94. The Messenger (Kevin Trudeau)
A series of infomercials lands a TV pitchman in federal prison.
Prelude: The founder of Hooked on Phonics is criticized over dubious advertising claims before he settles a sexual assault lawsuit with his corporate attorney, who then purchases a ranch from a phony French noblewoman who faked her own death.
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Original music for Swindled is written and performed by Trevor Howard (Deformr).
Comments (20)
1-800-ABCDEFG! 🤣 classic
"Rush Limbaugh audience comprised entirely of illiterates."😆 You're so funny, ACC (and as always, spot on!).
Sadly, there are a lot of gullible people who are completely uninformed about medical science who fall for this conspiracy garbage. They can't evaluate things critically or think rationally so they fall for greedy, manipulative charlatans like Kevin Trudeau. Today there are thousands more conmen just like Kevin Trudeau and even more gullible, anti-medicine, pseudoscience conspiracy lovers who fall for them.
Hooked on phonics.. man
Can't believe I was completely unfamiliar with Trudeau. What fascinating parallels between his career and the gradually increasing bonkersness gaining dominance within the GOP over that same period.
Laughed out loud at Raisin Queen. You always give us the most important details.
Lol my parents had mega memory. 😂😂😂
WoW ACC thanks for the information! I'd never heard of GIN so I decided to check them out. Who knew that if you are a member you could live/work/retire on the private CRUISE SHIP they might build. It might have the biggest bestest of everything on board for me. I could have Food (the bestest) Wine, Unhomogenized whipped cream! Colonics galore! There could be Alphbiotics and I could cure my aging and cancer. And in a medical emergency a helicopter could come get me- if it's in range! Gotta find my check book...
I’m not saying either of you are wrong, but it just doesn’t sound right to me. Like common core math lol
Dang! My mom got me hooked on phonics growing up. I still remember the cassette tapes and jingles. This prelude was a blast from the past. Great episode!
Amazing episode. I didn't realize we were still in the intro until you made the transition. Thanks for all your work.
Widower. Not widow. A widow is when a wife loses her husband. A widower is when a husband loses a wife.
I think the usage has changed in the last few years. Like "Actor" is no longer gender-specific, I think "Widow" is also not gender-specific.
wow… that was a deep dive. greatly researched and clearly presented. good job on this one. and, oh yeah, mailed package to you on friday. you’re welcome.
Great episode!!
It's so sad, that so many people are so quick to fall for things like this. I wonder if it's everywhere or only developed nations that have unaffordable healthcare, and poor education systems.
Conspiracy nuts who want to believe absurd ideas are all over the globe. I'm on a site called Quora fighting against this garbage every single day. On that site, the anti-medicine, pseudoscience conspiracy freaks come from all over the world. The conspiracies make them feel important, like they're in on some great secret most others don't understand. The conspiracies make them feel better about their lives -- makes them feel it's not their fault they didn't get a better education or have a better paying job or have poor health -- it's the fault of the Bilderbergs, Rothschilds, Bill Gates, the Jews, Big Pharma -- name any right nut-wing boogeyman you can think of. It's far easier to blame a scape goat and believe the deck is stacked against you by an all-powerful cabal than it is to evaluate yourself honestly and do the hard work of improving your life.
Every time you pronounce Nevada the correct way it makes me smile. Many thanks from this long time Nevadan.
I grew up in Oregon -- still waiting for most people to figure out how to pronunce that state's name!
An ex-boyfriend's best friend & his wife were GIN members and while my bf was unemployed and I was picking up all tabs, etc, giving him money for interview clothes, he inadvertently let slip that he was giving his best friend's wife $100 per month so she could have a stronger downline and be part of a higher level. He would not accept that his friends were being taken advantage of and to prove it, he asked her to go to their special secret website to find our how I could cure my ulcerative colitis. She came back with information that was easily googled, and she should have googled it because I was on a new line of medication that had rendered the meds she suggested obsolete a few years before. I told my bf to never speak of me to them again without my express permission, and the relationship ended not long after that. Trudeau has spent decades preying on people who are not particularly smart or educated and i assume they all listen to Alex Jones now.