From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A production of iHeartRadio.
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my name is.
No, they call me Ben.
We're joined as always with our super producer Paul, Mission Control Decads. Most importantly, you are here. That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know, And fellow conspiracy realists, you may be part of tonight's program. That's right, it's time for listener mail. We are going to get some updates from our fellow conspiracy realist about drugs, about HVAC, and we want to give a shout out to brock
were hitping us to the return of the humble Farmer? Right, Yes, yeah, so thank you for keeping us keeping a finger on the pulse of that one. We're going to talk about a very disturbing story out of Australia, and then we're gonna you know, we got some we got some stuff we have to get off our collective chest about clones. But before we do any of that, we have been, like so many other people, tracing this Strange Story about Cape Middleton.
The royal drama. Yes, we've become a couple of trio of royal watchers, haven't we been?
Really?
It's interesting though there you know, I'm with you, Matt when we talked about it on Strange News a couple of weeks ago. Who cares like there is some who cares in us to it, like, okay, so you know the Prince of Wales has a mistress, so surprise, surprise.
I just I do have to say one thing though, Nolans, we're getting in. I want to make a point that I didn't make when we're talking about this previously. Obviously, I am not a monarchist the opposite end spectrum any of us. Yeah, I don't think we are. But I do have to say something that didn't bring up earlier.
One important thing for us to remember is that people in the monarchy, are in the aristocracy, are humans like anybody else, and they did not choose to be in their position, you know what I mean.
Into it, that's true.
The ones that married into it chose it a little bit, that's true.
Yeah, guys, before you really jump into I don't I don't think anybody caught the joke, and I don't think I explained myself when we were talking about this last time, I said, my favorite Royal Watcher. The only person I pay attention to is Byron Denniston.
I don't. I don't think I caught that either.
That's a character from Comedy Bang Bang, and I was trying to be silly because it's a really great character like Lady Amilia Spencer and the Grizz.
Of course, that's a deep cut, bro.
I listened to that show and I've seen most of the series, but not aware of that one.
Okay, all right, my bad, It's okay, though, Man, you explained it now.
I'm gonna seek those episodes out. But you know, we talked about.
This on Strange News a few weeks ago, and then Ben and I Matt was we had some family obligations, but Ben and I went to New York and we're lucky enough to be on the podcast Sauce on the Side with our pal Gandhi from the Elvis Duran Morning Show and her producer Diamond had some real takes, you know, on this stuff and was all over it, and it gave me a moment to kind of realize that maybe I had I don't know, been a little easy on the royal family, perhaps in the segment where I was
sort of like, there's nothing going on at all, everything's above boards, just having a surgery and photoshopping her own family photos.
Yeah, it's weird that she would do that, a B.
That this statement would come out signed C, which apparently is the way she signs her name, by the way, But at the time I didn't realize that.
It seemed a little odd kind of doubt that.
Many of the royals are doing their own twitters or their own exes. But then again, you know, there is a certain expectation that what you see on those kind of platforms, there's certainly a possibility that it is coming directly from the source. We certainly know that's the case with you know, Donald Trump, for example, and others that clearly are tweeting themselves because you couldn't pay people to
write stuff this bad and self incriminating. But my main thing was, yeah, it's a little weird that she's been out of the public eye for so long, and it was a little weird that they posted this picture because of course it was going to be taken as sort of a proof of life kind of situation, and the fact that it was so weirdly and awkwardly doctored really
called into question the whole thing. And I will stand by my whole thing about all of this, which is that the pr Firm or whatever it's handling the Royal families public affairs not doing a great job. Because you know, guys, we say it all the time. If there's a question and you just introduce more questions or introduce more vagueness, you're gonna you're gonna have a conspiracy feeding frenzy on your hands, right, And that's what we've got here.
Especially with the royal family, right, which is a main character in so many conspiracies. And then this also, this kind of speculation is exacerbated in the age of social media, right because now people are able to share any kind of theory, whether or not it's based on fact or some kind of research, and then other people will go with it because it's the more interesting story.
I remain.
I still crack up about the the folk who were convinced for a while that Cape Middleton was out of the public eye because she got a Brazilian butt lift, which we mentioned previously. But I just thought that was so silly. I tuned into Sauce on the side because Diamond, I think had some of the best examinations of this right. She thought through it pretty in depth.
Absolutely, And we have another listener who's been thinking about this as well. This is in fact listener Mail and I haven't mentioned one of our beloved listeners, but we got a note from the Mitch Doctor, which is fun. Just a quick theory. Hey guys, here's a theory on k Middleton. I can't take credit for sparking this idea, but it seems to fit. Maybe she's an organ donor for King Charles, who is also in the hospital. A kidney donation seems more likely than some of the stuff
currently on the internet. Tata for now, the Mitch Doctor. I can only hope and assume that if they're saying TATA for now, that they are in fact British citizens or maybe even royalty. Who knows, but thank you the Mitch Doctor. I think that's very interesting. In preparing for this segment, I did find a really cool article from The Intelligencer, which is I believe a offshoot of New
York Magazine with it. This came out yesterday, as we record this on March twenty second, with a timeline up to now of all of the k Middleton brew haha. And Ben, you mentioned the Brazilian butt lift thing, I think, and we've heard people say that maybe it was a gastric bypass procedure and all of that simply from a
statement from Kensington Palace. And now it's saying that her Royal Highness, the Princess of Wales was admitted to hospital yesterday for planned abdominal surgery, okay, And that came out on January seventeenth of twenty twenty four, and since that time.
There hasn't that.
That's kind of, you know, when the speculation started to thrive because she hadn't really made any public appearances reasonably close to that date. And then up until now except for the weird photoshopped image which we talked about and a video that came out, TMZ published, well it was a photo, I believe. TMZ published a paparazzi photo on March the fourth of Kate in a car with her mother near Windsor Castle. And then there was also an
individual that's yes, sorry here it is. The Sun reported that Kate had been spotted shopping with William at Windsor Farm Shop, and I believe a video was taken, and there's even an article where the person took the video is quoted and kind of trying their best to de month these theories. But people have been trying to run this video through like AI algorithms to do facial matching stuff, because I do have to say, on an initial glance.
She looks a little different.
I could see where people are coming from and looking at this image in this video and saying, ah, that doesn't quite look like my Kate. And so there are people that are speculated that is not her, that she's been replaced. But then, like I said, the person the shopper who filmed this video or what are they now going to question if I'm a real person as well.
That I put a fake Kate there? It is ridiculous.
So I do kind of still stand by the fact that a lot of this stuff is just you know, like armchair sleuths. And what was the word we used on the segment. I believe it was something like recreational speculators, something along those lines. But what do you think, guys of the Mitch Doctor's theory? Well, first of all, I'm sorry I been. I want to point out too that the Diamond, the producer, did say, I think this might be a big way of a shifting focus off of
King Charles's illness. But what do you guys think about this idea that Kate is a donor. She's not exactly a direct family so I don't see how that would how she would be a uniquely suitable candidate.
Honestly, the organ donation thing is interesting from a story construction kind of perspective, But in terms of real life, would it not be more plausible that they would get a donor who is the perfect match, Like I think they would prioritize the safety of the donation process over the attachment of the family.
Well, and wouldn't that be something to celebrate you're saving the King's life or something, you know, by donating part of your body.
I don't know.
Yeah, And also there a couple things at play. You don't want to have, well, you don't want to have any death, but for a monarchy to lose the monarch twice in quick succession, it's not a good look. So maybe this is distraction, Maybe this is Diamond also pointed out the possibility that there was a serious illness on Middleton's side.
That's right, Yeah, yeah, I'm with you, Matt though on Yeah, an organ donation would be that'd be a positive press story.
Why would you hide that?
If you were like, say, you know, that seems like something that you would look the bravery of this woman, you know, you would want to promote that.
The only way you would The only reason I could imagine that you would want to hide something like that, which is a heroic thing to do, is because it might be indicative of just how how far the king's condition is deteriorated. So maybe that's what they're trying to keep under wraps if that theory is true.
And you, guys, I think I asked this last time we were talking about this, but what is the true like to what end? What is the true benefit of being so you know, sneaky around the health of a public figure like that? Is it because it can affect deals and even markets and stuff? Is that you just want to keep that stuff under your control and as long as humanly possible, and don't want people to know what's really going on until the death actually occurs.
That's part of it. I mean, there is state security wrapped up in this right, so stability of the nation, the appearance of stability is a hugely important factor. So I imagine that's in the calculation somewhere. But really we don't have enough information to say what's happening definitively. And I'm sure that there are a ton of journalists in the United Kingdom who are doing their best like social engineering, cold calling, trying to get information out of the monarchy
and their staff. That may actually be the way that we learn what's happening.
Yeah, it's interesting.
I guess I just don't think, you know, it's not the same as a president being sick to me, you know, because they're just so toothless, the royal family. They're just ceremonial.
They have this lavish lifestyle that's largely to maintain this continuity of sort of history and tradition, but they don't really do anything so like what would what would be politically it's Is it just because the British people are so obsessed with them and there's such a reverence for them, or maybe I just don't get it because I'm not, you know, from there.
Yeah, I guess it's not for us. Every fair enoughty for everybody. But but yeah, you do raise a point the monarchy as tremendous real estate holdings, so that's that's a big deal. They're also a huge cultural and economic touchstone for the United Kingdom, like the UK government makes a ton of money off royalty, off the concept of it. Think about all the people who travel around the world see London and to go check out that stuff. So they do play an economic role, a big one in that sense.
We were talking about that, I believe with somebody we were hanging out with the New York Just the tourism aspect of it is not something to be completely ignored, that's true. I don't know, Matt, You've been quiet on this one, any thoughts. I know this isn't your bag exactly,
but it's not mine either. I just I mainly when we talked about it last time, my main interest was in just how the bruja around the photo and just realizing these standards that like you know, organizations like AP have, and how it was just kind of missed and just this whole distinction between like is this photo entertainment or is this news?
And how is it taken?
And just how quickly these things can sort of, you know, balloon out of control. But uh, you got any closing thoughts for us on this one, Matt before we take a break.
Ah, Still, I don't care.
Your Prince Charles as good as a good grumble, a very kingly grumble.
Yeah. I mean, I hope everybody's okay.
See you, I see you. I hope they're happy. I think they're happy. They don't seem very happy on the crown.
I mean, nobody's happy all the time.
Fair enough.
Well, thanks to the Mitch Doctor for that theory. I certainly think that it could be plausible, but I don't see why that, of all things, they would cover up.
We guys agree to know more.
Yeah, I think it's all right.
Let's take a quick break and we'll be back with some more messages from you.
We've returned and we are going to the emails, guys to get some updates on the last two weeks of strange news. We've got one coming in. Let's get started with an email from Brett, who wrote to us on March eleventh with regards to a bit of a smuggling story. We talked about the first person that was ever charged with smuggling greenhouse gases into the United States from Mexico, and Brett is coming to us with quite a bit of experience in the HVAC world. Let's see what he
has to say. Brett says, I wanted to give you some insight on the latest strange news about the greenhouse gas smuggling. I'm an HVAC slash R that's heat ventilation, air conditioning refrigeration technician in New York. You're right that you do need a license to purchase refrigerants, a license granted by the EPA. That's kind of cool. You have to take tests and pass to get one of those things.
The free on known as R twenty two, that's the substance that actually is a refrigerant, causes your refrigerator and your air conditioner to create cold air. Got to have this stuff run the air through it makes it cold. This free on, known as R twenty two, has been used for decades, and in twenty twenty four there's still equipment that uses it. Last summer, one twenty five pound bottle of R twenty two cost one thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars. That's a ton of money, guys. Twenty
five pounds seventeen hundred bucks. That's with vendors limiting supply per EPA regulations. We'll talk about it, but remember this R twenty two refrigerant free on is a controlled substance at this point, a highly controlled substance. Even though, oh, it's just a gas, right, it's free on, it's a form of gas.
Right.
This is pertaining to the black market sale of the stuff, I'm not or the availability of it on Like was it Facebook marketplace?
Right? Yes?
Why it's so tightly controlled? Why this person got in trouble for bringing something like this free on refrigerant greenhouse gas into the US to sell? So, Brett continues, lots of older techs hate using the replacement of this free on the replacement of R twenty two because it's not as good and sometimes causes more issues from size of equipment to how much cooling it will produce. So, like, how large the equipment is that uses the R twenty two, right,
I think that's what he's saying. Most times having to buy newer equipment to replace the old system, whether it's still in working condition. Some systems are only two to five pounds, so they only require two to five pounds of this stuff for homes, but mark up for labor and use of it. I think what he's saying here, with the huge cost of that greenhouse gas, you're only going to be using two to five pounds sap. Do you think that's what Brett's.
Saying here, guys, that's kind of what I write.
Okay, So Brett says it's cheaper to buy a brand new AC because most older techs and retired texts still have tanks of this good R twenty two greenhouse gas
refrigerant they could use. And again, for this alone, I'm used to this being the norm, as it's the way of the job, but it does get hard telling those older generations who are retired with a fixed income that it's going to cost somewhere between three thousand to five thousand dollars if not a ton more guys to replace their old HVA systems that used the R twenty two
and Brett signs off saying thanks for the show. So, guys, it just makes a lot of sense, especially hearing from somebody like this that this type of greenhouse gas that's used as a refrigerant, it's potentially dangerous. Right according to the regulators who have chosen to put regulations on this stuff.
But also it's crazy, crazy expensive. I had no idea how expensive it was, but I call very vividly at my old house having to get more free on pumped into my really old air conditioning system, and it was I think it was three hundred and fifty dollars for a time, basically a shot of this stuff to refill my system.
Isn't that stuff that people actually steal out of air conditionings because it.
Is so valuable.
Maybe I have no idea how you would do that. I've never looked into it.
But I also think it's also something that people like, certain people like to huff. I have heard tales of people going to apartment complexes and like stealing free on out of those air conditioning window units.
It's all a price point thing, right. As soon as the price or potential for profit reaches a certain threshold, then you know, anything can be stolen. Shot, catalytic converters and copper. Yeah, And there's also it's interesting because, first, thank you so much for the letter here, Brett. It's interesting because when I was looking into the context of this,
the refrigerant smuggling, I didn't know. It's been a thing since the nineteen nineties, and it happened because of the regulations that came about to close that hole in the ozone layer. Remember when that was a big deal for everybody. So by fixing this one problem, which is a big problem society, the cobra thing, the cobra effects. Yeah, the cobra effect.
You can go to a couple of places online. The one I found that immediately popped up just when you google R twenty two, which is called h hydro chlorofluorocarbon twenty two or HCFC twenty two. The replacements are weird. They have all kinds of names like R four one A, R one four A, are four oh seven C, and are four oh seven A. They are just refrigerants, but they don't have, at least according to the EPA, the same ozone depleting effects, which is.
Why they're being used.
But again, as Brett is saying, they maybe don't cool as effectively and they are going to cost you an arm in a lake. I don't have much else to say on that. Guys, just appreciate Brett calling in with personal experience like that.
Yeah, thank you, Brett.
Then let's jump to another message we received from Always Something in Philadelphia. Love that, Love that, and Always Something is responding to the strange news where we talked about some people in Atlanta who are being targeted and attacked in local bars here in a place called Buckhead.
Drugged and abducted.
Yeah, yes, exactly, and tens of thousands of dollars coming out of their bank accounts. So Always Something says, hither gents, I've been a sporadic listener for nearly ten years. We need to up your listening. Always Something needs to be a little more than sporadic.
Just kidding.
Thank you for listening at all. And Always Something has been a sporadic listener recently since I've had a job where I can have headphones on. That's awesome, and I've been listening a lot more regularly. Oh fantastic, see you already are Yesterday I heard you just talk about the guys who had tens of thousands of dollars stolen after being drugged at bars in Atlanta. I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up the story of heart Throb Philadelphia's weatherman, John Belaris or Belaris.
I think it's Belaris.
I loved reading this, and by the way, you're an awesome writer too.
So John Belaris, whose career was basically ruined because of a similar situation about fifteen years ago. Interesting John was a beloved weatherman and an A list local celebrity in Philly with a bit of a wild streak, known for things like being friends with controversial baseball player Lenny Dickstra or Dikestra. I guess I don't know this person, but according to the Internet, not great things.
Not great things.
Yeah, sexual assault accusations. In twenty ten, there was this allegation that he paid an escort and adult entertainment actor with a bad check that bounced. He would go on to be arrested on multiple misdemeanor and felony counts of things like identity theft, possession of cocaine and ecstasy, grand theft, auto of the crime not the video game got you?
Oh yeah, YOI don't pay for unscrupulous things with bad checks. Gosh, come on, Lenny, Okay. So John was partying in Miami and met some beautiful Eastern European women, at least according to the story, then blacked out and woke up to have tens of thousands of dollars missing from his accounts. He went public and he got help from the FBI, but he ended up losing his job and basically got
blackballed because of the incident. If I remember correctly, this is always something saying that there was some victim blaming about him, tempted by the chance of a threesome, and speculation that he was trying to be an actual quote, John not just named John and was ripped off by the ladies. He was solictening, which resulted in his being fired. He then made national headlines after being interviewed about it on twenty twenty also in Playboy and by Howard Stern.
And now apparently he's a realtor in Philly and still has local notoriety. Guys, I had never heard of this person before at all. John Belaris just an interesting piece of information that none of us had before. This always something, so thank you. But guess what, here's where things get crazy. You did not mention devil's breath, the substance it's believed
that John was drugged with. It comes from a South American species of Datura dat u r a, which is a genus of night blooming plants known for their mystical and intense psychotropic properties, used in various indigenous cultures, medicines, and rituals, as well as in witchcraft.
Bro is this what the guy in the car was being fed? He didn't know what it was. It had a hard time describing it. It wasn't a pill, remember that. I know, we don't know what the substance was. There's a great Vice documentary about this. The substance always something is describing here and from that documentary what we were talking about this briefly off air. From what I remember about that, the method of application was to blow it as a duster or and aerosol into the person's face.
But that may that just maybe one possible method of deployment.
Yeah, I'm assuming it's also consumed in one way or another in some of the other rituals right when it's more ritualized. So who knows exactly. I don't know exactly how it works. I remember a two thousand and seven piece from Vice, and then I think it was around the time we started our YouTube channel that Vice put that documentary out of probably twenty fourteen something like that. We've known about that for quite a while. We just
didn't quite feel like this drug to us. But it's interesting always something to bring it up and as a possibility, right, because there is a dissociative effect with that drug where people seem to be let's say, pliable in their actions, almost like they're not really there. They'll go along with things, they're just agreeing to everything that if someone was in the position of like a captor, they might just agree with stuff like, hey, let's go to this bank account.
Oh okay, I guess that's what we're doing. Very weird at least that's the case of Devil's Breath and how it's been described, at least by Vice. That's really the only thing I've seen on it. Let's go back to the email. Here in the US, the most well known is Jimson weed, which is associated with stories of seventeenth century colonists ingesting it and going crazy. I don't know anything about jimsonweed, jims n That's another interesting thing to
look up. It's feeling like there's another episode where we can talk about drugs that potentially could be used on you, right, as in maybe some kind of active attack. That could be an interesting episode. Yeah, all right, So continues on here. Devil's breath is known for its ability to make people who ingest it very pliable. Oh there's the word. That's why I had pliable in my brain because I just read this from us Always Something. Sorry for taking your
word there. It makes feel very pliable and trusting while seeming coherent, then leaves victims forgetting the whole incident. So it's been known to be used in such con artist schemes. After the national headlines on the Belarus case, wece made a video called World's Scariest Drug. That's what we were just talking about, Ben And this is where they send a crew to Columbia to investigate and try the substance out. So enjoy this weird detura rabbit hole. Sincerely, Always Something
in Philadelphia. Well there you go. There's some stuff to check out on your own right now. World Scariest Drug on Vice. Learn about this interesting fellow here, John Belaris B O.
L A.
R I. S.
And Yeah, just go down the rabbit holes yourselves. We'll see what we find and then let's come back together. Why don't you write to us or send us a message and let us know what you discover. We'll be right back with more messages from you, and.
We have returned. We are traveling down south to visit our fellow conspiracy realist in Australia and this is an ongoing conversation. A big thank you to anonymous in OZ. We'll read the story. We'll stop along the way for a couple of different things, and we want to be careful with some details going in to do what we can to protect our listeners anonymity. Also unrelated, unrelated thanks to AA for writing in talking about the GHB, which should be in our episode on those drugs as weapons.
All right, here we go.
Hey guys, I'm writing to you from Suddy and Steamy, far North Queensland in Australia. Your recent strange news story regarding those poor actors hired for the fake Wonka event prompted me to share my story with you. On twenty third June twenty eleven, I was hired as an extra aspiring actress and all that through my talent agency and told to attend a large hotel in the in Sydney, Australia. There were two hundred extras, all hired from our agency.
The only information we were given was to wear smart business attire, and here they mean smart, like you know, fancy, like your C suite at an office or something. On arrival, a lady check off our names and handed me a large envelope. Walking into the conference room, it became clear we were in an AGM, an annual general meeting of
a very large corporation. I opened my envelope. There was a share certificate, so like a certificate giving you a certain number of shares, So a share certificate with my name and address on it. A ballot form for this big vote that had already been filled out. I was told to go to another person, show them my ID, my share certificate, and then put my ballot into a box. I can't remember the full name of the organization anonymous as originally, but it was definitely a life insurance or
super annoation company. There were a lot of very distressed older people at the meeting. And this already sounds fishy, right. Being a paid actor in a Willy Wonka experience is one thing, But being paid to rig a corporation's votes is that what? That's what this sounds like, right?
Geez?
Like we talk about things like crisis actors sometimes and the word actor being thrown in there always to make me think of if this is even a thing. Where does one go to purchase the services of a crisis actor? Is the special service offered by talent agencies?
It seems like an unusual situation. Mm hmm.
It also reminds me of when lobbyists have rigged different local votes by packing packing crowds. But Anonymous continues and says, you can tell this was kind of weird for her too. She says, I asked why a share certificate had been made up in my name, and I was told it was done through my talent agency, and I was free to leave once I cast my vote. I was told I'd be paid for the full four hour call time, but you just had to show your idea and drop
the ballot in the box. Then I was told if I handed them back my share certificate, I get an additional two hundred dollars in cash. So like, also, you have to sell the shares back to us?
What yeah, they want to shaay clean.
Right, Well, so there's no record of the payment then, or no that because she's getting paid as an actor and getting two hundred in cash, but the shares.
Go if she if she sells the shares back, I guess technically, and it makes me wonder if that's the case for all these other extras. Then if you look at the company's record, it seems like there were all of a sudden a ton of people who got shares, voted once, and then got out.
That's very unusual. This is, of course fraud.
I think, yeah, you know, I'm not like the king of fraud, but I think it is like I'm not a fraud expert, but it does. It's surprising to me that that is not illegal.
It's like inside our training almost kind of right where there's maybe a gray area for when does that become a crime and what it is just kind of like acting on information and it happenstance.
I don't know.
We love weirdly specific crimes, you know, shout out to stamp fraud, but this is this one is so specific and strange that I think we couldn't figure out initially if it is illegal, So Anonymous continues, I knew this was totally immoral, if not illegal, so I did not cast my vote. I contacted my agency to complain, and they were not interested at all. Their cut from the two hundred extras that day mattered more than what we had actually been sent to do.
Uh checks out. I guess it does.
But it's weird that you that a talent agency would allow themselves to be mixed up in something like this.
But I guess that it pays. Yeah, guy, diversify, you know, Yeah, it's a gig. A gig is a gig, right, especially if you're aspiring in the entertainment industry.
And do you see what I mean about the crisis actors thing too? Doesn't it feel aligned in a way.
It feels similar to the crisis actor theory for sure, or the idea that you are hiring someone on a short term basis to appear as though they are someone else, and crisis actors. It's very controversial conspiracy theory. It hasn't been proven. But that's that's wrapped up. It's spart and parcel of the Alex allegations about Sandy Hook. Anyway, so Anonymous says, I know it made the media at the time. I'm having a hard time finding anything about it now.
Pretty shady way of swinging the outcome of AGM huh or as we also say, dodgy Anonymous, we say dodgy too. I sure don't we all say dodgy anyway? So thank you for the show. It means a lot. And then I wrote back to Anonymous and wanted to get more information, and Anonymous revealed the name. The name of the company
is Premium Income Fund. It is like, you know, the mentioned super super annuation that's kind of like a that's like a pension retirement plan thing, and Premium Income Fund is apparently tied up to retirement savings for a lot of older people in that country.
So it's like a shareholder meeting of some sort. Like is that the thing like where the people who are voting are supposed to be a part? Like do you have to be a member or something?
Yeah, it's very strange. You don't have all the details yet, but that's what it sounds like. And it also sounds like someone whomever contacted the Talent agency wanted the vote to go a certain way. And if those other people that Anonymous saw who were actual shareholders, if they were very distressed, then it sounds like it's a controversial vote.
You know. Yeah, that has to be illegal.
Do we have any Australian lawyers or barristers in the crowd if so, conspiracydiheartradio dot com, you know three to three STDWYTK. We would love to know more about this. So there was a huge civil action afterwards. Ten thousand retirees, per Anonymous, because we talked back and forth about this, were in her words, screwed out of their life savings. And Anonymous just again needs to stay anonymous. But this brought up so many questions for me, and I think
for all of us. How often does stuff like this happen? Does that could have happened in the US? Did you rig a shareholder vote? It makes me think of succession, of course.
I mean if it could, Yes, it could happen and likely has happened, especially considering how relatively straightforward a process this was.
You know, I don't know, that's wild.
That's the surprising thing, you know that it's the straightforwardness of it all. So it's terrible that it sounds like it's being predatory against these retirees. And on a personal level, I think we can all find that repugnant. But I would love to hear more about this. Have you guys ever heard of something like this happening before? Like I hear it, it makes sense but I've never thought someone. I'd never thought of someone doing that.
It seems like if you're voting, you know, in a shareholder meeting or something like that. I'm sure we've all been shareholders at some point in our careers, just through like Discovery, we used to. They used to send out some weird stuff with that. Back when we like got Discovery stuff.
I guess we're like, what is vesting? Yeah, spoiler, it's not a real vest Well.
We're we're pretty young folks back then. I didn't know anything about any of this stuff. And we would get in the mail like a ballot basically that you would vote on stuff that's up for as a shareholder basically. And I do wonder if this thing this premium income fund, that's what is called premium income fund?
Income fund? And what do we say about innocuous names.
Well, I'm looking through trying to find exactly what it is and if there was a vote that you could check, like meeting that had minutes or results of something, and I'm having a really hard time just in the moment.
But same we got a PDF that does have more information. But again, in the interest of anonymity, we don't want to share too much of that on air. But we also you know, now that I'm thinking through it, maybe it's just immoral. Maybe it's not technically illegal because they do own the shares when they vote. Yeah, but someone filled out their ballot already for them.
I don't know.
All right, Well, we are going to follow up with this in the future. We want to learn more about it. We want to hear from you folks if you have encountered similar strange shenanigans. And before we end, wanted to do another segment that we've been calling letters from home.
We got a pretty thought provoking message over on ye old internets, So Doug m writes to us via Instagram, hit me up on Instagram and said, listening to the strange news on Frank and Sheet being used for hunting the future seems to be cloning humans for use in government training, police, super weather fun time, but what would be the legal standing for murdering a clone? That's going
to keep me busy today. Clone rights and then also great episode And as soon as I read this, I thought we would love this discussion on air.
Clone rights.
Do you guys think clones will be on the way like manufactured cannon fodder for war.
That's gross. Yeah, of course, if they can do it, they'll probably try.
But I mean we were talking about this off Mike briefly, and I just think there have to be that conversation has to happen, could there, you know? I mean for all tents and purposes, a clone is it's it's a person. It's not a robot, it's not an AI. It's flesh and blood and presumably something that resembling the soul.
I don't think they'll be used for can of fodder and war. I think the robots, the machines are going to.
Be that a little more efficient.
Yeah, I think.
It's going to be that organ harvesting and all that other stuff with If clones become a thing, it's a personal clone, and it's just got your stuff in it.
Okay, And you think we can just use them, we can just harvest their organs and have them as like blood boys.
You know, is that you really where's the line?
Do you just do grow? Do you grow individual organs in some kind of suspension? Do you grow a full body but without a brain just to despair?
You know? Yeah?
And that that does get pretty gory pretty quickly. I wonder if look right now. One of the main stumbling blocks in the science behind human cloning is that there are some hard ethical constraints about what you can and can't clone, how long you can allow a human clone to exists. I feel like clones will be on the way, though, because the science is possible. I just don't know what they'll be used for.
Have either of you guys seen Poor Things the film?
I cannot wait to watch it, but I've not seen it yet.
It's really really great, first of all, and it's not nearly as like raunchy and controversial as people seem to be making it out. I mean, it's got some, you know, titillating stuff, but it really is, to me a very nice movie. It has a kindness to it in a way. But it's of course the classic Frankenstein's story where you create a thing and then realize that it also learns and has feelings and changes, and you can't just treat it like a like a pet, or even worse, like
a like a slave, or like something without agency. And this movie kind of takes a feminist approach to that concept, and I think it does it beautifully. But that's the thing, man like Ben you mentioned without a brain. Oh even just the saying that just sounds wrong, doesn't it?
Like wow, like remove the cortex the cerebe element.
So it's like it's like giving somebody a lobotomy in a sanitarium to prelostomy, a pre lobotomy.
It's also it reminds me there was a recent episode or an episode from a recent season of Rick and Morty which is all about the tasty spaghetti sauce.
You can't see that one, No, I don't know that one.
Okay, well, light spoilers ahead, folks, or big spoilers ahead, three to one spoilers. So in this one episode of Rick m Mordy, the family is having their weekly like family dinner time, and everybody loves Grandpa Rick's spaghetti. It's like a secret family recipe that he talks about their nuts for it. It's called that's a morte. And what they learn is that this spaghetti comes from the death of aliens, like aliens on this other planet. When they die, their guts are the spaghetti.
Oh wow, and the sauce.
Yeah.
Also, guys with light spoilers soil and green it's people.
Yeah, it's Gary oldman the whole time.
We got a review on Apple Bodcasts. It says, these guys are constantly spoiling stuff I haven't finished yet.
Okay, well then shall we proceed?
Yes?
Indeed, so the reason I bring this up, then all sorts of hygiencs happens. Rick and Morty has these fantastic writers, these incredible concepts, and in there they try the people who are the origin point of the spaghetti. Their civilization institute's an economy of scale, and they say, hey, how can we ethically reconcile the fact that the best spaghetti in the universe has to come from these people dying? And then they manufacture like clone things, and Grandpa Rick says,
all right, let's just make torsos. Get rid of the human or the thinking, the consciousness problem altogether. And they say, okay, we make torsos. I forgot the big thing in this episode. They only turn into amazing spaghetti if they kill themselves, if they commit suicide. Yeah, right, and so they end up that makes it the best I guess so, And otherwise they just die like a regular life form. So they get to a point where they build out just torsos.
But because the torsos have to commit suicide. They give them one arm and there's and they just the torsos use that one arm to become spaghetti.
Cool.
God, is that where cloning is going? We need to with Dan Harmon on this, like what's going on there?
Man?
I think it's fascinating, but I also think it's I think cloning is on the way, It is inevitable, and civilization is not prepared.
I guess I always just think this is probably also the thing I've seen Rick and Morty, but I've certainly seen another cartoons, maybe Family Guy, where you've got like the clone gone wrong and it's just like kill me, you know, like it's ghastly stuff if not treated with the utmost of respect and morality, which I don't know
how you even do that properly. I think I like the idea of growing the organs individually in a lab, but maybe didn't they have a thing where they could grow, like the ear on the back of a mouse or something that's interesting. I mean, I know, I'm sure there's people out there that are like, no, don't kill the poor mouse, but there's got to be ways of doing that. The really you know, life changing parts of this without having to sacrifice our humanity and becomes some sort of like mad gods.
And you know what I like about this episode is it packs in so many things, right, like the the ethics of factory livestock and eating meat, you know, the problem of cloning, the problem of the nature of existence. It's yeah, it's a wild ride, and I hope it stays science fiction for a while. But like with all good science fiction, how long is it before some part of that becomes science fact? And I don't know, if you guys had a chance to clone yourselves, would.
You do it? I don't think so.
I mean, if it was, like, you know, I would think of this in terms of like save the life of my child kind of stuff, you know what I mean?
I see, Yeah, so it'd have to be very high I think so.
Yeah.
But it's also the kind of technologies of course going to only be available to the mega mega privileged, in mega mega rich.
Yeah. In the beginning, there's also this other idea. I think this is weirdly possib will hear me out, guys, you're a business tycoon, right, You're a warm buffet level financier, or you know, you're just a very powerful business person, and you are going to die. You have a terminal condition.
You know it.
It's inevitable. You can't save your own life. However, you can continue your state and your companies and your corporations if you clone yourself and sign over the legal rights to your clone. So then just version one of you dies and then the other guy just sales right along, creating a potentially never ending cycle of power lineage.
Dude, have you guys seen Infinity Pool, the Brandon Cronenberg film.
I think I have no you'd remembered about it. That's I don't know.
Speaking to the one dissenting voice on Apple podcasts. I'm not going to spoil it, but there is. It's basically a film where the super rich are able to buy a get out of jail free card for committing horrible crimes. Oh that's what I have, Okay, Okay, yeah, yeah buy Basically, through cloning, they're able to create so okay and whatever. This is a sports there's a million things, other things that happen, and this is the trailer. They they are able to create a clone that then is executed on
their behalf. And because of this, let there's a ritual aspect to it. They have to watch it happen. But it really does beg the question of like, what would people do with if they never had to be held accountable for their actions? And the clone part of it is like it it feels it, it knows what's it doesn't know what's happening because it's memory.
It only starts at the moment of its birth.
But it's like you're it's being horrifically executed on behalf of its clone master.
And even Star Wars hits on this right with the Clone Wars. Absolutely people have been thinking about this for a long time. There is a There is a fantastic Orson Scott card short story, and I disagree fundamentally with Card in his personal life and his beliefs, but the story itself is really good. That is all about the nature of attempting redemption physiologically, spiritually, financially through cloning. Spoiler,
it's like an O Henry story. It doesn't it has a twist ours And this is this is strange because I think also other versions of cloning are coming to the fore before the rollout of human clones in the physical sense will have the rollout of cloned voices and appearances. That's part of why I think it's inevitable, because it's
already happening in the world of entertainment. I think there are a couple big companies post actor strike who who will require extras and people getting started in Hollywood to sign away the rights to their appearance in the background of things like their.
Body gets mapped.
Sure, and they get a f fee once and then your likeness can be used in any movie owned by that company.
Great New Black Mirror episode in the most recent season then handles that whole concept brilliantly as they usually do.
Yeah, and so we want to hear your thoughts about this, folks. We want to hear what you think the world should keep in mind if we do arrive at an age of cloning. Thank you to dug In, Thank you to Anonymous and Oz, Thanks to Rock Always Something in Philly, Delfia, thanks to Brett, Thanks of course to the Mitch Doctor. And thank you to you, fellow conspiracy realist, for tuning in. If you would like to be part of the show, we would love to have you. We try to be easy to find online.
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