World's Greatest Con

Charles Ponzi conducted a financial fraud so audacious he became the biggest brand name in crime. Yet most people don’t know what he actually did and those who do are often hard-pressed to explain why it was special.

So why, more than 100 years later, do we call so many financial scams a Ponzi scheme?

Brian tells the story of a poor boy from Italy whose name is still on the lips of everyone worried they’re about to be made a sucker.

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The Germans have invented an aquatic killing machine the likes of which the world has never known. If you are one of its victims, how do you trick sure death? By pulling an all-in audacious scheme that only works if you have the element of surprise. How long can the Royal Navy keep the Q Ship con going before time runs out?

The true story of how Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin is called out of retirement to help quell an uprising in French Colonial Algeria. What happens next is the most famous, high stakes magic performance in history.

What the unbelievable story of Houdin tells us about or desire to believe and the distractions that lead con artists to take advantage.