Hoax Hunters: What is the Bermuda Triangle

Summary

Brains On! Science Podcast for Kids

Episode: Hoax Hunters: What is the Bermuda Triangle

Date: March 24, 2026
Host: Molly Bloom
Co-Hosts: Marc Sanchez & Sandon Taunton ("The Hoax Hunters")
Kid Co-Host/Question Contributor: Kai from Honolulu

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Overview

This episode dives into the legend and reality of the Bermuda Triangle—a mysterious area in the Atlantic Ocean claiming a reputation as a hotbed for missing ships, planes, and people. With the “Hoax Hunters” (Marc and Sandon), the episode uncovers the true stories behind famous disappearances, sorts fact from myth, and explains how folklore can grow from real-life events… all with the Brains On! signature mix of fun, skepticism, and science for curious kids.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to the Bermuda Triangle

• The Bermuda Triangle is “an area of water in the Atlantic Ocean. But it isn’t an official place. You won’t find it on a map.” (Mark, 05:21)
• The triangle is roughly formed by connecting Miami (Florida), Bermuda, and San Juan (Puerto Rico). (Sandon & Mark, 05:29-05:42)
• It’s rumored that “boats, planes, and people mysteriously disappear, leaving no trace.” (Mark, 05:46)
• Notable listener question: Kai from Honolulu asks, “Why do ships and planes disappear in the Triangle?” citing rumors about things stopping working and being hard to escape. (Kai, 04:51-05:04)

2. The Story of Flight 19

• In December 1945, five Navy planes (“Flight 19”) disappeared during a routine training mission after losing their sense of direction and experiencing equipment malfunctions. (Sandon & Mark, 06:08-08:21)
  • One pilot radios:

    “Both of my compasses are out and I’m trying to find Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I’m over land, but it’s broken.” (Flight 19, 07:03)

  • Final message:

    “All planes close up tight. We’ll have to ditch unless landfall. When the first plane drops below 10 gallons, it will all go down together.” (Flight 19, 08:06)

• The rescue plane dispatched also disappeared—fueling the mystery. (Sandon, 08:25)
• Transition: This story becomes a foundation for the Bermuda Triangle legend.

3. How the Legend Grew

• Years later, a Miami Herald article collects Bermuda Triangle disappearance stories, highlighting lost planes and ships—emphasizing that it happens “despite improving technology.” (Sandon, 12:38-13:15)
• Sensationalist magazines like Fate magazine amplify the mystery with paranormal explanations and even add fake quotes (e.g., “We can’t find West. Everything is wrong... Don’t come after us. They look like they’re from outer space.”) (14:00)
• The story goes viral and spawns theories:
  • Alien gateways/portals to other galaxies
  • The Lost City of Atlantis causing navigation failures
  • Time vortexes sending travelers to the past or future

4. Skeptical Investigation: Facts vs. Fiction

• Hoax Hunters emphasize: “Show me the proof.”
• Actual evidence for aliens, Atlantis, or time travel is lacking.
  • “There are lots of ships and planes and satellites that watch the Bermuda Triangle… if UFOs were popping in and out willy-nilly, we probably would have spotted them.” (Mark, 15:34-15:50)
  • “We also have no proof of Atlantis... From everything we have seen, we’ve got no reason to think there’s a lost city.” (Mark, 15:50)
  • “Time travel is super cool, but seems super unlikely given everything we know about time and physics.” (Sandon, 16:04)

5. The Rational Explanations

• Most disappearances have straightforward causes:
  • Disorientation and pilot error (especially in Flight 19—lead pilot confused Bahamas for the Florida Keys, which led them further out to sea). (Sandon & Mark, 19:31-20:21)
  • Mechanical failures and running out of fuel.
  • Severe storms and the deep ocean making wreckage hard to recover.
• The search plane likely exploded due to a mechanical fault, not supernatural causes. (Sandon, 20:41)
• The Bermuda Triangle is “no more dangerous than the rest” of the ocean. (Mark, 21:38; Molly, 22:52)
• Confirmation bias explains why only the mysterious disappearances get attention, while thousands of routine trips across the area go unnoticed. (Mark & Sandon, 21:50-22:13)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Defining the Triangle

• “If you drew a line connecting San Juan, Puerto Rico to the island of Bermuda... then down to Miami, Florida... and then back to San Juan... it makes a triangle.”
  — Sandon, 05:29-05:42

Chilling Radio from Flight 19

• “Both of my compasses are out, and I’m trying to find Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I’m over land, but it’s broken.”
  — Flight 19 pilot, 07:03

• “All planes close up tight. We’ll have to ditch unless landfall. When the first plane drops below 10 gallons, it will all go down together.”
  — Flight 19 (final message), 08:06

Inventing the Paranormal

• “We can’t find West. Everything is wrong... Don’t come after us. They look like they’re from outer space.”
  — Fake magazine quote, 14:00

Skepticism and Science

• “As we’ve mentioned in other episodes, we don’t have any proof of aliens. Plus, there are lots of ships and planes and satellites that watch the Bermuda Triangle....”
  — Mark, 15:34

• “The Bermuda Triangle isn’t mysteriously dangerous. It’s just a normal patch of ocean.”
  — Mark, 21:38

• “If you collect all [the accidents] in one story, it might look like a lot… but the Bermuda Triangle wouldn’t even be the most dangerous part of the ocean.”
  — Mark, 21:25

• “Part of what happened here is likely something called a confirmation bias. That’s where you look for examples that confirm or agree with your bias or your opinion… and ignore all the many, many, many cases where nothing weird happened at all.”
  — Mark & Sandon, 21:50-22:13

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Fun & Interactive Segments

Mystery Sound

• [09:05-11:20 & 23:33-25:08]
  Regular segment where listeners guess the source of a strange sound.
  • Guesses: shoveling gravel, corn, cleaning out a fish tank, outdoor noises.
  • Answer: “The sound of us putting birdseed in the feeder.” (Rosemary & Nora, 25:10)

Mailbag & Fan Art

• [16:50] Molly describes a listener’s creative alien and eclipse-themed fan art from Bangalore, India.

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Key Timestamps

• 05:01: Listener Kai asks about the Bermuda Triangle.
• 06:08-08:25: Dramatic recreation of the Flight 19 disappearance.
• 12:17-14:15: How news, magazines, and fake quotes built the legend.
• 15:17: Wild theories (aliens, Atlantis, time vortexes) discussed.
• 19:31-21:11: Rational explanations for disappearances.
• 21:50: Explanation of confirmation bias.
• 25:10: Mystery sound revealed as birdseed being poured.

---

Conclusion

The Bermuda Triangle is a story born from tragedy, confusion, incomplete information, and lots of creative storytelling. The real lesson? Mysteries are fun, but when you look at the facts, there are usually logical, scientific explanations behind even the most baffling stories—and it’s important to stay curious but skeptical.

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Speaker Attribution Guide:

• Molly Bloom — Host
• Mark Sanchez & Sandon Taunton — Hoax Hunters co-hosts
• Kai — Listener/kid co-host (question contributor)
• Guest/Caller — Pilots in dramatizations or fake quotes
• Rosemary & Nora — Mystery Sound contributors

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Want more? You can submit your own questions, art, or mystery sounds at brainson.org, and check out the next episode, all about raspberries!

Transcript

[Molly Bloom]

Hi friends. You might have heard that Bark Sandin and I are on the road this spring with Brains On Live. We've been to several cities so far and it has been so much fun. Our next two stops are Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale. That's at the end of March. And then we just announced that we added Lawrence, Kansas in May and Columbus, Ohio in June. We're also heading to Chattanooga, Durham, Milwaukee, Portland, Buffalo, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. We hope you'll be able to join us at one of those shows. We can't wait to see you. To get tickets and get more information, you can head to brainson.org events that's brainson.org events

[Kai]

brains on universe.

[Molly Bloom]

You're listening to Brains on where we're serious about being curious. Have you ever been somewhere that just gives you the heebie cheap jeebies like a dark, drippy basement or a stretch of woods that's unexplainably chilly and full of creepy shadows? Or that aisle in the pharmacy where the magazines are? All those smiling faces just staring at you, never blinking, weirds me out. But a warm, sunny tropical ocean seems like a strange place for a chilling mystery. But that's exactly what's going on off the coast of Florida and in an area called the Bermuda Triangle. Today, Mark and Xanden are back as the Hoax hunters and they're investigating this stretch of spooky sea. They'll share some stories and separate the myths from the facts. Stay tuned. Hello friends. Here's some exciting news at the end of this month. At the end of March, we are doing a Smarty Party. That's where we invite everyone who's a part of Smarty Pass to come do a virtual hang with me, Mark and Sandon. We'll play some games, guess some mystery sounds. We'll answer any questions you have, and I will do a live reading of the Brain's owner role featuring the names of everyone who comes to the party. If you would like to come to this party, you could just join [e-mail] if you're a part of Smartypass, you will be invited to the party. And if you can't make it live to the party, you can watch it after the fact. Joining SmartyPass is a great way to support our shows and have some fun too. Again, that's smartypass.org thank you for your support,

[Mark Sanchez]

Brains.

[Sandon Taunton]

Coming to you from the deepest depths of the Brain's on basement, which is in fact dark and drippy, but also

[Mark Sanchez]

kind of cozy and homey Surrounded by

[Sandon Taunton]

artifacts of intrigue and suspense. Like this chunk of lava from a deadly volcano and a poster of the man beast known as Bigfoot and wrapped

[Mark Sanchez]

in fluffy blankets with cocoa.

[Sandon Taunton]

But the marshmallows are shaped like bats. It's hoax hunters.

[Mark Sanchez]

Hoax hunters. We like myths, but we hate getting tricks. Yeah, we like myths, but we hate getting tricks. We like myths, but we hate getting tricks. We hate getting tricked. No, we don't like it.

[Sandon Taunton]

Welcome back. I'm Sandon.

[Mark Sanchez]

And I'm Mark. And together we look into claims too beguiling to believe, too odd to accept, too gnarly to gnar.

[Sandon Taunton]

And with us is our trusty sidekick, the mystery moose.

[Mark Sanchez]

Wait, where did that moose come from?

[Sandon Taunton]

Look, it's not important how I won a full grown moose in a high stakes game of Go Fish. Or how I got it to live in our basement and wear a T shirt that says Mystery Moose. What is important is now we have a zany sidekick.

[Mark Sanchez]

We don't need another zany sidekick. We've got you.

[Sandon Taunton]

What? No, no. I'm the host. You're the co host. And Mystery moose is the sidekick. Here to add fun and whimsy. Add some fun and whimsy. Mystery Moose.

[Mark Sanchez]

So is mystery moose supposed to be eating your Bigfoot poster?

[Sandon Taunton]

What?

[Kai]

No.

[Sandon Taunton]

No. Mystery moose.

[Molly Bloom]

No.

[Sandon Taunton]

That's a vintage blacklight rendering of the famous Patterson Gimlin Sasquatch photo.

[Mark Sanchez]

Now it's moose chow.

[Sandon Taunton]

Fine, Fine. You know what? That's not important. You keep being fun and whimsical. Mystery Moose.

[Mark Sanchez]

Today's episode was inspired by something a listener sent us.

[Kai]

Aloha. My name is Kai. I live in Honolulu. My question is, why do ships and planes disappear in Honolulu? The Triangle.

[Mark Sanchez]

Great question, Kai. What have you heard about the Triangle?

[Kai]

Stuff stops working when you're going through the area. It's very hard to escape. And things disappear. I like thinking about mysteries like this.

[Sandon Taunton]

Us too, buddy. Us too.

[Mark Sanchez]

The Bermuda Triangle is an area of water in the Atlantic Ocean. But it isn't an official place. You won't find it on a map.

[Sandon Taunton]

If you drew a line connecting San Juan, Puerto Rico to the island of Bermuda.

[Mark Sanchez]

Uh huh.

[Sandon Taunton]

Then down to Miami, Florida.

[Mark Sanchez]

Okay.

[Sandon Taunton]

And then back to San Juan.

[Mark Sanchez]

I'm listening.

[Sandon Taunton]

It makes a triangle. That's roughly the area people are talking about.

[Mark Sanchez]

It's a spot where, according to legend, boats, planes and people mysteriously disappear, leaving no trace.

[Sandon Taunton]

And that part is true. Ships and planes have gone missing in the Bermuda Triangle.

[Mark Sanchez]

Here's one of the most famous examples.

[Sandon Taunton]

It was December of 1940. Five men dressed in fitted suits. Women in knee high skirts paired with shoulder padded jackets.

[Mark Sanchez]

Radio was the hot ticket for home entertainment where people would listen to swing music and crooners like Bing Crosby and the Andrews sisters.

[Sandon Taunton]

World War II had just ended and America and its allies came out on top.

[Mark Sanchez]

Over in Florida, a group of five Navy fighter planes were about to take off for a routine training mission. They were called Flight 19.

[Sandon Taunton]

Flight 19 ready for takeoff. Everything was normal for the first part of the flight.

[Mark Sanchez]

But as they started the second leg, things got weird. One of the pilots radioed a nearby plane saying, I don't know where we are.

[Guest/Caller]

We must have gotten lost that last turn.

[Mark Sanchez]

The pilot asked for more details. Someone from Flight 19 replied, both of

[Guest/Caller]

my compasses are out and I'm trying to find Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I'm over land, but it's broken.

[Sandon Taunton]

This was alarming. The pilots should have known exactly where to go. They tried a few different things to get back on track, but no luck. They were confused, lost. Eventually people on land were notified and bases and boats were asked to start looking for the planes. Where were they?

[Mark Sanchez]

The weather got worse. The sun was setting, the radio signal was cutting in and out. And the pilots of Flight 19 were running low on fuel. A few land based radio stations managed to pick up their location. They were north of the Bahamas and well off the coast of Florida. Way off track.

[Sandon Taunton]

The planes changed course again. But no matter what they did, they couldn't find the shore. It was like they were trapped at sea. Fuel and time were running out. Eventually, a final message came through.

[Guest/Caller]

All planes close up tight. We'll have to ditch unless landfall. When the first plane drops below 10 gallons, it will all go down together.

[Mark Sanchez]

The planes were never seen again.

[Sandon Taunton]

Weirder still, another plane was sent out to look for the missing flight. It too disappeared.

[Mark Sanchez]

Ah, mystery moose. Don't sneak up on a guy like that. Also, you're very quiet for a moose.

[Sandon Taunton]

How does he do it? It's a mystery. Or it's the little moose booties I knitted for him. They look great on you, pal. Coming up, we'll talk about how this story helped create the lore of the Bermuda Triangle.

[Mark Sanchez]

Plus, we've got some pretty solid theories about what really happened. But first, it's Molly here with a different kind of mystery.

[Molly Bloom]

Hey, hoax hunters. Thanks for inviting me into your lair. Cool moose. Anyway, it's time for the

[Sandon Taunton]

mystery cell.

[Molly Bloom]

Let's see if you too can figure this one out. Are you ready?

[Mark Sanchez]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, please.

[Sandon Taunton]

Always ready for a mystery down here.

[Molly Bloom]

At Hoax Hunter's headquarters here, it's. What do you guys think?

[Mark Sanchez]

It sounded outside, and it sounded like, to me, like some sort of shoveling.

[Sandon Taunton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Digging gravel, I thought. I don't know if it's just because my head is in a marine mystery, but I thought it was, like, somebody cleaning out a fish tank and that little gravel that's, like, really brightly colored and looks like candy that you keep being told to not put in your mouth. I think it's that stuff. Someone was cleaning out an aquarium that had that gravel and they were scooping it out with a shovel.

[Mark Sanchez]

That would also explain there's kind of like a constant hum behind it. So like, maybe like an aquarium motor,

[Sandon Taunton]

but I didn't hear water, so it had to have been. It would have to be, like, an empty aquarium.

[Mark Sanchez]

Yeah. That's interesting. That's true. Can we hear it again, Molly?

[Molly Bloom]

Yeah. All right.

[Mark Sanchez]

Okay. Okay. I definitely think it's outdoors. It's not in an aquarium. Yeah, because I heard, like, a. Like, also, like, insects or something. Like a cicada or something. I don't know why, but I feel like it's corn.

[Molly Bloom]

Like corn kernels.

[Mark Sanchez]

Like shoveling corn kernels into something.

[Molly Bloom]

I like it.

[Mark Sanchez]

That's where my mind goes.

[Sandon Taunton]

I think someone's filling up a pail with gravel. I haven't decided why yet, but they're doing.

[Mark Sanchez]

Yeah, I don't know why they're digging corn either, but, hey, I dig corn.

[Molly Bloom]

Okay, Excellent guesses, you two. I'm not gonna tell you what it is yet. I'll be back with the answer at the end of the show. Later, Rock and Sandin.

[Mark Sanchez]

Bye.

[Sandon Taunton]

Do you have a question for the Hoax Hunters? Maybe there's a mystery on your mind, like a lost city or a cryptic creature.

[Mark Sanchez]

Or do you have something that seems a little too hard to believe? Like, if you keep making silly faces, your face is going to get stuck that way. Or the dogs always poop along the north south axis.

[Sandon Taunton]

Whatever you're wondering, send it to us. We might investigate it in a future episode.

[Mark Sanchez]

And, of course, we love fan art. Send us your drawings, too.

[Sandon Taunton]

Yeah, Draw us with mystery moose riding majestically on his antlers.

[Molly Bloom]

Ooh.

[Mark Sanchez]

With blankets and hot cocoa.

[Sandon Taunton]

Just go to brainson.org to get in touch. Thanks.

[Molly Bloom]

Brains.

[Mark Sanchez]

Brains. Brains. We're back with Hoax Hunters.

[Sandon Taunton]

Hoax Hunters don't get hoaxed. We're talking about the Bermuda Triangle, a large patch of ocean between Bermuda and Puerto Rico and Florida.

[Mark Sanchez]

And Flight 19, a group of military planes that mysteriously vanished without a Trace.

[Sandon Taunton]

A few years after that fateful flight, a reporter from a newspaper called the Miami Herald wrote an article titled Seas Puzzles Still Baffle Men in Push Button Age. It collected a bunch of different stories of boats and planes disappearing in the waters around Florida, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

[Mark Sanchez]

Like passenger planes that never reached their destination and a freight ship that disappeared after loading up with cargo.

[Guest/Caller]

It is the same world the ancients

[Molly Bloom]

knew into which men and their machines

[Guest/Caller]

and ships can disappear without a trace.

[Sandon Taunton]

This article was mostly grounded in fact, and it just simply pointed out that despite improving technology, planes and boats could still get lost at sea.

[Mark Sanchez]

But it sparked the imagination of other writers. Soon a magazine called Fate wrote their own version of the story. Fate was known for writing about paranormal stuff like aliens and monsters and psychic abilities. It was more fun fiction than hard facts.

[Sandon Taunton]

But this story of a triangle shaped mystery zone caught on. Soon more magazines and papers were talking about the Bermuda Triangle. They began adding fake quotes from the pilots of Flight 19 to make the story even spookier.

[Guest/Caller]

We can't find West. Everything is wrong. We can't be sure of any direction. Everything looks strange, even the ocean. It looks like we're entering the white water. Don't come after us. They look like they're from otters. Space.

[Mark Sanchez]

After all that hullabaloo, it was only a matter of time before people came up with their own theories on why things kept disappearing.

[Sandon Taunton]

Some say the area is an interstellar gateway, that there's a portal connecting Earth to distant galaxies. Aliens use that to travel to and from our planet. Ships and planes disappear when they accidentally slip through.

[Mark Sanchez]

Others say that patch of ocean sits above the lost city of Atlantis. That's a mythical kingdom that had technology way beyond what we know. And some argue that special energy crystals from this sunken world mess with navigation equipment.

[Sandon Taunton]

Another idea is that the Bermuda Triangle is home to a time vortex and that people can slip through time there, maybe traveling far into the past or into the distant future. Either way, the travelers leave those of us in the present with no trace of their whereabouts.

[Mark Sanchez]

These are all pretty cool stories, but we at Hoax Hunters headquarters have a motto which goes a little like this. Show me the proof.

[Sandon Taunton]

As we've mentioned in other episodes, we don't have any proof of aliens. Plus, there are lots of ships and planes and satellites that watch the Bermuda Triangle. After all, there are a lot of hurricanes in that area. So if UFOs were popping in and out willy nilly, we probably would have spotted them.

[Mark Sanchez]

We also have no proof of Atlantis. The Atlantic Ocean is really deep in some places. And there's lots of stuff down there that we haven't seen seen yet. But from everything we have seen, we've got no reason to think there's a lost city.

[Sandon Taunton]

And the idea of time travel is super cool, but seems super unlikely given everything we know about time and physics.

[Mark Sanchez]

Plus it turns out there are much more obvious explanations. We'll tell you about that in just a minute. But first, Sandit, I think Mystery Moose is trying to get your attention.

[Sandon Taunton]

Oh, is that what keeps poking me insistently?

[Molly Bloom]

Yeah.

[Sandon Taunton]

What do you need, pal? Oh, gosh, he wants to cuddle.

[Mark Sanchez]

So heavy. Oh, oh, he's curling up in your lap.

[Guest/Caller]

I can't breathe.

[Sandon Taunton]

Go to mailbag.

[Molly Bloom]

Hello, Molly here with the mailbag. Today I'm going to put on my fancy beret and turtleneck because things are getting artsy fartsy up in here. Okay, I have a very awesome piece of fan art drawn by Aradhana in Bangalore, India. I'm gonna describe it for you. This is very appropriate for an episode featuring the Hoax Hunters because Aradna has drawn a spaceship with an alien inside of it. The alien is saying, today is Friday the 13th and guess what? The alien is beaming me up. So I am being sucked up into this spaceship. I am holding a brains on flag, I've got a very cool ponytail. And I'm saying, not my lucky day. And then below me on the ground looking up is a sun singing solar eclipse. Next to the sun is a moon going moon eclipse. And then we have a cat, a mummified cat. And the cat is saying, I'm a mummified cat. And then next to the cat is an Egyptian tomb. And coming out of that is a word bubble that says, my cat can talk. And then next to that is a dog who has a balloon. But of course, this is an amazing drawing. Thank you so much for sending it to us. If you have a drawing or a joke or a question to share with us, get in touch, head to brainson.org contact and send it in. We can't wait to hear from you. Want to hear Brainzon Forever Go and smashboom Best without the ad breaks. Just head to brainson.org and sign up for Smarty Pass. It helps support our show and gives you ad free versions of all of our stuff, plus bonus episodes, invites to our book club and smarty parties and more. Thank you so much.

[Mark Sanchez]

Brazen.

[Sandon Taunton]

We're back with Hoax Hunters. I'm Sandon.

[Mark Sanchez]

And I'm Mark.

[Sandon Taunton]

And our zany sidekick, Mystery Moose is over there. Sleeping on our inflated mattress. Excuse me, Sleeping on our deflated mattress.

[Mark Sanchez]

We last left off talking about how the story of missing planes and boats in the Atlantic Ocean led to a myth called the Bermuda Triangle.

[Sandon Taunton]

People came up with all kinds of theories as to what was happening, from aliens to time travel.

[Mark Sanchez]

But it turns out there's a simpler explanation. Sometimes accidents happen.

[Sandon Taunton]

Let's take Flight 19 as an example.

[Mark Sanchez]

Those pilots got lost on a simple mission, but there are some clues as to what happened.

[Sandon Taunton]

Mainly, the lead pilot mentioned that he thought they were flying over the Florida Keys. But those islands are on the opposite side of Florida, not in the Atlantic, but in the Gulf of Mexico.

[Mark Sanchez]

Flight 19 wasn't supposed to be flying anywhere near the Florida Keys, so it doesn't really make sense that they'd be there.

[Sandon Taunton]

But the lead pilot had previously been stationed near the Keys and. And was used to flying there, so it's easy to imagine that he got confused and thought the Bahama Islands in the Atlantic Ocean were the Keys in the Gulf.

[Mark Sanchez]

This also explains why the pilot flew east. If you're in the Gulf of Mexico, you'd fly east to get to Florida. But since the planes were in the Atlantic, flying east just took them further out to sea.

[Sandon Taunton]

There were other errors made by the pilots, too. One of the pilots even suggested that they just fly west to find land, which probably would have worked. But the lead pilot refused, and the rest followed orders.

[Mark Sanchez]

The Navy reviewed this, and they thought it was probably just a tragic case of someone getting lost and choosing the wrong way to fly home.

[Sandon Taunton]

The plane that got lost searching for Flight 19 was said to have some mechanical issues before it left. And there are reports people saw flames in the sky shortly after takeoff. It likely exploded, which is terrible, but not paranormal.

[Mark Sanchez]

And with pretty much every other example of a lost plane or ship, there are reasonable explanations, from storms to running out of fuel. And the Atlantic Ocean is deep, so it makes sense that the remains from the accidents were sunk and never found.

[Sandon Taunton]

But we should stress these accidents happened a long time ago, and traveling in planes and boats is actually very safe. And even though these accidents are rare, if you collected all of them in one story, it might look like a lot.

[Mark Sanchez]

But even if you did that, the Bermuda Triangle wouldn't even be the most dangerous part of the ocean. And most of the accidents involve cargo ships, so it's not aliens. Sorry. Aliens. It's fine, Mark.

[Sandon Taunton]

The U.S. navy and Coast Guard and the national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have all stated the Triangle isn't mysteriously dangerous. It's just a Normal patch of ocean.

[Mark Sanchez]

Part of what happened here is likely something called a confirmation bias. That's where you look for examples that confirm or agree with your bias or your opinion. Like only looking at cases where a craft went missing and ignoring all the

[Sandon Taunton]

many, many, many, many cases where nothing weird happened at all. If you're just looking for examples that confirm your bias, you'll miss the truth.

[Mark Sanchez]

So the legend of the Bermuda Triangle doesn't add up. That's the scoop. And speaking of scoop, Sandin, I think Mystery moose just left a mystery mess behind the furnace.

[Sandon Taunton]

Oh, that is no mystery. Ugh. Yeah, I'll scoop that up and take it out. Remind me to read up on how to potty train your basement moose later. Well, until next time, hunters, stay skeptical.

[Molly Bloom]

The Bermuda Triangle is a stretch of water in the Atlantic Ocean. It was made famous after an article listed off a bunch of planes and ships that disappeared there. Magazines took this idea and ran with it, adding fake quotes and supernatural explanations. But in reality, it's just an ordinary patch of water that's no more dangerous than the rest. That's it for this episode of Brains On. This episode was produced by me, Molly Bloom, Marc Sanchez, and Sandon Taunton. It was sound designed by Mark Sanchez, who also wrote our theme music. Special thanks to Andy Doucet and Ken Taborsky at Code of the north for all of their website help. Mark and Sandin, are you ready for that mystery sound again?

[Sandon Taunton]

Oh, bring it on.

[Mark Sanchez]

I've been waiting the whole episode.

[Molly Bloom]

Wonderful. Okay, fellas, here it is. Okay, let me refresh your memories. Last time you thought it was outside, Mark thought corn, Sandin thought gravel.

[Mark Sanchez]

Okay, so have you ever been to a playground that has those kind of, like, digger toys? Like, they're like small versions of. Like you said, you sit on it and you kind of like, put that digger into the sand or whatever?

[Molly Bloom]

Yes.

[Mark Sanchez]

So it sounds like that is what's happening to me. I'm getting. That's the picture that I'm. That's unfolding before my ear eyes or.

[Sandon Taunton]

Yeah. And I still think it's somebody shoveling gravel into a cup. And I think they're by an AC unit. I think the humming, the mechanical humming is like a red herring because it's just throwing you off. But they're just outdoors by the side of their house where there's like, an AC unit. But they're shoveling. They're picking up gravel from the side of their yard, you know, maybe where they have, like, walking stones or something and a nice little, like, tea Table set up for gardening. And they're just putting gravel in a cup because they wanted a gravel cup.

[Molly Bloom]

Sure. Of course.

[Mark Sanchez]

That said, I still hear corn. I don't know why I've got corn on the brain. I'm a pretty corny guy, so.

[Molly Bloom]

He is a corny guy. You guys ready for the answer?

[Sandon Taunton]

Yes.

[Mark Sanchez]

Yes.

[Sandon Taunton]

Yeah.

[Molly Bloom]

Okay, here's the answer.

[Kai]

Hi, my name is Rosemary. And my name is Nora. And that was the sound of us putting birdseed in the feeder.

[Mark Sanchez]

Oh, yeah, the bird seed.

[Sandon Taunton]

There might be corn in the birdseed.

[Mark Sanchez]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, of course. Obviously. So what birds don't like corn?

[Molly Bloom]

You were correct with your corn, I'm going to say. And Sandon, you weren't, but. But you still have to shoveling something. Yeah, they were shuffling.

[Mark Sanchez]

Yeah, they were scooping.

[Molly Bloom]

So I think, like, you're.

[Sandon Taunton]

And I was right about the mechanical sound being a red herring being totally unrelated to the sound.

[Molly Bloom]

Excellent guesses, you two hoax hunters.

[Mark Sanchez]

Thank you, Molly.

[Sandon Taunton]

Thanks, Molly. It's so fun being the guesser.

[Molly Bloom]

It is. Yeah. Now it's time for the brains honor roll. These are the incredible kids who keep the show going with their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings and high fives. Justin from orlando, florida. Joseph, jesse and josie from toledo, ohio. Celine and connor from framingham, massachusetts. Adrian and julian from portland, orego, oregon. Ruby from hanwell, new brunswick. Everly from kearney, missouri. Trent from del mar, new york. Vihan from mountain view, california. Eleanor from highland park, new jersey. Nyla from indonesia. Connor and celine from boston. Beau from tampa, florida. Isla from melbourne, australia. Hannah from mount bridges, ontario. Eli from arecibo, puerto rico. Ollie from coolum beach, australia. Sophia from sault ste. Marie, ontario. Conrad and shea from owatana, minnesota. Philip, hudson and rowan from tucson, arizona. Sydney from tacoma park, maryland. Moses from princeton, new jersey. Esther and benny from baltimore. Greta from darlington, maryland. Jack and william from richmond. Vi, cyrla and sai from ballina, killaloe, ireland. Ethan from temecula, california. Katie from ada, ohio. Ruby and evelyn from johnson, rhode island. Gordon from seattle. Jonah from los angeles. Celine from houston, texas. Evie from albany, oregon. Elvera from phillipsburg, pennsylvania. Rosie and lyra from houston, texas. Emma from west lebanon, n.h. cole from ellicott city, maryland. Hope from boston. Beta and lucy from cambridge, ontario. Lucy from boulder, colorado. Levi from texas. Thomas, ivy and willa from easton, massachusetts. And emily from roswell, georgia. Taylor from burlington, iowa. Alice from san diego. Esther from chicago. Luciana from silver spring, maryland. Florence and clifford from montreal. Kabir from white bear lake, minnesota. Patrick from new york finnan berkeley from hastings, nebraska angelica from new carlisle, ohio ava from madison, wisconsin ruben from peterborough, new hampshire cedar from marina, on st. Croix, minnesota jack from santa barbara, california violet from st. Cloud, minnesota william from roslyn, new york lucien and julius from brooklyn, new york and shy from kalamazoo, michigan. We'll be back next week with an episode all about raspberries. Thanks for listening.