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 Noah.
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 you. You are here that makes this the
Speaker 3: stuff they don't want you to know. It is finally
Speaker 3: becoming a little autumnal here in our fair metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia,
Speaker 3: and we cannot wait to explore strange news with you.
Speaker 1: Up.
Speaker 3: We've got a couple of things at the top. I
Speaker 3: gotta say every time I hear a story about someone
Speaker 3: getting in trouble for handing out free water, I cannot
Speaker 3: help but roll my eyes.
Speaker 4: It just makes me think of Larry David right now,
Speaker 4: and then the recent curve he took that issue to
Speaker 4: prime time or voting.
Speaker 3: You know, you also, at least in Georgia, you can't
Speaker 3: give people water if they're waiting in line as the
Speaker 3: poles right which informed you know, curb your enthusiasm So
Speaker 3: shout out to David Martin, who is, as we record,
Speaker 3: fighting his HOA because he hands out water. Also shout
Speaker 3: out to hoa's but not in a complimentary way.
Speaker 4: Wait, like at his house he hands out water to
Speaker 4: like people walking down the street.
Speaker 3: Yeah, similar to how we had the free fridges here
Speaker 3: in Atlanta. What he was doing is leaving a cooler
Speaker 3: outside of his home to provide free water to anybody
Speaker 3: in the neighborhood.
Speaker 4: And the HOA is saying that's against their terms or something,
Speaker 4: because it's like a liability because perhaps he's poisoning the
Speaker 4: water or something.
Speaker 5: I'm curious.
Speaker 4: Sorry, I know this isn't your main story, but oh geez,
Speaker 4: may choice.
Speaker 3: I just want to point it out because the idea
Speaker 3: that you can't share share free water with people. Maybe
Speaker 3: it's a liability issue and something we'll look into later,
Speaker 3: but it reminds me of it feels like a lifetime
Speaker 3: ago when I almost got arrested for giving out free
Speaker 3: bread in Peapont Park. You also can't do.
Speaker 4: That, monster, but you can feed pigeons bread, not people,
Speaker 4: though not people, right right. Sorry, It just makes me
Speaker 4: think of like how like in a lot of other countries,
Speaker 4: food that is thrown out is given to less fortunate folks,
Speaker 4: but here it's illegal. It's like they literally are required
Speaker 4: by law to throw in the dumpster.
Speaker 3: Unless we be funny duddies about it, we should note
Speaker 3: that there are obviously valid concerns about food safety. Like
Speaker 3: my thing in Peapont Park was not an above board operation.
Speaker 3: I was working in a bakery and I had, you know,
Speaker 3: like a trash bag of fkasha and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying, not a legal pop up. Anyway, We're
Speaker 3: going to get to so many things we wanted to
Speaker 3: share with you, folks. One thing I think we should
Speaker 3: tease we're talking off air about a lot of AI stuff.
Speaker 3: We were also talking about a grand debate between regarding
Speaker 3: mobile technology and its possible effects on the brain. There
Speaker 3: is a very strange true crime story we're going to
Speaker 3: get to. What do you think, guys, what if we
Speaker 3: take a quick break and return to repair the reputation
Speaker 3: of a friend of ours from far away in the ocean. Folks,
Speaker 3: if you are tuning in tonight the time strange news airs,
Speaker 3: then you, like us, have got to be excited for
Speaker 3: Monday night football. It's the forty nine Ers and the Jets.
Speaker 4: Oh, man, bet, do you really think Benny and the
Speaker 4: Jets is an objectively bad song?
Speaker 5: By Sir Elton? Be biased? But that's fair.
Speaker 2: But but but why would you think that.
Speaker 5: He's got electric boots?
Speaker 4: Ben?
Speaker 3: Well, maybe I'll reevaluate my opinion of Beny and the Jets.
Speaker 5: But depending on who wins the football contest, right.
Speaker 2: You guys, there's all that Elton John like the biopic
Speaker 2: I guess that came out and everything. I have this
Speaker 2: weird thing where I want to see Will Ferrell play
Speaker 2: every historical character as he should. Did you guys see
Speaker 2: that video of him. He's like on a porch and
Speaker 2: there are a ton of wind shimes and he starts
Speaker 2: playing music. It's freaking hilarious. I think it might be
Speaker 2: a PayPal ad.
Speaker 3: I don't know what a goofball watch Will Ferrell do anything?
Speaker 3: And he's at peak Farrell right now.
Speaker 5: He's America's goofball.
Speaker 3: PayPal does seem to be popping up everywhere, though, and
Speaker 3: I hear they might be taking part of the game tonight.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it's funds like a little televisual scavenger.
Speaker 5: So tune in on ESPN tonight. And see for yourself
Speaker 5: during the big game.
Speaker 2: Wait, do you think Will Ferrell's going to be in
Speaker 2: this one?
Speaker 5: Who knows that guy pops up straight places? I hope so.
Speaker 3: And we have returned. Do you guys remember our previous
Speaker 3: episodes on the ideas of animals as spies non human animals?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the concepts often well, I remember, like cetaceans, dolphins
Speaker 2: in particular, maybe killer whales. I don't know.
Speaker 5: There was a cat situation as well, if I'm not mistaken, Yeah,
Speaker 5: an attempt.
Speaker 3: There were also what we've seen different countries try some
Speaker 3: pretty out there ideas using animals exploiting their natural tendencies
Speaker 3: or proclivities as a vector of surveillance, sometimes as a
Speaker 3: weapon of war, like bat bombs and so on. You
Speaker 3: can check out our earlier episodes on Ridiculous History for
Speaker 3: some of those stories, as well as stuff they don't
Speaker 3: want you to know. I'm thinking in particular of our
Speaker 3: exploration regarding the conspiracies. They're very popular in the Middle East,
Speaker 3: even now that animals have been have been weaponized, and
Speaker 3: you gotta feel terrible for the animals because what happens
Speaker 3: is someone catches a bird and the bird might have
Speaker 3: a little tag, you know, one of its little legs,
Speaker 3: which is super common biologists or tracking or ornithologists or
Speaker 3: tracking those populations. And then someone will see it and
Speaker 3: they'll go, oh, it's a spy from insert nation. I
Speaker 3: don't like you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's suspicious animals with stuff on them that
Speaker 2: shouldn't be there, and I want to know what they're doing.
Speaker 4: The sharks have freaking lasers strapped to them. Is it
Speaker 4: like that kind of thing to their heads?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's similar.
Speaker 4: Lasers can be microphones too, they can be listening devices
Speaker 4: long range mm hmm.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And this brings us to the story A tragic story
Speaker 3: of our good friend Valdemir or that's what that's what
Speaker 3: this guy was called in the media. He made news
Speaker 3: in Norway starting in twenty nineteen of April because he
Speaker 3: was coming up and hanging out with human mariners. He
Speaker 3: was doing things like rubbing against boats, not the way
Speaker 3: that a cat would rub on you to scent mark,
Speaker 3: but because he was trying to get his harness off.
Speaker 3: And most beluga whales in the wild don't have harnesses,
Speaker 3: but this guy had a harness with what looked to
Speaker 3: be a mount for a camera and on the plastic
Speaker 3: tabs of his harness was the label equipment Saint Petersburg.
Speaker 5: That seems on the nose, doesn't it for a spy.
Speaker 4: It's like Vladimir was here, you know, property of the
Speaker 4: I mean, give me a break.
Speaker 5: That's kind of amazing. What's the latest though.
Speaker 3: Ah yeah, we'll build to that. Because first, I love
Speaker 3: the point of Voldemir being somehow a very bad spy,
Speaker 3: because you're right, you wouldn't want attribution to this kind
Speaker 3: of thing. But because of the nature of his discovery,
Speaker 3: because of his familiarity with humans, the fact that he
Speaker 3: would do things like retrieve objects lost in the ocean
Speaker 3: or play with people just for fun, all of these
Speaker 3: things persuaded observers that he was who was definitely familiar
Speaker 3: with human beings. He had probably been in a human
Speaker 3: run facility of some sort. And of course, with the
Speaker 3: literal Saint Petersburg branded harness, people assumed that he was
Speaker 3: a Russian spy and that's where he got his name
Speaker 3: because it's a portmanteau, right, vall Hval is this word
Speaker 3: that translates to whale, and then Demir like the last
Speaker 3: you like Vladimir Putin. So Voldemir was a mysterious character
Speaker 3: and since twenty nineteen he was monitored. He would swim
Speaker 3: around the area do cute little beluga things. It was
Speaker 3: kind of like a labrador or a Golden retriever in
Speaker 3: the wild. You know how those are just great, super
Speaker 3: friendly dogs.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah, boys.
Speaker 2: There the I have only just met you, but I
Speaker 2: love you.
Speaker 5: So much unconditionally. Ben so is is a beluga? Will?
Speaker 5: Is it in the dolphin range? Is it a cetacean
Speaker 5: as well? Yes? Okay, it sure.
Speaker 4: Looks like we've got two beautiful belugas here in Atlanta
Speaker 4: at the Atlanta Aquarium that were actually rescues from I
Speaker 4: believe it was like a weird condemned amusement park or something,
Speaker 4: and they were found like in a tank.
Speaker 5: Under a ferris wheel? Was it?
Speaker 4: They've found in a tank under some sort of decommissioned ride.
Speaker 4: So they do act similarly to dolphins, And I asking
Speaker 4: that too because dolphins also are kind of notorious for
Speaker 4: how horny they are, and speaking of rubbing up against
Speaker 4: things and being familiar with humans, I'm just wondering if
Speaker 4: that answered into the equation at all.
Speaker 3: We haven't found anything indicating an amorous nature of that
Speaker 3: regard to Voldemort. Yeah, for this guy, but we have seen,
Speaker 3: we have seen proven military cetacean training programs. So this idea,
Speaker 3: this speculation, didn't come from out the briny blue and
Speaker 3: there were real life things to base this on. But
Speaker 3: to that earlier point, while Russia has never officially responded
Speaker 3: to the idea of this poor guy being a spy,
Speaker 3: there was a funny quote back in the day from
Speaker 3: a guy named Colonel Victor Baronets who said, this is
Speaker 3: a translation. If we were using this animal for spine,
Speaker 3: do you think we would attach a mobile phone number
Speaker 3: with the message please call this number.
Speaker 5: If found police call Johnny. Yeah.
Speaker 4: It's like this isn't like a freaking textbook, you know.
Speaker 5: That's oh my god.
Speaker 3: And here's where we get to our unfortunate turn. Voldemir
Speaker 3: was found dead recently in the Bay of Rizavika on
Speaker 3: August thirty first, twenty twenty four. The investigation is ongoing.
Speaker 3: Some of the NGOs involved, including one whale, have filed
Speaker 3: a police complaint and they're alleging, like the official reports
Speaker 3: didn't determine a cause of death, but the people who
Speaker 3: watched this guy on a regular basis says that he
Speaker 3: died due to gunshot wounds.
Speaker 5: Holy crap, you assassinated. He was taken out. He knew
Speaker 5: too much.
Speaker 3: This just adds this story to and thinking back to
Speaker 3: thinking back to our earlier example, which I loved. I
Speaker 3: love animals just like a golden retree in the wild,
Speaker 3: hanging out, just running around, like doing tricks, bringing people
Speaker 3: random tennis balls and stuff. That's the kind of vibe
Speaker 3: this poor beluga had. So everybody was pretty heartbroken. No
Speaker 3: one was dancing on this poor guy's watery grave. But
Speaker 3: the speculation continued, and so we did just a little
Speaker 3: bit of diggate, and I think we can say it.
Speaker 3: This guy is not a spy. It wasn't a spy.
Speaker 3: It's kind of unfair to call it. He definitely came
Speaker 3: from some sort of human run facility. There are guesses
Speaker 3: that he was something called a therapy animal. I've never
Speaker 3: heard of a therapy beluga, but this this was a guess. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was gonna ask because the harness, I mean, you
Speaker 4: often see sorry not meaning, but that just the harness
Speaker 4: immediately kind of made me think, is this a service
Speaker 4: beluga of some kind m hm.
Speaker 3: Yeah, is this the kind of service animal you can
Speaker 3: take on the plane with you?
Speaker 5: Exactly?
Speaker 3: Please, I'm sorry, Tsa, this is my service.
Speaker 5: Beluka is just right in your lap.
Speaker 2: Seriously, how many seats do you think that would take?
Speaker 4: He's got to splash him with you, got to get
Speaker 4: more than one bottle of water. It just can keep
Speaker 4: him kind of moistened during.
Speaker 3: The At this point, now you're thinking we have to
Speaker 3: think in like locks of seats, right.
Speaker 2: Was it free Willy? I just had a flash of
Speaker 2: like a movie where people are they have some kind
Speaker 2: of whale on a flatbed and they're desperately trying to
Speaker 2: keep the whale moistened.
Speaker 5: Ye buckets of water. That was free Willing the first one.
Speaker 5: There are more than one and.
Speaker 3: Real life, unfortunately. So the idea here that this guy
Speaker 3: may have been a therapy animal comes from members of
Speaker 3: former members of Norway's diplomatic class, and one interesting theory
Speaker 3: that seems much more realistic than the idea of a
Speaker 3: sea bound spy is that this guy's real name may
Speaker 3: have been Semyon Semyon, and that he was a rescue
Speaker 3: because he had been attacked by sea allions and the
Speaker 3: reason he had a harness was to tow a boat
Speaker 3: with kids inside, you know, like those little trains in
Speaker 3: amusement parks. The kids hop on and then like drunk
Speaker 3: college students on spring break or whatever.
Speaker 5: That's not good.
Speaker 3: Well, we know that the institution mentioned there, oh, the
Speaker 3: Arctic Circle Hotty, Dive Center and Lodge, they no longer
Speaker 3: use therapy belugas at all. So there aren't any more
Speaker 3: of these. But we kept digging, and there's a really
Speaker 3: interesting story of something called the Brush's Whale jail. I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: Dorsha loves jails man. So you know it's the airplane
Speaker 3: question again. You can't house them in a regular dolg.
Speaker 2: Right, So what are we talking about here?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so back in twenty nineteen, there were almost one
Speaker 3: hundred captured beluga whales and orcas that were just contained
Speaker 3: at this fishery in Far East Russia. And the guess
Speaker 3: was that these animals, who had been rounded up, maybe
Speaker 3: by mistake in some cases during commercial fishing, that they
Speaker 3: were being detained in hopes of selling them to Chinese aquariums,
Speaker 3: just like a regular aquarium attraction. But eventually, due to
Speaker 3: public outcry, these guys were released back into the wild.
Speaker 3: So we don't know what happened to all of them,
Speaker 3: because I believe not all of them were tagged.
Speaker 4: I'm just confused, Like, I mean, aren't there better ways
Speaker 4: to tag wild animals than fitting them with like an
Speaker 4: unremovable harness?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's the thing. There definitely was a camera
Speaker 3: mount on this guy's on this guy's hardness. So question is,
Speaker 3: and there wasn't a camera attached, the question is, what
Speaker 3: was that mount for. It's just for a camera. Was
Speaker 3: it meant to pull, you know, a cute little boat
Speaker 3: of kids around while someone lectures them about the importance
Speaker 3: of maritime ecosystems.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I said that's not good, But that is
Speaker 4: not good. That's sort of abuse, right, I would say,
Speaker 4: an animal like that isn't really meant to tow a boat.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's maybe it's the I agree with you,
Speaker 3: but you could also argue, because these creatures are so intelligent,
Speaker 3: you could also argue that's like saying a golden retriever
Speaker 3: shouldn't be around tennis balls. You know what I mean,
Speaker 3: A lot of them just dig.
Speaker 5: That you really love tennis balls.
Speaker 4: I have a hard time believing that a beluga whale
Speaker 4: loves to tow a.
Speaker 5: Boat and just can't get enough of that life.
Speaker 2: We got a theory, all right, the thing on the back,
Speaker 2: it's some kind of psychic powers amplifier. And they were
Speaker 2: being trained to become psychic soldiers Allah Menu, steric goats,
Speaker 2: all the Soviet Union's.
Speaker 5: Training of Soulsire's Guide to the Galaxy even.
Speaker 2: And they're being trained, and that's why they had to
Speaker 2: be in whale jail for so long. They had to
Speaker 2: go through the system.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm sorry, bet, what what offense is required to
Speaker 4: earn one of spot in whale jail?
Speaker 3: You know what they did? Okay, I'm just gonna keep
Speaker 3: it that that. No, No, it seems like in this
Speaker 3: case they were just rounded up and captured the idea
Speaker 3: that maybe they were subject to different sorts of experiments
Speaker 3: with communication or cognition or esp. Weirdly enough, that's totally
Speaker 3: within the realm of possibility, because we know that things
Speaker 3: got really weird with cognition experiments with cetaceans in the past.
Speaker 3: Shout out to dolphin LSD hand jobs, because you know what,
Speaker 3: the most noble of attents, Sometimes things can go sideways.
Speaker 3: I love the idea of this possibly being and an
Speaker 3: escape e, you know, Stranger Things style or fire Starter style.
Speaker 5: And Matt's theories are the best, and.
Speaker 3: The idea here also sets us up for a great
Speaker 3: conversation in a future episode on psychic countermeasures if such exist. So, guys,
Speaker 3: anything else on this before we move on?
Speaker 5: No, but it does just make me think of the story.
Speaker 5: Why I say no?
Speaker 4: And then I say a thing about like how all
Speaker 4: these attacks, these whale attacks, you know, on yachts and
Speaker 4: such New York and yeah, exactly the orc And recently
Speaker 4: there have been quite a few reports of kind of
Speaker 4: rogue dolphins attacking humans. And it's just this idea that
Speaker 4: nature is sort of like rebelling against its human oppressors.
Speaker 5: I do find kind of interesting.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up. People believe,
Speaker 3: at least the the lone dolphin attacks off of a
Speaker 3: Japan They believe the dolphin's doing it because it's lonely
Speaker 3: and or Roldemir never really did find a pod in
Speaker 3: the wild that he could jibe with, kind of like
Speaker 3: that whale that to swam the world singing slightly out
Speaker 3: of tune.
Speaker 5: Strange news I've ever heard.
Speaker 3: Yeah, going through it, going through it, guys, But we're
Speaker 3: going to turn it around after a quick word from
Speaker 3: our sponsors, shout out to the ocean.
Speaker 4: And we've returned with another piece of strange news. Ben,
Speaker 4: you mentioned turning it around. I think you were correct,
Speaker 4: because this is one could argue a little bit of
Speaker 4: good news. According to a study commissioned by the World
Speaker 4: Health Organization published recently in the journal Environment International, the
Speaker 4: previously existing notion that the radio waves and other types
Speaker 4: of radiation that are emitted by cellular to telephones are
Speaker 4: likely not giving you cancer.
Speaker 5: Skeptical.
Speaker 4: Oh no, Mat, wait wait, wait, wait, but we have
Speaker 4: good Yeah, we have nice things.
Speaker 5: I know, Matt skeptical too.
Speaker 2: I understand because it's non ionizing radiation. Is that we're saying, well.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, it's a type of non ionizing radio radiation. Basically,
Speaker 4: what has been done is a much more in depth
Speaker 4: study of previous studies. Essentially, there have been reports that
Speaker 4: have classified radio wave exposure as a possible source of
Speaker 4: carcinogens to humans. Specifically, in twenty eleven, the International Agency
Speaker 4: for Human Research on Cancer did categorize radio waves in
Speaker 4: this way This led to other reports sorts and perhaps
Speaker 4: a pretty widespread concern about using these devices that were
Speaker 4: kind of glued to Probably had certainly kept some people
Speaker 4: from making as many phone calls.
Speaker 5: But the fact of the matter is that these waves
Speaker 5: are everywhere.
Speaker 4: They're outside, you know, they're being emitted from all kinds
Speaker 4: of devices, and it's pretty hard to completely cut them
Speaker 4: out of your life. So I would argue that this
Speaker 4: is pretty good news for a lot of people. But
Speaker 4: let's do go into what exactly has been kind of reassessed.
Speaker 4: There is a really good kind of breakdown of the
Speaker 4: findings on CNN Health, and I'm going to kind of
Speaker 4: go into how they describe this new investigation and the
Speaker 4: data associated with it. They describe it as a new
Speaker 4: systematic review of human observational studies that's based on a
Speaker 4: much larger data set compared to what was published in
Speaker 4: twenty eleven by the IARC, which is what put these
Speaker 4: types of waves in the category of carcinogenic.
Speaker 3: So like a meta study, it is a study of
Speaker 3: study exactly, It's a study of studies.
Speaker 4: But so was this Essentially so was the twenty eleven
Speaker 4: study by the IARC. This one is just saying there's
Speaker 4: been new studies, new data, new scientific observations that have
Speaker 4: been published on the subject that are adding to this
Speaker 4: data set and creating a much larger and more detailed
Speaker 4: data set. So they go into this and saying that
Speaker 4: it includes more recent and comprehensive studies, which means that
Speaker 4: they can be a bit more confident on the data
Speaker 4: and on the find things that they say exposure to
Speaker 4: radio waves for mobile phones or wireless technology is not
Speaker 4: associated with an increased risk specifically of brain cancer.
Speaker 5: This new review is part of a series of.
Speaker 4: These kinds of systematic reviews that were commissioned by the
Speaker 4: World Health Organization to take a much closer look at
Speaker 4: other possible adverse health effects associated with technology and specifically
Speaker 4: expos to radio waves. Thus far, it seems that this
Speaker 4: is the strongest evidence that radio waves from wireless tech
Speaker 4: are not in fact a hazard to human beings. It's
Speaker 4: described as being the most comprehensive review on the subject,
Speaker 4: consisting of more than five thousand studies, and there are
Speaker 4: some studies that were excluded by way of being determined
Speaker 4: to be irrelevant, which is apparently quite normal, but it
Speaker 4: did trigger a little bit of a red flag with me.
Speaker 4: The idea of excluding things that don't necessarily fit the
Speaker 4: outcome that you are seeking.
Speaker 5: The no scientists ever.
Speaker 4: Supposed to seek a particular outcome in a scientific experiment
Speaker 4: or study.
Speaker 5: So I don't know this to be the case.
Speaker 4: It does seem to be quite normal, but I just
Speaker 4: wanted to point that out.
Speaker 5: That kind of tricked my spidey sense a little bit.
Speaker 5: And I am certainly no research scientists.
Speaker 4: But I don't know, guys, I know this is a
Speaker 4: bit of a thing that we've talked about over the years,
Speaker 4: and it's certainly something that people do worry about. And
Speaker 4: I think of the three of us, some of us
Speaker 4: are in that set right.
Speaker 3: Right, But thirty eight years or excuse me, twenty eight
Speaker 3: years worth of study that gives a lot of opportunity
Speaker 3: to prove an increase.
Speaker 5: Of can't think so too, I think so too.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm just gonna be honest. Even if
Speaker 3: this is conclusive or as some media is reporting it definitive,
Speaker 3: I'm still going to be a little careful where I
Speaker 3: put the phone. Have you ever had a phone in
Speaker 3: your front pocket and you start to worry about your
Speaker 3: Australia You know, what I mean just the case.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know if you guys ever have had
Speaker 2: the experience of a ghost vibration in your pants, like
Speaker 2: either in your front pocket area or back pocket area
Speaker 2: where your phone's not in there and you feel you
Speaker 2: swear you just got a text or an email or something,
Speaker 2: or your phone's ringing right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Oh and I'm sorry, I said, oh, yeah, that way,
Speaker 3: it's not like a pleasurable brain.
Speaker 4: So, Matt, are you saying that's a symptom of just
Speaker 4: how tied to these devices psychologically we are.
Speaker 2: Well, yes, first of all, but also I think it's
Speaker 2: that kind of thing that gives me pause when I
Speaker 2: see some of the reporting that comes out in a
Speaker 2: one off study that says, yeah, this the radiation coming
Speaker 2: off of specific models of cell phone or mobile phone
Speaker 2: when plugged in, give off an intense amount of radiation
Speaker 2: compared to other phones. So for me, you look at
Speaker 2: if you look at the entirety of the thing, maybe
Speaker 2: it's not so dangerous. I'm just a little more skeptical
Speaker 2: of an individual model that maybe has some kind of
Speaker 2: flaw accidentally built into the system that when a bunch
Speaker 2: of energy is surging through it, specifically you need to
Speaker 2: be more careful, which is what I thought. I think
Speaker 2: it was one of the last rounds of iPhones. We
Speaker 2: were supposed to be careful of it, at least for
Speaker 2: a while there.
Speaker 5: It's one of those.
Speaker 4: Things, too, are you know you I certainly see stories
Speaker 4: of people that rip a pack of smokes a day
Speaker 4: and live to be one hundred and then some people
Speaker 4: get lung cancer seemingly no exposure to carcinogens.
Speaker 5: So I'm always skeptical.
Speaker 4: I always say with this kind of stuff, well, we're
Speaker 4: all gonna get cancer from something, you know, we especially
Speaker 4: with what we know about microplastics and how prevalent those
Speaker 4: are like in our bodies, and how little we can
Speaker 4: do about it.
Speaker 5: So I tend not to lose sleep over this kind
Speaker 5: of stuff.
Speaker 4: And that's because I'm listening to a podcast with my
Speaker 4: phone speaker shoved right up against the side of my head.
Speaker 5: And that's true.
Speaker 3: So that brings up AirPods too, wireless of your buds
Speaker 3: or another concerned.
Speaker 5: People, isn't concern.
Speaker 4: But they also they slip out of my ears when
Speaker 4: I sleep and then I lose them.
Speaker 5: So I don't do that.
Speaker 4: But no, to your appointment, that is still a type
Speaker 4: of RF you know, connection that is hyped directly into
Speaker 4: your brain. But for my money, I choose not to
Speaker 4: lose too much sleep over that, And I would like
Speaker 4: to think that at the very least this is re
Speaker 4: assuring news to some degree.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Also, you know, if you're hearing this and you
Speaker 3: feel strongly skeptical of it, you can you can read
Speaker 3: the study in depth yourself, I believe. And if that doesn't,
Speaker 3: you know, a swatch concerns, then there's another I would think,
Speaker 3: just philosophical therapeutic aspect to this, which is that if
Speaker 3: you still fundamentally get your spidy sense tripped by the
Speaker 3: possibility of you know, these devices giving you some kind
Speaker 3: of damaging health effect, then it's not going to hurt
Speaker 3: you to be away from your phone for a while,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. That's actually a really good
Speaker 3: thing for you mentally. So there's no harm in pract
Speaker 3: and acting as though this stuff could have these health effects,
Speaker 3: because even at a merely psychological level, you will experience
Speaker 3: benefits from not always having that bad boy, you know,
Speaker 3: right next to your all strip.
Speaker 5: On your hip.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, like no, to Matt's point about the
Speaker 4: phantom vibrations or whatever. Like I don't know that was
Speaker 4: a sort of twofold, but like I can relate to that.
Speaker 4: It's like a phantom limb, you know, when you lose
Speaker 4: access to that device, you start to kind of, you know,
Speaker 4: tweak out a little bit. And it makes me think
Speaker 4: of a listener that wrote in talking about targeted advertising,
Speaker 4: about keeping like a diary because of I believe it
Speaker 4: was some program they were in and doing that on
Speaker 4: their phone and then all of a sudden being served
Speaker 4: up with all these ads. And while that freaked them out,
Speaker 4: it was the impetus that led them to doing a
Speaker 4: proper journal on paper and separating themselves from their phone,
Speaker 4: which they reported as offering splendid mental health benefits. So
Speaker 4: maybe there's silver lining here, you know, if we do
Speaker 4: just decide to separate ourselves from our teathers a little.
Speaker 3: It's so cool, man. I'm obviously the death of our
Speaker 3: Beluga associates has me thinking a lot about the days
Speaker 3: of maritime expansion. But can you imagine how cool this
Speaker 3: one aspect of life in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds
Speaker 3: may have been. You're not expected to answer people instantly.
Speaker 3: No one cares about being left on red. As a
Speaker 3: matter of fact, you could just you could just freaking
Speaker 3: disappear for months on end, and when he came back,
Speaker 3: people would just be surprised you were alive. They would
Speaker 3: be like, oh, Hiram, you've survived the troubles.
Speaker 4: Bro As recently as the nineties, it did wonders for
Speaker 4: sitcom gags, none of that stuff would have been possible,
Speaker 4: and not to mention like murder mysteries. You know, let's
Speaker 4: just torpedo the plot right away by like having a
Speaker 4: you know, I device on hand. So yes, there are
Speaker 4: definitely benefits, and it's something that I'm working on myself
Speaker 4: as a admitted device addict. So I had another one
Speaker 4: those kind of AI related But I think we actually
Speaker 4: got more than enough meat out of this story for today,
Speaker 4: So I'm gonna save this one for next week because
Speaker 4: it is kind of herm irrelevant. So why don't we
Speaker 4: take a quick break, hear a word from our sponsor,
Speaker 4: and then come back with a story from Matt.
Speaker 2: And we've returned and you're with me now there's no escape.
Speaker 2: So guys, I'm going to start this one off by
Speaker 2: going down memory lane, specifically with you Ben do you
Speaker 2: recall in June twenty sixteen, we got on a plane
Speaker 2: flew out to California to Van NY's, specifically to a
Speaker 2: place called Cagle Canyon. I think that's how you say it.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, yeah, Cagal Canyon. I don't he a g
Speaker 2: e l ok.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we said it that way on purpose. It's fun.
Speaker 4: It's just you know, it's good for women's health.
Speaker 2: Kagale. I don't know how to say it. It's that's
Speaker 2: how it's spelled. But it's specifically to Van Nights, California.
Speaker 2: It's the first time and only time I've ever been
Speaker 2: in the place that's called Van Nis, California. Do you
Speaker 2: remember anything about that? And Nol do you have any
Speaker 2: experience in that town?
Speaker 5: No, I don't know about Kegletown.
Speaker 3: I uh, it's Cagletown's a state of mind.
Speaker 2: It's a cave.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a so I think we keep it it
Speaker 3: all right now. I've never been to Kegletown that it's
Speaker 3: a state of mind. You can get there now.
Speaker 2: Well, I remember it being beautiful. It was really cool.
Speaker 2: We shot some stuff out there for a pilot. It
Speaker 2: was really really fun. Got to I think roll down
Speaker 2: a hill or two like on purpose and look heroic
Speaker 2: doing it.
Speaker 3: Secrets of the Melungeon silver Mines. That was what we
Speaker 3: were asked to do a pilot on, and I think
Speaker 3: for the purpose of what we're exploring here, I agree.
Speaker 3: The vista's the scenery just absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, this is
Speaker 3: part of the US for anybody unfamiliar, this is part
Speaker 3: of California that's increasingly threatened by wildfires. So one thing
Speaker 3: I remember is we were hanging out in these amazing
Speaker 3: forested area is and then you would see very strongly
Speaker 3: worded warnings about how a wildfire could just be coming
Speaker 3: for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, oh yeah. And if you want to
Speaker 2: know where this place is, you can look it up
Speaker 2: on a map. It is. I don't know. I guess
Speaker 2: I would say if you go northwest past the Hollywood
Speaker 2: Sign and just keep going for a while, that's where
Speaker 2: this area of California is. And we're talking about this
Speaker 2: today because in my mind I can't picture the thing
Speaker 2: that we're about to talk about happening happening here just
Speaker 2: because of what I experienced when I was there, again,
Speaker 2: given for a very short amount of time and in
Speaker 2: a more nature centered area of this part of town.
Speaker 2: Here it goes. In twenty eighteen, in this part of California,
Speaker 2: and in several other parts of California, and even in
Speaker 2: Georgia and several other states, there began a very long
Speaker 2: and very frequent string of burglaries, specifically burglaries. There were
Speaker 2: homes in many very nice neighborhoods in Van Nights, this
Speaker 2: part of California place called Thousand Oaks, which is, uh,
Speaker 2: this is another area right over there. Have you heard
Speaker 2: of that one?
Speaker 5: This is Van Nis is where they make all the porno,
Speaker 5: isn't it.
Speaker 2: Oh? Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 5: Oh it's Chatsworth.
Speaker 2: Well, dang, I didn't see any while I was there.
Speaker 3: It is you know what at that time, it's a
Speaker 3: why it's a widespread industry, right, okay, well widespread?
Speaker 2: Come on, Hey, no, I've all right, so sorry.
Speaker 5: I haven't even looked at your story. I just saw
Speaker 5: your headline. I was okay, sorry, this is Born related?
Speaker 5: Is it not? No? Oh?
Speaker 4: Okay, because I just google Van Nis and I got
Speaker 4: a headline burglar breaks into Van Nights home and watches Born.
Speaker 5: Oh no, that's that's a different that's a different story. Inside.
Speaker 3: Just to defend the rogues in the audience. There was
Speaker 3: also recently, I want to say, somewhere in Europe, maybe Germany,
Speaker 3: there was a guy who broke in to commit a
Speaker 3: burglary and got caught because he stopped to read a book. So, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, I also don't burglarize houses. But this is
Speaker 3: just the beginning of the story.
Speaker 2: Correct, Yes, this is the beginning of the story. This
Speaker 2: is twenty eighteen. There's a string of burglary is in
Speaker 2: Thousand Oaks and several other what is described here at
Speaker 2: least by the Ventura County Star as nice neighborhoods, really
Speaker 2: expensive homes. The Ventura County Sheriff's Office begins an investigation
Speaker 2: at that point because they realize there are similarities in
Speaker 2: these burglaries. First, if they ever caught anyone, they noticed
Speaker 2: that the suspects involved were foreign nationals, mostly from the
Speaker 2: country of Chile, and they were in the US on
Speaker 2: very short term visas. And this is an interesting thing
Speaker 2: because Chile, Chile, it's one of the only countries that
Speaker 2: as a citizen of that country, you can come and
Speaker 2: visit the United States and automatically get a short term visa.
Speaker 2: I think it's like sixty to ninety days. I think
Speaker 2: it is ninety day Visa. And they noticed that the
Speaker 2: specific homes that were targeted backed up into some kind
Speaker 2: of open space like where you could park a car,
Speaker 2: probably that the break ins occurred in sliding glass windows
Speaker 2: that were on the backs of those very nice houses,
Speaker 2: and that all of the cars that were driven by
Speaker 2: these suspects were rented from the same place, a place
Speaker 2: in I think you say this Pacoima, Pacoima, maybe a
Speaker 2: place in Pacoima that was called Driver Power Rental. That
Speaker 2: was the title of the company, but really it was
Speaker 2: just a lot that had some cars on it. Weird thing, guys,
Speaker 2: These cars that were on that lot were like luxury cars,
Speaker 2: really nice looking, well maintained luxury cars that fit perfectly
Speaker 2: in the neighborhoods where these burglaries were happening. So they
Speaker 2: began an undercover investigation. They had an undercover officer go
Speaker 2: and attempt to rent a vehicle from this place. And
Speaker 2: since this undercover officer had an actual driver's like ID
Speaker 2: card that was, you know, a real name, a real person,
Speaker 2: he was turned away, at least according to the undercover investigation.
Speaker 2: And it's found out after several attempts of trying to
Speaker 2: get into this place, that only people with fake IDs
Speaker 2: were allowed to rent from this place, and only specific
Speaker 2: people who were referrals were allowed to rent. So you
Speaker 2: had to be a referral and have a fake ID
Speaker 2: then you could get a freaking Corvette or whatever and
Speaker 2: ride around. Doesn't that feel a little weird just at
Speaker 2: first before we get into the rest of this.
Speaker 3: Definitely a red flag level set up for a front
Speaker 3: company of some sort, you know, like if you've ever
Speaker 3: and look, they're fronts in every large town or city.
Speaker 3: Think about the Think about the store that you pass
Speaker 3: by every day and you always think, how is that
Speaker 3: guy still open? You know what I mean?
Speaker 5: Oh, dude, absolutely.
Speaker 3: And then you walk in and they say, oh, we
Speaker 3: don't take walkins. You go for a TV repair store?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Are you sure, right, Matt?
Speaker 4: I gotta ask, did these cars come with ghetaway drivers?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: You go to this rental place and you get a
Speaker 2: car and you go do whatever you want to do
Speaker 2: in that car, except for I think we have to
Speaker 2: just keep going down the path here, guys. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: except for in some cases you were told where to go,
Speaker 2: you were given a target essentially by the people who
Speaker 2: are running that rental car service. Okay, let's jump to
Speaker 2: August twenty eighth. That's a Wednesday. Just happened. This is
Speaker 2: from ABC News, written by Josh Haskell. Title is six
Speaker 2: arrested in crime Tourism bust. Group allegedly ran La based
Speaker 2: car rental company for thieves, and it is the owners
Speaker 2: to owners of this Van Nuy's car rental agency that
Speaker 2: we just mentioned, Driver Power Rental, have been accused of
Speaker 2: running this thing and specifically for bringing in This is
Speaker 2: according to ABC News, quote criminals from South America to
Speaker 2: steal millions of dollars in cash and property from southern
Speaker 2: California businesses and homes. Specifically, this group is accused of
Speaker 2: or and charged with, let's say, wirefraud, money laundering, conspiracy,
Speaker 2: and structuring transactions to avoid financial reporting requirements. Which guess
Speaker 2: what that means. Guys, we've talked about this before. All
Speaker 2: their financial transactions were less than ten thousand dollars, which
Speaker 2: meant that the what's that federal agency?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't have to, it doesn't immediately get reported
Speaker 3: to the authorities. Oh gosh, it's not FDIC FDIC.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Matt, this sounds like a mission in Grand Theft
Speaker 4: Auto five.
Speaker 2: Really no, it just sounds.
Speaker 5: Like I mean, maybe it's something that'll be in Grand
Speaker 5: Thefought of six if that ever comes out, but doesn't.
Speaker 5: I mean, this is wild. It's pretty enterprising. Yeah, gotta
Speaker 5: give them that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: The reason why I think it is so fascinating is
Speaker 2: I love an undercover investigation. We talked about those on
Speaker 2: the show a lot. This was a six year investigation
Speaker 2: that just ended this past Wednesday. As we're recording.
Speaker 3: This also just a housekeeping note to go down in
Speaker 3: front of the email. Banks have to report to the
Speaker 3: US Treasury Department.
Speaker 2: That's it, the Treasury Department.
Speaker 3: The FDICE is the insurance outfit. The Treasury deposit is
Speaker 3: ensured up to right right, and the Treasury Department, Uh,
Speaker 3: they run the money and weirdly enough, the Secret Service.
Speaker 3: Nothing strange there. Moving on this undercover investigation though, I
Speaker 3: love that you're pointing this out. Man, I'm a sucker
Speaker 3: for these stories too. Oh, it's how do you so?
Speaker 3: They've already kind of tried to protect themselves with this
Speaker 3: sort of international targeting, right, They've separated a lot of
Speaker 3: their pieces. You can't just rock up there without a referral, right,
Speaker 3: So how would someone theoretically, I don't know, how would
Speaker 3: they theoretically start to infiltrate through these different barriers.
Speaker 2: Well, see, I don't know. There's so much information that
Speaker 2: we don't know yet. All we know comes from a
Speaker 2: press release that was put out by the US Attorney's
Speaker 2: Office for the Central District of California, released on Wednesday,
Speaker 2: August twenty eighth, and it just says indictment charges Santa
Speaker 2: Clarita Man and six others with facilitating crimeterism group that
Speaker 2: took in more than five million dollars and illicit proceeds.
Speaker 2: And according to that, basically thirty five million dollars roughly
Speaker 2: worth of stuff was stolen over the course of all
Speaker 2: these years since twenty eighteen. And then this group appears
Speaker 2: to have profited around five million dollars from fencing all
Speaker 2: that stuff. And you know the various I guess things
Speaker 2: that they offered to potential clients to come in and
Speaker 2: then steal stuff. Well, I guess we can give you
Speaker 2: the names. There's a fifty seven year old man named
Speaker 2: Juan Carlos Fula Duran who was arrested he was one
Speaker 2: of the owners of this company, the rental company. And
Speaker 2: then Anna Maria are Gada, I think is how you'd
Speaker 2: say her name. She's forty one years old. They lived
Speaker 2: together in the quote Canyon Country area of Santa Clarita.
Speaker 2: I don't know all these places in California, guys, but
Speaker 2: I've heard the Californians say them for sure.
Speaker 6: Four five, yes, exactly, the five exactly to the five.
Speaker 6: What are you, Trevor, He's a California.
Speaker 3: That's how they acted when you walked into drive Power
Speaker 3: Rentals without a referral?
Speaker 2: Oh, what do you do?
Speaker 3: You do?
Speaker 2: But there are four other people who were also involved
Speaker 2: who are also indicted. There are I think a total
Speaker 2: of forty six federal felony counts that are involved in
Speaker 2: this stuff, and I think each of them has a
Speaker 2: sentence of like twenty years. Not minimal, but the Senates
Speaker 2: of twenty years. The wire fraud and money laundering charges
Speaker 2: carry sentences of twenty years, so yikes, and there are
Speaker 2: a lot of those. The other thing is there are
Speaker 2: a couple other companies that were also involved, including that
Speaker 2: rental company. It also got indicted, so I guess the
Speaker 2: company is in trouble and then whatever proceeds the company
Speaker 2: has are now subject to being just taken. I don't know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot more to this story, you guys. It
Speaker 2: just seems really really creepy to know that something like
Speaker 2: that exists, and it's just went on for years and
Speaker 2: years that the rental company was even able to get
Speaker 2: a bunch of the Remember the COVID money that you could.
Speaker 3: Get PP loans.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, think out like two hundred and twenty something,
Speaker 2: two hundred and thirty thousand dollars worth of those loans,
Speaker 2: and maybe even more than that. It's it's in the
Speaker 2: indictment somewhere. You can check it out and find the
Speaker 2: exact number. Two hundred and seventy four nine and ninety
Speaker 2: eight dollars. Good god, it's a lot of money just to,
Speaker 2: you know, help some people rob really nice houses. I
Speaker 2: don't know. I don't have a ton else to say
Speaker 2: about this one, guys, But besides, read the entire story
Speaker 2: if you want to, there are one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: thefts that were connected directly to this group of people.
Speaker 2: That's crazy. One hundred and twenty different instances of theft.
Speaker 3: And like we always say, with operations of this magnitude
Speaker 3: and longevity. It makes you think, how many haven't been caught?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I know. Well, and let's just go
Speaker 2: ahead and say this. We mentioned at the top A
Speaker 2: lot of these were in nice neighborhoods in California, some
Speaker 2: were in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, Missouri, and Colorado.
Speaker 2: So working through this group specifically this group of people,
Speaker 2: folks were able to come in again I imagine, like we're
Speaker 2: going on a quick theft vacation, I guess or something,
Speaker 2: because you had to be connected in some way to
Speaker 2: this group of criminals to then even get a car
Speaker 2: to then go and do the thing you're trying to do.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, what's the language these in the indictment crime tourism.
Speaker 4: Yes, Matt, I saw a really interesting I guess it
Speaker 4: was a TikTok video, but it was somebody who was
Speaker 4: driving around the interstate I think it was in California
Speaker 4: and was like it was taking a video from passenger seat,
Speaker 4: I believe, and it was this like hot rod kind
Speaker 4: of souped up sports car with tinted windows and no
Speaker 4: license plate, and it was just zinging around in and
Speaker 4: out of traffic and also had what it apparently has
Speaker 4: called a three hundred and sixty degree camera. And the
Speaker 4: guy was just commenting on that as a guy that
Speaker 4: will never be pulled over by the police.
Speaker 5: And then it did a next.
Speaker 4: Time and it was a news report of that exact
Speaker 4: car being boxed in by police. And it was just
Speaker 4: the coolest, like little video like that because it actually
Speaker 4: had kind of a story, a trajectory to the story.
Speaker 4: But I gotta wonder if these cars were equipped with
Speaker 4: stuff like that, like were they properly registered, did they have,
Speaker 4: you know, legal plates?
Speaker 5: I got a wonder. Maybe that information hasn't been released yet,
Speaker 5: but it does make you wonder.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes you wonder for sure. As part of
Speaker 2: the endictment and investigation, as we said, the human beings
Speaker 2: and the companies are in trouble, there was a bunch
Speaker 2: of property that was taken or has been seized, as
Speaker 2: well as several cars, I think twenty five cars and
Speaker 2: guys quote some horses.
Speaker 4: Cool anyway, in case you want to knock over a
Speaker 4: stagecoach or something while you're at it.
Speaker 2: I don't know, Well, it just makes you whatever, what
Speaker 2: else is going on out there? So if you hear anything,
Speaker 2: don't let us know. I guess because we can't start
Speaker 2: a cool undercover investigation yet.
Speaker 5: Well, don't you know, make it hypothetical.
Speaker 3: Let's phrase things and hypotheticals, just like when you're fooling
Speaker 3: shotrosis large language models. Reach out and touch faith folks.
Speaker 3: As always, we're so excited that you have joined us
Speaker 3: in the dark this evening. We can't wait to hear
Speaker 3: your thoughts on all of the above. And hey, if
Speaker 3: you're listening and you're involved in cetacean espionage, definitely reach
Speaker 3: out to us. Don't make it hypothetical. We've got some
Speaker 3: thoughts that we didn't share on air, but we try
Speaker 3: to be easy to find online.
Speaker 5: How do you do it? How do you escape whale jail?
Speaker 5: Let us know.
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