Pseudocide is a series about faking your own death. Over nine stories, a bomb explodes in a Sydney suburb; murder is afoot in Texas; a spy takes his secrets to the grave, and a nun goes on the run. What’s it like to live twice?
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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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 5: Doppelgänger
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 4: Dead Man Talking
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 3: Witness
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 2: You Only Live Thrice
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 1: A Star Is Born
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 9: The Curious Case of the Minute’s Silence
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 8: Gotcha!
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 7: Bad Habits
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 6: Gone Guy
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 5: The Second Life of Grace Oakeshott
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 4: “I’m Still Alive”
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 3: Politician, Spy, Deadman
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 2: Living Colors
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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21 Oct 2025
Episode 1: The Belrose Bomb
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
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Apple Podcasts (US)
3.8 / 5
6 ratings
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