I think the first time we met in person was on the Skepto track over at a dragon. As I creep up on 50, my shadow grows longer. That's part of why half of each episode is the story itself. A quarter of it is demystifying the hidden flaws in our humanity that people exploit. And then a quarter of it are full personal stories and those only seem to sweeten as I get older.
In this episode, we sit down with famed stage magician and infamous instructor of the school of scams, Brian Brushwood, whose new podcast explores the world's greatest con artists and con jobs from World War II to modern game shows.
We cover everything in this episode from why you can't con an honest person to the power of shame and fame to folk psychology to how the British conned Hitler using one of the oldest tricks in the book to how one man broke the code for Press Your Luck earning him the most money ever awarded in a single day on any program in the history of game shows.