Infamous America

Nina Gilden Seavey was twelve on May 5, 1970, the day an Air Force building in St. Louis burned to the ground. Her dad represented a young man accused of the crime: Howard Mechanic. Facing serious federal time, Howard went on the run and became one of the longest-running fugitives in U.S. history. As an adult, Nina picked up the trail. What ever happened to Howard Mechanic?This eight-part series is the tangled story of her search for answers. Hundreds of Freedom of Information requests. Hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. FBI surveillance and confidential informants. Cold War spies, conspiracy theories and the murder of a civil rights icon. And the sacrifices America makes in the name of national security. https://www.audacy.com/podcasts/my-fugitive-49438 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A woman named Becki is lounging by the pool at the Fontainebleau Hotel when she decides to proposition a strapping pool attendant. Go on a date with her...and her husband. What begins as an unconventional proposition will soon throw them all into the international spotlight. And that’s because the couple is none other than Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife Becki, two of the most powerful figures in Evangelical America. Wondery presents In God We Lust, hosted by Brooke Siffrin and Aricia Skidmore-Williams of Even the Rich. A story of an alluring sex scandal, power, money and a very public fall from grace. When word of their affair fell into the wrong hands it led to political extortion and a public outing that brought Jerry Falwell Jr.’s empire crashing down. Listen at http://wondery.fm/IGWL_Infamous Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two young Silicon Valley entrepreneurs set out to rid the world of smoking with an incredible new product. The device stands to disrupt the tobacco industry and make them rich, until it falls into the wrong hands and lives are ruined. From classrooms to hospitals, boardrooms to the Oval Office, what can be done to protect teenagers and is it too late? From Laura Beil, the reporter behind Dr Death and Bad Batch, comes The Vaping Fix, the inside story of the rise of Juul and the making of a crisis. Listen to THE VAPING FIX at: http://wondery.fm/VF_InfamousAmerica Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

*WARNING: This episode contains a description of graphic violence* It’s a case that has haunted Jefferson Township, New Jersey, for more than 30 years. On a snowy January night, 14-year-old Tommy Sullivan did the unthinkable: he murdered his mother in cold blood, set fire to their house, and then took his own life. Out of the flames of this horrible tragedy, investigations revealed that Tommy was, himself, a part of a Satanic Cult, sparking a nationwide hysteria now known as the “Satanic Panic” This monumental moment in American culture led to communities nationwide enforcing draconian measures to protect their children from what they perceived to be the devil’s influence. Even the Catholic church was convinced this was a case of demonic possession. On the new podcast, THE DEVIL WITHIN, the truth of the grisly murder is finally revealed. Did Tommy act alone? Did he really commit suicide? Is his cult still in power? THE DEVIL WITHIN finally sheds light on questions left unanswered for decades... Listen here: http://wondery.fm/TDW_InfamousUSAPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Presenting a special episode of one of our favorite podcasts, Revisionist History. Every year, the US News & World Report ranks the best colleges and universities using a top-secret algorithm that they refuse to disclose. In Part One of a two-part series, Malcolm finds a team of undergraduate statisticians-turned-ranking super-hackers to crack the algorithm. He and an anonymous “dean” pass judgment on schools they’ve never visited, and considers the elephant in the room: Whether it’s possible that America’s most influential college rankings are biased against historically Black colleges, and other institutions that educate underprivileged students. You can hear the second half of the series right now at: http://podcasts.pushkin.fm/infamousamerica Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a shocking crime occurs, people ask “WHY?” Was it about power, ego, or revenge? On KILLER PSYCHE, retired FBI criminal profiler Candice DeLong draws on her decades of experience to reveal why these murderers and criminals committed these acts. She will reveal fascinating new details about what drove these people, including cases she worked on first-hand. Candice has been called the FBI’s “real-life Clarice Starling,” and she will share specific psychological methods and profiling techniques that experts use to understand the deepest part of the most complex, fascinating, and twisted minds, from the Unabomber to Dr. Death to El Chapo. Listen to Killer Psyche: wondery.fm/KP_InfamousAmerica  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paolo is a smart and handsome surgeon, renowned for his ability to perform surgeries that transform his patients’ lives. When television producer Benita covers him for a story, he’ll transform her life too, but not in the ways she expects. As Benita crosses professional lines to be with him, she learns how far Paolo will go to protect his secrets. And halfway around the world, four doctors at a prestigious medical institute make shocking discoveries of their own that call everything into question. From Wondery comes Season Three of the hit podcast, Dr. Death. MIRACLE MAN tells the story of a globe-trotting surgeon who seduces the medical world, and sweeps one woman off her feet. Hosted by Laura Beil. Listen to Dr. Death Season 3: Miracle Man: http://wondery.fm/DDS3_InfamousAmerica Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A big Halloween party at an apartment complex in Redmond, Washington. Themed rooms and costumed partygoers. But by the end of the party, one of the hosts is dead. The police look to the partiers as the prime suspects: was it the guy in the devil mask, the bank robber, the construction worker? As investigators comb through forensic evidence, witness testimony, DNA, and even consult with a psychic, they zero in on one suspect in particular. But for what reason? Host and reporter Matthew Shaer (Over My Dead Body) returns to the scene of the crime, speaks with everyone about a night that still haunts them years later. It’s a series about race and policing, mislaid justice, cutting-edge science, and the kinds of weighty choices that cops and prosecutors make every day -- choices that, once made, are difficult to reverse. Listen to SUSPECT: http://wondery.fm/Suspect_InfamousAmer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would you do if a singular moment changed your life forever? This is Actually Happening is a weekly podcast from Wondery that features extraordinary life-changing stories told by the people who lived them. We’ve all had powerful moments in our lives that have given us the feeling of, “Nothing is ever going to be the same.” This is Actually Happening explores these moments head-on. These immersive, gripping stories will have you on the edge of your seat, waiting to hear what will happen next. This is just a preview of This is Actually Happening, but you can listen to the full episode at wondery.fm/TIAH_InfamousAmer  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A small town cop known as “GI Joe” is gunned down in a swamp in the summer of 2015 and quickly becomes a martyr in the national media. But when a dogged investigator and his team set out to get justice, they uncover unsettling secrets about Joe, the local police department, and the village of Fox Lake. From Wondery, the makers of The Shrink Next Door and Dr. Death comes the third season of Over My Dead Body: Fox Lake. Hosted by Matt Baglio. Listen to Over My Dead Body: http://wondery.fm/FL_InfamousAmerica Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Kough lived many lives. He was an NFL journeyman, a male model, and one of the most well-connected smugglers in 1980’s Miami, the “Drug Capital of the World." Kough collected many souvenirs from his adventures, but his most treasured bounty – a beautiful ceramic, crafted by Pablo Picasso and gifted to Ernest Hemingway at the author’s Cuban home, the Finca Vigia... or so the story goes. Lost during the Cuban Revolution, the artwork resurfaced when Kough took it as a payment for drug run financed by the notorious Pablo Escobar. Kough passed away in 2018, passing the piece down to his son, Stevie, a skateboarding hippie growing weed in California. Stevie feels he needs to complete his father’s mission – of selling this piece and telling Steve’s cinematic life story. So, is the Picasso authentic—or a fraud? Was Steve Kough a big talker or a real deal smuggler? Does any of that matter or is this a story of aspiration, legacy, and difficult love? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s one of the most haunting murder cases you’ll ever hear about, and it takes place in a small town in Israel. Tair Rada was only 13-years-old when her body was found inside a locked bathroom stall. She was viciously murdered during a school day, and yet no one saw or heard a thing. The police arrested the janitor, Roman Zadorov, and he eventually confessed, but this was far from being the end of it. Based on the hit true-crime series from Netflix, the podcast "Shadow of Truth" will take you on a journey into one of the wildest and most contested murder cases in the history of Israel, as it reaches its final resolution, 15 years after it all started. Listen to Shadow of Truth http://wondery.fm/SOT_InfamousAmerica  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the 1-900 number craze of the Nineties, one company provided the vast majority of phone sex. American Telnet was an empire founded by the man who called himself “The Telephone Pimp.” He ran the company “like General Motors” and got filthy rich doing it. But for the (mostly) women who answered the calls and delivered fantasies 24-7, it was a different story. The powerful stigma against sex work was always lurking just beneath the surface, until it threatened to tear apart the whole company. Hosted by Tina Horn (Why Are People Into That?), OPERATOR is an eight-part series about big ambitions, Shakespearean-level corporate backstabbing, men and women at the cutting edge of a technological revolution...and on the front lines of a sexual one. Listen to Operator now! http://wondery.fm/OP_Infamous_America  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Veteran journalist Joe Nocera’s neighbor in the Hamptons was a therapist named Ike. Ike counted celebrities and Manhattan elites as his patients. He’d host star-studded parties at his eccentric vacation house. But one summer, Joe discovered that Ike was gone and everything he’d thought he’d known about his neighbor -- and the house next door -- was wrong. From Wondery, the company behind Dirty John and Dr. Death, and Bloomberg, “The Shrink Next Door” is a story about power, control and turning to the wrong person for help for three decades. Written and hosted by Joe Nocera, a columnist for Bloomberg. The Shrink Next Door is now an Apple Original series, starring Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd. Watch now only on Apple TV+. Listen to the Shrink Next Door now! https://link.chtbl.com/shrink_next_door?sid=Audio-Shrink_Next_Door_2021-Infamous_America  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was supposed to be a reality show with a twist. In a sun-drenched villa in Ibiza, six hot guys compete for a cash prize and for the love of the beautiful and mysterious Miriam. It’s meant to be her big break: the moment she becomes the superstar she was born to be. But this is the era of “cruel reality TV” and the show producers have a different goal: they want to surprise the men with the fact that Miriam is trans. A new six-episode investigative series from Wondery, the makers of The Shrink Next Door and The Apology Line, and from Novel, HARSH REALITY is the story about love, lies, reality TV and a woman before her time: Miriam Rivera. Written by Agnes Borinsky and hosted by Trace Lysette. Listen to Harsh Reality: http://wondery.fm/HR_Infamous_America  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What causes people to become killers? KILLER PSYCHE is a true crime podcast from Wondery that covers high-profile cases that shocked the world. Host Candice Delong uses her experience as a clinical psychiatric nurse and FBI Criminal Profiler to dissect the motivations and behaviors of the most terrifying criminals in history. In a recent episode, Candice explores the case of Pedro Rodrigues Filho, also known as The Brazilian Dexter. Rodrigues went on to murder, by his count, more than 100 people -- most of them while he was behind bars. To many, he was a hero -- a vigilante seeking justice for victims. But to others, he was just a cold-blooded murderer. This is just a preview of Killer Psyche, but you can listen to the full episode at http://wondery.fm/KP_InfamousAmerica  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the era of some of the most heinous serial killers of all time, one murderous family went curiously unnoticed: The McCrarys. Led by a psychopathic patriarch and his cunning son-in-law, this Texas clan roamed the country robbing, kidnapping, and killing up to 20 people, most of them taken from donut shops. “Families Who Kill: The Donut Shop Murders” recounts the wild and deeply disturbing story of an unhinged American family and the terrible brutality they unleashed. The podcast features the taped confessions of one of the killers, given when he was serving a life term in Colorado.  Listen Here: http://wondery.fm/DSM_InfamousAmerica  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s a city that shouldn’t exist. An oasis in the desert, a mirage — it’s a city of buzzing neon, flowing fountains, and fortunes made and lost. A city of hedonism: concerts, casinos, showgirls, and all-you-can-eat buffets. But how did Vegas become “Sin City”? A place that promotes a fantasy of adult freedoms: a vacation from boundaries, rules, accountability? A place where people from all over the world visit to be their wildest, most uninhibited selves, even if it’s just for just a couple nights? We’re going to tell you the history of that city. From a railroad stop, to the mob, to the luxury resort and casino...this is Spectacle Season 2: The Making of Las Vegas.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deep Cover tells true stories of crime and corruption. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jake Halpern reveals dark underworlds most of us know nothing about. The new season, Mob Land, tells the true story of a high-rolling Chicago lawyer who fixed court cases for the mob. He did this for years... until he decided to betray them and work with the FBI. He wears a wire to expose a black market of corruption—where politicians were bought and justice was sold. Where, for the right price, even murderers could walk free... With first-hand interviews from FBI agents, mobsters, family members, and criminals, the story is truly a wild journey into a world of corruption, murder and deceit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the series premiere, radio DJ Fred Heckman (Jon Hamm) receives an unexpected call from a listener who turns his life upside down. Follow “American Hostage” on Amazon Music. To hear all 8 episodes right now, go to; http://wondery.fm/IA_AmericanHostage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices