Crop Circles

In January 2019, ‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett was the victim of a racial and homophobic hate crime perpetrated in Chicago that shocked the nation and sparked an outcry from seemingly Hollywood’s entire A-list. But it didn’t take long for cracks in his story to emerge. In our season 1 finale, we explore the logic holes, inconsistencies, and downright bizarre twists in this years-long saga involving race, sexuality, police brutality and celebrity. Plus, a lot of tangents. SOURCESThe Truth About Jussie Smollett? (Netflix)https://www.biography.com/actor/jussie-smolletthttps://www.out.com/entertainment/2016/1/28/exclusive-jussie-smollett-being-black-and-gay-hollywoodhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/03/im-the-gay-tupac-jussie-smolletthttps://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/jussie-smollett-video-shows-brothers-red-hat-ski-mask/https://time.com/5560430/jussie-smollett-donald-trump-fbi/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chicago-police-chief-eddie-johnson-fired-after-series-ethical-lapses-n1094301https://www.chicagotribune.com/2021/12/02/jussie-smolletts-legal-team-begins-defense-at-actors-trial-for-allegedly-staging-and-reporting-a-phony-hate-crime/https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/samuel-l-jackson-offered-support-for-smollett-in-letter-read-at-sentencinghttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/21/jussie-smollett-conviction-overturnedhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/25/jussie-smollett-chicago-charities-settle-lawsuithttps://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/prosecutor-kim-foxx-defends-jussie-smollett-decision-in-wbez-interview/ddc80843-d6ee-4c25-a635-02ad49c325e6https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47317701https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/national-international/jussie-smollett-2007-dui-arrest/4508/https://www.businessinsider.com/jussie-smollett-2007-false-information-case-2019-2https://variety.com/2025/film/news/jussie-smollett-hate-crime-netflix-documentary-comeback-1236487316/https://www.citybureau.org/black-caucus-timelinehttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chicago-police-department-routinely-violated-people-s-rights-feds-say-n706586See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A landlord claimed that his daughter was haunted, by the deceased wife of a former tenant. Most shocking of all, this ghost was accusing her husband of murder. Ghosts aren't real (most of the time, sorry), but murders plots can be very, very real. But who is the real murderer here? SOURCES:Gentlemen’s Magazine archives (by Samuel Johnson) “Ghostly Hands and Ghostly Agency,” Jennifer Bann“Missionaries, Methodists, and a Ghost,” Travis Glasson“We See a Ghost: Hogarth’s Satire on Methodists and Connoisseurs,” Bernd Krysmanski“Samuel Johnson and Spectral Media,” Rachael Scarborough King Elizabeth [called the Cock Lane Ghost], Oxford Dictionary of National BiographySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From 1998 to 2001, a man claiming to be visiting our "world-line" on a mission from the year 2036 enthralled a corner of the nascent internet with his explanations of time travel, the world of the future, and the wars to come. While few of his "predictions" came true, his story remains haunting -- who was this enigmatic early forum poster? Why did he claim time ended in 2564? How did he know so much about early computers? And where, or when, did he go? SOURCEShttps://rileyraccoon.substack.com/p/time-travel-taleshttps://vimeo.com/11661023https://web.archive.org/web/20170622161305/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11945420/Who-was-John-Titor-the-time-traveller-who-came-from-2036-to-warn-us-of-a-nuclear-war.htmlhttps://www.discoveryuk.com/mysteries/john-titor-the-internets-most-mysterious-time-traveller/https://web.archive.org/web/20260102173511/https://www.postbulletin.com/rochester-magazine/john-titor-who-was-the-time-traveler-that-visited-rochesterhttps://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/john-titor-time-traveler-predictions-storyhttps://johntitorresearch.wordpress.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anastasia Romanov inspired a play, an Academy Award-winning movie, and a Dana-and-Lizzie-loving animated feature. But the legend of the missing princess is stranger and more involved than a movie with a talking bat might have led you to believe. SOURCES:https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/february-6/anastasia-arrives-in-the-united-stateshttps://phys.org/news/2018-07-fresh-dna-authenticate-bones-russia.htmlhttps://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19600212&id=tuUlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EncDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7046,629353&hl=enhttps://www.nytimes.com/1958/08/24/archives/anastasia-grand-duchess-or-grand-hoax-the-last-act-in-the-drama-of.htmlhttps://web.archive.org/web/20250331152750/http://www.readthehook.net/86004/cover-jack-amp-anna-remembering-czar-charlottesville-eccentricshttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68616https://blog.newspapers.com/anna-anastasia-anderson/https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/grondahl-anastasia-or-imposter-local-author-12950650.phpSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In one of the most famous and widely-reported UFO sightings of all time, a Florida man witnessed, photographed and even interacted with alien beings from another planet several times over the course of many months, sparking a frenzy of speculation and excitement. Then again...a Florida man...SOURCES:War of the Words by Craig R Meyershttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/02/16/congress-uap-obama-aliens-real-podcast/88699039007/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-files-released-scientists-trump/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/09/10/ufo-hearing-video-hellfire-missile/86073340007/Professor Andrew FraknoiSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A girl showed up at a town near Bristol in 1817 wearing a turban, and everyone went nuts.  SOURCES:"The Caraboo Hoax," Margaret RussellJohn Matthew Gutch's narrativeEnglish Eccentrics, by Edith Sitwell"Devonshire Characters and Strange Events""British Performances of Java," Matthew Isaac CohenSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode of Hoax is no fun at all. April Fool's! For our (almost) April 1 episode, we explore the holiday's origins and some of the best pranks of the 20th and 21st centuries: Google's various exploits (Pokemon Go!), that time the BBC produced a piece on Spaghetti Trees, and the Curious Case of Sidd Finch, the Mets pitcher who could throw 168 MPH. SOURCES:https://www.rutgers.edu/news/how-did-april-fools-day-get-startedhttps://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/03/april-fools/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/01/king-kugel-an-april-fools-history-lesson/https://frenchmoments.eu/april-fools-day-traditions-in-france-le-1er-avril/https://bylines.scot/society/hunt-the-gowk-day/https://www.scotsmagazine.com/articles/hunt-the-gowk-april-fools-scotland/https://www.icelandreview.com/news/iceland-celebrates-april-fools%E2%80%99-day/https://www.businessinsider.com/google-cancels-april-fools-day-pranks-coronavirus-2021-3https://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/15/curious-case-sidd-finchhttps://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/21/si-60-curious-case-sidd-finch-mark-mulvoy-myra-gelbandhttps://nypost.com/2025/04/08/sports/legendary-sidd-finch-finally-makes-it-to-mets-home-game-40-years-later/https://niemanstoryboard.org/2014/04/01/whys-this-so-good-no-90-george-plimpton-and-sidd-finch/https://www.milb.com/news/legend-of-sidd-finch-lives-on-in-brooklyn-145695984https://sports.yahoo.com/still-curious-catching-those-brought-150800240.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/sports/baseball/an-old-baseball-april-fools-hoax.htmlhttps://www.mlb.com/news/sidd-finch-hoax-recalled-at-sabr-convention/c-133074166ESPN: Unhittable: Sidd Finch and the Tibetan FastballBBC: Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino https://fox59.com/news/national-world/greatest-april-fools-prank-of-all-time-the-story-of-the-bbcs-spaghetti-trees/https://retrospectjournal.com/2023/09/25/the-spaghetti-trees-of-ticino/https://ericajurus.ca/2024/04/02/the-tradition-of-pranking-and-fooling/http://www.grandvoyageitaly.com/cucina/when-i-was-a-kid-i-learned-that-spaghetti-grew-on-treesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stockmarkets are now battlefields. An aide-de-camp arrived in Dover with the startling, thrilling news that Napoleon had been killed, and the British stock market behaved accordingly. The problem was, Napoleon wasn't dead. SOURCES:Napoleon Is Dead by Richard DaleTrial transcriptSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Messages from extraterrestrial visitors? Evidence of strange atmospheric conditions? No one knows where crop circles come from or what they mean. Except, we do know, but for believers, that's the start, not the end, of the story. The history of crop circles is a case study in conspiratorial thinking...plus art in wheat fields!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

P.T. Barnum is famous to movie-going audiences as the charming 'Greatest Showman,' but the reality was far more complicated, and much darker. P.T. Barnum's very first foray into showbusiness was purchasing an enslaved woman named Joice Heth, whom he displayed as a public spectacle, promoting her a 161-year-old woman who once nursed George Washington. SOURCES:'The Showman and the Slave' by Benjamin Reiss'Medical Apartheid' by Harriet A. Washingtonhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pt-barnum-greatest-humbug-them-all-180967634/“P.T. Barnum and Africa” Bernth Lindfors The Colossal P.T. Barnum Reader, edited by James W. CookSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.