The Duck Tales Bandit
After his cartooning career failed to take off, a German artist named Arno Funke started extorting department stores. He went by “Dagobert,” the German name for the character of Scrooge…
Join Pushkin+
Gain access to ad-free versions of 20+ podcasts from the Pushkin library along with exclusive bonus episodes and other member benefits.
Every week host Joel Stein picks a long magazine article that fascinates him – and then actually reads the whole thing, all by himself. Then he calls his fellow, but greatly superior journalist friend who wrote it, and gets them to tell him all about it. He does the work and you get the stories. More accurately, some great journalist does the work and Joel Stein puts his name, Joel Stein, on the podcast.
Most Recent Episode
The Duck Tales Bandit
After his cartooning career failed to take off, a German artist named Arno Funke started extorting department stores. He went by “Dagobert,” the German name for the character of Scrooge…
How the Bronze Age Pervert Became a Far Right Icon
“Bronze Age Pervert” is the moniker of an influential far-right thinker. He has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. His book is a top-seller on Amazon, and was reviewed…
Learning to Be Blind
When Andrew Leland was a teenager he learned he had a rare disease that would cause him to become blind by the time he reached middle age. He recently decided…
The Billion Dollar Green Energy Scam
A car mechanic named Jeff Carpoff invented a portable solar generator. Companies like Geico and Progressive Insurance bought thousands of his generators because they got tax credits for doing so.…
Confessions of a Wedding Planner
Xochitl Gonzalez spent years planning the weddings of New York’s wealthiest couples. This is the story of the craziest wedding she’s ever planned. You can read Xochitl Gonzalez’s Atlantic story…
The Pancake Battles
A developer named Domenic Broccoli wanted to build an IHOP in Fishkill, New York. But after it was discovered that the plot of land he was planning to build on…
How Much is an Elephant Worth?
Laos used to be known as “the land of a million elephants.” Now, there are only about 800 elephants left in the country. Reporter Paul Kvinta went undercover to learn…
The Implosion of a Leading Anti-COVID Vaccine Group
Simone Gold, a former ER doctor, is the founder of a non-profit called “America’s Frontline Doctors,” known for spreading misinformation about COVID. After she was arrested for taking part in…
How to Break a Guinness World Record
How did the Guinness World Records company come to be? And how, in the age of the internet, does the company make money? Imogen West-Knights spent a year investigating. She…
A Visit to Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap Factory
The history of Dr. Bronner’s soap is even crazier than the famously crazy writing on the side of a Dr. Bronner’s soap bottle. The company was founded by a man…
The Never-Ending Treasure Hunt
In 2010, an art collector named Forrest Fenn published a memoir called “The Thrill of the Chase,” in which he described hiding a treasure chest somewhere in the United States.…
An Undercover Romance
A woman in Louisiana named Donna Metrejean fell in love with a D.E.A agent in Oregon named Robert Golden. She uprooted her whole life to be with him. But all…
Dave Chappelle’s Neighborhood Drama
Comedian Dave Chappelle has been buying up properties in the tiny town of Yellow Springs, Ohio. The residents have mixed feelings about their powerful neighbor’s real estate decisions and it’s…
A Bloomsday Mystery
In celebration of Bloomsday on June 16th, we’re bringing you a special James Joyce mystery. Ten years after achieving stratospheric and unlikely fame, the world’s greatest Ulysses scholar disappeared. Reporter…
The 15-Minute City Conspiracy
When a benign urban planning concept is co-opted by conspiracy theorists, an unsuspecting professor becomes the target of right-wing death threats. Tiffany Hsu covered the story of the 15 minute…
The Gathering of Thought Criminals
Every month in New York City, a small group of people who feel like they’ve been ostracized for holding unpopular opinions and their supporters meet up to chat, debate, and…
Inside the Most Important Microchip Factory in the World
Nearly all of the high-end microchips in the world - the ones we depend on for our phones and cars – are manufactured in an unassuming factory in Taiwan. Virginia…
Bringing Tiffany Dover Back to Life
When a nurse named Tiffany Dover fainted on camera after getting a Covid vaccine, anti-vaxxers assumed the worst. Shortly after, the internet was awash in conspiracy theories that she was…
A preview of a new Pushkin audiobook: Death Of An Author
What happens when artificial intelligence comes for the novelists? Death of an Author is a groundbreaking, suspenseful experiment in the meta world of man meets machine. A gripping mystery that…
The Perils of Loving a Chatbot
On the Replica app, you can create an AI-powered chatbot to talk to, befriend, sext and even virtually marry. The service has millions of users. Some of them are now…
Melania’s Marine Mammal Mystery
In 2012, Melania Trump tweeted a photo of a smiling beluga whale and captioned it “what is she thinking?” Eleven years later, Sabrina Imbler, a journalist at Defector Media, decided…
The Autograph King of New York
Celebrity autographs are a billion dollar industry. And in New York City, “Radio Man” is better at collecting them than anybody else. He also regularly appears as an extra in…
Life Without Plastic (It’s Not Fantastic)
Is it possible to live for even a day without plastic? Stunt journalist extraordinaire A.J. Jacobs tries his best. And fails miserably. You can read the full New York Times…
Putin’s Terrifying “Chef”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian man nicknamed “Putin’s Chef” went from being a street criminal to a hot dog seller to owning a catering company that provides services to the Russian…
How the Buy Nothing Movement Imploded
In 2013, two women started a Facebook group called “Buy Nothing” for their local community on Bainbridge Island to swap unwanted items for free. But their small group quickly grew,…
A ‘90s Rapper & A Wanted Malaysian Billionaire
UPDATE: Since we recorded this episode on 03/09, Guo Wengui was arrested in New York City on charges of financial conspiracy. For years, rapper Pras Michél has allegedly been doing…
The Surprising, Queer History of the 1974 Oscars Streaker
The Oscars seems to be cursed with a series of chaotic live television gaffes. But one moment in Academy Award history takes the cake. In 1974, a scrawny white man…
The New Etiquette Rules
Tipping. Dinner parties. Canceling plans. We could all use an etiquette guide that teaches us to live without pissing people off. Luckily, New York Magazine has one – and it…
The East River Mammoth Tusk Hoax
What happens when extinct animal skeletons meet the “Joe Rogan Experience”? The answer is murky, freezing, and may contain submerged cars. This week, we bring on Michael Wilson from the…
The Grey’s Anatomy Liar
What happens when you pretend you’re a medical miracle? Lots of things, as TV writer Elisabeth Finch found out – including gaining a job writing for Grey’s Anatomy. For a…
The Bonnie and Clyde of the Art World
Suspicious art dealers, fraudulent documents, and huge egos--the only thing worse than the uppity art world is how much it relies on laundered art from other countries. On this week’s…
The Weirdest Poker Hand of All Time
Robbi Jade Lew broke the world of poker with an incredibly unlikely win against Garrett Adelstein. Her win went viral and the internet exploded with dueling accusations of sexism and…
Carnivorous Plants Will Ruin Your Life
Inside the flourishing world of online plant fanclubs lies a deep, dark obsession: people who dedicate their entire lives to caring for Nepenthes, or carnivorous pitcher plants. On this week’s…
Hawaii’s Zombie Cats
Hawaii’s Kauai island is overrun by half a million feral cats, many of which are infected with toxoplasmosis. These infected cats pose an existential threat to the native habitat, including…
The Bad Boy of Chess
Magnus Carlsen, the greatest chess player in the world, accused 19-year-old Hans Niemann of cheating. Why? Because Niemann beat him twice. Carlsen and the chess world can't prove Niemann is…
Queen of the Phone Hackers
One of the first computer hackers was a woman. She pulled some of the most elaborate computer hacks of the '80s and yet no one knows her name. Host Joel…
Christmas Tree Mafia
New York’s curbside Christmas tree business is run by a small group of ruthless, shadowy men. Owen Long, a tree salesman in Brooklyn, takes us into his world and reveals…
Hunting the Crypto Drug Lords
A group of DEA agents from Fresno, California figures out the real name of a Dark Web drug kingpin. But before they can make the arrest, they have to follow…
How to Be a Good White Savior
Iranian-American scholar Reza Aslan talks about his article for The Atlantic, "How to Avoid the White Savior Industrial Complex," which tells the story of his childhood hero, missionary Howard Baskerville.…
Park Slope Panthers
A crime in Park Slope, Brooklyn – the heart of gentrified Brooklyn – leads residents to form a neighborhood watch group. Esther Wang, who writes for Hell Gate, attended the…
The Mobster and the Mormon
Michele McPhee traces a wild scam to bilk the U.S. Government out of $500 million. The plan was hatched by a young man from a polygamist Mormon sect in Utah…
Living Like Founding Fathers
A.J. Jacobs spent a month following the most conservative interpretation of the Constitution possible. One not far from how the current Supreme Court has been ruling. Host Joel Stein, talks…
Fake Gay-Conversion Camp
In this week's episode, we're LARPing, live-action roleplaying that gets you to step out of your own shoes and into a character's. Writer and first-time LARP-er Jason Anthony decides to…
10 Straight Years on Tinder
Allison P. Davis wrote “My Tinder Decade” a New York Magazine cover about being on the dating app from the very beginning. And never going on more than five dates…
The Hallucinogenic Toad Doctor
A Mexican doctor and former crack addict’s TED talk at Burning Man helped popularize hallucinogenic toad poison as a treatment for addiction…and a shortcut to enlightenment. Host Joel Stein speaks…
Billionaires Prepping for the Apocalypse
Douglas Ruskhoff was invited to speak to a group of tech guys at a conference in the middle of the desert. Instead, they asked him questions about how to build…
Introducing Story of the Week
Every week host Joel Stein picks a long magazine article that fascinates him – and then actually reads the whole thing, all by himself. Then he calls his fellow, but…
The Host
Joel Stein
Joel Stein, host of the Story of the Week podcast, has been a journalist for 25 years, including 20 at Time magazine where he wrote 22 cover stories. Stein has…
