These are the real Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—if you believe the Shellshock legend. In 1973, beneath New York, a reclusive scientist named Dr. Howard Crane allegedly led a program to create amphibious soldiers for chemical and urban warfare. The story says four kidnapped boys were altered with reptilian cell lines, growth accelerants, and neuro-enhancers. The results became codenames: Leo (reflex), Ralph (strength), Mikey (hearing), Don (intelligence). They weren’t heroes. They were specimens—caged, tested, collared.
One night, the tale goes, Don hacked the control terminal from his cell. Collars went dead. Ralph tore steel. Leo slipped through gunfire. Mikey’s scream shattered glass and alarms. Don sealed exits behind them. By dawn, the lab was a maze of bent doors, cracked panes, and silent collars on concrete.
This episode critiques the legend vs. record: why weaponized-child stories cling to pop icons, how acronyms and codenames feel like proof, and what happens when an origin myth is darker than the franchise it shadows. No verdicts—just the images that remain: a flickering corridor, a terminal blinking UNLOCKED, and four names that sound too familiar to ignore.
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Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.