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PODCAST

Endless Thread

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.

technology

All Episodes

00:39:47

Encore: The Internet's Most Hated Bird

Endless Thread ·

2025/09/05

As summer fades away, we bring you an encore episode about you shoreline companions and occasional bullies — gulls.Gulls are not beloved creatures. Consult social media, where they are deemed relentless, dirty pests who steal our food and crowd our beaches. As one TikTok user puts it, "Seagulls are the worst animals to ever exist." Such hatred overlooks truths about this intelligent, charismatic animal, and it is masking a big problem: While gulls may seem like they are everywhere, many species

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00:31:46

Introducing "Jaws Island"

Endless Thread ·

2025/08/29

Dun dun... This week, on Endless Thread... dun dun... something new is here... dun dun dun dun... a podcast mini-series about the 50th anniversary of the cinematic classic... DUN dun dun dun DUN dun dun dun..."Jaws!"Part 1 of this mini-series, Jaws Island, is right here, right now, and it's all about the "finatics" (yes, that's what they call themselves). WBUR arts and culture correspondent Andrea Shea takes us to Martha's Vineyard — AKA "Amity Island," where Jaws was filmed — for the 50th

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00:30:12

AI and Relationships, Part 2: AI Therapists and Bot...

Endless Thread ·

2025/08/22

What happens when we outsource aspects of our most personal moments to machines?In the second installment of our two-part series on AI and relationships, we hear from Rhiannon Williams, a reporter for MIT Technology Review who spoke to people all over the world about how they're using AI to relate to their loved ones, including a man who turns to it during marital disputes, a French mother who uses it to craft nightly tales for her son, and a nursing student who calls her AI companion her

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00:28:12

AI and Relationships, Part 1: Into the Woods

Endless Thread ·

2025/08/15

Amir Mizroch spent years deconstructing fairy tales for his children — and thinking that maybe, he could create something out of his analysis and storytelling for a wider audience. In the first episode of our two-part series on AI and relationships, we hear what Amir finally created, and explore the questions it raises about connection in the digital age.Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter, and edited by Meg Cramer. It was co-hosted by Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson. Mix and

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00:27:28

Bootcamp for Men: from betas to alphas

Endless Thread ·

2025/08/08

In the past few years, videos from a new kind of camp have begun circulating the internet. They feature men participating in a variety of bizarre activities: from aggressively digging holes under floodlights, to collectively wailing in a pool of water. These are man camps, where men can pay up to $18,000 to undergo extreme boot-camp-like conditioning in the name of reclaiming their masculinity.This week on Endless Thread, host Ben Brock Johnson and senior producer Dean Russell, dive into the past,

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00:24:45

Kisscams, ratcams, Barbra Streisand

Endless Thread ·

2025/08/01

On this week's Endless Thread, host Ben Brock Johnson and producer Grace Tatter bring us two stories about the power of livestreams – one from the Coldplay concert box seats, and another from a notorious rat corridor in Brooklyn, NYC.Show notes: What's the deal with "Astronomer" CEO and CPO affair? (Reddit) A Crown Heights Building's Rat Infestation Gets a Livestream (Hell Gate) Rat cam (YouTube/Adam Schleser) I am a rat (a real live rotten-tailed rat) (YouTube/Adam Schleser)

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00:29:34

Thinking Outside the Dox: What 'consensual doxing'...

Endless Thread ·

2025/07/25

Kristen Sotakoun (@notkahnjunior on TikTok) says she has always been 'the FBI of the friend group' – that person you can count on to dig up the juicy details on anyone's social media.It's a skillset that has earned her millions upon millions of views on TikTok in a series she has dubbed 'consensual doxing.' In her videos, Kristen completes challenges from her viewers to find their birthdays, using only publicly posted information online. Kristen is now a handful of creators on TikTok who are

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00:24:11

There's a new emoji for sadness :(

Endless Thread ·

2025/07/18

What does the thumbs-up emoji mean to you? Or the wilted rose? The meanings of emojis are limitless and can differ across social groups or generations. On this episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory discuss two stories about how certain emojis have taken on surprising meanings.Show notes: * Here’s why the Aerial Tramway Emoji is suddenly in every YouTube comment section (daily dot) *Alright guys.. What is does this emoji mean and why is it used so much? (Reddit)

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00:21:37

Why it feels like it rains every weekend

Endless Thread ·

2025/07/11

If you feel like it's been raining a lot on the weekends this summer, you're not alone. A couple months ago, we noticed a thread on r/boston asking why? So, we enlisted the help of one of our WBUR colleagues, Climate and Environment Corespondent Barbara Moran to clear things up once and for all.Show notes: Rain Every Weekend??? (Reddit) OMG, why is it raining every Saturday in Boston? (WBUR)

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00:37:08

Episodes We Love: How to Fight a Shark

Endless Thread ·

2025/07/04

This episode originally aired on July 12, 2024. It has been updated to more clearly represent communication with Kayleigh Grant about a conversation with Kristian Parton.When Endless Thread producer Grace Tatter heard a friend 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

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00:28:02

Raiding the fridge with Condiment Claire

Endless Thread ·

2025/06/27

This week on Endless Thread, we're raiding our refrigerators and rating our favorite condiments with TikTok creator and author "Condiment Claire" Dinhut. We learn about the surprising history of some of our favorite flavor-enhancers, and Claire shares her secrets for using up the last bits of sauce in a jar and how she keeps her online presence appetizing.Show notes: The Condiment Book (Flatiron Books) Credits: This episode was written and produced by Grace Tatter. Mix and sound design by Paul

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00:30:11

War and Pizza

Endless Thread ·

2025/06/26

In the hours leading up to Israel commencing its June missile strikes on Iran, X users were posting about pizza. Specifically, how pizza places around the United States Pentagon were experiencing an unusual spike in business. The Pentagon Pizza Index refers to a theory that dates back to the Cold War, suggesting that increased pizza orders around the Pentagon could be a harbinger of imminent military action by the U.S. or its close allies. In this special episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory

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00:24:07

Pics or this episode didn't happen

Endless Thread ·

2025/06/20

A picture's worth a thousand words, or in this case, a podcast episode.This week Ben and Amory bring two very different stories from Reddit about pictures on the internet. First – what legal rights do we have over our photos after posting them on Instagram? Then, Ben indoctrinates Amory to The Game. Show notes: Unauthorized use of my photo being displayed in every corporate store in US. Where to start? (Reddit) Let's confuse the younger generation (Reddit) This content was originally

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00:34:11

When the government wants your socials

Endless Thread ·

2025/06/13

Jeffrey Ngo is from Hong Kong. He used to talk about politics all of the time with his friends in group chats and on social media, from casually sending memes, to planning protests.What happens to online speech when you're unsure how much the government is monitoring your speech, and what the repurcussions will be if they don't like it? Show notes: PROFILE: For Jeffrey Ngo, The Fight For Hong Kong is Far From Over (The Hoya) Social Media and the Hong Kong Protests (The New Yorker) Hong

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00:35:24

Derek 'The Menswear Guy' Guy

Endless Thread ·

2025/06/06

Men's fashion might seem like a niche topic. But people of all genders and sartorial sensibilities follow Derek Guy on X for his clothing takes... even if they're not quite sure how they found his page.Endless Thread talks to Derek about how he weaves together humor, history, cultural criticism, and political commentary to make fashion feel relevant to people who have never seriously considered it before. Show notes @dieworkwear (X) Die, Workwear! Credits: This episode was produced by Ben

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00:19:14

Get inked! Or... not!

Endless Thread ·

2025/05/30

'Tis the season to show some skin! Perhaps some tattoo-adorned skin?In this week's episode, Ben tells Amory about the r/tattoos community's reaction to a man whose friends made him self-conscious about his flowery tattoo. Amory tells Ben about the science behind why tattoos stay put on our bodies, which has only recently come to be understood.

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00:26:42

Group Chats: The Dark Matter of American Politics

Endless Thread ·

2025/05/23

The thing about social media when it was created was that it was public. Ideas shared were debated for all to see. Today much of that is happening behind closed doors—in group chats.Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of the media outlet Semafor and co-host of the podcast Mixed Signals, speaks with Endless Thread about the elite group chats on Signal and WhatsApp that are shaping American politics. ***** Credits: This episode was produced by Dean Russell. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. The

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00:25:39

The bots are taking over

Endless Thread ·

2025/05/16

The bots are here to stay, and they're everywhere. The trouble is, learning how to spot them.On this week's episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory discuss two stories from Reddit about undercover bots. First — is there such a thing as an easy tell for identifying bots? Second, what happens when internet users accept bots as fellow humans, only to discover the truth later? Show Notes: ‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’ (The Atlantic) OpenAI used this subreddit to

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00:28:49

Encore: The internet's fight over dinosaur emoji

Endless Thread ·

2025/05/09

A few years ago, we brought you the story of how dinosaur emoji had entered the debate about trans rights.We were reminded of this episode recently when a White House memorandum lambasted NPR for spreading "radical, woke propaganda" and linked to our story as an example. After the memo, President Trump signed an executive order to stop federal funding to NPR and PBS. We stand by our reporting. And so we decided to bring you the episode again. ***** We love making Endless Thread, and we want to

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00:21:50

Boy do we have a rant for you

Endless Thread ·

2025/05/02

It's rant season. Or is it? When is it *not* rant season? In this week's episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory discuss two very different, very viral, rants from Reddit. One is about how the current design trends in our public and private spaces are hard on the ears. Another discusses how escape room adventures can bring out the worst in people. Perhaps there's some humor and some lessons to glean from rants, too?

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423 results

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