How We Know
The show is the friction between layers of the record — not a dramatized retelling.
Layers of the record
Each episode holds the operation up against what was written at the time, what the Agency wrote later, what investigations and the official history added, and what is still blacked out or missing:
- What the operation was
- What the Agency wrote at the time
- What they wrote later
- What investigations and the official history added
- What is still blacked out or missing
Contradictions, redactions, and missing records are part of the story. We leave them there.
What we do not do
- No invented dialogue, scenes, or connective facts
- Contemporaneous papers are never merged with later histories as if they were the same layer
- Redactions stay redacted — we do not fill the black bars with guesses
- Every factual claim on air and in the show notes traces to a cited document or credible source
Editorial judgment
Production is AI-assisted under human editorial oversight. Hosts Elliot and Nora are AI-voiced. Research, scripting, voices, and assembly use AI tools; what goes on air is still a human call. The files are real; we do not invent archives or fake citations.
What the files don’t settle
Every episode ends with a short section under that heading: the questions the documents leave open, the papers that are missing, the numbers that disagree. Season 1 closes with a chapter of the same name — a pass across the season’s unsettled points, not a tidy verdict.
Season 1 · What the Files Don’t Settle →
Show notes
Each episode page is a sourced essay with full citations (titles, dates, record numbers, Reading Room pointers) and that unsettled section. The essay is the same substance as the show notes that ship with the audio.