Fast Past

We all unpack what we just learned last week because....it's a lot.

Sources for this episode are the same as the previous week.

Today we dive into one of the CIA's most notorious mild control operations: MK Ultra. Why did it start? Why did it end? How did it inspire Greatful Dead lyrics? Listen in to find out!

Sources:

“The CIA’s Appalling Human Experiments with Mind Control Channel.” History.com. Accessed March 23, 2026. https://www.history.com/mkultra-operation-midnight-climax-cia-lsd-experiments. 

Gross, Terry. “The CIA’s Secret Quest for Mind Control: Torture, LSD and a ‘Poisoner in Chief.’” NPR, September 9, 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989641/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief. 

“Sidney Gottlieb: The Infamous Gentle-Hearted Torturer.” Stuttering Foundation: A Nonprofit Organization Helping Those Who Stutter, October 27, 2023. https://www.stutteringhelp.org/content/sidney-gottlieb-infamous-gentle-hearted-torturer. 

National Security Archive. CIA and the Behavioral Sciences : Mind Control, Drug Experiments and MKULTRA. Ann Arbor: Proquest Information and Learning Co., 2025.
Fisher, Brad L. “Secret Programs under the CIA Act of 1949.” In Hidden Cost of Freedom: The Untold Story of the CIA’s Secret Funding System, 1941-1962. University Press of Kansas, 2024. https://doi-org.turing.library.northwestern.edu/10.2307/jj.13840493.22.

Should Mother Teresa have been canonized? Will Jason learn how to edit these episodes? How bad was Mother Teresa really? All that and more in this spectacular After the Pod!

A saint? A sinner? Join us as we discuss the life and legacy of Saint Mother Teresa.

5 times doctors questioned Mother Teresa’s approach to care | by the mars girl | exploring history | medium. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://medium.com/exploring-history/5-times-doctors-questioned-mother-teresas-approach-to-care-7283a4b12da5.

About. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.padmaawards.gov.in/PadmaAwards/AboutAwards.

Books in brief: Nonfiction (published 1996). Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/14/books/books-in-brief-nonfiction-068195.html.

Carter, Joe, Joe Carter is a senior writer for The Gospel Coalition, Staff, Carl Jan Christian Roth, Greg Lanier, Taylor Combs, Sean DeMars, et al. “9 Things You Should Know about Mother Teresa.” The Gospel Coalition, October 31, 2017. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-mother-teresa/.

A critic’s Lonely Quest: Revealing the whole truth about mother Teresa (published 2016). Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/27/world/asia/mother-teresa-critic.html.

“Homes for the Abandoned.” Missionaries of Charity. Accessed April 27, 2026. https://missionariesofcharity.org/what-we-do/homes-for-the-abandoned/.

“Icon of the Poor Leaves Legacy of Controversy.” The Irish Times. Accessed April 27, 2026. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/icon-of-the-poor-leaves-legacy-of-controversy-1.105892.

Kapur, Mallika, and Sugam Pokharel. “Was Mother Teresa Really Saintly?” CNN, September 4, 2016. https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/asia/mother-teresa-controversies.

“Libguides: Mother Teresa of Calcutta: Life.” Life - Mother Teresa of Calcutta - LibGuides at Rockhurst University. Accessed April 27, 2026. https://libguides.rockhurst.edu/motherteresa/life.

“Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), Biography.” Vatican. Accessed April 27, 2026. https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20031019_madre-teresa_en.html.

“Mother Teresa Quotes (Author of No Greater Love).” Goodreads. Accessed April 27, 2026. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/838305.Mother_Teresa.

“Mother Teresa.” History.com, February 27, 2025. https://www.history.com/articles/mother-theresa.

“Mother Teresa.” Mother Teresa Center. Accessed April 27, 2026. https://www.motherteresa.org/mother-teresa.

“Mother Teresa.” Wikipedia, April 18, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa#Controversies.

“Mother Teresa’s Canonization: Controversy Mars Nun’s Work.” NBCNews.com, September 4, 2016. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mother-teresa-s-canonization-controversy-clouds-nun-s-work-n641181.

“Nobel Peace Prize 1979.” NobelPrize.org. Accessed April 27, 2026. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/biographical/.

“Profession of Vows.” Handmaids of the Precious Blood, February 23, 2024. https://nunsforpriests.org/handmaid-vocations/profession-of-vows/.

“The Ramon Magsaysay Award: Asia’s Premier Leadership Award.” Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation Philippines, February 26, 2026. https://rmaward.asia/.

Remembering Mother Teresa and the controversies around her | by D e e d t r i d e n T | medium. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://medium.com/@deedtrident/mother-teresa-and-the-controversies-around-her-1647a3621f71.

“Timeline: 1982 Siege of Beirut.” NPR, August 28, 2007. https://www.npr.org/2007/08/28/12744311/timeline-1982-siege-of-beirut.

Ullmann, Rachel. “Learn about St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta!” The GIVEN Institute, September 27, 2024. https://giveninstitute.com/st-mother-teresa-of-calcutta/.

“Why Mother Teresa Wasn’t as Saintly as You’d Think.” The Independent, September 4, 2016. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/mother-teresa-wasn-t-a-saintly-person-she-was-a-shrewd-operator-with-unpalatable-views-who-knew-how-to-build-up-a-brand-a7224846.html.

Today we talk about our thoughts on the last episode and there are many things to talk about from comparisons to modern day as well as thoughts on communismSources: “Joseph McCarthy’s Downfall Was Accusing the Army of Communism.” YouTube. Accessed 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14CTeElwq-A. “Murray State’s Digital Commons Murray State’s Digital Commons.” American Bolsheviki: The First Red Scare in the United States, 1917 to 1920. Accessed 2025. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1151&context=etd.Giblin, James Cross. The rise and fall of senator Joe McCarthy. Boston, Mass, Godalming: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ; Melia distributor, 2010.“Bleecker Street.” Hollywood Ten . Accessed 2025. https://bleeckerstreetmedia.com/editorial/hollywood-ten.

Today we talk about one of the many times when everyone feared communism was going to consume America and the one man who rose to stop it and made it much worse.

Sources:

“Joseph McCarthy’s Downfall Was Accusing the Army of Communism.” YouTube. Accessed 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14CTeElwq-A.

“Murray State’s Digital Commons Murray State’s Digital Commons.” American Bolsheviki: The First Red Scare in the United States, 1917 to 1920. Accessed 2025. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1151&context=etd.

Giblin, James Cross. The rise and fall of senator Joe McCarthy. Boston, Mass, Godalming: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ; Melia distributor, 2010.

“Bleecker Street.” Hollywood Ten . Accessed 2025. https://bleeckerstreetmedia.com/editorial/hollywood-ten.

Today we'll be talking about what we learned from last week's episode.......and we have LOTS of thoughts. Sources for this episode are the same as last week's!

Today we talk about a very divisive man in history: Christopher Columbus. In 1492 he sailed the ocean blue and for some reason that's all we really learn about him...but there is a very dark side to Columbus. We'll be talking about him in a more well rounded way today.

Sources:

Paul, Heike. “Christopher Columbus and the Myth of ‘Discovery.’” In The Myths That Made America: An Introduction to American Studies, 43–88. Transcript Verlag, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wxsdq.5.

Tinker, Tink, and Mark Freeland. “Thief, Slave Trader, Murderer: Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline.” Wicazo Sa Review 23, no. 1 (2008): 25–50. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30131245.

Churchill, Ward. Indians Are Us: Culture and Genocide in Native North America. Common Courage Press, 1994.

Kiernan, Ben. Blood and Soil. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009. 

“Epistola Christofori Colom ...de Insulis Indie Supra Gangem.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Accessed March 20, 2026. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/t-01427.pdf.

Today we are talking some more about some of the conspiracy theories and interesting parts of the assassination of JFK that we didn't cover in the last episode. The sources for this one are the same as last weeks episode on the same topic

Hello, everyone! Today we are discussing the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the events that led up to the event and the fallout of the assassination.

Sources:

Belzer, Richard, and David Wayne. 2013. Hit List : An In-Depth Investigation Into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination. New York: Skyhorse. “Did the Mob Kill JFK? New Evidence Suggests They Did.” Sky HISTORY TV channel. Accessed December 17, 2025. https://www.history.co.uk/article/did-the-mob-kill-jfk-new-evidence-suggests-they-did.“Botulism Pills, the CIA, the Mob and the JFK Assassination.” AP News, April 30, 2021. https://www.apnews.com/6cea09d0c0d441e9ba242a476f89f767. “Kennedy Assassination Home Page.” McAdams’s Kennedy Assassination Home Page Index. Accessed December 17, 2025. http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/oswald.htm.25 facts you were never told about Lee Harvey Oswald | by J.L. Pattison | Medium. Accessed December 17, 2025. https://j-l-pattison.medium.com/25-facts-about-lee-harvey-oswald-you-were-never-told-about-3e372e216ffa.“Executive Order 11110-Amendment of Executive Order No. 10289 as Amended, Relating to the Performance of Certain Functions Affecting the Department of the Treasury.” Executive Order 11110-Amendment of Executive Order No. 10289 as Amended, Relating to the Performance of Certain Functions Affecting the Department of the Treasury | The American Presidency Project, June 4, 1963. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-11110-amendment-executive-order-no-10289-amended-relating-the-performance.Marrs, J. (1989). Crossfire- The plot that killed Kennedy. Carroll & Graf. Campaign of 1960 | JFK library. Accessed December 17, 2025. https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/campaign-of-1960.“Conspiracy: Cases for and Against.” PBS. Accessed December 17, 2025. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/conspiracy-cases-for-and-against/.Did the mob kill JFK? - digital commons @ Georgia law - uga. Accessed December 17, 2025. https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1115&context=fac_pm.“Page Timeline.” The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Accessed December 17, 2025. https://www.jfk.org/page-timeline