Good Thursday morning, today’s show features a recent interview Sam recorded with journalist Stephen Kinzer about his new book, Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control. Kinzer and Sam begin their interview with a brief history of Allen Dulles and Sydney Gottlieb’s obsession with mind control, which each man thought was essential to counter-intelligence during the Cold War era. Kinzer believes Gottlieb was one of the most powerful and unchecked government officials of the 20th century. Gottlieb was a quirky character who lived an alternative lifestyle at home, milking goats, studying Buddhism, but was carrying out psychological torture experiments under the CIA MK Ultra program; experiments that were reminiscent of Josef Mengel’s work for the Nazis. Kinzer and Sam go through specific tests Gottlieb performed on unsuspecting subjects and what happened to the victims. Ultimately, Gottlieb discovered that extreme psychedelic drug overdoses could not produce mind-control, nor did it work as a truth-serum. That in mind, Kinzer posits that Gottlieb’s MK Ultra tests are the dark prologue to future US torture programs, like CIA black sights and Abu-Ghraib.

And in the Fun Half: the real material implications of impeachment proceedings in the Senate, breakdown of the most important moments from yesterday’s testimonies, Ben Shapiro & Joe DeGenova’s brilliant defense of Donald Trump, and the CNBC anchors are light-headed over the new Warren anti-billionaire ads.

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