Spoiler Alerts! Wordle, Chinese Censorship, and the Zen of Knowing the End in Advance

We talked about memes as "mind viruses" a few episodes ago, but boy, "Let's Go Brandon" got nothing on Wordle. The daily word game has become America's newest pandemic, so it was only a matter of time before someone figured out a way to spoil everything on Twitter.

So, we got to thinking about "spoilers." That led us to ideas about "controlling the narrative," which has taken some interesting forms lately:

• China changing the ending of "Fight Club" and other movies to make sure the state always wins
• American thickneck John Cena calling Taiwan a country, which pissed off Beijing, for which Cena apologized in a cringey way
• The US Left getting bent out of shape by Substack making money off vaccine skeptics and by Joe Rogan
• The US Right getting bent out of shape by light cursing and some drawings of nude mice in the graphic novel Maus

All of which proves that the stories we're telling, collectively, really matter. And thus: the irritation of spoilers.

But what if spoilers are good for us? One study suggests that spoilers actually improve our appreciation and understanding of stories — it's a Zen thing maybe: you can be in the moment without thinking about how things are going to turn out.

Speaking of endings, we spend a little time talking about the ultimate spoiler: the knowledge of our own deaths. Can that particular spoiler in fact help us appreciate life?

Rounding this out, we crunch into whether or not Stephen has any right to privacy when it comes to the ending of "Mad Men," which he is only just now watching.

The answer may surprise you.