World's Greatest Con

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World's Greatest Con episodes

November 22, 2023 EPCOT - Part I
Walt Disney doesn't want to expand, he wants to build his masterpiece.

He doesn't want to sell more popcorn, he wants to defeat communism.

He doesn't want Disneyland East, he is driven to build EPCOT.

Far from the adult binge drinking paradise we know in Orlando today, the original idea of EPCOT is a planned community that requires massive land acquisition and never-before-seen government permissions. And by the way, you need to do it in secret.

Walt Disney's quest for total control just might be... the World's Greatest Con.
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56 min
July 17, 2023 Uri Geller hijacks the New York Times, An Interview with Michael Shermer
Brian and Justin discuss an article in the New York Times alleging that magic has forgiven it's 50-year grudge with Uri Geller. Considering the subject matter of our Project Alpha investigation... World's Greatest Con disagrees.

Also, an interview with Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine discussing the science and shame of being taken in by incorrect information and the legacy of Project Alpha.
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1 hr 22 min
May 16, 2023 In James Randi's Own Words
A funny thing happened as we finished our season. We asked for listeners to unearth an old podcast WGC co-creator Justin Robert Young did with James Randi and it was indeed found. But one episode surprised us... James Randi in his own words describing Project Alpha in 2008.
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33 min
May 08, 2023 An Update On Project Alpha and Your Emails
Sometimes when you tell a story, you change it. We have an update on one of the central figures in Project Alpha. Brian Brushwood reads your emails and feedback including questions about James Randi and a moment when William Shatner blessed the podcast with an epic rendition of our title.
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49 min
May 01, 2023 Back In The Lab - Project Alpha Part V
In a rare, candid, conversation Brian Brushwood sits down with Mike Edwards and Banachek to get even more stories from the Mac Lab and answer lingering questions.

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1 hr 12 min
April 23, 2023 Side Characters - Project Alpha Part IV
At a 1983 press conference in New York City, the entire charade is revealed. It’s recorded for a prime time NBC special set to air two weeks later. We unpack 40 years of consequences from the triumph and betrayal of Project Alpha.

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42 min
April 17, 2023 Demonic - Project Alpha Part III
The boys are a team, they’ve been fooling the Mac Lab for over a year but what comes next? Fame and fortune for the Project Alpha team, hopefully. Yet, that means total humiliation for the professors and researchers Mike and Steve have come to know and appreciate. It all comes to a head at a conference in Madison, Wisconsin where the boys have to witness a truly disturbing consequence to their deception.
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52 min
April 10, 2023 Alpha - Project Alpha Part II
Steve Shaw is an orphan who bounced around the globe. Mike Edwards is an Iowa choirboy who fulfilled every hope of his loving parents. They both see a world being defrauded by hucksters. They both apply to the Mac Lab study in St. Louis and are accepted. They both believe the other to be a liability in a long con. Can they coexist?
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53 min
April 10, 2023 Project - Project Alpha Part I
The Cold War is on, the threat of nuclear annihilation is constant. In a world of fear, a social contagion breaks out: the belief in psychic powers. Military, government and academia take it so seriously they spend millions to find people who can demonstrate these feats. Amidst this backdrop, the scion to one of America’s largest military contractors funds a study at Washington University in St. Louis to find child psychics. Two boys apply and are accepted, but they have something up their sleeve…
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43 min
April 03, 2023 Project Alpha Trailer - Season 3 of World's Greatest Con Begins April 10, 2023
Two boys demonstrate genuine psychic powers in a rigorous academic study in the late 1970s. When the results are revealed, the academics will be at the center of a new field of science coveted by governments, military and Hollywood. The only problem? The boys are frauds, out to debunk the very concept of parapsychology.

For the first time ever, World's Greatest Con interviews the two boys, now men, at the center of the public embarrassment of a study funded for $4 million in today's money.

You may have heard of it, you might even think you know the story but this season everyone will know the truth of Project Alpha.

It all begins, April 10th.
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3 min

About World's Greatest Con

From the publisher's feed

Brian Brushwood (Scam School, Modern Rogue, Scam Nation) brings you the hidden stories behind the most audacious con jobs, swindles and heists in history. Email the show at Worlds Greatest Con at…