Chameleon

Chameleon

We are living in a golden age of deception. It feels like everyone has an angle and that, everywhere you turn, someone’s trying to scam you. Chameleon is a new weekly show from veteran journalist Josh Dean (co-creator and host of The Clearing, Hooked, White Devil, and the original Chameleon season, Hollywood Con Queen) that takes you inside an incredible, stranger-than-fiction story about someone—or some people—pretending to be something they aren’t. Are you obsessed with cons, frauds, and impostors? Then this is the podcast for you. Get your new weekly true crime obsession every Thursday from Campside Media and Audiochuck.

Episodes

August 13, 2026 35 mins

In the summer of 1991, a young woman walks into a police station in Ogden, Utah. She claims that just blocks away, amongst the manicured suburban sprawl, a self-proclaimed prophet has spent years building a secret religious empire — fuelled by fear, manipulation, and systematic abuse.

Listen to Mike King’s podcast Gardens of Evil: Inside the Zion Society Cult

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audi...

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The mayor of an idyllic seaside town in France had seemingly fallen under the spell of a glamorous mystic who claimed she could speak to the dead. Their relationship soon pulled the whole town into a mind-blowing scandal that blurred the line between personal loyalty and political corruption.


Listen to Leo’s podcast The Mystic and the Mayor

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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A promising high school basketball star seemed to appear out of nowhere—a talented homeless kid trying to rebuild his life after Hurricane Harvey. But Rashun Richardson was no ordinary freshman. In fact… He wasn’t even a teenager.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

Follow Chameleon on Instagram @chameleonpod


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information...

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In the late 1990s, a group of art students from Leeds, England, announce a week in Spain as their latest “conceptual artwork” — and Britain’s tabloids lose their collective mind. But as the headlines pile up, it becomes clear the “holiday” is only the surface story. And the Art is aimed straight at the culture machine that’s reporting it.

Sarah Thornton's artist website

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His friends, family and a string of partners all believed a version of the same thing. That Randy was a former marine who now flew commercial airliners. But as the people around him started to look more closely, their ideas about who this charming man was began to wobble. And if Randy has been taking such great liberties with the truth then what else isn’t true?

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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A network of animal shelters in Uganda started posting heartbreaking videos of starving, mutilated dogs on social media, begging for donations from animal lovers. But as a group of women around the world began comparing notes, they uncovered something much darker: a sprawling scam operation where animals were being tortured for clicks, sympathy and cash. And they started fighting back.

Follow Nicola’s instagram account WeWont...

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In 2009, Vincent Richardson walked into a Chicago police station and reported for duty. No one noticed he wasn’t actually a cop. No one noticed he was 14 years old. This is the story of the teenager who fooled the system time after time. Was it a prank? A cry for help? Or something else entirely?

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Launching November 13th wherever you get your podcasts. 

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When Heidi Cloud was twelve years old, she became the first child in America to be sent to jail for refusing a court-ordered visit with her father. As she grew up, Heidi came to understand that the real danger had been much closer to home. Her mother spent decades pulling everyone around her into a relentless world of conspiracy. Then she disappeared.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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Heidi Cloud's childhood never stood a chance of being normal. A mother with a warped way of seeing the world keeps the family on the run and embroiled in an impossible custody battle with a historic and horrific conclusion. How does Heidi begin to untangle the truth when her own mother is as manipulative as she is convincing.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

Follow Chameleon on Instagram @chameleonpod


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He rode a mobility scooter through Central Park with a parrot on his shoulder. He also helped pull off one of the biggest financial scams in sports history. This is Chuck Blazer, the flamboyant soccer bureaucrat turned FBI informant whose corruption helped reveal criminal activity at FIFA — the organization responsible for world soccer, including the World Cup — from the inside. 

Chameleon is a production of Campsi...

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When Clayton Echard’s season of The Bachelor ended, he thought the public humiliation was behind him. Then a woman he barely knew claimed she was carrying his twins — something which, according to Clayton, was impossible. As the story exploded online sleuths begins pulling at loose threads. What they uncovered led to allegations of deception, forgery, and a pattern stretching back years.

Listen to Stephani’s podca...

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A swashbuckling South African expat, Benjamin Mauerberger, rose up as a boiler-room stock hustler in Southeast Asia, then reappeared years later with a diplomatic passport and extraordinary wealth. When reporters start pulling at threads, they uncover an entirely new identity: this stock scammer seems to now be a key player in the industrial “pig butchering” scam economy. How does a small-time con artist end up orbiting...

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May 27, 2026 36 mins

Join your Chameleon host Josh Dean and his partner in (dumb) crime, comedian Rory Scovel, as they dive into the incredible story of a shady Swami who scammed Newark, New Jersey into adopting the Hindu city of Kailasa as a “sister city.” The problem: Kailasa doesn’t exist. And the swami behind it? A notorious scammer who’s on the run from various charges, some of them very serious. “Very embarrassing fo...

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Fyre Festival was sold as the most exclusive party on earth — a luxury music festival in the Bahamas for influencers, celebrities, and the ultra-wealthy. It became one of the most shared disasters of the social-media era, but by the time the truth had emerged, thousands of people had already bought into the dream. And if the organizer was right, could be persuaded to do so again. And again. And again. 

Read Gabr...

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The story of a mild-mannered guy who charmed his way into the lives—and bank accounts—of women on two continents by posing as a wealthy heir with big crypto dreams. But Ken’s real talent isn’t getting your money — it’s disappearing before anyone can prove what he’s done.

To listen to Natalie and Abukar’s podcast: Catch Me If You Ken

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media...

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A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder should have been a footnote—a guy who raced once, finished 24th, and faded away. But in early 2026, Ryan Wedding resurfaces as a fugitive on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, accused of running a sprawling cocaine network and ordering hits across borders. How did a middle-class kid from a ski family end up here?

Ready Alyssa and Tisha’s reporting on Wedding for ESPN

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April 30, 2026 49 mins

As a lonely, grieving teenager in the early days of the internet, Celeste Mott is drawn into a secretive message board called "The Looking Glass": a place where self-proclaimed vampires demand total belief, reward devotion, and punish doubt. What begins as fantasy soon becomes something much more dangerous: a closed world built on manipulation, hierarchy, and psychological control. Years later, Celeste tells the story of how she wa...

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Gay Talese thought he’d landed a once-in-a-lifetime story every journalist dreams about: a motel owner who built a hidden viewing platform so he could watch guests in their most private moments and kept meticulous “research” notes for decades. But when Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi starts pulling at the threads, the story begins to unravel into something messy. A source who can’t stop exaggerating, and...

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The unsettling story of Leslie Wexner—the Midwestern retail billionaire who built Victoria’s Secret, then gave Jeffrey Epstein extraordinary access to his money and credibility. But how much did he know?

Listen to Vanessa and Justine’s podcast Fallen Angel

Read Gabriel Sherman’s Vanity Fair article on Epstein and Wexner.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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The rise and spectacular fall of Eddie Antar, the electronics mogul behind the Crazy Eddie brand. Who scammed his way from the streets of Brooklyn to Wall Street and then vanished without a trace.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

Follow Chameleon on Instagram @chameleonpod


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