Here at Morning Meeting we love nothing more than a juicy grifter story. This week, our colleague George Pendle joins us to share a whopper of a tale that involves shifting identities and a shocking endgame. It’s a story we call “The Grift, the Prince, and the Twist,” and it needs to be heard to be believed. Then Jeffrey Toobin reveals how the key to understanding Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s quest for the Oval Office can be found in a nearly 50-year-old murder case. All this and more make it a show you won’t want to miss.

Episode 161: The Craziest Grifter Story. Ever

Welcome to Morning Meeting, where AIR MAIL’s Ashley Baker and Michael Hainey take you inside the stories people are talking about this week—and tip you off to the ones the editors are talking about for next week. We cover the people shaping your world that you want to know more about (and more often the stuff they don’t want you to know about). And we talk with friends of AIR MAIL—writers, reporters, and style-setters. So listen in every Saturday as Morning Meeting brings you what’s new and exciting from the world of AIR MAIL.&nbsp;

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We have a frightening article this week courtesy of Clara Molot, a Senior Editor here at Air Mail. Many people are not aware that across the U.S. and around the world rates of cancer in young people are rising with no clear explanation. And Clara looks at a mysterious cancer surge among a group of twentysomething alumni from a college in Virginia. It’s a heartbreaking story. And speaking of heartbreak: it’s been 25 years since John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, died when the plane he was piloting crashed into dark, fog-shrouded waters off of Martha’s Vineyard. We all knew J.F.K. Jr., but for many Bessette-Kennedy remains a mystery. A new book, Once upon a Time, looks at her life, and the author Elizabeth Beller will join us. Finally, you have surely heard that driverless cars are coming for us. Devin Friedman joins us from Los Angeles to tell what he discovered when he took one for a spin. (Or did the car take him for a spin? We’ll find out.)

Episode 193: What You Didn't Know About 90s Icon Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy

The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing in the South of France, and one of the big stories everyone is following concerns Francis Ford Coppola. Forty-five years after he won the Palme d’Or for Apocalypse Now, he is back with his latest film, Megalopolis. He has spent more than $100 million of his own money on the film and is at the festival looking for a distributor. Our own Sam Wasson will tell us how one of the titans of moviemaking found himself hat in hand. Then Stuart Heritage will join us from the U.K., where he will tell us about what is known to be the worst hotel in Great Britain. And James Eli Shiffer has the incredible story of an American woman from Minnesota who discovered that she is the secret daughter of an Italian banker and senator who cavorted with Jackie Kennedy and Princess Margaret and was the face of the 1970s jet set.

Episode 192: The Legendary Italian Playboy and His Secret American Daughter

Is your partner cheating on you with an A.I. companion? As Flora Gill tells us this week, many people, in search of physical and emotional intimacy, are increasingly turning to what are known as “A.I.-companion sites.” Then Alyssa Choiniere takes us inside the protests at Columbia University and tells us where this all might be headed. And finally, John Arlidge joins us from London with a new look at an extraordinary scandal. Ten years ago, high-profile members of the British Establishment—including a former prime minister—were falsely accused of sexually abusing children. In the effort to discover the truth, however, the country tore itself apart.

Episode 191: Is Your Partner Cheating on You with an A.I. Companion?

For decades, the Eurovision Song Contest has been a source of fun for millions. This year, people are bracing for other possibilities. Jonathan Margolis tells us why. Then Michael Gross has a revealing look at the scandal that sent New York’s bluebloods buzzing: when the son of Brooke Astor, the long-reigning queen of New York society, was convicted of stealing millions from her. (Or did he?) And finally, on strange stories of a different sort, Paulina Prosnitz tells us about Sarah J. Maas. You may not know her, but she is the Taylor Swift of book publishing and has conquered the best-seller list with a new genre called “romantasy,” which comes complete with kinky elves. (Yes, kinky elves.)

Episode 190: The Crime That Scandalized New York's Bluebloods

This week, Howard Blum, who has been following the story of the man accused of killing four students at the University of Idaho, has new revelations that could sink the case against Bryan Kohberger. Then Carrie Monahan reports on how the desire by one of New York City’s most notorious private clubs to open an outpost in East Hampton has local residents up in arms. And finally, many of you know the film Mommie Dearest, which stars Faye Dunaway as Hollywood legend Joan Crawford. Now there’s a new book looking at how a project with such big ambitions found itself an unintentional camp classic. The book’s author, A. Ashley Hoff, joins us to dish the dirt.

Episode 161: The Craziest Grifter Story. Ever

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