Transmissions From Jonestown
by The Attention Span Recovery Project
On November 18, 1978, in Jonestown, Guyana, over 900 people died in one of the largest mass murder-suicides in modern history. Locked deep within an FBI vault, the audio tapes documenting the rise and fall of Peoples Temple were sealed away until they were finally made public more than 20 years later. From Jim Jones' shadowy beginnings as a faith healer to the final, tragic night when his devoted followers drank cyanide laced Flavor Aid, Transmissions from Jonestown pieces together the story of a movement that spiraled into catastrophe.Transmissions from Jonestown is a true crime podcast and investigative audio documentary that exposes the untold story of Peoples Temple and the Jonestown tragedy using rare archival recordings, interviews with survivors, and original research. More than the story of a cult, this is an important chapter of American history that challenges everything we thought we knew about power, belief, and the cost of blind devotion.
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Episodes
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Episode 21 Sunday Service Liar's Communion
Jim Jones had a gift for recognizing and cultivating a person's capacity for magical thinking or the belief that unrelated events are connected by invisible, supernatural threads. Those who followed Jim Jones surrendered their will, believing that, whatever Father was planning, he had the power…
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Episode 20 Sunday Service Leave Room for the Holy Ghost
The paranormal healing ministry drew new members to Peoples Temple with Jim Jones' promises of supernatural support for the cause. The divine gifts physically took a toll on Jim Jones as he felt the sickness and pain of others pass through his own body as he healed them. To keep the miracles...
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Episode 19 Sunday Service Hands Clasped
Welcome to the Sunday Service, a 3-part immersive experience exploring Jim Jones' paranormal ministry and the mystery of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. Your first visit to Peoples Temple will involve a profound, life changing, spiritual experience of the paranormal variety. The blind shall…
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Episode 18 Where there's smoke
Denise was three years old when her family joined Peoples Temple. Like so many early childhood memories, obscured by the lenses of time, Denise's recollections are vivid emotional snapshots that paint a portrait of Jim Jones and Temple life rarely seen, one that complicates the narrative shaped…
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Episode 17 He's Able
Music was often peoples first, and last impression of Peoples Temple. From the moment you walked into a temple service, the music created a certain atmosphere. The voices of the choir lifted the spirits of the congregants, electrifying the audience. In 1973 the temple recorded the gospel funk…
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Episode 16 MK United
In the charged atmosphere of the mid-1960s, Jim Jones moved Peoples Temple westward, seeking a new beginning in California's radical counter cultural awakening. In Redwood Valley Jim Jones embedded himself within an obscure communal sect called the Church of the Golden Rule, an offshoot of…
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Episode 15 The Nuclear Family
Long before Jonestown, Jim Jones was preaching a prophecy of nuclear annihilation down to the exact minute it would begin. In this episode, we trace how Cold War hysteria, doomsday visions, and a now-infamous article in Esquire magazine led Jones from Indiana to Brazil, chasing fallout-free…
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Episode 14 Evangelical Profit
I believe in Jim Jones. Many of you have seen the photograph. An elderly woman dressed in her Sunday best with a resolute, if not revolutionary sparkle in her eye. But what did Jim Jones believe? Jim Jones, the pied piper of lies, will forever be remembered as the self-proclaimed prophet who led...
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Episode 13 God's Highway
True crime history is full of shadows, but none darker than those cast by Jim Jones. In this episode of Transmissions from Jonestown, we revisit California in the years before the massacre, where a troubling question lingers: Was Jim Jones connected to a series of mysterious deaths long before…
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Episode 12 Hill Of Dreamers
41 years ago today, the Jonestown massacre claimed the lives of 918 Americans. When the people of Jonestown died, their bodies remained where they fell for four days. Sprayed with pesticides and sealed in military-issued body bags, their remains were flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for...
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Episode 11 Ockham's Razor, Solving The Mystery Of Q875
In the chaotic aftermath of the Jonestown massacre, one artifact continues to defy explanation: Tape Q875, the so-called "November 19 mystery tape." Discovered among hundreds of recordings recovered from the scene, Q875 is unique as it appears to have been recorded after the mass murder-suicide...
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Episode 10 Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself
40 years ago, 918 Americans died in the largest mass murder/suicide in modern history. Defined by the last day of their lives, the people of Jonestown became a part of true crime lore, overshadowed by their charismatic leader Jim Jones. We all know how the Peoples Temple died, but how did they...
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Episode 9 Q875, Is It Too Late For Russia?
In the aftermath of Jonestown, details emerged of the Temple's deepening relationship with the Soviet Union, a secret petition to emigrate, and the political paranoia that turned the settlement into a Cold War powder keg. Jim Jones promised salvation behind the Iron Curtain inviting Soviet...
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Episode 8 The Psychodelic Elephant
Truth often demands we accept coincidence as a force of nature. But what if the connections aren't coincidences at all? On this episode we follow the trail from Jonestown to MKUltra, exploring the tangled web that links Jim Jones, Patty Hearst, Jack Ruby, and Sirhan Sirhan. Was Jonestown a failed...
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Episode 7 The Electric Koolaid Acid Tests
Out of the ruins of postwar Germany, hundreds of ex-Nazi scientists were quietly recruited by the U.S. government under Operation Paperclip bringing with them the blueprint for psychological warfare. At the heart of that blueprint: MKUltra, a covert CIA program designed to explore mind control,...
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Episode 6 Apostolic Socialism
Beneath Guyana's lush canopy lies a complicated history. A land where historically, dreams of paradise spiral into madness and ruin. In this episode, we unravel the tangled roots connecting colonial violence, CIA intrigue, Cold War paranoia, with the Jonestown massacre. From the racial and...
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Episode 5 The Consequences Of Apathy
What happened to the survivors of Jonestown? In the wake of the mass suicide, the killing did not stop. This episode investigates the devastating aftermath of the Peoples Temple tragedy as we investigate the suicides, murders, and mysterious deaths that followed the survivors home. Long after the...
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Episode 4 The Death Tape
Of all the evidence recovered in the aftermath of the Jonestown massacre, one artifact confirmed the unthinkable: an audio tape found in the pavilion, surrounded by the bodies of over 900 Peoples Temple members. This 7-inch reel-to-reel recording captured the final moments as Jonestown residents...
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Episode 3 Revolutionary Suicide
Jonestown prepared for its final reckoning. Unable to postpone Congressman Leo Ryan's inquiry any longer, Jim Jones orchestrated an elaborate facade. Dinner was served, the pavilion was staged for visiting eyes, and the music of the Jonestown Express filled the air. To the congressional…
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Episode 2 Life In The Promised Land
Leading up to the release of the New West exposé Jim Jones fled to his jungle compound bringing several hundred Peoples Temple members with him. Jonestown ballooned from a small settlement to a makeshift city of over 900. As food dwindled and supplies vanished, Jones's voice echoed day and night...
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Episode 1 Peoples Temple
On November 18, 1978, an entire community of United States Citizens died deep in the jungle of Guyana. At the command of their charismatic leader Reverend Jim Jones, over 900 members of the Peoples Temple agricultural project lost their lives. Some believed they were sacrificing their lives for...
About this show
On November 18, 1978, in Jonestown, Guyana, over 900 people died in one of the largest mass murder-suicides in modern history. Locked deep within an FBI vault, the audio tapes documenting the rise and fall of Peoples Temple were sealed away until they were finally made public more than 20 years later. From Jim Jones' shadowy beginnings as a faith healer to the final, tragic night when his devoted followers drank cyanide laced Flavor Aid, Transmissions from Jonestown pieces together the story of a movement that spiraled into catastrophe.Transmissions from Jonestown is a true crime podcast and investigative audio documentary that exposes the untold story of Peoples Temple and the Jonestown tragedy using rare archival recordings, interviews with survivors, and original research. More than the story of a cult, this is an important chapter of American history that challenges everything we thought we knew about power, belief, and the cost of blind devotion.
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The Attention Span Recovery Project
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