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Hollywood Con Man

June 11, 2026 · 38 min

Show notes

He had the trailers. He had the real law-enforcement locations. He had photos of himself grinning beside power players in Washington. The one thing Joseph Medawar didn't have was the show — a patriotic prestige drama about the Department of Homeland Security that he raised millions to produce, and that never aired a single frame.

This week, Jonathan and Cooper trace how a B-movie producer in Los Angeles turned a TV series that didn't exist into the most convincing performance of his career — and how long it took the people writing the checks to realize the only thing in production was the con itself.

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