Panic World – Details, episodes & analysis

Eating disorder content has been a problem on the internet since as early as 2001, but it accelerated with the advent of social media. Today we’re examining why it’s become more prevalent than perhaps at any other time. EJ Dickson, a writer who investigated the #SkinnyTok community for The Cut, joins us to talk about the introduction of eating disorder content in the mainstream internet, its causes and characters. Our guest EJ Dickson is a senior writer at The Cut. You can check out her investigative piece on Liv Schmidt and #SkinnyTok here, and follow her work everywhere @ejdickson. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to our Discord? Sign up for just five bucks a month at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Often, like in the case of the Momo Challenge, when parents freak out about a thing online, it’s probably not really a thing. But, today we are talking about one panic that is real — “764,” the comm-network that is gamifying committing crimes and abuse. Joining us is Marcus Parks of The Last Podcast on the Left, to dive into this conspiracy that’s more than a theory. Our guest Marcus Parks is a host of The Last Podcast on the Left, which is currently doing a miniseries on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Check it out on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! We have a related bonus episode of our Patreon this week, where our producer Grant Irving sat down with expert on extremist ideologies and groups, Dr. Marc-André Argentino. Learn more about the history of cults and networks like 764 by joining our Patreon for just five bucks a month at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

America’s not doing so hot right now. Kanye West, on the other hand, hasn’t been well for quite some time. Akilah Hughes joins us again to discuss the idea that Kanye has always been a mirror for the American zeitgeist. What is about him, and about us, that makes that theory true? And, are we — both Kanye and the United States — totally doomed, or can we get better? Our guest Akilah Hughes is a writer, comedian, and reporter. You can find her work at https://itsakilahobviously.com, and follow her @akilahobviously on YouTube and X, or on Instagram @akilahh. Stay tuned for her new podcast coming out this month, How Is This Better? from COURIER. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for just five bucks a month at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Sponsors Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude, hit them up here: http://multitude.productions/ads. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Engineer: Rebecca Seidel - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ryan wrote about using ChatGPT for therapy, and a lot of responses to that announcement involved calling him an idiot. This week, he sits down with Grant to talk about what he learned over experimenting with AI therapy for a few months, and a broader chat about the birth of the AI world — and how it’s pretty much involved in everything already (in good and bad, and mostly bad, ways). Dr. ChatGPT will see you now. Want to hear the rest of the conversation, plus ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for our Patreon for just five bucks a month at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Sponsors Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude, hit them up here: ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Engineer: Rebecca Seidel - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last time we had Charlie Warzel on, it was to determine whether the insurrection had been a political success. Now, 100+ days into Trump 2.0, he joins us again to answer some simple questions: Should we be worrying about the survival of American democracy now? And also, with the fallout from tariffs revealing the first cracks in Trump’s base, is this whole thing good for anyone? Plus, are we ready for Dave Portnoy 2028? Our guest Charlie Warzel is a writer for The Atlantic and for his Substack, Galaxy Brain (https://warzel.substack.com/). You can follow him there or @cwarzel on X and Instagram, or @cwarzel.bsky.social. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for just five bucks a month at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Sponsors Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude, hit them up here: ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Engineer: Rebecca Seidel - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the past decade, true crime has gone from a niche and somewhat disparaged genre to one of entertainment’s most prolific. What is it about true crime that’s made it become such a huge part of popular culture? Through the lens of the mysterious disappearance (and reappearance) of Hannah Kobayashi, journalist Jennifer Swann joins us to talk about how missing persons’ cases take on lives on their own online. Our guest Jennifer Swann is a journalist and producer. She has a newsletter, Self Storage, https://jennswann.substack.com/ and produces the investigative true crime podcast My Friend Daisy, which you can find anywhere you listen to podcasts. Listen to the extended conversation on Panic World's Patreon — and enjoy ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord — for just five bucks a month at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Sponsors Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude, hit them up here: ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Engineer: Rebecca Seidel - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we’re telling a story of human ingenuity. Except, in a dumb way. It’s one of the craziest things that has happened in a long time — which is really saying something — when some bro on 4chan ended up in a Taliban prison. Arturo Castro joins us to talk about a British guy named Miles Rutledge. Our guest Arturo Castro is an actor and currently hosts Greatest Escapes, a podcast where Arturo is joined by friends to learn the stories behind other "great escapes" like today's episode. Check out Greatest Escapes here or wherever you listen to them! Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for just five bucks a month at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Sponsors Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude, hit them up here: ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Engineer: Rebecca Seidel - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On March 13, 2025, Netflix released Adolescence, and ever since, parents have been learning that Andrew Tate is bad. What are we to do? Ryan talks to Grant about how the problems we have on the internet now are not dramatically new, it’s just that everyone has the internet in their pocket all the time — and, to borrow a 2010s phrase, the solution to that might surprise you. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for just five bucks a month at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Sponsors Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude, hit them up here: ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Engineer: Rebecca Seidel - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re talking about a panic that’s been simmering for a while but has, in the past couple of years, become a full-blown panic. And that’s the technological Cold War that the US is waging with China. (Okay, and now also the tariff war, but that’s with pretty much everyone.) Are the Chinese really so radically different from us, or — at least when we’re browsing the net — are we the same? Tianyu Fang joins us to compare Chinese and American internet culture, and who suffers from more online brain rot. Our guest Tianyu Fang is a Technology and Democracy Fellow at New America, an editor at Reboot, and formerly co-founded Chaoyang Trap. You can follow him on Twitter @tianyuf, and all of his latest endeavors at https://www.tianyufang.net/.  Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for just five bucks a month at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Sponsors Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude, hit them up here: ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Engineer: Rebecca Seidel - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we’re doing something a little different. Grant asks Ryan to step back from being host, and instead to step in as a social worker for people who fall for conspiracy theories. The person in question is Grant’s friend’s dad, who read a recent “report” saying that the Holocaust “actually wasn’t as bad as they say,” and it’s tearing his family apart. We’ll get into what causes people — especially our Boomer family members — to fall for these theories, and whether we can help them. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for just five bucks at: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Sponsors Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude, hit them up here: ⁠http://multitude.productions⁠. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Engineer: Rebecca Seidel - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices