Decoder Ring
Episodes
Mailbag: Yo-Yos, Sandboxes, and Encores
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 children pla...
“Videomate: Men” (Encore)
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 screen: “Th...
How Protein Muscled Its Way to the Top
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Americans are currently besotted with protein. It’s touted as being good for muscle growth, weight loss, skincare, mental acuity, longevity, and muc...
The Slate Culture Gift Guide
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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, Slate hosts ...
Cozy Autumn Mysteries
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Autumn may have more cozy signifiers than any other season—though we all have our own favorites. Maybe for you it’s sweater weather, football game...
The Red String Board Conspiracy
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a ubiquitous prop in just about every police procedural and conspiracy thriller: a cork board pinned with documents, newspaper clippings, an...
What the Cuck?!
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, a tweet went out from the official account of the Democratic Party, tagging the Trump advisor Stephen Miller. It was an image of wh...
Why Do Actors Act Like They Can Sing?
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 stars wit...
Jane Fonda’s Workout, Part 2: Hanoi Jane’s VHS Revolution (Encore)
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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. On this e...
Jane Fonda’s Workout, Part 1: Jane and Leni (Encore)
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 empire, s...
How to Hunt a Mammoth, and Other Experiments in Archaeology
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Experimental archeology is, simply put, archeology that involves running experiments. Where traditional archaeologists may study, research, analyze, a...
The Bad-Mouthing of British Teeth
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From The Simpsons’ Big Book of British Smiles to Austin Powers’ ochre-tinged grin, American culture can’t stop bad-mouthing English teeth. But w...
Mailbag: Drug Names, Cow Abductions, and the “Ass-Intensifier”
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we’re opening our mailbag to answer three fascinating questions from our listeners. How did “ass,” a word for donkeys and butts,...
Introducing The Sporkful | Is Your Recipe Lying To You?
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 actually possib...
The White Noise Boom
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
White noise has a very precise technical definition, but people use the term loosely, to describe all sorts of washes of sound—synthetic hums, or na...
The Boston Cinematic Universe
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is a first for Decoder Ring: a live show, recorded at the WBUR Festival in Boston, Massachusetts. Given the setting, we decided to take o...
The Laff Box (Encore)
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Decoder Ring is marking its 100th episode this year. To celebrate, we’re revisiting our very first episode from 2018, which asks: What happened to t...
The Glaring Problem with Headlights
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Something seems to have happened to car headlights. In the last few years, many people have become convinced that they are much brighter than they use...
Off-the-Wall Stories of Off-Label Use
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 finding ingeni...
How “Chicken Soup” Sold Its Soul
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chicken Soup for the Soul was the brainchild of two motivational speakers who preach the New Thought belief system known as the Law of Attraction. For...
Spring Break Forever
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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’s al...
How Books About Things That Changed the World… Changed the World
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Look in the nonfiction section of any bookstore and you’ll find dozens of history books making the same bold claim: that their narrow, unexpected su...
Truck Nutz (Encore)
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 Bulls Balls,...
Jerry Lewis’ Lost Holocaust Clown Movie
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1972, Jerry Lewis—the actor and filmmaker known for slapstick comedies like The Nutty Professor—took the biggest risk of his career when he dec...
The Scratch-Off Ticket’s Instant Win
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 pedes...
Jump, Jive and Fail: The ’90s Swing Craze
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When we got multiple listener emails asking about the swing revival of the late 1990s, host Willa Paskin’s first, knee jerk reaction was just: no. S...
I am Tupperware, I Contain Multitudes
15 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 somethin...
Introducing Planet Money: Can Money Buy Happiness?
01 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 study by Nobe...
Mailbag: Fruit Snacks, Waterbeds, and Lobster Tanks
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 to ans...
Mystery of the Mullet (Encore)
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 one majo...
Reconsidering One of the “Worst” TV Shows of All Time
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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, choreographed dance nu...
A Feel-Good Story About the End of the World
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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. But funnil...
The Wrongest Bird in Movie History
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 sound li...
Selling Out (Encore)
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Whatever happened to selling out? The defining concern of Generation X has become a relic from another era. How that happened is best illustrated by o...
Calling Dick Tracy! It’s Warren Beatty Again
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Oscar-winner Warren Beatty first secured the rights to the comic book character Dick Tracy in the lead up to his 1990 movie adaptation. Decades later,...
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie… Will He Want a Welfare Check?
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Adults have a long history of trying to find morals and lessons in children’s literature. But what happens when a seemingly innocent book about a bo...
Chuck E. Cheese Pizza War (Encore)
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the late 1970s, a new and unusual concept for a restaurant chain emerged in California—video games plus bad pizza plus animatronic characters. Th...
The Hysteria Over Mass Hysteria
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“Hysteria” is an ancient word carrying thousands of years of baggage. Though the terminology has changed, hysteria has not gone away, and in its m...
Standing Up for Sitting Down
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 in...
The Secret Life of Lawn Ornaments
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lawn ornaments are everywhere—but for something so ubiquitous, they’re also mysterious. What’s the person with the flamingo or the gargoyle in t...
Stuffed Animals Gone Wild
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Axolotls. Narwhals. Llamas. Sloths. Every few years, it seems like American kids and parents collectively decide they cannot get enough of a creature ...
Sex, Lies, and Hockey Pucks
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
30 years ago, the Stanley Cup playoffs ignited a rumor that has been messing with Jane Macdougall’s life ever since. In 1994, the Vancouver Canuck...
Captain Planet to the Rescue
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1990, the cartoon superhero Captain Planet swooped onto TV screens all over the world. He was the brainchild of media mogul Ted Turner, and in the ...
Why Are We Still Using Fat Suits?
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A fat suit is a custom-made costume with one goal: to make an actor appear fat without them actually having to be fat. It’s typically a unitard fill...
How the Jalapeño Lost Its Heat
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The jalapeño is the workhorse of hot peppers. They’re sold fresh, canned, pickled, in hot sauces, salsas, smoked into chipotles, and they outsell ...
From ‘The Last Archive’: Building an Automatic Songwriting Machine
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re bringing you an episode of The Last Archive from our friends at Pushkin Industries. In this episode: an exploration of early artificial intell...
Making Real Music for a Fake Band
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pop culture is full of fictional bands singing songs purpose-made to capture a moment, a sound. This music doesn’t organically emerge from a scene o...
Can the “Bookazine” Save Magazines?
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Magazines have fallen on hard times – especially the weekly news, fashion, and celebrity mags that once dominated newsstands. The revenue from magaz...
Andrew Wyeth's Secret Nudes (Encore)
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1986, Andrew Wyeth was the most famous painter in America. He was a household name, on the cover of magazines and tapped to paint presidents. And t...
Why Stylists Rule the Red Carpet
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Like a manager or an agent or a publicist, a stylist has become a kind of must-have accessory for well-dressed, A-list celebrities. It’s just expect...
The Gen X Soda That Was Just "OK"
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Thirty years ago, a new kind of soda arrived in select stores. Instead of crowing about how spectacular it was, it offered up a liquid shrug, a fizzy ...
Why Do So Many Coffee Shops Look the Same?
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The eerie similarity of coffee shops all over the world was so confounding to Kyle Chayka that it led him to write the new book Filterworld: How Algor...
2024 Teaser
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back with a new batch of cultural mysteries! This year, we’re putting out more new episodes—like many more of them. We’ll be diving down...
The Forgotten Video Game About Slavery
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1992, a Minnesota-based software company known for its educational hit The Oregon Trail released another simulation-style game to school districts ...
The Dating Manual Unlike Any Other
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From the moment it was released in 1995, The Rules was controversial. Some people loved it—and swore that the dating manual’s throwback advice hel...
Mailbag: The Recorder, Limos, and “Baby on Board” Signs
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We receive a lot of fantastic show ideas from our listeners—and we’re grateful for each and every one. For our latest mailbag episode, we’re tac...
When Art Pranksters Invaded Melrose Place
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the mid-1990s, the prime time drama Melrose Place became a home to hundreds of pieces of contemporary art—and no one noticed. In this episode, Is...
The Fast Decline of the Slow Dance
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Judging from teen dramas on Netflix, the slow dance seems to be alive and well. But when you talk to actual teens, it’s clear this time-honored trad...
Fall 2023 Teaser
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back with a new batch of cultural mysteries! This season, Decoder Ring explores the decline of an awkward yet unforgettable rite of passage: s...
Think Catchphrases Are Dead? Eat My Shorts.
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Once you start listening for catchphrases in everyday life—you can’t stop hearing them. From the radio era’s “Holy mackerel!” to Fonzie’s ...
The Quest for a Homemade Hovercraft
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Slate’s Evan Chung was a kid, he was obsessed with a mysterious advertisement that ran for decades in the scouting magazine Boys’ Life. Under...
A Brief History of Making Out
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kissing—the romantic, sexual, steamy kind—is so ingrained in us that it just seems like a fact of life. Like breathing or eating, we just do it. B...
What's Really Going On Inside a Mosh Pit?
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The mosh pit has a reputation as a violent place where (mostly) white guys vent their aggression. There’s some truth to that, but it’s also a plac...
The Great Parmesan Cheese Debate
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Parmesan is a food—but it’s not just a food. Italy’s beloved cheese is often paired with a deep craving for tradition and identity. But its hist...
Summer 2023 Teaser
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join Decoder Ring as we unlock a whole new season of cultural mysteries. First, we’ll sniff around Italy’s best-loved cheese to test an incredible...
Who Owns the Tooth Fairy?
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We pride ourselves on being grounded, rational beings, but flitting amongst us is a mystery: the Tooth Fairy. This flying piece of folklore is alive a...
Why You Can’t Find a Damn Parking Spot
03 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Parking is one of the great paradoxes of American life. On the one hand, we have paved an ungodly amount of land to park our cars. On the other, it se...
The Artist Who Was Both Loved and Disdained
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We bring you a special episode from Sidedoor, a podcast about the treasures that fill the vaults of the Smithsonian. This story is inspired by “Big ...
The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania Part 2
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, we put on the proverbial raincoat and made like Columbo to investigate Peter Falk’s claim that he recorded a special Cold War message tel...
The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania Part 1
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Not too long ago an old clip surfaced of Peter Falk on David Letterman, in which he told an intriguing tale about recording a special Cold War message...
Spring 2023 Teaser
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Decoder Ring is back with a new season of cultural mysteries to crack. We'll kick things off with a proper Cold War caper....did Peter Falk, star of t...
Slate Plus Exclusive: The Making of This Season
09 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Host Willa Paskin and producer Katie Shepherd discuss how this season of Decoder Ring came together. Slate Plus members have access to this whole int...
The Mailbag Episode
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We’re really lucky to get a lot of listener emails, suggesting topics for the show. In this episode, we’re going to dig into a handful of the most...
Encore: ‘You’ve Got Mail’ Got It Wrong
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
(This episode originally aired in March 2020.) The 1998 romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, is about the brutal fight ...
Cellino & Barnes, Injury Attorneys, 800-888-8888
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ross Cellino and Steve Barnes were two Buffalo-based lawyers who became the literal poster-men for personal injury advertising. They poured millions o...
How Preppy Became Streetwear
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We bring you a special episode from the Articles of Interest podcast hosted by Avery Trufelman about the incredible reach and adaptability of preppy c...
The New Age Hit Machine
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For this episode, a story from Slate senior producer Evan Chung about how Yanni, John Tesh and a number of other surprising acts made it big in the 19...
The Butt and the Bustle
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For about two decades towards the end of the Victorian era, in the 1870s and 1880s, a large bustle-enhanced bottom was the height of fashion. In this ...
The Truth About #TheDress
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the history of viral images, #TheDress has got to be in the top 10. This unassuming photo of a party dress kicked off a global debate when people r...
Fall 2022 Teaser
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Decoder Ring is back with a new season of juicy topics, like.... Remember the viral phenomenon and optical mind-blower known as “The Dress”? What ...
McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Crime Pt. 2
12 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 America. These m...
McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Crime Pt. 1
04 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 America. These m...
Slate Plus Exclusive: The Making of This Season
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Host Willa Paskin talks about topics versus narratives, translating fabulists, and creating a sound landscape for the world of Mae West. Slate Plus ...
The “Sex” Scandal That Made Mae West
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 1930s, Mae West’s dirty talk and hip swiveling walk made her one of the biggest movie stars in America. But before West hit the big-scr...
The First Alien Abductees
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When you think of an alien abduction, what do you picture? Humanoid creatures, medical experiments, lost memories retrieved through hypnosis? That nar...
The Most Famous Poet No One Remembers
02 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Rod McKuen sold multiple millions of poetry books in the 60s and 70s. He released dozens of albums, was a regular on late night, and was even nominate...
The Mall is Dead (Long Live the Mall)
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What do we lose if we lose the mall? 70 years into their existence, these hulking temples to commerce are surprisingly resilient and filled with contr...
Summer 2022 Teaser
19 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Decoder Ring is coming back with a new season featuring a whole new set of questions.... Like, is the shopping mall really dying? How did a poet who s...
The Storytelling Craze
17 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When did everyone become a storyteller? Decades after George Lucas and Steve Jobs made storytelling a big business, every company now wants to tell “...
“We Got Ourselves a Convoy”
10 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1970s, a song about protesting truckers topped the music charts in multiple countries, and kicked off a pop culture craze for CB radios. In ear...
The Sideways Effect
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2004, the indie flick Sideways was released in just four theaters, but it had a big impact, earning five Oscar nominations and $110 million worldwi...
The Madness Behind ‘The Method’
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When we think of method acting, we tend to think of actors going a little over the top for a role – like Jared Leto, who allegedly sent his colleagu...
“F--k Everything, We're Doing Five Blades”
19 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 2000s, an arms race broke out in the world of men’s shaving. After decades with razors that had only one blade and then decades with ra...
Spring 2022 Teaser
12 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Decoder Ring is coming back with a new season featuring a whole new set of questions…and some good surprising answers. Like, how did razors come to ...
Custer's Revenge
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Custer's Revenge is widely considered one of the worst video games ever made. Originally released as part of a series of Swedish Erotica-branded adult...
The Fame That Got Away
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today on Decoder Ring: Three stories about fame, and one about monkeys. Are primates susceptible to celebrity endorsements? What does fame do to the m...
Truly Tasteless Jokes
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Note: This episode is about offensive material, and so contains explicit and offensive language. Truly Tasteless Jokes were a series of joke books tha...
The Philosophy of Vampires
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In literature, the choice to become a vampire is a metaphor for transformative experiences. On this episode, we bring you a story from Slate's Hi-Phi ...
You Just Lost The Game
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When you think about the game, you lose the game. When you lose the game you must declare that you have lost the game, causing all others in your vici...
The Alberta Rat War
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rats live wherever people live, with one exception: the Canadian province of Alberta. A rat sighting in Alberta is a major local event that mobilizes ...