The What If? Podcast

Since 1958, the government has been secretly exploring the possibility of colonizing the moon. On this week's episode, we dive deep into the concept of secret space programs. How did they start, where did they go, do they still exist, and what are they trying to accomplish? Has NASA doctored photos of UFOs flying away from moon craters? Is there obvious machinery on the moon we don't know about? B...

In 1985 in Tucson, Arizona, two people walked into an art museum, cut a painting worth more than $100 million out of it's frame, and walked out. The Willem de Kooning piece was missing for over 30 years before it was recovered in an estate sale of a couple who lived just 200 miles from where the painting was taken. To this day the questions remain: Did the Alter family steal this nearly priceless...

Interdimensional portals, UFOs, invisible creatures, alien abductions, and pregnant bigfoot - you can (allegedly) find it all at Bradshaw Ranch. We spend some time with Linda Bradshaw and Tom Dongo's book Merging Dimensions , and try and figure out what the heck is going on in the Arizona desert.  What if we made a playlist?   Tickets for our live show in Minneapolis on September 19th.   Give us a...

Welp, here we are. A new high? A new low? A new pie? A new dough? YOU DECIDE, KIDS. But this week, we're talking about David Huggins, who claims to have lost his virginity to an alien named Crescent when he was 17. He's now in his 70s, living in New Jersey and making hundreds of paintings documenting his experiences. Spencer recently watched the documentary Love and Saucers , which tells the David...

The ghosts in the machine are gonna be the ghosts in your ears this week, as we do our first deep dive episode into the concept of ghosts. Our very special guest this week has a new album dropping soon with our very own Spencer Wirth-Davis very soon. So we’re here to jam on the dead and undead and what happens when something is in between. John Bell bought a plot of land that left his family in tu...

There are simply far too many out of place artifacts in human history for us to do only one episode on the subject. This week we're back for part two of the strange and fascinating topic of things that seem as though they shouldn't be where - and when - they are. Spencer dives into the Nazca Lines, and we discuss the massive crop-circle-style land carvings of 2,000 years ago, drawn into rock and i...

Our human understanding of history dictates general timelines for what certain civilizations knew, and when they likely knew it. But that history is based on written and illustrated records, along with the things we've uncovered in archaeological discoveries. What if our timeline is off? What if those civilizations knew things before we thought they did? And what if we already have evidence of the...

There's too dang many alien abduction stories in this world for us to only dedicate one episode to it. That's why we're back to talk about martian communication and alien abduction again to tell the stories of folks who say they've been taken up into the skies. This week we tell the story of lumberjack Travis Walton, whose abduction was witnessed by five coworkers and disappeared into the Arizona...

For decades, people have gone on record with a surprising level of consistency, telling stories of their experience being abducted by aliens. Bright lights, paralysis, transportation, experimentation, and a whole lot more. But we do avoid saying the phrase "anal probe," which we're pretty proud of. Well. Until now. Dammit. On this episode of The What If? Podcast, we discuss this lasting phenomenon...

Conspiracies abound from the past decade, swirling around a laboratory in Geneva that houses the world's largest machine - the Large Hadron Collider, brought to all of us by the folks at CERN. Are they summoning demons? Are they opening portals to another dimension? Are they creating black holes in their basement, and none of us can know? Are they just doing things so smart that we all get scared?...

In northeastern South America, rumors, myths, and legends of a city made of gold have survived for hundreds of years. Golden chickens, golden corn, golden roads, golden lakes—the vast catalog of stories of wild riches to be found all point back to El Dorado. On this week's episode of The What If? Podcast, we break down the stories, the hundreds of year's spent searching, and how real the legend of...

Look guys, cults are bad. HECK. We can all agree. But sometimes they do stuff that's just crazy for us to tell the story of anyway. In 1993, a Japanese cult that had spread throughout the world, may have just done something as crazy as nuking the Australian desert in an effort to bring about a new armageddon. Sound wild enough for y'all? It's wild enough for us - so strap into your seats, and hold...

Dogmen, pup people, canine compadres, labrador lads, mutt mates... On today's episode, we're talking about the legend of the Dogman, a tall, mysterious creature said to have features of a dog, wolf, man, or bear. We share some stories of the Michigan Dogman, the Beast of Bray Road, and human/animal hybrids throughout history.   Leave us a voicemail: (612) 246-4614 Get an extra episode each week: h...

Things get even weirder in part two of our series on Mount Shasta. Lemurians are crossing land bridges and building beautiful crystal cities inside the mountain, Leprechauns are giving people coal, and Yaktavians are building giant bells to keep us away.  Leave us a voicemail: (612) 246-4614 Get an extra episode each week: https://www.patreon.com/whatifpodcast Send us an email: hi@whatifpodcast.co...

The fifth highest mountain peak in California has a history unlike any other mountain peak in the world. Dating back to the mid-1800s, residents, explorers, and visitors alike have wild stories that range from aliens and UFO sightings, to Bigfootses (Bigfeet? Bigfeetses? Nevermind...) lost civilizations, and a whole lot more. On this part one of a two-part episode, we explore the strange, scary, m...

Since 2007, 14 (or 16, or 19 depending on who you ask) human feet have washed ashore along the Salish Sea. They're usually found inside a men's running shoe, sometimes with a leg bone attached. People have suggested serial killers, airplane crashes, tsunamis, and alien abductions, but authorities think there's a more prosaic explanation.  Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week.  

For this week's episode, we took a field trip to Green Mountain Falls, Colorado for the Mile High Mystery Conference. Dan Whalen and Chance York join us to recap presentations from David Paulides and Linda Moulton Howe.  Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week .  Music by Big Cats . 

We've always been big proponents of things in this world being a bit stranger than they appear. On this episode of The What If? Podcast, things are no different. Vegetables might not just make you smart. They might actually *be* smart. Today, we're talking about Cleve Backster and his crazy plant polygraphs, Monica Gagliano and her plant roller coasters, fungal neural networks with more worms in t...

In 1966 on a hill in Rio De Janeiro, two men wearing lead masks were found dead under a whole big bucket of mysterious circumstances. Ingestible capsules, UFO sightings over the hill they were discovered on, strange written instructions, wet towels, and a whole lot more. On this episode of The What If? Podcast, we tell the story of the lead masks of Vintem Hill, and the men who were responsible fo...

We wish a strange and beautiful and peaceful rest, to the legend Art Bell. The beloved host of Coast to Coast, Dreamland, and Midnight in the Desert passed away this past week. As a man who blazed the trail for weird audio folks like us, it's only right that we remember the man who brought aliens, ghosts, philosophy, the strange, and the paranormal, to the radio waves better than anyone, for the v...

Big, old, often carved, piles of rocks - or as they're more professionally known: Lincoln Logs. Just kidding. They're megaliths. And they're pretty dang wild when you dig into 'em. On today's episode of The What If? Podcast we travel the globe and through time as we uncover the ongoing struggle of human beings to leave something behind. From neolithic skull cults in Turkey, to massive tomb facades...

We took a trip to Area 51 over the weekend, and things got a little weird. We drove up to the front gate, saw some strange contrails and a white bus with blacked out windows, and heard an unidentified hum.  Join us on patreon and get an extra episode every week.   Have an idea for an episode? Share it with us here.  

Ryan finally bought his ticket to Denver, and Dan's here to celebrate! Dan shares his ghost story, Ryan and Spencer haunt people in their dreams, and we try to figure out what's up with lake monsters.  Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week.   Music by Big Cats

Lydia Liza 's here to talk about creepy internet mysteries. First we cover the bizarre voicemail that @strayedaway received , warning of a dangerous, non-human presence. Then, we get into the Dear David saga , in which cartoonist Adam Ellis was (maybe) haunted by ghost boy.  Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week.   Music by Big Cats.  

On today's episode, we review the new "go fast" video released by Tom DeLonge's To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science. We then get into the Broad Haven UFO sighting and the Welsh Triangle UFO flap of the late 1970s. Finally, Ryan walks us through the Belgian Wave UFO sightings of 1989-90.   Join us on Patreon and get an extra episode every week.   Music by Big Cats.