GITN Podcast

In 2017, WikiLeaks published Vault 7, thousands of files describing a secret collection of CIA hacking tools.One project stood out immediately.Known as Weeping Angel, the tool was designed to place certain Samsung smart TVs into a “fake-off” mode. The screen appeared dark and the television looked powered down, but its microphone could still record conversations inside the room.And the television was only one piece of the story.The Vault 7 documents described tools targeting smartphones, computers, routers, removable drives and even isolated networks. Some could survive an operating-system reinstall. Others could track leaked documents, redirect internet traffic or prevent webcams and microphones from recording sensitive operations.But the leak also left some important questions unanswered.Were these tools reserved for specific intelligence targets, or were they part of something much larger? Does possessing the capability prove it was actually deployed? And how much privacy can anyone expect when everyday devices can potentially become surveillance equipment?In this GITN Condensed episode, Phil and Travis examine Weeping Angel, Dark Matter, Grasshopper, Hive, Scribbles, Cherry Blossom, Brutal Kangaroo and the other strangely named projects revealed by Vault 7.The technology was real enough to cause an international uproar. The scale of its use remains a different question.Welcome to the strange side of reality.

Ohio never had its own Salem witch trials. But that doesn’t mean Ohio escaped the fear of witchcraft.In this episode of GITN: The Strange Side of Reality, Phil and Travis dig into the strange history of witches in Ohio—from an 1823 fortune-telling case and early Ohio “witch doctors” to a bizarre silver-bullet ritual, the execution of Wyandot leader Leatherlips, the terrifying legend of Mary Stockum, and the mysterious Witch’s Ball in an Ohio cemetery.But there’s a problem.The deeper we get into these stories, the more the historical evidence begins to change.Some cases have names, dates, court records and witnesses. Others survive almost entirely as folklore filled with murdered children, burned witches, severed heads, wandering ghosts and cursed graves.So what actually happened?And where does documented Ohio history end and legend begin?Tonight we investigate:• Abigail Church and Ohio’s so-called “only witchcraft case”• The witches and witch doctors of Jefferson County• Mrs. Daugherty and the strange silver-bullet ritual• Leatherlips — witchcraft accusation, politics and execution• The disturbing legend of Mary Stockum• The Witch’s Ball of Myrtle Hill Cemetery• How real people and events slowly become supernatural legendsThe farther we travel from the historical record, the stranger these stories become.Welcome to GITN Podcast — The Strange Side of Reality.

Two men. Two mysterious lead masks. A bizarre set of instructions. And a signal that never came.In 1966, electronics technicians Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana were found dead on Vintém Hill in Brazil. Both men were wearing homemade lead masks, and investigators discovered a strange handwritten note containing instructions involving capsules, water, the masks, and a mysterious signal.But what were they doing on that hillside?Were they conducting a secret experiment? Did they believe they were preparing for contact with something beyond Earth? Were the masks connected to radiation or some other unexplained phenomenon? Or is the real explanation much more ordinary—and somehow even stranger?In this episode of GITN Podcast, we take a deep dive into the Lead Masks Mystery, one of Brazil’s most bizarre unsolved mysteries. We’ll look at the two men, their final journey, the strange note, the mysterious capsules, the lead masks, the UFO theories, possible scientific explanations, and the unanswered questions surrounding their deaths.More than half a century later, we still don’t know exactly what happened on Vintém Hill.And perhaps the biggest mystery is the simplest one:What were they waiting for?

On October 25, 1979, something terrifying happened inside Miami Aerospace Academy, a private military school in Little Havana, Florida.Students reportedly screamed about demons, classrooms descended into chaos, and even teachers struggled to understand what was happening. Police and emergency responders arrived to find a school in turmoil.Was this an outbreak of mass hysteria? A case of alleged demonic possession? Or was something else responsible?In this GITN Condensed episode, Phil and Travis revisit one of America's strangest school mysteries.We explore:- The unusual history of Miami Aerospace Academy and its founder, Evaristo Marina.- The disturbing events of October 25, 1979.- Reports of students behaving as though they were possessed.- The psychological explanation of mass hysteria.- Rumors of contaminated food or water.- Speculation involving CIA mind-control research and MKUltra.- Allegations of occult activities involving a teacher.- The questions that remain nearly five decades later.The disturbance itself was real and received contemporary news coverage. But the supernatural claims, occult allegations, and government-experiment theories remain disputed or unproven.So what really happened at Miami Aerospace Academy?Was it demons, mass hysteria, or something nobody fully understood?**Tell us your theory in the comments.**Welcome to GITN Podcast — The Strange Side of Reality.GITN Condensed brings you the mysteries, strange history, paranormal investigations, and true crime stories from our full-length conversations in a more focused format.

In February 1855, something strange appeared across the snow-covered countryside of Devon, England.Thousands of mysterious hoof-like footprints were reportedly discovered across roads, fields, enclosed gardens, rooftops and around high walls.Some terrified residents reached an extraordinary conclusion:The Devil had walked through Devon.The story became even stranger over time. Whatever created the tracks was said to have traveled more than 100 miles in a single night, crossed seemingly impossible obstacles and left nearly identical footprints across a huge area.But when we go back to the reports from 1855, the mystery begins to change.Was there really one continuous 100-mile trail?Did something actually cross the Exe estuary?Why didn’t all of the footprints look the same?And could ordinary animals, unusual weather and frightened communities have accidentally created one of Britain’s most enduring unexplained mysteries?Tonight on GITN, we’re going back to the original accounts, separating the documented evidence from the legend, and putting the leading explanations to the test.Badgers. Cats. Rodents. Birds. Hoaxes. Strange weather. An escaped animal.Or something nobody could explain.What really crossed Devon in 1855?Join us live and tell us what YOU think created the Devil’s Footprints.

In August 1993, seven hikers entered the remote Khamar-Daban mountain range in Siberia.Only one came back.Led by experienced hiking instructor Lyudmila Korovina, the group appeared prepared for a difficult journey through the mountains. But after a night of cold, rain, exhaustion, and exposure, something went terribly wrong.On August 5, the hikers began collapsing one after another.The only survivor was 17-year-old Valentina Utochenko.What she witnessed became one of the strangest and most debated wilderness tragedies in modern history.In this episode of GITN Podcast, we take a deep dive into the Khamar-Daban Incident, including:• The seven hikers and their expedition• Their route through the Khamar-Daban mountains• The brutal weather conditions they encountered• The final morning and the sudden collapse of the group• Valentina Utochenko’s account of what happened• Her incredible four-day journey through the wilderness• The search for the six missing hikers• The discovery of the bodies• The official autopsy findings• How severe hypothermia can affect the brain and behavior• The mystery surrounding the hikers’ reported symptoms• The poisoning and chemical exposure theories• The possibility of military testing• Radiation and toxic-gas theories• The UFO/UAP connection• And the evidence behind the most likely explanationWas this simply a catastrophic case of exposure and hypothermia?Or was something else responsible for what happened on that mountain?The evidence tells us some things with surprising clarity.Other questions may never be answered.Six people died.One survived.And only one person witnessed the final moments.This is the Khamar-Daban mystery.

Jackie Hernandez thought she was moving into a new home. What followed became one of the strangest and most disturbing haunting cases ever investigated in California.It began with voices, objects moving on their own, strange lights and a reddish-brown fluid appearing inside the house. Then paranormal investigators entered the San Pedro home themselves.What happened next took the case somewhere far beyond an ordinary ghost story.Investigator Jeff Wheatcraft claimed he was physically attacked in the attic after a cord became wrapped around his neck. Investigators reported strange recordings and unexplained disturbances. Samples of the mysterious fluid were even taken for testing.But the most unsettling part of the San Pedro Haunting may have come later.Jackie moved away.The activity allegedly followed her.In this GITN Condensed investigation, we strip the case down to its strongest incidents, the evidence investigators claimed to witness, the skeptical explanations, and the question that still hangs over the story:Was the San Pedro house haunted?Or was something attached to Jackie Hernandez?Welcome to the strange side of reality.GITN Condensed brings you shorter investigations into strange history, unexplained events, true mysteries and cases where the easy explanation doesn't quite explain everything.

Four U.S. Navy sailors confessed to taking part in the rape and murder of 18-year-old Michelle Moore-Bosko in Norfolk, Virginia.There was just one enormous problem.Danial Williams, Joseph Dick Jr., Eric Wilson, and Derek Tice were all excluded from the crime-scene DNA.Then investigators found Omar Ballard.His DNA matched.And Ballard repeatedly told police that he acted alone.In this episode of GITN Podcast, we take a deep look at one of the most disturbing false-confession and wrongful-conviction cases in modern American criminal justice: The Norfolk Four.We begin with the 1997 murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko and the evidence investigators had before anyone confessed. Then we follow the investigation as police focused on Danial Williams, questioned him overnight, told him he had failed a polygraph even though the examiner recorded “No Deception Indicated,” and eventually obtained a confession that changed as investigators learned more about the crime.But when DNA excluded Williams, the investigation didn’t stop.It expanded.Joseph Dick confessed.Then Eric Wilson.Then Derek Tice.As additional DNA testing continued excluding the accused sailors, the alleged number of participants continued growing.We compare the confessions side by side and ask a simple question throughout the episode:What did these men actually know on their own, and what information may have entered their statements during police questioning?We examine the changing accounts of how Michelle was attacked, where the assault occurred, how many people were involved, how the men supposedly entered the apartment, who stabbed her, what happened to her body, and how those claims compared with the physical crime scene and forensic evidence.We also look at the psychology of false confessions, interrogation pressure, false-evidence tactics, confession contamination, guilty pleas made under the threat of the death penalty, and how one confession can help produce another.Then the case changes completely.Omar Ballard’s DNA matches the biological evidence. He admits raping and killing Michelle. And in his early statements to police, he repeatedly says the Norfolk Four were not involved.So why didn’t the case against the sailors collapse?We also examine Detective Robert Glenn Ford’s role in the interrogations, the later court findings involving Derek Tice, the 2016 federal innocence findings for Danial Williams and Joseph Dick, the eventual dismissal of charges, the absolute pardons granted to all four men in 2017, and the years it took for the justice system to finally change course.This is not simply a story about four false confessions.It is a story about what can happen when a confession becomes the theory through which every new piece of evidence is interpreted.And it raises a much larger question:When the evidence keeps changing, how long should investigators keep changing the theory to protect the confession?Join us as we break down the complete Norfolk Four case.

On March 13, 1997, thousands of people across Arizona reported strange lights moving through the night sky.But what became known as the Phoenix Lights may not have been one event.Earlier in the evening, witnesses described a massive V-shaped formation moving silently across Arizona. Some said it appeared to be a single solid object so large that it blocked out the stars as it passed overhead.Later that night, another formation of bright lights appeared southwest of Phoenix.The official explanation for those later lights involved military illumination flares dropped over the Barry M. Goldwater Range. But does that explanation account for everything witnesses reported that night?In this GITN Condensed investigation, we examine the two Phoenix Lights events, the A-10 and flare explanations, eyewitness accounts, amateur astronomer Mitch Stanley's observations, Governor Fife Symington's surprising admission, and the evidence that continues to make March 13, 1997 one of America's most famous UFO mysteries.Were the Phoenix Lights completely explained—or did something else cross Arizona that night?Welcome to the strange side of reality.

Lisa Nowak had already achieved what most people could only dream of. She was a Navy pilot, test pilot, NASA astronaut, and a member of the Space Shuttle Discovery crew.But just seven months after returning from space, Nowak would become the center of one of the strangest criminal cases in recent history.In February 2007, Lisa Nowak traveled nearly 900 miles to Florida to confront Colleen Shipman, a woman romantically involved with fellow astronaut William “Bill” Oefelein.What happened at Orlando International Airport would turn an accomplished astronaut into a national headline.In this episode of GITN Podcast, we take a detailed look at Lisa Nowak’s extraordinary career, her relationship with Oefelein, Colleen Shipman’s involvement, the journey to Florida, the bizarre items investigators discovered, the confrontation in the airport parking lot, the police investigation, the disputed diaper story, the attempted murder allegations, and the eventual court case.We’ll also look at what happened to Nowak’s NASA and military careers after the incident—and how the case ultimately ended.Was this an attempted murder? A kidnapping attempt? Or an emotional confrontation that spiraled completely out of control?You decide.