Back in 2021 one of the favorite things I wrote that year was a column (plus a related TWW podcast episode) titled “How a Dogged Reporter Sniffed Out an Alt-Right Furry Infiltration,” in which I wrote about Patch O’ Furr, creator of the Dogpatch Press website, which reports news related to the furry subculture. If you’re interested in learning more about a particular subculture, I recommend finding the media that they themselves create to learn more about them. Although Dogpatch Press reports on plenty of fun stuff going on with the furry fandom, Patch is also important as a watchdog (pun intended) that has put in impressive work exposing potential threats to their world. In particular, Patch has exposed a disturbing and dangerous fringe of the fandom– Alt-Right or Nazi Furs.

Related to that is the case of a 2014 terror attack at the Midwest Fur Fest (in Rosemont, outside of Chicago) in which several attendees were injured in after someone released chlorine gas in one of the hotel’s hallways. To date, no one has been charged with that crime, although there is a clear suspect. Patch dropped me a line to tell me about a new podcast series that delves into this case (and A+ on this title): Fur & Loathing. This series was created by Nicky Woolf, a journalist who writes for The Guardian, and produced by Brazen, a podcast and multimedia platform. Patch’s investigations and insight are a key part of the story.

The podcast is six episodes, with some bonus material, and does a fantastic job delving into the suspenseful twists and turns of this strange case. The podcast team leaves no stone unturned in their extension effort to figure the case out. It is alternately funny, empathetic, surprising, and disturbing.

You can listen here: https://brazen.fm/fur-and-loathing/ and if you scroll down on that page, you’ll find links to Apple, Spotify, etc. Well worth listening if you are interested in a true crime podcast with an unusual, furry twist.

More listening: I was recently a guest on the New Books Network podcast, hosted by Tyler Thier. We discussed my book American Madness, published in 2020 but still very relevant today. You can listen here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/american-madness