Ep. 60 | Godmother Knows Best/The Game

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Early one winter morning in Memphis, Tennessee, a mother jolted awake to the sound of footsteps running down the hallway outside of her bedroom, followed by the sound of a door slamming.

And so the mother rubbed her eyes and jumped out of bed.

And as she hurried down the hallway, she heard her teenage daughter in the bathroom groaning and vomiting.

And so she pushed open the door and found her daughter on her knees, still in her pajamas, clutching the toilet.

The mother crouched down by her daughter and held back her hair as she threw up again and again.

And then finally, the daughter stopped dretching and just collapsed on the floor and started crying.

And in between sobs, she told her mother that her whole mouth was on fire.

It was just burning with pain.

And so instinctively, the mother grabbed a cup cup and filled it with cold water and gave it to her daughter to sip on.

But as the girl tilted back the cup, the mother saw inside of her daughter's mouth and she nearly gagged.

Her daughter's entire mouth was covered in these reddish pus-covered sores.

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From Balin Studios and Wondery, I'm Mr.

Balin, and this is Mr.

Balin's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies.

So, if you like today's story, the next time the follow button invites you to their house, sneak into their kitchen, open their cutlery drawer, and slightly bend one prong on each of their forks.

As a parent, there's nothing I wouldn't do to keep my kids safe, and I'm sure every parent out there feels the same way.

It's especially hard when your kid gets really sick, though, because there's not much you can do other than listen to their doctors.

But sometimes there is something you can do.

In this episode, we have two stories about loving parents who go to extraordinary lengths to try to help their kids recover from baffling illnesses.

The first story is about a woman whose daughter is suffering from intense pain that makes it impossible for her to eat.

And the second story is about a man whose little boy has dangerously high levels of lead in his blood, and doctors have no idea why.

Here is our first story called Godmother Knows Best.

A couple weeks before Thanksgiving in 2015, a woman named Cicely Odom Rose made her way along the buffet line of a holiday potluck party, loading up her plate with a little bit of everything.

Once it was full, she carried it across the room to her 15-year-old daughter, Kennedy.

Cicely and her daughter were best friends, and they bonded over their shared loves, like parties, their tight-knit family in Memphis, and of course, great home-cooked food.

But when Cicely handed the plate of food to her daughter, Kennedy sort of waved the plate away, pointing at her jaw.

Kennedy had just gotten her braces tightened the day before, and apparently they still hurt too much for her to chew.

It would turn out both Kennedy and her mother, Cicely, had both gotten braces on their teeth at the same time back in February, but their dental journeys since then had been very different.

Cicely didn't really mind or even notice the braces very much, but Kennedy found hers totally aggravating, and every time hers were tightened, she'd be in pain for days.

Cicely handed Kennedy's plate of food to a family friend and then took a seat next to her daughter.

Cicely could see on Kennedy's face how disappointed she was.

This annual family party was something she looked forward to every year.

And so Cicely gave Kennedy a big hug and promised her she would feel better soon.

Early the next morning, Cicely awoke to Kennedy knocking on her bedroom door.

And when her daughter opened the door, she looked exhausted.

and she told Cicely that she actually had barely slept all night because her head was throbbing so badly.

Cicely grabbed a bottle of aspirin from her bedside table, shook a few pills into her hand, and gave them to Kennedy.

Cicely told her daughter to take the pills and go back to bed.

A little pain relief and rest could cure anything.

But a couple of hours later, when Cicely poked her head into her daughter's room, she found Kennedy curled on her side with a pillow over her head, and she would tell her mother that the pills hadn't helped and her headache was still pounding.

Cicely walked over to her daughter and placed the back of her hand against Kennedy's forehead forehead to see if she was burning up.

And she did feel slightly warm, but Cicely was now suddenly more worried about Kennedy's lips.

They looked swollen and inflamed.

She wondered if Kennedy might have caught some sort of bug or rash at the party.

Cicely got an ice pack from the freezer, wrapped it in a towel, and had Kennedy hold it to her lips to try to reduce the swelling.

Then she brought Kennedy some more aspirin and also fluffed up her pillows.

But as she stood to leave, Cicely's heart broke to see her daughter in so much obvious discomfort.

And so she made a mental note to plan something fun for Kennedy as soon as she was better.

But the next morning, Kennedy had not improved at all.

Cicely found her curled up in a fetal position under the covers, looking even weaker and more haggard after another bad night's sleep.

Kennedy told her mother that in addition to all these symptoms she was feeling, that at some point in the previous night, her throat had also started to hurt, and now there was a stabbing pain every time she swallowed.

And so at this point, Cicely decided enough was enough.

She helped Kennedy get dressed and then guided her out to the car and drove her to the nearest clinic.

After being shown to an exam room, a nurse gave Kennedy a checkup and swabbed her throat to run some tests.

And while they waited, Cicely held her daughter close to her chest and rocked her back and forth just like she had when she was a little girl.

Cicely couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her daughter this sick.

I mean, her daughter looked hollowed out and wrecked.

Cicely could tell that, you know, whatever this was, it couldn't be normal.

Finally, there was a knock at the door, and Kennedy's doctor came inside, and he told them he had good and bad news.

The bad news was that Kennedy had caught a bacterial infection called strep throat, which is very painful.

It's like the worst sore throat you can get.

But the good news was that if Kennedy took a few days of antibiotics, she would bounce right back.

And so the doctor scribbled out a prescription, handed it to Cicely, and then told Kennedy she would feel better soon.

But just a few days later, Cicely's car came to a stop in front of a hospital, and then she and her daughter went inside of the ER.

Cicely told the doctor on duty about Kennedy's strep throat diagnosis and how she had been taking antibiotics for a few days without any signs of improvement.

Then suddenly this morning, things went south.

Kennedy woke up vomiting from pain and sores had broken out all over the inside of her mouth.

The doctor nodded and asked Kennedy to open up her mouth.

And after she had, the doctor used a tongue depressor and flashlight and began examining the walls of her mouth and all around her tongue.

Kennedy whimpered at the touch, and then eventually, at the end of the examination, the doctor swabbed one of Kennedy's sores and handed the sample to a nurse who took it to the lab.

And then the doctor walked out of the exam room, leaving the mother and daughter alone.

As Cicely stood behind Kennedy stroking her hair, she wondered if the sores in her daughter's mouth might be some sort of complication from the antibiotics.

Kennedy had never been allergic to medication as a child, but she knew that sometimes allergies don't develop until later in life.

Either way, Cicely felt confident that the hospital would figure out what was going on with her daughter and they would get her started on the right treatment.

Eventually, the doctor returned and he told Cicely that Kennedy was still testing positive for strep throat.

However, her strep infection had nothing to do with the sores.

He said that, you know, most likely the sores were being caused by some sort of virus, but he wouldn't know for sure until they ran more tests.

In the meantime, the doctor told Cicely that he wanted to rule out more serious possibilities, namely Stevens-Johnson syndrome, which is a rare but sometimes deadly skin disease.

At hearing this, Cicely felt blindsided.

She didn't understand how an ordinary case of strep throat could have anything to do with this potentially fatal condition the doctor was talking about.

Cicely tried to keep her composure for her daughter's sake, but it was hard to act calm with news like this.

Once the doctor left the room again, Cicely whipped out her phone and called Kennedy's godmother, Tamara.

Tamara had always been a rock for Cicely's family.

She was one of those people who just always seemed to know what to do in stressful situations.

And so Cicely gripped her daughter's hand tightly as she explained to Tamara everything that had happened over the past few days.

She told Tamara that she and Kennedy really needed her help because Kennedy's journey to recovery was starting to look like a rocky road.

Three months later, Cicely sat in another hospital room watching a doctor examine Kennedy's abdomen.

She barely recognized her daughter's body anymore.

Kennedy looked skeletal and frail, having lost more than 30 pounds in the past few months.

and none of the doctors they had visited so far could figure out why.

Now, Kennedy had stopped testing positive for the strep bacteria, but her other symptoms like sore throat, swollen lips, fevers, and various mysterious aches, those hadn't gone away.

But worst of all the symptoms were the sores in Kennedy's mouth.

They had only grown more painful and more sensitive until Kennedy finally just stopped being able to eat.

Cicely had even asked Tamara to make her famous homemade chicken soup, which had always been Kennedy's favorite food, but the sores still hurt too much for her to even finish a small cup of it.

And so day after day, Cicely watched her daughter get thinner and weaker until finally it got so bad that Kennedy had to stop going to school.

She just didn't have the strength to make it through the day without going to bed.

But not seeing her friends really only deepened Kennedy's depression.

Cicely took Kennedy to every doctor and every specialist around Memphis, but they were all mystified by what could be causing her symptoms.

And so today's appointment was for an ultrasound to try to get a clearer picture of Kennedy's organs.

As the doctor moved the ultrasound wand along Kennedy's body, searching for anything unusual, Kennedy suddenly cried out in pain.

She told the doctor that the area he had just touched felt like a knife was going into her side.

The doctor quickly wheeled the ultrasound machine closer to Kennedy's bedside and then turned the screen so Cicely could see what he was seeing.

Cicely couldn't quite tell what she was looking at on the screen since the image was grainy and pixelated, but the doctor kept his eyes glued to one spot as he carefully moved the wand up and down on Kennedy's body.

Eventually, the doctor set the wand down, wiped the gel off of Kennedy's belly from the ultrasound machine, and pulled off his gloves.

He told Cicely that what he'd just seen on the ultrasound was very worrisome.

Kennedy's spleen looked very enlarged.

Since the spleen is what filters blood and fights off infections, when it's not functioning properly, then the whole body is extremely vulnerable.

Not only that, but most causes of an enlarged spleen are serious, from infections to anemia and even to certain cancers like leukemia, which affects the blood and bones.

The doctor apologized for not having better news, but it looked likely that Kennedy was up against something pretty severe.

Cicely didn't even know how to react.

She looked over at her poor daughter who looked so small and defenseless lying on the bed.

And she just couldn't understand why all these horrible things were happening to such a sweet and innocent girl.

And so once the doctor left, Cicely pulled out her phone and and hatched a new plan.

It was time to stop waiting for a miracle.

Days later, Kennedy's godmother, Tamara, knocked on the door of the Odom family home.

Tamara took her role as godmother very seriously, and she, like Cicely, had been worried sick throughout Kennedy's ordeal.

Tonight, Cicely had invited her over to discuss the whole situation and try to do some research.

When Cicely opened the door, Tamara pulled her in in for a big hug.

She could see the stress all over Cicely's face.

Tamara couldn't even imagine what it would be like to have one of her own children go through something this harrowing and sort of being helpless to stop it.

Once inside the house, Tamara went ahead and poured two big glasses of wine and then followed Cicely to her computer.

The women took turns searching medical forums for descriptions of cases that were similar to Kennedy's.

but they didn't find anything that matched.

And so eventually, Tamara asked Cicely to walk her through every detail of Kennedy's recent doctor's appointments while she made notes of everything.

Tamara had a feeling that there had to be some clue staring them right in the face about what was going on with Kennedy.

She just didn't know what it was yet.

And so before leaving, Tamara just told Cicely that she wanted to go wish Kennedy goodnight.

And so she walked down the hall, knocked softly on Kennedy's door, and then went in and took a seat on the edge of her goddaughter's bed.

And when she looked down at Kennedy, she was disturbed at how thin she looked.

The girl used to be such a vibrant teenager, but now she was like a shell of herself.

And then Tamara told Kennedy that as soon as her appetite came back, she would cook her a whole buffet of her favorite foods to try to put some meat back on her bones.

Now, Tamara didn't say that to be a joke, but Kennedy sort of laughed and cracked a smile when she said it.

But as Kennedy did, with her mouth wide open in full view of Tamara, suddenly a light bulb went off in Tamara's head.

She didn't know how she would prove this, but she thought if she was right about her theory about Kennedy, it would explain everything.

Tamara kissed Kennedy on the forehead and tucked her back in, and then slipped out the door to go share her new theory with Cicely.

Now, Cicely was skeptical.

To her, the idea was too obvious to be true.

She found it impossible to believe that all of Kennedy's doctors would have overlooked something so simple.

Tamara agreed with Cicely that it could be a long shot, but given all that Kennedy had gone through already, they owed it to her to follow every lead.

And so Cicely nodded, thanked her friend, and told Tamara she'd do some more research.

Weeks later, Cicely got a call from the hospital.

They told her that a specialist had been assigned to Kennedy's case, a Dr.

Mitchell Godat.

When Dr.

Godat had heard about Tamara's new theory that she had learned after looking at her goddaughter's mouth, it gave him an idea.

He thought Kennedy's enlarged spleen indicated an allergic reaction, so he asked Cicely to bring Kennedy back to the hospital so they could test different allergens on her skin.

And that hospital visit would accomplish what none of the others had been able to do, isolating the cause of Kennedy's symptoms.

And the cause had been staring them all in the face since day one.

When the doctors told Cicely, she was speechless.

Once again, Tamara had been right.

That night in Kennedy's bedroom, when Kennedy had sort of laughed at Tamara talking about putting meat in her bones, well, Tamara had looked down and noticed the girl's braces were reflecting in the light of the bedside lamp, which made her wonder, what if Kennedy's braces were the issue?

And so Tamara had suggested this to Cicely, and then after Tamara went home that night, Cicely thought back and realized that all of Kennedy's health problems began after her daughter's braces were put in.

And she also remembered that every time Kennedy had her braces tightened, she would complain of intense pain in her mouth, and the pain seemed to only get worse as time went on.

Cicely had mentioned this to Kennedy's orthodontist the first time it happened, but he told her that for some kids, braces are far more uncomfortable than for others, and it really was nothing to worry about.

But in fact, it was something to worry about.

It turned out Kennedy was allergic to nickel, which is what her braces were made of.

It was the strep infection that finally pushed things over the edge.

The allergy didn't give her strep throat, but the two problems combined caused Kennedy's immune system to begin attacking her body and making her much, much sicker.

That's when she started getting the headaches, the sores, and everything else.

Dr.

Godat told Cicely that her daughter's symptoms would have only worsened and intensified if they had not identified her nickel allergy.

Left untreated, her condition could have even turned fatal.

Cicely was overcome with relief.

Right away, she took Kennedy to the orthodontist and got her braces removed.

And within hours, Kennedy began feeling better.

And soon she would make a full recovery.

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One dusty summer afternoon in 2013, a man named John Lee sighed with relief as he pulled his Jeep into the driveway of his family's home in Australia.

John and his family had been on a very nice weekend getaway into the Outback to camp and hunt, but the whole drive back home had been an absolute horror show.

His eight-year-old son Mason would not stop fidgeting and talking and fighting with his siblings, and so it made the already very long drive back home feel twice as long.

The second John turned off the car, Mason flung the door open and sprinted off.

John looked over at his wife, Patty, and they shared a look of absolute exhaustion.

Mason had always been hyperactive, but lately his crazy energy had really ramped up.

His siblings basically tolerated it, but sometimes even they seemed overwhelmed by Mason's frantic dash from one thing to the next.

John got out and opened up the trunk and began unloading the car while Patty took the kids inside.

Inside the garage, John stacked the family's tents and sleeping bags and big storage tubs and then placed his shotgun and ammunition in a standing gun rack.

Finally, he carefully packed the wild geese that he'd killed into an industrial-sized freezer.

He would pluck and prepare them later for future family dinners.

Once everything was packed away, John went inside the house where his wife was in the kitchen putting away food.

Patty asked him if Mason was with him, but John told her that he had assumed the boy was inside with her.

Patty stopped unpacking and shot John a worried look.

It was never a good sign when neither of them knew what Mason was up to.

John left the kitchen to go find out what sort of hyperactive mischief his son had gotten into this time.

And he could hear the destruction even before he saw it.

He found Mason holding a hammer, completely destroying his playhouse.

And so as John stood there, shocked, surveying the wreckage, he realized this couldn't wait any longer.

Mason needed professional help.

Later that week, John sat next to his son in the lobby of a pediatrician's office, waiting for Mason's appointment.

And as they waited, Mason wouldn't stop ripping the leaves off of potted plants.

And so John just handed him a magazine to tear apart instead.

When the receptionist finally called for them, John and Mason followed a nurse down a hall and into an examination room.

Once Mason's pediatrician, who was named Dr.

Stephen Thomas, walked into the room, John explained that Mason had been acting strangely lately.

The way he played had turned aggressive.

He was now breaking his siblings' toys and riding his bike right through the neighbor's gardens.

And so now John said, you know, he and his wife were overwhelmed and they were worried that there might be something medically wrong with Mason.

Dr.

Thomas nodded and said he would order some blood tests.

Then he asked Mason to sit on the examination table while the nurse came in and drew a few vials of his blood.

And so while that was happening, the doctor asked John what Mason's daily life was like.

You know, what did he eat?

What did he like to do?

John told him the family ate a very balanced diet, including some wild game.

and Mason lived a very active outdoor life, exploring the neighborhood, swimming, and playing with friends.

And until recently, John John said, his son had been a very normal boy.

The doctor jotted down some notes and then told them to go get some lunch and come back in the afternoon when Mason's blood work would be ready.

A couple hours later, John and Mason came back to the same examination room, and not long after, Dr.

Thomas entered carrying printouts of Mason's results.

and he told John he had some worrying news.

He said Mason's blood contained dangerously elevated levels of lead.

The doctor explained that lead poisoning can have very serious consequences, especially in children.

High levels of lead in the blood can cause permanent mental disabilities.

It can also lead to hyperactive behavior and the very kind of violent outbursts that Mason had been having.

John was speechless.

He couldn't imagine where or how Mason could be coming into that much contact with a toxic heavy metal.

John immediately wondered if this meant his other children were also lead poisoned.

Dr.

Thomas asked John if their house was older, because if it was, it was possible there was lead in the house paint.

He also asked John if they maybe had some old toys or old heirlooms in the house, because those too could have lead in them.

John racked his brain picturing his son's room, but all of his son's toys and furniture were all fairly new.

And then also, John knew that paint used to contain high levels of lead, but their home had been built after the Australian government had cracked down on lead paint in the 1970s, and so John knew his house was safe.

And so after telling the doctor this, the doctor just told John that it was extremely important that he find out where the lead was coming from and to take action to stop the exposure.

And so John said he would talk it over with his wife and see what they could figure out.

Early the next week, John returned home from running errands to find Patty inside of Mason's bedroom.

And Mason was curled up in a ball in his bed, saying that there was a stabbing pain in his gut that wouldn't stop.

Patty told John that she had given Mason tea and some fizzy water, thinking it might help settle his stomach, but neither had helped.

John couldn't bear to hear his son whimper and moan like this.

The boy seemed to be in far more pain than just a normal stomach ache.

So John just told Patty he was going to take Mason back to the doctor.

Then he scooped Mason up in his arms, wrapped him in a blanket, and carried him out to the car.

At the clinic, the receptionist waved John and Mason through to see Dr.

Thomas immediately.

John explained that his son had suddenly developed severe stomach pains, and so the doctor immediately sent Mason to get his stomach x-rayed.

20 minutes later, Dr.

Thomas pulled up the x-rays on the computer inside of Mason's exam room.

John stared at the black and white picture of his son's rib cage and his spine, and towards the bottom of the x-ray in the middle of Mason's gut was a scattering of small white circles.

But John had no idea what they were.

The doctor lowered his voice and told John he couldn't identify the quarter-inch white objects in the x-ray either, but there were a lot of them.

They were definitely metallic, and they were lodged in the lower right side of Mason's abdomen.

He told John that at some point Mason must have swallowed these things, and then somehow they had gotten stuck in his intestines rather than just passing through.

The doctor suspected that these objects were the things causing Mason's abdominal distress.

Dr.

Thomas walked over to Mason's bed and pulled up a a stool and sat down, and then he asked Mason if he'd eaten anything strange recently, maybe on a dare from friends.

John watched as his son opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but then Mason stopped.

And then Mason just shook his head and told the doctor that nope, he couldn't think of anything like that.

Dr.

Thomas shrugged and gave Mason a gentle pat on the leg, and then he stood up and pulled John to the side of the room.

He told John that the most important thing here was for these objects to be removed immediately.

They could be responsible for the lead in his system, and the longer they stayed in Mason's body, the higher the risk that they would begin to poison Mason or cause a bowel obstruction.

John was feeling totally overwhelmed, but he just asked the doctor, you know, what are the next steps then?

Dr.

Thomas didn't hesitate.

He said Mason would need a medical-grade enema to clean his digestive tract.

This was guaranteed to flush out any foreign objects.

Dr.

Thomas had actually already referred Mason's case to another doctor, Dr.

Joseph Malouf, who would supervise the procedure.

Dr.

Thomas promised John that it would be quick and not at all painful for Mason.

He would just feel very full.

John and Patty could even be there to hold their son's hand throughout the whole thing.

A couple hours later, Dr.

Malouf went to his computer and opened an x-ray image of Mason's body that was taken after the intestinal flush.

And the second he saw it, his jaw dropped.

None of those metallic objects had even moved.

They were all still right there in Mason's gut, the same as before.

Dr.

Malouf zoomed into the image and studied the cluster of round objects.

The fact that the flush hadn't worked actually got him thinking.

All Mason's doctors had presumed that Mason had swallowed these little balls, and therefore they must be lodged in his digestive tract.

But the boy's digestive tract was now entirely empty, so these things couldn't be in his intestines.

So where were they?

An idea slowly began to take shape inside of Dr.

Malouf's mind.

It didn't really make sense, but it was possible, and if his hunch was right, it would explain everything.

However, Dr.

Malouf realized that his idea was pretty risky.

To find out if his idea was right, Mason would have to undergo abdominal surgery.

But if they did nothing, then these metal objects could wreak havoc in Mason's body.

And so Dr.

Malouf weighed the risks and decided there really wasn't any more time to waste.

They would go forward with the surgery.

It was the best and frankly only thing they could do.

Days later, a surgeon carefully made an incision into Mason's abdomen.

He was glad to see that the boy's organs looked normal with no inflammation or visible infections.

Using the x-ray images as his guide, the surgeon delicately isolated a small organ from the right side of Mason's gut.

Mason's appendix.

And as soon as he cut the organ free and he lifted it up with his forceps, he knew this was it.

The appendix was much heavier than it should have been.

Setting the organ down on a tray, the surgeon slowly sliced into the tissue and struck metal.

Then it happened again and again.

He realized that Dr.

Malouf's hunch was right.

By the time the surgeon was done dissecting Mason's appendix, he had discovered 57 lead pellets.

While the surgeon stitched Mason back up, Dr.

Malouf took one of the pellets into the waiting room and showed it to John and Patty.

John instantly recognized it.

He used those small lead pellets in his shotgun to hunt wild geese, which he would then cook and feed to his family.

Once Mason recovered from his surgery, Dr.

Malouf asked him, you know, why didn't you tell anyone that you were eating your father's ammunition?

Mason was embarrassed, but he explained that he and his siblings played a game where they would race to see who could make the most pellets disappear the fastest.

And he did it by eating handfuls of these lead pellets.

And the reason Mason hadn't said anything was he was worried his father would get mad at him if he found out, so he kept it a secret.

Tests revealed that Mason's siblings had also been eating shotgun pellets, and so they too had elevated levels of lead in their body.

And so, just like Mason, they all also underwent a bowel flushing procedure.

Yet, only Mason's pellets had gotten stuck in his appendix.

The other children had simply passed the shotgun pellets in their bowel movements.

Dr.

Malouf was mystified by how the pellets got stuck inside of Mason.

Occasionally, certain foods, like the seeds of small fruit, will bypass the intestines and get lodged in the appendix, but it's highly uncommon.

For something the size of a lead pellet to end up there made no sense, and for it to happen 57 times really defied all logic.

Dr.

Malouf never did figure it out, but fortunately, Mason still made a full recovery and gradually his lead levels decreased back to normal.

But Dr.

Malouf urged John to keep a closer eye on his ammunition, and to switch to pellets not made with a poisonous metal.

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Bollins Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to new episodes of Mr.

Bollin's Medical Mysteries early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or by listening on Amazon Music with your Prime membership.

Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondry.com slash survey.

From Balin Studios and Wondry, this is Mr.

Balin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr.

Ballin.

A quick note about our stories.

We do sometimes use aliases because we don't know the names of the real people involved.

And also, in most cases, we can't know exactly what was said in these stories.

But everything is based on research.

And also, a reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

This episode was written by Britt Brown.

Our editor is Heather Dundas.

Sound design is by Ryan Potesta.

Our managing producer is Sophia Martins, and our coordinating producer is Taylor Sniffin.

Our senior producer is Alex Benedon.

Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Vitak and Taja Pelaconda.

Fact-checking was done by Sheila Patterson.

For Ballin Studios, our head of production is Zach Levitt.

Script editing by Scott Allen and Evan Allen.

Our coordinating producer is Samantha Collins.

Production support by Avery Siegel.

Executive producers are myself, Mr.

Ballin, and also Nick Witters.

For Wondry, our head of sound is Marcelino Villipando.

Senior producers are Laura Donna Palavoda and Dave Schilling.

Senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr.

Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louie for Wondering.

How hard is it to kill a planet?

Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere.

When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.

Are we really safe?

Is our water safe?

You destroyed our town.

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

We call things accidents.

There is no accident.

This was 100%

preventable.

They're the result of choices by people.

Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime.

These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.

Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it.

Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.