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Speaker 1: Welcome back. Everyone, ready for another deep dive?

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Speaker 2: Always what are we uncovering today?

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Speaker 1: Well, this time we're going full on mystery mode. We're

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diving into the world of unsolved codes and ciphers.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I like where this is going? Those are always so.

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Speaker 1: Fascinating, right, This is something so captivating about these puzzles

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left behind by history, These secrets just begging to be unlocked.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, they're like messages from the past. It's almost like

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trying to have a conversation with history itself, but with

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half the words missing exactly.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so get this. Imagine an entire civilization with a

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written language, but no one alive can understand it.

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Speaker 2: Oh wow, that's setting the bar pretty high for a mystery.

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Speaker 1: That's just the beginning. That's the story of Wrongorongo A

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script found on Easter Island.

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Speaker 2: Easter Island, the place with the giant stoneheads, the one

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and only.

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Speaker 1: But this mystery goes beyond those iconic statues. Think about it.

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We have these inscriptions, these beautifully crafted glyphs, but their

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meaning is completely lost poof gone.

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Speaker 2: What happened? Was there some kind of catastrophic event?

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Speaker 1: Well, the story goes that back in the eighteen sixties,

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Easter Island was hit with some pretty devastating raids. Oh no, yeah,

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a lot of the islanders were taken away, and it

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seems like the knowledge of rong Goroongo went with them.

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Speaker 2: So like a cultural loss on top of everything else.

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Speaker 1: That's awful, it really is. And what we're left with

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are these really intricate carvings, mostly on wood, some showing

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human and animal forms, others with these abstract symbols that

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just make you go, hmm, what does that mean?

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Speaker 2: I can only imagine it's like looking at a message

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you know is important, but you just can't read it.

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It must be so frustrating for researchers totally.

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Speaker 1: It's almost like we're missing a piece of the puzzle

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of human history, like a whole chapter is just ripped out.

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Speaker 2: And here's where it gets even crazier. There are accounts

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from back then that say Rapanui students, the people of

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Easter Island could learn Wrongorongo in just.

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Speaker 1: A few months, really that quickly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that might suggest the writing system is actually

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simpler than we think. Maybe we're over complicating things in

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our attempts to decipher it.

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Speaker 1: Hm, or maybe like you were saying, earlier. We're missing

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some vital cultural context, something that would make it all

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click into place.

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Speaker 2: It's possible. It's like we're trying to solve a three

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D puzzle, but we're looking at it like it's flat.

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Speaker 1: That's a great analogy. Yeah, what do you think is

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the key to unlocking wrong or ongo? Is it more

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about linguistics, you know, the structure of language, or is

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it about cultural understanding or some combination of both.

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Speaker 2: It's probably a mix of both, and maybe even something

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we haven't even thought of yet. That's what's so exciting

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about these mysteries.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. It pushes us to think outside the box,

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try new approaches.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, forces us to expand our understanding. Okay, ready for

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a different kind of challenge, one with a potentially big payoff.

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Speaker 1: Oh I'm intrigued. Lay it on me, all right.

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Speaker 2: How about buried treasure?

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Speaker 1: Now you're talking my language.

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Speaker 2: Literally, the Beal ciphers. Ever heard of them? Oh? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Those are practically legendary in the treasure hunting world.

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Ciphers that supposedly lead to a fortune buried somewhere in Virginia.

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Speaker 2: You got it. The whole story is shrouded in mystery.

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Back in eighteen eighty five, this pamphlet called the Beeal

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Papers pops up, claiming to hold the key to this

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incredible fortune.

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Speaker 1: Sounds like a dream come true, But I bet there's

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a catch.

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Speaker 2: There always is, you know it, the location of the treasure,

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even with the treasure actually is, it's all hidden within

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these three incredibly complex ciphers.

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Speaker 1: The ultimate treasure hunt crack the codes, follow the clues

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instant riches.

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Speaker 2: Sound simple, right, but there are some historical discrepancies that

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make people question if the Beeal Papers are even accurate.

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Speaker 1: Like what what doesn't add up well?

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Speaker 2: For instance, the tomline of when this golden silver was

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supposedly discovered, it doesn't really line up with what we

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know about similar discoveries from that era.

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Speaker 1: Hmm. Interesting. So you're saying it's possible the whole thing

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is a hoax made up to send treasure hunters on

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a wild goose chase.

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Speaker 2: It's definitely possibility. But even with those doubts, the ciphers

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themselves are incredibly intricate and fascinating.

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Speaker 1: So they're like a puzzle wrapped in a mystery and

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then maybe wrapped in a lie.

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Speaker 2: Pretty much even William Friedman, you know, the famous cryptanalyst

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who cracked codes for the US government. He was torn

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about their authenticity.

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Speaker 1: No kidding. He must have been pretty good if he

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was working for the government. What did he think about

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these ciphers?

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Speaker 2: Well, he had this great line about it. He said

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he believed the Beeal ciphers. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays,

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and the other days he doubted them. Couldn't quite make

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up his mind.

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Speaker 1: That's hilarious, but I get it. These mysteries have a

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way of pulling you in. Would you risk it all,

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bet your fortune on these ciphers knowing they might be fake?

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Speaker 2: Oh that's a tough one. The potential reward is incredibly tempting,

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but so is the challenge of crackting those codes. It's

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like a gamble, but the prize might not even exist.

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Speaker 1: A gamble with his side of brain teaser, I kind

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of love it.

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Speaker 2: Speaking of brain teasers, let's move on to something a

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little more visual.

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Speaker 1: Ooh, okay, I'm picturing something now. What is it?

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Speaker 2: It's a manuscript, but not just any manuscript. This one

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is full of bizarre illustrations, strange plants, astrological charts, even

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women bathing in these weird green liquids.

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Speaker 1: Wait what that sounds like something out of a fever dream.

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Speaker 2: That's the Voynage Manuscript for you. It's like someone took

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all the strangest parts of history and crammed them into

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this one book.

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Speaker 1: And it's a mystery too, right, Oh, absolutely.

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Speaker 2: A big one. It's like the book itself is an enigma.

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Its origins are totally unclear. We know it's probably from

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the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and there's a possible connection

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to Emperor Rudolph the Second.

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Speaker 1: The emperor Wow, Okay, this is getting interesting.

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Speaker 2: He was known for collecting all kinds of esoteric texts.

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And there's even a theory that John Dee, advisor to

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Queen Elizabeth the First and a bit of an alchemist himself,

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might have had his hands on the Voynish Manuscript at

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some point.

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Speaker 1: So we're talking emperors, alchemists, secret societies.

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Speaker 2: I'm hook And that's just the backstory. Then there's the language.

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It's written in an alphabet that no one recognizes. It's

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like they made it.

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Speaker 1: Up, no kidding that people tried to crack.

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Speaker 2: The code countless times. But the Voynish Manuscript is a

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tough nut to crack. It's like it's determined to keep

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its secrets.

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Speaker 1: You said, some pretty brilliant minds have tackled these other codes.

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Any luck with this one.

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Speaker 2: Well, even William and Elizabeth Friedman, the code breaking power couple,

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couldn't crack it. They were the ones who deciphered all

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sorts of messages in World War Two.

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Speaker 1: Seriously, and they couldn't figure this out.

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Speaker 2: Nope. They were convinced it was genuine, not a hoax,

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but it's complexity stumped even them.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 2: William Friedman even had this radical theory that maybe it

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wasn't a code at all.

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Speaker 1: Really, what did he think it was?

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Speaker 2: He thought it might be an early attempt at creating

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a universal language, kind of like a proto Esperanto.

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Speaker 1: That's a fascinating idea, Like instead of hiding secrets, maybe

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it was trying to bridge different cultures, create a way

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for everyone to understand each other exactly.

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Speaker 2: It speaks to that human desire to connect, to communicate

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beyond the barriers of language.

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Speaker 1: But without knowing what it says, it's still just this beautiful,

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mysterious object.

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Speaker 2: A true enigma, proof that the unknown can really capture

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our imaginations. You know, it's amazing how these mysteries can

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span different fields. We've talked about ancient scripts, possible treasure maps,

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even a book that seems like it's from another world.

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Speaker 1: It's true, these codes and ciphers pop up in the

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most unexpected places. Speaking of unexpected, what if I told

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you that one of these mysteries involves a famous composer.

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Speaker 2: Oh, now that's a twist. I'm all ears. Which composer

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are we talking about?

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Speaker 1: None other than Edward Elgar? You know, the guy who

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wrote Pomp and Circumstance.

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Speaker 2: No way, that's the graduation march, right, the one that

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plays it like every ceremony.

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Speaker 1: Yep, that's the one. But besides writing those grand, sweeping melodies,

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Elgar also had a penchant for the mysterious. He created

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his own cipher, known as the Dora Bella cipher.

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Speaker 2: Really a musical mystery. What's the story behind it?

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Speaker 1: Well, in eighteen ninety seven, Elgar sent this coded message

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to a young woman named Dora Penny. They were close friends,

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and the cipher has remained unsolved for over a century.

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It's like a musical puzzle box waiting for someone to

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find the right key.

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Speaker 2: It's so intriguing to think that someone who created such

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beautiful music also dabbled in secret codes. What does the

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cipher look like? Is it like musical notes or something?

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Speaker 1: It's kind of similar. Actually, it's made up of eighty

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seven characters spread across three lines. They're these strange symbols,

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sort of like semi circles, loops, and dots. Some people

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think it might be related to musical notation, but no

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one's really sure.

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Speaker 2: So it's like a melody written in a secret language.

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Have people tried to decode it?

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Speaker 1: Oh, tons of times. People have used all sorts of methods,

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you know, like frequency analysis comparing it to Elgar's musical scores.

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There's even been a theory that it's based on a

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type of semaphore flag signaling.

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Speaker 2: Wow, that's a lot of effort for one little code.

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Have any of the solutions been convincing?

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Speaker 1: Not really. There's one that supposedly spells out this bizarre

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message about drooping beige weeds in a tuned loot.

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Speaker 2: Drooping beige weeds. That's pretty random. It doesn't sound very

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romantic for a message to a close friend, right.

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Speaker 1: It's more like a prank than a heartfelt message. Some

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people think Elgar was just having a bit of fun

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with Dora, maybe testing her wit.

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Speaker 2: It wouldn't surprise me. Composers are creative people, right, Maybe

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he saw it as another form of artistic expression.

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Speaker 1: I like that idea. It makes you wonder how many

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other secret codes are hidden out there, tucked away in letters, diaries,

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maybe even sheet music.

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Speaker 2: It's a thought provoking idea. Perhaps we're surrounded by mysteries

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we just haven't noticed yet. All right, ready for a

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different kind of codebreaker. This one involves a Nobel Prize

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winning physicist.

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Speaker 1: A physicist. Okay, you've definitely got my attention. Tell me more.

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Speaker 2: This is about Richard Feynman.

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Speaker 1: Wait, Fineman, the guy who cracks safes at Los Alamos

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during the Manhattan Project, the.

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Speaker 2: One and only brilliant mind, playful personality, and apparently a

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lover of ciphers.

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Speaker 1: I've got to hear what kind of codes did a

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guy like that come up with?

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Speaker 2: Well? Back in nineteen eighty seven, a guy named Chris

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Cole posted three ciphers to a cryptography news group. Okay,

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claim they came from Feineman. The first one was cracked

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pretty quickly, but the other two they're unsolved. Even after

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all these years, with all the advances in code breaking

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and the power of the Internet, no one's cracked them.

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Speaker 1: That's incredible. It's like a puzzle that's designed to stump

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even the brightest minds. What makes them so difficult to solve?

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Speaker 2: That's part of the mystery. We don't know what kind

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of ciphers they are, what system Fineman used, or even

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if they contain actual messages. Some people think they might

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hold clues to his unpublished work.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow, that would be amazing, like hidden scientific breakthroughs

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just waiting to be discovered. Right.

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Speaker 2: Others think they might just be fun puzzles, Feineman's way

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of challenging the world.

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Speaker 1: It's like trying to peek into the mind of a genius,

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but there's this thick fog obscuring the view. What do

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you think motivated Fineman to create these ciphers?

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Speaker 2: It's hard to say for sure. Maybe it was his

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love of puzzles, or maybe a way to leave a

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little mystery behind. But one thing certain, those unsolved ciphers

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are a testament to his unique way of thinking.

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Speaker 1: Okay, from the mind of a physicist, let's go to

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a place that's practically synonymous with secrets, CIA headquarters.

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Speaker 2: Ah, you're talking about cryptos.

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Speaker 1: Cryptos, right, the sculpture that has everyone baffled. It's like

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a real life DaVinci code right in the heart of

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the intelligence world.

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Speaker 2: It's pretty remarkable. Cryptos is this large copper sculpture created

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by Jim Sanborn. It was installed at CIA headquarters back

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in nineteen ninety and it's covered in these encrypted messages.

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Speaker 1: I've heard that even the CIA's own code breakers haven't

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been able to completely solve it. Is that true?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true. Cryptos has four encrypted sections. The first

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three have been deciphered, but the fourth one remains a mystery.

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Speaker 1: So what do we know about the parts that have

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been solved? What secrets did they reveal?

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Speaker 2: Well, the first section, which was cracked in nineteen ninety nine,

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turned out to be this poetic phrase by Sanborn lf

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It says, between subtle shading and the absence of light

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lies the nuance of occlusion ecclusion.

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Speaker 1: Did he misspell illusion?

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Speaker 2: He did on purpose. He wanted to throw off potential

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code breakers.

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Speaker 1: That's so clever. It's like he's playing a game with us.

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Speaker 2: He definitely is. Then there's the second section. It was

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deciphered that same year, and it has these cryptic references

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to Langley's coordinates, former CIA director William Webster and the

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phrase ww was here.

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Speaker 1: So it's like a little shout out to the CIA

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director confirming he was part of the code breaking fund exactly.

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Speaker 2: Then in two thousand and six, the third section was cracked.

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It's a paraphrase passage from Howard Carter's account of opening

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King Tut's tomb.

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Speaker 1: Wow, ancient Egypt's spies secret codes. It's like all these

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historical threads are weaving together.

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Speaker 2: It really is. And the third section describes the scene

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of anticipation as the tomb is breached. It's almost like

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a metaphor for the excitement of uncovering hidden knowledge.

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Speaker 1: I love that. It makes you wonder if the fourth section,

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the one that's still unsolved, holds an even bigger revelation.

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Speaker 2: That's the million dollar question, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: Has Sandborn given any clues about the fourth section?

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Speaker 2: He has, but they're pretty vague. He's revealed a few

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words that appear in the message Berlin clock and northeast.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so we have a few puzzle pieces, but we're

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still missing the big picture. Yeah, what do you think

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is the point of cryptos? Is it just a piece

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of art, a challenge to the intelligence community, or something more.

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Speaker 2: It's hard to say for sure. Maybe it's all those things.

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Maybe it's a commentary on the nature of secrets, or

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maybe it's just a really, really elaborate puzzle. But whatever

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its purpose, Cryptos has definitely captured our imaginations.

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Speaker 1: It's a great reminder that some secrets are meant to

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be savored. The journey of trying to solve them is

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just as rewarding as the solution itself.

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Speaker 2: You know, we've been talking about codes from all these

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different corners of history and culture.

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Speaker 1: Ancient scripts, hidden treasures, even messages from.

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Speaker 2: A physicist, right, and some are unsolved to this day exactly.

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Speaker 1: And it makes you think, are there codes and ciphers

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hidden in everyday life? Maybe right under our noses?

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Speaker 2: I bet there are. I mean, people have been using

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codes for centuries. There's got to be some modern mysteries

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out there.

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Speaker 1: Well, what if I told you that one of these

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unsolved mysteries hits a little closer to home and might

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even hold the key to solving a crime.

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Speaker 2: Oh wow, Okay, this is getting serious. I'm definitely intrigued.

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Tell me more.

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Speaker 1: All right, this was a little different from the ones

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we've discussed so far. It's the case of Ricky McCormick

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and his cryptic notes.

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Speaker 2: Ricky McCormick. I don't think i've heard of this case.

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Speaker 1: What happened, Well, back in June nineteen ninety nine, McCormick's

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body was found in a field in Missouri. The cause

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of death undetermined, but there were definitely some suspicious circumstances, so.

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Speaker 2: Like a potential murder exactly.

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Speaker 1: And what made this case particularly strange was that they

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found two hand written notes in McCormick's pockets. And these notes, well,

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they were filled with this jumble of letters, numbers, and symbols.

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Speaker 2: Code. Do you think he was trying to send a message.

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Speaker 1: That's what investigators thought too. But here's the catch. Ricky

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McCormick was reportedly illiterate. He could barely write his own name.

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Speaker 2: Wait, so an illiterate man was carrying around these complex codes.

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Something doesn't add up. What did the police think?

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Speaker 1: They were baffled? The FBI actually believes those notes contain

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a genuine cipher but they couldn't crack it.

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Speaker 2: Wow, So it's possible that those notes hold the key

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to figuring out what happened to him.

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Speaker 1: Right, It's like a message from beyond the grave, but

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no one knows how to read it. The FBI worked

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on it for years with no luck.

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Speaker 2: So what did they do? Just give up?

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Speaker 1: Well, in twenty eleven, they decided to take a drastic step.

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They released the notes to the public, hoping that someone

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somewhere might have the skills to decipher them.

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Speaker 2: It's like they were making a last ditch effort to

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get justice for this guy. Did it work? Did anyone

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crack the code?

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Speaker 1: Sadly no, Despite the public's interest and the efforts of

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all sorts of code breakers, those notes remain a mystery.

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Speaker 2: That's heartbreaking. It's like the answers are right there, but

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we just can't grasp them.

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Speaker 1: It's a stark reminder that not all mysteries have neat

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and tidy solutions. Some secrets, it seems, are determined to

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stay hidden.

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Speaker 2: While from lost languages to hidden treasures, from the minds

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of geniuses to the mysteries of everyday life, one thing's

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for sure. What's that unsolved codes and ciphers continue to

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fascinate us. They tap into something deep within us that

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desire to uncover hidden knowledge, to solve the puzzle, to

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make sense of the world around us, And.

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Speaker 1: They remind us that there's still so much out there

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that we don't know, maybe even right under our noses exactly.

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Speaker 2: Who knows what secrets are waiting to be discovered.

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Speaker 1: Maybe one of our listeners will be the one to

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crack the next great code.