In 1976, America’s most renowned psychic, the so-called “Prince of Spiritualists” M. Lamar Keene, pulled back the curtain in his book Psychic Mafia and revealed the field of spiritualism to be a sham. Keene claimed an entire network of mediums—a mafia of sorts—operated in a close circle, swapping tricks and information on clients to deceive and scam them out of thousands of dollars. Keene’s life, the fallout from the book’s release, and an investigation into America’s fascination with the field of spiritualism are the focus of a new podcast by the BBC called Fake Psychic. Host Vicky Baker, who spotlighted the “fake heiress” Anna Sorokin in an earlier podcast, takes listeners through a complex maze as she tries to piece together Keene’s network using archival materials and re-creations (which include English accents that will have some Brits turning up their noses). Incidentally, Keene coined the term “true-believer syndrome”—a reference to people who continue to believe something that has been firmly disproven—making him a relevant figure for our current times. —Jacob Robbins