HarbingerOfTomb

Credits:

Episode producer: Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson. Production assistance by Grace Tatter.

Co-hosts: Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson

Editor: Meg Cramer

Show producers: Samata Joshi, Dean Russell, Grace Tatter, Frannie Monahan, and Emily Jankowski.

Mixer and sound designer: Paul Vaitkus

Men's fashion might seem like a niche topic. But people of all genders and sartorial sensibilities follow Derek Guy on X for his clothing takes... even if they're not quite sure how they found his page.

Endless Thread talks to Derek about how he weaves together humor, history, cultural criticism, and political commentary to make fashion feel relevant to people who have never seriously considered it before.

'Tis the season to show some skin! Perhaps some tattoo-adorned skin?

In this week's episode, Ben tells Amory about the r/tattoos community's reaction to a man whose friends made him self-conscious about his flowery tattoo. Amory tells Ben about the science behind why tattoos stay put on our bodies, which has only recently come to be understood.

The bots are here to stay, and they're everywhere. The trouble is, learning how to spot them.

On this week's episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory discuss two stories from Reddit about undercover bots. First — is there such a thing as an easy tell for identifying bots? Second, what happens when internet users accept bots as fellow humans, only to discover the truth later?

Personally for me it will be a huge quality of life improvement if the post time selection boxes were moved to the very top.

I schedule so many that I have to look at the post list to see when my last one is and then when I go to schedule new post I scroll all the way to the bottom to set this new Post Time appropriately in relation to the last scheduled post. Then I scroll back up to the top and fill in the rest of the information

This episode originally aired on Jan. 14, 2022.

A few years ago, we brought you the story of how dinosaur emoji had entered the debate about trans rights.

We were reminded of this episode recently when a White House memorandum lambasted NPR for spreading "radical, woke propaganda" and linked to our story as an example. After the memo, President Trump signed an executive order to stop federal funding to NPR and PBS.

We stand by our reporting. And so we decided to bring you the episode again. Support the show:

We love making Endless Thread, and we want to be able to keep making it far into the future. If you want that too, we would deeply appreciate your contribution to our work in any amount. Click here for the donation page. Thank you!

Credits:

Episode producer: Ben Brock Johnson

Co-hosts: Ben Brock Johnson, Amory Sivertson

Editor: Meg Cramer

Show producers: Samata Joshi, Dean Russell, Emily Jankowski, Frannie Monahan

Mixer and sound designer: Paul Vaitkus

It's rant season. Or is it? When is it not rant season?

In this week's episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory discuss two very different, very viral, rants from Reddit. One is about how the current design trends in our public and private spaces are hard on the ears.

Another discusses how escape room adventures can bring out the worst in people. Perhaps there's some humor and some lessons to glean from rants, too?

Credits:

Reported, written, and produced by: Grace Tatter

Co-hosts: Grace Tatter, Amory Sivertson, Ben Brock Johnson

Editor: Meg Cramer

Show producers: Samata Joshi, Dean Russell, Paul Vaitkus, and Frannie Monahan

Mixer and sound designer: Emily Jankowski

At any given time, 110 people can tell you exactly where James Tatter is.

Every single iPhone user has the Find My app on their phone, which allows them to share their location with friends and family. Increasingly, for young people like James, it's also becoming a form of social media.

Endless Thread producer (and James's sister) Grace Tatter wanted to know how something that seems creepy to some people became so commonplace to others — and how it's affecting our relationships off the screen.

Show notes:

On the Grid: Surveillance as a Love Language (The Drift)

Dodgeball Shuttered By Google, Its Co-Creator Promises To Clone It (Business Insider)

Thinking Critically about Social Media (American Sociology Association)

Talking Tech with Apple's Senior Vice President of Services, Eddy Cue (SuperSaf)

The Impact of Location-Tracking Apps on Relationships (Psychology Today)

Endless Thread is thrilled to introduce you to a new podcast from our friends at NHPR’s Document team. That’s the team behind other great narrative shows like Bear Brook and The 13th Step.

For the past six months, NHPR reporter Todd Bookman has been spending a lot of time thinking about… a cat. This cat’s name is Sergeant Tibbs – he’s 19.

Tibbs goes missing… and lands in the center of a lot of human pain, confusion… and internet outrage. And as Todd investigated what happened here, he found a pretty profound story about what we owe our pets – and our neighbors.

This week, we’re bringing you the first episode "Chicken Livers" of The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs.

We hope you enjoy!

Credits:

Episode producer: Ben Brock Johnson and Grace Tatter

Co-hosts: Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson

Editor: Meg Cramer

Show producers: Samata Joshi, Dean Russell, Emily Jankowski, Frannie Monahan

Mixer and sound designer: Paul Vaitkus

There's a conspiracy theory on Reddit right now suggesting that Reddit is using aggressive tools to hide posts praising or supporting Luigi Mangione's alleged execution-style killing of the CEO of United Healthcare, Brian Thompson. Endless Thread looks at what is going on with Luigi memes on this platform: the Nintendo character memes… and the other ones.

Show notes:

A Reddit moderation tool is flagging ‘Luigi’ as potentially violent content (The Verge)

Reddit will warn users who repeatedly upvote banned content (The Verge)

What's the deal with all of these Luigi themed posts saying "nothing violent going on here"? (r/OutOfTheLoop)

Have you ever been deepfaked? Or maybe this is just a new fear – that photos of you end up online that are you – but not really you? What would you do? For an increasing number of people – especially women – this is becoming a reality.

So much so that a recent bill in Congress called the “Take It Down” Act has found some incredibly rare bipartisan support. The bill is sponsored by republican Senator Ted Cruz and democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar, making it illegal to post explicit deepfakes. First Lady Melania Trump has also been a vocal supporter. But the thing is, it isn't law yet and...it might not be enough.

A new podcast called Levittown, from Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope Podcasts, takes listeners on a sort of cyber thriller for the AI age. It's the story of a bunch of young women in the suburbs of Long Island who find naked fakes of themselves online and when told there’s nothing they can do about it – set out to catch the perpetrator. This ends up connecting them to a web of online vigilantes – and cyber criminals taking advantage of a justice system not ready for the reality of AI.

Endless Thread brings you the first episode in this series. If you like what you hear – find Levittown wherever you like to get your podcasts to listen to the full series.

Credits:

Episode producer: Dean Russell, Ben Brock Johnson

Editor: Meg Cramer

Co-hosts: Ben Brock Johnson, Amory Sivertson,

Show producers: Samata Joshi, Grace Tatter, Frannie Monahan, Emily Jankowski

Mixer and sound designer: Paul Vaitkus

In April of 2024, a group of aid workers were killed by Israeli Defense Forces while bringing food to Central Gaza. The IDF had alleged that its military analysts had identified a gunman on top of one of the trucks carrying supplies, suggesting it was a military vehicle, not an aid vehicle.

In the online debate following the event, a familiar trope popped up: arguing over whether one of the aid trucks a Toyota Hilux. The reason? In military conflict around the globe, the Hilux is a familiar character. Whether you're a U.S. designated terrorist group, a "freedom fighter," or someone else involved in direct armed conflict, you probably know about the Hilux.

Endless Thread wanted to know why, and how, this happened. So we took a journey beyond America's commercial pickup truck identity to understand why beyond our borders, the Hilux is the truck of choice.

Credits:

Episode producer: Katelyn Harrop and Frannie Monahan

Co-hosts: Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson

Show producers: Samata Joshi, Dean Russell, Emily Jankowski

Editor: Meg Cramer

Mixer and sound designer: Paul Vaitkus

Well, the messaging app Signal has been in the news recently, thanks to a snafu in which prominent federal defense officials mistakenly added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a group chat in which they discussed military strikes in Yemen.

This whole situation reminds us of another conversation we've been having as a team about how to responsibly leak information to the press, and if there is such a thing as a "secure line."

To answer this question, we reached out to our WBUR colleague, investigative and data reporter Todd Wallack.

If you have a story you would like to share with us in a secure way, you can reach us on Signal (yes, Signal) at 646-456-9095 or email us at wbursecuretips@proton.me