Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsOpening Radio and Podcast...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsFetching podcast shows and categories...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsFetching podcast episodes...
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...
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...
Last week we aired an episode about lonelygirl15, one of the first proper YouTube stars, and perhaps the most famous example of playing arou...
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...
For over a century, fans of Sherlock Holmes have been analyzing, debating, and creating new texts with Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters. But...
When Eyes Wide Shut opened in the summer of 1999, it was widely considered a disappointment. This final film from legendary director Stanley...
The delicious, healthful prune has long had a cross to bear: It’s best known for making people poop. In the late 1990s, the California Prune...
Three weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum shared an unusual tweet : a cartoon image of himself with his arm draped around...
It’s a weird time for culture. There is more of it than ever before, it’s more accessible than ever before, but so little of it feels origin...
We are really lucky to get lots of listener suggestions for the show, more good questions than we can possibly answer in a mailbag episode o...
We can’t make this show without you, our listeners. Today, you can help support Decoder Ring – and get a really good deal. To join Slate Plu...
Decoder Ring listeners write in with some excellent mysteries, and for our last episode of the year we’re solving three of them. Why do chil...
Videomate: Men was a VHS tape released in 1987 featuring 60 single men pitching themselves as dates to women on the other side of the TV scr...
Americans are currently besotted with protein. It’s touted as being good for muscle growth, weight loss, skincare, mental acuity, longevity,...
Hark, the holiday season is upon us—and with it the most solemn of festive traditions: a gift guide! In this video and podcast special, Slat...
Autumn may have more cozy signifiers than any other season—though we all have our own favorites. Maybe for you it’s sweater weather, footbal...
There’s a ubiquitous prop in just about every police procedural and conspiracy thriller: a cork board pinned with documents, newspaper clipp...
Earlier this year, a tweet went out from the official account of the Democratic Party, tagging the Trump advisor Stephen Miller. It was an i...
When an actor opens their mouth to sing in a movie, chances are high that the voice you hear will be their own. Even in music biopics, movie...
In part two of our special two-part episode, we return to the 1982 VHS tape that created the at-home video industry: Jane Fonda’s Workout ....
In 1982, the Jane Fonda Workout became the best-selling home video of all time. Over decades, it and its 22 follow ups would spawn a fitness...
Experimental archeology is, simply put, archeology that involves running experiments. Where traditional archaeologists may study, research,...
From The Simpsons ’ Big Book of British Smiles to Austin Powers’ ochre-tinged grin, American culture can’t stop bad-mouthing English teeth....
In this episode we’re opening our mailbag to answer three fascinating questions from our listeners. How did “ass,” a word for donkeys and bu...
If you look at any list of best-selling cookbooks, certain words come up over and over again: quick, easy, fast, effortless. But is it actua...
White noise has a very precise technical definition, but people use the term loosely, to describe all sorts of washes of sound—synthetic hum...
This episode is a first for Decoder Ring: a live show, recorded at the WBUR Festival in Boston, Massachusetts. Given the setting, we decided...
Decoder Ring is marking its 100th episode this year. To celebrate, we’re revisiting our very first episode from 2018, which asks: What happe...
Something seems to have happened to car headlights. In the last few years, many people have become convinced that they are much brighter tha...
Products often tell you exactly how they’re intended to be used. But why leave it at that? As a culture, we have long had a knack for findin...
Chicken Soup for the Soul was the brainchild of two motivational speakers who preach the New Thought belief system known as the Law of Attra...
The infamous annual ritual of spring break—where thousands of college students head to the same warm location and go crazy—can seem like it’...
Look in the nonfiction section of any bookstore and you’ll find dozens of history books making the same bold claim: that their narrow, unexp...
Truck Nutz is a brand name for the dangling plastic testicles some people affix to the bumpers or hitches of their vehicles. Also sold as Bu...
In 1972, Jerry Lewis—the actor and filmmaker known for slapstick comedies like The Nutty Professor —took the biggest risk of his career when...
You may never have thought very hard about scratch-off tickets, but that’s part of their power. They’re a form of gambling that’s simply a p...
When we got multiple listener emails asking about the swing revival of the late 1990s, host Willa Paskin’s first, knee jerk reaction was jus...
The storage container is a stealthy star of the modern home. It’s something we use to organize more of our stuff than ever before, and also...
People often say that money can't buy you happiness. Sometimes, if you ask them to tell you more about it, they'll mention a famous 2010 stu...
It’s our annual mailbag episode! We get a lot of wonderful reader emails suggesting topics for the show — and at the end of the year we try...
The mullet, the love-to-hate-it hairstyle, is as associated with the 1980’s as Ronald Reagan, junk bonds, and breakdancing. But in at least...
In 1980, a variety show debuted on NBC called Pink Lady and Jeff . Its stars were a pair of Japanese pop idols known for catchy, choreograph...
The fear that the Earth could be destroyed by a killer asteroid is an anxiety that pops up all the time in fiction and is grounded in fact....
There is a prominent bird in the 2000 film Charlie’s Angels that makes absolutely no sense. This so-called Pygmy Nuthatch doesn’t look or so...
Whatever happened to selling out? The defining concern of Generation X has become a relic from another era. How that happened is best illust...
Oscar-winner Warren Beatty first secured the rights to the comic book character Dick Tracy in the lead up to his 1990 movie adaptation. Deca...
Adults have a long history of trying to find morals and lessons in children’s literature. But what happens when a seemingly innocent book ab...
In the late 1970s, a new and unusual concept for a restaurant chain emerged in California—video games plus bad pizza plus animatronic charac...
“Hysteria” is an ancient word carrying thousands of years of baggage. Though the terminology has changed, hysteria has not gone away, and in...
If you’re lucky, it’s possible you’ve never thought much about sitting. It’s just something your body does, like breathing or sleeping. But...
Lawn ornaments are everywhere—but for something so ubiquitous, they’re also mysterious. What’s the person with the flamingo or the gargoyle...