Thanks for rating and reviewing along with subscribing!
These are the shownotes for Season 7, Ep 25 first published June 19, 2026.
https://www.popsci.com/science/why-road-trips-good-science/
https://metro.co.uk/2026/06/17/secrets-mysterious-ghost-dogs-amazon-revealed-rare-sightings-28810374/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/pentagon-ufo-file-reveals-glowing-152922655.html and also https://apnews.com/article/trump-ufo-file-release-third-batch-34c2a9b294e94a972f352df42c4a17ae
https://studyfinds.com/music-emotions-normal/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ai-chatbot-bmw-dealership-9.7230226
3 Jonathan the very old tortoise continues to be old.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/06/17/Guinness-World-Records-oldest-land-animal-Jonathan-tortoise/7411781709883/
2 enormous sausage makes headlines.
https://www.brickfanatics.com/german-builder-unusual-lego-guinness-world-record
Bonus: how big is the biggest soccer ball in the world?
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/06/15/Guinness-World-Records-Massport-soccer-ball/4001781532794/
Bonus: Scottish Soccer Fans Drinking in Mass.
1 cat steals show from romeo and juliet.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/06/16/turkey-Imperial-Russian-Ballet-Romeo-Juliet-cat/6311781623355/
YouTube stream
What a weird week for the week wrapping up Friday, June 19th, 2026, UFOs and ghost dogs. Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week. A show about the weird news and interesting stuff that happened this week. We are going to give you 10 stories, weird things that happened this week. And you can get everything we talk about in more detail if you click our show notes page at shownotes.page.
Number 10 involves guns and dogs and gaming PCs. So something for everyone, it got written up in normal news places but also on tech news websites. This got picked up a lot because it involves a gaming PC. And a gaming PC that was a lifesaver. So what happened, imagine you wake up and there's a bullet under your pillow. That, according to the write-up, that's what happened to this lady. And then the lady goes to her PC and it does not work, it's destroyed. And then they piece it all together, there's a bullet hole in the wall. Anyway, a CSI montage later, here's how it all went down. The neighbor's dog accidentally discharged a gun, the bullet went through the wall and was on a trajectory to hit the lady. Could have been serious harm or worse. But the bullet hit the lady's gaming PC and deflected enough that she came to no harm. The gaming PC may have saved her life. According to the write-up in Tom's Hardware, the lady did receive insurance money and was able to purchase a new or build a new gaming PC. Read the whole thing if you want, we link to it in the show notes or go to shownotes.page.
Number nine is how road trips may be good for us. And so hopefully they'll be covered by our health insurance pretty soon, right? Optimistic? I'm not sure what the price of gas is where you're at, but where I am, East Coast Canada, not fantastic for thinking about a road trip. But Popular Science, I think what they're doing in their article is, you know, some kind of summer article, but they get into the research about how a road trip can be good for your mental health. They talk to an expert who says a road trip is like a digital detox that's good for your mental health. A road trip gets your creative juices flowing, which of all the juices that you can get flowing, creative juices are in the top 10. Hey, going on a road trip can boost your cognitive flexibility. Another quote from the article. And then they have, you know, graphics of your brain on a road trip and they talk about neuroplasticity. Did I say that right? So they go deep into the road trip science. If you want to read the whole thing, you can click the article. We have a link in the show notes, shownotes.page. And I'll put a link in there too. If you're in the same situation as me, no road trip money this summer. Well, there's got to be a hack, a workaround, a way to go on a cheap road trip, right? There's got to be some alternatives that don't involve hitchhiking. You know, if you're a family of five and you're all standing there at the end of your driveway with your thumb out, maybe somebody stops, but they only have room for a couple of you. You tell the rest of the family, you know, good luck. We'll see you when you get there. You don't want to be doing that. That doesn't seem safe.
Number eight is the ghost dogs of the Amazon, which all over the place. Articles about these ghost dogs of the Amazon, which are not actual ghosts, it turns out. They're just so rarely seen, these dogs in the Amazon, that researchers were first really jacked up and jazzed, jazzed and jacked about getting images on a trail cam of the ghost dogs of the Amazon. But then also that they're thriving. It seems like there's so little known about the activities of the ghost pooches of the Amazon, which aren't, did I say they're not actually ghosts? They're not actually ghosts. All right, just making sure I get that in there. So little is known about their activity that first we got images of them. Then we learn they're thriving. We never see them, but they are thriving. If you don't have a chance to click, let me describe the pooch for you, the ghost pooch. It is a tan color, mid-sized dog, short ears. Also, not a very thick coat, which is good because, you know, they're in the Amazon. It's, I think, quite warm, right? In the Amazon. I've never been to confirm for myself, but I believe the Amazon quite warm. And so not a thick coated pooch. But that's about it. My describing skills, not very good. Doesn't look like a chihuahua. Doesn't look like a sled dog from the Disney movie about the sled dogs. I'm not so good at describing the pooches, I guess. Anyway, we'll link to all of this. Click shownotes.page.
All right, number seven is about the UFOs and the files released by the United States government. They have been doing this thing where they release formally secret files and videos or images or hand-drawn facsimiles, I think in some cases, of things they can't explain in our skies or in our waters. That has continued with a third release of the UFO stuff or UAP, if you call it that. If you follow this topic, you are way ahead of me on this and you know all of this. All of the UFO podcasts do a deep dive into this every time it happens. A lot of orbs in this drop, you know, like glowing spheres and some descriptions of spinning disks. Also, one article we link to talks about the potato shaped UAP or UFO that's mentioned in the files. I said before, if you are, you know, sort of new to the UFO, UAP stuff, this is not a bad place to jump in. You get a lot of files, a lot of information. And if you are disinterested by the UFOs and UAPs, let me sum it up. Still don't know what they are, believe they are something but don't know what they are and then many, many theories about what the strange things are. And that's kind of the situation right now, despite this Steven Spielberg movie that is currently at the box office at time of recording this. Despite that, we're still about the same place we were last time when the files were released. Weird things, don't know what they are, there are theories.
Number six is a warning to you snack stashers, researchers are on to us. They know about our secret snack stash. This is a survey, a poll of 5,000 adults, United States of America, planet Earth, about snacks. And one of the things we learn is that the majority of us have a secret snack stash, which I do, guilty as charged. You learn that young, if you grow up with siblings, right, I have an older brother, couple older sisters. Growing up, if you did not stash your snacks, somebody would eat them. And then you go on to get married and have a family and it's the kids, you got to hide your snacks from the kids. So guilty as charged, I do hide my snacks. This is a cool article when you're with friends or family, read this article, do a deep dive because some of the stats are quite interesting. Like, in California, United States of America, California leads the entire country in people who have canceled plans just to stay home and snack. If you have a good snack at home, it's hard to beat that. Somebody calls you up to go bowling, Hey, we need a spare at bowling. But you've got a snack in the cupboard calling your name. You're staying home, California. And I respect that.
Number 5 is that we're not weirdos. If you get all the feels when you listen to a song, it makes you happy, it makes you sad. Sometimes both at the same time. I know it's weird, but some songs can do that. It turns out an article in Study Finds about some research into music, science says we are not weirdos. Finally, the scientific confirmation we've been desiring, we are not weirdos. It's normal to have happy and sad feelings, all of the feels, during a song. This was a study of about 2,100 people across the globe. 90% of people felt positive and negative emotions while listening to a song that was personally meaningful. One of your jams, you're listening to it, you're happy, you're also sad. But why? What's going on in your brain, in the brain of your mind? What is happening? Well, it seems like some of the music we listen to, it's fun, it gets you pumped up before the big game, whatever. But some of it we use for self-expression. We really attach to songs. It is about a memory or identity, according to the research. So you can imagine, we have a song we like, it takes us back to a time. Maybe we remember somebody that's no longer in our life or takes us to an emotionally complex time in our life. That could be a situation there where you're happy about the song, but also you get some of the other feels going on. That's kind of my brief summation as a non-scientific dumb person, but I have listened to music before, so I feel like I'm a little qualified, as we all are. If you want to read the whole thing, we'll link to it in the show notes.
Number 4 is Quinn from the car dealership in Toronto and the story of what happened to Zach. I won't say the dealership, but I will link to the story. Zach from Toronto, Canada, planet Earth, was tired of his vehicle. He had a 2021, it needed repairs. He thought, maybe the dealership will buy it back and if I can make enough to pay off my loan, that'd be awesome. I can start fresh, new vehicle that hopefully won't need repairs. So Zach gets onto the website and Quinn pops up and says, hey Zach, how can I help you? And Zach explains and Quinn eventually offers $27,000 and something. We'll buy back your car. And Zach is happy because that is a good number for Zach. Quote from the article, I felt this Quinn person was finally hearing me out. I was feeling really good. But then Zach got a phone call from the dealership and they were saying, no, we can't give you the $27,000. They had a lower number that they were willing to offer, but it was quite a bit lower because it turns out Quinn was not a real person. Quinn was an AI chatbot. It was thousands of dollars less that they offered, the real person offered. So I'd be like, put Quinn back on the line. I like Quinn a lot better. One of the other things, one of the quotes they have the chatbot saying back to Zach was, let's lock it in today at 3.30. Like setting up a meeting to come in and get your $27,000. Long story short, CBC reached out to the dealership and now they are going to honor the deal. I just assume every time I'm on a website and the chat pops up, I assume it's a robot. Maybe it's not always. In this case, it turned out that was a wheelin' and dealin' robot.
Number three is Jonathan the tortoise who is very old. Jonathan continues to be very old. That's kind of the story. The world's oldest living land animal. 194 years old, acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records. If you want to see a photo of what Jonathan the tortoise looks like, I mean, you could just imagine a tortoise with a beard, the very long beard. No, no, but that'd be funny if they dressed up Jonathan for Halloween. I would want a very long beard. That is one old tortoise. Imagine a 194 years old, the things that Jonathan has lived through and the things that Jonathan the tortoise has seen. McRib. That's just the first one that came to mind. Other things too, though, historic events. Anyway, we'll link to the whole thing if you click shownotes.page.
Number two is a very large sausage which made headlines. A fellow named Tommy in Germany is kind of a Lego brick artist and a German sausage producer reached out to Tommy. They wanted to do something to commemorate the sausage. Tommy had to plan the thing out so that it would fit through his patio doors and then took about a year from start to finish designing and placing the last Lego brick. It's a six foot six and change or two meters long sausage in a bun with mustard on it, all created with Lego bricks. Created in his living room like for a year, his whole family lived with that giant sausage in their living room. If you want to see what it looks like, it does look like a giant sausage, but if you want to see the completed work, we'll put a link in the show notes. Also, there is a photo of the giant sausage being measured by the Guinness World Records folks. What an interesting job they have. One day they're confirming that a tortoise is very old. The next day they're measuring a giant sausage in somebody's living room.
Honorable mention, mention. This honorable mention is about the largest soccer ball in the world. We talked about it before that they were planning to do it and now they have done it and they refer to it as a soccer ball. So I don't really follow the soccer or perhaps you call it football. I know all the teams of the world are currently embroiled in wonderful football or soccer action. In Massachusetts, to commemorate that, they made the largest soccer ball in the world, 47 feet and something in diameter. If you were to travel to Massachusetts, United States of America, planet Earth, and you laid eyes on this soccer ball, it is made by an inflatable company, so it's a giant inflatable soccer ball and it's about the same size as your standard hot air balloon. Saved you a click. But if you want to have a look at it, we'll put a link in the show notes.
Another honorable mention. Honorable mention, mention, mention. We'll put a link to the story. A lot of people carried this, how in Massachusetts, United States of America, the bars are running out of beer because Scottish soccer fans are very thirsty. And basically that's the whole story, really.
We have a tie for number one, a couple of funny stories. One of them is the cat that wandered onto the stage in Turkey during a production of Romeo and Juliet. The ballet production of Romeo and Juliet during this scene where, spoiler, it's Romeo's death scene. And an orange cat can be seen coming out onto the stage, interacting with the actors. I don't know if the cat thinks all of it is real, if the acting is that good that the cat was fooled, or if the cat knows and wants to be a part of the production. I mean, cats are a mystery anyway, a lot of times. What were you thinking, cat? Why won't you let me into your world, cat? You know, if you've ever had that conversation with a cat, cats are a mystery. Anyway, if you want to see the video, we will link to that in the show notes. If you don't have a chance to click the thing, the actor is unconscious on the stage, or the character is unconscious on the stage, and the cat wanders on and starts to do whatever cats do when you're lying down to your hair. You know, when you're lying down and a cat comes in and is like, I want to interact with that wonderful head of hair. That's what's going on in this video. If you don't have a chance to click, now you have an idea what's happening.
Number one, again. Our second number one is an article we link to. This is about real estate kind of whereby a real estate agent showing off an apartment in Tokyo published a video. I didn't know any of this but one of the tricks of the trade I guess is when you're doing a video or some photos of a space that you would like to sell or rent you can hire somebody in one of those morph suits in green screen color and they can do some stuff like maybe a door needs to be held open a fast way is have somebody in a green screen suit hold that door open and then edit them out of the finished product. And this real estate agent published a video apologizing they didn't know how to edit the green screen person out of the finished video. And so you see some wonderful shots of like here is the enormous living room and there is a person in one of those green screen suits one of those morph suits crouched holding a door open that kind of thing. Some very humorous images and I don't know if the real estate agent did this just to get attention or not but it worked it's pretty hilarious. So in the tie for first place the I'm sorry I don't know how to edit this green guy video and real estate agent.
Okay that's it for this week's What a Weird Week our look back at the weird news of the week. You can get everything in more detail or get our podcast info in that if you go to shownotes.page our show notes page. We'll catch you next Friday with ten more weird things from the news on What a Weird Week.
10 Dog, Gun, Neighbor, Gaming PC!
https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/pc-building/gaming-pc-deflects-bullet-shot-through-wall-by-neighbour-saving-owners-life-criminal-negligence-charges-for-culprit-who-claims-firearm-was-accidentally-discharged-by-her-dog
9 Road trips are good for you? Are they covered by my health insurance?
https://www.popsci.com/science/why-road-trips-good-science/
8 Amazon Ghost Dogs?!
https://metro.co.uk/2026/06/17/secrets-mysterious-ghost-dogs-amazon-revealed-rare-sightings-28810374/
7 icymi, US gov released more UFO files, still a mystery.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/pentagon-ufo-file-reveals-glowing-152922655.html and also https://apnews.com/article/trump-ufo-file-release-third-batch-34c2a9b294e94a972f352df42c4a17ae
6 headsup! Researchers know about your secret snack stash!
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-popchips-survey-reveals-the-nations-most-real-snacking-habits-302799566.html
5 research into songs that make you feel the feels. It turns out you're not a weirdo!
https://studyfinds.com/music-emotions-normal/
4 I think Quinn at the at the car dealership might be getting fired?!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ai-chatbot-bmw-dealership-9.7230226
3 Jonathan the very old tortoise continues to be old.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/06/17/Guinness-World-Records-oldest-land-animal-Jonathan-tortoise/7411781709883/
2 enormous sausage makes headlines.
https://www.brickfanatics.com/german-builder-unusual-lego-guinness-world-record
Bonus: how big is the biggest soccer ball in the world?
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/06/15/Guinness-World-Records-Massport-soccer-ball/4001781532794/
Bonus: Scottish Soccer Fans Drinking in Mass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV4G4byzF24
1 cat steals show from romeo and juliet.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/06/16/turkey-Imperial-Russian-Ballet-Romeo-Juliet-cat/6311781623355/
1 Also (tie) I don't know how to remove the Green Guy
https://petapixel.com/2026/06/16/real-estate-agent-hires-green-screen-guy-but-doesnt-know-how-to-remove-him/