Eighteen Americans were secretly injected with plutonium without their knowledge or consent.

The first was Ebb Cade, a healthy 55-year-old African American man in Tennessee. After a car accident in March 1945, he expected to have his broken bones set. Instead, he became a test subject. Scientists injected plutonium into his veins, then pulled his teeth and cut pieces of bone from his body to track how the radioactive element spread.

Cade eventually escaped the hospital, leaving before he was discharged — and abruptly moved to another state, dying just eight years later. He was only the beginning.

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Eileen Welsome, author of "The Plutonium Files," joins Natasha Zouves, host of "The Truth of the Matter," to uncover the story of Cade and the 17 others used in secret government experiments.

Why were these patients chosen? What role did Oppenheimer’s Los Alamos play? And how close did America come to burying this history forever?

This is the hidden story of the plutonium files — and the Americans turned into test subjects in the name of national security and scientific advancement.

The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves isn’t just another podcast — it’s a fight to uncover what powerful institutions want hidden. From secret human experiments the government carried out on unsuspecting citizens to toxic cover-ups poisoning communities, Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalist Natasha Zouves brings you the stories people in power don’t want told.

Each week, we expose evidence buried in archives, amplify the voices of those who’ve been silenced, and hold the powerful accountable. From radioactive “oatmeal experiments” on children, to cancer causing chemicals destroying farms, to veterans erased from history — these are the stories that matter.

This is journalism that refuses to look away. The Truth of the Matter is about transparency, and justice for the people left behind.

Connect with host Natasha Zouves

WATCH the St. Louis investigation part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7_-G_q3wEc&t=1s

WATCH the St. Louis investigation part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upYvUe6hWEk&t=817s

READ the full St. Louis investigation: https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/military/did-government-poison-st-louis/

You can find “The Truth of the Matter” wherever you listen to your podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-of-the-matter-with-natasha-zouves/id1804707066

https://open.spotify.com/show/2iQ85VHlMmBfLBaTtSp8tF

This podcast is put together by:

Ryan Kerr

Mia Balbin-Cuesta

Allie Purser

Natasha Zouves

Connect with host Natasha Zouves