Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. Hello, welcome back to the show. My
Speaker 1: name is Matt, my name is Noel. They called me Ben.
Speaker 1: You're joined with our guest superproducer, Ben super Shifter Hackett.
Speaker 1: Most importantly, you are you. You are here, and that
Speaker 1: makes this the stuff they don't want you to know now.
Speaker 1: In our previous week, as you may know longtime conspiracy realists,
Speaker 1: we were on the road having a series of strange
Speaker 1: misadventures that we can't wait to tell you about in
Speaker 1: the future. But we had to return live and in
Speaker 1: full effect for one of our favorite weekly segments, strange News,
Speaker 1: all the stuff that either doesn't make it into the
Speaker 1: headlines or doesn't get maybe the analysis that it deserves.
Speaker 1: So without further ado, we're going to We're going to
Speaker 1: explore some tragedies in Nashville. We're going to talk about exorcism,
Speaker 1: but not in the way you imagine perhaps, And before
Speaker 1: we do any of that, Matt Nol whence the last
Speaker 1: time you went to a big sports game? M I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say never. Wait, oh man, now I've been to
Speaker 1: a baseball game. I've never been. I was having this
Speaker 1: conversation to the day I've I've literally never been to
Speaker 1: a football game. And I lived in Athens, Georgia for
Speaker 1: four years, which is weird that I never made it
Speaker 1: to a UGA game. But yeah, not not not a many. Well, guys,
Speaker 1: Yesterday I happened to have dropped some money on some
Speaker 1: season tickets for the Gwynnette Stripers. It's a baseball team
Speaker 1: based I was gonna ask. It's a part of the Atlantas,
Speaker 1: but it's one of the minor league teams. And I'm
Speaker 1: so excited for my son and I to go to
Speaker 1: ball games like on the weekends. That is some serious
Speaker 1: father son stuff right there. Thats good, good, good man, dude.
Speaker 1: I do Look, I didn't get the really good ones,
Speaker 1: and I also didn't get a whole bunch of them.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna go to some games. Okay, okay, I
Speaker 1: mean does that mean we can get the end we
Speaker 1: can get like the you can hook us up when
Speaker 1: you can't go. Yeah. Yeah, if you guys want to
Speaker 1: go together, or if one of you wants to come
Speaker 1: with me. If my son can't make it, let's go.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, I'm in. I'm kind of a drifter, so
Speaker 1: it would be nice to show up to a game
Speaker 1: with some official paperwork. Yeah, because they're always all about
Speaker 1: show us your papers. Yeah yeah, oriented yeah, oriented society.
Speaker 1: It basically like getting into a minor league game illegally
Speaker 1: is like as we all know. I'm sure it's like
Speaker 1: trying to sneak into North Korea. They are buttoned up.
Speaker 1: But Matt, quick question, do they do? We know what
Speaker 1: kind of turf they have the singers? Honestly, I do
Speaker 1: not know. It looks real to me, but I think
Speaker 1: that's how it's supposed to be designed, right, it's supposed
Speaker 1: to Yeah, yeah, well, okay, so this story is pretty serious.
Speaker 1: It's a little speculative. I just have to put that
Speaker 1: out there before you even begin. But I think it's important.
Speaker 1: And this is kind of ringing the same bell that
Speaker 1: I've been ringing for a long time with you guys,
Speaker 1: that old pfas the Forever Chemicals bell that it's just
Speaker 1: like an alarm bell. I guess we've been ringing for
Speaker 1: a while now. Yeah, it's shaped like a skull and
Speaker 1: cross bonds yeah, yeah, So some of this is going
Speaker 1: to be familiar to you listening already, but we need
Speaker 1: to talk about it. There is potential that some of
Speaker 1: the artificial turf that has been used for decades for
Speaker 1: professional baseball teams and you know, uh, major leagues, minor leagues,
Speaker 1: and even some schools use this turf and the past,
Speaker 1: there's potential that this turf is cancer causing because it
Speaker 1: does contain forever chemicals. At least many of the false turfs,
Speaker 1: the AstroTurf which is a proper noun, there a lot
Speaker 1: of it has been tested and shown to have all
Speaker 1: kinds of things like benzene that leaches out of it
Speaker 1: over time, and just terrible things for the players who
Speaker 1: end up on that turf. So let's go to the story.
Speaker 1: It comes to us from mid March twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: It was first reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, which is
Speaker 1: what we're going to be primarily getting our information from today.
Speaker 1: But the reason why it pined for this episode is
Speaker 1: because the Guardian was talking about it, and this is
Speaker 1: what you can search for and find. Artificial turf potentially
Speaker 1: linked to cancer deaths of six Philadelphia Phillies ball players report.
Speaker 1: The report is coming out of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and
Speaker 1: all six of these players contracted a or what do
Speaker 1: you what is it with cancer? You got cancer? You
Speaker 1: cancer it? Yeah, I mean I think I think contracted
Speaker 1: is probably contracted would be the typical nomenclature. Yeah. They
Speaker 1: they all ended up with a very rare form of
Speaker 1: brain cancer called a glioblastoma. It's very aggressive. All of
Speaker 1: them died. All six players died. All of them were
Speaker 1: under the age of sixty years old when they died.
Speaker 1: We'll name the players right here, Tug McCraw, Darren Dalton,
Speaker 1: John Vukovic, John Oates, Ken Brett, and David West. They
Speaker 1: all played at a specific stadium, veteran stadium. This was
Speaker 1: at the time when this new turf was put in.
Speaker 1: It was state of the art. It was this brand new,
Speaker 1: exciting thing. This is this field is not going to
Speaker 1: be required to be taken care of in the same
Speaker 1: way all of the other baseball fields will need to
Speaker 1: be taken care of. Right, It's not grass that has
Speaker 1: to be fed and cut all those things. It's this
Speaker 1: new They called it a quote magic carpet back in
Speaker 1: the day and over the years after just Honestly, some
Speaker 1: weird health stuff has been going down with baseball players
Speaker 1: who play on these fields on a regular basis. I
Speaker 1: would highly recommend you check out the Philadelphia Inquirers article
Speaker 1: to get all of the information, But I want to
Speaker 1: hit some of the primary things here. What chemicals were
Speaker 1: found within the turf at this veteran stadium where these
Speaker 1: players played. There were pfas, that's those per and polyfloral
Speaker 1: altical substances. And it wasn't just one PFAS chemical that
Speaker 1: was found in there. There were sixteen separate forever chemicals
Speaker 1: that were found within these things. And if that was
Speaker 1: from testing that was done by Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories environmental testing,
Speaker 1: and each of those we should mention each of this
Speaker 1: rogue's gallery of chemicals can be carcinogenic on its own. Yes,
Speaker 1: what led to the testing? Was it like routine or
Speaker 1: was this as a result of these reports or the
Speaker 1: idea of their being in connection? The connection, the theoretical
Speaker 1: connection was made, which is then why it all got tested.
Speaker 1: And the question was is there an actual link between
Speaker 1: this turf and this rare cancer that these players got right?
Speaker 1: And how could you prove that? How can you prove
Speaker 1: that the turf is what gave them cancer? One note
Speaker 1: here too meant that might be of interest or a
Speaker 1: fellow conspiracy realist. Glioblastoma, most causes of it are officially
Speaker 1: unclear at this time, but doctors and researchers currently believe
Speaker 1: only about five percent of glioblastoma cases occurred due to
Speaker 1: hereditary factors. So it's an environmental thing, which I think
Speaker 1: is part of the red flag. Yeah, and just so
Speaker 1: you guys know, there are no studies linking forever chemicals
Speaker 1: to brain cancer at all. Zero. There Forever chemicals are
Speaker 1: linked to kidney cancers and testicular cancers, at least officially,
Speaker 1: those are the only two things that are linked to
Speaker 1: But p fas has been found in the human brain.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense? So we're just not at the
Speaker 1: level yet where we can say definitively this is what
Speaker 1: caused the brain tumor. Well, and like I mean, I
Speaker 1: just feel like a lot of cancer research is sort
Speaker 1: of a black box. And in that respect, I mean,
Speaker 1: we know, you know, cigarette smoke carcentage and the cigarette
Speaker 1: smoke lead to cancer, lead to lung cancer, but not
Speaker 1: everybody that smokes cigarettes gets lung cancer. And you have
Speaker 1: people that get lung cancer and I've never touched a
Speaker 1: cigarette in their life, and people that smoke a pack
Speaker 1: a day until they're seventy and you know, die of
Speaker 1: natural causes. It's just I'm not justifying smoking cigarettes. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying it is a little bit of a crap
Speaker 1: not a crapshoot, But like you know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: little mysterious sometimes as to we know some things can
Speaker 1: cause it, but then there are other factors as well
Speaker 1: that make might make one person more likely to get
Speaker 1: it because of that outside factor than others. No, you're right,
Speaker 1: there could be a ton of factors to win and
Speaker 1: all this stuff. It could be a particular environmental factor
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia near where they played, right, or you have
Speaker 1: nothing to do with the turf, had to do more
Speaker 1: with the older building, right, and something you know, some
Speaker 1: kind of building material that was in their or insulation
Speaker 1: that was used, or paint or you know, there are
Speaker 1: all these things. Here's an interesting connection we could make
Speaker 1: in this Guardian article that you hipped us to Matt, which,
Speaker 1: as you said, by Tom Perkins, is very much worth
Speaker 1: the read this. There's a note here where they talk
Speaker 1: about the nature of artificial or AstroTurf, and they mentioned
Speaker 1: the infill specifically on the field. It is made with
Speaker 1: recycled rubber tire components called crumb rubber and looking at leoblastoma,
Speaker 1: which I didn't know off the dome, looking at leoblastoma,
Speaker 1: environmental factors that can lead to that condition do include
Speaker 1: rubber manufacturing. So I'm wondering if that's a possible connection. Oh,
Speaker 1: for sure, because there's stuff. There's stuff in that rubber,
Speaker 1: the previously known as tires now soil, fake soil stuff.
Speaker 1: There's benzene in there, for sure. Heavy metals are in
Speaker 1: their volatile organic compounds according to the Guardian, other carcinogens.
Speaker 1: And that's so if you imagine you're looking at the
Speaker 1: soil like a cross section, right, you've got the artificial turf,
Speaker 1: the stuff that looks like grass on the top, right,
Speaker 1: and then below that, instead of putting soil or something
Speaker 1: that you would in a regular stadium that has grass,
Speaker 1: you put this filth that Ben is talking about. And
Speaker 1: every time a player steps with cleats on that artificial
Speaker 1: turf on the top, those cleats push in a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe they don't pierce that top layer, but
Speaker 1: they push in and they aggravate all the stuff below it.
Speaker 1: And if it's been raining, uh, if the conditions are right,
Speaker 1: if it's super hot outside in that that ground is heated,
Speaker 1: then some of those chemicals get agitated and maybe release
Speaker 1: in a different way. We don't know for sure, but
Speaker 1: it's a it's a possibility. And then imagine like sliding
Speaker 1: on that stuff like like face first, yeah or whatever, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, left field or something. I mean, it's there's
Speaker 1: just a huge potential for exposure there, M and Ben,
Speaker 1: I have a question for you, Um, isn't it like
Speaker 1: notoriously difficult to definitively prove or link you know, these
Speaker 1: types of cases to a particular situation you know, or
Speaker 1: exposure event or at the very least you know, such
Speaker 1: that maximum uh damages are paid out in these kinds
Speaker 1: of court cases. Yeah. Yeah, it can be quite difficult
Speaker 1: because again, cancer is an umbrella term, right, and one
Speaker 1: treatment for one type of cancer may not necessary really
Speaker 1: be as efficacious when applied to another type of cancer. Right.
Speaker 1: Cancer is like saying chair There are untold variations of chairs, right,
Speaker 1: and the one thing they have in common is that
Speaker 1: people sit on them. The one thing that cancer has
Speaker 1: in common is that it is it is a dangerous
Speaker 1: abnormality of cell growth. So with this, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of class action lawsuits about things
Speaker 1: like think of think of as best exposure, and think
Speaker 1: of agent orange. The struggle to get treatment or even
Speaker 1: acknowledgement of the causes of agent orange continues well after
Speaker 1: the Vietnam War, well after Iraq. Even so, when we're
Speaker 1: looking at this, you bring up an excellent pointnel, It
Speaker 1: is very difficult for someone to be able to say
Speaker 1: this is the cause, this is the origin point of
Speaker 1: this condition. However, there is a helpful thing here, kind
Speaker 1: of like meslothemioma in asbestos cases. Glioblastoma is so rare
Speaker 1: that it strengthens your case to say, hey, these folks
Speaker 1: all have one thing in common despite their demographics. They
Speaker 1: all worked at the same place. We're exposed to the
Speaker 1: same things around the same time. But again, it's devilishly
Speaker 1: difficult to prove that conclusively in a court of law. Wow, guys,
Speaker 1: so there's way more to talk about here. I'm going
Speaker 1: to send everybody to the Philadelphia Inquirer look for quote,
Speaker 1: what to know about forever chemicals, artificial turf, Phillies, cancer deaths,
Speaker 1: and our story. That's the title of the article. It
Speaker 1: was written by Barbara Laker and David gamba Quorta, and
Speaker 1: it was published on March seventh in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Speaker 1: Lots more answers for you inside there. The biggest takeaway
Speaker 1: is that there are cities across the country that are
Speaker 1: beginning to ban artificial turf outright completely. Uh, not all
Speaker 1: of them, but several of them. And when was this
Speaker 1: installed again, Matt originally seventies, So this is like of
Speaker 1: the same ilk as like asbestos, where it was just
Speaker 1: a magical material used in everything and then whoops, we
Speaker 1: figured it out later and then had to, you know,
Speaker 1: mitigate all of those legacy installations. Yeah, it's it's teflon,
Speaker 1: but for a playing field, you know, invented in the
Speaker 1: uh let's see, invented in the sixties, so it was
Speaker 1: still relatively new when it was laid out there in Philly.
Speaker 1: Are there not other uh stadiums that have this though?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, like twelve thousand, right, there's a lot. There's
Speaker 1: a lot, Okay that that certainly muddies the water more
Speaker 1: than Yeah, why aren't there Why aren't there more rare
Speaker 1: cancer deaths linked to other you know, I mean, I guess, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's an interesting one. Yeah. And it's not just baseball,
Speaker 1: by the way, NFL stadiums have this stuff. FIFA stadiums
Speaker 1: or you know, soccer stadiums have this stuff. And hey,
Speaker 1: here's something fun. FIFA, FIFA, we know them. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're great when when they're putting on a World Cup match,
Speaker 1: you know what one of their requirements is slavery well, yes,
Speaker 1: and it can't be artificial turf. It cannot be artificial
Speaker 1: turn is that more of just like a prestige thing
Speaker 1: probably maybe like a rule thing about how real grass
Speaker 1: versus a yeah point, or maybe I never thought I
Speaker 1: would say it, but maybe it's like a good on
Speaker 1: you FIFA situation. Maybe, So we'll give them this one, guys,
Speaker 1: we'll give them this. They don't say anything about the
Speaker 1: games that aren't the World Cup. I mean, come on,
Speaker 1: oh you got me with a Santa laugh. Sorry, there
Speaker 1: you go. All right, Well that's it for now. Key
Speaker 1: watch on that, especially if you find out your local
Speaker 1: teams play on artificial turf, or if you're a player
Speaker 1: of any sport that uses the stuff. Just keep it
Speaker 1: in mind, all right. We'll be right back after a
Speaker 1: word from our sponsors or a player in general, we'd
Speaker 1: like to hear from you. Got a co sign from
Speaker 1: mister Matt Frederick. There we are back. Here's our next thing.
Speaker 1: This is a bit of a hobby horse, hopefully not
Speaker 1: just for me, but for a lot of people. For
Speaker 1: many years, we know about the problems with drug cartels.
Speaker 1: The world rounds is specifically in Latin America, often in
Speaker 1: the past aided and abetted by the same institutions of
Speaker 1: the US government that purport to combat them. There are
Speaker 1: tons of folklore around this, There are billions of dollars
Speaker 1: around this, and there are a lot of surreal situations.
Speaker 1: You know, not too long ago, famous hippo enthusiast also
Speaker 1: drug dealer, Pablo Escobar created an entire, entirely new invasive
Speaker 1: species situation when he imported hippos to Colombia, and they
Speaker 1: live there now. Hippos are, by the way, the most
Speaker 1: dangerous land mammal by far. Don't mess with them. Don't
Speaker 1: care how cute they look, don't don't do it. The
Speaker 1: baby ones are cute, The big ones are terrifying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they're fast. The little ears are cute though, No,
Speaker 1: that's isn't that a thing too? They're No, that's rhinoceroses.
Speaker 1: They're like mega fast land animals. But yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: hippos will come up from underneath and like they'll knock
Speaker 1: your boat over. Yeah, they're hungry at your face, hungry,
Speaker 1: hungry indeed, and they're they're quite they're quite dangerous. They're
Speaker 1: much faster than you might think if you just looked
Speaker 1: at one lulling by the river, either sense of the
Speaker 1: word lull There here's what happened. Uh. Several years ago,
Speaker 1: we reported on a a serial killer murder case amid
Speaker 1: some narcos. Narcos would be another term for operatives of
Speaker 1: a cartel. We know about narcos Saints like Santa Muerte,
Speaker 1: We know that there. We know about narco corridos, right.
Speaker 1: We like the ballads, the songs, Yeah, the glorify always
Speaker 1: sounds so upbeat. Yeah, of course that some of them
Speaker 1: are bangers. I'm not gonna lie objectively. Some of them
Speaker 1: are really good songs. Uh, Okay, we've got we've got
Speaker 1: guest producers. Super Shifter over there going oh yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: some of them are catching yeah, medium, no, alright, alright,
Speaker 1: So this this is something that amazed me that came
Speaker 1: out recently. Loved to share it with everyone. Colombia's chief
Speaker 1: of police recently made a statement about unconventional methods used
Speaker 1: to combat drug cartels. Those methods are not spying, which
Speaker 1: they do if they can. Those methods are not you know,
Speaker 1: kick doors, which they do if they can, nor requisition
Speaker 1: of evidence, which of course they do if they can. Instead,
Speaker 1: the chief of Police of Columbia said that he and
Speaker 1: his colleagues and other officers use exorcism and focused prayer
Speaker 1: to combat the country's most powerful criminals because they believe
Speaker 1: those criminals use dark magic, use occult methods to ensure
Speaker 1: their success, and they all believe this magic works. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Focused prayer, this is a new one for me. Looks
Speaker 1: like you get together a group of people, maybe you
Speaker 1: make offerings to certain saints, you focus your tension, right,
Speaker 1: like weaponized psychologists, like praying at somebody. Yes, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a good description. So as though the law enforcement they're
Speaker 1: on the side of God, I guess in this case,
Speaker 1: and then the people they are combating or on the
Speaker 1: side of the devil. Yes, yeah, I don't know about that.
Speaker 1: It feels like the folks on both sides are on
Speaker 1: the side of you know, Catholicism, and they just justify
Speaker 1: their actions in different ways by praying to different saints
Speaker 1: in different you know, for different reasons. I don't know.
Speaker 1: It just you know, even if you watch like Breaking Bad,
Speaker 1: like the Twins, you know them, the assassins with the hatchets,
Speaker 1: like they're always like, you know, doing stuff with saints
Speaker 1: and lighting candles and seem like really devoutly religious and
Speaker 1: also have like skulls and kind of you know, kind
Speaker 1: of black magic e looking stuff. But I think a
Speaker 1: lot of that stuff is like Deo Della's Mrto's kind
Speaker 1: of stuff and is still tied in with Catholicism. Well.
Speaker 1: Catholicism is also interesting because it engages proactively throughout history
Speaker 1: in the practice of religious ratism, which is saying, oh,
Speaker 1: your local non Christian pantheon is the same. You know,
Speaker 1: these are actually saints from Catholicism and you were just
Speaker 1: confused about the brand names. So let us tell you
Speaker 1: how to how you should be worshiping something by the way,
Speaker 1: you know, we're enslaving you and spreading disease, etc. Etc.
Speaker 1: This Okay, So the first we kind of learned about
Speaker 1: this in terms of occult dealings in the world of
Speaker 1: cartels comes from the case of Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo,
Speaker 1: which was a Cuban American serial killer, drug dealer, and
Speaker 1: cult leader. You can read about his harrowing tale or
Speaker 1: you can listen to our previous episode about this kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. I think we mentioned him a few times.
Speaker 1: He is not the Colombian cartel. He's not affiliated with
Speaker 1: the Colombian cartels that that police chief General Henry Sana
Speaker 1: Bree is targeting. But just a few days ago, Santabria
Speaker 1: tells local media that not only have the authorities resorted
Speaker 1: to these you know, I guess you could call them
Speaker 1: counter occult methods, but also Santabria is convinced that these
Speaker 1: practices have worked, they have delivered results. Why does he
Speaker 1: say that, because this is not a new thing. They
Speaker 1: said for about a half a century, fifty years, the
Speaker 1: authorities have been doing this, and he recalls specific examples.
Speaker 1: You can read about this in CBS News should you
Speaker 1: prefer English. Originally found it on Samana dot com, which
Speaker 1: is Spanish language and big thanks to Vicky Davida who
Speaker 1: wrote the original article. But what we see here is
Speaker 1: a pretty strident interview. Santa Bria does things like bring
Speaker 1: up specific examples from the past where he feels these
Speaker 1: spiritual practices worked. He said, there are police operations against
Speaker 1: Escobar in nineteen ninety three, and exorcism and prayer played
Speaker 1: a part in their victory. Then he notes the assassination
Speaker 1: of Alfonso Kano in twenty eleven. That's a fark Garria leader.
Speaker 1: And then he notes the assassination of a military chief
Speaker 1: who worked for Kino known as Mono Jojoy twenty ten,
Speaker 1: and he says this quote, I can't wait to hear
Speaker 1: what you think about this. The existence of the devil
Speaker 1: is certain. I have seen him, I have felt him,
Speaker 1: and he made the sign of the cross when he
Speaker 1: mentions the devil. Also, if you look at that Samana
Speaker 1: article which comes from the magazine, you can see that
Speaker 1: his office is surrounded by crucifixes, by effigies of the
Speaker 1: Virgin Mary, all the hits from Catholicism. And he also,
Speaker 1: like okay, one of the most recent examples, he says
Speaker 1: there was a group of unarmed police officers that were
Speaker 1: surrounded by hundreds of protesters who were right on the
Speaker 1: edge of rioting, right becoming violent, and Sanabria arrives at
Speaker 1: the scene. He pulls out a crucifix and he feels
Speaker 1: that that repelled again hundreds of protesters. They packed their
Speaker 1: stuff up and left. Now before a monologue too long,
Speaker 1: maybe too late? What do you guys think about this
Speaker 1: when you hear this story. I don't see the correlation.
Speaker 1: But maybe if there's enough of a belief that that
Speaker 1: crucifix and a holy man of some sort performing a
Speaker 1: ritual could have an effect on you, Right, if there's
Speaker 1: a belief in the people that that weaponized psychology has
Speaker 1: been being used against its strong enough, then yeah, then
Speaker 1: maybe something did happen there where there is correlation. But man,
Speaker 1: that's certainly weird. Are there any other examples of something
Speaker 1: used like that where an exorcism or a right was used? Oh,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. Yeah, you know, let's think about our
Speaker 1: pal Gabriel Amorth, who was the chief exorcist for the Vatican,
Speaker 1: right and heavily employed the use of what we call
Speaker 1: proxy exorcisms, right, trying to exercise the fans of the
Speaker 1: Harry Potter fiction franchise, for example. We also know in general,
Speaker 1: in a country that has strong Catholic roots, people are
Speaker 1: going to pray, right. There's nothing wrong with that, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that they are violating any rule of
Speaker 1: their position. I mean, over in Philly, people are praying
Speaker 1: to win a game. Right. This is different because win
Speaker 1: or lose, everybody should be leaving safely. Right here. It's
Speaker 1: interesting because we have one group cartels that are praying
Speaker 1: to in some cases saints that are not acknowledged by
Speaker 1: the official Catholic Church folk saints like Santamuete. And then
Speaker 1: on the other side we have people ostensibly of the
Speaker 1: same belief system praying for those favors. You know, I
Speaker 1: think it is important to note Colombia is on paper
Speaker 1: a secular country, but it has, you know, huge Catholic routes,
Speaker 1: strong Catholic belief system, and this stuff. The conversation turned
Speaker 1: into a fire store on social media. It went all
Speaker 1: the way to the President, President Gustavo Petro. He said, look,
Speaker 1: we know the beliefs of the General Santabria, but we
Speaker 1: try to make sure that these beliefs do not affect
Speaker 1: the rules. It's as simple as that. I think he's
Speaker 1: respected them as far as we know. Oh yeah, that's great. Um, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is a hunch bent Craig. If I'm wrong here,
Speaker 1: I feel like this general if if he's pretty it
Speaker 1: seems to be very religious. Man has you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of faith. He's not an elected official, though he
Speaker 1: is in the military, which, okay, that's good because he's
Speaker 1: not making laws, right. Iagining there could be some political
Speaker 1: crossover here. Ah, I see if maybe this is a
Speaker 1: cynical move to sort of garner support for future political
Speaker 1: run maybe quite possibly, you know. And it's difficult to
Speaker 1: know people's internal motivations and desires. We only know what
Speaker 1: people tell us about themselves. That's true. I'm also wondering
Speaker 1: how far it goes, right, Like, it's so weird because
Speaker 1: it's something that's been missing from the story or the
Speaker 1: phenomenon for quite some time. Right, we knew certain cartels,
Speaker 1: certain narcos were engaging in what might be called cultic
Speaker 1: or occult practices, and this is almost like the other
Speaker 1: shoe dropping. It's just very strange for someone of this
Speaker 1: position to come out and say, you know, come out
Speaker 1: and depict the authorities as though they are holy warriors
Speaker 1: of a sort, especially if people are praying in the
Speaker 1: same belief system, you know what I mean. It's just
Speaker 1: it's very muddy, very quickly, and I had the same
Speaker 1: question Matt, like, how much do you guys think this
Speaker 1: individual actually believes what they're saying. Well, if you're interested
Speaker 1: in finding out more about exorcisms, our buddy Chandler Mays
Speaker 1: has worked incredibly hard on a podcast series that's out
Speaker 1: now called The Exorcist Files, featuring a renowned priest, father
Speaker 1: Carlos Martins, and him talking about various exorcisms that he's performed,
Speaker 1: and apparently exorcisms are up within the Catholic Church over
Speaker 1: the past handful of years. So yeah, definitely some stuff
Speaker 1: to find out there from the Exorcist Files. Yep. And
Speaker 1: this show is fantastic if you've enjoyed our previous episodes
Speaker 1: on exorcisms, which we're already on the rise even back
Speaker 1: when we covered it. This is a continuing question and
Speaker 1: it's a question that we want to pass to you,
Speaker 1: fellow conspiracy realist. What do you think about the idea
Speaker 1: of using spiritual and or occult means in real life,
Speaker 1: real world tangible conflicts. Do you have other examples? Have
Speaker 1: you experienced something directly? Do you know practitioners of certain arts?
Speaker 1: If so, we would love to hear from you conspiracy
Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio dot com. We'll give you our phone number
Speaker 1: in our social at the end. Right now, we are
Speaker 1: going to pause for a word from our sponsors, and
Speaker 1: we will return with one more piece of strange news.
Speaker 1: Oh man, we're back, guys. I can't get the image
Speaker 1: out of my head of occult law enforcement officers in
Speaker 1: some kind of sci fi. It's awesome. It should be
Speaker 1: a series. It's incredible. A comic book. It's a comic
Speaker 1: book created by Rosario Dawson and a friend of mine.
Speaker 1: Actually elements of it in Like Preacher. You know, there's
Speaker 1: definitely like kind of snippets of this whole vibe and
Speaker 1: a lot of comics and graphic novel series that I
Speaker 1: think we all dig. But very very interesting. So we're back,
Speaker 1: as he said, Matt, with another piece of news. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it's not strange because it's something that happens far too
Speaker 1: often in this country. And not going to make this
Speaker 1: a soapbox thing, but it's another school shooting at this
Speaker 1: time in Nashville, Tennessee. And the reason I wanted to
Speaker 1: bring this up and talk about it with you guys
Speaker 1: is just there are certain people, you know, in politics
Speaker 1: in government that really like to take these moments that
Speaker 1: are just national tragedies that happen far too often and
Speaker 1: use them to frame talking points that they like, whether
Speaker 1: it be you know, for or against gun control or whatever.
Speaker 1: The issue might be mental health for example, these are
Speaker 1: maybe that's a positive one, a conversation that should be had.
Speaker 1: We have a real, you know, lack of available mental
Speaker 1: health care in this country and it's not something that
Speaker 1: really people are even and able to talk about as
Speaker 1: much as that it's certainly gotten better. But so in Nashville, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: at a Christian school, a private Christian school, Monday, as
Speaker 1: we record this, there was a shooting there resulted in
Speaker 1: six deaths, including three nine year old students and three
Speaker 1: staff members who were killed by a shooter that was
Speaker 1: revealed very quickly to to be a transgender woman. And
Speaker 1: that has now become a massive part of the conversation,
Speaker 1: this idea that because this person was trans this in
Speaker 1: some way contributed or led to you know, the actions
Speaker 1: that they took in a way that might happen again
Speaker 1: or perhaps has even already happened. And and this is
Speaker 1: this is a series of points that's being made across
Speaker 1: you know, a kind of right wing media and politics
Speaker 1: and just sort of pundits. And it's even you know,
Speaker 1: depending on the news source, it appears in the headline,
Speaker 1: you know. And I mean I know that when I
Speaker 1: first heard about it, I heard that it was a
Speaker 1: woman that had done the shooting. And my immediate remark was, well,
Speaker 1: that's weird, because it's like ninety eight percent of the
Speaker 1: time it's it's a man. And then the transgender part
Speaker 1: came out, and then boy did the internet go nuts.
Speaker 1: And you know, as we we know, members of the
Speaker 1: LGBTQ community, and especially trans people are often very vulnerable situations.
Speaker 1: You know, people that lash out, whether it be online,
Speaker 1: you know, or in the in the media or in person,
Speaker 1: you know, hate crimes against you know, these folks for
Speaker 1: no other reason than just living their lives and doing
Speaker 1: what they can do and you know, choosing what their
Speaker 1: truth is and living that out. And I just it's
Speaker 1: really scary to think that something like this and that
Speaker 1: rhetoric that really heated rhetoric could make that situation even worse.
Speaker 1: When you have folks like Donald Trump Junior, you know,
Speaker 1: saying there's a there's an epidemic of trans and LGBTQ shooters,
Speaker 1: you know, and then this is and that's just not
Speaker 1: true A and B. It's just an odd thing to
Speaker 1: say and an odd way to frame it. And then
Speaker 1: you have folks like our own beloved Marjorie Taylor Green saying, well,
Speaker 1: I guess now we know guns aren't the problem, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's you know, that's like a dog whistle
Speaker 1: way of saying, you know, this other's this other thing
Speaker 1: that's the problem. So I don't know. Guys, again, I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to soapbox here. It's just you know, I
Speaker 1: have I have, I think we all have trans and
Speaker 1: and you know, gender non binary people in our lives
Speaker 1: we love, and it's just really upsetting to see that
Speaker 1: this is something that could cause them further concern about
Speaker 1: their very lives, especially given the sweeping proposals to me
Speaker 1: people's existence a crime, you know, not their actions, just
Speaker 1: their existence. I'm glad that you mentioned Marjorie Taylor Green.
Speaker 1: Politics aside, the person is unfit for office. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what political party you identify with. But before we
Speaker 1: say anything else, gentlemen, if I may, I want to
Speaker 1: do something really important. I'm not going to talk too
Speaker 1: much about my hometown. I'm not going to talk too
Speaker 1: much about the people I know there. But there are
Speaker 1: names that we need to remember. Evelyn dick House nine
Speaker 1: years old, Mike Hill sixty one, Katherine Kotz sixty, Cynthia
Speaker 1: Peak sixty one, Hayley Scruggs nine years old, William Kenny
Speaker 1: nine years old. And how soon are those names going
Speaker 1: to be forgotten? Well, that's very the very thing. It's
Speaker 1: just it's so unremarkable this kind of thing happening. And
Speaker 1: because it's so unremarkable, there are folks that would like
Speaker 1: to make it remarkable in a way that would benefit
Speaker 1: them by framing the conversation around what they see is
Speaker 1: as an issue, which which is this the gender identity
Speaker 1: of the shooter. And again not not going to soapbox
Speaker 1: about gun control or any of that stuff. That's beside
Speaker 1: the point, but it's just the fact that you know, um,
Speaker 1: this is something that has to be kind of given
Speaker 1: a spin because it happens so damn often, and people
Speaker 1: are just desensitized to it. I mean, whatever your political
Speaker 1: leanings might be, I think we can all agree that
Speaker 1: that's messed up how often it happens, and and and
Speaker 1: how we've become desensitized to it, and especially when you
Speaker 1: see how it's used as a way to kind of
Speaker 1: bolster political talking points. In this case, I would certainly
Speaker 1: argue about the the utter wrong thing, and usually about
Speaker 1: the utter wrong thing, at least in terms of the
Speaker 1: loudest voices in the room, you know, in the in
Speaker 1: the discourse. But I don't know, Matt, what do you
Speaker 1: think it's hard? I mean, it's not even an opinion
Speaker 1: thing that I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: the only opinion I have here is that any focus
Speaker 1: on this individual's identity, right, the way this person identifies,
Speaker 1: shouldn't shouldn't be in the conversation probably, I mean, unless
Speaker 1: it is directly linked, from a police standpoint, to the
Speaker 1: motives behind the shooting. Right, that's interesting, and that could
Speaker 1: be part of the story of this one incident. It
Speaker 1: certainly could, but it would not have anything to do
Speaker 1: with anybody else who identifies in the same way. Right,
Speaker 1: you can't take something like this and apply it to
Speaker 1: the big picture, I don't think well and to and
Speaker 1: to have that knee jerk reaction to seize this as
Speaker 1: an opportunity, to frame this as some sort of like
Speaker 1: trans war on Christians or something, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: without any evidence, and I'm certain that you know. I look,
Speaker 1: it's it's difficult, you know, being a trans person. I
Speaker 1: don't know from experience obviously, but I mean it's there's
Speaker 1: a lot of challenges, and it's something you know, people
Speaker 1: are bullied and treated poorly, and it's it's certainly a
Speaker 1: psychological strain it can be, you know, And it's it's
Speaker 1: folks that are committing to that and going all in,
Speaker 1: and that's that's what is right for them. They know
Speaker 1: what they're signing up for, you know, there's no mystery
Speaker 1: about that. But to frame it in some sort of
Speaker 1: like holistic way where it's like, yes, this is the
Speaker 1: kind of thing that leads to school shooters is just
Speaker 1: beyond absurd. I'm not even going to repeat some of
Speaker 1: the nasty things that folks are saying online to that point.
Speaker 1: It's deeply cynical, it is intentionally misleading, and it is
Speaker 1: condescending in terms of not treating, not treating the intended
Speaker 1: audience as though they are intellectual peers. That should be
Speaker 1: found offensive if nothing else is offensive about this unclean situation.
Speaker 1: The truth is that six innocent people are dead, right,
Speaker 1: the shooter is dead as well, and the next school shooting,
Speaker 1: statistically now is on the way. Now. None of us
Speaker 1: are here, as you said, Noel, none of us are
Speaker 1: here to soapbox or talk about our opinions. This is
Speaker 1: a show about facts and analysis, and the facts I think,
Speaker 1: as you guys lead out, are readily apparent. And anytime
Speaker 1: you know, this is like going to a funeral and
Speaker 1: using it as a way to talk about yourself. That's
Speaker 1: what some of these politicians are doing. And it's again,
Speaker 1: it's disgusting, it's unclean, it is intellectually fraudulent. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: couldn't have said it better. And that and that is
Speaker 1: irrespective of where you may land politically, you know, or
Speaker 1: or even just ethically even perhaps it's again I would
Speaker 1: argue it's not an ethical quandary. But there are some
Speaker 1: people that, because of their religions, have ethical issues that
Speaker 1: they see as ethical issues with queer people and folks
Speaker 1: who are who are trans, and that's a whole other conversation.
Speaker 1: You can have that in your community, and I wish
Speaker 1: you the best. I disagree obviously, but this is not
Speaker 1: the place to have that conversation. It doesn't make sense. Man,
Speaker 1: It's gross. So maybe it was so boxed a little,
Speaker 1: but I think we did okay. It really is tragic,
Speaker 1: and it's it's one of those things where, honestly, guys,
Speaker 1: this one and I think the past three that I've
Speaker 1: seen headlines just on my phone, I'm doing the head
Speaker 1: in the sand thing. And I know I don't need
Speaker 1: to do that, guys, but I can feel myself doing it.
Speaker 1: We both have kids, man, Like I literally was just
Speaker 1: like today, you know, and my kid is just gender
Speaker 1: non binary, and I literally today was like, do I
Speaker 1: pull my kid out of school? Like I'm genuinely concerned
Speaker 1: about my kids safety? Yeah, at school, And it's like
Speaker 1: this is something that like you have to what like
Speaker 1: be an ostrich about it to some degree or else.
Speaker 1: It's like what can you do? You know, once you
Speaker 1: pass that child off into the care of this school.
Speaker 1: And you know, I mean again, we love teachers, We
Speaker 1: love these people. You know, this is important work, and
Speaker 1: the administrators are doing their best they can with with
Speaker 1: as little budget as they get. But it's like, I
Speaker 1: just don't feel safe sometimes having my kid go to school.
Speaker 1: At least it's statistically massively unlikely, I know, but I
Speaker 1: just can't help. But have it be in the back
Speaker 1: of my mind, you know, doesn't make it any less. Scurry, No,
Speaker 1: it doesn't. And yeah, we picked this one to go
Speaker 1: last just because it is just it's a hard one.
Speaker 1: It's a hard pill to swallow, and we want to
Speaker 1: have the conversation, but you know, I figured we'd wait,
Speaker 1: wait till they end to bring the bring the mood down,
Speaker 1: justifiably down. But let us know what you're kids school
Speaker 1: situation is, Like, how do you feel about this? We're
Speaker 1: not trying to fear mong or here either, y'all. We're
Speaker 1: not trying to say live in fear. Nobody wants that,
Speaker 1: and that is the last thing we would ever tell
Speaker 1: anybody to do on this show about any scary issue,
Speaker 1: and we talk about plenty of them. But let us
Speaker 1: know your thoughts around this kind of thing. You know,
Speaker 1: how do you feel about using someone's identity to create
Speaker 1: a political climate around this where do you think the
Speaker 1: real issue is? Let us know. We can't wait to
Speaker 1: hear from you. We look forward to your input, folks,
Speaker 1: fellow conspiracy realist in the US and abroad, and be on.
Speaker 1: Let us know your thoughts on the ongoing mass shooting tragedies,
Speaker 1: let us know your thoughts on the hidden danger of AstroTurf,
Speaker 1: and let us know your experiences with the occult and
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