This is True, Really News

Scot and Tony unpack a thoroughly chaotic mix of modern engineering miracles, bizarre historical legislation, and nostalgic listener comments. Whether it is exploring how raw human sewage is being transformed into a 42% stronger concrete alternative or dissecting the UK's very real 1986 Salmon Act, this episode bridges the gap between the fascinating and the completely absurd.

Episode Highlights

• Golf & Guard Horses: Reflections on Angel Yin's emotional Solheim Cup finish, the reality of aging out of your athletic prime, and how stoic King's Guard horses handle oblivious tourists versus respectful children.

• The Poop-Crete Revolution: Discover how an eco-friendly biochar made by superheating raw human sewage (with ties to Mankato, Minnesota) is replacing traditional cement. This structural super-material mimics ancient Roman concrete, reduces carbon emissions, and makes the material 42% stronger.

• Absurd Historical Legislation: A rapid-fire breakdown of real historical laws, including England’s 1313 ban on bringing armor into Parliament to prevent violent intimidation, and the legendary modern offense of handling salmon in "suspicious circumstances."

• Urine Taxes & Animal Trials: A look back at Emperor Vespasian's Roman urine tax used to fund the tanning industry, medieval European courts prosecuting and executing farm animals, and laws regulating the exact size of your bread and ale.

• Listener Mailbag: Celebrating Jess's verified status as "always right," bonding over the sheer survival of the lead-toy and lawn-dart generation, and forgiving George for abandoning the show to fall down a Corner Gas YouTube algorithm rabbit hole.

Timestamps

• 0:00 – Netflix casting jokes & Solheim Cup drama

• 3:22 – King's Guard horses putting tourists in their place

• 5:33 – Remembering September 11th & family birthdays

• 7:15 – "Poop-crete": Engineering a super-material from sewage

• 11:42 – Bizarre historical laws: Armor bans & suspicious fish

• 14:44 – The Roman urine tax & medieval animal executions

• 17:30 – Sumptuary laws & the red shirt Target hazard

• 19:28 – Mailbag comments: Lead toys, perfection, & algorithms

Drop a comment below if you survived the era of lead toys, and don't forget to subscribe for more bizarre true news!

Scot Combs and Tony Verkinnes are back with a fresh batch of weird, wild, and incredibly true stories. This week, we cover a heroic emergency plane landing on a busy Florida interstate, an organized syndicate of car-eating marmots in California, and a miraculous reunion between two friends who took a DNA test. Plus, plenty of Star Wars banter and a healthy dose of skepticism about Hollywood fight scenes.

In This Episode:

• 0:00 - Intro, nostalgic milk, and Tony’s fading Wookiee impression.

• 2:11 - A 21-year-old flight instructor makes a stunning emergency landing on I-10 in Florida after engine failure.

• 5:34 - Sequoia National Park’s biggest threat isn't bears—it’s salt-crazed marmots chewing through car engines.

• 9:37 - An 1858 edition of The Antiquities of Athens is discovered bricked into an Australian fireplace.

• 11:59 - Two women born in India and raised in the Netherlands reunite after a commercial DNA test reveals they are 100% biological sisters.

• 16:32 - Why mass matters: A brief tangent on the realistic physics of action movie fight scenes.

• 17:59 - Outro and how to submit your weird news stories.

Connect With Us:

• Email your stories to: [email protected]

• Don't forget to Like, Subscribe, and hit the Bell Icon so you never miss an episode (or Tony's eventual return to Wookiee noises).

Episode 1097 of This Is True Really News brings you the week's weirdest completely factual stories from around the globe. Join Scott Combs and Tony Burkanis as they dive into bizarre soil science, massive beer heists, and surprisingly wholesome animal adventures.

In This Episode

• The Great PBR Heist: Thieves make off with 40,000 pounds of Pabst Blue Ribbon in California, prompting a brilliant marketing stunt, a strict 18-day and 44-minute ultimatum, and a $12,500 reward from the brewery.

• Proof by Underpants: Why Swiss scientists asked citizens to bury 2,000 pairs of white cotton briefs in their gardens to test soil health, revealing that home gardens are far more fertile than standard manicured lawns.

• High-Altitude Horse Rescue: A Tevis Cup endurance horse gets lost at 7,200 feet in the Granite Chief Wilderness and earns a highly orchestrated helicopter airlift to safety.

• The Glasgow Milk Mystery: A man suspects militant vegans of stealing his morning milk deliveries, only to catch a surprisingly adorable fox scampering away with the glass bottles on camera.

• Haptic Feedback & Snark: Opening banter on the struggles of modern buttons, nostalgic trips down memory lane to the era of milkmen, and a sincere request for your most well-crafted insults.

Connect With The Show

• Have a story, question, conundrum, or blistering commentary? Send an email to: [email protected]

• All the news you just heard is true (as far as you know). If you enjoyed the show, please hit like, subscribe, and follow so you never miss an episode!

Welcome back to the This is True Really News Mailbag! In Episode 248, we dive into some of the most bizarre and questionable news headlines of the week, ranging from wild fast-food car hop encounters to incredibly blatant criminal usernames.

We then step into the wayback machine to explore the hilarious 1966 literary hoax orchestrated by Newsday columnist Mike McGrady. Frustrated by the massive success of poorly written, sensationalist novels, McGrady and 24 fellow journalists set out to collaboratively write the worst, most gratuitous book imaginable—Naked Came the Stranger. The punchline? Their intentionally terrible novel, published under the fake persona of a demure housewife named Penelope Ashe, became a massive New York Times bestseller, ultimately proving his cynical point and making the authors a fortune.

We also read your hilarious mailbag comments and share a quick story about the intense struggles of operating a modern stainless steel tea kettle.

Chapter Breakdown

• 0:00 – Intro & Casual Snooping

• 1:16 – The Week's Weirdest & Most Bizarre Headlines

• 6:10 – The Wayback Machine: 1960s Memories & Altar Boy Days

• 10:15 – Mike McGrady's Cynical Literary Experiment

• 11:56 – The Rise of Naked Came the Stranger & Penelope Ashe

• 14:35 – Mailbag Comments: Mel Brooks, Cheese, & Voice-to-Text Fails

• 17:34 – Defeated by a Smart Electronic Kettle

Don't forget to subscribe for more wild history, weird news, and weekly mailbag laughs. Drop a comment below if you remember Naked Came the Stranger or if you've ever been completely outsmarted by a kitchen appliance!

Get ready for instant karma in Philadelphia and a 21-year miracle in the plumbing. Episode 1096 brings you bizarre, heartwarming, and hilarious true stories from across the map, courtesy of Scot Combs and Tony Verkinnes.Episode Chapters0:00 - Intro: Philly Fans, Cheesesteaks, and the Right Bread1:55 - Kitten Rescued from a Honda Grille in Iowa4:50 - Chucky Mask Prankster Messes with the Wrong Woman8:55 - Flushed Engagement Ring Found 21 Years Later11:25 - Stolen Picasso Masterpiece Discovered in a Vacant ApartmentAbout This EpisodeReality is officially stranger than fiction this week. We kick things off in Ames, Iowa, where a tiny kitten named Fika survives a sweltering ride stuck behind a car's front grille. A local towing company completely dismantles the front end for the rescue, resulting in an adorable adoption plot twist.Then, we head to Philadelphia to witness a masked street prankster learn a highly physical lesson. Seeking cheap internet clout by jump-scaring strangers in a creepy Chucky doll mask, he targets a woman trained in stage combat. She skips the screaming, accepts his invitation to throw down, and delivers a perfectly placed front kick right to his chest.In the second half, we cover an unbelievable long-haul mystery. Two decades after a bride-to-be accidentally flushed her diamond engagement ring down the toilet, a routine bathroom replacement by her mother-in-law uncovers the lost treasure hidden deep in the plumbing trap. Finally, we break down the miraculous recovery of Torero, a rare Pablo Picasso etching stolen in 2018. The $50,000 masterpiece was found quietly abandoned in an evicted tenant's dusty apartment by a landlord doing chores.Connect with the ShowGot a bizarre true story to share, or just want to tell us we're ugly and our mothers dress us funny? Email us at [email protected] you enjoy instant karma as much as Scot enjoys a good sandwich with proper bread, please hit like, leave a comment, and subscribe for more completely true news.

Welcome to This Is True, Really News Episode 1095!Join Scot Combs and Tony Verkinnes as they break down the most unbelievable—yet entirely true—headlines of the week. From bizarre biotech marketing stunts in New York City to a literal "pizza terrorist" in Poland, we are serving up the strange news with a heavy side of snark.In This Episode, We Cover:The Tumblehair: Why a 10-foot, 150-pound ball of actual human hair was rolling through the streets of NYC (and why it actually worked).Harvard’s $53M Settlement: The shocking black-market scandal involving stolen remains being sold like "baubles" by a former morgue manager.Mount Fuji’s Worst Dad: The unbelievable story of a father who left his exhausted 7-year-old on an active volcano so he could finish his hike.The Polish Pizza Terrorist: How a cyber-stalker weaponized up to $10,000 in fake pizza orders alongside deeply disturbing, highly personalized threat notes.Chapter Timestamps0:00 - Classic TV Banter (Moving On & Claude Akins)1:40 - The 10-Foot Human Hairball of NYC6:16 - Harvard Medical's $53 Million Body Parts Scandal11:04 - The Mount Fuji Bad Parenting Award15:43 - Poland's Creepy "Pizza Terrorist" StalkerGet Involved!Help make Al and his algorithms dance! If you enjoyed the show, please Like, Subscribe, and Follow, and don't forget to hit the bell icon.Email us: Have a question, comment, or some premium snark? Send it to [email protected] below: Let us know what you think (or we might sick feral emus on you).Tags: #WeirdNews #ThisIsTrue #Podcast #HarvardScandal #PizzaTerrorist #FunnyNews #ScotAndTony

Welcome to the cozy confines of the burlap mailbag! In Episode 247, Scot Combs and Tony Verkinnes are breaking down the news, the reviews, and a little bit of superhero lore.

From a UK restaurant owner with a zero-tolerance policy for ridiculous complaints to the 80-year history of Spain’s massive La Tomatina food fight, we cover the hard-hitting journalism you expect. Plus, a detour into the DC Universe with thoughts on Batman: Caped Crusader and Lanterns, and a very special "fake" mailbag segment because you guys forgot to write in.

In This Episode:

• 0:00 - Spanish pronunciation struggles & entering the mailbag

• 1:18 - Restaurant owners brutally clapping back at one-star Just Eat reviews

• 6:35 - La Tomatina: Millions of squashed tomatoes, Bollywood fans, and Franco's ban

• 15:58 - DC Talk: Batman: Caped Crusader, Lanterns on HBO, and ranking the best Green Lanterns

• 20:58 - The Fake Mailbag: Sovereign citizens, emotional support gargoyles, and feral emus

Get in the Mailbag! Please, don't make Scot invent another comment from "Sovereign Dave" operating under bathtub maritime law. Send your questions, comments, conundrums, and snark to: [email protected]

Tags: #ThisIsTrueReallyNews #Podcast #LaTomatina #FunnyNews #GreenLantern #RestaurantReviews #Mailbag

What happens when an Arkansas high schooler plays an hour of football with a highly venomous cottonmouth snake hiding inside his helmet? Scot Combs and Tony Verkinnes dive into that unbelievable true story, plus a few more weird and wild news items on this week's episode!

We also discuss why Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels is sending a cease-and-desist letter to his alma mater over a jersey number, a heartwarming 40-year-old apology to a California bookstore, and the bizarre true origins of P.T. Barnum's infamous "Fiji Mermaid."

If you love weird news and millionaire pettiness, be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell icon so you never miss an upload!

• 0:00 - Intro: Millionaires Picking Weird Hills to Die On

• 1:09 - Yikes! A Venomous Snake Found Inside a High School Football Helmet

• 4:01 - Jayden Daniels' Petty Jersey Drama at LSU

• 11:31 - A Stolen Book is Returned 40 Years Later (With a $100 Tip!)

• 14:49 - The Truth Behind P.T. Barnum's Gross "Fiji Mermaid" Hoax

• Send us your weird stories or yell at us: [email protected]

• Hosted by: Scot Combs & Tony Verkinnes

• Subscribe for more True (Really!) News

Welcome to your momentary respite from the "real" news! This week, Scot Combs and Tony Verkinnes dive into the bizarre, the hilarious, and the utterly ridiculous stories you didn't know you needed. Make sure to like, subscribe, and follow so we can keep the almighty algorithm happy.

• AI Gone Wild: How Flock Safety's automated license plate readers are sending squad cars after innocent drivers over typos and missing digits.

• The Salzburg Heist: The baffling disappearance of 210 polymer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart statuettes from his Austrian hometown.

• The Brown Danube: Record droughts reveal long-lost prehistoric mammoth bones and a ghost fleet of scuttled WWII Nazi battleships.

• The Welsh Grim Reaper: A 26-year-old man gets arrested and fined for the highly questionable prank of dressing as the Grim Reaper on a hospital roof.

• 0:00 - Welcome, algorithm banter, and papal missives

• 2:12 - AI license plate readers terrifying innocent people

• 7:20 - Who stole 210 Mozart statues?

• 11:59 - History revealed at the bottom of the shrinking Danube River

• 15:23 - The bizarre Welsh hospital Grim Reaper prank

• Got a comment, conundrum, or snarky tome? Email us at [email protected]

• Hit that subscribe button to catch every episode of the news that is true... really!

The Kentucky Meat Shower, Waking Polar Bears, and History’s Most Bizarre Days

Join Scot Combs and Tony Verkinnes for another trip into the weirdest corners of the week's news! In Episode 246 of the Mailbag, we’re tackling everything from a rabid beaver with limits to a $5,000 fine for waking a sleeping polar bear. Plus, what exactly was going on during the Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876?

We also take a deep dive into 9 of the most bizarre days in world history—featuring the 1752 calendar jump, the Carrington Event, and the absolute chaos of the 897 Cadaver Synod (poor Pope Formosus). We wrap it all up with a Police Blotter that proves you should never dry your underwear in a microwave.

Grab a drink, settle in, and let's get into it!

⏱️ Chapter Markers:

• 0:00 - Welcome to the Mailbag: Technical Difficulties & Banter

• 1:20 - Rabid Beavers & Disrespectful Titanic Rides

• 4:44 - $5,000 Fine for Waking a Polar Bear

• 5:01 - $10M Brewery Gold & Face-Hugging Octopuses

• 5:48 - Lollapalooza’s Disgusting Crowd Surfing Moment

• 7:25 - The MTA is Auctioning a 1,000-lb Metro Card Machine

• 8:45 - History’s 9 Most Bizarre Days: The BBC's "No News" Day

• 11:17 - The Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876

• 12:38 - The Carrington Event & Baghdad’s Red Haze

• 14:57 - Drunk Austrians & Historical Friendly Fire

• 17:01 - New England’s Dark Day & Detroit’s Black Rain

• 20:41 - The Great 11-Day Calendar Jump of 1752

• 22:38 - The Cadaver Synod of 897

• 25:29 - Police Blotter: Sunbathing Horses & Microwave Underwear

(Don't forget to like, subscribe, and drop your own weird news in the comments for the next Mailbag!)