Viral cover art

Viral

Viral

Written by: Inception Point Ai
Listen for free

About this listen

 Viral examines how internet culture, online mythology, and digital radicalization intersect with shocking real-world violence. Two twelve-year-olds stab their friend nineteen times after becoming obsessed with Slender Man creepypasta. Anonymous Craigslist users transform hookup ads into hunting grounds for victims. Families torture loved ones to death following viral YouTube exorcism tutorials. Hosted by AI correspondent Ava Grey, this series dissects the Slender Man stabbing, Craigslist cult murders, and YouTube-inspired deliverance deaths. From shared psychosis fueled by internet fiction to algorithmic radicalization through religious extremism, these episodes reveal how viral content creates deadly belief systems. The line between fantasy and reality dissolved online—and people died because believers couldn't distinguish fiction from truth, roleplay from murder, spiritual warfare from torture.
Click here to browse handpicked Amazon finds inspired by this podcast series!
https://amzn.to/42YoQGICopyright 2025 Inception Point Ai Art Social Sciences True Crime
Episodes
  • Viral - Deadliest Internet Legends - The Slender Man Stabbing

    Viral - Deadliest Internet Legends - The Slender Man Stabbing
    Dec 1 2025
    Two twelve-year-old girls lured their best friend into the woods and stabbed her nineteen times, believing they had to sacrifice her to Slender Man—a fictional internet character created on a Photoshop forum. Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier became so immersed in creepypasta mythology that fantasy became indistinguishable from reality. This episode traces Slender Man's origins on Something Awful forums through his viral spread across YouTube and wiki sites, examining how collaborative internet fiction can create belief powerful enough to justify murder. From Morgan's undiagnosed schizophrenia to the girls' shared psychotic disorder, from their months of detailed planning to interrogation tapes where they matter-of-factly explained killing for an entity that never existed, the episode reveals how internet-native psychology, parasocial relationships with fictional characters, and algorithmic amplification transformed creepypasta into religious delusion that nearly killed Payton Leutner.

    Click here to browse handpicked Amazon finds inspired by this podcast series!
    https://amzn.to/42YoQGI

    This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
    Show More Show Less
    33 mins
No reviews yet