875: I Hate Mysteries

25:41Brett didn't realize until an hour or two later that they hadn't paid him the 200 bucks.

25:52Later that summer, timber workers stumbled across the hole while marking trees. It was in a national forest, and it's illegal to dig without a permit. The hole looked to be about 60 feet deep. I spoke to one ranger who said it was the damnedest thing he had ever seen in his Forest Service career. The Mount Shasta Herald ran an article in October, U.S. Forest Service investigating hole on Mount Shasta. The article had a photo of the hole. At the bottom was Brett's bottle of smart water. Gawkers kept gathering to look at the hole, so the Forest Service filled it back in. By the time I saw the spot, a few years later, the trail had faded, but the trees still had scars from the cable, and there was a five-gallon bucket lying around.

26:38Every time I visited, it was in a different spot, and one day it was gone. At the time, all we had was wild speculation. There were three plausible theories. The first was gold. I heard rumors about an underground river of gold. Maybe a treasure map purchased in a bar. But I talked to the geology instructor at the local community college, who pointed out that Mount Shasta was actually a volcano, and volcanoes don't have gold in them. So that theory was out. The second was Native American artifacts. Unfortunately, this is incredibly common in the U.S. I asked some state police officers and experts on investigating looters.

27:19But nobody had heard of looters digging 60 feet straight down. So the looting theory was out too. That leaves the third theory. It's something we locals discuss the most. But Brett isn't from here. He didn't hear about it until midway through the dig, when he went home for the weekend. He was drinking beer with some friends on their porch, and telling them about the job he was doing on Mount Shasta. and I start getting into the details of it and everybody gets kind of quieter and quieter and I hear this noise from above me because it was a multi-story I think it was two-story apartment complex I hear it oh and then like footsteps moving and then I hear it running through one of the apartment complexes coming down the stairs and it was this really spun out woman that came out but holding a book so she goes sorry I've been listening to everything you've been saying but this is what's going on and she hands me this book about Mount Shasta and starts going through the pages and finds this chapter on Saint Germain.

28:13And she goes, do you know what this is? And I'm like, no. And she's like, okay. And I started reading it. And that's when it clicked. The Count of Saint Germain was a real historical figure from the 1700s. Some people believed he was immortal. An American mining engineer named Guy Ballard claimed he met Saint Germain in 1930, here on the mountain. Ballard said he was hiking, and Saint Germain appeared multiple times, once offering him a crystal cup filled with a clear, sparkling liquid. This encounter inspired Ballard and his wife Edna to found a New Age religion called the I AM Activity. That's two words, I AM, all caps.

28:52Ballard died in 1939, but the I AM Activity still has members all over the world. Around the same time Guy Ballard says he met Saint Germain, a book was published called Lemuria, Lost Continent of the Pacific. It had a chapter that claimed there was a hidden city under Mount Shasta, inhabited by some of the last remaining members of a sunken continent. People have been looking for the entrance of the city ever since. The book is not related to St. Germain, but added to the myth of the mountain. Not everyone comes to Mount Shasta for Lemuria or St. Germain. Some are just looking for purpose or community.

29:30My parents were seekers. They moved us to Mount Shasta from Massachusetts when I was six. So to me, this made total sense, that the hole had something to do with all these stories. Eventually, I tracked down and spoke to three other people who had helped dig the hole. One of them said they'd been paid by a believer in St. Germain, and described what they were looking for as gold plutonium. He said something about it being used to power Lemurian cities. The other two diggers mentioned uranium. None of it made sense, but it always pointed back to the stories about the mountain. I did try to contact the I Am activity a couple of times, but the person who answered the phone told me that my message probably wouldn't be returned.

30:13It wasn't.

30:20After that last scary night on the mountain, Brett drove straight home to his mom's in Reading. I just couldn't believe all this had happened. and then plus I hadn't slept and I got back. I hadn't been telling my mom what I've been doing. You know, I told her I was working and I remember I called my dad. My mom is a sweetheart and she's always been the one that's let me run a little crazy, but it's been like my stone. And my dad is a lot like me. And I started telling him what I had been doing and he got upset. And I remember that was the final thing where it was like, when he got, he was like, you cannot do stuff like that.

30:54Like you have to realize what you just did and I'm very happy you're safe. But that could have gone very bad. And like you can no longer go through life being naive like that. And I was happy. I remember I picked up my skateboard and met my friends and spent like a week off gas and just letting all that go. And then once you're out of that mindset, you're not around those people. Then you start realizing like, what were we really doing? Like, what did I let someone talk me into? Am I liable for anything? And that's why it was really chilling when I got that phone call. I can't remember how long it was.

31:31I'm trying to think. It was after the summer. Maybe it was around the fall. And I had a call came through that I didn't recognize the number and answered it. And I recognized the voice instantly. That stoic, man-of-few-words voice telling me we're going back. And I remember being like, good luck. Because I'm not going. After that, Brett joined the military and rarely comes back to the area. Like many before him, he had come down from the mountain with a wild story. He still thinks about it. There are times when I'm out elk hunting or something, I'm breaking brush off trail, and I'll see, I'll come up over a hill and you'll see a fall sun or a goalie in the ground or something like that.

32:13You start seeing, my brain will put shit together. When the landscape's just right and the sun hits you know I'm on the right slope and uh yeah things in the environment landscapes are piecing together and I can picture it again that'll be with me forever if you met Joseph again do you have anything you'd want to say to him man I'd ask why I'd I'd take everything I just said and like am I right is this what you were doing? Is this the motivation? Was it this church that is all the things, these little details that I put together from things you've said, things I've heard, things I saw, like what weren't you telling me?

32:58And then the next thing is, what did we find? Because I saw it. Didn't seem like something that was worth doing what we did. Am I wrong?

33:15I wondered about those things too. A strange final footnote to this story is that the Forest Service did find the person they think is responsible for the hole. Their local Forest Service law enforcement officer, Carmen Kinch, told me she did a bunch of sleuthing and figured out what hotel the workers had been staying in, and from the hotel, the name of the person who had paid for the rooms. She said the person said they had been looking for gold and paid a fine, but couldn't give me the person's name. And without a name, I haven't been able to find any core records, though I tried for years. These days, I'm not looking so hard anymore.

33:55I've had to accept that you just don't always get to the bottom of everything. Sometimes when you open the box, inside, there's just another box.

34:11Elijah Sullivan. His documentary is called The Whole Story. It's showing at film festivals, and he's looking for a distributor. Special thanks to Benjamin Bombard, who told us about the documentary.

34:30When we were putting together today's show, we heard from lots of people who have mysteries in their lives that they can't get out of their head. And one of them came from Lauren Peterson, who read a story with a mystery in it that stuck with her. So for years, I have been plagued by a New York Times article by Katie Weaver, who's writing I love, where she went to a glitter factory and toured the glitter factory. And while Katie was on this tour, the glitter factory spokesperson said, you'll never guess which industry buys the most glitter. and then wouldn't tell her. No matter how many times the reporter asked, the spokesperson said, we can never tell you.

35:17And for years, I have been desperate to know who is this secret consumer of glitter? What could it possibly be? You need to know. You need to know. And I think the piece came out around Christmas, I want to say. So this was also the number one topic of conversation among my family and extended family for that entire Christmas. Everything we thought of, you know, it either didn't seem like it would be big enough or there was no reason that they wouldn't want us to know. Like if it was cosmetic, why couldn't they say that on the record? So it can't be that. But is it like, why is your toothpaste so sparkly?

36:05Could it be, is it the fluoride or is it glitter from the glitter factory? Her wife thought it could be the U.S. military. She'd heard they drop metallic material from planes sometimes to scramble radar. How many people were in on this? My mom is one of eight. So that's a big family on that side. We definitely talked about it. Plus some friends. I have a group text where every once in a while, one of us will put forward a new theory to this day. So I'd say we're looking at 20 people who I'm regularly bringing this up to. I once brought it up to someone who I was sitting next to on an airplane.

36:48I occasionally will just go back and look at the Reddit forums where people are trying to figure out the answer. Like, what could it possibly be? And what if I told you we have the answer? I, my jaw dropped. How did you find out? Would you just open your phone and type in the word glitter mystery? Yeah, yes, I will. And not for the first time, I might add.

37:22Okay, when you Google glitter mystery, the very first thing that comes up after the AI is the mystery of the largest glitter purchaser has been solved. The Post is a link to a 2019 podcast that broke the news of the mystery buyer. There's a long Reddit discussion about the answer. But somehow, Lauren had never seen it. So I told her, the largest buyer of glitter is boats boats yeah boats they use it for their paint sparkly i mean i guess they are why don't they want us to know why does it have to be a secret and not like so not like military grade both like just regular regular both may i ask you are you happy that you know

38:32no such a disappointing answer um and i kind of wish i still thought that the u.s military was glitter bombing other nations. Everything that glitters is not boat. But a lot of it is. Lauren was not the only person disappointed in the answer. On Reddit, there were even people who worked in the marine paint industry who knew they used lots of glitter. But they were also hoping the answer was something else. Mysteries are like that. Once you have the answer, the sparkle disappears.

39:24The biggest glitter buyer was originally uncovered by the podcast Endless Thread. We reached out to Glitter X, the company profiled in the New York Times story. They declined to confirm if their biggest buyer is boats. They are still committed to the mystery. Coming up, did we just become best friends or am I being kidnapped? That's in a minute from Chicago Public Radio when our program continues. Support for This American Life and the following message come from AT &T. Whether you're calling your parents to say happy anniversary or checking in with your kids before bedtime, staying connected matters.

40:06That's why AT &T has connectivity you can depend on, although proactively make it right. That's the AT &T guarantee. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.com slash guarantee for details. It's This American Life. I'm Ike Sris Kandaraja, sitting in for Ira Glass. Today, I hate mysteries. Stories of people grappling with the unknown that's right in front of them. Act 2, who are the people in your neighborhood? The mystery that I want solved most urgently right now is what happens when the full force of the federal government arrives on my block. I happen to live in a neighborhood in New York City that is half foreign-born.

40:55Given the national tour of Border Patrol, ICE, and sometimes the National Guard, it seems like they could come here. They just closed their operation late last week in Chicago, Operation Midway Blitz. According to DHS, they arrested 5 ,000 people in the Chicago area. Immigration arrests didn't stop after that. They're just not at the rate they've been at in the past two months. We can get some sense from videos on the news and social media about what happened in Chicago. People dragged out of cars, chased into daycares, neighborhoods tear-gassed. But what is it really like to live in a neighborhood like that, day to day?

41:37So we called one of our former colleagues, Michelle Navarro. She grew up on the southwest side of Chicago, a Mexican part of town, and she still lives there. Here's Michelle. She changed some of the names in this story. I've been getting this question a lot. Friends from out of state have been hitting me up, asking me, are you good? They want to know what it's like here. They want to know if the videos and the things they've read are how it's actually playing out. I haven't known what to say. I had to go back through my phone to know what just happened, because it's been hard to remember. I've been scrolling back through my text messages, through the half sentences I wrote in my notes app, the videos I saved on my phone.

42:19I need them to remember my own life, because I don't even know. They launched Operation Midway Blitz in early September. That is when they started to bounce between neighborhoods. Back of the Yards, Brighton Park, Gage Park, Little Village, Pilsen, Little Village, and Back of the Yards again. In a little over a week, more than 500 people were detained. It was a free-for-all, a purge. There's no other way to describe it. And when they take people, they vanish. They're out as a family at Millennium Park on a Sunday. They're waiting for the bus, taking the trash out, selling tamales. Then, men in ski masks and mismatched tactical gear appear.

43:02And then, they're gone. My phone is like a catalog, an archive of how we try to keep living our lives. This is what I found. Scrolling back to the early days, to when they started grabbing people from the street, there's a text confirming my nail appointment at Jessica's Nail Spa. Wednesday, September 17th, 2025, 5.30pm. See you soon, Michelle Navarro. I remember that day. That weekend, I was hosting a party for my roommate's birthday. I'm used to being welcomed to the nail salon with laughter and loud Spanish love ballads. I'm a regular. They usually tease me. Let me guess. Red? Square tip? But this time, when I approached the salon and I pulled on the door to find it locked, I watched their heads lift in unison.

43:54I saw relief when they realized it was just me. I know all the women who work here. We usually ask each other about work, about boyfriends, about family. This time we didn't. We waited, as we always do now, to see who was going to bring it up first. It was them. They tell me they think about it all day. They heard ICE was spotted in the Marshalls parking lot that morning, about a block over, where they often leave their cars. It's where they must walk to after work. I asked my Neltec, Sara, about her daughter and her son in hopes of something lighter. She begins to tell me a story about her son's elementary school.

44:35She says that during class, kids could hear the screams of someone being taken right outside of the school building. The school administration later wrote to those parents that someone, not connected to the school, was detained outside by federal agents. They reassured parents that students would be safe in class and that parents would be safe at drop-off and pick-up. But the next day, out of about 30 kids in her son's class, only three showed up. She stops filing my nails. She looks up at me. What do you think I should do? Should I send them to school? For that moment, I imagine she's my mother, that I'm her eight-year-old son, seeing masked, militarized men taking her away.

45:20I tell her, if you're scared, don't take them. The following morning, while I'm getting ready for work, I wonder if she's dressing her children for school, or if she plans to take my unqualified advice. It's all I can think of for the rest of the day. The most surprising thing about masked men running around your neighborhood and terrorizing your people is realizing that the world doesn't stop. You still have to clock in for your job. You still need groceries. You still have to make small talk.

45:58Another text I found on my phone with a guy from Hinge. October 22nd. He wants to get coffee in Pilsen this weekend. but we're having trouble finding a time that works. He works at a factory nearby. He texts me that ICE agents are outside his job, and he's covering for co-workers without papers. He keeps having to change the time. I tell him, no worries. He texts. They're just grabbing people and waiting for people to leave work. So now we're telling the night shift to stay home. I hate it here. We never met up that weekend.

46:39Everyone is talking about rules, but there doesn't seem to be any. Our mayor, organizers, and legal advocates have said that ICE and Border Patrol can't do a number of things. They can't go on private property. They can't go on city property. They can't throw tear gas in our neighborhoods, right outside of people's homes. But they continue to do so. Four days after the start of this operation, they shoot and kill a man in Franklin Park. Not long after, just two miles from where I live, they shoot a woman five times. The Department of Homeland Security keeps talking about people who broke the law, who are here illegally, who committed crimes.

47:20But they target all of us, anyone who is brown, anyone who speaks Spanish or just lives here. If you get picked up, you could spend a day or a week in detention. So we can't let people outside by themselves anymore. Even those of us with papers, with legal status, are on high alert. They roll up on us in parking lots, on people's front yards, outside of schools, and ask, Are you from here? Are you from here? Other moments from my phone. On October 4th, there's a video from my friend Bianca. We've all been friends since sixth grade. Bianca's a realtor now. She's in her car, in between showings.

48:03She says, Guys, this is so sad. Families who I sold houses to last year are calling me now, asking me to put those same houses back in the market. They're heading back to Mexico. A home in the United States was a dream they finally realized. They were just crying of happiness not that long ago, she says, and now they have to let it go.

48:31October 25th. An invite to Gabby's annual Halloween party. She called it a Halloween to remember. After a few hours into the party, I look around and ask where Yasmin is. Gabby looks at me. Yasmin can't come out right now. Oh shit, I forgot. She's undocumented. I felt so stupid. I felt so careless. Before the end of the party, Gabby makes sure each guest leaves with a goodie bag, which contains two pieces of chocolate, Skittles, a whistle you can wear around your neck, and a small home-printed booklet instructing you on what to do when you spot ice. Form a crowd. Stay loud, the cover says. Code 1.

49:15Ice nearby. Blow in a broken rhythm. Pre, pre, pre. This alerts the community that ice agents are in the area. Code red. Blow in a continuous steady rhythm when ice is attaining someone. The last page reads, Protect each other. Always. Happy Halloween, I guess.

49:45I look back at my call log. There's a list of calls in quick succession one day at 1.26pm. To my mom, and then to her neighbors. I remember exactly what these calls are. I'd seen a post that ICE was two blocks away from my parents' house. I called my mom. I know, she said. There was nonstop honking about 20 minutes ago. That's a thing now. People honking to alert everyone that ICE is right here. And cars follow behind them until they can't. Where's dad? I asked. He's working. My dad calls me later on his way home from work. I tell him our neighbors are safe. Then I say, Dad, you can't go to the swap meet anymore.

50:27The owner had said he wanted to keep people safe, but he didn't. More than 20 federal agents took 15 people. That's my dad's spot. It's where he goes for random parts and hardware. But I told him no more Swaporama. He agreed he'd find a different place to do his shopping. October 20th. Ice got to my dad anyway. There's a text from my sister at 10.46 a.m. Ice jumped out on Luis. I don't know who he's with. Luis is my sister's husband, and he works landscaping with my dad. I wrote in all caps. Where, right now? My mom messages me. La migra le llegó a tu papa. My dad was shoveling someone's front lawn.

51:16When he looked up from his shovel, ice was right there. The agent's just a few feet away. Four cars stood in the middle of the street. One of the agents gripped his co-worker's shoulder. Do you all have papers? They all said they did. They think that because no one tried to run, the agents let them continue working. So they did. Going back through these messages now, I forgot how mad I got at my sister. I was alarmed. My sister seemed to move on quickly when she learned Luis and my dad were fine, which I found annoying. I kept asking her, where are they now? Are they together? Had they called the rapid response hotline to report ICE presence in the neighborhood?

52:00Taken down license plate numbers? Or makes and models of the cars? Information that could help other people at risk in the area. My sister texts, I am telling you what I know. I am working, and they are working. I don't know how much communication you think I'm getting. My reply? Bro, this is a stop work matter.

52:29Five weeks into the operation, I saw a cheap flight out of Chicago to New York. I decided to take it, get away for a few days. Part of me felt guilty for leaving. Part of me felt like I should take the chance before it got worse. I spent the weekend with my friends in their living rooms, going on walks, to dinner. Nothing about their lives had changed. It was unsettling. I told them how my body tenses up now when I hear a long car horn. How I look into car windows for masked agents. And that when we get a community alert reporting ice on our phones, we think of every person we know who lives or works around there.

53:07How we text and call immediately. or show up, worried that the other person won't be there. I told them that I was in a special case, that this is what everyone I know feels. Outside of Chicago, it was easier to answer the question, what it's like there. From outside, I could see how much we've adapted, how different everything is now, how extreme things have gotten. It's what I could see going back through my phone, that this thing has bled into every single corner of our daily lives. our commutes, our jobs, our families, our dates and parties, and every single conversation. One last moment I found going through my phone.

53:50A text from my relative. She wanted me to know that Ice was at the corner by the pizzeria where our cousin works. My cousin is the last one in my family who hasn't gotten his papers. I jumped off the train and took one going the other way. I ran down the street. If Ice was here, then I had just missed them. my cousin had recently told his mom my aunt that if they ever came in and took him it'd be all right with him i'm not running he'd said don't say that she responded she was upset that he had brought it up my mother is upset by this too she told me the story over the phone let him have his peace i told her perhaps he was just trying to prepare his mother and himself for something he couldn't control.

54:38Let him have that. I stood outside the pizzeria that day, catching my breath. I peered through the glass until I caught a glimpse of him in the back of the kitchen. I waved and pretended I was only walking by. For once, I avoided the conversation completely, for my sake and for his. And I think we both felt relieved.

55:10That story was from Michelle Navarro. She's a writer and a producer on CityCast Chicago, a daily news podcast. It was edited by Hannah Jaffe-Walt.

55:36We just have a few minutes left in the show. We'll leave you with one last story. Act three, come Mr. Cab Driver, won't you turn that music up? It comes from comedian Muhannad Elshaki, who found himself trapped in an uncomfortable mystery in the backseat of a cab. Most recently, I decided I need to work more on my small talk. So I was like, you know what, if I do take a Lyft or an Uber next time, I'm going to talk to the driver. I'm going to find a topic and I'll run with it. And I get into this man's car. And like two minutes in, he starts playing music. And every song he played was something I really liked.

56:17So I was like, I got to let him know. So after each song, I would say, dude, this is a great song. Or I'd say, oh, wow, look at that. He's doing it again. And I did that for a while, like 20 minutes of me doing that. and that man did not respond to me once. Like, I'm a man on a mission, I'll get to him. But then I swear to God, the music stops, and the thing he starts playing next was my stand-up comedy on the speakers, and I've never been more terrified in my life. Because I was like, I didn't even check if this was my car or not. Like, I left the building, and I was like, this seems completely fine, and I got in.

56:57So I had to check in from the back, and I was like, hey, man, hi, do you know who this is? And he was like, what? I was like, the guy doing stand-up on the speakers. Do you know who that is? And he was like, no. And I was like, well, it's me. And he replied, well, that's good for you. I was like, oh, you're kidnapping me and gaslighting me? This is crazy. And then I really thought something bad was about to happen. But then he drove me to the location I gave him. And I did say that out loud. I was like, oh, this is the location I gave you. And he was like, yeah, that's how this usually works. And I was like, dude, not to be rude or anything, but like, are you fucking with me?

57:38What is this? What is going on tonight? And he was like, what? I was like, are there cameras around? Is this going to be on like YouTube or something? What is going on? And he was like, sir, I just want you to leave my car. And I was like, oh, I'm the crazy person here. Oh, I see how it is. Okay, I'm the weird. Just so you know, whatever this is, you got me. This will haunt me for the rest of my life. I will never forget you. Is that what you want? And then I started leaving the car. I took my backpack and then I pulled my phone out of the charger.

58:26Which, you know, as some of you know, doubles as an aux cord. sometimes. So it's been my phone connected to the speakers this whole time. And now there's a guy in New York City who thinks I'm an absolute psychopath. Because what happened was I got into this man's car, this stranger's car, and I played my own music for 20 minutes. And then after each song that I played,

59:02I said, what a great song, man.

59:07Oh, look at that. He's doing it again.

59:13And then I played my own stand-up. And then I said, hey, man, excuse me. Do you recognize the voice? Yes, your boy right here. It is me. You're getting a good deal here. I'll tell you that. People usually pay to hear this voice. You're getting this for free? Are there cameras around? Is this going to be on YouTube where it belongs? I surely hope so. I have not talked to people since, so I think this is it for me. You guys have been an amazing crowd. Thank you so much. Have a good night.

59:52Muhened El Sheikhi is currently on tour to see where he's performing next. Check out his website, MuhanadElShakey.com.

1:00:27Well, this episode was produced by me. The other people who helped put together today's show include Thea Benin, Michael Kamite, Manuel Jochi, Suzanne Gabber, Sophie Gill, Tobin Lowe, Miki Meek, Catherine Raimondo, Stowe Nelson, Adia Raymond, Marisa Robertson-Texter, Anthony Roman, Ryan Rummery, Francis Swanson, Christopher Swatala, Lily Sullivan, Julie Whitaker, and Diane Wu. our managing editor, Sara Abdurahman, our senior editor, David Kestenbaum, and our executive editor is Emmanuel Berry. Special thanks to Mark Fleming, Maria Roman Garcia, Belle Woods, Jen Tonks, Maria Stein-Marrison, Aaron Mahalitz, and the second graders at Manitou School.

1:01:13Our website, thisamericanlife.org. Please consider supporting the show as a This American Life partner. You'll get bonus episodes. I did one. Add free listening and more. To join, go to thisamericanlife.org slash lifepartners. That link is also in the show notes. Our episode, The Hand That Rocks the Gavel, was just selected by Apple as one of the best podcast episodes of 2025. That episode is all about immigration judges who almost never speak to the press. If you missed it, check it out. It was released September 21st. This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.

1:01:59Ira is out this week, but ever since I told him about the mystery box, he's been leaving me voice messages. What is it? What is it? What is it? And to reward you all for enduring the mystery, we have a special guest to announce the contents of the box, Mr. Tori Malatia. Will you tell the people what's in the box? What's in the box? Your mama. It's a bottle of Advil. I'm Ike Sreeskandaraja. Ira Glass will be back next week with more stories of this American life. My heart's in pain, can't do a drug on thing. I gotta know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can't help myself, I gotta know, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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