Category: After Dark
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DragonKing Dark: The crimes of Jared Fogle
Karl Stern’s Dark 100 series continues. Note: Listener discretion advised You probably didn’t expect the face of evil to look like a geek eating a footlong did you? Yet, here he is: Jared Fogle. Why this goof became pop culture famous is beyond me, I mean, sure, literally for eating sandwiches and losing weight, but…
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DragonKing Dark: The Robert Blake murder trial
The Dark 100 continues. Actor Robert Blake was best known for his role in the 1970s TV crime drama Baretta. His star faded and in 2002, he became pop culture famous yet again but for an undesired reason — he was accused and arrested for shooting his wife to death in the parking lot of…
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DragonKing Dark: The Lance Armstrong scandal
Karl Stern’s run through dark moments in pop culture history continues. Lance Armstrong is far and away the most famous cyclist that has ever lived, dominating the Tour de France and many other world class cycling events. He was pop culture famous in the United States and beyond. However, that much domination, especially in sports,…
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DragonKing Dark: The strange funeral of Graham Parsons
Karl Stern’s deep dive into pop culture infamy continues. My journey through the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series continues on this week’s DragonKing Dark and this week, our show has a twist. Yes, it was a tragedy that 26-year-old singer/songwriter Graham Parsons died. Like many music deaths, it was likely caused by…
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DragonKing Dark: The Chris Brown scandals
Karl Stern discusses the controversial music artist. My look through the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history begins winding down and this week, we take a look at the domestic violence scandals of music artists Chris Brown. Brown has been hugely successful, award-winning and one of the most influential and important artists of the…
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DragonKing Dark: The dark side of World Class Championship Wrestling
Karl Stern looks at the dark days of WCCW. My 100 darkest moments in pop culture history rolls on as this week, we return to the world of professional wrestling with, arguably, the first place many people think of when it comes to a lot of young deaths in wrestling: the Dallas, Texas-based World Class…
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DragonKing Dark: The death of boxer Tommy Morrison
Karl Stern’s Dark 100 looks at the late Rocky V star & real-life boxer. On this week’s DragonKing Dark, I continue on my path through the 100 darkest moments in pop culture series. Tommy “The Duke” Morrison was a rising boxing star in the late 1980s into the early 1990s who famously held a version…
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DragonKing Dark: The Johnny Lewis ‘Sons of Anarchy’ tragedy
Karl Stern examines the sad end for the young actor. This week’s dip into the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history focuses on an actor from one of the more popular cable shows in recent memory. Johnny Lewis played the fan-favorite character Half Sack on the popular Sons of Anarchy TV series, portraying the…
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DragonKing Dark: The Michael Richards/Kramer comedy club scandal
Karl Stern’s 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series rolls on. On this week’s DragonKing Dark, my series on the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history continues with a very popular individual in pop culture. Michael Richards played the quirky character Cosmo Kramer on the megahit TV sitcom Seinfeld. Kramer was a fan…
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DragonKing Dark: The death of Edgar Allan Poe
Karl Stern’s look through the darkest moments in pop culture history continues. My ongoing spin through the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history series continues and this week, it is dark in many ways. The master of dark literature, Edgar Allan Poe, died under the most mysterious of circumstances. The famous writer was found…
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DragonKing Dark: The death of Ernest Hemingway
Karl Stern’s darkest moments in pop culture series continues. Ernest Hemingway literally changed the entire genre of popular literature. Preceded by the flowery and verbose language of the previous era, Hemingway wrote in a more straightforward style, often holding back and allowing silence of action to speak loudly in a story. His novels are still…
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DragonKing Dark: The story behind Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears in Heaven’
Karl Stern’s run through the darkest moments in pop culture history continues. In this week’s installment of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history, I take a look back at the March 20, 1991, death of classic rock legend Eric Clapton’s four-year-old son, who died from falling out a high-rise window in New York.…
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DragonKing Dark: The Payne Stewart plane crash
Karl Stern’s path down the darkest 100 moments in pop culture continues. In 1999, television viewers tuned into the story about an out of control jet plane flying across the country from Florida toward Canada. The unresponsive plane was tailed by military jets across the country, failing to make contact with any ground control. Military pilots…
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DragonKing Dark: The Auburn University tree killings
Karl Stern’s Dark 100 rolls into the new year. The latest edition of my 100 darkest moments in pop culture history takes a look at a football rivalry gone too far in my home state of Alabama: the Auburn University tree killings. Why does the killing of a set of trees in downtown Auburn rank…
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DragonKing Dark: The 7th Heaven controversy
Karl Stern’s Dark 100 lands on the strange stories around an actor on the popular TV show. I continue with my Dark 100 series on the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history with a stop at 7th Heaven — a sappy, moralistic drama series which ran for ten seasons (!) on the CW Network.…
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DragonKing Dark: The 2000 Paralympic Games basketball cheating scandal
Karl Stern’s run through the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history continues. Inarguably, one of the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history took place at the 2000 Paralympic Games where, brace yourself, Spain competed in basketball with players representing themselves as intellectually disabled who weren’t. Yes, you read that right. They also won the gold…
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DragonKing Dark: The death of Bruce Lee
We continue our series on the 100 darkest moments in pop culture by examining the death of action movie star and perhaps the world’s most influential martial artist: Bruce Lee. The name Bruce Lee stirs up almost mythological images. One of the most skilled martial artists ever, Lee was even more than that. He was a…
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DragonKing Dark: The AIDS crisis impact on pop culture
I continue my series on 100 of the darkest moments in pop culture history and this week’s DarkongKing Dark is a little different in that respect as I take a look at the profound impact the AIDS epidemic had on pop culture in the 1980s into the 1990s. Numerous important entertainment figures like Freddie Mercury, Rock…
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DragonKing Dark: How ‘The Death of Superman’ almost killed comics
We pick back up our ongoing series in the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history and in doing so, we travel back to the early 1990s. Comic books and trading cards were booming. Speculators were buying both in bulk with hopes of one day owning something valuable. But, the bubble was ready to burst…
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DragonKing Dark: What have we learned after 300 episodes?
We take a break from our 100 darkest moments in pop culture history to reflect back on what I have learned after 300 episodes of the DragonKing Dark podcast. Have any of our shows changed my opinion on UFOs, cryptids, ghosts or societal issues? The answer is yes as I feel less convinced of some…