Since the dawn of the internet, cyberwitches have traded in their broomsticks and cauldrons for floppy disks and smartphones. This week on Endless Thread, we go into the history of cyberwitches, attend a Zoom ritual, and talk to members of a cyber coven.
After 15 years on the job, a former police officer wrote about his reasons for resigning in the r/OffMyChest community on Reddit. In this episode, he discusses the ethical dilemmas that led him to leave law enforcement for good.
When a colleague sent us a viral Reddit post from WallStreetBets, we set out to investigate.
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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Politicians and celebrities have been the focus of deepfakes for years. But as the manipulated media get easier to make, reality is becoming harder to establish — and more people are vulnerable.
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 canvas. We talk to two Redditors who recount the challenges of claiming their stake in r/place—despite being vastly outnumbered.
In this episode, Endless Thread dives into The Herman Cain Award subreddit, which ironically awards those who die from COVID after publicly expressing anti-vaxx sentiments or pandemic-denying memes online. We meet a moderator and a Herman Cain Award nominee, who may have more in common than they realize.
Endless Thread digs into a short Reddit post about Indigenous toolmaking and finds forgotten histories spanning the age of the solar system.
This week, Endless Thread presents an episode of Shared State — a podcast from the Montana Free Press, Montana Public Radio and Yellowstone Public Radio — telling the story of a couple who came back from a vacation off the grid to discover that they were entangled in a viral...
In times like these, you've got to take joy wherever you can get it. In this episode, co-hosts Amory and Ben swap unexpected sources of joy they've bumped into recently — from a goblin-themed Reddit post, to the scariest toe talons on the internet, to a funky 1980's little-known bop...
This is the story of a tragic accident that sent Endless Thread producer Quincy Walters, and countless others, down a disturbing and fascinating rabbit hole about a small, daring group of people called wing walkers and a woman who wanted to live her life "to its optimum."
"How to prepare your house for an active wartime?" This was the title of Eugene's Reddit post about a month ago. The 32-year old Ukrainian asked other users for advice in case Russia invaded. This week, Ben and Amory hear from Eugene about his life in the middle of war.
"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. What ensued from there played out like, well, a play. The Endless Thread team performs this early viral...
Dwarf planets, data leaks, and (maybe) deception. When two separate astronomy teams took credit for the same discovery, an online message board started asking questions.