WEBVTT - Project SUNSHINE 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.680 From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:09.080 riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.079 learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:25.280 production of I Heart Radio, Welcome back to the show. 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:28.480 My name is Matt, my name is Nol. They called 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:31.480 me Ben. We're joined as always with our super producer 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:35.680 Paul Mission controlled decade. Most importantly, you are you, You 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:38.960 are here, and that makes this stuff they don't want 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:41.519 you to know. At the very top, we need to 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.839 say that today's episode may contain information that is not 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:50.200 suitable for all members of the audience, and candidly, the 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:54.360 subject of today's episode got to me, which very rarely happens. 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:58.440 It's a tale of quiet desperation. It's a tale of 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:03.040 a real global cabal and the looming existential threat of 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:08.959 nuclear annihilation, all occurring just under the glitzy surface of 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:14.080 unprecedented American prosperity. I mean, what do you guys think 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.720 of when you think of the nineteen fifties, postwar America. 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.000 Everybody has a home. Everybody has a bunch of cool 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.000 gadgets that are filling up that home, that are making 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:29.160 life easier for everybody. The future. Uh is what that 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.040 felt like. But you know the past, I don't know, 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:37.120 I don't know. Yeah, exactly, that's exactly right, That's exactly 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:39.039 what I was kidding at. You said it much better, 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.440 ben Um, but no, it's true. It's that's that kind 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:46.400 of like idyllic you know, clip art kind of American 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:52.600 dream sense with also this like you know, absolutely terrifying 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.880 underbelly just beneath the surface, kind of ready to you know, 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.920 devour everyone whole well said. In some ways, this is 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:06.880 a study of two very different worlds existing concurrently. On 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:10.639 one world, we have a shiny universe of brand new 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:15.480 homes and automobiles, solid jobs, two point five happy kids 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:20.120 in suburbs across the country. The other world is a 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:24.000 world of vast and true conspiracy, a violation that we 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.280 still don't fully understand the extent of It's a profound 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.840 crime nearly a century old, and the consequences of it 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.680 remain with us in the modern day. This is a 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:38.600 horror story, folks, But let's talk about the fun part first. 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:43.639 Here are the facts, so that for the world, not 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.079 just the US, it's the post World War two time, 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.919 which for a lot of intens and purposes was great 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:55.120 because there was such a devastating period that had occurred 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:59.160 just before the nineteen fifties, and there's a feeling of 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:03.079 rebirth that's coming out of that stuff. Um and in 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.200 particular in the United States, as who you know, we're seeing, 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:08.880 at least according to our news and all the history 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:12.040 I've ever learned, were seen as the victors, were seen 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:16.280 as the ones who really brought victory home for the world. Yeah, 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:20.720 I would say that, you know, the nineteen fifties were 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:24.160 a particularly great time for a big segment of the 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:27.840 US population. Uh, And they were an exception to the rule, 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:32.400 because the nineteen fifties were horrible for a lot of 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:36.840 the rest of the world due to that enormous devastation 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:39.560 that we're alluding to a World War two, the US 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.360 was very much in what is called the catbird seat, 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.680 a little idiom that I love but still don't completely understand. 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.840 Please explain it somewhat well. Well, the fighting didn't happen 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:54.920 on American soil, right, The our cities were not destroyed 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:58.880 the way much of Europe was, right, right, exactly, So 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.600 they're too big actors here. First, the Americans are the 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:07.120 inventors of nuclear technology. Also the first country to deploy 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:11.360 this disastrous weapon in the field. So the US emerges 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.960 as one of the world's most deadly military forces, in fact, 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:20.479 the most deadly military force on Earth. And that's that's 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:25.400 something that continues today. And also geography played a huge role. 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:30.000 The US was isolated by two enormous oceans. It was 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:34.320 really expensive to get over there, right, and because of that, 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.960 they avoided that destruction. They still had a manufacturing base 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:43.480 that had been accelerated through, you know, the war effort. 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:47.560 So we're making more stuff than ever before. We're the 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:51.400 we're like, if the world is a suburb, we're the 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.560 only house that didn't get hit by the tornado, kind 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:59.120 of end. And people were worried about this. The world 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:03.200 is full pessimists, of course, right, And there were numerous 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.680 experts who were arguing back and forth about the uncertain 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:13.200 future because everybody knew unemployment rates had fluctuated widely over 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:17.000 just the past few decades. In the nineteen thirties, around 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.440 one out of four people were out of work due 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:24.480 to the Great Depression. Still a terrible day. It wasn't 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.479 a particularly great depression. It was a terrible depression, but 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:29.640 it was you know, the big one. Um. But yeah, 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:34.440 the war effort um caused industrialization because you know, all 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:36.839 of that stuff was needed to aid the war effort, 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:41.640 with infrastructure and machinery of weapons of war, etcetera. By 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:47.120 nineteen forty four, unemployment had precipitously dropped to one point 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.280 two percent. Uh. And this even to this day is 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:57.440 a record low. And everyone and you know, their mother, sister, dog, brother, 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:02.480 everyone was working. UMA yimists were concerned that this was 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.320 like a bubble that was going to pop. This was 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.320 not sustainable. Had the United States become addicted to war 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.640 where we're going to have to face it that we 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.880 were addicted to war, It's possible. Was global conflict now 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:20.000 just an absolute necessity? Was this something that we were 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.760 going to have to continue to almost you know, lean 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.160 into in order to save our economy? Uh? It certainly 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.400 feels like it sometimes even today. UM, Folks like Senator 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:32.880 James Mead believe that the US would never be able 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:37.080 to successfully convert from our military economy to a civilian one. 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.599 And and this becomes sort of like this boogeyman of 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:44.080 these these visions of things that were only just recently 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.440 you know, out of people's you know, daily lives, things 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:53.800 like these decaying factories. Uh and those huge, horrible unemployment numbers. Um. 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:56.159 So people were spooked and they were gonna do whatever 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:57.840 it took to kind of keep things on the up 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:02.279 and up right. Yeah exactly. I mean part of being 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:09.000 an economic expert or politician like Senator Mead is a 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:11.920 big part of that is being the person who goes 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.640 into a good situation and starts naming all the reasons 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.280 it will be terrible. Shortly you're you're paid to ruin 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:24.400 the party. Luckily, Mead and the other experts were proven 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:29.360 incorrect in their predictions. Those unique advantages we mentioned for 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:34.119 the US paved the way for the post war economic boom. Paul, 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:38.880 can we get some music? Okay? Perfect? Yeah, exactly that. 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:43.080 So the study of the US and the nineteen fifties is, 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:47.080 I would argue, best understood as a study in paradox 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.920 like life was great. Life was aces for a lot 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.480 of white people who towed the correct ideological lines, but 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:59.560 the horror of racism remained. The civil rights movement was 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.520 in its nascent stages. The red scare of communism costs 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:09.200 people their livelihoods. There was terror behind America's shiny new smile. 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:13.400 But on the bright side, we'll bring back the happy music. 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:17.560 Business was booming. Everything was That's why we call that 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.880 generation the baby boomers. Think of it like, after years 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:26.000 of rations and shortages and insane propaganda, people are kind 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.480 of like um, the folks and countries that were able 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.839 to end the pandemic. You know, they're desperate to get outside, 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.360 get some action, enjoy the good life. And man, they 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:40.840 loved spending money. It was a veritable shopping spree going 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:45.640 on in the US. And like we said before, homes 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.360 were one of the biggest things that people were buying 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:50.160 and moving into. And of course there are bills that 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:52.480 we've mentioned before on this show that we're available to 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.079 help people who needed homes, who needed to be able 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.360 to afford one. Cars were huge. I mean, you're just 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.160 gonna you had to have a car, and you had 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.199 to be able to drive fairly long distances a lot 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:07.400 of times. You know, again, there's a lot of parts 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:09.559 of the economy. We're just required a ton of travel. 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:12.480 And because you have homes, because you have nice cars, 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.080 you fill them up with things because there's space in there, 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.360 and they're all these companies that are manufacturing things that 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.920 are specifically designed for all of these new homeowners, all 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.680 of these new car owners. Uh. And a lot of 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:30.440 that stuff ends up being, like I mentioned at the top, appliances. Yeah, 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:35.400 I love those. I'm a sucker for the retro television stuff. 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:40.120 Please send us your favorite weird commercials from the fifties 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:43.560 and sixties. But not the Ronald McDonald one, I will 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:47.679 have no Uh, that too was always creepy to me. Um. 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:49.760 It doesn't surprise me that they kind of phased him 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.640 out a bit, didn't they. Yeah, they did, they did. 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:58.920 The original Ronald McDonald is a spooky, spooky dude. But yes, 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:03.880 this the lture became something that defined success and even 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:08.040 morality in terms of material It was both good and 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:13.640 just to have new things. Uh. The population of the 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:19.960 US was heavily incentivized to become consumers, more so than citizens. 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.720 And the reason this happened is because of what you 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.920 were talking about earlier, NOL, the real fear that industry 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.920 would die without the incentive to create more and more 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:34.880 weapons of war. So like automobile manufacturers who came to 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.640 the rescue during World War Two went back like they 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.600 stopped making engines for planes and stuff like that, or 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:45.280 making bombers like Ford did, and they went back to 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:47.480 making cars, and they were like, we had to move 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:51.600 these whips. So people were very encouraged to buy this stuff. 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:57.199 New car sales quadruple between nineteen nineteen fifty five. This 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.440 is back in the day when it wasn't a terrible 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.800 idea to a brand new car. By the end of 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:07.040 the nineteen fifties, like seventy five of American households had 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.640 at least one car. That's a huge change. Also, people 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:17.600 were like crazy that oh yeah, the yie old baby boom. 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:22.760 Well yeah, I mean the war was over. Times are good. 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:26.760 Things are great. My house is filled with silver things 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:32.040 that can nuke, things, microwave, all this petroleum jelly laying around, 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:38.360 Like what am I gonna do? Not that, not that, 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:42.920 but the it's we're gonna talk about a little bit. 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.199 But it's interesting how you can see this as in 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:53.200 as an ideological shift from hot warfare, from warfare actual 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.200 to cultural warfare in a way, and how all of 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:58.960 these things that are being produced are in some ways 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:04.199 promoting the America Rican way, the capitalist ideal. And it's 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:07.040 really interesting to see that, like you're you're depicting, here 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:11.600 been a necessary shift for the economy to continue on. Yeah, 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:16.080 so this is so we were painting, I think, the 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:20.880 the propagandistic image, which happened because for very real and 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:26.280 valid reasons in this time of prosperity. For a portion 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:31.839 of the American population, about four million children are born 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:36.199 each and every year during the nineteen fifties, that's that, 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:40.120 that is the baby Boomer generation. And for so many people, 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:42.839 this is still what a lot of people mean when 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.680 they refer to the American dream. Right, this is back 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:51.040 when depending on your demographic, of course, you could without 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.240 going into debt at a college, you could get a 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:57.240 solid job out of high school. You could buy a house, 0:12:57.400 --> 0:12:59.080 you could buy a car, you could buy two cars. 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.959 You could afford to have kids. Every so often, you 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.760 might celebrate your anniversary or whatever with a nice trip, 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.640 maybe to Hawaii. I don't know what people did, is 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:10.840 this is where kind of the middle class started becoming 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.160 a thing, because they were the ones that bought all 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:17.079 this year. Right, Yes, so they there's kind of that 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.040 feedback loop. Right, people are making more money than they 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.760 did before, and they're putting it back in the economy 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.760 which also employs them. There is a good argument that 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.080 an economy is a Ponzi scheme or capitalism is, but 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.720 stress at the very least, right, it's the snake eating 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:37.079 its own tail, and as long as it continues the cycle, 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.000 then it will continue to exist. I'm probably oversimplifying it, 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.679 but it certainly feels a little bit like a fairy 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:48.080 tale kind of you know, yeah, this, I agree, and 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:51.520 I don't think you're oversimplifying it very much. You know, 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:56.240 this is what was happening, and even now some people 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.439 will look back at that and ignore all the domestic 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:04.040 problems were occurring and say those were the good old days. 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.880 But this dream had a dark side because despite the 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:11.119 measurable improvements and the lives of so many Americans, experts 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:15.720 both domestic and abroad, knew that there were storms gathering 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:21.040 on the horizon. Nuclear weaponry the other big advantage of 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:25.080 the US the Pandora's jar, and now the lid was unscrewed, 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:29.520 the seal was broken, that radioactive jin wasn't going back 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:34.400 in the bottle anytime soon. So the average American, whatever 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.600 you want to take that to mean, was basking this 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:42.680 moment of unprecedented prosperity, but US politicians, military officials, and 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:47.600 scientists were racing against the clock to prevent their enemies 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:53.080 from acquiring nuclear weapons. They ultimately failed in this pursuit. 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:57.240 They also continued to experiment with nukes. They were desperate 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.760 to maintain this strategic edge for as long as possible. 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:06.840 Consequences be damned, because you know, we use the phrase 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:11.040 allies right when we're talking about that World War two alliance, 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.960 but history proves it might be better to call them 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:19.520 the frenemies, because you know, the Cold War basically started 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.640 like the day after World War Two ended. I think 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.920 I think maybe the US Russia took it afternoon off 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:28.680 and then they were like, all right, back at it, 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:33.920 but quieter this time. Yes, it's so quiet, it's almost silent, 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:36.960 and there's a desperation behind it, you guys. And it 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.240 leads us to what we're gonna talk about today, an 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:48.520 actual dag um conspiracy for real, really really, yes, ever, ever, 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:53.440 forever ever. Because Uncle Sam, the government of the United 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.360 States of America wasn't fit to just sit with those 0:15:56.440 --> 0:16:00.520 nuclear weapons and say we are king now of just instruction, 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.880 we win ha ha. They wanted to see what else 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.360 could be done with these weapons? How far could this 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.080 be taken? What else can be done with this technology? 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:16.560 And oh boy, yeah, well, I mean it's understandable, right 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:21.480 because they knew that the number one goal of every 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:25.880 other country capable of doing so was to get nukes. 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.200 Everybody wants the new toy. Everybody wants the biggest gun, 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.800 you know, Like imagine if you were in the universe 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.560 of Ghostbusters and you found out that you could build 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.920 your own Goes or the Destroyer. That's that's what people 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.680 were doing. And this is dangerous because in a very 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.120 real way, this means that the world as we knew 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:50.760 it could end at any given moment. And although everyone 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.760 at this time was very much aware of the devastating 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:59.440 impact a nuclear weapon could create. Everyone knew about Hiroshima 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:03.440 and Nagasa Hockey, but no one, not even the experts, 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:07.800 understood the full extent of fallout. How did it affect 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:11.280 the atmosphere? How long did it stay? Could dropping a 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:17.480 bomb in you know, Nepal later create fallout in Europe? 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:21.479 Things like that, These questions whereas things you could model 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.440 and you could try to test, and they definitely did, 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.760 but they were also racing to learn more about how 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:32.959 this affected ecosystems and organisms. They were driven, we have 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:38.080 to say, by desperation, and as we continue, that's that's 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.400 something everybody needs to remember. These people did not see 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:45.640 themselves as villains, but that desperation is how we ended 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:49.639 up with a ghoulish plan called Project Sunshine. We'll be 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:59.680 back after the break. Here's where it gets crazy. So 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:05.960 you know, um, you've got these nuclear weapons. You know 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:10.119 what they do in theory, You've tested them on you know, 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:14.080 you've you've done nuclear test detonations, etcetera. But what do 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:16.399 they do to people? What do they do to human 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:20.040 flesh and human bodies? You can do them with animals 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:24.800 and in various environments lacking humans. Honestly, there were a 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:27.560 lot more animals back than ben you pointed out, So 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.000 the ethics of this was not as much of a 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:33.640 concern as it certainly would be today. But it's again 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:37.080 about how it affects that human tissue. Was it going 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:40.520 to do? Uh? The U s Atomic Energy Commission created 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.800 something called Project Gabriel, which was an investigation to figure 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:50.720 out the full impact on the human population in a 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:55.680 nuclear fallout zone. Through this project, the government concluded that 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.240 the most dangerous part of this whole situation was the 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:04.040 radio act the isotope known as trontium ninety um, which 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:08.720 is a calcium like radioactive substance that is produced when 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:13.200 nuclear explosions occur um. It can be absorbed by plants 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.280 and animals, and it passes through food to humans, and 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.119 humans bones can absorb it too. And if I'm not mistaken, 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:25.040 this is where a certain form of is it iodine 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:28.840 or there's some some pill you can ingest that will 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:33.080 block the absorption of that isotope. Well, I don't know. 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:34.840 The first thing you have to do to figure out 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:37.159 if something like that would function is you need to 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.640 get those isotopes into human bones, exactly right. You gotta 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.960 test them. You gotta test it out. Did it go 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:51.760 from that cattle into Bill? It's a Bill. Yes, Bill 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:53.720 drew the short end of the straw at the lab. 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.240 So he's out there, you know, drinking milk straight from 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.280 the utter, just to see if he can get radiation 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:02.000 through it. It was. It was a weird, weird gig 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:06.159 for Bill. But but you're right. They needed this data. 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:10.280 They needed to figure out what happened when the radioactive 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:15.159 rubber hit the road, which means they needed human test subjects. 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:20.000 They needed human tissue. The a e C. Commissioner at 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:23.800 the time, a guy named Dr Willard Libby, complained about 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.560 this constantly because he knew the score, he knew what 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:31.040 was up. He was like, look, it's ugly, but we're 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:33.920 trying to save the world here. We need people because 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:36.920 they remember, they're not They're not just worried about their bombs. 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:39.719 They're worried about other countries developing the tech and then 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:43.480 dropping on them. Exactly. Yeah, so they so at the 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:45.560 very least, they need to figure out how that stuff, 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:49.000 uh interacts with the human body so that maybe they 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:53.679 can figure out some mitigation, you know, procedures or whatever, 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.399 like that pill that I can't remember the name, but 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:58.639 definitely is a thing that we'll probably get to. We 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:02.760 have to mention this part, folks. Obviously, the government could 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:07.680 illegally experiment on disadvantaged populations. They have certainly done so 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:10.680 in the past, and there are people who will assure 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:14.240 you that the experiments like this continue in the modern day. 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:18.240 But there's a problem with those experiments. Sometimes they have survivors, 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.520 and survivors have a tendency to, you know, talk to 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.560 people about the horrible things that happened to them, and 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:29.000 so Project Gabriel led to a classified program called Project 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:33.960 Sunshine in ninety three. It started out as just another 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.680 secret investigation, which is a weird sentence to say, but accurate, 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:40.720 and then it quickly took a dark turn. Do not 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:45.119 let the name fool you. In fact, let's let Dr 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:50.520 Libby himself introduce his project with this infamous quote. This 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:54.360 comes from a secret meeting in nineteen fifty five when 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:57.560 he was talking about the importance of getting humans to 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:01.000 experiment on. I don't know how to get um, but 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:02.920 I do say that it is a matter of prime 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:07.520 importance to get them, and particularly in the young age group. 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.879 So human samples are often of prime importance. And if 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:14.880 anybody knows how to do a good job of body snatching, 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:19.280 they will really be serving their country hand hand nudge, nudge, 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:22.960 wink wink. We need young bodies. Let's go snatch some 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:26.800 anyone good. Yes, we got your back, We got your back. 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:32.800 And the bluntness, the candid nature of that statement really 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:35.080 stood out to me. I I hope it stands out 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:40.240 to everybody listening, because with that, the US government got 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:43.760 into the business of stealing the corpses of children. That 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:46.440 is what today's episode is about, and that's part away. 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.560 It got to me this wasn't a small operation. This 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:54.960 was a global network. Sunshine created an invisible army of 0:22:55.119 --> 0:23:00.560 modern day resurrection men, literal corpse thieves. And we we 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:04.439 talked about resurrection in the past, but somebody give us 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:06.480 the quick and dirty just because it's such a cool 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:08.639 term for such a horrible thing. Yeah, I mean it was. 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:14.760 It was especially um during early days of say medical experimentation, 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:19.000 you know, when um surgeons were trying to figure out 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.320 how you know, the human body and the human anatomy functioned. 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:25.320 Uh So in order to do that, they would often 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:29.040 grave rob and then dig up corpses and cut them 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:33.360 open to see what what's what? Yeah, nailed it. It's 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:35.600 just like a well I think we talked about it 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:38.720 at length in our episode on whether or not Benjamin 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:44.800 Franklin was serial killer. The resurrection men came about because 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:47.639 of gaps and loopholes in the laws at the time, 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:52.720 Like it was legal to conduct medical experiments on cadavers, 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:55.879 but it was illegal to buy them, so you just 0:23:55.920 --> 0:24:00.960 have plausible deniability, get some creepy and were desperate person 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:03.840 to like Will said, rob a grave for you, and 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:06.520 then you just pretend like, well, I don't know where 0:24:06.520 --> 0:24:08.720 this body came from, officer, I'm just trying to learn 0:24:08.720 --> 0:24:10.919 about kidneys. What do they just have like a body 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:14.760 drop off repository like the return thing and a library 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:18.640 like I mean what I mean, I know we're gonna 0:24:18.680 --> 0:24:22.840 get there, but jeezus, this is bleak. Yeah, it's true. 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:25.800 This was a massive operation, even if even if it 0:24:25.840 --> 0:24:29.520 was just sort of an implied operation. Right, Um, there 0:24:29.520 --> 0:24:33.760 were project managers who didn't want to disclose the actual 0:24:33.880 --> 0:24:36.560 nature of the research that was being done because if 0:24:36.600 --> 0:24:41.720 they did, then it could put their personal contacts and 0:24:41.720 --> 0:24:43.560 the people that were helping them out who were pimply 0:24:43.600 --> 0:24:46.960 breaking the law at risk. Um. So they decided to 0:24:47.000 --> 0:24:51.920 have researchers use people that they knew to recruit other 0:24:52.080 --> 0:24:57.080 people to do more of this stuff. Degrees of separation. 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:00.439 That's how it works. I mean, that's that's the brilliant 0:25:00.480 --> 0:25:05.200 part about surveillance programs like five Eyes. This network operated 0:25:05.320 --> 0:25:09.840 everywhere from Australia to Europe through various means, and we 0:25:09.880 --> 0:25:12.840 still don't know the extent of this. We still don't 0:25:12.840 --> 0:25:16.199 know the specifics, but through various means, by hook or 0:25:16.200 --> 0:25:19.880 by crook, pieces of dead human beings were being stolen 0:25:20.359 --> 0:25:23.439 and they were being shipped off to the US. It 0:25:23.560 --> 0:25:28.560 seems that many of the governments of countries involved had 0:25:28.640 --> 0:25:31.800 no idea what was happening. Um. And that's that in 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:35.719 itself is pretty distressing. And it's an important point, uh, 0:25:36.000 --> 0:25:38.920 that that you make here. Because some of these people 0:25:39.440 --> 0:25:43.159 were gathering samples, Like you said, they were contacted informally, 0:25:43.480 --> 0:25:46.119 you know, kind of off the books operation like agent 0:25:46.280 --> 0:25:49.080 between us. You want to help me steal somebodies. What 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:53.600 are you doing Wednesday? Uh. They were given different reasons 0:25:53.640 --> 0:25:57.360 for this too, because the folks in charge of Projects 0:25:57.359 --> 0:26:02.040 Sunshine didn't want every and to know this was a 0:26:02.320 --> 0:26:05.679 program related to nuclear weaponry, so they made up a 0:26:05.720 --> 0:26:08.840 couple of different reasons. And that means that not all 0:26:08.920 --> 0:26:13.720 the people involved in this network understood exactly why they 0:26:13.760 --> 0:26:19.000 were shipping these samples to the US. And there were 0:26:19.000 --> 0:26:21.080 a lot of samples. This was not a one and 0:26:21.160 --> 0:26:26.200