Announcing 'Hidden Levels': how the videogame world has changed the world beyond videogames
Endless Thread6 Okt 2025

Announcing 'Hidden Levels': how the videogame world has changed the world beyond videogames

Have you ever jumped on something as you're moving through the real world, and heard that Mario bouncy sound in your head? Or maybe seen someone acting like an NPC when they're a real person? Maybe you know that the first real "in-app" purchase was actually a weapons store in an arcade game version of Double Dragon 3.

Wherever you go in the real world, you can find signs of the influence of videogames. But you have to know where to look. That's why Endless Thread and 99% Invisible are launching a new limited series together called Hidden Levels.

Today Roman Mars and Ben Brock Johnson kick off the series with a little preview of what's coming.

Avsnitt(447)

Obscure music is good and nice!

Obscure music is good and nice!

Some rare folks are born with the perfect music taste. But most of us have to look elsewhere for a tune that sparks a shoulder shimmy or two. Hosts Ben and Amory spend some time jamming to obscure mus...

27 Feb 24min

Fresh, stale, or politics? The Melania doc's Rotten Tomatoes score, explained

Fresh, stale, or politics? The Melania doc's Rotten Tomatoes score, explained

Melania, a documentary about the first lady, has a 10 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, but a 90 percent score from audience members, an unusual discrepancy that raises the question, how ...

20 Feb 24min

Rewind: Love In Transition

Rewind: Love In Transition

In this OG throwback from the Endless Thread archives, hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson revisit a classic episode from their first year of production in 2018. Originally produced during th...

13 Feb 33min

You're Wrong About the Satanic Panic

You're Wrong About the Satanic Panic

In the 1980s, a moral panic swept across America. Parents, prosecutors, and talk show hosts became convinced that devil worshippers were hiding in plain sight, abusing children at daycares, performing...

6 Feb 23min

Hot (and not) fruit takes

Hot (and not) fruit takes

What temperature do you like your fruit? What is the correct way to peel a banana? This week on Endless Thread, Ben and Amory cherry pick a couple of the hottest fruit debates taking place on Reddit. ...

30 Jan 20min

The Alpha Male Myth

The Alpha Male Myth

In 1970, a young biologist named David Mech published what could be the most consequential book on wolves ever written. At the time, The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species, was th...

23 Jan 26min

The Anvillain

The Anvillain

Fast-and-cheap shipping is now foundational to the American way of life, thanks in large part to Amazon Prime. Still, when producer Grace Tatter sees a video of a man claiming that he's continuously o...

16 Jan 28min

Algospeak

Algospeak

Adam Aleksic's Roman Empire is language, particularly how algorithms are changing the way we all use words. This week, Endless Thread gets algospeak-pilled and learns how "unalive" spread from a kids'...

9 Jan 25min

Populärt inom Teknik

uppgang-och-fall
elbilsveckan
bilar-med-sladd
market-makers
rss-uppgang-och-fall
rss-elektrikerpodden
rss-laddstationen-med-elbilen-i-sverige
rss-veckans-ai
skogsforum-podcast
gubbar-som-tjotar-om-bilar
har-vi-akt-till-mars-an
rss-powerboat-sverige-podcast
developers-mer-an-bara-kod
bli-saker-podden
hej-bruksbil
rss-en-ai-till-kaffet
natets-morka-sida
rss-technokratin
rss-sakerhetspodcasten
rss-snacka-om-ai