Introducing Everything Is Fake (And Nobody Cares)

Summary

---

The History Podcast – Introducing Everything Is Fake (And Nobody Cares)

Host: Jamie Bartlett (BBC Radio 4)
Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Jamie Bartlett introduces his new series, "Everything is Fake (And Nobody Cares)," which explores the normalization and rewards of fakery in modern culture. Using the rise and persona of Stephen Bartlett, a prominent British podcaster and entrepreneur, as an entry point, Jamie examines how origin stories and narratives are embellished in public life, why audiences accept them, and how this trend reflects a wider cultural shift towards blurred reality, emotional resonance, and performance over fact.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Series Concept: The Normalization of Fakery

• Jamie Bartlett sets the stage for his new six-part series, stating that fakery has become ubiquitous—so much so that its subtle forms are often ignored or rewarded.
• He points out that while politicians and businesses have always lied or inflated results, "something has changed" in recent decades: "[Fakery] is so ubiquitous you might not even notice it anymore." (09:22)

2. Case Study: Stephen Bartlett’s Origin Story

• Jamie uses Stephen Bartlett, host of "The Diary of a CEO," as an example of successfully leveraging a manipulative narrative.
• Origin Story Discrepancy:
  • Claim: Stephen Bartlett claims to have taken his social media company, Social Chain, public at 27, reaching a $600 million valuation.
  • Fact-Checking: Business journalist James Hurley investigated and found that the $600 million "float" was for a much larger group, which included Social Chain but also sold unrelated products (mattresses, beanbags).
  • Bartlett had left his executive role by the time of the valuation and wasn’t even named in the prospectus, nor did he appear to hold significant shares at floatation.
  • Quote:
    • “The true story was slightly different, or actually, to be fair, very different from the one that Stephen told.” (05:10 – James Hurley)
    • “He’s not even named in the prospectus... I couldn’t find any record of him having any significant shareholding in the business at the time it floated either.” (06:08 – James Hurley)

3. Public Response & Accountability

• Jamie confronts the lack of public backlash or consequence when these embellishments are revealed:
  • “Stephen Bartlett, of course, was forced to apologise. He stepped down from the diary of a CEO and walked away from Dragon's Den, his reputation in tatters. I'm joking. Has it had any impact at all?” (08:18 – Jamie Bartlett)
  • Hurley’s response: “It doesn’t really seem to have done him any harm, really, does it? ...His podcast goes from strength to strength.” (08:33 – James Hurley)
• This highlights the evolution in cultural attitudes towards fakery—audiences are less concerned when the truth comes out, and careers proceed unaffected.

4. The Blurring Line Between Truth and Performance

• Jamie suggests modern fakery is not always lying, but artful blending of reality and performance:
  • “Fakery today isn't always about lying or making stuff up. It's something more subtle. It's where the line between reality and make believe is deliberately blurred and where truth is replaced by something else. Emotion, narrative and performance.” (10:00 – Jamie Bartlett)
• The trend is now rewarded by media platforms and audiences, not penalized.

5. Platform Influence & Responsibility

• Guests with questionable claims appear on top platforms with minimal challenge:
  • “As far as I can tell, they don't really, really get much of a robust challenge. But I think that's quite dangerous that these shows that are consumed by so many people don't have that sort of, I guess, journalistic literacy.” (08:02 – James Hurley)
• A spokesperson from "Diary of a CEO" claims their format is about "explor[ing] guests’ views rather than endorse them," but Jamie and Hurley question whether this is sufficient.

6. Wider Trend: The Age of Shamelessness

• Jamie and guests argue that the culture has shifted in a way that emboldens this behavior:
  • “Maybe what's changed is that now there's less kind of impact if you get exposed for it, really. And actually it's all right that you embellished your backstory and no one really seems to mind and everything just carries on.” (08:53 – James Hurley)
  • "I believe we may have reached peak ... bullshit." (09:59 – James Hurley & Jamie Bartlett)

7. Preview of the Series

• Jamie frames the series as an exploration beyond just media or social platforms, tracing roots back decades:
  • “…the roots of modern fakery are not found in Russian bots or social media. It goes back much further, to dramatic social and cultural changes over four decades, which turned perception and feeling into reality.” (10:43 – Jamie Bartlett)

8. Transition to Other Examples

• Jamie hints the next episode will involve Jay Shetty, another UK podcaster with global fame, furthering the investigation into manufactured narratives within health and wellness podcasting.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [05:10] James Hurley:
  “The true story was slightly different, or actually, to be fair, very different from the one that Stephen told.”
• [06:54] James Hurley:
  “To say that you floated a business for 600 million in your 20s and then you weren't even named in the prospectus... I think you could be accused at least of quite a serious mischaracterisation and misrepresentation.”
• [10:00] Jamie Bartlett:
  “Fakery today isn't always about lying or making stuff up. It's something more subtle. It's where the line between reality and make believe is deliberately blurred and where truth is replaced by something else. Emotion, narrative and performance.”
• [08:53] James Hurley:
  “Maybe what’s changed is that now there’s less kind of impact if you get exposed for it, really.”
• [09:59] James Hurley & Jamie Bartlett:
  "I believe we may have reached peak... bullshit."

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:48] Jamie Bartlett introduces "Everything Is Fake and Nobody Cares" and sets up the cultural focus on fakery.
• [03:59] James Hurley breaks down Stephen Bartlett's entrepreneurial claim and origin story.
• [05:10 – 06:54] Investigation into Social Chain’s public float and Bartlett’s actual role.
• [07:12] Discussion of questionable claims and lack of pushback in popular podcasts.
• [08:53] Analysis of the cultural impact of exposure and normalization of embellished narratives.
• [09:18 – 10:00] Jamie outlines the scope of the new series and the difficulty in defining fakery.
• [10:43] Jamie notes the roots of modern fakery, previewing the historical scope of the series.
• [11:57] Jamie segues into teaser on Jay Shetty, signaling further exploration in next episodes.

---

Conclusion

This introductory episode of "Everything Is Fake (And Nobody Cares)" sets a critical, investigative tone as Jamie Bartlett examines how fakery has been normalized and incentivized across modern public life. Using high-profile personalities as case studies, he questions cultural attitudes towards truth, embellishment, and performance, exploring why public figures—and their audiences—seem less troubled by exposed falsehoods than ever before. The episode closes by promising a deeper dive into the historical and cultural roots of this phenomenon, inviting listeners to continue with the series for a fuller picture.

---

Transcript

[LinkedIn Ads Narrator]

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The best B2B marketing gets wasted on the wrong people. So when you want to reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals, including 130 million decision makers. And that's where it stands apart from other ad buyers. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, seniority, skills, company revenue, so you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience. It's why LinkedIn Ads generates the highest B2B return on ad spend of major ad networks. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn Ads and get $250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com Broadcast. That's LinkedIn.com Broadcast. Terms and conditions apply.

[Pocket Hose Advertiser]

This podcast is sponsored by Pocket Hose. I gotta tell you, being a homeowner, there's so many things you have to think about all the time. For example, I have to replace my hoses every single year because they're weak. They get tangled and there's kinks. Then I found the pocket pocket hose ballistic. This is the upgrade I've been looking for for a long time, man. It's reinforced with a liquid crystal polymer used in bulletproof vests. You know what that means? No kinks. It's not going to get tangled. It also comes with this pocket pivot which gives you total freedom of movement. And the spigot has like a 360 degree rotation, which is pretty cool. There's also this upgraded UV coating they added for free. So your hose basically looks brand new all the time. Right now, when you get the new pocket hose ballistic, you'll get a free 360 degree rotating pocket piv and a free thumb drive nozzle. Go to pockethose.com podcast, that's pockethose.com podcast for your two free gifts with purchase pockethost.com P O D C A S

[James Hurley]

T

[Jamie Bartlett]

Listeners of the history podcast, hello. This is not an episode of the Missing Crypto Queen, but it is Jamie Bartlett and I'm here to tell you about my latest podcast. It's called Everything is Fake and Nobody Cares. It's a story about how fakery became normalized and rewarded in our culture. You can listen to it in full now on BBC Sounds, but here's a taster. How are you? Yeah, I'm alright. Aseem just called me. He's quite nervous, I think.

[LinkedIn Ads Narrator]

Is he about?

[Jamie Bartlett]

He does everything. He's always on Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, but he's nervous about the BBC. He is, is he? And he's. I'm in a cafe in North London with my producer, Tom, waiting to interview one of Britain's most prominent COVID vaccine skeptics. You might have already heard about him. After all, he's been on some of the biggest podcasts on the planet. It's sort of the big three, isn't it? Colson Rogan. Jamie Bartlett. You're Jamie Bartlett, Sorry? Stephen Bartlett. Stephen Bartlett. We'll come back to our COVID vaccine sceptic later in the series, but I just want to pause to say that does happen sometimes. Yes, hello, I'm Jamie Bartlett, not Stephen Bartlett. Jamie Bartlett. Oh, come on. I've made podcasts too, loads of them. I presented the chart topping, Missing Cryptoqueen and Believe in Magic and the Gatekeepers. Maybe you've heard of them. Maybe not. But you probably have heard of the Diary of a CEO, the podcast hosted by the multi millionaire Dragon's Den star, Stephen Bartlett. Have you ever had a conversation like this one publicly?

[Grainger Advertiser]

No.

[Jamie Bartlett]

No, no. I need some more water. This is serious. Because this is often ranked as the most popular podcast in the uk. What advice have you got for me?

[Pocket Hose Advertiser]

This is driving me insane.

[Jamie Bartlett]

I really want this podcast, this, the one you're listening to right now with me, Jamie Bartlett, to be a success. Maybe I just need to be a bit more Stephen. But how?

[James Hurley]

Stephen Bartlett, I'd say, is a kind of combination between a entrepreneur and a media star. Built his name as a social media guru, but where his real success lies, and it is, let's be honest, his undoubted success. This is a world famous podcaster.

[Jamie Bartlett]

My first guest is James Hurley, a business journalist at the Times newspaper who's written about Stephen Bartlett's success. And part of that success comes from his origin story.

[James Hurley]

Stephen's origin story, if you like, is a classic rags to riches tale of a boy from a fairly working class background who built a social media company that then become part of a larger group. And then he was centrally involved in floating that business for in excess of $600 million when he was only in his 20s.

[Jamie Bartlett]

His website stated that Stephen took his social media company, Social chain public at 27 years old, reaching a market valuation of $600 million before he resigned. But in 2023, James started looking into that claim.

[James Hurley]

The true story was slightly different, or actually, to be fair, very different from the one that Stephen told.

[Jamie Bartlett]

Stephen founded Social Chain in Manchester in 2014. It was a successful social media marketing business with sales of 12.6 million pounds in 2019. But it was acquired by a German entrepreneur and became part of a much larger group consisting of many other companies, including one that sold mattresses and beanbags. And it was that much larger group that was floated for $600 million. Stephen had been named co CEO of the group, but by the time it reached that $600 million valuation, he was no longer in that role. The social media company that Stephen had originally built would later be sold on for around £8 million.

[James Hurley]

He's not even named in the prospectus. And you know, normally the important people in a business would be named quite a lot in a prospectus. I also couldn't find any record of him having any significant shareholding in the business at the time it floated either.

[Jamie Bartlett]

We approached Stephen's team for a comment. A spokesperson said he remained under employment by the company in an advisory capacity for through its peak valuation and that the $600 million figure referred to the valuation of the wider social chain group, not the latest sale of a single agency asset after his departure. How different is this to frankly what a lot of people do, which is kind of, you know, dressing things up a little bit, but it's not really a direct lie?

[James Hurley]

Yeah, good question. I mean, I would argue it's a little bit more serious than a bit of garnishing. To say that you floated a business for 600 million in your 20s and then you weren't even named in the prospectus is, I think you could be accused at least of quite a serious mischaracterisation and misrepresentation.

[Jamie Bartlett]

Stephen Bartlett's podcast is successful because I think he is a very good interviewer and has lots of interesting guests. But it has also sometimes featured people who make some pretty questionable health claims. Gluten can cause everything from osteoporosis to autism to schizophrenia.

[Grainger Advertiser]

Three females who were in the program

[Jamie Bartlett]

doing my hacks for just a month

[Grainger Advertiser]

got their period back and were able

[Jamie Bartlett]

to get pregnant in that month just with my hacks. Medieval, I call it Medieval approaches to this. Are you kidding me? What they're doing to cancer patients. A spokesperson for the Diary of a CEO said the podcast is a long form interview format intended to explore guests views rather than endorse them. But James Hurley thinks that's part of the problem.

[James Hurley]

As far as I can tell, they don't really, really get much of a robust challenge. But I think that's quite dangerous that these shows that are consumed by so many people don't have that sort of, I guess, journalistic literacy.

[Jamie Bartlett]

When James Hurley published His article, Stephen Bartlett, of course, was forced to apologise. He stepped down from the diary of a CEO and walked away from Dragon's Den, his reputation in tatters. I'm joking. Has it had any impact at all?

[James Hurley]

It doesn't really seem to have done him any harm, really, does it, in the long run of things, because he's still a star of BBC Dragons Den, or certainly was in the last series anyway. His podcast goes from strength to strength.

[Jamie Bartlett]

You cover the world of business. Is this common? Is this normal? And has it changed in the last decade? Is it more common now than it used to be?

[James Hurley]

I think that this stuff's always gone on. I think maybe what's changed is that now there's less kind of impact if you get exposed for it, really. And actually it's all right that you embellished your backstory and no one really seems to mind and everything just carries on.

[Jamie Bartlett]

So this is the part of the podcast where I tell you what this six part series is all about. This is usually easy, but this story is hard to pin down because it's about something that's everywhere, something that's so ubiquitous you might not even notice it anymore. Fakery. Everything is fake. It's also fake. They are fake solutions.

[Pocket Hose Advertiser]

I'm getting like a fake vibe.

[James Hurley]

Something's off there.

[Jamie Bartlett]

Politicians have always lied and businesses have always inflated the numbers. But something has changed over my adult life. A shift in the culture.

[LinkedIn Ads Narrator]

I believe we may have reached peak.

[James Hurley]

Bullshit.

[Jamie Bartlett]

Fakery today isn't always about lying or making stuff up. It's something more subtle. It's where the line between reality and make believe is deliberately blurred and where truth is replaced by something else. Emotion, narrative and performance. In so many areas of modern life, fakery is often incentivized and even rewarded.

[LinkedIn Ads Narrator]

It's a new age of shamelessness.

[Jamie Bartlett]

It's not just about Stephen Bartlett. I only chose him because we share the same name. But I think his success and popularity is emblematic of this new world. Is this clash between this imaginary world that we all now partly live in and reality. In this series, I'm going to explain how I think that's happened. Because the roots of modern fakery are not found in Russian bots or social media. It goes back much further, to dramatic social and cultural changes over four decades, which turned perception and feeling into reality. For BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds, this is everything is fake and nobody cares. With me, Jamie Bartlett. Episode 1 Fake it, make it, Podcast it so here's the deal. As a podcaster myself, Figuring out the rules of successful podcasting feels like a good way to start my investigation into modern fakery. Perhaps I can learn a thing or two from another podcaster, the only one from the UK who's arguably even more successful and famous than Stephen, the best

[Pocket Hose Advertiser]

selling author and host the number one

[Jamie Bartlett]

health and wellness podcast On Purpose with Jay Shetty. Jay Shetty's podcast On Purpose is regularly listed as one of the most popular health and well being shows in the world. Originally from London, but now based in la, Shetty hangs out with movie stars, tops book bestseller lists and makes millions of dollars. What is the day in the life of a monk like? Okay, so you wake up at 4am and then you meditate for about four to eight. If you've enjoyed this episode and would like to hear the rest of the series, search for Everything is Fake on BBC Sounds and subscribe to stay up to date with the latest episodes

[Pocket Hose Advertiser]

the

[LinkedIn Ads Narrator]

best B2B marketing gets wasted on the Wrong People so when you want to reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals, including 130 million decision makers, and that's where it stands apart from other ad buyers. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, seniority skills, company revenue so you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience. It's why LinkedIn Ads generates the highest B2B return on ad spend of major ad networks. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn Ads and get $250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com Broadcast that's LinkedIn.com Broadcast Terms and Conditions apply when you

[Grainger Advertiser]

manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters, but when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.