A listener note. This episode contains adult content and language.

This may not be suitable for all listeners. In the early part of 2015, while Benita Alexander was being swept off her feet,

another journalist was starting to pay attention to the Maciorini story.

My boss suggested I read this this

allegation about a certain surgeon at the major University Hospital in

Sweden. Busa Linkvist had been a prominent journalist in Sweden for decades.

He's balding with grey stubble and light blue eyes.

He fits the image of a relentless journalist from a Scandinavian noir thriller.

Busa read the complaint as Boss gave him about how Paolo allegedly engaged in scientific misconduct.

The details of the allegations were hard to follow.

So it's 60 pages, I don't understand the terminology, it's a waste of time.

Once he finally made sense of what the whistleblowers were alleging, he was skeptical.

It seemed unlikely to him that something this egregious could have happened at a

prestigious institution like Carolinska. Still he was curious. Why would four

doctors risk their careers if it wasn't true? So I thought well I mean someone is in the wrong here clearly so but I don't

know who it is. Busa called up Paolo and they arranged to meet at Paolo's Lab for an interview.

Paolo welcomed him in.

It was a narrow room with shelves filled with beakers and flasks with rat organs suspended

inside. Paolo was characteristically soft-spoken and focused in his demeanor.

Yet at the same time, there was something almost flashy about him.

He had this rock star quality. There was a sort of, there was an aura of the

big global world and being on the verge of a major breakthrough.

...