The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Part 10
Oct 13, 2026
When Gypsy Rose Blanchard was a little girl, the thing that comforted her most was her mother's touch. In the final episode of The Gypsy Rose Obsession, I ask Gypsy when that changed. I also track…
PRETEND is an investigative true crime podcast about real people who lie for a living — con artists, scammers, and the victims caught in their web. Hosted by journalist Javier Leiva, PRETEND exposes the human psychology behind deception and fraud. Each episode follows a real case of manipulation — from financial scams and Ponzi schemes to digital hoaxes and emotional cons PRETEND explains how and why deception works without shaming victims, combining ethical journalism with cinematic storytelling. Featured in lists of the best podcasts about con artists and scams, PRETEND investigates crimes of persuasion, trust, and betrayal. New episodes drop regularly with stories that reveal how manipulation shapes modern life, both online and off. PRETEND is produced by Creative Babble, LLC. © 2026 Creative Babble LLC [CLAIM:B6BT3XC4]
PodSkip has analyzed 2 episodes of PRETEND, averaging 1.5 ads per episode (4% of runtime).
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Nobody Should Believe Me: The Case of Dr. John Cox
Oct 10, 2026
This week I'm handing the feed over to Andrea Dunlop and her show, Nobody Should Believe Me. Andrea has spent years covering medical child abuse, and she came to the subject through her own family…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Part 9
Oct 06, 2026
When Gypsy Rose Blanchard announced she was pregnant, the internet opened an investigation. The woman who spent her childhood trapped inside her mother's medical lies was now raising a daughter of…
BONUS: How Doctors Diagnose Medical Child Abuse
Oct 03, 2026
How does a doctor actually decide that a parent is making their child sick? Dr. John Melville is a child abuse pediatrician, president of the Ray E. Helfer Society, and one of the people who helped…
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BONUS: Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Partner Ken Urker Has Died
Oct 03, 2026
Ken Urker, Gypsy Rose Blanchard's partner and the father of their daughter, Aurora, died on October 1, 2026, his 34th birthday. The sheriff is still investigating, and no official cause of death has…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Part 8
Sep 29, 2026
Gypsy Rose Blanchard thought no one was listening.
For years, everything she said from inside Chillicothe was being recorded. Now it's public. More than five hundred hours of it.
Some of those…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Part 7
Sep 22, 2026
"I didn't f---ing get my own f---ing mother murdered just so I could live for everybody else."
That is Gypsy Rose Blanchard on a recorded prison line, saying the quiet part out loud. She had taken…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Part 6
Sep 15, 2026
There are people online right now who don't believe Dee Dee Blanchard had Munchausen by proxy. Some of them don't believe Munchausen by proxy is a real thing at all. So if the abuse wasn't real, how…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, part 5
Sep 08, 2026
According to the anti-Gypsy camp, they've found it. The smoking gun. Gypsy Rose Blanchard has a rare genetic disorder, a microdeletion on chromosome 1, and depending on who you ask online, that one…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Part 4
Sep 01, 2026
According to the anti-Gypsy camp, they've got the receipts. Gypsy really had leukemia. She really needed that bone marrow treatment, and the feeding tube and the surgeries were all real and…
The Stalker: Shelbey Fernandez Speaks, Part 23
Aug 28, 2026
It's like getting to the end of a movie and discovering the twist, then going back to the beginning because every scene means something else. That's what I've been doing all week with the Rick and…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Part 3
Aug 25, 2026
Long before Gypsy Rose Blanchard's mother was murdered, the tension inside that house was already at a breaking point. The private videos between Gypsy and Nick Godejohn that nobody was supposed to…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Part 2
Aug 18, 2026
Her critics say Gypsy Rose Blanchard can't keep her story straight. So I sat down with her for almost three hours and asked about all of it. The pills through the feeding tube. The video where she…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Part 1
Aug 11, 2026
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is the most beloved convicted murderer in America. Half the country sees a victim. The other half thinks she conned everyone, including her mother.
I spent months trying to…
The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Official Trailer
Aug 11, 2026
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is America's most beloved convicted murderer.
The media told us she spent 23 years in a wheelchair, with a feeding tube, a breathing machine, and a diagnosis list that never…
The Stalker: Police Say They Found Who Was Sending the Messages, Part 22
Aug 10, 2026
For almost five years, the Fernandez family told me their doctor's husband was terrorizing them. Threatening messages, unpaid pizza deliveries, police at the door for crimes that never happened…
He Turned His Own Father In. Then Built a Career Catching Con Artists.
Aug 04, 2026
William Ruzich's father stole his identity while he was deployed in Afghanistan. He came home from war at 21 to find bills, liens, and creditors in his own name. He turned his own dad in for…
How Edward Smog Scammed a Retired Nurse Out of $150K
Jul 28, 2026
My friend Joe sells real estate. He called me about one of his clients, a retired nurse who was selling her house, because something about her story wasn't sitting right with him. She'd lost her…
Chain of Command: An Inside Man Speaks
Jul 21, 2026
Darnell Emanuel spent years inside Rony Denis's inner circle at the House of Prayer Christian Church. His name is on documents. His credit was used to buy houses he never lived in. But when the fraud…
The Greatest Footballer Who Never Played Revisited
Jul 14, 2026
We've covered a lot of PRETENDers on this show. But the guy in this one might take the prize.
Carlos Henrique Raposo, better known as Kaiser, fooled the entire professional soccer world in Brazil…
Javier Stops by the Hot Mess Happy Hour Podcast 🍸
Jul 07, 2026
This week, Javier stops by the Hot Mess Happy Hour Podcast and it didn't disappoint. It was a hot mess!
About Hot Mess Happy Hour:
Are you always running late? Do you leave things on top of your…
Chain of Command part 7
Jun 23, 2026
Federal prosecutors say the man known as Rony Denis isn't Rony Denis at all.
The arrest finally came in the fall of 2025. Three years after the FBI raids. But the church is still operating. So my…
Chain of Command part 6
Jun 16, 2026
In Part 6, the FBI comes knocking.
Rony Denis and his top associates allegedly defrauded the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and military veterans out of more than $23.5 million. The House of…
Chain of Command part 5
Jun 09, 2026
Rony Denis wasn't just the spiritual leader at the House of Prayer Christian Church... He was their god.
In Part 5, former members start connecting the dots on how Rony Denis consolidated control…
The Lottery Curse with Murder: True Crime Stories
Jun 05, 2026
I teamed up with Carter Roy for a special guest collaboration on Murder: True Crime Stories and this one is something else. For the full episode, follow Murder: True Crime Stories on your favorite…
Chain of Command part 4
Jun 02, 2026
Note: This episode contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse and psychological manipulation.
It started with a revolt. Thirty ministers walked out of NTCC mid-service and never looked back. They…
Chain of Command part 3
May 26, 2026
In part three of Chain of Command, we hear from those who grew up in the New Testament Christian Churches of America. From Victor Johanson, a former Army soldier who confirms on tape that NTCC…
Chain of Command part 2
May 19, 2026
Part one was about control. Part two is about the money.
Behind the soul-winning and the sermons and the bylaws, the New Testament Christian Churches of America runs a very well-funded business…
Chain of Command part 1
May 12, 2026
In 1996, Sarah DeJonghe was a 20-year-old Navy Seabee stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Two guys in uniform approached her on base and invited her to church. She said no.
They came back anyway.
Four…
Operation Cockblock Revisited
May 05, 2026
A Colorado businessman with a criminal record, no credit, and a gift for charm somehow convinced dozens of women to finance his cars, his home, and his lifestyle. When they finally compared notes…