Hoax! Podcast
1) The Piltdown Man
In December 1912, Arthur Smith Woodward, a paleontologist at the British Museum, presented something extraordinary to the Geographical Society: a "missing link" fossil, a species he named "Dawson's Da...Show More
2) I, Libertine
Midcentury New Yorkers who couldn't sleep found a friend in Jean Shepherd, the iconoclastic radio personality whose middle of the night monologues made him a cult comedy figure and leader of the under...Show More
3) The Mechanical Turk
During the 18th century, as the industrial revolution picks up.... steam, people are dazzled by expertly constructed mechanical marvels: automatons. But Wolfgang von Kempelen brings something to the r...Show More
4) Lonelygirl15
When YouTube was barely a year old, the the site's users were gripped by the slowly unfolding tale of Bree, the sheltered, beautiful 16 year old girl whose parents kept her locked in her bedroom...Show More
5) Mumler Spirit Photography
It's the Civil War, and the nation is in deep mourning. William Mumler of Boston has something to help: "spirit photographs" of you and a deceased loved one. Is it a scam, or is technology now capable...Show More
6) Report from Iron Mountain
At the height of the Cold War, a "leaked Top Secret Memo" from inside the government proposed a controversial and radical idea: the worst thing that could happen to humanity was worldwide ... peace. S...Show More
7) The Impostress Rabbit
The court anatomist returned the King George I with astonishing news: a woman named Mary Toft has been giving birth.... to rabbits. Sources: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/07/05/a...Show More
8) Salvator Mundi
A painting purportedly by Leonardo Da Vinci himself is discovered at a little-known auction house in New Orleans in 2005; a decade later, it fetches the highest price for a work of art ever sold at au...Show More
9) The Wild West in Palisade, Nevada
People traveling through the west by train in the 1800s expected shootouts and danger and cowboys. The citizens of Palisade gave it to them. Sources:"Westward Hoax: The Secret History of Palisad...Show More
10) Ern Malley Poetry
Two bored poets decide to prank their least favorite snobby magazine editor by submitting intentionally bad poetry to his literary journal and watching with mirth as he and his fellows delight in publ...Show More