Reveal

A Midnight Phone Call. A Missing Movie. Decades of Questions.

12 snips
Apr 4, 2026
Yo-Wei Shaw, podcaster/producer who investigates emotional questions, meets a woman who looks like her and explores identity and connection. Ashley Cleek, reporter/producer who digs into odd personal mysteries, pursues a lost early film and a decades-old midnight phone call tied to a reclusive musician. The conversation traces internet archives, recovered footage, and the allure of unresolved stories.
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ANECDOTE

Teen Films Lost On Early Google Video

  • Garrison Hayes filmed early short films like Midnight Snack as a teen and uploaded them to Google Video and MySpace.
  • He later couldn’t find Midnight Snack until an archived trace appeared on his old MySpace page showing a 4:40 video with 39 views.
INSIGHT

How Archivists Rescued Google Video

  • Archive Team rescued about 1 million Google Video files by cracking access methods and downloading raw files before deletion.
  • They uploaded 18 terabytes to Internet Archive, preserving titles and descriptions that let researchers locate lost videos like Midnight Snack.
ADVICE

Use Python To Parse Massive Archive Dumps

  • Use parsed metadata from large archive dumps to reconstruct usable URLs with scripting.
  • Melissa Lewis parsed a 4.5GB text file using Python to extract URLs that led to the archived Midnight Snack file.
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