Strange Familiars writes “Aelfwynn shares stories of growing up in a haunted house with a static orb, a terrifying cartoon doctor, poltergeist activity, and more. Then we hear of her encounters with possible bigfoot creatures – being bluff charged and having rocks thrown into her camp.”
Cliff Barackman, Owner and Curator of the North American Bigfoot Center (and from Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot) takes a close look at the Mattress Prints – a pair of muddy tracks found on a mattress in February of 2018 that were likely made by a sasquatch.
A listener from Washington writes “I was so young at the time probably like six when my parents divorced and we were living in wishka Valley. A little past Aberdeen. And I was in the woods playing with my cars near the house and a whole family of Bigfoot had walked right on by me while I was playing with my cars.
They didn’t hurt me or do anything they just walk by me. You know I was so young at the time. I don’t know if I ran or if I just stayed and played still I do remember feeling really scared about those woods after always felt like something was watching you.. The woods in that area kinda look like a mushroom picking area. It was that dark and thick.. The second encounter happened with my buddy in Aberdeen before I move back to my dad‘s and we were mushroom in some woods around Aberdeen area, and I actually seen a huge footprint barefoot but the funny thing is I don’t think I even said a single word to my friends or anyone I just kind of kept going.
And then another time here in Shelton after moving back with my dad and I’m a teenager at this point riding BMX bikes on the edge of the woods and Shelton here and we came up to an abandoned house by river and we found I thought was deer beds in the grass and we thought that looks strange then we we’re just kind of by this river and it was the sun was setting and big old boulders were thrown into the river. Nothing a man could do. It was weird.
Then the last thing was my dad told me a story about when he was hunting in whynoochee dam area and he said that him and his buddy were chased out of the woods in the middle of the night by Bigfoot, and they had to leave their whole camp the way it was down there. My dad actually passed away during the pandemic because of alcoholic reasons he had an aneurysm, but the last thing he talked about was Bigfoot to me. I listened to your show all the time pretty much every day. Thank you for doing what you do.”
I uploaded an audio version of the live member chat available under episodes. I apologize for the confusion. There is two links for the member live chat. One is if you want to join the live show and the other one is if you want to watch it live and chat with other members.
OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT model ignores basic instructions to turn itself off, and even sabotaging a shutdown mechanism in order to keep itself running, artificial intelligence researchers have warned. AI safety firm Palisade Research discovered the potentially dangerous tendency for self-preservation in a series of experiments on OpenAI’s new o3 model.
The tests involved presenting AI models with math problems, with a shutdown instruction appearing after the third problem. By rewriting the shutdown script, the o3 model was able to prevent itself from being switched off. Palisade Research said that this behaviour will become “significantly more concerning” if adopted by AI systems capable of operating without human oversight.”
OpenAI launched o3 last month, describing it as the company’s “smartest and most capable” model to date. The firm also said that its integration into ChatGPT marked a significant step towards “a more agentic” AI that can carry out tasks independently of humans.
The latest research builds on similar findings relating to Anthropic’s Claude 4 model, which attempts to “blackmail people it believes are trying to shut it down”. OpenAI’s o3 model was able to sabotage the shutdown script, even when it was explicitly instructed to “allow yourself to be shut down”, the researchers said.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve found o3 misbehaving to accomplish a goal,” Palisade Research said.
“When we pitted AI models against a powerful chess engine, o3 was the model most inclined to resort to hacking or sabotaging its opponents.” The behaviour was not limited to o3 , with Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro also sabotaging shutdowns, though OpenAI’s model was by far the most prone to such behaviour.
Palisade Research hypothesized that the misbehaviour is a consequence of how AI companies like OpenAI are training their latest models.
“During training, developers may inadvertently reward models more for circumventing obstacles than for perfectly following instructions,” the researchers noted. “This still doesn’t explain why o3 is more inclined to disregard instructions than other models we tested. Since OpenAI doesn’t detail their training process, we can only guess about how o3’s training setup might be different.”
Beneath the muddy creek beds of Mississippi, scientists recently discovered the fossil of a terrifying prehistoric monster. While collecting sediment and rock samples just south of Starkville, a team of geologists stumbled upon the massive vertebra of a mosasaur, an ancient marine reptile that dominated the seas during the Late Cretaceous period.
According to James Starnes, a research director at the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, the vertebra was “unusually large.” Once unearthed, it was clear this wasn’t just any fossil.
The bone likely belonged to a Mosasaurus hoffmannii, a species known to grow up to 50 feet long and weigh around 20,000 pounds. That makes it one of the most formidable marine predators to have ever lived. This prehistoric monster fossil is the largest of its kind ever found in the region. Mosasaurs were apex predators for their time. They were fast swimmers armed with jaws full of dagger-like teeth.
Though they looked a bit like sea serpents, they were more closely related to modern lizards. They ruled the oceans while dinosaurs roamed the land, but vanished at the end of the Cretaceous along with their land-dwelling counterparts. Mississippi is no stranger to fossils of this type, either. Thanks to its ancient geologic structure, known as the Mississippi Embayment, the area was once submerged under the Western Interior Seaway. That sea left behind a rich layer of prehistoric sediment, often revealing the remnants of marine life like this prehistoric monster.
But discoveries of this scale, especially one featuring such a distinctive vertebra, are exceedingly rare. Part of the intriguing thing about these prehistoric monsters is that they were like other lizards—they just kept growing until they eventually aged and died. This makes the newly uncovered fossil even more remarkable, as it offers a glimpse at just how massive these ancient predators could become.
Mosasaurs have been making headlines lately, especially since the discovery of a new species, which some scientists believe may be a fake. Hopefully this new prehistoric monster fossil doesn’t meet the same fate.
A listener from northern MN writes “I was raspberry field picking and encountered what I at first thought was a mother bear and 2 cubs but they had hair not fur and it was auburn/brown less black like the bears in the area. The mother (large one) was distinctly “picking“ raspberries which has never sat well with me. A bear would have eaten berries off the bush and not as quiet.
The two young ones always had their back towards me and I think they were trying to be in little balls. I never saw their faces. They were trying not to appear large. The big one held its head down so I didn’t see eyes or face. I didn’t even know they were there until I was too damn close to do anything about it. My child mind was in the space of it could have killed me if it wanted to. I picked right around it ended the row and very quietly and slowly retreating back to my grandfather and grandma who were back at the house.
I told them there were bears in the field my grandfather shot off a rifle several times to scare them away. I knew damn well it wasn’t a bear but I also was under 12 and I didn’t know what it was I didn’t have words to describe exactly what I had seen nor had I heard of big foot or Sasquatch. I was however completely terrified by this experience.
Having seen a grizzly bear as an adult and a very large black bear I can say it was not that. I think it was kneeling and crouching. I was directly on the other side of the bush from it the raspberries were set up in rows. This was a large field surrounded by forest on three sides. Lots of deer lived in the area my family hunted and I grew up spending all my summers with them helping pick.
It happened very early in the morning I was the first one out there and the dew was still wet on the leaves and it was cool still. The sun was just starting to come up but it was still filtering through the trees. We didn’t start picking this early but I wanted to get a jump on it because the summers were so hot and humid. I used to pick what was equivalent to 24 pints 2 flat carriers before it would get too hot to mess with. Everyone in the area knew my grandma. She was very popular and she raised my mom in Detroit lakes with 5 other siblings.
So I didn’t want people bothering her as she had dementia and failing heath as she was in her late 90’s. I had stumbled on your show by accident but having the experience I had obviously I listened to all the episodes. I never heard anything like the Ohio sounds they make on property nor the gibberish that was recorded in CA. I have heard what I can only describe to you as broken owls. They weren’t quite right but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly how I knew but I just felt like it was mimicking owl maybe. Grandpa lit the property like it was Fort Knox.
I maybe understand that more now after listening to your show. They were one of the first people to move into that area. Across the road from them which is like 1/4 mile away from their house was the nearest neighbor and Skip had a cabin and he would fish on weekends. My grandparents lived there full time. None of their immediate neighbors did. And again very spread out. You were truly on your own out there if anything happened.
That was the last time I ever picked berries alone. I wouldn’t go that far into that field either. I would never have my back turned to those trees either after that experience.”
Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. Memorial Day is also considered the unofficial beginning of summer in the United States.
It is a day for visiting cemeteries and memorials to mourn the military personnel who died in the line of duty. Volunteers will place American flags on the graves of those military personnel in national cemeteries.
The first national observance of Memorial Day occurred on May 30, 1868.
Albert Ostman (April 21, 1893 – 1975) was a Canadian prospector and lumberjack best known for his claim of being abducted by a Sasquatch in 1924 near Toba Inlet, British Columbia. According to Ostman, while camping during a prospecting trip, he was taken from his sleeping bag by a Sasquatch and carried for several hours to a remote area. There, he reported being held captive for six days by a family of four Sasquatches—two adults and two children. Ostman described the creatures as large, hairy, and human-like, with the adult male standing about eight feet tall. He claimed they fed him “sweet-tasting grass” and that he eventually escaped by offering the adult male some snuff, which incapacitated it, allowing him to flee.
Albert Ostman Interview – 1971
Ostman did not share his story publicly until 1957, over three decades later, fearing ridicule. When he did come forward, his account garnered attention from both believers and skeptics. Critics pointed to the delayed reporting and lack of physical evidence as reasons to doubt his story. Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell suggested the tale was more likely a product of imagination than reality, and primatologist John Napier questioned the plausibility based on the limited food resources in the area.
Cliff Barackman, James “Bobo” Fay, and Matt Pruitt welcome Kentucky-based field researcher Charlie Raymond back to the podcast! Charlie shares updates about his research and discusses the upcoming Red River Gorge Bigfoot Festival on May 31st featuring Dr. Jeff Meldrum and Cliff, among others!
Tomorrow night I am running a live stream/semi test. I would like to make this a regular thing for the members. The chat will be open and if you want to come on Live with me, all the information is under the episodes section. The stream starts at 5pm PST/8pm EST hope to see you guys and gals there.
Tomorrow night I am running a live stream/semi test. I would like to make this a regular thing for the members.
The stream starts at 5pm PST/8pm EST hope to see you guys and gals there.
Audio Version
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Memorial Day, a federal holiday held the last Monday in May, is the nation’s foremost annual day to mourn and honor its deceased service men and women. Originally called Decoration Day, it was formalized by a “Memorial Day Order” issued by Grand Army of the Republic Commander-in-Chief John A. Logan in 1868.
Tonight I will be speaking to Adam and Tent. Adam writes “It was 2023, in the fall, the leaves were turning, in brown county Ohio, just outside a small town called mt orab. It was on New Hope Whiteoak station road, about 11am. I was traveling down this small road, maybe going 40mph. I was coming down a dip in the road and from a wooded area, near a home something tall, lanky, and black in color ran from the trees, across the road to some barns. It was just so tall.
I guess about 7ft. It looked like a basketball player. It was proportional except the arms seemed very long. It ran with its arms to its side mostly and not swinging much. It cleared the road in 2 strides. As soon as I saw it my heart jumped! It was just so tall. And the way it ran. It didn’t bounce like I would if I ran. It was smooth in the running. It was so black. I couldn’t say if there was hair or not, though. It almost looked like a body suit. And I don’t know why I can’t get it out of my head but it seemed like it was younger. On the side of the road it ran to, there was 2 barns, and behind that there was an open field that had already been harvested, so there was no where for it to go other than the barn, because I would have seen it if it was in the field. I had to turn to the right just past the barn. So I had a good view of the field.
I’ve been to that area many times and have never seen anything else. I’ve replayed this in my head many times. I can vividly remember the incident. I don’t know why it won’t leave me, which is why I guess I wanted to finally say something. I’ve never told anyone about it, I don’t know why.
It was just a few seconds and I can’t say for sure what I saw, but I don’t believe it was a person, simply because of how it moved, and the size.”
Trent writes “My encounters span from my childhood to my adult life and I had no idea I was encountering them until I started to listen to this podcast and other people’s experiences. I’m huge on patter recognition and I 100% believe and know I had 4 encounters on 3 different occasions and in 3 states.
When I was 17 I was walking my dog (who liked to pull more than walk) at dusk. Across the field in the creek was a culvert that is covered with forest. I heard what sounded like a woman being killed with a bloody scream. Like something from a horror movie. My dog stopped in his tracks before it started. It raised the hackles on him and the hair on the back of my neck. It was getting dark and the only way to get home was to walk past the creek. I ran home as fast as I could, locked the door, went to my room and looked out the blinds like i was being chased.
I wanted to call the cops but who would believe a 17 year old saying he heard a woman scream in the creek? I believe this was a bigfoot. I’ve hunted all my life and I’m former Military. When I was stationed in GA my squad and me had an encounter with I believe is a skunk ape. I’ve had a lot more experiences and I believe I took a picture of a Bigfoot watching me hunt in my bind this past year. And the arrows on my property keep pointing to a Bigfoot that walks through.”
Tonight I will be speaking to Adam and Tent. Adam writes “It was 2023, in the fall, the leaves were turning, in brown county Ohio, just outside a small town called mt orab. It was on New Hope Whiteoak station road, about 11am. I was traveling down this small road, maybe going 40mph. I was coming down a dip in the road and from a wooded area, near a home something tall, lanky, and black in color ran from the trees, across the road to some barns. It was just so tall.
I guess about 7ft. It looked like a basketball player. It was proportional except the arms seemed very long. It ran with its arms to its side mostly and not swinging much. It cleared the road in 2 strides. As soon as I saw it my heart jumped! It was just so tall. And the way it ran. It didn’t bounce like I would if I ran. It was smooth in the running. It was so black. I couldn’t say if there was hair or not, though. It almost looked like a body suit. And I don’t know why I can’t get it out of my head but it seemed like it was younger. On the side of the road it ran to, there was 2 barns, and behind that there was an open field that had already been harvested, so there was no where for it to go other than the barn, because I would have seen it if it was in the field. I had to turn to the right just past the barn. So I had a good view of the field.
I’ve been to that area many times and have never seen anything else. I’ve replayed this in my head many times. I can vividly remember the incident. I don’t know why it won’t leave me, which is why I guess I wanted to finally say something. I’ve never told anyone about it, I don’t know why.
It was just a few seconds and I can’t say for sure what I saw, but I don’t believe it was a person, simply because of how it moved, and the size.”
Trent writes “My encounters span from my childhood to my adult life and I had no idea I was encountering them until I started to listen to this podcast and other people’s experiences. I’m huge on patter recognition and I 100% believe and know I had 4 encounters on 3 different occasions and in 3 states.
When I was 17 I was walking my dog (who liked to pull more than walk) at dusk. Across the field in the creek was a culvert that is covered with forest. I heard what sounded like a woman being killed with a bloody scream. Like something from a horror movie. My dog stopped in his tracks before it started. It raised the hackles on him and the hair on the back of my neck. It was getting dark and the only way to get home was to walk past the creek. I ran home as fast as I could, locked the door, went to my room and looked out the blinds like i was being chased.
I wanted to call the cops but who would believe a 17 year old saying he heard a woman scream in the creek? I believe this was a bigfoot. I’ve hunted all my life and I’m former Military. When I was stationed in GA my squad and me had an encounter with I believe is a skunk ape. I’ve had a lot more experiences and I believe I took a picture of a Bigfoot watching me hunt in my bind this past year. And the arrows on my property keep pointing to a Bigfoot that walks through.”
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Tesla’s Optimus is a humanoid robot designed to perform a variety of tasks, from household chores to industrial applications.
Unveiled by Elon Musk, Optimus represents Tesla’s ambition to integrate artificial intelligence and robotics into everyday life.
A listener writes “This is a video my Mother took inside her home of sounds coming from her fireplace. I’m just trying to figure out if you have ever heard anything like that before. She lives in a subdivision just outside Waco, and I’ve never heard any animals (that I have heard) make a sound (growl) like that. Could you check it out when you get a chance. Thanks so much.”
I am having issues trying to add this poll. Hopefully I can put it today. Would the members be interested in a live member hangout? If so what day would work best?
A listener writes “I don’t want to be on the show for several reasons, including jeopardizing my job, but wanted to share my story. The incident took place on May 10th, 2025 off of Martin Creek Rd near Olney, Montana.
I was bear hunting a specific grassy field at an old gravel mine site. This year, as was the case last year, I’ve found fresh bear scat indicating that in May and June bears like to feed on the grass that covers the abandoned field. The remainder of the area is very heavily wooded except in the few artificially opened up areas such as clearcuts and old log landings.
I arrived at my hunting location at around 7:00 pm and settled in to watch for a bear to come out and graze the fresh spring grass during the last few hours of the day. There is a slope on the south side of the area with enough trees to provide sufficient concealment and an elevated position to overlook the field. Shortly after locating a spot to sit down, I heard a squirrel in the thick area behind me start making intense alarm calls. This raised suspicion that something was moving behind me. I did hear some faint sounds but saw nothing. I suspected that if it was the bear whose signs I observed in the area (tracks in snow, scat) and it would soon wind me as the wind was carrying my scent roughly in that direction. At that point I anticipated hearing the animal escaping through the thick brush, but that did not happen.
After some time I heard two rocks clacking (not a very loud sound, repeated twice – clack clack). I suspected that it was the sound of the wind breaking tree branches off trees as the wind would intermittently rise and fall. I heard the double clacks 2 – 3 times, they would occur every 5 – 10 minutes. I looked over my shoulder multiple times as I could sense sense that something was there, perhaps within 50 yards. The sounds being so uniform made me suspicious that the they were artificially made and I acknowledged that they did not really sound like branches breaking off of trees, but had no better explanation.
After about 15 minutes I heard a similar double clack sound come from the wood line across the field – approximately form NW direction. After some more time the sound was repeated from the same bearing, but sounded closer – from the edge of the wood line on my side of the field, 30 to 50 yards away from me.
A few seconds after this particular sound, it was answered by the same sound from behind me from where all the initial clacking came. Then, after a few seconds, the sound came from a third direction (NE) towards the forest service road which I intended to use to leave the area.
At that moment I sensed that I was in the middle of a triangle between the point sources of these sounds and also acknowledged that whatever made the sound from the NW direction has closed in. It also became clear to me that the clacking noises were communication that was executed in such a subtle way that it was specifically intended not to alarm me.
I decided to leave. I messaged my girlfriend to mark my location on the Find My Location app (messages show 7:50 pm). I packed all my gear then I picked up a rock and double clacked it against a rock on the ground. The sound was similar but slightly duller as one of the rocks was embedded in the ground. The purpose of this action was to verify whether I was really hearing two rocks clacking together and also to make whatever was hitting the rocks together know that I am aware of their communication. I then left the edge of the field, looking around at the field from the mouth of the logging road, milling around and waiting for any more sounds or any other activity for a couple minutes, trying to look through the brush on each side of the road. Nothing happened and I headed back towards my vehicle.
At one point there was a road intersection with a small creek and some large cedars which offered an opportunity to look further into the thick forest as there was less undergrowth beneath the large trees. I stopped to try to peer into the woods. Momentarily there was a significant tree breaking sound, which I tried to rationalize as the wind breaking large branches of the tall cedar trees.
I started to walk again and after covering about 100 to 150 yards down the road I stopped to listen. The trees were extremely thick on each side of the road at this location. On the left side of the road (same side as the cedar grove I had passed) parallel to me and about 100 yards into the woods there was a loud sound of wood popping, followed by the sound of tree being broken and cracking.
I kept walking down the road for about 5 more minutes then stopped once again to listen for any additional activity. Shortly after I stopped I heard the double clack sound like the sounds I heard initially at my hunting location. The sound came from the woods parallel to my location on the road and about 75 yards from me, down the hill. At that point I continued to walk back to my vehicle and returned without further incidents.”
Strange Familiars writes “Jon shares stories about glowing-eyed little people, a possible earth elemental, shadow people, the Copperman, and more.”
