エピソード

  • Milk Bottle on the Dish: An Impossible Signal at Antelope Mesa

    Milk Bottle on the Dish: An Impossible Signal at Antelope Mesa
    2026/09/10
    Milk Bottle on the Dish: An Impossible Signal at Antelope Mesa

    A single glass milk bottle sat motionless at the center of a forty-foot radio dish tilted thirty degrees from horizontal with no one on staff placing it there-how did it stay? When a tiny calibration offset widened Laura McCarthy’s receiver bandwidth and revealed a hidden pattern inside a pulsar she had monitored for six years, questions multiplied: what was encoded, who left the bottle, and how did a gate counter fail to record an overnight visitor?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events on Antelope Mesa from November 4 to November 19, 2019, detailing the dish repair, the gate logs, the discovery in stellar data, and the mysterious physical evidence that arrived at the observatory-what threads connect the data anomaly, a mailed index card, and an unregistered night entry?

    Person: Laura McCarthy
    Date: November 19, 2019 (bottle discovered); November 17-18, 2019 (unregistered entry)
    Location: Antelope Mesa, eastern Nevada
    Event: Bearing replacement locked elevation motor (dish fixed at ~30°) on November 4, 2019
    Investigation: Fourteen-month independent investigation by journalist Carol Dalton

    - The dish is a forty-foot single-dish radio telescope tilted roughly thirty degrees from horizontal during the events.
    - Laura McCarthy monitored a pulsar with a period of 1.4 seconds and had worked at Antelope Mesa since spring 2013 (six years by 2019).
    - Technician Marcus Odum performed a bearing replacement on November 4, 2019, and the gate counter recorded three entries through November 15, 2019.
    - At 11:52 p.m. on November 18, 2019, an anomalous signal appeared in an expanded receiver bandwidth caused by a 0.003 gain offset.
    - An index card arrived by mail containing seven numbers, one matching an instrument anomaly that McCarthy had never reported.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    20 分
  • The Book That Borrowed Her Future: Due Dates After Death

    The Book That Borrowed Her Future: Due Dates After Death
    2026/09/09
    The Book That Borrowed Her Future: Due Dates After Death

    A small town’s quiet library hides a chronology that keeps ending after a woman's death: a 1982 Peterson field guide was found standing upright in a sealed construction corridor with Donna Falk’s checkout card showing four due dates all stamped after her September 9 death. How did a book bearing her name appear seven weeks later in an area locked since September 19, and who was placing those posthumous due dates?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events surrounding the discovery and the people connected to it, describing the physical book, the sealed site, and Donna Falk’s ties to the library - and we ask whether the dates on a paper checkout card can be reconciled with the facts at hand.

    Person: Donna Falk
    Date of death: September 9
    Discovery date: October 23
    Book: Peterson field guide to eastern birds (1982 hardcover)
    Location: sealed drainage corridor behind Haller County Public Library

    - The checkout card in the book showed four final due dates: October 3, October 17, October 31, and November 14.
    - Donna Falk was 63 years old at her death and worked as a clerical assistant in the county offices.
    - The library stopped using paper checkout cards when it computerized in 1997; Donna kept a shoebox of cards she had removed over the years.
    - The drainage corridor had been padlocked and sealed by construction crew Triton Building Solutions on September 19, and the fence was documented as never cut or moved.
    - The book’s call number was QL 681 .P44 1982 and it appeared dry and undamaged, spine out between two concrete blocks.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    20 分
  • The Boxcar That Shouldn't Have Been There-Fog, Tracks, and Silence

    The Boxcar That Shouldn't Have Been There-Fog, Tracks, and Silence
    2026/09/08
    The Boxcar That Shouldn't Have Been There-Fog, Tracks, and Silence

    A dead trackbed, a fifty-three-foot freight car weighing roughly 58,000 pounds, and not a single electronic record or rail sensor to explain how it arrived - all seen by a fifteen-year-old paper carrier at 4:20 a.m, in thick fog. How can a boxcar sit perfectly centered on old wooden ties where rails were removed ten years earlier without leaving gouges, sensor logs, or obvious physical evidence?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of discoveries and the people who first encountered the car: the teenager who found it, the yard supervisor who could not explain it, and the inspector who climbed onto its roof looking for signs of lifting straps. What unfolded in the first hours raises the question: what moved KRTX 1144 onto a decommissioned spur without leaving the marks expected of a 58,000-pound freight car?

    Person: Sandra Young
    Date: September 14, 2011
    Location: Track Nine spur, Kellerton rail yard
    Case: KRTX 1144 placement on decommissioned track
    Status: No injuries, no sensor logs indicating movement

    - Time of discovery: 4:20 a.m.
    - Car length: 53 feet; approximate weight: 58,000 pounds.
    - Track Nine rails removed: winter of 2001 (ten years earlier).
    - Yard electronic gate reader logged 47 rail movements in previous 72 hours; KRTX 1144 not among them.
    - Inspector Brian Foster arrived by 7:00 a.m. and found no strap marks or roof compression dents.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分
  • The Smell From Room 14: A School's Quietly Erased Secret

    The Smell From Room 14: A School's Quietly Erased Secret
    2026/09/07
    The Smell From Room 14: A School's Quietly Erased Secret

    A child's navy blazer, brass buttons untarnished and a sewn name inside, was dragged from a snowbank forty feet down Ellswick Road in 2009 - found in front of a long-closed prep school that had been vacant since 1998. A reporter spent nearly two years tracing that impossible garment to a sealed dorm room, a persistent odor in the summer of 1981, and a set of records someone deliberately erased - so what was the truth they tried to bury?

    In this episode, we follow how a single blazer led a journalist into school archives, alumni recollections, and a missing month of paperwork to reconstruct what happened in Room 14; can the memories of former students and a partly-obscured archive entry reveal why August 1981 was quietly removed from the record?

    Person: Judith Adams
    Date: February 6, 2009
    Location: Ellswick Road outside Ashburn Preparatory Academy
    Event: Unusual persistent smell reported in July 1981 in Room 14, Pembrook Hall
    Record action: Archive withdrawal dated September 4, 1981 with partially obscured name

    - The blazer was dragged forty feet across the asphalt by a snowplow blade at 6:20 AM.
    - The blazer's interior lining was sewn with the name "JUDITH ADAMS."
    - Ashburn Preparatory Academy had been vacant since 1998.
    - The steam heating system at Ashburn was shut down during summer months in 1981, despite reports blaming radiators for the smell.
    - Archive intake records show an August 1981 file reduced to one page and withdrawn from the regional depository on September 4, 1981.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    24 分
  • Twelve Hours Missing: How a Lobsterman's Boat Came Home Alone

    Twelve Hours Missing: How a Lobsterman's Boat Came Home Alone
    2026/09/06
    Twelve Hours Missing: How a Lobsterman's Boat Came Home Alone

    A woman’s boat returned to harbor at 6:14 AM with its lights off and no crew, navigation lights she had never neglected, and thirty-eight traps left untouched fourteen miles away - so how did the Ledger come home alone? The single detail that would supposedly tie the whole night together remains officially unresolved.

    In this episode, we lay out what was found on the Ledger, who discovered it, and the concrete timeline from Angela O’Brien’s departure to the boat’s return, asking whether the physical evidence points to accident, interference, or something else.

    Person: Angela O'Brien
    Date: July 9, 2019 (boat found at 6:14 AM)
    Location: Crale waterfront / Burnt Cove Ledge (trap site ~14 miles northeast)
    Boat: Ledger - purchased for $11,000; 40 gallons of fuel filled at 9:40 PM July 7
    Autopilot: Documented "ghost heading fault" logged 18 months earlier

    - Angela left the marina at approximately 11:00 PM on July 7 and did not reach Burnt Cove Ledge.
    - Her 38 traps at Burnt Cove Ledge were confirmed untouched by 10:00 AM on July 8.
    - The Ledger was found at its mooring at 6:14 AM on July 9 with navigation lights off and engine cold.
    - Hauler hydraulic line on deck was warm to the touch while the engine was cold, indicating recent trap-hauling despite the engine being off.
    - Investigators found six sets of rubber banding/wire used for lobsters and bait barrel pieces of arenque cut in a pattern different from Angela’s usual baiting.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    20 分
  • The Fire That Shouldn't Have Burned: Boots, Zipper, and a Bear?

    The Fire That Shouldn't Have Burned: Boots, Zipper, and a Bear?
    2026/09/05
    The Fire That Shouldn't Have Burned: Boots, Zipper, and a Bear?

    The thought of a camp left exactly as it was - tent closed, cook kit still on the bear line, and a fire burning eight hours after it was reported dead - creates a slow, precise dread: how can ritual and order coexist with an impossible flame? A photographer’s detail - steaming boot liners outside a closed vestibule - becomes the hinge of the mystery: who or what could have reignited a fire at the exposed northern edge of the ring? Could that steaming boot liner be the clue that explains a night Neil Porter does not remember?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of observations and records that follow one morning in Blackthorn State Forest: the ranger’s log and photographs, a runner’s discovery, and Neil Porter’s unbroken history of precision in the outdoors, all leading to a single unresolved pattern about the fire’s origin and the closed tent zipper.

    Person: Neil Porter
    Date: June 8, 2019
    Location: Blackthorn State Forest
    Witness: Melissa Harrison
    Ranger: Craig Weston

    - Neil radioed at 9:47 PM on June 7 reporting "fire extinguished, pit covered."
    - Melissa photographed the fire at 6:15 AM on June 8 and called out to Neil at 6:20 AM.
    - Neil was 52 years old and had logged over 400 nights in backcountry camps by summer 2019.
    - Ranger Weston’s photos show ash deepest at center but active flames at the northern edge of the ring.
    - Neil’s boot liners were zipped inside the tent vestibule the night before but were photographed outside and steaming the next morning.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分
  • The Warm Handset: How a Dead Wire Spoke Sarah's Name

    The Warm Handset: How a Dead Wire Spoke Sarah's Name
    2026/09/04
    The Warm Handset: How a Dead Wire Spoke Sarah's Name

    A warm telephone handset was resting on a cut copper wire inside a utility box-its surface measured 91°F while the air in the shade was 78°F-and two days earlier a woman in Room Seven heard a voice speak her name with no record of any call. How did a handset bought in cash sixty miles away, a dead wire cut fifteen years ago, and a burst pipe converge on one night in a desert motor court?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline of events around Sarah Barnes’s displacement, the motel utility box, and the odd purchase that preceded the incident, asking how a planned action unfolded across rental houses, a motel maintenance log, and thirty feet of buried conduit.

    Person: Sarah Barnes
    Date: May 9, 2019
    Location: Sundowner Motor Court, Cura Flats, Nevada
    Event: Warm handset found on dead copper wire
    Purchase: Cream-colored modular telephone handset bought in Fallon, Nevada

    - Sarah Barnes checked into Room Seven at the Sundowner Motor Court on April 28, 2019.
    - A pipe burst in Sarah’s rental house on April 27, 2019, requiring 3-4 weeks of restoration.
    - The handset inside the utility box registered 91°F while ambient shade temperature was 78°F.
    - The copper wire on which the handset rested had been cut at both ends fifteen years earlier.
    - A cream-colored four-conductor handset was purchased for cash in Fallon, Nevada, 60 miles away, on May 5, 2019.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分
  • The Forgotten Memo That Predicted a Campus Flood Twice

    The Forgotten Memo That Predicted a Campus Flood Twice
    2026/09/03
    The Forgotten Memo That Predicted a Campus Flood Twice

    Flooding that mirrored a forgotten memo unfolded on campus four days after the memo's date - and the same warning had been written twice, eighteen years apart. The discovery began when a hand truck wheel snagged an unlabeled box in Crestfield University's sub-basement and revealed a single typed document describing, in precise technical terms, the exact flood Gregory Harris saw that morning; how did two independent records point to the same failure?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of verifiable events: the box found in the Harwick Archive sub-basement, the April 5 memo matching an April 8 pipe burst, and the fact that an earlier analyst had produced the same warning eighteen years before. How did two people, working separately from the same buried data, arrive at identical conclusions?

    Person: Gregory Harris
    Person: Heather Sheridan
    Location: Harwick Archive sub-basement, Crestfield University campus
    Date: April 5 (document date) and April 8 (pipe burst)
    Event: Cast-iron pipe burst at Ardmore and Ninth, flooding toward the botany greenhouse

    - Gregory Harris found an unlabeled gray banker's box flush against the concrete floor in the sub-basement while handling donated hymnals.
    - The single typed document in a manila folder described standing water at a flooded intersection and flow toward the botany greenhouse; its date was April 5.
    - The cast-iron pipe at Ardmore and Ninth burst on April 8, four days after the memo's date.
    - Heather Sheridan logged thirty-nine keycard entries in the sub-basement access log over fourteen months and had been working on Ardmore and Ninth since early March 2014.
    - Heather's March 22 notebook and March 27 draft on the university server described the same failure mode and estimated failure within two to three weeks prior to the April 8 burst.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分