Everything Is Fake

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Jamie Bartlett asks why, in so many parts of modern life, fakery is no longer punished - it's rewarded. And why so many of us seem strangely unbothered by it.

الحلقة ١

Trailer

Have you noticed that more and more of the world feels, well, fake? Online there's a daily avalanche of dubious advice and information - about health, money, success, happiness - much of it delivered with total confidence and little regard for evidence. There's the fabricated reviews, inflated metrics and synthetic content. Influencers present themselves as authorities. The 'fake it till you make it' mantra has hardened into the business model. Everything is now content. Performed for likes, not tested for truth. Meanwhile, institutions once trusted to tell us what is true now compete for attention like everyone else - just as new technologies emerge that can generate convincing false information at scale. How did we get here? What can we do about it? And, well, do we really care? In this six-part series Jamie Bartlett sets out to understand how fakery stopped being a flaw and became the operating system of modern life. This isn't a series about individual liars or shysters. It's about the cultural conditions that made modern fakery not just possible, but incentivised, rewarded, and often indistinguishable from success. From the scripted spectacle of 1980s professional wrestling to the collapse of the global financial system, Jamie traces the incentives that normalised our fake world. Along the way, he's joined by his AI companion, Jimmy Botlett. The series builds towards one urgent question: in a future shaped by generative AI and synthetic media, how will we tell fact from fakery - and will we even care enough to try? Credits: Presenter: Jamie Bartlett Series Producer: Tom Pooley Sound Design: Rob Speight Production Coordinator: Neena Abdullah Original music: Coach Conrad Editor: Craig Templeton Smith A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4.

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الحلقة ١

1. Fake it. Make it. Podcast it.

Jamie Bartlett is not Steven Bartlett. People mix them up more than you might think - but there is an important difference: Steven Bartlett is one of the most successful podcasters on the planet, and Jamie is not. So what does Steven have that Jamie doesn't? And what does the answer tell us about the world we now live in? In this first episode, Jamie digs into the origin stories of the UK's podcast kings - and discovers that in 2025, working out what's true, what's embellished, and what's just a really good story is harder than it sounds. He also builds himself an AI companion, Jimmy Botlett, because if he's going to get to the bottom of how fakery took over the world, he's going to need all the help he can get. Credits: Presenter: Jamie Bartlett Series Producer: Tom Pooley Sound Design: Rob Speight Production Coordinator: Neena Abdullah Original music: Coach Conrad Editor: Craig Templeton Smith A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4.

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الحلقة ٢

2. Kayfabe Country

In episode two, Jamie ventures into the strange world of 1980s WWF wrestling - where performers and fans share an unspoken agreement to treat the whole spectacle as real. A shared illusion where everyone knows it's fake, but plays along because it feels true. It sounds like harmless fun. And for a while, it was. But Jamie soon wonders: what happens when an idea like that escapes the ring and changes the world? Credits: Presenter: Jamie Bartlett Series Producer: Tom Pooley Sound Design: Rob Speight Production Coordinator: Neena Abdullah Original music: Coach Conrad Editor: Craig Templeton Smith A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4.

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الحلقة ٣

3. My Truth, Your Truth, and Anything But the Truth

In 1987, the same year Hulk Hogan body-slammed Andre the Giant, something else happened that would change America's relationship with the truth forever - a Washington regulator abolished the law that required broadcasters to present both sides of an argument. What followed was Morton Downey Jr, a furious chain-smoking provocateur who discovered that outrage was more compelling than accuracy. And Oprah Winfrey, who found that sincerity and emotional honesty could be just as powerful. Together, they popularised an idea that has quietly shaped the world we live in - that your truth is just as valid as the truth. Presenter: Jamie Bartlett Series Producer: Tom Pooley Sound Design: Rob Speight Production Coordinator: Neena Abdullah Original music: Coach Conrad Editor: Craig Templeton Smith A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4.

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الحلقة ٤

4. The Lance Armstrong Defence

In the early 2000s, a young man in New Jersey was writing thousands of fake university essays for paying students. Around the same time, financial analysts in New York were rating toxic debt as safe. And in Silicon Valley, a new business philosophy was taking hold: fake it till you make it. Jamie Bartlett asks how so many people, in so many different worlds, arrived at the same conclusion at the same time. The answer, he thinks, has a name - The Lance Armstrong Defence. A quiet, creeping logic that says everyone else is doing it so why can't I? Presenter: Jamie Bartlett Series Producer: Tom Pooley Sound Design: Rob Speight Production Coordinator: Neena Abdullah Original music: Coach Conrad Editor: Craig Templeton Smith A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4.

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الحلقة ٥

5. Doctor’s Orders

Jamie sits down with Dr Aseem Malhotra, the cardiologist who reaches millions through alternative media with his claims about Covid vaccines - and who is, he says, nervous about talking to the BBC. Jamie goes through his arguments carefully, with an open mind. But the harder question isn't whether Malhotra is right or wrong. It's what it means that so many people trust him more than they trust the institutions that are supposed to tell us the truth. Presenter: Jamie Bartlett Series Producer: Tom Pooley Sound Design: Rob Speight Production Coordinator: Neena Abdullah Original music: Coach Conrad Editor: Craig Templeton Smith A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4.

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الحلقة ٦

6. F For Fake

Jamie and his AI companion Jimmy Botlett become increasingly difficult to tell apart as they bring you the final chapter of this story - featuring Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, who now wishes he'd thought harder about the consequences. Plus we hear claims that an engineer is building something rather frightening at one of the big AI companies. But what's true, what's fake, and what does any of it say about what's happening to all of us, right now? Presenter: Jamie Bartlett Series Producer: Tom Pooley Sound Design: Rob Speight Production Coordinator: Neena Abdullah Original music: Coach Conrad Editor: Craig Templeton Smith A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4

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مقطع ترويجي

Trailer

It all started with a crazy idea to realise a hippie dream of building a “global consciousness”. The plan was to build a connected world, where everyone could access everyone and everything all the time; to overthrow the old gatekeepers and set information free. But social media didn’t turn out that way. Instead of setting information free – a new digital elite conquered the world and turned themselves into the most powerful people on the planet. Now, they get to decide what billions of us see every day. They can amplify you. They can delete you. Their platforms can be used to coordinate social movements and insurrections. A content moderator thousands of miles away can change your life. What does this mean for democracy – and our shared reality? Jamie Bartlett traces the story of how and why social media have become the new information gatekeepers, and what the decisions they make mean for all of us.

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OofiOofster

Jamie Bartlett not only nails it with his research & interview choices, his delivery & story telling. He hits the moment & tells you what you want to know, need to know & are already questioning . He is simply 10 steps ahead. This & Gatekeepers & Everything is Fake are must listen podcasts.
Connect the dots

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SCTFETTERMAN

This podcast and the one before it, The Gatekeepers, are two of the best podcasts I’ve ever listened to. Both have been carefully researched, and the narrators/producers have made an honest effort to stay objective. For me, while I lived the reality of the time periods discussed in these podcasts, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. These podcasts have helped me to connect the dots and better understand social media, politics, laws, AI, etc.
Real journalism

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AronJA

I love the spectacular research and analysis that went into these episodes it shows great dedication. I’ve concluded that because you have a big mouth and platform that does not make you an expert or someone that I should listen to what you have to say. I routinely question things that I see and hear because the loudest, most articulate, most powerful or popular does not make it correct or worthwhile to listen. Thank you for your work and dedication.
Don’t be a sucker.

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FireVaney

“Everything is Fake” is amongst the most important podcasts of the moment.

Jamie Bartlett asks why, in so many parts of modern life, fakery is no longer punished - it's rewarded. And why so many of us seem strangely unbothered by it.