Zoinks! What do pheromones, the Pentagon, and an elite ancient Greek army have in common? More than you would ever guess, and Josh is here to connect the dots in one of the wildest episodes the gang has tackled yet.

It started with cologne. Josh has been on a lifelong quest for the perfect scent, one powerful enough to, as he puts it, land a big hairy silver fox. While researching pheromone-based fragrances, he stumbled onto something the United States government would probably rather forget: the Gay Bomb. Yes, that was the actual name. In the late 1990s, the Pentagon explored the idea of a non-lethal weapon that would release pheromones into the air and make enemy soldiers so attracted to each other that they would stop fighting. The theory was that an explosion of airborne hormones would trigger a mass battlefield romance, effectively ending combat without a single bullet fired.

The proposal made it far enough to appear in official Pentagon records as part of a broader study into non-lethal chemical weapons. It was never built, and for good reason. No scientific evidence has ever demonstrated that any scent or pheromone can alter a person's sexual orientation. Companies have been making that claim since the 1970s with musky colognes and supposed attraction sprays, and the science has never backed it up.

But the trail leads somewhere unexpected. Josh discovered that an all-gay military unit actually existed, and it was one of the most feared fighting forces in the ancient world. The Sacred Band of Thebes consisted of 150 male couples, 300 soldiers total, who fought side by side as lovers. The idea was simple and effective: a soldier fights harder when the person he loves is standing next to him on the battlefield. The unit was active from 378 BC and remained undefeated for decades until Alexander the Great finally overcame them in 338 BC.

The gang investigates how ancient Greek culture viewed homosexuality in the military, including passages from Plato's Symposium that praised the bond between male soldiers as a source of extraordinary courage. As Plato wrote, no man is such a coward that love cannot inspire him with bravery equal to the bravest born. In ancient Greece, these relationships were not hidden or merely tolerated. They were celebrated as a military advantage.

From a Pentagon proposal that treated attraction as a weapon to an ancient army that proved love actually could win wars, this episode covers ground that history books tend to skip. Josh brings his signature humor and genuine curiosity to a story that is equal parts absurd, fascinating, and surprisingly moving.

What you'll hear in this episode:

The real Pentagon proposal to weaponize pheromones and why it never left the drawing board

The Sacred Band of Thebes, 300 elite gay soldiers who were undefeated for 40 years

Plato's take on why love makes better warriors than fear

Josh's personal quest for the perfect cologne and how it led to a classified government document

Jinkies! What happens when a family moves into a 512-acre cattle ranch in northeastern Utah and discovers every door, window, and cabinet bolted shut from the inside? For the Sherman family, the locks were just the beginning.

In 1994, Terry and Gwen Sherman purchased a remote ranch in the Uintah Basin, lured by cheap land and wide-open skies. Within weeks, they understood why the previous owners had fortified every inch of the house. Cattle started turning up dead with surgical wounds, organs removed, and not a drop of blood anywhere. One cow had an 18-inch hole cored straight through its body cavity. No predator leaves a scene like that.

Then came the wolf. A massive animal, three times the normal size, appeared in the fields and attacked a calf. Sherman fired four rounds from a .357 Magnum at close range, then grabbed a rifle and fired again. A chunk of flesh tore free, but the wolf just looked at him and walked away. No blood. Its tracks ended the next morning in the middle of a field and simply stopped.

The lights followed. Blue orbs with orange centers drifted across the property, floating through walls and hovering above the fields. One night, three of the family's dogs chased an orb into thick brush. Three yelps. The next morning, all that remained were three greasy spots on scorched earth where the dogs had been. Four bulls vanished from a corral and were found crammed inside a sealed metal trailer, cobwebs still undisturbed across the door, waking from what looked like a trance.

The gang investigates one of the most documented paranormal properties in American history. After the Shermans sold the ranch in 1996, Las Vegas billionaire Robert Bigelow deployed a full scientific team through his National Institute for Discovery Science. They documented close to 100 incidents, but the phenomenon seemed aware it was being watched. Activity spiked when observers were present but died the instant instruments were aimed at it. Cameras were vandalized. Sensors failed at exactly the wrong moments.

The story took a classified turn when a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst visited the ranch in 2007 and reported seeing a floating yellow object in the kitchen. Senators Harry Reid, Ted Stevens, and Daniel Inouye secured $22 million in classified funding for a government study through Bigelow's company, BAASS. Over 100 technical papers and 38 classified defense documents were produced before the program ended in 2012. The New York Times revealed its existence to the public in December 2017.

But the most unsettling finding was what researchers called the Hitchhiker Effect. The phenomena did not stay at the ranch. It followed investigators home. Blue orbs appeared at researchers' houses in Las Vegas. Military personnel reported strange activity at their own homes after visiting the property. Every one of five service members deployed to the ranch experienced something unexplained.

Today the ranch is owned by Brandon Fugal and featured on the History Channel. The questions remain open, the cameras keep rolling, and whatever lives on that land keeps watching back.

What youll hear in this episode:

The Sherman family's harrowing 18 months on the ranch, from mutilated cattle to a bulletproof wolf

A $22 million classified government investigation that produced more questions than answers

The Hitchhiker Effect and why what happens at the ranch does not stay at the ranch

The gang investigates a mystery hiding in plain sight. Humanity is headed back to the moon, and while the Artemis 2 crew circles our closest neighbor for reconnaissance photos and crater naming ceremonies, the real question might not be about exploration at all. It might be about what is buried in the lunar dust.

Helium-3 is one of the rarest minerals on Earth. A single kilogram costs roughly $18.7 million, and the entire global supply is valued at around $125 million. That is about seven kilograms total. On Earth, the only way to produce it is through the decay of nuclear stockpiles. But the surface of the moon is covered in the stuff, embedded in the fine dust by billions of years of solar wind bombardment with no atmosphere to block it.

If Helium-3 can be mined, transported back to Earth, and used in fusion reactors, the payoff would reshape civilization. A few kilograms could power a major city for a year. One million tons could theoretically supply the planet with energy for thousands of years. The energy produced would generate minimal radiation and drastically reduce radioactive waste. There is one catch: fusion using Helium-3 requires temperatures around one trillion degrees Fahrenheit. Essentially a microstar created here on our planet's surface.

Zoinks! Multiple nations are already staking their claims. China is reportedly planning on building mining operations on the far side of the moon. The United States is planning a permanent base in ancient volcanic tubes beneath the lunar surface. Russia, India, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Luxembourg, and the European Space Agency have all claimed lunar territories. A company called Interlune is developing autonomous solar-powered excavators capable of processing hundreds of tons of lunar soil per hour.

Space has its own set of laws, similar to old maritime codes. Whoever claims territory first owns it, flag planted and all. The Outer Space Treaty prohibits sovereign claims on celestial bodies but does not clearly regulate resource extraction. The Artemis Accords and national laws are scrambling to catch up, but when trillions of dollars are at stake, the rules tend to follow the money.

The trail leads to an even stranger question. If mining begins in earnest and crews start digging deep into the lunar surface, they may stumble into one of the moon's oldest conspiracies: that the moon itself is hollow. Some believe it is an ancient satellite, possibly even a monitoring station, sent to orbit our planet long before recorded history. Mining operations could finally put that theory to rest or crack it wide open.

We could see permanent structures on the moon in our lifetime. The ISS is being decommissioned and eventually sunk into the ocean. Its replacement may not orbit Earth at all. It may sit inside a volcanic tunnel on the lunar surface. What was once science fiction is becoming budget line items and mining contracts.

What you'll hear in this episode:

Why Helium-3 is the most expensive mineral on Earth and how the moon is covered in it

The nations racing to claim and mine the lunar surface

What it takes to create a microstar and why fusion is the ultimate energy prize

The connection between moon mining and the hollow moon conspiracy

How space law works and why it might not be enough