Internet Culture
43 episodes
#5837: Atlas Obscura: 33,000 Hidden Places and a Boardroom Coup
A rotating circle of plants in Argentina, a boiling river 400 miles from any volcano, and the founders who got voted off the board.
#5835: What Do You Call the Urge to Know Obscure Things?
There's no single name for the pull toward transporter bridges, strange borders, and overlooked infrastructure. The vocabulary exists — it's just s...
#5826: The Thread That Outlived Its Authors
A Debian bug filed in 1997 got its second reply 24 years later. What happens when a conversation outlives everyone who started it?
#5823: Why Soap Operas Never End
Coronation Street has aired nearly 12,000 episodes. What the reset button, the archetype, and the missing consequence reveal about TV's most durabl...
#5700: Did the Internet's Pioneers Know What They Were Building?
Vint Cerf says they didn't know — and they did. How early internet subculture formed, where it lived, and whether it survived.
#5699: From Dawkins to "Karen": How Memes Really Spread
A biologist coined "meme" in 1976. Fifty years later, a Switch trailer screenshot became "Karen." How did we get here?
#5657: When Bad Effects Break the Illusion
Birdemic's clip-art eagles, Plan 9's plastic saucers, and The Room's $6M greenscreen — when budgets break the illusion.
#5577: When the UN Goes Viral: Pitchers, Shoes, and 6-Second Clips
A six-second clip of a man drinking from a pitcher resurfaces as if it's new — inside the long history of the UN's most meme-able moments.
#5576: Lying Flat as a Tactic: The Quiet Opt-Out
Tang ping, quiet quitting, and the N-po generation — what happens when people stop donating effort they were never paid for?
#5471: Your News Feed Is Filtering for Failure
40% of people now avoid the news. Here's why the feed distorts reality — and what to read instead.
#5341: The Bankruptcy Stone and the Debtor Blacklist
From Florence's stone of scandal to China's debtor blacklist, a tour of the world's most degrading insolvency rituals — and why the U.S. version is...
#5290: Inside the Urban Exploration Boom
13.7 billion TikTok views, 42 arrests at one IBM office park, and a community at war with its own imitators.
#5134: Why Japanese TV Commits So Hard to Absurdity
Ten comedians who can't laugh, exploding rings, and a man who won a contest for 15 months — why Japan goes all in.
#4968: North Korea Today: Life Beyond the Famine Era
What does ordinary life actually look like in North Korea right now? Smartphones, markets, and K-dramas in Pyongyang vs. survival in the provinces.
#4540: The One-Star Review Circuit: A Master Playbook
How to find the worst-rated restaurants in any city—and actually enjoy the experience.
#4515: Where Extremist Forums Actually Went After Reddit Bans
Reddit bans didn't push extremists to the dark web. They went to Telegram. Here's why.
#4366: Popcorn at the Protest: Meta-Trolling Shabbat Clashes
Can eating popcorn between two opposing protests be a form of protest itself?
#4144: Nuns on AliExpress: Ancient Rules for Modern Tech
What a nun picking up a package in Jerusalem teaches us about attention, technology, and intentional living.
#3876: From Hidden Audience to Real Community
Turn podcast listeners into an engaged community. Platform choice, invitation design, and retention mechanics.
#3629: The Real Karl Pilkington: Genuine or Act?
Was Karl Pilkington faking it on *An Idiot Abroad*? And what else captures that same reluctant-host magic?
#3616: 10 Strangest Kids' Shows Ever Made
From fart-powered blobs to a claymation Satan, these kids' shows will make you question every decision that led to them.
#3606: The Secret World of Dumpster Diving
What people really find in dumpsters—from $4,000 espresso machines to historical love letters.
#3584: Why Rugrats Feels So Vanilla in Retrospect
Why does Nickelodeon's longest-running original series feel so hollow decades later? We unpack the design choices.
#3582: The Sponge That Might Be Cheese: Dream Logic of Bikini Bottom
Why does a brainless sea sponge (or is it cheese?) live in a pineapple under the sea? We explore the unsettling worldbuilding of Bikini Bottom.