Decoder Ring
Episodes
The Great Helga Hype
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1986, both Time Magazine and Newsweek ran blockbuster cover stories on the same subject: a secret cache of provocative, intimate pain...
Selling Out
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2001, Oprah Winfrey invited Jonathan Franzen to come on her show to discuss his new novel The Corrections. A month later she withdrew the invitatio...
Tattoo Flash
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Time does funny thing to everything, but especially to tattoos. Today, four stories about tattoos whose meanings have shifted with the passage of year...
The Tootsie Shot
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You know the Tootsie Shot. It’s that shot from the movies: a really busy midtown street, protagonist smack in the middle of it all, everyone goin...
Who Killed The Segway?
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the year 2000, Dan Kois was a junior book agent working on selling a secretive book proposal called IT, a codename for what would eventually be re...
The Sign Painter
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ilona Granet was a New York art-scene fixture who won the praise of the art world when she put up anti-harassment street signs in lower Manhattan in t...
That Seattle Muzak Sound
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you love the show and want to support us, consider joining Slate Plus. With Slate Plus you can binge the whole season of Decoder Ring right now, pl...
The Invention of Hydration
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
To say that hydration is an invention is only a slight exaggeration. Back in the 1970’s and ‘80s, no one carried bottled water with them, but by t...
The Soap Opera Machine
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to a brand new season of Decoder Ring! On this episode, we investigate the wild world of soap operas through the lens of one legendary, decade...
Decoder Ring Presents The Sporkful’s Mission: ImPASTAble
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Right now Decoder Ring is working on a full season of new episodes coming this June, but in the meantime we wanted to share this episode from our frie...
The Blue Steak Experiment
21 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What took blue food so long to catch on? Today it’s all over the freezer aisle, in candies for kids, in tortilla chips, and novelty foods, but it wa...
The Cabbage Patch Kids Riots
23 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 1983, the Cabbage Patch Kids were released, causing widespread pandemonium in toy stores and in the media. How did a children'a toy inspire such ba...
Jane Fonda's Workout, Part 2: Hanoi Jane's VHS Revolution
26 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How did Hanoi Jane become Exercise Jane? This is the second part of our two-parter on Jane Fonda's Workout. If you haven't yet, listen to the previous...
Jane Fonda's Workout, Part 1: Jane and Leni
12 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Jane Fonda granted us an interview to talk about her famous workout tape, things didn't go as planned. On part one of a special two-part Decoder ...
Mystery of the Mullet
14 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The mullet, the love-to-hate-it hairstyle is as associated with the 1980's as Ronald Reagan, junk bonds, and break dancing. But in at least one major ...
The Karen
13 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Karen, a white woman who surveys, inconveniences, and terrorizes, service workers and people of color is a relatively new term in the culture, but...
The Metrosexual
10 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 2003, the word "metrosexual", meaning a well-groomed heterosexual man, exploded all over the English lexicon. It invaded the news, TV, and even Ame...
Gotta Get Down on Friday
11 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rebecca Black's music video for Friday was Youtube's most watched video of 2011, thrusting the thirteen-year-old Rebecca into a very harsh spotlight. ...
Unicorn Poop
08 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How did poop get cute? On this episode of Decoder Ring we trace the rise of cute poop from the original Japanese poop emoji to more modern poop toys w...
Rubber Duckie
19 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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The Shop Around the Corner
02 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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Friend of Dorothy
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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The Stowe-Byron Controversy
03 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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Murphy's Law
09 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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Gender Reveal Party
06 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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Bart Simpson Mania
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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Ice Cream Truck
12 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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Pillow Talk
15 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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Chuck E. Cheese Pizza War
11 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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Videomate: Men
29 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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Truck Nutz
25 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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Baby Shark
25 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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The Grifter
31 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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Sad Jennifer Aniston
03 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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The Incunabula Papers
29 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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Hotel Art
01 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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The Paper Doll Club
27 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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The Basement Affair
30 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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Clown Panic
25 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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The Johnlock Conspiracy
04 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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The Laff Box
30 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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