Radiolab

I heard the piece on Radio Lab this afternoon, while driving to my Theories of Personality class. I plan on hijacking today's class to discuss this. Very interesting.

Thanks

is there a podcast of the "people who lie" episode?

The podcast will be coming in about 2 weeks!

Listening to the story of Hope, the con woman, I am slightly shaken and overcome with memories of a woman I once knew - and was in fact engaged to at one point - who was every bit the pathological liar Hope was. However, rather than having a criminal intent (though she did commit minor crimes in the process), her lies were geared toward social advantages as well as sheer survival. For example, she successfully convinced all her friends and family that she had graduated from law school, when in fact she had not even finished her undergraduate studies. It came naturally to her - she was a social butterfly and a great storyteller. I spent a lot of time trying to understand the roots of her problem and trying to help her, but in the end the best thing for me to do was to walk away from the situation. Lying just came to her too easily.

Do I have a harder time trusting people? I did for quite a while, especially with people I didn't know well. Slightly out-of-the-ordinary stories always left a sour taste. But I'm pretty much over that.

A friend of my daughter always told very elaborate lies from childhood. She invented stories that she was on heroin in 7th grade. She lied about having relationships, etc. Serious stuff was lied about. She ended up using heroine and dying at age 24 of a probable overdose. Her parents have always denies she had a problem and never discussed issues openly. They told everyone she died of an aneurism but the newspaper reported there were syringes in her apt, and her roommates reported she was using heroin. After she died, the father said she had temporal lobe seizures. My daughter said she had talked about a book called Liar and it's relationship to "temporal lobe seizures". Have you heard of this disorder and it's relationship to liars?

Hi,

I heard this program and it confirmed everything I've always felt. I am one of those sad "fatalistic" or "negative" or "realistic" people and I have suffered for it. But I think that it is truely wise to see reality for what it is. Once you get over it you have overcome the "cognative dissonance" or energy or whatever it takes to keep your mind (and self) divided. I see it as an evolutionary process. Than you can truly be "okay" with reality.

Does anyone know what became of "Hope"?

A young-ish blonde woman who seems uncannily identical to Hope just moved upstairs into my building. She moved all her stuff in plastic bags and left them upstairs, inside and outside her apartment for a month and a half, and then disappeared. She paid the first month's rent and then did not come back for about two months and owed the second month.

When I asked what she did, she said she graduated from FIT and was a fashion design major. She seemed nice enough but I have a hard time imagining an FIT grad would dump everything they own around in dirty plastic bags. The times I've seen her going out or coming in she was wearing an old pair of sweats--- I don't mean to put that down-- that is fine-- I wear sweatpants. But it is not my idea that a fashion designer who has graduated from a competitive art college, would like being seen around town in old sweats.

I know I am most likely just paranoid, but does anyone know where "Hope" was last seen? I hope she didn't just move in!

Is there an in print copy of this program? My 91 year old aunt was fascinated by the subject of white and gray brain matter. She commented that she would love to be able to read it, and she reasoned, she may have had a hard time following the oral version because of a lack of white matter.

Two years ago a woman fabricated the existence of grants and money available for our business. Currently, she is facing 3 felony counts of fraud because of her actions. It has been a long, wierd, tale for myself and my family and I can relate to the "shifting of reality" that Radio Lab spoke of when talking about Hope.

This makes a lot of sense to me. It seems that people I know who are good liars/frequent liars (such as a good friend who will often admit to it later) tend to be very "quick" mentally with making connections and reaching conclusions. The quick thinking and some improvisation skill makes lying more "successful".

Interesting story, as a parent of an autistic son who cannot lie, I was wonderful if there has ever been any studies done on the white matter and autisim? I have two other children, the youngest who has no problem lying, so I no it is not genetic. Is there any way to contact the researcher? Thanks!

I was married to a man for 24 years who was, what I always called, a "compulsive liar." He lied about just about everything - whether he "needed" to or not. He was eventually even "outed" on Prime Time Live! Everything I heard on NPR fit his psersonality completely.

The one thing you did not touch on in the radio piece and that I would be curious about was this: I am convinced that as soon as this guy told his lie - he believed it too. I think if you hooked him up to a lie detector test that he could have even passed.

Have you ever tested that phenomonon?

Who was the woman that was tracking Hope. Did she stop looking?

Does she have a blog?

The piece on the con woman and the effect that she has had on those whose lives she's touched was excellent; by far, the best segment on the show. I think the whole show could have been built around this segment.

Its juxtaposition with the research of Yaling Yang demonstrated to me the superiority of the anecdotal (the literary, the philosophical) to the scientific in seeking the truth. Her research is so speculative as to be practically meaningless. And I'm left with the question: even if she's right in her speculation about gray and white matter, so what?

To live without trust of self to discern reality so that we can trust ourselves to explore reality: Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for the sensitive understanding of that anguished isolation.

Last night I was mesmorized by this program. I have lived this story my entire life. I come from an upper middle class family and always lied about everything, whether I needed too or not. I lied to teachers, friends, parents, co-workers, bosses, children and my former spouse. It was lying that ended my marriage and it has always been something that I have not been able to control. It is an absolutley horrible existance. I am sure that if people who I have known in the past listened to this program, my name or face would have come to the front of their minds. I can never make up for all of the hurt that I have caused

fantastic story...I want to know more about this woman.

I see a post on Hope Ballantyne here:

http://media.www.thehullabaloo.com/media/storage/paper958/news/2005/04/22/News/Big-Easy.Beat-1988782.shtml

Searching the web, I see nothing else besides the San Francisco Examiner story. If anyone else finds anything, please share.

I'd like to read more about Hope too. I can't imagine why there's *nothing* else on the web about this story. I'll keep checking back. The story reminds me so much of my father's 2nd wife. It is scary.

I wish the story hadn't ended that way. Seems like there would be a way to interview Hope at some point...especially when she was incarcerated. I also feel bad for her child.

Don't leave us hanging forever RadioLab.

This is from Leslie, in the Hope story:

Hope is like a bad penny. I swear I get an email or phone call like

this every 8 months - 2 years, usually from someone who's currently

being conned by her. But I haven't had anyone ask about her in about 4

years, making me wonder if she's out of prison and up to her old tricks.

So: why do you ask, and what story did you hear? I had someone recently

tell me that I was on the radio, and I don't even remember doing a radio

interview; so that must have been years and years ago, meaning that it's

quite possible that the information in the interview was a lot older

than the most recent information on Hope.

I enjoy listening to Radiolab. I liked the "People Who Lie" segment very much. But why is it being broadcast for (at least) the third time in two months? Is there really no new material?

In many ways, Hope sounds like a roommate- the first and only roommate- that I had. She seduced my brother. He was madly in love with her when she said she was pregnant with his baby. He was ecstatic! Then she was gone. With no word from her for days, my brother couldn't eat or sleep. Her bedroom door was locked. We broke in and found her closet was empty. There was a notebook in which she had written contradictory information and unsent letters. She left no phone number or address. Her believable Southern drawl was to have come from New Orleans. The situation was very hard to recover from. I was physically shaken by this RadioLab story. It so resonated with what happened in my life.

The story about Hope is just like a con man I met while traveling abroad. He is very intelligent and charismatic; I think all of his stories are based in truth but changed, exaggerated, and twisted to serve his purpose.

I've been following his story for three years and he is still free. Instead of losing trust in people, I'm working to bring him to justice.

If you're interested, check out http://eduardo-perez.blogspot.com/

Thankfully I've only ever heard of two people like this over the years! First mine, now Hope. Let's hope for no more.

Sometimes, when i lie just right, it becomes the truth.

Can anyone post a picture of "Hope?"