pop culture

Two women worked inside Facebook years apart, and both tried to warn the world about the exact same harms. One of these women became a household name, the other got a gag order. This episode tells both stories side by side, and asks whether Meta's $1...

An aspiring comedian enters a sweepstakes challenge and unknowingly becomes one of Japan’s biggest television stars. Nasubi’s 15-month ordeal reveals how an unlocked door, an unseen audience and a desperate hope for fame can turn entertainment into e...

DashCon 2014 was Tumblr’s infamous failed convention: a ball pit, guest cancellations, and a frantic $17,000 cash appeal that turned fandom excitement into internet legend. We trace how a dream of bringing online community into real life collapsed in...

The story of Marilyn Monroe began unassumingly, with a shy, anxious girl known simply as Norma Jean. Out of a brutal childhood, Hollywood constructed the blonde bombshell: a persona shaped by damage, fame, and public fantasy, transforming Norma Jean ...

Biosphere 2 was meant to be a closed ecosystem proving humans could survive under glass, until an oxygen crisis forced secret fixes and triggered a spectacular public meltdown over trust, control, and what “success” even means.

A reality show convinces contestants they’ve been launched into space, pulling off the most audacious hoax in British TV history. We explore how producers engineered the illusion—and why the participants believed it.

Eight artists discovered an unused void inside Providence Place Mall and turned it into a hidden apartment. What began as a seven-day experiment became four years of sofas, art, PlayStation sessions and living secretly behind the walls.

A silver balloon drifts across Colorado while millions watch, convinced a six-year-old boy is trapped inside. When Falcon Heene is found at home, relief turns into suspicion, outrage and a question that takes years to answer properly.

Charles Manson turned a Beatles song about a fairground slide into an apocalyptic prophecy. But was ‘Helter Skelter’ really the motive behind the Manson Family murders, or the story that made an impossible prosecution possible?

Tania Head became one of the most recognisable faces in the 9/11 survivor community. Her account of escaping the South Tower and losing her fiancé was devastating, detailed and entirely fabricated.

One artist got exclusive artistic access to Vantablack, an ultra-black material that swallows almost all visible light. Another answered with Pinkest Pink, a sales ban aimed at one very specific person, and one of modern art’s funniest public feuds.

Before reality television perfected the art of public humiliation, The Jerry Springer Show built a daytime empire from secret affairs, flying chairs and a chanting studio audience. Behind the chaos was a former mayor whose journey from serious politi...