On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the not-so-secret society known as the Bohemian Club. While the main club is in the Union Square district of San Francisco (at 624 Taylor Street), the club is most famous for what goes on at the notorious Bohemian Grove in in Sonoma County. It is on this 100 plus acre campsite that the rich and elite meet every Midsummer to participate in strange rituals and a two week party which culminates in the Druidic “Cremation of Care” ceremony.

The Bohemian Club has a fifteen year wait list and costs tens of thousands of dollars to join, but how did it start? It was founded in 1872 by a group of San Francisco Journalists, and it soon became home to writers and artists of all sorts who wanted to live outside the mainstream and share common ideas, ideals, and values. In short order, however, money took over, and it became a club that still valued intellectuals but was dominated by business men, industry leaders, and important US politicians.

Who are members of the Bohemian Club or were guests to the Bohemian Grove ceremony? How about Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, David Rockefeller, William Randolph Hearst, the president of World Bank, and CEOs of companies like Standard Oil, IBM, and Lockheed, just to name a few. What do they do in this mysterious grove every summer? According to most reports, they drink. They drink a lot. And they pee. They pee on trees. A lot. It’s a thing. What else do they do? That’s a good question. Their motto is "Weaving Spiders Come Not Here,” meaning business is not discussed at the grove.

However, members of the Bohemian Club celebrate in strange ways. The club has been investigated by journalists since the early 1980s, was infiltrated by a reporter from Spy Magazine in 1989, and was famously filmed by Alex Jones from InfoWars in 2001. Most recently, they were examined by Vanity Fair for their unethical logging practices. If you want to hear about strange rituals and gatherings of some of the most powerful people in American, this is the episode for you.