We begin our dive into the truly bizarre story of Biosphere 2, a three-acre mini-Earth in which eight theater nerds sealed themselves for two years in the early 90's. It didn't go great. While you may have heard of Biosphere 2, it's a solid bet that you've only heard one side of the story.

In part one we look at the man behind Biosphere 2, the so-called genius John Allen (also known by his pen-name as Johnny Dolphin), his commune Synergia Ranch, and how they song-and-danced their way into the hundreds of millions of dollars they used to build the Biosphere. Strap in, folks, this one gets silly.