August 28, 2015: Open Lines - Truth or Trash
Aug 28, 2015
2h 18m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell unveils Truth or Trash, a game show format where callers tell stories, true or fabricated, and a jury of fellow listeners renders a verdict. A caller describes accidentally crossing the Area 51 perimeter and being fined $650 by armed interceptors. The jury splits evenly. Every word was invented, and Art Bell admits he was completely sold by the details.
A San Francisco woman tells of willing herself to meet David Bowie during his 1990 tour using Wiccan focusing techniques from Salem. She raced across Quebec City as elevator doors opened to reveal Bowie and his bodyguards. She curtsied. Unanimously voted truth, confirmed true. A caller claims a twin absorbed in utero discovered during a football physical until a sharp juror presses on medical terminology the caller cannot produce, unraveling the lie. A trucker describes his friend dangling 500 feet below a helicopter after a finger got wedged in a bucket release. The jury splits. Entirely true. A man dreamed his cat dead on the porch, woke, and found it lying in exactly that position.
The fabricators succeed with mundane, specific details that make true stories believable, while genuine accounts sometimes sound too strange for the jury to accept.
A San Francisco woman tells of willing herself to meet David Bowie during his 1990 tour using Wiccan focusing techniques from Salem. She raced across Quebec City as elevator doors opened to reveal Bowie and his bodyguards. She curtsied. Unanimously voted truth, confirmed true. A caller claims a twin absorbed in utero discovered during a football physical until a sharp juror presses on medical terminology the caller cannot produce, unraveling the lie. A trucker describes his friend dangling 500 feet below a helicopter after a finger got wedged in a bucket release. The jury splits. Entirely true. A man dreamed his cat dead on the porch, woke, and found it lying in exactly that position.
The fabricators succeed with mundane, specific details that make true stories believable, while genuine accounts sometimes sound too strange for the jury to accept.
Key Moments
Area 51 trespass story fools Art: A caller spins a detailed story about crossing the Area 51 line, armed guards, a $650 fine, and a contract barring him from returning.
The jury gets taken for a ride: After a split verdict, the Area 51 caller reveals the whole thing was trash.
David Bowie elevator encounter: A caller says she willed herself to meet David Bowie, then reached an elevator just as the doors opened to reveal Bowie and his bodyguards.
Helicopter bucket finger trap: A trucker tells of a coworker whose finger got wedged in a concrete bucket release, leaving him hanging hundreds of feet below a helicopter.