Right now, you might be thinking someone, somewhere, is on the internet doing something for money that’s really awful. That’s probably true, and has been in the past. Although, plenty of times it’s not — take Bonsai Kittens — but what about Red Rooms, where you can supposedly pay for assassinations or watch live torture? Today journalist Carl Miller joins us to talk about the dark web. What’s actually on there, how people use it, and how much should we be panicking about it? Our guest Carl Mille...
Mar 12, 2025•1 hr•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast On the bad side, we have copyright infringement, exploitation, and misinformation; on the good side, we have its uses for brainstorming, editing work, and combating loneliness. On both sides, everyone is freaking out about AI — but are we freaking out about it for the right reasons? Casey Newton joins us to make the pitch that whatever you think, AI is not “crypto 2.0.” Everyone, in every generation, needs to take it seriously. Our guest Casey Newton is a tech journalist who founded and writes f...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Perhaps you’ve seen someone pop off online about a delivery order going wrong, or it being too expensive. Maybe you’ve been one of those people. Some call them “Treatlerites” — “treat” + “Hitler,” of course — and it’s when general panic ensues after someone acts selfishly dictatorial about their delivery app output, and foolishly decides to rant about it online. Allegra Rosenberg joins us to discuss how much we should be reacting to this. Our guest Allegra Rosenberg is a writer, producer, and Ga...
Feb 26, 2025•56 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Ryan and Grant discuss what we've seen one month into the second Trump Administration, and what it means. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .
Feb 24, 2025•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast When it comes to modern relationships, most reporting has three main points: Gen Z is sexless and puritan, Millennials are scared about their inevitable doom, and Boomers are boozers who are going down swinging — literally. In this age of social media and apps, we couldn’t help but wonder: has technology made dating worse? Magdalene Taylor joins us to talk about what led to the “loneliness and isolation epidemic” and what we can do about it, or if we’re screwed (and not in a good way). Our guest...
Feb 19, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast As of this recording, 17 states don’t have access to PornHub. You might assume that’s because of very normal people like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson needing to monitor his son’s masturbation habits, but was it conservatives’ fault? Or… was it well-meaning liberals? Junlper joins us to discuss who is behind this new and extreme porn ban, and its implications beyond those states and across the country. Our guest Junlper works for The Onion and cohosts the podcast Western Kabuki. You can foll...
Feb 12, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Americans love not believing anything the government tells us, and it seems likely we’ll just keep coming up with stories to explain what is probably really boring in real life. The latest of these is the mysterious drones that descended upon New Jersey and then vanished without a trace. Dylan Thuras joins us to shed light on Americans’ love of conspiracy theories, which naturally begins with Area 51. Our guest Dylan Thuras is the co-founder of Atlas Obscura. Follow his work at https://www.atlas...
Feb 05, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Momo and the Blue Whale Challenge are two trends that targeted young social media users, supposedly challenging them to an escalating series of dares. Were these viral “challenges” actually causing kids to kill themselves, or was it all a hoax? Alex Goldman joins us to trace the origins of these “suicide games,” as well as the fallout that resulted from them. Our guest Alex Goldman is the host of a great new podcast called Hyperfixed. Find that anywhere you listen to podcasts, and you can find h...
Jan 29, 2025•1 hr 24 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast America is in a “will they or won’t they” situation with TikTok, but it’s not cute. As of last week, the app was finally set to get banned, but over the weekend Trump stayed its execution. Because we don’t really know if/when the app will get deleted, instead, let’s look back at how we got to this dark and dumb moment in the first place. Rachel Gilmore joins us to talk about where it all began: like so many other things, with Gen Z and Osama bin Laden. Our guest Rachel Gilmore is a journalist. Y...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Producer Grant joins Ryan to talk about how Mark Zuckerberg went from looking and acting like “Every Guy Walking Down the Street in Boston in the Mid-2000s” to his current era, “I Work in the Financial District and I’m Dating A Girl from Bushwick,” and said man’s recent announcement that Meta would no longer be employing fact checkers, instead relying on community notes to flag offensive content. Catch the full episode and plenty of other great bonus content, plus ad-free episodes, by joining ou...
Jan 15, 2025•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast On January 7, 2021, did you think the storming of the capitol would be politically successful? Charlie Warzel joins us on the eve of Donald Trump retaking the White House to weigh that question as he and Ryan trace the origins of the insurrection and its ultimate impact on US politics. Our guest Charlie Warzel is a writer for The Atlantic and for his Substack, Galaxy Brain (https://warzel.substack.com/). You can follow him there or @cwarzel on X and Instagram, or @cwarzel.bsky.social. Catch the ...
Jan 08, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Ryan and Grant talk about the fallout from Luigi Mangione's alleged assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and whether or not it will have ripple effects in this political climate. Want to hear the full episode? Sign up for a membership at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Dec 20, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s the end of the year episode, so we’re talking about some of the best — and worst — things on the internet for 2024. Joining us are friends of the pod Katie Notopoulos and Luke Bailey, plus our producer Grant Irving and the big on-air debut of our researcher, Adam Bumas. Happy holidays, panickers! Make sure to touch grass this holiday season. Follow our guests! (And researcher!) Luke Bailey @lukebailey.bsky.social Katie Notopoulos @katienotopoulos / @katienotopoulos.bsky.social Adam Bumas bu...
Dec 18, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast Despite society’s progress on gender norms, there is a historic divide on the "boy-girl internet," which recently has started to reemerge — the charge being led by Gen Z influencers. This week, writers Rebecca Jennings and Luke Winkie join us to answer the question: Are the kids all right? Our guests are Rebecca Jennings, a senior correspondent at Vox who also runs the Rebeccacore newsletter, and Luke Winkie, a staff writer for Slate who also runs the On Posting newsletter. You can follow their ...
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast He’s conquered YouTube, but can he conquer traditional media? And also burgers and snack bars, for some reason. Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson of Endless Thread join the show to help us figure out how we should feel about Mr. Beast, and how much is simply too much to know about the influencers we love (and love to hate). Our guests Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson are the hosts of Endless Thread — the professional version of this podcast — where they dig into untold histories, unsolv...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast Ryan and our producer Grant talk about the recent brush with politics sweeping across an unexpected community—or is it?—PerfumeTok. Full episode can be found at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Nov 26, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Part of the reason Republicans ran away with the 2024 election is because they used misinformation to make millions of people think that the government was trying to forcibly transition their kids. So, this week we’re investigating some of the origins of that scaremongering by looking at the conspiracy theory that Tumblr turned an entire generation trans. How did this theory spread? And what did Tumblr actually do to our brains? Vera Drew joins us to speak to her experience navigating the intern...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast 
