Endless Dread: Haunted Hayride
In keeping with Endless Thread tradition, Ben and Amory are celebrating spooky season with another installment of "Endless Dread." This time, we're bringing you along on both an actual haunted...
Episodes we love: Artist Known — Illustrator for 'A Wrinkle in Time' gets long-overdue credit
The cover art for the 1976 paperback edition of Madeleine L'Engle's classic sci-fi/fantasy novel "A Wrinkle in Time" — featuring a winged centaur and a glowering, red-eyed face — is...
Hidden Levels Ep. 6: Segagaga
In the final episode of Hidden Levels, discover Segagaga—the bizarre RPG that became a farewell memoir. As SEGA's console empire crumbled, a defiant developer channeled the chaos, letting players recruit...
Hidden Levels Ep. 5: Press B to Touch Grass
Gaming technologies have pushed virtual nature to the brink of reality. And now, the very technology used to create green worlds on our screens is changing the planet.
Surgical Precision: One doctor's quest to show how video games can save lives
Dr. James "Butch" Rosser was a pioneer in minimally invasive surgery in the 1990s. When he credited his skills to video games, people dismissed him. The prevailing narrative was that...
Hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson dig into the internet's vast and curious ecosystem of online communities to find untold histories, unsolved mysteries, and other jaw-dropping stories online and IRL.
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Hidden Levels Ep. 4: Machinima
From technical experiments in the 1990s, to Oscar-shortlisted documentaries filmed in virtual worlds, discover how machinima became a legitimate art form that’s democratizing filmmaking. Follow the rise, fall, and explosive...
Hidden Levels: Choose Your Player (Side Quest)
A gamer's choice of character has a huge impact on the gaming experience. But when a gamer is given the chance to choose a brand new identity outside of the...
Hidden Levels Ep. 3: This Game Wants YOU
For decades, the U.S. Army has been on edge about recruitment, hitting its goals for a few years, only to miss them again. As part of their strategy to combat...
Hidden Levels Ep. 2: Stick It to 'Em
In episode 2 of Hidden Levels, find out how the humble-yet-genius joystick jumped from aviation to video games. And now, in its optimized form — the modern, dual-thumbstick controller —...
Hidden Levels Ep. 1: Mr. Boomshakalaka
"Hidden Levels" uncovers how games have quietly changed culture, technology, and the way we see the world...starting with a '90s arcade classic.
Announcing 'Hidden Levels': how the videogame world has changed the world beyond videogames
A six-part series about how video games left the arcade and started reshaping the real world.
A fork (still) in the road: Three members of r/fednews share their stories
You've heard of the "Freshman 15"... how about the "DOGE 15"? This is how members of the FedNews subreddit — a "vital, independent hub for U.S. federal employees" — have...
What happened to Jenna Marbles?
In 2020, Jenna Marbles — one of the most popular YouTube creators of all time —posted her last video. Five years later, her devoted fanbase still wonders: where is she,...
Message in a laptop
How a treasure hunter found a perfect message of nostalgia in an old laptop.