Encore: The Internet's Most Hated Bird
Endless Thread5 Syys 2025

Encore: The Internet's Most Hated Bird

As summer fades away, we bring you an encore episode about you shoreline companions and occasional bullies — gulls.

Gulls are not beloved creatures. Consult social media, where they are deemed relentless, dirty pests who steal our food and crowd our beaches. As one TikTok user puts it, "Seagulls are the worst animals to ever exist."

Such hatred overlooks truths about this intelligent, charismatic animal, and it is masking a big problem: While gulls may seem like they are everywhere, many species are dying.

Endless Thread goes on a journey to reconsider the seagull.

You can learn more and see photos of the gulls of Appledore here.

Credits: This episode was written and produced by Dean Russell. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. The hosts are Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson. It was edited by managing producer, Samata Joshi.

*** Survey alert: Tell us what you love about the show, what you want more of; what you could stand a little less of. And if you complete the survey, we'll send you an extra episode (what Ben's calling a "dashboard confessional") in January.

Take the survey here: wbur.org/endlessthreadsurvey

Thank you!

Jaksot(434)

Hidden Levels Ep. 6: Segagaga

Hidden Levels Ep. 6: Segagaga

The final episode of Hidden Levels explores the story of SEGA developer Tez Okano and the bizarre, meta-game he created: Segagaga. Okano joined SEGA in 1992, witnessing firsthand the company's tumult...

24 Loka 202540min

Hidden Levels Ep. 5: Press B to Touch Grass

Hidden Levels Ep. 5: Press B to Touch Grass

Video games are arguably the antithesis of nature; highly constructed worlds, synthetic, inorganic. If you grew up gaming, you may recall grown-ups telling you to shut down the console, go outside, an...

22 Loka 202541min

Hidden Levels: Surgical Precision (Side Quest)

Hidden Levels: Surgical Precision (Side Quest)

Dr. James "Butch" Rosser was a pioneer in minimally invasive surgery in the 1990s. When he credited his surgical skills to video games, people dismissed him. The prevailing narrative was that kids who...

21 Loka 202524min

Hidden Levels Ep. 4: Machinima

Hidden Levels Ep. 4: Machinima

Machinima — a portmanteau of “machine” and “cinema” — refers to movies filmed inside video games. The art form had a renaissance in the 1990s, and many thought it had a future in Hollywood. Among the ...

18 Loka 202545min

Hidden Levels: Choose Your Player (Side Quest)

Hidden Levels: Choose Your Player (Side Quest)

Today, Stef Sanjati is a creator on YouTube with over half a million subscribers. Her content mostly focuses on her two greatest loves — makeup and gaming — often combining the two with her otherworld...

17 Loka 202531min

Hidden Levels Ep. 3: This Game Wants YOU

Hidden Levels Ep. 3: This Game Wants YOU

For decades, the U.S. Army has been on edge about recruitment, hitting its goals for a few years, only to miss them again. As part of their strategy to combat recruiting concerns, the Army has turned ...

14 Loka 202544min

Hidden Levels Ep. 2: Stick It to 'Em

Hidden Levels Ep. 2: Stick It to 'Em

In this second episode of Hidden Levels, Amory traces the history of the humble-yet-genius joystick — from early 20th century aviation, to 1970s video game consoles like the Atari 2600, to the Nintend...

10 Loka 202541min

Hidden Levels Ep. 1: Mr. Boomshakalaka

Hidden Levels Ep. 1: Mr. Boomshakalaka

Welcome to our all-new collaborative series, "Hidden Levels," in which we team up with 99% Invisible to explore how the world of video games has impacted the world beyond. We’ll dive deep into how gam...

7 Loka 202537min