Anomaly-NOW! 20251008

Anomaly-NOW! 10/08/2025 – Weekly News/Media Round-Up @7pm 

Anomaly-NOW! 10/08/2025 – Weekly News/Media Round-Up

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Jane Goodall, Bigfoot Politics, and Micro‑Lightning

**Scientists discover “micro-lightning” that could finally explain the mysterious will-o’-the-wisps phenomenon that has puzzled humanity for centuries.**

Miles Lewis returns from Austin with a packed episode covering everything from Jane Goodall’s surprising Bigfoot connections to cutting-edge cryptid science. The show opens with a touching tribute to the legendary primatologist, then dives into viral Texas cryptid sightings including a massive wolf-like creature spotted in San Antonio’s Hardberger Park.

The episode explores California’s playful attempt to make Bigfoot the official state cryptid through AB 666, and celebrates the vibrant community spirit at West Virginia’s Mothman Festival. But the real scientific breakthrough comes from Richard Zare’s lab experiments revealing how methane-filled bubbles can create “micro-lightning”—potentially solving the centuries-old mystery of will-o’-the-wisps.

Lewis also examines controversial claims about “alien DNA” variants in human families, emphasizing the need for rigorous peer review and warning about the ethical implications of such research. The episode balances wonder with healthy skepticism, from historian John Lyle’s corrective work on MKUltra myths to the importance of scientific rigor in anomalous research.

**Tune in for this fascinating blend of cryptid culture, cutting-edge science, and critical thinking that makes the mysterious world a little less mysterious.**

 

  • Anomaly Now Weekly Roundup
  • Jane Goodall: Chimpanzees to Bigfoot
  • Wolf-Like Cryptid in San Antonio
  • Donkey Lady and Texas Cryptids
  • Mothman Festival and Bigfoot Bill
  • Bigfoot Bill Stalls in Legislature
  • Will-o’-the-Wisps Explained by Micro-Lightning
  • Introducing John Lyle
  • Claims of Alien DNA in Humans

 

  • Jane Goodall — celebrated primatologist — was publicly open to the possibility of Bigfoot, an unexpected facet of her legacy.  
  • Lab experiments using high‑speed cameras and photon counters show methane‑filled microbubbles can produce “micro‑lightning,” offering a plausible chemical explanation for will‑o’‑the‑wisps.  
  • Geneticist Max Rempel posted an unreviewed claim of 348 non‑parental variants in 11 families that he suggested might point to “alien” DNA or hybrids — a provocative, as‑yet‑unconfirmed finding.

Miles Lewis opens this episode of Anomaly Now from Austin, shifting from last week’s true-crime focus to regular news and upcoming patron events, including Tui Snyder and an Oct. 22 talk by Erica Lukes and Jack Brewer. He solemnly notes Jane Goodall’s recent passing and shares Miguel Romero’s tribute, highlighting Goodall’s scientific legacy and openness to Bigfoot. Miles closes with a personal memory of the 2002 Texas Bigfoot conference. The host recounts writing a gonzo-style piece, “From the East Texas Wilderness,” under the pseudonym Andorra Astrid and struggling to scan and OCR the transcription before promising to post it to Patreon. He reflects on Jane Goodall’s surprising connection to Bigfoot, then discusses a viral San Antonio Reddit claim of a 10+ foot wolf-like cryptid in Hardberger Park—met with skeptics blaming meth—and ties it to broader Texas cryptid lore like the Donkey Lady. The host reflects on Bill Chappelle’s NPR piece about the lively 2025 Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant—where costumed devotees, an embracing LGBTQ+ presence, and whimsical inflatables turn cryptid lore into a celebratory community event—and admits never having visited. He then cites Sharon Ahill’s report on Assemblyman Chris Rogers’s playful AB666 to name Bigfoot California’s official state cryptid, noting Humboldt County ties and debates over legislative priorities. In the podcast, Rogers recounts his tongue-in-cheek attempt to immortalize Bigfoot with AB 666 to boost Humboldt tourism, only to face criticism from the California Civil Liberties Advocacy and stall in committee. Then Sarah Hashemi discusses new research by Richard Zare, who describes lab experiments using high-speed cameras and photon counters that revealed methane-filled bubbles can spark “micro-lightning,” offering a chemical explanation for will-o’-the-wisps. The host describes new research showing micro‑lightning from charged microbubbles—touching on Alessandro Volta’s old idea—while Antonio Pavao warns it doesn’t fully explain will‑o’‑the‑wisps. He spotlights historian John Lyle’s skeptical books on MKUltra and wartime secret warfare, praising Lyle’s corrective perspective. He closes by cautioning about Dr. Max Rempel’s unreviewed claim of “alien” DNA and the ethical, racially fraught risks Jacques Vallée has long warned about. In the episode geneticist Rempel described preliminary evidence of 348 non-parental variants in 11 families that might suggest “alien” DNA, but he warned the findings are unconfirmed and need rigorous analysis and access to approved datasets, which delays progress. He called the implications potentially staggering—possibly identifying human hybrids—and noted the paper is unreviewed (ResearchGate, May 2025) and covered by media. The host directed listeners to the show’s archives, Patreon, Flipboard, and YouTube for links and notes.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Hello and welcome to another live edition. Oh wait, it’s not live, it’s Memorex. Another weekly edition of Anomaly Now, straight out of Austin, Texas. I’m your host, Miles Lewis. This is the weekly news and media roundup for the 501c3 non -profit Scientific Anomaly Institute, aka the Anomaly Archives. Thank you for joining us. Wow, okay, so last week we did a pretty downer of a show. focused on true crime events such as the recent apparent resolution solution to the enigmatic, terrible yogurt shop murders here in Austin back 34 years ago in 1991, as well as mass shootings that had occurred over the weekend.

 

shop murders here in Austin back 34 years ago in 1991, as well as mass shootings that had occurred over the weekend. And yeah, back to our more normal fare. We do have a few downers to report, but that’s just part of documenting. the ongoing flow of history. I do want to make you aware of our upcoming monthly anomaly archives, not only Academy cadet lecture series available to our patrons of a certain tier or higher, you can go to patrion .com slash anomaly archives. And there you can find out more information about. past events, like our recent event with Tui Snyder, Travel, Tombstones, and Transformation, about her book Around the World in 80 Grays, you can also look forward to this presentation coming up in a week or so, Expanding Frontiers Research’s inimitable legendary Erica Lukes and Jack Brewer, presenting on the topic of the Cold War and UFOs. That’s coming up Wednesday, October 22nd. Again, you can go to patreon .com slash anomalyarchives for more information about that. Whoops, that’s not what I meant to do. And right. So, yeah, some of the less happy news that we do have to report on is the news of the passing of legendary, amazing primatologist Jane Goodall.

 

news that we do have to report on is the news of the passing of legendary, amazing primatologist Jane Goodall. This obituary. Memorial from our good friend Miguel Romero over at dailygrail .com. Ballet Jane Goodall, protector of chimps and believer of Bigfoot 1934 to 2025. As Miguel says, this one really hurts. The Jane Goodall Institute has just announced that Dr. Goodall passed away this morning in California during her speaking tour through the United States. She was 91. years old. Jane Goodall is the kind of trailblazer that inspired several generations of women to pursue a career in science. Her in -situ observations of chimpanzee behavior changed our understanding of primate behavior forever. She was the first person in the world who observed tool use among chimpanzees during a time when academicians believed only our species was capable of such complex reasoning. She also documented tribal warfare among different chimp groups, which, for better or worse, cemented the idea that war is an inherent trait in humans. That belief has been largely contested thanks to the work of researchers like Franz de Waal, who showed that bonobos resolve their conflicts in a non -violent manner. After attaining worldwide popularity thanks to National Geographic, her shapely legs helped a bit she used to joke about, Dr. Goodall devoted the rest of her life to conservation efforts in trying to safeguard the vulnerable habitats of the apes she was so passionate about. Being something of a living legend has several advantages. And Dr. Goodall wasn’t afraid of openly expressing her more, quote unquote, out there ideas and beliefs. She was, for instance, very open to the existence of Bigfoot. And she also believed there was something else awaiting us after bodily death. Yes, this is over at DailyGrail .com. And, you know, what he was referring to there reminds me of how I first heard about the Jane Goodall reference.

 

Jane Goodall reference. Yeah, back in 2002, 2003, actually it was in 2002 when I went to the second annual Texas Bigfoot conference in Jefferson, Texas, put on by my good friend Craig Woolheater, that I was made aware of this through conversations with members of the crowd, other fellow cryptozoology Bigfoot enthusiasts that were there. I’m in the process of transcribing the review that I wrote for that, for that, for the Austin pair of times back in 2003, 2002, I wrote a review of my, my trip to see that second annual conference there. And yeah, let’s see. It’s going to be, I’ll be posting it to our Patreon very soon. And yes, it was called From the East Texas Wilderness, which is a play on From the Wilderness, which is a parapolitical title newsletter by another legendary, now departed, conspiracy researcher. Anyway, subtitled Living and Breathing Bigfoot, 24 Hours in East Texas, or Bigfoot Ate My Conference Notes, the second annual Texas Bigfoot Conference, October 12, 2002, Jefferson, Texas. I wrote it under a pseudonym, Andorra Astrid. really trying to do kind of a hunter s thompson gonzo writing style i’m not sure it works but uh looking as i transcribed it couldn’t scan it and ocr it but anyway it was somebody in the audience there that brought to my attention the fact that good old jane goodall had at some point come out as a as a bigfoot believer and i just I was fascinated by that ever since. And yeah, it’s sad to see her go, but she will be missed. Sticking with cryptozoology news, we’ve got this one from over at sacurrent .com. That’s the San Antonio current wolf -like creature stalking San Antonio city parks viral Reddit post claims. Now, I believe this is piggybacking on pre -existing information about

 

claims of cryptids, particularly a wolf -like cryptid in San Antonio. Subtitled, even so, some in the comments section attributed the sightings to a bad batch of meth floating around the Alamo city. The article is by Michael Carlis from October 2nd, 2025. And reads, attention cryptid hunters, a San Antonio reddit user claims to have spotted an abnormally tall wolf -like creature during a late night jog at the north side’s sprawling Hardburger Park. In the now viral post, user guiltyparty2135 described the creature purportedly spotted six days ago as the, quote, biggest effing thing ever, adding that it resembled a 10 plus feet tall wolf, but lanky with a big tail. Huh. The user added, quote, all this land was donated by a wealthy person before it was a park. Do you think this is why they insisted it become a nature preserve? Anybody else see this thing? Indeed, the city of San Antonio, rather. did purchase the 311 -acre plot that became Hardburger Park from the Volker family in 2007. That’s V -O -E -L -C -K -E -R, Volker. However, some who responded to the post on the San Antonio subreddit suggested there was a more likely explanation for the sighting. A bad batch of meth is floating around the Alamo City. Whatever turns out to be true, the Wild online claims… The claim has garnered nearly 250 upvotes and 146 comments as of press time. And Hardbroker Park may not be the only green space stalked by such a creature, someone else alleged in the subreddit debate. User HolyDiverMP4 also claims to have seen the cryptid at San Pedro Springs Park. Quote, it was standing under the tree by the gazebo and it wasn’t human. The person wrote, quote, unquote, it was tall, lanky, thin arms, with thin legs and had no dimension to it. So it was flat, like a hologram or a display. San Antonio and South Texas are no strangers to cryptids. The Alamo city and its suburbs alone are reportedly home to the converse werewolf flying humanoids as reported on by the current in 2011. And of course the donkey lady.

 

So I was just telling a friend about stories. I’ve personally heard from people about. what they’ve heard about encounters with the donkey lady and or some people claiming personal experiences with donkey lady. The link here to donkey lady goes to this kiss FM 93 .1 radio station. That’s kisselpaso .com. The donkey lady of Texas, the creepiest cryptid you’ve never heard of from May of this year. Anyway. I’ll try to remember to put the link to that in the show notes as well. But if you just go to this essay current article, you can follow the link there. Anyway, reading the rest of this current article, the Texas Standard last year even published an hour long podcast about Texas’s long history with cryptids. Even so, a number of commenters on the Reddit thread stuck with their explanation that bad drugs were behind the Bizarro Park sighting. Sure, whatever. I just am always fascinated by this sort of information. Meanwhile, over at NPR, of all places, devotees of the mysterious Mothman descend on its West Virginia hometown, October 1st, 2025, by Bill Chappelle. And I love these pictures, especially the young lady cosplaying as Mothman, Mothwoman, Mothperson. Yeah, so point pleasant. I have never made the trek. I’ve always… wanted to, but I’ve never made it there. Point Pleasant, West Virginia is a legendary… God, I’ve used that word too many times this episode. It’s a very famous part of UFO and cryptid overlap in the two folklores. This article begins, Every September, the streets in this tiny town along West Virginia’s border with Ohio are taken over by Mothman, a mysterious creature that, like Bigfoot, has inspired books, movies, podcasts, and devoted fans. It’s the 2025 Mothman Festival, and many attendees are in costume, walking beneath giant inflatables ranging from Mothman with filigreed wings and bulging red eyes to the Ghostbusters Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. I think that one’s been there a couple of years now. For an event celebrating a dark and mysterious being, the vibe is surprisingly uplifting. And this is something I don’t know if they addressed in the article, but Mothman and other cryptids, but particularly Mothman, has become kind of… very popular i believe in the lgbtq plus whatever communities and i’m not the only person to note that people from that community have noted that anyway yeah it’s just i think a review of of how popular this has become i gotta make it to it but it also seems like it’s quite big and intense now so we’ll see but some great photographs And I definitely have had a ton of friends visit this amazing event and know a few people that actually work thereabouts at local Mothman -focused museums. I’m laughing for those who can’t see.

 

I’m laughing for those who can’t see. There’s one of the images of a couple dressed up as… Moth people? A moth couple wearing Mothman t -shirts, but they have lampshades on their head because what is Mothman like? Lamp.

 

Moving right along over to SharonAhill .com. Sharon Ahill, strange claims adjuster. I was really happy to see this just a little while ago. What happened in the effort to make Bigfoot the state cryptid of California? Sharon writes, on February 14, 2025, Chris Rogers, Democrat of the California legislature, proposed Bill AB666 to designate Bigfoot as the official state cryptid. Existing law establishes the state flag and the state’s emblems, including, among other things, the golden poppy as the official state flower and the California redwood as the official state tree. This bill would state the intent of the legislature to enact legislation that would designate Bigfoot as the official state cryptid. How many states have official state cryptids is the question. She notes, Bigfoot is a .k .a. the, quote, mountain or wood devil, unquote. So this number was seen as interesting. Oh, with the bill number 666. OK. She continues, for a month, this was news around the world because it was funny and lighthearted, but some didn’t respond positively to the news, noticing that California had far more important things to attend to than frivolous lawmaking. But state legislators. are overly fond of such memorial acts and regularly waste time pushing them through. Yes, indeed. California already has 42 official state symbols. Why not another one? The symbolic gestures provide recognition and anchors these symbols to the state. Rogers is represented in the northern part of the state that is heavily associated with Bigfoot and benefits already from the link. His Humboldt County includes Bluff Creek, the location of the infamous Patterson -Gimlin film from 1967. and nearby Willow Creek, home of the huge Bigfoot Days Festival, the longest -running cryptid town festival. Willow Creek was the place where Bigfoot supposedly made its historic entrance into American popular culture when, in 1958, loggers found giant footprints that were reported in the local Humboldt Times, giving the unknown creature the name Bigfoot. Therefore, it does make sense that Rogers would like to cement this notoriety. The effort was clearly intended to encourage tourism. Rogers noted that Bigfoot, quote, generates buzz and interest from outdoor enthusiasts, unquote, more so than other cryptids. He’s not wrong. So the bill had considerable public support. However, besides Washington and Oregon feeling that this was their claim to stake, there was recorded opposition to the bill, quote, according to the California Civil Liberties Advocacy, quote, We live in a time when conspiracy theories and pseudoscience threaten everything from public health to democratic stability. Instead of upholding the principles of rational governance, this bill signals that California’s legislature is willing to indulge in the same kind of post -truth nonsense that fuels climate change denial, anti -vaccine hysteria, and yes, even wild conspiracies like Chemtrail’s exclamation point. That’s not really the intent, but they are also not wrong. Maybe the bill was too funny and unique for these dire times. The action on AB 666 never made it to the next step, a committee hearing. It remains stalled in the legislative process as we enter the last quarter of 2025. Most bills die because they fail to gain support to push through the gauntlet to become law. It’s unclear if this one will also die, but it does look like Bigfoot will remain unofficial in all aspects. Wah, wah, wah. This is why we can’t have good fun things. All right, shifting gears to frontier physics, new science, and sort of maybe UFOs and maybe cryptids still. Maybe still cryptozoology. From over at Smithsonian Magazine, that’s smithsonianmag .com, what actually sparks Willow the Wisps? A new study traces the science behind the mysterious wandering lights. The ghostly phenomenon could be the product of a chemical reaction involving methane, researchers suggest. This article is by Sarah Hashemi and is dated October 1st. There is a weird microscopic focused green image with an arrow pointing to something that says micro lightning. And the subtitle for that photograph, the researchers captured micro -lightning as they bubbled methane and air through water. For centuries, stories about will -o’ -the -wisps have captured the popular imagination. Countless tales have been told to explain the mysterious lights seen hovering above marshes, swamps, and bogs, with folklore and myth insisting they’re caused by tricksters, ghosts, or spirits. Scientists have previously suggested that the flames come from decaying organic matter releasing flammable methane gas. but they didn’t know what sparked the reaction to start the fire. Now, a new study offers an explanation for the mysterious phenomenon. In a series of lab experiments, researchers observed that water bubbles containing methane can spontaneously ignite, causing what they call micro -lightning. The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on September 29th. Quote, Your first reaction when you hear about this finding might be, okay, Willow the Wisps are these ghostly spooky things, but so what? Richard Zare, Z -A -R -E, a physical chemist at Stanford University and senior author of the study, tells Rachel Neuer, N -U -W -E -R, at Scientific American. In fact, the phenomenon we found related to how chemistry can be driven at interfaces is profound. Zare and his team had previously observed that water droplets can generate electricity, but they didn’t know if tiny bubbles could do the same thing. To test that out, they used high -speed cameras to record what happened as a nozzle blew bubbles of methane and air into water. They also used a photon counter and a spectrometer to detect other evidence of micro lightning. Once the machine started bubbling the water with methane, the counter detected photons or particles of light. Eventually, as they kept bubbling and the water heated up, the camera picked up micro lightning. That was because droplets of different sizes took on opposite electric charges, and when they got too close to each other, they would release a spark. Quote, The Italian physicist Alessandro Volta first speculated that it was lightning causing these will -o’ -the -whiffs, and in some sense he was right, but not for the reasons he thought, Zaire tells Alex Wilkins at New Scientist. It’s not lightning in the air coming from the sky, it’s really from the droplets. Antonio Pavao, a chemist at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil, who was not involved in the research, tells Laura Allen at Science News that while the study clearly demonstrates that micro bubbles can create electricity, it doesn’t necessarily explain Willow of the Wisps. Or you can read more about that at SmithsonianMag .com. You know, in the last episode, I mentioned being excited to learn about this new research by somebody, and I don’t think I mentioned their name, or maybe I did. John Lyle, L -I -S -L -E. He is a local UT student term professor. You can find out more about him at his website, johnlylehistorian .com. And he’s the author of these two books, which, again, I don’t know if I mentioned the titles or the subject matter last week. I really don’t remember. But I just wanted to, again, bring your attention to this. I’m really looking forward to finding out more about him. I’ve been listening to some podcast interviews with John about these two books, mainly the one. The more recent one, Project Mind Control, Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKUltra. His earlier book, The Dirty Tricks Department, Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II’s Secret Warfare is what led him to this work on MKUltra. And while it definitely seems like a very skeptical bent on the topics, I’ve already found his perspective to be very intriguing. and possibly dispelling some misinformation that I had believed for a long time. The website says John Lyle has a PhD in history from the University of Texas, where he is now a professor of the history of science. He is the award -winning author of Project Mind Control and the Dirty Tricks Department. His work has appeared in Skeptic, Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and son. Again, that’s over. You can find out more about him and his books at johnlylehistorian .com. That’s L -I -S -L -E is his last name. And rounding out today’s, tonight’s episode is going to be this information. I, of course, found out about this through the less than stellar reputation website, dailymail .co .uk. Scientists. Scientist finds evidence of quote -unquote alien DNA in humans. Yeah.

 

This is a very dangerous path of research. I say that because of concerns expressed a long time ago and repeatedly by likes of Jacques Vallée and others who long ago recognized the dangers inherent in so much of the contactee and UFO lore that… potentially pits humans against humans by claims of different ethnicities, different demographics being associated with different alien origins. This just could so easily be twisted into racism of a galactic nature. But all that aside, this Daily Mail article starts by saying scientists claim to have found evidence of alien genetic manipulation in human DNA. with large sections of genes seemingly inserted into people, potentially affecting millions of humans. If confirmed, the discovery could fundamentally alter our understanding of human evolution and the future of the human race, said lead researcher Dr. Max Rempel, R -E -M -P -E -L, the founder and chief executive of the DNA Resonance Research Foundation. The study, which has not yet undergone peer review, analyzed DNA from both ordinary people and self -reported alien abductees. In an examination of 581 complete families from the 1000 Genomes Project, Rimple found, quote, large sequences, unquote, of DNA in 11 families that appeared to match neither parent. These anomalies include a cluster of 348 non -parental genetic variants, some of which were from children born before 1990, ruling out human gene editing technologies such as CRISPR, which only emerged in 2013. Rempel cautioned that his findings are preliminary and require more rigorous analysis. Quote, no conclusive evidence yet, but because we need better data sets, which are available only on approval, that takes time and effort, he said. Nevertheless, he believes the implications could be staggering. Quote, humanity may be undergoing genetic transformation. If confirmed, it could be possible to detect which humans carry alien DNA, essentially identifying hybrids, he explained. You can read more about this over at dailymail .co .uk. And his paper, yet to be peer -reviewed, is available over at researchgate .net, Preliminary Evidence of Traces of Alien Genetic Manipulation in Humans, dated May 2025. Yeah, and you can download that there. All right, folks. Well, thank you for tuning in. I would just remind you that you can… Go to our website, anomalyarchives .org. You can go to patreon .com slash anomalyarchives. You can go to flipboard .com slash at anomalyarchives and click through to the thousands of news links that we cover here every week as well have been covering for years. You can find archives of those links over at our website as well as the show notes for this episode and all episodes of our past anomaly now. show series. And of course you can find a ton of other material for free over at our YouTube channel. That’s youtube .com slash anomaly archives. Well, thank you for joining us. That’s going to be it. And good night.