Phoenix Foundation - A MacGyver Podcast

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: January 13th, 2017 —

After a helicopter crash, Mac, Jack, and pilot Cynthia must re-capture an escaped terrorist.

MISSION: Returning to Phoenix with a captive terrorist, Mac, Jack, and pilot Cynthia are shot out of the sky in Kazakhstan. They must find their captive and signal rescue crews in time to meet Patricia’s replacement, their new boss.

This week’s highlights include:

Check out fellow MacGyver Rewatch Podcast Mullets and Memories here!

A Leyden jar, or Leiden jar, is a device that “stores” static electricity between two electrodes on the inside and outside of a glass jar. A Leyden jar typically consists of a glass jar with metal foil cemented to the inside and the outside surfaces, and a metal terminal projecting vertically through the jar lid to make contact with the inner foil. It was the original form of a capacitor (originally known as a “condenser”).

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyden_jar.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: Janurary 6th, 2017 —

Mac, Jack, Sarah, Riley, and Bozer close in on the mole selling Phoenix secrets

MISSION: The team is expected to trust Nikki yet again as she deflects the blame for stolen Phoenix secrets to an anonymous double agent known only as chrysalis.

This week’s highlights include:

Here’s an article on why True Lies 2 never happened.

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency featuring a likeness of the Shiba Inu dog from the “Doge” Internet meme as its logo. Introduced as a “joke currency” on 8 December 2013, Dogecoin quickly developed its own online community and reached a capitalization of US$60 million in January 2014; as of March 2016, it had a capitalization of US$22.2 million.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogecoin.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: December 16th, 2016 —

Riley is caught hacking the NSA and the team quickly swoops in to save her.

MISSION: Riley goes AWOL and Mac, Jack, and Bozer move to track her down before the US Government throws her back into supermax.

This week’s highlights include:

The Global Positioning System (GPS), also known as Navstar GPS or simply Navstar, is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) that provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. The GPS system operates independently of any telephonic or internet reception, though these technologies can enhance the usefulness of the GPS positioning information. The GPS system provides critical positioning capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. The United States government created the system, maintains it, and makes it freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver. However, the US government can selectively deny access to the system, as happened to the Indian military in 1999 during the Kargil War.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: December 9th, 2016 —

On vacation from Phoenix, MacGyver and friends are caught up in a kidnapping plot.

MISSION: Visiting his old Junior High School teacher, MacGyver witnesses the kidnapping of a young girl and sets about rescuing her. Her father is in over his head with a local drug ring and they have taken her as collateral.

This week’s highlights include:

Here’s that classic Mystic River parody we talked about.

Elephant’s toothpaste is a foamy substance caused by the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. This is often used for classroom demonstrations because it requires only a small number of ingredients and makes a “volcano of foam”. This sometimes is known as the “Marshmallow Experiment”, but is unrelated to the psychological Stanford marshmallow experiment.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_toothpaste.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: November 18th, 2016 —

The team are pinned down at the Latvian embassy, bringing a terrorist to justice.

MISSION: After catching a Latvian terrorist, Mac, Jack, and Riley are trapped in an embassy under siege waiting for reinforcements to relieve them.

This week’s highlights include:

Andrea Seitz caught this screenshot mentioned in a tweet from @AVRicher.

Mannitol hexanitrate is a powerful explosive. Physically, it is a powdery solid at normal temperature ranges, with density of 1.73 g/cm3. The chemical name is hexanitromannitol and it is also known as nitromannite, MHN, and nitromannitol, and by the trademarks Nitranitol and Mannitrin. It is more stable than nitroglycerin, and it is used in detonators.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannitol_hexanitrate.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: November 11th, 2016 —

MacGyver finds himself caught in the crosshairs of a familiar and crazy world-class assassin.

OPENING GAMBIT: On a date, MacGyver abandons the point of an escape room to make out in the dark.

MISSION: A renowned assassin has been hired to take out MacGyver and he assumes Nikki is behind the order.

This week’s highlights include:

Apparently, In-N-Out Managers can make up to 120k annually.

Cobbler refers to a variety of dishes, particularly in the United Kingdom and United States, consisting of a fruit or savory filling poured into a large baking dish and covered with a batter, biscuit, or dumpling (in England) before being baked. Some cobbler recipes, especially in the American south, resemble a thick-crusted, deep-dish pie with both a top and bottom crust.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobbler_(food).

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: November 4th, 2016 —

Mac and Jack go undercover to break the notorious “El Noche” out of federal prison

OPENING GAMBIT: A chase through a Serbian junkyard ends with MacGyver trapping the baddie in a burning ring of fire.

MISSION: MacGyver must pose as an inmate to sneak a drug lord out of a Texas prison with the intention of following him home to his home base.

This week’s highlights include:

In case we confused you with our “cat poster” “coffee coop” nonsense.

Paul Michael Larson (May 10, 1949 – February 16, 1999) was a contestant on the American television game show Press Your Luck in 1984. Larson is notable for winning $110,237 (equivalent to $252,000 in 2015) in cash and prizes, at the time the largest one-day total ever won on a game show. He was able to win by memorizing the patterns used on the Press Your Luck game board.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Larson.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: October 28th, 2016 —

A series of intricate bombs leads MacGyver to a “ghost” from his military past.

OPENING GAMBIT: Mac and friends are getting buried alive in a vehicle and must blast their way out before suffocating.

MISSION: To defeat a mad bomber terrorizing the city and threatening the UN, MacGyver must team up with an old friend to diffuse the situation.

This week’s highlights include:

Here is that delicious looking airbag birthday cake.

Pathos (Greek: πάθος, for “suffering” or “experience;” adjectival form: ‘pathetic’ from παθητικός) represents an appeal to the emotions of the audience, and elicits feelings that already reside in them. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric (where it is considered one of the three modes of persuasion, alongside ethos and logos), and in literature, film and other narrative art.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathos.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: October 21st, 2016 —

A terrorist cell attempts to abduct an agent by attacking and sabotaging a train.

OPENING GAMBIT: MacGyver and Jack follow up on a tip to Nikki’s whereabouts.

MISSION: A whistleblower turning on a terrorist organization is being sent by train to her death. MacGyver and the team but find her first and get her safely off the train.

This week’s highlights include:

Here’s that PSA clip from Hind-Sight passed along by listener Kosta…

The Bullet Train (新幹線大爆破 Shinkansen Daibakuha) is a 1975 Japanese disaster film directed by Junya Satō and starring Sonny Chiba and Ken Takakura. A Shinkansen “bullet train” is threatened with a bomb that will explode automatically if the train slows below 80 km/h unless a ransom is paid. Police race to find the bombers and to learn how to defuse the bomb.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bullet_Train.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: October 14th, 2016 —

Cold war era nuclear weapons are hijacked and defectors are enlisted to disarm them.

OPENING GAMBIT: MacGyver and friends scape a Rogue Intelligence Agency.

MISSION: MacGyver and Jack meet their elderly Russian counterparts when they seek out Alexander and Viktor, a pair of Cold War era defectors and our last hope at disarming decades old stolen weapons.

This week’s highlights include:

Ninja rocks are broken shards of spark plugs formed by smashing the ceramic portion of the spark plug with a hammer or other large object. Since they can quickly and quietly fracture the glass side windows on most cars, ninja rocks have been used in “smash-and-grab” auto burglaries since at least 1995 (at least by Slovenian car burglers). They have no traditional association with the ninja or ninjutsu, only being named such due to their “silent but deadly” function in burglaries.

Check out the article on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_rocks.