Beste J John podcasts (2024)

PATREON MY STUFF STEVE'S WEBSITE STEVE'S TIKTOK I’ve been sick for the past few months. Which is why there has been an episode of a Scamapalooza in a little while. Instead, I’ve been spending a lot of time in bed feeling sorry for myself while trawling tiktok. Among the craft videos, slime reviews and video game analysis, I came across a video of a…

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68: Collecting Magic with Kent Blackmore 48:26

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1+ y ago48:26

48:26

Support the podcast on Patreon! Magicians have secrets that you don’t see on stage. I’m not talking about HOW they do the tricks—the trapdoors and mirrors—but the mundane secrets that make the show happen. The tour schedules, the marketing plans, the box office reports and the horror stories of gigs that went off the rails. Kent Blackmore, digs up …

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67: Nobody's Fool with Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris 53:19

1+ y ago53:19

53:19

Support the podcast on Patreon! If I had an origin story as a magician/con artist/science communicator it would be me, in the early 2000s, hunching over my computer trying to count how many times a basketball is being thrown while completely missing the full-size gorilla walking right through the middle of the shot. The creation of psychologists Ch…

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66: Snake Oils with Dr Jo Clyne 40:18

1+ y ago40:18

40:18

Imagine it's 1850 and you live in a rural area, far away from doctors and the latest advances in medical technology. And then you get sick. What would you do? It's this fear that gave rise to The Snake Oil Salesmen, travelling hucksters who sold ointments, tinctures, tablets and the eponymous snake oil. In this episode, I talk to historian Dr Jo Cl…

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65: Deceptive Animals with Lixing Sun 44:08

1+ y ago44:08

44:08

Support Scamapalooza On Patreon I busted my cat scratching the couch yesterday. As soon as she caught my eye, she stopped scratching and started to stretch instead, acting as if she’d hadn't just been digging her claws into our brand new four seater. The question is, did she KNOW she was trying to deceive me? Or did it just look like that through m…

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64: The Sting 2 with Nick Mason 1:15:05

1+ y ago1:15:05

1:15:05

I’m often asked what my favourite con artist movie is and I always have a different answer. Usually, I’ll say Ridley Scott’s Matchstick Men or David Mamet’s House of Games. If I’m feeling a little pretentious I might name drop Fellini’s Il Bidone or Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket. At the same time, I also have a soft spot for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, …

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63: The Little Golden Calf with Maya Vinokour 39:46

1+ y ago39:46

39:46

If I told you that “the cafeteria is permanently closed for the schnitzel inventory.” what would you think I was saying? If your Russian, the chances are you’d know exactly what I was getting at. The novel The Little Golden Calf is the story of Ostap Bender a con artist trying to become a millionaire in 1920s Soviet Russia, a time when millionaires…

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62: Corporate Bullshit with Ian McCarthy 36:40

1+ y ago36:40

36:40

Have you ever had to deal with corporate bullshit? Had your projects “put on the back burner”? Or had your job “right-sized”? Also, what the hell is “disruption?” Ian McCarthy is the Professor of Innovation and Operations Management at Simon Fraser University. His paper Confronting indifference toward truth: Dealing with workplace bullshit introduc…

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61: Card Counting with Steven Bridges 49:38

1+ y ago49:38

49:38

If I had to guess what the cardinal rule for card counters was, “Don’t draw attention to yourself” would be way up there. While card counting isn’t illegal, casinos aren’t too keen on having players use probability to actually win at blackjack. Flying under the radar seems like common sense. What I wouldn’t expect is for a successful card counting …

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60: The Shell Game with Nick Stein 1:02:47

1+ y ago1:02:47

1:02:47

Every other week, I am sent a video of someone playing The Shell Game. Maybe it's a cat finding a single treat under three cups, or maybe it's a magician impressing audiences with hand-carved replica walnuts and silicone peas. However, despite being one of the most famous scams in the world, The Shell Game is also one of the most misunderstood. Eve…

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59: The Music Man with Em Chandler 43:39

1+ y ago43:39

43:39

There is a popular image of a con artist that doesn’t exist in the real world. It’s an image of well-dressed, suave, fast-talking swindlers who—despite their dodgy dealings—always does the right thing in the end. After all, they have a code. Johnny Hooker and Henry Gondorf in The Sting. Danny Ocean and his gang in the Ocean’s film. The casts of sho…

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58: Deepak Chropa's Bullshit with Gordon Pennycook 35:19

1+ y ago35:19

35:19

I have long suspected that Deepak Chopra spouts garbage. Despite being a trained physician, the author and self-help guru’s trademark new-age ramblings have always struck me as little more than pseudo-scientific garbage. But, I’m also the kind of guy who doesn’t like to dismiss ideas out of hand, just because I don’t understand. It turns out that m…

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57: Cassie Chadwick with Tori Telfer 38:29

2y ago38:29

38:29

How does the daughter of a railroad hand become a millionaire in an age when women couldn’t even open a bank account? If you’re Cassie Chadwick, the answer is you pull off one of the most audacious scams in history, a fraud that took millions from US banks and saw the richest man in America turn up at her trial. On this episode of Scamapalooza, I t…

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Friday Ju'mah lecture on the Carribeaian sea. 23:38

2y ago23:38

23:38

Ju'mah is the congregational service for Muslims in Al-Islam worldwide.

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56: Performing Deception with Brian Rappert 1:02:18

2y ago1:02:18

1:02:18

Have you ever thought about how magicians learn their tricks? Not the methods—the smoke and mirrors behind the illusion—but the actual process of learning a new effect. Even magicians don’t think too much about how they learn magic, treating our instructions like a recipe that—if followed—will create a moment of wonder. Brian Rappert, a Professor o…

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55: Science Magic with Dr Matt Pritchard 37:47

2y ago37:47

37:47

If you know me then you’ll know that my nemesis is Dr Matt Pritchard. For the last few years, this evil genius has been creating impenetrable optical illusions on social media. A toy elephant vanishes in a split second in impossible circumstances. A lego pirate ship appears in a clear glass bowl. A bike helmet is suddenly filled with coloured balls…

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54: Hocus Pocus Practice Focus with Amy Kimlat 29:04

2y ago29:04

29:04

My kid just performed their first solo magic show. In front of 300 of their peers, they correctly predicted a randomly selected TV show, vanished a bottle of coke and tricked the principal into opening a can of spring snakes. Classic comedy! But why do so many kids, particularly girls, give up on magic? Amy Kimlat is a children’s author and former …

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53: Card Shark with Nicolai Troshinsky 39:48

2y ago39:48

39:48

Why have there not been more video games about card cheating? I remember playing Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist as a kid and thinking that the stage of the game where you have to catch the Wheaton “Aces” Hall cheating was the best bit. Why couldn’t that be the whole game? Game designer and illustrator Nicolai Troshinsky has taken up the challe…

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52: The Life Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit with John Petrocelli 50:15

2y ago50:15

50:15

Did you know the world “bullshit” might just be an Australian invention? During World War I, Australian troops found themselves arriving at the front and suddenly under the command of British officers. These officers were obsessed with appearances and would have the Australian soldiers bull polish their shoes constantly, regardless of whether they …

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51: Harry Potter and The Cursed Child with Lee Cohen 47:33

2y ago47:33

47:33

Magicians have a complicated relationship with the Harry Potter franchise. On the one hand, the success of J K Rowling's creation has given them hours of work at movie premieres, book launches, and themed events. On the other hand, it's hard dealing with constant jokes about where our broomsticks are and whether we were raised under a staircase. Th…

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50: Bro Science and The Liver King with Dr Vyom Sharma 39:01

2y ago39:01

39:01

There's been a weird evolution in the wellness industry. What was once a market dominated by new age, holistic, self-care has seen a recent rise in hypermasculine, ideology-driven bro science. Forget Gwenyth Paltrow’s jade vagina eggs, these are health products that advocate eating raw liver, dangerous workouts and tanning your testicles. In this e…

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An announcement from Nicholas 5:03

2y ago5:03

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Scamapalooza is back. New episodes are dropping in December 2022. Make sure you're subscribed so that you don't miss out on the wild chats with magicians, authors, psychologists, con artists and other liars. www.conman.com.auDoor Nicholas J. Johnson

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Be my Valentine 14:44

3y ago14:44

14:44

Love is always Love

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Ju'mah or Friday Congregational Prayer 17:39

3y ago17:39

17:39

Basics understanding of the Islamic Prayer service on Fridays, called Ju'mah.

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Support Good Work 11:33

3y ago11:33

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A New Way of thinking brings about a new way of acting. Charity is a universal principle, all things in creation gives Charity.

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Read and Record 13:38

3y ago13:38

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The Holy Qur'an 96:1-5 The message from G'd is for Mankind to read his creation and record it for those coming behind you. Mankind is one with G'ds creation.