Sofa King Podcast

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life and death (sentence) of the monster Aileen Wuornos. She was a notorious female serial killer, the one that the movie Monster was based on. She only killed five, but she had a hell of a path getting there. Her father was a child molester who killed himself in prison. His mother was a teenager who abandoned Aileen and her brother. This put her under the care of her grandparents; her grandmother the alcoholic, and her grandfather the rapist. Her horrible childhood led to her having sex as a child for loose change and cigarettes just to be popular. She even had sex with her brother. After she was impregnated at 14, she became homeless and lived in the woods. The only way to survive was to sell her body, and she started a career of that. She moved to Florida, married a rich guy, abused him, and got annulled in nine weeks. She met the love of her life, a woman named Tyria Moore, and she started a decades long career of random petty crimes as a hooker. Eventually, she was assaulted by one of her customers and killed him in what she called self-defense. This led to a killing spree over the course of a year. How did she get busted? Did her girlfriend give her up? How many times was she arrested? How did her brother die? How many men did she kill, and were they all customers? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aileen_Wuornos https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/aileen-wuornos http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/wuornos805.htm https://capitalpunishmentincontext.org/cases/wuornos https://listverse.com/2020/01/04/10-tragic-facts-about-the-life-of-aileen-wuornos/ https://allthatsinteresting.com/aileen-wuornos https://murderpedia.org/female.W/w/wuornos-aileen.htm  

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at one of the worst industrial catastrophes of the modern age, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This so-called island of trash is not an island at all. It is actually quite worse. The gyres in the ocean move every single bit of plastic, garbage, and fishing nets (sooooo many fishing nets) in a constant rotation. While there are areas where the larger trash congeals into solid islands, the majority of it is micro plastic that has broken up due currents and the sun. Think of it as cat litter sized plastic filling our oceans. How much? Try seven million tons that go nine feed deep and spread to an area twice the size of Texas. That’s trillions of bits of plastic, or hundreds of pieces of plastic for every person on the planet. What are the efforts to clean it up? How much will it cost? What damage does this do to the sea life? Who discovered it? What can you do to help? Who is the worst contributor globally? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/ https://www.listland.com/10-horrifying-facts-about-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch/ https://eradicateplastic.com/10-interesting-facts-about-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch/ https://factslegend.org/40-interesting-great-pacific-garbage-patch-facts/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HBtl4sHTqU https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/how-big-great-pacific-garbage-patch-science-vs-myth.html https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch https://psmag.com/environment/trash-islands-taking-over-oceans https://www.foxnews.com/science/plan-to-clear-great-pacific-garbage-patch-texas-sized-island-of-trash-in-ocean-draws-concerns  

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life and crimes of Bikram Choudhury, yoga guru and rapist. This guy ticked all the boxes of a cult leader: crazy charisma, the ability to bilk money from followers, promises of better spiritual and physical life, and lots of sex! He allegedly taught yoga to Elvis, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Quincy Jones, Barbara Streisand, Madonna, Lady Gaga and David Beckham. He never called it a cult, but he had over 650 franchises of his yoga studio around the world and millions of dollars and assets provided by thousands of adoring followers. The problem was, a lot of his sex was not consensual. He was a predator who would sexually assault and rape people at his nine week long yoga seminars held at plush hotels. Eventually, he was busted by the likes of Larissa Anderson and Sarah Baughn, and he lost his empire to his ex-lawyer Minakshi Jafa-Bodden. So where is he now? Did he ever do any jail time? What countries will let him live there without extradition? Was his divorce a sham to hide money? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-11-22/bikram-choudhury-netflix-documentary-yoga-sexual-assault https://www.mamamia.com.au/bikram-choudhury/ https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/did-rajashree-choudhury-divorce-yoga-guru-husband-bikram https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/tv-movies/a29857796/where-is-bikram-choudhury-now-yoga-founder-netflix-documentary/ https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2485542/what-bikram-choudhury-thinks-about-netflix-scathing-new-yoga-documentary https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/20/bikram-choudhury-yoga-founder-abuse-netflix-documentary https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bikram-choudhury-sexual-assault_n_5d4dc527e4b0fd2733f0286f?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANNqHUXwNhr2kYfOLAqioxTzln2hiR0gtJSVg8E4wN2pWc677atsmGGp1F8J7guUwxDTauiMAjzHnlH4LXX7bxhUvNaQ8cyS9rsGGMx1E3HNBukSFzUiJ4glE6iFdWmjl9ihTwuf3NTLV9tT-BCrbTFg7QHYxY_l3b01AEYw6XNG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikram_Choudhury https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/dec/03/he-made-a-fortune-from-his-trademarked-bikram-yoga-but-now-his-empire-is-in-tatters https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/bikram-yogi-guru-predator-true-story-46896525 Netflix Original Documentary: Bikram: Yogi,

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we travel back in time and look at one of the worst disasters in the history of human civilization, The Black Death. The Black Death is commonly thought to be a horrible epidemic of the Bubonic Plague, though some doctors think it was a different virus entirely. Either way, it killed. A lot. Historical records are weak from the time, but modern experts estimate that somewhere between 70 and 200 million (roughly a third of Europe’s population) was killed in only three horrible years. So where did it come from? The safe money is on China. It spread from Mongol invaders and traders using the silk road. Before it hit Europe, kings had heard of its spread through China, Egypt, and other remote areas. But in 1347, twelve ships docked in Messina, Italy, and the dock workers founds scores of dead, all covered in boils and black flesh. They tried to turn the ships away, but it had already gotten ashore. The Black Death was here. It spread like ink through water—Germany, France, England, Spain. Scores dead everywhere it went. Village after village was completely killed or abandoned. Larger cities faired differently, but death was everywhere. Nobody knew how it spread. The doctors blamed evil being floating from the infected people’s eyes. They blamed bad blood. They blamed sinners. They even blamed the Jews and murdered them by scores. The Italian poet Boccaccio describes the death toll in detail, discussing the piles of bodies in every city, the paranoia, the families abandoning each other. Most modern experts agree that the major vector for this spreading dealt with fleas on rats and mice. They’d drink blood from an infected rodent and then bite a human, spreading the infection. This made it especially deadly on ships and in large, port towns. But doctors knew nothing of sanitation or how disease spread, so things like beating yourself with a leather whip or killing all the cats and dogs seemed a good way to cure it. The Black Death completely changed Europe. The way land lords used to have peasants work their farms was no longer sustainable because there weren’t’ enough peasants left to grow food. Famine came next. So, royals had to let poor people own their own land for the first time, and in some countries women were first given the ability to own land thanks to the Black Death. The plague is still with us. It pops up in India and China (and even California), and in spite of all of our best confidence in modern medicine, nobody can even agree on which disease the Black Death was. Also, if it came back, would it be resistant to antibiotics? If so, get ready for round two, and think about becoming a prepper! Visit Our Sources: https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/black-death https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm https://www.livescience.com/what-was-the-black-death.html https://www.ancient.eu/Black_Death/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/black_01.shtml https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/black-death-plague-epidemic-facts-what-caused-rats-fleas-how-many-died/

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we investigate a Canadian true crime and bring you the horrible tale of the Ken and Barbie Killers. Paul Bernardo and his wife Karla Homolka are household names in Canada, where the committed their crimes, but they may not be well known where you are. In short, Bernardo was a prolific rapist, and Homolka was fine with it once she became his bride. In fact, she helped scout victims, including her own sister, and eventually helped him graduate to murder. Bernardo was born to an upper middle class family, but he had a father who abused his family and raped his daughter. His mother who retreated from family life and moved to the basement. Eventually, Bernardo learned he was an illegitimate son, and he started to hate his mother and call her a whore. Maybe this is where the schism started in his brain. Bernardo began to learn how to be a good salesperson, manipulate people, and pick up women. He studied American Psycho as his bible. He went to college and eventually began a raping spree that dubbed him the Scarborough Rapist, with potentially as many as 30 victims according to some. In the middle of all this raping, he met Homolka, and she was down with his sickness. They were both blonde and lived what seemed a perfect life on the outside (hence the Ken and Barbie moniker). But they were both equally perverted and monstrous. Eventually, raping random girls wasn’t enough, so Homolka met a teenaged friend who she worked with and brought her home as a wedding gift to Bernardo. They drugged her, raped her, filmed it all. Two times. The second time, she almost died, but they revived her, and she had no memories since she was so deeply drugged. On Christmas, Homolka decided that Bernardo would get her younger sister Tammy (15 years old) as a Christmas Present. Bernardo used to sneak into her room and masturbate while she slept, so she was the perfect gift. This time, however, their drug cocktail was too strong, and Tammy died. The dressed her and put her back in bed and called the cops. It was December 23rd, just in time for family Christmas. From there, the rapes kept going, and they kept taping it all. They added another victim to their list of abducted, raped, and murdered, a 14 year old girl named Leslie Mahaffy, followed by the 15 year old Kristen French. But hey, nothing’s perfect. Eventually, Bernardo beat Homolka with a flash light, and things went sideways. Homolka told her family that the two of them were the killers, and just as police were getting close anyway, the arrests were made. Homolka famously made a plea deal that spared her 12 years of a sentence, though many argue it was a bogus deal because she didn’t really add anything and was so utterly unrepentant in the police videos So, what happened to them in jail? What type of love affair did Homolka have with two people in prison? What is her family life like now that she’s been released? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://allthatsinteresting.com/paul-bernardo-karla-homolka-ken-and-barbie-killers https://www.thecrimemag.com/revisiting-shocking-murder-scenes-ken-barbie-killers/ https://murdersmysteriesandmissing.wordpress.com/2017/09/10/murders-the-ken-and-barbie-killers/ https://listverse.com/2017/06/22/10-little-known-facts-about-the-ken-and-barbie-killers/

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at one of the most corporations in American history, the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Known simply as the Pinkertons, they have were a key figure in the taming of the old west. They feuded with Jesse James, killed strikers during labor disputes, and protected the railroad as it expanded. They evolved over the years to become one of the world’s largest modern day security companies, but their legacy as corporate goon squads and private armies is still around today (and for good reason!). The group was said to be founded by Allan Pinkerton (though it was really him and his brother together). Allan was an emigre from Scotland who landed in Chicago as a barrel builder. While there, the stumbled on a counterfeit ring and helped the local sheriff bust them. From there, his life as a crime fighter and detective started. He and his brother started two different detective and security companies but eventually merged them to be the infamous Pinkertons of the old west. So what was so special about the Pinkertons? Well, for one thing, they hired straight up street thugs and armed them. Eventually, they had more members of their group than the US Army had soldiers. Secondly, they were not afraid to get their hands dirty. Their union busting efforts saw their members do everything from firebombing to shooting innocent picketers. What else did they do? They allegedly stopped Abraham Lincoln from getting assassinated on the way to his inauguration. They hired the first ever female detective in the United States. They killed people for JD Rockefeller in the Ludlow Massacre. They blew up Jesse James’ mom and little brother with a bomb. They started the first ever criminal database in the nation, and they were the equivalent of the FBI, CIA, and Secret Service in the 1800s when such things didn’t even exist yet. We cover everything from their time as Union spies during the civil war to their feud with the video game Red Dead Redemption. The Pinkertons are still around, though, so let’s hope we don’t piss them off enough to start spying on us!   Visit Our Sources: https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-pinkertons https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/james-agency/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency) https://www.pinkerton.com/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/pinkerton-detectives-still-exist-and-theyre-tired-of-being-the-bad-guys-11548097818 https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/august-25/ https://www.loc.gov/item/mm75036301/ http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/969.html https://newrepublic.com/article/147619/pinkertons-still-never-sleep https://www.legendsofamerica.com/pinkertons/ https://en.wikipedia.

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we explore some of the most reliable UFO cases in modern history. There are hundreds of sightings out there, so we wanted to focus on ones that had the most eye witnesses or had a lot of military backing. We settled on three cases that were pretty big and hard to dispute and were all confirmed by the US Military. They said this stuff happened, but they denied any alien involvement or explanation. First, we cover the strange case of Ludlow Air Force Base in 1975. This one involves multiple radar contacts, dozens of witnesses, unmarked helicopters, Canadian Mounties, and nuclear bombs! For two days a cigar shaped craft (or 2 different crafts) hovered over this airbase, and it was made known all the way back to the Pentagon. It’s from back in the day, but it is largely considered one of the most confirmed UFO sightings of all time. The next two were revealed to the world by the New York Times in 2017, when they uncovered a government project called AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program). It was the modern day equivalent of Project Blue Book and ran from 2007 to 2012, and it captured footage of some pretty wild aerial encounters. They call them unidentified aerial phenomena because of the negative connotation of UFO, but they tracked several. One was a video called the Tic-Tac or “Go Fast” encounter. In it, a pilot tracks a strange cigar shaped craft using advanced radar systems. It was part of the a weird encounter with the USS Nimitz group that lasted for several days. They were tracking some sort of craft, and it culminated with a video (see links below). Another AATIP encounter was with US Airforce F18 jet, and it was called the Gimbal Video. It shows a strange top-like object that spins on its axis and was seen to double the max speed of any known aircraft. Most disturbingly, a pilot on the official cockpit video says there is a whole fleet of them down there! So, download this one, look to the skies, and enjoy these tales of UFOS.     Visit Our Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html https://www.history.com/news/ufo-sightings-credible-modern Tic Tac: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=105&v=wxVRg7LLaQA&feature=emb_logo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxVRg7LLaQA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Aerospace_Threat_Identification_Program https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4qIHWLSOn8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nimitz_UFO_incident https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a29073804/navy-ufo-videos-real/ https://www.livescience.com/65585-ufo-sightings-us-pilots.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/redeye/ct-redeye-xpm-2013-03-20-37880251-story.html http...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the incredibly wild and sometimes rough backstory and life of Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman. Chapman is of course famous for his reality shows, where he shows the perfect admixture of compassion and violence while he is hunting bail jumping criminals. He was so good at his job that he landed the heir to the Max Factor fortune in just 60 days, while the FBI had been looking for him for over three years! Dog’s back story shows a really rough life that should never have turned to him making his way to the right side of the law. Chapman grew up in Denver to an abusive father. He became an emancipated minor early in life due to bruises discovered on his body from home violence. At the age of 15, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona and with the help of a fake ID he made himself. He joined the Devils Disciples, a criminal motorcycle club. While here, he did all the things that a “One Percenter” biker gang member would do, and he earned his nickname Dog. He fell into a life of drug use, drug deals, burglary, and certainly things he’ll never talk about. After several years of this life, he got arrested for first degree murder. His friend shot a man while making a drug deal, and being the oddly soft hearted guy he was, Chapman went home and called 911 to make sure the victim was okay. This phone call (and frankly, his own screw up) led the cops to him. He was arrested and sentenced to five years, even though he wasn’t even in the building. In jail, he became a counselor for other prisoners, and he also landed the coveted job of cutting hair for the warden and guards. After chasing down a fellow inmate who was about to get shot by the COs, he was given the nickname Bounty Hunter. “Dog the Bounty Hunter” was born. He got out for good behavior (and a chat with the warden), and he couldn’t find any work as an ex-felon. A judge let him do a bounty to drop some past child support, and the rest was history. From there, he went straight to the post office to find the top ten fugitives list and caught one of them within days. He started collecting bounties and befriended cops and the FBI, which led to him meeting Tony Robbins and working for him during his self-improvement seminars. From here, he met various celebrities and eventually landed his own famous TV show. So, how did he catch Andrew Luster, the Max Factor heir in Mexico? Why did this get Dog arrested and make him a fugitive from the Mexican law? What happened years later when Mexico had him extradited for his crimes? How popular was his show, and how did he meet is famous wife and soul mate Beth? How and when did Beth die? How did Dog go from having a price on his head in prison to being a prison super star? Is he a racist, as the leaked phone call with his son suggests? Is he really Native American, or is that something he cashes in on and exploits? How did he meet Ozzy Osbourne, and how did that help his show? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/performer/duane-chapman https://www.travelfuntu.com/entertainment/dog-bounty-hunter/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Chapman https://screenrant.com/dog-bounty-hunter-dark-secrets-trivia-facts/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dog-the-bounty-hunter-dead/

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we examine a little known (but pretty freaky!) cryptid known as the Puckwudgie. Think of it as a leprechaun, but instead of hoarding gold, it likes to murder people, set things on fire, and shoot poisonous darts at fools. This supposed creature is native to North America, and it has a deep folklore in various Native American groups such as the Wampanoags, Ojibwe, and Algonquian tribes. However, the sightings and encounters continue to this day in New England. So what is a Puckwudgie? It is a short creature (maybe three feet tall) with large eyes, an oversized nose, and a bloated or rounded belly. It is said to be able to vanish in plain sight, light fires at will, and transform into some type of porcupine/humanoid half breed. If you encounter one, it is likely to follow you around and mess with you. Depending on your reaction, and the demeanor of the individual Puckwudgie, this could come in the form of tying your hair in knots. It could also lead to burning your house down, tormenting you for years at night, or even luring you off a cliff and making it look like suicide. The Native American groups thought that these little critters were once friendly with humans, but in an encounter with a mythic giant who scattered them all over the countryside, they turned on everyone and become less mischievous and more malicious. Modern tales of them often involve people walking in wooded areas in the Bridgewater Triangle, a zone of strange paranormal occurrences. They have a lot of activity in Freetown, Massachusetts, home to Lizzie Borden. They even made their way into Harry Potter’s lore as mischievous little creatures as well. On this one, we cover the ancient mythology as well as the modern day encounters and come to a decision on what we think of this freaky little deaky.   Visit Our Sources: https://thoughtcatalog.com/january-nelson/2018/08/pukwudgie/ https://the-line-up.com/pukwudgie https://www.reddit.com/r/Humanoidencounters/comments/4tefuk/pukwudgie/ http://newenglandfolklore.blogspot.com/2019/01/two-encounters-with-pukwudgies-in.html http://www.native-languages.org/pukwudgie.htm https://www.astonishinglegends.com/astonishing-legends/2018/10/22/pukwudgies https://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/freak-encounters/full-episodes/pukwudgie http://www.ancientpages.com/2018/04/09/pukwudgie-the-trickster-grey-faced-humanoid-creature-in-native-american-beliefs/ http://www.paranormal-encounters.com/wp/what-exactly-is-a-puckwudgie/ http://www.historynaked.com/pukwudgie/ https://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/zz/news/20191017/4-local-cryptids-you-may-run-into-around-new-england https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pukwudgie

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we go back to the 1960s and talk about the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party. It was originally founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966. They were college students fed up with the new racism in the north that the Civil Rights movement wasn’t covering. Among their biggest issues was police violence against blacks in Oakland. Their solution? Carry lots of guns and follow the cops around! As the Black Panthers founded, Newton studied all the open carry gun laws in California at the time and started to sell communist books to white students in Berkeley to afford guns. They started to give all Panthers weapons and had them start to run patrols, following police cars to make sure nothing violent happened. Many members of the Black Panthers were college-educated, however, so their focus was on more than just guns and cops. They started education programs, revolutionary free medical clinics, and free breakfast programs in the poorest ghetto neighborhoods. Their schools became the best it California, and they did some real positive work to strengthen weak black communities. However, there was also violence. Lots of it. There were multiple incidents where Panthers killed police officers, and many more where police officers killed Panthers. Eventually, they gained national notoriety for bringing weapons to the California capitol to protest a new bill that would stop them from carrying guns. From here, the cause exploded and franchises popped up all over the nation. Also, J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI took notice and targeted them with their notorious COINTELPRO system, trying to frame their leaders and get all black national groups and street gangs to go to war with each other. Though it feels like a conspiracy theory, this abuse of government authority had serious results, and it even lead to the FBI staging the murder of prominent members of the Black Panther Party in Chicago. Things started to go downhill for the Panthers when their leader Huey P. Newton went a little overboard. He had killed people before (and gotten acquitted), but now he killed a hooker and beat his tailor. He fled to Cuba for six years and came back to Panther party which was run by women. He didn’t approve and had at least one woman beaten to silence her. He also allegedly got a team of assassins to murder witnesses at the trial for the hooker. None of it went well for him or the Panther party. This group is an interesting study. It is was violent against whites, then changed to be an international force against American oppression. It bolstered schools and chased cops with guns. It even sprouted the Crips street gang in LA when Newton closed down different branches of the Panthers. Love them or hate them, they did a lot to change what it meant to be black in America. Visit Our Sources: http://theblackpanthers.com/home/ https://web.stanford.edu/~ccarson/articles/am_left.htm https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-most-important-legacy-of-the-black-panthers https://www.huffpost.com/entry/27-important-facts-everyone-should-know-about-the-black-panthers_n_56c4d853e4b08ffac1276462

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about Furries. This group is a unique type of fandom (not unlike Trekkies or avid sports fans, according to researchers) who dresses like anthropomorphic animals and create strong communities both online and in the real world. Even though the media would have you believe being a Furry is a sexual fetish, that is far from the truth. The majority of Furries are into it for the social aspects and inclusion in a welcoming group; indeed, few actually have furry sex. So when did this all start? The formal group known as Furries began in the early 1980s, thanks to a comic book called Albedo Anthropomorphics. It was a sci-fi piece about a portion of outer space in which humanoid mammals were the dominant species. This lead to a role playing game and early web chat rooms, and then Furries were born. They held their first conference, Confurence, in 1989 in California, and the movement has only grown ever since. So who are the Furries? According to research by Furscience.com, it is mostly white males in their mid-twenties. But the group is very diverse and welcoming. If fact, the group has stronger leanings toward LGTBQ than most groups, and it makes the group very inclusive. A lot goes in to being a Furry. First, there is the Fursona. This is the personal that they take on either online or in person at conferences and meet ups. Then, there is the Fursuit. This is the costume that is worn by the Furry, though many can’t afford one (they can often run between $5000 and $10,000). And though it isn’t the main point for most Furries, there is actual Furry sex going on. They call it Yiffing, and it often involves a Mursuit, which is a suit you can have sex in. So, what is the psychology of being a Furry? What do the experts think the difference is between a sports fan and a Furry?  Why is being a Furry more popular for millennials? Do Furries mostly date other Furries? What can we learn from Furries to make our own lives better, and do you want to watch Majira Strawberry eat a cherry? If so, listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://furscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Fur-Science-Final-pdf-for-Website_2017_10_18.pdf https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animals-and-us/201707/what-s-the-deal-furries https://www.vox.com/2014/12/10/7362321/9-questions-about-furries-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask https://nypost.com/2016/05/06/inside-the-life-of-a-furry/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry_fandom https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjmq9d/how-the-furry-community-became-a-safe-space-for-youth https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/us/furries-culture/index.html https://furscience.com/whats-a-furry/ https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2016/feb/04/furry-fandom-subculture-animal-costumes https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-are-furries_n_6342184

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at one of the 7 Wonders of the World: The Great Wall of China. This incomprehensible war machine took centuries to build and maxed out at over 13,000 miles in total length. It is said that over a million Chinese conscripts died in the construction of the wall, and while it is now a place that fills Chinese people with national pride, it used to fill them with fear of forced labor and death. But it did its job of protecting the north of China from most invaders and served to help unify the country. The back story of how the wall was built really gets kind of Game of Thronesy. China was several warring sub kingdoms which had started to build massive walls as protection against other kingdoms. In 221 BCE, a man named Qin Shi Huang came along and unified the seven kingdoms into one Chinese Empire. It was the birth of the nation of China that still survives today. He was said my many historians to be a tyrant who ruled with spies and fear. He saw the North as a threat because of the Mongols and other forces, and he decided to unify all of the previous walls into one long, great wall. He gathered peasants and soldiers and forced them build his wall and protect his legacy and dynasty (all the while wearing a really dope hat!). But, as with all people, the emperor finally died, and the country fell into civil war. Eventually (after an epic battle that involves a lover, a sword dance, and a night of singing that broke the enemy morale), the nation was reunified in the Han Dynasty. Here, the wall was built even stronger (and some say through even more cruelty to the builders). As the Han Dynasty ended, the wall was built or abandoned by different emperors until the Ming Dynasty. Under the Ming Dynasty, the wall was reinforced and considered crucial. The images of the wall that survive today—the towering walls, the battlements, the brick construction—all came from the Ming rulers. The wall stood in this glorified state for a quite a while, until the invaders from the north merged with China, and the wall became pointless. Now, it is one of the greatest tourist destination in the world, and it is one that is danger. Corporate greed, soil erosion, theft, and lame tourists damage the wall every year. Over 30% has been lost to time and human interference, but the wall continues to be a symbol of China and overall stubborn emperors who aren’t afraid to break a few eggs (or a million slaves) to build an 13,000 mile omelet. Visit our Sources: https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-other-artifacts/great-wall-china-0011155 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China https://www.chinahighlights.com/greatwall/fact/how-the-great-wall-was-built.htm https://www.chinahighlights.com/greatwall/ https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-china/great-wall-of-china https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2016/03-04/the-great-wall-of-china/ https://www.ancient.eu/Great_Wall_of_China/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/the-great-wall-of-china-is-under-siege-825452/ https://mymodernmet.

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we walk into the shadows and look at one of the most popular mythical creatures to ever exist: Vampires. The Vampire has existed in some form or another as far back as ancient Babylon and Greece, and there are versions of them that range from the classic Eastern European model to strange ones in the Japan and the Philippines. Their traits vary over time, and so do their cultural appeal. But at certain times in history, the fear of Vampires was real enough that people did very strange things to corpses to keep them from stalking the living. So what are the common traits of the Vampire? Well, the biggie is of course that the person is dead but now alive again, or undead. Another key is that they drink human blood, but from there, the traits vary. Some eras and locations say the Vamps cast no shadow or reflection; they can mesmerize people; they can change shape; they are superhumanly strong. Weaknesses vary as well: crosses repel them sometimes, some can’t enter a house; then there is garlic, scattering seeds on the ground, or even repelling them with silver. There seems to be no real single event or country that can be thought to be the start of the Vampire myth, but a big one for modern interpretations is Bram Stokers Dracula, based loosely around Vlad Tepes. Stoker wrote another story about a female vampire based on Lady Bathory as well, and these tended to create the smooth, sexy, sadistic monster that can control creatures of the night. From there, fiction took over, and Vampires were defined by Bella Lugosi, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade, Twilight, and the Interview with a Vampire, just to name a few. There are of course, “real world” Vampires who feel a physical compulsion to drink human blood. They do so secretly, so nobody judges them, but they number in the thousands. As late as the 1890s, there were Vampire panics in America, and somehow, this blood-sucking monster exists across all mythologies and all times, and shows no signs of going away any time soon.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.britannica.com/topic/vampire https://www.livescience.com/24374-vampires-real-history.html https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/10/vampires-europe-new-england-halloween-history/ https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/vampire-history https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/15/real-life-vampires-interview https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/vampire.htm https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/english-vampire-0010927 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/primate-diaries/a-natural-history-of-vampires/ https://aminoapps.com/c/anime/page/blog/vampires-and-japanese-mythology/Lkt8_ueXm8YjnwPqlBPkva0kmKJ7gw

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at one of the most important pieces of California’s history, the Gold Rush of 1849. While many people know about the football team called the 49ers, many don’t know that this name came from a term given to the hundreds of thousands of people who moved to California in search of gold. When the gold was first discovered, people were able to just pick it out of river beds with no mining equipment, and people were making several year’s pay in just a matter of months. When word got out, everything changed. When the Gold Rush started, California was not even a state. In fact, the US was at war with Mexico, and California was a lawless place with a very small (non-native) population. In 1848, a carpenter named James Wilson Marshall was building a mill for John Sutter, a man who was trying to build an agriculture colony where modern day Sacramento is. Marshall found gold in Sutter’s stream, and when word got out, everyone flocked to find more. Most people were at first skeptical about the abundance of gold laying around in California river beds, but an entrepreneur changed it all. He bought up all the mining equipment from several cities and set up shop in Fort Sutter. Then, he stormed San Francisco with a vial full of gold. Everyone followed him, and word spread. Eventually, people as far as Hawaii, Europe, and the East Coast all headed to California. It was a state with no laws, few cities, and nothing much to offer. The travel there was incredibly dangerous, and people sold their houses and everything they owned just to become a 49er and have a crack at the gold. This led to boom towns filled with murder, gambling, prostitutes, and gunfights. It was the epitome of the lawless old west. As more almost 300,000 people moved to the state, the gold inevitably dried up to where the only people making a fortune were those selling gear to miners. Once the surface gold was gone, the mining was turned to large scale operations that would strip mine mountains to get the gold laying beneath the surface. This process, and the racism of the white miners led to the destruction of natural habitats, indigenous people, and any hope of agriculture near the streams now filled with tons of soot. It was a crazy time. Women took on roles traditionally held by men, a true melting pot of people from all over the world descended on one state, and the idea of the California Dram was ultimately born.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/gold-rush-of-1849 https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldrush-california/ Letter from 49er: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/californiagoldrush.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_rush https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-goldrush/ https://www.historynet.com/california-gold-rush Scared Sh*tless: 1003 Facts that will Scare the Sh*t out of You. Author: Cary McNeal. Perigree Press, 2012.

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we travel back in time to look at one of the earliest events of UFO history, the Foo Fighters of World War Two. Before a grunge band took the name, it was a term used by the US Army to describe unexplained phenomenon that pilots saw over various battle fronts in the war. From the Pacific to Africa, Germany to the Mediterranean, these strange lights in the sky were seen. What’s even more strange is that they were reported by not only US troops but by the Brits, Germans, Italians, and Japanese as well as others. So what did the pilots see when they reported Foo Fighters? They were typically lights that looked like multi colored fire floating in the sky near aircraft that were flying night missions (though sometimes the lights formed shapes like a T or were cigar shaped). The Foo Fighters changed course to keep apace of the airplanes. They sped up, slowed down, and at times seemed to play with the pilots. The airmen who saw these came to the conclusion that they were under intelligent control. None of the pilots thought they were alien in origin, but some sort of Axis weapon, aircraft, or surveillance device, so they took the presence of Foo Fighters seriously. Though they were spotted all through the war, the thing that made them the most famous was a string of sightings from the 415th Night Fighter Squadron in 1944. This squad gave them their name, based on an old comic strip. In fact, an embedded Associate Press reporter for the 415th is the one who made the sightings known to a larger audience when he published an article about the Foo Fighters. So what were these strange UFOs? Many theories run from them being pilot fatigue to St. Elmo’s Fire to a German device (such as the Wernher von Braun’s V2 Rocket or something called a Feuerball), but none of these quite fit the unique characteristics of the Foo Fighters and their behavior in the air. If you love yourself some World War Two, Nazi Tech, and UFOs, this is the one for you!   Visit Our Sources: https://www.history.com/news/wwii-ufos-allied-airmen-orange-lights-foo-fighters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/what-were-mysterious-foo-fighters-sighted-ww2-night-flyers-180959847/ https://science.howstuffworks.com/space/aliens-ufos/foo-fighter.htm https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/foo-fighters-learn-to-fly-ufos.html https://www.history101.com/foo-fighters/ https://www.gaia.com/article/nazi-ufo-technology-foo-fighters-exposed https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/3447508/UFO-sightings-140-years-of-UFO-pictures.html?image=4 https://www.crystalinks.com/foofighters.html http://www.project1947.com/articles/arwwr.htm http://www.