The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves

Natasha Zouves
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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.

  1. 12/19/2025

    "They're Waiting for Us to Die" - Area 51 Veterans Sick After Serving on the Secret Range

    They served in silence at one of the most secretive military ranges in America. Now they say they’re dying in the shadows — because the government still won’t acknowledge they were there.   An update now on the Area 51 Veterans: Congress quietly killed the one fix that could have helped them prove where they served and get the care they say they’ve earned.   These men and women served on the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), home to the site known globally as Area 51. Now many are battling rare cancers. But because their service is still classified and “data-masked,” they say the VA can’t verify an service connect their illnesses — and their claims stall.   After our reporting, Section 1066 was added to the Senate’s defense bill as their clearest path forward. Then, behind closed doors, it vanished from the final NDAA.   Dave Crete says the message from House leadership was simple: “You’re not that important.” He believes the government is trying to wait them out — as the memorial list grows from 446 names to 527.   Now they’re turning directly to President Trump, asking for an executive order. “This problem could be fixed with one beautiful signature,” Crete says. “Mr. President, we need your help.”   In this new conversation with Air Force veteran Dave Crete, he breaks down what happened, what Congress removed, what language made it into the final bill, and why the veterans say they don’t have time to wait until 2027.   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.   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.   Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthofthematterpod/   Connect with host Natasha Zouves:   https://www.instagram.com/natashazouves/   https://www.tiktok.com/@natashazouves   https://www.facebook.com/natashanzouves/     WATCH the original NewsNation Area 51 Investigation READ the full Area 51 Investigation WATCH our original podcast episode with Dave Crete, where he describes the secret missions on the range

    44 min

  2. 11/24/2025

    She Thought It Was a Prenatal Vitamin. She Didn’t Know It Was Radioactive.

    Imagine being 20, pregnant, and your doctor hands you a “vitamin drink.” You trust them. You drink it. Decades later you find out…it was radioactive.   This happened at a prestigious American university clinic, to real women with real babies. And some of those children never made it past childhood.   In this new episode of The Truth of the Matter Podcast, Natasha Zouves speaks with attorney Donald Arbitblit, who helped the women of the Vanderbilt case fight back. He covers:   • how they finally discovered they’d been experimented on • what happened to their children • and what this says about how much we still don’t know about human experiments in this country   If you’ve ever been told “it was a different time” or “just trust the system,” I really want you to hear this conversation.   Watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnrd2XSnpUs... Follow the podcast on IG: https://www.instagram.com/truthofthematterpod/   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

    55 min

  3. 11/14/2025

    The U.S. Fed Radioactive Oatmeal to Orphans – The Untold Story

    What if the U.S. government secretly experimented on unsuspecting Americans – pregnant women, children, and hospital patients – using radioactive materials? In this episode of The Truth of the Matter, Natasha Zouves continues her conversation with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Eileen Welsome, author of The Plutonium Files. Her groundbreaking reporting helped crack open a series of Cold War–era human radiation experiments—including: Pregnant women given radioactive “cocktails” Orphan boys at a Massachusetts school fed radioactive oatmeal Cincinnati cancer patients subjected to whole-body radiation, many dying within weeks Welsome explains how these experiments came to light following her investigation into the 18 Americans injected with plutonium, what the tests reveal about government secrecy, and why this history remains a cautionary tale for us all.   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

    25 min

  4. 10/31/2025

    The Man Secretly Injected With Plutonium After a Car Accident

    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

    1h 25m

  5. 10/24/2025

    Did the Government Poison an American City? Inside the Army’s Secret Tests in St. Louis

    In the 1950s and 60s, the U.S. Army sprayed a mystery fog over thousands of Americans who lived in a neighborhood in St. Louis. Mothers shut their windows against it, children ran through it.   The Army later admitted the fog contained zinc cadmium sulfide, a chemical that contains cadmium — now a known human carcinogen. But to this day, the Army does not admit harm.   This is part two of our conversation with Dr. Lisa Martino-Taylor, sociologist and author of Behind the Fog. She tells host of “The Truth of the Matter,” Natasha Zouves, why she believes the experiments in St. Louis were part of a larger program spun out of the Manhattan Project — marked by secrecy, deception, and the use of unwitting Americans as test subjects.   Why was St. Louis chosen? What else might have been in that spray? And why does this researcher believe the truth remains buried in classified government documents?   This is one of the darkest, least-known chapters in American history. And the fight for answers is still unfolding.   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

    1h 25m

  6. 10/10/2025

    U.S. Government’s Secret Human Experiments: Radioactive Oatmeal, Pregnant Women, and a Mystery Fog

    From radioactive oatmeal fed to children, to pregnant women given a radioactive cocktail, to chemical spraying over St. Louis, Dr. Martino-Taylor connects the dots and reveals how she believes these were not isolated incidents, but part of a program spun out of the Manhattan Project — marked by secrecy, deception, and the targeting of the most vulnerable.   Dr. Lisa Martino-Taylor, sociologist, researcher and author of Behind the Fog, joins Natasha Zouves, host of “The Truth of the Matter,” for a groundbreaking conversation about one of the darkest, least-known chapters in American history: secret human experiments carried out by the U.S. government.   Why St. Louis? What did researchers hope to achieve? And what does this history tell us about government transparency, ethics, and the human cost of secrecy?   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

    37 min

  7. 06/16/2025

    “The Mission That Broke Me—And How I Came Back." Decorated Combat Pilot, Major Glenn Ignazio

    He served on the razor’s edge of danger, flying combat rescue missions to extract downed pilots and special forces deep behind enemy lines. But it was one failed mission that left a mark no medal could erase. In this episode of The Truth of the Matter, host Natasha Zouves sits down with Major Glenn Ignazio for a gripping, unflinching conversation. Maj. Ignazio opens up about the moment he couldn’t save a life, the high-altitude accident that ended his flying career, and the silent battles he fought long after the missions were over — PTSD, addiction to prescription opioids, and the collapse of everything he once knew. From the cockpit to the edge of despair and back again, Ignazio shares how he rebuilt his life from rock bottom, and how he's now leading a different kind of rescue mission: helping fellow veterans find purpose and healing. This is a raw, powerful story about failure, redemption, and the unseen toll of service. “The Truth of the Matter" goes beyond the headlines to uncover the hidden stories shaping our world.   These stories are more than just hidden truths—they’re blueprints for navigating our own lives, offering rare insights into the human experience and lessons learned. 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   Connect with host Natasha Zouves

    33 min

  8. 05/29/2025

    She Survived a Violent Attack — Then Became an FBI Agent

    Jennifer Coffindaffer shares the brutal, life-altering attack she survived as a college freshman — and how that trauma ignited a fire to protect others and seek justice, setting her on a path towards decades in the FBI and law enforcement. This episode deals with sexual assault, listener discretion advised. In this episode, “Truth of the Matter” host Natasha Zouves sits down with Coffindaffer for a searingly personal conversation — former FBI agent, counterintelligence and counterterrorism expert. From excelling in the grueling training grounds of Quantico, to going head-to-head with violent gang members and apprehending dangerous criminals, she pulls back the curtain on the physical and mental toll of the job. She speaks candidly about suffering a concussion during combat training and the reality of sexual harassment in law enforcement. As one of the few women in her position, she reveals what it took to not just survive in that environment, but to carve out a place of her own.  This is a raw, riveting conversation about resilience, justice and the human cost of service. “The Truth of the Matter" podcast goes beyond the headlines to uncover the hidden stories shaping our world. These stories are more than just hidden truths—they’re blueprints for navigating our own lives, offering rare insights into the human experience and lessons learned. You can find “The Truth of the Matter” wherever you listen to your podcasts.   Connect with host Natasha Zouves

    36 min
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About

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.

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