Summary
Lucy Cooke sets out to discover why honesty is almost certainly not the best policy, be you chicken, chimp or human being. It turns out that underhand behaviour is rife throughout the animal kingdom, and can be a winning evolutionary strategy. From sneaky squid, to cheating cuckoos, some species will resort to truly incredible levels of deception and deviousness to win that mate, or get more food. And when it comes to social animals like we humans, it turns out that lying, or at least those little white lies, may be the social glue that binds us all together.
Lucy heads to the RSPB cliffs at Bempton, with Professor Tim Birkhead to discover why so many bird species appear to be such proficient deceivers, as well as visiting the very crafty ravens at The Tower of London. She speaks to psychologist Richard Wiseman about how to spot when someone is lying, and finds out whether she is any good at it. In fact, can we trust any of what she says in this documentary at all?
Presenter Lucy Cooke Producer Alexandra Feachem
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hello, I'm John Ronson, the author of So You've been publicly shamed. |
| 0:46.0 | This is my journey into the lives of the shamed, people ruined by a badly word to tweet or work faux par. |
| 0:55.0 | Along the way I turned from being a keen shame of myself |
| 0:59.0 | into somebody unsettled by this New zeal to judge and condemn after on very weak evidence. |
| 1:07.0 | That's so you've been publicly shamed, read by me, John Ronson, |
| 1:11.0 | and a bridge specially for BBC Sounds. |
| 1:14.0 | Hi I'm Rhyanna Dylan. |
| 1:19.0 | Welcome to Seriously. Today we're bringing you another seriously |
| 1:26.0 | interesting story told a little sideways. |
| 1:32.0 | Hello. I'm Lucy Cook and I'm the world champion barefoot water skier. |
| 1:37.0 | Actually, that's not true. It's crucial. as the best policy absolutely isn't. Without lying we wouldn't be here today. It's |
| 2:04.4 | crucial to our survival. If we didn't lie life would be extremely hard and I mean |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.