Hey, Shagr fans. This is Amary Severson, producer-meritists, and I hope you're all hanging in there.

I'm now the producer and co-host of another WBUR podcast called Endless Thread.

We're in the middle of a special series right now about the history of CIA-funded mind control experiments conducted at a psychiatric hospital in Montreal in the 1950s and 60s.

It's a true and chilling story that touches on how the stigma around mental illness can be silencing.

The series is called Madness, the secret mission for mind control and the people who paid the price.

You're about to hear part one. I hope you'll give it a shot. And if you like what you hear, subscribe to Endless Thread to get the rest of the series delivered straight to your podcast feed.

Alright, here's the show.

Check, check, check, check, check.

Once again, Amary Severson and I are setting up our recording kit.

I was going to make you just like hold the umbrella over my head in the kit.

It is a stormy day in Montreal and we are in an eerie place known as the Allen Memorial Institute.

I did reach out to the Allen Memorial for an interview and they did not want to talk.

So we're not here to talk, just to look. The Allen is really where the story we're going to tell you today all started.

I mean the weather certainly isn't helping right now but it does...

It does look like a prison.

Yeah.

Amary and I are making our way down a mountainside towards this group of buildings,

perched on the eastern slope of Mount Royal Park, an ancient volcanic mountain that gave the city of Montreal its name.

You can see why.

Mount Royal is this big bump of green that rises up out of the middle of the city.

It's pretty.

On a less gloomy day, so is the Allen, sort of.

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