The What If? Podcast

Shit's blowing up in South Minneapolis! We're talking about weird booms right here in our own neighborhood.  Buy yourself or a loved one a gift in our shop. Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week, plus a back catalog of nearly 100 episodes.  Send us stuff! The What If? Podcast | PO box 6554 | Minneapolis, MN | 55406

Spencer is pursuing alien contact in Palm Springs this week, so enjoy one of our favorite recent Patreon episodes. We'll be back to our regular schedule next week! This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Use promo code whatif for 10% off your first month. Buy yourself or a loved one a gift in our shop. Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week, plus a back catalog of nearly 100 episo...

In February 2016, Forest Grove Oregon residents started hearing an odd whistling sound late at night. There were dozens of reports, an official investigation, and national news coverage, but the source of the sound was never found.  Buy yourself or a loved one a gift in our shop . Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week, plus a back catalog of nearly 100 episodes.  Send us stuff! Th...

In 1987, the Tallman family brought home a bunk bed to their Horicon, Wisconsin home. Soon after, they began hearing voices, seeing a three-foot tall witch, and generally being haunted af.  Buy yourself or a loved one a gift in our shop. Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week, plus a back catalog of nearly 100 episodes.  Send us stuff! The What If? Podcast | PO box 6554 | Minneapol...

We bring you one of the most bizarre cases we've ever encountered this week, as we head to New York in the late '80s. The story of Linda Cortile Napolitano is a wild and winding one that originates deeply in her relationship with the one and only Budd Hopkins. CIA agents, kidnappings, cars stalling on the Brooklyn bridge, alien abductions out of apartment windows, and so much more we can barely co...

In the 60's, 70's, and 80's, a new recording technique came into vogue - the recording or discovery of audio clips recorded in one direction and laid into a final track in reverse. The result was one of mystery, confusion, and well - satan? Backmasking and phonetic reversal took the world by storm and caused listeners to hear music in a whole new way looking for secrets, clues, hidden messages, an...

In the early 1950's a man in the woods with nothing but knives and lint in his pockets was discovered along the borders of Poland and Czechoslovakia who would become an international mystery for decades to come. Knowledgable in many languages, with a variety of origin stories, no true knowledge of where he came from, and a deep well of strangeness, Karel Novak became one of the most strangely unkn...

In 1998 an Australian Outback pilot flew over a remote portion of South Australia, and looking down, uncovered a shocking sight. What he saw was what came to be known as The Marree Man. An engraving in the arid earth, some 17 massive miles in perimeter. Who made it? How? And when and why? The Sweary Boys are on the case, this week, on The What If? Podcast. Join us on Patreon and get an extra episo...

Over the past two weeks, there have been hundreds of reports of drones in three separate midwestern states. In Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska, residents have reported large groups of six-foot wingspan drones with loud engines flying in patterns across their counties. More residents are taking notice and so are the authorities. The FAA, the FBI, and F-word boys (that's us) are all on the case. Buy...

In Fresno, California, in 2007, a man simply known as "José" filmed a strange being essentially... float... across his yard. The seemingly two-legged, flighty, ethereal phenomenon made it to the local news and soon became known as The Fresno Nightcrawler. Four years later, a follow up video filmed in Yosemite displayed a similar pair of pant-like beings. So what is getting caught on film here in C...

In 1967, Stephen Michalak stuck his head inside a UFO while looking for rocks in Manitoba.  Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week, plus a back catalog of nearly 100 episodes.  We've got new merch in the shop, so head to shop.whatifpodcast.com to cop a dad hat! You can now send us stuff!  The What If? Podcast | PO box 6554 | Minneapolis, MN | 55406

In August of 1955, in a rural town in Kentucky, the Sutton family and their friends had a most unworldly experience. A group of adults and children spent a hot summer evening at battle with what they described as "little grey men." Spindly legs, long arms, impervious to bullets (because of course, they tried to shoot them) and gliding towards them, these beings terrorized their rural farmhouse for...

In 2003 one of the largest and most intricate heists in the history of the world occurred. In Antwerp, Belgium, on a cold Saturday night in February, five men proceeded to defeat layers upon layers of state of the art security to enter into a vault containing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of diamonds and valuables. How did they get in? How did they pass such a rigorous test of physical and...

What if dogs had two heads? What if they only had heads? What If Frankenstein was real? What if you punched a sheep back to life? We got all kinds of crazy stories about the undead this week!  Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week, plus a back catalog of nearly 100 episodes. 

In 2011, Swedish treasure hunters found a very strange object on the floor of the Baltic Sea. Is it an alien spacecraft? A meteor? A rock formation dragged by glacial forces? Who knows?! Definitely not us!  Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week, plus a back catalog of nearly 100 episodes. 

Live from Los Angeles, it's the What If? Podcast! We're talking about ways to summon things, if werewolves might be real, and how zombies got their names.  Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week, plus a back catalog of nearly 100 episodes. 

In 2017, an internet mystery was born when comedian Nate Fernald tweeted a photo and the caption “ WHAT THE FUCK IS GEEDIS? I found this old pin. Google has no answers. Please help. I'm losing my mind. ” In 2019, reporters from WBUR Boston found out who created Geedis, but also raised a bunch of other questions that have yet to be answered.  We’ve teamed up with the brand new Space and Beyond Box...

This week, we're discussing Nick Redfern's book Final Events, in which he proposes that Jack Parsons opened a demonic portal in the 1950s. Since then, demons have been pouring into our reality masquerading as aliens from other planets. We also play an accidental round of sweary boys bingo.  We’ve teamed up with the brand new Space and Beyond Box from Astronomy magazine to give away a one-year subs...

We're taking a look at the lost cosmonaut theory this week. Yuri Gagarin was the first person to enter space on April 12, 1961 - but what if he wasn't? What if he was just the first one to make it back? We examine the idea that maybe there were other cosmonauts before Yuri whose journeys weren't so successful.  We’ve teamed up with the brand new Space and Beyond Box from Astronomy magazine to give...

Over the past three years, American diplomats have reported strange physical symptoms after stays in both Cuba and China. And after examinations, individuals exhibited evidence of potential brain injury, without direct cause. Dizziness, nausea, memory loss, difficulty sleeping, headaches, and more, contributed to an investigation by the US trying to determine just what in the world was happening t...

The conclusion of Scaly the Blue and Young Baby Sir Plinkington's adventure through the Tingleverse.  See The What If? Podcast live in LA: Get your tickets now! Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week, plus a back catalog of nearly 100 episodes.  We've got new merch in the shop, so head to shop.whatifpodcast.com to cop a dad hat! You can now send us stuff!  The What If? Podcast | PO...

Chance York joins us this week to play The Tingleverse: The Official Chuck Tingle Role-Playing Game . Tinglemaster Spencer leads Young Baby Sir Plinkington and Scaly the Blue through a quest to rid the Billings Public Library of a Sky Shark infestation.  See The What If? Podcast live in LA: Get your tickets now! Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week, plus a back catalog of nearly...

Does The Simpsons employ time travelers? Maybe! We're not sure what's actually going on, but there sure have been some weird coincidences through the years. From predicting a Trump presidency in 2000, to multiple Super Bowl winners, to the existence of a sky scraper 14 years before construction started, The Simpsons seem to have a finger on the pulse of society. See The What If? Podcast live in LA...

The depths of the planet are some of the strangest and weirdest places we have available to us. We've talked about oceans before, but this week, on The What If? Podcast, we're going spelunking - and diving deep into caves. We're talking natural, manmade, deep, wide, spooky—everything and anything related to the weirdness of the tunnels that bury deep into our earth. From Greece to China to Russia,...

WE'RE COVERING THE CLASSICS BUD!  In 1947, a UFO carrying three occupants from another world (allegedly) crashed in the desert outside Roswell, New Mexico. Or maybe it was a top secret spy project. Or maybe it was a weather balloon. WHO THE HECK KNOWS!  See The What If? Podcast live in LA: Get your tickets now! Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week, plus a back catalog of nearly 1...