Webworm with David Farrier

Nov 11 2024 21 ep. 24 mins 242

Webworm with David Farrier Podcast artwork

Join journalist and documentary filmmaker David Farrier as he explores various rabbit holes, trying to make sense of the increasingly mad world around him.

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How Netflix Got Cold Feet

Nov 11 2024 9 mins

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed recently, but discovering stuff on Netflix can be kind of hard. Sure — you’re presented with a bunch of categories like “Top 10” when you login, but outside of those initial lists, finding things that are compelling and worth your time seems close to impossible. The compelling stuff is there — it’s just buried. With that in mind, I fee

Painting of NZ PM Chris Luxon Deemed “Risky for Buyers”

Oct 01 2024 12 mins

My friend loaded about a year’s worth of our text history into Google’s AI (privacy, what privacy?) — and instructed the AI to create a podcast about me based on those texts. That’s what today’s podcast is — just a couple of AI people talking to each other about me, based on nothing but a text thread between me and my friend. It’s truly awful and I told Aaron as much.

A World Full of Potential Cult Leaders

Sep 23 2024 42 mins

A conversation with someone I find endlessly fascinating to talk to — one of my favourite authors, Jason Pargin. He’s perhaps most well known for writing John Dies At The End, or a host of other books that all have amazing titles including This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It, What the Hell Did I Just Read, and If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wro

Spaceman Barry

Aug 25 2024 57 mins

Today’s Webworm is a podcast episode which tells the story of Barry. More specifically, it’s a story about Barry as told by my neighbor and friend Noah. Noah lived with Barry for six years, first as a housemate and then as a friend. This all seems pretty normal, until you realise that Barry was about 50 years older than Noah. I guess you could say it’s more a story of friends

What Happened to David D'Amato's Millions?

Jul 12 2024 69 mins

I’ve been trying to have this conversation for about seven years now, but it was impossible due to ongoing litigation in various United States' courts, including the New York State Supreme Court.David D’Amato (the “big bad” in Tickled) died from a heart attack back on March 13, 2017. He left behind a legacy of tickling videos and online harassment, along with a couple of ca

You Can't Undo Fake News

Jun 04 2024 4 mins

I’ve been thinking a lot about Corey Harris, the 44-year old man who went viral after Zooming into his court appearance while driving. The headlines generated were basically all the same: “Man With Suspended Driver's License Dials Into Court Hearing While Driving”. The video of Corey’s confused expressions went viral on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok — no-one really stopp

Calvin Reviews Lord of The Rings

May 08 2024 7 mins

Calvin is seven, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. In today's podcast, Calvin watches and then immediately reviews Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I hope you enjoy it. It’s Calvin, being interviewed by his dad Rob. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonu

A Dead Internet?

Apr 11 2024 8 mins

The internet isn’t just full of bad ideas: It’s dying. The idea of a dead internet isn’t new, and full disclosure — it started life as its own conspiracy theory. Dead Internet Theory posits that most of the internet is just bots — and that these bots are being used to manipulate the human population. While I don’t see some grand scheme playing out online to infect the i

11 Hours & 23 Minutes of Lord of the Rings

Mar 23 2024 16 mins

This is a conversation between Webworm's David Farrier, and his friend Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.webworm.co

Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?

Mar 18 2024 7 mins

Webworm regular Hayden Donnell with an essay about the incompetent executive class.Much has been written about the structural factors accelerating the media’s demise. Tech giants have hoovered up its ad revenue like the sandworms from Dune. Its audiences have migrated to TikTok, or worse, X, where they routinely mistake the deranged inner monologue of @MAGAJackie28743781 for obje