, you don't want to do that. Don't be
building things.

Speaker 7 (02:24:51):
You can.

Speaker 14 (02:24:53):
People used to give me, like cocktail mapkins with a
pencil drawn on it, rite it on a piece of
sheet rock or what.

Speaker 5 (02:25:00):
Can you build something like this? I'll try hopefully you
like it and pay me.

Speaker 2 (02:25:05):
That's really weird the old the old days. We'll just
catch this on a cocktail dap kin. Yeah, well no really.

Speaker 14 (02:25:11):
And then you go over and look at the people's
house and they started drawing on like where they want
to take this part of the wall out and hang
cabinets up.

Speaker 5 (02:25:17):
And they've got painters tape and hardboard cutouts on the floor.

Speaker 2 (02:25:22):
Oh yeah, sure you can do that.

Speaker 1 (02:25:25):
I guess.

Speaker 2 (02:25:25):
Welcome to it. It's coming. Like again, it does hallucinate
and it does do weird stuff. But eventually, like I said,
I'm I'm bullish that we were going to turn the
corner on some of that stuff, and it's going to be,
like I said, we we got a sea change coming
in a lot of ways, and there's going to be
a lot of people laid off and there already has been,
and so we need to do something, and recognizing it
first is the first the first place. And yeah, yeah,

(02:25:48):
wild stuff, you were the best brother. Thanks for staying plate.

Speaker 5 (02:25:51):
Yeah, no problem, Mike. It was a good show.

Speaker 1 (02:25:54):
I liked it.

Speaker 5 (02:25:55):
Go ahead, you're just looking for a quote for you, Okay,
it's the problem.

Speaker 2 (02:25:59):
Okay, if you want to hang around for a quote,
stay right there and dig one up and then we'll
do the j trow from the days of your the r. Okay,
a couple more minutes and we'll finish us up. You
guys want to jump in here and give it, give
us feedback on the show or whatever that's cool or
what do you think about the the bracket? I mean,
you know, we could have seated it with some other
you know, wildcards, but I thought some cryptids in there

(02:26:19):
were pretty good. And the the the ancient archetypal fear forces,
which is really what was dotted this entire thing up.
It's cool. It's a cool thing for me. And uh
yeah yeah, yeah, what else is there? Oh, let me
let me read the rest of this, because this is
again read the write up. It's it's very good. And
this this is the companion piece to it, and you'll

(02:26:39):
the ride up, of course doesn't tell you who wins,
because it doesn't know, right is generated in real time.
But anyway, so this bracket here eliminates pretense, No more
separate mythologies, keeping them safely compartmentalized, just the raw archetypal
patterns facing each other until only one remains. And of
course the nature spirits of well, the primordial nature spirit
of the Bigfoot sort of stands victorious. I added that

(02:27:02):
what survives tells us which fear runs deepest, which shadow
aspect consciousness finds most fundamental, which pattern proves impossible to
integrate or destroy. We're not watching monsters fight. We're watching
the collective unconscious sword itself, determining hierarchy among the structures
we built to contain what terrifies us most. As we

(02:27:22):
close the crypton Tonight's Tournament of archetypes, we step back
and notice something deeper moving beneath the surface. The monsters
we placed in battle weren't just assembled for a spectacle.
They became living symbols, each championing ancient fears, cross cultural anxieties,
and fragments of human consciousness. Setting these archetypal patterns, into conflict.

(02:27:42):
Revealed how our stories operate as psychic maps by projecting
what haunts us into vampire zombie, where a wolf, mummy,
which demon, bigfoot or mothman? We approach truth in safety
testing ideas too primal or unsettling for ordinary conversation. Let
us see where identities overlap, clash, and perhaps combine. There's

(02:28:05):
no accident. These monsters endure while others fade. It's because
they carry something necessary, something unspeakable in the everyday world
but undeniable, and the haunted mirror of myth. And there's
a couple more paragraphs there, but that's basically the full
rite up. That's this all dovetailed nicely and h yeah,

(02:28:25):
I don't know. I had a good time. I hope
you guys did as well. The monster mash. And I'll
try and get a hold of Joe because everybody in
the chat's like, hell, yeah, we want another one with Joe, right,
So I'll try and get ahold of him, and we'll
try and set that up in short, short short. Yeah, yeah,
it's it's not fair, but I'll ask him anyway. Otherwise
we'll have all kinds of stuff ready to go. I'll

(02:28:46):
uh again, be prepared hopefully. Again, send your best wishes
to James if you got him, prayers, frequencies, vibrations, whatever
you believe. He was not feeling great tonight at all.
He's got some other stuff happening that he's just not
not the best, So do do send that. And there's
some news there too. Well, Uh, I'm not going to
say anything as yet, but there's there's some James may
need a hand, So just just keep that in mind.

(02:29:08):
If you guys, have a little generosity in your heart.
Lincoln Rally is a community and help him out. And
he doesn't know why I'm saying this, but uh, he
knows that I'm the type that would. So just I'll
keep you updated on that. But again, prayer's, frequencies, vibrations
for our friend James. He's not feeling great tonight. And yeah,
that's that's that's that again. Let me know show feedback.

(02:29:29):
You can send me an email a new email this
the old one still works, Troublemind's Radio at Gmail, or
he could send it to Mike at Troubledminds dot org
that also works as well. And just so yeah, let
me know what you think about the show and if
you listen to it on the podcast feed or on
the live feed or whatever wherever you caught it. I
appreciate that. And yeah, if you like more of this
type of stuff, we can do all manner of this.

(02:29:50):
It's endless, which is why I'm still doing this years
and years later, because there's there's endless things to talk
about in the space of monsters and mythology and folklore
and everything else conspiracy aspects. Yeah, yeah, what's up you
guys still talking food over?

Speaker 5 (02:30:04):
There?

Speaker 2 (02:30:04):
Was it? Three hours of cheese? Is that right over
on Rumbo's at a different show? Okay? The final thought there, Jay,
what do you got before we play the music and
ad the j tro and get the hell out of here.

Speaker 14 (02:30:16):
I'm just thinking we're at a point with you know,
we have an opportunity to learn all these things, with
what's going on with the AI and doing all that,
And that's amazing to me that that was done in
like seconds. How long do you would it take you
to write something like that, Mike, if you just wrote
it out or typed it out and you could you know,

(02:30:38):
certainly more than that fast.

Speaker 2 (02:30:40):
No, No, it was way more than seconds. Yeah, that's
what I'm saying. So like the entirety of this whole
production that I do on a nightly basis, not even
with the stuff we just did the live AI generations,
it would take it would take hours to set all
this stuff up. But because I've got everything kind of
down to a very specific workflow, I'm doing hours of

(02:31:00):
work in you know, forty five minutes, so multiple things
that the news, everything included. It's it's pretty cool.

Speaker 4 (02:31:07):
It's a p the news.

Speaker 5 (02:31:09):
I missed the news, Mike.

Speaker 2 (02:31:10):
Yeah, back when I had a new show, I used
to just read the news. I go like a whole
hour and just blow through, like twenty twenty or twenty five, all.

Speaker 5 (02:31:17):
Fun saying, you know, somebody come in and give you
a comment or two about it. You know, tough for
a minond or two. It was neat.

Speaker 14 (02:31:23):
I used to listen to when I was sitting in
the car durning COVID with Karate. We weren't allowed to
go inside more people, more germs. It was the philosophy,
you know. Yeah, so we had to sit in our cars.
Of course, the whey they went in there and did it.
And I'd listened to your news show because it was
at the same time live Live exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:31:43):
Yeah, we used to do it afternoon show during COVID. Yeah. Okay,
there you go. So feedback is good. I appreciate that.
Like I said, if you guys have feedback from me,
send it to me. Look, I'm not immune to feedback.
If you're like I kind of don't like this record,
I don't like that, fine, cool.

Speaker 4 (02:31:57):
Let me know.

Speaker 2 (02:31:57):
We can always get better. And I can always get
better personally and even with a lot of practice, and
I'm good at some things and you know, not good
at some other things, and it's just it's part of
being human. So don't feel bad if you you don't
like this or you do like that, just let me know.
I want to hear it. And I'm trying to do
my best here and with a compelling narrative night after night.
And it's not as easy as it looks. Like I said,

(02:32:18):
try yourself and you'll see, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado,
I bring you from the days of your the Jay.

Speaker 14 (02:32:27):
Trow, everything is possible for one who believes it's Mark
nine thirteen. I love it's uh yeah, just with the
church bells and everything that we're going on in the
Vampire getting his ass whipped in the church in the
sunlight and the shards of broken stained glass.

Speaker 5 (02:32:50):
One goes, it's like, wow, that one just jumped right
out of nowhere.

Speaker 2 (02:32:55):
Yeah, almost as if it was conjured or beckoned. Exactly right.
You were the best. Appreciate you very much. The jay
Trow is something from the days of your He used
to do this quite often, and sometimes it's started to
keep up with all the things we do. I appreciate
you jumping in here. Thanks for bringing the j Trow tonight,
fire stuff as always and always a pleasure. You have

(02:33:15):
a great night and we'll talk to soon.

Speaker 5 (02:33:17):
You too, mine.

Speaker 2 (02:33:18):
Appreciate you very much. Jane, New York, good friend for
a long time, and thank you for supporting the show,
for bringing ideas, and again for understanding all the imperfection
that comes with doing this, and yeah, the imperfect human
cycles we all encapsulate. If you want to help trouble minds,
you know what to do. Help our friends Troubledminds, Dot
Order Forward, slash Friends. There's a whole list of people there,

(02:33:39):
make accounts, go follow them in all the places. And
that's what this is about.

Speaker 3 (02:33:43):
It.

Speaker 2 (02:33:43):
It's about meeting people, it's about sharing ideas. It's about
peeling off of mainstream narratives and considering things that are
different and recognizing it's okay to be different. That's it,
very simple. And for the people knew what I actually
don't look like this This is the Halloween costume, but

(02:34:04):
that's really what I look like there with the the
washed out filter will blotch out my blotchy skin. But yeah,
that's it. If you want to help the show directly,
spread the word, let people know what conversation is happening.
Where we will not tell you who to vote for.
This is not, never has been a political show. I've
dodged that as much as possible because I'm tired of
their narratives. I'm tired of them dominating the entire zeitgeist

(02:34:26):
and just brainwashing us through that MK ultra for the masses.
It drives me nuts. So that's that's. If you want
to help us directly, there's merch you can buy the
the shirts, the hats, all the stuff. There's there's some
pretty cool stuff at troublefans dot com. Yes it is
a play on OnlyFans. You will not find Michael Strange

(02:34:47):
in a hot tub, but you will find the hottest
Trouble Minds merch around. That's the old tagline Troublefans dot com.
Go buy some stuff. I appreciate that, and that's it.
That's it. Help our friends spread the word, buy some
stuff and listen on the podcast feed. By the way,
so if you're gonna listen back to this, go listen
on Spotify or Spreaker or any of these other ones.
And it does kick me a couple pennies as part

(02:35:07):
of that, because there's ads that play, so thank you
for that. Let those ads play, and that's what you
can help. It's very simple, and thank you for understanding
that I am as imperfect as anybody else. As we finish,
it goes exactly like this. Be sure, be strong, be true.
Thank you for listening from our trouble Minds to yours.

(02:35:29):
Have a great night, and Team Bigfoot forever.

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The Monster Mash - Where Legends Collide

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On Purpose with Jay Shetty

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Monster Mash - Where Legends Collide