The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves

Investigators in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie are asking the public to focus closely on three specific windows of time: Jan. 11, Jan. 24 and the early morning hours of Feb. 1.
 
In this episode of “The Truth of the Matter” podcast with Natasha Zouves, genetic genealogist CeCe Moore explains why identifying a second location could be critical in the Nancy Guthrie case — and what investigators may still be searching for right now. Moore and her team have helped solve more than 300 cases using investigative genetic genealogy, a technique many hope will eventually lead to a breakthrough in the Guthrie investigation.
 
In this episode, Moore describes how she cracked a more than 30‑year‑old cold case in a matter of hours, identifying the man who murdered 12‑year‑old Michella Welch in a park near her Tacoma home. Moore says cases like that show how quickly genetic genealogy can move once investigators have the right DNA lead — one reason she believes the same kind of breakthrough remains possible in the search for Nancy Guthrie.
 
In this episode, she explains:
• Why investigators may need to identify a second location tied to the Nancy Guthrie case.
• How genetic genealogy can move quickly once the right DNA profile exists.
• How she solved the Michella Welch cold case in a matter of hours.
• How the public can help by uploading their DNA to databases investigators can access and are permitted to use.
 
Watch the podcast episode here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFrJEErC8Fc&list=PL6PrA6lo8rJIaFbc0VZfFz4xcY8d6vaR6
 
Follow the podcast on IG: https://www.instagram.com/truthofthematterpod/
 
The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves isn’t just another podcast — it’s a fight to uncover what powerful institutions want hidden. From secret human experiments the government carried out on unsuspecting citizens to toxic cover-ups poisoning communities, Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalist Natasha Zouves brings you the stories people in power don’t want told.
Each week, we expose evidence buried in archives, amplify the voices of those who’ve been silenced, and hold the powerful accountable. From radioactive “oatmeal experiments” on children, to cancer causing chemicals destroying farms, to veterans erased from history — these are the stories that matter.
This is journalism that refuses to look away. The Truth of the Matter is about transparency, and justice for the people left behind.
 
You can find “The Truth of the Matter” wherever you listen to your podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-of-the-matter-with-natasha-zouves/id1804707066
https://open.spotify.com/show/2iQ85VHlMmBfLBaTtSp8tF
 
 
Connect with host Natasha Zouves

An 84-year-old woman disappears from her home, blood found on the doorstep. Foreign DNA is discovered inside the house, but it’s a mixed sample. And more than a month later, investigators still don’t have a suspect.
 
In this episode of “The Truth of the Matter Podcast,” Natasha Zouves sits down with one of the most prominent genetic genealogists in the world, CeCe Moore, the forensic expert who has helped solve more than 300 cases using DNA. Moore breaks down what investigators are really dealing with in the Nancy Guthrie disappearance, and why the DNA evidence may be far more complicated than the public realizes.
 
Among the revelations in this interview:
• Moore believes the technology needed to separate the mixed DNA sample may not exist yet
• Why police cannot simply search the largest 23andMe or Ancestry databases
• The loophole investigators used in the Bryan Kohberger / Idaho murders case that no longer exists
• Why Moore believes investigators should re-swab the Guthrie home right now 
•And why she believes the case could turn on the discovery of a second crime scene
 
Investigative genetic genealogy helped identify the Golden State Killer and helped lead police to Bryan Kohberger in the Idaho student murders. Moore believes genetic genealogy will solve this case — and talks about the path to get there.
 
Watch the podcast episode here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9ZVEOWc9q0&list=PL6PrA6lo8rJIaFbc0VZfFz4xcY8d6vaR6&index=2
 
Follow the podcast on IG: https://www.instagram.com/truthofthematterpod/
 
The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves isn’t just another podcast — it’s a fight to uncover what powerful institutions want hidden. From secret human experiments the government carried out on unsuspecting citizens to toxic cover-ups poisoning communities, Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalist Natasha Zouves brings you the stories people in power don’t want told.
Each week, we expose evidence buried in archives, amplify the voices of those who’ve been silenced, and hold the powerful accountable. From radioactive “oatmeal experiments” on children, to cancer causing chemicals destroying farms, to veterans erased from history — these are the stories that matter.
This is journalism that refuses to look away. The Truth of the Matter is about transparency, and justice for the people left behind.
 
You can find “The Truth of the Matter” wherever you listen to your podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-of-the-matter-with-natasha-zouves/id1804707066
https://open.spotify.com/show/2iQ85VHlMmBfLBaTtSp8tF
 
 
Connect with host Natasha Zouves

For Paul Cotter, being a firefighter wasn’t a job, it was a calling. Nearly three decades of running toward danger, including a three-alarm fire where he broke through two doors and crawled into an inferno to save a man trapped on the third floor.
Then came a phone call from his doctor. Cancer.
His wife, Diane Cotter, says she screamed when she found out. And she says, as Paul began to slip further and further away, one question haunted her: how does this happen to someone so healthy?
Diane knew the risks everyone associates with firefighting: smoke, toxins and diesel exhaust. But she had also seen the numbers: cancer is now the leading cause of line-of-duty death for firefighters. And she couldn’t shake the feeling there was more to the story.
So, she went to the basement and pulled out Paul’s turnout gear, the uniform designed to protect him. What she noticed stopped her cold: the material was especially degraded in one specific area.
Diane cut small samples from the gear and sent them to a researcher at the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Graham Peaslee. When the results came back, Diane says she was floored.
In this episode of The Truth of the Matter, Diane Cotter joins Natasha Zouves to tell the story of what she found, why she went public, and what it could mean for firefighters across the country.
 
 
Watch the podcast episode here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ1UvkRP9SA&list=PL6PrA6lo8rJIaFbc0VZfFz4xcY8d6vaR6
 
READ the Growing Broke Forever Chemicals Investigation: 
https://www.newsnationnow.com/prime/pfas-forever-chemicals-sludge-farmers/
 
Watch the full Growing Broke documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIdCgjDoB1U
 
Follow the podcast on IG: https://www.instagram.com/truthofthematterpod/
 
The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves isn’t just another podcast — it’s a fight to uncover what powerful institutions want hidden. From secret human experiments the government carried out on unsuspecting citizens to toxic cover-ups poisoning communities, Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalist Natasha Zouves brings you the stories people in power don’t want told.
Each week, we expose evidence buried in archives, amplify the voices of those who’ve been silenced, and hold the powerful accountable. From radioactive “oatmeal experiments” on children, to cancer causing chemicals destroying farms, to veterans erased from history — these are the stories that matter.
This is journalism that refuses to look away. The Truth of the Matter is about transparency, and justice for the people left behind.
 
You can find “The Truth of the Matter” wherever you listen to your podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-of-the-matter-with-natasha-zouves/id1804707066
https://open.spotify.com/show/2iQ85VHlMmBfLBaTtSp8tF
 
 
Connect with host Natasha Zouves

There’s a 97% chance "Forever Chemicals" are already inside your body — and most Americans have no idea how they got there. In this follow-up episode of The Truth of the Matter Podcast, Natasha Zouves revisits the "Forever Chemical Scandal" with Scott Faber, senior vice president at the Environmental Working Group, to examine what’s changed since the documentary aired — and what hasn’t. We dig into:
Why PFAS are still found in our drinking water and food — so ubiquitous it now taints all the rainwater on earth
Whether EPA drinking-water limits are being strengthened or rolled back
How sewage sludge spread PFAS onto farmland, forcing farmers to euthanize animals and dump contaminated milk
And why firefighters and military communities show some of the highest PFAS levels in their blood
What you can do to protect yourself and your family from forever chemicals
This conversation goes beyond the headlines to the paper trail: who developed PFAS, who profited, and how long the risks to human health were known. As Scott Faber points out, these chemicals are called “forever” for a reason. The question is whether accountability will ever catch up.
 
Watch the podcast episode here https://youtu.be/0j6-DPLLaow?si=XG-vskZQZUq4cMyu
 
READ the Growing Broke Investigation: 
https://www.newsnationnow.com/prime/pfas-forever-chemicals-sludge-farmers/
 
Watch the full Growing Broke documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIdCgjDoB1U
 
Follow the podcast on IG: https://www.instagram.com/truthofthematterpod/
 
The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves isn’t just another podcast — it’s a fight to uncover what powerful institutions want hidden. From secret human experiments the government carried out on unsuspecting citizens to toxic cover-ups poisoning communities, Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalist Natasha Zouves brings you the stories people in power don’t want told.
Each week, we expose evidence buried in archives, amplify the voices of those who’ve been silenced, and hold the powerful accountable. From radioactive “oatmeal experiments” on children, to cancer causing chemicals destroying farms, to veterans erased from history — these are the stories that matter.
This is journalism that refuses to look away. The Truth of the Matter is about transparency, and justice for the people left behind.
 
You can find “The Truth of the Matter” wherever you listen to your podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-of-the-matter-with-natasha-zouves/id1804707066
https://open.spotify.com/show/2iQ85VHlMmBfLBaTtSp8tF
 
 
Connect with host Natasha Zouves

What was supposed to be a short hospital stay turned into a nightmare that would follow one family for generations.
 
41-year-old Janet Stadt entered a hospital in Rochester, New York, seeking treatment for an ulcer. She never consented to becoming a human test subject. Yet in 1946, doctors secretly injected her with plutonium — a radioactive element used to build atomic bombs — to study how it behaved inside the human body.
 
Stadt was one of at least 18 Americans injected with plutonium during the early days of the Cold War, when scientists were racing to understand the effects of nuclear materials on humans. Just a little over five feet tall, she received the highest dose of all the test subjects. The plutonium remained in her body for the rest of her life, causing crippling pain and unexplained illness. For decades, Stadt suffered repeated cancers and extreme medical complications. Her family was never told the truth. Her family now says they suspected she was a hypochondriac, or “making it all up” until years later, when a mysterious box arrived on her grandson Jon Stadt’s doorstep, revealing what had really happened.
 
In this episode of "The Truth of the Matter," investigative journalist Natasha Zouves sits down with Jon Stadt to uncover the hidden history of America’s secret human radiation experiments — and the devastating personal toll they left behind.
 
Watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSmK1GKAuWo&list=PL6PrA6lo8rJIaFbc0VZfFz4xcY8d6vaR6&index=1
 
Follow the podcast on IG: https://www.instagram.com/truthofthematterpod/
 
The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves isn’t just another podcast — it’s a fight to uncover what powerful institutions want hidden. From secret human experiments the government carried out on unsuspecting citizens to toxic cover-ups poisoning communities, Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalist Natasha Zouves brings you the stories people in power don’t want told.
Each week, we expose evidence buried in archives, amplify the voices of those who’ve been silenced, and hold the powerful accountable. From radioactive “oatmeal experiments” on children, to cancer causing chemicals destroying farms, to veterans erased from history — these are the stories that matter.
This is journalism that refuses to look away. The Truth of the Matter is about transparency, and justice for the people left behind.
 
Connect with host Natasha Zouves
 
WATCH the St. Louis investigation part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7_-G_q3wEc&t=1s
 
WATCH the St. Louis investigation part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upYvUe6hWEk&t=817s
 
READ the full St. Louis investigation: https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/military/did-government-poison-st-louis/
 
You can find “The Truth of the Matter” wherever you listen to your podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-of-the-matter-with-natasha-zouves/id1804707066
https://open.spotify.com/show/2iQ85VHlMmBfLBaTtSp8tF
 
This podcast is put together by:
Ryan Kerr
Allie Purser
Mia Balbin-Cuesta
Kate Lindermann
Richard Bodee
Natasha Zouves
 
 
 
 
Connect with host Natasha Zouves

MKUltra: A top-secret CIA program born in the Cold War, built around terrifying questions: can you control a human being? Can you delete and insert memories, break a mind, or make a person bend to your will?
In this episode of The Truth of the Matter, Natasha Zouves sits down with Michael Evans of the National Security Archive — a man so committed to transparency he has spent his career hunting down, declassifying, and analyzing thousands of government records to reconstruct what the public was never meant to see.
We dig into what MKUltra was designed to do, and what it became: experiments with drugs like LSD, psychological manipulation, and an especially chilling tactic the agency saw as useful: “discrediting” — making someone appear unstable, unreliable, even “insane.” The rabbit hole goes all the way to covert plots targeting world leaders like Fidel Castro, including ideas that sound like Hollywood until you see them in black and white.
Listen to the full conversation and decide for yourself: where does national security end, and abuse of power begin?
 
The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves isn’t just another podcast — it’s a fight to uncover what powerful institutions want hidden. From secret human experiments the government carried out on unsuspecting citizens to toxic cover-ups poisoning communities, Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalist Natasha Zouves brings you the stories people in power don’t want told.
 
We expose evidence buried in archives, amplify the voices of those who’ve been silenced, and hold the powerful accountable. From radioactive “oatmeal experiments” on children, to cancer causing chemicals destroying farms, to veterans erased from history — these are the stories that matter.
 
This is journalism that refuses to look away. The Truth of the Matter is about transparency, and justice for the people left behind.
 
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthofthematterpod/
 
Connect with host Natasha Zouves:
 
https://www.instagram.com/natashazouves/
 
https://www.tiktok.com/@natashazouves
 
https://www.facebook.com/natashanzouves/
 
 

They served in silence at one of the most secretive military ranges in America. Now they say they’re dying in the shadows — because the government still won’t acknowledge they were there.
 
An update now on the Area 51 Veterans: Congress quietly killed the one fix that could have helped them prove where they served and get the care they say they’ve earned.
 
These men and women served on the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), home to the site known globally as Area 51. Now many are battling rare cancers. But because their service is still classified and “data-masked,” they say the VA can’t verify an service connect their illnesses — and their claims stall.
 
After our reporting, Section 1066 was added to the Senate’s defense bill as their clearest path forward. Then, behind closed doors, it vanished from the final NDAA.
 
Dave Crete says the message from House leadership was simple: “You’re not that important.” He believes the government is trying to wait them out — as the memorial list grows from 446 names to 527.
 
Now they’re turning directly to President Trump, asking for an executive order. “This problem could be fixed with one beautiful signature,” Crete says. “Mr. President, we need your help.”
 
In this new conversation with Air Force veteran Dave Crete, he breaks down what happened, what Congress removed, what language made it into the final bill, and why the veterans say they don’t have time to wait until 2027.
 
The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves isn’t just another podcast — it’s a fight to uncover what powerful institutions want hidden. From secret human experiments the government carried out on unsuspecting citizens to toxic cover-ups poisoning communities, Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalist Natasha Zouves brings you the stories people in power don’t want told.
 
We expose evidence buried in archives, amplify the voices of those who’ve been silenced, and hold the powerful accountable. From radioactive “oatmeal experiments” on children, to cancer causing chemicals destroying farms, to veterans erased from history — these are the stories that matter.
 
This is journalism that refuses to look away. The Truth of the Matter is about transparency, and justice for the people left behind.
 
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthofthematterpod/
 
Connect with host Natasha Zouves:
 
https://www.instagram.com/natashazouves/
 
https://www.tiktok.com/@natashazouves
 
https://www.facebook.com/natashanzouves/
 
 
WATCH the original NewsNation Area 51 Investigation
READ the full Area 51 Investigation
WATCH our original podcast episode with Dave Crete, where he describes the secret missions on the range

Imagine being 20, pregnant, and your doctor hands you a “vitamin drink.” You trust them. You drink it. Decades later you find out…it was radioactive.
 
This happened at a prestigious American university clinic, to real women with real babies. And some of those children never made it past childhood.
 
In this new episode of The Truth of the Matter Podcast, Natasha Zouves speaks with attorney Donald Arbitblit, who helped the women of the Vanderbilt case fight back. He covers:
 
• how they finally discovered they’d been experimented on
• what happened to their children
• and what this says about how much we still don’t know about human experiments in this country
 
If you’ve ever been told “it was a different time” or “just trust the system,” I really want you to hear this conversation.
 
Watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnrd2XSnpUs...
Follow the podcast on IG: https://www.instagram.com/truthofthematterpod/
 
The Truth of the Matter with Natasha Zouves isn’t just another podcast — it’s a fight to uncover what powerful institutions want hidden. From secret human experiments the government carried out on unsuspecting citizens to toxic cover-ups poisoning communities, Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalist Natasha Zouves brings you the stories people in power don’t want told.
Each week, we expose evidence buried in archives, amplify the voices of those who’ve been silenced, and hold the powerful accountable. From radioactive “oatmeal experiments” on children, to cancer causing chemicals destroying farms, to veterans erased from history — these are the stories that matter.
This is journalism that refuses to look away. The Truth of the Matter is about transparency, and justice for the people left behind.
 
Connect with host Natasha Zouves
 
WATCH the St. Louis investigation part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7_-G_q3wEc&t=1s
 
WATCH the St. Louis investigation part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upYvUe6hWEk&t=817s
 
READ the full St. Louis investigation: https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/military/did-government-poison-st-louis/
 
You can find “The Truth of the Matter” wherever you listen to your podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-of-the-matter-with-natasha-zouves/id1804707066
https://open.spotify.com/show/2iQ85VHlMmBfLBaTtSp8tF
 
This podcast is put together by:
Ryan Kerr
Mia Balbin-Cuesta
Allie Purser
Natasha Zouves
 
 
 
 
Connect with host Natasha Zouves