On this episode of Expanded Perspectives the guys start the show off talking about how Brazil's elusive tree boa, Corallus cropanii — also known as Cropan's boa — is one of the world's rarest boas, infrequently sighted and known from only a handful of dead specimens collected after the snake was first seen and described in 1953. However, the species is alive and well, scientists recently discovered. One of the slippery serpents was captured in January — the second living specimen ever seen, and the first glimpsed in 64 years. Then, humans have had music on the brain for most of our existence—cultures all over the world create, listen to, and experience pleasure from music. To study this phenomenon, researchers have surveyed people’s feelings, scanned the brains of performers and listeners, and even measured hormone production. Their findings thus far suggest that our enjoyment comes from the same two-phase reward process—a dopamine-driven anticipatory phase, followed by a dopamine- and opioid-influenced consummatory phase—that kicks into gear when you eat a tasty treat or experience a rush after an intense workout.

Then, according to a number of reports, a photograph reputedly of a reptilian alien taken outside of Luke Air Force Base was posted to 4chan on Thursday. Within minutes, the entire website was allegedly taken offline and all copies of the photograph mysteriously disappeared, except for one. 4chan is the highly controversial image board site associated with a wide variety of equally controversial and nefarious groups and famous for its pranks. According to various accounts, an anonymous thread titled “24489 Taken Aprox 24 miles north west of Luke Airforce Base Phoenix Az. Lab H4C” was begun between on 4chan’s /pol/ board between 12am and 2am on February 23rd. It included a picture of an alien which was said to have yellow scales, black eyes and small pursed lips and was looking directly at the camera in a classic selfie pose. Reports say the thread was only up for a few minutes before the 4chan channel went offline. When it returned, all traces of the photo and thread were gone. Then, a Pennsylvania construction worker says he photographed an unknown creature he believes “had the exact marks” of the Jersey Devil. 32-year-old R.W. claimed that on Friday he was driving on the highway about an hour outside of Philadelphia when he and his friend spotted the creature.

After the break the guys chat with researcher, author and rocker Lyle Blackburn about his latest book "Beyond Boggy Creek". Lyle Blackburn is an author, musician, and cryptid researcher from Texas. His investigative cryptozoology books, such as The Beast of Boggy Creek and Lizard Man, reflect his life-long fascination with legends and sighting reports of real-life 'monsters.' During his research, Lyle has often explored the remote reaches of the southern U.S. in search of shadowy creatures said to inhabit the dense backwoods and swamplands of these areas.

Lyle is also a staff writer for the monthly horror magazine, Rue Morgue, and founder of the rock band Ghoultown.

Lyle has been heard on numerous radio programs including Coast To Coast AM, has appeared on various television shows airing on Discovery, Animal Planet, Destination America, A&E, HGTV, and CBS, and served as consulting producer and special episode host for the tv show Monsters and Mysteries in America. Most recently, Lyle was featured in the documentary film, Boggy Creek Monster.

Show Notes:

• World's Rarest Boa Snake Seen for 1st Time in 64 Years
• Yeah, Good Music Kind of Gets You High
• Possible Reptilian Photo Allegedly Brings Down 4chan
• ‘Jersey Devil’ Photographed in Pennsylvania
• Lyle Blackburn's Website
• "Beyond Boggy Creek" Book
• "The Beast of Boggy Creek" Book
• "The Lizard Man" Book
• "Boggy Creek Monster" Documentary

Sponsors:

• GAIA
• Blue Apron

Music:

All music for Expanded Perspectives is provided by Pretty Lights. Purchase, Download and Donate at www.prettylightsmusic.com.

Songs Used:

• Pretty Lights vs. Led Zeppelin
• At Last I Am Free
• Looking For Love
• Lost And Found

On this episode of Expanded Perspectives the guys start the show off talking about how what happens when your own devices turn against you? In one bizarre case a man's electronic Pace Maker actually provided evidence against him in an arson case. And a woman's FitBit actually led Police to realize that she was lying about an attempted rape. It turns out that privacy issues are moving under our skin—now the devices that keep us alive and healthy can also be used against us in the court of law. Then, a possible Gorilla like Sasquatch sighting in Texas back in 1960. The story comes from the Sherman Democrat that was originally printed in the July 20, 1960 edition. It is one more piece evidence that proves sightings of wood ape-like creatures predate the famous Patterson-Gimlin footage.

Then, there are some who firmly believe the human race knows more about distant galaxies and alien planets located light years away from Earth than what lies beneath the surface of our planet. Curiously, it took the Voyager 1 spacecraft nearly 26 years to exit our solar system, which is about the same amount of time scientists on Earth needed to penetrate 12 kilometers into our planet’s surface. After more than two decades, scientists created the Kola Superdeep Borehole and a drill depth of more than 7.5 miles (12 kilometers). The Kola Superdeep Borehole reached 12,262 meters (40,230 ft) in 1989 becoming the deepest artificial point on our planet. 

Then, a strange story from New York City back in 1989. The witness was lying in bed unable to sleep when a very bright white light entered the room. Then three or four humanoids entered her bedroom apparently through the walls and stood by her bed. These beings were described as 5-foot tall, wide, and heavyset, with large heads, large pupil less eyes, no ears, or hair with dark bluish skin. Their hands were very large with thick fingers and nails. They wore white coats down to their ankles. She was asked to come with them and followed them down to the street. After the break Cam brings up some strange and unusual encounters with the Men In Black and some possible Women In Black.

Thanks for listening to Expanded Perspetives!

Show Notes:

• What Happens When the Computer That Keeps You Alive Can Also Put You In Jail?
• Historical "Gorilla" Account From Sherman, Texas 
• You won’t believe what Scientists found when they drilled the world’s DEEPEST hole
• Tall Thin Black-Eyed Female Humanoid
• The Real Men In Black: Evidence, Famous Cases, and True Stories of These Mysterious Men and their Connection to UFO Phenome by Nick Redfern
• Women In Black: The Creepy Companions of the Mysterious M.I.B.
• Men In Black: Personal Stories and Eerie Adventures 

Sponsors:

• GAIA
• Blue Apron

Music:

All music for Expanded Perspectives is provided by Pretty Lights. Purchase, Download and Donate at www.prettylightsmusic.com.

Songs Used:

• Pretty Lights vs. Led Zeppelin
• Where I'm Trying To Go (Marvel Years Remix)
• The Time Has Come
• So Much In The Dark

On this episode of Expanded Perspectives the guys start the show off talking about how researchers have discovered a 5,000-year-old beer recipe by studying the residue on the inner walls of pottery vessels found in an excavated site in northeast China. It’s the earliest evidence of beer production in China so far. Then, the researchers at DeepMind have been working with two games to test whether neural networks are more likely to understand motivations to compete or cooperate. They hope that this research could lead to AI being better at working with other AI in situations that contain imperfect information.

Then, a man in Maryland claims he and two other people saw an unknown big bird he believes to be Thunderbird. The 55-year-old press operator, who asked to be kept anonymous, told Cryptozoology News that he was in the kitchen when his twin brother noticed the oddity. Then, frightening first-hand accounts of the Black Eyed Children have been flooding the internet for the last few years, terrifying readers with tales of strange kids showing up on doorsteps in the middle of the night, causing strange illnesses, and even resulting in the death of anyone foolish enough to let them in their homes. Now a relatively new type of encounter has started to crop up: Black Eyed Adults.

After the break Kyle brings up some bizarre phantom phone calls. Can the telephone be used as an instrument to allow the dead to communicate with the living? Whether it’s to say one last goodbye or even to warn of impending danger, phantom phone calls are a real and documented paranormal phenomenon. Here are four such cases of people who were mysteriously contacted from the “beyond”.

Thanks for listening to Expanded Perspectives!

Show Notes:

• Ancient Chinese recipe makes lumpy, tasty beer
• Google Test Of AI's Killer Instinct Shows We Should Be Very Careful
• ‘Thunderbird’ Sighting in Maryland
• Black Eyed Adults Killed my Boyfriend by Drowning Him in the River

Sponsors:

• GAIA
• Blue Apron

Music:

All music for Expanded Perspectives is provided by Pretty Lights. Purchase, Download and Donate at www.prettylightsmusic.com.

Songs Used:

• Pretty Lights vs. Led Zeppelin
• My Other Love
• Understand Me Now
• I Can See It In Your Face

On this episode of Expanded Perspectives the guys start the show off talking about how for some people the the snapping of gum. The slurping of soup makes them shudder. They despise it. If that person is you then you likely have Misophonia. For you that  have misophonia, these sounds are more than merely annoying—they’re rage-inducing. Being trapped in a room of snappers and slurpers is enough to make you  walk away or set yourself  on fire. All too often, folks with misophonia—which literally means “hatred of sound—are dismissed as being over dramatic. But new research suggests that they aren’t just making this up—there’s a neurological basis for your anger.

Then, a Florida witness at Titusville reported watching an oval-shaped object crossing the sky “shrouded in the bright, meteor-like light” while waiting for an Atlas V rocket launch. Then, Lon Strickler over at Phantoms and Monsters, recently posted an interesting sighting of some sort of bat winged type creature that sounds eerily similar to another sighting years earlier reported to Stan Gordon. Then, Cam brings up a recent unusual Thunderbird sighting that took place in  Minnesota. 14-year-old Logan says he and his friend were skateboarding next to a lake when they found the winged creature. “We got off our boards and walked over to our walk in boat access,” said Logan. “We walked down by the lake just to skip rocks and stuff and we both saw it,” he added. The afternoon sighting reportedly lasted about five minutes. The boy described the creature as a featherless bird with a crest on its head and a long beak curved towards the back at the end. It had no tail. “It was huge. It flew low across the lake turning quite sharply for its size and then just flew away towards the town square on the other side of the lake, but it gained a lot of height very quickly it disappeared in the clouds.”

After the break Cam brings up the historic story of the Baker Hotel. Historically known for the legendary healing properties of the water, The Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, Texas was opened in 1929, two weeks after the great stock market crash. Rising 14 floors, The Baker Hotel was the first skyscraper built outside of a major metropolitan area. Costing $1.2 million to build, the hotel was developed by Texas entrepreneur T.B. Baker and featured progressive hotel amenities including the first Olympic size hotel swimming pool, air conditioning, circulating ice water for the guest rooms, automatic light controls to turn off lights when guests leave the room and lock their doors, and valet doors for dry cleaning to keep hotel employees from disturbing the guests. Doing well throughout the Great Depression, the Baker hosted many celebrity music performers such as Lawrence Welk, Jack Amlung, Herbie Kaye, Guy Lombardo, Mary Martin and Paul Whiteman and a long list of legendary guests including Lyndon Johnson, Pat Boone, Jack Dempsey, Marlene Dietrich, Dale Evans, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Will Rogers, Roy Rogers, Elliot Rossevelt, the Three Stooges, and Bonnie and Clyde.

Thanks for listening to Expanded Perspectives!

Show Notes:

• Why Chewing Sounds Make You Want to Flip a Table
• Witness spots UFO while waiting for rocket launch
• Another Butler Gargoyle
• Phantoms and Monsters
• Stan Gordon
• Kids Find ‘Dinosaur Bird’ in Minnesota
• The Baker Hotel 

Sponsors:

• GAIA
• Blue Apron

Music:

All music for Expanded Perspectives is provided by Pretty Lights. Purchase, Download and Donate at www.prettylightsmusic.com.

Songs Used:

• Pretty Lights vs. Led Zeppelin
• Short Cut/Detour
• Fill Your Eyes
• Future Blind