How did life begin? The prevailing scientific consensus presents us with a primordial soup a few billion years ago which coalesced into life. But wait, the science is not as settled as you might believe. There are problems with that model and some leading scientists are challenging that model. What even is "life"? Even that definition is not as clear in 2023 as one might think. Today at When It Was Cool Dark we will look at some of the latest questions being presented to origin of life researchers. No, we aren't talking creationism either, but the straightforward science.

You can't turn on the news these days without being inundated by news about UFOs or (UAP as they are now branded). The military is seeing them, Harvard (no less) professors are seeing them, the public is seeing them- it's madness! Or it would have been in the 1950s, you would have been branded a lunatic. Now, however, the cat is out of the bag. Something is out there, the question is what? Are we alone in this vast, vast universe? Or is it something else? Today we examine the UAE-UFO phenomenon.

The newly revamped When It Was Cool Dark begins our new podcast journey looking at the mysteries of the universe. The unexplained. The unknown. And we aren't just going to take your word for it. We are going to examine these mysteries and ask ourselves what the evidence says, are we being mislead, what inputs are biased? Today we begin with the first and greatest mystery... how did we get here to begin with. This podcast isn't for everyone. Only you can decide if you WANT to KNOW or if you want to be TOLD. There is a difference. Zero politics. Zero biases.

Our 100 darkest moments in pop culture series concludes with a trio of scandals involving WWE head honcho Vince K. McMahon. Host Karl Stern takes a look at the assault of Rita Chatterton, the 1990s steroid trial, and the multiple payoffs scandal which, temporarily, removed him from power... only to come back richer. Vince McMahon is not only Teflon when it comes to scandals, he somehow escapes any karma and comes back more powerful and wealthy. A supervillain Lex Luthor would be proud of.

The band Fishbone quickly became one of the most influential and inventive bands in all of popular music during the 1980s. However, the bizarre story of band member Kendall Jones threatened to derail this eclectic group. Not only did he allegedly join a cult but another band member, determined to save him from himself, launched a plot to kidnap him. This is the strange journey of Fishbone.

Have you ever seen a show with fellas on the mic with one minute rhymes that don't come out right? Well, pioneering rapper Slick Rick had a lot of things that didn't come out right. Mostly, the U.S. government hated him and sought him out at every turn. This is the story of Slick Rick and he makes the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history because, well, his bodyguard tried to kill him so Slick Rick grabbed a gun, as rappers sometimes do, and went out and managed to shoot a couple of the wrong people. The government then spent decades trying to deport him like Tony the Tiger. Word. 

Thomas Ince was the father of the Western movie genre. During his career in the pioneer days of film making he produced around 800 movies. Thomas Ince also was the first person to build their own movie studio. So how did this influential and pioneering film maker end up on the list of 100 of the darkest moments in pop culture history? Because of legendary historical figure and media mogul William Randolph Hearst, legendary actor Charlie Chaplin and a hole that, may or may not, have been in the head of Thomas Ince. 

Continuing our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history, this week we look at the shocking and tragic death of actor Chadwick Boseman who appeared as the Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, including his own critically acclaimed Black Panther solo movie. The world was shocked when, unknown to virtually everyone, the actor died from complications of colon cancer. Today we remember Chadwick Boseman.

In 1997 one of the most bizarre moments in boxing and pop culture took place when, during the second Mike Tyson verses Evander Holyfield fight, Tyson viciously bit the ear of Holyfield not once, but twice! Tyson earned himself a disqualification and tons of negative publicity. This strange incident was a real black eye (err... ear) for boxing and stands as one of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history.

Look, ok, Mel Gibson is a very good actor. I like numerous Mel Gibson movies. He is certainly famous: Mad Max, Lethal Weapon, Braveheart, Passion of the Christ, and on and on it goes. But there have been enough maniacally outburst to wonder what exactly is going on inside Mel Gibson’s head. Apparently, he really hates Jews (and others) and has expressed this in the most vile of terms.