What if Antarctica isn’t just ice and penguins — but the coldest cover-up in human history? In this two-part mega episode of The Strange History Podcast, host Amy takes you on a frozen expedition through the continent’s most unsettling legends and conspiracies. From rumored Nazi bases in Neuschwabenland and Operation Highjump’s flying saucers, to the Hollow Earth entrances, mysterious deaths of scientists, and NASA’s ANITA neutrino anomalies, this episode explores every strange and shadowy story buried beneath the ice. Discover how real events — like the disappearances of Carl Robert Disch and Rodney Marks, the eerie Wilkes Land gravity anomaly, and the discovery of unknown microbes in Lake Vostok — blur the line between science and secrecy. Filled with true accounts, humor, and tongue-in-cheek sponsor reads, this is Antarctica as you’ve never heard it before — a place where fact and folklore freeze together, and the truth might just be two miles under the surface.
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This episode of The Strange History Podcast was lovingly crafted with the help of ElevenLabs.io — the magical technology that gives Amy her time to sleep, eat, work and spend time with her dog Jack. While some might say she sounds too good to be true, we assure you, Amy is absolutely a real person… who just happens to have access to studio-grade AI vocal cords and an unnatural ability to pronounce “necromancy” without flinching. Any resemblance to an AI is purely coincidental — and mildly flattering. Dan the announcers name is really Bill and Patrick, the fake ad guy who thinks he is funny? well he is questionable at best. So yes, AI was used but the people are real and the shinanigans are.... well.... shinanigans.
Like and Subscribe:
Apple
Spotify
IHeart
Audible
This episode of The Strange History Podcast was lovingly crafted with the help of ElevenLabs.io — the magical technology that gives Amy her time to sleep, eat, work and spend time with her dog Jack. While some might say she sounds too good to be true, we assure you, Amy is absolutely a real person… who just happens to have access to studio-grade AI vocal cords and an unnatural ability to pronounce “necromancy” without flinching. Any resemblance to an AI is purely coincidental — and mildly flattering. Dan the announcers name is really Bill and Patrick, the fake ad guy who thinks he is funny? well he is questionable at best. So yes, AI was used but the people are real and the shinanigans are.... well.... shinanigans.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to the Strange History Podcast,
where the air is thin, the coffee's cold, and the
history's even colder. Today we're strapping on crampons and diving
straight into the frost bitten world of Antarctica's strangest conspiracies,
the ones so wild they make you question whether penguins
(00:20):
are really birds or government spies in tuxedos. You see,
Antarctica is one of the last true wildernesses. No permanent population,
no cities and no Wi Fi. Just five point five
million square miles of ice, secrecy and science. And where
(00:40):
there's isolation, there's imagination. So grab your hot cocoa, wrap
up in your shivermy Timber's heated blanket, and let's unearth
what the ice might be hiding. Welcome to neuschwaben Land,
the Nazi ice Fortress. The legend begins in nineteen thirty eight,
when Germany, already marching toward war, sent a scientific expedition
(01:02):
to a region they named Neuschwabenland. Official records say they
were hunting whales and mapping unclaimed territory for future fishing rights,
but conspiracy lore insists the Nazis were looking for something else,
a place to build a fortress away from Allied eyes.
According to post war rumors, the Germans discovered a network
(01:24):
of geothermal caverns beneath the ice, warm enough to sustain
secret research labs and even U boat docks. And here's
a true part. The expedition did drop aluminum darts emblazoned
with Nazi insignia along the coast to mark German territory.
They even photographed unusual ice formations and reported warm patches
(01:47):
in the sea near Queen maud Land, possibly due to
volcanic activity. After nineteen forty five, Allied intelligence reports really
did reference rumors of U boats heading south. Two Germans
submarines U five three zero and U nine seven seven
surrendered in Argentina months after the war ended. Neither could
(02:09):
explain where they'd been, so, of course the myth grew
they'd been to the Antarctic base.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Polar power smoothies. Feeling sluggish, need to conquer the cold.
Grab a polar power smoothie blended with genuine glacier ice,
three mystery berries, and a hint of classified whale oil.
Polar power because your body deserves a conspiracy of nutrients.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Operation High Jump the fleet that fled.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
In nineteen forty six, Admiral Richard E. Byrd led Operation
High Jump, a US Navy mission involving thirteen ships, twenty
three aircraft, and over four thousand personnel. The official goal
train in extreme cold and test new equipment. But what
made people suspicious was how quickly it ended. Planned for
(02:57):
eight months, it wrapped up in just eight weeks. Bird
himself abruptly left Antarctica after loss of life and mechanical failures.
That vacuum of information was the perfect breeding ground for conspiracy.
Decades later, writers claimed Bird's planes had been attacked by
flying discs, fast bright craft that emerged from the ocean
(03:21):
and disabled US aircraft. The story came from a dubious
Russian translation of an alleged Bird diary, never verified but
always exciting. Here's something actually true. Bird did warn of
a potential military threat from aircraft that can fly from
pole to pole during a nineteen forty seven interview in Chile.
(03:42):
He meant Soviet bombers, but conspiracy theorists ran with flying saucers,
and the result the legend of the Battle of Antarctica.
A frozen dogfight between human pilots and something not entirely human.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
The Nazi UFO program Hanabu.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
In the show Snow, the Nazis were obsessed with advanced technology,
including Vunderwaffa or wonder weapons. Real examples include the V
two rocket and the me Too sixty two jet fighter,
but postwar folklore expanded that obsession to anti gravity discs.
Drawings emerged in the nineteen fifties of alleged craft named
(04:21):
Hounaboo and Vril. They looked like stainless steel dinner plates
with swastikas and landing gear. While historians say they were
probably Cold War forgeries, conspiracy fans claimed the scientists behind
them fled Germany, first to Argentina, then to Antarctica, where
the research continued beneath the ice. To this day, eupologists
(04:44):
occasionally report metallic objects rising from the Southern Ocean. In
two thousand and six, a satellite image even appeared to
show a circular shadow beneath the ice shelf. NASA called
it an optical illusion, conspiracy sites called it the Haunaboo Awakening.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Flat Earth cruises the edge awaits tired of a mainstream geography,
join flat Earth cruises the only luxury liner that promises
to take you right to the edge of the world.
Buffett included lifeboats not guaranteed flat earth cruises, because truth
should come with complimentary shrimp.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
The lost civilization beneath the ice.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
The belief that Antarctica hides an ancient civilization goes back
to Charles Hapgood's nineteen sixty six book Maps of the
Ancient Sea Kings. Hapgood noted the Peerie Race map of
fifteen thirteen, which appeared to depict Antarctica's coast without ice,
and proposed that a highly advanced culture mapped it thousands
of years ago. Even Albert Einstein entertained Hapgood's theory long
(05:51):
enough to write a polite forward, suggesting it was an
interesting hypothesis. That's all it took to send the idea
into the realm of legend. Modern satellite imaging has revealed
subglacial mountain ranges like the Gumbertsef Mountains hidden beneath two
miles of ice, eerily symmetrical and larger than the Alps.
Geologists call it plate tectonics. Conspiracy theorists call it the
(06:16):
roof of a buried empire. There's even a twenty sixteen
viral image showing what appears to be a stone staircase
emerging from melting ice near the Shackleton Range. Scientists say erosion,
yet YouTube said atlantis. Guess who got more clicks?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
The Antarctic Pyramids Triangles of the Tundra.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
A photo taken by a British expedition in twenty thirteen
showed a near perfectly triangular peak in the Ellsworth Mountains.
The Internet instantly crowned it the Antarctic Pyramid. In truth,
that formation, known as Mount Goodwin Austin, has three symmetrical
sides formed by erosion. Once it hit Reddit, the theory snowballed.
(07:03):
The pyramid aligned with Orion's belt just like Giza. It
was proof that Egypt's builders came from the Antarctic before
the pole shifted, or better yet, it was an alien
refueling station for ships traveling through magnetic portals. One YouTube
host even claimed an anonymous US Navy officer told him
(07:23):
he saw three glowing obelisks beneath the ice. No proof,
but ten million views? So are they just mountains? Probably?
But never underestimate humanity's ability to see a mystery in
anything with three sides.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Shiver me timbers heated blankets, investigating Nazi UFOs, splunking for Atlanteans,
or maybe just cold because your landlord forgot winter exists.
Wrap yourself and shiver me timbers heated blankets the only
blanket rated for both polar expeditions and Netflix available in
government denial blue.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
A compass conspiracy missed direction by design.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Compasses don't behave near the poles. That's science, but for
conspiracy enthusiasts it's cover up science. They claim world governments
and NASA distort navigation data and satellite images to keep
explorers from reaching restricted sectors. Theories even suggest Google Maps
uses looping coordinates so you can't fly directly over the
(08:30):
pole without being rerouted. In twenty eighteen, a viral post
claimed a private pilot tried to cross the South Pole
but was forced to turn back by military jets. The
post was fake, but it reignited old suspicions about zones
of denial. There is a kernel of truth here. Under
the Antarctic Treaty nineteen fifty nine, all expeditions must register
(08:54):
with signatory nations and are subject to approval. Unauthorized flights
are indeed rest restricted mainly for safety, not secrecy. Still,
restricted access plus giant empty continent equals perfect paranoia soup.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
The Great Ice Wall the edge of everything.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Flat earth believers argue Antarctica isn't a continent at all.
It's a massive ring of ice surrounding the disk of
the Earth. The treaty, they claim, is the wall's security fence.
They cite real explorers like Captain James Cook, who in
seventeen seventy five logged over sixty thousand miles searching for
a southern continent and never saw land beyond the ice.
(09:36):
Proof of the wall, they cry. Scientists say he just
didn't go far enough inland. Then there's Admiral Bird again,
whose diary supposedly describes a lush valley beyond the pole.
In reality, Bird did observe warm air pockets caused by
volcanic vents near Mount Erebus, but mythology inflated that into
(09:57):
a secret paradise beyond the barrier. Modern flat earthers even
claim that government's CGI satellite photos of Antarctica to hide
the ice rim while penguins act as tiny black and
white security guards, I for one, would pay to see that.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
The hollow Earth entrance journey to the center of the ice.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Let's start with a theory that's practically a classic hollow Earth.
According to this long running idea, the planet isn't solid
at all. It's hollow, with an interior world accessible through
massive openings at the poles. Antarctica, of course, is one
of the most popular entrance sites. The idea dates back
to the nineteenth century, when an American Army officer named
(10:43):
John Cleves Simmis Junior claimed the Earth was hollow and
habitable within. He even petitioned Congress to fund an expedition
to find the southern opening. Congress said no, thank you,
possibly because his map looked like a doughnut. The concept
resurfaced in the mid twentieth century with the so called
(11:04):
Admiral Bird Diary. In it, Bird allegedly describes flying beyond
the South Pole into a lush, green valley filled with
mammoth like creatures and futuristic aircraft piloted by the masters
of the Inner Earth. Now, to be clear, the diary
is a forgery written long after Bird's death, but it
(11:25):
inspired books, documentaries, and even some modern hollow Earth societies. Yes,
that's a thing that believe in advanced civilization lives below us,
accessible only through hidden polar tunnels. NASA, of course, says
there's no hole at the South Pole, but maybe that's
exactly what someone living inside the planet would say.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Whole Foods Market. Tired of surface level groceries, Visit Whole
Foods Market, the only supermarket four hundred miles underground. Shop
our inner Earth aisle for Magma fresh produce locally sourced
at Lava Bread and Mammoth Milkshakes. Whole Foods Market Eat deeper.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
The disappearance of Carl Robert Dish lost in the snow.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Here's one that's actually true and hauntingly mysterious. In May
nineteen sixty five, doctor Carl Robert Dish, a twenty six
year old physicist working at Bird Station, left the radio
building to walk back to his dorm. It was a
short distance, less than a half mile. He never made it.
(12:31):
A sudden blizzard hit, and despite massive search efforts, Dish
vanished without a trace. The only thing ever found was
one of his mittens. Official reports called it a tragic accident,
but for decades whispers persisted. Dish had been working on
classified communications experiments involving atmospheric radio signals. Some say he
(12:56):
discovered something he wasn't supposed to and was removed. Others
insist he was drawn towards something, a sound, a signal,
a doorway that wasn't there before. Every year when the
wind howls across Bird Station, some researchers swear they can
hear faint radio chatter repeating his name.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
The death of Rodney Mars the case of the poisoned scientist.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Fast forward to the year two thousand. At the South
Poles Amanson Scott Station, physicist Rodney Marx, a thirty two
year old Australian researcher, began feeling violently ill. He vomited,
complained of vision problems and suffered terrible pain. Within thirty
six hours, he was dead. Because Antarctica's remote location prevented
(13:45):
a quick evacuation, it took months before his body reached
New Zealand for autopsy. The results shocked everyone acute methanol poisoning.
But here's the twist. No methanol was ever found at
the base, no source, no explanation. The official cause unexplained.
(14:05):
Rumors flew was it foul play, an experiment gone wrong
or something or someone within the station itself. There were
whispers of tension between the multinational crews, strange behavior before
his death, and one theory that he had discovered an
unusual reading deep below the ice near the neutrino detectors.
(14:27):
To this day, the case remains one of the few
unsolved deaths in Antarctic history.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Cold Case Coffee. Need to stay awake during long Antarctic nights.
Try cold Case coffee. The bruce so strong it'll resurrect
your curiosity. Now available in methanol free, medium roast cold
Case coffee brood hot served cold.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
The Anita anomalies, ghost particles, and hidden worlds.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Now for the science that even scientists can't quite explain.
Between two thousand and six and twenty eighteen, NASA's ANITA
Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna, a giant balloon flying high over
the continent, detected something bizarre high energy particles rising up
out of the ice that shouldn't happen. Cosmic rays come
(15:20):
from space and hit the Earth, they don't come from
inside it. Yet ANITA found repeated upgoing events. The first
explanation was measurement error, the second exotic physics, and then
came the Third Conspiracy Gold. Something intelligent down there is
emitting them. Some theorists claim Anita stumbled on evidence of
(15:41):
another universe or advanced technology buried under the Antarctic crust.
Others suggest these are signals from a hidden civilization or
the Inner Earth residence trying to make contact. NASA says
they're just tau neutrinos behaving oddly, but oddly is doing
a lot of heavy lifting there.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Neutronomes snack smarter with neutronomes, the only sub atomic treat
that passes straight through your digestive system without leaving a trace,
just like cosmic rays available in Antarctic ice crunch and
quantum vanilla neutronomes, because even particles deserve flavor.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
The doorways in the ice what's behind the frozen wall?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
In twenty eighteen, satellite images from Google Earth showed what
looked like a giant, rectangular opening in the ice, roughly
three hundred feet wide, near the Shackleton Range. Within days,
YouTubers and bloggers dubbed it the Antarctic Doorway. Was it
a natural cave, a secret base, a CGI glitch, or
(16:47):
a portal left open by someone who forgot to close it?
Behind them. Photos show a smooth, black shadow that seems
too precise to be natural. Some believe it's an entrance
to an underground facility. Others say it's event for geothermal
heat or an ancient lava tube. One fringe theory, my
personal favorite, says it's the hangar for an alien craft
(17:10):
that occasionally emerges disguised as a weather balloon. Scientists, of course,
say it's a collapsed ice cave, but tell that to
the Reddit user who zoomed in and swears he saw
a human shadow standing just outside it. To this day,
new doorways appear in updated satellite imagery, usually just lighting
(17:30):
changes or melting ice, but enough to keep the mystery
alive and YouTube ad revenue flowing.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
The forbidden zones no fly, no entry.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
The Antarctic Treaty bans private military activity and requires permits
for expeditions, but certain areas are extra off limits, particularly
around the Wilkes Land Gravity Anomaly, a two hundred mile
wide mass beneath the ice, first detected in two thousand
and six by NASA satellites. Scientists believe it's an ancient
(18:01):
meteorite impact site. Conspiracy theorists believe it's something buried a
structure or a ship. UFO researcher Linda molten Howe calls
it the entrance to the ancient alien outpost. In twenty sixteen,
when a Google Earth coordinate near the anomaly showed an
oddly circular depression, forums exploded with claims that the dome
(18:26):
has melted through. No one's allowed there without government clearance,
but that, of course only fuels the speculation.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Flat Line Airlines ready to explore Antarctica. Fly flat Line Airlines,
the only airline that never goes around the globe. Enjoy
scenic views of the ice wall, complimentary oxygen and our
signature snack. Frozen disbelief. Flat Line Airlines, we don't fly high,
but we fly true.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
The ancient microbe conspiracy life frozen in time.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
In twenty thirteen, scientists drilled through Lake Vostok, a subglacial
lake sealed off for nearly fifteen million years. They expected
to find water and sediment. What they found was strange.
Early tests revealed unidentified microbial DNA sequences, unlike anything on record.
One strain was described as less than eighty six percent
(19:23):
similar to any known life form. The results were later disputed,
with some saying the samples were contaminated by drill fluid,
but conspiracy theorists insist the microbes were too different. Queue
the headlines alien life found beneath Antarctica, Queue the cover
up silence. Some even claim the Vostok organisms were classified
(19:46):
and samples removed to US labs. Others believe those microbes reactivated, which,
if true, would explain the new bacteria strains later discovered
in thawing permafrost. It's probably nothing, but there is a
sliver of possibility, and where there is possibility, there may
be probability.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
The whispers in the wind signals no one can explain.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
In twenty twenty, several Ham radio operators picked up strange
repeating signals originating near the South Pole, bursts of static
that returned in six hour cycles. NASA said they were
atmospheric reflections, but some notice they matched the frequency of
Anita's earlier neutrino bursts. Coincidence maybe, but if you believe
(20:34):
the hollow Earth theory, maybe the voices inside have just
learned how to call long distance. Antarctica dear listeners, is
our planet's ultimate mirror, vast, silent and full of projections.
Every fear, every hope, every conspiracy seems to find its
reflection in the ice. Maybe there are no secret bases
(20:57):
or ancient cities, or maybe the real secret is how
much we still don't know, how little we've seen beneath
two miles of frozen time. After all, less than one
percent of Antarctica's subglacial world has been explored. That leaves
ninety nine percent for imagination. So, dear listeners, From Nazi
(21:18):
bunkers to Atlantean ruins, from ice walls to alien pyramids,
Antarctica is less a continent and more a cosmic refrigerator
full of leftovers from every conspiracy buffet on Earth. And
yet it's the mystery that keeps us looking south, that
sense that maybe, beneath those layers of ancient ice, something
(21:39):
extraordinary really is waiting Until next time. I'm Amy, your
frozen correspondent, reminding you stay curious, stay skeptical, and if
a penguin offers you a smoothie, check the ingredients. This
episode of the Strange History podcast was produced on Spreaker,
where even your identity might be classified, because do you
(22:00):
really know who I am? Maybe that's another podcast episode,
Granted it would be short and not all that interesting,
Or would it subscribe, rate, and share because the truth
melts slower when it's shared
Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to the Strange History Podcast,
where the air is thin, the coffee's cold, and the
history's even colder. Today we're strapping on crampons and diving
straight into the frost bitten world of Antarctica's strangest conspiracies,
the ones so wild they make you question whether penguins
(00:20):
are really birds or government spies in tuxedos. You see,
Antarctica is one of the last true wildernesses. No permanent population,
no cities and no Wi Fi. Just five point five
million square miles of ice, secrecy and science. And where
(00:40):
there's isolation, there's imagination. So grab your hot cocoa, wrap
up in your shivermy Timber's heated blanket, and let's unearth
what the ice might be hiding. Welcome to neuschwaben Land,
the Nazi ice Fortress. The legend begins in nineteen thirty eight,
when Germany, already marching toward war, sent a scientific expedition
(01:02):
to a region they named Neuschwabenland. Official records say they
were hunting whales and mapping unclaimed territory for future fishing rights,
but conspiracy lore insists the Nazis were looking for something else,
a place to build a fortress away from Allied eyes.
According to post war rumors, the Germans discovered a network
(01:24):
of geothermal caverns beneath the ice, warm enough to sustain
secret research labs and even U boat docks. And here's
a true part. The expedition did drop aluminum darts emblazoned
with Nazi insignia along the coast to mark German territory.
They even photographed unusual ice formations and reported warm patches
(01:47):
in the sea near Queen maud Land, possibly due to
volcanic activity. After nineteen forty five, Allied intelligence reports really
did reference rumors of U boats heading south. Two Germans
submarines U five three zero and U nine seven seven
surrendered in Argentina months after the war ended. Neither could
(02:09):
explain where they'd been, so, of course the myth grew
they'd been to the Antarctic base.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Polar power smoothies. Feeling sluggish, need to conquer the cold.
Grab a polar power smoothie blended with genuine glacier ice,
three mystery berries, and a hint of classified whale oil.
Polar power because your body deserves a conspiracy of nutrients.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Operation High Jump the fleet that fled.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
In nineteen forty six, Admiral Richard E. Byrd led Operation
High Jump, a US Navy mission involving thirteen ships, twenty
three aircraft, and over four thousand personnel. The official goal
train in extreme cold and test new equipment. But what
made people suspicious was how quickly it ended. Planned for
(02:57):
eight months, it wrapped up in just eight weeks. Bird
himself abruptly left Antarctica after loss of life and mechanical failures.
That vacuum of information was the perfect breeding ground for conspiracy.
Decades later, writers claimed Bird's planes had been attacked by
flying discs, fast bright craft that emerged from the ocean
(03:21):
and disabled US aircraft. The story came from a dubious
Russian translation of an alleged Bird diary, never verified but
always exciting. Here's something actually true. Bird did warn of
a potential military threat from aircraft that can fly from
pole to pole during a nineteen forty seven interview in Chile.
(03:42):
He meant Soviet bombers, but conspiracy theorists ran with flying saucers,
and the result the legend of the Battle of Antarctica.
A frozen dogfight between human pilots and something not entirely human.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
The Nazi UFO program Hanabu.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
In the show Snow, the Nazis were obsessed with advanced technology,
including Vunderwaffa or wonder weapons. Real examples include the V
two rocket and the me Too sixty two jet fighter,
but postwar folklore expanded that obsession to anti gravity discs.
Drawings emerged in the nineteen fifties of alleged craft named
(04:21):
Hounaboo and Vril. They looked like stainless steel dinner plates
with swastikas and landing gear. While historians say they were
probably Cold War forgeries, conspiracy fans claimed the scientists behind
them fled Germany, first to Argentina, then to Antarctica, where
the research continued beneath the ice. To this day, eupologists
(04:44):
occasionally report metallic objects rising from the Southern Ocean. In
two thousand and six, a satellite image even appeared to
show a circular shadow beneath the ice shelf. NASA called
it an optical illusion, conspiracy sites called it the Haunaboo Awakening.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Flat Earth cruises the edge awaits tired of a mainstream geography,
join flat Earth cruises the only luxury liner that promises
to take you right to the edge of the world.
Buffett included lifeboats not guaranteed flat earth cruises, because truth
should come with complimentary shrimp.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
The lost civilization beneath the ice.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
The belief that Antarctica hides an ancient civilization goes back
to Charles Hapgood's nineteen sixty six book Maps of the
Ancient Sea Kings. Hapgood noted the Peerie Race map of
fifteen thirteen, which appeared to depict Antarctica's coast without ice,
and proposed that a highly advanced culture mapped it thousands
of years ago. Even Albert Einstein entertained Hapgood's theory long
(05:51):
enough to write a polite forward, suggesting it was an
interesting hypothesis. That's all it took to send the idea
into the realm of legend. Modern satellite imaging has revealed
subglacial mountain ranges like the Gumbertsef Mountains hidden beneath two
miles of ice, eerily symmetrical and larger than the Alps.
Geologists call it plate tectonics. Conspiracy theorists call it the
(06:16):
roof of a buried empire. There's even a twenty sixteen
viral image showing what appears to be a stone staircase
emerging from melting ice near the Shackleton Range. Scientists say erosion,
yet YouTube said atlantis. Guess who got more clicks?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
The Antarctic Pyramids Triangles of the Tundra.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
A photo taken by a British expedition in twenty thirteen
showed a near perfectly triangular peak in the Ellsworth Mountains.
The Internet instantly crowned it the Antarctic Pyramid. In truth,
that formation, known as Mount Goodwin Austin, has three symmetrical
sides formed by erosion. Once it hit Reddit, the theory snowballed.
(07:03):
The pyramid aligned with Orion's belt just like Giza. It
was proof that Egypt's builders came from the Antarctic before
the pole shifted, or better yet, it was an alien
refueling station for ships traveling through magnetic portals. One YouTube
host even claimed an anonymous US Navy officer told him
(07:23):
he saw three glowing obelisks beneath the ice. No proof,
but ten million views? So are they just mountains? Probably?
But never underestimate humanity's ability to see a mystery in
anything with three sides.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Shiver me timbers heated blankets, investigating Nazi UFOs, splunking for Atlanteans,
or maybe just cold because your landlord forgot winter exists.
Wrap yourself and shiver me timbers heated blankets the only
blanket rated for both polar expeditions and Netflix available in
government denial blue.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
A compass conspiracy missed direction by design.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Compasses don't behave near the poles. That's science, but for
conspiracy enthusiasts it's cover up science. They claim world governments
and NASA distort navigation data and satellite images to keep
explorers from reaching restricted sectors. Theories even suggest Google Maps
uses looping coordinates so you can't fly directly over the
(08:30):
pole without being rerouted. In twenty eighteen, a viral post
claimed a private pilot tried to cross the South Pole
but was forced to turn back by military jets. The
post was fake, but it reignited old suspicions about zones
of denial. There is a kernel of truth here. Under
the Antarctic Treaty nineteen fifty nine, all expeditions must register
(08:54):
with signatory nations and are subject to approval. Unauthorized flights
are indeed rest restricted mainly for safety, not secrecy. Still,
restricted access plus giant empty continent equals perfect paranoia soup.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
The Great Ice Wall the edge of everything.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Flat earth believers argue Antarctica isn't a continent at all.
It's a massive ring of ice surrounding the disk of
the Earth. The treaty, they claim, is the wall's security fence.
They cite real explorers like Captain James Cook, who in
seventeen seventy five logged over sixty thousand miles searching for
a southern continent and never saw land beyond the ice.
(09:36):
Proof of the wall, they cry. Scientists say he just
didn't go far enough inland. Then there's Admiral Bird again,
whose diary supposedly describes a lush valley beyond the pole.
In reality, Bird did observe warm air pockets caused by
volcanic vents near Mount Erebus, but mythology inflated that into
(09:57):
a secret paradise beyond the barrier. Modern flat earthers even
claim that government's CGI satellite photos of Antarctica to hide
the ice rim while penguins act as tiny black and
white security guards, I for one, would pay to see that.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
The hollow Earth entrance journey to the center of the ice.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Let's start with a theory that's practically a classic hollow Earth.
According to this long running idea, the planet isn't solid
at all. It's hollow, with an interior world accessible through
massive openings at the poles. Antarctica, of course, is one
of the most popular entrance sites. The idea dates back
to the nineteenth century, when an American Army officer named
(10:43):
John Cleves Simmis Junior claimed the Earth was hollow and
habitable within. He even petitioned Congress to fund an expedition
to find the southern opening. Congress said no, thank you,
possibly because his map looked like a doughnut. The concept
resurfaced in the mid twentieth century with the so called
(11:04):
Admiral Bird Diary. In it, Bird allegedly describes flying beyond
the South Pole into a lush, green valley filled with
mammoth like creatures and futuristic aircraft piloted by the masters
of the Inner Earth. Now, to be clear, the diary
is a forgery written long after Bird's death, but it
(11:25):
inspired books, documentaries, and even some modern hollow Earth societies. Yes,
that's a thing that believe in advanced civilization lives below us,
accessible only through hidden polar tunnels. NASA, of course, says
there's no hole at the South Pole, but maybe that's
exactly what someone living inside the planet would say.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Whole Foods Market. Tired of surface level groceries, Visit Whole
Foods Market, the only supermarket four hundred miles underground. Shop
our inner Earth aisle for Magma fresh produce locally sourced
at Lava Bread and Mammoth Milkshakes. Whole Foods Market Eat deeper.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
The disappearance of Carl Robert Dish lost in the snow.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Here's one that's actually true and hauntingly mysterious. In May
nineteen sixty five, doctor Carl Robert Dish, a twenty six
year old physicist working at Bird Station, left the radio
building to walk back to his dorm. It was a
short distance, less than a half mile. He never made it.
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A sudden blizzard hit, and despite massive search efforts, Dish
vanished without a trace. The only thing ever found was
one of his mittens. Official reports called it a tragic accident,
but for decades whispers persisted. Dish had been working on
classified communications experiments involving atmospheric radio signals. Some say he
(12:56):
discovered something he wasn't supposed to and was removed. Others
insist he was drawn towards something, a sound, a signal,
a doorway that wasn't there before. Every year when the
wind howls across Bird Station, some researchers swear they can
hear faint radio chatter repeating his name.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
The death of Rodney Mars the case of the poisoned scientist.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Fast forward to the year two thousand. At the South
Poles Amanson Scott Station, physicist Rodney Marx, a thirty two
year old Australian researcher, began feeling violently ill. He vomited,
complained of vision problems and suffered terrible pain. Within thirty
six hours, he was dead. Because Antarctica's remote location prevented
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a quick evacuation, it took months before his body reached
New Zealand for autopsy. The results shocked everyone acute methanol poisoning.
But here's the twist. No methanol was ever found at
the base, no source, no explanation. The official cause unexplained.
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Rumors flew was it foul play, an experiment gone wrong
or something or someone within the station itself. There were
whispers of tension between the multinational crews, strange behavior before
his death, and one theory that he had discovered an
unusual reading deep below the ice near the neutrino detectors.
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To this day, the case remains one of the few
unsolved deaths in Antarctic history.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Cold Case Coffee. Need to stay awake during long Antarctic nights.
Try cold Case coffee. The bruce so strong it'll resurrect
your curiosity. Now available in methanol free, medium roast cold
Case coffee brood hot served cold.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
The Anita anomalies, ghost particles, and hidden worlds.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Now for the science that even scientists can't quite explain.
Between two thousand and six and twenty eighteen, NASA's ANITA
Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna, a giant balloon flying high over
the continent, detected something bizarre high energy particles rising up
out of the ice that shouldn't happen. Cosmic rays come
(15:20):
from space and hit the Earth, they don't come from
inside it. Yet ANITA found repeated upgoing events. The first
explanation was measurement error, the second exotic physics, and then
came the Third Conspiracy Gold. Something intelligent down there is
emitting them. Some theorists claim Anita stumbled on evidence of
(15:41):
another universe or advanced technology buried under the Antarctic crust.
Others suggest these are signals from a hidden civilization or
the Inner Earth residence trying to make contact. NASA says
they're just tau neutrinos behaving oddly, but oddly is doing
a lot of heavy lifting there.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Neutronomes snack smarter with neutronomes, the only sub atomic treat
that passes straight through your digestive system without leaving a trace,
just like cosmic rays available in Antarctic ice crunch and
quantum vanilla neutronomes, because even particles deserve flavor.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
The doorways in the ice what's behind the frozen wall?
Speaker 1 (16:25):
In twenty eighteen, satellite images from Google Earth showed what
looked like a giant, rectangular opening in the ice, roughly
three hundred feet wide, near the Shackleton Range. Within days,
YouTubers and bloggers dubbed it the Antarctic Doorway. Was it
a natural cave, a secret base, a CGI glitch, or
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a portal left open by someone who forgot to close it?
Behind them. Photos show a smooth, black shadow that seems
too precise to be natural. Some believe it's an entrance
to an underground facility. Others say it's event for geothermal
heat or an ancient lava tube. One fringe theory, my
personal favorite, says it's the hangar for an alien craft
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that occasionally emerges disguised as a weather balloon. Scientists, of course,
say it's a collapsed ice cave, but tell that to
the Reddit user who zoomed in and swears he saw
a human shadow standing just outside it. To this day,
new doorways appear in updated satellite imagery, usually just lighting
(17:30):
changes or melting ice, but enough to keep the mystery
alive and YouTube ad revenue flowing.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
The forbidden zones no fly, no entry.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
The Antarctic Treaty bans private military activity and requires permits
for expeditions, but certain areas are extra off limits, particularly
around the Wilkes Land Gravity Anomaly, a two hundred mile
wide mass beneath the ice, first detected in two thousand
and six by NASA satellites. Scientists believe it's an ancient
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meteorite impact site. Conspiracy theorists believe it's something buried a
structure or a ship. UFO researcher Linda molten Howe calls
it the entrance to the ancient alien outpost. In twenty sixteen,
when a Google Earth coordinate near the anomaly showed an
oddly circular depression, forums exploded with claims that the dome
(18:26):
has melted through. No one's allowed there without government clearance,
but that, of course only fuels the speculation.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Flat Line Airlines ready to explore Antarctica. Fly flat Line Airlines,
the only airline that never goes around the globe. Enjoy
scenic views of the ice wall, complimentary oxygen and our
signature snack. Frozen disbelief. Flat Line Airlines, we don't fly high,
but we fly true.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
The ancient microbe conspiracy life frozen in time.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
In twenty thirteen, scientists drilled through Lake Vostok, a subglacial
lake sealed off for nearly fifteen million years. They expected
to find water and sediment. What they found was strange.
Early tests revealed unidentified microbial DNA sequences, unlike anything on record.
One strain was described as less than eighty six percent
(19:23):
similar to any known life form. The results were later disputed,
with some saying the samples were contaminated by drill fluid,
but conspiracy theorists insist the microbes were too different. Queue
the headlines alien life found beneath Antarctica, Queue the cover
up silence. Some even claim the Vostok organisms were classified
(19:46):
and samples removed to US labs. Others believe those microbes reactivated, which,
if true, would explain the new bacteria strains later discovered
in thawing permafrost. It's probably nothing, but there is a
sliver of possibility, and where there is possibility, there may
be probability.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
The whispers in the wind signals no one can explain.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
In twenty twenty, several Ham radio operators picked up strange
repeating signals originating near the South Pole, bursts of static
that returned in six hour cycles. NASA said they were
atmospheric reflections, but some notice they matched the frequency of
Anita's earlier neutrino bursts. Coincidence maybe, but if you believe
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the hollow Earth theory, maybe the voices inside have just
learned how to call long distance. Antarctica dear listeners, is
our planet's ultimate mirror, vast, silent and full of projections.
Every fear, every hope, every conspiracy seems to find its
reflection in the ice. Maybe there are no secret bases
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or ancient cities, or maybe the real secret is how
much we still don't know, how little we've seen beneath
two miles of frozen time. After all, less than one
percent of Antarctica's subglacial world has been explored. That leaves
ninety nine percent for imagination. So, dear listeners, From Nazi
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bunkers to Atlantean ruins, from ice walls to alien pyramids,
Antarctica is less a continent and more a cosmic refrigerator
full of leftovers from every conspiracy buffet on Earth. And
yet it's the mystery that keeps us looking south, that
sense that maybe, beneath those layers of ancient ice, something
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extraordinary really is waiting Until next time. I'm Amy, your
frozen correspondent, reminding you stay curious, stay skeptical, and if
a penguin offers you a smoothie, check the ingredients. This
episode of the Strange History podcast was produced on Spreaker,
where even your identity might be classified, because do you
(22:00):
really know who I am? Maybe that's another podcast episode,
Granted it would be short and not all that interesting,
Or would it subscribe, rate, and share because the truth
melts slower when it's shared
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