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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Born in 1940, Samuel Little was known in multiple states as a drifter, petty criminal and man occasionally capable of violence. Like many people living on the fringe of society, he seemed to slip through the fingers of justice despite numerous arrests. Yet intrepid investigators and improvements in DNA testing eventually proved Little was more than an itinerant drug addict and shoplifter -- according to the FBI, he is the most prolific serial killer in US history.

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On 17 December 1967, Harold Holt, the immensely popular prime minister of Australia, went for a swim -- and vanished. In the decades since, his family and the public still have questions about what exactly happened. In tonight's episode, Ben, Matt and Noel explore a mystery that remains unsolved in the modern day, along with a meditation on empathy, and a bevy of increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories.

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