The program takes a dramatic turn when Oates plays reversals from Patsy Ramsey''s CNN interview, where backward phrases suggest disturbing knowledge of the JonBenet case. He also shares reversals from Neil Armstrong''s famous moonwalk statement and a Clinton interview that produced an amusing personal admission. Oates reveals that his reverse speech headquarters was burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances, and audio tape from the fire captured at least one intruder rummaging through filing cabinets.
Art then guides the discussion toward NASA reversals taken from a previous program featuring Ray Villard and Don Savage. The backward statements suggest hidden knowledge about life in space, secret involvement with the Cydonia region of Mars, and classified information about spacecraft. The reversals on Venus produce a particularly startling phrase referencing ships, buildings, and Americans.
Key Moments
Oates' father, conducting his wedding, said the marriage won't work: Oates tells the story of his own wedding, which his father - a country minister - officiated. Oates taped the ceremony, and on playback he found a clear reversal of his father's voice saying: this marriage won't work. Bell repeats it back: your dad married you? In reverse he said, this marriage will not work. Oates is now divorced.
Patsy Ramsey on CNN: I am that person: Oates plays a CNN clip of Patsy Ramsey saying there are at least two people on the face of this earth who know who did this - the killer and someone that person may have confided in. Played in reverse, Oates hears: I am that person. He repeats it twice for the audience and notes a second reversal in the same clip: seen that rape.
Neil Armstrong's first reversal: man will spacewalk: Oates plays Armstrong's That's one small step for man / one giant leap for mankind, then reverses it to hear: man will spacewalk. He says this was the very first reversal he ever found in human speech, back in 1984, and the one that started his entire career. He also notes Armstrong famously dropped the A he had planned to say - and Oates' theory is that reversals occur in exactly those pauses and mispronunciations.
Oates' pre-verbal daughter says I now come here: Oates plays a recording of his own pre-verbal daughter making baby gibberish - me-my-daughter sounds - as he physically moves her from one room to another. Reversed, the babble resolves to a clean phrase: I now come here. Bell calls it amazingly clear. Oates argues this means children construct reverse speech intelligently before they can speak forward.
Baby reaches for the tape recorder and reverses to what's that: Oates describes chasing his daughter around the room with a tape player. She suddenly sees it, reaches out to grab it, and emits the classic baby aga sound. Played in reverse, the sound comes out as: what's that. Oates notes the phonetic structure changes entirely on reversal, so this was not predictable from the forward letters.