CLASSIC: Ancient Flying Machines

Summary

Podcast Summary: Stuff They Don't Want You To Know

Episode: CLASSIC: Ancient Flying Machines

Podcast by: iHeartPodcasts
Date: July 28, 2026
Hosts: Ben, Matt, Noel, with Producer Paul

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Overview and Main Theme

In this “classic” episode, the hosts delve deep into the alluring (and controversial) topic of ancient flying machines—specifically, legends, historical texts, and speculations from cultures around the world that suggest the ancients might have possessed flight technology. Central to their investigation is the role of mercury in these stories, pivotal mythic artifacts such as the vimana from Indian lore, and the question of whether such technology could have existed—and then been lost or hidden. The episode explores the intersection of myth, speculative history, pseudoscience, and the persistent human tendency to imagine lost technologies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mercury in Ancient Cultures

Timestamps: 05:00–16:30

• Mercury was a coveted, mystic substance, used in rituals, alchemy, pigments, and even believed to grant immortality.

  • "Archaeologists found mercury in an Egyptian tomb that dated back to 1500 BC." (Noel, 05:55)
  • The Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang sought life extension with mercury, but likely died young (39) due to mercury poisoning.
    • "He was mercury rich...this guy was also taking mercury pills." (Ben, 10:46)
  • Teotihuacan (Mexico) revealed pools of mercury symbolizing the waters of the underworld (13:19).

• Mercury's continued use—still present in household items today.

2. Vimanas and Ancient Indian Lore

Timestamps: 22:00–35:00

• Vimana: Legendary flying palaces or chariots described in ancient Hindu texts; sometimes said to fly via mysterious means, occasionally featuring mercury-based engines.
  • "Vimyana were flying palaces...is this a product of imagination...or did they actually know how to build these things?" (Noel, 22:11)
  • The Vimanika Shastra is cited as a text allegedly describing flight technology in detail, including 'mercury vortex engines'.
    • “It appears to fully describe the construction of these things called vimanas, as well as their propulsion systems, such as a Mercury vortex engine.” (Matt, 25:06)
  • However, scrutiny reveals that this text dates to the early 20th century (not ancient times), and is likely the result of channeled sessions rather than preserved antiquity.

3. Debunking Myths & Modern Hoaxes

Timestamps: 35:00–46:30

• The Vimanika Shastra was 'revealed' between 1918–1923 by Pandit Subbaraya Shastry, who claimed to be channeling ancient knowledge (38:13).
• Its technical content has been universally dismissed by modern aerospace engineers and scientists.
  • "They are absurdly non aerodynamic, brutalist wedding cakes with minarets, huge ornithopter wings and dinky propellers." (J.B. Hare–quoted by Ben, 44:33)
• The 2015 Indian Science Congress controversy: A paper citing vimanas as real was widely criticized as pseudoscience. Over 220 scientists petitioned against presenting pseudoscience at a scientific event (43:21).

4. Connection to Modern Conspiracies & Alternative History

Timestamps: 28:30–30:46

• Nazi Germany’s interest in lost technological secrets (the “Nazi Bell”/“Vril” mythology), fueled by real 1938–1939 expeditions to Tibet and India.

  • “There really was a German expedition to Tibet and India in 1938–1939. And it was weird.” (Ben, 28:49)
  • However, no evidence supports Nazi acquisition of mercury engines or flying devices.

• Persistent pop culture mythmaking: Ancient Aliens, Prometheus, and the recurring allure of lost high technology.

  • “That’s why Ancient Aliens is such a successful show...because part of it makes sense.” (Matt, 49:53)

5. Lost Technologies: Open Questions

Timestamps: 50:53–57:41

• The hosts stress that human civilization is prone to losing knowledge (e.g., Greek fire, Damascus steel, antikythera mechanism).
  • “Humanity is very, very, very good at losing things...we have lost technology before and it’s usually rediscovered.” (Ben, 51:16)
• While claims about mercury-powered vimanas aren’t substantiated, it’s possible some forms of lost tech remain undiscovered.
  • “I am super open to getting some hard proof about an ancient flying machine. That would be so cool.” (Ben, 57:41)

6. Extreme Claims and Urban Legends

Timestamps: 53:31–55:24

• Review of a viral Medium article claiming a 5,000-year-old vimana was found in an Afghan cave and 8 U.S. soldiers vanished into a “time well”—all unsubstantiated, with global leaders allegedly involved.
  • “It has some incredible things said. Ultimately, it has to do with exactly what the title says...” (Matt, 54:38)

7. Audience Engagement & Final Thoughts

Timestamps: 57:50–end

• Listeners are invited to share theories, lost tech stories, or even “hard proof” of ancient flight.
• Plug for audience interaction via social media, voicemail, or email.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

“The description of the flying palace or the Vimana here is that it’s shaped like a giant peacock. It’s not especially aerodynamic.”
— Ben (23:08)

“Mercury is a poisonous substance. That’s why we grow up being told not to break open the thermometers, no matter how cool they are.”
— Ben (09:10)

“If they’ve got some kind of special mercury unknown technology propulsion system...it wouldn’t matter how it was shaped if it could slip through matter in a different kind of way.”
— Matt (45:32)

“This is all made up. This is just somebody’s imagination, somebody’s creativity at work. But when you think about almost any ancient text, there is a good amount of visioning that’s occurring...”
— Matt (38:13)

“Humanity is very, very, very good at losing things. So good at losing stuff. We have lost technology before, and it’s usually rediscovered at some point.”
— Ben (51:16)

“Cool stories, dude.”
— Ben (57:50), encapsulating the overall skeptical, playful tone

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Timestamps – Major Segments

• 05:00–16:30 – Mercury in history, burial rituals, mystery, and technology uses
• 22:00–35:00 – Vimanas, Vedas, Vimanika Shastra, and mythology vs. fact
• 35:00–46:30 – Debunking Vimanika Shastra & modern controversies
• 46:30–52:30 – Lost technologies (Greek fire, antikythera mechanism, etc.)
• 53:31–55:24 – The “Afghanistan Vimana Time Well” urban legend/disinformation
• 57:50–end – Final thoughts, open questions, listener engagement

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Tone & Style

The conversation is informal, witty, and skeptical—but with a relentless curiosity. Hosts combine respectful mythological discussion with irreverent asides and playful debunking. Cultural references (Ancient Aliens, Indiana Jones, Prometheus), jokes about engineering failure (“brutalist wedding cakes”), and authentic engagement with audience emails reinforce the show's community feel.

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Takeaways

• Ancient legends about flying machines reflect the fascination and creativity of pre-modern societies.
• The most famous “technical” texts on vimanas (like the Vimanika Shastra) are of dubious origin, almost certainly modern, and not recognized as ancient science.
• Mercury was globally venerated, sometimes seen as mystical or powerful but not as actual flight fuel.
• The seductive appeal of lost technologies is persistent—it’s “cool stories, dude”—but evidence for ancient flight is, at best, lacking.
• Humanity’s real, documented loss of technology (and rediscovery) keeps the door open for future surprises.

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Contact/Engagement:
Find the hosts on social media (@ConspiracyStuff), through their Facebook group ("Here's Where It Gets Crazy"), by voicemail (1-833-STD-WYTK), or email.

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(Summary compiled true to the hosts' original tone and language, preserving key arguments and memorable moments.)

Transcript

[Ben]

Fellow conspiracy realists, we are returning to you with a classic episode. Who doesn't love hopping on a plane? Statistically, a lot of people, but humans have been in love with the idea of flight for a long, long time.

[Noel]

I mean, it's pretty cool, you know, we can just hop into, like, a giant tube that takes off from the ground and floats through the sky and then get out in another location. Short of some of the inconveniences that go along with it, it's pretty miraculous.

[Matt]

And simultaneously, guys, human beings have been reporting, writing down, drawing pictures of weird lights in the sky, flying contraptions, and then what have these things been? I always think of Von Daniken when I say the word.

[Ben]

The Vedas.

[Matt]

Vimanas.

[Ben]

Vimanas, that's right. Yes. Oh, vimanas described in the Vedas.

[Paul]

Yes.

[Ben]

Thank you, Matt. These are texts written in India over 3,000 years ago. They definitely made Erich Von Daniken's career or a big of it. And back in 2021, we started asking ourselves, was this just really good fiction? Should these just be taken as spiritual tales or folklore? Or were they based on something else?

[Noel]

Oh, what a great setup. Please, just roll the tape.

[Ben]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, folks, have you ever picked up something at the grocery store that looked healthy? You know, but then you flip it over and you see the list of ingredients and you're saying, I can't pronounce half of these things.

[Noel]

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[Matt]

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[Ben]

So don't delay. Download Wise Code, that's W, I, S E code. All one word on the app store today and make grocery shopping a little easier. Fellow conspiracy realist, it's time to talk about your secret late night Internet searches.

[Noel]

I'm guilty of them for sure. Some of these specifically, you know, like bumpy leg rash, hair loss, itchy butt,

[Matt]

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[Ben]

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[Noel]

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[Matt]

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[Matt]

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[Matt]

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[Ben]

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[Matt]

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[Ben]

From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, history is riddled with unexplained events. Can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to know? A production of iHeartradio.

[Sam J]

Hello.

[Matt]

Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt.

[Noel]

My name is Noel.

[Ben]

They call me Ben. We're joined, as always, with our super producer, Paul. Mission Control Deccant. Most importantly, you are you. You are here. And that makes this stuff they don't want you to know. Today's episode follows up on an earlier listener mail segment inspired by an episode of a program known as Ancient Aliens. Ernest contacted us and asked some interesting questions about Mercury and ancient tombs and then took a turn to something that we have thought about for years, which is, speaking, weirdly enough, a topic we've never covered, the idea of ancient flying machines. Talk about a rabbit hole. I know you guys have heard of, you know, like Chariot of the Gods with Eric Von Daniken, right?

[Noel]

No, it sounds amazing. I just love the expression chariot of the gods.

[Matt]

I believe it's chariots of the gods.

[Ben]

Of the gods, yes. Yes. Eric Von Daniken is one of the advocates or one of the main voices in this spher of hidden history conspiracies that argues ancient civilizations had technology that was even more sophisticated than the technology we have today. This technology was lost and may one day be rediscovered. So how does this all relate to mercury. We'll tell you the main headline here first is that mercury was super popular with ancient elites for a number of reasons. Here are the facts.

[Noel]

Yeah, so the use of mercury has been going on for quite a long time. Much longer ago than those hatters that, you know, got their moniker of being mad from mercury poisoning. So, yeah, mercury actually played a role in ancient civilizations across the entire world. It's one of the first metals that was known to humanity and that humanity figured out a way to use. Archaeologists found mercury in an Egyptian tomb that dated back to 1500 BC. And the Egyptians and the Chinese might have been used using something called cinnabar as a red pigment for centuries, even before the birth of Christ. So in many civilizations, mercury was almost like considered a magical substance that was used to satisfy or chase away malevolent spirits.

[Ben]

Yeah. And cinnabar itself is a toxic mercury sulfide mineral that was once commonly used as a pigment. So alchemists of old thought that mercury had these a wide range of mystical properties that through the use of mercury, properly applied, one could transform metals, transmute base metals into more valuable things like gold. They also thought it could have. You know, we talked about anti aging technology in a previous episode. They also thought that mercury could be the key to a much longer lifespan. There were legends of people living hundreds and hundreds of years entirely due to their judicious consumption of mercury. Greek civilization knew about mercury, also used it as a medicine. The use of mercury to treat specifically syphilis started around the 15th century, continued into the mid-1900s. Spoiler, folks. It's not the best syphilis treatment out there, to put it mildly.

[Noel]

No, it's sort of like cutting off your ear, you know, to help you with some other problem.

[Matt]

Yeah, there you go.

[Noel]

Yeah, exactly.

[Matt]

I'd love to see a modern commercial for that time in mercury as a medicine for syphilis. Like, what would the side effects be? What would they have to read legally as the side effects? It would be.

[Noel]

It would be madness, existential dread, more so than usual. And what, like death, Instant death now, over time, depends on how much you consume.

[Ben]

So it would probably be something like the who's warning, which we'll just read an end of the commercial voice. So, like, picture, you know, picture some nice music. Paul, can you give us some like, prosaic big pharma ad music. Perfect. Okay. And then the tagline, get your life back with mercury. Yes. The inhalation of mercury vapor can produce harmful effects on the nervous, digestive and immune system, lungs and kidneys, and may be fatal. The inorganic salts of mercury are corrosive to the skin, eyes, and gastrointestinal tract and may induce kidney toxicity if ingested. Mercury. It's not just for thermometers. That's the.

[Matt]

Wow.

[Ben]

That's the ad, right? That's. It is. I mean, we're making light of it, but mercury is a poisonous substance. That's why we grow up being told not to break open the thermometers, no matter how cool they are. But back in the day, like Noel just said, this was used in multiple civilizations. Ancient Indian civilizations knew about mercury. The tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, is a. It's this massive complex underneath this hill, this mound, and it's pretty much the size of a city. Right. Of all these interconnected underground caves containing all the things you need in the afterlife if you're an emperor. And for more than 2,000 years, this guy has been entombed in this incredibly ornate complex. And archaeologists believe that his tomb was originally surrounded by a moat of mercury. That's a lot of mercury, Right? Like, a moat is a weird measurement to use. I don't think I've ever measured something in moat units.

[Noel]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Well, yeah, in this case, it's surrounding a, you know, a tomb. I guess how large your moat is depends precisely on how large your tomb is or your sarcophagus or your, you know, whatever. Whatever you're inside of, because it's not the entire building that was surrounded by a moat the way you would imagine a castle or something in a moat, but it was certainly way more mercury than you'd expect.

[Ben]

He was mercury. Rich Chinese tradition at the time of this emperor's life and his burial held that mercury could bestow immortality or a very extreme form of longevity. So there's an archaeologist named Kristin Romy who argues that this belief in the curative powers of mercury could have actually been the cause of the emperor's death. Because this guy was also. I think we mentioned this on the listener mail. This guy was also taking mercury pills on a regular basis in hopes of extending his lifespan. And those pills are probably what killed him at the age of 39. So he died. Like, in modern terms, we would think of that as an early death. He probably would have lived a little longer if he hadn't been, you know, ingesting mercury on a regular basis.

[Matt]

Yeah. And as you were saying, this reverence for mercury, or use of mercury was across the globe. And in Teotihuacan in Mexico, there was this Other weird thing that was found with liquid mercury. It's like half a world away in Mexico from where we're talking about where this moat was located. There's an archaeologist named Sergio Gomez who accidentally stumbled upon this hidden tunnel essentially there at a temple. There was a rainstorm or something, and he just happened to shine a light down into the sinkhole that opened up. And they discovered something very strange. There was basically a recreation of the what of the underworld that is described, at least by the peoples of the time, the people who built Teotihuacan, who built the Temple of the sun and there and some of the other structures. Part of it was large quantities of liquid mercury. And it's. At least it's thought right now, we can't say for sure, but it's thought that those pools of liquid mercury were meant to represent essentially the parts of the underworld, the waters of the underworld. And you can imagine in your mind if you've ever seen liquid mercury, that kind of the color, the way this liquid metal, the way it looks fill, the way it fills, you know, any. Any volume of container that it's in. It's just. It's otherworldly almost. And you can imagine how symbolically that would be very powerful.

[Ben]

And basins of mercury would sometimes be used in divination rituals.

[Mangesha]

Right.

[Ben]

Because of that mirror like surf, you can gaze into it. This is strange because it leads us to a couple of interesting lines of thought. I'm choosing that phrase carefully. So first we ask ourselves, what role did mercury play in these vastly different ancient cultures? The question is still a bit of a mystery in the modern day. We know that, like we said, Tibet and China, those civilizations believed that mercury had curative powers. It also had symbolic significance, for sure, in Mesoamerican society, in numerous other societies, it was both symbolic and perceived to be medicinal. So why is it such a popular thing in these communities? It gives us a couple. There are a couple of. There are a couple of possibilities. So one, it's just one of the earliest metals known, so people were more likely to know about it and to independently discover it through the use of cinnabar, stuff like that. Or two, a very out there one is, what if these civilizations had some sort of contact that we're not aware of in the modern day? I think the way we phrased it is, so the Mesoamerican structures built after the tomb of the quote, unquote, first Chinese emperor. So what? And there's a legend that this emperor sent ships east to explore other possible aging Cures. So what if some of the folks that Emperor sent east ended up in Mesoamerica and they were like, hey, we want to teach you our ways. Also, have you guys heard of mercury? It's super cool. Look. Look at this bowl. There's no proof that that happened yet, but we know mercury remains a crucial substance here in 2021. Like, people still use mercury. You know, you might have mercury in your house if you have, I don't know, a thermometer. That's what I mostly associate with. What about you guys?

[Noel]

Yeah, same. I mean, more like in a thermostat. Like, it's still like an old school thermostat. If you open it up, it's got a little tiny kind of level looking glass tube that's got a little bit of mercury in it. I think people maybe use digital thermometers more often than old school Merc ones for safety, I guess, with kids. But that certainly is still a use for it in, in things, you know, in your home.

[Matt]

Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of reasons to use mercury and other things for switching, like metal switching purposes, you know, and traditionally it was used in things like alarm clocks. There's, there are a lot of uses for mercury and measuring devices. I forgot about barometers. Yeah, that's, that's really important.

[Noel]

Is that because it's, it's sensitive to, like, it expands and contract, you know, with temperature very well, better than others. And it also stays in a liquid form.

[Matt]

Yeah, baby.

[Ben]

Yeah. It's got that high density. Right. So the height of the column and the barometer can be a reasonable size. Your barometer doesn't have to be a huge contraption. Like, there's an interesting tidbit there. So you could make a barometer using water. It would need to be 13.6 times taller than a mercury barometer. So to your point, Noel, mercury is super convenient for this.

[Sam J]

Yeah.

[Ben]

But back to that question, and this is a question that other people have tried to answer. What caused ancient civilizations to be so fascinated with this substance? And why do some people believe that mercury may be more than just an element? Why do they believe it may be the key to some sort of lost technology of nigh unimaginable power? It's a big question, and it's one we'll tackle after a word from our sponsors.

[Noel]

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[Matt]

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[Ben]

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[Matt]

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[Ben]

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[Noel]

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[Matt]

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[Ari Chambers]

What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers.

[Sam J]

Hey, what's up, y'?

[Ari Chambers]

All?

[Sam J]

It's your girl, Sam J.

[Ari Chambers]

And we're the host of Everyone Watches Women's Sports, a new podcast from Together and I heart women's sports because, let's

[Sam J]

be real, women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days.

[Ari Chambers]

So Kelsey Findler, she became the first female solo rower to go from California to Hawaii.

[Sam J]

My first thought is just like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we eating?

[Ari Chambers]

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[Sam J]

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[Ari Chambers]

Naomi Osaka showing out. She beat Sabalenka.

[Sam J]

Shout outs to you, Naomi, you get the palm.

[Ari Chambers]

Naomi, you get the palm for that.

[Sam J]

Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's Sports on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get Your podcast.

[Ben Nadifray]

Thirty years ago, an island off Manhattan almost brought down New York City.

[Ben]

Who will you trust? Your friends and neighbors? Or will you trust the people five miles overseas?

[Ben Nadifray]

This is a story about neighbors turning on each other and what happens when a forgotten place decides it's had enough.

[Matt]

We reached for a feeling that exists in this city, but we're not stopping, are we?

[Ben Nadifray]

I'm Ben nadifafry, and for my new series on revisionist history, I took a deep dive into Staten Island's attempt to secede from New York city in the 1990s and what it all has to do with the politics of resentment that dominate America today. Listen to Revisionist the Staten island problem on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Mangesha]

I'm Mangesha together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement. To try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science.

[Ben]

I can make a brain for you.

[Matt]

And then we can test what drug

[Ben]

is the best for your brain as opposed to his brain.

[Mangesha]

Here are some hard truths.

[Matt]

I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year

[Mangesha]

acceleration and get myself into a world of trouble.

[Sam J]

I'd say probably start bone smashing.

[Matt]

That doesn't work. Make it look more defined.

[Sam J]

They say it works. I don't know.

[Mangesha]

Listen to Skyline Drive how to live Forever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben]

Here's where it gets crazy. Our story about the alleged powers of Mercury kind of start. Kind of starts in ancient India, wouldn't you say?

[Noel]

Absolutely. If we go back in ancient Indian lore, you have something called the legend of Vimana. In Hindu and Sanskrit texts or scriptures, Vimyana were flying palaces. It's one of these things where it's like, is this a product of the imagination? Is this something that's based in lore, or did they actually know how to build these things? Here's where it starts. The crafts actually have supposedly these magical abilities that almost defy the, you know, physics. In Hindu mythology, there was a demon king named Ravana of Lanka, that's ancient Sri Lanka, who brought something called the Pushpaka Vimyana to India. The word vimyana actually translates to traverse or to measure. Other uses might imply an existence of a Temple or a flying machine.

[Ben]

Ding, ding, ding. A flying machine, yes. So this captures the imagination, right? But there's, there's something interesting. So we said flying palace or flying machine. It reminds me of the popular image of angels in, you know, Islamic Judaic, Christian mythology versus the actual description of angels in the Bible. They're two very different looking creatures, right? Like these wheels spinning with all these eyes and multiple wings, versus a kindly person in a white robe with a humble halo. The description of the flying palace or the Vimyana here is that it's shaped like a giant peacock. It's not especially aerodynamic if you look at it or if you draw something according to the description. But long story short, yes. Ancient aircraft could some civilization from thousands of years in the past have cracked the code to flight millennia before the Wright brothers, only for this technology to have been forgotten in the modern day. I mean, it's an awesome story. It's definitely true that it's an awesome story. How does Mercury figure into the mix though?

[Matt]

Well, there is one Sanskrit text, it's called the V Manika Shastra. And now remember, we cannot, I cannot pronounce these words correctly, so I apologize. Vai V A I M A N I K A Shastra S H A S T R A. Now this text, at least on the surface, appears to fully describe the construction of these things called vimanas, as well as their propulsion systems, such as a Mercury vortex engine.

[Ben]

So cool, right? So cool.

[Matt]

Mercury vortex engine. Yeah, let's do that. Spin that Mercury around. Let's see what happens. And remember, these texts, texts, not this one in particular, but the Vedas are written, it's thought around 1500 BC, 1200 BC that's when the like Rig Veda is thought to have been created. And some of these ancient texts that are describing some of these things, this one that we're going to talk about is a little different, but still, this is a much older text that has. This is the one that has illustrations, right, Ben?

[Ben]

That's correct, yeah. And this is. Let's set it up this way. So when we were talking about this earlier in the listener mail segment, this is the text I was referring to when I said these things are described as fact rather than as myth. So it's important. We'll see why this text in particular bears some scrutiny.

[Matt]

Okay, so we have to look to that show, the old. The show that holds a special place in my heart and hopefully it does yours too. Ancient Aliens. It's still on.

[Ben]

Is it still on?

[Matt]

I think so.

[Noel]

I Gotta say that. Who's the host? I love his hair and I love his spray tan. George Sucalos, A thing to behold.

[Matt]

Giorgio Sucalos.

[Ben]

Giorgio, that's right.

[Matt]

Yeah. There are a lot of people who kind of rotate through as the subject matter experts on that show. One of them is Von Daniken, one of them is Hukulos. But not in that show. Not yet. But in one of these episodes we've got a quote from it that is describing this text. And here it is. One of the texts talks about mercury rotating and driving some sort of powerful wind or a windmill machine. That might be some sort of what we call a flywheel energy storage, where you have a spinning disk and you extract energy from it slowly. That would be the mercury that could be used to drive some sort of propeller or what we call a conducted fan.

[Ben]

Okay, okay, let's. Let's pause. Let's pause.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Ben]

That's true. That was said on that show. That is true. So we know that. We know that flywheels are a real thing. We know that. We know that. It's true that mercury at very low temperatures think like 4 degrees Kelvin, which is negative 450something Fahrenheit, or for people in the rest of the world, -269 degrees Celsius. When you get to that very low temperature, mercury can function as a superconductor. And as for the rest of the stuff described there, What a cool story. It is true that that is such a cool story. You'll see versions of this story going even further afield into like Indiana Jones Hellboy territory. There's this argument that In World War II, Nazi German forces took an expedition into Tibet and into India to retrieve this ancient technology which they understood to be something called Vril V R I L. And they would later use their discoveries to power their own fantastical flying machines. So shout out to the Nazi bell. Here's another thing that's true. There really was a German expedition to Tibet and India in 1938-1939. And it was weird. It was a weird expedition.

[Noel]

The Germans were into all kinds of spooky stuff, weren't they? I mean, really, they put a lot of stock in the supernatural.

[Matt]

Yeah, we've talked about this before in a previous episode that you can go listen to now. I can't remember what it was called. Nazi magic, maybe?

[Noel]

No, we just. No, that's. We've got that coming up as a clip classic. We did an intro for that the other day.

[Matt]

Oh yeah, we did Nazi magic. I can't remember if the magic one. There's so much Nazi content, you guys, I can't remember if.

[Noel]

Gotta get that premium Nazi content.

[Matt]

It's either the Diglock Bell episode or the magic one. There's one of those where we go in and Shambhala maybe Shambhala could be that. So we do know that this was an Expedition in 1938, 1939. And that there were some strangers seemingly strange reasons for going. And we know this to, to be true. Let's just, let's, let's say what it was. The Germans at that time wanted to figure out whether or not Tibet could be used as a staging ground for attacks on British India. So. Right. So could we actually go from Tibet to attack our enemies guerrilla style?

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Matt]

So that makes sense. That's military strategy. They also wanted to prove this other guy's idea, Heinrich Himmler, they wanted to prove his idea that there was some group of pure blooded Aryans. At least that's his, that's his concept. There had settled in Tibet and according to what we know, there was a. This expedition was thought to be a success.

[Ari Chambers]

Right.

[Matt]

They came back with all kinds of samples from the area in Tibet of the flora and the fauna of that locality. But the big question is did they come back with some kind of, I don't know, mercury engine and flywheel system that would change the trajectory of the German military machine?

[Noel]

That sounds cool.

[Matt]

Maybe. Maybe that's what the bell was. Good luck proving it. But we tried.

[Ben]

We tried.

[Mangesha]

We tried.

[Matt]

We did try.

[Ben]

Yeah. Yeah. Did they discover something that could have changed the course of the war with the only problem being the timing? You know what I mean? Like, were they just too late with the secret knowledge they had gleaned from some hyperborean society of old? Again, a wonderful story. We're going to pause for a word from our sponsors and we'll be back. Hey folks, have you ever picked up something at the grocery store that looked healthy? You know, but then you flip it over and you see the list of ingredients and you're saying I can't pronounce half of these things.

[Noel]

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[Matt]

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[Ben]

So don't delay download wise code. That's w I, S, E, code. All one word on the app store today and make grocery shopping a little easier.

[Ari Chambers]

What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers.

[Sam J]

Hey, what's up, y'?

[Noel]

All?

[Sam J]

It's your girl, Sam J.

[Ari Chambers]

And we're the host of Everyone Watches Women's Sports, a new podcast from Together. And I heart women's sports because, let's

[Sam J]

be real, women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days.

[Ari Chambers]

So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo rower to go from California to Hawaii.

[Sam J]

My first thought is just like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we?

[Noel]

What are we eating?

[Ari Chambers]

The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments that take over your entire

[Sam J]

timeline, and the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports.

[Ari Chambers]

Naomi Osaka showing out. She beat Sabalenka.

[Sam J]

Shout outs to you, Naomi.

[Paul]

You get the palm.

[Ari Chambers]

Naomi, you get the palm for that.

[Sam J]

Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to Everyone watches women's Sports on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Ben Nadifray]

Thirty years ago, an island off Manhattan almost brought down New York City.

[Ben]

Who will you trust? Your friends and neighbors? Who will you trust? The people five miles overseas.

[Ben Nadifray]

This is a story about neighbors turning on each other and what happens when a forgotten place decides it's had enough.

[Matt]

We reached for a feeling that exists in this city, but we're not stopping, are we?

[Ben Nadifray]

I'm Ben Nadifray, and for my new series on revisionist history, I took a deep dive into Staten Island's attempt to secede from New York city in the 1990s. And what it all has to do with the politics of resentment that dominate America today. Listen to revisionist the Staten island problem on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Mangesha]

I'm Mangesha Tigidar, and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time, I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones, and brain replacement. To try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us, I learned about some rad science.

[Ben]

I can make a brain for you.

[Matt]

And then we can test what drug

[Ben]

is the best for your brain as opposed to his brain.

[Mangesha]

Here are some hard Truths.

[Matt]

I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year

[Mangesha]

acceleration and get myself into a world of trouble.

[Sam J]

I'd say probably start bone smashing.

[Matt]

That doesn't work.

[Noel]

Make it look more defined.

[Sam J]

They say it works. I don't know.

[Mangesha]

Listen to Skyline Drive, how to Live Forever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you go. Get your podcast.

[Ben]

And we've returned. I promise this is the last time I will say what a cool story this whole thing is, because I do think it's a cool story and I love it. The problem is it is maybe not a true story. Let's go. Let's go back to that Indian literature. Right, Matt, Noel, The Vedas you guys mentioned, those are very real, right? Those are real, correct?

[Noel]

The Hindu Vedas, it's, you know, I mean, it's a sacred text, but it's a lot more fun than the Bible, I'm not gonna lie. Cause it's like almost more like reading Greek mythology where you have all these gods who have these incredible powers and they're fighting for supremacy. You know, in this mystical world with all kinds of vehicles, it's like I can imagine there being action figure playsets made out of some of these incredible gods. Epic battles that supposedly took place in ancient times. These sagas are widely thought to be mythological stories or allegories to be taken, you know, as ways to model, you know, learn lessons. Almost like Aesop's Fable type situations, which we'd use to teach children life lessons. But in the Ancient Aliens program, they posit that these. There might have been some truth to this stuff, that maybe there were these ancient forgotten flight machines and these gods kind of battling it out in the skies. Right?

[Ben]

Yeah, yeah. And there appears to be a misstep in that presentation or the way it's framed. The argument about forgotten flight machines cites ancient Indian literature and primarily mentions a text called the Vimanika Shastra. Right. And again, to Matt's earlier point, we are not native speakers of this language. What is this shastra? So it begins by covering the definition of an airplane, a flying craft. It talks about pilots of these crafts, it talks about aerial routes these craft would take, and more. It's markedly different from the Vedas in that it is written as though it is factual and as though it is almost an engineering guide or depiction of real life events and artifacts. It's claimed to be a small fragment of a much larger work called the Yantra Sarvaswa, which translates roughly to all about machines. It's 1/40 of this much bigger thing. Right. So we're only seeing part of the work. Here's the thing. This Vimanika Shastra is real. It is real. It is in Sanskrit. And it does claim that the Vimanyanas mentioned in other texts are advanced flying machines. But the Vimanika Shastra itself is not ancient by any means.

[Matt]

No, no. And this is where we kind of burst bubbles. And I'm sorry for that, but it's just what we kind of have to do. So for this text, we have to jump way, way back to 1952 AD or CE. Yeah, correct. That's 1952, like right after my parents were born. That's when this text was first revealed by a person named Gr. Josier. Gr. Josier. That is the name there. And it was claimed to have been written by someone named Pandit Subaraya Shastri, who probably, at least according to the story, dictated it between 1918 and 1923. Now, Shastri claimed that he was receiving this information from a spirit guide. So what you're actually finding in that text, according to the person that wrote it, it's dreamlike visions that are being translated. Now, a very skeptical person can immediately look at that and go, oh, come on. Well then, okay, that's just. This is all made up. This is just somebody's imagination, somebody's creativity at work. But when you think about almost any ancient text, there is a good amount of visioning that's occurring of divine inspiration, at least if you believe the story, the actual text and how it was created. So it's, you know, you can't completely discount it. Right. But at the same time, we know this text's origin and we know that it was again, inspired in some way through someone's imagination.

[Ben]

Right? Yeah, it was inspired, perhaps divinely inspired to their mind, spiritually inspired. And maybe in that perspective, it was based on earlier pre existing wisdom. Sort of like when Adam Weishaupt formed the Bavarian Illuminati and said, really what I'm doing is continuing an ancient tradition. I'm not making a new thing. So Shastri most likely does not believe that he's making a new thing out of whole cloth. Here's the other thing. He is. Josier, you know, describes Shastry as a guy who's gifted with sensory abilities beyond that of mere mortals. He was. It's tough to. To talk about this without trying to phrase it in our modern experiences, but if you have lived in a city for any length of Time, you may at one point have seen people who seem to be a little bit unbalanced or mentally unwell, who are perhaps appearing to hear things that other people don't hear or loudly addressing someone or something that other people can't see. Right?

[Sam J]

Yeah.

[Noel]

Well, there used to be a time that those folks were considered like seers or prophets, and now they're largely treated as, you know, folks with mental illness, which obviously is a real thing.

[Ben]

Yeah. So this person in the early 1900s was known to spontaneously address people or spontaneously share verbally these inspirations or these messages they received. At the time that was seen as a legitimate source of information. But it leads us to a modern controversy, doesn't it? Because what this means is, no matter how you slice it, those various claims about ancient flying machines in Indian literature, whether they're craft mentioned in actual text from antiquity or whether they're more modern hoaxes, all of this leads to an enormous controversy in 2015 during the 102nd Indian Science Congress in Mumbai. The Indian Science Congress is like another, another scientific conference. Right. You've heard of these before. Academics, researchers, scientists, they get together and they present papers. Right. And they have Q&As and they, they discuss and review one another's ideas. And the goal of this is to spread the awareness of the latest science with the hope that maybe two different fields of research will be able to lend some sort of insight to one another. It's a beautiful idea. Things didn't go the way the congress planners wanted them to go in 2015 because somebody brought up the Shastra and argued that ancient aircraft using exotic power sources like a Mercury motor were real.

[Paul]

Yeah.

[Noel]

And the organizers of this conference allowed Anand J. Bodas and his co presenter, a person by the name of Amaya Jodhav, to submit and present a paper that claimed that aircraft, more advanced than the world has ever known, existed in ancient India. And in various interviews, these researchers claimed that the craft were massive and could fly to other planets. Apparently also again, kind of defying what we know about physics of aircraft. Fly backwards, left, right, up, down, outmaneuvering modern airplanes. And these are things that we have yet to achieve. So In December of 2014, Ram Prasad Grand Hiraman, who was a scientist at NASA's Ames Research center, created a petition that would prevent the paper from being presented at this conference. So by December 31, 220 scientists and academics had signed this petition. Grand Chairman criticized the paper as being pseudoscience and said the mythology should not be mixed with science.

[Ben]

Yeah. Because Again, this is a congress that is meant to advance scientific understanding. And part of the review process is to evaluate the merits of these claims. Other experts dunked on the proposals in this paper and this, this Shastra text left and right. One of my favorites is an author named J.B. hare, who is working for the Sacred Text Archive. Yeah, he had some especially snarky stuff to say about the aerodynamics of the craft described in the Vimanika Shastra. He said, quote, they are absurdly non aerodynamic, brutalist wedding cakes with minarets, huge ornithopter wings and dinky propellers, which is like hot fire level. A hot fire level insult in academia, you know.

[Matt]

Well, again, like, it depends on the propulsion system, guys. If they've got some kind of special mercury unknown technology propulsion system. If it's true, like there's stuff in there that may be some kind of electromagnetic field that functions outside of our understanding of modern physics. Like, it wouldn't matter how it was shaped if it could slip through matter in a different kind of way because it's not being affected by gravity or whatever, which is again, way out there in conceptual and not currently possible or even conceivable. But it wouldn't matter if it looked like a brutalist wedding cake with some things on the side. You know, it would be a bubble, essentially.

[Ben]

Yeah, that's a fair point because also we would add to this. It depends on the medium in which this kind of craft would be, would be moving. Right? So if it's in space, it's functioning in a very different environment. So maybe there's something to that along with the propulsion mechanism. I mean, those are fair points because

[Matt]

some of them look like return capsules, essentially. For some of NASA's technology that was being developed in the 50s and 60s, it looks very similar to that, just kind of turned upwards. So the point is up rather than, you know, when. If it was. Well, no, because it was returning. If they're returning, the pointy side is still pointed up anyway.

[Ben]

Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. So when we put the pieces together with all this in mind, it looks currently as if the story of ancient Mercury powered flying machines is either an honest mistake in the reading of text or a dishonest purposeful attempt to shoehorn ancient mythology into a modern cultural framework. So, like, there are these questions, right? These important questions. If, for example, there were real ancient flying machines, then where were they? Where are they? How come no other culture has written about them?

[Noel]

You know, this makes me think of, it's in a science Purely sci fi context. What was the Alien precursor prequel? Prometheus.

[Ben]

Yes.

[Noel]

It kind of makes me think of that. Kind of like it's, it's ancient technology created by these like giants that were essentially gods. You know what I mean? I mean, I know there was problems with that movie, but I liked the base level lore of it and the way those creatures looked and the way their tech worked. And what was it like, the pilot guy that was like, you know, designed by HR geeker that you saw in the original Alien movie. Movie that kind of made an appearance in Prometheus. This, this very much makes me think of that kind of. I wonder if that was inspired by, by this stuff.

[Matt]

I mean, I'm, I'm almost certain that it was in some way. Right, because in that movie, in Prometheus, it's, it's planet seeding. Right. It's, it's like.

[Noel]

That's right.

[Matt]

The seeds of life are planted by these, by this pilot and by, you know, maybe the species.

[Noel]

Correct. Well, they had a name. They were called something. The, the gray, weird blue, gray guys.

[Matt]

It's been a while.

[Ben]

Yeah, they were called the Engineers.

[Noel]

That's the right.

[Ben]

I think. By the humans.

[Matt]

Well, yeah. And you can imagine, and you know, in God, I guess, when, when the actual battles were occurring and some of these things, you can imagine that seeing technology that is so far beyond your understanding would just, it would be a mind blowing thing. Reminds me of, I think, the Filth. Yeah, the Filth by Grant Morrison. When people encounter technology that is so strange and outside of their realm of understanding, the human mind just chooses to not remember it. Or it's as though it didn't exist or you can't see it because it's just so far beyond your capabilities of observation. You can imagine that stuff. Right. That's why Ancient Aliens is such a successful show, I think, because part of it makes sense.

[Ben]

Yeah, yeah. I can, I can, I can go with you there. Because if we imagine, if we imagine those events from the perspective of people who lived during that time period, then you, you can easily imagine how weird some stuff may have looked. Like if you're from a culture that's never seen an elephant, for instance, and then you get into a scrap and the other side comes rolling up on you riding elephants, you're gonna freak out. That's like, that's insane. You know, and that's inspired so many like sword and sorcery fantasy fight scenes is the idea of somebody encountering something like an elephant for the first time. So.

[Matt]

Or imagine Just an explosion from a simple explosive device for the first time when you're in a battle.

[Ari Chambers]

Right.

[Matt]

I mean, just what that would do to your mind.

[Ben]

People on horses, that's crazy too. You know, back in the day, that was very surprising in an unpleasant way for many people. And sadly, that surprise probably didn't last long because neither did they.

[Matt]

Guys, we didn't even talk about the nuclear. Nuclear bomb. Nuclear war theories.

[Ben]

I know. Saving it.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Paul]

All right.

[Ben]

I think it's its own thing because. Because to talk about that, we also have to talk about ancient traces of radiation, like the first nuclear reactor, which is real and not man made. There's a nuclear reactor that is super ancient, but I think. Yeah, ancient nuclear war is an episode for another day. Now, I know it sounds like we have clearly dismissed the ideas of ancient flying machines, but there are some important considerations here, some important caveats. First, what we've really done is made a pretty good case that the text people are basing a lot of these claims on is not near as old as it is sometimes assumed to be. But second, we have to remember humanity is very, very, very good at losing things. So good at losing stuff. We have lost technology before and it's usually rediscovered at some point. Right. There are examples like Greek fire, Damascus steel, and then there are things that looked really advanced for their time period, like the antikythera mechanism. You guys remember that one?

[Jonathan Krisel]

Of course.

[Matt]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[Ben]

Where did that turn out?

[Matt]

Well, yeah, yeah, there's some really cool newer concepts about the origins of that that we could definitely. Yeah, we should definitely bring that back up. So I. I know we're. We need to get out of here. I want to bring up one other thing. When it comes to vimanas for this episode, weirdly enough, several of us independently found an article out of media that I've been. I think we have to bring up.

[Ben]

Okay. All right. Yeah. So medium, for anybody who doesn't know we're talking about. Medium.com is a website, a platform where people can write and post their own material.

[Paul]

Right.

[Ben]

So I did put this in the notes and I think we all found it. We were looking for the most out there story.

[Mangesha]

Right.

[Ben]

Gosh, Matt, you brought it up. Do you want to do the honors with the headline?

[Matt]

We'll start it with the headline.

[Ben]

Let's start with the headline.

[Matt]

A 5,000 year old ancient Indian Vimana found in Afghanistan cave 8American soldiers stuck

[Ben]

in time well, time well, is all

[Matt]

caps disappeared in attempt to remove it. So the soldiers disappeared in a time well, when they were trying to remove the, the, the Vimana. Now, this is written by Sathish Ramyan, and if you can read it, I would just recommend you go to Medium and read the story. There's nothing really cited in it when it comes to what is happening or the facts, but it has some incredible things said. Ultimately, it has to do with exactly what the title says, just kind of expanded a little bit. And it includes Barack Obama and I think Nicholas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, all going to Afghanistan in 2012 for a weird thing. Which would be, which in this case, the weird thing is that there's a Vimana stuck in a time well with a bunch of other American soldiers.

[Noel]

What's a time? Well, is that like a wormhole or a portal?

[Matt]

It explains the time well, it appears to be an electromagnetic radiation gravity field, first postulated by Albert Einstein as the unified field theory and long rumored to be behind the infamous American World War II experiment in teleportation called the Philadelphia Experiment.

[Noel]

Heard of it?

[Ben]

Heard of it. Big fan.

[Matt]

So, yeah, I mean, cool stuff, cool story again, but there's just no, I, I, where is it coming from? Who is, who is actually stating some of this stuff? There, there are references cited at the bottom down here, but there's nothing to actually in any way to prove that this even kind of happened.

[Ben]

Well, it could have been covered up.

[Matt]

It could have been. But dude, Satheesh, how did you find out about it? That's what I want to know.

[Ben]

So you guys know, I am so into stories like this and it would be amazing if these were true. It would be amazing if this kind of technology was discovered and if, if people could prove that it existed. But at this point, we have two big takeaways. First, we know again, that document that is cited so often as ancient research is not in fact ancient. It's not saying it's untrue. It's just saying we know the provenance of it. And it likely occurred in the early 1900s and was later revealed in the 1950s to the public. The second thing we know, however, is that technology does get lost. The thing is, a lot of it ends up being rediscovered or just as often reinvented by someone else later on down the line. So this possibility, that very real possibility of lost technology, I would argue that is the core of what makes the ancient flying machines lore so compelling and so fascinating. While Mercury powered ancient flying machines probably never existed, based on what we know at this point, it's enormously difficult to say that we somehow Know all the technology, techniques and research of ancient peoples and civilizations. Like there are stoneworks that are still around today in Peru and other parts of the world where people,

[Paul]

we have

[Ben]

theories about how they were able to build these seamlessly constructed stone walls with no mortar or anything like that that lasted centuries and centuries and centuries. Well, we're not sure because people back then were just as intelligent as people now and they figured stuff out just like us. So I'm going to say I don't know about you guys. I am super open to getting some hard proof about an ancient flying machine. That would be so cool.

[Matt]

Please, please send us anything if you've got it. If you actually have something, we want to read it.

[Ben]

And with this, our episode draws to a close. We pass the Mercury vortex torch to you, folks. What do you think? Is there any real lost technology out there left waiting to be rediscovered? And if so, what do you think it is? Where, where could it be found? Right? Is it maybe, I don't know. This goes so many directions. You know, like is, is there, is there a city or community that was buried beneath the waves that is home to like a ton of antikythera mechanisms or something like that? It's again, cool stories, dude.

[Matt]

Have you guys heard, have you guys heard of the. I think it's every 26 seconds the Earth like blips essentially sends out a small seismic. Had this tiny seismic event every 26 seconds. And it's been happening for decades and decades and decades or was discovered at least several decades ago. And it continues and it's, it's allegedly, at least according to some research that's occurred in the 2000s and maybe the 2000s where it's off the coast of, of. It's like the kind of the mid west coast of the continent of Africa. Allegedly it's coming from there.

[Ben]

Guinea specifically. Right?

[Matt]

I think it's off the coast of Guinea. Yeah. I can't recall right now the place, but allegedly the Earth is just like doing this pulse. And seismologists, geologists are unsure what it is. The best theory is that it's waves crashing against this one particular place there. But I don't think it's waves, y'.

[Sam J]

All.

[Ben]

Every 26 seconds, some ancient civilization left a very weird snooze button. They're just not hitting the button. Yeah, it's fascinating because that's one of those things, you know, I think when you read, read about this. It's also been called a micro seism, right? Like a very small seismic event that is probably undetectable by humans without technology. But whenever you read about this thing, the main, I would say the weirdest part is that no one is sure exactly why it's happening. Right? We don't know. Right?

[Matt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Ben]

So let us know what you think. Why is the Earth pulsing every 26 seconds? Are there ancient pieces of technology if not flying machines? Are there ancient pieces of lost technology that might be rediscovered? We want to hear from you. We try to make ourselves easy to find online.

[Noel]

That's right. You can find us in the usual social media locations of note where we are currently conspiracy stuff or conspiracy stuff show on Instagram. You can also join our Facebook group. Here's where it gets crazy to get in on the real time conversations with your fellow conspiracy realists.

[Matt]

Yes, we also have a phone number you can reach us. 1-833-STD-W Y T K. If you call the number you will get a voicemail and you can leave a message. Here's what we recommend. Tell us the name you want us to call you. Doesn't matter if it's your real name, something you'll recognize when we say it on air. Let us know if you're okay with us using your voice on the air. Then go ahead and tell us your story. Anything, whatever it is, whether it's just an experience you've had, whether it's an idea for an episode, anything, just give it right up at the top there and then anything you want to say just directly to Noel and Ben and I put it at the end if you can and try to keep it under three minutes and also try to keep it to one message. That'll increase your chances of actually getting on the air.

[Noel]

Matt, I did my first callback the other day.

[Matt]

Oh, nice.

[Noel]

A lovely gentleman, a music teacher who had some real cool ideas about coded messages being sent to the Nazis by contemporary composers. Turns out didn't have as much, much sand to it as we would have liked. But we had a nice conversation and he sent me some cool follow up articles. So really? Yeah. You will potentially maybe now even get a call back from me or Ben, who knows.

[Ben]

That's absolutely true. We always love to hear from you. And as Matt said, if there is a story that you need to tell that is longer than three minutes, please, please, please don't feel like you have to edit yourself. Squeezing a ten minute story into three minutes worth of time is, you know, sometimes a dubious endeavor. So if you have something else to tell us you don't like social media and phone numbers don't quite launch your Vimyata. There's one other way you can always contact us. That's our good old fashioned email address where we are.

[Noel]

Conspiracyheartradio.com.

[Matt]

Stuff they Don't Want yout To Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Noel]

This episode of Stuff They Don't Want yout to Know is brought to you by wisecode. Guys, you know, these days it feels like every product at the grocery store claims to be healthy and natural. Or, you know, better for you than than the other stuff. But that often ends up being quite the misleading proposition.

[Matt]

Oh yeah, once you turn the package over, you're left trying to figure out what these ingredients are. Often they're difficult to pronounce and understand.

[Ben]

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[Noel]

Yep, it sure does. And all you have to do is scan your product, whatever you've picked up that you're questioning with your phone, and instant, you'll be able to see whether or not it is ultra processed. And it'll even give you even further insights into things like nutrition.

[Matt]

Oh yes, with Wise Code, you can look into all kinds of stuff on nutrition quality, health quality. It'll help you understand what's inside that thing, especially if it's packaged before you purchase it.

[Ben]

Yeah, and it doesn't matter if you're shopping for yourself or your family, or just trying to make more informed, healthier food choices. Wise Code is here to give you another layer of crucial information right at your fingertips.

[Noel]

It's quick, easy to use, and designed to help you navigate the grocery store with more confidence.

[Matt]

Download Wise Code that's W I S E C O D E the Ultra Processed Food Detector on the App Store today and start discovering what's really inside the foods you buy.

[Jonathan Krisel]

Hey, Portlandia fans Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here.

[Noel]

The dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form.

[Jonathan Krisel]

We're launching Podlandia AO. Rewatch our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made.

[Noel]

And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life, guest stars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Krisel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more.

[Jonathan Krisel]

Kyle is going for it. Here you fully improvised not just words, but a song about.

[Matt]

Well, I thought you were all gonna write a song.

[Jonathan Krisel]

I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia Aao Rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ari Chambers]

What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers.

[Sam J]

Hey, what's up, y'?

[Jonathan Krisel]

All?

[Sam J]

It's your girl, Sam J.

[Ari Chambers]

And we're the host of Everyone Watches Women's Sports, a new podcast from Together and I heart women's sports.

[Sam J]

We're breaking down the biggest headlines.

[Ari Chambers]

Naomi Osaka showing out.

[Sam J]

Shout out to you, Naomi.

[Ari Chambers]

The viral moments I've been obsessed with.

[Sam J]

Chrisean rock star boxing journey.

[Matt]

She looks good.

[Sam J]

Her combos are swift.

[Ari Chambers]

And the stories everyone's talking about across

[Sam J]

women's sports because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to Everyone watches women's Sports on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Paul]

I'm Nick Turturro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the Longest Yard, or Spike Lee's Black Klansman. And on my new podcast, Delivering Happiness with Nick Turturro, I deliver pizza to a new guest. I've shared a slice with everyone. Everyone from Seth Rollins.

[Jonathan Krisel]

What are you doing?

[Paul]

My belt. To Bill Burr.

[Matt]

I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am.

[Paul]

And now we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Turturro. It's called Happiness, Delivering Happiness and many, many more. Open your free iHeartradio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Turturro. And listen now.

[Sam J]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.