Unexplained now has a substack page. If you enjoy Unexplained and want to go deeper into the world of the show,

I've created a new space for all the bits that don't quite fit into the podcast, including the

unexplained addendum, a weekly companion piece to each new episode. Expect essays that lean more

academic and analytical, explorations of folklore, psychology and the shadowy corners of history that have shaped

the stories you hear on the show. But it's also a home for something more personal, my fiction,

my strange amusings, and the odd fragments that don't belong anywhere else. Search for Unexplained

podcast on Substack or go to Unexplainedpodcast.substack.com to find out more and subscribe.

If you'd like a little bit more of me and Unexplained in your week, join me on Substack

and let's keep exploring the unknown together. New writing every Monday.

Please note that this episode contains graphic accounts of torture and death.

Parental discretion is advised.

We're about to go to some very dark places.

If you're happy to take the right, then please strap in.

Thank you. In the early hours of November 17, 1981, on the shores of Manila Bay in Pase City, in the Philippines, harsh floodlights shine down through a warm, hazy darkness, illuminating a hive of activity.

2,000 men hurriedly worked to finish the latest in a series of vanity projects for Imelda Marcos,

the much feared First Lady of the Philippines.

Another 2,000 are bedded down in the Squatters village that has sprung up around the building site,

doing their best to get some rest before the next round of shifts begin.

The vast concrete edifice, currently taking shape,

a brutalist interpretation of the Parthenon of ancient Greece,

will in time become a vast film theatre.

It has been designed by architect Freolin

...