Showing results by author "David G. Stone" in All Categories

He was supposed to protect them. Instead, he became their worst nightmare. In the industrial wasteland of Angarsk, Siberia, police officer Mikhail Popkov spent his days investigating crimes and his nights committing them. For over two decades, this trusted public servant led a double life that would make him one of history's most prolific serial killers, claiming at least 83 victims before his shocking arrest in 2012. The Werewolf's Shadow takes listeners deep inside one of the most disturbing criminal cases in modern Russian history.

The cells were supposed to die. Instead, they changed everything. When Henrietta Lacks walked into Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951 complaining of vaginal bleeding, neither she nor her doctors could have imagined the medical revolution about to unfold. The cervical cancer that would claim her life at age 31 harbored an extraordinary secret: her cells could live forever. Without her knowledge or consent, those cells would reshape modern medicine. Dubbed "HeLa" cells, Henrietta's tissue became the cornerstone of countless medical breakthroughs.

In 1949, George Orwell warned us about doublethink—the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs and accept both as true. He thought he was writing fiction. Every morning, millions of Americans wake up and seamlessly accept impossible contradictions: politicians who simultaneously champion law and order while breaking laws, media outlets that claim objectivity while pushing agendas, and social movements that fight intolerance with intolerance. We've become masters of doublethink without even realizing it.

Deep in Louisiana's marshlands, where mist rises from ancient waters and Spanish moss whispers secrets in the wind, mysterious lights have danced for millennia. The Cajuns call them fifolet. Scientists call them marsh gas combustion. But for the people who've lived alongside these phenomena for generations, they're something far more profound—messengers from the spirit world, guides through treacherous waters, and the eternal call of home. LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS explores the fascinating intersection where folklore meets physics, where ancestral wisdom encounters modern science.

They shed their skin at midnight and ride the sleeping... In the shadowy corners of Louisiana's bayous, an ancient terror still prowls. The Boo Hag—a shapeshifting spirit that slips from its skin to torment the innocent—represents one of America's most enduring supernatural traditions, rooted in the profound spiritual heritage of enslaved Africans. Anthropologist David G. Stone takes listeners on a haunting journey through centuries of hidden folklore, revealing how these malevolent spirits evolved from West African cosmology into distinctly American entities.

He was a career CIA officer. He was also a spy for the Soviet Union. In 1985, Aldrich Ames began selling secrets to the KGB—compromising dozens of CIA operations and costing the lives of multiple American agents. What followed was nearly a decade of deception, luxury, and death, all fueled by greed and personal failure. The CIA had no idea it was being gutted from the inside. In Aldrich Ames: The CIA Turncoat Who Sold Secrets to Moscow, author David G. Stone unpacks the full story of America’s most damaging mole.

Between 1885 and 1908, King Leopold II of Belgium orchestrated a genocide so brutal it shocked the world into silence. Under the guise of humanitarian mission, this seemingly gentle monarch transformed the Congo into his personal torture chamber, where millions died to fill his coffers with rubber profits.

Dennis Rader appeared to be the perfect neighbor: a father, church council president, and city employee. But behind closed doors, he was the BTK Killer—one of the most sadistic and methodical serial killers in American history. From 1974 to 1991, Rader murdered ten victims and vanished... only to resurface decades later in a chilling game with law enforcement. In Dennis Rader: The BTK Killer, David G. Stone delivers an in-depth account of how Rader maintained a monstrous secret life for decades.

A criminology student studying murder becomes the prime suspect in a quadruple homicide that shocked America. On November 13, 2022, the college town of Moscow, Idaho, woke up to unthinkable horror. Four University of Idaho students—Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves—had been brutally murdered in their off-campus home while they slept. With no forced entry, no clear motive, and minimal physical evidence, investigators faced one of the most challenging cases in modern criminal history.

The Cold War’s greatest traitor wasn’t in Moscow—he was in MI6. Harold “Kim” Philby was the golden boy of British intelligence—handsome, brilliant, and deeply embedded in the highest levels of MI6. But behind the polished exterior was a double agent loyal to the Soviet Union. Over the course of two decades, Philby betrayed hundreds of operations, exposed agents, and fed a constant stream of secrets to Moscow. Kim Philby: The British Mole Who Betrayed the West is a gripping biography that explores how one man’s ideology, ambition, and duplicity changed the face of espionage forever.

Beneath the surface of Georgia’s most infamous lake lies a secret many have forgotten—and some say refuses to be forgotten.

The Plasma Pioneer reveals the remarkable true story of Charles Richard Drew, the African American physician whose scientific genius collided with the brutal realities of segregated America. When the U.S. military demanded that blood donations be segregated by race—despite Drew's own research proving the practice scientifically baseless—he made a decision that would define his legacy: he resigned from the program he created rather than compromise his principles.

What If I Told You That $100 Million in Diamonds Vanished From One of the World's Most Secure Airports in Broad Daylight? You'd probably think it was fiction. You'd be wrong. On a cold February afternoon in 2005, Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport became the scene of one of the most audacious heists in criminal history. In less than sixty seconds, armed men disguised as KLM employees terrorized four airport workers and vanished with a fortune in diamonds destined for Antwerp—the world's diamond capital.

Ghislaine Maxwell didn't just commit crimes—she perfected the art of hiding them behind the most respectable facade imaginable. For thirty years, she moved seamlessly between Buckingham Palace and the White House, between environmental fundraisers and sex trafficking operations, between royal weddings and criminal conspiracies. The Maxwell Deception is the definitive account of the most sophisticated criminal deception in modern history—and how even the most masterful lies eventually collapse under the weight of truth.

On December 23, 1919, Alice H. Parker received Patent No. 1,325,905 for a revolutionary gas-powered heating system that would transform American homes forever. Yet today, almost no one knows her name. HEAT OF GENIUS chronicles the remarkable life and groundbreaking innovation of Alice Parker, the Black woman inventor whose vision of centralized heating became the blueprint for every modern HVAC system.

The ultimate year-round survival guide for living in Florida—before, during, and after disaster strikes. Florida’s tropical paradise comes with a cost: powerful hurricanes, oppressive heat, and sudden floods. In Survive the Season: Florida, author David G. Stone delivers a no-nonsense, easy-to-follow guide packed with practical advice for protecting yourself, your family, and your home. Whether you're new to the state, caring for kids or seniors, or just want a better way to manage the chaos of storm season, this book has you covered.

In the chaotic expanse of Indian Territory—a place where five Native nations, desperate outlaws, and federal law collided in deadly confusion—one man stood as the embodiment of justice itself. Bass Reeves didn't just wear a deputy marshal's badge; he transformed it into something sacred: a symbol of honor that commanded respect across cultural and racial divides that seemed impossible to bridge.

The darkness holds more than dreams in Louisiana... Every night across the bayous and cities of Louisiana, people awaken gasping, paralyzed, crushed by an invisible weight that science cannot fully explain. They speak of shadowy figures, suffocating pressure, and the unmistakable presence of something ancient and malevolent. Meet the Cauchemar—Louisiana's most terrifying sleep spirit.

When criminals take to the skies, even the most secure fortress becomes vulnerable. At 5:19 AM on September 23, 2009, the impossible happened. A Bell 206 helicopter appeared over Stockholm's Västberga district, descended onto the roof of Sweden's most secure cash depot, and in twenty minutes, changed the face of international security forever.

Is he a patriot fighting for privacy, or a traitor who betrayed his country? Edward Snowden shook the foundations of global intelligence when he leaked classified NSA documents in 2013. His revelations exposed widespread surveillance by the U. S. government—not only on foreign targets but on millions of its own citizens. Overnight, he became a global fugitive, hailed as a digital freedom fighter and condemned as a national security threat. Edward Snowden: Whistleblower or Traitor? examines the full arc of Snowden’s journey—from NSA insider to exiled whistleblower. Historian David G.