The Ringer - Lying Through Our Teeth

Sixty percent of people will tell at least one lie during a 10-minute conversation. We would ask whether you identified as one of the 60 percent, but you’d probably lie about it anyway. 

In our latest narrative podcast, host Brian Phillips investigates why individuals fabricate tales in the first place. Prepare for stories on catfishing, fake deaths, and more. 

Watch the trailer now

“Truthless [is] a show about lies in the lives of real people. In each episode of Truthless, I talk to one person about a lie they’ve told, and we explore the story behind it. The motives behind it, the process of devising it, the consequences of telling it, the scramble not to get caught. Some of our guests are celebrities. (I won’t spoil things by telling you which ones.) Some of our guests could be your friends or neighbors. If you have a great story about a lie, one of our guests could be you.

Everybody lies. Along with eating, sleeping, breathing, and knowing how Taylor Swift reacted to Kansas City’s latest touchdown, lying is one of the nearest things there is to a universal human experience. I don’t want to overcomplicate the point, because the stories in Truthless aren’t complicated—they’re funny and sometimes moving. But over the past few months, I’ve talked to a whole lot of people about the lies they’ve told. And what I’ve realized is that our national discourse on dishonesty and misinformation has been missing a piece, and that piece is the role lies play in everyday life.” —Brian Phillips

Listen to Episodes 1 and 2