March 17, 2000

Hoaxing Yourself (2000)

Stories of people who tell a lie and then believe the lie more than anyone else does. In other words: Stories about people pulling hoaxes...on themselves.

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Transcript

We made an updated version of this episode in 2018.

Prologue

Sean Cole explains why he decided that he would speak with a British accent—morning, noon and night—from the age of sixteen until he was eighteen...and how he believed the lie that he was British must be true. (3 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Act One

The Sun Never Sets—On The Moosewood Restaurant

The story of two young people who, in their search to figure out who they were, pretended to be people they weren't. Both were from small towns; both took on false identities. For two years in high school, Sean Cole spoke with a British accent. As a freshman in college, Joel Lovell told lies about his own diet and about his parents. (15 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Song:

“Meat” by Noise Addict

Act Two

Conning The Con Men

The story of a con man, one of the most successful salesmen in a long-running multimillion-dollar telemarketing scam, who finally got caught when he was conned himself. Nancy Updike talks about the case with Dale Sekovich, Federal Trade Commission investigator. (16 minutes)