36.11 - MU Podcast - This Hollow Earth - Episode 01: Deep Lore

Summary

Mysterious Universe launches a multi-part saga based on Warren Smith's 1970s book This Hollow Earth, exploring the claim that vast inhabited worlds exist beneath our feet. Hosts Brayden Thomas and Joe Hodgdon cover Edmund Halley's concentric-sphere theory, the Agartha legend, the sinister Deros, and the deathbed tale of Norwegian sailor Olaf Jansen, who claimed to have lived among giants inside the Earth. The episode also ties hollow Earth lore to UFOs emerging from below, secret chambers under the pyramids, Nero's hunt for subterranean treasure, and reports of underground cities and beings.

Key takeaways

• 1Astronomer Edmund Halley proposed to the Royal Society in the 1690s that the Earth is a hollow shell containing concentric inner spheres with their own magnetic poles, possibly harboring life
• 2Olaf Jansen's deathbed story, published by Willis George Emerson as 'The Smoky God' (1908, reprinted 1965), claims he and his father sailed through a North Pole opening, lived two years among giants lit by an inner 'Smoky God' sun, and that he was then confined to an asylum for 24 years
• 3Hollow Earth Society president Albert McDonald claimed the auroras are light from an inner sun escaping through polar openings, and that humanity's history is stored in vaults beneath the pyramids
• 4Brinsley Le Poer Trench, 8th Earl of Clancarty, wrote 'The Sky People' (1960) and 'Secret of the Ages: UFOs from Inside the Earth' (1976), arguing that UFOs come from within the planet
• 5George Wagner Jr. wrote in Search Magazine (January 1967) of an underground city 8-10 miles deep near Portland, Oregon, said to hold over a million inhabitants and a spaceport
• 6Other claims include Nero sending legionnaires to North Africa to find treasure-filled tunnels, a 1969 humanoid figure sighting in a tunnel under the Thames, and a 1770 Staffordshire laborer who found an underground machine room guarded by a robed figure with a wand

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

What if you could run your Oracle databases everywhere you run your business? Good news, you can. Oracle AI Database runs in every major cloud, so you can use your live data for all your AI and analytics needs. Learn more at oracle.com slash migrate. Oh, hey there, and welcome to Mysterious Universe, season 36, episode number 11. According to Buddhist doctrine, Agartha is a subterranean land located deep within the center of our planet. The Buddhists believe that millions of people live within this underground paradise. Their lives and destinies are directed by an all-powerful and all-wise ruler known to them as the king of the world. What wonders lie just beneath us all? We're here today to begin a fascinating saga series titled This Hollow Earth, based on the work of Warren Smith in his 1977 published 1972 copyright book, This Hollow Earth, the astounding investigation into the lost worlds beneath the planet's surface. Yes, we are here to ask, is the story of Agartha nothing more than a fun fable, or is there truth behind the legend? Do we know that the Earth is solid with varying layers of deep, dense material that terminates in a solid, molten core? Or, could there be vast, inhabitable spaces we would be astonished to experience? I am your cavernously curious host, Brayden Thomas, and with me, as always, is the stalactite stallion himself, Hollow Joe Hodgdon. What's up, bud? Never cease to amaze me with these names. So you gave me, you didn't spoil it, but you did give me kind of a heads up that we're going to be doing something in the realm of Hollow Earth, and I am stoked now that I know it's that, because of all the crazy things, that's one of my favorites. ...

Excerpt from Mysterious Universe, Sep 24, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.