Bloody Bizarre
Episode 84 - The Denver Airport Conspiracies
[Music] Let's get started. Welcome back to Bloody Bazaar. My name's Emma. I'm Sarah. Sorry, I forgot my, my, your cue. Yeah, you make me do the whole intro. Uh, how's it going? [Laughs] Fine. It's okay. [Laughs] It feels really weird when you ask me how it's going when I've already been here for like 10 minutes because then I'm like, you know, I didn't ask you when you walked in. No, you didn't, rude girl. I was saving it for here. Right, okay. Well, we've already had like a chat for, yeah, about 10 minutes. So it feels weird to them restart the chat with what is usually said at the beginning of the chat. Anyway, we're recording at Emma's house again and Tilly is here sitting watching us, but I don't know how long she's going to be chilled out for. So this might be a baby noises episode apologies. Yeah, you know how we love them. Anyone you want to chat out at the beginning? Yes, actually. So I wanted to say thank you to listener Deb who shared us on her story and also I was chatting with her on Instagram. And if you want to chat or anything, not about anything, I don't have, I don't have that much time. [Laughs] Thanks, Deb. Yeah. Don't reach out over on the gram. But yeah, Deb shared a story saying she was listening to us. So that was very nice. And oh shit, I have to message her back. Fuck. Okay. Just, just no, I'm not good at messaging people back because, okay, great. So engage with Sarah over on Instagram, but she might not message back. Yeah. Well, I'll message back eventually. It's just, there might be like days in between, but that's, I might that with everyone. So. So it's worth it. And I also wanted to say thank you to our friend Britt, who has given us a new segment for the show. So Britt has given us these true crime trivia cards. And what we're going to do is ask each other a question at the start of each episode, just for fun, because there's like a whole pack of them. All right. So I'm going to go first. You do one, then I do one. Okay, also Tilly's a bit snuffly. So the baby noises might sound a little bit more, I think sniffly is the word, but snuffly, sniffly, sniffly. Yeah. Well, if you hear that, it's not either of us. It's Tilly. Okay. All right. Why do people listen to this show? No, we don't respond when you message us. There's always baby noises. This is the kind of character that you don't get from super polished, fancy podcasts who have like. It's definitely not polished. Okay. I'm going to go first reading the true crime trivia era. Okay. Do it. Lay along at home. Should we reveal the answer at the end of the show? No, because I think we'll forget. Okay. You know what we're like. Yeah, good call. Okay. I know this one. Okay. Let's see if you know it. Okay. What famed mystery writer suspiciously disappeared in 1926, sparking man hunts and media friends is only to show up safe 11 days later. It was the woman. Yes. Just trying to remember her name. Think about the shows that mom loves? Yeah. She wrote like Poirot and stuff. Yeah. What's her name? If I gave you the first name, you'd get it. Yeah. First name is Agatha. Yeah. Agatha Christie. Yes. Yeah. You knew who was. Yeah. Well done, Sarah. Thank you. I read you one. Okay. This, you won't get this one. Well, let's see. Okay. For 35 years, retired schoolteachers Jerry and Rita Alter kept a stolen what in their new Mexican home. A stolen tablet. It was a painting. Okay. A Willem de Kooning painting. That one was boring. I was close. So thanks for that, Britt. We're going to do one of those at the start of every every episode. So you'll learn something. Not just what we're telling you. Okay. I'm going to get started. Yes, please do. Okay. I don't know what you're doing this week. Oh, you're in for a treat. Okay. I'll be the judge of that. You asked for a lighthearted one this week to make up for the few heavies that we've had. And I have delivered today in the form of a conspiracy laden airport. Oh, are you doing Denver airport? Hell yeah. Yes. Love it. Today I am covering the many conspiracy theories attached to Denver International Airport. Also going to be referred to as D E N and D I A. Cool, cool, cool. My sources today are the Denver Post article by John Wenzel fly Denver calm Denver seven dot com article by Mark Belcher. Denver dot com article by visit Denver staff writers and literally yesterday I listened to an episode of conspiracy. Okay. Cool. Denver International Airport has become one of the world's busiest airports since opening February 28th, 1995. In 2022, 69.3 million passengers passed through the airport making it the world's third busiest airport during the global pandemic. In 2023, D E N welcomed a record breaking 77.8 million passengers, a 12.3% increase on the previous year. Wow. This is one that for once we don't have to put it on the road trip list because we've both already been there together. We have and we saw some of the things I'm going to talk about. Yeah, sweet. The airport is Colorado's primary economic engine generating 36.4 billion US dollars in annual economic impact for the state. The airport is? Uh huh. That's weird. Denver International has plenty. Well, Perth Airport is a huge economic provider for for the state. Do they count like the tourists that come in and? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And also the airlines pay? Mm hmm. Yeah. Clifford, can you please? He's lying down. It's the best we can hope for. Yeah. Denver International has plenty of room to grow to expand its current facilities and accommodate growth. The airport operates on 53 square miles. That's 34,000 acres or 137.8 square kilometers of land. That means the airport's area is twice the size of Manhattan and larger than the city boundaries of Boston, Miami or San Francisco. Holy shit. I didn't realize it was that big. In terms of airports, get this. Hartzfield Jackson Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles International and Dallas Fort Worth could collectively fit into Denver's expense of property. What the fuck? That's huge, right? Why? Right. Denver's award-winning architecture and views of the Rocky Mountains creates a unique atmosphere for travelers. Jefferson Terminal's recognizable peaked roof designed by Fentress, Bradburn Architects is reflective of snow-capped mountains and evokes the early history of Colorado where Native American TPs dotted the Great Plains. That glowing and obviously public relations written overview fails to mention that the airport opened 16 months and nearly $2 billion over schedule. It also doesn't mention the wide ranging and high numbering conspiracy theories that have been associated with the airport. Well, you know, greatness, you always have haters, so okay. Well, maybe these haters are on to something. Conspiracy theories about Denver International Airport have taken flight for more than two decades. Did you write that? Yeah. See? hilarious. Taken flight for over two decades owing to the airport's mix of unusual public art, unusual, maybe not the right word, but bold architecture and infamous construction problems which leads to an internet field cycle of self-feeding paranoia. Oh, yeah, I love that. I think I wrote that too. That's nice. Before I jump into the, so I had a plan of how I was going to do this storage day, but on my drive home this morning from Bunbury, I decided to switch it up. So I'm going to be flying by the seat of my pants. Okay. I love that saying so much. I think it's really funny. And I'm going to do this on the fly a little bit. Great. So first of all, I think it's important to give a little bit of history about Denver and the airport situation when it was under construction. So prior to, I think it was 1978, the government regulated the airline industry. So they told airlines how much they could charge. Yeah, they told them with which routes they could take. And it was designed to kind of make sure that the airlines stay afloat. So you'll see what's happening in Australia because it's unregulated. Bonds has gone under, Rex has gone under. Well, Rex has gone under. Yeah. Oh, no. Oh, well, it's an administration. Who's going to fly out to middle of nowhere? I think they're still operating their regional routes. Okay. At the moment, but that's going to, I'm sure, drop off. So that's, that's as a result of zero regulation in the airline industry. Now you could argue that the airlines being able to regulate themselves means level prices, which it does for the consumer. But it also does allow for these kind of situations to happen where do we get lower prices? I feel like it's fucking expensive. So it is fucking expensive. But that's because the airlines are kind of self regulating and they kind of. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it doesn't really lead to lower prices. So in America, it did because prior to the, um, on regulation or what's the word? Disregulation. Um, prior to the airline industry becoming regulate, becoming unregulated, the government was, uh, the prices were higher because airlines couldn't be competitive. Okay. So anyway, in 1978, this airline, uh, what is it called? The Disregulation Act or something like that of 1978 meant that airlines could alter their prices, alter their routes so that they could fly to places where there was more demand and all that kind of shit. Now what this meant was that the previous Denver airport, so not the one that was built and opened in 1995, the previous one was starting to be not fit for purpose. So Denver was growing. The airport was not fit for purpose. They decided. And also because it was built so close to the city limits, there were regulations on how high they could build skyscrapers in Denver. So they weren't allowed to build them too high. And people were like, look, we need to build more. There's more people coming to the city. It was like 200,000 people growth or something like that. Yeah. And also the previous airport was, um, not situated well in terms of wind and the Rockies, the mountains, they were impacting it as well. So they undertook after the government handed over regulation to the airlines, they decided, okay, we're going to need to build a new airport. And they, and they decided, okay, we're going to build this international. And, and the people of Denver didn't want it initially. And so they, they went on this huge marketing campaign, been like, it's going to be great. Please, like, because it was scheduled to be costing 2.8 billion, I think, right? And so the people were like, we don't need it. Like it's, it, we've got an airport. Yeah. It's going to cost heaps of money. And so then the architects and the designers and the kind of project people were like, okay, then because this is such a contentious airport, we're going to have to make it like beautiful, beautiful and a bit of a cultural kind of icon. Okay. Yeah. That answers a question that I had from the beginning of like, why did they bother with all this random stuff? I mean, I love it. Don't get me wrong. I love a bit of whimsy and like, just adding random things in, but I also was reason for it. Yeah. And, and another thing that they decided was, okay, this is also going to be a state of the art airport. So what we're going to do is we're going to build an underground system of baggage handling. Now, ordinarily baggage handling is done by humans. Then the airport go, okay, we want this to be all automated, so much so that it takes it from the baggage claim straight to the airport and loads it onto the plane for you, right? They're like, it's going to be the first of its kind and it's going to make everyone be wowed by this airport. Now, when press showed up, and this is still, this is even like, so far into the building of this airport, they like so over, over time, the press showed up to see this baggage claim thing, this baggage handling in action, right? And what happened was bags were flying off the conveyor belt because of the tight turns and the speed at which it was going. Yeah. And the ones that did make it to the time act were just catapulted onto the ground. Oh my god. No, it was a complete disaster. So ultimately, they then abandoned this underground system that costs like, it would have been the majority of the over budget was on this, this like automated system. And it was also part of what made it go so over time. Yeah. Yep. But then they had this whole network of like tunnels. Yes. Yeah, creepy. Yeah. Okay. So that is kind of the backstory of where this this airport came from. I can already see the conspiracy theory. Yes. Loading. Yep. So the conspiracy theories that are attached to the airport. The airport used to try and distance themselves from these conspiracy theories, but in more recent years, they've just decided to lean in to the yeah, why not controversial ones. Yeah. There are some that they're like, we don't want to talk about that. But okay. Yeah. But there are quite a few that they're like, Oh, what are we doing? We have a CEO who really embraces the conspiracy ideas, said Heath Montgomery, senior public information officer for DEN. I'll also mention here that this article that I'm largely taking from was written in 2016. So I'd say that the people in the position are not accurate anymore. Okay. This is accurate as of that. Yeah. Right. We decided a few years ago that rather than fight all of this and try and convince everybody there's nothing really going on. Let's have some fun with it. Denver airport now features a modest museum style exhibition of the most notable and least controversial theories in honor of October as quote conspiracy month. Is October conspiracy month? Well, no, but October has Halloween in it. Okay. Yeah. It's like spooky month, I guess. Yeah. And they've just decided like, let's use that. Okay. You may even see giant lizards dressed in construction gear with words next to them saying, apologies for the noise. It takes really big drills to get to the underworld. And there's like various little like things like that. Like it says, building the world's west airport or a new world or something like that. Like there's like, they're really, they're really leaning into it. Events have included a conspiracy themed costume party and a free close encounters of the third kind of screening. That film was chosen because the coordinates for the alien landing in the 1977 film supposedly 0.2 dias location. In reality, those coordinates actually lead to an empty field 51 miles north west of the airport. But that doesn't stop people. Facts don't matter. Yeah, never let the facts get away. Good story. Now, most of the theories airport management says are so laughable and easily disproved that DEN is happy to weaponize them as marketing tools that in turn translates to an estimated quote hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in free publicity. Still, despite some of the theories being quote laughable, most persist. So let's go through some of them. This isn't all of them. This is just kind of the most frequently cited. Was that too much of a preamble? No, I think that's important stuffed and important backstory, important background. So here's theory one. The Freemasons, a century old secret society, has controlled the airport ever since it opened with ties to the New World Order, a group of global elites who wield power over international affairs. Now, we did touch on New World Order and like the Freemasons and kind of that, you know, cabal of ruling elite in the Bohemian Grove episode. So if you want to listen to that, head back to that whatever number that was. Are you gonna be trying to talk? You're gonna rass this? Okay. This theory was developed from a dedication plaque at the airport's South entrance dated March 19th, 1994. It contains a time capsule and bears the symbol of the Freemasons as well as reference to the New World Airport Commission. Why does it have the Mason symbol on it? Why indeed? Strange markings have also been noted around the airport, supposedly indicating secret or alien languages. There is the checking ahead of that one. Okay. Now, while the Freemasons are a legitimate fraternal and historically secretive, I was going to say the masons build buildings in Perth all the time. There's like Masonic care and they do that stuff. They do, yes. Our grandad was a Freemason, by the way. Oh, yeah. He's dead now though. Yeah. That means that if women were allowed in, we might be allowed in. I don't know how it works. I'm assuming it's like stone shutters. Yeah. Unfortunately, no, we are the lesser sex. So yes, the Freemasons organization, they do have civic ties to the airport's dedication, but there's no evidence to suggest they have a head in ongoing planning or decision-making at the civilian facility. Officials of the airports say the fraternal organization, which is still active today, is commonly involved in the erection of public buildings, as you said. I think it's funny to use the word erection with a fraternal organization. The time capsule to be opened in 2094 contains coins, a signed opening table from Coors Field, the baseball field in Denver, former Mayor Wellington web sneakers, and a fee black hook, casino tokens, among other items. Now, conspiracy theorists reckon that there's also this nerve or like chemical agent in there that's going to wipe out some of humanity when it's opened. Why though? Why? Yeah. I mean, the thing with conspiracy theories is you don't really have to provide much evidence you can just say. That's it. The ones that I like are the ones where it's like it makes a lot of sense. Yeah. But that it's like, okay, they're going to kill some pits, it's just like a terrorist attack. Well, I guess the idea is that you kill off people and then there's so few left that you start this new world. Yes. The New World Airport Commission was named by Charles Anspacher, an arts advocate who died in 2010. The name is likely a reference to Dvorak's New World Symphony, according to a 2007 article, and the commission was created only to orchestrate the airport's opening festivities, so it's no longer around. So it's unlikely that the New World Airport Commission has any reference to the New World Order. But, you know, it is, I can see the adds to the, adds the ritual to the flame. Yep. One popular theory is that the Braille tablet above the dedication stone is actually a keypad, and that if you touch the raised dots in the correct sequence, you'll be able to open the time capsule. You'll be able to open the time capsule. Even some current masons seem to buy into the myth that one airport employee saying she's heard reports of masons visiting the capstone and trying to swipe them asonic membership cards near the time capsule, just in case. I mean, worth a shot, I guess. Yeah, worth a shot. Yeah. If I had one, I'd try it, but we don't because we are, because we're women, but women. The strange markings I spoke about, they are actually Navajo language characters. Strange language. And they have references to other airports. So that one, you know, it takes the smallest amount of research to just prove that one button. Yeah. See, she's very snotty. Yeah, she is. I've been using the bulb thing. Oh, yuck. I don't want to hear that. It works really well. Stop talking. Those who perpetuate the conspiracy theory say that the explanation doesn't cut it, and why would there be a Freemason logo on the park if they weren't involved still? They also help build it, right? I don't think they helped build it. I think they gave money. Yeah. And they maybe orchestrated the opening, like help with the opening. They also highlight the various other points throughout the airport that signpost a new world order. Let's talk about another theory. The airport's 40 piece public art collection. Most notably, it's colorful 28 foot wide murals by artist Leo Tanguma. It's Notre Dame vogue oil sculptures near the east and west side baggage claim areas. And the Mustang sculpture, AKA big blue haul offs or blue tifa, as the locals call it, near Pena Boulevard, are coos to a sinister influence at the airport, alternately credited as either Illuminati, Freemasons, new world order, or even Nazis. So they haven't really settled on one, they're like, it could look, it could be anything. Like most DIA conspiracy theories, this one roughly parallels the rise of the internet at the time of the airport's opening, and has been given fuel over the years by radio hosts like George Murray, TV conspiracy back adventurer, and many others. They point to Nazi or fascist imagery in Tanguma's murals, the ominous and seemingly random nature of the gargoyles, and the fact that a portion of the 32 foot 9,000 pound Mustang sculpture, which features glowing red eyes, fell on and killed its creator, Lewis Jimenez, when it severed an artery in his leg. Oh, really? And he bled out. That is a bad moment. A violent death. Yeah. Does the mural have fascist imagery or? I'm going to talk about what the mural looks like. We saw it. Yeah, but I don't remember saying anything. Obviously, I had my eyes shut. Yeah, sheeple, sheeple. I wasn't awake. They, it does have a like a Nazi like trooper on the, in the like center of the, look at a photo of it. Yeah, look at a photo of it. I'll, and I'll post these on the Instagram. So go head over there if you want to see a little carousel of some of these things. Now, yeah, the Nazi is looks like he's been defeated by the children of the world. That's, that's just one of the murals that I'm showing you. One section of Children of the World Dream of Peace shows scenes of war and death. In the center of the painting is a gas masked soldier wielding both a sword and a machine gun, while the other depicts happy children from around the globe dressed in colorful traditional clothing and laying down their weapons beneath a rainbow of peace. Similarly, one section of in peace and harmony with nature shows children mourning the death of three women and the extinction of numerous animals as the environment burns in the background, while the other section of the mural illustrates the children of the world coming together to rehabilitate and celebrate nature. The pieces purportedly expressed the artists hopeful desire for the people of the world to live in peace with one another and in harmony with nature. But others have been more focused on the anti themes of war, death, pollution and environmental destruction, even claiming that the artworks contain clues and messages about the apocalypse and the inevitable rise of a totalitarian world government or new world order. I mean, the like the the world burning and stuff like that, that's not really anything new. That's scientists have been saying that for a long time. Yeah, it's also like, it's not it's not prophetic. It's like, that's what we were told was going to happen. It's a commentary. Another artwork that's raised eyebrows is a part of Alex Sweetman's art chronicles, a photographic series documenting the construction of the airport. The premise sounds innocuous enough and although many of the photo murals capture serene scenes, for example, a bison standing in a snowy meadow, a field of vibrant yellow sunflowers reaching to the sky, one photo, a field of dead browning sunflowers, which is creepy, can leave some feeling a bit unsettled. And it is it is a creepy thing. It's just like it's it's inappropriate for an airport. It's it's weird. Yeah, it's like, oh, okay. Yeah. And I remember feeling that when I was there just looking at stuff and being like, why? What the fuck? Yeah. And like the children of the world dream of peace and and the in peace and harmony with nature, they're scary murals. Like, why would you do that in an airport? Yeah, it's all it's very like artistic, but they're not even good. And they're not even good. No, but I mean, like the like the themes, it's very like it makes you think and all that all that sort of stuff. But it's like, don't put that in an airport. Yeah, don't put burning trees. Strange. Yeah. So the murals are spooky, despite their intended messages of hope. Unfortunately, both murals are being held in storage until construction on the Great Hall is completed in summer 2028. So you'll have to wait a while to check them out in person if you want to. I wish I'd taken more photo. Like, I was looking through our America. I was looking through our America photos the other day, and I don't think I've really got any of the airport. Yeah, we didn't take too many in the airport. We didn't know this podcast was going to be a thing. No. Now, the red eyes in the Mustang sculpture, they are apparently an homage to the artist's father who worked with neon signs. Quote, hindsight is 2020 because it really could have been any color of neon said Heather Kaufman, director of arts and public events for the for DIA. I don't know if I buy that. I feel like glowing red eyes is like anyone can. People reckon it's a reference to the fore Horseman of the apocalypse. Yeah. He's like an like a harbinger of doom. Yeah, kind of. You agree? Well, it was the apocalypse for that guy, wasn't it? Yeah, I guess it was the end of his world. So I guess it's true. Now, the gargoyles in the in the baggage claim area, while they may appear a little suspicious, and I don't know if again, an airport is the right place for gargoyles inside. Gargoyles have often been used over the centuries in architecture as a totem to help ward off evil spirits and protect the buildings they stand on. At DIA, the gargoyles emerging out of open suitcases were installed at baggage claim intentionally to protect travelers luggage according to the airport's website. It's like, again, it's just weird. It's like, it's almost like these explanations are shoehorned. Yes, exactly. Just say, yeah, we like we fucked up. Or like, just be like, we wanted to make it weird. Or like, or just say like, we had a really like, we had an art director at the time that didn't really get it right. We had an art director at the time who was a weirdo. Some a lot of people are like, it's just a few too many coincidences, or like a future many weird things. Let's keep going. Theory three, hidden beneath the airport's underground baggage transport tunnels is a secret bunker or a series of bunkers designed to house billionaires and global political elites in the event of an apocalypse. It's also believed that lizard people or raptoids and potentially aliens are also working down there. There's also said to be a tunnel that connects Denver Airport to NORAD, which is North American aerospace defense command. And that's nearly 100 miles to the south of the Colorado Springs. So I actually buy into this one a little bit, because hang on, you buy into the raptoids? No, I buy into the tunnel. Okay, connects. Okay. Any why? Yes. So I think you know how you're talking about they did the, you know, we're going to do the underground baggage handling blah, blah, blah. And then they were like, oh, it's shit. We're going to have to abandon it. Yep. That is a great way to be like, this is why we need to spend billions of dollars on underground tunnels, but we've just fucked it up. So we're just going to leave them there. Like, it's a good sort of like, okay, but the tunnels don't don't go to NORAD that we know of. Yep. Okay. Contractors who originally worked on the airport, which went over budget and opened 16 months behind schedule, as I said, reportedly saw evidence of bunker entrances and unexplained tunnels. Yep. There you go. Yep. There it is. A multimillion dollar automated baggage system failed to work as designed, as I said, fueling doubts about the intent and scale of construction, as you're saying. And alien drawing has appeared on the walls. And blurry footage of lizard people has appeared on conspiracy websites. Okay. All right. I'm wanting you with them now. It's just the people that they got to dress up like, okay. All right. Okay. Potentially. And then a blurry photo of those people. Listen to this spooky one. I don't believe it, but it's like, oh, imagine. After Jordan Pills, 2019 horror film, Us premiered. Yeah. Scary. Some even posited that the tunnels beneath the airport could house a community of murderous doppelgangers. Oh, ready to rise out from under the earth and take over the surface. Oh, God. I hate that. Oh, imagine. Imagine if there was like, so like one day you went crazy and you like murdered someone or like, whatever. And it turned out that like the real you had been pulled underground and like, this was the murderous doppelganger version. Well, you'll probably find out one day. There are some people that believe that every time you take part in high speed travel, you lose a part of yourself. Did you know that? Who believes that? I don't know. It was on this podcast. I think it's because humans were never meant to go faster than like the speed of a horse. That sounds like those people that are back in the day know that I thought that women couldn't ride on trains because the uteruses would fly out. Yeah. Anyway, back to this. Roughly a thousand people work daily in the various levels underneath the airport, ferrying luggage among ticket counters, planes and baggage claim areas in a pair of 7,000 foot long tunnels that run alongside the airport's underground trains. And these baggage kind of tunnels were not immediately ready to use upon the airport's opening. As seen during a tour of the tunnels provided to the Denver Post, all plumbing and electrical infrastructure appears to end at the underground area's lowest level. It appears to. I'd also mention that this little bit of information here came from the Denver Post who were given a tour and it's like, well, how do we know the Denver Post were in on it? How do we know the Denver Post weren't showing what they wanted them to see? Exactly. They were given a tour. So it's not like they just turned up and were like, we're going down there. They turned up because they were like, come and have a look. We'll show you. There's nothing weird. Yeah. Furthermore, over the years, little personal touches have been made. Montgomery said of the tunnels pointing to the hand drawn alien image, which is the one I've mentioned before. So someone's drawn an alien on the wall. I think that's probably just someone playing silly buckles. It is, yeah. As well as decidedly non-alien themed graffiti like smiley faces, as he drove an electric golf cart under the B concourse, the automated baggage system was actually used in various capacities, mostly by United Airlines up until 2010. Montgomery says, there's a certain mistake to anything you can't see. The fact of the matter is, it would take me three days to show you everything down here. So that means he didn't show him everything down there. Finally, airport workers have been known to dong lizard masks as pranks, while the media are on tours, including one caught on camera by Fox 31 KdVR Denver in a video that's since been circulated as evidence of their existence. And it's often not credited either. So people are like, look at this footage, and it's not credited to a new station. And it's not debunked. And so people are like, oh, so there's lizard people down there. Like, that is so embarrassing. But then people would say, well, that's a good explanation to make people forget about it, you know? It's kind of like hiding in plain sight a little bit, like, let's just play into it and make it so it's like a mockery. And so if you believe in it, you're insane. Yeah, I don't believe in lizard people. I just want to make that very clear. I don't think people would be surprised to learn that you do. Additionally, the 90 mile long tunnel from DIA's remote location to NORAD seems highly unlikely and cost prohibitive given that the world's longest underground rail tunnel, the newly open Swiss Alps traversing got hard base tunnel is less than half that length and took more than a decade to excavate and construct. Sarah doesn't look phased. Sarah looks like she still believes in the NORAD tunnel. Yeah, I kind of do. Okay, because it's the government. They can just do whatever they want, do whatever they want. All right, next theory. DIA's location, approximately 25 miles from downtown Denver. The swastika shaped runway configuration and various barely concealed symbols of Nazism or Fascism, hint at any number of sinister plots theorists say. I think the 25 miles thing is because Hitler had a 25 point plan, but I'm not sure why 25 miles is relevant any other way. But anyway, Nazi conspiracy theories have been among the most popular online for the last two decades. And despite its recent tongue in cheek embrace of most conspiracies, DIA officials have shy away from their Nazi stuff. As you can imagine, they don't want to touch that. They're where the lizard mask, but they won't don a Nazi uniform. They won't they won't hile on the runway. And people, I mean, they're not directly addressing this makes people kind of believe it's a sign of its validity. But you can very much understand why they don't want to touch this subject a little bit too hot to touch a little bit too hot to touch, particularly right now, you wouldn't want to know. Although they're happy to have a fucking Nazi in their mural. I mean, he's on the ground, but in one of them, he's not in one of them, he's like, got a weapon will post on the ground. You can see for yourself, those looking to dispel the theory, say that the runways show a lumpy misshapen and largely interpretive swastika at best. And highlight that the rotating fan shapes design allows for optimal takeoff into and against the wind from different directions. I agree with the shape being optimal for an airport takeoff and landing and stuff like that. But I do also think it's not that hard to see the swastika in the runways. It's pretty evident, I think. It may be worth mentioning though that the swastika was used for thousands of years prior to Adolf Hitler's adoption of the symbol. If the swastika has been a symbol of meaning good fortune and well-being, it's had negative connotations for less than a century. However, I do think it is the most popular, the most well-known new story. Yeah, if anybody has a swastika, you're like, okay, you're- Unless it's like those decorative Balinese ones. Yeah, but are they backwards? Don't they have their backwards? Yeah, they are backwards. Well, no, they're the right way. The Nazis put it backwards. So we're coming to the end here, but here's another good theory. I think you'll like this one. The tiles in the Great Hall that say AUAG represent a virus known as the Australia Antigen, which is said could wipe out the world's population. Why us? Hang on, I'm going to tell you why it's called the Australian Antigen. So hidden in the airport is a tile with a mining cart and AUAG erection to it. You might think that the letters AUAG are just there to represent gold and silver, which is their table of elements letters, whatever it's called, and that it's a reference to the gold rush, which built up the Denver area into a major US city. Conspiracy theorists disagree. I did a bit of research on the Australia Antigen. Sorry, she's asleep, but she's snoring, so now you're going to hear baby snoring probably. The Australia Antigen is called that because it was an Australian Aboriginal's blood sample that reacted with an antibody in the serum of an American hemophilia patient. So hang on, this Australia Antigen, it's the surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus, and its presence in blood indicates existing hepatitis B infection. And so they found this out by using an Australian Aboriginal's blood, which reacted with this American hemophilia patient's blood. So I think it's just a way to determine the existence of Hep B in a person. And so it's not a virus that can be released. As far as I can tell, it shows the existence of hepatitis B infection. And in many cases, the body is actually able to cure itself from hepatitis B anyway, so it's unlikely that this would be something that could be released and cause mass extinction. So this is again one of those things where it's just a little bit of research. In fact, an acute infection usually doesn't require treatment other than possible intravenous fluids to prevent dehydration. Of course, unless you have some underlying health issue, but in most people, it is not a death sentence by any means. As John Wenzel writes for the Denver Post, "For people with vested interests in sowing doubt about institutions and organisations, the real fear might just be discovering there's a mundane explanation for all these theories. Conspiracies create drama and excitement, allowing theorists to more clearly define and usually reinforce their existing beliefs. They feel alive, adrenalised and righteous." Yeah, it's exciting. He believes these people don't or don't want to accept the mundane explanation, and therefore they cast aside evidence to that end. The theorists have never successfully addressed the notion. If the airport and its backers have spent decades in billions of dollars hiding secret global plots and infrastructure, why jeopardise that work by putting so many obvious clues in plain sight? "No matter what you do, you lose," Montgomery said. "You show people the tunnels and explain the symbols, you lose. You climb up and deny it, you lose. So that's why we've started to have fun with these, because people are going to believe what they believe regardless of hard evidence." Yeah, that's true. Most recently, Denver has capitalised on the mythical past with a series of ads. One shows Blusifa, red laser beams shooting out of his eyes with the tagline, "Are we creating the world's greatest airport or preparing for the end of the world?" Another one pictures one of the gargoyles in Transportation Security Administration Scanner and asks, quote, "streamline security or more secrets." Others just depict space aliens, a lizard person, mysterious tunnels, even a cat in a tinfoil hat. All are #denfiles, a play on the X-Files TV show, and urge viewers to, quote, "learn the truth" at denfiles.com. So what do you think? Is Denver airport a conspiracy haven? Probably not, but I still don't know if it's 100% like, oh, it's just art. It's just weird. It's very weird. I don't think that those lizard people think potentially maybe there's something to do with the tunnels. I think that's a bit weird. You're thinking like National Security stuff. Yeah, yeah. Something like the government, I don't know. The government. Something, the government. I'm really disillusioned with the government. Everyone is. Yeah. Okay, well, what do you think listeners? Let us know. Let us know over on the gram. Yeah, and let us know if you've been to Denver airport too. I think it's, so if I'm remembering correctly, it is the biggest airport in terms of size in America and the second biggest in the world. Whoa. Yeah, that's insane. Yeah. Like, what's the biggest? Not busiest, just like size. Yeah, what's the biggest? I don't know. I'm guessing it's Changi. Oh, yeah, yeah. Or like, Dubai or something, but I'm guessing it's Singapore. Tell, let us know if that's wrong. I guess I could just Google it. I don't really care. The busiest airport in the US, I think is Hartsfield, Jackson, Atlanta, isn't it? That's weird, because it's a really common stopover. I suppose I'm thinking international, but there's heaps like people in America do a lot of like interstate travel. I think it's Atlanta. That could be different now as well. I don't know. But yeah. Yep. Get in touch. Let us know your thoughts. Yep. But that's it. So, do you know what you're doing next week? I do. What are you doing? I'm going to tell you what I'm doing, but I am going to tell you that it's one that it has all the hallmarks of an urban legend. It sounds exactly like an urban legend. When I wrote it down to do it, I thought it was an urban legend. It's actually true. Love that. Okay. Good. A true crime attached to it. Good. A lot of true crime actually attached to it. It's disgusting. Is it the Catman? No. Oh, the Catman. What is that? Well, I feel that we've mentioned. All right. Thanks, everyone. Bye. Bye.