Clifford Irving: The Howard Hughes Hoax | 191

Scamfluencers

Wondery

Society & Culture

4.1 • 7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early 1970s, struggling author Clifford Irving tries to escape obscurity by writing a tell-all biography of the famously unreachable Howard Hughes. The catch? Clifford has never spoken to Howard and doesn’t have access to him. He proceeds anyway, betting that Howard’s reclusive nature will keep him from coming forward and debunking the book. But it turns out that even eccentric billionaires have their limits. As Clifford’s scheme unravels, he proves that sometimes fact really is stranger than fiction.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, scam influencers fans, Sachi here.
0:02.2	If you live for the outrageous stories and unbelievable cons that we cover, you need Wendry Plus.
0:07.2	It's like sitting in the room with us as we unravel every twist.
0:10.5	Add free a week ahead of everyone else and packed with exclusive content you won't hear anywhere else.
0:16.1	Start your free trial in the Wendry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify now.
0:25.3	Thank you. trial in the Wendry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify now. Sarah, what do you think you care about more as a creative person, the quality of your work,
0:30.4	or whether you become notorious for it?
0:32.7	Wow.
0:34.5	You must think I'm a psychopath to ask that question.
0:38.0	I think for me it's definitely the quality.
0:40.4	I don't want to be notorious.
0:42.3	I don't try to be.
0:44.2	Well, I'm only in this industry so that people will learn my needlessly complicated name and how to spell it.
0:49.9	It's kind of the only reason this podcast even exists.
0:53.0	I couldn't agree more, Scotchy.
0:55.2	Thank you.
0:57.2	Well, today I have one of our favorite types of scam stories,
1:00.6	a nonfiction writer who just couldn't stop making things up.
1:04.4	It wasn't that he didn't have talent.
1:06.3	He just always seemed to want to work harder at the fiction,
1:09.2	as opposed to the fact.
1:14.6	It's a brisk winter day in early January, 1972 in New York City.
	...

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