Panic World

Part of the reason Republicans ran away with the 2024 election is because they used misinformation to make millions of people think that the government was trying to forcibly transition their kids. So, this week we’re investigating some of the origins of that scaremongering by looking at the conspiracy theory that Tumblr turned an entire generation trans. How did this theory spread? And what did Tumblr actually do to our brains? Vera Drew joins us to speak to her experience navigating the internet as a trans person, and the impact online communities like Tumblr had and continue to have on young queer folks. Our guest Vera Drew is the director and star of The People’s Joker. You can look for screenings or purchase the film (plus merch!) at https://www.thepeoplesjoker.com/. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude, hit them up here: ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ryan and our producer Grant dig into the election and have some comments about whether or not we can simply create the "liberal Joe Rogan." Full episode can be found at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From shooting themselves up with boys’ blood to starting their own countries, “techno-optimism” has taken a decidedly dark turn. It turns out Silicon Valley is going through a midlife crisis — and while us peasants might address that with a motorcycle or a long vacation, the dudes in the PayPal Mafia are facing their mortality by inflicting pain on the rest of us. Taylor Lorenz joins the pod to dissect what’s caused so many billionaires to lose their minds, and the implications for humanity. Our guest Taylor Lorenz is a journalist. She hosts the podcast Power User, and writes about tech and online culture for her Substack, User Mag https://www.usermag.co/. You can follow her everywhere else @taylorlorenz. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Donald Trump being brought back into the White House, we might only be seeing the beginning of another decade of QAnon. How did we get here? Our story today starts in 2016, when Wikileaks released tens of thousands of private emails from John Podesta. By the 2020 election, thanks to “Q” and the QAnon movement, conspiracy theories were front and center. While many originated from right-leaning people and platforms, by the 2024 election both sides now have their own conspiracies to make themselves feel better, or demonize the other team—and there’s so many they’ve become ambient noise. Travis View joins us to talk about the proliferation of conspiracy theories and how they've impacted the way we think and approach politics. Our guest Travis View is the host of QAA (QAnon Anonymous). Check out the podcast wherever you listen, and follow him on the site formerly known as Twitter @travis_view or Bluesky @travisview.bsky.social. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tide Pods were the king of the forbidden candies. The items that looked delicious despite being disgusting, or poisonous, if you actually bit into one. For a few months in 2018, it seemed like the biggest threat to American teenagers was the temptation to participate in the "Tide Pod Challenge," i.e., bite into the Gushers-like laundry pod on camera before calling poison control. Local news was all over the story, police were making videos warning teens of the dangers, an NFL star made a PSA. But, was this actually a real problem? Were teens across the country really this gullible? Was anyone actually being hurt or dying because they ate a Tide Pod? Our guest PJ Vogt is the host of Search Engine. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can follow him otherwise @PJVogt. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Blair Witch Project stands alone in the kind of panic it caused. No film before or since has quite hit the same fevered pitch, where many people actually thought it was real. What made it so magical? How did it come to be, and why did it freak us out like it did? David Sims joins us to talk urban legends, predecessors to The Blair Witch Project, and the found footage films that have since tried to recreate its culture-gripping moment since. Our guest David Sims is a culture writer at The Atlantic, and also hosts the podcast Blank Check. Follow his work @davidlsims and find @blankcheckpod wherever you listen to podcasts. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caroline Calloway became internet famous for living a fantasy, at least that's how it appeared on Instagram. Then, she became infamous when the public turned on her. We talk with Caroline about the long history of the women and teenage girls this has happened to before, and what it's like for this generation's version of E Girls, the Simp Queen. Our guest Caroline Calloway is an author. You can buy her new book Elizabeth Wurtzel and Caroline Calloway's Guide to Life online at https://carolinecalloway.com/ or at your local bookseller, and you can and should follow her @carolinecalloway. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why does it feel like this election isn’t really happening? Why does Chappell Roan feel like the biggest story? Our theory? We live in a Pop Crave world. The tabloid X account is pretty much the modern day AP. Ryan is joined by Akilah Hughes to figure out how this happened and the ramifications for all of us, and especially for the Midwest Princess. Our guest Akilah Hughes is a writer, comedian, and reporter. You can find her work at https://itsakilahobviously.com, and follow her @akilahobviously on YouTube and X, or on Instagram @akilahh. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remember earlier this year, when people thought Kate Middleton was dead and or replaced by AI? What was up with that? We’re joined by Ellie Hall, a journalist with a focus on the British Royal Family, to trace the whole story behind #WhereIsKate—including a look at the interesting way that the Royal Family handles its press, the origins of all the conspiracy theories surrounding Kate, and who is/why did we ever need to care about the Marchioness of Cholmondeley? Our guest Ellie Hall is a reporter and Royal Family expert. You can find her (and her sweet golden retriever) everywhere @ellievhall.  Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since the advent of smartphones, a simmering and increasingly boiling panic has been about whether too much “screentime” is ruining the nation’s youth. Michael Hobbes joins us to help trace past moral panics surrounding kids, from such terrifying inventions as the jukebox, to television (okay maybe kinda bad), and texting, up to where we are now: the “Great Rewiring.” That’s the theory as younger generations are exposed to technology at earlier and earlier ages, it fundamentally changes how they approach the world, and other people. But is it really rotting their brains? Our guest Michael Hobbes is a journalist and podcast host. You can find his work on his Substack “Confirm My Choices,” or his podcasts “If Books Could Kill” and “Maintenance Phase.” Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the second and maybe probably last 2024 presidential debate now in our rearview, we’re taking a look back at Americans’ relationship with misinformation. Ryan is joined by reporter Kat Abughazaleh to talk about the surprising origin of “fake news” and how it has only gotten more deranged since 2016. All of that brings us to where we are now, where a presidential candidate claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are stealing and then eating cats, dogs, geese, and ducks. How did we get here? How did Trump get there? And are conservatives or liberals doing “better” at being online in this election cycle? Our guest Kat Abughazaleh is a contributor for Zateo News. You can follow her everywhere at https://linktr.ee/katmabu, and her cat’s Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/katmabu.  Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Panic World. For our premiere, we're going back a few years to explore the panic that grew around "Sleepytime Chicken" aka NyQuil Chicken. Along with friend of the pod Katie Notopoulos, Ryan will explore the origins of the recipe on 4chan back in 2017 and chart its start as a joke to ultimately causing everyone from CNN to the FDA to issue warnings against it. But were the nation's youth really cooking — and eating — this cough syrup-soaked fowl? And what does the spread of the trend from 4chan to the mainstream tell us about our relationship with the internet and social media these days? You can follow Katie Notopoulos's work at Business Insider, or @katienotopoulos. And give us a follow wherever you listen to podcasts to help Panic World go viral. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remember NyQuil Chicken? Or when Kate Middleton mysteriously “disappeared”? How about when teens were eating Tide Pods? These sorts of internet phenomena lead to news segments, investigations, and lots of hysteria. But how do they start and what actually comes of them? Panic World is a new podcast from journalist and creator of the Garbage Day newsletter, Ryan Broderick. Each week, he’ll be joined by a guest to tackle a different online witch hunt or moral panic, old and new. They’ll delve into the weirdest and most confusing corners of the internet to find out just how these trends bubbled up and broke out into the mainstream — so you don’t have to. Join us here, or wherever you listen to podcasts, for Panic World’s first episode next Wednesday, September 11. You can also join us at Patreon.com/PanicWorld for ad-free episodes, exclusive bonus content, and access to the Garbage Day Discord community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices