Mystery on the Rocks

Our favourite game returns! Sooz treats us to another bundle of VHS tapes found on eBay as Masud and Chris must guess which videos lie within by asking the right questions and strategically using three lifelines along the way. Does Chris retain his undefeated streak? Or does Masud run away with the victory for the first time? And are there any guesses as bad as 'La Bamba'? ______ An exclusive exte...

Enjoy this a day earlier than usual since England are playing their first game of this World Cup TODAY because - that's right - the World Cup is here and, with it, Sooz's impassioned feature-length deep-dive into the psychological issues of England's Golden Generation and the impact it had on their 2006 World Cup performance. Big into football? You'll love this. Not into football at all? Neither a...

Sooz's One Hit Wonders are back and this time she teaches us all about The Big Bopper's 1958 smash hit Chantilly Lace. Who was Mr Bopper? And is this the most tragic of the One Hit Wonders so far? ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free video version of this episode with bonus extra chat can be found over at our Patreon ! Extended episodes drop over there usually 3-7 days early and with zero ads so...

Sooz takes the lead for the foreseeable and kicks off our post-MKUltra season with a super incisive look at the events of one of the 20th Century's most defining incidents. What happened, what caused it and just what the hell is Groucho Marx doing here? Just some of the questions answered in Sooz's deep-dive into the Wall Street Crash... ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free video version of this...

From 1953 to 1973, the CIA carried out a massive operation, the ripples of which are still felt today and the extent of which is, frankly, unthinkable. Coming as a reaction to the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War 2, MK Ultra contained over 100 subprojects which took in drug smuggling and drug testing plus unethical and illegal human experimentation, both on military personnel and civilians...

Our MK Ultra series comes to a close with a look at ongoing court cases, alleged subjects and attempts to seek justice over the years. While justice is yet to be served, could a current court case offer some light at the end of the tunnel? ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free version of this episode with almost 15 minutes of bonus extra chat about stuff such as the Great Storm of 1987, Cora vs Re...

In 1973, director of the CIA Richard Helms orders all records of MKUltra destroyed and the project is wound down. Nonetheless, thanks to a report by the New York Times, a couple of years later some of what the CIA got up to came to light, kickstarting a slow trickle of information being exposed to the public... But what is the Mosaic Effect and how does it stand in the way of justice? ______ An ex...

Our MK Ultra series continues with one of the more eccentric subprojects... Known as Operation Midnight Climax, the lengths the CIA begin to go to when dosing unsuspecting American citizens with various drugs reach new, seedy lows... ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free version of this episode with over 10 minutes of bonus extra content including more Limp Bizkit stuff, more beat-em-up chat, thou...

This chapter of our ongoing MK Ultra series is all about MK CHICKWIT! Not only the most fun-named of the MK Ultra subprojects, but also what sounds like the most fun full stop. Spy games! Espionage! Gap year! And did MK Chickwit change the 20th Century more than we might have thought? ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free version of this episode with over 5 minutes of bonus extra chat can be found...

Owing to lots of stupid stuff, our MK Ultra series will be back next week with Part 7 but for this week please enjoy an excerpt from a recent Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. You can hear the full 97 minute bumper bonus episode over on our Patreon , where episodes drop a week early in extended, ad-free form. Which means, that's right, an extended version of next week's Part 7 of our MK Ultra serie...

When MK Ultra was given the greenlight, Sidney Gottlieb enlisted Donald Ewen Cameron (Part IV's hypocritical psychiatrist) and renowned pharmacologist Harris Isbell, director of research at Addiction Research Center. Having already studied the effects of certain drugs, Isbell was clearly the right man for the MK Ultra job. But where his methods also questionable enough to qualify? ______ An exclus...

The episode Sooz has been waiting for! For the fifth instalment of our MK Ultra series we sidestep ever so slightly to take a look at the life of prominent Nazi Rudolf Hess and how it intersected with (and maybe even inspired) the CIA's diabolical experiments of the 1950s and 60s. But in addition to these crossovers with our ongoing story, Hess and his life were cuckoo bananas so strap in! And exa...

Part 4 of our MK Ultra series introduces us to Donald Ewen Cameron, a psychiatrist of world renown whom Sidney Gottlieb recruited to MK Ultra. Born in Scotland, Cameron made huge waves in setting up mental health services in Canada before settling in America where he found himself enlisted to psychoanalyse some real bad dudes. However, his ideas to fight the evils of the 20th Century were (at best...

Our trawl through the CIA's appalling MK Ultra project takes in the stories of two men - bacteriologist Frank Olson and professional tennis player Harold Blauer. Both men were born in 1910 and both died in 1953. But how and why? And what are their links to our ongoing story? ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free version of this episode with over 15 minutes of bonus extra chat about all manner of t...

This week we chart the shifting from Project Artichoke to MK Ultra following the appointment of Allen Dulles to Director of Central Intelligence and his hiring of Sidney Gottlieb to bring da scienz to Project Artichoke. Alongside these two rotten eggs, we discuss the very tangible link from the Nazis' horrific experiments and what MK Ultra would ultimately be responsible for in two equally rotten...

This week we begin a brand new series looking at something we've been wanting to cover on the show for a long, long time... Project MK Ultra! One of the most heinous operations the CIA ever did... THAT WE KNOW OF, RIGHT GUYS? We lay out a broad overview of what MK Ultra actually was, discuss the nature of conspiracy theories and what the existence of MK Ultra has meant for them going forward plus...

This week's episode is, as threatened, us attempting a commentary. Specifically, a commentary on the 1977 'Leap in the Dark' episode called 'The Fetch' which claims to dramatise the Emilie Sagee story we covered last week. Does it do the tale justice? And how many famous faces can we spot in it? If you wanted to watch along with us then the full episode of 'The Fetch' can be found (or watched with...

This week we're looking at the creepy story of schoolteacher Emilie Sagee who, while teaching in a school in what is now Latvia in the mid-19th century, became the centre of a terrifying ghost story. Seemingly able to be in two different places at once, stories of Emilie soon spread around the school, ultimately culminating in two of her being seen in the same place at the same time... But what re...

Happy New Year you filthy animals! Have the best day, the best year and what better way to see in 2026 than by listening to us play what could be argued to be the toughest bundle of VHSes Sooz has ever tasked us with guessing! ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free version of this episode can be found over at our Patreon ! Extended episodes drop over there usually 2-3 days early and with zero ads s...

It's the Mystery on the Rocks Christmas Special and Sooz is back with a festive edition of her occasional One Hit Wonders series, this time looking at the Christmas No. 1 of 1980 - There's No One Quite Like Grandma by St. Winifred's School Choir. And along the way we learn about how the Christmas Number One even became a thing in the UK. Merry Christmas all! ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free v...

In 1983, 5 KFC employees in Kilgore, Texas were abducted by armed robbers and executed in a truly horrific crime. A crime which went unsolved for over 2 decades, before 2 arrests were made. However, the case continued to confound investigators with DNA evidence of a third perpetrator they could not identify... And the latest development is startingly recent. ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free v...

On November 17th 1978 something horrific happened to 4 employees finishing their shift at the Burger Chef restaurant in Speedway, Indiana. A robbery or pre-meditated murder? And just how badly did the police screw up this time? ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free version of this episode with almost 20 minutes of bonus extra chat about all manner of things can be found over at our Patreon ! Exten...

Last week's episode was our 200th 'proper' one. Yes, the counting got weird at some point so we're not entirely sure but the current numbering convention has Dr No Legs as our 200th episode. So we had a little relax and did a chilled hostful episode like boardgames on the last day of term. ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free version of this episode with almost 15 minutes of bonus extra chat abou...

This is the story of how a 21st Century Cornish surgeon had his legs amputated below the knees... But went to jail for it. Masud couldn't join us for this one so join Chris and Sooz as they simultaneously laugh at an amputee while kink-shaming him. But don't worry, in as woke a way as possible. ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free version of this episode with almost 20 minutes of bonus extra chat...

Jack Wheeler, a US Army veteran and aide to several US Presidential administrations, was found dead in mysterious circumstances on New Year's Eve 2010. We piece together his strange last days to see if there's even a smidgen of a clue as to what happened... ______ An exclusive extended, ad-free version of this episode with almost 20 minutes of bonus extra chat about all manner of things, including...