How did we all hear THAT Ciara rumor?

Investigating wide-spread middle school rumors.

HEY NST HEADS,

We’ve been fascinated by the idea that, despite growing up in different parts of America, and before social media was really a thing, we all heard some of the same rumors in middle school. So for this week’s episode, we collaborated with Ryan Broderick and Grant Irving from Panic World to go deep on three middle school rumors. We’ll investigate the false rumor that Ciara announced she was intersex, the “jenkem” panic of the 90s, and the rumor that Marilyn Manson had a rib removed so that he could…you know.

(Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Others)

As you listen to the episode, here’s what the Chicago Tribune printed about Ciara on February 22, 2005.

Here’s a video of Ciara from March 16, 2005 addressing the rumors on “106 and Park.”

Here’s a local Fox News report on jenkem:

Check out Panic World wherever you listen to podcasts! Ryan also has a great newsletter called Garbage Day, which is worth a follow if you want more weird deep dives on the internet.

This week, I’m not even going to ask you to rate us 5 stars — just share this episode with a middle school friend who lied about seeing Ciara on Oprah.