0:00

From UFOs to psychic powers

0:02

and government conspiracies. History

0:04

is riddled with unexplained events. You

0:07

can turn back now or learn

0:09

the stuff they don't want you to know. A

0:12

production of I Heart Radio. Hello,

0:24

welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my

0:26

name is Nol. They called me Ben. We're

0:29

joined as always with our super producer

0:31

Alexis code named Doc Holiday

0:33

Jackson. Most importantly, you are

0:35

you, You are here, and that makes this

0:38

stuff they don't want you to know.

0:41

It's our weekly listener

0:43

Male segments, where once again,

0:46

just like with Strange News, we look through

0:49

hundreds hundreds of fascinating

0:51

correspondencies, questions, feedback

0:54

and suggestions, and then we picked

0:57

just a few on admittedly

0:59

and it's early arbitrary basis to

1:02

share them with you. This is

1:04

the best part of the show, your fellow listeners

1:06

speaking directly to you, with some uh,

1:09

with with some with some conversations,

1:11

some commentary from us. We're gonna

1:13

look into, um,

1:15

we're gonna look into allegations of cults and

1:18

social media. We've got some serious

1:20

concerns about security

1:23

at the FBI. No spoilers.

1:25

UH, We've got some objects that

1:28

may have more to them than meets

1:30

the eye again, no spoilers.

1:32

And then at the very end, the

1:35

very very end, we have we have

1:37

a just one more

1:40

piece of correspondence we want to add, but

1:42

that's all we're gonna say. You're gonna have to listen to the rest

1:44

of the episode to find that one. He says,

1:46

as though a fast forward button doesn't exist.

1:49

It's gonna say, don't you dare skip to the end, right

1:52

right, just skip? The ads didn't

1:54

say that our award winning ads. Yeah,

1:57

Um, honestly, I'm pretty sure our

1:59

parents made those ad awards.

2:02

And it was a little suspicious that it was like a

2:04

broken bowling trophy. And also

2:07

I got one signed mom, and I was

2:09

like, I love you, but that's

2:11

try a little harder if you're if you want to

2:14

us full of fast one on us. But

2:16

anyway, Mom, if you're listening, uh,

2:18

I love you. A happy Mother's Day, So and

2:20

say that to your mom if you if you

2:22

haven't had a chance, and we'll have hassed by now, so

2:24

say happy belated Mother's Day, yep, and

2:27

make sure to buy her a Dr Pepper or zero

2:30

zero sugar zero sugar. Favorites

2:33

of moms the world over. Everybody knows yep,

2:36

watch out diet Coke. So today

2:39

we've got our adventures laid

2:42

out. So how about this,

2:45

uh, Matt, we received?

2:47

We received one piece of correspondence for someone

2:50

who asked to remain fully

2:52

anonymous. Is that correct, fully,

2:55

Garth? Or is it? How does it

2:57

go? Fully? Fully? Yes? Fully?

3:00

Ar No? What?

3:03

No, that's not That's not the right thing. Wayne's

3:06

World expressions, My friends Bill,

3:08

Bill and Ted. That's Bill and Ted speaking

3:11

of that. Really, I'm so sorry to interrupt. I watched

3:13

the new Bill and Ted movie the other day.

3:15

Uh. It was quite bad, but I was still

3:18

overcome emotionally at the end when they saved

3:20

the world with music. Right, they definitely

3:22

do it. Uh love

3:24

the love the Daughter's characters and

3:26

the and then I also liked the Daughter's characters.

3:29

All right, So yes, this person wishes

3:31

to remain fully anonymous. So

3:34

we're going to read the correspondence and then discuss.

3:36

Here goes. Good day, gentlemen.

3:39

I've been debating sharing my secret

3:41

for a while, and I've decided to just go ahead

3:43

and spill it. It's not as juicy

3:45

as or as exciting as it sounds. We disagree.

3:49

I am a software engineer for one

3:51

of a handful of private companies that provide a software

3:53

connection to the FBI's n

3:55

c I SEE databases.

3:58

I remember this one, okay, h

4:01

And n c i

4:03

SEE stands for National Crime Information

4:06

Center and it's the United States central

4:08

database for tracking crime related

4:10

information. Basically speaking, it's

4:13

the home of everyone's permanent record as

4:15

it relates to crime, driver's licenses,

4:17

etcetera. Disregarding the archaic

4:20

infrastructure of the system, my story

4:22

involves how exposed it really

4:24

is and how much damage could be

4:26

done. Okay, this is already feeling dangerous.

4:29

This is dangerous information. If you're

4:31

listening to this and you have

4:34

um bad intentions, please

4:36

stop listening. Just go ahead and stop. We'll wait.

4:39

Just stop listening now. Okay, good, and you've left

4:41

total honor system. Okay, good, you're

4:44

gone. Okay, great, Only

4:46

only good intentioned human beings

4:48

and other intelligent creatures listening.

4:51

Now here we go. Try and

4:53

think back to film. The

4:55

net will a bit ridiculous. In dramatics,

4:57

the concept of creating, adding to, or

5:00

even deleting a criminal record is

5:02

a very real possibility,

5:04

even behind multiple layers of protection. Access

5:07

to internal and external systems

5:09

is frightening Lee unprotected to

5:12

steal a turn of phrase. Here's where it

5:14

gets crazy. Gosh,

5:16

there's power and saying that. Ben, Now,

5:19

now I know how you've gotten all those all

5:21

those intense powers over the years, just by

5:23

saying that one phrase. Okay,

5:26

and he says, without outing myself

5:28

or my company, I can tell you there are entire

5:30

States main servers protected

5:33

with complex credentials like can

5:35

you guess, guys, uh

5:38

tote and chit which is the badge

5:40

to give you a boy scouts that says you

5:43

can use knives. I

5:45

was thinking some kind of complex biometric

5:47

scanning of some sort. But I like where Ben's

5:50

going as well. Well, we're thinking more user

5:52

name and password. What do you think the user name

5:54

is? Oh? Yeah, wait, it's unfair

5:56

because I know the answer. But okay,

5:59

if for everyone flip, for all our conspiracy

6:01

realists playing along at home, whatever

6:04

your idea was, dumb it down, that's

6:06

what it is, and we're not gonna say what it is. And

6:09

the password if you can guess what that one is, you're

6:11

probably right. I

6:13

don't know what you're talking about. Okay, I'm

6:15

gonna move on with an email here. Seriously,

6:18

that is on fact, even

6:21

servers with with a more complex log

6:23

in system are remarkably simple.

6:25

Combine that with databases that are by

6:27

default already logged in, and you have free

6:30

reign to do whatever you'd like. Don't

6:33

like that arrest from ten years ago popping

6:35

up on a background check, Just log in and

6:37

delete the record. I want to get an enemy

6:39

arrested. Just log in, make up

6:41

some facts, and suddenly there are confirmed gang

6:44

member with active warrants in a history of

6:46

awful sex crimes. Buddy. Even

6:48

worse, these databases house the

6:50

end users log in credentials

6:53

openly, so in theory, you could

6:55

access the servers, then log into the n

6:57

C i C software with the police chief's credentials,

7:00

logout, and no one would be the wiser.

7:03

That's terrifying. He moves on

7:05

to say. Of course, nothing done nefarious

7:07

like this would hold up in the long run, and eventually a

7:09

person's name would be cleared. But imagine

7:12

the damage it would cause in the meantime. Yeah,

7:15

that's some short term chaos

7:17

that you could pull off right

7:19

there, lasting chaos, Isn't it? Just

7:22

just to point this out? You know, one

7:25

of the things that is either a flaw

7:27

in the justice system or part of the insidious

7:30

design of the mechanism

7:32

is that it punishes people for being

7:35

poor. So it doesn't matter if you're

7:37

innocent, if you cannot

7:39

afford the real expenses

7:42

involved in clearing your name, and

7:44

even if you're even after you get your name

7:46

cleared, Um, there's another mechanism

7:49

right for you to be seek compensation

7:52

for what happened to you. So it's it

7:54

will miss somebody up. Yeah, yeah, I know.

7:57

It's like a long path to becoming whole

7:59

again, right. I mean, even if you are found

8:01

in a sense and then you spend all this money, then I

8:03

suppose you could sue, you know, the

8:05

person that wrongfully accused you in a civil

8:08

case to get back some of the money

8:10

that you had spent defending yourself if

8:12

you could discover who it is. I

8:14

know we're not at the end of the letter yet, but that's I

8:16

think that's one of the key pieces there

8:19

with the we're talking about compromising

8:21

a system. But then the other step

8:24

is how easy it is to impersonate

8:26

someone. Oh, it's

8:28

really scary. Let just for some

8:31

further context before we jump into

8:33

finishing that letter. As we're thinking

8:35

about the possibilities here of what could

8:37

go wrong. Let's talk about the n

8:39

c I SEE a little bit more, just

8:42

just so we have a better understanding here.

8:44

So it's literally the records

8:47

that are kept for everyone.

8:49

If you're a United States citizen or

8:51

if you're actively in the United States,

8:54

you know and have certain documentation, there's

8:56

probably stuff about you in there. Or if

8:58

you've got a business maybe or

9:00

an LLC or a company

9:02

that's registered in your name in some way,

9:05

there's stuff in here. The n c i

9:07

C was started in nineteen sixty

9:09

seven by the FBI. That's when they launched

9:12

it, and it started with five files

9:15

on an individual that had records

9:18

in the n c i SEE and it had around

9:20

three hundred and fifty thousand records

9:23

when it began. Now, at

9:25

least the last time FBI

9:27

updated their website FBI dot gov, it

9:30

has twenty one files that are

9:32

available or possibly available

9:34

for each individual and more than sixteen

9:37

million active records. Wow.

9:40

And the n c i C averages millions of transactions

9:43

each day, which means sharing information

9:45

from one party to another. So

9:48

what you need to know is that this

9:50

database is accessed by around eighty

9:52

thousand different law enforcement entities.

9:56

And you can also get access

9:59

to this thing if you meet certain

10:01

criteria, which is really interesting, so

10:04

you don't have to hack into the system

10:06

to check out, and you know a record

10:08

that you've got or something that you've got on your record or

10:11

somebody else's record. There are several

10:13

ways you can actually get access. So let's

10:15

hit a couple of these and then we'll talk about them. Guys.

10:18

The first one, become an employee of an

10:20

accredited law enforcement agency. Okay,

10:23

that works right, Yeah,

10:26

but it's the but then you have to think of

10:28

the buy and so pros. It

10:30

is actually pretty easy, depending on the law enforcement

10:33

agency and depending on your existing record

10:35

if you haven't been able to scrib it yet.

10:38

And then the other issue

10:40

is that these are not high

10:42

paying jobs. This is really committing

10:44

to the bit. And then you're going to be suspect

10:47

number one if you've only worked

10:49

there for like ninety days.

10:51

Something screwy gets discovered and you, guys,

10:53

are so's a out. You're not You're

10:55

not gonna get away. So yeah,

10:59

yeah, that is one. I wonder if there's a way you could

11:02

scrub the database by hacking

11:04

into it of your permanent background record.

11:06

Then get hired, then put it

11:08

back in there and then nobody's

11:11

nobody knows the difference what happened,

11:13

ha ha ha Why would you put it back?

11:16

Well, I don't know. Just

11:22

you know, this has rearranged the text. A little bit is added

11:24

it and sort of like faking a resume or

11:27

uh, you know, give yourself a crime

11:29

that you think is more interesting, like

11:32

more and more badass grand theft origible

11:34

would be a go to stand pretty

11:36

good. That's always that's always a crowd

11:39

of these people, these monsters. Uh

11:41

yeah, you know, so really quickly. So

11:43

this is essentially it's it's an inter agency

11:46

database. Like it's not. It's it's

11:48

a lot of different law enforcement agencies that have access

11:51

to this for various reasons. Just to clarify,

11:53

Yes, different agencies

11:56

and law enforcement in groups.

11:59

But here's the other thing. Other other people

12:01

and groups can access it. And here's

12:04

the other way you can gain acts. You can we

12:06

cut you off. What what's what's the okay?

12:09

You can get certified so you

12:11

can actually do this, and it's just to get certified

12:14

to query the n c I. See, so

12:16

it doesn't mean you're actually gonna get to use it

12:18

or to add stuff to it

12:20

or remove things from it. You would just be a user,

12:23

right, yeah, read only exactly. And depending

12:26

on which state you're in, the

12:28

requirements to be able to query

12:30

the n c I s are going to be a little bit different.

12:33

Um, so that makes sense. I mean, I

12:35

don't know. I didn't look it up for Georgia, but

12:38

we could find out. I'm interested. Now

12:40

what do they got on me? Okay?

12:43

So the other thing you

12:45

can do here is send in

12:47

a request directly to the FBI

12:50

to get information about you. Yeah,

12:54

it's almost like filing for discovery,

12:57

uh in court, you know, tell

12:59

me what you got. Uh.

13:01

You have to be careful how specific you are about

13:04

that. I think it's probably better to have a legal

13:06

representative make that request for you,

13:08

because otherwise you're pretty much saying

13:10

something like do you guys know about

13:13

that the win down with me and Blockbuster?

13:16

Yeah? Seriously, still have

13:18

that Captain Ron tape all these years later,

13:20

even after you But do you have

13:23

anything on me regarding the Wells Fargo

13:25

at fourth and seventeen Avenue

13:28

around December of last year? Or no? Great?

13:31

Okay, thanks by You know,

13:33

they get crazy letters though they're probably

13:35

letters where someone says, you know, I demand,

13:38

under this made up law that I read about on

13:40

Facebook, that you delete any

13:43

DNA or genetic information you

13:45

have about me, and please return

13:47

that sample of my stool that you stole

13:49

in or

13:53

or I will be forced to take legal action.

13:56

I don't know if you ever, if anybody has received

13:58

those kinds of scams, um,

14:00

but there sometimes they are from

14:02

people who genuinely believe that

14:05

they're rooted in reality.

14:07

So I'm sure the FBI itself has a lot of

14:09

stuff to go through with these requests.

14:11

Oh yeah, there's so much stuff, you guys. Those

14:13

twenty one files we talked about, um,

14:16

Not only do they have silly

14:18

and fun names and they're just very straightforward,

14:21

but there's

14:23

a lot of information in here. So there's

14:25

the gun file. You

14:28

can access your gun file, or

14:30

somebody's boat file, or

14:32

their securities file, or their vehicle

14:34

and boat parts file, their

14:37

license plate file, fugitive

14:40

uh fugitive file, foreign fugitive file.

14:42

Oh no, it's just fugitive foreign fugitive

14:45

file. That's fun. Law and

14:47

order, vote crime, right, That's

14:55

exactly I love

14:57

it. If it was even more specific law and

14:59

order, vehicle and boat parts

15:04

and there's that climacting part of the episode

15:07

where uh, somebody steals a

15:09

whole boat and what are

15:11

the detectives, Just like, we can't,

15:13

we can't do it that we're boats and

15:16

vehicle parts. It's a very China

15:18

Town moment because they have to walk away while

15:21

the guy is like clearly drunkenly yelling

15:23

at them from his fishing boat. Oh

15:25

yeah. So so there's all kinds of stuff

15:27

in here, and it goes from the kind of what feels like

15:29

a little sillier even though gunfile is

15:31

not silly at all all the way down to a

15:34

gang file, to a wanted person file,

15:36

national sex offender registry, violent

15:39

person file. There's just a

15:41

lot of stuff in there that you could be searching

15:43

and you could find for any individual person.

15:46

There's also, by the way, article I think

15:48

it's article file. Uh,

15:51

it's all kinds of information in there. It's

15:53

like that's probably gonna be your the

15:56

most public information about

15:59

you as an individual. It's going to be hanging

16:01

out in there. So and

16:04

the takeaway here is that this

16:06

database and databases like it are much

16:08

more easy to crack

16:10

into than one might think. Well,

16:13

yeah, there's a yeah, there's a lot of stuff in there, and

16:15

they are possibly easily

16:18

hackable. So let's jump back here

16:20

to the email to to finish up and we'll get

16:22

out of this discussion of the n C I

16:24

s are fully anonymous

16:26

person says, I understand the situation described

16:29

as unique in a not and not a

16:31

likely scenario, but it brings

16:33

to light the bigger picture of the security of information.

16:37

I'm absolutely sure you've done stories

16:39

on hacks and data breaches. Yes we have, so

16:41

this is not news to you guys. But the idea and

16:43

scope of insecurities is much

16:45

much larger than anyone could imagine.

16:48

As many server systems link into clusters,

16:50

gaining access to one could open them

16:53

all up. If you ever do want to look into

16:55

this or any software related issues.

16:57

This person is offering their

16:59

help for us to look into those things.

17:01

That's great. And then this person sent

17:03

us information on the n c I see itself.

17:07

Then they say yours truly, fully incredibly

17:09

anonymous. So there we go. Yeah,

17:12

which is a shame because anonymous has

17:14

a nickname that I found really endearing.

17:17

That per their request is not making it

17:19

to air. Well, you know, we love a good nickname.

17:22

So uh started to be deprived

17:24

of this one, but um, Matt,

17:27

I have would have a quick question before we wrap

17:29

this one up. Would you say

17:31

the takeaway here is that I

17:34

would be much more vigilant with

17:36

your passwords and user names or

17:38

is it like it's out of our hands. It

17:40

feels like it's kind of out of our hands. Takeaway

17:43

is there's nothing we can do to secure

17:45

the FBI's databases. But the

17:47

FBI can and people who

17:49

work internally at the

17:51

Federal Bureau of Investigation, if

17:54

you're listening, how you are, you

17:56

could secure the passwords for

17:59

that database. Yeah, you know,

18:02

Mr Robot's gonna do it for you. You You think they

18:04

would be. That seems like something the FBI

18:06

would be good at, you know, encryption

18:08

and protecting data and all

18:10

that. But wow, that's very very

18:13

eye opening. There may also

18:15

be some sort of internal policy

18:18

or guideline meaning that stuff

18:20

has to get run up the chain when a password

18:22

changes because of the level of

18:24

information it's protecting, so

18:27

that policy will intentioned. We

18:29

don't know if that's true. I'm just saying like it might

18:32

not be as simple as one

18:34

person being able to say, yeah, this is

18:36

dumb, let's fix it with a stronger

18:39

password. They might have to run it by several

18:41

other departments who also have to

18:43

sign off on it, and it might be such a hassle

18:46

and such a time vampire that

18:48

eventually they just said, look, just nobody

18:51

tell anybody that

18:54

that could be it. You could also just be dealing

18:56

with the fact that this thing was created in

18:58

the sixties and it's kind of a legacy

19:00

system, and who knows what kinds of

19:02

updates have occurred to the software

19:04

and hardware that they use to to run

19:06

the servers and to actually access it. Um,

19:10

it may just be issues with that, it

19:12

may be issues with the number of individuals

19:14

that are having to access this thing. Then

19:17

you you know, you assume, as as

19:19

our emailer told us, each

19:21

individual person has log in credentials,

19:24

as any large system does,

19:27

but for some of the administrator

19:29

accounts, um,

19:31

they're probably shared amongst multiple

19:34

people. Well that's probably

19:36

one of the reasons. Yeah, you know. Also, I

19:38

think I can't remember me brought this up on a on

19:41

a recent previous episode, But

19:43

sometimes it's a purposeful decision

19:46

to keep things archaic, right,

19:48

Like, it's so weird that I think

19:51

we talked about this. It's so weird that the

19:54

Um, the US and many

19:56

countries in particular, will have some

19:59

technology it's like twenty

20:01

years past what the public knows about, and then

20:04

other stuff that is a relic of

20:07

post World War two America. You

20:09

know, like what was the example used.

20:11

There's somebody there's somebody working

20:13

on a top secret aircraft right now, and

20:16

they're probably irritated because

20:19

they have this technology that's

20:21

not supposed to exist. But every time they have to fix

20:23

the landing the landing gear, they

20:25

have to submit the order through facts. Forts

20:29

Like, it's good to have that archaic

20:31

stuff though, because in some cases it can

20:33

be easier to protect than something that

20:35

lives in the cloud. So I'm just saying in their defense,

20:38

still doesn't surprisingly sloppy

20:41

security totally. We We

20:43

just got some correspondence from people talking about

20:45

very sensitive systems that still

20:47

run on Windows or XP,

20:50

which is just how it goes sometimes.

20:53

Oh. At just a personal note,

20:55

Bill, Melenda, life is long

20:58

the best. Yeah,

21:01

yeah, cheers on

21:04

your new lives. As

21:06

you know, co billionaires just separate

21:09

but still billionaires. Um,

21:12

that is weird. What is what happens to the foundation? Is

21:14

it still the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations?

21:18

Yeah? Yeah, I think I

21:21

think Melinda Gates is taking the house

21:23

and bills keeping the windows. I'm

21:25

sorry, No, these are real people. It's their

21:28

real life. That's really funny. Then

21:30

that's did you just make that up on the spot.

21:34

Yeah, that's what like, that's

21:36

what makes sense to me. There's a Gates joke in there.

21:38

But I'm not clever that while

21:40

you were. That's a pretty significant

21:43

display of cleverness right there. I'm

21:46

sure that there are many people who are. I

21:48

don't know. We shouldn't make

21:51

But then I thought, I thought money solved all

21:53

your problems. Like I thought, hey,

21:55

you guys, for real, what what

21:57

do you think the passwords of a bills

22:00

look like? They probably don't. It's probably

22:02

something unfathomable to us. It's probably an automotopia

22:05

version of the windows startup sound bling.

22:09

You know, I don't know what that would be. I like that. I

22:12

was thinking, if he's petty, it's something like job

22:14

zero Gates one, or

22:17

like Melinda forever.

22:20

Guys. So I'm sorry to keep harping on this, but like

22:22

the FBI, you know, you know, if you

22:24

think of the FBI and being in the secure facilities

22:26

and all that is everything being guarded

22:29

by like, you know, individualized thumb

22:31

prints and biometrics and all of this. What

22:33

the hell is going on with

22:35

this? Really bizarrely

22:38

sloppy and and and disturbing.

22:41

Yeah, part of it, Part of it is budget.

22:43

Part of it is I guess the political

22:46

idea of like, or when I say political,

22:48

I mean internal politics, Like who

22:50

wants to take that project on because

22:53

you have so many people you have to interact with.

22:55

Well, we'll never know, guys until

22:57

our email it rets us back after hearing the

23:00

says guys, it's this obviously

23:02

way worse. Sorry, everything you said, all

23:05

right, but hey, thank you so much for writing in. We're

23:08

going to take a quick break here from

23:10

our sponsors and we will be right back with

23:12

some more correspondence. And

23:20

we have returned not just

23:23

to the show, but to a

23:25

theme something we've explored a

23:27

little bit in the past, TikTok

23:30

So TikTok a hugely popular

23:32

social media platform. We've

23:34

discussed it here sometimes an episode,

23:37

sometimes in strange news or listener

23:39

mail, and behind the scenes, Uh,

23:42

this has been part of a larger conversation

23:44

for us. So we're gonna share

23:47

this story from Jason with

23:49

you or Jason, who hipped us to this on social

23:51

media. And then we're going to

23:54

explore just a little bit because

23:56

Jason, I think this goes, this

23:58

may go in some directions you're not expecting.

24:01

So Jason wrote me over on Instagram

24:04

and said, are you going to cover this rapper

24:06

who appears to be running a cult like compound

24:08

via only Fans a dude

24:11

named blue Face all one word

24:13

for us uninitiated. Uh.

24:15

And then he says there are women living

24:18

in either of two houses where they must

24:20

fight, party and get

24:22

this, get his image tattooed on them.

24:24

He sells his footage for fifty dollars a

24:26

month on Only Fans. He pays them

24:28

in exposure, promises to help them

24:30

break into the industry. A lot of people

24:33

are comparing him to a cult leader and or

24:35

r Kelly like figure. Uh.

24:37

And he says, I don't know the validity of the

24:39

news sources that they shared, said,

24:41

but I wanted this to see the light of day.

24:44

And here's the most interesting part, Matt Noel,

24:47

Jason, because you're here to man. Uh.

24:50

Jason says, if you could not share,

24:53

I understand, and that intrigued

24:56

me because what if all,

24:58

after all our years flooring

25:00

so many strange things. It's

25:02

a TikTok celebrity

25:05

that ends up being the proverbial feather

25:07

on the conspiracy Camel's back. First,

25:10

have you guys ever heard of blue Face? I've

25:12

never heard of blue Face? I mean just

25:14

like the Blue Man Group and

25:17

that you know Arrest development

25:19

episode with Tobias where he blew himself.

25:22

I don't know about blue Face. And it appears he has

25:25

a song called Fatiana. Yep,

25:28

there's a great Daily Beast article

25:30

that can give you a little

25:32

more inside on this. So

25:35

everything that you said, Jason is

25:38

true. He

25:40

has not reacted well to the allegations

25:42

that he is creating a

25:44

cult. He says, instead,

25:46

they're filming a reality

25:49

TV show and this

25:51

is a he's calling it Blue

25:53

Girls Club. It's a spin on

25:56

Bad Girls Club, which was a show that was

25:58

on Oxygen, the Oxygen

26:00

Network. So this guy says that

26:03

everything is consensual. He points out

26:05

that he does not live in either of those

26:07

two houses. He's flowing the

26:10

the actors or the women in from

26:12

around the country. But it is

26:14

true that there was a moment where he

26:17

woke them up and said and

26:19

gave people the ultimatum of get a

26:21

tattoo of me or my name or

26:23

go home, pick one, and

26:26

this, you know, like obviously

26:28

isn't chill behavior. But

26:31

like if this is a cult,

26:33

then stuff like Jared Leto's summer

26:36

camp would be a cult. But they're

26:38

not really He's not really doing

26:41

anything illegal that we could find

26:43

at this time, right, Like, that's just

26:46

I've heard of producers who treat non

26:49

scripted talent worse than

26:51

this. Right, Yeah, the tattoo

26:53

thing is a little weird. Yeah, if it really

26:56

is forced, like if it's fully forced, that's

26:59

no. Well there was the out there was

27:01

you can go home, so there weren't being forcibly.

27:04

But you know, it's like Nexium. They were branding

27:06

people in Nexium. Yeah, that's a that's

27:09

a good analog there. Yeah, I

27:12

don't like it. Yeah, I don't like it

27:14

either. If I were,

27:16

um, if I were a friend of one

27:18

of these people, or if I were a parent

27:20

or family member, I would think

27:23

it was time to talk about, you know, other other

27:25

ways to break into an industry,

27:27

which is a very vague promise anyhow, But

27:30

here's the right now. So

27:32

yes, Jason, You're right, it is

27:34

weird. Is there some stuff they

27:36

don't want you to know about it, quite

27:39

possibly because it's

27:43

being portrayed as though it's going

27:45

to be a reality show competing in

27:47

that reality show space, but

27:49

it's on only fans, which is controversial

27:52

to some for various reasons. Uh.

27:54

And people are saying, look, if you want to make this show

27:56

legit and not just this weird thing that

27:59

you're doing to people, then

28:01

higher professional production

28:03

staff, you know what I mean, get

28:06

a medical uh medical

28:08

staff on hand. Make like

28:10

if you were having people

28:12

fight for entertainment, then

28:15

make sure that there's some way to care

28:18

for them physically right and mentally

28:20

as well. Um. So I agree

28:22

it's messed up, but I don't I don't know for quite

28:24

at cultish behavior yet. And

28:27

it's something, um, the three of us, I think

28:29

it talked about. I can't remember whether this was off

28:31

air or on the show. TikTok

28:33

has a thing with cults. TikTok

28:36

has a thing which calling

28:39

members calling themselves cults. Right,

28:41

No, you, you and I talk about this like

28:43

it's a trendy thing or something. I mean, yeah,

28:46

that makes sense. No, I guess I didn't realize that

28:48

terminology is used. But you know, just

28:50

totally devil to have a care here. And this is gonna sound

28:53

like I'm being callous, but like it's

28:55

not technically illegal to start a cult

28:58

rightly. And and

29:01

it's like if these are all consensual adults

29:03

who want to sleep in his treehouse and

29:05

get tattoos, and that's cool, right

29:07

as long as he's not breaking the law or like

29:10

any of them are underage or there's any kind

29:12

of drugging or you know, duress

29:15

going on. Um, it seems

29:17

like just kind of like us

29:19

uber fan type situation maybe and

29:22

less of like an indoctrinated cult

29:24

situation. But that's just on, you

29:26

know. And again like this like TikTok is rife

29:28

with that kind of stuff. People. It's it's a world

29:31

where you can, you know, worship

29:34

celebrities essentially and like and I

29:36

feel like you're connected to them.

29:40

Daily Beast article. And I'm just not

29:42

liking what I'm seeing. How it's not good. It's

29:44

not good. That is that your patented sigh

29:46

of joy and happiness.

29:49

That is my happy, happy, happy joy joyce

29:52

ready to get tatted? Blue Face asks

29:54

a room of sleeping women that he had flown out

29:56

to his one point three million dollar home

29:58

in Chatsworth by the way, which is where they shoot

30:00

all the porn obviously into porn

30:03

uh tattoo or go home? Which one

30:05

is it? Yeah? Yeah,

30:07

that's what. Um, that's what I'm saying when

30:10

I said it was an ultimatum. But he did give them

30:12

an out. They weren't forcibly

30:14

held unless it was maybe like a cage

30:16

of the mind. But here's the which are

30:18

real things. But here's where this takes

30:20

a turn that you may not have been expecting,

30:22

Jason, because the reason that we've

30:25

had our eye on the

30:27

idea of TikTok and colts

30:30

as whether it's as a trending thing or is real

30:32

thing, is because it takes

30:35

part in the context of a larger

30:37

conversation. Let me give you one. Let

30:40

me give you one example of probably

30:43

the most famous self

30:45

described TikTok colts here.

30:47

Have you guys heard of the step chickens.

30:50

No, sounds like the name of an improv

30:53

comedy group, it does? It does? Sound

30:55

like? Yes, actually you

30:57

got me with that one. No, that checks out, that's legit.

30:59

I you like I've seen them. I

31:01

feel like I've seen them in Chicago.

31:06

But I just supposed a

31:08

link here in our chat. There was a

31:10

great New York Times piece last

31:12

year, almost a year ago stay

31:15

called step Chickens and the Rise of TikTok

31:17

Cults. There was a there

31:20

is a person on TikTok who was what

31:23

social media would call a content creator

31:25

or an influencer. And we

31:27

all know people who

31:29

are at varying levels of this or attempting

31:32

to do this. The end goal is

31:34

that you have millions of followers, and

31:36

then you support yourself through endorsement

31:38

deals. Right, so you're posting for

31:41

your fans or your followers, and then

31:43

part way through, you know, you

31:46

start organically integrating

31:49

products. So you're like, hold up, You're like, mmmm,

31:52

when I'm recording a conspiracy show,

31:54

there's nothing better than this old

31:57

cold milk jar vice car fee

32:00

that I make a hope I would be terrible about this. It's

32:02

not many. It's a skill set that I don't possess.

32:04

But anyway, this influencer,

32:07

Lissa All is a twenty's

32:10

like eight now, and

32:12

she created this online

32:14

movement, this self described cult called

32:17

step Chickens and

32:20

all she asked people to do. I haven't got into

32:22

it. I know a lot of our listeners are probably very

32:24

familiar with this. All she asked

32:26

people to do to join the

32:28

cult was pretty innocuous.

32:30

Just put a specific type of profile

32:33

picture on your TikTok

32:35

profile. And then the

32:37

members of these cults started by merch.

32:40

There's a song. Uh. While

32:42

Stepped Chickens isn't is

32:45

the most well known, there are many, many,

32:47

many out there, and that's

32:49

fun, right for a lot of people. That's cool.

32:52

We're part of something bigger and it's harmless

32:54

because you can always turn off your phone, you always

32:56

turn off TikTok. You know, I'm actually

32:58

in a cult with my daughter and her

33:00

two friends. Uh. They sort of tricked me into

33:02

joining by putting a little

33:05

plush doll Mega man picture

33:07

as my Instagram profile pick, and it is

33:09

still that to this day. Gentlemen. Uh

33:12

so I'm apparently in the Mega Man call. But

33:14

um no, it's a thing like on TikTok.

33:16

There's a lot of there's communities that

33:19

identify each other by what their profile

33:21

pick is, and they oftentimes

33:24

kind of gang up on people. Apparently some

33:26

of them are better than others, I guess, um,

33:28

but they're always trying to recruit people as well.

33:31

And then my daughter tells me this. People are always

33:33

trying to reach out and at first you think they're just

33:35

kind of cool or whatever, and then they dropped

33:37

their sales pitch. Uh

33:39

what what is the Mega Man cult? Mega

33:42

Man called as a joke. It's something that my daughter

33:44

and her friends made up because they like they like Mega

33:46

Man, and we are the only members. It is just

33:48

me and my daughter and her two friends. Um

33:51

so but the other. But in general

33:53

though, this very much is a thing, and it's specifically

33:55

on TikTok. And I was surprised, uh

33:58

that how my daughter, how casually

34:00

she brought up being approached in this way.

34:02

M yeah, yeah, because the usual

34:05

social filters simply do

34:07

not exist in a virtual space. This

34:10

is the bigger direction we're going

34:12

with Jason. Um. This is something

34:15

that I think warrants a full episode

34:17

in the future, and it's

34:20

online radicalization, the

34:22

presence of ubiquitous uh communication

34:26

without verifying people's identities,

34:29

which I personally am fine with. I think

34:31

anonymity it can be a good

34:33

thing and often the benefits this

34:35

is the most optimistic thing I've said, Often

34:37

the benefits will outweigh some of

34:40

the problems. I would hope.

34:42

I'm not I'm on the fence about that, because I can see

34:44

both sides, but we need

34:46

to explore just

34:49

how profoundly online

34:52

communication has changed the process of

34:54

recruitment and radicalization for

34:56

anything like I'm not I'm not

34:58

just say you know, UM, I know we've

35:00

heard a lot of a lot of talk about

35:03

it in past years with

35:06

Islamic extremist groups, but I

35:08

would ask people also to consider movements

35:10

like in Seldom right in Cells

35:12

existed primarily as a

35:15

digitally native radicalized

35:17

group, and there's a lot of

35:19

work going into how these

35:22

processes occur. This work is important

35:25

because I'm going to I'm going to tell you what's going to

35:27

happen, or what people are hoping is

35:29

going to happen. They're going to hope

35:32

to use the threats of

35:35

online radicalization as

35:38

a way of removing your

35:40

ability to be anonymous on the Internet.

35:43

The roots may change as

35:45

though you're looking at Google maps and ways,

35:48

but the end destination is

35:50

going to be to have your identity

35:53

freely publicly available to make it increasingly

35:56

difficult to be anonymous online. Um.

35:59

The rationalizations, whether

36:01

valid or cynical, UM

36:04

to me, they are primarily a non issue

36:07

because it is all meant to

36:10

work toward that end. At

36:12

this point, to be fair, I have to ask him, I being to extreme.

36:14

You guys, do you think I'm Matt? I saw you nod

36:17

and I don't know if it was like you're not of

36:19

agreement? Who was somehow

36:22

very very affirmative looking

36:24

not of disagreement? Be quiet,

36:28

Um, I'm having a very hard

36:30

time caring. I had to be

36:32

honest with you, guys, caring about blue faces

36:34

plight, no, no about

36:37

any any in all TikTok

36:39

cults and or groups and or TikTok

36:42

videos in general. I have. I am so

36:44

old and curmudgingly

36:47

about TikTok. The

36:49

whole thing just makes me go, no,

36:52

why I

36:55

look. I I like

36:57

a few of them when I see them reposted us

37:00

where I don't look at it like as an ecosystem.

37:02

But I actually posted my story

37:04

this weekend that my kid may where it was

37:06

me and my girlfriend doing insane

37:09

in the membrane but very

37:11

slow, and I do the part that's

37:13

like insane in

37:15

the broad and

37:18

it's really funny. Matt. It made me

37:20

laugh at it. It brought a lot of joy to my family.

37:22

So for that, TikTok, I thank you.

37:24

I could do without the rest of it. And the

37:26

cult part is really strange. And this blue

37:28

face guys clearly a creep.

37:31

And how does he have two houses? And I've never heard

37:33

of him, Not that I'm like the Bell Weather for who

37:35

should have houses or not, but like it's

37:37

weird that he doesn't seem like famous enough to be

37:39

as rich as he is. Yeah. Yeah, they're

37:41

almost eight billion people in the world for

37:44

now, so it's it's easy

37:46

to find a Kniche audience. Matt, I'm gonna

37:49

since you asked me to keep this weird Colonel

37:51

Kurtz like lighting

37:54

here still recording hid his store. Uh,

37:56

let me go ahead and explain

37:59

TikTok to you. And

38:02

I realized, like I was

38:05

shot, like I was shot with

38:07

a diamond, diamond bullet

38:09

right through my forehead, and I thought, my

38:12

god, the genius of

38:14

it, the genius the

38:16

will to do that, perfect,

38:19

genuine, complete, crystalline

38:22

pure so the hand thing

38:25

is from in heart of darkness. Marlon

38:28

Brando also misrepresented

38:30

himself the way that we did not legally advise

38:33

you to do to break into n C I

38:35

s U. And when he showed up on set

38:37

for anybody who knows the story of Apocalypse.

38:40

Now. Coppola was appalled

38:42

by how far

38:45

he had let himself go. You know,

38:47

I'm very against body shaming or

38:49

shaming people for their physical appearance, but

38:51

he misrepresented himself, and so a

38:54

ton of his parts in the movie, which are already

38:56

pretty small parts were cut and they had

38:58

to relight everything. So that's why when

39:00

you see Colonel Kurtz, most of the time he's

39:02

like this, where he's like this, or

39:04

you very rarely see his whole face, and

39:07

his best monologue is like

39:11

by Marlon Brando's fist featuring

39:14

his face occasionally and

39:18

I think he's squeezing, he's he's washing

39:20

his head or something, got it. But that's

39:22

right. So that's a lot of close

39:25

up bald shots. Yeah, I'm confused,

39:27

too bad. I think it's I think I think that is trying to

39:29

sum up the genes sequa. That

39:31

is TikTok with that. Uh,

39:34

it's like tears in the Rain mainly,

39:36

mad is what it's like. Now. I don't

39:38

get the appeal exactly either, but a

39:40

lot of kids really love it, and as we talked about

39:42

on the a few episodes go, a lot of adults really love

39:44

it, and it's got some problematic

39:47

security features as well,

39:49

or lack thereof, or just you know, what

39:52

the hell are they doing with all that? Like you said, Ben, what are

39:54

they building in there with all

39:56

that? All the children, all of our children's

39:58

data. Um, But yeah,

40:01

man, it's weird the level of

40:03

stuff kids are exposed to these days

40:06

on the Internet. They have access to all

40:08

the things that ever existed, not to mention

40:10

like these communities that can be really

40:13

cool and positive and help you find your

40:15

people, but can also be really toxic

40:17

and creepy like this story.

40:19

Well that's the Yeah, that's the thing. Like Matt,

40:22

I must have misinterpreted. I thought you were nodding

40:24

to the larger idea of online radicalization

40:27

and how it will be used to rationalize

40:31

removing your ability

40:34

to be anonymous on the internet,

40:37

and then it will be another part of a I

40:39

mean, there's already like the

40:41

the infrastructure is already there. If someone

40:44

for some reason wants to put a closer

40:47

eye of sore on on you, it's

40:49

very easy to do if they work for the right

40:51

places. But they're also simple steps you

40:53

can take currently to

40:56

keep those eyes off you or be a little

40:58

bit more blurry in their vision, and

41:00

we just don't know how long that's gonna last. And

41:02

we don't know, we don't know

41:05

how people being exposed

41:07

as children to this kind

41:09

of unprecedented level of communication.

41:12

We don't know the ripple effects. We don't know what's going to

41:14

happen. Like you're talking about, we're talking about

41:16

Generation u Z all

41:18

the time, right, But what about

41:21

the people who come next. They're going to be growing

41:23

up even more embedded

41:27

in this world where someone

41:29

is always talking to you and it's increasingly

41:31

considered rude not to answer

41:34

something to think about. We want to hear

41:37

your take on it. Let us know. One A three

41:39

three std w y t K drops an

41:41

email conspiracy at I heeart radio dot

41:43

com. But don't do that

41:45

yet. Wait because we're

41:47

going to have a quick break and then we'll be

41:49

back with more listener mail. All

41:57

right, we're back in. Um those two top

42:00

you guys brought today, we're awesome by the way,

42:02

uh, super terrifying

42:05

implications um with

42:07

both of those stories. But so

42:09

I'm gonna bring a little bit of levity not I

42:11

don't know you could you could argue that it's it's

42:14

it's quite dark in fact, but you know,

42:16

in the context of a ghost story, let's

42:18

just treat it that way. Um. We

42:20

had a lot of responses from our Haunted Objects

42:23

episode, uh, people writing in

42:25

about their own experience with haunted objects,

42:27

and I found one that reads kind

42:29

of nicely like a quickie little ghost

42:31

story, so I thought I would share that with

42:34

everyone today. This one comes

42:36

from Mark and it's about

42:38

a experience that he had

42:40

with a haunted object. Here

42:42

it goes around. My

42:45

family and I moved into a house owned by

42:47

our family previously, and

42:49

it was very old and had lots of history. This

42:52

house was what was known as a mining hut

42:54

back in the day that was owned by a mining company,

42:56

but least by workers for living

42:58

in. I was six years old at

43:00

the time, and we moved in and started remodeling

43:03

it. During the renovations, my father

43:05

came upon a blue rubber ball. Unassuming,

43:08

I know, but wait, here's

43:10

where it gets crazy. Ha ha, powerful

43:13

words. I played with this ball

43:15

for a bit and forgot about it, and as children

43:17

do, moved on from it. One

43:20

day, as I was just roaming the house, I found

43:22

the ball down in our dining room area, and

43:24

thinking nothing of it, I just tossed it into

43:26

the yard. Fast forward a couple of days

43:28

and I found this ball up in my bedroom, assuming

43:31

as I did that, my little brother grabbed it and

43:33

put it in there. I just left it on the shelf. Now,

43:36

I was home from school sick one day, and my mom

43:38

stayed home from work to look after me. As

43:40

I'm laying on the couch and Mom is making me

43:42

some food, we hear some

43:44

light rubbery thuds down

43:47

the stairs. Blink

43:50

blink blink blint point by boin

43:52

bl b, followed by

43:55

a blue rubber ball coming from the stairwell

43:57

and rolling past her and me into

44:00

the living room. Now we had

44:02

a cat, so Mom said it must have been

44:04

her. Mom threw the ball back up,

44:07

and then, as if by magic,

44:09

uh, as if it were being thrown back down,

44:12

here it comes bouncing down

44:15

and back where we were. Now

44:17

I know maybe it was the cat, except the cat

44:19

was verified to be in the room with us. Mom

44:22

got creeped out and I was pretty shocked, and she

44:24

threw it away and it was taken out with a trash.

44:27

Now a few years went by and we moved, and

44:29

one day I came home from a friend's house and go

44:31

through my stuff and on the bed of

44:34

my clothes drawer to get some fresh shorts, and

44:37

there it is the blue rubber

44:39

ball that couldn't have been placed

44:41

in there because it was all the way in

44:43

the back of the drawer under my clothes.

44:46

Uh. And now I can tell you that Mom and I

44:48

had never told anyone about the ball because

44:50

we actually forgot about it. So I was kind of taken

44:53

aback. I ran down the stairs and

44:55

grabbed my mom and showed her, and she

44:58

was very shaken by

45:00

this. We finally told my brother

45:02

and my dad the story, and my dad, always

45:04

the skeptical one, once again

45:07

threw the ball out. So you might be asking,

45:09

how do you know he threw the ball out

45:11

or why didn't he burn it or something, and then

45:13

he says, well, my good service. Time

45:16

went on. I moved out, grew older,

45:18

and got my own house with my fiance.

45:21

Never for one day that I think about the ball

45:24

until I came home one day and

45:27

sitting on my desk, it's the ball.

45:29

M Now, my fiance clearly

45:32

here's me gasp and sees me

45:34

looking at it, and she says, while doing

45:36

laundry, she found it under a pile of clothes and assumed

45:38

it was ours for the dogs. So I

45:40

tell her the story and she's quite disturbed.

45:43

But now I can't get rid of it because

45:45

I know it will come back. So now

45:47

it sits in my cabinet of curiosities.

45:50

Now. I don't know if you'll see this story, but

45:52

if you would like pictures of the ball, I'll

45:54

be more than happy to send them.

45:57

Wow, I found that

45:59

story somewhat chilling. Hey,

46:02

yes, I think, so let's talk

46:04

about it, and then I want to offer up my

46:07

hypothesis. I love it. I love

46:09

it. I feel like there is a rational explanation.

46:12

But it's like I said, like I mean, the one brush

46:15

with the afterlife or with with ghosts

46:17

that I ever had. I felt

46:19

it in the moment as though I were truly experiencing

46:22

something supernatural, and then only a

46:24

day or so later, was able to explain it away

46:26

with what it really was. Um,

46:28

it didn't change that feeling though, you know what I

46:30

mean. I still felt some connection

46:34

and and and I wonder, I think even explaining

46:37

away this a story like this, I

46:39

think the feeling is still there. Um

46:42

yeah, we did the ball have malicious intent?

46:45

This is one of those like cursed objects. It's

46:47

just trying to freak people out. Or is it

46:49

the kind of ball that will like bounce

46:51

under someone's foot while they're walking down the steps

46:53

and like, you know, take them out. There are a couple of things

46:55

we have to establish here that we don't have the information

46:57

for, so we have to you know, let's

47:00

just talk about it, and let's let's see what you think. I

47:03

don't know if you guys are picturing the same blue ball

47:05

in your mind as I am. We

47:07

grew up in the eighties and nineties. I see

47:10

this old ball that I had. It was called

47:12

it was Yeah, it was definitely called a sky bounce.

47:15

I think that was what it was called. It was a little

47:17

blue rubber ball that was meant to bounce very

47:19

very high. Um, maybe

47:21

that's not it. That's what I remember

47:24

and what I had. Those in particular

47:26

would come in like you could

47:29

get them in multiples,

47:30

like three, like racquetballs or

47:32

yeah, like a tennis ball situation exactly.

47:35

Um. So I'm wondering

47:37

if that's what it was, or if it

47:39

was you know, something that was just in the house. It

47:42

may have been from the seventies or even

47:44

earlier, a different kind of rubber

47:46

ball. As we know, rubber has been around for a long

47:48

time. But what what do you guys

47:51

picture in your head? A super ball?

47:53

Yeah, like exactly like that, one of those like dense

47:56

rubber blue rubber balls that bounced

47:59

really really high. So what

48:02

I immediately thought of when I

48:05

register originally was

48:07

the this, and I put

48:09

it in our group chat here for anybody's

48:12

familiar with racquetball, there's

48:14

a specific type of surface

48:16

or substance they're made of, which

48:18

is rubber like but

48:21

synthetic, and a bunch

48:23

of like if you had dogs, you probably

48:25

you might have had some of these, or growing up,

48:27

if your if your parents played sports,

48:29

or if you played a sport like racquetball. Uh,

48:32

these these are pretty familiar. But one

48:35

thing I know about you guys, One thing I learned

48:37

from the Haunted Objects episode.

48:39

You know I'm always pushing explore more paranormal

48:42

stuff, is that we have a lot

48:44

of people who feel that they

48:46

have weird stuff in

48:49

their houses. I think I mentioned the oh,

48:52

I can look at it now, just at the edge

48:54

of the darkness from the laptop I

48:56

mentioned, I have that carving that

48:59

I just try to be as respectful

49:01

to a non. I

49:04

try not to engage with it very much, like

49:06

to the point where I'm not super comfortable

49:09

carrying it around. And I know there's not a logical

49:11

explanation for that, but there is a

49:13

long history kind

49:15

of of UM once

49:18

a trope, almost the inescapable

49:20

object, right, it's

49:23

it's almost a predecessor. I'm

49:25

sure there's some there's some academic somewhere

49:27

who's who has made this an argument

49:29

for UH, like an allegory

49:32

for the problems of capitalism.

49:34

Eventually, at some point you realize

49:37

your possessions own you, So

49:39

that's UH. But I don't think that's

49:41

what we're talking about here. I think this is a

49:44

legitimate question from someone

49:46

who's thinking very rationally about what

49:48

the hell has happened over my life such

49:51

that I may be

49:53

being pursued I haunted

49:56

ball and if so, what does it

49:58

mean? And also props to your her fiance

50:01

for taking you seriously and

50:03

not being that stereotype in a horror movie.

50:06

I hate when that happens. It's lazy,

50:08

right, Oh, it's only the wind, you

50:10

know what I mean? Which I've gotten overly

50:12

developed analogy for

50:15

UM as it relates to real life events.

50:18

But yeah, I don't know. I'm interested

50:20

to hear more hypotheses,

50:22

and I think I know where you might be going there, Matt,

50:25

Sorry if I deralled this a little. These

50:27

are sold in multiples often, that's

50:30

yes, and that's exactly where I was going. I

50:32

was imagining a handball racketable. I think

50:34

this, the one I mentioned, is a handball set

50:36

that you can get in one of those packages.

50:39

And I was just imagining wherever

50:41

they originated. However they got into

50:44

the house of the first place. Maybe they did come

50:46

in multiples. Maybe a couple of them got

50:48

put away. Maybe he was really young or

50:51

this person was really young when they

50:53

were playing with the balls more often

50:56

or more frequently, and then both

50:58

he and mom forgot even had

51:00

them, because who cares. There's just a couple of balls

51:02

we got a long time ago. One ended up and

51:04

weigh in the back, win, ended up down here,

51:07

winning up over there in a drawer.

51:10

Just uh that

51:12

that's that's my It was just the wind

51:14

scenario. But it's I mean,

51:16

that's possible, right, Like there's also the question,

51:19

um, well, I have I

51:22

run with sketchy crews

51:25

of ethically dubious people.

51:28

So one of them and I'm related to quite a few

51:30

of them as well. So one of my questions was, like,

51:32

could your family be purposely pranking

51:34

you fiance

51:38

bonding with her in laws and they're

51:40

like, don't say anything, which, just take

51:42

this ball and put it under the clothes.

51:44

Okay, you are the best daughter

51:46

in law. Oh my good is gonna be epic. That

51:49

probably didn't happen, and I think you would have known,

51:51

like based on the way your fiance

51:54

reacted to your distress, which

51:56

again speaks very highly to their character.

51:59

Um makes me think that there

52:01

wouldn't be any pranks or shenanigans. You

52:03

know. It's just it's something my family would

52:05

certainly think it is hilarious, but that's

52:08

luckily not the case for other families. I

52:10

mean, what do you guys, what do you guys think? That's that's

52:12

the big thing. The time interval, right, the

52:14

pause for years of never

52:17

seeing this. How how long

52:19

was it? Oh? Yeah, he said it was

52:21

was kind of like a flash forward sequence

52:23

in a horror movie, you know, where

52:25

it's like ten years later. But

52:27

let me see what the actual number is real quick.

52:30

Sorry, guys, I don't mean to interrupt your ben

52:32

I keep thinking about your prank angle now,

52:35

and I'm just imagining, Uh,

52:38

this person is going to be you

52:40

know, they're gonna arrive home and they're gonna find

52:42

the blue ball once again, like in the microwave

52:44

or something, and they're gonna open it up,

52:47

see it in there, and then

52:49

Tracy Morgan's gonna pop out and be like, ha,

52:52

are you scared? It's scared. Oh,

52:56

you shouldn't be scared, like

52:58

the ball was Bruce Willis the whole time.

53:01

Wait wait wait, during the lead here, Tracy

53:03

Morgan had a prank show. Uh, Tracy

53:05

Morrigan recorded a bunch of segments

53:08

for a prank show. Got it completely

53:10

separately from the show. Okay,

53:14

uh, And I realized now, just doubling

53:16

back, it doesn't have an exact year.

53:19

It was just a few years later we moved. But

53:22

this whole thing reads like you know

53:24

that story and it was one of those

53:26

kids books that actually was pretty scary

53:28

about the girl with the ribbon around her neck

53:31

and then on her deathbed, like the husband

53:33

like takes the ribbon off, and the punchline

53:35

of the whole story is and then her head

53:37

fell off and the ribbon

53:39

is like this thing that like chases them throughout their

53:42

lives or whatever ends up being this spooky

53:44

thing that she was dead the whole time. But to me, I

53:47

just picture this rubber ball as being the

53:49

most obnoxious

53:51

and just like dogged, kind

53:53

of like a supernatural nemesis

53:56

just bouncing after you, And like, I want

53:59

to see a real horror movie that really

54:01

uses like you know, horror movie troup where

54:03

you're literally just running away from a rubber bouncing

54:05

ball and it kills people by like

54:08

you know, tripping them and making them fall

54:10

to their death. You know that reminds me.

54:12

I always wondered what the true form

54:14

of the antagonist and it follows

54:17

is, right, because it looks like when it's

54:19

chasing you, you're the only one you can see it, and it

54:21

looks like various people from your lives. But what

54:23

if it's true form is just a blue

54:25

racquetball or handball? Also,

54:28

I also thought, you know, are we being

54:30

unfair about the motivations of the ball.

54:32

What if it just wants to hang out? What

54:34

if out

54:36

of billions of people, it's

54:39

woody, the

54:41

blue ball is woody and it shows

54:43

you Pokemon style, you know what I mean?

54:46

That's dope. We're trying to put a

54:48

positive spin on this, but it is it is

54:50

tough to explain, and I think, um,

54:53

I think that a lot of people, regardless of

54:55

whether you feel that you are spiritually

54:58

connected to some higher plane or whether you

55:00

are a die hard you

55:02

know, atheists, skeptic so one,

55:04

I think we've all had experiences like this

55:07

that make you, you know, just

55:09

want to double check that the doors are locked,

55:12

make sure the lights are on. And

55:14

then you think a blue rubber ball can open

55:16

doors like a velociraptor if

55:19

it goes fast enough. Yeah, it

55:21

sounds really hard on each side from left

55:23

to right. Man, I would

55:25

say, so I just want to keep all the lights off on

55:28

purpose, but it's definitely me.

55:31

Yes, I have to have this

55:33

on. So it's not you

55:36

know, you got me, you got me. It's fair. It's

55:38

fair point ball point. Um,

55:41

Yeah, that's that. That is true,

55:44

Noel. Since this this is the story

55:46

you brought, I think the last word goes to you, Matt.

55:49

I think Matt's got a pretty solid thesis

55:51

going on here about how this could be you

55:54

know, coincidence or a combination of coincidence,

55:56

and just like you know, being the victim

55:58

of thriftiness and suying rubber balls

56:00

in bulk. But I do I feel like the I feel like the

56:03

listener would have remembered that, remember

56:07

buying you know, a massive pack of these things.

56:09

But it definitely is something

56:11

that could figure into it. Um.

56:13

I don't know, man, I've seen some

56:15

spooky stuff. This this, this certainly

56:17

could be a thing. But I just what is the

56:19

ball's intention? What does it want?

56:22

Can a ball want anything? Guys?

56:24

I think we've established it. Okay, it's

56:27

the ball wants to get played with. The

56:29

ball needs some racket

56:31

ball time and it's been waiting for

56:33

it and it just never got it. So it's like maybe

56:35

if I'm closer to the the socks

56:37

in the soft drawer or to you know,

56:39

the workout shorts,

56:43

it just wants you to play with it forever

56:46

and ever and ever. So

56:49

that's the takeaway, folks. Make sure

56:52

to play with your balls. You know, there

56:54

may be consequences. Can we keep

56:56

that in, especially if they're blue? All

56:58

right, doc? Can we keep that one in you

57:05

guys? Alright? I

57:07

say we keep it okay, all right, well the

57:09

doctors spoken. Uh, thank

57:11

you so much everybody for tuning

57:14

in, as you know, as

57:16

a null indicated we have. I

57:18

think all of us, as individuals in a group have

57:21

greatly immensely enjoyed reading

57:24

your accounts of things you cannot

57:26

explain, things that exist

57:28

just on the edge of what we acknowledge to be

57:31

reality. So please do not hesitate

57:33

to send us more. If you

57:35

want to tell us your personal experience

57:38

with things like in c i

57:41

CE, we would love to hear that too.

57:43

We do our best to protect your anonymity.

57:45

Uh. And if you want to

57:48

give us your take on radicalization

57:50

online or you know, if you have an

57:52

inside scoop on blue Face whom we're not too

57:55

familiar with, we'd like to hear that too. We try

57:57

to be easy to find online. That's

57:59

right. You can find us on Twitter and on Facebook.

58:01

Or we are conspiracy stuff conspiracy

58:03

stuff show on Instagram, also

58:06

conspiracy stuff on YouTube. That social

58:08

media too, ha ha. On

58:10

TikTok, we are not and on

58:13

what else? I don't know you guys are on TikTok. Maybe

58:15

you want to share your things someday, not

58:17

not yet though, Nope, okay,

58:20

I don't have a don't know. I'm that's I don't

58:22

have a TikTok, nor will

58:25

I ever mark my words makes

58:27

sense not uh no

58:29

TikTok today, but Pinterest as

58:31

always, you can find all of our stuff

58:33

on Pinterest. That's

58:36

really that's you know, uh,

58:39

that's really where the seed of the show

58:41

started is as

58:43

a as a Pinterest board. Most of your favorite

58:45

podcast started as Pinterest

58:48

boards. That is a fact. There is

58:50

no need to google it. Did see?

58:53

Did you see? We had actual listener correspondence

58:56

about not being able to find us on Pinterest.

58:58

I think somebody missed a joke and

59:01

they're somewhere. Look it, don't get me wrong, I

59:04

know it's it's great for a lot of people,

59:06

you know what I mean. It's it's a cool next

59:08

step of the vision board. Um,

59:11

and there's some ritual to it, you know. Uh,

59:13

but we we are not aware

59:16

of a stuff they want you to have interest yet. But if

59:18

you want to start one, then that's that's

59:20

up to you very much. So

59:22

um, you know, guys, before we wrap,

59:25

we hinted at another

59:27

secret message

59:29

that we were going to read on the show today. So

59:32

let's make sure we do that right at the end. That's

59:34

right, Yeah, we'll do it right before the email,

59:36

how about Okay? Okay, So the

59:39

next thing. If you don't want social media is

59:41

our phone number. You can give us a call at one

59:43

eight three three s T d W y t

59:45

K three minutes of the time that you shall

59:48

have to leave a compelling

59:50

voicemail if you feel like it's gonna take longer

59:52

than that, or you want to just like wrap, do that

59:54

via email, because we actually use the audio from

59:57

these things in our weekly listener mail episodes. Let us

59:59

know if it's okay to use your audio and

1:00:01

what to call you. And before we get to

1:00:03

the email, let's check in with Pete

1:00:06

from Australia. Hi, Pete, here's

1:00:09

what you said. You said, Hey

1:00:11

guys, Pete here from Melbourne,

1:00:13

Australia. It's been on my mind for

1:00:15

a long time and checked back through your

1:00:18

shows and failed to find you guys

1:00:20

covering it. What is it?

1:00:22

It's one of the biggest lies out there today,

1:00:25

the cover up literally of

1:00:27

Mars past civilization. That's

1:00:30

proven in the thousands of photos

1:00:32

taken by the various rovers over all

1:00:34

these years. Exclamation points. I

1:00:37

thought you guys were the kings of stuff

1:00:39

they don't want you to know. And I play

1:00:41

your podcast loud in my workshop, so

1:00:43

all across the land can hear the truth?

1:00:46

L O L. But it looks like I have it wrong.

1:00:49

Sounds like the powers to be have

1:00:51

got you all quiet on this one. I

1:00:54

believe you guys are big scarity cats

1:00:56

for not wanting to see the truth or

1:00:59

have you been paid off? L O

1:01:01

L. Surely you all know many

1:01:03

many picks exist and the proof is there

1:01:06

if you dare to look, not just the pyramid

1:01:08

face, etcetera. That's old

1:01:10

news. And then it continues.

1:01:13

The various statues, acres of shrapnel

1:01:15

and strange mechanical odd items, sometimes

1:01:18

clearly and not so clear, continue

1:01:20

to freak us out. To think another

1:01:23

civilization existed on another planet

1:01:25

is just incredible. And

1:01:27

I know the phrase by Carl Sagan incredible

1:01:30

findings require incredible proof

1:01:32

or something like that. But in but

1:01:36

in saying all that, I love your show and

1:01:39

enjoy you guys sharing your vast knowledge and intelligent

1:01:41

discussions, but it just keeps nibbling

1:01:44

at me like a sick rat eating a

1:01:46

good cheese. So come on, oh

1:01:48

no, why haven't you covered

1:01:50

this issue? So I think we can.

1:01:53

I think we can stop it there, right, Yeah,

1:01:56

I think that's it. I think we can stop it here. So

1:01:58

Pete all to say, thank

1:02:01

you so much for emailing us. This

1:02:03

made our day. Um, why of

1:02:06

the stay tuned and find out? Yeah,

1:02:08

the check your feed? Pal,

1:02:12

do you suggest you check your feed

1:02:14

for yesterday's episode? Boom?

1:02:16

Remess what time? Oh snap?

1:02:19

Check your episode? Beat? Yeah,

1:02:22

how's them Melbourne's Oh sorry

1:02:24

what that's another thing? All right, I'm

1:02:27

done. If you want to take a letter

1:02:29

from the Book of Pete and communicate

1:02:32

with us directly, as Pal Noell

1:02:34

was saying, then do so at

1:02:37

our email address where we are available

1:02:39

twenty four hours day uh seven,

1:02:41

eight days a week. No matter how productive you

1:02:43

find yourself, you can always contact us where

1:02:46

we are conspiracy at ihart radio dot

1:02:48

com.

1:03:00

Yeah.

1:03:07

Stuff they don't want you to know is a production

1:03:09

of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts

1:03:11

from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,

1:03:13

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

1:03:15

favorite shows.