Fascinating Nouns

There are people in this world who have unidentifiable pieces of metal inside their bodies, metal that is literally not of this world.  Their chemical composition is similar to meteorites, and they appear to be wrapped in a biological sheath.  Most of the people with this phenomenon state that they have been visited by beings not of this Earth.  There are no scars, and none can remember any trauma...

When Scott inherited his grandfather's estate, with it came all sorts of strange and unusual artifacts.  We discuss several of these one-of-a-kind items, including a shrunken head, an Egyptian mummy, pig with one head, two snouts, and three eyes, a rare Edison prototype and a killer doll named Waldo.

At the turn of the century, the circus sideshow was one of the main attractions.  Typically they featured superhuman feats such as sword swallowing and glass walking, as well as rare objects of wonder including shrunken heads, two-headed animals, wax figures.  These collections fell out of fashion during the 1960's, and subsequently, most went out of business. Scott McClelland's grandfather N. P....

Besides mayors, presidents, and strange fossils, Braidwood has had its share of celebrities.  Even though it has always been a small town, surprisingly it has spawned quite a few world class athletes.   They had a world class soccer team that competed at the 1893 World's Fair and took second place.  Les Norman and Brian DuBois are two professional baseball players that came out of the high school...

The United States was built on small towns. Every city you see now had a humble beginning as a small community. There are countless songs, movies, tv shows proclaiming the superiority of growing up in a small town. This is the story of Braidwood Illinois. I believe that this tiny community located 60 miles south of Chicago is the template for small towns across the US. Growing up, I had no idea wh...

For almost a year, Shaughnessy lived with a group of homeless squatters on a vacant lot in Canada.  Their shanty town was called Tent City, and every day was an act of survival.  He chronicles this endeavor in a book called Down To This.  We discussed all sorts of things, including the use of violence as a method of communication, the spectrum of unique personalities he encountered, what the most...

The Hangover Cure Since the dawn of time, and the discovery of alcohol, Man has been is search of a cure for the hangover. Finally that man has arrived, and his name is Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall. In his latest book ‘Hungover’, Shaughnessy analyzes the effects of alcohol on the human body, then chronicles his adventures trying every cure known to man, both past and present. From Pliny th...

Stephen Wynne is the CEO of DeLorean Motor Company, a business you probably thought went bankrupt in 1983.  Technically it did, and  Stephen, a life-long DMC-12 advocate, went from servicing DeLoreans in the early 80's to owning the entire stock of more than 3.5 million new DeLorean parts today.  It was an incredible journey that went from Liverpool to Los Angeles, and we get into all the nooks an...

What goes up, must come down, and DeLorean Motor Cars was no exception. Listen as Barrie recounts his story in the waning days of the company, from firebombings, car crashes, to harsh winters, and a sagging economy. All of these factors, as well as a surprise cocaine smuggling charge, lead to inevitable bankruptcy.

When most people think of The DeLorean, they immediately think of the time machine from Back to the Future. In reality that car (called the DMC-12), was the center of an amazing story albeit having nothing to do with time travel. It was the vision of John Z. DeLorean to build an ethical and eco-friendly sports car, complete with a stainless steel exterior and plastic gas tank. That short lived dre...

If you are an animal person, there is nothing worse than your pet running away.  When this happens, who would you call?  Sherlock Holmes?  Batman?  Both are amazing detectives, yet nether one of them are real.  You are in luck because The Planet's Premiere Pet P.I. Tom Watkin's is real, and he will find your pet!  Using highly sophisticated equipment such as thermal cameras, drones, and even a sea...

In this bonus episode, Jeff and I discuss a superstition that almost lead to a riot in 1928 Massachusetts, a three state battle over the right to use the phrase "First In Flight" on their license plates, and a story of vanity plates gone wrong.

License plates are probably the one thing we stare at for hours a week, and never give them any thought. Occasionally you may see a funny vanity plate and chuckle to yourself, but other than that, they are pretty transparent. Well it turns out, the history of license plates is pretty incredible. From the first homemade plates in New York, to the state sponsored auctioning of low number plates in D...

We are taught that psychopaths are dangerous individuals who should be avoided at all costs. This is probably good advice. Dr. James Fallon is a neuroscientist at UC Irvine who has been studying the brains of killers for over a decade...including his own. Dr. Fallon is a psychopath by definition, although he is not dangerous by any means (or so he says). It turns out psychopathy is pretty common,...

As we discussed, card counting is perfectly legal, but that doesn't mean that casinos allow it. As a matter of fact, they actively prohibit it. When they start to figure out what you are up to, they will start to pay close attention to you. This is called "heat", and you want to avoid it at all costs. Listen as The Axe Man and I discuss his many disguises including wigs, fake teeth, little ponytai...

Josh 'The Axe' Axelrad was one such card counter. Over a five year stretch, he won hundreds of thousands of dollars, much to the chagrin of the casinos. They hate fair play so much, that he's been threatened, detained or kicked out of almost every casino he's ever played in. Listen as he regales me with his adventures as a professional gambler. We discuss his aspirations of being an art thief, his...

Today, we give little thought to just how common it is to find chicken on our plates at meal time. In truth, the cultural popularity of this fantastic fowl is an amazing journey that starts all the way back in the Roman Empire. A true under-bird story, chicken had to overcome the VAST popularity of beef as a meal staple. It did this by becoming the most efficient protein producer the world has eve...

I LOVE antique cars, but I also love the environment. I thought I would have to choose one or the other, but thanks to Michael Bream "The Dream" of EV West, I don't have to. What does EV West do? They electrify antique cars. What does that mean? They pull out the engine and everything it needs to run. Then they put in an electric motor and battery (sometimes re-purposing Tesla parts), and viola, y...

The Mother Road - Route 66 Everybody loves to travel, and the United States has one of the most comprehensive interstate systems on any country. You can get on a road anywhere on the continent and end up almost anywhere else. The whole concept of interstate travel can be credited to one singular stretch of highway: The Mother Road - Route 66. This incredibly important asphalt line that ran from Ch...

Ever since the 1968 publication of the highly influential book 'Chariots of the Gods?', Erich von Daniken has championed the concept of paleocontact: the belief that ancient human cultures were visited, and therefore influenced by, extraterrestrial beings. This is an extraordinary concept, although I am not sure where I fall. Luckily I had an hour to discuss all aspects of this with EVD. We talked...

Popularized during the Cold War, Game Theory was developed to predict how rational people would act under various situations. For example, how opposing governments would respond to a tactical nuclear strike. Set against an epic struggle between several families vying for absolute power, Game of Thrones is the perfect backdrop to illustrate how Game Theory would play out. In this bonus episode, we...

The Simpsons has always intrigued me for several reasons. First of all, it is way smarter than people thought a cartoon could be. Secondly, it was the first television show that had really perfected the Easter Egg: Hidden jokes, messages, and meaning. One such layer is complex philosophical thought, which makes sense, since creator Matt Groening was a philosophy major. This was not lost on Dr. Joh...

This interview wouldn't be complete without a conversation with John's partner Stan Milford. Stan has had some truly mind-boggling experiences, including a haunting where coins appeared out of thin air, a ghost throwing a butcher knife into a cantaloupe, and a UFO case involving the abduction of 8 puppies!

One of the problems with paranormal stories is a lack of evidence and credibility. That is where the Paranormal Rangers excel. Federal Rangers on the Navajo Nation, John Dover and Stan Milford are assigned the most inexplicable cases that come through the station, meticulously investigating each one with an objective scrutiny that is unheard of with these types of topics. From Bigfoot and UFO's, t...

Even though gambling is hardwired into our DNA, and it is a global phenomenon, few would question that Las Vegas is the Casino Capital of the world. As such, it has quite an interesting history, from the days of silver prospecting, to the modern days on online sports betting. Listen as Dr. Schwartz and I discuss the poker boom, drive-thru divorces complete with a pastor Elvis, Howard Hughes buying...