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 My Heart Radio, 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 the stuff they don't want you to know. It is once again one of our favorite times of the week where we hear from our favorite part of this show, which is you, our fellow conspiracy realist. Today is really interesting because, uh, in this week's segment, we are going to see some follow ups on the center of the universe out there in Oklahoma. We're gonna talk a little bit about h v a C in a way you may not expect. We're going to learn a legend about it. Someone very into toes. And then we're going to talk about some conflicts of interest from our long suffering, long suffering institution, the United States Postal Service. So maybe we go in in the order that we named things. I think we were all pretty excited to hear back from so many of our fellow listeners about the center of the universe, and Matt, that's a story that you brought up originally, right, And we talked a little bit about the science of acoustics, we talked a little bit about the origin of the place, but nol we all were seeved an excellent little piece of correspondence, which I think really really raises the bar for some emails here because we get a picture as well. We did get a picture, um and we also got a firsthand account of the acoustical phenomenon that is described there. The Center of the World location in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We heard kind of conflicting things about it sounding like one of those echo chambers where I don't know that have you ever been to one of those? Actually they have. It had a lot of kind of hipster playgrounds for kids where they'll be like a tube that you can sort of whisper into and will travel and like you'll hear, you know, on the other side, or they'll be like a kind of like a bubble where there are also different tubes that are coming out and it will transfer sound from one bubble to the other again using reflections and just sound the way sound waves travel, kind of utilizing that. So that was sort of what I was picturing, sort of a science center, hipster playground kind of experience. But uh, Snickers wrote us a letter and gave us a much more detail account. So here we go. Hey, guys, here is a picture of me standing at the center of the universe in Tulsa. Uh. Sure enough, there she is. She's standing in the center. It looks like kind of like a brick um inlaid sort of like um, a historical marker, kind of placard kind of thing that you might see on like a city's like river walk or something like that, um in a circle, standing in the middle of it. Snickers goes on, at the time, there was no sign. Uh, and again this is just like sort of an array of bricks, doesn't really have a placard on it, just kind of has that look. There was no sign. And if the website I found describing it hadn't told me how to find it, I never would have known I was in the right place. People walked past on their way to and from work, Several looked at us as if they didn't know why anyone would be there. It seems to be between business districts, parking garage, and large office buildings, but not arranged in any particular way around that spot. You can see that the brick pattern is centered around the spot I was standing. Um, that's what I was describing. So going on now, to my memory, the auditory effect was really bizarre. Didn't so much amplify or reverberate my own voice, but everything other than that, other than what was coming from the spot in the center, sounded muted. So it's almost like a noise cancelation kind of effect. Um. So the only sounds I could hear standing there were the ones I was making. My traveling companion tried it out too, and despite reports, we didn't notice any distortion of our voices from outside of the circle, but they reported a similar effect. We messed around with this for the better part of an hour. That's a testament enough itself. That's something interesting was going on, including standing as close together as we could and super quietly whispering to each other, and we could hear things we were sure we wouldn't have been able to hear it all but the quietest nights neat again, the people passing by didn't show any sign of understanding what we were doing, which led us to speculate that it may ain't not have been well known among the locals, which also seemed unlikely. And they also go on to say, I found this and other interesting roadside attractions for a cross country road trip on the Atlas Obscure website. And I think all three of us, four of us, everyone pretty much from the house stuff works, uh family, big fans of Atlas Obscure and then signs it, snickers and gives permission to use the information, requests that we obscure their face if posting the picture. I think we need to post a description. Yeah, I think the description is is good enough and what a cool email. I I can't mean that to me. The closest thing that it would be almost as if you were sharing a noise cancelation experience with somebody else, which I can't fully understand how scientifically that would be possible, because it's a very personal thing. It's using, you know, these kind of falsely generated subsonic waves to cancel out other subsonic waves that are in the environment, and any the acoustitions out there. Might take issue with the way I have have described that I think I'm doing it relatively decently. On it, You're nail in it. I I also figured out how to build one. And there was a There was for a time a children's museum here in Atlanta, Georgia named side Track. Do you guys remember side Track? Yes, it may have been while you were an Augusta Noel, but side Track, for many years was the coolest field trip you could take. And uh and they had They had something similar, some acoustic trickery such that one could whisper into a funnel on one side of a very large room, and then and then here the whispers at the other funnel on the other side of the room. And I figured out how to build one. I just need a bigger space. So no, Matt, I love this. I love that we are encountering this. We also got a lot of great correspondence about other places called this a tour of the universe, which caused me to look up the actual scientific quote unquote center of the Universe. Tried to find the big bang. Maybe an episode for another day. That's exciting. I'll edge my seat, and that's not just because I'm sitting uncomfortably. This is, you know, directly a result of of your discovery. But I like that you're gonna keep us, keep us guessing, and I do think that would be a fun episode. It's true that like the idea of the center of the universe is almost the same as like the best cup of coffee in New York here something. It's like a thing you can just say. You don't really have to back it up with paperwork or even geography. Really, um, but this place, whether or not, has anything to do with any kind of cosmological effects, uh due to you know, geolocation. It is pretty cool and obviously something's going on. And we talked about it Matt in the segment about having to do with you know, the reverberation of these nearby office parks and you know, parking garages in the like. But I just don't that doesn't account for what she's talking about here. This is a reverse reverb. Essentially, this is like noise canceling. Yeah, yeah, I don't. I don't know how to explain it. I know that there's some there's some thought that it is in fact the way in which you can see in the picture that we were sent, the way in which the concrete border is in the fence. There's like a concrete fence as well along the bridge. There something about the interaction with air coverberation traveling through those as well as reverberating off that low concrete fence or whatever that is bench or something that is there in the background. It's like something about this interaction which also reminds me of standing stones. Uh, you know, yeah, there there is something similar to that, because stone does reverberate. I don't know if you guys want me to spoil the current scientific consensus about the center of the universe. Do you want you want to hear it? Or should we should We think we did it in the last episode a little bit, But let's let's talk about according to the brightest minds, humanity is produced up to two. There is no actual center for the universe. There is no spoon anyway. This is uh you're talking about the actual center of the universe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I tried to. I tried to find the origin point. And uh, I actually guys knew I hate phones. I spoke with some folks. Uh, and yeah, there's no Devil's advocare for the seke of arguments say there were the chances that it would be on Earth be pretty unlikely. No, there's no, there's no chance. Yeah, definitely not in Tulsa. Yeah, you know, h likely to be there. It's anywhere. I guess it's just I'm not not not no no ding on Tulsa. It's apparently and it's got some really rich interesting history. Uh. If anyone's aware of the Tulsa race riots, I mean that is something that was buried in American history for the longest time. I didn't really know much about it until that show The Watchman on HBO made it kind of the central feature of the war of that show. Um really crazy. It was absolutely a massacre of of black professionals, um living in a town that they felt safe in by the clan who just came in a brazenly with like airplanes, even like literally air raided. It was a war. Absolutely, No, I think I think it may have been on an adventure. Uh. When Natt and code named Doc and I were talking about Tulsa in the larger context of what it's called the Red Summer, Uh, it's it's something that I'm really glad you're bringing up because, um, more people need to know the things that are often exercised from grade school textbooks. Also check out our episode I feel like I'm always playing in our episodes. Check out our episode all the textbook war It's uh, it's global, and it is one of the UM I think when the early versions of information warfare exactly, And not to get controversial, I just wanted to bring this up briefly because it just pisses me off. I don't understand what the beef is like. We know these things happen, isn't covering it up? Doesn't that just make us look like And not to get to soap boxy anything, but we did just recently have a discussion about critical race theory UM and I believe an episode of of of Listener mail UM. It's confusing to me as to why something like this would be exercised from history and why the idea of teaching the mistakes that we as a country have made historically UH is in any way controversial. You know, it just is like the people that would be making a decision to soften the blow of these types of stories or literally cut a story like this out of history books are somewhat complicit and perpetuating that kind of racism. As opposed to teaching things that happened in the past and the hopes that younger generations could learn from them. Agreed. When you were on Adventure, uh, Matt, Doc and I talked in depth about about just the same thing. So if you feel that you are soap boxing alone, whether you are a conspiracy realist, whether or whether you're on the show with it's no worries. The truth is the truth, and attempts to change it will always eventually fall short of their insidious goals. That's what I would say. I I don't think there's anything sanctimonious nor self righteous about being honest about the past, and I agree with you that empowers us to better face the future, which is gonna be crazy. But boy, the future, Am I right? I was gonna have another little email snippet to give us a sort of a house stuff works lesson on a piece of tech that we discussed, and another strange news episode. But I think I'll keep this in my back pocket for next time. So let's take a quick break and then'll be back with some more listener mail. And we are back, and we are jumping to the phone lines. Everybody, Oh yes, this is exciting. We got a message from old Rando. That's O L R A N d O Old Randold hold Rando send us this message. And oh, guys, I can't wait to tell you some of the places I visited on the internet today. Here we go, Hey guys, and Doc Holiday or Paul Michigan Drill Decond whomever is helming the crew. Uh. There are a million things that I want to ask you guys to look up, but this one I'll keep it light for this one. There's this old rumor in Nova Scotia. I'm from Toronto, my now wife, her whole families from Nova Scotia, and her mom and all of her family members and all their friends talked about the Halifax toe tickler and apparently throughout decades like seventies, eighties, nineties, two thousands, there have been reports of people who say that someone were was breaking into their house and literally just tickling their toes and then leaving. It's the weirdest ongoing rumor. And I tried to look it up and I couldn't find anything. So if you guys find anything about this weird ass rumor, I would love to know more about it and tell the family. Uh, you guys can use this on air. You can call me a whole Rando. Okay, there we go, Rando. Oh boy, Uh, she just keeps randoing along he does. So, Matt, you you ruined your search history on this one. Search histories weren't already lists. I'll tell you about some forums I found, uh in a moment. So, first of all, I spoke a little bit with Old Rando and he gave me just a few piece of information. Oh, the first one that you need to know if you happen to be in the Toronto area. Look up Archive wine Bar. Old Rando can neither confirm nor deny that he has a part of such establishment, but Archive wine Bar looks amazing. I would check it out. Okay. So Old Rando says that, uh, people in Halifax just seemed to know about this as as he stated in his message there, and it's something that's just been floating around the family for a while. It's always one of those secondhand stories, you know, like it happened to my roommate, all right, I knew somebody in college, or you know, it happened to this person or that person. Generally, it's not a firsthand account. That's given, but it's just a rumor. It's a legend. But it started somewhere, I would argue. Old Rando noted that Halifax is a pretty small city. Uh, you know, this is a generalization, but he said, people often don't keep their windows locked, you know, especially depending on the temperature, that window might be open a little bit or just closed but not locked. Same with doors. But many of the stories have to do with window entry. So it would be someone went up the fire escape in the apartment complex or the building that we lived in, gained entry to the home through an open window. This person awoke to their feet being exposed to the cold air, and the window was wide open when they awoke, and it was shut when they you know, went to bed or something, and they had this weird sensation. They just knew someone had been tickling their feet or they heard someone, you know, quickly escaping via the fire escape. As Old Rando said, there's not a lot about this online. In fact, there is zero about this online. And I challenge you everyone listening, to find something and send it our way, because I could not. I was unsuccessful, sat very sadly. But what I did find, guys, will scar me forever here we go. Oh God, so conscious of their feet right now? I know, I know. Uh yeah, let's start there. We are all conscious of our feet. Imagine if you will waking up in the middle of the night, you're one of your feet, maybe both of your feet are outside of the covers, and you can feel someone or something tickling them as you startle awake. That's, first of all, your first mistake was keeping your feet outside the covers, because that is an absolute no no. Well, the monsters will get you. That's how the monsters get you. Everybody knows that. Well. Now, imagine your living situation. Are there other people in your home that you can account for that should be there. Maybe it's one of them. Maybe it's just your spouse, Maybe it's a child, Maybe it's a dog. Uh, maybe it's a roommate. When maybe you call out to that roommate or person and they don't respond, and then that person quietly backs out of the room and then books it for your front door and just takes off. What if there's a little bit of light in your room and the person you can tell is wearing some kind of ski mask while they're tickling your feet. Let me may I interject for a moment to once again, once again, Matt doc No, I think this is a thank you. I think this is a perfect situation for shoe feet, which are the shoes that look like feet, uh decoy feets. Yes, basically, you won't be caught by a Halifax toe tickler if you sleep with shoe feet. So all right, we're done with that. They sponsored the podcast This Illumination Global Unlimited. You could use the same kind of trick the magicians used to cut their assistance in half. You know, the fake legs where like the actual legs are tucked back, and then there are these like fake feet that's stick out that are on the ends of poles. I mean, it's a lot to ask, you know, to do this every night for fear that you might be the victim of a serial home invader slash tickler. But you can't be too careful. We're giving you options, folks. We need to come along with a new line from shoe feet called slipper feet and or sock feet. Uh, just for the you know, when you're sleeping, you don't want to have a full shoe on. But it's good. So guys, this isn't just a fable. This isn't just alleged. There are actual stories you can find online. You can also find them at newspapers dot com in other places like that where it was just a small piece that was written in some local newspaper in the seventies, eighties and nineties and early two thousands. If you look at the Hartford Current, which is writing about Glastonbury, Connecticut, they have a story there from titled Silent Unnerving Visits in the Night. This is the first line quote. Most of the women were awakened by a light tug or a tickle on their feet, nothing painful, but certainly unexpected in the middle of the night. Groggy, they open their eyes to see a stranger kneeling at the end of their beds, touching or tickling their feet. As the women's screams pierced the night's silence, the tall, slender intruder ran out of their bedrooms, through their homes, and outside into the darkness. This is a I don't love it. I don't love it either. Uh, this is horror movie stuff. They're saying that this is something that's been happening at least when this was written in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Every spring since nine and there was a person that was unknown that was titled the Tickler, who was a criminal that living somewhere near that area that would do this on a regular basis. There were eleven cases confirmed since between in a four year period between. Uh, it's real. You could read about this. It's horrifying. But it sounds like there might be a frauderish at play, right, am I using that word correctly? I have no idea. Uh. Froteurism is a Fronteurism is a thing that people. It's a repetitive sexual urge to gain gratification, essentially by physically rubbing against another person. A k. The reason that Japan, Nation of Japan had female identifying only train lines because of the rise of fraud. And also, you know, this reminds me of um, god, no, what was it we did? It was ridiculous history. We had uh the Mad Gasser, The Mad Gasser and Uh, if I'm not mistaken, he was such a pop cultural hit that there was even like a tiny figure made of him in some series of nineteen eighties like Creepy you know figuring miniatures. Yeah, that was a thing that was definitely a thing. Also, you know what now that I'm just thinking out loud here, Matt. But um, I believe it is not quite frauderism or being a foot to because it's not involving human private parts, right, it's intimate parts, and I think it was Matt. Correct me if I'm wrong here. But did you not fairly recently tell us you you don't want people around your feet just such instive I don't care how intimate we are, do not touch my feet. So who's hitting you? On a personal note? But you were able to verify this is a real thing. That's the real thing. Ohh yeah, this is a real thing. And it's not just Connecticut. We head on over to Boston, mass There was another set of incidents this coming to us in from Boston dot com serial quote tickler breaking into Boston College students homes. Enough, there spate of toe ticklers or a a toe tickler, maybe the same one the person in Connecticut was never caught. Maybe this person went to college or you know, or moved out Boston way. Uh So it's it's really creepy. There were at least ten sidings of the quote so called tickler in and around Boston College in uh that's from the Boston Police Department. You can read this right now online. It's uh, it's all horrifying. It's out there, it exists. I assure you all, Rando, there probably was a toe tickler. There's just not a lot recorded about the sightings and or accosting. What do we what do we call? It? Was an assault? It's a physical assault. Technically, yeah, it's an assault, and uh it's one of the creepiest ones ever. But one in Connecticut, by the way, they confirmed that entry was made via unlocked doors. So just going around, Oh, this one's unlocked. Here we go. Someone's getting tickled in here tonight. That's how I imagine the toe tickler sounds. So, guys, he's a silly, goofy guy, you know, yeah, not the fairies, not the fairies at all. Just whenical toe tickler and it's funny, really want to ask it sounds funny, I assure you, until it happens to you, as was reported in both of those articles I mentioned where once it once it once, you're a personal physical space is intruded upon, Like that is not funny anymore. I mean, let's just imagine this person broke into your home. And just sat and watched you sleep. I mean, that's horrific in and of itself. Where I'm giggling at the word when you say toe tickler because it's just fun to say. The alliteration is absolutely delightful. But no, this is a an invasion, first of all, and second of all, it is an assault. Uh. Even if it's not causing the person any physical pain, it is absolutely something that could cause someone to experience serious a PTSD for a long time to be and uh, and you know, violating in that way. No, No, no joking around, even if we've been joking around at the term toe tickler a little bit, which is whimsical for the record, that is that is a fun, fun phrase, like you pointed out. Um. Also, I just gotta tell you, I think, Matt, you know this, Uh, but I'll go public with it. My feet are kind of like hands, Like I can write with my feet, which is a super useless skill. Yeah, it's super useless skill. But I'd say that when your arms are both severed in a tragic you know, thresher accident, which can happen. But the the invasion of privacy there, the invasion of one's personal space is is a real thing, and it I'm also thinking that this may well be a situation where a lot of incidents have not been reported. You know, it takes uh, it takes a lot for someone to call up the law and say someone was messing with my toes. You know, imagine imagine how you would feel in that from that perspective, like you would you would think, not unreasonably, that law enforcement might make fun of you, you know, saying that this little piggy song or something. But gross, that's my observation. Matt Gross, super gross. Oh, rando, we believe you. Matt confirmed it. There's someone out there after toes. There is. There are a lot of people out there after toes, Which leaves me to my final destination, the place that I reached. The It's not the bottom of the internet, it's not I I shouldn't make fun of this. I don't want to yuck anybody's yum m hmm. But I landed in a very specific place titled tickling forum dot com. Oh, there's a whole documentary about there's a documentary about this and the dark side of it, Like, I haven't seen it, but it has a twist. Apparently I have not seen it, but tickled thing and it's worth your time. And it's highly worth your time, even though the lawsuits that following everything from the you know, the bad guys within it. Uh, it is worth your time. In this case, the tickling forum reminds me a lot of Craigslist, um, and in it it's just people looking for te ticklers. Uh. Pages and pages and pages of request for toe ticklers, where specific toes a person wants to tickle, how they want to tickle it. And I'm scared, even though it's just people's personal preferences and I'm sure it's cool and people are into it, it's just just a toe tickler looking for fun and a female companion toe ticklers looking for very speF if they were really about the game with the gender matter at that point, I don't know. Well, I don't think any of us are here to king shame me. I think people are what they're into. Uh. And just like people have a type in terms of a partner, in terms of like the type of people that's actually attracted to. People that fixate on a particular body part are also going to have a type. And their feet coming all shapes and sizes, and some people are into like specific ones. So that's what better place to find the one for you than an internet forum. Yep, and you can find it. You can find it tickling forum dot com. Wait, that's literally their name. Yes, okay, okay, well you know we ended up in a really wholesome place with this one. I think as long as you're not hurting anybody is as long as everyone has informed consent, than do do what thou wilt, but just hold the consent as a priority. Don't break into people's houses, and that's with their feet. I guarantee you to tickler because I know you're out there, and I know you're listening to this because I know you've got a Google alert listen. Go on tickling forum dot com and just request that you have Oh no, Ben, don't and just request. Hey, I'm into tickling and role play. Let me pretend to break into your house and tickle your toes and somebody. I guarantee you will be like. That sounds great because there's a lot of stuff out there and you can find it at tickling forum dot com. All right, that's it all, Rando, Thanks for making me go through that. Sorry all, Rando, thanks for bringing that story to our attention. You've really tickled our fancy. I don't know if that works there, but that's what happened. Uh. We'll be back with more messages from you. And we have returned with a piece of correspondence from a good friend of the show named they still call me Mailman. They still call me Mailman, says hey, stuff they don't want you to know. Crew. I recently really listened to your September Strange news segment, including the mysterious mail dumps. It got me wanting an update on the Postal Service in general. The Postal Service Reform Act HR thirty seventy six recently passed the House and its counterpart in the Senate, awaiting President Biden's signature. It ends the pre funding requirement you referred to and add some other positive changes that will ensure viability for USPS for many years to come. I'd also like to hear about some of the issues Postmaster General Louis Dejoi or Louis Dejoi is involved in and your take on his future in the U S Postal Service. Maybe talk about the Board of Governors and how that works, and include the fact that the USPS is controlled by Congress, but receives zero tax dollars to fund the operations. Just a few other notes. When you were talking about how mail goes to all areas and other delivery companies do not, you guys, remember that we're talking about like FedEx and Amazon and you know, uh, what's the other one? Ups? Uh? All those they still call me. Mailman confirms this is true, and they still call me Mailman says it's called quote last mile, and those other companies actually dropped loads at the station for the U. S. Postal Service. Also, there is a fun fact that little saying about neither wind nor rain nor dead of night blah blah law is not a postal policy thing or even an ad. It is a made up thing some guy came up with a long time ago, and people latched onto it. I personally hate it and want people to stop trying to recite it to me. Thanks for the gratitude you expressed for USPS and all those that had to continue working throughout COVID. It was not easy, and in fact was it times stressful, frustrating, and exhausting. But I also felt blessed that I still had a job and could continue to provide for my family. This is the kind of letter that we love because we're hearing from someone who was an expert, who was on the ground, who is confirming some things and raising some really important points here about conflicts of interest. So we can we can do this a couple of ways. We can start with the fun stuff and end on this villainous postmaster and I'm not being rude here, this is an observation it's villainous. Or we can start with the bad news and then end on something a little wholesome. Do you all have a preference. Let's go bad news first. I want to know I don't know anything about this, so I want to learn with you. All right, Okay, So this guy, the Joy, is the current Postmaster General of the United States. The Postmaster General is a UM. It's a role like the surgeon general, you know, the person who warns you about cigarettes. They're like the king of the post office. De Joy is the seventy five Postmaster General of the US, and that makes him also the Chief Executive Officer CEO of the world's largest postal organization period full stop, not hyperbole. He started at this job in June of ties, so he's almost two years in. But he has a lot of conflicts of interest, and I'd like to draw everybody's attention to some excellent reporting out of NBC Boston. This is UH. This article and specific reveals some documents that detail the conflicts of interest that this guy is embroiled within as we record today. It comes to us courtesy of a watchdog group known as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Acronym fans will note that that that sums up to Crew. So outfit named Crew did a FOIA request Freedom of Information Act requests that ultimately came through, and a lot of as Matt Nolan, I can assure you, a lot of FOIA requests get rejected. It depends on what you're asking about. But these these documents detail how Joy started. Oh, actually, let me amend this. He started in but I believe it was in May, and he had to recuse himself from twelve different companies because he is he's a big time guy in private shipping, like the folks who want to replace your local post office. Specifically, an outfit called XPO Logistics x Bio Logistics is a freight transit company that moves through eighteen countries, so they're they're international. Uh, they're not. They're not friends of your local mail carrier. He also gets a lot of heat politically because before he got this position. But we'll say it might ruffle some feathers, but the truth is the truth. He was a pretty big donor to the Donald Trump presidential campaign and then he got this job as like the big guy in the post office. What do you think I want to stop there? Guys, do you think that's pay for play? Does that sound suss to anyone? Yeah? Possibly a little suss. Yeah, I mean I'm looking at the official statement I guess that was put out by the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Postal Service, and even what they're just putting out there officially about the investigation into the Joy and his spouse. Uh, there's a lot of money. First of all, that they had in assets, specifically in those competitors you were talking about ben uh and they even mentioned ups and J. B. Hunt, a major trucking company. There there, of course, conclusion into an investigation for I guess said like, he's all good, We're good here, don't worry, everything's fine. Yes, The official finding was that meme of the dog in a house on fire. Everything's fine. Uh yeah, it's It's fascinating because, in de Joy's defense, he divested himself from many of these companies in August, so a few months after he took the job. But for people who are you know, citizen watchdogs if you live in the US, these watchdogs are a political They're supposed to make sure that we hold the leaders and public servants of the country accountable. And one guy, know a book Binder, who is the president of Crew Citizens for Responsibuilding Ethics in Washington, says the following. No one says, quote, there was a period of time where the head of the postal service was making decisions where there could have been a conflict and he could have been thinking about his own financial interest rather than the interest of the postal service and the company. He's not saying that happened. It's an important distinction. He's saying that the opportunity was there. Uh. Call me cynical if we must, but I'm not. I'm not persuaded without proof that this guy was on the up and up. There's a lot of scrutiny and as a matter of fact, to what you were saying they still call me mailman. There is growing pressure for de Joy to leave office, and there protesters because the postal service does get a real rough time, especially in recent years or recent decades. You could say, and I'm starting to wonder if this is a full episode, like they still call me mailman? Is asking us because you know, the postal service, we take it for granted, but it's a big deal. It's it's a really cool thing for a country to have, and it works for you, you know, if you're let's saying to this in the US. If you're not in the US, you can still send us letters. But we but we are, we are at time today I suggest maybe we end on the the kind of wholesome thing. Is that cool? Yeah? Can I I want to say something before we get wholesome. I'm gonna put a call out right now, guys, right now, to change politics in America. I'm trying to be silly on purpose. Um. I think we need to find a way to get the ultra wealthy not so interested in the politics and the political class. I don't know how you do that. I don't think it's possible because I think power and money kind of go hand in hand up a ladder there. But if there is a way that we could mandate, we can mandate nonwealthy people to be in positions like a point of positions like this that don't have those connections, that are actually thinking about the betterment of people like them who don't have a lot of money, who need things like the postal service. Can you kind of solve world hunger and create world peace while you're at it, man, Yeah, let's do that. We need to have the not hungry people feed all of the hungry people. Not just joking now, it's just details, right, something must be done. No, you're making a good point to There is a growing divide in the US in particular, and it's it's honestly common in a lot of countries between the people making the decisions and the people who deal with the consequences of those decisions. Like I I talked about this in the past. The average age of a person in the US is far lower than the average age of the high muckety MUCKs in politics. Also, the average income of a person in the US, I suspect, I'd have to verify this is probably lower than the average income of the people who are making decisions that affect those folks. You are spot on. I will say it's a pickle because we have that question of um. You know, I used to think years ago, many years ago, decades, centuries ago, I used to think it'd be awesome to have broke people in Congress. I was like, I need someone who's got some you know, they've got some debt. They like get what the average person is going through. But the problem with that is it also opens them up to corruption. And that's that's something that the country will have to navigate, um inevitably in the future. Off the tail of your discussion about the age difference, right, I happened to jump onto NPR for a moment on the radio, and I was listening to Katanji Brown's Jackson's hearings that are happening right now for a Supreme Court the nomination that she's like basically just having to talk to all these senators, the two senators that I heard speak, I didn't even know who they were. I was just listening to their voices and it was just someone talking to her like this so weird interested to know about this, And it was just I mean, it felt that you could feel the age difference, just through the voices of people who are going to get to decide whether or not she gets to have that position. Uh. I don't know that this is just an observation. I don't know what it means. I think it's not a coincidence that these people also sound like the the the Tarnished Undead, you know what I mean, Like they very spooky sounding funk. I just pictured them with spindingly weird little fingers and claus and like draped and cloak. Scott, we've been playing this game too much, you guys. We just started. We just started. Also, we're at time and for anyone who isn't clear on that, uh, the four of us are navigating elden Ring together right now. Right now Matt is running point for us, but code named Doc and Nolan I are very much on the same page. We can't wait. We actually I was talking about this on Twitter earlier. We actually spent spent about a half hour yesterday just talking Elden Ring because I think, um, I think Doc and Matt and I were so excited Nolan when when you joined up. So now we just got to get mission control on board if we can get him, Uh, and in the meantime, we can't wait to hear your elden Ring stories. Just sow this up real quick. We promised you something wholesome. I think elden Ring is good, but we want to confirm the words of They still call me mailman, and we are going to do a postal service episode. The quote neither snow nor rain, nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their pointed rounds. That is not an official statement. USPS is generally cool with it, but it comes from a poem called the Letter by a guy named Charles w. Elliott. Thank you very much, they still call me mailman. Thank you so much, Old Rando, and thank you so much Snickers for telling us a little more about the center of the universe. It's a shame that we have to call it a day today, but we will be back next week with more letters, calls, posts, puns, observations from you. A gilded gilded runes on the twisted path, you know, fast saw good one. The other day, by the way, there was one. Sorry, we're elden Ring talk uh. It's these little messages that the users can write to other people. It's an open world game. Everyone's actually technically online, even though you're not always playing with other people. But there these little little gilded spots that you can read messages people leave you, and they are often quite trolly. And it was one where I was just like in this place and I was in a seller and there was a message that says beware of dead end and it was just a dead end. But yeah, those or you know the internet, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, um, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. You can find us a conspiracy stuff Instagram or conspiracy Stuff show. Uh. You can also find us in a more old school way, um, not runes, but telephone call. Why not do that? Then you could be on one of these episodes that you're listening to. Write now. Yes, our number is one eight three three s t d W y t K. When you call in, give yourself a nickname. We don't care what it is. You decide it's gonna be so cool, just leave that, leave that nickname, and then you've got three minutes say whatever you'd like. Let us know if we can use that name and your message on the air at some point within that three minutes, and if you've got more to say, that can fit in that three minutes. Instead, why not consider sending us a good old fashioned email. We are conspiracy at i heart radio dot com. 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.

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 My Heart Radio, 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 the stuff they don't want you to know. It is once again one of our favorite times of the week where we hear from our favorite part of this show, which is you, our fellow conspiracy realist. Today is really interesting because, uh, in this week's segment, we are going to see some follow ups on the center of the universe out there in Oklahoma. We're gonna talk a little bit about h v a C in a way you may not expect. We're going to learn a legend about it. Someone very into toes. And then we're going to talk about some conflicts of interest from our long suffering, long suffering institution, the United States Postal Service. So maybe we go in in the order that we named things. I think we were all pretty excited to hear back from so many of our fellow listeners about the center of the universe, and Matt, that's a story that you brought up originally, right, And we talked a little bit about the science of acoustics, we talked a little bit about the origin of the place, but nol we all were seeved an excellent little piece of correspondence, which I think really really raises the bar for some emails here because we get a picture as well. We did get a picture, um and we also got a firsthand account of the acoustical phenomenon that is described there. The Center of the World location in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We heard kind of conflicting things about it sounding like one of those echo chambers where I don't know that have you ever been to one of those? Actually they have. It had a lot of kind of hipster playgrounds for kids where they'll be like a tube that you can sort of whisper into and will travel and like you'll hear, you know, on the other side, or they'll be like a kind of like a bubble where there are also different tubes that are coming out and it will transfer sound from one bubble to the other again using reflections and just sound the way sound waves travel, kind of utilizing that. So that was sort of what I was picturing, sort of a science center, hipster playground kind of experience. But uh, Snickers wrote us a letter and gave us a much more detail account. So here we go. Hey, guys, here is a picture of me standing at the center of the universe in Tulsa. Uh. Sure enough, there she is. She's standing in the center. It looks like kind of like a brick um inlaid sort of like um, a historical marker, kind of placard kind of thing that you might see on like a city's like river walk or something like that, um in a circle, standing in the middle of it. Snickers goes on, at the time, there was no sign. Uh, and again this is just like sort of an array of bricks, doesn't really have a placard on it, just kind of has that look. There was no sign. And if the website I found describing it hadn't told me how to find it, I never would have known I was in the right place. People walked past on their way to and from work, Several looked at us as if they didn't know why anyone would be there. It seems to be between business districts, parking garage, and large office buildings, but not arranged in any particular way around that spot. You can see that the brick pattern is centered around the spot I was standing. Um, that's what I was describing. So going on now, to my memory, the auditory effect was really bizarre. Didn't so much amplify or reverberate my own voice, but everything other than that, other than what was coming from the spot in the center, sounded muted. So it's almost like a noise cancelation kind of effect. Um. So the only sounds I could hear standing there were the ones I was making. My traveling companion tried it out too, and despite reports, we didn't notice any distortion of our voices from outside of the circle, but they reported a similar effect. We messed around with this for the better part of an hour. That's a testament enough itself. That's something interesting was going on, including standing as close together as we could and super quietly whispering to each other, and we could hear things we were sure we wouldn't have been able to hear it all but the quietest nights neat again, the people passing by didn't show any sign of understanding what we were doing, which led us to speculate that it may ain't not have been well known among the locals, which also seemed unlikely. And they also go on to say, I found this and other interesting roadside attractions for a cross country road trip on the Atlas Obscure website. And I think all three of us, four of us, everyone pretty much from the house stuff works, uh family, big fans of Atlas Obscure and then signs it, snickers and gives permission to use the information, requests that we obscure their face if posting the picture. I think we need to post a description. Yeah, I think the description is is good enough and what a cool email. I I can't mean that to me. The closest thing that it would be almost as if you were sharing a noise cancelation experience with somebody else, which I can't fully understand how scientifically that would be possible, because it's a very personal thing. It's using, you know, these kind of falsely generated subsonic waves to cancel out other subsonic waves that are in the environment, and any the acoustitions out there. Might take issue with the way I have have described that I think I'm doing it relatively decently. On it, You're nail in it. I I also figured out how to build one. And there was a There was for a time a children's museum here in Atlanta, Georgia named side Track. Do you guys remember side Track? Yes, it may have been while you were an Augusta Noel, but side Track, for many years was the coolest field trip you could take. And uh and they had They had something similar, some acoustic trickery such that one could whisper into a funnel on one side of a very large room, and then and then here the whispers at the other funnel on the other side of the room. And I figured out how to build one. I just need a bigger space. So no, Matt, I love this. I love that we are encountering this. We also got a lot of great correspondence about other places called this a tour of the universe, which caused me to look up the actual scientific quote unquote center of the Universe. Tried to find the big bang. Maybe an episode for another day. That's exciting. I'll edge my seat, and that's not just because I'm sitting uncomfortably. This is, you know, directly a result of of your discovery. But I like that you're gonna keep us, keep us guessing, and I do think that would be a fun episode. It's true that like the idea of the center of the universe is almost the same as like the best cup of coffee in New York here something. It's like a thing you can just say. You don't really have to back it up with paperwork or even geography. Really, um, but this place, whether or not, has anything to do with any kind of cosmological effects, uh due to you know, geolocation. It is pretty cool and obviously something's going on. And we talked about it Matt in the segment about having to do with you know, the reverberation of these nearby office parks and you know, parking garages in the like. But I just don't that doesn't account for what she's talking about here. This is a reverse reverb. Essentially, this is like noise canceling. Yeah, yeah, I don't. I don't know how to explain it. I know that there's some there's some thought that it is in fact the way in which you can see in the picture that we were sent, the way in which the concrete border is in the fence. There's like a concrete fence as well along the bridge. There something about the interaction with air coverberation traveling through those as well as reverberating off that low concrete fence or whatever that is bench or something that is there in the background. It's like something about this interaction which also reminds me of standing stones. Uh, you know, yeah, there there is something similar to that, because stone does reverberate. I don't know if you guys want me to spoil the current scientific consensus about the center of the universe. Do you want you want to hear it? Or should we should We think we did it in the last episode a little bit, But let's let's talk about according to the brightest minds, humanity is produced up to two. There is no actual center for the universe. There is no spoon anyway. This is uh you're talking about the actual center of the universe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I tried to. I tried to find the origin point. And uh, I actually guys knew I hate phones. I spoke with some folks. Uh, and yeah, there's no Devil's advocare for the seke of arguments say there were the chances that it would be on Earth be pretty unlikely. No, there's no, there's no chance. Yeah, definitely not in Tulsa. Yeah, you know, h likely to be there. It's anywhere. I guess it's just I'm not not not no no ding on Tulsa. It's apparently and it's got some really rich interesting history. Uh. If anyone's aware of the Tulsa race riots, I mean that is something that was buried in American history for the longest time. I didn't really know much about it until that show The Watchman on HBO made it kind of the central feature of the war of that show. Um really crazy. It was absolutely a massacre of of black professionals, um living in a town that they felt safe in by the clan who just came in a brazenly with like airplanes, even like literally air raided. It was a war. Absolutely, No, I think I think it may have been on an adventure. Uh. When Natt and code named Doc and I were talking about Tulsa in the larger context of what it's called the Red Summer, Uh, it's it's something that I'm really glad you're bringing up because, um, more people need to know the things that are often exercised from grade school textbooks. Also check out our episode I feel like I'm always playing in our episodes. Check out our episode all the textbook war It's uh, it's global, and it is one of the UM I think when the early versions of information warfare exactly, And not to get controversial, I just wanted to bring this up briefly because it just pisses me off. I don't understand what the beef is like. We know these things happen, isn't covering it up? Doesn't that just make us look like And not to get to soap boxy anything, but we did just recently have a discussion about critical race theory UM and I believe an episode of of of Listener mail UM. It's confusing to me as to why something like this would be exercised from history and why the idea of teaching the mistakes that we as a country have made historically UH is in any way controversial. You know, it just is like the people that would be making a decision to soften the blow of these types of stories or literally cut a story like this out of history books are somewhat complicit and perpetuating that kind of racism. As opposed to teaching things that happened in the past and the hopes that younger generations could learn from them. Agreed. When you were on Adventure, uh, Matt, Doc and I talked in depth about about just the same thing. So if you feel that you are soap boxing alone, whether you are a conspiracy realist, whether or whether you're on the show with it's no worries. The truth is the truth, and attempts to change it will always eventually fall short of their insidious goals. That's what I would say. I I don't think there's anything sanctimonious nor self righteous about being honest about the past, and I agree with you that empowers us to better face the future, which is gonna be crazy. But boy, the future, Am I right? I was gonna have another little email snippet to give us a sort of a house stuff works lesson on a piece of tech that we discussed, and another strange news episode. But I think I'll keep this in my back pocket for next time. So let's take a quick break and then'll be back with some more listener mail. And we are back, and we are jumping to the phone lines. Everybody, Oh yes, this is exciting. We got a message from old Rando. That's O L R A N d O Old Randold hold Rando send us this message. And oh, guys, I can't wait to tell you some of the places I visited on the internet today. Here we go, Hey guys, and Doc Holiday or Paul Michigan Drill Decond whomever is helming the crew. Uh. There are a million things that I want to ask you guys to look up, but this one I'll keep it light for this one. There's this old rumor in Nova Scotia. I'm from Toronto, my now wife, her whole families from Nova Scotia, and her mom and all of her family members and all their friends talked about the Halifax toe tickler and apparently throughout decades like seventies, eighties, nineties, two thousands, there have been reports of people who say that someone were was breaking into their house and literally just tickling their toes and then leaving. It's the weirdest ongoing rumor. And I tried to look it up and I couldn't find anything. So if you guys find anything about this weird ass rumor, I would love to know more about it and tell the family. Uh, you guys can use this on air. You can call me a whole Rando. Okay, there we go, Rando. Oh boy, Uh, she just keeps randoing along he does. So, Matt, you you ruined your search history on this one. Search histories weren't already lists. I'll tell you about some forums I found, uh in a moment. So, first of all, I spoke a little bit with Old Rando and he gave me just a few piece of information. Oh, the first one that you need to know if you happen to be in the Toronto area. Look up Archive wine Bar. Old Rando can neither confirm nor deny that he has a part of such establishment, but Archive wine Bar looks amazing. I would check it out. Okay. So Old Rando says that, uh, people in Halifax just seemed to know about this as as he stated in his message there, and it's something that's just been floating around the family for a while. It's always one of those secondhand stories, you know, like it happened to my roommate, all right, I knew somebody in college, or you know, it happened to this person or that person. Generally, it's not a firsthand account. That's given, but it's just a rumor. It's a legend. But it started somewhere, I would argue. Old Rando noted that Halifax is a pretty small city. Uh, you know, this is a generalization, but he said, people often don't keep their windows locked, you know, especially depending on the temperature, that window might be open a little bit or just closed but not locked. Same with doors. But many of the stories have to do with window entry. So it would be someone went up the fire escape in the apartment complex or the building that we lived in, gained entry to the home through an open window. This person awoke to their feet being exposed to the cold air, and the window was wide open when they awoke, and it was shut when they you know, went to bed or something, and they had this weird sensation. They just knew someone had been tickling their feet or they heard someone, you know, quickly escaping via the fire escape. As Old Rando said, there's not a lot about this online. In fact, there is zero about this online. And I challenge you everyone listening, to find something and send it our way, because I could not. I was unsuccessful, sat very sadly. But what I did find, guys, will scar me forever here we go. Oh God, so conscious of their feet right now? I know, I know. Uh yeah, let's start there. We are all conscious of our feet. Imagine if you will waking up in the middle of the night, you're one of your feet, maybe both of your feet are outside of the covers, and you can feel someone or something tickling them as you startle awake. That's, first of all, your first mistake was keeping your feet outside the covers, because that is an absolute no no. Well, the monsters will get you. That's how the monsters get you. Everybody knows that. Well. Now, imagine your living situation. Are there other people in your home that you can account for that should be there. Maybe it's one of them. Maybe it's just your spouse, Maybe it's a child, Maybe it's a dog. Uh, maybe it's a roommate. When maybe you call out to that roommate or person and they don't respond, and then that person quietly backs out of the room and then books it for your front door and just takes off. What if there's a little bit of light in your room and the person you can tell is wearing some kind of ski mask while they're tickling your feet. Let me may I interject for a moment to once again, once again, Matt doc No, I think this is a thank you. I think this is a perfect situation for shoe feet, which are the shoes that look like feet, uh decoy feets. Yes, basically, you won't be caught by a Halifax toe tickler if you sleep with shoe feet. So all right, we're done with that. They sponsored the podcast This Illumination Global Unlimited. You could use the same kind of trick the magicians used to cut their assistance in half. You know, the fake legs where like the actual legs are tucked back, and then there are these like fake feet that's stick out that are on the ends of poles. I mean, it's a lot to ask, you know, to do this every night for fear that you might be the victim of a serial home invader slash tickler. But you can't be too careful. We're giving you options, folks. We need to come along with a new line from shoe feet called slipper feet and or sock feet. Uh, just for the you know, when you're sleeping, you don't want to have a full shoe on. But it's good. So guys, this isn't just a fable. This isn't just alleged. There are actual stories you can find online. You can also find them at newspapers dot com in other places like that where it was just a small piece that was written in some local newspaper in the seventies, eighties and nineties and early two thousands. If you look at the Hartford Current, which is writing about Glastonbury, Connecticut, they have a story there from titled Silent Unnerving Visits in the Night. This is the first line quote. Most of the women were awakened by a light tug or a tickle on their feet, nothing painful, but certainly unexpected in the middle of the night. Groggy, they open their eyes to see a stranger kneeling at the end of their beds, touching or tickling their feet. As the women's screams pierced the night's silence, the tall, slender intruder ran out of their bedrooms, through their homes, and outside into the darkness. This is a I don't love it. I don't love it either. Uh, this is horror movie stuff. They're saying that this is something that's been happening at least when this was written in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Every spring since nine and there was a person that was unknown that was titled the Tickler, who was a criminal that living somewhere near that area that would do this on a regular basis. There were eleven cases confirmed since between in a four year period between. Uh, it's real. You could read about this. It's horrifying. But it sounds like there might be a frauderish at play, right, am I using that word correctly? I have no idea. Uh. Froteurism is a Fronteurism is a thing that people. It's a repetitive sexual urge to gain gratification, essentially by physically rubbing against another person. A k. The reason that Japan, Nation of Japan had female identifying only train lines because of the rise of fraud. And also, you know, this reminds me of um, god, no, what was it we did? It was ridiculous history. We had uh the Mad Gasser, The Mad Gasser and Uh, if I'm not mistaken, he was such a pop cultural hit that there was even like a tiny figure made of him in some series of nineteen eighties like Creepy you know figuring miniatures. Yeah, that was a thing that was definitely a thing. Also, you know what now that I'm just thinking out loud here, Matt. But um, I believe it is not quite frauderism or being a foot to because it's not involving human private parts, right, it's intimate parts, and I think it was Matt. Correct me if I'm wrong here. But did you not fairly recently tell us you you don't want people around your feet just such instive I don't care how intimate we are, do not touch my feet. So who's hitting you? On a personal note? But you were able to verify this is a real thing. That's the real thing. Ohh yeah, this is a real thing. And it's not just Connecticut. We head on over to Boston, mass There was another set of incidents this coming to us in from Boston dot com serial quote tickler breaking into Boston College students homes. Enough, there spate of toe ticklers or a a toe tickler, maybe the same one the person in Connecticut was never caught. Maybe this person went to college or you know, or moved out Boston way. Uh So it's it's really creepy. There were at least ten sidings of the quote so called tickler in and around Boston College in uh that's from the Boston Police Department. You can read this right now online. It's uh, it's all horrifying. It's out there, it exists. I assure you all, Rando, there probably was a toe tickler. There's just not a lot recorded about the sightings and or accosting. What do we what do we call? It? Was an assault? It's a physical assault. Technically, yeah, it's an assault, and uh it's one of the creepiest ones ever. But one in Connecticut, by the way, they confirmed that entry was made via unlocked doors. So just going around, Oh, this one's unlocked. Here we go. Someone's getting tickled in here tonight. That's how I imagine the toe tickler sounds. So, guys, he's a silly, goofy guy, you know, yeah, not the fairies, not the fairies at all. Just whenical toe tickler and it's funny, really want to ask it sounds funny, I assure you, until it happens to you, as was reported in both of those articles I mentioned where once it once it once, you're a personal physical space is intruded upon, Like that is not funny anymore. I mean, let's just imagine this person broke into your home. And just sat and watched you sleep. I mean, that's horrific in and of itself. Where I'm giggling at the word when you say toe tickler because it's just fun to say. The alliteration is absolutely delightful. But no, this is a an invasion, first of all, and second of all, it is an assault. Uh. Even if it's not causing the person any physical pain, it is absolutely something that could cause someone to experience serious a PTSD for a long time to be and uh, and you know, violating in that way. No, No, no joking around, even if we've been joking around at the term toe tickler a little bit, which is whimsical for the record, that is that is a fun, fun phrase, like you pointed out. Um. Also, I just gotta tell you, I think, Matt, you know this, Uh, but I'll go public with it. My feet are kind of like hands, Like I can write with my feet, which is a super useless skill. Yeah, it's super useless skill. But I'd say that when your arms are both severed in a tragic you know, thresher accident, which can happen. But the the invasion of privacy there, the invasion of one's personal space is is a real thing, and it I'm also thinking that this may well be a situation where a lot of incidents have not been reported. You know, it takes uh, it takes a lot for someone to call up the law and say someone was messing with my toes. You know, imagine imagine how you would feel in that from that perspective, like you would you would think, not unreasonably, that law enforcement might make fun of you, you know, saying that this little piggy song or something. But gross, that's my observation. Matt Gross, super gross. Oh, rando, we believe you. Matt confirmed it. There's someone out there after toes. There is. There are a lot of people out there after toes, Which leaves me to my final destination, the place that I reached. The It's not the bottom of the internet, it's not I I shouldn't make fun of this. I don't want to yuck anybody's yum m hmm. But I landed in a very specific place titled tickling forum dot com. Oh, there's a whole documentary about there's a documentary about this and the dark side of it, Like, I haven't seen it, but it has a twist. Apparently I have not seen it, but tickled thing and it's worth your time. And it's highly worth your time, even though the lawsuits that following everything from the you know, the bad guys within it. Uh, it is worth your time. In this case, the tickling forum reminds me a lot of Craigslist, um, and in it it's just people looking for te ticklers. Uh. Pages and pages and pages of request for toe ticklers, where specific toes a person wants to tickle, how they want to tickle it. And I'm scared, even though it's just people's personal preferences and I'm sure it's cool and people are into it, it's just just a toe tickler looking for fun and a female companion toe ticklers looking for very speF if they were really about the game with the gender matter at that point, I don't know. Well, I don't think any of us are here to king shame me. I think people are what they're into. Uh. And just like people have a type in terms of a partner, in terms of like the type of people that's actually attracted to. People that fixate on a particular body part are also going to have a type. And their feet coming all shapes and sizes, and some people are into like specific ones. So that's what better place to find the one for you than an internet forum. Yep, and you can find it. You can find it tickling forum dot com. Wait, that's literally their name. Yes, okay, okay, well you know we ended up in a really wholesome place with this one. I think as long as you're not hurting anybody is as long as everyone has informed consent, than do do what thou wilt, but just hold the consent as a priority. Don't break into people's houses, and that's with their feet. I guarantee you to tickler because I know you're out there, and I know you're listening to this because I know you've got a Google alert listen. Go on tickling forum dot com and just request that you have Oh no, Ben, don't and just request. Hey, I'm into tickling and role play. Let me pretend to break into your house and tickle your toes and somebody. I guarantee you will be like. That sounds great because there's a lot of stuff out there and you can find it at tickling forum dot com. All right, that's it all, Rando, Thanks for making me go through that. Sorry all, Rando, thanks for bringing that story to our attention. You've really tickled our fancy. I don't know if that works there, but that's what happened. Uh. We'll be back with more messages from you. And we have returned with a piece of correspondence from a good friend of the show named they still call me Mailman. They still call me Mailman, says hey, stuff they don't want you to know. Crew. I recently really listened to your September Strange news segment, including the mysterious mail dumps. It got me wanting an update on the Postal Service in general. The Postal Service Reform Act HR thirty seventy six recently passed the House and its counterpart in the Senate, awaiting President Biden's signature. It ends the pre funding requirement you referred to and add some other positive changes that will ensure viability for USPS for many years to come. I'd also like to hear about some of the issues Postmaster General Louis Dejoi or Louis Dejoi is involved in and your take on his future in the U S Postal Service. Maybe talk about the Board of Governors and how that works, and include the fact that the USPS is controlled by Congress, but receives zero tax dollars to fund the operations. Just a few other notes. When you were talking about how mail goes to all areas and other delivery companies do not, you guys, remember that we're talking about like FedEx and Amazon and you know, uh, what's the other one? Ups? Uh? All those they still call me. Mailman confirms this is true, and they still call me Mailman says it's called quote last mile, and those other companies actually dropped loads at the station for the U. S. Postal Service. Also, there is a fun fact that little saying about neither wind nor rain nor dead of night blah blah law is not a postal policy thing or even an ad. It is a made up thing some guy came up with a long time ago, and people latched onto it. I personally hate it and want people to stop trying to recite it to me. Thanks for the gratitude you expressed for USPS and all those that had to continue working throughout COVID. It was not easy, and in fact was it times stressful, frustrating, and exhausting. But I also felt blessed that I still had a job and could continue to provide for my family. This is the kind of letter that we love because we're hearing from someone who was an expert, who was on the ground, who is confirming some things and raising some really important points here about conflicts of interest. So we can we can do this a couple of ways. We can start with the fun stuff and end on this villainous postmaster and I'm not being rude here, this is an observation it's villainous. Or we can start with the bad news and then end on something a little wholesome. Do you all have a preference. Let's go bad news first. I want to know I don't know anything about this, so I want to learn with you. All right, Okay, So this guy, the Joy, is the current Postmaster General of the United States. The Postmaster General is a UM. It's a role like the surgeon general, you know, the person who warns you about cigarettes. They're like the king of the post office. De Joy is the seventy five Postmaster General of the US, and that makes him also the Chief Executive Officer CEO of the world's largest postal organization period full stop, not hyperbole. He started at this job in June of ties, so he's almost two years in. But he has a lot of conflicts of interest, and I'd like to draw everybody's attention to some excellent reporting out of NBC Boston. This is UH. This article and specific reveals some documents that detail the conflicts of interest that this guy is embroiled within as we record today. It comes to us courtesy of a watchdog group known as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Acronym fans will note that that that sums up to Crew. So outfit named Crew did a FOIA request Freedom of Information Act requests that ultimately came through, and a lot of as Matt Nolan, I can assure you, a lot of FOIA requests get rejected. It depends on what you're asking about. But these these documents detail how Joy started. Oh, actually, let me amend this. He started in but I believe it was in May, and he had to recuse himself from twelve different companies because he is he's a big time guy in private shipping, like the folks who want to replace your local post office. Specifically, an outfit called XPO Logistics x Bio Logistics is a freight transit company that moves through eighteen countries, so they're they're international. Uh, they're not. They're not friends of your local mail carrier. He also gets a lot of heat politically because before he got this position. But we'll say it might ruffle some feathers, but the truth is the truth. He was a pretty big donor to the Donald Trump presidential campaign and then he got this job as like the big guy in the post office. What do you think I want to stop there? Guys, do you think that's pay for play? Does that sound suss to anyone? Yeah? Possibly a little suss. Yeah, I mean I'm looking at the official statement I guess that was put out by the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Postal Service, and even what they're just putting out there officially about the investigation into the Joy and his spouse. Uh, there's a lot of money. First of all, that they had in assets, specifically in those competitors you were talking about ben uh and they even mentioned ups and J. B. Hunt, a major trucking company. There there, of course, conclusion into an investigation for I guess said like, he's all good, We're good here, don't worry, everything's fine. Yes, The official finding was that meme of the dog in a house on fire. Everything's fine. Uh yeah, it's It's fascinating because, in de Joy's defense, he divested himself from many of these companies in August, so a few months after he took the job. But for people who are you know, citizen watchdogs if you live in the US, these watchdogs are a political They're supposed to make sure that we hold the leaders and public servants of the country accountable. And one guy, know a book Binder, who is the president of Crew Citizens for Responsibuilding Ethics in Washington, says the following. No one says, quote, there was a period of time where the head of the postal service was making decisions where there could have been a conflict and he could have been thinking about his own financial interest rather than the interest of the postal service and the company. He's not saying that happened. It's an important distinction. He's saying that the opportunity was there. Uh. Call me cynical if we must, but I'm not. I'm not persuaded without proof that this guy was on the up and up. There's a lot of scrutiny and as a matter of fact, to what you were saying they still call me mailman. There is growing pressure for de Joy to leave office, and there protesters because the postal service does get a real rough time, especially in recent years or recent decades. You could say, and I'm starting to wonder if this is a full episode, like they still call me mailman? Is asking us because you know, the postal service, we take it for granted, but it's a big deal. It's it's a really cool thing for a country to have, and it works for you, you know, if you're let's saying to this in the US. If you're not in the US, you can still send us letters. But we but we are, we are at time today I suggest maybe we end on the the kind of wholesome thing. Is that cool? Yeah? Can I I want to say something before we get wholesome. I'm gonna put a call out right now, guys, right now, to change politics in America. I'm trying to be silly on purpose. Um. I think we need to find a way to get the ultra wealthy not so interested in the politics and the political class. I don't know how you do that. I don't think it's possible because I think power and money kind of go hand in hand up a ladder there. But if there is a way that we could mandate, we can mandate nonwealthy people to be in positions like a point of positions like this that don't have those connections, that are actually thinking about the betterment of people like them who don't have a lot of money, who need things like the postal service. Can you kind of solve world hunger and create world peace while you're at it, man, Yeah, let's do that. We need to have the not hungry people feed all of the hungry people. Not just joking now, it's just details, right, something must be done. No, you're making a good point to There is a growing divide in the US in particular, and it's it's honestly common in a lot of countries between the people making the decisions and the people who deal with the consequences of those decisions. Like I I talked about this in the past. The average age of a person in the US is far lower than the average age of the high muckety MUCKs in politics. Also, the average income of a person in the US, I suspect, I'd have to verify this is probably lower than the average income of the people who are making decisions that affect those folks. You are spot on. I will say it's a pickle because we have that question of um. You know, I used to think years ago, many years ago, decades, centuries ago, I used to think it'd be awesome to have broke people in Congress. I was like, I need someone who's got some you know, they've got some debt. They like get what the average person is going through. But the problem with that is it also opens them up to corruption. And that's that's something that the country will have to navigate, um inevitably in the future. Off the tail of your discussion about the age difference, right, I happened to jump onto NPR for a moment on the radio, and I was listening to Katanji Brown's Jackson's hearings that are happening right now for a Supreme Court the nomination that she's like basically just having to talk to all these senators, the two senators that I heard speak, I didn't even know who they were. I was just listening to their voices and it was just someone talking to her like this so weird interested to know about this, And it was just I mean, it felt that you could feel the age difference, just through the voices of people who are going to get to decide whether or not she gets to have that position. Uh. I don't know that this is just an observation. I don't know what it means. I think it's not a coincidence that these people also sound like the the the Tarnished Undead, you know what I mean, Like they very spooky sounding funk. I just pictured them with spindingly weird little fingers and claus and like draped and cloak. Scott, we've been playing this game too much, you guys. We just started. We just started. Also, we're at time and for anyone who isn't clear on that, uh, the four of us are navigating elden Ring together right now. Right now Matt is running point for us, but code named Doc and Nolan I are very much on the same page. We can't wait. We actually I was talking about this on Twitter earlier. We actually spent spent about a half hour yesterday just talking Elden Ring because I think, um, I think Doc and Matt and I were so excited Nolan when when you joined up. So now we just got to get mission control on board if we can get him, Uh, and in the meantime, we can't wait to hear your elden Ring stories. Just sow this up real quick. We promised you something wholesome. I think elden Ring is good, but we want to confirm the words of They still call me mailman, and we are going to do a postal service episode. The quote neither snow nor rain, nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their pointed rounds. That is not an official statement. USPS is generally cool with it, but it comes from a poem called the Letter by a guy named Charles w. Elliott. Thank you very much, they still call me mailman. Thank you so much, Old Rando, and thank you so much Snickers for telling us a little more about the center of the universe. It's a shame that we have to call it a day today, but we will be back next week with more letters, calls, posts, puns, observations from you. A gilded gilded runes on the twisted path, you know, fast saw good one. The other day, by the way, there was one. Sorry, we're elden Ring talk uh. It's these little messages that the users can write to other people. It's an open world game. Everyone's actually technically online, even though you're not always playing with other people. But there these little little gilded spots that you can read messages people leave you, and they are often quite trolly. And it was one where I was just like in this place and I was in a seller and there was a message that says beware of dead end and it was just a dead end. But yeah, those or you know the internet, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, um, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. You can find us a conspiracy stuff Instagram or conspiracy Stuff show. Uh. You can also find us in a more old school way, um, not runes, but telephone call. Why not do that? Then you could be on one of these episodes that you're listening to. Write now. Yes, our number is one eight three three s t d W y t K. When you call in, give yourself a nickname. We don't care what it is. You decide it's gonna be so cool, just leave that, leave that nickname, and then you've got three minutes say whatever you'd like. Let us know if we can use that name and your message on the air at some point within that three minutes, and if you've got more to say, that can fit in that three minutes. Instead, why not consider sending us a good old fashioned email. We are conspiracy at i heart radio dot com. 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.