World's Greatest Con

<p>Charles Ponzi conducted a financial fraud so audacious he became the biggest brand name in crime. Yet most people don’t know what he actually did and those who do are often hard-pressed to explain why it was...

Eddie has a plan to make millions. It leaves him an international fugitive.<p > Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.</p>

A New York City upstart becomes a legend in the city that never sleeps. But his greed leaves him teetering on the edge of fame, wealth and death.<p > Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.</p>

<p>The Germans have invented an aquatic killing machine the likes of which the world has never known. If you are one of its victims, how do you trick sure death? By pulling an all-in audacious scheme that only works if...

<p>The true story of how Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin is called out of retirement to help quell an uprising in French Colonial Algeria. What happens next is the most famous, high stakes magic performance in history...

<p>Walt is dead. His dream of EPCOT isn't.</p><br><p>Roy Disney puts off his own retirement to attempt to finish his brother's final plan. In his way is a new hostile governor and the bewildered residents of Orlando who...

<p>Walt Disney doesn't want to expand, he wants to build his masterpiece. </p><br><p>He doesn't want to sell more popcorn, he wants to defeat communism.</p><br><p>He doesn't want Disneyland East, he is driven to build...

<p>Brian and Justin discuss an article in the New York Times alleging that magic has forgiven it's 50-year grudge with Uri Geller. Considering the subject matter of our Project Alpha investigation... World's Greatest...

A funny thing happened as we finished our season. We asked for listeners to unearth an old podcast WGC co-creator Justin Robert Young did with James Randi and it was indeed found. But one episode surprised us... James...

Sometimes when you tell a story, you change it. We have an update on one of the central figures in Project Alpha. Brian Brushwood reads your emails and feedback including questions about James Randi and a moment when...

<p>In a rare, candid, conversation Brian Brushwood sits down with Mike Edwards and Banachek to get even more stories from the Mac Lab and answer lingering questions. </p><br><p><br></p><p > Hosted on Acast. See...

<p>At a 1983 press conference in New York City, the entire charade is revealed. It’s recorded for a prime time NBC special set to air two weeks later. We unpack 40 years of consequences from the triumph and betrayal of...

The boys are a team, they’ve been fooling the Mac Lab for over a year but what comes next? Fame and fortune for the Project Alpha team, hopefully. Yet, that means total humiliation for the professors and researchers...

Steve Shaw is an orphan who bounced around the globe. Mike Edwards is an Iowa choirboy who fulfilled every hope of his loving parents. They both see a world being defrauded by hucksters. They both apply to the Mac Lab...

The Cold War is on, the threat of nuclear annihilation is constant. In a world of fear, a social contagion breaks out: the belief in psychic powers. Military, government and academia take it so seriously they spend...