How OJ Simpson Made the Modern World.
Aug 31, 2026 · 25 min · 10 segments
The OJ Simpson case is so much stranger than you think. SPONSOR LINK: PlaudAI 10% off with code: CARNEY Notepro Amazon: CODE: CARNEY
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Scott CarneyHost
Aug 31, 2026 · 25 min · 10 segments
The OJ Simpson case is so much stranger than you think. SPONSOR LINK: PlaudAI 10% off with code: CARNEY Notepro Amazon: CODE: CARNEY
Scott CarneyHost
If you happen to be under 40 years old, you might only know the vague outlines of OJ Simpson's case, so let's briefly go over the broad strokes.
On June 12th, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson, OJ's ex-wife, and Ron Goldman are found stabbed to death outside her condominium in the Brentwood neighborhood of LA.
Five days later, Simpson is supposed to surrender to police, but instead he gets into the back of a white Bronco driven by his friend, Al Cowlings, and leads a slow speed pursuit down the 405 while helicopters film it and america watches and while that was happening robert kardashian reads the note to a phalanx of news reporters to whom it may concern first everyone understand i had nothing to do with Nicole's murder.
And if you're wondering why that name sounds so familiar, yes, that Robert Kardashian is father to Kim and Khloe, who were children in the house where OJ Simpson sometimes stayed.
His ex-wife, Kris, would later marry the Olympic decathlete, Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn Jenner.
And in a literal sense, they were incubated inside the O.J. Simpson murder case.
I answered the phone and it was a call from jail.
And it was O.J. And I handed my mom the phone because he wanted to speak to her.
And I just remember them getting into it.
We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty of the crime.
And more than half the nation watched the whole thing unfold live on TV, drawing an audience of at least 150 million people.
To put that in perspective, at the time, the United States had a total population of 260 million people.
That's 50 million more people than actually voted in the subsequent 1996 election.
And that single fact should frame your understanding of all of America's electoral politics.
But like any good live stream, it was hardly the end of the story because here's the thing.
In America, you can be acquitted of murder and still be held financially liable for a death in a separate courtroom, in a civil trial, under a completely different standard of proof.
And in the second trial, there was a lot more evidence that never made it into the criminal one.
If you happen to be under 40 years old, you might only know the vague outlines of OJ Simpson's case, so let's briefly go over the broad strokes.
On June 12th, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson, OJ's ex-wife, and Ron Goldman are found stabbed to death outside her condominium in the Brentwood neighborhood of LA.
Five days later, Simpson is supposed to surrender to police, but instead he gets into the back of a white Bronco driven by his friend, Al Cowlings, and leads a slow speed pursuit down the 405 while helicopters film it and america watches and while that was happening robert kardashian reads the note to a phalanx of news reporters to whom it may concern first everyone understand i had nothing to do with Nicole's murder.
And if you're wondering why that name sounds so familiar, yes, that Robert Kardashian is father to Kim and Khloe, who were children in the house where OJ Simpson sometimes stayed.
His ex-wife, Kris, would later marry the Olympic decathlete, Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn Jenner.
And in a literal sense, they were incubated inside the O.J. Simpson murder case.
I answered the phone and it was a call from jail.
And it was O.J. And I handed my mom the phone because he wanted to speak to her.
And I just remember them getting into it.
We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty of the crime.
And more than half the nation watched the whole thing unfold live on TV, drawing an audience of at least 150 million people.
To put that in perspective, at the time, the United States had a total population of 260 million people.
That's 50 million more people than actually voted in the subsequent 1996 election.
And that single fact should frame your understanding of all of America's electoral politics.
But like any good live stream, it was hardly the end of the story because here's the thing.
In America, you can be acquitted of murder and still be held financially liable for a death in a separate courtroom, in a civil trial, under a completely different standard of proof.
And in the second trial, there was a lot more evidence that never made it into the criminal one.
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