S5 Ep1: The Devil is in the Details: Is Monster Energy Drink a Vehicle for SATAN!
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Hey stranger, just a warning before we jump in. This episode sort of unexpectedly veers into topics of sexual assault and rape. Please take care when listening. Can an energy drink corrupt? Can the packaging on a product be a hidden incantation? And can the character on the label be an effigy for a demon that waits, hungry for your soul to be released when the top is popped?

Can the hiss of a can being opened be the hiss of fire and brimstone? The hiss of the vipers of hell? Welcome to Strange and Unexplained with me, Daisy Egan. As you probably know by now, 99% of my episodes come from listener suggestions. Occasionally, I come across a story all by my little self that interests me enough to dive in and cover. But the vast majority of episodes are suggested by listeners.

Today's episode was suggested by a listener and it seemed so silly and preposterous that I thought, how can I not cover this? ♪

I don't much like energy drinks. The first time I had a Red Bull was at a bar in France in 1997. Some German guy offered to buy me a drink and handed me what I can only describe as carbonated cough syrup with vodka in it. Listen, you do you, but that shit is nasty. The only thing worse than Red Bull is sugar-free Red Bull. I would rather chew moldy coffee beans than drink that swill.

There have been one or two occasions on which I've had to perform and felt so tired I didn't know how I was going to make it onto stage, and I have caved and had a Red Bull. In one instance, I'd woken up the night before a two-show day absolutely covered head to toe in hives. Not only did I not get any sleep, I had to be pumped full of Benadryl to tamp down the Quasimodo-like welts all over my face and body.

The only way to get through two shows was a lot of caffeine, so I downed a bottle of Red Bull. And while it did get me through the performance, I would not be interested in asking the audience in attendance for their review. Though I was playing Catherine in A View from the Bridge, I can only imagine I came off like a coked-up frat boy extolling the values of NFTs and Bitcoins. I was in a caffeine-induced fugue state. ♪

This episode isn't about Red Bull, though. It's about monster energy drinks, which I have never had. Until this moment. I have here in my hand a monster energy drink. I don't know what flavor it is. It doesn't say. Tear into a can of the meanest energy drink on the planet, Monster Energy. It's the ideal combo of the right ingredients in the right proportion to deliver the big bad buzz that only Monster can.

Monster packs a powerful punch, but has a smooth, easy drinking flavor. Athletes, musicians, anarchists, co-eds, road warriors, metalheads, geeks, hipsters and bikers dig it. You will too. Unleash the beast. Monster, I'm available for any voiceover gigs that you need. Here we go.

Oh, God. It smells disgusting. I told him no apple flavor. I don't know what this is. Okay, here we go. It's got L-carnitine and taurine and B vitamins. Oh, God. Okay. Oh, my God. That's awful. Oh, God.

That was like a liquefied, carbonated Jolly Rancher. Oh, it's sitting on the back of my tongue. God damn, don't drink this stuff. Energy drinks taste gross to me and make me feel weird. But I don't enjoy paying inflated prices for single serving sugar water the color of pee, even if it does boast amino acids found in the semen of a bull.

But energy drinks are popular with everyone else. And just because I don't like it doesn't mean I need to enlist the powers of an almighty being to bolster my case. Who do I care what you put in your body? Your body, your choice, despite what some might seem to think. There is one woman, though, who seems to care very much about what you put in your body, and Monster Energy drinks are at the top of her list of no-no's.

But it's not because it tastes like a gym sock covered in corn syrup or even because of the lethal amounts of caffeine. Christine Weick wants you to know that monster energy drinks are the work of Satan. After tasting one, I may just agree. ♪

Hanson Natural Company had chugged along since the 1930s as a natural juice and soda brand. It was the kind of soda your friend's weird hippie vegan mom had on hand to go with the Boca burgers on whole wheat English muffins for dinner.

That is, until April of 2002, when Hansen released its new energy drink, Monster. Because of Monster's success, Hansen officially changed its brand name to Monster Beverage Corporation, probably to shake off any association it might have still had with your friend's weird hippie vegan mom. No offense, Karen, I actually secretly really liked those Boca Burgers.

The new extreme vibe of the new millennium rebranding came with a cool new extreme logo. And the black can with the neon green M seemingly clawed into it by some taloned beast was born. This was definitely not your friend's mom's energy drink. Red Bull may have given you wings, but Monster promised it would unleash the beast. ♪

American consumers couldn't get enough of it. Monster stood out from other similar drinks on the market, not just because of its beastly image, but also because cans of Monster are twice the size of its main competitor, Red Bull, and it offers a sweeter, fizzier flavor profile, too. Monster has more caffeine and more sugar, because that's definitely what we all need more of, than other energy drinks, and comes in a wide variety of flavors.

Pair all of that with the company's clever extreme marketing, positioning Monster as the cool, edgy sponsor of motocross, UFC, and alternative sporting events, thus cementing its demographic, and you have a wildly profitable product on your hands.

So Monster unleashed the proverbial beast and kept growing for the next decade or so, finding its way into the gullets of 18 to 29-year-olds across the nation, appearing in video games and adding new drinks to their roster to try to reach the mere 60% of Americans who weren't already diehard Monster devotees. Because that's what corporations do. They sell stuff, and then they sell more stuff.

And then, in 2012, a 14-year-old girl from Hagerstown, Maryland, named Anais Fournier, went into cardiac arrest after drinking two Monster Energy drinks. Anais' parents claimed Monster Energy drink was responsible for their daughter's death and sued the beverage company.

Monster denied any responsibility for the girl's death. They said the 14-year-old had died due to a pre-existing condition, not because of drinking their product. The company's legal team released a press release that stated, quote, Monster is very sorry for the family's loss, but the facts do not support placing the blame of the 14-year-old's untimely passing on Monster Beverages, end quote.

It is true that there may have been something going on with Anais Fournier's heart. CBS News reported in 2012, quote, According to the coroner, Anais Fournier did have a mild underlying heart condition that was aggravated by the caffeine, end quote.

But one has to wonder how serious this condition was, and if it would have triggered cardiac arrest had she not been drinking the highly caffeinated Monster. Spoiler alert: this case ultimately got settled for an undisclosed amount. I don't want to leave you hanging too long on that.

Now, after Anais Fournier's death, but before the settlement in the case, a San Francisco city attorney, Dennis Herrera, slapped a suit on Monster that accused the energy drink of, according to the Cochran firm, quote, causing brain seizures and cardiac arrests and marketing its drinks to children as young as six years old.

Monster filed a countersuit claiming Herrera is seeking publicity, that its products have less caffeine than Starbucks coffee, and that the lawsuit unconstitutionally burdens commercial free speech. End quote.

Okay, Bob, but middle schoolers aren't going to Starby's and ordering two venti Americanos and slinging them down back to back, you know? And I can hear you yelling at me that kids are indeed patronizing Starbucks at increasing rates, but as far as I can tell, it's mostly to drink those disgusting pink concoctions, which are not actually coffee. That's how they get them. They have to get them young to build brand loyalty. How else do they expect to keep them once they learn just how gross their coffee actually is?

And while I am certainly a champion of the First Amendment, I don't think anyone had a company's ability to shill high-octane blue raspberry slurry to teenyboppers in mind when they tacked that one on to the Bill of Rights.

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Another law firm, Morgan & Morgan, that claims to be America's largest injury law firm, goes so far as to imply that the folks at Monster are practically admitting liability right there on their cans. Quote,

The company's taglines encourage people to tear into the product so it can deliver the big bad buzz that only Monster can. Monster also informs consumers that the drink contains only the ideal combo of the right ingredients in the right proportion, falsely implying the combination has been properly tested."

Listen, label's gonna label, you know what I mean? Just because the cow on that package of ground beef you're buying looks peaceful out there in that field doesn't mean that the literal hundreds of cows it took to make that one package of meat had lives that looked anything like what's on the package.

I'm no Madison Avenue type, but I watched Mad Men. I know that half the shit on any label is complete garbage. And like, sure, my 12-year-old is very susceptible to this kind of marketing, but it's also my job as his parent to teach him to make healthy choices.

Jesus, I'm starting to sound like some free market capitalist over here. Listen, I do expect the nutritional information and ingredients on the label to be truthful. But when you tell me that your brand of peanut spread is the one moms choose, I'll take that claim with a big dose of salt. You get me? Anyway.

The Cochrane firm's piece on the lawsuit goes on to say, quote,

Dr. Alexander Ding, AMA board member, said in a June 18th release, end quote.

Wait a second. Five reports? Yes, stranger. It turns out Anais was not the only person to die after drinking Monster. The FDA investigated five deaths and one non-lethal heart attack that were potentially connected to Monster between 2009 and 2012.

In one case from 2012, also detailed on the Cochran Group's website, 19-year-old Alex Morris purportedly drank two pints of Monster Energy drink a day over a three-year period before he collapsed and died due to cardiac arrhythmia due to cardiomyopathy. The lawsuit that followed accused the company of, quote, defective product design, failure to warn consumers, negligence, fraud, and wrongful death, end quote.

I'm going to hazard a guess that the rest of Morris's diet wasn't exactly five servings of fruit and veggies a day. When they say eat a rainbow every day, they don't mean a pack of Skittles. It's probably impossible to point to one thing in Morris's diet that led to his tragic and untimely death. Many, many things cause heart problems. It's not like someone who smokes two packs a day getting lung cancer and being like, where did this come from? It was the cigarettes.

In Morris's case, it might not be so clear-cut. Still, this case, and almost all the others brought against Monster, ended in undisclosed settlements. Here's what's really wild. Monster, it turns out, was following the FDA's supplement standards. It is essentially a soda, and was somehow allowed to label itself as a supplement.

The company is now required to adhere to food standards, and Monster is officially considered a drink now. LOL. Along with that, Monster's label must now actually list caffeine amounts, and the drink has warning labels on its products. Doesn't sound all that blameless to me.

But it isn't just the high levels of caffeine that make energy drinks dangerous. The National Library of Medicine published an article in 2023 on the subject that said energy drinks, quote, typically contain large amounts of caffeine, added sugars, other additives, and legal stimulants such as guarana, taurine, and L-carnitine, end quote. And the article tells us, quote, consequences of this consumption pattern have led to a rising incidence of young individuals seeking medical attention

in emergency departments due to an array of adverse health outcomes. Energy drinks have deleterious effects on a broad spectrum of bodily organs, culminating in mild adversities such as anxiety, gastrointestinal disturbances, dehydration, nervousness, and tachycardia, along with more severe outcomes like rhabdomyolysis, acute kidney injury, ventricular fibrillation, seizures, acute mania, and stroke.

Furthermore, instances linking energy drink consumption to fatalities have been documented." So yeah, all of the defensive claims by the marketing department aside, these energy drinks seem dangerous. And while they now have to at least post the ingredients and warnings on the can, it just seems unlikely to me that their target demographic is carefully reading or considering the label.

But that's capitalism for you. Personal responsibility reigns where corporate responsibility wanes. I believe in a healthy combination of both. One would think the scandal of possibly causing heart attacks and killing kids is bad enough to at least tank the profits and success of a product, but Monster weathered the legal storm and came out on top. Maybe this is because the company was busy suing other companies for copyright infringement and winning.

Maybe it is because they branched out into sponsoring metalcore music festivals and launching alcoholic versions of their beverages. Or maybe it is because they had a little help from the Prince of Darkness. Yes, I'm talking about the deceiver himself, the wicked one, old Nick Scratch, the father of lies, Lucifer, the Antichrist. That's right, stranger, I am talking about the devil himself.

Look at the Monster Energy Drink name. Look at their label. The acid green claw marks that form the M in Monster are evocative of, well, a claw. And what has claws? Why, a beast does. It says so right in their tagline, Unleash the Beast. But hey, that's all just clever marketing. It's just a fun, memorable sort of rhyming slogan. Or is it?

Not according to Christian activist Christine Weick, who is usually busy yelling at Muslims and gay people, but who took time out of that important work to go on crusade for Jesus by alerting people to the satanic messages Monster Energy drinks were bringing into their lives. Weick's viral video explains how features of the Monster Energy drink packaging are more than just graphic designs generated by an innocuous marketing team in a high-rise office somewhere.

Weick's video, which has been viewed over 5 million times, including at least twice by me, points out the M on the can made with strokes that appear to be toxic green colored claw marks.

She acknowledges that the appearance of such an image alone is disturbing to her wholesome Christian sensibilities, but then she asks you to look closer and then produces a sheet showing Hebrew characters, on which she points to the Hebrew character for the number 6, or Vav in Hebrew, which is a vertical line with a short horizontal line like a hook almost off the top left of the vertical line.

Each of the three marks that make out the M on the can, Wyke points out, look like the Hebrew character for six. And so, she says, it could mean 666. As in, Damien's birthmark. The devil's phone number. The worst license plate luck of all time. I mean, it could look like 666, I suppose. It could also look like three claw marks made to resemble an M. ♪

Snopes.com corrects the notion that this is some kind of devilish messaging, saying that if a person wanted to create the number 666 in Hebrew, it would actually be written Tav Resh Shemek Vav, or 666, not using Vav three times in a row.

But more than that, Vav is a character with more meanings than just the number six. It is more accurate to say that it's the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet than that it is the number six, and that it serves a complex linguistic purpose. Glorian.com, a publishing company that offers books translated into and from many languages, describes Vav this way on its website.

Quote,

Of course, in any sentence, the word and is a connector, a bridge. We say you and me, and what connects us is and, end quote. What a surprise! A character from a language that predates modern Christianity can't be reduced easily into a hyper-simplified numeric representation of the Judeo-Christian devil?

Maybe the folks at Monster really did mean for the logo to mean and, and, and, representing the kind of stuttering speech someone might have when they've had too much caffeine. But it's not just easy to misinterpret the design of the M that's the problem. Oh no. White goes on to point out that the O in the word Monster on the can has a line bisecting it, which is obviously a cross.

But if Satan is using Monster to sneak into the hearts and minds of caffeine drinkers, why would there be a cross in the logo? Well, because, you stupid heathen idiot, when you turn the can upside down to drink it, the cross gets inverted. Everyone knows the inverted cross is the sign of the devil.

Actually, sorry Goths and Spirit Halloween Store, in spite of having been co-opted into an emblem of evil by 80s metal bands, B-horror movies, and lapsed Christian teenagers trying to be badass, the upside-down cross actually represents the martyrdom of St. Peter.

St. Peter was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus. Peter was crucified in Rome by Emperor Nero in 64 CE because Nero blamed the Christians for the fire that decimated Rome a few weeks before, and Peter was one of the top Christians around.

When they went to nail him to the cross, he begged to be crucified upside down because he didn't feel worthy of the same treatment Jesus had received during his crucifixion. Because of this, to the devout, the inverted cross is, or should be, a symbol of humility, devotion, and sacrifice, not a symbol of the unholy and favorite face decoration of King Diamond.

But guess what? The cross in the O of the monster logo isn't even a cross. According to Snopes, it's, quote, Phi, a pre-Christian Greek character that has nothing to do with Christianity, witchcraft, or satanic messaging, end quote. So there. I mean, honestly, I don't really know why that symbol would be on a can of crappy knockoff Gatorade either. Did they anticipate a lot of classics majors needing their peppy beverage to get through the Iliad in ancient Greek?

If I had to guess, I would imagine that the marketing department just stumbled on a shape that just seemed cool to them. It's probably meaningless, like life itself. Sigh.

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That's cornbreadhemp.com slash strange code strange. Cornbread Hemp. This is the good life. Weick also takes issue with the slogan Unleash the Beast and warns viewers that this is a reference to the devil and that the Beast, capital B, is the very one mentioned in the Book of Revelations. These details raise big questions about the morality of Monster Energy.

The final nail in the satanic coffin for Weick seems to be the point in her video where she points out the initials BFC on the label and shares the scandalous meaning behind them. Big. Fucking. Can. Jesus, as everyone knows, doesn't like swearing. It makes him sad. Wait, does that mean that beloved children's book by notable Nazi sympathizer Roald Dahl is actually the big fucking giant?

Oh no, that changes everything. Also, that has to be a porno, right? Wyke also points her viewers to the claim on the can, which said something like, Do you know what a MILF is? Wyke cries out to her viewer.

What's the problem here, lady? What's wrong with MILFs loving something? You know who loves MILFs? Jesus. Famously. Jesus loves literally everyone. It's his entire brand. So what's your problem, Christine? Are you saying Jesus is wrong? Also, maybe they mean monsters I'd like to fuck. We don't know. Monster has removed that particular tagline from its products in any case. Good job, Christine. You did it.

I mean, I think we can all agree that Monsters marketing is tasteless and caters to the same demographic that buys Axe body spray in bulk. But tacky as it is, it's not even the most offensive thing I've seen today. I watched a video of Marjorie Taylor Greene this morning. Still, Wyke is convinced. This is how clever Satan is and how he gets into the Christian home and a Christian's life, Wyke says in the video. And it breaks God's heart.

Because, I guess, as a devout Christian, she is intimately acquainted with the condition of God's heart, which, incidentally, in its broken state, would be a lot more vulnerable to the deleterious effects of Monster Energy Drink. Remember, your God is an awesome God, but he's also apparently really sensitive and is heartbroken when you drink this particular brand of energy drink.

What would Jesus do? How does he feel about Red Bull, I wonder? Does it make him sad that Red Bull claims to be able to endow its drinker with wings? That is, after all, only something God should be able to do. So this is how they getcha. This is how it happens. This is how the Dark Lord takes hold of the innocent, through sugary, highly caffeinated drinks.

Hey, I've heard crazier. If the Hare Krishnas believe they can bring Krishna to the masses through their tasty vegetarian cooking, then who's to say Satan can't slip in with the teenage snacks in the grocery bag? And monster energy has been, prior to these accusations, arguably pretty monstrous. Also, I will remind you, stranger, this is not even the first time sugary soft drinks have been used to dispense death and carry out a dark destiny. Jim Jones, anyone?

But if Christine Weick's claims about Monster Energy are baseless, is there any truth at all to the very stubborn and pervasive rumors about the energy drink's dark associations? Is all of this demonic stuff, plus all the deaths and lawsuits associated with Monster, just coincidentally evil? Or is that just what they want you to think?

Unsurprisingly, Monster Energy spokesman Mike Citrick disavowed the claim that Monster is Satan's favorite refresher when he was interviewed by the Washington Post in 2017. Quote, this fabricated devil theory is delusional, fanatical, or simply trying to besmirch the good name and reputation of a successful company and brand. End quote. Of course he said that. But what spokesman for a satanic product being peddled in the free market would admit to it?

I think it's wild that a $51 billion company would actually respond to these kinds of claims. That they wouldn't just ignore the accusations as fantastical and absurd might be the most damning thing of all. Doesn't the monster HR department have better things to do than state the obvious?

Actually, they do. It may not come as a shock to most of you, but several executives at Monster have been accused of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape. At least five former employees have brought accusations against higher-ups at the company. If Wyke thinks people drinking gross soda makes God sad, she's gonna have a fucking field day with this one. Perhaps the weirdest thing about all this is that when it comes to evil beverage companies, Monster isn't alone.

You know that adorable bear in pajamas and a little cap sleeping in an armchair on the box of sleepy time tea? Well, turns out that bear might just be a messenger of some pretty subversive shit.

According to the website MoodyTeas.co, the Celestial Seasonings Company's co-founder, Mo Siegel, is a, quote, "...ardent follower of the Urantia book, a dense and controversial text claiming to be a revelation from celestial beings. The book presents a complex cosmology and purports to offer a detailed account of Earth's history and its place in the universe."

While it has a small but dedicated following, many critics consider it pseudo-scientific and at times racially problematic. End quote. In fact, Siegel is now the president of the Urantia Foundation.

The Urantia Foundation, as far as I can tell from its website, is a cult whose purpose is to spread the seed of the message some people apparently received from divine and or alien beings about the mysteries of life and the universe. The full book is over 2,000 pages, consisting of 196 papers, and is divided into four parts. It covers topics such as the nature of God, the organization of the universe, the history of Earth, and the life and teachings of Jesus.

The two folks responsible for the Urantia book are Dr. William and Dr. Lena Sadler. These fucking guys wrote extensively on racial hierarchy and eugenics.

The Urantia book claims that Adam and Eve and Satan were alien beings and goes on to claim a hierarchy of races. According to a piece on Medium, quote, the book openly promotes eugenics, the belief in race purification. Passages discuss renovation of the racial stocks and elimination of inferior human strains, end quote. So that's fun.

The piece on Medium also has this to say, quote,

Some passages suggest a hierarchy of races which is deeply troubling and blatantly racist. While Siegel himself may not have publicly endorsed these specific views, his close association with the book casts a long, dark shadow over celestial seasonings. Critics argue that supporting the company indirectly supports the propagation of these deeply offensive and harmful ideologies." End quote.

It's hard to argue that the president of a foundation whose main Bible, as it were, spouts this kind of hateful shit doesn't subscribe to said hateful shit. And Celestial Seasonings isn't the only tea brand with a problematic history. The Yogi Tea brand was founded by followers of Siri Singh Sahib, a.k.a. Yogi Bhajan, and his 3HO movement.

In 1969, he established the 3HO Foundation in Los Angeles and quickly amassed a significant following. 3HO claims to promote a lifestyle of healthy living, vegetarianism, and community service. 3HO has established yoga centers, ashrams, and businesses like the Yogi Tea brand worldwide. It also somehow managed to worm its way into the UN.

According to the now-defunct 3HO's website, quote, in 1994, 3HO became a member of the United Nations as an NGO, end quote. Bhajan died in 2004. In 2019, his former secretary, Pamela Sahara Dyson, published a book titled Premka, White Bird in a Golden Cage, My Life with Yogi Bhajan, in which she recounted that she and other women had sexual relationships with Har Bhajan Singh. ♪

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That's wildgrain.com slash strange, or you can use promo code strange at checkout. The next year, anti-cult activist B. Schofield published a piece about Bajan alleging far more than innocuous sexual relationships between Bajan and some of his female followers. The Siri Singh Sahib Corporation commissioned the organization An Olive Branch to look into the allegations.

The Siri Singh Sahib's corporation's stated mission is, quote, to serve humanity through the teachings of Sikh Dharma and the Siri Singh Sahib Yogi Bhajan, to elevate individual and community consciousness, end quote. So, they asked Olive Branch to look into accusations against its own leader. The report by Olive Branch, published in August of 2020, was, quote,

not great for Bajan and his various followers. As summed up on a Wikipedia page about Bajan, the report, quote, found that it was more likely than not that Yogi Bajan raped three women, injured eight women during sex,

engaged in non-consensual touching of nine people, showed pornography to minors, used sexually offensive language, directed women to shave their pubic hair, and directed women to have sex with other women. That his followers claimed that he was celibate or inaccurate, and that he employed a variety of methods to control his students, including compartmentalization, quid pro quo, promises, threats, slander, phone calls, guarding, and or telling women,

They were his wife. End quote. Wow. This got dark real fast. My point is that Christine Weick seems to be focusing on the wrong beverage in her crusade to save hapless people from partaking in the devil's juice. At the very least, it might behoove her to refocus her efforts. Perhaps Monster's logo and stupid slogans aren't the problem.

What if, instead of warning people that turning the can upside down was inviting the devil into their hearts, or that claiming that not even using the word fucking, but just its initial or the use of the term MILF, meant the company wasn't Christian, which, by the way, the company never claimed to be in the first place, what if Weick had actually scratched the surface and found the legit anti-Christian behaviors happening at the executive level of the company?

I'm not sure Jesus objects to MILFs, but I'm certain he objects to sexual assault and probably to companies that peddle poison disguised as fizzy lifting drinks. But because of Wike, people have more to say about whether or not monster energy is satanic than they do about monster's string of wrongful death and sexual misconduct and harassment lawsuits.

I would venture that more people know about the claims of Satanism than know about the claims of energy drink toxicity, which is, by the way, an official term now that so many of those claims have been made.

What does it say about us? Americans, I mean. Humans, I mean, that we will accept out of hand, based on one woman's video, that the ruler of Christian hell has come to do evil and is working through a chemical-filled canned beverage intended to give more zip to the groggy masses, but we pay little heed as consumers to the dire warnings attached to the beverage, backed by scientific study and hard-won conclusions."

We love to get riled up and proclaim concern about vulnerable souls. We love to invoke the name of Jesus and assert our righteousness. And all too often, we don't ask that many questions when someone seems to have Christ on their side. We also love our curated substances.

Depending on our demographics, we love our fancy coffees, our low-carb alcoholic sodas, our big gulps, and of course, our energy drinks. How else can we do it all? How else can we be everything we need to be American? And of course, Monster isn't only available in America, but our penchant for extreme everything seems unique.

We have to work hard and play hard. I guess Monster, with its extreme size and extreme caffeine levels and extreme sports sponsorships, just really appeals to our extreme, outsized American sensibilities. I guess it's no wonder, then, that we start to veer into fanaticism and hopped-up fear-based conspiracy theories. It's just another kind of extremity, something we have been bred for in America.

Maybe that should be Monster's next sponsorship. Maybe that is how they can quell the rumors of Satan worship within the brand. Shoot, Mormons didn't drink Coca-Cola as part of a religious prohibition of caffeine until 2017, when Brigham Young University decided to start selling it on their campus. And now Coke is all right with the Mormon God. I can see the taglines now. Monster Energy. Extreme Christianity. Extreme Worship.

Or they can just keep doing what they're doing. Even Satanism can't stop Monster. So maybe Monster doesn't have to change a thing. Conspiracy theories be damned.

But it does make me wonder what, stranger, exactly is the beast we are unleashing when we go all in on conspiracy theory. When we drink the proverbial Kool-Aid, or rather monster energy, what kinds of outlandish beliefs are we opening the doors to? What kinds of murky, ill-informed judgments are we encouraging people to come to?

When we look past facts and data and start to only trust our bad feelings about things, are we just enhancing our intuitive sense of things? Or are we shutting down our critical minds and abandoning the hard-won analytical skills that have kept us alive, at the top of the food chain, and evolving for all of human history? It's hard to parse out. Maybe I should have a brain fog-clearing, highly caffeinated energy drink to help me decide. On second thought, I think I'll go take a nap.

Next time on Strange and Unexplained. In the early 1900s, thousands of young women did their patriotic duty by flocking to factories working with the brand new invention glow-in-the-dark paint. Before long, these so-called ghost girls were literally falling apart. Turns out ingesting radium is bad for you.

Strange and Unexplained is a production of Three Goose Entertainment with help from Grab Bag Collab. This episode was written by Eve Kerrigan and me, Daisy Egan, with research by Joe Gordette. Sound design and engineering by Jeff Devine. Music by Epidemic and Blue Dot Sessions. If you have an idea for an episode, head to our website, strangeandunexplainedpod.com, and fill out the contact form. I will write back.

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Sorry. Oh my God. Hold on. I'm washing it down with some coffee. Oh, wow. Carbonated water, sugar, glucose, citric acid, Hanex, ginseng. Okay. Oh my God. D-glucuronolact. That's gross.