A daring midnight heist shocks everyone – and Tom Slick makes his ultimate discovery.
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“Tom Slick: Mystery Hunter” stars Owen Wilson, Sissy Spacek and Schuyler Fisk
Written and Directed by Caroline Slaughter
Story Edited by Jeb Stuart
Produced and Assistant Directed by Emilia Brock
Original Score, Sound Design, Mixing and Mastering by Jesse Nighswonger
Executive Produced by Owen Wilson, Sissy Spacek, Schuyler Fisk, Jeb Stuart, Caroline Slaughter, Brian Lavin, L.C. Crowley, Brandon Barr and Virginia Prescott
Special thanks to historian Catherine Nixon Cooke whose expert advice on Tom Slick Jr. and book – “Tom Slick, Mystery Hunter!” – served as inspiration for the show.
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School of Humans.
This podcast is based on the true story of explorer, inventor, visionary, and science pioneer Tom Slick. Some of the story elements, names, and characters have been altered for dramatic purposes. Consider using headphones to enhance your listening experience. We've created an immersive soundscape to tell our story.
Sure used, Dan Fidils, don't see how many testing testing one too?
Damn it.
We have over three hundred guests coming through those doors in an hour. They're expecting entertainment. Not to go deaf. Miss Slick, you're early. We're still prepping in her office. Those go over there.
Thank you.
I'll take you.
Oh no, no, you look busy. I'll find her.
Just Tommy favor. Pretend you didn't see any of this. Tonight will be a celebration of your father's legacy, not a ship show. What the accent are those new cheers?
Do?
Do you.
Live? It's me?
Come in, Shut the door behind you and lock it.
Is this an interrogation?
You've had years to tell me who my grandfather really was and you didn't. I didn't know.
Come on, I'd heard some of the story worries on those tapes growing up but live. I don't really know him. I was nine when he died.
And what about the Yettie hand that Bud says, you have this? Oh my god, that's it.
Yeah, the hand, it's heinous. That's why it's in the tupperware. I didn't want to touch it or free to touch me.
Here was it?
When Dad passed, his assets were divided. I got a key with mine that opened a safety deposit box, and there.
Was I've never seen anything like this.
Can I sure touch away at your own risk?
Why haven't you shared this with the institute. We could like quintests and find out what this.
Story of the Yetti hunt was killed. After Dad died, no one talked about it.
I wonder why the institute's.
President at the time thought a leader in science hunting a fairy tale would degrade the reputation of this place, which is probably why I never got Bud's takes. They were buried with all the evidence of Dad's hunt.
Well, Bud said, you have proof.
This was also in safety deposit box.
It's the only tape that's labeled proof.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was to the point.
So whatever's on here is proof of the Yeddies' existence.
I don't know. I haven't listened to it. Why I didn't care if he've had it, if he didn't. I just wanted to believe like he did.
Well, there's a yetty hand here, so he found something.
I think I'm ready for him to tell me that.
Tom Slick, April third, nineteen fifty eight. It's three am. I can't sleep. I haven't been able to since I parted ways with Bud in that appendage. I'm still in India planning a solo trek through the Himalayas, which all set out on after the Eddie exhibit opens in London on Saturday. I did it. I got ample proof that the Eddi exists. The hand hadn't been thoroughly tested by scientists yet, and it may have been devious how we laid claim to it. But think of the science and the magnitude of this discovery. Now I'm no man's junior. I'm about to change the world. I can't sleep. Why can't I sleep? Dullas, come in? I know you're there, Tommy.
Is how this works?
When have you ever followed protocol? See Crackodle?
What do you want?
It's simple payback.
Revenge?
Okay, let me get some coffee.
First chapter seven. This is the mostly true tale of Tom Slick, mystery hunter.
All right, Lucky Cob, you did it.
You got your damn Yetti.
No I didn't. I stole it. Oh okay, well Bud did that.
Don't follow.
Bud and I parted ways. After securing Lama X in India. Bud returned to the mountain, no tent or food so he could move with stealth.
Did he hunt the bastard down without you?
Not?
Technically?
Oh?
You see, the Yetti exhibit was set to open in London in a month, and you know I needed something besides photos and tapes of a failed expedition. So Bud returned to the Pongochet Temple, where he first saw evidence of the Yettis existence. During that first visit, he stole a photo. During this one, he stole a whole YETI hand, replacing it with a not very convincing stand in.
Ah, that thing's buried, he's gonna know.
And you're not just praying to it.
You're using that hand to expose real information.
That's the American way.
Well it's problematic, yes, it is patriotic. Indeed, I didn't say that. Look Dulles. The point is in spending time with Lama X, I learned all I need to know about the YETI is he gonna thank me for that intro? The only thing we should do to that creature is protected.
Oh okay, I'm only obligated to protect my country and those who ate in a betass.
Well, turns out I have hours of recorded tapes that could upend.
All of that.
Is there a threat, Tommy? If you don't meet me in London in twelve hours, you'll find out?
Live? Can't?
I don't want to touch it.
Just put it in your bag? Live? Why is this lot?
Mom?
What?
Put it in your purse?
Fine?
Stick it to my dawn purse, unless do you want it for the exhibit?
I really there's no time for this. Oh hi, Governor Nielsen, you're here.
Yeah, okay, I'll take it.
Finally, Governor Claire, it's so lovely of you to come to this little for dad.
Little I heard there might be some reveals about the mysterious Tom Slick. As a kid, always thought your father lived a double life, Claire. Remember when we had those sleepovers at your house? Sure, and your dad he tell us these wild tales about mysteries the world and never known holy men who could levi at tape a tunnel on the Amazon line with diamonds, the abominable Snowman that he said roam the roof of the world. He told those tales like he lived them, So I guess I thought he always had.
I think you're really going to enjoy the event tonight, Governor, isn't he live?
Well, that's why I'm early. I can't stay for the whole thing. But Claire, I wanted a word of course.
Let's go sit in there to see of empty chairs.
Okay, that will be filled to capacity in thirty minutes. I love love the dress, but that bold red lip. It's giving more nightclub less academia. But you know, choices.
Okay, thirty minutes. M there's time.
The helicopter Dallas, I asked for inconspicuous.
Yeah, all those were fucked. It's like you want me to fail.
Hell, you did threaten me.
Well, at least we didn't land on top of the museum.
Here's our backup.
You know you landed on top of the museum, right.
Ah, fucker again trying to make me fail, Larry, We're gonna jump out circle the city, drop down on another roof or two. If anyone's tracking, they'll think you're confused.
We'll find a way home.
I'll be that.
You're rusty Dallas.
The fancy title of yours just another name for bencil bushy.
Fuck off, god, fucking this?
Come on? The man is back together again?
Yeah, yeah, whatever you say.
Why the hell are you wasting my time on this job?
Slick?
Remember that YETI.
I was after it's all you talked about.
How can I forget there's a piece of it here in the museum and we have to steal it without anyone knowing.
Also, that's a solo job. I could have done that already.
Well, there's an entire exhibit.
I'm a government employee.
Slick, who answers to me?
And you think your.
Boss in the White House would approve this?
You know?
I mean it's called covert for a reason.
Like I was saying, I'm a government employee, and unlike dulls here, I'm pay like one. Yes, but you have a picasto, right yeah?
Throw that in us a tip and I'll sweep up after we clean the place out.
The picasso is going to my daughter. What about a Georgia O'Keefe.
They're beautiful, lest In.
When no alarm, you think they'd at least have a trip wire or.
It is Oh duless. The boxer shut this off is probably up front with security.
Well, I got syringes at the ready.
Dude, you know you can just knock someone out and tie them up right.
Or put a gun to the head.
Oh no, damn it, Come on, bod again with the gun.
What are you doing here, Slick?
We missed you too much.
I knew you liked me, Jeth, This is government business, Bud step aside. Okay, Champ, you know why.
The head of this joint asked me to replace his security tonight.
He knew if anyone touched that YETI, Paul, I'd shoot.
To kill bullshit.
Wha damn it.
But you gotta killed me. Hell I warned you.
I'm not fooling around.
No.
I gathered that when you fired off a gun in a museum. But listen to me. I'm the one who asked you to steal that YETI hand, but this isn't what you want.
It was what we wanted. It's a fake bullshit.
Yes, Look, when doctor Hill ran those tests, I asked him send the labs to my institute, and I just got a call from Mabel saying the test came back that yetti hand. It's not some undiscovered species. Look, po, if the digits on this hand are primate, this thumb's human.
Really you're wired together, then I see.
Slick grab the gun.
Got it?
Ah, Jesus, Christy, Tony, you're gonna discociate.
My arm means I like you.
Jesus. It's filling up.
That's what you wanted, right, Yeah?
Yeah? Are you ready?
Oh I've never heard a speak in front of this many people before.
Okay, pretend they're not there. Just just look at me.
God, that's even scarier.
Hey, I am an amazing cheerleader.
Yeah, but you don't hide your emotion. So if I mess up, I'm gonna look at you, and I'm gonna know.
Think about it this way.
These people aren't here for you.
They're here for your granddad, m and the YETI we're just gonna say you found it right. No, but the tape where but smuggles the yetti handed to the UK. It's it's proved.
We don't know that yet, and it's just I think there's something better on this last tape.
Shit the governor is leaving already. Okay, I gotta go. Just remember your speech needs to be a draw for the donors. Science isn't sexy but a yetti.
That's all fetish.
Okay, m Monday podmeyum m money pod maum um money pod maum.
Is this working? I can't tell. I don't feel any different. Tom Slick, June fifth, nineteen fifty eight. I'm conducting a scientific study out here in the Himalayas, one I had to do alone. So I put Bud on another investigation, one closer to home. He's recording eyewitness accounts a bigfoot in northern California. Took his mind off that yety hand, which has disappeared as far as anyone who knows about it is concerned. Exposure to that hand it would have opened up these mountains to a whole new generation of poachers set on hunting a creature. I've come to see his other world. So I'm back at Kampaloom Cave, a cave only true believers can see. Those who not only believe the yetty exists, but also and where it's found, a place known as gyang Gonge. Some call it the Lost Horizon others Shangri law, but all know that Giyang gongj is not a physical place. It's a higher dimension one can harness through their optimization of energy. But I've been sitting here for the past seven hours doing exactly what Lama X instructed, and I think I missed the point. But for once, I don't care. I'm on a mountain night trek for months on a hunt for validation, but that dogged drive blinded me. Good God, this place is magnificent and so still.
H oh my god, oh ah.
There it is.
That's Stitch.
It's it's it's you.
Mm hmm.
No, no, no, I dropped it with my recorder.
It's gone.
It's just me and you, and you're magnificent.
Hey, Blair asked me to come get you. They're kicking out some screaming toddler.
He found it. Mom found what granddad found the yetti this tape.
It is proof.
If he found anything, you think he would have told the Institute or Bud Jemmy Stewart.
So he did. He told you this is your tape.
What does that even mean?
It means you get to decide if we tell the real story of Tom Slick and his Yetti hunt. Hi, thank you all for coming. I'm Live Slick, granddaughter of Tom Slick Junior. And right down there is Claire Slick, his daughter, my mom.
Hi.
I don't know how to sum up a scientific legend. Like my grandfather, he was complicated, but his life's mission was simple, to implement the machinery of science toward the advancement of humanity.
But not all of.
His scientific pursuits were done in a lab coat. How many of you are here because you want to learn more about his Yetti expedition. But what you don't know is that Tom Slick navigated the wilds of the Amazon in search of a diamond pipeline in India. He studied mind control with monks. South American Shamans taught him secrets of their herbal medicines and cures. He was an inventor who created his own brand of cattle. He patented a new method of construction he called the lift slab oh, and he helped put infamous bank robber machine gun Kelly behind bars. And those are all just footnotes to chapters of a life of Tom Slick on exhibit now at the Institute. And yes, there was an expedition to the Himalayas, but not a lot is known about what was discovered on that mission. And these rumors that there were tapes, well those are as big of a myth as the Yetti. What I do know is that my grandfather hunted mysteries, and he knew that some of the greatest mysteries are best left unsolved.
Live.
Sorry, I couldn't do it.
I just your mom didn't tell you.
Tell me what?
We didn't need the Yetti hook? What the governor allotted an annual budget for the institute. We're good for the next decade.
Oh my god, Holy shit.
Holy something. It's a miracle.
Yay Wow, huh. I just got a voicemail, but my phone didn't bring it.
Could be the governor. You should call him back while I celebrate our win for science by drinking my body weight in prosecco.
Hey, can you get my mom in here?
Before or after I ravaged that tray of pigs in a blanket? Come in, little piggies.
That's why didn't it ring live?
What you know who this is by now? Oh my god, But I guess you never thought I'd be speaking directly to you, seeing as I eclipsed the human realm before you were born. Jesus, that sounded insane, but believe me, my communicating with you from the other side is anything. But it's possible because of science, the dash of mysticism. At first, all I could do was leave you a box of tapes in the attic that I recorded while I was living, and yeah, it was a life worth documenting. But now I'm gonna share some profound discoveries I've made from this other plane of existence. You know it. I reached Gyang Gunch in that final tape your mother shared with you, the one where I made contact with the YETI I can show you how to find it, but you gotta believe, not just that this tape is real and that Giang Gunge exists, but you have to believe that anything is possible. Oh, and there's some meditation cheese stuff. I'll walk you through. I know what you're thinking, What does any of this mean? Is this voicemail reel? Is the man speaking to me really my grandfather? The crux of that lies in a simple question. Does believing in something make it real? I think it does.
Do you live?
Ah?
Whow live?
Mom?
You're not going to believe this.
Oh Honey, I'm my father's daughter.
Try me.
Tom Slick. Mystery Hunter is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts starring Owen Wilson as Tom Slick, Cissy Spasik as Claire Slick, Skyler Fiske as Livslick. Written and directed by Caroline Slaughter, story editor Jeb Stewart. Executive produced by Owen Wilson, Sissy Spasic, Skyler Fiske, Jeb Stewart, Caroline Slaughter, Brian Lavin, l C. Crowley, Brandon Barr, and Virginia Prescott. Produced and assistant directed by Amelia Brock. Original score, sound design, mixing and mastering by Jesse Niswanger, Casting by Daisy Church and Caroline Slaughter. Sag coordination by Daisy Church and Julia Christgau. Promo and trailers by Carl Catele. Special thanks to Catherine Nixon Cook. Recording engineers are Tyler Klang and Casey Pegram.
For iHeartMedia, Episode seven, cast Ian Shaw as Bud, Dave Willis as Alan Dulles, Ava Davis as Blair, Selinas, Tarivio as Dominique, Chuck Bryant as Governor Nielsen, Mike Schatz is the maintenance guy and the introductory voiceover, with additional roles voiced by David Devrees, Michael Mao, and Phil Clark. Additional audio assembly by Noah Kamer. Executive producer for iHeartMedia is Maya Howard.
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