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Latest episodes
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38 min
ICYMI - The “Tradwife” To Girlboss Pipeline
The “tradwives” are retreating. Nara Smith went on Call Her Daddy to renounce any association with the term, and has been in the middle of a full-on rebrand as the promotes her new…
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34 min
ICYMI - The Toxic FB Groups For Estranged Parents
The latest internet “trend,” apparently, is adult children cutting off their parents. And while there are plenty of spaces on the internet where both children and parents can seek…
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36 min
Decoder Ring - Clown Panic (Encore)
Clowns have existed in various forms for thousands of years. From the big top to Bozo’s TV show, they used to be beloved figures of amusement and delight. What changed and made so…
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58 min
Death, Sex & Money - Comedian Murray Hill on the Teachers Who Freed Him From an Unsafe Home
Now famous as a New York City nightlife fixture and for his role on Somebody Somewhere, comedian Murray Hill used to keep his personal history private. In fact, the persona of “Mur…
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33 min
ICYMI - The Labubufication of AI Agents
The new AI agents from Meta and OpenAI have one thing in common: they look like children’s cartoons. At the same time these companies are warning that AI will kill us all, they’re…
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1 h 00
Decoder Ring - Gandhi Never Said “Be the Change”
Few inspirational phrases are quoted more often than Mahatma Gandhi’s “Be the change you want to see in the world.” It shows up on t-shirts, bumper stickers, even tattooed on peopl…
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40 min
ICYMI - How The Pussyhat Unraveled
Ten years ago, the world was gearing up to welcome the first female president. Instead, Donald Trump’s surprise victory went on to alter America’s entire political landscape. It’s…
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38 min
Death, Sex & Money - Remembering John Prine on His 80th, With His Wife Fiona
To mark John Prine’s 80’s birthday, Anna catches up with his wife Fiona. Then we revisit Anna’s 2018 conversation with John, where he discussed his bestselling album Tree of Forgiv…
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46 min
ICYMI - Jane Doe Deserves Better From The Internet
As soon as Jane Doe filed her civil suit against Cornell University, the internet was up in arms. Everyone from Florence Pugh to Love Island contestants took to social media to sha…
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44 min
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - Near-Miss Hits: ‘80s Edition
The 1980s yielded a bumper crop of near-miss hits—songs that stalled out at No. 2, No. 11, or No. 41 during their original Billboard runs but were vindicated in the streaming era.…
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8 min
Decoder Ring - Preview: Decoder Rings Back | The Second Spice
One of the many perks of subscribing to Decoder Ring Plus is access to every episode of Decoder Rings Back, our member-exclusive series where host Willa Paskin calls up a listener…
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37 min
ICYMI - The Conspiracy Theory Your Parents Are Falling For
What if I told you there was a machine that, using powerful energy and frequencies, could cure everything from common colds to cancers to missing limbs? Well, I’d be lying. And yet…
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58 min
Death, Sex & Money - Ada Limón Lives in 'Vertical Time' in Her Childhood Home
After three years as Poet Laureate, Ada Limón craved a smaller, more private life. Then she saw a sign: her childhood home was for sale. In this episode, Anna and Ada talk about wr…
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51 min
ICYMI - WTF Is Happening On Threads?
There are some controversies that can only happen on Threads. Discussions about mermaid trauma, for instance, or Pepsi having to apologize for their post about Wild Cherry. The pla…
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36 min
ICYMI - The Revenge Of The Comment Section
Comment sections are dying. At least, when it comes to digital media. Platforms like Twitter have become the new place for discourse, and apps like TikTok are changing what the com…
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51 min
Death, Sex & Money - Stavros Halkias Worries Fame Might Kill Him
This year, Stavros Halkias released a stand-up special, appeared in the Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony, and continued his run on the hit Netflix show Tires. Despite the high points,…
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38 min
ICYMI - No Phones? No Problem
Dumbphones are a popular recommendation for people looking to reduce their screen time, but it’s not as simple as it looks. When writer Stephanie Murray made the switch, while she…
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49 min
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - Choosin’ Dolly Edition
In the 1970s, Dolly Parton parlayed her Nashville success into megawatt pop-culture icon status—yet many of her familiar hits of the era barely scratched the Top 40. Parton finally…
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1 h 03
Decoder Ring - Bridget in the Buff
In the early 1970s, a jigsaw puzzle of a cheerful, young, naked, fat woman known only as “Bridget in the Buff” arrived in stores all over America. It was just the first of countles…
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36 min
ICYMI - The “Sickfluencer” Witch Hunt
Like clockwork, another article has created a moral panic about so-called “sickfluencers,” or people—usually women—who share online about their illnesses and disabilities. Critics…