February 10, 2025 • 72 mins
We’re officially living in a sci-fi nightmare—except there’s no escape. 🤖💀
First up, AI beauty pageants are now a thing, because apparently, competing with FaceTune and Instagram filters wasn’t hard enough. Now, digital influencers with perfectly coded faces are out here winning crowns and selling us skincare they can’t even use.
And if that’s not dystopian enough, we’ve got neuroergonomics—aka your boss trying to hack your brain at work. That’s right. No more zoning out in Zoom meetings, no more quiet quitting, no more mid-day naps because these corporations want full access to your mental bandwidth. How do we unsubscribe from reality??
We also break down Beyoncé’s historic Grammy win, Kendrick Lamar’s masterclass in pettiness, and we drag Aquarians for being emotionally detached space cadets who will ghost you mid-text..
It’s a mess, it’s unhinged, and it’s exactly how we like it.
🔊 Listen & Subscribe for more chaotic breakdowns of the world crumbling in real-time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nele (00:00):
Hey y'all, and welcome to this how it Ends podcast.
I'm Nell, I'm so All right, andwe're going to get into it.
Today we have some interestingtopics for you Now.
Sof, you don't really know whatI'm going to talk about, so
this should be a little bitinteresting.
We're always surprised.
Yes, yes, you're bad, yes,y'all.
(00:23):
So there's so much to talkabout, it's a little bit hard to
kind of pinpoint, and so what Ichoose may be a little bit
random, but here we go, rightfor our normal-ish all right
Grammys.
So, black, did you watch theGrammys?
Soph (00:42):
I don't really watch.
I don't watch.
I don't watch Grammys, emmys,any of that I just get.
I don't even get the fillers orthe next day after because I'm
not on anything to see it okaythat's why I'm here.
Nele (00:56):
That's why I'm here.
I know I still care about thisstuff and I shouldn't, but here
we are.
So I didn't watch the Grammyseither.
I don't really watch awardshows like that anymore.
However, this Grammys wasinteresting, and maybe because
it was Black History Month, Idon't know, but we had a lot of
(01:17):
people winning awards, right.
First of all, congratulationsto Beyonce for winning for
Cowboy Carter's Album of theYear and Best Country Album.
So first she's like the firstBlack woman to ever win for Best
Country Album and then forAlbum of the Year.
She's the first woman sincelike 1999.
(01:40):
No first Black woman.
First Black woman 1999, LaurynHill.
I think I'm saying this off thetop of my head, but I think
that's true.
Soph (01:49):
I've always bumped out of album of the year to yeah, so
that's what.
Nele (01:52):
That's why it means it's historical on so many different
levels, whatever, um, socongratulations to beyonce.
However, I hate to be thatperson because I don't want to
be the thief of joy, but like wegot to stop pining for
acceptance from certain people.
Okay, cowboy Carter, yes, wasan awesome album, very
(02:17):
educational, and if you listento it all together like it's,
it's a really dope album.
However, she has put on otherworks that clearly deserved it
and so and there's other thingsgoing to it who she's up against
, or whatever?
But to give her this Grammy forCowboy Carter, I just think,
(02:37):
like here, girl, just take it,just take it.
Like we don't want to hear you,just take it.
You know, like when a guy givesyou a shut up ring, that's what
it reminds me of, oh my God.
And so it's almost again likeDenzel Washington winning for
training day when Malcolm X,like I, thought that too, or
Halle Berry, when she won forthat.
(03:00):
Monsters Ball Monsters Ball.
But she should have won forintroducing Dorothy Dandridge.
Soph (03:04):
Like and it's almost intentional, you know.
Like they tell you, like we'rejust, we're giving this to you.
Yeah, I agree, like you keepchasing these and it's just.
Is it really worth it?
Nele (03:19):
Yeah, I think Beyonce was genuinely shocked.
There's memes of her reaction.
She was like like that, youknow, yeah, I've had that look
Beyonce, you know, when I'msleepy at my gate at the airport
and I think they're calling forboarding and I thought the
plane has left me, I've had thatlook like what.
(03:39):
So I totally understand theshock, but if Beyonce was a
revolutionary, she would havebeen like F your Grammys, like
you're Beyonce, it reallyshouldn't matter at this point.
She's been robbed several timesover.
I think it's very political,very much so, very much so, very
(04:13):
much so.
So, among Beyonce also, kingPetty Gemini Kendrick Lamar won
five Grammys.
Now let me tell you how pettythis man is all right, because I
was looking at this onInstagram and I thought I was
the only one right.
So they playing, they not likeus.
Um, as he's coming up right andso he's taking his time going
up to the stage, right, he'swalking real slow, just dapping
(04:33):
all these people, whatever he'stiming it.
So by the time he got to, Iguess, the podium or whatever,
when he got it, it would say aminor, and then everyone at the
Grammys was like A minor.
What was Drake doing at thehouse?
What was Drake doing at thehouse?
Soph (04:55):
The way his mind works.
He won for, just for hatingDrake.
Nele (05:04):
You could have a whole college course on Kendrick
Lamar's hate.
It's just so beautiful, I knowso if you're not into hip hop, I
know that.
And this is like what the Drakebeef the Drake Kendrick Lamar
beef.
If you have the time, reallylisten to it as a writer.
Really listen to it, because ithurts your own feelings.
(05:28):
You don't want to side withDrake but at the same time, just
like you asked for it, sir,this is what you get, but it's
like Drake was winning the war,no, the battle, but Kendrick was
winning the war.
There should be a whole study onthis, not to mess with Geminis.
(05:51):
Geminis are crazy as hell, allof them, each and every last one
of them.
And it's in my chart too.
So there you go, all right.
Also, dochi won, which was alsodochi won um, which was her
music is dope, so shout outs toher um a mooney long one, money
(06:12):
long, sorry, money long one forbest r&b performance.
And sizza took home best r&bsong for saturn.
Chris brown won something we'renot gonna talk about him and
tems earned um best africanmusic, best African Music
Performance.
And Cece Winans won Like just,we were out here winning.
I think it's a little suspectthat all of us are winning like
this.
Soph (06:32):
Yeah, but they say don't you want to choose a third
female to win Best Rap Album?
I think, yeah, there's been alot of female rappers that, and
there's been good female rappersthat we only have three.
Nele (06:46):
Yeah, another good one, one, two.
I like her Rhapsody, rhapsody.
Her music is dope and she wonthat night too On the topic of
music.
Soph (06:58):
So fill me in on this whole.
I don't know what else you haveto talk about, but fill me in
on this whole.
Bruno Mars, do you know what'sgoing on?
You made a song with Stixie Red.
Yeah, it sounded really wrong.
I mean, it was just Okay.
Nele (07:16):
I don't See, soph, I'm trying to be on the up and up.
It might change the dynamic ofthings.
I'm really trying hard not tobe low vibrational.
I heard it, I heard clips of itand I was like is this AI, what
is this?
(07:37):
And then it's a real song and Ididn't look any further because
I'm not understanding thispairing Bruno Mars, you are
bruno mars, bruno mars owes therecord labels a lot of money,
apparently, and that's why?
yes, you do what you got to do,but you're actually talented.
(07:57):
I'm convinced everyone in themusic industry has to sell their
soul.
They have made contracts withthe devil.
Soph (08:07):
It's not on brand at all.
Nele (08:09):
Even his little song with Cardi B.
Okay, cool, at least Cardi Blooks bathed.
At least she looks bathed.
Yes, but she's an awful persontoo, so yeah um.
Soph (08:27):
So yeah, yeah, I know, I was just like oh my goodness,
this I'm like bruno mars.
Oh my god, I love his likealbums he makes like he makes
good music, that everybody.
The album he had with silksonic, yes, the best song on
there's like this bit got me.
Nele (08:45):
Yes, yes, look, he's just too talented for this.
I'm just not understanding whatis going on.
He must really need to makemoney.
In the words of Sexy Red shakethat ass, shake that ass.
He's shaking his musical assright now.
This is awful.
(09:07):
Have some dignity, bruno.
Have some dignity, all right.
So, yeah, shout out to theGrammys.
Being so Black this year, allright, I like to call this the
biggest L.
I'm not sure how this came onmy timeline.
Maybe you've heard of this.
So in October 2024, a33-year-old American citizen,
(09:31):
onija Andrew Robinson, traveledto Karachi, pakistan, to meet a
19-year-old, nadal Ahmed Menon,whom she had met online.
So 33, 19, she's in the Statesand she's seeing this guy in
Pakistan, right, and he's 19.
Upon her arrival, menon'sfamily objected to their
(09:53):
relationship, leading to adissolution.
Subsequently, robinson foundherself stranded in Karachi with
an expired visa and limitedresources.
Efforts were made by localauthorities and non-governmental
organizations to assistRobinson in returning to the
United States.
However, she declined to boardher scheduled flight, expressing
(10:16):
a desire to remain in Pakistan.
Reports indicate that shedemanded $3,000 per week and
sought Pakistani citizenship.
Robinson's situation garneredsignificant media attention,
highlighting the complexitiesand potential risks associated
with international relationshipsinitiated online.
Soph (10:36):
I'm sorry so she did not.
They got her on a flight.
She did not board her flightand demanded to not only stay
but receive citizenship andthree thousand dollars in
pakistan and money.
I love how bold.
Remember that.
Remember that story.
Where it was that wedding?
And was it in indiana like thisthis couple got married in this
(11:00):
restaurant.
They did not book it for awedding, so so they just had
their wedding, they just toldpeople.
So people started coming andthe waiters are like yo, what is
happening?
Full ceremony and then dance.
Nele (11:22):
I just like I was very confused because I saw, like I
don't know if it's like pressconferences that's happening in
Pakistan, like behind this.
This is a really big L Like.
From beginning to end, this is.
Soph (11:38):
Like, how do you travel internationally to a country
like that that treats women likesecond-class citizens?
Actually, to a country likethat that treats women like
second-class citizens, we'relike, if you're not tied to a
man like you're.
Nele (11:53):
You know your life could be in jeopardy.
And now, if she gets help,doesn't want the help.
How are you squatting inanother country?
This is like intercontinentalsquatting.
What is this?
Soph (12:08):
Her life must be like a hot ass mess.
Nele (12:11):
I don't want to be her friend just for the stories.
I just want to hear the stories.
I don't want to be a part ofthe shenanigans, but I
definitely want to hear thestories.
Soph (12:20):
And they're always victims too.
I bet you she retells thatstory like she's a victim.
Yeah, they want to a victim.
Yeah, I want to wipe out thecountry.
Like, take it.
His family doesn't approve,just take it.
Why are you going to Pakistan?
Nele (12:34):
All places.
Why are you going there?
I just don't, I don'tunderstand.
All right, and the last one.
So so far, trump has beenshowing his ass.
Oh, my.
God.
Soph (12:53):
Like I really do.
Nele (12:56):
I didn't even know what to choose from.
There's been so much.
But to kind of tie into whatour show is about, you know
Trump and Musk are BFFs, butforever, I'm not sure.
So in early 2025, presidentTrump appointed Elon Musk as a
(13:19):
special government employee tolead the Department of
Government Efficiency DOJ liketasking him with identifying and
implementing significantfederal spending cuts.
Operating as a specialgovernment employee allows Musk
to maintain his roles at Teslaand SpaceX while engaging in
(13:39):
government activities,potentially bypassing certain
conflict of interest andfinancial disclosure regulations
the chaos, the unlocked, likeit's just the conflicts of
interest, is just so insane tome but here's the thing.
This is why this can't be done,because it happened with trump.
(14:00):
Isn't it some kind of like Idon't know rule whatever that
once you hold a presidentialoffice having certain roles in
your businesses, you have torelinquish?
Soph (14:10):
it or whatever.
And he didn't do it.
He started a shit coin.
What is it?
He started a shit coin, hestarted one.
People are so dumb.
People are so dumb they flockto it, they buy it.
Nele (14:26):
I'm like what, what for?
What is it based on?
Oh girl, I can't, I can't, Ican't.
And so now he's hooking hisbestie up with the job so that
his bestie can do the same thingthat he does.
What qualifications does thisman have to run the Department
of Government efficiency?
(14:47):
He can't even run a Twitter.
Soph (14:50):
But now he's tied to the president, so I'm sure he's
going to leverage the hell outof that.
The corruption is just in yourface and I bet you no one cares.
He's got us so fixated on, likeyou know, like DEI and like
things that yes, literallyblaming plane crashes on DEI,
(15:16):
which is absolutely insane.
Nele (15:17):
I wouldn't.
Soph (15:18):
People are unconscionable, Like.
I just don't understand.
You know what?
Nele (15:22):
Look.
So that's the whole otherconversation, because I'm trying
to wrap my head around it too.
There's definitely somewitchcraftry afoot, deals made
with other entities to make thisstuff happen, because this
don't make any sense.
So Musk's initiatives haveincluded efforts to dismantle
various federal agencies,notably the US Agency for
(15:43):
International Development, usaidyou say it notably the US
Agency for InternationalDevelopment, usaid, which has
led to significant disruptionsand concerns among government
employees.
These actions have sparkedcriticism from Democratic
lawmakers, who are apprehensiveabout an unelected billionaire
wielding substantialgovernmental influence without
(16:04):
adequate oversight.
You didn't, y'all didn't seethis.
You don't need a crystal ballto see this.
Soph (16:09):
Y'all didn't see this democrats need to like they have
no balls like where are yourcojones?
Nele (16:17):
donde esta tus cojones?
Soph (16:20):
they're not doing anything like I don't want.
I don't want to think peaceLike, do something, play dirty.
If they're playing dirty, like,I don't even understand them
anymore.
Nele (16:30):
Like this is who who thought that voting Trump in
office that things would makesense or things would be fair?
Like this is your life too.
You live in this country too.
You are not the one you aregoing to be impacted.
Look what happened with likeall the government, without the
(16:59):
White House's approval.
This assertion aims to addressapprehensions regarding Musk's
expansive role and the potentialfor overreach.
Soph (17:08):
How much money did Musk give him give his campaign?
I think it must have been a lotLike, Because I don't even
think he likes the man?
Nele (17:22):
No, he doesn't Like.
How much could you give to givesomeone this much power over
people's lives?
A lot.
How many billions?
10 billion, 20 billion?
Soph (17:35):
A lot of billions and who knows what else must have
happened.
But that's crazy.
Or he knows something too LikeI don't know.
They won't be happy until thisis like burned to the ground.
But a part of me, you know, Ithink what else is going on
behind the scenes that we don'tknow like there are some things
(17:57):
that are so like public and itseems like it's it's taking our
attention away from other thingsyou know like because now we're
like everything is idea, likethat's all, like fine, yes,
that's what's happening.
Nele (18:14):
But right now, like On the grand scheme of things, why are
we even talking about DEI?
You're absolutely correct.
It definitely is a distraction.
Soph (18:24):
We're not going to do Black History Month anymore,
we're not doing these-.
Yeah, and that's what.
We're all just laser focused onthat and we should be focused
on that.
But there's so much other andwe should be focused on that,
but there's so much other thingswe should be put, like how this
unelected man is in the whitehouse, like that's what that's.
That's the first thing weshould deal with right now like
(18:46):
I.
Nele (18:46):
People aren't.
The people aren't scared, likesometimes, if you don't see
certain things, you're removedfrom it.
But my friend who listens tothis podcast shout out to my
girl C.
Anyway, she was telling me hownext door to her it's some kind
of like immigrant sheltersituation.
(19:08):
So she was saying how they wereICE officers there, like right
next door, and she showed me apicture and everything and I was
like, wow, you know, like thisis real and people just voting
(19:29):
for this man based off of vaporsand hope and emotion, and now
realizing that his policies canaffect them.
No one like Project 2025 isreal.
It is happening.
This is insane.
I'm actually very scared and Ijust don't.
(19:51):
It's just a very uncertainfuture, honestly.
Yeah, I mean, he straight uplied to us.
Soph (19:54):
He's like a very uncertain future, honestly, yeah, I mean
he straight up lied to us.
He's like he doesn't knowanything about that.
Like this is a he's followingthe playbook.
Nele (20:02):
No, he is Like because literally there's articles about
how, so far, what's happeningnow is matching up with some
Project 2025.
Soph (20:11):
Like it is happening.
Yeah, democrats need to figurethis stuff out, because guess
what, come election time again,like no one's going to want to
vote for them.
Nele (20:21):
Nope, there's some.
There's some bitches, there aresome bitches, democrats.
I need them to.
Soph (20:28):
I mean they're the true.
They say Democrats are the trueconservatives.
You know they're actual, likethe Nancy Pelosi's of the world,
like they're conservatives.
You know they're actual, likethe Nancy Pelosi's of the world,
they're conservatives.
You know AOC is a progressivebut they don't want her to have
any kind of power.
Nele (20:44):
Yeah, they definitely got their foot on her neck.
Yeah, let's see.
So to end this, it says theevolving relationship between
Trump and Musk has raisedquestions about the balance of
power, accountability and therole of private individuals in
public governance.
Observers are closelymonitoring this dynamic, noting
(21:07):
the potential for bothsignificant governmental reforms
and constitutional challenges.
Soph (21:14):
Yeah, although if you one thing that has always happened,
like there are always unelectedindividuals making our laws,
like lawmakers don't make theirlaws by themselves, like there
are lobbyists, companies thatare saying this is what you
(21:34):
should say, this is the kind oflaw you should write, but that
stuff is out in the open now.
Yeah, it's plain as day it isplain as day, and it's almost
kind of like an FD to theAmerican people.
We could do whatever we want.
Nele (21:55):
It is, it is, it's.
It's insulting.
It's insulting.
You know we thought a lot.
You know lobbyists at leastthere's a process.
You know when they have anagenda.
But this is just.
Trump just skips all processes.
He does what he wants.
He can incite a riot on thecapital.
He does what he wants.
He can incite a riot on theCapitol.
He does what he wants.
(22:16):
And you think someone that hasthe capability to do what they
want is going to be responsible?
What secrets does he have?
Everything bounces off of thisman.
Soph (22:30):
He doesn't.
It's a cult.
Nele (22:33):
This is a cult?
He doesn't.
It's a cult.
This is a cult.
Look so, even in chat gpt, okay, when I was trying to look for,
just so far, trump's policiesand what he's instituting, you
know what that was going on,whatever, I was trying to find a
summary of it and it wouldn'tgive me like a real summary.
It was just kind of like, youknow, based off of his stuff
(22:54):
from before, like it was.
I was like chat gpt, trying tolike think I'm stupid that you
you can't find what I'm askingabout for trump.
It was just weird.
The responses seemed like theydidn't know what was going on.
Soph (23:09):
Whoever they is no, like I mean you.
Who did you?
You had bezos at hisinauguration, you had that
creepy guy from Facebook,zuckerberg.
Nele (23:21):
Zuckerberg.
Soph (23:24):
They call him a reptilian.
But these tech bros, I thinkthey're in his pocket or he's in
there.
I think they're in his pocketor he's in there.
There's a lot of filtering thatis happening that we don't know
about.
Somebody was saying theinternet of today versus the
(23:45):
internet in 2013.
There's so much stuff that'sbeen pulled and removed.
If you do a search, what youget is so much more limited than
what you would have gotten,like 10 years ago.
Nele (23:58):
Yep, that is all I'm imagining things.
Soph (24:01):
I was like what?
And the same sites are givingyou the same things Yep, safari,
or, you know, firefox.
Like they're scrubbing theInternet, like they're really
they're limiting what it is thatyou can see.
Yep, you know.
(24:22):
So I don't put anything beyondthat.
Like I think they're all.
I mean, they're all rich men.
Like they're all rich men whowant to make more money.
You know, yeah, like capital,in order for capital to succeed,
all rich men who want to makemore money.
You know, Like capital, inorder for capital to succeed, it
needs to grow constantly.
(24:44):
You could have a billion, itdoesn't matter.
You need to figure out how tomake that billion into three
billions.
That's why these companies arealways like cutting costs and
like cutting people, becauseit's like, yeah, our profit was
like three billion, but we needlike five billion next year.
(25:08):
There's no one left to buy yourproduct, then what?
Nele (25:13):
The price of eggs.
Everything is insane, insane so, and it's just like how are
people supposed to survive, Idon't know.
We're at the whims of thesegreedy people and I think it's
just even more than just moneyat this point.
Money.
Soph (25:31):
It's money and power, but it's really money.
Nele (25:33):
Well, money and power is only it's money but because you
know if you have a billion, like, how many more billions do you
need, right?
So it's definitely about likepower.
Soph (25:45):
You have that billion, but there's so many people who need
a cut of that billion, right,if you have, if you're not a
private, if you're a publiccompany, you have your
stockholders, you know, you haveyour boards.
Like, there's so many peoplewho want a piece of that pie and
they always want more of thatpie, um, so you have to
constantly cut it.
I'm gonna go on a just realquick.
(26:07):
So kroger's is they've deniedthis, but kroger's allegedly is
working on this program.
It's like facial recognition,so that when you come into their
store, they know who you are.
They already have all your data, right, because you know your
data is all out there and theycould price items based on your
(26:32):
profile.
No, so if you're a lawyer theycould be like oh, for this pack
of bags you can pay $2 extra forit.
If you're someone who sort ofpicks things up without really
looking, they could charge youmore money.
So Kroger's is they're workingon this facial recognition
(26:55):
program, just to, it's one ofthe dynamic pricing.
So the pricing, the pricing Isee, may not be the pricing that
you see, you know, so it's like, so that is so scary They've
denied it.
They said they're not doing that, they're doing it, they're
doing it, they are doing it.
They are doing it In 2019,.
(27:19):
They were accused of usingfacial recognition.
They were like no, it's just to, I guess, to prevent theft or
something like that, and itwasn't really facial recognition
.
But, yeah, they're doing this.
And where did they get thisfrom?
They got this from Amazon.
Right, because Amazon they havethose.
But people know that.
People knowingly know, likewhen they go into these little
amazon shops yo, I experiencedit for the first time.
(27:42):
Yeah, like they know who youare when you walk in, like.
So we willingly felt like wetell them like this is like
we're okay with this.
Nele (27:47):
So so I I went to boston this past weekend at the hotel
they had.
They had a tiny little storethis was my first time actually
doing this where I don't knowwhat you scan on there your card
, I don't know, whatever and sothen there's no one in the store
.
Whatever, it costs $4 for asmall thing of cranberry juice.
(28:08):
$4, all right, I said, looky,here we're going to put some
water in.
Thank you very much we're goingto put some water and shake up
these mixers.
Okay, one sip per person, onesip per person, okay.
And so then I'm very confused,because I have my bottles and
I'm just like where do I pay?
What do I scan?
(28:29):
I was just able to walk out.
I'm like what?
Soph (28:39):
I'm just very confused about how this, how this thing
works.
They know who you are like ifyou walk in.
They know what you picked up,the.
It's like we live in asurveillance state, like there's
everything is there for it tobe eventually like a true I mean
, it is already right, like thatguy who shot this, the, this,
the healthcare ceo, like they,they had so many cameras to sort
of plot his trajectory of wherehe went.
(29:01):
So it's just um, it's a wildtimes, girl, these are wild,
wild times these are really wildtimes.
Nele (29:11):
Um, it's supposed to be the year of the snake.
In Chinese zodiacs that meansshedding old skin and whatnot.
I don't know if this is allthis stuff coming out or not
coming out, shedding to.
Maybe it's going to have toblow up before things get better
.
I don't know.
Soph (29:33):
They say Trump is the antichrist you know, he doesn't
care.
Nele (29:36):
How, I don't know.
They say Trump is theantichrist and you know how
people are suffering.
Soph (29:39):
What he cares about is when someone imitates him.
So that's what he cares about.
That's.
That's what's going to.
That's what's going to triggerthis.
Nele (29:50):
The petty things he does the petty and not so petty
because we're all at the expenseof this man's ego.
Even with the whole TikTokthing.
Right, definitely made it seemlike he saved the day in terms
of extending, I guess, the timebefore the ban or whatever.
The world is on fire, why do wecare about TikTok?
(30:14):
But in the same breath, right,tiktok, people make their.
That's their bread and butterfor some people, that's how
people make money, and so you'redangling with how people
survive, how they feedthemselves, to feed your ego.
Like, I thought it was a littlebit ridiculous at first, people
crying about TikTok but at thesame time, if you worked really
(30:34):
hard to build a platform and putyour all into it, created all
this content, which takes work,and then for it to be gone like
that to feed this man's ego, no,Now he brings it back to you.
Soph (30:49):
You're grateful for him.
This man started this.
Nele (30:52):
Yes, he did this on purpose so he can swoop in and
save the day for some TikTok.
That's crazy.
That is crazy.
Well, that's it for normal-ishy'all which is not so normal.
I might call it some wild-ish,because these are some crazy
(31:15):
times.
Soph (31:16):
Mm-hmm yeah.
Nele (31:19):
All right, y'all.
So last episode we talked about.
So what was the name of thoselike AI-generated profiles?
Soph (31:30):
Mama Liv and Mama.
Nele (31:32):
Liv and Grandpa Brian, something like that.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, so kind of piggybackingoff of that.
I was interested in Miss AI.
So it's an AI beauty pageant.
So, look, I'm at the age whereit's just like you're going to
(31:55):
get what you're going to get,not saying you get what you're
going to get, but look, as longas I have shelter and what I'm
wearing is clean, like that'swhat we're going to do, okay.
But now beauty pageants.
When I was younger, I used tobe excited about watching beauty
pageants.
I even remember was it KenyaMoore who was, like the first
Miss Black USA?
(32:16):
I remember, you know, like Iused to like beauty pageants a
lot.
And now again, technologysometimes is a thief of joy.
You know, now beauty pageantsaren't even beauty pageants
anymore.
So I wanted to talk about theMiss AI pageant.
In 2024, the inaugural Miss AIbeauty pageant was launched,
(32:41):
marking the first competitionexclusively featuring
AI-generated personas the WorldAI Creator Awards, which is the
WACAs.
Okay, the event aims tocelebrate the creativity and
(33:06):
technical skill behind digitalinfluencer personas worldwide.
So, yeah.
So someone was like okay, wealready don't have, you know,
strict requirements for whatwomen should look like.
Let's just compare them now toAI.
Look, is AI going to hold youat night?
Maybe, maybe they will, I don'tknow.
Soph (33:25):
I mean the way the future is going.
Ai probably can't hold you atnight.
Nele (33:31):
Yeah, but my thing is, I just feel like these people,
whether it's in the real realmor with AI, they'll be rejected
either way.
You're just horrible, digitally, virtually.
Soph (33:44):
You realize you're just a horrible person.
Nele (33:47):
Imagine being rejected by AI AI.
My AI girl broke up with me AmI the asshole?
Yes, you are already.
Soph (33:55):
My AI girl broke up with me.
Am I the asshole?
Yes, you are all right, so.
Nele (34:00):
So I need your help a little bit.
I wanted us to look at some ofthe contestants.
It wasn't for this particularone, but just what some of these
AI ladies look like, um to seeand see if we notice any like
patterns or or trends.
First one okay, does she have aname?
Soph (34:23):
says Amy so this is I think this is the first, the
first one, so let's go down.
I think that's like the coverimage.
Nele (34:33):
So this one is.
Soph (34:36):
This is AI.
I don't know who she is, sothis one, this is one of them.
Now, she looks real, she does.
This is Lalima is a French AIavatar.
I mean avatar.
She looks very real.
Oh my gosh, this is creepy um,this one kind of it seemed a
(35:04):
little whimsical kind of thing,but it seems real too.
This is, um, yeah, this isayana ayana rainbow.
She promotes, she promotesLGBTQ rights on her page.
Nele (35:17):
Okay, I'm a rainbow.
Soph (35:18):
This is a come for you, ayana, because you know anything
LGBTQ.
I love her hair, by the way.
I like her hair.
I was trying to get a hairstylelike that, but the stylist told
me $500, and I was like, eh.
Oops, absolutely not, we justgonna get a little rainbow wig
or something.
Call it a day.
We just gonna get a littlerainbow wig or something.
(35:39):
This is Ayla.
What's with all these Ayla?
Nele (35:41):
Luz from.
Brazil.
Now, okay, that's interestingthat she's a darker woman that
they have representing Brazilokay she still has a huge afro
yes.
I think it's like the secondlargest Black population or
something like that.
Hmm, oh, we got in space.
(36:04):
Oh, okay.
Soph (36:06):
AI-generated image.
Asina Uli Uli when is that from?
She posts several photosplaying different types of sport
.
Nele (36:19):
Okay.
Soph (36:19):
Okay, she looks kind of.
She looks like two, I don'tknow.
This is Eliza Kaz.
She describes it asBangladesh's first AI influencer
.
Nele (36:35):
Wow, she's pretty.
Soph (36:40):
Yeah, this is Kenza.
Lely is from Morocco.
Nele (36:45):
Now, I think she's the one that won.
Oh, yeah, yeah those eyebrows,though, okay.
Yeah, I mean, that's a decision, it's a choice.
Soph (36:59):
All right, this is Zara.
She also has a blog and I wascounting her fingers.
Her fingers look really weird.
Nele (37:20):
Yeah, because sometimes with AI, the hands or the
fingers are weird, right.
Soph (37:25):
It looks like someone took a plastic can and just like
popped it in there.
This is Anne.
She advocates for clean, forcleaning the oceans, and that's
it.
Nele (37:40):
They couldn't make Anne like an oceanographer or like
yeah, so so what did you thinkof the AI beauty pageant?
I don't know if they were thespecific contestants, but I mean
how?
(38:02):
Did they do it Like I mean, howdoes?
Soph (38:04):
it?
How does it go exactly?
Are we just looking at picturesof these women Like who?
Who are the judges?
How did they judge?
Are they judging based on?
Nele (38:14):
pictures.
Okay, so this says that thecompetition attracted over 1,500
automated applicants, with 10finalists selected for the final
round.
These AI-generated contestantswere evaluated based on beauty,
technical proficiency and socialmedia influence.
Notably, the judging panelincluded both human and
(38:37):
AI-generated judges.
Judges reflecting the event'sinnovative approach.
Soph (38:43):
We are just moving towards , like I think we're paving the
way so that artificialintelligence can move side by
side with us, like wow, they'relike little things, but like
this could be significant inlike in another 15 years.
Imagine if they could do.
(39:03):
What is that?
When they have the hologramsright?
Oh yeah, they'll walk down anactual stage and they'll have
their own voice and they'll beable to answer questions.
Nele (39:18):
How do you influence as an AI AI generated influencer?
I don't understand.
Soph (39:25):
I mean influencers just mean your ability to like sell
people stuff, right yeah, butLike you're selling a product
like all these, like you know wetalk about these influencers
and like, oh my God, you can buythis, like they.
Just just, they have thesefollowers that they can tell to
do stuff.
Tell them my stuff, or like youknow, uh, tell them how to
(39:45):
think, but you know, like Idon't know.
Nele (39:48):
So it's being an influencer is not really deep no
, but I mean back in the day, Ican't believe I'm saying this.
Back in the day, likeinfluencers you were part of.
What sells is your influence.
So you have to generate like aparasocial relationship.
You have to be engaging, havesome kind of charisma or beauty
(40:12):
or something to sell thisproduct and so and so that's it.
It takes a certain amount ofwork.
Soph (40:18):
It does.
But remember when we talkedabout our last podcast, when we
talked about, there were twothose two influencers who made a
lot of money.
You know they represented thesebrands Like, so it doesn't
really you can be like, you canbe engaging, and people are only
(40:42):
seeing you in like minisnapshots.
Right, I don't know there's amore sophisticated way of saying
this stuff, but I just don'tthink these days to be an
influencer if you're prettyright, like you have to make
people want what you have.
Like you have to portray alifestyle that's going to say I
(41:05):
want that with you.
Know, if you're using ai, evenif you're not, it doesn't take a
lot for people to.
That's all.
Social media is where you'relooking at other people's lives,
wishing you could have whatthey have, which you know like,
and you try to emulate that.
Nele (41:20):
But, Soph, do you realize how deep the brainwashing has to
?
Be right For you to beinfluenced by an AI woman, right
?
Who can't use the product inreal life that she's influencing
?
You have to take your physicalmoney well, physical, whatever.
You know what I mean.
You have to to take yourphysical money well, physical,
(41:42):
whatever.
You know what I mean.
You have to, like you can't usea skin cream based off of an ai
.
The ai doesn't use skin cream.
So how are you allowingyourself to be influenced by
something that won't even beable to experience like what
you've experienced?
Soph (42:02):
experience like what you've experienced.
I'm saying it incorrectly.
I I know what you're trying tosay, but that's wild to me.
But that's like um.
So you have these movie stars,you have, like, these actors and
actresses.
They're um, they're promotingthese credit cards that give you
points.
I'm'm like you don't needpoints, you don't need points
(42:22):
for a black card, you don't needpoints.
Or you're advertising a Hyundai.
You're not driving a Hyundai.
So that's always been the case.
People have always advertisedthings that they probably won't
use themselves.
That's nothing new and we knowthat.
Nele (42:41):
On, on a we do we.
We know that on a more thansubconscious level yeah, but we
don't care.
Soph (42:48):
Like we want it, like this person is pretty and they're
luring us in, and then we spendall day going like this, like
this, like this, like our braincells are fried yeah like it is
so easy to manipulate.
Yeah.
Like it is so easy tomanipulate we bought some things
off of Instagram.
Nele (43:03):
I'm not going to lie.
Soph (43:05):
I am, yeah, I.
I've heard so many horrorstories.
Nele (43:10):
No, so far it's been okay, but I've definitely read some
stuff off of Instagram.
Not going to lie, yeah, it'sjust.
If you don't think people havesocial skills now, baby yeah,
it's sad, it's sad.
(43:30):
Let's see the last thing thatthey say.
They said the title of thefirst Miss AI was awarded to
Kenza Lely, a virtual influencerfrom Morocco, so that was the
last one Created by Miriam Bessa.
Kenza Lely impressed judgeswith her digital presence and
engagement, securing the topposition among the finalists.
(43:53):
The emergence of AI beautypageants has sparked discussions
about the evolving standards ofbeauty and the role of
artificial intelligence inshaping them.
Critics express concerns thatAI-driven beauty standards may
promote hyper-perfectionism andreinforce unrealistic ideals,
potentially distancing societyfrom natural human beauty.
These developments raiseimportant ethical considerations
(44:15):
for the beauty industry andsociety at large.
Well, now you have all thesecriticism.
After this has been done, womenalready have it hard enough in
terms of filters and stuff tosuck you in, and acting like
plastic surgery is just nothing,and just all this stuff to make
(44:37):
us look a certain way and atthe end of the night hopefully I
don't know what you take off orwhatever, but you're with
yourself at the end of the night.
You can't keep this up.
You're not a walking tiktokpage, you're not a walking
instagram reel.
It's, it's just not but peoplewant to be.
People have to see you in likelife, and just the distorted
(45:02):
visions that we have are imagesof what women should look like,
because women are cutting uptheir face, cutting up their
beautiful faces, and somethingin their brain says, oh, this
looks okay.
Because after you put on allthis makeup, after your face is
all botched, you put on thismakeup, you put on a filter, but
then when we see you in reallife is crazy yeah, authenticity
(45:23):
is gone.
Soph (45:24):
Like we are just not like we're just.
Social media made it so that,like we don't portray our true
self, you know, and it's just.
It's that, and I wonder that'swhy people can just say all
sorts of craziness that they do,like when we go like this is
not this is not.
Nele (45:44):
This is where's your decorum.
Soph (45:46):
This is not how it works, there's no shame, like there's
like you'll share, like anything, and like it's just like this
it's almost like what youportray online is just separated
from like you know what I mean.
Nele (46:02):
Like it's like once you get in front of that kid, that
screen, like you just becomethis, like whole new person and
it's wild because, again, theseparasocial relationships that,
like you, you think you have abond with these people, um, and
sometimes and sometimes you doas someone who, I like to share
my experiences on social mediaand I've found that it's been.
(46:25):
I share a small amount ofpeople.
It's been pretty dope for me.
I like sharing my trips orthings that I eat or whatever,
but I don't think it's ever beento the point where it's like
it's so vastly different.
But there's people out therewhere it's like what's?
It's so vastly different, youknow.
But there's people out therewhere it's just like like who,
(46:45):
who are you?
Who are you?
And then after a while,especially if you're in the
public eye, a lot you getdehumanized.
You're just an object.
Just entertain me, nothing else.
Fuck how you feel, fuck what'shappening to you, entertain me.
I need a dopamine rush justbecause my life is dull and
(47:05):
boring and I hate it.
It's just very icky andparasitic and gross.
Yeah, and in a time where weshould be trying to, we need to
join together.
At this point, all of us arebeing impacted by everything.
Some of us, more bullets arehitting us than others, but we
(47:32):
need to come together.
Soph (47:38):
Well, anyway, an asteroid is going to hit earth,
potentially in 20, uh, 2032, Ithink.
We talked about it like it's,it was supposed to bypass us,
but now scientists are saying,oh, we can't rule out and it may
hit us all right so we talkedabout the rich people bunkers,
(47:59):
right?
Nele (48:00):
So one of us needs to find some rich people to get to a
bunker.
Okay, Because-.
Soph (48:07):
No, we need to meet wealthy people.
Nele (48:09):
Not rich.
Wealthy people, wealthy people,yes, yes, yes.
So that's it for the AI beautypageant.
I'm disturbed, but notsurprised, and I wonder just in
terms of the women that weresubmitted.
(48:33):
I'm sure they were all nolarger than a size four and most
of them were fair skinned withlonger hair.
I'm sure if they did some kindof study, like feature or
whatever they all have, like thesame facial symmetry or
whatever, the golden ratio thatthey talk about.
Yes, yes, yes.
(48:53):
So I'd be interested if theyactually did some kind of study
on the submissions, yeah, andhow much those submissions
actually reflect what the peoplelook like from that region.
Yeah, yeah, all right, y'all.
That's it for that.
Soph (49:13):
We have a section called the conspiracy corner, but for
today, what I'm going to talkabout today it's not.
It sounds like a conspiracytheory, but it's not.
It's real life and it's from anarticle in the conversation
titled Brain Monitoring May Bethe Future of Work, how Its Use
(49:36):
Can Improve Employee Performanceor Worsensen discrimination.
It's always worse when it saysor worsen it's like it's always
that one.
So apparently companies are notsatisfied with robots just
taking over our jobs.
They've decided to hack thehumans who are still employed.
(49:59):
We're going to talk aboutneuroergonomics.
So, according to the article inthe conversation, neuro
ergonomics is the study of humanbehavior while carrying out
real world activities, includingin the workplace.
It involves recording aperson's brain activity in
different situations or whilecompleting certain tasks to
optimize cognitive performance.
Certain tasks to optimizecognitive performance, for
(50:25):
example neuro ergonomics.
I can't use this and monitoremployees as they learn new
material to determine when theyhave mastered it.
It could also help monitorfatigue in employees and roles
that require optimum vigilanceand determine when they need to
be relieved.
Until now, research inneuroergonomics could only be
conducted in highly controlledclinical lab environments using
invasive procedures, butengineering advances now make
(50:47):
this work possible in real-worldsettings with non-invasive
wearable devices.
The market for thisneurotechnology, defined as any
technology that interfaces withthe nervous system, is predicted
to grow to 21 billion by 2026.
Wow, and it's poised to shapethe daily life of workers for
(51:10):
many industries in the yearsahead.
So, tldr, your boss, could nowknow when you're zoning out in
that Zoom meeting, when you'rementally checked out after lunch
, if you quite quit or maybeyou're just napping, so it will
be able to see all of that.
And on the surface, theygaslight you, right.
They make you be like oh, it'sto help workers, right?
(51:33):
Especially like if you're inthe medical field, right, if
you're, you know, for a doctoror nurse that's experiencing
fatigue, that's not someone youwant operating on a person.
Um, newer ergonomics promisesto optimize our cognitive
performance, uh, monitor fatigueand even stimulate our brains
to work better and faster.
Nele (51:53):
So imagine no, no, no, no, no, so, no, no no.
Soph (52:00):
Imagine having your brain zapped mid-task to boost your
sensitivity.
What, oh my goodness, you'renot like can I control while at
work?
No, so like a cattle prod foryour brain.
Well, it's something thatyou're wearing, it's wearable,
so they could probably like sita little zapped.
Nele (52:17):
No, like electrodes.
Soph (52:21):
I don't know, but, uh, like this sounds.
I haven't watched a lot ofblack mirror, but this sounds
like the plot of something fromBlack Mirror.
You know, and now we know BlackMirror is just a documentary
and it just feels like we'resliding deeper into this
(52:44):
dystopian future where now yourbrain isn't even yours anymore.
You know, companies can collectdata on how you react to
distress, how fast you processinformation.
You know again how fast youprocess information again, how
tired you are.
It sounds so innocent, but theycould probably use it to decide
who gets promoted, who getsfired.
Oh, you know what?
Her brain has not been asactive.
(53:06):
I think we should fire her.
Nele (53:10):
What is a divergent my brain let me hear.
All I hear is squabble up bykendrick lamar in my head all
the time.
Okay, I definitely I'm tryingto relax.
I'm like squabble up, squabbleup, like who would?
I don't want my boss knowingthat this is?
Soph (53:32):
it won't be able to.
Yeah, it won't be able to hearthat.
But you know, maybe you'redoing a little, I don't know.
Maybe there's a part of yourbrain that, as you're listening
to music or you're like bopping,yeah, I'm sure they're gonna
see it lighten up like we needto have a conversation.
Nele (53:47):
Yes, you're just having too much fun in your head.
Yeah, isn't that?
Soph (53:51):
crazy?
I don't know.
Is brain beta covered underHIPAA?
Is that, like it's nottechnically medical beta?
So are we going to have likebrain rights activists, like I
don't know, like what, like I,just brain rights activists, I
know.
Nele (54:09):
I was like okay, so you gather this information, right.
But it doesn't really seem likeokay, we have this information.
What can we do to improve thework environment so maybe you're
not so fatigued?
It's like we're mapping whenyou're tired so we can cattle
prod your brain with theelectrodes to keep going.
Soph (54:32):
That's what we're gonna do , like we're not gonna going to
move forward.
You've been working too hard,let's take a break.
No, they're not going to saythat.
They're going to be like howcan we get maximum output?
And you know some of theethical questions.
I mean, they're endless.
But can you be forced to wearthese devices?
What happens if you refuse?
Will declining participate youas less committed?
(54:56):
You know like, if you're theone that's like I don't know
about that, you know like, areyou gonna?
Can they fire you?
Like I don't know.
And I mean, we're beinginsubordinate that way, you know
not it's funny how, like wealways say, how you know, we're
always like looking down atChina and talking shit about
china because they're asurveillance state we are like
(55:17):
we have all.
We have all of the ingredientswe've already I mean, I
mentioned this earlier like weare a surveillance state yes,
it's surveillance, ish, it's,it's happening it's happening.
Ish, I think we're taking,they're taking baby steps before
we get to.
They don't want to like, justbecause you don't want to just
like push it all at once, youjust take these like tiny, like
little baby steps, baby steps,and then you get there.
(55:39):
Um, so I don't, I don't know,or you know, if they're some,
some of these devices can pickup um early signs of
neurological diseases.
Um, so if it does do that, canyou be denied opportunities or
can it increase your insurancerates?
(56:01):
Yeah, so it's so much, and Idon't think it's about
optimizing work, absolutely not.
Nele (56:11):
Absolutely not.
It's like some weird employmenteugenics.
It's just like kick out theones whose brains work
differently, who are at optimalproductivity, and then the ones
that are doing the work,catapult their asses, even when
they're tired.
It's really.
Soph (56:30):
it gives me the ick, so it's really gross yeah they're
trying to control our mind andwe employers the ick, though,
like it's really gross.
Yeah, it's, they're trying tocontrol our, trying to control
our mind, and we employeeemployers already have these
employee monitoring apps thatare already invasive, right?
You know, and I'm going to addthis onto I think they're
constantly trying to find waysto control us as much as
(56:51):
possible, to get the most out ofus, right To squeeze us dry.
Nele (56:55):
Yep.
Soph (56:56):
It's all about output, like, how much can we get for it
from this person?
And you know, and there thereare a lot of companies out there
obsessed with hacking ourbrains.
There are a lot of thesestartups.
You know, like super villain,elon Musk's his neural link, you
know it's like you know ourbrain is like the last frontier.
(57:16):
They send us these ads.
They tell us to buy this, buythat.
It's subliminal and not sosubliminal messages and I think
the ultimate coup would be ifthey could just feed that data
directly into your brain, justdirectly into your brain.
It's going to happen.
I mean, there's research intohow to beam advertisements into
(57:38):
your brain while you're dreaming, you know, like is it Coors or
Budweiser?
Like they're looking intoresearch for that to like just
make you think of beer.
This doesn't bode well for usand there's precedent that shows
us that this stuff can beabused and it will be abused.
(57:58):
It will be.
This will be my last point, butthere was a CIA mind control
program called MK Ultra that ranfrom the early 1950s to the
1970s.
This was a conspiracy theory.
Until it wasn't, it was just aconspiracy and the goal was to
develop techniques forbrainwashing, psychological
(58:20):
torture, behavioral manipulation, all in the name of natural
national security.
They use I mean, some of themuse like LSD, they use like
other techniques that were justvery unethical and many of the
participants didn't even knowwhat was happening.
And while the program wastechnically shut down in 1973,
(58:41):
because Congress startedsniffing around, because this
was Defense Department and forsome reason Congress really
don't know what they do so a lotof the evidence was destroyed
and only fragments of theprogram came to light during the
church committee hearings inthe mid 70s, in the mid 1970s.
The public was shocked.
No one really facedconsequences and then we forgot
(59:03):
about it.
So when you hear about thesemodern day brain monitoring tech
, like you know, this neuralergonomics or neural link, it's
not that far-fetched to wonderare we walking willingly into
this high-tech version of mkultra?
Now you have, like, the best intechnology and you know, the
defense department loves stufflike this, it seems, um, so yeah
(59:25):
, I just this is, this is somelike.
Nele (59:31):
These are the things that some like these are the things
that look self.
I mean, I'm not going toencourage people to do the drugs
, I'm not going to do that.
However, you might need to takea shroom or two just to help
you make some things kind of youknow, I want to do iowa
eventually, I want to do it, butI want to, like.
Soph (59:53):
I need to get it from someone trustful.
Nele (59:55):
You need a safe space and it's best to like do it, but I
need to get it from someonetrustful.
You need a safe space and it'sbest to do it in nature.
Make sure you have water andcertain snacks.
There's a safe space to do it.
I did not do it in a safe space.
Okay, it was my space, but itwas not safe.
But for a while I was jammingto Al Green with all the colors.
(01:00:16):
It was great, yes, but I wouldwant to see Al Green Did you see
any magical elves?
Soph (01:00:23):
I hear people see magical elves.
Nele (01:00:25):
I did not see any magical elves, but it definitely was
like.
I felt like what is it?
It was a little bit outer body.
I felt like I was watchingmyself jamming like Al Green,
but then it took like a darkturn.
But I'm here, so that's allthat matters.
But I really want to tryayahuasca because it's supposed
(01:00:45):
to, that's supposed to be somewhole other dimension stuff.
Soph (01:00:50):
But I listen to this guy, Terrence McKenna, like he's
deceased, but he talks aboutthat and he is a believer in
that stuff in shrooms and how itjust opens up your mind to all
this stuff.
Nele (01:01:03):
So I'm scared of it, but at the same time I need to make
sense of what's going on.
Open that third eye, open thatthird eye girl, maybe not all
the way.
Open just a little wink.
Soph (01:01:17):
I just think there's so much happening that we have no
idea.
And it's happening rightunderneath our noses and we just
have no idea.
Nele (01:01:27):
And you know what it is, soph, we are limited in our evil
capabilities, right.
And so you think, oh, thiscould possibly happen, like
these awful things, but there'speople that are so depraved that
our mind doesn't even go tolike how else can you control
what?
No, I was like yeah.
I was like yeah, yeah, like I.
Just there's some things that Iwouldn't even that exist, I
(01:01:50):
probably wouldn't even thinkabout, because that's just not
how I know we operate.
Soph (01:01:58):
Um, there's a program called like it was project
stargate from the monroeinstitute.
I'm starting to look into itbut, um, they it's like remote
viewing, like they're like these, like psychics or people, these
abilities that they can viewplaces that they've never been,
like they could tell you what'sthere and all of that.
(01:02:19):
I'm just like this is this waslike through the government,
like so the government islooking Like the governments
have like psychics on deck, likethey are invested in.
Nele (01:02:29):
I think that might need to be a topic, because I'm a
little bit interested in that.
Soph (01:02:33):
Okay, all right, so maybe next time we'll talk about all
the woo-woo stuff that ourgovernment is into.
Nele (01:02:41):
Some of it.
They don't.
Oh, they definitely are.
Okay, you know they be burning.
Well, burning sage is supposedto be a good thing, but they
definitely.
Whatever demons burn souls,hearts.
I don't know.
That's what they do, becausethese people have a pact with
evil.
I'm convinced that wasinteresting and scary at the
(01:03:04):
same time.
Soph (01:03:05):
It's always scary Girl.
There are so many ways it canend.
Yes, who shall?
They're going to take over ourminds.
They're going to work andconsume, and it's going to work
and consume.
Work and consume.
That's what they want from thehuman race Pretty much Rich
people.
They want you to work and theywant you to consume.
(01:03:26):
Yes, you're going to build aproduct and then buy the product
.
That is all you're good for.
Nele (01:03:34):
If anyone wants to harvest anything from my mind, good
luck.
Okay, Because it's a whoo.
There's a whole lot going on inthere.
So good luck with that.
My mind would be good for, okay, maybe some kind of like acid
(01:03:55):
trip.
That's what my mind would belike an acid trip.
There's a lot going on in there.
Yes, uh, all right, so, uh, isthat it self?
yeah, that was it yeah, that washella interesting.
All right y y'all.
(01:04:15):
So now it's time for ShadyAstrology.
Why get in that Zodiac's assnow?
Fuck Aquarians.
Okay, I'm already starting offthe bat, okay, fuck.
Soph (01:04:28):
Aquarians.
I had to get that out.
I say this episode is ratedextra E and again.
Nele (01:04:40):
Aquarius is in my chart, so I'm a self-hater.
So, Aquarius, the dates arefrom January 20th to February
18th.
They are an air sign and thesymbol is the water barrier and
some notable celebrities.
They are an air sign and thesymbol is the water barrier
bearer and some notablecelebrities Oprah Winfrey,
(01:05:00):
Michael Jordan, Abraham Lincoln,Charles Darwin, Shakira, Kelly
Rowland and Harry Styles.
So we got some interestingpeople in there.
Positive traits they'reeasygoing, independent,
humanitarians, creative.
(01:05:22):
They're honest, unique andunconventional.
Negative traits I only put afew because there's a rant in my
heart.
I'm sure there's a rant of therant.
They're aloof, pessimistic,emotionally distant.
(01:05:44):
You hear that?
Emotionally distant.
Can you tell the dates again?
It's January 20th throughFebruary 18th.
Soph (01:05:54):
Oh, that's Mateus.
Well, that, not Mateus.
Nele (01:05:57):
Oh, well, that not the emotional part, but the
creativity.
And unique, I see it in Mateus.
Alright, so emotionally distant, stubborn and rebellious,
alright.
So, oh, aquarius, the Zodiac'srebellious little alien,
(01:06:18):
floating through life like theywere dropped off in Earth.
As an intergalactic exchangestudent, you ever tried a
serious conversation with anAquarius?
Good luck.
They're either zoning out intoanother dimension or hitting you
with some cryptic wisdom thatsounds profound but means
absolutely nothing.
Oh, I can attest.
Oh, oh, like we might have toget a patron.
(01:06:41):
Maybe some more people get apatreon, okay, because some of
them are tripped with no luggage.
Okay, just this awful poetry Ihad to sit through.
Oh god, sorry, it's asplashback, so Let me get
through this.
They swear they're emotionallydetached, but let that one
random person from Twitter ghostthem.
(01:07:02):
And suddenly they're plottingphilosophical heartbreak quotes
like a misunderstood poet, ooh,misunderstood poet, bad poet,
awful poet, just oh, the poetrythat was awful awful poet, just
the poetry that's.
it was awful.
Um, they pride themselves onbeing different and unique, but
half of them are just runningthe same.
(01:07:22):
I'm not like the other girls.
Guys software update and don'teven try to argue with an
aquarius.
Debating them is like trying toexplain taxes to a cat.
They'll just smirk, hit youwith a agree to disagree and
levitate away like they just wonthe Nobel Prize.
Oh my God.
Okay, and don't get me startedon their love lives.
(01:07:44):
This is where the trauma comesin.
All right, commitment andAquarius will ghost you while
texting you just to prove theylive by their own rules.
And this is true.
Okay, I definitely dealt withthis guy from Harlem First of
all.
That's just Harlem, quadruplenegative.
Like Harlem, people just do toomuch.
And so I was supposed to meethim at Harlem Tavern you know to
(01:08:06):
meet up or whatever and so Ihad.
Normally I have this thingwhere I text you before I leave
because I've been stood up orwhatever so many times, right,
and so if I don't hear from you,then I'm not putting on pants
and going anywhere, I'm stayingat home.
So I text him, did not receivea response, and then I was like
(01:08:27):
all right, I guess that's that.
I look on IG, on his IG stories, and he's at Harlem Tavern,
okay With some.
I don't know if it was a womanor not, but someone was filming
him because it was sittingacross from him beach so he
never got back to you, but stillwent to the place you were.
Soph (01:08:48):
So how about if he showed up?
Nele (01:08:50):
it girl.
So that that just means,universe spared me for some mess
of all, because I was messy ashell.
Okay, okay.
Soph (01:09:00):
Yeah, this man told me he never let you like.
Oh hey, where you at?
I'm at Harlan's camp.
Nele (01:09:05):
No, like go to someone then post, post online the date
that you were supposed to be.
Who does Aquarians do that?
Aquarians do that.
Okay, it's from the people.
So flake, you don't even knowI'm going to have to burn some
sage child.
You don't even know.
(01:09:27):
You don't even know, absolutelynot.
They will do things purposelylike in awkward places and your
soul is seething.
But I'm a Capricorn withconstitution and pride.
Okay, you're not going to seeme crying and slipping or
(01:09:48):
whatever, but they'll do thingsto elicit certain reactions, and
then it's on to you not to givethem the reaction that they
want.
Be sure, I'm in Aquarius too.
We're not gonna play thesegames.
Woo, ciao, sorry, sorry, I gotoff track, girl, I got off track
.
Yes, anyway, they want deepintellectual connections, but
(01:10:11):
their version of flirting issending you a conspiracy theory
at 3am and expecting you to keepup.
That's very true, but hey, yougotta love them even if they do
disappear for weeks, only toreturn with a random fun fact
about the origin of shoelaceslike nothing happened.
Fuck, aquarius, okay, yes, yes.
(01:10:32):
So that is it for no, I'm notsaying.
Soph (01:10:35):
Okay, yes, yes.
So that is it for Shady.
We're babies, we're gonna belike that.
Nele (01:10:37):
No, I'm not saying that.
Matt is gonna be that way, andalso there's other things in his
chart and he will be an evolvedAquarius.
Okay, he will be evolved.
These are low vibrational,unevolved Aquarians.
They know who they are and theyknow how they roll.
Make awesome friends, yes, butlovers random.
Soph (01:11:03):
Yeah, I hate there's these words that sneak into the but
all of a sudden, like everyoneis saying it, like a little
vibrational.
Yes.
Nele (01:11:16):
I think it made.
It was made popular becausethere was this woman who was
some kind of like guru, I don'tknow, and she was at a barbecue
and another woman had a platebut she piled her plate with the
whole bunch of food and shesaid she had a low vibrational
plate on the plate.
Yes, yes, but sometimes youjust have to call it how you see
(01:11:42):
it.
You just really just yeah.
Yeah, Well, that's it for ShadyAstrology.
On that note, thank you all fortuning in.
If you like the vibe, pleasemake sure to like, comment and
subscribe.
Until next time, y'all.
Hey y'all, and welcome to this how it Ends podcast.
I'm Nell, I'm so All right, andwe're going to get into it.
Today we have some interestingtopics for you Now.
Sof, you don't really know whatI'm going to talk about, so
this should be a little bitinteresting.
We're always surprised.
Yes, yes, you're bad, yes,y'all.
(00:23):
So there's so much to talkabout, it's a little bit hard to
kind of pinpoint, and so what Ichoose may be a little bit
random, but here we go, rightfor our normal-ish all right
Grammys.
So, black, did you watch theGrammys?
Soph (00:42):
I don't really watch.
I don't watch.
I don't watch Grammys, emmys,any of that I just get.
I don't even get the fillers orthe next day after because I'm
not on anything to see it okaythat's why I'm here.
Nele (00:56):
That's why I'm here.
I know I still care about thisstuff and I shouldn't, but here
we are.
So I didn't watch the Grammyseither.
I don't really watch awardshows like that anymore.
However, this Grammys wasinteresting, and maybe because
it was Black History Month, Idon't know, but we had a lot of
(01:17):
people winning awards, right.
First of all, congratulationsto Beyonce for winning for
Cowboy Carter's Album of theYear and Best Country Album.
So first she's like the firstBlack woman to ever win for Best
Country Album and then forAlbum of the Year.
She's the first woman sincelike 1999.
(01:40):
No first Black woman.
First Black woman 1999, LaurynHill.
I think I'm saying this off thetop of my head, but I think
that's true.
Soph (01:49):
I've always bumped out of album of the year to yeah, so
that's what.
Nele (01:52):
That's why it means it's historical on so many different
levels, whatever, um, socongratulations to beyonce.
However, I hate to be thatperson because I don't want to
be the thief of joy, but like wegot to stop pining for
acceptance from certain people.
Okay, cowboy Carter, yes, wasan awesome album, very
(02:17):
educational, and if you listento it all together like it's,
it's a really dope album.
However, she has put on otherworks that clearly deserved it
and so and there's other thingsgoing to it who she's up against
, or whatever?
But to give her this Grammy forCowboy Carter, I just think,
(02:37):
like here, girl, just take it,just take it.
Like we don't want to hear you,just take it.
You know, like when a guy givesyou a shut up ring, that's what
it reminds me of, oh my God.
And so it's almost again likeDenzel Washington winning for
training day when Malcolm X,like I, thought that too, or
Halle Berry, when she won forthat.
(03:00):
Monsters Ball Monsters Ball.
But she should have won forintroducing Dorothy Dandridge.
Soph (03:04):
Like and it's almost intentional, you know.
Like they tell you, like we'rejust, we're giving this to you.
Yeah, I agree, like you keepchasing these and it's just.
Is it really worth it?
Nele (03:19):
Yeah, I think Beyonce was genuinely shocked.
There's memes of her reaction.
She was like like that, youknow, yeah, I've had that look
Beyonce, you know, when I'msleepy at my gate at the airport
and I think they're calling forboarding and I thought the
plane has left me, I've had thatlook like what.
(03:39):
So I totally understand theshock, but if Beyonce was a
revolutionary, she would havebeen like F your Grammys, like
you're Beyonce, it reallyshouldn't matter at this point.
She's been robbed several timesover.
I think it's very political,very much so, very much so, very
(04:13):
much so.
So, among Beyonce also, kingPetty Gemini Kendrick Lamar won
five Grammys.
Now let me tell you how pettythis man is all right, because I
was looking at this onInstagram and I thought I was
the only one right.
So they playing, they not likeus.
Um, as he's coming up right andso he's taking his time going
up to the stage, right, he'swalking real slow, just dapping
(04:33):
all these people, whatever he'stiming it.
So by the time he got to, Iguess, the podium or whatever,
when he got it, it would say aminor, and then everyone at the
Grammys was like A minor.
What was Drake doing at thehouse?
What was Drake doing at thehouse?
Soph (04:55):
The way his mind works.
He won for, just for hatingDrake.
Nele (05:04):
You could have a whole college course on Kendrick
Lamar's hate.
It's just so beautiful, I knowso if you're not into hip hop, I
know that.
And this is like what the Drakebeef the Drake Kendrick Lamar
beef.
If you have the time, reallylisten to it as a writer.
Really listen to it, because ithurts your own feelings.
(05:28):
You don't want to side withDrake but at the same time, just
like you asked for it, sir,this is what you get, but it's
like Drake was winning the war,no, the battle, but Kendrick was
winning the war.
There should be a whole study onthis, not to mess with Geminis.
(05:51):
Geminis are crazy as hell, allof them, each and every last one
of them.
And it's in my chart too.
So there you go, all right.
Also, dochi won, which was alsodochi won um, which was her
music is dope, so shout outs toher um a mooney long one, money
(06:12):
long, sorry, money long one forbest r&b performance.
And sizza took home best r&bsong for saturn.
Chris brown won something we'renot gonna talk about him and
tems earned um best africanmusic, best African Music
Performance.
And Cece Winans won Like just,we were out here winning.
I think it's a little suspectthat all of us are winning like
this.
Soph (06:32):
Yeah, but they say don't you want to choose a third
female to win Best Rap Album?
I think, yeah, there's been alot of female rappers that, and
there's been good female rappersthat we only have three.
Nele (06:46):
Yeah, another good one, one, two.
I like her Rhapsody, rhapsody.
Her music is dope and she wonthat night too On the topic of
music.
Soph (06:58):
So fill me in on this whole.
I don't know what else you haveto talk about, but fill me in
on this whole.
Bruno Mars, do you know what'sgoing on?
You made a song with Stixie Red.
Yeah, it sounded really wrong.
I mean, it was just Okay.
Nele (07:16):
I don't See, soph, I'm trying to be on the up and up.
It might change the dynamic ofthings.
I'm really trying hard not tobe low vibrational.
I heard it, I heard clips of itand I was like is this AI, what
is this?
(07:37):
And then it's a real song and Ididn't look any further because
I'm not understanding thispairing Bruno Mars, you are
bruno mars, bruno mars owes therecord labels a lot of money,
apparently, and that's why?
yes, you do what you got to do,but you're actually talented.
(07:57):
I'm convinced everyone in themusic industry has to sell their
soul.
They have made contracts withthe devil.
Soph (08:07):
It's not on brand at all.
Nele (08:09):
Even his little song with Cardi B.
Okay, cool, at least Cardi Blooks bathed.
At least she looks bathed.
Yes, but she's an awful persontoo, so yeah um.
Soph (08:27):
So yeah, yeah, I know, I was just like oh my goodness,
this I'm like bruno mars.
Oh my god, I love his likealbums he makes like he makes
good music, that everybody.
The album he had with silksonic, yes, the best song on
there's like this bit got me.
Nele (08:45):
Yes, yes, look, he's just too talented for this.
I'm just not understanding whatis going on.
He must really need to makemoney.
In the words of Sexy Red shakethat ass, shake that ass.
He's shaking his musical assright now.
This is awful.
(09:07):
Have some dignity, bruno.
Have some dignity, all right.
So, yeah, shout out to theGrammys.
Being so Black this year, allright, I like to call this the
biggest L.
I'm not sure how this came onmy timeline.
Maybe you've heard of this.
So in October 2024, a33-year-old American citizen,
(09:31):
onija Andrew Robinson, traveledto Karachi, pakistan, to meet a
19-year-old, nadal Ahmed Menon,whom she had met online.
So 33, 19, she's in the Statesand she's seeing this guy in
Pakistan, right, and he's 19.
Upon her arrival, menon'sfamily objected to their
(09:53):
relationship, leading to adissolution.
Subsequently, robinson foundherself stranded in Karachi with
an expired visa and limitedresources.
Efforts were made by localauthorities and non-governmental
organizations to assistRobinson in returning to the
United States.
However, she declined to boardher scheduled flight, expressing
(10:16):
a desire to remain in Pakistan.
Reports indicate that shedemanded $3,000 per week and
sought Pakistani citizenship.
Robinson's situation garneredsignificant media attention,
highlighting the complexitiesand potential risks associated
with international relationshipsinitiated online.
Soph (10:36):
I'm sorry so she did not.
They got her on a flight.
She did not board her flightand demanded to not only stay
but receive citizenship andthree thousand dollars in
pakistan and money.
I love how bold.
Remember that.
Remember that story.
Where it was that wedding?
And was it in indiana like thisthis couple got married in this
(11:00):
restaurant.
They did not book it for awedding, so so they just had
their wedding, they just toldpeople.
So people started coming andthe waiters are like yo, what is
happening?
Full ceremony and then dance.
Nele (11:22):
I just like I was very confused because I saw, like I
don't know if it's like pressconferences that's happening in
Pakistan, like behind this.
This is a really big L Like.
From beginning to end, this is.
Soph (11:38):
Like, how do you travel internationally to a country
like that that treats women likesecond-class citizens?
Actually, to a country likethat that treats women like
second-class citizens, we'relike, if you're not tied to a
man like you're.
Nele (11:53):
You know your life could be in jeopardy.
And now, if she gets help,doesn't want the help.
How are you squatting inanother country?
This is like intercontinentalsquatting.
What is this?
Soph (12:08):
Her life must be like a hot ass mess.
Nele (12:11):
I don't want to be her friend just for the stories.
I just want to hear the stories.
I don't want to be a part ofthe shenanigans, but I
definitely want to hear thestories.
Soph (12:20):
And they're always victims too.
I bet you she retells thatstory like she's a victim.
Yeah, they want to a victim.
Yeah, I want to wipe out thecountry.
Like, take it.
His family doesn't approve,just take it.
Why are you going to Pakistan?
Nele (12:34):
All places.
Why are you going there?
I just don't, I don'tunderstand.
All right, and the last one.
So so far, trump has beenshowing his ass.
Oh, my.
God.
Soph (12:53):
Like I really do.
Nele (12:56):
I didn't even know what to choose from.
There's been so much.
But to kind of tie into whatour show is about, you know
Trump and Musk are BFFs, butforever, I'm not sure.
So in early 2025, presidentTrump appointed Elon Musk as a
(13:19):
special government employee tolead the Department of
Government Efficiency DOJ liketasking him with identifying and
implementing significantfederal spending cuts.
Operating as a specialgovernment employee allows Musk
to maintain his roles at Teslaand SpaceX while engaging in
(13:39):
government activities,potentially bypassing certain
conflict of interest andfinancial disclosure regulations
the chaos, the unlocked, likeit's just the conflicts of
interest, is just so insane tome but here's the thing.
This is why this can't be done,because it happened with trump.
(14:00):
Isn't it some kind of like Idon't know rule whatever that
once you hold a presidentialoffice having certain roles in
your businesses, you have torelinquish?
Soph (14:10):
it or whatever.
And he didn't do it.
He started a shit coin.
What is it?
He started a shit coin, hestarted one.
People are so dumb.
People are so dumb they flockto it, they buy it.
Nele (14:26):
I'm like what, what for?
What is it based on?
Oh girl, I can't, I can't, Ican't.
And so now he's hooking hisbestie up with the job so that
his bestie can do the same thingthat he does.
What qualifications does thisman have to run the Department
of Government efficiency?
(14:47):
He can't even run a Twitter.
Soph (14:50):
But now he's tied to the president, so I'm sure he's
going to leverage the hell outof that.
The corruption is just in yourface and I bet you no one cares.
He's got us so fixated on, likeyou know, like DEI and like
things that yes, literallyblaming plane crashes on DEI,
(15:16):
which is absolutely insane.
Nele (15:17):
I wouldn't.
Soph (15:18):
People are unconscionable, Like.
I just don't understand.
You know what?
Nele (15:22):
Look.
So that's the whole otherconversation, because I'm trying
to wrap my head around it too.
There's definitely somewitchcraftry afoot, deals made
with other entities to make thisstuff happen, because this
don't make any sense.
So Musk's initiatives haveincluded efforts to dismantle
various federal agencies,notably the US Agency for
(15:43):
International Development, usaidyou say it notably the US
Agency for InternationalDevelopment, usaid, which has
led to significant disruptionsand concerns among government
employees.
These actions have sparkedcriticism from Democratic
lawmakers, who are apprehensiveabout an unelected billionaire
wielding substantialgovernmental influence without
(16:04):
adequate oversight.
You didn't, y'all didn't seethis.
You don't need a crystal ballto see this.
Soph (16:09):
Y'all didn't see this democrats need to like they have
no balls like where are yourcojones?
Nele (16:17):
donde esta tus cojones?
Soph (16:20):
they're not doing anything like I don't want.
I don't want to think peaceLike, do something, play dirty.
If they're playing dirty, like,I don't even understand them
anymore.
Nele (16:30):
Like this is who who thought that voting Trump in
office that things would makesense or things would be fair?
Like this is your life too.
You live in this country too.
You are not the one you aregoing to be impacted.
Look what happened with likeall the government, without the
(16:59):
White House's approval.
This assertion aims to addressapprehensions regarding Musk's
expansive role and the potentialfor overreach.
Soph (17:08):
How much money did Musk give him give his campaign?
I think it must have been a lotLike, Because I don't even
think he likes the man?
Nele (17:22):
No, he doesn't Like.
How much could you give to givesomeone this much power over
people's lives?
A lot.
How many billions?
10 billion, 20 billion?
Soph (17:35):
A lot of billions and who knows what else must have
happened.
But that's crazy.
Or he knows something too LikeI don't know.
They won't be happy until thisis like burned to the ground.
But a part of me, you know, Ithink what else is going on
behind the scenes that we don'tknow like there are some things
(17:57):
that are so like public and itseems like it's it's taking our
attention away from other thingsyou know like because now we're
like everything is idea, likethat's all, like fine, yes,
that's what's happening.
Nele (18:14):
But right now, like On the grand scheme of things, why are
we even talking about DEI?
You're absolutely correct.
It definitely is a distraction.
Soph (18:24):
We're not going to do Black History Month anymore,
we're not doing these-.
Yeah, and that's what.
We're all just laser focused onthat and we should be focused
on that.
But there's so much other andwe should be focused on that,
but there's so much other thingswe should be put, like how this
unelected man is in the whitehouse, like that's what that's.
That's the first thing weshould deal with right now like
(18:46):
I.
Nele (18:46):
People aren't.
The people aren't scared, likesometimes, if you don't see
certain things, you're removedfrom it.
But my friend who listens tothis podcast shout out to my
girl C.
Anyway, she was telling me hownext door to her it's some kind
of like immigrant sheltersituation.
(19:08):
So she was saying how they wereICE officers there, like right
next door, and she showed me apicture and everything and I was
like, wow, you know, like thisis real and people just voting
(19:29):
for this man based off of vaporsand hope and emotion, and now
realizing that his policies canaffect them.
No one like Project 2025 isreal.
It is happening.
This is insane.
I'm actually very scared and Ijust don't.
(19:51):
It's just a very uncertainfuture, honestly.
Yeah, I mean, he straight uplied to us.
Soph (19:54):
He's like a very uncertain future, honestly, yeah, I mean
he straight up lied to us.
He's like he doesn't knowanything about that.
Like this is a he's followingthe playbook.
Nele (20:02):
No, he is Like because literally there's articles about
how, so far, what's happeningnow is matching up with some
Project 2025.
Soph (20:11):
Like it is happening.
Yeah, democrats need to figurethis stuff out, because guess
what, come election time again,like no one's going to want to
vote for them.
Nele (20:21):
Nope, there's some.
There's some bitches, there aresome bitches, democrats.
I need them to.
Soph (20:28):
I mean they're the true.
They say Democrats are the trueconservatives.
You know they're actual, likethe Nancy Pelosi's of the world,
like they're conservatives.
You know they're actual, likethe Nancy Pelosi's of the world,
they're conservatives.
You know AOC is a progressivebut they don't want her to have
any kind of power.
Nele (20:44):
Yeah, they definitely got their foot on her neck.
Yeah, let's see.
So to end this, it says theevolving relationship between
Trump and Musk has raisedquestions about the balance of
power, accountability and therole of private individuals in
public governance.
Observers are closelymonitoring this dynamic, noting
(21:07):
the potential for bothsignificant governmental reforms
and constitutional challenges.
Soph (21:14):
Yeah, although if you one thing that has always happened,
like there are always unelectedindividuals making our laws,
like lawmakers don't make theirlaws by themselves, like there
are lobbyists, companies thatare saying this is what you
(21:34):
should say, this is the kind oflaw you should write, but that
stuff is out in the open now.
Yeah, it's plain as day it isplain as day, and it's almost
kind of like an FD to theAmerican people.
We could do whatever we want.
Nele (21:55):
It is, it is, it's.
It's insulting.
It's insulting.
You know we thought a lot.
You know lobbyists at leastthere's a process.
You know when they have anagenda.
But this is just.
Trump just skips all processes.
He does what he wants.
He can incite a riot on thecapital.
He does what he wants.
He can incite a riot on theCapitol.
He does what he wants.
(22:16):
And you think someone that hasthe capability to do what they
want is going to be responsible?
What secrets does he have?
Everything bounces off of thisman.
Soph (22:30):
He doesn't.
It's a cult.
Nele (22:33):
This is a cult?
He doesn't.
It's a cult.
This is a cult.
Look so, even in chat gpt, okay, when I was trying to look for,
just so far, trump's policiesand what he's instituting, you
know what that was going on,whatever, I was trying to find a
summary of it and it wouldn'tgive me like a real summary.
It was just kind of like, youknow, based off of his stuff
(22:54):
from before, like it was.
I was like chat gpt, trying tolike think I'm stupid that you
you can't find what I'm askingabout for trump.
It was just weird.
The responses seemed like theydidn't know what was going on.
Soph (23:09):
Whoever they is no, like I mean you.
Who did you?
You had bezos at hisinauguration, you had that
creepy guy from Facebook,zuckerberg.
Nele (23:21):
Zuckerberg.
Soph (23:24):
They call him a reptilian.
But these tech bros, I thinkthey're in his pocket or he's in
there.
I think they're in his pocketor he's in there.
There's a lot of filtering thatis happening that we don't know
about.
Somebody was saying theinternet of today versus the
(23:45):
internet in 2013.
There's so much stuff that'sbeen pulled and removed.
If you do a search, what youget is so much more limited than
what you would have gotten,like 10 years ago.
Nele (23:58):
Yep, that is all I'm imagining things.
Soph (24:01):
I was like what?
And the same sites are givingyou the same things Yep, safari,
or, you know, firefox.
Like they're scrubbing theInternet, like they're really
they're limiting what it is thatyou can see.
Yep, you know.
(24:22):
So I don't put anything beyondthat.
Like I think they're all.
I mean, they're all rich men.
Like they're all rich men whowant to make more money.
You know, yeah, like capital,in order for capital to succeed,
all rich men who want to makemore money.
You know, Like capital, inorder for capital to succeed, it
needs to grow constantly.
(24:44):
You could have a billion, itdoesn't matter.
You need to figure out how tomake that billion into three
billions.
That's why these companies arealways like cutting costs and
like cutting people, becauseit's like, yeah, our profit was
like three billion, but we needlike five billion next year.
(25:08):
There's no one left to buy yourproduct, then what?
Nele (25:13):
The price of eggs.
Everything is insane, insane so, and it's just like how are
people supposed to survive, Idon't know.
We're at the whims of thesegreedy people and I think it's
just even more than just moneyat this point.
Money.
Soph (25:31):
It's money and power, but it's really money.
Nele (25:33):
Well, money and power is only it's money but because you
know if you have a billion, like, how many more billions do you
need, right?
So it's definitely about likepower.
Soph (25:45):
You have that billion, but there's so many people who need
a cut of that billion, right,if you have, if you're not a
private, if you're a publiccompany, you have your
stockholders, you know, you haveyour boards.
Like, there's so many peoplewho want a piece of that pie and
they always want more of thatpie, um, so you have to
constantly cut it.
I'm gonna go on a just realquick.
(26:07):
So kroger's is they've deniedthis, but kroger's allegedly is
working on this program.
It's like facial recognition,so that when you come into their
store, they know who you are.
They already have all your data, right, because you know your
data is all out there and theycould price items based on your
(26:32):
profile.
No, so if you're a lawyer theycould be like oh, for this pack
of bags you can pay $2 extra forit.
If you're someone who sort ofpicks things up without really
looking, they could charge youmore money.
So Kroger's is they're workingon this facial recognition
(26:55):
program, just to, it's one ofthe dynamic pricing.
So the pricing, the pricing Isee, may not be the pricing that
you see, you know, so it's like, so that is so scary They've
denied it.
They said they're not doing that, they're doing it, they're
doing it, they are doing it.
They are doing it In 2019,.
(27:19):
They were accused of usingfacial recognition.
They were like no, it's just to, I guess, to prevent theft or
something like that, and itwasn't really facial recognition
.
But, yeah, they're doing this.
And where did they get thisfrom?
They got this from Amazon.
Right, because Amazon they havethose.
But people know that.
People knowingly know, likewhen they go into these little
amazon shops yo, I experiencedit for the first time.
(27:42):
Yeah, like they know who youare when you walk in, like.
So we willingly felt like wetell them like this is like
we're okay with this.
Nele (27:47):
So so I I went to boston this past weekend at the hotel
they had.
They had a tiny little storethis was my first time actually
doing this where I don't knowwhat you scan on there your card
, I don't know, whatever and sothen there's no one in the store
.
Whatever, it costs $4 for asmall thing of cranberry juice.
(28:08):
$4, all right, I said, looky,here we're going to put some
water in.
Thank you very much we're goingto put some water and shake up
these mixers.
Okay, one sip per person, onesip per person, okay.
And so then I'm very confused,because I have my bottles and
I'm just like where do I pay?
What do I scan?
(28:29):
I was just able to walk out.
I'm like what?
Soph (28:39):
I'm just very confused about how this, how this thing
works.
They know who you are like ifyou walk in.
They know what you picked up,the.
It's like we live in asurveillance state, like there's
everything is there for it tobe eventually like a true I mean
, it is already right, like thatguy who shot this, the, this,
the healthcare ceo, like they,they had so many cameras to sort
of plot his trajectory of wherehe went.
(29:01):
So it's just um, it's a wildtimes, girl, these are wild,
wild times these are really wildtimes.
Nele (29:11):
Um, it's supposed to be the year of the snake.
In Chinese zodiacs that meansshedding old skin and whatnot.
I don't know if this is allthis stuff coming out or not
coming out, shedding to.
Maybe it's going to have toblow up before things get better
.
I don't know.
Soph (29:33):
They say Trump is the antichrist you know, he doesn't
care.
Nele (29:36):
How, I don't know.
They say Trump is theantichrist and you know how
people are suffering.
Soph (29:39):
What he cares about is when someone imitates him.
So that's what he cares about.
That's.
That's what's going to.
That's what's going to triggerthis.
Nele (29:50):
The petty things he does the petty and not so petty
because we're all at the expenseof this man's ego.
Even with the whole TikTokthing.
Right, definitely made it seemlike he saved the day in terms
of extending, I guess, the timebefore the ban or whatever.
The world is on fire, why do wecare about TikTok?
(30:14):
But in the same breath, right,tiktok, people make their.
That's their bread and butterfor some people, that's how
people make money, and so you'redangling with how people
survive, how they feedthemselves, to feed your ego.
Like, I thought it was a littlebit ridiculous at first, people
crying about TikTok but at thesame time, if you worked really
(30:34):
hard to build a platform and putyour all into it, created all
this content, which takes work,and then for it to be gone like
that to feed this man's ego, no,Now he brings it back to you.
Soph (30:49):
You're grateful for him.
This man started this.
Nele (30:52):
Yes, he did this on purpose so he can swoop in and
save the day for some TikTok.
That's crazy.
That is crazy.
Well, that's it for normal-ishy'all which is not so normal.
I might call it some wild-ish,because these are some crazy
(31:15):
times.
Soph (31:16):
Mm-hmm yeah.
Nele (31:19):
All right, y'all.
So last episode we talked about.
So what was the name of thoselike AI-generated profiles?
Soph (31:30):
Mama Liv and Mama.
Nele (31:32):
Liv and Grandpa Brian, something like that.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, so kind of piggybackingoff of that.
I was interested in Miss AI.
So it's an AI beauty pageant.
So, look, I'm at the age whereit's just like you're going to
(31:55):
get what you're going to get,not saying you get what you're
going to get, but look, as longas I have shelter and what I'm
wearing is clean, like that'swhat we're going to do, okay.
But now beauty pageants.
When I was younger, I used tobe excited about watching beauty
pageants.
I even remember was it KenyaMoore who was, like the first
Miss Black USA?
(32:16):
I remember, you know, like Iused to like beauty pageants a
lot.
And now again, technologysometimes is a thief of joy.
You know, now beauty pageantsaren't even beauty pageants
anymore.
So I wanted to talk about theMiss AI pageant.
In 2024, the inaugural Miss AIbeauty pageant was launched,
(32:41):
marking the first competitionexclusively featuring
AI-generated personas the WorldAI Creator Awards, which is the
WACAs.
Okay, the event aims tocelebrate the creativity and
(33:06):
technical skill behind digitalinfluencer personas worldwide.
So, yeah.
So someone was like okay, wealready don't have, you know,
strict requirements for whatwomen should look like.
Let's just compare them now toAI.
Look, is AI going to hold youat night?
Maybe, maybe they will, I don'tknow.
Soph (33:25):
I mean the way the future is going.
Ai probably can't hold you atnight.
Nele (33:31):
Yeah, but my thing is, I just feel like these people,
whether it's in the real realmor with AI, they'll be rejected
either way.
You're just horrible, digitally, virtually.
Soph (33:44):
You realize you're just a horrible person.
Nele (33:47):
Imagine being rejected by AI AI.
My AI girl broke up with me AmI the asshole?
Yes, you are already.
Soph (33:55):
My AI girl broke up with me.
Am I the asshole?
Yes, you are all right, so.
Nele (34:00):
So I need your help a little bit.
I wanted us to look at some ofthe contestants.
It wasn't for this particularone, but just what some of these
AI ladies look like, um to seeand see if we notice any like
patterns or or trends.
First one okay, does she have aname?
Soph (34:23):
says Amy so this is I think this is the first, the
first one, so let's go down.
I think that's like the coverimage.
Nele (34:33):
So this one is.
Soph (34:36):
This is AI.
I don't know who she is, sothis one, this is one of them.
Now, she looks real, she does.
This is Lalima is a French AIavatar.
I mean avatar.
She looks very real.
Oh my gosh, this is creepy um,this one kind of it seemed a
(35:04):
little whimsical kind of thing,but it seems real too.
This is, um, yeah, this isayana ayana rainbow.
She promotes, she promotesLGBTQ rights on her page.
Nele (35:17):
Okay, I'm a rainbow.
Soph (35:18):
This is a come for you, ayana, because you know anything
LGBTQ.
I love her hair, by the way.
I like her hair.
I was trying to get a hairstylelike that, but the stylist told
me $500, and I was like, eh.
Oops, absolutely not, we justgonna get a little rainbow wig
or something.
Call it a day.
We just gonna get a littlerainbow wig or something.
(35:39):
This is Ayla.
What's with all these Ayla?
Nele (35:41):
Luz from.
Brazil.
Now, okay, that's interestingthat she's a darker woman that
they have representing Brazilokay she still has a huge afro
yes.
I think it's like the secondlargest Black population or
something like that.
Hmm, oh, we got in space.
(36:04):
Oh, okay.
Soph (36:06):
AI-generated image.
Asina Uli Uli when is that from?
She posts several photosplaying different types of sport
.
Nele (36:19):
Okay.
Soph (36:19):
Okay, she looks kind of.
She looks like two, I don'tknow.
This is Eliza Kaz.
She describes it asBangladesh's first AI influencer
.
Nele (36:35):
Wow, she's pretty.
Soph (36:40):
Yeah, this is Kenza.
Lely is from Morocco.
Nele (36:45):
Now, I think she's the one that won.
Oh, yeah, yeah those eyebrows,though, okay.
Yeah, I mean, that's a decision, it's a choice.
Soph (36:59):
All right, this is Zara.
She also has a blog and I wascounting her fingers.
Her fingers look really weird.
Nele (37:20):
Yeah, because sometimes with AI, the hands or the
fingers are weird, right.
Soph (37:25):
It looks like someone took a plastic can and just like
popped it in there.
This is Anne.
She advocates for clean, forcleaning the oceans, and that's
it.
Nele (37:40):
They couldn't make Anne like an oceanographer or like
yeah, so so what did you thinkof the AI beauty pageant?
I don't know if they were thespecific contestants, but I mean
how?
(38:02):
Did they do it Like I mean, howdoes?
Soph (38:04):
it?
How does it go exactly?
Are we just looking at picturesof these women Like who?
Who are the judges?
How did they judge?
Are they judging based on?
Nele (38:14):
pictures.
Okay, so this says that thecompetition attracted over 1,500
automated applicants, with 10finalists selected for the final
round.
These AI-generated contestantswere evaluated based on beauty,
technical proficiency and socialmedia influence.
Notably, the judging panelincluded both human and
(38:37):
AI-generated judges.
Judges reflecting the event'sinnovative approach.
Soph (38:43):
We are just moving towards , like I think we're paving the
way so that artificialintelligence can move side by
side with us, like wow, they'relike little things, but like
this could be significant inlike in another 15 years.
Imagine if they could do.
(39:03):
What is that?
When they have the hologramsright?
Oh yeah, they'll walk down anactual stage and they'll have
their own voice and they'll beable to answer questions.
Nele (39:18):
How do you influence as an AI AI generated influencer?
I don't understand.
Soph (39:25):
I mean influencers just mean your ability to like sell
people stuff, right yeah, butLike you're selling a product
like all these, like you know wetalk about these influencers
and like, oh my God, you can buythis, like they.
Just just, they have thesefollowers that they can tell to
do stuff.
Tell them my stuff, or like youknow, uh, tell them how to
(39:45):
think, but you know, like Idon't know.
Nele (39:48):
So it's being an influencer is not really deep no
, but I mean back in the day, Ican't believe I'm saying this.
Back in the day, likeinfluencers you were part of.
What sells is your influence.
So you have to generate like aparasocial relationship.
You have to be engaging, havesome kind of charisma or beauty
(40:12):
or something to sell thisproduct and so and so that's it.
It takes a certain amount ofwork.
Soph (40:18):
It does.
But remember when we talkedabout our last podcast, when we
talked about, there were twothose two influencers who made a
lot of money.
You know they represented thesebrands Like, so it doesn't
really you can be like, you canbe engaging, and people are only
(40:42):
seeing you in like minisnapshots.
Right, I don't know there's amore sophisticated way of saying
this stuff, but I just don'tthink these days to be an
influencer if you're prettyright, like you have to make
people want what you have.
Like you have to portray alifestyle that's going to say I
(41:05):
want that with you.
Know, if you're using ai, evenif you're not, it doesn't take a
lot for people to.
That's all.
Social media is where you'relooking at other people's lives,
wishing you could have whatthey have, which you know like,
and you try to emulate that.
Nele (41:20):
But, Soph, do you realize how deep the brainwashing has to
?
Be right For you to beinfluenced by an AI woman, right
?
Who can't use the product inreal life that she's influencing
?
You have to take your physicalmoney well, physical, whatever.
You know what I mean.
You have to to take yourphysical money well, physical,
(41:42):
whatever.
You know what I mean.
You have to, like you can't usea skin cream based off of an ai
.
The ai doesn't use skin cream.
So how are you allowingyourself to be influenced by
something that won't even beable to experience like what
you've experienced?
Soph (42:02):
experience like what you've experienced.
I'm saying it incorrectly.
I I know what you're trying tosay, but that's wild to me.
But that's like um.
So you have these movie stars,you have, like, these actors and
actresses.
They're um, they're promotingthese credit cards that give you
points.
I'm'm like you don't needpoints, you don't need points
(42:22):
for a black card, you don't needpoints.
Or you're advertising a Hyundai.
You're not driving a Hyundai.
So that's always been the case.
People have always advertisedthings that they probably won't
use themselves.
That's nothing new and we knowthat.
Nele (42:41):
On, on a we do we.
We know that on a more thansubconscious level yeah, but we
don't care.
Soph (42:48):
Like we want it, like this person is pretty and they're
luring us in, and then we spendall day going like this, like
this, like this, like our braincells are fried yeah like it is
so easy to manipulate.
Yeah.
Like it is so easy tomanipulate we bought some things
off of Instagram.
Nele (43:03):
I'm not going to lie.
Soph (43:05):
I am, yeah, I.
I've heard so many horrorstories.
Nele (43:10):
No, so far it's been okay, but I've definitely read some
stuff off of Instagram.
Not going to lie, yeah, it'sjust.
If you don't think people havesocial skills now, baby yeah,
it's sad, it's sad.
(43:30):
Let's see the last thing thatthey say.
They said the title of thefirst Miss AI was awarded to
Kenza Lely, a virtual influencerfrom Morocco, so that was the
last one Created by Miriam Bessa.
Kenza Lely impressed judgeswith her digital presence and
engagement, securing the topposition among the finalists.
(43:53):
The emergence of AI beautypageants has sparked discussions
about the evolving standards ofbeauty and the role of
artificial intelligence inshaping them.
Critics express concerns thatAI-driven beauty standards may
promote hyper-perfectionism andreinforce unrealistic ideals,
potentially distancing societyfrom natural human beauty.
These developments raiseimportant ethical considerations
(44:15):
for the beauty industry andsociety at large.
Well, now you have all thesecriticism.
After this has been done, womenalready have it hard enough in
terms of filters and stuff tosuck you in, and acting like
plastic surgery is just nothing,and just all this stuff to make
(44:37):
us look a certain way and atthe end of the night hopefully I
don't know what you take off orwhatever, but you're with
yourself at the end of the night.
You can't keep this up.
You're not a walking tiktokpage, you're not a walking
instagram reel.
It's, it's just not but peoplewant to be.
People have to see you in likelife, and just the distorted
(45:02):
visions that we have are imagesof what women should look like,
because women are cutting uptheir face, cutting up their
beautiful faces, and somethingin their brain says, oh, this
looks okay.
Because after you put on allthis makeup, after your face is
all botched, you put on thismakeup, you put on a filter, but
then when we see you in reallife is crazy yeah, authenticity
(45:23):
is gone.
Soph (45:24):
Like we are just not like we're just.
Social media made it so that,like we don't portray our true
self, you know, and it's just.
It's that, and I wonder that'swhy people can just say all
sorts of craziness that they do,like when we go like this is
not this is not.
Nele (45:44):
This is where's your decorum.
Soph (45:46):
This is not how it works, there's no shame, like there's
like you'll share, like anything, and like it's just like this
it's almost like what youportray online is just separated
from like you know what I mean.
Nele (46:02):
Like it's like once you get in front of that kid, that
screen, like you just becomethis, like whole new person and
it's wild because, again, theseparasocial relationships that,
like you, you think you have abond with these people, um, and
sometimes and sometimes you doas someone who, I like to share
my experiences on social mediaand I've found that it's been.
(46:25):
I share a small amount ofpeople.
It's been pretty dope for me.
I like sharing my trips orthings that I eat or whatever,
but I don't think it's ever beento the point where it's like
it's so vastly different.
But there's people out therewhere it's like what's?
It's so vastly different, youknow.
But there's people out therewhere it's just like like who,
(46:45):
who are you?
Who are you?
And then after a while,especially if you're in the
public eye, a lot you getdehumanized.
You're just an object.
Just entertain me, nothing else.
Fuck how you feel, fuck what'shappening to you, entertain me.
I need a dopamine rush justbecause my life is dull and
(47:05):
boring and I hate it.
It's just very icky andparasitic and gross.
Yeah, and in a time where weshould be trying to, we need to
join together.
At this point, all of us arebeing impacted by everything.
Some of us, more bullets arehitting us than others, but we
(47:32):
need to come together.
Soph (47:38):
Well, anyway, an asteroid is going to hit earth,
potentially in 20, uh, 2032, Ithink.
We talked about it like it's,it was supposed to bypass us,
but now scientists are saying,oh, we can't rule out and it may
hit us all right so we talkedabout the rich people bunkers,
(47:59):
right?
Nele (48:00):
So one of us needs to find some rich people to get to a
bunker.
Okay, Because-.
Soph (48:07):
No, we need to meet wealthy people.
Nele (48:09):
Not rich.
Wealthy people, wealthy people,yes, yes, yes.
So that's it for the AI beautypageant.
I'm disturbed, but notsurprised, and I wonder just in
terms of the women that weresubmitted.
(48:33):
I'm sure they were all nolarger than a size four and most
of them were fair skinned withlonger hair.
I'm sure if they did some kindof study, like feature or
whatever they all have, like thesame facial symmetry or
whatever, the golden ratio thatthey talk about.
Yes, yes, yes.
(48:53):
So I'd be interested if theyactually did some kind of study
on the submissions, yeah, andhow much those submissions
actually reflect what the peoplelook like from that region.
Yeah, yeah, all right, y'all.
That's it for that.
Soph (49:13):
We have a section called the conspiracy corner, but for
today, what I'm going to talkabout today it's not.
It sounds like a conspiracytheory, but it's not.
It's real life and it's from anarticle in the conversation
titled Brain Monitoring May Bethe Future of Work, how Its Use
(49:36):
Can Improve Employee Performanceor Worsensen discrimination.
It's always worse when it saysor worsen it's like it's always
that one.
So apparently companies are notsatisfied with robots just
taking over our jobs.
They've decided to hack thehumans who are still employed.
(49:59):
We're going to talk aboutneuroergonomics.
So, according to the article inthe conversation, neuro
ergonomics is the study of humanbehavior while carrying out
real world activities, includingin the workplace.
It involves recording aperson's brain activity in
different situations or whilecompleting certain tasks to
optimize cognitive performance.
Certain tasks to optimizecognitive performance, for
(50:25):
example neuro ergonomics.
I can't use this and monitoremployees as they learn new
material to determine when theyhave mastered it.
It could also help monitorfatigue in employees and roles
that require optimum vigilanceand determine when they need to
be relieved.
Until now, research inneuroergonomics could only be
conducted in highly controlledclinical lab environments using
invasive procedures, butengineering advances now make
(50:47):
this work possible in real-worldsettings with non-invasive
wearable devices.
The market for thisneurotechnology, defined as any
technology that interfaces withthe nervous system, is predicted
to grow to 21 billion by 2026.
Wow, and it's poised to shapethe daily life of workers for
(51:10):
many industries in the yearsahead.
So, tldr, your boss, could nowknow when you're zoning out in
that Zoom meeting, when you'rementally checked out after lunch
, if you quite quit or maybeyou're just napping, so it will
be able to see all of that.
And on the surface, theygaslight you, right.
They make you be like oh, it'sto help workers, right?
(51:33):
Especially like if you're inthe medical field, right, if
you're, you know, for a doctoror nurse that's experiencing
fatigue, that's not someone youwant operating on a person.
Um, newer ergonomics promisesto optimize our cognitive
performance, uh, monitor fatigueand even stimulate our brains
to work better and faster.
Nele (51:53):
So imagine no, no, no, no, no, so, no, no no.
Soph (52:00):
Imagine having your brain zapped mid-task to boost your
sensitivity.
What, oh my goodness, you'renot like can I control while at
work?
No, so like a cattle prod foryour brain.
Well, it's something thatyou're wearing, it's wearable,
so they could probably like sita little zapped.
Nele (52:17):
No, like electrodes.
Soph (52:21):
I don't know, but, uh, like this sounds.
I haven't watched a lot ofblack mirror, but this sounds
like the plot of something fromBlack Mirror.
You know, and now we know BlackMirror is just a documentary
and it just feels like we'resliding deeper into this
(52:44):
dystopian future where now yourbrain isn't even yours anymore.
You know, companies can collectdata on how you react to
distress, how fast you processinformation.
You know again how fast youprocess information again, how
tired you are.
It sounds so innocent, but theycould probably use it to decide
who gets promoted, who getsfired.
Oh, you know what?
Her brain has not been asactive.
(53:06):
I think we should fire her.
Nele (53:10):
What is a divergent my brain let me hear.
All I hear is squabble up bykendrick lamar in my head all
the time.
Okay, I definitely I'm tryingto relax.
I'm like squabble up, squabbleup, like who would?
I don't want my boss knowingthat this is?
Soph (53:32):
it won't be able to.
Yeah, it won't be able to hearthat.
But you know, maybe you'redoing a little, I don't know.
Maybe there's a part of yourbrain that, as you're listening
to music or you're like bopping,yeah, I'm sure they're gonna
see it lighten up like we needto have a conversation.
Nele (53:47):
Yes, you're just having too much fun in your head.
Yeah, isn't that?
Soph (53:51):
crazy?
I don't know.
Is brain beta covered underHIPAA?
Is that, like it's nottechnically medical beta?
So are we going to have likebrain rights activists, like I
don't know, like what, like I,just brain rights activists, I
know.
Nele (54:09):
I was like okay, so you gather this information, right.
But it doesn't really seem likeokay, we have this information.
What can we do to improve thework environment so maybe you're
not so fatigued?
It's like we're mapping whenyou're tired so we can cattle
prod your brain with theelectrodes to keep going.
Soph (54:32):
That's what we're gonna do , like we're not gonna going to
move forward.
You've been working too hard,let's take a break.
No, they're not going to saythat.
They're going to be like howcan we get maximum output?
And you know some of theethical questions.
I mean, they're endless.
But can you be forced to wearthese devices?
What happens if you refuse?
Will declining participate youas less committed?
(54:56):
You know like, if you're theone that's like I don't know
about that, you know like, areyou gonna?
Can they fire you?
Like I don't know.
And I mean, we're beinginsubordinate that way, you know
not it's funny how, like wealways say, how you know, we're
always like looking down atChina and talking shit about
china because they're asurveillance state we are like
(55:17):
we have all.
We have all of the ingredientswe've already I mean, I
mentioned this earlier like weare a surveillance state yes,
it's surveillance, ish, it's,it's happening it's happening.
Ish, I think we're taking,they're taking baby steps before
we get to.
They don't want to like, justbecause you don't want to just
like push it all at once, youjust take these like tiny, like
little baby steps, baby steps,and then you get there.
(55:39):
Um, so I don't, I don't know,or you know, if they're some,
some of these devices can pickup um early signs of
neurological diseases.
Um, so if it does do that, canyou be denied opportunities or
can it increase your insurancerates?
(56:01):
Yeah, so it's so much, and Idon't think it's about
optimizing work, absolutely not.
Nele (56:11):
Absolutely not.
It's like some weird employmenteugenics.
It's just like kick out theones whose brains work
differently, who are at optimalproductivity, and then the ones
that are doing the work,catapult their asses, even when
they're tired.
It's really.
Soph (56:30):
it gives me the ick, so it's really gross yeah they're
trying to control our mind andwe employers the ick, though,
like it's really gross.
Yeah, it's, they're trying tocontrol our, trying to control
our mind, and we employeeemployers already have these
employee monitoring apps thatare already invasive, right?
You know, and I'm going to addthis onto I think they're
constantly trying to find waysto control us as much as
(56:51):
possible, to get the most out ofus, right To squeeze us dry.
Nele (56:55):
Yep.
Soph (56:56):
It's all about output, like, how much can we get for it
from this person?
And you know, and there thereare a lot of companies out there
obsessed with hacking ourbrains.
There are a lot of thesestartups.
You know, like super villain,elon Musk's his neural link, you
know it's like you know ourbrain is like the last frontier.
(57:16):
They send us these ads.
They tell us to buy this, buythat.
It's subliminal and not sosubliminal messages and I think
the ultimate coup would be ifthey could just feed that data
directly into your brain, justdirectly into your brain.
It's going to happen.
I mean, there's research intohow to beam advertisements into
(57:38):
your brain while you're dreaming, you know, like is it Coors or
Budweiser?
Like they're looking intoresearch for that to like just
make you think of beer.
This doesn't bode well for usand there's precedent that shows
us that this stuff can beabused and it will be abused.
(57:58):
It will be.
This will be my last point, butthere was a CIA mind control
program called MK Ultra that ranfrom the early 1950s to the
1970s.
This was a conspiracy theory.
Until it wasn't, it was just aconspiracy and the goal was to
develop techniques forbrainwashing, psychological
(58:20):
torture, behavioral manipulation, all in the name of natural
national security.
They use I mean, some of themuse like LSD, they use like
other techniques that were justvery unethical and many of the
participants didn't even knowwhat was happening.
And while the program wastechnically shut down in 1973,
(58:41):
because Congress startedsniffing around, because this
was Defense Department and forsome reason Congress really
don't know what they do so a lotof the evidence was destroyed
and only fragments of theprogram came to light during the
church committee hearings inthe mid 70s, in the mid 1970s.
The public was shocked.
No one really facedconsequences and then we forgot
(59:03):
about it.
So when you hear about thesemodern day brain monitoring tech
, like you know, this neuralergonomics or neural link, it's
not that far-fetched to wonderare we walking willingly into
this high-tech version of mkultra?
Now you have, like, the best intechnology and you know, the
defense department loves stufflike this, it seems, um, so yeah
(59:25):
, I just this is, this is somelike.
Nele (59:31):
These are the things that some like these are the things
that look self.
I mean, I'm not going toencourage people to do the drugs
, I'm not going to do that.
However, you might need to takea shroom or two just to help
you make some things kind of youknow, I want to do iowa
eventually, I want to do it, butI want to, like.
Soph (59:53):
I need to get it from someone trustful.
Nele (59:55):
You need a safe space and it's best to like do it, but I
need to get it from someonetrustful.
You need a safe space and it'sbest to do it in nature.
Make sure you have water andcertain snacks.
There's a safe space to do it.
I did not do it in a safe space.
Okay, it was my space, but itwas not safe.
But for a while I was jammingto Al Green with all the colors.
(01:00:16):
It was great, yes, but I wouldwant to see Al Green Did you see
any magical elves?
Soph (01:00:23):
I hear people see magical elves.
Nele (01:00:25):
I did not see any magical elves, but it definitely was
like.
I felt like what is it?
It was a little bit outer body.
I felt like I was watchingmyself jamming like Al Green,
but then it took like a darkturn.
But I'm here, so that's allthat matters.
But I really want to tryayahuasca because it's supposed
(01:00:45):
to, that's supposed to be somewhole other dimension stuff.
Soph (01:00:50):
But I listen to this guy, Terrence McKenna, like he's
deceased, but he talks aboutthat and he is a believer in
that stuff in shrooms and how itjust opens up your mind to all
this stuff.
Nele (01:01:03):
So I'm scared of it, but at the same time I need to make
sense of what's going on.
Open that third eye, open thatthird eye girl, maybe not all
the way.
Open just a little wink.
Soph (01:01:17):
I just think there's so much happening that we have no
idea.
And it's happening rightunderneath our noses and we just
have no idea.
Nele (01:01:27):
And you know what it is, soph, we are limited in our evil
capabilities, right.
And so you think, oh, thiscould possibly happen, like
these awful things, but there'speople that are so depraved that
our mind doesn't even go tolike how else can you control
what?
No, I was like yeah.
I was like yeah, yeah, like I.
Just there's some things that Iwouldn't even that exist, I
(01:01:50):
probably wouldn't even thinkabout, because that's just not
how I know we operate.
Soph (01:01:58):
Um, there's a program called like it was project
stargate from the monroeinstitute.
I'm starting to look into itbut, um, they it's like remote
viewing, like they're like these, like psychics or people, these
abilities that they can viewplaces that they've never been,
like they could tell you what'sthere and all of that.
(01:02:19):
I'm just like this is this waslike through the government,
like so the government islooking Like the governments
have like psychics on deck, likethey are invested in.
Nele (01:02:29):
I think that might need to be a topic, because I'm a
little bit interested in that.
Soph (01:02:33):
Okay, all right, so maybe next time we'll talk about all
the woo-woo stuff that ourgovernment is into.
Nele (01:02:41):
Some of it.
They don't.
Oh, they definitely are.
Okay, you know they be burning.
Well, burning sage is supposedto be a good thing, but they
definitely.
Whatever demons burn souls,hearts.
I don't know.
That's what they do, becausethese people have a pact with
evil.
I'm convinced that wasinteresting and scary at the
(01:03:04):
same time.
Soph (01:03:05):
It's always scary Girl.
There are so many ways it canend.
Yes, who shall?
They're going to take over ourminds.
They're going to work andconsume, and it's going to work
and consume.
Work and consume.
That's what they want from thehuman race Pretty much Rich
people.
They want you to work and theywant you to consume.
(01:03:26):
Yes, you're going to build aproduct and then buy the product
.
That is all you're good for.
Nele (01:03:34):
If anyone wants to harvest anything from my mind, good
luck.
Okay, Because it's a whoo.
There's a whole lot going on inthere.
So good luck with that.
My mind would be good for, okay, maybe some kind of like acid
(01:03:55):
trip.
That's what my mind would belike an acid trip.
There's a lot going on in there.
Yes, uh, all right, so, uh, isthat it self?
yeah, that was it yeah, that washella interesting.
All right y y'all.
(01:04:15):
So now it's time for ShadyAstrology.
Why get in that Zodiac's assnow?
Fuck Aquarians.
Okay, I'm already starting offthe bat, okay, fuck.
Soph (01:04:28):
Aquarians.
I had to get that out.
I say this episode is ratedextra E and again.
Nele (01:04:40):
Aquarius is in my chart, so I'm a self-hater.
So, Aquarius, the dates arefrom January 20th to February
18th.
They are an air sign and thesymbol is the water barrier and
some notable celebrities.
They are an air sign and thesymbol is the water barrier
bearer and some notablecelebrities Oprah Winfrey,
(01:05:00):
Michael Jordan, Abraham Lincoln,Charles Darwin, Shakira, Kelly
Rowland and Harry Styles.
So we got some interestingpeople in there.
Positive traits they'reeasygoing, independent,
humanitarians, creative.
(01:05:22):
They're honest, unique andunconventional.
Negative traits I only put afew because there's a rant in my
heart.
I'm sure there's a rant of therant.
They're aloof, pessimistic,emotionally distant.
(01:05:44):
You hear that?
Emotionally distant.
Can you tell the dates again?
It's January 20th throughFebruary 18th.
Soph (01:05:54):
Oh, that's Mateus.
Well, that, not Mateus.
Nele (01:05:57):
Oh, well, that not the emotional part, but the
creativity.
And unique, I see it in Mateus.
Alright, so emotionally distant, stubborn and rebellious,
alright.
So, oh, aquarius, the Zodiac'srebellious little alien,
(01:06:18):
floating through life like theywere dropped off in Earth.
As an intergalactic exchangestudent, you ever tried a
serious conversation with anAquarius?
Good luck.
They're either zoning out intoanother dimension or hitting you
with some cryptic wisdom thatsounds profound but means
absolutely nothing.
Oh, I can attest.
Oh, oh, like we might have toget a patron.
(01:06:41):
Maybe some more people get apatreon, okay, because some of
them are tripped with no luggage.
Okay, just this awful poetry Ihad to sit through.
Oh god, sorry, it's asplashback, so Let me get
through this.
They swear they're emotionallydetached, but let that one
random person from Twitter ghostthem.
(01:07:02):
And suddenly they're plottingphilosophical heartbreak quotes
like a misunderstood poet, ooh,misunderstood poet, bad poet,
awful poet, just oh, the poetrythat was awful awful poet, just
the poetry that's.
it was awful.
Um, they pride themselves onbeing different and unique, but
half of them are just runningthe same.
(01:07:22):
I'm not like the other girls.
Guys software update and don'teven try to argue with an
aquarius.
Debating them is like trying toexplain taxes to a cat.
They'll just smirk, hit youwith a agree to disagree and
levitate away like they just wonthe Nobel Prize.
Oh my God.
Okay, and don't get me startedon their love lives.
(01:07:44):
This is where the trauma comesin.
All right, commitment andAquarius will ghost you while
texting you just to prove theylive by their own rules.
And this is true.
Okay, I definitely dealt withthis guy from Harlem First of
all.
That's just Harlem, quadruplenegative.
Like Harlem, people just do toomuch.
And so I was supposed to meethim at Harlem Tavern you know to
(01:08:06):
meet up or whatever and so Ihad.
Normally I have this thingwhere I text you before I leave
because I've been stood up orwhatever so many times, right,
and so if I don't hear from you,then I'm not putting on pants
and going anywhere, I'm stayingat home.
So I text him, did not receivea response, and then I was like
(01:08:27):
all right, I guess that's that.
I look on IG, on his IG stories, and he's at Harlem Tavern,
okay With some.
I don't know if it was a womanor not, but someone was filming
him because it was sittingacross from him beach so he
never got back to you, but stillwent to the place you were.
Soph (01:08:48):
So how about if he showed up?
Nele (01:08:50):
it girl.
So that that just means,universe spared me for some mess
of all, because I was messy ashell.
Okay, okay.
Soph (01:09:00):
Yeah, this man told me he never let you like.
Oh hey, where you at?
I'm at Harlan's camp.
Nele (01:09:05):
No, like go to someone then post, post online the date
that you were supposed to be.
Who does Aquarians do that?
Aquarians do that.
Okay, it's from the people.
So flake, you don't even knowI'm going to have to burn some
sage child.
You don't even know.
(01:09:27):
You don't even know, absolutelynot.
They will do things purposelylike in awkward places and your
soul is seething.
But I'm a Capricorn withconstitution and pride.
Okay, you're not going to seeme crying and slipping or
(01:09:48):
whatever, but they'll do thingsto elicit certain reactions, and
then it's on to you not to givethem the reaction that they
want.
Be sure, I'm in Aquarius too.
We're not gonna play thesegames.
Woo, ciao, sorry, sorry, I gotoff track, girl, I got off track
.
Yes, anyway, they want deepintellectual connections, but
(01:10:11):
their version of flirting issending you a conspiracy theory
at 3am and expecting you to keepup.
That's very true, but hey, yougotta love them even if they do
disappear for weeks, only toreturn with a random fun fact
about the origin of shoelaceslike nothing happened.
Fuck, aquarius, okay, yes, yes.
(01:10:32):
So that is it for no, I'm notsaying.
Soph (01:10:35):
Okay, yes, yes.
So that is it for Shady.
We're babies, we're gonna belike that.
Nele (01:10:37):
No, I'm not saying that.
Matt is gonna be that way, andalso there's other things in his
chart and he will be an evolvedAquarius.
Okay, he will be evolved.
These are low vibrational,unevolved Aquarians.
They know who they are and theyknow how they roll.
Make awesome friends, yes, butlovers random.
Soph (01:11:03):
Yeah, I hate there's these words that sneak into the but
all of a sudden, like everyoneis saying it, like a little
vibrational.
Yes.
Nele (01:11:16):
I think it made.
It was made popular becausethere was this woman who was
some kind of like guru, I don'tknow, and she was at a barbecue
and another woman had a platebut she piled her plate with the
whole bunch of food and shesaid she had a low vibrational
plate on the plate.
Yes, yes, but sometimes youjust have to call it how you see
(01:11:42):
it.
You just really just yeah.
Yeah, Well, that's it for ShadyAstrology.
On that note, thank you all fortuning in.
If you like the vibe, pleasemake sure to like, comment and
subscribe.
Until next time, y'all.
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