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Princess Caraboo becomes Mary Baker once again. Behind the exotic language, the pirate kidnapping, and the faraway island was a poor young woman with a far more painful story. As the truth of Mary’s life comes into focus, her famous deception begins to look less like a clever prank and more like a desperate attempt to escape the world she was born into. One massive question remains: how will her once loyal patron Mrs. Worrall punish her humiliating deception? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A mysterious woman walks into a small English village speaking a language nobody understands. She says her name is Princess Caraboo: royalty from a faraway island, kidnapped by pirates and shipwrecked near Bristol. Soon, doctors, newspapers, and wealthy hosts are all drawn into her story. But the bigger the legend grows, the harder it becomes to know who is fooling whom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1915, San Diego is on the brink of becoming a major American city, if it doesn’t die of thirst first. Enter Charles Hatfield. He claims a secret chemical process can summon rain, end the drought, and sustain the city as it prepares to welcome the world for a critical international exhibition. And he’s right. It rains. The problem is, it doesn’t stop. Floods tear through the region. Dozens are dead. Millions of dollars in damage follow. Entire neighborhoods are washed away. In the aftermath, everything hinges on one impossible question: did he truly believe he was making the rain or was it all a con? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charles Ponzi conducted a financial fraud so audacious he became the biggest brand name in crime. Yet most people don’t know what he actually did and those who do are often hard-pressed to explain why it was special. So why, more than 100 years later, do we call so many financial scams a Ponzi scheme? Brian tells the story of a poor boy from Italy whose name is still on the lips of everyone worried they’re about to be made a sucker. BROUGHT TO YOU BY: 110.ScamStuff.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eddie has a plan to make millions. It leaves him an international fugitive. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A New York City upstart becomes a legend in the city that never sleeps. But his greed leaves him teetering on the edge of fame, wealth and death. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.