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Woman's Hour: The Female Con Artist

18/04/2022

The Female Con Artist

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, The Female Con Artist

From Inventing Anna to The Dropout, why are female con artists enjoying a cultural moment?

Have you watched Inventing Anna or The Dropout? We're exploring the explosion in stories about the female con artist - why are they so popular and what does it say about us?

Today we're looking at the female con artist. 

Have you watched Inventing Anna, the series about Anna Sorokin who duped New York's banks, hotels and high society into believing she was a multi-millionaire heiress?

Or The Dropout, about Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes who claimed she had invented a technology that could test for diseases with just a pinprick of blood?

Their cases have inspired countless TV series, movies, podcasts, books and even plays. But why are they so popular and what does it say about us as consumers of these tales?

We explore what role their gender played in achieving their deceit and the coverage they've received. We'll also discuss the history, psychology and cultural depictions of the female con artist, and hear from a woman who Anna Sorokin left with a bill for $62,000.

We're joined by Sara O'Brien, senior technology reporter at CNN Business; Vicky Baker, BBC journalist; Kathryn Claire Higgins, media scholar at LSE; Dr Nicola Harding, criminologist at Lancaster University; Maria Konnikova, author of The Confidence Game; Alice Porter, journalist; Tori Telfar, author of Confident Women; and Rachel deLoache Williams, author of My Friend Anna.

Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Lucy Wai
Editor: Beverley Purcell

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