Everything Is Content - When does stan culture go too far?

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

It was the week that Elmo asked us if we were all ok… spoiler alert: we’re not. Beth, Ruchira and Oenone have been to a VERY exciting screening... there's a deep dive on stan culture (please don't come for us!) and we take a look at how our 2024 reading goals are going so far. Warning: your TBR may double (or triple) in size after this episode... Let us know on Instagram @everythingiscontentpod what book you'd like us to read together - we'll decide before next week's episode and then will all discuss it together in March! On the podcast today: 1:02 - Stamptown 3:18 - Existential Elmo 6:58 - Stans 18:36 - Vanderpump Rules 25:37 - Reading Update —BETH MCCOLL: Romanticise Your Life https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1398720860/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1706812058&sr=8-1 STAMPTOWNhttps://www.stamptowncomedy.com/ INDEPENDENT: Sesame Street’s Elmo is inundated with existential dread after asking the internet: ‘How is everybody doing?’https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/elmo-sesame-street-how-is-everybody-doing-b2487049.html INDEPENDENT: A timeline of Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion’s feud: From Hot Girl Summer to Hiss and Big Foothttps://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/nicki-minaj-megan-stallion-feud-bigfoot-b2487105.html  GUARDIAN: Taylor Swift AI images prompt US bill to tackle nonconsensual, sexual deepfakeshttps://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/30/taylor-swift-ai-deepfake-nonconsensual-sexual-images-bill ANATOMY OF A STALKERhttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/anatomy-of-a-stalker/id1725278548 HAYU: Vanderpump Rules https://www.hayu.com/show/episode/460038184320 ---BOOKS FOR YOUR TBR PILE: The Secret History - Donna Tartt Parason Against The Axe - Helen OyeyemiIssac and the Egg - Bobby Palmer The Feast of the Goat - Mario Vargas Llosa The List - Yomi AdegokeWar and Peace - Leo TolstoyPoor Things - Alasdair GrayCome and Get It - Kiley Reid Daisy Jones and The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid Penance - Eliza ClarkBoy Parts - Eliza ClarkI’m A Fan - Sheena PatelThe Guest - Emma ClineBOOKS FOR YOUR PRE-ORDER LIST: Private Rites - Julia ArmfieldRevolutionary Acts - Jason Okundaye Blue Sisters - Coco Mellors —Follow us on Instagram:@everythingiscontentpod @beth_mccoll @ruchira_sharma@oenone ---Everything Is Content is produced by Faye Lawrence for We Are GrapeMusic: James RichardsonPhotography: Rebecca Need-Meenar Artwork: Joe Gardner  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What episode is this? 9? 10? Oh my god that's really special. To me. 9 is a famous anniversary. Welcome to Everything is Content! I'm Beth. I'm Richera. And I'm Anoni. We're three besties who love all things pop culture. So every week, we get together and chat about our favourite stories that have been lighting up the timeline. We're the olive in the dirty martini of content. In today's episode, we're going to be discussing the new series of Vanderpump Rules.

And we're going to be talking about what we've been reading, what we want to read and just books in general. Follow us on Instagram at everythingiscontentpod. We love it when you interact with us there, send us your thoughts, feelings,

hopes and dreams. So head on over and get stuck in. Girls, what have we been loving this week? Okay, well, we're cheering you on now which makes me really sad but Beth and I went along with our producer Faye to see Stamptown at Soho Theatre do you know what Stamptown is no what is Stamptown it's like a variety show on heat gone mad with a firework up its bum it's like it's it's comedy but there's like not really any there was one stand-up set which was keema bob who i know from the guilty feminist listeners may know from the guilty

feminist and she obviously does other stand-up but famously she's on the guilty feminist but she's the only person that does stand-up everything else is sort of like there's dance there's circus acts there's henchmen there's massive peni uh question henchmen as in buff men or henchmen as in like fairy tale henchmen the the former yeah yes yeah we don't know what else they do for work um there was yeah peni i love how you said that because there's multiple willies yeah which you don't expect i went into it not knowing which was the correct decision i knew it'd be fun because faye has good taste but i was like oh I guess it's going to be like a sketch show. Also, because I'm doing Dry Jan,

I had started to flag a little bit before the show and I was a bit worried because the show starts quite late because it starts at 10.30 and I was like, God, I'm being really boring. I was on my non-alcoholic beer.

I was like, what if I get really tired? It's on for like a couple of hours. We get in there, into the theatre. It's really warm. I'm like, fuck, I'm going to fall asleep.

The show starts and I immediately was just like i'm awake on every every sensory thing that could have been fired up was fired up we were like barking like seals my i got bruised from clapping i kept like clutching an onion like shaking her like a rag doll i was like can you believe it she's like yeah i'm obviously watching the same thing it's so fun it's just so so fun it's so raunchy it's so out there no i was about to say i'm not any closer to understanding what yes it's so fun it's just so so fun it's so raunchy it's so out there we expect no i was about to say i'm not any closer to understanding what yes it's perfect because we will go i don't think anyone should know i think you just need to go i think it is coming

back so it's finished it's run in london it's going back to america they said that they might come back in may so if it does come to a city yes if it comes back to london we're gonna go if it comes to a city near you listeners please don't read anything about it. Obviously, like, check you're okay with, like, flashing lights and willies. Yeah. But book a ticket and thank us later. Oh, my God. I'm absolutely going.

Yes. Yes. Let's do it. So that's what we've been loving all week. There is a second thing, which I think we've all been loving, which is existential. It's existential.

Elmo, how did you know? Oh, my gosh. I just had a feeling. I looked into your eyes and I just thought there's something, there's something. Something red in there. Tell us what you think about Elmo asking the universe or asking, like just had a feeling. I looked into your eyes and I just thought there's something, there's something. Something red in there. Tell us what you think about Elmo asking the universe

or asking like the Twitter universe how we're all doing. I just think if there's one question to ask right now, it's not that question. Yeah, because the answer is like, do you want the real answer? Do you want... Fucking shit, obviously. Fucking terrible. So has Elmo ever been active on Twitter before?

Yes. Because I've never personally seen Elmo pop up as much as I had ever. I'm just being like, fuck off, Elmo. Why would you even ask? Elmo tweeted, Elmo is just checking in. yes it's like because i've never personally seen elmo pop up as much as i had ever understood like fuck off elmo why would you even ask elmo tweeted elmo is just checking in how is everybody doing and it has 39 000 quotes thousands of thousands of replies it yeah it's got 180 million views which is huge and most of the replies are people going like not fucking well um i saw somebody replied elmo i'm gonna be real i'm at my fucking limit what i want to know is who was the person because obviously that has just caught a wave do you know what i mean i'd be interested to know who was the person that decimated that tweet like what account

was it that made everyone respond so viral biden responding oh he did reply he needs to grow up it's really it's really i don't think politicians or like anyone remotely political should be allowed on twitter on imus level any program like that or take like matt hancock is all over tiktok and it's repulsive ew policy is not viral tweets um yeah so this was just excellent elmo i don't trust elmo and i've said this before i got a lot of heat when i said this on twitter i don't get that why i don't understand. I think he is so humanoid that it's eerie. He's red,

which is the color of obviously danger. So like instinctively, evolutionarily. Do you like Big Bird? Oh, I love Big Bird. He's small. Did you see that? I saw that.

So around the same time that Elmo was checking in on us all and we all basically trolled and abused him, Big Bird became small for like five days. i was posting on x that something bad has happened to big bird big bird is now small and now like a spider or a bird has taken big bird to fly around the city to see it from a small point of view what is going on in

the muppets universe the sesame street universe big. The Sesame Street universe. FYI, Big Bird, as of today, is now big again. Oh, thank God. Finally, some good fucking news. So people were comparing the two situations between Elmo and Big Bird and kind of asking what's going on. Have we arrived at the point in the discourse where everything is so terrible that the Sesame Street were like,

we have to inject some whimsy because we're genuinely in the end times? I think so. And also Elmo responded today and put, wow, exclamation mark. Elmo is glad he asked elmo learned that it's important to ask a friend how they are doing elmo will check in again soon friends elmo loves you hashtag emotional well-being i mean it's not super helpful is it it's not like resources or proper help somebody replied that he basically was like wow wow, you guys crazy lol.

Bye. I want to talk about something else that we've all been loving. Beth, your book. Your book's come out. The book is out now and I'm actually really excited. Romanticize your life. I have been doing it all week so I'm in such good mood. Did you want to give the listeners a bit of a plotted synopsis?

It is a non-fiction book called Romanticize Your Life about just that. It's about everything I've done over the last I'd say like 15 years my life since I was like kind of a depressed teen to romanticize my life to like snatch back some of that joy and peace and happiness because romance and joy are for everyone is what I've learned I love that I've got my copy it's absolutely beautiful and I think I'm gonna read it this weekend yes absolutely what a gorgeous weekend so this week we asked on our Instagram what you guys wanted us to talk about Laura said that she wanted us to talk about the Taylor Swift deepfakes. If you've not seen this, AI-generated porn images of Taylor Swift appeared on X this week.

Hundreds of thousands of Swifties took to the platform to flood the search term, effectively just burying the images. It prompted US senators to introduce a bill to criminalize those kind of pictures. The whole thing's pretty crazy. Have you seen it? I've seen it.

And I mean, it's so unbelievable because by the time i actually i can't remember what i was doing when it all happened but by the time i got to twitter x all i was seeing was the fallout from it like the responses i actually missed the whole thing happening so i had to like catch up at jasmine rice girl on twitter tweeted taylor swift fans are genuinely amazing ai porn of her goes viral and they mobilize with over 10 000 posts posts to protect Taylor calling for action and getting the accounts that distributed the porn suspended they literally accomplished stuff our legal system can't I can imagine that well it's already been an issue hasn't it like deep fakes and AI generated porn has already been a massive issue the fact that this happens to Taylor and that is the the catalyst people actually managing

to change understanding why it's important that it has to, you know, it has to happen to your faith before you go, actually, this is like really damaging. The potential of this is horrifying. It's also really interesting, like they were able to do that. I feel like the power of the masses is always just in action. Like it's so visible when it is the stands, but like we don't sort of do that outside of that in like other ways that matter.

I mean, just the concept of it in general, the fact this is being made and then the fact that we have this stand culture that's able to overturn it it's kind of like we're living in this duplicitous it's not the right word but you're right it's different people's impressions of the internet and how they use it basically right like you have different communities and you have one kind of community that's like i'm gonna uh disrespect humiliate women and shame them by weaponizing this new technology to do that and then you have other people that are like i'm going to weaponize the way the internet works to protect my fave and make sure that i crack down on the situation it's so and it's like the way that dick pics come out and like the way that

like nudes of people like it's horrifying whoever it happens to but if this happens to a man like it's not derailing like i feel like it's not going to be used to humiliate men on a mass scale whereas like this is already being used to like ruin women's lives um and yeah it's just like the reaction like who who actually needs this protection and it will be women the thing i find quite bleak is um i don't know if you guys saw but this week cyber flashing became entrenched in a criminal offense in the uk and cyber flashing has been a thing for years. There's been so many think pieces about this. It's taken years for this to fully be a criminal offence.

And I think something like the Taylor Swift situation highlights how the legal system is so slow to crack down on any of this. Like we know deep fakes exist. They've existed for ages. This isn't new. It's just that this high profile thing has kind of triggered a

backlash that has made law enforcers, I guess, take notice. So this comes in the same week that two of the biggest female rappers in the world, Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion, have been beefing over diss tracks. It's got to the point where the cemetery where Megan's mother is buried has had to increase security because they think that her grave might be vandalized this has been a giant story this week have you heard hiss which is uh megan the stallion's diss track well alleged diss track to nikki minaj in it she makes reference to something very very very controversial which is nikki minaj's husband was sentenced to a year of house arrest after failing to register as a sex offender in a new state her song talks about

megan's law which is a rule in the u.s that requires all states to have sex offenders registries which are available to the public in return nikki retaliated with her own track bigfoot but for anyone who doesn't know basically it's a reference to the fact that megan the stallion was shot by tori lanes and her feet yes and and the fact that she's like five foot ten, like a bigger woman. Her feet are also, by the way, a size seven, which is like not a big foot. US or I don't actually know, they're different. Yeah, I think it's just like a dig to be like,

look at you, you're like a stallion. I don't even really get it though, because it's like she got shot in the foot. Why does that make her foot, because her foot's small to spell out. The line is, I think it's the line like, something, something, big foot, you want to get up

on your good foot so I don't know whether it is like a reference to her being like physically taller and the fact that one of her or like her feet

were shot at do you know what's interesting in male rap songs I'm thinking about like Skepta and like I suppose that's more like Grime and Stormzy

and stuff they always do these diss raps which I personally love there's something about it and you get really into it and you're like oh they're angry and they're fighting with each other and it's just seen as a part of rap culture and kind of like it's it's the genre right and they and

they have these kind of lyrical verbal sparring matches yeah and that's kind of part of the style of it isn't like that's kind of where rap it comes from that kind of like a rap battle whatever yeah being like so quick with it and like it's a skill it's not yeah so it's interesting to watch adults fight in this day and age because it just feels so not what the internet like not how people kind of engage with each other and they were having spats on twitter as well when they like the the arguments were coming up i thought personally i haven't actually listened to nikki's track but megan's song is amazing and the music videos are really good i don't think nikki's is great but I think Megan's was really a good listen. And the music video is so good.

She's like coming out of her snakeskin. It's like really cool. She's obviously trying to put this together and like just that one line maybe seemed pointed about, you know, sex offenders. Nicki Minaj's husband was like accused, like actually like sentenced to like four years in prison for the rape of a woman.

Like it's a hideous situation. If you look into the Kenneth Petty situation, it is vile. So I think the thing that's really interesting is if we compare this right to the beginning of what we were talking about with the swifties cracking down protecting their fave and you know you utilizing their stampede of power for good what we've seen with this is megan's mother the grave where she's buried apparently securities had to been stepped up because uh the fans have found out where she's buried and there's a threat of vandalizing her grave yeah so these are Nicki Minaj's fans always known as the barbs which are like famously quite a

serious group of individuals really like known for adopting people known for like defending her even when it seems like she's done something indefensible, they're really, really like quite a scary group when they've kind of got this like one single mission, which is to defend Nicki Minaj. You say that, but people do also get in the firing line like from Swifties. Any of these stand groups, if you get in the way of them. Oh my God, yeah.

People are terrified of, you know, crossing that line. And I think it's something where we spoke about before where celebrities now are like beyond reproach because they have this like literal human shield of people that are willing to come for anyone that tries to tear them down yeah i don't think that it's like taylor swift has these like perfect fans and and nikki minaj has these like kind of group of like rabid monsters i just think the way that taylor swift engages their fans and does not encourage and would actually like say please don't do this if they were you know if they did anything like they were doxing people whereas Nicki Minaj engages with them

in a way as if to promote and encourage them I think that is where we draw the line like when you know the power of a group of people when you know that people will like literally break the law for you that is when you as a like a responsible famous person needs to like step in and go no no this is between me and Megan. Don't dox people. Don't leak the gravesite of her mother. That is my line because she does, she's the only one on earth that has the power to stop that.

I feel like I think about this quite a lot with Stan culture. We've kind of taken it as this, you know, a normalized accepted part of the internet. And the truth is they have a figure that they look up to they could easily you know be um shaped and encouraged and evolve the way they behave by one word one tap from the person that they look up to and i always wonder why figures like harry styles uh you know taylor swift nikki minaj don't engage and don't encourage and don't kind of teach their fans more part of me thinks that I don't know if there's a fear element of like maybe that they'll be the the source of the

backlash because then you know their stance will just be like why are you telling us to do this actually fuck you I'm going to move on to x person or whether it's like a marketing thing and maybe they're just like well it works for me it sells it's so interesting because actually it does sell I would also say like there's like a fickleness there like they've decided who you are and they worship that person if you step out of line and we've seen this I think when people do drop off it's because they've like disappointed their fandom in some way do you think they're even that engaged I don't know if the celebrities are even that aware of like oh I do not just encouraging it but like would Harry Styles necessarily be like aren't they all just off on private jets on private islands probably for a

lot of the part they are actually like there has to be a gap like that's like, aren't they all just off on private jets on private islands? Probably for a lot of the part they are actually. Like there has to be a gap. Like that's why celebrities aren't on Twitter. I think a Dua Lipa is. She's famously just having a good time. But I think somebody like Taylor Swift is very activated and very aware of, you know, her public presence,

her online presence. I think Nicki Minaj, she's on X fucking all the time. I think she's generally on it as well. She knows. Nicki Minaj, yeah, I agree. I think Taylor, it must be filtered. But some of the other ones where you're saying like,

why don't they stay? No, no, no. I wonder if they have a distance. Thinking about this word stands as well whereas i think yeah i i agree i think taylor it must be filtered but some of the other ones where you're saying like why don't they say i wonder if they have a distance thinking about this word stands as well like how prophetic was eminem because obviously in order for him to have written that song there was people who were that mega fans that song gives me shivers now especially more like in the context of what we're seeing but the difference then was you would have these mega fans who maybe would meet at concerts or meet up on forums or like they would know each other, but they'd live in different states. They'd write lefties. They'd write lefties or whatever. This connection, this immediate, like it's, it's like a drug.

It's so dangerous. It's actually super dangerous. Do you remember when it was like One Direction fans, and maybe this is like funny and harmless, but they hacked into it. I think they hacked into it like a security camera at an airport to watch the boys. And like, and like they were genuinely just like breaking the like federal law and like doing like incredible hacking just to watch them like sit in an airport like that's the level that people will go to it's kind of it's well it's not kind of it's so impressive and so scary and i think we always come back to this it's both impressive and very scary and i remember i had a boss at my old job he was like we should employ five tumblr girls and then

they would get the investigations we need they tumblr girls and then they would get the investigations we need they would crack open the government they would get panama papers they would do it all the level of like coding and like i don't know awareness of the internet be able to like control things is impressive but also scary also just to um promote richard's other podcast anatomy of a stalker in the first episode you talk about how people use the word stalker just so casually and we talk about like stalking people on facebook stalking people on twitter and it's like actually no these fans are stalking at a level which is like veering into kind of criminality or often is criminality so as much as we like joke about it it's got quite sinister undertones this is all well and good when it's with pop culture and it's people that

are encouraging people to enjoy music or like internet beef but if you look at someone like lawrence fox who's getting more and more deranged by the day and does have quite diehard fans and when we look at how these hive minds have so much ability to mobilize groups to make change to genuinely change laws it does make me worry with the rise of like fascism and right-wing populism what happens next if the figurehead isn't taylor swift if the figurehead is someone like laurence fox and they change a bill in a way that we don't want to see like that's actually terrifying hello i'm beth one of the hosts of Everything Is content. I'm really excited to announce that

my new book, Romanticize Your Life, is out now. It's a how-to guide for anyone who wants more romance, joy and main character energy in their lives. It's full of stories about dating, advice for anxious solo travellers and tips for making each and every day a little bit brighter. You can buy it now at any good retailer so this week we were the luckiest girls in the world because we got to go to a screening of the brand new first episode of series 11 of van der pump rules we've spoken about van der pump rules on this podcast before richa and i are big of the brand new first episode of series 11 of Vanderpump Rules. Yes. We've spoken about Vanderpump Rules on this podcast before. Richira and I are big, big, big fans.

Obsessed. Big fans. Beth is now a big fan. You loved it even though you weren't necessarily up to date. No, as in I'd not seen a single episode. I mean, I knew what had happened because of the osmosis and the power of the internet. So I was like relaying to Richira what i knew and it was a lot i had not seen a single second of vanderpump rules until

last night so this is the series that follows on from scandival which we did speak about before um and if you didn't know it was a huge story where there's this couple in the cast that have been together for 10 11 years and one of them has an affair with their mutual best friend yeah i mean i should probably tell it because i obviously understand it the best um it's a show of basically everyone's called tom two main toms yes there's tom schwartz and tom sandalval and tom sandalval is like a kind of bar owner slash circus performer who i think had an affair. He was married to a gorgeous woman called Ariana and had an affair with like a friend of the group, a friend of his wife's. Not wife. Friend of his ex-wife.

Long time girlfriend. Oh, well, married in a civil sense. Yeah. Married by time. Yes. And basically just fucked the whole friend group up. Is that correct? That's right.

And it kind of brought the show back from the brink because there were talks apparently before this. Yes. And basically just fucked the whole friend group up. Is that correct? That's right. And it kind of brought the show back from the brink because there were talks apparently before this, they were thinking, I think, about acts in the season. And Lisa Vanderpump, who is the matriarch of the show and kind of the main character, or was the main character in Royal Housewives of Beverly Hills, is obviously just rubbing her hands together like a little praying mantis with its joy.

She's living for this drama, quite literally. She's so savvy. And also, there's like two layers to this not only is she you know the exec producer of this show she literally is their boss the whole thing is um following one of her restaurants slash bars sir and all the workers so they're her literal employees so when she's like holding their hands and she you know is like i really care about you it is just like ladies and gentlemen your employer does not care about you it is just like ladies and gentlemen your employer does not care about you it's giving labor violations if you look at other reality tv

shows of a similar ilk I'm thinking selling sunset or something they the way they dress and the way they portray themselves it looks like they are making serious money like those women can dress they are head to toe in designer gear on van the pump rules these people have been on the show since I started watching it so So I think like over 10 years. And some of them have apartments. Some of them have just started buying stuff. But like in this episode, they talk about how she's just got a bag from Amazon. And nothing wrong with that, by the way, apart from obviously don't shop from Amazon.

But it's like a general thing. There's nothing wrong. It's interesting in that they don't come across to me. And I'm not saying it's a judgment. I'm like, it's just interesting how much of their lives they're giving over to the show when it doesn't seem like it's giving them riches I'm so glad you said this because I was obviously never seen this before and I was watching and like they've got visible microwaves in their apartment and I was like watching selling sunset where like it's the richest of the rich it's it's enormous wealth

it's such a wealth I was like these people are putting together their own furniture like what kind of destitution is this and obviously that that probably cost a lot of money like the real estate i think they're in la is that are they in la they're in west hollywood they're in weho that's probably a huge amount of money for these places but they look normal like one of the guys apartments didn't look like it even been hoovered no and don't get me wrong i don't own any property nor do i have anyone in my account that suggests i'm going to anytime soon but I'm not selling my soul to be on the show and like all of their fake channels patchy I don't want to make it personal but these women do not and the men do not look like they're earning big bucks and I just want

to understand are they too tied into this reality tv show that no one else will have them they can't like progress into a different career it's one of the only shows that's had staying power where them even though there have been characters that left most of the cast has stayed the same yes it's just a lot of cast retention yeah for them not to make amazing yeah they're obviously making more money than me don't get me wrong i'm not saying that they're broke i'm just saying they're broke for how much of their lives they're sharing you know what's really interesting um i feel like how some people are football fans and they listen to like all the behind the match stuff I listen to all of their individual podcasts um so I feel like I've got the surround system version of Vanderpump Rules but anyway they were saying that Scandival was

the gift that keeps on giving for all of them because then they started you know making podcasts about it and all of them started banking dough from the situation because they'd have this person's point of view this person's point of view they'd interview each other and be like oh it's two person's point of view of this and like behind the scenes of it all and they were just like reaping money from somebody having an affair when it wasn't even their affair and also this season I think is going to be really interesting because uh one of the taglines that they feature I think it's in the trailer but it was also in the episode that we watched on wednesday night is lala who is one of the the main people saying i've never seen anyone get cheated on and then come out and think they're god and so why this series i think it's going to be a real bang for its buck

is because it's going to kind of be the downfall of ariana ariana who was the scorned woman that got cheated on has had brandil after brand deal she has been on every single tv show in the us she became the people's princess she's on the cover of magazine she's on broadway she got everything and like we spoke about last week the old hubris and hamasha not that she's done anything wrong but we're about to see a queen toppled off her throne yeah because it's awful what happened she had to like play out her trauma on the last season like i've seen the clips of it which they showed in the episode we watched of like she's screaming at him she's crying she's breaking down she's seeing you know her relationship of a decade or whatever falls

pieces on like a public stage she's been through a lot but I think the people around her are going okay but at what point do we move on at what point like can we interact with him again yeah you're completely right it's going to be a little bit of a toppling and again I don't think she deserves any of that I'm just saying this is what i'm saying the trade off is so bad i literally see them almost as performance for my own entertainment and these are real people like god it must be a weird world which is why we're hoping that they are making like many many figures because it's a lot to give one thing that i am really excited about is they kind of tease this in the trailer um katie gets with a girl and there's

the potential opening of a bisexual storyline which i'm really here for if that happens the person in question yes katie also gets with her ex tom she was like i never thought i'd get with a couple that was such a bad accent so if you're listening to this chat and you really want to watch vanderpump rules you can catch it on Hey You. Series 11 is now out. It's available. New episodes dropping every Wednesday. Please binge it and let us know what you think. I really need to find more fans.

And if I would recommend starting from maybe season nine. No, no one. No, start from one. But if you don't have time and you want to still get Xander. Make time, quit your job, watch it with me. Make time if you want to. Yeah, fair enough. I need to know all their origin stories you do you do you do so gals in the first episode that we did in 2024

we all set some reading goals we talked about what we read last year how we read last year and how we wanted to read this year now January's finished I want to check in with you guys and see how those reading goals are going some accountability yes exactly how is yours going mine is going okay I've read two books which I think I think it's pretty good going what was your reading goal was it to read more books or was it to read okay yes so I wanted to read more I hadn't put a figure on it but I wanted to read more the ones that I got through are The Secret History by Donna Tartt huge yes well known well loved and Helen Oyayemi Parasol Against the Axe which is a new book coming out soon I interviewed her which is why I got early access oh jealous because Helen Oyayemi had two books which I read

I mean years and years ago which I loved kind of spooky kind of like like nothing I'd ever read before I've never read her could you tell me about her this book specifically is set in Prague there's three characters they're all friends they're kind of reuniting in Prague but it's almost as if once you start one story to do with them it bleeds into other stories about the city it becomes like weaving stories short stories and it's just like a love letter to Prague wow yeah that sounds amazing could I just ask you I've never read any Donna Tartt what and I know that everyone's that's so out of character for you I feel like you are Donna Tartt's audience can you just give me a quick

synopsis of the book you read and should that be the one that I read so um this is the first one that I think people say over the goldfinch i don't know why but it's really big it you know follows a group of um history students at this very prestigious very you know old-time college very saltburn vibes for america um it's kind of the main character is interloper vibes middle class guy breaking into this very upper echelon type of group with a very illustrious um teacher julian who teaches them and i don't think this is i don't think this is ruining the plot but there's a murder involved in the group and the whole thing is tracking how it happened what happened and the cover-up between them all oh my god that's such a good synopsis it is probably my favorite book of all time it is excellent but why is Donna Tartt having such a resurgence because I feel like Donna Tartt has

only written these three books she sort of writes a book vanishes of 10 years I think she will sort of like a wunderkind and that she wrote maybe the prehistory like age 28 incredible writer I know nothing about her beyond her genius but how old is this book it's quite old I remember somebody suggested it to me when I was 17 or 18 is there something happening is this book it's quite old i remember somebody suggested it to me when i was 17 or 18 is there something happening right now where everyone's talking about joan didion everyone's talking about donna tart do you think it is it's just a resurgence of like this very chic woman everyone wants the mystique back the smoking the ballet flats yeah i think with this dark academia was like the massive push for why it came back um which was a trend and aesthetic

and aesthetic as we've spoken about it's fucking long as well okay i'm gonna put it on my to be read pile because i'm trying to do that thing of read something current read something classic or old um just sorry sorry to ruin it i feel like i didn't love it so let's talk let's talk when you've read it okay that's fun i'm excited to read it and we can all discuss what have you been reading and only so i was meant to be reading one book a week which was starts off really well and then I decided to read this book which was recommended to me by my live-in lover and it's called the feast of the goat by Mario Vargas Llosa I hope I'm saying that right and it's basically about the assassination of the Dominican dictator so it's quite a heavy book. It's much longer.

The font is very small. And the books that I've read before that, I read The List by Yomi Adegike and I read Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer. So those two were great, but they were much shorter and the font was much larger and they were much more easily digestible.

I have almost finished this book. I have loved it. It's really challenged me in a way I forgot that books can, not only because, I have loved it it's really challenged me in a way I forgot that books can not only because I mean it's translated our translators we need to talk about how because it's like so complicatedly written which doesn't sound like a word I've really enjoyed it it's challenged me but annoyingly it's scuppered up my one a week so have you finished this one now I've literally just about to finish it and then what I'm going to do to make up time is

read a couple of short ones and then because i did buy war and peace after our because we saw that in the first episode didn't we i have it here have i shown you it's gorgeous i mean it's a gorgeous copy of it but like well is that spine cracked oh my god it's minuscule the text is minuscule so it's over a thousand pages long watch the bbc series so fast but i do want to read Watch the BBC series And it's So fast But I do want to read it And I feel like it'd be Quite a cool thing to do

I think that's cool Beth what have you been reading? Do you know what I did start reading I started reading Poor Things After our like Brilliant trip to The cinema to watch it

And our episode on it We loved it so much I just thought I want to stay in this world I want to see like I love that So I'm about nine pages in But I am really really enjoying it What a great idea I wish I thought that I'm gonna do that can I borrow a

copy it's on my kindle yeah because I couldn't actually find a copy because obviously everyone had the same idea that I did um and I'm really enjoying it so far I've got that on the go I read multiple books at once do you I have an audio book on the go yeah I have an audio book I have maybe like three or four books and then maybe one on my kindle so I've got that on the go and then when I don't want to read that i've been reading the new kylie reed book which is called come and get it she wrote the amazing such a fun age which came out 2018 ish or maybe later was it maybe it's just set around that time i don't remember i i only read it a couple years ago all i know is i read it when i was living in streatham so i think it would have been 2019 2020 is it the one about the girl who's like a babysitter babysitter who is accused of

kidnapping and it's exactly yeah so I'm reading the new um Kylie Reid book what's the new one about tell us so so far I think it's about like a resident in a university who gets this kind of confusing but like looks quite an easy job with like a professor or someone and then it's maybe it's like a little bit um it goes to like a dark place is what I'm getting so far does it feel thematically similar it does it feels like in the first couple of pages like this white woman goes into a room and like notes how many black people and I was like okay I think Kylie Reid is very good on like the like subtleties and like the microaggressions that like are just present in day-to-day American life when you said Kylie Reid my brain went Taylor Jenkins Reid which is a very

thing who who is the person that wrote like Carrie Soto's back Daisy Jones and the six the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo I find her as an author so fascinating because she'd written a few books and then Daisy Jones and the six did really well and the theme of Daisy Jones and the Six is basically like, it's an interview. And then all of the books she wrote after that take the same, exactly the same form.

Oh really? So they're all like, it's kind of like a journalist or someone interviewing someone and they're all just a hit success. I don't know how people do that. She's found her formula. Like,

every time it's just like, it's honestly a formula but they're all completely different stories. I think the seven husbands, I love them but I can't believe that her brain works like that I know to have some of what she's got I mean if she's got a new book coming out I would be really excited I don't think she does because I did ask on Instagram a while ago like what books we excited for and it got me really excited for stuff that's coming out like um tell us tell us a main one and I'm excited

for this too is Private Rights by Julia Armfield, who wrote Our Wives Under the Sea. Loved it. Loved it. Such a good, like, kind of spooky, ethereal, lesbian love story about the deep, deep ocean. Loved that. We also have Revolutionary Acts by Jason Okundaya, which is out in March, which is a kind of social history of black gay men in the UK.

He's sort of in conversation with them. It looks like it's going to be excellent. He's such a good writer and amazing mind. Can't wait for that. I'm very excited for Blue Sisters by Coco Mallers, who wrote Cleopatra and Frankenstein, which was one of my most favorite stories that I read last year. Same thing.

That was her debut novel as well. And it just blew up i found that pretty inspiring that's what i don't want to write one because like i want it to be that good or i won't i won't do it have you got any on your pre-order list for cheer um so it's not a new book that's coming out but i read boy parts by eliza clark last year loved it so much that i really wanted to read penance next oh yes and like the whole thing of true crime and you know girls and like tumblr culture I think is the vibes I'm getting from it oh it's tick tick tick for me love that before boy parts after after yes I love I did a book club on boy parts I loved it I've never read

anything like that are they making it into film they did as a play theater they did um a run of it um if you like uh boy parts you have to read i'm a fan sheena patel oh yes i've also read that because i was gonna say very similar vibe of you know pov of unhinged woman but also so compelling i love that book i probably my favorite that was my fave i loved it but it was so some of it i found almost triggering because it felt really close to the bone not only because it was like so focused on social media but also her obviously I'm nowhere near as neurotic as the character in that because it's pretty extreme but it was quite like stressful and it also reads almost like watching a TikTok do you know what I mean it's just like scene after scene it's like a headache I felt reading it I got that from Emma Klein's

The Guest almost don't know if you've read that which is sort of a young woman really young woman's descent into this sort of obsessive madness on this like sort of weekend. And I think it's like the Hamptons or somewhere. It had a similar vibe, very different settings, but like this urgency, this compulsion, this like spiral downwards. I'm going to add that to my list. Add that to the list. That came out last year. It was really good.

So in February, I want us all to read a book together. I want us to decide a book maybe in the next week or so. All of us read it like us three here listeners and then we can discuss it in march i just think it'd be a really fun idea i love that idea yeah so i think we'll do a little question box on our instagram at everything is content pod send in your suggestions dm us put it in the question box what you're reading what you are looking to read and we're going to pick one and we're all going to read it together yes book club project as always we will put links to absolutely everything that we have discussed in the description of this podcast all of those book titles will be in the show notes we're back this

time next week in the meantime make sure you subscribe and leave us a review if you enjoy the podcast and follow us on instagram if you haven't already we're at everything is content pod thanks for listening bye