Dawson’s Creek
the curious story of Piltdown Man
In 1912 it was the greatest anthropological find of all time... until it was revealed to be an audacious hoax.
Categories: Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Science & Nature, Series 9
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"Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries"
Here’s a hint – if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.
Westward Huss
here a Viking, there a Viking, everywhere a Viking Viking
Would you believe there were Vikings in Washington, DC? Or West Virginia? Or Oklahoma? Or Hawaii? How about all of the above and none of the above?
Categories: Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Series 8, The Quest for the Past
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Westward Huss
Minnesota Vikings can be found far beyond U.S. Bank Stadium
In which the vikings of Minnesota challenge the patriots of New England for the right to claim Vikings beat Columbus to the New World.
Categories: Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Series 8, The Quest for the Past
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Westward Huss
in which America asks the question: whither Vinland?
For years, archaeologists have searched in vain for the location of Leif Eriksson's Vinland. They should have just asked the good people of New England.
Categories: Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Popular Facts & Fallacies, Series 8, The Quest for the Past
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Burning Fire, Deep Water
neither Venezuelan nor Volcano
Burnu Acquanetta, "the Venezuelan Volcano," was an exotic beauty who took Hollywood by storm in the summer of 1942... but who was she really?
Categories: Biography, Entertainment & Media, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 8
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His Royal Snakeship
or perhaps just one of his country cousins
In 1855 the town of Perry, New York was terrorized by a "sea serpent" in nearby Silver Lake. It was a hoax... but whose hoax was it?
Categories: Bonus Episodes, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Legendary Lands & Beasts, Wild Card
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Moron or Madman? Addenda
duped by Mendelist-Morganists
We thought our episode on Trofim Lysenko was too focused on the what and when rather than the how and why. This bonus episode should clear things up.
Categories: Bonus Episodes, History, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Least Popular, Science & Nature, Supplement, The Marvels of Science
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Moron or Madman?
in which science is subordinated to politics
Trofim D. Lysenko (1898-1976) set back the study of biology in the Soviet Union for two generations -- but the lessons you should learn from his story are not the one scientists and philosophers have pushed.
Categories: Biography, History, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Science & Nature, Series 7, The Marvels of Science
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What-Is-It?
there's an animal roaming round the town that is certainly gaining great renown
For one week in January 1909, the Jersey Devil walked among us. Maybe.
Categories: Footsteps into the Unknown, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Legendary Lands & Beasts, Myths & Legends, Series 6, Wild Card
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Normalating
let me tell you about the healing power of color
The idea that color has healing power is a relatively modern (and utterly fallacious) one. We discuss its development through the 19th and 20th centuries.
Categories: Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Science & Nature, Series 5
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Pleadings from Asbury Park
a fake marriage, a dead baby, and 21 absinthe frappes
The amazing story of Laura Biggar, the Anna Nicole Smith of 1901, and her crazy plot to steal an inheritance that may or may not have been rightfully hers.
Categories: Biography, History, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Least Popular, Series 4
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Spirit Princess
one woman, thirty aliases, forty years and too many crimes to count
The greatest and most notorious Spiritualist swindler of all time was a woman from Kentucky who looked a bit like Lola Montez (if you squinted).
Categories: Biography, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 3
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