Before we get to our show, here is a podcast we think you're going to love. That sounds like a scratchy robot chicken. 12-inch B.A. Baraka's dolls. You do love 12-incher. Here we go. It worked how I think it's going to work. It's going to be bang average. Oh, I'm just over it now. Start recording for perhaps it's you.
Hi, everybody. It's perhaps it's you, as you might have heard from my beautiful song. And this is everybody's absolute favoritest Unsolved Mysteries rewatch podcast. There are millions of them, but obviously we're the gold standard. We're the best. We're definitely in your top five. No, we have a no. We're the best one. Well, we are the best one, but it might be bold to claim that we're everybody's favorite, but we're probably in everyone's, I'm going to say top five. You're too humble. We are in the top 1.5% of all podcasts in the entire world, Samantha. According to that sketchy website, we are.
Yeah, and I have no reason to believe that that's not true. I have not seen any evidence to suggest that that is a lie. You can't put something on the internet that isn't true. Yeah, exactly. So we have to think before you talk.
oh boy okay hello hello hello everyone hello bd wong we're here once again to discuss an episode of classic unsolved mysteries brought to you by dennis farina no robert stack get out here with that dennis farina bullshit yeah i mean rest in peace to him but that's not what we're doing and do we have any any updates before we get started um i feel like we may have several holy water related updates oh yes strange strange times we live in but uh In our last episode, we discussed the miracle of Lewards. I didn't realize how strongly people felt about holy water. I assumed that if someone was going to be offended by that, my coverage of that segment, it would be my, my statement. I believe the quote was Jesus easy bake oven is the phrase. I speculated that, that communion wafers might be cooked in a Jesus easy bake oven. And that's what turns them into Jesus. No man that you're wrong. That didn't seem to offend people or it probably offended some people, but they were kind enough not to bring it up. But yeah, people are very strong.
feelings about holy water which i would like someone to explain to me whether or not the water the lord's water isn't holy water it is no because it's not holy but it's not holy water is that true holy water is blessed by a priest and that is the the water at lords i'm kind of obsessed with this water now is is just a miracle it's miracle water it's slightly different it hasn't been blessed for like i don't know baptisms and stuff like that it's just people go to see if they can be cured at lords so okay some people seem to object to me saying i wanted to drink the water which i wasn't saying to be like i don't know an edgelord i just want to see if it'll cure me but i looked at how people go there and drink it i'm not I'm not just making up that up. They sell it. Yeah, they literally sell it. We didn't realize until we started looking into this, but you can purchase it directly from Lourdes. Liz sent me an Instagram post of someone drinking it out of a straw with a straw, like a juice box. Yeah, there's fountains there. Some people like bathe in it or like splash it on themselves, but people do drink it. That's not just me being- They turn it into products. There's soap. Yeah, there's mints. There's breath mints.
So you can consume, clearly you can consume it if they are, like, okay, you could claim they're selling the water, but you're not meant to drink it, but they're selling it in breath mint. So you're obviously meant to consume that. So I felt, I felt kind of bad for a moment because I wasn't trying, you know, so much to be rude about it. I just wanted to see if I could be cured and, you know, if people drink the water. So, and they sell it, but I would be very touched if someone would sneak in a little soy sauce fish and fill that up for me. But if anybody wants to send us the water from the words, my offer still stands. I will drink it. And if I'm cured, I'm dedicating my life to Christ.
sure i'll eat a breath mint and if that cures me i'll dedicate my life to christ now it does have to cure all my ailments and i have several uh that's the deal yeah that's a deal a one i mean we're not on death's door like some of these people we heard so yeah it's a low bar yeah i feel like it should be able to cure us yeah um some people objected to the the number of people we said were cured 69 look we didn't pick the coolest funniest number that is from the church itself um And yeah, maybe there's been other undocumented cases of healing, but we're going to go with what the church has substantiated. I think that's fair. If you were a believer that the Lord's water this spring has miraculous healing properties, I don't know why you would even consider non-verified claims. The Catholic Church has to verify that it's a miracle in order for you to even consider that. I mean, that's why I can say I was cured. Someone sent us an Amazon link. You can buy this freaking water on Amazon. I'm sure it's not the actual water. I'm sure someone's bottling it in their basement. But I could buy that on Amazon, drink it, and say that I was cured. And that doesn't mean I was.
Like, the church would have to verify in order for it to count. That's where the 69 number is coming from. The church. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it'll be 70 people tomorrow. It might be after we get those breath mints, but we won't know until we eat them. The other thing is that we found an obituary for someone who was named Lorraine Echeverria. And someone pointed out that we said, I said, on the air, that that person died at 73. And Lorraine Echeverria...
went to Lourdes to be cured at the age of 15 which means she would only be 60 years old right now so that could not have been her look I can't do math yeah I didn't that didn't occur to me at all for a moment I was like looking up the obituary again like this can't be right I can't be wrong because maybe we don't take criticism well I don't know but no I was completely wrong uh Lorena Traveria is probably still alive I there's only one obituary for a Lorena Traveria and it seems to be her mom I didn't realize that her mom they had the same name um oh well that's just confusing it is confusing that's not your fault I absolve you if I could do math I would probably have some sort of hit science podcast not one of 1400 unsolved mysteries podcast some sort of hit science podcast i don't know less than that but that podcast samantha's hit science podcast you're yeah explaining successful yeah samantha can you okay so the universe is expanding what is it expanding into that's what i want you to cover on your hit science podcast expansion yeah okay yeah like it like it does
Well, I'll be tuning into that for sure. I would like to thank listener Erin for an amazing illustration of the Bay Road Beast. Amazing is an understatement. I love this thing. It's so funny to me. Of the Bay Road Beast, which lists its traits as... Wait, what are they? What are they again? Yeah, it says Wanted Beast of Bay Road.
five to seven foot tall annoying very muscular and then the bay road breeze is saying i am better than you if you don't subscribe to our patreon we covered the documentary called the bray road beast which is supposedly a werewolf people saw in rural wisconsin and uh spoiler alert the documentary is not that great and i'm pretty sure i solved the mystery of werewolves two seconds into it but And hilariously, this werewolf is described as anywhere from five to seven feet tall, which they seem to point to as evidence that is very conclusive that people had to have seen a werewolf because it was somewhere between five and seven feet tall. I don't remember if we called it annoying or someone in the documentary called it annoying. No, I think we were just annoyed. Well, we were. Yeah. So, yeah, annoying is one of its traits. And also, someone said it was very muscular. Someone called it very muscular. And someone else said, I think it might be the woman who seems to have dedicated her whole life to this cryptid. She described it as thinking it was better than everyone else.
She said that a lot of people felt like it was trying to convey a message. And one of the examples of that message is I am better than you, which is very arrogant. Beast of Bay Road. It also directly contradicts its behavior, which is cowering in ditches primarily. Eating roadkill. Look, Beast of Bay Road. I eat very little roadkill. So I think actually I'm better than you. Cough up a dollar. Head over to our Patreon. You'll get access to that episode as well as like over 40 other episodes. I went back because I was bored this weekend.
I listened to our Rob Lowe episodes, our Low Files episodes. They are so funny. We said it over and over again in our coverage of the Low Files that we wish there were more episodes of the Low Files. I really do. I do wish there were more episodes of that show. It was so fun to talk about. We did squeeze three episodes, three Patreon episodes out of that. Shallow well that is the Low Files.
God damn, it was so funny. Or I really want to go back and listen to our Bar Rescue episode. Oh yeah, that's a good one. Because Travis and I were trying to find something to watch and we wound up on YouTube and YouTube suggested Bar Rescue to us. I was like, oh, I remember when we talked about that for Patreon randomly. But that's the kind of coverage. No, I think that was like, I don't even think that was for Patreon maybe. That might have been like our one year anniversary special. Why did we do that? Because we had talked about it. I don't know. That's so funny. I forgot. We did that just for a free episode. Yeah, I'm kind of obsessed with Holy Water now.
from my research. I want it. I want to be cured and I want the cool bottles that they come in. That's true. The water from Lourdes comes in amazing bottles. There's a wide variety of bottles to choose from and some of them are very kitschy and some of them are just like...
I don't know. Quaint? It seems like you could go to any random thrift store and the chance of finding a bottle of Lord's water is good. I don't know. I've never found one. But then again, I would never have been looking until now. What's funny is like, you know how you don't know that something exists and then you learn it and you suddenly start seeing it everywhere. I feel like that's this Lord's water. Yeah, no, for sure. Also, I was looking up. I feel like Unsolved Mysteries did not do the location justice. The Basilica is, I mean, I should have known. It's like France. It's so pretty.
and then the actual like oh there that's that's by the end of the day of looking up into stuff from from lord's water i was telling him like i want to go here and he's like wow this has been a journey i think so yeah absolutely yeah it's just a it's a pilgrimage site but other people go it looks beautiful and then in the grotto there's like the statue of the virgin mary but like surrounded by greenery and this giant like candelabra thing i don't know it just looks cool i think we should check it out so definitely sign up for our patreon because samantha and i need to fly to france We're saving up that pod cash. We're going to need thousands and thousands of dollars. We're going to need a few more patrons. So that we can drink that sweet, sweet water fresh from the source. You know? Yeah, it's got to be better fresh, don't you think? I would think so. Maybe more powerful. Not for Bernadette, though. The person who discovered it and couldn't be cured. I do need someone to explain to me Bernadette's situation. Poor Bernadette. Poor Bernadette. That is grim. She's the only reason for all this bullshit and it didn't even save her. No, she died at 35. Oh, rest in peace, Bernadette. I'm sorry.
Any other updates? Any unholy water related updates? I don't have any. I was gonna think... Laurel for their very nice email. It was just basically telling us how much, how great we are. So thank you, listener Laurel. We love emails like this. We need the ego boost. We need the encouragement to keep going. You know, money is also good. Five star reviews. Five star reviews, of course. Yes. Always good. But a little email just to stroke her ego. I mean, thank you, Laurel. Much appreciated. So we are on season six, episode 17. The episode I wanted to do last time. We're actually here now.
And can you see why I thought you'd be so jealous of my first segment? Yes, because your first segment is a pet mystery. And I was like, oh my God, why doesn't Unsolved Mysteries have a pet mystery every episode? Not only is it a pet mystery, but it's basically a lost love with pets. It's so good. Which I didn't even know I needed. No, I love it. It's like my favorite now. Okay, so this is considered the unexplained, which is also amazing. And it opens with Robert Snack in a turtleneck with a beautiful collie. Like a star lassie collie. Is this the dog actor that...
Play Lassie? I mean, I think there's been a bunch of Lassies over the years. Well, true. Okay. So this is the mystery of animals who found their way home, guided by, quote, their own mysterious radar. And Robert Stagg calls it truly one of nature's most baffling mysteries. So this is a couple instances of animals who found their way home when that should have been impossible.
and it's just adorable so our first case is sue anderson originally from baltimore in 1992 she packed up for a cross-country move to modesto california it was um so it was her in her truck with all of her belongings and five pet cats this woman is driving down the street which is a cab full of cats they're full of cats like cats on a dashboard cats on top of her head like i can't imagine trying to drive while there's like yeah five cats like pet me pet me anyway these are the names of the the pet the cats and i want to know which one you like best There is Puss, Cinderella, Booger, Nova, and Stardust. I really like Stardust, but Booger is hilarious to me. And also the idea that you would have a cat just called Puss. I can't pick a favorite. I actually kind of feel bad for Booger. Like maybe Booger is not the favorite cat because that's not like a super nice name. I think naming your cat Stardust is so like pure and sincere. Like that's just an act of love. Like a seven-year-old would name their cat Stardust and I love it.
But also Cinderella is good. I don't know. They're pretty good. Okay. So she was also caravaning with her brother who was in a separate vehicle because they were both moving west. And we learned that she was especially fond of Nova because cat favoritism, who was a black cat who had been left outside her apartment and she had like let in and cared for and they had become very close. So towards the end of her trip, Nova started to act strange and needy. And I was like, yeah, it's because you have these cats in a cab of a truck. She was on the road for 10 days.
which just sounds so distracting why don't you put them in carriers uh samantha that's cruel i don't know i really don't uh 10 well she's literally driving from one coast to the other coast but i was like 10 days of driving just with loose cats in the cam of your truck yeah i i did like a two-day across the country move with a guinea pig and that was in a cage and that was bad enough it was bad enough to keep getting that guinea pig lettuce anyway so her and her brother pulled over to a rest stop about 200 miles from their final destination so they could sleep until morning. Unfortunately, during the night, Nova escaped through like, you know, the crack in the lowered window. So when Sue wakes up, she realizes that Nova got out. She's very upset. They searched for about an hour but couldn't find her and they had to leave without her. This is a terrible feeling. Have you ever had a pet get out and go missing? Any, yeah. It's a horrible, hopeless feeling.
I know, you feel very irresponsible, even if your pet is just a jerk. You feel like, oh no, I've let it down, and what if I can't find it? The thought of being out there lost and sad and scared and cold or whatever is horrible. Or the idea that you might never find them and just never know what happens to them. Yeah. I hate even seeing lost pet posters. Back when I had a guinea pig, I would see lost pet posters and be like, oh good, this can't be me. My guinea pig can't get anywhere. But now, I'm looking at Lenny right now, a little jerk.
It could definitely be him. They're crafty. You want to get inside their head and be like, what do you think is out there? Like, you're not going to have it better. No, they had it so good. They have all your meals hand delivered to you. Air conditioning. Like, you're not going to get it, have a better life out there beyond the fence. I mean, it's probably just like a smile or, yeah, I don't know. Lenny's just naughty. So he's like, we got to get out.
who knows anyway sue started a new job and a co-worker this is very sweet gave her a picture of a black cat she like felt bad she lost her cat so sue hangs this up in her cubicle and she said that she would look at it every day and pray that nova would find her way home why in the reenactment does she color the picture of the cat's eyeballs with a yellow highlighter i don't know but it's just there's something sweet about it it's also if the reenactment is correct this picture that her co-worker gives her is literally just like a black and white printout of like a halloween cat and i'm trying to imagine your co-worker walking over and being like i'm so sorry you lost your cat here i took five seconds to print this out for you like what an awkward i don't know but clearly clearly she really appreciated it and yeah she colored in the the eyeballs with a highlighter for some reason and that seems to have literally prayed to it look we can't judge because it worked well that co-worker was very sweet but her other co-workers seemed to be dicks because she tells us oh everybody was like move on it's just a cat you're never gonna see him again like move on which was a mean thing to say she's like new in this town it's not like she knows like it's not like she knows anybody like move on and i don't what
just not talk about it i don't know stupid so um but it doesn't matter because nova found her way home a full year passed but in july 16 1993 sue came across two stray cats outside of work and lo and behold one was nova who had somehow traveled over 200 miles over unfamiliar territory to find her she says that she knew it was nova because she recognized a mole in her ear and five or six distinguishing white hairs on her chest and also her claws Robert Stack asks, how can we explain Nova's incredible journey? Noted animal behaviorist Miriam Yarden theorizes that owners and their pets can develop strong enough bonds to develop a kind of mental telepathy. And that every day when Sue was praying that her cat would come back, that was sending messages to Nova. And then Nova would be like, message received.
I am on my way. I will scurry down these alleys until I find you, Sue. This animal behaviorist says something that I'm constantly saying and I cannot deny, which is I can't prove it didn't. It wasn't mental telepathy. Yeah, I don't know if that really counts as a theory where she was like, prove it wasn't. I'm like, well, all right, Miriam. Would you like to know my very cynical theory about this story? Sure, of course.
I feel bad. I don't think this is the same cat. You know, that crossed my mind, too. Does she just want it to be the same cat so bad that she found a black cat and is convinced it's Nova? I mean, sometimes there are stories where someone like their cat gets out there. A cat comes back. They're like, oh, good. My cat. And then like another cat comes back. They're like, no way. This is actually my cat. You know what I mean? Because they like, I don't know. Don't look that different. So you don't really notice. This happened to a friend of mine that she had two cats and one of them was like not super friendly. It was like not really like.
I don't know. It didn't like people. It was always hiding. She had rescued it, and I just wasn't that into it. So...
And one day she was like, oh, the cat is suddenly like, this cat is suddenly like a lot more interested than me. No, that wasn't the same cat. Like a different cat that looked exactly like it had like come into her house to eat the food. And so suddenly she had three cats, but she didn't realize it for a while. Because one was always hiding. Yes. That's so funny. One day you see two cats just walk through. She was like, wait, she's like, huh, this cat's behavior is suddenly a lot more friendly than it used to be. That's good. And then she was like, wait, what's that lump in my bed? And that was her actual cat. They just looked very much alike.
Yeah. I mean, there's this mole thing, but I don't know. I really do. Cats can have moles. More than one cat can have a mole in its ear. I think she just wanted it to be Nova and she found this stray cat and then she was like, oh, it's Nova. And you know what? That's fine. She's happy. I'm sure the cat was happy to be taken in. This is a victimless crime. But I am not. It's a very sweet story, but I am not convinced this is the same cat. You're not convinced it was mental telepathy? I mean, prove it wasn't, Samantha.
Get on your science podcast and prove this wasn't not just mental telepathy, but mental telepathy with an animal. Yeah, this is the quote from her I wrote down. Can I prove it? No. Can anyone disprove it? Probably not. Which is like a weird challenge to the viewer. Prove it's not mental telepathy, bitch. All right, Miriam, calm down.
Okay, so our next story takes place in Mother's Day weekend, 1992. This is a Minnesota story as well. John and Susan Rizgraf of Duluth and their three children are alive to their cabin because the state is weird and everybody has access to a second house for some reason. I don't understand it. How dare you, their cabins. I've been coming for cabins lately, cabin culture. Is it because everybody can't hang out with me because they're hanging out at their cabins? Baby.
I don't know. Maybe I'm getting bitter. The problem with Minnesota is if you don't have a cabin, every weekend, all your friends are unavailable because they're at their cabins. They're at their family's cabin. They're at their in-laws' cabins. And they're like, go ride some jet skis, I guess. It'd be cooler to hang out with me, but whatever. So their cabin was on the edge of Bearhead Lake State Park, which was about 100 miles from their home. The Rizgrafs also had their dogs with them, Lady Akali and Wolfka, which is an amazing name for a dog, a Belgian shepherd.
They felt perfectly comfortable letting the dogs wander around on their own. They had done it many times, and normally they returned within an hour. However, this time, when they let the dogs out, the dogs didn't come back, and they couldn't be found. Unfortunately, before they could locate the dogs, a forest fire broke out nearby, and so they had to immediately evacuate. Seven-year-old Hannah was particularly upset to leave without the dogs. That's made me cry. I know. And how hard to explain to a seven-year-old who's probably known this dog her entire life, like, yeah, we can't stay and look for possibly your favorite thing in the whole world because we're going to get caught up in a fire. Awful. I also love reenactment Hannah's pink, purple, teal coat that she's wearing. I don't know what it is about the 90s, but everything for children was pink, purple, and teal.
everything coolers lunch boxes i don't know coats for sure i wonder how that started someone should write their dissertation on that i want to know the origins of pink purple teal yeah get it to me but yeah so it just was a very authentic so the fire burned for days and actually destroyed 9 000 acres of forest so the fan they had asked family members closer to the cabin to see if they could go find the dogs but if they were like maybe waiting there but they were not so hannah prayed every night for lady to come home lady was her favorite And almost two weeks after she disappeared, she walked into Duluth 100 miles away from the cabin. They were called by an elderly couple who found Lady and found the phone numbers on her dog tag. This was only 15 miles away from their home. So after 13 days apart, Lady was reunited with her family. It turns out a couple days after disappearing, a railroad worker spotted a collie 30 miles from the cabin. The dog was following a set of train tracks headed east.
Dogs are so smart. Except my dogs. Other dogs. Very intelligent. Okay. He had tried to approach the dog, but Lady wouldn't have it and ran off. About a week later, she was spotted by an old logging trail approximately 15 miles from Duluth. So now we get one of the cutest graphics on Some Mysteries ever, which is a map of Lady's journey. And we see that she avoided the fire by staying close to Lake Superior and traveled for over 150 miles. Now, the sad news is we don't know what happened to Wolfka.
It's probably because Hannah didn't pray for Wolfka. I only prayed for Lady. That was my reaction, too. I put the blame fully on Hannah. She was like, I just hope Lady comes back. And her mom was like, and Wolfka. And she was like, yeah, whatever. Despite having such a cool name. So in this case, I mean, this dog has tags on it. I do believe the story. I just think. I'm not sure it's as miraculous as they're portraying it, though. Like, if you're familiar with northern Minnesota, there's not a ton.
So their cabin is up in the Iron Range, and then they live in Duluth. And if you're going to travel from the Iron Range to Duluth, there's, like, one path. Like, a dog is probably going to follow. Like, they spotted her. They spotted her on railroad tracks and logging trails, and those are just going to lead to Duluth. So it's not, like, she traveled, like, almost 100 miles, which is miraculous, but I'm not sure if it was, like, paranormal or mental telepathy. I think it's just, like, the natural course of her journey brought her to Duluth, where they happened to live.
Right. She didn't necessarily know that she was going towards them. Right, which is what Unsolved Mysteries wants us to believe, which is adorable, and I love the idea of it, but it's not like she showed up at their front door. She showed up on the outskirts of, I'm not even sure if you would consider that Duluth. They showed up on a map, and it's quite a waste from Duluth proper, where she was found. Samantha, shush. It's miraculous. Because it is an adorable story, and I'm so happy they found Lady, but I'm sure it was the unexplained. Dog comes home. You don't think that counts as the unexplained?
No, I mean, I think it's miraculous in its way. I mean, she traveled 100 miles. I mean, it's amazing that she wasn't picked up and just taken by someone or she didn't die. I mean, it's a very attractive dog. You know, it's not like a mangy stray. Like, this is a beautiful collie just wandering around. And that's what the guy who was working on the railroad, near the railroad track said. Like, you don't just see collies wandering around in the woods. Like, this dog wants or something. Yeah, clearly it's a wanted pet.
Do you think Hannah should feel bad for not praying for Wolfka? That's the real question. Maybe Wolfka wasn't a good dog. Maybe Wolfka was a bad dog. I don't know. Maybe a different member of the family should have prayed for Wolfka and they slacked. Maybe. Okay, so this is like now my favorite.
That's all mysteries, I think. I wanted more lost pet stories. I think this should have been a regular segment. Lost loves but pets. Like a turtle that found its way home. Okay, have you heard this story that this family had a tortoise? And I think it was owned by the grandfather. He had a pet tortoise. Grandfather passes away. Obviously, tortoises live forever. But they think after the grandfather passes away, oh, they can't find the tortoise. They must have gotten out and, you know, whatever. Very slowly escaped. They can't find the tortoise. Like, years go by.
They're going through the grandfather's study and they find the tortoise. After years? Yes. And it has been just like eating papers in the study and surviving off that. that should have been amazing to me apparently lost tortoises are it's a bigger problem than you might think there's a reply all episode i don't know uh the number or name of the episode but it is about a lost like a family that loses their tortoise because the tortoise apparently can move faster than you think and apparently they want to wander and they also hibernate so yeah i think like if you don't find them they could go like under someone's porch and hibernate for the winter and then how are you gonna find them i think it was hibernating in the study and that's why i didn't really need much food but just the idea of like oh our last pet was here all along eating books um I would love to get a pet tortoise, but they live so long. I would have to, like, will it to someone. Yeah, that would not be my preference. As it is, I might have to will this donkey to someone, because apparently they could live 40 years. Oh, we could outlive the donkey, Samantha. Well, we'll see the way the world's going. Yeah, yeah. This is a concern also if you get, like, a parrot. Yeah. It's going to outlive you. Outlive you and then mock you as you die, I assume. You're dead. Sucks to be you.
I want you to get a parrot and teach it to say all those phrases. We'll just post it in the corner of the funeral home. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, you'd have to bring the parrot to my funeral. And then the parrot's like, who cares? Who cares? Not sad. The funeral director's like, you can't bring pets in here. It was her dying wish. I'm sorry. Parrot's coming in. Yeah, look the other way. This is not your concern. We're bringing in a sassy parrot to mock our dead friend. No one cares.
Okay, it's time for Samantha to talk about another unexplained thing. A more conventional unexplained. Is this that unexplained? I think it was at the time. Yeah, there's things that fly. Can you explain that to me, Samantha? Amazing. This is what I thought was going to be a UFO story, but really is kind of just an aviation nerd story. They frame it as a UFO story. They're like...
What if this is a UFO? What if this is aliens? Try to tie it to Roswell. My note on that is just, oh my God, I'm so sick of Roswell. Stop with Roswell. I can't handle one more Roswell mystery. But also we need to go to Roswell. We do, of course, but I don't want to talk about this. On our way to France, we'll have a quick layover. In Roswell. In Roswell, which definitely has its own international airport. So this is the mystery of interceptors, which are thought to be military stealth aircraft that the government does not acknowledge. Yeah, well, they did eventually. So this whole segment is kind of a bust. This is...
the idea that you would question whether or not the government has secret military aircrafts that they're not going to tell us about or that they're testing sounds it's just completely absurd to me at this point but i guess maybe at the time the government is very open with us and I don't know why you would question them. I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, at the opening of the segment, we learned that people are taking videos of this phenomenon, which are lights, lights, mysterious lights in the sky. And that while some people believe the strange lights are of alien origin, others believe that they are witnessing top secret military aircraft. I think they're witnessing the most blurry footage anyone has ever seen. Yeah, the evidence is thin. I'm actually surprised this turned out to be a government thing instead of nothing because this footage is so bad.
Yeah, so they play a little montage of footage and Robert Stack tells us what each one is. These are the examples. A pencil-thin aircraft trailing balls of gold light. And this is accompanied by a blurry video footage of the sky. I don't know that I could tell that they were trails of balls of gold light. Whatever you were picturing in your mind, no, blurrier. Nope, blur it again. Blur, blur, blur. Because it looks like nothing. That could be like a bird. I don't know. Robert Stack speculates that it could be evidence of an exotic new propulsion system.
It could be a Frisbee. It could be dust on the lens of that camera. It could be... My patience! My patience wears thin! The next one is a mysterious object traveling at a high rate of speed weaving around conventional airplanes. This, I really think, could be a lightning bug. Just, like, closer to the camera than... Because it weaves around. Yeah, weaving around the airplane. I don't know. The next one is a light hovering over the desert in Nevada, which Robert Stack describes as haunting. Yeah, I'm haunted by it. Haunted by the fact we ought to watch it.
And then the next one is a soundless wedge-shaped object floating over, of all places, Roswell. Of course. So we're introduced to Stephen Douglas, who has been documenting these sightings and seems to have dedicated his whole life to this. He says that these crafts have been seen doing incredible things, such as stopping at a dime and spinning like a, quote, ballet dancer. Yeah, I wrote that down, too. What a charming way to describe a military plane.
he has like this whole like very um setup he has like a whole den just for his like ufo research it's like a pretty big room i think he works for a magazine maybe or something i don't i didn't write down i need this ufo tracking room in my life do i just want like some extra room in my house maybe but i think that would be pretty cool i mean it is cool it's the only cool thing about this whole segment So he says that this technology isn't available in known aircraft, and he thinks that the lights people are seeing are experimental military crafts that are being kept secret. And they are. The end. Of course they are. I mean, you think the government wasn't out there flying their drones around before they admitted to making them? Right, yeah, exactly. I realize we're looking at this in hindsight, but we're about to go over, like...
an example that had happened before this so there's precedent for this according to robert stack in 1988 the government unveiled the first stealth fighter and according to wikipedia stealth aircraft like this one are designed to avoid detection using a variety of technologies that reduce like emission and detection from radar such as infrared radio frequencies audio technology some bullshit i don't understand anyway prior to the government's announcement of this aircraft in the 80s there were rumors that it was being tested and obviously people saw it because all these people just spend much of their lives standing in the desert photographing airplanes Well, also people just like live there. That's true. I'm primarily thinking of people like Douglas, but yes, also people just live in the area. You're like these losers just standing around, mouths agape, watching the sky, hoping to see military aircraft.
Anyway, rumors abounded that the government had these secret projects to develop stealth aircraft, and then it turns out they were. It was unveiled in 1988. So I'm not sure. I don't know. So I don't know why we're speculating that these could be of alien origin. Because they needed a segment. That's why. That's true. So Stephen Douglas believes that the government is developing a secret spy plane. He claims that one flew over his office. That's convenient, isn't it? It is convenient. He ran outside and photographed the cloud trailing the aircraft and believes that the photo shows evidence of pulse detonation propulsion technology. See, this is like pre-chem trail nonsense, but we are talking about...
What is the word he keeps using? Contrail? The contrail of this plane is like donuts on a rope or something. Because it has like little circles along it. Yeah, it sounds delicious. And that's proof that it's something weird.
It might be. I don't know. Another sighting occurred in 1982 at a mock war game near Roswell, New Mexico, when, surprise, they saw an airplane. By a mock war game? Airplane. Hard to believe. Hard to believe. Stephen saw and videotaped a strange triangular object in the sky, which, again, is the blurriest photo you can imagine. Oh, man. I can't even imagine a photo this blurry, and yet there it is. Unsolved Mysteries says, coincidentally, the sighting occurred near where an unknown object crashed in a field in Roswell in 1947 called the Roswell Incident. Yeah, it's not really a coincidence because the...
They scheduled an airplane event in Roswell. Someone saw an airplane. There's no more annoying weekend in Chicago than the air and water show. Oh, when they have all the like planes fly around, like zoom, possibly right past your office building. Oh, it's the one all these, you know, it's just like inundated with tourists to like look at boats. I think I don't understand. But yeah, those planes just zipping around so loud. Oh, I hate it so much. But anyway, I sort of feel like if I was like.
in the in chicago weekend of the air and water show going i just can't believe there's these planes here what a coincidence anyway uh unsolved mystery sent the photo to the some government agency i think they sent it to i forget if it was the army or someone who said well that looks like a navy plane and then they sent it to the navy and the navy said this picture is too blurry to see what this is they gave a real well maybe that first thing like this looks like a navy plane was a read they were like this looks like shit ask the navy and the navy was like i can't even tell what this is so now i'm realizing why we have all these branches of the military and it's so that people to run around yeah yeah it's like no go ask the navy about that and they're like i don't know i can talk to the air force um i cannot tell you how mad i am that biden is keeping the space force it Just even saying it out loud, I'm now filled with a white hot rage. Yeah. I mean, there's almost no words. Yeah, there's really not. I was going to say, so while we were on hiatus, there was a lot of UFO talk, a lot of the government admitting there's UFOs. Do you think that that is to somehow get even more military funding?
Probably. I would say it wouldn't surprise me. How can we give them any more money? They get all the money. How can they possibly get any more? I don't understand. But all of a sudden they're like, oh yeah, UFOs are real. We better prepare for that. How? What? Gotta fund up the Space Force. Oh, I'm so tired. I'm so tired.
I mean, as we speak, billionaires are launching themselves into space. If they would just stay. Please. Enjoy space. Forever. Don't come back. Please race your way right into the sun. Which billionaire can land on the sun first? Let's find out. I hope it's all of them. Goodbye forever. We need to convince them that we're going to have a race. And that we're going to handle the re-entry. And they just need to get the rockets ready to go. And just let them.
I want Jeff Bezos just floating in space forever. I want him to just starve in space. That I think is the only fitting end for him. It'd be poetic in a way. Just his corpse floating around in a little rocket. You could do a race to like, I don't know, let's see how many people we can feed. That would be a nice billionaire race, right? Let's see how fast we can solve the climate catastrophe. Yeah. Let's see how many people we can house. That would be a great, we could put like charts on the news for them.
oh this billionaire elon musk housed this many people this week he's in the lead right no no it's which one of us dummies can launch ourselves into space they do know people have already gone to space right like it's been done maybe no one's told them probably maybe they're unfamiliar with the cosmonauts you're like already dogs and monkeys have done this are you really like is it really like that pressing that you do it too that you do what a monkey has done all right so steven believes that the second object he saw was the get ready for some real nerdy shit the tr-3a black manta an aircraft It sounds like a G.I. Joe villain, the Black Manta. I was Googling this, and I do think Black Manta might be a cartoon character. But if you check out the aircraft wiki, which exists. Sure, of course it does. The TR-3A Black Manta is a reputed black project of the United States government. I'm reading off the wiki. It's supposed to be a stealthy tactical reconnaissance and laser target.
designation aircraft it is speculated to be a development of the lockheed f-117 nighthawk i don't know uh it's black triangular and shaped with angular facets flying in formation with other planes during the gulf war i don't i don't understand apparently it supposedly has laser guided bombs um yeah so do i a big deal it's unclear to me like if this is like a confirmed i don't know if this is a confirmed aircraft now but at the time it was a rumor but definitely at the time of unsolved mysteries they were speculating that this aircraft was in development as a spy plane and that's what he thought he saw in roswell um Maybe it was. I don't know. I don't know why the government would fly their secret planes above a aircraft convention. I mean, I guess there'd be a lot of aircraft around. Maybe that's like a diversion. Hide in plain sight, maybe. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but that's the mystery, I guess. Doesn't the end of the segment just go like, the government has confirmed that there's a Manta. Isn't that the update? Is it? I think so. God damn, I don't even remember. So I think that it turned out that the assets did exist. Who cares? I mean...
I guess I wish none of this stuff existed, but beyond that. Yeah. I guess it does not surprise me at all that the government would be developing secret aircraft that they're not telling us about. Of course they are. They have way too much money. I think that's just proof of this. That's the real reveal of this segment. They don't need all this money to be flying around. By calling things the Black Manta and flying them around. Please. That is absurd. It just sounds like something, yeah, from like Thundercats. The Black Manta.
Yeah, I don't know. And I wish there was more aliens than this, but it wasn't in Roswell. That seems to be the connection to the unexplained is it happened in Roswell. Could it be paranormal? No, it's probably just the government's secret projects. Yeah, yeah. I was excited you were going to get a UFO mystery, but that was kind of a bad one.
It wasn't my favorite. Now we get a very unnecessary update on the Shroud of Turin. Why do we need an update on the Shroud of Turin? I don't know. It's so long. I'm not sure if there's new information we haven't seen before or not. This woman talked about a painting technique that could have possibly created the Shroud of Turin. Since I'm not convinced the Shroud of Turin is miraculous in any way, which also the church doesn't think that it is.
I was like, yeah, that probably was painted. Got it. Not necessary, this update. Not at all. No. Okay, so moving on. This is a spooky, unexplained death. This is quite sad. So we're going to Fernald, Ohio, which is 20 miles from Cincinnati. The main employer for that area used to be the Feed Materials Production Center, which was also known as NLO. And this was like a factory. I'm not even sure quite what you call it. A plant owned by the Department of Energy. And this was used to produce uranium for nuclear weapons.
We first hear from Harry Easterling, who tells us that when he was hired there, he was told that it was a low-level radiation plant and nothing to worry about. Not suspicious at all. It's a low-level radiation plant. Yeah, don't worry about it. Which also, I'm assuming the reenactments are not from this actual plant. I'm not sure where they use to film them. But if they're accurate at all, nobody is wearing any sort of protective gear. They're just wearing hard hats to go mix uranium.
or whatever they're doing i okay anyway so in 1984 there was a scandal when the plant accidentally released a cloud of radioactive smoke into the atmosphere and an investigation found that over the years they had released 200 tons of radioactive particles into the air and water and that effectively it was the third largest nuclear waste dump in the country cool lovely so if you weren't distrusting the government from the last segment we got this one um We now hear from DC Cole, who is quite a character. He's a private investigator with a ponytail and some questionable facial hair. Not a mustache, but wow. And he tells us that it's an environmental disaster that caused a strong local distrust of the government.
Not really a surprise there. So a few months before the environmental scandal broke, there was another scandal. In June 1984, employee Dave Box disappeared while on the job. His body was never found, but some of his personal items were and he is presumed dead. He had been working at NLO for three years. Dave Box's family and myself personally are convinced that he was murdered. Originally from Staten Island, Dave was hired in 1981 by the NLO as a pipe fitter. He was a father to three kids and...
was divorced but devoted to his family um in june 18th 1984 he went to work he worked a graveyard shift and his regular schedule is that he would meet harry easterling to share a ride at a local restaurant parking lot harry says that everything that day seemed normal um he was like talking about this vacation he was planning with his kids he got a new lunchbox like it's very mundane so dave's main job was to inspect and maintain equipment throughout the plant which seemed there were several people that did this and because you're dealing with radioactive materials it needed like constant inspection and upkeep um But he was also, despite being a quiet guy, he was known to like point out potential hazards to his coworkers, which makes me like, this plant does not seem like up to snuff at all. That he would be like, so this guy Harry is newer than Dave. So Harry would be like, oh, be careful when you're working on such and such pump. It's full of acid. And I was kind of like, why? Also, should you have to like by word of mouth be warning people about these like potentially very hazardous things? Like be careful about supposed to work, but like be careful about such and such. It's extremely radioactive. Like, oh, okay. What happens when someone forgets to tell the new guy?
Yeah, that pump is busted. Yeah, so anyway, he was known for giving people a heads up what to look out for. That night, he was given an assignment to inspect a pump. So he goes off to do that. And then at 4 a.m., he's seen by an anonymous witness having what looks like a serious conversation with a supervisor in a car. And then it looked like the two of them were arguing. But the windows were rolled up, even though it was pretty hot. So they couldn't hear what they were talking about. At 5 a.m., that same witness ran into Dave and asked if he needed help with anything. And the reason he asked that was because he wasn't in the right area. He knew that he'd been inside to go work on this pump and plant four or whatever. And he was in some other place.
So he was like, oh, did you need help with anything? And Dave said no, that he was actually on his way to go put his tools away for the night. And the witness said that, okay, so that's the last time he's seen alive. So that was at 5 a.m. At 7 a.m., there was a safety meeting.
um which this place clearly desperately needed but dave wasn't there um and when he went to wrap for the day harry easterling noticed that dave's keys were still on the top of his toolbox which is where he left them when they were working so i think this was included his cars and house keys but the reason he would have them out is because they had lockers for like their clothes and stuff so um he just noticed oh his keys are still on the top of his toolbox he must be working overtime and he's like still out doing work so he left a message for him through someone that he was leaving for the night but that he could get a ride with him again tomorrow um okay so that's all we get for that day so at 7 30 that morning which i suppose is actually just shortly after that's actually shortly after harry easterling sees the keys so he sees them at 7 at 7 30 an employee notified his supervisor this is so gross that so he's like working on this like giant furnace the oven thing i look i don't really know what it does okay honestly okay i'm sure this isn't what it actually looks like but in the reenactment it appears to just be a dumpster that they like lit a fire in it's a dumpster full of uranium i don't know it is like a giant
yeah square open box full of liquid lava i'm not really sure but anyway he tells his supervisor that the casings in his oven were covered in a strange sticky residue and also there was an unusual smell his supervisor was like yeah yeah yeah go back to work he was like yeah go back to work and he was like look i'm not trying to cause trouble but i swear i saw a leg in there and so his supervisor like gets up on this like little rickety ladder and is mixing the lava with a giant spoon. I don't know how else to describe it. And he was like, it's fine. Quit trying to get out of work, which is kind of like, I don't know. I don't think if you're telling your supervisor, I think I saw a human leg in my furnace. So that's how you try to get out of work. I don't think so.
so okay so then that night at 11 harry easterlings arrives at the restaurant parking lot to meet up with dave as usual his car was already there so harry was like oh he's here he's probably picking up some food before we go but then he touches the car and the car is cold and that's when he realizes oh it's actually been there since the night before something is wrong so he goes into work he reports him missing at the factory and he he has them open his locker the impression that i get is that like harry realizes there's reason to be concerned and the people at the work are like yeah whatever that's the impression i got they're not like Oh, so this person was last seen here, never seen it again. And we have giant vats of like uranium or something. Who cares? But he makes them open up his locker and it has this, what is in there is the clothes he'd been wearing the day before. So he clearly like never left. So he's missing as of Sunday, but for some reason his family isn't informed until Tuesday. When his ex-wife is contact, then his next wife tries to contact the plant the next day on Wednesday to find out what happened. And they just tell her, we can't tell you anything. That's it. Oh my God.
I think maybe from her, there's an internal investigation. I'm not sure exactly how the internal investigation happens. I'm assuming she contacted the police and is like, what the fuck happened to the father of my children? Why is his work like, yeah, you don't need to know. But anyway, he's gone. Someone got them to look at the temperature of the furnace and saw that the night he disappeared, there was a dramatic spike. The temperature of the furnace spiked down, which it should not do, as if something large had been thrown in. And I couldn't quite ignore that, I think. And I do think the police got involved, but I don't remember the details. I don't think it really...
I don't know that we're told how this investigation happens. So they find that there was this dip in the furnace by 28 degrees, which was highly unusual, and that would suggest that something fell into the furnace. Also, someone found what they thought was a piece of bone on the lip of the furnace. So the police were contacted, and the furnace was turned off. It took three days for the liquid to cool.
Then, for some fucking reason, it's the employees who shift through the material looking for evidence. I don't know why they have to, like, try to find evidence of their dead co-worker. It's so grim. Anyway, what they found in the cooled off furnace goo is they found his keys. However, this discovery confuses Harry, who saw his keys in his toolbox two hours before that temperature tip. He also saw a supervisor remove the keys and lock his toolbox, taking the keys with him.
The other things they found in the furnace was the steel toe of a boot, possibly part of an eyeglass frame, part of a walkie talkie, and this like looped up stainless steel wire. So like a wire that has been looped into three multiple times, like three loops. There was also several pieces of human bone. The police failed to determine how he died, but thought suicide was possible. based on nothing the only evidence for that is that he had previously attempted suicide at the time of his divorce however that's years ago his family doesn't believe that that he would have committed suicide he had purchased groceries for the week he was planning this vacation with his kids all his bills for the month were paid up like He wasn't acting like someone who didn't expect to be around. I don't know that that's the most realistic way to think about suicidal thoughts. But also, I don't think anybody would want to die this way. Well, he didn't leave a note. Other than that, that he had been suicidal once, there's no actual evidence that he did kill himself.
Also, I don't really understand how this furnace works and whatever, but one of the former employees tells us that to get in there, you kind of would have had to be lowered in. There are some safety precautions at this place, and it's not like you could just fall in. There's guardrails. Yeah, they're a little bit covered. You're not going to be able to just trip and end up in the furnace. And it sounded like it would even be hard to jump in. I don't want that to happen, obviously. So he was saying to get in there, you would probably have to be lowered in, which might explain the metal wire loops.
right they thought he those loops could have been tying his arms or legs together perhaps yeah so the person that tells about that is david day he was a former nlo employee he has a mustache it's a very dense gray mustache that i called the good guy for for coming out against nlo and this idea that this guy killed himself um so of course the speculation is was he killed because he knew the plant was releasing radioactive materials into the environment Then this is also horrible. Like, then there's speculation. Like, was he in there dead? Did they put him in alive? Like, let's certainly hope not. That sounds so, so horrible. Was that wire used to bind his feet? Then this ends on this particularly sad note that the remains, the bone fragments that were found, were too toxic to be returned to the family for burial. So they had nothing to bury. And apparently those are like in a drum in the closed down plant.
Oh, God. Is where it was at the end of Unsolved Mysteries. It's going to be wild. It's very bizarre and very sad and scary. If you look at Unsolved Mysteries Wiki, this is still unsolved. But a 2013 study found that there was a high rate of cancer among former employees at NLO, most likely due to their exposure to high levels of radiation. Which is...
Not surprising, but also really depressing. Also, this, like, environmental scandal got out anyway. What a total waste. Yeah. I don't understand, like, if they did kill him because he knew something. It's like, well, that information got out anyway. Also, that probably, like, definitely put the other employees on high alert. Like, oh, they killed Dave. I wonder if they're up to something sketchy here. Yeah. So justice for Dave Box, everybody. It's so, so sad. That story is bananas. Very, very crazy. And also reminder, when people are like, oh, you live in a free country. You should be thankful. You can criticize your government.
Can I? Could Dave box? I mean, I can talk shit, but if you actually know something. Yeah. It's very scary. In a radioactive furnace. I'm sorry. I love the government. I love this country. Don't put me in the radioactive furnace. Okay. Well, that's where we end this episode. I'm so sorry for Dave. No, I don't know if I should name his. He also had a mustache. We'll just call him the whistleblower. Okay. Oh man, Dave. I'm so sorry. Yeah.
Yeah, let's rate this. Okay, mysteriousness. I'm not that mysterious. I feel like... I'm not sure pets have mental telepathy powers. I'm going to say two out of three of these mysteries are not mysterious because I don't find the plain mystery mysterious at all. No. And actually, I kind of don't find Dave stuff mysterious. I guess we don't know which individual at the plant put him in the furnace, but I don't think he got in there himself. So that's in a way not mysterious either. Yeah, so thumbs down. Thumbs down. Reenactments? Gotta be a thumbs up for the pets. Yeah, just for the pets alone. Thumbs up. Do you think all those cats in that truck were trained cats?
That's a really good question. They seem to be such a driving hazard. I mean, yeah, I wish we could get a pet mystery every single episode. Thumbs way up. Loved it. Fashion? Unremarkable. Other than that pink, purple teal coat, it's just nothing. Yeah, there wasn't anything that really stood out to me. No. Does Lady's coat just her fur count as fashion? Because that was pretty good. I mean, Lady was a fashionable dog. Yeah, exactly. But no, thumbs down. I'm not impressed.
I got to give a thumbs up to Robert Stack. Oh, absolutely. A very sharp turtleneck. Him by a lassie dog is like his natural element. I feel like he seems so at home with that beautiful dog. And we get a lot of narration from him, particularly in your UFO military plane segment, because there's really not much there. So they kind of need him to like hold it together. But also Robert Stack. I mean, that plane mysteries. And that is a Robert Stack thing. Yeah, that's true. Because it's really more of a military thing than a UFO thing. So he's into it.
And yeah, so, oh yeah, that was way up for him. He really, he didn't phone in this one like he sometimes does. He got off his yacht and showed up for work. Overall, I think this episode was really good. I didn't love the airplane mystery, but I loved the pet mystery. And your mystery at the radiation plant was fascinating. Very sad, but also a really interesting story. It's kind of interesting to me. I feel like Unsolved Mysteries has a baseline of being very pro-law enforcement, very patriotic. But then we'll tell these stories, and the government killed this guy. That tension is just fascinating to me.
I enjoyed this episode. I mean, that pet thing, when I learned that I just got to talk about pets finding their way home, I was like, thank you. It's the opposite of the orphan train. Like, I could talk about that all day. Okay, so out of five reference decks, is it a four?
I think it might be. I'm going to give it a four. I liked it a lot. I think it deserves a four. I just, yeah, I would just like to switch this to being a pets podcast, please. Yeah, we talked about this before. We're getting closer and closer. We're inching that direction every day. Oh, wait, this is the podcast. And people are like, this is not what I subscribe to. Yeah, I would give it a four. It's definitely worth watching. And I could see making people watch that pet segment.
yeah because it's really good yeah it is it's like a little mini homeward bound which yes we all need one of my favorite movies that movie was for in my childhood like if it's raining at recess and they can't let the kids outside it's like all right going to the library we're gonna watch half an hour of homeward bound and i was always hoping we'd watch secret of nim which was also a regular but there was a lot of homeward bound watched in the library for children that wish they were outside oh man anyway that's that i'm just sad about dave yeah no one deserves that i mean except jeff bezos but no one else not many people deserve no it's rare it's quite rare uh so now we do the part of the show where we each recommend something because we know you really care what we think and that you want to be like us so you're definitely going to write down these recommendations and then incorporate them into your daily lives we're basically influencers yeah but but better
Yeah, which is worse, being an influencer or being a podcaster? I'm not sure. I'm not sure either. But I do have a recommendation for you. It's actually twofold. I have a book and TV recommendation because they're kind of one and the same. And that is Sharp Objects. I already talked to Samantha a little bit about this, but I finally watched the miniseries Sharp Objects on HBO, which stars Amy Adams. It's based on a book by Gillian Flynn. It's about a...
reporter who has to go back to her hometown in missouri after the murder of two young girls and she's sent to investigate it and so it's her trying to solve this mystery but also just like dealing with all the bullshit of her hometown and i can't remember how many episodes it is six eight something like that and i just thought it was so good i think the acting is incredible the cast is all really good i mean obviously amy adams is great but like everybody does such a good job in it and um her family lives in this like amazing um southerny mansion um so the set for that or the location that they lose it's just like beautiful it's just stunning and i thought it was just like so well filmed and so well done So after watching that, I'm really enjoying it. I listened to the audio book of the book. And even though I knew the like twist and what was going to happen, I still really enjoyed it. I think it's super well written. The like character of the main character, Camille is just like really well realized and done. And she has just like these amazing little observations for things. So even though I already knew the plot and it's a very faithful adaptation for the miniseries, I still really enjoyed listening to the book. I just think it's super good.
I read the book a long time ago and really enjoyed it. Have you read any other Gillian Flynn novels? So since listening to that, I listened to the audio book for dark places, which I did enjoy. That is the story of a woman who's the lone survivor of like a, her family being massacred. And so she is when she, when she's a child, her whole family is murdered. And then she grows up and eventually like starts looking into it to figure out what really happened. I didn't like that as much, but I still thought it was really good. She's a good writer. I'm listening to the audio book for a gone girl right now. And that's probably the one I'm like least into.
I think this is exactly the order that I would rank her novels to. Sharp Objects, Dark Places, Gone Girl. She also wrote a short story called The Grown Up that is really good. Oh, okay. I'll check that out. It's very short. I own it, I think. But yeah, I really, it's funny and underrated, I think, of all of her works. I think by the time I had seen the movie Gone Girl, I already knew the thing of it. So that ruined that experience a little bit. I mean, that's not a complaint on anyone. It took me a while to watch it, so the idea of it was already out there.
So I'm listening to the audio book and it's good, but it's not, I don't know. It's not, it doesn't captivate me the same way that Sharp Objects does. I just think it has such a great like sense of that place and like how she feels being back there. I just feel like it's so well done. And I guess I'm just like less interested in the Gone Girl story. I don't know. I do think it's very funny that in the book for Gone Girl, they talk about the husband having this like super unlikable face that he's like handsome, but people like instantly dislike him and that they cast Ben Affleck. So I just think that's hilarious, but.
I was like, oh yeah, that makes sense. Oh yeah, you have to watch this miniseries. It's so good. The acting is so good. I didn't need to watch it because I did enjoy the novel. I just think it's really, really well done.
Yeah. Yeah. That's my recommendation. What about you? So I am recommending something probably silly, but that, and I'm not being dramatic, I think has changed my life. So one of my 2021 issues has been with my back. I have back issues and back pain. The situation's not great. And friends, family, and some coworkers know that I've been having these issues. And I was talking with a coworker who struggles with sciatica.
And she told me, Samantha, you have to get these Cloud Slide shoes. I got them on Amazon. I generally try not to recommend things you have to buy on Amazon, but it's really the best place to get these. And I actually love these things. They're hideous rubber shoes. So what is that deal? They're like, they're honestly not anything special. It's just that they're really thick foam on the bottom. I describe it like if you made shoes out of one of those anti-fatigue mats. Like I have one in front of my stove, one in front of my sink where it's kind of squishy. And you spend on it and it keeps your feet from getting sore.
That's like what these are made of, I think, or like something very similar where it's like the bottom of the shoe is like an inch and a half of thick foam and they are so comfortable. They're ugly. But they're so comfortable. I think this is a regional thing potentially, but I don't wear shoes in the house because I was kind of raised like if you grew up in Minnesota, I think you were raised that wearing shoes in the house is rude. And so it's not something that I typically do because I'm just used to it. Yeah, I don't either.
hurt and it hurts my back and lately i found that if i forget to put on my cloud slides and i'm just walking around my house barefoot i'll suddenly realize that my back is bothering me or my feet are sore and if i put on my cloud slides instant relief they're so comfortable travis put them on and walked around in them for a minute and so described them as springy um they have a little bit of springiness I am not going to recommend a specific retailer because if you go on Amazon and look up cloud slides or cloud slippers, you'll find that they all look exactly the same. I'm pretty sure they're probably all made in the same factory. You just need to basically pick a color that you like. I have two different pairs from two different companies. Other than one is slightly larger, I think. They're exactly the same. I'm contemplating buying a pair in black to wear out in the world. Because that's how comfortable they are. I've noticed that they're marketed as shower shoes sometimes. And I do think that would be a good application for them. If you're going off to college and want to put a little bit more distance between you and the gross shower floor versus like...
wearing flip-flops I think these would be perfect they're grippy um so they would be good for showering uh but I just think they're so comfortable and if you have any amount of back pain if you are working from home now and always sitting down and your back hurts um try these out they're truly amazing and I'm literally contemplating buying a third pair so I'm never without cloud slides I think you absolutely should they're so comfortable they've changed your life right now I'm looking at them they're so so comfortable there you go yeah so cloud slides maybe you can buy them somewhere else if you don't want to support Jeff Bezos um They're also, I appreciate, I wear slippers in the wintertime, but they get so gross so fast. And these, I think, will resist that because they're just thick rubber. My feet don't get really hot in them because they're slides. And they're not going to sort of get sweaty and gross and broken down the same way as slippers, I think. So I'm enjoying that aspect of them as well. Have you ever worn Crocs? Yes. How do they compare? I don't find Crocs to be as supportive as these. But the material is similar. So if you have worn Crocs and you kind of know what they feel like, these feel similar. I think it's a similar material. They're like rubbery.
right right but crocs are thinner like the the sole of these are a lot thicker um like an inch and a half maybe even two inches like they're very thick and i'm pretty sure that's what makes them so comfortable you're just walking on super thick foam but they're not like like i said they're not anything special it's not like they're form fitted to your feet or anything they don't seem like they have any art support it's just literally thick foam and something about them is just so it is kind of like walking on a cloud I absolutely had platform shower shoes to keep me that far away from the gross ground. Don't recommend that. That sounds a little dangerous. Also, hi, mom. Did my mom say, no, that's a terrible idea? No, she didn't. I guess she was allowing me to make my own mistakes. I fell down in those shoes a lot. The theory is somewhat solid in that you would put some more distance between you and the gross floor, but I just think you're going to fall over. Yeah. Well, I also just like wore them around and fell down a lot of stairs.
I actually, this reminds me that I have another sort of recommendation, which is that if you've been very hot, I know the summer has been extremely warm and you've been having trouble sleeping because it's so warm. I highly recommend putting ice packs in your bed, which is something I discovered when I used to do physical therapy and I had to ice my sternum. And I was like, when, when am I going to have time to do this? So I would just do it as I was falling asleep. But then if you have ice packs in your bed, it cools down the whole bed.
I think that's a really good idea. I think the opposite in the winter. I'll put a hot water bottle in my bed. Right. And that's toasty warm. So the same would apply with an ice pack, just in the opposite. I absolutely, for this recommendation, recommend the type of ice packs for food, opposed to those flexible medical ice packs. Because unless you are- Like blue gel? Yeah. Unless you're really icing your knee or something that you need a curve to it, those things don't stay frozen very long. So if you're looking to cool down your bed, I would literally just get one of those big solid blocks you put in a cooler or whatever. Put that in your bed. That's the real miracle, folks.
It's miraculous. It's really brilliant. I think it's a great idea and a great recommendation because it is hot as hell. It really has been quite toasty. So that is my final thoughts before we wrap up this episode and remind you of all those things we remind you of every time that you need to do us a solid and slam that subscribe button so hard you break your phone because obviously you're going to want this podcast in your life, right? I mean, I think that's clear. We're on social media. Can you believe it? We are. Twitter, Instagram. We have a couple Facebook groups you should join. Everybody in there is cool.
What else? If you want to hear me solve the mystery of werewolves and also get instant access to a lot of bonus content, you can give us a dollar on Patreon. You can give us a little bit more money on Patreon. You'll get some other cool stuff. We send out coloring sheets once a month, once a quarter. We send out cool gifts. It's a great way to support us and also get some stuff in return. Also, we are at least consistent with putting out that content. If we can't get real episodes out, we at least get out bonus episodes. You get the episodes you pay for, for sure. One bonus episode a month. Yep. Did you know you could still buy our zine? We made a zine about this show and it has things like a recipe for mac and cheese's in it.
Well, there's more details at our website. Perhaps it's you.com. You can find out how to order our cuisine. And there's also like our recommendations on there, though they're not up to date. There's a form where you can get in contact with us. If you have a paranormal or spooky story, you should send it to us. We read them on our season finale episode and we really need some more. So get on there. You can also just sort of email us, perhaps it's you podcast at gmail.com, especially email us. If you want to just like stroke our egos and say some nice things, that's always appreciated. Five star reviews. Yes. We need our five star reviews. The only type of reviews we accept. I would like to add, if you're going to email us a story, if you have a story about holy water somehow, I don't know, you splashed it on someone and it started to sizzle.
A paranormal story about holy water? Doing something? Curing your grandma? I don't know. We want those stories as well. It doesn't have to be confirmed by the Catholic Church. I'll believe you. Yeah, we'll take those stories. If you have a pet miraculously coming home after an absence or journey, I want to hear that too. Or a cat came home and you thought it was your cat and it turned out it was another cat. We'll take those stories as well. All of these. Send them to us. Yeah. And I don't know. You should follow my own Instagram. Everybody likes Liz to see my artwork and stuff. That's something you should do.
I think that might be everything that we talk about these days. I know it just goes on and on. Well, thanks for listening, everyone. We hope this brought a little mystery into your life. Made your days a little richer, you know? Yeah. It's a little magic, the magic of the Lord's water sprinkled into your life.
right yeah Samantha's like sure Liz whatever you say um yeah it's you know it's good to be back thanks for listening everybody thanks for not being mad we're now a fortnightly podcast we appreciate you yeah we appreciate you I think that's all bye fare thee well bye