A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein - She Had Elon’s Baby. Then, the Leopards Ate Her Face.
Episode Date: January 23, 2026Ashley St. Clair dropped out of college to become a full-time conservative influencer. Five years later, she was pregnant with Elon Musk’s child. Within months, the weight of the politics Ashley bui...lt her career on collapsed. Elon publicly disparaged Ashley and reneged on his fatherly responsibilities, and the influencer who once shamed single mothers on Fox News was one herself. Today, June (or JUNlPER, of Twitter fame) joins me to have a frank discussion with a newly reformed Ashley St. Clair. We probe her on profiting off anti-LGBT bigotry, the seductiveness of the right-wing influencer ecosystem, and making amends. And, of course, what it’s like for the leopards to eat your face. Listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Thanks to today’s sponsors! Start managing your money better and cancel unwanted expenses at https://www.rocketmoney.com/fruity. Get 15% off a cuter, more sustainable way to clean at https://www.blueland.com/fruity. Listen to June’s podcast, Kill The Computer. Listen to June’s other podcast, Ill Conceived. Follow June on Bluesky. Find me on Instagram. Find A Bit Fruity on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Okay, we have Mr. Frutie, Miss Onion, and Miss Former Fox News.
This is starting off great.
Hello, hello, and welcome back to A BitFruity.
In February 2025, I made an episode of this podcast called The Incoherent Sexual Politics of the Right,
which centered largely around a then 26-year-old conservative influencer named Ashley St. Clair.
Ashley had spent years building an online audience of over one million conservatives who followed her for her hot takes on transgender people, building the wall, single mothers, the erosion of the traditional family, and all manner of right-wing slop.
Sorry, Ashley, I got to keep it real.
It's honest.
In 2021, Ashley wrote a transphobic children's book called Elephants Are Not Birds.
You can kind of guess what that's about.
her conservative media career was ascendant.
Last February, though, Ashley's life had just taken a wild turn.
She'd announced to the world that she had just had a baby and that the father was Elon Musk.
At the time, Elon had essentially ghosted her, and Ashley took to Twitter to plead,
Elon, we've been trying to communicate for the past several days and you have not responded.
When are you going to reply to us?
My guest on that episode, Moira Donigan, said that Ashley made what was called a patriarchal
bargain. She offered her career and her body to a movement that promised her a secure place within
its ranks. But then it didn't. As Moira said, we can sort of assume that somebody in Ashley
St. Clair's position thought that being with Elon Musk and by extension having a child with
Elon Musk, you know, which we know that he very much wants, would grant her a degree of security
and status. You know, she thought that she was making a deal, right? And what we see with
Elon Musk is that he immediately did not hold up his end of the bargain, right?
Like, she sold her soul and didn't get paid for it.
In the year since then, things have taken turns that I personally did not expect.
Ashley went completely offline to raise her child and avoid harassment from Elon's lesion
of fanboys amidst a custody battle that she is still fighting.
At the request of her harassers, Grok, Elon's generative AI toy, posted fake images of Ashley
undressed in front of her children's school backpack.
She's in court trying to get such images banned.
And Ashley's also pivoted heavily in her politics,
notably trying to make amends with the trans community,
which we'll talk about at length today.
She wrote on Twitter last week.
Wait, actually, Ashley, do you want to read this?
I feel immense guilt for my role,
and even more guilt that the things I have said in the past
may have caused my son's sister more pain.
I don't really know how to make amends for many of these things,
but I've been trying incredibly hard privately to learn and advocate
for those within the trans community that I've heard.
I also haven't said much on this because I've gone back and forth over whether or not my voice would be helpful on the issue,
since it will be framed as disingenuous or just turning because I'm scorned.
Even this reply will become right-wing hysteria, but yeah, I am sorry. Let me know how I can help.
Today we'll interrogate all of this together. I could not have imagined saying this one year ago, but welcome to the show, Ashley St. Clair.
Hi, thank you for having me too.
And to help us do this today, I'm also so excited to be joined by the one and only, June,
who you might know as Juniper or Onion Person or At Can't Ever Die or Pudding Person or any of the online name she's used to avoid Elon's continuous attempt to ban her from his website.
On her Wikipedia page, she is labeled as being known for Twitter shit posting, which is absolutely awesome.
but she is also the host of the Kill the Computer podcast and the Ill-Conceived podcast,
and she was the person that Ashley was writing to in that apology that Ashley just read to you.
June, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm really looking forward to this conversation.
I think first and foremost, before we get into anything,
I think both of us have like a little bit of like preface questions for you, Ashley.
Yeah, so I think to start because I didn't expect to be here.
here talking to you at all, having this conversation. Why are you here right now? Like, what,
what brought you here? Because when I saw your reply, I wanted to answer it honestly. It is something
that I hadn't addressed, and I meant every word in my reply that I had been wanting to address it,
but I didn't want it to become the right-wing hysteria that it has been. And I was very aware that
it would lead to a litany of other issues, which it obviously had. And I, I,
that's why I'm here because it was on my heart and I wanted to get it off.
You read your response to my question, which was about your previous bigotry against trans people.
I think that was like a pretty brave thing to do.
So you knew what would happen.
You knew that all these people would swarm in.
And I saw that it was like very heartfelt and very reflective that you had sort of thought about this for a while,
that you sort of observed some past behaviors and sort of reconvening.
beamed. Thank you. And I knew there was going to be arrows from both sides. So there's been
this narrative that I'm doing it to grift or whatever, but everyone hates me after that response.
I will let you know. So it's not been advantageous. The right hates you because you're not
transphobic anymore and a lot of people on the left don't believe you. Understandably.
Which totally fair. Yeah. Yeah. And I was well aware that this would not be advantageous to me.
soever. But I also think becoming a mother, I've just, I've really wanted to take public
accountability for anything that I feel I've done that's unempathetic or wrong or what role I played
in it. And there's certainly a lot more eyeballs on me, whether I like it or not. And I feel like
an immense obligation to use that responsibly and show some humility. So that's why I'm here.
I think this episode is important to make because ultimately I want to believe that people can change.
If I didn't believe that, then like what's the point of any of this?
And I want to give people space to reflect and grow and maybe see themselves in you.
And at the same time, many of the listeners of this show are queer.
And the turn that this country has taken on queer issues over the last few years is not a thought exercise for us,
especially those of us who live in red states, especially those of us who are kids who don't have
legal autonomy. It's a lived experience with consequences. And those listeners are going to have
varied reactions to what you say. And I hope that you understand that. And I think that you do.
And that's totally understandable. And I don't blame anyone. I'm not going to get upset if people
have some vitriolic reaction towards what I'm saying right now. That's understandable. And I get it.
Matt, you and I, if I had a guess, this is the first time we're talking.
But I think you and I are both optimists in a sense that we assume that if people see the harm
that they cause people, which, let's be real, a lot of conservatives, including you in the past,
have caused a lot of damage to people that there is like that room to reflect.
And I'm curious, I don't remember where you said this, but you said that you want to see
a kinder world for your kid.
then you like saw the world becoming. What was like the moment that like it clicked in your mind that
you were like, oh my God, what I am doing is contributing to like this like hate tsunami. Was there
like a specific moment? There wasn't really a specific moment. It was just I think cumulatively seeing so
much vitriol and seeing people within my own life who were being impacted by that. And I know, you know,
people can be upset by sometimes it's like, well, I had to experience it to feel that empathy,
but that's unfortunately how it is sometimes. And I just, I was thinking about my children's
reactions to some of these things. And if they ever spoke the way that I had spoken in the past,
I would be so disappointed in them. And especially when I got off of the internet and people would
resurface old tweets of mine or, you know, post quotes from me. I really would read
them like with a disassociation because I was like, that's not who I am. Like, I can't believe I
said those things. That's never who I've been privately. And they would just read honestly kind
of sociopathic and really unempathetic, just mean. And I was like, I just really want to
set a better example for my children. And we're definitely going to get into some of those posts and
where you were when you made them. Because like I said, I really am interested ultimately in
understanding how to get people out of this mindset, whether they're making money off of it or not.
But first, I want to start at the beginning. As we do on this podcast, we always start with a little
early life. Could you tell us about where you grew up, what your family was like? Did you have
conservative parents or religious parents? Is that where this starts? They were not particularly
political. I was born in South Florida and my parents got divorced during the 2008 crisis. So then we
moved around a lot. We were in South Florida, which was very diverse to then this little town in
Alabama where it was not diverse. And I saw a lot of ideologies I was not used to. And we moved around
from there to Pennsylvania, to Montana, Maryland, New York, college.
So we were kind of nomads growing up.
But I'd been homeschooled in high school.
And because I was homeschooled in high school, and we were in a little town in Montana with
250 people, there was nobody there.
I was just on the internet in rather provocative parts of the internet that, you know,
it was very funny to be provocative or say things that were offensive.
and it was this anti-PC culture, and very much the feminism is cancer culture.
You have nobody around you.
My only friend was like a Mennonite lumberjack in Montana, and I wish I was kidding.
And then you go to college and you find the groups on campus that are political,
and you start tweeting and you find some sense of community.
I mean, it strikes me because, like, so many young people who are isolated for any number of reasons
resort to the internet
to find community.
Like I had more than 200 people
in the town that I grew up in in New Jersey
but because I was gay
and because I knew that I was gay so young
and I don't know if this is relatable to you June
but like I took to like gay parts of the internet really early.
Like I was on Tumblr and I was also in like provocative
you know like where did Tumblr take you to like
eating disorder and self-harm blogs?
And that was really destructive and unhealthy in its own way
but like I wasn't on like you know
doing Nazi shit.
I would say I wasn't doing Nazi shit, but just because, you know, I am Jewish, but it was, it was definitely a fringe part of the internet that I found myself in, unfortunately.
This is something that I am very curious in, just how, especially these days, during COVID, but especially post-COVID, a lot of people sort of rely on the internet these days, even more so than in the past.
Do you think it was in part like a loneliness that drove you to these more provocative aspects
because it got you attention because it got people to notice you?
Oh, definitely, definitely, especially when you're in that like adolescent phase.
And that's kind of all you want is some sort of sense of identity or attention and belonging.
And, you know, there's times where I convinced myself that some of these ideologies were, you know,
convictions of mine, but I think deeply there was a deep insecurity and vulnerability in me that I
had to work through for many years. But absolutely, you want some sort of belonging or identity and you
want to be liked. Every young teenage adolescent wants to be liked. When did your sort of online
provocateur type stuff start to align specifically with like conservative politics and like the
Republican Party. That was more like right when I was like 18 and going to college. Before it was
like right wing adjacent because it's that provocateur anti-PC. It wasn't quite political. It was just
more provocative, which was right-wing adjacent and then ended up getting absorbed by that right-wing
movement in 2016. But it wasn't overtly political until about 2016. In college, you start
posting a lot of conservative content online. I went back and looked at your content, Ashley.
Like many right-wing influencers, a lot of it centered around posting videos of queer people or activists at
protests, like protesting things like ICE or people wearing masks in 2020 and kind of making fun of them.
You use the terms crybaby liberals, triggered liberals and deranged liberals, like hundreds of times.
Hundreds.
It's like, I don't think it's funny.
I really like I know that it's caused harm.
But also it's like I'm laughing at my own psychosis that that is the reality that I posted it hundreds of times.
But as you can imagine, that that also wasn't very original language.
So this is actually.
what I wrote in my notes here that there are so many people who post that sort of content online.
It's very cruel and it's also incredible for engagement.
Did you feel passionately that these people you were posting about and, you know,
were making fun of, like, that they deserved the things that you and your followers were saying
to them?
Or did you just enjoy like the engagement and attention?
Like take me into the mind of 19 year old Ashley.
Most of the time when you post a video of some random person at a protest,
you're completely disconnected from the personal affect on that individual.
I don't know what the affect was on any of the individuals I posted,
and that I feel immense guilt over.
You're completely disconnected.
It's just this content machine where you're pointing out things that at the time seem absurd
and you're very swept up in this machine that makes things appear more radical than they are.
And so I think that's what it was. I was also very, when you're being fed that content, that's your reality. And then when you see that content, you're like, oh my God, it's true. Everything they said is true. You know, this is the way the world is. It's so crazy and everyone's losing their minds. And we have to stop the radical left. And it's very much this pathology that kind of distorts your own perception of reality, I would say.
So at the time you would post like, I don't know, a video of like a flamboyant gay person or like whatever.
It might be that the right those days was was melting down about.
I guess I'm just curious because whenever I interact with like most people or just anyone,
even if it's someone that's like politically opposed to me, I want to like consider like how they feel.
Just the average person, you know, like we might disagree on some things.
I guess what I'm curious of is like it never crossed your mind.
for years that you might be harassing or personally, like, harming or, like, putting people down
in a way that was not helpful?
No.
And that's something that I had to really reflect on for quite some time and recognize
that there were so many individuals along the way that I hurt.
You're within a movement that also frames it as this is evil.
You know, they want to corrupt the children.
Look, there's one person being a particular thing.
provocative in front of children at a pride parade, and that's used to characterize everyone
under one flag. And that, to me, when you're in it, I perpetuated a lot of harm with that.
And you don't realize it sometimes until you're out. I guess one thing off of that,
sorry, this might be jumping ahead of your outline a little bit. June, don't ever apologize
to me. Oh, she's not. She's apologizing to me for my organization.
purposes. I'm jumping ahead.
But I'll just,
because I feel like it's on topic, so I'll bring it up
now. You're sort of saying that
it did feel like, sort of
like world ending, you know, like
all of these things that's like, oh, corrupting
the children. In
this like right wing movement,
do people actually genuinely
care about
like trans people or gender issues or even
the one that in
particular, I cannot
understand, are people on the
like, especially in these radicalized spaces, do they really care about the words cisgender?
Does that actually bother them?
Yes, they believe it's a slur, and I've repeated at that at times.
To me, it was also realizing that there was this hyper-fixation on the trans community,
and they're always using it under the guise of we care about women and children,
and at no other point in any of their other platforms, do they ever care about women and children?
in fact, they're incredibly oppressive to women and children. So when you do realize that,
and you are a woman who has children, you're like, oh, wow, you guys, this is incredibly
performative and you're scapegoating one of the smallest minorities in the entire country
to make something a national issue that is not an issue at all.
Ashley, like I said, I was going through some of your tweets. And I, and I,
I have to point out, not entirely on a lighter note, but like I said, there were so many
deranged liberal tweets.
There's this one from July 29th, 2019.
It's a selfie of you.
Sorry, I know you're cringing if someone's not watching the video version of this podcast,
but it is kind of funny.
You are, it's a plain selfie.
You're wearing a MAGA hat.
You're beat.
You're beat with like real Republican makeup.
Like this, you were in it, sister.
Can you tell I've changed my ways when my makeup is better, okay?
Your makeup is better.
Your makeup is better.
You're sitting on this plane wearing the MAGA hat and you caption the selfie,
wore my MAGA hat on the plane and made it out alive.
A true accomplishment in the world of deranged liberals.
I wanted to be oppressed so bad.
Well, apparently, because a few months later, it's a TikTok and you seem to be in a room
against a blank wall wearing a MAGA sweatshirt and holding a photo of a stylized portrait
of Donald Trump.
How did you find this?
I thought that was gone.
Baby, you got to clear your Twitter out.
It says the TikTok liberals are mad about this one,
laughing face American flag emoji.
And also in a similar time frame,
it seemed that you were on a boat,
a boat tour going around Manhattan,
waving a huge Trump 2020 flag from the boat,
captioned on a Trump boat driving by NYC with flags,
sure to piss off all the Manhattan liberals.
The rioters will have to swim pretty fast.
to catch us laughing face.
And anyone listening to this,
regardless of whether they've seen your specific tweets,
they can recognize this content
because there's so much of just like,
trigger liberals content.
And it seems devoid in and of itself
of any particular ideology
other than wanting to make other people mad.
Was that something that you woke up
and thought about wanting to do?
Or was it like you opened your Twitter app
and it's time to go to work?
Did you get adrenaline out of it?
I feel like,
should have put savi on blanc instead of water in my bottle right now.
It was, I could use a savi bee after that.
No, it was very much like you want to trigger the lips.
You're like, oh, look at these triggered lips.
That's how you kind of won.
You're like, you know, you find a triggered lib.
And then you're like, I won.
Here we go.
And it's just very stupid and adolescent and absent any intellectual prowess.
There was no critical thinking within any of those at all.
Well, this much is evident.
No shade, but...
This is just a minor question, but it's regarding, like, the syntax in which you, like,
spoke in some of these old tweets and pretty much all your old tweets.
And seeing how you talk online now, it's like a totally different world.
You seem like a normal, like, you don't talk like a normal...
bot or like every other right-wing influencer. Is there like a syntax that everyone is like,
this is the way we have to speak? Does it come down from the top? Where does a syntax come from?
Is it talked about in these spaces at all? It's not really talked about, but it's kind of implied,
you know, nuance isn't really great for engagement. Okay. And I think at that point,
I found myself stuck in a cultivated audience of Magabumers.
Hmm. So they expect you to talk like them.
My content flew on Facebook. It flew. I mean, the people who would come up to me were all like 50-year-old men who were like, thank you for your hard work for this country.
And there was like very much this thing. They're like, you're really out there. You're pushing back on them. And they like, you kind of feel like a soldier for a minute. You're like, yeah. That's right. You're like.
That's your Vietnam hat moment.
Yeah, you have these men coming up to you who are wearing veteran hats and they're like,
you're doing great work for this country.
And I'm like, thank you, sir.
And so, like, it really feeds the delusion.
Ugh.
I like my stomach feels ill after that.
Okay, well, I'm not reading any tweets for a while, so you can breathe easy.
As you can see, if you are watching the video version of this.
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off your first order at Blueland.com slash fruity. That is Blueland.com slash fruity. Now, let's get back
to the show. I want to take it back to a sort of more human place, because while you're tweeting
all of this stuff, you are very, very young. You're like 18, 19, 20. I know 2019 is the year that you
became an ambassador for Turning Point USA with Charlie Kirk, Charlie Kirk's incubator for young right
wingers. You're still in college at this point. And I was looking through some documents related
to this. And you were a speaker at the 2019 Young Women's Leadership Summit. This just struck me
because how can you be like a young leader and a movement that you've been part of for less than a
year? So the right wing does a fantastic job of cultivating influencers and giving you events and things
to go to and things to make you feel important even though you're not. I had no authority. Nobody
should have been propping me up at all, but they did because it was very useful to an agenda.
And it took me a long time to realize that I actually wasn't important and that I was a useful
idiot to people who had much more sinister and self-serving agendas. And the right wing is very good at that
because all of a sudden, I'm tweeting for a few months. And now I have my own special graphic
where I'm like, hey, guys, come see me at this event. And I think simultaneously at that time,
the top profession that kids said they wanted to be was a YouTuber. And so there is kind of
that everyone wants to be an influencer. I was very into like watching.
the Carly Bibles and the beauty influencers of the world. So I think that's attractive to,
especially a teenage girl. How did you even get involved in Turning Point to begin with? Like,
did Charlie come to your school? I don't remember exactly how it started, but I was involved
with the Young Americans for Liberty chapter on my campus and then the Turning Point chapter on my
campus. And then I met Charlie shortly after that. And I was invited to these events and they would
find my stuff online and invite me and add me to their influencer programs. It just kind of snowballed.
Yeah, I mean, they are really good, sadly. I really fucking hate that the right is really good at this,
because Democrats are not as good at this in terms of propaganda where, you know, Riley Gaines is probably one of these people where they're like,
we got to get her for this thing. Or like even more recently, Samantha Fonlecki at, I think Oklahoma,
a you where it's like useful pawn for the culture war, for the political movement, and they will
prop that person up and give them everything. You mentioned you were homeschooled in this tiny town
for high school. Do you think that being absorbed into this world so quickly once you got to
college, like beyond any sort of ideological beliefs you held or didn't hold, like did the community
element draw you in faster than anything else? Because that's kind of what it seems like for a lot of
these people. Yes, especially since I missed like a lot of community and event milestones like prom or
anything that, you know, the typical high school student does. And then I'm being invited to these
things. I'm cool. I'm people like me. And that's, that's something that I missed in high school
that I think was certainly attractive. And especially since I had started out, like in the
Young Americans for Liberty, more libertarian. You know, we all need constitution.
rights and free speech, it was very easy to be co-opted and say, oh, well, you know, it's the logical
extension of some of these ideas to take on a more conservative role and especially when I'm just
forming an identity. Which is ironic, of course, because all of these same people are the ones who are now
cracking down on civil liberties for everyone in this country. That's absolutely right. And I also want to
address perhaps a small elephant, but not bird, in the room. A.
No, it's actually we're not at the book yet.
The elephant that I want to address is your pretty.
Thanks.
Well, I mentioned that because this ecosystem of right-wing media has a penchant for young, traditionally
attractive right-wing women.
It's also very dominated by white men.
I don't know.
Like, what was the gender dynamic there?
That was one thing that I was privy to very early on, that it was.
very much a good old boys club and there were a lot of young girls that I kind of tried to guide
and tell them, hey, you know, you're in this, we're in the good fight, but you're in a man's world
and you need to be careful and you need to just keep your head on a swivel because they'll
eat you whole. And that was one of the things that I was always aware of very early on because
I very quickly was in the room with prominent individuals. And the dynamics I saw in which women were
abused or they were assaulted and they couldn't speak up because this was, you know, like the anti-me-to party.
And I was someone who had been a victim of sexual assault. So I had been viewing it through that lens
as well. And I was always really uncomfortable with it, but you're kind of, you're convinced out of it.
out of what your lived reality is and that your lived experience isn't important. What's important
is the facts. What's important is the economy. And we can't be derailed by this woman's measly
experience and put it aside and compartmentalize it. I think that played a big role as well,
especially when I had my first son and I'm labeled the single mom as a slur. That played an immense
role as well. I've watched other interviews you've done. You know, you said that when you started
doing conservative activism, you advocated against, for example, like most conservatives do,
social programs mainly for the poor, like Medicaid, while you were still on your dad's
health care plan. And I think a theme that someone could identify through a lot of your politics
and then this arc that you would eventually go on is that, you know, you didn't really care
about certain issues until they showed up at your doorstep. That would be actually.
in a lot of regard. I was going to say in some regard, but in a lot of regard. I also, however,
not but, but however, I think that's unfortunately how it is for a lot of people, right? We see this
with Renee Good. And there were a lot of people who didn't necessarily see the brutality of ICE until
it was an American citizen. And they could see themselves in Renee Good's position. And it sucks
that that's the way it is, and I'm trying very hard to move past that and say, why didn't I see
those issues until it impacted me? And I'm sorry for that. What I can say is I do consider myself
to be an empathetic person, and that I'm trying really hard to understand what I missed before
and why I disregarded a lot of those things. And I will also say that if I was only self-interested,
you wouldn't be hearing from me right now.
I have taken a lot of arrows in the last year
because I have recognized that I couldn't sell my soul
because that would prevent me from helping a lot of people outside of myself.
If I just wanted to help myself, I'd be very materially comfortable
and I wouldn't be speaking to you right now.
And that's a story that hopefully I can tell at a later time,
But I want everyone to know that at least in my actions, I'm trying very hard to make amends and I can't discuss that story in its entirety.
But I've done that because I recognize the broader harm of me staying silent and taking certain opportunities that were offered to me.
For those who don't know and Ashley can't speak about this in her own words right now because she's still in this ongoing custody battle with Elon Musk for her child.
But it was pretty well documented in a long-form Wall Street Journal essay that Elon,
essentially with all of the women in his life, uses money as sort of a cudgel for abuse
and for people around him to behave in a way that he likes, and that's advantageous for him.
I think a lot of wealthy people do that to a certain extent with the people in their life,
but you can imagine the richest man in the world to the greatest extent.
And so, Ashley, when you say, and I know you can't comment on those things directly,
but, you know, a lot of people, I would imagine, are going to comment on this episode as they have on other tweets that you've made about how, oh, well, she, you know, she was kind of ousted from the right because she ended up becoming a single mother and they turned on her. And so now she's trying to grift to the left. The funny thing about grifting to the left is that...
Not a lot of...
It's not a lot of money in it.
Let me be very clear, too. I ousted myself from the right.
I was very aware of the consequences of being honest.
I knew I would be in a place where I was maybe in the place I'd been most comfortable my whole life being a nomad and, you know, finding comfort in that spot.
This is all to say, like, I believe you.
And you could be a very convincing talker, but you have made a series of decisions that lead me to believe that your intentions are good.
I mean, again, I can't speak to the entirety of the sacrifices I've made, but it has not been easy, and I was very aware that it wouldn't be.
And I think just for myself, too, just to be very honest, because back and forth leading up to this interview, you know, we've talked a little bit.
In the back of my mind, I'm like, what if, like, you know, what if the intentions are bad?
What if this is like an infiltration?
Or I, you know, I don't know.
I kept going back and forth, but it was one of those things where it's like, it would be so
much easier if there was any sort of bad intentions to just sort of sit down and sort
of be in that sphere still and just sort of not talk, you know?
It also hurts me that you even have to consider that.
And I did, to be completely honest.
I did at first.
Not like personally, but like in terms of like my broader impact of things that I've done.
Like it just hurts me that.
anybody has to feel on edge when they receive an apology or like, and I contributed to that.
And like I am so sorry.
It's okay.
And like I said, I do believe your intentions are good as well.
It was just that at first I was like, oh.
I know.
And that's a lot of people are going to feel that way.
And again, like, I get it.
I get it.
It's a common story that you, of course, touched on here is that like,
you don't understand or sort of switch your perspective on things until it happens to you.
Because, like, from my perspective, for some context, I have been super politically minded and active since I was in high school.
From a fairly early age, I realized I was bisexual.
And then shortly after that, I realized I was trans.
So in the back of my mind, I was always like, and this was before gay marriage was legalized.
This was when Fox News was bringing on pastors being like, the Bible says, you can't.
can't have. It's, it's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, you know, the classic bullshit. So like, I saw this world around me. And, you know, I tried to be being the good politically minded person that I am, the addicted, you could call me addicted to politics in a sense. But like, you know, I would argue. I would talk to people I disagree with. And it's very rare that that would change their minds. What would, of course, change people's minds is having something happen to them. I guess my question is,
Was there ever like when someone would talk to you,
I'm assuming you had a lot of these conversations,
someone would be like, you know,
these politics that you support,
these politics that you're talking about right now,
are materially harmful to people in my life,
maybe even myself.
Did that ever like, like,
something in the back of your head ever like twitch?
Were you ever like,
or did you just sort of like,
you were in that ecosystem,
you were in that sphere,
you were sort of like, you know,
it's,
that's not important.
No, and I think that's why it's so
important to have the conversations and still say it to people in a way that they can be receptive
to because even if I was initially defensive when people would say things like that to me,
it was in the back of my head. And especially once I left it, I would revisit some of those
conversations from people who had said, hey, the things you're saying are harmful and revisit
those and say they were right. And I have to figure out how to make amends for that. And
And I'm very early on, too, in recognizing and deconstructing exactly why I acted that way
and said the things I did.
Like, it's, and it's really painful to unpack that.
Especially probably in front of multiple people.
In front of millions of people.
Yeah, yeah.
But I also think it's helpful that even if I don't always say the right thing right now,
that I hope people know that I am on a genuine journey to deconstruct.
what I was in and be responsible with the voice that I'm given now. So the least I can do right now
is think out loud. Yeah. During your time as a right-wing influencer, you tweeted passionately
about a lot of things. Sometimes you fixated on the queer community. You said that any person who
opposes the don't say gay bill looks like they need their search history checked. You can search
my history. It's looking for new indie
cat food brands.
It's probably it's. Guys, I'm trying to keep it light here. Come on.
Your search history is probably cleaner than Benny Johnson.
Hey.
You said of a family-friendly event that was taking place at the New York City
LGBT Center that our tax dollars were hard at work grooming kids.
You also said, I really was scrolling through your tweets out of
Ashley, you said on the night of the 2020 election, which famously took a very long time to call.
You know what the joke you made?
I do not. I don't know that I want to hear.
Okay, so I actually liked, I liked this one, Ashley, so you can breathe easy.
I'm like holding my breath.
You wrote, the total gender count might hit 270 before Trump or Biden does.
I got to be honest. Not bad. That's not a bad joke.
If you ever wanted to do some stand-up, that's like something to work with, you know?
If you weren't coming from the anti-trans angle there, like if we made that, frankly, like, that's a very good joke.
She doesn't know what to say.
Oh, man.
I'm sorry.
I don't know.
I was really stupid.
I think there's probably also, I don't know if you've recognized this going through my tweets.
And not to say that I didn't tweet horrific things.
But I think there was at least a mild, mild change in some of my post after I had a child.
There was. There was. You started to call into question publicly why there was so much fixation on trans issues around 2024, which was when you had your kid, I believe.
That was my second child.
That is what I noticed. And I think it was even before your second child, too.
I had my older son in November 2021.
With a different father.
Yes, yes.
After I had my first son, there was a shift, and it was kind of like, well, I'm in this, this is my career.
I dropped out of college.
What do you do from here?
I think the most noticeable shift, though, was with your second child.
It seems like even before he was born, you started to, I found this one tweet in particular,
just looking through some of your backlog, which I thought was really interesting because it was before.
You had your second child.
You said that the Trans Day of Visibility has been on March 31st since 2009.
Joe Biden has also issued a proclamation for it in 2021, 22, and 23.
Nobody did anything to anger Christians Easter Sunday.
Anybody saying this should not be taken seriously now or ever.
And you were sort of going at it with some conservative, what I would say, Grifters.
And the replies in finding that, I was like, huh, that's interesting.
Because that is actually sort of before when I would have assumed you sort of
took a little shift or like a little pivot away from some of the previous type of posts that we
would have seen from you. It's weird to say because I did the math, but this was when I believe
you were pregnant with your second child. Yeah. And there was a shift over the years that it took
me, and not that this is an excuse, but it's the reality. It took me a long time to find the courage
to even start sprinkling some of those realizations, because it is a lot to,
to face that backlash. And, you know, maybe all of us right here are used to it. But a lot of people
aren't. And it can be immensely painful. And it can take a toll on your mental health to,
and it can be dangerous. And there's the pushing back against your own past. It's like, oh, I've spent
years committing myself to this. It's like, it's like a sunk cost fallacy where you're like,
well, I've already invested all of this time and my public persona into this movement and to go back on it.
Well, now I look like a fool.
It's why so many people, including I think Elon Musk and a lot of people I talk about on this podcast, J.K. Rolling, they can never concede that they're wrong because it's hard to concede that you're wrong.
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Now it is time to put this sleeping princess kitty back to bed.
Nope, she never woke up and get back to the show.
I do want to talk about elephants are not birds because this is actually actually when you came
onto my radar in 2021 you wrote a book called elephants are not birds where you put your name
on a book that was written called elephants are not birds. I don't know if you wrote it. You can let me
know. But elephants are not birds is a transphobic children's book that according to the description
provided by the book's publisher quote tackles the topic of gender identity in it we follow
Kevin the elephant as he learns that even though he can sing, he is not a bird, even if
culture insists that he is. One of the phrases on the back of the book says, can a beak and
wings make an elephant a bird? Pretty clear what that's suggesting about trans issues.
This is something that you published, profited off of, and has impacted the way that some
parents raise their kids, which we'll get to in a second. But first, I talk a lot on this podcast
about the right-wing media ecosystem and how it's primed to financially support and incentivize
someone like you to stardom with things like bigoted book deals. So from sort of like a business
background, like peek behind the curtain perspective, can you tell us about how this book came to be?
I cannot, unfortunately, with the terms I had to come to with the publisher when we removed
my name with the book. So. But I can speak to.
So it's very attractive when you're just getting started.
It's the same thing as when you get invited to a turning point event.
You so want to be validated as this intellectual and someone who's respected.
And then, you know, you get a podcast deal or a book deal.
And that is kind of an opportunity for you to solidify yourself as, hey, take me seriously.
Look, other people take me seriously.
I have deals.
I, you know, but again, I don't really have much to say on it except it was wrong.
And I've taken steps so that my name isn't on it.
And when the opportunity arises, I do plan on making financial amends because I did make money off of this.
And that's, that's it.
And I can't unring that bell.
but I can try my best.
What I will say is I think taking your name off of the publishing for the book is definitely a step, though.
That is a good step away from, I think, the impact that this book did have.
It, of course, will always have that impact it did have, which is really unfortunate.
And I can't unwrite the book.
You know, I can't take it off the shelves.
Like legally or business contract-wise, you're not able to do that. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaking of the impact that the book has had on parents, because, you know, this to me, and I'm sure to June, like we were once queer kids who had to grow up with parents who, you know, when you're queer, it's an uphill battle inside your own family.
It is. You have to hide things. I mean, I had to hide aspects of myself because I wasn't sure. I wasn't comfortable. Yeah.
And so I want to stress Ashley.
Oh, Ashley's cat is in the mix.
Okay, I have to ask.
Most important question, what's your cat's name?
This one is Leno.
My son named him.
I was like, Leno, like, Jay?
What do you mean?
Jay?
And the other one's name is George.
I don't know where George is.
Oh, well, welcome Leno.
And if you get uncomfortable with any of our questions,
you can pass the questions off to Leno, I suppose.
So I want to stress that I'm not asking this as a gotcha.
Yeah.
or because I have a fetish for making you feel uncomfortable or anything. I really don't.
Understandable if you do.
No, Ashley, you know that I don't. I'm so glad that you've grown, obviously, a lot in
you're thinking about this. But in getting ready for the episode, I was asking myself what
meaningful accountability looks like, you know? And one thing I think we need to do is grapple
with the impact that this book had on parents of queer kids, you know, like June and I.
So I wanted to read a few Amazon reviews of the book, almost all of which are very positive.
And here are a couple from Desk Mouse.
Review title line, this kicks Dr. Seuss's ass, which is high praise for your writing, Ashley.
I'll give you that.
Seriously, as a dad who wants his children to grow up right, this book was right up,
was right my alley.
Great job on the story and the visuals.
Patriots at Brave Books,
you are giving our next generation
the tools so long desired by parents in the new right.
From Dragon, cute and covert.
I bought this book hoping to covertly guide my kids.
Things are complicated in this family.
Oh my God. Jesus Christ.
From CCE, Modern Day Truth in all caps.
Love this book and all the other ones
that go right along with helping us teach children true facts.
I'm an unnamed Amazon customer.
Absolutely lovely book.
I bought this as an adult and I love it.
That's fucking weird.
And Ashley,
I don't hold you to that one.
But no,
there's some odd reviews all talking about like,
you know,
this is a covert battle against evil.
I think some of these are,
you know,
the same people who were coming up to me
and saying, you know,
good job, soldier.
But can I ask you,
like,
in plain terms,
you've participated in,
and profited off a cycle of bigotry that queer people are often tasked with breaking in their
own families.
You know, now you have your own kids and queer people in your extended family.
And I'm really curious on like a very human level, what would you say if you could to the
parents that you influenced with this book or parents, you know, in that world?
I was no point of authority to be speaking on this issue.
and I hope that they take a similar journey to me to listening to voices that they have been told are off limits,
and I hope that they teach kindness and acceptance to their children,
and I hope that they find kindness and acceptance in their own hearts for their own children.
And I'm not quite sure how to make amends.
I've gone back and forth privately, publicly, on what the right way to do that is.
Even just speaking out has cost me much more than any money I made on that book,
materially, monetarily.
What I'm most looking for is voices within the communities that I heard to tell me how I can make amends,
or what would be helpful, because I don't know how to be helpful.
For many years, I have obviously not seen reality.
And so I really would like guidance on how to do that.
I mean, just from a quick gut check, I mean, I think what we're doing right now with this conversation having it and subjecting, well, maybe not subjecting yourself to it.
Because I think this is like something you need to do. But I think having this conversation and reflecting in front of a lot of people, I think is helpful.
I think, you know, doing what you've done with the book, taking your name off of it is also really good.
But I also think it's very important that, like, and this sounds silly, but as we've both acknowledged that there is the fear of like, oh, Ashley's just doing this to clear her name and then she's going to start a left wing grift, I think it's very important that you don't like make like a new YouTube channel. And you're like, this is my new world and this is my new, like, new me, new me. Like I think it's very important that you don't like. And you've, and to give you a lot of credit, you have done a very good job of this so far is you're not centering yourself. You're not centering like your own strong. And you're not centering like your own strong.
which, you know, is you've been, from speaking out, you have been going through a lot.
And I think what is respectable is, and this is just more broadly, whenever people sort of get
under attack for whatever reason, even outside of politics, people tend to take the route
of getting very defensive and blaming a lot of other people and not like reflecting on
someone's own actions that led them to this point. And I think it's just important to continue
that. Not to center yourself is a very important thing in a way that it seems like you're pivoting to
something, you know? My goal is to use my platform to provide a platform to people that I
ignored their voice. Because again, I'm, you guys are propped up on my LSAT study books right now
in my law school admissions Bible. My goal is very much to have a career in law and advocacy. And I don't
I'm not interested in starting a new left-wing podcast.
I'm interested in truth, whatever the cost is,
and having a very public struggle session
because I think it's important to show that humility
because so many of these people are afraid to
and say, hey, here's my genuine struggle with these thoughts
within this group that I belong to.
Something I actually do on a needle in a little bit more is actually your politics.
I think it's very clear that you've genuinely shifted on trans issues.
And the reason I prompted you that like back, that original reply that you read off at the start of this episode, the reason, of course, I'm trans.
But the reason I usually start with trans issues with these conversations is we've seen time and time again people who are like nominally liberal and then they become.
transphobic and then they become maga and then they get that syntax and then they appear in
Fox News. So it's like for me transphobia, it's transphobia and like a couple other topics that are
good tells on someone's overall politics. So I guess what I'm curious about is obviously I think
you have shifted a lot on trans issues, but what other issues have you shifted on? Would you say you're
like a liberal? You said you're like always like a political.
homeless person before you sort of ended up in this world. But like, what are your politics? Like,
what's an issue to you that's like, you used to be like, oh, I am like super Trump. I'm super
Republican that you're sort of now like, you know, maybe like the left sort of has a point on this.
Is there anything like more than like ice or like trans issues? I think there definitely is
because what the trans issue and they've made it an issue. Absolutely. Yeah. What it's really
indicative of is how misplaced priorities are. Because your life is not materially impacted by
such a small percentage of the population and what they're doing individually. What we are impacted
by is these levers of powers, which, for better or worse, I had immense access to. And they
don't have anyone's best interest at heart. They are destroying this country. And every one of us,
collateral, some communities more than others, because they're easier to scapegoat or make fun of.
But what I'm very interested is taking back this Uber elite lever of our country that since the
70s has really come to power and made everyone below them in their economic class less valuable.
because politics has inevitably become about how much money you have. You have more free speech if you have more money. And we do not have the same access to participate in democracy if we don't have the same amount of dollars as everyone. And so I guess I've been particularly fixated on the class issue and reading some of the things I wasn't supposed to. And recognizing how some of these struggles that I
ignored, they're important because they didn't go away. And they do apply to those who are ignoring it.
And if they think they're not a part of that oppressed minority, they very much are. They hate you
just as much as they hate the trans community as they hate women. And so I think that's been
an evolution for me, particularly as it relates to the Uber capitalist. I mean, you saying
class war now is music to my ears. That's what I, that's what I love to hear. Ashley's saying
woke. When I was going through this, I think inevitably when you recognize a class issue,
a lot of these other issues that are so sensationalized become more clear. Absolutely. And more of a
distraction because they're, the accounting of the plantation never stopped. The,
Silicon Valley Bros would be very proficient and plantation accounting. And that's really important
to recognize, especially as we get, you know, not to get too meta about it, but especially as I was
immersed in this world where AI is taking over, it's like the final terrain of extraction.
There's nothing left to extract. There's no more labor to extract. And now they're extracting
everyone's thoughts and our desires and our souls. And that to me is like incredible.
existential and everything is secondary to that. That, that the system we created, capitalism is
eating its host and it's incredibly suicidal. A hundred percent. You know, a lot of these,
a lot of these rich people, the way they use these wedge culture issues that shouldn't be,
but the way they use them, it's once I feel like you are enlightened, like just go on Twitter.
You can go on Twitter right now and see, you know, like Mark Andreessen,
posting some bullshit. Like, it could be any... I can't go on Twitter. I'm being sued by them.
Honestly, that's... I deep respect.
Well, so let's get into that then. In February 2025, you post on Twitter a statement.
Five months ago, I welcomed a new baby into the world. Elon Musk is the father. I have not previously
disclosed this to protect our child's privacy and safety, but in recent days, it has become clear that
tabloid media intends to do so, regardless of the harm it will cause. I intend to allow our child
to grow in a normal and safe environment. For that reason, I ask that the media honor our child's
privacy and refrain from invasive reporting. Now, I know you can't get into specifics around
custody and your family. I'm not here to ask you to do that, but I do want to mention that
in the wake of your going public about giving birth to a child that was also Elon's,
there was a campaign online by right-wing men, including Elon, to smear you as the sorts of things right-wing
men often smear women as. I watched this happen at the time. That's when I made that episode.
It's still ongoing every day. You were called every misogynistic slur in the book by thousands of men at once.
You were, you know, all these sort of misogynistic allegations that men always make about women.
I mean, there were conspiracy theories around you plotting to, you know, get this man to have a child with you.
Like I said, I know you can't speak to specific things relating to that as you're still battling for custody of your child, a child which, according to publicly available information, this is coming from my mouth, not Ashley's.
Elon has only seen a total of three times with each meeting being very brief.
But when it comes to the harassment situation, what was it like facing this onslaught of?
harassment by a group of men that included the audience you spent years building.
They're going to have to try harder.
Someone has recently decided to say on a certain podcast by a certain admin official's
wife that he believes in the creator and he's all of a sudden religious.
And the only thing I have to say about that is you should pick a God and pray.
I'd be remiss not to mention that you have spoken out against single motherhood when you were in your right-wing influencer era.
In 2023, you applauded Vivek Ramoswamy for, quote, calling out the system for incentivizing single motherhood, three fire emojis.
Sorry, Ashley.
In 2020, you wrote, if women get to have the right, in quotes, to an abortion, men should have the option to not pay child support.
Again, I'm not trying to bring this up for the sake of having a gotcha.
I just want this to be meaningful.
And I think you have a really powerful testimony in terms of how self-defeating these ideologies are.
Yes.
For anyone who isn't a wealthy white heterosexual man.
And so with that in mind, the big question, do you ever feel like the leopards ate your face?
Oh, yeah.
They did.
And especially like if you take the abortion and child support tweets,
That was me trying to be clever and reworking a Dave Chappelle bit.
You know, I was just so unoriginal.
It's never a good thing to try to do.
No.
And, you know, I also feel a men's guilt because I was raised by a single mother.
And, you know, and she went through so much.
And it wasn't until I became a mother that there were other things my mother experienced that recently a few months ago, I called her.
I said, you know, we had lost my younger brother.
I'm so sorry.
And I called my mom like a couple months ago because, you know, I've now been through postpartum twice and I said, you know, mom, I'm really sorry that no one told you you were doing a good job because you had to go through postpartum without a baby.
And I feel like guilt for for anything I said that hurt her too.
and other women who, you know, we're struggling.
And I'm now facing those same struggles.
So you can call that karma or whatever you want.
But I think it's just sometimes things really have to hit the fan for you to realize how impactful your words are, unfortunately.
But the most I can do is help other women now that I wasn't helpful.
to in the past because if it's this difficult for me and I'm privileged and I had resources,
like what is it like for everyone else? They don't really have a shot at all. So that's
the best I can do. And I'm hoping once I have ESQ after my name that I can make amends for
that issue in particular. Can I ask a little bit more about, because you said you wanted to get into
law. Yeah. What was it in particular? Is this like a recent thing? Like, no.
What inspired you?
Thank you for that question.
I always wanted to go to law school.
I had originally gone to college for philosophy because it's the third best major for law school outside of math and economics.
And then I got involved in right-wing politics and the side that I repeated these points, don't go to college, you don't need college.
And if I can do anything too to make amends, go to college.
Do not listen to me.
You should absolutely go to college and get your career.
sorted out. So now I'm just going back to what I always wanted to do and trying to rectify my life
from when it went towards the direction of other people's agendas instead of my own and trying to
meet my younger self where I lost her. With that in mind, you are sort of entering your
legally blonde era, which is a much better look on you, if I may. Over the last few weeks, a lot has
happened in the world, in your world. In the wake of your posting an apology to the trans
community, which we read up top, Elon, who's obviously devoutly anti-trans, announced that he
is seeking full custody. He wrote, I will be filing for full custody today. Given Ashley's
statements implying she might transition a one-year-old boy, obviously you made no such statement,
and I know you can't talk about that. Absurd, absurd thing. Fucking absurd.
Absurd. And this is coming from June and I, not Ashley.
Yeah. If I was the judge, I'd be like, all right, let's get this. Let's get this over.
I throw this out. If I was a judge, maybe I should be a judge.
And Ashley, you are free to not say a single word, but I am truly wishing you all the luck in the world in that.
Because I don't think Elon should have custody of a fly.
But another battle that you've been fighting and one that you can speak to is against AI deep fake pornography on Twitter.
When I pitched you to come on this podcast, I promise that I would give you a space to talk about this fight.
And I would love for you to tell everyone about it.
Yeah.
So there's, for those unfamiliar, most recently, X-A-I, Twitter caught themselves involved in a little scandal
because their Mecca Hitler robot decided that it was going to undress women and children
and distribute this publicly via the verified GROC account.
This happened to me as well.
and I was very outspoken about it. It continued to do it, and I am now suing X-A-I.
And in our suit, we speak about the reason for this lawsuit being that there needs to be a broader
protection for women and children who are affected by this. And so I'm hopeful that there is some
regulatory action that can happen as well, because this is out of control. I'm not sure how many
women and children need to be undressed before people turn the faucet off. But we're fighting it.
Yeah, because my understanding is basically that, so GROC, if you're not on Twitter or X or whatever,
it's Twitter's AI tool. And then it introduced image AI and immediately, I mean, Elon even
tweeted, like, you can put a bikini on anything. And it was like a joke he put where it was like
a bikini on a toaster. But he was obviously gesturing at like, you can take the clothes off.
of any picture of a woman. And then amidst all this controversy, I think it's like being banned,
but only in places where there are existing laws against this type of image generation, but not
everywhere. I think the UK is the only one currently that has any sort of regulation against
XAI on it. And I don't even know if it's gone underway quite yet. It was blocked in Indonesia,
Malaysia. Congrats, Queens. It was only geo-blocked in places where it's illegal.
which is horrific, because if it's horrific enough to be banned one place, why can't it be banned
everywhere? They are using women and children and the abuse of women and children as collateral
for, I don't know what. These are questions for people who are paid to do this.
This has been horrific to me. I've been talking about this a lot too with Grock and it's like
image generation. And you were talking earlier about how a lot of these Silicon Valley tech people
are using AI to extract even more from us.
And now they're even against people's wills,
extracting other people's bodies, women's children's bodies
from their own consent.
There is no consent.
There cannot even be currently within the system
that GROC has, of course, set up.
They are trying to extract everything,
and it's so fucking disgusting.
Yes, that's the entire populace is becoming slaves
to a very small amount of people.
and the whip has simply been replaced with the invisible hand, all in the name of, you know,
we're propping up the stock market on all of these things and we've got to beat China and everyone is
reaping the consequences. And I think the end result of that is going to be the destruction of us,
you know? And, you know, at some point it's like, did we deserve it? We're the only other species
that causes other species to go extinct, you know? And so,
I think that also applies to ourselves.
I think we're playing a very dangerous game, and there's no unringing that bell.
And I think it's so telling, too, that people, like Elon, the people running these systems,
X-A-I are sort of gloating that they can do this and that they seemingly endorse it.
I think to me that's just, I mean, it's disgusting.
It disgusts me.
I want to conclude with just a couple finishing questions.
Ashley, what would you say to other people who are still ideologically in this world that you left behind?
And I think particularly women, because we know that a lot of young women were seduced by the promises of fascism in 2024.
Be brave. It'll eat you too. And I hope that you find the courage to leave and it may be painful at first.
But it'll be a storm and then it'll pass. And you will, if there's one thing I want them and my children to know,
is that you should never choose being materially comfortable over doing what's right.
And there's a misnomer about the superheroes and the good guys and the movies
that if they do the right thing, everything works out and they get the girl and
everything's okay. And it's not. It's actually really, really painful to do the right thing.
And I, you're going to suffer anyways. So please choose whether that suffering is worth it.
Then my final question, can you commit to putting out a new children's book called
Elephants might sometimes actually be birds?
It's complicated, but listen to them.
I think there might be some issues of legality with their.
I don't think my former publisher would be too happy if I published that.
All right.
Well, June and I will work on it.
Yeah, we can switch up from elephants to like sea lions or something.
Who knows?
We can we can make a very legally.
distinct that they won't even know. They won't know what's coming. A book where we just affirm
Johnny the Walrus from Mount Walsh. No, I really, I appreciate you guys having the conversation as well.
And I hope that it's helpful. And I know there's times where I'm going to feel like I'm disjointed or
I'm trying to collect thoughts. And it's because I am. Like, this is still very new for me to
unpack a lot of the things that I've been a port of and recognize and take accountability.
And I just hope that a few years from now I can help make a difference in a way that's impactful.
And anything you guys need, I'm here. I just, I hope that it's in the end of that positive.
Personally, I think so. Like, especially in the moment that we're in, in 2026 with Donald Trump,
with what I think is very clearly a fascist state at this current point. For a while, I've been thinking back to
2016. And I think I, of course, engaged in this at the time. There's all that hesitation to be like,
you voted for Trump once. You're always going to be bad. And I think, you know, if we're going to get out of this,
basically, I think there should be room to have these conversations and reflect. And I think there needs to be
more intention if we want to get out of this fucking mess, you know? Like we need to have these
conversations with people like you that were in in this. Yeah. And we're going to a point where it's
going to be very hard to turn this back around. And people need to recognize, are you the party
that hates government overreach or not? You know, all of a sudden, now you guys are bowing down
and bootlicking feds and saying this is all okay and saying it's okay that we don't release the Epstein
files and I hope they recognize who they're protecting. Yeah, because it's not themselves.
No.
Ashley, thank you so much for being here today. Where can people keep up with and or support your
fight against GROC undressing women? Don't follow me. Just keep up with the news on GROC and XAI.
And if it's happened to you too, I implore you to call your representatives.
and take action. And it's going to be harder for them to fight if everyone who is a victim is speaking
out. And June, it was such a pleasure to have to do this together. Where can people, because they
absolutely should find and follow you everywhere. Could you remind people where to find you?
Yeah, thank you so much for having me on for this. This was great. Also very nice to, to meet you.
A pleasure. But you can follow me. You can follow my shows. Kill the computer and Ill-Conceived. You can
find those anywhere that you listen to podcasts. And I work for The Onion, support the Onion.
Hell yeah. You can follow me on Blue Sky or Twitter if you want, but honestly, get off social
media. It fucking sucks. But yeah, no, just those. And if you made it this far in the episode,
I am so grateful to you. This was a complicated and thorny and personal one that I am really glad
that we made. I hope after the edit and all of our sentiments are ever so slightly polished.
that it comes through how meaningful this was to all of us,
and hopefully it is to you too.
I love you so much, and until next time, stay fruity.
