March 5, 2025
Oakland University Professor Aldona Pobutsky will be appearing on the March 10 and May 5 episodes of History’s Greatest Mysteries, a popular documentary series hosted by Laurence Fishburne that airs on The History Channel and examines the top theories surrounding the world’s most enigmatic unsolved mysteries.
Pobutsky will be discussing Pablo Escobar on the episode airing in March, and the Lost City of Z and Percy Fawcett on the episode airing in May.
“Overall, participating in the show was a lot of fun,” said Pobutsky, a professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at OU. “I have always been deeply passionate about Latin America, its history and variety of cultures, and I have been very fortunate to be able to travel with my husband regularly to all its countries and make friends in the most remote parts of Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia, and Bolivia.
“Thus, it was an honor to share my knowledge with transnational audiences and to represent Oakland University and Michigan on television,” she added. “It is particularly exciting that my friends and family back home, in Poland, will also be able to watch me on this show.”
Pobutsky said she was invited to appear on another History Channel program, Gangland Chronicles, three years after publishing her book, Pablo Escobar and Colombian Narcoculture (2020), when COVID restrictions were lifted. The episode, which was recorded in Detroit because Pobutsky was unable to travel to the production site in Toronto, aired in August 2024.
In 2024, Pobutsky was invited to participate in an episode of History’s Greatest Mysteries.
“They flew me to Los Angeles for the recording, and I am one of five experts who appear in the episode discussing the mystery of Escobar’s millions kept in cash barrels and buried in various sites around the city of Medellin (Colombia), never to be officially recovered,” she said.
About 10 minutes into recording that episode, Pobutsky was asked if she would like to participate in another episode about Brazil that would air later in the season.
“The second episode they flew me in for a month later is dedicated to the mysterious disappearance of Percy Fawcett and his son during their expedition to the Amazon in search of the Lost City of Z,” Pobutsky said.
While the taping process was a bit grueling at times, Pobutsky said she enjoyed meeting all of the people involved with the show, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
“I was particularly impressed with the producer, Suzanne Ali,” she said. “Suzanne’s breadth of knowledge and experience with various Latin American countries, her inquisitive mind, and her spunk. Now I know how much work goes into making a single episode; it is a lot!”
History’s Greatest Mysteries airs at 9 p.m. on The History Channel.