BONUS: Give me a break! Is this the best product collab ever?

Missing Hiker Monica Reza - Don't let her case go cold

If you have information regarding missing hiker Monica Reza, contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) Homicide Bureau – Missing Persons Unit [https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Los+Angeles+County+Sheriff%E2%80%99s+Department+%28LASD%29+Homicide+Bureau+%E2%80%93+Missing+Persons+Unit&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&mstk=AUtExfCalCbjZ7qy6kd4delAWu-ga6n8I4S7BXe2kVCpO-6VJ6m-VTdrP-ELFnYoHoWbrkLg0PgfGE2RbR7g536Z1xgwNzEFjHgac8XHjDKIXsDKdzAenKCg_9nGFoua0s1-tuabA7M2k1SULprefdjj5sqe7aDQbjR5cfueikQ9fbhuB40&csui=3&ved=2ahUKEwilxJ2OuLGUAxUEkYkEHbaMKHwQgK4QegQIARAC] at (323) 890-5500. Detective Rincon or Detective Sanchez are leading the investigation, and you can also reach out to the Crescenta Valley Station [https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Crescenta+Valley+Station&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&mstk=AUtExfCalCbjZ7qy6kd4delAWu-ga6n8I4S7BXe2kVCpO-6VJ6m-VTdrP-ELFnYoHoWbrkLg0PgfGE2RbR7g536Z1xgwNzEFjHgac8XHjDKIXsDKdzAenKCg_9nGFoua0s1-tuabA7M2k1SULprefdjj5sqe7aDQbjR5cfueikQ9fbhuB40&csui=3&ved=2ahUKEwilxJ2OuLGUAxUEkYkEHbaMKHwQgK4QegQIARAD] at (818) 248-3464.  Today we are talking about a missing person's case out of LA County. Her family is begging for her disappearance to be remembered and revisited so that the investigation stays active. They want to know what happened to their loved one, Monica Jacinto Reza. The Details Monica Reza was a brilliant and fit 60 year old woman.  In the early morning hours of June 22nd, 2025, she'd dropped off her car at the house of one of two hiking companions, people she knew from the yoga studio she went to, and they carpooled to the trailhead near Mount Materman in the Angeles National Forest. As the crow flies, the trailhead is 30 miles from the city of angels.  Monica was an avid hiker, she might have been 60 years old, but she was lean and fit. As the three ascended, one of the companions, the only other female, decided to bail out. The elevation and aggressive climb didn't seem to agree with her. She told Monica and the male that she'd stick around the area and meet them on their descent. But that would be the last time she saw Monica. About 9am, Monica and the male summited Mount Waterman. The companion shared the photo of Monica there, and another taken some feet down from there beside a lightning-struck tree. That male wasn't in the photos, and none with him on the summit were ever released to the public. Neither was his name. Curiously, the male took off at a jogging pace down the mountain. And Monica Reza followed close behind. I say curiously, because seasoned hikers said the terrain on that part of the trail was too riddled with dead pine needles, too rocky and too steep to make jogging safe. But the metadata shows that's the pace they traveled. Before they'd reached their other companion, who still waited for them, the trail forked left and right. The male hiker told rescuers later that he signaled to Monica to take the right fork and she waved in return, seeming to understand the instruction.  And here's where Monica Reza went missing. He looked back ten or so minutes later, and Monica was no longer behind him. The male said he doubled back, calling for Monica, which their female friend reported hearing from below them, but still no Monica.  He looked around, called out and soon met up with the female companion. Alarmed, they kept looking and soon, by luck, ,encountered a group of five people, one of which was a regular volunteer for search and rescue.  By 11am, they'd reported Monica missing to authorities.  There was a multi-county, multi-jurisdiction response to the call. Soon people were combing the trail and mountainside. Search dogs were enlisted. A helicopter with FLIR was used. The takeaway is there was an immediate re Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/support] Support Curious Cat, an independent, human-made podcast! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/support] Anxious about AI? Take two minutes to contact your local politician and ask them to tap the brakes on this technology. Still worried? Contact one of the orgs below and get involved.  But for today, hug your kid, cook food and really breathe in deep as it simmers, walk in nature, brush a cat, donate to the food bank, brew a cup of tea, or draw a five-minute portrait of your dog.  ***Is AI the Devil? on Substack!*** [https://curiouscatpodcast.substack.com] Hero Organizations: 80,000 Hours [https://80000hours.org/] Center for Humane Technologies [https://www.humanetech.com/] State of Surveillance, an organization that helps foster online privacy [https://stateofsurveillance.org] Buy Curious Cat Podcast a Coffee! [https://buymeacoffee.com/curiouscatpodcast]

This one should be called a random hole...

But really there's no doom, just talk of, and brace yourself, Jesse's organic 'eggs' and Knight Rider and more. This week we begin with some pertinent end-of-life-planning information which somehow segues into talk of powdering 'eggs' which goes off the track fast. Soon Jesse is waxing nostalgic about Kit from Knight Rider and Jenn daydreams about David Hasselhoff's hair. Finally after six years of air time they cover the week's AI-related headlines. Kind of. Apologies to all of the storied, steadfast, legit journalists whose hard work is now associated with baby powder and nuts. And before the close, Jesse reveals the greatest website ever known to humankind. Article Links: Knight Rider, Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Rider_(1982_TV_series)] Musky's Grok being added to car dashboards [https://thenextweb.com/news/grok-carplay-voice-ai-dashboard] Ask Jeeves is GONE [https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/02/farewell-jeeves-ask-com-shuts-down/] The Greatest Website Ever Known to Humankind - and not for bubble-blowing babies! [https://www.realultimatepower.net/index4.htm]   Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/support] Support Curious Cat, an independent, human-made podcast! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/support] Anxious about AI? Take two minutes to contact your local politician and ask them to tap the brakes on this technology. Still worried? Contact one of the orgs below and get involved.  But for today, hug your kid, cook food and really breathe in deep as it simmers, walk in nature, brush a cat, donate to the food bank, brew a cup of tea, or draw a five-minute portrait of your dog.  ***Is AI the Devil? on Substack!*** [https://curiouscatpodcast.substack.com] Hero Organizations: 80,000 Hours [https://80000hours.org/] Center for Humane Technologies [https://www.humanetech.com/] State of Surveillance, an organization that helps foster online privacy [https://stateofsurveillance.org] Buy Curious Cat Podcast a Coffee! [https://buymeacoffee.com/curiouscatpodcast]

GATE Program Reports, Accounts & Recollections

Episode Intro If you went to elementary school in the 70s, 80s or 90s, do you remember being tested by a stranger, or group of strangers? Ever get pulled out for a special class with others from different grades? Made to drink something pink?  For whatever reason, right now many are remembering details of GATE programs. But who was behind these school programs? And what was their purpose?  Intro to GATE Memories Let your mind drift back, back, back to those innocent days of youth.  Picture the elementary school you attended. The teacher. Your friends. Recess. Did you play kickball? Or hopscotch? Or jump rope? Imagine your desk. Did it have that front load opening with a special well to hold your pencils? How about the pencil sharpener? Was it mounted to your teacher's desk at the front of the room? How did the classroom smell? Remember other details? Like Pirate paste that smelled like wintergreen. That ripe scent of bodies when the weather turned warm and all of your class was reassembled on the rug sitting criss-cross applesauce? I mention all this as precursor, because only you know what it felt like to live during those years. If you need to, pause this episode and write down your strongest recollections. I'm sure I missed lots. Like school lunches, did you bring your own in a sack or fancy lunchbox? Or did you turn in a paper ticket and receive a hot lunch in the cafeteria? What about the school library? Or gym? Any art projects you remember doing? And art supplies? What about those special classroom jobs? My teachers had a rotation that changed week to week.  Write down what you like. Make sure your thorough because we are going deeper in a second. Did you ever have a stranger in a suit or more than one come into your classroom to observe? Did the teacher explain that they were from a college in the area? Did they bring with them an oversized case with latches and a handle, and inside was equipment that included knobs and dials? Were you sent one by one to the back of the room and told to put on large headphones that plugged into the case? Asked to identify tones? I said, inside the classroom, but I remember a trailer, one of those mobile trailers, or portables, that they needed when schools outgrew the number of neighborhood kids.  Some people recall tanagrams, colorful shapes you'd manipulate to form larger shapes, like boats and such. Others remember cards, some say they were black and white, others remember colors with scenes on them. Slipped into envelopes, the tester encouraged children to visualize what was inside the envelope. Visualize. Visualize. Visualize.  There were other tests, too.  Weeks afterwards parents of a few kids might be notified that their child was going into the GATE program. GATE stands for Gifted and Talented Education, by the way. These programs were spun differently across the United States, but the letter home often used the word, "gifted" or "talented." Even the program itself had a different name depending on the school district. TAG, LEAP, Extended Learning Program, or in Richland, Washington - across from the Hanford Nuclear Reactor, they called their program ALPHA.  These were pull-out programs that met weekly, sometimes with more than one grade combined together. And in our school, Mark Twain Elementary (because by that time I'd moved to Pasco) and those kids were bussed in from schools across the district and convened in a portable beside the basketball courts.  What did they do in those GATE classes? Well, that's complicated. For many participants, the details remain hazy, at best. Some suffer memory loss about the entire program, while others in recent months, saw one of those black and white cards, or a photo of those clunky testing headphones, which rattled loose a few recollections. They remembered maps and strange activ Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/support] Support Curious Cat, an independent, human-made podcast! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/support] Anxious about AI? Take two minutes to contact your local politician and ask them to tap the brakes on this technology. Still worried? Contact one of the orgs below and get involved.  But for today, hug your kid, cook food and really breathe in deep as it simmers, walk in nature, brush a cat, donate to the food bank, brew a cup of tea, or draw a five-minute portrait of your dog.  ***Is AI the Devil? on Substack!*** [https://curiouscatpodcast.substack.com] Hero Organizations: 80,000 Hours [https://80000hours.org/] Center for Humane Technologies [https://www.humanetech.com/] State of Surveillance, an organization that helps foster online privacy [https://stateofsurveillance.org] Buy Curious Cat Podcast a Coffee! [https://buymeacoffee.com/curiouscatpodcast]

BONUS: Djinn and Tonic with Sam "The Skyguy"

We told you last week's interview with Sam "The Sky Guy" was pure fire. But after the lights went out and Jesse was super sauced, we got into supernatural stuff with our guest.  From Sam attending a djinn wedding to Jenn encountering one at a Kirkland grocery store to ways to increase your odds of encountering Bigfoot on a hiking trail, this is a delicious half hour. Links to our special guest: Sleep Paralysis episode of Curious Cat [https://curiouscat.buzzsprout.com/1966220/episodes/11161128] Want a reading from Sam "The Sky Guy" - then email him: skyguyreadings@gmail.com Sam "The Sky Guy" on Substack [https://substack.com/@skyguyreadings] Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/support] Support Curious Cat, an independent, human-made podcast! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/support] Anxious about AI? Take two minutes to contact your local politician and ask them to tap the brakes on this technology. Still worried? Contact one of the orgs below and get involved.  But for today, hug your kid, cook food and really breathe in deep as it simmers, walk in nature, brush a cat, donate to the food bank, brew a cup of tea, or draw a five-minute portrait of your dog.  ***Is AI the Devil? on Substack!*** [https://curiouscatpodcast.substack.com] Hero Organizations: 80,000 Hours [https://80000hours.org/] Center for Humane Technologies [https://www.humanetech.com/] State of Surveillance, an organization that helps foster online privacy [https://stateofsurveillance.org] Buy Curious Cat Podcast a Coffee! [https://buymeacoffee.com/curiouscatpodcast]

Sam the Sky Guy Reads Our Birth Charts (but not AI's because it is not alive)

In this episode of Curious Cat, Jenn and Jesse chat with a mysterious, underground figure (as described by our mutual friend, Rachel White) "Sam the Sky Guy”— aka Sam aka Skyguy [https://open.substack.com/users/313055140-sam-aka-skyguy?utm_source=mentions]. He keeps his details locked down because he has a real world job that might mix with the woo like oil does water. He read Jesse and Jenn's birth charts, and we have questions! Especially how our charts relate to each other and to AI.  But, folks. That's just the beginning to what is an instant classic. Topics we cover include: * Venus in Scorpio * Jesse's personal akashic record store * Sam's astrological gifts * Golden days at Booktrope and on socials * Hadron Collider * Krull and the word, 'craptastic' is coined * Polybius, that Portland, Oregon arcade game myth * Wayback Machine going, going, gone? * USB cable survivor tv show with tech bros * Old school vid/computer games including ZORK * Bubba Hotep * A memorial to Rowdy Roddy Piper complete with bagpipes (you're welcome) * and more *******Look for part two May 19th, Djinn and Tonic with Sam*******   Links to our special guest: Polybius - the mysterious arcade video game, Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius_(urban_legend)] Want a reading from Sam "The Sky Guy" - then email him: skyguyreadings@gmail.com Sam "The Sky Guy" on Substack [https://substack.com/@skyguyreadings] Jenn Sam’s Etsy link:   https://www.etsy.com/shop/EmptyNestMamaShop [https://www.etsy.com/shop/EmptyNestMamaShop] Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/fan_mail/new] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/support] Support Curious Cat, an independent, human-made podcast! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966220/support] Anxious about AI? Take two minutes to contact your local politician and ask them to tap the brakes on this technology. Still worried? Contact one of the orgs below and get involved.  But for today, hug your kid, cook food and really breathe in deep as it simmers, walk in nature, brush a cat, donate to the food bank, brew a cup of tea, or draw a five-minute portrait of your dog.  ***Is AI the Devil? on Substack!*** [https://curiouscatpodcast.substack.com] Hero Organizations: 80,000 Hours [https://80000hours.org/] Center for Humane Technologies [https://www.humanetech.com/] State of Surveillance, an organization that helps foster online privacy [https://stateofsurveillance.org] Buy Curious Cat Podcast a Coffee! [https://buymeacoffee.com/curiouscatpodcast]