HistoryTrue CrimeSociety & CultureExplicit

You're Wrong About

Sarah Marshall

Sarah is a journalist obsessed with the past. Every week she reconsiders a person or event that's been miscast in the public imagination.

Play

Open in

23 episodes
fortnightly
Avg 1 hr 24 min
English

Episodes 23

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

Tuesday · 1 hr 13 min
Back to School with Gabe Henry
Who will you be this year? No matter your age, it’s likely that your body remembers the school calendar, and with the blooming aisles of binders and pencils and backpacks, it’s easy to feel like a nervous, hopeful kid waiting for that first day back in class. For this episode, Antiquated Education Correspondent Gabe Henry tells Sarah about the history of the shopping season known as Back to School, from the Depression-era department store promotions and the original mascots, to the development of trendy clothes, lunch boxes, and notebooks, and into the memorable commercials and new gadgets of the 1980s and 90s. Together they discuss the commercialization of ritual and what the promises of Back to School shopping taught us about the reinvention of the self. Digressions include the Nickelodeon blimp, Fred Meyer Jewelers, and the Ann Getty baby craze. More Gabe Henry: http://www.gabehenry.com Get Gabe's book "Enough is Enuf: Our Failed attempts to Make English Easier to Spell" @gabe.henryy on Instagram Produced + edited by ⁠⁠Miranda Zickler: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.linktr.ee/mirandatheswampmonster More You're Wrong About: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Bonus Episodes on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Buy cute merch⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠YWA on Instagram⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
September 1 · 1 hr 12 min
Ballet with Megan Burbank
Megan Burbank’s gotta dance. The centuries-old dance style known as ballet has been stereotyped in our modern world with images of refined, wispy, frighteningly disciplined young women fighting viciously for roles in ethereal productions. For this episode, Adult Dance Correspondent Megan Burbank shares with Sarah the history and transformation of this misunderstood art from its early days as a fancy French aristocratic performance, to its post-French Revolution embrace by the working class, and finally into 20th century America when the expected body of the ballerina began to take shape. Megan also shares her own experience as a late-onset ballerina, dispelling myths about what ballet is, who can participate, and what we can learn about ourselves through its techniques. Together they discuss the line between art and sport, the aspects of horror found in many ballets, and whether it is too late for all of us to become the prima ballerina of our dreams. Digressions include: Final Destination acupuncture, the smell of the Scholastic book fair, and the questionable advertising employed by Tab soda. Send your submissions for our Halloween Listener Spectacular (scary stories or Halloween nostalgia) to sloppyandalive@gmail.com before August 31st! Referenced: Ballet Evolved How Political Anxiety Turned Me into a Late-Onset Ballerina eXit SPACE Dance Studio International Adult Ballet Festival TAB Soda Fever Dream More Megan Burbank: Burbank.industries Burbank Industries on Substack Produced + edited by ⁠⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠⁠ More You're Wrong About: ⁠⁠⁠Bonus Episodes on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Buy cute merch⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠YWA on Instagram⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 11 · 1 hr 25 min
"Heaven is for Real" with Adrian Daub
If your four-year-old told you about a trip to heaven, would you believe them? For a pastor named Todd Burpo, the answer was yes. In 2010, his book Heaven Is For Real—co-authored by Lynn Vincent—became a runaway bestseller. This week, Sarah tells In Bed with the Right co-host Adrian Daub the story of this strange little book, and how it reveals more about us than it does the afterlife. Digressions include Shakerism, The Big Lebowski, and the ongoing debate around pets in heaven. Send your submissions for our Halloween Listener Spectacular (scary stories or Halloween nostalgia) to sloppyandalive@gmail.com before August 31st! More Adrian Daub: http://www.adriandaub.com Adrian’s new book What Tech Calls Governing comes out August 18th Listen to In Bed with the Right Produced + edited by ⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠ More You're Wrong About: ⁠⁠Bonus Episodes on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠ Buy cute merch⁠⁠ ⁠⁠YWA on Instagram⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
July 28 · 1 hr 6 min
Lightning Round! with Chelsey Weber-Smith
Send your submissions for our Halloween Listener Spectacular (scary stories or Halloween nostalgia) to sloppyandalive@gmail.com before August 31st! How many maligned women can you name in 30 seconds? For this episode, Sarah gives Chelsey Weber-Smith of American Hysteria a lightning round pop quiz on You’re Wrong About topics over the years with stakes so high that you’ll have to hear them to believe them. Digressions include an evil preteen softball team, the alternative pronunciation of pasta, horror movie publicity stunts, and at what point an infant becomes a baby. More Chelsey Weber-Smith: Listen to American Hysteria Follow American Hysteria on instagram Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler More You're Wrong About: Bonus Episodes on Patreon Buy cute merch YWA on Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
July 14 · 58 min
What I Love: A Listener Summer Special
How do I love thee? For this special episode, we asked you to send us a voice message about something you love. From gas station coffee to tap dancing to rocks to the inner lives of rats, you answered—and showed us that when we experience the things that other people love, that love starts to feel like our own. Edited + produced by Miranda Zickler Original music in this episode is brought to you by Miranda Zickler and AJ McKinley, otherwise known as Magpie Cinema Club More You're Wrong About:...
June 30 · 2 hr 31 min
The JFK Assassination Part 2 with Mackenzie Joy Brennan
But seriously, who really killed JFK? For part two of the JFK Assassination series, law correspondent Mackenzie Joy Brennan takes Sarah through the conspiracy theories that have surrounded the tragedy to see how the combination of too much information and too little information helped solidify a general feeling that things were not as they seemed. Together, they go over the Warren Commission report, the Zapruder Film, and the story of the “magic bullet,” and look at how Oliver Stone’s movie J...
June 23 · 1 hr 43 min
The JFK Assassination Part 1 with Mackenzie Joy Brennan
Where is Dana Scully when you need her? For the first installment of this two-part episode, legal correspondent Mackenzie Joy Brennan tells Sarah about what happened before, during, and after the moment that John F. Kennedy was shot in that Dallas motorcade, the lasting cultural images that have been burned into the public consciousness, and the story of the man who shot the man and the man who shot the man who shot the man. Plus, the conspiracy theory that walked so that the paranoias of tod...
June 9 · 1 hr 26 min
Crying in Baseball with Julie Kliegman
Could there be a little crying in baseball as a treat? Sports correspondent Julie Kliegman is here to tell Sarah about the history of women’s baseball and softball and to finally teach her the rules of the game. From the days when women played alongside men, to the first women’s team in the 1940s, to the sexist rules placed on their teams, and the impressive modern players that are changing the game, they discuss the past and present through the lens of the 1992 film A League of Their Own. To...
May 26 · 1 hr 12 min
Rainbows with Lulu Miller
Why are there so many songs about rainbows (and what’s on the other side)? A bridge between worlds, a map to a pot of gold, the centerpiece of a Lisa Frank trapper-keeper, and of course, an ever-changing symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, the rainbow has been a profound part of the human experience for thousands of years. For this early Pride Month episode, science correspondent and bisexual seagull Lulu Miller explains to Sarah the history of our understanding of rainbows: why they exist, what ...
May 12 · 1 hr 4 min
What to Carry, What to Burn with Blair Braverman
Ada Blackjack wants one thing: To make enough money to bring her son home from an orphanage. But good work is hard to find in 1920s Nome, Alaska, so when four strangers come to town, looking to hire someone for a secret yearlong expedition, Ada embarks on the trip—not knowing that she’ll be the only one of them to survive. This is the first episode of YWA correspondent Blair Braverman's new podcast, What to Carry, What to Burn. To hear the second half of Ada's story (also featuring Sar...
April 29 · 1 hr 14 min
Desperation Pie with Sarah Archer
What would you do for a desperation pie? Kitchen correspondent Sarah Archer is here to talk with Sarah about the American food trends that marked the 20th century and how they related to the political and cultural changes of a nation in need of constant culinary inventiveness. They discuss the specialties of the barren Depression Era, the food-related propaganda and rationing of the wartime years, the meteoric rise of post-war disposability, the premade mixes and “exotic” dishes of midcentury...
April 14 · 1 hr 26 min
The Great American Spelling Bee with Gabe Henry
Can you use the word in a sentence? For this episode, Spelling Correspondent Gabe Henry takes Sarah through the surprisingly rampageous (r-a-m-p-a-g-e-o-u-s) history of the Spelling Bee, a uniquely American phenomenon. From the earliest examples of late night “spelling matches,” to the rough-and-tumble contests of the early frontier, to the controversy of the first National spelling bee, it turns out that these mild-mannered academic flexes were once both raucous and revolutionary. Gabe also ...
April 1 · 1 hr 14 min
Crop Circles with Chelsey Weber-Smith
What do men really get up to at the pub? For this April Fools' Day episode, Sarah tells urban legend correspondent Chelsey Weber-Smith of American Hysteria the history and the mystery behind crop circles, those sophisticated patterns left imprinted in corn and wheat fields said to be made by alien beings. For years, no one could find a rational reason for their mysterious existence as they spread across various countries; that is, until a pair of surprising culprits finally came forward to re...
March 17 · 1 hr 25 min
How to Deprogram a Guy in 10 Days with Endless Thread
Free yourself. What does it take to get someone to leave a cult? What happens if the cult is all around us? In this episode, Ben Brock Johnson & Amory Sivertson of NPR’s Endless Thread podcast join Sarah for a discussion about the cultier aspects of our culture, politics, and history, from the surprising origin of the anti-vax movement to the online communities that conspiracy theories can provide to lonely seekers. Together they try to figure out if it is indeed possible to “deprogram” t...
March 13 · 1 hr 34 min
The Worst Movie Ever Made? with Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson
From the bonus vault! What actually makes a movie “bad”? In this bonus episode, Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson of the film podcast Unspooled tell Sarah the story of what many consider to be the worst film of all time: the 1987 adventure comedy Ishtar. From the movie’s chaotic production to its perplexing public ridicule, together they analyze whether Ishtar is as bad as people say or if our culture just loves to jump on a snarky bandwagon. Digressions include James Cameron schadenfreude, $19 A...
March 4 · 1 hr 17 min
The Bluebelle with Blair Braverman
Do we ever finish surviving? Sarah tells Survival Correspondent Blair Braverman the incredible story of 11-year-old Terry Jo Duperrault, who was lost at sea for several days on a flimsy cork dinghy. She also explains the sinister truth behind the “accident” that set her adrift, her harrowing time on the open ocean, and what her life was like after she became a survivor. Along the way, Sarah and Blair discuss the tragedy of having your story silenced, the big things that help us pull through t...
February 17 · 1 hr 18 min
Keiko Part 3 with Brianna Bowman
Would you ride on the back of a random orca at the beach? For the final part of this series on Free Willy star Keiko, deep sea correspondent Brianna Bowman tells Sarah about his rewilding and return to the open ocean -- something that up until that point had never been done before. Digressions include introducing adult cats to each other, Fyre Fest, and the 27 club. Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler More Magpie Cinema Club More Brianna Bowman: Brianna's Website Support Brianna's new podc...
February 10 · 1 hr 45 min
Keiko Part 2 with Brianna Bowman
The movies freed Willy, but what about Keiko? For the second part of our trilogy on the biggest aquatic star of the 90s, deep sea correspondent Brianna Bowman takes Sarah through Keiko’s journey to the Oregon Coast Aquarium for rehabilitation and the developing plan to return him to the open ocean. But first, both marine scientists and rich benefactors have to try to teach a killer whale to be wild again. Digressions include the books of Jean Craighead George, the tragedy of the puns we misse...
January 27 · 2 hr 2 min
Keiko Part 1 with Brianna Bowman
Can a killer whale really jump that high? For kids of the 90s, the adventure movie Free Willy introduced us to magic of the orca through its charismatic megafauna star, Keiko. In part one of our series, deep sea correspondent Brianna Bowman tells Sarah about his journey from free marine mammal to imprisoned entertainer to Hollywood royalty. Together they discuss what Keiko meant to them as kids, 1990s whale-related activism, and the follies of anthropomorphic projection. Digressions include t...
Dec 23, 2025 · 1 hr 30 min
Where I Live: The Listener Holiday Special
“We’ve always been inventing and reinventing new worlds for taking care of each other. We just have to notice.” We asked our subscribers to send us audio postcards to encapsulate where they live, what makes it special, and what people get wrong about the place that they call home. For this holiday season, we've woven together an aural tapestry from their answers to remind one another that no matter how far apart we are, no matter what people say about the places we come from, we still share small moments of beauty, connection, and hope. Join us on Patreon or Apple+ Produced + edited by Miranda Zickler With music by Magpie Cinema Club More You're Wrong About: linktr.ee/ywapod Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Showing 1–20 of 23 episodes