Episodes
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The Germans have invented an aquatic killing machine the likes of which the world has never known. If you are one of its victims, how do you trick sure death? By pulling an all-in audacious scheme that only works if you have the element of surprise. How long can the Royal Navy keep the Q Ship con going before time runs out?
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The true story of how Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin is called out of retirement to help quell an uprising in French Colonial Algeria. What happens next is the most famous, high stakes magic performance in history.
What the unbelievable story of Houdin tells us about or desire to believe and the distractions that lead con artists to take advantage.
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Missing episodes?
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Walt is dead. His dream of EPCOT isn't.
Roy Disney puts off his own retirement to attempt to finish his brother's final plan. In his way is a new hostile governor and the bewildered residents of Orlando who have no idea what to expect from incoming Disney empire.
The drive to make EPCOT a reality... just might be the World's Greatest Con.
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Walt Disney doesn't want to expand, he wants to build his masterpiece.
He doesn't want to sell more popcorn, he wants to defeat communism.
He doesn't want Disneyland East, he is driven to build EPCOT.
Far from the adult binge drinking paradise we know in Orlando today, the original idea of EPCOT is a planned community that requires massive land acquisition and never-before-seen government permissions. And by the way, you need to do it in secret.
Walt Disney's quest for total control just might be... the World's Greatest Con.
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Brian and Justin discuss an article in the New York Times alleging that magic has forgiven it's 50-year grudge with Uri Geller. Considering the subject matter of our Project Alpha investigation... World's Greatest Con disagrees.
Also, an interview with Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine discussing the science and shame of being taken in by incorrect information and the legacy of Project Alpha.
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A funny thing happened as we finished our season. We asked for listeners to unearth an old podcast WGC co-creator Justin Robert Young did with James Randi and it was indeed found. But one episode surprised us... James Randi in his own words describing Project Alpha in 2008.
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Sometimes when you tell a story, you change it. We have an update on one of the central figures in Project Alpha. Brian Brushwood reads your emails and feedback including questions about James Randi and a moment when William Shatner blessed the podcast with an epic rendition of our title.
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In a rare, candid, conversation Brian Brushwood sits down with Mike Edwards and Banachek to get even more stories from the Mac Lab and answer lingering questions.
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At a 1983 press conference in New York City, the entire charade is revealed. It’s recorded for a prime time NBC special set to air two weeks later. We unpack 40 years of consequences from the triumph and betrayal of Project Alpha.
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The boys are a team, they’ve been fooling the Mac Lab for over a year but what comes next? Fame and fortune for the Project Alpha team, hopefully. Yet, that means total humiliation for the professors and researchers Mike and Steve have come to know and appreciate. It all comes to a head at a conference in Madison, Wisconsin where the boys have to witness a truly disturbing consequence to their deception.
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Steve Shaw is an orphan who bounced around the globe. Mike Edwards is an Iowa choirboy who fulfilled every hope of his loving parents. They both see a world being defrauded by hucksters. They both apply to the Mac Lab study in St. Louis and are accepted. They both believe the other to be a liability in a long con. Can they coexist?
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The Cold War is on, the threat of nuclear annihilation is constant. In a world of fear, a social contagion breaks out: the belief in psychic powers. Military, government and academia take it so seriously they spend millions to find people who can demonstrate these feats. Amidst this backdrop, the scion to one of America’s largest military contractors funds a study at Washington University in St. Louis to find child psychics. Two boys apply and are accepted, but they have something up their sleeve…
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Two boys demonstrate genuine psychic powers in a rigorous academic study in the late 1970s. When the results are revealed, the academics will be at the center of a new field of science coveted by governments, military and Hollywood. The only problem? The boys are frauds, out to debunk the very concept of parapsychology.
For the first time ever, World's Greatest Con interviews the two boys, now men, at the center of the public embarrassment of a study funded for $4 million in today's money.
You may have heard of it, you might even think you know the story but this season everyone will know the truth of Project Alpha.
It all begins, April 10th.
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Brian is in the booth recording Season Three of World's Greatest Con but in the meantime, Dog and Pony Show Audio has a new series for you: Don't Explain.
Every time you go to the theater, you're experience an onslaught of movie tropes. Every romantic comedy has the down-on-her-luck best friend. Every action movie has the badass one-liners. Every Oscar-bait drama has that tear-jerker ending.
But where do those tropes come from? How do audiences become so aware of Hollywood's bag of tricks, parody movies can become a massive genre on their own?
This series explores the birth, death, and rebirth of one of the most successful cinematic genres ever: the rockstar biopic. In this episode, we start from the beginning, focusing on the earliest established tropes of the genre.
Lady Sings the Blues, The Buddy Holly Story, and 8 Mile.
The first episode is available now in this feed and the reminder of the season is ready to binge on the Don't Explain feed on all podcast platforms.
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Brian Brushwood brings you an update on the work of World's Greatest Con season three.
Meanwhile...
We’re sharing a bonus episode from our friends at Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast about things misunderstood and overlooked. This season, Malcolm’s obsessed with experiments – natural experiments, scientific experiments, thought experiments. In this preview, you’ll learn about a mysterious and disfiguring disease plagued parts of the world. No one could find a remedy, until a doctor in Ohio conducted a controversial experiment and finally found a cure …with an everyday condiment. You can hear more of Revisionist History at:
https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/rhs7?sid=con.
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Brian chats with John Madden about his new film Operation Mincemeat available on Netflix in America now. The film is adapted from the same book we used for the bulk of our research in Season One.
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Here’s a special preview of the Cautionary Tales podcast from Pushkin Industries. On Cautionary Tales, bestselling author Tim Harford shares stories of human error, natural disasters, and tragic catastrophes from history that contain valuable lessons for today. In this preview, you’ll hear about two young girls who faked an image of fairies so compelling that expert photographers could not explain it and esteemed figures like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were left believing in the existence of tiny nymphs. Hear the full story, and more from Cautionary Tales, at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/ctcon.
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Brian is joined by WGC co-creator Justin Robert Young to answer your questions from this season.
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Only one man has guessed the exact amount on the Price Is Right's Final Showcase Showdown in the modern history of the show.
He says he came up with the number by himself. Not so, says another super fan in the audience who says he fed him the answer. But wait, people backstage believe a bitter ex-producer has something to do with it.
Who is lying? We find out using all of their own stories in their own words.
Support The Show:
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A wanted con decides to fund his escape from the law on the television game show Super Password. He plays fairly. He wins. All hell breaks loose.
Hi, Matthew.
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