Robert Courtney is a pharmacist who was not what he seemed. Putting his community members’ lives at risk instead of ensuring his clients were getting the medicine they needed. A Kansas City staple: the local pharmacist at Research Medical Tower, he spent his days behind the counter, distributing medication, or in the backroom where he mixed chemotherapy IVs to deliver to doctors who have patients battling cancer. He was seen as a local do-gooder who goes the extra mile in his work, or so everyon...
Mar 15, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 42
In 2007, a customer walked into a copy shop to get over 700 pages of information copied onto CDs. The shop assistant, a massive Formula 1 fan, recognised the Ferrari logo on the documents and took a closer peak. It was page after page of diagrams and highly confidential notes on Ferrari’s F1 car. But the customer who brought it in was married to McLaren’s Chief Designer - one of Ferrari’s biggest rivals. A Somethin' Else production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch...
Mar 08, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 41
In 2002, Rod Blagojevich was elected governor of Illinois—the first Democrat to hold the seat in thirty years. He entered office with a progressive agenda and a promise to clean up the wide-spread corruption that had plagued Illinois' government. But all of that changed with the 2008 presidential election, when Blagojevich saw an opportunity to capitalize on…for his own gain. A Somethin’ Else production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mar 01, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Is it cheating if it is state sanctioned? It’s the late 20th century and the UK is going through a period of civil unrest, there are protests and demonstrations every week. In an effort to control the protests, British police hatch a secret undercover operation…one that would take them behind the picket lines and into the heart (or hearts) of many activist groups. A Somethin' Else Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Feb 22, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 39
When biographer Lee Israel’s career falls apart, she tries desperately to find a way to support herself. No one wants to work with her, she’s behind on rent, and her beloved cat needs urgent medical attention. With less than $40 dollars in her pocket, she notices that there's demand for old letters from deceased authors. So, she buys a bunch of typewriters and starts forging her own. In this episode of Cheat! Alzo digs into the real story behind the movie Can You Ever Forgive Me? to find out jus...
Feb 15, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 38
In 2003 news spread of a government backed raid on a small laboratory near the San Francisco airport. The lab was called BALCO. As two journalists at the local paper started to dig deeper they began to realise this raid would uncover secrets that would change the face of sport forever. What they didn’t realise however was how this story would test their own resolve and put their freedom at risk. A Somethin' Else production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices...
Feb 08, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 37
In 2007, two Iowa-born brothers launched an artisanal chocolate company, Mast Brothers, out of an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn—the hipster heart of the growing farm-to-table movement. Mast quickly became a well-known operation, partly because their focus was on creating quality chocolate that only required two ingredients: cocoa beans and sugar. And these speciality bars—hand wrapped in expensive, beautifully designed paper—boasted a $10 price tag. It was something people were willing to ...
Feb 01, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 36
The Kabbalah Centre took off when Madonna changed her name to Esther and joined their ranks. Soon enough, Ashton Kutcher, Victoria Beckham and many other celebrities were wearing the Kabbalah Centre’s signature red string bracelet. But, the centre’s teachings were unconventional. They claimed that you could simply scan the words of the Zohar, even if you didn’t understand the Aramaic text, and reap spiritual benefits. Journalist John Sweeney started an investigation and sent in an undercover age...
Jan 25, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 35
In the US, around 700,000 gay, lesbian or bisexual people have received some form of conversion therapy. In the UK, thousands of LGBTQIA+ people have been offered or are undergoing it. But why and how do so many people end up going through this experience? And paying for it. Chaim Levin was a 13 year old Jewish boy from an orthodox background the moment he realised he was gay. He was stood in a synagogue at his own bar mitzvah reading a passage from the Torah, that stated homosexuality was an ab...
Jan 18, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 34
On the outside Helen Naylor had a pretty standard childhood. She had a father, a mother and roof over her head. But all was not as it seemed. In 2016, 2 years after her mother’s death, Helen discovered her diaries. And in those diaries lay not only the truth about her mother’s medical conditions. But also the truth about Helen’s upbringing. A Somethin’ Else Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 11, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Towards the end of 2008, hundreds of people across the United States were falling ill with salmonella poisoning. The outbreak was eventually traced back to one company: The Peanut Corporation of America (PCA). But this wasn’t your average case of corporate misconduct. In fact, federal investigations into PCA revealed a much more sinister (and sickening) story. A Somethin’ Else Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 04, 2022•35 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Hey folks, happy holidays! We're taking a week off. We'll be back next Tuesday with another episode for you. In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you. It could be a specific cheat you want to hear about or you might just want to say hi! Email [email protected] A Somethin' Else production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 28, 2021•1 min
When $242 million dollars went missing from a bank in Dubai and the bank manager swore that something supernatural was going on, journalist Brigitte Scheffer was intrigued. She followed the story in disbelief as the bank manager pointed the blame at one man, Foutanga Sissoko. Sissoko had a reputation for splashing millions of dollars like it was nothing - he would buy cars as gifts and on Thursdays he would drive around giving money to the homeless. But now he was at the centre of a major fraud ...
Dec 21, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Bernard Tapie was a star in France. He had his own TV show ‘Ambition’. He was a brilliant business man. And his soccer team, Marseille, were dominating the French national league, year after year. Everything Tapie touched turned to gold. That was until 1993, when his win at all cost mentality got the better of him. And he made a decision that would eventually tarnish the glory of his players, his team and the country. A Somethin' Else production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch...
Dec 14, 2021•35 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Ex-FBI officer Allen Ezell had been investigating the trade in fake educational qualifications for decades. But when he got tipped off about a so-called degree mill operating out of Pakistan, he couldn’t believe the scale of it. The operation was making hundreds of millions of dollars. Their degrees were bought by doctors, lawyers, pilots—and even politicians. And the whole scam was operating in plain sight—run by a company called Axact, which claimed to be the world’s largest IT company. Allen,...
Dec 07, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 29
In the aftermath of the Cold War, the US was considered the naval superpower of the world. The country continued to look to its navy as a tool to maintain its influence, finding new ports across the globe. And there was one man who facilitated the movements of US ships throughout Asia: Leonard Francis Glenn…AKA Fat Leonard. He worked as a husbanding agent through his firm Glenn Defense Marine Asia. He handled the logistics—or the dirty work—that was part of docking and servicing these ships. And...
Nov 30, 2021•36 min•Season 1Ep. 28
One of America’s earliest cheats has evolved into the sugar-coated story of Thanksgiving that many of us know today. In this episode, we revisit the story of how English colonists cheated Native Americans out of their land. Alzo speaks to author David J Silverman and Wampanoag member Kisha James to find out what really happened when the English arrived in America, and the result of their cheat today. Go to cheatpodcast.com to fill out our listener survey and tell us what you want to hear on the ...
Nov 23, 2021•43 min•Season 1Ep. 27
At the beginning of spring 2003 a young journalist by the name of Jayson Blair seemingly had it all. In five years, he had gone from summer intern to staff reporter at one of the world's most respected news organisations, The New York Times. He had the keys to the kingdom. Until something happened that led us to discover the truth about Jayson and his reporting. As Jayson himself says in an exclusive interview with Alzo - 'I had the world's best feedback session'. A Somethin' Else production. Le...
Nov 16, 2021•42 min•Season 1Ep. 26
The NFL’s 2013 class-action settlement with retired players over claims that the League concealed a connection between game-related hits to the head and long-term cognitive damage was the first of its kind in sports history. Players experiencing head trauma would finally have some recourse and support. However, the process for evaluating players’ claims incorporated a controversial scoring system called race-norming. And it turns out these race norms made it harder for Black players to qualify f...
Nov 09, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 25
In 1995, a sting operation was put into action that resulted in the arrest of a smuggler less than 24 hours after he’d set foot on American soil. The sting had taken over a year to devise. The target had been Indonesian national, Harto Kolopaking and his smuggled loot: wild orchids flowers. Harto became the first person to ever face prison time in the U.S. for smuggling Orchids but his prosecution isn’t all that it seems. This is a story of the fight for survival, the critical world of conservat...
Nov 02, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Who was Hugh Hefner? Centerfold models, Playboy Bunnies, and other women from the Playboy founder’s inner circle, like TV personality and author Holly Madison, tell journalist Amy Rose Spiegel their side of his story. We hear how Playboy changed their lives, for better and for worse. Beyond the bunny tails are darker questions: What actually went on at the notorious Playboy Mansion? How can we square Hefner's progressive legacy with his abuse of vulnerable people? What can the Playboy saga tell ...
Nov 01, 2021•5 min
In 2011, after years of analysing other people’s actions, world famous social psychologist Diederik Stapel was suddenly confronted by his own. Actions that cast a shadow on the world of academia. What is it they say? Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good study? A Somethin’ Else Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 26, 2021•34 min•Season 1Ep. 23
While planning for her wedding on the island of Jersey, Tanya Dick-Stock made a startling discovery: a room full of boxes that contained hundreds of thousands of documents. Turns out these documents would shed an entirely new light on the financial business that once had operated out of her family home. A Somethin' Else Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 19, 2021•37 min•Season 1Ep. 22
In 2010, the first of a series of international heists took place at a royal residence in Sweden. The thieves set fire to cars to distract the police, ignored the more valuable items on display, and stole a very specific set of Chinese artefacts. Then, they fled by speedboat. It was almost too dramatic to be true. Then after one stolen item was located, a shocking theory arose about who may be masterminding the heists. Go to cheatpodcast.com to fill out our listener survey and tell us what you w...
Oct 12, 2021•36 min•Season 1Ep. 21
We're taking a week off. We'll be back next Tuesday with another episode for you. But we want to hear from you. Tell us what cheats you want to hear about? It could be a specific cheat, or just a type of cheating. Email [email protected] or DM Alzo on Instagram @alzoslade A Somethin’ Else production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 05, 2021•59 sec
You might think chess is a sport for the older generation, but in the 80s everything changed. Young players started to rise to the top and within just a few years they were given the highest title in the sport - Grandmaster. It was unheard of. Then, when one pre-teen broke the world record for youngest Grandmaster in history, suspicions started to arise about how these kids were getting so successful. And all the evidence pointed to one thing - their parents were bending the rules. A Somethin' E...
Sep 28, 2021•29 min•Season 1Ep. 20
On April 14th 2021, President Biden announced plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Effectively ending America’s 20 year occupation. After two decades and countless lives lost this episode asks who were the real winners of the Forever War? A Somethin’ Else Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sep 22, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 19
In 1998, a medical journal published an early report that looked into the relationship between inflammatory bowel disease, the MMR vaccine, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. The paper itself found nothing conclusive and no link has ever been proven. And yet this belief still spread rapidly…thanks to one man. A Somethin’ Else production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sep 14, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Portland-based anti-fascist Sean Kealiher was killed in 2019, months before the uprising that would bring Portland international attention. Nearly two years later, his homicide remains unsolved. His mother, Laura, believes she hasn't received justice because of police hatred for her son and his politics. Dying For A Fight, the second instalment in Somethin’ Else’s Fault Line series, goes in search of answers: What happened the night Sean was killed? Why have no arrests been made? Who are the Ame...
Sep 13, 2021•7 min
In 2009, hackers leaked thousands of private emails between climate scientists. There was a media frenzy. Was climate change real or had these scientists been fudging the data? Rather than defending themselves, the scientists involved went silent. This is the story of how an email leak led the world to question if global warming was fiction, and how climate change became a matter of identity and politics rather than science. A Somethin’ Else production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit po...
Sep 07, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 17
