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-1953
https://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.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/piltdown-man-paleoanthropologys-april-fools-176401927/

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&nbsp; 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-1953 https://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.html https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/piltdown-man-paleoanthropologys-april-fools-176401927/

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!

The Piltdown Man

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/b68c4493-3ef4-4131-bed0-b3d301780679/transcript

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?

SOURCES
https://museumhack.com/anniversary-forgery-meegeren/
https://www.essentialvermeer.com/misc/van_meegeren.html
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/27/dutch-master
https://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 Lopez
How Pleasure Works by Paul Bloom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnnkuOz08GQ
https://www.npr.org/2008/07/12/92483237/how-mediocre-dutch-artist-cast-the-forgers-spell
https://www.thecollector.com/han-van-meegeren/
Van Meegeren: The Forger Who Fooled The Nazis (BBC)

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?
SOURCES https://museumhack.com/anniversary-forgery-meegeren/ https://www.essentialvermeer.com/misc/van_meegeren.html https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/27/dutch-master https://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 Lopez How Pleasure Works by Paul Bloom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnnkuOz08GQ https://www.npr.org/2008/07/12/92483237/how-mediocre-dutch-artist-cast-the-forgers-spell https://www.thecollector.com/han-van-meegeren/ Van Meegeren: The Forger Who Fooled The Nazis (BBC)

Van Meegeren's Vermeers

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/6c2e7a55-45c0-4d7d-b923-b3e0014a4793/transcript

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.

SOURCES
https://web.archive.org/web/20020427051336/https:/flicklives.com/Articles/Wall_Street_Journel/8-1-56/8-1-56.jpg
https://www.theawl.com/2013/02/the-man-behind-the-brilliant-media-hoax-of-i-libertine/
Excelsior, You Fathead! By Eugene B Bergmann
I, Libertine by Theodore Sturgeon
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/25/handbook-for-mortals-by-lani-sarem-pulled-from-nyt-bestsellers-list
https://www.pajiba.com/book_reviews/did-this-book-buy-its-way-onto-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list.php
https://www.vulture.com/2017/09/handbook-for-mortals-lani-sarem-23-hour-new-york-times-bestseller.html
https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/lani-sarem-blues-traveler-manager-novelist-bestseller-list-7957648/

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.
SOURCES https://web.archive.org/web/20020427051336/https:/flicklives.com/Articles/Wall_Street_Journel/8-1-56/8-1-56.jpg https://www.theawl.com/2013/02/the-man-behind-the-brilliant-media-hoax-of-i-libertine/ Excelsior, You Fathead! By Eugene B Bergmann I, Libertine by Theodore Sturgeon https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/25/handbook-for-mortals-by-lani-sarem-pulled-from-nyt-bestsellers-list https://www.pajiba.com/book_reviews/did-this-book-buy-its-way-onto-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list.php https://www.vulture.com/2017/09/handbook-for-mortals-lani-sarem-23-hour-new-york-times-bestseller.html https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/lani-sarem-blues-traveler-manager-novelist-bestseller-list-7957648/

I, Libertine

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/21491171-ecbb-489f-915c-b3b50011a058/transcript

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 Standage
https://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 Mitchell

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 Standage https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/debunking-mechanical-turk-helped-set-edgar-allan-poe-path-mystery-writing-180964059/ Maelzel&rsquo;s Chess Player by Edgar Allan Poe&nbsp; Last of a Veteran Chess Player by Silas Weir Mitchell

The Mechanical Turk

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/42be4c65-801f-4305-bfb2-b3b401422a2e/transcript

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