December 1, 2017 • 57 mins
We've all seen the space-age secret bases in science fiction and blockbuster films, but could a government or corporation really build a secret, permanent deep-sea base? Where would they do it? Why? Join the guys as they dive into (get it?) the murky world of militaries beneath the waves.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. Hello,
(00:24):
and welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nol. They call me Ben. We are
joined with our super producer Paul Decan Paul Pickens in
the house, Ladies and gentlemen, Paul, this is this is
a new development. Yes, yeah, I prefer additional. Yeah, we've
been in beginning the house. Stuff works, stuff they don't
want you to know. Family. Is he the guy who
(00:45):
made that toilet they got in the art museum? Yeah, definitely.
He's a man of many times. Oh yeah, du Champ,
this is de Camp and he's he's a philosopher. He's
a philosopher and filmmaker who he's been around just forever
and worked closely with me on some other shows that
we do with how Stuff Works and an unending source
(01:06):
of pre show banter. Yeah. Yeah, so that's Paul. Paul.
Is Paul you or you and that makes this stuff
they don't want you to know? So everybody right in
and I wish Paul luck having to deal with us. Yes,
please do that. So we've talked in the past about
the world's extensive network of military basis. These could be
(01:31):
publicly acknowledged, these could be speculated or speculative, or they
could be just rumors on the dark web. Right, yeah, exactly.
The the Deep Underground Military Basis episode still holds a
special place in my heart. And we had an Ice
Ice base episode, yeah, didn't we? Yeah, so this is
(01:51):
sort of like, this is like a trilogy. Can we
call this the third part of a trilogy? I think
there might be even be more. Can we call it
the base God trilogy? Yes? Okay, if we don't get sued.
Uh So, just on a personal thing. I don't talk
about personal stuff too much on the show. But I
grew up on a series of military installations, any of
them underwater, not to my knowledge. You know, they did
(02:14):
have pools. He probably got memory wiped and maybe I did. Uh.
I was on Um. I was on a number of
US military bases, proven ones, public ones. Today, the US
operates around eight hundred military bases that we know about,
(02:34):
and they're not They're not all the super nice basis
like you would see in South Korea or in Germany. Right, Um,
a lot of them are in places that are in
the grips of tyrannical governments, right, Yeah, that's one thing
to note here. Many of the United States military bases,
(02:55):
or at least ones that they control, are not inside
the United States. They are in other countries that they're
operating in cooperation with another country. And if you want
to see a very sobering map, I would highly recommend
you check out the UH any variety of maps which
will show you the number of US military bases on
(03:17):
foreign soil directly surrounding Iran. And how many people would
you say, typically does a military base make? It ranges
wid Yeah, it ranges. It could be it could be
very small, that's an excellent question. It could be very
very small, and it could also be the size of
a city, you know. And in many ways, UH some
(03:40):
of the larger bases are built so that people who
live there, either as support staff for military officers or
family members, never have to leave the base. They have
multiple schools, multiple shops, There are different restaurants, bars, bowling alleys,
religious buildings. We think about an aircraft care are that's
(04:00):
essentially the size of a city with the number of
people in a small city just roaming around in the
international waters. And it's a base too. I've only been
to one. Actually that's not true. I was born on
a military base, but I don't remember it very well.
But in my hometown of Augusta, Georgia, there's a big
one called Fort Gordon, and the only thing I can
really remember about it is that it has a really
(04:22):
big burger king, nice like a plush premium burger king.
The the largest, well, it depends on how you measure it.
But as we're recording this, the largest military base on
US soil is Fort Bragg. It has a population just
under two hundred and forty thousand people, and that's the
(04:44):
like active living there population, which is huge. This number
that we're we're mentioning here around eight hundreds scattered across
the globe, doesn't really encapsulate everything because it doesn't kind
the number of ongoing training or non permanent exercises, some
(05:07):
of which can last indefinitely. So the way a lot
of these things would work would be a situation where
the U. S. Military partners with the military of another
nation in Afghanistan, like they're currently doing right, and they
train the in country military members to to learn how
(05:31):
to use US military tech, to learn how to use
the various strategies and techniques. And despite being called non permanent,
as we've seen that stuff can become a quagmire and
we can have a de facto functioning military base. These
are without a doubt. I think you'll hear us say
(05:53):
this on our on our earlier segments of our Base
Guide trilogy. These are without a doubt. Controversial organizations US
leadership will claim that these have numerous benefits. They'll say,
we have to have bases in Europe to protect our
European allies, primarily from Russia. Right, no surprise there. Uh.
(06:15):
The bases in the Middle East are often touted as
containing Iranian influence, which is kind of a tricky term,
and ensuring the free flow of oil, so there's a
pretty public acknowledgement that that is about ensuring access to resources. Then,
of course you've got bases throughout Asia that a lot
(06:37):
of times will be said as defending US allies from
this rising threat or at least perceived threat from a
military standpoint of China and possibly an unstable North Korea,
which seems to be again every time we make one
of these podcasts. There needs to be more news coming out.
And again, North Korea is a threat that is really
on the radar of at least the president and the
(07:00):
military here in the United States. Yeah, and it's on
the It's on the radar of the Western world. It's
definitely on the radar of its patron state China. Uh yeah,
I think, I think geo politically, it is very much
becoming an unsustainable situation in a flashpoint. These military bases,
(07:20):
regardless of which country owns or runs them, are multifunctional.
Their surveillance hubs, they gather all the intelligence, right, We've
seen those. You know, people will go back and forth
with you about what count is a base, like are
the listening centers in five Eyes? Are they military installations
(07:42):
or are they just a different branch of a base.
Regardless of how they are categorized, Often military bases are
home to surveillance hubs. They may be home to detainment
centers where in US law does not apply as much
as it would citizens, like the ones where they strap
you down to a chair and make you listen to
(08:03):
Jefferson Starship at hundred and fifty decibels for days at
a time. Had a good old black sites that happened
to me. Yeah, what's why I am the way I am. Oh,
it makes so much sense. The the black sites might
be a little bit different because they were hands off
and technically run by other kind. It's a black site
(08:26):
that exists inside the it never happened. Right. These can
also be really important refueling or re equipping spots. They
can be links or vertebrae in the supply chain of
an operation, and of course much more. It is, as
(08:47):
we said, enormously controversial because US military bases a count
as US soil, regardless of the country in which they're
city situated. Yeah. I have a birth certificate that says
I am a citizen born abroad because I was born
on a American military base in Germany. Whoa you could
(09:10):
you not ever be a present? Like? Can? I think
I think it counts because because what they just said
about old magical soil. Yeah yeah, uh. These are also
of course a huge trope in fiction, right, And whenever
we see them in fiction, they're they're never quite normal
(09:30):
boring basis, they're super secret. They don't have burger kings,
they don't they don't have burger kings. Uh, and they
they're often they might if there's a product tie in,
but yeah, they might. But if they do have a
product tie in, then it's going to be better than
the average Burger king. That's true. You have like a
super Whopper. They might have an awesome theme song like
see Lab Underneath the Water spoilers. Man's Okay. What's great
(10:00):
is since this is an audio show, Uh, I wish
we could tell you friends and neighbors that Matt just
did the most endearing look around after he did that
bit of a jingle. Also. Uh So, you know, when
we think of these military bases in fiction, they're always
(10:22):
doing amazing stuff. They're they're pretty much always privy to
technology that's beyond the grasp of the public. Or we're
in a post apocalyptic scenario where they're the last bastion
of humanity but still somehow terrifically flawed. Yeah, there has
to be a reason you're in this extreme place inside
a base. It's not like you just built that base
(10:44):
there because it was a good idea. So what are
something just been to save face maybe save base face.
It's like you're in this extreme place when you're in
this base. I was not just so now I'm doing
the look around. Oh, I think we I think we
(11:04):
all can't rhyme space with space bro. The thing we're
all familiar with, right, uh, is this idea of these
enormously advanced and secretive basses. What are some in fiction
that you all remember? For me, I always think of
the floating basses in superhero or comic fiction like Shield
(11:29):
the Avengers, I think is so cool. Oh yeah, for
me it's Austin Powers and Dr Evil. He had several basses,
some underwater, some in volcanoes. I get confused because we've
been talking about like the ice bases and you know
the underwater bases, and like now you're thinking of like
moon bases and stuff with James Bond, is what I think? Yeah,
(11:50):
but I actually there isn't exactly an ice space in
James Bond movies. I was like, surely there absolutely is,
but I couldn't there. There was one end of from
one of the later movies, but it wasn't really like
a secret military installation or like a I don't know, um, yeah,
but that is sort of James Bond movies are the
(12:11):
king of weird basses. True, absolutely remember all your bass
I belonged to us? Yeah, what was that about that?
I think that was about poor translation services, right, is
that where it goes back to? And then there's also
a very interesting sub genre r in fiction where there
are under water research facilities. The abyss. Yeah you remember
(12:33):
the abyss? Pretty good, h There was also there's fear.
I think what in particular Deep Blue Sea. Do you
guys remember that evil Shark was that? Do not spoil
for the listeners of this show. They need to watch
that movie. Okay, absolutely, Perhaps a better word is experience that.
(12:57):
My head's like a Sharks fan. No, but that was
it was like ll o cool j that was the
deep theme, Deep Blue Sea theme, God memories. It's all good.
So but here's the big question. Could any of these
things that are represented in Hollywood represented, you know, in animation,
could any of these be actually real? We didn't even
(13:18):
talk about sequest, we didn't. I'm that and see lab
see Lab. Yeah, well I mentioned it, right, But this
is a call back to your sort of like yeah,
and seems like see like they had all those pods
that were built up down there. It was really interesting.
But that show was making fun of like an absurdly
common trope, whether it's like you know, sequest or the
(13:40):
James Bond thing or any of like the abyss all
that stuff. And you know, it's this sense that like
this is where the scientists like do their dirty work. Yeah,
did you work on Sea Lab? Hey? Right to us,
let us know, just tell us the secrets of the show,
because we we love it. I love it, okay, And uh,
the most mediate example of a secret base in a
(14:02):
weird environment. I feel like we have to give it
an honorable mention is Area fifty one, absolutely totally because
it wasn't you know, it wasn't officially even acknowledged until
um just four years ago, and that was via some
declassified documents from the National Security Archive. Uh So, Area
(14:23):
fifty one, at least officially is was located in a
remote part of the Nevada Desert where the testing of
highly classified aircraft UM was able to take place, you know,
beyond the prying eyes of the public, and at relatively
relatively sure. Uh And if you want, you can see
a list of over sixty d classified documents on the
(14:46):
site if you just search for the Area fifty one
file n s a archive. So that's some some fun
reading material. So it's great. It goes in all different
kinds of aspects, going into the spy planes, some of
the stealth aircraft, the high velocity aircraft, how they were
able to, like just the testing of it over the years,
and what worked, what didn't some of the uh, some
(15:08):
of the problems that they ran into with being discovered
essentially or reported as UFOs. It's really interesting. Yeah. And
I think you add in our notes, Matt, that the
single that that single instance or that trove of docs
could make for its own episode. Yeah. Absolutely, and so
again honorable mention for Area fifty one aside, could any
(15:31):
of this strange stuff out of fiction? B you know? Real? Yeah?
Where does it get crazy? Is it? It's soon? Right,
it's after a word from our response, Here's where it
gets crazy. What do I know? Every time? The US
(15:54):
really may have some bases and strange environments, and we
cannot say whether there's anything permanent on the moon. No, uh,
we just can't say. We're not saying no, there's nothing
on the moon. We just can't. We don't know. We
were very careful with that one. And the International Space
Station or i s S is more like a jointly
run laboratory. But we know the US and other countries
(16:18):
I'm so cartooniously proud of this have floated. Get it.
It's written down right here, folks. The idea of building
bases underwater. I was up too late. So we know
that the US has been experimenting with concept of undersea
habitats since at least the nineteen sixties. Hey, remember that
show Sea Lab. It was an actual thing. You might
(16:40):
not remember this. It was called c Lab. And look,
I think we gotta jump the sea shark talking about
that one a little too early, but that I'll take
the I'll take the fall for that one. Guy's no worries.
But there was s Lab one there, just Sea Lab,
the original. Then there was two and C Lab three
the lab. Yeah, there we go. I like that. Yeah,
(17:01):
this was This was a series of experiments meant to
prove the viability of saturation diving and of having humans
living in isolation and small groups for an extended period
of time, which reminds me when we talk about people
stuck in research centers in Antarctica. Do you think they
had any frogman on staff? I would, I would hope.
(17:24):
So these would have to be very experienced divers, so
I would not be surprised there was. In this political environment.
In the sixties, a fellow named C. F. Austin of
the China Lake Naval Ordinance Test Station proposed something he
called the rock site concept. These would be manned undersea
(17:46):
installations that were built into the rock of the sea floor,
which sounds kind of crazy, but they were already well
understood principles used by the mining industry for decades and
decade AIDS. So Austin essentially said, why don't we use
this mining technology, these mining techniques and make large bases
(18:09):
anywhere there's suitable bedrock inside the ocean at any depth.
That okay, So I got some I got some issues
and some stuff to go in here. So first of all,
we're talking about mining operations where they're building drills or
they're sending drills deep down into the ocean, and they're
having to build infrastructure to maintain those the large pipes
(18:30):
and everything that are going down there, and the pumps
and all that stuff. So that makes sense understand that
that's in the sixties. I'm just trying to wrap my
head around any depth because there are such issues with creating,
you know, in an environment with at pressure and then
just sending people down there. Man, I don't know. I
(18:52):
love that. In the sixties, Uh, this gentleman, see if
Austin and you know, a whole host of other people
thought that this was a viable idea. And it makes
me think, where are we now if in the sixties
we could have done that. Yeah, you could lower a
tunnel boring machine into a mine shaft or a shaft
(19:13):
in the ocean floor into pieces and then you assemble
it inside the tunnel to make more tunnels. Uh. You know,
we we talked before about Camp Century in Antarctica, where
they built a tunnel for a small nuclear reactor, which
already if you are uncomfortable with the ocean, if you
(19:34):
have a fear of drowning, I think being next door
to the nuclear reactor tunnel is in case in ice
no less. Yeah, is an extra bit of icing on
the crippling phobia cake. You ever tried to, like think
about what it would feel like to drown? Yeah? It sucks. Yeah,
(19:55):
I mean I think, Matt, did this just occur to you?
Do You're not? No, I just thought about it for
the first time and I did not like, Well, it's
like one of those things where you're like, what would
it feel like to not exist? And so you should?
I can't wrap your head around any it feels like that. Yeah,
it would easier to wrap your head around in a
terrifying way. It feels like it would be an easier
way to go than say the I guess the opposite
(20:15):
would be burning alive if I had a choice, if
I had to choose one, Yeah, drowned me all day.
I'll go for the Salem witch dust. You guys, go
for it. I'm gonna stay over here on land and
breathe in air. Are we being too more big, Matt? No,
it's great. Are a coworker Holly Fry who we talked about.
(20:37):
Sometimes she will not buy a car that doesn't have
manual windows in case she ever, you know, goes off
a bridge in her car and then you know, the
windows don't work and then you can't escape. Yeah. I
bought a specific tool that I keep next to me
at all times. It's a specific with a little blade
to cut the sea. Everything you need. Dang man, those
(20:59):
are want to hang out, No you don't. I've got
a tiny little container of seeds and that thing, and
that's it and a machete. Yeah, that's that tool is
a tool that I strongly recommend everybody keeping their car,
along with a Douffel bag that can sustain you, clothe you,
(21:22):
and feed you for twenty four hours. A go bag
they call if you are listening, to show you probably
already know about these things. Well, I'm sorry we took
a turn for the morbid matt especially because I'm gonna
squeeze the one side fact that is even more morbid.
Here in the US. We have no idea how many
(21:43):
cars to Holly Fries Point have fallen into lakes only
to be discovered years later when weather patterns change or
when uh the lakes dry up. And there are hundreds
and they have corpse is in them. So I just
want you to think about that next time you drive
(22:04):
by a lake. Drive very carefully. Don't be a statistic,
or if you're going to be a statistic, be like
a cool statistic. Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. That's
a great one. I escaped and saved some people that
we could have really great hair and pectorals. And I
can lure my body temperature whenever I want, with your mind,
(22:25):
with my mind. That have any sense. I. I feel
like if somebody didn't know Matt and they just saw
him on the street, they would think he was the
type to do that. Would be like that guy controls
his body typerature absolutely all right. So to escape from
the morbidity, let's let's look at some of the let's
play a thought experiment. Okay, if if we were building
(22:46):
a permanent undersea base, we'd have some pretty compelling advantages.
If we could pull it off, we'd have some very
high stakes and dangerous uh obstacles, possible cons sequences. Advantages
seabed or sea cover, You've got an extra layer of security.
(23:06):
It's inaccessible to conventional forces. Yeah, you can't just head
on down there in a boat or a plane or
a car or anything like that. You have to have
specific gear to get down to that depth. Yeah, you
probably are not able to just jump in and swim
and swim over there. Stupid question. Is there like a
limit for how long submarines will staying completely submerged? And
(23:28):
I know people will go out on ships for a
long time, but if you're on a sub are you
like underwater like all the time? There are there are limits.
They vary on the class of submarine, but there are
they're both hard psychological limits and hard resource less. Why
can't they just recreate the conditions of like a sub
(23:50):
but like in something that's somehow anchored to the ocean floor,
like whether it's chained to the sea floor or like
like like you're talking about made through some kind of rock,
rock outcropping or something like that. Yeah, that's the that's
one of the most compelling arguments. Because we know that
submarines can already exist at least approximately at these depths.
(24:10):
The big question is whether humans can exist for an
indefinite time there without running out of air or food
or frankly, candidly, I know this disturbing, uh, killing each other. Yeah,
like a like a John Carpenter movie type scenario exactly
like a like a bottle episode of a sitcom gone wrong,
(24:31):
you know. And Yeah, depending on where this base is constructed,
like if it's deep underground in some kind of cavern
or something, you could escape all kinds of natural disasters,
all kinds of weather. Um, just hundreds, there are hundreds
of things you could get away from just because you're
deep inside the earth, inside the water. This idea is
(24:53):
really starting to appeal to you as an amat. It
really is starting to appeal to me. However, there are
some problems. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It's enormously expensive, not
just to build it, but just to keep people alive
in it is Financially it is a challenging costs that
I cannot fathom, uh fathom. Yet we also are not sure.
(25:19):
We have a lot of research on the long term
effects of semi permanent life in the depths or in isolation,
but we don't have a solid enough case to know
what would happen if we built a base that was
supposed to last for a hundred years, and I would
really have to be in a league of its own.
(25:40):
Oh and you would probably have to set it up
where personnel on base are only there in you know,
increments of time, like on the submarine exactly. You have
to set it up that way. So here's the other question.
Let's say the worst possible thing happens. Let's say there's
a super secret undersea Millie Terry base and it's somehow
(26:01):
doing some sketchy stuff in violation of international law, right,
and everything's humming along quite nicely until a catastrophe occurs,
maybe a cavern collapses, a submarine that is dock in
there for some reason explodes, there is a fire that
damages any um air recycling stuff. Unexpected volcanic activity unexpected.
(26:26):
Oh that's a great one. Yeah, unexpected volcanic geothermal activity.
Could the people at the base be saved and how
because this would still be sort of an off the books, Yeah, structure,
off the book structure and trying to get you know,
depending on how many people you have, they're getting enough
of those people safely to the surface without causing any
(26:48):
of the effects that you get from surfacing too quickly
or you know, there are so many problems, and even
if they're in pressure, I guess it would be a
little easier, but just some crazy things to think about.
So with those things in mind, what what sort of
stuff would people build or what have they built? And
(27:09):
perhaps most importantly, why why do this? You know, one
thing I was thinking just before the bane of any
secret undersea base is navy frogman. I'm telling you those
Navy frogman in there. Yeah, right, and they're human torpedoes. Well,
we do know that there are there are multiple non
(27:34):
military experiments with the viability of life undersea and the U. S.
Navy actually has a small scale version of a underwater
military operation right here in the good old US of A.
It's something that we had never heard about before. It's
called the United States Navy Acoustic Research Detachment or a
(27:56):
r D. Okay, that's a that's a long one. It's
look in Lake penned Ori Oriel in Bayview, Idaho. And uh,
this lake is the largest one in Idaho. It's also
the deepest in the quietest. It's has a surface area
of a hundred and forty eight square miles and the
highest depths depths or the lowest depths I guess, are
(28:18):
up to eleven feet and it has an almost constant
surface temperature of thirty nine point five degrees fahrenheit. And
most importantly for this base, most of the shoreline on
this lake is not populated. It consists of mostly national
forests that are owned by the government. And there are
a couple little pockets of humanity and civilization that live
(28:41):
there in these little resort areas. But that's it. So
what what are they doing? What kind of stuff are
they up to there in Idaho? Well, they are they
are building and testing unmanned, scaled down submarines. That sounds cool, right,
So think about the drone technology that you're aware of
that we've seen in the news with the uh the airplanes, right,
(29:01):
they're doing that with submarines. They're about a quarter of
the length of a full size sub and they're testing
brand new, state of the art acoustic technology and probably
lots of other revolutionary tech that we don't know about,
and they're testing them in this lake specifically because it's
so quiet and because it's so calm, and there's just
no other interference, so their tests can come out almost pristine.
(29:25):
So one quarter the length of a full size sub
would make that up to eight feet. Yeah, eight feet
is kind of an average for what you would see there,
because you know, the different models of the submarines vary.
And the really cool thing about utilizing these models rather
than full size submarines in this lake is that it
(29:45):
saves anybody listening, including the four of us, who is
a citizen of the United States, a lot of money.
I think at the time when the article we were
reading for this was written, which is years and years
and years ago, the quote was that save billions of
dollars in development costs, so I can only imagine that
that's you know, exponentially increased in savings over time. And
(30:09):
at first, blush. There doesn't seem to be anything nefarious
about this. This is just a testing center and they're
hoping to save money and probably ultimately save lives. I mean, yes,
on the surface, absolutely true. But you guys, let's say
that you're, you know, an underwater military scientist. You've been
(30:30):
you know, working on your human experiments in your secret
underwater base lab whatever, and you want to take a
little break. What what's that? What's what's a scientist like
that to do for a little respite. I'll tell you
you go to one of the world's many underwater hotels.
Oh buddy, because that's obviously you spend all your time
(30:53):
toiling away in an underwater lab. You want to go
on vacation and in an underwater thing. Well yeah, you
want to ride that same feeling that you've had. You
just want to make it more positive. Exactly. No, I'm
I'm kidding, but there, you know, there's this is a
thing underwater hotels. And at first that was the first
thing that popped into my head where it's like, duh,
cracked it. They've been doing these underwater hotels things and
Dubai and Key West Forever, and then I look it
(31:15):
up and it's like a whopping twenty feet below the
ocean surface. And I'm like, that's not nearly as impressive
of what we're talking about. I still stay in one.
They're cool. Look, and there's this one called Atlantis at
the Palm and Dubai very opulent. This one in Key West,
the Planet Ocean underwater Hotel straight up looks like sea Lab.
Look at this, it looks like a series of pods. Definitely,
(31:40):
it's but it's pretty cool. So maybe we'll take a
group a group vacation to one of those one days. Yes, please,
We'll have a conspiracy adventure all our own, right, Yes.
And just to really quickly jump back over to UH
to the acoustic the Navy Acoustic Research Detachment. Just to
give some history. We have a quote from an l
(32:01):
A Times article here and it says that the Navy's
Acoustic Research Detachment plays a key role in the Quest
Forever Quieter submarines. It's the only active duty remnant of
the former Ferragut Naval Training Center which was there, and
it was established during World War Two, and UH in nine,
most of that center's four thousand acres became a state park,
(32:23):
but they kept along a lot a couple other parts
of this base and they built it out to do
this whole drone submarine testing for the acoustics. And it's
relatively small to just like two acres, right, yeah, twenty
two acres along the lakes south end, and uh, there's
a resort community of three people near it, so like
you're not you're not dealing with a ton of boats
(32:45):
a ton of people on the water, but you are
if you're walking along the shore, maybe on vacation, and
if you, uh, you do have a chance to see
remote control model submarines. They're housed in these sheds built
over the lake. So the models are not arms as
far as we could find. They're not testing weaponry um,
(33:07):
at least officially they're not. And one weird thing is
that they have they have people protesting nuclear power there,
but it doesn't have any nuclear facilities. Yeah, that's true.
There there are a lot of people thinking that there
was a nuclear facility that was going to be built there,
um and we'll get there are a lot of rumors
and interesting things going on there at this Lake Lake
(33:28):
penned Oriel or Oriel. Somebody correct me, tell me how
to say it correctly. There was another quotation that you found, Matt,
that I thought was pretty interesting. It says. Over the years,
the Basis mission has sparked rumors and dark fantasies. Some
locals believe a secret underwater river provides the gateway for
full size subs from the Pacific Ocean about three hundred
(33:52):
miles away. And for cryptid fans, there's one more fun fact.
Oh yeah, what is it? And another legend links the
base and a mythical underwater beast named Pondi. So pondire
big fans. I mean, I've never heard of Pondi. I'm
just a fan in theory I loved. So here's the deal.
(34:13):
I think Pondi exists. This is just my take. So
if this thing has been around, there's been there's been
testing here since World War two, right, and you've got
kids growing up there who go on the lake. Now,
most of the testing, they say, occurs uh in the
deepest areas of the lake, kind of towards the center areas,
and at night when the surface wind speeds are at
their lowest. So most of the acoustic stuff, the boom,
(34:37):
all that kind of stuff is occurring in the water
at night when you know, maybe you're a kid down
by the dock, maybe you jumped in the water for
a second and you just hear them. You're just like, what,
pond It must be Pondi, man, that's scamp. I can
totally see that. He's got to be like Cecil from
(34:57):
the Beanie and Cecil Show, you know, like a friendly
kind of goofball sea monster who has a little buddy
with with a beanie hat. You know that makes sense
to me. That checks out. I think we solve the
mystery of Pondi. Right. Here's the thing. We're doing this
because this is one of the most publicly acknowledged basis
(35:19):
of that type. But we don't know what else is
out there. And it turns out the United States is
not the only player in this strange underwater game. We'll
talk about some of those other players once we get
a quick word from our sponsor. So it is not
(35:43):
just the United States getting in on the underwater secret base,
or maybe not so secret base, just cool underwater base game.
We've also got China, China, China, Yes, the country of China, China, China, China. Uh, Like,
we're not making fun of anyone. It's just one of
(36:04):
those words that when you say it enough times, uh,
it starts to lose all meaning. And maybe we are
making fun of someone a little bit. That's the there's
a real term for that. It's called semantic satiation. Oh
suck the joy rat. How does that? I wanted to
be mystical you named then, I kid, But for real,
(36:27):
there's a base that China plans to build, and it's real.
This isn't made up. This is an actual thing with
a budget, with people like with with their outlines. There
are people working on this right now. It would be
located ten thousand feet below the ocean surface, and it's
going to search for valuable mineral deposits. And I'm sure
(36:49):
that's all it's going to do, even though it is
on the coast of the South China Sea, one of
the most heavily disputed areas in the world maritime speaking,
what are you implying then, that there's some ulterior motive
for this underwater clandestine facility? Dare I? Dare I imply such?
(37:09):
I think he's implaying. It's multifaceted. China claims fluid. It's
China claims severenity over this huge swath of ocean in
the area, and this causes multiple other countries in the
region no small amount of distress because they want to
be a regional hedgemon. And Vietnam is saying, well, hey,
we own part of this, and then the Philippines are saying, hey,
(37:32):
well we own part of that. Pretty much every other
country in the area is saying, calm down, you don't
own the entire sea. And they're saying, I don't want
to get too off topic here, but their argument is
that it is historically Chinese territory, based at least to
some degree on this document written by a fisherman a
(37:55):
long time ago, one to which none of those other countries,
by the way, agreed, And uh, you know, they're like, hey,
just like a fisherman, not like the head fisherman or
one one person. You know, I can dig up the
I can dig up some more on that if we
want to explore it. But the the problem here is,
(38:18):
you know, as as we saw, they could say it's
a mineral scouting base all the livelong day, and people
are still going to treat it with the same skepticism
that you would treat a country saying we're refining nuclear
material just just for power purposes. We're not doing anything
(38:41):
else with it, we promise, even though the steps to
refine nuclear material for a power plant are indistinguishable for
a lot for let's just say, virtually indistinguishable from the
refinement needed to make a weapon. And we have a
quote here from uh the President of the People's Republic
(39:02):
of China, Shi Jim ping the deep sea contains treasures
that remain undiscovered and undeveloped. And in order to obtain
these treasures, we have to control key technologies in getting
into the deep sea, discovering the deep sea, and developing
the deep seam, gonna get that deep sea action? Man
(39:23):
was I was this speech writer paid by how many
times they used the phrase deep sea? I think? I
think perhaps? And we we also have a quote here
when we look at it from the U. S and
like our how is the United States viewing this from
a strategic standpoint? When you know, we talked when Ben's
mentioning all these uh different issues, they're going to come up,
(39:44):
you know in international politics. Uh So, a gentleman named
Brian Clark of the Washington Strategic and Budgetary Assessments says
having this kind of long term inhabited station has not
been attempted this deep, but it certainly is possible manned.
So mercibles have gone to these depths for almost fifty years.
The challenge is operating it for for months at a time,
(40:07):
which is the same thing we've been talking about this
whole time. Time and time again, time and undersea time again. Oh,
excuse me, deep sea time again. Just let it. They
want to control it, they want to get into it,
they want to discover it, and they want to develop it.
That's that's true. So how serious is this because we
know that over the decades, numerous militaries have proposed some
(40:30):
pretty cockamami stuff and with varying degrees of seriousness or intention. Well,
we know that, at least from the perspective of the PRC.
From China's perspective, this is a real thing that is happening.
It's part of the five year economic plan they were
released in March, and it's ranked as number two on
(40:54):
a list of the government's top one hundred science and
technology priorities. You can imagine if you could gain access
us too, you know, any kind of mineral deposits that
were before this point inaccessible, especially in large quantities, or
if you could get maybe some rare earth minerals down there,
maybe some stuff that's just been dormant for years and
years and years, centuries, millennia, that could be huge economically
(41:18):
for China. And let's go ahead and up the stakes further,
because it turns out that the Chinese government is already
operating and underground military base for naval forces. It's called
the Yulan Naval Base. It's built for nuclear submarines. It's
on the southern coast of Hainan Islands. And it's been
(41:41):
spooky thing is people outside of the Chinese government learned
about this because other governments intelligence agencies were reporting it.
China was just gonna probably let this one slide, dude.
According to the reconnaissance, this place, it's like caverns, right,
(42:03):
that's the idea of it's caverns where you can store
up to twenty nuclear subs and it's large enough to
accommodate there's a harbor, and the surface is large enough
to accommodate aircraft carriers too, which the government is actively building.
And I don't I don't particularly care for it when
we hear alarmism about another country doing things that other
(42:27):
countries have been doing for a while. And I think
a lot of people, a lot of people can agree
when I say that. Oftentimes, at least in the US,
some things like this come up at just the right
moment to distract people from a different issue China. I
(42:51):
wish you guys could see Nold's face right now, because uh,
just like Matt's look around. Uh, you know, you dropped
in and injected and then lean that I was the
question he face. Emoji super producer Tristan communicates exclusively with
that emoji did we have We've mentioned that on the
air before, We've we've mentioned that his emoji game is
(43:13):
on point. Yet it is a point. Uh So we
we wanted to provide some examples of how this is
actually happening, why it would be important, and the secrecy
surrounding it, because at this point, as we record this,
we have to conclude that it may never be possible
to know exactly how many military installations exists across the surface,
(43:38):
much less under it, but it is almost entirely certain
that they are more on the way possibly being built now,
possibly with money from your taxes to pay on which
country you live in, and definitely without your knowledge. And
as you know, our space programs continue to prosper, especially
(43:58):
the private ones who are working with militaries. That moon
base is not far away, you guys, I think our
lifetimes moon base. I would totally live on a Moon base.
I would really. I don't know about you all, but
I'm one of those people who if I got a
one way ticket to space and they're like, yeah, we're
just gonna shoot you off, can't come back, probably gonna
(44:20):
die on the ship, I would be all about it.
I just want to go to sample of that famous
moon cuisine. Yeah, so just a temporary like foodie trip.
Freeze freeze dried everything. Okay, yeah, it's not just ice
cream anymore. You had moon cheese? Oh no, I hear
Moon reefried beans are exquisite? Is that a thing? It
(44:41):
has to be? That it comes like it looks like
a rice crispy treat? Man, it's probably what it is.
I was so disappointed. I was so disappointed when I
learned the truth about moon pies that they're just like
manufactory in Tennessee, just regular old factory pies. I was
not a clever child. They're just made of like palm oil.
(45:01):
So did the Navy ever actually pursue this concept, this
rock site concept at point Sir or elsewhere? We do
know there was one study that discussed the various methods
of sea floor excavation, but by that point, by the
nineteen seventies in the US, most of that sort of
development was classified. So we don't know exactly what's happening
(45:27):
now on the ocean floor, but we do know it
remains the stuff they don't want you to know. Oh
and on a positive note, of course, we'd be remiss
if we didn't mention their multiple non military efforts to
build sustainable underwater habitats. And I think it is for
pure research because it would be like living in space
in many ways, you know. So it's not every we're saying,
(45:50):
not every underwater installation is designed to secretly deploy submarines
and attack people exactly. Sometimes it's about what happens when
a bunch of people living deep underwater start stop being
nice and start being real. Have you seen the episode
of Planet Earth about the deep deep, deep deep, deep
(46:11):
deep deep ocean, the Byssil Plain and dude, Oh my god,
it's like a nightmare escape. Can you imagine open up
your window every morning and there's like an angler fish
out there, just like dangling. It's weird, little lure. Hey, hey,
it's the only reassuring thing about that part of the
planet is that, due to tremendous pressure, the vast majoriose
(46:34):
animals are so tiny. That's the only thing that makes
me feel safe if they if they were even a
foot longer, it would be too much lovecraft for me.
There's some big ones down there too, though, So shout
out to the Marine Lab underwater Laboratory. It's one of
the longest serving seafloor habitats in history. I think it
is the longest serving uh and that is in Key Largo, Florida.
(46:58):
It's been around since nineteen eight four. It's a training
center too, if you want to go, Yeah, that's that's
super cool. I think we also go there instead of
going to the underwater Hotel. Let's just go to the
Marine Lab. Let's do all of them. Okay, do you
want to go to the rock side because that sounds
like a dope party at the rock side. I just
gotta go to point sir, man. Also, it is a
(47:22):
dream of mine. I don't know if any of any
of you out there, friends and neighbors have ever done this,
but it's completely possible to travel by cargo ship shoot
the curl. That's what I was trying to remember, that
the term fo Oh my god, we're all over the place.
I love you guys. You're my friends. You might speaking
of our dearest friends. Though, holy cow, it's been a
(47:43):
minute since we've done I'm shot at corner. Our first
shout out today comes from Jacob. Jacob says, Hi, Matt Nolan, Ben,
I've been listening to your show for a while now.
It's a wonderful way to help keep me sane while
working in the metal shop. Would like to know if
you know what we know and what we know we
don't know about Area fifty one. Well, hey, we just
(48:05):
talked about that, Jacob. I think we got you covered.
I grew up in southern Nevada and lived there for
ten years. My dad was in the military, relatively high
ranking too, and still I heard almost nothing about it
other than one of my friends dad's worked there, but
couldn't say what he was doing. Also, if you read
this on air or on podcast Canned Air. I guess
(48:27):
could I get a birthday shout out for my very
special wife Kelsey? Guess what? Kelsey down? Now bound down
the shoutouts for you, Kelsey. Happy birthday, Kelsey, and thanks
for writing to us, Jacob. We do have We do
have some other I think we talked about Area fifty
(48:48):
one and some earlier episodes to It continually comes up,
and we have some videos about it on YouTube that
we definitely recommend you check out. Next, we've got one
from Helen. She's says, hey, guys, I just wanted to
say you're awesome. Thanks Helen. We think you're awesome too.
I have never been much into conspiracy, but I've enjoyed
learning from you all. I respect very deeply that you
(49:11):
start with the facts and then and they say that
with quotes, quote fingers, and then talk about your own opinions.
The sign of a great intellectual is that he can
present facts and opinions as separate. I have been so
inspired by or work and look forward to every episode.
I live in Athens. I don't know if you travel
up that way much, but I always have a free
place to stay. Oh man, Helen, that was so nicely.
(49:33):
I'm kind of embarrassed that I was the one to
read it. I'm I'm blushing all over and uh. I
love Athens and I think these guys do too. I
lived there for a little while and uh and and
miss it very much. So yeah, well my question is,
wait this this email goes on right? What is she
buttering us up for something? Oh? Man, you're right, Ben,
there there is more. Um. I was so enraptured by
(49:57):
the compliments being lavished upon us that I didn't even
notice that there was a point to all this. Um.
I've been wanting to request a shout out forever since
you first started them. Yes, I'm listening that long awesome UM,
but wanted to have a show idea to include. Now
I have too one. The hollow Moon. We were just
(50:18):
talking about moon cuisine. Uh, spaceship. I just heard this
theory on the History Channel. Is the moon hollow? And
is it a spaceship? Was it a spaceship an ancient
relic of an extraterrestrial Yeah? Did humans get here on
the moon? I'm going to say, no, Well we should
look into it. Okay, I guess we can do that, Matt.
(50:39):
The moon is relatively unexplored. There's that that's very true.
So it's possible that there are things. It's certain that
there are things there that we are not yet aware of.
It is a very tall, milk shaped to sip to
think that it could be a wreck of a spacecraft, right,
(50:59):
So that almost be implying I see what you're saying.
If it's all I was thinking like you SAIDs I mean,
it's like a prop or something that's sort of like
it's like a piece of space scenery. So yeah, I
mean I think it's definitely worth looking into. I didn't
know that the History Channel was looking at that stuff. Yeah,
ancient aliens. Oh that's right. Okay, well we will. We
(51:20):
will dig in and see if we can give it
to go. Let's see what's out there, because I'd also
be interested in finding out just what what we suspect
is on the Moon but hasn't been discovered yet. You
should check out our sister podcast, Stuff You Miss in
Histories two part episode on the Great Moon Hoax, because
if you want some some Moon tomfoolery, there's some good
(51:42):
stuff in there, all kinds of wacky ideas that people
had in their heads about what was on the Moon,
So check those out from Holly and Tracy Um and
then Helen goes on to have a second idea, GMOs,
there's been all sorts of experiments proving they're terrible for you.
What's up with that genetically modified organisms proving that's okay.
(52:03):
I I'm interested in that because I don't well, yeah, yeah,
I have. I am not personally familiar with a lot
of studies or experiments pertaining to this. On a personal level,
I I will say that I don't see anything wrong
with labeling a food product labeling food is containing GMOs.
(52:29):
I completely don't see why somebody would have a bug
on their bubb kiss about it. But uh, the idea
of the studies we we would really need to look
into those to do an episode on it. The only
issue I can see are plants that are specifically modified
(52:50):
to withstand certain pesticides or insecticides. I can only imagine
that that's the only place that I would be worried,
like even at all about genetically modified or the issues
that how I could cause, um like superbugs and stuff
that I make that up. No, that's a that's a
good point because we know with large scale agriculture or
(53:13):
agri business. We know there's been a trend towards homogeneous,
uhlogenious agricultural products like you, it's very real possibility that,
as we're recording this, and if you're listening to this now,
the banana as we know it may be extinct within
our lifetimes because it's essentially just a thing that has
(53:35):
been cloned. And this won't be the first time that
humanity lost the most popular banana, which is why banana
flavored candy tastes different in comparison to the modern banana
Cavendish the gross Michelle. The last thing Helen says is
that she has a book on the subject called Altered
Genes Twisted Truths, and she says she wait. She says
(53:58):
she'd love for us to have it and dropped by
studio if we wanted it. So please shout me out
so much love, so thanks so much, Helen, and you know,
shoot us an email, maybe we can we can arrange
a visit. The next shout out goes to Samuel h.
He wrote us an email. He says, Hello, I'm an
artist and I want to send a gift to you
guys that I think you may appreciate. But I don't
know who are how to address it so that Matt
(54:21):
and Benn and Noll and Paul will receive it. Can
you please tell me what address to send it to.
Thank you well, first of all, Samuel as an artist,
Good on you, sir. Uh. It is not easy to
do that. I hope you have some kind of uh
in flow of money from the art that you create.
And if not, I hope you are doing something else
(54:42):
fulfilling in your life. That is, you know, letting you
pay rent. God, you're a good guy. Matt. Uh Well, okay, Well,
I'm just saying, you know, it's cool that you're creating art,
and especially that you want to send it to us.
Our address is everybody write this down. If you are
not scary and you don't want to hurt us, please
(55:03):
write this down. Definitely, no Uni bombers. I'm okay with
the scary scary male right up my alley. I just
bring that up because I started watching the man Hunt series. Yeah,
it's very very good. Well, um, if you're on a
man hunt for Ben and mad and Noel, uh, here's
where you go. It's six seven five Ponce de Leon Avenue,
(55:25):
Northeast Sweet. That's Atlanta, Georgia, three zero three oh eight
and seriously, no creepers. We've got like top notch security
here so you will not make it past the front door.
We've got attack dogs, the sentry guns are on locks.
They're big time. But also hope that we will come back.
(55:46):
I hope this doesn't come back to bite us. And
this concludes our but not our show. As always, thank
you so much for tuning in. You are the most
important part of every episode we do, which means that
we want to hear from you. Do you have military experience?
(56:08):
Have you lived on a submarine? If so, what do
you think about the idea of people spending extended amounts
of time under water? And we say extended, we mean years.
Do you live on a yellow submarine? Have you been
to an octopus's garden in the shade? Have you seen
blue meanings about? If so, please contact the authorities first,
(56:28):
then us. And if you have not found some meanings
blue or otherwise, or been on a submarine yellow or otherwise.
But you have a suggestion for our show, a topic
you feel that your fellow listeners would like to hear
in the future, please let us know. You can find
Matt Noel and I on Instagram. You can find us
(56:50):
on our website stuff they don't want you to know.
You can find us on Facebook, where we post a
lot of stories that for some reason or another don't
make it to the air. It's correct and Twitter and
all that stuff, but the best way to contact us,
it always has been, it always will be, write us
an email. We are conspiracy at how stuff works dot com.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. Hello,
(00:24):
and welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nol. They call me Ben. We are
joined with our super producer Paul Decan Paul Pickens in
the house, Ladies and gentlemen, Paul, this is this is
a new development. Yes, yeah, I prefer additional. Yeah, we've
been in beginning the house. Stuff works, stuff they don't
want you to know. Family. Is he the guy who
(00:45):
made that toilet they got in the art museum? Yeah, definitely.
He's a man of many times. Oh yeah, du Champ,
this is de Camp and he's he's a philosopher. He's
a philosopher and filmmaker who he's been around just forever
and worked closely with me on some other shows that
we do with how Stuff Works and an unending source
(01:06):
of pre show banter. Yeah. Yeah, so that's Paul. Paul.
Is Paul you or you and that makes this stuff
they don't want you to know? So everybody right in
and I wish Paul luck having to deal with us. Yes,
please do that. So we've talked in the past about
the world's extensive network of military basis. These could be
(01:31):
publicly acknowledged, these could be speculated or speculative, or they
could be just rumors on the dark web. Right, yeah, exactly.
The the Deep Underground Military Basis episode still holds a
special place in my heart. And we had an Ice
Ice base episode, yeah, didn't we? Yeah, so this is
(01:51):
sort of like, this is like a trilogy. Can we
call this the third part of a trilogy? I think
there might be even be more. Can we call it
the base God trilogy? Yes? Okay, if we don't get sued.
Uh So, just on a personal thing. I don't talk
about personal stuff too much on the show. But I
grew up on a series of military installations, any of
them underwater, not to my knowledge. You know, they did
(02:14):
have pools. He probably got memory wiped and maybe I did. Uh.
I was on Um. I was on a number of
US military bases, proven ones, public ones. Today, the US
operates around eight hundred military bases that we know about,
(02:34):
and they're not They're not all the super nice basis
like you would see in South Korea or in Germany. Right, Um,
a lot of them are in places that are in
the grips of tyrannical governments, right, Yeah, that's one thing
to note here. Many of the United States military bases,
(02:55):
or at least ones that they control, are not inside
the United States. They are in other countries that they're
operating in cooperation with another country. And if you want
to see a very sobering map, I would highly recommend
you check out the UH any variety of maps which
will show you the number of US military bases on
(03:17):
foreign soil directly surrounding Iran. And how many people would
you say, typically does a military base make? It ranges
wid Yeah, it ranges. It could be it could be
very small, that's an excellent question. It could be very
very small, and it could also be the size of
a city, you know. And in many ways, UH some
(03:40):
of the larger bases are built so that people who
live there, either as support staff for military officers or
family members, never have to leave the base. They have
multiple schools, multiple shops, There are different restaurants, bars, bowling alleys,
religious buildings. We think about an aircraft care are that's
(04:00):
essentially the size of a city with the number of
people in a small city just roaming around in the
international waters. And it's a base too. I've only been
to one. Actually that's not true. I was born on
a military base, but I don't remember it very well.
But in my hometown of Augusta, Georgia, there's a big
one called Fort Gordon, and the only thing I can
really remember about it is that it has a really
(04:22):
big burger king, nice like a plush premium burger king.
The the largest, well, it depends on how you measure it.
But as we're recording this, the largest military base on
US soil is Fort Bragg. It has a population just
under two hundred and forty thousand people, and that's the
(04:44):
like active living there population, which is huge. This number
that we're we're mentioning here around eight hundreds scattered across
the globe, doesn't really encapsulate everything because it doesn't kind
the number of ongoing training or non permanent exercises, some
(05:07):
of which can last indefinitely. So the way a lot
of these things would work would be a situation where
the U. S. Military partners with the military of another
nation in Afghanistan, like they're currently doing right, and they
train the in country military members to to learn how
(05:31):
to use US military tech, to learn how to use
the various strategies and techniques. And despite being called non permanent,
as we've seen that stuff can become a quagmire and
we can have a de facto functioning military base. These
are without a doubt. I think you'll hear us say
(05:53):
this on our on our earlier segments of our Base
Guide trilogy. These are without a doubt. Controversial organizations US
leadership will claim that these have numerous benefits. They'll say,
we have to have bases in Europe to protect our
European allies, primarily from Russia. Right, no surprise there. Uh.
(06:15):
The bases in the Middle East are often touted as
containing Iranian influence, which is kind of a tricky term,
and ensuring the free flow of oil, so there's a
pretty public acknowledgement that that is about ensuring access to resources. Then,
of course you've got bases throughout Asia that a lot
(06:37):
of times will be said as defending US allies from
this rising threat or at least perceived threat from a
military standpoint of China and possibly an unstable North Korea,
which seems to be again every time we make one
of these podcasts. There needs to be more news coming out.
And again, North Korea is a threat that is really
on the radar of at least the president and the
(07:00):
military here in the United States. Yeah, and it's on
the It's on the radar of the Western world. It's
definitely on the radar of its patron state China. Uh yeah,
I think, I think geo politically, it is very much
becoming an unsustainable situation in a flashpoint. These military bases,
(07:20):
regardless of which country owns or runs them, are multifunctional.
Their surveillance hubs, they gather all the intelligence, right, We've
seen those. You know, people will go back and forth
with you about what count is a base, like are
the listening centers in five Eyes? Are they military installations
(07:42):
or are they just a different branch of a base.
Regardless of how they are categorized, Often military bases are
home to surveillance hubs. They may be home to detainment
centers where in US law does not apply as much
as it would citizens, like the ones where they strap
you down to a chair and make you listen to
(08:03):
Jefferson Starship at hundred and fifty decibels for days at
a time. Had a good old black sites that happened
to me. Yeah, what's why I am the way I am. Oh,
it makes so much sense. The the black sites might
be a little bit different because they were hands off
and technically run by other kind. It's a black site
(08:26):
that exists inside the it never happened. Right. These can
also be really important refueling or re equipping spots. They
can be links or vertebrae in the supply chain of
an operation, and of course much more. It is, as
(08:47):
we said, enormously controversial because US military bases a count
as US soil, regardless of the country in which they're
city situated. Yeah. I have a birth certificate that says
I am a citizen born abroad because I was born
on a American military base in Germany. Whoa you could
(09:10):
you not ever be a present? Like? Can? I think
I think it counts because because what they just said
about old magical soil. Yeah yeah, uh. These are also
of course a huge trope in fiction, right, And whenever
we see them in fiction, they're they're never quite normal
(09:30):
boring basis, they're super secret. They don't have burger kings,
they don't they don't have burger kings. Uh, and they
they're often they might if there's a product tie in,
but yeah, they might. But if they do have a
product tie in, then it's going to be better than
the average Burger king. That's true. You have like a
super Whopper. They might have an awesome theme song like
see Lab Underneath the Water spoilers. Man's Okay. What's great
(10:00):
is since this is an audio show, Uh, I wish
we could tell you friends and neighbors that Matt just
did the most endearing look around after he did that
bit of a jingle. Also. Uh So, you know, when
we think of these military bases in fiction, they're always
(10:22):
doing amazing stuff. They're they're pretty much always privy to
technology that's beyond the grasp of the public. Or we're
in a post apocalyptic scenario where they're the last bastion
of humanity but still somehow terrifically flawed. Yeah, there has
to be a reason you're in this extreme place inside
a base. It's not like you just built that base
(10:44):
there because it was a good idea. So what are
something just been to save face maybe save base face.
It's like you're in this extreme place when you're in
this base. I was not just so now I'm doing
the look around. Oh, I think we I think we
(11:04):
all can't rhyme space with space bro. The thing we're
all familiar with, right, uh, is this idea of these
enormously advanced and secretive basses. What are some in fiction
that you all remember? For me, I always think of
the floating basses in superhero or comic fiction like Shield
(11:29):
the Avengers, I think is so cool. Oh yeah, for
me it's Austin Powers and Dr Evil. He had several basses,
some underwater, some in volcanoes. I get confused because we've
been talking about like the ice bases and you know
the underwater bases, and like now you're thinking of like
moon bases and stuff with James Bond, is what I think? Yeah,
(11:50):
but I actually there isn't exactly an ice space in
James Bond movies. I was like, surely there absolutely is,
but I couldn't there. There was one end of from
one of the later movies, but it wasn't really like
a secret military installation or like a I don't know, um, yeah,
but that is sort of James Bond movies are the
(12:11):
king of weird basses. True, absolutely remember all your bass
I belonged to us? Yeah, what was that about that?
I think that was about poor translation services, right, is
that where it goes back to? And then there's also
a very interesting sub genre r in fiction where there
are under water research facilities. The abyss. Yeah you remember
(12:33):
the abyss? Pretty good, h There was also there's fear.
I think what in particular Deep Blue Sea. Do you
guys remember that evil Shark was that? Do not spoil
for the listeners of this show. They need to watch
that movie. Okay, absolutely, Perhaps a better word is experience that.
(12:57):
My head's like a Sharks fan. No, but that was
it was like ll o cool j that was the
deep theme, Deep Blue Sea theme, God memories. It's all good.
So but here's the big question. Could any of these
things that are represented in Hollywood represented, you know, in animation,
could any of these be actually real? We didn't even
(13:18):
talk about sequest, we didn't. I'm that and see lab
see Lab. Yeah, well I mentioned it, right, But this
is a call back to your sort of like yeah,
and seems like see like they had all those pods
that were built up down there. It was really interesting.
But that show was making fun of like an absurdly
common trope, whether it's like you know, sequest or the
(13:40):
James Bond thing or any of like the abyss all
that stuff. And you know, it's this sense that like
this is where the scientists like do their dirty work. Yeah,
did you work on Sea Lab? Hey? Right to us,
let us know, just tell us the secrets of the show,
because we we love it. I love it, okay, And uh,
the most mediate example of a secret base in a
(14:02):
weird environment. I feel like we have to give it
an honorable mention is Area fifty one, absolutely totally because
it wasn't you know, it wasn't officially even acknowledged until
um just four years ago, and that was via some
declassified documents from the National Security Archive. Uh So, Area
(14:23):
fifty one, at least officially is was located in a
remote part of the Nevada Desert where the testing of
highly classified aircraft UM was able to take place, you know,
beyond the prying eyes of the public, and at relatively
relatively sure. Uh And if you want, you can see
a list of over sixty d classified documents on the
(14:46):
site if you just search for the Area fifty one
file n s a archive. So that's some some fun
reading material. So it's great. It goes in all different
kinds of aspects, going into the spy planes, some of
the stealth aircraft, the high velocity aircraft, how they were
able to, like just the testing of it over the years,
and what worked, what didn't some of the uh, some
(15:08):
of the problems that they ran into with being discovered
essentially or reported as UFOs. It's really interesting. Yeah. And
I think you add in our notes, Matt, that the
single that that single instance or that trove of docs
could make for its own episode. Yeah. Absolutely, and so
again honorable mention for Area fifty one aside, could any
(15:31):
of this strange stuff out of fiction? B you know? Real? Yeah?
Where does it get crazy? Is it? It's soon? Right,
it's after a word from our response, Here's where it
gets crazy. What do I know? Every time? The US
(15:54):
really may have some bases and strange environments, and we
cannot say whether there's anything permanent on the moon. No, uh,
we just can't say. We're not saying no, there's nothing
on the moon. We just can't. We don't know. We
were very careful with that one. And the International Space
Station or i s S is more like a jointly
run laboratory. But we know the US and other countries
(16:18):
I'm so cartooniously proud of this have floated. Get it.
It's written down right here, folks. The idea of building
bases underwater. I was up too late. So we know
that the US has been experimenting with concept of undersea
habitats since at least the nineteen sixties. Hey, remember that
show Sea Lab. It was an actual thing. You might
(16:40):
not remember this. It was called c Lab. And look,
I think we gotta jump the sea shark talking about
that one a little too early, but that I'll take
the I'll take the fall for that one. Guy's no worries.
But there was s Lab one there, just Sea Lab,
the original. Then there was two and C Lab three
the lab. Yeah, there we go. I like that. Yeah,
(17:01):
this was This was a series of experiments meant to
prove the viability of saturation diving and of having humans
living in isolation and small groups for an extended period
of time, which reminds me when we talk about people
stuck in research centers in Antarctica. Do you think they
had any frogman on staff? I would, I would hope.
(17:24):
So these would have to be very experienced divers, so
I would not be surprised there was. In this political environment.
In the sixties, a fellow named C. F. Austin of
the China Lake Naval Ordinance Test Station proposed something he
called the rock site concept. These would be manned undersea
(17:46):
installations that were built into the rock of the sea floor,
which sounds kind of crazy, but they were already well
understood principles used by the mining industry for decades and
decade AIDS. So Austin essentially said, why don't we use
this mining technology, these mining techniques and make large bases
(18:09):
anywhere there's suitable bedrock inside the ocean at any depth.
That okay, So I got some I got some issues
and some stuff to go in here. So first of all,
we're talking about mining operations where they're building drills or
they're sending drills deep down into the ocean, and they're
having to build infrastructure to maintain those the large pipes
(18:30):
and everything that are going down there, and the pumps
and all that stuff. So that makes sense understand that
that's in the sixties. I'm just trying to wrap my
head around any depth because there are such issues with creating,
you know, in an environment with at pressure and then
just sending people down there. Man, I don't know. I
(18:52):
love that. In the sixties, Uh, this gentleman, see if
Austin and you know, a whole host of other people
thought that this was a viable idea. And it makes
me think, where are we now if in the sixties
we could have done that. Yeah, you could lower a
tunnel boring machine into a mine shaft or a shaft
(19:13):
in the ocean floor into pieces and then you assemble
it inside the tunnel to make more tunnels. Uh. You know,
we we talked before about Camp Century in Antarctica, where
they built a tunnel for a small nuclear reactor, which
already if you are uncomfortable with the ocean, if you
(19:34):
have a fear of drowning, I think being next door
to the nuclear reactor tunnel is in case in ice
no less. Yeah, is an extra bit of icing on
the crippling phobia cake. You ever tried to, like think
about what it would feel like to drown? Yeah? It sucks. Yeah,
(19:55):
I mean I think, Matt, did this just occur to you?
Do You're not? No, I just thought about it for
the first time and I did not like, Well, it's
like one of those things where you're like, what would
it feel like to not exist? And so you should?
I can't wrap your head around any it feels like that. Yeah,
it would easier to wrap your head around in a
terrifying way. It feels like it would be an easier
way to go than say the I guess the opposite
(20:15):
would be burning alive if I had a choice, if
I had to choose one, Yeah, drowned me all day.
I'll go for the Salem witch dust. You guys, go
for it. I'm gonna stay over here on land and
breathe in air. Are we being too more big, Matt? No,
it's great. Are a coworker Holly Fry who we talked about.
(20:37):
Sometimes she will not buy a car that doesn't have
manual windows in case she ever, you know, goes off
a bridge in her car and then you know, the
windows don't work and then you can't escape. Yeah. I
bought a specific tool that I keep next to me
at all times. It's a specific with a little blade
to cut the sea. Everything you need. Dang man, those
(20:59):
are want to hang out, No you don't. I've got
a tiny little container of seeds and that thing, and
that's it and a machete. Yeah, that's that tool is
a tool that I strongly recommend everybody keeping their car,
along with a Douffel bag that can sustain you, clothe you,
(21:22):
and feed you for twenty four hours. A go bag
they call if you are listening, to show you probably
already know about these things. Well, I'm sorry we took
a turn for the morbid matt especially because I'm gonna
squeeze the one side fact that is even more morbid.
Here in the US. We have no idea how many
(21:43):
cars to Holly Fries Point have fallen into lakes only
to be discovered years later when weather patterns change or
when uh the lakes dry up. And there are hundreds
and they have corpse is in them. So I just
want you to think about that next time you drive
(22:04):
by a lake. Drive very carefully. Don't be a statistic,
or if you're going to be a statistic, be like
a cool statistic. Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. That's
a great one. I escaped and saved some people that
we could have really great hair and pectorals. And I
can lure my body temperature whenever I want, with your mind,
(22:25):
with my mind. That have any sense. I. I feel
like if somebody didn't know Matt and they just saw
him on the street, they would think he was the
type to do that. Would be like that guy controls
his body typerature absolutely all right. So to escape from
the morbidity, let's let's look at some of the let's
play a thought experiment. Okay, if if we were building
(22:46):
a permanent undersea base, we'd have some pretty compelling advantages.
If we could pull it off, we'd have some very
high stakes and dangerous uh obstacles, possible cons sequences. Advantages
seabed or sea cover, You've got an extra layer of security.
(23:06):
It's inaccessible to conventional forces. Yeah, you can't just head
on down there in a boat or a plane or
a car or anything like that. You have to have
specific gear to get down to that depth. Yeah, you
probably are not able to just jump in and swim
and swim over there. Stupid question. Is there like a
limit for how long submarines will staying completely submerged? And
(23:28):
I know people will go out on ships for a
long time, but if you're on a sub are you
like underwater like all the time? There are there are limits.
They vary on the class of submarine, but there are
they're both hard psychological limits and hard resource less. Why
can't they just recreate the conditions of like a sub
(23:50):
but like in something that's somehow anchored to the ocean floor,
like whether it's chained to the sea floor or like
like like you're talking about made through some kind of rock,
rock outcropping or something like that. Yeah, that's the that's
one of the most compelling arguments. Because we know that
submarines can already exist at least approximately at these depths.
(24:10):
The big question is whether humans can exist for an
indefinite time there without running out of air or food
or frankly, candidly, I know this disturbing, uh, killing each other. Yeah,
like a like a John Carpenter movie type scenario exactly
like a like a bottle episode of a sitcom gone wrong,
(24:31):
you know. And Yeah, depending on where this base is constructed,
like if it's deep underground in some kind of cavern
or something, you could escape all kinds of natural disasters,
all kinds of weather. Um, just hundreds, there are hundreds
of things you could get away from just because you're
deep inside the earth, inside the water. This idea is
(24:53):
really starting to appeal to you as an amat. It
really is starting to appeal to me. However, there are
some problems. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It's enormously expensive, not
just to build it, but just to keep people alive
in it is Financially it is a challenging costs that
I cannot fathom, uh fathom. Yet we also are not sure.
(25:19):
We have a lot of research on the long term
effects of semi permanent life in the depths or in isolation,
but we don't have a solid enough case to know
what would happen if we built a base that was
supposed to last for a hundred years, and I would
really have to be in a league of its own.
(25:40):
Oh and you would probably have to set it up
where personnel on base are only there in you know,
increments of time, like on the submarine exactly. You have
to set it up that way. So here's the other question.
Let's say the worst possible thing happens. Let's say there's
a super secret undersea Millie Terry base and it's somehow
(26:01):
doing some sketchy stuff in violation of international law, right,
and everything's humming along quite nicely until a catastrophe occurs,
maybe a cavern collapses, a submarine that is dock in
there for some reason explodes, there is a fire that
damages any um air recycling stuff. Unexpected volcanic activity unexpected.
(26:26):
Oh that's a great one. Yeah, unexpected volcanic geothermal activity.
Could the people at the base be saved and how
because this would still be sort of an off the books, Yeah, structure,
off the book structure and trying to get you know,
depending on how many people you have, they're getting enough
of those people safely to the surface without causing any
(26:48):
of the effects that you get from surfacing too quickly
or you know, there are so many problems, and even
if they're in pressure, I guess it would be a
little easier, but just some crazy things to think about.
So with those things in mind, what what sort of
stuff would people build or what have they built? And
(27:09):
perhaps most importantly, why why do this? You know, one
thing I was thinking just before the bane of any
secret undersea base is navy frogman. I'm telling you those
Navy frogman in there. Yeah, right, and they're human torpedoes. Well,
we do know that there are there are multiple non
(27:34):
military experiments with the viability of life undersea and the U. S.
Navy actually has a small scale version of a underwater
military operation right here in the good old US of A.
It's something that we had never heard about before. It's
called the United States Navy Acoustic Research Detachment or a
(27:56):
r D. Okay, that's a that's a long one. It's
look in Lake penned Ori Oriel in Bayview, Idaho. And uh,
this lake is the largest one in Idaho. It's also
the deepest in the quietest. It's has a surface area
of a hundred and forty eight square miles and the
highest depths depths or the lowest depths I guess, are
(28:18):
up to eleven feet and it has an almost constant
surface temperature of thirty nine point five degrees fahrenheit. And
most importantly for this base, most of the shoreline on
this lake is not populated. It consists of mostly national
forests that are owned by the government. And there are
a couple little pockets of humanity and civilization that live
(28:41):
there in these little resort areas. But that's it. So
what what are they doing? What kind of stuff are
they up to there in Idaho? Well, they are they
are building and testing unmanned, scaled down submarines. That sounds cool, right,
So think about the drone technology that you're aware of
that we've seen in the news with the uh the airplanes, right,
(29:01):
they're doing that with submarines. They're about a quarter of
the length of a full size sub and they're testing
brand new, state of the art acoustic technology and probably
lots of other revolutionary tech that we don't know about,
and they're testing them in this lake specifically because it's
so quiet and because it's so calm, and there's just
no other interference, so their tests can come out almost pristine.
(29:25):
So one quarter the length of a full size sub
would make that up to eight feet. Yeah, eight feet
is kind of an average for what you would see there,
because you know, the different models of the submarines vary.
And the really cool thing about utilizing these models rather
than full size submarines in this lake is that it
(29:45):
saves anybody listening, including the four of us, who is
a citizen of the United States, a lot of money.
I think at the time when the article we were
reading for this was written, which is years and years
and years ago, the quote was that save billions of
dollars in development costs, so I can only imagine that
that's you know, exponentially increased in savings over time. And
(30:09):
at first, blush. There doesn't seem to be anything nefarious
about this. This is just a testing center and they're
hoping to save money and probably ultimately save lives. I mean, yes,
on the surface, absolutely true. But you guys, let's say
that you're, you know, an underwater military scientist. You've been
(30:30):
you know, working on your human experiments in your secret
underwater base lab whatever, and you want to take a
little break. What what's that? What's what's a scientist like
that to do for a little respite. I'll tell you
you go to one of the world's many underwater hotels.
Oh buddy, because that's obviously you spend all your time
(30:53):
toiling away in an underwater lab. You want to go
on vacation and in an underwater thing. Well yeah, you
want to ride that same feeling that you've had. You
just want to make it more positive. Exactly. No, I'm
I'm kidding, but there, you know, there's this is a
thing underwater hotels. And at first that was the first
thing that popped into my head where it's like, duh,
cracked it. They've been doing these underwater hotels things and
Dubai and Key West Forever, and then I look it
(31:15):
up and it's like a whopping twenty feet below the
ocean surface. And I'm like, that's not nearly as impressive
of what we're talking about. I still stay in one.
They're cool. Look, and there's this one called Atlantis at
the Palm and Dubai very opulent. This one in Key West,
the Planet Ocean underwater Hotel straight up looks like sea Lab.
Look at this, it looks like a series of pods. Definitely,
(31:40):
it's but it's pretty cool. So maybe we'll take a
group a group vacation to one of those one days. Yes, please,
We'll have a conspiracy adventure all our own, right, Yes.
And just to really quickly jump back over to UH
to the acoustic the Navy Acoustic Research Detachment. Just to
give some history. We have a quote from an l
(32:01):
A Times article here and it says that the Navy's
Acoustic Research Detachment plays a key role in the Quest
Forever Quieter submarines. It's the only active duty remnant of
the former Ferragut Naval Training Center which was there, and
it was established during World War Two, and UH in nine,
most of that center's four thousand acres became a state park,
(32:23):
but they kept along a lot a couple other parts
of this base and they built it out to do
this whole drone submarine testing for the acoustics. And it's
relatively small to just like two acres, right, yeah, twenty
two acres along the lakes south end, and uh, there's
a resort community of three people near it, so like
you're not you're not dealing with a ton of boats
(32:45):
a ton of people on the water, but you are
if you're walking along the shore, maybe on vacation, and
if you, uh, you do have a chance to see
remote control model submarines. They're housed in these sheds built
over the lake. So the models are not arms as
far as we could find. They're not testing weaponry um,
(33:07):
at least officially they're not. And one weird thing is
that they have they have people protesting nuclear power there,
but it doesn't have any nuclear facilities. Yeah, that's true.
There there are a lot of people thinking that there
was a nuclear facility that was going to be built there,
um and we'll get there are a lot of rumors
and interesting things going on there at this Lake Lake
(33:28):
penned Oriel or Oriel. Somebody correct me, tell me how
to say it correctly. There was another quotation that you found, Matt,
that I thought was pretty interesting. It says. Over the years,
the Basis mission has sparked rumors and dark fantasies. Some
locals believe a secret underwater river provides the gateway for
full size subs from the Pacific Ocean about three hundred
(33:52):
miles away. And for cryptid fans, there's one more fun fact.
Oh yeah, what is it? And another legend links the
base and a mythical underwater beast named Pondi. So pondire
big fans. I mean, I've never heard of Pondi. I'm
just a fan in theory I loved. So here's the deal.
(34:13):
I think Pondi exists. This is just my take. So
if this thing has been around, there's been there's been
testing here since World War two, right, and you've got
kids growing up there who go on the lake. Now,
most of the testing, they say, occurs uh in the
deepest areas of the lake, kind of towards the center areas,
and at night when the surface wind speeds are at
their lowest. So most of the acoustic stuff, the boom,
(34:37):
all that kind of stuff is occurring in the water
at night when you know, maybe you're a kid down
by the dock, maybe you jumped in the water for
a second and you just hear them. You're just like, what,
pond It must be Pondi, man, that's scamp. I can
totally see that. He's got to be like Cecil from
(34:57):
the Beanie and Cecil Show, you know, like a friendly
kind of goofball sea monster who has a little buddy
with with a beanie hat. You know that makes sense
to me. That checks out. I think we solve the
mystery of Pondi. Right. Here's the thing. We're doing this
because this is one of the most publicly acknowledged basis
(35:19):
of that type. But we don't know what else is
out there. And it turns out the United States is
not the only player in this strange underwater game. We'll
talk about some of those other players once we get
a quick word from our sponsor. So it is not
(35:43):
just the United States getting in on the underwater secret base,
or maybe not so secret base, just cool underwater base game.
We've also got China, China, China, Yes, the country of China, China, China, China. Uh, Like,
we're not making fun of anyone. It's just one of
(36:04):
those words that when you say it enough times, uh,
it starts to lose all meaning. And maybe we are
making fun of someone a little bit. That's the there's
a real term for that. It's called semantic satiation. Oh
suck the joy rat. How does that? I wanted to
be mystical you named then, I kid, But for real,
(36:27):
there's a base that China plans to build, and it's real.
This isn't made up. This is an actual thing with
a budget, with people like with with their outlines. There
are people working on this right now. It would be
located ten thousand feet below the ocean surface, and it's
going to search for valuable mineral deposits. And I'm sure
(36:49):
that's all it's going to do, even though it is
on the coast of the South China Sea, one of
the most heavily disputed areas in the world maritime speaking,
what are you implying then, that there's some ulterior motive
for this underwater clandestine facility? Dare I? Dare I imply such?
(37:09):
I think he's implaying. It's multifaceted. China claims fluid. It's
China claims severenity over this huge swath of ocean in
the area, and this causes multiple other countries in the
region no small amount of distress because they want to
be a regional hedgemon. And Vietnam is saying, well, hey,
we own part of this, and then the Philippines are saying, hey,
(37:32):
well we own part of that. Pretty much every other
country in the area is saying, calm down, you don't
own the entire sea. And they're saying, I don't want
to get too off topic here, but their argument is
that it is historically Chinese territory, based at least to
some degree on this document written by a fisherman a
(37:55):
long time ago, one to which none of those other countries,
by the way, agreed, And uh, you know, they're like, hey,
just like a fisherman, not like the head fisherman or
one one person. You know, I can dig up the
I can dig up some more on that if we
want to explore it. But the the problem here is,
(38:18):
you know, as as we saw, they could say it's
a mineral scouting base all the livelong day, and people
are still going to treat it with the same skepticism
that you would treat a country saying we're refining nuclear
material just just for power purposes. We're not doing anything
(38:41):
else with it, we promise, even though the steps to
refine nuclear material for a power plant are indistinguishable for
a lot for let's just say, virtually indistinguishable from the
refinement needed to make a weapon. And we have a
quote here from uh the President of the People's Republic
(39:02):
of China, Shi Jim ping the deep sea contains treasures
that remain undiscovered and undeveloped. And in order to obtain
these treasures, we have to control key technologies in getting
into the deep sea, discovering the deep sea, and developing
the deep seam, gonna get that deep sea action? Man
(39:23):
was I was this speech writer paid by how many
times they used the phrase deep sea? I think? I
think perhaps? And we we also have a quote here
when we look at it from the U. S and
like our how is the United States viewing this from
a strategic standpoint? When you know, we talked when Ben's
mentioning all these uh different issues, they're going to come up,
(39:44):
you know in international politics. Uh So, a gentleman named
Brian Clark of the Washington Strategic and Budgetary Assessments says
having this kind of long term inhabited station has not
been attempted this deep, but it certainly is possible manned.
So mercibles have gone to these depths for almost fifty years.
The challenge is operating it for for months at a time,
(40:07):
which is the same thing we've been talking about this
whole time. Time and time again, time and undersea time again. Oh,
excuse me, deep sea time again. Just let it. They
want to control it, they want to get into it,
they want to discover it, and they want to develop it.
That's that's true. So how serious is this because we
know that over the decades, numerous militaries have proposed some
(40:30):
pretty cockamami stuff and with varying degrees of seriousness or intention. Well,
we know that, at least from the perspective of the PRC.
From China's perspective, this is a real thing that is happening.
It's part of the five year economic plan they were
released in March, and it's ranked as number two on
(40:54):
a list of the government's top one hundred science and
technology priorities. You can imagine if you could gain access
us too, you know, any kind of mineral deposits that
were before this point inaccessible, especially in large quantities, or
if you could get maybe some rare earth minerals down there,
maybe some stuff that's just been dormant for years and
years and years, centuries, millennia, that could be huge economically
(41:18):
for China. And let's go ahead and up the stakes further,
because it turns out that the Chinese government is already
operating and underground military base for naval forces. It's called
the Yulan Naval Base. It's built for nuclear submarines. It's
on the southern coast of Hainan Islands. And it's been
(41:41):
spooky thing is people outside of the Chinese government learned
about this because other governments intelligence agencies were reporting it.
China was just gonna probably let this one slide, dude.
According to the reconnaissance, this place, it's like caverns, right,
(42:03):
that's the idea of it's caverns where you can store
up to twenty nuclear subs and it's large enough to
accommodate there's a harbor, and the surface is large enough
to accommodate aircraft carriers too, which the government is actively building.
And I don't I don't particularly care for it when
we hear alarmism about another country doing things that other
(42:27):
countries have been doing for a while. And I think
a lot of people, a lot of people can agree
when I say that. Oftentimes, at least in the US,
some things like this come up at just the right
moment to distract people from a different issue China. I
(42:51):
wish you guys could see Nold's face right now, because uh,
just like Matt's look around. Uh, you know, you dropped
in and injected and then lean that I was the
question he face. Emoji super producer Tristan communicates exclusively with
that emoji did we have We've mentioned that on the
air before, We've we've mentioned that his emoji game is
(43:13):
on point. Yet it is a point. Uh So we
we wanted to provide some examples of how this is
actually happening, why it would be important, and the secrecy
surrounding it, because at this point, as we record this,
we have to conclude that it may never be possible
to know exactly how many military installations exists across the surface,
(43:38):
much less under it, but it is almost entirely certain
that they are more on the way possibly being built now,
possibly with money from your taxes to pay on which
country you live in, and definitely without your knowledge. And
as you know, our space programs continue to prosper, especially
(43:58):
the private ones who are working with militaries. That moon
base is not far away, you guys, I think our
lifetimes moon base. I would totally live on a Moon base.
I would really. I don't know about you all, but
I'm one of those people who if I got a
one way ticket to space and they're like, yeah, we're
just gonna shoot you off, can't come back, probably gonna
(44:20):
die on the ship, I would be all about it.
I just want to go to sample of that famous
moon cuisine. Yeah, so just a temporary like foodie trip.
Freeze freeze dried everything. Okay, yeah, it's not just ice
cream anymore. You had moon cheese? Oh no, I hear
Moon reefried beans are exquisite? Is that a thing? It
(44:41):
has to be? That it comes like it looks like
a rice crispy treat? Man, it's probably what it is.
I was so disappointed. I was so disappointed when I
learned the truth about moon pies that they're just like
manufactory in Tennessee, just regular old factory pies. I was
not a clever child. They're just made of like palm oil.
(45:01):
So did the Navy ever actually pursue this concept, this
rock site concept at point Sir or elsewhere? We do
know there was one study that discussed the various methods
of sea floor excavation, but by that point, by the
nineteen seventies in the US, most of that sort of
development was classified. So we don't know exactly what's happening
(45:27):
now on the ocean floor, but we do know it
remains the stuff they don't want you to know. Oh
and on a positive note, of course, we'd be remiss
if we didn't mention their multiple non military efforts to
build sustainable underwater habitats. And I think it is for
pure research because it would be like living in space
in many ways, you know. So it's not every we're saying,
(45:50):
not every underwater installation is designed to secretly deploy submarines
and attack people exactly. Sometimes it's about what happens when
a bunch of people living deep underwater start stop being
nice and start being real. Have you seen the episode
of Planet Earth about the deep deep, deep deep, deep
(46:11):
deep deep ocean, the Byssil Plain and dude, Oh my god,
it's like a nightmare escape. Can you imagine open up
your window every morning and there's like an angler fish
out there, just like dangling. It's weird, little lure. Hey, hey,
it's the only reassuring thing about that part of the
planet is that, due to tremendous pressure, the vast majoriose
(46:34):
animals are so tiny. That's the only thing that makes
me feel safe if they if they were even a
foot longer, it would be too much lovecraft for me.
There's some big ones down there too, though, So shout
out to the Marine Lab underwater Laboratory. It's one of
the longest serving seafloor habitats in history. I think it
is the longest serving uh and that is in Key Largo, Florida.
(46:58):
It's been around since nineteen eight four. It's a training
center too, if you want to go, Yeah, that's that's
super cool. I think we also go there instead of
going to the underwater Hotel. Let's just go to the
Marine Lab. Let's do all of them. Okay, do you
want to go to the rock side because that sounds
like a dope party at the rock side. I just
gotta go to point sir, man. Also, it is a
(47:22):
dream of mine. I don't know if any of any
of you out there, friends and neighbors have ever done this,
but it's completely possible to travel by cargo ship shoot
the curl. That's what I was trying to remember, that
the term fo Oh my god, we're all over the place.
I love you guys. You're my friends. You might speaking
of our dearest friends. Though, holy cow, it's been a
(47:43):
minute since we've done I'm shot at corner. Our first
shout out today comes from Jacob. Jacob says, Hi, Matt Nolan, Ben,
I've been listening to your show for a while now.
It's a wonderful way to help keep me sane while
working in the metal shop. Would like to know if
you know what we know and what we know we
don't know about Area fifty one. Well, hey, we just
(48:05):
talked about that, Jacob. I think we got you covered.
I grew up in southern Nevada and lived there for
ten years. My dad was in the military, relatively high
ranking too, and still I heard almost nothing about it
other than one of my friends dad's worked there, but
couldn't say what he was doing. Also, if you read
this on air or on podcast Canned Air. I guess
(48:27):
could I get a birthday shout out for my very
special wife Kelsey? Guess what? Kelsey down? Now bound down
the shoutouts for you, Kelsey. Happy birthday, Kelsey, and thanks
for writing to us, Jacob. We do have We do
have some other I think we talked about Area fifty
(48:48):
one and some earlier episodes to It continually comes up,
and we have some videos about it on YouTube that
we definitely recommend you check out. Next, we've got one
from Helen. She's says, hey, guys, I just wanted to
say you're awesome. Thanks Helen. We think you're awesome too.
I have never been much into conspiracy, but I've enjoyed
learning from you all. I respect very deeply that you
(49:11):
start with the facts and then and they say that
with quotes, quote fingers, and then talk about your own opinions.
The sign of a great intellectual is that he can
present facts and opinions as separate. I have been so
inspired by or work and look forward to every episode.
I live in Athens. I don't know if you travel
up that way much, but I always have a free
place to stay. Oh man, Helen, that was so nicely.
(49:33):
I'm kind of embarrassed that I was the one to
read it. I'm I'm blushing all over and uh. I
love Athens and I think these guys do too. I
lived there for a little while and uh and and
miss it very much. So yeah, well my question is,
wait this this email goes on right? What is she
buttering us up for something? Oh? Man, you're right, Ben,
there there is more. Um. I was so enraptured by
(49:57):
the compliments being lavished upon us that I didn't even
notice that there was a point to all this. Um.
I've been wanting to request a shout out forever since
you first started them. Yes, I'm listening that long awesome UM,
but wanted to have a show idea to include. Now
I have too one. The hollow Moon. We were just
(50:18):
talking about moon cuisine. Uh, spaceship. I just heard this
theory on the History Channel. Is the moon hollow? And
is it a spaceship? Was it a spaceship an ancient
relic of an extraterrestrial Yeah? Did humans get here on
the moon? I'm going to say, no, Well we should
look into it. Okay, I guess we can do that, Matt.
(50:39):
The moon is relatively unexplored. There's that that's very true.
So it's possible that there are things. It's certain that
there are things there that we are not yet aware of.
It is a very tall, milk shaped to sip to
think that it could be a wreck of a spacecraft, right,
(50:59):
So that almost be implying I see what you're saying.
If it's all I was thinking like you SAIDs I mean,
it's like a prop or something that's sort of like
it's like a piece of space scenery. So yeah, I
mean I think it's definitely worth looking into. I didn't
know that the History Channel was looking at that stuff. Yeah,
ancient aliens. Oh that's right. Okay, well we will. We
(51:20):
will dig in and see if we can give it
to go. Let's see what's out there, because I'd also
be interested in finding out just what what we suspect
is on the Moon but hasn't been discovered yet. You
should check out our sister podcast, Stuff You Miss in
Histories two part episode on the Great Moon Hoax, because
if you want some some Moon tomfoolery, there's some good
(51:42):
stuff in there, all kinds of wacky ideas that people
had in their heads about what was on the Moon,
So check those out from Holly and Tracy Um and
then Helen goes on to have a second idea, GMOs,
there's been all sorts of experiments proving they're terrible for you.
What's up with that genetically modified organisms proving that's okay.
(52:03):
I I'm interested in that because I don't well, yeah, yeah,
I have. I am not personally familiar with a lot
of studies or experiments pertaining to this. On a personal level,
I I will say that I don't see anything wrong
with labeling a food product labeling food is containing GMOs.
(52:29):
I completely don't see why somebody would have a bug
on their bubb kiss about it. But uh, the idea
of the studies we we would really need to look
into those to do an episode on it. The only
issue I can see are plants that are specifically modified
(52:50):
to withstand certain pesticides or insecticides. I can only imagine
that that's the only place that I would be worried,
like even at all about genetically modified or the issues
that how I could cause, um like superbugs and stuff
that I make that up. No, that's a that's a
good point because we know with large scale agriculture or
(53:13):
agri business. We know there's been a trend towards homogeneous,
uhlogenious agricultural products like you, it's very real possibility that,
as we're recording this, and if you're listening to this now,
the banana as we know it may be extinct within
our lifetimes because it's essentially just a thing that has
(53:35):
been cloned. And this won't be the first time that
humanity lost the most popular banana, which is why banana
flavored candy tastes different in comparison to the modern banana
Cavendish the gross Michelle. The last thing Helen says is
that she has a book on the subject called Altered
Genes Twisted Truths, and she says she wait. She says
(53:58):
she'd love for us to have it and dropped by
studio if we wanted it. So please shout me out
so much love, so thanks so much, Helen, and you know,
shoot us an email, maybe we can we can arrange
a visit. The next shout out goes to Samuel h.
He wrote us an email. He says, Hello, I'm an
artist and I want to send a gift to you
guys that I think you may appreciate. But I don't
know who are how to address it so that Matt
(54:21):
and Benn and Noll and Paul will receive it. Can
you please tell me what address to send it to.
Thank you well, first of all, Samuel as an artist,
Good on you, sir. Uh. It is not easy to
do that. I hope you have some kind of uh
in flow of money from the art that you create.
And if not, I hope you are doing something else
(54:42):
fulfilling in your life. That is, you know, letting you
pay rent. God, you're a good guy. Matt. Uh Well, okay, Well,
I'm just saying, you know, it's cool that you're creating art,
and especially that you want to send it to us.
Our address is everybody write this down. If you are
not scary and you don't want to hurt us, please
(55:03):
write this down. Definitely, no Uni bombers. I'm okay with
the scary scary male right up my alley. I just
bring that up because I started watching the man Hunt series. Yeah,
it's very very good. Well, um, if you're on a
man hunt for Ben and mad and Noel, uh, here's
where you go. It's six seven five Ponce de Leon Avenue,
(55:25):
Northeast Sweet. That's Atlanta, Georgia, three zero three oh eight
and seriously, no creepers. We've got like top notch security
here so you will not make it past the front door.
We've got attack dogs, the sentry guns are on locks.
They're big time. But also hope that we will come back.
(55:46):
I hope this doesn't come back to bite us. And
this concludes our but not our show. As always, thank
you so much for tuning in. You are the most
important part of every episode we do, which means that
we want to hear from you. Do you have military experience?
(56:08):
Have you lived on a submarine? If so, what do
you think about the idea of people spending extended amounts
of time under water? And we say extended, we mean years.
Do you live on a yellow submarine? Have you been
to an octopus's garden in the shade? Have you seen
blue meanings about? If so, please contact the authorities first,
(56:28):
then us. And if you have not found some meanings
blue or otherwise, or been on a submarine yellow or otherwise.
But you have a suggestion for our show, a topic
you feel that your fellow listeners would like to hear
in the future, please let us know. You can find
Matt Noel and I on Instagram. You can find us
(56:50):
on our website stuff they don't want you to know.
You can find us on Facebook, where we post a
lot of stories that for some reason or another don't
make it to the air. It's correct and Twitter and
all that stuff, but the best way to contact us,
it always has been, it always will be, write us
an email. We are conspiracy at how stuff works dot com.
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Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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