Decoder Ring

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UPDATED TWICE WEEKLY

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Decoder Ring is the show about cracking cultural mysteries. In each episode, host Willa Paskin takes a cultural question, object, or habit; examines its history; and tries to figure out what it means and why it matters.

6 DAYS AGO · BONUS • SLATE PLUS ONLY

Decoder Ring Plus: The Fascinating World of Japanese “Idols”

Decoder Ring’s Evan Chung told the story this week of the Japanese musical duo Pink Lady and their ill-fated American TV variety show in 1980. Pink Lady’s meteoric rise in Japan was exceptional—but it also helped define a broader phenomenon known as Japanese “idol” culture, which is still going strong today. For this special bonus episode, Evan spoke with Patrick W. Galbraith, an anthropologist at Senshū University in Tokyo. He’s the co-editor of "Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture" and the co-author of a book in the 33 ⅓ series about the contemporary idol group AKB48. Patrick explains that, while idols may seem at first like the manufactured pop acts we’re familiar with in America, they’re actually a distinct category of celebrity with no Western equivalent. Rather than stun with talent and beauty, idols use approachability and vulnerability to compete for the love of fans. They’re the perpetual boy-and-girl-next-door types, and have come to occupy an omnipresent and outsized role in Japanese culture. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock this episode—you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen.

22 min
20 NOV

Reconsidering One of the “Worst” TV Shows of All Time

In 1980, a variety show debuted on NBC called Pink Lady and Jeff. Its stars were a pair of Japanese pop idols known for catchy, choreographed dance numbers. Pink Lady was inescapable in Japan: selling millions of records, appearing on TV daily, and filling arenas. But their American TV show left audiences completely bewildered. Pink Lady and Jeff acquired legendary status as one of television’s most notorious bombs, a show that managed to kill off the entire variety show genre. Or at least—that’s how it’s been seen in America. But for the two women of Pink Lady, the show was something else. In this episode, Decoder Ring’s Evan Chung puts this so-called “megaflop” in the spotlight to find out what really went wrong. You’ll hear from Mie and Keiko Masuda of Pink Lady, their co-host Jeff Altman, head writer Mark Evanier, and legendary TV producer Sid Krofft of H.R. Pufnstuf fame. This episode was written and produced by Evan Chung. It was edited by Willa Paskin. Our translator was Eric Margolis. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman and Katie Shepherd, with help from Sofie Kodner. Derek John is Executive Producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Special thanks to Kelly Killian, Lorne Frohman, Rowby Goren, Michael Lloyd, Cheyna Roth, Karin Fjellman, Cole delCharco, and Hannah Airriess. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen. Disclosure: A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. As of 9/26/24, the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across the Bond Account is greater than 6%. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore, a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. See https://public.com/disclosures/bond-account to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1h 4m
20 NOV • SLATE PLUS ONLY

Reconsidering One of the “Worst” TV Shows of All Time

In 1980, a variety show debuted on NBC called “Pink Lady and Jeff.” Its stars were a pair of Japanese pop idols known for catchy, choreographed dance numbers. Pink Lady was inescapable in Japan: selling millions of records, appearing on TV daily, and filling arenas. But their American TV show left audiences completely bewildered. “Pink Lady and Jeff” acquired legendary status as one of television’s most notorious bombs, a show that managed to kill off the entire variety show genre. Or at least—that’s how it’s been seen in America. But for the two women of Pink Lady, the show was something else. In this episode, Decoder Ring’s Evan Chung puts this so-called “megaflop” in the spotlight to find out what really went wrong. You’ll hear from Mie and Keiko Masuda of Pink Lady, their co-host Jeff Altman, head writer Mark Evanier, and legendary TV producer Sid Krofft of “H.R. Pufnstuf” fame. This episode was written and produced by Evan Chung. It was edited by Willa Paskin. Our translator was Eric Margolis. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman and Katie Shepherd, with help from Sofie Kodner. Derek John is Executive Producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Special thanks to Kelly Killian, Lorne Frohman, Rowby Goren, Michael Lloyd, Cheyna Roth, Karin Fjellman, Cole delCharco, and Hannah Airriess. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen.

57 min
6 NOV

A Feel-Good Story About the End of the World

The fear that the Earth could be destroyed by a killer asteroid is an anxiety that pops up all the time in fiction and is grounded in fact. But funnily enough—actually being pancaked by a giant space rock? Not something you need to spend a whole lot of time worrying about! And that’s because a bunch of NASA scientists and engineers are already worried about it for us. In this episode, science journalist Dr. Robin George Andrews tells us the story of NASA’s first-ever mission to defend the planet, which is the subject of his new book, How to Kill an Asteroid. This episode was written and produced by Sofie Kodner. It was edited by Willa Paskin and Evan Chung. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin, Evan Chung, Max Freedman and Katie Shepherd, with help from Sofie Kodner. Derek John is Executive Producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

44 min
24 OCT · BONUS • SLATE PLUS ONLY

Decoder Ring Plus: The Surprising History of Halloween

Every year, Halloween keeps getting bigger, spooky season starts earlier, and costumes are more elaborate and in more stores than ever before. To understand these trends, host Willa Paskin spoke to Lisa Morton, a Halloween lover and expert who has written extensively about the holiday’s history. Lisa explained that certain traditions, like costumes, candy, and frights—that’s all relatively new. In this episode, she traces Halloween back to the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain, through the invention of “Trick or Treat” during the Great Depression, to the rise of ubiquitous Spirit Halloween stores. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock this episode—you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen.

20 min
23 OCT

The Wrongest Bird in Movie History

There is a prominent bird in the 2000 film Charlie’s Angels that makes absolutely no sense. This so-called Pygmy Nuthatch doesn’t look or sound like it should, or live where the characters say it does. The bird is so elaborately wrong that it has haunted the birding community, including Slate’s very own Forrest Wickman, for almost a quarter of a century. In this episode, Forrest embarks on a wild goose chase: Why can’t hundreds of filmmaking professionals with a $100 million budget accurately portray a single bird? This episode was reported and written by Forrest Wickman. It was edited by Willa Paskin. It was produced by Max Freedman. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin, Evan Chung, Katie Shepherd, and Max Freedman with help from Sofie Kodner. Derek John is Executive Producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. In this episode, you’ll hear from Charlie’s Angels screenwriters John August and Zak Penn, director McG, animal trainer Guin Dill, and sound editor Michael Benavente; and bird experts Nick Lund, Nathan Pieplow, and Drew Weber. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen. Disclosure in Podcast Description: A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. As of 9/26/24, the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across the Bond Account is greater than 6%. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore, a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. See https://public.com/disclosures/bond-account to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

52 min
9 OCT

Selling Out (Encore)

Whatever happened to selling out? The defining concern of Generation X has become a relic from another era. How that happened is best illustrated by one of the idea’s last gasps, when in 2001, Oprah Winfrey invited author Jonathan Franzen to come on her show to discuss his new novel The Corrections. A month later, she withdrew the invitation, kicking off a media firestorm. The Oprah-Franzen Book Club Dust-Up of 2001 was a moment when two ways of thinking about selling out smashed into each other, and one of them—the one that was on its way out already—crashed and burned in public, seldom to be seen again. Some of the voices you’ll hear in this episode include screenwriter Helen Childress; writer and musician Franz Nicolay; New York Times critic Wesley Morris, Oprah producer Alice McGee; Boris Kachka, author of Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux; Bethany Klein, author of Selling Out: Culture, Commerce and Popular Music; and Laura Miller, Slate’s book critic. This episode was written by Willa Paskin and produced by Benjamin Frisch. It was edited by Benjamin Frisch and Gabriel Roth. Cleo Levin was our research assistant. Decoder Ring is produced by Evan Chung, Katie Shepherd, and Max Freedman, with help from Sofie Kodner. Derek John is Executive Producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you’re a fan of the show, please sign up for Slate Plus. Members get to listen to Decoder Ring and all other Slate podcasts without any ads and have total access to Slate’s website. Your support is also crucial to our work. Go to slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Disclosure: A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. As of 9/26/24, the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across the Bond Account is greater than 6%. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore, a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. See https://public.com/disclosures/bond-account to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

53 min
9 OCT • SLATE PLUS ONLY

Selling Out (Encore)

Whatever happened to selling out? The defining concern of Generation X has become a relic from another era. How that happened is best illustrated by one of the idea’s last gasps, when in 2001, Oprah Winfrey invited author Jonathan Franzen to come on her show to discuss his new novel The Corrections. A month later, she withdrew the invitation, kicking off a media firestorm. The Oprah-Franzen Book Club Dust-Up of 2001 was a moment when two ways of thinking about selling out smashed into each other, and one of them—the one that was on its way out already—crashed and burned in public, seldom to be seen again. Some of the voices you’ll hear in this episode include screenwriter Helen Childress; writer and musician Franz Nicolay; New York Times critic Wesley Morris, Oprah producer Alice McGee; Boris Kachka, author of Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux; Bethany Klein, author of Selling Out: Culture, Commerce and Popular Music; and Laura Miller, Slate’s book critic. This episode was written by Willa Paskin and produced by Benjamin Frisch. It was edited by Benjamin Frisch and Gabriel Roth. Cleo Levin was our research assistant. Decoder Ring is produced by Evan Chung, Katie Shepherd, and Max Freedman, with help from Sofie Kodner. Derek John is Executive Producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you’re a fan of the show, please sign up for Slate Plus. Members get to listen to Decoder Ring and all other Slate podcasts without any ads and have total access to Slate’s website. Your support is also crucial to our work. Go to slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today.

47 min

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INVESTING
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Decoder Ring is the show about cracking cultural mysteries. In each episode, host Willa Paskin takes a cultural question, object, or habit; examines its history; and tries to figure out what it means and why it matters.