Crime World
Episode 1361: Havana Syndrome: the mysterious disease targeting the CIA (Part 2)
23 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is Havana Syndrome and how does it affect CIA spies?
Those on the other side who are incredibly senior, incredibly experienced, just saying there are huge consequences of pointing the finger here geopolitically. And the people who feel like they're on the front line of this and who are the targets for whom this is just not happening fast enough. You know, that people on the ground are in danger. You're not moving quickly enough.
And you can kind of see it from both sides, I think.
Chapter 2: Is there evidence supporting the reality of Havana Syndrome?
I'm Nicola Tallent and this is Crime World, a podcast about criminals, drugs and the sins of the underworld. If you like this podcast and want to learn more about crime, go to our new website www.crimeworld.com for stories, extras and podcast subscriber specials. A mystery syndrome strikes down CIA spies working in Cuba. But is Havana syndrome real or imagined?
And what does patient zero have to say about his treatment by the agency he once worked for?
Chapter 3: What did patient zero reveal about his experience with Havana Syndrome?
Reports this month suggest that the Biden administration purchased an energy weapon suspected of being similar to one which may have caused the series of mystery ailments. But what is fact and what is fiction when it comes to Havana syndrome? And what did podcasters Jennifer Ford and Sam Bungie discover when they took a deep dive into a world of shadows and secrets?
Today, I'm talking to Jennifer and Sam about their latest series, Havana Helmet Club, a fascinating new podcast from the couple behind West Cork. You're listening to Crime World, a podcast from crimeworld.com.
Chapter 4: What role does the Biden administration play in addressing Havana Syndrome?
So he experiences this noise and starts to have the reactions to it, but he's also being kind of followed, put under surveillance. You've got that dual aspect of paranoia and, you know, Havana syndrome, whether you believe it or not. Yeah. At what point does he report that and when does it start to become a thing?
Well, he starts speaking to other people.
Chapter 5: How did the investigation into Havana Syndrome evolve over time?
And it turns out that other people, he's the first guy to report it. So it happens to him, a strange kind of debilitating noise and sensation. The next day, he goes straight to the embassy. But he says he wasn't really making too much of it. He just thought this thing happened, I should report it.
Chapter 6: What are the symptoms and criteria for diagnosing Havana Syndrome?
But in conversations, it turns out that other people had experienced something similar. Previously, they just hadn't reported it. They had initially thought it sounded like crickets, a sort of deafening sound of crickets on their porch. But then there were a couple of people that it happened to them at the same time and they were kind of listening.
I mean, you can kind of a bit like parallel experience to Sam listening to it on Twitter.
Chapter 7: How do medical professionals view the legitimacy of Havana Syndrome?
You can imagine them kind of at dusk on their porch, listening to the crickets and thinking, is that? Is that something mechanical in there? And I think that they weren't sure and they put it down to crickets, but it was this kind of idea of people comparing notes and thinking that happened to me and then I had weird sensations. Maybe there's something going on.
But the unique thing about Adam and his position was that he wasn't a diplomat.
Chapter 8: What conclusions can be drawn about the impact of Havana Syndrome on diplomatic relations?
He was also this other guy with this three years of training at the CIA's training facilities. He knew what he was up to, and he was also facing this increasing, intensifying surveillance and harassment. So in those weeks before he heard this thing in his apartment,
One evening he'd come home and all his clothes were out of his wardrobe and they were bundled up in the corner of the room and someone had urinated on them. And another time he was driving down the Malacca towards the coastline
And he's like suddenly realizes there's no one else on the road and then someone comes out and sideswipes him and runs him off the road and he has to change two of his tires. And then once he starts going around talking to other kind of operatives, I guess, not just CIA, but, you know, US government, not just diplomats in Havana, like Jennifer says, those guys comparing notes say,
Yeah, my wife had scorpions. So he puts it immediately in that context. And so when he goes to speak to the ambassador the following morning after this first thing, he's saying, he doesn't make a big deal out of it, but he is saying, there's all this harassment going on. There's more than...
even used to happen in the 80s, and also they're doing this strange new thing that I don't really know what it is, but it seems bad kind of thing.
Yeah, it fits into that pattern.
Yeah, but once he reports it, it's unstoppable from that moment, whether or not it's... Whatever you think about it, it's sort of in that mixture, like Jennifer said, of all these forces. It's unstoppable from that moment on. Although... He is just this fly in the ointment. He will not let it go.
And when do people start reporting it from other parts of the world, not just Cuba? Is it the publicity around it as well?
It does happen after that. Yeah.
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