Show Notes
www.patreon.com/theconspiracypodcast The ocean has always been the last great unknown. Long before maps were complete, before satellites scanned every inch of the earth, sailors stared out into endless water and swore something was staring back. Mermaids didn’t begin as the bright, red-haired figure we know today. They began in the shadows—ancient myths of half-human creatures tied to gods, shame, and transformation. In Greece, they weren’t even fish, but deadly Sirens whose voices lured men to their deaths. By the Middle Ages, they became symbols of temptation—beautiful, dangerous, and impossible to trust. But not all stories paint them as monsters. Some tell of mermaids living among humans… quietly learning how to survive on land. Others speak of sea-women taken from the ocean, only to leave years later when they find their way back. Sailors like Christopher Columbus claimed to see them—though not quite as beautiful as expected—while others, like John Smith, described something far more captivating. And then there are the strange cases. The stitched “Feejee Mermaid” that fooled thousands. The eerie mermaid mummies in Japan. Even modern sightings, where people still claim to see something sitting on rocks just before disappearing beneath the waves. So what are mermaids, really? A misidentified animal? A shared illusion? Or something deeper—something that lives in the space between what we see and what we want to believe? Tonight, the boys dive into the long, strange history of mermaids—from ancient myth to Disney—and explore why, even now, we’re not entirely ready to let them go.
More from The Conspiracy Podcast
www.patreon.com/theconspiracypodcast Nine and a half years after President Bush said he wanted Osama bin Laden “dead or alive,” Navy SEALs entered a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Thirty-eight minutes later, the most wanted man in the world was dead, and his body was gone within a day. In this final chapter of The Conspiracy Podcast’s 9/11 series, Eric, Sean and Jorge follow the hunt from start to finish, as the War on Terror unfolds around it. The story starts at Tora Bora in 2001, where bin Laden was within reach and walked away. It moves through the Iraq detour, the black sites and the courier whose nickname finally led investigators to a three-story compound with no phone line, no internet and a tall man who paced the courtyard but never let a camera see his face. Then the hosts walk through the raid minute by minute, from the helicopter crash in the courtyard to the competing accounts of who fired the shots, and the White House story that changed in three days. Then come the questions the government never answered. Where is the proof? Why were no photos released? Why did no sailors watch the burial? The hosts rank the theories from believable to far-fetched and open the files from the compound itself, including the details that were never meant to become public. Whatever you believe happened that night, there’s one thing nobody has been shown.
Direct Channel Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5A3YsZkbstxMfUHHk4zb9t Direct Channel Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/9-11-stories/id6811119815 You’re running late. A phone call has put you half an hour behind, and you’re hurrying up Washington Street, trying to hail a cab. You’re forty years old, with a ten-month-old son at home and nearly ten years at Cantor Fitzgerald behind you. Your husband, Greg, is on the 84th floor of the South Tower. You push through the revolving doors of the North Tower and turn toward the elevators. Then the floor jolts beneath you. This is 9/11 Stories, real accounts of the people who lived it, so they’re never forgotten. Sponsored and Produced by The Conspiracy Podcast Your Host, Eric Racheff
www.patreon.com/theconspiracypodcast Eight parts. Ten hours. Thousands of documents, hearings, missed warnings and unanswered questions. Now it's time for the hosts to make the call. In the finale, Sean, Jorge and Eric each give an uninterrupted summation of everything the series covered, from the Cold War roots of Al-Qaeda to the morning the towers fell and the years of questions that followed. Patreon members voted on the speaking order. There's no banter and no tangents, just three hosts laying out what they believe happened on September 11th and why. They've spent months in the same evidence, and they've each landed somewhere. Do they agree? Where do they split? And whose case will make you rethink your own? If you haven't heard the rest of the series, go back to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and The Rise of Al-Qaeda, then start at Part 1. The summations build on everything that came before. You decide: Once you've heard all three, join the hosts in the After Hours and vote in the Spotify poll for the one you agree with most. Coming up: The War on Terror and The Hunt for Bin Laden.
Direct Channel Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5A3YsZkbstxMfUHHk4zb9t Direct Channel Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/9-11-stories/id6811119815 Jason Thomas had been off active duty in the Marine Corps for only a few weeks when the morning of September 11th began, and his uniform was still in the back of his truck. By the time the North Tower fell, he had put it on and driven into Manhattan with no orders and no plan, just his training and a city in trouble. Before the day was over, he and another Marine in uniform would walk into a section of the site that rescue crews had been pulled out of, calling into the smoke and listening for an answer. This is the story of Sergeant Jason Thomas. Sponsored and Produced by The Conspiracy Podcast Your Host, Eric Racheff
www.patreon.com/theconspiracypodcast The Fifth Plane? On the morning of September 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 23 sat in a line of jets at JFK, waiting to take off for Los Angeles. It was a fully fueled Boeing 767, the same aircraft type as two of the hijacked planes. Then the ground stop came, and it never left the ground. In Part 7 of the 9/11 series, Eric, Sean, and Jorge dig into the "fifth plane" theory. After a cockpit-intrusion warning came through, Captain Tom Mannello grabbed the crash ax and First Officer Carol Timmons barricaded the cockpit door with their own luggage. Flight attendants reported four passengers in first class who refused food and kept demanding to take off, along with a figure in a burqa they believed was a man in disguise. After the plane returned to the gate and emptied out, a flight attendant says she ran into two men hiding on board. Box cutters turned up on the 767 parked right next to it. The 9/11 Commission Report never mentions Flight 23. More than 20 years later, the FBI still refuses to release its files, citing a pending law enforcement proceeding. The guys also break down the strange case of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in a U.S. civilian court in connection with 9/11. He was arrested weeks before the attacks while training on a 747 simulator. He pleaded guilty, then took the stand and claimed he was meant to fly a fifth plane into the White House, then called his own testimony a fabrication. Was Flight 23 the fifth plane, or is this hindsight filling in the gaps?