Endless Thread
Episodes
Tales from the Crypto | Part I: Ukraine's NFTs and the 'Fyre Fest' of cryptocurrency
16 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this first installment of our cryptocurrency mini-series, co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson dive into a viral tweet about NFTs aiding ...
NYC's Comedic Enigma in Sweatpants
09 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Endless Thread producer Quincy Walters profiles IG Bum, a mischeivous online content creator who has achieved viral stardom. But who is IG Bum when th...
Swimming Hole: The man, the myth, the leap
02 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this end-of-summer episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory take a leap of faith (or do they?) to the depths of an upstate New York swimming hole ...
Encore: Ghost Town
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 2018, Brent Underwood got a text in the middle of the night from a friend saying, "Look at this ghost town for sale!" Within a month,...
Spam and monkeys: Why rule-breaking isn’t always bad
19 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You shouldn't do it. But then you do, and it turns out great. Two stories of rule-breaking's good side: A college senior prank emails to his entire sc...
The 100-million-year origin story of laughter and humor
12 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The first documented bar joke was copied onto a clay tablet 4,000 years ago in the ancient language of Sumerian. Scholars have translated it, but the ...
What makes the world’s first bar joke funny? No one knows.
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What makes the world’s first documented bar joke funny? No one knows. In a tweet that garnered thousands of responses in March, the Twitter accoun...
Sex work, 'normal work,' and men — as told by Alyssa
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When a Reddit post about constant “locker room talk” in a male-dominated office gained traction in the r/TwoXChromosomes subreddit, Ben and Amory ...
Eggs Tyrone and The United States Chemical Safety Board's YouTube Channel
22 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ben is joined by producer Quincy Walters in this Snacktime episode about little-known government agency with a cult YouTube following and the music mi...
Swedengate: An international social media meatball-slinging campaign... turned national reckoning
15 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When a Redditor said that he was expected to stay in his Swedish friend's bedroom while the friend ate dinner with his family, the internet exploded w...
Encore: Tight Squeeze, the Claustrophobia-Inducing World Of Caving Yields Epic Rewards
08 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You might not think about caves in the same breath as you do the deep ocean or outer space, but you probably should. There are approximately 70,000 ca...
‘Hope resides in connection’: Abortion access advocates on navigating a post-Roe world
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Reddit's Auntie Network, an online community "dedicated to providing information and resources to those in need of abortion services," has been inund...
Krakatau: The loudest sound in recorded history
24 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine if an explosion in California was so loud that it could be heard in New York City. This is the story of a real event that was just as loud —...
Encore: Giddyup! Riding groups tap into long history of Black cowboys
17 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 2020, images of Black men and women riding horses at protests went viral. But the history of Black cowboys goes all the way back to t...
Lost in Translation: two tales of getting it wrong
10 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From a seriously violent tale on Duolingo to a Reddit post about a life-changing mistake, we bring you two stories on the pitfalls of jumping to concl...
Can you really get tics from TikTok?
03 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When Ben hears a rumor about kids "catching" tics from watching too many TikTok videos, we set out to investigate. We hear from neurologists and TikTo...
Nurses on Reddit are fighting for a better health care system
27 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With unprecedented hospital staff shortages, COVID-19 has upended the nursing profession. But the r/nursing subreddit offers an online life raft for m...
How to stop online extremism from becoming offline violence
20 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On Endless Thread, we talk about the blurring lines between our online and offline worlds. This week, we discuss the role online platforms played in t...
Cyberwitches: From Zoom rituals to casting spells with emojis
13 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Since the dawn of the internet, cyberwitches have traded in their broomsticks and cauldrons for floppy disks and smartphones. This week on Endless Thr...
'I'm free': A former police officer on leaving law enforcement
06 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From a young age, "Andy" wanted to be a police officer. But in 2021, after 15 years on the job, he quit. Andy wrote about his decision in the r/OffM...
Egg-cellent if true: How a viral Reddit post fooled thousands online
29 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When a colleague sent us a viral Reddit post from WallStreetBets, we set out to investigate. A redditor who goes by u/throwmetfawaythanks tricked thou...
The faker: Deepfakes, lies, and cheerleading
22 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sixteen-year-old M.H. was excited for another year on her cheerleading squad in suburban Pennsylvania. But the year was cut short when an anonymous nu...
One pixel at a time: Diplomacy and domination in Reddit's artistic masterpiece, r/place
15 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After its first successful iteration in 2017, r/place returned on April 1, 2022 for four days of battling fandoms vying for space inside a pixelated c...
The Herman Cain Award: The prize no one wants to get and creators want to destroy
08 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A deep dive into The Herman Cain Award subreddit, which ironically awards those who die from COVID after publicly expressing anti-vaxx sentiments or p...
A meteorite in Greenland: Exploration, exploitation, and knives from space
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Thousands of years ago, a massive meteoroid seared through the Earth’s atmosphere and split into fragments over Greenland. Its pieces were later use...
Endless Thread presents Shared State: Political feuds don't take vacations
25 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ben and Amory are, sadly, not the type of people who truly "unplug" when they go on vacation, but this week's story is proof that those people do, in ...
Goblins, toenails, and beach rap: Finding joy in small doses
18 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In times like these, you've got to take joy wherever and however you can get it. Amory and Ben swap unexpected sources of joy they've bumped into rece...
Ballerina in the sky: The story of Jane Wicker, the wing walker
11 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is the story of a shocking event that sent Endless Thread producer Quincy Walters, and countless others, down a disturbing and fascinating rabbit...
Eugene from Ukraine: An online diary of war
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"How to prepare your house for an active wartime?" This was the title of a post on r/NoStupidQuestions about a month ago. The Reddit user, a 32-year...
Going viral like it's 1999: The story of 'Dogs in Elk'
25 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"I know how to take meat away from a dog. How do I take a dog away from meat?" This was a real question posed in Salon.com's Table Talk forum in 1999....
Space heist (or, how to steal a planet)
18 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On December 28, 2004, CalTech astronomer Mike Brown and his colleagues found an unnamed dwarf planet drifting through the far reaches of the solar sys...
Li Ziqi: China's quarantine queen
11 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While you were tending to your quarantine sourdough starter, Chinese YouTube star Li Ziqi was growing mushrooms, making peach blossom crowns and lis...
Endless Thread presents: 'Murph' from Last Seen
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jack Murphy, or "Murph the Surf," is best known for pulling off the biggest jewel heist in New York City history. But Amory's here to tell you about h...
'Your life is just numbers': The complicated, chaotic rise of Reddit's 'antiwork' community
28 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"Unemployment for all, not just the rich!" That's the catchphrase of r/antiwork, a Reddit community of more than 1.7 million people who want to end w...
Tales of the Tailed: Three stories about our furry friends
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Heads up: This episode mentions the tragic death of a dog. Take care when listening, and hug your furry loved ones. Amory, Ben, and producer Quincy...
The internet's fight over dinosaur emoji
14 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Emoji might not be 66 million years old, but they are pretty much everywhere. Join Ben and Amory as they explore the history of dinosaur emoji in LGBT...
Encore: The Max Headroom Incident — Revisiting The Masked Mystery
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On November 22nd, 1987, two TV stations in Chicago had their broadcast signals hijacked by someone wearing a Max Headroom mask. In the years since, Re...
Encore: Today You, Tomorrow Me — Why A Decade-Old Reddit Comment Still Resonates Today
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
10 years ago, Justin found himself on the side of the road with a blown out tire. Hours went by and no one stopped to help. But just as he was about t...
Encore: Three Autistic Redditors on Autism
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Three autistic Redditors talk to us about their view of the world, their view of autism, and their hopes for greater representation in society.
MEMES, Bonus: Meme Chorus Meets NPR Twitter Spaces
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Amory and Ben team up with NPR to take on Twitter Spaces. This bonus episode is a recording of ET's 11/30 livestream chat with meme experts Kenyatta C...
MEMES, Part 11: I've heard this before
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we cross-examine memes and their relevance, and look at a surprising hypothesis that draws a through-line from TikTok to much farther...
MEMES, Bonus: Overly attached girlfriend
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Unlike some of the other everyday-people-turned-memes featured in this series, Laina Morris leaned in big-time when her parody entry in a Justin Bieb...
MEMES, Part 10: Makmende
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We know that there have been meme wars in America, and that Donald Trump has been called the “first president meme’d into office.” But in Kenya—...
MEMES, Bonus: The yearbook photo
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For being the internet's poster boy for bad luck, Kyle Craven thinks he sure got lucky. In this bonus episode of our meme series, Ben and Amory chat w...
MEMES, Part 9: I'm not done yet
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anybody old enough to remember life before cutting the cord has probably seen the work of TV pitchman Billy Mays. But people much younger still know h...
MEMES, Part 8: The scream
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you typed “inauguration” into your web browser anytime between 2017 and 2020, you likely saw, near the top of your search results, an image of ...
MEMES, Part 7: Dead giveaway
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2013, four white musicians turned a local TV news clip featuring a Black man named Charles Ramsey into a song and uploaded it to YouTube. The auto-...
MEMES, Bonus: Slender Man
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When two 12 year-old girls attacked their friend in the woods of Waukesha, Wisconsin in May of 2014, they claimed to have done it to please Slender Ma...
MEMES, Part 6: Call me... The Punisher
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Punisher has always been a complicated Marvel antihero: a man whose creator imagined him as a reaction to the failures of government at home and i...
MEMES, Part 5: Big Man Tyrone
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
He is known by several names, but Gordon Hurd is the one this man-turned-meme adopted when he fled Cameroon for the UK more than two decades ago. Gord...
MEMES, Bonus: Zoë 'Disaster Girl' Roth
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us hate the photos our parents take of us. But what happens when one goes viral? Zoë Roth was 4 years old when her dad took a photo of her...
MEMES, Part 4: Woman yelling at a cat
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Humor is a key ingredient of any unit of culture that morphs and spreads over time. But humor isn’t always there at the beginning. For “Real House...
MEMES, Bonus: A billion Ricks
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, we explored the origin of the “Rick Roll,” a meme that evolved from Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song, “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Since...
MEMES, Part 3: Gotta make you understand
08 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Who gets credit for starting a meme? Usually... nobody -- they're made too quickly and organically. In the case of one of the most famous bait-and-swi...
MEMES, Part 2: Scumbag Steve
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If there is an OG meme in which a human is the star, Scumbag Steve is it. He spread across the internet like wildfire in 2011 as a universal represent...
MEMES, Part 1: Kilroy was here
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We often think of memes as living solely online. But the term “meme” was coined in the 1970s -- before the birth of the internet -- by evolutionar...
Trailer: Endless Thread Presents... MEMES!
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On October 1st, Endless Thread is back. We're kicking things off with a deep exploration into something that has changed lives, politics, and the way ...
Snacktime: Reality TV Backlash And A Stolen Tweet
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ben tells Amory about a controversial idea for a reality TV show. Amory tells Ben about the thing Dr. Anthony Fauci did NOT say... but everyone thinks...
'I Think He Fanned The Flames:' Fed-Up Reddit Moderators React To CEO's Stance On COVID-19 Misinformation
28 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ben tells Amory about a subreddit trying to determine the identity of a mystery celebrity, and Amory tells Ben about an open letter penned by Reddit m...
Snacktime: Suitcases of Cash And Bob Saget's Ghost
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gather round for this week’s Snacktime episode, where Ben tells iLab producer Nora Saks two stories about found money, a gambling ruse in a Belizean...
Encore: What is Geedis? An Internet Mystery For The Ages... Gets Solved!
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What is Geedis? Endless Thread revisits an episode from 2019 in which the team joined the internet's two-year-long quest to answer this question. The ...
Internet Humor Meets A Massive Song Collection In 'Weird Spotify Playlists'
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Fun fact: Ben wooed his wife with a mix CD, and Amory's husband wooed her with a mix CD. The lesson? Never underestimate the power of a good playlist...
Encore: The Great Glitter Mystery
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Much like rewatching a favorite TV show in its entirety, it can be comforting to listen back to something from "the beforetimes." So this week, we're ...
Rein It In!: Competitive Jousting Meets The Black Market
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ever heard of horse repossession? How about equine semen fraud? On this week’s Snacktime, Ben tells Amory about the still-very-much-alive sport of j...
Endless Thread Presents: Twenty Thousand Hertz
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is your voice your own? Not anymore. This week on Endless Thread, we present "Deepfake Dallas," courtesy of our friends over at Twenty Thousand Hertz,...
Long Orders And Secret Menus: The Struggles Of Being A Starbucks Barista
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One of the things that makes Starbucks so liked by people everywhere is the amount of customization you can do with your drink. But is there such a th...
Snacktime: A Refreshing Trend For Troubled Times
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From daily walks to sourdough starters, many of us found new ways to have fun and stay sane during the pandemic. For some, a new trend has plenty of.....
Pizza Is My Life: The Mystery of A Columbus, Ohio Pizza Jingle
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2008, college student Kevin Toomey was cruising around Columbus, Ohio, listening to AM radio, when a jingle for Rotolo's Pizza came on. It was love...
Endless Thread Presents: Cautionary Tales
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode brings together three of our favorite things: mysteries, cultural deep-dives, and Dungeons & Dragons. It's an episode of Cautionary Ta...
Passports And Space Trains: Endless Thread Talks Vaccine Passports And Otherworldly Artwork
09 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this Snacktime episode, Ben and Amory talk about vaccine passports in Texas and the out-of-this-world contents of a mysterious box.
Houseplants And Hobby Drama: Endless Thread Looks Into Plant-Trading Facebook Groups
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this Snacktime episode, we explore a post made on r/HobbyDrama about how some local plant-trading Facebook groups have had their wholesome hobby co...
Bring Out The Snacks!: Endless Thread Shares Two Incredible Stories From Reddit
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're cooking up a new season of Endless Thread as we speak, dear listeners. But in the meantime, we realized we could probably all use a snack to hol...
Explainer: What Is Going On With GameStop And r/WallStreetBets?
29 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The subreddit r/WallStreetBets has been at the center of a national story this week involving GameStop and a couple of angry hedge funds. To help us u...
Endless Thread Presents: Anything For Selena
19 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we present episode one of Anything for Selena, a new podcast from WBUR and Futuro Studios. Growing up along the US-Mexico border, Maria Garcia...
The Consequences Of American Exceptionalism
12 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the aftermath of a violent mob storming the U.S. Capitol building, we got back in touch with Indi Samarajiva. Indi's a writer who lived through the...
A Special Announcement
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Endless Thread is currently on break cooking up our next season, but we're getting back in touch with a special announcement. Donate Now: wbur.org/s...
Endless Thread Presents: Decoder Ring
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
While we're on break working on a new season, we recommend checking out Decoder Ring. In each episode, Decoder Ring explores a cultural question, obj...
Encore: Black Lives Matter IRL And Online
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Endless Thread is on break so we're sharing one of our favorite episodes from the past year. We published it back on Juneteenth 2020 after asking for ...
A Trip Down Memory Lane: Updates From Some Of Endless Thread’s Favorite Episodes
04 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It's that time of the year again: Endless Thread is going on a winter break. But don't miss us too much. We'll be back in 2021 with a fresh, new, weir...
Encore: All You Can Eat... And Then Some (Updates!)
27 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Chicken patrol. Tiny plates. Purses lined with plastic bags. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, Endless Thread re-releases "All You Can Eat," an episode t...
Niall Needs A Friend: A Quest To Find Connection In Isolated Times
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A month ago, we received an email that really caught our attention. It was from a listener in Ireland named Niall, who has been feeling isolated durin...
Today You, Tomorrow Me: Why A Decade-Old Reddit Comment Still Resonates Today
13 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
10 years ago, Justin found himself on the side of the road with a blown out tire. Hours went by and no one stopped to help. But just as he was about t...
Low Stakes Hot Takes: Presenting Our Listeners' Most Unpopular Opinions
06 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We all have that one opinion — that firmly held, low stakes, non-political belief. You know the one. It's usually met with (low stakes) outrage when...
Endless Dread: Get In The Halloween Spirit With Two Frightening Stories From Reddit
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ben and Amory swap terrifying tales from Reddit, featuring an uninvited house guest and a doctor with an unusual fetish. Happy Halloween!
Creators Of WBUR's 'Madness' Series Talk To Host Of CBC's 'Brainwashed'
28 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This past Spring, Endless Thread released a series called “Madness: The Secret Mission for Mind Control and the People Who Paid the Price.” If you...
A Bleak 'What If:' Is The US Headed Towards A Second Civil War?
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With increasing political divide and heightened civil unrest in the United States, many fear that it will culminate in a second civil war. We explore ...
‘Endless Dread’ Returns With Spooky Stories From Reddit
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the spirit of Halloween, the Endless Thread team shares spooky stories from Reddit, including the origins of a classic horror movie SFX, the creepy...
Bonding or Brainwashing? How A Girls Trip To The Mountains — And QAnon — Tore One Family Apart
09 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Randi-Lynn thought she was going on a relaxing family vacation to the mountains. Just a few days later, she was hiding in a bathroom and frantically p...
How One QAnon Believer Escaped The ‘Grand Unified Theory Of All Conspiracy Theories’
02 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For nearly two years, a Redditor named Jitarth Jadeja got deep into QAnon, the Far Right conspiracy theory founded on the idea that President Trump is...
Learning To Appreciate Arachnids With Reddit's "Spiderbro" Community
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Spiders... even the word is unsettling for some of us. But the r/spiderbro community on Reddit is a place where you just might gain a new appreciatio...
Unsent Letters: An Online Community Filled With Surprising And Moving Correspondence
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The unsent letter. We all have one, half-composed in our heads or fully-formed as an email draft. If you’re really poetic, it might be on a piece o...
Someone's Got To Do It: Endless Thread's Ode To Odd Jobs
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Do people say, "That's a thing??," when you tell them what you do for a living? Then you probably have an odd job. This week, Endless Thread tips its...
Tight Squeeze: The Claustrophobia-Inducing World Of Caving Yields Epic Rewards
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You might not think about caves in the same breath as you do the deep ocean or outer space, but you probably should. There are approximately 70,000 ca...
The Good, The Bad, The Pun-derful: Exploring Reddit's 'Dad Jokes' Community
28 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The spotlight is on r/DadJokes, which -- you guessed it -- is home to the most pun-derful, cheesy-but-lovable comedic material the internet has to off...
Angel's Glow: From Civil War Folklore To Winning Science Fair Project
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the aftermath of the Civil War's Battle of Shiloh in 1862, something strange happened. Some soldiers' wounds started to glow. Stranger still, tho...
Reddit Roundup: A Literary Misstep And A Communal Plant Experiment
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Author John Boyne and Jeff the zebra plant take center stage in this edition of snacktime. Also, Ben and Amory realize they share an affinity for... m...
Ghost Town: Cerro Gordo, A Once Booming Silver Mining Town, Gets Another Chance
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 2018, Brent Underwood got a text in the middle of the night from a friend saying, "Look at this ghost town for sale!" Within a month,...
A Reddit Smorgasbord: Harry Potter, Billie Eilish and 'Soup Tubes'
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ben, Amory, and Josh share some of the most memorable Reddit posts of late, from a "magical" parenting decision to a very bizarre business idea.
Randonauts: How Randomly Generated Coordinates Are Helping People Seek Meaning And Adventure
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
r/randonauts is a fast-growing community of Redditors who use random, quantum-generated coordinates to go on real-life adventures. But what happens wh...
Behind A Famous Reddit Post Asking For 'Dimensions Of An Adult Llama'
17 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“What are the dimensions of an adult llama?” asked a Redditor called Mrs. Sam Handwich in the "No Stupid Questions" community. "I've been hired to...