Reality is often stranger than fiction, and that premise has driven the popularity of a genre known, for a lack of a better term, as weird news.

The category includes funny headlines, and news items ranging from the charmingly unexpected to the shockingly stupid to the plainly bizarre. In the piece, “Culture: Who, What, Where, When, Weird,” writer Dan Engber traces the history of the “weird news” phenomenon and looks at how the Internet has changed what the public considers odd and funny when it comes to the news.

Guest:

Dan Engber, science and culture writer for various publications. His piece, “Who, What, Where, When, Weird” is in the July/August edition of Pacific Standard magazine