Trailer ILL EFFECTS - Series 1

In spring 2025, Andrew Tate was linked to a shocking murder case in the UK. Just days later, Netflix released Adolescence, a drama about a young killer seemingly shaped by the online manosphere. In th...

31 Juli 20251h 48min

What if your favourite cop show was really a recruitment ad in disguise? This week, Rich introduces Ben to the world of on-screen ‘copaganda’. From Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Wire through to TikTok li...

17 Juli 20251min

In the summer of 2024, pop star Chappell Roan publicly called out her fans for being “creepy” and “weird,” asking, “if you saw a random woman on the street, would you yell at her from the car window?”...

3 Juli 20251h 11min

This week, Rich fires up the dial-up and drags Ben back to the '90s, when computer porn was “technology’s HIV” and the moral panic went full throttle. It’s ILL EFFECTS bingo: lurid headlines, laughabl...

19 Juni 20251h 31min

Can television make you kinder? Can video games make you smarter? Can porn improve your maths skills? Wait, what? In this episode, Ben walks Rich through a curious set of popular claims circulating in...

5 Juni 20251min

Ill effects does Hot Ones! Ben and Rich talk about using hot sauce as a measure of aggression in lab-based experiments when studying the relationship between media and violence. They do this while unw...

22 Maj 20251h 2min

Knife crime, hip hop, and... Vanessa Carlton?!? In 2018, drill music became known as the soundtrack to social collapse—accused of inciting violence, corrupting youth, and starting gang wars via YouTub...

8 Maj 20251h 42min

[Eat popcorn!] In 1957, market researcher James Vicary promised he could flash split-second commands on movie screens and subconsciously influence audiences to buy things. He called it subliminal adve...

24 Apr 20251min