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341 episodes
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Endless Thread WBUR
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- Technology
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4.1 • 2.5K Ratings
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Hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson dig into the internet's vast and curious ecosystem of online communities to find untold histories, unsolved mysteries, and other jaw-dropping stories online and IRL.
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The American Lean
It's an idea that pops up on Reddit from time to time: that Americans have a unique propensity lean on things. Walls. Chairs. Anything to keep from holding up our own body weight. In fact, some posit that leaning is so uniquely American, the CIA has to train spies not to do it.
Is this baloney? Where did the idea that only Americans lean come from?
Credits: This episode was produced by Ben Brock Johnson. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. It was hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson. -
This Bonus Drop is Marked Seggsplicit
Is it just us, or has almost everything on the internet — even breaking news — become NSFW?
In this bonus episode, Endless Thread host Ben Brock Johnson and producer Grace Tatter parse an eggplant emoji-filled chain text message about a breaking news event, the ubiquity of "Hawk Tuah" girl, and what it means that rated-R speak has gone mainstream.
*****
Credits: This episode was produced and co-hosted by Grace Tatter and Ben Brock Johnson. Mix and sound design by Paul Vaitkus. -
Jamie Loftus' 'main characters'
Comedian, best-selling author and podcaster Jamie Loftus joins Amory and Ben to talk about her latest endeavor: a podcast called Sixteenth Minute (Of Fame) from iHeartMedia’s Cool Zone Media. Jamie talks to people "who became briefly notorious on the internet about how it affected their mental health, amongst other things," she says.
Loftus explores the timing and context in which these "main characters" of the Internet, as she calls them, went viral and asks what their virality says about us, the people who helped — made? — them go viral in the first place. -
How to Fight a Shark
When Endless Thread producer Grace Tatter heard a friend confidently assert that she could ward off a shark because of TikTok, Grace was both concerned for her friend's safety, and curious. Why are there so many videos about "redirecting" sharks on TikTok, and how accurate are they?
Hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson dive into the controversial world of SharkTok, where influencers are trying to show a different side of sharks by getting up close and personal with them.
*****
Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter with Cici Yu. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. It was hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson. -
Introducing Outside/In: 'The Papyrus and the Volcano'
Endless Thread presents an episode from the podcast Outside/In.
While digging a well in 1750, a group of workers accidentally discovered an ancient Roman villa containing over a thousand papyrus scrolls. This was a stunning discovery: the only library from antiquity ever found in situ. But the scrolls were blackened and fragile, turned almost to ash by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Over the centuries, scholars’ many attempts to unroll the fragile scrolls have mostly been catastrophic. But now, scientists are trying again, this time with the help of Silicon Valley and some of the most advanced technology we’ve got: particle accelerators, CT scanners, and AI.
After two thousand years, will we finally be able to read the scrolls?
*****
Reported, produced, and mixed by Justine Paradis
Outside/In host: Nate Hegyi
Edited by Taylor Quimby
Our team also includes Felix Poon
NHPR’s Director of Podcasts is Rebecca Lavoie
Music in this episode came from Silver Maple, Xavy Rusan, bomull, Young Community, Bio Unit, Konrad OldMoney, Chris Zabriski, and Blue Dot Sessions.
Volcano recordings came from daveincamas on Freesound.org, License Attribution 4.0 and felix.blume on freesound.org, Creative Commons 0.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio. -
This is Not a Pyramid Scheme
Every year, thousands of Americans lose money participating in multi-level marketing (MLM). So, last year, when a new business idea that promised to correct MLM's sins bubbled up on Instagram and TikTok, a lot of people hopped off the MLM train, and onto this new one, lured by the promise of a low-lift and lucrative side hustle.
This new business idea is called "master resell rights." But what exactly is it? Where did it come from? And does it actually solve any of MLM's problems? Endless Thread investigates.
*****
Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. It was hosted by Ben Brock Johnson, Amory Sivertson, and Grace Tatter.
Customer Reviews
I really want to give 5-stars
This show is awesome. I love all of the episodes except for the one about Carnivore diets. You would have been better informed to have interviewed Dr. Shawn Baker. I think Paul Saladeno is a total A-hole. I was a vegetarian for 23 years I have epilepsy which was awful and began suffering from an autoimmune disease. All of this improved when I started slowly converting to a meat-based/carnivore thing. Sadly there’s no mention in this episode of how carnivore people are encouraged to eat ethically sourced and regenerativly farmed animals which is an answer to a lot of climate concerns with factory farming.
Garbage
about what I expected from npr related anti American propaganda.
Stop laughing
Why is she laughing at things that aren’t funny? Such an annoying habit. STOP.