The Secret Society of Strangers Podcast

Guest Episode | Born Awakened — Samantha Leifker (Season 2)

Some people have one strange experience in a lifetime. Samantha Leifker has spent thirty years collecting them. This week the Strangers sit down with Samantha Leifker, author of Born Awakened: An Otherworldly True Story — a memoir that refuses to stay in any single category. It starts in a childhood home where the dead didn't stay quiet, and it spans decades of UFO contact, out-of-body travel, missing time, interdimensional beings, and a pull toward East Tennessee she still can't fully explain. We get into all of it: the poltergeist house she grew up in, the cube-shaped craft, the entities she says have been guiding her since before she could understand them, and what it actually feels like to live a life where the paranormal isn't a story you tell — it's a Tuesday. This is the kind of conversation SSOS was built for. The hauntings, the UFOs, the consciousness work — Samantha doesn't treat them as separate mysteries. She treats them as one. And after this, you might too. And this is only round one — we're already setting up a second sit-down to go even deeper with Samantha, so consider this your way in. Stay Curious. Stay Strange. 📖 GUEST — SAMANTHA LEIFKER / BORN AWAKENED Book — Born Awakened: An Otherworldly True Story (Amazon): https://a.co/d/03y6m5Y0 [https://a.co/d/03y6m5Y0] Instagram: @bornawakened — https://www.instagram.com/bornawakened [https://www.instagram.com/bornawakened] Facebook: Born Awakened — https://www.facebook.com/share/18E8i8HKWC/ [https://www.facebook.com/share/18E8i8HKWC/] TikTok: @bornawakened — https://www.tiktok.com/@bornawakened [https://www.tiktok.com/@bornawakened] Free Newsletter (Substack): https://bornawakened.substack.com/ [https://bornawakened.substack.com/] 🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE Spotify · Apple Podcasts · YouTube @SSOSPodcast · Podbean ☕ SUPPORT THE SHOW Buy Me a Coffee 📱 FOLLOW US Instagram · TikTok 📧 GOT A HIGH STRANGENESS STORY? Email us or DM on socials — we're listening. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange.

Gregor MacGregor & the Poyais Scheme .(April Fools series )

He called himself a prince. He created a flag, a constitution, a currency. He published a 355-page guidebook to a capital city with an opera house and a cathedral. And none of it existed. In the finale of our April Fools series, we tell the story of Gregor MacGregor — the Scottish soldier who invented an entire nation called Poyais, convinced hundreds to invest their life savings, and sent 250 settlers to die in an empty jungle. Nearly 180 people never came home. And MacGregor? He was never convicted. He died a general, buried with full military honors in a cathedral in Caracas. The deadliest con in modern history. The man who sold a country. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange. YouTube THE MAN WHO INVENTED A FAKE COUNTRY AND KILLED 180 PEOPLE | Gregor MacGregor & The Poyais Scheme | SSOS In this episode, we cover the incredible true story of Gregor MacGregor — the Scottish con artist who invented an entire nation called Poyais in the 1820s, printed fake currency, sold government bonds for a country that didn't exist, and convinced 250 settlers to sail across the Atlantic to a "paradise" that was actually empty jungle. Nearly 180 of them died. MacGregor was never convicted. He died a hero in Venezuela. This is the finale of our April Fools con artist series, covering: Frank Abagnale Jr., Anna Delvey, Ann Odelia Diss Debar, and now the deadliest fraud in history.   LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@SSOSPodcast] Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story?   Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com [ssospodcast@gmail.com] or DM on socials — we're listening.            The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM  production

Ann O'Delia Diss Debar -The Spook Priestess (APRIL FOOLS SERIES)

She called herself a Princess of Bavaria. The newspapers called her "The Empress of Swindle." In 1888, Ann O'Delia Diss Debar convinced one of New York's most powerful attorneys that she could summon oil paintings from thin air—works created by Raphael and Rembrandt from beyond the grave. She took his fortune, his mansion, and his sanity. But that was just the beginning. From the Gilded Age parlors of Madison Avenue to the courtrooms of London's Old Bailey, the Spook Priestess left a trail of broken lives, impossible escapes, and crimes so dark the courtroom had to be cleared. And when the final curtain fell? She simply... vanished. Stay Curious. Stay Strange.   SOURCES * "Duped By A Spook Priestess" — The New York Times, April 1888 * "The Horos Trial" — Old Bailey Proceedings, December 1901 * Occult America by Mitch Horowitz (Bantam, 2009) * The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England by Alex Owen * Women of the Golden Dawn by Mary K. Greer (Park Street Press, 1995) * The Cincinnati Enquirer archives, 1909   LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@SSOSPodcast] Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story?   Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com [ssospodcast@gmail.com] or DM on socials — we're listening.            The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM  production

ANNA DELVEY: THE CON ARTIST WHO INVENTED AN HEIRESS (APRIL FOOLS SERIES)

She had no money. No trust fund. No Swiss bank account. What Anna Delvey had was a fake name, a designer wardrobe, and the nerve to walk into New York's most exclusive rooms and act like she owned them. For four years, she fooled banks, hotels, and Manhattan's social elite — using Microsoft Word and an AOL email address. In this episode, Josh walks us through the full story: from a working-class suburb of Moscow to a $135 million Park Avenue building, from Rikers Island to Dancing with the Stars. Lee breaks down the Netflix empire built on the con. And Josh asks the uncomfortable question: did she exploit a flaw in the system — or did she exploit the system as designed? LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@SSOSPodcast] Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story?   Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com [ssospodcast@gmail.com] or DM on socials — we're listening.            The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM  production  SOURCES * Jessica Pressler, "Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It," New York Magazine / The Cut, May 2018 * Rachel DeLoache Williams, My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress (Simon & Schuster, 2019) * Manhattan District Attorney's Office, People v. Anna Sorokin, trial transcripts and evidence exhibits, 2019 * Netflix, Inventing Anna (Shondaland, 2022) * 60 Minutes Australia, Anna Sorokin interview, 2022 * Netflix Tudum, Julia Garner accent interview, February 2022 * Newsweek, "Julia Garner on How She Mastered Anna Delvey's 'Wild' Accent," February 2022 * Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and various court reporting from 2017-2025

INMATE #25367 — The True Story of Frank Abagnale Jr. (April Fools Series)

INMATE #25367 — The True Story of Frank Abagnale Jr. You know the legend. The teenage con artist who impersonated a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, a lawyer. Who cashed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks. Who escaped from prison twice. Who became so famous that Steven Spielberg made a movie about him. There's just one problem. While Frank Abagnale claimed he was crisscrossing the globe as a teenage super-criminal — the records show he was somewhere else entirely. Inmate #25367. Great Meadow Correctional Facility. Comstock, New York. The greatest con he ever pulled wasn't the pilot, the doctor, or the lawyer. It was his own story. This week on Secret Society of Strangers — we pull the receipts on America's most famous fraudster. And ask the question: what's the difference between a con artist and a storyteller? 🕯️ Come Curious. Stay Strange. YOUTUBE VERSION The REAL Story of Catch Me If You Can | Frank Abagnale EXPOSED | SSOS Podcast Frank Abagnale Jr. told the world he was a teenage criminal mastermind — Pan Am pilot, doctor, lawyer, professor. Steven Spielberg made a movie about him. Leonardo DiCaprio played him. He charged $25,000/night to lecture about fraud. But prison records tell a different story. In this episode, we break down: ⚡ The claims vs. the court documents ⚡ Why nobody fact-checked him for 50 years ⚡ The BANDIT car (yes, really) ⚡ Who Frank Abagnale actually was ⚡ Why we WANTED to believe the lie Welcome to April Fools Month on SSOS — four weeks, four con artists, one question: who's really getting played?   Come Curious. Stay Strange. LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@SSOSPodcast] Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story?   Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com [ssospodcast@gmail.com] or DM on socials — we're listening.            The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM  production  📚 SOURCES * Logan, Alan C. The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can. 2020. * Wikipedia: Frank Abagnale — citing New York State Archives, federal court records, prison documents. * Britannica: Frank Abagnale Jr. * Hall, Stephen S. "Johnny is conned. A convict who makes up crimes." San Francisco Chronicle, October 6, 1978. * Perry, Ira D. Four-part investigative series. Daily Oklahoman. * Leiva, Javier. "Pretend – The Real Catch Me If You Can." Podcast series, 2022–2023. * All That's Interesting: "Inside The True Story Behind Catch Me If You Can." * The Irish World: Alan C. Logan interview, August 2021. * Louisiana Voice: Reporting by Tom Aswell on Abagnale claims. * New York State Archives: Inmate records, Great Meadow Correctional Facility, Comstock, NY. * Federal court records: Pan Am check forgery conviction totaling less than $1,500. * Decoding the Unknown: "Frank Abagnale: The Real Story Behind Catch Me If You Can." October 2025.