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The Shallow End

The Shallow End

Written by: Schnebly and Toth
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About this listen

 From the Webby Award-winning creators of The Box Of Oddities Podcast comes The Shallow End with Schnebly and Toth. Friends since childhood, Lindsay Schnebly and Jethro Gilligan Toth have always shared a love for stories of people doing ridiculously dumb things. They found it wildly amusing as young boys. They still do today. This is your invitation to pour a strong drink and join them for true stories that are tragically hilarious.© 2023 Eleven Eleven llc. Social Sciences World
Episodes
  • 192: How to Get Arrested Using Household Appliances

    192: How to Get Arrested Using Household Appliances
    Jan 21 2026
    Episode 192 of The Shallow End delivers three perfectly unhinged true stories that prove human decision-making collapses completely under mild pressure. First, police in the UK respond to a routine burglary investigation—only to discover their suspect hiding inside a washing machine. Not running. Not mid-cycle. Just vibrating slightly with shame. When officers lift the lid, the man doesn’t flee or panic… he politely waves. Because of course he does. Then, listener Ben from Springfield, Massachusetts shares his own bizarre brush with human nonsense after arriving at his riverside boathouse to discover his entire dock has vanished. Security footage later reveals two strangers and a dog untying it, floating it upstream, and casually tying it to a tree—apparently deciding the dock needed a change of scenery. Finally, we head to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a rejected liquor purchase escalates into an armed robbery using an 1850s derringer, also known as a “muff pistol.” Pajama pants, hoodie, antique firearm, and stolen IDs—because if you’re going to commit a crime, you might as well do it with Civil War flair. No one is hurt. No high-speed chases. Just grown adults, questionable choices, and appliances that were never meant to be safe houses. Lesson of the week: appliances are not hiding places, docks are not community property, and blunderbusses do not improve your odds. You’re in The Shallow End with Schnebly and Toth—where confidence routinely outruns planning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    36 mins
  • 191: This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

    191: This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
    Jan 14 2026
    In this episode of The Shallow End, we ease into the morning with half-finished coffee, mild grogginess, and a deep philosophical discussion about a very specific human flaw: the irresistible urge to acquire objects we absolutely do not need—and will almost certainly never use. From abandoned French press coffee makers to unopened hologram fans quietly aging in closets, the boys unpack the strange comfort of possession without follow-through, the sacred importance of keeping boxes “just in case,” and the moment you realize you’ve officially become your parents. Things take a darker turn with a true crime story from Italy involving pension fraud, family deception, and a high-profile attempt at impersonation that has been dubbed the real-life “Mrs. Doubtfire scheme.” It’s a story that somehow manages to be disturbing, absurd, and baffling all at once—and proves that bureaucracy will eventually notice… even if it takes a while. Then, a listener email delivers a classic Shallow End cautionary tale involving college logic, expired Mello Yello, gravity, and a car hood that never knew what hit it. It’s a story about impulse, regret, and the long shadow cast by a single bad decision made at the top of a staircase. Finally, the episode closes with a quintessential Florida Dumb Criminal Story: a man who tried to delay his flight by calling in a bomb threat—using his own phone, his real voice, and airport Wi-Fi. What follows is a quietly perfect example of impatience, overconfidence, and how modern surveillance does not reward shortcuts. It’s an episode about bad choices, unintended consequences, and the universal belief that maybe—just maybe—we can outsmart the system this one time. Spoiler: we can’t. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    39 mins
  • 190: The Worst Possible Time to Say “I Forgot Something”

    190: The Worst Possible Time to Say “I Forgot Something”
    Jan 7 2026
    What happens when you don’t take the win? This episode of The Shallow End delivers two unforgettable stories about poor decisions, improbable survival, and the fine art of knowing when to walk away. First, a Texas man is released from jail, handed his belongings, and given the one instruction that matters most: leave. Instead, he realizes something is missing—his confiscated marijuana—and makes the baffling choice to climb back over the jail fence to retrieve it. The result? No weed, more charges, and an instant promotion to the Shallow End Hall of Fame. A perfect lesson in why some exits should never be re-entered . Then, the episode pivots from modern misjudgment to 19th-century audacity with the astonishing true story of Professor Thaddeus Lowe, a self-taught scientist who accidentally drifted by hot air balloon behind Confederate lines at the dawn of the Civil War. Shot at, nearly arrested, and mistaken for a demonic flying contraption, Lowe somehow talked his way out—then turned the entire ordeal into a meeting with Abraham Lincoln and the creation of America’s first military balloon reconnaissance program . Along the way, listeners are treated to a jaw-dropping listener story involving gasoline, a bonfire, a Kiss music video, and the Milwaukee River—plus a reminder that eyebrows do, in fact, grow back. Equal parts absurd, historical, and painfully relatable, this episode explores those fragile moments when the universe says, you’re done here—and what happens when someone ignores it. Life lessons included. Jail fences should not be climbed. Fire tricks should not be attempted. And when freedom hands you the door… take it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    42 mins
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