Surviving MK-Ultra | The Anchormen w/ Matt Gaetz & Pearson Sharp

Summary

Matt Gaetz and Pearson Sharp interview Dr. Juliette Engel, who describes herself as a survivor of the CIA’s MK-Ultra program. The hosts introduce MK-Ultra as a Cold War-era government program that sought to use torture and psychological manipulation to create spies or assassins.

Engel says she was selected as a child because she was intelligent and attractive, and alleges that her family sold her to people involved in the program when she was six. She recounts sexual abuse, coercion, drugging, and efforts to condition her through dissociation.

Engel also makes extraordinary claims about the program’s scope and methods, including psychic abilities, time travel, and links between intelligence work and Satanic groups. She alleges that children were trained to seduce and blackmail adults, including at parties in Laurel Canyon, and says she was prepared for espionage in the Soviet Union. These are Engel’s accounts and assertions; the interview does not independently verify them. The hosts express sympathy and some skepticism, particularly about the time-travel claims, while generally treating her story as credible.

Engel says she escaped at 17, eventually attended the University of Washington, graduated at the top of her medical-school class, and became a radiologist. She describes recovering memories of her childhood after becoming a mother, and says the experience left her with gaps in her memory and lasting distress.

The conversation then turns to her work in Russia. Engel recounts traveling there around the end of the Cold War to improve maternity care, describing shortages of basic supplies and medical equipment. She says she helped train local doctors and bring equipment to hospitals. She also describes investigating child and sex trafficking, organizing information-gathering networks, and working with police and local contacts to rescue people. She claims her efforts helped save more than 70,000 people.

Engel concludes that similar abuse and experimental programs continue today, including in schools and through newer technologies. The hosts do not independently establish those allegations. They close by promoting her books, Sparky: Surviving Sex Magick and Angels Over Moscow: Life, Death, and Human Trafficking in Russia.

Presenters and Contributor

Matt Gaetz, Pearson Sharp, and guest Dr. Juliette Engel.