Speaker 1: Hi there, Welcome to a very special episode of Thinking Sideways.
Speaker 1: Team goes here. Story is I think commute. The answer
Speaker 1: to this very special episode of Thinking Sideways is brought
Speaker 1: to you by crime Con two thousand. Crime Con is
Speaker 1: the best collection of true crime fans, authors and journalists
Speaker 1: in the world. This year's event is going to be
Speaker 1: June seven through the ninth in New Orleans. That's right
Speaker 1: in the big Easy. In addition to all the biggest
Speaker 1: cases out there and all the biggest personalities, I will
Speaker 1: also have forty of the top true crime podcasts in
Speaker 1: the world attending this year. I myself have gone to
Speaker 1: past couple of years and I can tell you it's awesome,
Speaker 1: good fun. So for a limited time you can use
Speaker 1: the code sideways US and save ten percent off your admission.
Speaker 1: So go to crime com dot com for all the
Speaker 1: information that you need, and if you can make it
Speaker 1: to know this year, be sure to buy your ticket
Speaker 1: online and again use that promo code sideways. Okay, we're back,
Speaker 1: and as I said, it's a very special episode. It's
Speaker 1: not one of those very special episodes where say Devon
Speaker 1: discovers that she has dyslexia, or Joe finds out, he
Speaker 1: has as No, it's not special in that sense, but
Speaker 1: it's special in the sense that we have decided to
Speaker 1: come out of retirements just this one time to address
Speaker 1: some of the insane rumors on the internet and in
Speaker 1: the tabloids. I'm sure you've all heard them. We're here
Speaker 1: to clear the air and set the record straight, all right,
Speaker 1: So let's get rolling. And by the way, of course,
Speaker 1: I am Joe and I'm Steve, and of course we
Speaker 1: are talking about a story that you've probably all seen
Speaker 1: about a conspiracy involving us. Manly Steve, who's sitting across
Speaker 1: the table from me, was killed in a car wreck
Speaker 1: and replaced by a double who looks and sounds just
Speaker 1: like Steve. So thinking sideways, swapped in a new me
Speaker 1: and continued honest if nothing happened for a year, and
Speaker 1: then discreetly wound down the podcast. Why would they do
Speaker 1: this or why would we do this? Well, I think
Speaker 1: it's because we were making a lot of money off advertising,
Speaker 1: and Joe and devon us I knew that if there
Speaker 1: was no Steve Steve sitting across from me, that they'd
Speaker 1: lose like their listeners, yeah, and all of our revenue. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but then the stories started to appear in the tabloids.
Speaker 1: So we that is team Sideways since which way the
Speaker 1: wind was blowing, and decided to stick a fork in
Speaker 1: it before we got well and truly busted for our fraud.
Speaker 1: So this is the basic narrative that we've all heard.
Speaker 1: You guys are all familiar with. It's you know, in
Speaker 1: all the tabloids on thousands of websites. But is it true?
Speaker 1: Well no, uh, And so we have come out of
Speaker 1: hiding to give this ludicrous story the SmackDown is so
Speaker 1: richly deserves. So let's go back to the beginning here.
Speaker 1: This conspiracy theory popped out first in about March when
Speaker 1: Ready user me Caru that's m why ka e R
Speaker 1: you put up a post about it. He was a
Speaker 1: longtime listener to the podcast, and he said that he'd
Speaker 1: noticed some odd things about Steve in recent months, such
Speaker 1: as what well. He said that Steve was sounding subtly
Speaker 1: different in the last six months or so the podcast.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I mean, do you know, I just
Speaker 1: wasn't going through a second puberty or something. You don't
Speaker 1: need to convince me. I mean people go through puberoty
Speaker 1: all the time, all the time. Yeah, but this is
Speaker 1: what the tinfoil hacked crowd is saying. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: also me. Caru pointed out some other things, like the
Speaker 1: character of the story Steve covered had changed. For example,
Speaker 1: he devoted an entire episode to some very obscure South
Speaker 1: American big folip. Oh yeah, I interesting thing with the
Speaker 1: mouth in his stomach. You've never would have done that, Spranish,
Speaker 1: you would have told l S big foot of I've
Speaker 1: always loved a big foot. Plus plus I forget Steve
Speaker 1: does love diversity. It is true. Well, he did some
Speaker 1: more digging and found some more air quotes. Evidence. For example,
Speaker 1: of photos of Steve published after summer two thousand and
Speaker 1: seventeen appeared to be out of date and probably actually
Speaker 1: predate his demise. For example, there's a picture on the
Speaker 1: Thinking Sideways fa Facebook page dated May two thousand and seventeen,
Speaker 1: and then another photo appeared on Twitter in early two
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen. In the two pictures, Steve's hair is the
Speaker 1: same length. Shouldn't it have been longer in two thousand eighteen? Point?
Speaker 1: Actually it's a haircut. I got a haircut. Guys, you
Speaker 1: don't have come again. You're not you don't have to
Speaker 1: convincess it's okay. All the Reddit users got into the game.
Speaker 1: You history seven seven seven listened to every episode of
Speaker 1: the podcast backwards, and they found that in the Lake
Speaker 1: City Quiet Hills EPISO, so you can hear a ghostly
Speaker 1: word or ghostly phrase, Steve has been snuffed out like
Speaker 1: a lucky button, among other things. What it's crazy, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's just something we put in the background of
Speaker 1: the podcast all the time. Well, apparently it also says
Speaker 1: by Americans several times, and something about bomba socks, something
Speaker 1: about they're so comfortable. Yeah, I know it's but I
Speaker 1: don't know why they would be backwards in the podcast
Speaker 1: subliminal advertising. I have to be totally honest with you guys.
Speaker 1: I have no idea how to listen to a podcast backwards,
Speaker 1: I mean, neither to fluence. Yeah, and listening to our
Speaker 1: entire catalog backwards, Oh my god, that that guy must
Speaker 1: have brain. Yeah. So then finally, somebody who had deleted
Speaker 1: their user profile so you know, I don't know who
Speaker 1: what their user name is, posted that Steve had been
Speaker 1: involved in a fatal car crash on August eleven, two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen. He was extremely light on details, but claim
Speaker 1: to have a copy of the police report, newspaper clippings,
Speaker 1: and etcetera. As anybody seeing any of this evidence. No,
Speaker 1: but the general consensus on Reddit is is why would
Speaker 1: this user lie on the internet? In general? Yeah, but
Speaker 1: in this case, I questioned his credibility. Okay, Well, for
Speaker 1: one thing, I mean, to me, the idea that Steve
Speaker 1: lost control of this car and skin it off the
Speaker 1: road and over a cliff. It's kind of ridiculous because
Speaker 1: isn't that what guardrails are for? Yeah? Yeah, And it's
Speaker 1: a certain to think the car rolled seven times and
Speaker 1: then burst in flames. I mean, the car would have
Speaker 1: had to be moving really fast to roll seven times.
Speaker 1: And Steve was not a fast or reckless driver, is
Speaker 1: amm Yeah, Steve is not a fast driver. Yeah. I'm
Speaker 1: not a fast driver. I obey the laws of the
Speaker 1: road scrupulously. It drives the cops crazy, follow me around
Speaker 1: waiting for me to somebody over. So is there, I mean,
Speaker 1: is there any more evidence to back this clean up? Yeah?
Speaker 1: There is that famous picture of the three of us
Speaker 1: crossing Hawthorne Street. That's the one where Steve is Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do remember that. Yeah, you know, I just hearded
Speaker 1: little athletes foot that day and the aarramund we were
Speaker 1: going to go in the studio, and is this like
Speaker 1: is this like a like a like a condition Paul
Speaker 1: is dead sort of premonition of exactly exactly like the
Speaker 1: that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, But it was
Speaker 1: like it was like foreshadowing of this of demise. Apparently
Speaker 1: that's the Many people have interpreted that the little foot
Speaker 1: focus is nothing to see here? Oh my god? So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I did here. Also on reddit um,
Speaker 1: people were pretty suspicious of Steve's beard. You remember the
Speaker 1: beards beard an obscured part of his face, which is
Speaker 1: the sort of thing that an impostor might do if
Speaker 1: only the top half of their face looked exactly like
Speaker 1: Steve for the automatical look. I don't make as much
Speaker 1: money at podcasting as I wish I did, and I
Speaker 1: took a job as a mall santa. It's it's pretty
Speaker 1: much that's all right, okay, perfectly raginal explanations. What a
Speaker 1: joyce job that would be. I don't know. People thought
Speaker 1: the timing was weird, but I guess I'll I'll what
Speaker 1: timing was a little suspect, I got to admit, but
Speaker 1: it's just a coincidence. I mean, back, okay, so back
Speaker 1: to Reddit stuff Reddit. I mean, you know, the post
Speaker 1: on Reddit continued, and then it went viral on Reddit,
Speaker 1: and then you know, tabloids and everything else. We're picking
Speaker 1: it up in the rest of history that we all know. Yea,
Speaker 1: by the way, fake history, yeah, fake history. Yeah, not true.
Speaker 1: None of it's true. None of it's true. Yeah. There
Speaker 1: are also some other variations on this story, um alternative theories.
Speaker 1: The Weekly World News ran a series of stories based
Speaker 1: on another hypothesis, which is as Steve staged a car crash,
Speaker 1: faked his death, and want to live in a foreign country.
Speaker 1: What foreign country? Steve doesn't speak any foreign language. I
Speaker 1: don't speak any foreign language. You have trouble even going
Speaker 1: to Canada and not getting arrested. I mean, the video
Speaker 1: of the car crash does look pretty fake though. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it looks like somebody not lighter fluid on a plastic
Speaker 1: car model and torch it. I know, I mean, but
Speaker 1: but Steve I clearly couldn't have just gone faked his
Speaker 1: death and gone to a different country. I mean, I
Speaker 1: haven't gone a postcard, have you not? Have you got
Speaker 1: a postcard? Why would I send myself a postcard? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course point guards. And also, you know, if Steve
Speaker 1: was pretended dead and living overseas somewhere sooner or later
Speaker 1: I know him, he would forget himself and post something
Speaker 1: on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram from Botswana, Guatemala or
Speaker 1: wherever he is. He hasn't done that, as I love Facebook. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Another theory that I have also heard is that Devin
Speaker 1: and Joe, you know, had Steve bumped off because they
Speaker 1: wanted to run more commercials and replace him with a
Speaker 1: sound alike. Yeah that's yeah, that is that we wanted
Speaker 1: to run like twice three times as many commercials and
Speaker 1: you were against it. And so the thing that's ridiculous
Speaker 1: about this is the idea that the Devon and I
Speaker 1: would hire somebody to do it rather than doing it ourselves.
Speaker 1: I mean, what am I saying? I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: the thing about it is so it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: Devon and I have never been in it for the money. No,
Speaker 1: never never been about the money. No, not not for
Speaker 1: any of us. And so I think we can stick
Speaker 1: a fork in this theory. What do you guys think, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's obviously Yeah, I mean, even if you did, it's
Speaker 1: so ridiculous. Where would you, guys even find a replacement?
Speaker 1: Where would you even go to find a sound like
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sorry, it's as hard as you think. No,
Speaker 1: it's actually super easy to put an add on Craig. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know, not that that's got anything to do
Speaker 1: with this, but anyway, not for a human Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's one thing that you can find something
Speaker 1: that looks like me, but it sounds just like me.
Speaker 1: I mean, you gotta admit if I'm Steve, I sure
Speaker 1: he'll have his exact voice. No, I I mean I
Speaker 1: know you just you sound exactly like Steve. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean like Steve. Yeah, yeah, Steve, the original Steve. Do
Speaker 1: you have to smoke in here? Jail? Seriously? Got oh
Speaker 1: why did you do that? Just a little more, guys,
Speaker 1: if Steve was dead, would he be able to feel pain? Huh?
Speaker 1: It's a good point, and that did hurt a lot. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: that's that's an important thing. We gotta we got to
Speaker 1: really make sure that that we convinced people with this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the story is complete. B s Yeah, yeah, yeah it is.
Speaker 1: And it's just another one of these situations. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's similarly to the Boston bomber or we've seen this
Speaker 1: on Reddit so many times. You guys think you know
Speaker 1: what you're saying, but you don't. You're just a group
Speaker 1: of idiots. And I love you, but you're a group
Speaker 1: of idiots who just have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: So just stop talking forever. Well, yeah, because I'm Steve, Steve,
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and uh, you know, you can't actually talk
Speaker 1: about how awesome we are. You don't stop talking about that.
Speaker 1: And I to talk about how much money you want
Speaker 1: to mail to us, that's good too. Yeah, But overall,
Speaker 1: on this story, I gotta tell you, guys, this is
Speaker 1: a huge fail. Shame on you for spreading this Internet
Speaker 1: and shame on you for believing it. You she believe
Speaker 1: you up. That's right. So I guess that's the end
Speaker 1: of this. Yeah, it's a kind of a brief little thing,
Speaker 1: but this is such a stupid little story. Didn't did
Speaker 1: long to really smack it down. Yeah, so I guess, um.
Speaker 1: You know, our website is still up. It's Thinking Sideways
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. Our social media is all still up
Speaker 1: and active to varying degrees. So we have the Facebook
Speaker 1: page in the group, we have the Twitter which is
Speaker 1: Thinking Sideways, and the Instagram of course, and of course
Speaker 1: also our subreddit, which the story seems to have kind
Speaker 1: of originated on. Red. Yeah, we'll see how read it
Speaker 1: treats this. Yeah, we will whom also emailing us? Uh,
Speaker 1: The email is still active Thinking Sideways Podcast at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. You can feel free to send us an
Speaker 1: email if you have any proof that Steve died in
Speaker 1: a car crash. Yeah, I feel one of those crazy
Speaker 1: reddit guys and you've got something for us. Let's see it?
Speaker 1: Yeah right? Is it? Put your money where your mouth
Speaker 1: is anyway? Yeah, thanks for stopping by. I hope everybody
Speaker 1: has an amazing April first. Yeah you guys, and uh,
Speaker 1: it's good talking to you again. And maybe we'll see
Speaker 1: you again one of these days real soon. St