- 3 days ago
This week’s stories take us from Ice Age-era California to the mysteries of the dark matter that appears to hold our very universe together. You’ll hear about huge mastodon teeth found sitting in a creek, a sinkhole in front of actor Nicolas Cage’s Malibu home, and a discussion of the “Paul is Dead” conspiracy theory, We’ll als0 learn about how Target has been tracking shoppers using its carts and we’ll hear from a scientist about new research that might reveal some of the secrets hidden in dark matter.
Featuring audio from KCBS Radio in the Bay Area, KNX News in Los Angeles, WWJ Newsradio in Detroit, Paranormal 360 out of WCCO News Talk in the Twin Cities and the Dana & Parks Show out of KMBZ in Kansas City.
Featuring audio from KCBS Radio in the Bay Area, KNX News in Los Angeles, WWJ Newsradio in Detroit, Paranormal 360 out of WCCO News Talk in the Twin Cities and the Dana & Parks Show out of KMBZ in Kansas City.
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NewsTranscript
00:09Welcome to a Weird News Roundup, presented by Odyssey's Something Offbeat podcast.
00:15We explore strange tales reported on by Odyssey's radio newsrooms from coast to coast.
00:22I'm your Roundup host, Lauren Berry.
00:25This week's stories take us from Ice Age-era California to mysteries around the dark matter that appears to hold
00:34our very universe together.
00:36Today, you'll hear about a huge mastodon tooth found sitting in a creek, a sinkhole in front of actor Nicolas
00:44Cage's Malibu home, and a discussion of the Paul-is-dead conspiracy theory.
00:50Then, we'll hear about how Target has been tracking shoppers using its carts.
00:55And we'll hear from a scientist about new research that might reveal some of the secrets hidden in dark matter.
01:03A material that's estimated to make up more than a quarter of the universe, according to NASA.
01:10First, let's hear this report from Odyssey station KCBS Radio in San Francisco from Tuesday, September 8th.
01:18An ancient tooth has turned up in the Bay Area.
01:22KCBS's Atta Shaheen tells us why this discovery is so special.
01:26Ryan McCauley from the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District said a scientist stumbled upon the breadbasket-sized mastodon molar
01:33sitting in a creek in San Mateo County.
01:36I was immediately very excited to hear about it.
01:38Images of sort of Jurassic Park and megafauna start floating through your mind.
01:43And local paleontologist Wayne Thompson said while there have been a handful of other mastodon fossils recovered here in the
01:48past decade, this one is the most pristine.
01:52Without a doubt, the most complete mastodon molar that's been found.
01:56It could be anywhere from 11,000 to over 2 million years old.
02:00That's the Pleistocene era, widely known as the last ice age.
02:03Oh my gosh.
02:04There were mastodons and mammoths running around.
02:06And they were freely crossing the San Francisco Valley, eating leaves and twigs.
02:11The bay didn't exist because sea levels were hundreds of feet lower.
02:15Giant 9-foot mastodon.
02:17The bay went extinct.
02:18You know, it sort of drives home the point of what we do at Mid-Pen trying to help other
02:22species from becoming extinct.
02:23Odyssaheen, KCBS.
02:25Now let's head a bit further down the California coast to Malibu.
02:30That's where a giant sinkhole was making headlines this week.
02:35Here's Odyssey Station KNX News in Los Angeles reporting on the hole on Tuesday, September 8th.
02:45Well, a giant sinkhole because of the weather is formed in the driveway of a beachfront mansion, possibly owned by
02:50actor Nicolas Cage.
02:51Emily Valdez has more for Malibu.
02:54The $10 million home was being renovated.
02:56In video and photos, you can see the sinkhole.
02:58It's about the size of a semi-truck.
03:00It's huge.
03:01There's a port-a-potty inside it.
03:02You can even see underneath where the concrete pillars are holding the home up.
03:06It overlooks the ocean here at Lachusa Point.
03:09We received reports of a sinkhole at a property on a beachfront property on Sea Level Drive in western Malibu
03:15that resulted in a driveway collapse and a gas leak, a ruptured gas mainline and a gas leak.
03:22Matt Meyerhoff is a spokesperson for the city of Malibu.
03:25And the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and Fire Department responded on scene and they closed off the street.
03:30It's a private street.
03:32They did not close off the adjacent street on Broad Beach Road, but they closed off Sea Level Drive, which
03:37is a private road.
03:38A Southern California Gas Company arrived on scene and together with the Fire Department, they determined there was a gas
03:44leak.
03:44SoCal Gas Company began work on closing off the gas and determining the safety for the surrounding area.
03:50A friend of the woman who lives next door told me she hasn't been evacuated, but she noticed a crack
03:56in the driveway before the storm.
03:59As for the mansion itself, it is still standing.
04:02In Malibu, I'm Emily Valdez.
04:08Later this week, a report from the Los Angeles Times confirmed that the sinkhole was, in fact, in front of
04:15Nicolas Cage's home.
04:18Cage is an Oscar-winning actor who has also become something of a cult figure due to his sometimes offbeat
04:25role choices and his signature acting style.
04:30He's also the subject of a conspiracy theory.
04:33According to Far Out Magazine, people online have been spreading the theory that he's actually a vampire.
04:40Cage has played a man who thinks he's turning into a vampire.
04:43And he's even played Count Dracula, too.
04:48Now, speaking of celebrity conspiracy theories, one of the weirdest and longest lasting is the Paul is Dead urban legend
04:58that posits Paul McCartney of the Beatles died in the 1960s and was then replaced with a lookalike.
05:05Recently, Dave Schrader, host of Paranormal 360 out of Odyssey Station WCCO News and Talk in the Twin Cities,
05:14discussed the theory with Richard Searrett, author of the book Tales from the Rock and Roll Twilight Zone,
05:21Eerie Enigmas and Supernatural Secrets from Rock's Darkest Corners.
05:27When you're going down that rabbit hole, what surprised you about the Beatles story overall?
05:36Well, with the McCartney, I mean, it's important, I think, because I think it's the prototype for the modern viral
05:45conspiracy theory.
05:46And remember, this is, he supposedly dies in a car crash in 1966.
05:51It really catches fire in 1969 when some students from Davenport University in Iowa call DJ Russ Gibb at a
06:03Detroit radio station,
06:05and they start rifling off all of these clues in the song lyrics, in the backmasking,
06:11in the, on the funereal scene that is the cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
06:19The entire album is a funereal scene.
06:21The clues on Abbey Road, Russ Gibb, had never heard this before,
06:26and the studio lines are just flooded with these calls.
06:30And then, a few weeks later, the whole thing repeats itself at WABC in New York.
06:35A 50,000-watt station reaches 40 states, and Roe B. Young actually suspends his music format
06:42because people are calling in with these clues.
06:44The program director, there's two versions of the story.
06:48One is he's fired live on the air for breaking format,
06:52or the other version is he was fired shortly thereafter.
06:55Regardless, again, we're talking 1969, 40 years maybe before social media,
07:0235, 40 years before the Internet,
07:06and yet, here we are six decades later,
07:10and as you say, there are still many, many people still looking for clues,
07:16still believing that Paul McCartney was replaced by William Campbell,
07:21or perhaps William Shepard, who was the lead singer of a Beatles tribute band
07:27called Billy Pepper and the Pepper Potts.
07:30So, just for the record, and I always issue this caveat,
07:34I don't believe Paul McCartney was replaced by Abbey, a double,
07:38because to believe that, you'd have to believe that, as you say,
07:40they found someone who looked almost identical to the cute Beatle,
07:45but not only that, they had to find a left-handed bass player,
07:48and someone who was arguably more talented than the original,
07:52or the devotees of this rumor called the new Paul the faux Paul, as in fake.
08:00So, the faux Paul, post-1966, writes,
08:04Hey Jew, composes Let It Be, The Long and Winding Road,
08:07all of the great work with wings, the solo material.
08:10Yes, the real Paul composed yesterday,
08:14arguably the most covered song and rhyme in music history.
08:23So, what's the real deal with this Paul is dead theory anyway?
08:28Sirrett discussed one of the explanations that he thinks is a possibility
08:33during his interview with Schrader.
08:40It could have been clever marketing,
08:43and I imagine that's probably the most popular version
08:47that they wanted people to buy in the albums and look for the clues,
08:51but I think there's another possibility here.
08:54If you look at the Beatles, arguably, again,
08:57the most powerful cultural influencers on Earth,
09:01and if an intelligence group wanted to understand how math suggestion works,
09:08this was an extraordinary, real-world laboratory.
09:12You introduce an idea.
09:14Paul was killed in a car crash.
09:15You seed all of these ambiguous clues.
09:18Oh, look, there's a person holding a left hand over Paul McCartney's head.
09:23That's Eastern mysticism suggesting, you know, that person is dead,
09:26or he's carrying his cigarette with his right hand,
09:31even though he's left-handed.
09:32He's barefoot.
09:33All of these ambiguous clues.
09:35And then you let radio, like WABC and Robey Young,
09:39let radio amplify it.
09:41And then you sit back and you watch millions of people
09:45spontaneously construct the same narrative.
09:47And so, again, no MI5 or CIA document saying they created Paul is dead,
09:56but could it have functioned as a psychological experiment
10:00in rumor, suggestion, mass behavior?
10:04I say yes, absolutely,
10:05because the remarkable thing wasn't convincing people
10:09that Paul McCartney was dead.
10:11It was teaching millions of people to search for hidden messages,
10:14and then you just sit back and you watch them convince each other.
10:18That's a sigh-off.
10:19And I think that might be one possibility.
10:25We should mention that Paul McCartney does appear to be alive and well
10:30at 84 years old.
10:32He actually released his latest album,
10:35The Boys of Dungeon Lane, just this year.
10:39And that's not even the end of our strange tales this week.
10:42When we're back from a quick break,
10:45we're going to hear about how Target is tracking its shoppers
10:48through its shopping carts.
10:50We'll also hear a scientist explain new research
10:54into the mysteries of dark matter.
10:57Here on this Weird News Roundup,
11:00presented by Odyssey's Something Offbeat podcast.
11:06Thank you for listening to this special presentation
11:09of Weird News from Odyssey's Something Offbeat.
11:13Did you know that as you roll your cart through Target,
11:16grabbing household necessities and maybe 10 things
11:19that weren't on your list,
11:21but that you decided you needed to have,
11:23that you're actually being tracked?
11:26It's something that a TikTok user brought to people's attention,
11:29but Snopes has said that this is apparently true,
11:32with Target using basket-mounted Bluetooth beacons
11:36and overhead LED lights
11:38to track where customers and carts are in their stores.
11:42Dana Wright, Scott Parks, and Sam Stevie III
11:46discussed the news this week
11:48on the Dana and Parks show
11:49out of Odyssey Station KMBZ in Kansas City.
11:54Story here, shoppers are being Target-ted.
11:57The big box store has been tracking your shopping habits
12:01through chips planted in its shopping carts?
12:05Oh, yeah.
12:06And it says here, you can toss out your tinfoil hat
12:09because an employee has confirmed this technology
12:12in a recent TikTok.
12:13The employee goes by the moniker Elijah P.
12:16on the platform,
12:17posted a TikTok showing where the tracker sits on the carts.
12:23It's on the inside.
12:25Inside, in this video, he shows where, you know,
12:28there's a, you would need a screwdriver,
12:30and I'm not saying you would open it,
12:31but there's this little red plate.
12:33You know, Target shopping carts are red.
12:35There's a little plate,
12:36and he is claiming that inside that plate
12:39is some system
12:41that when you are perusing up and down the aisles,
12:45it follows your movements as,
12:49like, how much time, Scott,
12:50did you spend in the men's clothing aisle?
12:53How much time, you know,
12:55where did you turn after leaving produce,
12:59and did you pause,
13:02and for how long,
13:03up at the cash register in front of the candy aisle?
13:06But they don't know who I am.
13:09Well, yeah, but the in-store security folks
13:11can go and look and see,
13:13okay, well, Scott Parks was in the CD aisle
13:16for 48 minutes.
13:18But when he left,
13:20he didn't buy any CDs.
13:21That's really weird.
13:22So let's go back and look at the cameras,
13:24and oh, look, there's Scott Parks
13:26stuffing CDs down his pants.
13:29Allegedly.
13:30I would never steal a CD.
13:31Is it more for tracking theft, Sam,
13:33or is it to better understand
13:35and then
13:36preference
13:37cash in on, if you will,
13:40our
13:41meandering habits?
13:42I think it's both.
13:43I think it is
13:44certainly with this whole weird
13:46dynamic pricing thing
13:47they have going on
13:48where they fluctuate prices
13:50based on the demand
13:52for certain products
13:53at certain times of the month,
13:55and I think it's also
13:56the security
13:58to make sure
13:59that you're not stealing stuff.
14:00But even if I
14:01stole something,
14:02you would have to go back
14:03because you wouldn't know
14:04that something had been stolen yet.
14:05That's what the cameras are for.
14:07Right.
14:07And if you didn't catch me
14:09stealing
14:11two CDs,
14:12you would have to know,
14:13okay,
14:14some CDs were stolen,
14:15apparently.
14:16Our inventory's lower than
14:17it should be.
14:18Iron Maiden and Thin Lizzy.
14:19Who's stealing those?
14:20Well, I would.
14:22Then they would have to go back
14:23and figure out
14:24the time frame
14:25that those CDs were there
14:26and then weren't there.
14:27Yes.
14:28Target does not care
14:30about tagging you
14:31for two CDs.
14:32They care about claiming it.
14:33No.
14:34Well, yes.
14:35For a loss.
14:35But Target cares about
14:37tagging you
14:37for those two CDs
14:38and putting it in a file.
14:40The next time you come in,
14:42you do it again,
14:43they put you in the file.
14:44Once that file reaches $950,
14:47they will charge.
14:48Yeah, but let me ask you a question.
14:50Don't they already know
14:52what our habits look like
14:54based on the receipt?
14:56Bingo.
14:57Every single time
14:58you're in there,
14:59they know how long
15:01you were in there.
15:02They know what you bought.
15:04They know your name.
15:05Your name.
15:05They know when you bought it,
15:06what time of week,
15:07what time of day
15:08you were there.
15:09Which is why I think
15:10it's also theft driven.
15:11I think it may be more
15:13about theft
15:14than the dynamic pricing
15:16hoo-ha.
15:17So, you know,
15:17why am I...
15:18Did you say hoo-ha?
15:19I did.
15:21Um, you...
15:24I don't know.
15:25Do you know what that is?
15:27I've gotten kerfuffle.
15:28I'm trying to come up
15:29with terms.
15:30I feel like you should
15:31maybe come up
15:32with a different term.
15:33My brain's in a fog.
15:34I don't know what's going on.
15:35I know.
15:35It's been a rough week, man.
15:36As the only member
15:37of the show
15:38who has one of those,
15:39I'm going to use
15:40a different term.
15:41I'll pick a different term.
15:42Hogwash.
15:43Is that better?
15:44That's better than hoo-ha.
15:45Do not Google that term
15:47on your work computer.
15:50Please.
15:51After it came out,
15:52I was like,
15:52nope, I know what that is.
15:53That's not what I'm going for.
15:54Nope.
15:56Anyway.
15:57An even deeper mystery
15:58than what's lurking
16:00in our shopping carts
16:01is what's lurking
16:02out there in the universe
16:04that we just don't understand.
16:06One big dark spot
16:08in our understanding
16:09is dark matter,
16:10material that makes up
16:12quite a bit of the universe.
16:15University of Michigan
16:16physics professor
16:17Wolfgang Lorenzen
16:18joined Amanda Forrester
16:20of Odyssey Station
16:21WWJ News Radio
16:23in Detroit
16:24this week
16:25to explain
16:26how researchers
16:27are learning more
16:28about this mystery matter.
16:30The University of Michigan
16:32has been working
16:33on research
16:36involving dark matter.
16:38Why don't we start
16:39with an explanation
16:41of what dark matter is
16:43for the average listener
16:45who may not be familiar
16:46with that term?
16:48Yeah, so dark matter
16:49is something in the universe
16:52that we don't know
16:53exactly what it is,
16:54but it makes up
16:56about 85% of all the mass
16:58in the universe.
16:59and we know that
17:00from various experiments
17:02we have done
17:02in cosmology
17:03and in astrophysics.
17:05So it behaves
17:06like a particle.
17:07It reacts
17:10to gravity,
17:12but it doesn't
17:14absorb,
17:14emit,
17:15or deflect light.
17:16And in that sense
17:18we call it dark
17:18because we cannot
17:20see it
17:21in a normal way
17:22as we normally
17:23do with light.
17:24And what research
17:27has the university
17:29been conducting
17:30recently
17:31in regards
17:32to dark matter?
17:34So we are part
17:35of a collaboration
17:37of about
17:37350 scientists
17:38from 39 institutions
17:40in six countries
17:41around the world.
17:43We built
17:44a big
17:45on-the-ground
17:46detector
17:47that's filled
17:48with about
17:4910 tons
17:50of liquid xenon.
17:52And we've been
17:55instrumenting it
17:56in a way
17:56that you can see
17:57basically
17:58every interaction
17:59that happens.
18:01And there's lots
18:01of interactions
18:02happening
18:03due to,
18:04I mean,
18:05most of these
18:05interactions
18:06are called background
18:07because every material
18:08has some radioactivity
18:10and radioactivity
18:11decays
18:12and produces
18:13some light.
18:13And so we see
18:15lots and lots
18:15of interactions.
18:16And so
18:17the goal really is
18:19can you find
18:20a dark matter
18:21particle,
18:23the signature
18:23of a dark matter
18:24particle
18:25in this vast
18:26amount
18:27of signals
18:28that you see
18:29during the time
18:31you've been
18:31taking data?
18:32Basically,
18:32you've been
18:33starting taking data
18:35about five years
18:36ago
18:36and you're
18:38probably going
18:38to go
18:38until 2028
18:40to collect
18:42about
18:431,000
18:45days
18:46of real
18:47data taking.
18:49And
18:49why is it
18:50important
18:51to do
18:51research
18:52like this
18:53into dark
18:54matter?
18:57Personally,
18:58I haven't heard
18:58a lot about
18:59dark matter.
19:00I'm not
19:01really
19:01up to date
19:03on what it
19:04is.
19:04But why
19:05is this
19:06kind of
19:07research
19:07so important?
19:09Basically,
19:10if you
19:10want to
19:10know
19:11where
19:11we
19:11came
19:12from,
19:12where
19:12we're
19:13going
19:13to
19:13from
19:14a
19:14scientific
19:14point
19:15of
19:15view,
19:16then
19:16you
19:17can
19:17look at
19:17the
19:18universe
19:18as
19:19a
19:19collection
19:20of
19:21different
19:21components.
19:23The
19:25mass
19:25that you
19:26can see
19:27if you
19:28look up
19:28in the sky
19:28at night,
19:30that makes
19:30actually only
19:31a small
19:31fraction,
19:32about
19:34maybe 1%
19:35of all
19:36the mass
19:36that is
19:37in the
19:37universe.
19:38then there
19:39is
19:40other
19:40mass
19:41you
19:41don't
19:41see
19:41that
19:41is
19:42not
19:42very
19:43bright,
19:45so we
19:46cannot
19:46see it
19:47easily.
19:48So all
19:48the ordinary
19:49matter that
19:50you and me
19:50and everything
19:51around us
19:52is made
19:52of,
19:53that you
19:53can interact
19:54with,
19:55that's
19:55about 5%.
19:56And then
19:57another 25%
19:59is about
20:00dark matter.
20:02and the
20:03rest,
20:0470%
20:05is dark
20:06energy,
20:07something
20:07you know
20:08even less
20:08about
20:09than you
20:09know about
20:10dark
20:10matter.
20:10And if
20:11you take
20:11this all
20:11together,
20:12you put
20:12it together,
20:13then you
20:14get a
20:14certain
20:15composition
20:16of the
20:16universe.
20:17And
20:18current
20:18knowledge
20:19tells us
20:19that the
20:21universe had
20:22a big
20:22bang at
20:23the very
20:23beginning
20:24and then
20:25it expanded
20:26rapidly
20:26and it
20:29slowed down
20:30in its
20:31expansion.
20:31The question
20:32is,
20:33is there
20:33enough
20:34total
20:34mass in
20:35the universe
20:35that the
20:36universe
20:36collapses
20:37back together
20:38or expands
20:38forever?
20:39So if
20:40you want
20:40to know
20:41these
20:41questions,
20:42then looking
20:43into dark
20:44matter and
20:45dark
20:45energy,
20:45which I'm
20:45not talking
20:46about here,
20:47is actually
20:48very interesting
20:48because it
20:50could give
20:50us clues
20:51from where
20:52we came
20:52from and
20:52where we're
20:53going to.
20:55Thank you
20:56so much
20:56for listening
20:57to this
20:58Weird News
20:58Roundup
20:59presented by
20:59Odyssey's
21:00Something Offbeat
21:01podcast.
21:02This episode
21:04was written
21:04and produced
21:05by me,
21:06Lauren Berry.
21:07Special thanks
21:08to KCBS
21:09Radio in the
21:10Bay Area,
21:11KNX News
21:12in Los Angeles,
21:14WWJ News
21:15Radio in
21:16Detroit,
21:17Paranormal
21:17360 out of
21:18WCCO News
21:20Talk in the
21:20Twin Cities,
21:21and the
21:22Dana and Parks
21:23Show out of
21:24KMBZ in
21:25Kansas City.
21:26You can
21:27find all
21:27of these
21:27programs
21:28and the
21:29Something Offbeat
21:30podcast on
21:31the Odyssey
21:32app or
21:33wherever you
21:34get your
21:34podcasts.
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