History's largest credit card merger looms on the horizon. Commentary on not-quite-space and a celebrity named Katy Perry. Ben takes the crew around the globe to learn more about wildlife piracy, the horrors of Kenyan cults, and the fascinating web of fentanyl, casinos, China and Mexican drug cartels. All this this and more in this week's strange news segment.

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Hello, Stuff They Don't Want You To Know listeners! We want to share a new podcast that we think you'll love - Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien

About the show: One of America’s greatest unsolved mysteries, and the two women at its core; One black, one white. One poor, one rich. They never actually met. But their lives came to intersect through one tragic day when Mary Pinchot Meyer was mysteriously murdered on her daily walk in broad daylight in 1964. A black man stood accused, and a barrier-breaking civil rights lawyer, Dovey Roundtree, rose to his defense. Award-winning journalist Soledad O'Brien weaves a tale of crime and culture that still resonates with our socio-political climate today.

Listen here and subscribe to Murder on the Towpath with Soledad O’Brien on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!

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Picture this: you're a bad kid. You've made a serious mistake, and may be facing incarceration. Yet Lo, and Behold! The US court system decrees you may avoid years in lock-up by going to an "intermediate sanction" program modeled after the military. Proponents say this helps first-time offenders get back on the right path. Critics, with extensive evidence, argue "shock incarceration" is a political convenience aiding and abetting crime, corruption, and conspiracy. In tonight's episode, Ben, Matt and Noel learn the dirty truth at play.

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Privacy Guy continues the conversation about encryption and state-level powers. Art Vandelay notes recent issues with tariffs and supply chains. Multiple Conspiracy Realists follow up with Ben and the gang on the actions of an insurance-adjacent business called Evicore. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.

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What if you had the perfect spy? Not some glitzy James Bond-type, but instead a person -- or an entire family -- spending decades in a hostile country, slowly acquiring information and status, while waiting for the right signal from command. It's one of the most fascinating stories in all of tradecraft: the "sleeper spy," a concept made famous in works of fiction like The Americans. As Ben and Noel discover in tonight's episode, it turns out the conspiracy is real - welcome to Operation Ghost Stories.

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It's one of the most enduring enigmas in American history -- how did an entire colony disappear from Roanoke island? Join the guys as they explore the facts, fiction and speculation surrounding the mysterious fate of the colonists, the clues they may have left behind and the search that continues in the modern day.

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Domestic and international tensions grow as US courts square off with the administration over the rendition of innocents. A hapless, would-be internet influencer finds himself in Indian incarceration after attempting to contact the people of North Sentinel island. Over in Maryland, multiple women accuse pharmacist Matthew Bathula of egregious spying and cyber-voyeurism. All this -- and much more -- in this week's strange news segment.

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True story - for years, Ben, Matt and Noel have wondered about the concept of sensory experience. Turns out On Air Fest was listening, and called them to New York. In tonight's episode, the guys present their live exploration: A Conspiracy of Sound, at Brooklyn's legendary National Sawdust.

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