Filthy Ritual and Hoaxed

Podcast recommendations

I got two podcasts for you. Both are true crime. It feels strange to me to be recommending true crime shows, as it’s not my usual thing. Normally, I’m a pretty casual podcast listener, but once I began listening to each of these shows I quickly found myself seeking out the following episodes.

If you like what I like, you may enjoy these. I’m going to tell you a bit about each and why I enjoyed them, but no major spoilers.

This six-episode podcast explores the bizarre case of Juliette D'Souza, a con artist extraordinaire. Bizarre is the best word I can think of. The hosts, Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala, had me hooked from the start. The story begins with Keith Bender, in Buckinghamshire (my home county), but mostly unfolds in Hampstead, North London. This story begins in the 90s and comes to trial in the 2010s. I was working in North London in the early 2000s, teaching tai chi classes, and I can easily imagine having crossed paths with some of these people.

The story just keeps dialing up the weirdness: the tree of life in Surinam, the fridges of meat — and I’m still not sure who was feeding Joey the monkey.

The thing I struggle with is the credulity of these people, or rather the control that Juliette gained over them. Her powers of persuasion have got to be second to none — I guess this is what a high Charisma score looks like. And maybe what evil looks like too.

And Keith. I love hearing Keith’s voice every time he’s on the show, how it rises in pitch as he recounts yet another revelation. Oh Keith.

Following in the footsteps of Filthy Ritual, Hoaxed in another six-episode true crime podcast. I like how each show is self-contained.

Hoaxed takes us back to Hampstead — starting in 2014. This time it begins with very dark stories of child abuse, but note the title of the show here. The series explores how one couple’s lies spread around the globe, and fed the crazed world of internet conspiracy (especially pizzagate and QAnon). Again, the things people will believe, perhaps somehow want to believe, is simply astounding. Papa Hemp is just the beginning. In the final episode, the host, Alexi, plays a call from a disgruntled Australian listener — I feel like there’s some clever comment to be made about the rage in the man’s voice being a manifestation of all that is wrong with the internet, but I don’t want that to be true.

Worth noting perhaps, that both these shows feature adverts. Which is what the skip forward button is for. Then again, they mostly advertise shows on the same networks, some of which sound promising.

While there is undoubtedly entertainment to be found in these shows, there is also sadness. A sadness for some of the individuals that were exploited, and for innocent people who were targeted. I don’t think these shows are exploitative or gratuitous. For me, they feel like cautionary tales for the contemporary age, a warning of what’s out there.

In terms of gaming and story building, something I take from both is how the layers of intrigue are exposed through investigation. Both feature individuals that take it upon themselves to investigate. They devote their lives to countless hours trawling through information, whether it be bags of old papers or online forums. In both instances, these are individuals who are not directly impacted by the events. They investigate, not because they are being paid to do so, but, I don’t know for sure, I guess they saw a wrong and felt compelled to set it right. These are the heroes of the stories.

That’s all for now. Thanks for subscribing — and if you have any recommendations to share then please add them in the comments.

- Paul

PS. While looking something up to write this post, I found another podcast by the guy who presented Hoaxed, called Sweet Bobby — and it sounds like a good one — about catfishing. Unfortunately I got a spoiler (but I’ll keep that to myself). I’ve just finished episode one…