mailbag: your 'i was the main character' stories

Hi, Sixteenth Minute Fans! We want to share a new show, Away Days: Reporting from the Underbelly.  About the show: Away Days Podcast is an episodic documentary series focused on unreported stories from the fringes of society.  We’re compassionately documenting the underground without watering it down or editorially obscuring it. This is independent journalism with no filter. Real, raw, and ugly. Journalist Jake Hanrahan, the host and creator of Away Days has spent the last 10 years embedded in places he’s not meant to be. With unique access and a straightforward style of on-the-ground reporting, the listener will be taken deep into the places they didn’t know existed. Listen here and subscribe to Away Days on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 online. Bonus: one of Jamie's favorite memes of all time calls in! Thank you for making the first year of Sixteenth Minute so special, see you soon <3 Buy Raw Dog here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250847751/rawdog/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 2000s. How do you become an iconic animator online? Here's a tip: be an incredible musician already. Jamie talks to the multi-talented Jonti about how he makes art born from problem-solving. Follow Jonti: https://www.youtube.com/@weebl See Jamie on book tour for Raw Dog!: https://us.macmillan.com/author/jamieloftus Watch Boston PD Zamboni Crimes Division: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRTunzDofwY&list=PLTHWo4zMtfja4vxOAxnyDK0VXGpRhvRW5See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Stark about how the state of cryptocurrency can do more than sink a fledgling influencer's career, it can tank a whole economy.  Follow John Reed Stark's work here: https://www.johnreedstark.com/ Come see Jamie on tour for Raw Dog starting next week! https://us.macmillan.com/tours/jamie-loftus-raw-dog/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaf-I3pdBDpG51TvRPCIfkS08847rolEcVNOqDZCUX8Hq9t9sZlX9idj_DI9NQ_aem_niy1HGU3U4vldbC-KP7JsA BEFORE MAY 9TH, send a voice memo of your experience being the main character to: [email protected] for your chance to be on an upcoming episode of SIxteenth Minute!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 stories! Send your voicemail to: [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 and dump scheme, and a suspiciously timed podcast relaunch. To what end? We’ve got some ideas. See Jamie on tour for RAW DOG! https://us.macmillan.com/tours/jamie-loftus-raw-dog/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaf-I3pdBDpG51TvRPCIfkS08847rolEcVNOqDZCUX8Hq9t9sZlX9idj_DI9NQ_aem_niy1HGU3U4vldbC-KP7JsA Watch Coffeezilla’s breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiZVDY5jNYM&t=696sSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.com/tayzonday/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 the early Internet and the ‘post racial Internet,’ and Tay shares more about how he grew up and into one of the most misunderstood cultural figures of his generation. VOTE FOR WE THE UNHOUSED IN THE WEBBYS BEFORE 4/17! Webby Awards People’s Voice Follow Tay Zonday: https://www.instagram.com/tayzondaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 of reclaiming the narrative around a nasty online backlash to better educate anti-intellectuals on the sense we ignore the most.  Follow Dr. Ally here: https://x.com/DrAllyLouks Read Dr. Ally's original thread here: https://x.com/DrAllyLouks/status/1861872149373297078?lang=en vote for "we the unhoused" for a webby before april 17th!: https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/shows/public-service-activismSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.