Scamapalooza with Nicholas J. Johnson

PATREONMY STUFFSTEVE'S WEBSITE STEVE'S TIKTOKI’ve been sick for the past few months. Which is why there has been an episode of a Scamapalooza in a little while.Instead, I’ve been spending a lot of time in bed feeling sorry for myself while trawling tiktok.Among the craft videos, slime reviews and video game analysis, I came across a video of a young academic making iced coffee while explaining his research into why some people detect misinformation on social media while others let it slide.Is it an education issue? A psychological block? Or do people just lack the proper motivation?On this episode of Scamapalooza, I talk to Steven Rathje about his research into fake news, his one point one million followers, and how to fix the problem of truth on social media.He also gives me genuinely useful ideas on the types of TikTok content my followers would want to see.

Support the podcast on Patreon!Magicians have secrets that you don’t see on stage. I’m not talking about HOW they do the tricks—the trapdoors and mirrors—but the mundane secrets that make the show happen. The tour schedules, the marketing plans, the box office reports and the horror stories of gigs that went off the rails. Kent Blackmore, digs up those secrets. An author and magic historian, Kent has dedicated his life to telling the stories of Australia’s most colourful figures. From William Fraser, the Convict Conjurer, to magic superstars like Les and Esme Levante, Blackmore has spent decades piecing together posters, newspaper articles, and ephemera to explore not just their stage personas but the stories of people behind magic.KENT’S WEBSITE: https://sydneymagic.net/

Support the podcast on Patreon!If I had an origin story as a magician/con artist/science communicator it would be me, in the early 2000s, hunching over my computer trying to count how many times a basketball is being thrown while completely missing the full-size gorilla walking right through the middle of the shot.The creation of psychologists Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, The Invisible Gorilla video went viral and the research paper become infamous, winning the pair an ig nobel award in 2004.Now, Daniel and Christopher are back with a new book Nobody’s Fool an exploration of all the ways human beings are deceived and a few ideas on how to avoid it!On this episode of the podcast, we talk about the book, the gorilla, and the best ways to avoid being taken for a ride.The BookMy Website

Imagine it's 1850 and you live in a rural area, far away from doctors and the latest advances in medical technology.And then you get sick. What would you do?It's this fear that gave rise to The Snake Oil Salesmen, travelling hucksters who sold ointments, tinctures, tablets and the eponymous snake oil. In this episode, I talk to historian Dr Jo Clyne about snake oils (both real and fake), electric hairbrushes, and the weirdest treatment for non-existent tapeworms you've ever seen.Support the showJo's facebook page

Support Scamapalooza On PatreonI busted my cat scratching the couch yesterday. As soon as she caught my eye, she stopped scratching and started to stretch instead, acting as if she’d hadn't just been digging her claws into our brand new four seater.The question is, did she KNOW she was trying to deceive me?Or did it just look like that through my human eyes?Lixing Sun is the man with the answers. A professor of biology at Central Washington University and the author of The Liars of Nature and The Nature of Liars, Lixing's work explores how and why animals deceive.On this episode of the podcast, we talk about why the Navy painted zebra stripes on their ships during world war 2, why a duck would want to see on Volleyball and how cuckoos and warblers negotiate peace in an egg switching arm race.Lixing's Book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691198606/the-liars-of-nature-and-the-nature-of-liarsMy Site: www.njjohnson.com.au

I’m often asked what my favourite con artist movie is and I always have a different answer. Usually, I’ll say Ridley Scott’s Matchstick Men or David Mamet’s House of Games. If I’m feeling a little pretentious I might name drop Fellini’s Il Bidone or Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket.At the same time, I also have a soft spot for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Paper Moon, and Brother’s Bloom.However, if you were to ask me what the WORST con artist movie of all time was, I have an answer The Sting 2.Released a decade after the original with none of the original cast, The Sting 2 is a mess.With a nonsensical plot and a complete lack of charm, The Sting 2 is a forgotten film that deserves to be forgotten.On this podcast episode, I talk to Nick Mason from The Weekly Planet podcast about why I hate this movie so much and find out whether The Sting 2 deserves my disdain.(Throughout the interview I repeatedly refer to Mac Davies as Mac King. Mac Davies is one of the stars of The Sting 2. Mac King is a comedy magician I once saw eat a guinea pig on stage in Las Vegas. My apologies to Mr King.)

If I told you that “the cafeteria is permanently closed for the schnitzel inventory.” what would you think I was saying?If your Russian, the chances are you’d know exactly what I was getting at.The novel The Little Golden Calf is the story of Ostap Bender a con artist trying to become a millionaire in 1920s Soviet Russia, a time when millionaires aren’t supposed to exist. Little read in the rest of the world, the book is a classic in Russia. It’s taught in schools, there are multiple movie and TV adaptions, statues of the main characters can be found in towns across the country, and lines from the book have made their way into usage,Face with anything that’s not all it's cracked up to be, a Russian might say “No, this is not Rio de Janeiro.”. Dodgy enterprises are labelled “horns and hoods” or “Children of Lt. Schmidt”.On this episode, I talk to Maya Vinokour from the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies at NYU about the book, its history and what it can tell us about Putin, Trump, and 21st-century satire.PATREON: www.patreon.com/user?u=34623445MY SITE: www.njjohnson.com.auMAYA's WORK: www.as.nyu.edu/faculty/maya-vinokour.html

Have you ever had to deal with corporate bullshit?Had your projects “put on the back burner”?Or had your job “right-sized”? Also, what the hell is “disruption?”Ian McCarthy is the Professor of Innovation and Operations Management at Simon Fraser University.His paper Confronting indifference toward truth: Dealing with workplace bullshit introduced the C.R.A.P Framework, a system for organisations to reduce the amount of bullshit in the workplace.In this episode, I talk to Ian about how organisations deal with the problem of B.S. and what, if anything, workers can do to make their lives less difficult.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=34623445 This Place Is Full of It: https://t.co/yq2McRbmgJConfronting Indifference Toward Truth: https://t.co/Fkcenv1EieMe: https://linktr.ee/nicholasjjohnson

If I had to guess what the cardinal rule for card counters was, “Don’t draw attention to yourself” would be way up there.While card counting isn’t illegal, casinos aren’t too keen on having players use probability to actually win at blackjack.Flying under the radar seems like common sense.What I wouldn’t expect is for a successful card counting to share his experiences on youtube in a wildly successful series of videos.Well that’s just what Steven Bridges has done.Since 2018, Steven has been recording his experiences as he went from card counting novice to professional counter.On this episode of Scamapalooza I talk to Steven about how he balances counting cards undetected while racking up millions of views on youtube.STEVEN’S YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/channel/UCqK0ukwGsTDh7sHih1OmLJAMY WEBSITE: www.njjohnson.com.au

Every other week, I am sent a video of someone playing The Shell Game. Maybe it's a cat finding a single treat under three cups, or maybe it's a magician impressing audiences with hand-carved replica walnuts and silicone peas.However, despite being one of the most famous scams in the world, The Shell Game is also one of the most misunderstood. Even the name is misleading, as it is rarely performed with actual shells and it is definitely not a game. It's a scam that you cannot win.Every year, tourists lose hundreds of thousands of dollars on this simple wager. In this episode of Scamapalooza, I talk to Nick Stein, a.k.a. The Crooked Croupier, about how the scam works, why it's so profitable, and why, despite its notoriety, it still manages to take so much money.NICK'S WEBSITE: https://www.crookedcroupier.com/MY WEBSITE: www.conman.com.au

There is a popular image of a con artist that doesn’t exist in the real world. It’s an image of well-dressed, suave, fast-talking swindlers who—despite their dodgy dealings—always does the right thing in the end.After all, they have a code.Johnny Hooker and Henry Gondorf in The Sting. Danny Ocean and his gang in the Ocean’s film.The casts of shows like Hustle, Leverage and white collar. But before all of them was Professor Harold Hill, the title character of the Meredith Wilson musical, The Music Man.The story of a small-time con man’s attempts to convince the people of river city Iowa to invest in his non-existence boy’s band has been a staple of theatre, movies, and TV since it premiered in 1957.In 2022, the musical broken box office records when Hugh Jackman starred in a revival. It's also the inspiration for the monorail episode of The Simpsons.On this episode of Scamapalooza, I talk to theatre maker Em Chandler about why Harold Hill has endured and what about musical theatre makes it the perfect medium for telling a swindler's story.MY SITE: www.conman.com.auEM's TWITTER: www.twitter.com/polyponder

I have long suspected that Deepak Chopra spouts garbage. Despite being a trained physician, the author and self-help guru’s trademark new-age ramblings have always struck me as little more than pseudo-scientific garbage.But, I’m also the kind of guy who doesn’t like to dismiss ideas out of hand, just because I don’t understand.It turns out that my instincts were correct. A 2015 study in the journal Judgment and Decision Making showed that many of Chopra’s tweets are indistinguishable from a randomly generated sentence using Chopra's favourite buzz-words.They are—according to studies authors—Bullshit.On this episode of Scamapalooza, I talk to the lead author of the study Gordan Pennycook and how you measure what is and isn’t bullshit and why it’s important to spot the difference.

How does the daughter of a railroad hand become a millionaire in an age when women couldn’t even open a bank account?If you’re Cassie Chadwick, the answer is you pull off one of the most audacious scams in history, a fraud that took millions from US banks and saw the richest man in America turn up at her trial.On this episode of Scamapalooza, I talk to Tori Telfer, author of Confident Women, about Chadwick’s extraordinary rise to wealth, her downfall, and why this incredible con artist isn’t better remembered today.Tori’s Website: www.toritelfer.comMy Website: www.conman.com.au

Have you ever thought about how magicians learn their tricks? Not the methods—the smoke and mirrors behind the illusion—but the actual process of learning a new effect. Even magicians don’t think too much about how they learn magic, treating our instructions like a recipe that—if followed—will create a moment of wonder.Brian Rappert, a Professor of Science, Technology and Public Affairs at the University of Exeter, believes there’s more to learning magic than just following directions.Starting as a complete novice, he’s documented the process of becoming a magician, not to reveal the secrets, but to understand the process by which magicians acquire their skills.In this episode of Scamapalooza, Brian goes deep into his research exploring the nature of learning magic.Be warned we do discuss certain Christmas-related secrets that may be inappropriate for very young listeners. WEBSITE: www.conman.com.auBRIAN'S BOOK: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/55818

If you know me then you’ll know that my nemesis is Dr Matt Pritchard.For the last few years, this evil genius has been creating impenetrable optical illusions on social media. A toy elephant vanishes in a split second in impossible circumstances. A lego pirate ship appears in a clear glass bowl. A bike helmet is suddenly filled with coloured balls.Unlike other online magicians, Matt uses almost entirely unique methods that have baffled the most experienced magicians. There are no edits, no CGI, and no hidden assistants behind the scenes. His videos stand up to close scrutiny and multiple views with only a handful being exposed by keen-eyed observers.In this episode, I talk to Matt about how he creates his illusions, why they work, and how science magicians like him promote critical thinking.If you’re in the UK, check out sciencemagicshows.co.uk to have him visit your school. If you’re in Australia, check out www.njjohnson.com.au for my own school shows.

My kid just performed their first solo magic show. In front of 300 of their peers, they correctly predicted a randomly selected TV show, vanished a bottle of coke and tricked the principal into opening a can of spring snakes.Classic comedy!But why do so many kids, particularly girls, give up on magic? Amy Kimlat is a children’s author and former kid magician whose new picture book Hocus Pocus Practice Focus inspires kids to stick with their passions, no matter how hard it gets.I talked to Amy about performing magic as a kid, girls in magic, and being a first-time author.A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK: www.amykimlat.com/honestME: www.conman.com.auTWITTER: www.twitter.com/countlustigFACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/honestconmanINSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/honestconman

Why have there not been more video games about card cheating? I remember playing Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist as a kid and thinking that the stage of the game where you have to catch the Wheaton “Aces” Hall cheating was the best bit.  Why couldn’t that be the whole game? Game designer and illustrator Nicolai Troshinsky has taken up the challenge with Card Shark, a new game in which players have to lie, cheat, and swindle their way through 17th-century French society with nothing but a deck of cards and their wits to survive. On this episode of Scamapalooza, I talk to Nicolai about the inspirations for this unique game and the challenges he and the team of developers at Nerial faced in bringing it to life. If you enjoy the episode, head please subscribed and leave a review at Apple Podcasts. It only takes a second and it makes a huge difference in spreading the word. Me: www.conman.com.auCard Shark: www.devolverdigital.com/games/card-shark

Did you know the world “bullshit” might just be an Australian invention?During World War I, Australian troops found themselves arriving at the front and suddenly under the command of British officers. These officers were obsessed with appearances and would have the Australian soldiers bull polish their shoes constantly, regardless of whether they were dirty or not.The Australians called this pointless activating bullshitting, and the word spread from there.Today, we see bullshit everywhere. Not merely lies but a disregard for what is true.On the podcast today I speak to John Petrocelli, a professor of psychology, director of the Bullshit Studies Lab, and the author of the life-changing science of detecting bullshit.We explore what bullshit is, why we do it, and most importantly, what you can do about it!If you enjoy the episode, don't forget to leave a review!

Magicians have a complicated relationship with the Harry Potter franchise. On the one hand, the success of J K Rowling's creation has given them hours of work at movie premieres, book launches, and themed events.  On the other hand, it's hard dealing with constant jokes about where our broomsticks are and whether we were raised under a staircase. The Boy Who Lived casts a long shadow.So what happens when the world of the magician collides with the world of Harry Potter?Since 2016 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been combining J K Rowling's wizarding stories with extraordinary stage magic. There’s no suspension of disbelief; the characters appear to be performing real magic, live on stage. Lee Cohen is the Magic and Illusions Consultant for the Australian production of Harry Potter and the Cursed child.In this episode of Scamapalooza Lee talks about how she got this incredible job how she teaches magic to actors who have never picked up a trick in their life and the differences between theatrical illusions magic tricks and special effects.For more information on today's show visit www.conman.com.au

There's been a weird evolution in the wellness industry. What was once a market dominated by new age, holistic, self-care has seen a recent rise in hypermasculine, ideology-driven bro science.Forget Gwenyth Paltrow’s jade vagina eggs, these are health products that advocate eating raw liver, dangerous workouts and tanning your testicles.In this episode, Nicholas talks to Dr Vyom Sharma about what bro science means for men’s health and how we think about what it means to be a man.NOTE: Vyom suggests that Bro Science advocate The Liver King is on steroids, a claim that was revealed to be true three days after the interview was recorded! This is Scamapalooza, a podcast about scams, illusions, and why humans are so easily deceived. For more information on today’s show, check out www.conman.com.au. And if you enjoy the podcast, please leave a review wherever you listen.

Scamapalooza is back.New episodes are dropping in December 2022. Make sure you're subscribed so that you don't miss out on the wild chats with magicians, authors, psychologists, con artists and other liars.www.conman.com.au

Imagine you're a professional magician, performing a few card tricks at function when you're approached by a mysterious stranger who wants to make use of your unique set of skills. He wants to turn you into a card counter.That is exactly what happened to Dale Sadler, a magician turn card counter who spent years making his living winning at blackjack at casinos across Australia.On this episode, Dale explains how to card counts, how to gain access to the high rollers room, how to avoid get caught and why he gave it all up.

What would you say is the best method of detecting lies? A truth serum? A polygraph machine? A body language expert? The truth about lie detectors is…they probably don’t work. So why do they show in popular culture on reality tv shows and, most disturbingly, in criminal investigations? And what are the ramifications of putting our faith in these dodgy devices and half baked theories?On this episode of Scamapalooza, Dr Celine Van Golde of the Not Guilty project helps uncover the truth about lies.

I have always assumed that it must be hard to be a woman in magic. It’s an industry dominated by men and populated by old guys with outdated ideas of gender, young boys who got into magic to pick up girls and antisocial men of all ages who struggle to talk to ANYONE, let alone members of the opposite sex. We have the organisations like the International 'Brotherhood' of Magicians and The Magic Circle that didn’t allow women to even join until the 1980’s.But is the magic fraternity at hotbed of misogyny who see women’s only value as being sawn in half?On this episode of Scamapalooza I talk to magician Carisa Hendrix about her extraordinary life and the challenges and benefits of being of a woman in magic. 

What’s the difference between a con artist and a magician? A great magician tells you they’re about to lie you. They admit it out right. And then fool you anyway. But a great con artist will suck you in and leave you refusing to believe you were ever deceived. So what then, about mentalism, that branch of magic that brings to life psychic phenomena like psychokinesis and telepathy or that makes extraordinary psychological techniques like neurolinguistic programming or body language reading seem legit.These magicians are often so credible that audiences are left actually believing that the entertainer has abilities that they do not have and often, do not exist. Are they con artist? Is it ethical to lie to an audience in this way? Or is it all just show business?On this episode of Scamapalooza, magician and comedian Jon Archer seeks to get inside the mind…of the mind readers.

How do working GPs deal with alternative medicine? These frontline healthcare practitioners have to deal with constant red tape, constant education, strict laws and pesky professional ethics. Alternative medicine practitioners, on the other hand, are so unburdened by professional oversight, rules and regulations that they can sell remedies that do not even work (and in the case of homeopathy, often don't even exist) with few ramifications.On this episode of Scamapalooza Nicholas talks to Dr Vyom Sharma about working as a GP and how to deal with the problem of fake medicine.https://www.vyomsharma.com.au

OzLockCon is Australia’s first conference dedicated to locksport and physical security. From the amateur lockpicker to the professional security expert, the conference has something for everyone interesting locks. On this week's episode OzLockCon organiser Topaz talks about the event and explains how to pick a lock. https://ozlockcon.com

Why, given the constant need for people to measure everything from their personalities to their intellect, is there no test for gullibility? Alessa Tenunisse, a pHd student at Macquarie University’s Department of Psychology, has spent several exploring gullibility and it's relationship to scams. On this week's episode, Alessa discusses her work while Nicholas tries to strike it rich with a GQ test. You can help Alessa with her survey here: https://mqedu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cFOQHzCBWX7B76d

We are living in a golden age of bullshit. Nowhere is this more evident than in the media where fake news is now almost indistinguishable from the real deal. So how do you spot fake news? How do you spot it spreading? And how do you deal with that weird relative wanting to spread pizzagate conspiracy theories on facebook? On this week's episode, satirist Toby Halligan explains how to defeat lies in the era of fake news.

🎶It's only a paper moon, sailing over a cardboard sea.🎶And this week's episode is only pop culture queen Sarah Baggs exploring the whimsical and heartwarming world of Paper Moon. From the Peter Bogdanovich film to the Joe David Brown novel to the Jodie Foster starring TV series, Sarah and Nicholas explore what makes this rare con artist film a classic. 

Stephen Greenspan has dedicated a large part of his career to explaining why people act gullibly. As a psychologist and author, he’s drawn from research, literature and his own personal experience as a victim of Bernie Madoff to help explain the psychological underpinnings of why otherwise smart people do stupid things. On this week’s episode, Nicholas takes to Stephen about his work, his life and the reason why, if you say the word gullible really slow, it sounds like word oranges.

There are no two con artists films less alike than I Love You Phillip Morris and FOCUS. One is a true story, the other fiction. One is slick and cool, the other bright and slapstick filled. One features two men falling in love in prison while the other features a run of the mill Hollywood romance. On this week’s episode, Nicholas talks to Martin Dunlop about the differences between the two films while exposing their complete lack of understanding of the politics of sexuality.

The Laborastory is a science storytelling event in Melbourne that comes to tell the stories of science – the heroes, the egos, the breakthroughs and the mistakes of genius. From forgotten history and lonely laboratories, science and scientists quite literally take centre stage. On this week’s episode, Nicholas talks at the monthly science event about his scientific hero: amatuer geologist and fossicker Charles Dawson. But being Nicholas, there is a twist in the tale. http://www.mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza

Anthony “Magic Tony” Barnhart is a cognitive psychologist at Arizona State University. He studies the psychological processes underlying handwritten word perception and the psychological foundations of magic and illusion. On this week’s episode of the podcast Tony discusses his work while Nicholas tries to sell Tony on his crackpot theory connecting magic and autism.http://www.mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza/

Nick Mason, from the Weekly Planet Podcast, returns to help Nicholas deal with complex feelings about the 2016 film Now You See Me 2. The sequel to the surprise 2013 hit, Now You See Me 2 features more magic, more heists and more confusing plot twists than the original.

Do you remember that story about the man who sold his fob watch to buy his wife a comb while she sold her hair to buy him a watch chain? That classic twist comes from the mind of O Henry, a short story writer famous for penning tales filled with criminals and the down on their luck. Almost all of his stories have unpredictable, ironic endings. On this week’s episode, actor Tosh Greenslade brings to life my favourite O Henry short story, a tale of two con men, written by a man who might have been a swindler himself.

In the second part of Nicholas’ conversation with Spyros Melaris about the 1995 Alien Autopsy video, Spyros discuss the fallout from the hoax video, his falling out with his collaborator Ray Santilli and the many easter eggs hidden throughout the film. Is Spyros telling the truth? Or is he creating a conspiracy inside a conspiracy?

In 1995, the world was captivated by the Alien Autopsy video, a grainy 17 minute film supposedly depicting the disection of an alien “Grey” in Roswell, New Mexico. A decade later, the film was exposed by British man Ray Santilli who claimed he had masterminded the hoax. However, in recent years, another man, Spyros Melaris, has claimed that he was responsible for the lion share of the work. Where does the conspiracy end and the truth begin? http://www.mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza

Ben and Kevin just want to play. As two members of Pop Up Playground they create fun, immersive game experiences that feel like real live computer games. So why has their latest project, Small Time Criminals, attract the ire of tabloid media and victims of crime groups. Is it an ultra-realistic bank heist simulation that mocks the victims of real robberies? Or is it a media beat up? On this week’s episode Ben and Kevin talk games, cheating and bank heists while Nicholas tries to make the two most laidback men in Melbourne angry.http://mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza

Everyone wants to be a good liar. Or at the very least, be able to spot a good liar. But what do you do when all of the books on the subject are written by authors who are experts on doing just that? On this week’s episode, Vinny DePonto talks about five of his favourite books on lying and Nicholas wonders with Mark Twain would be doing burlesque if he was alive today.http://www.mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza

Dom and Dumber have taken on a mammoth task, combining magic and sketch comedy into an entirely new genre. In this week's Scamapalooza, Dom Chambers and Bayden Hammond sit down and talk about their favourite comedy, magic and how you manage to jam the two of them together. #comedy #magic #scams #sketchhttp://www.mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza

Paul Zenon is the father of street magic, the first magician to take close up magic to the streets in his successful TV specials. However, Paul is also an accomplished actor, author and skeptic. His tales of his run ins with mediums, television producers and other scumbags are the stuff of legend. http://www.mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza

How does a psychic prove they are the real deal? For close to a hundred years, skeptics around the world have been offering cash prizes to anyone who can provide evidence of the paranormal. On this week’s episode podcaster Richard Saunders explores the world of psychic challenges from the Scientific American in 1922 to the James Randi Million Dollar Prize.http://www.mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza

Orson Welles' last project before the descending into a life of frozen pea commercials and voicing Transformers was F Is A Fake. The film is a magician’s bag, full of cinematic tricks and double bluffs. On this week’s episode, Simon Caterson returns to explore Orson Well’s final great trick, a pseuod-documentary about an art forger and the hoaxer who wrote his biography. http://www.mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza

Jan Marshall is an intelligent woman. She’s university educated, articulate and has lived and travelled around the world. So why, in 2012, did she lose over a quarter of a million dollars to a romance scammer? On this week’s episode, Jan tells her incredible story, not just of how she lost the money but how she regained her life. And then she came face to face with an even bigger foe: the Tax Office. http://www.mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza

Scamapalooza returns for 2016. On this week’s episode Nicholas is flying solo as he recounts the top episodes of last year, reveals a few rejected episode ideas and reads a classic tale of gambling, cheats and beautiful blondes from card cheating expert John Scarne. http://www.mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza

Harry Houdini was not just one of history’s most famous magicians he was also obsessed with death and the afterlife, dedicating years to uncovering the truth about life after death. Mina Crandon was a spirit medium who claimed that the ghosts she communicated with could ring bells, float tables and throw trumpets across rooms. On this week’s episode Jon Cox from from the website Wild About Houdini tells the incredible story of Houdini and Crandon’s battle of wits and the extraordinary lengths the would-be psychic went to prove she was the real deal. Scamapalooza will return in 2016.http://mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza

On 25 August 1835, The Sun newspaper in New York reported that a telescope had been invented so powerful that it could see the surface of the moon. There, alien life had been discovered. Man bats, bipedal beavers and abandoned temples to forgotten gods were all described in great detail. On this week’s episode Matthew Goodman, author of The Sun and The Moon, explains how the hoax came about and how it changed journalism and astronomy forever. http://www.mammothaudio.com.au/scamapalooza/

Piff The Magic Dragon isn’t your usual magician. He plays Las Vegas and wows judges on TV shows like America’s Got Talent and Penn and Teller Fool Us. But, his also a fire breathing dragon with a pet chihuahua, known for sending playing cards into toasted cheese sandwiches and shooting his beloved Mr Piffles out of a canon. On this week’s episode, Piff aka John Van Der Put explains how he become the world’s most famous magical dragon and what it’s like being an internet sensation.

The Sting is the king of con artist movies and the godfather of every twist happy heist movie from Ocean’s 11 to Matchstick Men. This week on the podcast writer Matthew Specktor talks about the incredible legacy of The Sting, a film that swept the 1973 Academy Award, reteamed Robert Redford and Paul Newman and changed film forever. MATTHEW'S SITE: https://matthewspecktor.com/