There Are No Girls on the Internet, as a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridgett and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. I am here with my fantastic producer, Joey. Joey. How are you. How was your holiday?
I bridge it, I'm doing good. My holiday was I It's nice to have you know, a couple days own.
Yeah, did you do anything fun?
Did I do sweete? Yeah?
Actually I did a drag performance for this Oh my god.
Yeah.
So they I'd been wanting to do for a bit. And then my friend I had like a birthday party for the weekend. It was like I want my friends to do drag performances.
So I was like, all right, sure, why not.
Yeah?
It was super fun. I totally totally want to do that again. So goodway my drag debut, Oh my god.
I hope to many more. Also, happy birthday?
Oh no, my always my friend's birthday.
Friend's birthday got okay? Well, happy birthday to your friend. Well let's get into some of these news stories that folks might have missed on the Internet this week. So first of all, we have to start with a little bit of an update, which is an update on our enemy of the pod Professional Litigate That's right, Edward Blum,
the one man wrecking ball against diversity. This week on the podcast, I did a deep dive on the show Stuff Mom Never Told You into Edward Blum's legal challenge that he is bringing against the black venture capital firm Fearless Fun for giving out grants and money and support
for black women entrepreneurs. After Blum successfully brought a legal challenge that gutted the Voting Rights Act and Affirmative Action Well, Blum is also challenging diversity fellowship programs for people of color, LGBTQ folks, and people with disabilities at law firms, and it looks like that challenge might have been somewhat successful, at least with one law firm, because the law firm Morrison and Forrester has removed language specifying that their fellowship
is only open to black, Hispanic, Native American or LGBTQ applicants, according to a flyer from the program's website. Now the flyer has been altered to say that applicants need to quote bring a diverse perspective to the firm as a result of your adaptability, cultural fluency, resilience and life experiences.
So luckily it doesn't sound like they are completely abandoning the diversity part of their fellowship program outright, but that they're probably changing the wording, probably because they're hoping to avoid a big legal challenge or legal battle with Blum and just want to be able to focus on doing
their work. The fellowship is called the Keith Wetmore one L Fellowship for Excellence, Diversity and Inclusion, and it supported law students from historically underrepresented groups in the legal industry. It was also a recruitment tool to help diversify law firms, which folks probably know are notoriously not very diverse. The fellowship consists of a paid summer associate position, where and law firms can often lead to a full time job at pay in the six figures after graduation, and a
fifty thousand dollars stipend. So way to go, Edward Blum. I hope the fact that this law firm had to amend their fellowship program is to your liking. I hope it makes you feel good. I hope you will leave these people alone. I hope you will let them just do their jobs and we will keep y'all updated on how these cases progress.
It's so messed up, and it's so like obviously messed up that it's I don't even know what to say at this point.
Well, I often feel like like I think that you might feel now, where I don't even know what to say. I think that Blum is someone who will not rest until a very small subsection of people him and people who look like him or making all the decisions for everyone, are the ones who are getting everything. I think that's what his I think that's what he wants. And so when I hear about the challenges that he is taking on, it's hard for me to even really know what to say.
And in the episode of stuff I'm Never told you that I did this week, something that really comes up for me after doing all that that research into Blum and his motivations and the people that he's suing, or that these are people who are really have work to do right, Like they are trying to write societal wrongs.
They are trying to make landscapes more equitable, and that is real work, And so I can understand why this legal firm is just like you know, if tweaking our website language is gonna maybe make this guy go away. Let's do it. But they shouldn't have to do that. They should be able to focus on what it is that they are trying to accomplish with their work. And so, yeah, I Blum remains an enemy of the show. We will
keep folks posted on his next moves. Hopefully they won't include continuing to go after marginalize people and the institutions that support us.
I think that's interesting.
I feel like, remember, for a while, there are all these stories that were coming out about like people that would like fake being Native American scholarship or like, there were a couple of like really big cases of like people that were like claiming to be like transracial or something like. I don't know, it's it's interesting that this is happening after I feel like we had a big conversation about there was a big sort of media frenzy
around that. I don't know, it's just like it's the same sort of attacking all of these programs from like different angles, which I yeah, it's this.
Whole thing is so weird.
It's so weird. Wem is such a weird guy. If folks are interested in more about him, his background, his motivation. Check out this week's episode with me on stuff I'm never told you because it is a doozy. So speaking of supporting or not supporting marginalized people, we got to talk about what's going on at Grinder. Folks probably know there have been a florry of big companies making remote workers come back to the office, like Google and ironically Zoom.
You know, Zoom makes the tech that we all use to work remotely, but apparently won't let their staff work remotely using the tech that they build. I don't know, it's kind of a weird sitch, but employees who work at the dating app Grinder are being forced to come back to work in person, and now staff is saying that that mandate, that policy has really delta blow to Grinder's unique queer friendly workplace culture, which employees say was
a rarity in tech. This is all from Wired, which today really great deep dive into what's going on since many of Grinder's employees are LGBTQ. In person work policies means having to give up access to support systems and support networks and sometimes medical care networks that you've established during a time where folks are seeing waves of anti
LGBTQU violence and threats across the country. Wire talked to one trans employee that they call Robin, who said that the mandate forced a choice between a job they loved and a support system that includes trusted doctors who provide their transgender medical care. Robin ultimately chose to leave the company. Said that initially coming to work at Grinder was quote a blast of fresh air compared to other jobs in
the tech industry. I felt normal. I didn't feel like one queer person or the most noticeable queer person at a company. It was what I was always looking for,
and now that is gone. Robin is actually not alone because none of the eight openly trans employees who worked at Grinder chose to re locate, and the trans staffer that they spoke to said that it's really indicative of the cuts and how they are impacting more marginalized staff the most, Robin says, demanding that LGBTQ plus people move for their job in this political environment conflicts with so much of Grinder's mission that it's close to its users
that it's part of the community. This all started last month, when Grinder abruptly gave its all remote staff two weeks to pledge to work from an office two days a week starting in October, or lose their jobs come August thirty first, eighty two out of the one hundred and seventy eight employees that's forty six percent of the staff,
or let go after rejecting that mandate. According to the Grinder union, which went public tis two weeks before the ultimatum, the policy would have forced many of them to relocate to La Chicago or San Francisco. Now, this is all
happening against the backdrop of Grinder's recent unionization. The Communications Workers of America, which now represents employees of Grinder, filed two unfair labor practice charges with the US National Labor Relations Board against Grinder, accusing the company of unlawfully suppressing discussion of working conditions in company chats and through an agreement that terminated employees were offered in exchange for Sefrance pay. Now, Grinder does say that this abrupt back to office plan
has nothing to do with the recent unionization. That is just a huge coincidence according to the Grinder's higher ups. However, the staff says that the cuts disproportionately impacted union supporters. Now out of the eleven union organized and committee members were forced out. Staff is also worried about how this will ultimately impact the site. Obviously, for dating apps and
hookup apps, privacy concerns are heightened. He's important on any app or any platform, but especially an app where you're meeting people, You're having intimate conversations, photos are being exchanged, you're meeting up, that kind of thing. The exodus has raised concerns among the remaining staff about Grinder's functionality as an app. Were calling Elon Musk's employee project Twitter and
the ensuing glitchy chaos. So this really does seem to be part of a larger pattern playing out within tech companies. I know that this came up on one of our previous newscasts, but Ben Collins at NBC calls this ceo contasion, where there's this vibe of tech CEOs like cleaning house, firing everybody, laying everybody off without real meaningful regard for how it will impact the platforms that they run and could ultimately make those platforms worse.
Yeah, and like, obviously, like this case is particularly sensitive since so much of the employees there are like LGBTQ plus identifying. Honestly, I'm surprised, not all of them, but yeah, like I've I feel like this is part of a pat I don't know, Like like my job, they're starting to like open up the offices again and encourage people
like come back into the office. And I technically the office I work for is in a different state than I live in, so like I'm crossing my fingers hoping in they're not gonna like mandate that anytime soon.
But it is so weird.
It's been three years where we've been working remotely and things have been going pretty smoothly. It's definitely Yeah, like like you said at the end there, like it is this whole like CEO contagion about not really sure what the I mean. I guess the motivation is to get people to like whatever.
I don't know.
I don't understand this whole push all of a sudden, and it just seems like it's gonna end.
With a lot of chaos.
But yeah, Also, yeah, Grinder with the privacy thing, that's scary. That's I mean, that's a hookup app like that isn't especially like any dating app.
I'd be worried, but like Grinder especially.
It's not the kind of app where I would feel comfortable showing up if they arbitrarily and phazardly gutted the privacy and security staff. And it sounds like that's what according to this Wired piece, that's what some of the staff are worried about that if they just make these massive cuts to the workforce in mass, like, it's gonna be that much harder to ensure a state and secure platform.
And when you're dealing with a hookup app, your people on that app really need to be able to feel like they're on a safe and secure platform.
Oh yeah, I feel like this is just like a good example of like rainbow capitalism still capitalism. Rainbow CEOs are still CEOs. They're still gonna put their own interest first. And yeah, that's just that's that's messed up. I don't know a ton about Grinder, like as an organization. I know, like a couple of years back, there was some sort of like discussion about like how trans people's experiences on
the app were and stuff like that. So again it's like the if you know what they're like, the eight openly trans employees like decided not to relocate, I mean, how is that going to affect the app like not having any trans people on the team of your or maybe losing all the trans people on your team. That just it doesn't seem like it's gonna.
En Well, yeah, that's such a good point. And the trans employee that Wired spoke to, I mean, I don't know what's going on at Grinder, but it does sound like if one demographic it's just like no longer represented at your workforce. Management really has to ask how equitable was were these layoffs, How equitable was this rollout if it completely got rid of an entire sub section of your workforce in that way, Like, it just seems to
me like obviously something's going on there. I think that the staffer that they talked to who said that it is impact these cuts are impacting the more marginalized staff more, it seems obvious that that's the case. And so I'm
curious how it's going to work out. But I feel for a staff who, like if in the piece they talk about how this was rolled out very abruptly and how for the last few months staff who worked remotely were like, are we gonna have to come back to the office and management was like, no, you'll be fine, no, we're not. We have no plans to make that change. And then coincidentally, after the unionization was successful, Now this
is like abruptly rolled out. And so yeah, it just seems like a situation where management is really going out of their way to roll out this policy in the most abrupt chaotic way possible, possibly in retaliation for unionization question mark. I don't know, but you know that timing does seem awful coincidental to me.
Let's take a quick break.
At our back. So I do want to balance as scales a little bet. You know, we talk a lot about corporations doing the wrong thing when it comes to supporting marginalized staff. So it is nice to be able to report on a company doing something kind of good going in the opposite direction. Indeed, the online job search company is offering ten thousand dollars to trans employees or immediate family members if they need to move to escape
laws restricting trans healthcare. So them reports that they've actually been doing this policy since July after employees expressed concern over anti LGBTQ plus legislation in Texas and Florida. But they're only now making this policy public. The relocation moneies are being treated as a stipend, and indeed it's also
covering any taxes on that money, which is pretty important. Indeed, it's already provided that support to at least one worker, a senior content creator who moved from Texas to Colorado not long after indeed announce the initiative. As soon as I found out that I was getting the money, it was very much like a weight had been lifted, the employee told Bloomberg. Them reports that indeed is not alone. This is actually a slow trend of companies offering this
kind of support to staff. Financial software company into it offers real Q money, and even the Air Force. And now it's that they would help trans service members and their families relocate if they are stationed in states with discriminatory laws. Obviously, I, as you were saying earlier, Joey, like, I don't like the idea of like, oh well, now trans folks can like join the military industrial complex too, right, But you know, it is what it is. You gotta
take what you gotta take what you can get. And I guess I feel like I don't know. It is a bummer that we live in a reality where this kind of policy is necessary, but that is the reality that we live in. And even though I obviously think this is great, everybody deserves to live in a place where they can have access to whatever medical care they need, and everybody deserves to live places where policies are not hostile to their very existence. And so I am really
happy that people have access to this relocation support. But it shouldn't be a luxury just for people who have like good office jobs. It should really be for everybody. Actually be the bottom bare minimum that people can expect.
Right. I think that's the one thing that kind of concerns me about this, because I remember seeing this article that or an article about it and being it was the same thing. I was like, Wow, that's really cool. I don't know, maybe I'm just like a skeptic When I was sort of like this seems I feel like, a are they going to actually do this or are they just saying they are?
So it's good to hear that. I guess they've They've done it in.
One case now, But I feel like what the people that I'm more worried about is like, like, who is.
It who is this open to?
Because again, like if you're working like a service job in like Texas or Florida where you're not making a lot of money or like living paycheck to paycheck. I mean, you're probably going to be the one in the most danger of living under these policies and how they're going
to affect you, Like is that covered in it? Which is not to say again like obviously I had my little office that office job because I don't have an office right now, Like it's important that everybody's that kind of respect and help.
But yeah, it's it's I don't know, I am cautiously optimistic about this.
I think it's a it's good to see that like a company is doing something at least.
Yeah, your concern is definitely well founded. I want to say it was Netflix, I'll have to look it up. But so when Netflix rolled out this very generous, unlimited prontal leave program, they got so much good press, lots of applause. However, they had one big problem because that program was only for full time staff. It did not include part time staff. It did not include folks who
were working in their DVD distribution centers. So this was back when Netflix still had those DVDs and the sleeves they would send out and so yeah, I'm with you, Joey. Whenever I see policies like this, I hope that it's just not for like, oh, for our office workers, as people like to say on the internet, people who have the email jobs quote unquote. But I hope it's truly for everybody who works there, not just a certain subs section of people who get access to this.
I like the the email jobs because I feel like I've been having a hard time befriends. Like who again back to the other story, like I don't work get an office. I actually visited the iHeart office for the first.
Time, the one in Atlanta.
Yeah, no, the one in there's one in New York. Okay, I haven't meant at the Atlanta one.
Yet, but I was like that, this is the first time since I was like interning that I've been inside of an office. But yeah, it's again. Yeah, I good friend. Indeed, I'm glad to hear this. I hope they follow through with it. I guess, you know, well, we keep an eyes on the story, see what happens.
Yeah. Yeah, the Air Force thing too, I'm a little that I don't know.
It's whenever the military comes up, it's so complicated because there is a whole history of like there's a lot of trans people who have been in the military or are in the military.
Just kind of.
And and again because I remember when when all this happened with like the Trump administration banning trans people from doing the military, there was discussion about like access to like benefits and stuff and all that's important.
That being said, I'm not willing.
To I don't know, I'm always gonna sort of take a step back, I think when it comes to military stuff and just yeah, I don't know, I don't know where this is going.
Joey pat hates the troops. No, just kidding. So important question for you. Do you drive a car? You live in New York, Probably don't you.
I mean I don't. I like, I have my driver's license, I have driven. I like drove my family's car when I was home. But yeah, currently do not own a car. Uh don't really have a reason too.
Well, that's actually good news for you because if you drive a newer car, I have some bad news, which is that your car is probably spying on you in addition to collecting data about you, like normal car data like whether you drive too fast or if you were, your seatbelt or whatever. Your car might actually know who you have sex with. This is according to a new report from Mozilla. Just full quick disclosure, I do host Mozilla's podcast IRL about AI and ethics. I just wanted to say that.
So.
Mozilla's Privacy Not Included project found that every major car brand fails to adhere to the most basic privacy and security standards in their new internet connected models. All twenty five of the car brands that Mozilla examines failed their test. Mozilla found that major car brands collect data about their drivers,
including race, facial expressions, weight, health informations, and where you drive. Now, all of that might seem like pretty reasonable information for your car to collect about you, but this is really wild. Some of the cars tested collected data that you would not expect your car to be able to collect about you, including details about your sexual activity, race, and immigration status. According to Mozilla, key privacy policy reserves the right to
monitor quote your sex life. I don't know about you, but I don't know how I feel about my car knowing about my sex life.
Whoa, whoa, yeah, wait did they explain how they do this? I'm actually gonna do it, but like I are there like cameras in the car that are this is so that's so freaky. That is so I have so many questions.
So that's a really good question. According to the report, a lot of these newer cars have come enabled with like cameras in them, with microphones in them. They have like hands free technology where you can talk to the cars, and so the cars have microphones and they can hear conversations happening in there. And so yeah, I think that we don't usually think of a car as collecting information about us as we're driving, But that's what's happening.
That's so, that's so freaking. I just okay, I'm always really behind on my TV.
Should I just watched the new Black Mirror, like the first episode with what's her face Alexis from Shitzkrieg and I and I that was so freaky.
I just this.
I'm thinking of this because I'm like, oh, there's so many things that are just yeah, that's oh my god.
That was my favorite episode of the new season.
It was good.
I reference it quite a bit. So Jen call to writer program director of Privacy Not Included, shares your disbelief of that this is happening Jen says many people think of their car as a private space, somewhere to call your doctor, have a personal conversation with your kid on the way to school, cry your eyes out after a breakup, Oh boy, have I been there? Or drive places that you might not want the world to know about. But
that perception no longer matches reality. All new cars today are privacy nightmares on wheels that collect huge amounts of personal information.
Okay.
One thing that I do I love just like you know, every once in a while, you just gotta like scream and like I'll go to like if I'm have access to a car, like if I've ever heard how I was Like, sometimes I'll just like sit in the car like scream and I'm like, oh my god, favorite now home, like going over.
Yeah, I'm said, well, how new was your parents car?
I think it's about seven years old, so like twenty sixty to twenty seventeen.
Okay, you might be Okay, you might be Okay. This this whole thing makes me happy. I mean, I I barely drive. I don't I think I'd probably drive like once a month. But my car is a like fifteen year old clunker, So it makes me kind of happy, it doesn't. I still have to do the thing where you plug in like a Bluetooth receiver into the ox Core into the ox Sport to like listen to music on my phone if I want to like listen to
something that's not the radio. So it is very janky, it is very old school, doesn't have GPS, isn't bet anything. But as janky as it is, at least I don't have to worry about my car listening to me talk to my doctor on the phone, or like have an argument with my partner. I'd be like, oh, it looks like she's arguing about finances. Let's send her some ads about car refinancing or whatever.
I feel like there's always you always have such emotional conversations in cars too. I don't know if it's I don't know if you do this too, but like, I feel like I've had a lot of very especially like as a teenager, a lot like it would be like a friend would be dropping me off, or I'd be having like a really dramatic conversation with my.
Parents or something, and it's just I don't know, that's yeah, well.
I think you're right, I do. I don't even know how to put this. I spent a summer living in LA and so when I was in La, I had a car, and I probably had it was it was a tough summer for me, and I probably had most of my intimate moments, like where I was questioning myself or having tough conversations with friends and family in the car, Like the car is feels like an intimate space. It
feels like a private space. How many times have you taken a long drive and done or said things that you would that you thought were just between you and you know, just you and your God, right, Like the idea that the car is listening, the car is collecting that information, the car is using it to serve you targeted as these conversations and these moments that were happening in a place that felt so private and so intimate
and so sacred, it's just not a good situation. Mozilla said that a number of car brands say that it is the driver's responsibility to let passengers know about their car's privacy policies, which you know, because that's a totally normal conversation that you have when somebody gets in your car. When you get into a car, it's a totally normal thing to be like, oh, let me just quickly brief you on my car's privacy policy so that you're aware of them. That is an absurd standard they have to
opt people into. That's an absurd way to handle people being having to opt into this, or you know, when you get into an uber or a taxi cab, Like, how is that handled? And even beyond that, that doesn't really help because these policies are always inscrutable in the
first place. So if it is your responsibility as a driver or the owner of this car to tell people about the privacy policy that you didn't set up when somebody gets into your car, how can you do that if they're written in such a way that it's intentionally inscrutable to the point where you can't even summarize what
the policies are. Like, one of the car brands they talked about had twelve different privacy policies, So how the hell are you meant to be letting somebody know about your car's privacy policies if you can't even understand them.
Yeah, it all of us feels like letting somebody into your house and being like, oh, sorry, by the way, if you like.
Talk about x things. There's like a little I don't know which I.
Guess some people have like Alexis and stuff now, so I don't know who knows what that's doing.
But yeah, man, there's just this. There's no privacy anymore.
It's scary, not even in the ride.
Let's take a quick break.
Ed are back. Okay, So this is a story happening in your neck of the woods, Joey, because short term rentals like Airbnb and verbo are basically over in New York City thanks to new regulations. So last week, new rules said that rentals shorter than thirty days are not allowed unless the hosts registered with the city. Hosts must also commit to being physically present in the home during the duration of the rental, sharing the living quarters with
their guests. More than two guests at a time are not allowed, so in effect kind of barring families from doing short term rentals like Airbnb in New York City. So that was last week. Well, this week that went into effect, and The Guardian reports that not many hosts were able to comply with registering with the city, so Airbnb is not allowed to process those rentals. Very few hosts had successfully registered and New York City says that it approved just under three hundred of the more three
eight hundred applications received now. Housing advocates say that the apartments were basically being used as hotels, which is a big problem in a city like New York where there is very much, you know, as I'm sure you know, an active housing crisis.
Oh yeah, Arabnb does not get enough crop for like the way that they have contributed to the housing crisis and so many major cities like all over the world. I like, I remember talking to like somebody who lived in like Florence and Italy that it was like the same situation they were talking about, how like, and that that's like a huge tourist city, and that part of the reason that it's impossibly going to have like an apartment there now is just Airbnb has gotten so many apartments New York.
Same thing.
Does concern me a little because I do think I have a friend who's staying in New York next week who has an Airbnb, so I probably should.
Check in with her.
Check in on your friend.
Yeah yeah, But I mean I am glad that's that they're they're cracking down on that because it's it's out of control.
I completely agree. Airbnb is fighting these new rules in court, arguing that they are essentially a ban on Airbnb and that they would hurt this looking for affordable accommodations. So I actually say, Airbnb, I have a little bit of firsthand knowledge, and I'll say this, they are very good at this kind of thing. So I honestly would not be surprised if this policy was short lived in New York City. I hope it's not short lived, but I would not be surprised because Airbnb is very good at
this kind of thing. So here's a little bit about what you can probably expect. You can expect to see them really highlighting the local people who they say are just like local community members making extra income by welcoming in travelers on a budget into their spare bedrooms. You know, it's all like Nanna and pop pop who just want
to make their lasagna for somebody from out of town. Like, definitely they're going to make that or try to make that the face of like who's being hurt by this Airbnb crept down, So they're not going to tell you about the company or the wealthy landlord who has bought up multiple properties the a that would be available housing and has turned them into hotels for people they probably will never even meet. No, they will not tell you
about that. They will definitely be trotting out like Nana and Pop Pop and telling you how this is like hurting your like local community members. Again, I can tell
you from personal experience. And Airbnb hires what they call community organizers to help create what I would argue is like an astro turf movement specifically to represent their corporate interests, but then make that seem like a completely grassroots collection of just like concern community members sticking up for their communities.
Yeah, and I again like, even though I'm complaining about AIRBNBA, I've stayed in Airbnb's a couple of times, and I think honestly most of it, especially if it's like me and my friends traveling where we're like on a tight budget a lot of times, like it's a company that we're reaching out to. It's not like locals or whatever. They're trying to like position themselves. As I it is very weird because also I remember like when Airbnb was first like becoming a thing, that was how they were
marketing themselves. It was like it's a you know, same sort of like Uber where it was like just sharing rights or sharing living space for the you know week or whatever. But it's yeah, the whole community organizers thing too. That's so vile just to especially like, I don't know, if you're looking at like again, if you're looking at like a job site and you see community organizer, I think you're expecting a very, very different job than working for Airbnb.
Oh yes, I completely completely agree. I don't want to say anything that, I don't want to say anything wrong. I'll just say that I used to work for an organization that provided free or low cost digital training for progressive organizers, real organizers, and we did that. It was usually a network of volunteers, and that was done out of the desire to build social change, to build up the lefts you know, muscle, and in order to create
social change. And imagine my surprise when some of those folks took that training that was given, you know, from the goodwill of our of our time and labor, to Airbnb to to do community to do quote community organizing. So yeah, I I I I guess I'll just leave it there. It was a it was a it was a surprising turnative events. Folks were not thrilled that that happened. But yeah, so Airbnb is so good at this. They're so like, I I gotta give props or prompts are due.
I They're like, if you were not a savvy person and you were looking at the people who are probably opposing this legislation in New York, you would think this is just like community members who are speaking out. But Airbnb they're really good at that. They really know what they're doing. And yeah, I'm I should say like the
same as you. I don't. It's not like I don't use Airbnb, but I try to use it sparingly and I try to just be very aware, like it would be It's one of those things where it would be nice if I could be like, oh, I'm just staying with like somebody who has a spare bedroom in their house, and like, you know, this is just like she's getting extra money. I'm getting to eat the fresh bake cookies that she's making me. This is all great, but that's
not what it is in twenty twenty three. What it is in twenty twenty three is like generally somebody who is running airbnbes as a business, it is usually not their their their home that they're letting you into. It is like maybe at best it is their vacation home or something like that, but generally it's a business. And so I just wish that we could we could talk about it in reality and not in this way that it's just like a fantasy. Again, I think that you're
right that it started that way. My very first time ever staying in an Airbnb, this was like when the company first got started, I was staying on somebody's couch in the house that they lived in with their family, and it very much was like I'm just crashing here. But that certainly isn't what it's like in a meaningful way in twenty twenty three.
Yeah, I think there was.
There was like one time when I was I was in Amsterdam with some friends that we were like staying at somebody's apartment that it was like there's it actually was like a spavorite, spare bedroom and they were super nice and like you know, gave.
Us recommendations of places to go and stuff.
But yeah, it's I don't know the last like airbnb that I've stayed in again, it was I didn't book it a friend and I'm not sure what the situation was, but like there was an ant infestation in the house. It was terrible. It was terrible experience. So I'm still I met at Airbnb about that experience anyways.
But.
Are you one of those people who was like, oh, it's hotels all day. I'll never stayed on Airbnb if I don't have to.
I try to, Like I don't do as much traveling now, just kind of at this point in my life. But I like, usually if I am I'm going to visit people, so I'll go like crash at their place. But yeah, I usually like try to go for a hotel. You know they're gonna clean. You know they're gonna clean the room every day. It's like nice.
I like that. That's a nice part about traveling.
And you don't like The thing that gets me about airbnbes and this if there's been a whole if folks haven't seen there's been a hole back and forth of like airbnbes were just hotels. One of the things is like with Arabian bees, there was a time where their fees were just out of control, where you'd be paying like a cleaning fee but also get a list of shores to do, so you'd be like, why am I paying this cleaning fee if I'm doing the laundry and like meant to be sweeping up?
Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly. I was like, I don't know. Maybe if I'm on vacation, I want to be in a hotel. I don't want to be doing any of the work.
That's totally fair. Okay, So why don't you ask me what our favorite person is up to these days?
All right?
So, oh, I know where.
This is going. I bet you can already tell.
Yeah. I have a lot of thoughts on this. It is what's Elon up to?
Now?
Well, I spent my labor day on vacation at the beach. Elon Musk spent his labor day being very anti Semitic. He spent this week fighting with the head of the Anti Defamation League because the ADL is basically telling the truth to advertisers about the rise of anti Semitic hate
speech on the platform since Elon Musk took over. Musk accused the ADL of being quote the biggest generators of anti semitism on Twitter and threatened a four billion dollar lawsuit against them, saying that they were scaring away advertisers. So it should be said that per Twitter's own metrics, her own API, the use of anti Semitic hate speech has has risen since Elon must took over. It's just a fact. But you don't have to have access to that data, nor do you have to be the head
of the ADL. To see that this is true. All you have to do is follow Elon Musk on Twitter and see the kinds of things he tweets and the kinds of tweets that he engages with. Elon's brand of anti Semitism, I would say, like previously was sort of loosely coded. He would use like George Sorows or the ADL, or like people who control the media, like pretty big dog whistle as a stand in to denigrate Jewish people.
So this is not new for him at all. This has been a long standing pattern of behavior with Musk, but I think that more recently anti Semitism has gotten more overt, engaging with tweets that straight up attack Jewish people as a whole. He replied with an exclamation point to this tweet that purported to show that like he replied to a tweet from a white supremacist that purported to show a poll showing that Jewish people hated free speech.
So I would argue that he is someone who is always trafficked in anti semitism, but it's it's especially concerning that it seems to be getting more and more overt and less and less coded.
Yeah, I mean, as a Jew who controls the media, I'm.
So excited at this podcast.
Yeah, obviously it's you know, Oh God, I'm so glad we're talking about this story.
I have so many thoughts on this.
So, like first things first, I will say upfront, ADL not necessarily a good organization. Their platform, their well, they're their idea what they market themselves out, which again is like an an anti hate speech, fighting anti semitism, fighting bigotry. There's a lot of criticisms of the organization itself. They've done a lot of things in the past. They've designated certain groups as being anti Semitic that weren't anti Semitic.
They were more just sort of like critical of Israel or anti Zionist, which is not the same thing as anti semitism. That is a very valid political opinion. Again, I'm not a out of the ADL.
They are.
I disagree with the organization fundamentally in a lot of things. I think they've actually done a lot of shit that's been sort of like detrimental to a lot of anti racist, anti anti bigotry, even like anti anti Semitism sort of movements.
That being said, like the criticism is clearly like this is this is a.
Situation where they're going after this organization for being a Jewish organization, for being a group that speaks out against anti Semitism. I recently, it was it was probably like a month or two ago, the CEO of the ADL, Jonathan green Blatt said in an interview. He compared he said that Elon Musk is like the Henry Ford of our generation, which also is really ironic because Henry Ford
was like notoriously anti Semitic. So I was like, I don't know, like like if somebody called somebody like the Henry Ford off something to me, I would be like, okay, so they're a piece of shit, Like I don't know.
Anyways, he meant it as a compliment.
So I think this is a good example of like again so called like human rights organizations, if you're gonna like use your time and your energy and your platform to like cheer on people who have this history of going against other marginalized groups that aren't your own, Like they're gonna come after you too, Like you're just setting your like I don't know, like that they're not gonna save.
You, surprise.
I just this whole situation there's again it's so messed up because you know, you know that mean, that's like the worst person, you know a great point.
Oh, it's a virsion of that where it's like.
I can't believe I'm defending the ad L of all things like I but yeah, it's it's like nobody again, I might disagree with some of their platform, but nobody should be attacked for just being a Jewish organization.
And also the whole idea of like the anel contributed being the most anti s about it. I don't know that it is so weird that it is so weird.
Yeah, there are like I mean, I I it's it's complicated, and I appreciate the nw ones that you're bringing to it. Elon must saying that the ADL is the most is spreading the most anti Semitism. There are people on the platform who tweet swastikas, like there are people on the platform who like, so that's just like not true, and
it's so funny that you're saying this. The critic Mark Lamont Hill, who Mark Lemont Hill like he is someone who has been very open about the fact that he feels like he was like personally attacked by the ADL, And even even.
He was like, yeah, and again this is just my opinion, but I'm Jewish. I was, you know, very involved in a lot of Jewish activists spaces around what that was happening, like he was attacked, but yeah.
And yet even he this week was like Elon Musk, what Elon Musk is doing with the ADL is anti Semitic. And it's not like he was like, I am someone who is attacked by them, and even I can say, like, what's happening is really fucked up, And so it is. It is this very interesting moment in time, I guess where.
And honestly, the ad L when it comes to this Elon must situation, they didn't really have to do anything to to like get Elon Musk to go off on this string of anti Semitic behavior and comments like I don't know if he is trying to.
I always say it didn't he like compare George Sorows to like Magneto.
Or he sure did, he sure did.
Which also I'm a big xpen fan Magneto.
Excuse you, excuse you?
Like so no, no, no, like that's a favorable comparison.
Actually, yeah, like this is.
This has been an ongoing thing. He's said a lot of anti spotics off.
And yet to be clear, Like I think I think we did an episode about this. It might have been on the Patron but regardless, like it's one thing to be critical of, like like Sorows is a very wealthy, well connected, you know, influential person in politics. It's one thing to be like, oh I am critic all of George Soros's policies of XYZ or like his positions on x y Z. It's quite another to compare him to Magneto like that is and so like if you like,
I think that with Musk, he's really cool. He previously he was like good at staying like keeping it coded, keeping it a dog whistle. And the fact that now he's like no, it's just open, like it just signals to me that there's been a shift and a change, and it really concerns me for the state of Twitter. I don't remember, Joey, are you still on the platform? A is it a platform that you engage engage on?
I have an account, I don't use it a ton anymore, but like, I'm still.
On it and I'm hanging on.
I'm trying to see how long till the website.
Collapses on itself.
But it's it's been such a shit show lately, Like it hasn't been fun to be on the platform.
So it does seem like we've hit a new moment with Twitter where folks are just really starting to see just what you said that it's just not fun, it's not pleasant. Civil society groups are pushing to get advertisers
to stop spending money advertising on Twitter. I actually did a pretty personal deep dive into my own relationship with Twitter on Patreon, where I heard from folks who similarly are feeling a little bit weird about our relationship with the platform in this specific moment, but who also feel it as a deep loss. Roe, who gave me permission to share this, wrote, I keep having this conversation with myself.
I only keep it because of the community connections that will be lost if I leave, but so many are already gone. I run a mutual Aid meal delivery in my city and one weekend we had extra food. While I was delivering, I pulled over and tried to reach a single mom I know only through Twitter to offer to drop by. She's left the platform and I have no means to contact her. Now. Twitter was so important when Ottawa was overrun by the Freedom in Quotes Convoy
last year. I don't know where we could share information this at the same scale now. So the too long Didn't Read is that I stay on Twitter out of fear and I'm incredibly resentful that an awful man broke a critical resource for my community. And boy, roe did I identify with that? That is exactly how I am feeling. I'm really wrestling with a lot of that same stuff of like, this used to be a resource that was good.
It wasn't perfect, it had its problems. If folks want to, I will talk all day about some of the issues I had with pre musk Twitter. But something about this week just I was like, this is just not fun. It's not pleasant. I don't enjoy showing up here. The example that I gave on the Patreon was I was having a conversation with somebody about Bravo's Real House Bars of Atlanta, and I don't probably I don't know if you watched the show, but like this season hasn't been great.
And somebody was like, oh, who would be a grave if you were doing a cast a casting, who would you cast? And somebody was like, T Madison, who is this black trans woman like Blugger and contact creator. I was like, oh my god, Tea Madison will be amazing. Why didn't that occur to me? Like she's so funny, she's so good at like clapp m back blah blah blah. Love Team Madison. And it didn't take long until people with blue check marks were intentionally misgendering Team Madison, calling
like dead naming Team Madison. And this was just like a fun conversation about a television show. And it's like, that's it's not pleasant to show up to a platform and try to have a like fun light conversation and then next thing you know, you're like someone is intentionally
dead naming and misgendering somebody. It's no longer against Twitter's terms of service to do that, because that was one of the things that Elon Musk one of the policies that he changed, but the first thing that he did, and you know, the whole conversation turned into people being like, this is fucked up, don't do this, and then people being like saying transphobic things, and it's like, we can't even have a conversation about Bravo Housewives without this nonsense.
It's just not good, doesn't feel good, it doesn't feel fun, and I don't feel good knowing that I am supporting Elona Musk and helping to make the platform look like it's still viable by showing up there.
Yeah, I agree with that, and I feel like, especially what Roward said, just feeling resentful that again, feeling resentful that this man like broke Twitter, and sort of almost feeling like like I feel like at this point, I'm kind of staying on out of spite, Like I'm sort of like, no, like you can't scare me away, Like no, first staying here, but yeah, it's I then it's but then yeah, the other side is like it's it's not usable anymore. I not seeing my friend's posts. I'm yeah,
seeing a lot of just blue check mark stuff. I also, yeah, like Twitter was, especially during like the height of the pandemic when stuff is on lockdown, Like that was.
How I was staying connected to people.
I was still in college at the beginning of the pandemic, and and like we were using Twitter to like get mutual aid to people and help people like get information that like the school was not telling us get informat. That's how I was able to get like my vaccination appointment where that was first happening.
Sam was crazy. He was trying to get like my vaccine in New York.
It's such a it has become such an important tool, and it's just it's so sad to like see this happening.
It is sad. I should mention. While all of this was going down, Twitter's CEO maybe CEO, Linda Yakarino, while Elon Musk was like engaging with anti Semitism and all of that, she was busy tweeting did somebody say sport after a huge Labor Day weekend? Ex video views continue to search above last year. So, while Linda Yakarino, as supposedly the CEO of Twitter, was saying all of this stuff about how Twitter is now advertiser friendly, brand friendly,
blah blah blah. My question for Linda Yakarino is how does Elon Musk tweeting all of this anti Semitic nonsense squared with her publicly stated intention to make Twitter a place where brands want to show up and want to spend money in advertising. I'm curious, Like, if I were the CEO of a company and my head of engineering was tweeting like this, I might have something to say about it, But not Linda. I'm so curious what's going
on there. So yeah, if folks want to know my thoughts on the should I stay or should I go? Of it all? Please check out our patreon. And I also would love to hear where folks are at with Twitter, like are you still there? Have you left?
Are you?
What are the vibes like for you? Let me know, I would love to know.
More. After a quick.
Break, let's get right back into it.
Okay, So this last story is really just like a story tailor made for me, so hopefully it is interesting to others as well, because I was like very invested, and that is that something is rotten over at Rotten Tomatoes. So Rotten Tomatoes is a movie criticism aggregate platform They have a thing called the Tomato Meter, which aggregates critics reviews of movies and gives a percentage score. The Tomato meter may be the most important metric in entertainment, yet
it is also erratic, reductive, and easily hacked. This is from a very interesting report on Vulture. So Vulture reports that back in twenty eighteen, a movie called Ophelia, which was meant to be kind of a feminist retelling of hamlets starring Daisy Ridley, was getting not super great reviews from critics, meaning that its aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes was a dismal forty six percent, which is not good,
especially for a prestige film. They were trying to sort of like find a studio home for and kind of thought maybe might have some award season buzz. The film was rotten on Rotten Tomatoes, which means that it scored below sixty percent. Bunker fifteen, a movie publicity firm, recruited a bunch of smaller, obscure, often self published critics who are nevertheless part of the pool track by rotten Tomatoes. Bunker fifteen paid these critics fifty dollars or more to
write reviews. These payments are typically not disclosed, and Rotten Tomatoes says that it prohibits reviewing based on a financial incentive. So Bunker fifteen told Vulture a lot of stuff like I would read the article if you want to want the whole thing. But essentially what Bunker fifteen told Vulture was pretty much an obvious code for we don't tell them to write good reviews, but we pay them to write reviews so that we can raise the Rotten Tomatoes score.
And it's really nice that those reviews are good reviews. So like, essentially we pay them they write good reviews. If they didn't like the film, they don't write a review, and that's how we're able to get the Rotten Tomatoes score up.
I'm not surprised by this.
I feel like there's been so many weird especially like you know, we've talked about review bombing on the show, and that's become such a prevalent thing. Whenever you know, there's some about anybody that's not a straight white man, and uh, like Ron Tomatoes, maybe there's like a theme
with this. I feel like it was the same thing where with air Baby, where it was like kind of cool when at first, like was a thing and it was like, you know, the people's kind of method of reviewing movies, and it was like but but then it's so quickly like now.
I don't even look at it.
I don't like I see especially like like I'll like if if, whenever the for a movie I want to see, like the Ron Tomato stuff will come out, but like and I'll like, I'll look at it, but it's not like like I always take it with a grain of salt now because I don't know.
There have been some movies that were rated.
Great that I did not enjoy, and there were other movies and the opposite happened, like didn't getting a review and I thought it was fun and it just maybe wasn't, you know, not for everybody, but it's still fun.
So it's so interesting to hear you say this. I might be like a little pollyanna ish, like this vulture piece blue, like blew the lid right off off this thing for me because I probably spend more time browning rotten tomatoes in every any other site. Like I'm a movie person. I love film. I love cinema. It is my first love. And the I guess it should have occurred to me that rotten tomatoes could be hacked, could be bought, could be bombed, could like be artificially inflated or deflated.
It just I don't know.
I think I think I'm usually pretty skeptical about tech. But I wonder if I let my pure love of movies blind me the truth that was right in front of my face.
Nah, I mean, I cut the I will also like, I'm a big f like I love movies.
I'm a big movie person.
But I feel like my opinion too, My view is always I think ultimately like it's objective. Everybody's got their own interest and opinions and stuff, and I think, you know, it is hard to like universally.
I don't know, but but.
Yeah, I think it's just seeing all these incidences of review bombing.
I'm not surprised.
But the thing, the thing that does prize me is the fact that it's like because I feel like there's usually the official tomatoman and then there's the fan one, and yeah, it's it's interesting, like, so this article is saying that it's affecting the like official tomato meter are.
Yeah, so that's a great question. So basically the official critics, so for folks who don't spend all their time on fucking rotten tomatoess like I do. It has two different tracks. There is the audience score and the critics score, and the critics score is the one that really matters. And so to answer your question, Joey, yes, the critics score can be gamified. Here's how it works. The scores can sort of be hacked by studios. When a studio is prepping the release of a new title, it will screen
the film for critics in advance. It's a film publicist job to organize these screenings and invite the writers they think will respond most positively. Then that publicist will set the movies review embargo, in part so that its initial Tomato Meter score is as high as possible at the moment when it can have the maximum benefits for word of mouth and early ticket sales. They really rely on
fan side. So even though like traditional critics are probably less likely to write a glowing review for like a superhero movie, studios can generally count on somebody who is a big fan of that franchise to write a positive review.
And even if they write that positive review on like a self published fan side or like a medium page that can sometimes still count toward the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate critics review, So it doesn't seem like it's really that hard to gamify those critics scores, and it people listening might be like, why are you telling me this? Why does this matter? Well, it matters because Rotten Tomatoes is actually kind of a big deal. It can really make
or break a film's release. If you watch one of my favorite shows on HBO Max the other two, there's a whole plot line about how powerful Rotten Tomatoes is, unshaping how a film is perceived. Studios are so scared about Rotten Tomato's Tomato Meter score that they actually work with a company called screen engine ASI, which attempts to forecast scores. Publicist spoke to Vulture and said, I put in our original business plan that we should not do
films that score less than eighty. Rotten Tomatoes is the only public stamp of approval that says this is out of immense quality, and all critics agree, but like, not necessarily, And so if studios and publicists are using this as a stamp of approval, but it's also easily hacked and easily gamified, it seems like a little bit of a scam. Anyway, the whole piece is definitely worth a read.
That not focusing on films to score less than an eighty, I feel like that's so concerning because people, I think, because the film industry is it's like an industry, and it is this very like hyper capitalized.
It is still like art.
It is still art that's very accessible to people too, and that's the reason, like film has such an important place, and like, I don't know, I have a lot of feelings about the film industry, but I feel like, yeah, like there's plenty of movies like I love that have like seventies or like even yeah, even in like the fifties or sixties, the like cult classic films that like, like if studios are only focusing on movies that score over eighty, we're not gonna get so much of like
the culture around film or the culture that the film industry produces.
Yeah, the thing.
And I think it's the same thing with like all the Netflix stuff, with all these like TV shows that are getting canceled. There's been a lot of things, you know, like we're in the middle of the writer's strike for a reason. There's like all these movies that are getting shelved. There's like TV shows that are getting canceled after one season because it's film is an art form, and it's like these companies are trying to take that aspect away
and the creative aspect away, and that's just like concerning overall. I.
I mean, I'm almost like tearing up here when you talk about this, because it film is something that I take very seriously. Art and culture and film. It's like the thing that saved me, and it's really really important, and it feels like we're losing it. This is a little bit of a longer read, but I want to read this quote that Richard link Later, one of my
favorite directors, said. So he was asked in an interview about what he thinks about the current state of American movie making, and he said, it's a little bit long sibitter with me. He said, it feels like it's gone with the wind or gone with the algorithm. Sometimes I'll talk with some of my contemporaries who I came up with during the nineties and we'll go, oh my god, we could never get that done today. So on the one hand, selfishly, you think I guess I was born
at the right time. I was able to participate in what always feels like the last good era for filmmaking, and then you hope for a better day. But man, the way distribution has fallen off. Sadly, it's mostly just the audience. Is there a new generation that really values cinema anymore? That's the dark thought. I have a film society, and I run into so many young cinema loving kids who actually have the Criterion Channel and they watch all kinds of amazing movies. But I know that culturally that's
the exception. I fear that there's not enough of a critical mass and the culture to sustain what was. Who knows. I don't think I have any deeper analysis than anyone else would, and it's not in my nature to make huge statements about whether it's all over. I just feel we're all treading water and hoping we don't drown. Challenging times are certainly here, with a changing culture and a changing technology, it's hard to see cinema slipping back into
the prominence it once held. I think we could feel it coming when they started calling films content. But that's what happens when you let tech people take over your industry. It's hard to imagine indie cinema in particular having the cultural relevance that it did. It's hard to imagine the whole culture is going to be on the same page about anything, much less filmmaking. We can be so self absorbed and say it's just about cinema, but it's really
all of our modern cultural life. You could say the same things about reading books. A lot of young people can't really read a book because they're just on their phones. Some really intelligent, passionate, good citizens just don't have the same need for literature and movies anymore. It doesn't occupy the same space in the brain. I think that's just how we've given over our lives largely to this thing that depletes the need for curating and filling ourselves up
with meaning from art and fictional worlds. It has been filled up with, let's face it, advanced delivery system for advertising. It's sad, but what can you do. I also don't want to go through life thinking our best days are behind us. That's just not productive. So in your own area, you just have to persist and do what you can on behalf of the things that you believe in. You have to believe that everything can change and things can
go back to being a little bit better. Isn't that what we all want for everything these days, from democracy on down? Can't we just go back to things being a little better? And why that answer really punched me in the gut because I feel like that's where we're at, where these things that are that we're just purely good. Movies are good, culture is good, art is good, music
is good. We are losing that, and we're losing the kind of collective cultural understanding that those things have value and that they're not just content to fill streamers and content to put advertising on. That they are value. They're what make us us, right, like when all of us are dead, that's those are the things that people are gonna watch and read and listen to and consume to
understand what we were in twenty twenty three. And it's really sad to me the idea that as a culture collectively we might not hold that as a value, that cultural longevity. We might be losing that. Really it really it hurts.
Yeah, I think I feel like the same way. I think it is really concerning to see what's happening. The one thing I do kind of disagree with with that quote. I think the kind of lens of like, oh, people just don't want these kind of movies, don't want these kind of like indie really like more artistic movies anymore. I think that's that I'm a little bit more cautious of. I don't think it's necessarily that people don't want it.
I think so much of it just has to do with the fact that, like the way that the film industry has acted in the past like decade, it has kind of given people like it's become so much more centralized. There's been so much more emphasis on, like you know, a lot of like special effects and CGI and stuff that isn't even particularly good coming from a lot of these studios. But like, and I mean, I think this whole idea of like these film franchises has become such
a bigger thing culturally. But a lot of that is because that is what these production companies have like sort of engineered the film industry to look like to look like. And again, like I brought up the strike writer strike earlier, it's the fact that the power, the monetary power is so centralized right now, and the people that are the ones making this art, aren't getting compensate, aren't able to live their lives.
Yeah, I think it's just the fact. And the one thing that I think kind of.
Gives me hope in this sort of situation is the fact that I think we are reaching a point where, like all these superhero movies keep flopping because people have gotten really sick of it.
Because again, like I love super movies. I think they're fun, They're always.
Gonna be a thing in American culture, but like we're all kind of sick of the of the like Avengers thing, Like they kind of did their big thing, and it's like we're ready for the next thing. I feel like lately there's been like a couple more that I've sort of like I remember, okay, everything everywhere all at once when that I love that movie so much. I know lots of people love that movie, and I remember talking to a friend about it and they were just like
I felt so like like it felt new. It was the first thing that I watched in a while that felt like new and original. And I feel like I'm seeing a little bit more of that, and like, I don't know, I saw like Bottoms last weekend.
Oh my god, how was it. I'm seeing it. I'm seeing it tomorrow. Is it good?
It's so good?
Okay, that is like one of my new favorite movies again, solidarating with the Writer's show you soleidraating with the actors, like I know they're not doing promotion right now, so I don't want to be like, but but it's an amazing movie. I totally recommend peop'll go see it. But even like with that, I remember seeing a tweet from somebody about it where they were like, here's the budget and here's what it made. It it's opening weekend and it was less than the budget. But I was like, okay,
but that's just opening weekend. Like and also it opened to only a couple of theaters. This isn't like a Marvel movie where they're trying like there was that whole thing for a while, where.
Like Disney kept trying to like one up.
It's like most money made for a movie, and there was like a whole thing.
It was between like The.
Avengers and like Avatar for a while, and like, I don't care, like it.
Was one of those things.
I was sort of like, they made billions of dollars, why are they still trying to make more money just to be just really a pr stunt. So I think again, I think the issue is less like people don't want this stuff.
I think people do. I think people always will.
Yes, there's argument that like with you know, TikTok and twitch streamers, there's all this much more like packaged targeted content out there. And again, like the whole using the word content versus film, which I agree with that I think calling content feels a little weird. But yeah, but at the same time, I think, you know, people like art. People want art that's like a part of humanity that has existed forever.
And yeah, again I am hopeful.
I do think like the fact that like A twenty four has kind of taken off in his popularity.
Like as much as I don't like film Twitter as.
A whole, I think the fact that like film, Twitter and letterbox and all these things are sort of like a bigger thing, I think it just shows that, like there's still people interested in this, there's still people that want to see this. It's just the industry is fucked, Like honestly, it's yeah, I'm hoping for the best, but yeah, we'll see what happens.
Oh my gosh, I love everything that you just said. First of all, I think I'm I'm like an a twenty four stan, I'm probably I'm probably the person on film Twitter that you're like, God, you're so annoying.
I like, I'm also it is a thing where I'm like, I'm part of the problem, and I.
Yes, yeah, I'm the problem. It's me.
Yeah, exactly.
But this is so hopeful. This is such a hopeful note to end on, like, support the writer's strike as much as I like, as much harm as these like billionaire streamer Hollywood ceo bastards have given us the fact that they robbed us of a Bottoms press tour, I will never forgive them.
But they're like a couple of videos I did before the before the strike, We're just like beautiful but yeah again.
And I go see Bottoms.
The way to support the strike is to show these executives that people want these movies, that people want this creativity.
Go see Bottoms. Fantastic film.
That is a great place to end. You have your assignment for the weekend, folks, go see Bottoms. Joey, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it, of course, and thanks so much to all of you for listening. We will talk to you very soon. If you're looking for ways to support the show, check out our March store at tangody dot com slash store. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech, or just want to say hi, You can read us at Hello
at tegody dot com. You can also find transcripts for today's episode at TENG Goody dot com. There Are No Girls on the Internet was created by me Bridget Tod. It's a production of iHeartRadio and Unboss Creative, edited by Joey pat Jonathan Strickland as our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Almado is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.
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