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  • The Sofa Full of Rubles: How a Health Czar Hid a Deadly Bribe Machine

    The Sofa Full of Rubles: How a Health Czar Hid a Deadly Bribe Machine
    2026/09/10
    The Sofa Full of Rubles: How a Health Czar Hid a Deadly Bribe Machine

    A hidden cache of Tsar Nicholas II gold rubles, Krugerrands, jewels and gold ingots was stuffed into sofas and mattresses in a Naples apartment - and the man who owned them was the Director General of the Italian Ministry of Health. How did a physician with global regulatory power amass over fifteen billion lire in a Swiss account while neighbours thought he lived almost poor, and what did those decades of secret payments cost patients? What did investigators uncover after twelve hours of cataloguing that would later link this wealth to deadly consequences?

    In this episode, we tell the story contained in court records and investigative reports about Duilio Poggiolini, his institutional roles, the ten-year period of alleged corrupt control over drug listing and pricing, and the items seized in the 1993 Naples search that exposed the scale of hidden wealth. How did those findings connect to contaminated blood reaching thousands and to crimes that took years to surface?

    Person: Duilio Poggiolini
    Date of birth: July 25, 1929
    Event: Naples apartment search, autumn 1993
    Status: Courts confirmed 20 incidents of sold access (1982-1992)
    Bank account: Swiss account in wife's name containing over 15 billion lire

    - Investigators spent twelve hours cataloguing items hidden inside sofas, mattresses, closets and cushions.
    - Items seized included Tsar Nicholas II gold rubles and South African Krugerrands among gold ingots and jewels.
    - Poggiolini served as Director General of the Italian Ministry of Health and held international regulatory positions including WHO representative in 1981.
    - Courts found that from 1982 to 1992 Poggiolini controlled access to Italy's national formulary and pricing and confirmed 20 incidents where that access was sold.
    - Swiss authorities located Poggiolini in Lausanne on September 20, 1993, after his wife's account was found to hold over 15 billion lire.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 分
  • How U.S. Doctors Used Guatemalan Bodies to Test Syphilis Secretly

    How U.S. Doctors Used Guatemalan Bodies to Test Syphilis Secretly
    2026/09/09
    How U.S. Doctors Used Guatemalan Bodies to Test Syphilis Secretly

    A federal laboratory conversation in 1945 turned into a two-year program that deliberately exposed soldiers, inmates, psychiatric patients, and sex workers in Guatemala to syphilis, gonorrhea, and chancroid without their informed consent - some were paid with cigarettes or soap. How did a casual remark about mandatory health inspections become the blueprint for this covert experiment, and who facilitated the access?

    In this episode, we outline the sequence of events, the institutional partnerships, and the specific groups targeted by the program to show how routine public health structures were repurposed for secret research. What decisions and approvals allowed the work to move from Staten Island to Guatemala City?

    Person: Juan María Funes Fonseca
    Date: 1945-1948
    Location: Guatemala City; Staten Island
    Institution: U.S. Public Health Service; Venereal Disease Research Laboratory; Venereal Diseases Training and Research Laboratory
    Event: Deliberate exposure of human subjects to sexually transmitted pathogens

    - Funes was born May 29, 1907, and graduated from the National University of Guatemala in 1938.
    - The Terre Haute experiments ran about 10 months from 1943 to July 1944 and failed to reliably induce gonorrhea infections.
    - The Guatemala program became operational in August 1946, with research beginning in November 1946.
    - Subjects included soldiers from the Brigada Guardia de Honor, inmates at the Penitenciaría Central, psychiatric patients at the Hospital Neuropsiquiátrico, and sex workers from a clinic with mandatory inspections.
    - Funding and formal collaboration were channeled through the Pan American Sanitary Bureau and Guatemala’s General Directorate of Public Health under Dr. Luis Galich.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 分
  • The Nun Study: How Youthful Words Predicted Decades of Dementia

    The Nun Study: How Youthful Words Predicted Decades of Dementia
    2026/09/08
    The Nun Study: How Youthful Words Predicted Decades of Dementia

    A single consent form in 1986 led 678 nuns to promise their brains to science - and a box of autobiographies written around age 22 revealed that the number of ideas per ten words predicted who would develop Alzheimer’s pathology decades later. Could the structure of a young person's language really foreshadow brain changes half a century before symptoms appear?

    In this episode, we tell the story of the Nun Study, how researchers paired lifelong cognitive exams with post-mortem brain analysis and scores of early-life essays, and why a measure called idea density became central to predicting Alzheimer’s Disease Neuropathologic Change.

    Person: David Snowdon
    Person: William Markesbery
    Date: 1986
    Case: Nun Study
    Topic: idea density and Alzheimer’s Disease Neuropathologic Change

    - 678 sisters enrolled in the study in 1986.
    - Most autobiographies were written around age 22 and archived for over 50 years.
    - Idea density was measured as distinct ideas per ten words in each essay.
    - Autopsies looked for amyloid beta plaques and tau neurofibrillary tangles in neocortex and hippocampus.
    - Researchers performed annual cognitive and physical examinations on all participants.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 分
  • The answer was obvious. The room said otherwise. Most people told the truth anyway

    The answer was obvious. The room said otherwise. Most people told the truth anyway
    2026/09/07
    The answer was obvious. The room said otherwise. Most people told the truth anyway

    A clear line, an obvious answer, and yet one man in a room of actors declared a falsehood - and one in three people went along. The Swarthmore conformity tests produced the famous "37%" figure and a quieter paradox: 64.3% of responses were correct and 75% of participants never conceded. Which version of human nature do these numbers truly reveal?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events, the experimental design, and the surprising distribution of answers from Solomon Asch's Swarthmore study on social pressure and perception. What did Asch report, and what did he quietly emphasize about how most people actually behaved?

    Person: Solomon Asch
    Location: Swarthmore College
    Period: early 1950s
    Event: line-comparison conformity experiments
    Result: 37% incorrect responses in critical trials

    - The left card line measured eight inches and the right comparison was unmistakably shorter.
    - In controlled non-social tests, people erred less than 0.7% of the time on the same comparison.
    - Each session had eight men with the real subject seated at the end of the row hearing seven unanimous wrong answers.
    - Sessions ran eighteen rounds: six control trials and twelve critical trials with unanimous incorrect answers from actors.
    - Across critical trials, subjects gave the wrong answer approximately 37% of the time, while 64.3% of responses were correct and 75% of participants were correct on every critical trial.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分
  • He Sold Wax Casts of His Genitals - And Rewrote Sex Laws

    He Sold Wax Casts of His Genitals - And Rewrote Sex Laws
    2026/09/06
    He Sold Wax Casts of His Genitals - And Rewrote Sex Laws

    He walked into a physician’s office with a wooden case of hand-colored wax molds of his own genitalia and sold them to doctors - a strategy that turned his body into legal evidence. Those wax casts and a portfolio of contradictory medical reports traveled across German territories and shaped whether he could own property, sign contracts, or choose a profession. How did one man’s self-commissioned specimens force medicine and law to decide what sex meant?

    In this episode, we tell the story of Gottlieb Göttlich Dürrge, what he carried in that case, and the chain of medical opinions that made private anatomy a public legal instrument. We trace his examinations, the wax molds he sold, and the consequences those documents had under Prussian law: could the body itself be used to claim civil rights?

    Person: Gottlieb Göttlich Dürrge
    Date of death: 1835
    Birth period: 1770s
    Law referenced: Allgemeines Landrecht of 1794
    First recorded mold: circa 1810

    - Dürrge carried medical reports with conclusions drawn in eleven cities by different physicians.
    - Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland at the Charité diagnosed an oversized clitoris and recorded "female."
    - The 1835 autopsy reported a penis, a prostate, a partially atrophied testis, fallopian tubes, a uterus, and a vagina.
    - Under the Allgemeines Landrecht of 1794, a medical diagnosis of sex determined legal rights like property ownership and contract ability.
    - Dürrge began selling a series of hand-colored wax casts of his genitalia, with the first mold recorded around 1810.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分
  • When the Spymaster Stumbled: Dulles, the Hotel Lobby Collision

    When the Spymaster Stumbled: Dulles, the Hotel Lobby Collision
    2026/09/05
    When the Spymaster Stumbled: Dulles, the Hotel Lobby Collision

    Three feet separated Allen Dulles and the exiled Shah of Iran in a Rome hotel lobby on August 18, 1953 - while the CIA-engineered coup to restore the Shah was still failing. How did the longest-serving Director of Central Intelligence end up accidentally face-to-face with the very man whose return he was secretly orchestrating, and what did he do next?

    In this episode, we trace Dulles’s path from a Presbyterian parsonage in Watertown to clandestine rooms in Bern and a chance encounter in Rome, covering his family ties to American diplomacy, his missed call from Vladimir Lenin, and the covert operation burning through Tehran - all leading back to the question of how he used power when no one was watching.

    Person: Allen Welsh Dulles
    Date: August 18, 1953
    Location: Hotel Lobby lobby, Rome
    Event: CIA-engineered coup attempt in Iran
    Birth Date: April 7, 1893

    - Dulles stood three feet away from the Shah in a hotel lobby on August 18, 1953.
    - The coup to restore the Shah had "just collapsed in its first attempt" while the meeting occurred.
    - Dulles was born April 7, 1893, in Watertown, New York.
    - At age 19 Dulles taught at a missionary school in India; at 23 he was posted to Bern.
    - On April 8, 1917, Dulles chose a tennis match over answering a call from someone who named himself Vladimir Lenin.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 分
  • They Released a Germ in the NYC Subway - No One Was Told

    They Released a Germ in the NYC Subway - No One Was Told
    2026/09/04
    They Released a Germ in the NYC Subway - No One Was Told

    A covert release of Bacillus subtilis var. niger into the New York City subway in June 1966 sent bacterial simulant into air currents used by millions - and internal documents later called the result capable of producing a "city-level epidemic." Who decided to run biological field trials beneath one of the world’s busiest transit systems, and why was no one in the city told?

    In this episode, we present the documented record of Project 112 and the specific subway trial it ran in New York City, laying out where the program began, how it operated across countries, and what the internal conclusions were; what does the phrase "city-level epidemic" reveal about the program’s intent?

    Project: Project 112
    Date: June 1966
    Location: New York City subway
    Agent: Bacillus subtilis var. niger (simulant)
    Scope: more than 50 documented trials

    - On June 7, 1966 a technician dropped glass light bulbs filled with Bacillus subtilis var. niger onto subway tracks in New York City.
    - The light bulbs shattered and dispersal occurred through train-induced air movement over three days with millions of riders exposed.
    - Project 112 ran for over a decade and encompassed more than 50 documented trials across five countries.
    - More than 18 documented trials used biological simulants and more than 14 used chemical agents including sarin, VX, and mustard gas.
    - Internal documents concluded the subway release “would have produced a city-level epidemic” had a genuine pathogen been used.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 分
  • The Caltech Chemist Who Put Poison on a Prime Minister's Toothbrush

    The Caltech Chemist Who Put Poison on a Prime Minister's Toothbrush
    2026/09/03
    The Caltech Chemist Who Put Poison on a Prime Minister's Toothbrush

    A Caltech-educated biochemist carried a glass vial of lethal substance onto a Washington plane in 1960 with orders to target the Congo’s prime minister’s toothbrush - a plot recorded in the congressional record. How did a stuttering, folk-dancing gardener from the Bronx become the architect of MKUltra, and who paid the price for experiments done without consent?

    In this episode, we trace the life and career of Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA’s Chief of the Chemical Division, and lay out what surviving files reveal about MKUltra, its approvals, and its human cost. What exactly did the documents show about the program’s methods and the people harmed?

    Person: Sidney Gottlieb
    Date: April 13, 1953
    Event: Authorization of MKUltra
    Location: Washington (plane departure) / Congo (target)
    Education: PhD in Biochemistry, California Institute of Technology (June 1943)

    - Gottlieb was born August 3, 1918, in the Bronx to parents Fanny and Louis Gottlieb.
    - He completed his PhD at Caltech in June 1943; dissertation titled "Studies on a Growth Inhibitor in Guayule."
    - Gottlieb was hired by the CIA on July 13, 1951, at age 32 as Chief of the Chemical Division.
    - The April 13, 1953 memo co-signed by Richard Helms and Sidney Gottlieb authorized MKUltra.
    - Files ordered destroyed in 1973; surviving materials persisted almost by accident and are documented in the congressional record.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 分