THE LATITUDE. How do you join a cult without knowing it? Here's how it happened to thousands of people in San Francisco just a few years ago. You're with a trusted friend; maybe on a hike, or sitting in a bar or just hanging out. Out of nowhere, your friend asks you: "Can you keep a secret?" Of course you reply that you can. Your friend hands you a small black sleeve, about the size of a credit card. On one side of the sleeve is a geometric pattern. On the other side, the words "Absolute Discret...
Jun 26, 2022•20 min•Ep. 31
According to a German historian, the year is actually 1724. He says our calendar is a lie and a big chunk of the Middle Ages never happened. Which says that back in 1000 AD, there was a conspiracy between the church and the Holy Roman emperor to change the calendar. The years 614 through 911 were completely made up. Those 300 years just didn't happen. So all that history you learned about Charlemagne and the middle ages. Completely fabricated. In fact, the theory says that Charlemagne was specif...
Jun 26, 2022•13 min•Ep. 30
GHOST PHONE vs SPIRIT RADIO. Edison versus Tesla. One of history's greatest rivalries. They would never admit it but as different as these men were, they also had many similarities. For instance, they also both dabbled in paranormal technology. Nikola Tesla was convinced he could invent a device to communicate with the spirit world. And Thomas Edison was convinced he could get there first. Let's find out why. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support L...
Jun 26, 2022•15 min•Ep. 29
TITANPOINTE. New York City has skyscrapers of all shapes and sizes. But why does this 500 foot tall, 29-story building have no windows, no lights and no markings at all? Because it's a top-secret NSA spy station built to withstand nuclear war. Officially, this is an AT&T telecommunications building. But thanks to leaked documents, we now know that 33 Thomas Street is actually a top secret NSA mass surveillance hub. It's code name is: TitanPointe. And right now, as we speak, TitanPointe is li...
Jun 26, 2022•18 min•Ep. 28
JANET AIRLINES. Heard of Janet Airlines? No? Good. That's exactly what the US government wants. One of the government's biggest secrets is hiding in plain sight. In Las Vegas. Janet is the top-secret government airline that doesn't exist. Next time you're in Vegas, visit one of the big casinos next to McCarran Airport. I'm talking about Luxor, Excalibur, Mandalay Bay. When you get there, look East at the airport. All day long, but especially early in the morning and late in the evening; you'll s...
Jun 26, 2022•15 min•Ep. 27
Was Polybius real? In 1981, an arcade in Portland was the scene of countless gamers coming down with migraines, having heart attacks, seizures and strokes. Local teens were suffering from amnesia and having hallucinations. All due to a mysterious game that seemed to arrive out of thin air. The game was called Polybius. And even though playing the game was dangerous, it was highly addictive and caused some teens to become hyper-aggressive. Fights started breaking out at the arcade. One player was...
Jun 26, 2022•17 min•Ep. 26
THE KARDASHEV SCALE. We have no idea what an alien civilization would look like. Humans are evolved primates. What if an alien species is reptilian? Or more like an insect? Or a hybrid of these? Or maybe something completely unique that we couldn't even imagine. There is only one set of universal laws that every species must follow. Physics. Specifically energy. One way to measure a civilization is by its energy consumption. This is done with the Kardashev Scale. By using the Kardashev Scale, we...
Jun 26, 2022•20 min•Ep. 25
THE DOG SUICIDE BRIDGE. In Dumbarton, Scotland, there's a 19th-century gothic bridge that crosses a 50-foot ravine. It's *officially* called Overtoun Bridge. But it's *unofficial* name is the "dog suicide bridge." Built in 1895, the ornate bridge leads up to Overtoun House, a 19th century manor built by wealthy industrialist James White on the outskirts of the village of Milton in the Scottish Lowlands. It spans Overtoun Burn, a deep gorge with a small river. Hundreds of dogs have attempted to c...
Jun 26, 2022•8 min•Ep. 24
THE MAX HEADROOM INCIDENT. November 22nd, 1987 was a pretty normal evening for television viewers in Chicago. That night, like every night, Dan Roan was covering sports on WGN-TV, Channel 9. Then suddenly, the signal was disrupted and screens across the city cut to black. Engineers at WGN-TV thought their transmitters were failing. They weren't. A few seconds later, something crazy happened. WGN's broadcast signal had been hijacked in what is now known as "The Max Headroom Incident". WGN-TV was ...
Jun 26, 2022•18 min•Ep. 23
LEVITATION. The ruins of several ancient civilizations - like the pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge in the UK, and many others - are monuments constructed of massive stones. How the great pyramids of Egypt were built has been the subject of debate for a long time. The fact is, no one really knows for certain exactly how some of these megaliths were constructed. Some researchers think ancient cultures may have mastered levitation through sound which allowed them to easily manipulate massive objects. U...
Jun 26, 2022•21 min•Ep. 21
NOSTRADAMUS . 2022 Predictions: Earthquakes, Asteroids & Zombies? If you believe the predictions of Nostradamus and you enjoyed 2020, you're gonna *love* 2021. While many astrologers, seers and mystics are predicting a hopeful future. If you believe Nostradamus, you better start kissing your mommies and saying your goodbyes. He predicted that 2020 would be a "great trouble for humanity". Well, that was true. And he says a greater trouble is coming in the form of a global famine. According to...
Jun 26, 2022•23 min•Ep. 20
STUXNET. The virus that prevented; then started the next world war. Cyberwar is being waged right now in your name. No matter what country you call home, your government is engaged in highly dangerous combat on the Internet. Infrastructure around the world is under siege and everyone is at risk. Even you. In 2010, the Stuxnet virus was discovered in Natanz, Iran and thousands of control systems that operate factories, power plants and nuclear reactors around the world. It was 20 times more sophi...
Jun 26, 2022•25 min•Ep. 19
NUMBERS STATIONS. Not a relic of the past. Intelligence agencies use shortwave to communicate with spies, agents and assets in the field. Right now. Today. Let's listen to a few and learn how to tune in from home -- for free. Since World War One, numbers stations have been transmitting coded messages to spies around the world using shortwave radio. And they're still transmitting right now. We're going to listen to a few in this episode. These transmissions sound strange to casual listeners. But ...
Jun 26, 2022•20 min•Ep. 18
Is time travel possible? According to physicists, yes. Time travel *to the future* is not only possible, it's been scientifically proven. But what about traveling to the past? Well, that's a little trickier. BUT, there does seem to be evidence that travelers from the future have visited us in the past; and may be among us right now. The human race has been fascinated with traveling through time ever since, well, ever since the human race understood what time was. But has time travel been achieve...
Jun 26, 2022•19 min•Ep. 17
The Aztec Death Whistle. If hell has a sound, I bet it sounds alot like the Aztec Death Whistle. The Aztec Death Whistle sounds like a shriek of death mixed with howling wind. It's so unnerving, that the significance of the horrifying sound of the Aztec Death Whistle has fascinated and perplexed scholars for years. I'm going to play the sound of the Aztec Death Whistle for you today. When Spanish conquistador Cortés and his men arrived in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán in 1521, they described...
Jun 26, 2022•13 min•Ep. 16
The Philadelphia Experiment. It was October 1943. The day the US Navy mastered time travel, teleportation, and invisibility. Actually, they didn't master anything. The experiment had disastrous consequences for the crew of the USS Eldridge. In the summer of 1943, two years after the US entered World War II, American destroyers were being decimated by the infamous German U-boat submarines and German mines were making combat... and commerce dangerous enterprises. The United States Navy knew someth...
Jun 26, 2022•15 min•Ep. 15
Most of us have heard of the Bermuda Triangle, where planes and ships have mysteriously gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean for decades. Did you know there is a similar place in Nevada? The Nevada Triangle. In a region of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Nevada and California, 2,000 planes have been lost in the last 60 years. In this remotely populated area of more than 25,000 miles of mountain desert, many of the crash sites have never been found. The Nevada Triangle is typically defined as spanni...
Jun 26, 2022•12 min•Ep. 13
What does the moon smell like? Do planets, comets, asteroids and space have their own odors? The smells of the universe are not universal. Different objects in space — comets, planets, moons and gas clouds — all have their own distinctive aroma. Twelve people have walked on the Moon and all of them agree: the Moon smells like gunpowder. According to Space.com , astronaut Jack Schmitt said: “All I can say is that everyone's instant impression of the smell was that of spent gunpowder, not that it ...
Jun 26, 2022•12 min•Ep. 12
For 600 years the Voynich Manuscript has stumped scholars, cryptographers, physicists, and computer scientists. Now, a researcher in Germany has claimed to have finally decoded the most mysterious book in the world. The Voynich Manuscript is a 240-page medieval codex written in an indecipherable language, full of bizarre drawings of strange plants, astrological symbols and... lots of... naked women. The Voynich Manuscript defies classification and has also defied comprehension. Cryptologists, FB...
Jun 26, 2022•14 min•Ep. 11
The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact - The Day the Dinosaurs Died One of the deepest scars on our planet is hidden beneath the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico. The buried crater, over 90 miles in diameter, was created when a massive asteroid struck the planet 66 million years ago and brought a calamitous end to the reign of dinosaurs. Though dinosaur extinction probably took weeks or months, in just one day, 425 feet of material accumulated where the asteroid hit with the power of 10 billion a...
Jun 26, 2022•14 min•Ep. 8
The Most Secret Places in the World - And the wild theories about what really happens inside. In the modern world, places are supposed to be accessible. People move freely around the country they live in and even between countries. However, the most interesting, fascinating and mysterious locations in the world, even today, are strictly off limits to just about everyone. Most of the places on this list are only accessible to those with the proper clearances, but some are not accessible to anyone...
Jun 26, 2022•22 min•Ep. 7
The Why Files Do you have natural curiosity, interest in scientific mysteries and a great sense of humor? You're in the right place! We cover brainy topics with comedy spin. I'm AJ Gentile, the Head Nerd In Charge. You might know me from the Discovery Channel, SiriusXM, MTV and the Joe Rogan Experience. The Why Files is a channel for people who are fascinated (obsessed) with science, science-fiction, bizarre history, weird facts, strange places, conspiracies and unusual people. Join us as we lea...
Mar 11, 2022•4 min
