Decoder Ring
Decoder Ring is the show about cracking cultural mysteries. In each episode, host Willa Paskin takes a cultural question, object, or habit; examines its history; and tries to figure out what it means and why it matters.
Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen.
101
The Sign Painter
What happens, to an artist—to anyone—when they’re good enough, but that’s not enough?
54 min
102
That Seattle Muzak Sound
Muzak, the purveyors of elevator music, had become a complete joke by the 1990’s when it found many of the players in the Seattle grunge scene working in its offices.
41 min
103
The Invention of Hydration
How did bottled water transform itself from a small, European luxury item to the single largest beverage category in America?
33 min
104
The Soap Opera Machine
We investigate the wild world of soap operas through the lens of one legendary, decades-long, ripped-from-the-headlines storyline.
48 min
105
Decoder Ring Presents The Sporkful’s Mission: I...
Right now Decoder Ring is working on a full season of new episodes coming this June, but in the meantime we wanted to share this episode from our friends over at The Sporkful
31 min
106
The Blue Steak Experiment
What took blue food so long to catch on?
37 min
107
The Cabbage Patch Kids Riots
How did a children'a toy inspire such bad adult behavior?
31 min
108
Jane Fonda's Workout, Part 2: Hanoi Jane's VHS ...
How did Hanoi Jane become Exercise Jane?
47 min
109
Jane Fonda's Workout, Part 1: Jane and Leni
When Jane Fonda granted us an interview to talk about her famous workout tape, things didn't go as planned.
52 min
110
Mystery of the Mullet
We track the rise and fall of the mullet, and the lexical quandary at its heart: who named the mullet?
45 min
111
The Karen
The Karen, a white woman who surveys, inconveniences, and terrorizes, service workers and people of color is a relatively new term in the culture, but her character type has been with us for centuries.
36 min
112
The Metrosexual
In 2003, the word "metrosexual", meaning a well-groomed heterosexual man, exploded all over the English lexicon. It invaded the news, TV, and even American politics.
34 min
113
Gotta Get Down on Friday
Rebecca Black's music video for Friday was Youtube's most watched video of 2011, thrusting the thirteen-year-old Rebecca into a very harsh spotlight.
40 min
114
Unicorn Poop
How did poop get cute? On this episode of Decoder Ring we trace the rise of cute poop from the original Japanese poop emoji to more modern poop toys which rely on the Youtube algorithm to get seen and sold.
33 min
115
Rubber Duckie
How did the humble rubber duck become an icon of bath time?
22 min
116
The Shop Around the Corner
The 1998 romantic comedy You've Got Mail starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan is about the brutal fight between an independent bookstore, The Shop Around the Corner, and Fox Books, an obvious Barnes & Noble stand-in.
35 min
117
Friend of Dorothy
When Peter Mac was young, he found solace from his troubles in the voice of Judy Garland. He's now been a Judy Garland impersonator for 17 years.
30 min
118
The Stowe-Byron Controversy
When Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote an exposé of Lord Byron's incestuous affair in 1869, it nearly destroyed The Atlantic Monthly, and threw the reputations of two literary icons into chaos.
38 min
119
Murphy's Law
Nick Spark fell down a rabbit hole tracking down the origins of Murphy’s Law, the ubiquitous phrase that says “If it can go wrong, it will go wrong”.
35 min
120
Gender Reveal Party
Jenna Karvunidis invented the gender reveal party, but now she has regrets.
37 min
121
Bart Simpson Mania
In the early 1990's Bart Simpson became a breakout star while also becoming a target in the culture war, culminating in president George HW Bush speaking out against The Simpsons as an example of a degenerate American family.
43 min
122
Ice Cream Truck
Why is the ice cream truck business so bananas?
38 min
123
Pillow Talk
Over the last half century the decorative pillow has been crowding out our sitting and sleeping spaces, multiplying across our beds and couches decade by decade.
27 min
124
Chuck E. Cheese Pizza War
The King was an animatronic lounge singer who performed in Chuck E. Cheese locations in the 1980's and early 90's, but then he disappeared.
45 min
125
Videomate: Men
Videomate: Men is a VHS tape released in 1987 featuring 60 single men pitching themselves as dates to women on the other side of the TV screen, who could connect to these eligible bachelors from the comfort of their homes. Who thought this was a good idea?
32 min