Joe Rogan has Trump Regrets; Linda Yaccarino says bye Elon; Jeff Bezos Eyes Vogue?; NYT Helps Smear Mamdani – NEWS ROUNDUP! - There Are No Girls on the Internet

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
There Are No Girls on the Internet, as a production
of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridge Todd and this
is there Are No Girls on the Internet. Thanks for
tuning into their No Girls on the Internet, where we
explore the intersection of technology, social media, the Internet, and identity.

(00:25):
And this is another installment of our weekly news Roundup
where we dig into all those stories on the Internet
that you might have missed so you don't have to.
I am so excited to welcome back our super producer, Joey.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Joey, it's been so long. How are you? Hello? Yo?
My god, it's friend forever. I'm good. You know, we're
moving along. Life is happening. Things are happening in the world,
and we're coping with those things happening.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Life is continuing to life. But I do know that
you've got some exciting like podcast projects.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Going on, right, I do. Yes, there's a show that
I work on. It's called Afterlives and season two just
came out recently. I believe you're on episode five when
this show is going to drop, But yeah, episodes are
still dropping. And this season is about Marsha By Johnson
and her life and legacy. So if you are interested

(01:23):
at all in like queer history or New York City history,
or just like cool things that have happened and also
very sad things that have happened, you should check out Afterlives.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
It's such a good show. I cannot speak more highly
of it. We are fans of it very much here
over at their No Girls on the Internet.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, listen to that show.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Okay, So from that sort of beacon of light to
a I'm going to say beacon of dark, although that
might be an overreaction. But Joey, do you remember how
Joe Rogan had Trump on his podcast right before the election,
after v for a very long time that he would
never have Trump on his podcast. By the way, I

(02:04):
did win one hundred dollars bet on that. I bet
that Joe Rogan would have Trump on his show before
the election, and he did it. I want one hundred dollars.
I've still not gotten the money from that bet that
I did win.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
I'm shocked that somebody would bet against that, Like I
feel like that was a given. But it was good. Yeah,
but yes, I do, I do remember.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
And then after Trump was elected, Rogan said that he
felt that he was personally the reason why Trump won. Well,
now Joe Rogan is looking at what Trump has actually
been doing and saying, I didn't vote for this, even
though I feel that Trump could not have been clearer
that he intended to target immigrants the way that he
has been doing. On a show, Rogan has been calling

(02:43):
out Trump for his handling and immigration, saying, there's two
things that are insane. One is the targeting of migrant workers.
Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers, just
construction workers showing up at construction sites, raiding them gardeners. Like, really,
the Trump administration, if they're running and they say we're
going to go to home depot and arrest all the
people at home Depot, We're going to go to construction

(03:04):
sites and we're just going to like tackle people at
construction sites. I don't think anybody would have signed up
for that. The Washington Post reported that these comments came
after Rogan personally sat down and discussed immigration policy with
Trump at a private dinner and pushed back on him
deporting workers who have not committed crimes. Both Joe Rogan
and Dana White, a friend of both Rogans and Trump's,

(03:25):
who was the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship had
dinner with Trump on June thirtieth, according to The Washington Post,
who quoted somebody who had knowledge of this meeting. First
of all, the whole thing is just sort of like
top sy turvy that we have Joe freakin' Rogan having
a private sit down to talk to Trump about immigration policies.
I just will never be over it.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, And the CEO of Ultimate Fighting Champion to I love,
I mean I not love. Love is the wrong word.
I find it like kind of amusing how much like
WWE and like professional wrestling stuff has been involved with
this illustration. Like I don't know, there's just something so
like like if this were in a movie, like that

(04:08):
would be too much of a metaphor, Like I would
be like too happy handed of a metaphor. I love
how many people are like taking credit for Like didn't
Elon Musk also say like, oh, yeah, I'm there, I'm
one hundred percent of the reason hero. Like who's gonna
be next, like some random part like every single white
dude with the podcast is gonna pop out and be
like it was me. I was responded, I actually was responsible, guys.

(04:29):
I'm sorry it was jo.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, and I think, I mean, I I'm weirdly torn
on this. We did an episode where we're talking about
how the podcaster Theovonne, who also took credit for Trump
getting re elected.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
I aw was a rough one for me to edit.
I actually I only knew theo Von from his like
clips that would be on TikTok, like people would like
lipsing to them on TikTok, and I was like, oh,
this is funny. I had no idea that he was
so big.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
This is actually I mean, it does say something about
the short form content culture. Because I knew Theovonn from
I'm sorry to say MTV is the Challenge. Then, I
never knew about his podcast. I learned about him from
short like super short form YouTube TikTok stuff, and I
was like, oh, this guy's funny. This guy's funny, Like
he's really a funny, personable guy.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
He got me. That's how they get you.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
It wasn't until sitting down and listening to his long
form content, which I do think is sort of he
definitely knows what he's doing. I think I think I
think he is coming off sort of ah shuts g whiz.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
But I think he's pretty.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Smart, educative guy, very intentional about how he is presenting himself.
But a while back he used his show to speak
out about what's happening in Gaza, which a lot of
people were like, that's great any platform. However, he did
that just a few like like a week after going
on a military trip with Trump.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
He's close personal friends with the Kushners.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
That is difficult for me, Like I understand people who
say anybody who's using their platform to convince the average
person that what's happening right now is not great is
doing a good thing. And I am very sympathetic to
that argument. I absolutely get it. But it is tough
for me the same way that it is tough for
me to have someone like Joe Rogan say, this is

(06:29):
not what I wanted, this is not what I voted for,
this is not what I advocated for. Joe Rogan lives
in Texas. I have a hard time believing that news
of what Trump intended to do when it came to
immigration didn't make it in to Joe Rogan's, you know,
to his understanding of what was going on.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
I guess maybe you could say I assumed.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
That he was going to be doing all of this
to immigrants who committed crimes like cartel members and rapists
and gang members. But I just don't believe that Joe
Rogan is that stupid. I think he's a savvy guy.
I have a hard time personally believing him when he
says why I wouldn't have signed up for this, I
didn't vote for this. I think it's possible that maybe

(07:13):
he did not actually, like sit down and conceptualize how
ugly and odious these kinds of policies would be, you know,
going after people who are showing up to work, going
after people who are showing up to you know, legal
court appointments and stuff like quote unquote doing everything right.
I don't think that it's possible that maybe he didn't

(07:33):
think through what that would be like. But like you know,
ISI's budget is now one hundred and seventy billion dollars
over the next few years, more than NASA, more than
public health, more than education, more than anything. It's the
most well funded police force in the country now, and
they have this vastly increased surveillance network that we're all
going to be subjected to now.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
And I mean, this is what Joe Rogan helped usher
in Yeah, yeah, no, I it's and I agree, like
I do feel really torn where part of me is like, yeah, no,
like Joe Rogan's a really savvy guy. He knows the
media ecosyst to like that's how he got where he
is today. Also, I do believe people are kind of

(08:14):
stupid and like I think a.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Lot of because it's like this is something you keep hearing,
Like I feel like I keep hearing this statement where
people are like, oh, but I didn't realize he like
really meant that or whatever, and I'm like, oh, like
there is cognitive different dissidence happening where like people can
I don't even know.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
I'm I am not. I am far from a psychologist,
so I don't listen to me on this, but it
feels like it's one of those things where it's like
people get so caught up in like the messaging that
they don't actually listen to like what they're saying, and
then they want to act the prize when what was
being said actually happens. And this is like another instance
of that. So part of me is like, I don't know,
is he being genuine and saying like, well, I didn't

(08:50):
realize this was gonna happen, or is it just like yeah,
I know you're like cash grab didn't work out the
way you wanted it to and you're backtracking. Who's to say, yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
I saw this really compelling post on I think threads
where someone was like the people with big platforms who
advocated for Trump and are now saying, well, I didn't
vote for this and are backing away from it. They
probably crunched the numbers and said, listen, the stuff that
is happening right now is odious and indefensible and horrible,
and audiences don't like it, so let's backtrack a little bit.

(09:23):
Let's not align you publicly with this anymore, which I
thought was very compelling. And I mean, I just like
with the Theovonn argument, I don't want to discount that
it probably is good to have these everyday messengers like
Joe Rogan and Theovonn speaking up against Ice in these
common sense ways.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Because you know, anybody who is getting that.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Message out I think is probably it's like it's like
doing a good thing. A lot of these people would
never listen to a podcast like mine. They would never
listen to a message or like me, totally get it. However, Like,
for instance, would I, as a black woman, be allowed
to be so spectacularly wrong in public and have people say, well,
at least she's getting it right now. Like, I'm just

(10:06):
very curious how we got to a position where you
can be so loud and so wrong for so long,
but then if you like eventually get to the right position,
everybody's supposed to be like, oh, well, at least he
got there.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
At least he's doing the right thing now, and now
for nothing.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
I feel like somebody that has a big as big
of a megaphone as Joe Rogan does does kind of
have a moral responsibility to understand what they are doing
when they promote a candidate. So even if we take
him at face value and accept that like, okay, maybe
he truly did not think it through and didn't realize
bet Trump was going to do exactly what he openly

(10:43):
said he was going to do what he campaigned on.
I just I don't know that I didn't know is
a good enough excuse. And I feel the thing that
gets me is like, why not say I personally got
this wrong. I made a mistake. I let down the
audience who comes to me for information because I didn't
I didn't think it all the way through, and I

(11:04):
led people to make that same mistake.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
I kind of bragged about it too for a little while.
This is on me bridgitant. Men can't do that, They're
not allowed to do that.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, I think the thing that gets me is like that,
like inability to just say, like I've said things I
wish I hadn't said on this podcast. If somebody asked
me what those things were, I'd be happy to tell
them the kind of way that they talk about it
with this kind of pat how On after the election,
he was like, I personally did this, I personally got
Trump in office, and now there's just this passive happenstance

(11:38):
of like how could Trump be elected and do these
kinds of things. That is the quality to it that
gets me that I have such trouble with that. Just
be honest about it. You got it wrong, you made
a mistake, you wish you hadn't. What's happening now is
not good, and go from there. I just don't like
the passivity of it and people who are like applauding

(11:59):
these guys for you know, looking around it being like, yeah,
it's not great. What's happening is not good, Like that's
the bare minimum. Obviously this stuff's not good. Like, look
at what has happened in La, Obviously that's not great, right,
Like that's the bear. Like you would have to be
either completely unempathetic or a complete moron to look at

(12:19):
that and not get to the conclusion of like, yeah,
it's not good.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Right, Yeah, I don't think they should get a pat
I think it again, I agree with you where it's
like there's some argument that like, yeah, maybe this is good,
and maybe this will like get a handful of people
to be like, oh, maybe Trump is bad, or maybe
Ice is bad, or maybe what's happening in Gaza is bad,

(12:44):
but like it is doing the bare minimum. It's doing
the bare minimum, and you shouldn't be like this is
the exact same thing that was happening when Elon Musk
first also was like actually friendship over with Trump. A
bunch of you know, there are like these Democrats that
were like, oh it is he on oursa, No, he's

(13:07):
Elon muss He didn't like.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Like it's like, no, he's still he's still Joe broken,
Like he's still.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
A terrible human being. I don't know. I do think.
I mean, I think again, people in general have a
hard time admitting that they're wrong. And if you're somebody
with like an ego the size and a platform this size,
that only makes it worse. So it makes sense that
you would want to twist that. So like, even if
you are saying this and you are so appalled by

(13:34):
it and you're like moved to speak out, you'd have
to twist it in a way that was like, no, actually,
I'm the victim. Yes, I was lied to. I would
have never done that. I'm the real picture here.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, I mean to your point about Elon Musk, I
do feel like people really show you who they are.
Like Andrew Yang coming on board with Elon Musk's new
political party. I'm sorry somebody who gets out a stay
and does a Nazi salute twice, I don't care what
the situation is. I'm never aligning myself with them, Like

(14:07):
that's it, And there's there's never an argument to be
made where I would And so it's telling to me
the people who rushed to be on board with that.
I just there's I mean, I just think it says
a lot about who you are as a person definitely.
Oh man, I forgot that he was I had. I
was like talking to a friend about this yesterday because

(14:29):
I were like, what do you think's gonna happen with
the Republican Party?

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Like it seems like all of these people are Chuttians
And I was like, it's probably just we're gonna end
up with two really bad parties now, Like it's yeah,
there's gonna be some split, but it's like and then
we're gonna get It's like you you're gonna get the
two hydra heads instead of the one kind of situation,
and maybe, like I don't know, maybe that'll fuck him
over in like voting situations. But it's like, oh great,

(14:55):
then we're gonna have to deal with like the Elon
Musk tech bro Andrew you party on one side, and
then like Trump and like Mitch McConnell or whatever on
the other. But yeah, oh my goad.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Do you remember when Andrew Yang was running for I
think was it mayor of New York. There's a moment
in his campaign that like lives ret free in my
brain where because he didn't actually live in New York
and he was asked about it and he was like
His response was like me, live in New York, disgusting?

Speaker 2 (15:26):
I would never Can you imagine that? You know what?
At least he said it. At least he said it
like Cuomo was pretending. Cuomo was pretending that he lived here.
What everybody knew he lived in Westchester. And at least
Andrew Yang was like, you know this shit? Can you imagine? Disgusting?

Speaker 1 (15:46):
I think that is a moment I think about like
probably once a week.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
I think about that moment. I'm gonna be real. I
forgot about Andrew Yang as like a political figure. He's
like like for the minute he emerged, I was like this,
this this is going bad. This feels like it's going bad. Yeah,
tech tech broke, and here we are, surprise, surprise.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
Let's take a quick break at our back.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Well, speaking of New York politics, I know you are
our resident New Yorker. I am a former New Yorker,
so obviously I had lots of opinions about New York's
mayoral race. I bet as a New York I mean
like people in New York always have big opinions about
whoever's mayor.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
What were your thoughts that was? You know what that
day that mom Donnie won the primary. That is the
most hope that I have felt a long last time,
and like, yeah, sure, okay, he has not one yet.
There's so much stuff that could happen, but like, you
know what, I think this was a nice moment. Felt
really good about it. I you know, I voted for him,

(17:03):
I supported his campaign. I think seeing just like the
numbers of people that came out to support him has
been really encouraging and like, you know, a good reminder
that it's like, yeah, no, people do want to see
like a better world, a better New York City. So yeah,
I do. I welcome the People's Republic of the communist takeover.

(17:25):
When people were like.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
He wants state run stores in Virginia, they already have that.
They're called ABC stores run meta state.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Like a great idea.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Cool, I would love the Like I saw the Fox
News chiram that was clearly meant to be scary, and
it was like, look at all the things mom, Donnie supports,
funding public transit, childcare like it was and.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
The New York City city famously a city that hates
public transit.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
You know, you know, everybody in New York City has
a car and drives.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Oh, Yeah, I'm in my car right now recording this
that totally exists that I totally own.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
Okay, So I have to talk about this story that
popped off over Fourth of July holiday. I actually this
story kind of like, if I'm being honest, wrecked my vacation.
I took the fourth off, I was off the beach.
I saw this story while I was at literally at
a beach bar drinking a cocktail, and I sort of
like stewed on it, you know what's funny.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
I also had a moment like that, but it was
with a completely different story. Oh what was the story?
Feel comfortable saying? No, it was about Trump passing the
big beautiful bill. Because I like hadn't been looking at
my phone and then I like went to go to
the bathroom at one point and I like turned, I
opened my phone and that was the first notification. And
I was like, I'm like at my friend's Fourth of
July party and I was just like like five beers deep,

(18:48):
probably like just like oh my god, what's happening? It
like you can't have a moment of peace, like which
story ruined your day on Fourth of July? I know?

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, if listeners right in and tell the story if
you were if you were trying to enjoy your Fourth
of July holiday and like be offline for one goddamn day,
what was the story that pierce that pierced your little
bubble and was like, oh, that's right. We live in
a healthscape. Can't forget it. Always gotta be plugged into it. Okay,
So as we know, Mam Donnie won the Democratic primary
in New York's mayoral race. He managed to upset the

(19:18):
Democratic Party machine and defeat the former governor of New York,
Andrew Cuomo, a sex pass who I personally had a
hand in pushing out of office.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
He's just Italian, he said, Hey, I'm expressors, listeners, I'm Italian.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
For the reck, I'm Italian. I speak with my hands.
I'm expressive. I touch people, I touch men, I touch women,
I touch children. That was this big defense was that
he was an Italian American, so of course he's handsy.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
I literally remember when he said that line. I was like,
I'm pretty sure that literally was like a joke in
the bear Yeah, I mean, I hate I hate this
guy so much.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
I hate this and it was I remember in the
second was yesterday because I had to watch the passer word.
He resigned, and he was saying like, I'm an Italian American,
I'm very handsy. Da da da dah, And then a
screen lowers behind him and it's all these videos and
images of him being handsy with people across the gender spectrum.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
So it's like, oh, you're gonna crucify me for.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Putting my hand on the small of somebody's back, which,
by the way, that was not what he was accused of.
He was accused of, like legit, like he really did
a good job of, like muddying the waters. That's not
what he was accused of. It's not like hugs and
touchiness that was misinterpreted. That's not what he was accused of.
But it's a slideshow of him being handsy with all

(20:40):
kinds of different people. Uh yeah, So I will never
forget it. It was such a weird moment in politics.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
Our first actually probably not first, I was gonna say,
our first bisexual pervert in office, but there definitely have
been others. Like I don't know, I'll win, diversity win, Yeah,
diversity wins. Finally, this guy was assaulted.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Everybody on the spectrum an equal opportunity Harasser so in
At the event, Mamdani won, and the establishment Democrats and
like right wing extremists have sort of joined forces to
smear him, and luckily for them, the New York Times
is a newspaper that exists to help. So The New

(21:21):
York Times published a bombshell piece on fourth of July,
basically the big story. Here we go fifteen years ago,
back when Mamdani was like a seventeen year old high
school student applying to Columbia University for college, a school
that he did not get into so did not attend.
He checked the box on his application indicating that he

(21:44):
was both Asian and African American because he is of
Indian descent and he was born in the African country
of Uganda.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
If you're waiting for more, there is not more. Like
that's the big bombshell story that The New York Times
just had to publish a fourth of July break.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Wait, so, like, does this mean that The New York
Times is now pro affirmative action because I thought I
thought that was bad and we were just getting rid
of it.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yeah, they can't even keep their own horrible ideologies stray
their horrible value straight. And the question is where did
the New York Times get this information? It was part
of a hack of Columbia's records. So the Times article,
I will say, they did note that the story revolved
around documents that had been hacked from Columbia's computer systems

(22:29):
that had been provided to the New York Times by
what the paper called an intermediary known as Crimew. The
Times just identified this person as quote an academic and
an opponent of affirmative action. However, Crimew is actually like
a very well known publisher of white supremacist and race
science content online. So The New York Times essentially kept

(22:51):
this source anonymous because they did not publish his real identity,
which has been known for kind of a while. They
just published his online pseudonym. I kind of get what's
going on here. The Times is really trying to whitewash
what they've done, and they're sort of being like, well,
we'll just let the readers decide what they think or
if this is newsworthy or important or not. But what

(23:11):
they're not doing is actually being clear about where they
got this information is hacked information from because the person
who gave them this information, this intermediary, is a known
a well known purveyor of white supremacists and eugenicist views
whose public identity has been known for months. So I
should say the Times did update the article to say

(23:33):
crime you quote writes often about IQ and race, which
I feel like that's a real understatements.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
New York Times favorite thing to talk about. Like they're
just they love, they love, you know, uplifting writers that
write about IQ and race.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Me, I feel like they're really doing their writer, their
readers of disservices. It's like, you know what it is,
figure it out. He writes about race and ike. Do
you think it's good?

Speaker 2 (24:01):
It's not wink wink, that's a really wink wink.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
And their editor Patrick Keey, publicly defended the position to
publish the story and then grant the source anonymity.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
So that's bad.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
But it gets worse because simof reported at the Times
published this because they were trying to avoid being scooped
by enemy of.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
The show, Christopher Rufo.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
You know Christopher Rufo, the man behind the attacks on DEI,
the man who was behind the attack that pushed Clauding
Gay out of Harvard's leadership, the man behind the attacks
on critical race theory and the man who openly and
publicly continuously brags about how he is able to play
the New York Times like a goddamn biddle to push

(24:45):
these attacks, like he is not hiding any of this.
He goes on Twitter and says things like I intend
to manipulate the New York Times into doing my racist bidding,
and the New York Times is like, please, Daddy, let
us do your racist bidding.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
Like that's essentially what it's happening.

Speaker 5 (25:01):
I I don't know, it's so like it's so depressing
because so many people still read the New York Times
and look to the New York Times as this like
you know, prestigious journalistic institution.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
But it's like insane. It is absolutely insane, like the
kind of stuff because it's like it's not just it
like it's the same stuff with them, Like they've been
like platforming you know, like turf arguments and transport arguments
that have like zero scientific back for years and they've
been doing this and they've been doing all of this
they like, and it's the same thing where then they

(25:34):
turn around and they're like how did this happen? Oh
my god, Like absolutely, it's crazy. I mean this, this
was what happened with everything that's happening in Gaza. It's
like every single they they don't miss. They don't miss
a single issue. It's like, you know how people say,
y'all remember okay, like when Glee was on, and they
would cover like every single issue they possibly could, but

(25:55):
in like the worst way possible, like they managed to
be racist or like whatever, like to everybody. They would
not miss a single group, Like this is what the
New York Times is doing New York asly of journalistic constitution.
Put that on a T shirt. Yeah, put that on asticker.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, there's a really good I want to say it
was the podcast Cancel Me, Daddy. Don't quote me on that,
but there was a really incredible episode about the transphobic
attacks in the Times and like that, you know, it
was like a real deep dive into where they came from,
where they started. Horrible, horrible, but very informative. And one

(26:34):
of the points that the that the person going through
I can't remember who it was, but one of the
points they made was like it matters that it's the
New York Times, like the paper like the like the
Gray Lady, the most important paper that the United States
really has, or at least was at one point. It
matters that like your average American, this is the paper

(26:56):
that they go to and feel they can trust. It
is incredibly important in terms of establishing the temperature and
the tide of the country. And if they if this
is what, if they are pushing incredibly inflammatory not to
mention full of lies and misinformation. If they're if that's
what they're pushing, they have this incredible this incredible power

(27:17):
to shape at the public perception of like your average
moderate American. And so it matters what the New York
Times like, what what where they land on these And
what makes me so angry is how they would probably say, like,
oh THEO like the whole journalistic question of like bias

(27:39):
and being unbiased, It's not unbiased to get information from
somebody who is like a known purveyor of white supremacist
and eugenicist content, that's that's not that's not unbiased. To
publish information that you got from that person and grant
them anonymity, like.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
I'm not like, like what are we doing here? I mean,
it's unbiased if you yourself are also coming at it
from like a white supremacist viewpoint, which maybe is part
of the problem, but yeah, no, it is ridiculous. I personally,
I have my own beliefs about the idea of like
objectivity and like not being biased, because I think it

(28:16):
is like near impossible to actually do that. But like
there is a difference from like trying to report all
the facts and like reporting something that's clearly through a
specific agenda that they're trying to push. Yeah, and people
also if people are interested in learning more about like
the New York Times and the history of transphobia there

(28:36):
over the last like decade or so, would definitely are around.
The podcast Anti Trans Hate Machine, they have an episode
about the New York Times and they interview somebody who
had worked at the Times for a while, and they
like it was a very good sort of breakdown as
to like what the specific problems are and how it's
happening and why it is like bad for all of art,

(28:59):
you know, mental states and the idea of truth and
all of that.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
But yeah, yeah, that might have been the podcast that
I listened to. It just makes it's bad for everyone,
It's especially bad for trans folks, but like it makes
us all less informed, It makes us all more like divide,
like it's not good for anybody. And I guess what
really pisss me off about the Mamdani thing is that

(29:26):
The Independent reported that after it became public, that the
reason why The New York Times published this is because
they did not want to get scooped by Christopher Ruffo,
enemy of the show. The Independent reports that, in an
apparent effort to tweak progressives and spark additional backlash against
the paper over the Mamdani story, Christopher Ruffo applauded the
New York Times for its report and suggested that they

(29:48):
were on the same page. He said, bummer to get scooped,
But kudos to my friends at the New York Times
for being a first to publish this story. So if
the cameras at the time had any gumption of at all,
they would see how horribly embarrassing it is that Christopher
Ruffo was saying, me, right wing shitthead blogger with a

(30:09):
substack is on the same level as the goddamn New
York Times, And he's not wrong. Like, if they had
any gumption at all, they would be embarrassed. But I
think that they're like, yeah, we are on like that
is who our contemporaries are. Christopher Rufo Substack is a
peer to The New York Times. Now, I like, I

(30:31):
just don't understand how they're not so horribly horribly embarrassed
by this sort of events. And it kind of goes
back to your point that like, at a certain point,
maybe they're not embarrassed because Christopher Ruffo is not wrong
like they are, like they do share these values, they
are kind of like That's the only thing I can

(30:52):
think is like when you get played by this guy
who makes it clear his intention to play you, and
a certain point you're not getting played. You're playing together
your teammates.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Right, Like, I don't know. I feel like there's the
like on people love to on Twitter and whatnot, you know,
use the like oh scratch a liberal like a fascist
fleets kind of quote that anyways, whatever, It's complicated, But
I do think, like to a point, like just seeing
the amount of like centrist democrats or like progressives, which like, yeah,

(31:29):
let's say the New York Times, let's call that like
a centrious progressive quote unquote publication, seeing how many people
with that and within that sphere are like freaking out
about the Mamdani whin and acting like somehow like you know,
going back to the first story about Joe Rogan, like
the Democrats love to talk about how like, oh, we

(31:50):
need to like Joe Rogan on the left, we need
to Joe. They don't actually want to listen to the constituents.
And like every time, this is not the first time
that this is like, like this has kind of been
the thread throughout the past ten years. Is whenever there
is a political figure that emerges that has more left
leaning beliefs, the like the centrist part of the party

(32:11):
freaks out and then is surprised by the fact that
they're not winning. And at this point, it's like, all right,
so you are aware of what you're doing, Like either
you're just so in your own little world that you're
like stupid, or like you're aware of the fact that
you're like like you'd rather blow up your own ship
than let it change in the slightest you know, I

(32:34):
don't know a thousand percent, And I feel like establishment
Democrats should be taking notes from his campaign when you
look at the different demographics he was able to get
out to get out to the polls with enthusiasm, Like
you all should be taking notes and replicating what he does.
And they talk all day long about, Oh, we need
a candidate that's gonna get people excited. You have a
candidate that gets people excited, and they're like no, no, no,

(32:56):
not like that, not like right, Like I mean, I've
had a conversation with like people in my life that
are kind of like older more like Democrats that were
like very much like Obama clen era Democrats that like
are still sort of pressed about the fact that, like, oh,
people didn't show up to vote for Kamala Harris and

(33:17):
then don't seem to understand that. It's like, yeah, but
like things are getting those like if you can get
mad at young people, you can get mad at whatever
all you want. But then you're seeing these groups show
up for somebody that's actually promising something. It's like maybe
that's the solution. Maybe that's the like do you want
to just keep complaining about the problem or do you
want to fix it? And I would like to fix

(33:39):
it personally because I don't want to keep living in
the world that's falling apart. But that's just that's just
my opinion, you know.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Joey says, fix it y'all all like Joey guys. Yeah,
And I will say, like I hated so much about
this New York Times piece, But I will say one
thing that made me a little bit happy was that
I think most mainstream news outlets could have just repeated

(34:06):
like they didn't take the bait, Like most of what
I saw was reven action, like this was a notable,
real newsworthy story. They were talking about how bad of
a move and how bad of a look it is
for The Times. It's very clear to me that the
thing that they're trying to posish, and by they, I
mean the democratic establishment, right wing cripters, and then they're

(34:26):
using the media as a tool to do this. It's
very clear to me that like the narrative they were
trying to push was like black folks against mom Donnie, right,
Like that's what they were trying to make happen.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
And so I was very disappointed.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Like a black owned media outlet, the Grio, which is
like a like a outlet that focuses on the black community,
they reported on it in a kind of way that
was like, fam, are we bothered by mom Donnie saying
that he's black? Rather than the I would argue the
much more important story that is certainly more impactful to
the lives of their readership, which is like, fam are
we bother?

Speaker 2 (35:00):
But that the New York Times is working with you.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
Genesis and white supremacists like it just really yeah, I
mean it's fine.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
It really yeah. It pissed me off.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
It just like goes to show how many in medias
like I just wonder, like what are you doing, Like
who are you serving?

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Who are you trying to educate?

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Like did you see that the New York Times colonies
Jamel Bowie he had to delete several Blue Sky posts
that were criticizing The New York Times for this post,
and basically his tweet was you should tell readers if
your source is a Nazi, which I feel like doesn't
seem like an inflammatory thing to say to me, But

(35:44):
obviously the New York Times made him take that post
down and say, oh, sorry, that violated the New York
Times is social media guide. So sorry, so sorry, Like.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
I don't know, I mean, yeah, everybody knows it's more
offensive to call somebody a Nazi than it is to
do Nazis exactly, just to accuse somebody who's doing Nazis
shit of being a Nazi than it is to actually
do the Nazi shit. That's exactly the vibe here.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
And I think what's also annoying is that there is
a like interesting media conversation to be had about why
mom Donnie would check both Asian and African American on
a college application. Like you know, he basically said, like,
oh yeah, fifteen years ago when I was applying to college,
there was no box to check for being an Indian
America and who was born in Africa. That is interesting, right,

(36:31):
Like I think there is an interesting conversation to be
had about the limiting way that you think about and
talk about race in the United States.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
But rather than like lift.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
That actual substantive, potentially interesting, useful conversation, It's like the
New York Times is only allowed to elevate these very
small grievances of right wing race science pushers, Like we
had an opportunity to have an actual interesting conversation. They
were like, Nah, what about this like weird petty thing

(37:02):
from fifteen years ago. Let's just blow that up instead.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
More after a quick break, let's get right back into it.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
So, Joey, you and I actually I think you were
the producer on this show when Linda Yakarno first was
announced as the CEO of X, and that right, is
that I'm remembering that correctly?

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yes, I think so, because I remember having to re
edit you saying Jacherina now Cole times and.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Our producer Mike had to be like, think Linda Yakarrino
nine to one one and I was like, oh, got it.
That was because I kept saying it wrong. Linda Yakarino
not actually doesn't really matter. Now I'll probably not be
saying her name again after this episode because Linda Yakarino
has officially stepped down as a CEO of X after
two years at the you might be thinking, who the

(38:02):
hell is when the Yacherino don't know that name? It
is because you didn't really hear a ton from her,
Like when even when she got named as the CEO
of X, Elon Musk was certainly still the most public
facing person at X, even though she was meant to
ostensibly be the CEO. She would pop up a few times.
Mostly this sort of smoothed over some bad thing that

(38:23):
Elon Musk had done, or like explain why it was
actually good. So one of my favorite things in tech,
in media and all of this is how when people
leave companies, how they leave that generally gives us some
sort of insight into like what might have happened, what's
going on, Like if somebody leaves the company and then
somebody else in the company says, oh, we wish them

(38:44):
well in their future endeavors, but doesn't say anything about
their accomplishments or anything, like you basically know they were
fired and are getting or are being able to say
they've resigned, but it was probably messy, Like I would
not wish my worst enemy well.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
In their future endeavors.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
Is if somebody wishes somebody while on their future endeavorshit
is messy, sit is bad. They fuck, there's bad blood there.
So let's talk about how Linda Yacharvino left X. She
posted a very nice message about how she shared Elon's
vision for protecting free speech and making X and everything app.
Musk responded to her resignation with a succinct you might

(39:21):
even say a little bit icy response, thanks for your contributions.
Uh so that I mean, I don't have any tea there,
but that if I was a betting woman, I would say,
there's some drama behind the scenes, because typically when somebody
resigns and they're like, here's a glowing, lovely post, the

(39:41):
other person in leadership there generally is like, oh, we're
so thankful for their contributions, like this thing and that
thing and this thing. Like there's some exchange of glowing
positive back and forth. I will say, Elon Musk's response
little terse all right, So I find that curious.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Wow, Elon Musk being weird about other people and powered,
and that's like crazy, who would have thought you? You
would have thought that is.

Speaker 6 (40:10):
Giving, Like like I definitely have set texts uh similar
to that, but it's been like, all right, thank you
for like like the passive aggressive, like, uh, leave me
alone now, like we're done, We're done.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
I will say.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
A day after she announced her resignation, her blue check
mark was removed. Her verified check mark was removed from X,
which petty, petty, petty, like come on, So that that,
I feel like says more to me than Musk's urse
little statement.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
I think.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
So, I think there's drama here, and I think we're
gonna you might get more information later, but I don't
know that I sent bad blood.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
However, I do have thoughts.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
You know, Yakarino, she came from the ad and media world,
specific NBCUniversal. She was really brought on to revive x's
doomed AD revenue. It turns out nobody wants to spend
money on a Nazi website when like the head of
that website is going on TV and being like, screw you, advertisers,
I don't need your money. We did note in one

(41:17):
episode that a lot of her success wooing back advertisers
was essentially extortion, where they would threaten to sue brands
who did not advertise on X, and those brands basically
were like, Okay, we'll rather pay this bribe then get
involved with illegal back.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
And forth with these gules.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
And so it turns out extortion there's a reason why
criminals use it. It's very effective. I do love how
like yacking. Yeah, their big innovation is always like low
key criminal behavior, Like Musk is like, oh.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
What if what if we bribe them? Extortion? Has anyone
considered crimes? That is why Elon Musk is the super
genius that he is. Real life Tony Stark, I sorry,
this is a tangent. The first time I was introduced
to Elon Musk as a figure was This was way

(42:10):
back when he was still the Democrat Darling, and it
was in an interview. I think it was like it
was one of the late night shows, like it was
like Stephen Colbert's something. My parents were watching it and
my mom was like, oh, yeah, no, I really like him.
He's like he's like iron Man in real life. And
so my brain is always like see and I hate
iron Man. So clearly those movies suck and this is

(42:31):
what led us where we are today. This is all
Robert Downy Junior's fault. I I'm with you. One day
I'll do a full episode.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
About Oh my god, I have to admit I've never
seen iron Man.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
They're I love them when I was a kid. They're great,
like superhero movies. I did watch them again in college
at one point with my friend because his girlfriend hadn't
seen them forever, and they're they are super racist movies.
And that was not something that stuck with me from
when I was a kid. And I think hearing my

(43:05):
friend's girlfriend be like, so they're speaking the wrong dialect
of Arabic and here's what I go through the specific
like I, oh, no, you know, you might be. Anyways,
I think there's there's many most superhero movies you could
argue like they're bad, they're part of the military industrial complex.
I have my own specific fief with those movies because
they are literally like that is number one, Like that

(43:27):
is peak military industrial like post nine to eleven, like yay. Anyways, uh,
but yeah, that my theory is that is why we
have Elon Muscory is now and.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
He's so wrapped up in the military like it does
with Tracks, because I think he got to his head.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
I think he's got the ego now because that was
the thing was like they brought him out on this
show and they were like see really Like I think
they made him think, like, yes, I'm this like superhero,
super genius dude.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Anyways, so you're definitely coming back, and we're doing a
whole episode about the connection between Iron Man and Elon Musky.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Sure it all because of Elon.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
Mus So you could maybe argue that Jacharino had some
success moving back advertisers in their low key criminal way.
Tech contraports that ad spending was up sixty two percent
year over year in the first half of twenty twenty five,
mostly due to election related spending, though they never reached

(44:27):
pre Musk advertising spending on the platform, So maybe you saying, okay, well,
she had some successes. But friend of the show, Nora Benavidez,
one of my favorite humans in the world, Senior counsel
and director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights were Free Press,
said in a statement, it is as ludicrous as it
is offensive for Jakarino to frame her time at X
as a win for free speech. Musk hired her to

(44:48):
lure back advertisers fleeing the platform after he turns it
into a cesspool of hate and disinformation. Jacharino's legacy is
her failure to manipulate companies to advertise at previous levels,
and now she's trying to mask that failure in First
Amendment rhetoric.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
No one is buying that X is a free speech platform.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
It's a megaphone for bigotry, conspiracy theories, and bullying people
into silence. Musk has no interest in upholding free expression
or protecting platform users. It's essential to name the harm
clearly and reclaim free speech as a force for truth
and democracy, not a shield for those who profit from
undermining it.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Out Nora Mike drop. Yeah, I can't say I disagree
with that.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
Oh ma, Like that was written like a like a
Kendrick Lamar style dis track. So Yakarino's departure comes after
X's chat bot Grock, who they built to sort of
rival woke chat GPT went full on like Nazi rapist.
So this is not me saying this. This is Groc

(45:53):
saying this. Groc now is referring to himself as Mecha Hitler.
That's not so, this is not me putting words in
Groc's mouth. I'm I'm telling you what Groc told me.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
I can't this is like I like this.

Speaker 7 (46:07):
If this were a movie, it would be too heavy handed. Yeah,
I feel like, what do you mean it's mecha Hitler?
What do you mean musk chatbody is calling itself mecha Hitler.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
I wish, I wish I could get in a time
machine and go back like ten years and go to
like fifteen year old meet and be like, one day
you're gonna have to do with Mecha Hitler like youth
Joey will be like, what are you what are you saying? Hell?

Speaker 1 (46:33):
So, basically, you know it's no secret to anybody that
Musk was annoyed at what he perceived as liberal woke
mind bias in GROX, so he had his engineers restrain
it on new data that favored sites like four Chan
that was just full of hate speech. As they say,
garbage in, garbage out. Musk said, we have improved grock significantly.

(46:55):
You should notice a difference when you ask Rock questions.
So yeah, a day later, this chatbot was calling itself
Mecha Hitler. Elsewhere on the platform, neo Nazi accounts, we're
goading Groc into quote recommending a second Holocaust. Groc was
giving out specific instructions on how one could break into
the home of Will Stancil, a former Democratic candidate who
ran from Minnesota's House of Representatives last year, and how

(47:19):
one could sexually assault him. Minnesota is the state where
the speaker of the House was recently assassinated, so that's
particularly vile. Groc also sexually harassed Linda Yakarino herself. It
produced a revolting sexually explicit exchange which I won't get
into here, basically about Yacharino having sex with black men.

(47:39):
So yeah, I guess GROC and Twitter really is the
everything app because it does racism anti semitism and misogyny.
So people were sort of saying, like, oh, we bet
this ugliness with Groc is why yachar Reino quit. For
what it's worth, the journalist Carry Swisher, who's pretty plugged
into the tech industry, does not think that yacher Reno
stepping down had anything to do with Mecha Hitler. She

(48:03):
said the Mecha Hitler controversy was not it by the way,
I guess she sided with Trump over Musk and also
without the Trump card, it was likely going to be
hard to shake down advertisers with threats of lawsuits. And finally,
Threads is close to being as big as X, along
with new competitors like Blue Sky.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
It was also reported that Yacharino.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Had already talked to people internally at X about stepping
down before Grock wet full Nazi rapist.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
Yeah. I mean, I feel like at that point, if
you're if you're hanging on right up until Mecca Hitler,
at that point you're just in endorsing Mecca Hitler like
you were. You were like, I'm fine with all of
Like now that we put a name on it, it

(48:49):
doesn't make any difference. It was still like, you know,
groc has been doing this for what feels like decades now.
I think has only been a couple of months, but decades.
It does feel like decades. I do want to bring
up really quick because I saw this post on Tumblr
recently and it made me think of this show, just
thinking about like all of the shit that's gone down

(49:10):
in like ten years, and like how ridiculous stuff is now.
There was this post somebody that I saw. I'm gonna
read the post and then I'm gonna tell you the date,
says Okay, this is from Tumblr. Internet politics and real
world politics have gotten so separated, and pretty soon all
of this Internet awareness is going to come crashing into
real life and politicians are gonna start throwing around words

(49:32):
like SJW and anime communists and dark enlightenment and it's
just gonna be the most ridiculous fucking thing. This is
from April thirteenth, twenty fifteen. Wow. Liked at the prophecy
and like somebody like I could shot somebody put the
like the gift of like bed Affleck smoking and looking
like dead. But it was like, oh, like yeah you were,

(49:56):
because I don't know. This is something I keep going
back to because you brought up like fourtan and stuff
like that. We've talked about the show. I grew up
very on the internet, Like I was really in the
tumbler at that point. I was a teenager. I knew
about all this shit because I was on Tumblr and
it was like the other side of them. We see
people making fun of people on four Chan and whatever.
Now all of this stuff is just mainstream politics. Yeah,

(50:16):
and it is sort of like, why is all the
weird like niche, Like, it's all the weird kid stuff
from that era that now for some reason is like
this anyways. But yeah, I just think it's something to
think about when we think about the social media and

(50:36):
politics more.

Speaker 4 (50:39):
After a quick break, let's get right back into it.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Okay, so really quickly, if you have been online chopping
at Walmart or coss Go in the state of Virginia lately,
you might have gotten a warning pop up on your
web browser that said quote, Virginia law requires your consent
to collect or use information about your potential or actual
purchase of reproductive or sexual health products or services. It

(51:17):
goes on to say that viewing, searching, and buying all
constitute consent and ends with if you do not consent.
Please avoid viewing, searching for, or purchasing these products, services,
or features. And that is because new Virginia state legislation
took place on July first that prohibits obtaining, selling, or
disclosing reproductive or sexual health information without consent. So this

(51:40):
covers things like pregnancy tests, birth control, and abortion medication.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
So I'm from Virginia.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
I live in DC, which is basically Virginia like northern
Virginia in some ways. So I saw a lot of
my Virginia friends posting about this and asking questions about it,
assuming understandably that this was like big government spuying on
their intimate, reproductive and sexual health purchases. But actually this
law prohibits stores from collecting information about your private purchases

(52:07):
without your consent. So essentially, Walmart has always been doing this,
Costco has always been doing this, but this new law
now requires them to tell you that they've always been
doing it. State Senator Virginia State Senator Barbara Favola, who
sponsored this legislation, said, these are intimate purchases. These are
purchases that nobody should know what you're doing, what you're buying,

(52:28):
or why. And I want the privacy insured. She basically
said that this legislation was needed in states with strict
abortion restrictions because there is concern that private information could
be used to prosecute somebody atating abortion medication out of state.
She said, we wrote the bill in a way that
we thought could be easily honored. I don't think anybody
had inside knowledge on how Walmart or Costco or other

(52:49):
big retailers are collecting the data, how they're storing it,
and what they are doing with it. So as weird
as it is to go to Walmart dot com and
get this kind of pop up, I do. I am
like very supportive of the spirit of this law. I'm
a little bit skeptical about the impact because it's not
like people can opt out from having their data stored.

(53:09):
That data is just like very very valuable for online retailers,
and it's I guess it's sort of telling to me
that Walmart would rather lose you as a customer by
telling you, oh, if you don't consent, don't make this
purchase here, then provide you an easy way to opt
out from having your data about your sensitive purchase or
searching tracked.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
Like I have not seen any data about this.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
But I would imagine that people who saw that pop
up probably just dismissed it and continue to purchase. But
you know, saying like oh it's fine if you don't
want to buy from us, that's fine, just you know,
go on your digital way. I feel like that's really
telling to me that the data must be worth a
ton for them. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
Yeah, it is like like I agree, it is like
one of those things where it's like, Okay, I guess
this is better than nothing, Like it's good that they're
at least something, but still like, oh that's not good,
and I do not I don't know. Yeah, the whole
this is like anything too. Like this was like this
was a story from like a couple of weeks back,

(54:13):
but like have you like bridget I'm sure I use
like partifle a lot for like yeah, organized like events
and stuff, and there was like a whole story that
came out that I was like run by the same
guys that are like the Paneltry guys, and like it
was one of those things where I saw a lot
of people being like oh right, like if you're you
have this free service, like you are the data that
they're we're using this free service, but it makes sense

(54:36):
when you think about it, like this is a great
way to track people and track their movements and director
connections and whatever. And it's like something like that was
that I had a moment where had to like think
and be like or things like Venmo, Like you know,
people all the time will use like they'll put like
stupid jokes in there, like Venmo requests, and it's like
that can turn into something that somebody could use. It's

(54:56):
like evidence against you. It could be a part offle
and like I don't know, Like I was like, I'm
not gonna lie. I am the kind of person that
I totally would like like abortion party, Got y'all come
to Joey's abortion party? To the FBI man listening, that's
not happening.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
It was canceled. It was canceled. Yeah, we I just
did an episode on stuff I've never told you all
about whether or not WhatsApp is secure and sort of
long story short, it's mostly secure. It's probably fine, but
if you have any if you if you are talking
about anything at all sensitive, you should be using signal.
And you know it is like you know, if you're

(55:38):
if you're making any kind of purchase like this that
you that might be broadly considered in this category of sensitive.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Stuff use cash.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
Like whenever we talk about this kind of thing, people
listening are like, oh, well they already got me. Like what, like,
what difference does it make it? That's called digital nihilism
or surveillance nihilism. It's a it's a it's the wrong
attitude to take.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Fall into that a lot too, I mean very like
I have had a lot. But it's like, oh, there's
alsofic specific things where like yeah, I mean I mentioned
I don't use period tracker app. I like, there are
certain things that I'm like, I know I need to
have cash on hand. Just yeah, like you never fucking
and again, this is all like for the most part
right now, like you know, cautionary, Like luckily I've not

(56:24):
been in a situation where like I've been in dangerous
but I mean you brought up the in the last
story that the Minnesota shooting to where like that occurred
because of publicly like information that was available, the data
that had been brought bought by data brokers. This is
a reality, Like we live in a surveillance state that
has never before been possible exactly, and it doesn't take much.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
And most of these like it's like signal is free, right,
keep like not having a period, trackering this using pen
and paper, that's free. It does not take much to
do basic steps to protect your data, protect your privacy.
You know, there was an old adage it's like, oh, well,
you wouldn't have to do that if you have something
to hide. In twenty twenty five, all of us has

(57:09):
something to hide, right, if you've got something to lose,
you've got something to hide, something to protect. It's not
being paranoid to take basic steps to protect your data.
And I think in twenty twenty five, we all should
be taking basic steps to protect our data, especially when
it's like you probably don't have to take more involved
or expensive measures. If you do the free, easy, common
sense stuff.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
You'll probably be good.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
Like there's there's just no in twenty twenty five, we
cannot nobody can afford surveillance or digital nihilism. We have
to like do what we got to do to protect
ourselves in our communities. This is like the the baseline
of what we we shouldn't have to do it, but
unfortunately we do exactly.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
I mean, it's yeah. I was like thinking of this
reason because, like, I I'll be real, I love buying
my phone. I love gaving my friends locations at getting
to see Wait, I.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
Read that young people they always have their locations on
with their friends.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
Is this true? Yeah, I'll be real. Like, I was
kind of resistant to the idea at first, like I
would only really sure my okay, like if somebody need
my location for like to find like like we're like
trying to find each other like a crowded thing, I
would give it to them for like a day, and
then that was it. Uh. And then eventually at some
point I was like, oh, well, I don't know what

(58:27):
the hell it's like my friends. It was also I think,
like I like live with roommates and it's nice to
like be able to check in with each other and
stuff like that. But like, yeah, I mean I think
the like the benefit of it is it's like nice
sometimes to be able to like if I'm out at
a party with some friends and people are leaving at
different times, it's nice to be able to check that,
like people got home okay ah, or like my I

(58:51):
don't live in the same state as my parents, so
I know, like my mom likes that she can, you know,
check to make sure that like me and my sister
are home in safe and not you know, floating in
the middle of the Hudson River or something. But also
it is objectively weird, like I don't know, it's it's

(59:12):
like I think it is useful and I do it,
like I do have my location shared with a lot
of people, at least with iPhones. It's sort of like
I know that like if I were in a situation
where like I didn't want to be tracked, I could
just leave it at home or like turn it off
or something. So there's that. But yeah, it is like
objectively kind of weird.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
But but it's it's nice.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
It's nice to just like to know where people are at.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
Well, how do you lie about I'm on my way
to meet you and you're really in the shower?

Speaker 2 (59:42):
How like if you shared your location, Well, all if
my friends that have my if you have my location,
if we're close enough friends to have my location, you
know that I will be like two hours like again,
so so that if that if if you're mad at
me for saying I'm on my way and you're like
you're still home, that's not you I this is but yeah,
but yeah, no, I mean I do say all of
this also acknowledging that it is like also weird and

(01:00:06):
like definitely a product of the surveillance state, and like
how much surveillance has been normalized. So I don't know
if I'm like super glad that this is a thing
that exists. It is like the norm, but I do
participate in it, so I don't know. Yeah, I mean,
it's just another reason why, like like basic free digital

(01:00:31):
best practices, I think we should all be doing them
if people want to know where they can start get
in touch with me. I'm happy. It's like a thing.
It's like a thing I love talking about, So I yeah,
we should. I feel like I should hear you about
this because I definitely have too much information out there
that not the fun kind, the kind that would get
me doxed. But uh, I mean I hope not. Ah
don't know, no one docks me.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
Yeah, people listening, don't that's please please don't well, Joey,
can I hit you with just the cook pure?

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
Can we end with just some pure unsubstantiated rumor? Oh
please ill, I'm substantiata rumors favorite thing?

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Okay, So last month, Lauren Sanchez was on the cover
of Vogue, and I remember seeing this him thinking that's surprising.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
This is a surprising choice. I did not.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
I never thought i'd see the day when Lauren Sanchez
famously recently married to Jeff Bezos. So I found all
this surprising. And when I saw it, I remember thinking,
is Bezos about to buy Vogue? I had no inside information.
This is just my gut, just a thought that popped
into my head when I saw this magazine. Then Anna
Wintour announced last month that she was stepping down as

(01:01:41):
Vogue's editor in chet after thirty seven years. She'll remain
in control of global operations. So I also found this
surprising because Anna Wintour seems like somebody who would like
die in her office rather than give up one iota
of leadership or power. That seems to be her vibe
to me. She has kind of a pope energy and
she does is My favorite Anno Wintour story is that

(01:02:03):
she if you. She she's based on if, the movie,
the book The Devil wors Broda. She's supposed to be
like a man She's done a man of friestly type.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Her. I'm gonna say and a mode from Incredibles, but
also that ye yes, same hair. Yeah, it's like I
was like, of course, the most famous character she's based
on in Meryl Streep.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
So the story is that so like Anna went Tour
is not it's like kinda known for being not a
nice person. I actually don't like Anno Wintour. If you've
read Andre Leon Tally's memoir, I was like, I will
hate her forever.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
Oh same the Konde Naspirings when she like didn't even
take her song yeah off, that was like the nail.
Like I already didn't like her, but I was like, oh,
so you're like evil. Same.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Like it's I don't think that you have to be
like I.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
I think that to rise up in leadership you have to.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Be decisive, you have to be confident, you have to
be assertive maybe aggressive.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
Sure, you don't have to be an asshole like I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
I just don't like this idea that, oh can you
believe like she's so cold and mean and unempathetic it
makes her a great leader. No, you can be a
good leader, but being an asshole is a choice. Not
taking off your sunglasses when you're firing people.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
And laying them off. That's a choice you don't have
to that's a choice to behave in that way.

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
So you know, they used to call Conde Nast conde
nasty because that was the attitude that permeated from the top.
And my favorite story about this is that apparently, allegedly
at a Conde Nasty Christmas party, everybody knew that you
weren't supposed to look Anna Wintour in the eyes, and
so if you saw Anna Wintour, you were meant to
like avert your gaze and basically ignore her. And that

(01:03:40):
at a Christmas party, Anna Wintour had a bad fall,
like she fell over or tripped over something, and like
it was one of those falls where it was very noisy,
like maybe she took down a tray of drinks as well,
but nobody if you had that kind of fall, people
would rush over and help you and be like are
you okay? And nobody said a word. Everybody this pretended

(01:04:01):
like this, this loud calamity of a fall did not
happen because she had set the agenda of like, do
not approach me, do not look at me in the eye,
and part of me is.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
Like, oh, it looks like your re what you sew.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
No one's gonna help your ass up because you've been
so mean to everybody the last few years.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
Yeah, I you brought a Devil Wears Prada, which you
know what, maybe this is just a giant publicity stunt
for douvilewarst Prada too, which is apparently happening. Oh terrible,
I'll watch it, Noah, I'm sure it's gonna be awful.
But I have a love hate relationship of that movie because, like,
I think it's a good movie. I thought not long ago,

(01:04:38):
like I didn't see one again. I saw it like
a couple of years ago. And my first cause I
had heard all the like oh, the boyfriend's the real villain,
like she's And then I watched it and I was like, oh,
this is a movie about an abusive boss, Like what
do you mean? Like I was like, sure, yeah, the
boyfriend's not great like whatever. But I was like, yeah,
I also would be like her friend, Like I was like,

(01:04:58):
I would be concerned if one of my friends was
in this situation, Like I probably also would be like yeah,
like are you good? Like if you like, are you
sure this is the path? I don't know? Like I
was like, I don't know. To me, that's I was like,
she was awful. Like I was like, the whole point
is narrow Streep's characters terrible. Like I was like, she's
not like a girl boss, like or she is a

(01:05:19):
girl She maybe is like the epitomy of that girl
boss demonism stuff which is not good, which is still bad.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
Maybe the real villain of the movie is the person
who is flinging her coat in someone's in her underling's
face every single goddamn day.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
But maybe in maybe in the new one, Jeff Bezos
will be the the new Moranda Pressley and then it'll
be a totally new t.

Speaker 4 (01:05:43):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
It could be Jeff Bezos, who I mean, I suspected.
I was like, I think he might be about to
buy Conde Nest. Could be Lauren Sanchez. So so again
I want to say this is this is all rumor. However,
StyleCaster quoted an anonymous source, so take it with the
rain of salt. The rumor is that jeth is going

(01:06:05):
to buy Conde Nast. It is all anyone's talking about
in the fashion industry and inside Vogue. Adding Lauren Sanchez
is such an unlikely cover star, and the word is
that she landed the July issue partly because the new
House family, who currently owns Conde Nast wants to butter
up Bezos in New York. They're slimming down the business,
which is exactly what companies do before a sale.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
And that is not all.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
Anna Wintour is said to be directly involved in a
possible sale. The source says. Anna is said to be
the one broker in the deal, So that's why Lauren
was on the cover. Anna has equity in the business,
so she has a lot to gain from a sale.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
So who knows?

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
Lauren Sanchez does have a background in like I guess,
like entertainment media, entertainment journalism. I guess I'll call it that.
And so if he did buy Conde Nast, it would
stand to reason that she could be the person like
the new Anna Wintour running Vogue.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
God can you imagine? And entertainment journalism is like a
cursed thing to have as some as two people who
have delved into entertainment journalism, Joey, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
If you let me tell you, I could tell we
got I could tell you, I could tell you I
actually brought up a story about a specific celebrity that
I cross paths with in my time doing celebrity journalism
and celebrity Now I'm trying to decide if I should
cut it out of the episode. If folks are curious

(01:07:33):
it's the episode, I guess I'll do a little bit
of a plug. I'm talking to Ashley and Clair of
the podcast Celebrity Memory Book Club in a recent episode,
and there I tell a story about one specific celebrity
who her antics almost cost.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
Me my job.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
She has fallen way out of public favor, like had
a very very public downfall, And I'm wrestling with whether
or not I should cut this anecdote out because I
don't think I've ever shared it publicly.

Speaker 2 (01:08:00):
I will tell you who it is, off Mike.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
If folks want a hint, I will give one hint, Cucumber.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
If you know you know that is a that is
a big hint, and I'll just leave it at that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
So I do think that, like Laurence, the idea of
Jeffrey Bezos buying Conde Nast and then bringing his wife
Lauren Sanchez on as editor in chief of Vogue, it
does kind of fit with this idea of them really
trying to buy their way into a certain kind of
class and status and influence. I think part of that

(01:08:38):
whole space mission. He also set Lauren Sanchez addition to
Katy Perry that you know ultimately was like not good.
I think that they're trying. I think that he really
wants to be like we are a dynamic, worldly, classy,
influential couple.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
But like it doesn't matter how you could be a billionaire.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
You can't buy that, Like, you can't buy your way
into people thinking that you're, you know, someone with depth
and class.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
Wow, I cannot believe the show there Are No Girls
on the Internet is taking down women for the all female.

Speaker 4 (01:09:11):
What what was it?

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
It was like Blue Earth or something blue Origin, It's Origin,
It's it is my Perry, it is my Roman Empire.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
Somebody I don't remember where I read this, but somebody
was like, I want to see a deep style show
where a Katie Perry figure is like has like fallen
in public favor and she keeps trying to like do
stunts to get back on everybody's good side, but they
keep failing in more and more spectacular ways.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
I have watched that show. I watched that show we
did it. It's a it's a woman's worlds and were
whatever didn't work, so she was like, it's a it's
a woman's universe, it's a woman's galaxy. It's a woman's galaxy.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
I also do think it's funny that, like all the
celebrities that went to that wedding got sort of shamed
and cloud for it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
That was something where I was like, you know what,
I have hope for humanity seeing all of the protests too,
like shout out to the people of Venice, like you
know what y'all showed up. Y'all also like pulled up
talking about the real environmental impacts of all this, which yeah,
like I mean, if if you know anything about Venice,
it's sinking, like it is going to be like a

(01:10:21):
soon casualty of climate change, and uh yeah no, Like
good for the people of Venice for actually like being like,
fuck these guys if they choose to do with a
wedding here, like we're gonna make it miserable.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
Absolutely agree, I guess will end with friend of the
show she's never been on but has an open invite.
Luanne Della sets of Real Housewives of New York Countess
Luanne money can't value class elegance has learned absolutely, Joey,
this has been this. You're so fun to talk about
like random internet stories with thank you. I I do

(01:10:53):
spend a lot of time online, so me too.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
Yeah, you're probably the only person that I think.

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
Is as online as myself. And it's I really I
appreciate it, Like I feel yeah, it's like I'm like
somebody else gets the well we could do well one day,
do like a panel of like the millennial gen Z
find more people to do the Ooh, you know what's funny.
You're you, you're gen Z.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
I am gen Z very online. I'm a millennial very
online producer. Mike is gen X not online? Isn't that interesting?

Speaker 2 (01:11:27):
Interesting?

Speaker 4 (01:11:28):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:11:29):
I think that really is. So maybe that should be
we'll do an episode at one point and it'll be
the two of us. Oh that's good. It'll be like
a cross generational gen Z or gen Z to millennial
to gen X trying to understand different uh internets.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
Like I'm always having picks the blame to Mike. Like
the other day, I'm like, did you see this woman
on TikTok model antipasto salad and the fourth of July
cookade and they were so mean to her. And he
will say like, well, I don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
Who are these people? I had a I have like
Boomer gen x cuss parents and my mom a message
to me recently on Instagram with this like New York
Times video that was talking about vertical content, and she
was like what does this mean? What is vertical content?
And I sent her like multiple voice because also I
was like, this is the stuff that I love. Like
I was like, this is the stuff I heard out about.

(01:12:16):
Like I will totally I said her, like multiple voice
bussage about it, and she was like, okay, yeah, I
get it. Like whenever I was like I was like no,
but I was like, you asked me like I was
liking to anyways. But now that was a moment where
I was like, Wow, I get to explain this to you.
You're welcome love.

Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
Having to be the person who explains internet shit to
people who think they want to know but maybe don't
really want to know that like like all the meaty
details that you and I would surely.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
Provide sentence answer. I'd meet the full breakdown of the
socio political impacts of all this and uh, I think
I just sent a whole thing to me, like, and
this is how it's changing the way that movies are shot.
And she was like, I was asking about how it's
polical campaigns this stuff. I don't care.

Speaker 1 (01:13:04):
But uh, you know, Joey, where can folks keep up
with all this cool shit that you are doing on
our chronically online internet?

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
Well if yeah, if you want to find me a
chronically online you can find me on Uh. I'm on
Instagram at pat not prat. Also on Twitter slash x.
I saw so many refer to it recently as like
like Twitter, like that wrote it like with an X
and like x I T. I don't even know how
you'd pronounce that anyways, I hate it, but I'm still

(01:13:35):
gonna call it Twitter. You could find me on Twitter
or on Instagram at pat not prat. That's p A
T t n O T p r A T T.
You could also check out my other shows that I
work on at Afterlives Season two is out now. It's
all about marsh B. Johnson. And you can also check
out Outlaws, which is another show on the Unspoken Network

(01:13:58):
that is hosted by by the iconic ts Madison. Definitely
some Housewives crossover at some point. But uh, you know,
I've had to learn a lot about reality TV working
on this show, which has been a big thing for me.

Speaker 1 (01:14:15):
But uh yeah, if you ever need a crash course,
oh you know where to find me, absolutely first call.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
Well, thanks so much for listening, y'all, and I we
will see you on the internet.

Speaker 1 (01:14:31):
Got a story about an interesting thing in tech, or
just want to say hi, You can reach us at
Hello at tangodi dot com. You can also find transcripts
for today's episode at tengody dot com. There Are No
Girls on the Internet was created by me.

Speaker 4 (01:14:42):
Bridget Toad.

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
It's a production of iHeartRadio, an unbossed creative. Jonathan Strickland
is our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our producer and
sound engineer. Michael Almado is our contributing producer. I'm your host,
bridget Toad. If you want to help us grow, rate
and review us on Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Joe Rogan has Trump Regrets; Linda Yaccarino says bye Elon; Jeff Bezos Eyes Vogue?; NYT Helps Smear Mamdani – NEWS ROUNDUP!