Reply All - #113 Reply All's Year End Extravaganza

Episode Date: December 21, 2017

Our finale for the year! We solve some unsolved mysteries, call up some of our favorite people, and answer questions about stories listeners are still wondering about. Plus many weird surprises.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Goldman. PJ Vote. Fia Bennon. P.J. Vote and Alex Coleman. So you guys remember the hello episode we did last year? Yeah. And in it, you guys took calls for 48 hours. You experienced a lot of misery.

And then at one point, this woman named Laura called. And she just, like, made everything lovely by playing a lot of musical instruments for you and giving you, like, a breather. Yes. It was great. So the way we're going to start today's episode, I have her phone number. We're going to give her a call.

Cool. All right. Hello. Hi, Laura. It's PJ and Alex. Hi. Hi, guys. How have you been?

Good. This is like so strange that you guys are calling me. I'm at Warner Brothers today and we're recording for a movie called Game Night. Really? Hold on. Everyone say hi. Those are famous musicians. I'm at lunch right now.

That's wild. So this is the episode where we catch up with people who we've talked to over the past year or so, and we were wondering if you could play us some tunes on the French horn. Okay. I have to go into the studio. I have to be very quiet. Let's see who's in here.

How are you? You're going to play the French French horn if you're going to be very quiet, if you have to be very quiet. They're going to just think I'm, like, warming up or something. Oh. There's people just, like, we're on our break, so they're just checking their boat. There's not very many people in here. And I have, like, salad in my teeth. Hold on.

I'm going to put you on speakerphone in the studio, okay? Okay. Okay, I'm just going to play my French horn. All right, jam out. Hey, Gary. Can you oompa over there? for my friends. What is an umpah?

You'll see. Ah, umpah. That makes me so happy. This is very embarrassing. Do you still remember the melody for the Reply All song? I sure do. How does that one go? Okay, let's see.

Yeah. From Gimlet, this is Reply All. I'm PJ Vote. And I'm Alex Goldman. And I'm Pia Benin. This is our last episode. the year, and so we are going to solve some of our unsolved mysteries.

We're going to call up some of our favorite people we got to talk to. Update some episodes people still had questions about. We're going to do a bunch of other weird stuff, and then we will take this year and stuff into a garbage can instead of on fire. Perfect. What are we doing first? Okay. First up, episodes 102 and 103, long distance.

PJ. Alex. Remember when I went to India? Yes. That was such a weird intro. Yes. Somebody tried to scam you. And I tried to become their friend.

And that went on for like a year. And then they said in a polite and offhanded way, hey, if you're ever in the, you're free to hang out. And then you took him literally and went there to try to understand like basically like what happens inside a scam call center. Like the businesses that call Americans and pretend. to be Apple Computer and really their scammers. Right. And the company is called Acostings.

A Costings Infotech Private Limited. God, just a great series of words. So what's the news? What's happened? So, I mean, the first thing that happened after the first episode came out is that many of their website shut down. Like they were hiding. Yes.

But what I will say is that people say they are still getting calls like the one that I received. Your iCloud's been compromised. It's a robocall, et cetera, et cetera. Which doesn't necessarily mean that Acostings is doing it. Right. But your reporting didn't, not only did it not destroy the ecosystem, like, obviously, but like people are still doing this. Yes, I definitely did not destroy the ecosystem. But I was curious in the five months since I reported this story, if anything had changed specifically at Acostings. So I decided to call Kamal, who was like the manager of Acostings and the person who I had most of my interaction with.

The guy who you had a long telephone friendship. Telephone relationship. Yeah. And to my surprise, I called his cell phone and he picked up. Which is surprising because your guys' relationship ended in a bad place. It didn't end in a great place. And what did he say? I said, hey, Kamal, it's Alex.

And he was like, what can I do for you? And he said, we're doing our end of the year episode where we update our stories. What's going on with the company? How you doing? And he said, I don't want to participate. Thank you. And he hung up. I'm surprised he got that far.

I am too. I can't believe he picked up. Yeah. So the next thing I did was say, like I wonder if I, me saying the name of their company and their address on the radio, 1,500 times made it enough for them to move. Like are they still above, because they were above headphones, the headphone bar. Mm-hmm. So are they still there? I called headphones. And?

And? And I said, hey, is there like a tech support company above you guys? And the guy who was working there told me it was his first week. and that they had had a party there the night before. The accostings crew? Yeah. I mean, it seems that way. It was the call center above the bar.

Wow. Do they burn an effigy of you? I have no idea. So there's still everything. The world spins. The world spins. The only other thing I have to report is that shortly before the first episode came out, I went to Kamal and said, hey, Kamal, I just want you to know this is what's going to be in the episode.

If you have any complaint about, the way that I'm describing this, now is your chance on the record to clear it up. Yeah. And he wouldn't answer any of my questions, but one of the things he took exception to was me saying that I figured this all out because of the who is records on the websites.

He was like, anybody can put anything they want in the who is records. It doesn't make a difference. What do you think it meant that that was the thing you took objection to? I think he was just trying to give himself plausible deniability. He's like, yeah, someone put a bunch of websites up in the name, you know, Kamal Verma or whatever.

But you don't know it was me. But you don't know what was me. And then, right after the first episode came out, one of the many websites in the constellation of websites associated with the constantings, a place called AMPCSupport.com, changed the registration on the site so that the registrar's name was Alex Goldman. And they put my phone number out there. Wow. I appreciate their cheekiness. Next up, episode 104, the case of the Phantom Quarterm. caller. You remember this one, Alex? The one where you solved what seemed like an impossible mystery.

Yes. I was really impressed with you. Thanks, Alex. Sounded patronizing, meant it sincerely. Yeah, I was trying to figure out. I was like replaying it in my head. So one of the thoughts like that has been kind of lingering in my head since we broadcast that was how basically like whoever is behind those calls. Like their scam is they call people on the phone and then they play them audio and they try to make it that the audio is captivating in a way where the person keeps listening. Right. Anyway, I was thinking about these calls and I was thinking about how the person who's

made them or persons, their job is actually kind of similar to our job. Are you putting out a call to hire them? No, I'm not putting out a call to hire them. So I had a different idea, actually. Hmm, disappointing. I wanted to see if you and I could come up with better spooky calls because we're professionals. And like our job is to make audio interesting.

So I'm thinking like, okay, we're going to have a competition. Both of us gets to go home tonight and try to make the best spooky call that we can. First thing tomorrow morning will come in and we will call people we know and see which one, which of these spooky calls keeps people on the line for the longest. How do you feel about that? And we're competing. Yes. You worried?

Yes. Really? Yeah. Why? I'm worried because so much of what we do is implicitly framed as competition. To explicitly frame it as competition is just going to be you being like, well, I won, I won. And I'm already assuming that I've lost. Wow.

I mean, I assume you're going to lose, too, but I don't think you would. Who are we going to call? Have you worked this out? Yes. I know who we're going to call, but I'm going to tell you guys when you come back tomorrow. Okay. This is such a weird idea. Do you have an idea of what feeling you're going to?

you're going to try to give the person your calling? I mean, I can't think of anything other than deeply unsettling. I want to give someone a deeply unsettling feeling. You do it for me all the time. So tomorrow morning, we'll make some phone calls. Sounds good. Okay. Hi, PJ.

Okay, so. It's sensational to see you and hear from you. It's sensational to see you as well. We've had time to build our own spooky calls. I'm very curious what comes from the mind of Alex Goldman. Well, I don't know how good I feel about this. You feel good about it. Here's what happened.

You told me on Monday night, you said, okay, come back tomorrow with a spooky call. So I woke up at 5 in the morning. I dragged a bunch of extension cords into my attic. Extension cords? Because I needed to plug a bunch of things in. Oh, this is already weird. And I tried to make a spooky call. I took some lessons from the episode, and hopefully I incorporated them in a way that...

And what was your theory about in the... What did you feel like the spooky caller was doing right that you wanted to emulate? Tell me about your work. I wanted it to feel like there might be a thread to follow here, but it's unclear what it is. Right, like tell a little bit of the story. Okay. All right, here we go. Okay.

What? We're here? Look, all I'm saying is what if you're wrong? Then what? Just imagine a scenario in which you could be wrong. It could be pretty serious, like it could be a big deal. Oh, it's so weird. Remember that's Harvey?

Yeah. Oh, this gives me the stomach ache feeling. Just listen to me first. I'm trying to help. It sounds like all the years of a divorce happening at the same time. Like time slipped. What are the sounds? Oh man.

You want to wait? Yeah. It's gonna take a long time. It's gonna take like, I don't blame you. Oh, God, I hate this so much. It's stressing me out so bad. I know, I'm just trying to, I'm trying to talk to you. Trying to talk to you about this.

Not a big deal. Oh, okay. Enough. Enough. You want to wait a long time? No more. Is this fun? Please stop.

Please stop. Stop. I listened, too. Like, even knowing that it was a trap, I fell into it. My thought was, like, a half-heard conversation between a father and son would be, would be, like, tantalizing kind of. And then I also pretended to be having, like, half of a phone conversation over it. Wow, which is, like, a fighty conversation.

Which is, like, a fighty, unpleasant conversation. And then what are all the weird swirly sounds? There's a little bit of drony synthesizer in there. and then the sort of like echoey banging is I turned the reverb all the way up on my amplifier and then just grabbed it and dropped it on the floor. Alex, you're good at making sound art. Okay, do you want to hear mine?

Yes. Okay, I'm very impressed with yours. This is fun. It feels like arts and crafts for creeps. Okay. You ready? Yes. Would you hold on this minute, please?

Yeah, his lefty there? He's across the street. left, see? Putting a lion in the truck. He got the lion in the truck? Yeah, they gotta get rid of the lion. I know, who's he gonna give it to? He wanted to, you know what you wanted to do?

He's crazy. What is this? Mobster wire taps. It's a conversation about a mobster getting their lion confiscated from a lot. A lion in a chain, imagine that? Yeah. There's no question about it. If you get somebody to give it to?

What was that? That's whale song. That's whale song. from underneath the body. Mad on. Maron. Now, another thing that crotch down where your nuts hang is always a little too tight.

So when you make them up, give me an inch that I can let out there. What is this? It's Lyndon Johnson ordering trousers. It's just like riding a wire fence. These are almost the best that I've had. How do you get that? It just exists. Let's see if you can't leave me about it.

An age from where the zipper ends, around under my, back from my bunghole. All right, then. So I can let it out there if I need to. What the fuck? It's just the guy with the bunghole who wants his pants to fit. And if you get those to me, I would sure be grateful. I don't like Lyndon Johnson because of this.

Okay. How long is yours total? Five minutes, I think. Mine is 11, but that's really optimistic. Okay, so now we are going to pit your calls against each other. It is time for spooky caller face off. I am going to call the parents of people on their reply-all team. They have no idea we're calling.

And we'll see who stays on the phone the longest. Sound good? Yes. First up, PJ, we're going to try your recording on Alex's mom. Okay. How long do you think your mom will stay on? 45 seconds. That's a lot.

Hello. Would you hold on this minute, please? Hello. Maybe we overestimated our ability to be riveting. Now, Alex, you're calling Tim's dad. Hello. What? We're here?

Look, all I'm saying is what if you're wrong? Then what? Hello? Just imagine a scenario on what you could be wrong. And now, my mom. Hello? We're here? Look, all I'm saying is what if you're wrong?

Then what? Just imagine a scenario in which you could be wrong. It could be pretty serious, like it could be a big deal. Hello? Are you there? Hello? What's coming? It's not going to come for a while, Harve. Are you willing to wait?

What Alyssa can I see is that whole time that was happening, you were fist pumping in the air. That was 30 seconds. Jesus. All right, it's time for our last call. PJ, your time to beat is 30 seconds. Okay. So for this one, we're calling Alex's dad. Got it.

Hello? Hold on this minute, please. Hold on for what? Yeah, his lefty there? Who? He's across the street lefty. He's a lion in the truck. All right.

I think you made it about six seconds, but he actually responded to it. Oh, God. That felt really good. All right. Okay, so clocking in at 30 seconds, tricking my mom and winning this, Alex Coleman.

I'm the king of creepiness. I'm the king of creepiness. Got a real spookiness. I'm the king of creepiness. I hate to get it to you, but I do think you're the king of creepiness. I'm a little creepy boy creeping around. Nice job.

Okay, so next episode is episode 84. And I think one of my favorite people that we talked to for this episode was Susan. I remember Susan. Yeah. Susan called us, it was last, past, present, future. She was the best. So a year ago. A year ago.

And it was that we were talking about, like, things people were looking forward to in the next year, I think. And she called in because a bunch of her friends had started a soap company. Well, she called in because she'd had, like, just a miserable year. Oh, yeah. She'd had, like, the toughest year ever. She'd, like, gotten a divorce. she had ended up having to move into this like freezing cold airstream trailer. And so it was just sort of like good riddance to 2016.

And then the thing she was looking forward to, yeah, was that like she had this group of friends that had started a soap company. It was like going kind of rocky and she was worried about them, but she really wanted it to work out. They were a Muslim. It was like right after Trump was elected. She felt like worried for them basically. Yeah.

I think the soap company is okay because. I know Alex keeps ordering soap from them. But I actually, like, over the past year, I keep wondering about her. I keep wondering how she's doing now. So, do you want to give Susan a call? Yeah, let's do it. Hello? Hey, Susan, it's Alex and PJ.

How's it going? Hello. How are you? I'm okay. How are you? I'm good. It's nice to hear your voice. What have you been up to for the past year?

Oh, gosh. Oh, dear. Well, I said to warn you that this is a lot. as I get on the phone, my dog makes noises, so you might hear my dog. I got a dog. There's something. That sounds pretty good. You'd seem like 2016 wasn't the best year for you. I'm wondering if you're in a better place. Well, I'm getting to a better place. I'm quite literally in the same place. I'm still in this airstream trailer, believe it or not. Really? Yes. Well, I did at least. managed to buy the airstream outright.

I own my own home. Good work. So last year we asked you what you had to look forward to in 2017, and now I'm interested to know what you're looking forward to in 2018. But one thing that I'm looking forward to is I've decided to very actively embrace winter in Indiana. What does that look like? Well, what it means is, okay, so the sky is the color of a blank sheet of paper, and it makes me want to die inside. But it also means that owls are much easier to stop.

So I've been getting into owls in a big way. I go out in the woods just about every day, and there's one owl in particular who I see almost every day in her tree. and I named her Beatrice and I visited her, but not too close. But I've been collecting owl pellets. I bet you don't know what that is. No, I don't. Well, they can't digest the fur and the bone of these little animals that they eat and they cough up these compact, tidy little perfect pellets.

And they're impossible to find. It's like finding the Hope Diamond if you find one. I found one the other day. I was so excited. And now the three guys are like, are you a witch? What are you up to do? Why do you need these bones? But then at the same time, they also just said, hey, we found you a really cheap-use

toaster oven so you can sanitize your owl pellets. So it's like they're teasing me, but then they're also supporting my weird habit now, too. It's very sweet. Okay, I'm here at my favorite woods. We have tons of parks and stuff And this one is a Kind of a well-kept secret So let's see

I have my My binoculars and my stick And a knife and some mace Because you never know So anyway I'm gonna look for Beatrice My little owl friend And how they stay warm out here It's colder than a witch's tip

The owliest part of the woods. Not only is Beatrice home. She's looking at straight at me, their eyes all the way up. I'm like, what are you doing? Next up, episode 109 is Facebook spying on you. Okay, so Alex. Yes. So in 109, you were trying to figure out if Facebook was listening in on people

using the microphones of their phones so they could show them ads. And we learned two things. One, they're probably not doing that. Two, it's basically impossible to convince anybody who believes that Facebook is doing that, that it's not the case. Like, we opened up the phone lines, and we found out that either people are just not convincedable, or at least they are definitely, like, not convincedable by you. Definitely not by me. You? It was, it was something to behold.

It felt terrible. It was, not to watch. But, like, the most sort of, like, the, like, the, like, real, the part where it, like, completely devolved was this woman Julia called. And her thing was, like, they're listening on it. me, not to give me ads, but to, like, suggest different friends to me. And that, like, the idea that she was asking you a slightly different question for some reason just, like, destroyed you. I have tape of that.

That's true. And it was both of us that got the recommended follow, and you don't get the recommended follows that often. So it's definitely listening to me. PJ's smirking at me because he thinks that I can't answer this. No, I'm just smiling because your face is covered in flop sweat. And you're absolutely right that I can't answer this one. because ad targeting and the people you may know,

data sets are totally separate. I haven't been researching this. I have no idea. I can't answer this one. I do think it tells you, though, that the microphone is definitely listening. PJ can't keep it together. He's losing his mind.

He thinks this is so funny. I just think it's funny because Alex had a lot of confidence. He would have all the answers. And be able to explain to me. That feels bad to listen. back to. Yeah. Why did you say it like you're enjoying listening back to it?

No, I felt bad. But since that episode has aired, I have learned more about how Facebook recommends friends to people in the way that it recommended them to Julia. And I feel like I can confidently call her back and explain what is going on in this situation. Okay, let's call her. Hello? Hey, Julia, it's Alex and PJ. Hey.

We're back. Julia, last time you called, things didn't go great as far as me convincing you. But I'm back and I'm armed with more information and I think I can convince you that Facebook is not listening to you. Okay. Well, I had a conversation after the episode aired and I also have an alternate non-microphone theory. But I would like to know why you think this happened to me. Wait, I'm curious about this other theory. So what is it?

So this was the theory that both me and my friend had either Instagram or Facebook open and had location services turned on for at least one of them. And Facebook could see that we were both in the same place and, like, we're therefore actually very good friends and would have way more things in common than sort of like your average two users who may be Facebook friends but are never physically in the same place. Because basically they would have been able to say, okay, we know your friends, we know your close friends, and we know, like, that you're in a friendship circle

that includes all these other people who are friends with this guy that you're not friends with. So now we're going to suggest him to you? Yeah. That seems incredible to me. Yeah, that does seem credible. Seems like that could be it, but, like, that still sucks. Oh, it totally still sucks.

Well, I have another idea about how Facebook would know to recommend this guy to you, and it comes from Kashmir Hill, who's a reporter at Gizmodo? Oh, I read the shadow profile story, which also contributed to this theory a little bit. But tell me more. Alex, does the person we're talking to know less than you do about this,

or the same amount or more? I would say Julian knows about as much. But yeah, sorry. So sorry. Alex, tell me more. What do you think? Oh, this is so humiliating. But PJ doesn't know.

Uh-huh. So PJ will learn something. Okay. So in addition to knowing a ton about you based on your Facebook profiles, Facebook also has a set of information that they used to target your friends to you that Cashmere calls a shadow profile. And like as the only person apparently in this conversation that doesn't know what a shadow profile is, what's a shadow profile? Basically what it is is, okay, so you set your, you set your, you set. set Facebook up on your phone or on your computer and it says like hey we want to find friends for you

why don't we go through your contact list and we'll find friends for you uh-huh it will take all of that information like it basically just hoover's up your phone book but it keeps that information and anytime someone else adds their their phone book their address book to uh facebook and there's a new piece of information it adds that new piece of information to its database so like even if i didn't give Facebook, my home address, if you have my home address and it's in your phone book and you synced your contacts, they now know my home address. Exactly. Got it.

The fact that Facebook knows, Facebook figures out the connections based on who has who in its address book. There might be like a third person who has this guy and both Julia and her friend in the address book. And it's like, oh, well, there's only like one degree of separation between these two people and this guy. Let's give this person to them as a person they might know. Okay.

So, Julia, was there a particular reason that you were talking about him? Not really, no. It was like, I think her friend has started dating one of his friends, and she was like, oh, like, I ran into him the other night. It was so weird. And I was like, I haven't seen him in 10 years. That's so crazy. But her friend is dating one of his friends would be a thing that maybe Facebook would know about. would be like shadow profile information.

True. Yes. Like they're sort of like, they can tell that his social circle is inching a little bit closer to yours. And so they're like, hey, what about this guy? You want to be friends with him? Or you want to follow him on Instagram? Very true. It sounds like perhaps like you have convinced yourself that Facebook is not spying and you using its microphone.

Yeah. Well, I will say this. I still think it is possible. But on a scale of 1 to 10, like, how likely do you think that it is? I would maybe say I'm at a 3. I think it is still a possibility. But I do think there are other things Facebook knows and, like, is listening in on while not necessarily actually listening in on. And would you say, I mean, so you felt a 1,000 percent before and now you feel like a 3 out of 10.

Was Alex pretty helpful as far as... kidding you from the one to the other? Yes, sure. Well, look, someone convinced someone, I'm going to just go ahead and chuck it out as a victory. So obviously, one of the people that we wanted to check in with and get an update from is a Freakmaster cylinder. The mysterious person who does a lot of the music,

including the theme song for a show, even though they are currently trapped in space with no internet. With no internet, we asked them for an update. This is what we got. I reply all. 2017's been wildly hailed as a sad sack of crap, so I've traveled back to 1902,

where the future is looking bright for white men. And I hear next year, will I be getting a movie theater and scarlet feeder? And it's Scott. Here to kill me, so I'm on my way. I'm headed to New York. I'm going to bury this tape right

where the Gimlet building sits in 2017. I hope you'll be fine. Now it's time for the lightning round. Are you sure? I am completely sure. Okay. Are you guys ready? Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, so I'm going to put a minute on the clock. You guys are going to take turns, providing updates. It's who has more updates within a minute. Okay. Do you want to flip a coin to see who goes first? Yeah, that seems right. Fia, do you approve of that?

Yeah, I'm okay with that. What kind of coin do you have? I have a quarter. Call it in the air. Heads. Tails. So who goes first? You get to decide. I'm going to say you go first.

Okay, cool. I've got a minute on the clock. On your mark. Get set. PJ, go. Okay, you remember that whole story about how scientists are trying to figure out how to contact aliens? Yes. They have a new theory, which is that the aliens may be out there, but hibernating.

Huh. You know, the Grand Tapestry of Pepe, where the alt-right took over this frog-up frog cartoon character. Matt Fury, the creator of Pepe, has sent cease and desists to a bunch of places who are using it, including the Donald's subreddit, and he actually filed a lawsuit against the guy who wrote an Islamophobic children's book starring Pepe. As part of the settlement, the guy had to donate all of his profits to the Council on Islamic American Relations.

Go ahead. Okay. The Phantom Caller switched to silent calls for a while, but no one really knows what's going on. post that story. Breena, from the Black Hole, New Jersey episode, who got her watch taken by scammers, some benevolent person got her a new Apple watch. Ennis Cantor, the basketball player, who got sort of owned on Twitter. He lost his checkmark, but then was giving it back, and he doesn't know why. The guy who went into Comet Pingpong, the Pizza Gate Pizza Place with a gun, got sentenced

to four years in jail. Seems reasonable. temporary protective status visas, the thing that the guy had in Skip Tracer. Trump has shut that down for people from Haiti and Nicaragua, and this month he's supposed to announce whether or not he's going to shut down for people. from El Salvador. Longmont Potion Castle came out with three new albums this year. The dog rights, the dog rating account. There's now a Brent and Brandt character in the new Sims expansion,

who I think are married to each other. So you know how Facebook follows you everywhere you go around the internet? Safari recently came out with an update that allows you to just block that right in the browser and you never have to worry about it again. Do you have any more? No, I'm done. Oh, Flash the Tortoise. It's doing fine still.

Time. I think I beat him every single way you could count, actually. He talks slower than you. That doesn't help you win. Alex, it's okay. Second place is like the first loser. It actually doesn't have to be a competition. It could just be a fun thing where we shout stuff at each other as fast as we can,

and I just happen to shout it slower because I talk slow. So it would be a together race? Yeah. It'd be like going for a jog? It would be, think of it as like a potato sack race where we're both in the potato sack and we're bouncing around together. Have you ever been a potato sack? race. But it doesn't have, it could be fun.

It could be like a thing where you're like, oh, we learn to work together and we're both better as a result. Thank God we live in this potato sack together. And also then against two. You don't know what a potato. A potato sack race is not people who live in a potato sack. You said our whole working experience could be like a potato sack race. And you also said it could be non-competitive like a potato sack race, which to me makes

you think that you just think when two people love each other, they live in a potato sack. Your metaphor for collaborating is a potato sack race. Right, which is like a thing where people are uncomfortably thrown into a hot sack. And they fall over. And they do their best to work together to win the race. Why is it hot? Why is the potato sack? I just think of it as like a thing you do in a hot day, like a field day.

I can't, I feel like I'm being ganged by. I feel like you're going to confess to a murder in like three seconds. Like you're so losing it. I didn't want to, okay? But they wouldn't... He wouldn't help me win the race. I kept falling over, and he wouldn't cooperate. Next up, episode 88, second language.

Okay, so second language was about this guy, Eric Follore. Eric has pretty advanced ALS. He communicates through a computer that tracks his eye movements, but he's able to get a lot done, including... He actually helps with ALS research. He sent us this recording about what he's up to. Hi, sorry for the delay.

The only real update worth mentioning is that after some unavoidable delays my latest drug research project is coming to a head. The next month is the critical one where we find out if my theory is sound. I am hoping Santa brings me 24 wiggling mouse noses. So far they appear to be in good shape but the disease is a little bit like falling off a cliff, when they go they go fast. Needless to say, I would be biting my fingernails if my arms and hands worked. Eric Valor, he also told us that he now has a podcast, which you can find on his website. That's Ericvalor.org, V-A-L-O-R. What's going to happen in the future?

What's in the future? Okay, so in last week's episode, we asked people to call in because we wanted to hear their predictions for the future. we are now going to take those calls. Are you ready? I am. Hello. Hello? Hi.

Who's this? This is Callie Burke from Florida. Where in Florida? So I'm currently at Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida, about an hour east of Orlando. Wait, you're at the Space Center? Yes, I am your rocket science fan or one of them. Oh, did we talk to you before? You have talked to me before.

How's it going over there in rocket science? Things are going well. What do you got for us in 2018? I'm launching a rocket to Mars. What? Done. You win. No more calls.

You're launching a rocket to Mars? Yes. So say more. So the Insight mission is a Mars lander. It's going to measure Marsquakes because they have those. Great. It's not an earthquake. I was going to be like, don't they just call the Mars?

earthquakes? They call Mars cakes is what I've heard. I'm not a scientist. My job is to make sure that the spacecraft is dropped off the right place and it can get itself to Mars from there. And then how long does it take to get to Mars? So it's going to land on November 26th. No matter what day we launch, we'll launch sometime in May or the beginning of June, and then we'll arrive on November 26th. Cool.

Good luck. Thank you. Hey, this is Alex and PJ. What is your prediction for 2018? Okay, wait. First of all, are you a little bit far away from the phone right now? He just hung up. Wow.

He had one message and he made it. I won't be taking any questions. Thank you. A lot of soapbox survey listeners are going to be rattled. Hello? Hello? Hello? Hi, who's this?

This is Michael Avery. Is this PJ? Wow. Wow. And who? And nobody. Hello, Mike Laver. You have great taste and hosts on this show.

Sorry, I just woke up and I've been trying. And I'm such a big fan of the show. Alex Golden is a true hero too. Do you know how many emails I get a week, which are like, Dear PJ and Adam Goldberg, I would just like you to know that I think your show is fantastic. I listen to every episode and I know exactly who you are. PJ and Adam. This is such a golden gripes moment.

I love it. Hello. Hello. Hey. Hey. Who's this? This is Josh. How are you doing?

Good. How are you? Good. I was just calling in from the, I saw the post on Facebook and was calling in. Talking about big things for next year. Yeah. What's your big thing?

What you got? So currently I'm finishing up a 20-year career in the Coast Guard. Whoa. And came in 10 days after high school. but just last week got an offer letter for another government job, being an electronic technician, hopefully for a three-letter agency. When you say a three-letter agency, CIA, FBI, NSA? Yep.

What were your exciting days on the job like? Oh, shit. I was a boarding officer on a speedboat down in the Caribbean, chasing down a 33-foot go-fast full of drugs that we busted. What? That was when I was a kid. like 21. What's a go fast?

A go fast is like a vessel used by narcotic smugglers. And basically their custom built fiberglass boats with a lot of engines. And we had to shoot out its engines and everything. What? They all jumped off the boat. You were shooting out the engines and you were 21? The guy behind me was shooting on the engine. I was the boarding officer.

He was the gunner's mate that was on board. And we couldn't stop the boat and they had jumped out of it. So it wasn't safe to go across. So we had to shoot on the engines in order to shut it down. Hello? to reach is busy and cannot take your call. Please leave a message after the tone. All right, go ahead and hang out.

Wait, I think there's a person there. To end recording. Hello? Hello? Hello? Oh, hi. It just played a message. I think we're somehow on someone's voicemail.

Yeah, I guess this is all recorded. Oh, okay. Who is this? Hi, someone's voicemail. My name's Michelle. Hello. Hey, Michelle. What's going to happen next year?

Well, okay, yeah. So next year, I'm going to be moving across the country to, I think that's the end of someone's voicemail message. Oh, okay. Well, then after my summer job ends, I'll be moving to... Your message has reached its maximum duration. To set your message, press 3 or hang up. To delete your current message and record a new one, press 1.

To listen to your message, press 2. Oh, this is such a mess. I'm worried that if we do anything, it's just going to hang up on you. No, it'll... To repeat this menu, try pressing six. Okay, I'm pressing six. Your message is now marked as urgent.

To send your message, press three or hang up. To delete your current message and record a new one, press one. Your message has been sent. To access the voice portal, press the start key. Okay, I think we have to kill the call and start a new call. Oh, bummer. I'm sorry. What's the summer job?

Say it quick before. It's working for a truck. company out in Portland. And then after that, I'm moving to France. Oh, no. Okay, good luck in France. Bye. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hey. Okay. Thank you. Bye. Hello. Oh, hey. Okay.

Hi. This is Alex and PJ. What is your prediction for 2018? I am a researcher about, like, sexual assault and how students, like college students, handle that. Before this year, it felt honestly it felt like tackling an impossible problem. But this year, we're finally starting to see

accusers that people have known about for decades get punished. And I think in 2018, we're going to see a huge wave of scandals on college campuses revolving around like the way administrations

institutions handle that. And specifically, but don't handle it. I got their mom into it, too, so I have it hidden in her room. So, okay, just to make sure I understand just, like, I want a visual picture of this, your device that you have, it broadcasts to their normal radio. It's just like, it's like you basically have, like, the world's tiniest little pirate radio station, so they can do their normal radio.

Right? It's supposed to be used, yeah, it's supposed to be using cars that don't have, like, oxy cords. And then I hid the radio in their house and just, left it there. And currently it's playing a loop alternating between static and home Christmas videos from the 1980s that I found on YouTube. Okay, Jamie, let's see what you got. How old are you?

I'm 18. So is the thing that you're looking forward to in 2018 just like totally bewildering and frightening your friends? Yeah, I mean, that's one of the things. That's one of the things I'm looking forward to in 2018. But, I mean, the other thing that I was called. about just how you guys is I'm actually planning on coming out as trance next week. Congratulations. Yeah, so that's pretty exciting. I'm looking forward to that.

Thanks to everybody who took the time to call in, dealt with our hold system. Whenever we open up the phone lines, we always end up feeling like the world is filled with way more nice and interesting people than maybe it feels like on the subway right to work. So, thanks. That is our last episode of the year. One last thing before we go, we got some sad news today, which is that Reggie O'Say, who hosted Mogul here at Gimlet, as well as his own podcast, The Combat Jack Show, he died this morning of colon cancer. He was 48. Reggie in real life was actually as great as Reggie in his work. He was extremely funny and extremely smart. And when you would just talk to him like normal outside the studio small talk, he had a kind of curiosity that most people are just not able to have about other people full time. We were really, really lucky to

get to work alongside him, even just for a little bit. And we'll them. Okay, that's it for this show. That's it for this year. We'll be back in January. Thanks for hanging out. Reply is hosted by me, PJ Vote, and Alex Goldman. Our show is produced by Shruti Pinnaminani, Fia Benin, and Damiano Marquetti. Additional production help this week from Krista Ripple and Anna Foley. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Our editor is Tim Howard. Also, next year, Tim is going to be working remotely from Berlin, which means if you're a reporter in Europe who wants to collaborate, you should find him on Twitter. He's at New Tim

Howard. That's new, not nude. We were mixed by Kate Balinski. Our theme music is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. Special thanks this week to Andrew Suddenham, Kashmir Hill, Mia Dalgren, Matt Fury, Matt Farley, Kathleen Sloan, David Steele, Laura Brennis, and Adam Quinn. Matt

Lieber is the day where everybody brings their extra baked goods to the office. You can visit our website at replyall.limo, and you can find more episodes of our show on Spotify or Apple Podcast or wherever you listen. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next year. Actually, we should really figure out what's this box. It's all desert here. If we had a tree or something to drop it from, maybe we could crack it open.

We're in a big jungle. It's awfully quiet, though. Hey, watch what happens when you take a step. You know, there's just something about this planet that feels all right. I can't quite put my finger on it. I said, on it? Since when do you talk like that? This planet is dead sexy. Hey, you lost your virginity to a specific album, right? Fine, I won't tell you mine either. Oh, you're such a poet. I bet yours was like disc two of melancholy and the infinite sadness. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I'd be thrilled if people were getting it onto my music. They may as well just screw to an episode of her play all. I don't know, let's go back. You know that thing Big Floyd did with Wizard of Oz? You can do that with Sweet Caroline in literally all pornography.