Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 1: learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
Speaker 2: my name is Nolan.
Speaker 3: They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
Speaker 3: super producer Alexis code named Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly,
Speaker 3: you are here. That makes this the stuff they don't
Speaker 3: want you to know. And by the way, folks, if
Speaker 3: you live in the fair metropolis of Los Angeles, we
Speaker 3: got to say we like it here. Three fourths of
Speaker 3: us are on the road. But the strange news continues.
Speaker 3: We've got what you call Nola heavy sandwich today. We've
Speaker 3: got stories of like a lot of news broke right
Speaker 3: as we were recording last week, right after we recorded,
Speaker 3: the tragic cancer diagnosis of Kate Middleton came out. We
Speaker 3: also learned about a very suspicious Moscow attack, also heartbreaking,
Speaker 3: which we're going to dive into. We've got a fun
Speaker 3: superstition story from Japan. Before we do any of that,
Speaker 3: there's something we've been talking about off air that occurred
Speaker 3: quite recently in Maryland.
Speaker 2: Yes, and actually I just got an update as we
Speaker 2: began rolling here, so we will work that into the story.
Speaker 2: But let's begin with what occurred in the early hours
Speaker 2: of Tuesday, March twenty sixth, and we will give you
Speaker 2: some of this information from an NPR article titled what
Speaker 2: We Know and Don't Know about Baltimore's Key Bridge collapse. So,
Speaker 2: in those early morning hours of Tuesday, March twenty sixth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, it's yesterday as we record this episode,
Speaker 2: a ship called the Dolly. This is DLI. It's a
Speaker 2: nearly one thousand foot container ship. It's registered in Singapore.
Speaker 2: It departed from the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore, Maryland,
Speaker 2: traveled a very short distance, and then at around one
Speaker 2: thirty am Eastern Time, it appeared to lose power, at
Speaker 2: least according to some of the video footage that was
Speaker 2: captured of this incident. Then it shifted course towards one
Speaker 2: of the key areas of the Francis Scott Key Bridge,
Speaker 2: which goes across the river there right near Baltimore, Maryland,
Speaker 2: and it was traveling about nine point two miles per
Speaker 2: hour and it impacted the bridge when it hit the bridge.
Speaker 2: The entirety of the bridge collapsed. It's a tragic, otherworldly,
Speaker 2: film like thing to behold. It doesn't seem real. It
Speaker 2: looks like something that happened years ago, and you would
Speaker 2: watch it on some kind of documentary or something. It
Speaker 2: just again, it doesn't appear real, but it actually happened, thankfully.
Speaker 2: There was a may day signal that was sent out
Speaker 2: by the crew of that large container ship, the Dolly,
Speaker 2: so police were they literally had ninety seconds to shut
Speaker 2: down traffic flowing onto the bridge from either side, which
Speaker 2: they were able to do so. There were very few,
Speaker 2: if any vehicles actually traveling across the bridge when it collapsed.
Speaker 2: But there was a crew of at least eight people,
Speaker 2: possibly more working on that bridge repairing potholes when it collapsed,
Speaker 2: And as we were recording this, there is right now
Speaker 2: recovery efforts for those people. Two of them were recovered,
Speaker 2: one seriously injured, one injured but not as badly as
Speaker 2: the first person. And there are six or seven people
Speaker 2: presumed dead who are still currently.
Speaker 3: Missing, just because of the time that collapsed.
Speaker 2: Right exactly, and the temperatures of the water and a
Speaker 2: lot of again, the drop from where that bridge was exactly.
Speaker 2: Right now, federal investigators are trying to figure out what
Speaker 2: the heck happened? How did the power go out on
Speaker 2: this huge ship right after leaving port. When it did
Speaker 2: go out, why did it go in that trajectory, like
Speaker 2: directly towards one of these huge columns that is a
Speaker 2: fairly small target when you look at the length of
Speaker 2: the river there, right.
Speaker 3: It sounds like the rudder got frozen when they lost.
Speaker 2: Power exactly, and they were able to recover power at
Speaker 2: least according to some of the theories that are being
Speaker 2: the postulations. Let's say that they were able to recover
Speaker 2: some power but not to the engines, so they weren't
Speaker 2: able to get thrust or they didn't have the ability
Speaker 2: to move that rudder to then change the ship's trajectory
Speaker 2: or to slow it down.
Speaker 4: Do we have a sense of who's responsible or who
Speaker 4: is going to be held responsible for this?
Speaker 3: It's tough at this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right now, it's trying to figure out what the
Speaker 2: heck happened?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: Is it dirty fuel? That's one of the theories that's
Speaker 2: come out that somehow messed with the engines so they
Speaker 2: were unable to perform properly. Was it someone at the
Speaker 2: helm that did something improperly. But either way, it seems
Speaker 2: like a tragic accident. At least it seems that way now,
Speaker 2: although you will find people online talking about how it
Speaker 2: appears deliberate because there is. It does again it feels
Speaker 2: like there's something off the way if you watch the
Speaker 2: full video, guys. I linked to a YouTube video that
Speaker 2: shows the entire like several minutes prior to the crash
Speaker 2: and collapse, and it does feel weird. It feels like
Speaker 2: it goes on target to this pillar, even though that
Speaker 2: doesn't seem like what actually occurred.
Speaker 3: Right. Yeah, we were talking about this bit off air,
Speaker 3: and I was also talking with a bunch of folks
Speaker 3: on Twitter or x or whatever, some of whom live
Speaker 3: and work in the Baltimore area. And it's the thing
Speaker 3: again where we want to make sense of a track, right,
Speaker 3: We want to have an explanation, ideally with a very
Speaker 3: clear good or bad side.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: But from what people are saying, from the analysis that
Speaker 3: I've read, I haven't traveled to this bridge the analysis
Speaker 3: I've read and from what people on the ground have
Speaker 3: been saying, I haven't spoken with anybody who's actually on
Speaker 3: the ship. But they're they're saying, it looks like the
Speaker 3: power loss occurred while the rudder was in one direction,
Speaker 3: and then the captain or the crew gave the order
Speaker 3: to try to drop anchor to swing a little bit
Speaker 3: more astute leave right because or to prevent that curving
Speaker 3: toward the pillar. And it's simply you know, as we
Speaker 3: as we said off air, it's really hard to turn
Speaker 3: those suckers. They're absolutely beast and even if a bridge
Speaker 3: looks big, it's not built to withstand an impact like that.
Speaker 4: And I'm sorry, guy, this isn't one of those bridges
Speaker 4: that can like open up to make way for large,
Speaker 4: taller ships, is it.
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: It has the section as a clear set kind of
Speaker 2: in the center of it that has clearance for these
Speaker 2: larger container ships. But it was built at a time
Speaker 2: when container ships were much smaller than this.
Speaker 3: True.
Speaker 2: True, it has what was it guys? Oh man, I'm
Speaker 2: have to find it in one of my other links here.
Speaker 2: But it has the capacity to carry like ten thousand
Speaker 2: of these container what do we call these things?
Speaker 3: Cargo containers?
Speaker 2: Cargo containers. It has a way again, it's a thousand
Speaker 2: feet long and it's way larger way bigger, and you know,
Speaker 2: it doesn't have anything to do with the height. It
Speaker 2: could have made it just fine underneath that bridge if
Speaker 2: it had gone in the right place, like gone underneath
Speaker 2: the right place.
Speaker 3: It can carry almost ten thousand of those cargo containers.
Speaker 3: So if you've ever seen a train going by each
Speaker 3: one of those cargo containers, imagine ten thousand of those
Speaker 3: on a ship that's large enough to keep itself afloat
Speaker 3: and maneuver in the ocean. So these things are these
Speaker 3: things are very difficult to turn. It's possible to turn
Speaker 3: them on a dime, you know.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and again, they lost power multiple times in
Speaker 2: a very short time span. I think it was a
Speaker 2: couple of minutes where they lost power, recovered it through
Speaker 2: a generator, then lost power again. The voyage data recorder
Speaker 2: has been recovered, at least according to the National Transportation
Speaker 2: Safety Board, So we will be getting, I guess, a
Speaker 2: better idea or they will be getting a better idea
Speaker 2: of what exactly occurred, like minute by minute, second by
Speaker 2: second actions that were taken on the ship itself. There's
Speaker 2: been a lot said about previous safety issues with the ship.
Speaker 2: According to NPR, it's had twenty seven previous inspections, and
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen, this is a Quote it sustained significant
Speaker 2: damage to its hull after hitting a dock while leaving
Speaker 2: a port in Antwerp, Belgium. And then last year it
Speaker 2: was found to have a problem with quote propulsion and
Speaker 2: auxiliary machinery. But again, who knows.
Speaker 4: It's just like a Boeing quality control issue that might
Speaker 4: be even company wide with these types of shit.
Speaker 2: I just wondered, I haven't seen that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Dolly's made by marisk and marisk Is they're a
Speaker 3: Danish company. They make a ton of these things, a ton,
Speaker 3: but they, like any company of their size, they've had issues,
Speaker 3: but not at the frequency, you know, like they contained
Speaker 3: frequency of Boeing. And also, honestly, cargo ships function under
Speaker 3: such tremendous wear and tear and stress that it would
Speaker 3: be kind of surprising for an inspection to occur and
Speaker 3: not find a couple of problems, right, because there's just
Speaker 3: so much stuff that could go wrong.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, really quickly, Alexis. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you're recording audio, if you're available for comment, but just
Speaker 2: since this is like the Baltimore area, and I wonder
Speaker 2: if you've had any if you've ever hung out over
Speaker 2: there in the Baltimore area at all, or you guys,
Speaker 2: have you spent much time over there. I just want
Speaker 2: to learn more about the Potapsco or potaps Go, I think,
Speaker 2: is how you would say it. The river that this
Speaker 2: bridge was spanning across, and I've never I don't think
Speaker 2: I've ever driven across it or been in that area much.
Speaker 2: Just wonder if any of you guys are if Alexis has.
Speaker 4: I've been there before, but I don't have any noteworthy
Speaker 4: affiliation with the area.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, cool.
Speaker 4: Everything I know about it I learned from I think
Speaker 4: season two of The Wire, where it's all about the shipping,
Speaker 4: you know, and the what sort of they called longshoremen
Speaker 4: and the union and all that stuff, and they talk
Speaker 4: about the Potapsco a lot in that season, and there's
Speaker 4: definitely a lot of you know, it's about basically, like
Speaker 4: you know, planned oversight. Let's just say, in shipping and
Speaker 4: receiving that I could imagine could trickle down to safety
Speaker 4: measures in terms of getting things through. Maybe that should
Speaker 4: probably be given a little more attention just for the
Speaker 4: sake of keeping things running, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just to jump out of that. I have been
Speaker 3: to I've been to Baltimore. I've spent some time Maryland.
Speaker 3: But Matt, if you drove over this bridge, you would
Speaker 3: absolutely remember it because it's so long. It's like more
Speaker 3: than a mile long.
Speaker 5: That freaks me out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, six or something miles. And then also, if you're
Speaker 3: not familiar with the area in general, and I think
Speaker 3: a lot of us probably aren't, the Baltimore shipping the
Speaker 3: magnitude of that industry cannot be overstated. This is a
Speaker 3: huge blow. And I'm sure we've all seen the photos
Speaker 3: in the aftermath of the literal waiting line of shipping
Speaker 3: containers that formed within just I mean fewer than twenty
Speaker 3: four hours after this.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, so let's talk about that. The port where
Speaker 2: this ship left is further in towards Baltimore, right, So
Speaker 2: if you imagine coming in from the sea through then
Speaker 2: the river then to get to the port, the bridge
Speaker 2: was standing between entrance to that area and the port
Speaker 2: right So effectively, right now there is just a bunch
Speaker 2: of metal shrapnel and shards of a giant bridge that
Speaker 2: is all the way across. So it is preventing ships
Speaker 2: from going in and out of port right now, at
Speaker 2: least for the most part, and the story really shifted
Speaker 2: quickly from tragedy to an a story about economic impact
Speaker 2: because eighty billion dollars worth of cargo goes through this
Speaker 2: port every year, including, according to NPR, eight hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty thousand cars and trucks. So imagine that, first of all,
Speaker 2: that's like shipping manufacturing vehicles. It also provides fifteen thousand
Speaker 2: jobs to human beings that work there in the port,
Speaker 2: in about three point three billion dollars in personal income
Speaker 2: to families right to people who actually work there, and
Speaker 2: two point six billion dollars in business revenue, and lastly
Speaker 2: four hundred million dollars in tax revenue according to the
Speaker 2: state of Maryland. The President went on television and discussed
Speaker 2: this like, we're going to get this up and running again.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get the port going, we're going to clean
Speaker 2: this up, we're going to rebuild the bridge, and he
Speaker 2: also stated that the federal government would be paying for
Speaker 2: the rebuilding process.
Speaker 5: That answer is part of the who's responsible.
Speaker 4: It's not who's responsible per se, but this is something
Speaker 4: that's larger than just one company making a mistake or
Speaker 4: you know, the city itself having to take charge of
Speaker 4: the reconstruction. This is like practically like a state of
Speaker 4: emergency situation, right, like a act of God.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: Certainly it's a massive tragedy for the eight to ten
Speaker 2: people possibly more who were affected or you know, injured
Speaker 2: or killed by this event. There were twenty people who
Speaker 2: were on the cargo ship. All of them have been
Speaker 2: accounted for. It is still a mild unknown about the
Speaker 2: number of human beings that were actually on the bridge
Speaker 2: when it collapsed. So that's something we're going to continue
Speaker 2: following and if we hear anything more, we'll definitely we'll
Speaker 2: talk about it. Just the last couple of things to
Speaker 2: point out here. If you want to watch the full
Speaker 2: seven minutes twenty seconds of before the crash and the crash,
Speaker 2: I would highly recommend you search for Francis Scott Keybridge
Speaker 2: collapses in Baltimore on the First Coast News YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: You can find it right now and watch the whole thing.
Speaker 2: It's a camera from down below, like if you imagine
Speaker 2: up the perspective of another boat maybe sitting on the
Speaker 2: water and watching everything happen. It's very very intense. And
Speaker 2: also if you want to keep up with just news
Speaker 2: that's breaking with regards to the story. There's an AP
Speaker 2: news feed that has been updated that we've been following
Speaker 2: basically since this began. You just search for AP news
Speaker 2: Baltimore Bridge collapse, and it'll give you a live feed
Speaker 2: of like every time something new comes in, it just
Speaker 2: pops up on that page. It's very very helpful. Anything else, guys.
Speaker 3: I will say, you know that we take allegations of
Speaker 3: bad faith actors pretty seriously and looking into this at
Speaker 3: this point knowing that there's still a lot of information
Speaker 3: out there. At this point, there does not seem to
Speaker 3: be any plausible support for some of the speculation or
Speaker 3: some of the more out there conspiracies that are floating around,
Speaker 3: like floating around poor choice words, but like a false
Speaker 3: flag attack or you know, the investigation has to keep going,
Speaker 3: so we have to be careful. Even if a story
Speaker 3: sounds really juicy and you're hearing on the internet, we
Speaker 3: have to be careful to dig in and prove things
Speaker 3: before we make those kind of claims.
Speaker 4: I mean, chances are like as case in point with
Speaker 4: the k Middleton stuff, if those things are coming out
Speaker 4: really quickly after an event like this, probably some of
Speaker 4: these professional speculators just doing what they do on the internet.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, again, it feels not real, right, So, as
Speaker 2: you said, Ben, we look for any kind of explanation
Speaker 2: that would satisfy whatever that thing is that makes it
Speaker 2: so extraordinary or feel so extraordinary to us. But yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll just keep an eye on it, as we hope
Speaker 2: you will too. Let us know if you find anything,
Speaker 2: we'll be right back with more strange news.
Speaker 4: And we returned with a decidedly light her story after
Speaker 4: if that one about the bridge collapse. And again, our
Speaker 4: hearts are with anyone who's missing loved ones, with the families,
Speaker 4: and it's just a really horrible situation. But let's take
Speaker 4: a little trip over to Japan, where they love. There's
Speaker 4: a lot of American cultural crossovers. Obviously, we import a
Speaker 4: lot of Japanese culture over here on a ma and
Speaker 4: manga and tons of video games and technology and all
Speaker 4: of that stuff. Is huge fascination in the United States
Speaker 4: with Japanese culture that does go both ways for some things.
Speaker 4: Two of those things are baseball and Kentucky Fried Chicken
Speaker 4: and away. Back in the earliest days of another show
Speaker 4: that Ben and I do together called Ridiculous History, we
Speaker 4: did an episode on what's called the curse of the
Speaker 4: Kernel in Japan, especially Ben, correct me if I'm getting
Speaker 4: this wrong. Around the holidays, around Christmas time, KFC is
Speaker 4: hugely popular. They sell these like family holiday dinner combo
Speaker 4: things like Reserve. I'm sure they're great, and I know
Speaker 4: from my understanding too, KFC over there operates at a
Speaker 4: little bit of a higher level than it does over here,
Speaker 4: and it's kind of considered plussed up fast food and
Speaker 4: more of like a family restaurant.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, yeah, pretty much every And this is oddly enough.
Speaker 3: This is a rule of thumb that applied a rule
Speaker 3: of wing or drum that applies to uh, that applies
Speaker 3: to a lot of fast food places in different countries,
Speaker 3: like McDonald's is the fancy place in a lot of countries,
Speaker 3: and KFC is To your point, it can be culturally
Speaker 3: fascinating to see what a big deal it is. It
Speaker 3: became tied with Christmas. The you can go to go
Speaker 3: to any kind of website mental floss Atlas Obscure probably
Speaker 3: has some great rite ups on it and read the
Speaker 3: read the meal, like the big thing is the Christmas
Speaker 3: cake that they get, right, Yeah, that's that's what's over here.
Speaker 5: I don't even know they do pop pies anymore.
Speaker 4: Anyway, though these meals are so popular, then to your
Speaker 4: point of these holiday combo things that you have to
Speaker 4: reserve your as well and invest and they sell out
Speaker 4: of them and then anyway, But so KFC and baseball baseball,
Speaker 4: you wouldn't think there'd necessarily be a connection between KFC
Speaker 4: and baseball, but a baseball team in the Nipon Professional
Speaker 4: Baseball Franchise and NPON just means Japan, I believe.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 4: There has been active since nineteen thirty five known as
Speaker 4: the Hanshin Tigers. Have sort of a little bit of
Speaker 4: lore that's tied up with with Colonel Sanders him himself,
Speaker 4: who is in fact a real person, Harland David Sanders,
Speaker 4: And now I think he himself actually appeared in the
Speaker 4: earliest of KFC ads when it was you know fully
Speaker 4: Kentucky Fried Chicken. Since his passing in nineteen eighty he's
Speaker 4: been personified in different ways by actors and animation.
Speaker 5: And what have you.
Speaker 4: But yeah, much like Orville Reddenbacher, this was in fact
Speaker 4: the founder of the company and the secret of the
Speaker 4: spices or whatever the blend is that they keep so guarded. Apparently,
Speaker 4: when he was still alive, there was a beef between
Speaker 4: my chicken, shall we say, between him and the new
Speaker 4: managers of the company, where they changed the recipe and
Speaker 4: he got infuriated by it, and then they had to
Speaker 4: like kind of make nights, and then they didn't have to,
Speaker 4: but they made nice with him and changed it back
Speaker 4: and then kind of brought him back in the fold.
Speaker 4: And then he did pass away in nineteen eighty. But
Speaker 4: we know him by his kind of like the branding
Speaker 4: of KFC, and that extends even over here. It used
Speaker 4: to to these like plastic statues that would be outside
Speaker 4: of KFC franchises. But the Hunch and Tigers from nineteen
Speaker 4: thirty six to nineteen forty nine were very successful in
Speaker 4: their league, and they won four titles in that time frame.
Speaker 4: They reached the what's called the Japan Series, which I
Speaker 4: guess into our World Series for the very first time
Speaker 4: in nineteen sixty two. They won the Central League in
Speaker 4: nineteen sixty four, but then lost one.
Speaker 5: More of these Japan Series.
Speaker 4: It wasn't until nineteen eighty five that they won another
Speaker 4: Central League pennant and it was such a big deal
Speaker 4: that fans of this franchise, who are kind of known
Speaker 4: to be a little on the fanatical side, all dove
Speaker 4: into the De Tombori Canal in Osaka, which is a
Speaker 4: highly polluted and very deep canal that sort of splits
Speaker 4: up the city, the downtown kind of part of the city.
Speaker 5: Maybe think of like.
Speaker 4: The San in France a little bit, or sort of
Speaker 4: like the you know, the Thames, but it's a little
Speaker 4: it's narrower.
Speaker 3: Obviously not as dirty as the ganjis, but still as dirty.
Speaker 4: But high highly filthy even back then and now even worse.
Speaker 4: Apparently it's been described as, you know, something akin to
Speaker 4: sewer water. That didn't stop these Tigers fans, and they
Speaker 4: won the pennant. They jumped in and at the same time,
Speaker 4: a particularly zealous fan spotted a one of these Colonel
Speaker 4: Sanders statues outside of the local Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise,
Speaker 4: and they thought that it looked a lot like the
Speaker 4: first Baseman's right anty path.
Speaker 6: So you uprooted it, ripped it up out of its
Speaker 6: perch or whatever, and threw it in the river which
Speaker 6: was pretty deep, or the canal. It was sucked down
Speaker 6: into the mud and the muck and lost presumably forever
Speaker 6: until two thousand and nine. But anyway, when this happened, though,
Speaker 6: it is believed by you know, those who believe that
Speaker 6: this started a curse on the Hunshin Tigers, and they
Speaker 6: didn't win a single thing. It's like angels on the
Speaker 6: outfield type vibes for eighteen years.
Speaker 3: One quick interjection in the defense of the guy who
Speaker 3: throws the statue in or the crew did it. It
Speaker 3: wasn't everybody all the fans jumping in. They were yelling
Speaker 3: out the individual names of players, and they were looking
Speaker 3: around the crowd to see who most looked like a player,
Speaker 3: and they were like, jump in the river, or you'll
Speaker 3: get jumped into it. And then Randy Bass. You know,
Speaker 3: this is Japan. They're looking around and there's not a
Speaker 3: lot of people that you would see it immediately think
Speaker 3: Randy Bass. So that's why they grabbed the statue.
Speaker 4: And I'd totally forgotten that detailed then, and I think
Speaker 4: that really kind of gives a sense of the energy
Speaker 4: that was going around. So it wasn't for eighteen years
Speaker 4: the Tigers won another Central League title, at which point
Speaker 4: fans did dive into the Dosnbore Canal once again, sadly
Speaker 4: ending with the man losing his life. Because this is
Speaker 4: again i'm sure exactly whether he drowned. There's probably some
Speaker 4: drinking involved, or whether it was sepsis or something, but.
Speaker 5: That's neither here nor there. He did lose his life.
Speaker 4: But then fast forward two thousand and nine when the
Speaker 4: city was doing some dredging of the canal and they
Speaker 4: recovered the original statue, which is a little rough looking,
Speaker 4: all the paint worn off and quite worse for wear
Speaker 4: and missing a hand, but they did get it, and
Speaker 4: they believe that this at least was the very beginnings
Speaker 4: of lifting the curse of the Colonel, because that year
Speaker 4: the Tigers finished fourth, which is better than they had done.
Speaker 4: In twenty fourteen, KFC moved the statue to their Japanese
Speaker 4: corporate headquarters and the Tigers made it to the Japan Series,
Speaker 4: but they did unfortunately lose to the Fukuwaka SoftBank Hawks.
Speaker 4: But the news today, the update to this story, which
Speaker 4: we did cover on Ridiculous History, is that the Hanshin
Speaker 4: Tigers just won the twenty twenty three championship for the
Speaker 4: first time in many, many years, leading some to believe
Speaker 4: that the curse has now officially been lifted. After they won,
Speaker 4: fans did jump into the river disgustingly polluted river once again.
Speaker 4: But here's the part that I think is really neat
Speaker 4: the statue, which has since been moved from the corporate
Speaker 4: headquarters to another franchise. It has been officially retired and
Speaker 4: is essentially being treated like a sacred religious relic, whether
Speaker 4: it be a publicity stunt or I don't know what
Speaker 4: you want to call it, but it was essentially exercised
Speaker 4: in a ceremony at a nearby shrine, in a cleansing
Speaker 4: ritual that is.
Speaker 5: Usually I think to look into.
Speaker 4: This a little bit more, maybe been you know this
Speaker 4: from the time you spent over there, but in a
Speaker 4: ceremony that's usually reserved for dolls, because I know that
Speaker 4: they certainly is a lot of belief in Japanese culture
Speaker 4: of objects being able to hold evil spirits and things
Speaker 4: like that. So maybe, I don't know, why would there
Speaker 4: be a specific ceremony just for dolls they felt was
Speaker 4: just appropriate enough to do on the old Colonel Stole sculpture.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it goes back into the into some
Speaker 3: really deep folklore, you know, the idea that an object
Speaker 3: can be imbued with the spirit or sentience, especially if
Speaker 3: in some cases there's this idea that even just your
Speaker 3: furniture at your house, if you take care of it
Speaker 3: and it gets the age of one hundred, then it
Speaker 3: acquires a spirit. So the idea also goes into the
Speaker 3: concept of respect.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: So part of the curse of the of the kernel
Speaker 3: comes from the idea of public disorder and breaking, you know,
Speaker 3: breaking the expected rules of society, so cleansing. This is
Speaker 3: also a sort of apology to offending the character of
Speaker 3: the of the spirit the shrine or the effigy.
Speaker 4: Makes sense and is really quickly credit where credits do.
Speaker 4: This actually comes from a sports reporter named Julian Real
Speaker 4: who is a brit living in Japan. It lived in
Speaker 4: Japan for about the last twenty five years and he's
Speaker 4: sort of a lifestyle and culture writer and has a
Speaker 4: really neat article called Curse of the Colonel lifted Japan's
Speaker 4: Hanjin Tigers Hope ritual ceremony bats away years of bad
Speaker 4: luck and just last last thing for me. This ritual
Speaker 4: was performed at Sumi Yoshi Taishot Shrine and a priest
Speaker 4: did this cleansing ritual, and a president of KFC Holdings Japan,
Speaker 4: Takayuki Hanji, was there and he laid flowers on an altar.
Speaker 5: And may, I'm sorry if I'm laughing.
Speaker 4: I know this is an offering food to send this
Speaker 4: to the thing, but this is screams publicity stunt. He
Speaker 4: offered a portion of KFC chicken as well, and did
Speaker 4: you know, call it what it was? You gotta at
Speaker 4: least appreciate the openness.
Speaker 2: Was it an original recipe or extra crispy doing unclear?
Speaker 5: I don't even know if you can get the two,
Speaker 5: if there's a distinction anymore.
Speaker 4: But he did say that he was very aware that
Speaker 4: this whole saga, this whole like lore, has contributed to
Speaker 4: the raising of the value of their brand name. So
Speaker 4: I don't know, guys, any thoughts on this. It's just
Speaker 4: it's such a neat, weird story to begin with. And uh,
Speaker 4: the you know, baseball is in general such a superstitious
Speaker 4: sport in America, even where people are you know, won't
Speaker 4: change their socks or have certain pregame things or you know,
Speaker 4: rituals or chewing the same piece of gum or whatever.
Speaker 4: It's really interesting to see these kind of cultural things
Speaker 4: sort of collide in a very interesting amalcam of American
Speaker 4: and Japanese culture in this story.
Speaker 2: I don't have too much, guys. I was just having
Speaker 2: fond memories as you were discussing it, seeing no Norm
Speaker 2: McDonald as the Colonel like back in the day, and
Speaker 2: Darryl Hammond and a bunch of other actors got to
Speaker 2: like do cameos, and I was just having fond memories
Speaker 2: of that. And I hope this, uh, I hope the
Speaker 2: team does well.
Speaker 3: I miss this. Do we know where the statue will
Speaker 3: ultimately find its resting place?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm sorry, but I didn't get to that. The
Speaker 4: whole thrust of the ceremony is that it ends in
Speaker 4: the burial. The ceremonial burial of this sculpture, I can
Speaker 4: only assume it is on site at the shrine that
Speaker 4: I mentioned, the Taishi Shrine, Yeah.
Speaker 5: In Osaka.
Speaker 4: So you know, it certainly would also be another great
Speaker 4: branding play to have it's the final resting site marked
Speaker 4: so people can go leave KFC buckets and flowers.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm looking at photos. I've been to the shrine.
Speaker 3: It is dope. It is amazing. If you can go.
Speaker 3: But the kernel wasn't there when I when I.
Speaker 5: Saw no, No, this is pretty new.
Speaker 3: I also predict, on the note of superstition and folklore,
Speaker 3: that there will be a new relic of power or
Speaker 3: an objective powers. They're called in control in the Nation
Speaker 3: of Japan. The search continues for the left hand of
Speaker 3: the kernel, right.
Speaker 4: And the glasses. I forgot glasses had also been knocked
Speaker 4: off or whatever.
Speaker 3: Which is weird because I don't I don't ever think
Speaker 3: of the glasses as being a separate part of a
Speaker 3: of a sculpture.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't think so either, But maybe maybe it was,
Speaker 4: like it's plastic, so maybe it was sort of you know,
Speaker 4: hotblood or something.
Speaker 3: Where is the left hand? Man, I'm gonna be thinking
Speaker 3: about that, you know, like the old hand of glory
Speaker 3: in an infernal magic. I would love to hand remains
Speaker 3: where someone finds the hand of the kernel and the
Speaker 3: there's a curse or it has power. What I'm just
Speaker 3: going to write it?
Speaker 6: What was it?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 4: What was that movie with the hand? The recent movie
Speaker 4: Speak to Me, Talk to Me?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that was Maybe they find the hand.
Speaker 3: It's in beauty with some sort of melodical. Excellent.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Infernal Powers. I really liked that movie a lot
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 5: Guys.
Speaker 4: Another great example of like, you know, kind of like
Speaker 4: the Daniels, how they started kind of do it as
Speaker 4: like real low five practical kind of music video things
Speaker 4: like I can't remember the dude's names, but it's a
Speaker 4: brother twins then the Philipoo Brothers is their name. They
Speaker 4: have a YouTube presence of like really crazy cool YouTube
Speaker 4: kind of videos that are like artsy and bizarre, and
Speaker 4: they are now making giant movies that did well, so
Speaker 4: good for them. But yeah, that's it for the Curse
Speaker 4: of the Colonel. Hopefully it's lifted.
Speaker 5: Let's take a quick.
Speaker 4: Break and then we'll return with one more piece of
Speaker 4: strange news.
Speaker 3: And we have returned a couple of things in our conversation.
Speaker 3: Just to respond to the conversation about the Baltimore Bridge,
Speaker 3: I think we should do an episode on the shipping
Speaker 3: the cargo manufacturer that created that, because I'm looking into
Speaker 3: the conspiracies they've been tangled up with in the past,
Speaker 3: and there are quite a few. So that's just like
Speaker 3: a note to the universe. I think there's an episode there. Awesome,
Speaker 3: and I wanted to start out by I'm not going
Speaker 3: to put you too much on the spot, Doc, but
Speaker 3: I want to thank you on air for making my
Speaker 3: day earlier today and sending me a joke that we
Speaker 3: will never never mention on the on the show, you
Speaker 3: remember what we're talking about.
Speaker 4: I audibly guess, Okay, maybe we won't never.
Speaker 3: Mind anyway, just to tell you that even in our case,
Speaker 3: there is some stuff. There are some jokes. We don't
Speaker 3: want you to know some stuff. Yeah, yeah, but that
Speaker 3: was a real Gallows humor there, Doc, Respect and salute.
Speaker 3: Our final story for this week's Strange News program is
Speaker 3: like the Baltimore Bridge, it is an ongoing story and
Speaker 3: the tragic mystery is afoot. On March twenty second, again
Speaker 3: as we were recording previously, a small band of terrorists
Speaker 3: attacked a music venue in Moscow, and as of now
Speaker 3: at this moment, there are an estimated one hundred and
Speaker 3: forty deaths with north of three hundred and sixty injuries,
Speaker 3: either as a result of the gunshot as poisoning of
Speaker 3: the fire that happened shortly thereafter. There were four terrorists
Speaker 3: involved in pretty soon after the news broke is the
Speaker 3: Islamic state claimed responsibility. The Putin administration continues to claim
Speaker 3: that this was actually this was actually an operation by
Speaker 3: Ukraine or some agent of the West through a proxy.
Speaker 3: And they're claiming, I mean, they're all but explicitly saying
Speaker 3: they believe they believe that the West and or Ukraine
Speaker 3: managed to use is the Islamic State as kind of
Speaker 3: a false flag, right, or a patsy to blame this odd.
Speaker 3: So if we go to the timeline here, what we
Speaker 3: see is that the Crocus City Hall, that's the music venue.
Speaker 3: It's in a place called Krasnogorsk, and I'm mispronouncing that
Speaker 3: it started right before a Russian band called Picnic was
Speaker 3: scheduled to play a sold out show. And this is
Speaker 3: a very very big venue. We know that it gets
Speaker 3: stranger and stranger the deeper you dig. Okay, at first,
Speaker 3: we know the basic timeline. These masked gunmen in combat
Speaker 3: fatigues came in the open fire on the crowd using
Speaker 3: ak style assault rifles. They also apparently had pistols and knives.
Speaker 3: And put yourself in this situation. If you've been to
Speaker 3: a concert that has a lot of theatrical sound design,
Speaker 3: then you might hear gunshots and think it's part of
Speaker 3: the opener, you know what I mean, Travis Skull or whatever, right,
Speaker 3: And I also want to stop there. Do you guys
Speaker 3: are you familiar with the Russian band Picnic? I was
Speaker 3: not Picnic. Yeah, yeah, okay, Well they're pretty big because
Speaker 3: this is there is a huge venue. Unfortunately at the
Speaker 3: time also there were children and teenagers in this venue
Speaker 3: for an unrelated ballroom dance competition, So that gives us
Speaker 3: a sense of the size, the fact that they can
Speaker 3: have these two big events going on at once. And
Speaker 3: there is a little bit of video footage that shows
Speaker 3: these people firing into the crowd. It appears they were
Speaker 3: wearing baseball caps. The assailants are apparently heard shouting to
Speaker 3: each other in Arabic and then they escape after deploying
Speaker 3: sendury devices we should mention gas bombs to start a
Speaker 3: fire in the audit, which led to even more injuries.
Speaker 3: The authorities responded as quickly as they could, but the
Speaker 3: gunman initially escaped and then they got captured per Russian
Speaker 3: authorities attempting to exit Russia via the poorous western border
Speaker 3: in the war with Ukraine. Does that jibe with what
Speaker 3: you guys have seen reporting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just been really complicated to follow because there
Speaker 2: have been several high level conspiracy theories that have put
Speaker 2: out by the Kremlin which are fascinating just about again
Speaker 2: often placing blame on the West, have like instead of
Speaker 2: ISIS or ISIS as the cover. But it's really changed
Speaker 2: a lot since this story first broke again, Like last
Speaker 2: time we were recording one of these strange news it
Speaker 2: happened like right after that. Yeah, it's just confusing if
Speaker 2: it feels weird and a very high level tragic attack
Speaker 2: on civilians m m.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I was talking with was talking with some people
Speaker 3: familiar with this situation doing like just a vibe tech
Speaker 3: you know, what can you tell us about this? And
Speaker 3: even if you are just looking through a cursory kind
Speaker 3: of like forensic Google investigation of the context and how
Speaker 3: this situation came to be, then you see a lot
Speaker 3: of troubling things. It is a fact that the West
Speaker 3: warned Russia that some attack was imminent. They were it
Speaker 3: was Canada and the United Kingdom and the US warned
Speaker 3: any of their citizens in Russia there seemed like there
Speaker 3: was an attack. The US privately warned Russian officials that
Speaker 3: this spin off, this franchise of the Islamic State was
Speaker 3: going to attack because they had gathered intelligence earlier in March,
Speaker 3: like earlier that month, this was fresh baked information, and
Speaker 3: Putin apparently roundly ignored it because the US intelligence community
Speaker 3: officially they have something called the duty to warn requirement,
Speaker 3: which means that if there is a dangerous attack on
Speaker 3: civilians that is imminent and actionable, then it doesn't matter
Speaker 3: if you're friends with the country where it's going to happen,
Speaker 3: you are supposed to let them know. Because the innocence evolved.
Speaker 3: You know, they have nothing to do with the larger wars.
Speaker 3: So Putin and Putin's circle, or I guess, I say,
Speaker 3: the Putin administration, they dismissed this, and they didn't just
Speaker 3: say it was incorrect. They said it was blackmail. They
Speaker 3: said it was a threat. So they're saying. They didn't
Speaker 3: take this as a hey, let's at least work together
Speaker 3: to save lives. They took it as I guess, a
Speaker 3: very sinister move right, and that may be part of
Speaker 3: why Putin is accusing Ukraine, which he did immediately, and
Speaker 3: Zelenski came out from Ukraine immediately and said no, absolutely not.
Speaker 3: We did not do this. And let's think about the
Speaker 3: people the countries that were warning Russia, Canada, the UK,
Speaker 3: the US. This feels five I to me, right because
Speaker 3: for the US, I don't know the conspiracy theories being
Speaker 3: floated by Russia. Tell me what you think about this
Speaker 3: one is that you'll see people on the internet going,
Speaker 3: you know, it's interesting how ISAIS seems to be attacking
Speaker 3: enemies of the West now and the concept being, the
Speaker 3: implication being that the Islamic state itself is heavily compromised,
Speaker 3: and maybe now the terrorist has become a puppet of
Speaker 3: Western forces. I think that's a lot that seems kind
Speaker 3: of complicated, right, well.
Speaker 4: Overly so to the point where it seems, you know,
Speaker 4: it's that thing whenever a conspiracy has way way too
Speaker 4: many moving parts or way too many parties that need
Speaker 4: to be in perfect sink and cooperation, chances are the
Speaker 4: reality is.
Speaker 5: Something a little more streamlined.
Speaker 3: It's a little route Goldberg esk right, yea yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: But it is an organization that has largely fallen out
Speaker 2: of popular coverage in media, right yeah. So, I don't know,
Speaker 2: when you feel like there's an armed somewhat organized group
Speaker 2: like that. I'm not saying there's any sand of the
Speaker 2: accusations that it's being used as some kind of puppet organization,
Speaker 2: but it does feel weird when you don't hear about
Speaker 2: it very often. Then something this high profile comes along, right,
Speaker 2: that appears to have a lot of planning, a lot
Speaker 2: of strategy to get all those people you know, into
Speaker 2: where they were, to have the weapons they had, and
Speaker 2: to pull it all off. Yeah, it feels even more
Speaker 2: organized than you imagine a group like that would be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and also not just to the point of organization,
Speaker 3: but if you look at the fingerprints of previous is activity,
Speaker 3: this doesn't match their moone. This is a change. You know,
Speaker 3: they usually, without sounding to crass, they usually send folks
Speaker 3: on a one way trip when they're sowing this kind
Speaker 3: of tragedy in chaos. And maybe it's because this is
Speaker 3: a regional branch or a subsidiary of the larger Islamic state.
Speaker 3: This is is KP Islamic State, Corrusan province. But the
Speaker 3: idea that they would make an attack and it not
Speaker 3: be a suicide attack, that is it is just markedly different.
Speaker 3: You know, previous Islamic State things like we had discussed
Speaker 3: a little bit off air the attack in Iran which
Speaker 3: led to more than one hundred people dead. That was
Speaker 3: to that was two suicide bombers. So it seems or
Speaker 3: at least you know, I don't know how much we
Speaker 3: read into it, but it is worth noting that their
Speaker 3: tactics have changed at this point. They attempted to have
Speaker 3: an exit plan. And then also why would their exit
Speaker 3: plan be Ukraine? Is it because the border is more
Speaker 3: porous due to conflict, But then knowing you would have
Speaker 3: to drive through bloody swaths of the military, the military
Speaker 3: that you just attacked, or is country you just attacked,
Speaker 3: it's I don't like it. It's dodgy, it's suspect. And
Speaker 3: there's another. There are even more pieces that get stranger
Speaker 3: and stranger. You guys, remember the apartments, right, How Putin
Speaker 3: came to power? Oh man, it's not a story. The
Speaker 3: Jedi will tell you.
Speaker 4: Okay, can you tell us here?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Sure. In nineteen ninety nine, there was a series
Speaker 3: of explosions for apartment blocks in different cities around Russia, Moscow, Polnaksk, Vogodunksk.
Speaker 3: More than three hundred people were killed, thousands of people
Speaker 3: were injured, and this became one of the events that
Speaker 3: led Putin to his current level of power, because after
Speaker 3: those bombings occurred, Putin used as the pretext to launch
Speaker 3: a second war in Chechnya, and this became a long
Speaker 3: protracted war. It wasn't just a special military operation. History
Speaker 3: is proving that is apparently never the case. And for
Speaker 3: a long time Putin's critics and Putin's rivals and journalists,
Speaker 3: they maintained that Vladimir Putin may have pulled like a
Speaker 3: p and Ac or even something even something more evil,
Speaker 3: that he either planned the attacks or allowed the attacks
Speaker 3: to happen so that he could gather power, consolidate power,
Speaker 3: and launch this war in Chechnya. This also led to
Speaker 3: the Yeltsin losing power and stepping down in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 3: So if you believe that there is more to the
Speaker 3: story than the official narrative right now of what's happening
Speaker 3: with the Moscow attacks, then you look at prior events
Speaker 3: like this, and I've got to tell you, I don't
Speaker 3: know the answers in this specific regard, but surely, just
Speaker 3: with the things we've outlined in less than fifteen minutes here,
Speaker 3: it's suspect, right, it's fishy. Does this not seem fishy?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 5: Yeah, highly. The question is like what, ooh, why? When? Where?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: Yeah? What kind of fish? What kind of fish is it?
Speaker 3: It's unfortunately a good question. We're going to have to
Speaker 3: We're going to have to think about it, and we
Speaker 3: need your help, folks, So let us know what you
Speaker 3: think of the official narrative. Obviously, the Putin administration is
Speaker 3: going to use this as for the rationalization for the
Speaker 3: conflict in Ukraine. We still don't know how much force
Speaker 3: Russia can put, like how much extra force or additional
Speaker 3: force they can put into play. And a quick lass note,
Speaker 3: Putin did quite recently, like as we're recording, come out
Speaker 3: and say that he blamed radical Islamic extremists. He believes
Speaker 3: they were operating at the best of Ukraine. But we'll
Speaker 3: leave you with this. Those terrorists, those four guys killed
Speaker 3: world one hundred people and then got back in a car,
Speaker 3: drove almost two thousand miles, passed multiple military checkpoints before
Speaker 3: they were caught. The Islamic state doesn't do stuff like that,
Speaker 3: or they didn't.
Speaker 2: Makes you think just goes back to the what trained
Speaker 2: by the West. Basically isis did it? But they were trained,
Speaker 2: that's the claim that's being made there. I mean it
Speaker 2: does sound tactics that you'd hear about with special forces
Speaker 2: training or something. But again that's complete speculation.
Speaker 3: We don't have the proof, you know. We just know
Speaker 3: that are there are things that complicate or that call
Speaker 3: into question this official narrative we're getting. And we now
Speaker 3: have two competing narratives from the superpowers of old. Right,
Speaker 3: we warned you, no, you threatened us, and now we
Speaker 3: will respond. And when elephants make war, its the grass
Speaker 3: that suffers. We want to hear your thoughts, fellow conspiracy realist,
Speaker 3: tell us what is on your mind, what is going
Speaker 3: on in Moscow? Would love to hear from you if
Speaker 3: you're in the Baltimore area or if you're in the
Speaker 3: Moscow area as well. And we're wishing your friends, families,
Speaker 3: and yourself safe travels and adventures and good health. We
Speaker 3: hope that you do not get cursed by a fast
Speaker 3: food mascot. That's a good way to end it. And yeah,
Speaker 3: let us know your thoughts. We try to be easy
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 4: Like or even like a serial mask guy like that
Speaker 4: to can Sam or Lucky the Leprecaun Man the book
Speaker 4: Come for You Careful, you can find us. Let us
Speaker 4: know what your favorite fast food or cereal mascot is.
Speaker 4: You can find it the handle Conspiracy Stuff on Facebook,
Speaker 4: on YouTube, where we have delightful videos rolling out every week.
Speaker 4: I think we've got it on another installment of the
Speaker 4: George Washington saga, as he travels through time and discovers
Speaker 4: products of the modern day that plunge him into existential dread.
Speaker 4: You can find this also at that handle on XK, Twitter,
Speaker 4: on Instagram, and TikTok where at Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 2: We also have a phone number one eight three three
Speaker 2: std WYTK. When you call in, you've got three minutes,
Speaker 2: give yourself a cool nickname and let us know if
Speaker 2: we can use your message on the air. If you
Speaker 2: don't want to do that, you got more to send us?
Speaker 2: Maybe I don't know links, attachments? Why not send us
Speaker 2: a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3: We are the folks who read every single email. We
Speaker 3: get to be careful the void it may write back,
Speaker 3: send us the links, put it on record, put it
Speaker 3: in writing, send us the pictures, send us the audio.
Speaker 3: It's one of our favorite parts of the show. Reading
Speaker 3: your emails so help us out conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2: Stuff they Don't want you to Know is a production
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.