Eugene Bullard would not let America diminish him. So he left to find a place that would let him live free — and found freedom in the skies.

On the Very Special Episodes podcast, we tell one incredible story each week. Stranger-than-fiction tales about normal people in extraordinary situations. Stories that make you say, “this should be a movie!” Follow us down a different rabbit hole every Wednesday.

VERY SPECIAL CREDITS
Hosted by Zaron Burnett, Dana Schwartz, and Jason English
Special Thanks to Zaron's Pops
Written by Zaron Burnett
Produced by Josh Fisher
Story Editors are Marisa Brown and Ryan Murdock
Editing and Sound Design by Chris Childs and Josh Fisher
Additional Editing by Emily Marinoff
Mixing and Mastering by Baheed Frazier
Voice Actors are Jonathan Washington and Chris Childs
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Research and Fact Checking by Zaron Burnett and Austin Thompson
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English

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The trail to find the missing SwordQuest treasures leads back to one of the most controversial figures in Atari history.

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Sidney Gottlieb thought he’d erased all traces of Operation Midnight Climax and MK-ULTRA from the government’s collective memory. While the world will never know the full extent of the CIA’s experimentation with LSD, an unlikely source revealed many of the victims. These breakthroughs came courtesy of George White, who testified from beyond the grave.

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As the walls closed in on Operation Midnight Climax, George White took lessons he’d learned from a world-class magician to explore the last uncharted frontier of the psychonaut — the general public. It’s how White would make San Francisco’s sanity disappear.

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After Frank Olson’s death in New York, George White had to move his whole operation to San Francisco. And the CIA added a twist: while they’d been occupied with using LSD as a mind-control drug, now they wanted him to weaponize sex.

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For 70 years, people have debated what happened to Frank Olson at the Hotel Statler. Did the CIA’s grand experiment with LSD lead to the sanctioned execution of a government employee? For George White, Frank Olson’s death would change everything.

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Today we wanted to share a bonus mini-episode. Here’s how George White’s LSD adventures tied in with the CIA’s increasingly bizarre attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro. We’ll be back with a new installment next Wednesday.

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As the CIA’s LSD experiments went increasingly rogue, an aspiring actress realized what George White had done to her. But unlike others who’d complained, she reported White by name to the New York Police Department.

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