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PODCAST

Endless Thread

Untold histories, unsolved mysteries, and other jaw-dropping stories online and IRL. Hosted by Ben Brock Johnson & Amory Sivertson.

technology

All Episodes

00:20:45

Hot (and not) fruit takes

Endless Thread ·

2026/01/30

What temperature do you like your fruit? What is the correct way to peel a banana? This week on Endless Thread, Ben and Amory cherry pick a couple of the hottest fruit debates taking place on Reddit.Show notes: My husband is mildly infuriated that I open a banana from the antenna side! (Reddit) CMV: The only correct way to peel and eat a banana is from the bottom. (Reddit) Microwaving fruit is the way to go (Reddit) I believe that fruit is better microwaved. (Reddit) This content was

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00:26:09

The Alpha Male Myth

Endless Thread ·

2026/01/23

In 1970, a young biologist named David Mech published what could be the most consequential book on wolves ever written. At the time, The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species, was the most complete collection of scientific knowledge on wolves money could buy, and it became best seller for Dave's publishers. But outside of the world of wolf biology, the book is also credited with unleashing a certain idea into our popular lexicon: The Alpha.The thing is, Dave made a mistake – and

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00:28:18

The Anvillain: Has this man really been buying and...

Endless Thread ·

2026/01/16

Fast-and-cheap shipping is now foundational to the American way of life, thanks in large part to Amazon Prime. Still, when producer Grace Tatter sees a video of a man claiming that he's continuously ordering and returning an 110-pound anvil from Amazon with no repercussions from the tech giant, she has questions. Is this legit, or is it a Wile E. Coyote-level scheme? Unlike an anvil, the answer can't be found online.Show notes: "this guy has been buying and returning 110lb anvils on Amazon for

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00:25:37

How algorithms are changing the way we talk: The rise...

Endless Thread ·

2026/01/09

Adam Aleksic's Roman Empire is language, particularly how algorithms are changing the way we all use words. This week, Endless Thread gets algospeak-pilled and learns how "unalive" spread from a kids' Spider-Man cartoon to TikTok mental health communities trying to avoid censorship; what we're really saying when we say we're "goblin-core," and whether this all means we're "cooked."Show notes: Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language This episode was produced by Grace

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00:23:48

Rewind: Today You, Tomorrow Me: Why A Decade-Old...

Endless Thread ·

2026/01/02

10 years ago, Justin found himself on the side of the road with a blown out tire. Hours went by and no one stopped to help. But just as he was about to give up, something happened that changed Justin forever.This episode was originally published on Nov. 13, 2020. *** Survey alert: Tell us what you love about the show, what you want more of; what you could stand a little less of. And if you complete the survey, we'll send you an extra episode (what Ben's calling a "dashboard confessional") in

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00:43:55

Encore: Never Gonna Give You Up

Endless Thread ·

2025/12/26

Who gets credit for starting a meme? Usually... nobody — they're made too quickly and organically. In the case of one of the most famous bait-and-switch memes of all time, the "Rick Roll," we may be looking at something experts call convergent evolution. Did the Rick Roll originate with a piece of code on the message board 4Chan, or with a prank call to a local sports show in Michigan? And why does the Rick Roll have such staying power? Is it codified in the DNA of the song itself?We explore the

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00:33:15

Lost without you: 20 years of finding (losing?) our...

Endless Thread ·

2025/12/19

2025 marks 20 years of Google Maps — a tool that many of us would be, quite literally, lost without.We hear from New Orleanians who used Google Maps/Google Earth in its inaugural year to survey the damage to their homes following Hurricane Katrina. We also talk to the internet's Map Men, who ask whether "the best maps humanity has ever produced are simultaneously the worst maps for humanity?" in their new book, "This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (And Why It Matters)." *** Survey alert: Tell us

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00:38:47

The drone web: how consumer drones have covered...

Endless Thread ·

2025/12/12

There's a lot of drone warfare footage on the internet from Ukraine and Russia. But over the last year, a surprising change has emerged, via photos from the battlefront posted online. It has become clear that a huge part of the drone war, from dropping grenades on soldiers in bunkers, to dropping explosives on infrastructure or airfields, is wired. Those wires are fiber optic cable, stretching from drone operators to the drones, which spool out cable across the ground and over trees along the

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00:28:38

What's on the menu: Ruby Tandoh on how the internet...

Endless Thread ·

2025/12/05

The internet decides what's for dinner.Ruby Tandoh is the author of the new book, All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now. A stint on the Great British Bake Off when she was in college launched her into the world of cookbooks — increasingly irrelevant in a world where we're more likely to turn to Google for a recipe than turn to our bookshelves — and provided her an education in how pop culture stokes our cravings. She takes Ben and Amory on a journey from the surprising history of AllRecipes

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00:35:42

Episodes we love: Sandwiches of History

Endless Thread ·

2025/11/28

In honor of the day-after-Thanksgiving leftover sandwich, we're revisiting our conversation with Barry Enderwick, the man behind the beloved and wildly popular "Sandwiches of History" social media accounts.Barry joined Ben and Amory to make a triple-decker sandwich from 1958, and to talk about his first cookbook, "Sandwiches of History the Cookbook: All the Best (and Most Surprising) Things People Have Put Between Slices of Bread." To quote Barry's signature phrase, we think you should give this

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00:26:37

Chiveman and a mountain of margarine

Endless Thread ·

2025/11/21

Endless Thread serves up two of Reddit's most absurd food sagas. First course: Chivegate, in which a Redditor vows to chop a cup of chives daily until the kitchen confidential subreddit declares perfection, only to be accused of fraud. Second course: A Reddit user desperately seeking advice on how to quietly move 13 two-thousand-pound pallets of margarine.Show Notes: u/occasionallyvertical's post on r/UnethicalLifeProTips r/kitchenconfidential This episode was produced and co-hosted by

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00:31:27

Fryders and Alligator Alcatraz tours: When trolls get...

Endless Thread ·

2025/11/14

Ben and Amory share two stories about some out-of-the-box internet trolling. First, Amory tries to untangle a web of rumors surrounding an unusual dish from New Zealand. Then, Ben takes us aboard Terri's Tourz, an alleged Everglade tourist attraction claiming to offer the nation's first ever tours of the South Florida Detention Center known as Alligator Alcatraz.Show notes: 3 Facts About New Zealand I Didn’t Know Until I Moved Here (Medium) Was this post a joke? (r/newzealand) Terri's

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00:38:06

Episodes we love: Lofi Girl

Endless Thread ·

2025/11/11

This November, we're playing some of our favorite episodes from the past alongside new stuff, so that newer listeners can experience our back catalogue. And LoFi Girl is one that holds up, big time!If you've ever searched for "chill beats for studying" or some other form of lean back, endless playlists without vocals and with a consistent vibe, you've probably come across "Lofi Girl." A livestreamed Youtube channel featuring a looped animation of a girl in a cosy apartment on her desk at night,

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00:27:01

Labubus, lafufus, and Hello Kitty: How cuteness...

Endless Thread ·

2025/11/07

While some people find Labubus terrifying, millions of others find their big eyes and furry features irresistibly adorable. Why? From Labubu dolls taking over TikTok, to emoji taking over our text messages, cuteness is all over the internet. Ben and Amory talk to Joshua Paul Dale, professor at Tokyo's Chuo University and the preeminent cuteness expert about how cute has conquered all.Show notes: Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired our Brains and Conquered the World (Profile Books) The Cute Studies

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00:33:46

Episodes we love: Welcome to the Jam

Endless Thread ·

2025/11/04

Everybody get up, it's time to slam now... again! Yes, we're revisiting our episode about the website for the 1996 movie "Space Jam," which is still up and functioning nearly 30 years later.Amory and Ben talk to the hilarious team behind this digital artifact and hear the unlikely story of its continued existence. Show notes: The Space Jam website 'Space Jam' Forever: The Website That Wouldn't Die (Rolling Stone) The TIL post on Reddit Hollywood in Pixels SpaceJamCheck on X Teach

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00:38:04

Endless Dread: Haunted Hayride

Endless Thread ·

2025/10/31

In keeping with Endless Thread tradition, Ben and Amory are celebrating spooky season with another installment of "Endless Dread." This time, we're bringing you along on both an actual haunted hayride — thanks to McCray's Farm in South Hadley, MA — and a digital one, through a handful of spooky stories from the internet.Ben introduces Amory to a TikTok commentary on recent ICE raids disguised as a parody of consumerism. Amory tells Ben about an auditory illusion that has risen from the dead

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00:46:10

Episodes we love: Artist Known — Illustrator for 'A...

Endless Thread ·

2025/10/28

New to Endless Thread? Wooooo! We're revisiting some favorites from our archives to welcome you.First up: The cover art for the 1976 paperback edition of Madeleine L'Engle's classic, spooky sci-fi/fantasy novel "A Wrinkle in Time" — featuring a rainbow-winged centaur and a green, glowering, red-eyed face — is iconic. And yet, for nearly 50 years, no one has known who illustrated it. Well, not NO ONE. Not anymore... Endless Thread cracks the case!

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00:40:38

Hidden Levels Ep. 6: Segagaga

Endless Thread ·

2025/10/24

The final episode of Hidden Levels explores the story of SEGA developer Tez Okano and the bizarre, meta-game he created: Segagaga.Okano joined SEGA in 1992, witnessing firsthand the company's tumultuous experience in the "console wars" against Nintendo and Sony. In the mid-1990s, SEGA struggled to make hardware that kept up with its rivals. The SEGA CD, the 32X, and the Saturn were all commercial failures. For Okano and many developers at SEGA, the console wars were both an exciting time to be in

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00:41:47

Hidden Levels Ep. 5: Press B to Touch Grass

Endless Thread ·

2025/10/22

Video games are arguably the antithesis of nature; highly constructed worlds, synthetic, inorganic. If you grew up gaming, you may recall grown-ups telling you to shut down the console, go outside, and touch some grass.These days, though, touching grass isn’t something you have to do outside. As gaming has grown into a 200 billion dollar industry, the boundary between screen and soil has muddied. New technologies and types of play are getting gamers ever-closer to the experience of real nature

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00:24:34

Surgical Precision: One doctor's quest to show how...

Endless Thread ·

2025/10/21

Dr. James "Butch" Rosser was a pioneer in minimally invasive surgery in the 1990s. When he credited his surgical skills to video games, people dismissed him. The prevailing narrative was that kids who played video games became killers, not doctors. So Butch set out on quest: to show how video games can help make better doctors.Show notes: The impact of video games on training surgeons in the 21st century (JAMA Surgery) Study: High-School Video Gamers Match Physicians at Robotic-Surgery

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