Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 1: learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
Speaker 2: my name is noelh.
Speaker 3: They call me Ben. We are joined as always with
Speaker 3: our super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly,
Speaker 3: you are you. You are here. That makes this the
Speaker 3: stuff they don't want you to know. If you are
Speaker 3: tuning in the evening this listener mail program publishes. Let
Speaker 3: us welcome you to February sixth, twenty twenty five. We
Speaker 3: talked about it earlier this week. It's amazing that January
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five went by so quickly and took so
Speaker 3: long to do. So, we've got a lot of correspondence
Speaker 3: to get to a true embarrassment of riches. We're going
Speaker 3: to hear from people all across the world. We're going
Speaker 3: to talk about some of the disturbing news occurring in
Speaker 3: the United States. We're gonna hear from firefighter or an
Speaker 3: exotic landscaper out west. We're going to talk about telepathy.
Speaker 3: We're going to talk about private healthcare before we do
Speaker 3: any of that, Guys, do you have your mobile phones
Speaker 3: on your persons as were free.
Speaker 4: Whoa, you got a secret cell phone like Walter White?
Speaker 5: I got two?
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, keep your secrets.
Speaker 5: Matt oh, I have so many.
Speaker 4: Well, I would like to report that mine is currently
Speaker 4: fully charged. So come at me an essay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I've recently stepped away from calling them burner phones.
Speaker 3: I don't like the connotation. I don't care for it.
Speaker 3: I call a couple of my freezer phones. You know
Speaker 3: what I mean, as in, you take them out of
Speaker 3: the freezer when it's time to make the call.
Speaker 4: Just the one for me, guys, Just the one for me.
Speaker 4: But I respect us, I respect it, I really do.
Speaker 3: And with that, we're going to pause for a word
Speaker 3: from our sponsors and will return with a message from Kurt.
Speaker 4: And we've returned with the ffore mentioned message from Kurt.
Speaker 4: This one is a dilly, as Lucille Ball was wanted
Speaker 4: to say, Hey, conspiracy team, Kurt says, it's been a
Speaker 4: while since I've emailed about privacy related concerns in the past,
Speaker 4: and I know you've touched on Faraday pouches slash foil
Speaker 4: wraps before. I work in cybersecurity current testing mobile app security,
Speaker 4: and I came across an article claiming the NSA can
Speaker 4: track your phone even when it's off, links to an
Speaker 4: article from BoingBoing dot net, which we will talk about
Speaker 4: in a minute. My first reaction, this is ridiculous. Off
Speaker 4: is the same as dead and without power. Signals aren't
Speaker 4: going to or from our devices, right. Every movie shows
Speaker 4: the escapees or the criminals making their you know sus
Speaker 4: phone calls and then again breaking bad situations, snapping that
Speaker 4: thing in half, tossing it in the trash, smashing or
Speaker 4: throwing their phones out the window, and I'm always thinking
Speaker 4: you're safe to turn it off well after some light
Speaker 4: precursory searching. Reddit is full of conspiracy theories about batteries
Speaker 4: not being removable after the snowed in revelations, Faraday bags
Speaker 4: are bogus marketing ploys, etc. You can read more in
Speaker 4: the comments He links to the Reddit conversation, which we'll
Speaker 4: also get to in a few But it got me
Speaker 4: wondering if there's any legitimacy to this. The technique is
Speaker 4: referred to as the find, which is pretty awesome. It's
Speaker 4: got a lot of gravitas to it, and apparently lets
Speaker 4: the government locate high value targets. It is technically possible
Speaker 4: for a phone to be in standby when we think
Speaker 4: it's off unless the battery is completely dead. Just to
Speaker 4: interject here, another thing you see in movies a lot
Speaker 4: is the assurance if you take the battery out, you
Speaker 4: know these are obviously more like nineties early two thousands shows,
Speaker 4: then you can't be tracked because there's zero power being supplied.
Speaker 4: But it's of course very true that in part probably
Speaker 4: due to things like planned obsolescence, etc. Or snowed in revelations,
Speaker 4: maybe there's something deeper going on here. Batteries are no
Speaker 4: longer removable from phones. They are hardwired in unless you
Speaker 4: have proprietary tools, and even then you're pretty much bricking
Speaker 4: your device like they're not designed to be replaced. If
Speaker 4: I'm not mistaken, but do correct me on that if
Speaker 4: I'm off base, Moving on, and this is very interesting here. Also,
Speaker 4: NFC or near field communication doesn't need power and could
Speaker 4: theoretically operate like an air tag or tile device by
Speaker 4: relying on nearby powered devices like other phones to locate
Speaker 4: or triangulate them. Worth more, research and an episode longtime
Speaker 4: fan feel free to use on the air. I just
Speaker 4: think this is fascinating on so many levels. And I
Speaker 4: will read a little bit from the Boying Boying article
Speaker 4: that Kurt very graciously linked us to. NSA can track
Speaker 4: powered down phones, How to actually protect your privacy by
Speaker 4: wonderfully named Ellsworth Dewey. What a great name. So here
Speaker 4: we go. I'm just gonna read a little bit of
Speaker 4: an excerpt from this article. Yesterday I wrote about privacy
Speaker 4: guides mobile Phone Privacy and Security guide for protesters. Today,
Speaker 4: Randy's are CEO of Faraday pouch manufacturer SLNT wrote, just
Speaker 4: want to let you know your cell phone is tracking you,
Speaker 4: regardless if you have it an airplane mode or not.
Speaker 4: It even pings when it's turned off. There is only
Speaker 4: one way to know for sure that you are not
Speaker 4: being tracked. That is to keep all signals from coming
Speaker 4: out or going into your phone. The writer of this
Speaker 4: piece believes that he is correct and goes on. As
Speaker 4: reported into twenty thirteen Washington Post article, the NSA has
Speaker 4: been able to track turned off phone since at least
Speaker 4: two thousand and four. Here's an excerpt from that. It's
Speaker 4: by September of two thousand and four, a new NSA
Speaker 4: technique enabled the agency to find cell phones even when
Speaker 4: they were turned off. JASOK troops called this the Find,
Speaker 4: and it gave them thousands of new targets, including members
Speaker 4: of a burgeoning al Qaeda sponsored insurgency in Iraq according
Speaker 4: to members of the unit. So two, he goes on, so,
Speaker 4: if you're serious about not wanting to be tracked, you
Speaker 4: need to block your phone from sending and receiving signals.
Speaker 4: A Faraday phone pouch is one way to do that.
Speaker 4: It's made of conductive material like metal mesh or metalized
Speaker 4: fabric that creates an electromagnetic shield around devices. When electromagnetic
Speaker 4: waves hit the pouts, they create a cur that generates
Speaker 4: an opposing field, effectively blocking all wireless signals like cellular,
Speaker 4: Wi Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS from reaching or leaving the
Speaker 4: enclosed device. And then two he says, I of course,
Speaker 4: when you remove from the pouch, it is once again vulnerable.
Speaker 4: But as Kurt mentioned in this Reddit thread, there are
Speaker 4: plenty of voices out there saying that the Faraday pouch
Speaker 4: is in fact just like a marketing ploy, and that
Speaker 4: even that isn't fool proof, so I don't know me.
Speaker 4: Let me read one comment here from a Reddit user.
Speaker 4: Let's see some of the comments here, just kind of referring.
Speaker 4: This is a good summary of the of the thread.
Speaker 4: Some of the comments here are back and forth, but
Speaker 4: it does largely depend on the manufacturer more than anything.
Speaker 4: For example, newer Apple iPhones can be tracked even when
Speaker 4: quote unquote off using the same network as the air tags.
Speaker 4: If they didn't have this in older models, I would
Speaker 4: be surprised. But to corroborate another comment, if the cellular
Speaker 4: or even Wi Fi modem for more short range applications
Speaker 4: are on, then you only need three points to calculate
Speaker 4: the position of the phone. Unfortunately, unless we have open
Speaker 4: source firmware and hardware schematic, we can never know. However,
Speaker 4: anything with a removable battery will not be able to
Speaker 4: keep a charge to the modem for long unless some
Speaker 4: type of coin sell is in and a good test
Speaker 4: for this is often if it loses time in airplane mode.
Speaker 5: That's interesting.
Speaker 4: This would result in no ability to track. While it
Speaker 4: is not recommended, you could install a small hardware switch
Speaker 4: on the battery if you have the space or wherewithal
Speaker 4: to do so, and let me just see if I
Speaker 4: can find any Yes, see, throw the phone in a
Speaker 4: Faraday sleeve in your golden That's what somebody says here.
Speaker 4: But then we've got okay, proper Faraday should be enough.
Speaker 4: Fairity bag is a little extra security. Hmmm. Actually, it
Speaker 4: does seem maybe I misunderstood what Kurt was saying, But
Speaker 4: in this thread it does seem that everyone is speaking
Speaker 4: out in favor of the Faraday pouch. But Matt and Ben,
Speaker 4: I'm not sure if you've heard anything about this being
Speaker 4: some sort of marketing fluff, And maybe it's not as
Speaker 4: fool proof as one might think.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, to interject here, Faraday bags are a real thing. However,
Speaker 3: there's not necessarily some sort of universal regulatory body assuring
Speaker 3: you that something purporting to be a Faraday bag is legit. Ah,
Speaker 3: so you can buy all sorts of things that will
Speaker 3: tell you they're a Faraday bag. For instance, certain fans
Speaker 3: of social media may receive in this spirit, targeted ads
Speaker 3: for Faraday hats, which, as we explored in our tenfoil episode,
Speaker 3: are absolute bunk. Don't fall for it. The bigger question
Speaker 3: I will posit for you, fellow conspiracy realist and thank
Speaker 3: you again for the excellent email, Kurt, is the idea
Speaker 3: of how surveillance works in terms of tracking right, Like
Speaker 3: you earlier quoted the mention of different, let's say, techniques
Speaker 3: sold by intelligence communities. Often that goes back to the
Speaker 3: idea of whether a phone appearing to be off is
Speaker 3: actually out of juice is therefore incapable of communication. If
Speaker 3: you own an iPhone right now and you're holding the
Speaker 3: phone in your hands, demographically speaking, you're probably listening to
Speaker 3: this on a phone now, then you're well aware of
Speaker 3: folks that your phone will turn off but still have
Speaker 3: some basic functionality, which means it's not all the way off.
Speaker 3: The best way to do more proactive surveillance, just kind
Speaker 3: of bracketing the ethical quandaries here, is to plant a
Speaker 3: bug on a phone. That is, let's say you install
Speaker 3: a chip it's connected to the battery supply of that phote.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot to get into here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, and I did find you're absolutely spot on.
Speaker 4: Then the marketing ploy behind Faraday bags is how effective
Speaker 4: the material they're made of actually is. If one is
Speaker 4: manufactured correctly, like the one that was referenced in that
Speaker 4: boing Boying Piece, the CEO of the company sl and
Speaker 4: T sln T. That does seem to be one of
Speaker 4: the top ones. But I'm seeing tons of chatter about
Speaker 4: devices or I guess bags reporting to do this that
Speaker 4: are made of cheap material that has like a snake
Speaker 4: skin kind of texture to it, and that probably won't
Speaker 4: even block a call. And one thing that's interesting too
Speaker 4: that I've seen is people say, well, if you want
Speaker 4: to see if the bag works, put it in there
Speaker 4: with the ringer on and try calling it and see
Speaker 4: if it rings. But that's only one particular frequency. Like
Speaker 4: that's just literally, you know, testing whether it blocks the
Speaker 4: same frequency that your carrier is using. And that is
Speaker 4: not a good indication of other types of signals that
Speaker 4: can you know, be intercepted or you know, uh inputed.
Speaker 3: I guess right, Yeah, it's it goes down to the
Speaker 3: type of metal us, the density of the weave or
Speaker 3: the mesh.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: And I love that you're pointing out there, Noel, And
Speaker 3: I'm sure Kurt you and you appreciate this fact too.
Speaker 3: Faraday bags can deflect or block a wide range of frequencies,
Speaker 3: but it's caveat m tour as we used to say,
Speaker 3: back in Roman days, you know, you're not always sure
Speaker 3: what you are buying. Now, this is the part where
Speaker 3: we give space for some of our fellow conspiracy realists
Speaker 3: who might be saying, I don't trust a Faraday contraption
Speaker 3: unless I have designed it myself. And if you are
Speaker 3: that brave individual, kudos to you. Awesome job teach us
Speaker 3: your secrets.
Speaker 4: And one thing that we've talked about on the show
Speaker 4: too is this idea of like, how come I'm getting
Speaker 4: served all these ads for things that I've just talked about,
Speaker 4: you know, and that continues to be a hot topic
Speaker 4: of debate on the internet. In the thread that I
Speaker 4: mentioned the idea of phones tracking you when they're off,
Speaker 4: someone posts yeah, and they actively listen to Everyone was
Speaker 4: all scared of Alexa, but your phone is actually an
Speaker 4: Alexa on steroids. Ever noticed how you'll see ads about
Speaker 4: something you talked about with someone from the days prior.
Speaker 4: The jury's still out on that as far as we're concerned,
Speaker 4: I think, I mean, we have talked about it, We
Speaker 4: have looked into these types of reports, and it's a
Speaker 4: little iffy as to whether or not that's happening, but
Speaker 4: sure feels like it is, and it's real easy to
Speaker 4: buy into that particular conspiracy theory. I have a hard
Speaker 4: time believing there's not some form of that type of
Speaker 4: active listening going on. But guys, isn't it true that
Speaker 4: you can also wrap your phone in multiple layers of
Speaker 4: tinfoil and that could also do the trick? Or is
Speaker 4: that not nearly enough?
Speaker 3: I wouldn't trust it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got a couple. You may remember the George
Speaker 2: Washington videos if you watched any of those, the time
Speaker 2: machine in there was a testing device for RF signals
Speaker 2: and Wi Fi signals and all those kinds of things.
Speaker 2: I would just say I personally did a little at
Speaker 2: home stuff with a microwave, with some tinfoil with a freezer. Uh,
Speaker 2: And I found the most effective thing, guys, is a microwave.
Speaker 4: Mm hmm yeah, because of the way it's shielded to
Speaker 4: keep that stuff from getting out and harming you know,
Speaker 4: the user.
Speaker 3: So your best solution is to always carry a portable microwave.
Speaker 3: We hear it's stuff they don't want you to know
Speaker 3: or proud to present. With our partner's Illumination Global Unlimited
Speaker 3: micro Walk.
Speaker 4: The micro.
Speaker 3: It's a micro microwave. It looks like a very subtle
Speaker 3: form fitting a stead pleasing approximately forty five pound backpack
Speaker 3: that you can carry on your person and just pop
Speaker 3: your phone in there as long as the batteriesoul.
Speaker 4: And you know, if you're into it, you can get
Speaker 4: one that looks like a Proton pack from Ghostbusters.
Speaker 5: Ooh, that would be badass.
Speaker 2: Or you if you could make it into a Boombox
Speaker 2: microwave so you could always have your Boombox microwave on
Speaker 2: your shoulder.
Speaker 4: I do like the idea of the micro walk, but
Speaker 4: let's just take it a step further and go retro
Speaker 4: and call it the micro walkman, you know, like the
Speaker 4: old portable cassette players from days of yore.
Speaker 5: Boom.
Speaker 4: Well, guys, that's all I've got, Kurt. I think this
Speaker 4: is really really interesting stuff and certainly worth a further
Speaker 4: exploration down the road. Let's take a quick break. Here
Speaker 4: are worth from our sponsor, and then we'll return with
Speaker 4: more messages from you.
Speaker 2: And we've returned, and guys, we are turning our ears
Speaker 2: to Australia to hear from Cosmic, who is fantastic and
Speaker 2: really quickly if you don't mind, y'all. Cosmic as asked
Speaker 2: a question about our favorite magic cards.
Speaker 5: I have to answer.
Speaker 2: I have to I know, I know, do you guys
Speaker 2: have any favorite magic cards?
Speaker 3: And I but I'm gonna hold it for a second
Speaker 3: because mine's super dumb.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't know where's dark, guys, I couldn't name a
Speaker 4: single magic card. But y'all, y'all have your fun.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 2: So just this goes back to when I started, so
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety six, around the time Mirage was released. At
Speaker 2: the time, they called it an expansion, not a set
Speaker 2: or anything like that, called it the Mirage Expansion. I
Speaker 2: had a lot of favorite cards, but two of my
Speaker 2: favorite cards had to do with a red green deck.
Speaker 2: The first is Jungle Troll, which is a high control car. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: but I love that card. It was one red, one green,
Speaker 2: one colorless, so three man for a two to one creature.
Speaker 2: You could pay one green to regenerate it, or you
Speaker 2: could pay one red to regenerate it. And that just
Speaker 2: meant if it happened to die, it gets tapped and
Speaker 2: sticks around and it doesn't come back if you're able
Speaker 2: to pay the regeneration cost. The second card, and it
Speaker 2: only works with these two cards, at least in my
Speaker 2: opinion for the decade built is savage Twister. This is
Speaker 2: a sorcery for one red and one green and then X.
Speaker 2: So you pay one green, one red, and then however
Speaker 2: many other manna you have open and it deals x
Speaker 2: damage to each creature. Now, if you've got jungle trolls
Speaker 2: in play, you save one or two manna and you
Speaker 2: regend those trolls, you kill everything else on the board,
Speaker 2: and now you're swinging for two, maybe four, maybe even
Speaker 2: six damage. And those are my favorite magic cards.
Speaker 3: And so well, let's walk many Matt. I'd love to
Speaker 3: keep walking here, so Christopher walking here, so ideally when
Speaker 3: you're when we're enacting this, this combo mechanism, Uh, what's
Speaker 3: the base tappable mana you would want?
Speaker 5: I would?
Speaker 2: I would say a safe bet is seven mana. Okay,
Speaker 2: anything higher than that, that's great. Red and green lends
Speaker 2: itself as a color combination for a deck to putting
Speaker 2: more mana out on the field, more lands on the
Speaker 2: field than you would normally have, so ramping essentially up.
Speaker 2: So highly recommend it. There's my salute cosmic for asking
Speaker 2: about that, and stuff you should sandwich you. I can't
Speaker 2: wait to worry your voicemail. I guess we mentioned magic.
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 3: Oh h is it okay? If I say yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: just because you asked, I've got to say it cartoon
Speaker 3: of myself for personal reasons, even though I know it's
Speaker 3: very much not a great car. I love a storm crow, man,
Speaker 3: you know, I love a storm crow. It's a little
Speaker 3: little flyer, little one two flyer, and I think I
Speaker 3: am not alone in busting that out. Also big fan,
Speaker 3: of course of the Augury Raven. Three three storm crows.
Speaker 2: You can have as many in your deck as you want, right,
Speaker 2: that's the cool thing about storm Crow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because it's like a murder crows.
Speaker 4: This storm crow the name of one of the wildling
Speaker 4: tribes in Game of Thrones that may be the most positive.
Speaker 4: There are storm crows the hill tribes, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 4: the Tyrian got got you know, in in their good graces.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so pretty much. I love every Corvid magic and.
Speaker 4: We do know that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's all.
Speaker 2: If you want an awesome crow deck, might I recommend
Speaker 2: black and blue and throw in just a ton.
Speaker 5: Of dark rituals. You can only have place but.
Speaker 2: Ramping up to three black Man up plus you got
Speaker 2: the islands hanging out, storm Crow, Storm Crow, storm Crow,
Speaker 2: Boom storm Crow.
Speaker 4: Just zurgit buddy, Right, Oh, the Song Crows and Game
Speaker 4: of Phones were actually a mercenary company in the Free Cities.
Speaker 3: The real issues, Cosmic, that's what that's right for.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But speaking of real issues, let's jump to Cosmic's perspective
Speaker 2: on our coverage of Luigi MANGIONI. Uh, it's just a
Speaker 2: little bit of insight and maybe it's going to give
Speaker 2: us a little bit of the feels it gave it
Speaker 2: to me when I first heard it. And uh, then
Speaker 2: we'll have a quick discussion about mental health care and
Speaker 2: private healthcare and how those two things are interconnected, maybe
Speaker 2: even woven together. So here's our message from Cosmic.
Speaker 6: Yayay guys, plus McKie from Asia. I just finished listening
Speaker 6: to your episode on Luigi Mangi and holy I don't
Speaker 6: think anything I'm going to say going to said a
Speaker 6: lot on anything you guys don't already done. But I
Speaker 6: was thinking about it. I had an accident recently. I
Speaker 6: was in the God mean things like that. I have
Speaker 6: my lawn mower running and blade naps off hits my
Speaker 6: two middle fingers and drugs the skin all the way
Speaker 6: back I went to the hospital. I was sitting in
Speaker 6: the hospital for probably about eight hours of comfort with
Speaker 6: anybody given heats, good drugs. Two days later I got
Speaker 6: asked back for them to do an operation from my hands.
Speaker 6: All of that was free. Now, I'm not saying that
Speaker 6: to kind of rub it in, because you guys are
Speaker 6: well aware that it is a massive problem in the
Speaker 6: shape and you know a lot of other countries. You
Speaker 6: know that can be considered first world the ability to
Speaker 6: have free healthcare. Now, what does that do to your
Speaker 6: psyche in the sense of if you're doing anything in
Speaker 6: the garden or if you're doing anything that may cause
Speaker 6: you harm. Are you speaking about the ramifications of that,
Speaker 6: if that makes any sense, Because mate, like the amount
Speaker 6: of time I've in the hospital, broken bones, cut things
Speaker 6: like that, I would being so much step right now
Speaker 6: that I would be the rest of my life trying
Speaker 6: to pay that part. I guess I'm not really calling
Speaker 6: for any points, but I guess it's just it's it's
Speaker 6: wild to think and the fact that this guy you know,
Speaker 6: has taken out one of the elite. I can understand
Speaker 6: why people are getting red tuck over there. It's shame anyway,
Speaker 6: feel pretty easily. Love you guys doing God clip.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you so much, Cosmic for that insight.
Speaker 2: And you know that question really the simple question of
Speaker 2: what does that do to your psyche as you go
Speaker 2: about in the world. Do you guys have any initial
Speaker 2: thoughts on or what does that spark?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely, Cosmic. First off, thank you very much for
Speaker 3: supporting the show and for reaching out to us. The
Speaker 3: one thing, one one thing to level set. Just with
Speaker 3: nomenclature here, our American conspiracy realist may need to know
Speaker 3: that Cosmic is saying garden in the way that you
Speaker 3: would say yard or like backyard. So this is the
Speaker 3: just the everyday area around your domicile in terms of
Speaker 3: the psychological burden or the heft of worrying about whether
Speaker 3: or not one can make it to the hospitals. As
Speaker 3: I had mentioned earlier in previous conversations, this is a
Speaker 3: huge and frightening thing for many people in the United States,
Speaker 3: especially given various policy changes in the labyrinthine interaction of
Speaker 3: your medical providers with private insurers. You could have a
Speaker 3: pain in your chest, for instance, which is a huge
Speaker 3: red flag. If you have a pain in your chest,
Speaker 3: everything we know about medicine tells you to get to
Speaker 3: a doctor. However, here in the States people do, to
Speaker 3: your point cosmic, they do carry and hold this burden
Speaker 3: of feeling like they may be gambling. You know what,
Speaker 3: if you go to the doctor you have a pain
Speaker 3: in the chest, it turns out to be nothing, you know,
Speaker 3: mission critical, and now you are on the hook for
Speaker 3: an enormous expense. You're absolutely correct. I would argue that
Speaker 3: there is a ubiquitous, continual psychological burden, a question of
Speaker 3: will I or won't I go get care? How serious
Speaker 3: do I, a non doctor, think this condition?
Speaker 4: Maybe?
Speaker 3: Does that sound fair?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 2: It makes me think about parenting and the way you know,
Speaker 2: maybe it hasn't fully shifted, but I think if you
Speaker 2: look at trends, the way parenting is shifted to a
Speaker 2: bit of overcaution, I would say, And I wonder if
Speaker 2: any of that has to do with this very thing,
Speaker 2: rather than just letting kids, you know the way. At
Speaker 2: least in my experience, I got to do ride a
Speaker 2: bike around a neighborhood and go, you know, take my
Speaker 2: bike really wherever I wanted to go and do some
Speaker 2: dangerous crap with my bike without any kind of supervision.
Speaker 2: And I did get injured a couple times, nothing to
Speaker 2: the point of going to the hospital, but have a
Speaker 2: lot of friends who did go to the hospital because
Speaker 2: a bike related stuff specifically. And there's just one instance, right,
Speaker 2: or one specific thing. But and maybe a trend towards overcaution,
Speaker 2: whether we know it or not, is because adults know
Speaker 2: the full cost of getting injured on your bike or
Speaker 2: climbing up that tree would be.
Speaker 3: For sure. It also calls to mind there was an
Speaker 3: excellent episode of Stuff You Should Know several years ago, now,
Speaker 3: a few more years than I'd like to specify, wherein
Speaker 3: they talked about the idea of antibiotic resistant bacteria, right,
Speaker 3: the idea of over medicating people with antibiotics, not letting
Speaker 3: kids play in the dirt? Right? Does that have long
Speaker 3: tail consequences? Are we being over cautious? I can't recommend
Speaker 3: those guys highly enough. If you'd like to check out
Speaker 3: their shows, I think you can also find them on
Speaker 3: Instagram if you're interested.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do also think about any little thing that's
Speaker 2: just the way cosmic put it, doing anything that may
Speaker 2: cause you harm, right, anything that may cause you harm.
Speaker 3: And I hope your fingers are all right, man.
Speaker 4: Now, yeah, it's terrifying. I cringed immediately. And to think
Speaker 4: that even lawnmowers aren't safe they can turn on you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is weird.
Speaker 2: So we found a couple of things that I don't know,
Speaker 2: we might it might be worth pointing to Cosmic. There's
Speaker 2: some interesting research coming out of pub Med Central. Back
Speaker 2: in twenty fourteen. It was studying health insurance status in
Speaker 2: the United States and psychological distress and the connection between
Speaker 2: those two things amongst adults aged eighteen to sixty four
Speaker 2: years old. Just give you a tiny bit of sampling
Speaker 2: of this. It states the purpose of this research is
Speaker 2: to examine the relationship between psychological distress and the aspects
Speaker 2: of health insurance status, including lack of coverage, types of coverage,
Speaker 2: and disruption in coverage. Adults with private or no health
Speaker 2: insurance had lower levels of psychological distress than those with
Speaker 2: public or other coverage, Which is interesting, right, if you've
Speaker 2: got private healthcare insurance, you're not as worried because you've
Speaker 2: got the insurance that will cover you to some extent,
Speaker 2: even though you know, we know not fully and there
Speaker 2: will be lots of costs associated with being hurt, but
Speaker 2: at least if something major happens and you've got private
Speaker 2: health insurance, you're not going to pay the full fifty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars or whatever. You'll pay the first two to
Speaker 2: eight thousand dollars or something like that, even though that's
Speaker 2: a crazy amount of money. They continue. Although significant relationships
Speaker 2: between psychological distress and health insurance status were identified, their
Speaker 2: strength was modest, with other demographic and health condition covariates
Speaker 2: also being potential sources of distress, so they weren't able
Speaker 2: to find like health insurance is the reason people are
Speaker 2: distressed and not doing things or anything like that. They're
Speaker 2: just saying there did seem to be some kind of
Speaker 2: connection between health insurance and stress, especially when a change
Speaker 2: was occurring in whatever private or public health insurance was
Speaker 2: was available to that human being, that personal that personal
Speaker 2: relationship between you and your health insurer. And then in
Speaker 2: just the last couple of things to add to this
Speaker 2: as an update, there is a new United Healthcare CEO.
Speaker 2: His name is nol nolim Z.
Speaker 4: What did I do when I was in a fugue state?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: He joined United Health in two thousand and seven and
Speaker 2: most recently oversaw United Healthcare's medicare and retirement businesses, which
Speaker 2: are going through some weird stuff right now to changes.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, yes, yes, Just.
Speaker 2: A reminder, United Healthcare's parent company, United health Group, is
Speaker 2: one of the largest companies in the world.
Speaker 1: H yes.
Speaker 3: Yeah. As we discussed previously in our series on Luigi
Speaker 3: Mangeon looked for an update, there's news emerges. United Healthcare
Speaker 3: is a Leviathan. It is.
Speaker 4: Just huge.
Speaker 3: Is not even a big enough word to encompass the
Speaker 3: economic make heft of that enterprise.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: And this comes to us via an NPR article titled
Speaker 2: United Healthcare names new CEO after Brian Thompson's killing. And
Speaker 2: here's a little quote from Andrew whitti, the CEO of
Speaker 2: United health Group, that is the giant company, yeah.
Speaker 3: The parent company of United Healthcare.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 2: And the quote is the healthcare system needs to function
Speaker 2: better the boy. And he added when he was talking
Speaker 2: to investors that the company's mission is quote to improve
Speaker 2: this system for everybody and help people live healthier lives.
Speaker 5: Ah feels good.
Speaker 3: Doesn't it so wrong as you can afford it?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly. And another thing we can mention here,
Speaker 2: just as I mentioned, there is another new AI tool
Speaker 2: that's going to help health insurers deny the denials that
Speaker 2: the other AI healthcare tool was doing. So it's a
Speaker 2: it's a stop gap AI adjunct to automate appeals to
Speaker 2: the denials that the previous AI is doing.
Speaker 3: Hang on, man, let me get some paper.
Speaker 5: Here, just so.
Speaker 2: So human being gets hurt. There is a healthcare request
Speaker 2: for insurance coverage, all right, The first AI tool automatically
Speaker 2: says no, no, no, no, no no. Then this second AI
Speaker 2: tool says, well, let me hold on, let me take
Speaker 2: a look at that. Oh, we're gonna automatically appeal that process.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm stribbling this down. Okay, okay, take take me
Speaker 3: through the next step.
Speaker 2: Now, one day a human actually looks at the readout,
Speaker 2: you know, because this little ticker tape that comes out,
Speaker 2: and then they're like no, okay.
Speaker 3: And we can only assume that surely people are rolling
Speaker 3: this out because there's been some kind of breakthrough in
Speaker 3: medical technology wherein if you have a life threatening condition,
Speaker 3: your body goes on pause while the AI fights itself.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that's what it is, and it's just it's
Speaker 2: exactly what it is. Yeah, the new AI is just
Speaker 2: called Shot and Freud.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you so much. Cosmic.
Speaker 2: I hope that I don't know gave you at least
Speaker 2: our insights and our magic cards. We will be right
Speaker 2: back with more messages from you.
Speaker 3: And we've returned Cosmic in particular. If you want to
Speaker 3: hear more about Corvid based magic cards, just drop an email.
Speaker 3: We've got some ideas. You know, maybe we could build
Speaker 3: a deck together. I'd say that because a big shout
Speaker 3: out to my brother Matt Frederick and our pal Tyler Claying. Matt,
Speaker 3: you remember you built a magic the Gathering deck for me.
Speaker 3: I still have it.
Speaker 5: You should use it.
Speaker 3: I'm the kind of guy who plays dungeons and dragons
Speaker 3: with myself, very well adjusted, very well adjusted rolling for initiative,
Speaker 3: we are going to set the stage for this part
Speaker 3: of our evenings listener mail with the following. Recently, if
Speaker 3: you live in the United States, you have doubtlessly heard
Speaker 3: that one of the country's largest employers, Uncle Sam, the
Speaker 3: federal government, sent a stark and troubling email out to
Speaker 3: a ton of federal employees. Now, Federal here is a
Speaker 3: vast umbrella. It's a vast group term it encapsulates or
Speaker 3: it encounters many, many, many different things that most people
Speaker 3: in the US take for granted because they don't hear
Speaker 3: about it until something goes wrong. We are going to
Speaker 3: hear from a no mis FED and anonymous before we
Speaker 3: share this, we want you know it hit all of
Speaker 3: us personally. It hit a lot of our fellow listeners
Speaker 3: as well. We're going to protect your anonymity and we
Speaker 3: cannot thank you enough for sharing this because we know
Speaker 3: it's going to resonate with a lot of people. Here's
Speaker 3: the letter. Hi guys, I've been a longtime listener, but
Speaker 3: this is the first time I'm writing it. I'm sure
Speaker 3: you've seen in the news about the Trump administration's onslaught
Speaker 3: against federal employees. On January twenty seventh, federal employees from
Speaker 3: all agencies got an ominous email from the Office of
Speaker 3: Personnel Management OPM with the subject line fork in the Road.
Speaker 3: This email offered federal employees an option to submit a
Speaker 3: deferred resignation. The news says anonymous FED keeps talking about
Speaker 3: this as a buyout, which is not true. Basically, the
Speaker 3: email said that if we submit a deferred resignation by
Speaker 3: replying to the email with the word resign, and the
Speaker 3: body of the reply email. We will still have to
Speaker 3: work until September, but won't have to be in compliance
Speaker 3: with the four pillars of the new Federal Workforce. I
Speaker 3: recommend you check out the email we got, which we
Speaker 3: can all find by the way folks at www dot
Speaker 3: OPM dot gov. Forward slash fork and read through the
Speaker 3: entire announcement. The fourth pillar, says Anonymous FED, is especially
Speaker 3: scary to me because of the word loyalty in there.
Speaker 3: The whole thing is quite spooky. We haven't gotten much
Speaker 3: communication from agency leadership yet. And side note, we're not
Speaker 3: going to reveal any specifics here, but says anonymous FED,
Speaker 3: many unions are saying we should not take this deal.
Speaker 3: It's even unclear if the government is allowed to do this. Anyways,
Speaker 3: I would love to hear your thoughts on this and
Speaker 3: how the administration is treating federal employees. I personally will
Speaker 3: not be taking the deal. I would rather go down
Speaker 3: kicking and screaming. Feel free to read this out loud
Speaker 3: on the pod Anonymous FED. And first off, Anonymous FED,
Speaker 3: we can't thank you enough again. We have been reading
Speaker 3: along with this. We had a little bit of correspondence
Speaker 3: with you earlier before we recorded, and I know this
Speaker 3: stuck out to all of us on the show, and
Speaker 3: quite honestly, I think this is directly affecting a lot
Speaker 3: of us listening tonight.
Speaker 4: Yeah, reading through the email, it is a little bit sinister.
Speaker 4: I mean it is the repeated thank you for your
Speaker 4: service kind of language and just the you know, I
Speaker 4: don't know, there's something so formal about it, but also
Speaker 4: kind of like when when you're getting funired and like,
Speaker 4: you know, hr kind of covering their butts by speaking
Speaker 4: in a very kind of veiled and coded proper way.
Speaker 4: I don't know there's but you guys know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: there is something about it that reads a little eerie.
Speaker 3: I'd yeah, I hear you, And I'd like to draw
Speaker 3: everyone's attention to again www DOTPM dot gov. Forward slash
Speaker 3: fork as in knife and fork.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: This is a real thing. January twenty eight, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: This came out. The fourth pillar that anonymous fed is
Speaker 3: talking about, which is doubtlessly and unfortunately familiar to a
Speaker 3: lot of our listeners, is something called enhanced Standards of Conduct.
Speaker 3: We'll just read a quotation from this again. This is official.
Speaker 3: This is real, and let's get some reactions. Quote. The
Speaker 3: federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy,
Speaker 3: and who strive for excellence in their daily work. Employees
Speaker 3: will be subject to enhanced standards of suitability and conduct
Speaker 3: as we move forward. Employees who engage in unlawful behavior
Speaker 3: or other misconduct will be prioritized for appropriate investigation and discipline,
Speaker 3: including termination. End quote. How do we feel about that one?
Speaker 2: Oh, we don't want any spies in our offices because
Speaker 2: they are making everybody go back to the office.
Speaker 5: Right, They're like, no spies in the.
Speaker 3: Office, also returned to office?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, what are enhanced standards of suitability? Loyalty? Loyal stands
Speaker 3: out to anonymous fed. Suitability to me is likewise darkly fascinating.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I don't know this.
Speaker 3: This is troubling because it brings us to earlier precedents, right,
Speaker 3: it brings us to presidents, pr e C presidents. This
Speaker 3: shows us, I don't know, a really disturbing thing that
Speaker 3: I think is it's something we can look at a
Speaker 3: politically because we're also seeing the context wherein this language
Speaker 3: has a lot to do with other non presidential administrative things.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: First off, let's recall the letter that Elon Musk sent
Speaker 3: out to the hardworking people at X which gave them
Speaker 3: basically the choice to resign or go to hardcore mode.
Speaker 3: And the language is pretty simple.
Speaker 4: Is it just conjecture that this is direct from Musk
Speaker 4: or do we know this for a fact.
Speaker 5: I agree with you.
Speaker 4: The language is eerily similar.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it would be at this point conjecture. However,
Speaker 3: we do know that the Heritage Foundation appears to be
Speaker 3: pulling a bit of an ALEC with a lot of
Speaker 3: the proposed legislation or policy coming out of the new administration.
Speaker 3: Do we want to talk about ALEC for a second.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: ALEC is the thing where the lobbyist group is the
Speaker 2: actual one writing the law, like pen to paper, writing
Speaker 2: the law, and then the law maker just kind of says, Yep,
Speaker 2: this is what I wanted.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. Do you like stamps? What if you have
Speaker 3: a rubber one? Yeah, just rubber stamp this stuff. Other
Speaker 3: there's excellent reporting about this to that point, going to
Speaker 3: Salon an article that published on January twenty eighth, so
Speaker 3: just yesterday, as we record, on the twenty ninth, by
Speaker 3: Russell Pate the title right wing activist appear to be
Speaker 3: writing memos for the Trump White House. I don't know,
Speaker 3: it's so tempting to read the tea leaves here, but
Speaker 3: a lot of the language does appear to be lockstep
Speaker 3: with earlier policy.
Speaker 4: Proposal Project twenty twenty five from.
Speaker 3: The Heritage Foundation and from Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4: Which Trump took great pains to distance himself from. But
Speaker 4: it would seem that a lot of the policy choices
Speaker 4: coming out so quickly with these executive orders are in
Speaker 4: lockstep with all of that stuff that we discussed in
Speaker 4: that episode.
Speaker 3: And be careful to watch the three card Monte of attribution.
Speaker 3: Am I getting it right? Is that the game you
Speaker 3: have three cards, you have to guess okay, and it's
Speaker 3: notoriously a scam, and it's notoriously there we go, mind reader.
Speaker 3: So one of the three card Monte things occurring here,
Speaker 3: I would pose it to all of us listening tonight,
Speaker 3: is that the authorship change of many of these memos,
Speaker 3: some of them coming through leaks, some of them coming
Speaker 3: through officially. The authorship chain changes whenever an Internet sleuth says, hey,
Speaker 3: is this from the same guy or same person? Who
Speaker 3: worked for you know, insert think tank here. Isn't this
Speaker 3: exactly what they said? Are they just deep seeking or
Speaker 3: chat gpting themselves and pasting their own earlier aspirations as
Speaker 3: public policy. This is incredibly disturbing because of the way
Speaker 3: it's being reported, and to your point, Anonymous fed, it's
Speaker 3: not really a buyout. It may be more of a shakedown.
Speaker 3: The OPM news first came to the public, the non
Speaker 3: federal employee public, via our friends at the Associated Press.
Speaker 3: They said, of course, as you can read in the
Speaker 3: OPM language, that if you resign, if you just shoot
Speaker 3: the email back and have the word resign, you will
Speaker 3: get pay and benefits until September thirtieth of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: You will be to your point, Matt, exempted from all
Speaker 3: applicable in person work requirements and ding ding ding in
Speaker 3: person work requirements. Isn't that what Musk proposed earlier with.
Speaker 4: X These pewge proponents of in office return to office
Speaker 4: what do they call it? They literally call it rto
Speaker 4: Have you heard people shorthanding? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Ye, most of the tech giants have gone that route,
Speaker 2: and we've seen that happening even here in Atlanta with
Speaker 2: a lot of companies where that's just an expected thing,
Speaker 2: and you know it. We talked about that. It makes
Speaker 2: sense for the owners of these giant buildings. It's a
Speaker 2: one to have them used, right as well as the
Speaker 2: businesses are around those giant buildings. And just there's a
Speaker 2: ton of reasons.
Speaker 4: Commercial real estate is a massive industry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. A lot of tech giants
Speaker 3: as well, or a lot of institutional titans also have
Speaker 3: a little bit of their portfolio in commercial real estate. Yeah,
Speaker 3: not so much. Well, maybe elder care as well, maybe
Speaker 3: life work balance. Heck, maybe they're donating an equal amount
Speaker 3: of money and investment toward quality of life nonprofit charities.
Speaker 3: I am giving myself bonus points for keeping a straight
Speaker 3: face while I said that.
Speaker 4: Ever, the diplomat Ben awarded thank you.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I got more Internet points.
Speaker 2: You know what, then, you are the best America has
Speaker 2: to offer. That's directly from the Oh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I felt the back of your hand on that one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh no, I didn't.
Speaker 2: I didn't mean as it's just crazy to look at
Speaker 2: the lane.
Speaker 3: That's how they write it, and it's so it's so
Speaker 3: that's an excellent pointment because it's such a weird vibe.
Speaker 3: The other four pillars, or the other three pillars we
Speaker 3: should outline here are, like you said, return to office.
Speaker 3: The second pillar is something called performance culture. And that's
Speaker 3: where we're pulling that quote from the best America has
Speaker 3: to offer. It's a thing. It's an argument that taxpayers
Speaker 3: are paying money. They're paying you standards will only get
Speaker 3: higher and higher, meaning that goals will be increasingly difficult
Speaker 3: to meet.
Speaker 2: Well, and they're saying it'll be a meritocracy, right, it's
Speaker 2: they're only going to reward those and promote those who
Speaker 2: exceed expectations.
Speaker 5: No more of this.
Speaker 2: You've been around here for a long time, get out
Speaker 2: of town. You better be great or you're out a he.
Speaker 3: And I hate to point this out, I am. I
Speaker 3: should not be pointing this out out, but fairness compels
Speaker 3: us to do so. There are people, there are a
Speaker 3: few people, you know, just running down the clock for
Speaker 3: the pension. That is a thing that happens.
Speaker 5: In every job.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, but it is it is weird to
Speaker 2: see it written now like that.
Speaker 3: And also they're not the majority of the people involved, right,
Speaker 3: who are just doing their best as experts to do
Speaker 3: their job. The third pillar is a more streamlined and
Speaker 3: flexible workforce, where they say the following quote. While a
Speaker 3: few agencies and even branches of the military I don't
Speaker 3: like that mark, are likely to see increases in the
Speaker 3: size of their workforce, the majority of federal agencies are
Speaker 3: likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force.
Speaker 3: And then they bring out furloughs. They're going to classify
Speaker 3: some employees as at will status workers.
Speaker 4: And look, what does that mean? At will? Is that
Speaker 4: like right to work state kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: It means you can lose a lot of worker protections
Speaker 3: that historically have been guarantee.
Speaker 4: Speaking historically guaranteed. You notice the language as well really
Speaker 4: leans on you will be treated with dignity and afforded
Speaker 4: all of the care that is promised to you by
Speaker 4: your stature of your position or whatever, like, you know,
Speaker 4: implying that severance will be paid out, but also using
Speaker 4: very amorphous language.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, it's up there with pursuit of that's rightness. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And this is this is why we wanted to bring
Speaker 3: this up, anonymous fit. This is very close to all
Speaker 3: of us and to many of us listening this evening.
Speaker 3: As you were hearing this the evening this listener mail
Speaker 3: program publishes. It is February sixth, twenty twenty five, which
Speaker 3: is the deadline for federal employees to reply to this
Speaker 3: fork in the Road email. Some of us listening now
Speaker 3: maybe on the fence about whether or not to play along.
Speaker 2: Are you gonna take the offer, take it or leave it?
Speaker 3: Ben tell us folks, we want to We want to
Speaker 3: hear from you, and we will say this kind of
Speaker 3: high pressure sales tactic often is often to the detriment
Speaker 3: of the person being sold something or being made the offer.
Speaker 4: Didn't know what I mean? Did you mention the pretty
Speaker 4: soulless respond with resign? You know, like like it's like
Speaker 4: automated kind of vibes.
Speaker 5: That's you know what I mean, Like.
Speaker 4: That's that doesn't feel very dignified to me. M Yeah, agreed.
Speaker 3: And I love that you're pointing that out because we
Speaker 3: need to re emphasize unsubscribe, you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: Like it's just not taking notes, not going to have
Speaker 3: a meeting. Here's the one word you could send it
Speaker 3: the email. Also want to recommend some amazing articles that
Speaker 3: we found from the New York Times addressing this, there's
Speaker 3: one that came out today as we record shadows of
Speaker 3: Musk and the government's buy our plan to our earlier speculation,
Speaker 3: our earlier correlation of tactic and approach. President Trump's chief
Speaker 3: cost cutter has cheered an effort to persuade federal workers
Speaker 3: to quit, and yes, our pals at the New York Times,
Speaker 3: multiple journalists confirm that there is an eerie similarity between
Speaker 3: Musk's earlier language and this fork in the road email.
Speaker 5: Yes, right, sick.
Speaker 3: I don't know, like, are we crazy? Are we too
Speaker 3: bubbled up in our paranoia and our constant investigation of
Speaker 3: these hidden things?
Speaker 4: Or is it true?
Speaker 3: It feels true. I just need a gut check. I
Speaker 3: need someone to tell me if I'm crazy.
Speaker 4: I think we try to approach most of the stuff
Speaker 4: with a grain of salt and with a measured approach,
Speaker 4: and I think we're doing the same thing here.
Speaker 5: But yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 4: Not out of the realm of likelihood more than possibility
Speaker 4: that that is what's going on here.
Speaker 2: Did anybody notice the trip Elon took to Germany?
Speaker 7: Yeah, fascist, yeah, talking about talking about honoring your German heritage.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, you know again, it seems a little little
Speaker 4: little dog whistley. I don't know. I don't care for
Speaker 4: the guy. I'm sorry, it's gonna be honest.
Speaker 3: That one got into human hearing range that whistle.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It is a very strange position to be in to
Speaker 2: sit here watching stuff happen. I'm not sure of what
Speaker 2: it is. And if you call out what you think
Speaker 2: it might be, you.
Speaker 4: Could you just get labeled an alarmist. You get labeled
Speaker 4: some sort of conspiracy theorist.
Speaker 5: And I and this is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, someone comes up to you and says, actually it's
Speaker 3: pronounced jazz lighting.
Speaker 4: You're crazy.
Speaker 5: But I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't have any fear about it yet. But it
Speaker 2: is that where if it feels as though we're getting
Speaker 2: close to a time when speaking up about stuff you
Speaker 2: see could be.
Speaker 3: Dangerous, Well, there is good news. Uh. The official policy
Speaker 3: of the White House has changed, a lot of prominent
Speaker 3: podcasters are going to be allowed into the press briefings.
Speaker 3: So I wanted to check with you guys, what are
Speaker 3: we going to do later this summer. No, I don't
Speaker 3: know if we're going to make it to the press club,
Speaker 3: but we do want to.
Speaker 4: Point out I am going to Germany actually this summer,
Speaker 4: so I'll check in see what's going on.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Uh, And we have to we have to say the
Speaker 3: following things. First off, the vast majority of German Nationals
Speaker 3: obviously don't support this wild ass right wing stuff going on.
Speaker 4: Well yeah, not to mention, I mean, just any mention
Speaker 4: of anything even fascist adjacent in Germany. It's like for
Speaker 4: boten to use a German word. I mean it's they
Speaker 4: take that stuff very very seriously.
Speaker 3: Over there, very much so. And one other note, just
Speaker 3: for context, if we sound like we are somehow being hyperbolic.
Speaker 3: The Twitter message that I'm referring to from Elon Musk
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two, can you guess the subject.
Speaker 2: Line keeck lord five thousand.
Speaker 3: Nice Wait, that was the discord, but I love it
Speaker 3: You're plucked in the subject live the email was literally
Speaker 3: fork in the road. So tell us these things are
Speaker 3: not related. We know there are many changes ahead. This
Speaker 3: is a chaotic time for a lot of people, and
Speaker 3: obviously we are some of the first folks who will
Speaker 3: point out that a large government bureaucracy can be a
Speaker 3: bad thing. It can historically lead to the banality of evil,
Speaker 3: but also the federal government exists because you need it
Speaker 3: to have a government. So let us know your thoughts.
Speaker 4: Folks.
Speaker 3: We cannot wait to hear from you. We don't have
Speaker 3: any insider info as we as we always need to say,
Speaker 3: we're experiencing this with you. We've got your back, we've
Speaker 3: got your six we want to learn more. Thank you
Speaker 3: to anonymous fed, thank you to Cosmic, Thank you to Kurt.
Speaker 3: We're not going to have enough time to get to
Speaker 3: our our friend Mike r out there on the West coast.
Speaker 3: But Mike, if you're hearing this, be safe, and we
Speaker 3: hope we can share your message with the law Artre
Speaker 3: crew in a later program. In the meantime, join us
Speaker 3: become our favorite part of the show, your fellow listeners.
Speaker 3: You can find us on the emails. You can call
Speaker 3: us on the telephone X. I'm just gonna say telephone X.
Speaker 3: We'll leave it there. You can find us on the
Speaker 3: nets of the inter varieting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you sure can at the handle in fact conspiracy stuff,
Speaker 4: where we exist on Facebook, where we have our Facebook group.
Speaker 4: Here's where it gets crazy. On YouTube, where we have
Speaker 4: tons of video content for you to peruse and enjoy
Speaker 4: at your leisure. And on x FKA, Twitter, on Instagram
Speaker 4: and TikTok. However, we're conspiracy stuff show, and we're also
Speaker 4: people on the internet. You can find me at how Now,
Speaker 4: Noel Brown Instagram, and Ben Bolan is on the internet too.
Speaker 4: It turns out I.
Speaker 3: Will not stand for these unsubstantiated rumors. But if those
Speaker 3: rumors were true, perhaps an interested enterprising party could visit
Speaker 3: at wherever they're at Bolin dot com, or of course,
Speaker 3: pick up your handy necronomicon, which is essentially the Yellow
Speaker 3: Pages for corvids and lych kings alike.
Speaker 2: What about you, Matt, I'm on the internet, Matt Frederick underscore,
Speaker 2: iHeart good luck. Call one eight three three std WYTK.
Speaker 2: That is our voicemail number. When you call in, you've
Speaker 2: got three minutes, give yourself a cool nickname, say whatever
Speaker 2: you'd like for three minutes. Do in that message. Let
Speaker 2: us know if we can use your name and message
Speaker 2: on the air. If you got more to say thing
Speaker 2: it fit in that message.
Speaker 5: Maybe you got links, pictures, anything like that. Why not
Speaker 5: send us an email. We are the.
Speaker 3: Entities that read every piece of correspondence we receive. Be
Speaker 3: well aware. Yet I'm afraid sometimes the void writes back,
Speaker 3: how deep does the abyss go? Do we really read
Speaker 3: and respond to these excellent emails? Well, there's one way
Speaker 3: to learn for sure. There's one way to prove it
Speaker 3: to yourself. Step away from the light, Join us out
Speaker 3: here in the dark conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2: Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
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