Hoax!

Episodi

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  The Jussie Smollett Incident 22.06.2026 1h 56min

  In January 2019, ‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett was the victim of a racial and homophobic hate crime perpetrated in Chicago that shocked the nation and sparked an outcry from seemingly Hollywood’s entire A-list. But it didn’t take long for cracks in his story to emerge. In our season 1 finale, we explore the logic holes, inconsistencies, and downright bizarre twists in this years-long saga involving race, sexuality, police brutality and celebrity. Plus, a lot of tangents. SOURCESThe Truth About Jussie Smollett? (Netflix)https://www.biography.com/actor/jussie-smolletthttps://www.out.com/entertainment/2016/1/28/exclusive-jussie-smollett-being-black-and-gay-hollywoodhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/03/im-the-gay-tupac-jussie-smolletthttps://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/jussie-smollett-video-shows-brothers-red-hat-ski-mask/https://time.com/5560430/jussie-smollett-donald-trump-fbi/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chicago-police-chief-eddie-johnson-fired-after-series-ethical-lapses-n1094301https://www.chicagotribune.com/2021/12/02/jussie-smolletts-legal-team-begins-defense-at-actors-trial-for-allegedly-staging-and-reporting-a-phony-hate-crime/https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/samuel-l-jackson-offered-support-for-smollett-in-letter-read-at-sentencinghttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/21/jussie-smollett-conviction-overturnedhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/25/jussie-smollett-chicago-charities-settle-lawsuithttps://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/prosecutor-kim-foxx-defends-jussie-smollett-decision-in-wbez-interview/ddc80843-d6ee-4c25-a635-02ad49c325e6https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47317701https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/national-international/jussie-smollett-2007-dui-arrest/4508/https://www.businessinsider.com/jussie-smollett-2007-false-information-case-2019-2https://variety.com/2025/film/news/jussie-smollett-hate-crime-netflix-documentary-comeback-1236487316/https://www.citybureau.org/black-caucus-timelinehttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chicago-police-department-routinely-violated-people-s-rights-feds-say-n706586See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Scratching Fanny of Cock Lane 08.06.2026 51min

  A landlord claimed that his daughter was haunted, by the deceased wife of a former tenant. Most shocking of all, this ghost was accusing her husband of murder. Ghosts aren't real (most of the time, sorry), but murders plots can be very, very real. But who is the real murderer here? SOURCES:Gentlemen’s Magazine archives (by Samuel Johnson) “Ghostly Hands and Ghostly Agency,” Jennifer Bann“Missionaries, Methodists, and a Ghost,” Travis Glasson“We See a Ghost: Hogarth’s Satire on Methodists and Connoisseurs,” Bernd Krysmanski“Samuel Johnson and Spectral Media,” Rachael Scarborough King Elizabeth [called the Cock Lane Ghost], Oxford Dictionary of National BiographySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Time Traveler John Titor 25.05.2026 55min

  From 1998 to 2001, a man claiming to be visiting our "world-line" on a mission from the year 2036 enthralled a corner of the nascent internet with his explanations of time travel, the world of the future, and the wars to come. While few of his "predictions" came true, his story remains haunting -- who was this enigmatic early forum poster? Why did he claim time ended in 2564? How did he know so much about early computers? And where, or when, did he go? SOURCEShttps://rileyraccoon.substack.com/p/time-travel-taleshttps://vimeo.com/11661023https://web.archive.org/web/20170622161305/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11945420/Who-was-John-Titor-the-time-traveller-who-came-from-2036-to-warn-us-of-a-nuclear-war.htmlhttps://www.discoveryuk.com/mysteries/john-titor-the-internets-most-mysterious-time-traveller/https://web.archive.org/web/20260102173511/https://www.postbulletin.com/rochester-magazine/john-titor-who-was-the-time-traveler-that-visited-rochesterhttps://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/john-titor-time-traveler-predictions-storyhttps://johntitorresearch.wordpress.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Fake Anastasias 11.05.2026 1h 15min

  Anastasia Romanov inspired a play, an Academy Award-winning movie, and a Dana-and-Lizzie-loving animated feature. But the legend of the missing princess is stranger and more involved than a movie with a talking bat might have led you to believe. SOURCES:https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/february-6/anastasia-arrives-in-the-united-stateshttps://phys.org/news/2018-07-fresh-dna-authenticate-bones-russia.htmlhttps://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19600212&id=tuUlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EncDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7046,629353&hl=enhttps://www.nytimes.com/1958/08/24/archives/anastasia-grand-duchess-or-grand-hoax-the-last-act-in-the-drama-of.htmlhttps://web.archive.org/web/20250331152750/http://www.readthehook.net/86004/cover-jack-amp-anna-remembering-czar-charlottesville-eccentricshttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68616https://blog.newspapers.com/anna-anastasia-anderson/https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/grondahl-anastasia-or-imposter-local-author-12950650.phpSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  The Gulf Breeze UFOtos 27.04.2026 59min

  In one of the most famous and widely-reported UFO sightings of all time, a Florida man witnessed, photographed and even interacted with alien beings from another planet several times over the course of many months, sparking a frenzy of speculation and excitement. Then again...a Florida man...SOURCES:War of the Words by Craig R Meyershttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/02/16/congress-uap-obama-aliens-real-podcast/88699039007/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-files-released-scientists-trump/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/09/10/ufo-hearing-video-hellfire-missile/86073340007/Professor Andrew FraknoiSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  The Bristol Princess 13.04.2026 39min

  A girl showed up at a town near Bristol in 1817 wearing a turban, and everyone went nuts.  SOURCES:"The Caraboo Hoax," Margaret RussellJohn Matthew Gutch's narrativeEnglish Eccentrics, by Edith Sitwell"Devonshire Characters and Strange Events""British Performances of Java," Matthew Isaac CohenSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  April Fool's Day: Google, Spaghetti Trees and Sidd Finch 30.03.2026 37min

  This episode of Hoax is no fun at all. April Fool's! For our (almost) April 1 episode, we explore the holiday's origins and some of the best pranks of the 20th and 21st centuries: Google's various exploits (Pokemon Go!), that time the BBC produced a piece on Spaghetti Trees, and the Curious Case of Sidd Finch, the Mets pitcher who could throw 168 MPH. SOURCES:https://www.rutgers.edu/news/how-did-april-fools-day-get-startedhttps://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/03/april-fools/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/01/king-kugel-an-april-fools-history-lesson/https://frenchmoments.eu/april-fools-day-traditions-in-france-le-1er-avril/https://bylines.scot/society/hunt-the-gowk-day/https://www.scotsmagazine.com/articles/hunt-the-gowk-april-fools-scotland/https://www.icelandreview.com/news/iceland-celebrates-april-fools%E2%80%99-day/https://www.businessinsider.com/google-cancels-april-fools-day-pranks-coronavirus-2021-3https://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/15/curious-case-sidd-finchhttps://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/21/si-60-curious-case-sidd-finch-mark-mulvoy-myra-gelbandhttps://nypost.com/2025/04/08/sports/legendary-sidd-finch-finally-makes-it-to-mets-home-game-40-years-later/https://niemanstoryboard.org/2014/04/01/whys-this-so-good-no-90-george-plimpton-and-sidd-finch/https://www.milb.com/news/legend-of-sidd-finch-lives-on-in-brooklyn-145695984https://sports.yahoo.com/still-curious-catching-those-brought-150800240.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/sports/baseball/an-old-baseball-april-fools-hoax.htmlhttps://www.mlb.com/news/sidd-finch-hoax-recalled-at-sabr-convention/c-133074166ESPN: Unhittable: Sidd Finch and the Tibetan FastballBBC: Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino https://fox59.com/news/national-world/greatest-april-fools-prank-of-all-time-the-story-of-the-bbcs-spaghetti-trees/https://retrospectjournal.com/2023/09/25/the-spaghetti-trees-of-ticino/https://ericajurus.ca/2024/04/02/the-tradition-of-pranking-and-fooling/http://www.grandvoyageitaly.com/cucina/when-i-was-a-kid-i-learned-that-spaghetti-grew-on-treesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Napoleon is Dead 16.03.2026 1h 16min

  Stockmarkets are now battlefields. An aide-de-camp arrived in Dover with the startling, thrilling news that Napoleon had been killed, and the British stock market behaved accordingly. The problem was, Napoleon wasn't dead. SOURCES:Napoleon Is Dead by Richard DaleTrial transcriptSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Crop Circles 02.03.2026 1h 26min

  Messages from extraterrestrial visitors? Evidence of strange atmospheric conditions? No one knows where crop circles come from or what they mean. Except, we do know, but for believers, that's the start, not the end, of the story. The history of crop circles is a case study in conspiratorial thinking...plus art in wheat fields!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Joice Heth 16.02.2026 48min

  P.T. Barnum is famous to movie-going audiences as the charming 'Greatest Showman,' but the reality was far more complicated, and much darker. P.T. Barnum's very first foray into showbusiness was purchasing an enslaved woman named Joice Heth, whom he displayed as a public spectacle, promoting her a 161-year-old woman who once nursed George Washington. SOURCES:'The Showman and the Slave' by Benjamin Reiss'Medical Apartheid' by Harriet A. Washingtonhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pt-barnum-greatest-humbug-them-all-180967634/“P.T. Barnum and Africa” Bernth Lindfors The Colossal P.T. Barnum Reader, edited by James W. CookSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Van Meegeren's Vermeers 02.02.2026 46min

  Arrested in 1945 for selling a Vermeer masterpiece to high-ranking Nazi Herman Goring, dutch painter Han van Meegeren had an innovative and shocking defense: he was guilty not of collaboration but of art forgery, faking half a dozen "Vermeers" over the previous decade. But under the reign of the Third Reich, where do you draw the line between opportunism and profiteering? SOURCEShttps://museumhack.com/anniversary-forgery-meegeren/https://www.essentialvermeer.com/misc/van_meegeren.htmlhttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/27/dutch-masterhttps://www.culturedmag.com/article/2023/03/16/han-van-meegeren-forgery-nazi-vermeer/https://www.salon.com/2016/11/27/faking-it-does-the-forged-vermeer-that-fooled-goering-belong-in-a-museum/The Man Who Made Vermeers by Jonathan LopezHow Pleasure Works by Paul Bloomhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnnkuOz08GQhttps://www.npr.org/2008/07/12/92483237/how-mediocre-dutch-artist-cast-the-forgers-spellhttps://www.thecollector.com/han-van-meegeren/Van Meegeren: The Forger Who Fooled The Nazis (BBC)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  The Piltdown Man 19.01.2026 42min

  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 Dawn-man" after the Sussex solicitor who found the original fossil. It was the find of a lifetime, and a much-needed bit of national pride for the English. The only problem? It wasn't real. SOURCES:The Piltdown Man Hoax: Case Closed by Miles Russell Piltdown Man: The Secret Life of Charles Dawson by Miles Russell (Tempus, Stroud, 2003)https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-problem-of-piltdown-man/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/nov/23/piltdown-man-remains-exposed-as-fake-1953https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/08/folklore-piltdown-man-hoax/'The Perpetrator at Piltdown' by J Winslow and A Meyer, Science (September, 1983)https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2016/august/piltdown-man-charles-dawson-likely-fraudster.htmlhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/piltdown-man-paleoanthropologys-april-fools-176401927/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  I, Libertine 05.01.2026 48min

  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 underground Night People movement. When he proposed to prank the book world by demanding a novel that didn't exist, the title became so popular his followers more or less willed it into being. SOURCEShttps://web.archive.org/web/20020427051336/https:/flicklives.com/Articles/Wall_Street_Journel/8-1-56/8-1-56.jpghttps://www.theawl.com/2013/02/the-man-behind-the-brilliant-media-hoax-of-i-libertine/Excelsior, You Fathead! By Eugene B BergmannI, Libertine by Theodore Sturgeonhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/25/handbook-for-mortals-by-lani-sarem-pulled-from-nyt-bestsellers-listhttps://www.pajiba.com/book_reviews/did-this-book-buy-its-way-onto-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list.phphttps://www.vulture.com/2017/09/handbook-for-mortals-lani-sarem-23-hour-new-york-times-bestseller.htmlhttps://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/lani-sarem-blues-traveler-manager-novelist-bestseller-list-7957648/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  The Mechanical Turk 22.12.2025 1h 24min

  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 royal court in Vienna that people have never seen before: an automaton capable of playing chess. SOURCES:The Mechanical Turk by Tom Standagehttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/debunking-mechanical-turk-helped-set-edgar-allan-poe-path-mystery-writing-180964059/Maelzel’s Chess Player by Edgar Allan Poe Last of a Veteran Chess Player by Silas Weir MitchellSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Lonelygirl15 08.12.2025 1h 2min

  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 with no one but the internet and her only friend, Daniel, for company. As Bree's situation grew more dire, she became one of the first online obsessions, paving the way for hundreds of hoaxes to come. SOURCEShttps://www.youtube.com/@lonelygirl15https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0-m-JXcppohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5S2Kdb8Io4&t=3shttps://medium.com/@vocativ/the-strange-saga-of-lonelygirl15-an-oral-history-dd94687e9976https://www.businessinsider.com/where-are-they-now-creators-of-lonelygirl15-turned-web-series-into-a-multi-million-dollar-company-2010-7https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnjZzDeepE8https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/16/lonelygirl15-bree-video-blog-youtubehttps://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-lonelygirl15-story.htmlhttps://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/how-the-secret-identity-of-lonelygirl15-was-found/https://www.reddit.com/r/popculturechat/comments/154b603/how_did_people_of_the_2000s_fall_for_lonelygirl15/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Mumler Spirit Photography 24.11.2025 1h 5min

  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 of traversing the thin line between life and death? Eventually, it will be up to the court to decide.  Sources:Special thanks to u/Naturalog on Reddit and Stephen Berkman'The Apparitionists' by Peter Manseauhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/meet-mr-mumler-man-who-captured-lincolns-ghost-camera-180965090/ https://www.vox.com/22918581/mumler-victorian-spirit-ghost-photographyhttps://reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digital?id=sat2698811#page/33/mode/1up https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/when-cameras-took-pictures-of-ghosts/281010/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Report from Iron Mountain 10.11.2025 48min

  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. Sources:https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/30/us/l-c-lewin-writer-of-satire-of-government-plot-dies-at-82.htmlGhost of Iron Mountain by Phil TinlineJFK (1991, O. Stone)https://hvmag.com/life-style/a-history-of-iron-mountain-an-information-storage-facility-in-germantown-ny/https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-many-lives-of-iron-mountainhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/iron-mountain-hoax-anti-vietnam-war-satire-conspiracy-theoriesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  The Impostress Rabbit 27.10.2025 39min

  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/an-extraordinary-delivery-of-rabbits/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mary-toft-gave-birth-to-rabbitshttps://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/files/special/exhibns/month/aug2009.htmlhttps://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/80/1/33/665070?login=falsehttps://academic.oup.com/past/article-abstract/238/1/43/4822513?redirectedFrom=fulltexthttps://www.godalmingmuseum.co.uk/articles/mary-toftsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  Salvator Mundi 13.10.2025 1h 9min

  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 auction. Sources:The Lost LeonardoSavior For Salehttps://therenaissanceworkshop.com/leonardo-da-vinci/https://www.mos.org/leonardo/biography.htmlhttps://www.rct.uk/collection/912525/the-drapery-of-a-chest-and-sleevehttps://www.rct.uk/collection/912524/the-drapery-of-a-sleevehttps://web.archive.org/web/20200524085434/https://www.history.com/news/how-a-priceless-da-vinci-masterwork-disappeared-from-view-for-centurieshttps://salvatormundirevisited.com/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/sep/09/lost-leonardo-da-vinci-film-solved-mystery-worlds-most-expensive-painting-salvator-mundihttps://apnews.com/general-news-91be03753b7d4dbbacfc4bb0d1dcca3dhttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/how-saudi-royal-crushed-his-rivals-shakedown-ritz-carlton-n930396https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/arts/design/salvator-mundi-louvre-abu-dhabi.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/07/world/middleeast/saudi-crown-prince-salvator-mundi.htmlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGsUFvwgvCohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P64rDJkX4HYhttps://artwatch.org.uk/two-developments-in-the-no-show-louvre-abu-dhabi-leonardo-salvator-mundi-saga/https://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/menteleonardo/emdl.aspSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  The Wild West in Palisade, Nevada 29.09.2025 34min

  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 Palisade, Nevada," Very Special Episodes.Fakes, Frauds & Other Malarkey by Kathryn Lindskoog."Mark Twain's Nevada Newspaper Hoaxes" Andrew R. Giarrelli.Mark Twain's writing for the Territorial Enterprise (1851-1865)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.