Endless Thread

An episode that explores the story of two ordinary people who tackled extraordinary problems; organizing a grassroots campaign to identify the missing after a violent attack in Israel and providing e-Sims as a lifeline in Gaza despite the challenges of limited connectivity and intentional shutdowns.

In this podcast, they help a listener named Niall make new friends. They discuss his feelings of isolation during the pandemic and his efforts to find a community on Reddit. They introduce Ellen, a Reddit lurker, and talk about their experiences in musical theater. They explore the challenges of making friends as adults and reflect on the importance of reaching out to one another.

Uncovering the meaning behind a confusing song, exploring buzzwords like Sigma males and Gen Alpha, the popularization of 'Yeet', and the bizarre 'Skippity Toilet' song and its meaning.

The hosts explore unusual musical sounds and discuss everyday objects that resemble musical instruments. They delve into various genres of internet content, including funny tweets and musical non-music videos. They also celebrate the beauty of life through a subreddit community and discuss unique cookie cutter shapes.

Washington Post tech columnist Taylor Lorenz discusses her book 'Extremely Online' where she emphasizes the importance of everyday internet users. The podcast explores the rise of social media, the origins of the creator economy, outdated advice for women, and the dominance of big tech companies.

TikTok livestreamers mimicking NPCs for money, rise of NPC streaming, monetizing live streaming through microtransactions, political right's use of NPC as an insult, exploring the concept of NPC streaming, connecting NPC streaming to real life, gender dynamics and potential misogyny in NPC streaming.

We're going underground into what might be the most important vault in the world. What's inside? A treasure that originates with a Russian scientist during WWII. *** Survey alert: Tell us what you love about the show, what you want more of; what you could stand a little less of. And if you complete the survey, we'll send you an extra episode (what Ben's calling a "dashboard confessional") in January. Take the survey here: wbur.org/endlessthreadsurvey Thank you!

Within a few months, the question "how often do men think about the Roman Empire?" conquered Instagram, TikTok and countless group chats — and then morphed into something else. What links this to other memes of the moment? Do all roads lead to Rome, or is something else at the root of the Roman Empire, girl math, and girl dinner? *** Survey alert: Tell us what you love about the show, what you want more of; what you could stand a little less of. And if you complete the survey, we'll send you an extra episode (what Ben's calling a "dashboard confessional") in January. Take the survey here: wbur.org/endlessthreadsurvey Thank you!

In 1909, the Arizona Gazette ran an article titled "Exploration in Grand Canyon." It said that an explorer by the name of G.E. Kincaid went into the National Park for the Smithsonian and found caves full of mummies and ancient Egyptian treasures that put everything we thought we knew about civilization on its head. Well, the Smithsonian called the articles bunk reporting that Kincaid never worked for the institution. And it turns out he never existed! So how can a conspiracy that has been repeatedly debunked for decades, survive for so long? Endless Thread finds out. *** Survey alert: Tell us what you love about the show, what you want more of; what you could stand a little less of. And if you complete the survey, we'll send you an extra episode (what Ben's calling a "dashboard confessional") in January. Take the survey here: wbur.org/endlessthreadsurvey Thank you!

Writer Cyrena Touros discusses the success of her newsletter Dracula Daily, which emails passages from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula to over 235,000 readers. The hosts explore the enduring popularity of Dracula, themes of loneliness and fear, and the vibrant fandom on Tumblr.