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WBUR

Hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson dig into the internet's vast and curious ecosystem of online communities to find untold histories, unsolved mysteries, and other jaw-dropping stories online and IRL.

Endless Thread

What happens when we outsource aspects of our most personal moments to machines?

In the second installment of our two-part series on AI and relationships, we hear from Rhiannon Williams, a reporter for MIT Technology Review who spoke to people all over the world about how they're using AI to relate to their loved ones, including a man who turns to it during marital disputes, a French mother who uses it to craft nightly tales for her son, and a nursing student who calls her AI companion her "boyfriend."

Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter and edited by Meg Cramer. It was co-hosted by Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.

AI and Relationships, Part 2: AI Therapists and Bot Boyfriends

Amir Mizroch spent years deconstructing fairy tales for his children — and thinking that maybe, he could create something out of his analysis and storytelling for a wider audience. In the first episode of our two-part series on AI and relationships, we hear what Amir finally created, and explore the questions it raises about connection in the digital age.

Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter, and edited by Meg Cramer. It was co-hosted by Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.

AI and Relationships, Part 1: Into the Woods

In the past few years, videos from a new kind of camp have begun circulating the internet. They feature men participating in a variety of bizarre activities: from aggressively digging holes under floodlights, to collectively wailing in a pool of water. These are man camps, where men can pay up to $18,000 to undergo extreme boot-camp-like conditioning in the name of reclaiming their masculinity.

This week on Endless Thread, host Ben Brock Johnson and senior producer Dean Russell, dive into the past, present and future of man camps.

Show notes:

 Learning 'how to be a man' in the Californian desert: Man Camp • (The Guardian)

Bootcamp for Men: from betas to alphas

On this week's Endless Thread, host Ben Brock Johnson and producer Grace Tatter bring us two stories about the power of livestreams – one from the Coldplay concert box seats, and another from a notorious rat corridor in Brooklyn, NYC.

Show notes:

 What's the deal with "Astronomer" CEO and CPO affair? • (Reddit)

 A Crown Heights Building's Rat Infestation • Gets a Livestream (Hell Gate)

 Rat cam • (YouTube/Adam Schleser)

 I am a rat (a real live rotten-tailed rat) • (YouTube/Adam Schleser)

Kisscams, ratcams, Barbra Streisand

Kristen Sotakoun (@notkahnjunior on TikTok) says she has always been 'the FBI of the friend group' – that person you can count on to dig up the juicy details on anyone's social media.

It's a skillset that has earned her millions upon millions of views on TikTok in a series she has dubbed 'consensual doxing.' In her videos, Kristen completes challenges from her viewers to find their birthdays, using only publicly posted information online.

Kristen is now a handful of creators on TikTok who are making consensual doxing videos as educational content, encouraging viewers to think more deeply about what they post online, and where.

On this week's Endless Thread, we dive into the world of consensual doxing, what it can teach us about our privacy, and host Ben Brock Johnson gets (consensually) doxed.

Show notes:

 I got popular on TikTok by being a total creep • (Business Insider)

 This Man Proves You Can Find Anyone Using Geolocation — and It's a Scary Lesson for All of Us • (Distractify)

 ‘Consensual doxxing’ reveals the confronting truth about online privacy - you’re not as hidden as you think • (7NEWS Australia)

Thinking Outside the Dox: What 'consensual doxing' can teach us about internet privacy

What does the thumbs-up emoji mean to you? Or the wilted rose? The meanings of emojis are limitless and can differ across social groups or generations. On this episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory discuss two stories about how certain emojis have taken on surprising meanings.

Show notes:
* Here’s why the Aerial Tramway Emoji is suddenly in every YouTube comment section (daily dot)
*Alright guys.. What is does this emoji mean and why is it used so much? (Reddit)

There's a new emoji for sadness :(

If you feel like it's been raining a lot on the weekends this summer, you're not alone. A couple months ago, we noticed a thread on r/boston asking why? So, we enlisted the help of one of our WBUR colleagues, Climate and Environment Corespondent Barbara Moran to clear things up once and for all.

Show notes:

 Rain Every Weekend??? • (Reddit)

 OMG, why is it raining every Saturday in Boston? • (WBUR)

Why it feels like it rains every weekend

This episode originally aired on July 12, 2024. It has been updated to more clearly represent communication with Kayleigh Grant about a conversation with Kristian Parton.

When Endless Thread producer Grace Tatter heard a friend assert that she could ward off a shark because of TikTok, Grace was both concerned for her friend's safety, and curious. Why are there so many videos about "redirecting" sharks on TikTok, and how accurate are they?

Hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson dive into the controversial world of SharkTok, where influencers are trying to show a different side of sharks by getting up close and personal with them.

Show notes:

 Mermaid Kayleigh • (Instagram)

 Welcome to Shark Bytes • (YouTube)

 Steven Spielberg • on the BBC's 
Desert Island Disks
 A diver's extremely close visit with a great white shark went viral. Marine biologists say don't copy her. • (Washington Post)
Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter with Cici Yu. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. It was hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson.

Episodes We Love: How to Fight a Shark

This week on Endless Thread, we're raiding our refrigerators and rating our favorite condiments with TikTok creator and author "Condiment Claire" Dinhut. We learn about the surprising history of some of our favorite flavor-enhancers, and Claire shares her secrets for using up the last bits of sauce in a jar and how she keeps her online presence appetizing.

Show notes:

The Condiment Book (Flatiron Books)

Credits: This episode was written and produced by Grace Tatter. Mix and sound design by Paul Vaitkus. It was hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson.

Raiding the fridge with Condiment Claire

In the hours leading up to Israel commencing its June missile strikes on Iran, X users were posting about pizza. Specifically, how pizza places around the United States Pentagon were experiencing an unusual spike in business. 

The Pentagon Pizza Index refers to a theory that dates back to the Cold War, suggesting that increased pizza orders around the Pentagon could be a harbinger of imminent military action by the U.S. or its close allies.

In this special episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory dig into the Pizza Index, its history and make some calls to Pentagon-area pizza places for a hot slice of reality pie.

Show notes:

 Pentagon Pizza Report • (X)

 Happening Right Now: Dominos Nearest the Pentagon is "Busier than usual" • (Reddit)

 Pentagon Pizza Monitor Appeared To Predict Israel Attack • (Newsweek)

 What is the Pentagon Pizza theory eating away at the internet? • (Euro News)

 Pentagon Pizza Index: The theory that surging pizza orders signal global crises • (Fast Company)

War and Pizza

Could a unit of Marines destroy the entire Roman Empire if they traveled back in time? That is the question that inspired the now-legendary Reddit thread that turned James Erwin from an anonymous commenter into a Hollywood screenwriter. His once-in-a-lifetime opportunity did not go exactly as planned.

Rome, Sweet Rome

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