
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
First we discuss a few skepticism-adjacent current events: the recent Colorado train spotting of Bigfoot, RFK Jr.'s bid for the presidency, and a new lawsuit naming "Sound of Freedom" hero Tim Ballard as a sexual predator who paid a psychic to help groom his victims. Then we dive into Slenderman, or "Slendy" as his friends know him. Professor Andrea Kitta, contributor to "Slender Man Is Coming" (Utah State University Press, 2018), brings her public health and folklore knowledge to bear on this created cryptid, born of photoshop in the pre-AI days and raised on the pent-up rage of cyberbullied adolescent girls. Part revenge fantasy and part rescuer, what is Slendy's game? Does he drive you insane or take you away to his secret mansion? While he was the focus of a tragic 2014 stabbing case in Wisconsin, since then he has faded slowly and may end up where many initially terrifying monsters go -- into the realm of child lore, as a spooky story for very young kids.
4.8
9090 ratings
First we discuss a few skepticism-adjacent current events: the recent Colorado train spotting of Bigfoot, RFK Jr.'s bid for the presidency, and a new lawsuit naming "Sound of Freedom" hero Tim Ballard as a sexual predator who paid a psychic to help groom his victims. Then we dive into Slenderman, or "Slendy" as his friends know him. Professor Andrea Kitta, contributor to "Slender Man Is Coming" (Utah State University Press, 2018), brings her public health and folklore knowledge to bear on this created cryptid, born of photoshop in the pre-AI days and raised on the pent-up rage of cyberbullied adolescent girls. Part revenge fantasy and part rescuer, what is Slendy's game? Does he drive you insane or take you away to his secret mansion? While he was the focus of a tragic 2014 stabbing case in Wisconsin, since then he has faded slowly and may end up where many initially terrifying monsters go -- into the realm of child lore, as a spooky story for very young kids.
2,845 Listeners
2,662 Listeners
112 Listeners
1,112 Listeners
425 Listeners
1,904 Listeners
3,209 Listeners
14,770 Listeners
959 Listeners
11,810 Listeners
2,635 Listeners
865 Listeners
730 Listeners
613 Listeners
734 Listeners