Episode notes
Did you catch Peter Thiel's Enhanced Games in Las Vegas on May 24th? You know, the libertarian-minded, steroid-fueled, biohacked Olympics. No? Still nothing? After recruiting mostly ex-Olympic athletes from track & field, swimming, and weightlifting, parent company Enhanced trained them for months in Abu Dhabi — while also loading them up on a cocktail of drugs to see how many world records they could break. Reporter, producer, wrestling coach, and also Grant’s trainer Sam Eagan talks with Grant about the intended goal of the games (read: transhumanism is involved), and their deep…
Podcast
Panic World
Garbage Media · Tech & Science · English
A weekly podcast, hosted by Ryan Broderick, about how the internet warps our minds, our culture — and reality.
More from Panic World All episodes →
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10 Sep 2026 · 29 min
Charlie Kirk didn't matter
Happy (?) Kirkiversary. One year ago today, Charlie Kirk was killed by someone the right-wing wasn’t able to effectively use for fearmongering. Ryan & Grant look back at what Kirk’s legacy is now — the martyr he wasn’t able to become, and the guy who’s instead trapped in memes and shitposts forever. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonuses & exclusives, and access to our members-only Discord? Sign up for a membership for just five bucks a month at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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26 Aug 2026 · 21 min
BONUS PREVIEW: Is social media actually "dead" now?
Will we ever get another new platform to communicate with on the internet? Today, we’re talking about the various eras of social media platforms — from Myspace to Facebook, Twitter to Instagram, and Vine to TikTok — and their biggest moments in culture, like Fred, Shit My Dad Says, Wendy’s Twitter, and Kombucha Girl. Some have stood the test of time so far, but mostly, we’re all beholden to platforms that have so much power and money now that they can control where we post and how we do it. Musician Connor Musarra joins us to help Ryan define when a social media platform’s dominance begins,…
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22 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 12 min
The sicko who invented prediction markets
Where did prediction markets come from, and why are they more popular than ever? Charlie Warzel joins the pod once again to discuss the proliferation of these strange companies like Kalshi and Polymarket that allow you to bet on nearly anything — monetizing the good, and mostly bad things. We go into the early 2000s background of these platforms, led by Robin Hanson, an economist and self-described “Jungian ENTP” who originally got involved with prediction markets through his “Policy Analysis Market” as a means to anticipate political instability and terrorist attacks; how they are used now;…
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15 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 5 min
Bad things happen when we let robots decide what’s good
Why does culture feel so much less... human than it used to? Wyatt Cenac joins Ryan to discuss the “crisis of taste” — or how, in the past 10-15 years, tech companies have flipped media on its head. People used to spend more time making things and shaping culture, and then tech responded to that culture. Now tech is using AI to try to manufacture culture so you don’t need to develop your own taste because our tech overlords will tell you what taste to have. Ryan & Wyatt reflect on why nostalgia is more popular than ever right now, and how we can even get comfort from simply watching…
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8 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
Our autopsy of the DNC autopsy
Why did the Democrats lose so badly in 2024? Rob Flaherty joins us to dissect the "DNC autopsy" — the formerly internal report about what went wrong in 2024 — about which he gave his own thoughts on The Bulwark in May. Rob was the deputy campaign manager for Kamala Harris and also formerly a digital strategist for Joe Biden. Rob distills his analysis of what happened in 2024, and then Ryan & Grant present Panic World’s own version of the DNC autopsy and get Rob’s response, as well as additional details from what he saw behind-the-scenes. How much did Harris only having 107 days matter? Or…
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24 Jun 2026 · 56 min
The Onion's big plans for InfoWars
Venerable satirical Chicago-based outfit The Onion is truly on a mission to save democracy — and it starts by relaunching FKA Alex Jones’s InfoWars, which The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron LLC, acquired via bankruptcy auction. CEO Ben Collins joins us to discuss the business’s past and future; chumboxes vs. subscriptions; why they still put out physical newspapers; “Google Zero”; the editorial process (and humans vs. AI); of course, their plans for InfoWars, and more.Our guest Ben Collins is the CEO of Global Tetrahedron. He goes by “Tim Onion” on Bluesky at…
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17 Jun 2026 · 39 min
We went to the UFC fight at the White House lol
This past weekend, Ryan & Grant went down to see what the UFC Freedom 250 fight on the White House lawn was all about. What they found was $30 margaritas, $120 graphic tees, one (1) mechanical bull, and a whole lot of people who just wanted to watch some dudes beat each other up — and didn’t even know it was supposed to be Trump’s big birthday bash. Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus & exclusive episodes, and access to our exclusive Discord? Sign up for a membership for just five bucks a month at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. For Apple Podcast users, you…
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10 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 9 min
This celebrity murder case feels like fan fiction
Today we’re talking about the D4vd murder case, one of the darkest stories in pop culture at the moment. D4vd — or David Burke — got his start as one of the original Fortnite streamers, who then built a big Discord community around himself, including an alter-ego, "IT4MI," and ultimately his work as a musician blending styles like bedroom pop and indie rock. But in April 2026 he was charged with allegedly murdering one of his fans, 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Jennifer Swann joins us again, to discuss the allegations and everything leading up to them.Our guest Jennifer Swann is a…
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5 Jun 2026 · 11 min
BONUS PREVIEW: This is the dot-com crash all over again [Part 2]
What would the internet look like if major tech companies like Meta and Google were no longer usable? With Google more deeply integrating AI into Search and changing how it’s worked for the first time in 25 years, many fear “Google Zero,” where websites simply don’t receive any traffic from search anymore. But Google isn’t the only one. With so many companies going all-in on AI, replacing employees with AI and reorienting their products to cater toward AI use, Ryan presents his “Internet Zero” theory — what happens when companies that are pillars of the internet as we know it shift their…
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5 Jun 2026 · 1 hr
BONUS: How the internet destroyed TV (and itself) [Part 1]
Why is everything online just clips now? We’ve reached a point with digital video that’s made it impossible even for a normal, non-sicko to ignore: we’re awash in slop (whether AI-created or not). Ryan works through his thinking with Grant about how everything on the internet became video: how the people who were first to figure that out made enough money that they’re now able to take on legacy media and big Hollywood players, but it doesn’t really seem like anyone knows what to do with that power, other than pump out garbage. And if short-form video as a format is fundamentally broken, if…
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