New podcast delves into one of the internet’s deepest rabbit holes

The World’s Hardest Puzzle is a new investigative podcast delving into one of the internet’s most complex mysteries of all time – the Cicada 3301 puzzles.

In January 2012, a mysterious organization known as Cicada 3301 announced itself on the anarchic online messaging board, 4chan. It posted a series of cryptic messages, all with the stated intent of “recruiting highly intelligent individuals”.

These posts led to a series of puzzles, ciphers and codes – but these were not your everyday “spend an afternoon solving them” puzzles, they were intellectual minefields, at points leading people to QR codes in the outside world. Theories even began to emerge which suggested it was the work of recruiters for a US intelligence service.

The puzzles returned for a second year, and a third. Then, silence.

Hosts Tommie Trelawny, founder of the YouTube channel ‘Hochelaga’ with over 48.5 million views, and journalist and podcast producer Nicky Anderson, pick up the cold case in The World’s Hardest Puzzle.

The seven episodes follow the duo’s year-long investigation into the origins of the puzzle as they ask who was behind Cicada 3301? And what do they really want?

They speak to those who found themselves at the heart of the mystery, including members of the solving community. They also exclusively interview Thomas Schoenberger, a man who claims to be the founder of Cicada 3301.

Their year-long investigation into the truth behind the puzzle uncovers both the potential beauty the internet holds as well as the more sinister aspects of revealing too much of our lives online.

The World’s Hardest Puzzle is a Stak production, all episodes will be available from today, Monday 19 February on all podcast platforms.