In 2013, journalist Suzanne Rico gets the call. Her mother, Gabriele, is dying. As time ticks down, Gabriele reveals an unfinished memoir about her World War II childhood–and makes a daunting last request: “Finish what I started.” When Suzanne and her sister, Stephanie, dive into their mother’s turbulent past, they come face to face with the truth of their own ancestry for the first time, including mind blowing mysteries that swirl around inventor Robert Lusser–their grandfather–and his work for the Third Reich. As they struggle to bring closure to something as intimate as a memoir, they have no idea of the revelations in store, or the reckoning they will require.
Host Suzanne interviews Executive Producer Lisa Joyner about the crucial roles women play in shaping the narrative of "The Man Who Calculated Death," revealing their profound impact on the story's core.
27 May 2025TRANSCRIPT
Behind the Scenes with Jon Cryer: 12
Host Suzanne interviews Executive Producer Jon Cryer about the podcast's origin and how producing the series changed their view of World War II.
20 May 2025TRANSCRIPT
Doodlebug Summer: 11
Suzanne investigates the three-month stretch in 1944 when Germany launched the most V1 flying bombs at England. How did the British defend themselves, and what was it like for people on the ground?
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13 May 2025TRANSCRIPT
The Sound of Silence: 10
Suzanne and Stephanie view footage and documents from a 1944 press conference in London hosted by the English War Minister, explaining the design and engineering needed for V1 bombs to fly; including Robert Lusser's simple invention of a Rube Goldberg-like device that made the flying bombs so deadly.
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6 May 2025TRANSCRIPT
Unintended Consequences: 9
Suzanne visits Tante Heide, who is now seriously ill, and Tante Traute, to tell them of this unexpected turn in the family story. Using former top-secret documents, Suzanne begins an investigation that will turn everything she believed about the farmhouse bombing and her grandmother’s death upsidedown. Following a twisted path that leads to a blockbuster story of danger and heroism, Suzanne feels that she understands the truth of her own ancestry for the first time, and can finish her mother’s story.
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29 Apr 2025TRANSCRIPT
Lost Souls: 8
Suzanne and Stephanie walk the halls of a children’s home where their mom described her mother’s ghost haunting her every night. The sisters begin to wonder: can they ever truly finish the memoir without knowing who was responsible for their grandmother’s death? Suzanne decides to try to solve the mystery once and for all. After initial frustration, she finds an ally in Colonel Matt Dietz, a fighter-pilot-turned-WWII-historian, and together, they uncover the incredible truth.
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22 Apr 2025TRANSCRIPT
The Dark Road of the Future: 7
In the wake of investigating their grandmother’s death, the sister revisit the day their own mother died and we hear Gabriele’s last words. Focus turns to the aftermath of the bombing and Tante Heide tells of how a black binder found among the rubble would come to haunt her family. Meanwhile, Robert Lusser is trying to get home from Berlin, as Germany crumbles. When the family is finally reunited, they struggle to survive as the their own countrymen turn on them.
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp: Your well-being is worth it. Visit www.BetterHelp.com/THEMAN to get 10% off your first month
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15 Apr 2025TRANSCRIPT
Broken Glass: 6
Suzanne and Stephanie stumble around a small cemetery in Bavaria, searching for their grandmother’s grave. The next day, the owner of the farmhouse where she died tells the sisters about the devastation that rained down from the sky on a cold March afternoon in 1945 and the sisters revisit the moment Gabriele learned her mother was gone. Then, as the farmer takes the sisters on a tour, showing them bomb craters and shrapnel, they stumble upon a clue that points in a new, and unexpected, direction.
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8 Apr 2025TRANSCRIPT
Chamber 44: 5
Suzanne and Stephanie visit Tante Heide in Sacramento, California, where the sisters’ beloved aunt has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Realizing that time is running out to get the family story straight, the sisters ask difficult questions - with answers that are not black and white. Back on their odyssey through Germany, the whispers of the dead swirl around them as they walk the dark, dank tunnels of a concentration camp where the V1s were made. When Suzanne tracks down a Holocaust survivor who assembled her grandfather's flying bombs, she finds a surprising moment of grace.
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1 Apr 2025TRANSCRIPT
V Is For Vengeance: 4
In the aftermath of the fire bombing, Robert Lusser’s family finds shelter in an abandoned mansion while he heads to a remote island in the Baltic Sea. This is where he must perfect his "wonder weapon" - a never before seen flying bomb that will become the world's first cruise missile. In their search for how their grandfather managed this achievement, Stephanie and Suzanne go behind the locked gates of a ruined military base with an engineer-turned-historian who knows exactly who their grandfather was - and what he did.
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp: Your well-being is worth it. Visit www.BetterHelp.com/THEMAN to get 10% off your first month
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25 Mar 2025TRANSCRIPT
Into The Fire: 3
From a terror bombing to a war crimes trial to a dank basement below a burning city, this episode takes us straight into wartime Germany.
5 Dec 2024
What To Listen To Next: REDACTED - Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana
Luke Lamana, a Marine Corp Reconnaissance Veteran, pulls back the curtain on declassified information exposing shocking secrets and lies behind the world's most powerful institutions.
6 Nov 2024TRANSCRIPT
Candles In The Window: 2
Suzanne and Stephanie begin at their mother’s childhood home in Augsburg, where they’re faced with a difficult question: as granddaughters of a man who created a weapon of mass destruction for the Nazis, what responsibility do they bear? From tattered letters, photographs, and home movies from their mother’s early days, the sisters piece together their grandfather’s life, and their grandparents’ love story. Then, they discover a well kept family secret with dangerous undertones.
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6 Nov 2024TRANSCRIPT
The Last Request: 1
Suzanne and Stephanie Rico dig through their deceased mother's office searching for clues to their dark legacy--a flying bomb built in World War II by a brilliant Nazi grandfather they've never met. We learn more about their mother's extraordinary life, her death, and how the sisters' quest to understand their own troubled ancestry began. When the tantes, Aunt Heide and Aunt Traute, help create an itinerary through Germany, the odyssey will take Suzanne and Stephanie from the remote ruins of a military base to an underground concentration camp to the Bavarian farmhouse where their grandmother died in 1945.
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23 Oct 2024TRANSCRIPT
Introducing: The Man Who Calculated Death
In 2013, journalist Suzanne Rico gets the call. Her mother, Gabriele, is dying. As time ticks down, Gabriele reveals an unfinished memoir about her World War II childhood–and makes a daunting last request: “Finish what I started.” When Suzanne and her sister, Stephanie, dive into their mother’s turbulent past, they come face to face with the truth of their own ancestry for the first time, including mind blowing mysteries that swirl around inventor Robert Lusser–their grandfather–and his work for the Third Reich. As they struggle to bring closure to something as intimate as a memoir, they have no idea of the revelations in store, or the reckoning they will require.
Listen to episodes of THE MAN WHO CALCULATED DEATH exclusively and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial today by visiting www.wondery.com/links/the-man-who-calculated-death.
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Inside a recent episode
The Soul of the Story: 13
Published 3 Jun 2025 · Transcript excerpt
[…] Okay, she was in a world war with the husband who was creating war planes with five children and no definition of help, of anxiety, of PTSD, of depression, nothing. So when she started to fall apart, when her husband was gone, and when her city was fire bombed and she lost her home, there was nowhere to turn. She had nobody. And so I think about that from our current zeitgeist and the perspective of, you know, we all need help. We should be able to reach out and we should be able to say, hey, I'm not feeling great today. You know, and there's there's safety in that in that community. She had nothing. […]
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