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Hey guys, it's Lance Bass from Frosted Tips, AJ McLean, and I recently hit the Vegas Speedway to test drive the Hyundai IONIQ 5N before the iHeartRadio Music Festival.We have an awesome episode recapping our experience out now.
Take a listen, and thanks to Hyundai for making this possible. AJ, please explain what we just experienced.
I mean, it has been literally like a bucket list experience for me to go on a track and to just drive fast.And we got to do that today in the new IONIQ 5N, which literally... It doesn't stand for NSYNC, by the way.
No, it does not stand for NSYNC.I thought they did, but it didn't.
This episode is presented by Hyundai.
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The similarities and differences between humans and other animals have long been a source of philosophical conundrum.
Since the time of the Abrahamic religions, when the god of the Book of Genesis told Adam he would have dominion over all the animals in his kingdom, many assume unquestionably that humans are superior to other species.
As if, by somehow having a broader awareness of our earthly surroundings, we have permission to take charge of all living things, that they, in some ways, are here simply for our sustenance and gratification.
Some point to certain characteristics as a way of differentiating ourselves.The supposedly uniquely human imperative towards art,
the facility to communicate in languages which have grammatical rules far more complex than other animals, that we walk upright on two feet, rendering us mobile in a way that few other animals can mimic, freeing our hands for using tools and allowing us to better conserve our energy.
And yet, With Charles Darwin's explosive theory of evolution outlined in The Origin of the Species, since 1859 many began to question the received wisdom that we are masters of our space.
One thing human beings continue to share with other animals is a sense of territorialism.
We see it on programs narrated by the likes of David Attenborough about the natural world, in the predominantly male species of lions or stags fighting with one another to be crowned alpha of the herd.
In astonishing observations made by scientists in Thai National Park in southwestern Côte d'Ivoire, for example,
Chimpanzees are recorded utilising distinctly human-like warfare tactics such as the use of hillside terrain for reconnaissance and weapons.
It can be amusing, therefore, or disturbing, to see these similarities reframed by certain human beings as high-minded or politically expedient, predestined even, when territorialism is used to whip up anger in instances of political rhetoric.
or when invasion narratives are used to justify acts of violence in the name of protecting a state or territory.
It is perhaps for this reason that invasion narratives have long been used as a staple of the science fiction and horror genres in particular, since they play into humanity's more animalistic tendencies when it comes to territorialism.
When we recognise our true animal nature, we see our inclination for territorialism for what it is, which is to say, an entirely natural impulse, instinctively driven by fear and the will to survive.
Perceived threats to the family, threat to the colony, threat to food supplies, harvests, the prevailing political order, or even, as in HG Wells' classic The War of the Worlds,
Threat to the species itself will engender a shift toward territorialism whereby, just when we might need them most, our base animal tendency will override the one thing we might actually justifiably hold as something unique to human beings.
Our ability to think rationally and abstractly beyond our primal impulses
Historically, one of the most striking examples of humanity's capacity for territorialism came in the form of the series of witch panics which swept across England, Scotland, Europe, and other parts of the so-called New World during the late 17th century.
It is testament to the political turbulence of the time that figures such as self-appointed Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins, as discussed in Season 2, Episode 2's Time Out of Joint,
were able to ascend to positions of relative power in England, all because of a perceived threat to the status quo.
And yet, despite sharing some of the same fear-led impulses as invasion narratives, stories about witches and demons also offer something quite unique.
not just because of what they say about historical attitudes toward women and minorities as examples of individuals considered by those in power to be different and unknown, and therefore fair game to be scapegoated, but because the supposed invasion meant to be taking place is almost always embedded within a community.
Territorialism leads naturally to paranoia and is a zero-sum game.In order to justify the fear being whipped up, an antagonist must be identified.
And so when all external threats have finally been exhausted, there is nowhere left to turn except toward members of your own community.
It is no accident, for example, that Arthur Miller's most famous play, The Crucible, ostensibly set during the Salem witch trials, was written and performed in the aftermath of the mid-20th century Red Scare in the United States.
Miller was explicit in drawing the connections which he saw as an indictment of Cold War hysteria as much as it was a fable about the foundation of violence on which his country was built.
The story of the Gloucester invasions during the summer of 1692 is perhaps the most interesting example of North American witch hysteria, precisely because it seems to explicitly marry together the most terrifying elements from within the invasion narrative.
that the newly settled New England outpost of Massachusetts viewed itself at war with enemies both within and without, and, as we shall see, people were often at a loss to distinguish between them.
You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith. In Massachusetts, America, July 1692, strange things are afoot.In Salem Village, eleven women and one man are languishing in jail as they await trial, accused of perpetrating witchcraft.
One, Bridget Bishop, had already been executed.20 miles away to the north, in the small village of Cape Anne, an unseasonable warmth seemed to tighten its grip around the usually mild seaside location.
During this time of year, crops were being cultivated for harvest and 25-year-old renowned local family man and small estate holder Ebenezer Babson felt positive that the weather signalled good things for his maize.
God fearing above all things, however, Ebenezer knew only too well that the weather was prone to change, and so he concentrated his energies on making sure there was an ample store of food for what would surely be another blistering winter.
But the work was proving a little harder than usual, because that July, Ebenezer and his family, including his widowed mother Eleanor, had not been sleeping well. It started with the children crying out in terror one night.
Babson ran to their bedroom to find them shaking with fear in their beds, claiming they could hear noises in the cottage.
They said it was almost as if a person, or persons, was walking freely around the humble property, laughing and making merry, and even rifling through the kitchen cupboards.
God-fearing though he was, Ebenezer also possessed a fiercely practical streak.He reasoned that the disturbances were likely something to do with the local wildlife or, more possibly, a figment of his children's imagination.
He told them to try and ignore it and get back to sleep before returning himself to bed.But the strange disturbances continued.
Over the next few nights, the children continued to claim that something was in the house with them, moving around at night.
Finding no outward reason why his children would lie to him, while out in the field one day, Ebenezer privately began to wonder if his house was being stalked by Native American hunting parties.
He'd heard of such things taking place down in Maryland and thought that, if it were happening to them, as the man of the house, it was his job to defend it.
this being a time before law enforcement or even the comfort of neighbours who lived anywhere nearby.For now though, he tried to put the thought out of his mind.There was work to be done while the weather was still good.
When the sun went down, he finished up for the day and made his way back to the cottage.All things considered, it had been a solid day's work and he allowed himself a smile at the thought of another job well done.
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Richard Bandler revolutionized the world of self-help all thanks to an approach he developed called neuro-linguistic programming.Even though NLP worked for some, its methods have been criticized for being dangerous in the wrong hands.
Throw in Richard's dark past as a cocaine addict and murder suspect, and you can't help but wonder what his true intentions were. I'm Sachi Cole.
And I'm Sarah Hagee.And we're the hosts of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims, and what's left once the facade falls away.
We recently dove into the story of the godfather of modern mental manipulation, Richard Bandler, whose methods inspired some of the most toxic and criminal self-help movements of the last two decades.
Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.You can listen to Scamfluencers and more Exhibit C true crime shows like Morbid and Kill List early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+.
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By the time Ebenezer returned home, it was pitch black.As he approached the cottage, candlelight flickered from inside the windows.
As he drew nearer, for a moment, he fancied that he could see silhouettes moving across them on the outside of the house.That strange, the children must surely be in bed by now.
As he got closer, he made out the shape of two men, both of whom seemed to have just stepped down from the wooden porch.Who goes there?he called out, which seemed to startle them.
When he trekked further down the path, they seemed then to immediately bolt into one of the nearby cornfields.Ebenezer ran into the house, demanding to know from his wife who'd been calling at such an hour.
With a look of confusion, she assured him that no one had been calling and neither had she heard anyone outside.
With this, Ebenezer became even more concerned and returned instantly to the private fear he'd been harboring all day – that his house was now the target of a Native American hunting party.
With no explanation to his wife about what had been troubling him, Ebenezer seized his long-arm flintlock from above the fireplace and tore off in search of the elusive intruders.Ebenezer headed straight into the cornfields.
He knew them like the back of his own hand, even in the dark, without a lantern to guide the way.Every clod of dirt beneath his boots, every root and twig felt familiar to him.
In this way, he was able to track the men through the corn and emerged on the other side at a nearby swamp.
When he got there, he saw the men start up from behind a log and run into the marsh, seemingly disappearing with no indication of their whereabouts.
The last thing he thought he overheard one of them say was, the man of the house has now come, else we might have taken the house.Back at the cottage, the whole family was awake and everyone on high alert.
Upon his return, Ebenezer seemed convinced that the mysterious men had been planning a siege. He hustled his children onto the back of a wagon while he hitched up his horses and sat up front with his wife and mother.
His plan was to make haste to the nearest garrison, located about two miles away.The rough-hewn timber garrison, surrounded by a large wooden palisade, was located high on the rocks of Cape Anne, overlooking the sea,
The heavy sound of waves crashing onto the rocks could be heard in the distance as Ebenezer and his family approached the garrison gate.Inside, a number of men were stationed, tasked with protecting the local area.
Seeing the looks of concern on the family's faces, the garrison occupants quickly ushered them into the building. With the Babsons safely inside, Ebenezer hurriedly told the others present about his family's predicament.
He wondered if anyone else had experienced anything similar, but it was the first that anyone had heard of it. But no sooner had he started his account, he once again heard what he took to be the sound of heavy footfall.
But this time, it was as if a whole group of men were surrounding the building.What was that?One of the children cried out with alarm.Then others claimed to hear it too.The horses outside began to whinny.Ebenezer's youngest daughter gasped in horror.
Ebenezer fetched his gun and ran out into the night.Under the faint bony sliver of a crescent moon above, he caught sight of what appeared to be two men running fast and away from the building, but he was too exhausted to follow.
The family chose to lie low at the garrison the following day until they were sure it was safe to return home.
But when nightfall came, Ebenezer, for the third time in its many days, was keeping watch outside when once again he believed he caught sight of the same two men loitering about in the darkness, but this time he managed to get a good look at them.
Stepping forward to confront them, he paused suddenly when he saw that one seemed to be carrying a bright silver gun, the kind favoured by French-Canadian trappers, worn slung across their shoulder.
They wore white breeches and waistcoats too, so it stood to reason, he thought, that they were most likely Frenchmen.He chanced another step forward.
The men suddenly advanced on him, forcing a terrified Ebenezer to turn on his heels and sprint back to the garrison. Once safely inside, he warned the others that they might be under attack.
All the while, the apparent noise of the men moving around outside remained, but few wanted to go and confront them. At this point, Ebenezer sought counsel from another man, local farmer and family friend John Brown, who agreed to help him.
The pair disappeared into the night and reappeared breathless shortly after.The men claimed to have successfully chased off the miscreants, but there weren't two of them now, claimed Brown, but three.
On July 14th, Ebenezer, John Brown and the other men of age who were stationed at the garrison were drawn out once more by the sound of people flitting about outside.
They were stunned to find that, according to them, the enemy group had now swelled in number from two or three to around half a dozen, all seemingly darting away from the garrison back to the cover of night.
Worried that they might be about to be drawn into an ambush, the group held back, with the exception of Ebenezer Babson.
Unable to help himself, he tore off after them once again, and in the process, misfired his rifle, which allowed them all a moment to take cover.
Ebenezer later stated that he was just closing in on the mystery men's position when he called out to his friends.
Here they are, he said, at which point he took aim toward three of the supposed Frenchmen, brought his rifle up to his shoulder and fired. Ebenezer was stunned for a moment.
The three men he'd fired on appeared to fall to the ground in sequence, like fawns during a hunt, he thought.But just at the moment when he was about to call to his comrades that he'd killed them,
The men rose like revenants and disappeared once more as quickly as they came.Just then, a shot rocketed past Ebenezer's head, missing by a matter of inches.
It seemed to have come from a nearby copse of trees, close to where the spectral Frenchman had disappeared. Ebenezer turned to see the bullet, still hot, wedged into the bark of a tree right behind him.
Believing he was still under threat, Ebenezer swiftly took refuge behind the tree.John Brown and the others soon joined him, claiming later that they managed to pin down one of the Frenchmen who they'd succeeded in separating from his group.
This time, Brown took aim and shot the man at point blank range, then watched him crumple to the ground with a sickening thump.
The men of Cape Anne cheered in triumph, but when they turned back to the body, it appeared to have completely vanished into thin air.Exhausted, the colonists made their way back to the garrison.
With only their small lanterns to light the way, the men soon became spooked by what seemed to be voices whispering out to them in an indistinguishable language from somewhere in the underbush.
But whenever the light was whipped round and the shadows pushed back, they saw nothing. The next day, one of the garrison men, Richard Dolliver, burst into the building with some alarming news.
He had just been on a scout in one of the many orchards scattered around Cape Anne when he spotted a party of what seemed to be a dozen of the Frenchmen camped out in its centre.
They were chanting in a strange language, he said, and performing bizarre rituals around a fire, invoking false gods. Just like Ebenezer and the other colonists, Doliver was too a god-fearing man who felt the influence of the devil acutely.
As he explained to the others, he believed the Frenchmen were gathering supernatural powers from occult forces beyond his control.
So he took aim at the troop of dancing strangers, raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired at them, just as Ebenezer and John Smith had done before.
And just as in previous attempts, the shots only served to break up the ritual and send the apparent Frenchman scattering into the trees.
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Richard Bandler revolutionized the world of self-help all thanks to an approach he developed called neuro-linguistic programming.Even though NLP worked for some, its methods have been criticized for being dangerous in the wrong hands.
Throw in Richard's dark past as a cocaine addict and murder suspect, and you can't help but wonder what his true intentions were. I'm Sachi Cole.
And I'm Sarah Hagee.And we're the hosts of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims, and what's left once the facade falls away.
We recently dove into the story of the godfather of modern mental manipulation, Richard Bandler, whose methods inspired some of the most toxic and criminal self-help movements of the last two decades.
Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.You can listen to Scamfluencers and more Exhibit C true crime shows like Morbid and Kill List early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+.
Check out Exhibit C in the Wondery app for all your true crime listening.
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It was Dolliver's unnerving story that prompted the garrison to finally seek help from the outside world.
On July 18th, after 10 days of skirmishes with the mystery assailants who descended on Cape Anne, Ebenezer Babson sent an emissary to the nearby town of Ipswich.
His communication emphasized dire warnings about the potential consequences of an invasion. In response, senior local army official Captain Appleton dispatched 60 men from his own garrison in the hope of quelling the threat.
From records, however, it seems as though Captain Appleton's troops fared no better No sooner had they arrived than they quickly learned that the so-called Infernal Visitants responded to lead and gunpowder as children would to snowballs.
For a fortnight, as news arrived from Salem that five more supposed witches had been hanged, the apparent invaders toyed with the deployment from Ipswich. Their laughter and jeering seemed to echo from every bush and every tree.
They apparently threw stones, rotten fruit and vegetables, and even excrement.
They beat upon the doors of the garrison building with sticks and fists, and it now seemed to Ebenezer, as it did to Captain Appleton, that the invaders' sole purpose was simply mischief, rather than any design on domination.
It's unclear as to how the series of incidents, which later became known as the Gloucester Invasion, came to an end.Some have speculated that once Ebenezer Babson, Captain Appleton and the rest of the team at the garrison
came to the realisation that they could not defeat their enemy with mortal weapons, the so-called Frenchmen disappeared, having seemingly proven some as yet undisclosed point about their infernal power.
Others, such as colonist and letter writer Thomas Franklin Waters, seemed to suggest that the band of mystery invaders were connected to satanic practices, and that their mission was simply to break the strong puritanical Christian faith that defined Gloucester County at that time.
He wrote an account of the event shortly after. In the midst of witchcraft accusations in 1692, he wrote, a new and unique outburst of satanic rage revealed itself.Gloucester was invaded by a spectral company of Indians and French.
Coming out at the swamps or cornfields, sometimes singly, again in a group, they approached the garrison.Usually the guns of the soldiers misfired, but when the guns were discharged, the bullets had no effect.
Their speech was in an unknown tongue, they carried guns, and real bullets shot from them were dug out of the trees.They suffered night and day for about a fortnight altogether.
In 1693, Reverend John Emerson of Gloucester County wrote to his close friend Cotton Mather, an influential Puritan minister in the colonies.Mather, the son of Increase Mather, considered himself an expert on the subject of bewitchment.
In 1689, he published Memoral Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions, in which he confidently affirmed the indisputable existence of witches and devils, and urged all Christians to weed them out at the first opportunity.
It was Cotton Mather who recommended bodily searches be carried out on the accused in Salem to search for marks of the devil.
Emerson's letter to Mathers read, I hope the substance of what is written will be enough to satisfy all rational persons that Gloucester was not alarmed last summer by real French and Indians, but that the devil and his agents were the real cause of all the molestation.
I would take upon me to entreat your earnest prayers to the Father of Mercies, that those apparitions may not prove the sad omens of some future and more horrible molestations.
Cotton Mather himself also recounted the incident in great detail in his book Magnalia Christi Americana, embellishing many details taken from Reverend Emerson and others, which described the visitants in no uncertain terms as demons who'd been sent to Gloucester by the devil himself to molest and upset the inhabitants' security.
for his fervent support of the Salem witch trials and its puritanical dogma more generally.
Respected author and Salem native Nathaniel Hawthorne, best remembered for his classic novel The Scarlet Letter, referred to Cotton Mather as the chief agent of mischief at Salem.
An ironic twist indeed, given Mather's own emphasis on the mischief of the so-called Frenchmen at Gloucester, and a stark reminder of how moral values had changed in the intervening century between his time and Hawthorne's.
Nevertheless, it seems that Mather's account of the Gloucester invasion endured, for he was taken on good authority when the story was embellished later again by Samuel Adams Drake for his book, New England Legends and Folklore, published in 1884.
Despite everything written about the Gloucester invasions, there appears to be no concrete evidence that there were any assailants at all, at least not in the material sense.
Judged by today's standards, the so-called invasion could be read as a lesson in the power of fear and how quickly it can morph into xenophobia.
On the one hand, the purported assailants are described as being either French-Canadian or Native American, whilst on the other, they are ascribed characteristics which each teller of the tale seems keen to emphasise as otherworldly and sometimes even satanic.
Despite the immateriality of the apparent assailants, the threat is immediately assumed to be one from outside.
At no point is it considered to be originating from within the settlement, and even when it does, such as in the case of those accused of witchcraft in Salem,
It is only because the individuals in question are apparently under the duress of an evil force, because any possibility that there was something rotten within the group itself is unthinkable and, crucially, counterproductive to quelling the fear.
There was great value in sustaining the idea of an external threat too, for those at the top of the community whose prosperity depended on maintaining a solid and committed flock. there is little doubt there were genuine reasons to be fearful.
Being abroad in an unknown land, far from the comforts and familiarities of home, there is nowhere to turn if the harvest fails.
And not least of all, the ever-present threat of attack, with war between the colonists, competing European powers, and Native American communities an ever-present danger.
the seeming obliviousness that the colonists had for their own violent contribution in creating that environment in the first place notwithstanding.
What perhaps chills me most of all is the propensity with which a community, when feeling threatened, will seek cohesion and strength by carelessly demonising others, or even by seeking enemies, where none exist, as a way to dampen fear and insecurity.
and to think that this is an entirely natural human phenomena, one we might all perhaps be susceptible to given the right set of circumstances. This episode was written by James Connor Patterson and produced by me, Richard McLean-Smith.
James is a brilliant writer and poet.His debut collection of poems, titled Bandit Country, exploring the hinterland between the North of Ireland and Republic, was shortlisted for the 2022 TS Eliot Prize and is out now to buy.Do check it out.
Thank you as ever for listening to the show.Please subscribe and rate it if you haven't already done so.Unexplained will be coming to YouTube very shortly in video form, so please watch out for future developments there.
You can subscribe to the channel at youtube.com forward slash at unexplained pod.You can also now find us on TikTok at tiktok.com forward slash at unexplained podcast. Unexplained is an AV Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLean-Smith.
All other elements of the podcast, including the music, were also produced by me, Richard McLean-Smith.Unexplained, the book and audiobook, is now available to buy worldwide.
You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores.
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