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Brainwashed

Brainwashed

By: CBC
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Brainwashed investigates the CIA’s covert mind control experiments – from the Cold War and MKULTRA to the so-called War on Terror. It’s the story of how a renowned psychiatrist used his unwitting patients as human guinea pigs at a Montreal hospital, and the ripple effects on survivors, their families, and thousands of other people around the world. It also examines the cultural impact — how the CIA brought LSD to America and inadvertently created counterculture influencers such as author Ken Kesey and poet Allen Ginsberg. It’s an exploration of what happens in times of fear, when the military and medicine collide. And what happens when the survivors fight back. For the best in true crime from CBC, ad-free, visit apple.co/cbctruecrime.

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Episodes
  • Brainwashed Introduces: The Jaclyn Ferland-Smith Case

    Brainwashed Introduces: The Jaclyn Ferland-Smith Case
    Mar 16 2026

    Someone Knows Something is the investigative true crime series by award-winning documentarian David Ridgen.


    In Season 10 of Someone Knows Something, host David Ridgen investigates the sudden 2021 disappearance of Jaclyn Ferland-Smith, a Canadian expat living in Playas del Coco, a paradise veiled in rumour and fear on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.


    More episodes of Someone Knows Something are available wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/SKS10xBW
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    38 mins
  • Bonus: Front Burner | Canadian CIA MK-Ultra victims still fight for justice

    Bonus: Front Burner | Canadian CIA MK-Ultra victims still fight for justice
    Oct 11 2023
    Front Burner is your essential daily news podcast that takes you deep into the stories shaping Canada and the world. In this episode you’ll hear Daemon Fairless speaking with Lisa Ellenwood. Lisa was a writer and producer on Brainwashed, but she’s also a producer with CBC’s The Fifth Estate and co-author of the book Les cobayes oubliés: l’histoire du programme MKULTRA à Montréal that comes out next year. This episode of Front Burner dives into MKULTRA and the reasons why survivors and their families are still fighting for justice from the aftermath of those experiments. More episodes of Front Burner are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/AqAJjdk4
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    28 mins
  • Bonus: BRAINWASHED / MADNESS

    Bonus: BRAINWASHED / MADNESS
    Oct 28 2020

    Host Michelle Shephard speaks to Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson from the podcast Endless Thread about their series, Madness. Like Brainwashed, Madness focusses on the CIA-funded mind control experiments led by Dr. Ewen Cameron. The hosts swap stories, compare notes and reflect on the enduring legacy of MKULTRA. To find transcriptions for episodes of Brainwashed, please click here: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/brainwashed-transcripts-listen-1.5734335
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    24 mins
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