Everything Is Content - Hypercritical Swifties, The Love Hypothesis & Toxic Leftists At The Lesbian Bar

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

Hello EICurmudgeons…In the midst of some sitcom-worthy activities in our personal lives, we’re back with another episode breaking down the biggest- and weirdest- pop culture stories.We’re heading to the Congo Basin (not literally, we hope) as British survivalist Ash Dykes prepares to embark on a 700km kayak expedition down the Sangha river.With equal peril we’ve also decided to discuss Taylor Swift. Should we be applauding the encore to The Life Of A Showgirl? And why are her four new tracks leaving a sour taste in the mouths of some of her die-hard fans?We break down our fashion highs and lows from the VMAs, before giving our takes on the mask-only lesbian bar that broke the internet.As always thank you so much for supporting our independent podcast. We'd also love if you could subscribe to the show on your podcast player, leave a review/rating & follow us on Instagram, TikTok and now Substack. Love you! O, R, B xThis week Beth's been loving The Love Hypothesis, Ruchira's been loving Dog Day Afternoon & Oenone's been loving Younger, Have You Tried Unplugging The AI & this episode of the Ezra Klein Show.LinksPR Daily - Taylor Swift’s latest album announcement raises a question about audience fatigueTikTok - Thee Swiftologist “The Encore was a bad idea” Substack - Taylor Swift’s Shrinking World by Candice Wuehle Page 6 - MTV VMAs 2026 red carpet: See all the celebrity outfitsAsh Dykes - Project 6 NOE - Congo Basin forests: an ally against the climate crisis that must be protected before it's too lateThe Guardian - The Love Hypothesis review The Guardian- #NotAllLesbians – we can’t let the Massachusetts bar drama turn us all into a punchlineHollywood Reporter - Viral Lesbian Bar Article From Boston Globe Is Piquing Hollywood’s InterestThe Boston Globe - Greenfield lesbian bar Last Ditch faces mask-rule backlashAutostraddle - Excommunicate Me from the Church of Social Justice YouTube - You Can See Everything Trailer Instragram - Ash Dykes YouTube - The Swiftologist / Life of a Showgirl: The Encore Substack - What the fuck happened to Taylor Swift YouTube GENER8ION ft Yung Lean at the VMAs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is brought to you by Swift for furniture that looks and feels great. I'm so excited we're partnering with Swift. I got their model 08 sofa bed in Umba two years ago and honestly, girls, it has changed my entire life. I used to have this old air bed. It was so sad. It was so depressing. Friends would come over.

They'd wake up on the floor. Generally deflated, I felt so bad for them. With the Swift's sofa bed, everyone tells me they've had the best night's sleep. We haven't been invited around for a sleepover. Your invite got lost in the post. Sorry, girls. I'm on the way now. Can I ask, do you feel like a proper adult with a whole sofa bed? I absolutely do. And folding it out and away is the easiest thing. It takes 20 seconds. I have timed it.

Instead of trying to get four kilograms of rubbery mattress back in a box. As you both know, I am basically always decorating my future dream house in my head. And I have bookmarked the chicest love seat, Model 10, in chalk, that I am just obsessed with. And also, do you know what's so amazing about Swift is you can get loads of the products on next day delivery, which is just unheard of for furniture? So I am also in this sort of daydreaming stage, but me and my partner, we are talking about moving in together one day. So if he doesn't want the three-seater model zero-fiber mustard that I have picked out in my head on Swift, I'm sorry, I'm coming to live with one of you, and I hope that's okay in advance. I want a mustard sofa, so that's absolutely fine. I can share that. Me too. And Swift furniture is also perfect for renters because you don't need any special drills or tools to assemble anything.

And so the pieces take minutes to put together. And we have a special 10% off code for you too. Just head to swifthome.com forward slash pages forward slash EIC dash podcast. That's Swift, SWYFT to unlock your exclusive discount code. Do not worry. We'll leave the link in the bio and you'll even get an email with the pieces we handpicked when you sign up. I'm Beth. I'm Richerra and I'm Anoni and this is Everything is Content, the podcast that analyzes the best and most interesting stories from the world of modern pop culture.

We cover reality TV affairs, evil tech overlords, political firestorms, red carpet looks, book, TV and film reviews and plenty more besides. With three of pop culture's top translators taking the gibberish of online culture and celebrity mess and helping you to actually understand what it all means. This week on the podcast, a deadly survival mission turned memeable moment, Taylor Swift's got some new music, and the lesbian bar that has well and truly broken the internet. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Everything's Content part for behind the scenes content and to chat with us in our DMs and comments. They are always open and we love hearing what you think of our takes if you've got different opinions or if there's a topic you are dying for us to cover. We're also now on Substack where we're uploading new content every single week. SAs content roundups, deep dives, reviews. And you can find the link below in the show notes or just search everything is content pod on Substack. Girls, I'm kind of missing the midweek episode

and I know we've got our reasons, but it feels so weird to just have one conversation a week. So please, can you catch me up on everything that you've been up to since we lost spoke? Anoni, you go first. I feel like you've got, you've got way more. Well, it's so funny because my brain just goes blank. But yeah, what have I been up to? Well, as you know, I've been working on Redacted, which goes really badly most of the time because I just can't go out of my own head. But other than that, I had such a funny weekend because I had two cousins' weddings back to back. So on the Friday, I met my family in Surrey for one of my cousins' weddings, gorgeous, lovely wedding, had a great time. Then we all stayed over at that wedding, woke up in the morning, bundled ourselves into a car and drove to Sussex to go to my cousin's wedding on the other side.

And my family, I'm not joking, I've started writing a school. script because I was like, this is a joke. It was like me, my sister, my mom, my dad, we were sat in the back row of this wedding and just the things that happened. I don't know if you guys have ever watched. Did you ever watch Friday night dinner? Yes, I did. Yeah, I love it. So the matter, he's so sadly passed away, but the dad and that is my dad on every single level. Like, anyone who's ever watched that show is like, oh my God, it's, that's your dad. So there was just so many things that happened this wedding. And I was thinking sometimes I really think, you know, family's so complicated. And then other times, you know, when you like really lean into the comedy

of it or you think, God, actually, I don't want to be with anyone else. This is gold. That was both what I was up to. I double weddinged. Were the cousins both girl cousins? Because I forget that cousins can be boys. I really don't have that many. Were they both the brides? No. So on the first wedding, it was my cousin who's a woman. She, and we're really close in age. And then my other cousin was a boy cousin. I know that is, you're right. That is interesting. They exist. They do exist. I've only, I've not got many of them. I think I've got four boy cousins and the rest of all girls. I feel really bad if there's one I've forgotten. I think, oh shit, no, I've got five.

Oh. They won't know which one you've forgotten because you've not named them since the game. That's so true. That's such a good point. And you know, I got really cynical about weddings and then I go to one and I think, oh, it would be nice. And I think, what would I say? And then I'm like, going to my partner, like, what would you say? And then he never plays the games.

He never says anything seriously. He's like, I would go, this is an only and she's my friend. And I'm like, no, what would you say? And then I got so annoyed because he won't do it. I have that, I have that bit with like having a baby. And I'm like, okay, what would you do in this? scenario and I'm obviously being such an annoying person just like testing the person I'm with and he just keeps saying like yeah I'll just throw them out the window or do something and just

keep saying the worst things and the thing is it starts as a joke and then I wind myself up I don't think men are fun but the thing is that's so fun if you ask me to play that game I would play willingly if you would like oh my god such a good question I would blah blah blah they have no joie de vivre no no no improv at all and it's such a shame I actually had two I had two weddings weekend after weekend like three weeks ago. I mean, autumn's already getting away from me. And it was so nice because I just, I adore the weddings because I just want to hear. I want to hear the speeches and I want to hear the lovely vows. And it just makes me absolutely thrilled. And I left, the second wedding I went to was one of my best friends from childhood. And I had left my phone

in, I thought I left it in the cabin. I was a bit nervous. And then I realized I'd left it at my other friend's house where we were getting ready. And I just had this moment of like, oh my God, I'm free. I had a whole wedding. I had my little film camera. no phone and I've never been so in the moment before. I had to talk to people. Did that mean that you were literally going up to people, just ingratiating yourself, which I can imagine you do beautifully. Like how did it work? Were you nervous? At first I was so they kept reaching for it. And then you think, right, they've got a photographer. They don't need me to take the photos. Quiet moments, I was turning to the person next to me and just

going, how lovely is this or just starting conversations in some way. So there was the panic. And I think that that is just a part of the phone addiction that every single person. person has. But the minute I was, it was gone. I couldn't touch it. I was just kind of looking around the room. I was tasting my food more. I was on the dance floor. I wasn't tempted to try and contentify my friends' beloved nuptures. So actually, I think next time I'm going to try and leave my phone. Next time someone invites me to a wedding, it's staying in the hotel room. I'm not trying to be judgmental, but a wedding is the kind of place where you generally aren't on your phone apart from the pictures part. True. But I am addicted to my phone. So I

know that I would have sprinkled in some screen time. Yeah, it's the perfect place not to. So I don't think I have any excuse in future to bring it. Because it's like, why do I need it? I get what you mean with like a minute of silence. The person you're chatting with just like excuses themselves to go to the bathroom and then you do like a bit of a scroll. But just having that that stopgap, emotional comfort, I guess, just removed. I think I would get a little bit anxious. I just had a Siggy instead. Oh, there we go. And it was better for me. I did both weddings no vape at all. I said, oh, you're doing so good. I've just got my little straw. That thrills me. Well done. So speaking of weddings and all things wedding-y, what I have been up to, I went to my brother's tag, which you both know.

Yes. It began, because I was sort of helping plan the stag, because I'm one of his groomsmaids. I began to consume me. I was sort of planning things in my sleep. It wasn't even that complex. It was just like nine women and my brother in a gorgeous house in Chepstow. But it was like the cooking, the deliveries, making sure everything was time-dry, making sure we had enough, you know, the cleanup, the activities for like making sure everyone's ready for them, the supplies for them. It was great fun, but I do think I don't even want to have a wedding. That was probably a 50th of what a wedding planning takes, and I am fully, I'm a husk, but it was, it was so much fun. We did order too much milk. We ordered 16 pints of milk for 10 people. Milk?

16 pines for two mornings. I won't say where it is because she obviously doesn't know but we're organising one of my best friends' hands over Halloween weekend and I'm in a group chat where this morning I got another list of things I had to say yes or no there's so much planning going on but Beth what things did you not get right? Because it's like one of my friends who's the made of honour, she's such a planet that I actually think we might have overplanned.

Like it's too organised now and I'm being asked to say like do you know what I mean? So maybe you could give us some words of wisdom. What was your one of the day? Did you have too many things planned? We actually didn't. And I think I foresaw this. And there was a lot of, if ever you've been on like a press trip, they always have like time at leisure. And it's never enough when you're on a sort of travel at leisure.

Time at leisure. I did time at leisure. Because it depends where you're going and whether you're staying. Like where we stayed, the house was the drawer. Had a hot tub. I had like the grounds. Had so many comfy areas. People actually want to see this as a bit of a holiday as well because they're paying so much money.

So I did a lot of time at leisure. That was good. The milk thing. Don't. I googled it. And actually Google said I needed 25 pints of milk. I ordered eight. My sister accidentally added another eight.

So we had too much milk. So don't over-order on the milk. Sorry, how many people were there? It was 10 people and I think only eight of them drank cow's milk. What is the milk for? Teas and coffees. But you can't be having 25 gallons of milk. Isn't it?

What does Google think you are? I don't. Google honestly thinks I'm a baby calf. Because you don't want to not have enough. I would say stagger the orders. Don't assume that everyone. everyone is going to be eating like it's Christmas Day. Yeah, I think there's enough, enough free time.

That was the perfect thing we did. I did too many little fiddly bits. So I made some little pouch cocktails, which had, like, hit my brother's name and, like, his partner's name is puns and stuff. And that went well, but I went too fiddly like I was printing out labels. Then I couldn't find the labels, so I didn't use the labels, like hours of my time prepping. So I think the minute details, they're lovely little touches, but actually people, It's like wedding favours.

People don't actually need or want them. The one thing I would say being on the other side is all you remember is that like everyone was in the room. And all you remember is just like reminiscing. And also just like the novelty. Because apart from a 30th nearly two years ago, it's so rare to just have like a bunch of people that you love talking to each other. I think you'll probably only get that at big milestones or a funeral which you won't be at. So I think just even the novelty of that. so not having to make it so thought out, even just relying on the fact that it's bound to be

the nicest occasion in that person's life. What were the other highlights of the Stagbath? We did a murder mystery, which was, I love a murder mystery. I'm obsessed with. I find them so tweet and delightful and like dressing up and people really did dress up. I have to be honest, though, it's like a skate room for me. I'm having a good time, but I don't know what's going on. I'm not looking for clues. I'm not writing anything down. I'm getting drunk and trying to remember what accent I chose myself at the beginning. So that was very fun. We did a little paint and sip as well. I was, unfortunately, I was sitting in the shade.

So I put my skin color together and then put it in the light. And these two white grooms were, they were very dark skin. So that one will never see the light day. I kind of went, oh, this hasn't got any lighter. Oh, no, not a black face hot. If you're doing a paint and sip, sit in good lighting, so you don't accidentally do something very offensive. But little things like that was so, I just love everyone sitting around doing an activity

with a drink, with a non-alcoholic bit, just sitting around. just sitting around being silly, you can't beat it. That was a highlight way more than things we properly planned for. I love a murder mystery. I'm so glad you said that. I feel like why aren't we leaning into that more and more? I think everyone loves traitors and it's just a quote-unquote cooler version of a murder mystery. It's exactly the same, but why can't we add the accents, the wigs, the personas?

I'm ready to go there. I'm ready when you are, Rujera. We have to do it sober because my problem with any organised fun is I get so distracted by the drinks that I can't participate. Like literally I'm playing for the first round And then I just want to drive people For a DMC with me on the sofas I'm trying to take them to the fire pit I want to like run around

Like I can't I can't I just need I can't do it so I think I'd have to be What maybe you guys can drink But I would like to do it and I'd like to it properly There are people that you can like get to come to a house That are actors and it's all really Professional. Oh that sounds amazing

That seems quite expensive And they kill you for real Yeah that would be so fun Ritcher what have you been up to Before we swiftly move on to what a job it here is, which is content. Well, it's good that I've come last because unfortunately I've been doing sweet fuckall since I got back from New York. I honestly have been enjoying doing absolutely nothing. I picked up Hindi lessons. That's my big thing because for the longest time,

I cannot speak Hindi. It's like one of my, it's one of my like guilty, shameful things that I feel time and time again and I've never done anything about it. So in this like fallow period of my life where I'm not doing a wedding. I feel like that whole period felt like being in a washing machine and then getting spat out. Now I feel like life is peaceful. I have so much brain space again. Why don't I actually do something? I've picked up Hindi lessons.

It's really hard, but I feel really proud of myself. So that's my update for you guys. I'm very proud of you. And what are you doing this on an app? Is this like in person? Is this how are you learning? So I've got a tutor.

It's through this app called Preple. We have not been sponsored. So guys, do not think that I'm getting. getting any money for this because I am not. I'm a chump. She's a woman in India and she had really good reviews. There are so many different things you can learn on that app. My partner was learning Japanese on there for a bit. Wow. So we just had an hour on this special video chat room that they have through the app. It was so easy. It felt insane because in that one lesson I learned so much more than I've been doing just ambiently for like two years. And it really shows I've just

been putting off actually attacking this. And when I did, I was like, oh shit, I think I could really see myself learning this language, like, a lot quicker. And I think I'll actually commit to it now. I think having a real person is like the main thing. I think that's amazing, like having an actual tutor makes such. I've tried to do dalingo and I just, I can't get on. I don't believe it works for most people.

I don't believe that works. I'm not to be rude. I don't know where John is, sorry, actually, my boyfriend will listen to us, but he has like basically completed duolingo French. I've never heard him speak a word. But he had a deed to do it like all the time. I'm just thinking you should be good at do a lingo. I love it for 10 years and I go, but do it for 10 years and I go, brilliant.

Can you speak it? And they go, not yet. 10 years on an app is wild. That is so crazy. Their streets are healthy. So look, we'll say no more. Should we move on to what we've been loving? Yes, let's do it.

Beth, you go first. After I was a little bit down, shall we say, about one, what's it go, one night only a few weeks ago, I thought I needed to basically test my allegiance to rom-coms because I thought maybe I just don't like them because I was a real commudgeon about that. A rum cummaging, me will. I need to watch that one after you're going to discuss with a got. You have to, and only it's fantastically bad. Ratured was number one fan, Isaac's number two fan and also number one hater.

Normalised being both. I watched the love hypothesis, which is brand new on Amazon Prime. And it's got, seems to have about 45 premieres despite being a streaming only film. It stars Lily Reinhart from Riverdale, something else. Was she and you? No. She was in hustlers, though. Yes, hustlers.

That's when I went, oh, I need to take this, this woman seriously. She stars opposite someone called Tom Bateman, who is a British actor, who has one of those faces that looks familiar. I actually didn't recognize him, but he's been in a bunch of stuff as well. She stars as a, I think it's a biology PhD student at Stanford, who ends up in this fake dating situation with him, who is a professor, but he's like really scary on campus, known as like a complete hard-ass dresses all in black. And they end up for reasons which I actually won't explain,

but I believed it and that was the point because it's far-fetched. It's love, it's rom-com rules. So it's a bit like, okay, because fake dating doesn't happen in real life, of course, but it does in the world of rom-coms. And the way that they end up fake dating, it's solid. It makes sense. And I was in and they fake date. But of course, as is the way of these things,

some real feelings get in the mix. And I just thought it was so, it's not life-changing, but I thought it was so charming. And if you do enjoy this sort of thing, it's sort of like, the stakes aren't real, but they are. And it's a sciencey background. So it's women in STEM. And it's got a bit of the real world in there.

I really recommend this. What did you think of their chemistry? Pardon the pun. Oh, no effect. It was so, so good. I wasn't sold on him at the beginning of particularly because he sort of reminded me about, you know, Will Ford, the comedian, and he plays the husband in four seasons. But he's like a comic genius, but he has this sort of stiff face.

And he's very, like, he just makes me laugh to look. look at. This guy at first reminded me of Will Fork, so I thought, I don't know how I'm going to get into this, but oh, there's a bit of steeminess. I think Lily Reinhart is the most charming actress that I can think of in anything recently. Oh, she's amazing. She's so great. I feel like she was due, a massive come up. And I don't really know why it's not happened. I think ever since she was in Hustlers and she played this very, like, ditsy, very sweet, just very kind of hapless character, but like in the most charming, endearing way, not in a really annoying way. And in Riverdale, she's just like the best person.

She's so good. I don't really understand why she hasn't become the rom-com queen. I feel like she could be that really well. I agree. Another fun fact about this is, according to Wikipedia, it was originally uploaded to the internet as Star Wars fan fiction between Kylo Rao, who is the big baddie, I think. Adam Driver's character, right? Yes, I think I'm thinking of the right person and it was uploaded and I went to find this

so they thought, oh, maybe I'll read about out for the girls and I added it to drive and had this moment where I'm oh my God, I've added this to our drive. Imagine me, you guys going, why is Beth adding smart? And I was like, I promise it's for the podcast, but it was on my drive and it hasn't really turned out very smarty. So sadly nothing to report. Keep out to your personal devices. My God, this is a business. Take it seriously, Beth. HR, but yeah, how funny. I love when there's so many examples of this. The one that was Anne Hathaway that was originally Harry Stiles, smart or fanviction, Twilight, quite literally, nope, not Twilight. 50 Shades.

Why do I have the answers to these so quickly? God. You wrote them. So the only thing I have to say on this is because I, and I think this is from this film, but it really made me not feel it endeared to it. The only clip I've seen is there is a man staring at Lily Reinhart while she's talking and everyone has put it on Twitter and they're like, this is how you direct he couldn't take his eyes off her

but he is staring at the top of her head for like a full minute while she's talking and then other people are quoting like I don't know if that is good direction I don't know if that is how you're have you seen that I think it is from this film people it's gone really viral and maybe that is I think it must be because I don't think she's doing

like there's anything else as big that she's done recently but it's basically just him staring at her really intently for quite a while while she talks oh to be fair I remember people had a similar discussion but we're more positive about Adam Brody and nobody wants this, that he just is constantly staring at her. But I think with that, that worked.

But it sounds like maybe on this one, it maybe didn't work for you. My biggest takeaway, the Lily Rhinhot thing, is that she wears the dress from Uptown girls that Britney Murphy wore in that film. And that is like my dream. I don't think about that dress all the time. Yeah, that was in her red carpet appearances.

She's been doing a whole, she's been wearing all the wrong ladies dresses, which is so fab. She did miscongeniality. She did have. to lose a guy in 10 days. She did uptown girls, you said. And then there was like a bunch of them like 30 going on 13, no, 13 going on 30. That's the one. And I saw some people saying it's quite an interesting, huge amount of press run energy for a straight to streaming film. I know. I've seen so much press. Yeah. Not a scenario cinema to be found. But yeah,

I really actually do recommend this, especially as it's not really somewhere anymore. And I need my brain needs to be distracted for the next six months to combat seasonal effective disorder. So this is my first medicine. Have you guys got any more medicine for me? Or is it just nothing? This is very medicine coded actually and I don't know why I've never watched it before. And potentially you guys will have watched it also on Amazon Prime, but it's younger. And it's this series with Hillary Duff that started in like 2015, I think.

It's so good. Livy to tell me to watch it ages ago, I think. And it's got loads of seasons. So there's loads for you to watch. But basically it's about this woman that tries to go back into work after she has a divorce. Obviously, needs to go back into working. and she can't get a job because she's in her 40s. So her friend is like, you look so young.

Why don't we just say that you're 26? So she like fashions herself as a 26 year old and then she goes and applies and she gets a job and she makes friends with all these 26-year-olds who believe that she's that age. And I was watching it and I just watched like so many episodes. It's kind of a bit like the bold type-esque vibe. Oh, I love that.

Have you seen it. I have seen, it basically came up as recommended by Netflix because Netflix knows what kind of human being I am, which is I've really. We watched the bowl type maybe four times during periods of low mental health and high mental health, to be fair. So yes, this is on my list. I actually really needed this to come back into my life because it sounds so good. I recently saw a clip of this, but just it was, it came on second after a video that I actually wanted to watch on X.

And it was really poorly edited to the clip. And I was like, I've never heard of this Hillary Duff show. But I've just Googled it. And how is Phoebe Dinovore in it? Because I thought, who is that? I thought that was the one from Bridget. Who was about... Oh, yeah.

I thought... To 2015? Or has this been revived? There's loads of series. That's the first series. So I think it's like still ongoing. It's still going. I have no idea that.

I think, I don't really know. But her best friend in it is Debbie Mazar, who is from loads of things. What is she from? You'll know who I mean. She's from loads of things. She's from loads of star. Beethoven 7 from... Beateroven 7.

Yeah, sorry. Is that what it's called? So what do I actually know her from? She's in so much stuff. I haven't seen any of the things that she's in. But I really know her. She was in chaos, apparently. You know the show that we loved that got cancelled?

K-A-O-S. Oh, I loved that show. I don't think I've actually watched anything that she's in. I did watch Entourage. I did watch Beethoven's second. Sorry, Beethoven's second. I apologise everyone. There are not seven Beethoven's.

It has 97% on Rotter Tomatoes. Anyway, it's actually good. It's really good comfort. Like if you don't really want to, you don't have to be that invested, but it's like, it's good. Is it a girl boss show? Because I have a soft place in my heart for a girl boss,

women trying their best, pushing through the industry, breaking glass ceilings type show, even though it's like very shallow feminism. It is kind of that, but it's also funny because everyone's bitching, like she's friends with these like 20-somethings and they're like, oh my God, imagine me 40 when your skin's like all loose

and like they're all just bitch. And she's like, oh yeah, I can't imagine. And then she's like her daughter is away traveling and she's pretending that she went in. You just need to get on board. It's really silly. but it is good. She starts sleeping with like a 20-something. No, I will literally start tonight.

I'll stick it on now. Right at my street. It's good. What about you, Richerra? I have something that I will save because it relates to a topic we're going to bring up shortly. But one thing that I will bring to the table is dog day afternoon. I think that's what it's called. Have you heard of this film? It's an Al Pacino film. And it's Al Pacino at his best, like such a wild character doing a bank heist. The bank heist doesn't go to plan. And from that point onwards, it's just the film concentrating on this one day, just a few hours, him surrounded by police and this kind of standoff. And Al Pacino's character, as I say, this charismatic, wild individual and what happens from that point onwards, it's, I think it's, if you're into gangster bank heisty type films, I think it's one of the cult ones, but I'd not heard of it, to be honest. It is a. Excellent. So I've seen it by only recently found out the true story that it is based on and it is a pretty wild bank heist. It is, I'd say, one of the more valiant reasons to rob a bank, but that is all I'll say. God, that's an old film. I know, really old. I think it is such a good Friday film. It's like very high stakes, very funny. Just like, I don't know, it feels like, feels very action-packed. I'm not an action girl usually, but I think this is.

well worth a watch. And Al Pacino, I think more films that I see him in, the more I understand the legacy in the history of why he's so beloved and he's just like one of the greats. He's sexy as well. He's sexy as fuck. I also have a couple of things, but they're not, I won't go into them long, but there's just a couple of podcasts just on kind of like the state of the world, which I thought were really interesting, which one of them is offline with John Favre, which I often recommend. And he has Naomi Klein on the podcast and he's talking to her about her new book and times fascism, which I'm working my way through but also keep having to stop because it's so depressing. That episode is called

Have You Tried Unplugging the AI? And the other episode which also made me feel like I was losing my mind and I don't know if either you listened to it was Bill Gates on Ezra Klein's podcast talking about AI and oh my God there's a bit where he's talking about we should have human reserves, a bit like nature reserves, you know, areas where we could have built roads but we didn't because you know you might as well keep a bit of land there. But in relation to jobs so like like cordoning off some jobs which you could have an AI doing but maybe it's not. nice to just make space for some humans to be doing some work. Anyway, it makes you feel, it's really confusing conversation because they're kind of going back and forth and some things

Bill Gates says, I'm like, oh, he's being really sensible, but then he's also obviously like pioneering and championing the growth of AI. Anyway, those two. And then my last thing, because I just want everyone to watch the trailer, because I know we're going to have to talk about it when it comes out, but it is Nathan Fielders new Elizabeth Holmes. Yes. And I'm surprised you haven't bought this up with a trick, because I feel like this is so, but oh my, I just keep watching it over and over and over again. I know. I know. me too. Why would I deceive you? Ah! Oh, chills.

Either they've edited it or she doesn't blink very often. It's something I noticed immediately. All the scenes, her eyes are just penetrating and she doesn't blink very often, whereas he's just blinking. So either it's the editing or she's just, I don't know, her mannerisms are so uncanny and it really shines through, but it's, it's, oh, it just gives me shivers. It's the single tear at the end. Yes. I just cannot wait.

I cannot wait. I don't know when we're getting it here, but anyway, we'll find out. We'll post, I think we'll put the link to the trailer in the show notes in case it's passed anyone by. But holy hell. Sorry, just to bring the turn, because we'd been a bit happy and cute in that top bit. I just wanted to ruin your life. That's all right. So do you know when, maybe this is just my FYP, but when your FYP or your social media

drops you off in the middle of some mess, some kind of random corner of the internet you've never heard of before? and you're like, hmm, okay, what's all this then? This recently happened to me with Congo Basin Talk, which, if you don't know, why would you? It's a corner of TikTok and probably elsewhere on the internet that is basically obsessed with this guy called Ash Dykes, who is a British survivalist type guy who is planning. I think literally on Monday, yeah, literally, I think it's the first Monday of October to be dropped. I mean, I don't think he's actually going to physically drop out of a helicopter, but he's going to begin his 700-kilometer kayak on an inflatable kayak through down the Sanga River in the Congar Basin, which I don't know too much about the Congo Basin. It is, I think it's like the second largest rainforest or river basin and tropical rainforest in the world. It is so remote. He is going to kayak down this. They have crocodiles about 11 feet long.

malaria risks, no doctors for days on end. And that is just the first of six challenges he's going on. And everyone on TikTok's like, guys, are you ready for Congobason? And everyone's getting really excited because we are going through him. And I am absolutely terrified, but I can't look away. Can you just do that? I don't know. Like, can you just literally go and do something like that?

It feels like somebody would stop him or there must be more things to stop this happening. But it feels like he's just going and doing it. He is literally going to do it. I think whatever you need to do to be allowed to do, that he's obviously done it he's done his research i mean it sounds like he's just a mad guy that's going to blow up a dingy and he's going to set sail i think he has done intense planning but it is just an incredibly dangerous fee it's very um what's his name uh it's very steve irwin he must have the thing that the free solo guy has yeah the brain's thing where he wants to be like

endangered but yeah when you said about this that it was like you know and you see a series of words it felt like an equation i was like Congo basin kayak 400 miles you're the meme with that woman i was like what you literally that meme was like what you're literally that mean with that woman and I thought it almost was so alien to me that I couldn't, I just couldn't like compute it. And then I did start thinking about it. And I was going like 400 miles and kilometers. Oh my God. And then there's hippos. And then it's the, and why? And then it was quite interesting. But initially that's the kind of thing that I wouldn't even get sucked into because I just think carry on love. Good luck. Yeah. You said Congo Basin talk and I was like,

oh, oh no, oh no. I can't take this on. I what's up to you to this. You guys last night but I find TikTok disturbing. I try and gone out. I find it so ugly. I can't, I don't know how you guys got sucked in. It's so confusing to me. I feel like I'm in, you know, like in the past, what we thought the future would look like if you went to a shopping mall and there's like flashing signs everywhere. Yeah. That's what it looks like to me. And luckily I can't, I literally have no idea how it works. I go on there post our little videos and I run away because I get scared. I'm the same. I'm the same. I'm the same. I scroll for a bit and there's something about it. I just feel like I've eaten too much cake all at once and it makes me like feel

it makes me feel just like full and sick and then I just like shut it and I'm like oh I don't want to go back there anymore makes me feel bad mom help yeah because sometimes you end up on a shop thing and I got really scared of that and then it's live oh my god it's too much it's terrifying I've accidentally clicked on the lives for and I do that carry brashel guys when big's online she's like oh my god can you see me I do that I throw my phone across the room this I will say this is actually quite interesting to me most of my few pages just bullshit this I think is interesting because I thought oh my god I at first I thought this is bullshit and I thought he's some attention seeking guy which you probably will get a bit of attention for this.

But I think he's working with a lot of the local sort of residence, inhabitant of the forest. He's working with local NGOs. And he's trying to spotlight. I didn't know this. I mean, I knew that the earth is in danger. But the Congo Basin is, like I said, it's the second largest tropical rainforest and river basin.

But it's also the largest carbon sink in the world. So you often hear about the Amazon being the lungs of the earth. But in terms of tropical forests that absorb, excess carbon dioxide of which we are making so, so much because of our allegiance to fossil fuels and burning them. It is absorbing that and we are weakening it with emissions, with deforestation, we're degrading it year on year and he is trying to also bring awareness to that. So I thought, I went from being like, God, men, hey, to being like, men, hey? And I think it will help people understand the severity of it. I don't know. I want to watch it. I just want to watch it on

Instagram. It will be on Instagram. I'm just going to see he will have Instagram as well. Ashdikes. They're not fine with it. He has five more challenges after this, which he hasn't revealed. So obviously he's planning not to be eaten by a crocodile. There was another guy that was so similar to this that came up in my feed where he kept being like, I might die when I climb Everest. So eventually like, well, I have to follow you then I guess to see if he die. Because he just randomly stuff. I don't know. And then I think he did do it. But there's a lot of this kind of like survivalist stuff is happening. And it is more he sounds like he's doing a good thing Could we use that to get listeners, do you think?

Because if people watch when they think you're going to die, could we do the podcast on the moon or something, or just like in a really dangerous high-stakes-like a sinking submarine? Well, we are going to talk about Taylor Swift later. We couldn't endanger ourselves. Three women bravely approaching Taylor Swift again, time and time again after we've been told not to. Okay, let's go, girls.

So Taylor Swift has released four new songs under the heading, the life of a showgirl, the encore. I'm sure you know about this. We all know about it. The tracks are called Patient Zero, Cleveland, Pink Cloud and Babylon. Pink Clouding, please. Oh, sorry, pink clouding and Babylon. It's not been great. The response has not been too positive. And even the Swiftologist has crashed out famously over these four songs. A lot of the fans seem to be turning in the tide of Taylor Swift fandom and positivity, especially towards this album, it feels like it's notoriously going to be kind of gravestoned as a very bad album. What did you guys think of the four songs and what do you think about where we're at? Do you think the tide is turning or do you think it's just our echo chambers?

I do think the tide is turning. I didn't love the songs, but then I don't know if my opinion is that valuable on that sense. So I did ask my resident Swiftie, Olivia Petter because she was with her yesterday. She was like actually really reluctant to give an opinion because she said She was really disappointed. She was like, oh, she didn't want to say. To me,

I feel like, yes, this is the music she releases. Whereas I think, interestingly, for other people, do you know what? I've become, I haven't become any more

endeared to Taylor Swift, although we will come back to this about the VMAs. I thought she looked absolutely fab at the VMA's, side note. But I've become really endeared to those two

Swifties that do the reaction videos to have videos that I've never seen before. It's blonde two friends. And they, everyone's kind of taking the piss, but I can't help,

but like, love them. They seem so sincere and earnest and they listen to the songs and they like kind of gasp every time there's like a slightly different beat. But they, I really, I really believe that they are like absolutely loving her songs. So what this has, it's not made me love Taylor Swift more, but I have been shown like a faction of Swifties where I think, oh, you guys are really cute and I've watched every video that's come up on my timeline of that duo. Oh, I think they're so fab. People will ask, people kind of

ask why we discuss Taylor Swift as sort of, I'm not fan of her or I kind of am critical of her wealth in her apoliticality and I'm a pretty reasonable fan of her songs. But it's because I think she has this enormous fan base that sociologically are so fascinating. She is the supreme. She is the one to do it and she exists pretty singularly, such as having, you know, on the spectrum of the fan, she's got the swiftologist who was built on a whole online presence. And it's this guy who, did you see Ruchera? He was doing his like live reaction to it and he takes off, he'd put on his sort of life of a show girl headdress and he has to remove it at some point. And he's like, Like, I think he says something like, it's so hard to be the swiftologist at a time like this.

I have to take this off, or lest I kill myself. So dramatic. And fans are, they're all right or die, but they have got that ability. Because I think they've exchanged so much life and so much time and money to the fandom and the sort of parasocial relationship, they have needs, they have wants, they have requirements, and they want them to be met. And I think her fans at the moment seem to be communicating, you can leave it. You can let us get hungry, you know?

I think they are a little bit disappointed with the sound production, the people that she's working with who they're making stuff that sounds very similar. But if you go back and you listen to Red, if you go back and listen to Mid, like even a lot on tortured poets, I think is just sonically very interesting. But for a while, the whole sound of Life for Showgirl,

of which this is the encore, is not sounding very interesting. And they want all they are begging is for her to work with a producer that challenges her. And I think that's fascinating, the relationship between the Swifties and Taylor Swifties. when it's not completely unquestioning adoration. I think it's amazing. Of the songs, I thought Cleveland was a little bit Dundamifflin.

I actually enjoyed Patient Zero. Tender Bifflin. Was very compelling. I think she can act. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? I didn't see that particular element of the Swiftologist crash out. But one thing I was going to say is, even though it seems to be this has triggered more fans to be critical

or maybe dubious about this era that she's in and urging her to take a break from the music to just kind of bring her something excellent and, you know, provoking and different. This commercially has been such a success. And people are talking about, because at the VMAs, which we will talk about, she talks about how this has been one of her best albums.

She's really positive about it. She was like, this has been the best music, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. People I've seen, even fans are questioning if she is not listening to the right response or the right metrics or she's just painting the narrative that this has been a success because quite universally it seems to be that lots of people did not like this album, they didn't like this music, they thought the era, the pitch versus the delivery has just been really disappointing. But it seems to be if you're chasing metrics and if you're chasing commerciality and money to be completely frank, then you will just

call this a success. And does that mean that she's set up to deliver us art in the right way for the next era or will we just see more of this? I agree with you both. I also thought that the idea for patient's era, apparently the story is that it was like a friend told her about this guy and they were discussing it in a group chat or something. I think that is actually a really interesting idea and I did enjoy the video and I do enjoy Heron Dakota Johnson's friendship, a big Dakota Johnson fan. I read a really interesting substack and I read a couple of people who said the same thing actually where they said real swifties as well because they were going through lyrics in a way that I wouldn't know.

They were like, Taylor's music used to ask these really big questions about who we are and why do people think like this and like, why are we living like this and whatever. And then since she's been with Travis, the questions have gone away and it's now statements being like, well, I've met my man. So you can all shut up. You have no idea about me and actually I'm really cool, blah, blah. And it's suddenly like really unrelatable. And also that suddenly the thing that has made her feel like she no longer has to be

vulnerable and relatable. She doesn't need her fans, basically. It's because she's got her man. And that seems to be a lot of. where the Swifties are kind of taking umbrage because they're like, wait a minute, even though there were so many things that we couldn't relate to you on, we went along with you because there was these like central human questions in your art that we felt we could apply to our lives,

even though we were living so differently. I've also seen, I don't know if they're taken out of context, but I have seen interviews of her kind of talking about her lyricism and her writing, and I've been really conscious of saying, actually maybe we did say the stage scope, I always found it quite egregious to call her sort of like a lyrical master or like a poet. I think there's so many people that fall under that category, but for me Taylor Swift never really was.

I couldn't personally see it and maybe that's my own ignorance or whatever, but I just didn't, I didn't see it in that way. I think she is, I mean, I think she's very talented as a writer. I think because she's got so many songs, there is enough evidence, whichever case you want to make.

I think she's fantastic. I think the reason her fans are kind of going like, slow down, stop putting out so much stuff, is because they want her to be able to occupy rightly in my view and in their view, at least the larger songwriters' hall of fame of being like, yeah, no one really is doing these interesting things, or no one is, she's the queen of the bridge, she does this, this and this. But if she keeps putting out songs at such a rapid pace,

can they really be that poured over? Can they really have been worked and worked and worked and worked and cut properly? Like, you know, if you're writing a book, you don't need to write a book in six months. You need to write a book in two and a half years so you can write the book, cut all the shit, add more shit, cut that shit. Her fans want that from her. I think I've been able to enjoy these songs a lot more than some of her diehard fans for that reason that I don't have the emotional attachment to any part of her legacy as a songwriter really. I'm just, I'm bopping along to the torture poets department still to this day. Okay, so let's go to the VMAs. As I said, one of my favorite things about this VMAs is I thought everyone looked fantastic. I literally

loved everyone's outfits. I loved what Charlie XX had on. I loved what Taylor had on. I thought she looked amazing. Did you have any standouts on the outfit front? For me, it was one of those carpets where I was like, okay, the slaps. You all are great. Yes, so I wrote mine down. I've also got got got Goth Charlie's looking excellent. I got Tiana Taylor who sleigh after, after sleigh. And I also put enjoyed Taylor Swift for once. I agree with you.

And then my worst was, I don't know, did you see Troy Savan in that like ostrich get up, tuxedo mix? I don't know what it was. I didn't know. Have a look. Have a look. Please let me know what you think. I didn't like Somba's belt with sex on it. And I didn't like the fact that he was holding it to the cameras going, get the belt.

I was like, oh, darling. I do like when men do something a little bit different. I encourage that, but it does not mean we always have to like it. True equality is being able to say that men look shit on the red carpet too. I just looked up, Troy. I think it's kind of vampiry. I quite like it. It's making me think of like Dracula.

I just, it's something about, it just didn't come together. It looked like so much fabric for me. It just, it kind of felt a bit like, let's throw everything at the wall at this. I like it. I thought so many people were looking. Fantastic. But as I was scrolling down, I think it was like the page six ones because I wanted to look at all of it, like the best and worst dress, everyone. I kept coming to celebrities and be like, who is that? You know, there's that tweet. It was like, honestly, you know, there's that tweet that was like, I'm old. This is what celebrity headlines sound like to me. And it's like, curtains for Zushka, case mog and bat boy. That is how I, I was like, who is blue de tiger? She looks fantastic. Brilliant. As human musician, I will be looking them up. Someone. Someone, called Tara Yami. I was like, I have reached a point where I don't have to know all the celebrity anymore. It's a relief, but I do feel I should know more. I had the same thing. I read the same

piece. I was like, who's she? Who's he? I don't know who they are. We are at that age now. That is just going to have also because of the internet, there's so many different flavors of celebrity. Like, we just can't be across them all, unfortunately. One that I did want to talk about because I could not get over it, especially in the wake of everything we spoke about with Ariana Grande, obviously Beth wrote that incredible piece and stuff to talk about like, how should we talk about women's bodies? Did you see how people have been talking about Tyler, who turned up in a gorgeous kind of snake skin, two-piece?

She looked really cute. She had a little blue bra and a blue skirt, and everyone was commenting on her body and commenting on the fact that they thought that she wasn't as slim as she was. Like it was all over my Twitter. All over my Twitter. Did you see that, Ritura? I didn't.

I saw what she looked like, but with Tyler, to be completely candid with you, I've had a bit of a situation with some friends once. We were watching the Sabrina Carpenter Christmas special that she did last year and Tyler came on. And somebody was like, oh, she looks very thin, doesn't she? And I was like, oh, I don't really feel comfortable talking about it, blah, blah, blah. And we ended it there. Then we had a conversation after and they were like, how do we talk about this?

So it's interesting that you brought this back up, but it's in the opposite direction because I do know her to be somebody who's started these discussions as well. Just was so brazen. And someone said, oh my God, if we're calling Tyler Fatt, like we're back in the noughties. that's how it felt to me. I don't know if it's just because I must have lingered over one tweet for too long. Yeah. But I just saw it constantly. And I thought, how are we doing this? It is absolutely crazy. Well, that's good that you didn't see it because I kind of thought that that was everywhere, but clearly not. I actually don't know what is wrong with people. It's like, I can have empathy and your piece beautifully discuss this for how do we talk about things that can feel triggering or upsetting. But how can we, in good faith, be having

those discussions at the same time, somewhere else on the internet, people are just like finding new ways to say she looks, she looks fat and actually she is not at all. That's the like crazy thing about it. We're being gaslit in the opposite direction now at the exact same time. It's eating disorder spaces. They have always existed, but they did used to exist a little bit under cloak and dagger. You had to know the keywords to get into them. And now like you and only, I think I've lingered over the wrong thing for a moment. And then it is. It's pro-banner content. It's pro-eating disorder content on my feed. Not people criticizing it, the raw form of it. And I think that's a part of it as well that people are just, you don't have

to go in search for it. The way the algorithm works, for young people, they can look at one thing and they will be served more of it. That is a huge problem. Obviously, it was a huge problem when it existed cloak and dagger, but you had to go in search of that. You had to, it wasn't sprung on you the way that this is. And I find this, I've had it awful. I feel awful for any woman that becomes the kind of her body becomes a sight of these like hideous discussions. And I hope that she doesn't have to see that. I hope she's in a bubble. So there is something else that I want to bring up from the VMAs.

And this was the thing that I wanted to recommend up top. Did you see Young Lean and Generations performance? I could not breathe. I'm being deadly serious when I say that I like literally locked up and could not fucking breathe. It is the most like insane, extraordinary thing that I have seen in a long time and it blew me a part. This was also my number one recommendation from the VMAs. I love that video anyway. I've watched it so many times anyway, just every time it comes up on my feed. But seeing them do it live is just so

incredible. Yeah, that was going to be my favorite part. Did you watch it Beth? Oh yeah, unbelievable. There's been a really annoying, which again, we will link. There's been this really, really annoying AI trend at the moment where people are putting different artists within the concept of that music video and people are going, look how amazing this AI software is they can do this. And I was like, it can't do anything. It did not come up with that fantastic idea. It didn't pull those things together. That is the artistry.

Mimicry is at this point completely unremarkable. So that has been annoying me. So to see it as it was at the VMAs, I just thought, oh, yeah, chills. I thought that is what we're on earth to do is kind of witness things like this. I think it was fantastic. Truly, it just reminded me that I was alive. It feels so insane to say. But I felt like, God, people are amazing, aren't they?

like humans are fucking amazing. My other favorite bit was Madonna doing her speech and then Charlie got in a case of Idbolitis, which I'm so glad I know what Itchbol means now because for years I just looked at it and I thought I don't know. If anyone who doesn't know, it's I just burst out laughing. But so

Charlie is just standing on the stage next to her. I fucking loved that. I just, it was good times all round. Madonna is so fab. I think people are kind of going, Madonna makes bizarre outburst at the VMAs. I'm like, you don't get it. You just don't get it. She's like the pop star. actually just being the pop star next to another generation of pop stars. So, oh, the girls are getting it, get it.

Did you see the TikTok that she and it was her? It was Madonna, Julia Garner and Charlie X-A-X, like rolling around on hotel bed after the VMAs. And then the camera pans and there's a bunch of people are fixing against the wall who obviously had been like, we're doing a video. Could you go over there, please? I was just like, fucking out. Somehow just that is very cunt. Despite being kind of awkward. I will say that clip, and it is fake news of Taylor Swift, perhaps accepting her best direct.

to award and then people are saying cut to Charlie scowling and she wasn't actually scowling that was not a true cup it was from it something else sad I wish it were true she looked she looked good though yeah she was good right the question on my lips is something dying to ask you which is what do you both know about the lesbian bar that broke the internet I know enough too much but also I want more for listeners if you have missed this I don't know how but just essentially to get you up to date. There is a lesbian bar called Last Itch, which is in Massachusetts, and it had up until very recently,

required every single customer to wear a KN-95 mask or equivalent whilst visiting the bar. And then on the 31st of August, they posted this little cheerful general update on their Instagram, which included this line. It is with love. We inform our immunocompromised disabled divas. We will be opening Saturday night as mask optional to try out. out typical club nights with themes, host, DJ's full capacity. The reaction was not as cheerful.

Essentially, disabled and immunocompromised patrons felt betrayed and let it be known. The comments have since been switched off, but here's a taster from a viral piece about the drama published in the Boston Globe. One person wrote, just say you're being complicit in a mass disabling event and get it over with. Another wrote, people like you kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure and convenience. And another row, I hope your venue gets firebombed for robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans just to scrape extra revenue from ableists. I want to start off with this tweet that I read because I think this is really true because this piece has escaped confinement.

I think the Boston Globe said that this piece has done more than like any other piece in like recent history. So at Tobias for Now tweeted, you should have to answer five questions that measure your relationship to the queer community and ascertain your generosity of spirit before you're able to read the COVID conscious lesbians. been bar article, this is family business. And I wanted to open with that because I think that we are all wanting to be really generous in terms of understanding accessibility for people who are disabled, for people who are suffering with chronic illness, long COVID, as well as not ostracizing groups who sometimes can be stereotyped in ways that are quite negative. At the same time, this story has rumbled on for long enough that I think we are able to, in a way, laugh a bit at some of it, because some of the comments have just been wild. And I have become like absolutely

and totally consumed by the story. So one of the people who commented about the firebombing, the venue is an account called Serene Necrosis on Twitter, who everyone has kind of been really hotly following all of their posts. And they're really interesting person to engage with them. For a while, a lot of people were like, is this actually a bot? Is this a troll? And it's not. It's a person who lives in quite maybe an extreme way. They mask all the time. They mask all the time. they mask their baby. They're very conscious around getting sick. They have a very strong belief that long COVID is actually AIDS, even though I don't know if there is necessarily any evidence about that ups. Obviously, AIDS is very specific HIV-related illness. They also believe it's fine

to smoke weed around the baby. So there is some kind of like conflicting information. But essentially, this piece has created kind of like a massive conversation about something which I think is really hard to do on the left. And I think Arjabar does this enough. But sometimes are we screwing ourselves over by not sometimes going actually guys. I think you've taken this a bit too far. And I think weirdly this is maybe opening the gates to allow us to go, this isn't right. We can't be abiding by all of these rules at the same time because then everyone is just getting hurt. It's a horrible thing to wade into from that point of view. I feel like the things that I've been trying to just focus on are a, the lack of lesbian spaces. I read something

from lesbian barproject.com, which is in the 1980s in the US, there were 200 dedicated lesbian bars. Now it's just 36. And we know this from London. We know this from the UK. The situation is even more dire. Like Soho is just ravaged when it comes to queer spaces. The other thing is just like you said, local journalism, the fact that this really highlighted a dearth of local stories, the fact that there are so many interesting things happening all around us. And unless a newspaper picks it up, we are just missing them all the time. And then the third thing is the right wing fucking agenda that's taken and co-opted this, the fact that Fox News has just completely taken over, exactly like you said, this very niche, localized story where maybe not the best representations of the

left or, you know, disabled or immunocompromised people and now being the figureheads for those groups to a pack of wolves, essentially on the internet. And I just think it's so, so, so shit. Like everything about the story makes me feel bad, namely the individuals trying to make a bar and do a nice, good, solid thing, who one of them is living out of, I think it was a trailer, or maybe their car,

was in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, I believe, and just was depressed. Their two co-founders have left. one of them went to clown school which I mean I'm really trying not to laugh because obviously that sounds really funny but it's obviously really sad. Objectively this is a really sad story and I think the main thing is a lot of the voices in this i.e. the person with the firebomb comment. I don't think they're the most reasonable voices. Another thing that came up, I don't know if you saw this, they seem to be wearing a hijab in their profile picture. They described it as hijab-inspired secular accessory which is, I think that's an absurd thing to say. It has become a sort of, humor online. But I think in all the jokes and I think in all of the right wing co-opting,

ultimately it's a story about people who try to do a good thing and then now their lives have just been ruined. Can I really quickly interject about the clown thing, by the way? I think maybe just because of the cell because I welcome. But you know, it's quite normal to go to clown school in the comedy world. Clowning is like a really specific type of like physical comedy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like clown school. Yeah. So when when people were like really laughing at the clown school thing, I was like, I didn't even blink at that bit. I was like, fair. No, it's like, what's his name from Jackass? Steveo? Steveo went to clown school before he got involved in Jackass but he got kicked out, I believe. It is really normal. It's just like the way it sounds obviously is ridiculous. And that's a thing because the details of the piece. I think the piece is very intentional in how it portrays it. But there is a moment where, so the remaining bar owner is called Jackie Matalian, I think. And there's a moment in where they've put on this mask optional and people haven't really come to the night, possibly because of, of, of,

the drama and the backlash and the writer of the piece writes that Jackie's on the pole in an empty dance floor mask on sort of swinging around the pole dejectedly and you just think you've painted pictures here which I can appreciate

there's some humour in it but that's the writing about this is quite a serious problem where to even start with this I think a problem here I mean just a basic fact of this is that this is a private business and it is not a community-owned space. And I know that from reporting, that is what Jackie is now looking at

making a community-owned space to alleviate some of the financial pressure and the financial woes. But with a private business, the owner holds so many financial burdens, they themselves, to make money. All of these patrons, it's all well and good saying, treating it like community space, being like, we need this accountability, we need these town hall meetings. At the end of the day, these people have absolutely no financial skin in the game. If it goes out of business, I think, yes, they've lost a space where they could have community, but they have not taken a financial hit. This single private individual has. These community members want a say in how the business is run. They want a say in the politics of the space, the masks of the space. I'm sorry, but you are a customer.

Yeah, to make every single night mask mandated does limit this bar's ability to exist. It seems so self-defeating. And so in the spirit of how a lot of leftist spaces are hijacked and run, it's either we do it. way or we no way at all. It's like, do we force this business to make no money and continue as it is and it closes? Or do we allow them to try something, but we then imbue it with threat and with cancellation and with aggression, put the owner through hell and then it's forced to close and everybody loses an imperfect but existing space that can be a community space. I just think that purity mindset has to be perfect or it's going to be raised. that puts the left in a lot of the difficulty that it finds itself in.

I think that's exactly right. One thing I was just going to bring up is I had a friend who was part of something. I won't go into details because I don't think it's important, but they created something that was designed for marginalised communities and it was an event, a type of event. And I went to one of the Q&As that they had. And there's nothing like this, FYI, that I've experienced in the UK is like one of a kind, it's singular, it's really needed and necessary.

and it was within its first year of running, it wasn't making any money, the people involved were doing it for the love of the project and the ethos behind it. And so many people were asking them questions like, why hasn't this been done? Why are you engaging with white press? Do you not think that you're letting down this marginalized community by engaging with mainstream media that also platforms this person and this person, this person? And I just thought we will never get anything that we want in this day and age because there were always people who want you to be the purest of pure.

And if you do that, you just cannot succeed. I don't think talking to the Guardian means that you're a failure to the cause. I think it's just trying your best to get this cause platformed and put forward and make it feel successful. So it continue and then refine and then become the thing that the community wants it to be. But I guess I just bring that up to say this is not unusual. I've seen it in person and I find it so depressing and bleak. I think people really need to take a look at themselves and wonder why this drive to criticize and why this drive to tear apart things that are so small and so about to bloom that can offer

us these amazing spaces and also the cost of the people putting them on. So Arjabar's been talking about this. A lot of people online probably who feel more equipped to talk about this have been saying this. But interestingly, a lot of the fallout and lots of the fallout has been not from people who actually attended the bar or even from people from people from this more broader, wider community of people that suffer with chronic illness or who still do mask. and it turns out that this kind of quite stringent ruling and like puritanical and governing feeling has happened in a lot of these like kind of queer spaces which do look to protect each other

fundamentally because those spaces don't exist more broadly. And there was a really interesting thread I think I sent to both of you and I'm going to paraphrase so I can't remember exactly what it said. But it was like there was a point in COVID, there was a point in time where people who do, who are immunocompromise, who are suffering with chronic illness, felt like their needs were finally being listened to because people were. washing their hands and people were masking and the world finally felt safe for those people. And then as we've kind of gone back to Inverters, commas normalcy, those people now once again

feel like they're thrashed out into the margins and feel extremely unsafe. And I think there's varying degrees of groups and factions online who also become further and further fearful of the situations that they find themselves in, like completely understandable because of the world that we live in. But sometimes it kind of like these things come all the way back around. So like, trying to measure everything by everybody's intersections or trying to actually ends up being like a weirdly selfish endeavor whereas like what the left like as a really broad strokes concept is picking everyone up and helping everyone be better and sometimes more that we kind of look inwards in this way it's almost like extra individualizing to the point of it actually not being

a thing which is beneficial to anyone. Even the individual who's participating in that manner which is coming from a place of like trying to personally protect their own safety, but it's like ineffective, but it's all kind of like a contagion from a really sick society that doesn't function properly, but it's like, kind of feels funny, but it's, it's not. It's actually like deeply sad. Yeah, it is deeply sad. It's like the level they feel they have to advocate for this group is a symptom of a society where they feel completely let down, completely pushed the margins, unprotected. The thing that I was going to say is, and this is also the case with the Edchirin and Macklemore situation, that one instance becomes a way that we can

control the wider issue of feeling like nobody is protecting Palestinian lives in the West. It becomes a controllable issue, something that we understand. It's two people from the West. It's pop culture. We feel unable to help the situation in Gaza. Our politicians have let us down time and time again. We advocate. It feels like it goes nowhere. Calling Ed Sharon all manner of things feels like something we can do, we can use our energy, we can expel, we can expel, we can expel the energy control. It feels like in this situation, this bar has become a battleground for what is essentially such a wide issue and such a fucking like impossible to control problem, which is an able society, people who do not feel protected, have felt let down by their governments, by their

environments by their societies and communities, that this has become the battleground to excavate, to battle it out, basically, for a lot of people. And yeah, ultimately exactly what you're saying. There are funny elements to it. The piece was written really expertly to make it feel like a very compelling long read with characters who are laughable, funny, ridiculous. But you're right, that is like the ultimate end goal. And I did find it really bleak and really sad. And it just only feels like losers out of this situation and then just like a comedy story for everyone else. It is always like I think something we talk about or I've talked about before like disability activists are some of the most ignored in leftist spaces and in society. Like they're treated

poorly by others on the left. The interests are often not championed. They're incredibly vulnerable to policy change cuts poverty and can have limited access to protest and intervention. But they still do show up and they, in a lot of ways, they sort of represent a lot of the left's failures, but also act as a kind of portent for what will happen if the right continue to gain power and the left continue to cede it. And it's not even worldly, unlikely that any one of us can become disabled. And they are trying to spotlight how disposable we are under capitalism and how disability, anything that, you know, capitalism can wreck our health. and break our bodies.

And at that point, when we are no longer useful, we'll be cast aside in life, can become barely livable. And a lot of the COVID-contradous and COVID-cautious communities are saying that and they are trying to look out for other people. And I do think that the left just needs to find a way to engage with disability without being harassed by bad actors, which I believe has happened in a microcosmic way,

in this last ditch bar situation, by bad actors who would rather see the ruin of a impure, but potentially good thing rather than seed any ground. And I just find it quite frustrating. I think it's just a textbook toxic situation. But it becomes impossible to call it such because of these identity markers that are used to Trump cards. But you can't say that.

But oh, so-and-so is white in this situation. So we're having conversations about the identity of the participants rather than the facts of the case. And I just think it's not community. It feels like a hostage situation. There was a good piece in The Guardian by Awamadawi, called hashtag not all lesbians, we can't let the Massachusetts bar drama

turn us all into a punchline, which I thought was very good. And I am trying to keep that in mind and not feed towards a perfect right-wing rhetoric that this is what we're all doing, that we're all just infighting and all obsessed with these identity markers and all want to take each other down.

But, I mean, it is. It's such a self-defeating situation. And to be honest, the people that are leading the charge on saying that on my feed anyway, have been disabled lesbians. So I feel more comfortable saying that. that I'm not missing something because I'm not part of a group.

I think the dynamics are just, they're just dreadful. And they're not emancipatory. They're not progressive. They are seeking to punish individuals over seeking a sort of, I don't know, like a much larger roadmap out of the problem. It seeks to just label this bar owner as sort of oppressor, eugenicist. I just don't think that's, you kind of think this person has had a mast mandate. Do you really think this is a person that is?

Are you genesis, truly? I think a lot of the people that I've seen, like disabled people coming out online, especially people that suffer with non-COVID or have some of the illnesses that some of these people in these communities are talking about are coming forward and saying, actually, I had to be really careful and was warned against joining some of these online factions who do kind of set up arms together and it is actually not represent. This is the other problem that you're saying about this is not really representative of the disabled community at large.

It's just the kind of most outlandish story that we've seen in a while. has actually made me remember. It's kind of, it has brought that to the fore, you know, about, it sounds mad, but I do kind of forget about COVID now, even though we're obviously seeing like a rise in cases. And there are so many people that cannot and will not ever be able to live like that, who kind of live in fear of this thing that could could essentially like kill them. I've actually found it really interesting. I've been reading so much from people with chronic illness and disability online. And this is probably like a whole different conversation, but lots of them talking about the importance of the neuroplasticity thing. I know we did that episode where

it's like you can't just like mental, positive mental attitude, your way out of chronic illness. But weirdly, a lot of people with chronic illness were saying one of the worst things you can do is believe that your chronic illness is who you are. You have to get out of the house. You have to tie your physical body to your mental body and use those things in tandem and work them together. So it has produced quite a lot of interesting conversations. And I think that this is also just another example of where sometimes online spaces can create mass hysteria and radicalization within that maybe need online spaces because there isn't anywhere else for it to go. And then it becomes like quite a dangerous space, strangely. There was a piece from, I think it was 2016, 2017,

so like peak woke, you would say, that captures some of the elements at play here. And it was by Francis Lee and it's called Excommunicate Me from the Church of Social Justice. And in it, Francis draws these parallels between the social justice movement of the time, which also I think continues and also has been even more warped nowadays. And, and, you know, religious dogma separates into categories, which I won't go into all of them, but it's like colonialist logics, preaching slash punishment, purity and sacred text, something like that. And there's a bit from the colonialist logics bit, which I'll quote, I have sought out QTPOC only spaces to heal, find others like me and celebrate our differences. Those spaces and relationships

have saved me from despair time and time again. And yet I reject QTPC supremacy, the idea that we or any other marginalised groups deserve to dominate society. The experiences of oppression do not grant supremacy in the same way that being a powerful coloniser does not. Justice will never look like supremacy. I wish for a new societal order that does not revolve around relations of power and domination, which I think there are parallels here where people in individual spaces feel called to tussle over power and it's the exchange of that power.

It's not the bettering. It's not a group effort to improve and share what we all know in pursuit of what should be the leftist dream, which is an erasure of dominion, which is emancipation from drudgery and inequality and all the things that bind us. But is instead people tussling for power and to win and to have the ultimate Trump card. And as reading this piece, I was torn between like laughing because it is, some of it just go, this is ridiculous. and being like, oh, this is kind of where we trip up on the left so often. We see to people like this that I do believe do not have the interest of the collective at all. They have their own needs and they have attached the language of social justice. And I am open to hearing otherwise, but for the moment, I just cannot go away from that feeling.

Yeah, I'm going to read that piece. That sounds really great. just to piggyback off what you said on top of that, it's then not only are these voices not representative, they become the representatives through the right-wing media, moral panics about what the left and lefties are up to. And Malavica Cannon had a really great real about this. And she had a similar point to us, which is, yeah, it's really funny, you were allowed to laugh. But ultimately, at the same time, this is the image being branded across right-wing media of what the lefts are up to. and it just plays into this playbook of ridiculous, infighting, social weaponisation,

all of this stuff that that's not what's going on. This isn't, you know, a tiny minority case, but the right-wing media, it pedals, it pedals, it inflates, it amplifies. And I feel really bad for everyone who's going to be getting a global stage thanks to this story that is just broken containment, exactly like you said at the beginning and only. But at the same time, I do also worry about the kind of misinformation about what it means to be a left-wing person with left-wing ideals or socialist values,

because we have seen ICE, the Trump administration, peddling things about their victims. We've seen so many different things, you know, said about Palestine action, all these different groups and misinformation about what they mean and what they are pushing as their agenda. I just think it's also quite worrying. This boogeyman being painted of what is going on on our side. Thank you so much for listening this week. If you want more Everything is Content content content, you can head to our substack. Last Friday, Beth wrote a long read about AI human love affairs and the week before

an only reflected on nine months of content consumed. And spoiler alert, if you're listening to this on the day of release, I'll be posting a guide to what has made me want to keep creating in this AI environment that we're in, literally today. So if you want that to come straight to your inbox, go and subscribe to Everything is ContentPod on Substack now. The link is also in the show notes. If you enjoy the podcast, then please do leave us a rating and a review wherever you'll

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