Story of the Week: Recent Episodes
Pushkin Industries
On Story of the Week, “journalist” Joel Stein chooses an article that fascinates him, convinces the writer to tell him about it, and then interrupts a good conversation by talking about himself. Sometimes the story will be the one everyone is talking about, like the New Yorker article on smoking hallucinogenic toads. Other times we’ll find a story you might have missed, like the one in the Verge about the rock groupie turned hacker who had huge corporations at her mercy. These are stories you’ll tell your friends about. Stories that stick with you long after you forget whatever headline you just doom-scrolled through.
iHeartMedia is the exclusive podcast partner of Pushkin Industries.
Where have you been, what did you find, and who did it make you? On the new podcast Traveling Through, host David Prior, travel writer and founder of immersive travel company PRIOR, invites culture makers like Jenna Lyons, David Remnick, Deborah Needleman, and Athena Calderone to unpack the places, objects, and experiences that have changed their perspective, influenced their work, or marked a turning point in their lives. Because the best stories aren't about the destination; they're about curiosity.
David Remnick, Pulitzer Prize winner and editor of The New Yorker for 27 years, joins to recount his own travels – from Moscow to Tel Aviv to campaign trails and tour buses – and to reflect on what nearly three decades of dispatching the world's finest writers has revealed about history, cultural connectedness, and the vast breadth of stories to be found.
Find Traveling Through on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. New episodes release every other Thursday.
Photo Credits:
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Mona Museum Images (in order of appearance)
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Museum of Old and New Art. Photo Credit: Mona/Stu Gibson. Image courtesy of Mona, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
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Girls Rule, 2016-18, Tom Otterness. Photo credit: Mona/Jesse Hunniford. Image courtesy of the artists and Mona, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
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Snack 1970 - 72. Sir Sidney Nolan. Photo Credit: MONA/Jesse Hunniford. Image Courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
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Museum of Old and New Art. Photo credit: Mona/Jesse Hunniford. Image courtesy Mona, Hobart, Tasmania
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Siloam tunnels, Museum of Old and New Art. Photo credit: Mona/Jesse Hunniford. Image courtesy of the artist and Mona, Hobart, Tasmania
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Unseen Seen, 2017. Artist: James Turrell. Photo Credit: Mona/Jesse Hunniford. Image courtesy of the artist and Mona, Hobart, Tasmania
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Museum of Old and New Art. Photo credit: Mona/Rémi Chauvin. Image courtesy of Mona, Hobart, Tasmania
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In 1968, in the dense jungles of Vietnam, a team of Green Berets was pinned down by an overwhelming North Vietnamese Army force. Their last hope was a young Air Force pilot named James Fleming. Despite being low on fuel and facing a wall of enemy fire, Fleming refused to turn back. The rescue mission seemed destined to fail, but a split-second decision would earn Fleming the nation’s highest military honor.
Binge the full season of Medal of Honor, ad-free, with a Pushkin+ subscriptions. Sign up on the Medal of Honor show page in Apple or at Pushkin.fm/plus and use the code MOH25 for 25% off an annual subscription.
Connect with the team!
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- Follow Pushkin on social @pushkinpods
- Follow JR Martinez @iamjrmartinez
- Email the team: medalofhonor@pushkin.fm
Episode resources:
“SOG Combat in Cambodia: Under the Gun at Tango Five-One” by Randy Harrison, Soldier of Fortune Magazine, August 1982
Green Hornets: The History of the U.S. Air Force 20th Special Operations Squadron by Wayne Mutza (Schiffer Military History, 2007)
Secret Green Beret Commandos In Cambodia: A Memorial History of MACVSOG's Command and Control Detachment South (CCS) And Its Air Partners, Republic of Vietnam, 1967-1972 by Fred S. Lindsey (AuthorHouse, 2012)
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Visionary music producer Robert Margouleff shares his stories of pushing the boundaries of musical innovation, art, and technology in the new immersive audiobook, Shaping Sounds: Stevie Wonder, DEVO, the Synth Revolution and My Life Behind the Music. In legendary studios like Electric Lady and the Record Plant, Margouleff became a pioneering producer and engineer for artists like Billy Preston, Jeff Beck, DEVO, The Isley Brothers, and David Sanborn. A true sonic innovator, he was an early adopter of immersive audio and surround sound, developing new mixing techniques for home theaters that brought some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters to life. Travel deep into the world of a music maker who created some of the most significant and influential music of our time.
Here's a preview. Find the full audiobook at Pushkin.fm, Spotify, Audible, Apple Books or wherever you get audiobooks.
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What if psychedelics could transform the way we treat trauma, chronic pain, and insomnia? This week, neuroscientist and psychedelic researcher Grace Blest-Hopley joins the show to break down the research on psychedelics and female biology. She discusses how psychedelics work in the brain, and the ways that psychedelic-assisted therapies might be beneficial for women in midlife.
Links to resources mentioned in this episode:
Hystelica’s resources on psychedelic retreats
The Heroic Hearts Project
Psychedelics and Neuroplasticity: A Systematic Review Unraveling the Biological Underpinnings of Psychedelics
Exploring the Therapeutic Effects of Psychedelics Administered to Military Veterans in Naturalistic Retreat Settings
The acute effects of classic psychedelics on memory in humans
Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression: six-month follow-up
Single-Dose Psilocybin for a Treatment-Resistant Episode of Major Depression
Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial
Johns Hopkins study on psychedelics and Alzheimer’s
Note: In this show, we use “women” as shorthand for people with XX chromosomes. We understand sex and gender are more complex, and acknowledge the experiences we describe reach beyond that word.
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Sports fans experience incredible highs and lows, and spend loads of money on a product over which they have no control. But for a long time, no one bothered to study the minds or impulses of fans. Michael Lewis finds out how that's changing as writers and academics learn more about the powerful psychology of fandom. Just in time for technology to exploit fandom more than ever.
For further reading:
Eric Simons’ book The Secret Lives of Sports Fans
Research by Murray State University psychology professor Daniel Wann on fandom: https://murraystate.academia.edu/DanielWann
The Henry Tajfel Experiments
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The role of AI in the classroom is evolving rapidly. When students and teachers embrace this technology, it has the ability to democratize access to education through programs like IBM SkillsBuild. In this episode of Smart Talks with IBM, Dr. Laurie Santos, host of Pushkin’s The Happiness Lab podcast, spoke with two innovators in the space. Justina Nixon-Saintil is Vice President and Chief Impact Officer, IBM Corporate Social Responsibility, and April Dawson is an Associate Dean of Technology and Innovation and a professor of law. They discuss the importance of lifelong learning, upskilling, and the ethical implications of AI in education.
This is a paid advertisement from IBM. The conversations on this podcast don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.
Visit us athttps://ibm.com/smarttalks
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You’ve heard of artist Jackson Pollock, but you may have never heard of Lee Krasner. Krasner was an artist, Pollock’s wife, and the woman who made him famous. She also changed everything about the landscape of modern art.
Death of an Artist: Krasner and Pollock is a story about love, power, alcoholism and an ill-timed death. Hosted by curator, author, and broadcaster Katy Hessel, this 6-episode series from Pushkin Industries and Samizdat Audio offers an inside look into two of the greatest artists of the 20th century, and how their vision impacts ours. Listen in your favorite podcast player.
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With the 96th Academy Awards this Sunday, we wanted to revisit this episode from last year. The Oscars seems to be cursed with a series of chaotic live television gaffes. But one moment in Academy Award history takes the cake. In 1974, a scrawny white man named Robert Opel ran across the stage butt naked, right as the Best Picture category was being announced. New Yorker magazine writer and Oscars aficionado Michael Schulman recounts the queer, wonderful, and historic life of the 1974 Oscars streaker.
You can read the full story here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/06/what-became-of-the-oscar-streaker
You can find Michael Schulman’s new book Oscar Wars here.
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Gary Goldman was a writer on “Total Recall”, a Philip K. Dick adaptation directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Arnold Schwarzeneger. It was a big hit. So why do Gary and his writing partner, Angus Fletcher, have so much trouble selling another Philip K. Dick adaptation? They tell Malcolm that it all came down to a roller coaster ride of plot twists that even A-List action actors couldn’t stomach, and an early attempt at AI that was too dumb to pick a smart script.
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After his cartooning career failed to take off, a German artist named Arno Funke started extorting department stores. He went by “Dagobert,” the German name for the character of Scrooge McDuck in the cartoon DuckTales. His crime spree lasted for years and made him a folk hero across Germany. Recently, reporter Jeff Maysh got to meet him.
You can read Jeff Maysh’s New Yorker article “The Strange Story of Dagobert, the ‘DuckTales’ Bandit” here: https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-strange-story-of-dagobert-the-ducktales-bandit
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“Bronze Age Pervert” is the moniker of an influential far-right thinker. He has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. His book is a top-seller on Amazon, and was reviewed by a former Trump administration official. Journalist Graeme Wood knew him before all that, back when he was just a college student in tevas.
You can read Graeme Wood’s Atlantic story “How Bronze Age Pervert Charmed the Far Right” here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/bronze-age-pervert-costin-alamariu/674762/
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When Andrew Leland was a teenager he learned he had a rare disease that would cause him to become blind by the time he reached middle age. He recently decided to prepare by attending a special school for blind people.
You can read Andrew’s essay for the New Yorker, “How to Be Blind” here: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/how-to-be-blind
And you can find Andrew’s new book, The Country of the Blind here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/635964/the-country-of-the-blind-by-andrew-leland/
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A car mechanic named Jeff Carpoff invented a portable solar generator. Companies like Geico and Progressive Insurance bought thousands of his generators because they got tax credits for doing so. But there was something not quite right about Carpoff’s invention. You can read Ariel Saber’s Atlantic story, “The Billion Dollar Ponzi Scheme that hooked Warren Buffett and the US Treasury,” here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/06/dc-solar-power-ponzi-scheme-scandal/673782/
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Xochitl Gonzalez spent years planning the weddings of New York’s wealthiest couples. This is the story of the craziest wedding she’s ever planned.
You can read Xochitl Gonzalez’s Atlantic story “The Fake Poor Bride,” here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/07/luxury-wedding-planners-industrial-complex-cost/674169/
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A developer named Domenic Broccoli wanted to build an IHOP in Fishkill, New York. But after it was discovered that the plot of land he was planning to build on may have been a Revolutionary War grave site, he became embroiled in a war of his own.
You can read Reeves Wiedeman’s New York Magazine story “The Battle of Fishkill” here: https://www.curbed.com/article/ihop-fishkill-ny-domenic-broccoli-revolutionary-war.html
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Laos used to be known as “the land of a million elephants.” Now, there are only about 800 elephants left in the country. Reporter Paul Kvinta went undercover to learn about the illegal elephant trade, and ended up putting in an offer on an elephant himself.
You can read read Paul Kvinta’s Outside Magazine story “I Bought an Elephant to Find Out How to Save Them,” here: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/asian-elephant-trafficking-captivity-laos/
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Hey everyone, it’s Joel. We’ll be back soon with our regularly scheduled episode, but today I’m bringing you an episode of another podcast we enjoy and think you will too. It’s called The Assignment with Audie Cornish.
It’s impossible to get the full story from fiery Twitter threads and push alerts. That’s why veteran journalist Audie Cornish is speaking with the people who actually live the headlines. Each week, she speaks with people at the center of our political and cultural debates about what’s missing from the news stories we read and watch.
In this episode, Audie goes to the center of the debate around tipping. You’ll hear from two restaurateurs about the movement to get rid of tipping altogether — that’s right, completely get rid of it. You’ll hear about how the pandemic changed the way Americans tip, and what the economic reality of no-tipping restaurants actually looks like.
I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did! You can hear The Assignment with Audie Cornish from our friends at CNN every Thursday, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Take the Pushkin Audience Survey and receive a code to redeem a free audiobook: https://bit.ly/3pAAQxZ
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Simone Gold, a former ER doctor, is the founder of a non-profit called “America’s Frontline Doctors,” known for spreading misinformation about COVID. After she was arrested for taking part in the Jan. 6 insurrection, she received millions of dollars in donations. And that’s when the feuding within her organization began.
You can read Joel Stein’s Financial Times story, “How a squad of MAGA warriors flush with cash turned on each other” here: https://www.ft.com/stream/3264fe6d-3997-493c-9f77-e565bd75eb1a
Take the Pushkin Audience Survey and receive a code to redeem a free audiobook: https://bit.ly/3pAAQxZ
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How did the Guinness World Records company come to be? And how, in the age of the internet, does the company make money? Imogen West-Knights spent a year investigating. She learned how to be a record adjudicator (it’s riskier than it sounds), met a man who has broken more than 700 records, and tried to break a record herself.
You can read Imogen West-Knight’s Guardian story, “The Strange Survival of Guinness World Records,” here: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/may/25/guinness-world-records-norris-mcwhirter-ashrita-furman
Take the Pushkin Audience Survey and receive a code to redeem a free audiobook: https://bit.ly/3pAAQxZ
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The history of Dr. Bronner’s soap is even crazier than the famously crazy writing on the side of a Dr. Bronner’s soap bottle. The company was founded by a man who escaped from a mental asylum. Now it is the top-selling natural soap brand in North America. How did this happen? Carrie Battan paid their headquarters a visit to find out.
You can read Carrie Battan’s GQ story, “Is Dr. Bronner’s the Last Corporation With a Soul,” here: https://www.gq.com/story/dr-bronners-corporate-success
Take the Pushkin Audience Survey and receive a code to redeem a free audiobook: https://bit.ly/3pAAQxZ
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In 2010, an art collector named Forrest Fenn published a memoir called “The Thrill of the Chase,” in which he described hiding a treasure chest somewhere in the United States. His memoir inspired hundreds of thousands of treasure hunters to scour the country for it. Now, over a decade later, much about this chest still remains a mystery.
You can read Svati Kirsten Narula’s story “America’s Greatest Hidden Treasure Was Found—So Why Are People Still Looking?” here: https://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/a43061508/forrest-fenn-treasure-hunt/
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A woman in Louisiana named Donna Metrejean fell in love with a D.E.A agent in Oregon named Robert Golden. She uprooted her whole life to be with him. But all was not what it seemed.
You can read Jeff Maysh’s story “Undercover Lovers” here: https://jeffmaysh.substack.com/p/undercover-lovers
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Comedian Dave Chappelle has been buying up properties in the tiny town of Yellow Springs, Ohio. The residents have mixed feelings about their powerful neighbor’s real estate decisions and it’s been splitting the town in two. Reporter Tyler J. Kelley paid a visit to Yellow Springs to see if it’s really becoming Chappelleville.
You can read Tyler J. Kelley’s Bloomberg story “What Happens When Dave Chappelle Buys Up Your Town” here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-dave-chappelle-yellow-springs/#xj4y7vzkg
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In celebration of Bloomsday on June 16th, we’re bringing you a special James Joyce mystery. Ten years after achieving stratospheric and unlikely fame, the world’s greatest Ulysses scholar disappeared. Reporter Jack Hitt went on a quest to find out if he was dead, alive or insane.
You can read Jack Hitt’s New York Times story “The Strange Case of the Missing Joyce Scholar, here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/magazine/the-strange-case-of-the-missing-joyce-scholar.html
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Bananas is a comedy podcast from the Exactly Right network, home of the hit true crime comedy podcast My Favorite Murder. Each week on Bananas, comedians Kurt Braunohler and Scotty Landes discuss the strange, fascinating, and just plain bananas news from around the world. Plus, each episode they are joined by a fantastic guest like Bridget Everett, Hannah Einbinder, Yeardley Smith, SuChin Pak and…. Charlize Theron!
This episode is called “Pushin’ Peanuts Up Pepsi Mountain with V Spehar” where the Banana Boys are joined by V Spehar to talk about how people like other people who smell like them, a guy that spent over $8.5k a year on Pepsi, a man who is going to push a peanut up a mountain with his nose and the world’s most expensive bath!
If you like what you hear, follow Bananas wherever you get your podcasts.
Wondery.fm/BAN_STW
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When a benign urban planning concept is co-opted by conspiracy theorists, an unsuspecting professor becomes the target of right-wing death threats. Tiffany Hsu covered the story of the 15 minute city conspiracy for The New York Times.
You can read the full story here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/technology/carlos-moreno-15-minute-cities-conspiracy-theories.html
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Every month in New York City, a small group of people who feel like they’ve been ostracized for holding unpopular opinions and their supporters meet up to chat, debate, and even sing folk songs. Reporter Emma Green attended a recent gathering.
You can read Emma Green’s New Yorker story “The Party is Cancelled” here: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-party-is-cancelled
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Nearly all of the high-end microchips in the world - the ones we depend on for our phones and cars – are manufactured in an unassuming factory in Taiwan. Virginia Heffernan is one of the few reporters to go inside. She wrote about what she saw for Wired.
You can read Virginia Heffernan's story, "I Saw the Face of God in a Semiconductor Factory" here: https://www.wired.com/story/i-saw-the-face-of-god-in-a-tsmc-factory/
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When a nurse named Tiffany Dover fainted on camera after getting a Covid vaccine, anti-vaxxers assumed the worst. Shortly after, the internet was awash in conspiracy theories that she was dead. NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny set out to prove that Tiffany Dover was alive. This turned out to be more difficult than she could have imagined.
You can read Brandy Zadrozny’s story, “Conspiracy theorists made Tiffany Dover into an anti-vaccine icon,” here: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinformation/tiffany-dover-conspiracy-theorists-silence-rcna69401
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What happens when artificial intelligence comes for the novelists? Death of an Author is a groundbreaking, suspenseful experiment in the meta world of man meets machine. A gripping mystery that is 95% written by AI, aka “Aidan Marchine,” and 5% by journalist Stephen Marche, who skillfully crafted the story outline and machine prompts. The project is publishing on 5/9/23.
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On the Replica app, you can create an AI-powered chatbot to talk to, befriend, sext and even virtually marry. The service has millions of users. Some of them are now discovering that having a friend or spouse that’s owned by a private company comes with downsides.
Pranshu Verma wrote "They fell in love with AI bots. A software update broke their hearts" for The Washington Post. You can read the full story here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/30/replika-ai-chatbot-update/
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In 2012, Melania Trump tweeted a photo of a smiling beluga whale and captioned it “what is she thinking?” Eleven years later, Sabrina Imbler, a journalist at Defector Media, decided to try to answer that question.
You can read Sabrina Imbler’s full story, “What Was She Thinking? An Investigation,” here: https://defector.com/what-was-she-thinking-an-investigation
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Celebrity autographs are a billion dollar industry. And in New York City, “Radio Man” is better at collecting them than anybody else. He also regularly appears as an extra in movies and TV shows. How did a formerly homeless man come to be so beloved by celebrities? And how did he get so good at getting their autographs?
Drew Schwartz wrote “Meet Radio Man: Autograph King, Friend of George Clooney, ‘Bum’” for the New York Times. You can read the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/nyregion/radio-man-autograph-hunters.html
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Is it possible to live for even a day without plastic? Stunt journalist extraordinaire A.J. Jacobs tries his best. And fails miserably. You can read the full New York Times story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/style/plastic-free.html
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian man nicknamed “Putin’s Chef” went from being a street criminal to a hot dog seller to owning a catering company that provides services to the Russian government. Oh yeah– and he’s also the head of a private military company that’s sending soldiers all over the world. How did Prigozhin turn global conflict into a lucrative business? And what could happen if he decides he’s had enough of Vladimir Putin’s rule?
Julia Ioffe wrote about Prigozhin for her publication, Puck. You can read the full story here: https://puck.news/putins-chef-the-man-behind-russias-shadow-army/
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In 2013, two women started a Facebook group called “Buy Nothing” for their local community on Bainbridge Island to swap unwanted items for free. But their small group quickly grew, becoming a national movement with millions of users. A coup within Buy Nothing raised questions about if it’s possible to create a utopian project within a broken society.
Vauhini Vara reported on the saga of Buy Nothing for Wired Magazine. You can read the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/the-battle-for-buy-nothing/
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UPDATE: Since we recorded this episode on 03/09, Guo Wengui was arrested in New York City on charges of financial conspiracy.
For years, rapper Pras Michél has allegedly been doing the bidding of wanted Malaysian billionaire, Jho Low. Pras’s baffling, Icarian story involves one of the greatest financial scandals in history, an international hostage negotiation, and the possibility of a decadeslong prison sentence.
Matthew Campbell co-wrote this story for Business Week. You can read it here: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-us-china-tensions-scandal-fugees-1mdb/
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The Oscars seems to be cursed with a series of chaotic live television gaffes. But one moment in Academy Award history takes the cake. In 1974, a scrawny white man named Robert Opel ran across the stage butt naked, right as the Best Picture category was being announced. New Yorker magazine writer and Oscars aficionado Michael Schulman recounts the queer, wonderful, and historic life of the 1974 Oscars streaker.
You can read the full story here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/06/what-became-of-the-oscar-streaker
You can find Michael Schulman’s new book Oscar Wars here.
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Tipping. Dinner parties. Canceling plans. We could all use an etiquette guide that teaches us to live without pissing people off. Luckily, New York Magazine has one – and it went viral. We (politely) asked Choire Sicha, who edited that guide, to come on our show.
You can read the full list from New York Magazine here: https://www.thecut.com/article/tipping-rules-etiquette-rules.html
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What happens when extinct animal skeletons meet the “Joe Rogan Experience”? The answer is murky, freezing, and may contain submerged cars. This week, we bring on Michael Wilson from the New York Times, who wrote about how a fossil-excavating reality TV star came on Joe Rogan’s podcast to make a bombshell claim: that there are mammoth tusks at the bottom of the East River. What ensues is a no-holds-barred bone rush.
You can read the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/nyregion/joe-rogan-mammoth-tusks-east-river.html
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A special episode from Land of the Giants: Dating Games.
When Tinder launched in 2012, it changed dating culture and our expectations around dating forever by leveraging the iPhone and gamifying the dating experience. But did the rise of dating apps make finding romance easier or harder, and what are the consequences of playing a game that never ends?
Subscribe to Land of the Giants to get new episodes every Wednesday.
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What happens when you pretend you’re a medical miracle? Lots of things, as TV writer Elisabeth Finch found out – including gaining a job writing for Grey’s Anatomy. For a decade, Finch lied about having a rare and deadly form of cancer and fooled everybody in Hollywood. On this week’s episode, we bring on Peter Kiefer, the reporter who broke the story about Finch’s lies, then interviewed her again seven months later to find out why she told them.
You can read the full story here: https://theankler.com/p/the-greys-anatomy-liar-confesses
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Suspicious art dealers, fraudulent documents, and huge egos--the only thing worse than the uppity art world is how much it relies on laundered art from other countries. On this week’s episode, we bring on Sam Tabachnik to unpack his sprawling three-part series for The Denver Post all about one duo’s international operation to smuggle and sell South East Asian art.
You can read the full story here: https://www.denverpost.com/2022/12/01/colorado-denver-art-museum-stolen-art-cambodia-thailand-emma-bunker/
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Robbi Jade Lew broke the world of poker with an incredibly unlikely win against Garrett Adelstein. Her win went viral and the internet exploded with dueling accusations of sexism and cheating. Andrea Chang reported on the scandal for the Los Angeles Times and recounts all the suspicious details.
You can read the full story here: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-12-14/poker-cheating-investigation-ends
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Inside the flourishing world of online plant fanclubs lies a deep, dark obsession: people who dedicate their entire lives to caring for Nepenthes, or carnivorous pitcher plants. On this week’s episode, Brian Howey, a former “Nephead” tells us about the carnivorous plant subculture that nearly ate him (and many others) alive.
You can read the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/nightmare-houseplant-obsession-nepenthes/
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Hawaii’s Kauai island is overrun by half a million feral cats, many of which are infected with toxoplasmosis. These infected cats pose an existential threat to the native habitat, including Kauai’s endangered monk seals. The island's animal-loving community has fallen into chaos; It's zombie-cat people versus everyone else. Paul Kvinta covered the story for Outside Magazine.
You can read the full story here: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/hawaiis-crazy-war-over-zombie-cats
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Magnus Carlsen, the greatest chess player in the world, accused 19-year-old Hans Niemann of cheating. Why? Because Niemann beat him twice. Carlsen and the chess world can't prove Niemann is cheating, but they're convinced he is. The accusations are tearing apart the chess world and raising questions about maintaining fair play in a high-tech world. David Segal covered the story (and yes, the anal beads theory) for The New York Times.
You can read the whole article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/04/business/chess-cheating-scandal-magnus-carlsen-hans-niemann.html
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One of the first computer hackers was a woman. She pulled some of the most elaborate computer hacks of the 80's and yet no one knows her name.
Host Joel Stein speaks to Claire L. Evans about her article in the Verge, “Searching for Susy Thunder.”
You can read the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/c/22889425/susy-thunder-headley-hackers-phone-phreakers-claire-evans
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New York’s curbside Christmas tree business is run by a small group of ruthless, shadowy men. Owen Long, a tree salesman in Brooklyn, takes us into his world and reveals the characters, crimes, and even murders of the New York City “tree men.”
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A group of DEA agents from Fresno, California figures out the real name of a Dark Web drug kingpin. But before they can make the arrest, they have to follow him to Thailand and into the on-line world of pick-up artists. Andy Greenberg's sprawling Wired article is so intense it made host Joel Stein want to take drugs.
You can read the whole 6-part series here: https://www.wired.com/story/alphabay-series-part-1-the-shadow/
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Iranian-American scholar Reza Aslan talks about his article for The Atlantic, "How to Avoid the White Savior Industrial Complex," which tells the story of his childhood hero, missionary Howard Baskerville. Reza argues that the world needs more good, white saviors like Baskerville. Joel wants nothing to do with trying to be a good, white anything in today's political climate. Reza tries to convince him anyway.
You can read the full story here: https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/10/howard-baskerville-persian-constitutional-revolution/671787/
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A crime in Park Slope, Brooklyn – the heart of gentrified Brooklyn – leads residents to form a neighborhood watch group. Esther Wang, who writes for Hell Gate, attended the group's tiny first meeting, which somehow managed to showcase all the divisions roiling liberal politics. Host Joel Stein does his best to keep up. He doesn't do a great job.
You can read the full story here: https://hellgatenyc.com/saturday-morning-with-the-prospect-park-panthers
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While we're spending time with our families this week, here's another Pushkin show you'll like. On Some of My Best Friends Are, Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Ben Austen have real talks about race in America. In this clip, author and political professor Saladin Ambar talks about the complex stakes of interracial friendships throughout U.S. history. You'll hear about the famous bond between Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe, and the relationship between former president Barack Obama and his VP Joe Biden. It’s a frank conversation about the political challenges, and political purposes, of interracial friendship in a fraught society.
You can hear more from Some of My Best Friends Are at https://link.chtbl.com/sotwbestfriends
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Michele McPhee traces a wild scam to bilk the U.S. Government out of $500 million. The plan was hatched by a young man from a polygamist Mormon sect in Utah and it soon involves the Armenian mob and the President of Turkey. McPhee lays out all the twists and turns in her article in Los Angeles Magazine. Host Joel Stein tries to keep up while still making as many polygamy jokes as possible.
Read the full article here: https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/bleeding-the-beast-crooked-cops-an-armenian-mob-boss-a-500m-scam-and-an-unlikely-love-story/
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A.J. Jacobs spent a month following the most conservative interpretation of the Constitution possible. One not far from how the current Supreme Court has been ruling. Host Joel Stein, talks to him about his article for the Guardian, "Party Like It's 1789! My Weird, Enlightening Month Living Strictly by the U.S. Constitution." Does A.J. wind up pointing his musket at Joel? Tune in to find out.
You can read the full story here: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/oct/01/supreme-court-roe-v-wade-abortion-gun-rights-us-constitution
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In this week's episode, we're LARPing, live-action roleplaying that gets you to step out of your own shoes and into a character's. Writer and first-time LARP-er Jason Anthony decides to go to Denmark to roleplay at a fake gay-conversion camp, which all seems like fun – until his queer American brain snaps. Also, host Joel Stein talks about his own experience crossing a fake Mexican-U.S. border. All of the above is handled in a culturally sensitive manner.
You can read the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/my-4-days-in-fake-gay-conversion-therapy-nordic-larp/
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Allison P. Davis wrote “My Tinder Decade” a New York Magazine cover about being on the dating app from the very beginning. And never going on more than five dates with anyone. How has Tinder changed her? How has it changed all of us? Host Joel Stein tries to find out without being creepy. He fails.
You can read the full story here: https://www.thecut.com/article/dating-apps-relationship.html
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Douglas Ruskhoff was invited to speak to a group of tech guys at a conference in the middle of the desert. Instead, they asked him questions about how to build their bunkers to prepare for The Event. Host Joel Stein speaks to him about his Medium story “Survival of the Richest.”
You can read the full story here: https://onezero.medium.com/survival-of-the-richest-9ef6cddd0cc1
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A Mexican doctor and former crack addict’s TED talk at Burning Man helped popularize hallucinogenic toad poison as a treatment for addiction…and a shortcut to enlightenment. Host Joel Stein speaks to Kimon De Greef about his New Yorker article “The Pied Piper of Psychedelic Toads.”
You can read the full story here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/28/the-pied-piper-of-psychedelic-toads
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Every week host Joel Stein picks a long magazine article that fascinates him – and then actually reads the whole thing, all by himself. Then he calls his fellow, but greatly superior journalist friend who wrote it, and gets them to tell him all about it. He does the work and you get the stories. More accurately, some great journalist does the work and Joel Stein puts his name, Joel Stein, on the podcast. Coming October 20th.
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Coming soon to Pushkin Industries!
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