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CLASSIC: Project A119: The Cold War Plan to Nuke the Moon! · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fill of ridiculous historians. We cannot thank you enough for
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: joining us. We're on the road. We wanted to bring
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: you a classic episode. We were hanging out recently with
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: our guest super producer, Matt the Madman Stillo.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Matt the bird Man Still.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Matt Double bird Still, and looking up at the lovely
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: evening that we were strolling along on the corniche, it
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: hit me, the moon has just gone too far.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: The moon really insists, It insists upon itself. It's always leering,
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: it's got it's changing up. You know, it's never consistent.
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  Speaker 3: Don't kill What is it even for moon?
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  Speaker 4: Who is it good for?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Absolutely?
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  Speaker 1: Gravity? Okay, if we must give credit where credit is due,
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  Speaker 1: but I think we could all agree, at least hypothetically,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: maybe we should take the Moon down.
• 1:01
  Speaker 5: Knot Yeah, the accent on the hype, because the moon
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: is nothing if not over hyped.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: I know, right.
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  Speaker 1: You know, As a child, one of my first dreams
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: was to be the first werewolf astronaut on the Moon.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I had this all figured out two you know, to
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  Speaker 1: the best of my ability. I learned that were wolves
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: aren't real, and I learned that it's difficult to get
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  Speaker 1: to the moon and I still have some resentment, and
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  Speaker 1: that's why we agree with Project A one one nine.
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  Speaker 4: What is that?
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  Speaker 1: And all?
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  Speaker 5: Well, the question also becomes did we actually wanted to
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  Speaker 5: put on our conspiracy caps?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Did we actually go to the Moon? I would argue yes,
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  Speaker 2: I think we both would.
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  Speaker 5: And are astronauts real or are they in the same
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  Speaker 5: eliminal space as leprechauns and Santa Claus and werewolves?
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  Speaker 1: Ah? Yes, well I have met astronauts or people who
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: say their astronauts. But perhaps that's a uh, perhaps I've
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  Speaker 1: been programmed by space Camp. Oh my gosh, you're rubbing
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: it in once again.
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  Speaker 2: I never got to go to space camp, but you
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: and Matt did. I did write a gyroscope once. Those
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: things are fun, but it was at a mall.
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  Speaker 1: That was basically like being okay, fair enough.
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  Speaker 5: But you were mentioning ben project A one one nine,
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  Speaker 5: the secret US plan.
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  Speaker 4: To nuke the Moon.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, take it down to notes, as you said, just.
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  Speaker 4: A true story.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we know, we are aware that there are
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  Speaker 1: a lot of drawing board ideas amid the boffins and
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  Speaker 1: eggheads of the US military and associated associated institutions. And
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: you know, I wonder how it happened. I wonder if
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: it was like a four to thirty PM on a
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  Speaker 1: Friday and everybody wanted to beat trash.
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  Speaker 2: Three martini lunch and.
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  Speaker 1: Then and then someone said, oh yeah, ideas ideas, ideas
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  Speaker 1: ideas ideas.
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  Speaker 4: The moon is.
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  Speaker 1: What is the thing that everyone can see? What is
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  Speaker 1: a thing we have that we want to like impress
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  Speaker 1: people with? Yeah? Nukes, nukes, moon done done.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And that's that's today's classic episode. We hope you enjoy it, folks.
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  Speaker 1: We will be back in the future once we get Stateside.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, tell us what you would do if
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  Speaker 1: you had a chance to blow.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: Up the movie?
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Let's roll that beautiful moon footage. Ridiculous History is a
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. Hey, Noel, you're a fan of Mister Show, right,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the old sketch comedy series. Not that old, is it's
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: It's you know, it's it's Mitre.
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah, god no, it makes me feel Oh that's just
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: probably about twenty years old now, but.
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  Speaker 4: It still holds up.
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  Speaker 2: It really does.
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  Speaker 4: Hey everyone, I'm Ben.
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  Speaker 1: This is Ridiculous History and we are joined, of course
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: with our super producer Casey Pegrim Casey or you.
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  Speaker 4: A fan of mister Show.
• 4:04
  Speaker 6: It's my favorite show ever?
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: Is that really?
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I love it.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: It's great.
• 4:09
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a very very influential show.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: I think he's been sincere.
• 4:12
  Speaker 6: I think being sincere love this show. Can't can't ease
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: up art, No, you should. You should beep yourself.
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: But yeah, it's great.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: That's Casey on the case.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: Wow that passion.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: He brought the gabble down on that one. My man,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: he sure did, he sure did. What does mister Show
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: have to do with this show?
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  Speaker 1: Oh? Good, and I'm so glad you asked.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: Well done. I think we should just play the clip.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Let's do it. Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 7: We have an announcement to make on July fourth this year,
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  Speaker 7: America will blow up the Moon. We have the technology,
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  Speaker 7: The time is now. Science can wait no longer. Children
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  Speaker 7: are our future. America can, should, must, and will blow
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  Speaker 7: up the moon. And we'll be doing it during a
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  Speaker 7: full moon, so we make sure.
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  Speaker 4: We get it all.
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  Speaker 1: So what you just heard was the beginning of a
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: sketch of Mister Show where in two guys from NASA announced,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: to great fanfare their plan to blow up the moon. Awesome, right,
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  Speaker 1: and it seems so ridiculous when when I first saw it,
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  Speaker 1: and I imagine when everybody else first saw it, we
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  Speaker 1: just assumed that these were brilliant comedy writers, which is true.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is true.
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  Speaker 5: And I don't even know if they were aware of
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  Speaker 5: this story, because I don't think it really came out
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  Speaker 5: until well after that episode was done, or at least. Yeah,
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  Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure that this would not have been widely
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: known information at the time, but yeah, sure enough. A
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  Speaker 5: handful of years ago, a physicist by the name of
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  Speaker 5: Leonard Rifle did an interview. He kind of spilled the
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  Speaker 5: beans on a little something called Project A one one nine,
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  Speaker 5: which was a Cold War era plot, not really a plot.
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  Speaker 5: It was more of like a weird nuclear or fireworks
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  Speaker 5: display to, yeah, shoot a nuclear missile into the moon
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  Speaker 5: to freak out the Russians.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: They wrapped it in a couple of slightly more scientific
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  Speaker 1: sounding terms. They called it a study of lunar research
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  Speaker 1: flights or something that would help in answering quote, some
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  Speaker 1: of the mysteries in planetary astronomy and astrogeology.
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  Speaker 2: And freak out the Russians.
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  Speaker 4: That was the main thing.
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  Speaker 1: They were like, you know what we should do, We
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  Speaker 1: should just make a clearly visible nuclear explosion on the
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  Speaker 1: moon because Russia can see it, and you know that'd
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  Speaker 1: be cool. Yeah, that was their planning phase. Carl Sagan
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  Speaker 1: was in on it. He was a wee young type
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  Speaker 1: when this was happening. I think he was still in
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  Speaker 1: school at the time. This was in nineteen fifty eight,
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  Speaker 1: and as you said, Noel, this did not come out
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  Speaker 1: until two thousand. The documents detailing the project were secret
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: for a little less than forty five years, and even
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  Speaker 1: today the US government does not recognize this. They don't
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  Speaker 1: officially admit it because it sounds so ridiculous.
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and that Mister Show probably was in like what
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: the late nineties, Oh wow, casey.
• 7:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's like mid mid to late nineties.
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  Speaker 4: They didn't know.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, total parallel thinking.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Good job Bob oden Kirk and David Cross and the
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: team of writers who made that show possible.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah. You know the way people say headlines today, you
• 7:27
  Speaker 6: can't tell if it's like the Onion or not. Yeah,
• 7:29
  Speaker 6: there's been numerous times where Mister Show is like eerily
• 7:32
  Speaker 6: predicted the future.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: You were going, you were doubling down on Mister Show,
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  Speaker 1: my friend.
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  Speaker 5: Now we got a second installment of Casey on the case, right,
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  Speaker 5: so so blessed today.
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  Speaker 1: I know we're doubling up, right, We're case Rich, We're
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Casey Rich. My grinch heart just grew three sizes.
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  Speaker 2: I can see it in the little frame and just
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  Speaker 2: burst out in your chest.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Still pretty dark though. Doctor Leonard Rifle was I believe
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  Speaker 1: seventy three when he gave this interview in two thousands,
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  Speaker 1: that's correct. Yeah, And he says himself that despite their
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  Speaker 1: stated aims on paper quote, it was clear that the
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  Speaker 1: main name of the proposed detonation was a pr exercise
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  Speaker 1: and a show of one upsmanship. The Air Force wanted
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  Speaker 1: a mushroom cloud so large it would be visible on
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  Speaker 1: Earth because the US, according to their own estimations, was
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  Speaker 1: lagging behind in.
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  Speaker 4: The space race.
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  Speaker 2: Was he like from chap equitic or something?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he was a it just want to,
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  Speaker 1: you know, spice up the voice a little bit.
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  Speaker 4: Like believable way I like it?
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  Speaker 2: No, I was there with you.
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  Speaker 5: And so this whole idea of what upsmanship though, Ben,
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  Speaker 5: this was a theme. This is kind of what the
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  Speaker 5: Cold War was all about, right, because it was like
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  Speaker 5: we got nukes, you got nukes. Who's gonna do what first,
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  Speaker 5: you know, we're going to develop a nuclear submarine. We're
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  Speaker 5: going to develop a nuclear submarine. I think I read
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  Speaker 5: in one of these thinking the Vice article by Harry
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  Speaker 5: Cheetle that at one point the US was considering developing
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  Speaker 5: a nuclear power spaceship. And the thing was, we weren't
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  Speaker 5: doing so hot in the space race because Sputnik was
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  Speaker 5: a thing, right, and we had not yet gone to
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  Speaker 5: the Moon, and so we were desperately kind of trying
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  Speaker 5: to scrabble for purchase and showing our might over the
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  Speaker 5: Russians in some way.
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  Speaker 2: What better way to do that than to shoot a
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  Speaker 2: missile at the Moon.
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  Speaker 1: It must have got crazy in that pitch media i've been,
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  Speaker 1: you know what it does sound like it was. It
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: was something along those lines of people just stuck.
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  Speaker 2: In a room.
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  Speaker 1: So this this research conduct the team that we're talking about,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, there were ten people in it that
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  Speaker 1: were led by Leonard Rifle at the Illinois Institute of
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  Speaker 1: Technology in Chicago, and what they were tasked was studying
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  Speaker 1: was the potential visibility of the explosion and he benefits
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  Speaker 1: to science and as well implications for the lunar surface.
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  Speaker 5: Now, Carl Sagan was just kind of in the camp
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  Speaker 5: of the benefits to science segment. I believe he was
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  Speaker 5: looking at the way dust particles would they know. Maybe
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  Speaker 5: that was more about how it would look, maybe a
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  Speaker 5: combination of the two.
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  Speaker 4: I think it was.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, because you're spot on. He was attempting to build
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  Speaker 1: a mathematical projection of how a dust cloud in space
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  Speaker 1: around the Moon would work, and whether that would obscure
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  Speaker 1: the visibility of the explosion. That was one of the
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  Speaker 1: big questions. So it was both the implication for the
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  Speaker 1: surface of the Moon.
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  Speaker 4: And the visibility.
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  Speaker 1: Initially they said, let's use a hydrogen bomb, but the
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  Speaker 1: problem was from the Air Force perspective that a hydrogen
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  Speaker 1: bomb was going to be too heavy to be useful.
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  Speaker 1: So then they tried to use a small lightweight warhead
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  Speaker 1: that had a one point seven kiloton yield.
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  Speaker 5: This is when they had developed intercontinental ballistic missiles, right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, ICBMs, So hitting the Moon with with the right
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  Speaker 1: type of missile is not as tough.
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  Speaker 4: It's just the big question is will it be visible?
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  Speaker 5: No, I mean there is no doubt from reading these
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  Speaker 5: interviews with Rifle that this was within the realm of
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  Speaker 5: possibility to accomplish. There was, of course that slightly nagging
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: concern of what if there's a malfunction and the rocket
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  Speaker 5: kind of crashes back into Earth or like slingshots off
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  Speaker 5: the moon or something like that. Right, yeah, certainly rife
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  Speaker 5: with potential problems.
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  Speaker 2: But what happened next?
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  Speaker 1: So at this point they're still evaluating this and they
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  Speaker 1: think they've come up with a plan. So just for contrast,
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  Speaker 1: this warhead that they decide to use, the W twenty five,
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  Speaker 1: it is a very low yield one point seven kilotons,
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  Speaker 1: I said, for comparison, Little Boy, the bomb that was
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  Speaker 1: dropped over Hiroshima in nineteen forty five was between thirteen
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  Speaker 1: and eighteen kilotons, So this is not as big as
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  Speaker 1: bombs we've already dropped here on planet Earth. They thought, okay,
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  Speaker 1: we can hit it at the dark side of the moon,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the hidden side of the moon. The dust cloud from
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  Speaker 1: the explosion will be lit up by the sun and
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  Speaker 1: you can see that from Earth. And due to, as
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  Speaker 1: you said, the development of ICBMs, they believe that they
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  Speaker 1: could make this launch feasible by next year, by nineteen
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  Speaker 1: forty nine.
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  Speaker 2: How big is the moon, man? How big is the moon? I?
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  Speaker 4: Have a feeling. Wait, how big is it?
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  Speaker 5: The Moon's actually only six seven hundred and eighty six
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  Speaker 5: miles in circumference, whereas the Earth is twenty four nine
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  Speaker 5: hundred and one miles. So the reason I'm asking this, Yeah,
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  Speaker 5: it's all very silly questions, but you know, I would
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  Speaker 5: think couldn't this like cause problems with like the tides
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  Speaker 5: and stuff? I mean, it isn't the Moon responsible for
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: regulating the tides? And if you damaged it or I
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  Speaker 5: don't know, I mean, I guess the nuclear blast wouldn't
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: blow up the Moon.
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  Speaker 2: That's a misnomer. It would ouse a big old crater.
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  Speaker 4: I looked into this.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So first off, we know that they just wanted
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  Speaker 1: to make a visual splash.
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  Speaker 2: They just wanted to scare the Moon a little bit.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Right, right, But if they attempted to actually blow it up,
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  Speaker 1: it would take much much, much more than the nuclear
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  Speaker 1: armaments that we currently possess, or especially that we possess
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  Speaker 1: then people have estimated the first off, to blow up
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the Moon, you would need six hundred thousand of the
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: largest atomic weapons ever built, the Sarbamba, the Soviet RDS
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: two twenty hydrogen bomb. It's the most powerful explosive that's
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: ever been detonated ever by humankind back in nineteen sixty one.
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  Speaker 1: We'd need six hundred thousand of those. Not only would
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: we need six hundred thousand, we couldn't shoot them from Earth.
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  Speaker 1: We would have to dig into the moon, distribute them evenly,
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  Speaker 1: and then detonate them, which would take centuries. Nobody's going
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  Speaker 1: to do that. That is a scale of international cooperation
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: that has never existed, or.
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: Like something like some kind of a fictional supervillain might
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: consider doing.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like a doctor Doom thing.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: But this did remind me of something we were talking
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: about off air that we thought you would enjoy, fellow
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: ridiculous historians. The author Neil Stevenson in the book Seven
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Eves takes a hard sci fi look at what would
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: happen if the Moon actually exploded, and he does it
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: in a way that is not a spoiler for the book,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: for the plot of the book. Rather, so, I think
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: we're okay to read this, but if you consider these
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: things spoilers, then this is your official warning. Noel, can
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you help me out with a spoiler countdown?
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Three A, two A one A spoiler time.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, So the first sentence of Neil Stevenson's seventies is
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: the Moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: That's how the novel starts. But what people quickly find
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: is that when the Moon blows up, pieces of it
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: remain and they start falling toward Earth. So in the
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: story seventives, the Moon breaks up into about seven more
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: or less equal size pieces, and for a while they
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: just orbit Earth. But then two of the pieces collide
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: and that causes a fragment that makes future collisions more likely,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: and it keeps repeating at an exponentially growing rate until
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Earth is under this constant bombardment from meteorites and they
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: wipe out almost all life. The sky is a blaze
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: d it's intense. So it's not a good idea for
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: us to blow up the Moon, just in case anyone
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: was on the fence about that. But one thing I
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: thought that that was interesting too is the idea that
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: just detonating a nuclear device, even a relatively small one,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: on the Moon, could have effects on certain aspects of it. Right,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I don't believe that single missile deployed from Project A
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: one one nine would be powerful enough to alter orbit,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: or maybe I'm just being hopeful. I hope it wouldn't
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: me too, Ben, me too.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: But Ben, did you read that the Russians had a
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: counterplan to blow up the Moon.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: I'm just gonna keep calling it blowing up the moons.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: It just sounds way more.
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: It's way more fun detonating a nuclear device on the
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: surface of the Moon.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Well, what's the what's the Russian equivalent? What were they
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: kicking rounds?
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Well?
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: Ben, the Russians plan, according to a cool article in
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: the New York Post, called USA and USSR plan to
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: nuke the Moon out of existence.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: That's a little hyperbolic there, I like it.
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: Theirs was called Project E four, and their idea was
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: to hit the Moon with their own missile. But there were,
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: you know, same pitfalls as our issue, and this this
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: fear that the missile could like boomerang off the Moon
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: and you know, come back and hit the hit the Earth,
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: or that it could you know, malfunction in mid flight
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: and fall down on the heartland Missouri or something like that.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Who knows.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: This is just the dumbest or Moscow Cold war competition.
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: Ever, No, it's it's it's as you would like to
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: put it, cartoonish, Ben, Yeah, really, it's like some seriously
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: Leney Tunes bananas business.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Now, in the USSR's defense, they sort of eased into it.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I'm saying that because this was part of a series
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: of proposals, all of which bore the code name E Project.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: E one was just like, here's how we're going to
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: reach the moon. E two and E three were like, okay,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: once we reach it, here's how we send a probe
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: to the dark side of the moon to take some photos.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: And then E four was like, here's how, stay with me,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: we launch a nuke at the moon. And who knows,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: maybe it was another room of ten people just walking
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: around going yeah, yeah, that's great, that's great.
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: Okay, it proves good. But you know what we should
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: do you know what I mean.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: I do know what you mean, Ben, I do know
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: what you mean.
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: And you know, it'd be pretty cool to go outside
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: and have like a moment with the family. We're like
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: kind of like watching an eclipse, you know, where you
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: watch the mushroom cloud appearing on the moon. That'd be
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: pretty intense. But I think you would really instill some
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: national pride in US. You know that we're smart country
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: who does smart things.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: While we for good reasons, Yeah, while we were still
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: able to think those things right.
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: Well, the Vice article makes a really good point about
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: how like, in the same way, we're experimenting with drones
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: so much and everyone's just so hot for the new
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: technology that we have now militaristically that the generals and
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: the folks in charge of the time were really into
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: exploring the power of nuclear energy.
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I think that's a great point too. You know, everybody's
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: so so excited about this new technology. I mean, look
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: at all the ridiculous things that we are attempting to
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: do with drones, both in the commercial and private and
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: public service sphere. But you know what's most disturbing to
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: me about this story with Project A one one nine,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: it's not that it didn't happen. It's that the head
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: scientist isn't sure why it never came to fruition. That's
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: in the Vice article as well. He says he was
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: horrified that such a gesture to sway public opinion was
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: ever considered. And we've, you know, on a couple of
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: different shows here at Houstuff Works, you and I both
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: have dove headfirst into very strange plans by Uncle Sam
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: to do one ridiculous thing or another.
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: What was it.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: There was the bat bomb, there was the cybercat spy,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: there was the what they called the gay bomb. They
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: had some terrible ideas.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true.
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: I mean there's certainly been a lot of hair brain
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: schemes throughout Militi history, and this was one that I
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: was not personally aware of. It one of the hair brainbyests.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Well, let's say that you are listening to this episode
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: and you have you.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: Have been sold on the idea.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: You respectfully disagree with your pals here at ridiculous history,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: and you say, you know what, I've thought about it,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: and we should blow up the Moon. We should at
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: least try our best to knock the crap out of
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: it a couple of times with some nukes.
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: I mean, the Moon's got to come and look at
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: that face. It's got the most punishable face. It only
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: just pushes. It's just pushing. I like how we're anti
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: moon out?
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, the Moon? You ever seen the mighty boosh?
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: I have you know the Moon? It's like, I'm the Moon.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: He's kind of an idiot.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Well, I you know, I didn't deserve to get nuked.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Though it does not deserve to get nuked. No one does.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: And that's why for those of us who support the
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: plan to blow up the Moon, today may be a
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: tough day. This might be a tough episode because you see,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: not only did the project never come to fruition, but
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: it will probably not happen for the immediate to mid
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: future because in nineteen sixty seven, the United Nations Outer
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Space Treaty banned the use of nukes in space, making
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: any study of nuking the Moon illegal.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Nukes in space.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: The heady days of the fifties to the early sixties,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: that's true.
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: So now we know why there is still a moon.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: That's great, that's a great point.
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: It's all the trash I've been talking about the moon.
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: I'm kind of glad to have it.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: That is nice.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: I love it.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: And we recently had a blood moon as we recorded
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: this episode.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: Did you catch that?
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Did you do any weird pagan rituals that night? Then?
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Nan, just the normal, normal, normal rituals. And so that
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: is our story of the moon.
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: I know it's a little light, but you know what
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: it was. It was self contained. We hit all the boxes.
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: We talked about blowing up the moon. You guys, you
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: got to hear mister show clip. What more do you
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: want from us? How about a little listener now?
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, so our first one comes from Kimia in and
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Kamira wrote to us and said, howdy, I enjoyed the
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: podcast by I tend to skip around to random episodes.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Only started listening earlier this year, so there's still a
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: lot of backlog.
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: For me too. I think we only started making this
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: earlier this year.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: Has it been that long?
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know how long it's been that short? Casey,
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: how long have we been doing this show?
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: How long have we been sitting in this room?
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: Let's see the first episode came out October twenty fourth,
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: twenty seventeen.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: Whoa, so it's been a minute. It's almost a year,
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: look at us.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Well anyway, so Kimira says, I just listened to your
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: recent Napoleon Bunnies episode. The bunny story was totally hilarious
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: and I had to relate it to several of my friends.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: But Os is super charmed with the anecdote about Napoleon's
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: maybe crush on the Czar and people shipping them. Since
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: you said you were curious and thick about the two
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: of them, I went splunk and sure enough something came up.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Although several of them were in languages other than English,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: it does seem it's much more popular to ship Napoleon
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: with Arthur Wellesley. Though fick writers do love them, some
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: hate shipping. Anyhow, Here are the fix I did find
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: when Napoleon Alexander that were in English, not that I
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: have read them fullier can vouchul quality haha. And she
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: posted one of these fan fiction links, and then she
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: posted a sequel, and then she posted another another fan
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: fiction and says in this one quote, Napoleon Bonaparte works
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: at Thomas Jefferson's strip club and falls for his coworker
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Arthur Wellesley, though it says it contained some Napoleon alex
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: stuff as well. I loved your episode on the history
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: of Mooning, which I listened to earlier tonight. Thanks again
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: for producing such an enjoyable podcast, Kamira. Thank you for
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: checking out the show and doing that research for us.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: I will you know, I'm going to go out and
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: live and say this stuff probably isn't my thing, but
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I am going to read through to see if there
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: is one that is safe for work, and if it is.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: We'll go ahead and post it on ridiculous historians.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: What do you think have you.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Seen that Ben? A NOL fanfit this floating right out there?
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: I have not. I have not.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Did you write it pretty steamy?
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: Did you write it?
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: No?
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Maybe there's not?
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: Though, right, there's not.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna say, oh man, the tension.
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: Okay, who's next?
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Next? We have a quick one from Rex Wesley R.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Great name.
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: He just says, had to chime in on some listener
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: mail you got about accents. As someone who was raised
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: in both Georgia and California, I was usually told I
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: had one when I was in California, but when I
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: was in Georgia, I would get grief for not having one.
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: I have not lived in the South for many years
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: now and have lost it until I have had some drinks.
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: So kind of along the same lines what we talked about, then,
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: it seems to come out out with a vengeance.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Thanks for the show, Rex, Yeah, I saw that as well.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Rex, And I imagine that you
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: are not alone in that experience there.
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: I've seen.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I've got some friends who sound pretty neutral in their
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: American accents, but if they have a couple of drinks
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: or a couple of glasses of wine. They sound like
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Boston townies like that.
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: Okay, I had to bring this one up because I
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: think you've seen this too, BIM. But this is really interesting.
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: It's called thoughts on the Malleure Wildlife Refuge. I mean,
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: I'm still flummx on the pronunciation of that. Now I'm
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: gonna say Mallear the Malleur Wildlife Refuge episode plus a
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: little blink one of you too, says, Hey, guys, love
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: the podcast.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: And many others that you have your hands in.
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: If you can make it all the way to the
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: end of this email, you shall find a funny nugget
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: regarding an episode from one of your other shows.
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: Way way point of order.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: I thought we were reading short ones.
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna summon I'm gonna summarize this one. It's mainly
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: because it's like some bullet point.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: I think this is a great one.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: I think it's very interesting.
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: It says I just finished your episode on the Wildlife
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: Refuge and felt compelled to immediately write you.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: I imagine you've gotten some thoughts about this.
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: We have indeed got some thoughts on this one, but
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: I'd like to throw my two cents in because I believe,
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: in the absolute core of my being in the importance
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: of preservation of all protected land in the US, and
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: I suppose because of this, I felt this episode surprisingly
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: problematic and scary. I will try not to make this
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: too long, but a couple of points that are burning
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: behind my eyeballs. Once a way to remove protections is found,
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: this opens up a disastrous can of worms that could
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: spiral out of control, especially under this administration. First, it's
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: as innocent seeming as letting cow's grays, and the next
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: thing you know, someone's figured out how to get oil
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: out of Yosemite. Secondly, preserving the biodiversity of ecosystems surrounding
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: farm land is essential to being able to farm that land.
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: I hate to be a cliche, but it is quite
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: literally a delicate balance, and once that is disrupted, that
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: domino effect would absolutely lead to problems with the plants
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: and animals that farmers rely on. What's the solution? Sustainable
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: and responsible farming practices. Use the land responsibily rather than
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: barrel through and then ask for more.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Look at Easter Island, for example.
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: The running theory is that the people on that island
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: used up every last resource they had, and then they
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: pretty much all died or left because they couldn't sustain
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: themselves anymore.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Bad plan. Those are really the points that I wanted
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: to get to.
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: I think this is really interesting and something we did
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: not really discuss in the episode the idea of the benefits.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: We discussed some of the sure pitfalls.
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: Of some of this preservation, but not so much maintaining
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: that biodiversity.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: I think that ecosystem point is essential, and I'm really
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: glad we got that on air. I think this is
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: also worth it. Elise, I think you have a great
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: story about Tom DeLong.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: You want to do that one? Ben?
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: Sure?
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, So Alise, you say about five years ago,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: I just moved to LA I went to one of
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: their last concerts as the former Blink one two. A
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Palma was their agent at the time. So after the show,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: a handful of us went to the green room for
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: post show business stuff or whatever it is they do.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: We PLoP down for a BS sesh. It's cool phrase
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: in Tom's dressing room and I saw the stack of
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: space books and the TV was just playing loops of
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: space videos. At some point, knowing Tom's affinity for aliens.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I began to ask about what was on the TV
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: and was immediately met with a chorus of no no, no
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: no no no.
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: No no no no no no no no no no
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: from everyone there who knew him.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: They said, do not get him started on space.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: So at least goes on to say she managed to
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: avoid that. But Tom DeLong was a really nice guy
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: and a little bit weird, but overall very endearing. So
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: this was a great letter with some important points, some
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: amusing anecdotes, and to explain for anybody who hasn't checked
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: out our other shows, stuff they don't want you to know.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: We recently did an episode on Tom DeLong, who has
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: quit Blink one eight two to pursue his beliefs about
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: unidentified aerial phenomenon full time time. That sounds about right.
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: It does sound about right, and it also sounds like
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: the other guys in Blink one and E too. We're
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: kind of being bullies to poor Tom, So you know,
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: let that boy have his space.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this concludes our listener mail, but not our show.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Let us know what other strange, secret, hopefully hilarious cold
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: war plans you have happened across in your neck of
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: the Global Woods. It doesn't have to be just us stuff.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: We would love to hear weird plan from Australia, New
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Zealand wherever. You can make these suggestions on Ridiculous Historians,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: our Facebook page, on our Instagram, on our Twitter. You
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: can email us directly where we are ridiculous at HowStuffWorks
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: dot com.
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: As always, we'd like to thank our super producer Casey Pegram,
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: Alex Williams, who composed our theme. Christopher hasiotis our researcher extraordinari,
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: and we'd like to thank you.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: See you next time.
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.