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

0:09

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

0:12

production of My Heart Radio. Hello,

0:24

welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,

0:27

my name is Nol. They called me Ben,

0:29

and we're joined as always with our super

0:31

producer Alexi's coat name, Doc

0:33

Holiday Jackson. Most importantly,

0:35

you are you. You are here, and

0:38

that makes this the stuff they don't

0:40

want you to know. It's

0:42

a strange time, of course, to

0:45

have a show that applies critical thinking

0:47

to conspiracy theories. It's also

0:49

a strange time to have a weekly segment

0:51

called Strange News, and

0:54

we are here for it. We've

0:56

got some pretty fascinating stories today,

0:59

but there is one that

1:01

kind of takes the granite

1:04

cake that we need to open with. I

1:07

got word of this through multiple

1:09

people reaching out from multiple ways.

1:12

The Georgia Guidestones, located

1:15

in Elberton, Georgian, the vicinity

1:17

there of Albert County, have

1:20

been attacked at four am this morning.

1:22

As we record, they were partially

1:25

but not entirely destroyed.

1:27

I reached out to the Sheriff's

1:30

office there, I reached out to Region

1:32

eleven of the Georgia Bureau of

1:34

Investigation, as well as

1:37

their Open Records Unit and

1:39

several other departments, all

1:41

of whom confirmed the same thing. We can't

1:43

talk about it too much right now because

1:46

there haven't been very many statements

1:48

released. But one of the

1:50

things that I thought was very interesting,

1:53

as law enforcement hunts for the suspect

1:56

who has destroyed like the main tourist

1:58

attraction in that bar of the state.

2:01

UM. I thought it was very interesting

2:03

that this is July SICS as we record

2:05

this. The attack occurs um

2:08

around two months after a

2:11

little known politician here in

2:13

Georgia named Candice Taylor

2:16

posted uh that if

2:18

she was elected governor of Georgia, she

2:20

would quote bring the Satanic

2:23

regime to its knees and demolished

2:26

the Georgia guidestones uh.

2:28

And she started a hashtag hashtag

2:30

tear them Down. Had you all heard of Candice

2:33

Taylor before today or

2:35

maybe during the race? Yeah? Mainly

2:37

because of this, you know, I mean, the guide stones

2:39

I think are near and dear to all of

2:41

us. And I made a documentary about it

2:44

years and years ago and spoke

2:46

to Wyatt Martin, who is the gentleman

2:48

who is the banker that kind of was the facilitator

2:51

for the whole project with the anonymous

2:53

stranger R. C. Christian, And in

2:55

the documentary he predicted,

2:57

like on camera said, you know, I think maybe one day

3:00

someone's just gonna come and blow

3:02

the damn things up. And it

3:04

was largely his perspective was because

3:06

of all the controversies surrounding them as potentially

3:09

being this satanic monument

3:11

um. I think all

3:13

of us, through our discussion of this

3:15

and and through various other sources,

3:18

kind of debunked that as being a thing, but

3:20

that doesn't stop people from using it. And it's been

3:23

god going on ten years since.

3:25

Whyatt said that he's now passed away,

3:27

But it did end up happening.

3:30

Yeah, And I heard about Candice

3:32

Taylor spelled very strangely Candice

3:35

from John Oliver's piece he did on the Guidestones

3:38

titled Bronx I think um

3:40

And I've never heard of her before, and

3:44

it's it's very weird that this happened.

3:46

The timing is a bit odd when you don't

3:48

you think, Ben, Yeah, we also have

3:51

a documentary via Stuff They Want

3:53

you to Know, building off from your work. Noel

3:55

on it was on Amazon for some time. I've

3:58

been fascinated with these for quite

4:01

a while before my biological

4:03

family relocated to Georgia.

4:06

And the thing about it

4:08

is, you know, as I've always said,

4:10

speculation thrives in the absence

4:13

of transparency. But

4:15

right now, whether whether or not you are

4:18

fully a cab or whether

4:20

you are fully back the blue, you've

4:22

got to be human enough to note that

4:24

the law enforcement of

4:27

of that area is having a rough

4:29

day. So extend, extend

4:32

your empathy to them. They are inundated

4:34

calls. It proved to me again that politeness

4:37

can go a long way. Will update

4:39

when I get more information that they're

4:41

able to make public. But thank

4:43

you to those folks. We

4:46

do know. We do

4:48

know that, based on I think

4:50

are various research as individuals

4:53

and as a group, that

4:55

there's been a tourist destination for people all

4:57

over the world. It's also not necessarily

5:01

popular with all of

5:03

the locals. Candice Taylor

5:05

I was aware of fairly

5:08

recently during some debates

5:11

as the gubernatorial campaign was ramping

5:14

up. UH, and she was very much

5:16

someone on the more extreme

5:19

kind of chewing on side of

5:21

the equation. If you enjoy

5:24

a bit of political theater that I'm

5:26

not saying this is like a recommendation

5:29

to vote or not vote for someone. But if you

5:31

enjoy a good turn of trying

5:34

crazy phrase, then do check

5:36

out some recordings of that. They were publicly

5:38

broadcast on MPR

5:41

and the local local Atlanta

5:43

affility. It's like W A B E. It's

5:46

just interesting, how you know, something

5:48

that I think at this point has become

5:51

pretty non controversial due to various

5:54

reports and all of that is becoming

5:57

a rallying point for far right

5:59

politicians. Um.

6:01

You know, we definitely, through our research

6:03

as a team and individuals, like you said, been

6:06

determined that R. C. Christian likely

6:08

did have some mildly

6:11

eugenic leanings. Um. There

6:13

are some things about it and about his writings

6:15

as an individual that he did anonymously. Um

6:18

that that do kind of you know, follow this

6:20

whole separate the wheat from the chaff kind

6:22

of mentality. And you know, we know the first

6:24

um guide or precept

6:27

on there is maintained Earth's population at

6:29

five hundred million in perpetual

6:31

balance with nature, which taken on its face,

6:34

uh no pun intended. Um, you

6:36

could be seen as a call for genocide.

6:39

But you know UM, as we've we've

6:41

discussed the guide Stones themselves

6:43

were likely meant to be a rallying

6:46

point for rebuilding society

6:49

UM in the face of some sort of apocalyptic

6:52

events. As we know, they were constructed during the

6:54

height of the Cold War, so there was a lot of

6:56

that kind of insecurity and paranoia

6:58

around being blown up or mutually

7:01

assured destruction. So when you take it that way,

7:04

not really a bad number to shoot for. But even then,

7:07

to keep to that requires some level

7:10

of selective breeding or selective

7:12

you know, deciding who gets to have kids and how many

7:14

you get to have, So there's still somewhat

7:17

of a eugenic bent even then, right,

7:19

check out our earlier episodes. I spent

7:21

some time looking at the geography

7:24

there and what would what would

7:26

be sensible. A lot of the concerns

7:29

are practical. Also recommend

7:31

the documentary Dark Clouds

7:34

over Alberton, which,

7:36

through some unethical moves, I think

7:39

that's the right one, may have determined

7:41

the identity of UM.

7:44

The guy going by the name R. C. Christian.

7:46

But i'd heard what

7:48

what what? What? What was the determination I had

7:50

heard about that only just recently. Yeah,

7:52

yeah, I'm plugged in man. So the h

7:55

what they did essentially, and I'm not

7:57

passing judgment that's for you. Are fellow conspiray

8:00

as realists, is they?

8:02

You could say it's pretty unethical. There's a letter

8:05

that was produced that had a return address

8:08

on it, and the documentarians,

8:10

we're well aware that they

8:12

weren't supposed to be looking at that letter, but they

8:14

got they got visibility on that return

8:17

address, and that was their lead that broke this

8:21

right. They worked hard on the documentary, so I

8:23

don't want to spoil their work, but you can

8:25

find it. Well. It's interesting because I mean, you know, I a

8:27

big part of the film that I made and that we used

8:30

a lot of footage from in the kind of version

8:33

that we did UM as a show why.

8:35

It gave me a lot of the documents

8:37

UM pretty much all of the documents I have that

8:40

did not have um Arch Christians

8:43

true identity on them. So I've got a lot of photographs

8:45

and correspondencies and this letter

8:47

that he kind of wrote an open letter to that

8:50

he asked to be published in the Alberton paper, kind

8:52

of dismissing or at least trying

8:54

to explain how it wasn't this satanic

8:57

monument and everything else. Why

8:59

it burned in a barrel um

9:02

and when we were we filmed that for the film,

9:04

and you know, people always ask me, you

9:06

know, did you ever want to take a peek into

9:08

the barrel or you know, look through the

9:11

stuff and and see who the guy was? And I

9:13

end to quivocally say no, because

9:15

A it's it's disrespectful and unethical,

9:17

like you say, and be I just don't think

9:20

it matters. Given everything

9:22

about the guide stones

9:24

that we know, Um, I don't know how that would

9:26

really be of much use

9:28

or interest. I think the mystery is kind

9:31

of part of the the fun

9:33

or the kind of function even of

9:35

of the thing. And whether or not you

9:37

believe there's some weird eugenic

9:40

or cultic or illuminati bent

9:42

to it, I do think it's fascinating that someone

9:44

would take it upon themselves to build this kind

9:47

of high point that people could rally

9:49

around in the event of a nuclear

9:51

holocaust. I think that's fascinating. And we

9:54

have so few things these days that that are able

9:56

to remain anonymous, So I'm

9:58

all about maintaining that. Maybe that

10:00

makes me a bad reporter, I don't know, but it's

10:03

something that I thought was important. Yeah, and

10:05

as I've seen, the folks from Dark Clouds over

10:07

Alberton did not share that same

10:09

compunction. They went deep. They took about

10:11

five years to do it. Would love I would love

10:13

to hear what you think about that when folks UM

10:16

again. You can learn all the facts about

10:18

it in our earlier episode. UM.

10:21

For now, I think the deal we can crack

10:23

with the uh with you, fellow

10:25

conspiracy realist, is that when

10:27

I get some further updates as

10:31

on the record as I can get them regarding

10:33

this situation, I'll treat it like my

10:35

part of a weekly listener male segment.

10:38

So hopefully there will be more of that in

10:40

the coming weeks. So I did

10:42

think it was important just to highlight

10:45

this because I'm sure you have heard about

10:47

it. Uh, you've probably heard

10:49

about it for a few days, and to thank everyone

10:52

who reached out to me. I appreciate it. As

10:54

we always say, you're the best part of the show. I

10:57

wanted to end my part of

10:59

this weekly segment with something

11:01

that is very very good news

11:04

and sounds science fiction. E. It's

11:07

official. I learned about

11:09

this and this came out a while ago. I

11:12

say a while ago, as earlier in June June,

11:15

but it could be huge. If

11:17

you've listened to our stories on plastics

11:20

and on microplastics, you're

11:22

well aware of the problem of Many

11:24

people who work in the plastic industry,

11:26

as a matter of fact, have written to us about

11:28

the scoop of this issue just

11:31

fairly. Recently, scientists

11:33

discovered worms that don't

11:36

just eat plastic, but they can

11:38

digest it. They can digest strophone,

11:41

they can like take it into their bodies,

11:45

take nutrition from.

11:47

And yes, and this is like you

11:50

know, it's polystyrene is the technical

11:52

name. But this is one

11:54

of the most common types of plastic. It's

11:56

somewhere between seven to ten percent of

11:59

all the what's called non fibrous

12:01

plastic produced. Uh.

12:04

This thing this it's

12:06

specifically the darkling beetle larva,

12:09

which sounds very eld and ring, very dungeons

12:12

and dragons. Sounds like, yeah,

12:14

you collected to make consumables or something.

12:17

This thing can't just eat

12:19

this. Occasionally, this larva can

12:22

exist entirely off

12:24

a diet of styrofoam and grow

12:27

into adulthood. Okay,

12:30

I have a question, So

12:33

do we now create farms essentially

12:36

where we send all our plastics and

12:38

that these worms eat them,

12:40

and then is there may be an unu

12:43

recognized as of yet consequence

12:45

where we let them eat

12:48

them unchecked and they grow into like super

12:50

worms that then become a new problem we have to

12:52

deal with and they start eating vinyl sighting

12:54

and stuck over like

12:57

a giant snails from Africa.

13:00

Just nice.

13:03

That's a that's another related story about

13:05

you and I were talking about that off area. Yeah,

13:07

it's a good question, especially when consider that pretty

13:09

much every living thing has

13:12

plastics of some sort in it, including

13:15

you listening today, no matter what

13:17

year it is. Here's what they're hoping to do,

13:19

and this comes from the author of the

13:21

study, a guy named Chris Rink. What

13:24

they're hoping to do is not

13:26

grow the worms necessarily. The

13:29

street name is Zoophobus Mario.

13:32

They're hoping to sample the gut flora,

13:34

so this is related to the gut

13:36

flora stuff we did earlier. They want

13:38

to isolate the microbial

13:41

genes that can digest this polystyren

13:44

through a process known as meta genomics,

13:47

and then they want to produce

13:50

enzymes from that on a large

13:52

scale and just use the enzymes

13:55

in a recycling plant. So in

13:57

a way, they're ripping off the worms.

13:59

They're taking the work that the

14:01

worms are doing, and they're

14:03

for you know, and they're throwing the worms away.

14:06

Nobody's worried about what's happening to the worms.

14:08

Sadly, that's a conversation for

14:11

another day. But I gotta ask,

14:13

you know, people have their own personal phobias.

14:16

If you could have a mini

14:18

recycling plant in your house in the future

14:20

that was just this worm

14:23

terrarium, and you just when you were done with plastic

14:26

stuff, you just threw you know, your your

14:28

plastic bottle of Mountain Dew zero sugar

14:30

Baja blast into the

14:33

terrarium. This is alum that's

14:36

aluminum. Yes, but surely they're gonna go

14:39

Yeah, you can go snack.

14:42

But I mean, I'm

14:44

I picture it, Yeah, terrarium is exactly right.

14:46

Then, I picture it like I'm in my mind, I'm thinking

14:49

like an ant farm where you can kind of

14:51

view them, like going through their little tunnels

14:53

and stuff. But it's entirely you know,

14:55

plastic. Remember those like cross sections

14:57

used to see in like Earth day

15:00

situations that would show you like a cross

15:02

section of a landfill. I'm picturing

15:04

that, but like also populated

15:06

with these worms that are eating their way down through

15:08

it, like the very hungry caterpillar kind

15:10

of situation. Um, I think

15:12

that would be remarkable and a

15:14

really fun way to have some some pets.

15:17

Yes, that's that's my question. Going back

15:19

to setting up about phobias, I

15:22

know a lot of people have a phobia about insects

15:24

or worms or things that crawl in

15:26

the subterranean world. Would

15:28

you be okay with this in your own

15:30

home? Let us know. Also,

15:33

let us know if you uh blew up the Georgia

15:35

guidestones. We're gonna pause for

15:38

a word from our sponsors

15:40

and we'll return with even

15:42

more strange news. Welcome

15:51

back now everyone. The following

15:53

segment will be dripping with sarcasm.

15:55

I am sorry for that. I I do apologize

15:58

in advance. Uh. This this

16:00

segment is for

16:02

It's for everybody because we can all learn

16:04

something from this as a life hack that

16:07

we can all I think use in our lives at

16:09

some point. At some point in our lives,

16:11

this will be relevant. Okay,

16:13

So guys, let's just imagine

16:16

we're we're living in Midtown

16:18

Manhattan as we have for just forever,

16:22

and it's finally summertime, and

16:24

we get to head on out to

16:26

our vacation spot in

16:29

Long Hamps on Long Beach. It

16:33

is okay,

16:35

hand, they're

16:38

on Long Island vacation

16:43

time. Oh man, all right, the

16:45

other thing. Here's the other thing. You're

16:47

somewhere between fifty and seventy roughly,

16:50

let's say, let's say we're in our early sixties

16:53

old Okay, got it, got it? Sorry, Yeah,

16:55

you're sold. And

16:58

we gotta drive from midtown Manhattan

17:00

all the way to the Hampton's. Now

17:07

that's gonna be this. That's

17:10

that's a slap right there. That's what they call it schlap in New

17:12

York. Yeah, it really is a slip because

17:15

you're in Manhattan, which is that little island, and then

17:17

Long Island is this big island

17:19

that comes out kind of right below

17:21

it, and you gotta head east. And

17:24

here's the thing. You don't even think about it

17:26

when you're, you know, deciding you gotta go off to

17:28

your place in the Hampton's. It only costs like eight

17:30

million dollars. It's it's relatively

17:32

cheap actually for the houses out there in the Hamptons.

17:35

It was a good investment. And

17:38

we only go there a couple of times a year during the summer,

17:40

you know, when or when it

17:42

gets just too cold whatever. Um.

17:46

Usually it'll take our driver, you

17:48

know, whoever's running the rolls, about

17:51

two and a half hours to get from Manhattan

17:53

out there to the Hampton's. Here's the thing, guys,

17:56

are bladders now that we're in our sixties,

17:59

they're not what they used to be. But you don't

18:01

have a chemical toilet in the back of your roles,

18:03

Matt, No, no,

18:05

no chemical toilets back there. Uh.

18:07

It's more of a may Bok thing. That's

18:10

for the young kids there. There's

18:13

just a slot. Uh anyway,

18:15

okay, So we used as mountain

18:17

dew bottles for two

18:21

and a half hours in the rolls.

18:24

Like many many people later

18:27

later in life, in what we call

18:29

the new middle age, you know, uh,

18:33

you sometimes you get more conscious of where

18:35

a bathroom is. Huh. They

18:38

call him your gold because you always pissing yourself.

18:41

That's right, that's right now. That's

18:44

perfect, it's perfect. But

18:46

it's a real concern. It's a real concern. And I'm not

18:48

trying to be agent here, is a real concern. As

18:51

as people get older, bladder control becomes

18:53

an issue. Um, for for

18:55

men and women. It's just a problem. For men,

18:58

it is usually a prostrate and a large pro state

19:00

gland that you know, it just messes

19:02

with your bladder and it makes you have to use the

19:04

bathroom more. Uh. Similar

19:07

problems can happen with women where it's just incontinence.

19:09

It's it's harder to control when

19:12

you pee and how often you p Right, that's

19:14

the serious part. That's really the only serious part

19:16

there. There might be state checked.

19:19

Yeah, for real, seriously, get your prostate

19:21

checked, get your downstairs bits checked.

19:23

Just do it, Uh, no matter what. A

19:25

doctor's appointment like a year or so ago and I asked

19:28

for them to check my prostate and they looked at me

19:30

funny, They said I was too young, um,

19:32

which I feel like it's its own kind of age is Um. I'd

19:34

be like, well, if I want you to check my prostate, shouldn't you just check

19:36

my prostate? I don't know, right, Sorry,

19:39

we keep interrupting that. But it's

19:41

it's an age related risk thing.

19:43

It's a count, that's right. I feel like it's

19:45

most people then you would

19:48

if you have an average risk, then

19:50

age fifty is when you're supposed to start

19:52

getting them. But if you have a high risk

19:55

of it, maybe in your family or something.

19:57

Age forty five, I dropped out

19:59

of fake New York voice to underline

20:02

the fact that it is important. But

20:04

now we're back on the road,

20:08

so it could take two and a half hours. It's

20:10

you gotta get on this thing. It's

20:12

crazy. It's called the Long Island Expressway.

20:14

A lot of people call it the Big Lie l

20:16

I e Uh. It's it's

20:19

kind of terrible, guys. There really

20:21

aren't many places to go to the bathroom

20:23

there. And now that you know the

20:25

whole pandemic thing is letting

20:27

up a bit, at least in people's minds,

20:30

traffic has increased like

20:32

crazy along this expressway.

20:34

So now instead of that two and a half hours, it's

20:37

gonna take you four and a half hours, maybe maybe

20:39

even five hours to get all the way

20:41

from your mid midtown Manhattan penthouse

20:43

to your Hampton's eight million dollar beach

20:45

house. So, uh,

20:48

that's a real problem. What are you gonna do? He and some

20:51

kind of mountain dew zero sugar bob

20:54

blast cancer. It's

20:58

so bad, and he's a bottle. Come

21:00

on, you have to use a bottle. It's the old p I trick.

21:02

Because you can screw the top back on exactly,

21:06

but when the gatorade, no one will know. But

21:09

no, that's not the answer. That's not the answer.

21:12

The answer is to get

21:14

surgery on your prostate or

21:16

to inject your bladder with botox.

21:20

This is something I hadn't heard about until

21:22

you brought it up, Matt. And at first, I'm gonna

21:24

be honest with you, man, one of my favorite

21:27

people. I trust you to the end. But I

21:29

thought, is Matt pranking me? Here?

21:31

Is this like a I'm preaking

21:35

everyone? You

21:38

know, do what you will. People do all kinds

21:40

of things to feel good about themselves, and botox

21:42

freaks me out just because I don't like needles and the idea

21:45

of shooting, you know, toxins into your

21:47

face. But this sounds like at least

21:49

kind of a functional, practical use

21:51

for the stuff. In a way, it is um

21:54

It really does reduce the need to

21:56

urinate so often if you have

21:58

botox injected into your bladder. The

22:01

process doesn't look that

22:04

uh fun, but you

22:06

know it can be done. It can be done

22:08

pretty easily. I was looking at the Mayo

22:11

Clinic website. They've got you know,

22:14

how it's done, what it does how long it

22:16

lasts. If you do get one injection

22:18

into your bladder, it lasts about six months,

22:20

and you will urinate less

22:22

or have the you will have less of an urge

22:24

to urinate as often. If that makes

22:27

that's perfect for vacation season,

22:29

perfect the summertime,

22:32

as springs rolling around. I pack,

22:35

I get my p a E. My prostatic

22:37

artery embolization. That's

22:39

the other thing. That's the other thing that's not

22:41

the botox. That's that's

22:44

the procedure where you This

22:47

one's a little more involved. I was reading

22:49

on Hopkins John Hopkins Medicine.

22:51

They've got a website the morning

22:53

for people that have body horror issues.

22:56

Here is this, Okay,

22:58

all right, it's not that it's because I

23:00

got insane. All right, go on. All

23:02

you have to do is go to your doctor, and

23:05

especially if you're of that age that we mentioned, you

23:08

ask your doctor to check out the

23:10

old prostate, and they generally do

23:12

that in the way we all know about with

23:14

a digit and they you

23:17

know, do some some testing

23:19

of your urine, just see what's going on down

23:21

there, and then they can reduce

23:23

the size of your prostate. It's

23:26

really interesting it there's

23:30

there are these what do they how do they describe

23:32

it? It says tiny round

23:35

micro spheres are injected

23:37

through the catheter that's you know, going into

23:39

you, into the blood vessels

23:42

that feed your prostate, and it just reduces

23:44

the blood supply to that thing and it

23:46

shrinks it down and then your bladder

23:48

doesn't have the pressure on it that it once did. Now

23:51

you're good to go for that for our trip

23:53

to your eight million dollar mansion. Okay,

23:55

written with a little bit of disregard

23:58

for like, the author clearly thinks

24:00

this is a rich person's

24:03

problem, unless you're editorializing.

24:05

But Matt, with that, this is

24:07

something I don't I think. I

24:10

don't think we mentioned on air yet.

24:13

Uh this condition

24:15

that people are treating with P A E

24:18

and uh bladder botox.

24:21

It has a name, right, Oh yes,

24:23

Well it's at least being coined Hampton's bladder,

24:25

as in driving to the Hampton's issues

24:28

because of that Long Island Expressway. I only

24:31

know about this because of the reporting

24:33

or the writing at least from Dorry

24:35

Luak or Lewick l e w

24:37

a K. From Insider. She

24:39

wrote an article titled rich New Yorkers are

24:41

getting bladder surgery and botox to avoid

24:44

bathroom breaks on the drive to the Hampton's

24:46

um. It is a very oh.

24:50

If you think we're being sarcastic, read this

24:52

article. Oh my goodness, tongue

24:55

in cheek, not gonna say which cheek. Yeah,

24:58

oh man, And

25:00

it's a joke. It just really doesn't apply to anything.

25:03

This is not stuff they don't want you to know. The news

25:05

has been atrocious over

25:07

the past couple of weeks, and I just wanted something

25:09

that's silly, that doesn't matter, but

25:11

it could be helpful because we're all hopefully

25:14

going to be in our fifties at some point. Everybody

25:17

you listening right now, and

25:19

maybe you will need to get your prostate shrunk

25:22

or your bladder botox and

25:24

uh and that's totally fine, and that's okay.

25:27

Just be aware that if you have to do the

25:30

procedure with the prostate, it

25:32

costs about twenty grand out of pocket.

25:35

So change that's

25:37

that's like you know, maybok

25:39

car wash.

25:42

Well, it may not be for us if we have to pay out

25:44

a pocket, but if we have health insurance and we need

25:46

it, maybe we can make it happen. Would

25:49

that be considered a like,

25:51

you know, how to get things covered by insurance.

25:53

There there's all kinds of assessments that take place.

25:56

Do you think because of the botox

25:59

situation, that would be considered a cosmetic

26:01

procedure just automatically

26:03

or is this like equality of life

26:05

procedure, Like I wonder how it would be categorized

26:08

in insurance parlance. It's

26:10

not a bad question, and it's I

26:12

think it's an important question. One thing

26:15

I found I haven't again, I learned about this

26:17

from you Mann I have. I learned it by watching you.

26:19

I haven't. I haven't

26:22

dropped into too much research here,

26:24

but from what I understand initially,

26:27

medicare does cover botox

26:30

for overactive bladder treatment

26:33

because it may be necessary.

26:36

So that may be um

26:38

useful because although this is

26:40

getting reported kind of in

26:43

the framework of rich people

26:46

problems, it's still it's still

26:48

true like having

26:50

um issues with your bladder. It's

26:53

not as though your bladder checks your income

26:55

or your net worth before having a problem,

26:58

right, So it makes it makes sense

27:00

to me logically that's something like Medicare

27:02

would cover that. But we're not insurance

27:05

experts, and we're definitely not experts

27:08

or fans of privatized medical insurance.

27:11

We also not fully in

27:13

the era of like life extension

27:15

technology for the super rich yet or

27:17

like gatica level gene

27:19

splicing or selective breeding.

27:22

So we gotta jump on what we

27:24

can in terms of like giving the richie's

27:26

a bit of a hard time. Yeah, I

27:29

had to read you, guys a quote from the article

27:31

there from Insider. It comes from

27:34

a New York eurologist

27:37

named Dr David Schusterman, and

27:40

he said, he says, patients

27:43

have told him about all these uh fights

27:45

that they have in cars while they're on their

27:47

way to the Hampton's and

27:50

when like a friend in the car needs to go

27:52

to the bathroom and then keeps having to go to

27:54

the bathroom, but there's nowhere to get off the

27:56

road, so you just it becomes a fight

27:58

in the vehicle, then a fight

28:00

about whether or not you will actually go to the lengths

28:03

of peeing into a bottle um,

28:05

and and then there are no there

28:07

are no places to stop. And

28:10

he says, quote, thousands of people are probably

28:12

fighting about this every week, and

28:14

he can relate. The doctor can relate. According to

28:16

your article quote, I can't tell you

28:18

how many arguments I personally get into.

28:21

I've lost three friends because I'm

28:23

the driver and refused to stop for them.

28:25

There's just no place to stop in

28:28

general. Are you guys stoppers? Are you guys

28:30

like drive till the bitter enders? Because I'm

28:32

a drive to the bitter ender. If my

28:34

son's in the car, then we're stopping

28:36

whenever he's got to go. If not, we're

28:40

going until we get there or until we

28:42

got kids. My kids

28:44

thirteen, so it's like, and

28:47

if she's like, Okay, I've got to go to the bathroom

28:49

and we're like forty five minutes from the destination,

28:51

I'm gonna put up a bit of a fuss. I'm

28:53

like, come on, surely you can hold

28:56

it for forty five minutes. But again, this is a thirteen

28:58

year old versus a aeriatric

29:00

individuals. So but I don't know, it seems

29:02

like an interesting thing to lose a friend over. I want

29:05

to shout you out, Matt, because I

29:07

love how instantly's

29:10

always reading this story in preparation

29:12

for this. Um. I love the way

29:14

you wrote the description, so

29:16

watch the even like I

29:18

had to reach out to you about it because it

29:21

does. It does feel like

29:23

a curb your enthusiasm problem.

29:26

It does, doesn't it? I don't

29:29

know if Larry still listens to the show,

29:31

but Larry, I think you would. You

29:34

might want to give Matt a little

29:36

a little nod in the credits next season.

29:39

Look, anybody can can

29:42

write or say his pretty, pretty

29:44

pretty line in the way that it should

29:46

be said. Uh,

29:49

just some time I watch Yes,

29:51

I agree, anytime I watch anything on

29:54

HBO. It doesn't matter what it is. As

29:56

soon as that that screen comes

29:58

up with HBO logo, you get that whole

30:01

every time in my head. Yes,

30:09

yes, I'm with you, dude, I'm with you.

30:11

I just have been around for like going

30:13

on twenty years. Yeah,

30:16

it's true, it's crazy. Yeah. And if

30:18

you want to, uh, if you want to know my

30:20

my full proof method

30:23

for road trips, folks, you can just

30:25

write to me directly. I don't want to take too much

30:27

room explaining it because it is somewhat

30:30

in depth, but that

30:32

this is the right time. But this is the no,

30:34

no, no, we gotta keep some mystery. I

30:37

don't think he really wants to share it, Matt. I think he's

30:39

just teasing, but

30:45

just right to be. And I'll tell you I

30:47

always get a Calypso Island Wave

30:49

lemonade bottle and must be empty.

30:51

And I found that this is the perfect

30:54

amount of urine. And it's

30:56

also got a very wide top here,

30:58

so it just can comments a Calypso

31:00

Island wave of lemonade made me produce

31:03

that much. You're in just sitting

31:05

here putting

31:07

that out there, and it's

31:09

got a top, it's got a lit So there

31:12

you go. You know what's up? All right? Well,

31:15

uh, that's it. I hope that was helpful

31:18

for everybody, especially you, selful

31:22

for us. We'll be right back with more strange news.

31:31

And we're back with one more piece of strange

31:33

news. Fellas. Have either

31:35

of you ever been to a screening of the Rocky

31:37

Horror Picture Show? Yes, yes,

31:40

you know what you guys have both also been to space

31:42

Camp. I haven't been a space

31:44

camp. I've also never been to a screening of the Rocky Horror Picture

31:47

Show. But it's down the street. It's like every

31:55

left. I just never managed

31:57

to go. It's not something I feel like I should go to by

31:59

myself. But maybe I'll change that. Um,

32:02

here's the thing, Like, okay, so films like that and

32:04

like the the what is it the room?

32:06

There are other ones. Um, they're usually

32:08

you know, long standing cult classic

32:11

films that have these traditions

32:13

of people showing up in costume, bringing

32:16

in particular props, shouting at the screen,

32:18

singing little songs, doing little rituals

32:20

that are kind of outside of the film itself.

32:23

It's very participatory, and anybody that hasn't

32:25

seen the film or isn't familiar with the culture

32:28

would be completely clueless as to

32:30

what's going on. But also it would probably be very

32:32

entertaining. You don't typically associate

32:34

that kind of stuff with brand new,

32:37

first run movies that are like, you

32:39

know, in the theaters for a

32:41

holiday weekend. But thanks

32:44

to a little something called TikTok, that's

32:46

now beginning to change. Um

32:49

with the release of Minions the

32:51

Rise of grew So I sort of

32:53

started getting hip to something in the water,

32:56

um before the movie even

32:58

came out. Um in it was just it

33:00

was getting memed like crazy. I mean,

33:03

Minions have been meme fodder for

33:05

some time. Um, you know, they're cute

33:07

little guys. There's they all kind of have a different

33:09

look. There's different arrangements of them. You can do that

33:11

kind of image macro where you have this stack of

33:14

Minions represent one concept and this other

33:16

minion that's being abused in some way representing

33:18

another. But all of a sudden, leading up

33:20

to the release of the Rise of Grew, the

33:23

meme minion meme content just kind

33:25

of started going out of control. And and

33:27

my kids pretty tapped into this

33:29

stuff, you know, more so than than than me

33:31

and and any of us, I think, at least in terms

33:34

of the very kind of specific

33:36

kind of TikTok meme culture, which

33:39

is its own thing. And I'm not really I'm

33:41

sort of like a second run TikTok mem

33:43

or. I'll see them when they've been reposted on Instagram

33:45

a couple of days later. Um, but I

33:47

was curious, and all of a sudden, my kids just losing

33:49

her mind about this new Minions movie. And she's

33:52

never really been you know, the Minions movies

33:54

are fun, Despicable Me and all of that, and Grew,

33:57

but it's never been something that she's been particularly

34:00

bonkers about. And all of a sudden

34:02

she is not staying with me this particular

34:04

nighte and she goes to see Minions, and its messaging me after

34:06

and say, oh my god, dad, it was absolutely

34:09

you know, top quality cinema. There were so many

34:11

dapper gentlemen in the crowd.

34:13

I'm like, what gentle Minions, that's

34:16

what, yeah, And then I realized

34:18

She's like, well, you don't know about the hashtag gentle

34:21

Minions trend, and

34:23

I did not, And I was wondering about the

34:25

you know, the explosion of of Minions

34:27

memes. But this is why there

34:30

was this hashtag. Somebody started on

34:32

TikTok hashtag gentle Minions and

34:35

it led to an absolute just

34:37

you know, explosion of people

34:40

showing up to the premiere of the Minions movie

34:42

wearing their formal wear.

34:44

They're they're their most dapper formal attire,

34:47

suite jackets, college shirts, ties and all

34:50

of that stuff going to theaters to see

34:52

this movie. Not only that, and you

34:54

may know that the Minions are quite fond of

34:56

bananas. They say banana

34:58

a lot, and they like bananas. Whatever

35:00

reason, I think that maybe weren't the Minions

35:02

like born on an Island or something, or am I thinking

35:04

of the Olympus. I might be confused. There's a lot

35:06

of crossover in this lore. But anyway,

35:10

um, people across the country

35:12

and the world have been showing

35:14

up to premiers of the

35:16

Minions movie. The Rise of grou wearing the formal

35:19

attire UM, doing all kinds

35:21

of crazy dances, shouting at

35:23

the screen, throwing bananas, making a

35:25

real hullabaloo, and

35:27

it's led to some of the

35:29

largest theater chains on

35:32

the planet, specifically one called odeon

35:35

Um that I think is only in the UK and

35:37

Australia. It's not in this neck of the

35:39

woods or in this country, UM,

35:41

leading to them banning anyone

35:44

showing up to the Minions movie wearing

35:46

formal attire. I'm not joking. There's you

35:49

can find images online of people posting

35:51

photos of you may remember,

35:53

I think it was one of the incredible movies

35:55

where there was a lot of uh controversy

35:57

around. There was like a scene that had a lot of um

36:00

uh flashes in it that could lead to epileptic

36:03

issues with people that have that condition. So they

36:05

were signs saying, you know, warning people that

36:07

this film contained a sequence you know

36:10

with some really bright rapid flashes.

36:13

This sign is much different,

36:15

it reads UH. Due

36:17

to recent disturbances following

36:20

the hashtag gentlemenions trend, any

36:22

group of guests in formal attire will

36:24

be refused entry for showings of

36:27

Minions. The rise of group UM

36:30

disturbances, you know, and

36:33

I kind of get it because it's like,

36:35

this isn't a cult movie when you go to see Rocky

36:37

Horror Picture Show. You know what you're signing up for. You're

36:40

going to be a part of this kind of experiential

36:43

thing, this sort of interactive almost

36:45

theater. But people that are

36:47

just fresh out of a pandemic finally

36:50

making out of the theaters with their kids who

36:52

are maybe you know, pandemic babies who are

36:54

just now maybe old enough, maybe not babies,

36:56

but you know what, I'm getting to see a first

36:59

run theatrical lease, of which there are much fewer

37:01

lately. Of course, uh, this could

37:03

be kind of annoying. Um. They apparently

37:06

a lot of these theaters, including regal

37:08

cinemas here in the United States and

37:10

and a MC and the like, have had to

37:12

issue a lot of refunds. So

37:15

while the company Illumination

37:18

Entertainment UM behind the

37:20

Minions movie, seems to have embraced

37:22

this this trend. They actually did a tweet

37:25

saying that they, you know, people showing up

37:27

to see the Minions movie in your suits,

37:30

we see you. It actually speciically

37:32

as Universal Pictures, which is, you know, who owns

37:34

illumination to everyone showing up to

37:36

hash at minions in suits we see

37:38

you and we love you, and then the little

37:41

emoji of the heart fingers. Um.

37:43

But again, this could potentially be causing

37:46

some financial disruption to the actual

37:48

franchises of the theaters. Um.

37:51

There was even a story I saw about some

37:53

you know teens, uh

37:56

adults even like you know, I mean adults

37:58

is a relative term, I suppose here, but dressing

38:00

up in like outfits, like resembling like custodial

38:03

staff and uh, you know,

38:05

sneaking in buckets of bananas

38:07

that they then you know, ran am uck with. So

38:10

I don't know, I just think it's fascinating what leads

38:13

to a meme like this and

38:15

how it can go. One of a

38:17

couple of directions, this is obviously one that's

38:20

been very positive for the movie overall,

38:22

because it's I think a record breaking opening

38:25

weekend. I think it made you know, north

38:27

of a hundred million dollars. I think it's

38:30

like, you know, heading towards breaking

38:32

some records for an opening um fourth of July

38:34

weekend. But also it seems to be causing

38:36

some problems for the individual theaters

38:38

and also for you know, parents, trying

38:40

to take their kids to the movie, not

38:42

wanting to be disrupted by ironically

38:45

uh suit clad tweens. Um.

38:49

Another example of this that maybe didn't

38:52

go this direction that we talked about a little bit off there,

38:54

that I'd love to hear what you guys think about, is

38:56

what happened with the movie Morbius, which

38:58

is a pretty

39:01

poorly reviewed UM d C movie

39:03

or Sony rather. It's a Spider Man villain

39:05

UM or I don't know. He's kind of an anti hero I guess,

39:08

played by Jared Leto. He's like a doctor

39:10

that becomes a vampire. And apparently the movie is quite

39:12

bad, but it created so much meme

39:14

content that even after it bombed

39:16

in the theaters the first time, UM

39:19

Sony was like, hey, look at all these memes.

39:21

So they re released it to a second

39:23

run in the theater specifically on the steam

39:25

of these memes meme steam um,

39:28

and it bombed a second time. So

39:31

it was like double embarrassing for Sony because

39:33

they didn't quite get why

39:35

the memes were happening. But Universal

39:38

seems to have just kind of rolled with it.

39:41

So I don't know, what do you guys think? What makes a

39:43

meme? What makes a moment

39:45

like this. Well, I haven't seen

39:48

morebeous yet, guys, So I don't know. I don't know about

39:50

that. Um, I'm trying to think

39:52

of other meme things like this. The only thing

39:54

I can remember is Star Wars when it

39:56

was just at the end of high school

39:58

in the new Star Wars, the New Star

40:00

Wars were coming out the what

40:03

were those of the prequels, Yeah, and people

40:05

were just going to the theater's dress this Jedi.

40:07

That's all. That's the only thing I can remember. That's

40:10

a common thing. There's also, I mean, inseparable

40:13

from this conversation is something

40:16

that Matt, you and I touched on

40:18

briefly a while back, and then

40:20

I think the three of us touched on it in an

40:22

earlier Strange News

40:25

segment. Um,

40:27

it's that marketing is inseparable from

40:30

this. So one of the goals

40:32

of marketing operations for

40:34

anything is to go viral. So

40:37

in the case of minions, it's

40:39

completely possible that a marketing

40:41

campaign was started

40:43

right to appear organic.

40:46

I don't have any proof of this, um, but I

40:48

did read a fantastic article from

40:51

g Q about gentlemenions

40:54

by Grant Renders, so shout out to you,

40:56

Grant that just came out yesterday.

40:58

I want to say, um. In this uh,

41:01

they discuss how this thing evolved

41:04

the world of ubiquitous media has

41:07

definitely eased the

41:09

process, lessened the friction

41:11

of making things go um go

41:14

viral. Though I don't care for the way that phrase

41:17

is used often. I like to think when

41:19

these things happen that they are organic

41:21

and that people are just enjoying

41:24

it and working together

41:26

collaboratively. The way that people

41:28

in sports stadiums would toss

41:31

balls right together with strangers,

41:33

you didn't do the way the wave right.

41:36

And so the reason I think that's

41:38

such a good comparison, and

41:40

I'm not sure people have made that comparison yet,

41:42

it's because it asked very little from

41:45

the participant and the award.

41:47

The reward for your action is to be part of something

41:50

bigger. But it's also very easy

41:52

to game that, especially

41:54

if you can originate a hashtag

41:57

and sort of hide your hand or

41:59

get some influencers to originate

42:02

a hashtag. In the goal of morbius, I'll

42:04

shut up in a second, and the goal of morbius

42:07

um. I do want to point out that

42:10

this was reversed because

42:12

the people who are doing this on

42:14

forums across the internet knew

42:16

that they control the studios marketing

42:19

arms, right, and they wanted

42:22

more Bias, which has been a panned

42:24

film, right. They wanted more bus

42:26

to flop, and so they

42:29

they tried to make it seem

42:31

as though there was this ground swell, even though

42:33

it's quite sarcastic and snarky if you're in the

42:35

know, uh, And it worked. Morbius

42:38

Is re release made three

42:41

hundred thousand dollars over

42:43

over the weekend when it first released. That

42:46

breaks down according to hype Beasts, that breaks

42:49

down to about dollars

42:51

per theater. So they really did as

42:53

successful trolling. I'm just saying those

42:55

are two examples about can go either

42:57

way, but hopefully take in it. And

43:00

I think every time I've seen a

43:02

marketing company or marketing

43:04

department try to create

43:07

something organically or create

43:10

something that resembles an organic

43:12

meme, it usually falls flat. Um.

43:15

So I would argue that this Minions

43:17

thing is just an example of ironic gen

43:21

z humor kind of run

43:23

a muck uh in a way that's

43:25

pretty innocuous and just

43:28

leads to some kind of viral

43:30

moments uh and mild annoyance,

43:33

you know, for theater employees. Guys.

43:35

I'm looking at box office Mojo for Morbious.

43:38

It's looking like it's worldwide release. Remember

43:40

how we talked about the international versus

43:42

domestic releases. It's

43:45

made a hundred and sixty three

43:47

almost a hundred and sixty four million dollars.

43:49

Now that's interesting, Matt, because you gotta wonder if

43:52

these American memes

43:54

are translating to butts and seats

43:56

in other countries too, because I mean, there really is no

43:58

I mean, it depends on the country, I guess, and how your

44:01

internet is or is not censored, but things

44:04

are interpreted differently. And also, you

44:06

know, we know that movies that maybe

44:08

seem corny here or pan

44:10

sometimes do remarkably well in

44:13

other countries, um, depending on

44:15

you know, the property. So that's

44:17

you know, obviously that makes the movie worth

44:19

having been made. So I don't

44:21

know that executives are like

44:23

too salty about all this stuff as sony.

44:26

If that's the case, that's pretty

44:28

good. But what was the budget of the movie?

44:30

Yeah, I don't. I don't have that information here.

44:33

Usually you do when you check out box

44:36

office Mojo. Original

44:40

release earned a hundred and sixty three million worldwide,

44:43

only seventy four million domestically.

44:46

Uh so it only it earned a million dollars

44:48

less domestically than it's seventy five million dollar

44:50

budget. But internationally,

44:53

um, it's uh, it's it's basically considered

44:56

kind of a mild success. But it does

44:58

have the rare distinction of being, um,

45:00

one of the only, if not the only, movie

45:02

that bombed twice at the domestic box office.

45:05

So there you have it, minions

45:07

and more bous memes and movies.

45:10

Um, what what makes a meme? Let us

45:12

know? You can do that in a lot of ways.

45:14

Actually, that's right. Let us know. Also

45:17

if you live in the Albert region,

45:19

just heard from some folks that I mean I asked

45:21

to go take some direct photographs of this. Uh,

45:24

let us know if you'd be okay with plastic

45:26

eating worms living in

45:28

your house for the greater good. What's

45:32

the longest road trip you have taken

45:34

without being And do you want to know?

45:37

Uh? Do you want to know the nuts

45:39

and bolts of my somewhat

45:41

militant road trip policy. All

45:44

these and more you can find by

45:46

reaching out to us online where on Facebook

45:49

is Here's where it gets crazy. We're on Twitter

45:51

as conspiracy stuff, Instagram is

45:54

conspiracy stuff show. You can find us

45:56

on YouTube as well. But ways you

45:58

might be saying, I my elf,

46:00

I'm not a partaker of social

46:02

media. I like my media old

46:05

school, a drunk town crier

46:07

in the public square. If I want

46:09

to contact you, I'm talking direct. I

46:12

need a phone number. Well, do

46:14

we have some news for you? Yes,

46:17

we have one of those, and it's one

46:19

eight three three st d w

46:22

y t K. When you call in, you

46:24

will hear Ben, you will hear the music

46:26

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give yourself a cool nickname and let us know if we can

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46:37

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46:49

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46:51

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46:53

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46:56

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