• The Buffet Table
    May 1 2024

    This week, we present a smattering of stories you might have missed. If you've inhaled all these, email us — veryspecialepisodes@gmail.com — and we'll recommend something else worth your time.

    Operation Lunar Eclipse
    Apple • Spotify • iHeart

    Boat Trip
    Apple • Spotify • iHeart

    The Pledge
    Apple • Spotify • iHeart

    Old Man on Campus
    Apple • Spotify • iHeart

    Seed Wars
    Apple • Spotify • iHeart

    We're back with a new episode on May 15th!

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    17 mins
  • The Climax
    May 12 2021

    Sidney Gottlieb thought he’d erased all traces of Operation Midnight Climax and MK-ULTRA from the government’s collective memory. While the world will never know the full extent of the CIA’s experimentation with LSD, an unlikely source revealed many of the victims. These breakthroughs came courtesy of George White, who testified from beyond the grave.

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    43 mins
  • Tripping
    May 5 2021

    As the walls closed in on Operation Midnight Climax, George White took lessons he’d learned from a world-class magician to explore the last uncharted frontier of the psychonaut — the general public. It’s how White would make San Francisco’s sanity disappear.

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    33 mins
  • A Waste of Sin
    Apr 28 2021

    After Frank Olson’s death in New York, George White had to move his whole operation to San Francisco. And the CIA added a twist: while they’d been occupied with using LSD as a mind-control drug, now they wanted him to weaponize sex.

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    32 mins
  • The Window
    Apr 21 2021

    For 70 years, people have debated what happened to Frank Olson at the Hotel Statler. Did the CIA’s grand experiment with LSD lead to the sanctioned execution of a government employee? For George White, Frank Olson’s death would change everything.

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    39 mins
  • Smoking Out Castro
    Apr 14 2021

    Today we wanted to share a bonus mini-episode. Here’s how George White’s LSD adventures tied in with the CIA’s increasingly bizarre attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro. We’ll be back with a new installment next Wednesday.

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    11 mins
  • Uncharter Waters
    Apr 7 2021

    As the CIA’s LSD experiments went increasingly rogue, an aspiring actress realized what George White had done to her. But unlike others who’d complained, she reported White by name to the New York Police Department.

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    36 mins
  • The Pad
    Mar 31 2021

    To immerse himself in his CIA role, George White needed a new identity. In Greenwich Village, he set up a safehouse and became Morgan Hall, a struggling artist. But it wasn’t long before the wrong kind of people started showing up at his door — including the FBI

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    34 mins