When you think of an alien abduction, what do you picture? Humanoid creatures, medical experiments, lost memories retrieved through hypnosis?... more

Rod McKuen sold multiple millions of poetry books in the 60s and 70s. He released dozens of albums, was a... more

What do we lose if we lose the mall? 70 years into their existence, these hulking temples to commerce are... more

Decoder Ring is coming back with a new season featuring a whole new set of questions.... Like, is the shopping... more

When did everyone become a storyteller? Decades after George Lucas and Steve Jobs made storytelling a big business, every company... more

In the 1970s, a song about protesting truckers topped the music charts in multiple countries, and kicked off a pop... more

In 2004, the indie flick Sideways was released in just four theaters, but it had a big impact, earning five... more

When we think of method acting, we tend to think of actors going a little over the top for a... more

In the early 2000s, an arms race broke out in the world of men’s shaving. After decades with razors that... more

Decoder Ring is coming back with a new season featuring a whole new set of questions…and some good surprising answers.... more

Custer's Revenge is widely considered one of the worst video games ever made. Originally released as part of a series... more

Today on Decoder Ring: Three stories about fame, and one about monkeys. Are primates susceptible to celebrity endorsements? What does... more

Note: This episode is about offensive material, and so contains explicit and offensive language. Truly Tasteless Jokes were a series of... more

In literature, the choice to become a vampire is a metaphor for transformative experiences. On this episode, we bring you... more

When you think about the game, you lose the game. When you lose the game you must declare that you... more

Rats live wherever people live, with one exception: the Canadian province of Alberta. A rat sighting in Alberta is a... more

In the summer of 1986, both Time Magazine and Newsweek ran blockbuster cover stories on the same subject: a secret... more

In 2001, Oprah Winfrey invited Jonathan Franzen to come on her show to discuss his new novel The Corrections. A... more

Time does funny thing to everything, but especially to tattoos. Today, four stories about tattoos whose meanings have shifted with... more

You know the Tootsie Shot. It’s that shot from the movies: a really busy midtown street, protagonist smack in the middle of it... more

In the year 2000, Dan Kois was a junior book agent working on selling a secretive book proposal called IT, a... more

Ilona Granet was a New York art-scene fixture who won the praise of the art world when she put up... more

If you love the show and want to support us, consider joining Slate Plus. With Slate Plus you can binge... more

To say that hydration is an invention is only a slight exaggeration. Back in the 1970’s and ‘80s, no one... more

Welcome to a brand new season of Decoder Ring! On this episode, we investigate the wild world of soap operas... more

Right now Decoder Ring is working on a full season of new episodes coming this June, but in the meantime... more

What took blue food so long to catch on? Today it’s all over the freezer aisle, in candies for kids,... more

In 1983, the Cabbage Patch Kids were released, causing widespread pandemonium in toy stores and in the media. How did... more

How did Hanoi Jane become Exercise Jane? This is the second part of our two-parter on Jane Fonda's Workout. If you... more

When Jane Fonda granted us an interview to talk about her famous workout tape, things didn't go as planned. On part... more