Part Two: The Fake Bomb Detector Grift That Killed Hundreds
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome back to Behind the Bastards, a podcast about the very worst people in all of history. And this week, we are telling the story of a fake bomb detector that wound up getting a shitload of people killed thanks to the ideomotor effect and how that's weirdly relevant to our current moment in American culture, AI, all this good stuff. To talk with me about that, Ed Zitron. Ed, welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me. Now, Ed, you're the host of the Better Offline podcast. And how are you feeling about the ideomotor effect and people being able to know what's real? I'm amazed by Clever Hans. I think Clever Hans is a hero who was unfairly eaten. By German soldiers after he was murdered in World War I. They were very unfair to clever Hans.
What is the story behind the fake bomb detector?
I do. He's a smart, smartest horse. It was just desperation and not a punishment, but it does in the articles read a little bit like because they found out he wasn't really smart, they sent him off to die. You were a fraud, Hans. Oh, man.
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So we ended last episode by introducing the gopher, a gag gift that claimed to help you locate lost golf balls using the magic of the ideomotor effect into tricking people into thinking it was not an empty plastic box with an antenna. If you read the fine print at the end of those magazine ads that Sophie displayed last episode, you'll see that the manufacturer bragged that the gopher was totally shockproof with solid state construction and no moving parts. Because again, it's empty. There's nothing in the box. Was shockproof something that was going to be a... Is that a common problem with... You can still get one of those on eBay, by the way. Yeah, I think it's like if you drop it, it won't get disrupted.
Because again, there's nothing to disrupt. It's not a product.
It's not real. For $34.99, folks...
That's a bargain at any price, Sophie.
You can get one on either eBay or Poshmark. Not sponsored. Thank you so much.
You could have all the balls you need, you know, listeners. If you've been feeling, listeners, like you don't have enough balls, you know, the good ball finder people can help you have all the balls. Anyway, I'm going to stop saying balls now. One of the chief executives of the Quadro Corporation who gave us the gopher, and the evident designer of the gopher itself, although this is a little unclear to me, but I think the designer was a man named Wade L. Quattlebaum, which I just, that's a good name.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:53
2
What is the story behind the fake bomb detector?
0:53–13:02
3
How did the ideomotor effect contribute to the scam?
13:02–16:38
4
What role did Malcolm Rowe and Wade Quattlebaum play in the grift?
16:38–34:56
5
How did the Quadro Tracker deceive police departments?
34:56–1:08:43
Speakers
9 identifiedMore from Behind the Bastards
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