Persona: The French Deception

Life is freaking hard. We are all doing hard things every single day – things like loving and losing; caring for children and parents; forging and ending friendships; battling addiction, illness, and loneliness; struggling in our jobs, our marriages, and our divorces; setting boundaries; and fighting for equality, purpose, freedom, joy, and peace. On We Can Do Hard Things, Glennon Doyle, author of UNTAMED; her wife Abby Wambach; and her sister Amanda Doyle do the only thing they’ve found that has ever made life easier: Drop the fake and talk honestly about the hard things including sex, gender, parenting, blended families, bodies, anxiety, addiction, justice, boundaries, fun, quitting, overwhelm . . . all of it. We laugh and cry and help each other carry the hard so we can all live a little bit lighter and braver, free-er, less alone.

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What would happen if you created a digital copy of yourself, powered by AI, and set it loose in the world? Evan Ratliff, longtime tech journalist and the host of Persona: The French Deception, decided to launch an experiment to find out. He combined a clone of his voice, an AI chatbot, and a phone line—many phone lines, actually—into what are called a “voice agents.” Then for the six months, he sent them out… as himself.

In season one of Shell Game Over, over six episodes, Evan chases answers to the big questions about AI’s increasing role in our lives. His voice agents talk to spammers and scammers, to Evan’s friends and family, to colleagues and sources, to other AIs, and even to a therapist—all to better understand what AI voice is going to do, what it can't yet do, and what happens when you try to take control of the very technology that threatens to replace you.

You can listen to the next episodes of “Shell Game” by searching for “Shell Game” wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to hit “follow” so you don’t miss an episode, and visit shellgame.co to find out more and support the show. New episodes drop on Tuesdays.

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In the first episode of Persona, a French banker took the strangest call of her life. On the other end was her boss relaying bizarre orders from a secret agent. Her mission was to wait in a bathroom stall before handing off a bag full of cash. But behind the scheme was no secret agent, rather Gilbert Chikli, one of the greatest con men the world has ever seen. Unlike most fraudsters, Chikli preyed upon the most powerful amongst us. And with that call, he just started in motion the greatest scam of the century.

If you want to hear the rest of Persona, you can binge all eight episodes exclusively on Wondery Plus or on Amazon Music.

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In Paris, a banker receives a bizarre call from her boss. He says she'll soon be contacted by a secret agent about a confidential government operation. The instructions provided by the agent are simple: wait in a bathroom stall, listen for the password and then hand over a bag stuffed with hundreds of thousands in cash to a stranger through the stall door. Meanwhile, nearly 3,000 miles away in Israel, a musician is drawn into his new friend’s underground network. Thus begins the scam of the century.

Persona: The French Deception is the story of Gilbert Chikli, one of the greatest con artists of all time. More than just a tale of criminal genius, this is a show about the moment we’re living in right now — the golden age of scammers — and the power of seduction. But what happens when the fantasy we’ve been lured into finally crumbles away?

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What does it feel like to pick up the phone and scam someone out of $50 million? This is the story of Gilbert Chikli, one of the greatest con artists of all time. Host and award-winning journalist, Evan Ratliff, investigates how Chikli successfully duped some of the world’s most powerful people into handing over their fortunes. He explores how Chikli evaded the law for years and became a Robin Hood-like hero. More than just a tale of criminal genius, this is a show about the moment we’re living in right now — the golden age of scammers — and the power of seduction. But what happens when the fantasy we’ve been lured into finally crumbles away?

All episodes are available now. You can binge the series ad-free on Wondery+ or on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.

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