Digging Up Lily's Garden

Endless Thread

WBUR

Reddit, Technology

4.1 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A woman sitting blissfully on a vibrating laundromat dryer. A faked pregnancy test to dump a bad boyfriend. In 2019, the internet was abuzz about bizarre ads for a mobile game called Lily's Garden. The ads were only about 15 seconds each, but they evoked a whole universe of drama amongst a cast of zany characters that inspired countless YouTube videos and copious internet chatter.

The thing is... the story in the ads had almost nothing to do with the story in the game. In this episode of Endless Thread: creative differences, the wilderness of mobile games, and where the Lily's Garden game-world and the ad-world diverged.

Show notes:

Lily's Garden on the App Store
Lily's Garden on Google Play
"I hate Lily's Garden and her teeth" (PewDiePie, YouTube)
How Tactile Games made marketing and diversity core to Lily’s Garden’s $500 million success (Pocket Gamer)

This episode was produced and written by Grace Tatter, co-hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson, and edited by Meg Cramer. Mix and sound design by Paul Vaitkus. Special thanks to our 2025 Bloomberg Arts Intern Cendy Charles.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	What I've dedicated my life to is revenge.
0:04.7	A brand new drama based on the best-selling novel.
0:07.5	They think they're better than us?
0:08.5	Who do you think you are?
0:09.8	I'm going to prove to them that they're wrong.
0:11.5	She's punishing me.
0:13.0	You destroyed my family.
0:14.3	I will not rest until I've destroyed yours.
0:17.0	A woman of substance on Channel 4 starts tonight at 9.
0:20.4	Project Hail Mary is an extraordinary cinematic experience.
0:24.0	You're a great scientist, Dr. Grace.
0:25.7	The world is counting on you.
0:27.1	Starring Ryan Gosling.
0:28.4	So I met an alien.
0:29.9	Two worlds.
0:30.9	One impossible mission.
0:32.4	We're going to save the stars.
0:33.9	Project Hail Mary.
0:35.0	Amaze, amaze, amaze.
0:36.3	Seat first March 14th and 15th in Cinemas Everywhere, March 19th.
0:41.3	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:50.9	Last summer, we sat down with a former colleague of ours to talk to her about something she loves that we know almost nothing about.
	...

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