From ancient scams to modern deepfakes, the six-part series brings together world-class experts to decode the invisible mechanics of human credibility.
LONDON, Sept. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sumsub, the first AI-powered trust infrastructure for compliance operations at scale, today announced the launch of its new narrative podcast series, Trust Forward. Releasing fortnightly starting Tuesday, September 1, the show pairs immersive storytelling with expert analysis to investigate how human society builds, tests, and rebuilds systems of credibility—from ancient commercial seals to modern digital identity networks.
“The truth is, deepfakes and forgeries are just the latest take on old tricks,” says Mary-Ann Ochota, host of Trust Forward, anthropologist, and broadcaster. “The technology evolves, but the pattern never changes: we’ve been building, breaking, and rebuilding trust for millennia. Who and what do we trust? How do we decide? And how can we avoid getting played? Understanding how the trust cycle played out in the past can help us navigate it in the present. We need all the skills we can!”
Drawing on its work in digital verification and fraud prevention, Sumsub created the series to examine trust as humanity’s original technology, and show how the fight against fraud has evolved alongside it.
“At Sumsub, our daily focus is on securing digital identity and preventing fraud, but trust itself is much bigger than software—it’s the fundamental technology that holds human society together,” says Andrew Sever, Co-founder and CEO of Sumsub. “Trust Forward takes a step back to look at how mechanisms of trust have evolved over centuries, how they inevitably get tested, and what that history tells us about securing the future.”
World-Class Expert Lineup
Across six 30-minute episodes, Season 1 pairs multiple expert voices per episode, including historians, economists, criminologists, and technologists. Alongside a wide range of guest contributors, featured experts across the series include:
- Episode 1: Money, Seals, and Portable Trust – Tracing the evolution of portable trust from ancient currency to paper promissory notes, with Harvard fellow and cryptographer Bruce Schneier (A Hacker’s Mind).
- Episode 2: Status as a Proxy for Truth – Examining how social standing historically dictated scientific truth, with pioneering astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
- Episode 3: The Architecture of Synthetic Reputation – Unpacking classic confidence tricks and fabricated credibility, with psychologist and New York Times bestselling author Maria Konnikova (The Confidence Game).
- Episode 4: Outlaw Governance and Honor Systems – Exploring pirate codes and self-enforced rules outside formal law, with Oxford University Criminology Professor Federico Varese (Mafias on the Move).
- Episode 5: From Community Gossip to Credit Scores – Detailing the shift from informal reputation to structured financial ledgers, with The Economist Deputy Editor Tom Standage (A History of the World in 6 Glasses).
- Episode 6: Planetary Scale and Digital Manipulation – Analyzing ancient merchant guilds scaled up to modern social platforms, with Harvard cryptographer Bruce Schneier.
Trust Forward Episode 1 is live now—click here to listen. This and the subsequent episodes will be available on all audio platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.
About Sumsub
Sumsub is the first AI-powered trust infrastructure for compliance operations at scale. By bringing together identity and business verification, fraud prevention, ongoing monitoring, and risk management in a single layer, Sumsub enables companies to streamline operations, adapt to evolving regulations, enter new markets, and grow securely.
Recognized as a Leader by Gartner, Forrester, and IDC, Sumsub combines seamless integration with advanced fraud prevention to deliver industry-leading performance. Sumsub also invests in responsible AI innovation through its AI Academic Program, forming alliances with top academia and institutions globally to enhance the world’s resilience against AI-powered fraud.
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