In this wild ride through declassified Cold War secrets, Mitch and Russell expose some of the most bizarre U.S. government programs ever attempted. Hear the full story of the CIA’s Project Acoustic Kitty—surgically turning cats into mobile listening devices—Project Iceworm’s hidden nuclear missile tunnels beneath Greenland’s ice sheet (disguised as Camp Century), the Navy’s Project Headgear that tried to turn sharks into living underwater bombers, and Operation Northwoods, the rejected 1962 false-flag plans designed to justify an invasion of Cuba.

Equal parts jaw-dropping, hilarious, and terrifying—these forgotten experiments reveal just how far the U.S. was willing to go.

Animal cruelty warning: this episode discusses real government experiments on animals.

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Podcast Recommendation: Kraken Cans Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/4Lzm0LXsfpCHNzh88guXo2?si=808ea9adf83f439a

Sources:

Acoustic Kitty

1. CIA Memo: "Views on Trained Cats" (1967) - Declassified doc. Source: National Security Archive. Link: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB54/st27.pdf
2. CIA FOIA Release (2001) - Project details. Source: CIA Reading Room. Link: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/06802443

Iceworm

1. Greenland During the Cold War (1997) - Danish report. Source: Politica Journal. Link: https://doi.org/10.7146/politica.v29i2.68132
2. Abandoned Ice Sheet Base (2016) - Study. Source: AGU. Link: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2016GL069688

Headgear

1. Project Headgear: Final Report (1971) - Navy doc. Source: Scripps / FOIA via MuckRock. Link: Request via muckrock.com
2. Sharks as Suicide Bombers (2016) - Analysis. Source: Undark. Link: https://undark.org/2016/08/11/sharks-explosives-world-war-ii-mary-roach-what-i-left-out

Northwoods

1. Justification for Intervention (1962) - JCS Memo. Source: National Security Archive. Link: https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/northwoods.pdf
2. Pretexts for Invasion (2001) - Briefing. Source: National Security Archive. Link: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba/2021-03-09/operation-northwoods-pretext-invade-cuba