America’s Human Test Subjects

REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana

Wondery | Ballen Studios

True Crime, History

4.3 • 668 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Cold War made America desperate for new weapons. The military looked beyond nuclear bombs into chemicals and drugs: LSD and Sarin gas. But first, they needed test subjects. They turned to their own soldiers and turned men into lab rats. Today’s episode explores two stories about these experiments and their lasting effects on the soldiers they treated as guinea pigs.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Love unsettling stories.
0:02.4	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to redacted, declassified mysteries,
0:06.4	early and ad-free, as well as another twisted tale from Bollin Studios and Wondry called Wartime Stories,
0:12.8	also hosted by me, Early and Ad-Free on Wondry Plus.
0:16.7	Start your free trial today.
0:36.6	Thank you. Start your free trial today. In the winter of 1958, 25-year-old Army Sergeant James Stanley sat patiently in a military hospital ward. He'd been waiting for someone to tell him what to do.
0:40.9	With all the snow outside, the facility had the radiators cranked all the way up. Stanley was
0:47.2	starting to get uncomfortable. It wasn't just the heat that was making him sweat. The Edgewood
0:52.5	Arsenal in Maryland was very different from his
0:54.9	home base in Kentucky. He had volunteered for some kind of medical test, but no one would tell him
1:00.5	exactly what it was. He'd been waiting in this strange room for over an hour. Finally, the door
1:08.1	swung open and an army doctor walked in.
1:11.3	He handed Stanley a glass of water.
1:14.4	Thirsty from the heat, Stanley gratefully gulped it down.
1:17.9	The doctor then walked out of the room without another word.
1:22.3	Stanley figured he would wait for further instructions.
1:25.9	After about half an hour, Stanley began to feel strange. His heart was
1:30.4	racing. He could feel sweat dripping down his back, drenching his shirt. He held his hand to his
1:36.3	forehead and realized he was burning up, as if he had a fever. He wanted if he was coming down with
1:42.7	something. Maybe he'd caught the flu from another soldier.
1:46.6	Stanley felt so agitated that he couldn't sit in his chair, so he laid down on a hospital
1:51.1	bed nearby and closed his eyes. But instead of darkness, his vision now swirled with brightly
	...

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