31: The Why Behind the Weird

A warning, a song, an explosion. Some people have tried desperately to contact aliens; but one strange act on Christmas may have been an attempt to save us from them.

Thank you again to BE/HOLD for licensing "These Woods Are Haunted" from the album "Where They Landed." Find more about BE/HOLD here.

For listeners in the US, if you are considering harming yourself or others, please visit the CDC site here for a list of mental health resources. For the Suicide and Crisis lifeline, you can call 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. For international listeners, you can find a helpline through IASP here.

Sources for this episode can be found here.

Music:

BE/HOLD - "These Woods Are Haunted"
Petula Clark - "Downtown" (adjusted)
Fantoms - "Stroll"
Lone Canyon - "Confession"
Moments - "Twisted Night"
Lunareh - "Bunker"
Anchor - "Open Doors"
Wicked Cinema - "Heresy"
Raw Lew - "Space Voyager"
Raw Lew - "Space Flex"
GEMM - "Solar Wave"

All music, besides that which belongs to BE/HOLD, has been licensed via Soundstripe. "These Woods Are Haunted" has been licensed courtesy of BE/HOLD.

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Happy Halloween! Enjoy this short, spooky tale by Quinn Lovecraft.

Music used in this episode:

"Abandoned Places" - Material Gurl

"Doll's Eyes" - Wicked Cinema

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Werner Herzog claims to have shot a short film involving children and a rooster that was so disturbing he never released it. But with so little known about this film, some speculate that this never existed at all. In this episode, "31" follows the breadcrumbs left by Herzog throughout the years to try to piece together the truth.

Sources

Music (licensed via Soundstripe):
Moments - Find it in Yourself
Third Age - Mystery
Lunareh - All Nighter
Wild Wonder - Colors and Patterns
Neon Beach - Dreamsicle
Alice in Winter - Nuclear Conception
CJ Oliver - The Only One in the Room
Wicked Cinema - Disappearance
Falls - Tempest

Additional audio:
"Signs of Life" Director's Commentary
"Even Dwarfs Started Small" Director's Commentary

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This year, "31" is bringing you a fictional short story for our Halloween Special. Today's tale is "How to Cook a Soft-Boiled Egg," written and narrated by Quinn Lovecraft. Happy Halloween!

Music (licensed via Soundstripe):
Lunareh - Jack O Lantern Jive
CJ-0 - Evidence Board

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In 1922, the famed creator of Sherlock Holmes came to America to lecture on Spiritualism. How much was he accountable for the tragedy that occurred in its name two days later? 31 dives into how the author's history intertwines with a movement founded by tragedy and fueled by outcasts.

A complete list of sources can be found here.

Music used in this episode (licensed from Soundstripe):
Cody Martin - Tesseract
Lost Ghosts - Submerged Metropolis
Bunji - In This World
Phillip Mount - Glide to Victoria Falls
Cody Martin - London Port
Moments - At the Stroke of Midnight
Material Gurl - A Ghostly Haunt
Lunareh - Ride or Die
Cody Martin - Depth of Loss
Salon Dijon - Good Grace
Lost Ghosts - Murmur
Dresden the Flamingo - An Old Fashioned Magic Show
Cast of Characters - Locomotive Rag
Dresden the Flamingo - The Evil Within
Moments - Shadows in Silence
Sam Barsh - Where the Money Comes From

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Many people have heard about the theory that Paul McCartney died midway through his Beatles run, and some have even heard the rumor that Avril Lavigne was replaced by a woman named Melissa. In this episode, 31 explores these conspiracy theories along with a lesser-known doppelgänger in music: the mysterious case of the two Nikki Sixxes.

Music (licensed via Soundstripe):
glasseyes - "Kaleidoscope"
Neon Beach - "Never Heard of Me"
The Revolution - "Take a Ride with Me"
Cira Grandi - "Say It Ain't So"
Ivy Bakes - "Billion Air"
Wicked Cinema - "Leatherface"
Jed Stark - "Cottonmouth"
Lunareh - "Thunder City"

"Young and Menace" cover by Quinn Lovecraft

Complete list of sources can be found here.

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"31" investigates the mysterious disappearance of the "world's dirtiest joke" by diving into the history of obscenity and the state of comedy today. Featuring an interview with comic Martin M. Morrow.

Find Martin Morrow on Instagram, YouTube, Threads, TikTok, and listen to his wrestling podcast B4 The Bell.

Sources:
"The Aristocrats" Directed by Paul Provenza, 2005.
Legman, Gershon. Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor. 1968.
Legman, Gershon. No Laughing Matter: Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor, 2nd Series. 1968.
George Carlin on Being Arrested
How George Carlin's'7 Words' Caused a Landmark Supreme Court Decision
Martin Morrow Good Kid Mad America: Stand-Up Special from the Comedy Cube
Anthony Comstock's Chastity Laws | PBS
This is What Americans Used to Consider Obscene | TIME
Mercer, William Davenport. "Inspired Filth: Working Blue in Vaudeville America"
September 11 Attacks: What Happened on 9/11?
How 9/11 Brought Broadway to a Standstill Until NYC's Mayor Revived It | NYT
Seeing Barry Goldwater's 1964 Speech Helps To Understand Republican Conservatives Today
What is a Missing Stair? — Kim Witten Coaching
Fixing the Missing Stair with Cliff Jerrison

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The Crystal Palace debuted at the first World's Fair in London, and many imitators followed. This episode explores a strange architecture mystery: why did every Crystal Palace meet the same fate?

You can find all sources on a document here.

Music (licensed via Soundstripe)
"Airport Lounges" - Nu Alkemi
"Where the Money Comes From" - Sam Barsh
"Mutual I'm Sure" - Fleece Mob
"Going Shopping" - Dresden the Flamingo
"Suite Du Matin" - Moments
"Carnica" - Isaac Joel
"The Night is Young" - Liberty
"Burning" - Chelsea McGough
"Stroll" - Fantoms
"Lover's Glance" - Marie
"Driven to the Edge" - Salon Dijon
"Serenade for Sleepy Lovers" - Cast of  Characters
"Hay Burner Stomp" - Dresden the Flamingo

Also, big thanks to Na Style Jaa for giving me permission to use their song "Queen Victoria" in this episode!
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Change log: 4/22/24 - Adjusted audio levels in intro, removed incorrect date reference near end

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The 1990 theft of 13 works of art from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is the largest unsolved art heist in history. Theories abound - but today we look at a fascinating one that's never talked about. Was this a rescue mission all along?
.................................
Complete list of sources can be found here

Music featured in this episode (licensed via Soundstripe):
Rarefaction - Neon Beach
Waltz of Friends - Solitude
Ceridig's Heart - CJ-0
Stable Breath - Sam Barsh
Into the Storm - Moments
I'm Drowning - Dr. Delight


Also featuring altered clip of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released"

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A man walks into a library, steals a book he's written, and burns it.  .................................................................

Sources:
YIVO Archives & Library Collections | YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Tablet - The Lost Poems of Ka-Tzetnik
Tablet - Holocaust Pulp Fiction
JSTOR Daily - Why John Baldessari Burned His Own Art
Haaretz - Who Were You, Karl Zetinkski?
Fort Worth Star-Telegram - 21 Jul 1931, Tue · Page 7
The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle - 11 Jul 1930, Fri ·Page 2
Salt Lake Telegram - 21 Jul 1931, Tue ·Page 1
Encyclopedia Brittanica | Adolf Eichmann
Encyclopedia Brittanica | Lublin, Poland
https://maps.org/news-letters/v08n1/08118sne.html
https://maps.org/news-letters/v09n2/09203maa.html
JSTOR - "Reader, Writer, and Holocaust Literature: The Case of Ka-Tzetnik" by Galia Glasner-Heled
GDPR - "...The Right to Be Forgotten"
BBC News - John Baldessari
Tate - The Story of Ophelia
Lost Media Wiki - Tzveiuntzvantzik – Lider (lost early poetry book; 1931)
Collection: Bar Kochba-Theodor Herzl Prague Academic Association Collection | The Center for Jewish History ArchivesSpace (cjh.org)
https://magazine.artland.com/artists-who-destroyed-their-own-work/
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/82874/10-writers-and-artists-who-wanted-their-work-destroyed
https://buryingbooks.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/worm-eaten-manuscripts-in-lizzie-siddals-coffin/
Wikipedia | Stalag Fiction
Burying Books | Worm-Eaten Books in Lizzie Siddal's Coffin

Music (Licensed through Soundstripe):
"Northern Lights" JMPSCR
"The Path of Time" Moments (Adrian Walther)
"The Birth of a Planet" Falls
"To All Things" Moments (Adrian Walther)

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