Decoder Ring - Truck Nutz (Encore)
Slate Culture Feed12 Maalis 2025

Decoder Ring - Truck Nutz (Encore)

Truck Nutz is a brand name for the dangling plastic testicles some people affix to the bumpers or hitches of their vehicles. Also sold as Bulls Balls, Your Nutz, and other brand names, these plastic novelties have a powerful symbolic charge and are often associated with a crass, macho, red state audience. But truck nuts are a surprisingly complicated signifier whose symbolic power is increasingly divorced from their real-world usage.


On this episode, we talk to owners and users of truck nuts, investigate the origins of the accessories, and deconstruct the meaning of these oft-joked-about symbols. We’ll also take a tour of other novelty testicle products, including Bike Balls (testicular bike lights), Gunsticles (plastic testicles for guns), and Neuticles (prosthetic testicles for neutered pets), to better understand the maligned symbolism of truck nuts.


Links and further reading on some of the things we discussed on the show:



This episode was written by Willa Paskin and edited and produced by Benjamin Frisch. Decoder Ring is produced by Katie Shepherd and Max Freedman. Evan Chung is our supervising producer.


If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com. Or you can also call us now at our new Decoder Ring hotline at 347-460-7281. We love to hear any and all of your ideas for the show.

Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jaksot(2967)

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - Country Roads and Summer Nights Edition Part 1

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - Country Roads and Summer Nights Edition Part 1

These days, country and pop acts regularly invade each other’s territory. But in Nashville during the 1970s, “crossover” was a dirty word. Then came two rising stars who offered up a new hybrid of Ame...

14 Helmi 1h 4min

ICYMI - Stop Memeing the Epstein Files

ICYMI - Stop Memeing the Epstein Files

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Kat Tenbarge, who wrote “There's nothing funny about the Epstein Files,” to discuss how the internet has turned Jeffrey Epstein into a meme. While da...

11 Helmi 37min

Decoder Ring - Making Coal Cute Again

Decoder Ring - Making Coal Cute Again

Three weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum shared an unusual tweet: a cartoon image of himself with his arm draped around a giant, anthropomorphized lump of coal. This piece of coal h...

11 Helmi 43min

Culture Gabfest - Bad Bunny Spikes the Football Edition

Culture Gabfest - Bad Bunny Spikes the Football Edition

The sugarcane fields! La casita! Piraguas! Lady Gaga! Ricky Martin! An actual wedding! Bad Bunny’s immense and boisterous Super Bowl Halftime show brought a whole Puerto Rican universe to Levi’s Stadi...

11 Helmi 1h 3min

Death, Sex & Money - Becoming a Parent Of Six, At 25

Death, Sex & Money - Becoming a Parent Of Six, At 25

On the air, Yesi Ortiz is a warm, flirty host for a popular L.A. hip hop station. Off the air, she’s a single mother of six adopted kids. Managing both roles, plus romance, is a challenge.This episode...

10 Helmi 32min

Hang Up and Listen - The Bad Bunny Super Bowl

Hang Up and Listen - The Bad Bunny Super Bowl

Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh break down the Seattle Seahawks’ brickwall defense in the Super Bowl, plus Bad Bunny’s refreshing halftime performance.The panel then pivots to th...

10 Helmi 1h 23min

ICYMI - This Country Runs On Slop

ICYMI - This Country Runs On Slop

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Mia Sato, reporter at The Verge and author of the recent piece, “The rise of the slopagandist.” Creators like Nick Shirley are claiming to be journal...

7 Helmi 39min

Culture Gabfest - The Boss Responds to Minneapolis Edition

Culture Gabfest - The Boss Responds to Minneapolis Edition

This week, Steve, Dana and guest host Sam Adams talk anti-authoritarian art in its many forms. First, they take up It Was Just an Accident, the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning film by Iranian filmmaker Jafa...

4 Helmi 58min

Suosittua kategoriassa Viihde

anni-jaajo
tuplakaak
grekovit
hei-baby-3
terveisia-perheesta
the-harlin-show
dear-shirly
antin-palautepalvelu
bella-table
antin-elokuvakerho
verhon-takaa
dear-shirly-ja-arttu
nonsensepodi
everypodi
get-jassud
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
hollywood-love-stories-2
tahtitehdas
suomen-suosituin-podcast
rss-wivolinin-viisukevat