The Truth Machine: American Justice and Our Obsession with Lie Detectors

A mechanical conscience that can separate liars and the innocent sounds too good be true. Ever since its creation nearly a century ago, the polygraph has gripped the national psyche. But is it just a big hoax? Ken Alder, a professor at Northwestern University, recounts the machine's fascinating history. He discusses how the polygraph has surreptitiously transformed justice into a game of bluff and bluster and also examines the fraught relationship between science and the law in 20th-century America.

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