Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Kitty Genovese and “Bystander Apathy”
20 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Once you tell a story incorrectly once, you can’t control where it goes.” Sarah tells Mike ho...
Sexting
11 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“We’re uncomfortable with the evidence that teen girls have sexual agency.” Special guest Amy ...
The American Taliban
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“He’s been punished even more than the American prison system can aspire to punish anyone”: Mi...
Exorcism
28 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
"It just seems like capitalism masquerading as religion": Sarah tells Mike how a horror mo...
Homelessness
16 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“We want stories that don’t exist in systems”: Mike tells Sarah what happened when Utah set ou...
Dan Quayle v. Murphy Brown
09 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“Why did we make fun of Dan Quayle for misspelling the word ‘potato’ when we should have made ...
Elián González
25 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah how a 5-year-old kid transformed a city, divided a political party and (maybe) dete...
The Preppy Murder
18 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike how an aspiring rich kid became an emblem of a world he didn't belong to. Digr...
The “Ebonics” Controversy
04 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah how a simple idea in a single school district became a nationwide racial panic. Dig...
Terri Schiavo
05 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah how the media, the president and the Pope turned a simple medical story into a comp...
Anna Nicole Smith
20 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike how a poor Texas girl made herself into an icon and America made her into a punchli...
Acid Rain
15 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah how an environmental problem became a national rallying cry, a sticky diplomatic is...
Gary Hart
07 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike how a sex scandal ruined a rising star and established a new template for American ...
Tammy Faye Bakker and Jessica Hahn
25 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“She only said one thing her whole life”: Sarah tells Mike how two decent women became scapegoat...
Enron
16 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah how a "bad apples” explanation kept us from seeing the real scandal at the h...
The Challenger Disaster
03 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It wasn’t an accident. Mike tells Sarah how the infamous space shuttle disaster came to be seen as...
“A Dingo’s Got My Baby”
19 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike how a tragic story became a hacky catchphrase. Digressions include raccoon anarchis...
The 2000 Election
12 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah how a close election and an even closer Supreme Court decision established the poli...
Amy Fisher
03 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike about the sad reality — and the terrible man — behind the infamous Long Island ...
Roe v. Wade
21 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Special guest Megan Burbank tells us about the history, limitations and loopholes of a landmark cour...
The Duke Lacrosse Rape Case
14 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah how a false rape allegation became a right-wing rallying cry and a left-wing conspi...
Lorena Bobbitt
07 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike how a case of marital rape and spontaneous mutilation became a national punchline. ...
Stranger Danger
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How inflated statistics, cultural anxieties and moral crusaders turned a tiny number of missing chil...
Urban Legends Spectacular!
24 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Razorblades in apples, babysitters on acid, killers in backseats and "rainbow parties": In...
Halloween Special! Ed Gein and Slasher Movies
17 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike how Ed Gein became one of America’s most famous serial killers despite not actual...
Shaken Baby Syndrome
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah how an over-simplified diagnosis, over-confident doctors and over-zealous prosecuto...
Multiple Personality Disorder
01 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike how pop culture created a two-decade-long obsession with multiple personality disor...
The Obesity Epidemic
19 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah that America has sent the wrong messages and done the wrong things about obesity fo...
Columbine
17 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Special guest Rachel Monroe (re-)joins Mike and Sarah to talk about all the myths surrounding the se...
Iran-Contra
10 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah why the biggest scandal of Reagan's presidency provides more (depressing) less...
Jeffrey Dahmer
01 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike that shoddy policing (and Milwaukee generally) are responsible for one of America&a...
D.A.R.E.
18 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah that the D.A.R.E. program did not, in fact, keep kids off drugs. But that’s just ...
Alpha Males
04 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike that animal behavior is an imperfect template for human society. Digressions includ...
Kurt Cobain and “Copycat Suicide”
28 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Special guest Candace Opper tells Mike and Sarah about how the death of a rock star changed the fiel...
“The Godfather”
21 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike about how America's favorite gangster movie is really its favorite killing-the...
10th Episode Spectacular!
14 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah and Mike take a break from debunking to reflect on the first 10 episodes and tell the secret h...
The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
30 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah that America’s most devastating oil spill was not, in fact, a DUI. Digressions in...
Snuff Films
25 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike about how snuff films don't exist but lots of near-snuff films do. Digressions...
The Jonestown Massacre
16 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Special guest Rachel Monroe tells Mike and Sarah what's really behind the phrase “drinking th...
The Clinton Impeachment
09 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Part two of our epic dissection of the Clinton impeachment scandal. This week: The story breaks, the...
Monica Lewinsky
02 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah and Mike talk about what America forgot — and never learned — about history’s most famou...
Anita Hill
26 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah about the complicated legacy of Anita Hill and the not-particularly-complicated fac...
Stockholm Syndrome
20 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not a real thing! … OR IS IT? Sarah tells Mike about the convoluted history of a contested ...
Matthew Shepard
12 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
But not how you think! Special guest Mike Owens tells Sarah and Mike about the (attempted) debunking...
Afterschool Specials
05 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah that the TV movies of her childhood were both less and more problematic than she re...
Crack Babies
04 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah tells Mike about the long history of white anxiety over black motherhood. Continue reading →...
Going Postal
03 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike tells Sarah about the rash of mass shootings carried out by postal workers in the '80s and...
The Satanic Panic
02 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The 1980s were real but the Satanists weren't. Sarah tells Mike about why America spent a decad...