{"podcast":{"title":"Today In History with The Retrospectors","slug":"today-in-history-with-the-retrospectors-3756506","podcast_index_feed_id":3756506,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/today-in-history-with-the-retrospectors","website_url":"https://www.theretrospectors.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/0863cc78-24a8-11ef-b214-97eca5428ac1/image/6963d381f67e7fa1caf5e758ac2154be.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"The Retrospectors","episode_count":1302,"summary":"Curious, funny, surprising daily history - with Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina and Arion McNicoll. From the invention of the Game Boy to the Mancunian beer-poisoning of 1900, from Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain to America's Nazi summer schools... each day we uncover an unexpected story for the ages. In just ten minutes! Best Daily Podcast (British Podcast Awards 2023 nominee). Get early access and ad-free listening at Patreon.com/Retrospectors or subscribe on Apple Podcasts.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-25T12:18:38.453166+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/today-in-history-with-the-retrospectors-3756506"},"episode":{"title":"The CIA's 'Brain Warfare'","slug":"the-cia-s-brain-warfare","published_at":"2026-04-13T00:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/today-in-history-with-the-retrospectors-3756506/the-cia-s-brain-warfare","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/today-in-history-with-the-retrospectors-3756506","url":"https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR4245420002.mp3","audio_url":"https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR4245420002.mp3","summary":"Project MKUltra, a CIA program aimed at mastering mind control, secretly started on 13th April, 1953, supposedly to combat Soviet brainwashing. It soon evolved into a bizarre mix of government-sponsored LSD experiments and psychological torture. Led by Sidney Gottlieb, a chemist with a penchant for poisons, the program dosed often unwitting subjects—including CIA agents, prisoners and sex workers— with the aim of creating truth serums, erasing memories, and turning people into real-life Manchurian candidates. They even tried to spike Fidel Castro with LSD, hoping it would make him look ridiculous in public. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the tragic death of Frank Olson eventually led to the practices being exposed; reveal the origins of the term ‘brainwashing’; and discover how, despite widening public outrage, no-one ever faced legal consequences for the abuses they conducted in the name of keeping America safe… CONTENT WARNING: torture, drugging, suicide. Further Reading: • ‘What We Know About the CIA's Midcentury Mind-Control Project’ (Smithsonian, 2017): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-we-know-about-cias-midcentury-mind-control-project-180962836/ • ‘MK-Ultra, The Disturbing CIA Project To Master Mind-Control’ (All Thats Interesting, 2022): https://allthatsinteresting.com/mk-ultra • ‘MK-Ultra: The shocking Cold War experiments hidden by the CIA’ (BBC REEL, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_-ek5CsTGc Love the show? Support us! Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. Join now with a free trial on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ or ⁠Patreon⁠ and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messin…","meta_description":"Project MKUltra, a CIA program aimed at mastering mind control, secretly started on 13th April, 1953, supposedly to combat Soviet brainwashing. It soon ev…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":658,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/today-in-history-with-the-retrospectors-3756506/episodes/the-cia-s-brain-warfare/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/today-in-history-with-the-retrospectors-3756506/the-cia-s-brain-warfare.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}