The Mothman Legend: Cryptid, Harbinger of Doom, and Unexpected Sex Icon

In this episode, we dive deep into the legend of the Mothman: the original sightings near the eerie TNT area, the wave of UFO reports and Men in Black encounters that followed, and the unsettling feeling that something strange was unfolding in the Ohio River Valley.

We explore how a quiet Appalachian town became the epicenter of a full-blown paranormal flap, thanks in part to journalist Mary Hyer and investigator John Keel, whose book The Mothman Prophecies transformed local fear into global mythology. We also confront the tragedy that forever intertwined the legend with real-world loss: the catastrophic collapse of the Silver Bridge, which claimed 46 lives and cemented Mothman’s reputation as a harbinger of doom.

And then, because the internet exists, we talk about how Mothman somehow became a festival mascot, a tourism icon, and—against all odds—a cryptid sex symbol.

Video:

ICEBERG: The Mothman Mystery Gets Even Creepier!

The Terrifying Story Of The Mothman Of Point Pleasant 

Transcript

Josh 0:03

Aliens.

Travis 0:04

Aliens. Yes. But maybe no.

Josh 0:19

Hey uh. Welcome back to the show. Aliens, yes, but maybe no with Travis and Josh. I'm Josh. I'm Travis. And this ambiguous podcast has a title that's otherworldly. Oh my God. Or this podcast is ambiguous and titles.

Travis 0:37

Oh no.

Josh 0:38

Let me try that again. Okay. And this is an otherworldly podcast as ambiguous as our title.

Travis 0:43

Nailed it in one. Did I do it? No, you did good. You did great.

Josh 0:47

That was the first time I did it.

Travis 0:49

You did great. I didn't have an ear panic attack when you were saying the intro, but that's fine.

Josh 0:54

I did too. My heart was beating really fast.

Travis 0:57

It's like when a teacher's like, and uh who can answer this question? And you look down.

Josh 1:02

Yeah, or the who's gonna read next when the class is reading, and you're just like, oh my god, it's coming to me.

Travis 1:06

What's funny that you say about that is like when we would have to do public readings, and it was like you're gonna read a paragraph or a sentence or whatever, and we're gonna start on one side of the room and work our way around. I would start counting people. Oh, yeah, me too. So that I knew what I had to read, and then I would practice reading, which totally fucked up any sort of retention and learning. I would only focus on my one sentence or my one paragraph, and I would not listen at all to what anybody else had said. Yeah. And then I would say my paragraph and then immediately black out. Yep. Get the reading sweats. You get the cold, yeah, cold sweats. You know that everybody's looking at you. No, and no, and nobody cares. No, everyone's doing the exact same thing. Exactly. They're all doing the same thing, and nobody cares. Unless you like really screw up and like you you fart in the middle of it. Yeah. Or you have the biggest retainer anybody's ever seen, and you're not sure if you should take it out, and you decide to leave it in and then read it, and then halfway through you take the retainer out, and you're like, no, I made a mistake, put the retainer back in. Did this happen to you? Yes. My fourth grade class. And you know what? Oh, man. No one remembers that but you. Well, now anybody that listens to this podcast, like, oh, that was him. Shout out Mr. Bike's fourth grade Adams Elementary School.

Josh 2:24

That's interesting you should say, because as of today, this recording, we are only five downloads away from hitting 3,000 downloads on podcasting apps like Apple and Spotify and Overcast, all those things. Not YouTube, but that's kind of cool. So there are people listening. YouTube, we have over 5,000, but a lot of those are short clips that I've made. Love it. Yeah. It's kind of cool. People are listening.

Travis 2:48

Almost 3,000. Yeah. When we hit 9,000, do we get a power up? We become a super podcast.

Josh 2:54

Mm-hmm. Okay. So what are we talking about?

Travis 2:57

Jinx.

Josh 2:59

Last week we talked about Andrid Cold.

Travis 3:03

I'm glad he said it. Yep. We talked a little before the record off mic about what we talked about last time and uh couldn't remember. So I'm glad we worked it out before the record so that now that we're recording, I sound like a smart guy. Yep. But then totally screwed it up by giving a backstory and saying I didn't remember before the record. So I'm the same old Travis that I've always been.

Josh 3:23

Yeah. Why don't we remember? It's so weird. It's not age. Maybe it's what we're eating. We have a lot going on. Yeah.

Travis 3:29

And maybe we're just not taking the subject matter that seriously anymore, Josh. Just kidding. I don't know why it slips through my memory. Yeah. I remember a lot of the information from Indra Cold. It came flooding back to me. Yeah. I just don't remember that being our most recent podcast. We've also been recording for a year now. Oh, we've released episodes for over a year. Like we've been recording for quite some time.

Josh 3:51

We've been recording like a year and a half.

Travis 3:52

Yeah.

Josh 3:52

Yeah, Indra Cold was really fun episode. It was kind of silly too. And there was a somewhat correlation with this that we'll talk about.

Travis 4:02

Yeah, the Point Pleasant correlation. Yeah. Seems like the East Coast hotspot.

Josh 4:08

This episode we're going to be talking about Mothman, which Travis, you've mentioned in an earlier episode, a cryptid episode that we've done, that this is your wife's favorite cryptid.

Travis 4:19

Oh, far and away, my wife's favorite. I don't know that I have a favorite cryptid, but my wife definitely does.

Josh 4:26

Okay.

Travis 4:27

So we had talked about her being on this episode, but scheduling things didn't quite work out. Yeah, I don't know. Do you have a favorite cryptid, Josh?

Josh 4:35

Oh man, I no. I haven't really thought about it. I mean, I've I'm very familiar with Bigfoot just because I grew up in Washington state. The PN dub. Yeah. I mean, that was just around.

Travis 4:47

That's Pacific Northwest for all of you uninitiated.

Josh 4:50

Yeah, I I don't know. I so I would have to say Bigfoot just because that's the one I know most of. More recently, Skinwalker, I've learned a lot. That's fascinating.

Travis 4:58

Yeah, those things skinwalkers are terrifying.

Josh 5:01

Are leprechauns cryptids? Because those guys are pretty cool.

Travis 5:05

I I don't maybe. I mean, they could be. They're probably like there's probably like a horrific version of a leprechaun.

Josh 5:13

Yeah.

Travis 5:14

That would be considered a cryptid, but most I would can classify that as like fantasy creature. Fairies and gnomes, but those are more spiritual. And again, more more like fantasy.

Josh 5:24

I don't know. Maybe he'll be Mothman. From doing research, because I knew nothing about Mothman at all. Not one thing.

Travis 5:31

I kind of like this guy, the Gumbaroo, which is a Pacific Northwest. He's like a bear type thing. Hmm. He's a weirdo. I kind of like him. But again, I had to look that up. So I don't really have a favorite cryptid. I don't really think about cryptids. I think they're fascinating. Like when we started to talk about like the Lochness Monster, or I think Lake Pontitrain has one, like a Nessie type creature.

Josh 5:56

So I mean, there's hundreds and hundreds of cryptids out there.

Travis 6:00

There are a lot. And when you start talking about cryptids, it like evokes this kind of sense of whimsy. We're just like, oh, what a magical idea to have this creature that lives in this thing, this place, this lake, this wood, this stretch of highway.

Josh 6:17

Yeah, it is. It's like electric. Yeah. Especially if you're near that area. But yeah, I knew nothing about Mothman until I started reading this. I think Mothman was a character on the board game Horrified.

Travis 6:29

Okay.

Josh 6:30

It's like a cooperative board game. Well, should we just hop into it?

Travis 6:34

Yeah, let's tuck into it.

Josh 6:35

Okay. So, like you said, the Mothman of Point Pleasant. On a dark and quiet night in rural Appalachia in November 1966, two young couples in Point Pleasant, West Virginia saw something that would forever change their town. Driving near the desolate TNT area, which is super cool, they encountered a figure they described to police as a seven-foot-tall, slender man with massive wings and two terrifying hypnotic orbs of glowing red eyes. And this creature pursued their car at an impossible speed, silent and relentless. So this chilling encounter established the core elements of the Mothman legacy. But this story is so much more than just the simple monster hunt. It's a tapestry of local panic, a period of paranormal high strangeness that defies easy explanation, and the devastating real-world tragedy that would claim 46 lives. What? Yeah. Yeah, potentially. So it is the story of how a town once defined by the tear chose to embrace its shadow. So today we're exploring the original sightings, looking into the wave of UFOs and men in black that followed, confronting the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge, and discovering how Point Pleasant turned its most terrifying omen into a global icon.

Travis 7:53

Yes.

Josh 7:53

Yeah. That was the intro. We'll cover it. Don't leave yet.

Travis 7:59

If you haven't left already. Yeah. I'm sure you guys have stuck around. Maybe. We're pretty engaging. Okay. So now we're going to get into more of the lore. We're going to talk about a set of couples that see a man-sized bird or a creature or some such thing. Hey? You ready?

Josh 8:18

There is tons of sightings, but we're yeah, we're going to go through some of them.

Travis 8:22

So this is the most famous one.

Josh 8:25

Okay.

Travis 8:25

In the mid-1960s, Point Pleasant was a quiet, down-to-earth Appalachian town nestled at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawa Rivers. It was a community of farmers and hardworking families, people who went to church on Sundays and weren't prone to flights of fancy. They were completely unprepared for the 13 months of strangeness that began in the fall of 1966. The events of those first few days would establish the core elements of a legend that would not only endure, but grow into something no one could have predicted. The sightings that started it all. First sighting, November 12th, 1966. The first whispers of something strange came not from Point Pleasant itself, but from nearby Clendonen. Am I saying that right? I don't know. Clendonin? Clenden? I think that's it. Clendonin. Oh boy, Clendinen. Let us know if we're wrong. Yeah, please. Five men were in a cemetery digging a grave when they witnessed what they could only describe as a brown human being flying low over the trees. It was a bizarre, isolated event that would soon be overshadowed. The Catalyst sighting. This is November 15th, 1966. This is three days later. Three days later. Yep. This is the encounter that lit the fuse. Two young couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallet, were driving through a desolate area locals called the TNT area, a former World War II munitions plant littered with abandoned concrete igloos and a derelict power station. As they passed the old power plant, their headlights caught something in the darkness. They described it to police as a slender, muscular man standing about seven feet tall. Man, I just got the chills reading that. It had large hypnotic, glowing red eyes and enormous wings folded against its back.

Josh 10:12

Yuck.

Travis 10:13

Yuck, yeah. Roger Scarberry, the driver, was so mesmerized by the sight that his passengers had to scream at him to drive away. He finally slammed his foot on the gas, but the creature pursued them. It flew after their car, keeping pace at speeds they claimed exceeded 100 miles per hour. No way. Its wings never seeming to flap. Way, man. This is their account. I don't know. I mean, I didn't know cars in the 60s could go over 100 miles an hour. That's why I said no way, but I I honestly don't know. I'm sure there were. Sure. Like souped up hoops or whatever. Anyway, what was weird about it is its wings never seemed to flap. So they're going really fast. It's not flapping, it's just like coasting along with them. It only broke off the chase as they reached the city limits.

Josh 10:57

Like maybe gliding. Yeah. Gliding. Or jetpack. If there's some kind of energy movement too, that could be interesting.

Travis 11:06

Magnets, maybe? Magnets. We talked about that in previous episodes. Yeah. Maybe moving along using Earth's magnetic field. Mm-hmm. Shake and the couples didn't go to the police. Instead, they drove to a local drive-in to calm their nerves. But after a few minutes, they made a fateful decision. They had to go back. Mm-mm. It was on the second trip into the TNT area that they saw the creature again, this time soaring over their car near a dead dog on the side of the road. That was enough. They sped back to town, found a friend, and finally called the police.

Josh 11:39

What the fuck? That's a spooky night.

Travis 11:41

A dead dog? That's really upsetting.

Josh 11:43

Yeah, I don't think I would have gone back after the first thing.

Travis 11:46

You don't think so? No. You don't think you would have been all like juiced up on schlitz? I do not think I'd go back. If something chased me, no. And trying to prove to your girlfriend that you were brave? No, I would I feel like that's a lot of like the 60s, though. Is guys trying to prove how cool and brave they are and then dying or doing something so stupid and silly that they get hurt and they're changed forever.

Josh 12:12

I think that's how movies portray them, but I think in the real life it's the same as we are today.

Travis 12:17

And if if you're out driving around looking to get into trouble, we're gonna find it.

Josh 12:21

Yeah. But I've been out driving around and been with people driving around, getting in trouble.

Travis 12:26

Yeah.

Josh 12:27

If we encountered something spooky, we would flee and not come back.

Travis 12:30

Also, cars back then were, I mean, as far as like human history is concerned, they're relatively new. And I feel like people felt very safe within the confines of a car. Yeah, falsely. Like nothing could hurt them. Yeah. I mean, those cars are dangerous. No safety features whatsoever. They didn't have seatbelts. It's just like a big giant block of steel. And if it crashes into something, it's going to be devastating. Yeah, the car is fine, but you're dead. Anyway, follow up sighting. This is um the next day. Yeah. After they called the police. November 16th, 1966. The very next night the creature appeared again. Marcella Bennett was driving with her baby daughter and another family, the Wansleys, to visit friends who lived near the TNT area. As they approached the house, they saw a big gray thing, bigger than a man, with terrible, glowing red eyes, rise up from behind their parked car. In a moment of sheer terror, Ms. Bennett dropped her baby. No judgment. Okay. Uh her friends grabbed the child and pulled a hypnotized Bennett into the house. Moments later, they saw the same two red eyes peering at them through the window from the porch. I hope that baby didn't get dropped on its head.

Josh 13:39

I don't know. Depends on how big the head was.

Travis 13:42

Yeah. Maybe we should do a check-in on baby Bennett. Justice for Baby Bennett.

unknown 13:47

Yeah.

Travis 13:48

Yeah. Can we prosecute the mom dropping the baby? You said, wait, we said no. I said no. Yeah.

Josh 13:54

I mean, everyone reacts differently. I mean, if she's a a freezer, her body could have gone limp. And it's just a natural reaction. You know, we don't want to especially in traumatic times or incidences.

Travis 14:06

Maybe she just hated her kid and saw an opportunity. No. These accounts spread like wildfire through the small town, but it was the arrival of the press and a handful of dedicated investigators that would amplify these local stories into a national sensation.

Josh 14:18

Yeah. And it did get big. I mean, I'd heard of it, but I'm not even from there. There's only a handful of things in the world that I know about, like Nessie. That was a huge thing. Still is. So you're talking about investigators, like super dedicated investigators. So with Mothman, there are two people that are very important in that investigation and instrumental in shaping the narrative. One was a trusted local journalist who gave a voice to her frightened neighbors. And the other was an outsider, a paranormal investigator, whose theories would transform a monster story into a complex prophecy. They were Mary Heyer and John Keel, the two primary architects of the Mothman legend. So here's how those two each contributed. So Mary Heyer, she was a local chronicler. She was a reporter.

Travis 15:07

I love that word. Chronicler. Yeah. That's a good one. It's really funny. I love it. It's like one of those words that if you say it enough, it loses its meaning.

Josh 15:16

It's also something that sounds like a fantasy job.

Travis 15:20

Like a bard.

Josh 15:22

Yeah, exactly. So she was a reporter for Athens Messenger, and her column, Where the Waters Mingle, was the first to give the sightings serious coverage. People in Point Pleasant knew her, and more importantly, they trusted her. So her first headline on the incident was very gripping and direct. It was winged, red-eyed thing chases Point Pleasant couples across countryside. That's a hook. I'd read that.

Travis 15:47

Yeah, especially if your biggest outlet for entertainment or information is the local paper.

Josh 15:54

Yeah, everyone read the paper.

Travis 15:56

Yeah. So something like this would just like be everyone would be talking about it.

Josh 16:00

Just eye candy.

Travis 16:01

You couldn't help but read it.

Josh 16:02

You'd be missing out in conversation. But because of her deep community roots and her journalistic integrity, witnesses felt comfortable opening up to her.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Yeah.

Josh 16:10

Her office became the nerve center for all the unfolding events. Her contribution was so vital that John Keel would later dedicate his seminal book to her. Which leads us to John Keel, paranormal storyteller. He was a New York-based journalist and uofologist, heavily influenced by the work of Charles Fort, who collected accounts of anomalous phenomena. He arrived at Point Pleasant in December 1966. With Mary's help, he drove headfirst into the mystery, interviewing dozens of witnesses. Because I'm sure if he just showed up, no one would have talked to him or anything like that. So he had to have Mary to ease the mind.

Travis 16:48

Like an entry point.

Josh 16:49

Yeah. So Keel didn't believe Mothman was a simple alien or undiscovered animal. He developed an ultra-terrestrial theory. That was on the quiz, ultra-terrestrial.

Travis 16:58

Yeah.

Josh 16:59

He was suggesting that Mothman and related phenomena were manifestations from another dimension or a parallel universe capable of manipulating our reality.

Travis 17:09

That's wild.

Josh 17:10

That is wild.

Travis 17:11

This guy was a scientist?

Josh 17:12

A UFologist.

Travis 17:14

And a screenwriter.

Josh 17:15

Yeah, he was a lot of things. Because in 1975, he wrote the book The Mothman Prophecies. It was the single most influential text on the subject. And it wasn't just a collection of sightings, it was a first-person new journalism account that wove Mothman into a sprawling narrative of UFOs, men in black, and prophetic warnings, turning a regional legend into an international phenomenon. So with Keel's arrival, the story began to expand rapidly. Like he was he was a go-getter. The creature with red eyes were no longer an isolated mystery. It was becoming the most visible part of a much wider and stranger paranormal storm gathering over the Ohio River Valley. Wild. Yeah. And if he didn't show up, I don't think this would have gotten as big as it did.

Travis 18:01

No, because he did write the Mothman Prophecies, which was turned or adapted into a 2002 movie starring old Richie Gear.

Josh 18:12

I was wanting to watch that. You haven't seen it? No, I haven't seen it. I'd heard of it. It's it's campy. It would have been fun.

Travis 18:19

Yeah. It was good. There was like a real push for this kind of movie storytelling at that time. So we had like the butterfly effect with Ashton Kutcher.

Josh 18:30

They redid the thing, right?

Travis 18:31

Uh, they did. They well, they remade the thing.

Josh 18:35

Yeah.

Travis 18:35

That wasn't a cryptid, that was an alien from another planet that was able to come and mimic humans, but also mimic. Ooh. How about that? Yeah. Heard of that? Mm-hmm.

Josh 18:45

Did Richard Gere, was he playing John Keel in the movie?

Travis 18:49

I don't remember. It's been a long time since I've seen it.

Josh 18:52

Having a movie adapted and you get a choose, or someone famous plays you. That'd be fun.

Travis 18:56

Yeah. And somebody like Richard Gere, who is very handsome and charismatic. Charming. That's what you want. Like when you fantasy cast yourself, Richard Gere would be at that time, be like the top of the list.

Josh 19:08

Yeah. So yeah, do you want to get into the high strangeness?

Travis 19:11

Yeah. It's not just the cryptid. So we're going to get into multi-level of high strangeness.

Josh 19:17

There's a lot of layers to this.

Travis 19:19

A lot of layers. So to understand the Mothman legend, you have to understand that the creature itself was just the beginning, the starting point.

Josh 19:25

Right.

Travis 19:26

For 13 months, the area around Point Pleasant was a hotbed of paranormal activity, a full-blown flap, as investigators call it. I don't like that. What does that mean? I don't know. Like a flap just sounds kind of gross. I think of skin. I was thinking skin too, but like a bag can have a flap, but a bag made of leather, which is cow skin, so it goes right back to skin, and I just can't escape it. It's like a circle where all I can think about is a skin flap. And now I'm horrified and uh I don't want to do this anymore.

Josh 19:56

I'm gonna look that up.

Travis 19:58

Okay, while you're looking that up, I'm gonna continue. Yeah. So the Mothman sightings were the most sensational events, but they were happening alongside a cascade of other bizarre occurrences. UFOs over the Ohio River. The Mothman reports coincided with a massive wave of UFO sightings concentrated in the Ohio River Valley between Point Pleasant and Marietta, Ohio. Hundreds of reports flooded in. These weren't just distant lights. Linda Scarberry described a UFO that looked like a blooming rose with petals of brilliantly covered light. The Wamsley family and Mrs. Bennett saw a large red orb bouncing above the trees just before their encounter. The Men in Black? Heard of them? MIB?

Josh 20:37

We did an episode on Men in Black. They're fascinating.

Travis 20:40

Yeah. So Men in Black, MIB. Perhaps most chillingly, witnesses reported being visited by strange men in black. These men often drove large, pristine black cars and warned people not to talk about what they had seen. Weird. Mary Heyer herself had a bizarre encounter. Two short men in black overcoats entered her office, picked up common items like pencils, as if they'd never seen them before, and asked what she would do if she were ordered to stop writing about flying saucers. So is that normal for men in black to be short guys?

Josh 21:13

I had not heard of that in our men in black thing. It was they're always awkwardly tall. Yeah.

Travis 21:20

Yeah, imposing.

Josh 21:21

Yeah.

Travis 21:21

It was John Keel who coined the acronym MIB, elevating this fringe element of ufology into a pop culture staple.

Josh 21:29

Okay. Another origin story.

Travis 21:32

You know what MIB means? Might I blink? Maybe in the butt.

Josh 21:36

Oh. No.

Travis 21:40

I mean, in some circles, probably.

Josh 21:42

I mean, I'm not gonna shame.

Travis 21:43

Uh men in men in black. Men in black. Yep. Yeah. Men and black. And this is where uh this next section is kind of what ties into our last episode. Yeah. So Andrew Cold and other entities. The strangeness wasn't limited to the skies on November 2nd, 1966. A traveling salesman named Woodrow Derenberger claimed a UFO shaped like the chimney on a kerosene lamp landed in front of his truck. A man with a wide, unnatural grin emerged, introduced himself as Indred Cold, and said he was from a planet called Lanulos. Heard of it? Yeah.

Josh 22:18

If you haven't, go back to our last episode.

Travis 22:21

Immediately turn this off and go back and listen to our last episode.

Josh 22:24

No, finish.

Travis 22:25

No, turn it off. Listen to the last episode. They may not come back. Mark your timestamp here. Listen to that other episode, and then come back and listen to this one. We command you to do that.

Josh 22:35

Oh, do you want to know what a flap is?

Travis 22:37

Yeah, let's do that before I get into this last bit.

Josh 22:39

It refers to a sudden commotion, an uproar, or controversy, often one that is considered excessive or short-lived.

Travis 22:46

Okay.

Josh 22:47

In historical contexts, like in the mid-20th centuries, the word flap was used by some to describe concentration of UFO sightings in specific geographic areas over a short period of time as well.

Travis 22:58

Okay. Flap a skin, flappers, kind of dancing.

Josh 23:01

Mm-hmm.

Travis 23:02

And this, whatever you just said.

Josh 23:04

Yeah. Okay.

Travis 23:05

Um, so this sighting was accompanied by a surge in poltergeist activity, also.

Josh 23:12

Yeah.

Travis 23:12

Families like the Lilies and a witness keel only identified as Ben reported slamming doors, moving objects, and disembodied sounds haunting their homes.

Josh 23:21

So it's just lots of different things. So it's not just a Mothman, it's also UFOs, men in black, poltergeists.

Travis 23:29

A lot of weirdo stuff.

Josh 23:31

That's crazy. It's a hot spot. Which I think, I mean, I'm not too familiar with the weird triangles around the world that have just bizarre things happen, but I think there is one in this area, and I think this is in that area.

Travis 23:43

Sure. Here, maybe Skinwalker Ranch, down near Florida Way.

Josh 23:48

Yeah, up in Alaska.

Travis 23:50

Alaska, too. Maybe down in the old southern hemisphere near Antarctica. Yeah, probably. All of this unexplained activity was building an atmosphere of profound dread. It felt as if it was all leading somewhere, building towards a single catastrophic event that would forever seal the Mothman's place in history as a harbinger of doom.

Josh 24:13

And then the Silver Bridge, we mentioned that earlier.

Travis 24:16

Yeah, so we're getting into what they thought like sightings of the Mothman would portend.

Josh 24:21

Yeah, like prophecies. So the Silver Bridge, it was the literal and symbolic connection between Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and another crazy town name, Galapagos. Gallipola Galapolis? Gallipolis, Ohio.

Travis 24:34

Nailed it.

Josh 24:35

So West Virginia, Ohio, the these two towns are right on the border, and a bridge connects them. So for 40 years, it was the lifeline for those two communities. So the bridge suddenly collapsed. And its sudden and catastrophic failure wasn't a legend or a rumor. It was a horrifying real-world legend that became inextricably and controversially linked to the Mothman mythos.

Travis 24:57

What a tragedy.

Josh 24:58

Yeah. So here's the breakdown of the disaster and how it connected to the Mothman. So the disaster, December 15th, 1967, during an evening rush hour, the Silver Bridge buckled and collapsed into the icy waters of the Ohio River in under a minute.

Travis 25:14

Holy shit.

Josh 25:16

Yeah. 46 people lost their lives. And it was a moment of unimaginable horror for the small towns.

Travis 25:22

Can you imagine how cold that was? Ohio.

Josh 25:25

No.

Travis 25:25

In December.

Josh 25:28

Yeah. All these people probably shopping for Christmas. Or just coming home from work. Yeah, coming home from work. Yeah, there's lots of different things. I lived in Mount Vernon, Washington, and there's a bridge connecting Mount Vernon and Burlington, and that bridge collapsed. It was an infrastructure thing. It should have been updated 30 years prior, but it just kind of got put to the wayside. I don't think anyone died in that, but it was pretty bad. Like cars were in the water.

Travis 25:53

Yeah, I want to say like maybe 10 years ago, a really big bridge in uh Minneapolis-St. Paul area collapsed.

Josh 26:01

So it is possible because I mean these things happen. They do happen. The infrastructure in the United States is not an A plus level. You know, a lot of these things were built a long time ago before some of the newer codes, but there is some weirdness around this particular one with the Mothman. So here's the prophecy connection. In his book, John Keel masterfully connected the 13 months of the Mothman sightings directly to this disaster. He framed the narrative that the Mothman was not a monster, but an omen, a harbinger of doom. Its appearance was a warning of the impending catastrophe. Tellingly, sightings of the creature reportedly seized almost immediately after the bridge collapsed. Decades later, some academics, such as folklore's Jack Daly, argue that this connection represents a form of narrative hijacking. The lucrative and sensational story of the cryptid, for many outsiders, overshadowed the human tragedy of the 46 victims. The focus shifted from the commemoration of the dead to the commodification of the monster. So it's crucial to remember that the official investigation determined the collapse was caused by critical structural failure, a stress corrosion crack and a single eye bar in one of the suspension chains, and it was not a supernatural event. But the collapse of the Silver Bridge cemented Mothman's status as a prophetic figure. But as the supernatural theories grew, so did the skeptical ones. What did people actually see in the skies and the shadows around Point Pleasant?

Travis 27:29

Oh, what a question.

Josh 27:31

That was the thing. People said they saw the Mothman around that bridge or on the bridge before it collapsed.

Travis 27:39

Okay, so what we're gonna do now is we're gonna just deconstruct the monster. Mmm. Do a little bit of drill down with the old Mothman. So for every person who believes Mothman was a supernatural omen, there's another who believes the explanation is far more grounded. So we're gonna now gonna get into some skeptical theories. I thought everyone believed. Uh well, they should.

Josh 28:03

I'm gonna save my thoughts for the end. He's a big sweetie. Oh, I'm sure you took a rabbit hole with this.

Travis 28:10

Yeah, he's just a big sweetie. Let's you know when something bad's gonna happen.

Josh 28:14

A big sexy prophet.

Travis 28:16

Yeah. Yeah. Do you know there's some Mothman ladies? I'm sure you know. Went down that rabbit hole for a little bit.

Josh 28:23

Yeah. Okay, so theories, skeptics.

Travis 28:26

Yep. So misidentified wildlife. The leading candidate is the sandhill crane. This large bird can stand nearly as tall as a man, has a wingspan of up to seven feet, and possesses distinct reddish coloring around its eyes. A crane outside of its normal migration route would have been a startling and unfamiliar sight to locals. I was thinking it was going to be an owl. Because it's always an owl. It is. Oh. Another possibility is a large owl. Well, there you go. Like a barred owl or a snowy owl. The glowing red eyes could be explained by the biological phenomena of eye shine, the red eye effect caused when a bright light, like a car's headlight, reflects off the retina of a nocturnal animal.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Yeah.

Travis 29:05

So there was psychological phenomena related to some of these sightings. Poop water. Poop water. Yeah. Ugh.

Josh 29:11

That was your for the sky battles. You're like, yeah, this is nasty water, and they're all tripping out. That's why they all saw it.

Travis 29:18

Did I say poop water? I don't think I said poop water.

Josh 29:21

I don't know. That's what I heard. Okay.

Travis 29:23

Okay. So psychological phenomena. So fear plays tricks on the mind. Psychologists talk about the weapon focus effect. Where in a high stress situation, a person's memory becomes unreliable, focusing on the most threatening detail like giant red eyes at the expense of everything else. This is what I talk about quite often on this pod. Nope. Like how heightened everything is, and people misremember things in the height of the moment. That's why it's really important to write stuff down. That like ties us back to our first episode where I got raided. Yeah and wrote everything down.

Josh 29:56

But that story could turn into something else if you didn't write it down.

Travis 30:00

Yep. Yeah, because then I could look at my notes and say, like, oh, that's right, and ground myself.

Josh 30:05

And you didn't get raided, you called the police.

Travis 30:09

Uh the community-wide nature of the sightings could also point to mass hysteria. In a small, tight-knit town already on edge, fear and suggestibility can spread, leading to shared experiences that aren't necessarily rooted in reality.

Josh 30:25

Interesting. I've never thought of like a communal psychological phenomena.

Travis 30:30

Well, I mean, that's that's kind of like what happens when this is your only source of information. Yeah. Is you go to whatever, the the local grocery store, haberdashery, you go to uh Milliner to get your hat made, and this is what you're talking about. It's like, oh my god, did you see what Mary Heyer wrote in the Athens Messenger? Did you see the red-eyed winged monster?

Josh 30:57

That's true. Yeah, everyone was talking about it, and then everyone just slowly or quickly it just it spreads.

Travis 31:02

And then you take that home and you're like, holy shit, you know what Cliff said at the grocery store? This is what he saw. It's like, what? Yeah. And then that gets spread.

Josh 31:11

And then maybe change, like game a telephone. Same thing happened with the Salem witch trials.

Travis 31:17

It was just uh No, they were all they were all witches.

Josh 31:20

No for sure. Just the town and the locals, they all became obsessed with finding witches and they just killed a ridiculous amount of people.

Travis 31:28

Yeah, it's horrifying.

Josh 31:30

For some of the silliest things. Horrifying.

Travis 31:32

Yeah. Okay, so is that it? That's all the skeptics. No, there's been some hoaxes and then embellishments on these stories. I can imagine hoaxes happening. Oh you think so? In this community? Yeah, sadly. There were known hoaxes at the time. One report mentions a group of construction workers who admitted to tying flashlights to helium balloons to fool people. Wild. Yeah, I mean, I could see that. But like flashlights are pretty heavy. You'd have to have a lot of helium balloons.

Josh 32:01

I mean, there's a little flashlights. But in the 60s? But I'm yeah, I'm just I'm thinking they're just being silly gooses. You know, they thought it was funny. When a bunch of guys get together, they do stupid shit.

Travis 32:12

Yeah. Well, it's also just like critically re-examine maybe John Keel's role. Analysis of his personal letters and notes from the period reveals significant discrepancies with his 1975 book, you know, written nine years later after all these events. Yeah. Suggesting that key elements like the prophetic connection to the bridge collapse and the entire Men in Black subplot may have been invented to fit the sensational new journalism style of his book. There's even suspicion that his associate, Gray Barker, a known UFO hoaxer, may have been responsible for some of the bizarre prank phone calls Keel reported. Whether it was a bird, a ghost, or a shared nightmare, the Mothman of 1966 eventually faded.

Josh 32:53

Gray Barker. We've talked about him before. We have. Was he the injured cold?

Travis 32:59

Or was he Valiant Thor? Uh he's come up. Maybe no, I don't know if Valiant Thor. Although maybe. I know he's come up.

Josh 33:08

Was it Travis Walton's book? I don't know. There was something where someone said that he changed the story a little bit. But yeah, this guy's known for it, and he's the one of the publishers of this book. So if he's known for it and he's been caught doing it, there's a possibility. But there was a revival. Like you said, it faded. And for decades, Point Pleasant tried to get away from this strange event from 1966 and 67, but a funny thing happened. On the way to forgetting, Hollywood came calling. And then 2002, like we were talking about the Mothman prophecy, starring Richard Gere, reignited global interest in the legend. So the town was faced with a new wave of curious visitors. The town made a remarkable choice. Instead of burying its monster, it decided to celebrate it, which we've seen that with some, I mean, all the cryptids we've done so far. So here's how they celebrate the Mothman legend. The Mothman Festival, it started in 2002 as a small gathering, has now exploded into a massive annual event held every September, and it draws an estimated of 10,000 to 30,000 people to a town with a population of 4,000. And they're all eager to celebrate the cryptid. Uh, they have the Mothman Museum, founded by local historian Jeff Wansley. We saw him in one of the documentaries we watched. I'll link that in the show notes. This is the world's only museum dedicated to the creature. It's a treasure trove of eyewitness reports, newspaper clippings, and John Keel's original research files. They have the Mothman statue unveiled in 2003. A 12-foot-tall, gleaming metallic statue of the creature now stands at the very center of the town with its piercing red eyes and has become a can't miss photo opportunity for all tourists. I feel like I'm I'm trying to uh pitch this town. It's a pretty cool town. I I would go. Absolutely. I would go to that area for like a month and hit all the different festivals, like the Flatwoods and the Let's see these sexy statues.

unknown 35:06

Oh my gosh.

Josh 35:07

There's also the cryptid economy. The legend has spawned a year-round tourism industry. So local businesses sell Mothman themed merchandise, cafes serve Mothman-shaped cookies, and the creature's image is everywhere, turning folklore into foot traffic and profit.

Travis 35:23

And did somebody say cookies?

Josh 35:25

Yeah. You're quite the cookyman. I've seen you eat a cookie.

Travis 35:29

It's a mess.

Josh 35:30

Barely. It was so fast.

Travis 35:32

Yeah. It's like, have you seen how the animals in Fantastic Mr. Fox eat food? That's like me with cookies. Or like cookie monster, like actual cookie monster.

Josh 35:39

Yeah, but it all goes in. Cookie monster, it all falls out.

Travis 35:43

Yeah, because it's a puppet.

Josh 35:45

Right. Yeah. Okay. Another fun thing, which I think you alluded to this a little bit, and you've done this. I don't think you've participated. Well, you have participated. What are you saying? What are you trying to say? The Mothman has become an unexpected sex symbol.

Travis 36:02

Yeah. Mothman and Mothman woman.

Josh 36:06

Merchandise and festivals aside, Mothman's new identity has taken a strange turn in the digital culture.

Travis 36:13

That's just human nature, man.

Josh 36:15

I know. It's true.

Travis 36:16

They're like, oh, that's so weird. Wow, what uh what interesting features. And then they're like, wait a second, how could we fuck it?

Josh 36:24

Yeah. What if it was like into me?

Travis 36:26

Yeah.

Josh 36:26

What if it wasn't chasing me to hurt me? I think it winked at me. Yep. Uh-huh. So the statue with its muscular and chiseled metallic physique has earned an unexpected and widespread reputation among tourists for being, as one source puts it, weirdly attractive.

Travis 36:46

Nothing weird about it.

Josh 36:47

Was that you?

Travis 36:48

That I called it weirdly attractive. I would just say attractive. I just begged honk honk beep beep.

Josh 36:53

So this has led to the creature being embraced by online communities as a pop culture sex symbol. We have a image of a book here by Remy Kavalich.

Travis 37:02

Yeah, look at all these sexy Mothman women. Oh boy.

Josh 37:06

It's called like Mothman to a flame. It's like a romance novel.

Travis 37:10

Oh, yeah. The the romance cover. Yeah.

Josh 37:13

Yeah, I'll put that in the chapter notes.

Travis 37:15

Yeah. That's a good one. And maybe some of these tattoos.

Josh 37:18

Yeah. There's many a sexy Mothwoman or Mothman tattoos.

Travis 37:23

Hong Kong beep beep.

Josh 37:24

Yeah. They actually look really cool. Yeah, I'll put some of these in there as well. Or just Google it.

Travis 37:29

Sure. Yeah. Totally Google it. I would. In incognito. Google sexy Mothman woman art. Or sexy Mothman art. Yeah. Hong Kong beep beep.

Josh 37:39

So in conclusion, the story of Mothman is a perfect example of how a legend evolves. It begins as a frightening, unexplainable experience, is shaped by storytellers, investigators, becomes tragically intertwined with history, and is eventually reborn as a celebrated piece of cultural identity. Sexy cultural identity. So what was the Mothman of Point Pleasant? Was it a misidentified bird? Was it a fucking owl? Probably not. Was it a fucking crane? Yeah, they threw in a new bird this time. Like the owl's really not convincing him. We gotta throw in a different birds, man, it's because birds aren't real. Is it a harbinger of doom, a visitor from another planet or dimension, or is it just simply an urban legend, mass hysteria? We don't know.

Travis 38:22

Oh, that was another movie from that time, Urban Legend.

Josh 38:24

Oh, you're right. So where do you lie on this? Like when you when you think, I mean, it's not aliens because it's like everything.

Travis 38:32

But it could be. Why why not? Why can't it be an alien?

Josh 38:35

I mean, it's possible. There is a theory that because the TNT plant had some radioactive material left over and everything, that it is just a mutant.

Travis 38:43

Why not? Oh my god, like a toxic avenger. Yeah. Cool. Um, I think I land on this the way I land on a lot of cryptids. I think that they're very interesting and I like the bit of whimsy that it uh evokes. Yeah. But more often than not, where I fall on these is that they're just like they don't really they don't really exist. They're misightings or like heightened situations where you might misidentify something.

Josh 39:11

Yeah, I've never been convinced. Yeah. Not with like some of these UFO videos or UAP videos and different things. That's just like, oh, yeah, this is real. Like, what the hell's going on? Why hasn't disclosure happened yet? You know, like but with cryptids, it's just, oh, that's interesting. That's fun.

Travis 39:29

And maybe there is maybe there is some truth. Maybe it was an actual sighting of uh ultra-terrestrial or extraterrestrial. And maybe this particular being is no longer with us, you know, either it is now off planet or has passed away, or any number of things, you know, it's gone into hiding. What convinces me that it's not real is that we haven't seen sightings, at least that I know of, we haven't seen sightings recently. And with how present or ever present phones are with cameras, why don't we have more documentation of this stuff?

Josh 40:03

Well, like I said, if this is in a triangle, like a high strange hotspot and it only happened at a particular time. I mean, maybe in that time, in that area, the veil was a little bit thinner from different realities. You know, that is and now it is not anymore, you know.

Travis 40:19

We're talking inter interdimensional type stuff.

Josh 40:21

Yeah, potentially.

Travis 40:22

Yeah, sure. Okay.

Josh 40:23

We only covered a few different stories, but there is a ridiculous amount of stories out there. Almost everyone in the town has a story. So that alone kind of leans me. You know, I've said I haven't been convinced, but that is a lot of people having pretty similar stories. You know, obviously the hysteria added to the amount of stories coming out, but it's just like the whole UAP extraterrestrial topic right now. It's just like there's so much out there that it's kind of hard to deny how much is there. This is close to that, but it is, you know, it's older. I yeah, I just I don't know. If it's aliens, yes or maybe no, mine's just a straight maybe.

Travis 41:05

I'm gonna I'll I'll be I'll line up with you, Josh. I'll team up with you on this. I'll say maybe. Like, you know, could it exist? Sure. There's uh, you know, a possibility that any of these things that we talk about could exist. Right. I can't just say no definitively. I'm not a I'm not a scientist. Uh I don't even live on the east side of the country.

Josh 41:26

Yeah, this is the first time I'm hearing about this. There's probably a lot more information. You know, visiting the museum and seeing the actual field notes, that would be fascinating from Keel.

SPEAKER_00 41:35

Yeah.

Josh 41:35

I mean, you could go pretty hard down this. And then the whole inrid cold at the same time, which we just did that episode. I mean, that's pretty wild as well.

Travis 41:44

And some g-ga-ga-goes. Yeah. Some specters. It's got everything.

Josh 41:50

It does. And that's what makes it the ultra thing, where it like everything is happening at the same time. Like there was so much going on. It probably would have been wild being Keel just showing up and the town is experiencing everything. Yeah. So yeah, that's where I'm at. Let us know where you guys are at. That's where we're at. That's where I'm at. That's where you're at. Yeah, you and me are the same.

Travis 42:09

We both did our conclusion here.

Josh 42:11

Yeah. This is about the time we read or do we read at the very end?

Travis 42:14

You have some some comments?

Josh 42:16

Yeah, on YouTube, we have a handful of comments.

Travis 42:20

Probably normal, chill comments, I'm sure.

Josh 42:22

Yeah, on our battle aliens episode where we pitted aliens against each other. Someone said, and they didn't reply back. I replied. They said, I have fought Grays in my dreams and won.

Travis 42:33

So that's hell yeah. Congratulations.

Josh 42:38

Yeah. Yeah, that would be a fun dream.

Travis 42:40

The winning part.

Josh 42:41

Yeah, it would wouldn't be fun until you win.

Travis 42:43

Yeah.

Josh 42:44

On the Alien Colts episode, Alien Colts and UFO Religions, Wesley said, Let him join. Also, I'll take two pints of colon aid. So that was when Travis, Travis asked me, you could do a podcast on that. Like, yeah, I'll I'll join them. And you're like, no, you don't have to join. Like, just research it. I was like, no, I'll join all of them.

Travis 43:06

So to be clear, they're gonna join a podcast where you talk about colon aid?

Josh 43:11

No, that was clonade with one of the religions.

Travis 43:13

So Oh, you said colon aid. And I was like, what is that like? That was what you said. Okay.

Josh 43:19

But yeah, reach out to us. You can comment on YouTube and Spotify. You can leave reviews. We would love reviews. That kind of helps us out, bumps us up in the algorithms a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

Yeah.

Josh 43:30

Anywhere you listen, you can usually leave reviews. That'd be awesome. We want to hear from you. We want to read what you said. We have fan mail in our show notes where you can just text us. So just click that and it's literally like you can just text us and we'll read that. That'd be fun. So let me text Jordan.

Travis 43:50

Let's get to the quiz.

Josh 43:56

Okay. So this is when we find out what our next Next episode topic is. We don't know what our next topic is going to be. And our researcher does a phenomenal job putting these together.

Travis 44:07

Yeah, yeah.

Josh 44:08

And Travis does a phenomenal job of failing. Failing at these.

Travis 44:13

Mm-hmm. Spectacularly.

Josh 44:16

So we got the email. I'm gonna open it up. And I don't know what that is. So the topic for next episode. Do we say it on three? Sure. One, two, three. Why didn't you say anything? I I was gonna trick you, and then you panicked. It's project looking glass. Project looking glass. Project looking glass. Project looking glass. We we did it. Yeah. So project looking glass. I've never heard of that. Have you?

Travis 44:46

Uh no. I mean, I don't know. It sounds familiar, but like there's uh Alice through the looking glass.

Josh 44:52

Yeah.

Travis 44:53

You know, so maybe I'm conflating that and this.

Josh 44:56

Which she does little pictures up at the top of our quiz.

Travis 45:01

I didn't even look at that. I thought it was an ad.

Josh 45:03

There is the rabbit looking at his pocket watch from Alice in Wonderland. Okay. Anyways, this is what we're going to talk about next week. Let's start the quiz. Yeah. All right. At its core, Project Looking Glass is allegedly a device that can A allow people to physically travel through time, B, predict stock market swings, elections, and lottery numbers. C, view possible future timelines, or D rewrite historical events. Ooh, well, three of these are pretty similar, but it's very precise, it seems like. I don't think it's the stock market swings. What do you think?

Travis 45:40

I think it's allow people to physically travel through time.

Josh 45:43

Okay.

Travis 45:44

Final answer. I don't know why, because uh uh the rabbit is always obsessed with time.

Josh 45:49

She does like mysteries and clues and escape rooms, Jordan, our researcher. She could be leaving a hint.

Travis 45:54

Well, I'm just saying like Alice through the looking glass is, you know, Alice in Wonderland story. And that rabbit is always like, I'm late, I'm late.

Josh 46:04

Yeah, he's obsessed with time.

Travis 46:06

Gotta keep moving.

Josh 46:07

But the other, I mean, view possible future timelines, that has to do with time. And rewriting historical events, that has to do with time.

Travis 46:13

But if you could rewrite historical events, wouldn't you like wouldn't our world be better than it is now if that's true?

Josh 46:20

I mean, I don't know. It depends on who's rewriting it, I guess. It's hard to think that there are evil people out there.

Travis 46:26

That's true.

Josh 46:27

I'm gonna say view possible future timelines.

Travis 46:30

Good. Totally normal. Great choice.

Josh 46:32

Just because it's project looking glass, like it's something you look through. Okay. Next question. What widespread feeling do people associate with project looking glass? Yeah, I know. I was just like, ooh. A, gravity feels weaker or heavier at times. B, time feels like it's speeding up. C, technology is advancing at a much too rapid rate, or D, dreams become premonitions.

Travis 46:57

Okay. I think it's um one or two, A or B. Gravity feels weaker or heavier at times. That's like part of time. Time, exactly. Like the singularity, you know, as you move through gravity, time changes. Right. So time feels like it's speeding up. Those two, I think, are very similar.

Josh 47:18

And then technology is advancing at a much too rapid rate.

Travis 47:22

R right, but that's not I don't associate that as a feeling. And dreams becoming premonitions is not like a feeling, but I could totally be wrong and end up eating my own fart on this quiz like I always do. But I'm I'm going to settle on gravity feels weaker or heavier at times.

Josh 47:37

Okay. I'm going to do dreams becoming premonitions. Okay. Because that may possibly, I'm probably wrong, but that may, it could line up with view possible future timelines.

Travis 47:48

Yep.

Josh 47:49

So okay.

Travis 47:50

My second choice is time feels like it's speeding up, but I'm gonna I'm gonna commit.

Josh 47:54

That's just age.

Travis 47:55

Yeah. I mean, as you get closer to the end, yeah, it does, it is faster.

Josh 48:00

That's I mean, through experience, I've never ended, but it's what it sounds like. Okay, next question. What did the looking glass reportedly show viewers? A random hallucinations, b symbolic visions from God, C, messages from alien civilizations, or D possible outcomes of a timeline. No, god damn it.

Travis 48:21

This is why these quizzes should be released earlier so I could look ahead.

Josh 48:24

Well, that's why it's not. Because you did that and you cheated.

Travis 48:28

Because view possible future timelines is an answer here.

Josh 48:32

Yeah.

Travis 48:33

You know what? Puck it, I'm gonna say random hallucinations.

Josh 48:36

Okay. I'm gonna keep going down that future timeline or whatever. I'm gonna go possible outcomes of a timeline.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

Okay.

Josh 48:43

Next one. In Project Looking Glass lower, human consciousness is important because it blank. A powers the machine, B connects the viewers. Oh, or like fucking batteries. Or the machine is the man, or it's oh my god, I don't even want to go that dark.

Travis 49:00

Jeez. No, because human consciousness powers the machine. That's why it's important.

Josh 49:05

Okay. Powers the machine. B connects the viewers to the messengers. C influences what the operator sees, or D is the key to interdimensional travel. Interesting. So maybe I mean, if the last one is the key to interdimensional travel, is closer to kind of the path I was going, but maybe this isn't necessarily like future stuff. I don't know. But maybe this is interdimensional, the multiverse kind of thing, like a lens into the multiverse, maybe.

Travis 49:33

Okay.

Josh 49:34

I don't like these other ones. These other ones are creepy.

Travis 49:37

Some of this also seems like we're getting into astral projection, which we covered before.

Josh 49:43

So this is like remote viewing. Mm-hmm.

Travis 49:47

Um because I'm a sicko, I'm gonna say that's what powers the machine. Let's move on to the next question.

Josh 49:53

Okay, well, I need an answer. I'm gonna say connects viewers to the messenger. Okay. I don't know why. I feel like I may be wrong.

Travis 50:01

Actually, you know what? I'm gonna say key to interventional travel, because that kind of lines up with my first answer.

Josh 50:06

Okay. All right, next one. What is one reason Project Looking Glass was reportedly shut down? A, all future timelines began collapsing into one. B, it drained too much power from nearby towns. C, the technology was stolen by the Russians, or D, too many operators were lost in space-time.

Travis 50:28

I don't like that. No, I don't like that at all. I don't like any of these. That's like what happened in Interstellar. Um, what looks like is happening with the new Project Hail Mary. Being lost in space is terrifying.

Josh 50:43

Yeah.

Travis 50:44

Like being totally cut off from everything that you know and are familiar with. But this is space-time.

Josh 50:50

It's not just space. Yeah.

Travis 50:51

That's what happened in Interstellar. Yeah. He was stuck in between. Anytime you encounter like a singularity, then that's exactly what's going to happen.

Josh 50:59

Right. Um, I'm going to say all future timelines began collapsing into one. Boo boy.

Travis 51:04

Okay.

Josh 51:05

Which you see in a lot of sci-fi stuff, you know, when you mess with time or time travel, then the skies start splitting.

Travis 51:12

As much as I love the 80s thriller idea of technology stolen by the Russians, I'm going to say it's probably more practical and that it drained too much power from nearby towns, which probably causes a lot of people to like perk up and be like, what the fuck is happening to my town?

Josh 51:28

Yeah, that's true. Okay. Next question. Which Mandela effect triggers you the most? And then it says, thanks, Project Looking Glass.

Travis 51:37

Thanks, Project Looking Glass.

Josh 51:38

So A, the Shazam movie with Simbad. This is a weird question. B, through the loom and the cornucopia. C, the Berenstein Bears spelling, or D, Looney Tunes, like T-O-O-N-S or T-U-N-E-S.

Travis 51:57

What the fuck is it? They all trigger.

Josh 51:59

They do all trigger. I remember I never really paid attention to Looney Tunes. I remember the two O's, but the Barenstein Bears, I had a ton of those books as growing up. My mom and dad would read them to me. I remember that.

Travis 52:12

Yeah, but is it Barenstein or Baronstein?

Josh 52:14

I remember Baronstein. Through the Loom, I remember that. Sinbad, I remember that.

Travis 52:20

Looney Tunes, I feel like T-U-N, yes. That doesn't trigger me. I'm gonna say Sinbad is always the one because Yeah, I remember that.

Josh 52:29

I don't remember anything about the movie. I think I remember like just millisecond glimpses, if I think real hard. Through the Loom, I definitely remember that. The Berenstein Bears is gonna be mine because that one, when I heard that, I was like, what? But maybe I just couldn't pronounce it either. I don't know. You're doing Shazam?

Travis 52:46

I'm doing Shazam.

Josh 52:47

Okay. So Project Looking Glass potentially has to do with this. The Mandela effects. Oh, that was the last question.

Travis 52:55

Yeah.

Josh 52:56

Uh okay. Well, let's uh submit. Have you already submitted?

Travis 53:00

Yeah, it's bad.

Josh 53:02

Okay.

Travis 53:02

Looking bad for old Travis here.

Josh 53:05

So, first question at its core, Project Looking Glass is allegedly a device that can. I said view possible future timelines. What did you say?

Travis 53:14

Allow people to physically travel through time.

Josh 53:17

And I was correct. View possible future timelines, which is weird. All right. Next one. What widespread feeling do people associate with Project Looking Glass? I said dreams becoming premonitions.

Travis 53:30

I said gravity feels weaker or heavier at times, but I also tied it to time feels like it's speeding up, which I kind of felt like was probably the right answer anyway. That is the right answer, but I got it wrong. I'm just saying I that was my number two.

Josh 53:43

We'll give you half a point.

Travis 53:44

Thank you. Thank God. Okay. So looking a little up for me.

Josh 53:48

All right. Next one. What did the looking glass reportedly show viewers? I said possible outcomes of a timeline. Mm-hmm.

Travis 53:56

And I said random hallucinations, which could be random outcomes of a timeline.

Josh 54:02

The answer was possible outcomes of a timeline. So I got that right.

Travis 54:05

Uh-huh. But what are possible outcomes of a timeline, if not just random hallucinations?

Josh 54:09

I don't know.

Travis 54:10

Huh? I ask you. I that's too deep for me right now.

Josh 54:14

Uh, next one. In Project Looking Glass lore, human consciousness is important because it blank you said is the key to interdimensional travel, which is obviously wrong, which is what I answered. I said connects the viewers to the messenger as randomly. That was incorrect. It was influences what the operator sees.

Travis 54:32

So it's a very personal thing. Human consciousness is important because it influences what the operator sees. That's wrap your head around that. I'm trying. Why don't you?

Josh 54:42

This is gonna make me go crazy this episode.

Travis 54:44

Yeah, my brain's gonna fall out of my head. Yeah. And then Project Looking Glass is gonna use my brain, it's going to become a battery to power the machine. Power the machine and shut down nearby towns.

Josh 54:54

Mm-hmm.

Travis 54:55

Oh boy. Looking at the answer to this next one, that's wrong. That's not what's gonna happen to my brain.

Josh 54:59

All right. Next one. Yeah. What was the reason Project Looking Glass was reportedly shut down? I said all future timelines began collapsing into one, and that is correct.

Travis 55:08

Allegedly.

Josh 55:09

And you said the draining the powers, right?

Travis 55:11

Yeah.

Josh 55:12

Okay. And that was the last answer, other than ours.

Travis 55:16

And this is just a personal thing.

Josh 55:18

Yeah. There's no correct answer. Wouldn't that be funny if there was?

Travis 55:22

Yeah, like you're wrong. It was through the last sliding us through the internet through this quiz. Yeah, that would be terrible.

Josh 55:29

Yeah, so mine is Berenstein and yours is Simbad.

Travis 55:31

Okay, so I'm super You can't even get your experiences right, Travis.

Josh 55:35

I mean, I know a decent amount about the Mandela effect. I've gone on little binges.

Travis 55:41

It's the Mandela effect affects a lot of things. It's just affecting like your memory.

Josh 55:47

Right. And I'm curious on I haven't researched any of the skeptic reasons. So I'm curious to hear about that, actually. Because I've just I hear people saying it's happening. You know, the Hydron Collider started this, or you know, like all these different things. Well, cool. This is what we're gonna talk about next episode. So I'll do it looking glass. Yep. Join us for that one. We want to thank Jordan, our researcher, who did this wonderful test. She gives us our topics, puts our hot DOS together. Yep, our dossiers. If I have editing issues, she helps as much as she can. She made our intro song, she did our cover art. She is Wonder Woman. Thank you, Jordan. Thank you. And we want to thank the listeners because it's just fun.

Travis 56:31

Yeah. Listeners like you.

Josh 56:32

Yeah. Just almost at 3,000 downloads. That's really cool. That's neat. It's fun for me.

Travis 56:38

I agree. We couldn't do this without you. We wouldn't do it without you.

unknown 56:41

Yeah.

Travis 56:41

Yeah, we would.

Josh 56:42

Yeah, I don't know. Would we continue if we had no listeners? Probably. I enjoy doing it.

Travis 56:47

Yeah, I would.

Josh 56:48

I would.

Travis 56:49

I like it. This is like a highlight of my week.

Josh 56:51

Yeah. Okay. Well, cool. Thank you for listening, and we will chat at you next episode. Hey, bye.