Episode · Behind the Bastards · 2022-10-20
Books mentioned on Part Four: MKUltra: When The CIA Tried to Destroy Free Will
Robert is joined again by Jason Pargin for the final part of our series on Project MKUltra. See omnystudio.
Robert Evans recommended If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe by Jason Pargin, and discussed The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon and others, Poisoner In Chief by Stephen Kinzer, Chaos by Tom O'Neill, and Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and others.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe
If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe by Jason Pargin is a comedic, mind-bending horror-sci-fi novel that plunges its quirky protagonists into bizarre, reality-altering perils.
Recommended“Jason, before we move on, I want to let the listeners know you are the author of a whole bunch of books. Uh, but you have one that is just now coming out. If this book exists, you're in the wrong universe.”
Where to get it
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The Manchurian Candidate
The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon is a classic political thriller and fiction novel that popularized the concept of brainwashed assassins and psychological programming during the Cold War.
Discussed“But it's the classic thing of it's the the brainwashed assassin, the person who doesn't know they're an assassin, where you can literally program someone, I I guess like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Total Recall to like go assassinate somebody”
Where to get it
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Poisoner In Chief
Poisoner in Chief by Stephen Kinzer is a historical nonfiction book detailing the life of Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA’s clandestine efforts to develop mind control and chemical weapons during the Cold War.
Discussed“And I'm going to quote from Ker's poisoner and chief here. Wol shared Dulles's fascination with the idea of mind control. He had developed a theory woven from various disciplines that a combination of drugs and sensory deprivation could wipe the mind clean”
Where to get it
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Chaos
Chaos by Tom O'Neill is a deeply investigated exploration of the true crime, government conspiracies, and cultural underpinnings surrounding the Charles Manson murders and the 1960s radical movement.
Discussed“Um so I'm going to quote now from Tom O'Neal's book Chaos, which is a history of the Charles Manson murders. As a spoiler for where we're headed here, that August, with the president's approval, CIA director Richard Helms authorized an illegal domestic surveillance program cenamed Chaos.”
Where to get it
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Helter Skelter
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry is widely recognized as the definitive true crime account of the Manson family murders and the motivations behind them.
Discussed“Number one, Manson is giving these these young mostly women, but there's some of them are men who he has do the actual murders. He's giving them a shitload of acid and using that to kind of reprogram them. Right? That's a thing, especially in the book Helter Skelter that gets brought up a bunch.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Anyway, my the the book that I've been promoting at the beginning in these each of these episodes one final time, the title is if this book exists, you're in the wrong universe. It has a lime green cover.”