While Fur & Loathing sounds like it could be a reality show about the real housewives of Moscow or a PETA-activist cell, it’s actually a podcast about a chemical-weapon attack at a 2014 furry convention attended by 4,500 people outside of Chicago. “Furry”—as in people who achieve their fullest self-expression by dressing in plush animal costumes like the ones worn by sports-team mascots. Podcaster Nicky Woolf wanted to investigate the lack of closure in the case. No one has been arrested for what was essentially a chlorine-bomb attack in the hotel stairwell. Due to a rapid evacuation, there were no fatalities, but people were hospitalized and injured. But was anti-furry fury the motive? Much of the community leans progressive as well as L.G.B.T.Q., but it contains a far-right fringe that immediately drew the interest of police and the F.B.I. This is where it really gets strange—well, stranger—and Woolf’s six-episode investigation becomes as compelling as his sensitive inquiry into the subculture itself. —Lisa Henricksson