Hi, I'm Willipaskin, the host of Dakota Ring, slate the podcast about cracking cultural mysteries.

And this year we're back with more new episodes, like many more new episodes.

We'll be diving down a new rabbit hole

every two weeks all year long.

We're starting with a question that's hiding in plain sight.

Why do so many coffee shops look the same?

No one had told these cafes to look the same.

There was no parent company, like a Starbucks

to be like, you have to look like this.

And we're also heading back to the early 1990s to ask if you can sell a soda by celebrating that it's just okay.

Right next to the Coke there's this gray product and it just says okay on it.

And I was like what what is this this is crazy and had this really

funky like fruity soda dr pepper like it tasted wild you can hear these episodes and more on decodering.

Now on your feed every two weeks,

make sure to follow us so you never miss an episode.