622: COMPILATION: Staff Picks A to Z: From Aliens to Zombies, From Giants to Gobekli Tepe

Summary

The Why Files: Operation Podcast

Episode 622: COMPILATION – Staff Picks A to Z: From Aliens to Zombies, From Giants to Gobekli Tepe
Release Date: December 29, 2025
Host: AJ (with Morgan the Beaver and Hecklefish)

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Episode Overview

This special compilation episode presents an A-to-Z tour of mysteries, myths, and legends, with segments chosen by various staff members of The Why Files team. Each segment explores a different topic—ranging from DARPA’s shadowy projects, the Pentagon’s secret zombie plans, and ancient civilization revelations at Göbekli Tepe, to legendary conspiracy theories like the Hollow Moon, reptilian aliens, and the history of giants. Presented with AJ’s signature blend of deep research, story-driven narratives, and witty banter between the cast (including Morgan and the wisecracking Hecklefish), this episode bundles some of the podcast’s fan-favorite discussions.

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Key Segments & Insights

1. The Dark Side of DARPA (03:42–53:40)

Chosen by Jen (Mrs. Y Files aka Queen Bee)

• Origins: In response to the Soviet space race, the US formed ARPA (later DARPA) to leapfrog America’s military technology (03:42–07:03).
• DARPA’s Inventions in Everyday Life: Technologies like GPS, the internet, microprocessors, and voice recognition originated from DARPA projects (06:15, 13:55).
• Military Super-Tech: DARPA built self-guided bullets (EXACTO program), see-through-wall sensors, remote-controlled insects, and exoskeletons (21:25–23:44).
• Human Enhancement: Projects like CRISPR gene editing and Brain Initiative aimed to create super-soldiers and interface brains with computers (22:32–24:02).
• Robotics and AI: DARPA pushed robotics (Big Dog, Atlas) and AI from the 1960s onward (24:46–28:58).
• Surveillance State: The origins of Google partly funded via DARPA, aiming to fingerprint everyone digitally (31:48–38:57).
• Ethics & Accountability: Discussion of Agent Orange and DARPA’s involvement in Vietnam, legal loopholes, war crime denials, and lack of transparency (39:03–52:46).
• Memorable Quote:
  “No project was too expensive, and no program was too immoral. DARPA’s secret research would cost many lives.” —AJ [11:22]
  “If you make war profitable, you’ll always have war.” —AJ, referencing Eisenhower [49:21]

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2. Zombie Apocalypse: CONPLAN 8888 (53:44–89:51)

Picked by Editor Brandon

• Overview: The Pentagon's real plan for a zombie apocalypse (CONPLAN 8888), includes detailed operational phases from detection to society rebuilding (54:00–58:31).
• Real Science: Explains pathogenic, prion, and parasitic “zombies” in the animal and real world, drawing parallels to human risks (60:29–66:30).
• Categories of Threats: Pathogenic zombies, prion disease, parasitic mind control, toxoplasma gondii, radiation zombies, weaponized, space, and evil magic zombies (60:29–77:31).
• Military’s Civilian Training: Suggests zombie media is “psyop” to train civilians subconsciously for survival skills (80:16–83:41).
• Conspiracies and Reality: Points out most of the zombie plan is cover for other real military planning; emphasizes self-sufficiency (87:34–89:51).
• Notable Banter:
  “If you trust a house cat, you deserve to get eat.” —Hecklefish [67:26]
  “The plan assumes most government officials die within 24 hours. Cities become uninhabitable... you’re on your own.” —AJ [59:25]

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3. Liminal Spaces & The Backrooms (90:16–110:42)

Chosen by "the Hybrid" (Rich Dick)

• Internet Mysteries Connected: Liminal spaces (eerie transitional places), viral stories like the Airbnb mall, TikTok’s “Only Survivor,” and the Backrooms mythos explained (91:18–101:54).
• Philosophical Aspect: The anxiety and nostalgia triggered by abandoned, out-of-context, or in-between places (94:09–95:37).
• Debunking Viral Vid: Explains how some internet urban legends (e.g., Javier’s alternate reality TikTok) are media projects, not paranormal phenomena (107:04–110:42).
• Cultural Analysis: How pandemic isolation heightened interest in liminal spaces; ties to horror media and collective subconscious.
• Memorable Metacommentary:
  “Every liminal space has the same point. To find your way out.” —AJ [110:42]

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4. John Wilkes Booth: Historian or Fugitive? (113:02–144:34)

Selected by Haley ("Spicy Ginger")

• Escape Theory: Considers the theory that Booth escaped, lived in hiding, and the body at Garrett’s farm was a double (113:02–141:21).
• Conspiracies & Evidence: Discusses missing diary pages, the Booth family’s secret heirs, and alternate histories.
• Debunking: Compares sources, exposes hoaxes, and clarifies mainstream consensus based on forensic and documentary evidence (141:58–143:49).
• Legacy: Explores the enduring appeal of alternate histories and their cultural “what ifs.”
• Hecklefish Zinger:
  “If I was a 26 year old movie star with ladies grabbing at my gills, I’d stay single too.” [141:31]
  “If there’s a hell, John Wilkes Booth is in it.” —AJ [144:34]

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5. Simulation Theory (145:07–167:13)

Picked by Eric (merch store manager)

• Concept: Explores the likelihood that reality is artificial, referencing Nick Bostrom’s simulation trilemma (145:07–146:48).
• Evidence: Mandela Effect, mathematical code in nature, and the double-slit experiment as possible “program” indicators (149:47–161:21).
• Cosmic Coding: Discusses Fibonacci numbers and advanced physics discoveries considered as "evidence" for simulation (154:09–156:24).
• Philosophical Takeaway: Simulation theory vs. belief in God—the two might be functionally the same (165:47–167:13).
• Notable Quote:
  “It’s not physics. It’s metaphysics... But the closer you look for evidence, the more you find.” —AJ [145:07–149:38]
• Classic Hecklefish:
  “My reality is shattered.” [151:25]

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6. Göbekli Tepe & Lost Civilization (167:40–217:07)

Chosen by Victoria (team lead)

• Shocking Chronology: Göbekli Tepe in Turkey predates Sumer by 6,000 years, suggesting an advanced lost civilization (167:40–176:04).
• Archaeological Evidence: Enormous stone megaliths, astronomical alignment, artwork of surprising sophistication for the era, newer discoveries like Karahan Tepe further complicate mainstream chronology (182:49–188:20).
• Flood Cataclysm: Discusses the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis—an ancient global disaster memorialized around the world (176:04–189:24).
• Global Myths: Cross-cultural flood legends, coinages, and the phenomena of abrupt (not evolutionary) technological emergence (189:24–195:50).
• Contemporary Debates: Contrasts mainstream archaeological skepticism with recent findings and continued debate; warns of cyclical cataclysm (196:11–213:30).
• Notable Banter:
  “We don’t believe in those [coincidences].” —Hecklefish [195:48]

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7. The Lacerta Files: Reptilian Revelations & Human Origins (217:34–238:04)

Chosen by Editor Ryan

• Interview with a Reptilian: Alleged 1999–2000 interview with “Lacerta,” a subterranean reptile being, who claims humans are engineered by ancient aliens as slaves (218:38–223:08).
• Human Evolution: Cites DNA anomalies, lost civilizations, engineered psychic abilities, and cosmic conflicts involving copper-fusion weapons (220:39–225:46).
• Underground Realms: Points to sites like Derinkuyu and Malta’s Hypogeum as gateways to lizard-people civilizations (223:55–224:44).
• Government Allegations: Pentagon and other superpowers are supposedly reverse-engineering alien tech for power and control (225:49–231:18).
• Debunking: Points out the story’s origins, lack of mainstream evidence, and tendency for wild, unprovable claims (231:54–235:39).
• Quip:
  “Lizard people could be anywhere looking all humany.” —Hecklefish [229:31]

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8. The Hollow Moon Theory (238:25–257:23)

Selected by Geno (After Files host)

• Moon Mysteries: Mainstream science can’t agree on the moon’s origin or strange properties—age, density, orbit, and mineral composition are all anomalous (238:38–244:38).
• The Hollow Moon Hypothesis: Suggests the moon is an artificial, hollow structure, with “proof” ranging from seismic experiments to cross-cultural myths describing its sudden appearance (244:38–249:07).
• Myths & Ancient Knowledge: Zulu and Sumerian legends, frequent flood myths timed with the moon’s “arrival,” support the theory (249:07–253:55).
• Lights and Structures: Persistent claims of “transient lunar phenomena,” odd photos, and suppressed NASA images (253:55–254:36).
• Debunking: Offers counter-arguments and notes the speculative nature; defends skepticism while remaining open-minded (254:36–257:23).
• Classic Irony:
  “The only way we get answers is to go to the Moon.” —AJ [256:04]

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9. The Giants: Lovelock Cave & North America (257:52–295:29)

Picked by Deputy Joe

• Giant Lore: Reports of 8–10ft tall giants from mining finds in Nevada’s Lovelock Cave, supported by Paiute oral history (257:57–268:12).
• Worldwide Myths & Finds: Parallels in biblical Nephilim, Sumerian Anunnaki, and Native American tales; cross-continental findings of giant human remains (259:46–272:55).
• Smithsonian Conspiracy: Asserts that the Smithsonian actively destroyed or hid evidence of giants, detailing documented cases of lost or misclassified artifacts (273:35–276:32).
• Suppression Playbook: Breaks down the ways mainstream media and academia suppress controversial theories—criticize, marginalize, attack, censor (292:12–295:29).
• Fact-Checking: Acknowledges known hoaxes and medical explanations (e.g., gigantism, Marfan syndrome), but asserts evidence remains worthy of inquiry (283:05–285:28).
• Memorable Sarcasm:
  “If there’s a hell, John Wilkes Booth is in it.” —AJ [144:34]

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10. Operation Highjump & Antarctica’s Secrets (296:11–320:00)

Staff Artist Rob’s Pick

• Official Story vs. Reality: The 1946–47 US naval expedition to Antarctica’s real goal was not scientific, but to investigate rumors of secret Nazi bases and saucer technology (296:11–301:47).
• Admiral Byrd’s Experience: Describes Byrd’s legendary background and mysterious missing hours in flight, including (allegedly fake) secret diary reports of green valleys, warm lakes, and an underground Aryan civilization (303:42–312:27).
• Cold War Drama: Describes battle reports of “flying saucers” disabling US craft, the US Navy’s hasty retreat, and the subsequent Antarctic Treaty keeping the continent off-limits (312:27–318:00).
• Skepticism and Debunking: Unravels hoaxes, mistranslations, and the real motives behind official stories, while leaving the door open for unsolved mysteries (318:00–320:00).
• Quote:
  “The only thing separating a conspiracy from the truth is time.” —AJ [232:02]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Banter

• “I could sniff out a plug opportunity like a truffle pig.” —Hecklefish [13:47]
• “If you trust a house cat, you deserve to get eat.” —Hecklefish [67:26]
• “Every liminal space has the same point. To find your way out.” —AJ [110:42]
• “Dead presidents are only funny when they're in my wallet.” —Hecklefish [140:24]
• "The only way we get answers is to go to the Moon.” —AJ [256:04]
• “We're 911 Truthers.” —Hecklefish [291:59]
• "If there’s a hell, John Wilkes Booth is in it.” —AJ [144:34]

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Most Important Timestamps

• DARPA: Start at [03:42] and again at [11:22], detailed segment [11:22–53:40]
• Zombies/CONPLAN 8888: [54:00–89:51]
• Liminal Spaces/Backrooms: [90:16–110:42]
• John Wilkes Booth: [113:02–144:34]
• Simulation Theory: [145:07–167:13]
• Göbekli Tepe: [167:40–217:07]
• Lacerta Files: [217:34–238:04]
• Hollow Moon: [238:25–257:23]
• Giants & Smithsonian: [257:52–295:29]
• Operation Highjump: [296:11–320:00]

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Tone & Language

AJ’s storytelling is research-heavy yet playful, balancing clear fact presentation with skepticism and open inquiry. The cast's banter (especially with the ever-snarky Hecklefish and pragmatic Morgan) adds levity, breaks the fourth wall, and often delivers the sharpest satirical commentary on government, media, and the nature of conspiracy folklore.

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Takeaways

• The Why Files specializes in weaving pop-culture mysteries with historical deep dives and fresh research, always questioning mainstream narratives but not blindly accepting wild theories.
• Staff picks showcase the podcast’s breadth: military black projects, government plans for the absurd, forgotten civilizations, giants, aliens, and simulation theory, all get equally rigorous yet entertaining treatment.
• While conspiracies, suppressed truths, and anomalies are central themes, AJ and the team never fully abandon skepticism or reason—instead, they invite the audience to keep looking deeper.

“The only thing separating a conspiracy from the truth is time.” —AJ

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For detailed explorations, see highlighted timestamps above. This compilation is an excellent introduction for new listeners and a greatest hits for long-time fans.

Transcript

[AJ]

We know no one's journey is the same. That's why Delta SkyMiles moves with you. From earning miles on reloads for coffee runs, shopping, and things you do every day to connecting you to new experiences. A SkyMiles membership fits into your lifestyle, letting you do more of what makes you you. It's more than travel. It's the membership that flies, dines, streams, rides, and arrives with you. Because when you have a membership that's as unique as you are, there's no telling where your journey will take you next. Learn [e-mail] SkyMiles hey, thanks for checking out another compilation.

[Morgan]

Ahem.

[AJ]

Oh, no.

[Hecklefish]

Ahem.

[Morgan]

Excuse me, human.

[AJ]

I'm not going to.

[Morgan]

Excuse me, human.

[AJ]

What is it? I'm trying to set up the compilation.

[Morgan]

You promised I could do this one.

[AJ]

Yeah, but I already said you promised. Fine. Go ahead.

[Morgan]

Thank you.

[Hecklefish]

Roll it.

[AJ]

Hecklefish doesn't respond to the c. Ah.

[Morgan]

Hello, human. It's me, Morgan. I am a beaver. Today we're showing a compilation of videos as chosen by the WAI Files team. Come on, follow me. Hey, Gertie, how they humping? Hey, boys, hold the work. Have guests.

[Hecklefish]

Hey, what are you doing? Who said you could take a break? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Isn't that my single malt? Hey, get back here, you filthy rodent.

[Morgan]

Check it out. This is where the human and hecklefish do the show. Pretty cool, huh? Ah, that's better. Hang on a sec. Can I get a coffee, please? So hard to find good help, isn't it? Okay, where were we? Hang on. There's something wrong with the prompter. What does that mean? Play us out. Play us out. I don't know what that means. Play us out. Forget it. We'll do it live. I'll write it myself, and we'll do it live. The whole thing stinks.

[Hecklefish]

Ahem.

[Morgan]

Here we go. The first episode was picked by Jen. You know Jen, aka Mrs. Y. Files, aka the Queen Bee. And Bee doesn't stand for brunette, if you catch my drif. So the queen bee chose the dark side of darpa. Oh, come on, man. You trying to get us demonetized? Fine. We'll play it. Roll it.

[AJ]

In the early days of the space race, the Soviet Union racked up a lot of firsts. Sputnik, the first satellite. Laika, the dog, the first animal in space. Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman. Z, the first spacecraft to the moon. Meanwhile, America's space program lagged, plagued by setback after setback. There were some successes, but not enough to keep pace with the Soviets. America was still planning its first satellite, while Sputnik circled the earth. Then Sputnik 2 went up. American citizens were terrified. What if the Russians put weapons in space? Maybe they already have. Paranoia was starting to become hysteria. President Eisenhower was under pressure to act and and to act fast. The United States government knew what it had to do. Create an organization to develop the most technologically advanced military systems in the world. And just three months after Sputnik 2 was launched, the Advanced Research Project Agency, or ARPA, was born. Later, ARPA became DARPA. The D stands for defense, because DARPA would be both a sword and a shield, creating offensive weapons and defensive systems. No project was too expensive, and no program was too. DARPA's secret research would cost many lives. But sacrifices had to be made for the sake of security. But after all these years, it's time to ask, who are they really protecting? Here's the scene. You're driving. It's late, and the road ahead is dark. You make a turn, and then another. You finally realize you're lost. If this were the not too distant past, you'd pull over and grab your Thomas Guide.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah, for you kids, that's a map.

[AJ]

And if you didn't have a map, you'd try to find a gas station or 711 to ask for directions. Then your fate would be in the hands of the guy working the night.

[Hecklefish]

Shift, who may or may not be a serial killer, Right?

[AJ]

But now all the answers are in your pocket. You tell your phone the address and GPS guides the way. Some cars will even drive for you while you sit back, relax, and listen to your favorite podcast.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, you know, the Y Files is also a podcast.

[AJ]

No plugs yet, please. We save those for the end.

[Hecklefish]

Sorry, sorry. I could sniff out a plug opportunity like a truffle pig.

[AJ]

The technology I described that got you to your destination, it was created by darpa. All of it. And there's a lot more of DARPA in your pocket than you think. Your cell phone uses microprocessors designed by darpa. They also created the batteries to power those microprocessors. Your phone uses wireless technology made possible by darpa. The touchscreen and the microphone came from darpa. Voice recognition and GPS come from darpa. And of course, all this data transfer happens using the Internet, which was created by darpa.

[Hecklefish]

Excuse me, if I may, Is this.

[AJ]

Going to be a highly predictable and hacked joke about how Al Gore said he created the Internet?

[Hecklefish]

I yield the rest of my Time. Thank you. Mm.

[AJ]

Yes, DARPA created the Internet. Well, technically, they were still ARPA then. Remember, the D was added in 1972. In the 1960s, researchers were trying to figure out a way to ensure reliable communications in case of a nuclear attack. Traditional telephone lines and radio transmitters would be the first to go. They came up with a radical idea. Packet switching.

[Hecklefish]

Now all this. Speak, Nerd. Some of us went to our prom instead of staying home to write code on our Apple ii. Ahem.

[AJ]

Packet switching is not as complicated as it sounds. Here's how it works. You want to send a message or file from New York to la, but what if half the country's lines are down? So you break that message into small chunks called packets, and send each one independently over the network. On the receiving end, the message waits for all the packets to arrive and then reassembles them back into the original message or file. Each packet will independently try to find the most efficient route through the network at any given moment. The Internet still works this way. Most people didn't use the Internet until the late 1990s or early 2000s. Some nerds like me were using our phones to dial bulletin board systems. Hey, thanks for checking out another compilation, Tim. Oh, no.

[Morgan]

Excuse me, Human.

[AJ]

I'm not going to.

[Morgan]

Excuse me, human.

[AJ]

What is it? I'm trying to set up the compilation.

[Morgan]

You promised I could do this one.

[AJ]

Yeah, but I already said you promised. Fine, go ahead.

[Morgan]

Thank you.

[Hecklefish]

Roll it.

[AJ]

Hecklefish doesn't respond to the CIA.

[Morgan]

Ah. Hello, human. It's me, Morgan. I am a beaver. Today we're showing a compilation of videos as chosen by the Y Files team. Come on, follow me. Hey, Gertie, how they humping? Hey, boys, hold to work. We have guests.

[Hecklefish]

Hey, what are you doing? Who said you could take a break? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Isn't that my single malt? Hey. Get back here, you filthy roach.

[Morgan]

Check it out. This is where the Human and Hecklefish do the show. Pretty cool, huh? That's better. Hang on a sec. Can I get a coffee, please? So hard to find good help, isn't it? Okay, where were we? Hang on. There's something wrong with the prompter. What does that mean? Play us out. Play us out. I don't know what that means. Play us out. Forget it. We'll do it live. I'll write it myself and we'll do it live. The whole thing stinks.

[Hecklefish]

Ahem.

[Morgan]

Here we go. The first episode was picked by Jen. You know Jen, aka Mrs. Y Files, aka the Queen Bee. And Bee doesn't stand for brunette if you catch my drif. So the queen bee chose the dark side of darpa. Oh, come on, man. You trying to get us demonetized? Fine, we'll play it. Roll it.

[AJ]

In the early days of the space race, the Soviet Union racked up a lot of firsts. Sputnik, the first satellite. Laika, the dog, the first animal in space. Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman. Zahn 5, the first spacecraft to the moon. Meanwhile, America's space program lagged, plagued by setback after setback. There were some successes, but not enough to keep pace with the Soviets. America was still planning its first satellite, while Sputnik circled the earth. Then Sputnik 2 went up. American citizens were terrified. What if the Russians put weapons in space? Maybe they already have. Paranoia was starting to become hysteria. President Eisenhower was under pressure to act and to act fast. The United States government knew what it had to create an organization to develop the most technologically advanced military systems in the world. And just three months after Sputnik 2 was launched, the Advanced Research Project Agency, or ARPA, was born. Later, ARPA became DARPA. The D stands for defense, because DARPA would be both a sword and a shield, creating offensive weapons and defensive systems. No project was too expensive, and no program was too immoral. DARPA's secret research would cost many lives. But sacrifices had to be made for the sake of security. But after all these years, it's time to who are they really protecting? Here's the scene. You're driving. It's late, and the road ahead is dark. You make a turn and then another. You finally realize you're lost. If this were the not too distant past, you'd pull over and grab your Thomas Guide.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah, for you kids, that's a map.

[AJ]

And if you didn't have a map, you'd try to find a gas station or 711 to ask for directions. Then your fate would be in the hands of the guy working the night.

[Hecklefish]

Shift who may or may not be a serial killer.

[AJ]

Right? But now all the answers are in your pocket. You tell your phone the address and GPS guides the way. Some cars will even drive for you while you sit back, relax, and listen to your favorite podcast.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, you know the White Files is also a podcast.

[AJ]

No plugs yet, please. We save those for the end.

[Hecklefish]

Sorry, sorry. I could sniff out a plug opportunity like a truffle pig. Foreign.

[AJ]

The technology I described that got you to your destination, it was created by darpa, all of it. And there's a lot more of DARPA in your pocket than you think. Your cell phone uses microprocessors designed by darpa. They also created the batteries to power those microprocessors. Your phone uses wireless technology made possible by darpa. The touchscreen and the microphone came from darpa. Voice recognition and GPS come from darpa. And of course, all this data transfer happens using the Internet, which was created by darpa.

[Hecklefish]

Excuse me, if I may, Is this.

[AJ]

Going to be a highly predictable and hacked joke about how Al Gore said he created the Internet?

[Hecklefish]

I yield the rest of my time. Thank you.

[AJ]

Mm. Yes, DARPA created the Internet. Well, technically, they were still ARPA then. Remember, the D was added in 1972. In the 1960s, researchers were trying to figure out a way to ensure reliable communications in case of a nuclear attack. Traditional telephone lines and radio transmitters would be the first to go. They came up with a radical packet switching.

[Hecklefish]

Not all of us speak nerd. Some of us went to our prom instead of staying home to write code on our Apple ii. Ahem.

[AJ]

Well, packet switching is not as complicated as it sounds. Here's how it works. You want to send a message or file from New York to la, but what if half the country's lines are down? So you break that message into small chunks called packets and send each one independently over the network. On the receiving end, the message waits for all the packets to arrive and then reassembles them back into the original message or file. Each packet will independently try to find the most efficient route through the network at any given moment. The Internet still works this way. Most people didn't use the Internet until the late 1990s or early 2000s. Some nerds like me were using our phones to dial bulletin board systems in the late 1970s and early 80s. But this new network, called ARPANET, was conceived in 1966.

[Hecklefish]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You were online all the way back then when you were like, 12 or 13 years old?

[AJ]

Yep. I was even younger than that when I first got online.

[Hecklefish]

And you're proud of this?

[AJ]

Well, yeah. Shouldn't I be?

[Hecklefish]

Did you even know girls existed?

[AJ]

Yes, I knew they existed.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah, now I see What? Girls didn't know you existed.

[AJ]

I was a late bloomer.

[Hecklefish]

Boomer.

[AJ]

Bloomer.

[Hecklefish]

What'd I say?

[AJ]

Under DARPA's guidance, TCPIP became the universal language for online computers. They also developed the concept of email and invented domain names. DARPA worked with UC Berkeley to create the BSD UNIX operating system. BSD Unix heavily influenced the operating system you're using right now, no matter what OS it is. It started with darpa. Now, these technologies may seem modern, but DARPA sent the first Internet message in 1969. Now this shouldn't be surprising. DARPA technology is said to be about 20 years ahead of civilian tech. Like self driving cars. DARPA built one in 1984. DARPA had GPS in 1973, microprocessors, motion sensors, and wireless communication. DARPA had these decades ago. But eventually these innovations became available to the rest of us. DARPA's technology has made our lives so much better. It's easy to forget that those innovations weren't originally meant to improve lives. They were meant to end them. It's the middle of the night and you're lying prone on top of a dusty building in some far corner of the world. You hug your 50 caliber Barrett sniper rifle. It's pitch dark, but your light gathering high magnification scope gives you full visibility of the alley 1200 yards away. A door opens. It's your target, right on schedule. You hold your breath and put your finger on the trigger. Suddenly, a van appears. Your target leaps in and speeds off. Years ago, he'd escaped. Mission failed. Not now. You fire. Confident in DARPA's latest innovation, a self guided bullet with optical sensors and real time guidance, it maneuvers mid flight, locked onto its target. Skilled snipers engage targets up to 1,300 yards away or more. The farthest confirmed kill, 2.2 miles by Canadian special forces in 2017. Impressive, but DARPA's Extreme Accuracy Task Ordnance or EXACTO bullet hits targets five or six miles away, maybe farther. DARPA keeps the details a secret. Many DARPA projects seem like science fiction. Some like magic Scepter lets you see through walls. The Mojave project bends light, making objects invisible. DARPA's Engineering Living Materials program uses living fungus as a construction material. Structures will no longer be built. They'll be grown. Instead of shipping finished materials, we can ship precursors and rapidly grow them on site using local resources. And since the materials will be alive, they'll be able to respond to changes in their environment and heal themselves in response to damage. DARPA likes fungus, but it loves bugs. Project Insect Allies modifies flying insects to attack crops. These insects resist disease and repair each other's injuries in the field. Then there's the hybrid insect Microelectrical Mechanical Systems, or HI mems. This project, along with Project Dragonfly, creates miniature flying cyborgs. Beetles, moths and dragonflies become undetectable spies with cybernetic implants. And solar powered guidance systems. They can be controlled remotely or operate autonomously. Using AI. They've created remote controlled rats. DARPA trains bees to find landmines. They're developing claytronics, programmable shape shifting matter. They're developing nuclear powered spacecraft, autonomous vehicles and weapons of all kinds. DARPA's technology is meant to keep people off the battlefield. Why risk a battalion of human soldiers when you can deploy a fleet of drones? But sometimes you need boots on the ground and that means people with guns. But DARPA has a better idea. Don't give a soldier a weapon, turn him into one. The human body is an amazing machine. Our musculoskeletal system allows us to do gymnastics, lift heavy weights and walk long distances. Still, our bodies have limitations. DARPA is developing technology to overcome these limitations. The goal is to increase strength, endurance, alertness, and the overall health of soldiers. DARPA's Warrior Web Project is one of several exoskeleton programs in the works. It's an exosuit, lightweight and flexible, similar to a scuba suit. But this is a smart suit. Using machine learning and onboard sensors. The suit knows when and where to firm up to augment muscles. It performs its function, then becomes flexible again. DARPA has also developed hard exoskeletons, just like you've seen in movies like Aliens and Edge of Tomorrow. These exoskeletons not only increase strength and endurance, but but they're modular. They can be equipped with all kinds of weapons. There's even a jetpack in development. The TALOS suit turns a soldier into a real life Iron Man. It's bulletproof and weaponized. It increases strength, speed and endurance. It monitors the user's vital signs and has sensors that analyze the entire environment around them. The Tactical Augmented Reality, or tar, project is a headset that overlays information over your normal vision. This gives soldiers real time information, like displaying maps, enemy locations and other vital data right in their line of sight. Project Z Man was inspired by geckos. DARPA is creating a material that would let soldiers climb walls without ropes or ladders. Now everyone knows the Air Force gives their pilots amphetamines.

[Hecklefish]

I feel the need. The need for speed.

[AJ]

The need for speed. Yep. They literally take illegal narcotics to stay alert. But the Continuous Assisted Performance, or cap, program is focused on keeping soldiers awake, alert and effective for up to seven days straight without side effects. DARPA's Brain Initiative program connects soldiers brains to computers. They can control drones and other systems with thought. They can truly multitask where one part of the brain is Operating a drone, while the other. The other part of the brain is analyzing the area, looking for targets. In the early 2000s, DARPA started exploring ways of giving humans superhuman abilities without equipment. This is DARPA's biorevolution program. They studied how animals attack, defend themselves, and regenerate from injuries. DARPA felt that if they could find those answers, these abilities could be transferred to humans. They could give soldiers improved senses, perfect eyesight, and limb regeneration without external devices. Now, to do that, you'd have to alter human DNA. So DARPA is exploring CRISPR gene editing technology. CRISPR can snip out unwanted genes and insert new ones. CRISPR could accelerate healing. Injuries that might have sidelined soldiers for weeks or months could heal in days. CRISPR technology has already sparked a revolution in medicine with the potential to cure genetic disorders and even combat aging.

[Hecklefish]

Link below on how CRISPR and AI are about to end the whole world.

[AJ]

Yeah, that episode is scary, but it's interesting and it's real. Some of these projects have failed and some haven't, and some are still in development. I have no doubt that DARPA will turn soldiers into superhuman weapons eventually, but they haven't yet. So how do you put boots on the ground and keep humans off the battlefield? DARPA's answer, killer robot robots. DARPA started working on robotics in the 1960s. Its first project was Shakey, the first mobile robot to reason about its actions. Shakey wasn't sleek or fast, but it was a start.

[Hecklefish]

You know, I feel like if you name your project Shakey, you're kind of setting yourself up to fail.

[AJ]

Well, since then, DARPA's robotics has come a long way. In the early 2000s, DARPA launched the Big Dog program in partnership with Boston Dynamics. These four legged robots can carry heavy loads and navigate difficult terrain. They can also be outfitted with weapons like sniper rifles or machine guns. The LS3 can follow soldiers autonomously and carry up to 400 pounds of gear. And then there's the Atlas robot. And now we're getting serious. Atlas was launched in 2013, and you've probably seen various versions of this robot over the years. Atlas could run, jump, and navigate obstacle courses. A couple of years ago, ATLAS used AI to teach itself how to walk and then run and then do gymnastics.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah. You humans realize it's only a matter of time before these things take over and enslave you, right?

[AJ]

Some of us realize it. Investigative journalist Annie Jacobson has covered DARPA for years. She says there's no doubt that the Pentagon is investing heavily in robotics. DARPA's plan through 2038 states without question that the Pentagon is moving towards robotic warfare. They want to have hunter killer drones that can swim, crawl, walk, run drones that can fly 13,000 miles an hour, which is 22 times faster than a commercial jet to get to a target really quickly. Ballistic missiles have limitations. Speeds over Mach 20 require too much power and make the rockets dangerously hot. But thanks to darpa, that's no longer a problem. Missiles can now travel at hypersonic speed without overheating. A target 500 miles away can be destroyed in six minutes. Weapons like these certainly keep humans off the battlefield. But DARPA's going to take it one step further. It's creating the technology to wage war without needing humans at all. Remember how DARPA is always about 20 years ahead of civilian technology? Maybe more. Well, as early as the 1960s, DARPA started developing computers that can learn independently. In the 1980s, DARPA launched the Strategic Computing Initiative, or SCI. The goal of SCI was to create military strategies by running simulations and learning from them.

[Hecklefish]

You're describing War Games.

[AJ]

What's it doing? So learning War Games was originally going to be a science fiction story about a dying scientist who's saved by a kid genius. But then the writers met Peter Schwartz from the Stanford Research Institute, or sri.

[Hecklefish]

Sri. I know those guys.

[AJ]

You do? SRI has been the launch pad for many secret government programs. I've talked about them a lot on this channel, and they've long been connected to the CIA, nsa, and darpa. Well, Schwartz was fascinated by a new computer subculture called hackers. He suggested that they make a movie about a kid hacking a military supercomputer.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was called Big Mac.

[AJ]

No, Whopper War Operation Plan Response.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, right. I'd still rather have a Big Mac.

[AJ]

Me too. Well, the Whopper spends all its time thinking about World War Three. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, he plays an endless series of war games using all available information on the state of the world. At the very same time that this movie came out, DARPA was working on its own military supercomputer. Here's how they described it. The machine envisioned by SC would run 10 billion instructions per second to see.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Hear, speak, and think like a human.

[AJ]

The degree of integration required would rival that achieved by the human brain, the most complex instrument known to man. If you haven't caught on by now, we're talking about artificial intelligence. Today, AI is everywhere and accessible to everyone. And it feels like it came out of nowhere, but it didn't. It came out of DARPA. As of today, 70% of DARPA's projects use or are focused on AI and machine learning. DARPA started working on AI in the 1960s. They built their first AI system, a speech recognition computer, in the 1970s. In 1983, the Strategic Computing Initiative project received billions for AI research. Then in the 1990s, DARPA launched another supercomputing project. It was, and still is highly secret. It's affecting you right now, and once I tell you what it is, you're not going to like it. Every holiday season, I make lasagna or a heap of delicious pasta. It's an Italian family tradition. I love doing it once the rest of December. I don't have time to play personal chef every night. But that's where cookunity comes in. It's not takeout, it's not frozen. These are fully cooked, restaurant quality meals made by real chefs, delivered fresh to your door. Just heat and eat. I had the beef bolognese rigatoni from chef Michelle Bernstein, Veal Italian sausage, white wine in the sauce. Absolutely amazing and tastes like something I would make. CookUnity has over 300 rotating meals, seasonal menus, and everything from comfort food to vegan options. You can browse by chef cuisine or even by macros. For the holidays, they're serving up glazed holiday ham turkey dinner and maple whipped sweet potatoes, bringing all the festive flavor without any of the chaos. No shopping, no cleanup, no thinking. Just real food from award winning chefs. For way less than takeout, go to cookunity.com thew files or enter code the Y files before checkout to get 50% off your first order. That's 50% off your first order. By using code the Y files or going to cookunity.com thewifiles. Now it's time to get this video demonetized and censored.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah, boy.

[AJ]

Yeah. If I'm not on a list by now, I'm about to be.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, they're watching you, human.

[AJ]

Yeah, I really don't want to talk about this. Honestly, I'm about to put everything that I have at risk.

[Hecklefish]

Uh, you're actually scaring me right now.

[AJ]

I'm scared too. Here we go.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Welcome.

[AJ]

Like the steam engine which sparked the Industrial revolution of the late 1700s, the Internet is changing everything it touches. And at the cutting edge of the revolution is Wall Street.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

So we are now 6 and 3/4 points above fair value.

[AJ]

The early 1990s was the beginning of the tech boom. Internet startups were Getting millions in investments.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

2002, Bemis is looking 39 and about 35,000 if you want to buy 10 grand.

[AJ]

And they had access to vast resources and vast amounts of data, personal data. The intelligence community wanted to gather this data to create a digital fingerprint of everyone using the Internet. If they could identify bad actors, criminals, terrorists, whatever, they would compare that fingerprint against others. They called this the birds of a feather approach. If Joe's a bad guy and Bob's a bad guy and they both go to certain websites, then other people visiting those same websites were potential bad guys. So let's track them.

[Hecklefish]

So surveillance?

[AJ]

Yes.

[Hecklefish]

Of Americans?

[AJ]

Yes.

[Hecklefish]

Legal?

[AJ]

No. Well, officially illegal as of 2010. But the law was murky in the 1990s, and for the intelligence community, murky means opportunity. Still, the intelligence agencies didn't have the ability to manage all this data, but they knew people were out there working on it and they were all looking for funding. But if you're the NSA or CIA or darpa, you can't drop by an Internet startup and ask them to build you an illegal digital surveillance program.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah, it's kind of a bad look.

[AJ]

It is, but it also gives away the game. Surveillance is only valuable if the target doesn't know they're being watched. So this technology would need to be funded privately and quietly. So in 1994, the Highlands Forum was founded. Ever hear of the Highlands Forum? You probably haven't, and they like it that way. The Highlands Forum, or Highlands Group, was formed as a think tank, a bridge between technology companies and the Pentagon. The Highlands Forum is an invitation only group of government officials, academics and executives from tech and defense companies companies. Their discussions are private and off the record, operating under the Chatham House rule, meaning members can disclose information from the meetings as long as it doesn't harm anybody. But they can never reveal who said it. Not ever. Although hardly anyone knows about the Highlands Forum, the group is highly influential on US Defense policy, especially regarding technology. And there are private organizations. No auditing, no oversight, no Freedom of Information act requirements. They're a black box, the perfect conduit for transactions you want to keep off the books. So tech is booming, data is flowing, and we've got our think tank to connect us with the people capturing the data. Now we need the money to fund them. That same year, the massive Digital Data Systems, or mdds, program was launched. Launched. MDDS would fund scientists, researchers and companies who worked with big data sets. The Highlands Forum would help identify, facilitate and coordinate these transactions. To keep these transactions private and secret, the MDDS moved Money through unclassified mainstream agencies like the National Science Foundation. Computer scientists were getting millions in grants from the nsf. Totally normal. They didn't know who was really behind the money. And MDDS was highly compartmentalized. It had tons of projects and departments. Nobody knew what anyone else was doing or who was even in charge. And this was by design. But the overall program was managed by the CIA, NSA, and darpa. So we've got black budget money flowing through the nsf and we've got our private organization, the Highlands Forum, looking for opportunities. So the word goes out to researchers and academia. If you can handle big data, we'll give you big money. Then a promising project emerged. Two Stanford graduate students working on a search engine made a breakthrough. In the early 90s. Searching the Internet was difficult. Popular engines like AltaVista and Lycos produced hit or miss results. Searching hiking gear would show pages mentioning hiking or gear, often irrelevant blog posts or articles. Users had to scroll through pages of useless results. It took forever, and I remember it well. Two Stanford students developed a system that changed everything. Their automated web crawling system identified a webpage's context, not just the text. Then pages were ranked based on relevance to specific queries. Pages actually discussing hiking gear would rank higher for that query. High traffic pages and pages with lots of incoming links ranked even higher. These were signals to the algorithm that a page was a good match for that query. Using this search engine felt like magic. Usually the first or second result was exactly what you were looking for. Somehow it knew. The system used an optimization technique called association rule mining, or query flocks. This assumes birds of a feather stick together, meaning people searching specific keywords tended to click the same result. Query flocks worked with people, too. The search engine learned that people with similar online habits search for similar things. If you searched hiking gear, the system assumed you liked outdoor activities and were probably within a certain age group. And the more you used the search engine, the more it learned about you. So your searches always gave you relevant results using information you willingly provided. These students had developed a method to create your digital fingerprint Jackpot. The CIA, NSA, and DARPA learned about this project, and through the National Science foundation, the mdds funded it. If you haven't guessed by now, those two students were Sergey Brin and Larry Page. And the search engine was Google. You won't find MDDs in Google's Origin story, but this is public, unclassified information. It's just hard to find. In Brin and Page's famous 1998 research paper, the Anatomy of A large scale hypertextual web search engine. They thanked DARPA for their support. You can see this for yourself. It's on page 16, section 7, under acknowledgments. Now, there's a lot more to this rabbit hole. The connection between intelligence agencies and technology companies is.

[Hecklefish]

So hang on, hang on.

[AJ]

What?

[Hecklefish]

Pop quiz.

[AJ]

Go ahead.

[Hecklefish]

How do you make your living?

[AJ]

YouTube.

[Hecklefish]

And who owns YouTube?

[AJ]

Google.

[Hecklefish]

Right. Bye bye channel. Now would be a good time to ask for Patreon support.

[AJ]

I don't do plugs until the end of the episode.

[Hecklefish]

Make and accept we're in the deep water now.

[AJ]

He might be right. Truly and honestly, I won't know until it's too late. But telling you this story might have been a terrible mistake. So yes, Please go to patreon.com thewifiles I don't know if we will, but we might need your help anyway. This video isn't about Google. It's about darpa. Specifically the dark side of darpa. And it's about to get a whole lot darker. When John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, America had allies everywhere. Cuba, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Lebanon and many others. But the Soviet Union was fueling insurrections against US Friendly government. Kennedy promised to stop the spread of communism. But the Soviets were pouring billions into military technology. Rocket and missile systems, even space exploration. JFK was committed to keeping pace. He wanted more resources in science and technology. He modernized the military and doubled DARPA's budget. And the timing couldn't be better. The global Cold War had evolved into regional proxy wars with the Soviet Union. A new type of warfare was being fought. Guerrilla warfare. Old military strategies wouldn't work. The situation in Vietnam was especially bad. The Viet Cong were hidden under the thick jungle canopy. You can't kill an enemy that you can't see. DARPA proposed a solution, Project Agile. It was pitched to Kennedy as both a scientific and military endeavor. Kennedy signed off immediately. The first phase was called Operation Ranch Hand. Its purpose was to clear the jungle. DARPA developed the rainbow herbicides, named for their container colors, to kill the foliage. Agent Purple was first, then green, then pink. DARPA was combining different herbicides, defoliants and toxins, looking for the perfect formula to destroy Viet Cong cover. Agent Orange was the winner. Millions of thousands of gallons of Agent Orange was sprayed over miles of jungle every day. Leaves fell from trees almost immediately. Another application and the trees died. Next, Project Agile targeted farms. Agent Orange could destroy miles of crops in a day. They asked South Vietnamese President Diem if he knew which Farms were Viet Cong and which belonged to innocent civilians. He said yes, he knew and he didn't care. If they weren't traitors yet, they would be soon kill them all. Now, the US didn't want to do this, but it only had a few hundred military advisors in Vietnam at this time. They didn't want to send more. Better to sacrifice North Vietnamese farmers than U.S. marines. So it was done. Guilty or innocent, friend or foe, if you were a North Vietnamese farmer, you were targeted. Your crops were destroyed and your soil was poisonous, poisoned. Replanting was impossible. Agent Orange's effects were instant and devastating. And nobody knew. It was only the beginning. As the Vietnam War escalated, so did the use of Agent Orange under DARPA's Project Agile. Project Agile used other tactics. DARPA contractors included social scientists and experts in human psychology. Propaganda spread through leaflets, loudspeakers and media control. Subliminal technology kept people in heightened emotional states from minor discomfort to absolute terror.

[Hecklefish]

Subliminal warfare Mind control Link Down. Down the alley. Sally.

[AJ]

Psychological warfare teams targeted villages, turning neighbor against neighbors. Civilians were forced into strategic hamlets for their safety. Four million people were relocated against their will. Meanwhile, soldiers complained of headaches, nausea, stinging eyes and rashes. Agent Orange did more than clear jungle and kill crops. It tortured people for life. Thousands exposed to Agent Orange developed cancer. Children were born with defects. Agent Orange caused reproduction problems like infertility and miscarriages. Heart disease and diabetes increased. Agent Orange was first used in 1962. In 1965, scientists discovered it contained dioxin, a highly toxic compound that causes cancer and birth defects. They kept using it. In 1967, a study proved dioxin causes birth defects even at low concentrations. They kept using it. In 1969, a Department of Defense report acknowledged Agent Orange's severe health risks. They kept using it. Public outcry forced President Nixon to stop the use of Agent Orange in 1970. They kept using it. They stopped spraying the following year, 1971. Even in war, near our roof rules, POWs must be treated humanely. Medical staff and facilities are off limits. Humanitarian aid must be allowed. Breaking these rules is a war crime. In 1907, the Hague Convention banned the use of poison in war. The US Signed the treaty. Agent Orange was poisoned. That's what herbicides are. So was using Agent Orange a war crime? No. The United States said Agent Orange wasn't a poison. It was an herbicide. The treaty didn't specifically mention herbicides.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, that's some lawyer loophole.

[AJ]

Bull. In 1925, the Geneva Protocol banned the use of chemical Weapons. The US Signed this treaty, but Agent Orange was a chemical. Of the 12 companies producing agent Orange, the primary manufacturer was the Dow Chemical Company. The word chemical is in the company's name. So is using Agent Orange a war crime? Nope. The United States said Agent Orange wasn't a chemical. It was an herbicide.

[Hecklefish]

Wait, how is that even possible?

[AJ]

It's not. In 1949, the Geneva Conventions established that civilians and their property must not be intentionally targeted. Only combatants and military targets were allowed. The US Signed this treaty, but civilians and their farms were intentionally targeted with Agent Orange. So was using it a war crime? No. The United States said the intent was to disrupt the enemy's logistical support and visibility, not cause direct harm to people. In other words, it was an accident. So what about the destruction of plants and trees on civilian land? Those weren't military targets. Isn't this a war crime? No. The United States said it was a military necessity to defoliate the area in order to deny the enemy cover, which makes trees, any trees anywhere, a military target. What about destroying civilian crops? Again, the US Only intended to destroy crops of the enemy, not civilians. It was unintentional, so no war crime. In 1977, the Geneva Conventions were amended to specifically ban the use of herbicides and reinforce civilian protection. The US Signed the Gentleman New Treaty, but still denied any liability for the damage caused by Agent orange. However, in 1984, US veterans sued the chemical companies who settled for $180 million. But the settlement was to support veterans, not at admission of guilt. In 2004, Jill Montgomery, speaking for the Monsanto Company, one of the major suppliers of Agent Orange, she set the record straight. We're sympathetic with people who believe they've been injured and understand their concern to find the cause. But reliable scientific evidence indicates that Agent Orange is not the cause of serious long term health effects. In 1991, finally, the VA started providing benefits to vets exposed to Agent Orange. But the US still denies liability. My father in law served in Vietnam. He was exposed to Agent Orange. He's watching. So I won't list his illnesses, but he suffered almost all of them. So in 1991, he applied for his benefits. And I'll admit the government kept its word. He did receive his benefits in 2021. It took 30 years. Like so many vets. When his country needed him, he didn't hesitate. But when he needed his country, they said, take a number, get in line and hope you're still alive by the time we call your name. Do I sound angry? That's because I am. Between 1955 and 1975, 2.7 million people were deployed to Vietnam. 50, 58,000 dead, 300,000 wounded, 3,000 missing or prisoners of war, 1,500 still missing. That's tragic. But it's much worse. The VA estimates 300,000 to 400,000 veterans may have died from illnesses caused by the exposure to Agent Orange. May have. To this day. To this day, no single person, agency, company or government has admitted any wrongdoing or assumed any liability for the millions of lives destroyed by Agent Orange. Now, ordinary people like us have so many rules we have to follow. Don't speed check Grandma's shoes before she gets on a plane. Pay your taxes, even though we're going to steal it and waste your money. Pick up a gun, shoot at those people. Do what you're told. If we break a law, the government will take our money, seize our property, force us into labor, or lock us in a cell. It all depends on the crime. So we follow the law. But if you're a big chemical company or a government agency, don't worry about the law. You can get away with murder.

[Hecklefish]

Ah.

[AJ]

I needed a minute. The story of DARPA is hard to debunk, and that's because most of it's true. What we know about DARPA's projects come from them. Their websites and official YouTube channel openly share information. They have a podcast called Voices of darpa. Even the experts uncovering darpa, Annie Jacobson and Sharon Weinberger, get their information from the agency they're writing about. When Jacobson gives a speech, writes a book, or appears in an interview about darpa, she's not sharing classified information. She's not speculating, she's reporting. She never claims to know anything that we can't find out for ourselves. But still, most information is secret. What we know about DARPA is what they want us to know. There's no transparency. None. Also, DARPA is exempt from laws that other government agencies have to follow, specifically about hiring practices, managing personnel, and managing budgets. They can run the agency however they like. DARPA is only 220 people. That's it. With a budget of almost $4 billion. Now, that's a lot of freedom and power, but it's much more than that. DARPA is allowed to fund projects through what's called other transactions. No congressional approval needed, no reporting required. Choose the projects you want to fund and fund them. So who's choosing the projects? Annie Jacobson gives us an unsettling answer. The real problem is that the individuals who are responsible for deciding what weapon systems are being financed and created in these classified DARPA programs are the very CEOs of defense contractors who stand to financially benefit from these contracts. Annie Jacobson has said that DARPA is the agency driving the military industrial complex. That agency is run by the companies that profit from the technology they create. This is exactly what President Eisenhower said would happen. If you make war profitable, you'll always have war. But to be fair, DARPA's innovations have made our lives better. Not just because of cell phones and GPS. DARPA's achievements in prosthetics have allowed paralyzed children to walk again. They've created medical techniques to diagnose illnesses earlier. They've bioengineered tissue and organs that can be used for transplants. They've developed machines and that can stabilize injured people in emergency situations. Advanced medical imaging such as ultrasound, MRI, and brain imaging, all created by or alongside DARPA. Now, does the good outweigh the bad? Do DARPA's contributions offset the damage they've done? I don't know. That's not for me to judge. But this story reminds me of the courtroom scene in A Few Good Men.

[Hecklefish]

You can't handle the truth, Right?

[AJ]

When the Colonel says my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

[Hecklefish]

You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. Right?

[AJ]

So is DARPA a necessary evil? Is evil even the right word? I don't know. When DARPA was formed in 1958, its mission was to make sure the United States was. Was never again surprised by advanced technology. And for 66 years, DARPA has succeeded in its mission. The US has never been surprised by technology.

[Hecklefish]

Except for the UFOs.

[AJ]

Okay. The US has never been surprised by another country's technology.

[Hecklefish]

Better.

[AJ]

I can't forget all the suffering that DARPA has caused. But DARPA's done so much good. Can I forgive? I don't know. I'm disgusted by some of DARPA's actions, by our government's corruption, by the fact that because of darpa, bad people get rich from war. But if I'm being honest, which I always am with you, I have to acknowledge that as an American, we need DARPA on that wall.

[Morgan]

I told you that was gonna be a dark one. Okay, what's next?

[AJ]

Aha.

[Morgan]

Yes. Zombies. This one was chosen by my editor, Brandon. He loves creepy stuff. Yep. If DARPA wasn't dark enough for ya, here's here's the episode about conplan 8888? Mmm. Brains.

[AJ]

Hehehe. Staff sergeant Ryan Martinez was the B doc desk sergeant on duty at Offutt AFB a few miles south of Omaha, Nebraska. Nebraska. He sipped cold coffee, updated the blotter and checked in with patrols. Reports confirmed the monitors RC135 sitting dark in the flight line. Guards, walking posts and perimeter fences quiet. At 0400 this was routine. Martinez was fighting a yawn when the klaxon fired up. Then an announcement. Alarm read perimeter breach. Martinez chef cameras. A wave of shadows was stumbling across the field toward thousands of on base personnel and their families. Then he saw them. The shadows were people. Or at least they used to be. The loudspeaker barked commands to halt. The horde kept coming. Flares went up. Warning shots were fired. The horde kept coming. Then came the command Martinez never expected to weapons free. Gunfire erupted. Thousands of rounds, creating a wall of sound and smoke and steel. Bodies fell. The entire base held its breath. A few seconds later, the bodies rose again and the horde kept coming. Martinez tore through a cabinet, searching for the protocols no one took seriously. Remembering the training no one thought necessary. Every soldier at Offut was prepared for this exact scenario, outlined in a military document most Americans had never heard of. Con Plan 8888, the Pentagon's guide for surviving a zombie apocalypse. And tonight the plan goes operational. The plan that Staff Sergeant Martinez pulled from that cabinet is real. I have a copy of it. You can download it and read it for yourself. In 2009, United States Strategic Command released Con Plan 8888. 11 counter zombie dominance operations. 31 pages of detailed military strategy for surviving a zombie apocalypse, complete with operational phases, threat assessments and rules of engagement.

[Hecklefish]

Whoa, whoa whoa whoa. Wait, wait wait wait wait. This is a real thing? Army versus zombies?

[AJ]

Yep.

[Hecklefish]

Okay, I'm terrified right now. Hold me.

[AJ]

No. The document opens with standard Pentagon formatting, official letterhead, proper classification stamps. Everything looks mundane until you get to the document's purpose statement.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

U.S. stratCom Con Plan 8888 purpose to undertake military operations to preserve non zombie humans from the threats posed by a zombie horde. Because zombies. Zombies pose a threat to all non zombie human life, hereafter referred to as humans.

[AJ]

U.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

S STRATCOM will be prepared to preserve the sanctity of human life.

[AJ]

The document was declassified in 2011 thanks to a FOIA request. Now that's a quick turnaround from classified. The public A section of Con Plan 8888 reveals why.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

U. S StratCom Con Plan 8888 Security Instructions this document is unclassified to ensure maximum utility during times of crisis. Classified capabilities used to counter zombies will be addressed in appropriate orders and crisis plan will be adapted to current operational conditions.

[AJ]

Khan Plan 8888 assumes a complete breakdown of society. It lays out five distinct operational phases from monitoring through the restoration of civil authority. Phase zero is Shape the environment. STRATCOM watches for non state actors with chemical and Biological WMDs. They monitor disease vectors, outbreaks and epidemics. Phase one is DETER. This prevents enemies from creating zombies and nuclear armed countries get notified that counter zombie tactics aren't a preparation for war. Phase two is Seize the initiative. STRATCOM provides security assistance to local authorities. Quarantine zones get created and enforced. Civilian areas stay protective effective until they're overrun. Then Con Plan 8888 enters phase three. Dominate, respond and counter. During phase three, the US military locks down and retreats to fortified positions for at least 40 days.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

U.S. stratCom Con Plan 8888 Phase 3 Upon receipt of a U.S. stratCom order, all forces will begin preparations to conduct combat operations against zombie threats. US StratCom will shelter all personnel in place for at least 40 days.

[AJ]

After that, phases four and five focus on stabilizing and restoring government. Reconnaissance teams deploy to assess the zombie threat.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

US StratCom Con Plan 8888 Phase 4 and 5 no earlier than 40 days after the initiation of Phase 3 operations, US StratCom forces will initiate local reconnaissance operations ops to determine the severity of the remaining zombie threat, assess the physical and epidemiological security of the local environment and survey the status of basic services water, power, sewage, infrastructure and communications.

[AJ]

If the threat is neutralized, rebuilding begins. But as long as zombies exist, the military stays locked down. Khan Plan 8888 outlines these phases step by step. But notice what's missing during the military lockdown. Civilian protection. The document says that during the first critical weeks, local law enforcement handles zombie attacks until martial law is declared. After that, no civilian assistance, no rescue missions, no exceptions. The plan assumes most government Officials die within 24 hours. Cities become uninhabitable. Infrastructure collapses completely. Con Plan 8888 ensures military command and control continues. Now that's great if you're inside a fortified facility. But for anyone outside a military fence, con plan 8888 makes it clear you're on your own. To survive the collapse of society. You need to understand the threat. The military knows where zombie apocalypses could start and what we'll face beyond the safety of fortified installations.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

US StratCom Con Plan 8888 section 4, subsection 5, conditions for implementation part A. Zombies have the potential to seriously undermine national security and our way of life. While the US Currently enjoys several asymmetric advantages and against zombie infections originating in the Eurasian landmass, these advantages can easily be negated by air and sea traffic that could transport the source of a zombie infection to north and South America.

[AJ]

Baton plaid 8880 is clear. Zombie threats come from anywhere and affect anyone. The Pentagon organized zombies into distinct categories. According to Kant Plan 8888, the most likely threat comes from pathogenic zombies created when viruses or bacteria infect humans. And the Pentagon isn't guessing. Existing diseases could mutate and trigger real outbreaks. Take rabies. The virus attacks the central nervous system, creating aggression and violence. Infected animals form at the mouth and attack anything that moves. That foam carries the rabies virus. One bite from a rabid animal means almost certain death. Movies like 28 Days later and World War Z show virus based zombies. Animals also become zombies through prion diseases. A prion is a misfolded protein that destroys brains and nervous systems. Chronic wasting disease makes deer and elk lose their natural natural fear. They stumble around like zombies, easy prey for predators. Mountain lions actually target infected deer. But eating these animals is risky. Eat a prion diseased brain and you become infected. Mad cow disease is a prion disease. Humans who eat infected beef develop Creutzfeldt Jakob disease. The symptoms are rapid mental deterioration, loss of coordination and aggressive behavior. Sounds a lot like zombies. Kuru affects cannibalistic tribes in Papua New Guinea. They eat the brains of dead relatives as a funeral ritual.

[Hecklefish]

Stop. Stop.

[AJ]

Stop.

[Hecklefish]

Why do they. How did.

[Morgan]

What?

[Hecklefish]

Why?

[AJ]

Eating the brain helps the spirit reach the afterlife.

[Hecklefish]

So how was grandma's funeral? A little chewy. I don't feel so good.

[AJ]

Yeah. Technically it's against the law now, but rumors are that some tribes still do this privately.

[Hecklefish]

Keep my wife's brain out your mouth.

[Morgan]

What?

[Hecklefish]

Keep my wife's brain out your mouth.

[AJ]

And that's how it continues. Eating an infected brain spreads. Kuru victims experience severe mood changes. They become violent and unpredictable.

[Hecklefish]

Like ex wives.

[AJ]

Like zombies.

[Hecklefish]

Ah, that makes more sense.

[AJ]

The Zombieland movies feature prion zombies. And beyond. Bacteria, viruses and prions, parasites can create zombies the year calls called symbiont induced zombies. What makes these parasites so dangerous is you don't Know you're carrying one. Conplan8888 says pathogenic zombies are most common. And that makes sense. Diseases affect every animal on Earth. And sometimes the diseases jump to humans through zoonosis. AIDS, SARS, H1N1, Ebola plague, anthrax, Lyme disease, malaria. Dozens of deadly diseases jump from animals to humans. And most diseases kill their host. But not all. Con plant 8888 calls these sizs symbiont induced zombies. Instead of killing you, the parasite uses you. At least for a while. In Costa Rica's rainforests, the jewel wasp attacks cockroaches. The wasp injects venom directly into the roach's brain. The roach becomes docile and compliant.

[Hecklefish]

Ah, you said this was the Cosby wasp.

[AJ]

The jewel wasp.

[Hecklefish]

I don't remember jewel doing anything this inappropriate.

[AJ]

The jewel wasp grabs the roach by its antennae and leads it to a burrow. Like walking a dog. The roach doesn't flee, it follows. Then the wasp lays an egg inside the roach and leaves. The roach cockroach stays put, waiting peacefully. When the larva hatches, it eats the cockroach alive from the inside out. That's mind control. Con Plan 8888 calls it zombification. And if you've played the Dead Rising games, those zombies are created by these parasitic wasps. Then there's Ophiocordyceps. This fungus turns ants into zombie ants. Infected ants abandon their colonies and climb high branches. They bite down on leaves and with a death grip, the fungus then consumes the ant's body and bursts from its head, raining spores on the colony below. The ant's final act spreads infection and creates more zombies. The Last of Us games and HBO series feature the cordyceps fungus jumping to humans. African sleeping sickness affects thousands of people every year. It's transmitted by tsetse flies. Victims become confused, disoriented and violent. Like some zombies, those parasites kill the host eventually, but some keep the host alive forever. The Acanthocephalum worm starts by infecting insects that birds like to eat. Because the worm's final destination is in a bird's gut, the parasite hijacks an insect's survival instincts. It abandons cover and wanders into open areas where birds hunt. Some climb to the tops of plants and stay exposed. Birds eat the zombified insects. Insects. The worm infects the bird. More worms spread through the bird's feces, and the bird never knows the worm is there. In fact, there's a dangerous parasite that's already living in almost half of the human population. And if you don't have it, there's a good chance that somebody living in your house does. Toxoplasma gondii is a single celled parasite that lives in contaminated water and undercooked meat. Between 30 and 50% of humans carry it. Most don't know they're infected. The reason it's so common? Cats.

[Hecklefish]

I knew it. Those filthy hell beasts have bioweapons.

[AJ]

Okay, settle down. About half of all cats have toxoplasma antibodies from past infection. And this bug is tough. It survives months. Months in cat feces, years in soil and water. It could withstand refrigeration and even freezing. Chlorine won't kill it, neither will soap or detergent. Sulfuric acid kills it, but it takes almost two years. It's easily spread by household insects like cockroaches and flies and rodents. And there's an argument that Toxoplasma gondii evolved to help cats. Infected rats and mice lose their fear of cats. They become slower, less alert. They're actually attracted to cat urine. Poxoplasma programs rodents to get eaten. It's the perfect parasite. Indestructible, persistent, widespread, undetectable. The military knows that in a real outbreak, every cat becomes a disease vector. You couldn't trust any of them.

[Hecklefish]

If you trust a house cat, you deserve to get eat.

[AJ]

That's why con plan 8888 takes biological threats seriously. Once a pathogen enters the pet population, containment becomes impossible.

[Hecklefish]

You could eliminate all the kids.

[AJ]

Stop that.

[Hecklefish]

I'm just saying, if you want to make an omelet, you gotta break some kittens.

[AJ]

But here's what keeps researchers awake at night. Most people don't know they're carrying toxoplasma. Studies show infected humans take more risks. They drive aggressively. Some researchers link it to personality changes, decision making problems, even mental health issues. This is why Con Plan 8888 exists. Exists. This is why the Pentagon plans. Because zombies aren't coming. They're already here. Doctor Annie Liu was a molecular gerontologist and the latest darling of Silicon Valley. She discovered a telomere extending virus. The holy grail of life extension. She called it Project Lazarus. The ultra wealthy from all over the world poured billions into Lazarus. If there's one thing billionaires really hate doing, it's dying. But Dr. Liu hit an impasse. The Lazarus virus worked perfectly in a petri dish. But once it was injected into a live rat, the rat died within hours. Could it be the delivery vector. Maybe a cytokine cascade. Why do the telomeres lengthen then trigger apoptosis? Immune storm in every test subject. Hours to death. What am I missing? It. Doctor Liu checked the time. It was after 3am her third all nighter in a row. She needed to get some sleep. Better to deal with this with fresh eyes. Hello? I'm fine. It was just a hard day at the lab. But Dr. Liu didn't realize how hard a day it was. She never noticed the three micron tear in her hazmat suit. A human hair is about 60 microns wide. Wide. But not the Lazarus virus. Those are 0.02 microns wide. Plenty of room for a virus to enter. In fact, that's enough room for hundreds of them to enter. Of course I'm coming. I wouldn't miss my little sister's wedding for anything. Dr. Liu took every precaution. N95 masks. Black particles 0.03 microns wide. But that's not enough to stop Lazarus. Even if Dr. Liu knew about the tear, she wouldn't have been that concerned. Lazarus wasn't an airborne virus. Lazarus only worked if it was injected directly into the bloodstream. But now Lazarus was airborne. The next Zombie Classification in Con Plan 8888 RZ Radiation. Zombies. Organisms become zombies after absorbing extreme electromagnetic radiation. Nuclear accidents, dirty bombs, cosmic radiation. The Pentagon says any of these can create zombies. Solar flares bombard Earth with charged particles. A coronal mass ejection could expose entire populations to dangerous radiation. The 1859 Carrington event knocked out telegraph systems all over the world. A similar event today could deliver radiation doses that alter brain chemistry on a massive scale. After Chernobyl, emergency responders who entered the reactor core experienced rapid cellular breakdown. Some survivors reported hallucinations and aggressive behavior before dying. But radiation doesn't always kill. We covered how Chernobyl's dogs and wolves adapted to high radiation. An entirely new wolf species emerged. Highly resistant to cancer. If radiation can create a new type of wolf, it can create a new type of human. And in the wrong hands, that human becomes the perfect soldier. Conplan 8888 calls these weaponized zombies. WZs are specifically created for military use. The Pentagon calls this a threat because the technology exists. And they should know they created it. Wuhan, no. You're gonna get us canceled.

[Morgan]

Oh, oh.

[Hecklefish]

I meant Wuhan. Solo really showed Greedo who's boss, huh?

[AJ]

Nice save. Chemical weapons affect brain function and behavior. During the Cold War, both superpowers Developed Developed psychochemical agents to incapacitate enemy forces. BZ tested by the US army caused hallucinations and confusion. Similar compounds could create zombie symptoms. CRISPR gene editing alters organisms at the genetic level. Synthetic biology creates entirely new biological systems. A hostile nation could engineer a pathogen that creates controllable zombies.

[Hecklefish]

Controllable zombies? And we already got those. They're called cable News viewers.

[AJ]

Con Clan 8888 shows the military preparing for zombies that can come from anywhere, even outer space. Space zombies come from outer space or result from alien contamination of Earth's environment. U.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

S StratCom Con Plan 8888 Section 4 Subsection 6 Zombie Threat Summary Part 4 Space zombies SES are zombie life forms originating from space or created by toxic contamination of the Earth environment via some form of extraterrestrial toxin or radiation.

[AJ]

NASA and the military already have protocols to prevent contamination from space space missions. When Apollo astronauts returned from the moon, they spent 21 days in quarantine. The concern was that lunar microorganisms might be dangerous to life on Earth.

[Hecklefish]

You mean when the astronauts returned from the soundstage in Burbank, they had to make sure they didn't pick up a bug from the San Fernando Valley?

[AJ]

Let's not do this now.

[Hecklefish]

The Valley Flu, they call it. Symptoms include attraction to shopping malls, degraded parking skills and an insatiable appetite for Baja Fritz.

[AJ]

They make good burritos.

[Hecklefish]

Du.

[AJ]

But NASA protocols won't help if toxins land outside the jurisdiction of the United States. Because SCs come from space, they can affect any place on earth.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

US StratCom Con Plan 8888 section 4 subsection 5 conditions for implementation Part A Continued Asteroid and nuclear space radiation that can convert people into zombies can affect any land mass or population on Earth. Given the rapidity at which zombie outbreaks spread, decisive, overwhelming and possibly unilateral military force may be required to negate the zombie threat.

[AJ]

Real scientific research shows organisms survive where life should be impossible. These extremophiles include tardigrades that withstand the vacuum of space.

[Hecklefish]

Space.

[AJ]

If similar organisms exist elsewhere in the solar system, they might be incompatible with human biology. Large asteroids or comets could carry alien microorganisms or radioactive materials. The tunguska event in 1908 flattened over a thousand square miles of Siberian forest. If a similar impact happened over a populated area, alien contamination would spread before anyone could respond. Khan Plan 8888 states Nuclear weapons would be the most effective counter to space zombies. The logic if contamination can't be contained, incineration at nuclear temperatures becomes the only option. But there's one zombie type that concerns the military more than any other. It can't be killed with conventional weapons. It can't be killed with nuclear weapons. The only way to fight this zombie is with God. Evil Magic Zombies. The document actually uses those words. The Pentagon has an official position on supernatural threats.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

US StratCom Con Plan 8888, Section 4, Subsection 6, Zombie Threat Summary Part 3 Evil Magic Zombies of the classes of zombies, one type is caused by occult phenomena that cannot be reliably monitored, predicted, or proven to exist. Zombies caused by occult phenomena are EMZs. The only way to ensure a zombie is dead is to burn the zombie corpse. EMZs are the only class of zombie that may not be vulnerable to this measure. Despite being the hardest threats to eliminate directly by attacking the Zombie Life form, EMZs can usually be eliminated if the source of evil magic is destroyed. There is evidence to suggest the Chaplain Corps may prove integral to countering these threats.

[AJ]

The military takes this seriously enough to assign the Chaplain Corps as primary defense. Now think about that. The Pentagon believes defeating these zombies might require divine intervention.

[Hecklefish]

Jon Snow Intervention.

[AJ]

Right.

[Hecklefish]

Thousands of years ago, there came a night that lasted a generation. Kings froze to death in their castles, same as the shepherds in their hoods. Women smothered their babies rather than see them starve and wept and felt the tears freeze on their cheeks. So is it for the long night and the white workers?

[AJ]

Oh man, I know what it is. But yes, White walkers and wights in Game of Thrones are evil magic zombies. Fighting the supernatural isn't new to the military. During World War II, both sides employed occult research divisions. The Nazis had the Ottanerva. The Allies had their own paranormal units. Churchill consulted astrologers. The US army investigated psychic warfare during the Cold War. Now it may seem that the military has everything figured out. They have identified each type of zombie threat. They understand how to fight them. But not so fast. Buried on page 16 is a single, unsettling section.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

U.S. stratCom Con Plan 8888, section 4, subsection 13.3. Shortfalls and limiting Factors. Adequate zombie defenses require sandbags, sand, barbed wire, anti personnel mines, riot control, chemical agents, and petroleum to create flame barriers. These supplies may not be present in sufficient volume to defend against zombie incursion and could severely tax available logistical support infrastructure. U.S. stratCom forces do not currently hold enough contingency stores, food, water to support 30 days of barricaded counter zombie operations. And US StratCom has no ground combat forces capable of repelling a zombie assault.

[AJ]

Several zombie types identified specific tactical recommendations, containment protocols, resource requirements. But not enough soldiers in the army to actually win. So the military created a new army. An army of millions of soldiers, all trained to survive the zombie apocalypse. And for years, these soldiers have been learning how to organize, how to fight, and how to rebuild civilization. This army has been built in secret, but also in plain sight. Because the soldiers of this army are us. The military knows how to fight zombies. They have a plan. But they don't have the soldiers. So they created them. US. The military developed a psychological operation that trained millions of civilians without them knowing it. The Walking Dead premiered on October 31, 2010, the same year Con Plan 8888 finished development. World War Z started filming in 2011 and was released in 2013. The Last of Us game launched in 2013. All during the exact time this military document was finalized and declassified. Think about what these shows taught you. Survival tactics, supply management, team dynamics. Trust no one, secure your perimeter, always have an escape plan. Millions of Americans absorbed zombie apocalypse protocols through entertainment. The training was subtle but effective. I've watched every Walking Dead episode. Okay, I watched up until season five. I played the last of US games. I played the first one, the Walking Dead. Last of US World War Z. We've all consumed the same content and we learned the same lessons. The military didn't need boot camps. They had Netflix. But the psyop might distract from the real secret. Con Plan 8888 contains multiple references to classified annexes. Never released publicly, the document repeatedly mentions Annex C detailing space control capabilities. Page after page references classified sections stripped from the public version. Annex S covers special technical operations. Annexd handles classified logistics. Throughout the document, footnotes point to information marked secret or higher. The zombie scenarios were unclassified. The real military capabilities stayed hidden. The most telling detail is buried in the technical sections. Con Plan 8888 works alongside other military plans. Khan Plan 8035 for space operations, Khan Plan 8531 for flu pandemics, and Con Plan 8099 for combating WMDs. These are active military plans, not training exercises. Because the zombie plan is unclassified, it implies the threat isn't real. But the classified military capabilities are real. There's clearly some kind of threat. So the big question is, how do you survive it? When the outbreak starts, you have about 48 hours before everything falls apart.

[Hecklefish]

Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand. The creatures crawl in search of blood to terrorize Yalls neighborhood.

[AJ]

You got that out of your system?

[Hecklefish]

Almost Great.

[AJ]

The people who survive aren't lucky. They're prepared. Your location determines your survival. If you're in a city, get out fast. Cities become death traps. All those people packed together, that's a zombie buffet. And in a dense population center, the infection will spread faster than it can be contained. Hospitals fill with infected who don't know what's happening to them. They stumble into emergency rooms and spread the virus to medical staff. And don't call 911. Police stations get overrun by panicked citizens looking for weapons. The smart cops go home to protect their families. The rest become casualties. You need to be somewhere remote. A cabin, a homestead or a farm. If you don't own one, better know someone who does. Those places have what matters. Food, water, and people who know how to defend them. Guns are loud. They attract attention. You don't want a bow and arrow works better. So does a knife, a bat or a crowbar. Quiet weapons keep you alive longer. Skip the supermarkets. They're already swarming with desperate people. You need supplies ready before disaster strikes. Prep a bug out bag. Forget the bottled water. Carry water purification tablets or a lifestraw water filter. Iodine pills for radiation exposure. You'll need food. MREs last 30 years, but food is heavy. Better if you learn how to hunt, clean and cook your own meals. Pack power record rated for £500. It could be used for everything. Securing shelter, making tourniquets, starting fires. And it works as fishing line. Pack a solar radio, solar flashlight, real band aids, and N95 masks. Take signaling mirrors and whistles, toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet paper, trees. When you're stuck in the wild, you'll be happy you remembered those. In my kit, I keep thermal blankets, a small propane stove and glow sticks. I've got a fire starter, a multi tool, three different kinds of knives. Bring a needle and thread, good for repairing clothes and sewing up wounds. And if you don't have the stomach to stitch a cut, Krazy Glue will do in a pinch. And don't forget duct tape. It fixes everything and reinforces barricades. I even keep mini bugout bags in all my vehicles. You can pick one up for about 40 bucks. And I'll link below to the gear I use. Once you're out of the chaos, find a place where you can rest. Watch your lines of sight. Learn to set a perimeter. Trip wires and snares anything to alert you to danger and find other people. Pull resources, exchange knowledge and skills. Know your strengths and find people to shore up your weaknesses. Some people are fighting, some are farmers, some are planners, some are builders. There's safety in numbers. But when connecting with strangers, trust your gut. Whether it's Conplan 8888 or some generic survival guide, they'll tell you the same thing. When the end of the world comes, the most dangerous thing you'll face isn't zombies. It's other people. We follow Khan Plan 8888 from a zombie outbreak at Offutt Air Force Base. Through classified space operations and potential psychological warfare, the military created detailed protocols for fighting the undead. So let's actually Real Wakan Plan 8888 is exactly what the Pentagon says it is. A training exercise. Junior officers created it to learn planning procedures. Using an impossible scenario avoids diplomatic problems. So rather than create a plan to defeat Russians or Chinese, the enemies are evil magic zombies. Everyone understands it's practice. The zombie psyop theory also doesn't hold up. The timing of CONPLAN 8888 being released at the same time as zombie movies and TV shows wasn't coordination. It was coincidence. Hollywood always follows the money. Remember we had 10 or 15 years of superhero movies released one after the other. Now, not so much.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah, thanks a lot Disney.

[AJ]

We had zombies before Con Plan 8888. White Zombie came out in 1932. George Romero created modern zombies with Night of the Living Dead in 1968. Dawn of the Dead in 1978 set the template for everything that followed. The Walking Dead comics started in 2003. Studios see profit and then fled the market. But dismissing this as just a joke would be a mistake. Con Plan 8888 connects to real military plans. Con Plan 8035, Con Plan 8531. Con Plan 8099. These aren't exercises, they're operational. The plan's real value is seeing the military acknowledge how fast society could collapse. It admits there are scenarios where the military can't win. A plan to defeat zombies is hard for the public to take seriously. But maybe that's the point. Maybe Con Plan 8888 is a clever distraction. The story isn't in the document they show us. It's in the documents they hide. Con Plan 8888 repeatedly References Classified annexes that were stripped from the public version, but we know they exist. We just don't know what they are. We know they reference space based operations, but we don't know what threats they address or what capabilities they describe. And they're not going to tell us. And that's why I believe, believe Con Plan 8888 is an important document. In some ways, it paints the American people as distracted and selfish. And there's some truth to that. But things change. In a crisis, to save our families and our communities, people will step up. Not everyone, but enough to matter. Whether intentional or not, Con Plan 8888 teaches valuable lessons about preparation and resource management. Those are good skills to learn, and start learning them now. When society collapses, nobody's coming to save us. We are the first responders. So train like one, prepare like one. The difference between a life lost and a life saved could be you. So get to know your neighbors. Learn how to communicate, how to plan, how to survive. If you don't learn these skills now, it could come back to bite you.

[Morgan]

Zombies. Rytel Next episode was chosen by the Hybrid. You heard that, right. The Hybrid. His real name is Rich Dick. Okay, okay. Come on, Morgan. Be a professional. Next episode is about liminal spaces. Beaver keeping it creepy.

[AJ]

Roll it. In the past year or so, three Internet mysteries popped up that really got my attention. They may seem very different, but trust me, they're connected. The first one is about a girl who found a door in the basement of her Airbnb. She opened it, and inside there was an abandoned shopping mall. The second story is about Javier, who woke up in a hospital in the year 2027 in an alternate universe. In his version of the future, everyone on Earth has vanished. He's the only one left, and he has the video to prove it. The third mystery is known as the backrooms, a reality adjacent to ours that if the conditions are just right, you can accidentally fall into. Then you find yourself lost in an endless maze of dingy carpet, fluorescent light and yellow wallpaper. And around every corner, An abandoned mall. A deserted world. A maze in another dimension. What do these have in common?

[Hecklefish]

Terrible places to have a vacation. Good places to hide a body.

[AJ]

What are you doing?

[Hecklefish]

Hello. You asked what those places have in common. I'm answering your question.

[AJ]

I was being rhetorical. I'm trying to build drama and suspense.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, well, you're on the wrong channel, buddy boy.

[AJ]

What these locations have in common is liminality. Or more specifically, their liminal spaces. A liminal space is defined as a place of transition, a threshold between two distinctly different points, signaling the end of one and the beginning of another. Liminal spaces do exist as physical locations, but they could also be an emotional experience. They occur during periods of uncertainty and and major life changes. Events like a divorce or breakup, the death of a loved one, the birth of a child, moving to a new city, ending or starting a new career. All of these create liminality in our mind, meaning our life before this event is over and a new period of life is about to begin. Liminality is the unease and apprehension we feel during this transition. Liminal spaces in the real world are a bit more difficult to define, but. But you know one when you see one. Think of an airport in the middle of the night, school during summer break, a house just after someone moves out, or in this case, an accidentally discovered abandoned shopping mall. You could tell by the video that she's having fun, but she's also a little uncomfortable. She's experiencing the anxiety of a liminal space that. While not all liminal spaces are so unsettling, the type of space currently coursing through the Internet will have a few common features. They'll feel both familiar and strange. If you browse through photos on the Liminal space subreddit, you'll come across many locations that you could swear you've been to, evoking a strange feeling of nostalgia for a place you've never been. Another common trait is that places are out of context, like a waiting room with one chair, a plane with no seats, a flooded metro station, or a submerged staircase. Have you ever watched a video of the Titanic on the bottom of the ocean? When you see the staircases and furniture completely underwater, this evokes liminality. This out of context imagery triggers anxiety similar to Uncanny Valley, the feeling that something is just not right. Liminal spaces are often places you might have visited as a child. Roller rinks are commonly thought of as liminal. Bowling alleys, arcades, or an empty Chuck E. Cheese.

[Hecklefish]

The only thing scarier than an empty Chuck E. Cheese is a crowded Chuck E. Cheese.

[AJ]

You got that right. But something you'll notice about all these places, they're empty. And that seems to be the most unsettling aspect of all. These spaces are transitional because they're in between places. Not meant for anyone to stay very long, but they're still meant for people. Yet these sit empty, waiting to fulfill their use. Waiting for people. People that in some cases never arrive. Now all of us, from time to time, stumble into a liminal space. A supermarket in the middle of the night, an empty office, an amusement park. Off season. But what if you woke up one day and the entire world was deserted and every space was a liminal space? TikTok has no shortage of quote unquote time travel accounts. Some are entertaining, but they're mostly just goofy. But one account stands out from the rest. Javier, a Spanish creator whose account is Unico sobre Viviente, which means Only survivors. Oh, you speak Spanish now? Well, this account. Okay, I get it. Do you mind if I.

[Morgan]

No, I.

[Hecklefish]

Problem, amigo.

[AJ]

Well, this account is unique because he posts actual videos of deserted department stores, supermarkets, even entire football stadiums. Javier woke up in a hospital in Valencia on February 13, 2027 and claims to be in an alternative universe. Apparently at some point in the near future, every human on Earth just disappears. He said that when he woke up, he couldn't remember his name or where he lived. He went outside and everyone was just gone. Everything appeared just like 2021. But electronic devices showed 2027. His videos are fascinating, and I'll link to his account down below. And when you're watching, remember that Valencia has a population of over 800,000 people. People. And the surrounding area has almost 2 million people. And despite Valencia being a big city, there are no people in these videos. He goes to random apartments. He crashes at exclusive hotels. He accepts challenges to go to places that most people can't go. Fire and police departments, even steals a few police cars. He goes to a military base. Some skeptics claim he's recording all this early in the morning. He responds by recording himself walking by public signs with the time on them. And there aren't many tiktokers who can reprogram a public digital sign. He's challenged to go to a hospital. Not an old deserted one, an actual modern hospital. And he does it. A lot of the places he visits do have off hours, but hospitals are full of people 24. 7. But not these. Javier also claims our two worlds are connected. He's able to interact with objects in his world, which affects objects here. For example, a Spanish television show challenged Javier by leaving a book hidden on their set and told him to find it and move it. He did. And when the studio went back to watch the security security footage, you can see the door open and close, and just for a quick moment, you see some kind of figure flash. By. Now, it would be terrifying to wake up alone in the world where every place you visit is a different liminal space. But worse than that would be waking up in a single liminal space that goes on forever. And that place has a Name the back rooms. The backrooms is an Internet mystery that began like like many Internet mysteries do. On 4chan, someone asked members to submit disquieting images that just feel off. An anonymous user posted this photograph. Everyone who saw the image agreed it was strangely familiar, but unsettling, though nobody could explain why. Finally, a follow up comment described it.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

If you're not careful and you noclip.

[AJ]

Out of reality in the wrong areas.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

You'Ll end up in the backroom where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness mono yellow, the.

[AJ]

Endless background noise of fluorescent lights and maximum hum Buzz, and approximately 600 million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

To be trapped in.

[AJ]

God save you if you hear something.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you.

[Hecklefish]

Uh, noclip.

[AJ]

Well, noclip is a video game term when two objects overlap. That's clipping. Noclipping means crossing boundaries in a game that you're not supposed to cross and ending up in areas not meant for the player. The backrooms theory says it's possible to noclip into a different reality adjacent to ours, a reality you're not meant to ever see. Remember, liminal spaces are transitional. You're not supposed to stay there very long. You instinctively want to get out to move on. The backrooms are unnerving because you can't. It's an endless, endless liminal space with no escape. Something about the backrooms connected with people and an entire culture was organically developed around the concept. Completely community driven, the backrooms has become crowdsourced IP with its own canon and lore. And there are now hundreds of levels of backrooms, each with their own stories, their own rules, inhabitants, objects, even hazards. Fans can contribute to the lore through a few different wikis completely dedicated to the back rooms. Still, the backrooms lived in dark corners of the Internet. What brought the concept to the mainstream was a series of short videos by a creator named Kane Parsons. Using an ingenious combination of live action and 3D animation wrapped in a low tech package, these videos give us a glimpse of what being trapped in the back rooms would feel like. The videos also proved that liminal space spaces are not a fringe theory. Millions of people have watched these. Clearly, the concept of liminality is universal. The video series begins with a group of kids shooting what looks like a student film in 1996. The camera operator suddenly no clips through the ground and falls into the back rooms. A little more, a little more.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah, yeah.

[AJ]

Hello. It doesn't take long for us to realize that we're not alone in the back rooms. There's some entity aware of us and seems to follow us through the maze of empty yellow office space.

[Morgan]

Hello.

[AJ]

Some moments are definitely scary, but even when not being outright terrifying, the entire series is unsettling. As you, through the eyes of the lost cameraman, explore the backrooms, you have a sense that you've been here before. I certainly have. There are certain angles and ways the walls are arranged that remind me of offices that I've worked at at different points in my life. I worked jobs where the only light was overhead bulbs and the only time you'd see the sun or the sky was if you were lucky enough to run out for lunch. That was my job last year, actually. For anyone who's worked in an office like this, there's a feeling of claustrophobia, of being trapped like a prisoner, where time seems to slow down and hours feel like they last for days. Unfortunately for people trapped in the backrooms, time doesn't exist at all. There is no past and no future. So no brief respite for lunch, no exhilaration at the end of a long, boring day. The only time is the present. And like the space itself, the present is infinite. It eventually, our hero discovers graffiti on a wall which tells him to stay still. That turns out to be a terrible idea. After fleeing from the entity, we're taken to various locations which are essentially recreations of common photos of liminal spaces. The empty apartment, the deserted quad, and Kane's short film. Then builds on tried and true horror movie tropes like pursuit, suit, claustrophobia, disorientation, and of course, the jump scare. Kane's subsequent videos build on the lore of the backrooms. The tone shifts from jump scare horror into more of a dystopian sci fi thriller. It seems that there are ruptures in our world that allow people to accidentally pass into the backrooms. This explains why the number of missing people is on the rise. Eventually, a corporation creates a prototype machine to access the backrooms. And this is hailed as a world saving technology. Because the backrooms are so large, hundreds of millions of square miles, they can be used for storage, housing, even transport. Now, of course, things go wrong along the way. We have researchers trying to map the backrooms getting lost and falling into different levels and all kinds of chaos. Oh, my God.

[Morgan]

What do you say?

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Everything okay? Marvin, get the camera over here.

[Morgan]

Across.

[AJ]

Fine, Just hurry.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Okay.

[AJ]

Marvin, do you copy? The series is still ongoing, so subscribe to Kane Pixels if you want to see what happens happens next. But you don't have to wait for Kane. Other creators have picked up the mantle and attempted to continue the story. Missing Juanita estevez, now age 16 last.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Seen Yuba City, California November 27, 1984 call 800.

[AJ]

Hello? Can you help me get down?

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

There's something up.

[AJ]

Please stay right where you are.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Stay right where you are.

[AJ]

We're going to try and get you down. To me, all these versions are equally interesting and unsettling. The backrooms concept has spawned other media as well. A viral TikTok shows someone using Google Earth to zoom in on a location in Japan. As they move inside the building, we see the familiar wallpaper, carpet, fluorescent lights, and this time, different objects and entities. Indie developers are publishing video games based on the backrooms and liminal spaces. Anamoyopolis is one that looks interesting. It combines the uncanny liminal space concept with classic first person horror and puzzle solving elements. Liminality may seem like the cool new thing, and it's no coincidence that its popularity surged during COVID lockdowns when everyone was feeling isolated. But the concept has been around a long time. The phrase was created by Arnold Van Genup in his book Rites of passage released in 1908, and get up was more focused on life experiences like transitioning from childhood to adulthood, graduating high school, or moving to a new city. This concept of an in between place, whether physical or emotional, has been explored in media and pop culture for years. Rod Serling famously said, it is the middle ground between light and shadow, between.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the.

[AJ]

Summit of his knowledge. The Shining is an entire movie based around the idea of liminality. The abandoned hotel, spooky horror hallways that go on forever, and you never know what lurks around each corner. Horror movies like It Follows and Silent Hill also used liminal spaces to amp up the creepiness. And recently the Apple TV sci fi thriller Severance uses liminal spaces as a backdrop for the entire series. The large empty spaces, hallways that create such a confusing maze that you have to draw maps to find your way around. And the dual reality concept of Severance is similar to the backrooms. You have one reality where you live your life as you normally would. But when you get to work, you are severed from this reality and transition to a new reality. A reality comprised completely of liminality. And you can't have a post apocalyptic story without liminality. That feeling of being the last person on earth walking through space spaces once teeming with life now left abandoned and forgotten, the human brain is not wired for this kind of isolation, which is why these tropes are so effective. And speaking of the apocalypse, let's circle back to our two other mysteries and see if we can figure out what's really going on. Javier, the Lonely Survivor in Spain. He has a very interesting and compelling TikTok account, and people are constantly trying to debunk him. Some say his hands look different in each video, implying that he's actually a team. And there may be something to that. You have to dig really deep. But it turns out that Javier is working with the city of Valencia on a media project called the Lonely Survivor, which is why he has access to all these places and why he's able to clear out entire stadiums, busy streets, even sections of hospitals. So it's not some future reality. It's just a TV production team with. With filming permits. Now, Javier won't admit his account is just a project, and I don't blame him. It's fun to maintain an air of mystery, but if you watch enough of his videos, you realize it would be so easy for him to prove that he's in a different reality. Or in the future, he could show the dates on tombstones. He could time lapse an entire weekend at a typically busy airport, or just fly his drone around the city at rush hour. He never does this. His environments are highly controlled, but still, the videos are fun. And the young lady who discovered an abandoned mall in the basement of her Airbnb. The video has a supernatural feel to it, but it's really not that strange. Her Airbnb is actually a hotel that shares a building with the Oceanwalk mall in Hollywood Beach, Florida. Ocean Walk is what's called a dead mall, though a better name for a dead mall is probably a zombie mall. It's a shopping mall that nobody really goes to anymore, but it's still open and somewhat functioning. And dead malls are everywhere all over the country. And it's not hard to understand why malls are dying.

[Hecklefish]

Amazon?

[AJ]

Well, pretty much online shopping and the online economy. But when I was a kid, you bought your groceries at the supermarket and you bought everything else at the mall. Clothes, electronics, sporting goods, toys, everything. And in many suburban towns like the ones I grew up in, the mall was a community social center. Families would spend all day there. You'd shop, eat, shop, and eat some more all day. And as a teenager, we'd hang out at the mall. We'd go around lunchtime, we'd see a movie lurk in the arcade and talk to girls.

[Hecklefish]

You would talk to girls?

[AJ]

I wanted to, but I wasn't very good at it.

[Hecklefish]

Checks out.

[AJ]

High school and college kids from the area often work at these shops. In fact, this is the mall that we went to when I was a kid and worked at all through high school and college. Back in those days. Those days, the mall was always packed.

[Hecklefish]

When Was that? The 1950s?

[AJ]

Not that long ago, but close enough. But now look at it. That's not the mall I remember. There's a sadness to these spaces. There's nostalgia. There's the reminder that everything moves forward, everything changes. What once was will never again be. These transitions and rites of passage are an important part of life. They show our courage, our resilience, our perseverance. They make us who we are. But whether a location in the world or a transitional moment in our lives, every liminal space has the same point. To find your way out. Look, we all have habits we'd like to kick or at least rethink. For me, it was reaching for something when I was stressed or just needed a mental reset. That's when I found Fum. Fum is a flavored air device designed to help you build better habits. It uses no nicotine, no vapor and no batteries. Just clean natural air and satisfying flavors. My personal favorite is spearmint ice. When I'm working late nights in the studio like tonight, the cooling throat hit and subtly sweet, minty flavor give me the perfect pick me up. It's crisp, refreshing and helps me reset. And the device itself feels great in my hand. It's sleek, weighted and fidget friendly with a magnetic click that's oddly calming and satisfying when I'm thinking through ideas. Start your guilt free journey with the good habit and use code Y to get a free gift with purchase and begin your overdue breakup. Just head to try fume.com y that's T R-Y-F U-M.com y and use code Y to start the good habit today.

[Morgan]

Kyo Ready for the next one? This episode was chosen by Haley. She's our spicy Ginger. Seriously, she writes the dirtiest jokes. She's so nasty. We're taking a trip down to the Groov yard for the episode about John Wilkes Booth. Roll it.

[AJ]

Everyone thinks they know how Lincoln died. John Wilkes Booth shot the President, escaped and was killed 12 days later on a Virginia farm. But the FBI's own forensic tests discovered Booth's diary is missing 86 pages. Pages filled with names, payments and secrets. Lincoln's assassination wasn't the work of a single extremist. It was a plot to take control of America, and it worked. The evidence exposes secret allies, strange coverups, and why the truth was buried for more than a century. This isn't the story of how John Wilkes Booth died. This is the story of how he escaped and who helped him do it. In early 1865, the Civil War was in its fourth brutal year. The Confederates were losing, but they continued to fight, and Union casualties continued to mount. During this time, John Wilkes Booth was one of the most famous actors in America. He was known for his emotional performances and striking good looks. Dark hair, unusually dark eyes. He was lean and athletic. He was the first documented celebrity to have his clothes torn by infatuated fans. I am ever so grateful, sir. It is my pleasure entirely. Booth was obsessed with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a play he performed with his brothers. He saw Lincoln as a tyrant. Like Caesar, Booth was from Maryland, a slave state. He identified as a Southerner. So when war broke out, he became a Confederate spy. As an A list celebrity, he could move freely in polite society. He socialized with wealthy businessmen, politicians, and all kinds of important people. He then set their secrets, secrets to the Confederates. Through a clerk with access to Lincoln's private correspondence. Booth saw the President's plan for after the war, and it horrified him. Confederate leaders would be tried for treason. Their land would be given to former slaves who would also get the right to vote. Everything the south stood for would be erased from history. He had to act. Booth came up with a bold plan. Kidnapping Lincoln. If the north wanted their President back alive, they would have to release all Confederate prisoners of war and give the south better terms. Booth assembled a team, and after months of planning, they were ready. Then just before the plan went into motion, General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Booth was devastated. The war was over, and now the kidnapping plot was useless. Then Booth had a strong stroke of luck. He overheard that the President would be attending a play at Ford's theater in Washington, D.C. booth knew the theater well. He performed there many times. He even knew where the President would be sitting because Lincoln attended one of Booth's performances there. So Booth came up with a new plan. Kill the President. During the play, he knew he could move around the theater freely without raising suspicion. So getting in wasn't a problem. Problem getting out was. But John Wilkes Booth had friends in high places who wanted Lincoln dead as much as he did. They would help him escape. His contacts weren't Confederate spies deep in the South. They were right here. In Washington, inside Lincoln's own cabinet. Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address was about unity. He called slavery a sin, but he avoided placing blame on the South. He famously said, with malice toward none and charity for all. Lincoln wanted to pardon most Southerners and allow the states to regain their rights. But no slavery. The plan was not universally well received. Like Julius Caesar, Abraham Lincoln was surrounded by enemies. On one side were the Democrats. They wanted a quick return to the status quo. They wanted most Southerners pardoned. And most Democrats voted against freeing the slaves. On the other side were the Radical Republicans. They wanted all slaves freed and given the land seized in the war. They wanted federal military control of the Southern states and harsh punishment. Radical Republicans weren't just in Congress. They were in Lincoln's own cabinet. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Stanton was the most powerful man in America after Lincoln. He controlled the military and all federal law enforcement agencies. But he could not control President Lincoln. Stanton believed showing mercy to the south was a betrayal of everything the Union soldiers died for. Lincoln wouldn't budge. But Vice President Andrew Johnson would. His loyalty was flexible. Stanton could control him and become the real power in white Washington. Through his intelligence network, Stanton contacted John Wilkes Booth and gave him everything he needed to kidnap Lincoln. With Lincoln gone, Congress would impeach him, Johnson would step in, and Stanton would control the government. But if the public learned of a coup, it would divide the country. But if Lincoln were kidnapped by a Confederate terrorist, the country would unite behind Johnson, essentially behind Stanton. Booth was the perfect choice. He was wealthy, famous, and an outspoken critic of Lincoln's. The whole country would believe it. Booth agreed. Stanton gave him Lincoln's schedule, security details, funding, maps of escape routes, everything he needed. But the war ended. The kidnapping plot wouldn't work. Stanton was trying to think of another solution when he learned that Booth was going to kill Lincoln instead. It would happen in public, during a play, in a way. Washington Theater. Now Stanton had a decision to make. Warn Lincoln and save his life or let Booth go through with it. Stanton made his choice. He made sure that the assassination would succeed. He removed military escorts and left escape routes open. General Ulysses S. Grant was supposed to join Lincoln at the theater. Stanton gave him different orders. Lincoln requested that Major Thomas T. Eckert be his bodyguard, but Stanton said he was needed elsewhere. He left Lincoln exposed. The more Stanton thought about the plan, the more he liked it. It was clean and dramatic. It was perfect. But as the plot to kill Lincoln unfolded, things would go very, very wrong. He gives our slaves freedom, that they take up arms against Us. I swear. The man's gone mad. You know what he'll do next. Bring his carpetbaggers down here. Northern men with clean coats and dirty hands buying up what's left for pennies. I did not fight to live under a Yankee. Lincoln cannot be allowed to continue. This is tyranny. If Lincoln will not listen to reason, we must take our grievances to the Congress. This is not merely about politics anymore, sir. It is about the future of the Republic. We have to move against him now while we still can. And what would you have us do? The war's lost, the Confederacy's ashes. What's left but survival? Sometimes survival is cowardice. Sometimes history demands blood to balance the scales. You speak of treason. I speak of patriotism. Be careful, John. Union spies are everywhere. These walls have ears. Oh, let them hear. History listens, too. I'll not stand by while Lincoln crowns himself emperor of a mutilated nation. You're an actor, not a soldier. Don't play hero in the wrong tragedy. Every play needs its villain. History will decide which one I am. On April 14, 1865, Washington, D.C. was celebrating. Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox five days early. The Civil War was over. But something had Lincoln rattled. During a cabinet meeting, he mentioned a recurring dream he had about a president being assassinated. Killed by a shot to the back of the head. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton listened, but said nothing. President Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd decided to celebrate by watching a performance of Our American Cousin that night at Ford's Theater. Booth's plan went into motion. That morning, he drilled a peephole in the door of the presidential box. At the theater, he'd know exactly when to make his move. Evening came, and the President and First lady settled into their seats outside the door. Lincoln's bodyguard was replaced by John Parker, who had a history of being drunk and sleeping on duty assigned by Edwin Stanton. Once the play started, Parker left his post and headed for the saloon. The only person left outside the door was Charles Forbes, Lincoln's valet. Forbes wasn't a bodyguard. His job was to run errands and plan travel. So when Booth approached the presidential box, Forbes let him pass. Just another celebrity stopping by to see the President. Once inside, Booth quietly wedged a piece of wood behind the door and broke the lock. Now all he had to do was wait for the right moment, and then that moment would come. During the third act, the biggest laugh of the night. The line, you psychologizing old man trap. He knew exactly when this line was said. At 10:15pm the audience exploded in laughter. Booth stepped forward and raised his pistol. Ever thus to tyrants. One shot. Lost in the roar of 1500 people laughing, President Lincoln slumped in his chair. Booth jumped from the box and onto the stage. At first, the crowd did nothing. They thought this was part of the show. Then Booth raised his knife and yelled, sic semper tyrannis. Thus always to tyrants. The line Brutus said when he stabbed Julius Caesar. It's also the state motto of Virginia. Booth turned to run and felt pain shoot up his left leg. He broke his ankle, but adrenaline kept him moving toward the unguarded back door. Outside, a horse was waiting. Within the hour, Edwin Stanton took control. He shut down every bridge leaving Washington except one, the one Booth used for his escape. Everything had gone according to plan. Lincoln was dead, and Stanton would control the investigation himself. There was just one final loose end Stanton had to deal with John Wilkes Booth. Within hours of Lincoln's assassination, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton mobilized the largest manhunt in American history. Every bridge out of Washington was sealed. Every road was blocked. Every farm was searched. The reward for John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators was a staggering $100,000, almost 2 million in today's money. The authorities preferred him alive, but Edwin Stanton preferred him dead. Booth hooked up with another conspirator, David Herold. Together they slipped through the Union dragnet and headed toward Virginia. Their first stop was Dr. Samuel Mudd's farm in southern Maryland. Mudd set Booth's broken leg and gave the them a place to rest. By dawn, word of the assassination had spread. Mud, suddenly realizing the danger, forced them to leave. David Herald guided them deeper into Confederate country. They moved at night. They hid in swamps during the day. Other Confederate agents gave them food and newspapers. Six days later, they crossed the Potomac river into Virginia. They thought they'd be safe in Virginia. The Confederacy was dead, but Confederate sympathy was still very much alive. They found shelter, food and horses from local farmers who still hated the Union. But the manhunt was closing in. On April 24, Booth and Harold reached the Garrett farm near Port Royal, Virginia. Richard Garrett, a tobacco farmer, offered them a place to stay. He thought they were Confederate soldiers heading home from the war. For two days, Booth rested and played with the Garrett children. His broken leg was feeling better. He talked about going to Mexico or maybe heading home west. The future looked possible again. But on the night of April 25th, everything changed. 26 soldiers from the 16th New York Cavalry surrounded the barn. They called for the men to surrender or they would set fire to the building. David Herold immediately gave up. He stumbled out of the barn with his hands raised, yelling, don't shoot. I'm David Herold. But Booth refused to surrender. As the flames started to grow, a soldier saw a figure moving around inside side. The man was holding a rifle. The soldier raised his pistol and shot the man through the neck, severing his spinal cord. He couldn't move, but he could still breathe, but just barely. The soldiers dragged Booth out of the barn. He whispered, tell Mother, I die for my country. By sunrise, John Wilkes Booth was dead. Justice had been served. The case was closed, and America could finally move on. But John Wilkes Booth had a secret. At the height of his career, John Wilkes Booth was one of the highest paid entertainers in the world, earning close to half a million dollars a year in today's money. His career depended on his bachelor image. But in 1859, Booth secretly married actress Isola Martha Mills. Within the years, Izzola gave to birth birth to their daughter Ogarida. Booth quietly supported them. The arrangement worked until the assassination. And after reports of Booth's death, John Stevenson proposed to Isola. He'd loved her for years, but she refused. She quietly told him she was still married. Booth was alive and hiding in San Francisco under a false identity. She was meeting him there In a few weeks. On the other side of the country, a British passport was issued to John Byron Wilkes. Wilkes and his wife boarded the Indian Queen, a former Civil War blockade runner. John and Isla sailed to India. But Isla couldn't stay. The heat, the unfamiliar culture, the isolation. She was pregnant again and couldn't imagine raising a child in India. So she returned to the States. Months passed without a word from Booth. So John Stevenson proposed again. This time she accepted. She needed stability for her unborn child. Stephenson Stevenson said he would claim the child as his own. Not long after, Isola gave birth to her son, Harry Jerome Stevenson. Back in Bombay, John Wilkes Booth wrote out a last will and testament. He signed it John Byron Wilkes and mailed it to the States. The will was detailed money and property to his wife Isola, his daughter and son Ogarita and Harry Jerome Stevenson. He named Sarah Scott and Mary Louise Turner as his other daughter. Letters by other women. He left money for his personal valet, Henry Johnson, and his wife Sarah, who looked after the children. Word of the will spread. Ulysses S. Grant himself ordered an investigation to locate all the heirs. Eventually, John Wilkes Booth's estate was distributed exactly as the will instructed. But Grant never let it go. How could a man named John Byron Wilkes know every detail about Booth's secret life, his lovers, his children, his financial affairs. Information that only Booth would know. But aside from the will, Grant had no real evidence. He was forced to let it go. So the official story was John Wilkes Booth was killed on Garrett's farm in 1865. But in the summer of 1872, someone saw a ghost in a dusty saloon in Texas. And that ghost was pouring whiskey and reciting Shakespeare. The man behind the bar was John St. Helen. Average height, lean build, dark hair going a little gray at the temples. He quoted Shakespeare from memory, and when he thought nobody was looking, he practiced drawing a pistol from his coat. St. Helen drifted into town in the spring of 72. He said he was from back east, but didn't talk much about his past. That suited everyone fine. Texas in 1872 was full of men running from something. After a few whiskeys, John St. Helen would recite full Shakespearean soliloquies. It was during one of these performances that Finest Bates first walked into the bar. Bates was a young lawyer from Memphis. Smart, ambitious, easy to talk to. The kind of man who bought drinks for interesting strangers and listened to their stories. St Helen at Bates hit it off immediately. The bartender was well read, articulate, and had opinions about everything from politics to poetry. They spent hours talking after the saloon closed, sharing whiskey and stories. Well, Bates shared stories. St. Helen mostly listened. They spoke about the war and the future of the country. St. Helen never mentioned his past. That winter, St. Helen caught pneumonia. For days, he ran a high fever and drifted in and out of consciousness. Bates sat by his bedside, convinced his friend was dying. On the third night, St. Helen grabbed Bates by the wrist and pulled him close. He was still running a high fever, but his eyes were bright and focused. Finus, I need to tell you something before it's too late. I'm not who you think I am. My real name is John Wilkes Booth. Bates thought John was delirious, but he wouldn't stop. He told Bates everything. The conspiracy, the escape, the years in hiding. He described details that only Booth would know. The layout of Ford's Theater. The feeling of the wooden stage beneath his feet. The sound Lincoln made when the bullet hit. Bates was stunned. Either his friend was having the most elaborate fever dream in history or he was the most wanted man in America. By morning, the fever had broken and John St. Helen was gonna live. And that's when the panic set in. He said, too much. What have I done? Three days later, he was gone. All that was Left of John St Helen was an empty room and a bartender's apron hanging on a hook. John Wilkes Booth had once again disappeared. Bates didn't tell anyone about John's confession, but he never stopped wondering. Was John St. Helen really John Wilkes Booth, or was that a sick man's delusion? Well, in 1903, a painter in Oklahoma committed suicide. When they searched the man's belongings, they found a handwritten note. It said, if anything happens to him, contact a lawyer named Finest Bates. The Telegram reached Bates three days later. After 26 years of questions, he was about to get an answer when Bates arrived at the funeral parlor. His hands were shaking. The undertaker led him to a back room where a body lay on the table. He was told the man was David E. George. Bates pulled back the sheet and stared for a long moment. The man on the table was older and thinner, but it was unmistakable. It was John, going by the name David E. David E. George had been living there for several years, working as a painter. He was quiet. He kept to himself. He was forgettable, but he had secrets. David E. George drank too much. He talked to himself. Late at night, neighbors in the boarding house heard him reciting Shakespeare. The landlady, Mrs. Harper, said David George had been acting. Acting strange for weeks. He was nervous and paranoid. He kept saying they were coming for him. She thought he meant bill collectors. On January 13, 1903, David bought a bottle of strychnine from the pharmacy. He told the clerk that he had a rat problem. That night, he drank the poison. He lived long enough to call for a minister. The minister found David writhing on his bed, foam coming from his mouth. The minister held his hand. When David made his confession, he whispered that he was John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln. He begged God's forgiveness, and then he was gone. Among David's possessions were newspaper clippings about Lincoln's assassination and the manhunt for Booth. Some pages were yellow with age there for decades. Bates was convinced this was John Wilkes Booth. He asked the local authorities to preserve his body. If this really was Booth, then this was the most important corpse in American history. The body was embalmed and put on display for months. Crowds lined up to stare at the preserved remains of David E. George, AKA John St. Helen, AKA John Wilkes Booth. The mummy toured across the country. It appeared at carnivals, state fairs and local museums. Doctors examined the body and found intriguing details. The corpse had a broken left leg, just like Booth, a deformed right thumb, also like Booth. And there was a scar on the back of the neck that matched the location of a scar Booth had from a tumor removal. The mummy eventually disappeared into storage and then into legend. But the story continued. John Wilkes Booth had lived for 38 years after supposedly dying at Garrett's farm. So how did Booth get out of that burning barn? Well, he didn't. The man who was shot on Garrett's farm was someone else. When Union soldiers surrounded Garrett's farm that night, they had orders capture Booth alive. But Secretary of War Edwin Stanton let it be known that if Booth were found dead, the reward would still be paid. After Booth was killed, the military demanded an autopsy. The body was quickly wrapped in a horse blanket and transported from a wagon to a steamship, then to a government tugboat, and then finally to the USS Montauk at the Washington Navy Yard. The identification was hasty, highly controlled, and deeply suspicious. Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes conducted the autopsy. A photograph was taken of the body, but it's never been released to the public. This was probably the most important autopsy in US History to that point. But the photograph has either been lost or suppressed. Dr. Barnes allowed three civilians aboard. None of the three knew Booth personally. Booth had friends all over Washington. Actors, politicians, socialites. Barnes didn't call any of them. Instead, he called Dr. John Frederick May. May had removed the growth from Booth's neck a few years earlier. He was brought to verify the scarlet. May examined the body and hesitated. In his memoirs, he wrote that he didn't recognize it as Booth's. He wasn't sure about the scar. He noticed that the body had an injured right leg, but Booth fractured his left leg. Now, maybe the witnesses got that wrong. But the injury on the corpse was old. Booth's wasn't. He broke it less than two weeks before. And despite his protests, Dr. May was pressured into signing off. That this was John Wilson Wilkes Booth. Other witnesses raised doubts. The man had the wrong proportions, the wrong bone structure. The body was buried quickly in secret beneath the floor of a military prison. Booth's family begged to see the remains. They were denied. If this wasn't John Wilkes Booth, then who did the soldiers drag out of that barn? Well, they asked David Herold, and he told him. David Herold came out of the tobacco barn with his hands up. The first thing he said was, don't shoot. Then he said, that's not Booth in there. Then Harold named the man James William Boyd. The soldiers ignored him. Boyd was an ex Confederate soldier, the same build as Booth, same complexion, and coincidentally, the same initials. Harold said Booth was a day ahead of them in Harpers Ferry. The plan was to catch up. And Boyd would help him sail across the Potomac. But Boyd was a double agent. He was just released from prison by Stanton personally. And there was a reason for that. Stanton and Booth had a deal. Booth would be allowed to escape to India with his wife. Boyd would stand in and take the fall. So Boyd and Booth swapped coats. But Booth forgot to take his diary, which revealed everything. Names, meetings, payments, all pointing back to Edwin Stanton. When Stanton received the diary, he destroyed it. He destroyed all the evidence and created the official story that Americans believed for 150 years. John Wilkes Booth walked away from Garrett's farm. He sailed to India as John Byron Wilkes. He returned to America as John St. Helens and died in Oklahoma as David E. George. Three vertebrae were removed from the body during the autopsy. A DNA test could prove or disprove that the bones came from Booth. No testing has been allowed. His body is allegedly buried in the Booth family plot in Baltimore. And now people leave pennies on the gravestone they believe to be John Wilkes Booths, as if giving Lincoln the last word. And the family has requested that the body be exhumed for testing. That request was denied. Nobody even knows where in the cemetery he's buried. His brother. Edwin didn't mark the grave out of fear it would be vandalized. And John Wilkes Booth has a lot of descendants alive today, all through his marriage to Izola. History says Booth didn't have children, but his descendants believe that he did. And as far as they're concerned, they're living proof. I'm a big fan of American history. If you made it this far, you are, too. And this story was fun. But if Booth escaped, we have to rewrite history. So did he. Well, let's pull it apart. Dr. John Frederick may identified Booth's body. It's true that he said he didn't recognize it at first, but that was because it was badly decomposed. When he saw the surgical scar, he was convinced it was Booth. He would know he'd performed the surgery. And multiple witnesses confirmed the body's identity. The broken leg. Leg was also confirmed. Now, John Wilkes Booth did keep a diary, and it was tampered with. That's documented. But he didn't use his diary as a journal. It was more like a day planner. The missing pages may contain incriminating evidence, but probably not. Still, nobody knows for sure. James William Boyd was a real person. He was a Confederate captain and prisoner of war. And Secretary of War Edwin Stanton authorized his release. That's true, but this wasn't unusual. Boyd had seven Children. His wife had died and they would starve without him. He requested compassionate release and Stanton granted it. The story of Boyd being a double agent comes from finest. Bates, the man who discovered John St. Helen wasn't just a lawyer. He was also an entrepreneur. In 1907, 30 years after his supposed encounter in Texas, Bates published a book. The Escape and Suicide of John. John Wilkes Booth.

[Hecklefish]

There's always a book.

[AJ]

Oh, now you're here. Why so quiet?

[Hecklefish]

Well, dead presidents are only funny when they're in my wallet.

[AJ]

Fair enough. The book was a hit and made Bates famous. More importantly, it made Bates money. Bates went on speaking tours. He brought the mummy with him. He charged admission. The man who claimed his friend had confessed to being Lincoln's assassin built an entire career on that story. But here's what Bates dates, never mentioned. When experts studied the handwriting samples he claimed came from John St. Helen, they didn't match John Wilkes Booth's confirmed writing. Not even close. They were from different people. The Isla story. That came from a 1937 book called this One Mad act, written by Isola Forrester. Forrester claimed to be Ogarita's daughter, the granddaughter of Booth and Isla Mills. And just a few years ago, the descendants of both Ogarida and Harry Chapter Jerome Stevenson had their DNA compared against confirmed Booth family DNA. No match. Neither family was related to John Wilkes Booth.

[Hecklefish]

I love it when paternity tests come back negative.

[AJ]

So Booth never married and didn't have children. At least none that we found so far. And remember, when he killed Lincoln, he was only 26.

[Hecklefish]

If I was a 26 year old movie star with ladies grabbing at my gills, I'd stay single too.

[AJ]

The entire romantic subplot was fiction, just like Booth's will. Most of the story elements come from a 1977 book and movie called the Lincoln Conspiracy. And this wasn't a historical research project. It was entertainment. The authors even admitted they created composite characters and invented dialogue to make the story more dramatic. It was fiction.

[Hecklefish]

Don't you do that.

[AJ]

Quiet. The Lincoln Conspiracy was fiction, but people treated it like fact. The book recycled Bates, debunked claims and added new new ones. The body double theory, the government cover up, the missing diary pages that implicate Stanton. And speaking of Stanton, let's clear his name. Edwin Stanton was a villain in the story, but he was just as interested in helping freed slaves as Lincoln. He definitely thought Lincoln was too lenient on the south, but he was much closer to Lincoln's idea of Reconstruction than Andrew Johnson, a self described racist. Johnson's leniency toward the south led directly to the Jim Crow era. And those are wounds that still haven't healed. But the most damning evidence against the escape theory isn't what's missing, it's what's there. The detailed, day by day record of Booth's movements during his 12 days as a fugitive. There were multiple witnesses at every stop. Confederate sympathizers who helped him, Union soldiers who pursued him. You can't fake that kind of evidence. You can't.

[Hecklefish]

If you could fake a moon landing, you could fake this.

[AJ]

Now, I think John Wilkes Booth died on Garrett's farm. But many people, including some of Booth's alleged descendants, believe he got away. There's a reason stories like this capture our attention. They let us reimagine history. Everybody likes to play what if. What if John Wilkes Booth got away? That's a fascinating and fun question. A more interesting question is what if Lincoln wasn't killed? What if he were able to serve out the almost four years left in his second term? What if Lincoln oversaw reconstruction? What if Andrew Johnson, who owned slaves before the war, never became president? Would Lincoln have allowed the KKK to form in 1866? Probably not. But Johnson did. Johnson vetoed almost every civil rights bill that came across his desk. He has the dishonor of being the first president ever to be impeached.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, back when impeaching a president meant something.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Yep.

[AJ]

If Lincoln lived, I suspect we'd be living in a very different country. A better country, a more just and united country. And John Wilkes Booth took that from us. From all of us, black and white. 150 years later, his actions are still felt today. Now, I enjoyed this mystery, but I will not celebrate the man. Whether shot to death in a barn or mummified, humiliated, and turned into a sideshow exhibit, either is a fitting end for one of the most despicable villains in American history. There's only one thing I can tell you for sure about this story. If there's a hell, John Wilkes Booth is in it.

[Morgan]

Boom shakalaka. Okay, Eric picked the next episode. Eric runs the merch store and does all kinds of stuff around here. I swear, the guy never sleeps. Speaking of merch, go to shop.thewifiles.com for Y files, T shirts, fistable coffee mugs, and all kinds of schweet schwag. We've got a big Black Friday sale going. By the way, beaver merch. For his episode, Eric picked simulation theory. Do you ever think we're in a simulation? I sure do.

[AJ]

Roll it. Is this reality? Well, we're experiencing something right now, so maybe the better question is, what is reality? Could everything we see, everything we experience, everything that exists in our entire universe, be artificial? Supporters of simulation theory believe that not only is it possible that we're living in a simulation, it's likely. And the more we look for evidence, the more we find. Let's find out why. The idea of the universe being a simulation is not a new one. Theories exist in ancient cultures around the world. Modern simulation theory comes from Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford who wrote an influential paper on the subject in 2003. Assuming that living in a simulation is possible, Bostrom presents the simulation Trilemma, which says one of the following must be one, we destroy ourselves before we're able to create a simulation, two, we're able to create a simulation but choose not to, or three, we are definitely in a simulation. Bostrom believes each of these is equally likely to be true. Now, I don't think that's controversial. We use computer models to study the human population, predict the weather for entertainment. We simulate everything. And when a civilization can create a realistic simulation, the most obvious one to create is that of its own early existence. Bostrom calls this an ancestral simulation. And a civilization that can do this wouldn't just create one simulation, it would create many. And those simulated civilizations might create their own simulations of the universe and on and on, like Russian nesting dolls of reality. Now, you're a character in that world, and you think you have free will.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

And say, I want to invent a computer. So you do.

[AJ]

Hey, I want to create a world in my computer.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

And then that world creates a world in its computer, and then you have simulations all the way down.

[AJ]

When Elon Musk was asked what he thought the chances were that our reality is the original base reality. The odds that we're in base reality is one in billions. Neil Degrasse Tyson is a little more conservative. He thinks the odds that we are in base reality versus a simulated reality is 50 50. A 5050 chance that everything we experience is artificial. That's still pretty high. And even though we mostly hear what scientists think about this, it's not scientific theory. Simulation theory isn't math. It's philosophy. It isn't physics. It's metaphysics. So what we need is hard evidence that we live in a simulation. And to find proof, all you have to do is look. Let's start at the beginning. There was no space or time. The contents of the entire universe were concentrated to the size of a Tennis ball and had a temperature of a quadrillion degrees. Then suddenly, the Big Bang. Everything explodes outward faster than the speed of light. Then about 14 billion years later, we've got galaxies and planets and ice cream and K Pop ice cream. Chillin. Chillin ice cream.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah, I could do without the K Pop.

[AJ]

Me too. Okay, if before the Big Bang there was no space and no time, what was there? What about the beginning of the univers, the religious point of view? God created everything, fine. Where was he before? What caused the Big Bang to happen in the first place? What made God decide to snap his fingers or wiggle his nose or whatever he did to make everything happen? If you ask a physicist to explain what existed before the universe, they'll give you an answer about quantum foam, dark energy, or something just as bonkers as the Big Bang. Ask a theologian what existed before God created the universe and you'll get an answer equally as confusing. But what does make sense is that the universe was just sitting there dormant. Then someone somewhere decided to boot up a program. And in that program, our program, are all the laws of the universe. Electromagnetism and gravitational force are written into the program. The speed of light gets a value. There's code for Planck's constants of mass, speed and time. Avogadro's number is in there, along with a bunch of other rules that govern the behavior of everything that exists. All part of our program. Even consciousness itself is part of our simulation. If you've never heard of simulation theory, then this might sound far fetched. But some of the world's most respected scientists, technologists and philosophers believe that it is more likely than not that we are living in an artificial reality. So how do we prove it?

[Hecklefish]

It.

[AJ]

If we live in an artificial reality, it would make sense for there to be occasional glitches. Philip K. Dick is one of the most influential science fiction writers of all time. Movies based on his books include Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, the Adjustment Bureau, and plenty of others. He believed there are many, many universes, and sometimes those other realities bleed into ours. He claimed to have visions of this and even wrote stories like the man in the High Castle based on these.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Visions that in fact plural realities did.

[AJ]

Exist, superimposed onto one another like so many film transparencies. One way other realities blend into ours could be the Mandela Effect. The Mandela Effect is when a large number of people have memories of events, events that don't match reality. This is called the Mandela Effect because millions of people specifically remember Nelson Mandela died in prison. He didn't People remember his wife walking beside his casket in a funeral procession that was on television for two hours that day. This never happened. Or the Berenstain Bears, which people insist were always called the Berenstein Bears. People remember the tycoon from Monopoly having a monocle that he never had.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Bad.

[AJ]

What was Darth Vader famous for saying?

[Hecklefish]

Luke, I am your father.

[AJ]

Nope, he never said that.

[Hecklefish]

What?

[AJ]

What about Stouffer's Stovetop Stuffing?

[Hecklefish]

Best part of Thanksgiving.

[AJ]

No, it isn't. Because there's no such product. Stovetop is made by craft.

[Hecklefish]

No.

[AJ]

The evil queen from Snow White who looked into her mirror and said, mirror.

[Hecklefish]

Mirror on the wall.

[AJ]

Nope. Magic mirror on the wall. Who is the fairest one of all?

[Hecklefish]

My reality is shattered.

[AJ]

People remember Febreze being spelled with two E's. People remember Jiffy Peanut Butter. But there's no such thing. And there are a lot more. A lot more. Personally, I don't have most of these false memories, but there are a few that get me the Flintstones. There are two T's in the Flintstones. I remember just one. And what about the Fruit of the Loom logo? I could swear it looks like this. But it doesn't. This is the actual logo. No. Cornucopia.

[Hecklefish]

Corn. You what now?

[AJ]

Basket.

[Hecklefish]

Didn't you say basket? For crying out loud.

[AJ]

And at the end of Moonraker, a terrible but excellent James Bond movie, I remember Jaw's girlfriend as having braces. I mean, I specifically remember it. She didn't have braces. I just can't get my brain to accept it. That's the Mandela effect. So why do millions of people distinctly remember different things?

[Hecklefish]

Glitch in a simulation.

[AJ]

Yep. Philip K. Dick also felt when we experienced deja vu, it's because something in our simulated universe changed and a new timeline branched off of the current one. We are living in a computer computer programmed reality. And the only clue we have to it is when some variable is changed. Ever feel like you've lived a moment before? That's because according to Philip K. Dick and others, you have deja vu. Is the simulation correcting itself with new information? But skeptics can easily dismiss these theories. The human mind is terribly unreliable. They don't accept this as evidence. But we're not done yet. We live in a huge universe. 200 billion trillion stars. And even if life is rare, you'd think there'd be some evidence of it somewhere. This is Fermi's Paradox. According to the Drake Equation, there should be over a million technologically advanced civilizations Just in our galaxy. Galaxy. And on average, the nearest one should be just a few hundred light years away. But there's nothing. At least not that we can see. So where is everybody? Are we really alone in the universe? Or does our program only focus on us? And what about the physical rules that are in place? Max Tegmark, a cosmologist at mit, said the strict laws of physics point to the possibility of a simulation. Putting a cap on the speed of light sure is a good way to keep your sims from venturing out too far from home. Theoretical physicist James Gates thought simulation theory was crazy. Then he started studying quarks and electrons. He found error correcting code buried deep inside the equations used to describe string theory.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

So you're saying as you dig deeper.

[AJ]

You find.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Computer code writ in the fabric of the cosmos into the equations that we want to use to describe the cosmos? Yes, computer code. Computer code. Strings of bits of ones and zeros.

[AJ]

Dr. Gates has changed his mind about simulation theory. In 2017, a group of scientists at the University of Washington proved they can embed computer code into strands of DNA. Everything in nature is math. Look at the Fibonacci sequence. You get the Fibonacci sequence by adding two previous numbers in the sequence together. So 1 +1 equals 2, 2 +1 equals 3. 3 +2 equals 5, 5, 3, 8, and so on forever. You get the golden ratio, also called phi, by dividing two consecutive Fibonacci numbers. So the number 89 is a Fibonacci number. The next number in the sequence after 89 is 144. 144 divided by 89 is the golden ratio. It's about 1.618. We see Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio. And everywhere. The number of petals on a flower is usually a Fibonacci number. Lilies have three petals, buttercups have five. Chicory has 21. And a daisy has 34. And the spacing of each petal is arranged in a circle according to the golden ratio. As trees grow, the number of branches they form is a Fibonacci number. And not just plants. Animals too. The ratio of female to male honeybees in a colony is the golden ratio 1.618. The human body conforms to the golden ratio, too. Most of the body follows the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 5. One nose, two eyes, three limb segments, five fingers, five toes. The proportions of the body, like the length of your shoulder to your elbow and from your elbow to your fingertips. That's the golden ratio. Even a DNA molecule measures 34 angstroms long by 21 angstroms wide. Fibonacci numbers and the gold golden ratio. From the spiral of seashells to the spiral of a galaxy and everything in between, Fibonacci numbers are everywhere. Now, some claim this is a coincidence, that humans look for patterns in chaos because that's what we're programmed to do.

[Hecklefish]

What we're programmed to do.

[AJ]

And isn't that interesting? By trying to debunk simulation theory, they actually end up proving it. No matter what we study, whether it's something the size of a galaxy or as small as an electronic, everything in the universe seems to follow patterns and rules. In other words, a program. To simulate an entire universe. You'd obviously need more advanced technology than we have. But that doesn't mean we won't get there. Moore's law says that computing power doubles every 18 months, and this has held true for about 50 years now. That is slowing down a little bit, but only because of physical limitations. Assuming we can learn to make microchips smaller, and there's no doubt that we will, it's predicted that artificial intelligence could surpass human intelligence within the next hundred years. As Elon Musk points out, when he was a kid, the world's most advanced video game was pong two rectangles on a screen. Forty years later, video game technology is barely distinguishable from reality. He said that six years ago. And even in that short time, video game engines have become even more realistic. Look at this footage from Unreal Engine 5. When a world we can build feels as real as our own, Imagine what games are going to look like in the next six years or the next 60 or the next 6,000. But simulating an entire universe, how big of a computer would we need? Well, it's estimated that there are 10 to the power of 80 atoms in the universe. Let me put that on the screen just for fun. Okay, That's a lot. If each particle needs 128 bits to calculate its position and momentum, you're at 10 to the power of 83 bits. And that's just for data storage. We also need computing power. Power to track what each of those particles is doing. If we say two floating point operations per second or two flops per particle, we're at 2 times 10 to the 80th power flops. There aren't even words for these numbers. And this is the computing power for just the stuff in the universe. What about human intelligence? The human brain can perform 100 trillion calculations per second, or 100 teraflops multiplied by billions of people. The numbers of are ridiculous. To power all of this, the simulation would need access to multiple Dyson spheres, the megastructures that capture 100% of the energy of a star. Or the simulation would have to harness the energy from black holes. This is why famous physicists like Dr. Michio Kaku are not on board with simulation theory. He claims that simulating a universe is not scientifically possible. The only computer capable of simulating a universe is the universe itself. Now, at first glance, this makes sense, but with all due respect to Dr. Kaku, that's not how simulations work. When you're playing a 3D video game, the entire game world isn't rendered. Instead, the game engine only calculates what the player can see and interact with at that specific moment. If we are living in a simulation, then it would make sense that the creators of the simulation would use a similar technique. And wouldn't it be interesting if there was evidence that. That this is exactly what happens?

[Hecklefish]

Wait a minute. Do we have proof? Sweet fancy Moses.

[AJ]

Supporters of simulation theory often point to video games as a way to explain, if not prove, that our reality is artificial. In a video game, the only data that is rendered is what the player sees or interacts with. If you're playing a video game and there's a car, car or building a mile away, that entire object isn't rendered. The game engine only renders the bare minimum of information to make the object look real. A distant building is rendered as just a few pixels. Not that complicated. As you get closer, the engine renders more details, but still, it's just a facade. The engine doesn't bother calculating what's inside the building to actually go in. The game engine always knows how much data to send you and doesn't bother with anything else. If we live in a simulation, it would make sense that our reality is rendered the same way. And we could test this.

[Hecklefish]

Wait, what do you mean we can test this?

[AJ]

Specifically, we can use the double slit experiment. Here's how it goes. If we fire particles in a straight line at a screen after passing through a single slit, we would expect to see this clumping pattern on the screen. If we try this with a wave, we expect to see a pattern like this, where particles are most dense in the middle of the screen, but radiant outward, similar to the clumping pattern. When we add a second slit, it starts to get fun. When the waves pass through the double slit, each slit creates its own wave. When those waves intersect, they cancel each other out that creates a pattern like this. It's called an interference pattern. So particles passing through two slits create clumping patterns. Waves through two slits creates an interference pattern. Makes sense.

[Hecklefish]

I'm with you.

[AJ]

Good. If we fire electrons through the slit, we see the clumping pattern. As expected, an electron has mass, so it's a tiny bit of matter. So if we fire electrons through two slits, we should see two clumps, but we don't. We see the wave interference pattern. This shouldn't be happening. What's going on here? For years, scientists assumed that the electrons were colliding with each other, causing the wave pattern. But in the 60s, the experiment was modified so that only only one electron at a time was fired through the slits. There was no way the electrons could interact with each other. Yet we still see an interference pattern. Scientists wanted to see what was causing this, so they added a detector to observe electrons as they pass through the slits. That's when things go from weird to paranormal. As soon as the detectors were installed, the interference pattern went away and the clumping pattern returned. Take the detectors away and the wave interference pattern pattern is back. But that's a different result to what we had earlier. So here's the last bit of sneakiness that we can play with atoms. Surely now you know we're going to get to grips with it. Leave the detector there, but just very quietly go and unplug it. Don't let the atoms know that you're not spying on them. Run the experiment again. Now, if you can explain this using common sense and logic, do let me know, because there's a Nobel prize for you. It's as if the particles are aware they're being observed. Then physicist John Wheeler had an idea. He called it the delayed choice experiment. How it works is photons are projected through the double slit, but the detector is not activated until after they pass through the slit but before they impact the screen. Photons were emitted as waves pass through the slits as waves. But when the waves were observed before hitting the screen, they suddenly behaved like particles again. Still don't think there's an intelligence at work? Well, what Wheeler's experiment showed is that even though the electrons started as waves but behaved like particles after being observed, at the moment the decision to observe them was made. The electrons recorded themselves as having passed through the slits as particles. The electrons changed their state. By going back in time, I personally find that I gravitate more towards the information theoretic point of view and believing that the universe is that I exist in Is a very good, high quality simulation. Now, this experiment is happening on a table in a lab, a very short distance. So what happens when we observe light coming from vast distances, like, say, a galaxy 100 million light years away? If light from a distant galaxy is projected through the double slit, it creates the wave interference pattern. But if we push those photons through a measuring apparatus to observe them, the wave again collapses all the way back to its source. This is called retrocausality. Simply by choosing to observe the photons this way, they reach back through time 100 million years and alter their state on the other side of the galaxy. But like a video game engine, it only does this if we're looking. Even though our universe is full of galaxies, those galaxies may not actually be there. If we're living in a simulation, then stars and galaxies could simply be projections. And only when we get up close Would those projections become more detailed. This is an excellent way to save computational resources. And because we're stuck with the hard limit of the speed of light, Getting to far off places is really difficult. Limiting the speed of light is a useful rule to have in place. Quantum mechanics like the double slit experiment and quantum entanglement Only make sense if there's a program at work, because only the program can ignore the laws of physics and ignore the concept of time itself. A convenient case for simulation theory is you can't disprove it. The big bang. That was the simulation booting up. We haven't found aliens. They're not in the simulation. How come UFOs seem to violate the laws of physics? Well, because they're programs operated by the simulation creators. They don't have to follow the laws of physics.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah, but who created the simulation?

[AJ]

Well, that's the big question, isn't it? When you think of the simulation creator as an omniscient intelligence who exists outside of our understanding of space and time, it sounds an awful lot like you're describing God. And just like you can't prove we're not in a simulation, you can't prove there is no God. If something miraculous happens or something horrible happens, you can say it's part of the simulation just as easily as you can say it's part of God's plan. Something I find very interesting is that many believers of simulation theory are fierce atheists. They dismiss the idea of God as corny superstition. There are plenty of devoutly religious people who dismiss provable science like evolution and the age of the earth. People on the religious side say that if there is no God, and life is just a simulation, then nothing matters. Without God to guide us and sometimes punish us, depending on what. What? You believe our actions don't have consequences. I disagree. Even if we don't live in base reality, we still live in our reality. And our actions here do have consequences. As for what happens after we die, simulation or not, nobody really knows. Both sides argue that faith and science are not compatible. Isn't this hypocritical? Whether you believe in God or you believe in simulation theory, the real question question is, what's the difference?

[Morgan]

The next episode was picked by Victoria. Victoria pretty much runs things around here. Don't cross her. She'll cut you. Okay. Victoria chose the episode about. Ooh, this is a good one. Victoria chose Go, Beckley. Tepe. I hope I said that right. Tepe. Tepe. Whatever. Roll it.

[AJ]

We are the descendants of an ancient civilization, one which mastered technology, mapped the cosmos, and understood our relationship with the natural world. Our ancestors traveled the world and built enormous structures. They scaled their creations into cities. They shared a common governance and similar religious beliefs. Our ancestors lived as we do today, as a global society. Then, around 14,500 years ago, this global superpower started to collapse. First came uncontrollable change. And then a cataclysm. In less than a week, everything and almost everyone was gone. Those left behind built monuments. Monuments not as tributes to gods or homage to kings. The monuments are a warning to future, future generations. To us, that warning is simple. Danger is coming. Our civilization has ended before and it will end again. This is one story that big archaeology and world governments don't want you to know. Because once you hear it, you'll never trust them again. Because the danger that's coming, there's not a thing they can do to stop it. In 1994, German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt was touring Turkish Neolithic sites when he spotted a limestone block poking out from a hillside. The locals called the area Pat Beli Hill, or in their language, Gobekli Tepe. Schmidt and his team began excavating the hillside around the limestone. And though they didn't know it at the time, what they discovered would change everything we know about human history. We've all been taught the official story, the big archaeology story of the origin of human civilization. Stone Age hunter gatherers emerged from the last Ice Age and eventually discovered farming. These people organized into settlements in Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent. Then, about 6,000 years ago, the first civilization was born. Ancient Sumer. Stone Age humans before Sumer were primitive. Their most advanced technology was stone tools. At Gobekli TEPE archaeologists uncovered four man made stone enclosures covering 100,000 square feet of land. That's interesting. But there was a problem. The earliest parts of Gobekli tepe were built 11,600 years ago. That 6,000 years before the ancient Sumerians were doing anything. Now, this didn't make sense at all. 11,600 years ago was the end of the last ice age. Big archaeology said, this far back in time, humans were following the migration of animals. They built temporary camps or at most, mud huts. Humans were not building enormous permanent stone structures. They didn't have the knowledge, they didn't have the tools, they didn't have the talent. Yet here it was. So the more they dug, the more things stopped making sense. Soon, archaeologists learned that the enclosures weren't built at the same time. This indicates long term occupation of the site. Well, how long? Well, the newest structure was built about 10,500 years ago. That means Gobekli Tepe was occupied for over a thousand years. Now, a thousand years doesn't sound that long, but in human history, a thousand years is a very long time. That's enough time for the Roman Empire to rise and fall and rise and fall again. The excavation of Gobekli Tepe continued. And from the perspective of the scientific establishment, things just kept getting worse. Gobekli Tepe Bay wasn't haphazardly thrown together by Stone Age primitives. It was built strategically for a purpose. The four enclosures are circular, between 20 and 200ft across, and all are angled toward the star Sirius. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. Many cultures throughout history built temples angled at Ceres, Sirius, but not 12,000 years ago. Yet here it was. Over the course of 1100 years, Sirius alignment moved across the night sky. So the builders of Gobekli Tepe created newer enclosures to follow. Each realignment to build these monuments required an understanding of astronomy, mathematics and engineering. A project of this size would also require skills like community planning, administration and division of labor. Big archaeology said people during this time had not yet acquired these skills. Yet here it was. Within each enclosure are T shaped pillars, some of them 16ft tall, each weighing up to 10 tons. 43 pillars have been excavated so far. But the Gobekli Tepe story is just getting started. Only 5% of the site has been uncovered. Recent lidar imaging revealed at least 15 to 20 additional structures and enclosures buried beneath the main site. And there are more than 200 additional stone pillars. Now, about those stone pillars, there's something very strange going on. Engraved on the pillars are depictions of humans animals and human animal hybrids. There are foxes, lions, scorpion, snakes, boar, wild donkey, gazelles. There's all kinds of things. And the work is very advanced. But the most advanced carvings are on the oldest pillars. As the site gets newer, the designs get less intricate. It's like technology and craftsmanship suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Somehow, 7,000 years before Stonehenge and the great pyramids of Giza were built, and 6,000 years before the invention of writing, humans were capable of building this. Where did the builders get this sudden knowledge?

[Hecklefish]

The Anunnaki?

[AJ]

Well, the answer to that question is controversial. The Anunnaki. Maybe the human story doesn't start at the end of the last Ice Age, like big archaeology wants us to think. Maybe before the last Ice Age, the Earth was home to an older and much more advanced advanced civilization. That civilization then taught the primitive local hunter gatherers about mathematics and engineering. They also taught these primitive humans astronomy and told them to pay very close attention to the sky. These ancients then told the local people their story of the time before the Ice Age, when their civilization flourished. Pillar 43 in Enclosure D has been become known as the Vulture Stone. On the Vulture Stone, there's a detailed carving that tells the story of these ancient people. Unfortunately, it's also the story of the end of the world. Pillar 43 in enclosure D, also known as the Vulture Stone, depicts the worst day in human history. Engraved on the pillar are asterisk, which are bright star clusters like constellations. Pillar 43 points to Scorpius. Now, to be fair to skeptics, every culture is going to have different representations for their constellations. But look at the drawing on the Vulture Stone. Without a doubt, that is a scorpion. When the constellation Scorpius is lined up with the night sky, all the other drawings fall into place, each of them representing constellations. A sun sits atop the Vulture's wing in the design showing its placement in the sky in relation to the stars. If we use the central sun as a guide to line up the constellations, it reveals a star map. And every star map is a date stamp. Take the Hoover Dam, for example. Engraved on the floor of the dam is the exact configuration of the stars as seen from that location on the dam. The dam opened.

[Hecklefish]

Ew. Why did they carve that in the dam floor?

[AJ]

So if the structure is found thousands or millions of years from now, archaeologists will know the exact date, the date.

[Hecklefish]

The damn people made it.

[Morgan]

Right.

[Hecklefish]

Damn good idea.

[AJ]

The Vulture Stone shows the only time in history that this specific configuration of stars could be seen from Gobekli Tepe. It was a 100 year window between 10,900 to 10,800 BC, about 13,000 years ago. But wait, this is more than a thousand years before Gobekli Tepe was built. So this tablet is telling a story of something that happened in the past. It's the story of a time period commonly referred to as the Younger Dryas and the terror from the sky that changed the face of the Earth. The Ice age lasted about 2.6 million years. Most of the Northern hemisphere was covered by miles thick sheets of ice. 30% of the Earth's surface was covered by glaciers. This sounds bad, but for the human race it was good. Sure, the climate was cold, but it wasn't cold everywhere. Most of Africa and the Middle east were warm, with plenty of plant and animal life. And the climate was consistent for 2.6 meters million years. Hominids had a nice stable climate in which to evolve. During this time, Homo sapiens, modern humans emerged during this time. We were born in the Ice Age. We thrived in it. Then the climate started changing. Temperatures became warmer year after year. The ice sheets slowly melted. Sea levels gradually rose. This would have been a concern for the human species civilization, but they were helpless to do anything about it.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, so you admit that even if the climate is getting warmer, there's nothing we can do about it?

[AJ]

Well, that's an open debate.

[Hecklefish]

How dare you.

[AJ]

Then suddenly, around 12,900 years ago, the Earth got cold again. Not as cold as before, but cold enough that humans understood how to survive and thrive in these conditions. This mini Ice age was essentially a return to normal. But a thousand years later, this age of normalcy ended violently. And suddenly the ice sheets melted as they had before, but not over 2.6 million years. This time, the ice melted in weeks. There was no time for civilization to adjust. This was the cataclysm. And there's evidence of this cataclysm in ice cores samples taken from Greenland and Antarctica. There's evidence in sediment cores from the bottom of lakes and oceans. There's evidence in organic material that's been carbon dated. But there's also evidence of this disaster on pillar 43, the Vulture Stone. Along with giving us a date, the tablet also depicts the comet impact of the Younger Dryas. At the bottom of the pillar is a headless man, linking the date to death. There's also a snake coming from the south. This has been said to represent three giant waves washing over the Earth. Those could have been the tsunamis that we know for sure happened. But pillar 43 is only a piece of the story. Pillar 56 depicts more of the younger Dryas. Impact waves crashing, animals fleeing. Now those are scary. But to me, pillar 18 is the most ominous depiction at Gobekli Tepe. First of all, it contains the only word on the whole site. The word is God.

[Hecklefish]

Maybe it was saying, oh God, we're gonna die. Oh God, please save us.

[AJ]

I think it was saying exactly that.

[Hecklefish]

Wait, I was just joking.

[AJ]

Well, I think something very bad happened and this pillar is a plea for help.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, my joke isn't very funny anymore.

[AJ]

Pillar 18 in Enclosure D focuses on the constellation we know as Aquarius. But when it was built, the pillar was probably centered on Taurus. Now, if that's true, we now have a very big piece of this puzzle. The comet Encke was discovered in 1786 and takes about three years to orbit the sun. Encke is about three miles wide. Not a huge comet, but not small either. The thing is, it used to be bigger. Much bigger. Bigger. It was part of what scientists call a megacomet. A hundred miles wide, and not just made of ice, but also glass, metal and rock. About 20,000 years ago, the megacomet broke up.

[Hecklefish]

This is good, right?

[AJ]

Oh, no, this is bad. Really bad. When the 100 mile megacomet broke up, it created an enormous debris field. Now, instead of one megacomet, you've got millions of smaller comets ranging in size from grains of sand to over a mile across. When the Earth passed through that cloud of debris, the people at Gobekli Tepe would have seen a firestorm of comets raining down on the Earth, all coming from the Aquarius constellation, just as is depicted on pillar 43. But here's the scary part. We fly through that same debris field every year. It's called the Torrid meteor shower, and it's caused a lot of damage through the years. And if you're watching this in September, October or November, we're flying through it right now. When Gobekli Tepe was discovered, big archaeology had no choice but to admit they had underest estimated the technological abilities of early man by, oh, about 5,000 years. It must be a mistake, they said after all, their grant money depends on them being right. No need to fund a search for, let's say, a mummy in a pyramid that's not going to be there. But in 2019, more bad news for the mainstream. That year, excavations started at Karahan Tepe, about 40 miles from Gobekli Tepe. Initial estimates say it might have been settled before Gobekli Tepe. Gobekli Tepe seems to have been built for a single purpose. Maybe a place of worship or an observatory. Karahan Tepe is very different. It shows obvious signs of a structured society. Now there are many different types of buildings at Karahan Tepe. Some could be shops or residences or food storage vessels, grindstones, flint plates. Plates and all kinds of other objects have been found at Karahan Tepe. These types of artifacts haven't been found at Gobekli Tepe, suggesting the two sites served very different social functions. But these places existed at the same time. So it's possible Gobekli Tepe was a religious center where Karahan Tepe was a residential neighborhood or maybe a shopping district. And if that's true, there must be more, more settlements in the area yet to be found.

[Hecklefish]

There's more.

[AJ]

Lots more. In 2021, the Turkish government announced the discovery of at least 11 additional hillsides which contain structures very much like Gobekli Tepe. The hillsides make up a hundred mile ring with Gobekli Tepe in the center. These sites are known collectively as Tasteplar. Now, instead of an area in inhabited by nomadic primitives, Kostepler is a metropolis. Sibirch was uncovered by archaeologists in 2021, around 10 miles from Gobekli Tepe. Sibirch is one of the most complex settlements in the area. Archaeologists found communal buildings big enough to seat 50 people. There are communal halls covered with countless engravings of humans and animals. To the south of the communal buildings are ancient residential homes. The layout of each of the Taskelar archaeological sites suggests hundreds of thousands of people lived there permanently, right after the Younger Dryas changed the face of the world. But there's a site discovered in 2008 about 180 miles away, which really broke history and suggests Tostepler may have been a capital in what was a very busy region. While digging a dam in the area, engineers rediscovered the settlement of Bangkoklu Tarla Dam.

[Hecklefish]

Engineers.

[AJ]

Look, you don't have to keep tagging that joke.

[Hecklefish]

You don't like my damn jokes, eh?

[AJ]

The Bankuklu Tarle settlement is between 12,000 and 13,000 years old. That means it was built within the Younger Dryas cold period before the flood. The structure found has similar features with Gobekli Tepe and the structures belonging to this period in the region. The building has a unique architectural style, shape and interior arrangement. Unique. With these features, we can say that it is a temple that dates back to 12,000 years. This is where the existence of an ancient advanced civilization starts to become almost irrefutable. Bankuklu Tarla has all the things we find on tasteplu. Private buildings, public spaces. It's got storage rooms, tools, ornamental objects. It's got mega and microliths. The people of Vankuklu Tarla were so advanced, they even built a sewer system. More than 130 skeletons have been found there, each buried with hundreds of thousands of beads. The manufacturing of beads proves that there was a division of labor, an artisan class. It proves that the people had time for more than just hunting and gathering. They had time to make art.

[Hecklefish]

Making beads is more of a craft than art, but I get your meaning.

[AJ]

So Big Archaeology was wrong again. Very, very wrong. This area of Turkey shows that thousands of people lived there in organized communities. They built neighborhoods and temples. They had shops and large halls for gathering. They had division of labor. They were experts at stonework. They understood mathematics and astronomy. They were talented engineers. And this was 12,000 years ago. But where's the evidence of people learning these skills? If the people at Gobekli Tepe were putting up 10 ton stone pillars 10 to 12,000 years ago, shouldn't we see communities learning these skills 15,000 years ago, 20,000 years ago? We should see an evolution of technology that takes thousands of years. But we don't. This advanced technology just appeared. But that's not exactly true. The people in the area around Gobekli Tepe, Bangkok, Tarla and Sibirch were taught this technology after the Great Flood. It was a gift to them, a gift from the people of the sea. Mainstream or big archaeology gets things wrong, A lot of things. Gobekli Tepe shouldn't be there. Neither should Karahan Tepe, Bunkuku Tarla or any of the other settlements in the area. We're told the Great Pyramids of Giza are tombs built for pharaohs. But no mummy has ever been found in a tomb. Not one, not ever. But in the Great Pyramids, we did find evidence that it might have been used as an ancient power plant. Big Archaeology hates that idea now. When I was growing up, we were taught that Native Americans first arrived in North America by crossing the Bering Land bridge in Alaska between 10 to 12,000 years ago. This was called the Clovis First Model because some stone tools were found in Clovis, New Mexico. Big archaeology wasn't even close to on how people got to the Americas or when the Monteverde site in Chile blew up. The Clovis model when it was dated to 14,800 years ago. Buttermilk Creek complex in Texas was dated to about 15,500 years ago. The Bluefish Caves in Yukon, Canada, have evidence suggesting human activity as far back as 24,000 years ago. Plus, there's hard evidence that people from Polynesia in the South Pacific traded with and mated with tribes in Guatemala many years before Columbus. And they didn't cross the Bering Land Bridge in Alaska. They sailed thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean. This means they had advanced shipmaking skills and seamanship. They had knowledge of astronomy and the.

[Hecklefish]

Weather you had to make that trip. They also had to have balls and of steel.

[AJ]

I would have preferred that you said nerves of steel, but, yeah, they were brave. Big Archaeology knows the Mayan culture had a large population, but they were not considered to be very technologically advanced. But in 2023, researchers deep in the Guatemalan jungle discovered a sprawling Mayan civilization. It covers more than 650 square miles. And here's the crazy thing. The cities were interconnected by a series of superhighways. And these weren't just paths or dirt roads. The roads were elevated to allow for drainage and even paved with white plaster. The Romans get a lot of credit for creating the first roads, but the Mayans beat the Romans to it by about 2,000 years.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

They're the world's first superhighway system that we have. What's amazing about them is that they unite all these cities together like a spider web, which forms one of the earliest and first state societies in the Western Hemisphere.

[AJ]

So Big Archaeology was wrong about Mayan technology, but they still had to get in the last word. Mainstream said, sure, they had hundreds of miles of roads, but they didn't have vehicles. They just walked. No animals or people pulling carts. They just walked hundreds of miles. Big. Big Archaeology said this is because the Mayans didn't discover the wheel, but Mayan toys have been discovered that have wheels. Big Archaeology says the Mayans never thought to scale them up to put them on carts. How do we know this? Big Archaeology says, we know this because we haven't discovered the carts. Oh. But a year ago, Big Archaeology would have said, there's no way the Mayans could have built a highway system. Why not? Not well, because we haven't found one yet. There it is. Big Archaeology is quick to take a lack of evidence at face value, regardless of common sense. Like there was no such thing as the city of Dwarka, the advanced and prosperous city in India that was consumed by a great flood. That was all a myth. Then Dwarka was found and dated to the Younger Dryas. There's no such thing as Atlantis, but it's hard to explain the Bimini road in the Bahamas or the ancient city off the coast of Cuba that could be anywhere from 6,000 to 50,000 years old. There's no such thing as Mu, the continent that once connected Greece to Easter Island. Yet the languages from those two cultures share about a thousand words. And the Yonaguni Monument off the coast of Japan is right where Mu would have been. There was no such thing as Derinkuyu, the secret underground city that hid 20,000 people from danger for thousands of years. That was just a local myth. Then a man tried expanding his basement and realized it's already been expanded. And the lost city of Derinkuyu was discovered. And that's why big archaeology says there was no advanced culture before the flood, because there's no evidence of it. Except there is. Every culture has a flood myth. Long before Noah built the ark, a great flood turned up in Mesopotamia in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The ancient Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, Hindus, they all have a legend of a deluge that wiped the earth clean. The flood myth really is worldwide. The Norse have their own version of the Noah's Ark story. The Inca, the Aztec tribes across America. Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian, Australian Aboriginal. This is just to name a few. The list is much longer now. The legends vary, but they're all basically the same plot. People are misbehaving, so a flood is sent to wipe them out and start over with a few survivors. Now, I don't know about the misbehaving part, but we're pretty sure the flood really happened. But some of the flood legends have a twist. Those legends say that before the flood, there were advanced civilizations who flourished on their own continents while primitive humans were still figuring out stone tools. Atlantis was a powerful and advanced island nation. It was larger than Asia and ruled by the descendants of gods. Atlantis was prosperous and technological advanced. But the people became corrupt, prompting the gods to sink the island into the ocean in a single day and night of catastrophic earthquakes and floods. Lemuria was a huge continent in the Pacific Ocean. Lemuria was home to a spiritually advanced civilization that was sometimes ally and sometimes enemy of Atlantis. And then there was Mu. Mu is a continent either in the Pacific Ocean or Indian Ocean ocean. It was once inhabited by an advanced civilization. The survivors of Mu brought their wisdom and began the civilizations of Ancient Egypt and the Maya. Atlantis, Lemuria and Mu are all similar stories in that they were Highly advanced civilizations all existed around 9,600 BC, all destroyed by a great flood. But in all three stories, there are a few survivors. After the floodwaters recede and their homelands are destroyed, these survivors seek refuge on the mainland. The people they find are kind but primitive. So the survivors grant them the gift of civilization.

[Hecklefish]

And when you show up somewhere, it's always polite to bring something. Flower, bottle of wine, civilization.

[AJ]

I agree, that's just good manners. But it's at this time that agriculture explodes. Across the Middle east, megalithic structures now appear. Complex cities emerge, all seemingly overnight. In Hindu, Matsya takes the form of a fish and guides King Manu to re establish civilization in Mesopotamia, Oannes emerged from the sea as half man, half fish. A mermaid. Yep. Hey, yeah.

[Hecklefish]

Ask him if he has a sister, will ya?

[AJ]

Oannas teaches the Sumerians agriculture, writing, law and all knowledge crucial for civilization. Quetzalcoatlatl, also associated with water, brought civilization to the Aztecs. In Egyptian, Polynesian, Japanese, Chinese, Norse, Hawaiian, Native American, there's a godlike teacher who comes from the sea to help restart civilization. And these saviors or teachers or whatever you want to call them, they all appear after the great flood, at the end of the younger drop. And they all transfer wisdom and knowledge to the primitive people that they meet and restart civilization. And there's more evidence. The cultures around the world seem to have been given the same knowledge. For example, Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. Every culture knows about it, but every culture, new and old, refers to Sirius as a dog or a wolf. An ancient. In Iraq, Sirius was called the Dog star that leads. In China it was known as the heavenly wolf. Assyrians and Akkadians knew Sirius as the dog of the sun. And in North America, native tribes used largely canine terminology like dog that follows mountain sheep or wolf star when referring to Sirius. Most cultures holding a reverence for the brightest star in the sky is understandable. But all of them referring to the the same star as a dog or a wolf, that seems like a big coincidence.

[Hecklefish]

We don't believe in those.

[AJ]

We don't. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Bankuklu Tarla, a bustling city appears. In Turkey, Karhan Tepe, with its homes and halls and magnificent art appears. And Gobekli Tepe is built an entire complex dedicated to the star Sirius. And within the complex, 10 ton stone pillars that tell the story of man, the fire from the sky, the flood that swallows the earth, and of civilization. Given a second chance, the pillars also offer a warning for Future generations. For us, all that has happened before will happen again. The builders gave us symbols on stones and told us to watch the sky. They showed us the constellations to study. They gave us the exact date of the last disaster so we could prepare for the next one. Because there's always a next one. The images carved in the stone pillars could be a guide to ensure humanity's survival. But if all that's true, why was it all intentionally buried? Around 10,000 years ago, the people of Gobekli Tepe took up a massive project. They filled in the entire compound with stone and debris. Then they covered it with earth and mud to make it seem like it was never there. There are two theories for why they did this. One, to preserve it, or two, to hide it. An advanced society destroyed by an ancient cataclysm. The survivors venture out into the world, spreading wisdom and knowledge and sowing the seeds of civilization. Civilization. Then, in an instant, agriculture explodes, cities are born, and a new era of man begins. Just not the first era of man. Not only is this a great story, it's one of my favorite stories. I read Graham Hancock's book Fingerprints of the gods in the 1990s, and I was hooked. I've been an ancient civilization junkie ever since. But is it true? Well, Big Archaeology says it's absolutely not true. But we've shown that lack of evidence is proof enough for the mainstream to say that something never existed. Only when dragged, kicking and screaming to evidence of the Great Flood do they finally acknowledge it. And only when Gobekli Tepe is discovered does the date of the first civilization get pushed back. Back. Then Mongkook Lutarla is found, and the date changes again. And it may change again and again. So Big Archaeology was wrong about how advanced the people of the Stone Age were. They were clearly advanced enough to build monolithic monuments and huge, complex cities. It appears as if this skill and technology comes out of nowhere. We don't see older, smaller structures that show an evolution of technology that leads to something as magnificent as Gobekli Tepe. The technology just appeared, and it appeared at the end of the Younger Dryas after the Great Flood. So it must be a transfer of technology from survivors of an ancient society whose civilization was lost beneath the waves. But let's be fair. There was an evolution of technology leading to Gobekli Tepe. Natufian culture existed in the same area about 15,000 years ago. They were unusual in that they settled the area permanently. There's evidence of cemeteries, architecture, food production, animal domestication, and Burials. With elaborate mortuary treatments, the Natufians built organized stone structures decorated with art. This is 2000 years before Gobekli Tepe. Aya Melaha was a Natufian settlement built around 12,000 years ago. They too used circular structures like those found at Gobekli Tepe. Pre Natufian culture goes back to 23,000 years ago. Now, it's rare to find evidence of this culture, but it's not impossible. There are engravings, ornaments and beads that are older than Gobekli Tepe, thousands of years older. The monoliths at Gobekli Tepe are impressive, but the Natufians also created created huge slabs of decorated limestone. Not as elaborate, but they were made with skill and craftsmanship. Kortik Tepe is another mound discovered in the Anatolia area of Turkey. Found there are pieces of very elaborate pottery carvings, jewelry, tools and fishing hooks. Kortik Tepe has been dated from 12,400 years ago to 11,700 years ago. So not a only older than Gobekli Tepe. This settlement existed during the cold snap of the Younger Dryas. It is worth noting that Kortik Tepe disappears around the time of the flood, but before the flood, people lived there for 1,000 years. So there is evidence of an evolution of technology, not just with jewelry and engraving, but even building large monoliths all thousands of years before Gabor. Gobekli Tepe. One of the great mysteries is why Gobekli Tepe was deliberately filled in. Now, the working theory is the earlier structures were pretty big and dug into a mound. An earthquake hit, knocked everything into the mound and made a mess of things. Then everyone in the area filled in the rest of the hole and built newer, smaller structures around the old, older, larger ones. Structures that were designed to withstand earthquakes. Now, no one really knows for sure, but it's a theory that makes sense to me. And there are some issues with the dates as well. The date on pillar 43, the vulture stone, that's 13,000 years ago. That doesn't line up with the end of the Younger Dryas. So it's not describing the Great Flood, but that date does line up with the beginning of the young Younger Dryas. Was there an impact at that time too? Well, there probably was. It's believed that the abrupt cooling 13,000 years ago was caused by a series of events that happened at the same time. There are ice core samples that show an impact 12,887 years ago. And that date is accurate within five years. And this happened at the same time as a large Volcanic eruption in Germany. This caused the Earth to be covered in soot, which caused years of darkness. Meanwhile, the impacts disrupted the ocean currents, so everything got cold again. Not as cold as before, but still cold. Then about a thousand years later, another event, maybe another impact, maybe a massive solar event. We don't really know for sure. But something did happen to warm the Earth and melt the ice cap really fast. We do have evidence of cultures that existed before, during and after the Younger Dryas. Now, did we debunk the idea of an advanced culture before that? Absolutely not. I'm just trying to give you the full picture. There absolutely could have been someone else here long ago. And we've talked before about how it would take only about 10,000 years before all evidence of the human race is gone. But here's the thing about that number. Civilization disappearing in 10,000 years assumes the Earth is peaceful. If one of these years the torrid meteor shower threw a rock at us like it did during the Younger Dryas, well, It wouldn't take 10,000 years to erase our civilization. We'd be gone in a day. Here's how it happens. It's a brisk November evening. Maybe this year, maybe 20 years from now. It doesn't matter. Every November, the Earth passes through the torrid meteor cloud and the Earth's sky lights up. People gather all over the world to see the event. Meteor watching parties are common. You and a few friends decide to get together and see the show. The sky does not disappoint. Shooting stars zip across the night sky like fireflies. There are even larger comets that streak by for a full second or two before burning out. And once in a while, a big one. It's a fireball that lights up the sky. And for a moment, night turns to day. Now everyone's heart races. But fireballs like these are known to happen during the Taurid shower. People remember the Taurids of 2015. That year, fireballs hit the earth in swarms. In 2020, a Taurid fireball exploded over Japan. That sounded like a bomb going off. That one set off car alarms. From a miles. You continue to watch the sky and notice the shooting stars getting denser, thicker. Then a fireball, then another. You feel a little anxiety. But the Tord meteors have been happening your whole life, and they've been nothing more than a light show. Then another fireball. This one looks like. Like it's close. It vaporizes in a flash of light so bright that you have to shield your eyes. You and your group of sky watchers giggle nervously Then three seconds later, a crack. Then a boom. So loud you feel it in your stomach. Everyone agrees this was fun, but let's go home. But now there's another fireball. Everyone turns to see. This one is different. It's not really streaking across the sky. It's expanding somehow. No, it's not expanding. It's coming closer. It comes closer and closer, and there's no way to tell how big it is from where you're standing. It's like a mountain made of fire. Just as panic sets in, it disappears somewhere over the horizon. You let out a deep sigh. You didn't realize it, but for the past 30 seconds, you've been holding your breath.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Breath.

[AJ]

You and your group are now frantically gathering your belongings. That was more than enough excitement for one evening. You even ask yourself if you even want to do this again next year. But that question has already been answered for you. You just didn't know it yet. Over the horizon where the fireball disappeared, a ball of light emerges. Everything is lit up like the day. No brighter than that. It's so bright. Everything is just white. The ball of white light grows larger and larger. And you feel something deep in your brain. That part of your brain that evolved 2 million years ago, that lizard brain. It sends you a single message. Run. You run. About 3,000 miles away, there has been an event. The meteor hits and vaporizes everything around the impact point for miles. Water, rock, cities, all vanish. Then the shockwaves start. Earthquakes radiate out from the impact point over and over again as the Earth reverberates like a bell. These earthquakes move faster than the speed of sound. They're so powerful, they disrupt the tectonic plates of the Earth. That sets off a chain reaction reaction of earthquakes and volcanoes across every major fault line. Forget LA and San Francisco. The San Andreas will either eat or burn the entire California coast. Then you've got the Cascadia Subduction zone in the Pacific Northwest. The Hayward fault, the Calaveras Fault, the Garlock, the Wasatch. They all erupt. From Western Canada to Baja, Mexico is leveled. Everything within 20 miles of the coast crumbles into the sea. Then the shock waves roll back around the planet again and again and again. The biggest fault system in the United States is the New Madrid Seismic Zone. The most powerful earthquakes in US History have come from here. When that fault goes, say goodbye to Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis and down to New Orleans. All gone. Crumbled on fire or underwater. The New Madrid fault connects to the Ramapo Fault in the east and sets it off like a fuse. Ramapo extends through Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. Then the Charleston fault in South Carolina goes next. From Boston to Seattle, from Maine to Miami, and everything in between. Earthquakes rock the country over and over again. And this is happening everywhere in the world. Then. Then comes the wind. A category 5 hurricane has wind speeds of 150 to 160 miles per hour. A Cat 5 hurricane is going to seem like a gentle afternoon. Rushing around the planet is a storm with winds over a thousand miles per hour. This is called the air blast. Anything wooden is gone. Cars, boats, people, all gone. Only the sturdiest stone structures could survive the weather.

[Morgan]

Wind.

[AJ]

But most stone structures have already been turned to rubble by the earthquakes. In some places, the wind lasts for 16 hours. And within the wind is everything. Buildings, cars, trees, everything. It's a food processor that pulverizes everything for hours. What happens next goes one of two ways. Option one, the rock hits solid earth. Now, if that happens, heat and ejecta cause wildfires for thousands of miles around the impact point. Radiating out from the center is a fireball moving at twice the speed of sound. This fireball is hotter than the surface of the sun. A land impact also launches millions and millions of tons of ejecta into the atmosphere. In fact, millions of tons of molten rock will leave the atmosphere and go into the into space. The rock cools and forms a shell of debris in orbit around the Earth. No more space station, no more satellites. The ejecta that remains in the atmosphere blocks out the sun for months. But it only takes a few days for plant life to start dying. The entire food chain is disrupted within a week and completely collapses in a month. All food is gone. And that's a land impact. Option two is an ocean impact. This is probably worse. The rock hits, vaporizes the ocean water and collides with the bedrock. The earthquakes begin like before. But what's really dramatic is the tsunami. But it's much more than a tsunami, More than a megatsunami. What this is, there's really no name for it. A wall of water rises about a mile and a half in the air. The water would be higher than the clouds if there were clouds. The shock waves and air blasts dissipated all the clouds, leaving only dark streaks of smoke that turned the sky blood red. The wall of water extends in all directions. It moves at 500 miles per hour. By the time it makes landfall, it's even higher. As the water tears across the the land, it collects debris. Every object the water touches is captured and becomes part of the wave. Within minutes, the front face of the wall is a solid mass of debris moving hundreds of miles per hour. The devastation is extreme. As the Earth reverberates, the secondary waves begin. These are smaller waves compared to the first, but they're still hundreds of feet high. And they pummel the coasts over and over and over again. About 24 hours later, the Earth settles. Volcanoes continue to erupt, and there are thousands of earthquake aftershocks. But most of the violence is over. This is the worst day in human history. But here's what's really scary. The scenario I just described has happened many times. So a question for the skeptics. How much evidence of human civilization would be left after this type of event? Skeptics say there would be evidence of trash, plastic and steel. But would there, after the comet strike, the fireball, the shockwaves, the 1,000 mile an hour wind, the string of megatsunamis. I'm not sure how much of anything would be left after that. Now, you would think that this event would leave a mess of debris, debris across the landscape, but it would be nothing like that. The land would be pristine. Well, pristine in a way. From horizon to horizon is mud. Nothing but mud. Everything has been pulverized into dust. Any object larger than a basketball is buried under mud a thousand feet deep. Big archaeology says there was no early civilization because they haven't found one. One. Or maybe they just haven't dug deep enough. There is evidence of an ancient advanced civilization and myths and legends from cultures around the world. Not just evidence that a civilization was here, but also how it was destroyed. The Book of Revelation describes events that could be interpreted. Interpreted as impacts.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

And I beheld when he had opened.

[AJ]

The sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Of hair, and the moon became as blood.

[AJ]

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, Even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll, when it is rolled together and every.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Mountain and island were moved out of their places.

[AJ]

Revelation 6. That sounds exactly like the impact I described earlier. The stars fall to the earth, the darkness, the mighty wind, an earthquake strong enough to move mountains. In Indian texts, the Vedas and the Mahabharata, they contain descriptions of celestial events and weapons that have been interpreted as a comet or meteor impact. Gigantic elephants, burnt by that weapon, fell all around, uttering fierce cries loud as those of the clouds. Other huge elephants, scorched by that fire, ran hither and thither and roared aloud in fear, as if in the midst.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Of a forest conflagration.

[AJ]

Mahabharata, book seven. That sounds like molten ejecta hitting the earth and setting everything on fire, just like we'd expect. The Lascaux caves in France are some of the most famous cave art ever found. One drawing, called the Shaft Scene, features a dying man and several animals. Researchers now say this describes a comet strike around 15,200 B.C. petroglyphs all over the world depict celestial objects with multiple tails. These. These have been suggested to represent the Taurid meteor swarm. This petroglyph from Forsyth County, Georgia, is a star map. It suggests a comet impact event in 536 A.D. ice core samples from Greenland confirm an impact sometime between 533 and 540. That impact had global ramifications and cooled the Earth over 5 degrees. There are more examples, examples of impacts, and these are just the most obvious ones. And notice that they're not all from thousands of years ago. Some are from just hundreds of years ago. The tunguska event in 1908 is thought to be a torrid meteor that strayed from the debris field. These impacts happen periodically and they usually happen in the autumn when we cross the torrid debris field. And maybe that's the story being told on the Vulture Stone at Gobekli text. Not the story of what happened in the past, but the potential danger we face right now. The torrid comets come every year, September to November. This year, the Taurid comets peak on November 6th. You can see them for yourself now. Sure, most of them look like shooting stars, but some of them are fireballs that light up the entire sky. Now why does big archaeology and every world government discount this story? Because there's not a thing they can do about it. Every time we pass through the Tord comet cloud, we're playing Russian roulette. Every year, a new spin of the chamber, a new pull of the trigger. Now, chances are when we pull the trigger, all we hear is a click. But there are objects in the torrid cloud that are a mile wide. So even though the chance is small, there is a chance, a real chance, that one of those objects will find its way to other us. And when that happens, our civilization ends once again. And there will be only a handful of survivors, the few people lucky enough to hide in mountain caves. And maybe those survivors will create cave paintings or rock carvings describing this world ending event. However they do it, they'll want to tell our story. And it's an important one. Every year we take our chance with the Taurids. One year we're going to lose. Then the only thing left of us, our entire civilization, will be one more very short story.

[Morgan]

Okey dokey little smokey. The next one comes from Ryan. So Ryan is another one of my editors. He chose. Oh, you gotta be kidding me. Seriously, dude, Ryan chose the episode about the Lacerta files. You know why he chose that one? Because the alien's a freakin smoke show. That's right. My editor has a thing for aliens. Look, I'm not gonna kink.

[AJ]

Shame.

[Morgan]

It's not like I haven't had a little extraterrestrial crush now and then. Hey, what happens on Zeta Reticuli stays on Zeta Reticuli. You dig me? And now the Lacerta files. Roll it.

[AJ]

On December 16, 1999, three things happened in Ol? Kay's office. His pencil levitated, his coffee froze solid. And the woman sitting across from him wasn't human. Ol? Kay had built his career debunking every alien story, every paranormal claim, every supernatural sighting he'd seen every trick he knew, every technique. His articles had ruined careers and earned him a reputation as a tough professional skeptic. But now his pencil was floating above his desk. The being across from him called herself Lacerta. She told him how humanity was created and how it would end. And she could prove it. The world's most notorious UFO skeptic was about to understand why some stories can't be debunked. Ol? K arrived early to set up his equipment. One camera, one tape recorder. That's all Lacerta allowed. Every hoaxer had rules. He didn't argue. He figured he'd be out in an hour. The story was obviously fake. Lacerta claimed to be from a race of beings living deep within the earth. Some say they're shape shifters. They don't change shape. They change the way the human brain sees them. They're highly evolved and intelligent with extremely advanced technology. They are Reptilians. The Lacerta files appeared online in the early 2000s. They're transcripts of two interviews. One from 1999 and one from 2000. A journalist known as Ol? K spoke with a female Reptilian who calls herself Lacerta when she's with humans. Apparently we can't pronounce her real name, and mispronouncing someone's name in her culture is offensive.

[Hecklefish]

But it sounds like a millennial. Lizard people. How old is she? Is she TikTok?

[AJ]

She's 28 years old.

[Hecklefish]

Checks out.

[AJ]

She was around 5 foot 5 and humanoid. Her skin was pale green with brown dots. And her eyes were larger than human eyes, with vertical slits for pupils. And when she blinked, a transparent membrane slid sideways rays across her eyes. Her species is called the Tern. They lived beneath the Earth for millions of years in vast cities carved from solid rock. I linked to the full text and you'll want to read it. But here's what matters. Lacerta knew things. Things about ancient cultures. Quantum mechanics, computer science. She said humans didn't evolve. We were engineered by aliens who needed slaves. Right. They have many names. The beings you call the Elohem. We knew them as the illustration. They needed workers. They found primitive apes and began their experiments. But you aren't the first attempt. You're the seventh.

[Hecklefish]

Whoa, wait, wait, wait. What? You humans are version seven?

[AJ]

Well, each version was an experiment. Create, test, destroy, then start again. The Illidgem left Earth before finishing version seven. Now they're coming back to fix their mistake. Lacerta's story began not with her species, but with ours. She said human evolution is a lie. We were created by aliens called the Illidim. They come from the star system we call Aldebaran.

[Hecklefish]

I thought the Death Star blew up Alderaan.

[AJ]

Aldebaran.

[Hecklefish]

What'd I say?

[AJ]

The Illidim arrived on Earth 1.5 million years ago. To Minecraft, this would require a large labor force. So they altered a primitive ape's genetics and created a new species to do the work. Version one was promising, but flawed. So they wiped it out and started again and again. Lacerta says the evidence of these earlier versions is all around us. Archaeologists say the Great Pyramid of Giza was built around 2500 BC.

[Hecklefish]

Big news. It's way older than that.

[AJ]

Lacerta agrees. The Egyptians didn't build the pyramids, they found them. The Great Pyramid was built 75 years ago by the fifth version of humanity. The underwater ruins near Bimini were built 16,000 years ago. By the sixth version, perfect angles cut into massive stone blocks. Using techniques we only mastered in the last century, the ilogym accelerated our evolution. Look at our timeline. Two million years to improve a sphere. Then in a few thousand years, writing electricity, landing a man on the moon.

[Hecklefish]

Well, that never happened. But you monkeys got to orbit, I'll give you that.

[AJ]

Fine. My point is, we went from hunter gatherers to a space faring species in a fraction of the time it took to go from Homo habilis to Homo erectus. Stop it. Our DNA contains genes that don't match our ancestors. Dr. James Gates found error. Correcting. Code embedded in human DNA. Proof we were engineered, not evolved. Now, this is not a new concept. Almost every ancient culture tells the same creation story. Beings of light arrived in massive ships. They created humans, gave them knowledge not from kindness. They needed intelligent slaves, but not too intelligent. That's why they destroyed versions 5 and 6. Millions died because they asked too many questions.

[Hecklefish]

How'd they whack a whole planet?

[AJ]

Earthquakes, volcanoes, sometimes floods.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah. Young and Dryas flood.

[AJ]

That was the last reset. Yet every culture has a flood myth. Because it happened. Lacerta expects the Illigim to return and finish their work. And we have no way to stop them. We don't have the technology to fight. And there's nowhere to hide. We can't go underground. Underground belongs to the lizards. The Derinkuyu underground city in Turkey is a puzzle 18 levels deep, almost 300ft below the surface. It has a ventilation system, a fresh water system. Acoustic chambers are tuned to specific frequencies. It was allegedly built with Bronze Age technology. But the truth is, nobody knows who built it or when.

[Hecklefish]

Derinkuyu linked down in the Owashta.

[AJ]

According to Lacerta, Derinkuyu isn't an ancient human city. It's an entrance to the Turin civilization, a vast network of cities underground. Their main settlements are 14,000ft below the Earth's surface. And each city is about a mile and a half wide, carved into solid bedrock. At the center is the column, a 700 foot tower. It regulates climate, generates artificial sunlight, and manages the airflow.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, it's like a lizard, Alexa.

[AJ]

I guess so, yeah.

[Hecklefish]

Hey, Alexa, no, don't do that. Hey, Alexa, write a dirty limerick about the Crab King.

[AJ]

Why did you do that? We have kids watching. See ya.

[Hecklefish]

The Crib kid.

[AJ]

The Hypogeum in Malta has similar mysteries. Discovered in 1902, this underground structure also features unusual acoustic properties. How the huge stones were cut is still debated.

[Hecklefish]

Giants immortal, linked down in the old gibble goblet.

[AJ]

Cave systems in China reveal extensive tunnels. South American myths describe vast, vast underground networks. Geological surveys have detected hollow spaces deep beneath the surface. But our technology can't reach them. There is one place underground that our technology can reach. That's raised a few questions. Geologists studying the Chicxuluba impact crater in the Yucatan Peninsula found layers of rock transformed by intense heat and pressure. But not from above. From below. According to Lacerta, these aren't random formations, their scars evidence of a war. A war for copper. We know what killed the dinosaurs. An asteroid hit the Yucatan Peninsula about 66 million years ago. The Impact left iridium in the geological record. But Lacerta says we have it backwards. The iridium wasn't from space. It was fallout from a nuclear weapon that used copper as fuel.

[Hecklefish]

What's so fancy about copper?

[AJ]

When copper undergoes nuclear fusion under specific conditions, it creates elements that shouldn't exist. Copper is a very important material. If you induce a high electromagnetic field in the right angle, you produce an overcrossing of fluctuating fields. The fusion of copper with other elements in such a magnetic radiation field chamber can produce produce a force field of special nature that is very useful for various technological tasks.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, thanks. That cleans it up. What is she talking about? I don't speak lizard.

[AJ]

She said copper can produce energy fields that can manipulate gravity, space and time. UFOs use this for propulsion. The craft creates a field oppositely aligned with the Earth's magnetic field.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, so now you speak lizard.

[AJ]

When the same poles from two magnets are close to each other, they create a repelling field. UFOs use copper fusion to create a field that pushes against the Earth's magnetic field. This is how they fly.

[Hecklefish]

It actually makes sense.

[AJ]

But the magnetic field of the Earth is constantly moving. The UFOs have to adjust their alignment, and this is hard to do. Sometimes they fail. That's what happened to Roswell. In 1947, two ships crashed. According to Lacerta, two alien species discovered Earth at the same time. Millions of years ago, humanoids from Procyon arrived first. They built copper mines in Antarctica and Asia, and their ships filled the skies. Then another species arrived, Reptilians, with their own copper fusion technology. And they wanted Earth's copper. The Procyons refused to share. The war lasted months. The Procyons were winning until the Reptilians deployed their ultimate weapon, a copper fusion bomb. It detonated in Yucatan. They expected it to kill all surface life while preserving mineral deposits. But something went wrong. Earth's seawater triggered a chain reaction, and the Nuclear winter lasted 200 years. And most dinosaurs died. But some escaped underground. One species, an advanced Iguanodon, evolved into the tern, Lacerta's ancestors. Before the extinction event. Iguanodons were evolved to walk on two legs, and they're evolving an opposable thumb. Your human scientists today see the iridium concentration in the ground as an evidence for an asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs. That is not true. But how should you know that? Modern militaries are trying to recreate copper fusion technology. But Lacerta says they're following blueprints. They don't understand the Process requires a deeper knowledge, not just of physics, but of biology. Because the real power of copper fusion isn't just about manipulating matter. It's about manipulating human consciousness. During the second interview with Ol? K, Lacerta demonstrated the turn's psychic abilities. First, telekinesis. Lacerta held out her hand. His hot coffee froze instantly. A pencil rose from the table.

[Morgan]

Ol?

[AJ]

Kay was stunned. This isn't magic. It's biology. We are able to use telepathy and telekinesis from our birth. The structure of our brain is a little bit different and more active than yours, especially when we are in sunlight. When we are on the surface and we meet human beings, we are able to touch their mind and induce them via telepathy. The command see us as one of your kind. And the weak human mind will accept this order without refusing. And they will see us, despite our reptilian look, as normal humans.

[Hecklefish]

Lizard people could be anywhere looking all humany.

[AJ]

They could be what's the most important thing in our lives is what for. We have come to this world in.

[Morgan]

General, not only on New Year's Eve.

[AJ]

But basically every day to come to Mavis.

[Hecklefish]

I knew it. Did The Illuminati.

[AJ]

The Tern are not the Illuminati. Okay, Different. Reptilians are. Lacerta's people avoid humans, but another Reptilian race controls Earth. If you know David Icke's work, her story confirms a lot of it. Icke said that a race of shape shifting Reptilians from the Draco star system has infiltrated the world's power structures.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Say that the people that actually live.

[AJ]

On the island are part of this.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

There are people.

[AJ]

There's a network on the island that are big time. I mean, the Isle of Wight is a beautiful place. And if you pick up the higher levels, the vibrational levels of it, it's a very pleasant place to be. But my goodness me, there is a network of Freemasons. Satan. There's some pedophiles that run this island. They run its government. They're disguised as leaders in finance, media and politics. They manipulate global events, steering us toward a One world government.

[Hecklefish]

This is common knowledge.

[AJ]

Ike says they operate from the moon, an artificial base built by ancient aliens.

[Hecklefish]

Hollow moon link down in your bento box.

[AJ]

The moon broadcasts frequencies that create negative emotions. The Reptilians feed on this humans.

[Hecklefish]

Elizabeth people lunch episodes. Link down. And you? I got nothing.

[AJ]

Yeah, I've covered bits and pieces of Ike's work here and there, but he needs his own episode. He has a lot of Interesting theories. Now if you want to see that, let me know.

[Hecklefish]

All right.

[AJ]

Where we at?

[Hecklefish]

Uh, the lizard lady was throwing pencils around and manipulating you weak minded humans, right?

[AJ]

Ol Kay sees Lacerta's true form only because she allows it. She normally appears as an attractive brunette.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, what? Nobody wants to appear as a chunky ginger?

[AJ]

Be nice. Lacerta says that humans have these same abilities, but the Illim suppress them. And some governments are aware of this. The Pentagon's ESP research wasn't just about human psychics. They studied sites where magnetic field fluctuations alter children's brainwaves. The classified report concluded the Illigim left something in human DNA. And whatever it is, it's waking up. Earth's magnetic North Pole is moving faster than ever recorded. About 35 miles per year. The world magnetic model can't keep up. And scientists don't fully understand why. Lacerta says these disturbances are part of the Illegim's plan. They build triggers into human DNA programming that activates under specific conditions. The shift magnetic field affects human consciousness. The Illo Jim didn't just want workers. They wanted weapons. Living weapons that would evolve exactly as planned. Your rapid technological advancement wasn't an accident. It was programmed into your DNA. Three alien species are coming for Earth. One needs human genetics. Another wants hydrogen from our oceans. And the third wants copper for weapons. The Illigem engineered us to defeat them all. Your creators didn't just give you intelligence. They gave you aggression, territorial instincts. Pack mentality. They built you to fight. The seventh version wasn't their final creation. It was their first successful prototype. So the Illigim aren't coming to destroy humanity. To coming to complete what they started. The question isn't whether we'll survive. It's whether we'll still be human when they're done. When the Lacerta Files landed on the web in the early 2000s, it got people's attention. Dinosaurs killed by alien wars. Humans engineered by ancient astronauts. Underground reptilian cities. Magnetic fields controlling human consciousness. It's an incredible story and has a lot of supporters. But is it true? Let's separate fact from speculation. Derinkuyu exists. It's an underground city in Turkey. Extending roughly 280ft below the surface. Its ventilation system still fascinates engineers. Some say the stonework shows signs of advanced technology. But most experts believe that people were just really talented. The Malta hypogeum is famous for its acoustic properties. Chambers are tuned to 110 hertz. And nobody knows why. The site's stonework is also very Precise. While no mainstream evidence suggests it's beyond Neolithic capabilities, the skill involved is still impressive. But geological surveys confirm vast cave networks winding deep beneath the Earth's surface. And this brings out the hollow Earth theories. Now, until we can see with our own eyes, all we can do is guess. Deep sea monitoring stations record unexplained. Sounds like the blue loop. Experts say they're ice quakes or a marine life maybe. But parts of the ocean are too deep to reach for now. The Chicxulub crater marked an asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs, and most scientists agree. But there are some who say that the heat and pressure came from below as scientists laugh at those people. But honestly, the asteroid killing the dinosaur theory is pretty new. When I was a kid, people got laughed at for believing this. It wasn't until the early 1990s that the crater was found. So as always, the only thing separating a conspiracy from the truth is time. Our own evolution raises questions too. It took early humans hundreds of thousands of years to refine stone tools. Then suddenly agriculture, written language, advanced technology. Anthropologists say once we learned to write, technology could accelerate because now we had a way of passing information along. I'm open minded about the ancient ancient advanced civilization theory, but I'm not a full believer. Still, I'll watch and read anything that Graham Hancock puts out. Earth's magnetic pole moves between 25 and 35 miles per year, the fastest rate ever recorded. It's definitely happening Now, I don't think aliens caused it. But if you want nightmares about pole shifts, watch our episode on the Adam and Eve story.

[Hecklefish]

Adam and Eve nightmare fuel link down in your honeyhole.

[AJ]

Now read the transcripts. It's either scientific genius or nonsense, and I'm not smart enough to tell. It's full of terms like quantum technology for bubble walking in the omniverse and reptilian parathalamus matter interaction.

[Hecklefish]

Who wrote this thing? Terrence Howard.

[AJ]

Please don't say that. He watches this channel now. The biggest problem with the Lacertophile story is that Ol? K's identity has never been confirmed. He's called K after Tommy Lee Jones character from the Men in Black.

[Hecklefish]

Here come the Men in Black. The Galaxy Defenders.

[AJ]

True or not, the Lacerta Files is a fun read. Now so far there's no documented proof of contact with non human intelligence. Every year we get teased about disclosure, but I won't hold my breath. I think we've had contact, but I don't think they're going to tell us. And you've heard me Say that I don't think UFOs are from another planet. If you look at the ancient structures underground, the patterns in our history, the anomalies in our DNA, the evidence that doesn't point to something from another world, it points to something that never left. You know when you find a gift so good, you want to keep it for yourself. That's how I feel about Quint's. I've been picking up holiday gifts there, and let's just say a few never made it out of my closet. Quint's has something for everyone. Buttery soft Mongolian cashmere sweaters for just $50. Gorgeous silk tops, perfectly cut denim and Italian wool coats that are actual winter armor. I grabbed the wool coat for myself. Home, the office, out to dinner. It keeps me warm and looking sharp, tailored, soft, and feels like it should cost five times more. What sets Quints apart is the quality. You can see it in every stitch. They work with ethical factories, use premium materials, and somehow still keep prices way below other luxury brands. And it's not just clothes. Quints has incredible home bath and travel finds, too. So whether you're shopping for others or treating yourself, Quint has you covered. Find gifts so good, you'll want to keep them with quince. Go to quince.com thewifiles for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com thewaifiles to get free shipping and 365 day return. Quince.com the y files.

[Morgan]

Oh, great. I'm already getting comments on how to pronounce. Go Beckley. Tepei, stop commenting. Next episode was picked by Geno. You know Geno? From Geno's Story hour on the after files. Hmm. Now that I think about it, Geno does a lot of stories about alien erotica.

[Hecklefish]

Huh?

[Morgan]

I'm sensing a theme around here. Geno chose the episode about the hollow moon theory. I know that sounds wacky, but trust me, you'll like this one. Roll it.

[AJ]

Despite it being humanity's constant companion through all of recorded time, the moon is still a mystery. Science hasn't been able to explain how the moon was formed. Its unusual orbit, its distance from us, its density, its composition, its structure. These are all still questions. Now, there are theories about the moon that solve some of these puzzles. But they don't solve all of them. There's only one theory that answers every scientific question about the moon. Just one. That the moon is a hollow, artificial structure. Brought here by someone else. Let's find out. Lets start at the beginning. We're taught that the Moon has been here forever. But there's controversy about this because scientists can't agree on how the Moon was formed in the first place. The first theory of how the Moon became linked to the Earth is the capture theory. It says the Moon was just floating along, drifted near the Earth and was pulled into orbit. This is almost impossible. Another explanation is the accretion theory, that the Moon and Earth formed out of dust clouds in the early solar system. But when systems form through accretion, they share similar traits. If the Moon was formed this way, it would have an iron core like the Earth. It would spin on an axis like the Earth. But neither of these are true. The fission hypothesis was popular for a while. And this says the early Earth was spinning so fast that the Moon was formed out of rock in the Pacific Ocean that was flung into space. But we later learn that Moon rock is much older than the bottom of the ocean, so this is unlikely. The most popular explanation is the giant impact theory. This says that a large object about the size of Mars smashed into the proto Earth. The debris field from the collision coalesced to create the Earth moon system again. These conditions would have to be so perfect that the odds are astronomical. Right. Now, a recent theory is a combination of all of these, that a large object collided with the Earth about four and a half billion years ago, essentially vaporizing it. And this vapor is called a synestia. And the synestia was spinning very rapidly, forming a torus. And the Moon formed on the edge of this torus. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on.

[Hecklefish]

Torus? What's a torus?

[AJ]

Well, this shape is a torus.

[Hecklefish]

Uh, that looks like a donut.

[AJ]

It does, but in geometry, if you revolve a circle around an axis in three dimensional space, it's called a torus.

[Hecklefish]

Yeesh. And you wonder why you're not popular at parties.

[AJ]

I'm very popular at parties, aren't I? So we still don't know how the Moon was created. You would think that actually going to the Moon and collecting rock samples would solve some of these puzzles. But when Moon rocks were brought back and studied, it only created more questions. Since landing on the moon in 1969.

[Hecklefish]

The moon landing was as fake as a teenager's Instagram.

[AJ]

I knew you were gonna do this. Look, do you like the idea that the Moon is a hollow spaceship?

[Hecklefish]

Well, yeah, I gotta admit, I do kinda like this idea.

[AJ]

Okay, so for us to explore this Theory. You need to concede that we went to the Moon.

[Hecklefish]

Fine. I will concede we went to the Moon.

[AJ]

Thank you.

[Hecklefish]

But those were unmanned missions. The landings were actually filmed in a studio in Burbank, California.

[AJ]

Fine. I'll take what I can get. Moon rocks and soil samples brought back from the Moon are strange. On Earth, the newest rocks are at the surface, and the rock gets older as you go deeper. This is obvious and logical. But on the Moon, the soil on the surface is older than the rocks underneath, and the surface rocks are are older than the rock underneath them. It's backwards. The only way this happens on Earth is when we drill, dig, and mine, bringing older material to the surface. But we see this all over the Moon. If the Moon was somehow hollowed out, older rock would be on top. But the list of anomalies goes on. Typical planetary structures have denser materials toward the core and lighter materials toward the surface. On the Moon, this, too, is reversed. And no one could really explain why. The Moon's surface is pockmarked by asteroid impacts that have happened for billions of years. So you would expect the rock around the impact craters to be different ages. But there is a strange uniformity in the age of these rocks. The chemical makeup of lunar dust is also very odd. If lunar dust is the result of billions of years of impacts, why does it have a different chemical makeup of the rocks around it? It. The Moon doesn't have a magnetic field. Yet Moon rocks are strongly magnetized. The Earth is 4.6 billion years old, but the oldest rocks we've found are much younger than that. Moon rocks are older, much older. Some rocks have been dated to the very beginning of the solar system, and some are said to be even older than that. Uranium 236 and Neptunium 237 are found on the Moon. This is not notable because those radioactive elements don't occur naturally. The only way we see those isotopes on Earth is if we create them. Titanium, chromium, and zirconium are rare on Earth, but these are found in abundance on the Moon. If the Earth and Moon were formed together, why such a big discrepancy? And those metals happen to be some of the most strongest materials that are known to exist, and they're highly resistant to corrosion. If you wanted to reinforce a structure, these are the metals you would use. This structural reinforcement could explain why Moon craters all seem to be the same depth, no matter how wide they are. Shouldn't craters of different sizes be of different depths? It's as if there's a resilient metallic shell Just beneath the surface of the Moon, Preventing anything from penetrating further. Now, if there were some type of instruments on the Moon's surface that could detect seismic activity, we could test the hollow moon theory by intentionally colliding objects with the Moon.

[Hecklefish]

This sounds like a setup. We did this, didn't we?

[AJ]

We did.

[Hecklefish]

And is it hollow?

[AJ]

Well, heyoo. After returning to the command module, the Apollo 12 crew intentionally, intentionally released the lunar lander, Crashing it into the Moon's surface. Then something very unexpected happened. Seismic measurements showed that the Moon rang like a bell and reverberated for more than an hour. This was with a very small object Compared to the size of the Moon. So during Apollo 13, an even heavier object was crashed into the surface. This time, the Moon rang for over three hours and vibrations traveled to a distance depth of 20 miles. This doesn't happen on Earth. Reverberations last only a few minutes because of the Earth's density. And on Earth, vibrations slow down as they move toward the Earth's center where material is denser. But the vibrations on the Moon actually got faster around 40 miles down. Indicating the interior of the Moon is not only far less dense, but perhaps has large hollow cavities. The density density of the Moon is something that's difficult to explain. The moon is about 25% the size of the Earth, but it's only about 1% of the Earth's density. If the Moon were a hollow shell, this would explain that. Besides the density issue, the Moon has a lot of characteristics and coincidences that we don't see anywhere else. The Moon is actually more like a planet than a Moon at one quarter the Earth's size. No other object in the solar system system has a Moon this large. This occurs nowhere else, not in our solar system or any other solar system that we found. And the Moon orbits much more closely than it should. And its orbit is also a mystery. It's the only object we've ever observed With a near perfectly circular orbit. We don't see this anywhere else either. Because of this near perfect orbit and its size and distance from the Earth, the Moon appears in the sky as almost the exact same size as the Sun. This is what allows us to have eclipses. Our distance to the sun is 400 times our distance to the Moon. And the size of the sun is 400 times the size of the Moon. Could this be a coincidence? Well, when enough coincidences pile up, we may have to adjust our thinking and be a little more open minded. And that's what happened in 1972, Soviet scientists looked at all the evidence and all these coincidences and came to what they felt was the only logical conclusion. And they agreed that their theory sounded crazy, but said not only is the moon hollow, but it's also a spacecraft that traveled here in the distant past. So now we have to ask who built the moon? Every ancient culture on Earth has stories about the moon. But it's interesting that the further back you go, the fewer stories there are. And if you go back far enough, there are stories that talk about a sky before the moon arrived. Roman and Greek authors in the 5th century BC have stories about the prosylines, and they lived in an area called Arcadia, and they said they've been here since before there was a moon in the heavens. On the other side of the world, the ancient culture of Tiwanaka in Bolivia also refers to a time when there was no moon. The Tuanaka claim the moon arrived between 11,500 and 13,000 years ago. If you're into ancient theories as much as I am, you'll recognize that this time coincides perfectly with a period called the Younger Dryas. And all kinds of lots of myths and mysteries are said to have happened during the Younger Dryas. And we'll cover them on this channel. Now, going back to Africa, there are Zulu legends that specifically say the moon is hollow. And living inside is an intelligent race of reptilian extraterrestrials.

[Hecklefish]

Lizard people.

[AJ]

Yep.

[Hecklefish]

Lizard people built the Moooooon.

[AJ]

That's what they believe.

[Hecklefish]

Lizard people are very industrious.

[AJ]

They seem to be. The Zulu believe the moon was put into orbit by two brothers who were gods. And this legend is similar to what the Sumerians believed. The Sumerians also had a legend of two brothers, Enki and Enlil, who were called Anunnaki. Yup, Anunnaki, the extraterrestrial gods who created mankind.

[Hecklefish]

Everything is falling into place with this one.

[AJ]

Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet. How about this? The Zulu also believed that before the moon arrived, the climate of the Earth was very different. There were no seasons, and a blanket of thick water vapor covered the entire planet. And we now know that the moon does stabilize our climate. Without the moon's gravity, the Earth's axis would wobble. There would be no consistent seasons, no tides, extreme weather. The presence of the moon is what allows life on Earth to thrive. So back to the Zulu, the Earth was covered by a thick layer of water vapor, and you could only see the sun through this hazy mistake. When The Moon was finally placed into orbit. All this water vapor fell at once and it created a cataclysmic global flood. Always a flood, always, every time. Every ancient culture has a flood myth. And there's mounting evidence that this did indeed happen during the Younger Dryas. Cultures around the world have myths that are in perfect sync with each other. The coincidences keep piling up. The Zulu legend talks to about how the arrival of the Moon changed the tides and stabilized the climate. And this is something that wasn't understood by science until the past hundred years. Yet somehow the ancient Zulu were able to make the connection between the Moon and the tides and the seasons. All of these myths and legends, plus strange coincidences and anomalies about the Moon start to add up to a compelling theory that the Moon is hollow, is artificial, artificial, and was placed here by intelligent beings long ago. But coincidences aren't proof and myths aren't proof. We need to know what's been happening on the Moon lately to see if we can make our case with hard evidence. Lucky for us, the evidence is there. Science tells us that the Moon is a cold, lifeless place. It has no atmosphere. There hasn't been seismic activity for millions of years. Its core, unlike the Earth's, is cold. For a supposedly dead world, there's an awful lot of activity up there. On March 7, 1971, a cloud of water vapor appeared on the moon that covered 100 square miles. And it was there for 14 hours before it dissipated. There's not supposed to be atmosphere on the Moon, but for those 14 hours there was in fact six astronomers in the past hundred years have documented a glowing mist in the crater named Plato. The same mist, the same crater over many years. Boulder tracks are seen on the Moon all over the place. And that's weird enough, but how do boulders roll for miles and then go uphill, like in this photo? And since the days of Aristotle astronomer astronomers have seen strange lights appear on the surface of the Moon, sometimes visible with the naked eye. NASA even reported that between the years 1540 and 1967, there were 570 sightings of light flashes on the Moon that couldn't be explained. Sightings of strange lights continue to this day. The Aristarchus crater was photographed in 1992 and it shows a glowing blue light now called the Blue Gem. And, and this anomaly has been seen by Earth based telescopes every few years since. Some have even speculated it's a fusion reactor. And these events of mysterious light and mist happen so frequently that there's even a name for them. Transient lunar phenomena or TLPs. But things get even more weird. There are plenty of photographs of what appear to be artificial objects on the surface of the moon. Towers that reach several miles, high pyramids, symmetrical structures. These have been photographed by astronomers, probes, even the astronauts themselves. And the biggest anomaly of all. Why haven't we gone back to the moon? Sergeant Carl Wolf was working as a technician for the Air Force and he was repairing equipment that transferred images from a lunar satellite. Those photos, according to Sgt. Wolff, showed artificial structures on the moon, what he described as a base. And this is corroborated by another technician working with Wolf. Wolf wasn't a ufo, ET, moon theory guy, he was just a tech. He said he was excited to see the pictures on the news and have NASA explain what they were. He was surprised when the photos never turned up. The photos were found in a very early release from NASA. These structures are very large and very tall. You can even see they cast shadows. And these are photos I'd to like, like to learn more about, but I can't. They no longer exist. Now, almost immediately after landing on the moon, the Apollo 11 crew said they saw something that shook them up. Watch the press conference they gave when they returned. These men aren't acting like they made history or had a life changing experience.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

It's a beginning of a new age.

[AJ]

They look sad, frightened, uncomfortable, even depressed. Why? Is there a reason we haven't returned to the Moon? And could it be that the Apollo missions discovered something that ancient cultures knew centuries ago? Something that reputable scientists believe is the only answer to this list of mysteries? That the Moon is not what it says seems, or what we've been told. The Moon is hollow, artificially constructed, and appeared in Earth's orbit from somewhere else far away.

[Hecklefish]

Makes sense to me.

[AJ]

Does it make sense to you? So what can science explain about the hollow Moon? Spaceship theory? Well, the formation of the Moon is still unknown, so score theory 1, science 0. The density problem is said to be because after the giant impact, the Earth's upper mantle formed the Moon. The mantle is much less dense than the core. Okay. The problem with this is the giant impact theory probably isn't what happened. And the theory about the Earth and the Moon forming out of that big.

[Hecklefish]

Donut shape, um, in geometry that's called a torus Taurus.

[AJ]

Well, that wouldn't explain the density discrepancy. We're told the Moon ringing like a bell is because the Moon is much less dense. Dense. And the Moon's rock has much less water. So vibrations Reverberate longer and farther. This can't be proven, but okay. The perfect eclipses. Well, here's where science wins. The eclipses aren't exact. They're close, but not perfect. Besides, the moon is drifting farther away from the Earth every year. So eclipses are becoming less and less perfect all the time. And whether the moon arrived 14,000 years ago or is formed billions of years ago, it was much closer to the earth, so it was much larger in the sky. NASA claims that we know the moon isn't hollow because of seismic observations. And that's fair, but it's still conjecture. Look, we don't know for sure what's at the center of the Earth, much less what's at the center of the moon.

[Hecklefish]

If there's anything at all.

[AJ]

Right now, the structures are said to be shadows or optical illusions. And the lights are from meteor impacts or. Or reflections from glassy patches on the surface. Nope. But the bottom line is this. Yes, the hollow moon spaceship theory is a wild one, I admit that. And many of the anomalies found on the moon can be explained. The explanations aren't perfect, but they're enough to satisfy skeptics. And I consider myself a skeptic. But I'm open minded. I just want to know the truth. When I started researching this story, I thought it would be a fun ride, a of piece, pure tinfoil hat experience that we could button up with science. That's not what happened. There's just so much unknown and unexplainable that something doesn't feel right about what we've been told about the moon. But as always, the space agencies and the governments they serve are very selective about the images and information they release. So I have a message for them. For NASA, the European Space Agency, Russia, China, Elon Musk. Musk, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and anyone with the resources to put people back on the moon. The message is this, if you want us to believe your explanations, you're gonna have to prove it. Houston, Houston.

[Morgan]

Come in Houston. Beep Houston, we have a problem. BEEP Houston, we have have an irate goldfish complaining about cheap vodka. Please advise.

[Hecklefish]

Beep.

[Morgan]

While we're waiting for the vodka issue to be resolved, let's play another episode, shall we? Next one was chosen by Deputy Joe. Good old Joe. Joe does lots of different things here with the stage, the control room. Heck, the guy even does carpentry. Hands off ladies.

[AJ]

He's married.

[Morgan]

Okay, Joe's episode is about Yay giants.

[Hecklefish]

Woohoo.

[Morgan]

You know what comes next.

[AJ]

Roll it in 1886, mining engineer John T. Reed was told the Paiute legend about a race of giants. Giants who, after a long and bloody war, were defeated by the natives near Lovelock Cave, Nevada. Reed's belief in this legend stirred great interest in the secrets held within Lovelock Cave. Official excavations were undertaken in both 1912 and 1924 by the University of California, with reports telling of thousands of artifacts being recovered. Of these artifacts, the most puzzling were human remains. Well, they were almost human. Skeletons measuring between 8 and 10ft tall were said to be found during the dig. Skeletons belonging to who are now known as the Lovelock Giants. Legends of people of enormous size are told across a myriad of cultures. And despite what we've been told by mainstream science, there is evidence to suggest they really existed. The remains of giants have been found all over the US and all over the world. So why aren't these amazing finds on display in any museum or taught in any classes or mentioned in any history books? Well, it's because the existence of giants, for some reason has been covered up. To say giants don't turn up in history books isn't exactly accurate. Many ancient cultures refer to giants. In Indian mythology or the Vedas, There was a time called the Satya Yuga, or the Golden Age, when all of humanity existed in complete harmony. Humans during this time were believed to be 32ft tall. In the Old Testament, there are beings called the Nephilim and they're mentioned in Genesis. There were giants in the earth in.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Those days and also after that.

[AJ]

When the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bare children to them, the same became.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

[AJ]

One interpretation of this suggests that the sons of God were giant fallen angels who seduced human women, and their offspring were the Nephilim.

[Hecklefish]

How does a giant seduce a human woman? Oh, right.

[AJ]

Giants show up quite a bit in the Book of Enoch, one of the religious texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Nephilim were said to have been men of the old times who existed before the Great Flood. Ancient Indian texts say the same thing. The Book of Samuel also introduces us to one of the most famous giants in history, Andre Goliath. Goliath was a Philistine warrior who challenged the Israelites to send out a champion for single combat. David, armed only with a slingshot and faith in God, brought the giant down with a single stone. Goliath was said to be between 7 and 11ft tall and possibly descended from a people known as the Anakites. Or the Anakim. And the Anakim were descended from the Nephilim. But references to giants in history go back even further. The ancient Sumerians had an equivalent to the Anakim, a race of gods who are sometimes described as giants. Yep, the Anunnaki. And if you don't know who the Anunnaki are, here's a hint. Look in the mirror. According to interpretations of ancient Sumerian and Babylonian texts, the Anunnaki were a race of extraterrestrial beings from the planet Nibiru. Now, Nibiru is not some distant planet on the other side of the galaxy, but is right here in our own solar system. It passes near Earth every 3,600 years. And this extra planet theory was dismissed as pseudoscience for many years, but it's now widely believed that there is an extra planet or some kind of large object in the far reaches of our solar system. In fact, NASA has been searching for this object for years. Though they can call it Planet Nine.

[Hecklefish]

Or Planet X, they can't give Zechariah Sitchin any credit.

[AJ]

Eh, they won't admit that, but I bet it's a big part of it. In 2015, Caltech researchers thought they found evidence for this planet. And in 2016, they said they were almost sure the planet was out there. And then in 2017, researchers agreed that data and computer models prove, with almost 100% certainty, a large sea secret, dark planet is lurking in the distant solar system. And they expect this to be confirmed within the next few years. And perhaps then we'll finally learn if this could actually be planet Nibiru, home of the Anunnaki. Now, according to the tablets, when the atmosphere on Nibiru started to deteriorate, the Anunnaki came to Earth for resources, specifically water and especially gold. And after their slaves rebelled, the Anunnaki needed a new workforce. And they performed genetic experiments on different Earth animals to try to create a new slave race. Eventually, they were successful. By splicing DNA from the Anunnaki with cavemen called Homo erectus, a new species emerged, Homo sapiens. In Sumerian and Babylonian texts, this new species was called the first Men, or Atomu, and the Hebrews translated this to be men of Adam, the first Men. Men were bred to work for the Anunnaki. The Hebrew word avad means work, for Avod also means worship. And so humans worshiped their gods, the Anunnaki, who were giants compared to puny humans. Though it was forbidden, some Anunnaki bred with Humans and their offspring became known as the Nephilim. Now, obviously, the story of the Anunnaki needs its own episode. So if you'd like to see that.

[Hecklefish]

Yes, please.

[AJ]

If you'd like to see that, let me know. The tablets say the next time Nibiru passed near the inner solar system, it caused severe electromagnetic disturbances. Dark spots appeared on the sun and waves of color streaked the sky. This is referring to extreme aurora borealis and Australis, indicating a weakening of the Earth's magnetic field. With less protection from the sun's energy, the ice caps melted and a great flood swept across the entire planet. To escape the devastation, the Anunnaki boarded skyships with their gold and returned to Nibiru. But on Earth, great cities were destroyed and sunk beneath the waves. When the waters finally receded, only a small number of humans were left to rebuild civilization. And this creation myth is told in almost every culture on Earth. And recently, we're starting to discover evidence that a great flood did indeed occur. But what about evidence of giants? Well, there is evidence, and some of that evidence has been found right here in our own backyard. Many Native American tribes tell of the long forgotten existence of a race of humans that were much taller and stronger and sometimes more cruel than ordinary men. The Choctaw tribe has a legend about the Nahulo, a race of giants who ate human flesh. The Choctaw killed these giants whenever they could. Eventually, those giants were driven west. The Paiute settled in the Nevada desert thousands of years ago and passed down the story of a race of red haired giants called the Siddiqa. The Sittika literally means tule eaters, and tule is a strong type of reed found in swamps. Legend says the giants built rafts out of tule and arrived in Nevada thousands of of years ago. But Tuli wasn't the only thing that the giants ate. Like the Nahulo, Siddiqa also ate humans. The Siddiqa waged war on the Paiute and all other neighboring tribes. The human tribes fought bravely, but the giants were too strong. The Siddiqa would often eat the people captured in battle. So after years of conflict, the tribes united. And that turned the tide of war. And in the final battle battle, the red haired giants were driven into a cave. The tribes stuffed the cave entrance with sticks and brush and set it ablaze. The last remaining Siddi ka either suffocated or burned alive. Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, daughter of Chief Winnemucca, was the first to write down and print the story of the siddiqa. But she said this wasn't a legend. It was history. She even wore red hair taken from a giant woven into some of her clothes. When mining engineer John T. Reed heard the story in 1886, he asked to be taken to the cave, the final resting place of the city cot giants. Reed wasn't able to finance the excavation of the cave at that time, but when valuable bat guano was discovered, people started digging.

[Hecklefish]

Bat guano?

[AJ]

Yep. It was used to make gunpowder and explosives.

[Hecklefish]

I mean, what is bat guano?

[AJ]

Oh, guano is the waste of bats.

[Hecklefish]

And birds you can make explosives out of.

[AJ]

You can.

[Hecklefish]

Okay, okay, okay. Do me a favor. When you clean my bowl, can you save it for me? Fourth of July's coming up. I'm gonna make fireworks.

[AJ]

I'm not saving your sh. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not saving that for fireworks.

[Hecklefish]

Fine. Then to celebrate, I'll just light my farts.

[AJ]

You better not.

[Hecklefish]

Why do you hate your country?

[AJ]

Lovelock Cave was excavated in 1912. And in 1920 and in 1929, the findings were published. And they were surprising. Well, they weren't surprising to the Paiute. At the entrance to the cave, there was evidence of extreme scorching. At some point, a fire burned very hot and for a very long time. On one of the cave walls, an enormous handprint was found. Inside the cave, over 10,000 artifacts were recovered, including many human bones. Some of the bones showed that marrow had been removed, moved, a sign of possible cannibalism. A sandal was found that would have fit someone who Wore a size 29 shoe and would have been over 8ft tall. And clothing was found that was too big to fit a normal sized human. During the first dig, it was reported that the mummified remains of two giants were found. A female almost 7ft tall and a male almost 9ft tall. And both had red hair. In addition to the the initial findings, even more evidence exists in Lovelock Cave and its surrounding area. According to a 1931 article published in a Nevada newspaper, two giant skeletons had been found buried in a dry lake bed close to Lovelock Cave, Nevada.

[Hecklefish]

Were these giant chinges too?

[AJ]

Yep. They also had red hair. But giants weren't just found in the Nevada desert. They were found from coast to coast, apparently long before native trees tribes arrived. America was the land of the giants. In Peebles, Ohio, the Great Serpent mound is a 1370 foot long prehistoric effigy mound. Nobody knows why it was built, but due to a nearby meteor impact crater, the area is full of gravitational and magnetic anomalies. Some researchers, like Richard Hamilton, believed the location for Serpent Mound was chosen specifically because of these anomalies. That for many years there have been stories of freak weather patterns, UFO sightings and strange lights in the area. And also found near Serpent Mound, the remains of giants. In 1872, a report appeared in the book Historical Collections of Noble County, Ohio. Someone had stumbled across enormous skeletons.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

The remains of three skeletons were found whose size would indicate they measured in life at least 8ft in height. The remarkable feature of these remains was they had double teeth in front as well as in back of the mouth and in both upper and lower jaws. Upon exposure to the atmosphere, the skeletons crumbled back to mother Earth.

[AJ]

In 1891, anthropologist Frederick Ward Putnam Putnam found large skeletons in the same area that measured 7ft or taller, with skulls twice as thick as a human's. In 1894, a local farmer found unusual graves. The find was even covered by the New York Times. Farmer Warren Cowan recently discovered several ancient graves a mile from the famous Serpent Mound, where Professor Putnam of Harvard made interesting discoveries. Upon opening one of the graves, a skeleton of upward of 6ft was brought to light. In another grave was the skeleton of a man equally large. It seems that the region was populated by a fairly intelligent people and that the Serpent Mound was an object of worship. Ross Hamilton writes about giant skeletons found in miamisburg mound. About 70 miles from Serpent Mound.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

The body of a man, more gigantic than any ever recorded in human history has been found in the Miami Valley in Ohio. The skeleton, it is calculated, must have belonged to a man eight feet one and a half inches in height. It was found within a half mile of Miamisburg in a location which contains many relics of the mound builders. Edward Gebhart and Edward Kaufman discovered it while they were working in a gravel pit. Professor Thomas Wilson, curator of prehistoric anthropology, Smithsonian Institute, says of the find, the.

[AJ]

Authenticity of this skull is beyond any doubt. Its antiquity is unquestionably great, though it is impossible to have a good guess as to its age. To my own personal knowledge, several such crania were discovered in the Hopewell group of mounds in Ohio. Hamilton said the bones were put on display at a local museum, but they're no longer anywhere to be found. And just a short trip down the Ohio River Valley, another extraordinary skeleton was found. In 1959, Dr. Donald Dragoux, curator for the Carnegie Museum, unearthed a 7 foot 2 inch skeleton during the excavation of the Cresap Mound in West Virginia. In 1868, a report surfaced that quarry workers with the Sauk Rapids Water Power Company unearthed the remains of a 10 foot tall skeleton along the shores of the Mississippi River. A few days later the bones were nowhere to be found. Rumored to have been whisked even on a late night train and sold to the circus in 1897, the Worthington advance describes the Smithsonian Institution's work on the eastern mounds in Iowa. The paper quoted the director of the Bureau of Ethnology, John Wesley Powell.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

It is a matter of official record that in digging through a mound in.

[AJ]

Iowa, the scientists found the skeleton of a giant who, judging from actual measurement, must have stood 7ft 6 inches tall when alive. The bones crumbled to dust when exposed to the air. In Steelville, Missouri, there's a documented case from The Steelville Ledger. June 11, 1933. An ancient Ozark giant dug up near Steelville.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

A boy looking for arrowheads turned up.

[AJ]

The complete skeleton of an eight foot giant.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

The grizzly find was brought to Dr. R.C. see Parker here. And stretched out to its enormous length in a hallway of his office where it has since remained the most startling exhibit Steelville has ever had on public view.

[AJ]

Some believe these Midwest giants traveled west and occupied all of North America. And perhaps they made it all the way to the Pacific. San Diego, California has reports of enormous remains found all over the area. A giant skeleton found in 1895 measured 8 foot 4 inches. The skeleton was carefully inspected and measured by Professor Thomas Wilson and other scientists. Wilson was an anthropologist for the Smithsonian Institution. Also in Southern California, on Catalina island, amateur archaeologist Ralph Glidden found A total of 3781 skeletons on the Channel Islands between 1919 and 1930.

[Morgan]

In 18.

[AJ]

In 1833, Mexican soldiers were digging a pit for a powder magazine at Lompoc Rancho, California. They hacked their way through a layer of gravel and found a 12 foot long sarcophagus. The skeleton of a giant man was found inside. The grave was surrounded by carved shells, huge stone axes, two spears and thin sheets of quartz. And the sheets of quartz were covered with symbols. And he had another interesting feature. Feature? A double row of teeth, both upper and lower. Over the past 200 years, more than 1,000 accounts of 7 foot and taller skeletons have been found across North America. Newspaper accounts, town and county histories, letters, scientific journals, diaries, photos and Smithsonian ethnology reports have carefully documented this. The Smithsonian Institution is is mentioned dozens of times as the recipient of enormous skeletons from across the entire United States. And if that's true, then where are the bones? From New York to California and almost every state in between, thousands of relics and over a thousand giant skeletons have been discovered and documented. They've been found in mounds, caves, burial chambers, stone crypts, and even on ancient battlefields. Many of the skeletons have strange physiology, like elongated skulls and double rows of teeth. In dozens of cases, the bones were turned over to the Smithsonian institution in Washington, D.C. so where are they? The Smithsonian was never really suspected of wrongdoing. But then something strange happened in 1950. In 1850, in 1992, ancient wooden coffins were discovered in a place called Crump's Cave in Alabama. The coffins, along with some other artifacts, were sent to the Smithsonian. This is all well documented. So in 1950, researcher Frederick J. Pole wrote the Smithsonian to inquire about them. It was a curious find because Native Americans didn't use coffins or caskets. Pohl received a reply from the we have not been able to find the specimens in our collections, though records show that they were received. The matter was pursued again in 1992 by another researcher, David Barron. He was told the coffins were wooden troughs.

[Hecklefish]

Troughs?

[AJ]

Yes. Troughs are long, rectangular containers for feeding cattle, horses or pigs. But before the Europeans arrived, North America didn't have any cattle, horses or pigs. And even if they did, why would a trough have a lid on?

[Hecklefish]

What, did this guy mention this to the Smithsonian people?

[AJ]

He did. He was told, yeah. Well, even if he wanted to see the coffins or troughs or whatever they were, he couldn't because they were in a warehouse that was contaminated with asbestos and was closed for cleanup.

[Hecklefish]

Closed for how long?

[AJ]

10 years.

[Hecklefish]

10 years to clean up asbestos?

[AJ]

Yep. Oof.

[Hecklefish]

They must have been union.

[AJ]

Yeah. It starts to smell like a cover up. The suppression of Native American archaeological evidence allegedly began in 1881. Up until that point, the Smithsonian was under the direction of John Wesley Powell, the geologist famous for exploring the Grand Canyon. Powell had spent a lot of time with the Winnebago Indians, and he found them to be thoughtful and intelligent. So Powell and the Smithsonian actually promoted the idea that Native Americans, who were at the time being exterminated in the Indian wars, were descended from advanced civilizations who communicated with, with, and traded with cultures all over the country and possibly all over the world. This widespread dispersion of culture is called diffusionism, which the Smithsonian supported. But then Powell appointed Cyrus Thomas as the director of the Eastern Mound Division at the Smithsonian. And then things got political. Thomas wasn't a fan of Native Americans. He thought of them as nothing more than howling savages. Thomas thought it was impossible for savage from one side of the Mississippi to visit savages on the other side. And to think that people as primitive as Native Americans could sail over an ocean was just ridiculous. This is called isolationism. Isolationism says that civilizations develop independently from each other and have very little contact with other civilizations, especially across oceans or lakes. The debates in the Smithsonian raged, and Cyrus Thomas eventually, eventually won the battle of isolationism versus diffusionism. Soon the Smithsonian took an official stance that any archaeological evidence supporting diffusionism was fraudulent. It was believed that contact between the civilizations of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys was rare. And contact between the Mississippian cultures and the Mayas in Mexico or Central America, well, that was absurd. So that history books were written. Native Americans were a primitive and sometimes savage people, and that was that. But not so fast. When those ancient mounds and pyramids in the Midwest were studied, it was shown that the Mississippi river valleys was at one time home to an ancient and sophisticated culture. At the time, the culture's capital city, Cahokia, was bigger than almost any city in Europe. When the Spiro mounds in Oklahoma were excavated between 1933 and 1935, a man over 7ft tall was discovered. He was in full armor, and buried next to him was a pot of thousands of pearls and other artifacts. This was one of the largest treasures ever discovered at that point in time. We know that the man in armor was found, and the Smithsonian was contacted. So where is he? Many human remains were found in graves next to artifacts, but the remains were discarded. And we're told that most of the rare and priceless objects disintegrated before scholars could reach the site.

[Hecklefish]

How convenient that priceless objects vanish before anyone gets there.

[AJ]

And when the excavation was finished, dynamite was used to destroy the burial chamber, and any remaining artifacts that were considered valuable were sold off. The acambara artifacts were discovered in Mexico in 1994 and have been the center of controversy. Over 33,000 unusual artifacts, including many ceramic and stone figurines, were found. Initial laboratory testing suggests the artifacts were about 6,500 years old. But here's where things get controversial. Some figurines depict dinosaurs living alongside humans. And there's a famous carving of a human warrior riding a triceratops. Diverse ethnic groups are represented. Represented? Blacks, whites, and Asians are depicted, but those races should have been unknown in the Americas 6,500 years ago. And there were strange creatures like mermaids, human animal hybrids, even a Bigfoot. Also found were teeth from an extinct ice age horse and the skeleton of a mammoth. Neither of these animals should have been there. Archaeologists Charles C. DePasso and John H. Tierney examined the collection and authentication the find. Carlos Perea, the director of archaeology for the Acambaro Zone, also authenticated it. But the Smithsonian and other authorities dismissed the findings as fraudulent. Despite laboratories dating the objects to 4,500 B.C. the Smithsonian declared the artifacts 30 years old and said the whole find was a hoax. John Tierney, who later collaborated with Professor Charles Hapgood, said the Smithsonian Institution and other authorities had conducted a campaign of disinformation against the discoveries. If you remember from the Adam and Eve episode we did, Charles Hapgood was dismissed as a pseudo scientist because he claimed the continent's drift over millions of years. Oops. Yeah. So John Tierney filed a Freedom of Information request and asked for all the Akambara files from the Smithsonian. Well, turns out the files are missing and all the Akam Akambara objects in the Smithsonian's possession have been put into storage and may not be viewed by the public.

[Hecklefish]

Until when?

[AJ]

Didn't say. Tierney went on to write a book called Archaeology's Astounding Scandal. But good luck trying to find it. The phrase a skeleton in the closet refers to a secret that if exposed, would cause shame, guilt, or even a scandal. And we all have a skeleton or two in the closet. Prostitute. That's just a metaphor. But for the Smithsonian, they're actual skeletons. Giants in America, A government conspiracy, a Smithsonian cover up. It's a fascinating story, but is it true? Well, let's unravel it. Ohio has been the epicenter for giant skeletons. Especially in the 19th century when early discoveries made the news, the stories were a national scene sensation. Now this amount of attention also brings out the hoaxers and scammers.

[Hecklefish]

Hey, you want to buy a hecklefish nft?

[AJ]

I do not. And by the way, if you bought an NFT relating to the Y files or hecklefish, you got scammed. But not by me.

[Hecklefish]

No refunds.

[AJ]

In 1882, enormous skeletons were discovered in a lake bed near Cincinnati. The Columbus Dispatch ran with the story. The problem was it was all a hoax. The alleged discoverer was charging admission to visit his property and view the skeleton. Now it may or may not have been a real skeleton, but either way, it was about 5 foot 8. So not a giant.

[Hecklefish]

Maybe the guy who found it was really short.

[AJ]

Maybe. But the story was so exciting, the newspapers around the world ran it without fact checking.

[Hecklefish]

Journalists running stories without checking the facts. No, it can't be.

[AJ]

As more stories about giants popped up in the news, it was hard to separate fact from Fiction. Because the newspapers ran every story.

[Hecklefish]

Hey, you want the truth or you want to sell papers? Am I right?

[AJ]

Right. Nothing ever changes. That's true. Ralph Glidden was the archaeologist who found over 3,000 giant skeletons in 800 graves on Catalina island that turned out to be a huge hoax. He did find one skeleton and took a picture of himself standing near it. He showed the picture to a friend who said, that looks like a giant. Which it does, but only because the skeleton is closer to the camera. Clinton ran with the idea to make some money, but it was all a scam. And since the early days of the Internet, photos have been floating around of people excavating sites with giant bones. Some of the pictures are great, and I used a lot of them today. But most of the pictures are from a Photoshop contest held in 2002. In fact, science says that giant humans could not exist. Yes, there are human beings who grow very tall, but that's due to medical conditions and genetic disorders. Gigantism often happens when someone has has a tumor on their pituitary gland. But this is a serious medical problem. And people who suffer from gigantism often die very young due to the strain on their hearts and other organs. Then there's Marfan syndrome, a genetic condition that can cause limbs to be much longer in relation to the rest of the body. It's believed that Abraham Lincoln might have had marfan syndrome. At 6 foot 4, he was much taller than most of the men of his time.

[Hecklefish]

He also died young.

[AJ]

Oof.

[Hecklefish]

What? Still too soon.

[AJ]

But the reason humans can't grow to be giants is the square cube law. This states that as the size of any object grows, its volume grows faster than its surface area. If a giant is 60ft tall, or about 10 times the size of someone 6ft tall, the giant's body volume would have to be 100 times the volume of the six foot man. A cubic inch of bone can support £19,000. Pounds. That's a lot. But at 60ft tall, bone would need to support well over £550,000. Human bones would shatter and crumble under this weight.

[Hecklefish]

Yeah, but who says giants are human?

[AJ]

That's a fair point. There are discoveries of giants where it was reported that the bones of the body and the skull were much thicker than humans. So is the Smithsonian covering this up? Well, debunkers say no. The story of the John Wesley Powell nominating Cyrus Thomas to the Smithsonian first appears in an article written by David Childress in 1993. The article caught fire and has been in circulation Ever since. Now, that doesn't mean Childress is wrong, but I do get suspicious when stories about the 19th century don't emerge until the late 20th century. So have the authorities been suppressing knowledge that the Americas were once inhabited by advanced civilization, civilizations, civilizations who made contact with cultures around the world? Well, to get this answer, we're gonna need a sweet potato.

[Hecklefish]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Do I have sea monkeys in my ears, or did you just say sweet potato?

[AJ]

For over a hundred years, the Smithsonian and mainstream archaeology has supported isolationism, that the cultures that emerged in North America did not have contact with Central America or South America and definitely did not contact cultures across the oceans. It's absurd to even think it, but the Smithsonian has a problem. The sweet potato. Sweet potatoes are native to the Americas, but an ancient sweet potato was found in the Cook Islands, which are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The potato was carbon dated to the year 1000. That would mean that 500 years before Columbus, a Native American tribe traveled across the Pacific and landed in Polynesia and brought sweet potatoes with them. Or Polynesians traveled to the Americas and back. The counter argument is that the sweet potato fell off a boat near Central America and floated to Polynesia, over 5,000 miles away.

[Hecklefish]

It's one lucky potato.

[AJ]

Linguists have found that the word for sweet potato in early Polynesian languages is kumala. In Native American dialects spoken in Ecuador, the word is kumara. Now, it could all be a coincidence, but we're not done yet. Even more compelling is DNA analysis of Polynesian chickens. In 2007, chicken bones were found at an excavation site in Chile. The DNA of the bones matched chickens from the Pacific islands of Samoa and Tonga and were carbon dated to between 1304 and 1425. Before the Spanish arrived in the New World. In 2019, South American chickens were studied and found to have an unknown genetic component. It turned out that component was from chickens found on Easter island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The study was so astounding that research was done on human DNA. And in 2020, the study showed that some Polynesian people had DNA inherited from people who lived in Colombia about 800 years ago. Specifically, Polynesians share DNA with the Xenu tribe who lived in Colombia on the Caribbean side, not even the Pacific Ocean side. It's too much to cover in this episode, but there's evidence of Chinese contact with the new world in 1200 BC or Indian contact in 2000 BC and of Arab contact in the 9th century. There are even old maps from the Arabs and Turks like the Piri Reis map that show north and South America a thousand years before Columbus was born. And there's much more. Some mummies have been found with traces of coca and nicotine. A re examination of the mummy of Ramses II in the 1970s reveal the presence of fragments of tobacco leaves in his abdomen. Coca and tobacco are native to the Americas. Mainstream science says an archaeologist handling the mummy must have spilled his pipe. That's what they say. Now, remember we did an episode on Egyptian artifacts allegedly discovered in the Grand Canyon in 1909. The Smithsonian denies this and claims the whole story is a hoax. But for some reason, the part of the Grand Canyon where the discovery was made is off limits. You can't even fly over it. If you do wander into the area within a few minutes, unmarked planes and helicopters appear in an area where flying is not allowed. I'll link to the episode below, which goes into detail. You'll even see the planes and helicopters I'm talking about. Once again, those artifacts were sent to the Smithsonian and nobody knows what happened. In 1990, a law was passed, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. This law says that any federal agency in possession of Native American cultural items include including human remains or sacred objects, will be returned to the tribes upon request. Great. The Smithsonian is a federal agency, so can we get all the skeletons from Ohio and have a look? Nope. United States Code, Title 25, Chapter 32, Section 3001, subsections 4 and 8. State subsection 4, federal agency means any department, agency or instrumentality of the United States. Such term does not include the same Smithsonian Institution. Subsection 8, Museum means any institution or state or local government agency, including any institution of higher learning that receives federal funds and has possession of or control over Native American cultural items. Such term does not include the Smithsonian Institution or any other federal agency. The law requiring the government to return skeletons to the tribes, well, the Smithsonian is exempt. So if history books need to be rewritten, don't look to the Smithsonian for help and don't demand answers either. Mainstream science, and especially the media, have a playbook. It's easy to recognize once you look for it. The four stages of suppression are criticize, marginalize, attack, and censor. Now here's an example. I don't claim to be an archaeologist or a scientist. When Graham Hancock released his documentary series called Ancient Apocalypse, it was a huge hit. It explores the theory that ancient advanced cultures existed thousands of years ago, but were wiped out in the Great Flood of the Younger Dryas. Now, you could Agree with this theory or disagree with it, either way is fine with me. But wherever you stand, we can all agree that it's an interesting theory worthy of discussion, right? Well, wrong. The Guardian reviewed the series in an article titled Ancient Apocalypse is the most Dangerous, Dangerous show on Netflix. Now there's stage one Criticize. Not only should we not discuss alternate theories, it's actually dangerous to discuss them. But people like us don't care about criticism. We don't care what the media thinks. So they have to escalate to stage two, Marginalize. That same article has a spicy subtitle which read, a show with a Truly Preposterous theory is one of the streaming giant's biggest hits, and it seems to exist solely for conspiracy theorists. So if you believe in or even have an interest in this preposterous subject, you're marginalized as a conspiracy theorist. The same article insinuates that people who are curious about civilizations before the flood are the same as flat Earthers.

[Hecklefish]

It still might be flat.

[AJ]

We're 911 Truthers.

[Hecklefish]

Inside job.

[AJ]

Not now. Being called a conspiracy theorist used to be a major insult, but we've heard it so much that we're not affected by it anymore.

[Hecklefish]

I take it as a compliment.

[AJ]

I know. So they escalate to stage three, Attack. MSN reviewed the documentary in an article with this headline, Graham Hancock's series Promotes Racist Conspiracy Theories. And there it is. ABC ran with it. Ancient Apocalypse Series uses Racist ideologies Now, I watched and enjoyed the documentaries. I enjoy discussing alternate history and life before the Younger Dryas Flood. I'm not racist. Are you? I don't care what color the people were before the flood. I just want to know about them. And I would guess that you are the same. But calling someone a racist without evidence is very much in style now. But because that word is thrown around so much, that attack is also losing its teeth. So you criticized it. Didn't work. You marginalized it didn't work. Attacked it. Didn't work. That leaves stage four, which does work. Censorship. It's right there in that headline from the Guardian where the author poses the question, why has this been allowed? What does he mean, allowed? Who does he want allowing or disallowing free speech? Netflix? The government? I suspect I know the answer. I don't agree with all of Graham Hancock's assertions laid out in the documentary, but all of them are worthy of discussion. Mainstream media and science disagrees. These discussions discussions are preposterous, dangerous, and racist somehow. So censor it for 100 years. Egyptologists proudly claimed ancient Egypt as the first major civilization with a minor shout out to the Sumerians who were there a thousand years earlier. Any culture older than that was nonsense and discussion was censored. But then Gobekli Tepe was discovered in Turkey and is found to be 5,000 years older than Sumeria.

[Hecklefish]

Whoopsie.

[AJ]

Yeah, that was embarrassing. Then Monkuklu Tarla was discovered also in Turkey. That culture dates back to over 12,000 years ago. That's a period of time called the Pleistocene. Now, we were taught that this was the time of the cavemen. But in Bunkuklu Tarla, they understood agriculture and animal husbandry. They could cut stone, and they engaged in city planning. A few years ago, a sewer system was designed discovered. These weren't cavemen. They lived in houses built around a central religious center. A Netflix documentary discussing different theories isn't dangerous, but articles by mainstream television writers who get their facts from mainstream scientists. Those articles are dangerous. They're dangerous because they suppress debate, which in turn suppresses discovery. I'm so glad the archaeologists who found Bonkuklu didn't read Internet news. Otherwise those rangers, racist conspiracy theorists might never have found what is so far the oldest culture on Earth. A culture that emerged, by the way, right after the great flood of the Younger Dryas. As more time passes, more evidence emerges to support theories about alternate history. If giants walk the Earth, sooner or later that too will be discovered. But mainstream media will do everything it can to prevent that news from getting out. If the Guardian, NBC, abc, USA Today, cnn, and all the others continue to be wrong over and over again. Maybe we have to start asking the question about those articles. Should they be allowed?

[Morgan]

Oh, sorry about that. We're still going. Next one is Rob's favorite. Rob is the official artist of the WI file. All that fun art you see on the shirts and fistable coffee mugs. That's all Rob. Speaking of T shirts and fistable mugs, grab some merch [e-mail] Low prices, lots of deals, perfect holiday shopping. That's shop.thewhyfiles.com Go now. I could have been a great pitch man. Rob chose the episode about Operation High Jump. This was a about the secret mission to Antarctica. You're going to love it. Riggity. Roll it.

[AJ]

Operation Highjump commenced in August 1946. It was the largest, most heavily armed naval task force ever sent to Antarctica. Leading the mission was Admiral Richard E. Byrd, one of the most famous naval officers in history. The official purpose for the expedition was scientific research and military training. But that was just a cover story. Operation Highjump had other goals. One was to extend American sovereignty over Antarctica. Something that was denied many times by the US Government. Another was to locate and destroy a secret Nazi base and capture the Nazis new secret weapon, the flying saucer. UFOs were seen all over the area suspected to be Nazi test flights. Admiral Byrd was sent to find out.

[Hecklefish]

Did they find flying saucers?

[AJ]

Oh, they found a lot more than that. In December 1938, aware that he was on the brink of war, Hitler dedicated considerable resources to searching for mysterious ancient artifacts said to have incredible power. One of these expeditions launched on December 17, 1938. The SS Schwabenland was sent on a secret mission to a Antarctica. On board were scientists and engineers, but also members of the Thule Society, a German occultist group. The Thule Society believed that a highly advanced race of human like beings called Aryans existed somewhere deep inside the earth and the entrance to their world was at the South Pole. The classified mission of the SS Schwabenland was to find a location for a secret underground base and make contact with the Aryans living in the hollow earth. And once contact was made, negotiate for access to their technology. The ship reached the Antarctic coast a month later. For the next three weeks they mapped hundreds of thousands of square miles of the continent. About 150 miles inland, aerial reconnaissance found what is described as an Arctic oasis. An area about 300 square miles that was free of ice, filled with warm water. Water and even contained plant life. In the ocean beneath the oasis was a geothermal vent that kept the area relatively warm. This was the ideal place for a base, especially for U boats. This is where the Nazis would establish the infamous underground facility known as Base 211. Over the course of World War II, Base 211 became a massive complex as large as a small city. Initially it was designed as an artist offensive structure where U boats and missiles could be deployed. But as the tide of war turned against the Axis powers, it became clear that the base would be an ideal way to escape. In the final months of the war, huge amounts of equipment, supplies and personnel were transported to Antarctica. At the same time, thousands of Nazis escaped justice and were smuggled to South America, with most of them hiding in Argentina. One of the infamous German officers to disappear was Hans Kammler. Kammler was in charge of Hitler's secret weapons program. Kammler's engineers had created a prototype long distance supply plane with a range of over 4,000 miles called the JU390. Only two of these were made. One of them belonged to Kammler. And as of April 1945, neither Kammler nor his plane have ever been found. And just a few months later, thousands of UFO sightings. Sightings were reported all over South America. The American government feared that Kamler and his scientists had escaped to Antarctica, where they were continuing their work, operating out of a secret military base hidden deep underground. But these were just rumors. There was only one way to find out. Go to Antarctica. Okay, before we talk about what Admiral Byrd saw in Antarctica.

[Hecklefish]

Oh, come on. Just get to the wheel.

[AJ]

I will, but it's important that you understand what kind of man Richard Byrd was. He was not some pseudoscience, conspiracy theorist kook. He was a legitimate badass. Here are the bullet points. Richard Byrd reached the rank of rear admiral by the age of 41. The youngest admiral in Navy history. Now that by itself is impressive, but how about this? He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross, the Flying Cross and the Silver Life Saving Medal Battle. In all, he received 22 citations and commendations, including nine for bravery and two for extraordinary heroism. He was to this day, one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the Navy. His resume goes on, but I think you get the point. If Admiral Byrd says he wants to be the first man to fly over the North Pole, he does it. And if the United States sends a major expedition to the South Pole to conduct a top secret mission, well, there's no more qualified person on the face of the Earth to lead it than Admiral Richard E. Byrd. Operation Highjump commenced in August 1946. The official purpose of the mission was to train personnel and test equipment in cold temperatures to explore Arctic geology, study the weather and develop techniques for establishing air bases in frigid climates. Admiral Byrd led a Navy task force of almost 5,000 men aboard 13 ships, including a brand new state of the art aircraft carrier. Loaded with dozens of planes, bombers and helicopters, this task force was armed to the teeth. There were two destroyers, tankers, supply ships, icebreakers, two heavily armed seaplanes and an attack submarine. All fully stocked with the best weapons in the entire Navy.

[Hecklefish]

That's a lot of firepower for training exercise exercises and studying the weather.

[AJ]

Right? That mission was the COVID story. No personnel training or equipment testing ever took place. No practice maneuvers, no military exercises, no scientific study of any kind was ever done. According to eyewitness testimony, declassified records and Byrd's own journal, Operation Highjump had other purposes. One goal was to extend American sovereignty over the Antarctic continent. Something that was denied many times publicly by the US Government. Naturally, the other goal was to locate and destroy the secret Nazi military complex known as base211 and to capture any flying saucers they could. The armada arrived on January 15 and immediately started building a base called Little America. But then the Operation Highjump story takes a turn. Originally meant to be a six to eight, eight month mission, after just 40 days the base is evacuated and the task force withdraws. This massive, expensive and important mission is suddenly terminated. So what happened? And this is where Admiral Byrd, a legend in his own time, becomes a legend for all time. The Navy task force retreated to Chile, and as soon as they made port, rumors spread about strange findings and disasters that forced the mission to be cut short. Admiral Byrd himself spoke to the media, and rather than deny the stories, he expressed deep concern about the real possibilities of devastating aerial attacks on the US.

[Hecklefish]

This doesn't sound like a guy on a scientific mission.

[AJ]

It sure doesn't. Byrd warned that it was imperative for the United States to take immediate defensive measures against hostile forces in the Arctic and Antarctic. The Admiral went on to say that he wasn't trying to alarm anyone.

[Hecklefish]

Too late.

[AJ]

But the cruel reality is that in case of a new war, the United States could be attacked by flying objects that had the ability to move from pole to pole at incredible speeds. Admiral Byrd reiterated this in a few different statements. He warned that there was a new enemy. Enemy that could attack any country at any time, anywhere, no matter the distance. When Admiral Byrd got back to Washington, he was immediately debriefed. And though he had just spent two weeks making statements in the press, after a lengthy interrogation, Admiral Byrd never uttered another word about Operation Highjump. The mission was immediately classified top secret, and any sailor who spoke about the mission would be arrested and imprisoned. The Navy then published a brief summary of the mission's achievements and admitted some sailors were killed, but they didn't say how many. And officially, all the deaths were accidents and the bodies were buried there, not brought home. During one of his flights, Admiral Byrd was missing for three hours in an episode of Lost Time. But that was officially blamed on radio failure. The official reason for terminating the mission early was poor weather conditions and. And that was that. However, you know how Admiral Byrd was missing for three hours and experienced lost time?

[Hecklefish]

Yeah.

[AJ]

Well, Byrd was meticulous at documenting everything. But when he returned to the States, his journals were confiscated and classified, but the government didn't get everything. He had a secret diary that he gave to his son right before he died. And if any of what he claims to have seen is true, well, it changes everything. According to Admiral Byrd's diary, he fuels up for a flight early in the morning. The weather is clear and mechanically the plane checks out at 8:15 at an altitude of 2,300ft. He checks in. 08.15 hours radio check with base camp. Situation normal. At 10 after 9 he notices a color pattern in the snow. Nothing extreme, but he circles the area to get a closer look. He makes visual contact with camp and radios in his findings. Then his instruments start to act strange. He writes that both his compasses are gyrating so much that he can't even use them. So he uses the sun to navigate and maintains a visual of camp. He reports that his controls are feeling sluggish. He's concerned about the wings icing up. There's a little ice, but no indication of a problem. So he continues flying toward what he perceives as a mountain range. 0949 hours 29 minutes elapsed flight time from the first sighting of the mountains. It is no illusion they are mountains and consisting of a small range that I have never seen before. He crosses the mountain range and descends toward what he describes as a green valley with a small river running through it. There should be no green valley below. Something is definitely wrong and abnormal here. We should be over ice and snow. To the port side are great forests growing on the mountain slopes. Our navigation instruments are still spinning. The gyroscope is oscillating back and forth. He drops down a bit and circles back for a closer look. He reports the green as being moss or tight grass. The light seems different here. He can see the ground easily, but he can no longer see the sun. Now this starts to worry him because he's using the sun to navigate Gate. But he gets distracted by something he didn't expect. On the green valley below, a large animal is grazing. It appears to be an elephant. No, it looks more like a mammoth.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

This is incredible.

[AJ]

Yet there it is. Decrease altitude to 1000ft and take binoculars to better examine the animal. It is confirmed.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

It is definitely a mammoth like animal.

[AJ]

Report this to base camp. Admiral Byrd flies over green green pastures that stretch for miles. And he's so amazed by what he's seeing, it takes him almost 30 minutes to realize it's not cold anymore. Frost on his forward window is gone. Same with the bits of ice that were on the wings. He removes his gloves. The window of the canopy is warm to the touch. He records an external air temperature of 74 degrees. Fahrenheit. His instruments are now back online. But he his radio is out. And remember, in the official report, Admiral Byrd was out of radio contact for three hours. So he flies for another hour over what looks to be a countryside or a pasture. On the horizon, he sees the impossible. A large shining city. The plane shudders. Admiral Byrd grabs the controls, but they're not responding. He notices the plane feels light and buoyant. Then, on both sides of the plane, strange aircraft are rapidly closing in. They're disk shaped and seem to be radiating light. And somehow they're running completely silent. Thinking this is now a really good time to head back, Admiral Byrd tries the controls again. No luck. The plane's engine suddenly cuts out, but somehow continues flying, controlled by some unseen force. The craft are right up along alongside his plane now, close enough that Admiral Byrd can see markings. In that instant, his wonder turns to terror. The markings are swastikas. According to documents leaked in 1991, things back at Camp Little America take a strange turn. Just two days after arriving, bright lights were seen on the horizon. The sailors thought it was another ship, but they were below the Antarctic Circle in uncharted waters. The lights then ascended at a 45 degree angle into the sky. Very quickly they tried to make radar contact, but were out of range. Three hours later, five more lights appeared in the sky and began flying directly toward the ships. Anti aircraft guns and 20mm cannons were fired, but had no effect. A radio operator stationed on the USS Brownson gave testimony of how strange crafts suddenly appeared from the ocean. This is corroborated by Lieutenant John Sayerson, who said objects shot vertically out of the water at tremendous speeds. One object flew between the masts of his ship with such force that the radio antenna oscillated back and forth from the turbulence. An aircraft from the USS Currituck took to the sky, but was immediately struck by a beam of energy and destroyed. About 10 miles away, the torpedo boat USS Maddox burst into flames and began to sink. According to the report, this was the first attack of several that would occur over the next few weeks. February 26th would be the last engagement with the unknown craft. The Navy task force ordered retreat and left the area a full six months before their mission was supposed to end. Although Lt. Saracen couldn't identify the light sites, he wondered if they were what he called German wonder weapons being operated by survivors of the recently defeated Third Reich operating out of a secret base under Antarctica. His testimony has fueled speculation that still exists, and to this day, investigators are trying to determine what really happened. During Operation Highjump, Admiral Byrd's radio, which hadn't been working for at least an hour, suddenly comes back to life. Though the signal was distorted, a voice starts speaking English with a slightly German accent. Welcome, Admiral, to our domain. We shall land you in exactly seven minutes. Relax, Admiral. You are in good hands. The plane gently lands itself and Admiral Byrd is met by several men, all tall with blond hair. Sounds like it. Byrd joins the strangers on a platform that levitates and rushes them toward the city at great speed. He's directed to an elevator that takes him quickly and silently deep underground. He is to have an audience with the Master. Admiral Byrd is led into another room where an older man is seated at a long table. Admiral Byrd is asked to sit down. The Master says his people are called the Ariannae and they've been observing humans for a long time.

[Morgan]

Time.

[AJ]

But only now are they choosing to interfere. The Master says that Admiral Byrd's race is too immature for atomic energy and are at risk of destroying themselves. The Master says every time they try to make contact, their ships are fired upon and pursued by fighter planes. So instead they chose Admiral Byrd to carry this message. Because he's a famous and well respected figure. The Master hopes that the world will believe him. After the meeting, the Admiral is escorted back to his plane. After flying for a few minutes, a voice comes through the radio that control of the aircraft is now his. A voice says auf Wiedersehen and disconnects.

[Hecklefish]

Definitely Ariens.

[AJ]

When Admiral Byrd arrives at the Pentagon in March 1947, he is debriefed and interrogated for hours. He relays the message from the Master and advises the President. He is ordered to remain silent about the operation. And indeed, Admiral Richard E. Byrd never spoke a word about this mission again. The final entry in his diary is a number of years later. Admiral Byrd feels what he calls the long night coming, but doesn't want this knowledge to die with him. Just as the long night of the Arctic ends, the brilliant sunshine of truth shall come again, and those who are of darkness shall fall in its light. For I have seen that land beyond the pole, that center of the great unknown. Admiral Richard E. Byrd, United States Navy, 24th of December 1956. And Admiral Byrd passed away three months later. This secret diary was found by his son, Richard Byrd Jr. And subsequently released, as was his father's wish. And 18 months after that, the Antarctic Treaty was signed, forbidding anyone from going to Antarctica without special permission from one of 12 sailors, signatory governments, and even with special permission you may only go in a few small designated areas. Antarctica is bigger than Europe, bigger than Australia, bigger than the entire United States, yet all that land is off limits. Why Was there a secret Nazi base? Is there a civilization living underground? The UFOs described by the sailors in 1947 behave an awful lot like UFOs we're seeing right now. Now, since we can't go to their world, they could be trying to come to us with the same warning they gave Admiral Byrd. So maybe instead of trying to destroy these craft and destroy each other, we might want to listen to what they have to say. And who knows? The entire fate of the world may depend on it. Okay, talk about a story having it all. UFOs, Nazi bases, government coverups, even Hollow Earth. And I've done a lot of research on Hollow Earth, so if you want to see that video, let me know in the comments. Anyway, I'll tell you right up front. There's a lot of the story that can be debunked, but not all of it. Let's start with Admiral Byrd's secret diary. It's not real. First of all, the flight in the diary takes place in the North Pole, so we're already off to a rocky start. Since Antarctica is as far south as you, you can get. And some of the log entries are almost identical to actual published log entries from the Admiral. The same types of instrument failures, engine issues, show up in both places for some reason. Also, whole paragraphs of what the master said to Admiral Byrd seem to be plagiarized from the 1937 film Lost Horizon, where the main character is talking to the Dalai Lama, who issues the same kind of warning. In 1964, a book about the Hollow Earth was released by Walter Siegmeister under the pen name Raymond Bernard. Admiral Byrd is mentioned quite a bit in the book. Bernard went on to write lots of books about UFOs and Hollow Earth. And later, when Byrd's secret diary appeared, guess who wrote the foreword. Yep, Raymond Bernard. But the dead giveaway for me, the secret diary is full of exclamation points, like, lots of them. If you read any of Byrd's other logs, no matter how excited he gets, he doesn't write like he's posting on Reddit. He writes like a gentleman. So what about the Nazis? Here's where it gets tricky. The Schwabenland did go to Antarctica in 1938, but its mission was to secure new ports for whaling, to supply Germany with its own whale oil for margarine. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Hecklefish]

A Nazi Mission to the South Pole for a delicious buttery spread.

[AJ]

Exactly. Germany wasn't at war yet, but Hitler was planning it. A lot of oil and fat based products were imported. Hitler wanted to make sure that these industries could continue and his army could be fed in case foreign supplies were cut off. The Nazi mission did claim some land for Germany and it's widely thought that they did look for a location for a base and maybe even tried to build one. But no evidence of a base has been found. However, Nazi artifacts have been found, found in the Arctic in the north, which could be why this story continues to circulate. But so far nothing in the south could be underground. It could be. I'm not saying nothing's there, I'm just saying we haven't found it yet.

[Hecklefish]

What? He found it and aren't telling anybody?

[AJ]

Well, that's always a possibility. The US government did lie about the real purpose of Operation High Jump. And it's true. Admiral Byrd never spoke about it publicly except for those cryptic comments in the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio. El Mercurio is a real paper and Admiral Byrd did give them an interview. Obviously the article was released in Spanish, but when it was translated back to English, his words were twisted around to make the story sound more dramatic.

[Hecklefish]

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

[AJ]

Right. Byrd never said there are ships that can fly pole to pole at tremendous speeds. He said the United States could be attacked by planes coming from the poles and it should be ready for that. And Operation Highjump had a press contingent, about a dozen reporters giving daily reports. There really wasn't much going on. So rather than send back a three word story, lots of ice, the reporters added their own flair. For example, Byrd did find a small lake that had uniquely warm temperatures with algae growing in it. But it was reported as a land of blue and green lakes and brown hills in an otherwise limitless expanse of.

[Hecklefish]

Ice and a UFO attack.

[AJ]

Right. In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, millions of secret documents were released. And one of Those, written in 1947 was a description of Operation Highjump. And in 2006, a Russian documentary was released based on that secret intelligence report. The Soviets did believe that Operation Highjump was a mission to find and destroy a Nazi base. And look, with all that firepower, I don't think that's a stretch. The reports of the battle with UFOs comes from the Soviet documents, but it's iffy on the facts. And they got some of the names of the ships wrong, but they did get some right. And the US Military has a history of changing a ship's name and rewriting the ship's story if it serves Navy policy. Always. The Soviet report said that UFOs weren't trying to destroy the American ships, which they easily could have done. They just wanted the ships to turn back. The mission was cut way short. The official reason for that is weather. But that's a lot of resources wasted because of weather. Were there really UFOs protecting something down there? Or is this disinformation deliberately leaked to the Soviets by US Intelligence? I don't know. I've debunked as much as I can for you. Even though a lot of this story is false, not all of it is. And it seems as the only way we'll get answers is to go to Antarctica. But if there's one thing that every government in the world agrees on, it's that whatever is down there needs to stay there. But I'll leave you with these final thoughts. Just a few months after Operation Highjump, a UFO allegedly crashed in Roswell, New Mexico. The location of the crash is only a few miles from the world's first nuclear explosion, and Admiral Byrd did go missing for three hours and arrived back at camp three hours late. He was in a small short range airplane. So why didn't he run out of fuel? Thank you for checking out a WiFiles compilation. My name is A.J. that's Morgan.

[Morgan]

My name is Morgan. I am a beaver. Please say nice things about me in the comments. So the human brings me back.

[AJ]

If you had fun, learned anything today, do the beaver her a favor and hit like subscribe, comment, share. That stuff really helps the channel. And like every topic that we cover today in this comp, each one was recommended by you. So if there's a story that you'd like us to cover, go to the y files.com tips send us an email. Catch us on Discord. Catch us in the YouTube chat wherever you can find us. We're always looking for good topics. And remember, the why Files is also a podcast. You could take us on the road over there. We simulcast the episodes that you see here on YouTube or whatever video platform you're watching. But we also post deep dives on a lot of this content. And we also post episodes that wouldn't be allowed on the video platforms. And those are called redacted. I think they're spicier and probably not for kids. So those are up on the podcast. It's called the Y Files Operation Podcast it's available everywhere. And if there's a thumbs up or a like or a rating or a comment area, that stuff really helps. I would appreciate if you'd give us a little bit of love now. If you need more Y files in your life, check out our Discord server. We have 85, 90,000 people over there. It's a lot of fun if you're feeling down. It's a really supportive community and it's free to join. So go over there and hang out with other weirdos like. Like us. Oh, and speaking of 24. 7, check out our 24. 7 livestream that happens on the Y files backstage. The link is down below. And over there we run episodes back to back and they're in random order. So you may see a very new video that's kind of recent and then the next one might be one of the cringy old ones. I don't hold anything back. Even the episodes that are really, really ashamed of those are all up there. But what's a lot of fun is there's some unique content in between and the chat over there is just hilarious. So check out the twat. Check out the 24.7stream over on Backstage. Now in a few weeks I'm launching a new show called the Basement, which is just another podcast. And I'm going to sit down and talk to the interesting people that are behind all the stories that we cover here. And some of these folks have been amazing during my research phase where I'm so generous with their knowledge to help me put together really excellent episodes and they deserve a lot of the credit. So why not talk to them directly and pick their brains? Some of these folks are so smart and know so many things, things about the subjects that we love here. So we're gonna have those guys in or ladies and and just try to have deep long form conversations. Now if there is anybody you would like to see on that show, I think it launches in a few weeks. But we are on lookout for guests so you can email team the y files.com with your suggestion. And don't just throw a name out there, tell us a little bit about the person and why they would be interesting and we'll reach out and we'll bring them on. Special thanks to our patrons who made the WI Fowls happen. Every episode is dedicated to our Patreon members. I couldn't have done anything like this without the support of this community. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you. And if you'd like to support the channel, join the community. Keep us going. Become a member on Patreon it's only 3 bucks a month and you get perks like merch only available to members this time of year. Most of us are checking off our holiday gift lists, but identity thieves have lists too, and your personal information might be on them. Protect your identity with LifeLock LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second and alerts you to threats you could miss if your Identity is stolen. LifeLock will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Make this season about joy, not identity theft. With Lifelock, save up to 40% your first [e-mail] iheart terms apply. Hear that? That's my alarm clock. How did I get here? Invested early, retired early. Now my morning meeting is with the Shore. Get where you're going with dia, the only ETF that tracks the Dow. Getting there starts here with State Street Investor Investment Management. Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Visit state street.comim for prospectus containing this and other information. Read it carefully. DIA is subject to risk similar to those of stocks. All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principle. Alps Distributors, Inc. Distributor this is Julian Edelman from Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jewels. Sunday mornings I've got my game day ritual, coffee, lucky socks and now new Morning Uncrustable sandwiches.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

It's all about that 12 gram protein boost with the new Uncrustables Bright Eyed Berry or Up and apple flavors.

[AJ]

Bright Eye Berries got a feisty receiver.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Energy up an apple. Your classic Do it all tight end.

[AJ]

Soft, pillowy, packed with protein and easy enough for Gronk to grab from the freezer.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Whether you're on the couch, driving to the tailgate or heading to the locker room, new Morning Uncrustable Sandwiches are the MVP of snacks.

[AJ]

Your new Sunday kickoff ritual starts here with New Morning Uncrustable sandwiches packed with 12 grams of protein.