Many mammals and species around the world have giant ancestors. From Megalodon to Titanoboa, sharks and snakes had ancestors that were double or triple their size... so then couldn't the same be true for humans? This week on The What If? Podcast, we explore that exact possibility—that we have preceding humanoid ancestors that are, well... BIG. From burial mounds in the midwest, to Giant Gingers in the Southwest, to mythical giant beings of history, this week we wonder whether or not we were one ...
Feb 27, 2019•1 hr 6 min
WE ARE GOING TO BE SOOOOO FAMOUS! This week, we're cooking up a highly questionable plan to game the system and launch our music careers. We also discuss a Bulgarian playlist maker that used 1,200 Spotify accounts to generate more than $1,000,000 in revenue. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode this week. Have an idea for an episode? Leave us a voicemail at (612) 246-4614 OR send us an email at hi@whatifpodcast.com...
Feb 20, 2019•1 hr 7 min
Spencer survived LA. Ryan survived Minnesota. And we’re back this week to talk about a whole lot of stuff for catchin’ up on. MAINLY: What if we went to the Grammys? What if Jose Canseco abducts us? What if Cardi B is a cryptid? What if Post Malone is Bigfoot What if UFOs descended over Chicago? WHAT IF WE DON’T EVEN KNOW ANYMORE? This week is all over the place, but we promise it’s worth the ding dang ride. We’ll catch you on the flip side, this week, on The What If? Podcast.
Feb 14, 2019•1 hr 1 min
Conspiracies, inventions, futuristic visions, alien communication - it's as if legendary inventor and physicist Nikola Tesla was designed in a lab to be a topic on The What If? Podcast. This week we dive into the life and times of Tesla, and tell the story of his fabled, strange, cryptic and fascinating career. His time in Serbia, traveling to the United States to war with competitor and inventor Thomas Edison, death rays, picking up alien chatter on a Tesla coil, wireless data transfer, and FBI...
Feb 06, 2019•1 hr 8 min
In the mid '90s reports of a strange creature killing livestock and sucking their blood travelled across Puerto Rico. Animals would be found dead in the morning, with three puncture wounds in their chest, and no blood in their bodies. Then came the sightings of beast unlike no other. Reports of how it look vary, but the death it leaves behind does not. What is happening here? Are aliens testing farm animals? Are there secret US government experiments run amok in Puerto Rico? Are there mangy rabi...
Jan 30, 2019•1 hr 2 min
When we asked for listener feedback on the creepy things their kids have said or done, we didn't imagine we'd get the strong response we did. And when we checked the internet, we didn't know just how common this phenomenon is. This week, we're talking about the age at which children seem to be able to see ghosts, communicate with the dead, invent people in the room, remember details from their past lives, and a whole lot more. We'll dive into lots of listener submitted voicemails and emails abou...
Jan 23, 2019•1 hr 8 min
Guys, Ryan continues to have the worst dang luck. For the latest entry in the series of unfortunate events that has become his life story, he's sick and has no voice, so we can't record the sweet new episode we had planned for this week. We'll be back with a new one next week, but in the meantime, check out this Patreon episode from a couple weeks ago. What is glitter? How is it made? Which mystery industry is the largest purchaser of glitter? Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every we...
Jan 16, 2019•57 min
In 1998, Brian Bethel put forth unto the internet a story of the utmost strange. A visit to his vehicle in a parking lot late one night that included strange, awkward children that possessed all black eyes, demanding entrance to his car. This set off an internet firestorm of stories from all over the world, regarding encounters of similar sorts. Pale children, visiting people, and demanding entrance to their homes and cars, creating an impending sense of fear or doom, and disturbing the victims....
Jan 09, 2019•1 hr 3 min
In the mid-60's, an Italian priest and scientist is supposed to have invented one of the greatest and most mind-blowing devices in history. The Chronovisor. A cabinet decked out with tubes, levers, wires, and antennas, the Chronovisor supposedly let its users tap into history by traveling back to high volumes of electromagnetic signals left in time and space. The priest, Pellegrino Ernetti, allegedly traveled to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, to see Roman plays from 169 BC, and a whole lot mor...
Dec 19, 2018•1 hr
The Vatican Secret Archives, located in Vatican City, contain a wide variety of catholic documents dating back to the 8th century. Because access to the archives is highly regulated, people have speculated they contain all sorts of mysterious items and documents, including proof of alien life, predictions of the coming apocalypse, and a time machine. This week we ponder whether or not they actually do contain these oddities, and if not - why the veil of secrecy over the archive itself? Join us t...
Dec 12, 2018•1 hr 3 min
We travel deep into Siberia this week, for our final installment in our three-part series on isolation. Under religious persecution, from the Communist Party in Russia, the Lykov family, from a sect of what was called the Old Believers, decided to renounce traditional society. They fled threats of death and destruction, deep, deep into the remote Siberian wilderness - the taiga - where they lived as a family of six, unseen or interrupted by the outside world, for 42 years. In 1978 they were disc...
Dec 05, 2018•1 hr 9 min
Boy oh boy, when we said we had a part two coming, we didn't know it'd be all this. But here we are, back again to talk about the strangeness of isolation. When it comes to living in isolation, the concept takes takes a few different forms. This week on The What If? Podcast, we do a follow up on last week's eerily timed episode, and put out an update on John Chau, the American missionary who was killed on North Sentinel Island, just days before we put our episode on The Sentinelese people. From ...
Nov 28, 2018•59 min
Even with the globalized world we live in, there are an estimated over 100 uncontacted tribes of people, living with minimal interruption from the outside world. Some, with histories going back as far as the Stone Age. Today, on The What If? Podcast, we explore two of the most famously isolated groups of people in the world, and discuss how the came to both be - and how they attempt to stay - in isolation. This week, we'll explore North Sentinel Island and the Sentinelese, along with the Jarawa ...
Nov 21, 2018•1 hr 8 min
On October 19th of 2017, an interstellar object was observed in our solar system for the very first time. Observed through Hawaiian telescopes, scientists named it Oumuamua. What has followed, is a curious exploration into what, in fact, this interstellar visitor actually is. The topic of of borderline scientific brawls, new Harvard papers this week suggest the possibility that Oumuamua is in fact a solar sail, hull, or ship-based alien probe. This week, on The What If? Podcast, we dive into wha...
Nov 14, 2018•1 hr 11 min
Well gang. Sometimes one person goes missing. But apparently, sometimes a lot of people go missing at the same time too. It's a weird one this week (ain't it always?), as we explore the truth (or maybe the lack thereof) of when a whole buncha stuff goes missing all at once. Is it UFOs? Is it holograms? Is it just one big bucket of malarkey? This week we explore a Chinese city in the mountains that went vacant overnight, an Inuit village reported creepily and quickly empty by a Canadian trapper, ...
Nov 06, 2018•56 min
Happy Halloween, you beautiful weirdos! It's a spooky night for spooky frights, so we're diving deep into more topics of the season. And that means ghost, poltergeists, levitations, hauntings, and enough tricks and treats to take you right through pumpkin carving, and straight into mulled wine and candy giving (and/or eating). This week, we're talking UK ghost stores specifically, going to England to talk about the Roman ghost squads walking through walls in the York Treasurer's house, and levit...
Oct 31, 2018•1 hr 19 min
Look, we'd stop doin' episodes about this if y'all stopped goin' missin'. But here we are. On part six, and people of this ding-dang universe keep bein' hard to find. This week we dive deep into the disappearance phenomenon, as it relates specifically to the folks who go bye-bye in National Parks of the United States. We talk through David Paulides's take on why people go missing in the US parks system, why we disagree with him, and the curious case of Stacey Ann Arras, a 14 year old girl who we...
Oct 24, 2018•1 hr 17 min
Y'all, Halloween is right around the corner. And that means we're diving deep into a seasonal classic - Vampires. Where in the heck are they from? How in the heck do you kill one? What in the heck are modern day vampires doin' tryin' ta eat each others' essence!?!? Find out right now on this week's episode of The What If? Podcast. Hot Topics: Spooktober is Upon Us, It's a Tricycle, Godd*mmit, Show Me All Your Vampires, Say Y'all Didn't Happen to Do A Buncha Drugs Did Ya?, Yes Daddy Get double th...
Oct 17, 2018•1 hr 6 min
On September 7, 1996 Tupac Shakur was shot four times after leaving a boxing match in Las Vegas. He died six days later. The murder has never been solved, spurring speculation that Tupac may have faked his own death to escape death threats, legal issues, gang life, and more. Is 2pac actually dead? If so, who shot him? And if not, where is he living how? Is Tupac in Cuba with his godmother, hiding out? Is he "alive" in just generic photos of lookalikes wearing bandanas? Find out on this week's ep...
Oct 09, 2018•1 hr 18 min
We're taking a much needed week off after 100 straight episodes, but in the meantime, we've decided to share our all-time favorite Patreon episode with y'all. We called Bear, he answered, and he had some WILD stories to tell. If you enjoyed this episode, join our patreon to get an extra episode every week, plus our whole back catalog of more than 50 full-length episodes. Intro music by Safe Jazz ....
Oct 02, 2018•44 min
In 1944, US fighter pilots stationed in France started seeing strange lights during night flights. Out the windows of their planes, orange and red fiery lights would organize, dip, dive, and follow their planes, to the point the pilots were, "scared sh**less." What followed over the next five years was a series of sightings around the globe. What about World War II started a domino effect of UFO sightings, both in the United States and around the planet? What were these fighter pilots seeing out...
Sep 26, 2018•1 hr 8 min
Holy bananas gang, we been at it for 99 times. 99 episodes of beer on the wall? 99 problems but a ghost ain't one? Free 99??? Yep, it's The What If? Podcast, and this week, we're talking current events with the closure of the Sunspot Observatory in New Mexico this past week. Why did the FBI show up in New Mexico, and close a 9,000 ft. high sun observatory? With no explanation and no recourse? This week, we discuss what may've caused the closure, and closures of five other observatories around th...
Sep 19, 2018•1 hr 14 min
In August of 1971 in Spain, the Pereira family started noticing a strange phenomenon on the floor of their kitchen. What started as stains in concrete evolved into what appeared to be illustrated faces of people. What follows is the mystery of today's episode. Where did the faces come from? Are they real paranormal ghost dumpster faces living beneath the Pereira house? Was this an elaborate ruse for financial gain, from tourism and news media? Are these faces the faces of dead and decapitated me...
Sep 12, 2018•1 hr 4 min
In 1959, nine ski hikers and friends entered the Ural mountains, and never came home. What followed was a months long investigation with little conclusion, as to what happened to the group of hikers. Skiers. Skikers? Hiers? Through some "unknown compelling force" (as the official explanation would finally say), the nine friends left their tent in below zero temperatures, half-clothed, and proceeded to die of various causes, including crushing of bones, exposure, and removal of body parts. How an...
Sep 05, 2018•1 hr 27 min
Since 1958, the government has been secretly exploring the possibility of colonizing the moon. On this week's episode, we dive deep into the concept of secret space programs. How did they start, where did they go, do they still exist, and what are they trying to accomplish? Has NASA doctored photos of UFOs flying away from moon craters? Is there obvious machinery on the moon we don't know about? Bridges? PIPE FITTINGS!? Find out more about the black budget money that gets dumped into a toilet ev...
Aug 29, 2018•1 hr 5 min
In 1985 in Tucson, Arizona, two people walked into an art museum, cut a painting worth more than $100 million out of it's frame, and walked out. The Willem de Kooning piece was missing for over 30 years before it was recovered in an estate sale of a couple who lived just 200 miles from where the painting was taken. To this day the questions remain: Did the Alter family steal this nearly priceless piece of art, just to hang it behind the door in their bedroom? If not, how did it come into their p...
Aug 22, 2018•1 hr 3 min
Interdimensional portals, UFOs, invisible creatures, alien abductions, and pregnant bigfoot - you can (allegedly) find it all at Bradshaw Ranch. We spend some time with Linda Bradshaw and Tom Dongo's book Merging Dimensions , and try and figure out what the heck is going on in the Arizona desert. What if we made a playlist? Tickets for our live show in Minneapolis on September 19th. Give us a call - (612) 246-4614 Send us an email - hi@whatifpodast.com...
Aug 14, 2018•1 hr 18 min
Welp, here we are. A new high? A new low? A new pie? A new dough? YOU DECIDE, KIDS. But this week, we're talking about David Huggins, who claims to have lost his virginity to an alien named Crescent when he was 17. He's now in his 70s, living in New Jersey and making hundreds of paintings documenting his experiences. Spencer recently watched the documentary Love and Saucers , which tells the David Huggins story. We also talk about going to the doctor, Planet Earth II, and iguanas falling out of ...
Aug 07, 2018•1 hr 1 min
The ghosts in the machine are gonna be the ghosts in your ears this week, as we do our first deep dive episode into the concept of ghosts. Our very special guest this week has a new album dropping soon with our very own Spencer Wirth-Davis very soon. So we’re here to jam on the dead and undead and what happens when something is in between. John Bell bought a plot of land that left his family in turmoil, fighting a ghost family member until the day that he died. We talk about emotion in a place, ...
Aug 01, 2018•1 hr 3 min
There are simply far too many out of place artifacts in human history for us to do only one episode on the subject. This week we're back for part two of the strange and fascinating topic of things that seem as though they shouldn't be where - and when - they are. Spencer dives into the Nazca Lines, and we discuss the massive crop-circle-style land carvings of 2,000 years ago, drawn into rock and illustrating monkeys, spiders, spider monkeys, monkey spiders, and maybe - just maybe, constellations...
Jul 25, 2018•1 hr 1 min
