S08 Ep01: Unhinged Banter

Hello, and welcome. Hi, Mystery Solvers. It's time for Perhaps It's You. Hi, Beanie Wong. Yeah, hi, Beanie Wong. How are you, Beanie Wong?

Thank you for liking my comment on Instagram the other day. We're basically besties. So obviously we dedicate every episode to you. That's not creepy. That's not weird. This is perhaps it's you and your favorite, absolute favorite, unofficial, Unsolved Mysteries rewatch podcast. And my name is Liz. And my name is Samantha. And somehow these intros don't get any easier to do with time. They don't, despite the fact that we're on season eight somehow. That was freaking me out last night. I was like, oh, there's only like a few more seasons left. I was like, yeah, but season, girl, girl, season seven took you like two years. Calm down. I was like getting like almost, it's almost over.

And then what? It's not. Listeners, it's not. Also, when I sat down to take notes about this episode, I was like, fuck this. Why do I have a podcast? We were ready to quit. This sucks. I was having trouble with like my TV streaming connection, you know, whatever, all the wires. I was having trouble with that shit. And I was like, this is not worth it. Someone better fucking send me Kit Kats. I am out. But we are now ready to record. We're ready. Season seven is finally fucking dead. Finally. We're ready to start season eight. Do you remember anything about season seven? It is a fucking, I think we released only like five episodes last year. I don't, I don't know. Like.

The content was scarce. I feel, yeah, everybody has given up on us because we got boring. But for some reason, one update that I have is that the unsolved, the official Unsolved Mysteries podcast is no more. RIP. We've outlived them. Not only did we start years before them, but with all their like fancy backing and the real, we fucking outlived them. So.

You blog about that, bitch. I noticed that Repod didn't sponsor them, so interesting. Think about it. Think about it. I mean, they were doing actual investigations of new cases, blah, blah, blah, whatever. We outlived them just by watching their show and talking smack about it. I was like, I get it. You didn't want to make that anymore? Totally get it. You went, making a podcast is a fool's game. We don't want to make this anymore, but we're still here, so I don't know what that says about us. I'm sure the producers got their free mattresses or whatever the shit, and they were like, we're done.

Yeah, they're like, how many boxes of meat on these do we possibly want? I think we should just call it quits. And that makes sense. I mean, the podcasting boom is over. I think people who listen to podcasts, they kind of like have their podcasts. Maybe they're listening to new ones. I don't really know because I've given up on most of them. My other update, though, is that my favorite podcast, I mean, obviously this one is the very best. No one even comes close. But second to us, my second favorite is the Purple Stuff podcast, which is a nostalgia-based podcast. And they recently did a second episode. They're basically coming for our gig. They did a second Unsolved Mysteries episode.

Wow. I know. But I did think it was very good, actually. And they only talk about fun segments, which is a way better way to go. So they got to talk about Rainboy. They got to talk about, you know, one of my favorites that did the crucifix blink. They talked about a couple that we haven't even got to yet. So one of them was a leak monster that is in Stevenson 8. So we do have that to look forward to. Okay. So that's nice. That was a nice hint of what is to come for me. I think, I was talking to Samantha about this the other day, but one of my favorite things about that podcast is it's about the most seemingly trivial things, but they're so passionate about them and they get so worked up about them. And it's just...

intensely relatable for me just like so so like i just feel so validated i feel so seen listening where i'm like yes i get i get the fire i get i do i do understand i do understand the i think the most recent episode is about shit that glows in the dark which by the way great topic wish we could wish we had done stuff like that um and dinosaur dracula got just so worked up about how this like how cool the glow in the dark dress for barbie was but for the one for the like tuxedo for kenny was like let's face it it fucking sucks and he just like comes in like really hard And I was like, yes, yes, this is very familiar to me. This is the energy that we often bring to things that probably don't warrant it. Kind of don't, but that's just really.

i don't know i'm not very good with like happy mediums it's it's kind of i'm kind of an all i try i'm working on it and i have believe it or not mellowed in my old age but i'm still like very all or nothing person so i would be the person that'd be like that ken's tuxedo for dream glow barbie fucking sucked let me tell you why and another thing and i don't know when people like think i'm done this is a very book club type i'm sure samantha and i are the same book club if you don't know that's how i know samantha so um So I'm sure Samantha's witnessed this many times where I'm on some rant about a book and everybody's like, oh, thank God. Liz finally like ran out of breath. And then I take it and then I'm like, and another thing. And I'm like back on my whatever about whatever. Everybody's like, oh my God, Liz, calm down. I just kind of can't. I don't know. I just kind of can't. We love it about you. Look, I don't know. I'm an Aries. Does that explain it? To some people it does. So if that helps, if that helps you make sense of why I'm like this, then great. Okay. So that was two of my updates. Oh, important update.

is news in the Unsolved Mysteries world. Yes. Is that from, in the new reboot episodes, which we've covered on our Patreon, there was an episode about parental kidnappings and there was, it profiled mostly two very sad stories about children that had been taken away from their rightful parental guardian and were like moved out of the country. Like, you know, they couldn't get access to them anymore. But at the end of that episode, they showed just like, I don't know, maybe a dozen faces of other missing kids. I'm assuming other parental kidnapping related cases that were just like, hey, like these missing people should be on your radar too.

And one of those people has been found, even though it's been six years since she was kidnapped. She kind of looks like, you know, for a kid, six years. Like she looks significantly different. But her neighbor recognized her. So you don't have to look out for Kayla. Everybody. She was found. That's pretty cool. It's really cool because that episode was so sad. And you're left just being like, they're sad, but like these are solvable. Like of all the mysteries, like.

we can we can solve these ones like these kids are out there these kids are on the internet or their friends are on the internet like we these ones could be solved like these kids could get back to their parents and you have so much hope despite how just awful that whole episode was and to hear that one was solved is really satisfying yeah it was brutal to talk about it obviously because it it does seem like something that should be highlighted but also we were like well probably we're not gonna find these kids like they've been taken abroad blah blah blah you know chance the chances of me being the person to see this kid seems very slight but it is pretty cool that someone watched that episode and then went you know what i think that's my neighbor's kid and she figured it out so there are mystery solvers among us this makes me feel like they should do more reboot episodes almost as like a public service like we're really gonna get people found like imagine how worried everyone in her family has been or half of her family has been i don't know for the past six years you don't know what happened to her and her friends and like and now they at least know she's okay and she got reunited with the parent she was supposed to be with so um that's pretty cool Yeah. Good job, Unsolved Mysteries. Good job, Unsolved Mysteries viewers. Really good job, Oz, even though we did nothing. Like, you know, we're keeping Unsolved Mysteries. No, I can't even do it. Never mind. Not a good job, Oz. Did you have any updates for us, my dear? You're like, as if. As if I would. Well.

you're not going to like this, but I have a snacks with stack without you. That's okay. I think one of the not too distant episodes, I did a snacks with stack without you. So yeah, you did. And now it's payback time because I found myself a bottle of these Sprite lemonade legacy. I'm dying to know if this is good. Where did you find it? Cause I've looked at like three different places. This was a cub, but it was in like its own special little display thing. It was not actually by the other pops. And it's also where I went wrong. I looked with the normal pops. And it's also in the like single size. It's not, at least at this club, they didn't have it in the like.

you know, liter size. This is like, I'm taking one home and I'm going to drink it in the car size. Oh, gotcha. This is the, this is 20 fluid ounces apparently. Um, so okay. We were actually talking about how we want to try this. So Sprite Lemonade Legacy spells lemonade with a Y. Not crazy about it. Which somehow this is celebrating 50 years of hip hop. Don't really see the connection. Don't get it. Don't get it. Whatever. So it is lemon, lime, strawberry, and lemonade flavored soda. I'm listening. You have my attention. Yeah. And it has a pink label. So, you know, that's good. Let's try not to spray this all over my computer.

Okay. So this literally tastes like if you went up to the fountain machine and you filled most of your glass with strawberry soda and then you topped it off with lemonade. Okay. Is it good? I mean, that sounds good. It's not like blowing my mind, but it's fine. Okay. Okay. You know, I don't mind it. It tastes like more strawberry than I would have expected. See, that's what excites me.

Which I'm not saying that's bad. It's just I expected the lemonade flavor to prevail. Okay. Okay. Because it's called lemonade. I guess that's why I thought that. And it doesn't really. It's like you took a strawberry Fanta and you mixed a little lemonade in there. Okay. Interesting. Well, it's fine. If you don't get to taste it, you know what it tastes like though.

Fair enough. It's not like something so creative you'll never be able to get it again. You'll probably try a strawberry lemonade. You'll just go get a strawberry Fanta. I know it was pretty much like that. Well, I'm less envious now, but I am going to keep my eye out for that. My totally real necessary segment where sometimes we eat snacks.

And we only just started calling it Snacks with Stack. I think that kind of makes sense. Despite doing it for like years. Years. Literally years. We only recently discovered that snack rhymes with stack. Podcasting geniuses. I can't be expected to know everything. Yeah, I think we have been doing this.

for more than five years right well i don't want to think about it okay for us oh do you think okay so we were recently sponsored by repod i know i know so exciting and um that got some people some repod users to listen to the podcast you don't usually and i don't think we've had any new listeners in a very long time so i was gonna ask if jump ship this is not for me someone like a very complimentary comment about it but did refer to our commentary as unhinged And I was wondering if you thought they were still listening. Okay. I don't know because I feel like you would think that the word that unhinged is negative, but it's sort of positive. It was used almost in a positive way, but I kind of wonder. It's kind of how people are using it. I mean, it means what it means, but in kind of like a good way, like a quirky way. Like if you call someone unhinged, like, I mean, it depends on the context, but sometimes it can be like, oh, funny and quirky and a little bit kooky. And I'm not, I kind of disagree that we're unhinged, but maybe that's what an unhinged person would say. I don't know. Okay. This is the comment.

For reference, Chris, if you're still listening, thank you so much. Thanks for tuning back in. I had to listen to this just because Repod sponsored it and because it's number one podcast on the platform. That's right. We are number one on Repod. We remain number one. Keep liking us on Repod so I can keep saying it. Okay. The mix of creepy ghost stories and unhinged banter made this such a fun episode to listen to. I hope Repod does more sponsorships like this. Like, it's almost more about Repod than it is about us. I mean, fine. I can tell that this isn't a person that's listened to us for a long time because...

that was pretty on the unhinged scale of perhaps it's you that episode was very tame we've had much more unhinged episodes oh yeah for sure that was just a listener stories episode guys yeah that's very tame we played a game of alien autopsy we ate some candy I mean it was very we watched bar rescue once for this podcast a thing that makes no fucking sense it makes sense to me um no you know that someone is a is a true one of the five when they have a comment that's thank you repod for sponsoring this episode and thank you for not making orphan bone bread That's a long time listener. Exactly. Chris, I hope you get there. I hope you started at the beginning and can really indulge in all of our unhinged behavior because there's a lot of it. I don't really think it was in that last episode. So you're in for a treat if that's what you were looking for. It goes places. Unsolved Mysteries is a key that opens a lot of doors. That's how I think of it. I once shouted, learn more about apes. That's one of my favorite things you've ever said. You said it so like.

venomously like someone was such a dunce you're just like we've heard more about apes that is unhinged no it's great um also great i mean yeah yeah like listener tawny thank you for saying i can't believe how generous repod is and supporting the best podcast in the world like all of our actual listeners their comments are sarcastic but no we are the best in the world so that's true we're number one on repod we are I really need to write into my like alumni newsletter and be putting stuff like that in. Number one podcast. Yeah. And then parentheses on repod. And he'll be like, what? Okay. Thanks for writing in Liz. Anyway, anyway, anyway, anyway. We are going through all of the Robert Stack episodes of Unsolved Mysteries one by one for some reason. And now we are on season eight because we've been doing this for so long. And now we're so old. And you can watch these on YouTube for free. And I would recommend doing that and not watching them on Amazon because they put a lot of ads in there. So many ads. I don't know why. Don't bother.

yeah samantha's right i think this seems like a very like hip case to cover at the time but this seems like really random way to start season eight now which is an unexplained death supposedly of brandon lee i sort of thought that this first mystery should have been like a dateline or a 2020 or something like i'm not really sure that it's just weird to be honest i think they're trying to seem like kind of cool and with it and not the show that's like your grandma's watching which is literally what it was but yeah nobody's gonna like there's no mystery here they even tell you what happened but then they're just like what if it was a curse i think they bring that in to make it make sense why they're putting it on this show but like really the point is is for like the like law enforcement and his family to like set the record straight but yeah that's true which is you know that's valid it just i just felt like it should have been on like a different show but it's yeah fine i mean it probably was too but I suppose it probably was. Also, this season has a new opening credits. How do you feel about it? Didn't like it. Yeah. But I don't like change. I feel like it just doesn't. It's because now we're like solidly in the 90s. It just doesn't have that flair. Agreed. No, I completely agree. I also feel like this episode has a little bit of a different tone. And I don't know if it's because Robert Stack keeps quoting poetry or if it's something else. But it is. I feel like they're backing down on the fog, which I don't appreciate. And I feel like he was inside a lot more, like just like in the telecenter, which seems like lazy and cheap.

I want Robert Stack in front of a circus at night with a fog machine. Yeah. But instead of something super dramatic looking, that's random, it has nothing to do with what he's talking about. That's what I want in my own self-mistries. I don't want him just like a closeup of him in the telecenter, which is cool to see the telecenter, but I demand both. Okay. Yes. So now we're going to talk about Brandon Lee. As you probably already know, both Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee were film stars who died before their time. Robert Stack wants to ask, were father and son bound by an ancient Chinese myth? And I'm going to just say, no, they're not. They're bonded because they were literally father and son. Yeah.

And I guess both had bad luck. So I guess if you believe in luck, then I don't know if that counts as an ancient Chinese curse, but whatever. He refers to it as a lethal family curse, partly because Bruce Lee had an older brother who died as an infant. Which is kind of just a thing that happens, as sad as that is. Yeah, people just die. I don't know. I mean, it's sad that it's not a curse. I don't know. To the extent that, I don't know, mortality occurs. I guess we could have a philosophical argument, but it's too early in the season for that. I don't think that's what he meant, even if you could argue it. Fair. So a stat credits Bruce Lee for almost single-handedly creating an American audience for martial arts films, which I don't really know enough about that subject, but it sounds true to me.

In the summer of 1973, Bruce Lee was 32 years old and, quote, on the brink of international stardom when he took a prescription medication for a headache and laid down for a nap. Tragically, he never woke up. We hear now from his widow, Linda Lee Cadwell, who had trouble accepting at first that he died because obviously he was like in such amazing shape and so healthy and so young that like he was taken to the hospital and he was like already dead. But she kept thinking like, oh, they'll revive him. Like he's going to be fine. It was just hard. It was just so sudden and out of nowhere.

And we see footage from his funeral, which is fucking wild. It apparently drew 25,000 mourners. So you see a very brief clip of people like, like just giant crowds, like trying to push over to these barricades to like get closer to his funeral. So he was, you know, very beloved. And again, I think this is like a setting a record straight thing. I don't know if there was rumors about drug use or something like that, but it turns out that he died from a very rare allergic reaction to his headache medication. It's just one of those freak things. Here's where the speculation comes in. People thought that maybe he was actually murdered. And then Robert Stack lists off some people that might have murdered him, including a rival movie studio. What? Why? Or the Japanese mafia. Again, why would they want him dead? I don't know. What connection does he have to the Yakuza? What? I feel like that's so just like other parts of Asia. I don't know.

Yeah. Others blamed a family curse or perhaps feng shui. Here we go. I feel like I'm saying that word very differently than Robert Stack was saying it. He's saying feng shi. I actually usually would have more faith. I think Robert Stack spoke like four languages. I think his pronunciation is usually very correct and mine is very sloppy and bad. I've just never heard it pronounced that way. But yeah, I've never heard that before in my life. So maybe I have always been saying it wrong and I apologize now. I really don't know. Yeah, now I am. You know, I wasn't.

self-conscious about my pronunciation, but now I am. Now I am. I just assume Robert Stack is right. Exactly. And I was like, is that how you say it? But then also, why are all these white people telling me about feng shui? Literally a white man, I don't know who this person is, comes on to explain to us what it is. I don't even write it down. They get on some like expert guy who comes to tell us about feng shui and how it's a belief system that includes how to arrange your home in unison with the environment, which I think is just everybody's sort of cursory understanding of what that is.

apparently Bruce Lee's home in Hong Kong was known to be misaligned, which may be a source of bad luck. But what I wrote down literally was not a fan of the phrase, quote, the Chinese believe, which is something this white expert said. All Chinese people believe what this one thing that this one white guy is telling us. I think we all know China's a small place and not a lot of people there. I was like, okay, well, whatever. It's kind of beyond the scope of this segment, the Orientalism going on here. So yeah, so he was trying to explain feng shui and how it involves evil omens. It's just about directing good luck towards you and bad luck away from you. So apparently the previous owner of this home had placed a small mirror on top of the home to deflect bad luck, only it had been blown away by a typhoon. And Bruce Lee died the very next day.

I have no idea how you confirm this. I don't know where this, I don't know what the source of this is. We definitely don't hear it from like his widow, who I presume lives there. I don't know. Seems suspect. Okay. Now we talk about Brandon Lee, who was eight years old at the time of his father's death, but he had already begun training with him. Of course, he went on to become a film star himself. He was 28 years old when he was fatally shot on the set of his fifth feature film, famously The Crow. So was this the curse? Sloppy bullet making. Or just, you know, an unfortunate accident on a low budget film.

Who's to say? So we hear from Detective Rodney Simmons and Detective Brian Petras of the North Carolina Police Department, who spoke to some 50 eyewitnesses and did a series of at least a dozen ballistics tests. So, of course, as is required for law enforcement, they both have mustaches. I called Brian's mustache the please don't kiss me. I was not into it. Well, as is true with most mustaches. Yeah. I asked Mac what he thought. He happened to be in the room and he called it the chubby butler. And then we get Rodney Simmons mustache. Well, now his mustache.

brian's was just sort of a standard thick brunette cop mustache it was just like right roddy's mustache is much like uh closely groomed it's like a perfect half circle so i called it the spoon bridge mac called it the upside down smile otherwise known as a frown Wow, you're really coming for max mustache names. Yeah. No, that was the full name. Oh, okay. I thought your commentary was. Well, he called it the upside down smile. Then he went, well, that's otherwise known as a frown. So that's all part of the upside down smile. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So this is what we learned about Brandon Lee's death. Props for the movie's pawn shop scene were gathered from an actual pawn shop. And for whatever reason, the people that go to the pawn shop to like get the stuff they're going to use as the props in the movie.

takes a box of 44 magnum bullets later the stunt coordinator found these bullets on the set and was very angry because you're not supposed to have live ammunition on the set of a movie it's very dangerous so he went and locked it in the trunk of his car however there was a scene later that required blanks now they actually went into like depth about how blank bullets are different from regular bullets and i found that like pretty interesting and well done but basically the blank bullet where the lead part would be at the tip of the bullet there's just cardboard so it still fires but nothing comes out right however when they got to the scene where they needed to shoot blanks they went oh we forgot to buy any And I don't know why they couldn't just like go do that. They were trying to save five cents. I don't know. But they're like, oh, we'll just modify the bullets that we already have. The pawn shop bullet. It's like a terrible fucking idea. But they realized they also needed some dummy rounds. Now, dummy rounds are like the opposite of blanks. They're one that you need to show a bullet in a movie, but it can't actually be fired. So it's just the lead tip is in the casing. But the gun power and the whatever the other thing is called, don't write it and don't tell me. I don't care. That thing isn't in there. Right? I think that's my understanding.

yes okay so they were like oh so we need to make blanks from these bullets but we also need to make dummy rounds so let's just like take apart these bullets that we have there was not a firearms expert on set and that's how people yeah this is just what the sound guy is like pulling apart the bullets and in the process of like making some blanks and some dummy bullets they like got mixed up great work everyone they also like didn't finish like they did something wrong too didn't they like they made the dummy but round like incorrectly i think they might have done that because what happened is they put it into a gun so that they could take a picture of like someone looking down the barrel of a gun and see a bullet right but it meant that the lead of one of the dummy bullets got stuck in the in the chamber or in the whatever it's stuck in the gun so and they don't notice again not great not great work all around so then later when that exact same gun is used to fire blanks that lead is stuck in the gun and the blank is providing the actual gunpowder so effectively you have like a full live round bullet you have like two halves of a bullet you have all the parts are now in the gun and they're not supposed to be so then they have the scene where it's supposed to look like they're shooting brandon lee and oh fuck they actually shoot right at brandon lee because they fucked up the dummy bullets blanks thing yep

Um, and I just wrote, this is why you should always have a firearms expert on set. Uh, I think something much less complicated happened with that Alec Baldwin thing in New Mexico, but that was, that was a, they weren't using union, you know, like that was another thing where they're trying to like cut costs and that's how these things happen. So, but because it was sort of like all around negligence, no criminal charges were ever fired. And we now hear from Bruce Lee's widow, Brandon Lee's mother. What was her name? Linda. She tells us that she doesn't think there's a curse. She actually thinks the family has been blessed with all this, like, success and, you know, tragedies just happened. But she feels very lucky to have known both of them. And they were both great people. So she says there's no curse. I think they just wanted to cover the story because it was just like.

I think it was very in the news at the time, but I think so too. And Brandon Lee is remembered, I assume, if there's still those kids in art class that are always drawing the crow. I don't know if that went away, but when I was a youth, there was always one kid in every art class who was sitting there drawing the crow. It was just like the coolest thing you could be drawing. So he lives on.

Now, oh, wait, you have like the shortest. I was pissed about this because I'm taking all these notes about Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee. This has like three mysteries, very in-depth. And then I have a mystery that is literally, there's nothing. There's nothing. There's no evidence. There is no suspect. No one knows what happened to this woman. She vanished out of thin air. No one's ever found any trace of her and not even a sliver of evidence. So this is going to be the fastest mystery we've ever talked about. I volunteered to go first. I don't actually know who went first last time. And I was like, this is what I get.

Yes, this is a lesson learned. So this is the case of Jodi, who's in truth. This is a missing person. So Jodi was a beloved news anchor. She worked and lived in Mason City, Iowa in 1993. She became an active member of the community as the anchor of the morning news. She was a local favorite. She had many friends, no known enemies. And one day, someone like this that's in the public eye, and it's probably very recognizable to people in that area, could just vanish. Absolutely. This is a spooky story. So what if your weather guy just vanished? Is Sven okay?

I think he is. I don't know. He's no longer. He's like doing weather Patreon now, but. People might not know there's this beloved Minneapolis weather guy named Sven. And I just know. Of course. His name is Sven. Of course. And our friend of the pod, Arden, would just be so heartbroken. I'd be devastated. If something happened to Sven. Those weather abs. As if he shows them. He doesn't. He should have the weather map projected on the abs. Oh, you know what? We should write him a letter. That's a good idea. I'm sure no one else is reading him a creepy letter. I'm sure we'll be there first.

100%. So one day Jodi vanished. She was scheduled to work her regular shift on the morning show, but she didn't arrive on time. Her producer, Amy Coons, called her apartment and she actually spoke to Jodi. So she woke her up and she describes Jodi as being confused and asking what time it is. And she told Jodi that it was like 10 to 4 or whatever and that she needed to come into work. And Jodi asked how much time is left to produce the show, which seemed, I mean, they don't really talk about it, but it seemed out of character for her to like be late and be confused and to have like overslept. And I don't know if I was woken up by my boss, I think I would be like jumping on.

bed and she was just like confused and saying weird things you would just think she would know how long it took to produce the show or whatever like she does that every day right why doesn't she know that now maybe she's just like groggy she's half asleep she's like doesn't know or maybe she's like pretty much fully asleep and just talking you know yeah absolutely um so amy didn't really think much of this she just assumed that um jody had overslept and actually she felt a little annoyed because now she had to do like twice as much work um she said that she never even considered that something bad was going on or that something bad would happen to jody So at the end of the show, when Jodi still hadn't come to work, they called the police to do a welfare check. We hear from Frank Stearns, who is an investigator for the Mason City Police. And he says that when they arrived, there were a bunch of Jodi's stuff, which seemed to be stuff that she would bring to work, was scattered all over the ground around her car, which makes you think that she was abducted on her way to her car to go to work. There was a check done around the apartment complex, but nothing else was amiss and she was nowhere to be found.

So weird. Yeah, so that afternoon, they launched a massive search, which was aided by the FBI and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. They had rescue teams that scoured the countryside. Divers went in local bodies of water. They had dogs. But there was no trace of Jodi ever found. The only possible clue was that a white Ford Ecoline van was seen in the parking lot of Jodi's apartment building around the time she disappeared. But whether that's even connected, no one knows. It's just there was a van in the parking lot. Vans do tend to be in parking lots. Or on roads. I've seen it in many places. It's true.

Basically, we just hear from investigators that say, yeah, everybody loved her. No one was out to get her. Where is she? We have no idea. I think I looked at the Unsolved Mysteries bookie and there was no update. Oh, actually, there's a lengthy update. I just thought it was part of 2001. Jodi was declared legally dead. However, no trace of her has ever been found and no one has been charged in the case. One person of interest is convicted serial rapist Tony DeHaan Jackson.

At the time of her disappearance, he was 21 and lived in Mason City, just two blocks from the TV station. In 1998, he reportedly confessed to her murder to his cellmate. He claimed that he buried her body near a farm in Tiffin, an area that he was familiar with. However, no trace of her was found there. In 2015, it was revealed that a witness came forward and linked him to Jody. According to the witness, who was a friend of his, they met at a bar shortly before her disappearance. Investigators have yet to officially name him as a suspect in the case. There is another possible suspect. It's Jody's friend, John Vesiche.

I think is probably how you pronounce it. He was one of the last people to see her before she vanished. On the night before her disappearance, she went to his home where he showed her a video of a birthday party. A video, oh, showed her a video of her birthday party. He must have, like, okay. Sorry, I was confused by that. In March 2017, police executed a search warrant for GPS data from two vehicles that he owned. Investigators stated that it was related to their investigation into Jodi's disappearance. It has not known what that information, what information, if any, was uncovered from this search.

In January, just recently, in January 2022, an investigative series on 2020 aired an episode about Jodi's case and released more information and suspects that were not previously released to the public. One of those suspects was Thomas Corsicaden. Oh my gosh, I'm pronouncing things terribly. He is a convicted sex offender currently incarcerated who, according to his ex-wife, was obsessed with Jodi and had ties to the Mason City area. At the time of Jodi's disappearance, he drove a white van, which he dubbed his, quote, porn palace.

My eyes just got so big. Well, don't like that. Don't like that at all. And as was stated in Unsolved Mysteries, a mysterious white man was reported to have been seen outside of Jodi's apartment complex in the time of her disappearance. In prison, he was also heard saying, quote, Jodi's dead, despite the fact that Jodi is still considered a missing person. A warrant was obtained to gather Corsic Caden's palm print to see if it matched one that was found on her car the day of the abduction. However, when it came to obtain the print, Corsic Caden reportedly became belligerent and refused to cooperate.

Does that mean his prints were never obtained? I don't know. And that's all you have to do to avoid justice. At the end of the 2020 episode, one of the lead detectives currently in charge of Jodi's case said that he has the person he thinks is responsible but chooses not to name names until the suspect is in custody and that he is still looking for the final tip to break the case open. Wow. So there is a website, findjodi.com, and you can watch that episode of 2020. It aired in January 2022, if you're interested in that. None of what I just read was in the episode. That was all from Unsolved Mysteries Wiki. Whoever writes these wikis is...

angels on earth because they pulled together a lot of information. Yeah, they're our real heroes. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen this many sources cited on an On Cell Mysteries wiki. There's like 40. So a lot of people are still looking for Jodi and still seeking justice for Jodi. So that gives me a lot of hope. It's just so unfortunate for her family that they've waited this long and she seems like a really nice woman. So it's just awful.

It's amazing to me how many of these cases have had recent developments. You would think that things from the 80s or 90s are just cold cases and they're dead in the water. Well, there's so much, especially, I mean, if they found her body, maybe this would be an option, but there's so many of these cases are now being solved by familial DNA. I swear it's in every episode of Dateline 2020. Everything is like, oh, and they solved it with familial DNA. It's just amazing.

Yeah, it's those killers that think they got away with it. And then like their cousin was like, you know what? I'm going to do 23andMe. Yeah, I'm going to get mom a 23andMe for Christmas. That would be fun. And the uncle's like, oh, no. Right. Oh, shit. Yeah. Which is good. Good. Dirtbags. I'm going to put them behind bars. Absolutely. So I actually get the lost love. This episode is wacky.

Upside down world. This is the case of Christy Wismer, who was looking for a child she reluctantly gave up for an adoption as a teenager. This was back in 1973. Christy was 16. Her boyfriend, Dave Carlson, was 18. This isn't a huge age gap, but something that I learned kind of recently is how often with teenage pregnancies, the father is like way older. Which I guess I sort of just assumed that, you know, it's like kids fooling around. They maybe like don't know everything, but apparently it's like usually pretty predatory. So it's extremely depressing. But anyway, they went together for six months.

But they broke up only for Chrissy to discover a week later that she was pregnant. So she has to go and tell Dave, like, you know, hey, I have something to tell you. But in this reenactment, this is what I wrote down. And I'm apologizing ahead of time. I wrote, why is Dave the ugliest man I have ever laid eyes on? Listeners, I was, Liz and I watched this the same night and I was a little ahead of her and I knew she was watching. So I just sent, with no context, I just sent a photo. I took off my, literally off my TV to Liz. Now, he has got the stringiest, longest, grossest hair I've ever fucking seen. Absolutely dying to know what your name is, mustache.

oh oh okay so it's mustache we'll see like an older dave later when he's like got his shit together or maybe maybe he never was like that and unsolved mysteries just made some really bold choices and they were like when you were young you had the yeah the the hair of a guy that hung around concert parking lots but didn't actually have tickets and also all you wore was daisy dukes and he was like i'm sorry what And Dave sat down with all his family to watch the premiere of the episode, right? About, you know, they're trying to find their daughter. And he sees this man who played him. So literally. Maybe it's accurate. I'm not sure. But damn if it is. I call Dave's mustache the insulting casting choice. Okay. That's actually appropriate. Because I would have been like, I'm sorry, what? That's who you got to play me? I would have been furious. Also, he's wearing the shortest gene cutoffs. And his legs are about.

Like the width of a twig. This man has never seen, not that I've ever really seen the inside of a gym. So, you know, I'm one to talk, but this man has skipped every leg day. He's also never seen this gun, which again, neither have I, but like, these are the palest gangliest. I'm also not. Daddy, daddy, long leg legs sticking out of these like Dukes of Hazzard shorts on a dude who then again has the worst hair. I cannot handle. He's like.

hanging around outside the guitar center, but has been banned from going in. That's who this guy is. Anyway, so by the time Christy was four months pregnant, she had started to show and her father went into a rage, which is clearly why she did not tell her parents earlier when, I don't know, they maybe could have helped her with some family planning or what have you. But her father told her that she was an embarrassment and that he couldn't possibly love her. Great parenting. Great. So the young couple considered getting married, but, you know, they had already broken up. I'm sure they broke up for a reason, right? Like, and plus all the stress of it. She's literally 16 years old.

i mean i the idea of getting married just because you're pregnant strikes me as like you stub your toe and then you're like well i might as well light myself on fire like i won't i won't care about the toe once i'm burning like one problem does not solve another just because them being young and married is not gonna make the baby thing any better that's my two cents so they decided not to get married and um Sorry. So after Christy gave birth, she was immediately separated from the baby. Her keeping the baby was not even really presented as a choice because I don't think her parents would have let it be in the house. And like, where else was she going to go? So she saw the baby. I was wondering if there's a word for this. Is there a word for like the window at the hospital you'll look at the babies through? I think it's just the nursery. Okay. So she goes to the window at the nursery. She sees the baby. They literally like, she gives birth. They snatch the baby. They run out of the room. Like she has like no skin. She has to like ask to see it.

think it was on purpose like they don't want her to get attached to the baby so she's had like no connection to it but eventually she's like look i gotta see this baby so they take her down to the nursery and she sees the baby through the window and the baby looks perfect you know she loves her and she doesn't really want to give her up but what is she gonna do and also like the guy the adoption guy comes for to her to sign the paperwork and she's like actually i'm like really tired i just fucking gave birth could we deal with this later and he's just like no like she's not really given any agency in this situation um before the baby was even 24 hours old she was already on the way to her adopted family So it's not a great situation. Both Christy and Dave went on to start families of their own later in life, but they both eventually divorced and they ended up getting back in touch. The twist is that they are a couple again because they got married in 1996. That was the twist I did not see coming. I did not see coming. They reconnected. They had shared this common experience, but they just, I don't know, were at a point in their lives that made more sense. And she was no longer 16 years old and pregnant. And yeah, they rekindled their love. And he gives the most awkward smile sitting next to her that they should have cut out.

where she's like yep we're back together and he's just sitting there and he just like smiles awkwardly and i was like way too long why did they leave that in it was like mean okay but whatever so they would like to find their long-lost daughter But, okay, so we don't get a reunion, which is bullshit. But they probably wanted their privacy, yada, yada, yada. The good news is that it only took a week after the story aired for them to be reunited. And their daughter, Katie, was very excited to meet them and, like, welcomed them into their life. And I'm just going to assume she, like, understood their situation and, you know, that it was not personal. And they got to meet their daughter. And, you know, she gets to know who her biological parents are. And everything's happy and good.

That's great. I mean, it was sad to think that, like, she wanted her, right? I know. She never would have regretted keeping her. And she missed out on so much of her daughter's life. It's just so depressing. I'm glad she got to have other children. I know that doesn't really, I don't know that that really makes any difference, but I'm glad that's, like, not her only child. But, yeah, I mean, she just didn't have a say over what happened to her. Like, her parents decided for her, and that was kind of it. And maybe she would have come to the same conclusion, but she didn't even really have the opportunity to do that. They took that away from her. And, I mean, honestly, I hope she never spoke to her father again. If he's telling her that he doesn't love her.

Oh, no contact. I mean, honestly. Burned down that man's house, yeah. I was like, it just sounds like a very violent person. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, no thanks. So wherever he is, I hope he's dead. I hope he fell in a well and he never got out. But it sounds like mother and daughter and father were all reunited and that seems good. It wouldn't be the first episode of a new season if you didn't say you wish someone was dead. Well, I take it to saying that I wish people fell in a well and took it out because I've been in Twitter jail a few times.

First of all, I'm not coming for anyone. I'm not going to kill anyone. You're not going to push them in the well. There's a well in their path. But somehow if you don't say that they're literally dead, that seems to be like, they're just in a cave and the cave caves in and then they live in the cave. Yeah, they're in the well. They stay in the well. They hang out with the newts that are in the well and that's it. The end. Oh my goodness. Okay, so I have another one. This is another really short one. I kind of got off easy this week. This is a Wanted.

All I have written down for this is Samantha's case equals Detective Ken has a large red mustache called He's Just Ken. It's appropriate. If you don't know, the promotion for the Barbie movie is like Barbie is everything. He's just Ken. Anyway, he's just Ken. And his glow in the dark tuxedo fucking sucks. His tuxedo fucking sucks. I don't know if you've seen that ad for the Barbie movie.

Honestly, I took notes on this. And do I fucking remember a thing? No, I literally watched it last night. Because it's so boring. It's very forgettable. It's extremely forgettable. I'm going to forget about it the second we stop recording. So we're looking for a dangerous fugitive who's eluding authorities in North Carolina. We're looking for Antonio Castro.

On July 23rd, 1994, a young man in a Chevy Suburban sped southbound along Interstate 5 in Shasta County, California. Hot in his tail was Highway Patrol Officer Kevin Benson. Officer Benson had no idea that he was following a very dangerous fugitive. This was Tony Castro, who was a Mexican national with a long rap sheet for violent offenses. Three days earlier, he had attacked a man named William Goulart while he was repairing a heating system. He had stabbed him, kicked him, and left him on the floor. He went through his pockets to find his keys and stole his car.

for this murder to get a car and like some guns or something did you really have to kill him well he did it he survived but uh he did all right kick him which is rude i meant did you really have to stab him i mean it seems unnecessary i think if you would have brandished a knife he probably would have given you so two days later the burned out shell of william goulard's car was found 800 miles away in washington state the day before just down the road 72 year old mike uh fenduff had been murdered in his farmhouse this is the murder according to detective ken who's just ken uh i'm not gonna try and pronounce this guy's last name tiscornia Oh, my goodness. Of Skaget County Sheriff's Department, Tony Castro was the prime suspect in Mike Fedef's murder. He was beaten and shot twice. Detective Kenseth is one of the worst cases he's ever seen. So apparently this guy was murdered for his gun collection and his truck. Officer Benson. Okay, sorry. This is who I was thinking of. He's going around, yeah, trying to kill people and in some cases successfully killing people. I got this mixed up with the first victim.

Okay, anyway. You shouldn't go around stabbing people and taking their cars. It's not very neighborly. It's not the Minnesota thing to do. It's not. It's very rude. So Officer Benson kept Castro in his sights for about 10 miles and eventually trapped him in a cul-de-sac. There was an empty forest, though, up in the distance. And there's a hilarious reenactment of this guy, like, getting out of his car and being like, you can't fucking catch me and just, like, peace now. Officer Benson pulled up behind him. Castro exited his vehicle and fled into the wilderness. Within an hour, Captain Ron Richardson...

of the Shasta County Sheriff's Department led a manhunt in the Sacramento River Canyon. They said that there was nothing that would lead them to believe that he wouldn't commit basically murders to try and get away. He already murdered someone just for their car. He wasn't acting rational. And so at this point, they thought he was extremely dangerous.

In order to safely apprehend him, 40 police units were dispatched. The highway patrol put out extra squad cars on the interstate and they had trackers combing the Sacramento River and SWAT teams checking freight trains that ran through the canyon. However, there was no sign of Antonio Castro. As nightfall approached, Captain Richardson was forced to pull the trackers out of the canyon and that they just kind of hoped that Castro would be found the next day. However, he continued to confound authorities. As far as anyone knows, he did not harm anyone that night. The next morning, he showed up in the small town of Lakehead, which was eight miles south of where the chase had begun. He actually purchased a car this time for $200 from a local woman, which seems like he could have just done that in the first place, but instead of murdering someone. Maybe he needed the money from the people he murdered to later buy a car. Maybe. There was also the gun collection, I'm sure.

Mike wasn't parting with that. He managed to elude one of the largest manhunts in Northern California history. The authorities feel very fortunate that no one was hurt during Castro's flight through the Sacramento River Canyon, but they also fear that the next time Castro is cornered, he may lash out and kill another person. So he's wanted for murder. You said that so boring.

He's wanted for murder. Who cares? Blah, blah, blah. Who's another wanted? I mean, this is a wanted from 1994. It's funny that we're talking about this. Get in the car. We are going to catch him. Oh, apparently no one ever found him. He's still out there somewhere. We're going to do it. Let's go. Let's roll. This guy is definitely going to stab us and take our vehicle. So let's go find him.

Yep, you can still see his FBI wanted poster. He's still out there. Should be considered armed and dangerous, so keep an eye out. And also old at this point. At this point, extremely old. Look out for an old man who stabs people for cars.

hopefully his stabbing days are behind him but he should these people do deserve justice so hopefully he's found but he's in a retirement home somewhere stabbing people yeah yeah the thing is he doesn't realize it's a plastic knife and tony you can't be stabbing people over the mashed potatoes you gotta stop this they're just annoyed they gave him one of those halloween knives that's plastic and retracts he thinks he's stabbing he gets the joy of stabbing but nobody actually gets hurt that's the therapy for it He's like, haha, another victim. And everybody's just going about their day. I assume. I assume that's how a retirement home will be. It's honestly a great solution for someone who's stabbing. Here you go, sir. And maybe has dementia. I mean, I'm not sure. He's like, wow, what a great knife. He loves it. He's happy. He's got to stab people. That's what he loves to do. It's his favorite. It's his favorite hobby. Stabbing. Keeps him feeling young. Yeah. It makes him feel young again. He's like, oh, remember when I was in The Greatest Manhunt? Blah, blah, blah. People were like, you were in what? He's like, oh, nothing. Stab, stab, stab.

He's mixing his soup. His fake knife. Anyway. All right. So I have an honest. Is this unhinged banter? I guess so. I've come up with a creative solution for all the stabbers in retirement homes out there. Give them those retactual knives. I think I thought of this because in like kindergarten, a kid took me into the courtroom and stabbed me with one of those. And I was so scared because obviously I was a little child. I didn't know that technology existed. And I thought I was getting stabbed. I can't breathe.

I thought this little boy was like killing me. Oh my god. But no. Am I dead now? Am I been murdered? I really thought he was like gonna stab me. Am I gonna be out on some mysteries? Yeah. But no. It was. It was a trick knife. So I'm fine, everyone. Just probably scarred from life. You're not dead. You are not a ghost. Scarred from life by the time a little boy tricked me into going in a cold room and then pretended to stab me. Wow. Okay. Now, this last segment here is an unexplained.

This episode is so weird and it's a variety of mysteries. It feels long. Like it feels longer somehow. Usually I love a dream mystery. If you are one of the five, you know that I love the ones about like prophetic dreams and stuff. Unfortunately, this prophetic dream is also a war story. So it's great. Kind of takes the fun out of it. Whatever. Snack describes this as a spine tingling experience, which I just thought was very funny. Weird way to talk about like someone's friend being a prisoner of war in Iraq, but okay. It was a spine tingling experience.

Wow. Okay, children. Back in 1991, in January, the U.S. attacked Iraq. And the first night of bombing on Baghdad was shown on television, which was novel at the time. And Joe O'Brien of Crestland, California, was watching with special interest, particularly when he suddenly saw one of his friends on TV, which I cannot imagine. Imagine, Samantha, you're like, oh, my God, we're really going to war. This is really happening. And you're like sitting down in front of CNN or whatever, eating your... And then you just show up. Yes! You're like eating your mac and cheese. And then it's like, I'm sorry, was that Liz? Was Liz just taken prisoner?

Because it was his longtime friend, a Kuwaiti pilot that was fighting with the Allied Forces, Mohammed Mabak, who was nicknamed Sammy. Okay. Now, the first time we see Sammy isn't a photo. And I feel like it's maybe not the best photo, but that's the photo that I used to name his mustache. Well, his mustache is very large, very thick. It is a fuzzy, perfect rectangle. We later see Sammy in like present day of Unsolved Mysteries. It's better. He's like learned how to groom it or something. But in this case, I said, okay, that is just a rug.

It's literally a perfect rectangle. I've never seen anything like it. That's a lip rug. Yeah, I was like, that's just a rug. That's not a mustache. Anyway, we learned that Joe had met Sammy 16 years previously on a training mission. Unfortunately, his plane was shot down and he was taken prisoner by the Iraqis. So, whoa, Joe was startled to see him on television that night and was obviously concerned that he would be tortured or killed to set an example.

Joe eventually fell into a fitful sleep where he had his wild dream. He dreamt that he actually was Sammy and that he was seeing things through his eyes in the cell. He saw a very small cell with high ceilings and a window that was high up. The floor was extremely cold and in the light it looked maroon in color, possibly tiled. He was super uncomfortable with intense pain in both of his wrists and hands. He was also extremely happy to have this like striped fabric, like this big stripy blanket. He woke up abruptly from the dream in a cold sweat and he had never experienced anything like it before. So the next morning he meets a friend for coffee.

And his friend comments that his hands are like red and still in pain. Like he's having trouble even like lifting up the coffee cup in the diner. So he tells his friend about this dream. Apparently the pain in his hand didn't go away for five days. We hear from his friend that he met, who also has a mustache that I called One Loyal Buddy, because this guy completely believes Joe's story. He tells us Joe's a stand-up dude. He doesn't make up shit. Like, there's no reason why he would lie about this. One loyal buddy. Yeah, he's one loyal buddy. Because, yeah, he was there to, you know, just tell us we should trust Joe, I guess. Okay. So, fortunately, the next time Joe saw Sammy on television, it was because he was on his way to freedom. He was being released. Yay! Yeah, yeah.

After his spine tingly experience, he was being released. So Joe immediately was able to call the hospital where he was being treated and they connected, you know, he made sure Sammy was okay. The following Christmas, Sammy came to visit Joe, which I think is like super sweet. During the visit, this must have been really weird. It's like, they showed it like they're like at the table late at night. Maybe they're like pouring yourself some coffee. And he's like, all right, Sammy, I got to tell you something. Sammy's like, okay. And he begins to describe his dream. And apparently Sammy was dumbstruck because every detail he described.

of the cell was accurate. And also they had put the handcuffs on him so tight when they were transporting him that he had cut into his wrists and had caused pain in his hands. Oh, fascinating. Joe was also, that piece of fabric was apparently the blanket that was in Sammy's cell and was the only piece of comfort he had. Like there wasn't a bed or anything. So he's just like lying on this cold, horrible floor with his injured wrists and just this one blanket over him. So apparently it was 100% accurate in every way. I believe this completely. I kind of do too. I don't really see why he would make it up. And it's just a cool story. So I've chosen to believe it. Why not? There's literally no harm.

Robert Stack ends by saying, perhaps it is proof that true friendship cannot be bound by time, distance, or dimension. That's beautiful. I know. That's how I feel about you, Samantha. Here we are, podcasting over, you know, a couple miles. We're not bound by time or space. Time, distance, or dimension. Yeah, the dimensions have nothing on us. They can't stop this podcast. All right, that is the end of the episode. Oh, thank goodness. Now we can rate it. Okay, so our Robert Stack, no, our rating scale, oh my god, I've already forgotten how to do this. Mysteriousness is our first category.

Okay, let's see. The first one is not mysterious whatsoever. But the second one is extremely mysterious. Yeah, the weather lady is actually very mysterious. But nothing else is. I mean, dreams. You know what? I'm going to give it a hesitant thumbs up. I think so because I believe your last one and I feel like it's kind of mysterious. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go with that. Reenactments.

oh um that dude yeah yeah i don't know if we've talked about that fashion or in it's both but the thing is it's so bad it's good like it's so bad you sent it to me so that's a thumbs up right there you guys see some car chases i don't know uh they definitely they were bad when they should have been bad and they were good when they should have been good thumbs up Okay, fashion is our next category. And this episode was chock full of mustaches. A lot of mustaches and some really short shorts. I feel like we haven't had a solid mustache episode in a while. Yeah, we're getting like, it's too like out of fashion. So we're really just seeing it with law enforcement. But then this episode, some people were like, no, this is my thing. This is my signature look and I'm sticking with it. This is my greasy blonde mustache. I have a mustache that used to look like a rug and now I've learned how to groom it correctly. Like, yeah, yeah. I think just for that and also the shorts.

And I think there were some good plaid moments, by which I'm being bad. Yeah, I'm going thumbs up. Okay, thumbs up. Thumbs up for sure. And Robert Stack, who was so poetic in this episode. Like, what is going on? Did they get new writers? Maybe. Maybe they've started just stockpiling quotes about, like, the importance of mystery so that they can work them into these little segments. They're doing something. I mean, I liked it. I wish she was outside, but I'll give it a thumbs up. Why not?

Thumbs up, sure. Okay, so now it's a Robert Stack scale from zero to five Robert Stack. Look, I did not like this one. I found it laborious. Maybe if you don't take notes on it, you will not think that, but I found it a chore. It's kind of forgettable and nothing in it was like... I feel like they ruined the cool dream story because it involves the war. Liz, what can they do about that if it's true? I don't know, but... I sort of want to go watch the 2020, the most recent 2020 of the Jodi Who's in truth. Yeah, that's like almost the most interesting one and they covered it for five seconds. So that seems kind of inexcusable. Is it a three?

I think a three. It's a middle of the road forgettable. Yeah. Yeah. There are some hilarious moments there. I mean, I mean, those shorts. We get a pre. That was literally a second. That was literally a second. We get to remember Bruce Lee, but that kind of is not a mystery at all. Yeah. I'm just saying three. I just don't, I think we will hit end on recording this and somehow just by editing it and listening to it and whatever, we will never remember anything that we said or anything we talked about. Correct. And it'll just be gone. Correct. Okay. So that's that.

Close that. Do you have anything to recommend for our first episode of season eight? I do because I don't have anything. Well, fortunately you can talk to me about it too. I was just wondering if we needed, it's like, oh, we came up with stacks and snacks with stack. I don't know how we make recommendations stack related, but we'll just claim stack would have loved this. Perfect. Okay. So I wanted to talk about a book we read for book club that I loved, which was the girls by Emma Klein. A book I've been meaning to read forever. And just, I've always put it off. This was a huge, this came out. When did this come out?

2016 and it was a big deal and i think maybe it was like such a big deal that i was like it can't be that good no i have this reaction to really popular books all the time i was like it can't really be that good i don't believe you no it's really that good it's really really fucking good so it is like loosely inspired by the manson murders it's it's the name charles manson doesn't come up it's just that kind of dynamic it's based on that kind of thing and it takes place like half in the 60s half in the present this female character remembering when she was 14 years old and kind of got like suckered into this cult that was orbiting this sketchy dude and her in the modern world kind of like how that all connects and i just thought the writing of this is so good like it's really well written it's like the sentences are beautiful but also i think it's just so believable and i think it's portrayal of just how much it fucking sucks to be 14 years old was like spot on now i don't know that other 14 year olds i certainly was not as insightful as a 14 year old maybe other 14 year olds are um but that like window into that world is just like so well done and like the reasons she ends up with the cult and just like

all of that stuff. I just felt it like very, like just like transporting you to that time and like what that would have been like and how that could happen to anyone. If it's just, you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Right. Like you're especially vulnerable. Like I think, I think we all think that we're like too smart or too savvy or whatever to get sucked into something like that. And I think this was a good fictional exploration of how it's more of like when you're at your lowest low, if someone happens to come like right then, like.

you know what will happen um but yeah it's the way it's written it's just so good it's beautifully written but also like vulgar and visceral in a way that is just like so well done that it's not i haven't read anything like this in a long time and i really enjoyed it um yeah i just thought it was really good it's very anti-man which i'm not saying colored how much we liked it but like it's just like there's not a good man in this book and it's just kind of like doesn't it suck to be a woman you can't trust any man like i don't know it was just very good and not what i expect i don't know what i expected but um It just exceeded, like, my expectations a lot. It reminds me sort of of The Virgin Suicides, which is one of my favorite books. I think if you like that book, you would like this book. I mean, it's only sort of similar in, like, tone, I guess. But, yeah, just, like, what an experience. I felt, like, so lucky to read it. Yeah, I agree. It's one of the best books I've read in years. So I would definitely recommend picking that up. And if you didn't like it, like, I don't want to hear about it. Don't care. That is not interesting to me.

I have been a little bit on book talk lately and there's a thing that people have been doing where it's like these are the books that I will accept no criticism about and it's like it makes me laugh every time I see one because I'm just like yes we all have those books where it's like I don't want to hear it like you can tell me whatever like don't just don't tell me like I don't want to hear that you don't like this book because it's I mean it's objectively good yeah I just remember like I read this book on vacation which was such a treat and I just remember closing it and being like okay this is like instantly a favorite for me like I just love it 100% I'm a fan like yeah I will be taking no criticism about this time I don't need to process it. I'm all in. This is very up my alley. I'm very on board with the whole whatever. So that's my recommendation. I second it. I also very much liked it. Should we talk about another book that we both read?

Sure. You're like, no. I was also going to say The Echo Wife. Oh, yeah. I love that book. And the other book that you read by her, I feel like I'm very close to getting it off my whole list at the library. Oh, that's good because I want to talk about it. So I recently listened to the audio book for The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey after I listened to this other book by her, which is what?

Just Like Home? Just Like Home, I think. And I really, I thought it was very well written, but I wasn't like 100% sold on the twist. So I was like, oh, I want to see what else is by this author. And I listened to this audiobook and I thought this was very, very well done. So the premise of this is a woman perfects human cloning, but then her husband makes a clone of her and leaves her for her clone. Fantastic premise. And I'm not spoiling anything. That's literally where you start, is this woman's like, oh, I'm so glad I perfected cloning. Too bad you left me for my own clone.

Like, yeah, what a premise. I think she is such a good writer. Good writing. Like she, her writing is really good. Yeah. Books are really well written. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I feel like we don't always like the same things in books. Like we're just like, like you're more interested in world building and I kind of like a narrower focus, like blah, blah, blah. Right. Like we, we don't necessarily have the same taste in fiction, but so it's interesting that for both of these, we're both like, yes, this hits the spot for me. Like this premise is just so wild, but then it like really delivers on it in like a pretty realistic way. Like you're not expected to like keep buying all of this.

outrageous stuff like if you can you know believe in a world where there is human cloning then that's that's it right it doesn't like keep getting more and more ridiculous so i appreciate that it was like pretty grounded i guess i'm trying to say yeah the sci-fi elements if you're someone that kind of steers clear of sci-fi because you don't like hard sci-fi i feel like you'd like this because it's like very believable and like just just a touch like kind of just a touch of sci-fi i feel like she does very good characters being morally complicated like I feel like there is a trend I guess I would call it the like YA-ification of American fiction where like as YA has become so popular that that sort of bled into like all other books for adults where like there's just not a ton of nuance sometimes obviously I'm not talking about everyone very generally where there's good guys there's bad guys there's like clear morals there's clear you know I'm not interested in any of that if I start reading your book and I go oh this author grew up loving Harry Potter I'm sending that audiobook right back to the library like two minutes in like I'm done because I want something and I want the moral ambiguity like I think that's the interesting stuff so this if you like that then you're gonna love this book yeah it's all about that kind of like

like where's the line here and you know are are all of these like maybe there's no good characters in this book right like maybe everyone is the villain and that i was like yes yes yes give me the more yeah no i thought it was really good so there you go you got homework everyone you got a few book recommendations i actually got you recommended another book to me i don't know if you want to keep dragging this out but you recommended another book to me that i haven't started yet but i did get from the library um oh hide yes i was like what the hell is it called um yeah it's on my list to start oh it's doing 11 days i better get going it's pretty quick um That is by Kirsten White. Okay, so let's talk about that after you've read it. And maybe you'll hate it. I will accept criticisms of that book. I'll read it. It looks like it's pretty short. We'll read it before we record next. And so, yeah, okay. Listen to that. Welcome to the Perhapsody Book Club, guys. What? What? Yeah, I think that's where we're going to come to a close. Thanks for sticking with us to season eight, everybody. Hell yeah. Chris, I hope you're still here. Hi, Chris. This goes out to Chris. Thanks for listening to our unhinged banter. We gave Chris what Chris wanted in this episode. To everybody.

We're going to need those five star reviews to keep us going. We're going to need some Kit Kats to keep us going. So there is an address on our website where you can send along those gifts and goodies. Yes, it's for an acupuncture clinic. Send it there. That is correct. Oh, Patreon. So as you might expect for our Unsolved Mysteries Rewatch podcast, our latest Patreon was about the Rob Lowe movie, Dog Gone. Literally about a missing dog. It's not as we suspected called Man Fuck This Dog. This is a spoiler, but Rob Lowe doesn't punt the dog off a cliff. That is...

disappointing to me but i'm glad that no dogs were harmed um so if you want us to hear us discuss that why wouldn't you yeah you definitely need to sign up for our patreon that's also where you'll find all of the reboot episodes so this month we're definitely going to be talking about the huge hilarious flop the snowman which is a movie that i think came out in like 2017 that makes very little sense i'm currently in the process of taking notes on that movie which clearly i love you patrons because it is it is complicated it's hard to take notes on a movie that doesn't like make sense where the poor things are like introduced in the plot and like never connected to anything there's so much of me going for some reason is in my notes like and then this happens for some reason that is never explained anyway that is what we will i'm samantha hasn't seen it yet i'm forcing her to watch the snowman So we can talk about it with you, the five. I mean, we could have watched Carnosaur for Patreon, but that's going to be a discussion for another day. I'm fully up for watching Carnosaur for Patreon. Or Carnosaur two or three or four. If you are unaware, which I was unaware until very recently, that in 1992, Roger Corman made like a Jurassic Park ripoff before Jurassic Park even came out. It was essentially the trailer and like promo stuff was out. So they rushed out a dinosaur movie as fast as they could, which is somehow based on a book. That book's got to be fucking wild.

You should probably read that for book club. But anyway, it is this low budget dinosaur movie that goes to very strange places. And as a late birthday celebration, I made Samantha watch it. I had never seen it before. It's free on YouTube. I don't think whoever owns a copyright for that is like enforcing it or cares. So you could go watch Carnasaur right now. It is one of the strangest things I've ever seen. Certainly the strangest. The whole thing is a fever dream. Fucking bizarre. Certainly the strangest movie I've ever seen that was in French. Like, so odd. The tone of it.

i can't get over it like most bad movies people know they're making something bad and they don't even really try and it's kind of like jokey but this is like this took itself very seriously but despite the fact that it's like at one point i'm pretty sure there was just a small dinosaur puppet on the hand of the camera operator running with the camera and then like waving the dinosaur puppet in front of it as he ran i mean they like act like they're making aliens or something like everybody is taking it so fucking seriously and you're like but i think that dinosaur is made out of foam and like held it by a stick like what are you doing it's so bizarre it might not even be real you're right we might have both had a fever dream there might be a gas leak in my house Did you see that Twitter thread that one time? Where that woman was having all these weird experiences and it turned out it literally was this leak by her bed. Oh my god. It was like this radon. She came back and was like, okay guys, my apartment is not haunted. I have this radon leak that's right by my bed. Put that on the list with Stachibotras. Yes, absolutely. Now we'll actually end. Goodbye. Keep working.