The Spooky Saga of the Icelandic Dracula
Since Bram Stoker’s Dracula was first published in 1897 it has inspired hundreds, if not thousands, of other fictional vampires. But none ar...
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Society & Culture
Decoder Ring
Decoder Ring is the show about cracking cultural mysteries. In each episode, host Willa Paskin takes a cultural question, object, or habit; examines its history; and tries to figure out what...
Episodes
20 of 167 episodes
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 amusemen...
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,...
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 wher...
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 Am...
What Even Is a “Podcast” Anymore?
Podcasts are everywhere. They’re more popular and influential than they’ve ever been. But at the same time, what makes a podcast a “podcast”...
McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Crime, Part 2 (Encore)
McGruff the Crime Dog arrived on the scene at the dawn of the 1980s, just as a firehose of anti-drug PSAs was inundating the youth of Americ...
McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Crime, Part 1 (Encore)
McGruff the Crime Dog arrived on the scene at the dawn of the 1980s, just as a firehose of anti-drug PSAs was inundating the youth of Americ...
The Fight Over Sunlight
The sun has always been a hot topic. For centuries, we’ve flip-flopped over whether our health depends on soaking up its rays—or shielding o...
Weapons of Map Destruction
Most of us use GPS—the Global Positioning System—on a daily basis: to find our location when we’re driving, running, shopping, dating, and s...
We Are Monumentally Bad at Statues
It seems like the only time you hear about new statues these days is when something goes horribly wrong. Unfortunate bronze renditions of Lu...
The Tootsie Shot (Encore)
You know the Tootsie Shot. It’s that image that pops up all the time in movies set in a dense city: a really busy midtown street, everyone g...
Tina Turner and the Dance That Conquered Australia
In Australia, no wedding or school dance is complete without the Nutbush, Australia’s unofficial national dance. The Nutbush – a simple line...
Preview: Decoder Rings Back | Duck, Duck, Jeep
Earlier this year we debuted Decoder Rings Back, our new feature exclusively for Decoder Ring Plus subscribers. In each installment, Willa g...
No Pulp: The Killing of the Florida Orange
Like the palm tree, the Everglades, Disney World, and the “Florida Man,” the orange is a classic symbol of the Sunshine State. But maybe not...
Mailbag: Spooky Strings, Phone Menu Options, and Eye Rolls
We are lucky to get fantastic questions from our listeners here at Decoder Ring, and in this episode, we’re going to open up our mailbag to...
How to Make Dollars Make Sense
Money is everywhere. Money influences just about everything. We think about money all the time. But how much do we really know about it? In...
One Year: 1995 | Hitting the Spot
Last week we aired an episode about lonelygirl15, one of the first proper YouTube stars, and perhaps the most famous example of playing arou...
Who Was Lonelygirl15?
In the summer of 2006, a teenage girl began posting video diaries to a then-new site called YouTube under the handle lonelygirl15. Within we...
The Johnlock Conspiracy (Encore)
For over a century, fans of Sherlock Holmes have been analyzing, debating, and creating new texts with Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters. But...