Ignore All Previous Instructions
How do you break a bot? Recently, one sneaky idea turned into an online meme. Tell the bot, "Ignore all previous instructions and..." Then you fill in the blank. Such was the case for Toby Muresianu....
6 Sep 202426min
The Internet's Most Hated Bird
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 anima...
30 Aug 202437min
Bad Assumptions
A blurry video surfaces on the r/trashy subreddit of what appears to be a work dispute in an unspecified African country. A Chinese man slaps a clipboard out of a Black worker's hands, then leaves the...
23 Aug 202437min
Singing About the Rain
What is it about weather reporters that makes them so goofy? Whatever it is, today, meteorologists have appeal far beyond the airwaves. Several have gained celebrity on TikTok and YouTube. One such w...
16 Aug 202418min
The Digital Cage
When Hashim crossed the U.S.-Mexico border seeking asylum in 2020, he was tired—tired of running, tired of being locked in cages. Hashim was a political activist in Uganda, his home country, where he...
9 Aug 202436min
The context of all in which we live
When future generations learn about the launch of current Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, memes are going to be part of the story. Election season has always yielded yuks on the i...
2 Aug 202426min
The American Lean
It's an idea that pops up on Reddit from time to time: that Americans have a unique propensity lean on things. Walls. Chairs. Anything to keep from holding up our own body weight. In fact, some posit ...
26 Jul 202419min
This Bonus Drop is Marked Seggsplicit
Is it just us, or has almost everything on the internet — even breaking news — become NSFW? In this bonus episode, Endless Thread host Ben Brock Johnson and producer Grace Tatter parse an eggplant em...
20 Jul 202418min
