Everything Is Content - Influencers In War Zones, #QuitGPT & Jim Carrey's Clone

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Hello EICrooks and criminals!This week on the podcast we start by discussing the Industry finale- what did we think and what are we hoping for from its upcoming final season?Then we turn to global politics as influencers in Dubai chronicle missile strikes. Are crying videos from luxury apartments the ultimate in Western obliviousness or are we being too harsh? Plus: is OpenAI's sinister new deal with the U.S. Department of Defence enough to get people to #QuitGPT?In Hollywood news: Who cloned Jim Carrey? What's the story, where did these rumours come from and what does it say about our collective brain power that people are asking if it's true?We also discuss the audacity of 49-year old cinema-legend and generational hottie Maggie Gyllenhaal to visibly age. How have we gotten to a place in the culture where a woman NOT getting a $200K face-lift is the more controversial choice?Plus Beth and Oenone have some choice words for SNL.Thank you so much to Cue podcasts for the edit.We hope you enjoy! B, O, R xOenone's been loving The Bride and Small Prophets.Beth's been loving We Might Regret This & Shrill with a special mention to Detectorists.BBC iPlayer - Industry Substack - Empty Ambition by Brendon HolderThe Watch - Konrad Kay & Mickey DownGOV.UK - United Arab EmiratesThe Rest Is Entertainment - Dubai Influencers vs IranThe Guardian - Quit ChatGPT: right now!Cracked - Jim Carrey's Publicist Finally Addresses The Clone RumorsFastcompany - What to know about the 'everyone is 12' theorySubstack - Ah shit! We let pedophiles decide our beauty standards by Jameela JamilMamamia - Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jim Carrey, and the ageing conversation we're too afraid to have.Oenone's Substack - Carrie, Bridget & meThe Guardian - I was at the Baftas - and while hearing the N-word was unsettling, all anger should be aimed at the BBCBBC - SNL criticised for 'hurtful' Tourette's sketchNetflix - I Swear (airing in the UK from Tuesday 10th March)The News Agents podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Beth and I'm Anoni. And this is Everything is Content, the podcast that shares and analyzes the week's best pop culture stories. We cover everything from award shows, influencer antics, the best and the worst of film and TV, and whatever else is lighting up the internet. With a glamour of discourse on the red carpet of pop culture, taking a 360 look at the spiciest stories from The Week. This week, we are without Ritura, who is on holiday and we miss her already. But don't worry, she will be bad. in your ears next Friday. This week on the podcast, we're discussing celebrity clones, influences in war zones, S&L under fire and more.

Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Everything is Content Pod and make sure you hit follow on your podcast player app so you never miss an episode. So first of, and I wonder if I know what you're going to say to this, Anoni, but what have you been loving this week? What I have been loving this week is something that I saw last week, which is The Bride, the new Maggie Gillen Hall film starring Jessica. Leslie Buckley and Christine Bale. I was very lucky to go to the premiere with Ruchera, which was amazing. And I didn't actually know what to expect whatsoever. I kind of had missed all of the

advertising for this film, but I got invited to the premiere and I was like, obviously I want to go to that. So in Mary Shelley's 1818 Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein begins creating a female creature but destroys it before finishing it. And then in the 1935 film, which is a critically acclaimed American Gothic horror film directed by James Whale, the bride of Frankenstein. The bride of is only on the screen for three minutes. And apparently everyone loves that film. I'd never heard of it or ever seen it. But in Maggie, Gyllenhauls reimagining the bride,

Jesse Buckley plays Mary Shelley as well as Frankenstein's bride, and she is the beating heart of the film. I thought she was absolutely electric alongside Christian Bales, Frankenstein. There aren't that many reviews out yet, because it is out today at the time of recording. I loved it. And I'm going to say that with my full chest, even though I am worried that loads of bad reviews are going to come out,

and everyone's going to say that I'm really bad at watching films. had you heard of it before I sent it to you. I remember conversations about this, maybe around the time that Frankenstein, the Netflix, Gabby del Toro film was coming out and people saying, look, how exciting is this? We've got sort of like a back-to-back in this universe. But I don't think I've, maybe I have watched the trailer.

It was one of those films. I was like 100% it was made for me to go watch it. So I don't really need to know anything about it. And also, maybe I will avoid all other reviews because I would like to go in with a positive mind and a harp. I don't really know what the film is. about or kind of the tone of it. Is it one of those weird films that has no story but is vibes? Or is it here is a plot. Here is what happens one after the next, after the next.

It's both. There is a plot. I can tell you the basic thing, which is basically Frankenstein, years later goes to see this mad scientist and he begs her to make him a mate, which obviously happens in Frankenstein and in Guillermo del Toro's adaptation, which I hated. I'm so sorry to say, I found it extremely boring. But yes, then it goes on. She makes him a bribeck. There is a plot. It's kind of like Bonnie and Clyde. It's really punk rock. It's quite genre bending. There's like dance sequence scenes. I think be open-hearted and be open-minded because I actually, when it first started, when I was first sat down, I thought, oh God, we've got to sit through quite a while of this. And then the next thing you know, I was having the time of my life. Just let it wash over you,

enjoy it. And we'll discuss it once we've seen it, I think. And when matured is back, we can all give our thoughts. Yes, I was going to ask, did you get a reaction from her live or was she quite cagey? She loved it too. We absolutely, we both. It was a riot. It was great. It was really fun. Almost better if I hate it then, because I think, as people have pointed out, we have quite similar opinions on things. So maybe I'll hate this one. We have an argument. I'm just doing it the cast, looking stacked. Also, love that she's put both her husband and her brother in this, Peter Sarsgaard and Jake Gillen Hall. I mean, both fantastically talented. It's not really an EPO hire, but I'd love that. If you're just married someone, you're like, you're going to be

in this film. You're my brother. You're going to be in this film. Cheers. It was amazing because at the premiere, all the cast go at the front and they kind of like talked to you. So Maggie Gydenhall was like talking about the film and she was like, this film is really like a family film. Because I've got my brother in it. And then he comes on and he hugs her and he's so hot. And then her husband, it was really cute. And then she's talking about how they're all kind of like family now. It was very sweet. They're very sexy trio. I mean, we'll get on to this. I think her appearance on the red carpet has brought out the worst of the worst trolling. But yeah, I'm very excited. I've never been to, I've been invited to a few film premieres, but I've never actually been to one. We've got to screenings as the pod. And I find those really exciting and interesting because you get free snacks and you get to see the film for other people. but I was seeing pictures of view like on, I guess, the red carpet or like adjacent. I don't know. I just find the whole thing so anxiety-inducing.

Oh, yes. I have to tell you about this. This is so funny. And also, for listeners, it's just to let you in a little secret. Because I'm not a proper celebrity, I am a content creator. You go in through a different area. It's actually quite embarrassing. But anyway, so you get siphoned off.

You're not with the real celebs. You're sort of like the Zedlist crew. They have like a separate carpet and separate photo area for the sort of non-event celebrities. And when I met Ritira, she'd gone to the real key. And I text, so I was like, where are you? She was like, oh, I'm just by the carpet. And I was like, oh, babe, I'm so sorry. You need to run around the whole of Lester Square to the other side and meet me by the content grade. So you can see, there's a little barrier between you. So we could see everyone being interviewed on the stage and I could see all the celebs. But we were sort of like kept away from them by a cage. That is so. I like these behind the scenes industry secrets. Because I didn't really realize like real celebrities, they still kind of have to queue. Like they're going to the Met Gala. They kind of have to queue apparently. I just in my head, I hadn't really thought about it. You kind of imagine they'd. just a magic there, all glamorous step out of a limo and then they're on the carpet. But no, they're just standing around shivering their tits off waiting for the moment. Hollywood, it is,

it's all a scam. Also, I've been to four premieres now, but the first two I went to, were years and years and years ago before they'd wised up to the fact that probably influences are taking like four hours on the carpet so they're like, we can't actually put them on the main one. So I walked down the main red carpet for Red Sparrow, that film with... Oh, Jennifer Lawrence? Yeah, Jennifer Lawrence. Wow. But I was literally just wearing like black trousers and heel boots. I don't know it was a real premiere. So I'm walking down this red carpet and literally behind me as the whole cast of the film.

And the second one I did the same. I went to some like, it was just too young. I just didn't really understand the concept of a movie premiere. I think I would just turn up on whatever I'd had on that day. And again, it was like the proper red carpet and it was a Marvel film. But then the ones I've gone to since then, I can't remember the one I want to last year. I was again siphoned off and you got to give in a special wristband.

So funny. Like important but not that important. Don't get it to wish. Yeah, I know. I really want to one day being the real cute. We will be for everything as content the movie. What have you been loving this week? I had a big deadline this week.

The first thing I did after sending this off was I went to BBC IPlayer and I watched a series called We Might Regret This. Basically, season one came out in 2004. Season two just dropped. It's about a tetraplegic

Canadian artist called Freya who moves to London to be with her older partner Abe and then shortly after her quite flaky best friend, Joe, arrives and through a series of events becomes her PA, basically managing her,

around the clock care. Season one I raved about, I thought it was so funny and so good. Season two, and I knew we were getting season two, but then I thought maybe we weren't. I saw Edward Blumel, who stars in both series posts on his Instagram being like his season two. I was like, thank fuck. Timing of this is perfect. I think this is the last season, sadly, but again, so good. It's really funny. And being written by Kyla Harris, who also stars, it is so refreshingly not shit about disability and life and love. Like, it's not just about disability and the struggles of that to kind of navigate in the UK system especially, although it's bang on on that. It's about life and love and I think what they said is like the mess of life. Sally Phillips is in it, Lolliadafope,

and this is both series. Edward Bumel, as I said, Emma Ciddy. Tim Key is in series one, but he's so, so briefly, but so funny. It's only 10 episodes across the series. So I would recommend people who haven't seen this, just go watch it from start to finish. It's such a nice arc. Yeah, it's really good. Proper good telly. I can remember you so clearly describing this when you watch it the first time and I still haven't watched it. So I need to watch that because I've just looked it up and it looks so good. I did actually watch also on BBC I play. I started watching small profits. Have you seen this? I don't even know what that is. It's written and directed by Mackenzie Crook from Pirates of the Caribbean. Do you know the one I

mean? The really tall man, yeah. It's about this guy whose wife goes missing, or his partner, sorry, goes missing and she's been missing for years. And then his dad, who's in a care home, potentially had some sort of dementia tells him that he can actually grow these little profits and jars with water. And he's obviously like, well, you can't do that. You just you're in a care home. Anyway, he tries it out and he grows these things called homunculi, which apparently in Victorian times they believed in these little prophets that could

like tell you the truth, so you can ask some questions. So that's the premise. It's really sweet. I just forgot that I'd started watching that, but I'm about three or four episodes then, but it's a nice light one, quite heartwarming bit off the wall. See, he was recently in that show that everyone loved about metal

detectorists, which I started but didn't finish, and people rave about this show. And again, it's really feel good. Oh, I haven't watched that either. I do you know that's so funny. I hear people talking about it. I've never even ventured to find out what it's about. I cannot believe it's about people with metal detectors.

Is that actually the premise? It's the premise. And I think it's like a very, I think it's like heartwarming in the sense that it's about people who live in a village and have these different relationships to one another. But yeah, it's about people who are the detectress who go out looking for like sacks and coins and stuff. My mum used to watch it and it's got Johnny Flynn as the, like,

one of those lovely Johnny Flynn songs is the song for it. And I was always like, what is she doing now there? BBC does do these shows very well but sometimes the premise you're like right okay homunculus is for sure but you have to try yeah okay I'm gonna watch Tetris now so I genuinely never

just never knew but it sounds very similar vibes very heartwarming very sweet people love it oh I do have another TV one just to flag I went on Netflix last night and Shrill which was one of my favourite TV series of the 2010s think came out in 2019

is on Netflix now UK it was like one of the best pre-COVID shows like you can tell it was made in 2019 but not in a bad way, if that makes sense. Like, just a very different landscape. But, like, so funny. It's about a character called Annie, played by Adi Bryant, who is like a fat woman, who is

experiencing all the things that fat women do, the passive aggressiveness, the fat phobia, the well-meaning concern from family members about her weight and just aside, like, fuck this. And it's based on the memoir of the same name, I believe, by Lindy West, which was like a runaway here. And it is sadly still so relevant, especially in this era of like, thin is in. But it's so good. It's Adi Bryant, Lolli, Fope again. Patty Harris, like it's just some of the best TV, and I think it really holds up. Whenever I think

to rewatch girls, I'm always like, but I also have to rewatch shrill. It's so fucking funny. This is where Netflix is actually keeping my subscription, because it does keep getting older shows that are really good that you can't find elsewhere, because they're not doing anything of their own backs, really, but they are getting some good shit on there. I'll have to watch that as well. So I actually thought that all we were going to do is talk about industry. It's such a shame that Routher isn't here because she's industry head. I think she's the one that got me into industry. But the season four finale aired Monday, Sunday of You're in America. And oh my God, it's all I've wanted to talk about since.

It was the most bonkers episode of the most bonkers season, of the most bonkers show at the moment. I know you've watched it. Can we just discuss? Oh my God, we need to discuss it. I kind of feel like I need to watch it again because I do get, and I've said this every time, but quite sidetracked by the sort of conversations that they have that I don't really understand. And I almost need like a little narrator in the corner, pausing it every single five minutes being like, So what they're talking about now is,

it was mad. I don't really know how to feel. And I have been kind of reading around what people think about this series because I thought it was incredible, expansive. I'm really invested in the human stories. But I do have to say for me the fact that, and someone said this at China podcast

that I was just listening to you that I'll tell you about in a minute, that a lot of the series, Yasmin is almost like a ghost mirroring like her dad's ghost. Like she's not that hyper-visible. and Yasmin and Harper's friendship isn't essential to this series in terms of screen time as I would have liked it to be. I don't care as much about Henry Mark and maybe I should, but I still thought it was incredible.

Did you love this series? Did you think the last episode was good? Because I thought it was incredible. And then I kind of read some stuff where I'm like, hmm, was it? Interesting. So I really like this series. I like that it is, I think what the creators have done, Conrad McKay, and I do forget the other creator's name because I don't follow him. Mickey Down.

Oh, great. I think what they've done is they've evolved the show, which is what people claim to want. I mean, if you've got a winning formula, you can stick with it in Adphanitum, but I think what they've done is expand the universe and follow a really natural dark progression, like into the heart of capital and beyond. And so I've really enjoyed this series for taking that leap. It's kind of just like they've graduated from Peerpoint and then they're in the worst world. I think Henry Mark, because how good Harrington is at playing him, I think because the show is at its heart about class in Britain, he is that exemplary. He is like every moment you go like this is how it functions the way that this man is kind of a common criminal but protected by Status and legacy the you know the scenes with him and Whitney it's basically him saying when he says I would rather go to prison as me

Then run as you this way that equals him a peasant. I really enjoyed that as just great not even satire But great commentary on how the class system operates but I agree I do miss that Yaz Harper and so I did see the fans really holding on to what yaz Harper we got You do them in the nightclub only for the final episode. No real spoilers, but like, that is torn to shreds. By the end, I was like, oh, I hope in the final, the next and final series, we do get a bit more of that because it's so fascinating, heartbreaking to watch. Totally. So one of the criticism I read was someone saying basically that they loved it. And like you said, they've expanded the show. They've evolved it. It has changed. And actually the themes of the show are much broader. And I think really clever. And it is, as everyone's saying, it's so interesting the way the show seems to not only be on the pulse, but almost foreshadow what is happening in the news, culturally, politically. But someone was saying, I thought it was much more interesting when it was like tight, when it was focused on Pierpoint, when there was a singular space that all of these people occupied. I think it's, um, to where it's got to by the end. I think that through the series, we get to this place. But I guess I could see,

someone else said it feels like farce. And once I heard that, I could see that in terms of like the lengths and extremities that we go to. But then I guess when you think about everything that's come out, sorry to where Epstein pals again. The real world is that.

It is everything interlinked. It is power and money and people that you would never think being at dinners with people that you would never expect. And I read a really good substack actually called Empty Ambition by Brendan holder. And he writes, ambition with purpose is better than mere agency because there's a destination

in sight. The pursuit of endless wins signifies a lack and a lack can only produce more lack. Harper and the rest of her peers have the deadly mix of high confidence and low self-worth, a treacherous bind that keeps them playing the game, adjusting the score no matter how many rounds they win, how many times have you got something you wanted, only to be thinking about what's next shortly after. Ambition is great, but anything that pursues exponential growth at all costs is something else. It's cancer. And that was making me think about when we think about these people who have so much and take so much and do the most to pay things. I really think that's what it gets to the heart of, this kind of cancer. The way it almost erodes your soul, your morals, your sense of self, to be so capitalistic

and so driven by money and wealth and status. So I thought it was really sickening. At the same time, as we said before, I'm really easily swayed. So when people were like, this is fast, I was like, oh, maybe it is. I'm the same actually. And I think, I mean, I haven't really read reviews. most of my guidance has come from my Twitter feed, which at the moment, because I'm looking at so many tweets about industry, has become industry HQ. And I'm really enjoying how people are consuming it because it is a really unsettling show. Like I felt really sick watching that last episode, obviously in the scenes with, yeah. I mean, there's these tie-ins with Gilein Maxwell and this abuse becomes an abuser becomes a cog in the wheel, trauma, begetting trauma round and round and round. And even this, like the way I watch TV, it's always in search of a moral good. which is the worst way to watch this show, but even watching this quite sweet friendship between Yaz and Harper, both characters who in real life would hate me,

I would hate them, we wouldn't understand each other, like watching them be cleaved apart by, as you say, the cancer of this world, but also like the inherent filth that will always rub off when you are working that close to capital, it just lingers with me in a way that those earlier series, like an episode would be stressful, but it wouldn't really linger,

whereas this series with its ties to like the global sex trade and underage girls, that's the underage women, But yeah, like children, the idea that, you know, children would be working in these spaces, young women and girls, oh, it just has left me feeling dirty. And I remember succession ending and sort of thinking, like, we will not get as good a show about rich people or wealth and the love of money. And actually, I think this is so, like, hats off to it because it has, it exists in that post-success world so well in like the eat the rich, but also can't eat the rich because they, you know, they will eat you right back. I just, it would be very difficult, I think, for me to sway from. I love this show. It's perfect. I'm very glad we have a break now because any more than like six episodes of this. I do start to feel, I think sick. I just felt sick watching that last episode. Yeah, I think I agree with you. That idea of like this really stays with you because these people now, their impact on the world, it's like, I guess also we've in a way really grown up with them. So to see them making the choices that they're making and becoming the women or the people or even just this idea that everything is kind of predestined in the stars, these people were always going to. end up being these people. And that is got a horrible tragedy to it. I listened to a really interesting

episode earlier of The Watch with Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald. And they actually interviewed Mickey Down and Conrad Kay about the show. One of the things they said that I thought was really funny was apparently there was a tweet that was like the shows of industry just like make it up as they go along. And both of them are like, isn't that what writing is? That is kind of what happened. And they were talking about how the inception of Yasmin's character becoming who she has became that. And they said that really early on there was this weird comment made by her dad, which at the time they thought was just sort of like a weird thing to say to your daughter. And then the way that it was received was that it was really creepy. And then the seedling started to grow. And they said that every time they wrote

an episode, someone had said to them really early on that you've got Sunday night on HBO, that is the Super Bowl. You have an hour. This is like you'll never get this chance again. So they treated every single episode like it was the Super Bowl. So that's why I think it's such a fascinating show because I guess each episode does feel like a standalone, strong piece of art. art. Like there's so much in each bit. You're never feeling like it's fluff. And there's not only as there's so much character something that it's clearly written from such knowledgeable place. I say that because I don't know what half the stuff is about. So they were talking about, again, like with Rishi's character, they were saying that towards the end of season three, they could have

just left him. But they loved him as an actor so much. And they thought he was so good. And they were like, how do we keep this character in and what do we do to him? Do we give him a redemption arc? He's not a good person. Like I don't think he will get at a redemption arc. So let's follow that thread. And it was so interesting to hear about how they write and how much of the writing. Some of it was predetermined initially. And then actually they said the characters, the acting and the story and how the story was received, then informed who these characters became as the series went on. And I do think they are incredible writers. Some of the lines are just so good, so perceptive, especially from Harper, I had to say, I think she is my favorite character. Yeah, she can,

her and Yas, do you can just deliver some lines that will leave you, just shaking in your boots. It's such a well-written show. And I like this idea that I think that's a good creator and a good writer as someone that is in communication with, well, the audience, but also just like the world and allow something to evolve. I thought it was great. And I remember, I can't remember what maybe an interview with Shonda Rhymes. Like, everyone always says on Gray's Anatomy, you can tell when someone got on with

Shonda Rhymes or not always like a good part of the crew because they get like a happy ending. It almost feels like in this case, it's the opposite. It's like if you are a real credit to this team, I'm sorry, you're going down, burning. I love it. I love this show. So true. I love the show. I did get to the end of that episode though and I thought, where is this going to go in season five? Like, I am totally spent and I'm fascinated because I do think it's a hard thing to follow because that finale could have been the end of the show,

especially with Eric's storyline, which Eric, he shouldn't be, but is my favorite character actually. I've said that about how they're all my favorites to be fair. Every time I think about it, someone knew. That could have been the nail in the coffin. So to take it again, I'm I'm fascinated to see where they go. Oh my God. I am very excited. I do need a rest. I need to watch some nice things like shrill,

and then I will be back with my horrid children. Speaking of sort of the dark, twisted, capitalistic nature of this world that we live in, something that I have not been able to look away from. And obviously, this is really sensitive and complicated to talk about. This facet of it is so fascinating when we're coming at this from a place of internet culture and content. And that is the way that influences in Dubai have been reaction.

reacting to the Iranian strikes on the Gulf in relation to the United States and Israel. So just a bit of a summary, on Saturday Israel and the US struck Iran, killing Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah, as well as other senior Iranian leaders in an attack whose legality under international law has been under a lot of scrutiny. And Iran, which is now under internet blackout, has informed the United Nations Security Council that it will be exercising its right to self-defense and that US assets in the region are legitimate targets. So on Saturday, I believe, there were attacks and there was one attack that actually hit hotel in Dubai and then there were other missiles that were being intercepted. There was a lot of noise. I think there was some debris

that fell from missiles and struck buildings and caused fires. So obviously like an extremely terrifying situation for everyone. But the loudest voices in this have been the influences living in Dubai posting, ranging from sort of becoming news reporters to a man who tweeted, I just have to get to Dubai and someone replied to him like, well, it's a war zone mate and he said, I don't care. My dog's in Dubai. What have you been seeing of this? Because I actually have seen, I have kind of pure horror, watched a few videos of shirtless men walking around Dubai being like, at least if I die, I'll still be tanned or this is kind of what's going on. And then I, for about an hour, my algorithm just went, I guess this is what you want to see. And that is all I saw. Yeah, very similar here. I mean, obviously, like, no part of this situation is funny. It has that kind of cadence of like, the bizarre and the pure, like, this is the most 2020s thing to happen. I also saw that tweet and a responding tweet that was like, white people be like, my dogs on holiday and Dubai. And

you're like, this is where we're at in pending war. And of course, like people getting their memes off. Almost, like the videos almost seem like parodies of Westerners, which makes me realize like it's not parody. It's what we're actually like. And not to downplay how scary it would be to be seeing a missile attack from your balcony in a place where you had no sense that you'd be anything other than safe, that it literally is the selling point of Dubai is. come here for the safety. But it's that like knee-jerk reaction and the phrasing that a lot of people are using of like, this shouldn't be happening here. This shouldn't, you know, I can't believe this happening to me. So many of us do live in these bubbles where it's unthinkable that we would

be touched by war, despite living in countries, you know, American Britain that are historically warmongers. And the fact is, the fact remains we approach war. Like, it will not be us who is touched by this. So the influence who has found herself in a lot of hot water and on the front pages of a lot of news sites is someone called Louise Starkey. I don't, I wasn't familiar with her, but she's an Aussie influencer who is living in the UAE. And in, I think now deleted videos, I think she's gone sort of quiet on social media, filmed herself on the balcony, crying,

and she said, I'm so scared, I'm actually so scared, it's not meant to be happening here, can't everyone just chill out. I've been hearing loud explosions in the background all day. The sound, it shakes the windows. It's the weirdest sound ever, and now I'm seeing them. This is not fun, guys.

We are supposed to be in the safest place. I love the UAE. I love being here. I feel so safe all the time, and now I can see it, please just stop. And it's her reaction to the, this, which of course, you know, it's the kind of thing you would send to your family to be like, this is what I'm going through, but I'm safe. On a public platform like that, with what we know

is happening in terms of loss of life, it's quite difficult. Like, an influence's job is obviously to be forward facing and to understand the internet. In these moments, I'm like, either you're really bad at understand the internet or you wouldn't have posted this. I mean, I guess in a high stress situation, you're not thinking, but I just thought the amount of people posting things like this, or even jokey things of like, look at us, we're in the basement sheltering. Is that a way to cope, or is that just so unbelievably toned at earth? I think it just exposes so much ignorance because it is those people kind of walking around laughing, making jokes and those people saying exactly what you just said,

you know, this isn't supposed to be happening to me. There's just a total clear, massive blind spot because the Middle East throughout history has been somewhere that has been constantly targeted. The people who live in Arab countries are constantly under the threat of violence from foreign places. And like you said, Beth, that is not something that we experience. So this idea that because you are in Dubai, you should be safe, just exposes something really quite terrifying, but also kind of makes sense in this culture where our exposure

to war, and I saw an amazing video the other day by Robert Fisk, who was a foreign correspondent based in Beirut for decades, he was talking about how our exposure to war in the West is through video games and TV shows and the news. And it's always really far away. and it never really impacts us. And the way that the media dehumanizes people that don't look a certain way, makes it feel like a really abstract thing. So when people who are wealthy enough to live in Dubai,

who perhaps have made certain choices based on information, like Dubai being extremely safe, like Dubai having all of these assets, and they're suddenly impacted by this thing, which is not for them in their minds, it does expose something extremely ugly about society, which I think all of us kind of need to face. it was still very surprising and shocking to me to witness it. But I listened to The Restors Entertainment recently with Richard Osman and Marina Hyde and

call me ignorant. But I realized that lots of influences move to Dubai, but I didn't realize the extent of the kind of program that the government has for influencers to live there. You can basically move there and I guess you get paid or you get some kind of subsidized living when you're there. And so Richard Osmond was saying, I don't know the extent of this, but he's saying, whenever you see a video, I don't know if it is every time, but he was like, Whenever you see a video of someone saying, I'm up rooting my family, I don't want to live in

XYZ city anymore because it's not safe and the taxes are so high, I'm in a move to Dubai, the safest city in the world, and I'm taking my family with me. He was like pretty much all of those videos are sponsored. And another video which I keep seeing, which is quite interesting, and now having listened to that, I imagine perhaps it is sponsored, is UK influencers or Australian or American in kind of gym kit or a bikini, posting themselves in Dubai and then saying, but I know who will protect me. And then showing the president of the UAE kind of walking through and it's all got the same music on. And I kept watching those and I kept thinking, oh wow, there's so many things happening right now, not least this really

interesting thing, which I keep seeing, which is everyone saying Dubai is the safest city in the world. But if you look it up, I don't even think it features on top 10. No, and I suppose that is because there's also, that would also take into account the workers, the migrant workers, which there was a 2023 global slavery index, which estimated not any day in 2021. There were 132, thousand individuals living in modern slavery across the UAE. So I assume those, what people mean is it is anecdotally and technically very safe for Westerners, migrants and wealthy, but actually across the board, it can't really meet those metrics because of those things. So it's not, I think that is probably why it's not being featured rather than it's actually not very safe. I think it is very safe if you are,

you and I, for example. Sorry, I think actually, I was just trying it, I think it is ranked as one the safest, but yes, it's exactly that. And people are getting really angry in the comments. People are saying you're kind of really showing your ass here. Like this is safe for you. The reason, which everyone seems to love saying, because how many people have a Rolex? I don't know, but you can leave your Rolex on the top of a car and no one can steal it. You can walk around at night with expensive jewelry on and no one's going to take it. And everyone points out, you know, it is a city built on indentured servitude. And a lot of the people that are natives to that city, to that country are not living the way that we see advertised on social media.

So I think it is throwing up some interesting reaction, sometimes quite a lot of like Shaddenfreude as well from people, because there is a lot of backlash, sometimes for good reason, towards people who move to the UAE in order to become exempt from taxes, in order to live a very kind of lavish lifestyle. And there are people who are sort of saying, you know, you needed this wake up call. I mean, also to your point on social media, it is illegal to post material like photos, videos that are critical of the UAE government or any, any, any, kind of incidents in the UAE. Like, that also should have informed people's opinions of the videos that you see, especially at this time where people are, I mean, I don't think people are lying when they say, but we are very safe as the best place to be. I feel that this is the best place to be, but also like it would be illegal to speak otherwise while you're living and working there. I actually went and listened to this Restis Entertainment episode because you'd mentioned it. And I thought it was very interesting because I also, I'm frightened of Dubai. I didn't know too

much about it, apart from what I've just said. But it's this idea of Dubai as this, like, rapidly constructed utopia for, you know, luxurious-minded people. Obviously, that goes hand in hand with what we've just said about the Global Slavery Index and Modern Slavery. But it's also this place where influencers are more than welcome. They are recruited to go there. It's this completely baffling entity has positioned itself as this hub for businesses and influencers and people who want to make their money digitally and game the system and obviously the obvious appeal of a 0% personal income tax. For that to be shaken, I mean, it's the mythology on which it's built now being destroyed for a lot of people who perhaps were like me veryly critical of it and other people who

did see it as this ultimate destination. It's like global unrest is not going to exempt you because you really wanted to, you know? I think what is most startling about it is just we have reached some sort of end point. And I think even in next week's bonus episode, we talk about how real life is becoming an episode of Black Mirror. I saw a comment from someone that said, watching these videos from these influences is reminding me of all the people that filmed when the club in Switzerland was burning down. Oh, God, yeah. And it's like our impulse, instead of being to run away from danger, to find safety, to check our environments, check on the people around us, has come to kind of just document everything. And

And there was videos of people filming missiles and turning their phone around to film their shocked face reaction. It's like we're losing our innate sense of sort of like danger. Like people are are living so much on their phones. And it does feel like as much as people are kind of taking the piss and there is that level of Sheldon Freud. And it is also just quite shocking. It is also fairly worrying that there is this kind of level of disconnect between reality and what we perceive to be content. I mean, our podcast title has never been more relevant than for the same. instance, I don't think. Speaking of war and AI and that kind of unfolding situation, have you seen the

quit GPT movement, which is kind of unfolding at the moment where people are encouraging other people, and it's actually working to quit Open AI products, including ChatGPT, because Sam Altman, who owns that company, has decided basically to let the US Department of Defense deploy open AIs, AI's AI models in its classified networks and use them in the Department of War. There is a boycott website that claims that more than 1.5 million users have already left, and it seems to be kind of gaining speed. I saw Katie Perry has left. Mark Ruffalo had quit. I couldn't really imagine him as a chat GPT user, but I'd also shared this. I do think people are walking away. People have finally found a moral reason that's compelling enough not to use this. I did read a piece this morning called Quit ChatGAPT right now.

Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism by Rutger Bregman, who I only knew his name because you have mentioned some of his books before. He gives an overview of this and makes a really good compelling case for this. Even though people are swapping to other AIs, which I'm not crazy about, I am enjoying this small downfall of a man and a company that I hate. I was literally going to quote that piece to you because right at the end, he says something that's really good. This is Rutgers, Preakis and the Guardian that will link. And he said, Open AI's president bet $25 million that you would not notice where your money was going and that even if you did, you would not care enough to spend 10 seconds switching to something else, time to prove him wrong. And it is useful to know,

and it is good to know that people are encouraged and that power can be taken away from these companies by people voting with their subscription, voting with their use. It is absolutely terrifying. And actually on chat GPT, I told this to Retire, well, you were ill. I whispered to Ratured, I'd used, I can't remember what I used it for, but I used chat TBT for something the other day and it was really helpful and I was like, oh no. And then Ratured was like, I used it for something the other day and I was like, no. And it's mad because as much as I am. resisting. I asked it a question the other day. And it might have been something to with Astrid. Anyway, it was really helpful. Oh, I think it was when I had to take it to the

vet. And I was like, do I? I couldn't, everything, I couldn't work out what it was wrong with her. And then actually gave all these links and these studies and it does aggregate things usefully. And I was like, shit, I wish I hadn't done that because now I know. And I think that at a time when, unfortunately, most people do have these chatbots really integrated into their day-to-day lives. Also, because Google doesn't really function the same way anymore, it has become part of people's day-to-day lives. But knowing that we still do you have a power over it because there are other options and we can make better choices if they're funding, things like this, that is good. Have you failed, like me in Retire and used it secretly for

anything? I've not yet failed. I obviously do use AI because every time I Google something, it decides that what I want is a shitty AI overview. I have a CHAPT. I mean, when this was all unfolding, we described ourselves as these like Neo-Luddites, but then we sort of said, oh no, but actually, we just hate technology. Actually, I do think we are closer to the Luddites. Luddites were not kind of anti-technology for the sake of it. They were just against their own suppression and just like, using them for oppressive use. I remain in that camp. I do see the utility of using AI. I do think, as we've mentioned in our AI episodes, the possibility of AI for science and for genuinely automating certain tasks is wonderful. I do just think when people use it instead of Google or as a

stand-in for a therapist, whatever, I think they need the head shaking. I hope that you don't feel like you have fails, but there may come a time when I figure out what chat GPT is all about and I ask it something. Yeah, it was really useful because basically I had to take asking. I have to take to the vet, I told you this to you guys, it turns out she had gastroenteritis. But anyway, it's putting in all her symptoms and all these different things coming up. And you know, Google at the minute, I do find it's almost impossible to use as like sponsored ads. You can't get on the right pages. And what it did is it really easily broke down like the things that could be why I took her to the vet, what I needed to tell her and kind of linked all the websites

for it in one place. And it was really helpful. I have noticed that Google is really bad now. And I don't know what that is about. I don't know if it is because of sponsored searches. or you just can't really find things anymore. I just find that it's really inefficient. So the same as you. Also, the AI overview at the top does come up for me. And I did, I almost switched that off ages ago. But now more than not, I actually do read that.

I mean, the eye's drawn to that anyway. And I know that I can turn it off, but I just haven't. You know, when someone's like, oh, you have to do this, this and this. I'm like, oh, for fuck, I don't want to do this, this and this. I want my life to go back to what it was like in 2008. Obviously, it won't. I mean, my opinion on AI hasn't changed. And in this instance, I'm like, I'm really enjoying that people, this seems like a boycott of a

such a useful size. I think this is what Rutgers says in his piece. Like this is doable. This is not saying, you can never use Amazon again. This is not saying delete Facebook forever. This is saying, okay, if you use AI for this, use Claude, use something else. Phase this out, make a dent in this company that is basically, yeah, as he says, funding authoritarianism and will work closely with this unfolding war. Do this.

Boycots do work. And I'm just, there's something delicious about this because I think Sam Altman, everything he says makes my skin crawl. He has literally dug himself up from hell and started this company. I just despise him. Yeah. Also, don't get me wrong. If we could get rid of generative AI, because I'm starting to get worried, I am falling for images now. And I really am finding it harder to tell. And in fact, I sent something into the group, which may or may not have been AI. I didn't realize till after. But have you seen this whole thing about the Jim Carrey clone conspiracy. Yeah, I found it funny at first, and now I'm just afraid. Yeah. Okay. So a quick summary for those of you heart on the note. The 64-year-old actor attended the 2026 Caesar Awards in Paris, where he delivered a speech in French after being honored for his contributions to film and TV. And then photos of it. of him at the event began circulating and people were like, doesn't really look like him.

He's kind of changed over time. And then people started saying it's clearly a clone or that he was using a body double for some reason. And then there was some interviews that resurfaced him in the passing. He's used decoys to avoid paparazzi. I think this has kind of existed before that people thought he'd died and that they'd like kind of made this fake version of him. But then the thing that I sent to you both was celebrity makeup artist Alexis Stone posted on Instagram claiming that it was him impersonating him because he often will wear these like hyper-realistic masks and pretend to be people. So I sent that to you guys as if to be like, oh, I've solved it. This is what happened. I then looked at the comments and everyone was like, anyone who believes this is so stupid,

the third picture of the mask is so clearly AI. And I didn't even, I couldn't even be bothered to tell you because I was, I hope they already know. I just won't say anything. And I'll just show myself at the door. But in fact, Jim Carrey's publicist did confirm that it is him. But he does, I mean, he does look. He does look different. If it was a woman, we would know, we would automatically understand there'd been some surgical intervention. Because he's gym care, and because it's the internet and everyone on the internet is bonkers now, this caught fire really quickly. And people, I mean, I think there were people being like, he could have been cloned. You just don't know. And then other people being like, it's not him, it's a mask. What does

it all mean, he was in the mask, so I understand the connection. I mean, we've all fallen. Actually, I don't know if I've fallen for poo crave. We've all come close to falling for poo crave. gee, there's the kind of joke version of... No, I have fallen for poo crave, yeah. Yeah, there's a few times I've been like, and only that's poo crave. This feels like the ultimate poo crave. And it supports...

Have you seen that theory on the internet that everyone is 12? No, please tell me. I mean, yeah, so basically, I think it was a tweet or maybe a post on Blue Sky that read, working on a new unifying theory of American reality,

I'm calling everyone is 12 now. I'm strong and I want to have like 50 kids in a farm. Of course you do, you're 12. I don't want to eat vegetables. I think steak and French fries is the only meal. Hell yeah, homie, you're 12. Maybe if there's crime, we should just send the army. Bless your heart, my 12-year-old buddy, which is such a funny theory and also, like, unfortunately, very close to reality, everyone has these very 12-year-old ideas.

But to apply it to this situation, I was like, well, of course you think Jim Carey, a beloved actor who actually is not very important now. Like, hasn't been in an interesting film in a very long time, because you're 12. It's, I don't know, it just made me think, like, everyone online is primed for this. Maybe it's just anti-intellectualism, maybe it's pseudo-intellectualism, maybe it's the rise of conspiracy. but I thought this really would not have been a thing 10, 15 years ago, serious discussions about this. Like, we are so suspicious. You know, it's all of the above. It's opposed to society. It's like nothing is beyond belief anymore. It's really hard to see the wood from the trees. And we have AI, definitely to blame for

this. We have the release of the Epstein files and all of this flooding of information and then the kind of like spurning of a conspiracy theory is this ties into 4-chan, the ties into Reddit. We have been, by design, primed to believe the most mad things. And I, unfortunately, falling for it as well. We have been poo craved on the ultimate level. Yeah. Speaking of faces on the red carpet, Maggie Gyllenhaal. So you were at the premiere where she was celebrating her film The Bride. Did you see her? I know you saw her on stage, but did see her on the carpet over your little pen. I didn't see her on the carpet. I did see her on this. She looked beautiful, but my eyesight is bad at the best of times of me and we were right in the back row.

I did my glasses on. She looked fantastic from where I was standing. Yeah. I mean, famously beautiful, chic, very talented woman who's been the public eye in acting for like 30 years. People online, obviously, like bridge trolls were quite surprised that she, a 49-year-old woman, looked 49 instead 21, comments about the kind of sagging on her face or her mouth, her body, standing next to her husband, who is also a very handsome man. They were vile and it's just that Hollywood ageism, I mean that global ageism really, but directed towards women of a certain age in Hollywood, that fear of women's bodies, which I guess begins at like fucking 27 and lasts until they die. I was not surprised but disappointed in this, especially on like the premiere of this film. She's a really like

accomplished woman and of course people are discussing that she has dared to get older. And I was reading Jamila Jamil's piece on Substead, which wasn't about this, but it was called As shit, we let paedophiles decide our beauty standards, which I thought was really good. Came out on February the 16th, I think and I only just read it, but it's really good on this realization that we are all locating beauty in pre-pubescence or just around pubescence, ee like smooth, hairless, very petite-bodied women, and now that is informed by this pedophilic culture we live in. It's a really good piece. Again, we'll link it.

I highlighted a few bits, and she writes, if you like an older man, you have sophisticated taste. If you like an older woman, you're into cougars. You are a grave robber. You are a granny chaser. Men actually shame other men over who they are attracted to. And it was these things in conjunction with each other when I was like, fuck, yeah. Like, we want women to look perpetually.

18 to 25 and they are punished when they don't. And it's the idea that basically it's more shocking that she hasn't had a face-lipped. I mean, she looks 49. She looks wonderful. I have been obsessed with Maggie Gyllenha ever since I saw Donnie Darko and Secretary, which are both films that were filmed, I think before she was 25. She's fantastically talented. And I just am shocked. Like she's 49. She could live for another 49 years and will only get older. How is this shocking to people? I read a really good piece titled Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jim Carrey and the aging conversation we're too afraid to have. And in it, they write about how all of these comments, there's people saying like Jesus, she looks like she's melting and just all of these horrendous things.

And it was written by Natalie Riley and she writes, Jill and all is 48 in aging like a normal human person. But because visible signs of aging, such as wrinkles, differences in skin tone, and skin laxity, all completely normal, by the way, are now so rarely seen on women in our society, 48 has become the new 65. And she goes on to say, it reminds me of the forced adoption rule of new technology, a bit like what we were just saying about chat GPT. At first, you're like, there's no way I'm falling for that update, new phone, new app. I don't need it. But pretty soon, everyone you know has it, and then your work implements it, and then the systems that once supported your particular model of phone are obsolete. When everyone starts doing stuff to their face, normal faces

become viewed as obsolete, unless, of course, you're a woman in the public eye, in which case, you'll be abused online and treated like a gul with three heads. And it's exactly that. It is, on the one hand, everyone's sort of going, what has Emmett's stoned under her facial? It's really different. How she had a facelift? Chris Jenner's. facelift. Lindsay Lohan's done something else again, which is extremely uncanny. She almost looks like she's about 10 years old. They look gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but you can't have both things. They're one and two of the same thing, and it's so maddening to read these things, because actually we need women like Maggie Gyllenha. I think she looks fucking gorgeous. And I did

that Jamila Jamil Peace was great, but she does make me laugh because she does by accident often kind of insult other women, which maybe I did that with the facelift thing just then, but she was writing, I think, about the footballer, Deckham Rice's partner who comes under the most awful scrutiny from football fans because they don't think she looks like the perfect wag. And then in the piece, Jamila's like, because she doesn't look like a blow-up doll like all the other wags. And I was like, well, that might be. I don't know if that's sort of like firing it up the other way. But I, it is, it's absurd. And I actually wrote a substack yesterday and briefly talked about this for Bix. I got offered free rhinoplasting on Instagram in my DMs from a doctor, like

full bored. You got to travel there, whatever. And I put it on my story and I was like, Like I've actually always thought about getting a nose job, but I've just come trying to be like, that is my nose, whatever, get over it. And the amount of people who are messaging me being like, oh, I really want this done. And I thought, what would our grandmothers think of this? Like, did they think of their noses this much? Because that's whose noses we have. We have our grandmothers, the generations, the people before us. I just think it's a sickness. And it frustrates me how often I and we on this podcast talk about beauty standards. But now it's getting to the point where it's actually, it is a war on women. Totally, though. And I, maybe you're

You saw the same tweet, but it was one of those tweets that like rearranged the inside of my brain, similar to the you're fucking the text man for text. And it was a tweet that said, I will never touch my face because I look just like my grandmother. Bitches don't look like their grandma anymore. And I was thinking about this in conjunction with your nose job story. I never met your grandma. But I'm like, you look so much like your mom who is such a beautiful woman. And I do think those are the things. We value in our own faces and also just like, one, the appearance of having a diverse and interesting face. We're kind of losing that because we're all getting the same dimensions put in. But it is this idea of like my face has this proven. I, one, we will end up looking like our grandmothers if we leave them alone, but we'll just end up looking

like grandmothers in general. Like, as we said before, Christiana looks four years old. It's, it's uncanny. I support women's right to choose and I support my right to be like, that's crazy what you have done. I think maybe I'm more on the knot of calling other women bloop dolls by accident, but just on the side of like, I'm allowed to say, this is kind of bonkers. Like, we've got to the point where it's more understandable to spend 200k to have someone like cut into your face and yank. Obviously, that's not how it works. But like, then just simply saying, oh, I'm actually just going to exist in the world forever. People are like, really? That's, like, that's the new body horror is doing nothing to your body aging. Yeah, and that's the mad thing.

It's kind of like, God, it's a while that you just got old. If it's like not more insane, more crazy to go under the knife, go under anesthetic, have a really serious operation at the expense of tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds or dollars, and that we think it's odd to age. It's so weird because often you feel like you're living in two universes. And I felt this with the Dubai influences things as well, because it's very apparent that even though I do think that X has kind of got rid of echo chambers a bit, because you are exposed to everyone with every thought, often the kind of thoughts that you would love to never be exposed to again. But we are living in different worlds. It's kind of those who've subscribed and those who have maybe had the wall pulled over from their eyes and are trying their best to resist it. And obviously it feels like not resisting it, going with it, going with the Botos, going with the fillet is the easier thing to do because it means you fit in better, you're treated better, blah, blah, blah, things we've spoken about a million times. But it's obviously not easier. Resistance actually, just existing is the easier choice. I don't even know where to go with this because I could talk about this for like five hours and not have a coherent thought. I just find it so upsetting. Yeah, it just boils my head clean off. My head, which will get older. One, because I don't have 200 K for these kind of plastic surgeries. We'll also because fuck this. We're awarding the peter philip beauty standards. Like I'm just tired. We were all little girls who, I mean, got cackled. I remember when I was like 9 to 11 years old. And now I'm an adult woman who is about to be clear of looking super youthful. And they want to punish me for that too. Like fuck and take my money.

Fuck off. My rage will keep me from from making these serious interventions more than any more than my wallet. I also saw another thing which was again, shaming of women, but also quite interesting, which is, have you seen that Demi Moore is now also joining the throngs of women in Hollywood who are very, very, very thin? Yeah. I did see this. So then people were posting, and I don't like this again, because it's not great. It did make me think. And they posted a kind of side-by-side video of Demi Moore and Monica Balucci. And they were like, Monica Balucci comes from an aristocratic Italian country that really loves voluptuous women and womanhood and curves.

Whereas Demi Moore is a product of capitalistic Hollywood, which fetishizes thinness and power. And it is interesting culturally to see what, like Jamila says, this kind of pedophilic fantasy, which is very skinny hair. bodies that are, when you really boil it down, trying to look prepubescent, and then like the beauty of womanhood, which is more curves, being fuller, aging. And it's like kind of that flip between control, capitalistic power, female suppression in every sense, like you're hungry, you're starved, your own desires are muted. Like we spoke about when we spoke about a Zempec, it's kind of every aspect of desire that comes from a woman is taken away. Do you know what I'm trying to say, but I'm not explaining well. But I do think it's quite difficult to nilip.

it down, but this is what womanhood is because it expands naturally in all different directions. Sometimes it is there. Sometimes it's the inherent power. Sometimes it is just the soft bits. It's so difficult because it's so unprescribed. Whereas when you buy the way you look or when it is about lack, it is very easy to describe a hungry woman or a small woman or a miserable woman or a very smooth woman. Everything else is difficult as it should be because it's so complex and we're just, we're shrinking and not just physically. And I think that's the frustration because you're like, I can't explain it, but I just know we're missing it. something to end on, which I actually did Amin R about talking about this, and I can't really believe

it's still going on two Sundays later, two weeks later. The ongoing fallout and discourse from the BAFTAs, when everyone already knows, but when the Tourette's campaigner, John Davidson, while there to celebrate the nominations for, I swear, which is the film based on his story, experienced a tick in line with his coprolalia, said the N-word by well-actors, Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan Warren stage. We all know what happened. The discourse raged. I mean, people were both willfully ignorant to Tourette's and Coprol. Blahler and also the history of anti-black discrimination. It was a mess of a thing and I barely got through it with my sanity intact. In fact, I think I did lose my sanity for a little bit. But then S&L,

fucking S&L has ignited things further. There's a justified, I think, storm of criticism about SNL now because they basically parodied that incident for their show with Conner's Story from He's a Drivery. And I assume you've seen the skit. It took me a really long time to actually press play because I knew I wasn't going to like it. I did say I actually didn't watch the whole thing because I just found it so insulting. I think it was also, I don't know if it was after before, but the first thing I saw was the actor Dean Cole at the NAACP Image Awards doing this kind of joke about making a prayer and he ends it on. And if there are any people with Tourette's in the building, then whatever medicine they are on, they better double up on it. The idea being that anyone who has Tourette's or Copprolalia has the ability to control their ticks. That being the whole premise of, I swear, the whole premise of so much of his work he's done. I saw an incredible clip of him as a teenage boy talking about how he feels suicidal

because of not being able to control the things that he says and how much of an impact and a toll is taken on him and his life. And I felt like seeing the SNL clip, seeing that joke, I felt kind of flattened and distraught because obviously the N-word is unspeakable, unthinkable. You cannot say that word.

The devastation that it causes to people is absolutely not something to be ignored. And that's never something that anyone would ever want to undermine. But the idea that people have, perhaps not willfully, but there seemed to be like a really big UK-US divide on this understanding. And for some reason, the US cohort had absolutely not been educated on the fact that this was of no intent, even though it was an absolutely devastating thing to happen.

The BAFTAs and the BBC are really at fault. Loads of the sinners' cast actually spoke really eloquently about how they felt about it. But, and I know that this directly impacts you more than it does me, so maybe you can speak on it more clearly. Yeah, I mean, so the premise of the SNLscape for anyone who hasn't seen is basically celebrities using Tourette's in their PR schemes, like notorious celebrities like JK Rowling and Army Hammer, kind of saying, ah, I know what I'll do. I'll just say, I had Tourette's. And you could, if you're being so, so generous, you could argue that the premise is about misinformation itself and the celebrity. and kind of like the celebrity response to controversy, which is to downplay their own culpability and, you know, argue diminished responsibility. You could argue that if you were being very generous. But on no level does this achieve that. It achieves the opposite by basically suggesting that Tourette's is a condition that can be controlled in that way that you can suppress ticks, that ticks are optional or that ticks are in some way connected to your belief system. I'm hoping by this point everyone listening will have either known this already or received that education of it's.

a neurological condition. It's basically like your brain is auto-generating the worst thing you could say. And a good thought experiment, I think, for anyone is to sit now and think, what are my politics? Who do I love and want to be protected? What do I genuinely believe? Okay, now I'm going to shout out loud the opposite of that. I wonder what impact that would have on my mental health, my ability to keep work, my ability to not be attacked in public. I, watching this get, I was just annoyed. And the debate for me is personal in so far as I have Tourette's and I've had fluctuatingly invasive motor and verbal tics since I was a child. And I don't have coppolarlius, which is the kind of the swearing, the quote unquote, inappropriate ticks. Even still, like, it has completely blighted my life at times,

made it hard for me to work, socialize, my mental health. And I was shocked at the disparity in education between America and the UK. But also the fact that disparity exists is due to the work, or the fact that the UK has leagues ahead is due to the work that John has done in his lifetime. Like, he's done so much good, has faced violence, suicidal ideation, has been through so much to now see this like hate campaign driven by ignorance and ableism. It's such a dark moment alongside all of the anti-black racism. Like it's this inability of people, and I will get off my soapbox in a minute, but it's this inability of people to allow these things to exist side by side. It's like woke 1.0 is dying

and thank God because it has become this kind of pitting of two groups against each other. And those groups so much overlap. Disabled black people exist. Black people with Tourette's exist, Coprolalia, exist. And to watch people like try and mathematically quantify who they are allowed to hate and attack in a really awful situation. It's more depressing to me than watching right-wing people be right-wing, be awful, because that is what we are fighting against.

To watch people who claim to be left and liberal take so much pleasure in attacking both a disabled man who did nothing besides go to an award show he should have been at and also black people for having a visceral reaction to that word. It is really shaking me, I think. Completely. And I was listening to the news agents talking about it. I don't know how I felt about their positioning stance as kind of two white guys talking about it, but they were talking about other times when John Davidson has said things. For instance, I think when he met the queen, he said fuck the queen. When he was in an airport, he shouted, I've got a bomb. The kind of the way that the disability functions is that you say the most inappropriate thing in that moment.

kind of it's like saying the opposite thing. I cannot even imagine, obviously, you will have a better innate understanding of feeling that kind of lack of control. That is kind of the kind of thing I get a fearful, intrusive thought about, is saying the wrong thing to someone. Something like that is devastating. It's devastating on both ends. And I think the fact that the BBC chose to broadcast it, even though they had cut out speeches where people had said free Palestine, fuck guys, whatever else, that is also an extremely damning. And I can understand how black people would feel unsafe. And actually quite scared of the fact that there was a choice there, an editorial choice made there by BFTA and the BBC, to leave that in. I think Jamie Lawson summed it up really well. She was

in sinners and she said, institutionally, we still don't understand what inclusion means. Just because you invite someone into a space, but you don't provide the necessary resources to keep them and everyone else in that room safe by them being there, that's not inclusivity, that's exploitation. Davidson's disability got exploited that night and it led to multiple effects. censors. And I think crucially, that is probably one of the best takes we've had on the whole thing. I agree. And we'll also link Jason Okendaya's piece for The Guardian, which was, again, just pitch perfect and really, really good. I think if you are new to this discussion or just watched it and went like, I just don't know how to feel. I think these are some very good things.

And it's just like, fuck, SNL. S&L. Sincerely, you're not forgiven. Thank you so much for listening this week. Before you go, just making sure that you've listened to our latest Everything in Conversation episode where we debate if it's really okay. to tell your boyfriend everything. If you enjoy listening to us, then please do leave us a rating and a review wherever you're listening to this right now.

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