Panic World

Mar 05 2025 28 ep. 57 mins 570
Panic World Podcast artwork

A weekly podcast from Garbage Day about the moral panics, witch hunts, and viral freakouts that bubble up out of the weirdest corners of the internet.

  Technology  News  Society & Culture
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You’re panicking wrong about AI (with Casey Newton)

Mar 05 2025 66 mins  
Everyone is freaking out about AI, but are we freaking out for the right reasons?

Here's why everyone's fighting about delivery apps (with Allegra Rosenberg)

Feb 26 2025 55 mins  
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 onlin

BONUS: One month of DOGE shit

Feb 24 2025 33 mins  
Ryan and Grant discuss what we've seen one month into the second Trump Administration, and what it means.

Is dating worse than ever? (With Magdalene Taylor)

Feb 19 2025 63 mins  
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

The secret plan to outlaw porn in the US (with Junlper)

Feb 12 2025 70 mins  
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 t

What Area 51 can teach us about the drones in NJ (with Dylan Thuras)

Feb 05 2025 64 mins  
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 natura

Are online "suicide games" real? (With Alex Goldman)

Jan 29 2025 84 mins  
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 Ale

How bin Laden killed TikTok (with Rachel Gilmore)

Jan 22 2025 73 mins  
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

BONUS: Meta doesn't care anymore

Jan 15 2025 25 mins  
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

How Facebook caused January 6th (with Charlie Warzel)

Jan 08 2025 69 mins  
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: