This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

Stephen Kinzer is the author of nine books, including: The True Flag, The Brothers, Overthrow and All the Shah’s Men. He is also an award-winning foreign correspondent and writes a world affairs column for The Boston Globe. His new book tells the astonishing story of the man who oversaw the CIA’s secret medical experiments of the 1950s and ’60s. Drawing on original interviews, survivors’ testimonies and documentary research, Kinzer brings to light this massive hunt for the secret of mind control that spanned several countries, including the work of Nazi scientists, and lead to experimentation on government employees (willing and unwilling), foreign politicians, children, prisoners, sex workers and anyone else the poisoner in chief deemed threatening or expendable. Come hear a startling tale of the most powerful unknown Americans of the 20th century and of government lies and deception.