Decoder Ring | Mailbag: Spooky Strings, Phone Menu Options, and Eye Rolls
Slow Burn
Slate Audio
4.6 • 25.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We are lucky to get fantastic questions from our listeners here at Decoder Ring, and in this episode, we’re going to open up our mailbag to answer three of them. What are the origins of an eerie horror film string motif? Why do companies insist on telling callers to “listen closely” to menu options that could not possibly have changed? And when did we start using the indispensable eye roll?
In this episode, you’ll hear from historical musicologist Frank Hentschel, as well as Eli Spindel, artistic director of the String Orchestra of Brooklyn. We also speak with writer Nick Greene, Holdcom CEO Andrew Begnoché, and linguist Dr. Rebecca Clift.
This episode was produced by Katie Shepherd and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.
Special thanks to Nicole Holliday, and to Leilehua Lanzilotti, whose website Shaken Not Stuttered is a fantastic resource about extended techniques for strings.
If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Willa. |
| 0:07.5 | For those of you who discovered decodering through Slow Burn, I've got some exciting |
| 0:11.4 | news for you before we share our latest episode. |
| 0:14.3 | It's a preview of Season 11 of Slow Burn, becoming Justice Gorsuch, which premieres on May 13th. The new trailer is dropping here |
| 0:23.2 | tomorrow. And today, I'm speaking with Susan Matthews, who's the host of Slow Burn becoming |
| 0:28.9 | Justice Gorsuch. Many of you may remember her as the host of the award-winning seven season of |
| 0:34.2 | Slow Burn, Roe v. Wade, and she's here to talk about the new season with me. |
| 0:38.8 | Hi, Susan. Hi, Willa. Okay, so tell me about this new season. So we're doing Slow Burn |
| 0:44.3 | becoming Justice Gorsuch. And the reason we picked this topic is because the government is really |
| 0:50.4 | messed up right now. We all know that. We hear about all the problems all the time. But there's |
| 0:54.4 | one place that is doing a lot. That place is the Supreme Court. And we really think that this |
| 1:01.9 | season is going to help you understand why the Supreme Court is putting out all these decisions |
| 1:07.2 | that really have the most effect on American policy compared to everything else. |
| 1:11.5 | And we're also going to talk about kind of the personalities of the justices on the court, |
| 1:16.8 | particularly Neil Gorsuch. |
| 1:18.1 | So, I mean, when I think of Neil Gersuch, I have to be honest that I don't, like, he doesn't |
| 1:22.6 | strike me as like the flashiest most. He doesn't jump out to me as like obviously fascinating. |
| 1:26.9 | So like like why do |
| 1:27.6 | Neil Gorsuch? Like, why focus on him? The reason for that is because the moment where Neil Gorsuch |
| 1:33.7 | ascends to the Supreme Court is in fact the moment that the court is basically broken and also |
| 1:41.3 | takes on this new valence of power in our government. And by that, I mean, you might remember Brett Kavanaugh's nomination, which was extremely contentious. You might remember Amy Coney Barrett replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But what happens with Neil Gorsuch is that he's the one that takes the seat that had been Antonin Scalia's, and Scalia had died when Barack Obama was still president. |
| 2:05.7 | Obama tries to nominate Merrick Garland and Republicans just stonewall, stonewall, stonewall for months and months and months until the election, until Trump has elected the first time. |
... |
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