Rewind: Digging Deep with TikTok's "tunnel girl"

In this throwback from the Endless Thread archives, hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson revisit an episode from 2024. In 2022, a TikTok creator https://www.tiktok.com/@engineer.everything?lang=en who identifies herself as "Kala" began digging. What followed was an increasingly viral series of TikToks chronicling the efforts of Kala, who some on the internet dubbed "Tunnel Girl," as she excavated and constructed a tunnel system under her suburban home. Her more than half-million followers watched and weighed in with support, suggestions and, at times, concern. That is, until a stop-work order halted the project in its tracks. Two years later, we have some updates on the story. This episode was originally published on February 02, 2024. It was produced by Katelyn Harrop and co-hosted by Katelyn Harrop, Ben Brock Johnson, and Amory Sivertson. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. Sponsor message: 🌏 EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/ENDLESS Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee 👍

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken?, a podcast from the Marotra Institute at BU Questrom School of Business. A recent episode explores how AI is reshaping our schools. Stick around until the end of this podcast to preview the episode.

• 0:16Speaker 01

  Ugh, I hate Mondays.

• 0:18Speaker 00

  King's Hawaiian cinnamon swirl bite?

• 0:20Speaker 01

  Uh, Taylor Hansen? Sure, I'll try one. Mmm.

• 0:26Speaker 02

  Hey, let's get back to work, please.

• 0:27Speaker 01

  But Taylor Hansen's making my day way better with these new soft and swirly King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites.

• 0:32Speaker 02

  Taylor Hansen? Nice.

• 0:34Speaker 00

  Try one.

• 0:35Speaker 02

  Mmm.

• 0:39Speaker 03

  King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites. There's nothing like it.

• 0:47Speaker 04

  How many discounts does USAA Auto Insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount, safe driver discount, uh, new vehicle discount, storage discount, legacy discount.

• 0:56Speaker 05

  How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com/autodisc counts. Restrictions apply.

• 1:03Ben Brock Johnson?

  What up, Endless Threaders? It's Benny B. Johnson. Hope you're doing well. Today, we are returning to an episode from the past, and it's a good one. It's from a while ago, actually. Our former colleague Caitlin Harrop brought us the story of Tunnel Girl. You remember Tunnel Girl? Digging out a long passage in her northern Virginia home? Well, there have been some updates. She kind of disappeared for a while because, you know, there were questions about the legality of what she was doing under her home in Virginia. And then she popped back up last March, almost a year ago to the day, with some new updates,

• 1:47Ben Brock Johnson?

  some new videos. She apparently got to continue her work thanks to navigating a whole bunch of red tape. And she's back. She's still digging. It's deeper. It's longer. She's got more expertise. So, the mystery of Tunnel Girl, it doth continue, which is why we wanted to bring you this episode, this kind of unsolved mystery. Please enjoy Tunnel Girl.

• 2:23Ben Brock Johnson?

  W D U R Podcasts, Boston.

• 2:33Ben Brock Johnson?

  Producer Caitlin Herrup, thank you for joining us for our second episode of Tunnel Talk, the podcast-

• 2:41Amory Sivertson?

  About tunnels.

• 2:42Ben Brock Johnson?

  We talk about tunnels.

• 2:44Amory Sivertson?

  Of various depths, to various locations.

• 2:48Speaker 08

  There's nowhere I would rather be for my inaugural Endless Thread episode than here with the tunnels.

• 2:57Speaker 08

  That's an honor, honestly.

• 3:03Speaker 08

  Okay, Erin and Ben.

• 3:05Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yes.

• 3:05Speaker 08

  You are both homeowners, correct?

• 3:08Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yes.

• 3:09Amory Sivertson?

  The bank owns my home, but yeah.

• 3:11Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yeah, the bank also owns my home, but yes, sure.

• 3:14Speaker 08

  Okay, you are not renting your homes.

• 3:17Amory Sivertson?

  No.

• 3:17Speaker 08

  You live in buildings with your names on them. And I want you to think of the single most ambitious home improvement project you've ever taken on.

• 3:27Ben Brock Johnson?

  I've replaced parts of a deck. I've, I've installed the new sink, which was a little scary. Yeah.

• 3:35Amory Sivertson?

  Well, I don't get credit for this, but where I record Endless Thread is inside of my home studio, our home studio. We basically built a room within a room with a lot of insulation. So, and in doing so, we probably like decreased the value of the home because we made this room smaller and less practical for anyone but us. But hey.

• 4:00Speaker 08

  I love that. Okay, I would like to see your deck improvement and home studio and raise you a suburban tunnel project in Virginia that has captured the attentions, the minds, in some cases, the hearts, and in other cases, the fervor of TikTok. Are you ready?

• 4:22Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, yes, I'm ready.

• 4:25Speaker 08

  All right, here we go. I'm talking about the TikTok account @engineer.everything. It's run by a woman who identifies herself as Kella. Hi, I'm Kella, and today I have to show- But she is also called more widely on the internet Tunnel Girl or Tunnel Lady.

• 4:44Ben Brock Johnson?

  So I remember you telling us about this in an Endless Thread meeting, but then, just in the past few weeks-

• 4:52Ben Brock Johnson?

  She has made her way, or her content has made its way from TikTok, where I do not mercifully spend a lot of time, and on to Reddit, where I do spend too much time.

• 5:03Speaker 08

  Where I mercifully don't spend time.

• 5:07Ben Brock Johnson?

  She's cross-platform. She's cross-platforms. She's omnipotent.

• 5:12Speaker 08

  So Kella, she has almost half a million followers on TikTok right now. And these people have been following her now multi-year effort to build a tunnel system under her suburban home.

• 5:26Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, my God.

• 5:27Speaker 08

  So to start this journey, we need to go back to 2022, when Kella posted what appears to be her first video announcing this plan.

• 5:40Speaker 09

  I am about to embark on a new and complex project. I'm planning to construct a storm shelter off the side of my basement.

• 5:50Speaker 08

  So in this TikTok, she shows us what looks to be a very solid concrete basement wall, where she says she's going to cut out a door and effectively begin excavating to build this storm shelter.

• 6:05Ben Brock Johnson?

  As you do.

• 6:06Speaker 08

  And she says she plans to build a ramp up to a window on another wall in her basement so that she can get all the rubble she'll be excavating out of the basement. But of course, the basement window is 14 feet below ground, so she'll also need to build a crane with a bucket to bring all the rubble from the window up to ground.

• 6:23Speaker 09

  This project is going to be enormously expensive and have zero return on investment. It's something that I wanted to do, and it should be fun.

• 6:34Ben Brock Johnson?

  This is a dumb project, but I really wanted to do it.

• 6:37Speaker 08

  Yeah, I'm literally, this is, this is literally a money pit, a money tunnel pit in the ground.

• 6:43Ben Brock Johnson?

  Their ROI is her satisfaction with her own tunneling skills.

• 6:47Speaker 08

  Or like her mental health. This is her workout for the next however long. Yes, and this is sort of how we jump into. This tunnel project, it's very like, we're just in, there isn't a lot of background, like, we're in it. And it sounds kind of technical, right?

• 7:03Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yeah.

• 7:04Amory Sivertson?

  Yeah, I don't, I wouldn't know, other than just forward.

• 7:08Ben Brock Johnson?

  I mean, start, start digging, and if stuff starts cracking and, and rumbling, stop digging.

• 7:13Speaker 08

  This is only the beginning of what ends up being a very technical and complex project that evolves from what Kela first calls a storm shelter, as we just heard, to what she starts calling a tunnel system, a quote, "secret labyrinth under my house and a suburban mine."

• 7:34Speaker 08

  And by the way, Kela does not appear to have any significant formal engineering training as it relates to this kind of project. And based on the videos, it seems like she's doing much of the work alone.

• 7:47Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay.

• 7:47Amory Sivertson?

  Perfect.

• 7:48Speaker 08

  So how are we feeling about this so far?

• 7:51Ben Brock Johnson?

  Um, I'm worried that Kela is in need of another hobby.

• 7:58Amory Sivertson?

  I'm worried we will find her under a pile of rubble called her house.

• 8:02Speaker 08

  Yeah. What we see in the weeks and months following the posting of that first TikTok in October 2022 is a bunch of videos, like, I mean, more than 200 TikToks.

• 8:13Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, my God.

• 8:13Speaker 08

  Where Kela takes her followers along for her building project. And we're talking about excavating, we're talking about building rebar structures.

• 8:24Speaker 09

  I tied 1,000 feet of rebar with 500 feet of wire, and my hands are incredibly tired.

• 8:30Speaker 08

  We're talking about pouring concrete ceilings.

• 8:34Speaker 09

  I'm in a tunnel with 5,000 pounds of wet concrete over my head. And the only thing separating me from becoming a pancake is my own engineering.

• 8:45Speaker 08

  We're talking about welding that is happening underground in this basement or sub-basement system.

• 8:52Speaker 09

  I am covering my safety boots with my pants to avoid burns.

• 8:57Speaker 08

  And as she continues to post, she gains more and more traction. And there's this very dedicated foundational followers who are very invested in this project.

• 9:07Amory Sivertson?

  Foundation of followers. What's that intentional?

• 9:11Ben Brock Johnson?

  Well done.

• 9:12Speaker 08

  Who's to say? Who's to say? More, more tunnel pumps to come. And just to, like, give you an idea of how this project is developing, here's a little bit of a tour she gave on TikTok in September of 2023.

• 9:25Speaker 09

  The entrance tunnel goes down a deep climb 30 feet in and 10 feet down. The first chamber is 22 feet below grade and is approximately 10 feet by 6 feet.

• 9:40Amory Sivertson?

  Oh, my God.

• 9:41Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, my God.

• 9:43Amory Sivertson?

  I'm thinking like, because I didn't hear a strong statement from her in the beginning about what she hopes to do in the tunnel system, like, yes, this is a lot of work, but just picture me in the tunnel years from now, doing my tunnel things and what that, what that big dream, what that vision really looks like. It feels like that the real tunnel she's building is this TikTok following.

• 10:10Speaker 08

  That is like a huge question that's being asked, right? Is why is she doing this? And there are a lot of commenters with a lot of questions and theories.

• 10:20Ben Brock Johnson?

  Uh huh.

• 10:20Speaker 08

  And Kela doesn't say a ton about this, but when she has responded to comments, she basically says like, hey, I sit at a computer for my day job all day. I'm restless. I like big projects. Why not build a storm shelter? Like, basically, I can, so I will.

• 10:36Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay.

• 10:36Speaker 08

  And this is actually where I want to get into the TikTok community response to Tunnel Girls project.

• 10:42Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay.

• 10:42Speaker 08

  Because it is both tight knit and kind of far reaching. And in the early days of the project, they seemed to kind of fall into these three major camps. Camp one is, this is incredible to watch, keep it up, very positive, very inspired.

• 10:59Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yeah.

• 10:59Speaker 08

  Camp two is the kind of what is this woman doing and why camp?

• 11:03Ben Brock Johnson?

  Uh huh.

• 11:04Speaker 08

  And camp three is, hey, I'm a union employed welder. Have you considered using XYZ material and technique, et cetera, et cetera? Like, applicable suggestions for the work.

• 11:15Amory Sivertson?

  I like that, because it's like, she's already in deep, you know? So you may as well try to help her make this successful, or at least not hurt herself or die in the process.

• 11:26Ben Brock Johnson?

  Wow.

• 11:26Speaker 08

  Totally.

• 11:27Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay.

• 11:28Speaker 08

  And in many ways, it feels almost kind of quaint, right? Like, everyone is kind of just in awe of this really ambitious project and inspired that Kela is working so hard and teaching herself so many new skills and doing it so independently.

• 11:42Speaker 08

  Again, we're kind of watching her learn and educate herself on electric work, on geology, all this stuff. And overall, many commentators are like really rooting for Kela and her success in this project. But it's not long into the tunnel project before a couple other types of comments start popping up.

• 11:59Ben Brock Johnson?

  What kind of comments start popping up?

• 12:01Speaker 08

  Okay, there are some significant questions about, you guessed it, the safety of this project. And also, who else might be impacted?

• 12:15Speaker 08

  More on that after the break.

• 12:42Speaker 00

  Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken? A podcast from the Marotra Institute at BU Questram School of Business. How should employers measure real skills in the age of AI?

• 12:55Speaker 10

  Instead of observing the final artifact, instead of observing the final essay or the final program, observe the entire process of creation.

• 13:04Speaker 00

  Follow Is Business Broken wherever you get your podcasts. And stick around until the end of this podcast for a preview of a recent episode on rethinking academic and job assessment when AI can do the work.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  Ugh, I hate Mondays.

• 13:23Speaker 11

  King's Hawaiian cinnamon swirl bite?

• 13:24Speaker 01

  Uh, Taylor Hansen? Sure, I'll try one. Mmm.

• 13:30Speaker 02

  Hey, let's get back to work, please.

• 13:32Speaker 01

  But Taylor Hansen's making my day way better with these new soft and swirly King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites.

• 13:36Speaker 02

  Taylor Hansen? Nice. Try one. Mmm.

• 13:43Speaker 03

  King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites. There's nothing like it.

• 13:51Speaker 04

  How many discounts does USAA Auto Insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount, safe driver discount, uh, new vehicle discount, storage discount, legacy discount.

• 14:00Speaker 05

  How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com/autodisc counts. Restrictions apply.

• 14:10Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay, Caitlin, so we're fully all in on this project. There's various camps responding to the tunnel system on TikTok via the comments. We don't have a lot of information about why Tunnel Lady is tunneling. She just, it's because she can.

• 14:32Speaker 08

  For the joy of tunneling.

• 14:33Ben Brock Johnson?

  For the joy of tunneling. And now, some people are starting to say, "Hold on a second, I'm worried about the impact of this."

• 14:42Speaker 08

  Yeah, and as you can imagine, these comments are not without merit. Like, for instance, in July of last year, there was actually a fire in the tunnel, which, of course, Kela chronicled on her TikTok. Oh, God.

• 14:57Speaker 09

  "Last night, I was welding some steel forms and the rebar membrane caught fire. I was able to put it out quickly with an extinguisher and the damage is not very severe."

• 15:08Speaker 08

  And there are other points of concern from commenters, such as her performing electrical work without the supervision of a licensed electrician. That one was very concerning to several commenters. Oh, no.

• 15:19Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, that's not a good idea.

• 15:21Speaker 08

  That is the home repair that you absolutely outsource. There are a couple instances where she describes sparking or smoking power strips. There's some falling rock. You get it.

• 15:32Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, my God.

• 15:33Speaker 08

  Do we know how close her home is to her neighbors? So that is the other big thread that people are concerned about.

• 15:42Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay.

• 15:42Speaker 08

  There are comments essentially asking, "Do your neighbors know about this project? And is it dangerous, or at least disruptive, to them?" And also, and this is a question I definitely had as a journalist following this project, "Do you have the appropriate permits to build a tunnel system under your house?" No, what are the permits for that?

• 16:06Amory Sivertson?

  There's no permits for that.

• 16:07Speaker 08

  So that is, that is where a lot of the questions are coming up. And there, she tends to not respond to a lot of these comments, or at least at this point recently, when I've looked back at comments, there haven't been a lot of responses. And that is about all we know.

• 16:21Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, my God.

• 16:22Amory Sivertson?

  Wow.

• 16:23Ben Brock Johnson?

  Please let me, this like makes me wonder what all my neighbors are doing. I'm like, oh, God, who's doing something crazy that I don't know about?

• 16:31Speaker 08

  Right, so I want to jump to the end of last year. That's when Kela's online attention outside of TikTok gained sort of a new level, some more traction.

• 16:43Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay.

• 16:43Speaker 08

  Kela's building, building, building. By this point, there are several kind of branches or chambers to the tunnel system under construction.

• 16:51Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, my God.

• 16:52Speaker 08

  She's harvesting some of the stone she's excavating to save for a potential future building project and says she hopes to build a castle someday.

• 17:01Amory Sivertson?

  Oh, my.

• 17:02Speaker 08

  And a few Reddit threads are starting to pop up. Ben, you said you saw some of them, you brought them to me.

• 17:08Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yes.

• 17:08Speaker 08

  And they're questioning the reason for the tunnels and the safety and legality of the project, right? All of these things that have started to happen on TikTok. And in November, Kela gave an interview to NBCNews.com.

• 17:22Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay.

• 17:22Speaker 08

  And in it, she basically said that the tunnels are a passion project, meant to keep her busy. She describes a respectful relationship with her neighbors and said they were all well aware of, quote, "her crazy antics." She also declined to get into the specifics of any permits she may or may not have received for the project, but said she is, quote, "following the rules for building emergency shelters in her local jurisdiction." Does anyone have a guess of where this is going?

• 17:54Ben Brock Johnson?

  It doesn't seem like it's going to turn out well for, for Kela.

• 17:57Amory Sivertson?

  Yeah, that jurisdiction is coming for Kela.

• 18:01Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yeah.

• 18:01Amory Sivertson?

  It's coming for her tunnel.

• 18:02Ben Brock Johnson?

  Eventually, you get popular enough on the internet for doing something.

• 18:08Ben Brock Johnson?

  That is probably not up to code. As folks who may have recently listened to our other tunnel episode.

• 18:15Speaker 08

  Yeah.

• 18:16Ben Brock Johnson?

  Some government organization is going to show up at your house and ask very direct questions.

• 18:21Speaker 08

  Yeah. And things mostly seem to at first continue relatively business as usual. She's, you know, welding in the tunnel system. She's making videos about construction projects. Commenters are continuing to ask about the legality and safety of her project and also cheering her on. And then on December 28th.

• 18:42Ben Brock Johnson?

  Hmm.

• 18:43Speaker 08

  Kala posts a TikTok, which is essentially a live action reenactment. And I'm actually going to have you to watch the video and describe it for us because

• 18:52Ben Brock Johnson?

  Love it.

• 18:52Speaker 08

  It's really something.

• 18:53Amory Sivertson?

  Yay.

• 18:57Speaker 09

  Good morning. I need a moment to pull over. Just give me a second.

• 19:03Amory Sivertson?

  Okay, she's like dressed up. She has a.

• 19:07Ben Brock Johnson?

  Why is she in a Tesla?

• 19:08Speaker 09

  Are you sure? That's what they said. They're from the city.

• 19:11Amory Sivertson?

  She has like lipstick and sunglasses on.

• 19:15Speaker 09

  Yeah, I'm not available right now. Can you see if they'll come back tomorrow? Yeah, 10 o'clock. That's, that's, that's fine.

• 19:22Amory Sivertson?

  Oh God, head in hand.

• 19:24Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh my God.

• 19:24Amory Sivertson?

  This is not good.

• 19:25Speaker 12

  Not enough to remember me. I'm Jack Smith.

• 19:28Speaker 09

  Yes.

• 19:28Speaker 12

  On Mayport, building affairs. This is Jimmy Jones with the zoning department, applying with inspections.

• 19:34Speaker 09

  What can I do for you?

• 19:35Speaker 12

  We have some complaints. Basically, there's some construction going on. And we were just here, basically, to find out if there is and see what needs to be done.

• 19:44Amory Sivertson?

  Uh oh.

• 19:44Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay.

• 19:45Amory Sivertson?

  They're on to her.

• 19:46Ben Brock Johnson?

  Voice actor reading actual. Oh my God.

• 19:50Speaker 12

  That you're pulling stuff out of the basement.

• 19:53Speaker 09

  Yeah, a little bit.

• 19:54Amory Sivertson?

  That you're pulling stuff out of the basement? Yeah, a little bit.

• 19:57Speaker 09

  Sure.

• 19:57Ben Brock Johnson?

  This music is a lot.

• 19:58Amory Sivertson?

  Wow.

• 19:59Speaker 09

  So they did give me a stop work order and are requiring

• 20:03Ben Brock Johnson?

  Stop work order.

• 20:04Speaker 09

  Immediate evaluation by a professional engineer.

• 20:06Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay.

• 20:07Speaker 09

  Fortunately, contrary to a few rumors here, it is constructed entirely below the slab of my house and it shouldn't be too hard to get the permits and approval. So we'll be working on that.

• 20:18Ben Brock Johnson?

  This is a heavy production of a recreation of what amounts to a phone call from.

• 20:26Ben Brock Johnson?

  From the local municipality and apparently a visit.

• 20:30Speaker 08

  So, I mean, the big climax of this video is a stop work order from where she lives.

• 20:38Amory Sivertson?

  But she's so hopeful that she's, that everything will be up to code, that it's like, yeah, stop work order, they're gonna come check it out, but no big deal.

• 20:48Speaker 08

  So, that video that we all just watched together, December 28th, 2023, and after it was posted, Kela went dark. Days stretched into weeks, no new videos. And I reached out to Kela for an interview, by the way, but she didn't respond. So, at this point, we don't really know what's going on. As you can imagine, there were and are a slew of theories going around online. Many amateur internet sleuths have been trying to learn more.

• 21:23Ben Brock Johnson?

  And as we all know, it always works out well when amateur internet sleuths try to find out more.

• 21:28Amory Sivertson?

  Sometimes it does. Sometimes it does.

• 21:30Ben Brock Johnson?

  That's true.

• 21:31Speaker 08

  Sometimes it does. But there's also been a reporter who's been looking into this. And her name is Ara Bogado, and she posted to TikTok with her findings. A few days after Kela posted that video, the one about the stop work order in December, Ara made a TikTok reporting that she had contacted some of Kela's neighbors, many of whom she says are Central American migrants or first-generation immigrants, many of whom speak Spanish. And she said that of the neighbors she contacted, none of them knew about the tunnel project.

• 22:07Ben Brock Johnson?

  The secret tunnel is indeed a secret tunnel, except on TikTok, where it is very much not secret.

• 22:12Amory Sivertson?

  Yeah.

• 22:13Speaker 08

  Correct. Here's more on that.

• 22:15Speaker 13

  They're really worried about their health and their safety. They talked to me about noise, like tremendous noise, essentially noise pollution, and shaking, like just random shaking in the ground, that they didn't realize where it was coming from. And several neighbors expressed to me that they were worried about reporting anything because they don't want to get entangled with immigration authorities, and they don't want to be deported.

• 22:46Speaker 08

  So that's just a bit of the reporting Ara has done. She's also had a couple of other videos that folks can check out with more reporting. And for a while, that's kind of where everything sat. Of course, many people on TikTok were responding to her reporting, some questioning it, some thanking her for bringing these concerns to light, which of course, as the three of us know, is very commonly the conflicting response journalists receive. And of course, at this time, people are also theorizing on their own on TikTok. Anyway, at this point, it's mid-January, and I'm thinking, maybe this is it. It's been weeks since Tunnel Girl posted, right?

• 23:28Ben Brock Johnson?

  Uh huh.

• 23:29Speaker 08

  And maybe she's done. Maybe the stop-work order was the end of it, and maybe we'll never hear from her again.

• 23:37Ben Brock Johnson?

  Tunnel complete.

• 23:39Speaker 08

  Tunnel complete. And that was true until two weeks ago.

• 23:45Ben Brock Johnson?

  Done, done, done.

• 23:47Speaker 14

  What?

• 23:50Speaker 08

  I was on vacation, and I'm literally smooth-brained scrolling on TikTok when Kela popped back up on my FYP.

• 23:59Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, my God. She's back.

• 24:01Speaker 08

  I was floored. And at the time of this recording, she has posted three videos since January 18.

• 24:08Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay.

• 24:09Speaker 08

  In the first, she's listening to the Eagles' Dirty Laundry and doing a puzzle, and the caption of the TikTok says, "Keeping busy."

• 24:18Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, my God. So passive aggressive towards the stop-work order.

• 24:23Speaker 08

  Another TikTok user commented and said, "Make Tunnel Talk great again," and she responded and said, "I will on a shovel cleanse at the moment."

• 24:31Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, my God. Okay.

• 24:32Speaker 08

  Wow. Then last week, she posted a video that, as you both know, despite me being on vacation, I immediately had to send to you both.

• 24:40Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yes.

• 24:40Speaker 08

  In which Kela lip syncs to "My Immortal" by Evanescence. In the snow. Yeah, she's lying in the snow for part of it.

• 24:48Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yeah.

• 24:49Speaker 08

  But at the end of it, she is indeed standing in what appears to be the tunnel, although she is not in her usual construction garb, and she doesn't appear to be working on the tunnel in the video. And that caption simply says, "Soon the snow will change to rain."

• 25:04Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, my God.

• 25:09Speaker 08

  So she's back on TikTok, but as of now, we do not have any tunnel updates to her account.

• 25:17Ben Brock Johnson?

  Okay, so she hasn't posted anything about her tunnel since she posted the video about receiving a stop work order. But Caitlin, while you were on vacation, we got an email to [email protected]. And, you know, we did mention last week that we were going to have another tunnel episode this week, and a listener named Suzanne, a true gem of a listener. She actually emailed us and she was like, I think you're going to talk about Tunnel Lady. And she basically said, I live in the same town as Tunnel Lady, uh, which we know because of the stop work order. And Suzanne offered, she was like, oh, my God, I've been obsessed

• 26:01Ben Brock Johnson?

  with this story, as have so many people. And I am willing to help you on your quest of understanding what is happening.

• 26:10Speaker 15

  Okay, so this is your Boots on the Ground Virginia reporting team coming to you live from outside Tunnel Girl's house.

• 26:19Ben Brock Johnson?

  And she went on a drive with her daughter Caroline to see if she could see anything related to the tunnel project, just by like, driving by on the street.

• 26:31Speaker 15

  Let me describe the neighborhood for you. It is a small area with, um, a lot of townhouses and a lot of split level or ranch style homes. The lots are not big. Most people have fenced in yards. Her driveway has cars parked in it, but no other sign of construction whatsoever.

• 26:53Speaker 13

  All the lights in our house seem to be off and there's like curtains in front of windows.

• 26:58Speaker 15

  No one has checked to see why we're sitting in front of her house, but I would expect that if we sat here long enough, they would. It's the kind of neighborhood where you probably do know your neighbors, or at least are aware of your neighbors.

• 27:12Amory Sivertson?

  Huge thank you to Suzanne and Caroline for, you know, scoping out the Tunnel Girl situation for us. But for now, that's what we know. No big signs of construction at the house. And the rest, we can only glean from Tunnel Girl's TikTok.

• 27:30Speaker 08

  Amory.

• 27:31Amory Sivertson?

  Yeah.

• 27:31Speaker 08

  Ben, knowing everything we know, is this where you expected this story to end?

• 27:39Amory Sivertson?

  I don't think it has ended. I think this is, I think this is where we are pausing and bringing it to people to say, hey, do with this tunnel story what you will. But, um, you know, the, the interesting thing about it taking off on social media is that now the neighbors who were too afraid to say something don't have to say anything. So I feel like in some ways, this is just the beginning. You know what I mean?

• 28:03Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yeah.

• 28:04Speaker 08

  Yeah.

• 28:04Ben Brock Johnson?

  I feel the same way. And I think there will be more tunnel updates, uh, on TikTok and elsewhere. But, but I would really love to talk to Kela.

• 28:15Speaker 08

  Yes, Kela, if you hear this, we would love to talk to you.

• 28:19Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yeah, please get in touch.

• 28:20Speaker 08

  For me, I mean, the unfolding of this story with what we know so far is kind of a reminder of a couple of things. One is that the internet has always and will always love an opportunity to escape into someone else's fantastical hobby project. If you want another one, check out 2022's Eel Pit Guy on TikTok. Give that a Google.

• 28:45Ben Brock Johnson?

  Oh, boy.

• 28:46Speaker 08

  You can imagine. And another thing is that this is kind of a story of internet hubris. Like, in some ways, Tunnel Girl's account is this cool community for people who really want to share skills and expertise and support.

• 29:03Ben Brock Johnson?

  Yeah.

• 29:03Speaker 08

  But then, on the other hand, when you zoom out, you also hear these concerns about maybe there's more than meets the eye here. So I guess we'll just have to see what comes next. To be continued, I hope.

• 29:19Amory Sivertson?

  Can I just say, Kela, I have a bathroom from like 1970 something that desperately needs updating. And I think you should let the tunnel go. Come on up to Massachusetts, smash my bathroom to bits and rebuild it. I've got your next project ready to go for you.

• 29:37Speaker 08

  A pivot. I love it.

• 29:39Amory Sivertson?

  A pivot.

• 29:42Amory Sivertson?

  Exactly.

• 29:47Ben Brock Johnson?

  Kella, get in touch. Tell us your side of the story.

• 29:51Amory Sivertson?

  We'd love to hear it. And Caitlin, thank you so much for bringing us down this particular tunnel.

• 29:57Ben Brock Johnson?

  Caitlin's on that nosy neighbor beat and we love it.

• 30:00Amory Sivertson?

  Love it. You too, Suzanne. That is the reputation I have always hoped to have as journalists. Really, journalists are just the nosy neighbors of every aspect of life. Yeah.

• 30:18Ben Brock Johnson?

  This episode was produced by Caitlin Harup and co-hosted by Caitlin Harup and Ben Brock Johnson and Emery Sivertson. It was sound designed by Emily Jankowski.

• 30:29Amory Sivertson?

  The rest of our team is Grace Tatter, Dean Russell, Matt Reed, Paul Vikes, Sumit Joshi, and CCU, our new fellow.

• 30:37Ben Brock Johnson?

  If you have a crazy story or a tunnel story that you want us to tell, hit us up. You can email [email protected], just like Suzanne did, and we'll talk to you next week. Bye.

• 30:50Amory Sivertson?

  Bye.

• 31:08Speaker 00

  Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken?, a podcast from the Marotra Institute at BU Queston School of Business. Follow Is Business Broken? wherever you get your podcasts and listen on for a preview of a recent episode featuring Janet Kang, Executive Director of the Just Horizons Alliance, on who stands to benefit from AI in education.

• 31:30Speaker 16

  I am absolutely in favor of AI in learning in the right context.

• 31:35Speaker 02

  And just to explain why you're excited about it.

• 31:37Speaker 16

  Oh, my gosh. Individualized support, right? Personalization and to be able to scale quality education in places where it was historically impossible. So for certain kinds of learners with different kinds of learning styles and disabilities, for example, speakers of different languages, there are amazing ways AI can boost learning. It just has to be with the right context. And age appropriateness is something we do a lot of work in because it is very different depending on where in that maturity cycle you are in terms of how your brain develops.

• 32:08Speaker 00

  Find the full episode by searching for Is Business Broken wherever you get your podcasts and learn more about the Marotra Institute for Business Markets and Society at ibms.bu.edu.

• 32:26Speaker 01

  Ugh, I hate Mondays.

• 32:28Speaker 11

  King's Hawaiian cinnamon swirl bite?

• 32:29Speaker 01

  Uh, Taylor Hansen? Sure, I'll try one. Mmm.

• 32:35Speaker 02

  Hey, let's get back to work, please.

• 32:37Speaker 01

  But Taylor Hansen's making my day way better with these new soft and swirly King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites.

• 32:41Speaker 02

  Taylor Hansen? Nice.

• 32:43Speaker 11

  Try one.

• 32:44Speaker 02

  Mmm.

• 32:48Speaker 03

  King's Hawaiian cinnamon bites. There's nothing like it.

• 32:56Speaker 17

  USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usaa.com/bundle. Restrictions apply.