12 Podcasts That Explore the Weirdest Corners of the Internet
The internet is a place full of dark corners, deep rabbit holes, endless mazes, and wild themes. But with chaos comes storytelling gold: these 12 podcasts use communities like Reddit, Yelp, Twitter, and Tumblr to get to the other side of the digital world, with their hosts acting as your expert guides. Buckle up. Everything will be weird.
Has entered
Dazed ‘s Logged On is a monthly series focusing on every aspect of internet culture, from memes to new trends, deep web conspiracy theories and more. Host Gunseli Yalchinkaya dives into the micro and nano cultures of sigma men, Deleuzian cat people, techno-spirituality and psychology and brings in experts to help understand what these words mean and how they are changing the world. The first episode discussed the meaning of the word “middle” and had a great conversation about how the internet is flattening our culture.
There are no girls on the Internet
The internet can be a dark and confusing place, especially if you’re part of a marginalized community. Which is ironic, because often it is these voices that shape Internet culture. In No Girls on the Internet, Bridget Todd chronicles our online experience and examines how marginal voices have shaped the Internet from the very beginning. Now that Elon Musk has driven Twitter into the ground, we’re all wondering, where will we be next? What do we need to know about AI? Is it for our jobs? The new season of TANGOTI, dubbed “The Real Future”, shows how women today are planning for a better and brighter technological future, and what you need to know to be ready for it.
AISIMI
Rachel Hampton and Candice Lim are online all the time everywhere, so you don’t have to be online. At ICYMI , they capture the digital themes and trends everyone is talking about — the ones that shape our culture — and explain why. If you’ve ever felt left out of a conversation, this is a way to wrap your brain around it. The hosts are fully aware of the latest TikTok fashion trends, Twitter Blue, buying concert tickets online, West Elm Caleb and everything going on in the digital zeitgeist. Drops out twice a week. Keep up the good work and you’ll be all set.
Endless thread
Most Endless Thread stories start out as something weird found on Reddit and grow from there into a story about people in real life. Using stories, interviews and discussions, hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson find the people involved in the stories and bring their themes to life. The show is full of mysteries and personal experiences that will give you a glimpse into the lives of people around the world both online and offline.
Dark Web Diaries
In The Dark Web Diaries, Jack Rysider uses real-life stories and interviews with experts, hackers, and cybercriminals to explore the world of cybersecurity, hacking, and online privacy. Each episode focuses on a specific case, hack, or event, providing deep insight into motives, methods, and consequences. Think data breaches, ransomware attacks, social engineering, espionage, and the underground world of hacker communities. The audio production is fantastic and it’s okay if you don’t have a deep understanding of computers. Jack’s story will not leave you indifferent.
Dashboard diaries
Remember Tumblr? Lauren Shippen, longtime Tumblr user, and longtime Tumblr collaborator Cherokee McEnally Do. In the Dashboard diaries , they discuss current topics, new ships, and predict upcoming fandoms. This is a funny positive show from two people who found goodness on the internet. If you love Tumblr, you’ve found the place to feel completely seen. But even if this is a new world for you, you’ll have a great time exploring one of the Internet’s richest and most unique cultural veins.
Your podcasts will sound better with good wireless headphones.
Digital Folklore
Digital Folklore is a fusion of audio drama and narrative documentary that explores how our online expressions and culture – from scary stories to cat memes – are contemporary folklore. Using a clever combination of immersive sound design, storytelling, voice acting, interviews, and scripted narration, Digital Folklore analyzes various expressions of Internet culture through the lens of academic folklore. Hosts Perry and Mason play exaggerated versions of themselves, taking listeners on a journey into internet culture, and often find themselves in some pretty bizarre situations. The show creates a semi-fictional world and a set of scenarios that wrap around the real-life interviews they do with experts and the folklore concepts and facts they bring into the microphone.
The beach is too sandy, the water is too wet
Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet is a comedy podcast from siblings Alex and Christine Slate as they dramatically read some of the funniest negative online reviews you’ll ever hear. The dramatic music playing in the background as they read them really sets the tone. The episodes are broken down into different businesses or travel destinations. It is endlessly interesting and truly a salvation.
Blocked out party
There is a really funny story behind every internet block. That’s why comedians Stefan Heck and John Cullen created Blocked Party , where they invite their hilarious friends to share stories of bizarre online misunderstandings and feuds with celebrities, brands, and family members. Stefan and John have a strong chemistry and fill their show with funny bits. (And the theme song for the Locked Story segment will be playing in your head for days.)
One click
Narrated by Elle Fanning, One Click is a digital crime story that explores how one click on the internet can change your life forever – in some cases, helping you lose a lot of weight. The first season was about DNP, an explosive chemical left over from World War I munitions factories now sold online as a diet pill (with potentially fatal side effects). With journalist Jessica Vapnes, Fanning traces the history of the DNP and questions why (despite the dangers) so many people turned to drugs, how the Internet contributed to their explosion, and what it all says about the health of our information society. This is a tough, important hearing.
rabbit hole
The New York Times ” Rabbit Hole ” explores how the Internet shapes people’s beliefs, behaviors, and identities, and has the ability to increasingly isolate them in echo chambers of extreme ideologies. Through interviews, research and storytelling, host Kevin Roose is set to prove how YouTube’s algorithms, social media influencers and online communities are fueling our polarization and radicalization. Kevin introduces us to people who have been seriously affected by online content and follows them down their rabbit holes to shed light on the Internet’s profound impact on society by raising awareness of the dangers of uncontrolled online consumption.
search engine
If you were a fan of Reply All , you may have followed PJ Vogt to his next project, Crypto Island , which explored the world of cryptocurrencies and the strange human stories behind blockchain. Now he’s using that feed for a new show , The Search Engine , where he explores questions you can’t normally find on the internet. (In a brief episode, he talks about why zoo monkeys are sad.) So it’s kind of like an anti-internet podcast, but it comes from the king of internet culture discourse, so I think you’ll like it.