{"podcast":{"title":"Conspiracy Cabal","slug":"conspiracy-cabal-7759106","podcast_index_feed_id":7759106,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/692e431c1fc8491a7b9a3769","website_url":"https://shows.acast.com/conspiracy-cabal","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/692e431c1fc8491a7b9a3769/1780012564788-fbe66255-abc6-4b7b-97a1-b15d86551a5f.jpeg","author":"Southern Ocean Media","episode_count":38,"summary":"The sh*t that's in your group chat...just a fair bit more fact checked and a lot more explained. Big Pharma. The deep state. The crisis actors. Alien life. Spy agencies and cover ups. Whatever it is, award winning journo Richard Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth are your guides on the search for the kernel of truth. Conspiracies are everywhere right now. But, we don’t peddle theories, we go to their point of origin and follow the breadcrumbs to sort the bullsh*t from the verified, while keeping an open mind to things that can’t be explained. Rich has spent years exposing the crooked and corrupt, and Nick has copped death threats from people who thought he was one of THEM. They know what real cover-ups look like, and they also know what happens when paranoia meets the algorithm. Sometimes the conspiracy is real. Sometimes it's designed to sell you on something. Often, it's both. Our mission is to entertain and inform. Rather than condemn and judge. Hear the Conspiracy Cabal every week, and contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com Conspiracy Cabal is proudly supported by WholeLife . Use code CABAL10 for $10 off your first order of $50 or more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac…","last_synced_at":"2026-09-09T06:20:27.742949+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-cabal-7759106"},"episode":{"title":"23: Where is Fred Valentich? | UFOs over Bass Strait","slug":"23-where-is-fred-valentich-ufos-over-bass-strait","published_at":"2026-07-28T15:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-cabal-7759106/23-where-is-fred-valentich-ufos-over-bass-strait","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-cabal-7759106","url":"https://shows.acast.com/conspiracy-cabal/episodes/23-where-is-fred-valentich-the-bass-strait","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/692e431c1fc8491a7b9a3769/e/6a686b944207b2a601131bfb/media.mp3","summary":"On the night of October 21, 1978, a 20-year-old pilot named Frederick Valentich radioed Melbourne air traffic control to report an unidentified aircraft pacing him over Bass Strait. He described a long shape with a green light, an engine that didn't sound like a normal aircraft, and then, seventeen seconds of unexplained metallic scraping. Then nothing. No wreckage. No body. No confirmed radar trace. The Department of Transport's official finding, filed years later, was \"reason for disappearance: unknown.\" Forty-eight years on, that stretch of water between Victoria and Tasmania has become one of the most argued-over patches of sky in the southern hemisphere. So was this a young, inexperienced pilot who became spatially disoriented and flew upside down into the sea — or did Bass Strait swallow something the official transcript still can't explain? The full radio transcript, and the line investigators still can't agree on: was Valentich describing a UFO, or panicking about engine trouble he didn't have the hours to diagnose? Why no wreckage from a Cessna 182 has ever washed up, in a strait that has surrendered debris from other crashes within days The competing theory that he staged his own disappearance to fly on to a new life, and the family members who have always rejected it A 1982 photograph, taken the same night by a witness on the ground, that some analysts say shows an engine intake — and others say shows nothing at all Why the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation closed its file without ever determining a cause, an outcome almost unheard of in Australian aviation history Some of this is documented. Some is genuinely unknown. And almost none of it is as settled as the people who closed the file want you to believe. Join Rich Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth as they su…","meta_description":"On the night of October 21, 1978, a 20-year-old pilot named Frederick Valentich radioed Melbourne air traffic control to report an unidentified aircraft p…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3101,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/conspiracy-cabal-7759106/episodes/23-where-is-fred-valentich-ufos-over-bass-strait/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/conspiracy-cabal-7759106/23-where-is-fred-valentich-ufos-over-bass-strait.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}