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How Many More Jason Ardays Are There?

Josh Blackman | 8.11.2026 8:30 AM

I am intrigued by the story of Jason Arday, who recently resigned his professorship at Cambridge. Most of the press accounts focus on his serious fabulism. He boasted about feats of physical strength—like running six hundred miles in six days—that are nearly-physically impossible. Worse, these are stories that can easily be refuted. Apparently, no one in the ultra-marathon circles knew who he was. It is almost comical that a major publisher gave him a seven-figure book advance.

The lies Arday told about his personal story are problematic, but the far more pressing issue is his academic record. For years, he faced significant charges of plagiarism and dishonesty in his dissertation and his thin scholarship record. Those who raised these charges were predictably dismissed as racists. Cambridge performed an investigation that now appears to have been a sham. Only now, when the entire story has fallen apart, people are comfortable speaking the truth.

Arday resigned, but he is not alone. He........

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