[low strings]
[interview background]
So here we are. Almost at the end of the road.
But before we can rest this case… there are some loose ends we need to tie up.
And… there are a couple of twists left in this story, too.
We’re going to hear from a surprise, last-minute witness. One with a very important story to tell.
His name is Ken Jones.
[BEAT]
Cue, Ken: Yeah, so this is Kenneth Jones, uh, I go by Ken.
[rising strings]
This interview has been a long time coming. Producer Max has been going back and forth with him for months.
Cue, Ken: I retired from the FBI in 2017… started my career in 1989.
All the fuss about Havana Syndrome passed Ken by at first. He didn’t even hear about it until 2021.
But when he did, it was like a thunderbolt.
Cue, Ken: …and I started going
…
…wow!
Ken has never gone public.
Until now.
[rising strings]
Cue, Ken: …
You know, while these people were having suspected RF attacks, radio frequency attacks
…
And I had…
[mini-BEAT]
Cue, Ken: …a *known* RF attack.
[ATTACA THEME DRAMATIC SWELL]
From Project Brazen and PRX… this is THE SOUND
I’m Nicky Woolf.
[THEME FADES]
Chapter 8.
Hammers… and Nails.
[long BEAT]
Let’s recap a bit.
We started with the diplomats: Kevin and Karen, Doug and Kate.
Cue, Doug: …we started hearing this sound at our house…
Cue, Kevin: … very high pitched noise…
Cue, Doug: …and it was so loud that we couldn’t talk.
And we set out to answer… a simple question.
What the hell happened here?
We pored over intel reports, expert analysis, and scientific papers. Weighed the evidence. Drugs, sonic energy, bug spray, a bunch of other theories? We ruled out.
We watched as the story went public. Entered the global consciousness. It got… a name… Havana Syndrome. And that brought us to the first… of our two major hypotheses.
Bartholomew: It is a classic outbreak of mass psychogenic illness, standard textbook…
But… there was another theory that fits the pattern too.
Cue, Relman: The most plausible form of microwave energy that might explain some of these cases was characterized as being … pulsed…
We went to Cuba. We saw how this story affected the country and its people. How they’re the victims here too.
And there… we heard it for ourselves.
Cue, Nicky: That is … That’s the sound.
I said at the beginning of this story that it’s been like nothing else I’ve ever reported on. And I meant it.
Me and my producer Max, we’ve been in the trenches on this for a year now. And at times… it’s almost broken us.
Cue, Nicky: [Sighs] This is such an unbelievably frustrating story.
Cue, Max: It feels like every time we learn something new, we actually know less.
[BEAT]
Take crickets.
We dismissed them at first. Then Max and I heard one ourselves in Havana. And now we can’t ignore it.
It’s loud. And mechanical-sounding.
According to the microwave theory, the sound that patients reported hearing is caused by the Frey Effect. Pressure waves inside the skull. But Doug Ferguson hearing it with friends in the garden – being able to record it… doesn’t fit.
So… we call him up again.
This isn’t going to be a comfortable conversation. This detail is a big talking-point for the psychogenic camp. Which means it’s been used to discredit people like him.
Cue, Nicky: while you were in, you know, on this posting in Cuba, um, did you hear cicadas separately from this?
Cue Doug: I didn’t hear anything that sounded remotely like this thing. So I would, I would say there was not a plethora of different cicada and cricket sounds on the island at that time.
This was the only thing that stood out of that nature.
–
Here’s the recording Doug made… and here’s the cricket we recorded.
[Cue: cricket noise tapes side by side]
To the mass-delusion camp, this is the explanation. People like Doug heard a cricket sound, and it triggered a psychogenic response.
Cue, Bartholomew: It’s embarrassing to think that the United States government has spent the better part of the last six years getting people needlessly upset … all because of the mating call of the Indies short tailed cricket.”]
But this version of events has its own problems. For one thing, Doug’s experience isn’t representative.
More commonly – like Kevin and Karen Coats – the sound came in a focused beam that they could step in and out of and the sound would start and stop. That people nearby couldn’t hear it at all.
We’re all wrestling with this. What if the sound Doug heard in his garden – isn’t connected?
Cue, Doug: If you say it’s conceivable that this sound is the red herring, has nothing to do with what happened … I mean that, that is totally a possibility.
Maybe it is a red herring. If it is – it’s a ginormous one. One that derailed the whole story.
Cue, Doug: Investigations have false leads and that’s fine. But the fact is people got hurt.
There are still things about the cricket and psychogenic hypothesis that just don’t fit, for me – at least, not as an explanation for everything.
Doug and the others were diagnosed with brain injury by multiple medical teams at multiple institutions. Sure, the first JAMA study finding “brain damage” was widely criticized.
Cue, Baloh: After reviewing and reading, uh, the paper I was disappointed because … they really didn’t provide any convincing data of brain injury or brain damage.
But there’s been more research since. A 2019 paper concluded “a wholly psychogenic cause is very unlikely.” Another study, this one looking at Canadian victims, was even firmer: “Our findings confirm brain injury.”
And even the loudest skeptics admit that psychogenic symptoms… usually fade over time with a reduction in stress.
That’s just not what we’re seeing. With Kate – and Karen, and Doug, and Kevin – and pretty much everyone we’ve heard from… the people who got sick… are still sick.
Cue, Doug: …and at a certain point, uh, the doctors just said… This is how things are gonna be for you for the rest of your life….
[CUE, MUSIC]
Going through all these competing theories, my biggest takeaway is that basically everyone who’s looked at this has come away with the conclusion they were primed to see.
I keep coming back to this idea. That when you’re a hammer… everything looks like a nail.
Physicists see microwave energy. Neuroweapons experts see neuroweapons. Neurologists see neurological effects. Spies see spycraft. Psychologists?
Cue, Bartholomew: My specialty area is mass psychogenic illness and social panics, which is exactly what’s going on here…
Then there’s the politicians.
And for a lot of politicians in America, particularly Republicans… Cuba is a big nail.
[BEAT]
Cue, Reporter: Do you think Cuba is responsible?
Cue, Trump: …I do believe Cuba is responsible. I do believe that, and it’s a very unusual attack as you know, but I do believe Cuba is responsible, yes.
Look at the Trump administration’s response.
Cue, Raul: Trump won, and immediately after winning started granting the, uh, right-wing politicians in Florida, the wishes they wanted…
For all the Cuban officials we met – the Trump administration’s agenda was obvious.
So-called “Havana Syndrome” was the pretext.
Cue, Mitchell: … it was, uh, President Trump’s intention to roll back everything that Obama had achieved in bringing the two countries closer together.
We want to put this allegation to the senior officials behind this policy. Were the AHIs, as the Cubans claim, a pretext for the administration to do something it was already planning to do?
But … we aren’t really expecting a straight answer. We certainly aren’t expecting to sit down with one of the key figures in this story within the Trump administration.
[BEAT]
Cue, Nicky: Thank you so much for, for sitting down with us. I wonder if we could start by having you just introduce yourself?
Cue, Bolton: I’m John Bolton. I served as National Security Advisor in the Trump administration from April 2018 to September 2019.
Bolton, who served as George W. Bush’s Ambassador to the UN, is notorious for his extreme hawkishness. Here’s a taste.
Cue, Bolton: …Every day that goes by makes North Korea a more dangerous country…
Cue, Bolton: There’s no graver threat to our country today than weapons of mass destruction.
Cue, Bolton: If you continue to lie, cheat, and deceive, yes, there will indeed be hell to pay…
This has made him more than a few enemies.
Cue, Bolton: You know, I’m under sanction today by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Only, only Iran has tried to assassinate me, but who knows what comes next.
The threats against him are considered credible enough that he arrives for our interview in a convoy of black SUVs, and sweeps into the building in a phalanx of Secret Service officers.
Bolton has fingerprints all over the Havana Syndrome story and the Trump administration’s response. Several of his staff even got symptoms in London.
Cue, Bolton: So I and others felt that, uh, because it was possible – not certain, but possible – this emanated from a hostile foreign power and we had our ideas who that might be… that we thought more needed to be done to consider that possibility and either find evidence to rule it in or rule it out.
Obviously, that begged the question: who would want to do this?
Cue, Bolton: I think because the first, uh, reports came from Cuba it would not be unreasonable to say the Cubans were doing it.
But I think it becomes counterintuitive pretty quickly. If, if they wanted to keep the American Embassy open, uh, you wouldn’t attack it. That tended to show that it was some other government. And a government with more capabilities than we thought the Cubans had.
But despite this conclusion, the administration still cracked down. Expelling Cuban diplomats. Reinstating crushing sanctions. And putting it back on the “State Sponsor of Terror” list. Returning Cuba to international pariah status.
We thought we’d have to press Bolton on the allegations the Cuban government made. That the Cubans were scapegoats. That this was all part of a political agenda.
But then… he just… kinda… says it.
Cue, Nicky: Can you talk us through your decision to advise to put Cuba back on the State Sponsors of Terror list?
Cue, Bolton: I never thought Cuba should have been taken off that list … I thought the Obama administration had pursued a very misguided policy that exposed not just Cuba, but other countries in this hemisphere, and potentially the United States, to great risk.
So for me, I thought it was a pretty straightforward question. Really didn’t necessarily involve, uh, these attacks…
Cue, Nicky: So this wasn’t part of that decision matrix?
Cue, Bolton: Not for me.
[MUSIC WIPE]
Bolton is telling us that the narrative we heard from the Cuban regime – is basically true. That “Havana Syndrome” itself didn’t matter.
Cue, Bolton: Well, from my perspective, it, it really didn’t have an impact at all. I wouldn’t have recognized the government in Cuba. I think it’s still repressing its citizens. I think it’s still a threat to the United States because of its openness to Russia, China, Iran, and others … But that just goes to the fundamental character of the regime that I believed all along anyway.
[CUE, MUSIC]
But this isn’t the most jaw-dropping thing Bolton tells us in this interview.
At the time, the Trump administration was being closely scrutinized for the president’s relationship with Russia.
As you’ve heard, if the attack theory is real… there’s no shortage of evidence that would point to Russia as… at least the top suspect.
But … just listen to what Bolton says next.
Cue, Bolton: Since our concern was that one of the perpetrators – maybe the perpetrator – was Russia, uh, we didn’t feel we would get support from President Trump if we said, ‘We think the Russians are coming after American personnel.’
[BEAT]
Let that sink in for a moment.
Trump’s National Security Advisor… didn’t think he would get White House support… if he told the president that Russia was the likely culprit.
Cue, Bolton: Who knows what he would’ve said, he might’ve said, ‘Do nothing at all.’ I didn’t want to chance that, because I did feel it was serious.
[long BEAT]
Cue, Bolton: When you don’t have the ability to bring the hammer down and say, ‘find the answer out,’… it’s much easier for the bureaucracy to resist.
That’s exactly what happened. The bureaucracy resisted. State Department’s first investigations were slow and incomplete. The CIA did everything behind closed doors… only furthering the confusion and chaos.
And it looked like that was where things were going to stand. But then… just before we wrap this show… another report comes out. It’s the most dramatic one yet… and it’s being touted in the media as the final word on the matter.
[BEAT]
[CUE, MUSIC]
Cue, newsreader: MSNBC: Now to the stunning and unexpected findings from the Director of National Intelligence on Havana Syndrome…five US intelligence agencies conclude it is very unlikely an enemy wielding a secret weapon was behind the mysterious ailment.
So why is this one such a big deal?
The DNI is a White House cabinet post, tasked with getting all the intelligence community on the same page. This is the first real effort at a cross-government investigation, with seven agencies participating.
Each answers the question “was a foreign entity involved in the AHI cases?” from unlikely to likely. Then rank their confidence in the answer from high to low.
Five agencies concluded that it was very unlikely. The two others said merely “unlikely.”
To unpack the report, we get in touch with a couple of our long-time sources. First, I want to get neuroweapons expert Jim Giordano’s reaction.
Cue, Nicky: We’re looking at bits where they say things like, “…two agencies have a moderate to high confidence. Three agencies have moderate confidence. One agency abstains” …
And, uh, you know, the Washington Post went with “shattered the consensus” in its headline. I dunno what you think. This doesn’t seem to be doing that…
Cue, Giordano: No, it, it doesn’t. I, I think what it does is tt adds further ambiguity… it’s not definitive both in terms of its language and certainly in terms of the actual information that is presented.
It’s certainly a strange document. A fair amount of it is redacted… and parts of it are super-weirdly phrased.
Cue, Giordano: In that ambiguity and failure to recognize what are well-accepted realities about the science, the technology, as well as the medical findings that then comes off as exceedingly curious, once again, [at] very, very least, and at very, very worst suspect.
[BEAT]
Cue, Marc: This is giant verbal diarrhea …
Next we check in with former CIA official and AHI sufferer Marc Polymeropoulos.
Cue, Marc: …basically the judgements that are going forth in this, they are assessing as very low confidence. That’s one step away from “it didn’t happen.”
No agency reported above “moderate to high” confidence. One had “low” confidence. One agency abstained – declined to even answer the question.
But Marc says that nuance… isn’t reflected in all the press coverage.
Cue, Marc: There seems also to be a difference between what was briefed at the DNI and actually what’s in the content of the, the actual assessment.
We hear from multiple sources that are flabbergasted. One former CIA operative describes it to me as, “a fuck you to anyone who’s ever worked for these agencies.”
Cue, Marc: …what I find a bit disturbing is the messianic zeal of the analysts’ conclusions. This never happens in the intelligence community.
Cue, Marc: …for whatever reason, the analysts are really portraying this as much more of a concerted effort amongst all the different intelligence agencies. Whereas what I’ve been told is that DOD is not on board with this.
If Marc is right and the Pentagon does have doubts, that seems pretty important, doesn’t it? We don’t know from the report, though – because it doesn’t specify which agencies took part.
And on top of that, the White House is keeping its distance. Questioned by reporters, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to say either that the president was “satisfied” with the report – or that he considered the matter “settled.”
Maybe my vibe check is off here… but all this doesn’t feel particularly conclusive to me.
We’ll be back after the break.
[BEAT]
[AD BREAK]
[BEAT]
We’re back.
Cards on the table – to me, it’s undeniable that once all this became famous, once it gets called Havana Syndrome – that some kind of psychogenic spread was inevitable.
There are thousands of claimed cases worldwide. It’s just common sense that the vast majority of them are unlikely to be attacks with weapons. Right? I mean, I really hope that’s true.
But let’s try to address the attack theory separately, on its own merits.
The general consensus is, if it was an attack, pulsed microwaves – radio frequency radiation – fits closest. It’s a hypothesis I personally find credible. Let’s run it down.
First, possibility. Do the physics work?
So, yes. We’ve seen that microwaves can be projected. We know it’s theoretically capable of causing this kind of brain injury. And we know that, via the Frey Effect, it can also cause the experience of a sound.
Cue, Relman: In the past, some of the clinical features had been elicited with pulsed radio frequency energy…
Next, plausibility. How likely is it?
Well, we know devices like these exist. We’ve seen the patents – and the training videos. We know the US has access to them. And we know other nations have been working on similar tech.
Cue, Nicky: Uh, just to get straight to the point of it I guess, does the US have devices that can do this?
Cue, Giordano: Yes.
The last question is probability. What do I think happened here? The subjective view.
Well, we’ve heard about the long history of microwave energy devices.
We’ve heard about Russia’s history with this tech. We know in fact that they’ve actively deployed microwaves, for surveillance purposes at least, against American embassies…
Cue, Schumaker: I’ve had some friends who have died from some very strange diseases out of Moscow.
This does not, it’s worth repeating, rule out a psychogenic event. In fact, the two theories are perfectly comfortable side-by-side. For a mass psychogenic event, it doesn’t really matter where the story comes from – whether, at the core of it, there’s a grain of truth or not.
My gut feeling? Where I land after all this? After going through all the reports, the science, the tech, the history, the victims, I do think some kind of device was used in some cases. I think something happened in Havana.
Sure, a lot of the evidence is still circumstantial. Up till now, we haven’t been able to link a known RF attack with what our sources describe.
And that’s why… your honor … we would like to call our surprise witness to the stand.
It’s time to hear from Ken Jones.
[BEAT]
Cue, Ken: Anything we talk about today is, is just gonna be my views of what I experienced overseas … and doesn’t reflect those of the FBI.
For as long as he can remember, Ken wanted to be an FBI agent.
Cue, Ken: I just had this thing in my head that I wanted to work bank robberies … I thought if I could get into the FBI and help prevent or solve bank robberies, I thought that’d be great.
He worked for the FBI for nearly three decades, across a bunch of roles – terrorism, financial crime, internal leadership. And he did eventually get to bust a bank robbery!
Cue, Ken: It was a holiday weekend or something like that, and I was the only one there.
So I actually had to do the groundwork … But at least I got one under my belt…
[BEAT]
Cue, Ken: Um, and you want me to start talking about the incident now?
In 2009, Ken was posted to an embassy overseas. He won’t say where.
Cue, Ken: Yeah, the, the language, business language is Russian. … yeah, I would just say it’s a former Soviet country …
One day, when he gets to work…
Cue, Ken: What, what ends up happening is I go to sign into my FBI computer. And there’s no connectivity.
He tries all the usual tricks – and a lot of the unusual tricks too. It doesn’t seem to be a bug. The secure network… is down.
Cue, Ken: I can’t do FBI work over GMail [laughs] or any, you know, open network. So I was asking around the embassy, different groups and people … who do I talk to about this?
As we’ve seen, embassies have different agencies represented within them, operating under diplomatic cover. CIA. NSA. And others.
Well, now, Ken connects with… one of those agencies. He won’t say which one.
Cue, Ken: One of their representatives told me that, ‘oh, it’s a country that is intentionally attacking this communication link’, if you will.
…
To either intercept comms, you know, compromise comms or just disrupt.
Not just that. They tell him they know exactly who is attacking them. It isn’t the country they’re in… but a neighbouring one. A foreign actor. Again, Ken won’t say which.
But when he asks how it’s happening…
[CUE MUSIC]
…The answer is unequivocal.
Cue, Ken: It was a radio wave attack…
[RADIOWAVE SFX]
So at least one part of the US government knows someone is blasting radiofrequency energy at the embassy. And it’s messing with the comms equipment.
Cue, Ken: I really… didn’t think… at that time, in the end of 2011, to say, like, ‘Hey, are they still out there attacking that with radio frequencies? ’
[CUE, MUSIC]
Cue, Ken: … but I can tell you shortly after that, I started experiencing daily migraines…
You know how the story unfolds from there.
Cue, Ken: It felt like… if, if someone was gonna stick a spike or a nail or something right through the side of my temple … That was the most intense pain or pressure I’ve ever felt…
The symptoms worsen. He’s dizzy, fatigued and nauseous. Ringing in his ears. Doctors can’t figure out what’s going on.
Cue, Ken: And I started thinking, I’m losing my mind. I’m getting… I just started crying. I’m like, this is insane…
For years he doesn’t link the symptoms to the radiofrequency attack. He’d been briefed on security threats before the posting, but they never mentioned anything like this. He’d never heard of RF exposure or its potential effects.
It’s only years later, when he hears about Havana Syndrome on the news, that he makes the connection.
Cue, Ken: It was like, … Oh my God … is this what really caused what’s going on with me? That’s a little scary in a sense. Then you kind of turn to the, now what?
Cue, Ken: …Can this be like officially connected to a traumatic brain injury due to RF exposure? And, and I started asking that question and then that’s what led me, you know, down this path to try to be evaluated.
He spends the years since… wading through paperwork with the Bureau.
Cue, Ken: I mean, that’s pretty much what my ask was to the FBI was, ‘Hey, are we evaluating our people? Can we get our people evaluated?’ That’s all I really wanted and still want.
For a long time… Ken is left hanging. Doctors, lawyers and colleagues can’t do much for him.
But, as he finally agrees to go on the record with us… he’s just got some good news. He has a chance to get sent to the same facilities as the Havana cohort. He’s now just waiting on a referral from the DOD.
Cue, Ken: To finally be considered to be evaluated means a lot. It’s just like a relief…and I don’t wanna say like validation, but it just gives you a little hope that, you know, maybe they, they can connect the dots … this is why you’ve been feeling like this for the last 10 years of your life…
It’s, it’s hope, I guess, in that sense…
Ken is the first, and so far the only, FBI agent to tell his story on the record. But he tells us others have come forward internally.
This radio wave attack – the one an intel agency told Ken was happening – was in 2011. Way before the Havana outbreak. No narrative was out there. Nothing that could cause any kind of psychogenic suggestion.
And not only that… intelligence agencies knew – even back then – enough to tell Ken explicitly – that RF energy was being deployed against the US Embassy. By… a foreign actor.
And this actually pokes another hole in that DNI report. They only looked at cases from 2016 on. How many people like Ken Jones are there out there, who they never investigated?
People who got sent to far off places to do classified work. People who came back with debilitating medical problems they don’t understand. People who the US government are now trying to sweep under the rug.
[MUSIC FADES W/ BEAT]
What happens to those people now?
Cue, Day: Like so many individuals that have sustained traumatic brain injuries, you know, modern medicine hasn’t found, you know, that magic imaging.
This is Dr. David Day. The owner of a clinic called Neucoa (New-KOH-uh) in Virginia Beach. Neucoa specializes in mapping and treating brain injuries.
Cue, Day: … with us, what’s unique is that we’re looking at the electro [sic] activity in the brain … and as we do the treatment, what’s unique is that we can see a shift of that electrical activity.
…
And with that comes the improvements in their clinical symptoms as well.
David – who’s an ex Navy Seal doctor – is now treating a group of AHI patients. Today’s client… is Marc Polymeropolos.
Cue, Marc: Really, like, i, I woke up this morning. I’m like ‘uh-oh, something’s not right again.’
And again, the headaches are about a three or four, but it’s the pressure…
After coming down with his AHI in Russia in 2017… Marc went looking for treatment.
Cue, Marc: …And I’ve had everything from the normal kind of pharmaceuticals, which deal with kind of migraine headaches … which, which I didn’t like the side effects and they didn’t help. I’ve had tens of rounds of, kind of, steroid injections in the back of my neck and my head … Nothing was working whatsoever.
After years of searching… some colleagues told Marc about David’s work at Neucoa.
[Cue, Marc: “They’ve had tremendous success with, you know, with veterans, uh, who have traumatic brain injury or, or post traumatic stress. And so there was, there was an idea that this could help with the AHI patients. And, and certainly in my case, it really has…”]
[OFFICE AMBI… MARC GETS SETTLED INTO THE PATIENT ROOM]
Cue, David: Do you mind if you take your glasses?
Cue, Marc: Sure.
Cue, David: Neck pillow, or are you good?
Cue, Marc: No, I’m good.
Cue, David: OK, all right.
Marc sits down in a lounge chair next to a big piece of machinery. It looks like a stainless steel cabinet or dresser… with a computer monitor on top.
He leans back as David lowers the device onto his forehead.
Cue, David: All right, we’re gonna go ahead and place the coil on your head.
Cue, David: Okay, just remember when the bell goes off. I want you to close your eyes and remain quiet for the five seconds that it’s delivering the energy.
Cue, Marc: Okay.
Cue, David: Okay. Here we go. Good.
DEVICE CLICKS
This treatment is a form of what’s called “Magnetic E-Resonance Therapy” or MeRT.
Cue, David: What we’re doing is we’re finding out your precise electrical activity and your frequency, optimal frequency for your brain …
That magnetic energy is then guided and directed so that there’s synchronization that’s occurring so that the brain is now communicating more efficiently and more effectively…
I just like the symmetry of it. The theory is that AHI victims like Marc may have been injured by directed energy.
And now… here he is, having directed energy beamed at his brain… to heal it…
Cue, Marc: … in effect it’s brain stimulation treatment … It’s designed ultimately to, to make you feel better …
[DEVICE CLICKS]
Marc comes to Neucoa whenever his symptoms get bad. He calls it a ‘tune-up.’
Cue, Marc: I still have the daily headaches, but, you know, when I went through the first round of this … you know, after that, the, the result was pretty remarkable. I mean, my headaches went down to about a one or two –from the three or four. And if, if you think about that, you know, with all the chronic pain I’ve gone through – down from a four to a one? That’s a lifestyle change.
After about 20 minutes… the treatment is done. And David removes the device from Marc’s head.
Cue, David: Turn and Burn. All right, We’ll see ya.Bye Marc.]
This is what life looks like now for Marc and other victims.
Those we’ve met across this season will likely spend the rest of their lives chasing new treatments like this.
Their cases will continue to rattle through the federal bureaucracy. But they’re unlikely to ever get a concrete answer to the question…
What happened to them?
–
With reports like the latest DNI assessment making waves, their claims are likely to continue to be dismissed. Just like the officials who were downrange of the Moscow Signal. Just like the victims of Gulf War Syndrome.
[CUE, JERICHO]
I’ve been thinking again about this idea we talked about in episode one. How a sound… if it’s powerful enough… is a shockwave.
About how the shockwaves of this story spread. How they fanned out, these increasingly powerful ripples. How they overturned lives. About Cuba, and the colossal damage and misery they caused there.
All these voices who’ve been drowned out in all this. Like the sufferers themselves… trying over and over again to get treatment and answers. Many see the government as having abandoned them.
Here’s the thing. Even if every single one of them is suffering a stress-induced psychogenic event… and me personally? I don’t think that’s the case… that would still speak to enormous negligence on the part of the government agencies responsible for their care.
–
And in the meantime, all they can do is carry on.
Some of them are pushing for cutting-edge treatment like Marc. Others, like Doug and Kate, are still fighting to be taken seriously. Or trying to get their lives back, like Kevin and Karen. People like Ken… are still coming forward, going public with their stories.
I don’t think we’ve heard the last of them.
–
Special thanks to Char Dreyer [Dryer] for Spanish translations.
And Whistledown… our recording studio in London.