Morning Joe - The impact of social media on young women

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

June 11, 2026: 8am: The impact of social media on young women  To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You know what I really love that? I love the inflation. Everything was going well, and I said, I hate to do this to you guys, but Iran's going to have a nuclear weapon very soon. But now I'm going to take it down a little bit because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. When the war is over? Yes. It's coming down. I know you can't. It's going to come down like a rock.

President Trump, not faced by the latest economic data telling reporters, I love the inflation. It comes as the so-called... I love the inflation. What are we doing? That would be like Keith Richards in a police station just flirting out. I love the cocaine, man. I love the cocaine, I mean, I love the cocaine, I love the inflation, Willie. I mean, like, what, why, why?

I was trying to just go straight through here. I mean, we've had blurting, you know, he calls affordability BS. He's like, I love the inflation, man. What's going on here? It's incredible. I mean, this comes a couple of weeks after I don't care about people's financial situations. There's another of this entire catalog of lines where he's just saying the worst possible thing you could say if you were trying to, let's say, keep your party in power in the fall. Yeah, it's really incredible.

You've got to wonder why you don't care about that. Nobody doesn't not care about that. I want to talk about something that happened, Mika. Last night, there's a pickup game on the corner of. I think there's basketball game. I didn't see it. I'm kind of in this little mirror thing. You know, is it better for Boston to win or New York to lose in all things?

But I hear, I understand, Willie, that a basketball game broke out after some sage was spread around. It was absolutely. The neighborhood block. Kids came out and played a little bit of basketball on the corner of 7th and 33rd. What happened? Yeah, I was there. I happen to be walking by with a beer that I bought in a brown paper bag at the bodega looking through the chain link fence watching this pickup game. No, I was at the, exactly.

I was at the garden last night for the most extraordinary sporting event I've ever seen in person, especially given the stakes that it was the NBA finals. The New York Knicks were down 29 points in the second half. There's no way you win that game. And if you're the Spurs, there's no way you lose that game. Knicks were down 20 points with 9.5 minutes left in the fourth quarter and then mounted the biggest comeback in the history of the NBA finals. Brunson was really good down the stretch, but even better was O.G. Anobi, who, as you'll see in a second, comes up with a huge block on defense and then a game-winning tip-in off Brunson's final shot, which was a three-point attempt. Not yet. It's coming soon, I promise. But this is the comeback that you're watching. Again, it was 29 points. The garden, I'll have.

I will say almost everyone stayed. Almost everyone was still there. The place was rocking. The place believed they were willing the Knicks down the stretch. Brunson was one of his kind of patented runners there. And Jonathan Lemery was to be there and to be as deflated as we were at halftime, but also to have seen this team come back for some deficits. Here's the block by Annanobi.

Many pointed out Deer and Fox could have run out the clock right there, chose to shoot the ball. Here's the last play. Fronts and short, Ananovi soars in for a tip-in that gives the Knicks the win with 1.2 seconds left to lead there. Ultimately, the win in a shot that will go down in New York sports history. O.G. Ananoby was the guy last night, and here's the final play of regulation. Kat actually tips the inbound pass. Stefan Castle can't even quite get a shot off there.

Knicks win, down 29. They win by one point. The Anobie tip will live forever in not just New York. but NBA history. It is. It's the greatest, the biggest comeback

in NBA finals history. This game, talk about a tale of two halves. The first half, the Spurs could not miss.

Everything was going in from three. And the Knicks played legitimately terribly. And they were clearly rattled by the officiating.

And then everything flipped in the second half. I mean, this is extraordinary. We saw the Deeran Fox play. He gets the ball. He just simply

dribbles it out or he's fouled, hits a couple free throws, game over. Spurs likely win. Wemby was great early,

ran out of gas. The Spurs kept settling for threes in the second half. None of them got went in. And this is the second half of the entire second half. The Spurs scored 30 points. That's it. 30.

You're not going to win that way. And it was, I mean, you can see the celebrities' court side, Joe. I mean, so nicks up three games to one as well established. They have not won a championship since 1973. They will have a chance Saturday night in San Antonio. They can't do it there. Then it's another garden party Tuesday night back in New York. Yeah.

Well, you know, I think it's cute that Jonathan O'Meer, intense that he actually was watching this game. Because I know that Jonathan and I were screen sharing. We were watching the Ocho, ESPN8, and we were watching old reruns of Australian rules football, which we often do whenever, whenever new, yeah, anything but this, Richard Haas, but I will tell you, I poke you enough about New York sports. It's time let the big Haas glow. Talk about last year.

I'm prepared to close in the sense. Predicted they'd win, they won. But Joe, this is live television, right? Yeah, mostly. I have a confession to make. And I have been shamed by my son and by others. But midway through the third quarter, I said, this is the most dispiriting game I have ever watched.

My team has finally got this opportunity. They're blowing it. But, you know, a little bit of help from the rest, but mainly themselves. San Antonio was just running them out of Madison Square Garden. and I gave up. In the middle of night, my dog gets sick. I go out to walk him.

I pick up my phone. I have 30 texts from all my friends saying, wasn't that the most unbelievable game you've ever seen? So I have learned the lesson the hard way. Never give up. Never give up on the home team. Never give up on the next. I have learned.

I've learned my lesson. Never give up. Never give in. And of course, Kenny Kay is here just to remind all of you. to remind all of you, as Jackson Lamb would say, it's not the hope that kills you. It's the knowledge that it's the hope that kills you. But I am feeling a lot of hope around this table this morning, Joe,

so I hope that it's not the knowledge that it's the hope that kills them. There's a lot of hope. 80% likely now. You've still got more games to play, guys. All I can say is, and Willie knows this, he's seen me. And we've talked about this when our teams are ahead. that's when we duck. That's when we start talking about

how sad it's going to be that we're going to lose the final three games and give this first of championship. So you New York Knicks fans, you gloat and we'll see what happens. Now, here's hoping that the Knicks do something they haven't done since the glory years

of New York sports and win it all. It would be fantastic for them. All right. Also with us this morning, U.S. national editor and columnist at the Financial Times at Luce. We're going to be – He's a big Spurs fan, by the way. Yes, she is.

We're going to be going through yesterday's closed-door meeting deposition before the House Oversight Committee, Bill Gates, into its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Also, we have more on the new reporting by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan on the struggle within the White House to contain the fallout from the Epstein files. It's incredible. And once again, President Trump has thrown the Save Act back into things. So we want to talk about that. But first, the big story this morning, the United States and Iran traded strikes this morning.

President Trump told Fox News, the U.S. fired 49 Tomahawk missiles toward Iran, along with bombing by fighter jets. After saying earlier in the day, Iranian leaders were taking too long to negotiate. President, also, once again, warned strikes would continue if an agreement is not reached. Iran retaliated to the latest U.S. attacks by targeting U.S. bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan. Sirens sounded in Bahrain. Kuwait's airspace was temporarily closed, and Americans in Jordan were warned to take cover. There is also escalated tension in the Strait of Hormuz, which the Iranian military has now completely ordered to be closed to all vessels.

You know, Mika, like we said yesterday, the president has been way too eager for a deal, and he's paid for it. The Wall Street Journal editorial page has a new piece out this morning, and it's called Trump needs a new Iran strategy. Yeah, it goes on to say, Iran's large strike on Kuwait's airport

was not a big deal, Mr. Trump said. Amir tit for tat. He said the same for Iran Sunday strike on Israel, urging it not to reply, since the missiles didn't hurt anybody. That logic leads to trouble. Only by a miracle did two U.S. pilots survive after an Iranian drone struck and burned inside their Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. Yet Mr. Trump's early reaction was to say that this, too, wasn't a big deal.

An attack on an Apache helicopter. Mr. Trump won't want to hear it, but he has been dancing to Iran's tune. He will have to break from it or go down as losing. the war politically despite the early military gains. Mr. Trump still hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough, but even the press's favorite unnamed Pakistani officials are now downbeat. As long as Iran believes Mr. Trump is stuck with no alternative, it will squeeze him in the talks and in war moves. The president's choice now is to alter the facts on the ground or leave the conflict in a worse position than Mr. Bush did in Iraq. And they talked about in this.

op-ed about what George W. Bush did with at the in 07 with a surge and how it made a difference and said he's going to have to figure out militarily how to open up the straight and keep the straight open. Also, he may want to go in and do a joint operation with the Israelis to seize their nuclear material. Very risky move, the Wall Street Journal editorial says. But sitting back and waiting for the Iranians negotiate and on the Iranians goodwill. Ed Luce always leads to trouble. You, of course, as everybody knows, you wrote the biography of Dr. Prasinski. That got you inside the Carter White House during those torturous days where Chris Matthews has said time and time again on this show,

we would be told there was going to be a deal. We got excited. We did everything we thought that would line up the deal to get the hostage. his home, and then the Iranians would pull the rug out from under us, and he said they did it time and time. Again, this is what they do. They just play U.S. presidents. And if those U.S. presidents look like they need a deal, that's when things get really tough, because that's when the Iranians clamp down. Yeah, I mean, they are famously known worldwide, not just as Iranians, but as Persians through history as very tough hagglers and negotiators.

And they play for time and they faint and they walk off and they play mind games with the people they're negotiating with. Carter did discover this to his lasting cost several times during that 1980 presidential campaign with Reagan. It looked like a deal to release the hostages was about to. happen really four or five times and that would have changed transformed the mood on the campaign trail and then Iran pulled the rug and it turns out you know I mean Iran really needed weapons because Iraq Saddam Hussein's Iraq had just invaded Iran Iran really needed weapons so that was finally

the leverage Carter had been seeking to get those hostages out and they kept going right up to the brink of a deal. And lots of public positive statements from the White House and then Iran will pull the rug. Now, there's a theory as to, you know, why that might have been happening in terms of the Reagan campaigns, back channel communications with the Iranians. But this has been going on for 47 years at least. I mean, a U.S. presidents with patience and time and a strategy and a theory of the case, like Barack Obama. had with a 2015 nuclear deal might get somewhere. But if you're in a hurry, Iran's got more time.

Coming up, we'll go live to Albania, where there are growing protests against the development of a luxury resort planned by President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The very latest on that controversial project is straight ahead on Morning Joe. President Trump seemed to make a dramatic announcement yesterday about a secret mission to take oil out of Iran. Do you know we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody

knows it. You know who doesn't know about it? Iran until right now. We took out the other night, 22 ships late at night with no lights because they don't have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it. We took that. That's why oil is $85

a barrel. And again, we're taking out millions. which I'm just announcing today for the first time, but we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil, millions of barrels. Every night we took out oil, but now I'm going to tell you because they just figured it out.

So now that they figured it out, I can tell you. It was very hard for me. I wanted to say it to let me, but I didn't want to ruin it, but it was very hard. But millions of barrels of oil has come out, and that's why it's at 85, 90s. $70 a barrel instead of 250. Nobody knows about it until now.

About two hours later, the president posted on social media, claiming the effort has resulted in 100 million barrels of oil making its way through the Strait of Hormuz. But the New York Times reports, the announcement was not a previously undisclosed mission. A senior U.S. military official told the paper, the president was referring to an American effort to steer the passage of dozens of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. And while the U.S. guided vessels have been turning off their transponders to avoid detection when crossing that narrow waterway, it could hardly have been news to Iran because late last

month, the New York Times reported U.S. Central Command had shepherded about 70 commercial ships through the strait. The military official told the paper, more than 200 ships now have made it through the waterway in just over a month. The Times points out that before the war, traffic through the strait was typically about 3,000 ships per month. Richard Haas, also Energy Secretary Chris Wright, was asked about the president's claim under a congressional testimony yesterday.

Had no idea what he was talking about. He said he was the first he'd heard of it and that the president perhaps was, quote, speaking casually about the transport of oil through the street. This president is right. You know, there's a small number of ships, a fraction of the normal traffic that have essentially gone dark and are still getting through. what Caddy referred to before is a much more significant number. The Chinese demand destruction.

China has reduced its imports by over 3 million barrels a day. That is enormous. We're also seeing demand destruction in other countries. They're putting on policies in place to discourage people from driving, discourage people from using airplanes and so forth. So that's also, you know, it's a costly way, but it's a sustainable approach. And, you know, coming back to our previous conversation, we were talking about around the table, something we ought to be talking about.

Why don't we go after the Iranian oil that's traveled by land? Why is it they should have an exemption there? We blockade them through the straight. Why don't we think about blockading them on land, whether it's rail or truck? We ought to basically say you can't benefit from oil unless everybody benefits from oil. The Richard Haas blockade 2.0. There is. Another patent.

He's all over this. Ed Luce, you know, there's obviously the economic considerations here. But there's also like projection of power or in this case weakness. I mean, President Trump so graphic. for any kind of good news story, overselling that there, regaling reporters in the Oval Office about a secret mission that turns out to not be so secret. I mean, you know, he is so anxious to get out of this war. But we also know consumed with, frankly, the PR hit, that this has not gone well,

that he might have to take a deal that in his mind is worse than what Obama get. And certainly, you know, the U.S. now looks far weaker on the global stage than we did before the end of February when this war began. So I can't help. I've been chuckling since Joe's mention of Keith Rich is the idea of President Trump snorting lines of inflation from his desk is just not going to leave me. But, yeah, the idea that Pete Hagseth, you know, that we're bombing to negotiate, there isn't much left to bomb. You know, all the big military targets, the Navy, everything's really been hit. Now, of course, all the time, the Iranians are sort of setting up new missile production sites and drone production.

So there's a moving target there. But essentially, if you want to use bombs to force them to negotiate, well, then you're going to sort of widen your targets. And so that's why we're hearing about the hitting of water plants and potentially electricity grids. That kind of stuff's going to come into play, which then risks war crimes. But it also risks Iran doing what it did in mid-March. after the Americans and the Israelis hit the South Paz gas field, its massive gas field. The Iranians retaliated by hitting Gata's massive gas field. And that really escalated the war.

That really spooked the markets. And that showed that even though Iran's conventional military had been pretty much wiped out, it could still hold the global economy hostage. And these latest sort of bombing responses following the aparthe helicopter, if they look like this, you know, the signal of a strong president, you know, using America's awesome firepower to change the situation at negotiating table. They are, it is not that. This is actually, we've got no options left.

We have no ideas. And so I take it quite seriously when J.D. Vance, who is a skeptic of this war, says, it could, it could happen very soon, meaning maybe next week, maybe a few. few months. That is, that's the picture we're at. And there is no new sort of Hail Mary that's that's come to Trump's mind. Yeah, Ed Luce, again, looking at modern history that could guide us on what is happening in this moment and the president's decisions.

Ed Luce of the Financial Times, thank you very much for coming on this morning. We'll be reading your latest piece online right now. Coming up, they are some of the best-selling artists of all time. We are joined by members of the Grammy-winning band Earth, Wind, and Fire. As a new documentary sheds light on their groundbreaking success. That conversation is straight ahead on Morning Joe. Once you strike that first note, there's something that happened. I feel my heart open up.

You get to move in. Hey, and then you hear it. That's when the phone starts. I'm saying to myself, if they can do that, what can I do? Earth went in fire. We're making a whole different sound. No people are playing no music like that. You're thinking they're coming from Africa or from outer space.

It wasn't even a show. It was theater. We tried to bring us together as long. We didn't know what perfect it would have on the top. people. For nearly six decades, the music of Earth, Wind, and Fire has lifted audiences and brought people together. And now a new documentary from award-winning musician Questlove delves into how the iconic band was formed and why the music still very much resonates with people to this day. It's titled, Earth, Wind and Fire, to be Celestial versus That's the Weight of the World. Joining us now, members of

the nine-time Grammy-War winning group, Earth Wind and Fire, Verdeen White, Philip Bailey, and Ralph Johnson. Our thanks to all three of you. It is an honor to have you guys here. As we're just playing the clip, hearing those first notes, it literally did. You just, you feel like a jolt of electricity. Right. And it just, it really changes the space and energy around people. That's a gift. Well, I think, I think we were very lucky, and I'm, you know, Philip and Ralph, we've, you know, we've walked together for over 50 years and that, and our music, as you said earlier, it resonates with all kind of generations. And, and now we're still here and people who love the music every day. So the documentary goes back into the origins, but like, let's just keep, let's keep it here in the present day for another moment. Why do you think all these decades later, people will hear that song on the radio or on Spotify, wherever they get their music now, and they still have such a connection to it. Well, it was always the plan to actually bring different genres of music together

and make it commercial. And for that reason, there's something in there for everybody. So the documentary here obviously includes testimonials from some somewhat famous fans. When you have the Obama's sit there and say, like, this meant a lot to them, that must underscore or the importance of this group. What do you think it has, as the years have gone by, do you think its meaning has changed for people? No, you know, from the very beginning, like Philip said,

you know, it was really about feel-good music from the very beginning and delivering music with the message. And we've stuck to that plan all these years, and here we are 50-plus years later, still in the game. So was there any preparation about going back doing this documentary and looking at where it all began?

I think, I think for us, the timing was perfect. I think the people were ready. We were ready. And there's so much music and so much content. So I think it just kind of meshed together and it came up great. All right. Well, let's take a look at a clip from the documentary, where you all talk about how you put together one of the band's most beloved songs, Shining Star.

For my recollection, Shining Star started out as a jam, actually. It was Al McKay playing that raise nine chord. We just kind of took it from there. They start to grow, additional keyboard lines. Sythasans, friends, fungos. John Howman, impossible to hear that without smiling. Absolutely impossible, Jonathan. And, guys, it's great to have you here on the show.

you know the the you just talked about feel good music um and the terms that quest love has applied to this music both in the subtitle of the doc and and elsewhere it says celestial music um metaphysical music um do what of those words mean to you if they mean anything and was that the intent not just to make feel good music but to make kind of elevated feel good music um when you were making it what are those kind of ideas how do those ideas animate what you were trying to do. Well, it's music that touches the soul and the body and the mind, you know. And so it's, it's music. We were always, it was always our plan, our hopes and dreams that the music would make people feel really good. And we see it every night during our shows. People come in and

they're just uplifted. And that's, that was. was always the plan for the music. Maurice wanted to put together a bandit, rendered a service to mankind and to humanity. And I think that's where we're sitting today. You know, my high school year is more or less overlap with your incredible run in the late 70s into the early 80s. You guys, we just talked about Shining Star. There's, you know, Boogie Wonderland and Let's Groove and all these songs that everyone remembers. I want you guys to talk about September, though, because this is a song that became kind of

band's signature song. September 21st, it's basically kind of a meaningful date for everyone who ever heard the song, even if they have no idea why the hell it's a meaningful date for them. Tell us about how that song came together and what September 21st really was all about. Well, I was going to say September 21st, I think, if I'm not mistaken, that was the due date of Cabron White, Maurice's son, when he was born. Of course, it went beyond that. But outside of that, oh, the other thing, I was smiling when you brought the tune up because Philip wasn't that crazy about the tune when we put it out.

And so that always brings a smile to my face because it's one of the biggest tunes we do. And we do it every night in the show. We close the show with it every night. And, you know, it's the fifth most successful song in the history of the music business. You know, right up there with the Beatles, with El. Elvis, and you hear it everywhere. I guess it was a good choice to include it after all, John. Yeah, I believe, I believe, I believe the due date was, I believe that the, the, the, the, that Philip was actually bored prematurely.

So September 21st ended up being a, it sounded really good in the song, but wasn't actually pegged to really anything. I'm curious about, one of the other things in this, you know, I'm thinking about this in the context of, of stuff that Questlove has done before, you know, he did Summer of Soul, obviously a huge, one of the great documentaries really ever made. And then the prior to you guys, he did the Sly Stone Dock. Who are your influences when Earth Wind and Fire was coming together? You guys pulled together a lot of disparate, not just funk and soul and R&B. Who did you guys look to as you were putting the band together and thinking, these are the influences we want to kind of pull together and merge here to create our own distinctive individual sound?

Well, surely both artists that you mentioned were big inspiration, Sly was. But then all the music that came before us. Right. We studied all the greats, and we were just inspired by the music that came before us. We love Miles Davis, jazz. Of course, Maurice was a jazz drummer with the late Ramsey Lewis. So we were definitely very much influenced. James Brown, Motown, all of that.

Yeah. Some of the absolute biggest legends out there. So Earthwind and Fire is arguably one of the most well-known band names that's ever come across. Let's take a look at a clip from the documentary revealing how founding member Maurice White came up with that legendary moniker. He told me he wanted to bring that mysticism into his band. I said, cool. Do you have a name for your band? I was into astrology, I was always looking at my astrologer,

I started to put the elements together and I had Earth and my chart, fire and my chart and air. I changed air to wind and the rest of the history. Earth is basically that of the true elements, all the universe. Just had a ring to it. Perfect. The new documentary is titled Earth, Wind, and Fire,

to be celestial versus that's the weight of the world. Music legends and members of one of the best-selling groups of all time. For Dean White, Philip Bailey, and Ralph Johnson, thank you all, and we'll be right back with more. Morning Joe. I definitely feel like I'm more self-conscious after getting on social media. Social media makes you feel like you always need to perform a certain way and to be perfect. It makes me feel like what is wrong with me. We used to think about depression as happening as girls were turning 16 or 17.

Now we're seeing it at 11, 12, 13. This is unprecedented. Around 2011, we began to see this rising spike in mental health concerns among young girls. That's when girls began to have much more access to smartphones. And that's when a lot of social media platforms added the like and the share. sure buttons. That was a look at the new documentary Misrepresentation rise up. Premiering this week at the Tribeca Festival more than a decade after the groundbreaking documentary misrepresentation examined how media portrayals of women contribute to their underrepresentation

in positions of power. This film explores the challenges facing women and girls in increasingly digital world, from online harassment and doxing to AI-generated deepfakes and the impact of social media on mental health, misrepresentation rise up looks at the way's technology is reshaping the fight for gender equality. Joining us now the film's director, California's first partner, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, also here for the conversation, MS now contributor Huma Aberdeen, who is vice-chair of the Forbes and Know Your Value, 30-50 Summit, and editor of Forbes Women, Maggie McGrath. It's great to have you all with us. And Jennifer, gosh, in this documentary, it's incredible what we're seeing happening with our girls.

We all know a little bit about the concerns we have. Tell us about the film, the themes of misrepresentation rise up, and what has changed and what hasn't since the first doc. Well, thanks so much, Mika, for having me and for being here with all of you. Misrepresentation Rise Up exposes how AI and social media have been weaponized to harm girls and women's mental health, our safety, and our power. And it's happening at an unprecedented rate. Jennifer, we see in the documentary public figures, candidates facing threats, harassment. They're the victims of deepfakes and some decisions.

Difficult decisions they have to make about whether they stay in public life. What do you tell young women who face harassment and have to make a decision about stepping in or stepping back? So they deserve to be safe online. And so we have work to do in our country. We're doing it at the state level in terms of trying to hold tech and AI accountable. But there's so much more work that needs to be done. And we need women and leadership. a democracy will not thrive without women in leadership.

Jennifer, as we saw in that clip at the top of the segment, this film explores the impact of social media on girls. Women, yes, but girls particularly. What are teenagers telling you about the pressures they face online? And also, how is that affecting their mental health? Well, we saw a dip, really, in girls' mental health with 57% of girls experiencing persistent sadness and hopelessness, one and three seriously considering suicide. I mean, if that doesn't, if that's not enough there,

then, you know, come on. And then we had the advent of deepfakes where 99% of deep fakes target women and girls. Ninety-six percent of them are non-consensual pornography. And so it's no wonder that we have this downturn in girls and women aspiring towards public leadership. Well, and you just saw in that clip, 2011 being the big shift when smartphones became available. I want to ask you about the role of big tech in all of this. Yes, it's created this incredible opportunity for connection, for young women. But as they're having these deep mental health issues, what is the responsibility for these big tech companies in ensuring or protecting young women and, or just women and young and girls? I mean, transparency and accountability, right? We saw that 76% of all of the

hate speech on X was ignored. 93%. of the threats and harassment, some rape threats and death threats towards female politicians, once again on Instagram, just not addressed. They have a tremendous responsibility. They're profiting off of our victimization, off of our pain and suffering. And we have an opportunity to write this ship. It's really about our individual responsibility as citizens, electing people that represent our values and are willing to stand up and hold folks accountable

at the federal level, the states will continue to do their part. But really, we have tremendous work to do right now. Now is our time. When you talk about the opportunity to fix this and the work that lies ahead, what specifically can men and boys do to create a healthier culture online and also offline for women? So at Ms. Representation Rise Up, we have a resource hub where we have have wonderful resources, guides, best practices for boys and young men to be allies. And that's just essential right now. You know, women can only do so much on our own. It really does require men in positions of power and authority and leadership to stand up

and say, enough is enough. You cannot profit off of our women and children's misery and suffering. And it really requires brothers to speak out when they witness, you know, sexism or misogyny, not just online, but offline, because our nervous systems react the same way to threats online and offline. It's the same thing. So, you know, I'm going to go back to the big tech companies because I personally think they should be, they should be as open to being sued as any other company that has, that creates a product that hurts people. We're not there yet, obviously. And, you know, You know, you expressed kind of shock at the concept that even at the rising rate of suicidal ideation and suicide among young women,

due to a direct connection to social media, you would think that would be enough. Apparently, it's not enough for big tech companies. And many people who run those companies do not let their kids go on social media because they know how dangerous it is. Are there any companies that are making changes stepping up? do they simply not care? I mean, I think the leadership at Pinterest is really different and unique and making a difference. And, you know, as consumers, we want to support the good guys. So, again, I think whether you want to think about Anthropic or Pinterest or some of the ones that are leading on the right side of history, you might lean in towards those.

We're in a tricky place, but we do have power as consumers. We have power as citizens, and we have to continue to exercise that power and engage. And we also need women in leadership in tech, period, full stop. It's part of the problem. I know that if I was on a tech board or in the C-suite of one of these companies, and I knew that this was the research that we'd gathered, that girls and women were being harmed at these unprecedented rates, I would stop that product.

I would switch, change the algorithm. I would invest in whatever it required to protect children. Children are our future. And once again, you cannot have a healthy, thriving, prosperous democracy if women are silenced. Well, you have my vote. The new film Misrepresentation Rise Up is premiering this week at the Tribeca Festival. Director Jennifer Sebel Newsom, thank you so much for sharing it with us this morning. And Huma Abidine and Maggie McGrath, thanks to you both as well, as always.

And up next to morning, Joe, we're going to go through yesterday's testimony from Bill Gates, a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee for its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein as well. As more of the reporting by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan on the chaos inside the White House, as Trump's inner circle tried to manage the fallout from the Epstein files. Keep it right here on Morning Joe.