The Basement: Joseph Matheny | The Man Who Hacked Reality Before the Internet Existed

The Basement: Joseph Matheny | The Man Who Hacked Reality Before the Internet Existed

For a limited time, our listeners get 50% off FOR LIFE, Free Shipping, AND 3 Free Gifts at Mars Men at https://Mengotomars.com [https://mengotomars.com/]. Get 25% off Cowboy Colostrum with code WHYFILES at https://cowboycolostrum.com/WHYFILES [https://cowboycolostrum.com/WHYFILES]. Joseph Matheny invented something in 1989 that nobody had a name for yet. He called it a story. The internet called it the first alternate reality game. The Navy called him to ask how he did it. He turned them down. Tonight he's in the basement explaining how he built an early AI, game-mastered Robert Anton Wilson at Esalen, and why QAnon looks so familiar to him. Some things are better understood when you know how the trick works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

The Forbidden Theory of Morphic Resonance

Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/why [https://shopify.com/why] Start your risk-free Greenlight trial today at https://greenlight.com/why [https://greenlight.com/why] Find support and have someone with you in therapy—sign up and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/whyfiles [https://betterhelp.com/whyfiles] . #ad Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at https://RocketMoney.com/thewhyfiles [https://rocketmoney.com/thewhyfiles] In 1920, a Harvard scientist put rats in a water maze. It took 165 tries before they learned which exit was safe. Thirty generations later, rats were solving the same maze in 20 tries. Rats on a different continent — with no connection to the original colony — started at 25. The knowledge had spread. No one could explain how. A Cambridge biochemist named Rupert Sheldrake spent years studying cases like this — rats, birds, crystals, dogs, and humans — all showing the same pattern. His conclusion got his book called the best candidate for burning in modern scientific history. Then someone stabbed him for it. The evidence is stranger than it sounds, and the implications are hard to ignore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

The Basement: Luke Caverns | LiDAR Is Revealing Ancient Cities the Amazon Was Hiding

Go to https://nicnac.com/whyfiles and use code WHYFILES for 20% off, or use the store locator to find Nic Nacs near you. Get your free, 30-second personalized assessment TODAY at https://PDSDebt.com/BASEMENT The Basement: Luke Caverns | LIDAR Is Revealing Ancient Cities the Amazon Was Hiding Luke Caverns is an anthropologist and explorer who's mapped over 80 ancient archaeological sites using LIDAR — sites that don't appear on any map. His grandfather found and lost seven gold mines in New Mexico. Luke found them again. Now he's planning the largest LIDAR scan ever done in the Amazon. We also go deep into Alexander the Great's missing body, the Were Jaguar cults of the Olmecs, and the Minoan civilization that may have been Atlantis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

The Basement: Rizwan Virk | The Simulation Hypothesis, Quantum Physics & Mysticism

Rizwan Virk built games downloaded millions of times, invested early in Discord, and taught at MIT. Then he put on a VR headset in Sausalito and nearly fell over reaching for a table that didn't exist. That five-second moment sent him down a rabbit hole connecting quantum physics, Eastern mysticism, and video game design — and he's not sure he's found the bottom yet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

The Machines Are Watching You | And They Know Everything (Compilation)

Secret listening posts sit inside ordinary buildings in major cities. Numbers stations still broadcast coded messages over shortwave radio — and no one officially admits why. This compilation traces the full arc of modern surveillance, from hidden urban infrastructure and sonic weapons to subliminal influence campaigns and a computer virus that nearly started a world war. Havana Syndrome left diplomats with brain injuries and no official explanation. A wire encircles New York City that most residents have never heard of. And at the end of it all sits the quantum computer — a machine powerful enough to crack every encrypted secret humanity has ever kept. Nothing stays hidden forever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]