This Paranormal Life - #289 The Mongolian DEATH Worm

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

The Gobi desert is one of the most inhospitable places on planet Earth. It's name literally means 'waterless place' in the Mongolian language. When you venture into it's unforgiving dunes, if the heat doesn't kill you, the Mongolian Death Worm will. In this long overdue investigation Kit and Rory dive headfirst into the sand of the Gobi desert to uncover the truth behind one of the world's most famous cryptids. Spoiler alert: it's a lot like the worms in Dune (2021).Stream 'Stories' by Rory Powers https://rorypowers.ffm.to/storiesSupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityIntro music by www.purple-planet.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Louis Blatherwick Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why can't we see air? Can I drink enough poison to make me immortal? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Hello! Hey! And welcome back to This Paranormal Life. This is the weekly comedy podcast where every Tuesday you're joined by me, Kit Greer-Molvena, and Rory Powers, who's sitting across the room from me, in a new room, actually. How are you doing today, Rory? Pretty good, Kit. This is always a weird part of the year for paranormal investigators. When Halloween is over, the spooky season has come to an end, essentially, and we have to enter an even spookier season, Christmas.

Wait, what? I've actually my, my shit back in storage. You're saying I need to get it out again? Well, you need to get something out because any day now, well, not any day, specifically December 25th. It's actually clockwork the way it works.

A fat man is going to come down your chimney with a sack of toys. And if you're trying to tell me that that's not paranormal. He has a list I've heard. Right. Yeah, I i know but how many times does he check it is there is there room for error the jury's actually out on that one we got a few investigators on the case but it's actually yeah we haven't worked that out i'm just saying if you're going to tell me what halloween based creature is a real paranormal cryptid it's's not the Easter bunny. It's certainly not the pumpkins on Halloween. It's the fat man visiting the house of every child in one night.

He should be on a fucking list. Let me tell you. Okay, we're not even going to get into that because that sounds like a lot. It's also slightly early in the year, but as you mentioned, just to quickly list, yes, super speed,ation um yeah weird thing for kids we won't get into it uh can even despite his his jolly jolly demeanor yeah he can

somehow fit on minuscule chimneys why does he need to know if some of the kids are naughty that's all i'm gonna say that's a weird thing weird word weird list to have why not bad why not bad children that's why every christmas eve i stand by my chimney opening with my arm ready to capture him in a headlock it's like kill bill he's like uma thurman he he's like deep breathing ready to kick down rory's front door rory's waiting with a shotgun in an armchair. So I'm saying basically every season is spooky season. So even though Halloween is over, we're entering a whole new world of the paranormal.

And then when Christmas is over, you don't think a bearded guy 2000 years ago rising from the dead isn't paranormal? I got news for you, bud. It is. Oh, you think we're done? A bunny that shits chocolate? I don't think so. He doesn't shit chocolate. I'm shits chocolate i don't think he doesn't shit chocolate i'm pretty sure he does no he doesn't well i've been eating it i think uh rory makes a salient

point that the paranormal is all around us despite whatever time of year you happen to be listening to this in hopefully it's now in we're coming into winter um rory we can't get too sidetracked because of course we do have a doozy of a paranormal investigation to get to um i'd say let's get into it right after a couple words from today's sponsors we're jumping into today's case rory i think you might be i'm not going to spoil it at the beginning but i think you might be familiar with this particular cryptid we're going to be talking about today all right okay christopher kringle himself no i don't believe it's coming out in i think mid november we begin in 1920 in the dusty halls of the natural history museum in new york city roy chapman andrews was a paleontologist and his job was basically a traveling specimen collector. When the museum wanted, say, a whale skeleton, they sent old Roy out to get it.

By any means necessary. Yeah, that's worrying. They don't just want the whale. They need specifically a whale skeleton. Between you and me, we want this thing dead or alive. And between you and me, we want this thing dead or alive. And between you and me, preferably dead. I mean, hey, we've all got blood on our hands. We all enjoyed the Indiana Jones movies.

You don't think Indiana Jones was roughing up a few whales to get his hands in those? I don't think that was his area of study. Actually, no, I think about it. But he was roughing up people all along that trilogy. Look, this is just one of the old-timey jobs that have been lost over the years specimen collector you don't see many of those these days but maybe maybe in the 1920s this was basically like working as a barista right it was like the most hipster thing you could do yeah specimen collectors were like they wore skinny jeans and

tiny beanies they were like yeah pretty much like a freelance specimen collector yeah no i'm unemployed yeah as rory points out today that job would make you basically evil but at the time it was exciting and offered a daily dose of discovery and adventure he never knew where the museum would send him next. And that's the way he liked it. Entrous! We've got another assignment for you. We need you to go ahead and document... Hold on, I'm sure I wrote it down here somewhere. Oh yeah!

Asia! Whoa, whoa, whoa. The entire continent? If it's not too much trouble, take as long as you need. We'll wait. Anything in particular? No, see what's up. Use your imagination. Like you always do, Roy. You've always had a great imagination.

That's why we like you around here. Somewhere to start, at least. An airport. A f***ing bug? Or like a tree? Or, you know, a human being. I don't know. I'm just kidding with you, Roy. But between you and me, if you came across one. They have all those things here. Bugs, trees, humans.

No, but the Asian versions. We don't have anything from Asia. I don't know how. It's 1920. We're pretty advanced already. For some reason, we don't have a damn thing from asia i'm just gonna go thanks roy roy jumped at the chance to explore the far east he gathered a team and set sail as soon as possible

it was the olden days, so they went by sea. Rory, can you guess how long it would have taken them? From New York City to Asia? To China? To China. It's not a very obvious seafaring route. I don't even know what way you go. This is one of these old-timey facts

that is going to be so dramatic, it's either going to be like, it took 30 days or 15 years roy was uh was a pensioner by the time he arrived he was cryogenically frozen in the new york harbor and arrived on the planet of the apes which back then just meant they put two ice cubes in your mouth and broke your legs so you couldn't move they put a popsicle in your ass and locked you in a treasure chest i was being cryogenically frozen in the olden days there was a hundred percent death rate they hadn't quite mastered the procedure

at the end of the trip you were the specimen they were bringing home it was just a round trip it didn't stop anywhere yeah we managed to pick up this treasure chest of skeletons in asia it's like we just saw you do a loop of the harbor for three days and come back yeah 15 years later roy i knew you'd get the job done i'm roy's son roy's dead i i was a boy now i'm a man all right i'm gonna guess i'm gonna guess traveling by boat presumably um it would take four months apparently 27 days see no clue no clue which i thought was pretty long but you're treating it as like a mars mission you're like these motherfuckers 27 days said goodbye to all their families that is so much faster than i thought these boats must have been heavy duty i have one mate who went by boat from

i guess like the uk somewhere in the uk to um south america by boat on like a freight. I don't know if he, now I'm thinking about it, he might've been a stowaway, but he went on like a big like freight container boat, you know? Yeah, I don't think that's necessarily a route you can do with like Disney cruises. That's a pretty industrial kind of route.

If you scroll, if you go to like page 35 of Skyscanner, it gives you the boat option. China via Somalia on a freighter. So yeah, okay. Yeah. I feel like if you don't come out of that trip writing the next great American novel, it was a waste of time. True, true, true, true. That is not a long time though. 27 days. I could do that. I couldn't. A trip of that magnitude better be worth it but luckily for roy it was it was extremely fruitful right off the bat it just as an example of the kind of thing they were looking for allegedly he discovered some of the world's first dinosaur eggs what that's pretty cool hatched

or scrambled what are you talking about how Hatched or scrambled. How did he? What? No, not. Well, yes, hatched. Because they were alive 60 million years ago. I know. I don't know why the way you worded that was so weird. He found dinosaur eggs.

So he found shells. He found shells, right? Yeah. I love the idea that, you know, like Christopher Columbus,umbus like you know thought he was in india supposedly or whatever when he got to the americas yeah so he called it like west indies um i love the idea of roy thinking he's in china and he's on jurassic park it's just like a weird amount of dinosaurs y'all speak a weird language over here. There's a lot of dinosaur eggs. They are warm, too,

which I wasn't expecting. I'm loving these Japanese omelets. You are eating a velociraptor's child. Arigato, my friend. Arigato, you clever girl. So you have seen Jurassic Park, so you do know what

the island is. By 1926, Roy and his team had reached Mongolia, which is where our story really starts. Okay. Okay. They'd already been exploring for six years. Much of their work was spent knee deep in mud out in the field. But on occasion, they stayed in big cities and rubbed shoulders with important people. On one occasion, Roy was introduced to the Mongolian Prime Minister. He hastily wiped the dry mud from the hem of his khaki explorer's outfit and brushed the dust from his pith helmet. Sir, it's an honor to meet you. I cannot wait to see the treasure your great nation holds and share it with the world.

Roy's translator interpreted for him. Do you want to see my worm? Excuse me? It's big and it's powerful. All right, buddy, I don't know how they do things here in Mongolia, but over in New York, we buy a brother a drink first before we start talking about our worms. Everybody loves my worm. Especially ladies. But men

too. At this point, it's like, elaborate on what the worm is. Let's stop talking about how much people love it and all the places you can put it and let's talk about what the worm is. Tanay, do you have big worms in your country? All right, that's enough.

Are we talking about penises or do you have some sort of worm in your pocket? You just know that silenced the entire room. That was the bit when you're talking at the movie and then it becomes a quiet bit and then all anyone hears is penis. At first, Roy wasn't sure if he was being pranked sexually harassed or if this old man was insane but but continuing to listen it soon became clear that he was talking about a very real living creature

it goes by many names some call it oloy Kokoy. Others know it as Olgocchochoch. People of the distant regions call him Alagohai Hohai. Many use the name Teminsul, while several say... Yeah, okay, I get it, I get it. Where can I find this worm?

The Prime Minister explained that it could only be found in one of the most inhospitable and deadly stretches of land on Earth. Don't say your trousers, please. The Gobi Desert. That's Mongolian for my Calvin Klein's. Hashtag my Calvin's. Then he laid down a challenge.

The Prime Minister says he would be very appreciative if you could find one of these worms for me. The Mongolian government has never had an official specimen. He says set the first one you catch aside for him and you can keep the rest. Then the Prime Minister gestured for one of his aides to give Roy something. He says here you'll need these. The Prime Minister handed him a dark pair of goggles and some long metal forceps. What do you want me to do with these? You'll know when the time is right. He puts them on. No, not now!

Alright, it felt right. So, unfortunately for Roy, he was in way too deep to this mission to back out now. And so he accepted the challenge. From that day forth, he began gathering as much information about his new target as possible. He asked every Mongolian he crossed paths with about the mysterious creature. They shared horrific stories of a poisonous creature that could kill you in more ways than Roy could count. This is the problem with with saying you're going after a worm all right because i would usually say i'm fine with that i i could

kill a worm me versus a worm done one big boot and it's over uh but i've seen dune and uh the term worm gets thrown around a lot these days to describe creatures that are not worms they are enormous snake monsters the size of planets this is rory's letterboxd review for june don't get me started don't get me started on how much i didn't like worm gets battled about too much that's my biggest issue with the movie it's not a worm they're saying it's poisonous. Oh, it's poisonous. My brother in Christ. That's a snake. That's not a worm. It's not a snake.

Which you will see. Did I mention this worm has claws and he lives in the forest? That's a bear you're talking about. I think, I don't know how big worms can get, but if you're talking over five inches, you've lost your worm credentials. You're now a different creature. I don't know, man. I think there's a lot of really long worms in the world. No way. I'm going to Google what's the longest worm. Better you than me, because now is a good time in the podcast to reveal that I have a deathly fear of parasites. So I'm not

looking at anything to do with worms or worms parasites some of them are really i'm just gonna google a long meaty worm hot they live in hot places right so like hot meat worm six inch plus meat worm it's behind the scenes photo shoots from Timothee Chalamet in the June movie. Oh, little meaty worm, Timothee. The longest earthworm is a microcaetis rapi of South Africa. F***ing hell. One specimen measured in at 21 feet in length. Yeah, and that's an earthworm. You could use that as a lasso.

That is an enormous worm. Oh my God. This is the problem. There's not enough words for long, thin, little bugs. And I've been saying that for years. I love the, in the UK, the bootlace worm is apparently the longest worm. Okay. And its technical name is Linnaeus longiceusmus.

That's lazy. That's just lazy. Longius wormius. It's like the way the Latin for gorilla is gorilla, gorilla, gorilla. Is it really? Yeah. That's incredible.

The guy who was translating that was just hard of hearing. It's like, what? Gorilla. What is it? Gorilla! Gorilla! Gorilla! And like, gorilla, gorilla, gorilla. Got it! Roy sought out settlements close to where sightings of this friggin' worm were clustered. He immediately noticed that almost none of the people he interviewed had seen the worm for themselves,

but everyone had sworn they at least knew somebody that had. Roy spent hour upon hour in the Gobi Desert trying to catch a glimpse of this thing, kitted out with the two vital pieces of equipment bestowed upon him by the Prime Minister himself. He crouched with his worm-snatching pincers poised, shades over his eyes to protect him from the worm's poison. He sat perfectly still by reptile burrows for hours on end, day after day, week in, week out. You've been conned, Roy. They're taking the piss. They gave you worm goggles and sent you out of the desert. They are laughing at you back in the tavern. Right. I guarantee it. This is one of those classic gags that happens to people when they like start a new job right yeah they're sent to the storeroom to go

look for like a thing that doesn't exist yeah it doesn't exist at all a paint measurer yeah you know go ask the guy if you can get a paint measurer and a bubble level you know the bubble in the level or whatever it is except he's been told to look for a giant poisonous worm in the middle of the Gobi Desert, which is a crueler prank because he's probably going to die out there. Yeah, or let me tell you something. You stick in that desert long enough,

you might see the worm. It's not going to be real, but it's going to be there. It might be your own penis after two weeks through those goggles. Once those goggles get dusty enough, everything will start looking like a worm. Despite Roy's Indiana Jones level sample collecting skills, the Olgoy Korkoy would prove to be his white whale and he never caught it. Letting down the Mongolian prime minister and maybe more importantly, Kit and Rory.

Yeah, that's incredibly disappointing. I was already a little skeptical that this episode we're investigating a worm. And now that you're telling me the worm didn't even show up. Rory, today we're talking about the Mongolian death worm. Okay. Ever heard of it? No. What?

No, I haven't. There's no way. No. We've been getting this email suggestion to our email inbox probably once a minute for five years. I think I've been trying to delete them quick enough so that you don't see them so that we don't have to cover this on the podcast.

One of them apparently slipped through. And I took it as f***ing gospel. I was like, this is the best case that has ever existed. I'm watching our inbox, goggles on, spear at the ready, piercing any worm emails that come through. And one of those f***ers slipped by. Apparently so. Wait, so this is a cryptid you're telling me?

A paranormal cryptid? This is a cryptid. I'm shocked that you are not as familiar with it because it is probably one of the most famous cryptids of all time one of the most ubiquitously known um i would say it is just kind of below you know sasquatch and all the rest of it wow yeah there's no way yeah just below bigfoot is the mongolian death worm it's a pretty good name it's pretty catchy little name how better name than olgoy corkoy i don't want to dive straight into like describing the creatures how big is it are we talking june level june right right okay

it's that big maybe They might grow that big. Okay. It might also grow a little smaller. But time will tell. The time is now. Two inches. Two inches usually. Three when it's horny.

And one when it's cold out. The name Olgoy Korkoy translates to intestine worm. Not because it lives in your intestines or anything nuts like that, but whenever it's on the ground, it looks like human intestines. Gross. Nasty. All right, so it's got to be long, right? But it's known in the West as the Mongolian death worm.

There's so much fear surrounding this thing that people in Mongolia prefer to call it by a nickname than its true local term they'll sometimes call it the long worm or other times call it the merciful one so that they don't accidentally piss it off i love it you're like they're so afraid of it that they've created a nickname the long worm like that doesn't do anything to describe how dangerous it's supposed to be it's kind of a voldemort situation oh like don't even say how dead we can't talk about it lest it attacks is it poisonous you said it was poisonous how many times do i have to tell you it's poisonous and it's not a snake i see the cogs

turning yeah and you're trying to figure out the kind of questions you can ask to try and make it seem like a snake. Okay. And sure, it lives in the desert and it's a long little f***ing worm and doesn't have any legs and it's poisonous. So it sounds a lot like a snake. A snake, yeah. But I do have pictures coming of what it's supposed to look like. Okay. And you're going to see once and for all that it's not a snake.

I'll hold fire. i'm fine with that roy as i say clearly this thing is so damn dangerous we need to take a closer look so we can all learn how to a recognize it and b how to counter its attacks and survive out in the gobi desert um the time is now the bad boy is about four feet long, but there are measurements allegedly anywhere from two to seven feet. I mean, seven feet is like the height of that door. That's pretty big. Yeah, pretty big for a worm. It doesn't have any legs or a distinguishable head.

It is either a dark red or a pale pink color. And crucially, it looks so much like a penis. It is truly beyond belief. That's what I was worried about. I don't want to see the pictures anymore. I'm good. The pictures are coming. I'm like, yeah, this does look a lot like a penis.

Is that your watch in the background? Give me that back. Wrong photo. That's to show you how much it doesn't look like a penis. That's my merciful one. Jeez, I just had a panic there where I like, I realized I wasn't really concentrating on iMessage and I had a real panic about who I just sent that picture of a worm to.

That would have been a great message to receive out of the blue. It's basically the body of a worm or a snake. Right. But, you know, because it's called a death worm, I assumed it had similar to dune just like an open hole face full of jaggedy teeth similar to the rancor from star wars it's a cock it's got a bell end it's genuinely just the tip of a penis i wish we were joking i wish i wish for the sake of this being a comedy podcast that we were trying to be funny here. But it unfortunately.

You sent me porn. Does look quite a bit like a penis, which is fine because penises are natural and they are scientific. I don't want to know how this thing excretes poison if it doesn't have a mouth. That's exactly the way you think, bud. if it doesn't have a mouth. That's exactly the way you think, bud. People claim that it doesn't have a mouth, but other people do say that it actually can open a la June to reveal rows of sharp teeth.

Oh, Jesus. Regarding habitat, we are talking, these are the driest, sandiest corners of the Gobi Desert. But this thing will venture further after rain when the ground is cool and damp. The next point is a crazy amount of detail to have about a cryptid apparently it hibernates for 10 months a year and only emerges for june and july if this thing shows up somewhere the people that live

nearby simply move out on the spot leaving all their belongings behind because it's how many times i have to tell you it's poisonous there are so many other poisonous things in the world maybe not in the gobi desert probably some people have reported moving after just hearing about a sighting they don't even need to see it they're like i'm good check please you could kill this thing with a rock. It's not that sketchy or dangerous. At this point, I should explain why people are so scared of it. Okay. Are you ready for this one?

Yeah. Ready for this one, Indiana Jones? Motherfucker. Sure, don't insult me. Just say the thing. A, it's so toxic you can't even look at it. B, if it touches your skin, you're dead Irrelevant grazes you you die

If you look at it, you're poisoned You think people just are like calling it Voldemort for fun? No this thing like you can't talk about it. Don't look at it What how does it kill you via sight how does that work you can't look at it it's that poisonous the jury is still out on that one how have people drawn pictures of it then it has liquid venom okay it is look this is the this is the crux of it this is the majority of why it's so dangerous it is liquid venom that it sprays out over great distances now this is allegedly so acidic it can melt metal oh damn as you know venomous snakes they'll transfer their poison through a bite but this worm doesn't do that mongolian nomads believe that it raises the front half of its body out of the sand and i don't want

anyone to think any of this is supposed to sound sexual just because it looks like a giant penis to be clear none of this is funny or sexual no but as it doesn't even out of the ground it gets closer and closer to the surface then it eventually explodes everywhere showering the scene and anybody present with its lethal, lethal poison. What's funny about that? I wish it weren't true, but it is. Okay. What's the range on that puppy? Can it like snipe someone from the hills? Or is it kind of like a close range sort of? I think it's pretty close range.

We're talking like, you know, like six feet, 12 feet. Okay. Something like that. So it's like just busting a nut basically. No, it's not. No, no. That's what it is. I So it's like just busting a nut, basically. No, it's not. No, no. That's what it is. I said it's not like busting a nut.

I specifically said it wasn't busting a nut. I wish that were all, but I haven't yet mentioned that it's also electric. It's poison and lightning. What? It electrocutes things, apparently, in order to eat livestock, camels, and you guessed it, human beings. What, it can basically cook them with electricity? Either.

Jesus Christ. All right, well, I don't know how that now is getting paranormal for sure. Rory, is this thing like any creature we have covered on the podcast before? An electric cock. any creature we have covered on the podcast before. An electric cock. You're describing some sort of sand dildo. It vibrates through the dunes.

No, no. This is not like any paranormal cryptid we've investigated before. I don't think we've investigated a lot of worm-like creatures. Yeah. Isn't that weird? Like, I feel like almost every paranormal being is some kind of humanoid.

It's like a goat man, a lizard man. Yeah. Donkey lady. I think we had, wasn't there one creature? Maybe it was the Groot slang that was like part elephant, part snake. That's right. Yeah. Or something.

Maybe that was the closest, even though that thing was enormous. And I think it was biblical. It was like a God. Whereas this thing is, you know, people are afraid of it and they talk about it. even though that thing was enormous and i think it was biblical it was like a god uh whereas this thing is you know people are afraid of it and they talk about it uh through this this almost through the lens of myth and legend that you're like they don't even want to say its name but it does seem like at its surface level it is kind of on par with just dangerous animals you know it can't teleport or fly um it just kind of like shoots poison

and is just dangerous to be around. Yeah, no, it's not teleporting. It's a famous cryptid because it's supposed to be very real. Just no one's pinning it down. Right. And everyone's hunting for it, trying to put it in a museum.

Unlike, say, some of the crazier Sasquatch theories that he can teleport or read minds. Sure, sure. Well, needless to say, we do need some evidence or at least some more sightings to figure out if this thing is real or not. All of that and more in the second half of today's case, right after these words from today's sponsors. from today's sponsors. It turns out that Roy from our story earlier is far from the only cryptid hunter to search for our mythical friend. In 1990, a Czech cryptid hunter

named Ivan Makaral stepped onto the scene. He had previously gone looking for beasts, including the Loch Ness Monster. Ivan went out to Mongolia and tried his best to hunt down information on the beast, talking to anyone he could. Excuse me, sir. Have you ever seen Olgoy Korkoy?

Oh, get away from me! You there, you seem to be knowledgeable. Do you know the legends? Be gone! F*** off, evildoer! Madam, can I ask you a few questions about the intestine worm? Unfortunately for Ivan, the Mongolian government had outlawed searching for the monster. He couldn't go on a hunt, but managed to get some decent intel from the chattier Mongolians he met. Hey, you don't have to tell people you're going for the hunt. Maybe just chill out with some sunglasses and a fork in the desert. They can't tell you. They can't prove you're looking for the hunt maybe just chill out with some sunglasses and a fork in the desert

they can't tell you they can't prove you're looking for the worm rory is dressed up like a big game hunter full camouflage wrapper on shades gun hat yeah baseball cap that says uh women love me worms fear me yeti cooler full of natty ice in an ironic twist i've got a bait bucket full of fish to catch the worms in this f***ed up scenario wait that doesn't work because worms don't eat fish wait what do worms eat anything bud i even knew there had been a lot of sightings and he'd also discovered there'd been a high volume of unusual deaths in the region. Something had to be up.

He wasn't deterred by the lack of confirmed sightings or physical evidence. He figured it must live underground and probably even traveled through subterranean burrows. And thankfully, two years later, Mongolia lifted the ban on hunting the beast and he went back to try again. And I'm not making this up.

He actually created a device inspired by the novel Dune. Do you remember the bit where they're hammering the desert to try and lure the worm? He designed and constructed an engine powered thumper to pound the sand. Wow. Hey, Ivan! Ivan! and constructed an engine-powered thumper to pound the sand wow hey ivan ivan can you hear me do you really think this is the right approach to catch a super shy and elusive worm what did you say i said ivan we've been here for hours. Should we maybe change plan? She's out here, all right. She's just playing hard to get.

It's just, the worm is supposed to be skittish. We might find more success if we left out some bait. A camel, maybe? That way we can- I'm gonna cut you off there because I think your ideas are great and I do respect you, but also, I've got a better idea. Fetch my dynamite! and I do respect you, but also I've got a better idea.

Fetch my dynamite. But weirdly, no matter how much of the Gobi Desert they destroyed, Ivan's team failed to find a single death worm. This thing is like a riddle. How can everyone have seen it, but it's not there when you go looking for it? What is this thing? Because you die if you see it. That's why you go looking for it. What is this thing? Because you die if you see it.

That's why no one's seen it. Because the dead don't tell tales. If Ivan had seen it, Ivan would not be saying he didn't find it because he, yeah, you get it. It's like they say, why is it every time you call the wrong number, they're always home?

It's like, because if they weren't home, you wouldn't know you called the wrong number. That always home it's like because if they weren't home you wouldn't know you called the wrong number that's actually a pretty good allegory yeah that's good dynamite is not a bad idea to be fair because at least then you might end up accidentally killing one and then i assume you can look at it once it's dead but the 1990s wasn't even the last expedition. There have been more recent ones. There was one in 2005. Richard Freeman of the Center for Fortean Zoology took three of his best bros out to the Gobi Desert

and luckily for us, they filmed the whole thing. Wow. Even editing it into an hour-long documentary on YouTube. Now, they went to the desert and published and distributed leaflets to all the desert nomads to try and get people talking about it and coming forward. Every witness that came forward was asked to indicate where the sighting was. Lots of people said they'd seen it, and if you watch the video, as I say, it is long to kind of play clips of it here, but it is cool to hear firsthand accounts. So even though we are struggling here for physical evidence,

there is a nice amount of consistency in the sightings over almost the last hundred years. I guess the weird thing that I find is like, you know, there are other animals on Earth that are very poisonous. You know, for example, take uh is it the box jellyfish that's like one of the most poisonous animals on earth yeah even touching it like you die in fractions of seconds looking at it some say i don't think that's true um but we have pictures of those jellyfish we've been able to see them You can Google it and see a picture of it, even if it lives in the middle of the ocean,

in the middle of nowhere. So I don't fully understand why we don't have a picture of this creature, even if it is as poisonous as people say it is. Could that be anything to do with the fact that it looks so much like a penis, it gets somehow censored by Google images? It's possible.

You have to take safe search off to see pictures of the creature. One interesting thing that this guy Richard did uncover was that, of course, Mongolia was under Soviet control until the USSR stopped existing in the 90s. And on this trip, Richard heard that Russian scientists allegedly uncovered a dead specimen in 1972. Here we go. It was removed and is rumored to be hidden somewhere in a Russian museum's basement to this very day. Wow.

Which, I will say, is extremely tantalizing. But, you might agree, Rory, it also sounds like a lot of other cases we've looked at, right? I mean, just look at Organism 46B. There's something very tempting about pointing to Russia and all its secrets and saying, back there is where all the evidence is. But at the same time, it was part of this empire,

so it's not impossible. I will say as well, Russia loves their poisons. They do love their poisons. Say what you will! If any country likes a poison, they can't deny. If they can capture a worm that if you look at it, you die, yeah, they're going to want to take that back to the motherland. I seem to remember that was the plot of organism 46b

as well was that the russians turned it into a weapon yeah in the cold war they were going to unleash an octopus on america but again frustratingly richard's expedition was a failure like all the others that came before it the fact remains that nobody with any kind of scientific authority has ever managed to document one of these things alive or dead, making the mystery all the more puzzling. Now, I would say that some scientists do kind of come out on record and say, look, I think this thing is a snake.

Scientists like Rory. Yeah. But as you've seen, Rory, it is quite different. Snakes don't spray poison all over the landscape amongst some of the other characteristics here. Other people think it's a worm. Other scientists say there are big worms out there. I think in Australia, a researcher, Amy, was pointing out that there is kind of crazy species of worm that even do live in sand, but they would not be able to survive the extreme temperatures of the Gobi desert. Yeah. I mean, this is the problem that we're going to be

bumping up against in our conclusions is that there's nothing about this creature that sets it apart enough from regular animals of the earth. It looks a bit like a snake. It looks a bit like a worm. It acts a bit like a Cobra. looks a bit like a worm. It acts a bit like a cobra. Um, you know, these are all kind of animals that exist in our world and have similar traits to animals that we, that exist in our world. So granted, there's not any animals that I know that if you look at them, you die. Um, so I can't quite explain that one, but i don't know this like weirdly doesn't even feel like if it was real it would necessarily reach the level to be considered a cryptid if that makes sense right but we've had this disagreement before that we need to uh maybe look into and come back to but

i think at least to me the point of a cryptid is it doesn't have to teleport. It just has to be an undiscovered creature. Is that true? Is that the definition of a cryptid? Let's look it up right now. Let's do it. It shouldn't have taken us this many episodes to look up the definition of cryptid. Yeah.

A cryptid is an animal believed to potentially exist somewhere in the wild, but are not believed to exist by mainstream science. Oh, okay. Okay. So we were literally talking about animals that scientists do not believe in, but there are sightings. So it could just be a worm.

It didn't even have to do all the poison or electricity shit. It could just be a big- It does though. Let's not bury the lead here. Rory, at the end of every episode, we do have to decide whether a case is paranormal or not. And look, I get it. Bro, I get it. There's a lack of physical evidence here.

Everyone can see it. But before you make your choice, there is just one more piece of evidence to show you. When Richard and his crew were in Mongolia in 2005, they ended their documentary by writing a song about the creature, which is pretty convincing. Oh, God.

All right. Why? Why? Shut up. Those were the scientific explorers that you told me went out to hunt for the worm. Would, if the Mongolian, I haven't forgotten its name, if the Mongolian death worm did not exist, would a bunch of researchers have made a song that bad? You made them sound like they were Indiana Jones style,

cool, rugged scientists. If Indiana Jones had written a song like that, the Nazis would have shot him dead in the first movie. He wouldn't have been given so many chances to live. Yeah, I'm pretty sure these guys weren't researchers. I think they were a bunch of hippies that normally would be hanging out in a Grateful Dead parking lot. But the Grateful Dead weren't on tour, so they had to do something else. You imagine in the movie

any last words Mr. Jones before I bury you and you become one of the artifacts a f***ing Ark of the Covenant wow it wasn't even as tuneful as that let's be honest don't look when they open the ark

jesus christ okay that wasn't really the galvanizing bit of kind of heroic content i was hoping for at the end of this episode um unfortunately i do have to hand the floor over to you what do you think i don't know if there's too much time scientifically to talk about a worm but this is it we reached it well we've entertained worms enough i don't even think a scientist would want to talk about worms that much or a fisherman this has gone on long enough and i'm shutting it down now it's a no it's a no for me this week that really sucks man that really sucks you must have known this is coming there's no way you couldn't have known this is a big case i It's just such a big case. I just really thought that like- It's not a big case. It's small. It's a big one.

Check the inbox, bud. Check the inbox. Yeah, four foot actually isn't that big. It's like the size of that table, right? I hadn't really clocked. So the one thing that I thought was interesting that I hadn't really thought about is maybe do you think the reason that the explorer at the start was given the goggles was to counteract the effect of looking at the creature killing you.

Okay. Like a Medusa thing? Yeah. Because otherwise I was like, okay, well, maybe it's just to deal with kind of snow blindness. If he's out in the desert for that long, maybe the sun, maybe you just want a pair of shades because it's going to be bright. But maybe, maybe that's something to, a defense against this visual poison. I don't care anymore

because you've already given it a no. So there's kind of nothing I can do at this point. Okay. So I kind of don't even, despite being the one who put a lot of time into this case, I know I don't want to talk about it anymore. I wish I could forget it ever happened to be honest uh so your conclusion for this week's episode it's a no it's a no okay hey i did enjoy

this story it was investigating something different as well a part of the world we have i don't think ever been to never in our lives i don't know if there's a whole series of cryptids out there but something worth looking into the desert is a strange place my friends a series of cryptids out there, but something worth looking into. The desert is a strange place, my friends. A lot of weird shit out there. Scorpions? Scorpions? Do you really think Genghis Khan took over the world on his own?

Really? Just with men on horseback? He had a couple scorpions and a couple dick worms fighting for him. Let me tell you that for sure. That's our personal conspiracy theory not the views of the bbc hope you enjoyed this investigation into the mongolian death worm it only took us five years to get to it so thank you for being so patient if you've been looking

out for this investigation but guys if you cannot get enough this paranormal life you cannot wait until tuesday please take this you're gonna need it where you're going what is it it's a pre-loaded credit card with five dollars oh and a gun because it's not safe out there uh head on over to patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life uh this is where we are putting up bonus content on the weekly weekly after parties behind the scenes of this paranormal life what's going on monthly full-length investigations into the paranormal of which there's more than 50 available for listening right now and on the higher tiers it's more of kind of like an only fan service you want to you want to see our mongolian death

worms no you can see them, bud. Head on over to patreon.com. I think that's more of a Rory thing. It's not something I'm willing to, uh... Well, actually, hey, you can enter a custom amount into Patreon, so I'm not saying try me, but, like, show me some numbers.

Well, yeah, slide some across the table. Let's see what's out there. We're not saying we're gonna do it, but, you know you know how much you got i'll show my butt i got a good butt i've told i've said that on the podcast before nine dollars fifty later we're on stripper polls we're showing everything leaving nothing to the imagination little more people were paying us to stop and we still did it someone delivered me me a Big Mac and I went all out. There really is a ton of content over there going up every single week. A whole community of people reacting to it as well.

You can hop in the comments and see what's going on with the other patrons. Check it out. Patreon.com forward slash This Paranormal Life. Also, in case you missed it, one of the most recent after parties, we did a full deep dive on kind of all the secret projects we've been up to over the last year. One of which we launched on last week's podcast. So a reminder that the first Rory Power single is out now. Hell yeah. With the video. People don't know that we podcast together and we make music together. And last week our new single Stories was just released. So check it out. Check Stories

by Roy Powers on Spotify, or there's a sweet ass music video for it on YouTube. Yeah. We'll drop the links in the description of this one. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of similar to the death worm okay but instead of killing you when you see it you when you hear it something happens i won't say what i won't say what you have to listen to it to find out what happens because no one's gonna do it i didn't say die i never said die i said something happens when you listen to stories by Roy Powers. Okay, pretty ominous though I would say. Pretty ominous. Just make sure you're standing in front of a coffin when it comes

on because you're going to fall backwards. But the response has been really fantastic from you guys so thank you so much. It really makes it feel like it was worth our time and effort which you can hear all about in the after party. But yeah, so much more coming soon on that front. Rory, I think it might be time to jump in to some shout outs.

Let's do it. We give shout outs to people who are on the Patreon $20 or higher tier. We're going to dive into it right now. Special thank you to Gabe YZF. Yo, Gabe from the young zebra family they are the hottest rap crew in the streets right now damn never even heard of them they're mixtape it goes hard what does gabe do is he sing does he play an instrument he mostly uh break dances he doesn't really have a good voice or good DJing skills, so he's more of like the hype man.

Oh, okay. That's a cool job to have. Spinning around. I'm going to come clean. He's not even that good at breakdancing, if I'm honest. So he just kind of does the robot while everyone else performs?

Yeah, and they're all wearing, like, cool, like, rapper clothes and stuff. He mostly wears, like, stuff from Primark. That's fine. Yeah, you know. But, like, not like not like cool stuff i like just like a polo shirt and like just shorts he looks really out of place okay yeah i'm trying to say gabe you're letting the young zebra family down come on step it up thanks also to marlexin marlexin actually went out to the desert to hunt for the worm um they kind of

just didn't get those special goggles and just went for a pair of ray bands assuming it would do kind of a similar thing dead instantly saw the worm drop to the ground at least they look cool while they were dying i want to die in shades for sure thanks to joseph grassel is your grass a hassle come on down to joseph's grassel he's gonna he'll sort out all your grass needs nice um cutting them up like he sells lawnmowers or something like that mostly salt he'll mostly sell you salt to just kill your kill the soil so nothing will ever grow again that's because if your grass is a hassle, come on, Joseph, grassle. Grassult. Grassult.

That's what it is. That's the name of the product, actually. Grassult. That's what it is. That's why I said it. Calm down, dude. No one was questioning why you said the salt thing. No, no.

I just need to remember to patent that because it's such a good name. Grassult. Grassult. Thanks alsoolt. Grassholt. Thanks also to Aubrey Haber. Aubrey Haber, the great neighbor. Just the most stand-up neighbor you could ask for. Need to borrow some sugar?

Aubrey's got you. Need to salt your lawn? They've got some grassholt. They've got some grassholt. So if you need sugar or salt you're fine but it seems like anything else they won't be able to help you actually on every other front they're kind of not that great yeah they kind of have a bunch of crazy dogs that keep coming over and like repping up the house doesn't sound like a good neighbor but the salt and the sugar got you covered thanks to frank farish if it isn't spanky frankie

he went out into the dunes and just started spanking the sand hoping to get the worms rising right uh partially because you said uh like the vibrations and stuff in the ground would like in june yeah also some people are just into that you want those worms to rise sure i just don't i just don't get a healthy spot done in the sexiness get those worms get those worms coming out of the ground that's all i'm saying thanks to amy gray good to hear from amy i think she was actually the winner of one of our tpl monthly raffles it It's very true. Where she got the cursed doll that we used on an episode of this podcast. That's right. So she seems to at least be able to still use her thumbs and fingers.

The profile picture associated with her, her account here is a coffin. Okay. Sure. So that's fine. Read into that. What you will, I think she's gone. All right. Thanks... That's fine. Read into that what you will, I think. She's gone.

All right. Thanks to Zach Faust. Zach Faust was quiet as a mouse walking through the Gobi Desert until he just started letting rip and started spanking and spanking. Maybe being quiet would have been the thing to do, though, because he was gobbled up immediately.

Yeah, it was like whack-a-mole. Those worms were popping up faster than he could spank them. Thanks to Jeremy Cloutier. Jeremy, if I got killed by a worm in the desert, would you carry me? Would you carry me home? My legs are limp, my body is limp, and I need someone to carry me, Jeremy.

I don't know, it's quite far. You are in the middle of nowhere. It feels like a you problem, maybe. I want to go home. carry me, Jeremy. I don't know, it's quite far. You are in the middle of nowhere. It feels like a you problem, maybe. I want to go home. Give me your shades. So you know you're dying. Thanks to Jacob Workman. Jacob, you're exactly the kind of person

that we need in the paranormal commune. You know how hard it is to find a man who's willing to work these days? They're all pretty keen on working towards some sort of rebellion. sort of some sort of rebel alliance which is kind of frustrating but we need we need to work we need more workmen in the paranormal commune so many will say that that it is beyond work that if it is unpaid and if the hours are punishing that it's not fair but i know that a good workman like you will will be more than up

to the job character building that's what it is thanks also to corbin writer uh corbin unfortunately a writer is kind of the last thing we actually need in the commune right now i would argue that actually the populace is entirely too literate and too educated um because we've kind of figured that when people are able to read and write and communicate, they start to band together to start a revolution. And we don't want any more of that crazy nonsense. Yeah. Unless you can write some laws into effect. Yeah, maybe some propaganda.

Now you mention it. Some punishing things. Thanks also to Cecilia Irvine. Cecilia Irvine thought they were feeling fine, but uh-oh, it's worm time. They were trying to go for a quiet walk. She must have been desert. Yeah, exactly.

It wasn't in the pub out of nowhere. Who would have thought that they would be sadly and tragically gobbled by the worm? That's on you, Cecilia. You should have known. Thanks lastly, but not leastly today, to Greg Gardner. Greg Gardner? You need some salt, buddy.

Because we know just the guy who can get it for you. You got someone you hate, Greg. Someone you want their garden to die forever. Yeah, that's usually not what gardeners do. But if they have enemies, if they have enemies, you could be interested in some grass salt yeah give it to your your gardening rivals and then your gardening rivals will end up killing all the plants oh this thing makes

makes these plants blossom and bloom like nobody's business it's called grass salt and it makes flowers grow does it it sounds really aggressive and poisonous thank you of course to greg and to everyone we shouted out today um we're getting through shout outs as fast as we can we will hear more next week on tuesday's main episode we'll be back on friday of course for the after party over on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life but we will see you here on tuesday nonetheless thanks for tuning in and we'll see you back here for another episode of this paranormal life bye bye folks