The Anxiety Encyclopedia
Co-hosts Lorien and Katharine talk about what's making them anxious, from bears to Botox and everything in between.
Episodes
Lorien and Jane Goodall tentatively believe in Bigfoot. Katharine definitively believes in bears.
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot
- https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/local/2026/03/09/bigfoot-sightings-reported-in-mantua-ohio-bigfoot-society/89063150007/
- https://www.wdtv.com/2026/08/29/bigfoot-or-human-skinny-dipping-photos-mysterious-creature-dubbed-syracuse-figure-spark-debate/
- https://nypost.com/2026/08/02/us-new...
Katharine takes Lorien on a virtual tour of places she does not want to go.
Sources:
Sources:
- https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/30/extreme-haunted-house-masochists-mckamey-manor
- https://www.cracked.com/article_44002_5-actual-deaths-in-haunted-houses.html
- https://www.ranker.com/list/people-died-halloween-attractions/harrison-tenpas
- https://www.grunge.com/245113/disturbing-things-that-actually-happened-at-haunted-hous...
Okay, but what if Walt Disney's head IS frozen under Pirates of the Caribbean?!
(It's not.)
Sources:
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-a-strange-rumor-of-walt-disneys-death-became-legend
- https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/suspended-animation/
- https://cryonics.org/cryonics-library/the-prospect-of-immortality/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryoprotectant
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KrioRus
- ...
You CAN sit with us while Katharine talks about groups you can't sit with.
Sources:
- https://www.wired.com/story/leak-exposes-members-of-peter-thiels-secretive-dialog-society/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialog_(organization)
- https://www.history.com/articles/the-knights-templar
- https://www.history.com/articles/secret-societies-freemasons-knights-templar
- https://beafreemason.org/
- https://www.nationalgeo...
Lorien shares an anxiety that could keep people up at night.
Sources:
Katharine is also inspired by John Green but maybe a little more meaningfully than Lorien was. Also, Katharine just took a vacation to Japan and a lot of things about that made her anxious and joyful.
Sources:
A tale of three (?) AirTags
Sources:
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/25/tracking-device-domestic-violence-offenders-stalking-apple-find-my-friends
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address
- https://9to5mac.com/2025/09/29/tile-security-flaws-can-let-both-the-company-and-stalkers-track-your-location/
- https://www.wired.com/story/tile-tracking-tags-can-be-exploited-by-tech-savvy-stalkers-researchers-say/
- https://9to5m...
Katharine takes Lorien along for the ride, coming for another fun summer activity.
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafting
- https://www.whitewaterrafting.com/rafting-info/history
- https://www.whitewatervoyages.com/intro-to-whitewater-rafting
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sixth-grader-dies-annual-school-rafting-trip-poconos-rcna347380
- https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/water-activities/professional-raft-...
Diseases, aggression, and bird strike, oh my!
Sources:
- https://www.ncwildlife.gov/species/canada-goose
- https://www.audubon.org/magazine/10-fun-facts-about-canada-goose
- https://www.audubon.org/news/learn-tell-cackling-goose-canada-goose
- https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/birds/waterfowl/canada-geese/
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-minnesota-towns-love-hate-relationship-with-giant-geese
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada...
Katharine tells Lorien about those big, dangerous, goofy, majestic (?) river horse.
Sources:
- https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/general-animals/ten-hippo-facts/
- https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/hippo
- https://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/hippopotamus
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7416829/
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c869jj5dy4qo
- https://thewildsource.com/should-you-fear-hippo...
Lorien learned a lot of rodent-related facts she doesn't like. She shares them with Katharine.
Sources:
Sources
A Katharine classic!
Sources:
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/slang/manosphere
- https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2026/03/world/expose-rape-assault-online-vis-in...
Lorien tells Katharine about mystery mushrooms, magic mushrooms, and mushroom foraging (and reveals that the hunter/gatherer gene skipped her).
Sources
Like much of the country of late, Katharine has space on the brain.
Sources:
- https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-an-asteroid-caused-extinction-of-dinosaurs.html
- https://today.ucsd.edu/story/an-asteroid-doesnt-have-to-hit-earth-to-cause-catastrophe
- https://www.space.com/astronomy/asteroids/the-powerful-new-rubin-observatory-just-found-11-000-new-asteroids-and-measured-tens-of-thousands-more
- https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system...
Lorien has discovered another reason not to go hiking. Also, Lorien says she's not going to give away the ending to a 130-year-old short story and then immediately does, so spoiler alert, we guess.
Join us on the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe as Katharine tells Lorien about trains.
Sources:
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clye22ljxw4o
- https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/train-crashes-against-crane-southeastern-spain-tve-reports-2026-01-22/
- https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/safest-places-sit-traveling-train-044500726.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=...
Lorien tells Katharine about a group that dares to ask the question: what if the only laws that count are the ones I like?
Sources
This episode is more filling and less toxic than a Tide pod.
Sources:
Sources:
- https://www.npr.org/2022/09/22/1124252556/nyquil-chicken-challenge-fda-warning
- https://www.healthline.com/health/dont-eat-tiktoks-nyquil-chicken#talking-safe-use
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/09/07/paquis-one-chip-challenge-removed-from-shelves-following-teens-death/
- https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/worcester-street-renamed-to-hon...
Lorien gives Katharine a quick and dirty history lesson on the largest island in the world for...absolutely no specific reason at all...
Sources:
Sources:
Katharine tells Lorien about types of flooding; Lorien (kind of) tells Katharine the plot of the 2006 movie Flushed Away.
Sources:
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