Decoder Rings Back Why the Mona Lisa?

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 once or twice a year. So we’re starting a new segment we call… Decoder Rings Back! Every month, host Willa Paskin will personally call up a listener to answer their question. In this inaugural installment of Decoder Rings Back, Willa calls up listener Dustin Malek about his cultural mystery: Why did the Mona Lisa , of all paintings, become the most famous in the world, bar none? Willa shares the story of daring heist that turned Leonardo da Vinci’s enigmatic smiling subject into a celebrity. Future episodes of Decoder Rings Back will only be available to Slate Plus subscribers. So if you want to be sure not to miss them, sign up for Slate Plus! You’ll get exclusive episodes and ad-free listening not just on our show, but all your favorite Slate podcasts.

You can listen to Decoder Rings Back Why the Mona Lisa? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Decoder Rings Back Why the Mona Lisa? is an episode from Decoder Ring by Slate Podcasts.

This episode is 25:05 long.

This episode was published on Jan 14, 2026.

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