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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. M Hello,

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Speaker 1: welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my

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Speaker 1: name is noted. They call me Ben. We are joined

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Speaker 1: as always with our super producer Paul Mission controlled decade.

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Speaker 1: Most importantly, you are you. You are here that makes

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Speaker 1: this stuff they don't want you to know. And luckily

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Speaker 1: for us, um this is a little bit of a

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Speaker 1: more when we say lighthearted episode because after we recorded

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Speaker 1: some fairly dark stuff recently, some murder investigations, cult expose's,

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Speaker 1: we we decided that we would take a break. But

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Speaker 1: answer still a a real question, what the is up

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Speaker 1: with Florida? There you go, that's the question. Why does

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Speaker 1: it seem like all at least most of the strangest

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Speaker 1: things in the United States occur in Florida. It's strange.

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Speaker 1: And this is not in any way a hit piece

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Speaker 1: on Florida, on America's most famous peninsula and panhandle. But

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Speaker 1: it's true that here in the US, some parts of

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Speaker 1: this country are more famous, we're infamous than others. And

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Speaker 1: we add originally what the is up with Florida as

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Speaker 1: just a working title and in joke with us. But

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Speaker 1: I think now we could just make it official, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but poor Paul's got to bleep it every time we

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Speaker 1: say this is a family show. Well, we're only too

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Speaker 1: deep so far, so hopefully we'll be all right. But

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Speaker 1: you know, for another example, New York and California are

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Speaker 1: probably the best known states on the international sphere, even

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Speaker 1: if people only know them for a particular city like

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles or New York City, or an industry like

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Speaker 1: Hollywood or the Mob. And Florida, located in the far

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Speaker 1: southeast of the US, occupies this very unique space in Zeitgeis.

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Speaker 1: It's an international destination, home to Disney World, wealth of

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Speaker 1: other amusement parks. I can say some of the best

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Speaker 1: times in my life have actually been in Florida. Really

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Speaker 1: do tell Yeah, Okay, My my grandparents lived in Clearwater,

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Speaker 1: and I used to have just a heck of a

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Speaker 1: time hanging out in their retirement community down there because

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Speaker 1: they had a pool. It was wonderful. It was just

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Speaker 1: grand times. Until I realized isn' there a scientology center there?

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Speaker 1: Until I realized that Clearwater was under assault by scientology.

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Speaker 1: They were literally buying up land. I think a quarter

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Speaker 1: of a quarter of a billion dollars worth of land

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Speaker 1: that they owned up. How did you experience this as

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Speaker 1: a as a youth, Well, all I remember is that

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Speaker 1: there was always construction on all of the highways every

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Speaker 1: time I went down there, from a too little boy

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Speaker 1: up until I was in my mid twenties. And you

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Speaker 1: couldn't get into the pool until you did the e

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Speaker 1: meter thing. You're carrying around too many thetan's, yeah, your

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Speaker 1: thetans were wild man. It's it's true. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: that's a good segue too. There's a lot of strange

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Speaker 1: stuff that happens in Florida. It truly is an international destination.

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Speaker 1: Millions of tourists flocked to Florida each year to maybe

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Speaker 1: visit family, to see the attractions and the beaches. In seventeen,

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Speaker 1: the most recent estimate available, we found an estimated one

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixteen point five million people traveled just to

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Speaker 1: Florida to hang out and last year. And that sounds

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Speaker 1: like a just an abstract large number, but for comparison,

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Speaker 1: we've got what over three hundred million people living in

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Speaker 1: the US now, so that's more than a third of

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Speaker 1: the US population, and just in terms of raw numbers,

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Speaker 1: if yeah, if they're all from the United States, they're not.

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Speaker 1: But you know, there's still a huge chunk of people

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Speaker 1: in Florida. Yeah, but these people are just popping in

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Speaker 1: for a Disney v K or a little universal studio situation,

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Speaker 1: staying at the many palatial resorts and hotels that there

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Speaker 1: are there. But what of the people that just are

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Speaker 1: there all the time? Ah, Yes, you're talking about the

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Speaker 1: residents and the many of whom have retired to Florida

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Speaker 1: from some other another state, New Jersey being the popular stereotype,

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Speaker 1: like Maddie's father in law. Yeah, and yes, kind of

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Speaker 1: Jersey and Jersey and he's from me. It was from

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Speaker 1: New Joys. He's from elsewhere than Florida, though Jersey height

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Speaker 1: so here in the US. Residents of other states have some,

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Speaker 1: let's just call them what they are, stereotypes about Florida.

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Speaker 1: And it's not completely unfounded or unreasonable for people to

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Speaker 1: have these stereotypes. Even those stereotypes are usually pretty destructive thing.

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Speaker 1: Often when you hear about Florida in the national news,

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Speaker 1: it's associated with a tense political struggle and natural disaster,

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Speaker 1: or oddly enough, a strange story about an individual in

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Speaker 1: Florida committing some sort of ridiculous crime. Here's our first

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Speaker 1: list of examples. Florida man attacks a t M with

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Speaker 1: hatchet after it refuses to take his check. Or Florida

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Speaker 1: man denies drinking and driving, says he only swigged bourbon

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Speaker 1: at stop signs. Or Florida man claims wife was kidnapped

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Speaker 1: by holograms. Or Florida man steps tourists despite having no arms.

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Speaker 1: Or drunk Florida man. That's a nice modifier because it's

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Speaker 1: usually just implied drunk Florida man attempts to ride bike

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Speaker 1: through Taco bell drive through Comma, fights with police, and

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Speaker 1: his mug shot he's just making a big old frowny

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Speaker 1: face and has like a bruise in the middle of

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Speaker 1: his forehead and kind of like Joker asked green hair.

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Speaker 1: He's wearing the orange jumpsuit. And just to reiterate, no

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Speaker 1: Florida bashing here. This is a trope that is worth exploring,

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Speaker 1: and we we have to give these examples too. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Florida man launches chair at mailman because he had no

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Speaker 1: mail for him. It was a tense day. Uh, And

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Speaker 1: you can read more and more of these examples. Spoiler

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Speaker 1: alert will probably have some more to pop up. But

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Speaker 1: this is the kind of news that people in other

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Speaker 1: states see when they hear a story of the media

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Speaker 1: about Florida. And since so many people living in other

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Speaker 1: states here about these stories on a semi frequent basis,

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Speaker 1: it's understandable and completely not commendable that many people would

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Speaker 1: form this prejudiced opinion of the Sunshine State. And that

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Speaker 1: brings us to today's question, Is there really more strange

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Speaker 1: crime in Florida? How does it stack up to other states?

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Speaker 1: What exactly gave this state such a weird reputation? Is

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Speaker 1: there something going on in Florida that they don't want

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Speaker 1: us to know? Uh? Yet? Oddly enough, it's it's complicated.

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Speaker 1: We get to a question at the end there, But

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Speaker 1: I guess we should start with the facts. Where did

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Speaker 1: Florida come from? So? Homo sapiens have been occupying the

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Speaker 1: land mass what is Florida for at least twelve thousand years,

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Speaker 1: and written records of this area started as far back

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Speaker 1: as fifteen thirteen, when the Spanish explore Juan Ponce de

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Speaker 1: lay On namesake. We know very well here in Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: It's actually the street that we're on. Um arrived and

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Speaker 1: when he arrived, there were no other humans living there.

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Speaker 1: That's not true. That's just when the like we said,

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Speaker 1: that's when records begin. Ye, well, did pons to lay

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Speaker 1: On consider the inhabitants of Florida to be human? I mean,

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Speaker 1: he is a Spanish explorer at that time, he was

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Speaker 1: a conquistador, right, it's correct. Uh. Fast forward to eighteen

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Speaker 1: forty five, nice day, March three, Florida becomes the US

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Speaker 1: state and during the Civil War, unlike a lot of

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Speaker 1: states in the South, it didn't suffer this massive amount

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Speaker 1: of catastrophic destruction. You know, it didn't burn the way

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Speaker 1: Atlanta burned. There weren't a lot of huge pivotal battles,

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Speaker 1: although there are some, of course they're historically significant, it's

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Speaker 1: not They didn't have a Gettysburg moment. You know. The

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Speaker 1: Union controlled coastal towns of forts. The interior was controlled

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Speaker 1: by Confederates. Somehow, they all, you know, managed to avoid

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Speaker 1: the complete devastation that happened in other states. So let's

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Speaker 1: get into the geography of good old Florida. It's mostly

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Speaker 1: known for its Peninsulava thing that juts out down there

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Speaker 1: heading towards the Caribbean, but the state actually contains several

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Speaker 1: different distinct ecosystems and also cultures. There was all there

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Speaker 1: was a whole article that was put out about the

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Speaker 1: different the five what is it five to ten states

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Speaker 1: that exist within Florida, which is not real, but it's

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Speaker 1: kind of just groupings of people who have moved to

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Speaker 1: the state. But the land is divided into four main regions.

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Speaker 1: You've got the Gulf Coast, that's where the Atlantic Ocean

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Speaker 1: kind of goes up in there into the into the peninsula.

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Speaker 1: You've got the coastal plains, the upland that's the hilly

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Speaker 1: area towards the north and northwest, getting up towards our

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Speaker 1: own Georgia. And then you've got the swampy Everglades that's

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Speaker 1: in the far south and in the Florida Keys. That's

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Speaker 1: where it's very difficult to get buildings to stay into

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Speaker 1: work right and not flood and it's a popular destination

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Speaker 1: for hiding bodies and gators love it. In terms of

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Speaker 1: human population density, at least Florida has a surface area

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Speaker 1: of about one hundred seventy thousand li all over square

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Speaker 1: kilometers almost sixty six thousand square miles. Based on the estimates,

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Speaker 1: that works out to about three hundred and fifty three

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Speaker 1: point four people per square mile or one thirty six

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Speaker 1: point four per square kilometer, and this makes Florida the

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Speaker 1: most densely populated state in the Union. It's also surprisingly

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Speaker 1: this surprised me. It's also the third most populous state.

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Speaker 1: The only bigger ones are California in Texas. That is

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Speaker 1: very surprising in my opinion, especially because of all of

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Speaker 1: that land that's out there, especially in the Everglades and

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Speaker 1: some of those areas where you just look out if

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Speaker 1: you're driving on I think it is you just see

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Speaker 1: nothing for miles and miles and miles, and it gets

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Speaker 1: to be fair, we would have to point out that

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Speaker 1: that average could be misleading because a ton of people

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Speaker 1: will live in the urban areas in the Miami Dade

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Speaker 1: metropolis or in Orlando, you know. So our current estimate

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Speaker 1: for the population in is twenty one point three one

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Speaker 1: million people, and that is based off an estimate carried

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Speaker 1: out in twenty fifteen by the Census Bureau, and the

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Speaker 1: growth rate was one of the fastest in the country.

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Speaker 1: It was number four out of all the other states.

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Speaker 1: So if we think about this, that means most people

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Speaker 1: outside of the American South picture Florida to be way

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Speaker 1: less crowded than it is, and the opposite is the case.

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Speaker 1: It is incredibly crowded, incredibly dense, and most importantly, incredibly diverse.

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Speaker 1: That's right. Florida is a is a pretty unusual mix

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Speaker 1: of cultures, of transplants, like we're talking about the top

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Speaker 1: of the show from other states and other countries. So

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Speaker 1: it's pretty hard to find a central, defining characteristic of

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Speaker 1: the state's culture like as a whole. But that's kind

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Speaker 1: of what makes it interesting too. I mean there's like,

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Speaker 1: you know, there's an incredible art scene, like in Miami,

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Speaker 1: for example, with like I think it's called art Basil.

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Speaker 1: Does that you pronounced it or basal. That's what's going

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Speaker 1: on right now. It's a big art conference where artists

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Speaker 1: from all over the world convene in Miami, and there's

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Speaker 1: that aspect of it. There's an incredible you know, Latin

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Speaker 1: American population in Cuban population and different kinds of food

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Speaker 1: and music and just about you know, anything you can

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Speaker 1: imagine it's very, very, very diverse. Miami an entire metropolis

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Speaker 1: built on cocaine. I read some uh, I read some

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Speaker 1: really strange thing about Miami. When researching this, someone said

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Speaker 1: the this neatest thing about Miami was how close it

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Speaker 1: is to America. It took me a second. I couldn't

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Speaker 1: figure out where they were going because I'm not myself

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Speaker 1: too familiar with Miami. I haven't been there since I

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Speaker 1: was a child. I would imagine you guys are more

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Speaker 1: familiar with it. Yeah, I've been there numerous times with

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Speaker 1: my in laws. They love it. I love it. I

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Speaker 1: love hanging out there with them. And again, the food

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Speaker 1: and the culture are definitely one of the biggest drawing

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Speaker 1: points I think to that city. For some reason, when

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Speaker 1: I was a child a long long time ago, I

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Speaker 1: thought everybody in Miami was tall. And I think it's

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Speaker 1: just because when I went there, I was, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe two and a half to three ft high, So

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Speaker 1: I just thought it was a land of giants. I

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Speaker 1: have no is that true or people taller in Miami?

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Speaker 1: They are. Yeah, it's rough. It's anywhere between three to

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Speaker 1: seven inches. You're gonna get as soon as you arrive

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Speaker 1: to Miami um and that increases over time, like whether

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Speaker 1: or not you actually are living in like certain counties

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Speaker 1: within the city. That makes sense. It's like I always thought.

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Speaker 1: I always thought when people say they're big in Japan,

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Speaker 1: I thought it was some sort of like metaphor comparison.

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Speaker 1: But you know, I uh, from what I hear, when

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Speaker 1: you go, you do turn into a giant. It does. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that's obviously completely false the thing we're joking about. But

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Speaker 1: I do wonder if there's something to driving through that

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Speaker 1: flat land that is Florida for so long then you

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Speaker 1: finally arrive at this huge city that has giant, towering buildings.

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Speaker 1: I wonder if there's some kind of perception thing that

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Speaker 1: can occur there where things feel bigger. The Florida effect. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, yeah, that's a thing I just made up.

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Speaker 1: I think the Florida effect is an excellent name. What

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Speaker 1: what do you think it describes? Well? Is it what

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Speaker 1: Matt articulated? It could be part of it. It could

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Speaker 1: be this whole ball of Florida wax that we're talking

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Speaker 1: about today, and included in that ball of Florida wax

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Speaker 1: is the kind of the elephant in the room or

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Speaker 1: the mouse in the tower. Right, How does Florida's stack

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Speaker 1: up when it comes to crime, especially since we read

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Speaker 1: so much about crime in these news stories they constantly

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Speaker 1: come out. We'll tell you after a word from our sponsor. Well,

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Speaker 1: no matter what you've heard, this is important. Despite all

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Speaker 1: those crazy news stories you heard, and even the one

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Speaker 1: that you didn't hear me say about the guy who

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Speaker 1: buried a dude in concrete to steal his magic the

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Speaker 1: gathering collection, which was valued at over a hundred thousand dollars.

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Speaker 1: By the way, Florida is by no means the most

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Speaker 1: violent state within our great Union. Well, the beauty two

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Speaker 1: of these stories, they're not violent. They're always kind of crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: The car thief, for instance, who stole a vehicle, saw

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Speaker 1: there was a baby in it and then like turned

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Speaker 1: around to safely drop the baby off with someone, and

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Speaker 1: then stole the car. I feel like that's oddly and deary. Yeah, agreed.

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Speaker 1: Or even the guy who was at McDonald's who was

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Speaker 1: masturbating in the parking lot and he claimed that his privacy,

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Speaker 1: his privacy was being invaded. Yeah, he also said he

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Speaker 1: lived in his car. I believe despite all these stories here,

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Speaker 1: Florida is, as you said, Matt, not the most violent state.

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Speaker 1: Depending on the study read the most violent state will

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Speaker 1: um often be cited as Louisiana, with Vermont being side

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Speaker 1: as one of the safest. But there's still crime in Florida.

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Speaker 1: Florida is usually depending on how it's measured, it usually

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Speaker 1: ranks fifth in terms of crime, five forty one violent

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Speaker 1: crimes reported per one hundred thousand people. That's a lot, right,

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Speaker 1: And also it ranks number five in terms of robbery,

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Speaker 1: aggravated assault, and property crime. But while it may not

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Speaker 1: have the most crime out of any state, it genuinely

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Speaker 1: does seem to have some of the weirdest crime. You

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Speaker 1: know what, can we just stop and do some more examples?

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Speaker 1: He's pretty yeah, all right, what do we got? I

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Speaker 1: have a good one. Let's see. Florida man caught with

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Speaker 1: stolen power polls strapped suv in wake of Hurricane Irma.

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Speaker 1: That's weird, I don't understand. Florida man disguises himself in

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Speaker 1: bull costume as he tries to burn down former lover's

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Speaker 1: house with pasta sauce. Florida man attempts to smoke crack

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Speaker 1: in an icy u almost burns down hospital. Florida man

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Speaker 1: high on math climbs onto stranger's roof to howl. Florida

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Speaker 1: man arrested in local park for practicing karate on swans.

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Speaker 1: Florida man sets apartment complex on fire after manager told

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Speaker 1: him to stop masturbating in front of windows. You are

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Speaker 1: yours are very mass Yeah, I feel like I feel

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Speaker 1: like you found a theme. Florida man rex liquor shop

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Speaker 1: blames caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. He said that a

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Speaker 1: hookah smoking caterpillar told him to do it, So it's

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Speaker 1: really more referencing movie the song White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane. There,

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Speaker 1: that's a good point he needed to work on. It

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Speaker 1: was probably on acid, he might have been. There's one.

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Speaker 1: There's one I found that I can't remember the circumstances behind,

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Speaker 1: but we can just describe it in the headline. There

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Speaker 1: was a guy who was found on the roof of

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Speaker 1: some store and he was covered with tar, and people

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Speaker 1: asked him what he was doing up there, and originally

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Speaker 1: he said that he was lost and from out of town,

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Speaker 1: and then he said he was an A C technician,

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Speaker 1: and he noticed the A C was malfunctioning, so he

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Speaker 1: decided to do the neighborly thing and fix it. I

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Speaker 1: think he just did drugs and ended up on the

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Speaker 1: roof of a building and got covered in tar somehow,

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Speaker 1: and I hope he's okay. So these headlines are like

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Speaker 1: solid gold. If you have a slow newsday, right, these

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Speaker 1: will get your clicks for sure. So what gives you know?

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Speaker 1: Is this unfair stereotype? Is there something in the water?

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Speaker 1: Why do people seem to participate in so many crazy

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Speaker 1: shenanigans in America's most infamous peninsula. It turns out we

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Speaker 1: have an answer. Here's where it gets crazy. Yeah. So

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Speaker 1: it turns out that this law really is somewhat to

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Speaker 1: blame for this phenomenon. Every American state has some kind

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Speaker 1: of sunshine law, and that's a term for legislation regulations

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Speaker 1: or constitutional amendments that guarantee public access to government affairs,

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Speaker 1: like sort of an open book policy, right, um? Or

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Speaker 1: how open is your book? Exactly? How open is your book?

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Speaker 1: Is it a reading rainbow or is it more of

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Speaker 1: a I don't know, Ben, You're better at this than me. Ma.

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Speaker 1: There you go, nice, very very well done, mat Um. Yeah. So,

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Speaker 1: but while these laws require most government meetings to be

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Speaker 1: open door and most documents to be open book, um

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Speaker 1: allowing public scrutiny. Many of them are a little bit limited,

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Speaker 1: right or redacted or have some kind of conditions on

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Speaker 1: them to where not every single one is going to

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Speaker 1: be fully available in all of its form. Yeah, So theoretically,

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Speaker 1: in a given state you have you might have something

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Speaker 1: similar to this Transparency Act or Freedom of Information Act

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Speaker 1: kind of thing, so you can technically get access to

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Speaker 1: police records, but actually getting them in practice can take

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Speaker 1: a long time, or you can get shut down by

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Speaker 1: red tape. But in Florida, on the other hand, there

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Speaker 1: is a deep, deep, deep, centuries long dedication to hardcore

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Speaker 1: transparency norms. It starts way back in nineteen o nine

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Speaker 1: chapter of the Florida Statutes, the Public Records Law, and

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Speaker 1: it kept being strengthened in following years. In nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: seven they passed the government in the Sunshine Law popularly

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Speaker 1: known as as the Sunshine Law now, and then they

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Speaker 1: continued to strengthen it after that. So this law has

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Speaker 1: been kind of untouchable regardless of who is in office,

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Speaker 1: and it's pretty extreme if you are a public official.

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Speaker 1: Every meeting aside from a few exemptions, has to be

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Speaker 1: an open meeting, which is why, like politicians will get

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Speaker 1: married and they'll have to have a journalist at their wedding.

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Speaker 1: That happened at least once and today. The Sunshine law

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Speaker 1: regarding open government can be found in Chapter two eighty

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Speaker 1: six of the Florida Statutes. If you're looking for some

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Speaker 1: really juicy reading. Uh, they established this basic right of

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Speaker 1: access to most meetings of boards, commissions, other governing bodies

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Speaker 1: of state and local government agencies or authorities. And this

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Speaker 1: means that it is incredibly easy to learn about the

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Speaker 1: inner workings of this state's government, especially arrest records. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and that's a big deal because if you're a journalist

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Speaker 1: and you're looking for a story just to include or

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Speaker 1: to you know, have as a part of your paper

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Speaker 1: or your podcast or whatever, having access or at least

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Speaker 1: easier access to some of these arrest records and stories

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Speaker 1: going through the courts or whoever is being charged with

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Speaker 1: what right now actively that gives you this huge wealth

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Speaker 1: of just stuff to write about. I mean, that's a

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Speaker 1: big that's a big deal to me, at least like

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Speaker 1: the Blotterer stories, you know. Yeah, no, it's true. And

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Speaker 1: at the same time, like I've been to Florida, I've

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Speaker 1: hung out in Florida, and Florida has a really interesting

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Speaker 1: dichotomy where like we're talking about that diversity that it

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Speaker 1: has that extends to like, you know, how there's certain

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Speaker 1: parts of Georgia that kind of have reputation for like

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Speaker 1: a certain type of individual that might be a little

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Speaker 1: more prone to drunken behavior or unhinged things, you know,

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Speaker 1: or myth or meth there you go, or you know,

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Speaker 1: just too much drinking too. You know that Florida has

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Speaker 1: that too, and it so has the big cities it has.

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Speaker 1: It's very diverse in that way. Um, And I think

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Speaker 1: that and the fact that you've got these open book

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Speaker 1: policies where they have better access to it. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily mean there are more crimes that are nuts, but

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Speaker 1: it certainly has no shortage of bonkers crimes. But you

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Speaker 1: know what, neither is Georgia. We just don't get access

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Speaker 1: to the information as readily as they do in Florida, apparently, right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and there's one of the dead giveaways you'll notice. So

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Speaker 1: the same well intentioned laws that passed are the same

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Speaker 1: reason that a Florida residents mug shot might appear online

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Speaker 1: merely days after those arrests. Make it incredibly easy to

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Speaker 1: write about these stories. And here's the red flag you'll

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Speaker 1: see if you're reading a weird Florida or Florida man's story,

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Speaker 1: it will almost always include the phrase according to the

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Speaker 1: arrest report or something like that. And there's a journalist

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Speaker 1: named Kyle Munsen reader who wrote a great look at

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Speaker 1: this for the Miami Herald. He put it this way.

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Speaker 1: As journalist, he said, all we have to do in

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Speaker 1: most cases is called the police department and asked for

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Speaker 1: the arrest report, and the cops are required to give

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Speaker 1: it to us. Nowadays, a lot of cops just email

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Speaker 1: the reports and some of them will post arrest records

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Speaker 1: online of their own volition. Uh, some of the more

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Speaker 1: dedicated Florida news reporters go through batches and batches of

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Speaker 1: these reports at a time. And he said, you know, you,

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Speaker 1: once you have the report, you pretty much have everything

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Speaker 1: you need to write a story. You just have to

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Speaker 1: be mindful that it's the police officers version of events.

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Speaker 1: And Kyle had a good example about this, which I

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Speaker 1: thought was hilarious. He says, say a journalist somewhere gets

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Speaker 1: a tip that a man in a dog costume was

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Speaker 1: caught making love to a Hello Kitty doll in a

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Speaker 1: mall bathroom here in Florida. We would just call the

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Speaker 1: police and say something like heard there was an arrest

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Speaker 1: at the mall yesterday, Can we get the report? And

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Speaker 1: I would put I would add a little wink wink

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Speaker 1: in there right for journalists and a lot of their states, Again,

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Speaker 1: it's not that easy. They might not be able to

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Speaker 1: get the report at all, or they might have to

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Speaker 1: wait for a certain amount of time before police release it.

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Speaker 1: Georgia does have a thing called the jail report that

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Speaker 1: you can get like a gas stations, and they're very,

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Speaker 1: very picky. You're not allowed to pick them up or

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Speaker 1: read them unless you buy them, because otherwise, you know,

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Speaker 1: what's the point. So yeah, they typically only they'll have

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Speaker 1: mug shots and um, the actual thing the person was

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Speaker 1: arrested for, but not usually the juicy details like what

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Speaker 1: would be in the arrest report. So that must be

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Speaker 1: directly because of the differences in the sunshine laws. I

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Speaker 1: think that's a good point, and there's there's something else

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Speaker 1: here about the sunshine law that's pretty interesting. Florida, like

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Speaker 1: some other unnamed U. S States, is home to a

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Speaker 1: lot of corruption. And just have to look back at

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Speaker 1: our earlier episode on the uh founding of Disney World

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Speaker 1: to see the way that Disney essentially became its own

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Speaker 1: local government. Right. Scientology famous for having its fingers in

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Speaker 1: a lot of political pies. So maybe this open governance

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Speaker 1: law is so extreme because they want to have some

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Speaker 1: sort of oversight on those strange, murky connections between so

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Speaker 1: called private entities and then governments that have been infiltrated

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Speaker 1: or compromised, which I know sounds so very cold war,

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Speaker 1: but again, just listen to the Disney episode because that's

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Speaker 1: what happened. Yeah. Absolutely, I have to say it was

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Speaker 1: weird going to Disney after doing that episode. Oh yeah,

429
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:32,640
Speaker 1: all I was thinking about how this land was acquired,

430
00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:36,000
Speaker 1: what the town was actually like, where I truly was

431
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:38,639
Speaker 1: rather than just being near Kissing Me or something, the

432
00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:43,680
Speaker 1: Ready Creek Improvement District. Yeah, but still Disney World's great man.

433
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:47,320
Speaker 1: I have fun memories of it, the whole thing. So,

434
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:50,760
Speaker 1: as you said earlier, Nold, a lot of states have

435
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:54,480
Speaker 1: something like this law, but most are nowhere near on

436
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:58,560
Speaker 1: the level of Florida's so be very careful. Now that

437
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:02,439
Speaker 1: we've walked through that, we can address this question. Is

438
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:05,439
Speaker 1: Florida any worse than other states? Or is it just

439
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:09,440
Speaker 1: easier for the public to know about crimes and bizarre events?

440
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:22,400
Speaker 1: Will answer that after a word from our sponsor, we're back. Well,

441
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:24,359
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna have to give this one the

442
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 1: old patented partially true. Can we get a sound effect?

443
00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:36,520
Speaker 1: Who patent did that? It's somewhat yes, snos. I think

444
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 1: it was probably snokes. Yeah, they can't own the phrase

445
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:46,159
Speaker 1: partially true? Who knows partially on it? Perhaps what we

446
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,919
Speaker 1: have to go with something way less, way less sexy,

447
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:53,640
Speaker 1: like somewhat accurate. There you go, that's a glass half

448
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:56,840
Speaker 1: full situation. Oh yeah, it's true. Looks like we're gonna

449
00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 1: go with our patented somewhat accurate and one gun shot Yeah,

450
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:09,640
Speaker 1: like a like a racing start pistol. Yeah, that's good.

451
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 1: That's not scary guns. That's a compromise. Yeah. Of Florida's

452
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:16,240
Speaker 1: open governance laws do make it very very easy to

453
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:21,320
Speaker 1: report the weirdest to rest on record. Uh. And the

454
00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 1: fact remains that there is a higher than average crime

455
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 1: rate in Florida. It's a combination of wildly different cultures,

456
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 1: so stranger things are bound to occur, things that might

457
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,840
Speaker 1: not occur in a place that is less crowded or

458
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 1: has different reporting rules. It feels like there is a

459
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 1: little bit more of possibly a free spirit and like

460
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,840
Speaker 1: kind of a stick it to the man kind of attitude,

461
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:47,439
Speaker 1: possibly when people live by the water. Uh and and

462
00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 1: they're not absurdly bougie rich people. I see what you're saying. Yeah,

463
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:55,200
Speaker 1: more self reliance, self reliant, the kind of beach bum

464
00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 1: life's for me kind of attitude, you know, and then

465
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 1: maybe that applies inland with sort of a country can

466
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:03,159
Speaker 1: survive vibe. All so true. Again, I think it all

467
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:04,919
Speaker 1: goes back to the diversity we're talking about, and that

468
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:11,480
Speaker 1: is a diversity of culture and of socio economic stratum. Yeah. Yeah,

469
00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 1: there's a lot of inequality in the state as well.

470
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:16,919
Speaker 1: And this situation, all these factors combined to create a

471
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:21,399
Speaker 1: feedback loop because once journalists from around the country learned

472
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 1: how easy it was to fill a void in the

473
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:28,399
Speaker 1: news cycle with a charming, hilarious, often schadenfreud rife anecdote

474
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 1: about Florida, it became an easy go to move. That

475
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:36,040
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that insane things don't happen in Idaho. That

476
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that parts of Atlanta are entirely bonkers and

477
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:44,560
Speaker 1: and you know, weakly weekly escapades of pandemonium don't occur.

478
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:48,320
Speaker 1: It just means that it's way easier to tell the

479
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:50,320
Speaker 1: Florida versions of those stories. What do you call that,

480
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:54,680
Speaker 1: like an echo chamber situation? Right? Yeah, here's a question, then, Ben,

481
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,560
Speaker 1: what does it take in a state with tighter sunshine

482
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:02,320
Speaker 1: laws to nerate a headline like that, Like it has

483
00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 1: to be just like out in the public eye where

484
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 1: it's witnessed by a lot of people, and then you know,

485
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:10,200
Speaker 1: it's not exclusively reported on based on arrest reports. It

486
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 1: was such a giant debacle that people saw it and

487
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:17,320
Speaker 1: journalists actually have to interview people at the scene. Yeah,

488
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:19,600
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, as you as you find more

489
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 1: details with any of these that we late that we

490
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 1: ran off earlier, there's probably even more context to a

491
00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 1: lot of this, and it might even make a little

492
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,280
Speaker 1: more sense than it seems just with the headline and

493
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:34,000
Speaker 1: with the basic description. After more, you know, a better

494
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 1: picture of it emerges. Yeah, and these people haven't had

495
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 1: their day in court. Yet either when a lot of

496
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,000
Speaker 1: stuff is reported, it's just the arrest, Like as reported

497
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 1: by a local news station, a Florida man was rescued

498
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 1: from a vending machine. Authorities would not comment on the

499
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 1: circumstances of how the man became stuck in the vending

500
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:54,680
Speaker 1: machine or how they rescued him. There was no word

501
00:29:54,720 --> 00:29:57,280
Speaker 1: on the extent of his injuries. Action News called the

502
00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 1: business where the incident happened. A person Alpha Packaging, picked

503
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: up the phone and hung up without providing additional information.

504
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:05,960
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of context missing, and that one,

505
00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:08,280
Speaker 1: you know, And that's that's a really good point you make, Matt.

506
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:11,840
Speaker 1: There's a wealth of very important context which usually cut

507
00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 1: out because we just want to read these i'll say,

508
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 1: amazing headlines. I was about to say, before you accuse

509
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,160
Speaker 1: us of only doing this episode because we wanted to

510
00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:22,280
Speaker 1: rattle off some of these headlines, I'm here to tell

511
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 1: you that's probably exactly why we did it. I I

512
00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: love it. Yeah, I went in this hoping for headlines,

513
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 1: and we want to hear some of your favorite Florida headlines. Also,

514
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 1: if you were from Florida, we want to hear your

515
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 1: opinion on the sunshine law. Is it overall a good thing?

516
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 1: With this one unintended consequence? You know, we have solved

517
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:49,600
Speaker 1: the mystery. Florida does get an unfair wrap, and it

518
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:53,000
Speaker 1: gets it largely due to this legislation. What about people

519
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,320
Speaker 1: who don't live in Florida? Do you want your state,

520
00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 1: local community, or your country to enact a similar law? Why?

521
00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 1: Or why not? I mean a lot of a lot

522
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 1: of countries have the draconian opposite of this, like in

523
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 1: Belarus and a lot of Eurasian countries. You're not really

524
00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:15,040
Speaker 1: allowed to even talk about the government. M I don't

525
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:18,400
Speaker 1: want that. So is there a Goldilocks zone? Is this

526
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:21,480
Speaker 1: too far? There must be I don't know. I kind

527
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 1: of like this full transparency thing. I mean, how honestly,

528
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,360
Speaker 1: if we didn't have it, how what I ever learned

529
00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:30,440
Speaker 1: about the Florida man that stole thirty six thousand pounds

530
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,680
Speaker 1: of Crisco? And what's he gonna do with all that Crisco?

531
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 1: I think I know that sex stuff. You're not connected

532
00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 1: to the Crisco underground anymore. I thought it was a

533
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:45,520
Speaker 1: food product, like you cook with it. Well, yeah, but

534
00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:49,920
Speaker 1: I mean it's also you know, pure Greece maybe though

535
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:56,080
Speaker 1: I know no, no alligator wrestling. Ah yeah, I don't know.

536
00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:59,000
Speaker 1: I love those sorts of heist because remember that story

537
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:03,200
Speaker 1: in Canada about the huge maple syrup heist that happened

538
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 1: a while. I still wonder, how do you fence that

539
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:09,560
Speaker 1: who has a Crisco guy who only moves weight, who

540
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:13,440
Speaker 1: has a maple syrup connection, who doesn't mess with anything

541
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,280
Speaker 1: under a hundred gallons of syrup? You know what I'm saying.

542
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:20,000
Speaker 1: You you fence it directly to the underground alligator wrestling

543
00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:24,240
Speaker 1: community and they then no one else ever sees it.

544
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:26,400
Speaker 1: Doesn't have to enter into circulation. They just keep it

545
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 1: and they use it until they run out. So this

546
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:31,480
Speaker 1: guy is like the Kaiser associate of Crisco. I am

547
00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 1: officially I am officially banning myself from comparing people to Kaiser.

548
00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:38,840
Speaker 1: So say, I've been doing it for the past several

549
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:44,280
Speaker 1: episodes because like that, they're gone. Yes exactly, it's a

550
00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: great comparison to anyone. Uh well, I figured it out, guys.

551
00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 1: He was taking the Crisco. He was gonna go fence

552
00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:54,440
Speaker 1: it at his buddy. He was his buddy. Unfortunately, though,

553
00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:57,840
Speaker 1: was caught with a meth and active meth lab in

554
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,840
Speaker 1: his pants. The guy the and they called it a

555
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:06,680
Speaker 1: one pot meth lab. That's true, that's true. Yes, like

556
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:10,600
Speaker 1: you can cook yourself one rock of meth. I don't

557
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 1: know the I don't know the output of Chris Guild,

558
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:17,800
Speaker 1: but they have. Yeah, this guy had apparently some baggy

559
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:24,920
Speaker 1: pants and a mcgever like traveling meth lab from Springs.

560
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:29,080
Speaker 1: And this, I mean, we can laugh at this. We're

561
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: not making fun of these people's lives. We are trying

562
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,880
Speaker 1: to point out the important, uh and little known mechanism

563
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:40,720
Speaker 1: that's responsible for this uh frankly unfair stereotype. We also,

564
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:42,880
Speaker 1: you know, as we said at the top, after our

565
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 1: last few episodes, we wanted to do something a little

566
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:50,880
Speaker 1: more lighthearted. But there is one last crucial note we

567
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 1: have to make here as we record this, some parts

568
00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 1: of Florida are still devastated by Hurricane Michael. And you

569
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:01,440
Speaker 1: might not hear about this, uh in between all this

570
00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:05,240
Speaker 1: the funny stories of someone you know dressing up in

571
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:08,160
Speaker 1: a weird costume or someone getting stuck in a vending machine.

572
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 1: But there are still tensities in areas of Florida where

573
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:16,719
Speaker 1: hundreds of people are currently living and they are. Many

574
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:19,680
Speaker 1: of them are due to be disbanded, leaving the hurricane

575
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:23,080
Speaker 1: survivors with nowhere to go. So if you would like

576
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:26,239
Speaker 1: to donate to help Florida rebuild, or for that matter,

577
00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 1: help any number of communities that have been suffering from

578
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:30,960
Speaker 1: the short and long term effects of these kinds of

579
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:34,719
Speaker 1: natural disasters, such as California with the fires, Puerto Rico. UM,

580
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:38,000
Speaker 1: you can visit charity navigator dot org and search for

581
00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:41,359
Speaker 1: your cause of choice. Yeah, it's pretty neat. You'll see

582
00:34:41,360 --> 00:34:45,439
Speaker 1: the various charities and nonprofit organizations divided up by their

583
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:49,080
Speaker 1: areas of expertise, along with more information about each one,

584
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:52,319
Speaker 1: so check it out. As we may have said on

585
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:55,640
Speaker 1: the show before, it's always important to remember that these

586
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 1: sorts of stories don't stop just because the reporters stop

587
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:02,800
Speaker 1: report doing it. They continue on. I couldn't agree more guys,

588
00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:05,120
Speaker 1: all right, So if you want to write to us

589
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 1: with anything crazy floor of stories, we'll read them. We've been,

590
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:12,360
Speaker 1: you know, as tragic as the things are that we

591
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:15,359
Speaker 1: just discussed, we've been cracking up this whole episode just

592
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:19,359
Speaker 1: reading the headlines and exploring the strangeness that humanity has

593
00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:22,439
Speaker 1: to offer. And if you have any strangeness of humanity

594
00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:25,520
Speaker 1: or otherwise send it our way. You can find us

595
00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:29,160
Speaker 1: on Twitter or Facebook where where we're Conspiracy Stuff. Instagram

596
00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:31,840
Speaker 1: we are Conspiracy Stuff Show. If you don't want to

597
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:35,240
Speaker 1: do any of that stuff, check out our Facebook group

598
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:37,920
Speaker 1: which is Here's where it gets crazy. You can get

599
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 1: on there and discuss all of these things and all

600
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:42,680
Speaker 1: the other topics that we've ever covered and things we

601
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:46,640
Speaker 1: haven't covered, with all of our fellow conspiracy realists over there,

602
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:49,480
Speaker 1: wonderful human beings. And if you don't want to do

603
00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:52,839
Speaker 1: any of that, you can call us. We are one

604
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:57,879
Speaker 1: eight three three st d w y t K. Leave

605
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:01,839
Speaker 1: a message you might get on the air. And if

606
00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 1: none of that stuff, not a single thing that we

607
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 1: just said, strikes your fancy, you can do the final thing,

608
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:11,239
Speaker 1: send us a good old fashioned email. We are conspiracy

609
00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:32,800
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com