Goose Chase Podcast

Area 51 is back in the news lately after a Facebook event called "Storm Area 51" has attracted 1.4 million attendees. It's all tongue in cheek, of course... except it's got enough of attention to draw a response from the U.S. military and has made one town in Nevada mighty nervous. We're talking about the history of Area 51, a little bit on the official and unofficial stories, and a look at this meme-abundant event that has changed in scope and focus, with a brief glimpse of what is to come. 

This week, we're talking about fruitcakes! Now at home, you're probably saying to yourself: "What?" We know. It's a strange launch point. But this is a fascinating episode. The fruitcake has been around for longer than we thought in more forms than we knew, and to make it even more interesting, fruitcakes were the center point of a truly astounding late 20th / early 21st century caper. This widely despised cake is so much more interesting than we knew. Follow along with us. 

This week our super special guest Aubrey is back with a real mindbender of a topic. What would you say if we told you that a woman who has been dead for over 60 years is not only still around, but there are in fact around 734 million of her that have come and gone? Would you say that's bananas? We did. We're talking about a woman whose cells have lasted for decades. The story of those cells is amazing, exciting, saddening, and enlighening. 

This week we're talking about something relatively sweet and nice where nobody gets hurt or dies or gets swindled. Isn't that nice? The Cottingley Fairies were first photographed in 1917 by two young girls. The story spread, until it reached the ears of some important people and swept the country with its charm. This story is an interesting one that says a lot about who we are as people, and what we like to believe. There's also some weird stuff scattered around this episode. Sorry about that. 

This week we're talking about MLMs, or multi-level marketing companies. You might know them more commonly as pyramid schemes, but don't tell them that. In particular, we're looking at a cross section of these companies that centers around essential oils. People take them as supplements, put them on their skin, put them in their food, infuse them in the air, and more. But at least one of these companies has some skeletons in the closet, so we put on our skeptic hats and took a dive into the world of essential oils.

We're talking about something this week that is unlikely to ever happen again in the form that it did. Timecube.com is a relic of a different time and is now in fact defunct (still available on the Wayback Machine), but it was established by a man named Gene Ray to spread the truth, the real truth, about how much time is in a day. Four days within every day, to be exact. Not with it so far? Give it some time. Gene Ray's story is sad, funny, angering, and sometimes all at once. Come experience the cubic reality with us. 

Humans -- we love fixing stuff as much as we love screwing it up in the first place. This week we're talking weird conservation, the odd strategies we have taken to try to revitalize animal populations. There are lots of them, all of them completely odd, and it says a lot about the insight and imagination of the people who work with these animal populations. We are just flat out amazed. 

Nature is a fascinating thing. It represents rejuvenation, isolation, fear, potential, and a thing to be bested by humankind. Sometimes it wins. We're talking about the Dyatlov Pass incident of 1959, where nine Russian hikers went into the wilderness, never to return. The discovery of their bodies only opened more mystery, and people are still debating about it to this day. We also eat a dessert with cheese on it, for reasons. 

This week, we've got Dan as our guest! Dan surprised us with a wonderfully detailed history of the works of a truly prolific artist: Bansky. He's a household name now, which is a far cry from his humble origins doing little-seen street art in Bristol. As he continued to produce, people took notice. His work has been in many major cities, on the border wall between Israel and Palestine, and in the auction houses of the world. And nobody 100% for sure knows who he is.

We've talked about lots of people who claim a direct line to the divine, but this is one of the stranger ones, and whether you realize it or not, you might know some of her work. We're talking about J.Z Knight, a leader of a movement of new-age spiritualists 6000-members strong, even to this day. Channeling the 30,000 year old spirit of Ramtha, an enlightened spiritual entity, J.Z. Knight has lead a movement that feels distinctly new-agey, complete with beliefs like that you can create a universe of your imagining, or that you are god. But also, some of her beliefs are downright regressive, and pretty offensive. And at least one person has paid heavily for listening to her. You be the judge on this one, but our alarm bells are going off.