On June 10th, 1983, the decomposing body of a well-dressed man was found in a desolate canyon near Los Angeles. John Doe #94 would soon be identified as missing variety show producer Roy Radin. He'd last been seen after meeting with a mysterious woman in a gold dress. Her name was Lanie Jacobs.

Jacobs and Radin were obsessed with becoming Hollywood movie producers. And when their paths collided, it led them to a tantalizing film deal promising fame and fortune. But then, a twisted script unfolded, plunging them into a million-dollar cocaine and cash heist, a tangled web of lies, and ultimately – murder.

The trail led investigators right to Hollywood's doorstep, linking former golden boy producer Robert Evans to the case and dredging up Radin's own troubled past.

But the case turned ice cold. It would take more than five years of dogged pursuit by the L.A. Sheriff’s Department detectives, a secret undercover witness, and another murder almost 3,000 miles from Hollywood – to unlock the truth.

This is the story of a doomed Hollywood partnership, a grisly murder and the search that stretched across the country for a killer – or killers.

From Wondery, and the team behind the hit series Hollywood & Crime: The Dating Game Killer, The Wonderland Murders, Death of Starlet, and the Execution of Bonny Lee Bakley comes a six part series that dives into the dark side of Hollywood through a shocking murder – fueled by ruthless ambition and desperate dreams. Co-hosted by Tracy Pattin and Josh Lucas.

Listen to Hollywood & Crime: The Cotton Club Murder: Wondery.fm/Hollywood_and_Crime_

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There are few people who have thought more about pandemics than epidemiologist Larry Brilliant. He worked with the World Health Organization to eradicate smallpox. He’s fought polio and blindness in India. And, in his 2006 TED Prize talk, he warned the audience that a pandemic was coming “within your children or your grandchildren's lifetime.”

He was right. What he couldn’t predict, though, was how mismanaged our response would be – and how quickly we’d set aside the lessons we learned defeating smallpox. As Larry tells Steven, “We have to work together… and we're not doing it so far.”

Watch Larry’s Ted Prize acceptance speech: https://www.ted.com/talks/larry_brilliant_my_wish_help_me_stop_pandemics?language=en

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The coronavirus has put our lives on pause, but it’s kicked the science behind vaccines into hyperdrive. Science writer Carl Zimmer walks Steven through some of the radical new approaches to making vaccines – and gives his best-case/worst-case scenarios for when a vaccine will be ready. Also: we get answers, kind of, about what’s up with Russia. And Steven drops a Taylor Swift reference.

Read Carl’s latest on the vaccine race in the New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/by/carl-zimmer

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Back-to-school season is here, but students across the country aren’t going anywhere. Anya Kamenetz, NPR’s education correspondent, returns to the show to shed light on the greatest educational crisis of our time. How can we safely reopen schools? And what can we learn from countries that have tried – and failed?

Listen to Anya’s stories for NPR at https://www.npr.org/people/302894536/anya-kamenetz.

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When National Geographic science editor Nsikan Akpan began researching his latest article on the coronavirus, he asked every scientist he talked to the same question: Has the U.S. already lost? Every scientist said no – but we need a better game plan.

On this week’s episode, Nsikan tells Steven what we’ve been getting wrong – and what the new game plan should look like.

You can find Nsikan Akpan’s articles, including “Here’s How To Stop The Coronavirus From Winning,” at natgeo.com/coronavirus.

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Back in March, the NBA pressed pause on its 2019-20 season. Now, the league wants to pick up where it left off – but with Covid-19 rates on the rise, it’s not going to be easy.

This week, Kavitha Davidson, host of The Lead, walks us through the NBA’s plan to move 16 teams into a “bubble” at the Disney World Resort. What rules will players have to follow? And will the risks to players’ health be worth it?

Check out The Lead, Wondery’s daily sports podcast, at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lead/id1478448344

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Forest fires. Ant colonies. Internet memes.

On the surface, they have nothing in common. But, according to network scientist Samuel Scarpino, they’re all complex systems that spread. Sam’s job is to crack the rules underlying their spread, and then apply them to epidemics such as Covid-19.

Read more about Sam’s work in Steven’s New York Times Magazine article, “How Data Became One of the Most Powerful Tools to Fight an Epidemic”: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/10/magazine/covid-data.html

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Most CEOs hated the idea of employees working from home. But when the coronavirus hit, they didn’t have a choice. They sent their white-collar workers home before they’d even learned how to mute themselves on Zoom. What happened next surprised everyone. Productivity shot through the roof. Now, companies don’t know whether they should bring workers back to the office, even if they can do it safely.

We’ve invited Clive Thompson, fresh off his piece for The New York Times Magazine about remote work, to talk us through this rapid culture shift. What, exactly, makes remote work so productive? What do we lose when we work in isolation? What new technology will emerge from this moment? And how many of us will ever voluntarily do the 9-to-5 again?

Links:

Clive Thompson, “What if Working From Home Goes On … Forever?”, New York Times Magazine:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/09/magazine/remote-work-covid.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

And check out Clive's interview on The Next Big Idea about his book "Coders": https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coders-the-invisible-architects-that-shape-our-lives/id1482067226?i=1000455369916

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