The episode opens with an ad for the upcoming Evil Dead: Burn horror film, followed by a Southern New Hampshire University sponsorship read pitching online degree programs. Henry and Eddie then introduce themselves — Henry Zabrowski and Eddie Larson — and briefly riff on a viral letter about cowboy masculinity and furries before welcoming listeners to Side Stories. Eddie is wearing a Ghana jersey after a successful live show in London, Ontario, and the hosts tease that today's episode will be a welcome return to fun, light stories after weeks of heavier content. The irony of that promise is immediately apparent.

Henry sets the scene from the live show they just performed in London, Ontario — a city he notes is the self-proclaimed serial killer capital of North America, home to four simultaneous killers between 1967 and 1985: the Balcony Strangler, the Chambermaid Slayer, and the Mad Slasher. Eddie pushes back, noting that Detroit and Camden are right there, but Henry is impressed by the sheer volume and variety. From there, Henry relays a bleak local story about a woman named Dusty Bowers who abandoned her newborn in the snow-covered woods. When police investigated, she claimed a 'dream' had shown her where the baby was — conveniently the exact spot she had left it. The Canadian police believed her, retrieved the still-living baby, wrapped it like evidence, threw it in a truck, and it died. Henry delivers this with equal parts horror and exasperation. The whole saga ends with the hosts marveling at the audacity of a killer who then wrote a novel about it.

Everybody at the London, Ontario live show wanted Henry to cover this one: a dead newborn discovered in a porta-potty at Electric Forest, the famous EDM festival. The entire birth 'rig' — placenta, umbilical cord, all of it — was left behind, suggesting the mother immediately returned to the festival after giving birth alone. The mother has never been found. Henry and Eddie riff on the festival lineup (Excision, String Cheese Incident, Passion Pit, T-Pain) with darkly comic band-name jokes before arriving at genuine empathy: the sanitation worker who drains the festival toilets made the discovery. Henry argues this man deserves a GoFundMe more than anyone — he has the worst job in America, and it just got infinitely worse. Nobody's talking about him.

Henry delivers a trio of sponsor reads in his uniquely chaotic fashion. The Acorns read touts the app's 14 million customers and $27 billion in saved funds, promising a $5 bonus for new sign-ups. The Squarespace read involves jokes about rib carving and corrupting young men. The IXL read is the most personal — Henry describes his daughter Carmi's chocolate emergencies and Wendy's struggles with American history as taught in school, making the case for personalized online learning. Each read is technically functional but thoroughly digresses into Henry's domestic comedy.

This is the episode's feel-good story — or at least its most enthusiastically endorsed one. In Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, a figure called Mexican Batman (possibly a small group, based on the multiple vehicles spotted) has been apprehending alleged bike thieves: duct-taping them to poles, giving them black eyes and bloody noses, writing 'Ratero' on their foreheads, and posting pink signs describing their crimes. The Mexican government is unhappy, and the accused thieves claim to be victims — but the community is rallying around the vigilante as a response to rampant crime. Eddie then introduces the even wilder sideshow: female vigilantes in Michoacán who carry assault rifles, built a homemade tank, and set up roadblocks to fight the New Generation Cartel. Henry closes the segment by officially declaring Mexican Batman a hero on behalf of the Last Podcast Network and urging him to email [email protected].

The hosts pivot to the Mechanicsville, NY case: Amy Steadman, 64, was found dead in her apartment along with her daughter Sarah Myers, 44, and four grandchildren — Harper, Hudson, and twins Gavin and Grace Iceland. Police Chief William Rabbit says evidence strongly suggests Steadman orchestrated a group poisoning before killing herself, with one child showing signs of 'sharp force injuries,' suggesting she stabbed one when poison wasn't enough. A letter was found. The theory is that the estranged father was about to gain some form of custody, and Steadman — in a very New York grandmother way — decided no one could have the grandchildren if she couldn't keep them. Henry riffs darkly about Italian grandmothers and omertà before Eddie brings up Nanny Doss, the 'Giggling Granny,' who killed 11 family members by arsenic and is the historical prototype for this kind of crime. Henry promises a Miseducation of Ed Larson episode on her.

The next story bleeds from the grandmother segment: a man in Alabama who strangled his girlfriend and dragged her into the woods, only to die of a massive heart attack mid-drag, collapsing beside her body in the fetal position. His truck was left running with the door open; the trail of drag marks led investigators to both bodies. A passerby who spotted them initially assumed they were mannequins. Henry immediately zooms out to the systemic: 38% of Alabama's adult population is morbidly obese (fourth fattest state after West Virginia, Mississippi, and Louisiana), and 44% of obese Americans are below the poverty line — a food desert problem. Henry is careful not to let this get too serious, repeatedly reminding himself and Eddie to 'keep it light.' An obituary had already been posted calling him a 'country boy' before it emerged he was a murderer. Henry delivers a deadpan cardio lecture: you can't just do hard physical things if you've never trained for them.

The episode's signature story: at a Milwaukee wedding, a groomsman was caught eating meatballs with his hands. When a female guest — the bride's cousin — told him to use a plate, he punched her. He then walked to his car, retrieved a gun, returned, and shot the woman in the arm and leg and another man in the back of the neck. Both survived. He's facing 25 years. Henry and Eddie spiral into empathy for the guy (probably drunk, probably old friends-vs-new-life wedding dynamics), then a full meatball-etiquette debate: were they sauced? Because if they weren't sauced, you're wrong to fight him. Eddie suggests future weddings should serve bolognese instead — harder to eat with your hands. Henry caps it by saying the man should have simply been boxed up the meatballs and given them to him. He left a cash envelope addressed to the groom on his way out.

The meatball shooting fully derails the episode into a cooking show. Henry explains his method: bake at 475°F for 20 minutes to get a shell without frying, over-egg the mixture, add a splash of half-and-half, and adjust breadcrumbs by feel alone. Eddie counters that he fries his meatballs for the shell and that he cracks two eggs into his mashed potatoes while still hot, which thickens them up beautifully. Both men agree this is the heart of the show. The cooking tangent is interrupted by the Boll and Branch summer sale ad (20% off with code LEFT) and the Chime banking ad, both delivered with the hosts' characteristic enthusiasm for chicken thighs and sleeping like a 'freshly laid chicken.'

Eddie brings out the episode's tech story: U-Ban, a Chinese technology firm, has built an autonomous self-driving toilet for people with limited mobility. It comes to your bed, washes and wipes you, uses ultraviolet sterilization to kill bacteria, has Roomba-like navigation technology, and empties itself into an actual toilet. Henry is immediately obsessed, imagining riding it in loops while doing the mail. Then the bomb drops: it can't process solid waste, only urine. Henry is furious. He's willing to pay $13,000 — even the higher end of the price range — if it can handle poop and climb stairs. Eddie points out that it has a grinder, but apparently not for that purpose. The segment ends with a spiraling discussion about urine particles, toilet lid etiquette, and a developmentally disabled man whose family wraps the bed in layers of rubber sheets to manage nighttime urine — all somehow connected.

Henry reads a standout listener email responding to last week's human foie gras thought experiment. The listener cites NIH research: regular human liver steatosis sits at 5% fat, but Grade 3 severe steatosis exceeds 67% — higher than traditional goose foie gras. So medically, a morbidly obese human liver could match foie gras fat ratios. However, human livers harbor parasitic flukes like Clonorchis sinensis and carry prion risk, making consumption both medically and morally disqualifying. The listener signs off with a note to the FBI agent inevitably reading this email. Eddie then shares his in-flight orca documentary highlight: a pod of orcas, unable to wave-wash a seal off a large iceberg, collectively headbutted the iceberg until it fractured. They then ate the seal. Henry finds this deeply impressive.

Henry and Eddie wrap up with a full slate of announcements. The JK Ultra Tour has only two shows left — Tulsa on July 17th and Oklahoma City on July 18th, the latter available as a two-week livestream for those who couldn't attend. The Redway show returns October 24th at the Mateo Community Center with special network guests. Eddie then burns through his own upcoming stand-up dates: Bethlehem PA, Newark NJ, City Winery New York (co-headlining with Kirsten Michelle Sills), Plano TX, the Comedy Store's Belly Room in LA (only 10 tickets left), and two Chicago shows including a new Friday late-night slot. August brings Dead Men Tell Some Tales at D23 weekend at Dynasty Typewriter. Rob's new Twitch channel @roboki gets a plug after they watched the Backrooms YouTube series live last night. Henry and Eddie sign off with 'Hail Satan' and a reminder to be the Mexican Batman your neighborhood deserves.

The hosts hand off to a cross-promotional ad for Morbid Podcast, described by hosts Elena and Ash as a show covering true crime, spooky history, and the unexplained with 'research, empathy, humor, and a few creative expletives' — two episodes weekly and a monthly bonus. The episode then concludes with a LifeLock sponsorship read promising guaranteed restoration services and up to 30% savings on the first year at lifelock.com/podcast.