4.6 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2020
⏱️ 15 minutes
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The most elusive substance in pop culture also purports to be one of the most destructive.
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0:00.0 | Search the internet and you'll find there's a community of people who believe in the existence |
0:07.6 | of a mysterious, classified substance called red mercury. |
0:12.9 | At once a miracle health product, and also the most powerful explosive ever conceived. |
0:19.7 | This is the story of a compound that never existed in reality, but did very much exist |
0:25.6 | in the global intelligence community and then trickled down to feed the conspiracy theory |
0:31.6 | community. |
0:32.6 | Today we're going to find out how red mercury is coming right up on Skeptoid. |
0:42.7 | You're listening to Skeptoid. |
0:44.1 | I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com on the trail of red mercury. |
0:51.9 | Today's story is going to take us on about as wide-ranging a journey as we've ever had, |
0:57.4 | from ancient Egypt's to the labs of the Manhattan Project to the caves of Afghanistan. |
1:03.5 | We're tracking down the most elusive substance in pop culture, red mercury. |
1:09.4 | Some say it's the most powerful explosive ever designed, some say it's a miracle health |
1:14.3 | product, some say it doesn't exist at all. |
1:17.8 | I will give this spoiler. |
1:20.0 | The one thing we can say for certain about red mercury is that the truth about it is |
1:25.1 | far, far stranger than the fiction, so buckle up for a wild ride. |
1:33.8 | Before we get into what red mercury is, let's be clear on what it isn't. |
1:38.2 | The term would most obviously seem to apply to cinnabar mercury sulfide, the bright red |
1:43.7 | mineral ore that's mined to get mercury, but it's definitely not this. |
1:48.5 | The term itself has been around since at least the late 1970s. |
1:52.6 | There doesn't seem to be any verifiable specific origin of the term, and ever since it's |
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