Decoder Ring

We bring you a special episode from Sidedoor, a podcast about the treasures that fill the vaults of the Smithsonian. This story is inspired by “Big Band,” a defining work by the painter LeRoy Neiman. ...

26 Apr 202333min

Last week, we put on the proverbial raincoat and made like Columbo to investigate Peter Falk’s claim that he recorded a special Cold War message telling Romanians to “put down their guns.” This week, ...

19 Apr 202336min

Not too long ago an old clip surfaced of Peter Falk on David Letterman, in which he told an intriguing tale about recording a special Cold War message for Romanian state television. The clip went vira...

12 Apr 202339min

Decoder Ring is back with a new season of cultural mysteries to crack. We'll kick things off with a proper Cold War caper....did Peter Falk, star of the old TV show Columbo, really team up with the U....

5 Apr 20231min

Host Willa Paskin and producer Katie Shepherd discuss how this season of Decoder Ring came together.Slate Plus members have access to this whole interview. Sign up for Slate Plus to access this exclus...

9 Jan 20231min

We’re really lucky to get a lot of listener emails, suggesting topics for the show. In this episode, we’re going to dig into a handful of the most fascinating ones that we’ve yet to tackle on the show...

27 Dec 202234min

(This episode originally aired in March 2020.)The 1998 romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, is about the brutal fight between a beloved indie bookstore, the Shop Around th...

20 Dec 202236min

Ross Cellino and Steve Barnes were two Buffalo-based lawyers who became the literal poster-men for personal injury advertising. They poured millions of dollars into ads that did more than just bring i...

13 Dec 202235min