The Grift

Panoply

4.4 (32)
SOCIETY & CULTURE

When we hear about confidence games, we think, “never me.” Welcome to The Grift, a show about con artists and the lives they ruin. Best-selling author and New Yorker writer Maria Konnikova takes us to the darker side of human nature and deceit. Ten stories about card sharks, cult leaders, art forgers, impostors, and more. Why do we fall for them time and time again?

2017-12-11

The Grift Presents: Family Ghosts

The Grift presents an episode of another Panoply podcast we think our listeners will love: Family Ghosts. When Nick's grandfather died in 1994, something bizarre happened: his aunt Susan stole the body and hid it. Susan died shortly thereafter, and for the last twenty-three years, Nick and his family have agonized over his grandfather's whereabouts - but much to Nick's frustration, never enough to actually try and find him. This week, Nick asks "Family Ghosts" host Sam Dingman to see what he can do. Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @famghoshow. Join our mailing list, the Ghost Post: eepurl.com/c6qJIL. Thanks for listening!

56 min
2017-06-06

The Greatest Impostor

Ferdinand Demara is quite possibly the greatest con artist you’ve never heard of. With good reason: he hardly ever used his own name. Demara was a professional impostor. In his long and prolific career, he passed himself off as a surgeon on a warship, an engineer, a college dean, a cancer researcher, a cop. And the list goes on. Demara operated for over fifty years, and impersonated at least fifty people, that we know of… and he got away with all of it. We hope you enjoyed the last episode of this season of The Grift! Let us know what you think of the show on social media and by leaving us a review in Apple Podcasts. twitter: @thegriftpodcast facebook: The Grift Podcast email: thegrift@megaphone.fm

40 min
2017-05-30

Crooked Carnival

Peter Fenton made a career out of crafting that con we’ve all fallen for: the con of fantasy, of alternative realities that are much more pleasant than the existing one. This week, we go inside the world of carnival game scams, why we fall for them even when we know the odds are against us. Later, Peter recounts his career as a tabloid fabulist. Peter Fenton is the essential grifter – he sells us the stories we most want to believe.

33 min
2017-05-23

Psychic Faith

A fraud is lurking on most every block of most every city and town, all over the world: the psychic. When you’re down, when you’re alone, when you’re uncertain: that’s when you’re perfectly vulnerable to that old teller of the future, the person who offers you certainty and clarity and counsel and support when you most need it. The person who knows just how to take advantage of the basic human desire for control over our lives. They search for the perfect victim, work their way into her life, and gradually, take away everything. That’s what happened to Lyla.

33 min
2017-05-16

For a Small Investment...

Oscar Hartzell, born to humble beginnings, would go on to craft one of the most elaborate and successful mail fraud cons of all time. Pirates, lost treasure, the Wild West — it's the Spanish Prisoner, with a very English twist.

33 min
2017-05-09

The One Who Almost Got Away

Sam Israel not only ran one of the most successful Ponzi schemes in history, he would eventually go on to the single most extreme con there is: the con of life and death. Who knows how often it happens? After all, its success stories are dead….or so we think.

32 min
2017-05-02

Loving a Lie

Maria talks with the Atlantic’s Emily Yoffe about the most common grift of them all: the sweetheart scam. It’s a catfishing bait and switch where the person you fall in love with isn’t the person you thought. It has likely happened to someone you know. Someone intelligent, nice, attractive. Someone like you. Because where are we more vulnerable than in matters of the heart?

32 min
2017-04-25

The Religion of the Black Dog

A small secretive cult was started in the 1970s and operated out of New Jersey for decades without notice. A survivor tells us her dark story of abuse and manipulation at the hands of the charismatic cult leader, and how she eventually escaped his clutches.

45 min
2017-04-18

The Self-Made Heiress

Cassie Chadwick was one of the most famous, or infamous, seductresses of the Gilded Age. She excelled at impersonating high society royalty—and at getting everyone in her path to shower her with cash, even though they never got anything in return. And she got away with it – until she took the con too far.

33 min
2017-04-11

Genuine Fake

The only thing Ken Perenyi loved as much as art was swindling the art world. He relished the contest of wits, the risk of getting caught, the thrill of deception, the sense of power that comes with a successful con. But more than anything else, he wanted to see his work get the recognition he always felt it deserved. This week, we speak to the man behind some of the greatest art frauds of the twentieth century.

42 min
2017-04-04

Fast Jack, the Card Shark

“Fast Jack” Farrell is one of the greatest card and dice manipulators of the twentieth century - an undisputed leader in the vast world of crooked gambling. He cheated John Wayne and Frank Sinatra, worked for mobs in several states and several continents. Fast Jack turned cheating into an art form. If you’d like to hear more from Jack, you can check out his memoir Fast Jack, the Last Hustler.

36 min
2017-03-30

Introducing: The Grift

Coming soon from Panoply and Maria Konnikova, The Grift: stories about con artists and the lives they ruin.

2 min

See All (13)

4.4

out of 5

32 Ratings

Grifting told well!

2019-05-16

JanePaneAZ

Really well done - a little too much admiration for the grifters but otherwise a really well told story. Hearing the words from the grifters is fascinating
All in al

2019-01-03

Rene poitras

Love the music, host was a great fit! Over all I loved and shared it, please make more!
Tired, victim blaming commentary towards some of the interviewees

2019-03-14

Aa_Co

The conversations that take place in “loving a lie” feel straight out of the 1960’s. Have we not moved at all past the notion of assuming we are the expert of someone else’s lives, knowing exactly what they *should* feel, and how their relationships were, and what is an acceptable way for them to view their situation. The conversation that happened was as though there was a complete disregard for dominant discourse. There were so many missed opportunities to: A) learn from the person you are writing a story about, rather than assuming you know what is best for her and what she needs B) the complete disregard of a person that uses abusive behaviour as nothing but abusive does not do anything to prevent further abuse, but rather, serves to isolate both people who have been abusive and those who been abused. C) Intentionally not engage in language that is victim-blaming, shaming, and extremely judgemental, but rather, demonstrate basic human kindness, compassion, and empathy. If you have a platform such as this, I’d consider the kind of messages you want to contribute to the world.
Loving it

2017-05-01

AmbJak

Every story is fascinating. So well done!

When we hear about confidence games, we think, “never me.” Welcome to The Grift, a show about con artists and the lives they ruin. Best-selling author and New Yorker writer Maria Konnikova takes us to the darker side of human nature and deceit. Ten stories about card sharks, cult leaders, art forgers, impostors, and more. Why do we fall for them time and time again?