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 Dale
Trial transcript

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 Dale <a href="http://www.grandvoyageitaly.com/cucina/when-i-was-a-kid-i-learned-that-spaghetti-grew-on-trees">Trial transcript</a>

Why do so many people believe things that aren’t true? In an era when claims of “fake news” come as natural as breathing, and social media allows lies to spread and multiply like viruses, the question feels more relevant than ever. From the teenage girls who convinced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that fairies were real in the 19th century to “Balloon boy” in 2009, Hoax! will explore the most audacious and ambitious tricks in history. And along the way, we’ll uncover the reasons people let themselves be fooled, and how we can live our lives and engage with the media with a more critical eye. Co-hosted by Noble Blood’s Dana Schwartz and pop culture writer Lizzie Logan, we’ll bring you stories of pranks and grifts throughout history so big and bold they make us question why we believe what we believe in the first place.

 

**New episodes every other week**

Why do so many people believe things that aren&rsquo;t true? In an era when claims of &ldquo;fake news&rdquo; come as natural as breathing, and social media allows lies to spread and multiply like viruses, the question feels more relevant than ever. From the teenage girls who convinced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that fairies were real in the 19th century to&nbsp;&ldquo;Balloon boy&rdquo; in 2009, Hoax! will explore the most audacious and ambitious tricks in history. And along the way, we&rsquo;ll uncover the reasons people let themselves be fooled, and how we can live our lives and engage with the media with a more critical eye. Co-hosted by Noble Blood&rsquo;s Dana Schwartz and pop culture writer Lizzie Logan, we&rsquo;ll bring you stories of pranks and grifts throughout history so big and bold they make us question why we believe what we believe in the first place.
&nbsp;
**New episodes every other week**

Hoax!

Napoleon is Dead

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/1be704e8-cbd0-4aac-b8ce-b40c0161d83d/transcript

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-started
https://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-2021-3
https://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/15/curious-case-sidd-finch
https://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/21/si-60-curious-case-sidd-finch-mark-mulvoy-myra-gelband
https://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-145695984
https://sports.yahoo.com/still-curious-catching-those-brought-150800240.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/sports/baseball/an-old-baseball-april-fools-hoax.html
https://www.mlb.com/news/sidd-finch-hoax-recalled-at-sabr-convention/c-133074166
ESPN: Unhittable: Sidd Finch and the Tibetan Fastball
BBC: 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-trees

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-started https://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-2021-3 https://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/15/curious-case-sidd-finch https://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/21/si-60-curious-case-sidd-finch-mark-mulvoy-myra-gelband https://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-145695984 https://sports.yahoo.com/still-curious-catching-those-brought-150800240.html https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/sports/baseball/an-old-baseball-april-fools-hoax.html https://www.mlb.com/news/sidd-finch-hoax-recalled-at-sabr-convention/c-133074166 ESPN: Unhittable: Sidd Finch and the Tibetan Fastball BBC: Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino&nbsp; 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-trees

April Fool's Day: Google, Spaghetti Trees and Sidd Finch

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/ba9bf7d1-1fec-49e0-bee7-b418014409f3/transcript

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!

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!

Crop Circles

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/ca61457b-39fc-4724-9ab7-b3fc0187fbad/transcript

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. Washington
https://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. Cook

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. Washington https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pt-barnum-greatest-humbug-them-all-180967634/ &ldquo;P.T. Barnum and Africa&rdquo; Bernth Lindfors&nbsp; The Colossal P.T. Barnum Reader, edited by James W. Cook

Joice Heth

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/2dc6f61e-97e1-4068-b8b6-b3ee0130dea7/transcript

Napoleon is Dead

Hoax!

In 1 playlist(s)

Hoax!

Social links

Follow podcast

Recent clips