Chelsea Finlayson joins Oldmate and Josh to tackle the Zodiac Killer: a man who committed horrific crimes, wrote baffling letters, demanded media attention and somehow turned being deeply annoying into a 50-year brand strategy.

We dig into the murders, the ciphers, the suspects, the newspaper panic and the endless parade of blokes who apparently owned the right shoes and had “a weird vibe.” Was the Zodiac a criminal mastermind, a lucky idiot, or just history’s most committed attention seeking pen pal?

Chelsea helps us sort fact from folklore, credible suspects from absolute nonsense, and one of America’s most infamous unsolved cases from the giant pile of people on the internet who are certain their neighbour’s uncle did it.

Dark, strange, occasionally ridiculous, and still unsolved.

Chealsea's Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/chelseafinlayso.n?

music: Pity Lips.

This episode was supposed to be about the Banana Wars — a wildly fascinating chapter of history involving empire, corporations, military intervention, and the strange dark comedy of how bananas became tangled up with power. That was the plan.

Then special guest Eddi Dąbrowska arrived, brought absolute chaos to the table, and the episode took several sharp turns off the historical highway.

So, caveat: this is not the tightly researched Banana Wars deep dive we intended. It is, however, a very fun ride. We strongly recommend digging into the Banana Wars yourself, because the real story is bizarre, grim, and genuinely worth your time.

This is what happens when good intentions meet great company and the wheels come off beautifully.

Eddi's Insta

https://www.instagram.com/thisiscomeddi?igsh=ZmJweTNhZjBrYXZh

Music: Pity Lips

What happens when the CIA looks at a cat and thinks, “That could be a spy”?

This week on Oldmate & Josh, we dig into Acoustic Kitty — one of the strangest Cold War intelligence projects ever attempted. The idea was simple, if you ignore every obvious problem: surgically turn a cat into a listening device, send it near targets, and let espionage happen.

Because apparently microphones, wires, batteries, animal behaviour, roads, hunger, fear, and the basic personality of cats were all details to sort out later.

We get into the real story, the myths around it, the wider Cold War atmosphere that made ridiculous plans feel reasonable, and why powerful people with huge budgets can somehow make decisions that sound like they were invented by a bored child with a glue gun.

It’s CIA chaos, animal espionage, government logic, Cold War paranoia, and one very unfortunate cat-shaped lesson in “just because you can try something doesn’t mean you should.”

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Music by: Pity Lips