#You're Wrong About

[if-not-now-tell-me-when]

"We tell these horror stories about cannibalism as if people are holding on to their humanity by a thread and if we cross certain lines, it will be shattered. This idea of fragile humanity, like fragile masculinity; you do one wrong thing and it’s gone. But in fact, people hold on to their humanity as much as they possibly can. And it seems like in this sort of situation, in extreme situations, the humanity comes out more. It doesn't matter if these people are eating human flesh - they are so human. They see each other with so much kindness and humanity. And why do we fixate on the cannibalism as a symbol of the loss of that when we are just as likely, if not more likely, to lose our humanity here in our everyday lives in the ways that we see and exclude people.” - You're Wrong About podcast

[autisticandroids]

been listening to you're wrong about and like. okay @barren-and-trivial-words said once that on hannibal, serial killing is fundamentally considered a type of artistic pursuit. and they were right, obviously they were right. that's the basic structure almost, of the series. my favorite example is the eye sculpture serial killer where hannibal is literally like. we are situated in his gaze and he is evaluating the sculpture on artistic merit. but overall hannibal is a tv show about aestheticism and the inherent amorality of aestheticism - it is of course immoral to kill, but it is also often beautiful to kill, and shouldn't beauty outweigh morals sometimes?

and the thing is, media is... a good place to make this point. obviously because making a point is going to be in media, but the nature of hannibal as a tv show for consumption means that aesthetics will always trump morals. because the people on the show aren't real, but the beauty is, beauty does by default outweigh morals.

so hannibal kind of becomes this fascinating metatextual text on the nature of stories, or, you know, it can be read that way. because it is in the nature of all stories for beauty to outweigh morals.

but it's also a comment on the nature of serial killers as a concept. i want to link the two episodes of you're wrong about that got me thinking about this - both of these episodes are about the symbiotic relationships serial killers have with media. with fiction but even more especially with news and non-fiction. serial killers sell papers, and in fact the figure of the serial killer is kind of invented to sell papers - in one of these episodes, sarah marshall reads off a letter sent to a london paper "from" jack the ripper that was probably actually forged by a journalist to heat up the news cycle. it's very cinematic, it reads as absolutely cliche to the modern ear and maybe to the victorian one as well, but i'm sure it made the paper that printed it a lot of money.

and one of the things that i already kind of knew but was reinforced in these episodes is that most of the common knowledge that the public has about "serial killers" both in general and in specific cases is just... wrong. and that's for a lot of reasons. some of it is definitely because it's convenient for the police to have access to the figure of the mastermind serial killer for all sorts of reasons, especially to cover their own incompetence or to just pawn off unsolved cases. but also it's because the media needs sensation to sell papers, and so lurid stories of superhuman killers are just a lot tastier than some guy who murdered three women for obvious, petty reasons and also molested his stepdaughters. the public demands uniqueness, spectacle, extremity. it's not enough to bleed if you want to lead, stories have to bleed spectacularly. so the modern concept of the serial killer was built almost entirely on the back of newspapers, true crime paperbacks, and silence-of-the-lambs-alike feature films. it's not like. a real thing. it's a product of the spin factory, re-working reality into something marketable.

and hannibal lecter - the original, fava beans and a nice chianti hannibal lecter - is perhaps the height of this cultural concept, the star of the serial killer... craze? moral panic? i suppose the word is phenomenon. so it's interesting to read bryan fuller's hannibal as a kind of indulgent commentary on the existence of the newspaper-literary "serial killer" figure.

[i would also recommend ywa's episodes on ed gein, jeffrey dahmer, and the dc snipers for more perspectives on serial killers. while i'm at it you should also listen to their episodes on gangs, human trafficking, sex offenders, the satanic panic, stranger danger, and true crime, but i realize i'm kinda pushing it.]

[stonebutchooze]

when I go to sleep at night my three parents mike, aubrey and sarah whisper kindnesses into my ears

[haveyouheardthispodcast]

[endapartypod]

Some honorable mentions from our episode on our favorite podcasts!

LISTEN HERE

[kostektyw]

some podcasts I like

in no particular order, to show some appreciation for the hours i spent listening

Black Box Down - about aviation disasters. I like that they really go into details on the cases, going through the reports, talking about the mechanical workings of the planes, as well as the procedures, rules, and how an incident influenced them, but they do it in a way that's understandable even to an average person.

Swindled - about corporate greed, con artists and white collar crime. Told from a perspective of a concerned citizen that's fed up with this bullshit. I'll be honest, sometimes listening to it makes me really mad at the world we have to live in.

Revisionist History - about the overlooked and the misunderstood. Each episode is a fascinating journey into a topic i might not have otherwise thought about. I love listening to it while on a walk, it makes me feel like its really worth being aware of the world that surrounds me.

Sawbones - about medical history. the first mcelroy podcast i ever listened to :p i often very much appreciate the lighter tone while still learning stuff

You're Wrong About - about correcting misconceptions. I'll be honest, as a non-american sometimes it's strange to hear them talking about something i've never heard about like it's the most common thing in the world, but it's still fun to learn.

Well There's Your Problem - about engineering disasters (with slides). Very funy, very interesting, and who doesn't love a good bridge collapse.

[letthewordsoverflow]

This may be too niche but...

The first earth benders

The first fire benders

The first water benders

The first air benders

The first ozempic benders

[eardefenders]

For the ask game: ✨🕵️‍♂️🎧

✨ - Favorite one-off character?

Victor Trevor right now, but I'm anticipating that to become Irene when we get there.

🕵️‍♂️ - First adaption/version that got you into Sherlock Holmes media?

Hm this is an interesting one for me. Because I definitely adored The Great Mouse Detective when I was a kid (I wanted to change my name to Basil there for a minute), but I don't think I really knew that it was a Sherlock Holmes thing. And I did read some of the stories when I was a kid, but I thought they were god awful boring back then. I also remember vaguely enjoying the Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century when it aired on tv lol. I also saw both RDJ Sherlock Holmes movies in theaters, but I went to those out of a love for RDJ, not necessarily Sherlock Holmes (though I do hold a soft spot for that adaption).

However, I was unemployed and didn't have a television, when my friend asked if I wanted to see a new show called Sherlock. I remember we sat on the floor of my apartment and watched it on a laptop sat on a dining chair in the summer of 2012. It was hot and I fell in love immediately with the BBC Sherlock adaption. And then my friend made me wait a WEEK between each episode that was out at the time. 6 WEEKS to get through series 1 and 2 lol.

So I think I've always loved Sherlock Holmes in some way or another, but the full on brain rot didn't hit until BBC Sherlock. And now here we are lol.

🎧 - What other podcasts have you listened to/recommend?

What's hilarious is I don't like True Crime genre stuff and I don't really like fiction either, so Sherlock & Co is really an outlier for me.

That said I highly recommend the following podcasts:

5 to 4 - They tear the supreme court and their shit decisions over the last century to shreds and they're hilarious while they do it.

Maintenance Phase - I fucking adore Aubrey Gordon. This whole podcast is filled with good researched information about diet culture myths and the lies we're told to encourage fatphobia.

You're Wrong About - Sarah Marshall gives wonderfully researched debunkings of popular events in the last 50 or so years and helps shed some light on the way we've culturally twisted things to fit a certain (often bigoted) perspective.

Thinking Like a Lawyer - They review everyday situations from a legal perspective. Very fun imo.

If Books Could Kill - Mike and Peter debunk those junk science and self-help books you find at the airport and they're usually pretty funny while they do it.

[gf-boyfriend]

I wonder how Sarah marshall is doing rn

[mon-d-i-e-u]

listening to the You're Wrong About podcast's episodes about the O.J. Simpson trial is something that can be so personal

[neroushalvaus]

Lindsay Ellis went full on You're Wrong About when discussing how Yoko Ono, Courtney Love, Meghan Markle, Monica Lewinsky, Amber Heard and so many other women have been treated by the media and the public, and it was amazing but it also filled me with rage

[in-sufficientdata]

[stonebutchooze]

Michael and Aubrey on maintenance phase: we don't disclose much about our personal lives on here

Michael on you're wrong about: when I was younger I was shoplifting and got sent to a diversionary programme. When I was in highschool I wrote porn in sociology to prove the teacher was reading our journals. I used to smoke a lot of weed but then found out I'm allergic. I have been through conversion therapy but it wasn't that good lol

[ghostingfee]

Okay guys, I really really love the podcast You're Wrong About. I recommend the podcast in general, but at this moment I recommend a specific series of episodes of theirs: Quarantine Book Club, "Michelle Remembers". It's so good you guys omg

[popculty]

you heard it here first

[if-not-now-tell-me-when]

"And I'm sure there's an extent to which we are hiding the bigger scary thing, which is like scary not in a little kids telling ghost stories kind of a way. So much as its not promising you that your humanity is going to snap and it'll be gone; it's telling you that the capacity of your human experience is more vast than you'll ever get to feel even most of in the time you have to be alive." - Flight 571: Survival in the Andes with Blair Braverman