Every day, we’re seeing advancements in artificial intelligence with the potential to radically change lives. Question is, will they change for the better — or worse? Will machines be our saviors after the dawn of the Singularity? Or will sentient A.I. tip us toward an apocalypse of our own making? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
We don’t have to rely on our imaginations to predict what an all-out atomic war would do to us, and everything else on the planet. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings tell us enough, and even if they didn’t, we have examples of atomic accidents and reactor meltdowns to relay the horrors of nuclear fallout. The question today is, how close have we come to an atomic WWIII — and if it happened, would we be able to survive it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoi...
Threats from space aren’t limited to extraterrestrial life forms. Celestial rockfall can do damage on a global scale — and it already has. From the KT Event 65 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs, to the Tunguska Event in 1908 Siberia that felled 80 million trees, cosmic collisions have apocalyptic aftermaths. Luckily for us, systems are being developed to protect our planet — whether from massive stray asteroids, or supercharged solar winds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit po...
If the prophecies of a mystic named Baba Vanga are true, Earth is due for an alien invasion any minute now. And she’s not the only one who’s sounded the alarm. Scientists have voiced concerns for years, fueled by credible reports of UFO sightings that suggest we’re far from alone in the galaxy. The only question is, do our interstellar neighbors come in peace? Or with a will to conquer the cosmos… and harvest our planet for their gain? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a...
Ancient texts can paint a grim picture of humanity’s demise — but what’s in store depends on your source. We could be in for anything from global disasters and epic wars, to supernatural ascensions, to enlightened beings shepherding us into the next age. With prophets to warn us, and preppers to guide us, what do major religions tell us about the end times? And how do we know if we’re living in them… right now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In 1980, a massive British carrier disappeared in a region of the North Pacific — adding to the area’s bleak legacy of lost ships. It’s said these waters are one of the twelve “vile vortices” of the world… and that the strange things that happen within them are decidedly paranormal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Over the ages, arsenic has had many lives — beauty fad, household product, medical prescription… and weapon of choice wielded by killers everywhere from Alabama to ancient Rome. Brine your turkey, knead your dough, and listen to our Thanksgiving Special on the regime-changing, assassination-aiding King of Poisons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How would a time machine work? Physicists have been engaging the question for decades — and building theoretical frameworks to make it happen. From designs like the Tipler Cylinder, to the paradoxes that imply time travel's improbability, how close are we really to folding the fabric of space-time back on itself... and breaking free from the constraints of time as we know it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Is it possible… and has it happened already? Today we’re investigating the most famous — maybe even most credible — timeslip in history (involving two respected academics and Marie Antoinette!), and the alleged time traveler from 2036 who’s connected to a mystery no one’s been able to crack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
From cardboard cutouts to DNA matching, British Big Cat hunters have tried to pin down exactly what kinds of felines haunt the British Isles. They’ve also offered some believable explanations about where they came from and how they ended up in the U.K. But some researchers don’t think they’re cats at all. They believe the animals could be spirits… from another world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The British Isles were once home to a diverse population of powerful cats like lions, leopards, and lynxes. Scientists believe humans wiped them out more than a millennium ago. But… maybe we didn’t. Since the 1500s, British people have sporadically seen huge felines on their home soil. Experts claim they shouldn’t exist. Those who have survived their attacks disagree. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ethnobotanist Wade Davis returned from Port-au-Prince with the ingredients for a zombie potion that made people appear dead. But this only completed half his mission — he needed the antidote. But no matter how much Davis studied, he couldn’t explain how one would work. At least, not scientifically. For that, he would need to infiltrate Haiti’s most dangerous secret societies… in search of spells. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In 1982, Canadian ethnobotanist Wade Davis flew to Port-au-Prince, hoping to find the ingredients for a poison said to turn the living into the living dead. If real, Davis believed the potion would revolutionize science. But in order to attain it, he would first need to immerse himself in voodoo traditions, accept the existence of magic, and come face-to-face with a real-life zombie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Secret doors, a cast-off wig, mummified arms — strange and exhilarating clues have peppered the search for Nefertiti’s final resting place. What happened to the famed leader, once branded a heretic? The evidence uncovered by archaeologists isn’t definitive. The debates rage on… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More than 3,400 years ago, Nefertiti and her husband, the pharaoh Akhenaten, brought sweeping changes to their kingdom. Several years later, she suddenly vanished from the historical record. Some believe she died of the plague. Others think she was banished. But some Egyptologists cite evidence that she ruled as co-regent with Akhenaten — and then on her own. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Two days after three inmates broke out of Alcatraz prison, a crewman on a patrol boat spotted a homemade oar in the water. Authorities believed it was evidence that the trio drowned. But others think it was discarded once the inmates successfully reached the mainland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Alcatraz wasn't just a prison, it was a fortress designed to hold the most notorious criminals in the world. But prisoner Frank Morris had other ideas. Over many months in 1962, Morris and three other inmates worked in shifts to execute one of the most daring prison breaks in American history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
For years, conspiracy theorists probed and prodded the army’s official explanation for the debris they found outside Roswell. It’s hard to prove anything when you’re up against a machine as big as the U.S. military. But as the years go by, something shifts. The men who were on the base back then start to open up. Share details they’ve kept close all these years. None more so than First Lieutenant Walter Haut. The words he wrote before he died might just be the sledgehammer that cracks open one o...
Could an unsealed affidavit reveal what really happened at Roswell? This week we’re sharing a special two-part episode from Deathbed Confessions on one man at the center of the mystery. First Lieutenant Walter Haut was one of a select group of people who attended closed briefings on the now-infamous UFO crash... Who saw the debris... Who for years after, would say very little on the matter. But Haut did have opinions of his own. Ones he recorded in a sealed affidavit, only to be released after h...
Nearly 150 years ago, two fishermen hauled to shore a sea monster they caught off the coast of Cornwall, England. As strange sightings of the creature continued over the decades, public curiosity turned into spectacle. Whatever it was — prehistoric remnant, or rare marine animal — perhaps it could be summoned… by a wizard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
For over two decades, the artist known as Banksy has vandalized private property, sold millions in antagonistic artwork, drawn a spotlight to society’s most egregious hypocrisies — and stayed anonymous through it all. In the finale of our Art Mysteries series, we’re peeling back the stencil to take in the whole of Banksy’s oeuvre, from covert street art to public provocations, and outlining the most compelling theories on his identity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a...
Before and during WWII, the Nazis stole a fortune in priceless art. Among them was a portrait that’s been called “the Mona Lisa of Austria” — a luminous piece by Gustav Klimt completed in 1907. Placed in the Austrian National Gallery, the artwork’s rightful heir fought for years to reclaim it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In 1994 an art dealer representing an anonymous client sold a rare painting to a New York gallery. There was only one problem: It was a fake. Yet for years, the paintings kept coming, the deals kept closing, and no one was the wiser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Art dealer Yves Bouvier revolutionized the fine art business. His clientele included oligarchs, billionaires, or any other buyer who required discretion. Then he used the industry's need for secrecy and anonymity to steal a fortune without his clients noticing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
After an ethereal painting of Jesus Christ fetches a record-breaking bid in a 2017 auction, doubts about its authenticity shroud the work in controversy. Is “Salvator Mundi” a Da Vinci original, done by the hand of the master himself? How did it become so exorbitantly expensive? And with its present whereabouts unknown, where is the work now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
After years of research, Dr. Maria Reiche formed one mainstream idea about how and why the Nazca Lines were made. But who were they made for? In the 1960s, Swiss author Erich Von Daniken proposed a theory: that aliens visited our ancestors and imparted onto them the knowledge needed to create our greatest earthly treasures. Most experts ignored these claims. Others believed he was on to something... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Discovered in the early 20th century, the Nazca Lines are a group of vast, mysterious formations in Peru’s Nazca Desert. For years, archaeologist Maria Reiche researched the origins of these geoglyphs, ultimately determining how and why they were built. But who were they a message for? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In Australia, the Aboriginals speak of a man-eating aquatic beast who will punish anyone who abuses its waters. Over the years, descriptions of the Bunyip’s appearance have varied wildly, calling into question: is this legendary creature an unseen threat... or just a myth? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
On the night of August 21, 1986, approximately 1,800 people died in the West African villages surrounding Lake Nyos. Surviving villagers battled a range of ailments, claiming to have seen a thick white blanket hovering above the lake before falling ill. In the wake of the tragedy, questions arose... Was this the result of a secret weapons test? A natural occurrence? Or a supernatural force? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The New York World’s Fair was intended to be an example of peace and unity between nations during a time of war. A year after the bombing, the police and FBI were still on the hunt for who caused the tragedy. Focus was now on international enemies... and supposed allies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
