From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A production of I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my name is Nol. They called me Ben. We're joined as always with our super producer Alexis code named Doc Holiday Jackson. Most importantly, you are you, You are here, and that makes this stuff they don't want you to know. It's our weekly listener Male segments, where once again, just like with Strange News, we look through hundreds hundreds of fascinating correspondencies, questions, feedback and suggestions, and then we picked just a few on admittedly and it's early arbitrary basis to share them with you. This is the best part of the show, your fellow listeners speaking directly to you, with some uh, with with some with some conversations, some commentary from us. We're gonna look into, um, we're gonna look into allegations of cults and social media. We've got some serious concerns about security at the FBI. No spoilers. UH, We've got some objects that may have more to them than meets the eye again, no spoilers. And then at the very end, the very very end, we have we have a just one more piece of correspondence we want to add, but that's all we're gonna say. You're gonna have to listen to the rest of the episode to find that one. He says, as though a fast forward button doesn't exist. It's gonna say, don't you dare skip to the end, right right, just skip? The ads didn't say that our award winning ads. Yeah, Um, honestly, I'm pretty sure our parents made those ad awards. And it was a little suspicious that it was like a broken bowling trophy. And also I got one signed mom, and I was like, I love you, but that's try a little harder if you're if you want to us full of fast one on us. But anyway, Mom, if you're listening, uh, I love you. A happy Mother's Day, So and say that to your mom if you if you haven't had a chance, and we'll have hassed by now, so say happy belated Mother's Day, yep, and make sure to buy her a Dr Pepper or zero zero sugar zero sugar. Favorites of moms the world over. Everybody knows yep, watch out diet Coke. So today we've got our adventures laid out. So how about this, uh, Matt, we received? We received one piece of correspondence for someone who asked to remain fully anonymous. Is that correct, fully, Garth? Or is it? How does it go? Fully? Fully? Yes? Fully? Ar No? What? No, that's not That's not the right thing. Wayne's World expressions, My friends Bill, Bill and Ted. That's Bill and Ted speaking of that. Really, I'm so sorry to interrupt. I watched the new Bill and Ted movie the other day. Uh. It was quite bad, but I was still overcome emotionally at the end when they saved the world with music. Right, they definitely do it. Uh love the love the Daughter's characters and the and then I also liked the Daughter's characters. All right, So yes, this person wishes to remain fully anonymous. So we're going to read the correspondence and then discuss. Here goes. Good day, gentlemen. I've been debating sharing my secret for a while, and I've decided to just go ahead and spill it. It's not as juicy as or as exciting as it sounds. We disagree. I am a software engineer for one of a handful of private companies that provide a software connection to the FBI's n c I SEE databases. I remember this one, okay, h And n c i SEE stands for National Crime Information Center and it's the United States central database for tracking crime related information. Basically speaking, it's the home of everyone's permanent record as it relates to crime, driver's licenses, etcetera. Disregarding the archaic infrastructure of the system, my story involves how exposed it really is and how much damage could be done. Okay, this is already feeling dangerous. This is dangerous information. If you're listening to this and you have um bad intentions, please stop listening. Just go ahead and stop. We'll wait. Just stop listening now. Okay, good, and you've left total honor system. Okay, good, you're gone. Okay, great, Only only good intentioned human beings and other intelligent creatures listening. Now here we go. Try and think back to film. The net will a bit ridiculous. In dramatics, the concept of creating, adding to, or even deleting a criminal record is a very real possibility, even behind multiple layers of protection. Access to internal and external systems is frightening Lee unprotected to steal a turn of phrase. Here's where it gets crazy. Gosh, there's power and saying that. Ben, Now, now I know how you've gotten all those all those intense powers over the years, just by saying that one phrase. Okay, and he says, without outing myself or my company, I can tell you there are entire States main servers protected with complex credentials like can you guess, guys, uh tote and chit which is the badge to give you a boy scouts that says you can use knives. I was thinking some kind of complex biometric scanning of some sort. But I like where Ben's going as well. Well, we're thinking more user name and password. What do you think the user name is? Oh? Yeah, wait, it's unfair because I know the answer. But okay, if for everyone flip, for all our conspiracy realists playing along at home, whatever your idea was, dumb it down, that's what it is, and we're not gonna say what it is. And the password if you can guess what that one is, you're probably right. I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, I'm gonna move on with an email here. Seriously, that is on fact, even servers with with a more complex log in system are remarkably simple. Combine that with databases that are by default already logged in, and you have free reign to do whatever you'd like. Don't like that arrest from ten years ago popping up on a background check, Just log in and delete the record. I want to get an enemy arrested. Just log in, make up some facts, and suddenly there are confirmed gang member with active warrants in a history of awful sex crimes. Buddy. Even worse, these databases house the end users log in credentials openly, so in theory, you could access the servers, then log into the n C i C software with the police chief's credentials, logout, and no one would be the wiser. That's terrifying. He moves on to say. Of course, nothing done nefarious like this would hold up in the long run, and eventually a person's name would be cleared. But imagine the damage it would cause in the meantime. Yeah, that's some short term chaos that you could pull off right there, lasting chaos, Isn't it? Just just to point this out? You know, one of the things that is either a flaw in the justice system or part of the insidious design of the mechanism is that it punishes people for being poor. So it doesn't matter if you're innocent, if you cannot afford the real expenses involved in clearing your name, and even if you're even after you get your name cleared, Um, there's another mechanism right for you to be seek compensation for what happened to you. So it's it will miss somebody up. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's like a long path to becoming whole again, right. I mean, even if you are found in a sense and then you spend all this money, then I suppose you could sue, you know, the person that wrongfully accused you in a civil case to get back some of the money that you had spent defending yourself if you could discover who it is. I know we're not at the end of the letter yet, but that's I think that's one of the key pieces there with the we're talking about compromising a system. But then the other step is how easy it is to impersonate someone. Oh, it's really scary. Let just for some further context before we jump into finishing that letter. As we're thinking about the possibilities here of what could go wrong. Let's talk about the n c I SEE a little bit more, just just so we have a better understanding here. So it's literally the records that are kept for everyone. If you're a United States citizen or if you're actively in the United States, you know and have certain documentation, there's probably stuff about you in there. Or if you've got a business maybe or an LLC or a company that's registered in your name in some way, there's stuff in here. The n c i C was started in nineteen sixty seven by the FBI. That's when they launched it, and it started with five files on an individual that had records in the n c i SEE and it had around three hundred and fifty thousand records when it began. Now, at least the last time FBI updated their website FBI dot gov, it has twenty one files that are available or possibly available for each individual and more than sixteen million active records. Wow. And the n c i C averages millions of transactions each day, which means sharing information from one party to another. So what you need to know is that this database is accessed by around eighty thousand different law enforcement entities. And you can also get access to this thing if you meet certain criteria, which is really interesting, so you don't have to hack into the system to check out, and you know a record that you've got or something that you've got on your record or somebody else's record. There are several ways you can actually get access. So let's hit a couple of these and then we'll talk about them. Guys. The first one, become an employee of an accredited law enforcement agency. Okay, that works right, Yeah, but it's the but then you have to think of the buy and so pros. It is actually pretty easy, depending on the law enforcement agency and depending on your existing record if you haven't been able to scrib it yet. And then the other issue is that these are not high paying jobs. This is really committing to the bit. And then you're going to be suspect number one if you've only worked there for like ninety days. Something screwy gets discovered and you, guys, are so's a out. You're not You're not gonna get away. So yeah, yeah, that is one. I wonder if there's a way you could scrub the database by hacking into it of your permanent background record. Then get hired, then put it back in there and then nobody's nobody knows the difference what happened, ha ha ha Why would you put it back? Well, I don't know. Just you know, this has rearranged the text. A little bit is added it and sort of like faking a resume or uh, you know, give yourself a crime that you think is more interesting, like more and more badass grand theft origible would be a go to stand pretty good. That's always that's always a crowd of these people, these monsters. Uh yeah, you know, so really quickly. So this is essentially it's it's an inter agency database. Like it's not. It's it's a lot of different law enforcement agencies that have access to this for various reasons. Just to clarify, Yes, different agencies and law enforcement in groups. But here's the other thing. Other other people and groups can access it. And here's the other way you can gain acts. You can we cut you off. What what's what's the okay? You can get certified so you can actually do this, and it's just to get certified to query the n c I. See, so it doesn't mean you're actually gonna get to use it or to add stuff to it or remove things from it. You would just be a user, right, yeah, read only exactly. And depending on which state you're in, the requirements to be able to query the n c I s are going to be a little bit different. Um, so that makes sense. I mean, I don't know. I didn't look it up for Georgia, but we could find out. I'm interested. Now what do they got on me? Okay? So the other thing you can do here is send in a request directly to the FBI to get information about you. Yeah, it's almost like filing for discovery, uh in court, you know, tell me what you got. Uh. You have to be careful how specific you are about that. I think it's probably better to have a legal representative make that request for you, because otherwise you're pretty much saying something like do you guys know about that the win down with me and Blockbuster? Yeah? Seriously, still have that Captain Ron tape all these years later, even after you But do you have anything on me regarding the Wells Fargo at fourth and seventeen Avenue around December of last year? Or no? Great? Okay, thanks by You know, they get crazy letters though they're probably letters where someone says, you know, I demand, under this made up law that I read about on Facebook, that you delete any DNA or genetic information you have about me, and please return that sample of my stool that you stole in or or I will be forced to take legal action. I don't know if you ever, if anybody has received those kinds of scams, um, but there sometimes they are from people who genuinely believe that they're rooted in reality. So I'm sure the FBI itself has a lot of stuff to go through with these requests. Oh yeah, there's so much stuff, you guys. Those twenty one files we talked about, um, Not only do they have silly and fun names and they're just very straightforward, but there's a lot of information in here. So there's the gun file. You can access your gun file, or somebody's boat file, or their securities file, or their vehicle and boat parts file, their license plate file, fugitive uh fugitive file, foreign fugitive file. Oh no, it's just fugitive foreign fugitive file. That's fun. Law and order, vote crime, right, That's exactly I love it. If it was even more specific law and order, vehicle and boat parts and there's that climacting part of the episode where uh, somebody steals a whole boat and what are the detectives, Just like, we can't, we can't do it that we're boats and vehicle parts. It's a very China Town moment because they have to walk away while the guy is like clearly drunkenly yelling at them from his fishing boat. Oh yeah. So so there's all kinds of stuff in here, and it goes from the kind of what feels like a little sillier even though gunfile is not silly at all all the way down to a gang file, to a wanted person file, national sex offender registry, violent person file. There's just a lot of stuff in there that you could be searching and you could find for any individual person. There's also, by the way, article I think it's article file. Uh, it's all kinds of information in there. It's like that's probably gonna be your the most public information about you as an individual. It's going to be hanging out in there. So and the takeaway here is that this database and databases like it are much more easy to crack into than one might think. Well, yeah, there's a yeah, there's a lot of stuff in there, and they are possibly easily hackable. So let's jump back here to the email to to finish up and we'll get out of this discussion of the n C I s are fully anonymous person says, I understand the situation described as unique in a not and not a likely scenario, but it brings to light the bigger picture of the security of information. I'm absolutely sure you've done stories on hacks and data breaches. Yes we have, so this is not news to you guys. But the idea and scope of insecurities is much much larger than anyone could imagine. As many server systems link into clusters, gaining access to one could open them all up. If you ever do want to look into this or any software related issues. This person is offering their help for us to look into those things. That's great. And then this person sent us information on the n c I see itself. Then they say yours truly, fully incredibly anonymous. So there we go. Yeah, which is a shame because anonymous has a nickname that I found really endearing. That per their request is not making it to air. Well, you know, we love a good nickname. So uh started to be deprived of this one, but um, Matt, I have would have a quick question before we wrap this one up. Would you say the takeaway here is that I would be much more vigilant with your passwords and user names or is it like it's out of our hands. It feels like it's kind of out of our hands. Takeaway is there's nothing we can do to secure the FBI's databases. But the FBI can and people who work internally at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, if you're listening, how you are, you could secure the passwords for that database. Yeah, you know, Mr Robot's gonna do it for you. You You think they would be. That seems like something the FBI would be good at, you know, encryption and protecting data and all that. But wow, that's very very eye opening. There may also be some sort of internal policy or guideline meaning that stuff has to get run up the chain when a password changes because of the level of information it's protecting, so that policy will intentioned. We don't know if that's true. I'm just saying like it might not be as simple as one person being able to say, yeah, this is dumb, let's fix it with a stronger password. They might have to run it by several other departments who also have to sign off on it, and it might be such a hassle and such a time vampire that eventually they just said, look, just nobody tell anybody that that could be it. You could also just be dealing with the fact that this thing was created in the sixties and it's kind of a legacy system, and who knows what kinds of updates have occurred to the software and hardware that they use to to run the servers and to actually access it. Um, it may just be issues with that, it may be issues with the number of individuals that are having to access this thing. Then you you know, you assume, as as our emailer told us, each individual person has log in credentials, as any large system does, but for some of the administrator accounts, um, they're probably shared amongst multiple people. Well that's probably one of the reasons. Yeah, you know. Also, I think I can't remember me brought this up on a on a recent previous episode, But sometimes it's a purposeful decision to keep things archaic, right, Like, it's so weird that I think we talked about this. It's so weird that the Um, the US and many countries in particular, will have some technology it's like twenty years past what the public knows about, and then other stuff that is a relic of post World War two America. You know, like what was the example used. There's somebody there's somebody working on a top secret aircraft right now, and they're probably irritated because they have this technology that's not supposed to exist. But every time they have to fix the landing the landing gear, they have to submit the order through facts. Forts Like, it's good to have that archaic stuff though, because in some cases it can be easier to protect than something that lives in the cloud. So I'm just saying in their defense, still doesn't surprisingly sloppy security totally. We We just got some correspondence from people talking about very sensitive systems that still run on Windows or XP, which is just how it goes sometimes. Oh. At just a personal note, Bill, Melenda, life is long the best. Yeah, yeah, cheers on your new lives. As you know, co billionaires just separate but still billionaires. Um, that is weird. What is what happens to the foundation? Is it still the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations? Yeah? Yeah, I think I think Melinda Gates is taking the house and bills keeping the windows. I'm sorry, No, these are real people. It's their real life. That's really funny. Then that's did you just make that up on the spot. Yeah, that's what like, that's what makes sense to me. There's a Gates joke in there. But I'm not clever that while you were. That's a pretty significant display of cleverness right there. I'm sure that there are many people who are. I don't know. We shouldn't make But then I thought, I thought money solved all your problems. Like I thought, hey, you guys, for real, what what do you think the passwords of a bills look like? They probably don't. It's probably something unfathomable to us. It's probably an automotopia version of the windows startup sound bling. You know, I don't know what that would be. I like that. I was thinking, if he's petty, it's something like job zero Gates one, or like Melinda forever. Guys. So I'm sorry to keep harping on this, but like the FBI, you know, you know, if you think of the FBI and being in the secure facilities and all that is everything being guarded by like, you know, individualized thumb prints and biometrics and all of this. What the hell is going on with this? Really bizarrely sloppy and and and disturbing. Yeah, part of it, Part of it is budget. Part of it is I guess the political idea of like, or when I say political, I mean internal politics, Like who wants to take that project on because you have so many people you have to interact with. Well, we'll never know, guys until our email it rets us back after hearing the says guys, it's this obviously way worse. Sorry, everything you said, all right, but hey, thank you so much for writing in. We're going to take a quick break here from our sponsors and we will be right back with some more correspondence. And we have returned not just to the show, but to a theme something we've explored a little bit in the past, TikTok So TikTok a hugely popular social media platform. We've discussed it here sometimes an episode, sometimes in strange news or listener mail, and behind the scenes, Uh, this has been part of a larger conversation for us. So we're gonna share this story from Jason with you or Jason, who hipped us to this on social media. And then we're going to explore just a little bit because Jason, I think this goes, this may go in some directions you're not expecting. So Jason wrote me over on Instagram and said, are you going to cover this rapper who appears to be running a cult like compound via only Fans a dude named blue Face all one word for us uninitiated. Uh. And then he says there are women living in either of two houses where they must fight, party and get this, get his image tattooed on them. He sells his footage for fifty dollars a month on Only Fans. He pays them in exposure, promises to help them break into the industry. A lot of people are comparing him to a cult leader and or r Kelly like figure. Uh. And he says, I don't know the validity of the news sources that they shared, said, but I wanted this to see the light of day. And here's the most interesting part, Matt Noel, Jason, because you're here to man. Uh. Jason says, if you could not share, I understand, and that intrigued me because what if all, after all our years flooring so many strange things. It's a TikTok celebrity that ends up being the proverbial feather on the conspiracy Camel's back. First, have you guys ever heard of blue Face? I've never heard of blue Face? I mean just like the Blue Man Group and that you know Arrest development episode with Tobias where he blew himself. I don't know about blue Face. And it appears he has a song called Fatiana. Yep, there's a great Daily Beast article that can give you a little more inside on this. So everything that you said, Jason is true. He has not reacted well to the allegations that he is creating a cult. He says, instead, they're filming a reality TV show and this is a he's calling it Blue Girls Club. It's a spin on Bad Girls Club, which was a show that was on Oxygen, the Oxygen Network. So this guy says that everything is consensual. He points out that he does not live in either of those two houses. He's flowing the the actors or the women in from around the country. But it is true that there was a moment where he woke them up and said and gave people the ultimatum of get a tattoo of me or my name or go home, pick one, and this, you know, like obviously isn't chill behavior. But like if this is a cult, then stuff like Jared Leto's summer camp would be a cult. But they're not really He's not really doing anything illegal that we could find at this time, right, Like, that's just I've heard of producers who treat non scripted talent worse than this. Right, Yeah, the tattoo thing is a little weird. Yeah, if it really is forced, like if it's fully forced, that's no. Well there was the out there was you can go home, so there weren't being forcibly. But you know, it's like Nexium. They were branding people in Nexium. Yeah, that's a that's a good analog there. Yeah, I don't like it. Yeah, I don't like it either. If I were, um, if I were a friend of one of these people, or if I were a parent or family member, I would think it was time to talk about, you know, other other ways to break into an industry, which is a very vague promise anyhow, But here's the right now. So yes, Jason, You're right, it is weird. Is there some stuff they don't want you to know about it, quite possibly because it's being portrayed as though it's going to be a reality show competing in that reality show space, but it's on only fans, which is controversial to some for various reasons. Uh. And people are saying, look, if you want to make this show legit and not just this weird thing that you're doing to people, then higher professional production staff, you know what I mean, get a medical uh medical staff on hand. Make like if you were having people fight for entertainment, then make sure that there's some way to care for them physically right and mentally as well. Um. So I agree it's messed up, but I don't I don't know for quite at cultish behavior yet. And it's something, um, the three of us, I think it talked about. I can't remember whether this was off air or on the show. TikTok has a thing with cults. TikTok has a thing which calling members calling themselves cults. Right, No, you, you and I talk about this like it's a trendy thing or something. I mean, yeah, that makes sense. No, I guess I didn't realize that terminology is used. But you know, just totally devil to have a care here. And this is gonna sound like I'm being callous, but like it's not technically illegal to start a cult rightly. And and it's like if these are all consensual adults who want to sleep in his treehouse and get tattoos, and that's cool, right as long as he's not breaking the law or like any of them are underage or there's any kind of drugging or you know, duress going on. Um, it seems like just kind of like us uber fan type situation maybe and less of like an indoctrinated cult situation. But that's just on, you know. And again like this like TikTok is rife with that kind of stuff. People. It's it's a world where you can, you know, worship celebrities essentially and like and I feel like you're connected to them. Daily Beast article. And I'm just not liking what I'm seeing. How it's not good. It's not good. That is that your patented sigh of joy and happiness. That is my happy, happy, happy joy joyce ready to get tatted? Blue Face asks a room of sleeping women that he had flown out to his one point three million dollar home in Chatsworth by the way, which is where they shoot all the porn obviously into porn uh tattoo or go home? Which one is it? Yeah? Yeah, that's what. Um, that's what I'm saying when I said it was an ultimatum. But he did give them an out. They weren't forcibly held unless it was maybe like a cage of the mind. But here's the which are real things. But here's where this takes a turn that you may not have been expecting, Jason, because the reason that we've had our eye on the idea of TikTok and colts as whether it's as a trending thing or is real thing, is because it takes part in the context of a larger conversation. Let me give you one. Let me give you one example of probably the most famous self described TikTok colts here. Have you guys heard of the step chickens. No, sounds like the name of an improv comedy group, it does? It does? Sound like? Yes, actually you got me with that one. No, that checks out, that's legit. I you like I've seen them. I feel like I've seen them in Chicago. But I just supposed a link here in our chat. There was a great New York Times piece last year, almost a year ago stay called step Chickens and the Rise of TikTok Cults. There was a there is a person on TikTok who was what social media would call a content creator or an influencer. And we all know people who are at varying levels of this or attempting to do this. The end goal is that you have millions of followers, and then you support yourself through endorsement deals. Right, so you're posting for your fans or your followers, and then part way through, you know, you start organically integrating products. So you're like, hold up, You're like, mmmm, when I'm recording a conspiracy show, there's nothing better than this old cold milk jar vice car fee that I make a hope I would be terrible about this. It's not many. It's a skill set that I don't possess. But anyway, this influencer, Lissa All is a twenty's like eight now, and she created this online movement, this self described cult called step Chickens and all she asked people to do. I haven't got into it. I know a lot of our listeners are probably very familiar with this. All she asked people to do to join the cult was pretty innocuous. Just put a specific type of profile picture on your TikTok profile. And then the members of these cults started by merch. There's a song. Uh. While Stepped Chickens isn't is the most well known, there are many, many, many out there, and that's fun, right for a lot of people. That's cool. We're part of something bigger and it's harmless because you can always turn off your phone, you always turn off TikTok. You know, I'm actually in a cult with my daughter and her two friends. Uh. They sort of tricked me into joining by putting a little plush doll Mega man picture as my Instagram profile pick, and it is still that to this day. Gentlemen. Uh so I'm apparently in the Mega Man call. But um no, it's a thing like on TikTok. There's a lot of there's communities that identify each other by what their profile pick is, and they oftentimes kind of gang up on people. Apparently some of them are better than others, I guess, um, but they're always trying to recruit people as well. And then my daughter tells me this. People are always trying to reach out and at first you think they're just kind of cool or whatever, and then they dropped their sales pitch. Uh what what is the Mega Man cult? Mega Man called as a joke. It's something that my daughter and her friends made up because they like they like Mega Man, and we are the only members. It is just me and my daughter and her two friends. Um so but the other. But in general though, this very much is a thing, and it's specifically on TikTok. And I was surprised, uh that how my daughter, how casually she brought up being approached in this way. M yeah, yeah, because the usual social filters simply do not exist in a virtual space. This is the bigger direction we're going with Jason. Um. This is something that I think warrants a full episode in the future, and it's online radicalization, the presence of ubiquitous uh communication without verifying people's identities, which I personally am fine with. I think anonymity it can be a good thing and often the benefits this is the most optimistic thing I've said, Often the benefits will outweigh some of the problems. I would hope. I'm not I'm on the fence about that, because I can see both sides, but we need to explore just how profoundly online communication has changed the process of recruitment and radicalization for anything like I'm not I'm not just say you know, UM, I know we've heard a lot of a lot of talk about it in past years with Islamic extremist groups, but I would ask people also to consider movements like in Seldom right in Cells existed primarily as a digitally native radicalized group, and there's a lot of work going into how these processes occur. This work is important because I'm going to I'm going to tell you what's going to happen, or what people are hoping is going to happen. They're going to hope to use the threats of online radicalization as a way of removing your ability to be anonymous on the Internet. The roots may change as though you're looking at Google maps and ways, but the end destination is going to be to have your identity freely publicly available to make it increasingly difficult to be anonymous online. Um. The rationalizations, whether valid or cynical, UM to me, they are primarily a non issue because it is all meant to work toward that end. At this point, to be fair, I have to ask him, I being to extreme. You guys, do you think I'm Matt? I saw you nod and I don't know if it was like you're not of agreement? Who was somehow very very affirmative looking not of disagreement? Be quiet, Um, I'm having a very hard time caring. I had to be honest with you, guys, caring about blue faces plight, no, no about any any in all TikTok cults and or groups and or TikTok videos in general. I have. I am so old and curmudgingly about TikTok. The whole thing just makes me go, no, why I look. I I like a few of them when I see them reposted us where I don't look at it like as an ecosystem. But I actually posted my story this weekend that my kid may where it was me and my girlfriend doing insane in the membrane but very slow, and I do the part that's like insane in the broad and it's really funny. Matt. It made me laugh at it. It brought a lot of joy to my family. So for that, TikTok, I thank you. I could do without the rest of it. And the cult part is really strange. And this blue face guys clearly a creep. And how does he have two houses? And I've never heard of him, Not that I'm like the Bell Weather for who should have houses or not, but like it's weird that he doesn't seem like famous enough to be as rich as he is. Yeah. Yeah, they're almost eight billion people in the world for now, so it's it's easy to find a Kniche audience. Matt, I'm gonna since you asked me to keep this weird Colonel Kurtz like lighting here still recording hid his store. Uh, let me go ahead and explain TikTok to you. And I realized, like I was shot, like I was shot with a diamond, diamond bullet right through my forehead, and I thought, my god, the genius of it, the genius the will to do that, perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline pure so the hand thing is from in heart of darkness. Marlon Brando also misrepresented himself the way that we did not legally advise you to do to break into n C I s U. And when he showed up on set for anybody who knows the story of Apocalypse. Now. Coppola was appalled by how far he had let himself go. You know, I'm very against body shaming or shaming people for their physical appearance, but he misrepresented himself, and so a ton of his parts in the movie, which are already pretty small parts were cut and they had to relight everything. So that's why when you see Colonel Kurtz, most of the time he's like this, where he's like this, or you very rarely see his whole face, and his best monologue is like by Marlon Brando's fist featuring his face occasionally and I think he's squeezing, he's he's washing his head or something, got it. But that's right. So that's a lot of close up bald shots. Yeah, I'm confused, too bad. I think it's I think I think that is trying to sum up the genes sequa. That is TikTok with that. Uh, it's like tears in the Rain mainly, mad is what it's like. Now. I don't get the appeal exactly either, but a lot of kids really love it, and as we talked about on the a few episodes go, a lot of adults really love it, and it's got some problematic security features as well, or lack thereof, or just you know, what the hell are they doing with all that? Like you said, Ben, what are they building in there with all that? All the children, all of our children's data. Um, But yeah, man, it's weird the level of stuff kids are exposed to these days on the Internet. They have access to all the things that ever existed, not to mention like these communities that can be really cool and positive and help you find your people, but can also be really toxic and creepy like this story. Well that's the Yeah, that's the thing. Like Matt, I must have misinterpreted. I thought you were nodding to the larger idea of online radicalization and how it will be used to rationalize removing your ability to be anonymous on the internet, and then it will be another part of a I mean, there's already like the the infrastructure is already there. If someone for some reason wants to put a closer eye of sore on on you, it's very easy to do if they work for the right places. But they're also simple steps you can take currently to keep those eyes off you or be a little bit more blurry in their vision, and we just don't know how long that's gonna last. And we don't know, we don't know how people being exposed as children to this kind of unprecedented level of communication. We don't know the ripple effects. We don't know what's going to happen. Like you're talking about, we're talking about Generation u Z all the time, right, But what about the people who come next. They're going to be growing up even more embedded in this world where someone is always talking to you and it's increasingly considered rude not to answer something to think about. We want to hear your take on it. Let us know. One A three three std w y t K drops an email conspiracy at I heeart radio dot com. But don't do that yet. Wait because we're going to have a quick break and then we'll be back with more listener mail. All right, we're back in. Um those two top you guys brought today, we're awesome by the way, uh, super terrifying implications um with both of those stories. But so I'm gonna bring a little bit of levity not I don't know you could you could argue that it's it's it's quite dark in fact, but you know, in the context of a ghost story, let's just treat it that way. Um. We had a lot of responses from our Haunted Objects episode, uh, people writing in about their own experience with haunted objects, and I found one that reads kind of nicely like a quickie little ghost story, so I thought I would share that with everyone today. This one comes from Mark and it's about a experience that he had with a haunted object. Here it goes around. My family and I moved into a house owned by our family previously, and it was very old and had lots of history. This house was what was known as a mining hut back in the day that was owned by a mining company, but least by workers for living in. I was six years old at the time, and we moved in and started remodeling it. During the renovations, my father came upon a blue rubber ball. Unassuming, I know, but wait, here's where it gets crazy. Ha ha, powerful words. I played with this ball for a bit and forgot about it, and as children do, moved on from it. One day, as I was just roaming the house, I found the ball down in our dining room area, and thinking nothing of it, I just tossed it into the yard. Fast forward a couple of days and I found this ball up in my bedroom, assuming as I did that, my little brother grabbed it and put it in there. I just left it on the shelf. Now, I was home from school sick one day, and my mom stayed home from work to look after me. As I'm laying on the couch and Mom is making me some food, we hear some light rubbery thuds down the stairs. Blink blink blink blint point by boin bl b, followed by a blue rubber ball coming from the stairwell and rolling past her and me into the living room. Now we had a cat, so Mom said it must have been her. Mom threw the ball back up, and then, as if by magic, uh, as if it were being thrown back down, here it comes bouncing down and back where we were. Now I know maybe it was the cat, except the cat was verified to be in the room with us. Mom got creeped out and I was pretty shocked, and she threw it away and it was taken out with a trash. Now a few years went by and we moved, and one day I came home from a friend's house and go through my stuff and on the bed of my clothes drawer to get some fresh shorts, and there it is the blue rubber ball that couldn't have been placed in there because it was all the way in the back of the drawer under my clothes. Uh. And now I can tell you that Mom and I had never told anyone about the ball because we actually forgot about it. So I was kind of taken aback. I ran down the stairs and grabbed my mom and showed her, and she was very shaken by this. We finally told my brother and my dad the story, and my dad, always the skeptical one, once again threw the ball out. So you might be asking, how do you know he threw the ball out or why didn't he burn it or something, and then he says, well, my good service. Time went on. I moved out, grew older, and got my own house with my fiance. Never for one day that I think about the ball until I came home one day and sitting on my desk, it's the ball. M Now, my fiance clearly here's me gasp and sees me looking at it, and she says, while doing laundry, she found it under a pile of clothes and assumed it was ours for the dogs. So I tell her the story and she's quite disturbed. But now I can't get rid of it because I know it will come back. So now it sits in my cabinet of curiosities. Now. I don't know if you'll see this story, but if you would like pictures of the ball, I'll be more than happy to send them. Wow, I found that story somewhat chilling. Hey, yes, I think, so let's talk about it, and then I want to offer up my hypothesis. I love it. I love it. I feel like there is a rational explanation. But it's like I said, like I mean, the one brush with the afterlife or with with ghosts that I ever had. I felt it in the moment as though I were truly experiencing something supernatural, and then only a day or so later, was able to explain it away with what it really was. Um, it didn't change that feeling though, you know what I mean. I still felt some connection and and and I wonder, I think even explaining away this a story like this, I think the feeling is still there. Um yeah, we did the ball have malicious intent? This is one of those like cursed objects. It's just trying to freak people out. Or is it the kind of ball that will like bounce under someone's foot while they're walking down the steps and like, you know, take them out. There are a couple of things we have to establish here that we don't have the information for, so we have to you know, let's just talk about it, and let's let's see what you think. I don't know if you guys are picturing the same blue ball in your mind as I am. We grew up in the eighties and nineties. I see this old ball that I had. It was called it was Yeah, it was definitely called a sky bounce. I think that was what it was called. It was a little blue rubber ball that was meant to bounce very very high. Um, maybe that's not it. That's what I remember and what I had. Those in particular would come in like you could get them in multiples, like three, like racquetballs or yeah, like a tennis ball situation exactly. Um. So I'm wondering if that's what it was, or if it was you know, something that was just in the house. It may have been from the seventies or even earlier, a different kind of rubber ball. As we know, rubber has been around for a long time. But what what do you guys picture in your head? A super ball? Yeah, like exactly like that, one of those like dense rubber blue rubber balls that bounced really really high. So what I immediately thought of when I register originally was the this, and I put it in our group chat here for anybody's familiar with racquetball, there's a specific type of surface or substance they're made of, which is rubber like but synthetic, and a bunch of like if you had dogs, you probably you might have had some of these, or growing up, if your if your parents played sports, or if you played a sport like racquetball. Uh, these these are pretty familiar. But one thing I know about you guys, One thing I learned from the Haunted Objects episode. You know I'm always pushing explore more paranormal stuff, is that we have a lot of people who feel that they have weird stuff in their houses. I think I mentioned the oh, I can look at it now, just at the edge of the darkness from the laptop I mentioned, I have that carving that I just try to be as respectful to a non. I try not to engage with it very much, like to the point where I'm not super comfortable carrying it around. And I know there's not a logical explanation for that, but there is a long history kind of of UM once a trope, almost the inescapable object, right, it's it's almost a predecessor. I'm sure there's some there's some academic somewhere who's who has made this an argument for UH, like an allegory for the problems of capitalism. Eventually, at some point you realize your possessions own you, So that's UH. But I don't think that's what we're talking about here. I think this is a legitimate question from someone who's thinking very rationally about what the hell has happened over my life such that I may be being pursued I haunted ball and if so, what does it mean? And also props to your her fiance for taking you seriously and not being that stereotype in a horror movie. I hate when that happens. It's lazy, right, Oh, it's only the wind, you know what I mean? Which I've gotten overly developed analogy for UM as it relates to real life events. But yeah, I don't know. I'm interested to hear more hypotheses, and I think I know where you might be going there, Matt, Sorry if I deralled this a little. These are sold in multiples often, that's yes, and that's exactly where I was going. I was imagining a handball racketable. I think this, the one I mentioned, is a handball set that you can get in one of those packages. And I was just imagining wherever they originated. However they got into the house of the first place. Maybe they did come in multiples. Maybe a couple of them got put away. Maybe he was really young or this person was really young when they were playing with the balls more often or more frequently, and then both he and mom forgot even had them, because who cares. There's just a couple of balls we got a long time ago. One ended up and weigh in the back, win, ended up down here, winning up over there in a drawer. Just uh that that's that's my It was just the wind scenario. But it's I mean, that's possible, right, Like there's also the question, um, well, I have I run with sketchy crews of ethically dubious people. So one of them and I'm related to quite a few of them as well. So one of my questions was, like, could your family be purposely pranking you fiance bonding with her in laws and they're like, don't say anything, which, just take this ball and put it under the clothes. Okay, you are the best daughter in law. Oh my good is gonna be epic. That probably didn't happen, and I think you would have known, like based on the way your fiance reacted to your distress, which again speaks very highly to their character. Um makes me think that there wouldn't be any pranks or shenanigans. You know. It's just it's something my family would certainly think it is hilarious, but that's luckily not the case for other families. I mean, what do you guys, what do you guys think? That's that's the big thing. The time interval, right, the pause for years of never seeing this. How how long was it? Oh? Yeah, he said it was was kind of like a flash forward sequence in a horror movie, you know, where it's like ten years later. But let me see what the actual number is real quick. Sorry, guys, I don't mean to interrupt your ben I keep thinking about your prank angle now, and I'm just imagining, Uh, this person is going to be you know, they're gonna arrive home and they're gonna find the blue ball once again, like in the microwave or something, and they're gonna open it up, see it in there, and then Tracy Morgan's gonna pop out and be like, ha, are you scared? It's scared. Oh, you shouldn't be scared, like the ball was Bruce Willis the whole time. Wait wait wait, during the lead here, Tracy Morgan had a prank show. Uh, Tracy Morrigan recorded a bunch of segments for a prank show. Got it completely separately from the show. Okay, uh, And I realized now, just doubling back, it doesn't have an exact year. It was just a few years later we moved. But this whole thing reads like you know that story and it was one of those kids books that actually was pretty scary about the girl with the ribbon around her neck and then on her deathbed, like the husband like takes the ribbon off, and the punchline of the whole story is and then her head fell off and the ribbon is like this thing that like chases them throughout their lives or whatever ends up being this spooky thing that she was dead the whole time. But to me, I just picture this rubber ball as being the most obnoxious and just like dogged, kind of like a supernatural nemesis just bouncing after you, And like, I want to see a real horror movie that really uses like you know, horror movie troup where you're literally just running away from a rubber bouncing ball and it kills people by like you know, tripping them and making them fall to their death. You know that reminds me. I always wondered what the true form of the antagonist and it follows is, right, because it looks like when it's chasing you, you're the only one you can see it, and it looks like various people from your lives. But what if it's true form is just a blue racquetball or handball? Also, I also thought, you know, are we being unfair about the motivations of the ball. What if it just wants to hang out? What if out of billions of people, it's woody, the blue ball is woody and it shows you Pokemon style, you know what I mean? That's dope. We're trying to put a positive spin on this, but it is it is tough to explain, and I think, um, I think that a lot of people, regardless of whether you feel that you are spiritually connected to some higher plane or whether you are a die hard you know, atheists, skeptic so one, I think we've all had experiences like this that make you, you know, just want to double check that the doors are locked, make sure the lights are on. And then you think a blue rubber ball can open doors like a velociraptor if it goes fast enough. Yeah, it sounds really hard on each side from left to right. Man, I would say, so I just want to keep all the lights off on purpose, but it's definitely me. Yes, I have to have this on. So it's not you know, you got me, you got me. It's fair. It's fair point ball point. Um, Yeah, that's that. That is true, Noel. Since this this is the story you brought, I think the last word goes to you, Matt. I think Matt's got a pretty solid thesis going on here about how this could be you know, coincidence or a combination of coincidence, and just like you know, being the victim of thriftiness and suying rubber balls in bulk. But I do I feel like the I feel like the listener would have remembered that, remember buying you know, a massive pack of these things. But it definitely is something that could figure into it. Um. I don't know, man, I've seen some spooky stuff. This this, this certainly could be a thing. But I just what is the ball's intention? What does it want? Can a ball want anything? Guys? I think we've established it. Okay, it's the ball wants to get played with. The ball needs some racket ball time and it's been waiting for it and it just never got it. So it's like maybe if I'm closer to the the socks in the soft drawer or to you know, the workout shorts, it just wants you to play with it forever and ever and ever. So that's the takeaway, folks. Make sure to play with your balls. You know, there may be consequences. Can we keep that in, especially if they're blue? All right, doc? Can we keep that one in you guys? Alright? I say we keep it okay, all right, well the doctors spoken. Uh, thank you so much everybody for tuning in, as you know, as a null indicated we have. I think all of us, as individuals in a group have greatly immensely enjoyed reading your accounts of things you cannot explain, things that exist just on the edge of what we acknowledge to be reality. So please do not hesitate to send us more. If you want to tell us your personal experience with things like in c i CE, we would love to hear that too. We do our best to protect your anonymity. Uh. And if you want to give us your take on radicalization online or you know, if you have an inside scoop on blue Face whom we're not too familiar with, we'd like to hear that too. We try to be easy to find online. That's right. You can find us on Twitter and on Facebook. Or we are conspiracy stuff conspiracy stuff show on Instagram, also conspiracy stuff on YouTube. That social media too, ha ha. On TikTok, we are not and on what else? I don't know you guys are on TikTok. Maybe you want to share your things someday, not not yet though, Nope, okay, I don't have a don't know. I'm that's I don't have a TikTok, nor will I ever mark my words makes sense not uh no TikTok today, but Pinterest as always, you can find all of our stuff on Pinterest. That's really that's you know, uh, that's really where the seed of the show started is as a as a Pinterest board. Most of your favorite podcast started as Pinterest boards. That is a fact. There is no need to google it. Did see? Did you see? We had actual listener correspondence about not being able to find us on Pinterest. I think somebody missed a joke and they're somewhere. Look it, don't get me wrong, I know it's it's great for a lot of people, you know what I mean. It's it's a cool next step of the vision board. Um, and there's some ritual to it, you know. Uh, but we we are not aware of a stuff they want you to have interest yet. But if you want to start one, then that's that's up to you very much. So um, you know, guys, before we wrap, we hinted at another secret message that we were going to read on the show today. So let's make sure we do that right at the end. That's right, Yeah, we'll do it right before the email, how about Okay? Okay, So the next thing. If you don't want social media is our phone number. You can give us a call at one eight three three s T d W y t K three minutes of the time that you shall have to leave a compelling voicemail if you feel like it's gonna take longer than that, or you want to just like wrap, do that via email, because we actually use the audio from these things in our weekly listener mail episodes. Let us know if it's okay to use your audio and what to call you. And before we get to the email, let's check in with Pete from Australia. Hi, Pete, here's what you said. You said, Hey guys, Pete here from Melbourne, Australia. It's been on my mind for a long time and checked back through your shows and failed to find you guys covering it. What is it? It's one of the biggest lies out there today, the cover up literally of Mars past civilization. That's proven in the thousands of photos taken by the various rovers over all these years. Exclamation points. I thought you guys were the kings of stuff they don't want you to know. And I play your podcast loud in my workshop, so all across the land can hear the truth? L O L. But it looks like I have it wrong. Sounds like the powers to be have got you all quiet on this one. I believe you guys are big scarity cats for not wanting to see the truth or have you been paid off? L O L. Surely you all know many many picks exist and the proof is there if you dare to look, not just the pyramid face, etcetera. That's old news. And then it continues. The various statues, acres of shrapnel and strange mechanical odd items, sometimes clearly and not so clear, continue to freak us out. To think another civilization existed on another planet is just incredible. And I know the phrase by Carl Sagan incredible findings require incredible proof or something like that. But in but in saying all that, I love your show and enjoy you guys sharing your vast knowledge and intelligent discussions, but it just keeps nibbling at me like a sick rat eating a good cheese. So come on, oh no, why haven't you covered this issue? So I think we can. I think we can stop it there, right, Yeah, I think that's it. I think we can stop it here. So Pete all to say, thank you so much for emailing us. This made our day. Um, why of the stay tuned and find out? Yeah, the check your feed? Pal, do you suggest you check your feed for yesterday's episode? Boom? Remess what time? Oh snap? Check your episode? Beat? Yeah, how's them Melbourne's Oh sorry what that's another thing? All right, I'm done. If you want to take a letter from the Book of Pete and communicate with us directly, as Pal Noell was saying, then do so at our email address where we are available twenty four hours day uh seven, eight days a week. No matter how productive you find yourself, you can always contact us where we are conspiracy at ihart radio dot com. Yeah. Stuff they don't want you to know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.