Cheat!

Oobah Butler is a professional prankster. In 2017, he managed to convince the London restaurant scene that he was the owner of the coolest, most popular place in town. A place that didn’t exist. Despite having never served a single customer, this is how The Shed at Dulwich became the No. 1 rated restaurant in London on TripAdvisor.

A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.

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In the 1980s, The PTL or Praise The Lord Satellite Network founded by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker broadcast into millions of homes throughout the world with their special brand of prosperity gospel. Jim’s charismatic sermons and Tammy Faye’s musical performances and bombastic personality brought a new kind of Christianity into people’s lives. Their little television studio in Fort Mills, SC quickly grew into Heritage USA, a 2,300 acre resort, waterpark and state-of-the-art recording facility. Paid for largely by the constant telefunding on their shows. Heritage USA gave Christians a special place to bring their families to vacation and worship, but as the Bakker’s empire grew, so did their lavish spending. And just when Jim was set to begin his more ambitious project yet -- a Christian Disneyland -- complete with roller coaster that damned sinners to hell, someone uncovered where all that money was really going.

A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.

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In 2017, Roy Johnson, a former life insurance salesman turned entrepreneur, opened a new football high school in Ohio. The school's mission was to help students from underfunded backgrounds get a "second chance" at getting into college. Roy promised prospective students new facilities, online classes, and that he'd help get them recruited into the best football college programs. Students from all over the country came to this new school hoping it'd help them achieve their dreams. But when they got there, it was closer to a nightmare.

A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.

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How did a trusted British institution manage to have over 600 people convicted for crimes they didn’t commit? In the early 2000’s, the UK Postal Service brought in a new IT system to manage accounts - Horizon. But when a serious amount of cash starts going unaccounted for, innocent employees are blamed.

A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.

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Goofing around in class one day, Alex and Alan had no idea that they were about to create a decade-long Wikipedia hoax that would spread into some pretty surprising corners of Scotland: from coffee table books to cooking shows to potentially the country’s currency.

In this episode of Cheat, we talk to the two men who created “Alan McMasters, the Scottish inventor of the electric toaster”, and to the two people who brought the whole lie to light: a teenage reddit enthusiast and an investigative journalist. 

A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production. 

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Dating is hard. Just about anyone can relate to having trouble meeting new people and making connections. That's why in 2018 Carol Meredith, an actress living in California, decided to give online dating a shot. When she matches with a handsome sports agent named "Mike", and they hit it off right away, she thinks there's a potential partner here. Eventually "Mike" asks Carol out to dinner. But when Carol gets to the restaurant, she notices some things were off – and the date takes a turn for the worse.

A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.

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Collector Marty Martin spent years finding and sourcing incredible ancient artifacts, which he shared with the world in his touring museum. From dinosaur bones to Egyptian hieroglyphic stones, Marty had it all. And when Marty finds a small, family-owned antique shop, specialising in the earliest years of human history, he thinks he’s struck gold. But some things? They’re just too good to be true.

A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.

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Growing up in Dixon, Illinois, in the 90s, Li Arellano never understood why his town seemed to be crumbling, the streets were a mess, the library’s roof leaked, and the old downtown theater was an eyesore. It didn’t seem like it should’ve been that way— plenty of people in town seemed to do well for themselves. Especially Rita Crundwell. She owned hundreds of championship show horses that earned her ribbons and fancy belt buckles, and built a successful horse breeding business. Or at least that’s what people thought. But, for decades, Dixon’s decline was tied to its most razzle-dazzle resident in ways no one suspected.

A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.

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Ever wondered why Tony Soprano’s therapist stuck with him? Why Fleabag is obsessed with sex or why Walter White is always in his underpants? ‘Shrink the Box’ is where actor comedian Ben Bailey Smith and psychotherapist Sasha Bates put their favourite fictional characters such as Shiv from Succession, Omar from the Wire and Ross from Friends on the couch to analyse why their behaviour causes them so much drama. Sasha and Ben explore why these characters make certain decisions, what would happen if they made different ones and what we can learn from their mistakes. The perfect combination of psychology, self-help and the best TV since the birth of the box-set.

A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.

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Caviar, those little salty fish eggs – are prized by foodies all over the world. The fish that produces caviar, sturgeon, has been struggling to survive in the wild...except in one place: Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin.

There, fisheries biologists have set strict rules that limit how many sturgeon can be caught, and what happens to their eggs. Sturgeon eggs can either be kept and processed into caviar or donated to research. But the caviar cannot be sold, bartered, or traded.

Then things got fishy. Reports started coming in that eggs donated for research were ending up at local bars and community events being served as caviar. And what investigators found went way deeper than a few corrupt government employees.

A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.

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