From the unexplained to the mundane, come join us on a journey to the fringe.
Hello and welcome to Journey to the Fringe, surprisingly not a pharmacy, even though you
can't spell disappointment without ointment.
We are your podcast host Taylor and Chelsea here today hoping that that wordplay somehow
intersects with the topic of this episode that Chelsea has selected and withheld from
me.
I like to think I made a good guess.
No, that was incredible.
And I was shocked at first.
I was like, we're not a pharmacy, but here we are.
I was like, right, we're not a pharmacy.
We have to change some of our business plans, but technically correct.
Technically.
Only in the legal sense.
Great.
Yes.
Okay.
I got a fun one for you today.
Today, I'm talking about a topic that I think you probably won't expect for today anyway.
Maybe you were expecting it in general and I could totally be wrong on that.
I'll see.
Maybe you were.
Is it Banana Republics?
Could you imagine the coincidence?
It's like listening to Journey to the Fringe driving through electronic fog.
It's not zero.
It is not zero percent.
Yes.
We're going to talk today about broadcast interruptions or hijacks or takeovers.
Whatever tickles your fancy.
Today I'm covering mysterious broadcast interruptions and I must have you know, most importantly,
I will not be covering any hacks of TV stations in which pornography was played over whatever
broadcast was appearing on at the time, which was at least 50 percent of which was children's
cartoons.
It actually happened in reverse at least once in which pornography was interrupted by religious
script.
We live in a weird world.
That just proves God even more, I assume.
Oh yeah.
What was his name?
Was it the exorcist?
Did he find time in his like 60,000 exorcisms to actually.
You know what?
Just splice in some scripture.
He just can make a prominent enough impact on my life like Friar Benatti and I'll never
forget Friar Benatti.
Friar Benatti is like a household name between our households.
That's all I know for sure.
I can't even remember the exorcist guy by Friar Benatti.
I can recall it like that.
I'm not even looking at notes for this.
I just know Friar Benatti.
The other guy who is the exorcist that performed like 10 exorcisms a day.
Yeah, prolific exorcist.
Yeah, so prolific that he was doing it over like telephone calls and Skype.
Wait, hold on, landlines?
I mean, it really depends on if he was on dial up or not.
If he's on dial up, yes, landlines.
If not, just wirelessly.
Wireless.
Okay.
And like what if somebody called and he was on dial up?
He got disconnected.
It was so sad.
The 90s weren't interesting time for online exorcisms.
I remember phone calls interrupting my wow raids in the early 2000s and this exorcist.
I'm just picturing him saying like, does my wife really need this call?
This person's got a demon in them.
I got to finish this up.
It's only 10 seconds.
Maybe I can beat it out.
Louise.
But like in hard Latin.
He's thinking that in hard Latin.
Not again.
Okay.
The type of interruptions I'm covering today actually accounted for a majority, not the
pornography or the religious scripts, which is actually quite a bit and I deem at least
rather boring.
No, Chelsea.
I do have to assume Max Headroom comes up.
You know, that was my next sentence.
What broadcast do you think that we're going to talk about today?
Max Headroom.
Yeah.
Any other ones?
Do you know what?
When I think of these, they kind of get interspersed with like weird radio signals.
So I don't know for sure.
And and predominantly the port of.
Over a few ones.
Just kidding.
Okay.
Um, well, first one is the Southern television broadcast interruption.
And let me set the scene for you a little after 5pm on Saturday, the 26th of November,
1977, transmission of the local UK station, Southern television news bulletin made worldwide
headlines when it was overwritten by an external broadcast from an individual claiming
to be real on of the Ash Tar Galactic Command.
Have you heard of this before?
It does not ring a bell.
Really?
Okay.
Love that.
So as newscaster Andrew Gardner recited the day's events in Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe,
the scheduled bulletin began to break up and an eerie broadcast took over in its stead.
You should also know that Rhodesia was very white.
It was kind of supposed to be like a white haven in Africa for a long time.
Okay, that is really weird.
Why?
Yeah, it is.
White supremacists point to Rhodesia is how white people are inherently good.
It's like a very, very, very supremacist area.
There's another episode I think we need to do.
There's a lot of weird, like white supremacist stuff in Africa.
Yeah, but that also has to do with colonialism.
Okay.
Because what's that?
And also we did kind of cover it with the Rwanda genocide.
I was just going to say.
Yeah.
Rwanda genocide.
Yeah.
Okay, let's just move on to the mysterious broadcast.
The scheduled bulletin began to break up and an eerie broadcast.
Oh yeah, I always said this because I didn't know what stead meant.
The independent broadcasting authority, the IBA, engineers based in Croydon Surrey had
no idea that the regularly scheduled news bulletin had been hacked by an outside source.
This rogue signal was also oblivious to the main transmitter located in Southampton.
Only people that were aware of something bizarre taking place were the viewers themselves.
Some panicked while others were unmoved.
The video feed remained intact, but the audio was suppressed by his spokesman identifying
himself as Vrillain.
I have the link.
This link is a reenactment.
We're going to take a look at it now.
This is, like I said, it's a reenactment.
There's no actual real happening of this taking, like, in record.
So it's a reenactment.
This isn't even the same newscaster that this actually happens to.
So just to let you know that, and I'm going to send it to Taylor right now.
Take a look.
We're only going to take a look at, uh, it's only six minutes or something like that.
Can you hear volume if I share it?
I assume because you hear mine.
It's a little settlement based on one man, one vote, but he says there are conditions.
These include stopping the execution of all captured prisoners of war.
Security itself and the rest and every issue of her body, let alone in agreement with the
I cannot speak to you.
For many years you have seen us as knights and spirits.
We speak to you now, you say what's the most we have done
to your brothers and sisters all over this, your planet Earth.
We come to you, the destiny of your race,
that you will well assume if you make milk to your battlefields
that you must take to a point of disaster, stricken in the sequel world
and the views you offer will not be changed.
This is no direct measure.
I find this interesting because you would have no way of knowing
that this was not broadcast simultaneously everywhere on the world.
So true though.
Because that's what they're saying.
I'm torn off this one.
So I take it the words they show off.
No.
As I said, this is a reenactment, so this isn't actually the guy's voice,
which I'm so interested to hear to know how the guy's voice showed up.
Yeah.
All your weapons of evil must be removed.
The time for conflict is now past and the race of which you are about
may proceed to the higher stages of its evolution.
If you show yourself worth it, do this.
You have a short time to learn to live together and feast at your will.
So do so every day until you know this.
And exist a part of life drawing to my history.
You are eternal self-pity.
There makes a kitchen clean to me.
It's one of these ones.
Many goes right as this.
Then they run out.
Here now, the voice of remote representative of the Ash-Tarq-Elai-Q-Q-Lan speaking to you.
Be aware also that there are many false habits and guides of this operating on your power.
They will suck your energy from you and energy you will run and will put into evil habits if you were to displace and return.
Do not devide yourself, protect your promise.
You must continue to stand strong.
It is important that this is a remake because I'd really like to know what it looked like when it was originally played.
And how understandable it was because this isn't that understandable.
What?
Like, they're putting words on the screen so that you can read what they're saying.
Without the words, I don't know if you'd be able to really understand what they're saying.
I can't hear what's being said right now, to be honest with you.
Ah, fair enough.
And I'm assuming that, and I listened to it before I sent it to you, but I don't recall how understandable it was.
But I'm assuming they're very understandable from the first one because they have this transcript.
And there's no other way they would have had the transcript that... how would they have the transcript?
Actually, nobody recorded it.
There's no actual recording of it.
Well, this question never came up while I was reading the dialogue.
It's funny how discussing with another person will do that.
It means this doesn't change the fact that it was a real thing that happened.
Oh, and it went into cartoons.
Okay, well, this is just all a very nice effect.
Okay, so the IBA, which we found out what that meant earlier,
moved quickly to dispel fears and concerns among their viewership declaring that the broadcast was a hoax.
Technically gifted one, but a hoax nonetheless.
Whoever or whatever was responsible for the broadcast interruption would almost certainly have excellent and in-depth knowledge of broadcasting capabilities and frequencies in order to pull off the interruption.
The Huntingdon transmitter where the southern TV signal was normally broadcast from was actually a unique example that could explain why southern TV became victim here.
A Huntingdon signal actually originated in the Roe Bridge transmitter on the Isle of White,
other than being fed directly by a landline.
Overriding this FM signal was quite an easy thing for the right person to accomplish.
Proper equipment, all the hacker needed to do was broadcast the rogue signal on the same frequency as the authentic signal,
but almost on top of the Huntingdon transmitter itself.
I'm sorry, did you say that was an FM signal?
Well, this is the 70s.
Yep, I did say that.
I just, I didn't realize TV was done over FM.
Vrillian had to be in the immediate vicinity of the remote Huntingdon transmitter at 5.10pm on that very day, whatever it was that took over the airwaves.
Pulling this off required a lot more than mere capability.
Time and quite a bit of it was also necessary.
If this was, as the IBA can test, a hoax, then it was a magnificent effort on the part of the hoaxer.
It's almost unfortunate that nobody knows precisely who that was.
Yeah, and you'd think it would be pretty easy to know because they had to be so close to the radio signal to actually pull it off.
Yeah, obviously I just said spoiler alert, nobody to this day knows who it was.
So I guess it could have been Vrillian, but here's the official explanation of what happened.
At the time, the Huntingdon television transmitter was unusual in being one of the few main transmitters which rebroadcasted an off-air signal received from another person.
Like I just said, it's just open to this kind of signal intrusion and even a relatively low-powered transmission very close to the rebroadcasts receiver could overwhelm its reception of the intended signal,
resulting in the unauthorized transmission being amplified and rebroadcast across a far wider area.
The IBA stated that to carry out such a hoax would take a considerable amount of technical know-how and a spokesman for the Southern television confirmed a hoaxer jammed our transmitter in the wilds of North Amshire by taking another transmitter very close to it.
And they didn't just blame the blacks.
Nope.
So that's that site. Nobody knows what actually happened, who it was, but this one actually doesn't have like some of the other ones we have have a pleasant explanation.
Yeah.
Who did it?
And even then, we can't just discount aliens because we could have done it. They could have cheap shitty technology as well.
Well, exactly.
In fact, they could have more access to cheap shitty technology to do this.
Exactly.
And that's how they're traveling between.
Yeah, it's some diesel.
That they siphoned from the last planet.
Okay.
The next one, Max Headroom.
This one occurred on the 22nd of November 1987 in Chicago, Illinois.
And on this occasion, the broadcasts of two stations were taken over by someone resembling then current TV star Max Headroom, who I am not familiar with at all.
I've seen the mask, so.
I've seen the mask too, but I still don't know who the fuck it is.
It's the mask.
Jim Carrey?
Yeah.
The first incident took place during the sports segment of independent TV station WGN TV's 9 p.m. newscast.
Home viewers' screens went black for about 15 seconds before footage of a person wearing a Max Headroom mask and sunglasses is displayed.
Individual rocks erratically in front of a rotating corrugated metal panel that mimics the real Max Headroom's geometric background effect accompanied by a staticky and garbled buzzing sound.
The entire intrusion lasted for about 20 seconds and was cut off when engineers at WGN changed the frequency of the signal, linking the broadcast studio to the station's transmitter atop the John Hancock Center.
Upon returning to the airways, WGN Sports anchor Dan Marone commented,
Oh, if you're wondering what's happened, so am I. Actually, the computer that we have running our news from time to time took off and went wild.
So what we're going to do is start over from the top of the bears and tell you once again about the 30 to 10 victory they had over Detroit today out at Soldier Field.
So that's the first one. It's creepy.
It is, but it doesn't have like an ulterior message like the prior one.
Like the Rillin one?
Yeah.
And then there's a second incident and that occurred two hours later at 11.20 p.m.
They had to recollect themselves were convene and during PBS member stations WTTW's broadcast of the Doctor Who serial Horror of Faying Rock,
Culpert was the same Max Headroom impersonator, this time speaking with distorted audio.
The mass figure made a comment about nerds called WGN Sportscaster Chuck Torsky, a frickin liberal,
held up a can of Pepsi while saying catch the wave, which was a slogan from the ad campaign for Coca-Cola featuring the Max Headroom character,
and held up a middle finger inside what appeared to be a hollowed out dildo.
The figure then ran through. Don't worry. We'll watch it.
The figure then ran through a series of quick comments and song snippets interspersed with excited noises and exclamations.
Max saying the phrase, your love is fading,
hummed part of the theme song to the 1959 animated series Clutch Cargo and said,
I still see the X, which was a reference to the last episode of that show, which is sometimes misheard as I stole CBS.
He also feigned defecation, complaining of his piles and explained that he had made a giant masterpiece for all the greatest world newspaper nerds,
which is WGN's call letters stand for world's greatest newspaper, and discussed sharing a pair of dirty gloves with his brother.
After a crude video edit, the person had moved mostly off screen to the left with his partially exposed buttocks visible from the side.
Don't worry. We'll watch it with a female figure wearing a French maid costume and what appears to be a mask appearing on the right edge of the frame.
The unworn Max Hedrum mask was briefly held in view while the voice cried out, oh no, they're coming. Get me. Ah, make it stop.
And the female figure became spanking Max with a fly swatter.
The image faded briefly into static and then viewers were returned to the Doctor Who broadcast after total interruption for about 90 seconds.
Technicians at WTTW Studio could not counteract the signal takeover because there were no engineers on duty at that hour at the Sears Tower,
now known as the Willis Tower, where the station's broadcast tower was located.
According to station spokesman Anders Yokom, technicians monitoring the transmissions from the WTTW headquarters attempted to take corrective measures but couldn't.
Our director Paul Rizzo recalled that as the content got weirder, we got increasingly stressed out about our inability to do anything about it.
The pirate broadcast ended when the hijackers unilaterally ended their transmission.
By the time our people began looking into what was going on, it was over, said Yokom.
WTTW received numerous phone calls from viewers who wondered what had occurred.
Excuse me radio station, what the fuck just happened?
And now obviously we're going to watch it. I watch it with a wally first.
You can drive through here.
I wonder how long this guy's climb is, like, every single thing in the same area.
Yeah.
I thought they figured out who this was, I can't remember, it's been a long time since I've looked.
Whoa, we're going to find out.
I remember where the other one was.
Oh, this is weird.
Oh yeah, there's the spanking.
Sorry, with the exposed buttocks.
Yeah.
She's fairly emotionless in that moment.
Good for her.
That sort of ends, okay.
That's ended. It's ended now.
I always love a good share during an episode.
Broadcast Intrusion was achieved by sending a more powerful microwave transmission to the station's broadcast towers
than the stations were sending themselves, triggering a capture effect.
Okay, so maybe that's more technical than the FM wave?
I don't know how to review it.
I think so.
I have to assume microwaves are just stronger than FM radio waves.
Probably. We don't know though.
They probably made way more superheroes than I thought.
Oh yeah, for sure.
This was a difficult task in 1987 but was possible before American television stations switched from analog to digital signals in 2009.
That's a lot longer than I thought.
I'm sorry Chelsea, can we just take a moment to think about how shitty the superheroes will be who were formed by FM radio waves?
Like they can only vaguely do something?
I can read your mind but only kind of in a general sense.
I can only kind of go invisible.
Or I only kind of get an idea of what you're thinking of for a minute.
I can read your mind in a general sense.
You're kind of hungry, right? I knew it.
But you also might not be. You don't know for sure.
Experts have said that the stunt required extensive technical expertise and a significant amount of transmitting power
and that the pirate broadcast likely originated from somewhere in the line of sight of both stations broadcast towers,
which were top two tall buildings in downtown Chicago.
I mean, that's probably not hard.
No one has ever claimed responsibility for the stunt.
The speculation about the identities of Max and his co-conspirators had centered on the theories that the prank was either an inside job
by a disgruntled employer or former employee of WGN or was carried out by members of Chicago's underground hacker community.
However, despite an official law enforcement investigation in the immediate aftermath of the incident
and many unofficial investigations, inquiries, and online speculation in the ensuing decades,
the identities and motives of the hijacker remain a mystery.
Soon after the intrusion, an FCC official was quoted in the news reported that the perpetrators faced a maximum fine of $10,000 and up to a year in prison.
However, the five-year statute of limitations was surpassed in 1992, so the persons responsible for the intrusion would no longer face criminal punishment
should their identities be revealed.
That's where it ends. Nobody knows about that one either.
Okay.
And they face no repercussion for coming forward, so...
I guess at this point, so why not just be like, hey...
Well, it was 37 years ago, they might be dead.
Oh no.
Or in their 60s.
I don't like to think...
Which is even worse.
A year that I've been alive as that long ago.
I have some surprising ones for you coming up.
Okay.
First is short and sweet hijacking, which I just couldn't not include, but it's not very long.
This one is the 2013 A E A S hijackings.
On February 11, 2013, Great Falls, Montana, CBS affiliate, KRTV, I hate the names of these radio stations,
have their emergency alert system hijacked with an audible message warning viewers that the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living.
I love this.
And if I was watching TV while this happened, there would be a brief moment where I would literally be like, oh fuck, it's happening.
All the horror movies that I watch are coming true.
And then I probably might realize it was hijacking.
Maybe.
I don't know.
I don't know what I do.
Later, the same night in Marquette, Michigan, and the early morning hours in La Crosse, Wisconsin,
the same type of hijacking and reference to a zombie invasion was made over the E A S system of CBS affiliate WKBTDT.
ABC affiliate WBUP.
Oh, for fuck sakes.
What?
And PBS member station.
Oh my God.
WNMU during primetime programming.
Shortly afterward, PBS, oh for fuck sakes.
They just keep throwing out all these letters.
The poor talisman New Mexico was struck with a similar hacking incident, repeating similar information regarding zombies.
However, this led to the arrest of the hacker of the four television stations.
So here, I don't know who it is, but they actually got found out.
I found them.
I don't know what I'd do if a zombie thing came up on the TV.
What would you do?
Would you think it was weird?
Like real?
Yeah, I would think it was a hoax.
Really?
Oh yeah.
Oh, I'd have a split second.
Maybe I think, I can't tell you, I don't know.
Maybe now reading that, I might think it's a hoax.
Yeah, after doing these at this episode, I would think it's a hoax.
So maybe it's a good thing that I'm not like boarding up my windows and stuff being like, we've prepared for this.
I don't know.
You shouldn't mess around with things like that though.
There's people that watch horror movies that are terrified of zombie attacks and maybe they do.
Yeah, and also to be fair that the horror movies always start with people who are not prepared for the horror events.
So maybe take it a little seriously.
And I feel like the first signs wouldn't be a public broadcast on TV.
Thank you for watching the zombie attack.
See, I think it's on Reddit before it gets on TV.
Oh, it's for sure on Reddit.
That's where the people go.
Okay, are you ready for the next one?
This is the last.
No, not at all.
We should end here because I am not ready.
We could.
See you next time.
Thank you.
Okay, I'm ready now.
Never mind.
I'm ready.
Okay, the show must go on then.
Back.
Ready?
Okay.
2002 Alan Gong hijackings.
You know about this?
I do not know.
I'm going to say no or else you would have said it at the beginning.
He's so shocked.
He can't even talk.
February 16, 2002, all those freaking great TV stations, just like letters just like messed up my speech now.
I'll never be the same.
Can't speak more.
It's anymore just letters.
I can't do.
W H A T.
Question mark.
Television signals in the Chinese city of Anshan.
I'm 100% sure I'm saying that right because it's written in English words.
We're briefly hijacked by members of the Falun Gong religious movement in order to clarify the events of the Tiananmen Square self self-immolation incident in the previous year.
Yes, which also should not be confused with the Tiananmen Square incident.
Okay.
This is a separate thing from what occurred in the 80s.
I'm actually really glad that you're saying that because I thought it was that incident.
No, this came up in our Falun Gong episode where a Falun Gong person self-immolated in Tiananmen Square in protest of their treatment.
And then Falun Gong said that wasn't us because people can't commit suicide in our cult.
Yeah.
Glad you said that.
We're referencing a previous episode we talked about.
You can go back and find out about it and listen to all five parts.
On March 5th, 2002, further intrusions took place on cable television channels in the cities of Changchun and Song Yuan, protesting persecution of the Chinese government.
The front sources vary as to the length of the intrusion, so we're not actually going to be watching a video here, unfortunately.
I mean, it wouldn't be that helpful.
We could.
It doesn't suffice for watching it.
It just sucks for understanding it.
Having anything from it.
Well, some of us could we even could we even really tell if there was a takeover of the radio?
You bring up a good point.
Nonetheless, it's it's moot because we don't even have it to watch.
So I wonder why I don't have that.
Anyhow, Chinese government.
Did I read that yet?
Protesting persecution by the Chinese government.
Different sources vary.
Oh, yeah, I definitely read this.
The figures citing included 10 minutes, 50 minutes, or even as long as four hours.
In September of the same year, 15 people were convicted of roles in the incident and were given prison terms of up to 20 years.
On September 9th, Falun Gong followers again disrupted broadcasting, this time targeting nationwide satellite broadcasting.
By 2010, several of those involved had reportedly died in prison.
So I'm going to read to you an article from CNN titled Jail for Falun Gong TV Hackers September 20, 2002.
There's tons of articles on this.
I decided to go with the follow up on the actual persecution of the people who did this to read that article versus one of it actually happening because it gives us an idea of all of it.
So yeah, CNN.com, Hong Kong, China, prison terms of between four and 20 years have been handed down to 15 members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement for hijacking state television broadcasts in China.
Xinhua News Agency reported.
Falun Gong followers were convicted by Chang Chun, intermediary, People's Court in northeastern China's Jilin province of damaging radio and television property and have conspiring to use the Outlaw Group to undermine law enforcement in the Xinhua report said.
The Xinhua report said.
State television broadcasts in the northeastern city of Chang Chang were interrupted on March 5 by footage of Falun Gong's US based leader Lee Hong.
What is it Lee Hong Ji? Lee Hong, sir. Lee Hong, sir. ZHI. Yep. Yeah. Lee Hong, sir. Lee Hong, sir. Also, Chongqing. I'm pretty sure you're saying Chongqing. No, I'm just saying.
Qingcheng. OK. I've been to Chongqing. I'm pretty. Yeah, this is differently a different city. OK. And a film accusing the government of staging the fiery deaths of alleged followers in the Tiananmen Square last year.
Television takeover was one of the most defiant protests by members of the Falun Gong, whose once regular demonstrations in Tiananmen Square had diminished since a government cracked down arrested group leaders and sent thousands of followers to reeducation camps.
In June this year, state run satellite signals were also hijacked during the soccer World Cup finals and Falun Gong propaganda was aired. The hijacking was on a channel the Chinese government uses to beam TV to remote areas in China that have little access to outside news.
I love that. Falun Gong, based on traditional Chinese religions and meditation exercises, acquired millions of followers in the mid 1900s before it was banned by Beijing in July 1999 and denounced as an evil cult.
Since it was outlawed, thousands of members have been detained and activists based outside China claimed hundreds have died and been tortured while in custody.
I'm going to read one more just because that didn't fully summarize it as much as I wanted it to.
This one is actually from a CBC channel who aired a documentary on it. And I just think it summarizes the whole situation of what happened a little bit better.
Titled in 2002, Falun Gong activists hacked into a state TV station in China CBC documentaries.
In March 2002, activists from the outlawed spiritual movement Falun Gong hijacked a state TV station in Changchun, China.
Their goal was to counter the government narrative aimed at suppressing their practice.
And the after I wonder if it is Chongqing is this is I know it's it's so close.
This is it's an English version of it. So it's not actually the Chinese spelling of it.
And it's just C H A N G C H U N. I wonder if it is in the aftermath police swept the city in search of the saboteurs.
Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners were detained and 15 were sentenced to prison turns of up to 20 years.
Many faced torture and abuse and several died in prison.
Many Falun Gong followers were forced to flee China.
Internationally renowned illustrator and comic artist, Dave Chiang, known for the Justice League and Star Wars franchises was one of them.
The documentary Eternal Spring rechases the events of the hijacking, combining 3D animation using Dongqing's art
and present day interviews that film brings a life to the story of defiance and harrowing eyewitness accounts of prosecution.
Dave Chiang discovered Falun Gong when he was 21.
Falun Gong teaches a simple really, he says in the film, you cultivate your heart and improve your character and that leads to better physical and mental health.
We've already we know about the Falun Gong. I'm going to skip over this because it's just telling you how great Falun Gong is and we already know how great the Falun Gong is.
They have the dancers.
They have such good dancers. If you want to become one, go to the compound.
In 2002, a small group of practitioners in Changchun devised a plan to hack into a state TV signal and play a video about Falun Gong's teachings.
The goal of hijacking the TV was to set the record straight, one practitioner said in the film.
If you're silent in the face of persecution and look away when people are dying, are you still human? said another.
Dashian disagreed with the hijacking at the time. He believed it would worsen the violent repression of Falun Gong.
In Eternal Spring, he speaks to some of the people who were directly involved in his views begin to change.
Yeah, so I think that I just wanted to get out the fact of what this guy thought the hijacking was for.
This is, I mean, the zombie one got some persecution. This one got a lot of persecution on it because it was over.
Yeah.
That was getting.
Again, if you want to know more about the Falun Gong, more likely than not, you've listened to at least one of those episodes from us.
That's our most popular episode. But go listen to our three part Falun Gong episode.
Yes, I hadn't heard about this one. It never came up in our episodes.
And from all the other ones that I have heard about it, I was like, wow, Falun Gong.
That'll be a nice surprise.
We had to keep it to a brief three one hour episode.
Yeah.
We couldn't get everything.
And again, that ties it back to us to be able to tell you to go listen to one of our episodes.
And you probably listen to it because again, it is our best episode.
By far, like not even close.
Voted by the people, not by us, by the people. Probably.
Maybe Falun Gong people.
Yeah.
Although it's the one where we're not very nice to Falun Gong.
So I don't think it is Falun Gong.
Anyhow, do you have anything else to say?
No.
Comment.
Recent news came up on the Falun Gong, but I feel like that'll be for a different time
that we'll talk about that.
Oh yeah. Time of Falun Gong.
Yeah.
It shows how much power they had at the time, though.
They really did.
As they were rising, or at least competing with the government, it shows how much power they had in that period of time.
Yeah.
I guess I mean, just like so scary.
They got pretty highly persecuted after this hijacking.
Well, then even then, the question really is how persecuted they were.
It is a question.
Because the only party who tells us how persecuted they are is the Falun Gong.
Yeah.
And now there are other countries in which to not persecute.
Yes.
So here we are.
And that has been it of our hijacking of your regularly scheduled podcast episode.
Or, or not, maybe you actually tuned in for this one.
I mean, we can just kind of wait and see if this one will get hijacked, too.
Oh yeah.
Because like it just, it would be inevitable.
I would be so perfect for someone to do.
I don't, Popes?
Popes, is it going to happen?
Oh.
Nope.
They say they have no idea what this technology is we're even using.
So they have nothing to say.
They're very confused in Latin.
If you're just tuning in now, I don't know where you're going to find the origination of that one with the Popes.
You're not going to have any idea, but now we got to have the other Popes.
Weirdly enough, it's not in the Pope episode that we just did either.
Nope.
I can't even remember what episode, so that sucks.
I'm pretty sure it's the Ouija Board episode.
Go listen to them all.
Yeah.
Go listen to them all.
And then again, just in case you missed some of them.
Oh yeah.
Anyhow, barring interruption.
I have been Taylor.
Here with Chelsea.
We are Journey to the Fringe.
Thank you all for listening and we'll see you next week.
Bye.
If you want to communicate with us and give us ideas for new episodes or tell us that we're wrong and terrible, either way, please send us an email at journeytothefringeatgmail.com.
I'll see you in the next episode.