S5 Episode 20: Halloween Night with Mike Brown of Pleasing Terrors
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On Halloween night we had the pleasure of speaking with Mike Brown of the Pleasing Terrors podcast and the Pleasing Terrors Ghost Tour in Charleston, South Carolina! We discuss spooky tales from Charleston and other places that Mike has had a chance to visit. We also discuss some of our own experiences!
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S5 Episode 19: Inside Scam Compounds
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What if the people running online scams weren’t criminals by choice—but victims themselves? In this episode, we talk with Ivan Franceschini and Ling Li, authors of Scam: Inside Southeast Asia’s Cybercrime Compounds, about the hidden world of online fraud across Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and the Philippines. Based on years of fieldwork, their book reveals how thousands of people are trafficked or coerced into “pig-butchering” romance scams and investment cons inside prison-like compounds. Franceschini and Li explain how organized crime, corruption, and technology have turned...
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S5 Episode 18: Death and Everything After
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Death is universal, but it remains one of the least spoken about aspects of life. Sitting down with Aubrey Thamann and Kalliopi Christodoulaki, the editors of Beyond the Veil: Reflexive Studies of Death and Dying, we explore how grief, mortality, and memory shape our personal and collective lives. We explore the deeply personal and profoundly cultural dimensions of death: how communities ritualize dying and remembrance, how grief reshapes our sense of self, and how researchers grapple with their own mortality in the course of their work. Thamann and Christodoulaki remind us that studying...
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S5 Episode 17: A Murder in the Outer Banks
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On the morning of August 28, 1993, the quiet shores of Nags Head, North Carolina, were shattered when 35-year-old visitor Janet Siclari was found raped and fatally stabbed behind the Carolinian hotel. What followed was a decades-long pursuit of justice marked by false leads, courtroom drama, and groundbreaking DNA technology. In this episode, we talk with investigative author John Railey, whose new bookThe Carolinian Murder at Nags Head: The Janet Siclari Story tells the full story of this brutal crime for the first time. Drawing on exclusive interviews with insiders, John unravels the twists...
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S5 Episode 16: Allan Pinkerton-America’s First Detective
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You may have heard of “The Pinkertons,” the infamous detective and spy agency that dealt with matters of national intelligence and security, labor union disputes and much more. But what do you know about Allan Pinkerton, the founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency? Author Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones explores the life and adventures of Pinkerton in his latest book, “Allan Pinkerton: America’s Legendary Detective and the Birth of Private Security.” With Rhodri, we trace Pinkerton’s unlikely rise from a Scottish immigrant to America’s first “detective,” his role in...
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S5 Episode 15: Deep Sleep
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Step inside one of the most disturbing chapters in modern psychiatry. In this episode, author and journalist Jon Stock joins us to discuss his book The Sleep Room: A Sadistic Psychiatrist and the Women Who Survived Him, an investigation into the shocking experiments of Dr. William Sargant in 1960s London. Sargant’s so-called treatments—prolonged drug-induced sleep, electroconvulsive therapy, and other invasive procedures—left deep scars on the women subjected to them, many without their consent. We also hear from Mary, a survivor of the Sleep Room, who shares her firsthand...
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S5 Episode 14: The Untold Story of East New York
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In the early 1990s, East New York was known as one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in America, a place dubbed “The Killing Fields” after a wave of murders shook Brooklyn. What if the real crime story started decades earlier, in boardrooms and banks? Author Stacy Horn takes us inside her new book, The Killing Fields of East New York, to uncover how a well-intentioned housing policy in the late 1960s spiraled into America’s first subprime mortgage scandal. When most people think of a subprime crisis, they think of 2008. But long before that, East New York became ground zero for greed,...
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S5 Episode 13: Intel - Secrets and Civil Liberties
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What does it mean to live in a country built on freedom but shaped by secrecy? Intelligence work is often hidden in the shadows—but its impact shapes every facet of our public and private lives. We chat with Dr. Jeffrey Rogg, a historian who offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how American intelligence has evolved—and why it matters more than ever today. Jeff is Senior Research Fellow at the University of South Florida’s Global and National Security Institute. Previously, he served as an assistant professor at the Joint Special Operations University (U.S. Special Operations...
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S5 Episode 12: Interview with the Psychopath
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What does it feel like to live without empathy—or guilt? Sociopathy is one of the most misunderstood diagnoses in psychology. We chat with Jamie who offers a rare, first-person glimpse into life with antisocial personality disorder. We discuss stigma, resilience, and the complexity of being “different” in a world built for emotional connection. Jamie, also known by the pen name M.E. Thomas, is the author of Confessions of a Sociopath, A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight. She is a former law professor who has written extensively on music copyright issues, a current California...
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S5 Episode 11: The Differences Between Us
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Is race written in our DNA—or is that one of the most dangerous myths of modern science? In this episode, we speak with Dr. Rina Bliss, sociologist and author of What’s Real About Race: The New Genetics and the Future of Racism. With Rina, we challenge long-held assumptions about biology and race, revealing how cutting-edge genetic research is being misinterpreted in ways that reinforce inequality. We discuss why race is not a biological truth but a social construct—and why that distinction matters more than ever in the age of consumer DNA tests, precision medicine, and tech-driven...
info_outlineWe explore the deeply personal and profoundly cultural dimensions of death: how communities ritualize dying and remembrance, how grief reshapes our sense of self, and how researchers grapple with their own mortality in the course of their work. Thamann and Christodoulaki remind us that studying death is not an abstract exercise—it’s an act of reflexivity that brings us face to face with what it means to be human.
Together, we ask pressing questions: What can grief teach us about resilience and connection? How do cultural practices around death shape our collective memory? Also, why is it so important to talk openly about death and dying?