Everything Is Fake artwork

Technology · BBC Radio 4

Everything Is Fake

by BBC Radio 4

Jamie Bartlett asks why, in so many parts of modern life, fakery is no longer punished - it's rewarded. And why so many of us seem strangely unbothered by it.

Latest episodes

Showing 16 · updated from the feed

6. F For Fake

Jamie and his AI companion Jimmy Botlett become increasingly difficult to tell apart as they bring you the final chapter of this story - featuring Geoffrey Hinton, the go

Apr 15
28 min

5. Doctor’s Orders

Jamie sits down with Dr Aseem Malhotra, the cardiologist who reaches millions through alternative media with his claims about Covid vaccines - and who is, he says, nervou

Apr 8
28 min

4. The Lance Armstrong Defence

In the early 2000s, a young man in New Jersey was writing thousands of fake university essays for paying students. Around the same time, financial analysts in New York we

Apr 1
29 min

3. My Truth, Your Truth, and Anything But the Truth

In 1987, the same year Hulk Hogan body-slammed Andre the Giant, something else happened that would change America's relationship with the truth forever - a Washington reg

Mar 25
29 min

2. Kayfabe Country

In episode two, Jamie ventures into the strange world of 1980s WWF wrestling - where performers and fans share an unspoken agreement to treat the whole spectacle as real.

Mar 18
28 min

1. Fake it. Make it. Podcast it.

Jamie Bartlett is not Steven Bartlett. People mix them up more than you might think - but there is an important difference: Steven Bartlett is one of the most successful

Mar 11
28 min

Trailer

Have you noticed that more and more of the world feels, well, fake? Online there's a daily avalanche of dubious advice and information - about health, money, success, ha

Mar 4
2 min

8. I Sung of Chaos

On 30th September 2022 a coroner in London finds that Molly Russell "...died from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online c

Mar 25 2024
32 min

7. Rest of World

Jamie Bartlett travels to Minnesota to meet Abrham Meareg Amare. The young academic is seeking asylum in the States following the murder of his father in Ethiopia in 20

Mar 18 2024
30 min

6. Arbiters of Truth

In 2018, the CEOs of our most popular social media companies are standing at a crossroad. After political outcry over Russian interference in the 2016 election and fall

Mar 11 2024
31 min

5. The Vortex

One of the strange things about our new media universe, is how innocuous decisions taken in Silicon Valley - turning a dial, or adding a few lines of code to increase eng

Mar 4 2024
29 min

4. Flood the Zone

2016 is a big election year. But something is going very wrong online. Journalists in America and the Philippines start to notice something strange going on online. In

Feb 26 2024
31 min

3. Are You Not Engaged?

The tech pioneers were right: all this connectivity and sharing is creating a new age of freedom and democracy. A global consciousness. Arab Spring, Barack Obama – both

Feb 19 2024
28 min

2. Blitzscaling

From the rubble of the dot com crash, an ambitious young Harvard student with a passion for hacking and love of Roman emperors, sets up an exciting new website. Mark Zu

Feb 12 2024
29 min

1. We Are as Gods

For years something strange has been happening online, but most of us have no idea what’s really going on. Ethnic conflict in Myanmar. A chemistry professor is killed i

Feb 5 2024
29 min

Trailer

It all started with a crazy idea to realise a hippie dream of building a “global consciousness”. The plan was to build a connected world, where everyone could access ever

Jan 29 2024
3 min

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

Jamie Bartlett not only nails it with his research & interview choices, his delivery & story telling. He hits the moment & tells you what you want to know, need to know & are already questioning . He is simply 10 steps ahead. This & Gatekeepers & Everything is Fake are must listen podcasts.

OofiOofster · Apr 2026

This podcast and the one before it, The Gatekeepers, are two of the best podcasts I’ve ever listened to. Both have been carefully researched, and the narrators/producers have made an honest effort to stay objective. For me, while I lived the reality of the time periods discussed in these podcasts, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. These podcasts have helped me to connect the dots and better understand social media, politics, laws, AI, etc.

SCTFETTERMAN · Mar 2026

Can't recommend this enough. I had vague sort of ideas and notions about the dark side of social media, but this series really shines a light on it in a way that is both broad in scope and specific in the details. I just finished the 7th episode about the 'Rest of World' and wow, it's permanently shifted how I view the modern world.

SomeguyinIndiana · Aug 2024

Outstanding storytelling depicting the rise of social media and the societal forces that propelled its dominance.

FearSparky · Feb 2024

We strive to present a balanced view by showing a diverse range of reviews from Apple Podcasts.

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