Episode 39: Dan Plazak studies mining fraud

"If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.” Maybe that line wouldn’t work on you, but what about somebody who says they’ve found gold, uranium, oil somewhere in them thar hills? 

Retired geologist Dan Plazak (pronounced “PLAZ-ick,” not “PLAY-zack” as I figured) wrote a book on it: A Hole in the Ground With a Liar at the Top: Fraud and Deceit in the Golden Age of American Mining, an easy-to-pick up collection of swindle stories published in 2006 by University of Utah Press. 

I talk to him about his childhood interest in geology that blossomed into a career, details on some seedy tales from the book and his research, his take on fracking, and his digging into doodlebugs. Don’t know what a doodlebug is? You will when you read the next book he’s working on, but he’ll tell you in this podcast, too. (And here in the January 2021 issue of the Geophysical Society of Houston Journal on page 31.) Listen on ... 

P.S. Because of some audio problems, I had to rely only on Dan’s side of the audio, so mine is a little rough. But who cares what I say anyway?