Everything Is Content - Ye's Return To Festivals, Diva Extinction & The Girlification of 'Betting'

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

Hey EICrumpets,This week Wireless Festival announced that all three days would feature Ye as their headline off the back of his 12th studio album Bully. Ye was blocked from entering Australia last year after releasing the song ‘Heil Hitler’, and declared himself a Nazi around 2022, going on many X rants saying countless antisemitic things. We ask why now, and why are such comebacks easily dished out to men?Are the divas in for the same fate of dodos? Pop culture writer Louis Staples argues so. In a piece for Harper's, he says we're witnessing the extinction of divas in real-time. Women are the target for predictive market apps – platforms that sees users betting on everything from war, to Taylor Swift's wedding. Social accounts like @Polybaddies on X and @Kalshigirls have their eyes on young women through memes on matcha and starter packs. Why? Owners say they want women to be benefitting from the financial gains available to men, but is this really true?THANK YOU Cue Podcasts. And thank YOU for listening <3 We'd love to hear your thoughts in the Spotify comments or in our DMs xoxo O,R,B---------This week Ruchira has been watching The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and Last One Laughing S2. Oenone has been loving Nicole Daniels, and Beth loved Project Hail Mary.Kalshi and Polymarket are using influencers to lure in the 50% who don’t bet on sports gambling sites: women | The Independent Exclusive: Federal prosecutors are exploring whether prediction market bets trip insider trading laws | CNN PoliticsWomen Wanted: Kalshi Pushes to Expand Far Beyond Sport BetsIs the Diva in Danger of Extinction? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Beth. I'm Richerra and I'm Anoni. And this is Everything Is Content, the podcast that zooms in on the week's biggest and best pop culture stories. We cover everything from internet trends to long reads and headlines. We're a feather boa snaked round the neck of your favourite content. This week on the podcast, we're diving into the influencers promoting gambling sites, Yay's controversial return to music and can a diva even survive in 2026. Follow us on Instagram, Everything is Content Pod, and make sure you hit follow on your podcast player app

so you never miss an episode. So this is normally the part of the episode where I would ask you both what you have been loving. But I just want to get ahead of this. Are we going to talk about the elephant slash the fake fat corgi in the room from last week's episode? Oh, I did wonder if we would bring this up. I'm a flat author of this situation.

A corgi truther. I mean, just to remind anyone who wasn't present or correct for this episode, we shared a story which I thought, We all thought we had been fact check. It was all The Guardian about a pack of dogs, seven dogs in China that had basically rescued each other and walked to safety led by a gorgeous fat corgi. Well, apparently, we've been fake news. We've been poo craved.

A listener did point it out. And then I saw on social media, it was bound to happen. I'm just depressed that it was about such a cute story. Of course, it was me that brought the scam to the show. It was to be no one else. Did you see, I can't remember his name, but he's my favorite, the guy that does songs. Is that one? There's not people who do the one on the keyboard that he's like, if your name is Hannah.

And then he's like, the war, he did a song about, that's when I knew it was fake. He did a song about it being fake. Listen, we live, we laugh, we love, we move on. Do we learn though? That's the real question from this. God, no. This will happen again. There was like the owners saying about how proud they were with their corgi.

This lying shit's gone too far. So who the hell were they? Were they just random actors? Who were they? Well, I guess it was just someone's just written that someone said, Clearly none of it ever happened. I thought they'd been videoed. Apparently, the real story is something like a German shepherd among them was in heat

and there was an escape and they sort of just trotted around and went home. So it's a horny story. Oh, they still were hanging out. So it wasn't AI, the video. No, there was only one AI picture which was nowhere near what we were. There was like a selfie of the dogs, which I was like, well, of course that's AI. Anyway, listen, and this is a cautionary tale in the era of fake news and AI. If us three journalistic juggernaughts of a generation could be fooled by seven fancy dogs, watch out.

Okay, to move on to the episode proper, I'm going to ask, Richerra, what have you been loving this week? So, I have been loving, to my shame, a lot of Mormon wives. It is obviously a controversial show right now, but I have to be honest, I have been watching it, whether I love it is a different thing. But there's that. And then on the complete other side, other, why did I say that? Other sort. In the West country. Sorry, I don't know why that came out. On the other aside, I've been watching Last One Laughing. I've been obsessed with series too.

Oh, tell us, tell us more because I, do you know what? I have not watched this series because I realized the first series which I loved. I keep stopping myself from laughing and it's really uncomfortable sensation. I don't laugh along, so I haven't been able to watch this series. Because you're trying to play? Yes. I'm rubbish at it, but it hurts me. You said that.

I think I did try and do that as well. I know exactly what you mean because I tried to do that for the first episode. And it feels like holding in a fart, but way worse because it's your entire body. I don't know how to explain it. Everything is clenched. And then it feels like I become unwell, like, immediately. So I stop doing that. And I do recommend nobody does that because I do believe one of the contestants had to leave

halfway through the show after she got a red card because she felt so unwell from holding back laughter. That's really scary. Oh, my God. It's like the woman that got hospitalized for holding in her farts. Exactly. It's so bad for you. Don't do it. The show is dangerous.

I bet thousands of women have done that. It's very similar actually. I guess maybe it's not actually similar in terms of how the body does these things. But it is. It's unnatural. Let it free, ladies. Last and fart. At the same time, different times. Stop to you. It's so good. And I think the thing that's crazy about this, obviously I can't give away much because I can't relate the nonsense that goes down. But the level of which they are so good at doing it is so much higher than even last year. It becomes so competitive. and I think that's what makes it funny. They're too good at it. Okay, this is good. I haven't got into it because I really didn't know if it was going to expand if this universe could go on. But I hear that it can go on.

What about you and only? What have you been loving? I don't know if I brought this up before, but I assume both of you love her. I've been loving Nicole Olive on Instagram, who is an American actor and she does these skits. And one of them is Craftsore Lady. So Craftsore Lady works on Craftsore and she's like, oh, hi. So you wanted to buy, oh, one minute.

let me just get my key answers. And so she's just, she's this like really sweet woman who's retired, who works in a craft store. And I can't explain it. It's both infuriating and really calming. I'm kind of in love with her. There's like a four-part series. They're just Instagram Reels. She does these skits.

And she's basically one of these people where you go into a shop just to get something quickly and then you get stuck there for like an hour. There's a whole thing about her letting someone use the loo. It's just so realistic. It's so good. But she has all these different characters. Another one of her characters is this non-profit boss who's always eating things. So she's always eating like salad leaves or like she'll like bite into a blueberry.

It takes like half nut to eat a blueberry. And she'll be like, well, the thing is with law is that laws actually really harm the people that we're trying to protect. So this idea of you taking holiday being lawful is actually kind of against company processing when you really think about it. Right. Anyway, they're just so good. You need to watch them. And her latest one is a British person showing you around a historical home who's constantly telling you like not to touch the walls. And you feel like you're getting told off.

I can't explain it. There's something about her. She's so captivating. If neither of you watched her. I've seen her on TikTok. I've not, but I think I must have seen the basically like haberdashery, whatever woman it was, because I feel like that has jogged back something, and I do remember that. I saved her as, I'll admit it.

Look, I go on TikTok. I watch ASMR sometimes. That, when she's doing the craft store lady, that is just unlocked. I saw some people being like, this makes me breathless because it's a very breathy and she going to gas for breath. But it really soothes me. I think she's fantastic and very funny. But yeah, she soothes my brain.

Oh, I'm obsessed. And then so last night, she's such an incredible actor. I had, I'd only ever really got into Craft Store Lady. And then last night, this is such classic thing. I was like, I don't have enough time to watch a whole show. I'll just go on my phone for like five minutes. Four hours later, I've watched every single thing she's posted on Instagram. Could have watched a whole film.

Would recommend the link with the show notes. She's fab. She's a star. What have you been loving, Beth? So I've been loving a film. I didn't plan to go and see this film over the weekend. I was going to the Prince Charles Cinema to watch a favorite of the podcast, in the mood for love, one of my favorite films.

And it's just always on there. We've said this before. Go and see it. It's always showing at some point. It's showing throughout the whole of this month. I will be going back to watch it. We ended up stuck on the Victoria line. I didn't know what was going on.

I kind of had, I'd been out of London. So I'd spaced on there being anti-fascism protests. I thought, oh, maybe it's this. I don't know. It had to kind of go back on myself after being stuck on the Victoria line. And me and my boyfriend realized that in like 50 minutes,

Project Hail Mary was playing right around the corner from where we were. And we'd heard only good things. I knew nothing about this film apart from people like go and see it, Ryan Gosling in space. And I went, all right then. Have either of you gone to the cinema to see Project Hellmer yet? I have not, and I have such strong feelings about this film from having only seen the trailer. And I don't get how it can be a good film because the trailer makes it look so bad.

See, I really want to see it because before it came out, I read all the good reviews. And since then, I've been hearing that actually it isn't good. So I'm buzzing to hear your review because I did really want to see it. And I actually love stuff about like sci-fine space. Okay. I will tell you, it is so fucking phenomenal. Really? It is what these films, and it is a film that is made to be seen in the cinema.

It's visually gorgeous. I mean, I've been listening to various podcasts and interviews about how the film was made, and I won't give too much away. The sun is dying. The sun is sort of being consumed by a suspicious entity in space. Ryan Gosling is a kind of science teacher, but former science experty guy, he is recruited to work on this mission to go and find out what's going on, because the earth, it's not like some point the Earth's going to die because the Sun's dying. It's like, we have 10 to 30 years before most of the planet is inhabitable, everyone's died, and that's like best case scenario. Brian Gosling in space, trying to figure this out. Character-wise, there is another character who I will tell

you nothing about just the most charming little space entity I've ever encountered. I couldn't believe how good this film was. It's visually stunning. They do so many practical, interesting things. This is like the kind of anti-AI, anti-even green screen, anti-like, they use puppets, they use camera tricks. It's like a really meticulously made film. It's really funny. It's really hopeful. I almost cried. I was so stressed at some point. I almost wept. Sandra Hula is in it. She is fantastic. She plays like a kind of morally gray scientist who is in charge of this mission. She has a fantastic karaoke scene that is still with me. Also has Ken Lung, e.g. Eric Tao, e.g. Strict, Asian Obama, as he has known on X because of a gift where he looks like strict Asian Obama

for the industry heads. He's in it. I cannot overstate how good this film is. And I would say, please go and see this in a cinema because there are scenes in it that are just breathtaking. Oh, I was so surprised. I thought, that's going to be a little space romp. Girls, it is an absolute corker. Oh, my God, you sold the hell out of that. I might go see it tonight. I think you should. Oh, it's a meazen. This is so funny. Do you remember when I said, I think it was on Fred's episode where my mum had gone to the cinema, taking a picture of what was on and then sent it to me. And I looked at the list. And on the list was like, the bride. I was like, I don't think she'll like that. And then I was like, but I've heard really good things about Project Hell Mary. She said, great, thanks. Doesn't sound like it for me. I'm going to go get pizza. She was like, thanks so much, no. But I now really want to see it.

That's so good because I basically, I'd seen all the rave reviews. And then I can't remember if it was on a podcast or somewhere else. And someone was like, oh, now people have gone to see it. It's not actually good. I'm so pleased that it's amazing. And it's based on a novel by Andy Ware, who also wrote The Martian. If you like The Martian, the book or the film, this is, it's everything that that is, but much better and much fun.

It's so funny as well. Ryan Gosling is a star. Like, he's not fallen off at all if you were thinking that. I was going to say, I didn't know. I didn't want to say. I didn't know that he'd fallen off. There was some suggestion he's not. He's very much on. I was going to say, are the accusations in the room with us because I've not heard of. The accusations are in the room with the seven calls. The call is coming from inside the house. So yeah, I can't, I have nothing else to recommend. That's the only thing I can think of. It's so, so good.

So go report. It'll be interesting if you are a bit like mayor. I just can't see how it's possible. But it's my new obsession. I might go see it again. On the anti-farright march, I went to that. And it was amazing. And I saw Jeremy Corbyn and Zach Polanski walking together. And I thought, this is love. Gorgeous. And it was such a good vibe. And it was making me laugh because it's making me think about. I listened to a really good episode of the news agents recently. Lewis Goodall goes to CPAC in America where Liz Truss is talking about Euro. I can't even say Europeistan, basically, that it's the most ridiculous thing. And all these Americans are just talking

about how London's been taken over by Sharia law. Anyway, then they play this clip where someone's like, and the liberals, they make it so easy not to fuck them because they got pink hair and they all dress like this, whatever. And then I was thinking when I was in this, if I don't know, you've seen all the reporting about the March, everyone's like, Zach Polanski doing Blastonbury style dancing. And he's like on the stage, all these gays and days having the time of their life. And I was like, we on the left have got it so right. It was such a vibe. It was based like a day rave. It was amazing. Couldn't be prouder to be on the left. And Liz Truss is a loser. That is the politest way of calling her what she is. Oh, it looked. It did. It looked. I think

the reporting of it was so minimal. But on social media, I was seeing so much. And I was like, They are so terrified of us, of the organisation, and love to see it. Love. Love a march. I know that some of our listeners have seen this. We actually got a message about this, but this week, Wireless Festival announced that all three days would feature Yay as their headline off the back of his 12th studio album, Bully. So for a quick recap, Yei was blocked from entering Australia last year after releasing the song,

Heil Hitler, and he declared himself a Nazi around 2022 and went on many ex-ramps saying horrifically anti-somatic things. And then at the end of last year, he held a meeting with a rabbi and apologized. And then in January this year, he took out an ad in the Wall Street Journal and apologized to those he heard and said he'd lost touch with reality due to his bipolar. Festival organizers said that, Yeas, you could come back, will be an extra ordinary chapter in Wireless's story. I mean, wow.

What are your guys' thoughts on this? Because this is such an interesting thing to happen. And it was not on my bingo card. I was absolutely flawed by this. So for the last week, I have been observing the response to bully because I saw Hype Beast was there for his listening party and had so many videos. And every time he does something, I'm always so curious to see how it's absorbed in the mainstream and how the media reports on it. And I remember Fashion Week two years ago, he was there front row. And I just find all of it so confusing and so weird. Everyone tries to smooth him over as much as possible and then

can't get away with it. Listen, I've said before I'm here for reform and not reform UK, Jesus. Reform like people reforming their views. Oh God, I've already cocked this up. Basically, forgiving people and I, you know, like having a way for people to rehabilitate and to truly, actually earn their forgiveness and take accountability and to be absorbed back into communities where they've offended people. I do believe in that if they are capable of that. That being said and done, I find it so strange how quickly he has just become. wireless's head act with maybe three acts that seem to be apologetic and, you know, having forgiveness as their goal. I don't think that is enough to basically be at the top of his career

again. And I do think there is this desire to have him back to where he was that I can see, having been a former fan of his and now being unable to listen to any piece of music of his without feeling deep sadness and just like disgust. There is this sense that I wish I could just not have that feeling. It's easier for me to not feel that because there's so much music I like, but I can't do that. Whereas I feel the response indicates to me, people want to feel that. So they would rather just pretend or just like move on from it. I don't think he's done enough to be able to move forward in this way. I think when you shared this news and when we saw it, I was a bit like, oh wow. And then with interrogation, I went, actually is it an oh wow? Or is it just

the pattern and the exact formula for how these things happen? There is a certain echelon of fame and acclaim where, I'm about say, bar murder you can just be. I'm just a certain murder, you can just come back, but actually even if I think actually murder is not the threshold for a certain man who's made into a god among his fandom and is a fantastic artist, a truly talented artist and a moneymaker, those things in tandem kind of make you untouchable. And exactly the same as you. I think very much people deserve second chances and improvement is possible. And like a key to a functioning society is repair, restorative justice where victims are made whole and the person that harmed them is not cast out, but actually their attempts are taken on board and there is a roadmap

to redemption and to being back in. I think that is quite key. I obviously am not a Jewish person. I can't comment on how people are feeling about that idea of being made whole and that apology and that work being satisfactory. I would not be surprised if many people feel otherwise. And if the kind of idea was, well, no, this is a person that shouldn't be platformed, even if forgiveness is possible and even if a way back into kind of functioning society and goodness is possible. This is a really big reward for someone that has just done that. And I know there are levels to this. He is a black artist. He's a black man with a mental illness that is very stigmatized and not understood. But yeah, it's that automatic path that beloved men have back

into success and adoration that essentially relies on nothing, but then putting their feet up and waiting. And that bugs me. And that indicates a very unhealthy society. I mean, it's no episode goes by where we don't go, look at how unfair this woman has been treated for insert, doing nothing or insert, being slightly annoyed or, you know, not personable one time. There really is no limit to what certain stars, male stars can't come back from. And I just, I'm finding it very difficult. I mean, this is, you know, it will be very well attended. It will be, I'm sure, rave reviews, but also just like very talked about. And I wonder how many footnotes will actually look into this and look into this very recent history of something

abhorrent. It fills me with that same dread. I feel every single week when we discuss these things. It is such a backwards world that we're living in. Yeah. Everything you said, because it is that thing of I do wish we lived in a rehabilitative society where I don't think it does work for every single time and what he did was awful. But I do wish there was a place where we allowed humans to progress past mistakes depending on what they were, obviously. And there's a world in which someone with terrible mental illness and issues like that make really big mistakes. And with the right tools and the right apology and the right amount of time, they're allowed to move past it. But because that doesn't exist for everyone and it is.

exclusive to men. And we actually, Chloe messaged us because she said, I really want to hear your thoughts on this on the pod. I'm so bewildered. It's got me thinking about how women get canceled and opportunities taken away for them for so much less. And I think that's where it really stings. It's like Chris Brown, Shia Leboeuf, Johnny Depp, now yay. These men are doing some terrible, terrible, terrible things. And I don't think all of them do deserve to have redemption that brings them back into the spotlight. I do think it is like a case-by-case basis. But think about Chapel Rhone. God knows the ramifications that that poor woman is going to have for now the bodyguard has actually come out and said he was working independently of Chapel Rhone and that he took the

cues from other information he had from the hotel. There are all going to be probably big consequences like Best said in the episode. You know, she's now not allowed to perform in Rio de Janeiro. It feels too soon like his apology was interesting, but I don't think a lot of people took it, Jewish communities that I was reading, reacting to it didn't feel like it was enough. It's extraordinary, but it did shock me and it didn't. Like the Chris Brown thing, the attendance at those concerts is huge. Like, if there was a proper pathway, something we all shook hands on and went right, when this person gets to this point. When they've proven this, we can all go fine. It's like going bankrupt. You get to start again from zero. I don't know what that system would look like and I don't know how we'd all

agree on it and maybe that's impossible. But it doesn't feel right, but it's also like, okay, this again. I remember seeing the response to his album and my immediate thought was, and I said this to my partner, I don't think he should be a celebrity anymore. And I don't mean that to be punitive. I just mean that to be, I do think real repentance in this example is just kind of relinquishing that role and just saying there's been way too much that's been done with my platform. I just, I want to apologize. I, you know, made so many mistakes. I just don't need to take this space up anymore. And then that would be like, I think the height of repentance. But I don't know if that's a fair assumption from me. What do you think? No, I think that is fair, actually. Yeah, I think that's the most balanced way to think of it.

We just have got so many things out of whack. Like, there is no incentive really to repair and be, you know, a good person. So often people are skeptical when people make these big apologies, because it does feel like they're buying a ticket back into fame and popularity. The incentive must be that we want to live in a healthy society. I just find the whole thing on top of like, you know, wireless is criticised. I mean, alongside all other festivals, to be clear. I mean, it's historically shocking booking of female artists. I remember I must have been like 2018. I used to go to Wallace and have a very good time. It's like one of the festivals in my late teens, I guess, no early 20s that I would go to and have a fantastic time. Saw Eminem there, Dido came out.

Holy shit. Before, you know, Nikki Minaj, Minaj, had a great time. I think it was like 2018. They had like three, maybe it wasn't even headliners, but just like shocking. And it's just much more likely to be booked as a man who's done really dreadful. I mean, really swastika merge over a woman who's done nothing wrong, phenomenally talented. You're just not going to get booked. I can't even, from that angle, I can't even imagine being a woman in these industries being like, are you fucking kidding me? I cannot get booked. But this is okay. This is headline worthy. This is rewards. I'm interested to hear what other people think, but this isn't it. I don't think. Wireless. The other big news apart from the really obvious storyline,

with Taylor Frankie Paul as part of the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives being involved in ongoing investigations with domestic violence is her co-star, this woman called Jesse Draper, appeared on Call Her Daddy last week and basically gave her side of what has been the inside of her very tumultuous, very toxic and abusive marriage to a man called Jordan. And for anyone who's not initiated or not a big fan

of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, She had a massive storyline last year where she kissed another reality star from this show called Vanderpump Villa, had an emotional affair with a man called Marciano. And in The Call Her Daddy podcast, we learned that shortly before this, Jessie had actually been told by somebody that her husband had been secretly trying to meet up with escorts and attended sex parties. But she kept this, you know, off the show because she didn't want to betray him and she believed him at the time. But it has since become clear in her words that those allegations were true. In spite of all of this very messy situation between the pair of them, she shares that Jordan would blackmail her with what she had done. So this is a quote from the podcast, she says,

it got to the point where he was blackmailing me with Marciano texts, and he had them on a draft on his phone on TikTok. And any time he got mad at me, he was like, I'm going to pose them, I'm going to ruin your life. So it is so heavy. And this series of the show has been one of the heaviest, to the point that I'm not sure many of these people should be on TV, but do you watch Secret Lives and Mormon Wives? Has this news of any of the people involved

reach your side of the internet? What's your relationship to it? Well, you might as well have been speaking a foreign language, because as you both know, I have not spent one minute, one second of my time engaging with the Mormon wives. I have no idea what these Mormon wives are up to with their Mormon lives. I know there's a lot happening. I see these names and unfortunately I just can't give comment because I don't know. No, it's fortunately, it's fortunately that you can't give comment. I mean, I can't remember when this show came out, I was like, well, we'll give it a go, we'll give it a go. And I was a bit resistant, didn't get on with the first series. And then for some reason went back and now I'm embroiled in it with my one wild and precious life. So I'm very

familiar with this storyline from last season. I'm not picked, I've not started this current season. I think it's just a bit much with everything that is going on. New Jesse, new, this, you know, these big marital upheavals and then they're like, we're going to save our marriage. but it's no surprise they are getting divorced. We talked about digital abuse, this new frontier of social media, digital abuse in our episode about the child influencer and her mother, a few weeks ago, I forget her name. It does feel like that.

It's a really, it's just a new way to harm your partner and keep, and kind of coerce them into behaving a certain way. Like, I've got this. I could ruin your life. You're a reality TV shot. And not to comment on the Taylor Frankie Poole because I just think that the whole thing's unfolding. We're going to stay away from it from the moment. But you are watching footage be released.

It appears strategically. it's these things that we can hold over each other's heads and the idea of cancellation for your reality TV partner. The whole thing is a mess. I mean, on the lighter note, people are being like, are there literally two men in the whole of Utah? Why are these same men being involved? When people kiss and cheat on other people,

it's only with this very small subsect of men like Jesse kissed another woman's ex-partner who's on the show and I was like, I think they need to move. I think they all need to agree to go to a different Midwest state and stay there. Retweet. That is my main takeaway from all of this. Why do they keep dating the same pool of men? It's so frustrating and it's too much.

The reason why I keep coming back to this show, even though it is so stressful and so morally dubious in lots of ways, is because it's such an interesting insight into a form of heterosexuality, which is if you do everything right by a certain book, you get married, you have the white picket fence, you have the kids, you look gorgeous, you also have an amazing career, on the side and then you start challenging the status quo, the women start becoming the breadwinners and then the men start staying at home. What does that do to a marriage and what does that do

to a very traditional setup? That's the thing that keeps me watching because that friction is really serrating the edges of these relationships and you can see those becoming the same arguments they have over and over and over again with their male partners. And I find that fascinating because it's almost like batting heads with like the old guard of a traditional relationship against the new guard of the girl boss, feminism, I can bring all the money, I can do all the opportunities that I want and the men can't deal with it. They absolutely cannot deal with it. And I think it's really rare to see that ugliness on TV. Yeah, it's like a sociological study. Maybe we've said this before. It really is a fascinating situation, very patriarchal religion historically. These women are saying, we are making

all these mistakes. They are the breadwinness. I mean, she went on the podcast and was like, my ex-husband just golfs. Like he does not have a job. I have the job. I have the material power. I have the social power, I have the opportunities. He is kind of a kept man, and that I think, yeah, the chafing the friction. It makes for some uncomfortable but really compelling TV, I have to admit. Okay, so possibly the heaviest and biggest news for last, and I hope it's okay to talk about this, but Denise Welsh, actress, presenter, mother of Matty Healy of the 1975, has taken on Brent Council on Twitter and claimed that one of their rubbish collectors called her son.

We don't think this is Mati Healy, but in my head it has to be Mati Healy to be funny, the C word a cunt, and that they hadn't emptied his bins in three weeks. She said, can you let me know how we move forward? How are you guys handling this? You're doing okay. Well, can I ask, was the bin men a swifty? Is that what was going on maybe? Probably. She has got a big following of the bin men community. Oh, I just love it. There's so many layers to this that are so good. First of all, I just love it when celebrities tweet at businesses and brands because they're pissed off because it's like, it's so embarrassing. But I love that it's so embarrassing. But I love that it's so many. doing that. Then it's even funny that it's not for her, it's for her son, and that her son is Matty Healy. I mean, I'm just choosing to believe that she doesn't have any other kids. She's got other children. She's got two other sons, but for the purposes of this, Mati Healy lives in Brent and his bits have not been collected in three weeks. I just assumed it was about him. I saw some really

funny tweets which I'm now trying to find. So, Richelieu, you talk. I totally agree with you. I do think there's such a debasing element to when celebrities, A or Z-list, where whatever in between are adding public institutions, brands, whatever, just like. wearing their shame on their sleeve publicly. It's so humiliating and I love it. I saw a tweet that really made me laugh that was said. Matahili and Gabriette attended Justin Beaver's private concert last night. And then someone retweeted it going,

you're a private Justin Bieber concert. Your bins are overflowing and you're a private. That's Justin Beaver concert. It's so funny. Oh, it's even funny. And I just didn't know Shadow the Sun. This is even funny if it's not about him. Oh, it's just amazing.

I mean, you guys both know, the Denise Welsh apologist, Christmas time. I was trying to defend her Christmas song to you both. You were not having it. You were like, this is AI dross. And I was like, no, it's a banger, play it again. So I will always come out for my girl, Denise. But just absolutely hilarious.

I mean, it has since, I believe, been resolved. It's got happy ending. I think she says she's heard from Brent Council. So I know we always say there's no good news in the world, but what's this then? So speaking of divas, we have a very interesting piece for you. First, the dodoes, now the divas. piece in Harper's Bazaar from Louis Staples argues our era of constant access and relatability means we are at risk of a diva extinction. He writes,

The diva is an undefined, subjective concept. Not every pop star is a diva and not every diva is a pop star. The diva exists at the meeting point of vocal prowess and sheer swag, with an influence that transcends music. She trades in a certain type of mystery where she relies on her fans, but also keeps herself at a tantalizing distance from them. So he goes on to say that even though at the minute we have so many pop stars, we are absolutely drowning in them. We have Jewelie P, Olivia Rodrigo, Zara Larson, Addison, Ray, to name a few. There's still a question over whether any of these amazing women will crystallize into actual

divas. He uses the example of Beyonce and Adele, two of our generation's key divas who are known for not only being amazing singers, but famously holding us at arm's length, if not a hundred meter lengths at all times. For example, even Adele's divorce, we don't even know the gritty details of it. Whereas Lily Allen's West End Girl is such a polarising different example of the tell-all divorce album. And we know the gritty details of every single thing that went down in that. That album captured our attention in 2025 for that very good reason. And he says, Alan's style of oversharing

all the grisly details has subtly become more of a normal tendency when it comes to music. And that sense of intimacy has become both important for the fan and the artist. We want our celebrities to feel like us rather than they're on a pedestal and we're kissing their feet. What do you think? Do you think he's onto something? Do you think that a diva can even be born and survive in our environment right now? I don't think we can have a traditional canonical diva in this economy. And by this economy, I mean in this attention economy. I think that Chapel Rhone is touching on the edges of what we would have seen to be a diva and people aren't letting her do. They're clipping her wings. That is diva behavior. It's diva.

behavior to pay, you can't speak to me. Being part of being a diva is actually being a bitch. That's why, like, Mariah Carey is one of my favorite divas. She's always saying stuff that's really out of pocket. She is a messy queen. I think a diva is not only having like an air of mystery thinking you're better than everyone else and actually being better than everyone else, it's also being a bit of an asshole. And unfortunately, because of social media, because of us wanting to know the insides and outsides of everything that's happening in your life, we just don't have the space for it. We kind of are bridging the gap between, I think because of influences kind of filling in the gap between civilian person and mega-celeb. We almost want to have to know the

insides of everyone's lives. So I just don't know. And it does make me really sad because I think you're not allowed to be a bitch anymore. And I like a bitch. Yeah, maybe it was when we just had fewer celebrities and there was such a distance between them before this advent of like up-closed social media and wanting everyone to be relatable. You know, it was like characters. It was, we had a cast of characters and some of this, some of this, there are archetypes. Now everyone is everything. The pathway to celebrity like there's a celebrity sometimes is someone who goes live on TikTok from, you know, their house in the Midlands. Sometimes a celebrity is a billionaire. It's really weird. I mean, to quote some ancient text, diva by Beyonce, a diva is a female version of a hustler.

There was a time when diva sort of meant woman who will succeed and not apologize for succeeding, you know, saying like hustler when it's a man, it's someone who works very hard, takes no shit. There was also this aspect of a diva and yes, like Mariah Carey worked very hard, was very talented, but then could also get away with staying these things in interviews and having this law of, wow, have you heard of what Mariah Carey has in her rider when she's on tour and it was the most insane stuff? And you kind of, it's apocryphal probably, but it almost doesn't matter. Whereas now if it was, did you hear, Chapel Roan needs to pet 40 German shepherds and she needs only, you know, someone to feed her sips of Lucas 8. I really don't know what, you know, I'm panicking.

and what she would drink, but something ridiculous, you would go, right, she's cancelled, she's not allowed to perform the festival anymore. It's the punitive, moralistic way of being. And like we say, like a diva cannot be born and thrive and survive in this one attention economy, but also we hold celebrities to both, as we talked about earlier, a non-existent moral standard, but also a very stringent one where their great crime of not being relatable or not being good. It's so twisted. We don't deserve divas. The world has become too weird to enjoy a diva because we just, We go, no, no, no, that's not very nice. That's not nice. Your favour's problematic. Cancel done. And that is a shame because I do, I love a diva. I love a pop princess.

I was thinking maybe Addison Ray, but actually TikTok star, I don't know of it. Yeah, I don't know if it translates. I think you're right. There's something in, yes, it's holding people at a distance, but it's having that kind of bristly, out of pocket, commentary back to people if they do try and get too close to you. And I think that is essential because when you think about Addison Ray, I don't actually know that much about her. I think she's cool. She's gorgeous. Her music doesn't really sit with me for some reason, but I'm really open to her. But she hasn't got that slightly, like, prickly edge yet, as far as I've seen, in terms of saying something just quite bizarre in interviews or maybe kind of rude and, like, Kunti. Whereas a lot of the divas mentioned in the piece do have that slight hilarity to them.

You're right in terms of the mob coming for all the, like, potential divas in today's age. Chapel Rowan is the perfect example. You're right. People do want to clip her wings. It's so funny that people say that, you know, like, we're in this age of being cunty and like everyone's a diva. But like if anyone expresses that in any actual fashion, people are rageful and like with their pitchforks like running to them to like get them down. It reminds me of J-Lo where J-Lo obviously massive diva. But then when people learned that

she was like a bizarre person to work with and maybe kind of rude and like outrageous, they were like she's a bad person. And now there's almost this like vitriolic enjoyment of her downfall constantly. And I don't think we're out of it yet. When she had that failed marriage to Ben Affiris. and when she had her film, which was terrible, I have to say. There was like this like, Schadenfreude of like bringing her down. And I really felt that people were like turning on her quite viciously. So I do think Louie's onto something. I don't know what it is.

People want to like drag the diva down back to earth. That's my feeling about it all. Yeah, I agree. I also think it's not just they keep us at an arm's length, but they were untouchable. So it's like it doesn't matter. Like nothing could kind of get to them because they was on such high pedestal. And I do think that now with the way that access to celebrity is. so much more ubiquitous. They are on social media. They're telling you what washing

powder they're using to wash their clothes. They're not just being profiled once a year in a magazine and maybe like a long paparazzi shot on a beach where you get a glimpse of them. It's like, we are seeing because of the iPhone, because of social media, we're seeing them all the time. I think what we've got is the inverse, which is both like the exact same thing and the opposite, which is a hun. A hun is a diva, but it's also the exact kind of opposite. I don't even know how you define a hun, but Denise Welsh is a hun. They have the same bristliness, but instead of them being untouchable, they're in your living room. They are climbing up your walls. They're all over you and you can't get rid of them and they are funny in a different way. So I think the hun is our

whatever, our modern equivalent, but it's both an equivalent and an exact opposite. Did any of that make any sense to either of you as a concept? It really did. I get it. It's the kind of way that we now, maybe it's mostly gay men but also women in pop culture, you know, when someone's just like kind of evil and we go, sleigh, you know, that is country. We have blurred the, boundaries and we just, I think maybe we reached Max Deva and we went, we want new things. Our appetite is changing. We want a relatable bitch versus a really high and mighty. And maybe it is as ordinary people's lives get worse. It's less cute and funny and harmless to hear about someone that keeps a private jet idling because they wanted to go back to Rodeo drive.

You know, these stories that at one time were like, how the other half lift? But, you know, I can pay my taxes. Fuel is a normal price. I can feed my family. So it's just, it's entertainment. And it's like going to the movies. Now it's like, this is a material example of why my life sucks. I've got no tolerance for it. And it's maybe also, as we're saying, familiarity breeds contempt. We are so close to these people. I'm sick to death of them.

But also I kind of feel like I'm paying for their lives. Don't piss me off and also be a bad person. It's actually very fascinating. I think Louie's really onto something here, even if it's really hard to define. Like, what do we think about Charlie X, X, X, for example, who I think is only able to embody a semi- alt diva personality by making it parody almost like she occupies this role of someone who doesn't give a shit will say outrageous things will not but also is very sensitive and also goes its performance art is that something i think old diva is really good yeah i think that's exactly it and it's almost like

she's almost like doing galaxy brain of the diva and she's looking in at you observing her being a diva i feel like what she's doing is the installation that's the whole thing it's the project it's the installation it's the moment. It's like, it can't be diva as something else. And I think old diva is exactly what it is. You're right. This is making me think that maybe Taylor Swift, because I think what you said about the material existence of these billionaires is what stresses people out and actually it's not cute anymore. You're right. It was probably kind of cute if you could afford to buy a house on like a normal salary. Because maybe Taylor Swift, because I was thinking of her Elizabeth Taylor song, Elizabeth Taylor's definitely a diva. I was thinking about when I think it's actually the most

diva thing other that J-Lo married Ben Affleck again. I wonder if Taylor Swift in a different economic situation would have been Queen of the Divas, but she's falling foul of it not being her time to be that. Yeah, because we did really enjoy her kind of reprisal. I forget the name of it, the era, the kind of snake emoji, not reformation. Reputation tour. Reputation. People really enjoyed that at that time because it was women who had been trodden on, very talented, said, I'm going to lean into this imagery and this art, but it had to have to. to be an era. It couldn't be, you know, she had to start out as a very sweet country star. She had to be battered by misogyny and this, have this reclamation, but then had to move away from it

into sweeter and more palatable pastures. So yeah, the environment no longer exists really for a diva. If a diva does want to come forward, I kind of think I would embrace them with open arms, but then again, we'd all turn. I think it's inhospitable to divas. I think the biodiversity has changed too much. So this week, we read a very interesting piece in The Independent by our Riann Lubin called Kalshi and Polly Market are using influencers to lure in the 50% who don't bet on sports gambling sites, women. And if anyone not aware, Kalshi and Polly Market are prediction platforms where people trade on real events. So elections, the weather, celebrity and pop culture moments, sporting events and government affairs. And this works by buying contracts associated with those events, either a yes contract or a no contract.

So, for example, will there be a U.S.-Iran nuclear deal? You can choose a contract that says before 2027 or a contract that says before August or where will Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey's wedding occur? You can choose a contract saying Rhode Island or one that says New York. Predict correctly in the right markets and you can make a profit. And by the way, those are real markets on the Kalshi website. So there's currently a fair bit of legal action happening against Kalshi, which was founded in 2021, including a class action suit that claims that Kalshi are, quote, operating an illegal and unlicensed sportsbook under the guise of a prediction market.

by offering illegal sports events contracts that are sidestepping strict state regulation on a sports wagering that has been put in place as a matter of public health, safety and welfare, that this is gambling. Cali says, no, these are not wages and this is not gambling. They are something called designated contract markets or DCMS, and that as such, they are regulated differently. And in Brion's piece, she explores this wave of marketing by these kind of sites that seem to be targeting a new demographic, women. And she shares examples of a accounts like at Poly Baddies on X and at Calci Girls, which seems to be affiliated with Kalshi and is run by an influencer who, according to the Wall Street Journal, has been paid

by them for the promotion. And these accounts are reposting a lot of content from Gen Z influencers who are sharing selfies, wearing merch and boasting about how much money they've won on bets. They use the internet verbiage of Gen Z things like Kalsh girl's starter packs, showing matches, Van Cleef bracelets, text exchanges about making trades on the way to brunch. And there seems to be quite a lot of push to get women to sign up and participate in predictions markets. And a lot of people are finding this insidious and worrying. What do you guys both make of this piece and why are you across these kinds of sites? Or is this new information to you?

I feel like I, and it was only in searching Kalshi on X that I've realized I'd faved a few Kalshi tweets because they tweet like Pop Crave, like Pop Culture History, things like that. They are just tweeting. And I obviously understand in context now that they're tweeting by these things because you're able to kind of. kind of put money into these predictions of what will happen in a pop culture world. They're kind of working under that same language. It feels almost like a part of the internet furniture at this point. If you like pop culture, you will probably come across these. And it will probably seem like, okay, well, that's the next logical step to put on these wages.

I mean, I will say I was quite naive to this as someone who is not in the investment world and is not really in financial futures and just stays far away from these things. I was quite surprised at the things that you can bet on. everything like all of the adverts that you see of young women being like, I just made $20, betting on the weather. And then you go on there and it's like you can bet about how many deportations there will be. You can bet on. I mean, we'll get into the things you can and can't bet on. But I was really disgusted by certain things. But just the existence of a kind of pop culture, yes, no, make money, lose money and it not being gambling. I felt like I'd uncovered another

facet of the world that makes me very depressed indeed. Yeah, I did know about these platforms. I've been kind of fascinated with them for about a month. So I've really been wanting to talk about them and I feel like this is the perfect way for us to enter in because they are actively targeting our demographic, which is fascinating. I first heard about them because people were talking about how wild it was that people were profiting off betting on a war in Iran happening and whether the leader would die because of US strikes. Really dark, really, really dark. And the vanity fair issue that I brought up a few weeks ago. Essentially, there was a big piece in that and they were talking about that issue specifically, just people betting on whether there would be strikes in Iran. And the way

they were doing it was they were monitoring how many takeaways were being delivered to the White Office because that meant people were staying late. And then they utilized that information to say, well, if people are staying late at the White House, that means something big is about to happen. I'm going to look at the news. Things in Iran seem to be kicking off. That means I think something is going to be happening in the next week. And it blew my fucking mind. It is so intense. It is so conspiratorial-minded. And the idea that people are applying that to all these different things and profiting off it

is just like it, some part of my brain is like, guys, this is not normal to me. The fact that they're now targeting women doesn't surprise me. In that WSJ piece, I read about women and influencers being the new frontier. I read that it started off 13% of these kind of predictive market apps were being used by women.

Now it's up to 26%. So their efforts are paying off. Obviously, that's still not a huge percentage. They want it to be 50-50 because they kind of want these predictive markets to be the new frontier of how we understand politics, how we gather information. They're saying that these will be incredible resources for every single person to gather information because the idea is if you incentivize people to essentially share their information and they'll get money from it, that's the truest way you can understand what's happening in our world over politicians or bodies because they lie to us. I think that is a wild concept. And the idea that people with inside information can profit off what they know, I don't know. I just feel like surely all of this unregulated information gathering just means that it is just prone to bad actors coming in and saying,

let's just fearmonger over this issue, let's just throw a load of money at this issue so people think this is happening. Let's distract from this. The idea that this could be a primary way to understand politics really scares me. So I heard about these prediction market platforms in the same context as you, but hadn't paid attention to the names of them. So when we were talking about it to do with influences, I hadn't clicked, but I'd actually listened to a really good episode of offline with John Favreau, which was called What We Lose when we bet on war. And he speaks to Nancy Scholar, who's a journalist, who writes about how technology shapes government, politics, and market. And one of the things in the episode that he said,

which goes back to what you said, but it's just how scary it is, he says, there's basically no regulation whatsoever. So any number of people in the Trump administration with inside information about everything from economic announcements to the timing of military strikes could be making a fortune right now and we'd have no idea. All of this to say, it's time to start paying attention to political prediction markets and what happens when life or death decisions are gamified for profit. So that was the angle I'd heard about it. And there's other, a lot of the political news podcast that I've been listening to have been covering it. But I'd completely missed this girlification of it, the fact that you could bet on like anything. And it does terrify me because we spoke about it so much.

The economy is fucked right now. Any way to make a quick bit of money and people are going to be doing it. The fact that this prediction feel like light and fluffy, like you can bet on sort of like silly pop culture and it's happening within the same cosmos as people could actually be influencing

real wildlife events, life or death events because they have inside information, is terrifying. And I think I've spoken about this on the podcast before, but I got really into Mecca bingo, uni and got quite addicted to like online gambling. I was spending like a pound at a time, but still I went into my overdrash.

The idea that this is being promoted, I am not surprised if, so many young people are going on to these platforms. It's really scary. The fact there's no regulation is terrifying and everything's so unwieldy right now. Like you really do start to think that the kind of fabric of what we thought was social norms, like laws and regulations and rules just don't exist anymore. Every day there's another bit of nonsense, but like terrifying, life-threatening nonsense that is packaged up in sort of like glitter and funny tweets and you don't even know it's happening. Yeah, it feels so, it feels really Mickey Mouse. It feels like a

joke of a thing. And maybe you kind of grow up and think like people are innovating. People are trying to create things and create jobs and make services that make society or are needed by society. And actually, you go to Silicon Valley. And it is a bunch of really smart people who are trying to find ways between the cracks of existing regulation to make money from the worst of people's human impulses. And I, as much as Calci and Polymarket will say, well, technically we are not gambling for this reason, this reason, that reason. If it looks like gambling, smiles like gambling, and quacks like gambling, it's gambling. And if it has that same sort of, it unlocks that same impulse in people.

And in women especially, I think this is the insidious thing. We know that women gamble and not in small numbers, but they gamble in very different ways. Studies show that men, I think, gamble in more high stakes ways and more adrenaline-seeking ways, where women might gamble, not on sports bets, but in gambling in different ways, online covert ways to feel better, to kind of administer some kind of emotional reprieve. And so to be targeting to kind of identify, oh, We're not using our site, and maybe it's because of this, and to try and tail your marketing

to young women especially who will struggle, who are really struggling to be financially stable and solvent because, I mean, don't need to go into it. Everyone knows. Wages stagnant. Everything else is very costly. Also very difficult for women. It's still not a fair working world. And I do, I find it really insidious, this marketing. And I've seen lots of pieces like this that are just unpacking why this marketing works. It is women sitting on sofas, kind of that. We learn to trust our influences. And it's women like, sitting on sofas and going kind of girl to girl. This is, you know, don't be afraid of these places. Like, you're allowed girl. You're like a sheo. You're self-empowered. It's a kind of lean-in,

girl boss, step on other women feminism. It's like you can get your bag. You know, you're as powerful as these finance bros saying, I've just been bet on the weather. It's passive income. And it doesn't take into account, one, the financial risks, but two, the emotional risks of engaging in this repetitive, guessing, staking money, behavior and the idea of trying to capture women as a demographic and succeeding in it, it seems, is really frightening. I'm glad that we know about this now, but it does feel like an absolute titanic of a thing. Like, it's not going away. Billionaires are scrambling over themselves to be aligned with this.

This is bright, bright minds making this thing. They are raising capital with absolutely no problem. I'm really heartened to see that there is this amount of legal action, but I do feel, I do feel a little bit like this is a David and Goliath type situation. And I know that had a happy ending, but the enormity of these, you know, the capital behind this way of making money is staggering. And I think as women, to get in on the ground floor of like understanding why we should be cautious if these things kind of populate every country in the world is very, very important at this stage. I agree. I think thankfully in the UK you can't actually access these.

So it says that they can't be used for trading in the UK. And while it might be accessible, Taoshi requires a US social security number and is not licensed by the UK. gambling commission to operate in the UK. And that is the same for Polymarket. And it says that even if you use a VPN to bypass and access polymarket, that violates the site's terms. So thankfully, we are technically safe here. But I wouldn't be surprised because of how popular they are in the US. They have just massively just taken over this year alone. And we are what just past the first quarter if they are actively trying to push against that and find a way to come here. The other thing is, I thought it was so interesting this almost like girl boss story of Kalshi

because the co-founder is this woman in her, I believe late 20s, called Luana Lopes Lara, and she's the C-O, and she was this professional kind of ballerina from Brazil, and now she's one of the youngest billionaires in the world off the back of Kalshi. And I will say, it seems like such an obvious point to make, but I had it reiterated to me recently through a podcast. I don't think there is a way to be a billionaire without some kind of exploitation There is somebody you're profiting off of the back of that. There is no single way, I believe, it is possible to be a billionaire without that.

I'm just going to leave that there. So I think even though it seems like this amazing feminist point, perhaps, or that's the story they're selling of, if I can do it, you can do it to girls. No, I think there is a queen at the head of the checkboard, and then there is pawns who are involved in the game, and you will never reach her position. You will just be involved in the market of Kalshi, and that's what I believe about this. So just for clarity, part of Kalshi's current. marketing is they're kind of saying the rules of Cali in one of them, no death markets. A death market is

basically betting or prediction market activity on the death of a public figure, famous person or politician. There's also rules on wages related to war, terrorism, assassination and other illegal activities. A lot of people do feel that a line is being crossed with Calci and other similar prediction markets and that there is a risk of war profiteering. I mean, it's something we should be very concerned about now as war rumbles on and like global war threatens. It's fears of insider trading, corruption. And they have made it such a big part of the marketing to say, like, we're regulated, we comply, we don't do death markets, but people are saying, I mean, there's one example. A user of Polymarket who was new to the site was able to make nearly half a million dollars on the capture of Venezuela's president right before the news was announced.

People are not buying that that was just good luck. It incentivizes people to trade on information. It incentivizes via the sums of millions and millions of dollars to engineer war in certain ways to roll out offensive attacks in certain ways. I think as much as we're like, well, it's not coming over here. Like, it's a global problem when you are able to indirectly make huge amounts of money from knowing where the bomb's going to be dropped, when piece still is going to be reached. It just feels rotten from the top to the bottom. And it does feel like war profiteering, whether or not it technically falls under that or if they have plausible to denyability. The whole thing does actually feel really foul. As an example of this, from the podcast I mentioned, on the night of

February 28th, half a billion dollars was traded on polymarket over when the year US would strike Iran and a half a dozen accounts made about a million dollars and Kalshi ended up issuing refunds over the bets that the Ayatolli would be ousted and then I'm quoting John Favre here maybe the most frightening example journalist Emmanuel Fabian got death threats because he accurately reported on an Iranian missile striking Israel which cost the people who bet that it wouldn't happen and those people want him to them change his reporting to say that it was intercept to fragments. Pollymarket condemned this when Fabian made the story public. I remember hearing that and then I listened to another podcast and he shared that he got death threats

from the people who were set to lose from it. And they said from the money we lose from it, we were put into basically killing you. And then I think they did offer him a cut as well. So they were like, if you do this and we'll give you a cut of the winnings. Oh, it's so corrupt. It's just sickening. It's just like treating it like a game.

And when you do monetize those things, I mean, what else can you, what else can you expect? So one thing I'm actually interested in, has any of this polymarket, Kashi content, reached your algorithm? Have you seen any of the content that's shilling this? let us know in the DMs or on Spotify comments, please. Thank you so much for listening this week.

Before we go, just checking that you've listened to our latest Everything in Conversation episode, where we look at new Netflix show, Age of Attraction and ask, has the pendulum swung back on age gap relationships? If you enjoy listening to us, then please do leave us a rating, a review or a comment on Spotify. Love ya. And also give us a follow on Instagram and TikTok at Everything is ContentPod. See you next week. Bye.

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