Apologies Accepted

Billy Porter: Saying Sorry With Styles

Harry Styles found himself in a bit of hot water with Billy Porter.  Harry had posed on the cover of Vogue, in a dress, and Billy was pretty angry over all the praise Harry was receiving.  Billy said some things that he later apologized for, explaining that all he’d ever received was scorn for wearing women’s fashion, but here comes a handsome straight white guy in a dress and the whole world swoons over how brave Harry Styles is.  Billy set the record straight (pun and it stays) explaining that it wasn’t right to be mad at Harry, instead he is angry at a culture that takes trends from black queer people and then never acknowledges their contributions.

Is that true (yes, yes it is) and what is it about clothing and gender anyway?  This episode considers the history of laws around gender and clothing, drag queens, and what it means to be gender-queer – and of course at the life of one Mr. Fantastic Billy Porter (all hail!) who is all dressed up with everywhere to go.

MOVE: Philly Holds a Grudge

MOVE was a quasi-political organization that began in the 1970s.  Ex-members say it is a cult, current members say it is a peaceful back-to-nature movement meant to reunited mankind with the natural world.  In 1978 the City of Philadelphia said it was a terrorist organization that needed to be dealt with, and the city did just that with 400 cops, tanks, bulldozers, hand grenades, and guns.  An officer died and nine members were sent to jail based on the forensic work of the police.  In 1985 Philly came back to settle the score with MOVE, this time with bombs.  An entire city block was lost to fire, which was allowed to rage uncontrolled for hours.  11 MOVE members died in the bombing, 6 adults and 5 children.  61 homes were destroyed by the fire.

Did MOVE have a reason to distrust the police?  What started it all and how did a group of peaceful back-to-the-earth naturalists find themselves at odds with the Philly PD? 

Salem: Witches Everywhere!

It’s our Halloween special!  One summer in 1692 some village girls began behaving strangely.  Witches were the only explanation and so began one of the darkest periods in early American history – The Salem Witch Trials.  200 people were sent to jail and 20 were killed by public execution.  The Witch Trials lasted about a year, and seemingly stopped just as suddenly as they had started.  The big question has always been: why?  Why did a group of young girls accuse grown adult women of attacking them with witchcraft?  Why did Harvard educated adult men convict innocent women and men (and two dogs) of being in league with the devil?  Historians, social scientists, writers, and scholars have examined this event and offered clues which reflected the social issues happening in their own eras – but maybe after 329 years enough time has gone by for us to clearly see the truth behind the issues that sparked the most famous witch-craze in American history?

Award Show: Winners Everywhere

Our first season draws to a close and our big take away – there are a lot of apologies out there!  So we are going above and beyond as we highlight the most notable and give awards to some really deserving apologies.  Not every apology earns an award, but each one was already a winner for having been a show episode.

 

Although it’s the end of season 1, have no fear - we’re marching straight into season 2 with a whole bunch of new apologies and a lot of swear words (sorry, moms)!

Skinwalker Ranch: Paranormal Paradise

Totally planned and absolutely *not* by accident, our Spooky October Month-Long-Spectacular continues with an episode about Skinwalker Ranch, a ranch in Utah owned by a billionaire who wants to study the paranormal.  Before that, the ranch was owned by a different billionaire who was studying flying saucers.  Before that, it was owned by a nice ranching family who did not care for UFOs or the paranormal, they just wanted to raise some cattle in peace and quiet – not have to fight off scary monster-wolves and deal with UFOs. All. Of. The. Time. Every. Day.

Our apology this episode comes from a hiker who accidentally seems to have wandered into a Skinwalker’s lair…and he wants to go back and apologize for trespassing.

Skinwalkers are creatures from Navajo folklore, they are Navajo witches who can assume any shape they want.  In the ancestral lands of the Native American Ute peoples, the most popular Skinwalker form seems to be a large hungry, angry wolf. 

It is said that Skinwalkers are seen at the ranch – but not just Skinwalkers!  No.  Also flying saucers.  And lots of other strange and scary beings.  The ranch has been studied for nearly 20 years, the two billionaire owners have each employed teams of scientists to observe and record occurrences at the ranch.  There are books, and podcasts, TV shows, magazine articles, and probably video games (sure, why not?!).  It seems like the real mystery behind Skinwalker Ranch is not the paranormal but rather, when will the Summer blockbuster movie be released?

UFOs: The Truth is Still Out There

We take our second deep dive into the topic of UFOs and government cover-ups! 

On March 13, 1997 a huge flying object was reported by thousands of people across Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Sonora, Mexico.  The air force scrambled fighter jets to investigate.  Local and national news stations covered the event, which became known as “The Phoenix Lights.”  It was arguably the most important UFO story of the 1990s.

Former Governor Fife Simington (yes that’s a real name) wants everyone to know that he also saw the Phoenix lights that night.  He just didn’t say anything at the time because he did not want to cause a panic.  To help diffuse tensions, he held a news conference where he brought out a guy dressed as an alien (typical gray and not a reptilian because don’t be ridiculous) and everyone laughed. 

Now, 20 years later, Fife is telling anyone who will listen that he is positive it was a UFO and for sure otherworldly.  He’s semi-sorta-kind-of sorry that some people had hurt feelings over the press conference and thought he was making fun of UFOs – but hey you guys it was funny and really I’m like one of the cool kids and I had to protect the city of Phoenix because that was my job and I’m talking about it now so where’s my hero-award?

UFOs: The Truth is Out There

Kevin Day was a radar operator for the Navy and working with the latest and greatest radar and tracking technology onboard the USS Princeton on November 10, 2004.  He was highly trained, highly qualified, and highly respected for his skills – so people took notice when he spotted something on the radar that wasn’t supposed to be there.  He reported it up the food chain because that was his job.  November 10 was an important day, four military pilots were conducting training exercises and the new radar equipment was tracking their flight.  It could just be malfunctioning equipment, but if something was up there that wasn’t supposed to be there, the pilots' lives were potentially at risk.  Kevin had no choice but to report the anomaly and the pilots were directed to try and get a look.  They got more than a look.  All four saw the object with their own eyes, and one of them filmed the object.  They all agreed, whatever it was, it was an unknown object flying and defying the laws of physics (damn you and your laws, physics!).

After reporting the incident, and after the US Government landed a black-hawk helicopter onto the air carrier and flew off with the film, Kevin’s career took a hit.  People made fun of him.  His military commander asked him WTF had he been smoking that day.  The incident followed him and kept him from getting promotions – he was “that UFO guy” and that was all it took for him to be labeled a kook.

Then in 2017, 13 years later, the video was leaked online.  It took the US Government another 3 years to say out-loud that the video was authentic, but they finally did in April of 2020 – in the middle of a global pandemic when the entire world was on fire and everyone was praying that American democracy wasn’t going to collapse under the weight of a giant orange crybaby toddler – so no surprise that people were kind of paying attention to other things.

But Kevin noticed, and he’s here to say he deserves an apology for a decade of abuse and scorn for simply doing his job one day in November 2004…

Note: there are 3 unrelated military observations of UFOs and the link to all 3 videos is here: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/

Mark Samsel: The Devil Made Me Do It

Kansas State Representative Mark Samsel was just having one of those days – he was working as a substitute teacher ($88 a day!), but the kids weren’t listening, and he was stressed, and gay parents were a thing in the world, and God had been talking to him all morning non-stop…so he did what many teachers have dreamed about, he kicked a kid in the groin and called it a day.  Enough already!  Take that, Satan!

Yes, Mark had just had a no good, rotten, very bad day.  So he did what anyone does when they’ve been caught on film doing something wrong, he blamed a bunch of other people and also God but then also not God and then he said “Sorry” with 1,000 words on Facebook that all said it wasn’t his fault.  By the time he faced a judge in a courtroom he’d had some counseling and actually apologized – and we are here to rate the apology and dive deep into the hellscape that is Wellsville, Kansas (Go Eagles!).

Cancel Culture: No Shame, No Game

We've all heard about Cancel Culture - but is it a real thing or just a political tool?  Who gets canceled and why?  Can the canceled be uncanceled?  That's three questions in a row and that's the legal limit so buckle up and get ready for the origins of cancel culture, what it gets right, what it gets wrong, and why we should just ignore the fake drama and try and stay on fleek!

Ellipses: Text Ed

Ellipses is a French publisher specializing in textbooks.  Their 2019 textbook, "The History of the 20th Century in Cards" claimed that the CIA was responsible for 9/11.  It wasn't until a French girl studying for her college exams reported the statement to her father, a high-school history teacher, that anyone seemed to care that a French publisher was accusing the CIA of orchestrating 9/11.  Just as with Joan of Arc, France was once again saved by a young French girl!

Was this a proofreading error, or was someone inserting their personal beliefs into college prep material?  The apology was thorough and the publisher issued corrections, but does that matter?  Join us as we evaluate an apology that seemed to advance a conspiracy theory but in the end - violá - may have been a simple error.