I answer my spam. I'm artist, author and adventurer Ryan Estrada and for one year, I read and responded to every message in my spambox just to see what would happen. I encouraged others to do so as well. What followed was comedy, tragedy, true crime, and numerous other genres. I got inducted into the illuminati. I co-wrote a musical. I ventured into the Tony-verse. Then I made a show about it.
And now for something a little different. This is part one of our two part documentary series that turns from fun with spam to a true crime investigation. When Kane Lynch checked his Facebook Other Messages Folder, he found a message from a mysterious long-lost relative. That's the beginning to most of the most common and dangerous internet scams out there, but Kane decided to reply. From audio recored by Avery Trufelman (99% Invisible, Articles of Interest)
Is it possible to co-write a Disney musical with a domain scammer without them noticing? I'm joined by special guest stars Chris Houghton, Shane Houghton, and Marieve Herington (Big City Greens), Paul Bae (The Black Tapes) and musicians Trisha Laya, Angelique Lazarus, Cheyne Kohl, and Conor Doran. Plus a very special surprise guest.
After convincing award winning, bestselling author Ryan North to check his spam, we hatched a plot to spend months planning the best possible birthday surprise for a complete stranger. We took her into the Tony-verse. And became best friends.
In the second half of our story, a confrontation! Last week on the show, a trip into the Facebook Other Messages folder revealed the true story of a conman who started and abandoned families across the country. Now, all of his families have found one another and we have the actual audio of the emotional moment they found him. In partnership with Kane Lynch, author of the graphic novel about this story, Smooth As Glass. From audio recored by Avery Trufelman (99% Invisible, Articles of Interest)
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