In the second episode, the murder of a political staffer in 2016 spawns a myriad of unfounded conspiracy theories as the man's family and the truth hang in the balance. Following Seth Rich's murder, his parents filed a lawsuit with Fox News after conspiracy theories about his murder spread across the internet. Mary Rich told NPR that the combined trauma of her son's death and the attacks by conspiracy theorists caused intense and lasting distrust. After the case was resolved, Rich's parents said in a statement at the time that they were 'pleased with the resolution of this matter and sincerely hope that the media will take genuine precautions in the future'.
In the fourth episode, several women recall their harrowing experiences with one man's heinous attempts at virtual blackmail, aimed at obtaining sensitive sexual material. A woman tells us: 'I received a message from a man who said: Send me a naked picture or I will kill you'. This young woman was able to add her case to those of other women who were encouraged to denounce and expose the harasser. No one is completely invisible on the Internet.
In the fifth episode we will see from counterfeit Beanie Babies to very real tax crime. One person wonders if could make refunds in the name of dead people. It turns out that it can. We will also see an attempted fraud by two hackers to the IRS: the United States federal agency in charge of tax collection. These skilled hackers revisit cyber schemes that landed them in the sight of law enforcement.
The last episode explores Mescaline, the psychoactive molecule in San Pedro and peyote cacti, a sacred medicine that Native Americans have had to fight for the right to use. At the Indigenous practices there's always an elder, someone who knows the territory very well, who's presiding. There's usually a group, a community is involved, There's always an intention, a purpose to what you're doing, and you're treating it as sacred, in order to achieve altered states of consciousness, which contribute to worship in various ways, or celebration or healing. But maybe all this is not so new to Western culture after all. In the old Greek histories of Eleusis, people who were initiated there got the drink, the kykeon, and then they had the illumination. The precise recipe is a mystery, but we know that the kykeon was a psychoactive brew that was used at the Eleusinian mysteries, a sacred annual ritual of enlightenment practiced by some of the world's greatest minds including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. So why did this ritual come to an end more than 1,000 years ago? Was the possibility of illumination or achieving a higher consciousness considered threatening to the powers that be? Have the drug wars been merely an extension of that fear? Psychedelics has a major part in how we can heal as a community, how we can heal as a city, and how we can heal as a country. The current renaissance of psychedelics could not come at a better time as the world confronts a crisis in mental health. But psychedelics have much to offer. The psychedelic experience changes the mind in ways that will help scientists better understand how it works. All these altered states allow us to probe what is the greatest mystery in all of nature. The emergence from mere matter of something as miraculous as consciousness. But an even bigger question is whether psychedelics might help us address the environmental crisis of how we think about our place in nature. One of the greatest gifts of psychedelics is how they reanimate the natural world, allowing us to perceive the subject, the spirit of all species, not just our own. And to feel a deeper sense of interconnectedness with nature.
In the third episode, during cleanup at the plant, insiders claim that cost-cutting measures and intimidation tactics create a danger war force than the accident itself. Several state and federal government agencies mounted investigations into the crisis, the most prominent of which was the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, headed by chairman John G. Kemeny. The investigation strongly criticized Babcock & Wilcox, Met Ed, Graphics processing unit, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for lapses in quality assurance and maintenance, inadequate operator training, lack of communication of important safety information, poor management, and complacency. Kemeny said that the procedures and that the control room were greatly inadequate for managing an accident.
This highly anticipated psychedelic docuseries showcases what these substances teaches people about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression and transcendence. Filmmaker Alex Gibney and best-selling author Michael Pollan present it in four parts, each focused on a different mind-altering substance: LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and mescaline. With Pollan as our guide, we journey to the frontiers of the new psychedelic renaissance -- and look back at almost-forgotten historical context -- to explore the potential of these substances to heal and change minds as well as culture. The first chapter is a great introduction to the topic of LSD, from its 1943 origins to today's microdosing trend, for those who don’t already know a lot about the subject, and a fun and entertaining refresher on LSD for even experts in the field. The show takes us on a journey through the history of the powerful compound, from its discovery and its early medical use, to secret CIA mind-control studies, the counterculture and its banning, and finally to our current renaissance. It includes amazing clips of LSD’s inventor Albert Hofmann and powerful personal testimonies of individuals who have healed their suffering through LSD.
Following Seth Rich's murder, his parents filed a lawsuit with Fox News after conspiracy theories about his murder spread across the internet. Mary Rich told NPR that the combined trauma of her son's death and the attacks by conspiracy theorists caused intense and lasting distrust. After the case was resolved, Rich's parents said in a statement at the time that they were 'pleased with the resolution of this matter and sincerely hope that the media will take genuine precautions in the future'.