I’m back on my bullshit, and that bullshit is talking about podcasts all the damn time. This time I’m here to talk about You’re Wrong About, a podcast I absolutely cannot stop listening to right now. Hosts Michael Hobbes (Maintenance Phase, HuffPost) and Sarah Marshall (journalist, currently working on a book about the Satanic Panic) delve into the stories behind the cultural phenomena, moral panics and public figures that we all think we know the stories of, but in fact, we’re wrong about. Here’s why you should check it out.
It’s full of millennial nostalgia
If you grew up in the 1990s or early aughts, the episode topics will ring a lot of bells for you. From Tonya Harding to the Clinton impeachment to Elián González to the OJ Simpson trial, you’ll know something about the topic from the buzz around it during your childhood, and it’s fun to do a deep dive on these pivotal cultural moments that shaped the climate we grew up in, whether we realized it or not.
For example, I vividly remember the day Princess Diana died because my mother cried, and I remember watching the funeral on television. I had the Elton John single CD of his commemorative version of “Candle in the Wind.” This event was impactful for me, but I didn’t know nearly as much about it as I thought I did until I listened to the multiple-episode series on Princess Diana. I remember learning about Bill Clinton’s affair and impeachment in my fifth-grade classroom, but as a child, I had no context for understanding how complicated that entire situation was. I remember exactly where I was when the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2000 as I waited for the entire electrical grid to shut down, even if I didn’t fully understand why. You’re Wrong About is clearing all of this up for me, and it’s been really informative and fun to revisit some of my memories with the new context the podcast has given me.
You’ll actually learn something
One reason I love podcasts so much is that I love to learn, and I learn something new during each episode of You’re Wrong About. It’s the kind of information that you immediately text a friend about because it almost made your brain explode and you want someone to respond to you with the *mind blown* emoji. Like, for example, the fact that Anna Nicole Smith’s marriage to that super old guy was actually very loving (and probably the healthiest relationship she experienced). Or that the Enron collapse is way weirder and more scammy than you realized. Did you know they basically just faked all of their income? Yeah, me neither. Or that the “Y2K Bug” wasn’t a bug at all? I learned that alongside Sarah when Michael told her. That brings me to another fun aspect of the learning: You get to learn with one of the hosts, rather than just having two people talk at you and tell you what you’ve gotten wrong since 1995.
In addition to 1990s topics, there are also broader episode themes—like sexting, acid rain, and the electoral college—and more historical topics, like Marie Antoinette and Anastasia. There is truly something for everyone, and I guarantee that even when you think you know a lot about something, Sarah and Michael will uncover new-to-you information about it.
It all comes down to empathy
Sarah and Michael are exactly the kind of people you want to be the ones to tell you that you’ve been wrong about something. They’re kind, and they don’t talk down to their listeners or each other. More often than not, one of the big takeaways at the end of an episode is that the people at the center of these stories are human—and society, the media, and the general public memory have all failed to frame them as such.
My favorite episodes are the ones that cover maligned women of the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. It’s eye-opening to see how pervasive the public narratives around people like Anna Nicole Smith and Tonya Harding were, and how they negatively shaped our opinions on these people for decades to come. Think about how Monica Lewinsky’s name became a punchline or how the one thing you know about Vanessa Williams is that she lost her Miss America crown because of nude photos. Or how the whole Super Bowl incident was framed as Janet Jackson’s fault. (Side note: check out this awesome Maligned Women tee). When you get a full story of these women’s lives, you are reminded that there is so much more to them than the one “bad” thing we know them for, and that they’re not that different from you or me. This seems like a simple statement, but I think it’s something we all need to be reminded of, because many of these histories are repeating themselves. A fundamental lack of empathy for the people we’ve seen be publicly shamed, both in the past and present day, is why we so often get it all wrong.
You’re Wrong About is a smart and compassionate reminder that humans are fallible, that there is always more to every story than we get to see as it unfolds, and that most things deserve a second look.
Do you listen to this podcast? Tell me what you think about it in the comments!