"The people who believe in these lists are asleep. Anyone sitting up at three in the morning secretly has doubts."
Are you a day person or a night person? Ask Jean Shepherd, the infamous late-night '50s radio DJ who concocted an entire literary hoax in the form of a book called I, Libertine. Shepherd believed that Manhattan, and the world at large, depended almost entirely upon lists — like The New York Times Best Seller list. So, he asked his listeners to help him come up with the name of a title of a book that didn't exist, so that they all might visit bookstores the next day and ask for it and watch the confusion grow on the employees' faces. The ruse even started to reach cities overseas like Paris and Rome. It was the greatest book to never exist, until it suddenly did exist...
Theme music is credited to Wendy Marcini, Elvin Vanguard, and Jules Gaia.
Instagram: @literaryscandals
Selected bibliography:
• Excelsior, You Fathead!: The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd by Eugene B. Bergmann
• “The Man Behind the Brilliant Media Hoax of ‘I, Libertine,’” The Awl
• “An interview with Shepherd on the hoax from Long John Nebel’s radio show,” WFMU’s Beware of the Blog
• “Ballantine Books Makes Hoax Come True,” The Wall Street Journal
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.