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PODCAST

Panic World

A weekly podcast, hosted by Ryan Broderick, about how the internet warps our minds, our culture, and eventually reality.

technology

All Episodes

71:36

Gadgetology: The cartoon mouse that inspired a religion

Panic World ·

2025/08/13

If a fandom exists long enough in isolation, does it inevitably become toxic or at least, very strange? This is the main question we’ll be exploring today, through a story that begins in 1989. That’s the year that Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers premiered. More importantly, it’s when the world was introduced to a sweet little mouse girl, Gadget Hackwrench. Gadget became quite popular with a certain part of the internet, and PJ Vogt joins us once again to learn about the Cult of Gadget, and the weird

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23:05

BONUS: Sydney Sweeney and rage bait

Panic World ·

2025/08/08

Ryan and Grant discuss that American Eagle ad and why everyone is arguing about Sydney Sweeney's "good jeans."Want to hear the rest of their conversation, and enjoy other cool stuff like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to our Discord? Sign up for just five bucks a month at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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65:14

Why eating disorder content is all over the internet

Panic World ·

2025/08/06

Eating disorder content has been a problem on the internet since as early as 2001, but it accelerated with the advent of social media. Today we’re examining why it’s become more prevalent than perhaps at any other time. EJ Dickson, a writer who investigated the #SkinnyTok community for The Cut, joins us to talk about the introduction of eating disorder content in the mainstream internet, its causes and characters. Our guest EJ Dickson is a senior writer at The Cut. You can check out her

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69:48

The cult using Minecraft to recruit

Panic World ·

2025/07/30

Often, like in the case of the Momo Challenge, when parents freak out about a thing online, it’s probably not really a thing. But, today we are talking about one panic that is real — “764,” the comm-network that is gamifying committing crimes and abuse. Joining us is Marcus Parks of The Last Podcast on the Left, to dive into this conspiracy that’s more than a theory.Our guest Marcus Parks is a host of The Last Podcast on the Left, which is currently doing a miniseries on the assassination of

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01:04:20

Why Slenderman became a moral panic

Panic World ·

2025/07/23

What is the creepiest thing you’ve ever seen on the internet? For many people, it was Slenderman. This particularly lithe fellow started off as kind of a fun, spooky thing, and then of course got out of hand and caused a panic both on- and offline. We’re joined by Kaelyn Moore of Heart Starts Pounding to talk about his role taking creepypasta mainstream, and how Slenderman is still lurking in our cultural consciousness over 16 years since making his first appearance on Something Awful.Our guest

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01:01:44

What happened to JK Rowling?

Panic World ·

2025/07/16

Was it JK Rowling who changed, or was it the world that changed?

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00:55:09

The plot to ruin the new Superman movie

Panic World ·

2025/07/09

Today we're looking at how fandom got so cultish, through the lens of the Snyder Cut.

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00:07:19

Some big news in Panic World

Panic World ·

2025/07/02

We've got a (good) announcement about the future of the show.

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00:51:23

We are living in a casino

Panic World ·

2025/06/25

What does it mean when we live in a world where everything is gamified?

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01:00:41

Why were cops fainting from fentanyl?

Panic World ·

2025/06/18

Starting around 2013, cops claimed they were fainting and suffering health problems via absorbing fentanyl through their skin. Did that really happen?

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01:03:42

Your conspiracy families

Panic World ·

2025/06/11

You shared your stories, and we're talking about what it means — and what to do — when your family members start following conspiracy theories.

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00:53:53

The man behind Trump's Salvadoran gulags

Panic World ·

2025/06/04

How did a club promoter, hustle bro, and LinkedIn influencer become El Salvador's dictator?

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01:02:31

What happened to Kanye?

Panic World ·

2025/05/21

Akilah Hughes joins the pod to discuss whether Kanye West has always been a mirror to the American zeitgeist, and what's wrong with all of us.

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00:38:13

BONUS: AI therapy slop

Panic World ·

2025/05/14

Dr. ChatGPT will see you now.

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01:02:11

How long will Trump's base support him?

Panic World ·

2025/05/07

Charlie Warzel joins us again to look back at the first 100+ days of Trump 2.0, and how worried we should be about this whole democracy thing.

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00:58:06

The effects of true crime brain rot

Panic World ·

2025/04/30

What is it about true crime that's fueled its rise to one of the most popular genres in entertainment? Journalist Jenn Swann joins us to talk about that via the case of Hannah Kobayashi.

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00:56:34

That time a 4chan user got thrown in a Taliban prison

Panic World ·

2025/04/23

Arturo Castro joins us to tell the story of Miles Rutledge — your regular 4chan guy who got himself locked up in a Taliban prison.

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01:02:01

Netflix's "Adolescence" and the masculinity crisis

Panic World ·

2025/04/16

On March 13, 2025, Netflix released Adolescence, and ever since, parents have been learning that Andrew Tate is bad. What are we to do?

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00:59:31

Has China already won the internet?

Panic World ·

2025/04/09

Are the Chinese really so radically different from us, or — at least when we’re browsing the net — are we the same?

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00:39:34

My friend's dad is a Holocaust denier now

Panic World ·

2025/04/02

What causes people — especially our Boomer family members — to fall for conspiracy theories online? And can we help them?

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129 results

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