Speaker 1: School of Humans.
Speaker 2: This podcast is based on the true story of explorer, inventor, visionary,
Speaker 2: and science pioneer Tom Slick. Some of the story elements, names,
Speaker 2: and characters have been altered for dramatic purposes. Consider using
Speaker 2: headphones to enhance your listening experience. We've created an immersive
Speaker 2: soundscape to tell our story.
Speaker 3: Oh we're gonna die.
Speaker 4: We're gonna die.
Speaker 5: Come on, you're an oss man. Dullas what you've never looked?
Speaker 5: Guests wearing the eye I try to avert my case,
Speaker 5: and you're lucky.
Speaker 6: No, no, no, I don't believe in luck. I believe
Speaker 6: in survival.
Speaker 4: Hey lang fella, Uh wake up?
Speaker 6: Come on, man, I'm checking you right.
Speaker 7: In the ribs.
Speaker 8: Oh he's how cool?
Speaker 4: God damn it, Slick.
Speaker 6: Why'd you have to hit him?
Speaker 4: Because I'm a Nazi hunter.
Speaker 9: That's wine.
Speaker 1: Mom, You expect me to listen to this without wine? Hurry? Shoot,
Speaker 1: this wants the screw cap. Did you see the wine opener?
Speaker 10: Don't tell me.
Speaker 2: It's in one of these boxes.
Speaker 6: Oh, it's in one of these boxes.
Speaker 1: Sorry. So if dad's flying the plant, well no, he
Speaker 1: doesn't know how to fly.
Speaker 11: Oh right, but I mean, yeah, he is flying it.
Speaker 7: And they're still headed for the Panama Canal. From what
Speaker 7: Granddad said, all they can see is water.
Speaker 9: So I'm guessing they're somewhere over the.
Speaker 1: Pacific with a ticking time bomb lane just set up and.
Speaker 2: The flying torpedo doodle thing attached.
Speaker 1: I don't know how they get out of this one. Okay, Mom,
Speaker 1: you don't have to listen to this if it's too much.
Speaker 1: These are my father's untold stories. I am listening, okay
Speaker 1: about nut I don't thank God?
Speaker 12: Why not?
Speaker 1: Its helps with the nerves.
Speaker 13: Okay, I'm present play.
Speaker 9: Yes, knew this.
Speaker 4: Red button did something.
Speaker 6: Well that will come right up.
Speaker 4: There we go.
Speaker 14: That dead Dodo got dump.
Speaker 10: But we still have an issue.
Speaker 6: Your chatty friend Lang, if you disarm this bomb, I
Speaker 6: will protect you. I can't protect you.
Speaker 7: You're idiot.
Speaker 1: You have killed Abatsi and Pedica.
Speaker 8: Even if you lends this thing is stick me in
Speaker 8: some visits.
Speaker 9: They will hand me down.
Speaker 1: Then they will torture me, and they will watch as
Speaker 1: I suffer an excruciating death.
Speaker 13: What is that to live for?
Speaker 11: Listen to me.
Speaker 3: The United States government will take care of you.
Speaker 4: An Operation Pelican good name.
Speaker 6: By the way, top top top you know when I
Speaker 6: was lying back there, right, Oh, come on.
Speaker 4: Just run it by Rose. Well you guys are all friends.
Speaker 6: Yeah, war criminals don't generally make a great impression.
Speaker 5: Look, Lang has intel on the heavyweights behind this operation,
Speaker 5: and let's not forget.
Speaker 4: That our lives are in his hands.
Speaker 5: This is timmy No, give me your knife, dolls and
Speaker 5: take the wheel, the wheel.
Speaker 6: No, look, just keep her steady. No, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 4: If you make any sudden movements, there's.
Speaker 10: A chowder box here will detonate and we're fish food. God,
Speaker 10: this cloak and dagger.
Speaker 6: Shit, why didn't I just become a congressman?
Speaker 10: Hey, Lang, quick question, ayesholder.
Speaker 4: What's your favorite color? If you look like a blue guy?
Speaker 9: Exuse me?
Speaker 4: No, no, wrong game. Let me explain the rules.
Speaker 5: So we have a bomb here, and from what I see,
Speaker 5: there are about three, no four, different color wires making
Speaker 5: this thing tick. If I cut one of these wires,
Speaker 5: it could do nothing, or if we're really lucky, it'll.
Speaker 10: Shut off the bomb.
Speaker 9: Of lost pieces.
Speaker 4: And that's how you play roulette.
Speaker 6: All right, Lang, listen to me. I have a lot
Speaker 6: of power in my country. Shu, Yeah, I mean, people
Speaker 6: don't hail me or anything but sure. Yeah, look, your
Speaker 6: mission was subverted by US Americans. You're a trader now.
Speaker 6: But if you're dead, there's no one around to protect
Speaker 6: your family.
Speaker 10: I have no wife, I have not too good.
Speaker 4: That's kind of sad.
Speaker 6: What about a mother.
Speaker 13: You gotta have a mother, a sex.
Speaker 4: I know sh'll be snatched. It just mutilated by the
Speaker 4: men you call comrades. Oh nine.
Speaker 6: Now keep in mind those are the same men who
Speaker 6: killed your true love wilburt or hydri nine, Fritz nine.
Speaker 11: That's why oss bitch, dominique, shit, shit shit, Dallas holder steady.
Speaker 6: Uh, it's a great seconds of TV explodes, dulls.
Speaker 4: What's your type?
Speaker 8: Wonsreprenets Now, Dallas, listen to me, all right, all right?
Speaker 4: Yellow wire or brown wire?
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, I'm married to burnette, but I have
Speaker 6: a thing for red heads.
Speaker 4: Red wire it is. Yeah, I prefer blondes too.
Speaker 14: Bron roan.
Speaker 9: God's the roan wire.
Speaker 4: What if I told you I just cut the red one.
Speaker 4: I was telling the truth. Cut the brown one more?
Speaker 9: Is he? Oh? No? My number one kid?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 5: See Dallas, Now this is a man staring death right
Speaker 5: in the eye.
Speaker 6: Slick cut the brown wire.
Speaker 5: Now, oh, God, you believe in luck now, dulles, No,
Speaker 5: You're just one lucky bastard.
Speaker 1: Chapter three.
Speaker 8: This is the mostly true tale of Tom Slick, mystery hunter.
Speaker 1: God that a but blood pressure checked after that.
Speaker 7: So if Granddad doesn't know how to fly, how do
Speaker 7: they land?
Speaker 1: Google? Look up Slick Airways. Dad couldn't fly then, but
Speaker 1: he learned.
Speaker 12: Slick Airways was established in nineteen forty six by Tom and.
Speaker 1: Earl Slick, daddish brother. Yeah, I got that.
Speaker 12: They used the surplus of Curtis C forty six airplanes
Speaker 12: from World War II, and by nineteen fifty one it
Speaker 12: was the largest all cargo airline in the United States.
Speaker 11: So they started their airline five years after Granddad and
Speaker 11: Dallas took down that Nazi plane.
Speaker 12: And they operated until nineteen sixty six. For a period
Speaker 12: of time Slick Airways was shut down. It is alleged
Speaker 12: that that time the planes were being used for covert
Speaker 12: missions organized by the US government.
Speaker 1: So the CIA was her big client guest Dad and
Speaker 1: pressed dollars with his landing. I knew you knew more
Speaker 1: than you were letting on.
Speaker 2: Okay, So what happened to the Nazi lang?
Speaker 1: Now that I don't know.
Speaker 9: I guess that's the point.
Speaker 11: I mean, the CIA did hide Nazis post war and
Speaker 11: then use them as spies in the Cold War.
Speaker 1: Right, let's blame dulls for that.
Speaker 9: Okay, you pick one?
Speaker 7: Oh got one?
Speaker 5: Tom Slick August twenty sixth, nineteen fifty seven. I'm on
Speaker 5: a little stopover in London with my birthday gift here
Speaker 5: strapped to my back. I'll be recording everything.
Speaker 8: WHOA, alright, you drive on the right side.
Speaker 4: I won't have to.
Speaker 3: These are the times I remember why tell us aptly
Speaker 3: nickname me Lucky Tom after our little rendezvous with death
Speaker 3: over the Pacific nearly what sixteen years ago? Yeah, but
Speaker 3: what he didn't know is that name belongs to my father,
Speaker 3: Tom Slick Senior. Just like the dream that now has
Speaker 3: me traveling to the other side of the world. But
Speaker 3: now I have to contend with uh, the insufferably civilized Brits.
Speaker 7: There's none of that.
Speaker 1: Whatever that is in the Getick Club.
Speaker 10: That is the future. I'm recording this conversation as we speak, Sir,
Speaker 10: h members value of that privacy.
Speaker 13: Hold on there, Johnson. This is my good friend Tom Slick.
Speaker 4: He's here to see me.
Speaker 10: Jimmy Stewart. It is good to have friends who are movies.
Speaker 1: Mister Stewart's I was just tending the gentleman about the.
Speaker 13: Rules, now, John Soon, No, Tom is no gentleman. He
Speaker 13: plays by his own set of rules.
Speaker 5: Jimmy, come on, don't pretend you're not a savage.
Speaker 10: Oh savage?
Speaker 9: Wait?
Speaker 1: Is that like Jimmy Stewart.
Speaker 8: Jimmy Stewart, like the actor from the Christmas Movie is
Speaker 8: a wonderful lie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and rear Window and Harvey and Verdigo. And he
Speaker 1: was friends with Granddad. Oh, dad got around.
Speaker 7: He got mixed up with the Hollywood crowd and was
Speaker 7: popular because he talked about his inventions.
Speaker 1: His experiments, and his adventures, not studio gossip.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 1: He and Howard Hughes really hit it off.
Speaker 11: The guy Leonardo DiCaprio have played in The Aviator.
Speaker 1: Jesus, if anyone ever makes a movie about that, I
Speaker 1: hope people don't define his life by the heck that
Speaker 1: plays him.
Speaker 13: Oh gosh, well you here. Howard Hughes is at it again.
Speaker 13: He's a dreamer, tried to up end history by building
Speaker 13: a flying boat.
Speaker 10: It's just a prototype.
Speaker 13: Well he's calling it the Hercules.
Speaker 10: Well, He's nothing if not subtle.
Speaker 4: Right, you know Howard and I are.
Speaker 5: You know, we're pals obviously, but he tries so hard
Speaker 5: to shock people.
Speaker 13: I think he just wants to change the world. Yeah,
Speaker 13: in his own unique way.
Speaker 5: And what if you were to change the world in
Speaker 5: some way but no one knew it was you, would
Speaker 5: that make it any less significant?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 13: No, Tom, I'm a movie star with the mercy of
Speaker 13: public consumption.
Speaker 4: And I like it.
Speaker 13: Your second Scotch, Yeah, I always got free drinks. Yeah,
Speaker 13: So tell me what brings you to London.
Speaker 10: I am on my way to India.
Speaker 13: What a country? Well, Glory and I tagged along on
Speaker 13: a tiger hunting expedition over there.
Speaker 10: It's kind of a shame to take down a tiger,
Speaker 10: isn't it?
Speaker 13: Oh, your old sap. I'm America's sweetheart. I don't kill
Speaker 13: anything unless I play to eat it with big game.
Speaker 10: How do you catch the animal without harming it?
Speaker 13: Well, you stun it. Our guide told us about a
Speaker 13: tranquilizer gun that was used on a behemoth lion in
Speaker 13: Africa that the Bronx Zoo had its eye on. Uh huh, Now,
Speaker 13: potent sedative was used. The lion was knocked out the
Speaker 13: entire journey back. Now it's like me up for public consumption.
Speaker 10: Yeah, where's that gun now?
Speaker 13: Most likely New York. Now it's got to cost a
Speaker 13: pretty penny.
Speaker 10: Why asking, Well, I'm preparing for a hunt in India.
Speaker 10: What are you tracking the yetti?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 13: Tom, Now, don't you go trying to beat Hughes's bizarre pursuits.
Speaker 13: You're a scientist and he's arguably insane.
Speaker 5: Look, thank you, but everything's under control at home, and
Speaker 5: my institutes are prepared to live without me for at
Speaker 5: least a year.
Speaker 10: So I have this time where.
Speaker 13: I come on, Tom, the Yetti. This whole cryptozoology thing
Speaker 13: is a fad, bordering on a joke.
Speaker 5: In nineteen ten, there was the Komodo dragon. In nineteen
Speaker 5: thirty four, the giant panda. These hidden creatures were considered mysts,
Speaker 5: but one person believed in them. That belief led to discovery.
Speaker 5: That discovery established the creature's place in zoology.
Speaker 10: That's no punchline, Jimmy, that is science.
Speaker 13: Oh, there's no yetti. There's been a handful of expeditions
Speaker 13: in the Himalayas that have come up with nothing.
Speaker 10: It weren't led by me.
Speaker 13: Johnson, sir, we're gonna need a couple more drinks. Yeah,
Speaker 13: make mine a double.
Speaker 10: Yes, indeed, sir, nothing for me, Thanks.
Speaker 13: Fine, Tom, Let's say this YETI is real. What are
Speaker 13: you gonna do when you spend a million dollars on
Speaker 13: this thing?
Speaker 4: You got?
Speaker 13: You got frozen toes. You're out in the in the
Speaker 13: middle of the Himalayas by yourself with a tracker, and
Speaker 13: like everyone else, you don't find it.
Speaker 10: I'll keep looking.
Speaker 13: Uh huh oh, I don't think it's a good idea.
Speaker 5: Well I didn't think it's a wonderful life was a
Speaker 5: good idea, and look how that turned out.
Speaker 13: Uh touchet.
Speaker 2: Oh it's Blair again.
Speaker 1: I have to get this. I'm exhausted. Anyway, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: head up.
Speaker 2: Be sure you don't want to get through the tape
Speaker 2: of me tonight.
Speaker 1: You'll fill me in tomorrow. But if you're staying up,
Speaker 1: I can put the kettle on.
Speaker 13: Okay, good night, Blair.
Speaker 14: I know, I know. I don't do calls. So yes,
Speaker 14: the news is big. Who died, but hopefully it won't
Speaker 14: involve death unless after hearing this you want.
Speaker 5: To kill me.
Speaker 2: What did you do, Blair?
Speaker 1: What happened.
Speaker 14: I kind of sort of released a statement that the
Speaker 14: exhibit would feature your granddad's yettie hunt, and we share
Speaker 14: details at the event tomorrow.
Speaker 13: But there's just one tape.
Speaker 14: You said you found more. Have you listened to them all?
Speaker 13: No?
Speaker 1: No, I mean the one I just listened to.
Speaker 9: Granddad mentions the YETI.
Speaker 11: But don't you think if you'd found something on that
Speaker 11: expedition it would be in history books.
Speaker 14: You still have a whole box of tapes to listen to.
Speaker 14: So what's the harmun finding out?
Speaker 2: Baiting the press with fake news live?
Speaker 14: This could be big okay donor money, big Texas monthly
Speaker 14: than New York Times, a freaking podcast. They're all coming.
Speaker 13: How many people did you reach out to?
Speaker 14: TikTok oh?
Speaker 12: My?
Speaker 11: Take everything about the YETI off social media and just
Speaker 11: give me a minute.
Speaker 14: You have twenty hours until your speech at an event
Speaker 14: dedicated to your legendary grandfather, which opens an exhibit that
Speaker 14: will hopefully fund another year of science. So basically, you're
Speaker 14: saving lives, no pressure. Thanks, text me when you figured
Speaker 14: it out. I have hives from this column.
Speaker 8: Uh well, fuck.
Speaker 5: Tom Slick September seventh, nineteen fifty seven. I made it
Speaker 5: to India. Good god, it's a feast of sound culture
Speaker 5: people and the stink of sacred.
Speaker 10: Cow manure makes you feel alive.
Speaker 4: Who careful? That nearly ended me? Maybe I am one
Speaker 4: lucky Tom. You have a beautiful day too, sir.
Speaker 10: Lovely people the assault with a smile.
Speaker 8: It's nice, mister Thomas Snick, Good day, sir.
Speaker 7: You ever call here, may assist you in holding the receiver.
Speaker 4: It no, thank you, I'll take it from here.
Speaker 14: Oh night, mister slick.
Speaker 4: Mabel, Mabel is that you?
Speaker 15: You know me always bumped you on, mister Slick, So
Speaker 15: you made it okay?
Speaker 9: You spoke to Betty the kids. You know Claire lost
Speaker 9: a tooth last week.
Speaker 15: Oh, you're taking the vitamins out, putting your suit case right,
Speaker 15: and you're not drinking the water.
Speaker 9: Please tell me you are not drinking that water.
Speaker 4: All of the above, Mabel. Good and thanks for the
Speaker 4: update on Claire.
Speaker 9: Okay, so couverle updates. I got my hands on that
Speaker 9: tranquil as a gun. Here's a beast.
Speaker 15: It's being shipped to Texas and your brother will stick
Speaker 15: it on the cargo plane with the dogs.
Speaker 4: The bloodhounds.
Speaker 9: Yes they are huge, mister slick and the poops.
Speaker 15: Well, come Christmas time, I hope my bonus looks as
Speaker 15: big as they are.
Speaker 9: Oh, they can't with snow booties. No frumps, wait, footie.
Speaker 4: Yes, it's all falling into place. Mabel, whoa what now?
Speaker 9: I've been going over the numbers with the accounting.
Speaker 15: Yeah, you have fifteen thousand in your personal account to
Speaker 15: put towards this expedition.
Speaker 4: That sounds reasonable.
Speaker 15: You won't have a team, poor dogs, or any chance
Speaker 15: of survival for even a month in those mountains without
Speaker 15: an addition of fifteen thousand.
Speaker 4: So this whole thing is gonna cost me thirty thousand.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, I don't want to take any money out
Speaker 3: of my institutes.
Speaker 9: Well that's the thing.
Speaker 10: Uh huh.
Speaker 9: A check came in the mail, now, thought brother?
Speaker 5: I thought, hello, Maybel you there, Maybel, I can't hear you.
Speaker 4: Can you hear me, Mabel? What did you say about
Speaker 4: a check.
Speaker 9: Halfway around the world. Of course you can't hear me.
Speaker 4: I can hear you. Now, what were you saying?
Speaker 15: I said, you do have thirty thousand to put towards
Speaker 15: this thing.
Speaker 9: It's just not all yours.
Speaker 4: I'm not following. You're being mysterious Mabel.
Speaker 9: Oh God. A check came in the mail three days ago.
Speaker 15: Now there was a note that said something like, I
Speaker 15: know what you're up to, I know where to find you.
Speaker 9: Here is what you'll need to complete what you've started.
Speaker 9: And there was a check for fifteen thousand for twenty.
Speaker 15: So now you have thirty five thousand to put towards
Speaker 15: this thing.
Speaker 9: Whoa brilliant hurt?
Speaker 4: What? No, no, butts?
Speaker 9: The check isn't exactly made out to you?
Speaker 4: Well, who's it made out to?
Speaker 9: Look at Tom shit? Yes, yes he did, right on
Speaker 9: my shoe, Right on my shoe. Bad boy, bad boy.
Speaker 4: Dollars?
Speaker 10: What are you playing at?
Speaker 8: Tom Slick? Mystery Hunter is a production of Fool of
Speaker 8: Humans and iHeart Podcasts, starring Owen Wilson as Tom Slick,
Speaker 8: Cissy Spasick as Claire Slick, Skyler Fiske as Livslick. Written
Speaker 8: and directed by Caroline Slaughter, story editor Jeb Stewart. Executive
Speaker 8: produced by Owen Wilson, Sissy Spasick, Skyler Fiske, Jeb Stewart,
Speaker 8: Caroline Slaughter, Brian Lavin, L. C. Crowley, Brandon Barr, and
Speaker 8: Virginia Prescott. Produced and assistant directed by Amelia Brock. Original score,
Speaker 8: sound design, mixing and mastering by Jesse Niswanger. Casting by
Speaker 8: Daisy Church and Caroline Slaughter. Sag coordination by Daisy Church
Speaker 8: and Julia Christgau. Promo and trailers by Carl Catle. Special
Speaker 8: thanks to Catherine Nixon Cook. Recording engineers are Tyler Klang
Speaker 8: and Casey Pegram. For iHeartMedia.
Speaker 16: Episode three cast, Dave Willis as Alan, Ava Davis as Blair,
Speaker 16: Michael Mao as Jimmy Stewart, David Devrees as Hines Lang
Speaker 16: and Johnson the Butler, Jenny Fleming as Mabel, Neil Ready
Speaker 16: as Biddy and the Indian Taxi Driver, Tim Heller as
Speaker 16: the London Cappy, Julia Christgau as the Google Voice Assistant,
Speaker 16: Mike Shots as the Voice of God, and the introductory
Speaker 16: voiceover with additional roles voiced by David Devrees, Michael Mao
Speaker 16: and Phil Clark. Executive producer for iHeartMedia is Maya Howard
Speaker 16: Special thanks to Lucas Riley.
Speaker 11: If you're enjoying the show, share it with everyone you know,
Speaker 11: and don't forget to rate and review in your favorite
Speaker 11: podcast app. Tune in again next week wherever you get
Speaker 11: your most thrilling adventure stories
Speaker 12: Could be a