logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2021
28m 13s

Mayhem and Murder

iHeartPodcasts
About this episode

In the 1950s, the CIA conducted highly controversial research on mind-altering drugs to prepare for brain warfare with global superpowers. But after a checkered past, George White’s off-the-books Operation Midnight Climax took whatever flimsy rulebook the CIA had and threw it out the window.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Aug 4
Introducing: Hoax!
Hi, Operation Midnight Climax listeners! We're excited to share with you a sneak peek at iHeartPodcasts' latest release, Hoax! Hoax!: Why do so many people believe things that aren’t true? In an era when claims of “fake news” come as naturally as breathing, and social media allow ... Show More
1m 40s
Jul 30
Introducing 'Afterlives: Marsha P. Johnson'
Marsha P. Johnson is THE icon of the LGBTQ+ movement and a mother of the fight for trans rights. Today, you can buy T-shirts emblazoned with her face or walk through a park named in her honor. Now, hear from Marsha in her own words on a new limited series, Afterlives: Marsha P. J ... Show More
3m 23s
Jul 24
BUZZ Chapter 6 – Separation
A shadow stalks Apollo 11 in orbit. Is it the Soviets—or something worse? With a risky maneuver ahead, one wrong move could mean death. * ABOUT BUZZ: Starring John Lithgow, this gripping audio thriller peels back the myth of Apollo 11 to reveal the raw, untold story of Buzz Aldri ... Show More
18m 37s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2025
37. CIA Mind Control: Sex, Drugs, and Mysterious Deaths (Ep 3)
From LSD-fuelled hallucinations to medically-induced comas, the CIA explored every avenue in their search for mind control. But how did they justify these gross violations of human rights? And what does it reveal about the hidden history of the Cold War? In the clandestine world ... Show More
50m 29s
Apr 2025
38. CIA Mind Control: America’s Secret Cartel (Ep 4)
How did Cold War paranoia fuel the CIA's mind control experiments? What did popular films like The Manchurian Candidate have to do with the agency's secret programs? And did the CIA really help shape the counterculture of the 1960s? In the shadowy world of espionage, the line bet ... Show More
46m 2s
Apr 2025
35. ⁠CIA Mind Control: The Birth of MK Ultra (Ep 1)
What if the government knew how to control your mind? Could a secret program unlock the secrets of the human psyche? And how far would the CIA go to win the Cold War? In the shadowy world of espionage, the line between science and sinister experiments blurs. As the Cold War gripp ... Show More
46m 14s
Jul 24
603: The Real CIA Vol. 1 | 693 Pages of Forbidden Government Secrets
On June 25th, 2007, the CIA quietly released 693 pages of their most classified secrets. No announcement, no fanfare—just a document dump that revealed decades of illegal operations against American citizens. The Family Jewels documents exposed systematic violations that went far ... Show More
35m 10s
Sep 2024
Episode 367 - MKUltra - Part 1: Cold War of the Mind
In the wake of an Allied victory, the threat of a communist New World Order loomed over the West. Desperate to beat the Soviets at their own game, the USA gave the secret service all the money and drugs they needed to create a real-life Manchurian Candidate.Left with their minds ... Show More
1h 2m
Jul 5
#963 - John Lisle - Investigating The True History Of MKUltra & CIA Mind Control
John Lisle is a historian and an author. The government’s history of secret experiments feels stranger than fiction. Covert projects, UFOs, mind reading, even studies of the occult. But no operation is more infamous than MKUltra. What really happened inside the CIA’s most notorio ... Show More
1h 19m
Sep 2024
Episode 368 - MKUltra - Part 2: The Myth of Mind Control
We now know that the CIA quietly tested mind-bending psychedelics on unwitting American citizens. But how do we know?In Part 2 of our series on MK-Ultra, we're going to tell you the story of how one of the CIA's many dirty secrets was revealed to the world, and how they were forc ... Show More
42m 23s
Mar 2025
JFK Revisited: FBI Finds 2,000 More Documents
In early 2025, the FBI announced that they had found more than 2,000 new records related to John F. Kennedy’s assassination. What do they include? Why did it take so long to find them? How many will be made public? The world waits to find out. In late 2023, we sat down with journ ... Show More
1h 1m
Apr 2025
36. CIA Mind Control: Fighting Communism with LSD (Ep 2)
Who was the eccentric chemist at the heart of the CIA's most controversial experiments? What happened when Langley was turned into a testing ground for mind-altering drugs? And how did the quest for a truth serum lead to a psychedelic free-for-all? Inside the CIA, the search for ... Show More
54m 9s
Mar 2024
When Conspiracies Aren't Just Theories with Journalist Tom Risen
Journalist and author Tom Risen is here to tell me about some of the real conspiracies that the CIA and the FBI were involved in from the 50s to the 70s and how, in 1975, one senator finally took these agencies to task, revealing shocking truths that would be used for decades to ... Show More
1h 16m