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 iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
Speaker 2: my name is Noah.
Speaker 1: They call me Ben. We are joined with our guest
Speaker 1: super producer, Dylan the Tennessee pal Faken. Most specifically, you
Speaker 1: are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff
Speaker 1: they don't want you to know. It is our weekly
Speaker 1: Listener Male segment. We're gonna hear from docer B. We're
Speaker 1: gonna hear from this is a true story. We're gonna
Speaker 1: hear from a couple of cats. We're gonna hear from
Speaker 1: some anonymous folks. We're gonna hear from Meta Agent. We also,
Speaker 1: I think, wanted to collectively take a moment and thank
Speaker 1: everybody who has taken the time to listen to our
Speaker 1: episode about the dark side of adoption, and also to
Speaker 1: reach out and share some very personal stories. It really
Speaker 1: does mean the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, and we're going to share one of those
Speaker 3: right at the top here. That's something that I received
Speaker 3: from a person who's become a friend through the show,
Speaker 3: and I communicate with somewhat regularly on Instagram asked to
Speaker 3: remain anonymous here, but this episode really struck a chord
Speaker 3: with them and compelled them to share this story. And
Speaker 3: I guess trigger warning up top, there's a discussion of
Speaker 3: some sexual abuse, and it's just generally some pretty sad stuff,
Speaker 3: but it does have a happy ending. So why don't
Speaker 3: we pause here, make this our cold open, and then
Speaker 3: we'll come back with that story in full when we return.
Speaker 3: And we're back, and here is our message from an
Speaker 3: anonymous listener responding to our episode on the Dark Side
Speaker 3: of Adoption. Listening to the adoption episode, and I was
Speaker 3: actually ward of the state, not really foster or adopted.
Speaker 3: And if I'm not mistaken, a ward of the state
Speaker 3: is something that's a little more common overseas. It's something
Speaker 3: that if you've ever seen The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,
Speaker 3: for example, or read those books, the character of Elizabeth
Speaker 3: Solander is a ward of the state due to not
Speaker 3: having parents and also due to something that she did,
Speaker 3: a crime. I guess that she committed that caused her
Speaker 3: to be monitored more specifically, but to this listener's point,
Speaker 3: you can also become a ward of the state, sort
Speaker 3: of in the way you might be put in a
Speaker 3: foster home here in the United States, the right legal
Speaker 3: protection of some state body that's government. So I was
Speaker 3: actually ward of the state, not really foster or adopted.
Speaker 3: My mom lost three kids for good reason, and two
Speaker 3: of us were placed with relatives across the state. They
Speaker 3: had done fostering before, so we were never checked up on.
Speaker 3: I was raped two times by people associated with them.
Speaker 3: But I think I'm even more bothered by the fact
Speaker 3: that the yearly check in we were supposed to have
Speaker 3: with a social worker was just a survey mailed to
Speaker 3: my uncle and filled out by him alone. I saw
Speaker 3: it once, and it asked about our happiness and how
Speaker 3: we were doing. Never once had anyone asked me those questions,
Speaker 3: so they were able to give themselves five star reviews.
Speaker 3: Had I ever got to privately meet with an adult
Speaker 3: outside the home, I would have had the opportunity to
Speaker 3: tell someone what happened before it happened again. Siblings went
Speaker 3: back to Mom, but I got left behind, so I
Speaker 3: left on my own and hitchhiked across the country. On
Speaker 3: the positive side, life got better when I began being
Speaker 3: the only person responsible for taking care of my self.
Speaker 3: So I would end by saying that to any kids
Speaker 3: who are in that bad place now, that it does
Speaker 3: get better, and that they should find the bravery to
Speaker 3: talk to someone if they feel like things aren't right.
Speaker 3: They might not realize right away that what they are
Speaker 3: going through isn't okay, but they can't blame themselves for
Speaker 3: not recognizing abuse as abuse when they never got to know. Love.
Speaker 3: Can share any of that if you want, or if
Speaker 3: it's relevant in the future. No name if you do
Speaker 3: feel weird sharing it, but it is a relief saying
Speaker 3: it instead of just saying quote unquote bad things. I
Speaker 3: wrote an autobiography even and just labeled the worst as
Speaker 3: bad things, because if I don't call it what it was,
Speaker 3: then I can pretend it didn't happen. But seventeen years
Speaker 3: is a long time to keep that in Thank you
Speaker 3: guys for covering the dark side of adoption, and I
Speaker 3: hope others find the comfort I did and hearing a
Speaker 3: lot of us were luckier than we knew. Ah. I
Speaker 3: think you can probably hear a little emotional reading this.
Speaker 3: I can't thank our listener enough for sharing this very
Speaker 3: private thing. It would seem for maybe the first time
Speaker 3: in a public forum like this, and I know that
Speaker 3: has to be complicated, but it would seem empowering. And
Speaker 3: that makes me very happy that you felt comfortable enough
Speaker 3: to do that and to allow us to tell this
Speaker 3: story and hopefully you know, reach folks that maybe you're
Speaker 3: you know, in the midst in the thick of the
Speaker 3: situation that you found yourself in, because we know that
Speaker 3: even here in the States, you know, these kind of
Speaker 3: situations often fall through the cracks, and you know, people
Speaker 3: are even killed, you know, children, it's it's it's a
Speaker 3: horrible thing. We know the system isn't inherently vicious, it
Speaker 3: does not intend for these things to happen, but it
Speaker 3: is understaffed and often there are opportunistic elements that can
Speaker 3: come in, like in this situation, and take advantage of
Speaker 3: the system for a check and not do that sacred
Speaker 3: duty that is, you know, looking after a child who
Speaker 3: is in need. So I just, yeah, I can't thank
Speaker 3: you enough. And guys, you know, we got other messages
Speaker 3: similar to this, but this is just one that I
Speaker 3: thought was really moving and I just wanted to share it.
Speaker 3: But can you imagine the idea of being able to
Speaker 3: self assess your I mean, that's just mind boggling and
Speaker 3: if unfortunately, yeah, I can imagine it. But how awful
Speaker 3: and inefficient that a human never even got to speak
Speaker 3: to these kids.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I wanted to talk about. Pretty recently,
Speaker 2: my son's in a public school and he he got
Speaker 2: something sent home by the staff, like the teachers, the
Speaker 2: classes that he's in, and it let us know, let
Speaker 2: me know, as dad and his mom, that there's going
Speaker 2: to be an assessment, a self assessment basically that every
Speaker 2: kid was going to fill out in the school and
Speaker 2: it was going to ask questions like this, and you know,
Speaker 2: about how you feel, how if you feel safe, if
Speaker 2: you feel fulfilled? All these like pretty big concepts for
Speaker 2: children of an elementary school age. But that kind of
Speaker 2: thing being you know, asked of a child in that
Speaker 2: moment when they're in school, which is theoretically a safer
Speaker 2: space for some of the kids than it is at home,
Speaker 2: right if they're in a bad situation, that to me
Speaker 2: is a massively important thing to exist. And it makes
Speaker 2: me very sad that this, this person that is writing
Speaker 2: to us didn't even have that opportunity in some you know,
Speaker 2: third party group to come in and an adult that's
Speaker 2: not a part of that family that's taking part in
Speaker 2: the bad stuff to come in and actually just ask
Speaker 2: the question, Hey, how you doing to the kid.
Speaker 3: It's just such a conflict of interest. You know that
Speaker 3: alone is maddening, but just when you find out that
Speaker 3: this is the kind of stuff that it can actually
Speaker 3: help to cover up a policy like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd like to begin by anonymous thanking you specifically
Speaker 1: for trusting us enough with this story. This is, as
Speaker 1: we had mentioned earlier, this is something that many people
Speaker 1: have their own experiences with, very sensitive to that. One
Speaker 1: thing that I would like to say is you have,
Speaker 1: by virtue of contacting us, you have already done and
Speaker 1: impossible to estimate level of good for fellow conspiracy realists
Speaker 1: who may be in similar situations and have felt at
Speaker 1: some point in their lives alone. And there's a power
Speaker 1: in that, and we thank you for this. Also, if
Speaker 1: you are comfortable, please do feel free to send your
Speaker 1: autobiography along. I would love to read it and just
Speaker 1: grateful for your time as well as the time of
Speaker 1: everybody else who wrote it. This does matter, and it
Speaker 1: is It is incredibly important, So thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you'll hear emotion in all of our voices.
Speaker 3: You know, this is just something that having been children
Speaker 3: ourselves and some of us of course having children, and
Speaker 3: all of us, you know, having children in our lives,
Speaker 3: just the idea of being in such a place of
Speaker 3: vulnerability and utterly having this system fail you, you know,
Speaker 3: and just the most egregious kind of way possible. It's
Speaker 3: just difficult not to feel emotional about this stuff. But
Speaker 3: I don't know, guys, are there any like, if there
Speaker 3: were kids out there that were experiencing this stuff and
Speaker 3: they had the courage or the wherewithal to like reach out,
Speaker 3: would this be the kind of thing you would just
Speaker 3: you would just report this stuff to the police.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's tough theoretically, Yes, there are things what are
Speaker 1: they called mandated reporters who are legally required you know,
Speaker 1: people teachers, educators in particular Teles. We're big, big fans
Speaker 1: of education, and teachers here dramatically cartoonishly underpaid go every
Speaker 1: day to spend their heart, their blood, their sweat, their tears,
Speaker 1: and spoiler here in America, a lot of money out
Speaker 1: of their own pocket and there's not a These are
Speaker 1: not very deep pockets. Those are people worth trusting. So
Speaker 1: I would say mandated reporters are a big part of
Speaker 1: the conversation.
Speaker 3: But to the point of our listener, there could be
Speaker 3: some kids that are in the situation that don't even
Speaker 3: recognize abuse as abuse, and how do you reconcile.
Speaker 1: That Because things can become so evil, evilly insidiously normalized.
Speaker 1: That's part of it too. I mean, you know, cliches
Speaker 1: are only cliches for a reason. When people say things
Speaker 1: like it takes a village to raise a child, there
Speaker 1: is a truth to that in that everybody in in
Speaker 1: that child's environment is in some way I would say,
Speaker 1: or I would think, maybe I'm idealistic here, I would say,
Speaker 1: you are in some way responsible for ensuring the safety
Speaker 1: and the opportunity of that child as they grow and learn.
Speaker 1: Like I, you know, I used to be a jerk
Speaker 1: about it. Like I would sit somewhere and there would
Speaker 1: be a kid that all of a sudden, I'm the
Speaker 1: only adult you know in the in the area, and
Speaker 1: I used to think, ah, crap, now this kid is
Speaker 1: my responsibility. I hope nothing terrible happens for the next
Speaker 1: six minutes or whatever. I'm not being here. I'm not
Speaker 1: paid to be the babysitter here, but there is a
Speaker 1: nobility to it. There is a mission. And again not
Speaker 1: to sound like a broken record nor a cliche, but
Speaker 1: it is important. You're not alone and there is great
Speaker 1: power in reaching out to a community.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hard for me to imagine a kid that's
Speaker 2: in this situation actually hearing this and then being able
Speaker 2: to take action based on it. But maybe I'm underestimating
Speaker 2: all of this thing that we're doing right now. But
Speaker 2: I've always heard that writing a simple note, like even
Speaker 2: with just the words please help, or something scribbled on
Speaker 2: a tiny little piece of paper, a gum wrapper or
Speaker 2: something like that, and just handing it to a stranger.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've seen we've seen instances of that working out
Speaker 2: where somebody gets pulled out of a situation because they
Speaker 2: slipped a simple note to somebody at a grocery store
Speaker 2: when they were take you know, when the uncle or
Speaker 2: whoever it is is taking you out to shopping because
Speaker 2: they don't have time to do whatever. Just there. I
Speaker 2: do believe in the goodness of people, as you're describing
Speaker 2: their ben people who don't who aren't necessarily responsible for
Speaker 2: that kid at all in any of the filial ways
Speaker 2: that we discussed in our adoption episode, but will recognize
Speaker 2: when they can be of help.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't really have a whole heck of a
Speaker 3: lot to add that that hasn't been said, So I
Speaker 3: would just end by once again thinking our anonymous listener
Speaker 3: for sharing the story, and again to everyone else out
Speaker 3: there who have shared their stories. Let's take a break
Speaker 3: and hear a word from our sponsor and then come
Speaker 3: back with some more messages from you.
Speaker 2: And we've returned and we are jumping to the phone
Speaker 2: lines to hear from somebody that guys, I I think
Speaker 2: I just am not hearing this person correctly. Maybe you
Speaker 2: can suss out what this person's nickname actually is. I've
Speaker 2: been calling the meta meta agent me et a agent.
Speaker 2: I think they are saying meta sistis agent. That's it
Speaker 2: might be, but they called before we put that out,
Speaker 2: so I don't know what is time. So this is
Speaker 2: I'm gonna cause for some meta agent. So here's the
Speaker 2: message meta agent has for us.
Speaker 4: Hey, guys, this is the metaist agent, this particle that's
Speaker 4: a big concern for everybody. The issue with city fertilizer,
Speaker 4: but sometimes called black sledge. There's been a couple of
Speaker 4: farmers that are refusing to sell products and like even
Speaker 4: the cows, because they're finding it so heavily contaminated with
Speaker 4: CFAs that it's dominating a lot of farm lands. And
Speaker 4: it's supposedly from the articles that I ran a worldwide problem. Yeah,
Speaker 4: thanks for the show and wanted to give you guys
Speaker 4: pretty interesting topics to go through. Thanks, guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that is the metaisie agent. So we'll just
Speaker 2: say it like that. I can't. I'm sorry. I think
Speaker 2: maybe I just misunderstood and I kept replaying in and
Speaker 2: I couldn't get what it is. I like meta agent, though,
Speaker 2: Just call yourself that again when you call it, that's cool.
Speaker 2: Meta agent. You guys, City fertilizer, black sludge? You ever
Speaker 2: heard of this?
Speaker 1: Yes, but I'm like a terrible sample size for this question.
Speaker 2: Okay, No, you ever heard of city fertilizer?
Speaker 3: I have not, And I've heard of black sludge, but
Speaker 3: not in this context.
Speaker 2: Well have you heard of black gold?
Speaker 3: Hey, Texas team?
Speaker 2: In this case, No, it's used Texas dirts exactly. It's
Speaker 2: used a poopoo that human beings in cities, you know,
Speaker 2: send down the toilets and then into the sewage system,
Speaker 2: and then into the sewage treatment plants, and then as
Speaker 2: it's being treated, the solids that come out of there
Speaker 2: are black gold aka black sludge aka city fertilizer. It's
Speaker 2: the human poopoo. Okay, so sorry, So why is this important?
Speaker 2: Why is this scary? Why is this weird? Let's jump
Speaker 2: to an article from April tenth, twenty thirteen. It is
Speaker 2: posted on NPR dot org's website. I believe it is
Speaker 2: part of an episode of All Things Considered. It's written
Speaker 2: by Frank Morris. I want to read just a little
Speaker 2: bit of this because this is really, I think one
Speaker 2: of our major first introductions to the concept of city fertilizer.
Speaker 2: So here we go. The title is cities turned sewage
Speaker 2: into black gold for local farms. Let's just read it
Speaker 2: verbatim here. Thank you, Frank Morris. On a normal day,
Speaker 2: Kansas City, Missouri, processes more than seventy million gallons of
Speaker 2: raw sewage. This sewage used to be a nuisance, but
Speaker 2: Kansas City and a bunch of other cities around the
Speaker 2: world are now turning it into a resource for farmers.
Speaker 2: Farmers who need fertilizer. Yep. So that's really all you
Speaker 2: need to know. Frank calls it the smelly stuff because
Speaker 2: it does apparently according to people who produce this, and
Speaker 2: according to the EPA, it has a smell. It's not
Speaker 2: quite the the poo poo smell that maybe you might
Speaker 2: be imagining, but there is a bit of that sulfurous
Speaker 2: thing going on to it. If you've ever smelled the sewer,
Speaker 2: you know, walking by we live in the suit, Smell the.
Speaker 3: Sewer, catch a little whiff, and then it sort of
Speaker 3: like vanishes, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, But now imagine covering acres and acres, maybe
Speaker 2: even hectares. I don't know the difference to be honest
Speaker 2: of farmland in this same poop poo kind of gross.
Speaker 2: Now let's go back, guys, So let's just take that concept.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: It was gonna be great because cities were gonna be
Speaker 2: able to get rid of this stuff and make use
Speaker 2: of it. It's gonna be a great use. It's gonna
Speaker 2: make food. Now, holy mackerel, talk about recycling. Right, Those
Speaker 2: carrots go in, then they go out of you, then
Speaker 2: they make more carrots. Beautiful. Well, we talked about things
Speaker 2: like Prion's. We talked about things like problems with using
Speaker 2: poop and parts of one animal to feed that same
Speaker 2: type of animal, in this case humans, we're the animal.
Speaker 2: There could be huge problems with it, right, But that's
Speaker 2: not the problem here, guys. The problem is something we
Speaker 2: mentioned all the time on this show, Ben, can you
Speaker 2: do the honors?
Speaker 1: Well? If I had to guess, oh, and first off,
Speaker 1: thank you Metagant. Check out some of our work for IGU,
Speaker 1: it's it's for you. But if I had to guess Matt,
Speaker 1: I would say, we might be talking about some metals
Speaker 1: that are heavier, but more importantly, we might be talking
Speaker 1: about some pathas.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, pia carbon, some carbon chains that are pesky
Speaker 2: and really helpful, but also stick around and end up
Speaker 2: getting in the water and in this case in the
Speaker 2: soil slash, fertilizer slash the food that we're gonna end
Speaker 2: up eating, it's not good at all. You can go
Speaker 2: to the Columbia Missourian. They have a website Columbia Missourian
Speaker 2: dot com and you can find an article that was
Speaker 2: written June fifth, twenty twenty four. It is titled City
Speaker 2: Finds Forever Chemicals and fertilizer sludge continues to apply to crops. Sorry,
Speaker 2: that's comical to me. They find them a big problem. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but they got to keep using it because now a
Speaker 2: lot of the farmland around this area is dependent on
Speaker 2: this supply of fertilizer, because if you don't get the
Speaker 2: nutrients into that soil, you can't grow any of the crops.
Speaker 2: And thankfully that's the reason why it was called black gold,
Speaker 2: is because this stuff, this recycled dodo, it has a
Speaker 2: ton of nutrients in it, and it's nutrients that plants need.
Speaker 2: It's got the medigant spin.
Speaker 1: It has the medicians, it does all the metagens for you,
Speaker 1: meta agent exactly. We wrote that for you before. We
Speaker 1: didn't know before you called. But yet, Matt, you're you're
Speaker 1: describing maybe also what we in the in the Boffin
Speaker 1: world and the Ivory Towers would call path dependency, meaning
Speaker 1: that a certain technique or technology or process has become
Speaker 1: baked in just like fresh baked poop, and then the
Speaker 1: other ancillary or subsequent industries rely upon this. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: to stay with the idea of energy or yeah, loosely
Speaker 1: put energy, you could talk about path dependency as an
Speaker 1: example of coal during the Industrial Revolution. Well after people
Speaker 1: knew it wasn't ten ten double plus good, they had
Speaker 1: to continue using it simply because so many other industries
Speaker 1: depended upon its existence. And maybe that's what we're looking
Speaker 1: at with this sludge. But one question I have for
Speaker 1: you Matt and for you Meticen is by the time
Speaker 1: people found out about the inclusion of pafas and the
Speaker 1: inclusion of heavy metals, it feels like maybe the horse
Speaker 1: already left the barn. Was there some sweet spot where
Speaker 1: human poop was just amazing for agriculture?
Speaker 2: Well, it is, And here's the problem. I think it's
Speaker 2: the nature of the process of recycling the sewage water
Speaker 2: and it's not in the poop necessarily. Although there are
Speaker 2: pfasts in us all the time, usually when they get
Speaker 2: into us, our body doesn't process them, so they just
Speaker 2: stick around and go into places like our testicles and
Speaker 2: our brain. Sorry, just pointing out other times we've mentioned
Speaker 2: the places that they end up on this show. It's
Speaker 2: all true.
Speaker 1: Our favorite places, our balls in our brains.
Speaker 2: Same thing. So I Ben I'm gonna stick with that too,
Speaker 2: because there are there are major problems. It is unknown
Speaker 2: right now at least from the writing I've seen where
Speaker 2: the pfast is originating. Is it coming just from the
Speaker 2: water system itself, from the you know, the waste. Is
Speaker 2: it coming from some other place when it's like one
Speaker 2: of the processes that are used to create this stuff.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna go to the EPA's website right now
Speaker 2: to learn a little bit more about this black sludge.
Speaker 2: They refer to it as biosolids, and I'm gonna read
Speaker 2: verbatim from their article basic information about biosolids. Here we go.
Speaker 2: Biosolids are a product of the wastewater treatment process. During
Speaker 2: wastewater treatment, the liquids are separated from the solids. The
Speaker 2: solids are then treated physically and chemically to produce a
Speaker 2: semi solid, nutrient rich product known as biosolids. The term
Speaker 2: bio solids and sewage sludge are often used interchangeably. There
Speaker 2: are tons of regulations that the EPA has set forth,
Speaker 2: like standards that this reused poop has to meet before
Speaker 2: it can be applied to you know, food that humans
Speaker 2: and animals will be ingesting. You can read all about
Speaker 2: that right now. There's a Class A and Class B
Speaker 2: treated poop. I'm sorry that I'm saying it. Like, guys,
Speaker 2: I feel like such a child forever. Young Matt Ben
Speaker 2: you you. I was cracking up when you were talking
Speaker 2: because you you used the term loosely and I just
Speaker 2: I couldn't get loose poops out of my head.
Speaker 1: I don't just get them out of your butt first,
Speaker 1: you know, order of operations, loose poops, sink sloops.
Speaker 2: There you go, there you go. But hey, sunsuing owed
Speaker 2: fire until you see the.
Speaker 3: Whites of their buttons.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's also technically the correct pronunciation is sun poop.
Speaker 2: All right, we go.
Speaker 1: Sorry, that's a way to I guess what Noel and
Speaker 1: I are doing here is backing you up. Don't feel
Speaker 1: like there's anything wrong with having a hearty laugh.
Speaker 3: Solidarity and childishness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so let's get let's get back to this
Speaker 1: large scale bowel movement.
Speaker 2: Yes, not to do that. So there's an article you
Speaker 2: can find in The Guardian. This is from March twelfth
Speaker 2: of this year, twenty twenty four, written by Tom Perkins.
Speaker 2: The title is legal action could end use of toxic
Speaker 2: sewage sludge on US crops as fertilizer sewage sludge. I
Speaker 2: really flubbed the sludge there, guys, this is this is
Speaker 2: all about an intent to sue that was put forward
Speaker 2: by a group of people saying that regulators in the
Speaker 2: United States failed to see the dangers and to protect
Speaker 2: consumers people who eat you know, foods that are grown
Speaker 2: out of this toxic sewage sludge. That's how it's being
Speaker 2: described here as well, which.
Speaker 1: You would never know. You would never know, by the way,
Speaker 1: because there is no FDA requirement to put that on
Speaker 1: you know, a label for products.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: Oh, I didn't even know that. Is that true? You
Speaker 2: don't even have to label this stuff as from human
Speaker 2: you know, sewage.
Speaker 3: I don't you know? That's it up? But I don't
Speaker 3: think so.
Speaker 1: I've never been in I've never been in a situation
Speaker 1: where someone says, you know, it's ninety nine cents for
Speaker 1: an ear of this corn, sixty nine cents for this
Speaker 1: and then you go why and they go, well, it's
Speaker 1: because of the poop.
Speaker 2: Okay, you're talking about the end product thee In my head,
Speaker 2: in my head, I was thinking about the fertilized, the
Speaker 2: bulk fertilizer being purchased, like it didn't have to have
Speaker 2: a label. That makes way more sense, Ben, Yeah, it
Speaker 2: doesn't say grown in human poop. I've never seen an
Speaker 2: ear of corn that said that. Gosh, oh there was
Speaker 2: another thing here. I was supposed to mention about the
Speaker 2: most common foods that are grown in this stuff, but
Speaker 2: I think it's soybeans and corn mostly. So like the bulk,
Speaker 2: the huge bulk amounts of those staples are you are
Speaker 2: grown with this stuff because this fertilizer is significantly cheaper
Speaker 2: than other alternatives, the more expensive stuff that is kind
Speaker 2: of in short supply non human poop fertilizer. We talked
Speaker 2: about the phosphorus.
Speaker 3: What is it?
Speaker 2: What was it like peak phosphorus or something. We did
Speaker 2: a whole episode ones and how that's an issue for
Speaker 2: fertilizer specifically and for food growth. This is a whole
Speaker 2: wrapped up thing. You guys that might be worth our time.
Speaker 2: I just hate to go back to the pfast Well,
Speaker 2: it's it's awful, it's gross stuff. We end up having
Speaker 2: to explain how horrible these substances are for us every
Speaker 2: episode we talk about it, and it makes me it's
Speaker 2: it's a huge down owner right now. I feel down
Speaker 2: because this stuff is literally in everything, and now it's
Speaker 2: in the dang fertilizer.
Speaker 1: I think it's definitely changed the way that our crew
Speaker 1: considers diet and health. For sure. There are a couple
Speaker 1: of things we all had to say goodbye to separately,
Speaker 1: and that's just well.
Speaker 2: And then forget that it's even in there. Why I
Speaker 2: stop eating that? Who cares everything? Anyway?
Speaker 1: I miss orange soda and microwave popcorn and all all
Speaker 1: that slow jazz.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, yeah, some of those things I've gotten rid of,
Speaker 2: but I'm still chugging and energy and drink right now
Speaker 2: and eating all kinds of unhealthy things. I'm sure. Well, Hey,
Speaker 2: thank you Meta agent for letting us know about this.
Speaker 2: If you hear more right to us, send us a
Speaker 2: voicemail anything like that, especially specifics, or if any action
Speaker 2: is taken. Otherwise, we'll continue looking into this story. We'll
Speaker 2: be right back after a messages from our sponsors.
Speaker 1: And we have returned as always, thanks to our fellow
Speaker 1: conspiracy realist who have spent some time here with us.
Speaker 1: Time is the only real currency that living organisms have,
Speaker 1: so we understand it, we appreciate it, and I seldom
Speaker 1: ever do this, but you guys, can I tell you
Speaker 1: just some personal stuff quick. Yeah, just between us and
Speaker 1: the NSA and the millions of people tuning in right
Speaker 1: now or AI. You know, it's been a very difficult
Speaker 1: time here for our crew folks, for all of us.
Speaker 4: And.
Speaker 1: It seems that when you read the news, there's a
Speaker 1: disaster every four hours, you know, and it's easy for
Speaker 1: us to read about these things a world away and
Speaker 1: not feel personally hit, you know, like when we're talking
Speaker 1: about this adoption episode, it really hit home for me
Speaker 1: as well. And I'm still with Anonymous and I'm still
Speaker 1: with you know, the work we did and the people
Speaker 1: we've spoken with about this, because I have people in
Speaker 1: my family who have been you know, like you were mentioning,
Speaker 1: you know, who have been directly impacted by these things.
Speaker 1: So I just wanted to take a personal note before
Speaker 1: we go into some fun stuff to thank all of
Speaker 1: our fellow listeners. There's a reason we call you fellow listeners.
Speaker 1: It's because you are a big part of this show.
Speaker 1: And just thank you to everybody who has taking the
Speaker 1: time to reach out. Because the the folks here on
Speaker 1: the other side of your earbuds or your air pods
Speaker 1: or your headphones. I think those are three that your speakers. Okay,
Speaker 1: the folks on the other side are you know, know,
Speaker 1: more than just voices in your head, the real people too.
Speaker 1: So every time you take a personal moment, it just
Speaker 1: absolutely means a world to us. Dylan tennessee Powell play
Speaker 1: me off of my pretentious little soapbox there, but hopefully
Speaker 1: the sincerity. Hopefully the sincerity carries through. Now we're going
Speaker 1: to go to a excellent letter. We got one of
Speaker 1: many from several people who are in the trenches of education.
Speaker 1: And when we talked about your call earlier, we explored
Speaker 1: a bit of a pilot program at David Gain College
Speaker 1: over in the United Kingdom where they said we are
Speaker 1: going to sub out human teachers with AI programs, and
Speaker 1: they enumerated the advantages of these programs, and then a
Speaker 1: lot of people voting. Some of our fellow listeners told
Speaker 1: us their concerns before we before we get into We'll
Speaker 1: just do this one letter before we get into it.
Speaker 1: Has that stayed with you, guys, the AI teacher thing, it.
Speaker 3: Has It's come up in conversation quite a few times
Speaker 3: with folks I know who heard the story outside of
Speaker 3: the podcast and just kind of brought it up already.
Speaker 3: Because I think it is a hot button issue, even
Speaker 3: for folks who don't have teachers in their families. But
Speaker 3: it just, first and foremost, it seems like a terrible idea.
Speaker 3: And I also did a little more digging, and maybe
Speaker 3: we talked about this in the episode, but it's not
Speaker 3: like it's cheap. It's tens of thousands of pounds a
Speaker 3: year for the privilege at this particular private school in
Speaker 3: the UK.
Speaker 1: And it's also energy intensive to have AI in the
Speaker 1: first place.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, guys, I forgot to even tell you this.
Speaker 2: We talked about that last Wednesday as we record this.
Speaker 2: Then on that Saturday, I took my son to one
Speaker 2: of his schoolmate's birthday parties and I met one of
Speaker 2: the moms of one of the kids who happened to
Speaker 2: be a Spanish teacher at that high school. At school, yes,
Speaker 2: and she showed me. She pulled up she happened to
Speaker 2: be doing work, because guess what, when you're a teacher,
Speaker 2: you're doing work when you're at a kid's birthday party,
Speaker 2: because it never stops. She was grading papers and she
Speaker 2: pulled up on her laptop these diagrams that it's going
Speaker 2: to be really hard for me to describe to you
Speaker 2: guys right now. But it's diagrams that show basically how
Speaker 2: the skills that a child going to that high school
Speaker 2: will be learning when they take a Spanish class. And
Speaker 2: it's not the way you would think about it maybe
Speaker 2: when we were in high school. It's they're not thinking
Speaker 2: about it as language arts and all this other stuff.
Speaker 2: They're breaking it down into these modes of thinking basically,
Speaker 2: and how is this class affecting these different modes of
Speaker 2: thinking for you? It was really cool, actually, and she
Speaker 2: explained that it had a lot less to do with
Speaker 2: using utilizing AI and more in learning to think about
Speaker 2: how this stuff is going to change everything that we
Speaker 2: do and everything we learn, and how how even jobs
Speaker 2: are going to function in the future.
Speaker 1: Metacognition thinking about thought. Yeah, and with that these are
Speaker 1: excellent points. With that, let's go to docker B. Docer
Speaker 1: B to the point about being an educator is definitely
Speaker 1: probably underpaid and working too much. That's just a guess.
Speaker 1: We have not spoken to docer B directly yet, but
Speaker 1: doctor B, your letter meant the world to us, as
Speaker 1: well as the letters of the many other educators who
Speaker 1: have contacted us about this story. Here it goes Hi, guys,
Speaker 1: I've been enjoying your show for the past year or so.
Speaker 1: You can call me docer B if you decide to
Speaker 1: mention this note in your show. I believe most educators
Speaker 1: will tell you that an AI teacher is a terrible idea.
Speaker 1: Points for you, not because we worry about our jobs,
Speaker 1: but because we care about children. We know from the
Speaker 1: failure that was the COVID lockdown the negative impact virtual
Speaker 1: learning had. I studied cyber school for my doctoral dissertation.
Speaker 1: Congratulations dockerby, and from what I read and what I observed,
Speaker 1: most students, with few exceptions, do not learn on screens.
Speaker 1: We all learn differently, so classrooms have a variety of
Speaker 1: activities so that all learners can be engaged. An alarming
Speaker 1: number of students admit that they put almost no effort
Speaker 1: into online learning, and there are multiple cheat websites like
Speaker 1: brainle dot com not a sponsored ad, where they can
Speaker 1: go to find the answers to pretty much any online
Speaker 1: educational activity. Now let's pause there, because I think we've
Speaker 1: all seen this with you know, people in the audience
Speaker 1: who have kids, or our educators or if you have
Speaker 1: educators in your family, you've seen that that especially during COVID,
Speaker 1: you've seen that shift to this online classroom which is
Speaker 1: pretty easy to game. Is that a hot take?
Speaker 2: No, I don't think so. I didn't have experience with this,
Speaker 2: you guys. But I'm just looking at Brainley's website and
Speaker 2: it's described as like a tutor, right an AI helper
Speaker 2: with your homework.
Speaker 3: You know, and that aspect of it doesn't seem completely
Speaker 3: shockingly awful to me. I think even in the segment,
Speaker 3: the news segment, I had mentioned like the idea of
Speaker 3: using AI as a helper for teachers, you know, as
Speaker 3: a supplementary tool, but you know, having that be the
Speaker 3: whole thing just seems really ill advise. But sorry, Matt,
Speaker 3: please carry on.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I just I'm just pointing. I'm looking at
Speaker 2: the website right now, and it's got a lot of
Speaker 2: people saying about how much they love it and it
Speaker 2: helps out. But it appears that you could literally write
Speaker 2: in or take a picture of, or scan or whatever
Speaker 2: you got to do to get let's say, a pretty
Speaker 2: complicated math equation into the system, and then it'll just
Speaker 2: spit out the answer for you.
Speaker 1: And perhaps, you know, the big thing. A lot of
Speaker 1: educational institutions and to be honest, a lot of adult
Speaker 1: institutions are working with is the fundamental importance of transparency.
Speaker 1: When people are using these tools right, and they're not
Speaker 1: telling their teacher they're using these tools, and they're not
Speaker 1: being upfront and public about it, it becomes incredibly ethically fraudulent.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of our earlier conversation with our pal
Speaker 1: John Wallzac from Missing in Arizona, who does uses AI
Speaker 1: tools to replicate the voice of a guy named Robert
Speaker 1: Fisher and from the jump is very honest that this
Speaker 1: is what's happening. You know, this is a technology we
Speaker 1: are leveraging. So it reminds me also as we continue,
Speaker 1: it reminds me of one of my friends who is
Speaker 1: an educator at a local school what you would call
Speaker 1: an in need school, and this board guys had I
Speaker 1: asked him about chat GPT right and the importance of
Speaker 1: transparency there, like don't use it and pretend that you're
Speaker 1: not and he said, he said, yeah, man, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to do his voice keep that part in, Dylan,
Speaker 1: but he said, yeah, man, I've had these essays from
Speaker 1: these kids. I know they're really smart, but a couple
Speaker 1: of times I've had to say, I give you a
Speaker 1: zero and I give chat GPT for a one hundred.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if that's the right take. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's the right tact. We are not
Speaker 1: ourselves educators. But to your point, Matt, this feels increasingly
Speaker 1: mission critical transparency, arming people with information. What else could
Speaker 1: you want with kids? Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and you want transfer back, which is why
Speaker 2: it's so important to you know, give it to them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, if the teacher is leveraging this sort of stuff,
Speaker 1: we can only assume that if they are a good
Speaker 1: faith actor, they're also explaining, you know, their means and methods,
Speaker 1: and they're not going to try to obscure Oh, to
Speaker 1: be a professor at this point, you know.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm watching it happen in real time with my
Speaker 2: son when when I, you know, sit down with him
Speaker 2: with his homework and stuff. And there are concepts like
Speaker 2: basic mathematics concepts as strategies maybe let's say that I've
Speaker 2: never encountered before.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, like the thing where you count the dots
Speaker 1: on there's.
Speaker 2: No no, you're right, but there's there's stuff in there
Speaker 2: in ways he gets to an answer like that and
Speaker 2: I go, how did you do that? I couldn't do
Speaker 2: that in my head, And honestly, it's because I had
Speaker 2: a calculator. I had a calculator for most of the
Speaker 2: stuff when I was at least older and really thinking
Speaker 2: about some of these higher order things. And he's only
Speaker 2: doing you know, pretty basic division in multiplication right now.
Speaker 1: But also, shout out Texas Instruments. Those guys are how
Speaker 1: are they still the top top dog of school calculators?
Speaker 2: And they're not just in calculators, man, Texas Instruments is
Speaker 2: a fascinating company.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah. If you guys have ever seen the show
Speaker 3: Halt and catch Fire that talks about Texas being the
Speaker 3: Silicon Prairie, they were very much neck and neck with
Speaker 3: northern California in terms of that kind of space race
Speaker 3: for the personal computers. Really interesting show that has a
Speaker 3: lot of truth to it. It's historical fiction. But highly
Speaker 3: recommend that. And I didn't know much about Texas Instruments
Speaker 3: and those terms, but they really did have a huge impact.
Speaker 1: Great call. Yeah, that's a great recommendation. Also, just to
Speaker 1: point it out, instruments is a very vague umbrella term,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, We're in Texas. What do
Speaker 1: you make instruments? This interview is.
Speaker 2: Truck shit, very sizes and applications.
Speaker 1: Yes, there it is, you know, really weird disruptors.
Speaker 3: Whatever.
Speaker 1: So docer B continues and says, there is also the
Speaker 1: issue of the socialization that is missing in most cyber environments.
Speaker 1: One of the most important things that young people learn
Speaker 1: throughout their kindergarten to twelve experience is how to be
Speaker 1: humans and how to interact with other humans. A large
Speaker 1: percentage of the young people who are learning at home
Speaker 1: during the lockdown never recovered to where they should be emotionally.
Speaker 1: Many of this year's college freshmen are still emotionally where
Speaker 1: they should have been around the ninth and tenth grade,
Speaker 1: and they are not prepared for the college environment. I
Speaker 1: don't know, and do we have any notes on that one,
Speaker 1: because I've I've seen it, you know. I have some
Speaker 1: kids that are in like my friend and family circle,
Speaker 1: who are pandemic babies and all their friends were adults
Speaker 1: for yeah, a couple of years, And that's real kick
Speaker 1: in the pants.
Speaker 2: The only it's not a one to one, but the
Speaker 2: only thing I compare it to in my mind is
Speaker 2: that I'm a nine to eleven kid like that. So
Speaker 2: nine to eleven happened right towards the end of high
Speaker 2: school for me, and it shaped me a lot same well,
Speaker 2: because so many other things and concepts got introduced right
Speaker 2: at that time, right, and ways of thinking about the
Speaker 2: world and other people. And it really just put a
Speaker 2: lens over the front of my viewing device. I don't
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, but worth it, but I feel
Speaker 2: like that has occurred for these kids, right, all that
Speaker 2: stuff they went through, thinking about the vulnerability that exists
Speaker 2: just in this whole system that we run and we
Speaker 2: call civilization. I don't know, and conceptually their minds probably
Speaker 2: can't even fully wrap around some of that stuff. So
Speaker 2: it's almost like, I don't know, it's a state of
Speaker 2: unease that doesn't have a explanation yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, without sounding hyperbolic, the real cages
Speaker 1: are often not the cages you can see. They're the
Speaker 1: starting assumptions, right, the framework, as you said, the screen
Speaker 1: through which we view a thing. And I think that's
Speaker 1: an excellent and deeply disturbing point. Matt doctor b continues, Finally,
Speaker 1: I'd like to mention the negative health aspects of sitting
Speaker 1: at a screen, Doctor B, we have talked about this
Speaker 1: on our own cough cough, just hanging out.
Speaker 2: How many hours has been today?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so doctor B, this is an accountability
Speaker 1: moment for us. Doctor B points out, quote, we should
Speaker 1: all be moving at least four hours a day, and
Speaker 1: children should be moving even more than that. Sitting at
Speaker 1: a screen for long periods of time will have negative
Speaker 1: impacts on their physical and mental health. It can also
Speaker 1: do permanent damage to their eyes because of the blue screen.
Speaker 1: They use a filter. Doctor be got us. Doctor be
Speaker 1: got us pretty good.
Speaker 3: On that one.
Speaker 2: I have a pair of those Blueshift glasses.
Speaker 4: Member.
Speaker 1: They look really good on you too.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they did ghosts. I wore them to the
Speaker 2: first iHeart Podcast Awards that we ever got to go to.
Speaker 2: I think you guys were there, right, yeah, we were
Speaker 2: all there. I think well, when Will Ferrell was on stage,
Speaker 2: I specifically remember we took photos and I had those
Speaker 2: dang things on and I look at them now and
Speaker 2: I go, why was I doing that in theater?
Speaker 3: Those are not the ghost goggles.
Speaker 2: Ghost goggles are a different thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, cool, but we should all get some pairs anyway,
Speaker 1: Doctor B says, thanks, again for all the information you share.
Speaker 1: It would be great, if you haven't already, if you
Speaker 1: could do an episode on the history of public education.
Speaker 1: Many people do not know the origins or how horribly
Speaker 1: integration was handled after Brown versus Board of Education. Have
Speaker 1: a blessed day, docer By, So thank you, doctor b.
Speaker 1: You know, we paused along the way to explore some
Speaker 1: of this stuff. But I don't think our conspiracy realist
Speaker 1: here is speaking into a vacuum. It feels like we
Speaker 1: all largely agree with the points raised. I'm so glad
Speaker 1: none of these seem like hot takes. You guys. We also,
Speaker 1: I imagine, we have our own wealth of personal experiences
Speaker 1: that apply to many of these points.
Speaker 2: Oh you guys, speaking of personalized experience, do you guys
Speaker 2: remember we went to California? Did those meta videos.
Speaker 1: Into the metaverse?
Speaker 3: How could I forget?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 2: We did one with is it Carolina Carolina Barlow? Yes,
Speaker 2: Carolina Barlo. We did one with her, and I don't
Speaker 2: know if you guys remember when we were chatting with
Speaker 2: her before and after the shoot. She was telling us
Speaker 2: about a documentary road trip that she and Will Ferrell
Speaker 2: will shooting.
Speaker 3: It looks amazing where it's his best friend and co
Speaker 3: writer collaborator who is trans and them going on this
Speaker 3: road trip together and it just being this incredible bonding
Speaker 3: experience where they just learned more about each other than
Speaker 3: they had in decades of knowing each other previously.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's called Will and Harper and we're not sponsored
Speaker 2: by them. I just want to put this out there.
Speaker 2: It was crazy to see the trailer of it and
Speaker 2: then to see some of the behind the scenes where
Speaker 2: Carolina's there and they're just shooting that stuff, and it
Speaker 2: just made me think of that time we had out
Speaker 2: there and it was cool.
Speaker 1: Nice, nice. And this brings us to because that feels
Speaker 1: like a letter from home for us. This brings us to.
Speaker 1: One of our last things for this Evening's program, we
Speaker 1: heard from Sam, and Sam just wrote us the nicest
Speaker 1: piece of correspondence. We'll read just a little bit of it. Hi, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm Sam, I'm a long time stuff they don't want
Speaker 1: you to know. Listener. I absolutely love listening to each
Speaker 1: and every episode while on road trips, working from home
Speaker 1: as a nonprofit fundraiser, or taking my dog kids for
Speaker 1: walks around the neighborhood here in Ashville. I don't have
Speaker 1: any conspiracy news, but I've just wanted to say hi
Speaker 1: there to you all, and thank you so much for
Speaker 1: a long time now. You guys make me laugh and
Speaker 1: you make me think I really enjoy what you all
Speaker 1: put out into the universe. And then his bonus credit Sam,
Speaker 1: you included some amazing pictures of your rescue doggos Lucy
Speaker 1: and Beans and told us that you do photo shoots
Speaker 1: with them every Halloween season. I might need an insulin shot.
Speaker 1: This was just so sweet. Does that land? Is that
Speaker 1: how insulin works? I think it is, so we want
Speaker 1: to with that. Thank you so much to docer B,
Speaker 1: to Anonymous, to meta agent or medigant, and thank you
Speaker 1: to Sam, Lucy and Beans. Thanks to everybody reached out
Speaker 1: to us. Stay tuned for our future explorations. As always,
Speaker 1: we have such wonders to show you and we can't
Speaker 1: do it without you, and we can't wait to hear
Speaker 1: from you.
Speaker 3: That's right, Reach out and touch faith or you know
Speaker 3: us stuff they don't want you to know. You know
Speaker 3: we are. You can find us at the handle conspiracy
Speaker 3: Stuff on Facebook, where you can join our Facebook group.
Speaker 3: Here's where it gets crazy and get in on the
Speaker 3: memory and conversation surrounding every single episode that we put out.
Speaker 3: We are also conspiracy stuff on x fka, Twitter as
Speaker 3: well as youtwo or. We have video content galore for
Speaker 3: YouTube consume on Instagram and TikTok. However, we are conspiracy
Speaker 3: stuff show.
Speaker 2: I finally caught up and saw the picture of Lucy
Speaker 2: and Beans finally, and it's amazing. Lucy Lucy rules Beans
Speaker 2: is amazing too. But Lucy's just got this like snaggeltooth
Speaker 2: thing going on. It's it's great. Okay. If you want
Speaker 2: to call us and use your phone in your mouth
Speaker 2: or your computer in your mouth, whatever your mouth is
Speaker 2: probably going to be involved. Call one eight three three
Speaker 2: st d WYTK. When you call in, you've got three minutes,
Speaker 2: give yourself a cool nickname, and say whatever you'd like.
Speaker 2: Just please include whether or not we can use your
Speaker 2: name and message on the air. If you got more
Speaker 2: to say than could fit in that voicemail, why not
Speaker 2: instead send us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 1: We are the entities that read every piece of correspondence
Speaker 1: we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
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