Sofa King Podcast

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast we talk about one of the strangest True Crime cases we’ve ever seen—the Phantom of Heilbronn. Also called “The Woman Without a Face,” this master criminal left DNA evidence at over 6 murders and 40 crime scenes spread over three countries. From the gang-style murder of an elite drug cop to DNA left on a toy gun at a small robbery, The Phantom w...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the Order of Odd Fellows. This fraternity slash secret society included Charlie Chaplin, Wyatt Earp, Ulysses S Grant, Charles Lindberg, and Franklin D Roosevelt. It was once larger than the Masons. Their goal was to expand friendship, love, and truth to all of humanities. They even acted as a form of insurance for each other before such a con...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the godfather of propaganda, Edward Bernays. Bernays was Sigmund Freud’s nephew, and stewing in that pot of mental manipulation made him a master of the craft. He started as a small-time editor and ended up toppling communist regimes alongside the CIA, getting women to smoke cigarettes, and making bacon a health food. He actually...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the one and only Batman. That’s right, crime fighters! Batman has been a hallmark of American popular culture since he debuted in 1939. He’s gone from a murderer to a campy clown to a brooding teen and back again. His origin story is tragic, and his heroism is arguably a psychotic obsession, but something about the Dark Knight has captured ou...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about John Ashley. He was the head of the Ashley Gang and was said to rob 40 banks while becoming the head of Florida rum-running during prohibition. He got one of his eyes shot out by a member of his own gang, became the first pirate to attack American ships since it was a British colony, and had a feud with a one-legged sheriff who v...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we dive back in to the treasure trove of Artificial Intelligence with a talk on the state of A.I. (part 2). This time around, we talk about some of the newer events unfolding with AI. We cover the music being generated by AI, which uses the exact voice of actual singers. That’s going to be a legal mess, as will digital actors doing things they may not appr...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we explore the skies of the land down under and talk about the Westall '66 Encounter. Also called Melbourne 350, this is a strange UFO sighting. Why is it strange? Well because there were 350 witnesses including 5 local pilots from a flight club who were chasing it in the sky. It is also strange because all the reports sent to the government o...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about one of the greatest authors and popular culture figures of all time, Kurt Vonnegut. With the release of his 1969 book Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut became an overnight sensation. He was something we lack today—a celebrity author who was witty enough to dominate late night and literary enough to be studied by scholars. One of the key moments o...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the Mad Gasser of Mattoon. A few weeks after D-Day in Mattoon, Illinois, some families smelled a sweet gas that either paralyzed them or left then nauseous with swollen mouths and faces. Within a couple days, there were even sightings of a tall thin man with a long coat and tight cap prowling the neighborhoods. Once it hit the newspapers, doz...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life, twists, and scares of Alfred Hitchcock. Considered the greatest director of all time by many film rankings, this legend spawned entire genres of film. He was a true auteur, overseeing every bit of the production. Hitchcock was an interesting man filled with unique horrors and a wicked sense of humor. If you like the macabre in film, ch...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the creator of The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling. Serling was a visionary who changed the very medium of television. He survived some of the worst warfare in the Pacific theater in WWII, and when he returned home, he was a changed man. He wrote of justice and dreamed of worlds without war, racism, and the worst that humanity had to...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we shine a light on the Mole People of Las Vegas. No, they aren’t some hybrid cryptid, but they are thousands of people who live in the 400 miles of drainage tunnels underneath Sin City. In 2007, a book called Beneath the Neon was written about these people. In the years since, there has been explosion in population thanks to Covid and inflati...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about The Walled City of Kowloon. Also known as the City of Darkness, Kowloon was part of Hong Kong, but it went unregulated by either the British or the Chinese. With no laws or regulations, the Triad gangs took over in short order, and everything from construction to factories were done for maximum efficiency, not government guidelines. It had th...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the dark side of the classic toy from the 1960s, Sea Monkeys. This is a tale of brine shrimp, a conman who hit the big time, millions of comic books, the Aryan Nations, false identities, and weapons deals. It all hinges around a man named Harold Von Braunhut. He dominated popular culture with Sea Monkeys, X-ray Specs, and other t...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about one of the worst atrocities of World War II: The Rape of Nanking. Nanking was formerly the capital city of China, and as Japan invaded parts of the country before they officially entered WWII, destruction of Biblical proportion fell upon the city. Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek ordered the military to withdraw to fight later on,...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we take a look at the State of Artificial Intelligence. We’ve covered this topic before (way back in time), but so much has happened in the past year, and the growth is so stupendous, we thought it was worth revisiting. So, if you want to hear us talk about ChatGPT, Bard, Midjourney, and other commercial AI developments, give this one a listen. We also rap...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we travel back in time and look at one of the most powerful females of the ancient world, Hatshepsut. She was one of only handful of women to break with Egyptian law and fully become Pharaoh. And while she did conquer neighboring invaders early in her life, Egypt was a place of exploration, art, and construction under her reign. There is a cam...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the most powerful company you’ve never heard of, Blackrock. Blackrock is an investment firm that was created by Larry Fink, the guy who brought you the housing collapse. After a computer lost his bank $100 million dollars due to an error, he created Aladdin, an AI model that the entire financial market now relies on. With its algorithm, Black...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at some true crime from back in 1992: the case of the Springfield Three. The Springfield Three refer to three women who went missing on June 7th, the nigh of the high school graduation. After Suzie Streeter and Stacy McCall spent the night partying, they went home to mother Sherrill Levitt’s house to call it a night. When friends called on them the...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about one of the most mysterious disasters of the modern world—The Tunguska Event. Early one morning in the summer of 1908, a massive explosion ripped through the heart of Russia. It was estimated to be around 15 megatons of explosive force that destroyed the land for miles. The common theory is that it was a hard metal asteroid that h...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about one of the greatest to ever grip a microphone, Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld is the comedian’s comedian. He started doing small gigs right out of college and never looked back. He was obsessed with comedy since the age of 8 and became sort of a meta-comic who has learned to dissect comedy and get to its essence. Of course, he blew the lid off of t...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the terrorist attack on Paris in 2015. On the night of November 13th, a coordinated assault raged across the city. There were a host of suicide bombers at a soccer match, and there was a car doing some nasty drive-by shootings at restaurants. The worst, however, was an assault inside of an Eagles of Death Metal concert that kille...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we tell the unique tale of Koko the gorilla. Koko was born in captivity in San Francisco and became world famous for her use of sign language. She was said to have the vocabulary of a five year old child, and she showed complex emotions, memories, and even a sense of humor through her use of language. She even taught another gorilla sign langu...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the Guru of Popular Music, Rick Rubin. This music producer took on mythological status by launching Def Jam records out of his dorm room in New York and pioneering hip hop alongside Russel Simmons. But his story doesn’t end there. Over the past 40 years, he has won endless Grammy awards in the genres of hard rock, rap, and country. Every stra...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the worst music festival ever: Woodstock 99. This was supposed to be the return to peace and love, but it turned out to be a cash grab of a festival filled with sexual assault, mob violence, and riots. It was hosted on an old, polluted air force base where the temperatures reached 100 degrees on the hot tarmac; there was no water...