I feel like we have a different relationship today with reputation management and why people do weird stuff on the internet. And that's what I love about doing an anthology season is that we have stories of the powerful screwing over the little guy. We've got clean actors who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. My hope is that by the end of season two, between the world conquering Hitler with a con and game show frauds, hopefully the play space is now wide enough that we get to tell all types of stories of deception.
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.