Goose Chase Podcast

We're back. Sorry for the absence. We missed you. We're talking today about Wayne Simmons, a regular talking head on Fox News and in other media outlets who cited his decades as a deep cover CIA operative to lend credence and gravitas to his opinions in the wake of 9/11. But something didn't add up about him to many, and the unraveling of his narrative makes for a deeply disturbing cautionary tale in exactly how high up bullshit can climb. Thanks for listening. 

We're back on the subject of UFOs, UAPs, or whatever the heck you wanna call them. Soon, the deadline for a full report on what the government knows about unidentified flying objects is approaching. We talk about them, about our previous discussion of the To The Stars Academy, and what to make of the increasing evidence that something we don't understand might be flying around out there, and may have been for some time. 

This week we're talking about personality tests! There are many different ways people analyze their personalities or search for personalized information and advice, from the less scientific (horoscopes and the like) to a more data-driven approach (the Myers-Briggs). We look at several different systems that people use to break down their personality types and to try and learn about themselves. 

This week we're talking about NFTs, the latest crypto-blockchain-thingy that's got everyone swept up into a frenzy. What is an NFT? Well, it's kind of like a limited edition thing, like a trading card, that lives on the blockchain of a cryptocurrency. What it is to different people is more complicated. It's a collectible, an investment, or trying to own a piece of history. It's an attempt to create scarcity around things that traditionally on the internet are infinitely replicable. We're not nuts about the idea, for reasons we'll get into. Take a dive into the blockchain with us.  

This week we're talking about a notable art feud, all started around the creation of the blackest black paint ever. Devised by Anish Kapoor, vantablack is the legendary darker-than-dark paint that sparked anger and controversy when he declared sole ownership and rights to use it. This spawned anger, commentary, and a pretty hilarious troll in response, as well as great and meaningful discussion about the nature of art and who it truly belongs to. 

When you think of your beloved sleepytime tea, probably the last thing you think of is bizarre utopian cults. Boy, do we have a story for you. With incidental connections to the Kellogg family who we've talked about in the past, Celestial Seasonings has an odd history that they don't particularly like to talk about with the cult of Urantia, a belief centered around a racist lens on the world and a multi-planet, multi-universe scheme that sees humans on the path to an intergalactic paradise. This is somehow connected to tea. 

This week we're talking about a "documentary" which is available online which purports to tell the story of a real life time traveler. "Confessions of a Time Traveler: The Man From 3036" is on Amazon Prime, and you could watch it right now. It's hard to tell exactly how seriously it wants you to take it, and we had a bunch of feelings about it. But the Nostradamus Brothers, as the producers call themselves, have made a few films and we question where the line between entertainment and misinformation lies. 

This week, we're talking about The Republic of Molossia, a micronation in Nevada that has been in the works for 40 years. Its co-founder and current leader, His Excellency President Grand Admiral Colonel Doctor Kevin Baugh, founded the nation with a friend at a young age and it has been through a turbulent series of wars, coups, takeovers and re-establishments, but Molossia still stands. A nation of 30 humans and 4 dogs, they have their own army, navy, currency, principalities, and more. This fantastic nation is a true delight to learn about. Someday we may even visit, if we're so lucky. 

This week, in this new year of 2021 where everyone's hoping for a bit of good luck, we're hoping you'll appreciate that your luck could not be worse than Roy Sullivan. The Guinness world record holder for most recorded lightning strikes (seven! or eight, depending on which ones you count), Roy Sullivan's story is a reminder of how improbably bad your luck can get. We felt sorry for Roy, but you can't help but laugh at the absurdity of what happened to him, recorded and with evidence from official records from the Shenandoah National Forest where he worked. Spare a thought for Roy Sullivan. May your 2021 be excellent, with no lightning strikes. 

This week we're talking about something that we're surprised we hadn't heard about. It's a disturbing story of the true life behind the glamorous and beloved front of Flordelis De Souza, a Brazilian entertainer and politician that doesn't seem to have cracked the front page here in America. She was seen as the equivalent of the Mother Theresa in Rio de Janeiro, but the truth may be much darker and more sinister. 

This week we're talking about gangstalking. If you haven't heard of it before, you're not alone, but it's a bit on the fringe, and it's a concerning concept. People who believe they're victims of gangstalking feel harassed and threatened by seemingly everyone -- at home, in the store, at work -- and they see themselves as the targets of a coordinated campaign of trouble. And when they find each other online to discuss this phenomenon, there can be real consequences. This episode exists not to target or demonize people who see themselves as victims of gangstalking, but as an expression of concern for them and as a look into the ways in which the internet can exacerbate problems rather than make them better. 

This week we're talking about the spoopy abandoned town known as "Helltown" Ohio. A small part of a larger surrounding town, it's been abandoned for about 40 years. It was roped off and inaccessible, and spawned several legends about what happened that made the town close up. We talk about the rumors and lore, as well as the truth of what really happened in this small plot south of Cleveland in Summit County. 

This week, we're celebrating the month of spooptober with special guest Kerstyn, talking about something truly terrifying. An ancient and evil force, which neither man nor god could contain. The torturer of untold billions of souls, it knows no country and is unbound as it sweeps the globe in search of those to twist into its hideous grasp. Grab your blankets and tuck into your couches as we discuss our spookiest subject yet!

This week, we're kicking off Spooptober with an episode about our amazing, weird, creepy brains. The brain is a long-lasting mystery and spoop symbol. Mad scientists with brains in jars or putting them in monsters' heads hasn't helped. But today we're talking about the odd ways the brain works, the ways in which it breaks, and some of the amazing things you can do with a brain (or can't, as it may turn out). 

This week, we're talking about Ted Kaczynski. But not necessarily the Ted Kaczynzki story you know. Our special guest Kerstyn is here to talk with us about some of the more formative experiences that may have contributed to his development that are a lesser known part of the story, as well as breaking down some of the elements of his well-known manifesto. The nature of meaningful work, the changing nature of our society and technology, and both physical and mental isolation are core themes to his story and we find them worth exploring.

This week, we're talking about a few people who are local legends. The kind of people who are interesting, eccentric, or just radiate personality. We're talking about Cleveland's own "Superpimp" a fixture of the club scene, as well as the late 19th century self-appointed "Emperor of the United States" and the two dogs associated with him. This episode is a trek into what happens when people decide to just go with something, without cynicism. It's kinda nice. 

This week we're talking about predictive text AI models, specifically the new kid on the block: GPT-3. Most of us are familiar with chat bots: smarter child, Tay, and others that have been accessible for humans to interact with. Historically, they haven't been all that convincing, but all of that is beginning to change. While still not necessarily fully human, the capabilities inherent in the latest predictive text models are astounding, and spell out a future where humans are not the only (or best) writers around. 

Disclaimer up front: This is a very sad, disturbing, and explicit episode. It all starts in 2010, when Sarah Lawrence student Talia Ray informs her dorm mates that her dad is getting out of prison and will be coming to stay with them. In the dorm. It would be the first instance in a decade-long campaign of manipulation, abuse, and tragedy. Lawrence Ray was introduced to his daughter's friends as a truth teller, a hero, and a great man. But their lives together would develop into an entirely different story. This is a painful story, but we think it's an important one, and with much appreciation and credit to Ezra Marcus and James D. Walsh, who are heavily to credit for justice being sought in this case. 

This week we're talking about 5G, the latest wave in cellular evolution that is bound to make it to your phone within a few years. Every time there's a new "G" there's some kind of fear and paranoia around it, and 5G is already feared in this particularly uncertain time. We talk about what 5G is, what the conspiracy theories are, and also what you should really be paying attention to as the cellular wave of the future is being built city to city and country to country. 

This week we're talking about some cryptography, hacking, and the crazy days where the phone company in the US was practically a god. We're joined by our most excellent guest and friend Kerstyn, who set out to answer the question: Does it ever really happen where those crazy scofflaw hackers are so good they get recruited by the feds? The answer to that ended up being hard to pin down, but we took a nice meandering goose walk instead, learning about the women that led cryptographic efforts in WWII, the "world's most famous hacker" Kevin Mitnick, and the weird and wild days of phone phreaking. 

This week we're talking about the story of the 1925 Nome serum run with our special guests Laura and TJ! The times were dark: Nome was experiencing the beginnings of an outbreak of diptheria. A serum was needed to treat it, and children were falling ill and dying. It was too cold, too far, at a bad time of year, and the only way to get that critical medicine was by sled dog. An expert musher and his unlikely lead dog made the drive, and the world rejoiced. But not all heroes were commended equally. This is the real story of an incredible journey and an incredible dog. 

This week we're doing our first remote Goose Chase with our friend and previous guest, Dan. We're talking about end of the world theories! Sometimes religious, or based on aliens, or technology gone awry, the world has been predicted to end many times now, sometimes by the same people over and over again. We talk about some notable predictions and some that are more obscure, and a little bit of theology on why you probably shouldn't put too much stock in some of them. Thanks again to Dan for doing this, and a little plug here for his podcast, Sequelize This, a fun show about movie sequels and movie chat in general. And you can also check out his album, "An Introduction to Saying Goodbye."

This week, we're looking into Be Scofield, the self-described guru hunter who infiltrates, investigates, and covers cults and cult-like groups. She has been involved in writing about some familiar groups and people, such as Teal Swan, who we covered in a previous episode. And she claims to be instrumental in dismantling and disrupting groups around the world. Some of those claims seem a bit large, when evaluated with a skeptical eye, and the means seem like they might be ethically questionable. That, plus what seems like a lot of infighting within the community of people who follow and critique cult groups, sent Kristy down the rabbit hole of what looks like fact, fiction, truth, and exaggeration around Be Scofield and the grandiosity of her claims. By the end, we're still not totally sure what to think, but it's a fascinating look into the world of people in the business of identifying and taking down cults. 

Today we're back for episode 101 and talking about Cleveland's infamous 1974 10-cent beer night. The Cleveland Indians promoted cheap beer and drew a huge crowd, but it was a game destined for tragedy. Bad blood off the Indians' last week's game against the Rangers and a whole bunch of taunting brought 25,000 angry Cleveland fans out to give it back to the Rangers at home. What follows is a kind of beautiful disgrace, something that's got Cleveland written all over it. 

We finally did it. Big old episode 100. We never thought we would be doing this for this long, but we're so glad to still be doing it. We still enjoy it, and we hope you all do. In this episode we look back on the first 99 episodes and issue some updates to some things that changed after we last talked about them. A couple of bad guys got theirs, some folks made a better life for themselves, and one woman made a fruit cake. Thanks for listening, friends. 

This week, in the midst of the craziness outside in the world, we're looking at weird nature as a means of inspiration that life, you know, finds a way. We're talking about strange plants that function in interesting ways and prove out exactly how interesting plants can be. Even though they can't think, they do have an incredible appearance of intent and purpose. And sometimes they eat meat. Rad. 

This week we have our good friend Drew back to guest host another episode! We're talking about salt. What a completely ordinary place to start, right? The history, procurement, trade, and sabotage of the world's salt supply is way deeper than either of us knew. Drew walks us through salt's place in empires that have risen and fallen, its importance all the way up to the 21st century, why we need it, where we get it, and what happens when its supply is limited or interrupted. This episode is seriously about salt. And we were amazed!

This week we're talking about John Demjanjuk, a man from Cleveland Ohio who spent nearly 40 years defending himself against the allegations that he was Ivan the Terrible, the name of a legendarily cruel concentration camp guard at Treblinka. After living out a normal life in Cleveland after immigrating in the 50s, evidence arose to suggest he had taken part in those crimes. He always maintained his innocence, but it took two extraditions and many years to finally put the argument to rest. 

This week we have on special guest Aubrey to talk about about the Radium Girls of the 1920s. At the time, the need was simple: people to paint things with radium so that they glowed in the dark, like instrument panels for aircraft. This job invariably fell to many young women, and while the pay was great, the risk (unbeknownst to them) was very, very high. This story features some really graphic descriptions of the things that radium can do to the body. It's the timeless tale of big business vs. human safety, but safety wins in the end. Kind of. 

This week we're talking about a bitter rivalry between two bands you probably haven't heard of: The Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. West Coast bands with big sound and big egos, they became fast friends before devolving into something else. We take you through the bitter tit-fot-tat which may or may not have been exaggerated for publicity. 

This week we're joined by our guest Matt to talk about the legendary SCP Foundation. A group writing exercise that started on the internet in 2007, the SCP foundation is a work of science fiction that documents the presence, threat, and containment procedures for objects, entities, artifacts, and even mere concepts that threaten humanity. It's a wonderfully dense and structured world of fiction created by writers the world over, and Matt helps walk us through the history, the elements, the community, and even the mysterious lore around the origins of the foundation. 

This week we're talking about Marion Stokes. Ever heard of her? If you have, 10 points for you, you were paying more attention than we were. Marion was an activist, a television presenter, an intellectual, and a collector and archivist of lots of things. We don't want to spoil this one, but her greatest accomplishment would span 33 years and produced a prolific collection you won't believe. 

This week we're talking about someone who you've probably heard a bit about: Grigory Rasputin. Known as the Mad Monk, and major influencer to the Romanov family, Rasputin will forever be enshrined in a certain amount of mystery. That's by design, too: He certainly made deliberate attempts to generate a certain amount of mystique, and lots of stories persist about him to this day. We sort over the many legends of Rasputin to try to get to the most likely truths about this mysterious man from the reaches of faraway Siberia. 

This week we're talking about number stations. If you watched LOST while it was on the air, you might recognize the idea: radio stations around the world which seem to do little more than spit out a series of numbers every now and then, read by a human voice or sometimes just tones. People have speculated lots about what they're for and what they do. We talk about the stations, as well as some concepts of cryptography that make this old school tech very appealing for information secrecy. 

This week we have our special guest Drewbie back for another episode! We're talking about Theranos, a company once worth billions of dollars that is now worth precisely zero. In the world that Theranos envisioned, blood drawing would be easier than ever, requiring just a few drops of blood, and democratizing healthcare. All of this is the brainchild of Elizabeth Holmes, the company's visionary CEO. Or was she? The operation took a little more than a decade to go from inception to collapse. Tonight we're talking about why. 

If you're looking at this message, you owe a chunk of your experience with computers to Ada Lovelace, the mother of modern computing. All the way back in the 1830s, she saw the beginning of where computers might be headed, and yet it would take almost 120 years for anyone to notice her genius. Tonight, a love letter to the history of the computer decades before the big mainframe computation computers we know today. 

In our last episode, we talked about Duane the Great Writer, the purveyor of a series of online books and a philosophy that may well have been outright lifted from Eckankar and Paul Twitchell. We left off on the discovery that there is a massive other side to Duane's materials, and that's on YouTube. But it's not published by him. It's the channel of Kelsey Lynne Brown, a writer in her own right and the host of lots and lots of material on Duane. This week we explore the extended Duaneverse, other people in his orbit, and the only whiff of scandal that Dave can trace to them (but a significant one)

In this episode, we're talking about something with a weirdly small and specific Google footprint. DuanetheGreatWriter.info is the home of something called the Worldwide Educators, or the NuPresentation foundation, and it is a treat for the eyes. The website contains a lot of information on what they represent, and maybe not in any particular order either. It's interesting; something definitely emerges, themes and concepts and values that repeat, but the author, his works, his foundation, and himself as a person are actually kind of elusive. This one felt like a Goose Chase scoop. The more threads we pulled, the more questions we had. In tonight's part 1: Who the heck is Duane? 

This week, we're talking about a park with a historically bad reputation, but don't hold that against it. Baltimore's Leakin Park has been the home of so many body dumps that it's been referred to as an unofficial/unregistered graveyard. We talk a bit about the history of the park, its years of activity, and some reasonable explanations for why things got so bad there. Or were they really so bad? These days they'd like you to know it's been heavily rehabbed, but there's still a lot of stories to tell. 

This week is another guest episode with our most excellent friend Drewbie. She is talking with us about the Hope diamond, a great big fat blue diamond (the one that the Titanic diamond was based on) which carries a strange history.  Hundreds of years of stories surround it, from when it was acquired by a traveling trader, wielded by French royalty, tossed about English society and eventually re-homed to Washington D.C. No shortage of spooky stories followed it, and it was said to be cursed up and down. The story about that diamond you kinda think you might of heard of, here on Goose Chase. 

Area 51 is back in the news lately after a Facebook event called "Storm Area 51" has attracted 1.4 million attendees. It's all tongue in cheek, of course... except it's got enough of attention to draw a response from the U.S. military and has made one town in Nevada mighty nervous. We're talking about the history of Area 51, a little bit on the official and unofficial stories, and a look at this meme-abundant event that has changed in scope and focus, with a brief glimpse of what is to come. 

This week, we're talking about fruitcakes! Now at home, you're probably saying to yourself: "What?" We know. It's a strange launch point. But this is a fascinating episode. The fruitcake has been around for longer than we thought in more forms than we knew, and to make it even more interesting, fruitcakes were the center point of a truly astounding late 20th / early 21st century caper. This widely despised cake is so much more interesting than we knew. Follow along with us. 

This week our super special guest Aubrey is back with a real mindbender of a topic. What would you say if we told you that a woman who has been dead for over 60 years is not only still around, but there are in fact around 734 million of her that have come and gone? Would you say that's bananas? We did. We're talking about a woman whose cells have lasted for decades. The story of those cells is amazing, exciting, saddening, and enlighening. 

This week we're talking about something relatively sweet and nice where nobody gets hurt or dies or gets swindled. Isn't that nice? The Cottingley Fairies were first photographed in 1917 by two young girls. The story spread, until it reached the ears of some important people and swept the country with its charm. This story is an interesting one that says a lot about who we are as people, and what we like to believe. There's also some weird stuff scattered around this episode. Sorry about that. 

This week we're talking about MLMs, or multi-level marketing companies. You might know them more commonly as pyramid schemes, but don't tell them that. In particular, we're looking at a cross section of these companies that centers around essential oils. People take them as supplements, put them on their skin, put them in their food, infuse them in the air, and more. But at least one of these companies has some skeletons in the closet, so we put on our skeptic hats and took a dive into the world of essential oils.

We're talking about something this week that is unlikely to ever happen again in the form that it did. Timecube.com is a relic of a different time and is now in fact defunct (still available on the Wayback Machine), but it was established by a man named Gene Ray to spread the truth, the real truth, about how much time is in a day. Four days within every day, to be exact. Not with it so far? Give it some time. Gene Ray's story is sad, funny, angering, and sometimes all at once. Come experience the cubic reality with us. 

Humans -- we love fixing stuff as much as we love screwing it up in the first place. This week we're talking weird conservation, the odd strategies we have taken to try to revitalize animal populations. There are lots of them, all of them completely odd, and it says a lot about the insight and imagination of the people who work with these animal populations. We are just flat out amazed. 

Nature is a fascinating thing. It represents rejuvenation, isolation, fear, potential, and a thing to be bested by humankind. Sometimes it wins. We're talking about the Dyatlov Pass incident of 1959, where nine Russian hikers went into the wilderness, never to return. The discovery of their bodies only opened more mystery, and people are still debating about it to this day. We also eat a dessert with cheese on it, for reasons. 

This week, we've got Dan as our guest! Dan surprised us with a wonderfully detailed history of the works of a truly prolific artist: Bansky. He's a household name now, which is a far cry from his humble origins doing little-seen street art in Bristol. As he continued to produce, people took notice. His work has been in many major cities, on the border wall between Israel and Palestine, and in the auction houses of the world. And nobody 100% for sure knows who he is.

We've talked about lots of people who claim a direct line to the divine, but this is one of the stranger ones, and whether you realize it or not, you might know some of her work. We're talking about J.Z Knight, a leader of a movement of new-age spiritualists 6000-members strong, even to this day. Channeling the 30,000 year old spirit of Ramtha, an enlightened spiritual entity, J.Z. Knight has lead a movement that feels distinctly new-agey, complete with beliefs like that you can create a universe of your imagining, or that you are god. But also, some of her beliefs are downright regressive, and pretty offensive. And at least one person has paid heavily for listening to her. You be the judge on this one, but our alarm bells are going off. 

This episode is a difficult one. We're talking about Incels, a term that refers to the involuntarily celibate. You've probably heard of them, as some of them have made headlines carrying out high-profile acts of violence. This is an internet community with some overlap with other online communities of (primarily) disgruntled men. But the Incels have a particular way of escalating that disgruntled attitude to more and more dangerous places. We talk about the community, some of its causes, and possible venues for change. This isn't an easy discussion, but we think it's one worth having.