# The Most Heavily Guarded Places on Earth

An episode of [Be Amazed](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1687637469), 8 Dec 2025, 32 min.

Audio: https://audio4.redcircle.com/episodes/0c5b9956-665d-4fc6-892e-60aab1311172/stream.mp3

Let’s face it, we’ve all got our fair share of secrets. However, some places are so restricted and guarded that getting in, or even getting out, is practically impossible. Or it was until now. Strap in, superspy. I’ve got you an all-access pass into previously inaccessible places. This is gonna be dangerous. So, keep your wits about you as we take a look at the most heavily guarded places on earth. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

## Transcript

[0:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Let's face it, we've all got our fair share of secrets.
[0:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, some places are so restricted and guarded the getting in, or even getting out is practically impossible.
[0:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Or, it wasn't till now.
[0:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Strap in, super spy.
[0:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I've got you in all access pass, and it previously inaccessible places.
[0:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This is gonna be dangerous.
[0:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So keep your wits about you as we take a look at the most heavily guarded places on Earth.
[0:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Area 51.
[0:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It might be the world's most famous best-capped secret, but what do we actually know about it?
[0:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While the official story states it's a classified US Air Force facility outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.
[0:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Originally it was used by the CIA to develop and test the YouTube reconnaissance plane, but that's not why it's famous.
[1:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In 1989, a man named Bob Lazar claimed he'd worked their reverse engineering a downed alien spacecraft.
[1:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Ever since conspiracies and myths have been right around what's going on at the site.
[1:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This culminated in 2019-150 Americans threatened to nod to run past security and free the aliens they believed were being held captive.
[1:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Ah, this is why other countries hate us.
[1:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Honestly, it's impossible to know how expensive security measures an area 51 really are.
[1:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The entire area is covered by a no-fly zone with armed guards patrolling the ground in motion sensors helping cover where their guards aren't.
[1:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Employees aren't even allowed to drive in.
[1:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: All transport is via private jets organized by a traffic control under the name, Janet Airlines.
[1:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But apart from that, the secret of existence of Area 51 only aids the Enigma.
[1:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: See, despite documented proof of Area 51's existence dating back to 1955, the CIA refused to acknowledge it until 2013.
[2:05] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And definitely sounds suspicious, but the truth is we just don't know what they're covering up.
[2:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: What if all of this alien chatter is a distraction for whatever's really going on?
[2:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Oh crap, I think they're on to me.
[2:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Ever since I dodged a J walking fine in 2008, I've lived like a fugitive on the run.
[2:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I sure hope they never catch me, prison sounds nasty, especially ADX Florence and Fremont County, Colorado.
[2:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Opened in 1994, it's currently the only supermax security prison in the United States, and Top Capacity, is a meager 490 inmates.
[2:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The facility specializes in the most high-profile prisoners, including Ted Kazansky, also known as the Unibommer, and so-called Sarnev, the Boston Marathon bomber.
[2:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And the most dangerous prisoners in the world need the strictest security measures,
[3:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In fact, for the first three years of confinement, prisoners have zero contact with other prisoners.
[3:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Only after these three years can they earn outside time through good behavior.
[3:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: On my outside time, I don't mean a frog in a pretty meadow.
[3:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: No, the outside is a heavily guarded concrete pit, barely large enough to walk 10 steps on a straight line.
[3:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The pit has a vaulted ceiling, so there's no chance of inmates seeing the sun above them.
[3:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As for the cells, they measure a measly 7 feet by 12 feet and feature 1 tiny window 4 inches by 4 feet tall.
[3:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You can just about see the sky through it, but practically nothing else, making planning and escape impossible.
[3:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As for the decor, the bed, desk and chair are all made from poured concrete.
[3:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This way prisoners can't use them to cause any harm to either themselves at the guards.
[3:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If the toilet becomes blocked, it switches off and the shower runs on a timer to prevent flooding.
[3:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Every possible detail you could imagine is accounted for, and it doesn't stop there.
[4:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Outside the Salzer multitudes of motion sensors cameras in remote controlled steel doors, inmates are monitored by officers 24-7 and a panic button locks down the entire building if something goes wrong.
[4:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If, and that's a big if, a prisoner still managed to get out, the other side of the prison fence is marked with laser beams and attack dogs.
[4:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The best open is they go easy on you and you get out on good behavior.
[4:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Us humans are resilient folk.
[4:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Take me.
[4:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You'd never guessed that was dropped on my head as a boy.
[4:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Nevertheless, we always find a way to bounce back.
[4:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And the genius folk over at the small bar global seed bump are working on the most incredible human lifeline I can imagine.
[4:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Picture this, if a future event devastates worldwide crop supplies, how are we going to feed ourselves?
[4:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There's no joe of the leaves at the end of the world?
[4:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, the global seed ball is a backup gene bank with over 1.2 million seed samples originating from almost every country in the world to safeguard the future of the food supply.
[5:05] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Awesome!
[5:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The vault is located on the Norwegian island of Smallbard, which is the farthest north-scheduled flight's travel, making it exceptionally remote, but still accessible.
[5:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And that's not the only location bonus.
[5:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The main vault itself is buried a whopping 430 feet deep in thick rock and permafrost, which regulates internal temperatures to a fraction below, zero degrees Fahrenheit, and keeps the seeds perfectly preserved.
[5:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But their preservation doesn't just rely on the elements, they are also kept in state of the art refrigeration units.
[5:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even if these failed scientists predicted it would still take a whole 200 years for internal temperatures to rise above freezing.
[5:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As for the seeds, each sample consists of 500 seeds of a particular plant stored within custom made 3-ply foil packages, and they're
[5:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The whole facility has the capacity for some 4.5 million varieties.
[6:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So even if you're not big on salads, we should protect this place in any cost.
[6:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Who knows it could end up being the difference between a delicious nutritious meal and a bowl full of rocks.
[6:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I don't think there's a single piece of American architecture more instantly recognizable than the White House in Washington, D.C. Over 1.25 million people take tours of the presidential palace every year, and the anassuming facade and immense volume of visitors might have you believe that it's lacking in security.
[6:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.
[6:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Each of the 6,000 daily visitors to the sprawling 55,000 square foot complex must give 21 days notice to allow for extensive background checks, and that's not the only hidden measure.
[6:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: A fly restrictions zone covers a 15 mile area around the building and surface to air missile launchers are conspicuously scattered throughout the city, in case anyone tries any funny business.
[6:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: On top of the roof, a radar system surveys the immediate surroundings for signs of threat.
[7:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even if some pesky person did get close, the perimeter fence is over 10 and a half feet tall, top with sharp barbs covered in pressure sensors and mounted on crash resistant concrete.
[7:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And if you thought long-range projectiles would work, guess again, all of the windows are totally bulletproof and two of the rooms that presidential emergency operations center in the situation room, double up as nuclear bonkers.
[7:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Man, a new of wood beyond the teeth, but from the outside it just looks so chill.
[7:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The thing I love most about America is that we're innovators.
[7:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: What's that?
[7:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Buildings are supposed to have four sides?
[7:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Boo!
[7:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The Pentagon.
[7:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You did it, baby?
[7:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Unsurprisingly, the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia, isn't scamping on its security.
[7:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Anyone entering the building undergoes thorough screening and inside photography is banned to protect confidentiality.
[8:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And that's light.
[8:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Any deliveries to the side must first go through a nearby 250,000 square foot remote facility, which processes 250 trucks every day.
[8:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Once a vehicle is clear to enter the facility and undergoes a thorough inspection, including checking the undercarriage with mirrors and having a K9 squad search for explosives.
[8:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Drivers must also pass through a metal detector before opening any cargo doors.
[8:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: All materials are x-rayed and subjected to products specific inspections.
[8:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Then, and only then, can they be transported into the Pentagon.
[8:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yikes!
[8:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Perhaps the most impressive feature of the Pentagon itself are the Blastresist and Windows along the E&A Rings of Wedge 1.
[8:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Each window is one and a half inches thick and weighs a ton.
[8:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: During 9-11 a hijack plane was flown directly into the Pentagon and these windows save the lives of thousands of people.
[8:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Sheesh.
[8:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Just goes to show how important these defensive measures are.
[9:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: but how about below it?
[9:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is an impenetrable, subterranean fortress in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
[9:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It started out in the 1950s as a shield against long-range Soviet bombers and throughout the years, it's been the home of many important US defense units.
[9:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And let's just say if you were in here, you'd feel pretty safe.
[9:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The facility is buried under an outrageous 2000 feet of tough granite, and is secured against seismic activity, nuclear explosions, and electromagnetic pulse attacks.
[9:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In modern warfare, especially designed electromagnetic pulse weapons or EMPs are used to this for up communications equipment and sabotage entire electrical networks.
[9:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex is built like a giant paradise cage, which use electromagnetism to create a defensive shield around something to protect it from external charges.
[9:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In order to build this secret sanctum, drillers had to excavate an incredible 693,000 tons of granite.
[10:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And once everything was built, they slapped two, three, and a half-foot thick, 20-toned blastors on it, capable of standing at 30 megaton blasts from a little over a mile away.
[10:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The most powerful nuclear weapon ever developed by the US, the B-41, had a maximum yield of just 25 megatons.
[10:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: these big shutters are more than reliable.
[10:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Today, the complex is completely closed off to the public and is used as a backup training center for North American airspace defense command or NORAD.
[10:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So if you still fancy your chances at getting inside and snooping around, knowing this place is heavily guarded by military personnel might put you off.
[10:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: certainly gives me the spooks.
[10:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I'm out of here.
[10:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And Butler County Pennsylvania often on a surming road is one of America's most secure storage facilities.
[10:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: up until now, very few people outside of Pennsylvania even knew this place existed.
[11:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's a negatively called The Underground, and is run by data management company Iron Mountain.
[11:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There are no signs from the road to show you where it is, and from the front door alone, you'd be forgiven for assuming there's nothing interesting here.
[11:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, 220 feet below the ground in a massive 1200 acre former limestone mine is a small underground city with its own fire brigade security, speed limits, traffic lights, street names, and sidewalks.
[11:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Meadow!
[11:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But why?
[11:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, this isn't just any old storage facility, and houses everything from government records and corporate documents to famous musicians' master recordings.
[11:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Charles Darwin's will is even kept in there.
[11:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As such, the millions of price-less items require the utmost care and security to ensure everything runs smoothly.
[11:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And that means some 2,000 people working there every day.
[11:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As well as physical things though, Iron Mountain also saved guards important digital data.
[12:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Multiple copies of the same data are stored in separate places, so a part of the center goes down, customer information is still accessible, because it's stored elsewhere.
[12:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But this requires a button of power and generator's produce a lot of heat, so the underground has a cooling system which draws water from a 35-acre section of flooded mine.
[12:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's genius.
[12:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The facility also has a waterproof roof to prevent leaks and it's in a lower quick res zone.
[12:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Plus if all that wasn't enough a three-ton steelgate and 24-7 arm guards, make sure no unwanted visitors can get in.
[12:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Sheesh!
[12:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This place sounds incredible, that's enough underground stuff for now my lungs feel dusty.
[12:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's time for some fresh air, and a rain nowhere fresher than 35,000 feet.
[12:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Air Force One is the code name given to any aircraft carrying the president of the United States of America.
[12:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now you might have flown business class, some of you might have even flown first class, but you've never flown president class.
[13:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This plane is decked out with a private residence, meeting rooms, medical facilities, all the secret service agents you can imagine, but absolutely no weapons.
[13:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Wait, what?
[13:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: How are they going to protect the president?
[13:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While Air Force 1 has so many built-in defense systems, it doesn't really need them.
[13:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: For a start-in has multiple infrared countermeasures capable of redirecting missile threats away from it, see many missiles are designed to follow heat, but Air Force 1 has special jammers that radiate and altered infrared light.
[13:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This interferes with the missile sensors causing them to lose sight of the heat produced by the aircraft engines.
[13:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If that doesn't work, it also has deployable flares that burn super-hot and can misguide any threat.
[13:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Awesome.
[13:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But we're just getting started.
[13:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The internal communication systems are encrypted, meaning any cause, radio comms, or computer connections can safely reach whoever they need without fear of interception.
[13:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And if the superplane has to fly over a dangerous area, scrambleers jam nearby aircraft radar's keeping the president's location totally anonymous.
[14:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But do you want to know the coolest thing of all?
[14:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's stocked up with enough supplies to stay aerial for two to three days.
[14:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Theoretically, because of an an air refueling connection, it doesn't ever actually have to land.
[14:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It can just keep flying and get a top up from a specially designed refueling aircraft when necessary.
[14:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's so freaking cool.
[14:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Not for me though, I get plain sick.
[14:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Air Force One would be Air Force Bomb after 15 minutes.
[14:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The world's smallest country, the Vatican City covers a tiny area of just under 0.2 square miles inside of the Italian capital Rome.
[14:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But don't let its size deceive you, and times this nanoscopic nation has held some big secrets, especially the contents of the Vatican apostolic archives.
[14:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Inside a mind-blowing 53 miles of shelving houses of vast collection of state papers, correspondence and account books, and other documents are crude by the Catholic Church over the last 1200 years.
[15:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: After being separated from the Vatican Library during the 17th century by Pope Paul 5, Scholar's access to the records in the Apostolic Gorkyves were extremely limited until the 19th century.
[15:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even now, unlike most states archives, it's completely closed off to regular jose like you and me.
[15:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now, book humor.
[15:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In fact, the application process for access is incredibly complicated.
[15:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Any students, amateur historians or reporters are automatically blacklisted.
[15:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Academic scholars wishing to gain access must be at least 75 years old and have their authorizations reviewed every six months.
[15:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Once approved, the chosen few enter through a secret side entrance protected by the Swiss Guard, the Pope specifically trained armed forces, and are ushered to the secret collection.
[15:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In here, they're permitted to a pitiful 3 documents per day.
[16:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Photography and ink are banned, researchers are only permitted to use pencil paper and their personal computers.
[16:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But if you ever seen a 75 year old user computer, I'd rather set myself on fire.
[16:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Hmm, what do they so scared of people discovering?
[16:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While there's a wide range of theories about what lines the shelves ranging from Dune's Day Tax predicting the end of humanity books for summoning Satan, proof of aliens, and even a functioning time machine.
[16:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Call me a yellow belly coward, but I might pass on this one.
[16:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Whatever's in there sounds scary, especially the old people.
[16:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The Vatican might be the smallest country in the world, but there's an even smaller territory out there that guards some very mysterious activities.
[16:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If you haven't heard of sea land, that's because it's a micronation.
[16:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: A territory that claims sovereignty or independence, but isn't officially recognized as a country.
[16:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's based on HM port roughs, and all shore platform and the North Sea 7.5 miles off the east coast of England.
[17:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now the history of C-land is incredibly strange and complicated.
[17:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Originally built during World War II to defend British waters, H.M. Fort Ruffs and an up-decommission, and was taken over by a man called Patrick Roy Bates in the 1960s.
[17:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: He wanted to run a pirate radio station there because it was outside the legal jurisdiction of the UK.
[17:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: best forward to the year 2000 and a data haven called HavenCo registered their address on C-land.
[17:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Data havens are unregulated spaces that hold and protect content and associated information.
[17:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It might have heard of tour of Browser which people use to access the dark web, while HavenCo was kind of similar.
[17:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And one of the directors was Patrick Bates' son, Michael.
[17:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Because the land had declared itself sovereign and was outside of UK territorial waters, it could make its own laws for what kind of information could be best through it.
[17:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As for what that information was, it's all pretty tight-lipped.
[18:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But I guess a lot of the stuff they were doing wasn't what you were going to use the Internet for.
[18:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I hope.
[18:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Anyways, in 2008, Haven Co. mysteriously ceased operations just like that.
[18:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Poof, gone with no explanation.
[18:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, the principality of C-Land goes on.
[18:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Patrick Sun Michael, or to give him his full title, Prince Michael of C-Land, overseas operations now.
[18:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If you're granted approval by Sealands Royal Family, aka Michael, you can pre-arrange a boat to visit.
[18:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Don't worry, there's probably no risk of your boat getting taken out by snipers, but there's something about its piracy steeped history that makes this firmly guarded secret even warm mysterious.
[18:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If you thought the Catholic Church were the only religion closely guarding vast amounts of information, guess again.
[18:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Just outside Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Wasac Mountains is a colossal 65,000 square foot archive belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
[19:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Or as you might know them, the Mormon Church.
[19:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The archive has buried some 600 feet into the mountains and the latter-day Saints store around 3 billion pages of debt on genealogy and family history in it.
[19:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Since 1894 the church has dedicated heaps of time and resources to collecting these records, and in recent years have been making them available online.
[19:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They claimed to have records of over 12 billion of our ancestors with some dating all the way back to the first century CE.
[19:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While the information is publicly available, the physical documents are extremely well-protected.
[19:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The vault features six huge chambers which are all accessible from a single main entrance and two smaller passageways.
[19:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Wapping 12-ton doors guard the main entrance and nine-ton doors guard the smaller passageways.
[19:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: All are designed to withstand nuclear explosions.
[19:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: members of the public or denied access to prevent any unwanted tampering.
[19:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But it makes me wonder, what do Latter-day Saints want so badly with a bunch of all family history records?
[20:05] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, the answer could be very innocent.
[20:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Latter-day Saints believe that eternal joining of families in the afterlife is achievable and having this information enables them to perform special ceremonies to make it happen.
[20:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, some believe the digital records deliver an exclusion of same-sex couples means they're only being stored to further the latter-day saints' ideologies.
[20:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Whilst this is an undeniable useful body of information, it could be argue that these records are subtly rewriting history, or denying access to history to those who don't conform with the latter-day saints' ideals.
[20:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Hmm, piece to me is me, my car, and the open road to Denny is at 3am.
[20:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But I worry that while I'm getting my late night tea bone-staking milkshakes, someone could steal my sweet chalope.
[20:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If only there was somewhere secure to leave my beloved ride, somewhere like Bold Lane Carbork and Derbisher England.
[21:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Once a crime hotspot in 1997, the logo council invested 500,000 pounds for about $1.1 million in today's money, kidding it out with state-of-the-art tech to protect their motors.
[21:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Upon entering, each driver is given a special ticket with a unique barcode to activate the sensors in the floor of the parking bay.
[21:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If the car is moved without deactivating these sensors, which can only be done by the ticket holder, it will trigger the alarm system.
[21:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And these tickets are the only way you can get in or out, meaning opportunistic thieves can't gain access from the street without first depositing a car.
[21:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Genius, and 1997 just before the security upgrades there were 161 reported cases of criminal activity in the area.
[21:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However the following year this number dropped to a big bat zero.
[21:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So despite the fact that it costs more than other car parks in the area, locals are far happier to pay a little extra for that piece of mind.
[21:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Awesome!
[21:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Still, I don't know if it makes me feel any better about driving on British roads.
[22:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I've only done it once and all these many extra driving the wrong way down the street.
[22:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Stick to the ride, you fool!
[22:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I used to think all banks had a big cash-filled room with a thick metal door guarding it.
[22:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Sadly for me in my backlover, my local chase branch just doesn't hold that much of a lie.
[22:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But I know where it does.
[22:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This is the U.S. Bullion Depository at Ford Knox, and it houses over half of the Treasury's cold reserves.
[22:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They are the government agency who control the production of money, as well as overseeing the finances of the federal government.
[22:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In order to print more dollars, they're required to back up every dollar with a self-determined quantity of gold, and Ford Knox is where they keep an astounding 147.3 million ounces, which is roughly 20 solid gold-boing 747s.
[22:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: pretty fly, right?
[22:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now at the time of making this one ounce of gold is around $2,000.
[22:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So in total, I'd estimate Fort Knox houses around $295 billion.
[23:05] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Chuching.
[23:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But don't get too excited.
[23:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The chances of you getting within a hundred yards of the Shiny Shiny are slim to none.
[23:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Each corner of the perimeter is protected by a guard post scouting the entire area, and if you somehow get past them, rings of razor wire and mines will slice and blast you to pieces.
[23:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: To root some.
[23:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If by some miracle, you two manage to evade all that, good luck getting into the actual vault.
[23:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The vault doors 21 inches of torch and drill resistance solid steel weighing a formidable 20 tons.
[23:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As for the key, no one person knows all the techniques and tricks required to get inside.
[23:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Instead, discreet combinations are shared among multiple staff members.
[23:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And even if you've got all the codes, it still takes 100 hours for the door to fully unlock.
[23:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Screw that, you'd have to order a takeout for the stakeout.
[23:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Do we, Denys?
[24:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Okay, so Fort Knox protects the government's money, but what about our money?
[24:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While some people's opinions about the Fed aren't exactly glowing, they've certainly put the work in concerning their gold reserves.
[24:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: At 33 Liberty Street Manhattan, the Fed manages the largest most active and most influential gold storage reserve in the world.
[24:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Just 80 feet below street level is a whopping 6,195 tons of shiny shiny worth around
[24:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Swinks!
[24:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's two weeks retin' man, hadn't.
[24:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It just 2% of that gold is American owned.
[24:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The other 98% belongs to the central banks of 36 foreign nations.
[24:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, the Fed vault is so safe for and banks prefer storing it there.
[24:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I may guess it's safe because too big Berlin men with huge weapons keep guard outside.
[24:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, yes, there are plenty of really men with big weapons outside, but no humans are allowed to enter the vault itself.
[24:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Inside robots move pallets upon pallets of gold into 122 compartments.
[25:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Each one contains gold belonging to a separate account, never mixed, because the exact bars deposited by their owner are returned to them upon withdrawal.
[25:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: To preserve anonymity, the compartments are also all numbered instead of manned.
[25:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now they can technically be accessed, but first you've got to get through a 140 tons steel and concrete door.
[25:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Then once inside you'll need to open a padlock to combination locks and an auditor seal for every single compartment.
[25:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: All the while 24 hour motion sensitive cameras survey the entire area.
[25:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So, let's be real, you're not pulling this off.
[25:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And it's probably for the best I can't help but think all of these other countries would be pretty mad at us if we happen to misplace a barter too.
[25:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Advice I live by, be careful around bodies of open water, one strong current and you could float off anywhere.
[25:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: but the Tumen River is dangerous for completely different reasons.
[26:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's neither deep nor wide, you can see the opposite bank just as stones throw away.
[26:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: See the Tumen River marks the land border between North Korea and China.
[26:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While during the day many North Koreans use the river to bathe and wash clothes and vegetables in, by night, and becomes a vital lifeline to escape the tyrannical regime.
[26:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But crossing doesn't come easily.
[26:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Nighttime temperatures can plummet to just one degree Fahrenheit.
[26:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, the freezing waters are the least of any potential escapees concerns.
[26:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The soldiers who stand guard have strict instructions to shoot first as questions later, and most of the river is lined with barbed wire fences which are hard to see in the dead of night.
[26:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There are also watchtowers filled with more guards hidden throughout the nearby hills to catch any would-be defectors.
[26:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even if any fleeing innocent civilians are lucky enough to make it across, that's not the end of their woes.
[26:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The North Korean state security department operates special squads to track down and arrest those who have escaped before extra-nining them back to North Korea.
[27:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Jeez!
[27:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But it's not all doom and gloom, the Chinese city of Yanji just 15 miles away from the crossing is now one-third Korean speaking.
[27:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Many who tried to escape made it safely and are enjoying a better quality of life there.
[27:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: At least for now it appears that there's a glimmer of hope.
[27:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If you thought North Korea's border would China sounded bad, wait until you hear about their border with South Korea.
[27:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Following the end of the Second World War, fighting between the Soviet occupied North and the US occupied South resulted in the demarcation of a new border permanently separating the two.
[27:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But the division of these two routing neighbors has done nothing to quail the aggression.
[27:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: After a treaty was signed in 1953, a two-and-a-half mile uninhibited, safety buffer runs along the 150-mile border known as the Korean D-militarized Zone, or DMZ.
[27:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Despite not belonging to either country, it's one of the most heavily armed places in the world.
[28:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: North Korea has four were deployed 750,000 troops within 63 miles of the DMZ, and South Korea have 450,000 troops, including 20,000 American troops within the same distance.
[28:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: and that's not including all the artillery, and the middle is the joint security area, a neutral territory used for diplomatic engagements.
[28:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's the only point in the DMZ where North and South Korean forces meet face-to-face.
[28:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Other than that, a few scattered observation posts were dotted throughout the landscape and opportune positions, but due to flagrant incursions of the treaty from both parties, tensions remain outrageously high.
[28:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: so much so American troops are rumored to sleep in their boots in case anything kicks off.
[28:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yikes!
[28:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Imagine that, a million soldiers suddenly descending on one tiny little outpost.
[28:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now that's a crossfire, I don't want to get caught up in.
[28:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You've probably heard of the CIA, right?
[29:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They're the U.S. federal government's intelligence service who gather process and analyze national security information from all around the world.
[29:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If that seems pretty vague, it's because practically everything they do is shrouded in water-tight secrecy.
[29:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Their headquarters in Langley, Virginia is so private that even the architects who drew the plans in 1963 required extensive government clearance.
[29:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Cheapers!
[29:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As for what goes on here, it's almost completely classified.
[29:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There's a museum dedicated to the history of the organization, but no one from outside the agency has ever been allowed to enter.
[29:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Supposedly, CIA agents have to undergo polygraph tests every three to four years to ensure nobody's jeopardizing national security.
[29:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even the nine employees of the onsite Starbucks have to undergo thorough background checks and no one can enter the store without special security clearance.
[29:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yikes!
[29:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: All I wanted was a quad shot salted caramel mochiato with two pumps of hazelnut.
[30:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Instead, I got a grilling about my childhood, and guess what, even when they're done digging about in your trauma, they don't even call your name when it's ready.
[30:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: To keep total anonymity, motoristas have to pair each order to the customer's face.
[30:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Picking out one CIA agent from another would be exhausting.
[30:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Boy, the secret service industry sounds tough, but I'm proud to give them the award of most
[30:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: here, have a sticker.
[30:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I'm now one for fancy vacations.
[30:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I'd soon relax in a trailer park and Oklahoma with a nice garbage fire that spent thousands of bucks on a hotel.
[30:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, one such place did recently catch my eye, the green briar.
[30:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's a luxury resort near white sulfur springs West Virginia.
[30:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Not interested in the 11,000 acres of land, hundreds of guest rooms, restaurants, or activities.
[30:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Nope, I'm interested in the whopping great nuclear bunker the U.S. government built beneath it.
[30:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Whoa!
[30:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: During the 1950s, the government approached the Green Breyer resort about creating a secret emergency relocation center big enough to accommodate the whole of Congress in the event of a nuclear disaster.
[31:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Tensions between the U.S. and Russia were high in the threat of nuclear war had everyone on edge.
[31:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So, between 1959 and 1962, whilst the hotel built the new West Virginia wing, they also built a subterranean nuclear bunker.
[31:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And said was a dormitory kitchen hospital and a broadcast center with seasonal backdrops made to look like everyone was still in Washington.
[31:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In fact, the room's green-brire lamp for guest business meetings were fitted out with hidden concrete blast doors, 19 and a half inches thick, and way around 20 tons each.
[31:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: For 30 years, the bunker's existence was a secret hell between the green-brire, Washington, and the government workers who posed as hotel employees.
[31:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It was decommissioned in 1992, though, after the Washington Post broke a story about its existence and is now used as a data center.
[31:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Still, it's crazy to think they hit it right under vacationers' noses for all that time.
[32:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Thanks for listening to the podcast.
[32:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: We'll see you again next time.
[32:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You'll want to be amazed.

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