Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)

This summer, a fish named Alice fell from the sky and directly into the lawn of junior doctor Ben Beska. And so, of course, he tweeted about it... only to lose his newly beloved fish just a week later. What followed was what it looks like to go viral in 2024. Jamie speaks with Ben Beska over the course of two months to track the journey; plus, we talk to Stanford psychiatrist Dr. Elia Aboujaoude t...

This week, we're taking a tangent -- my dad, Mike Loftus, passed away two weeks ago, and this episode is twenty minutes about that. I've needed some extra time to get our upcoming episodes together, but I've wanted to share more about him and the last two weeks. I really miss him. We'll be back to regular episodes next week. As promised, the links: Obituary: https://www.waittfuneralhome.com/obitua...

This week, Jamie solves an age-old internet mystery -- whatever happened to Naomi H, the Twitter furry who lost an internship after telling off a man she didn't realize was on the National Space Council to "suck my dick and balls?" After half a decade, Jamie speaks exclusively with Naomi H to get to the bottom of it, and talk about how the internet has shaped Naomi H's life for better and for wors...

In 2017, HQ Trivia was the app to rule them all, nearly the heir apparent to Jeopardy! Millions of people would stop what they were doing every day to answer trivia for absurdly small cash prizes, most often from "Quiz Daddy" Scott Rogowsky. Less than a year and a half later, it was over -- but not before a broadcast with The Rock, a weirdly specific salad-based threat from a founder, and a tragic...

This week, a bonus interview from our 65-foot-hot-dog episode — 404 Media’s Jason Koebler talks to Jamie about how we need to remind people that writers aren’t robots. Then, Jamie reminds you she is not a robot. Listen to the 404 Media Podcast here:  https://www.404media.co/the-404-media-podcast/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens when public artwork becomes the main character? For the last two months, a culture war has raged around a gigantic sculpture of a hot dog in Times Square... and playing right into the artists' hands. Jamie goes to New York to talk about the secret agenda of the hot dog with creators Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw. Then, a talk with Carol Adams, the author of 'The Sexual Politics of Meat,'...

Legit question for rural Americans - How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play? This week, Jamie finds out from the 30-50 hogs asker himself -- Willie McNabb. Plus, we catch up with Professor John Tomacek about the VERY REAL issue of feral hogs, and Karl Kasarda of inRangeTV about how 30-50 feral hogs tied into a larger conversation about Ame...

In the summer of 2021, hundreds of Black TikTokers went on strike and demanded proper credit and compensation for dances they made famous. Why? Because, the most famous TikTokers of the pandemic, white teens Charli D'Amelio and Addison Rae, had become extremely famous off of Black choreographers Jalaiah Harmon, Keara Wilson, and others' work -- a continuation of age-old appropriation and theft. Ja...

In November 2022, one Philadelphia man took it upon himself to eat a rotisserie chicken every day for forty days. Why? Jamie flew across the country, went to his house, and interrogated him. Follow Alex here: https://x.com/AlexiconTom Get Raw Dog here while you're at it: https://bookshop.org/p/books/raw-dog-the-many-histories-of-hot-dogs-jamie-loftus/18785131?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwyJqzBhB...

If a tree falls in the garden where a woman enjoys drinking coffee with her husband and no one’s there to hear it, should the Internet harass her anyway? In 2022, Daisey sent one innocuous tweet that launched a thousand takes. Follow Taylor Lorenz: @TaylorLorenz on all platforms  Follow Julia Claire: @ohJuliatweets / @juliaclairegrams Follow Bridget Todd: @BridgetMarie on twt / @bridgetmarieinc on...

In the summer of 2023, a Boston cop humiliated himself by tumbling down a public slide in the most embarrassing way possible. This week, Jamie tries to find his pig ass, and admits her background as a Terminally Boston Woman. Interviews with Molly Conger and Jeff Raymond. Follow Molly:  https://x.com/socialistdogmom   Follow Jeff:  https://www.masstransparency.org/author/jraymond/   See omnystudio...

In 2015, the world was gripped by one question: is this dress black and blue, or white and gold? No, no, I refuse to argue with you about it — but the story of The Dress is the dying breath of a pre-algorithm driven social media, the peak of Buzzfeed, and contains some dark truths about the internet. Featuring interviews with Taylor Lorenz (@taylorlorenz), author of Extremely Online and Max Fisher...

This week, it's Kelly and Antoine Dodson's sixteenth minute — Jamie interviews Professor Gabriel Peoples, author of 'The Forgotten Kelly Dodson: Viral Performance and the Interplay of Excess and Erasure' about what happens when someone is erased from their own story. https://gender.indiana.edu/about/faculty/peoples-gabriel.html Read "The Forgotten Kelly Dodson":  The Forgotten Kelly Dodson Follow...

This week, it's Antoine and Kelly Dodson's sixteenth minute — Jamie interviews Antoine about the 'bed intruder' saga of 2010. Read "The Forgotten Kelly Dodson":  The Forgotten Kelly Dodson Follow Antoine Dodson here:  https://www.tiktok.com/@antoinedodson34 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sixteenth Minute (of Fame) is a weekly show that gives a sixteenth minute of fame to the Internet's most notorious characters of the day. Jamie Loftus talks to the characters themselves, and tries to get to the bottom of how they made it to the top of your feed for a fleeting moment -- and what that does to warp your brain. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.