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30 episodes
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Part 2
Ep 2 · Aug 18, 2026 · 42 min
Her critics say Gypsy Rose Blanchard can't keep her story straight. So I sat down with her for almost three hours and asked about all of it. The pills through the feeding tube. The video where she tells Nick Godejohn she'd been hiding that she could walk since she was seven. And the Demona videos she has never addressed in front of a reporter. You'll also meet the mother-daughter team behind Into the Weeds (youtube.com/@into-the-weeds-podcast), whose records requests produced what the internet c…
The Stalker: Police Say They Found Who Was Sending the Messages, Part 22
Aug 13, 2026 · 42 min
For almost five years, the Fernandez family told me their doctor's husband was terrorizing them. Threatening messages, unpaid pizza deliveries, police at the door for crimes that never happened. Three weeks ago, Peoria police surrounded their house with a search warrant and seized every device inside. Nobody was arrested that day. Then this week, one of the Fernandez children was booked into a Maricopa County jail on more than thirty counts, including stalking, making a terrorist threat, and sex…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Part 1
Ep 1 · Aug 11, 2026 · 36 min
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is the most beloved convicted murderer in America. Half the country sees a victim. The other half thinks she conned everyone, including her mother. I spent months trying to figure out which side is telling the truth. Then I emailed Gypsy. A few hours later, we were on a call. Chapters (00:00) The Most Beloved Convicted Murderer In America (01:35) The Short Version (02:53) It's All A Lie (03:41) Inside Her Medical Records (05:26) Allergic To Sugar (06:10) The Community That F…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession | Official Trailer
Aug 7, 2026 · 3 min
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is America's most beloved convicted murderer. The media told us she spent 23 years in a wheelchair, with a feeding tube, a breathing machine, and a diagnosis list that never ended. None of it was real. Her mother made it all up. And then Gypsy had her mother stabbed to death. When she walked out of prison in December 2023, not everyone was celebrating. A community formed online working together to dismantle her new life. So yeah. America's sweetheart is also a convicted murd…
He Turned His Own Father In. Then Built a Career Catching Con Artists.
Ep 10 · Aug 4, 2026 · 32 min
William Ruzich's father stole his identity while he was deployed in Afghanistan. He came home from war at 21 to find bills, liens, and creditors in his own name. He turned his own dad in for fraud. Then he went to work catching people just like him. William is a private intelligence operative now, tracking down scammers, fraudsters, and people who vanish with other people's money. Coming August 11th: The Gypsy Rose Obsession, a new free series from PRETEND. Watch the trailer and subscribe: https…
How Edward Smog Scammed a Retired Nurse Out of $150K
Ep 9 · Jul 28, 2026 · 37 min
My friend Joe sells real estate. He called me about one of his clients, a retired nurse who was selling her house, because something about her story wasn't sitting right with him. She'd lost her savings to a man named Edward Smog. Found her online, quoted her scripture, told her he was her way out of debt. By the time I got involved, she was out a hundred and fifty grand. Now a new scammer is coming after her. She believes he's an offshore oil rig worker, and they're going to get married. I'm tr…
Chain of Command: An Inside Man Speaks
Ep 8 · Jul 21, 2026 · 28 min
Darnell Emanuel spent years inside Rony Denis's inner circle at the House of Prayer Christian Church. His name is on documents. His credit was used to buy houses he never lived in. But when the fraud finally caught up with the church, Darnell wasn't indicted. In this bonus, Darnell walks us through the burner phones, the code names, and how the whole scheme worked. Plus, an update on Marjorie Denis. And what's happening at NTCC since the series aired. The next two episodes are available right no…
The Greatest Footballer Who Never Played Revisited
Jul 14, 2026 · 33 min
We've covered a lot of PRETENDers on this show. But the guy in this one might take the prize. Carlos Henrique Raposo, better known as Kaiser, fooled the entire professional soccer world in Brazil for 26 years. He signed with more than 30 clubs. He partied with George Michael. He got protected by Rio's most dangerous crime boss. He once punched a fan in the face rather than actually step on the field. And through all of it, he barely played a single real game. This week we're revisiting one of ou…
Javier Stops by the Hot Mess Happy Hour Podcast 🍸
Jul 7, 2026 · 26 min
This week, Javier stops by the Hot Mess Happy Hour Podcast and it didn't disappoint. It was a hot mess! About Hot Mess Happy Hour: Are you always running late? Do you leave things on top of your car and drive off? You might be a hot mess too so this podcast is for you! Laugh along as we share crazy hot mess stories during our weekly happy hour with yours truly. We'll also share tips and tricks for those affected by ADHD like your host, Susan Cokas! So grab a cocktail and get ready to laugh! It's…
Introducing: 'Hardcore Con' with Johnathan Walton
Jun 30, 2026 · 41 min
My friend Johnathan Walton just launched a new show called Hardcore Con, and I had to share it with you. Each episode, he breaks down a con story and the specific psychological tactics scammers use to pull it off. And this episode gets at something I think about a lot: it doesn't matter how smart you are. Subscribe to Hardcore Con on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0mXtr05OjD4wk4M8JrvLPy Or search "Hardcore Con" wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.c…
Chain of Command part 7
Ep 7 · Jun 23, 2026 · 44 min
Federal prosecutors say the man known as Rony Denis isn't Rony Denis at all. The arrest finally came in the fall of 2025. Three years after the FBI raids. But the church is still operating. So my friend Jared Smith from the Heliocentric YouTube channel and I drove down to Fayetteville to attend a Sunday service and see what's left of the House of Prayer Christian Church. And the whole sermon, it turned out, felt aimed at two specific people in the pews. This is the final chapter of the Chain of…
Chain of Command part 6
Ep 6 · Jun 16, 2026 · 33 min
In Part 6, the FBI comes knocking. Rony Denis and his top associates allegedly defrauded the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and military veterans out of more than $23.5 million. The House of Prayer Bible Seminary looked like a school. Veterans used their GI Bill benefits to enroll, paying the church hundreds of dollars a month for classes that led nowhere and credits worth nothing outside these walls. Rony Denis is still a free man. But not for long. Written and Produced by Javier Leiva Edi…
Chain of Command part 5
Ep 5 · Jun 9, 2026 · 30 min
Rony Denis wasn't just the spiritual leader at the House of Prayer Christian Church... He was their god. In Part 5, former members start connecting the dots on how Rony Denis consolidated control, and it's worse than you think. He ordered members to smash their own phones in front of the congregation. He commanded public confessions. And when he set his eyes on something he wanted, whether that was another man's wife or a ten-year-old boy, he found a way to take it. Written and Produced by Javie…
The Lottery Curse with Murder: True Crime Stories
Jun 5, 2026 · 5 min
I teamed up with Carter Roy for a special guest collaboration on Murder: True Crime Stories and this one is something else. For the full episode, follow Murder: True Crime Stories on your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1745145932In November 2006, Abraham Shakespeare won $30 million in the Florida Lottery. He couldn't read or write, and within two years he'd given most of it away to anyone who asked. Then Dee Dee Moore showed up promising to protect what was left — and within months, she…
Chain of Command part 4
Ep 4 · Jun 2, 2026 · 43 min
Note: This episode contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse and psychological manipulation. It started with a revolt. Thirty ministers walked out of NTCC mid-service and never looked back. They thought they were done with high-control leadership, mandatory tithing, and pastors who ruled by fear. They were wrong. In this episode, former pastor Arlen Bradeen and Greg Shepard tell us what happened when they followed Rony Denis to Georgia — and what it cost them to finally get out. Learn more a…
Chain of Command part 3
Ep 3 · May 26, 2026 · 34 min
In part three of Chain of Command, we hear from those who grew up in the New Testament Christian Churches of America. From Victor Johanson, a former Army soldier who confirms on tape that NTCC ministers got vasectomies because children would interfere with their ministry. From a woman we're calling Kaylee, who was raised inside the church and was groomed and assaulted by a family member who was also an NTCC minister. And we look at how the church's CEO, Michael Kekel, has publicly stated at one…
Chain of Command part 2
Ep 2 · May 19, 2026 · 32 min
Part one was about control. Part two is about the money. Behind the soul-winning and the sermons and the bylaws, the New Testament Christian Churches of America runs a very well-funded business. Tithing is tracked, enforced, and tied to your military paycheck. Fall behind and you go before the general board. Fall further behind and you lose your credentials. So where does the tithing money go? Church CEO Michael Kekel told his congregation they owed $25,000 a year in property taxes on the fellow…
The Raid | From Deep Cover: The Family Man
May 18, 2026 · 40 min
Deep Cover is a true crime show about double lives, brought to you by our friends at Pushkin Industries. Their new season, The Family Man, is a gripping story about how families can deceive each other and the lengths we’ll go to to protect our loved ones. Elise and Marissa grew up in a seemingly normal house in the suburbs of St. Louis—but it was a house built on secrets. There were things their father never told them... like how he really made his money. Everything changed in a single night: Th…
Chain of Command part 1
Ep 1 · May 12, 2026 · 39 min
In 1996, Sarah DeJonghe was a 20-year-old Navy Seabee stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Two guys in uniform approached her on base and invited her to church. She said no. They came back anyway. Four months later, Sarah was out of the Navy and on her way to a Bible seminary in Washington State. She didn't see it coming. Neither did the dozens of other military members who found themselves drawn into the New Testament Christian Churches of America, a church that has spent decades planting itself outsid…
Operation Cockblock Revisited
Ep 16 · May 5, 2026 · 55 min
A Colorado businessman with a criminal record, no credit, and a gift for charm somehow convinced dozens of women to finance his cars, his home, and his lifestyle. When they finally compared notes, they didn't get mad. They got organized. This is the story of Bill Sullivan, and the self-appointed militia of scorned women who banded together to take him down: Operation Cockblock. Before you go: Stick around for a sneak peek at Chain of Command, PRETEND's new investigative series about a secretive…
The Greatest Podcast Episodes Ever Made (Bonus)
Ep 15 · Apr 28, 2026 · 46 min
Somebody went through hundreds of Reddit comments asking what the greatest podcast episode of all time is, then actually listened to all of them. That somebody is Ivy, the creator behind @watchandlisten.ivy on TikTok, and she has been going viral ever since. In this episode we go through the ones that kept coming up: Reply All: "The Case of the Missing Hit" https://open.spotify.com/episode/0CaOGo6xSN51B2aLAQa1kU Heavyweight: "Gregor" https://open.spotify.com/episode/6LKrLVEAY3tsqHPURec6ke Myster…
I Beg Your Pardon part 6: The MAGA Granny
Ep 14 · Apr 21, 2026 · 48 min
On January 6th, 2021, Pam Hemphill followed the Proud Boys to the Capitol, got trampled by the mob, was carried out by a police officer named Joe, and recorded every minute of it. The internet called her the MAGA Granny. She did 60 days in federal prison. And then, slowly, she woke up. When Trump issued sweeping pardons for more than 1,500 January 6th defendants, Pam did something almost no one else did. She said no. She filed a formal letter of rejection, returned to the Capitol to apologize to…
I Beg Your Pardon part 5
Ep 13 · Apr 14, 2026 · 29 min
My cousin spent 23 years in an Illinois prison for a crime she says she didn't know she was committing. She was 33 when a judge handed down a 60-year sentence. She would have been 93 before she saw the outside again. This episode is personal. In "Only God Pardons," we follow my cousin Iris (not her real name) through the Illinois clemency system: what it takes to apply, what the odds actually look like, and what it means to finally get out, only to discover that freedom comes with its own kind o…
I Beg Your Pardon part 4
Ep 12 · Apr 7, 2026 · 26 min
Content Warning: This episode contains detailed descriptions of nursing home neglect, including accounts of residents found in unsanitary conditions. Listener discretion is advised. You're about to hear the story of a man who built a nursing home empire from a tiny office above a pizza parlor in New Jersey. His name is Joseph Schwartz. At its peak, his company Skyline Healthcare owned or operated more than 100 facilities across eleven states. What happened inside those facilities (the rationed d…
I Beg Your Pardon part 3
Ep 11 · Mar 24, 2026 · 36 min
You know that little bottle of 5-Hour Energy sitting on the counter of almost every gas station in America? Someone was faking it. Millions of bottles, mixed by hand in a filthy warehouse by day laborers with no training, no sanitation licenses, and no recipe. Just plastic barrels, canoe paddles, and industrial chemicals that may not have been approved for human consumption. In this episode, you meet Geoffrey Potter, an anti-counterfeiting attorney at Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler who only…
I Beg Your Pardon part 2
Ep 10 · Mar 17, 2026 · 41 min
Twelve days. That’s how long David Gentile spent in federal prison for a $1.8 billion fraud that wiped out the retirement savings of 17,000 people. On Thanksgiving 2025, President Trump signed a one-page clemency grant, commuting Gentile’s seven-year sentence to time served and erasing a $15 million restitution order in the process. In this episode, we talk to one of those 17,000 victims, CarolAnn Tutera, a 70-year-old still working because she can’t afford not to. We also talk to securities fra…
I Beg Your Pardon part 1
Ep 9 · Mar 10, 2026 · 39 min
Jerry Bush was a plumber from Virginia with fourteen employees, a wife battling cancer, and a business his father built from nothing. When a big construction job left him waiting on $350,000 he'd already earned, he did what you'd probably do. He looked for a loan. The man who picked up the phone was named Jonathan Braun. Before Braun found Jerry, he was running a half-billion dollar international drug smuggling operation. After he found Jerry, he froze his bank account, drained his father's reti…
Who's Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey Revisited
Ep 8 · Mar 3, 2026 · 43 min
CONTENT WARNING: Graphic content. Listener discretion is advised. Who’s Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey — Revisited A lot of people ask: where should I start if I just discovered PRETEND? The answer is always LaDonna. It’s been almost two years since the first episode of Who’s Afraid of LaDonna Humphrey dropped — and this one is still mind-blowing. Whether you’re a first-time listener or coming back to revisit, this is the place to start. In this episode, we’re replaying Part One. It’s a hell of an i…
Update on “The Hand That Held Me”
Feb 28, 2026 · 1 min
I want to share a quick update about the "Hand That Held Me" series. Due to some recent developments, I’ve made the decision to postpone the release. I know many of you were expecting it, and I’m sorry for the change. These situations can be complex, and I want to make sure I handle the story the right way. This also leaves an unexpected three-week gap in the schedule while I prepare the next series. I appreciate your patience as I work to queue up what’s coming next. Thank you, as always, for l…
The Pests part 3 & 4 Revisited
Ep 7 · Feb 24, 2026 · 1 hr 21 min
We conclude one of the most disturbing series ever covered on this podcast. Here are parts 3 and 4 of the Pests. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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