Pseudocide

Episode 6: Disclosure

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 14:15:00 GMT

What’s it like when a loved one disappears without a trace? We explore ambiguous loss, examine more recent sightings of Patrick in Mexico and share our findings with one of his good friends.

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Episode 5: Doppelgänger

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 14:00:00 GMT

There’s a photo on the front page of the National Enquirer – and they’re saying it’s Patrick, sitting in a trailer park. We follow every lead for answers.

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Episode 4: Dead Man Talking

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 13:45:00 GMT

There are reported sightings of Patrick in Mexico, so journalists and PIs start to investigate. We meet the people who’ve got closest to finding him. One of them says he even got a fax from Patrick’s lawyer: the guy just wants to be left alone.

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Episode 3: Witness

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 13:30:00 GMT

Patrick was last seen taking a fishing trip off the coast of Los Angeles. We track down a witness who shared that final voyage.

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Episode 2: You Only Live Thrice

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 13:15:00 GMT

Born in Korea and adopted to the US, Patrick set his sights on Hollywood. But some people say that just before he went missing, things started to unravel for him: debts, a custody battle and a break-up. Could all this be a motive to jump ship?

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Episode 1: A Star Is Born

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 13:00:00 GMT

Olivia Newton-John’s boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, vanishes – and there are rumours that he’s faked his own death. Could his relationship to Olivia hold answers about his mysterious disappearance?

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Episode 9: The Curious Case of the Minute’s Silence

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Dublin, 2018. Fernando is playing video games at home when his boss calls with some news: supposedly, he’s died in a motorbike accident. His football league has spent the weekend mourning his death. But Fernando is very much alive, and soon his face is on the front of newspapers everywhere. Someone at Fernando’s football club has lied about him – and that lie has taken on a life of its own.

Hosted by: Alice Fiennes and Poppy Damon.

Guests:

Fernando LaFuente
Luisa, Fernando’s wife

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Episode 8: Gotcha!

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 11:45:00 GMT

Denver, 2007. DJ and musician Clayton Counts is the ultimate prankster. He’s even baited conspiracy theorist Alex Jones with his antics. But when Clayton decides he wants to fake his own death (in a bid to get revenge on an ex-girlfriend), his friends think he’s finally gone too far.

Hosted by: Alice Fiennes and Poppy Damon.

Contributors:

Adam Core, friend of Clayton
Sarah Davis, friend of Clayton
Chuck French, friend of Clayton

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Episode 7: Bad Habits

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 11:15:00 GMT

York, 1318. A nun is fed up with her life of poverty, chastity and obedience. So, Joan of Leeds does the obvious thing: she fakes a mortal illness and crafts an effigy “in the likeness of her body,” which is then buried by her Benedictine sisters. What life awaits Joan beyond the nunnery walls?

Hosted by: Alice Fiennes and Poppy Damon.

Contributors:

Professor Sarah Rees-Jones, historian
Gary Brannan, keeper of archives
Paul Dryburgh, archivist and historian
Ellice Stevens, playwright

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Episode 6: Gone Guy

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Houston, 2015. Ramon Sosa is driving to the supermarket when he finds out that his wife is trying to kill him. They’re going through a divorce and Lulu has decided she wants him gone. That’s when Ramon and his friend Mundo hatch a plan to catch her in the act.

Hosted by: Alice Fiennes and Poppy Damon.

Contributors:

Ramon Sosa
Kelly Blackburn, case prosecutor

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Episode 5: The Second Life of Grace Oakeshott

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 10:45:00 GMT

Brittany, 1907. The clothes of radical socialist Grace Oakeshott are found neatly bundled on a beach. Her body is never discovered, but everything points to a drowning at sea. Nearly a century later, the clues Grace left behind are pieced together, and the truth about what happened to her is finally revealed.

Hosted by: Alice Fiennes and Poppy Damon.

Contributors:

Jocelyn Robson, social researcher
Sophie Dingemans, Grace’s great-granddaughter

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Episode 4: “I’m Still Alive”

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 10:30:00 GMT

Kiev, 2018. Journalists gather at a press conference. They are expecting to be briefed on the assassination of war correspondent Arkady Babchenko – widely suspected to be the handiwork of Russian operatives. Instead, Arkady appears, alive and well, before the shocked audience. “I’m still alive – for the moment,” he says.

Hosted by: Alice Fiennes and Poppy Damon.

Contributors:

Arkady Babchenko
Oleskiy Tsymbaliuk, Arkady’s would-be assassin
Nataliya Gumenyuk, a Kiev journalist
Dima Kolchinsky, fixer

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Episode 3: Politician, Spy, Deadman

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 10:15:00 GMT

Melbourne, 1974. A British MP is arrested and, all over the world, the press goes wild. Months beforehand, John Stonehouse had gone swimming off a beach in Miami and never returned. He was presumed dead. Why did this seemingly successful politician commit pseudocide?

Hosted by: Alice Fiennes and Poppy Damon.

Contributors

Geoffrey Robertson QC, Stonehouse’s lawyer
Theo Barclay, author

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Episode 2: Living Colors

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 10:00:00 GMT

Kansas, 2001. Internet star Kaycee Nicole passes away from leukaemia. Her followers are devastated: they’ve been following Kaycee’s struggles with the disease in her online journal, “Living Colors.” The death of this cheerful college student is an unparalleled tragedy. But then, online sleuths begin to pull at the loose ends of her story – and that story begins to unravel.

Hosted by: Alice Fiennes and Poppy Damon.

Contributors:

Saundra Mitchell, websleuth
Patrick Cleary, former blogger
Halcyon, Kaycee Nicole’s friend and supervisor
Acridrabbit, MetaFilter user

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Episode 1: The Belrose Bomb

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 09:45:05 GMT

Sydney, 1999. Shopping channel host Roberto de Heredia is being investigated by the authorities: they believe he sent a bomb – in a shoebox – to model and “Penthouse Pet” Simone Cheung. The parcel detonated in the hands of Simone’s boyfriend, Brett, and Roberto is about to stand trial for attempted murder. That’s when he vanishes.

Hosted by: Alice Fiennes and Poppy Damon.

Contributors:

Susan Boyd, Brett Boyd’s sister.
Liam Barlett, Channel 9 presenter.
Bob Gibbs, former detective sergeant.

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