Best Bronze Age Pervert Podcasts (2024)

1
Episode 1: What’s Wrong with Eric? 29:00

1d ago29:00

29:00

Sports fans experience incredible highs and lows, and spend loads of money on a product over which they have no control. But for a long time, no one bothered to study the minds or impulses of fans. Michael Lewis finds out how that's changing as writers and academics learn more about the powerful psychology of fandom. Just in time for technology to …

1
Education in the Age of AI 41:59

15d ago41:59

41:59

The role of AI in the classroom is evolving rapidly. When students and teachers embrace this technology, it has the ability to democratize access to education through programs like IBM SkillsBuild. In this episode of Smart Talks with IBM, Dr. Laurie Santos, host of Pushkin’s The Happiness Lab podcast, spoke with two innovators in the space. Justina…

1
Revisiting: The Surprising, Queer History of the 1974 Oscars Streaker 38:18

7M ago38:18

38:18

With the 96th Academy Awards this Sunday, we wanted to revisit this episode from last year. The Oscars seems to be cursed with a series of chaotic live television gaffes. But one moment in Academy Award history takes the cake. In 1974, a scrawny white man named Robert Opel ran across the stage butt naked, right as the Best Picture category was bein…

1
The Duck Tales Bandit 31:42

1y ago31:42

31:42

After his cartooning career failed to take off, a German artist named Arno Funke started extorting department stores. He went by “Dagobert,” the German name for the character of Scrooge McDuck in the cartoon DuckTales. His crime spree lasted for years and made him a folk hero across Germany. Recently, reporter Jeff Maysh got to meet him. You can re…

1
How the Bronze Age Pervert Became a Far Right Icon 32:03

1y ago32:03

32:03

“Bronze Age Pervert” is the moniker of an influential far-right thinker. He has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. His book is a top-seller on Amazon, and was reviewed by a former Trump administration official. Journalist Graeme Wood knew him before all that, back when he was just a college student in tevas. You can read Graeme Wood’s A…

1
Learning to Be Blind 34:25

1y ago34:25

34:25

When Andrew Leland was a teenager he learned he had a rare disease that would cause him to become blind by the time he reached middle age. He recently decided to prepare by attending a special school for blind people. You can read Andrew’s essay for the New Yorker, “How to Be Blind” here: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/how-to-b…

1
The Billion Dollar Green Energy Scam 28:14

1y ago28:14

28:14

A car mechanic named Jeff Carpoff invented a portable solar generator. Companies like Geico and Progressive Insurance bought thousands of his generators because they got tax credits for doing so. But there was something not quite right about Carpoff’s invention. You can read Ariel Saber’s Atlantic story, “The Billion Dollar Ponzi Scheme that hooked…

1
Confessions of a Wedding Planner 26:50

1y ago26:50

26:50

Xochitl Gonzalez spent years planning the weddings of New York’s wealthiest couples. This is the story of the craziest wedding she’s ever planned. You can read Xochitl Gonzalez’s Atlantic story “The Fake Poor Bride,” here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/07/luxury-wedding-planners-industrial-complex-cost/674169/ See omnystudio.com…

1
The Pancake Battles 27:30

1y ago27:30

27:30

A developer named Domenic Broccoli wanted to build an IHOP in Fishkill, New York. But after it was discovered that the plot of land he was planning to build on may have been a Revolutionary War grave site, he became embroiled in a war of his own. You can read Reeves Wiedeman’s New York Magazine story “The Battle of Fishkill” here: https://www.curbe…

1
How Much is an Elephant Worth? 29:32

1y ago29:32

29:32

Laos used to be known as “the land of a million elephants.” Now, there are only about 800 elephants left in the country. Reporter Paul Kvinta went undercover to learn about the illegal elephant trade, and ended up putting in an offer on an elephant himself. You can read read Paul Kvinta’s Outside Magazine story “I Bought an Elephant to Find Out How…

1
The Implosion of a Leading Anti-COVID Vaccine Group 29:34

1y ago29:34

29:34

Simone Gold, a former ER doctor, is the founder of a non-profit called “America’s Frontline Doctors,” known for spreading misinformation about COVID. After she was arrested for taking part in the Jan. 6 insurrection, she received millions of dollars in donations. And that’s when the feuding within her organization began. You can read Joel Stein’s F…

1
How to Break a Guinness World Record 25:41

1y ago25:41

25:41

How did the Guinness World Records company come to be? And how, in the age of the internet, does the company make money? Imogen West-Knights spent a year investigating. She learned how to be a record adjudicator (it’s riskier than it sounds), met a man who has broken more than 700 records, and tried to break a record herself. You can read Imogen We…

1
A Visit to Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap Factory 23:50

1y ago23:50

23:50

The history of Dr. Bronner’s soap is even crazier than the famously crazy writing on the side of a Dr. Bronner’s soap bottle. The company was founded by a man who escaped from a mental asylum. Now it is the top-selling natural soap brand in North America. How did this happen? Carrie Battan paid their headquarters a visit to find out. You can read C…

1
The Never-Ending Treasure Hunt 28:17

1y ago28:17

28:17

In 2010, an art collector named Forrest Fenn published a memoir called “The Thrill of the Chase,” in which he described hiding a treasure chest somewhere in the United States. His memoir inspired hundreds of thousands of treasure hunters to scour the country for it. Now, over a decade later, much about this chest still remains a mystery. You can re…

1
An Undercover Romance 29:03

1y ago29:03

29:03

A woman in Louisiana named Donna Metrejean fell in love with a D.E.A agent in Oregon named Robert Golden. She uprooted her whole life to be with him. But all was not what it seemed. You can read Jeff Maysh’s story “Undercover Lovers” here: https://jeffmaysh.substack.com/p/undercover-lovers See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.…

1
Dave Chappelle’s Neighborhood Drama 29:27

1+ y ago29:27

29:27

Comedian Dave Chappelle has been buying up properties in the tiny town of Yellow Springs, Ohio. The residents have mixed feelings about their powerful neighbor’s real estate decisions and it’s been splitting the town in two. Reporter Tyler J. Kelley paid a visit to Yellow Springs to see if it’s really becoming Chappelleville. You can read Tyler J. …

1
Sex Wars 055: Karen Straughan 1:12:18

1+ y ago1:12:18

1:12:18

In which our intrepid hosts return from a long hiatus to rekindle the flame. Karen: https://www.youtube.com/user/girlwriteswhat https://twitter.com/girlwriteswhat?lang=en Annika: https://twitter.com/AnnikaSkywalker https://www.youtube.com/user/AnnikaSkywalkr lp: https://wlo.link/@lporiginalg http://ihypocrite.net/…

1
A Bloomsday Mystery 27:48

1+ y ago27:48

27:48

In celebration of Bloomsday on June 16th, we’re bringing you a special James Joyce mystery. Ten years after achieving stratospheric and unlikely fame, the world’s greatest Ulysses scholar disappeared. Reporter Jack Hitt went on a quest to find out if he was dead, alive or insane. You can read Jack Hitt’s New York Times story “The Strange Case of th…

1
The 15-Minute City Conspiracy 28:16

1+ y ago28:16

28:16

When a benign urban planning concept is co-opted by conspiracy theorists, an unsuspecting professor becomes the target of right-wing death threats. Tiffany Hsu covered the story of the 15 minute city conspiracy for The New York Times. You can read the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/technology/carlos-moreno-15-minute-cities-cons…

1
The Gathering of Thought Criminals 23:58

1+ y ago23:58

23:58

Every month in New York City, a small group of people who feel like they’ve been ostracized for holding unpopular opinions and their supporters meet up to chat, debate, and even sing folk songs. Reporter Emma Green attended a recent gathering. You can read Emma Green’s New Yorker story “The Party is Cancelled” here: https://www.newyorker.com/news/o…

1
Inside the Most Important Microchip Factory in the World 23:34

1+ y ago23:34

23:34

Nearly all of the high-end microchips in the world - the ones we depend on for our phones and cars – are manufactured in an unassuming factory in Taiwan. Virginia Heffernan is one of the few reporters to go inside. She wrote about what she saw for Wired. You can read Virginia Heffernan's story, "I Saw the Face of God in a Semiconductor Factory" her…

1
Bringing Tiffany Dover Back to Life 28:21

1+ y ago28:21

28:21

When a nurse named Tiffany Dover fainted on camera after getting a Covid vaccine, anti-vaxxers assumed the worst. Shortly after, the internet was awash in conspiracy theories that she was dead. NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny set out to prove that Tiffany Dover was alive. This turned out to be more difficult than she could have imagined. You can …

1
The Perils of Loving a Chatbot 26:03

1+ y ago26:03

26:03

On the Replica app, you can create an AI-powered chatbot to talk to, befriend, sext and even virtually marry. The service has millions of users. Some of them are now discovering that having a friend or spouse that’s owned by a private company comes with downsides. Pranshu Verma wrote "They fell in love with AI bots. A software update broke their he…

1
Melania’s Marine Mammal Mystery 23:28

1+ y ago23:28

23:28

In 2012, Melania Trump tweeted a photo of a smiling beluga whale and captioned it “what is she thinking?” Eleven years later, Sabrina Imbler, a journalist at Defector Media, decided to try to answer that question. You can read Sabrina Imbler’s full story, “What Was She Thinking? An Investigation,” here: https://defector.com/what-was-she-thinking-an…

1
The Autograph King of New York 26:54

1+ y ago26:54

26:54

Celebrity autographs are a billion dollar industry. And in New York City, “Radio Man” is better at collecting them than anybody else. He also regularly appears as an extra in movies and TV shows. How did a formerly homeless man come to be so beloved by celebrities? And how did he get so good at getting their autographs? Drew Schwartz wrote “Meet Ra…

1
Life Without Plastic (It’s Not Fantastic) 25:25

1+ y ago25:25

25:25

Is it possible to live for even a day without plastic? Stunt journalist extraordinaire A.J. Jacobs tries his best. And fails miserably. You can read the full New York Times story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/style/plastic-free.html See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.By Pushkin Industries

1
Putin’s Terrifying “Chef” 31:48

1+ y ago31:48

31:48

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian man nicknamed “Putin’s Chef” went from being a street criminal to a hot dog seller to owning a catering company that provides services to the Russian government. Oh yeah– and he’s also the head of a private military company that’s sending soldiers all over the world. How did Prigozhin turn global conflict into a lucrati…

1
How the Buy Nothing Movement Imploded 31:13

1+ y ago31:13

31:13

In 2013, two women started a Facebook group called “Buy Nothing” for their local community on Bainbridge Island to swap unwanted items for free. But their small group quickly grew, becoming a national movement with millions of users. A coup within Buy Nothing raised questions about if it’s possible to create a utopian project within a broken societ…

1
A ‘90s Rapper & A Wanted Malaysian Billionaire 37:36

1+ y ago37:36

37:36

UPDATE: Since we recorded this episode on 03/09, Guo Wengui was arrested in New York City on charges of financial conspiracy. For years, rapper Pras Michél has allegedly been doing the bidding of wanted Malaysian billionaire, Jho Low. Pras’s baffling, Icarian story involves one of the greatest financial scandals in history, an international hostage…

1
The Surprising, Queer History of the 1974 Oscars Streaker 38:18

1+ y ago38:18

38:18

The Oscars seems to be cursed with a series of chaotic live television gaffes. But one moment in Academy Award history takes the cake. In 1974, a scrawny white man named Robert Opel ran across the stage butt naked, right as the Best Picture category was being announced. New Yorker magazine writer and Oscars aficionado Michael Schulman recounts the …

1
The New Etiquette Rules 26:15

1+ y ago26:15

26:15

Tipping. Dinner parties. Canceling plans. We could all use an etiquette guide that teaches us to live without pissing people off. Luckily, New York Magazine has one – and it went viral. We (politely) asked Choire Sicha, who edited that guide, to come on our show. You can read the full list from New York Magazine here: https://www.thecut.com/article…

1
The East River Mammoth Tusk Hoax 25:06

1+ y ago25:06

25:06

What happens when extinct animal skeletons meet the “Joe Rogan Experience”? The answer is murky, freezing, and may contain submerged cars. This week, we bring on Michael Wilson from the New York Times, who wrote about how a fossil-excavating reality TV star came on Joe Rogan’s podcast to make a bombshell claim: that there are mammoth tusks at the b…

1
The Grey’s Anatomy Liar 26:39

1+ y ago26:39

26:39

What happens when you pretend you’re a medical miracle? Lots of things, as TV writer Elisabeth Finch found out – including gaining a job writing for Grey’s Anatomy. For a decade, Finch lied about having a rare and deadly form of cancer and fooled everybody in Hollywood. On this week’s episode, we bring on Peter Kiefer, the reporter who broke the st…

1
The Bonnie and Clyde of the Art World 25:29

1+ y ago25:29

25:29

Suspicious art dealers, fraudulent documents, and huge egos--the only thing worse than the uppity art world is how much it relies on laundered art from other countries. On this week’s episode, we bring on Sam Tabachnik to unpack his sprawling three-part series for The Denver Post all about one duo’s international operation to smuggle and sell South…

1
The Weirdest Poker Hand of All Time 27:33

1+ y ago27:33

27:33

Robbi Jade Lew broke the world of poker with an incredibly unlikely win against Garrett Adelstein. Her win went viral and the internet exploded with dueling accusations of sexism and cheating. Andrea Chang reported on the scandal for the Los Angeles Times and recounts all the suspicious details. You can read the full story here: https://www.latimes…

1
Carnivorous Plants Will Ruin Your Life 29:16

1+ y ago29:16

29:16

Inside the flourishing world of online plant fanclubs lies a deep, dark obsession: people who dedicate their entire lives to caring for Nepenthes, or carnivorous pitcher plants. On this week’s episode, Brian Howey, a former “Nephead” tells us about the carnivorous plant subculture that nearly ate him (and many others) alive. You can read the full s…

1
Hawaii's Zombie Cats 22:57

1+ y ago22:57

22:57

Hawaii’s Kauai island is overrun by half a million feral cats, many of which are infected with toxoplasmosis. These infected cats pose an existential threat to the native habitat, including Kauai’s endangered monk seals. The island's animal-loving community has fallen into chaos; It's zombie-cat people versus everyone else. Paul Kvinta covered the …

1
The Bad Boy of Chess 24:41

1+ y ago24:41

24:41

Magnus Carlsen, the greatest chess player in the world, accused 19-year-old Hans Niemann of cheating. Why? Because Niemann beat him twice. Carlsen and the chess world can't prove Niemann is cheating, but they're convinced he is. The accusations are tearing apart the chess world and raising questions about maintaining fair play in a high-tech world.…

1
Queen of the Phone Hackers 24:39

1+ y ago24:39

24:39

One of the first computer hackers was a woman. She pulled some of the most elaborate computer hacks of the 80's and yet no one knows her name. Host Joel Stein speaks to Claire L. Evans about her article in the Verge, “Searching for Susy Thunder.” You can read the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/c/22889425/susy-thunder-headley-hackers-phon…

1
Christmas Tree Mafia 24:07

2y ago24:07

24:07

New York’s curbside Christmas tree business is run by a small group of ruthless, shadowy men. Owen Long, a tree salesman in Brooklyn, takes us into his world and reveals the characters, crimes, and even murders of the New York City “tree men.” You can read the full story here: https://www.curbed.com/article/christmas-tree-trade-secrets-gregs-trees-…

1
Hunting the Crypto Drug Lords 29:21

2y ago29:21

29:21

A group of DEA agents from Fresno, California figures out the real name of a Dark Web drug kingpin. But before they can make the arrest, they have to follow him to Thailand and into the on-line world of pick-up artists. Andy Greenberg's sprawling Wired article is so intense it made host Joel Stein want to take drugs. You can read the whole 6-part s…

1
How to Be a Good White Savior 30:37

2y ago30:37

30:37

Iranian-American scholar Reza Aslan talks about his article for The Atlantic, "How to Avoid the White Savior Industrial Complex," which tells the story of his childhood hero, missionary Howard Baskerville. Reza argues that the world needs more good, white saviors like Baskerville. Joel wants nothing to do with trying to be a good, white anything in…

1
Park Slope Panthers 25:09

2y ago25:09

25:09

A crime in Park Slope, Brooklyn – the heart of gentrified Brooklyn – leads residents to form a neighborhood watch group. Esther Wang, who writes for Hell Gate, attended the group's tiny first meeting, which somehow managed to showcase all the divisions roiling liberal politics. Host Joel Stein does his best to keep up. He doesn't do a great job. Yo…

1
The Mobster and the Mormon 28:30

2y ago28:30

28:30

Michele McPhee traces a wild scam to bilk the U.S. Government out of $500 million. The plan was hatched by a young man from a polygamist Mormon sect in Utah and it soon involves the Armenian mob and the President of Turkey. McPhee lays out all the twists and turns in her article in Los Angeles Magazine. Host Joel Stein tries to keep up while still …

1
Living Like Founding Fathers 24:14

2y ago24:14

24:14

A.J. Jacobs spent a month following the most conservative interpretation of the Constitution possible. One not far from how the current Supreme Court has been ruling. Host Joel Stein, talks to him about his article for the Guardian, "Party Like It's 1789! My Weird, Enlightening Month Living Strictly by the U.S. Constitution." Does A.J. wind up poin…

1
Fake Gay-Conversion Camp 30:54

2y ago30:54

30:54

In this week's episode, we're LARPing, live-action roleplaying that gets you to step out of your own shoes and into a character's. Writer and first-time LARP-er Jason Anthony decides to go to Denmark to roleplay at a fake gay-conversion camp, which all seems like fun – until his queer American brain snaps. Also, host Joel Stein talks about his own …

1
10 Straight Years on Tinder 23:05

2y ago23:05

23:05

Allison P. Davis wrote “My Tinder Decade” a New York Magazine cover about being on the dating app from the very beginning. And never going on more than five dates with anyone. How has Tinder changed her? How has it changed all of us? Host Joel Stein tries to find out without being creepy. He fails. You can read the full story here: https://www.thec…

1
Billionaires Prepping for the Apocalypse 26:30

2y ago26:30

26:30

Douglas Ruskhoff was invited to speak to a group of tech guys at a conference in the middle of the desert. Instead, they asked him questions about how to build their bunkers to prepare for The Event. Host Joel Stein speaks to him about his Medium story “Survival of the Richest.” You can read the full story here: https://onezero.medium.com/survival-…

1
The Hallucinogenic Toad Doctor 26:16

2y ago26:16

26:16

A Mexican doctor and former crack addict’s TED talk at Burning Man helped popularize hallucinogenic toad poison as a treatment for addiction…and a shortcut to enlightenment. Host Joel Stein speaks to Kimon De Greef about his New Yorker article “The Pied Piper of Psychedelic Toads.” You can read the full story here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazin…

1
Introducing Story of the Week 2:24

2y ago2:24

2:24

Every week host Joel Stein picks a long magazine article that fascinates him – and then actually reads the whole thing, all by himself. Then he calls his fellow, but greatly superior journalist friend who wrote it, and gets them to tell him all about it. He does the work and you get the stories. More accurately, some great journalist does the work …

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Bronze Age Pervert Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

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