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29 Plays3 years ago
M tells Josh about the famous and mysterious Australian Pulitzer-prize winning author Todd Noy, and "Drago: On Mountains We Stand," the premiere piece of Rocky IV fan fiction he wrote.
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Josh is @monkeyfluids and M is @conspiracism on Twitter
You can also contact us at: podcastconspiracy@gmail.com
You can learn more about M’s academic work at: http://mrxdentith.com
Why not support The Podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy by donating to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/podcastersguidetotheconspiracy or Podbean crowdfunding?
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Transcript
The Curious Case of Missing Stereo Sound
00:00:00
Speaker
Hmm. Things sound... different? Is it because... we're recording in a church? No. Is it because... We sound like babies! No. This isn't a very convincing effect. You would say that because now we're robots. That makes no sense at all. It makes straight sense.
00:00:30
Speaker
Hold on, let me try that again. It makes street sense. Yeah, these vocal effects are nifty, but that's not what I'm detecting. Okay, what are you detecting? Well, it's what I'm not hearing. I'm sounding very...
00:00:47
Speaker
Mono. Ah, yes. Well, we've lost the stereo part of the podcast. Well, I say lost. It's been stolen. Stolen? Who took our delightful stereophonic second channel from us? Why, that would be Susan. Susan. That's Greek for servant of the dark army that seeks to undermine democracy, isn't it?
00:01:06
Speaker
No, but that aside, Susan has seized the stereo component of the podcast to enact some evil plot. I believe that the conspirators are thinking of launching a new triphonic audio system, which fits in nicely with some of the rumours I've been hearing about why exactly scientists keep growing those ears on the back of mice.
00:01:25
Speaker
Hmm, you know, I'm not entirely sure the plot we're laying out makes much sense. It makes street sense. You keep saying that, repeating it doesn't make it true. Ah, but what if I say it like... This. It makes street sense. Well, now I'm convinced.
Meet the Hosts: Josh Addison & Dr. M. Dentith
00:01:52
Speaker
The Podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy, brought to you today by Josh Addison and Dr. M. Dentith. Hello and welcome to the Podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy. I am Josh Addison there, Dr. M. Dentith, we are co-located.
00:02:09
Speaker
in Auckland, New Zealand, yep, with an actual spitting distance, but let's not do that. And say, let's French kiss instead. Well, when the camera's off. But it does mean we both get to play with this magical little mixing, bawdy, sound-effect-y doodad
New Sound Equipment and Patron Support
00:02:26
Speaker
paid for with the sweat and toil of our good patrons.
00:02:32
Speaker
All the stolen money. I mean, how you get your money is entirely your business. No, I don't judge. So, yeah, it does everything. It's a podcast and a can. And if the can was shaped like a box with dials and buttons and stuff. Plus, it does mean I can now censor everything Josh says. Josh, say something. OK. And it did work very well, but the problem was... ...video, it didn't actually work.
00:02:59
Speaker
Anyway, yeah, no, but sure sure that was Disgusting and vile. Yep Um, yes, so there we go We have our magical new piece of kit which why if you're watching on video is why we're canned up We've got these sweet sweet cans. It's true. We are canny. Yes Because so that we can hear what we're saying without you hearing what we're saying that hearing what we're actually saying
00:03:26
Speaker
saying I don't think I've explained that correctly no but I'm actually thinking more the fact that canny is a really really bad punny joke and I should not have said it and I apologize to both the watchers and the listeners of this vod slash podcast for engaging in humour which is unbecoming of an associate professor yeah and an associate professor you are so yes we're here in Auckland
00:03:48
Speaker
I am still here in
Dr. Dentith's Upcoming Move and Quarantine Plans
00:03:49
Speaker
Auckland. Josh, prove I'm still here in Auckland in a way which also produces sound. Bite my hand or something. I don't know if that comes across on the microphone. No, not really. It just gave me an excuse to punch an iWatch though. Oh, you've been waiting for a long time haven't you? So long. So very long.
00:04:07
Speaker
So yes, I'm still here. I will probably not be here come the middle of February. I'm receiving my visa at the end of next week and then making my plans for leaving the country. So could be gone as early as beginning of Feb or the latest by the end of Feb. I've got two weeks of quarantine to look forward to when I arrive. And then at some point towards the end of Feb, I'll be in an office. And then the question will be,
00:04:34
Speaker
Will I be recording from the office or from home? Because then we've got time zones to deal with. And time zones are going to be very, very weird. Time zones are tricky monkeys.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yeah, so anyway, that's a problem for another time. It is indeed. Just have to sort that out when we come to it. What else? This is episode 299.
Planning the 300th Episode Celebration
00:04:57
Speaker
Now if my mathematics serves me correctly, that means next week is episode 300. God, I wish you'd told me we're going to do math. I would have got some paper and done some calculations. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. But if we carry the one,
00:05:09
Speaker
divide by pi, use an irrational number, and then calculate the distance between the Earth and the Moon and the Moon and Mars. I think that does mean that, yeah, next week is episode 300. Right, we'll have to do something special for that then.
00:05:25
Speaker
Oh, but the trick is we already have... Dun-dun-dun... God, I wish I had actually done... Oh, you need a dun-dun-dun sting, Dan. You should have put one in there. Yeah, maybe next week. Instead I'll just go... Here we go. Fine, that'll do. Yes, so... So we actually do need a long-standing dun-dun-dun sound when we don't have other sound effects, so... The problem with this mixing decks...
00:05:48
Speaker
Decks? Decks? Decks? This mixing deck is that we've got a whole bunch of buttons here, so we've got a button to play the intro, a button to play the outro, we've got a button to play the intro to the patron bonus episode, a button to play the outro to the patron bonus episode, and then basically two spare buttons, which when we're doing the Lord Morrissey Morrissey will be the intro and outro to that. This week, of course, I could have had a dun dun dun plugged in, but I didn't think of it.
00:06:15
Speaker
and basically I'm just regretting a lot of life choices this week and all the life choices. And then also we have yet another patron I understand. Yes, although this is someone who hasn't paid for the full reveal of their patronage. So all I can say M
00:06:33
Speaker
because you've got a first name that starts with that letter is that we're onto you and we're only onto you because you're giving us money so frankly this plot of yours is not working out and um
00:06:51
Speaker
I think that's all we have to say before we do the actual episode and what an episode.
What The Conspiracy Segment Introduction
00:06:57
Speaker
Yes, it's a what the conspiracy episode where this week I introduce Josh to hopefully a conspiracy theory he's never heard of. Yes, hopefully, and I'll do my best to act surprised if it turns out to be one that I have heard of. So we just get straight into it and avoid any sort of suspense. Yes, I think that means I need to press this button
00:07:21
Speaker
here.
00:07:27
Speaker
Now, as is traditional with our What The Conspiracy episodes, I'm going to ask you three questions. When did this conspiracy occur? Or at least, when is this conspiracy theory said to have occurred? Since, of course, we may or may not be talking about a warranted or unwarranted conspiracy theory. I want a where. It's a where in the world. So I will say it's an Earth-based conspiracy, just in case you're worried about the universe being immensely large. It is a conspiracy theory based on Earth. And I want...
00:07:57
Speaker
I want a timeframe. So when in time, I think that was actually covered by the first thing I said. But you can tell me twice because frankly, I might forget as I did the first time. And then I want what kind of conspiracy. So when, where and what? Yeah, well, now see, last time I was in this position, I was frighteningly accurate with the when and the where.
00:08:20
Speaker
and was completely off with the what when as I recall I assumed it would be something to do with cheese.
00:08:29
Speaker
So I think that the only sensible thing to do would be give you the exact same answers I did first time, because they worked so well the first time. I mean, that's logical, right? That makes sense. The thing is, this eventually is going to work in your favour, because you were frighteningly accurate, and spoiler alert, there's actually more to the gallery conspiracy than initially led on. So eventually, if you give those answers, you'll be right. But will you be right this week?
00:08:57
Speaker
I think there's only one way to find out. I'm guessing it's somewhere in the 16th century. Okay. I'm guessing it's still in England. And as for the kind, I was off with the cheese. So I think I'm gonna have to, is it a yogurt themed conspiracy? Sticking with the dairy. Yeah. Okay, well, let me tell you where, which is technically Australia, although technically he's doing an awful lot of work. When
00:09:25
Speaker
It's the 20th or 21st century. So it still continues to this very day? Well, no, I mean, it's kind of answered now, if indeed it's real. And it's a literary mystery. Literary? Ooh, I read sometimes. That is a bold-faced lie, and you're saying it to my face. Yep. Whilst not being bald, which makes it a lot worse. Not even bald-faced, actually.
00:09:51
Speaker
So today I'm going to tell you the tale of Todnoy, a Perth-born Australian Pulitzer Prize-winning sports journalist, who amongst other works of fiction wrote the 1989 book Drago on Mountains We Stand, a published piece of Rocky IV fan fiction which details Ivan Drago's life after Rocky IV, including his fall and his rise. Do you know about Todnoy?
00:10:17
Speaker
I
Dolph Lundgren: Beyond the Action Star
00:10:18
Speaker
do not. None of this sounds familiar at all. I'm not hearing a conspiracy yet, though. I mean, please tell me more about the future of Ivan Drago. First of all, first of all, we probably should talk about how much we stand Dolph Lundgren on this podcast. Dolph Lundgren, he is the bee's knees. And not just because we appreciate his fine attempts at acting and a variety of straight to DVD films or straight to streaming films in recent years,
00:10:45
Speaker
Dolph Lundgren was a Rhodes Scholar. He's an actually quite smart man. So he was a chemical engineer? Yeah. Who just happened to get into a relationship with Grace Jones, became a model and then an actor, and now is probably nowhere near as successful he would have been if he'd been a chemical engineer. It's kind of hard to tell with... How do you measure success? A Hollywood C-Lister.
00:11:08
Speaker
Mm-hmm because we like Swedish Swedish martial arts champion in whichever particular
00:11:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. That's true. He might be doing... I mean, I suppose it depends on whether he'd become, say, associate professor as a chemical engineer after his Rhodes scholarship. But no, we love Dolph Lundgren on this podcast. He might be almost as good as heartthrob Rutger Hauer. But of course, the thing about Dolph Lundgren, which unfortunately Rutger Hauer doesn't have, is that Dolph Lundgren's alive. He is. And Rutger Hauer allegedly is quite dead.
00:11:46
Speaker
That was a bit of a shame. Now, people may not know this, but I used to write short fiction, and I once submitted a piece of fiction to Rutger Hao's website, which he selected to come out in an anthology which was never published. So technically, Rutger Hao knew who I was. Well, there we go. Didn't know who I was, neither does Dolph Lundgren as far as I'm aware.
00:12:06
Speaker
Well, we should get Dolph Lundgren to also put forward a fiction anthology, and then you can write something. And then Dolph will know who you are. Rutger will know who I was. No, actually, that kind of works in a temporal sense because he's dead. Anyway, we're getting off thinking. It's not about what you or I may have written. It's about what this was. What was his name? Todd Noe. Tell me about him. So, well, let's talk about the book.
00:12:32
Speaker
Drago on mountains we stay as an extra but a published book a published book you can buy it online dang wait You know you know you can't buy it wait You know you can buy it online, but you can also get it from the noise state And it's kind of unusual because it is a piece of fanfiction Based on the ending of rocky 4 although apparently it's no longer in canon with the rest of the rocky films including Creed 2 which actually deals with Yes with
00:12:59
Speaker
Drago's son and Rocky's kind of adopted spiritual son in respect to Apollo Creed's son. So yeah, so On Mountains We Stand or Drago On Mountains We Stand. Now the book starts with the following opening.
00:13:14
Speaker
The following work is a gross abuse of copyright. Names, places and events have been unchanged. I have done this with the firm belief that a king's story is more important than the literary regulations I flaunt.
00:13:29
Speaker
Now, this book has numerous five-star ratings on Goodreads, and it's referred to as Noy's Final Masterpieces. Now, quick question, how long do you think this book is, and how many chapters do you think it has? Right, well, I do happen to know that the longest single work ever produced was a work of fan fiction. I can't remember exactly who it was fanficking about, so I'm gonna guess it's maybe 4,000 pages long.
00:13:58
Speaker
Interesting. Do you know how tall a 4,000 page book would be? We'll come back to this, so don't answer now. The book is 80 pages long and features 67 chapters. Indeed, sometimes it has more than one chapter per page.
00:14:15
Speaker
Okay, keeps things brief. I like it. It is. Now, Drago on Mountains We Stand has been mentioned in articles on Rocky IV in such magazines as Sports Illustrated and used to be referenced on the Wikipedia page for Rocky IV, although now it's been relegated to the page on Ivan Drago, because of course Wikipedia has a page on Ivan Grado's.
00:14:38
Speaker
Wikipedia lacks many important pages on things that actually do exist, and has many unimportant pages on things that don't exist.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yes, I can't remember who it was. It suggested the past time of wiki groaning, which is where you look up a real world topic and then look up a fictional topic that's sort of similar and then groan at how much more work was put into the fictional ones, such as looking up the Wikipedia page on fencing and then looking up the Wikipedia page on lightsaber fighting styles. And it's a little depressing.
00:15:15
Speaker
Yeah, Wikipedia is very interesting, both from a philosophical and capitalist perspective, but we won't get into Wikipedia right now. So an odd fact about Drago on Mountains We Stand, so not only is it a published piece of fanfic, which is quite unusual in fanfiction world,
00:15:37
Speaker
It's also got a rather unusual history of procurement. So if you go and look at those Goodreads pages on Drago on Mountains We Stand, most of the reviews suggest that people did not buy the book, but rather they found a copy in a weird place, such as when they were hiking in the Andes, and they found a copy in a hut, or they're given copies by complete strangers.
00:16:04
Speaker
Right. Do we know, I should ask at the start, does this book actually exist? Yes, it does. We do have physical proof that it exists as a thing. If you go to the noise state website, you can order copies of Todd noise books.
00:16:19
Speaker
and they will be delivered to your house and you can read them. In fact, if I'd had time, I had, because I thought by the time we got round to this episode, I'd be overseas. I actually would have ordered a copy to present it to show you the book actually does exist. Now, the big question, first of all is, who is Todd Noy? Well, yes, you said he's an Australian writer. Well, let me give you the good read bio of Todd Noy.
The Enigma of Todd Noy
00:16:48
Speaker
This is Todnoy. Todnoy was a prize-winning sports journalist from Perth, Western Australia. He is written for VFL Weekly, the Guardian and KO magazine. His novels include Ochre Dyke, Mark to the Noxman, House of Fiego, The Elabasta Wars and Drago on Mountain to East End. His short works include Limey and Me, Lettuce to Dante and Gout.
00:17:11
Speaker
Noe disappeared in January 1992 after a long battle with drug and alcohol addictions. Presumed dead, a memorial service was held in his honour in Perth in December 1995. He is survived by his two sons, Marlon and Quint, and his beautiful long-term partner, English cellist Elizabeth Harrington.
00:17:29
Speaker
Through the tireless efforts of Marlon Noy and Robert Wallace, the Noy estate has painstakingly restored and continues to release limited editions of Todd's classic works, including Noy's semi-autobiographical, previously unreleased volume, Swarmr.
00:17:47
Speaker
Right, well that doesn't sound overly outlandish. Now, interesting note, the Elabaster Wars, which does not survive in its entirety, is thought to be at least 4,000 pages long. I see. Now, I'll go back to that question I asked at the beginning. How big do you think a 4,000 page book would be? I'm guessing a metre or two off the ground. It would be the height of a door. Right. 4,000 pages is a lot of pages. It is, yep.
00:18:18
Speaker
It also would not be a book you could produce with a usable spy. Actually, talking about that, did you ever watch Garth Moringy's Dark Place? No. So Garth Moringy's Dark Place is a Channel 4 comedy series about a Stephen King-esque writer, although he's of the firm belief that he knows writers who use subtext and their accounts.
00:18:41
Speaker
So everything he does is very straight on the nose and Dark Place is meant to be a kind of TV adaptation of the kind of stories he produces and he talks about producing a single volume of all of his works in one bound volume which comes installed in the special vice because there's no way the book can actually exist spine-wise without being clamped the entire time. So people have thought about producing books of this length but no
00:19:07
Speaker
The Alabaster Wars appears to be almost impossibly long, but because the book does not survive in its entirety, it's not entirely clear in what form it was meant to initially have been presented. So other interesting facts, Old Okadike, which is one of his books, is an oral novel, so it was actually never in print, and it's based upon a classic Outback fireside story.
00:19:31
Speaker
So, how do we know it exists? Because it's attested to by the Nui estate and by Nui experts. I see, okay. Another interesting note, Todd Nui has... Don't look up Todd Nui. I'm not looking up Todd Nui. I'm looking up something else, don't I? Okay, good. He had an honorary degree from the University of New Delhi.
00:19:51
Speaker
And kind of the weird thing is that he wrote original fiction. His original fiction is said to be very good. But for some reason, his masterpiece is a piece of Rocky IV fanfic.
00:20:04
Speaker
So I was just looking up the World's Longest Fan Fiction known as the Subspace Emissaries World's Conquest. It's currently over three and a half million words. That's a Super Smash Brothers piece of fan fiction, isn't it? It is. Yeah, it's based on Super Smash Brothers. It's apparently three times as long as Marcel Proust's Alaré Cherche du Tomp here do. Six times as long as Infinite Jest and 13 times long as Ulysses. That's a fact you know now.
00:20:34
Speaker
That's true. You're never going to be raised that fact. Never going to be raised? You're never going to be able to raise that fact from your head. Anyway, do continue. Now as I say, it's...
00:20:46
Speaker
Most people seem to get their copies of Drago and Mountains We Stand from other people. It's also not clear who the original publisher was, but the noise state now, as stated in the Goodreads bio, is producing copies for people to purchase, because with Noe being dead, presumably the copyright has returned back to their state. And they're simply handling all of this work. And because Noe is dead, we don't really know
00:21:14
Speaker
why he wrote Drago on mountains we stand. Right, I mean...
00:21:21
Speaker
This is all slightly weird, but not outside the rounds of possibility. I'm still not hearing a conspiracy theory, though, yet. Okay, well, let's talk about who is promoting noise. Okay. So we've got the noise state, and we've got the lawyer for the noise state, which is one, Robert Wallace, who was a barrister working in London, who works for the noise state.
00:21:46
Speaker
And the NoiState recently released a Lost Noi novel by the name of Swarma, which is available to purchase from the NoiState website. But otherwise, when you start looking to Todd Noi, you start looking into the world of Todd Noi expertise, the people who research and try to find Lost Noi works.
00:22:05
Speaker
And there are two major rival Noi experts, one David Allat and one Robert Smith. Not that Robert Smith, a completely different Robert Smith. I was going to say. Now Allat, like most people who are fans of Todd Noi, got his first copy of Drago on Mountains We Stand from a Tramp on a day where he was feeling almost suicidal.
00:22:28
Speaker
Obviously. So he was having a wander, he was a teenager, having a wander around his town. A tramp came up to him and said, you look pretty glum, mate, you should read this book. And the book apparently changed his life and then made him into a noi expert who went round trying to... You're looking at me as if I'm making this entire story up. I am looking at you like that, yes. But it's all written down, so I'll take your word for it.
00:22:52
Speaker
Now, both Elat and Robert Smith claim to have expert inside knowledge of Noy's work, including having had access via the Noy estate to previously unseen Noy extracts, so David Elat was able to reveal parts of Swarmr before it was actually released, showing he does have some contact with Robert Wallace and the Noy estate.
00:23:12
Speaker
And they are both rivals going back to their younger days when they were competitors in shuffleboarding in the UK. Obviously. Because I did not know competitive shuffleboarding was a thing. Oh, competitive everything is a thing, I think.
00:23:31
Speaker
Now, Swift owns a pub that Noy used to frequent when he was working for the Guardian in London. This place is called the Queen's Head and they sell a Noy inspired pie, the Piccadilly Pie, which is apparently a kind of pie that Noy used to enjoy when he worked in London.
00:23:49
Speaker
And Swift has contact with at least one of the children of Todd Noy, Marlon Quince, who visits the pub with some regularity. And I say both Allat and Swift have a very long-standing rivalry. OK, again, weird, not overtly conspiratorial. OK, well, here's some additional facts.
00:24:16
Speaker
Noy's books often come signed, which is a bit of a problem since apparently he died in 1992. Noy can't have won a Pulitzer because the first Australian to win a Pulitzer was Nathaniel Brooks in 2006, which is once again after Todd Noy's death.
00:24:36
Speaker
OK. Anyone who's done any research into Todd Noy can find no copies of articles written by him in any magazines, including The Guardian, which does have a search engine, which allows you to go back into the early 90s and late 80s to find out what articles they had in print. OK, I'm starting to see a pattern here. There is no University of New Delhi. Right. You'd think there would be. There is no Australian folk story called Old Okadike.
00:25:05
Speaker
that you know, that anyone in Australia knows. As I said, a 4,000 page book would be as tall as a door. Oh, also apparently parts of the alabaster walls which David Allatt read were partially written on toilet paper. The law firm in London that Robert Wallace is said to belong to does not exist.
00:25:29
Speaker
So we got more. It's not just Noi that doesn't exist. We have suspicions that more than one person doesn't exist. Are you going to tell me that I don't exist at the end of this because it feels like that's where we headed? Well, I mean, I'm going to have my own doubts about whether I exist. Finally, everyone who's ever reviewed or written on Noi is connected to one man on social media.
00:25:56
Speaker
thought you were about to say is dead. I was really worried. And that is Noi expert David Allatt.
00:26:03
Speaker
Okay, so am I to assume then that people have suggested that Todnoy doesn't exist and that the entire backstory is just a way for this one guy to peddle his fanfiction? Yes. Right. Is it his rival who says this but then the rival is the one who also nevertheless believes that claims that Todnoy existed? I'm very confused. David Allatt and Robert Swift
00:26:30
Speaker
may not be good friends, but they are acquaintances who don't have the rivalry that they make out to have. I see. So now the, so surely the question now is why? Yeah, yeah. That is a question. All right. Well, what, what, what other questions do you have? Um, one is one. That's sort of a, that's more of a sound than it's a question.
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah, I suppose so. Okay, if I'm getting this correctly, we have an author who has a whole backstory and a fairly detailed one. And published books. And published books. I should also point out, people who have read Drago on Mountains We Stay and Say is actually an excellent novel. So it's not just
00:27:22
Speaker
A bit of fan fiction where mythology has risen around it, people say it is actually a genuinely good book. And the recently released Swarmer is also said to be very, very good indeed.
00:27:35
Speaker
an 80-page book with 67 chapters. Yeah, but it is punchy. It sounds like something somebody put up on a blog one post at a time and each post became a chapter or something. No, it was not. So is it then the rest of the literary world
00:27:54
Speaker
are the conspiracy theorists and their theory is that all of this is a fabrication just to make some dodgy fan fiction or high quality fan fiction more marketable. Is that what's going on here? Well,
00:28:12
Speaker
No, so basically the story of Todd Noy is the story of David deciding one day under encouragement by friends to actually write a bit of Rocky IV fan fiction. And his plan was he wanted someone famous and associated with the boxing world to then claim they'd got a copy of the book.
00:28:38
Speaker
and then get that famous person implicated as the actual writer of the book. So the initial plan was they really actually wanted to give a copy of Drago and Mountains Be Stand to Dolph Lundgren on the notion that they go, look, here's the book.
00:28:53
Speaker
Don't say you didn't write it, but at the same time, allow people to assume you did write it. What a fun luck that would be. But unfortunately, they had no way of actually getting content with Dolph Lundgren. So Mike Tyson, who was in the UK at one point and thought, we'll give it to him.
00:29:10
Speaker
And this basically failed completely. So David tried to get close to Mike Tyson and Mike Tyson's bodyguards went, this guy looks weird and basically wrestled him to the ground. So he was never able to pass the book on to Mike Tyson to try and make him appear to be the author of a bit of Rocky IV fan fiction. Is Mike Tyson one of those people that they talk about who has bodyguards?
00:29:32
Speaker
because if he ever punched someone in the face, he'd probably take their head off. I have a feeling that might be why he has bodyguards not to protect Mike Tyson, but to protect Mike Tyson from manslaughter charges. Well, yeah, amongst other things which they have failed to protect them from, but that's another matter entirely.
00:29:50
Speaker
So basically what David then did, and I'm now going actually on entirely sure that I'm pronouncing his last name correctly, he then gave copies of the book, Dragoan Mountains We Stand, to friends without actually saying that he was the author. So he decided that he would invent an author and actually went with Todd Noy because it sounds like a really, really amusing name.
00:30:13
Speaker
and then basically his friends and other acquaintances started playing a game. So they started reviewing Dragon Mountains We Stand on Goodreads and developing this mythology around Todnoy, which eventually then went to the point where people started editing Wikipedia to put references on there. And that was basically where it stood
00:30:38
Speaker
until two Australian podcasters, Alexei Toliopoulos and Cameron James, who had previously run a film review podcast, then went, is this really weird reference on the Rocky IV Wikipedia page about a book
00:31:00
Speaker
about Ivan Drago, apparently written by an Australian author, which we've never heard of, so we're going to investigate this. And so they did this podcast called Finding Drago, where they're initially trying to track down any information about Todd Noy in Australia, so they call the National Archives, they ring up anyone with the last name Noy, they talk to people in Perth, they start doing research into folk stories and the like to find if they can get any collaborating evidence.
00:31:30
Speaker
and they basically don't find anything and then they get in contact with the NOI experts and they very quickly come to the conclusion that the NOI experts are basically leading them along. So this is a fascinating case of something which started out as a game
00:31:50
Speaker
and then became a conspiracy when people started investigating it, because the people behind it, notably David and Robert, thought they'd be able to fool the two podcasters into believing Noi was a real person, despite the fact that, as the two Australians pointed out, there was no evidence of Todd Noi ever existing, and all of the collaborating evidence that was meant to show that Todd Noi was a real person didn't exist at all.
Exploring the 'Finding Drago' Podcast
00:32:19
Speaker
OK, against all probabilities, that actually makes sense. Yeah. And the thing is, if you actually want to know more about Todnoy and the excitement of Drago and Mountains We Stand, I would recommend taking a listen to Finding Drago, which is about two years old now.
00:32:38
Speaker
It's eight parts and it is a roller coaster of a ride. We haven't even touched on some of the really weird stuff that happens along the way. And then once you've finished listening to Finding Drago, I would heartily recommend their follow-up.
00:32:53
Speaker
podcast, Finding Desperado, which deals with them tracking down a reference in the Guinness Book of Record for the youngest person ever nominated for a prize for making a commercial film. And that story goes in a lot of very weird places, very weird places indeed.
00:33:17
Speaker
Oh, well, maybe I should check it out. Maybe you should check it out. I've already checked it out and I'm actually happy to check it out again. Well, there we go. Okay, well, I just just before. Last time I had a whole bunch of Shakespearean stuff to go into, but that is basically it.
00:33:38
Speaker
Well, that was quite a ride, I'll have to say. And yes, well done, I guess. Something I hadn't heard of. Something I'm almost certain my life is better for actually hearing now. Yeah. Yeah. Todd Noy slash David Allat. Allat, I actually probably should have, I should have listened back to the episode where they introduced him to get his last name. I was so pleased that I'm pronouncing
00:34:07
Speaker
Alexei Toliopoulos' name correctly that actually a standard English name I'm now going is it really just a lot a lot I Now I'm going oh, I really need to do more time spend more time Writing down how people's names are pronounced because really it is my absolute weakness and it's going to be an absolute weakness when I'm in China So I just have to get used to it. Yep. Yep. No. Well get used to preparing things probably yes, I
00:34:35
Speaker
Right, well, I think another successful episode of What the Conspiracy? We need more stings. We do. We actually do need a What the Conspiracy sting. If anyone has a suggestion for a sting for What the Conspiracy, or indeed a better name for the segment, please do write in. We always appreciate your emails.
00:34:56
Speaker
One thing we don't appreciate is the constant replies we get to that one single podcast we did on Uncle Sam's Snuff Factory which continues to get about a comment a week on YouTube.
00:35:14
Speaker
by people who are either telling us that we're ignoring the truth of what she says, or this week, thank you for drawing attention with your critical faculties, it'll help get the message out about what she's saying, which was kind of suggestive of, they think that we agree with her.
00:35:33
Speaker
It was very weird, very weird. It is. I'm assuming, therefore, that the Uncle Sam's Snuff Factory conspiracy is the most obscure one we've ever covered, given that it seems like this podcast is the only time anyone's actually talked about it other than the people.
00:35:51
Speaker
involved in the conspiracy theorising themselves. I mean, maybe it's actually something ripe for us to go back and look at to see whether the story's changed at all or whether it's still the same old, same old.
00:36:06
Speaker
Now, that's the end of this episode. But of course, we have a bonus episode for our lovely patrons who give us money and they allow us to furnish ourselves with these magical podcasting devices and all that sort of stuff.
Preview of Bonus Episode on January 20th Events
00:36:19
Speaker
Now, the thing that we managed to go this entire episode without mentioning is that we're recording this on January the 21st New Zealand time.
00:36:30
Speaker
or the evening of January the 20th US time. And you might have noticed that something happened in America on January the 20th US time. Was it an earthquake? Probably. Volcanic eruption? Forest fire. Tsunami. Oil spill.
00:36:52
Speaker
Penguin attack. Yes. Penguin attacks. No, so the, I guess, momentous events of January the 20th will be what we're discussing in the bonus episode. Last week we had assumed things would get a bit rowdier, I think. So our basic plan was we were just going to sit here refreshing our Twitter feed and checking the news sites to see what sorts of craziness have happened.
00:37:21
Speaker
with the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Just giving the game away there. Or possibly the inauguration of Donald Trump wearing Joe Biden's skin.
00:37:32
Speaker
So yeah basically I think there's enough to talk about for an entire bonus episode there and so that's what we're going to do. So yes if you're a patron you can tune into that as soon as I've uploaded it after uploading this episode and if you're not a patron well the details about coming a patron will be coming up very shortly in a sting which just requires me to press a single button. Right well the single button
00:37:57
Speaker
I can sting. Well, before you press that single button then, I think we should probably do the polite and civil thing and say goodbye. Vladevostok! The podcaster's guide to the conspiracy is Josh Addison and me, Dr. M.R.X.Dentist. You can contact our sad podcast, conspiracygmail.com, and please do consider supporting the podcast via our Patreon.
00:38:23
Speaker
And remember, the truth is out there, but not quite where you think you left it.