You're Wrong About
Sarah is a journalist obsessed with the past. Every week she reconsiders a person or event that's been miscast in the public imagination.
Desperation Pie with Sarah Archer
What would you do for a desperation pie? Kitchen correspondent Sarah Archer is here to talk with Sarah about the American food trends that marked the 20th century and how they related to the political and cultural changes of a nation in need of constant culinary inventiveness. They discuss the specialties of the barren Depression Era, the food-related propaganda and rationing of the wartime years, the meteoric rise of post-war disposability, the premade mixes and “exotic” dishes of midcentury housewives, and the special tastes of Soviet Cold War diplomacy. Throughout the episode, they discuss the messages these eras transmitted to t...
The Great American Spelling Bee with Gabe Henry
Can you use the word in a sentence? For this episode, Spelling Correspondent Gabe Henry takes Sarah through the surprisingly rampageous (r-a-m-p-a-g-e-o-u-s) history of the Spelling Bee, a uniquely American phenomenon. From the earliest examples of late night “spelling matches,” to the rough-and-tumble contests of the early frontier, to the controversy of the first National spelling bee, it turns out that these mild-mannered academic flexes were once both raucous and revolutionary. Gabe also brings his own spelling bee to test the gifted child that still buzzes within Sarah Marshall. Digressions include Ben Franklin’s morning routine, why we need more s...
Crop Circles with Chelsey Weber-Smith
What do men really get up to at the pub? For this April Fools' Day episode, Sarah tells urban legend correspondent Chelsey Weber-Smith of American Hysteria the history and the mystery behind crop circles, those sophisticated patterns left imprinted in corn and wheat fields said to be made by alien beings. For years, no one could find a rational reason for their mysterious existence as they spread across various countries; that is, until a pair of surprising culprits finally came forward to reveal their master prank. Digressions include Ramona Quimby’s dad’s alma mater, sexy adaptations of costume dram...
How to Deprogram a Guy in 10 Days with Endless Thread
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 playti...
The Worst Movie Ever Made? with Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson
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...
The Bluebelle with Blair Braverman
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 nev...
Keiko Part 3 with Brianna Bowman
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
<...Keiko Part 2 with Brianna Bowman
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.Â
Produced + edited by...
Keiko Part 1 with Brianna Bowman
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.Â
P...
Where I Live: The Listener Holiday Special
“We’ve always been inventing and reinventing new worlds for taking care of each other. We just have to notice.”
We asked our subscribers to send us audio postcards to encapsulate where they live, what makes it special, and what people get wrong about the place that they call home. For this holiday season, we've woven together an aural tapestry from their answers to remind one another that no matter how far apart we are, no matter what people say about the places we come from, we still share small moments of beauty, connection, and hope.
Join...
Cold War Santa with Sarah Archer
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.Â
Visit the YWA Instagram for visual references
More Sarah Archer:
https://www.sarah-archer.com/
Sarah on Instagram
Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler
<...
The Dictionary Wars! with Gabe Henry
Remember being a teen and coming up with “cool” ways of spelling common words? Well, just like the teenager it was, the United States in the 18th century was annoying their mom, England, with the hip words that were being edited and added to their lexicon. The antagonistic pair of nations on the brink of the Revolutionary War were always competing to prove their superiority and independence in small cultural battles, and words themselves were no different.Â
Fellow word-nerd Gabe Henry, author of Enough Is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell, joins Sarah as they...
Introducing: The Devil You Know with Sarah Marshall
Listen now to the first episode of Sarah's new 8-part series with CBC Podcasts, The Devil You Know.
In the 1980s and 90s, Satan and his followers were accused of brainwashing children, sacrificing babies, and infiltrating North American society on a massive scale — yet these thousands of alleged Satanists were nowhere to be found.Â
In this all new series, host Sarah Marshall explores the tangled web of the Satanic Panic, in a journey that will take you everywhere from Victoria, B.C. to rural Kentucky to San Antonio, Texas. This is a show about the peo...
Midnight Ghost Shows with Chelsey Weber-Smith
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 w...
The Auralyn with Blair Braverman
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
Bl...
Samantha Smith vs. the Cold War with Maris Kreizman
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.
Mor...
The Insanity Defense with Mackenzie Joy Brennan
What do John Hinckley Jr. and a jazz age tuberculosis patient have in common? Legal correspondent ​​Mackenzie Joy Brennan takes Sarah through some of the strange cases that helped make—and break—the insanity defense in America. Our story includes a woman who carried her (alleged) victims’ bodies around in a suitcase, and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan—carried out with the intention of impressing a young Jodie Foster.
More Mackenzie Joy Brennan:
http://www.mkzjoybrennan.com
More You're Wrong About:
Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute mer...
Corn Mazes with Chelsey Weber-Smith
Can you find your way out of the maize? The corn maze has become an enduring attraction of the American autumnal experience, seen at touristy family farms next to pumpkin patches and haunted houses. But what are the historical roots of this iconic living puzzle? Sarah guides the eternally-lost Chelsey Weber-Smith through the twists and turns of the corn’s corridors and reveals the hidden architects that walk behind the rows.
More Chelsey Weber-Smith:
www.americanhysteriapodcast.com
Mr. Jeff's Labyrinth Typology Hand Out:
https://www.labyrinthos.net/La...
Pee-wee Herman Part 2 with Jamie Loftus
In the second part of our series, pop culture historian Jamie Loftus takes us through the meteoric rise of Pee-wee Herman and the withering of Paul Reubens' world as dubious allegations surface that threaten to turn a beloved children’s character into a real life villain. Jamie tells us about his struggle to reconcile the character of Pee-wee with the real Paul Reubens, and how his longtime friendships became his sanctuary until the very end.Â
Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of explicit materials involving minorsÂ
More about Jamie Loftus:
https://www...
Pee-wee Herman Part 1 with Jamie Loftus
What’s today’s secret word? Paul Reubens spent years bringing to life one of America’s most beloved characters, Pee-wee Herman, an icon of joy for weirdos of all ages. In the first of this two part series, Pee-wee superfan-turned-historian Jamie Loftus lets us into the playhouse for a journey through Paul’s early life and art school days, his collaborations and relationships, and the beginnings of a kind of fame that would blur the line between character and creator.
More about Jamie Loftus:
https://www.jamieloftus.xyz/
Support You're W...
The Hitler Diaries with Adrian Daub
What happens when you’re just a little too good at forging the diaries of Adolf Hitler? And why did so many people want to read them? In 1983, the West German news magazine Stern bought sixty volumes of forged journals and held a press conference to announce their publication. This week, Adrian Daub of podcasts In Bed With the Right and The Feminist Present is here to tell us all about what would be the publishing hoax to end all hoaxes…if only the book in question wasn’t so boring.Â
More about Adrian Daub:
htt...
The I Hate to Housekeep Book with Miranda Zickler
For many of us, house cleaning is a daunting, unpleasant affair, but for You’re Wrong About editor Miranda Zickler, it is a love language. Continuing the Peg Bracken Book Club tradition set forth by our I Hate Cookbook episode with Sarah Archer, we discuss The I Hate to Housekeep Book, a tongue-in-cheek guide for housewives that came out in 1962. Miranda also shares her background as a housecleaner as she and Sarah get into all the figurative cracks and crevices of the archetypal Home to figure out why keeping our space clean can feel so emotionally ch...
Coyotes! with Lulu Miller
Who is out there behind the howling midnight parties in the distance? For generations we have coexisted in varying degrees of rivalry, conflict, and admiration with the North American canine known as the coyote. From pre-colonization to our modern backyards, through the wild west and the streets of San Francisco, award-winning NPR science reporter and YWA Maligned Animal correspondent Lulu Miller takes our pack on a journey toward a better understanding of these resilient creatures.
*EDITOR'S NOTE: Lulu Miller would like to submit a correction to her statement that Ronald Reagan put a band on coyote poison...
Inventing the Teenager with Harmony Colangelo
Where did all these teens come from? Harmony Colangelo, co-host of This Ends at Prom, is here to explain how, before Americans got to worry about what teenagers were up to, we first had to decide what they were—and how a boom in postwar educational films taught a generation of adolescents what not to do.
Skipper Learns a Lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8kJzBJrOkU
1950 Family Date: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8kJzBJrOkU
More about Harmony Colangelo:
https://www.instagram.com/veloci_trap_tor
Is Your House Too Clean? with Sarah Archer
Have you scrubbed down the top of your fridge lately? Home & garden correspondent Sarah Archer is here to tell us how and when we got so obsessed with the antiseptically clean house as a status symbol, and whether we really need to worry about every bit of dust on that baseboard.
Find out more about Sarah Archer:
https://www.sarah-archer.com/
Support You're Wrong About:
Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
Where else to find us:
Sarah's other show...
Hoax Memoir Spectacular!
This week, flim flam correspondent and certified April Fool Chelsey Weber-Smith is here to talk about a fistful of fake memoirs, featuring girls raised by wolves; the chicken pox of James Frey; what poetry can give us that memoir can't; and Eugene, Oregon (twice!).Â
Read more about it here:
The Smoking Gun's "A Million Little Lies" https://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/million-little-lies
Blake Eskin's "The Girl Who Cried Wolf" https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2008/08/18/the-girl-who-cried-wolf-a-holocaust-fairy-tale/
Michelle Dean's "Opal Whiteley's Riddles" https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/opal-whiteleys-riddles
Christopher L. M...
Your Joy and Resilience Stories
At the end of our last episode, we asked you to call in and tell us what has been bringing you joy, connecting you to your community, and where you’ve been finding hope in these last few months. These are some of the responses we wanted to share in hopes that we can all find new ways to survive this world together. Thank you to all who sent us messages; though we couldn’t play them all, we felt inspired listening to each and every one.
Support You're Wrong About:
Bonus Episodes on P...
The Worst Oscars Ever?? with Michael Schulman
What do Lily Tomlin, Snow White, and Kenny Ortega have in common? They were all part of the 61st Academy Awards, a broadcast now remembered as the worst of all time, and masterminded by Allan Carr (lover of spectacle and producer of Grease). But awards season correspondent and New Yorker staff writer Michael Schulman is here to argue that the tackiest, most disastrous Oscars of all time might just be... unfairly maligned.
And to tell us what's bringing you joy and excitement right now, send us a voice memo (three minutes or shorter) at sloppyandalive (at) gmail...
Emotional Labor with Rachel Monroe and Ash Compton of Bad Therapist
What is "emotional labor," and why is it probably not what your boyfriend accuses you of making him do when you want him to go to Ikea with you? Psychotherapist Ash Compton and journalist Rachel Monroe are here to tell the tale of how the term sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild coined—in her 1983 book The Managed Heart—has come to mean, well, almost everything. How is the term still useful? How can we use therapy language as a tool for growth or an excuse for avoiding it? And whose job is it to do these dishes? Happy Valentine's Day from...
Alice Kyteler and the First Witchcraft Trial in Ireland with Molly Aitken
In County Kilkenny, Ireland, in an early year of a century not too long before our own, Alice Kyteler was accused of witchcraft. But the story doesn't end there. This week, Molly Aitken—author of BRIGHT I BURN—is here to tell us a tale where the more things* change, the more they stay the same. (*Men)
Read Molly's books:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2204198/molly-aitken/
This month's bonus episode on Peg Bracken's I Hate to Cook Book: https://www.patreon.com/posts/121131515?pr=true
Aron Ralston with Blair Braverman
What would you do if you were pinned down by an 800-pound boulder, and no one knew where you were? In 2003, Aron Ralston had to answer that question. Today, our survival correspondent Blair Braverman is here to tell us the tale of the man, the myth, and the multitool.
Blair Braverman tells us how the legendary story of one good dog is actually a story of two good dogs.Â
Read Blair’s book, Small Game:
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780063066175
Read Blair’s Patreon (and learn more about sled dogs!):
h...
Singing in the New Year with Carolyn Kendrick and Each Machine
There's one last present at the toe of our stocking, and it's a new album by producer Carolyn Kendrick. We'll be back with a regular episode next week, but for now, come listen to some music, and join us for a conversation about making art and community in uncertain times, and the new year's dreams that will sustain us in 2025.
Find Carolyn's songs, record, website, zine, and more here:
https://linktr.ee/carolynkendrick
Support You're Wrong About:
Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
Where...
Santa Claus with Sarah Archer
'Twas (the night before) the night before Christmas/ And all through the show/ We await Sarah Archer with eyes all aglow/ To blow the dust off some old books from the shelf/ And tell us the tale of a jolly old elf.
Where did he come from?/ Where is he going?/ We know you have questions/ So bundle up, if it's snowing/ And sing out your favorite holiday song/ (As ever, it was capitalism all along.)Â
Sarah Archer's Website:Â
https://www.sarah-archer.com/
The Santa files (co...
Cola Wars with Miles Klee
Miles Klee can’t take it anymore. This week, a tale of corporate intrigue, world domination, and soda.
Read Miles Klee at Rolling Stone.
Support You're Wrong About:
Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
Where else to find us:
Sarah's other show, You Are Good
Links:
https://www.rollingstone.com/author/miles-klee/
http://patreon.com/yourewrongabout
https://www.teepublic.com/stores/youre-wrong-about
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/yourewrongaboutpod
https://www.podpage.com/you-are-good
Elizabeth Báthory with Princess Weekes
"Our alleged serial killers deserve better than this." Was Elizabeth Báthory the most prolific serial killer of all time, or was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Do we even have the tools to know? And what about that bathing in the blood of virgins thing? Lizzie correspondent Princess Weekes is here with your election night distract-a-thon.Â
Princess' YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@Princess_Weekes
"Tall, Dark and Racially Ambiguous"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvg5nShcAOU
Find Princess on Bluesky
https://bsky.ap...
Halloween History with Chelsey Weber-Smith
Black cats and goblins and broomsticks and ghosts/ Covens of witches with all of their hosts/ You may think they scare me, you're probably right/ But American Hysteria's Chelsey Weber-Smith is on the show tonight. It's a tale of mischief, mayhem, and adults trying to keep their kids safe by nailing meat to the walls. What is Halloween? Can there be treats without tricks? And does it really count if no one's house gets egged?
If you liked this episode, consider attending A Massive Seance.
https://linktr.ee/amassiveseance
American Hysteria:
A MASSIVE SEANCE Live Show Tour with American Hysteria
What could possibly go wrong when two skeptical podcasters try to summon a ghost? Join Sarah and Chelsey Weber-Smith (of American Hysteria) for a historical, theatrical, ecstatic spectacular for the living and dead. Hold hands with your favorite disembodied voices for a spiritualist séance* featuring fireside conversation, mystifying tricks, special guests, and music from The Little Lies – the only Fleetwood Mac tribute band that may actually be ghosts. This winter, we will release the phantoms of the past year and make room for the spirit of the new.
Tickets are available here.
https://linktr.ee...
Revolutions and Resistance with Kellie Carter Jackson
Kellie Carter Jackson, author of We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance, is here to take us on a trip through American history where we learn about revolutions, change, and joy not from a few white men, but from generations of Black women.
Kellie Carter Jackson https://www.kelliecarterjackson.com/
Read We Refuse https://www.kelliecarterjackson.com/we-refuse
Support You're Wrong About:
Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
Where else to find us:
Sarah's other show: You Are Good
...
Lawrence v. Texas Part 2 with Marcus McCann
"Times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress. As the Constitution endures, persons in every generation can invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom."Â
— Justice Anthony KennedyÂ
This week, Marcus McCann brings us to the end of our story of a few good men who challenged Texas' anti-sodomy law, and ended up changing the law of the land—and we ask what becomes of the people who bring the rest of us closer to freedom.
D...
Lawrence v. Texas Part 1 with Marcus McCann
Or, is it legal to have gay sex in your own home? This week, Marcus McCann takes us back to the 2003 Supreme Court case that challenged a Texas anti-sodomy law--with little stops along the way for Mexican food, the endowment of James Dean, and peevish police. (Part 2 coming next week!)
Dale Carpenter's book Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. TexasÂ
Marcus' book Park Cruising: What Happens When We Wander off the PathÂ
Support You're Wrong About:
Bonus Episodes on Patreon
Buy cute merch
Where el...
