Everything Is Content - Reform UK's Surge, The Politics of Tourism & Amandaland's Incredible Return

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

Hello EICookies, we've got a thought-provoking episode for you this week. Firstly, we have to discuss the depressing local election results and how we begin to process it and move forward. A Substack essay on the end of the Western earnest tourist our interest on if we'll ever regain the sense of wonder and charm from a path rarely travelled in the age of TikTok travel content, and Google Earth shining a light on every corner, far and wide, on the planet. Finally, she's back: Amanda and her cringy exploits have returned to screens.Also Beth is back next week, so do not fear our third essential ingredient will be back in the mix ASAP.This week Oenone loved Why More Americans Are Seeking Religion and wanted to dive into Charli XCX's Rock Music. Ruchira loved Gen Z's New "Anti-Woke Voice" and Hacks season 5.Also could we request a lovely review on Apple or Spotify? It's a huge push for the podcast and helps us continue to grow <3Lots of love, O,R,B xoxox-----The More Than 30 Scandal-Hit Reform Candidates Elected Last WeekMinority groups brace for surge in racism after Reform UK election gains‘I’ll talk to work on Monday’: what happens when a ‘paper candidate’ actually wins?Reform cold calling public in bid to find ‘paper’ candidates for local electionsThe End Of ElsewhereThe Myth of Authentic TravelAmandaland Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Ruchera and I'm anoni and this is Everything is Content the podcast that explores the week's biggest and best pop culture stories with a hand-drawn map leading you to the treasure of content Beth is still sunning herself but we promise promise promise she will be back with you next Friday this week on the podcast we're talking about the local elections

the death of the global citizen and new Amandaland Follow us on Instagram at Everything is Content Pod and make sure you hit follow on your podcast player app so you never miss an episode. Okay, I hope you have a chest full of content recommendations because I have to be honest, mine is empty as hell. What have you got for us this week? Okay, good, I have a couple.

So the first one, I started listening to last night, so I haven't finished it, but oh my God, it's so good. So it's an episode of the Daily podcast, and it's called Why a More Americans Seeking Religion? and Lauren Jackson, who is the host of the believing newsletter, guests on it to talk about why more people in the United States are now choosing to believe. So she grew up as Mormon, was really embedded within the faith.

Her family had been Mormon for generations. And she then got a scholarship to like a normal university and through being exposed to other students, she eventually gives up on her religion and decides against being Mormon. It causes like loads of fractures within her family. But she then now has gone on to do loads of research on religion and faith and spirituality within the United States. And it's basically just such a fascinating episode.

So she's talking about it's like the first time in five years that people haven't been leaving the church. So it used to be that for years and years, year on year, less and less people would be religious. And there was at one point, I think, that like 90% of the United States identified as religious. And then it went down. And so she said,

we had expected that every cohort coming up, so every new group of young adults, would be less religious than their parents or their grandparents. But Pew published a report that shows if you actually look at the youngest group of Americans, so 18 to 23-year-olds, there are signs that that group is even more likely and it's slight, but it's more likely to attend religious services. And then separately, we got a new survey from Gallup that found a sharp rise in a share of men under 30 who say that religion is, quote, very important to them.

And it went from 28% in 2023 to 42% in 2025. Anyway, it's really, really interesting. And she also talks about how outside of religion, you also see this kind of sense of religiosity and like spirituality in other areas. So she was like when I was at the Ears tour watching Taylor Swift, that felt religious. When you go to certain concerts and things, you feel like people are like craving religion and they don't know where to look for it. And some people are just going back to religion. It was making me think of the piece that we read the episode we did on Freya India. And also just like a genuine feeling on my side as well about wanting community and also seeing, and I'm sure you've seen this online,

but random people now pop up in my feed. Do you remember Katie Salmon from Love Island? That name really rings a bell. I can't put a face to it. She now does post being like, I used to be a Jesbel and then I found Christ. Like she was quite famously bisexual on, I'm sure it was Love Island and she now does loads of religious content.

Anyway, it was really interesting. I really recommend it because it's something in the back of my mind, I will just be watching stories in someone that I followed for years who was always very secular, very kind of education science-based, has suddenly done a full 180 and is now totally religious. Oh my gosh, that is so fascinating. I'm absolutely going to listen to that. That's such an interesting thing to point out

because I don't know anyone anecdotally going through that, but you're saying that even on your feed, on social media, you're spotting that here and there. Yeah, did you ever follow Africa Brooke? Well, do you know who she is? No, I don't, no. She's quite a big creative life coach. Actually, years ago, I was kind of friends with her,

but I don't really know her very well anymore. She doesn't really come up for me, but she's been going down quite an interesting pipeline. But she did a story the other day talking about her, like, religious awakening and how she's getting all these spiritual attacks since she became religious. And I read it and I was like, because it had been so long since I last saw her content and it's so far away, it's similar to other people we've seen. I mean, there's obviously the pipeline like the Russell Brown kind of pipeline where people are turning to spirituality and it's really tied into

right wing, which is part of what she talks about in the daily as well. But I do think there is something about people feeling lost in this current climate and where some people seek refuge through cultural, even like fandoms, she was right, it does feel like sometimes that feels like a religion. There are other people now just turning to the church. Yeah, that is so interesting. I'm going to listen to that. There's been a lot of X is the new religion or X is the new thing that people are turning to. But the thing I'm fascinated about what you've actually said is just people genuinely actually just going back to religion because it felt like for a bit we were so far removed from that being a possibility culturally and people had moved into such a secular space.

that is so interesting to see that that's no longer the case potentially, especially with young people. Yeah, definitely. Honestly, it's really good. I need to finish the second half, but I was listening to it. I was falling asleep and there was a timer on it. And I wanted to like stop the timer and then I was like, no, I have to go to bed. So that is my first thing. And the second thing I wanted to talk to you about, which I know that I hope that you want to talk to me about as well is Charlie XX's rock music. Yes. I don't, is it something I've been loving. It's like an earworm now. Like I can hear, I'm making rock music. Music. It's, what did you think? What do you make of it? Okay. I liked the music. I did not like the lyrics and her singing over it.

To me, they felt perpendicular to each other. They didn't feel like they were supposed to be together. And I have to be honest, I found a few of the lyrics quite crinchy and I found it quite, or just, I get what's happening here. Basically, I feel like there's an earnestness that we're being encouraged to go back to. and a lot of the music from the 2010's millennial, proper, millennial core music is just about living to be young, having a good time, going out.

It's less cynical. It's less cool. It's just quite earnest. And I feel like that's what's being dipped into with the lyrics. But something about it, I just felt quite cringed by. I hope that this is just a statement of intention,

this song. And it's like, we're making rock music now and the whole album's going to be even more amazing and more fun. But for me, something wasn't hit. missing just yeah what about you it's obviously not rock music so i did find that really funny and there's a thing doing the rounds i don't know if it's a real story i don't know if you saw this but

it's like where she's like you guys don't understand this song is about growing up in london as a teenager and then like your people your friends with end up being in magazines about their band and stuff and i do think you're right it's trying to capture because i've noticed such a trend at the minute people being really nostalgic for naughty's indie 90s and naughty's kind of like indie rock and indie bands and things like the cooks. And it's so funny because at school, that was the kind of music I loved and it was kind of not cool to be into that school because it was too mainstream. Whereas that was, I remember being a massive fan and then my other friends were like, oh my God, have you not heard of Paramour before like Paramour was big? And I'd be like,

no. And it's so funny watching in real time history be rewritten for people to go, actually this music that we had in the millennial area was so good. So you're right. I do want if she's trying to tap into that. But I also agree that the lyrics weren't giving. much, whether or not that was intentional. And did you hear the B side of the track, which is only on the... Oh, no. Oh, my God, I'm going to have to get the lyrics up. So it's only on the vinyl that everyone has basically saved it.

So I think she must have posted it on Instagram. Oh, that fully passed me by. I did not see that. So the B side is, I keep thinking about you every single day and night. And it's basically all about feeling like she's gay. Basically, like, I wonder if I want it as my best friend, or maybe I'm just a really late bloomin. something about maybe being gay,

then about someone else maybe being gay just for their career. Again, really random. People have been salating it. It's been, are you off X again? Yeah, when I'm going through a bad mental health period, then I'll be bringing X things to the podcast. At the minute, I'm doing quite good,

so I'm not on X. Oh my God, that is so funny. I don't know if I know. I think when I, yeah, maybe I'm not, no, I think I'm on X even, no matter what kind of variation of my mental health I'm in. I'm so addicted. Someone tweeted actually.

It really made me laugh. They were like opening X. like having a little internet cigarette and it's so true as a nicotine addict can confirm. That's so true. My friend sent me a tweet from at 6B5HCC to GRV. I don't know how you say that. Maybe there's a better way. Charlie XX is so lucky she gets to make bad music and everyone just thinks it's on purpose. I don't endorse that tweet, but I do think it's funny. The discourse around people are fighting, the girls are fighting about the song. Some of them are like, you just don't get it yet you just don't get it.

And then other people are like, girl, I've been trying to get it. There's nothing to get here. I have that with her. I mean, I just said it a minute ago, but I have the same thing. I even text you about the song and I was like, I think she's going to surprise us. I think this single is like a red herring. It's like, but I guess I trust in her genius. And also they're right on that end of the spectrum.

But the other end of the spectrum is that someone else tweets something that was like, it's so fun that she doesn't care if stuff is a flop and that she does actually just try any things. And she's not banging the same drum being like, this is a set of things. things that work, this goes viral, this is my raison d'etre. And I know that I'll get listeners for this. I'm just going to do whatever the fuck I fancy. And it is chaotic. I think because it fits within her brand of kind of being chaotic and an ingenue and someone that thinks outside the box, even when it is bad, it's kind of good, bad. Yeah. I kind of love that. Okay. So what I'm bringing is you actually reminded me, I listened to a Diabolical Lies podcast and they did a massive deep dive

into Freya India and it's really good. And oh my God. Something that pleased me greatly is they said a lot of the stuff that we felt and then they'd gone through it really extensively. So things like a lot of her citations were really dubious. A lot of the things that she stated were very vibes based without a lot of research to back it. And essentially she is just shoehorning quite a lot of right-wing politics and conservatism

through the guise of social media because it's a bipartisan issue. so it's really easy to use that essentially as a Trojan horse for things like, well, you know, having too much sex as a woman displeases men and also makes you just lose your soul and just all of those things, but like couched in very academic language. So yeah, I really enjoyed listening to that and remembering our episode and just rethinking about all of it. It gave me lots of new sparks of thoughts about her and also just made me feel pleased that we were thinking the same things. I'm desperate to listen to that because I do really want more of a deep dive on her. But there were things that we didn't say in the episode for fear of coming across as kind of bashing. We were quite

conscious of the fact that we didn't want to put a young woman in a position where we were being really cruel about her. Did they say some of the things that maybe we did are on the side of caution with? Yeah, they did actually. They did. And I think they went in talking about the fact that despite her being really young, she has been platformed so much and because of her being such a prolific voice. There is, they didn't say this explicitly, but you very much felt that there is a huge argument to be made by just really interrogating her because the amount of power she has been given is really, really quite significant at this point. The other thing they said as well, which I don't think I realized, but is so obvious, is not only has she been cushioned by a lot of

the right wing, which is why she has been given this status, and also her being, you know, this young, very attractive white woman who gets to be. voice of a generation. We spoke about this. Often they are young, attractive white women, but all the people who've blubbed her book are men. And actually a lot of men support her because she's saying what they have always said in worst language. She's just saying it in nicer language about women being vulnerable and needing authority and needing authority figures to give them guidance. That's where men can step in, obviously. So no wonder she's been given a platform. Men who have platforms are loving her. Social media is her,

horse and she is the men's Trojan horse. Exactly, exactly that. It's actually reminding me of the plot point in yesterday year where Natalie's character, the influencer, gains those attraction because the right wing used her as someone that is peddling their narrative. I wonder if some of Carrie's inspiration, because obviously a lot of people said she's similar to Balabina Farm or she's similar to like other people, but actually there's a touch of Freya there as well, even though obviously less extreme.

That sounds so good. Okay, I can't wait to listen to that. Yeah, you'll love it. And then the other thing that I've started, which I won't talk about a lot because I'm only on episode two, is hacks. I was always going to bring hacks to the podcast. This happened. Can I be honest, though? I have been edging the hell out of those episodes because when I know a series that I love is ending, I never want to watch the final series.

I've done it with so many things. With rivals, I am three episodes shy of the ending of series one. Obviously, series two is coming. I just, I don't finish series if I like the show. That is so funny. I'm the opposite way. I obviously I watch the whole of Landa duty with my partner. There are six seasons or whatever.

And I like, I'm the same with food. I like have to compulsively consume everything and as quickly as physically possible. Like sometimes I'm eating and I'm like, why am I eating so fast? It's like if I can't get it all inside me, I haven't enjoyed it. And with a show,

it's almost like it makes me anxious. I'm like, I just have to get this done because I'm enjoying it so much. If I don't finish it, then when is it going to end. But I now do Phil Barath because when we ran out of Lina of Duty, I was like, oh my God,

what now? Then there's always another show, thankfully. Yeah, But finding that next show is really hard because obviously the hole you have is the specific hole to the last show that you've just finished. And then it feels like moving on with somebody that you're not ready to move on with. And it's like, I don't like this person. I don't like them. I don't like them the same way. I get it more with books because I really just want the characters I want to like live with them forever.

And I will think about them and I'll be like, oh, that is so annoying. And I think modern books are really short. Like most novels now, people want them to be like 200 to 300 pages. And it's not enough for me. I actually love all the ambient scenes. It's the same way to you. shows like sex in the city. I just love the bits where there was no plot. I love things where nothing's really happening and are just hanging out with characters. I would love for like every book to have, you know how Big Brother had Big Brother and then it would have like the 24 hour live stream? Oh my gosh. Yeah. I would love to have a book that was actually then just like all the other bits of the day that aren't included in the book. I would love just completely irrelevant like

nonsense scenes of them like waiting in a line for an ice cream or something. Yes. I would love. So I think we're going to have to start the show this episode by talking about the local elections. They were held on Thursday the 7th of May and this set of polls was the largest since the 2024 general election, featuring elections for 136 English local authorities, the Scottish Parliament, Hollywood and the Welsh Senate. So the biggest takeaway from the results was the change from the traditional two-party system with more councils in no overall control than at any time since 1964. Labour lost over 1,460 seats and control of roughly 35 councils. In contrast, Reform UK gained over 1,450 councillors and took control of 14 councils.

The Green Party achieved historic breakthroughs, gaining over 300 seats, amazing. The Lib Dems gained roughly 800 seats and then took control of 13 councils. and the Conservatives lost nearly 500 seats and eight councils, though they did regain Westminster from Labour. And London experienced its biggest political shift in decades, with the BBC calling it a new political landscape. Traditionally, London is a Labour stronghold, but Labour have lost overall control in eight boroughs

and reform one control of hovering their first London borough, and the Greens, one their first ever London councils, Hackney and Wolfen Forest, and two mayoralities, Hackney and Lewisham. Since then, many MPs have called for Keir Stama's resignation. The BBC reported that the number of MPs calling for him to go all set a timetable for departure rose to over 70 by Monday night. Then on Tuesday, Jess Phillips, Alex Davies Jones, Sabir Ahmed and Miata Fumbuller,

resigned from government and urged Sama to step down. But the most widespread controversy involved Reform UK, which faced intense criticism over the backgrounds of its 1,450 plus candidates. More than 30 newly elected reform councillors are already facing allegations of sharing racist, Islamophobic or neo-Nazi material on social media. And within days of the vote, at least four reform councillors were suspended or resigned after reports by investigators from byline times revealed ties to far-right agitators. Reform was so eager to fill ballot papers that they cold-called members of the public,

including a Guardian journalist asking them to be paper candidates, One reform mailing list in London sent to anyone who signed up to receive updates read. Even if you just want to assist by being a paper candidate, please help Nigel and our team by signing up as a candidate today. But because Reform UK's national vote share was so high, hundreds of their paper candidates ended up being elected as councillors. So it's a really bizarre situation where people who didn't even print a single leaflet or knock on a single door are now responsible for multi-million pound council budgets. There was also widespread confusion over voter ID rules, especially in Scotland where one council actually had to apologise for telling people they needed ID when they didn't. The SNP won their fifth consecutive election, meanwhile Labour in Scotland tied in second place with Reform UK. And for the first time in over 100 years, Labour is no longer the largest party in Wales.

Plad Cymry now has 43 seats in the Senate, while Labour collapsed to third place behind Reform UK. We're recording this on Wednesday, by the way, so if anything has changed by the time that you're listening to this, sorry, we don't have the latest on what is going on. But, Ritura, how do you feel in the wake of these results? What did you make with the whole paper candidate thing? And do you think that Stama can survive this? I absolutely think Stama cannot survive this. This is so, so much worse than I thought it was going to be. I knew reform.

Obviously, we're going to make gains. I think anyone who has been reading the news just like alive for the last year in the UK knew this was going to happen. We've been speaking about it. But I don't think I thought that they were going to get this many councils and this many candidates into council. This is just, it's so bad. And I remember seeing the number and I remember seeing the chart and the, are they blue? I think they're like a light blue or something, whatever color they are, was just so much higher

than the red, the green, the yellow and the dark blue of the conservatives. and I remember just gasping. I had no fucking clue it's going to be this bad. The paper candidates thing is both unsurprising knowing everything about them, but also just so ridiculous. It's so absurd. And it just kind of highlights how much of a farce politics has become in this country that it is about just getting anyone in over what we have. And whether you agree with what's happened, I remember Moja put up a reel. I think around the time that the results were coming in and she said, what I think is the truth, which is people are so dead. desperate for anything than what we have right now. And that can be motivating in a way because we

can see with the Greens that's really charged something positive, but also that can be weaponised. And with reform, they've really weaponised that desire for anything but the status quo into that direction. So what we have to do now is just really do the hard work before an upcoming election. Stama is, he's useless. He's been useless. There is no point having him in. I don't necessarily believe in labour right now. Green is our best chance. And I I think I really have taken this as like a wake-up call to do some work, do some campaigning as as soon as I can, just really put my mouth to action rather than just relying on people feeling disenfranchised. What about you? Yeah, I mean, so just quickly, I just realized just to

explain a paper candidate, a paper candidate is someone who's fielded on the understanding that they're highly unlikely to win to enable a party to appear on the ballot paper in as many places as possible. But usually parties will use members of the party who have leaf littered before. or who take active participation in kind of local politics. And there was a paper candidate that won for the Green Party, Tyrone Scott, but he had actually run before. So even though he wasn't expecting to win, it at least made sense. Moyer also wrote a really interesting substack

about how she didn't vote in these local elections. And it did engender quite interesting responses. But she basically said, as so many people do now, that she feels like a political nomad in that you don't know how to vote. And I think a lot of people came out and voted for Greens and others so much blame on those people for making Labor lose their seats. but it's difficult when you're voting tactically or encouraged to vote tactically when you feel like the vote that you're giving maybe doesn't represent what you believe in. But at the same time,

we've never been in the situation now with all of this like kind of instead of the two-party system, this multiple party situation. And I think that it's a big wake-up call like you said for the general election. It's pretty unsettling. But I agree with what you said that Moyer said. It's that people are voting for change and that, you know, it is difficult because there's the temptation and people do say this. And to some extent, it is true. You know, people who vote for reform surely are inherently racist, but there is another argument where people say, actually, people feel so disenfranchised, so like they don't know where to go, what to look at. They've been fed so much information that people are ultimately just voting for change. The difficulty being, Kirstama for all of his foibles is not like the worst

person in the world. And it takes so long for political change to happen. He hasn't been in power for that long. And it's scary to think, getting Kirstarmer out feels like a good idea, but what that might happen if he leaves is there's actually just more room for all those people, the rich people that actually really want reform in power to have more of a foothold to be like, well, they've got rid of him. There's not really any other good candidates after Stama. So we might just end up with a reform. I know that's a garbled. I don't feel educated enough to give a good, solid opinion.

But that's kind of where, how I'm looking at it from where I'm sitting. Yeah, I see what you mean. It's like before Stama came in and I am loath to give him any kind of commendation. or positive reviews. But we had experienced nearly a decade of rapid change. There were so many changes in prime ministers. It is absurd. We became such a joke to different countries because of how quickly everyone was just

coming in, coming out, coming out. It was ridiculous. And for all of the disappointment and all of his rubbish stances on so many issues, including Gaza and a ceasefire and just coming out way too late about those things, He has been the most stability we have had in years, and it is just, it's so difficult the prospect of more instability. But I've said it before, it's the hope that gets you. I'm just like, but maybe it's the charge forward towards something positive, which is not what he has done. He's just been concentrating on keeping everything kind of immovable, which is something, but I just think that's not, it's just not good enough, especially for how much the country is going through and how much change it's going through, especially financially, politically, politically,

it's like keeping everything still is not going to inspire hope in anyone. No. And the other really frustrating thing that's happening is, I mean, it's been happening since he appeared on the scene. But Zach Polanski is just getting thrashed from every angle. And people are like, you need to hire some like defamation lawyers because they are, the current thing that all going on about is how he lives in a two million pound house, which by the way, he rents with five other people. There are students living in Hackney in two million pound houses. That is just the state of, it doesn't make any sense the fact that A, that house is worth $2 million,

all the adults, you know, well into their 30s and finding themselves having to rent with five other friends. That is what's really stressing me out because it is like a rerun of Jeremy Corbyn. And so you're kind of like, is he even going to be able to get a chance at taking a run at this? Or is he just going to be stamped out before he even gets there? I know.

And I saw something that said the polls around him and his popularity dipped around the time that that real campaign of Zach Polanski is anti-Semitic was getting pumped really heavily. And it's frustrating because we've seen this tape before this movie. It plays out every single time. Even with bloody Ed Miliband, I remember, who's now getting whispers of coming back as a potential rival to Kastama, he was called Red Ed, which now is like so absurd to examine and all of these kind of allegations of just trying to take us back to communism or whatever bullshit that was. I hope people are aware of it. I think people who are firmly left-wing are

aware of it. It just worries me about the people who are that massive majority of people that you are trying to convince either side who are kind of swaying in between different parties who are undecided voters. I think these kind of media campaigns, they're really sticky and I hate it because I remember so many of the claims when I went out canvassing for Jeremy Corbyn. God, I can't even remember what year it was, but it was obviously the horrific year that he lost. So many people were like, I will never vote for that man. He's anti-Semitic. I will never vote for that man. He's going to bring the Labour Party down. People were really rabid. about thinking that he was a dangerous figure.

And I just don't really know what to do when the amount of power the media has over the possibility of a person being considered, reliable, trustworthy, so powerful that they really can sway public opinion. That 2019 election, I cried when Jeremy Corby didn't win. It just shows how much the landscape has changed. At that moment in time, social media was such an echo chamber

that my whole of my Twitter, and it was still Twitter at that point, was so pro-German that I genuinely believe that the whole of the world was like pro-Germy Corbyn because that's how it felt. What's changed right now is that actually the internet, not only is it not an echo chamber, it's actually actively pushing reform, right-wing, fascist, Tommy Robinson, Russell Brandt content towards everyone from every area. That is all that you see.

And it's so fascinating because we've obviously now heard Nigel Fras was given five million pounds. That's literally not even touching the sides. No one cares, whatever. Oh no, Zat Planski is renting a two million pound house that he does not own with five other people and that's like a news story. It is that evergreen problem with the left and better commas, which is that we're just so bad at our own PR, so bad at fighting back, so bad at standing up for ourselves and not taking shit,

that like, and also when people are so despicable and do so many bad things, it's the same with Donald Trump. It's really hard to pin anything on them because it's like, well, he's done worse in the past, so it really doesn't make a difference. But I think social media is having such a big impact on this as well. And the rise of sort of this kind of the populist agenda, the way that they share the content and the way that they get people on side and the way they use certain voices as vehicles

to like deliver their message. Even Trump obviously getting involved in UK politics, Elon Musk, all of these outside voices that just are so dissenting around the UK when actually I listened to Sadiq Khan on the newsagents earlier this year and he was dismissing all of these ideas that London was unsafe about how London's actually like

one of the safest cities. It's such a great city. Everyone who lives here knows that. Everyone loves the multiculturalism. We love living in such diverse and interesting city. but you get just so much noise from people who don't live here who don't have any idea and it's just muddied the water so much and I do have to, I think social media unfortunately is so much to blame for these results and for how people feel.

And apart from just the figures being really bleak, obviously this has a massive impact on people who are now fearful for the fact that there is very visible support for reform UK, obviously with minorities in the UK as well. the Guardian wrote a piece called minority groups brace for a surge in racism after reform UK election gains on Monday. And they interviewed Scheister Aziz, an anti-racism campaigner and community organiser based in Oxford, who said that many Muslim communities in the UK feel scared and intimidated by reform victories and also feel sad that their neighbours have voted for a party that openly calls for the deportation of members of our community

and can't call out their counsellors for their deeply racist rhetoric, she said. And I have to be honest, stand up to UK put up a post over the weekend. And they shared a lot of the previous social media posts from newly elected Reform UK councillors. And I won't read them out because you can go find the post yourself. But I just, I was a gasp at some of the things that they had said. Some of them two years ago, he's been suspended and he's no longer a counsellor because of this specific post. But it is outwardly racist using slurs, calling out minorities in the UK, talking about them in such a derogatory, offensive way. It is so scary these people are now in council.

I feel like there's a pressure for us to round this off in a really positive way. And there is something here. I did say this is a wake-up call for a lot of us who really care about politics to do something, whether that is activism, whether that's speaking out, whether that is just considering maybe the two-party is not the right way for us, just really looking at this and maybe thinking what makes sense moving forward for the general election. But also, this doesn't have to be rounded off in a perfect bow. it's really shit, it's really sad and it's really demoralising. And I think just being honest about

this is a really scary point in our politics and our current state is just the more honest way to end it. So, Ratera, you sent me this amazing substack by Dr. Grant David Crawford. And the essay is called The Endangered Species of the Global Citizen, which I settled in for a full 45 minutes to read. We will of course link it in the show notes, but essentially the core thesis is that the 300-year-old Western tradition of travel as self-discovery is structurally ending because of a fundamental shift in how Gen Z views the world. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I saw it was doing the rounds on Substack and I thought it would be an amazing one for us. So Dr. Crawford is basically an academic writer and researcher and I'll read the opening of the piece, which he writes, which is, for the past

seven or eight years, I've taught a course on the ethics and politics of travel. The syllabus opens with a Huffington Post article by David C. called The Myth of Authentic Travel, an unflashy piece that takes apart the idea there is some real Thailand ducking and hiding behind the touristed one, some uncontaminated village waiting at the end of the forgotten trail if the traveller is patient, open or adventurous enough to try it. See argues correctly that authenticity is a story the tourist tells about herself, not a property of the place. she visits. It's a clean little essay and it works as a doorway into the harder topics that follow. Colonialism, Essentialism, the long shadow of the noble savage. I used to lead with it because

students could easily sink their teeth into it and it reliably started arguments. It doesn't anymore. So we'll also link the first article he mentioned. But in the rest of the piece, he goes on to lay out why he thinks it no longer works on the syllabus and the TLDR is threefold. So firstly, we're totally over exposed to every corner of the earth. Everything has been. mapped out and geo-tagged and shared. And so the idea of genuine discovery feels impossible now. Number two, students and younger people have post-colonial critique, meaning they now think of finding yourself in a vertical commerce in a developing country as extractive or even white saviourism. And thirdly, there are now new modes of escape, either through video games or Discord servers

or AI, meaning you never actually have to leave the house to get that escape feeling. A really good quote from the piece that also kind of sums this up, is Cal San Road in the early 90s, this is David C's setting and Alex Carlin setting in the beach, the spatial archetype of the late 20th century search, was where the hippies' overland trail compressed into a destination. The backpacker's authenticity seeking was undone by their own success of finding it. The moment a place could be identified as off the map,

it was no longer off the map. As James Annesley observed, Lonely Planet was both critique and accelerant, the guide that promised escape from mass tourism and was the very mechanism by which mass tourism colonized its next destination. One of the first things I mentioned to you, Ritura, after reading it, was that I felt this weird kind of sadness and loss that by the time I visited Thailand, I didn't have the beach experience at all.

It was one of my favorite movies growing up. Obviously, I didn't want to experience the ending where they kill everyone. And Leonardo DiCaprio loses his mind. But the bit before the dream, the illusion of this Adilite hideaway lifestyle. Yes. Oh my God. So I remember I brought the book version of this Alex Carland book to the podcast months ago. And what the book does, which the film doesn't do ironically, is it talks about what this article is, which is this illusion of the perfect, authentic moment when you're traveling.

And the almost like extraction from the natural place, this idea that there's a tourist who wants to go off the beaten track. And once you're there, it's almost like moments away from being discovered by everyone else by virtue of you being there. and almost you're chasing your tail constantly and almost questioning, is there ever a real moment like that? Are we all just kind of destined to be wanting more, more, more, more, more. And in the process, kind of colonising these places.

And I thought it was funny you said that because the film, I think, does the opposite of that. It really makes you feel like, God, I really should book a trip to Thailand. I know, it's so funny. And I saw a really funny tweet, I'm really annoyed I can't find, but it's basically about how funny the experience

of being a tourist is. When you bump into another tourist, you tell them it's such a great spot because there's no other tourists. It's such a thing, you know, and you're like, oh, I don't want to go with us. Anyway, so it's something I experience when I travel. And I do think there's a prudency to not going to eat by the Trevi Fountain or not going to get a roast on Oxford Street. Like, I think that you're not going to experience the best of culture by being in the most touristy hubs because I do think there are like tourist traps. But beyond not doing that, there is not really a unique experience that you can have when traveling.

And I remember even once I went to Budapest with my ex. years and years ago and we were like looking up all these places to go and we had them all pinned on our phone and everywhere we went people were just taking pictures of Instagram and it gave me such a weird sicky feeling because I was like everyone's going to see this thing take pictures to prove that they've seen it and it's like really baby you could have just looked out I don't know I do think travel has become so commercialized and so photographed that we live in like the worst time for it but what did you make the piece do you agree that this type of travel has died to death because he does kind of preempt an argument saying that this is a really cyclical thing where this kind of

travel dies, kind of hippie culture dies, and then it kind of comes back again in a new way. He says it can't ever come back because of all of the things he outlined. What did it make you feel reading it? I honestly really felt compelled by his argument. I think he's right. But I'm also quite dumerism about lots of things. And we've heard Stick about this a little bit about our views on AI. I lean towards massive cynicism about the world at the moment.

So I ate this up and I also just felt like, well, yeah, the modalities of travel have changed so drastically. There is no way to have that gap year in the same way you would or to go backpacking because there is no road less traveled. Every road has been traveled. We can see everything. And yeah, you might get moments that feel special. but I think even with travel content online, everyone is trying to come up with the one place that you've never realized you can visit an X thing. There's a race to expose off the beaten tracks across every country in every area because that's the new thing that people don't know. So I think

even if there were those corners, they're soon to be exposed in mass ways because that's just how the internet works. Everyone's just constantly trying to find the next piece, share the next piece, move on to the next thing. What do you think? The comment under the piece are really interesting as well. And someone was saying how fascinating is. I can't remember where they were. But it could have been Bali or someone like that. And they were saying that some TikToker had gone to one specific local restaurant and posted about it. And so from that moment on, people would queue and queue and queue to go to the local restaurant. But there were like five others

along the beach, which were completely empty. And no one would even bother trying them, even though. And I have the experiences as well. It's like when you go to certain local areas, everyone, there's traditional dishes. Everyone makes them similarly, but differently, but always excellently. Like, there's actually generally not like a monopoly on who's the best. So everyone's got a slightly tweaked family recipe or they do it slightly differently. But generally, it's not like one's incredibly much better than the others. And they were saying actually wrecks people's brains because they can't think, like they only want to go somewhere that's been given like trusted reviews. And we spoke about this a really long time ago where I said I hate review

culture because of this very thing. And in fact, where I live, there is a coffee shop at the end of my road. It's new. There has been lots of things there before that never really worked. This bakery coffee shop must have featured on TikTok. During the week, there's like no one there. But on the weekends, Saturdays and Sundays, from the minute it opens till about three o'clock when I assume that all the pastries go out, there is a queue so far down the road. And don't get me wrong, like it is good pastries. They do really, I got bought a loaf of bread there for the first time yesterday and it was stunning. But it's just this thing of herd mentality. A, Brits love to queue, but there's something about once someone's recommended something, we have to

go and try it for ourselves. It's almost the opposite of discovery, but that's what our new discovery is it's almost like a competitive feeling within yourself that if everyone's gone to this really good restaurant you also have to go because you have to try and see it for yourself which is the opposite of discovery which would be like stumbling across somewhere but you can't ever stumble across somewhere and because of that as well it means that there are less and less good independent places because no one can afford it because once somewhere becomes a gales or a joan the juice they do just monopolise the whole of these like urban areas especially in london it's really sad so many independent restaurants around me have closed down and

in favour of just another chain. I know that's kind of slightly different from travel, but I always used to look back through, and I did it at Christmas, my parents' pictures of them travelling, and it's such an otherworldly experience to see their version of travel through their eyes and the way that they experience the world,

because it's kind of, it's pre-tech, they're all taken on like gorgeous film camera, and it does really feel like they're going to the edges of the earth, and there's kind of no one else there, and it makes me feel like a sickly kind of sadness that in my lifetime, I will never experience that. And he does do a side note, which he doesn't expand into you. The only other thing would be if we start going to space, which I don't want to do.

Yeah, no, me neither. I find space deeply terrifying. I really recommend everyone reads this because it almost feels like we're not going to be able to cover every single thing. But I wrote down a bunch of notes. And one of them was his idea about even this concept of off the beaten track is quite a condescending approach to travel. And how essentially, you know, a lot of Western tourists will go to places. like India or South America and they're looking for places that tend to be pre-modern, poor and rural because it's seen as authentic and untouched by modernization. And this actually comes from

the David Z article. He writes, this is a problem. Defining a country this way excludes. It ignores the parts of the country that is modernizing, globalizing, prospering. It attempts to freeze the essence of a country into a traditional pre-modern past, even though this past is often constructed by the present. So this idea that maybe going to more rural parts of India gives you an authentic experience of India is actually quite problematic and it is quite colonial in thinking because modern India has already been touched and impacted by colonialism. So none of it is untouched really. There is no place in the world that has ever been untouched. It's constantly in communication with all these things constantly. And especially now with globalization, there is no place really

that is untouched, really. You know, everyone has access to Wi-Fi in most parts of the world. So many people, regardless of their accessing a home, might have a smartphone. There's all these things. But even before that, just this idea of going somewhere, kind of challenging yourself, almost like Bear Grill style, to go to somewhere that's so rural and different from your experience, is kind of placing an expectation and a projection on a country and going into it, hoping for this magical non-weigh-werelley.

Western experience. And it was quite an interesting thread, I thought, because even me, I do that when I travel. Obviously, we're all looking for something that feels very different to where you come from because we're all looking for an esoteric experience. We all hate our phones. We all hate working and capitalism and the amount of grief that we get in modern life. So sometimes when I travel, I think I put this expectation on having an esoteric experience. But this piece made me really consider that. It's both human and it's both problematic. And with the end of this kind of Western traveller experiencing these esoteric things. It's almost like those countries are catching up up to no longer facilitating those experiences, those problematic experiences where they're there

to support you during that. He spoke about being in Thailand and having all of these lovely experiences with locals. That's part of the jig when you do this gap year travel or whatever. And it's both a human thing to want to have that, but it's both a natural thing for those countries to no longer support that and to just want to take control of the kind of travel and tourism industries themselves. I guess it's both an acknowledgement of the privilege and the problematic nature of that whilst also mourning the loss of it. And the piece ends with Anthony Bourdain, in his mind, the last kind of figurehead for that kind of travel. And I found it really moving because, yes, it's really problematic, you know, like a white figure coming into these countries.

But there's also, if you've ever watched parts unknown, it doesn't feel that way because he's such a curious person. He puts himself in these scenarios and he really humbles himself and wants to get to know what is going on with this city what is the food culture what are the politics that you're experiencing i want to learn i want to humble myself to you so it's very complicated all of it but i felt very moved by it what did you think so moved by it and do you know as you're talking it was making me think about the absolute polar opposite of that which was an idiot abroad with carlplington did you ever watch that show where he basically goes abroad and kind of is shocked and horrified and disgusted by so many cultural norms in other places even though he's kind of pitched as being this

bumbling, ignorant idiot. It also was kind of taking the piss out the places that he traveled to as well. But it's so interesting because that bit you brought up about us now understanding this post-colonial mindset and that critique being a massive thing that weighs on us and the generations younger of feeling like actually we are the pollutants. We are the thing causing the thing that we don't want to see by us going there, being there, spending our money, looking for English signs and leading easy ways to travel. Like we have created the very thing that we were trying escape from, which I find really fascinating. And it is really complicated. Like we grew up on white saviourism feeling as if it was a good thing, like comic relief and kind of this idea of seeking out

places that we could help because we're so much better off than them. We're going to go over there and help this poor struggling country. And I think kind of being disillusioned from that and like unbrainwashed and realizing actually how very strange that was that we thought that was normal, does really change your relationship with travel. And it's a really thought-provoked. really interesting piece because he also says, which I guess is what I was saying, it's like there's this sadness there that it'll never exist. Like when I look back at my parents' photos, but then there's the equal questioning of should it exist because the only way it can exist is if you have that kind of colonial mindset

that it is my right to, you know, travel and exist and be in these places and disrupts them. It's so thought provoking. I really enjoyed it. And yeah, the problem is we all, we are a monoculture now that everything bleeds into everything. And even talking about sort of the rise of religion. It's so interesting thinking about how much that is bleeding into UK culture because I have always seen that as such a specifically American thing.

Growing up, it was very rare for any of my friends to be like Christians at school. And it is because of this monoculture, especially because of the internet. So it's really hard. Everywhere you go, it's very hard to escape that. But yeah, I would recommend it. It is one to get like a nice cup of tea or like a bowl of soup and just sit on the sofa and read and read the comments. Okay. Lastly, can we please talk about Amanda Land Season 2?

So Amanda Land just won Abda for Best Scripted Comedy, as it bloody well should. And Rachel Ariesti for The Guardian Rights of Amanda file this mesmerising comedy icon next to Alan Partridge and David Brent. And she's so right. Oh my God. So I binge the whole of Season 2. If you don't know, the Motherland spin-off follows Lucy Punch's characters

fall from grace after moving from her lavish London life and being Queen Bee of the school moms to becoming a single mother. So Amanda has relocated from Chiswick to South Halston or Soha, as she calls it, which also just makes me laugh every time. And in this series, we watched her and the other parents tackle parenting teenagers. And Amanda tries to build her lifestyle brand, Senuous and be an influencer. And then Anne accidentally goes viral for her plant content. I saw a piece in The Independent that said that there should be an Anne Land spin-off. And I do see it.

Retira, I need to know, have you watched the series? And if you haven't, what are you doing with your life? No, so I have started. I watched one episode yesterday and then before I knew I binged the second episode and I had to stop to cook dinner. But it's so, it goes down easy, doesn't it? It goes down really easy. I've really enjoyed it. I think it's because they've so well trodden down this path.

It's so interesting because Motherland was much more. This is also sat out, but it was a bit more damning and a bit more spiky. I feel like Amanda Land is just laugh after a lot. Like I was really laughing out loud. I love her character. She's such a perfect mix of like kind of hubris, but also really sweet. can't help feeling sorry if I, even though she's such a kind of bumbling idiot. And obviously, Joanna Lumley is incredible. And I love the actress who plays Anne as well. She's such a stand-up

from this series. So what happens in episode two? I can't remember where have you got to? So her mum has the shed and she's got the boys over to deconstruct it. It's episode two where she does the school talk and it's like a TED talk, but it's not really. Oh my God. Yeah, that's so good. The thing that I find really funny about her, much like Alan Partridge, is it's such a of a really particular posh white person. And until they do certain things, you didn't realize that was a trope. So her kind of like hop, skip jumping on the stage and then shaking her head and doing what everyone does before a TED talk made me sick to my stomach because I hadn't cottoned

onto that being such a thing. Oh my God. She's so David Brent and Allen Partridge. I'm just, I'm really excited. I actually think it might even be better than Motherland. I loved Amandaland season one, but I forget, and this is why sitcoms need room to breathe. I think every single sitcom I've ever watched gets stronger by like season three. There's such a specific format that needs like fleshing out and working out how the characters

work. And it's always really exciting with British comedy when it does get another chance because when Motherland ended, I was really sad. I've watched Motherland from beginning to end probably about three or four times. Well, yeah, it's so crazy because I was so shocked that Motherland's only three series and for the fact that it is one of the most iconic shows in the UK. Like Gavin and Stacey as well, you hear these shows when you haven't caught up and you're not part of the moment and you think, God, there must be 10 series for it to have such a chokehold.

And for some reason, the UK loves to just stop something at two, three or four series. But it's the same as like the British office. Like, finally enough, when I was travelling in Thailand, I had all of the British office downloaded on, it can't have been a Nintendo DS. I don't know what I had it on, but I basically just used to watch the same every time I no, I definitely had a Nintendo DS at the time. Maybe I had an iPhone at that time. I watched it on something.

And at every eight hour coach journey, I just used to watch it from back to front. It's such a funny thing to do. That's so funny. Because we had such limited options back then, it made us really just stand two shows in our life. That was me and Gossip Girl. So what are some of your favorite moments from this series? Because I imagine you're much further down than I am.

Oh my God. It just gets so good. There's one point where Amanda is trying to raise money for her brand, sensuous, which is also like partly as a lifestyle brand, but she also has an Instagram for it. And so she goes to the bank and she wants to get, I think, like two million pounds or something, for a mortgage. And then what is this for? She's like a business loan. And he's like, well,

why do you need it? And she's like, well, because I need to live in a beautiful house to sell the lifestyle of someone that lives in a beautiful house. And he's like, I'm afraid we can't do that, but we could give you a loan for £3,000. Wait, maybe you've seen that. Is that in the second episode? That's the first episode. Oh my God. Okay. Well, then it goes on. Well, maybe I don't want to go spoilers. But there's a bit where Anne, so she's doing her, Amanda's trying to do her lifestyle content. And she's struck up friends with this local business, which is like a coffee shop. And she's in the coffee shop. And she's in the coffee shop. She's like, I'll make content for you in exchange for coffee.

And then she goes on to Instagram and Anne has just posted a video about how she's watered her plant really well so that it lives for a really long time. Have you seen this? Yeah. Oh my God. Okay. Well, I can't remember what happens. I don't know what all the things happen.

It just goes on. There's an amazing bit with a condom where Amanda's trying to work out whose condom it is. Is it her teenage sons? Is it her mum's. Oh. You'll have to watch to find out. It's just really good. It's so good.

Oh, I do agree with the review that says that Lucy. Punch's character Amanda is going to be up there because I think she's really refined the characters so well. It's so sharp and it really feels so lived in and I just, I feel like it's like a Larry David Esk, Gahanna Haworth-esque, these history books of characters who are so hard to like but you love them but are so painful on screen and just have this like completely unique, drawn out, fleshed out character that will just always be theirs. I just can't believe that Lucy Punch isn't Amanda. That's the thing. Like, I just think she is that person.

Totally. Totally. Okay, well, this is our call to action. Everyone get involved in local politics. Read that really long substack essay that Richard Semi that was great on travel and binge the whole of Amanda land and that will make you a well-round-a-person, I think.

I think so. Thank you so much for listening this week. Before we go, just checking you've listened to our latest Everything and Conversation episode where we ask to voice note or not to voice note or not to voice note. That is the question. And another question,

have you followed us on Instagram and TikTok? You have to. It's at Everything is ContentPod. Go do that now, please. See you next Wednesday. Bye. Bye.