The Why Files: Operation Podcast

The Aztec Death Whistle. If hell has a sound, I bet it sounds alot like the Aztec Death Whistle. The Aztec Death Whistle sounds like a shriek of death mixed with howling wind. It's so unnerving, that the significance of the horrifying sound of the Aztec Death Whistle has fascinated and perplexed scholars for years.  I'm going to play the sound of the Aztec Death Whistle for you today.   When Spanish conquistador Cortés and his men arrived in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán in 1521, they described witnessing a gruesome ceremony. Aztec priests, using razor-sharp obsidian blades, sliced open the chests of sacrificial victims and offered their still-beating hearts to the gods. They then tossed the victims' lifeless bodies down the steps of the Great Temple known as Templo Mayor; in Mexico City.   Andrés de Tapia, also a conquistador, described two rounded towers flanking the Templo Mayor made entirely of human skulls. And between them, a *huge* wooden rack displaying thousands more skulls with holes bored through either side to allow them to slide onto the wooden poles.   Reading these accounts hundreds of years later, many historians dismissed the 16th-century reports as wildly exaggerated.   *But* over just the past few years, archeologists working at the Templo Mayor excavation site discovered *proof* of widespread human sacrifice among the Aztecs. And the proof was *none other* than the very skull towers and skull racks that the conquistadors had described centuries ago.   The Aztec Death Whistle has been described as sounding like humans howling in pain, or as one researcher said, the 'scream of a thousand corpses'.   Let's find out why. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support

The Philadelphia Experiment. It was October 1943. The day the US Navy mastered time travel, teleportation, and invisibility. Actually, they didn't master anything. The experiment had disastrous consequences for the crew of the USS Eldridge.   In the summer of 1943, two years after the US entered World War II, American destroyers were being decimated by the infamous German U-boat submarines and German mines were making combat... and commerce dangerous enterprises.   The United States Navy knew something had to be done.   A few months later, on October 28th, 1943, the USS Eldridge, a Cannon-class destroyer, was docked in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. And the Eldridge held some secrets.  It was a newly commissioned vessel that was equipped with several large generators as part of a top-secret mission to win the Battle of the Atlantic once and for all.  Rumor aboard the ship was that the generators were designed to power a new kind of magnetic field that would make the warship invisible to enemy radar and undetectable to enemy mines.   With the full crew on board, it was time to test the system. In broad daylight, and in plain sight of nearby ships, the switches were thrown on the powerful generators, which hummed to life.  What happened next was unexpected. And it would baffle scientists and fuel decades of speculation. Witnesses described a murky green fog that surrounded the entire hull of the ship; and then swallowed it whole.    When the fog faded away seconds later, the USS Eldridge... was gone. It wasn't just invisible to military radar. It was invisible to everyone. It was gone...  That is, until it mysteriously turned up in Norfolk, Virginia. That's a distance of about 250 miles.    And the strangest part? When it arrived in Norfolk – it was ten minutes earlier in the day than when it disappeared from Philadelphia.  The Eldridge then reappeared in Philadelphia twenty minutes later. Or, uh, ten minutes later? Because of the whole, uh, time travel thing? Hard to tell. Either way, it came back.    But something had gone terribly wrong.  According to reports, when the ship rematerialized, members of the Eldridge crew suffered from terrible burns and disorientation. And some of its crew had been fused into the metal walls at the molecular level. They were unable to move. Unable to free their skin from the metal that it clung to; and died in agony.    Other crew members went insane. And some of the crew? They disappeared altogether.   Let's find out why. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support

Most of us have heard of the Bermuda Triangle, where planes and ships have mysteriously gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean for decades. Did you know there is a similar place in Nevada? The Nevada Triangle. In a region of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Nevada and California, 2,000 planes have been lost in the last 60 years. In this remotely populated area of more than 25,000 miles of mountain desert, many of the crash sites have never been found.   The Nevada Triangle is typically defined as spanning from Las Vegas, Nevada in the southeast to Fresno, California in the west, and to Reno, Nevada at the top. Within this wilderness is the mysterious, top-secret Area 51. Along with the dozens of conspiracy theories which include UFOs and paranormal activity that surrounds the air force base, similar theories have long been considered regarding the Nevada Triangle.   One plane to go missing was that of a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer named Steve Fossett on September 3, 2007. Fossett, flying a single-engine plane over Nevada's Great Basin Desert, took off and never returned. After hunting for a month for the plane, the search was called off and on February 15, 2008, Fossett was declared dead. Later that year on September 29th, Fossett's identification cards were discovered in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California by a hiker.   Throughout the years, many of the missing planes were flown by experienced pilots and have disappeared under mysterious circumstances: and their wreckage never found.  The biggest mystery is: nobody really talks about it.   Let's find out why. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support

Discover the unique smells of outer space, from the moon's gunpowder scent to Uranus smelling like farts. Explore the diverse odors of planets like Venus and Mars, and learn about the intriguing aroma of different celestial bodies in our solar system.

Researchers explore the intricacies of the Voynich Manuscript, an enigmatic medieval codex filled with strange plants, astrological symbols, and naked women. Despite decoding attempts by experts, the manuscript's language structure remains a mystery, leaving scholars frustrated for centuries. The podcast delves into the historical background of the manuscript and examines theories, including alien origins and lost languages, that attempt to unlock its secrets.

The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact - The Day the Dinosaurs Died  One of the deepest scars on our planet is hidden beneath the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico. The buried crater, over 90 miles in diameter, was created when a massive asteroid struck the planet 66 million years ago and brought a calamitous end to the reign of dinosaurs.   Though dinosaur extinction probably took weeks or months, in just one day, 425 feet of material accumulated where the asteroid hit with the power of 10 billion atomic bombs. The blast ignited trees and plants for thousands of miles -- which were quickly extinguished by mega tsunamis with waves that may have reached as far inland as Illinois.   And at the low-end estimate of 10.1 on the Richter scale, the subsequent earthquake would have been more powerful than anything ever measured or experienced by humans.  And then things got worse.    Let's find out why. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support

The Most Secret Places in the World - And the wild theories about what really happens inside. In the modern world, places are supposed to be accessible. People move freely around the country they live in and even between countries.  However, the most interesting, fascinating and mysterious locations in the world, even today, are strictly off limits to just about everyone.  Most of the places on this list are only accessible to those with the proper clearances, but some are not accessible to anyone at all. Regardless of the status of the places on this list, if you're searching for them, you absolutely do not have the proper access to visit them.  The tantalizing status of the unknown and the secret makes these spots remarkable. You probably have your own theories about what goes on at some of these locations. If you don't, we'll provide some. You may not have ever heard of a few of these places. In fact, there are government facilities in the United States -- and around the world -- that are unknown to people even in the highest levels of government.  Let's find out why. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support

The Why Files Do you have natural curiosity, interest in scientific mysteries and a great sense of humor? You're in the right place! We cover brainy topics with comedy spin. I'm AJ Gentile, the Head Nerd In Charge. You might know me from the Discovery Channel, SiriusXM, MTV and the Joe Rogan Experience. The Why Files is a channel for people who are fascinated (obsessed) with science, science-fiction, bizarre history, weird facts, strange places, conspiracies and unusual people. Join us as we learn about the mysteries of the universe and have a few laughs along the way. ---- OFFICIAL  https://thewhyfiles.com   ---- SOCIAL  https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWhyFiles/  https://www.tiktok.com/@thewhyfiles  https://www.youtube.com/thewhyfiles  https://www.instagram.com/OMGTheWhyFiles  https://twitter.com/OMGTheWhyFiles  https://www.facebook.com/OMGTheWhyFiles  https://discord.gg/byZwTr9d   #science #history #mystery #facts --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support