In 2014, Elizabeth Holmes was being crowned Silicon Valley’s next big genius. That year, Chameleon host Josh Dean got a tip: Theranos was a sham. The source was an old friend of the Holmes family, caught up in a bitter legal battle with her. It was a fight Holmes didn’t need to pick.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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Swagg Man wanted you to know he was rich. He drove Lamborghinis through Miami, covered himself in designer logos, and told his millions of followers that he’d made it from nothing. But Swagg Man was just a character. A character that became hard to separate from reality — and one with an agenda that went beyond being a pop star.

Read Marc Wortman's article The Fast Times and High Crimes of a Hip-Hop Grifter.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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Romana Didulo emerged from the chaos of the pandemic as a QAnon conspiracy influencer, building a devoted following with promises of a new vision for Canada where taxes, mortgages and government no longer existed. She declared herself Queen of the country and in 2023, with her followers, moved into an abandoned school in a tiny Saskatchewan town and refused to leave.

Read Rachel Browne’s article How the Queen of Canada and Conspiracy Theorists Splintered a Small Town on The Walrus.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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Robert Peters was almost none of the things he claimed to be. For decades, Peters moved all over the world, talking his way into universities, teaching jobs and churches with forged references and invented qualifications. He married at least eight women, and even after being exposed he would simply disappear and start again somewhere else. This is the story of a historian who became obsessed with Peters, told by another historian who picked up the chase.

Read Adam Sisman’s book The Professor & The Parson

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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In 2018, Michael Avenatti seemed to appear out of nowhere. A brash, flashy lawyer riding shotgun with the porn star Stormy Daniels as her allegations against Donald Trump exploded into a national scandal. Avenatti was everywhere and was even — briefly — considered to be a presidential contender. Then the mask slipped to reveal a man clinging to his own myth.

Read Matthew Shear’s 2018 New York Times profile of Avenatti

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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When Esther was a teenager, her parents supported her in joining a group that promised to help her with her drug problem. She found a world of secret rituals, forced confessions, endless meetings — and a community that for a while at least, seemed to be exactly what she felt she had been missing her whole life.
 

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Steffen Baldwin was a tattooed dog whisperer with an apparent gift for rehabilitating dangerous animals. He was a beloved local celebrity with a reputation for saving the most difficult dogs from being put down. But after one pit bull named Remy vanished, a determined owner, a vet and a local detective began to piece together a pattern of deception that revealed a far more sinister character than anyone ever suspected. 

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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Jacob Kingston wanted money, status and the approval of his family. Then he met a charismatic Armenian oil tycoon called The Lion. What began with a deal over a shipment of stranded biofuel turned into a sprawling billion dollar scam where religious extremism, organized crime and green-energy policy collide.

Listen to Michele’s podcast Kingdom of Fraud

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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When Mike Shannon was nine years old, he was told that his father had died fighting the Germans at the Battle of El Alamein. Michael’s father hadn’t died at all. He’d been a successful novelist and, quite possibly, a spy. We follow one journalist down a rabbit hole into the astonishing hidden lives of Alexander Wilson.

Read Tim Crook's book The Secret Lives Of A Secret Agent

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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A British band called The Zombies had a smash hit single in America with ‘Time of the Season’ in the late 60s. Shortly afterwards, four handsome Texans hit the road pretending to be the Zombies. This is the unbelievable true story of rock’s most brazen imposters… two of whom went on to form ZZ Top.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

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The views from New York's luxury high-rise apartments can be spectacular. And the higher up you go, the more exclusive, and expensive the properties become. An artist became obsessed with those views, and the hidden world hiding behind them. She just needed to find a way in.

Discover more about the Andi Schmied and her book “Private Views A High-Rise Panorama of Manhattan”

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

Follow Chameleon on Instagram @chameleonpod

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