Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw investigate the threads connecting modern day medicine to its often brutal origins.

This is the story of 16 year old Lana Ponting. The year is 1958 and she has run away from home yet again. The police pick her up and a judge orders her to the infamous Allen Memorial Institute in Montreal, Canada.

There, she is met by Dr Ewen Cameron, a very famous psychiatrist. What neither Lana nor her parents knew is that Dr Cameron’s method of treatment was less than conventional and his work would soon attract the attention of the CIA and their mind control efforts. This is the story of Subproject 68 and MK Ultra. Julia and Adam hear from journalist John Marks, author of The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control. They also speak with Lana Ponting, one of the last living survivors of Dr Cameron's experiments at the Allen Institute.

Presenters: Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw Producer: Simona Rata Assistant Producer: Mansi Vithlani Executive Producer: Jo Meek Sound Design: Craig Edmondson Commissioner: Dan Clarke

An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4

In The Human Subject, Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw investigate the threads connecting modern day medicine to its often brutal origins. With every episode they explore some of that dark history and ask - is our present day knowledge worth the suffering it took to get us here?

This is the story of the more than 600 patients at Vipeholm Hospital in Sweden who, in 1946, were enrolled in a set of unexpectedly dark studies now known as the ‘sugar experiments’.

They were devised and run by the Board of Medicine - without government knowledge or approval - and led to immeasurable pain for all those who took part, all in the name of public health.

Presenters: Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw Producer: Simona Rata Assistant Producer: Mansi Vithlani Executive Producer: Jo Meek Sound Design: Craig Edmondson Commissioner: Dan Clarke

An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4

Humanity’s journey to understanding the body has been a gory one, littered with unethical experiments, unintended consequences and unimaginable endurance.

In The Human Subject, Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw investigate the threads connecting modern day medicine to its often brutal origins. With every episode they explore some of that dark history and ask - is our present day knowledge worth the suffering it took to get us here?

The year is 1964 and 20 year old Edward Anthony is being checked into Philadelphia’s Holmesburg prison, also known as ‘The Terrordome’, about to serve a 23-month sentence for dealing marijuana.

Only two weeks into being at the prison he agrees to the first of many medical experiments run by Dr Albert Kligman and the University of Pennsylvania dermatology department. This first experiment, a 'bubble bath test', leaves him feeling like his back is on fire. To his cellmates he yells, ‘It’s killing me’. This is the story of Edward and hundreds of other prisoners who were exploited in this Philadelphia prison. in the pursuit of knowledge and for financial gain.

Presenters: Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw Series Producer: Simona Rata Assistant Producer: Mansi Vithlani Executive Producer: Jo Meek Sound Design: Craig Edmondson Commissioner: Dan Clarke

An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4