#323: Cold-Hearted Crime Over Cold Fusion

Remember when, earlier this summer, the Internet nearly broke because a research paper claimed to find an incredibly simple room-temperature superconductor?

Even though LK-99 turned out to be a fridge magnet, people of all stripes were immediately bought into the premise that you could create your own superconductor with little more than the stuff under your sink or in your pantry.

In moments, an entire industry was hinged on the tech’s potential was poised to open up because everyone thought we had a massive scientific breakthrough on our hands.

Now, instead of exciting tech being nothing more than a fridge magnet, what if it were a little something called cold fusion?

While the two are nowhere near the same thing, both represent exciting step-changes in science and technology and as you'll find out in Crime Waves: Cold Truth, control over cold fusion is something people would kill for.

Dr. Eugene Mallove believed that a new form of world-changing free energy — cold fusion — was just around the corner. Even though his work was not widely accepted, he had hopes for a better future. However, before Dr. Mallove could make that future a reality, he was discovered dead in the driveway of his childhood home.

Everyone had their own ideas of who killed him, and investigators were looking in all the wrong places. This 8-episode narrative series folds together true crime and mad science and host David Kushner, who originally reported on this in 2016, is the best person to unravel the setup and the mysterious circumstances that led to a murder that took over 10 years to solve.

Have a listen and share what you think.

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