There's just something about seeing hypocrites fully exposed that is so satisfying, particularly when the takedown is as juicy and salacious and, yes, tawdry as that of Jerry Falwell Jr. You no doubt remember the Pool Boy Scandal of 2020, which began as a rumor that evangelical Christian and President of Liberty University Falwell was having an affair with a younger man named Giancarlo Granda... before Falwell released a statement saying that his wife, Becki, had the affair. And then Granda...

It's an unintentional double-header of acid heads, as Kasey follows up Mark's episode about Unmask Alice with a deep dive into an aside from the book about the CIA's Operation Midnight Climax. Yes, it sounds like some horny high school boys started a band, and no, it's not actually that much different from that. Turns out, the CIA was so adamant that no Americans could possibly have committed war crimes or found Communism interesting that the only solution to veterans saying these things...

Mark went to Vegas and came back brimming over with awe at Rick Emerson's book "Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries." Do you know the book "Go Ask Alice"? Probably. You're likely less familiar with "Jay's Journal." Both books—billed as actual diaries from actual teenagers—came from the same woman, and Emerson presents a pretty damning case for the havoc her ambitions wreaked on the survivors of familial tragedy and, yes, America as a...

In 2006, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nominee was... John Edwards? He'd unsuccessfully campaigned as VP for John Kerry in 2003, so he was a known quantity (unlike that Barack Obama guy). But in an arena that is rife with unforced errors, Edwards made perhaps the biggest, most outrageous string of them — all while his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of terminal cancer. Not a great look, even as Edwards vied for relevancy by getting in on that new website YouTube, with the help of...

Some things never change. Well, not Barbara Hershey's name. Born Barbara Lynn Herzstein, Hershey changed her professional name to Barbara Seagull for a period of time in the early 1970s. Much against the advice of literally everyone. She appeared on The Dick Cavett Show to discuss the reasons behind the change (buckle up) and ended up breastfeeding her son during the broadcast. Since this was 1975, you can imagine the hysteria. This week, Mark walks Kasey through the madness of early '70s...

Before the musical, before the Got Milk? commercial brought him back into relevancy, Alexander Hamilton was one of the more combative founding fathers. The most scandal-plagued founding father? That is TBD. But today, Kasey explains how Hamilton ended up in an extramarital affair, then blackmailed, then welcomed into cuckolding and then published an entire pamphlet years after the fact about what went down. Did that kill his chances at higher office? And why exactly was Aaron Burr in...

Before Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair, there was Janet Cooke. A reporter at The Washington Post, her byline appeared on a story headlined "Jimmy's World" about an 8-year-old heroin addict... who didn't exist. But before anyone found that out, "Jimmy's World" became a national sensation and made Cooke the first Black female Pulitzer Prize winner—an award she returned almost immediately upon winning. But there's a lot more to Janet Cooke's story than just blind ambition. Mark unpacks the OG...

Sumner Welles was a career politician whose career was always being interrupted by personal biases. First Calvin Coolidge kicked me out because he married a friend of the Coolidges. Then FDR had to speak with him because his direct manager was shit-talking Welles and a boozy night on a train that involved propositioning a Pullman porter.  Kasey walks Mark through the tangled web of political rivalries that led to Welles resigning in the middle of World War II and reminds us all that no one...

The whole thing began for Bill Shaffer with a fountain. Granted, the fountain is one of the few remaining examples of its kind in Manhattan and was designed by the team behind Grand Central Station. But who knew that reading a plaque one night would lead to the discovery of a half-forgotten scandal involving Alexander Hamilton's great-grandson, a sex worker, a murder, and two years of lurid headlines? That's the story that Shaffer told in his recent book The Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded...

The American veterans of the Great War just wanted that bonus the United States had promised them a little bit early. Guaranteed to pay out in 1945, a little thing called the Great Depression had them all impatient to cash it in 12 years early—so the Bonus Army traveled to Washington, D.C., to make their case. Herbert Hoover had quite enough of Hoovervilles, however, and somewhere along the way, Douglas MacArthur swooped in with the U.S. Cavalry and a tank or four to clear out the marchers'...

It was the slap heard around the world. No, not the Oscars 2022. We're talking Los Angeles 1989 when Zsa Zsa Gabor was pulled over for expired plates and ended up embroiled in a three-week trial that made Depp v Heard look boring. How did the Hungarian personality wind up in an El Segundo jail doing clerical work? Why was the nation so transfixed by the story of a woman slapping a police officer? And why didn't we ever get the Zsa Zsa memoir written from her dog's point of view? Mark asks...

Designing Women was hardly the first show to feature clashes between performers and producers (go read about All in the Family some time). But the very public war between creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and breakout star Delta Burke included Emmy nominations, fat shaming, and a secret Barbara Walters special that no one involved with Designing Women knew Delta had filmed until it aired. Dixie Carter got dragged into the fray along the way, while Annie Potts and Jean Smart wisely stayed out...

We're living in a golden age of Martha Mitchell content, and we couldn't be more delighted. Fresh off the success of Starz's limited series Gaslit, Kasey walks Mark through the life and scandals of our favorite Watergate whistleblower, who was discredited as a drunken grotesque by the Nixon administration as she tried to tell everyone who would listen that Nixon and CREEP were involved in the Watergate break-in.  From her appearance on Laugh-In (where Lily Tomlin shunned her) to her...

Not to fear—neither Kasey nor Mark have encountered a career-ruining scandal or a stint in the pokey. (Yet. Everything is always a yet.) What they are doing is taking sümmer off from researching and recording! So, as Judy Garland told her audience at Carnegie Hall, "You can have an intermission. And you can smoke or drink or whatever you do at intermission, and I can't wait to see you again because you're divine." We can't wait to be back in your ears this August! Logo: Jessica...

Political sex scandals are a dime a dozen—although certainly, uber-conservative John G. Schmitz's sex scandal (involving a secret second family) is one of the more tawdry ones. So conservative that even the John Birch Society told him, "Nah, dude, you're too intense," Schmitz's wife was known as the "West Coast Phyllis Schlafly." Their political careers were effectively ended when his secret family was revealed—but that's not the end of the story! Tune in as Kasey walks Mark through what...

Over the last decade, Helen Keller went from a saint to a hoax—which means the real woman has long been lost under the hagiography and now the TikTok deniers. Among other things: Helen Keller was a devoted socialist who starred in a silent movie about her life and had her eyes replaced with glass ones. But the most telling scandal involving Helen and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, is one that happened when she was 12 years old and newly famous. The story spiraled quickly out of control,...

Odds are you learned about The XYZ Affair during high school history class (even mark did, and most of his high school education came courtesy of movies screened during class). But in retrospect, the whole scandal of John Adams' presidency feels underwhelming compared to our everyday political scandals now. That is, until 2017, when the fallout of The XYZ Affair finally exploded in a national controversy.  Let Kasey walk you through what happened, why it wouldn't have seemed like that big of...

"Bring me a unicorn!" was the rallying cry for VC funders in Silicon Valley during its glory days, and apparently the demand from network execs looking for new content. Because over the course of a single month, we were treated to Hulu's The Dropout, Apple TV+'s WeCrashed, and Showtime's Super Pumped.  All three are based on real-life disruptors that promised to revolutionize medicine, real estate, and taxis. All three failed to varying degrees. But we already know those scandals: Kasey and...

At last! After premiering three episodes of investigative documentary series The Way Down on HBO Max last year, the exposé of the Remnant Fellowship and its founder, Gwen Shamblin, returns for a two-part update. Has it gained anything in the aftermath of the series' revelations? Did we need another two episodes about the church and the ways in which it preyed on the vulnerable? Probably not! But then, we also didn't really need Netflix's 4-episode Bad Vegan or Hulu's 3-episode Captive...

Sean Young looked poised to be a star in the 1980s. She appeared in Stripes, she was the love interest in Blade Runner—instantly achieving icon status—and she was great in thriller No Way Out. Then she got cast as Vicki Vale in Batman. That should have brought her career to the next level. Instead, it was the beginning of the end.   Years of addressing bad behavior and refusing to flatter male egos had set the stage for Sean Young to be made a Hollywood pariah. And the match that set off...

Why oh why oh why oh... does Ohio have so many political scandals?   From bad behavior to a mistress opening up about an affair with her politico boss after not being invited to his wedding, the Buckeye state has played host to a surprising number of political bad behavior. Kasey Howe walks us through some of the highlights among the lowlights. Logo: Jessica Balaschak Music: Caveman of Los Angeles by Party Store Music YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUI6fTwkYm8UEv4sLaC9ytw ---...

In early 2013, Reese Witherspoon seemed destined for Meg Ryan’s later career. Both hit it big as smart, sometimes daffy romcom blondes with more going on than initially appeared. But after winning an Oscar for Walk the Line, Reese’s movies… hadn’t exactly popped.    Then something happened. On April 19, 2013, Reese was in the car with her husband, talent agent James Toth, when he was pulled over under suspicion of driving while intoxicated after swerving into the wrong lane. But it was Reese...

Los Angeles is an oasis in the desert—but it's also a mirage. Because life shouldn't be sustainable to the extent that it is, and it wouldn't be if a few enterprising old dudes hadn't decided to divert water from the Valley to help L.A. prosper. What's the harm? Those farmers don't need that water, right?   If you've ever seen Chinatown, then you know there's a lot of harm going on. Kasey walks us through the chicanery and trickery used to drain a few lakes over the years, all to keep the...

Julia Roberts was a freshly minted, Oscar-nominated movie star when she and Kiefer Sutherland (semi Hollywood royalty) announced their wedding, to be held on the Fox studio lot. That should have been an early sign of things to come. As should Kiefer's desire to have a full Thanksgiving dinner served at their June wedding (he really likes Thanksgiving, OK?). Then, days before the wedding, Julia called the whole thing off and flew to Ireland on what would have been her wedding day with Jason...