Author: You're Wrong About

Free yourself. What does it take to get someone to leave a cult? What happens if the cult is all around us? In this episode, Ben Brock Johnson & Amory Sivertson of NPR’s Endless Thread podcast join Sarah for a discussion about the cultier aspects of our culture, politics, and history, from the surprising origin of the anti-vax movement to the online communities that conspiracy theories can provide to lonely seekers. Together they try to figure out if it is indeed possible to “deprogram” those who wander too far into conspiracies. Digressions include the TikTok Button Girl, chicken pox playtime, and the grave sin of sleep shaming.

More Endless Thread:
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/568542542/endless-thread

Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler:
linktr.ee/mirandatheswampmonster

More You're Wrong About:
linktr.ee/ywapod

Bonus Episodes on Patreon
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From the bonus vault!

What actually makes a movie “bad”? In this bonus episode, Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson of the film podcast Unspooled tell Sarah the story of what many consider to be the worst film of all time: the 1987 adventure comedy Ishtar. From the movie’s chaotic production to its perplexing public ridicule, together they analyze whether Ishtar is as bad as people say or if our culture just loves to jump on a snarky bandwagon. Digressions include James Cameron schadenfreude, $19 AMC pretzels, and The Hangover for the AARP crowd.

More Unspooled:
https://www.unspooledpodcast.com/

Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler:
linktr.ee/mirandatheswampmonster

More You're Wrong About:
linktr.ee/ywapod

Bonus Episodes on Patreon
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Do we ever finish surviving? Sarah tells Survival Correspondent Blair Braverman the incredible story of 11-year-old Terry Jo Duperrault, who was lost at sea for several days on a flimsy cork dinghy. She also explains the sinister truth behind the “accident” that set her adrift, her harrowing time on the open ocean, and what her life was like after she became a survivor. Along the way, Sarah and Blair discuss the tragedy of having your story silenced, the big things that help us pull through the impossible, and how, in Terry Jo’s case and in our own, survival is never really over. Digressions include: the iconic waterski teams of Green Bay, the usefulness of sled dog armpits, and whether or not we can trust handsome men.

Note: This episode is about surviving not just nature, but also violent crime. This episode also involves suicide. Please listen with care.

Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler

More Blair Braverman:

Blair's new picture book, "The Day Leap Soared"

Blair on Instagram

More of Blair's work

More You're Wrong About:

Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
YWA on Instagram

Support the show

Would you ride on the back of a random orca at the beach? For the final part of this series on Free Willy star Keiko, deep sea correspondent Brianna Bowman tells Sarah about his rewilding and return to the open ocean -- something that up until that point had never been done before. Digressions include introducing adult cats to each other, Fyre Fest, and the 27 club.

Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler

More Magpie Cinema Club

More Brianna Bowman:

Brianna's Website

Support Brianna's new podcast Rewilding Keiko on Patreon 

Submit a voicemail with your memories of Keiko at rewildingpodcast@outlook.com (Brianna's Note: yes, Outlook! I’m a weirdo)

Linkedin (Brianna's Note: yes I am a double weirdo)

@rewildingkeiko on Instagram

Buy her a coffee!

Watch Kampen Om Keiko

More You're Wrong About:

linktr.ee/ywapod

Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
YWA on Instagram

Support the show

The movies freed Willy, but what about Keiko? For the second part of our trilogy on the biggest aquatic star of the 90s, deep sea correspondent Brianna Bowman takes Sarah through Keiko’s journey to the Oregon Coast Aquarium for rehabilitation and the developing plan to return him to the open ocean. But first, both marine scientists and rich benefactors have to try to teach a killer whale to be wild again. Digressions include the books of Jean Craighead George, the tragedy of the puns we missed, regurgitated meat influencers, and Star Trek IV. 

Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler

More Brianna Bowman:

Brianna's Website

Support Brianna's new podcast Rewilding Keiko on Patreon 

Submit a voicemail with your memories of Keiko at rewildingpodcast@outlook.com (Brianna's Note: yes, Outlook! I’m a weirdo)

Linkedin (Brianna's Note: yes I am a double weirdo)

@rewildingkeiko on Instagram

Buy her a coffee!

More You're Wrong About:

linktr.ee/ywapod

Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
YWA on Instagram

Support the show

Can a killer whale really jump that high? For kids of the 90s, the adventure movie Free Willy introduced us to magic of the orca through its charismatic megafauna star, Keiko. In part one of our series, deep sea correspondent Brianna Bowman tells Sarah about his journey from free marine mammal to imprisoned entertainer to Hollywood royalty. Together they discuss what Keiko meant to them as kids, 1990s whale-related activism, and the follies of anthropomorphic projection. Digressions include the power of horse memoirs, the importance of cartoon eyebrows, and the uncommon honesty of the flea circus. 

Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler

More Brianna Bowman:

Brianna's Website

Support Brianna's new podcast Rewilding Keiko on Patreon 

Submit a voicemail with your memories of Keiko at rewildingpodcast@outlook.com (Brianna's Note: yes, Outlook! I’m a weirdo)

Linkedin (Brianna's Note: yes I am a double weirdo)

@rewildingkeiko on Instagram

Buy her a coffee!

More You're Wrong About:

linktr.ee/ywapod

Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
YWA on Instagram

Support the show

What happens when Santa trades his sleigh for a rocket ship?”? Christmas correspondent Sarah Archer tells Sarah about how the Cold War era affected the image of old Kris Kringle through the rampant consumerism and shiny new technology of a post-war economy. Digressions include Reagan’s girlypop diet, the Freudian aspects of the Nutcracker, and the thrilling history of aluminum. 

Visit the YWA Instagram for visual references

More Sarah Archer:

https://www.sarah-archer.com/

Sarah on Instagram

Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler

More You're Wrong About:

linktr.ee/ywapod

Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
YWA on Instagram

Support the show

What do you get when you combine a horror movie audience, a spiritualist séance, and a haunted house attraction? Beginning in the 1930s and lasting into the 1960s, midnight ghost shows were ghoulishly chaotic, wonderfully campy 4D theater performances that accompanied the scary movies of the era, beloved by a mostly-teenage audience who often became a part of the show themselves. Schlocky showman Chelsey Weber-Smith tells Sarah about how magicians-turned-ghostmasters used paranormal parlor tricks, gory skits, and marketing gimmicks to create a new form of vaudevillian dark comedy. As horror obsessives, Sarah and Chelsey muse about what it would have been like to attend one of these late night wacky fright fests that paved the way for the happily trashy theater camaraderie of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Digressions include the resilience of the horseshoe crab, dollar store competition, and plot holes in the movie High Tension (2003).

More Chelsey Weber-Smith:

Listen to American Hysteria

Original music in this episode is produced + performed by Magpie Cinema Club

(except for Harry Belafonte's Zombie Jamboree which is, in fact, from 1962.)

Listen to their cover of Season of the VVitch

Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler

More You're Wrong About:

Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
YWA on Instagram

Sarah's other show, You Are Good

Support the show

Are you a survival pessimist or a survival optimist? Blair Braverman surprises Sarah with a harrowing, heartening, and sometimes hilarious tale of love and endurance in the face of certain death, but you’ll have to listen to find out the seemingly impossible circumstances our subjects had to overcome. Digressions include Sarah’s flight simulation skills, David Goggins' morning routine, and the best way to design your character in The Oregon Trail computer game.

More Blair Braverman:

Blair's new picture book, "The Day Leap Soared"

Advice for Sarah from Blair

Blair on Instagram

More of Blair's work

More You're Wrong About:

Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
YWA on Instagram

Sarah's other show, You Are Good

Support the show

Support the show

Who really ended the Cold War, Ronald Reagan or a ten-year-old girl? Eighties correspondent Maris Kreizman joins us for a heartfelt conversation about America’s Youngest Ambassador, Samantha Smith, a child who wrote a letter to Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov in hopes of cooling nuclear tensions. Then, Andropov wrote back. Maris and Sarah discuss the burden we place on the youth to “change the world” while simultaneously scolding them for their naivety. Digressions include the millennial urge to cut up plastic soda can rings, Christina Applegate’s SNL infomercial, and an important lesson from the Golden Girls.

More Maris Kreizman:

Buy the book, I Want to Burn This Place Down

Subscribe to the newsletter, The Maris Review

Maris on Bluesky

More You're Wrong About:

Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
YWA on Instagram

Sarah's other show, You Are Good

Support the show