Hey, Branch, it's I got another lesson from the Learning Tree. Today I'm sharing a preview of

Gone South and instructing you to give it a listen. The award-winning true crime podcast is back.

Now with new episodes every single week. And in each episode, writer and host Jed Lipinski

shares a different story about one of the most interesting crimes in history that took place

below the Mason-Dixon line, usually told from the perspective of the person who committed the crime,

the person who solved the crime, or both. Gone Self not only gives insight into the criminal

mind, but also into human nature. So enjoy this sneak peek right here, right now. Thanks, guys.

In the 1990s, the most popular way to manufacture methamphetamine was the pseudoephedrine reduction method. Basically, this involved

getting your hands on a lot of over-the-counter cold medicine like pseudafed, crushing up the pills

and mixing the powder with a solvent to isolate

the pseudofedrine inside. You then reduced it with chemicals like iodine or red phosphorus.

In just a few hours, you had methamphetamine. But before pseudephedrine came into fashion,

meth cooks were limited to what's known as the P2P method.

P2P stands for phenyl-2 propanone.

It was the main precursor chemical used to manufacture meth.

Meth cooks, whether they were making it in a lab or a bathtub, mixed P2P with other precursor

chemicals to make the drug.

As meth gained popularity in the late 70s though,ennel-2 propanone was classified as a controlled

substance, and the common precursors, like ether, were tightly restricted.

Chemical companies started reporting suspicious orders to the DEA.

So, in 1983, when a chemical manufacturer in New Jersey learned that an individual in Atlanta,

with no apparent connection to a laboratory or institution, had just placed an order for

...