I appeared on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” in November 2019 to discuss my stories for CQ Magazine about the State Department’s oversight of Jonestown. Alas, I am unable to load the video into this site. Until that happens, please watch this video of my interview with Rep. Jackie Speier, a former aide to Congressman Ryan who not only went to Jonestown with him and helped 15 people escape but was also shot and left for dead at the dusty Port Kaituma airstrip.
On the 40th anniversary of the massacre, she listened to an audio recording he and she made with a whistleblower and cult escapee, Deborah Blakey, about Jonestown on September 1, 1978; she said she had not heard the recording since they made it. The ever-capable and promising videographer Thomas McKinless was the producer.