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WBUR

Untold histories, unsolved mysteries, and other jaw-dropping stories online and IRL. Hosted by Ben Brock Johnson & Amory Sivertson.

Endless Thread

In the 1980s, a moral panic swept across America. Parents, prosecutors, and talk show hosts became convinced that devil worshippers were hiding in plain sight, abusing children at daycares, performing ritualistic sacrifices, and corrupting the innocent.

Sarah Marshall of You're Wrong About has a new podcast about this period of Satanic Panic called The Devil You Know. She talks to Ben and Amory about the cultural forces that turned unfounded fears into a nationwide hysteria, and how would the Satanic Panic might have unfolded differently in today's age of social media.

Credits: This episode was produced by Amory Sivertson with assistance from Grace Tatter. It was co-hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson, and edited by Meg Cramer. Mix and sound design by Paul Vaitkus.

You're Wrong About the Satanic Panic

What temperature do you like your fruit? What is the correct way to peel a banana? This week on Endless Thread, Ben and Amory cherry pick a couple of the hottest fruit debates taking place on Reddit.

Show notes:

 My husband is mildly infuriated that I open a banana from the antenna side! • (Reddit)

 CMV: The only correct way to peel and eat a banana is from the bottom. • (Reddit)

 Microwaving fruit is the way to go • (Reddit)

 I believe that fruit is better microwaved. • (Reddit)

This content was originally created for audio. An auto-generated transcript is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Heads up that some elements (i.e. music, sound effects, tone) are harder to translate to text.

Hot (and not) fruit takes

In 1970, a young biologist named David Mech published what could be the most consequential book on wolves ever written. At the time, The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species, was the most complete collection of scientific knowledge on wolves money could buy, and it became best seller for Dave's publishers. But outside of the world of wolf biology, the book is also credited with unleashing a certain idea into our popular lexicon: The Alpha.

The thing is, Dave made a mistake – and the alpha wolf, doesn't exist.

This week on Endless Thread, Ben and Amory track down the origins of "the alpha," and whether this idea – which has been recanted by the very scientist who popularized it – has any legitimacy when talking about people.

Show notes:

 The Myth of the Alpha Wolf • (The New Yorker)*

 Do alpha males even exist? • (The Guardian)

 Elon Musk Shares Theory That Only ‘Alpha Males’ Should Vote • (Newsweek)

This content was originally created for audio. An auto-generated transcript is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Heads up that some elements (i.e. music, sound effects, tone) are harder to translate to text.

The Alpha Male Myth

Fast-and-cheap shipping is now foundational to the American way of life, thanks in large part to Amazon Prime. Still, when producer Grace Tatter sees a video of a man claiming that he's continuously ordering and returning an 110-pound anvil from Amazon with no repercussions from the tech giant, she has questions. Is this legit, or is it a Wile E. Coyote-level scheme? Unlike an anvil, the answer can't be found online.

Show notes:

 • "this guy has been buying and returning 110lb anvils on Amazon for 8 months now" (
Reddit • )

 • This man keeps buying and returning 110- anvils on Amazon (
Fast Company • )

 • Johnbo's 
TikTok

This episode was produced by Grace Tatter, and co-hosted by Grace Tatter, Ben Brock Johnson, and Amory Sivertson. It was edited by Meg Cramer. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.

The Anvillain

Adam Aleksic's Roman Empire is language, particularly how algorithms are changing the way we all use words. This week, Endless Thread gets algospeak-pilled and learns how "unalive" spread from a kids' Spider-Man cartoon to TikTok mental health communities trying to avoid censorship; what we're really saying when we say we're "goblin-core," and whether this all means we're "cooked."

Show notes:

Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language 

This episode was produced by Grace Tatter, edited by Meg Cramer, and co-hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson. Mix and sound design by Paul Vaitkus.

Algospeak

10 years ago, Justin found himself on the side of the road with a blown out tire. Hours went by and no one stopped to help. But just as he was about to give up, something happened that changed Justin forever.

This episode was originally published on Nov. 13, 2020.

Rewind: Today You, Tomorrow Me: Why A Decade-Old Reddit Comment Still Resonates Today

Who gets credit for starting a meme? Usually... nobody — they're made too quickly and organically. In the case of one of the most famous bait-and-switch memes of all time, the "Rick Roll," we may be looking at something experts call convergent evolution. Did the Rick Roll originate with a piece of code on the message board 4Chan, or with a prank call to a local sports show in Michigan? And why does the Rick Roll have such staying power? Is it codified in the DNA of the song itself?

We explore the meme’s origin, the history of the song, "Never Gonna Give You Up," and its impact on both internet users during COVID-19 and on the performer himself.

This episode was originally published on Oct. 08, 2021.

Encore: Never Gonna Give You Up

2025 marks 20 years of Google Maps — a tool that many of us would be, quite literally, lost without.

We hear from New Orleanians who used Google Maps/Google Earth in its inaugural year to survey the damage to their homes following Hurricane Katrina.

We also talk to the internet's Map Men, who ask whether "the best maps humanity has ever produced are simultaneously the worst maps for humanity?" in their new book, "This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (And Why It Matters)."

Lost Without You

There's a lot of drone warfare footage on the internet from Ukraine and Russia. But over the last year, a surprising change has emerged, via photos from the battlefront posted online. It has become clear that a huge part of the drone war, from dropping grenades on soldiers in bunkers, to dropping explosives on infrastructure or airfields, is wired. Those wires are fiber optic cable, stretching from drone operators to the drones, which spool out cable across the ground and over trees along the battlefront. These drones are often single-use rarely returning from the mission they set out on. And the spools of fiber optic cable, stretching over 30-50 kilometers, don't get cleaned up. We explore this evolution of drone use in the conflict - where it came from, and why.

Ukraine's expanding drone web

The internet decides what's for dinner.

Ruby Tandoh is the author of the new book, All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now. A stint on the Great British Bake Off when she was in college launched her into the world of cookbooks — increasingly irrelevant in a world where we're more likely to turn to Google for a recipe than turn to our bookshelves — and provided her an education in how pop culture stokes our cravings. She takes Ben and Amory on a journey from the surprising history of AllRecipes and the "world's best lasagna," to the TikTok food trends of today. (Spoiler: they don't always taste particularly good.)

Show notes:

All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now

Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter and hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson. It was edited by Meg Cramer. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.

Ruby Tandoh, the World's Best Lasagna,and how the internet is collectively changing what we all want to eat

They were scammers. But they weren't going to scam just anyone. They were going to scam Big Tech. And they almost got away with it.

Earlier this month, federal prosecutors accused a North Carolina man of stealing royalty payments from music streaming platforms for seven years. He allegedly used artificial intelligence to create songs by fake bands and then play those songs to get paid.

The incident resembles a scheme between 2013 and 2015 when a Lithuanian man bilked Google and Facebook out of more than $100 million before getting caught.

Endless Thread's Ben Brock Johnson and Dean Russell bring two stories of grifts gone wrong.

*****

Credits: This episode was produced and co-hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Dean Russell. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. It was edited by our managing producer, Samata Joshi.

Defrauding Big Tech

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