Ep. 13: Gorls, Gargoyles, and Airperts: The Denver Airport

Speaker A: Hello. Hi, I'm Shannon. I'm Emma, and welcome um to this podcast. Doesn't exist. We did it. We did it with no problems. Like, we've been been doing this for a couple of weeks in a row, 13 to be exact. I mean, uh I do understand your mild surprise. There were a couple of moments for last week that were like a little shambly. That's all right. But you love it. Yeah. I would say, dear readers, like you were on Gossip Girls or The Great Segway. You didn't even know that you were going to. No, I did not. But like Gossip Girl, hosted by Goofy. Apparently Gossip Girl or Lady Whistledon in Bristolton. I still have not watched this. Both you and Shelby have told me to watch this. I'm getting there. That's fine. It came out on Christmas and I only just started it. Confession. I procrastinated doing this research not once, not twice, but three times in favor of watching Bridgerton. I uh only have two episodes left. There are paid off. But that's okay. Fear not. Regency era drama and conspiracies are coming soon because now I am fully invested and I wanted to do something, but I just couldn't make the research happen in time. But everybody go watch it and reach out to us. If you know us in real life and uh talk to us about it. Or at least talk to me talk to Shannon about it, because I'll let you all know when I have who engaged with it. Engagement is. You mean Gorel? Goyle. That's to make me sound like a drag Queen. Goyal. It's sister. Something. She's back from the previous ad. Anyway, go watch it. But thinking about it, thinking about England um made me want to travel even more specifically to England for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to, the Vine House and the World Caribbean Museum. Obviously not a sponsor, but we really should reach out and see if there is even I won't put it out there. You should pay for sponsorships, but I might just do it. We're currently doing it for free. Yeah, that's true. I um hope their visitation goes up after Covet. But anyway, so I really want to travel. Yes, absolutely. Here is something that is not a new or a hot take. But 2020 sucked. Yes. I'm so happy that it's 2021. Regardless of the fact that means nothing in terms of time, no time is made up. It's a nice point to just be like it's uh behind us. I opened the calendar. Yes, um the image for that calendar is London. It is a cute little illustration of London. Yeah. My calendar last year and this year both travel related, which is really cool. I really hurt yourself, but they look like the sort uh of vintage style. They're really cute. It makes me really cute. Um looking at my notes. What was I going to say? Random singing. Go download the bingo card from our Instagram. That worked out so nice. I always mean to plug it in the beginning, and then I forget. And then we say something that's inevitably on the card, which helps. Yes, so you can find it at our Lincoln Bio at this podcast doesn't exist on Instagram. Please play along and uh share it. Tag us in your story if you share the bingo card. We'd love to see it. Yes, uh 2020 sucked for me. Specifically, it sucked because I couldn't take my trip to Colorado to visit my mom. Yeah. Hi, mom. I think um you're listening. Hi, Karen. I miss you. Hello. Yes, uh Emma's already requested to join us on the next excursion, and mom uh said that was fine. Oh, perfect. She's like, I'll pick an easy hike. Oh, thanks. She knows altitude is no joke, you guys. That's not related at all to the topic of this episode, but the altitude kicks your butt. Yeah, I'm not excited for that. But as long as we're there for uh more than three days, I'll be fine. You're good. But okay, let's get back through the topic of this episode. I'm going to manifest travel for us in the new Year. So, everybody, let's take a two second break. Close your eyes. Picture where you want to be traveling post vaccine. Everybody's safe. Everybody's. Great. You feel totally at ease as much as you can in an airplane. Sorry, Emma, that I stressed you out with the last episode that I hosted, but it's fine. Picture it. They have all the best snacks that you love on the plane. Your bag comes out first. That's a luggage carousel. Oh, so exciting. So we're manifesting all that through today's topic, which is the conspiracies of the Denver International Airport. Yes. Well, I drank so hard. Yeah, uh I saw you try not to scream, but, guys, she raised her fists in a gesture of triumph, like she was Rocky or something. Um i am buckled in and pulling tight. Yes, please tighten your lap belt across. Prepare for takeoff. Uh done. Great. All right. Connor's uh sisters is one of her thing. Yeah. When I asked her ages ago, when we first had this idea, we have our sisters brunch. Whenever there is a family um holiday where everyone is there, or even if not everyone is there, it's whichever sisters and sisters in law are around. So it's me and my three sisters in law, including Connor's younger sister. And I remember asking this question of all of them. And Conor's sister said, oh, I've got two. I was like, oh, Gimme. Uh she said, the Loch Ness monster, which she believes the Loch Ness monster is not still in Loch Ness, that there was, like, a subterranean tunnel that Loch Ness is now in the Atlantic. So I was like, oh, more interesting to be scared of the ocean. Exactly. And um her second was the Denver airport. And when I asked her why, she just goes, just look it up. She didn't even want to explain it to me. She was like, just, dude, well go, there so much, guys. I have 14 pages of notes. Granted, several of those are photos. So maybe ten or eleven pages of notes. That's still at 14 point font, but still. All right, so the Denver International Airport just give you a brief little overview before we dive in. Was uh number 29 in a 2008 Skytracks rating of the world's best airports, which made it the best airport out of all the US. Whoa. It's also North America's best regional airport and the fifth best regional airport in the world. Dang. And then I'm going to show you a lovely little photo of the Denver International Airport at night. You can view this on our Instagram. There are tons of great photos for this episode, I must say. Okay. I want to say I had no concept of what the Denver airport actually looked like. But this honestly looks to me as if it's like a camp ground almost look at the picture. It's um as if there's just a ton of tents set up. Yes, I can see that. I saw a lovely little clip of one of the architects or one of the designers explaining that Colorado, at least right where they were building, is very flat as a uh plane. But in the distance, you can see the Rocky Mountains uh from up to 60 or 80 miles away. You can see them, I think they said. So this idea of very flat uh juxtaposed against peaks, and they're kind of layered peaks. So then they tried to recreate that. So, like, the parking structures and stuff are very flat. But then the tent kind of uh imagery of the roof, and that's actually a very thin material. But I don't know. They lock in the heat during the heat. Interesting. I find it interesting that when they were building it that they were considering the natural architecture. Yes, I appreciate that. Colorado. Yeah, we love Colorado. Honestly, if I don't do extreme seasons, otherwise I would move out there with my mom so quick. But it starts snowing in May sometimes, and it starts snowing in October. And then there's a thing called mud season, which I'm not about my mom, when she lived in Boulder, I think it's Boulder. She was um at uh College. And there was one day where it literally snowed in the morning, and then in the afternoon, it all melted and they went to the pool. Wild. Yeah. Truly. I will say the first typically, I would visit uh my mom the week of Labor Day. That's the one in September, right? Yeah. Memorial Day is in May. So Labor Day because my previous job, our offices would close for a week, which is uh lovely. And I just remember when the first year I went to visit her, we were driving back to Denver Airport, which is like two, 3 hours away from where my mom lives on the side of a mountain. Uh and we were driving uh up said little mountain out of the Valley, and she goes, oh, yeah. Sometimes in the winter when it snows too much, they have to close the pass here. And I just looked at her and said, Excuse me, what? And she was like, oh, yeah, there's too much snow. And in that moment, I was like, oh, so I will only ever visit you in late summer, early fall, because that sounds like the beginning of a zombie movie to me. No, thank you. What if you need a hospital or. No, thank you. Anyway, that's just specific about where my mom lives in my experience in Colorado. So you've been to this airport? I have, yes. I've flown into and out of this airport. Okay. Recently, fairly. And I did check through all my photos and Instagram stories to see if I had taken any photos of any of the kind of weird stuff that's around. And I haven't. Like, I didn't, which I was disappointed in myself. But you probably weren't paying attention to it. Honestly, there's some stuff you definitely notice, but we'll get there. Okay. But there are great photos. Check it out on our Instagram. All right. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the construction. Okay. So Dia Denver International Airport, the world airport code is actually De N, which makes sense, Denver. But I'll refer to it as Dia throughout, because that's easier than saying Denver International Airport over and over again. So it has actually faced accusations of conspiracy since its inception. So before it was even built, it was already being talked about as being kind of shady. And that's because there was already a functioning international airport in Denver at the time that it was built. Because Colorado um is definitely kind of a doorway to the west in terms of location. Denver has always been a busy destination for air travel. So Stapleton International Airport was the functioning airport already in Denver, located closer to the city itself than the current airport um is. And at times, it was uh a main hub for up to three or four Airlines uh at a time. So definitely a very busy functioning airport. So ostensibly no reason to have another airport if you don't know anything about airports. Yes. But like, if you were just a random citizen who didn't bother to read any of the news, you just saw the headline and you were like, no concept of airports as they didn't cover this in your master's degree. No. Georgetown University had no interest in the airline Department, did not care. No, you're too small. Stapleton International Airport, the design of its runways did not play nicely with local weather conditions or, like, wind patterns, which could sometimes cause nationwide uh airline delays. So sort of like everyone knows, like, Chicago's O'Hare Airport is notorious for terrible weather, and it's a domino effect. If all the flights out of Chicago are delayed, everyone else is delayed. Exactly. It's a layover. And that was just the fact of what it was up. So that led the officials in the region to explore plans to build a new airport. And, you know, it was a very busy hub. They were growing. So trying to expand. But if you're a conspiracy theorist, you're like, if it wasn't broke, why? It was like a little broken, though. But anyway, so Denver International uh Airport finally replaced Stapleton as the Denver area airport um on February 2816 months behind schedule and at a cost of $4.8 billion, which is equivalent to eight. 1 billion today. That's an insane amount of money. Not that I have actually any concept of how much money airport costs to build, but that still seems like way over budget. Correct. Nearly $2 billion over budget, Emma, which is 3.4 billion today. Still a lot. Yes. So a large portion of this cost came from the development and troubleshooting of a totally automated baggage system, which um I got real in the weeds, but I wasn't mad about it because I was really nerding out about it. There's a New York Times article in the show notes all about it. So if you would like to also get in the weeds, please join me here in the tall grass with the Pokemon. So um the idea was that it would cut um down on wait times, it would reduce the amount of lost luggage, and it would reduce costs because then you wouldn't need to have actual humans handling the bags. And the idea that from the hand off at the counter that your bag would get zipped around to all the different places in the airport totally, automatically sounds lovely. Sounds like something out of Wally Toy. Toy Story. Yeah. Do you remember Toy Story, too? That whole sequence? Yes. That's all I can think about. 100%. So it claims to do all those things. Survey says false, wrong. So unfortunately, the system never um worked how it truly was supposed to and cost literally millions of dollars in troubleshooting, literally a million dollars a day trying to troubleshoot this system and then in maintenance over the years. Then reading the article, which you guys, the weeds are hilarious. So check out the article. It described that the system would just, like fling luggage off the conveyor belt or damage items. They invited reporters to come and see a demonstration, and the reporters got to witness this machine just close strewn across the conveyor belt. It just chucking them. Yeah. It just destroyed the luggage. It did not work at all how it was supposed to. It's so funny. It's very unfortunate for the people, of course, who were contracted. I would build it. I would be pissed. Well, the article um also was like, I didn't write down the name of the company, but it was like um such and such industrials that was contracted to uh build the system has since been liquidated. And no one involved in the creation of the system has responded to requests for um comment or something like that. Everyone was like, Nope, we don't talk about Denver. We don't talk about Danny. Don't talk about it. So it's just very funny. It um just came down to the fact that the computer technology in 19 93, 94, when they were in development for this just was not as sophisticated as they wanted it to be in a perfect world with the best quality of everything, theoretically, that could work. But the system didn't leave any wiggle room for error or for Max capacity. Think like noncobid uh times Christmas airport travel golly, how many bags and everything they're working on a back to the future idea of like, yes, this will be definitely exactly what I built it to be. Yes. Fox Capacitor, all I remember about that movie. Well done. All right, so only United, uh which is Denver's busiest airline, utilized a portion of this system, but they only utilized it for departures because the technology just never worked for arrivals. It could not do what it was supposed to. So United was paying the city of Denver, which technically owns the system, $60 million um a year in rent, essentially, to use this technology. It's a lot of money. It's a very elaborate system, even if it only sort of worked and not in the way that they were supposed to. But I guess if you're the busiest, biggest airline out of a specific airport, it may be worth doing that. However, in 2005, demand to cut costs caused United to cease the use of the system and return exclusively to human baggage handlers like the majority of airports around the world. That's uh kind of what people do at airports. Yeah. You see them uh out of the side of your plane, chucking the bags, I guess, onto the conveyor belt that goes into the belly of your plane. It's great. They have a Union. Good for them. Fantastic. All right, so I go into all of that to share with you that this elaborate baggage system called for 26 miles um of underground track, as well as conveyor belt systems with little carts on them and machinery throughout the airport. That's a lot of space. Do we have an idea of how large the airport actually is? Stop looking at my notes. I'm sorry. This system, the baggage system, contributes to Dia being um the world's second largest airport by acreage. The first is the King Sad International Airport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That makes sense. Which is a whopping 77,600 land in Saudi Arabia. I'm assuming that's a lot. I don't actually know how large a hectare is. I don't either, but it seems significant. I mean, that number is large enough that so long as it weren't, like the size of half a Penny, I think it makes sense. Right. So that's how large the largest airport uh in the world is. Okay. Denver International Airport is 13,571 ha, which makes it the largest airport in the United States. The second largest in the US is Dallas International Airport. And you can fit almost two Dallas airports inside the space of the Denver international Airport. So the sheer size of this airport, which is twice the size of Manhattan. Wait, I'm assuming they're including every bit of land. So all the runways and things. It's not like the building is that large. Oh, my God, my brain just broke because I'm thinking the island of Manhattan is large. It's just a giant building. No, I assume it's all of the land. All the hectares. All the hectares, hectares, hectares. All right. But yes, the sheer size of this airport, paired um with the massively overshot budget, has prompted conspiracists to speculate over what might be hidden beneath the campus. Now, I have some photos for you. You can see them on the Instagram. Instagram. So here's an example of one of the underground tunnels. Okay, so we're functioning on an idea of, like, Disney World. Ash. Yeah, I think that's part of the reason why I got stuck in the weeds in that article, because I love knowing how giant things work. Like, I love all the behind the scenes secrets of Disney World, which I won't get into if you are also into it. Dm me. And I'll tell you this book that I really love. What might be lurking underneath that's an alien chalk drawing of an alien on a wall. All right, so our next and favorite section. I missed it out. The remix. It's the remix. All right. Connor would be so upset with me. Catch our EP coming out sometime. All right, so theories of aliens, lizard people, and hidden bunkers have all been proposed as the true reason for the enormous footprint of the Denver international airport. I'm so excited. I would love the idea of a bunker. Well, stay tuned. Like a nicely furnished one, not like a hole in the Pottery barn. Yeah, and like, sunlamps everywhere, the bunker brought to you by Pottery Barn. So during construction of the airport, supposedly a worker reported seeing entrances to bunker areas down in the tunnels. Okay, they didn't say that they tried to go in. Then that would be my next question. Did you go in? They were already 16 months behind schedule. There was no time for exploration. No, he wasn't. Or she wasn't. The worker wasn't. Well, overall, I don't know. Maybe the head. What is it? Manager. The head contractor person was like, get to it. Supposedly, there are grainy lizard people videos that exist online, but I could not find any of them, so apparently, I did not pass the tinfoil vibe check. Seriously, though, because you've got to just go digging through, like, the lizard dark web. Look, I tried. No, I know. I read through the comments of some of the YouTube videos that are in the show notes and that you'll see at some point today. And then one guy was like, oh, I worked for the city. My badge got me into all the areas of the airport, watch my videos to learn the truth. And then when I went to his YouTube channel, he had one video that was like a bus driver leaving the bus to go into a store. There was nothing about the airport. And I was like, I was ready to go down this rabbit hole because you know how people say, like, YouTube is irresponsible because it allows people to get into these conspiracy holes. I was ready, but it didn't happen. I'm guessing that he found um out the truth and they deleted all of those videos and he's now dead. And the only one that's left on there is the one that's the most innocuous, innocuous, innocuous, innocuous. Mhm you have two degrees in English. I don't know, dude. Neither do I. The language I was supposed to already know. Fair. And I just love this little tidbit that apparently maintenance and baggage workers at the airport have been known to Don lizard or alien masks when they're down in the tunnels while Press is being torched. Uh that's incredible. I just love that they're trolling. I love that so much. Talk about a great place to work. If it were me, though, I would really just throw something new into the mix and put on a Bigfoot suit. But still wearing a Gary suit? No, like a Bigfoot whole thing, but still wearing my official vest. That's so cute. Like the neon vest. I'd wear a Gilly suit and sit in the corner and just jump out. Well, I don't know if you'd be able to get paid for that. No, but I just really want a Gilly suit. Well, Christmas is coming in twelve months for your birthday. Connor, take notes. Seriously, I would love a guilty seat. We'll talk about it. So there are also claims that these underground tunnels run as far as NORAD out in Colorado Springs, which is nearly 100 miles away. That's insane. Yeah. And as is always the case, I read it in one of these articles and then didn't write it down. But the current longest existing tunnel is around half that distance, and it took them a decade to tunnel out. Yeah. So probably not. But again, also in the videos that are in the show notes, they're all very humorous. There's like, definitely some uh tongue in cheekness to all of them. But there's one um where the reporter is getting driven around on a golf cart by a representative from the airport, and she's like, Yup, I'll drive you to the end of the tunnel. Like, here we go. It's very cute. Watch the videos. They're fun. All right. But back to the idea of the hidden bunkers. Yes. So I'm here for that. There are several proposed reasons for these bunkers. There might be some overlap depending on your specific strain of belief, but I'm going to kind of lay it out. So one would be a fallout shelter or a series of fallout shelters for the world's wealthy and political elite. Interesting. Forget anything on the East Coast. The President is going to get eaten. Well, I was going to say flown out to Denver. I would love to meet the President. The uh current one. Yeah, sure. It's too heavy. Anyway, never mind. The second proposed origin of these supposed bunkers is the headquarters of the Illuminati. Guys, I wish you could see there's so many excellent modern dance moves happening and so many bingo cards. You're welcome. I didn't even go out of my way to do this. This is great. I'm sorry, I'm sitting in racked. Attention, I'm ready. Um so allegedly, back when the airport was being constructed, the first five buildings constructed for the airport. The airport. Gorel, GoReport. I don't know where my drag Queen's from, but it's a work in progress. But anyway, the first five buildings constructed for the airport were somehow botched. And instead of demolition or any other kind of logical idea, the structures were instead sunk uh and built over. So there are like five fully fledged buildings supposedly beneath the airport, which are the Illuminati headquarters. Um can um you um get to these? Do um we have any clue? No, this is all supposed. This is like these construction workers from the original. Oh, okay. It's not like we knocked down the wall and there was a fully fledged bathroom or something. No, we knocked down a wall and there was just a conference room filled with lizards. We'll get there in business attire. Oh, we'll get there. Oh, wait, what? All right, so the next idea for these bunkers is the idea of the new world order. Yes. And then I'm going to show you a little Photo, uh Emma, which is supposedly an art piece. The Denver. I just need you to know I freaking love that you say supposedly correctly. It makes me so happy. I'm so supposedly. I hate that I try. There are other things I surely say incorrectly. I didn't mean to interrupt you. It just I needed to tell you how much I love that you do. Okay. I know you're a nerd. It's fine. Thanks, man. So, yes, I'm going to show you a photo available on our Instagram that is supposedly. Thank you. An art piece, an art installation for the Denver International Airport. In addition to being a highly suspicious airport, like I mentioned earlier, is very highly ranked. And one of those things that contributes to that, I was going to say customer. I guess it is customer experience, passenger experience, traveler experience is that they really love art. So 1% of the budget of every construction project goes to art, commissioning art and sharing art. So there are permanent installations, there are rotating exhibits. It is very cool from my personal experience being there, but it is very nice. It's very Colorado. Even if you don't stop and look at the art and take it in and read the little plaque, it's still cool that there's stuff to look at while you're standing waiting for the little train or whatever, it may be. So this photo that I'm going to show you is supposedly an art installation called Untitled. But then on the website, they said parentheses, interior garden, which makes me confused because why didn't you just name it interior garden, modern art that is titled Untitled makes me so upset. Well, I understand the reasons. I do. I get it. Yeah. But I love that the airport, at least, was like, well, we need to refer to uh it as something specific. So this is by Michael Singer, and I'm just going to let Emma share her thoughts, and then I will ask some questions. What am I looking at? What are you looking at? That's a good question. So this is on top of a concourse while you're waiting for the train. I have seen this. I pass by this on my way to get my bags every time I visit um this airport. But does it not remind you perhaps of some sort of fallout shelter? Or uh if not the shelter itself, more of a postapocalyptic world that you would need a fallout shelter? I'm going to say it's a lot of concrete, but also the possibility that those are windows, but maybe, I don't know. And it's not attractive foliage. No. You'll see on the photo that it's not just viewed from below. You can see it from above. You walk into the car and you look down and you're not expecting to see that side looks like cinder block. There are a lot of photos available on mhm Fly. Denver is the name of their website for the airport, and they have a whole Photo Gallery for every art installation. So it's not just one photo, it's multiple that you can take it. That's nice. Yeah. It's very cool as an almost art history minor, because there was one more class and I was not having a senior year. But I can still appreciate the art. I appreciate that they take the time. Uh so I'm going to show you another photo and then lay some more info on you. So theorists. Conspiracy theorists point to the airport's dedication stone, which is also a time capsule, as a source of secret third party clues. So I'm going to show it to you. Does anything stand out to you? The Masonic symbol is very front and center. March 19, new World Airport Commission Aeronautics. All right, there's so much in that you already hit all my main points. You did much better than I thought you were going to do. Oh, thanks, man. Not in, like a shady. No, I know. I thought mainly just the Freemasons were going to stand out to you, so, yeah, I mean, it's very much front and center. Yes. Or like, center and down it's towards the bottom of the stone, but that's fine. So you can see this on our Instagram, blah, blah, blah. You get it. So the Freemasons, we've mentioned them in passing before. Yeah, I did appreciate one of these articles shared a list of Freemasons, and I just had to share the list because the last person really just gave me a chuckle. Oh, no. And I think we'll also give you an unexpected celebrity mention on your bingo card. So you got people that make sense, like Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill, J. Edgar Hoover, and then the last person that they listed is Sheck Shack. Yeah, shack of the show. Yes. Is there more than one icon? No, there is not a lot of Shack. Get it? Thank you. Thank um you. No. But Shaq the giant that lives amongst us. Amongst us. Amongst us. Among us. Yes. I love him. Yeah. Apparently he's a Freemason. That for some reason both surprises and does not surprise me, mostly because there is nothing that that man can do that I'm like, oh, I wasn't expecting that. No, I love him. It's shown. The reality with the Freemasons is that while there may have been civic ties to the construction of the airport and the fact that they ended up on this dedication stone, there was no actual financial or other type of control over the construction. So people say the Freemasons were, like, pulling the strings behind um the scenes, but it might just be an honorary thing that's like, here you go. People point out the date of mhm the airport's dedication, March 19, 1994, if you add those numbers together. Oh, gosh, I hate numerology. Which doesn't make sense to me because I completely ignore the fact that March is a number is the thing. So 19, the date 19, and then the year 1994. So one plus nine plus one plus nine plus nine plus four equals 33, the highest level achievement one can reach in Freemasonry, and which represents perfection to the Illuminati. This is where, like, for everything else, uh every other conspiracy theory. I'm like, yes, get crazy on it. When it comes to numerology, for some reason, I'm just like, oh, you have all the time in the world to be so stupid. And this is what you chose. Well, the stupidest of the stupidest. You made the numbers work for you by ignoring the fact. Well, I will say March is spelled out on here, though, so maybe that's why they're only adding the number number. But it's still. I have no credence um in that. Yeah, I don't hate numerology. It makes literally no sense. It makes sense to me that they're like, oh, my gosh, add all the numbers together and subtract them and divide them and look at it. And I'm like, no, you're just careful. I don't want the Illuminati to come for us. Fight me. Oh, fight her. All right. But then the other thing that you pointed out is that a group called the New World Airport Commission is listed at the head of the important benefactors. Such a group never actually existed, neither at the time that the airport was constructed or today. Yeah, that makes sense to me that it doesn't actually exist. I am wondering, why did you bother to put it on the stone if it didn't exist? But um you do. You guys so conspiracists connect this fanciful name to the idea of a new world order also related to the Nazis. Another one? Yeah. Unfortunately, it relates to a lot, at least in conspiracy world. I mean, yes, when it comes to conspiracies, they're all interlocked. But like the Nazis, really? Those people also claim that the airport's runways, when viewed from above, no form of Plastica. No, they do not. I don't really think so. But if you squint, you could make that. I can see where they're going. But there aren't enough arms to that. Well, there are enough. I think there are too many arms because people say it's like this and this and there's nothing over here and then that one. But yes, you could squint and maybe see that if you wanted. Okay. I see where people are going with that. My guess is, however, that's the way they're not able to bump into each other on runways. But whatever. Yes. And Denver again in the weeds. Denver is one of only three airports in the United States who have the maximum number of runways, which is six, or, like, the highest number of runways. So it already has more arms than a swastika. Yeah. I don't know if they count runways as, like, is this because it's one outgoing wedding? Again, I don't know. But the time capsule should be opened. I forgot about the time capsule. Yeah. So that stone cap is the time capsule. It should be opened in 2094. Oh, God. So if we both live to be 100, we might get some answers. And even if we don't, we'll just ask. God, that's true. We'll go to that desk with the angel. With the angel be like, I got some questions. You've been listening to our podcast. Are my answers already caught up? Should I leave you for a couple more days? Because I can let you catch up. That's fine. All right. And now we're going to talk a little bit more about some art, some questionable art. I have a question. Only piece of art that I know about is the demon horse. We'll get there. Okay. I was just excited. I uh wanted to know if we were going to do it. We're going to do it. No. So excited we are. All right. So I texted my mom this morning, and I was like, hey, if do you or Mike or Ben or anyone in the house have any stories related to conspiracies at the airport? If so, like, record a voice memo and email it to us. And they didn't have anything specific to them, but Mike did want to make sure I knew a very specific fact about the horse. But we will get to the horse in just a minute. I'm so excited. Thank you. Mike. Yes. I don't know if he lets. But mom, tell Mike we said thanks and Hi. All right, so some conspiracy fans point to the unique murals of a local artist named Leo Tenguma as another clue to the new world orders. Hidden power over the Denver International Airport. Hidden power? Well, yeah. One of the articles did pause at the question, well, if all of this conspiracy stuff is real, why would they leave so many clues to the fact that because the idea is this new world order is working behind the scenes secretly to you hide things in plain sight. Well, anyway, sorry, hidden power because it's not publicly acknowledged. So the first mural is called In Peace and Harmony With Nature, which is said to symbolize environmental destruction versus environmental healing. And I'm going to show Emma these photos on the Instagram. I only have room to include one image from um the second mural, so if you want to learn more, there's plenty of photos and information about it online so you can check it out. Also, keep in um mind that these murals are 28ft large. Okay. So they take up the entire wall. So looking at this first one, which is about the peace and nature, people um point out that there are women in coffins, there's a fiery forest, there's a city underwater in the background. What else? There's a dolphin. Yes. And there are different species that have gone extinct over the years. So there's um that. And then the kind of resolution is this village of children from all different places in the world, and all of the animals are alive and well. All of the foliage is blooming. Are the dead women up and about? I believe so. I love in this one that there's a little Scottish dancer, which just makes me think of Ruth and Haley, which is adorable. But they're all gathered around this rainbow plant uh that is glowing, and it's this idea of rebirth and renewal, and we all got our issues together to stop destroying the environment and that we can all live in peace and harmony. Are these murals opposite each other across the hall from each other, or are they, like in a line next to each other? For the two that we just looked at, they are on the same wall. There's a door that divides them. And then I believe the other mural is on the other end of the baggage claim um or the other side. They're not directly facing each other, from what I could understand. I believe I've probably walked past these. At least one of them. He's probably didn't. I didn't register, although the second one, I think I definitely was like, what? But again, having sat through a many modern art classes where I've gone, what the heck is going on? I've learned to kind of just roll with it until you can study it more. So the second mural is titled Children of the World Dream of Peace, which depicts a war versus peace theme and this first image, I believe, is the one I'm putting on the Instagram, but it's a very striking image of a hang sort of Nazi. That's definitely a Nazi. There's no hiding and uh destruction. Is that a gas mask or is that a skull? Well, that's up to you. All right. There's a letter from a child in Auschwitz. It's like a very remember, this is war versus peace. Um so the other one was like destruction of nature versus peace and harmony with nature. So this is kind of the before. Okay. And then the after, all the children and people of the world coming together, they're destroying the Nazi sword with a hammer, and all living together under a rainbow in harmony. Okay. Right. I get it. I think that the message is clear when you examine both the pieces together, but out of context, it could be a little jarring. Yes. Specifically the one with, like, the giant, giant Nazi. And again, it's 28ft. So it is a full wall. And you're like, I'm just trying to find a Wendy's before I make my connecting flight. Yeah. I just needed to pee and fill up my water bottle. I will say they do have those automatic water bottles. I love those stations. They're great. Heathrow has them, too. And it's perfect. Shout out to environmentally friendly airport. So the artist wrote up some very helpful descriptions to kind of explain his work, which doesn't always happen. Sometimes you go to a modern art wing of a Museum, and it's just the title and information about the artist. But I need the artist to be like, this is what I was thinking when I did this, because I like seeing a story in things, which Professor Morris Jones in College was always like, Shannon, it doesn't always have to be a story. And I'm like what it does. But uh people don't read them because they're traveling their stuff. They're still moving um around. Yeah. So I do have a little video that I'm going to show Emma. It is available in the show notes if you want to learn more about the origins of these murals. The murals themselves are currently in storage, not because of the controversy, but uh because there's some construction going on. But they're said to be coming back in the future. Wait, they take out the wall? Well, I believe maybe they're not painted directly on the wall. Oh, I see. Like, it's just a very large canvas. Got it. Okay, that makes much sense. They did say they were in storage. I hadn't considered that. But maybe they've been protectively covered while the wall is. I don't know, but they will return. The article said in 2021, but I believe that's probably later, just because of covet and everything that's gone on with the airport, which we'll get into a little bit later. Yeah. I'm going to show you this video. The sweet old man. Yeah. He just is in the video. It's an Atlas Obscura video, and he's describing how the conspiracies have affected him and how he used to be able to go into elementary schools to teach or to share. But now people are saying that his work is negative and bad, which is, I guess, partially is part and parcel of being an artist. But it's just kind of sad to me also, and from kind of my limited educational exposure. His style is very in line with muralists from the American Southwest. Again, um it's kind of jarring if you just see it and don't take the time to take it all in. But I think that's what art is about. It confronts you. Uh yeah, they're good murals. When I first saw them, I had no clue what we were looking at. And I was like, well, this is a um lot. And then when he explains them, I was like, this is why I drew this. It's like, oh, okay. Yeah. But anyway, those are the murals. Check out the show notes uh for more. Now we're moving on to Blue Mustang by Louise Humanis, which is a 32 foot high sculpture. It's just enormous of a wild Mustang rearing up on a tin leg. A horse, not a car. Yes, yes, a horse. A wild Mustang. It's painted bright blue, and it has bright red, glowing eyes, and it greets airport visitors as they approach the airport. And it's meant to symbolize Colorado in Denver as a doorway to the west. Uh kind of the Wild West. Wild Mustangs. There are portions of America where wild horses still do. Rome free. Just pretty cool. My childhood horse girl self is very. You still got to go visit. She's very into it. I believe I went as a child. Okay, we can go. We can go. That's beside the point. We can look at horses. You're not allowed to touch them, though. Don't try. Not going to. All right. And this is the pun that while I was finishing my research and you were sitting watching TikTok, I was just so happy, and I almost forgot to include it in my notes, which would have been a tragedy because Emma loves a terrible pun. Yes, I do. So the nickname of this horse, the official art name title is Blue Mustang. Yeah. Due to its glowing red eyes and rather intimidating presence, this horse sculpture has been nicknamed Belcifer. Oh, my God. There's nothing um better. There's nothing better than a great dad joke. That's so good. I love it. Yes. So Blucifer, quote unquote. The conspiracy is that it represents one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They didn't really get into any more detail, but it's a spooky looking horse. Genuinely, as an artist, the choice of red for the eyes is interesting. Wow. Fun fact about uh that, which is the fact that my step dad wanted me to include this sculpture uh might be a little bit cursed because a piece of it actually fell on the artist and severed an artery. And he died? Oh, my gosh. Yes. Really? So this is his last work that he was ever working on. His children worked mhm together to complete the work for the airport. And the red eyes are actually an homage to the artist's father who owned a neon shop. And it was actually very cute. In one of the articles, the artists um children who finished the sculpture after their father's untimely death indicated that hindsight is 2020 and that any color of neon would have worked. And they chose they didn't think about the fact that red maybe would be a lot like maybe blue maybe. But here's a very cool uh photo. It's on the Instagram of the sculpture at night. Uh oh, that's gorgeous. It's very striking. I will say. The first time I visited, we were driving, and I was like, mom, like, WTF what is going on? But it was the daytime, so you don't maybe notice that it's eyes are glowing red. So maybe in the daytime it's a little less demonic looking. But, yes, that's the blue horse. Blue. Blue. And apparently some people are very much a big fan. Some people hate him and they want him gone. He's not going anywhere. He's 32ft high. Where are you going to put him? Get a big truck, I guess. So is there a curse surrounding the horse, like, if anything else happened that has been documented, or is um it just literally that he killed his creator? Yeah, that's all that I really could find. Could find. And as you can see from the picture, it's not like the horse is right by the building. It's very um much you drive past it on as if you interact with it. Yeah. Okay. I don't even know if there's a place where you could pull off and take photos with it or something if you wanted to. I don't know. All right, so the last piece of art some people point as being, like, evil or creepy. I think it's really adorable. Okay. Is it a doll? No. Okay. But there is a pair of luggage gargoyles. Um oh, my gosh. So like I said, some people think they're creepy. I think they're just um kind of silly, sort of like Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame. Think like those gargoyles. Okay, so the official title of this installation is called Notre Denver. Oh, um cute. And it's by Terry Allen, and it's two cast bronze gargoyles that are popping out uh of suitcases that are also bronze, and they flank the baggage claim areas. Cute. Okay, so in the European tradition, gargoyles are placed to protect the building and those that inhabit it also as, like, a drainage system on a Cathedral and stuff. So at Denver International Airport, these creatures are meant um to watch over travelers and ensure um the safe delivery of their baggage. And here's a photo of one of them. They're just cute. They're just popping out of their little suitcase. I can see where some people find it creepy, uh but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it's like in the Gargoyle style. Yeah. It's not unlike what you see on cathedrals. Exactly. But maybe you're not used to seeing them up close, because in cathedrals, they're significantly high. The Garb oils are currently in storage as well because of construction. But they'll be back. Okay. In one of the um videos that I'll show you when we're done recording audience, it's in the show notes. It looks like they talk. Uh what? So the bronze, right? Yes. So I think maybe just for that specific interview, they did some um sort of Disney magic to have somebody off site with a hidden camera being like, Are you Frank? Oh, sorry. You look like another gargoyle. I know. Kind of thing. So I don't think they talk on the regular, but that would be pretty funny, too. I guess it would have to depend how my flight went, if um I was willing to play along or if I was like, get that thing away from me or get me away from I will say after getting off of a plane, I am not necessarily an angry person, but I am definitely not ready to throw up. Not amenable to mischief. No. If anyone touches me or gets near me after I've gotten off of a plane, like, it's taking everything in my being to get into whatever rental car or bus situation. I'm just waiting until I get to wherever I'm staying to just sit and swallow three times. I just need to lie mhm down so there's nothing in me that I think I would probably be like, oh, that's cute. But stop. Interesting. But not right now. I would need a heads up as to if it was happening. Yeah. Being surprised by it would not work for me. Yet another reason that I don't think we do well on The Amazing Race, dude. No, I would love to do well on it because I like the idea of a competition like that because I am a very competitive person. However, I am weak right now. You are. We could train. We can start running laughs with mhm backpacks. That sounds hard. Yeah. But a million dollars and you get to travel well after 2020. We can plug the podcast. You did, but we'd have to record a lot of episodes to release in advance. Yeah. Cord. Cool. Yeah. Thank you. I was going to say Connor, but that's my husband. Also Connor. Franta. Oh, that's what it was. Yeah. Anyway, cool. Youtube. What's up? Cool. So that's some art. Again, feel free to check out the Fly Denver website. They have info on all their installations and stuff, which is pretty neat. So now we're going to talk about some more recent conspiracy. Recent. In more recent years, the Denver International Airport CEO and marketing mhm team have really leaned into the idea of these conspiracies. Uh yes, I appreciate. Yes. So in 2016, Dia hosted a Conspiracy Month during October and they featured an exhibition that was full of artifacts from the airport's history, such as a fake alien skull that was planted by maintenance workers. Cute. And just talking about different conspiracies, it is interesting to note uh that they don't touch on certain conspiracies, which totally makes sense because some of them that are just dumb, you can lean in, you can make jokes about it, but you're not going to make jokes about, like, Nazi propaganda powers or whatever. So the way they describe it is like some things are worth debunking and some are not worth acknowledging, which is totally fair. During that month in 2016, they hosted a free screening of Close Encounters of the Third Time. Nice. Which was chosen because the coordinates for the alien landing in the 1977 film supposedly point to DIA's location. Actually, they point to an empty field that's 51 miles away, but close enough. Close enough to appreciate it. I'm sure people in the area like, if you're from that part, like from Denver or that area, if you're aware of that movie, you're like, oh, that's like our backyard kind of thing. That's so cute. I appreciate, though, that they like, yeah, this is something we need to lean into, because constantly saying, no, don't look at that. The worst possible thing you can do is be like, no, absolutely not. No. Because then that just fuels people more. But also, it's free advertising when people talk about it. Connor's sister was super into it. You knew about the Blue Horse and you've never been to Denver? Well, if I have, I don't remember. It fair. So in July 2018, the airport officially began work on a massive construction update overhaul of the Great Hall, which is the main portion of the terminal under those white peaks of sort of tent like material that you were talking about at the top of the show. And the main reason that they're doing that is to expand to serve more passengers. So when the airport was built in 1995, they were serving 31 million passengers a year, versus in 2019, they were serving more than 69 million. So over double the amount of passengers, insane amount, the crushing amount of people over the whole year. But it's still just conceptually uh uh a crushing amount of people. So the airport also, keep in mind, was built prior to 911. So a lot of airports face this challenge um as well, of not having room for the more intensive security screening process. For anyone listening that remembers traveling by air prior to 911, you still went through security checkpoint, but it didn't require half of a giant hall space. The architect did point out that the Denver airport was originally designed to um be very flexible. So, for instance, there are large trees that are in the kind of atrium area, but they are in pots on rollers, so you can move them around wherever you need to, which was really helpful when they had to accommodate these new security procedures in terms of foresight, they went real far with that kind of thing and yet did not think about their automated luggage system at all. They tried. And I feel like by that point um in the mid nineties, when they were trying to make it work and it turned out that it probably wasn't ever going to really work, they had already built so much on top of it that it's sort of like New York City building. Well, any building in New York City, you could be at a fancy restaurant, but when you go down to the bathroom, it's like down a stairway into like, a weird stone creepy. They just build on top of stuff. That's fair. Or is it the Illuminati headquarters? You decide. So they just needed to do, um like, a renovation to give more space and to increase efficiency in terms of wait times, line configurations, which I can attest uh to going through security. I mean, it's like any major airport. You kind of expect it, but it is very much just standing in relatively straight lines. But I'm sure there's a more efficient way for it to be done. But similar to the original construction of the airport, this renovation project has faced major delays and budgetary issues, which actually led to the airport releasing the original contracting company from the project. So is it cursed? I don't know. I wouldn't want to go do construction at the Denver airport. No, that's just kind of a single note. Interesting. We'll keep an eye on it, I guess. I don't know. Covet obviously has caused some issues, but the project has received the green light as of December 2020 to begin phase two, and it's on track to be completed both within budget and on time by mid 2024. So maybe we'll still get to see it while it's under construction, which would actually be a great thing because the marketing team at the airport has very much leaned in using conspiracy based posters to um decorate construction barriers and walls. I love them, bringing humor to the inconvenient eyesores that come along with a major renovation. I appreciate that. Yes, I really do. Even if it were just like, oh, we have another art piece that we're putting on top of this. That would be great. But the fact that they're using it as marketing space, it's perfect. But these posters uh are great. I only have room for one of them on the Instagram, you guys. But please check out the den files link in the show notes and look at all of them because they're so funny. But they're also funny in a way that they're designed in a way that they look like typical kind of businessy posters. But then you read the information and you're like, what? What? What? Which happened to me when I went to the airport. And I remember my mom picked me up curbside and I was like, what is this about underground tunnels? She's like, oh, yeah, there's a bunch of conspiracies. Like, what? How did I not know this? So I'm not going to show Emma on the air because I feel like she's going to have a lot of feelings. I probably will. And we don't want to take too much more of your time, but that's all I've got for you today. That's all right. That was awesome. And I hope that postcode we will be able to have our own investigation of the truth behind the Denver International Airport conspiracy. Yes. Honestly, because it is the airport that we're going to have to fly into to visit your mom. So there's no way for us to not. Well, we could fly into Colorado Springs, but I could be like, hey, mom, we specifically want to go either into or out of Denver. Yeah, that would be fine if we chose a different, like, leaving one so um it's closer. But it would be so good if we were like, hey, Karen, can you pick us up an hour after our flight plans that we have? We have a little bit of time where it's like that weird limbo space of, like, everyone's rushing to get out, but you're still technically cleared so that you can stay inside the whole airport terminals. Yeah, I would love that. Well, and apparently this renovation is going to offer a lot more food and shopping options, too. That's exciting. Although I remember the food options being pretty decent. Like, there's a Texmax place up on the third floor. Interesting place for Colorado, but. Okay. Well, it's like, in that weird place of, like, it's not Southwest, but it's close enough to the Southwest that I trust the Tex Mex in Colorado more than I would in Virginia. That's totally fair. The further up we get in the US, the less I trust any kind of, like, Mexican or South American food. Uh exactly. Or unless it's owned by someone who is who has that kind of training of like, this is either what my grandmother made or like, this is what I trained to make. Like, I don't trust you unless you have that in your bucket. But when I was in Cambridge for my study abroad program in College, across the street from where we were staying um was a burrito place. And all these American kids, we were all craving home about the third weekend. And we went as a little group and we were like, you know what? We're all going to go and get burritos. We all get our burritos. We all sit down at the tables, we each take a bite of our burritos. All of us are like, oh, my gosh, there's no flavor. Absolutely no flavor. Like, they barely put salt on anything. It was like beans and rice and chicken. And we were like, oh, my gosh, I'm not even the salsa is spicy. Let's uh just make sure that we all know Mexican food is not in England's. Wheelhouse it's just not there. It's just not there. Indian food. Yes. I remember on my study abroad trip the first two weeks we were traveling around Ireland and Scotland, but then we finally got to London as our home base. We were staying at a University and I remember so many people in our class, which, to be fair, this trip was kind of people from multiple different schools. Yeah. So there were people who went to school in Texas, I assume from Texas as well. And I just remember them being so excited that London had Chipotle, which also, oh my gosh, Chipotle isn't real Mexican food, but I guess in the UK it's the closest you're going to get. I just remember them being so excited and I'm not a super huge text mess person anyway. But I just remember being kind of judgment of like, why are you out of all the things you could eat in England? This is what you choose. I just remember I had recovered memory just now that I made a promise to myself for that trip that I would not go to any chain that we have in the US on that trip unless it was like late at night and I just wanted McDonald's French fries. Yes. Um that whole situation, I totally get that. But I just remember being like, no, I'm not going to go to a Chipotle. I'm going to the kebab truck. I'm going to get Indian food or I'm going to go to Nandos. They have Nandos here instead of a cheeky Nandos. The fact that they have Nandos here now is just so great. Just an old town. It is. I have not eaten lunch, so this was a poor mistake. Oh, I'm sorry. Anyway, thank you for joining us on this episode. Thank you, Shannon. Yeah, it was so good. I thought I could help us all manifest travel, but also lighten your airport related. Thank you from my last. I do appreciate that. If I'm able to ever see those gargoyles in person, I think I'd be very happy. We'll put it on the Instagram if we ever do. And then we'll know who the real fans are because people who weren't here from the beginning will be very confused if we just are like us with some gargoyles or a giant blue horse chilling. If you would like to see any of those photos, all the photos from today's episode, uh you can find us on Instagram at this podcast doesn't exist. Give us a like, give us a comment. We love to see it. We love to interact with you. Please come and hang out. Yes. And if you have any stories, have you ever been to the Denver airport? Yes, because I would love to know if maybe you've encountered something. Maybe there's been a weirdly, suspicious looking lizard person just chilling in the corner. And maybe it's a maintenance person. Or maybe it's you. Momma Natty. We don't know, but let us know what you think. If you've ever been there, if you find it creepy, if you have any suggestions as to what other maybe conspiracy theories unsolved mysteries that we could do later, please let us know and send us an email at this podcast doesn't exist@gmail.com, we really want to hear from you. Also ghost stories. Um just please also shout out to Jesse for being our firsty's uh first email. We very much appreciate it. Thank you to anyone who subscribed. Recently, Connor was explaining to me that our numbers have recently risen so thank you for that holiday bump. Yeah, we appreciate it. We hope you stick around. Please, if you're enjoying yourself like share subscribe, give us a rating, give us a review. We would love to count you as part of our podcast family. Yes. And if you ever complete a bingo or if you lose a bingo, just post it and tag us and let us know how you did. We really like to see those kinds of interactions with you guys. As one of the podcast hosts, I don't play the bingo, mostly because I listen to us multiple times before I have to post these so I want to see whether or not you guys win. And if you do, um we'll shout you out on our podcast episode on our episode on our podcast the one that you are listening to right now, where are you? Because remember this podcast doesn't exist.

Sources:
The Mother Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_International_Airport

The Travel: https://www.thetravel.com/20-reasons-why-the-mysterious-denver-airport-is-like-no-other-in-the-world/

The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/27/us/denver-airport-saw-the-future-it-didnt-work.html

The Denver Post: https://www.denverpost.com/2016/10/31/definitive-guide-to-denver-international-airport-conspiracy-theories/

Insider: https://www.insider.com/denver-airport-conspiracy-theories-2016-9

Fly Denver: https://www.flydenver.com/about/art_culture/untitled_interior_garden, https://www.flydenver.com/about/art_culture/notre_denver, and https://www.flydenver.com/greathall

Uncover Colorado: https://www.uncovercolorado.com/denver-airport-murals-painting-location/

YouTube: Denver7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tW7bLJgo4g

YouTube: Atlas Obscura: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUzfjOe2ynY

YouTube: United: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6sIcFSGXWc

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DENAirport/status/1344691473216921603?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Fly Denver: DEN Files: https://www.flydenver.com/great_hall/denfiles