The Celebrity Forensics Expert: Henry Lee – Part 2 – S6-E6
The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa FilesShow Notes
It’s 1965, and Henry (27) and Margaret (26) Lee have moved to the USA. She’s working as a schoolteacher, and he’s trying to make ends meet however he can, including by washing dishes at a Chinese restaurant and teaching kung fu. After some hard years — and a long stint in school — Henry Lee secures an academic position at New Haven University and builds its forensic center into a world-class institution. He soon begins working with legal authorities and solving cases.
Being called as an expert witness for the defense in the 1995 OJ Simpson trial cements Henry Lee’s status as a modern Sherlock Holmes. But unlike fictional characters, Lee was human, and humans make mistakes and sometimes also lie. There’s no question Lee made some significant mistakes. Some, however, think he crossed the line into deception. Still, the errors, big or small, can be counted on one hand — most of the roughly 8,000 cases he worked on are not under review.
Stick around after the end for a five-minute reading from Wiki on the 2004 assassination attempt on former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian, which was, of course, one of the cases Lee was asked to help solve.
More from The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files
Opened by the Japanese in 1936, Taipei's Songshan Airport has witnessed wartime bombing raids (by aircraft piloted by both Soviet and American pilots), Cold War diplomacy, and tearful family farewells. During the Cold War, it welcomed some of America's most powerful political figures; President Eisenhower landed here to a spectacular welcome in 1960. For decades, Songshan was Taiwan's main international gateway, until the opening of Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taoyuan International Airport) in 1979. It reinvented itself as a busy domestic hub, only to be dealt another blow by high-speed rail. Yet Songshan survived, and today it offers convenient flights to cities in China, Japan, and South Korea. As Taipei once again debates whether to close the airport and redevelop its valuable land, Eryk and John look back at ninety years of aviation history.
Writer, philosopher, linguist, inventor – Lin Yutang (林語堂) was one of the most famous Chinese intellectuals of the twentieth century, and for decades one of the people most responsible for explaining Chinese culture to English-speaking readers. His My Country and My People introduced millions of Western readers to China, while The Importance of Living preached the virtues of leisure, humor and occasionally doing absolutely nothing. After three decades abroad, the Fujian-born Lin came to Taiwan in 1966. In his final years, living in his beautiful Yangmingshan home overlooking Taipei, he wrote about the small pleasures that made his years in Taiwan among the happiest of his life.
When his grandfather died during the COVID pandemic, Hudson Wei realized how little he knew about the man who had raised him. Determined to uncover his story, he interviewed relatives, pieced together family memories, and eventually turned this into a historical novel, Abacus.
Andō Momofuku is a household name in Japan, celebrated as the inventor of instant noodles. But his story actually begins in Puzi, a small town in southern Taiwan, where he was born Wu Baifu in 1910. John is joined by Tom Gibb, a Japan-based translator and author of the cycling travelogue Charinko. Together they unravel the complicated history of the man and his noodles. Going behind the familiar mythology, they explore his Taiwanese childhood, early business career, wartime troubles, an interesting family life (as in multiple wives), business failures, and the experiments that finally produced instant ramen. They also tackle a trickier question: did Andō really invent instant noodles?
NOTE: People not using Spotify can watch this video on YouTube. As the 2026 Asian Games in Japan come to a close, Eryk and John look back at Taiwan’s sporting struggles and successes in Asia. Who knew that the country has long been a powerhouse in soft tennis and women’s tug-of-war? After multiple unsuccessful bids to host the Asian Games, Taiwan finally had its chance to put on a show: the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. We revisit this breakthrough event, which featured some fascinating sports (anyone heard of korfball or canoe polo?) and plenty of Taiwanese flavor.