

mailbag: your 'i was the main character' stories
Before we go on (brief! I promise!) hiatus and move to a seasonal format, Jamie takes a look at your submitted stories about being the main character -- from viral pets to grieving online to reckoning with your relationship to a changing internet, we explore the spectrum of what it means to be too …

badger badger mushroom (with jonti picking)
In my day, there were but three things middle schoolers cared about -- BADGERS, MUSHROOMS, AND SNAKES. This week, we look at the peak of Flash animation -- Jonti Picking, aka Mr. Weebl's masterpiece "Badger Badger Mushroom," and the obsessive subculture that was Newgrounds flash animation of the 20…

why the SEC ignored the hawk tuah scam feat. john reed stark
We all know that Haliey "Hawk Tuah" Welch was the face of a memecoin crypto scandal, and most know that the SEC excused it wholesale. What we don't fully know is why it was so easy to get away with it -- in our grand Hawk Tuah finale, Jamie speaks with former SEC enforcement attorney John Reed Star…

have you ever been the main character?
We're switching to a seasonal format on Sixteenth Minute in a few weeks, and to close the chapter on week-to-week main characters, we want to know -- have you ever been the main character? And if not, how has your relationship to the internet changed? For our May 20th episode, we'll be airing your …

the hawk tuah flop comeback
Let’s catch up with Haliey ‘Hawk Tuah’ Welch since the fallout of the crypto scam that undercut her sixteenth minute. While most didn’t stick around to see what happened, a lot about the crypto world has empowered Team Tuah to keep going — getting one over on the government, a second botched pump a…

how tay zonday reunited with adam bahner
In our final installment of our Tay Zonday series, Jamie speaks with the one and only Adam "Tay" Bahner about how he navigated his viral fame, and how the internet has changed beyond recognition from the days of "Chocolate Rain." Follow Tay here: https://www.instagram.com/tayzonday/

chocolate rain: a political awakening
In part two of our Tay Zonday series, Adam Bahner gets into his political awakening, and how it affected his relationship to his family, his creative work, and himself. Wanna get radicalized? Wanna get radicalized AGAIN? This is the episode for you. Follow Tay Zonday here: https://www.instagram.co…

the world according to tay zonday
There are few internet videos more iconic than Tay Zonday’s ‘Chocolate Rain,’ but it took over a decade for the song to be recognized for the politically charged ballad it is. How did we miss it? In part one of our Tay Zonday series, Jamie gets into the history of political music, the naïveté of th…

the smell doctor who was 'too woke': dr. ally louks
After eight long years of research, Dr. Ally Louks posted to Twitter about completing her Ph. D : "Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose." The Elon-fueled right-wing internet freaked out. In an exclusive interview, Jamie speaks with Dr. Louks about the experience …

the horny duolingo bird lives: zaria parvez
Where do you go from pivoting your brand to nihilism? Horny, my friends. WILDLY horny. In our final installment of the Sentient Horny Brand series, Jamie speaks to the mind behind Duolingo’s chaotic, wildly horny social media presence Zaria Parvez. Remember when you couldn’t get the owl giving birt…