Dissident researchers are convinced the scientific establishment is wrong on BSE, and one microbiologist is convinced a major human health disaster is imminent. Microbiologist Steve Dealler and his boss, Professor Richard Lacey are veterans of food safety scandals and when BSE hits, it’s right up their street.
Steve is tasked with working out how many people have been exposed - and the news is not good. He’s convinced a major human health disaster is imminent - but the government keeps insisting beef is safe. The disconnect between his reality and everyone else’s nearly breaks him.
It’s the mid 1980s and farm vet Colin Whitaker has the ominous realisation that a new disease is emerging in Kent’s cow herds. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food knows about it - and is determined to keep a lid on this potentially devastating news. But by 1987 officials know they have to act.
Government epidemiologist John Wilesmith is given a secret mission to find out how to stop the spread of what’s become known as BSE. He dons his wellies and works out one of the few things anyone can say for certain about the cause of the epidemic.
Hidden deep in the heart of the Kent countryside is an abandoned factory with a dark past. In the 1980s and 1990s it processed tens of thousands of dead cows - some of which are thought to have been infected with a disease that would devastate British farming.
Then, when early human cases of BSE began to emerge in people living close to the rendering plant, paranoia also infected Kent’s countryside communities. People wanted answers - but there were none.
Today, science has failed to definitively answer two major questions about mad cow disease - where did it originally come from and how did humans get it?
On September 3, 2018, a rancher in Laredo, Texas, discovered a woman’s body shot execution-style on the side of the road. When investigators identified her as a local sex worker, their search for the killer took them into the darkest corners of the city. Then, after days of false starts and dead-ends, another body turned up, terrifying residents and leading law enforcement to conclude a serial killer is at large. More would die before a survivor finally came forward and identified the killer… but his motives proved as confounding as his crimes.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the weirdest things any of us has lived through. But there was another sickness that once stalked the nation and turned things very strange for a while.
In God we Lust has moved. You can binge all six episodes ad-free right now by subscribing to Wondery+ in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app: https://wondery.com/links/in-god-we-lust/
When Mike Williams vanishes on a hunting trip, the authorities suspect he was eaten by alligators but the true predators who took Mike may lurk much closer to home. The mystery of Mike’s disappearance might have faded from memory, if it wasn’t for one woman’s tireless crusade. From Wondery, comes a new season of Over My Dead Body; a story about an obsessive love affair, a scandalous secret and a mother’s battle for the truth.
More than a decade since Michael Jackson’s death, his legacy remains complicated and unresolved. Think Twice: Michael Jackson is an exploration of the King of Pop’s life and impact – and an investigation into why his global influence continues to endure, despite the disturbing allegations against him. In this ten-part series, journalists Leon Neyfakh and Jay Smooth bring you a new perspective on the Michael Jackson story, based on dozens of original interviews with people who watched it unfold from up close.
Listen wherever you listen to podcasts. You can binge all ten episodes of Think Twice: Michael Jackson, ad-free on the Amazon Music or Audible: Wondery.fm/Think_Twice
Vassilis Palaikostas, aka “Greece’s Robin Hood” has been on the lam for 14 years. In his absence, legends of his generosity have grown. But no one knows where he is, or if the stories are even true.
Here’s what we do know: there’s a million Euro bounty out for Vassilis, and a 24-hour task force trying to track him down. When he robs banks, he shares the money with the poor. When he kidnaps industrialists-- and he only kidnaps those who are known for unfair labor practices-- they give baffling interviews showing how he opened their minds. And when he escapes heavily reinforced prisons, as he’s done ... by helicopter ... twice, he does it without harming a guard.
Join host Miles Gray and our team of Greek reporters as we follow Vassilis’ trail from Athens to tiny islands to remote mountain hideouts. Along the way, we’ll meet Vassilis’s inner circle, chat with police chiefs and prime ministers, and work to understand how this thief managed to steal the country’s heart.
Suspect is an investigative series about mislaid justice and the kinds of weighty decisions that detectives, lawyers, and jurors make every day - decisions that, once made, are almost impossible to reverse.
Season 3: Five Shots in the Dark follows Leon Benson, who spent 24 years in an Indiana state prison for the 1998 murder of a young man named Kasey Schoen. His conviction hinged on the testimony of two eyewitnesses – but what if their memories turned out to be wrong? And what if the people who knew what really happened had never been allowed to speak? Suspect Season 3: Five Shots in the Dark is the story of two victims: one murdered, one sentenced to life. Follow host Matt Shaer and attorney Lara Bazelon as they investigate how the justice system failed both Leon and Kasey, and who the real killer might be. Join this unprecedented look inside the attempt to overturn a wrongful conviction and find out if justice will finally be served.
Follow Suspect wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Suspect: Five Shots in the Dark early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
