ICYMI | Halloween Used to Be Fun Online

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Jonquilyn Hill, host of Vox’s Explain It To Me podcast. The pair chat about how the internet used to celebrate Halloween, from spooky Twitter display names to Snapchat filters, and why no one wants to be earnest online anymore. However, today’s internet is still filled with plenty of scary stuff, with r/nosleep still going strong, ghost sightings going viral on TikTok, and LinkedIn. That’s it. Just LinkedIn. Get more of ICYMI with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of ICYMI and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the ICYMI show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/icymiplus for access wherever you listen. This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, I'm Kate Lindsay, and you're listening to I-C-Y-M-I-M-I, or in case you missed it, Slate's
0:19.3	podcast about internet culture.
0:21.7	And with me for today's episode is Johnclan Hill, hosts of Vox's Explain It to Me podcast.
0:26.8	Hello, JQ.
0:28.1	Hello, I am so happy to be here.
0:31.1	Gosh, and we are going to get spooky today.
0:32.9	I hope you're ready to get spooky.
0:34.3	I love to get spooky.
0:43.9	Thank you. to get spooky. I love to get spooky. But first, the great thing about spooky season is that you can palate cleanse with fall fun
0:49.9	activities.
0:50.7	They are happening at the same time.
0:52.4	And so for this weekend, I went all the way to
0:55.2	Virginia because also my parents are. I live in Brooklyn because they have a stoop that I can
1:00.1	decorate with pumpkins. And I've now done it two years in a row. And so I went there. I decorated
1:04.8	the stoop with pumpkins. I got, I went to the Froyo, like, place that they have because it's
1:10.7	like still 2014 there. And I put candy corn on my Froyo. Like, I had a very wholesome festive weekend. But I saw that you, JQ, you were at Howard Homecoming. How was that? Oh, yeah. It was great. And can I also say, I respect you because you partake in candy corn and I do too.
1:28.0	And I think we are so disrespected in this world.
1:31.3	But candy corn is tasty.
1:33.0	As a community, yes.
1:34.7	I mean, listen, I will say that in the instances of this froyo, I didn't think through sort of scientifically what candy corn that's been sitting out and that to be like sprinkled in
1:45.6	frouio would taste like in terms of texture but i powered through like quite literally with my
1:51.5	jaw because i was addicted to the whimsy of the season yeah you have to i i love fall it's my
	...

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