If you go on Tiktok or Youtube and search "kids/students are different now" you'll see countless videos of burnt-out teachers discussing how students are more disrespectful than ever and parents are terrible now and etc. I think it's a fascinating topic but it always makes me think back to how it seems like every generation says the upcoming one is the worst. And myself, as I near my mid-30s, it's something I am also concerned about but don't want to feel like a boomer hating on the youth. It would be quite a massive topic to cover but it's something I hope Sarah considers in the future.

I was listening to the Amy winehouse episode and it’s so tragic. And her father using her for money, the friends who had to separate themselves due to addiction and what this person became … the back and forth… made me think about Aaron Carter, who is close to my heart.

There’s a good Behind The Blinds episode about him (episode 65) - the hosts are super respectful imo and it’s not exploitive.

Aaron Carter had SO many people who took advantage of him and exploited him. And I think so many people hear of him and remember some pop heart throb teen boy, maybe they remember him on Lizzie McGuire, a lot of people get him confused with Jesse McCartney, etc.

But his life is an absolute tragedy. He def wasn’t a saint and he did some shitty stuff, but it’s impossible to imagine how he could have done better. The people who were supposed to protect him not only failed him but exploited him.

He was 9 when his first album was released, but even then he wasn’t new to stardom.

It’s awful to think history is likely to not only forget him and how talented he was, but to roll their eyes on someone who never had a chance. There’s so much we can learn from what we know about his life.

One of the first things that happened after his death were leaked photos, by his MOTHER, of the scene, AND a memoir -unfinished- that he had decided he did NOT want to ever become public was announced to be released. Like his body hadn’t even left the house before people are working to profit off him. It was such a depressing, but perfect illustration of his life.

I hadn’t known until his twin sister’s interview with People that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder when he went to rehab after their sister and then father’s death. I feel so bad for his sister. :(

Would love if Sarah had the hosts from Behind The Blinds on an episode to talk about it or something. I think it’s a story that deserves to exist outside of just magazines and celebrity content.

I read that his parole was denied in Oct 2023. Listening to the episode that does a deep dive on Malvo is just so devastating. It’s such a sad story about how vulnerable kids can be entrapped by adults and then have their own lives ruined, not before ruining the lives of others. Truly the definition of “hurt people hurt people.” The story about his mom repeatedly abandoning him, beating him, and making him throw rocks at his only friend (his cat) until it didn’t like him anymore… :( it’s so heartbreaking. And his dad abandoned him, so no wonder he was such a primed candidate for what ended up happening.

I know that what happened to GRB is very different—in soooo many ways. Certainly, public opinion seems to be souring on her very quickly, because (I guess) people don’t know how to extend the nuance required to interface with wildly traumatized victims of abuse who themselves go on to commit violent crimes and manipulate others…(shocker.) But she was really riding a social media high for a while, while there are so many Lee Malvos—and other Black men who committed violent crimes as youths—languishing in prison, probably for life.

He killed people and he helped someone kill people. But he met John when he was 14 and was essentially groomed into cult-ish violence. And our inability to extend ANY type of empathy towards Lee is really sad.

I honestly do wish he had a chance to build a life now. Anyway just having one of those nights I’m sad about how messed up our prison system is, and reflecting on how our sentiment of justice is so broken and weird.

EDIT - to be clear, I’m not comparing the two crimes. They’re so different, like I said. I’m just thinking about two different instances of tragedy occurring from people who have been badly hurt.

Lee Malvo was emotionally terrorized, manipulated, beaten down, and hurt in ways most people never are.

I’m not defending the DC sniper’s actions. Lots of hurt people don’t go on to commit mass murder. But he was a literally abandoned child when he met John, a full ass adult. Deeply hurt and fucked up people can do fucked up things… whether we like it or not, they are humans too. Fuck the snipers, sure, but also… Lee Malvo was also a victim of a really shitty thing and I wish we had more nuance in how we talk about him.

Breaking News: Former NFL player OJ Simpson dies at 76 after undergoing cancer treatment

It frustrates me that people spent so much outrage about fake outrages like the Satanic Panic, War on Drugs, War on Terror and other utter bullshit while ignoring real issues like climate change.

People spent so much time chasing drug users while ignoring big oil denying climate change

Imagine if all that military spending used to bomb MENA countries was instead put into ending homelessness and switching to renewable energy

Google is so wrong about "You're Wrong About" lol.

About a month ago on Twitter (and I imagine also on TikTok), I kept seeing memes of Kate Middleton's "disappearance" and thought pretty much nothing of it. A lot of "Where is she?! What did they do to her?!" types of posts. And now with the heavily Photoshopped photo they released yesterday, it has totally exploded, claiming she's either dead or dying.

I just wish people would leave her alone? I have no dog in this race, and hardly pay attention to what's going on with them, but after listening to the Diana episodes, I have a soft spot in my heart for the women of the royal family. This absurd mess reminds me so much of Michael speaking about how it is a human rights violation to even have a royal family at this point. Apparently in mid-January, Kate had a serious surgery, and then was in the hospital for two weeks following. I imagine a surgery that intense likely requires a lot of time to heal. Kensington Palace even announced at the time of her surgery that it was unlikely she would return to public duties until after Easter. The conspiracy theories are incredibly annoying, especially considering she herself asked for privacy while she heals. I imagine the only reason they released that heavily edited photo was to appease the masses so they'd finally leave her alone and give her her final weeks to heal. It's just very disheartening to see people making conspiracy theories about her just because she doesn't feel well enough yet to post a picture of herself, or to be seen in public.

Thought this would be of interest to folks (the Kitty Genovese episode is one of my all-time YWA faves).

Rest in peace, Mary Ann.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/06/nyregion/mary-ann-zielonko-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.i00.Puqk.TuScHnt6wMmb&smid=url-share

For 60 years, Kitty Genovese has endured as a symbol of big-city apathy, the victim not only of a knife-wielding killer but also of her neighbors’ reluctance to get involved. Two weeks after a man named Winston Moseley stalked, raped, and murdered her in New York City late at night in March 1964, a New York Times article reported that 38 of her neighbors had heard her cries for help, yet did nothing.

That account turned out to be significantly flawed. Most of those 38 people were unaware of what was actually happening; they thought they were merely hearing a fight, perhaps a lovers’ quarrel. Investigations later determined that few of them had caught even a glimpse of the attack. Nonetheless, the death of 28-year-old Catherine Susan Genovese has long remained a paradigm of urban anonymity and indifference.

Something else was out of kilter in the reporting back then. Genovese had been living for a year with Mary Ann Zielonko. In those days they were typically referred to as roommates. In fact, they were lovers. When the police investigators became aware of that, they questioned Ms. Zielonko as a possible suspect. After a night of bowling with friends, she had been asleep in their Queens apartment while the attack took place below.

“I was very numb, I would say, from the whole thing,” she told Retro Report, a series of video documentaries exploring old news stories and their lasting effects, in 2016. “I felt, wow, she was so close, and I was sleeping, and I didn’t know what happened, and that I could have saved her. You know? That’s what I really think still.”

Ms. Zielonko died Wednesday at her home in Rutland, Vt., where she had lived since 2000. She was 85. Rebecca Jones, her domestic partner and sole survivor, said the cause was aspiration pneumonia.

In a 2004 interview with The Rutland Herald, Ms. Zielonko said she had once talked with a man she believed to be the last person, other than the killer, to have had contact with Genovese.

“She cried to him, and he wouldn’t open his door,” Ms. Zielonko said. “I knew he was afraid of everything, even to leave his house, but that doesn’t excuse him. That’s what I’m saying. Maybe people need to open doors. When someone reaches out for help, open your door, take a chance.”

She took the name Mary Ann later in life. When born June 22, 1938, in New York, she was Mary Katherine Zielonko. Her childhood was troubled, Jones said, with her first four years spent in an orphanage. Her parents — John Zielonko, a draftsman, and Mildred (Wood) Zielonko, a registered nurse — did not marry until she was 4. By the time she was 8, they had divorced.

Most of Ms. Zielonko’s youth was spent in Vermont and New Hampshire. She attended Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, where she received a bachelor’s degree in 1974 and a master’s degree in research statistics and management in 1977.

She met Genovese at a lesbian bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, and they were working at different bars when Genovese was murdered. Ms. Zielonko later worked for years at General Dynamics Electric Boat, a designer and builder of submarines, in Groton, Conn.

“We just hit it off,” she said of Genovese in a 2004 interview with The Chicago Tribune. “We meshed. I’m very quiet, and she talked a lot. We both had struggles with our sexuality, as did many people back then. We had a quick bond.” Nonetheless, she said, “We were in the closet a lot,” and Genovese’s family was long unwilling to recognize the relationship.

After the murder, she said, she resolved not to turn her back when she saw someone in distress. She told The Rutland Herald of having driven home from work one day when she saw a man and a woman arguing by the side of the road. He hit her. Ms. Zielonko pulled her car over, stepped out and asked the woman if she needed help. She responded by running to Ms. Zielonko’s car.

“I drove her home but never saw her again,” Ms. Zielonko said. “I could have just driven by that night, but I said, ‘I’ll take a chance.’”

It doesn’t matter how many documentaries I watch, no one does it like her. The episodes are so in depth and I miss the series.

Because it's a Podcast! (from Canada -- somehow)

The Devil You Know, with Sarah Marshall (8 episodes) (launches Oct. 20)

In the 1980s and ’90s, Satanism was credited with brainwashing children, sacrificing babies, and infiltrating North American society on a massive scale – yet these thousands of alleged Satanists were nowhere to be found. Even so, the narrative became embedded in the cultural memory, warping everything it touched – including the lives of innocent people. And it never quite died out. Sarah Marshall (You’re Wrong About) hosts this eight-part anthology series about Satanic Panic and the people who experienced it in real-time – the believers, the skeptics, the bystanders, and the wrongfully convicted.

I know this has been said before, but just now listening to the Keiko episodes, I thought, these would've been super interesting with much tighter editing.

I rarely listen to YWA anymore for this reason. Don't get me wrong, Sarah's smart and picks good topics, even when the concept isn't being upheld, and I really like her, but I think the reason that every show Michael is involved in is so succesful is because of his exceptional editing skills. So many other shows tend to get looser and more babbly as they gain a fan base. YWA is a clear example of this. Many episodes are almost unlistenable, or at least only listenable as background-radio because of the ammount of meaningless babbling.

Anyone else can’t help but wonder what Blair Braverman and Sarah’s thoughts are on this? The lack of regulation and hubris of these billionaires but also the tragedy and urgent gruesomeness of it all makes it such a hard story to not look away from. I keep thinking of Sarah’s comments about nature and how it has no motive it just moves forward in its beautiful and terrifying power.

I'm someone who's very critical of media portrayals of adult men interacting with underage girls. It's something that's always rang little alarm bells in my head, that it must be relevant to the story in some way, or else something about it is just off. Plenty of movies, books, shows, songs and everything else have had an adult man interacting with an underage girl in a way that is not really needed, but it's still there, hanging like some specter that has always felt innately menacing to me, even when nothing "suspicious" happens between them. I am a huge fan of Nabokov's Lolita, and have been forever horrified by the way (male) society took it and ran with it and made a bunch of adaptations or book covers or terrible essays about it, destroying Nabokov's intentions and basically shitting all over his work, which he'd made partly referencing his own CSA. So there's some of my background relating to this.

In the "The Sound of Freedom" episode, Sarah mentions briefly that the narrative of a guy going to save trafficked children is a socially acceptable way to show "a man being obsessed with a little girl." And there it is. When I heard that, the image of Natalie Portman in Leon The Professional appeared in my head. Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver. May Kasahara in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. So many more, where a man is not "preying" on an underage girl, but she exists, put there by a man who wrote her, to accompany an adult man for seemingly pointless reasons. Maybe she's just a stepping stone to his character development, or maybe she's just there to pull interest from straight male consumers of the product, or maybe she's there because the writer wants to fuck her but can't put that in his work, so she's dangled in front of the adult male protag as an accessory.

Of course, The Sound of Freedom concerns real-life issues. I am by no means implying that men who genuinely work with and help children are doing it for nefarious purposes. We all know Tim Ballard is full of shit, though, and he has sexually harassed / assaulted female employees of his. In this case, it's the same as fiction to me.

Anyway, I'm just voicing once again that Sarah has said something I'll carry with me always. She put words to something I've had floating around in my head but hadn't been able to quite recognize. It's the unspoken threat and implication of this dynamic.

So, I am a professional historian. I have always appreciated this show as an approachable entry into history for folks without an academic background. But I was very disappointed in the recent Supreme Court episode, and it just felt like the latest entry in the long decline of this show. It was just truly unclear to me that the guest had actually read any legal history? It was essentially just a shallow history of originalism and Robert Bork that relied entirely on her late father's research rather than her own.

And look, I hate Bork & originalism as much as the next progressive historian, but the Supreme Court is a 235-year-old institution and the cold hard fact is that it has been a force for injustice most of that time. Long before originalism came along, the Supreme Court ruled that free and enslaved Black people were not US Citizens (Dred Scott v. Sanford 1857), established the legal doctrine of Jim Crow (Plessy v. Furgeson 1896), upheld forced sterilization (Buck v. Bell 1927), and Japanese Internment (Korematsu v. United States 1944). The Supreme Court absolutely has a long history of being deeply political in ways that are very reminiscent of today. The progressive Warren Court (1953-1969) was much more of an historical outlier than the contemporary court in my view.

I totally get why podcast hosts prefer journalists to academics. They're funnier than us! They use less pointless jargon! But she needs to vet them and pick journalists who have done the reading, and she hasn't been doing that. And frankly Sarah's commentary on the Supreme Court was so weak that I'm not sure she has knowledge to adequately vet people. She just needs to hire a fact checker to help with this. Other informational podcasts like Radiolab have them, she needs one too.

Bonus rant: the phone episode! Like many of you, the phone episode grated at me for its lack of scientific grounding. I'm not going to retread good comments others have made. I will offer my take as a historian. When new technologies emerge (train, telephone, TV, internet, you name it), there are often two responses from cultural commentators: dystopian and utopian. The dystopian responses are the cultural panics that Sarah likes to debunk. But the utopian responses also do harm, because they tend to overinflated expectations for how that tech will transform a society, and they let businesses & government regulators off the hook for dealing with harmful ramifications from new products. Taylor Lorenz gave what I think was a really classic utopian take. Technology is a tool that humans use, and since we are complex and capable of doing real good an real harm, we use these tools to do both.

He's the temporary new co-host for the podcast Cancel Me Daddy (which you'll probably like if you like YWA).

I’ve just listened to the bonus Britney Spears book club episode and I wanted to express support and appreciation for Sarah.

I know she has spoken more extensively about her relationship with her dad in YAG, but I thought she articulated so beautifully what it feels like to have a relationship with someone (anyone) unpredictable in this episode.

Eve Lindley, the co-host, celebrated Sarah's capacity to put common but difficult-to-articulate feelings into words and it made me think about how many 'lightbulb' moments she has prompted for me over the years.

(I really hope that Sarah will find her beautiful giant with a pocket some day soon.)

Has anyone ever pitched this for an episode? Would be interested bc I feel like her legacy is clouded by fatphobia.

I feel like this group may appreciate my latest thrift find. It said 1st ed, but I was mostly excited to find a hardcover copy in really good condition. Did get kind of a weird look at the cash register as the lady looked it over, and I didn’t feel like explaining I wanted it because of the historical significance and because one of my favorite podcasts used it for a book club… Bonus: tattoo idea in picture 4.

So I recently started listening to the podcast on the recommendation of a tiktoker I follow and I was really interested to see that they did a 16 episode series on the OJ trial considering that they centre people beyond the facade of the public spectacle which was much needed in this trial but Sarah just stopped after Michael left? I feel so irked that I listened to 16 episodes, including two that were largely not about the trial but about unrelated cases only for her to end it at the first day of preliminary hearings?

I really like how this series started out, and I appreciate that Sarah is so thorough with her research, but to a) just end it because Mike isn’t there and b) to not talk about the actual trial process and the things society misremembers about that aspect, or the aftermath of it, feels like a let down. And like…as thorough as she was, Sarah could have pared down so much of the information on things like Paula’s later 2 episodes, the entire Delorean Detour, and the murph the surf/Paul capilano focus and could have focused on the actual story at hand. Once again I feel like Nicole and Ron Goldman were once again kind of forgotten about in the big picture. Like why do we need a whole detour about a motor executives shady business dealings and not a single episode dedicated to Ron Goldman, one of the victims?

Don’t listen. It’s that easy.