Decoder Ring

    Decoder Ring is the show about cracking cultural mysteries. In each episode, host Willa Paskin takes a cultural question, object, or habit; examines its history; and tries to figure out what it means and why it matters.

  • Reconsidering One of the “Worst” TV Shows of All Time

  • A Feel-Good Story About the End of the World

  • The Wrongest Bird in Movie History

  • Selling Out (Encore)

  • Calling Dick Tracy! It’s Warren Beatty Again

  • If You Give a Mouse a Cookie… Will He Want a Welfare Check?

  • Chuck E. Cheese Pizza War (Encore)

  • The Hysteria Over Mass Hysteria

  • Standing Up for Sitting Down

  • The Secret Life of Lawn Ornaments

  • Stuffed Animals Gone Wild

  • Sex, Lies, and Hockey Pucks

  • Captain Planet to the Rescue

  • Why Are We Still Using Fat Suits?

  • How the Jalapeño Lost Its Heat

  • From ‘The Last Archive’: Building an Automatic Songwriting Machine

  • Making Real Music for a Fake Band

  • Can the “Bookazine” Save Magazines?

  • Andrew Wyeth's Secret Nudes (Encore)

  • Why Stylists Rule the Red Carpet

  • The Gen X Soda That Was Just "OK"

  • Why Do So Many Coffee Shops Look the Same?

  • 2024 Teaser

  • The Forgotten Video Game About Slavery

  • The Dating Manual Unlike Any Other

  • Mailbag: The Recorder, Limos, and “Baby on Board” Signs

  • When Art Pranksters Invaded Melrose Place

  • The Fast Decline of the Slow Dance

  • Fall 2023 Teaser

  • Think Catchphrases Are Dead? Eat My Shorts.

  • The Quest for a Homemade Hovercraft

  • A Brief History of Making Out

  • What's Really Going On Inside a Mosh Pit?

  • The Great Parmesan Cheese Debate

  • Summer 2023 Teaser

  • Who Owns the Tooth Fairy?

  • Why You Can’t Find a Damn Parking Spot

  • The Artist Who Was Both Loved and Disdained

  • The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania Part 2

  • The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania Part 1

  • Spring 2023 Teaser

  • Slate Plus Exclusive: The Making of This Season

  • The Mailbag Episode

  • Encore: ‘You’ve Got Mail’ Got It Wrong

  • Cellino & Barnes, Injury Attorneys, 800-888-8888

  • How Preppy Became Streetwear

  • The New Age Hit Machine

  • The Butt and the Bustle

  • The Truth About #TheDress

  • Fall 2022 Teaser

  • McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Crime Pt. 2

  • McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Crime Pt. 1

  • Slate Plus Exclusive: The Making of This Season

  • The “Sex” Scandal That Made Mae West

  • The First Alien Abductees

  • The Most Famous Poet No One Remembers

  • The Mall is Dead (Long Live the Mall)

  • Summer 2022 Teaser

  • The Storytelling Craze

  • “We Got Ourselves a Convoy”

  • The Sideways Effect

  • The Madness Behind ‘The Method’

  • “F--k Everything, We're Doing Five Blades”

  • Spring 2022 Teaser

  • Custer's Revenge

  • The Fame That Got Away

  • Truly Tasteless Jokes

  • The Philosophy of Vampires

  • You Just Lost The Game

  • The Alberta Rat War

  • The Great Helga Hype

  • Selling Out

  • Tattoo Flash

  • The Tootsie Shot

  • Who Killed The Segway?

  • The Sign Painter

  • That Seattle Muzak Sound

  • The Invention of Hydration

  • The Soap Opera Machine

  • Decoder Ring Presents The Sporkful’s Mission: ImPASTAble

  • The Blue Steak Experiment

  • The Cabbage Patch Kids Riots

  • Jane Fonda's Workout, Part 2: Hanoi Jane's VHS Revolution

  • Jane Fonda's Workout, Part 1: Jane and Leni

  • Mystery of the Mullet

  • The Karen

  • The Metrosexual

  • Gotta Get Down on Friday

  • Unicorn Poop

  • Rubber Duckie

  • The Shop Around the Corner

  • Friend of Dorothy

  • The Stowe-Byron Controversy

  • Murphy's Law

  • Gender Reveal Party

  • Bart Simpson Mania

  • Ice Cream Truck

  • Pillow Talk

  • Chuck E. Cheese Pizza War

  • Videomate: Men

  • Truck Nutz

  • Baby Shark

  • The Grifter

  • Sad Jennifer Aniston

  • The Incunabula Papers

  • Hotel Art

  • The Paper Doll Club

  • The Basement Affair

  • Clown Panic

  • The Johnlock Conspiracy

  • The Laff Box

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