Some More News - Way Less News: Obsession, Yesteryear, Media Literacy, and More!

Episode Date: August 15, 2026

Hi. Katy, Cody, and Jonathan are off for the next week, so here's an episode of Way Less News we recorded in advance! Forget the horrors while the news friends chat about Obsession (the movie), Yesteryear (the book), and hear Cody air his frustration at people who don't understand the ending of the new Spider-Man. We'll be back with Some More News and Even More News the week of August 24.Spoiler Alert for Obsession. Mostly spoiler-free for Yesterday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.PATREON: https://patreon.com/somemorenewsMERCH: https://shop.somemorenews.comYOUTUBE MEMBERSHIP: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvlj0IzjSnNoduQF0l3VGng/joinSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello, hi, and welcome to Wayless News. I'm the Katie, welcome to it. Hi, we haven't done this in a while. I haven't done this in a while. Hi, I'm Katie. That's Cody. Jonathan is also here. This guy.

We got a Jonathan. Hi. This version, the not news version of Jonathan is also here is Blazza, Blaza. Jonathan. I will be, well, actually. your just opinions about every day, whatever we're talking about.

Cool. All right. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. No one understands what's happening right now. Oh, gosh. You're right.

Let's explain. I am going to explain the premise of this week's episode. It is a way less news, a show where we do our best to not talk about the news. We talk about other things in the zeitgeist. And why are we doing this? you might be asking well that's because at the time of this viewing

the three of us will be on vacation we will be on vacation so we are recording an evergreen podcast together we will not be on vacation together unless you want to come

on my vacation with me I mean I can look into as we did podcast much going on cat sitter baby no bring the baby yeah bring everybody he's not a baby anymore

He is always a baby I'm sorry I don't know what the cutoff is for being technically not considered a baby but for me it's six A little baby Is your baby six Every time I'm like cuddling him

I'm like I'm doing this until you're 50 You don't have a choice You know maybe You have a choice obviously No Don't let him know that Yeah we're authoritarian here on this version of the podcast.

Anyway, some of you might be thinking, no way with this. I want all the news, not wait less of it. And to you, I say, just chill and come along for the ride with us. You might enjoy it. You might be surprised. I think you like us. You've been joining us on this journey for years.

Now you like our dynamic. We're going to have fun here. This is like, this is your big, your big pitch. Are we being yelled at right now? I don't know. We're trying to defend our existence. Listen, we could have opinions about things other than the news. Shut up.

We're not going to be able to podcast about the news. The week this airs. Sometimes we want to talk about things that aren't the news. Sometimes we'll enjoy us when we talk about things that aren't the news. And so exclusively non-news today, have a little fun. Maybe we'll talk movies. Maybe we'll talk books. Maybe we'll talk the news.

Wait, not that. Cody, I know, wants to talk about obsession. So we're going to start off with that. And yes, I did. finished watching the movie last night. Yes, it got me. It was rough.

Yeah, I texted both the boys. You did, yeah. Well, you don't watch movies like that a lot. I don't. I don't. And it took me a few nights to get through it because I was so stressed, so I had to keep pausing it and being like,

enough for tonight. Otherwise, I won't be sleeping. So I finished it last night. I'm prepared. I guess we should give a big fat, spoiler alert for this episode. Oh, yeah. You know, it is hard to talk about these.

We can not go into super specifics on certain moments. I think Cody wants to talk about the discourse around. It's mostly a discourse, Discortion is that I'd like to talk about in relation to obsession. We will be spoiling a little bit of the movie if you haven't seen it. I found myself to be kind of spoiled on it in terms of like the dynamics. Before seeing it. Before seeing it, but still pretty good.

Also, I might bring up the new Spider-Man film, but I will do my best to not spoil that as well. It is related. I know it doesn't sound like it, but it is related to the obsession discourse as well and the way people talk about movies and what people want out of movies and how the discourse is sort of designed to make people mad.

I'll just give a quick what the premise of the film is. Yeah. They're these four friends, two guys, two ladies. They work at Andy Richter's music store. Friends, yeah. And then they go hang out afterwards. And one of the guys, Bear, is really just in love with one of the girls' ladies, women, Nikki. Gals.

Makes a wish on a wish thing that she will fall in love with him. I think his exact words are love me more than anyone else. Anyone in the fucking world. Yes. You can interpret that however you want. The movie interprets it in a specific way. That's the premise. It seems like common sense.

But I need everybody to understand that if you get the opportunity to make a wish, you better be fucking specific, bro. Like, I feel like I know that in my core the idea of be careful what you wish for, this dumbass. Sure. But please, that is the most important takeaway from this movie is be careful with your wishes. I don't disagree that you should be careful with your wishes. But what if it's just like some like cheap piece of crap you get at a store?

You never know. But you never know. Exactly. You never know. And I think a lot of the movie is sort of unpacking this idea that Bear doesn't understand why his wish was bad. And he keeps thinking that he can just rephrase it in a certain way. And that makes it better when the core. of what drove him to the wish and how he views Nikki

is the problem that drove him to make the wish and rewording it in any way will not solve that problem that he has that he's dealing with. Nor will yelling be normal for 45 minutes instead of trying other things. Trying other things. Fix your problem.

That is your issue with the film as well. Well, I found it frustrating on a few levels and it's hard to know if certain things are like, nope, it's supposed to be frustrating because of this or if it's just like not structurally sound the way you would want a movie to be written. Yeah, the discovery. But I mean, we can get into that.

The lead of this, I mean, bears the protagonist, but Nikki, Indy Navarretti is a absolute superstar. She is incredible in this role. all other things notwithstanding she is just like she's got it she's a star every time she's on screen you're like I don't care about anything else she's killing it yeah where's poochie

she's great she's so good in the movie you say where's poochie it's a Simpsons reference yeah oh okay okay yes everyone watching understand it's fine 90% of people watching it's please just like yeah folks if you're like wait what the fuck did you just say just Google Pucci and where's Pucci and it's fine in a long sense. She's great in the movie. I thought it was fine. It's not, I think part of the interesting thing, I think it's good. Part of the interesting thing about

the movie is that, I mean, it costs so little money and it made so much money and everyone went to go see it. And it seems like when there are movies like this that are so, so popular, it just means that a lot of people who maybe don't watch a lot of movies are going to see it. Maybe a lot of people who don't watch specifically horror movies are going to see it. And so the discourse is just very interesting because you get a lot of people who are like, this movie is about this? You're like, is this your first movie that you've ever seen in your life? Or like people who are confused about certain things.

And it's like, but you didn't just watch the movie. And it tells you the information. Or just like certain things that it's just very some of the scores. You're going to be more specific. I will. Well, the main debate, I think, going online is this sort of question of like, is Bear really that bad, I think was part of it. But also like, I know. But also like is, did Nikki ever really like him?

Did she ever like him in the movie? Like as a friend or as more than a friend? As more than a friend. No. She didn't. That's the fucking point. I know. She didn't.

I mean, I agree with you. But right before he makes the wish, she does do something that at least is indicative to him. It gets him to do the wish. Yo, yes. Because she's, what does she say? Like, if you're going to, do you like me? Do you like me? If you like me say it, you do.

Yeah. If you like me say it now. And it might be like, it's cool. I don't like you. That way. We'll move on. But I do think you're at least. intended to think maybe there's a chance like the meme, right?

Yes. So that's so this is the thing. So speak up and say your peace. But and like obviously like, you know. Sorry I don't need to be gendered like that. But just grow up or just grow up like an adult. How about that? Like an adult.

That's right. Sorry, Cody. Sorry. No, you're right. I mean the part of the part of the movie is like that moment is like that was your moment, man. Your whole, your whole and every single moment in the movie is like that was your moment, man.

that was it like that was your chance now's your chance and he just continues to not do the thing that he needs to do do the right thing and so on but in the context of that this question of like well did she ever did she really like him so there is that moment where uh she says do you like me just tell me and then an entire movie happens and the people who are having this conversation have seen the whole movie bear didn't see the whole movie bear is living the movie so to watch the whole whole whole movie and then come out of it with that question is just very odd to me. There are so many indicators in the movie. We won't get into the details of the poem that she reads at the party, her little story about Hansel and Gretel. That couldn't be more clear about her view of this person.

And so it's just, I don't, it's not, there's not much to say. I just think it's interesting, like watching this movie and like being confused. and being like, why didn't they do this? You're like, why, like, the whole movie is just like her acting weird. And it's like, then you don't understand what's going on. If you think that she's just like doing horror movie stuff, like, oh, she smacks herself on the face, then you don't understand that she's inside and trying to fucking kill herself because she's being tortured in some sort of hellscape.

And being forced to like live this, like live this life in hell. And it's a, it's a constant tension. between her and this entity. Which raises a lot of questions about the nature of the wish. Sorry. No, it does. Go for it. Well, when you're like, even though he's a piece of shit, he's intended to be a piece of shit, he doesn't do anything redeeming, even at the end, because it's past the time when he could have done that.

You still want him to, like, be smarter than you in the sense of, like, what is he going to try to do things? And so when you're on the phone with the wish guy, That's something that happens in the movie. He calls the wish guy who answers and knows who he is, blah, blah, blah, right? Instead of just being like, how do I take it back or how do I make it the thing I want to make it, you want him to say, that's not what I wished for. I didn't wish for you to create what appears to be a separate entity, right? She does not change.

She's in there in a separate entity that is that acts in ways that he also, you know, didn't wish for. It's his fault. I'm not saying it's not his fault, but like, acts in increasingly erratic ways in ways that alarm everyone. That's what you would say, right? Like a person. So this is, I mean, you're right. And I think that that could just be something where like they, that's just like, didn't think of that, didn't have them do that. But also, I do think so much of this movie and so many people, like, so much frustration.

Because I've also seen this isn't the same criticism that you're making, seen people be like, why don't, like the movie explore the company more, right? This company that makes these wishes and stuff. Who cares. The mechanism and like what, like what's going on there? Like, explore that. And it's like, it's a different movie. That's a different movie.

That's not a horror movie that is interesting. That's a mystery box sort of whatever. That's season five of Stranger Things is what you want to watch. That's the bad streaming prequel. We're like, we'll explain how the wish boxes came to be. I don't care. It's not important. It's not important.

Yeah. And I think it's not important for the story, but especially it's not important to bear the character. And to your point, Jonathan, I think that these things you're saying, like, well, I would want somebody to say this. Well, Bayer doesn't care about that. Bear wants her to like him and for everything to be fine and normal. Like that, like his, his whole drive is like, I just want this to be true. And so I'm not going to care about like, well, are you hurting other people? What about the other wishes?

Like, it's not in his mind. Well, I agree with that. I think it's specifically a choice, not like something in oversight, because Bear, is incapable of following through on anything, on his actual excuse, he's incapable of saying, of doing the, yeah, it's hard to tell someone you like them. Not that hard.

We do it all the time. Especially they ask you point blank. It's not that hard to take accountability for things. He sits there paralyzed watching this happen, even as the stakes get higher and higher. And other people are seeing how unhinged, Nikki has become and expressing fears and worries and he just is immobilized staring at it

incapable of doing anything. The first scene we see is that his fucking cat gets into his medicines and like why does he have all of these fucking pills? We don't even explain that but the cat eats a bunch of pills and dies and he does nothing about it. He can't deal it. He is so deeply incapable

of existing in the world and taking care of himself or taking care of anything and so I actually think the his inability to just say like this isn't what I wanted this isn't what I wish for it

is because he's immobilized in every area of his life and he doesn't think he has the agency or like he's not acting or he doesn't take the agency he's like and I think it is an indictment on in some ways on a certain type of man

that has arisen in our landscape. Well, because if you don't have the agency, then you don't have to deal with the consequences because it's not your actions, right? If it's not like, I didn't do it. Therefore, I didn't make the decision, therefore I can't be blamed for it. Okay, but you created a mess. Well, because one thing, you're talking about the cat scene and one thing, the first

thing he says when he walks in the apartment is, what did you do to the dead cat? Well, the cat didn't do anything. You neglected to feed your cat, and so it was hungry, and so it went through your unsafe pills and ate them and died. Like that is, like you did that. And so the first thing we see is Bear C the consequences of his actions and instantly say, what did you do? Very similar to like when she was begging him to fucking kill her.

And he was like, well, what's so bad up being with me? Like, it's always sort of through that lens. I don't even want to knock the movie too much for this because that's hard to do, right? It's hard to portray inaction because, like, we're used to our protagonists being very active and taking proactive steps even if they have flaws. makes you think it's boring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.

And I didn't find the movie boring, and I, I liked it. I'm like, it's fine. It's fine, yeah. I get it as a horror movie, but, like, the word I've been using for Bear is just odious. He's such an odious character, and part of what they're doing is him refusing to learn and take accountability for his actions. And it's just a very hard thing to, like, Hamlet does it, right? But this isn't that.

Like, you don't want to set yourself up to where, like, I have to write. Hamla because he's inactive for 4x or whatever. Right. This is him doing that and every lesson, there's constantly like lessons coming to him. Like I'm going to do the thing so you recognize what you did

to your cat. Like everything is a lesson coming to him. Yeah, she's trying, she's speaking to him. She's like, look what you did to your cat over and over. And like his lack of growth is the point and I guess where I'm stuck is like, is it intentional like as a social message? Like do you think like

that much i don't want to say like oh curry barker is not putting thought of course he did yeah yeah is it intentional that we feel that way at the end of like this was just disgusting from beginning to end like what this person did i do think it is intentional personally um i think a little yes and no i think there are probably things that maybe were uh not as intentional but sort of like fit really well and made and completed that picture um because it's definitely there One interesting thing I thought kind of to that is, so the very end, and I love, I just like when actors get it and are like so incisive. The end of the movie when he takes the pills and then it like waits and then he like goes for the bucket, you know, or the trash or whatever. That wasn't in the script.

That was his idea on set. They'd like done a few takes of him just doing it and then he gets up and goes. And he was like, I don't think bear would go through with it. I think he would end up. I think he would try to stop it. And like, what a great idea for the actor to have. And to know, like, no, I know this guy. And he's not going to do this.

He's not going to go through. Even at the end, they're like, he chickens out. He's or tries to. And it's too late. He can't stop what he's done there. But even at that moment, like. That cathartic moment of him taking the pills is tough because he is sentencing her to life in prison, basically. When she comes back and she's Nikki won again, she is.

Spoiler alert, like a murderer, like has straight up murdered people. All the evidence points to her and he's just going to kill himself. That's it. You should have done this an hour ago. Obviously, there's no movie if you do that. It was weeks ago. I can't really look. What would I do in this situation?

I don't know. It's very clear. They make it clear. You have to kill yourself to get out of this. Yeah. Yeah, it says it. And so there's that. The very least before she absolutely destroys the,

the lives of or he, I don't even need to say she, they, this situation destroys the lives of their close friends who in hindsight also maybe at least the dude wasn't so great, but I have thoughts on that

but like they're like whatever but before it gets to that point get her in an involuntary psychiatric hold you know while you go try to fix this situation keep her physically safe from harm for a minute while you figure out how to

that's just not who he is maybe that's that's also a terrible thing to do too because again she has no agency she hasn't chosen this for herself but I'm like I'm just like keep her safe and he doesn't care that's the thing he doesn't care he doesn't care you know

that's it's he's an odious like main character and that he's like all I just keep I see a lot of people like why don't you do this why don't you this because that's not who he is man and like he's fucking sucks and it's frustrating and maybe it's like frustrating in a good way and it's supposed to be right

well I do get that that feeling too but this is like not what movies are supposed to be like you need to like this is not even entertaining to watch at a certain point you're just frustrated which might be intentional yeah

like even though I think it's like when people make a wish on a wish box they don't expect it to come true and so I think he bear fails to take accountability for like every other thing he does and like that's the least of it like it's probably the most normal thing he does in the movie because people make wishes all the time that they don't think will come true and they don't really want to come true in that way right you have to always assume it's going to come true otherwise you guys you know we know you wouldn't have done an obsession and you would have been five you would have put a lot of thought to it friend asking for a billion dollars okay I would have also added Um, nobody's harmed by, uh, me receiving the, um, like, I mean, literally like, just like, I wish for whatever. And no funny stuff. Yeah, no funny. I've always said no funny stuff. I've always said no funny stuff. Yeah. And like, but so it's like, I knock him for everything else he does in that movie. But the thing that destroys all of their lives is like the not as bad thing he does that he didn't expect to happen that people do when they skip a, uh, throw a coin into a fountain. Yeah. He's just being. It's just his little moment of like, Well, I've failed.

There's also that. We have a lack of accountability. I have a society. People just can't own up when they make a mistake and they can't say, oh, I was wrong about that. Or that was a mistake. Because there's a bravery and an innate humanist because we all make mistakes in being able to say,

like, I was wrong. I grew on this. But yeah. No, impossible. I have a question. So I've been avoiding the day. discourse because I hadn't seen the movie. Every time Cody started to talk about

in her calls, I just kind of took my earbud out. I don't know if anybody has misinterpreted the movie in this kind of way, but I felt very uncomfortable because there's a stereotype of a woman, a crazy woman, an obsessed woman. And a lot of times these shitty boyfriends and men in the world would be like,

oh, she's so annoying because she wants to be around with me all the time. I didn't check it in and she's pissed at me. My crazy bitch girlfriend, kind of an idea. And so obviously he makes this wish for him to love me more than anybody in the fucking world and this woman

is possessed and demonic seeming now and but it just felt like some stereotype of crazy women and I'm curious if that has been part of the discourse like women be crazy I mean that's that's intentional too right

it's like because she's like being like the behavior doesn't come from her it comes from him and his behavior and how he's treating her and his outlook and where the perspective is like, oh, she's crazy, but that's, yeah, that's a really important thing to think about in terms of just relationships where a wish has not been involved and a woman isn't possessed by my magic. But in general, do people act the way they act in a vacuum? There's mental illness out there, of course. But a lot of times women get maligned for their reactions to. men in the men in their lives and they just get unfairly labeled as being a certain way.

So that felt. But then I could imagine some right-wing chuds being like, yeah, women are crazy. Yeah, this documentary obsession is. My girlfriend's like hysterical, you know? Like that's the stereotype of the like hysterical woman. She made me lunch, but she fed me my dead cat. Like Jonathan, like you said, like the whole movie is just like, be normal, be normal. Like it's

you be normal bear You be normal You're weird You're weird But normal means Present a certain way It means nothing about What's your internal life like

Oh he doesn't care about Because her internal life Is tortured and imprisoned He does not care about that Just act normal And the movie makes very clear He doesn't From the get go

Care about her internal life There are many points in the movie Where Like her lie about her dad With it he built his whole like perception of like her troubles on everybody else in her life knows that she has a bad relationship with her dad and hates her dad and so every other friend in her life would hear her go oh my mind my thing with my dad would go like wait what i thought this he

doesn't know anything about her he's known for six years he doesn't know anything about her every memory he has of her where he's like oh yeah we all this stuff it's all in relation to him it's because she showed up for him every single memory is about yep that's all he knows about her and you've convinced me Cody that there's a lot like I doubted some of the intention up along the way and I think it's still fine to find a lot of those steps frustrating. Oh for sure. But I now agree with you that like the there's a lot of intention. It's like it's all yeah it's all laid out. If you watch it again thinking about like every single thing he remembers about her or says about her or or in reverse where she says stuff about him.

Like, she does listen to him, but he's only remembering, like, and it has no, it has no, no, no, knows nothing about her. From the get go, she's, he's like, she's the one that was there when I was going through this. She's the one that was XYZ, but we learn nothing about who she is or what she cares about in life, other than presumably being a good friend. In writing, she mentions the writing and stuff, which he didn't really know about. And then she, you know, that's not, he doesn't even, I guess all of his friends conspired to keep it a secret, but like that she has been hooking up with his friend for years.

Like, he doesn't know any of that. He doesn't care about any of that. It's just the idea of her. Well, so the other part of this discourse that I find interesting, because there's obviously, you know, and we like movies, like talking about movies. I love when people get excited about movies, even if they're, like, weirdly wrong about them. Like, I've even seen people be like, do you think that, like, this scene

where they have sex is, like, actually supposed to be, like, kind of, like, unsettling, and, like, he's, like, kind of, like, raping her. It's like, yeah, no, explicitly. Yes, yes, that's explicitly. It could be more clear. There's so many things I've seen where it's, like,

do you think this guy's? And it's like, yeah, they told you that, point blank. Like, it couldn't be more clear. And so that's always been entertaining. But then there's this other category of tweet. And I've been collecting them for a long time, and it's just a fun little game to play whenever a popular movie comes out these days. And I think it speaks to what we talked about in the previous episode about the news, when we talk about The Odyssey and how it's like a lot of it's fake. A lot of this stuff people are complaining about it's fake.

It's just online. It's nonsense. But a lot of tweets like, after my third watch, I'm convinced obsession is straight up an allegory for abuse. Wow. Um, and then so they nailed it. Thanks for getting there. Glad you, uh, saw it three times. My most controversial opinion, obsession is not really a movie about a supernatural curse or Nikki being unlucky. The whole story becomes way more disturbing when you realize that Nikki might have been the real threat all along.

And the curse is just a distraction. And it goes on on on on on. It's nonsense. It's nonsense. So yes. Okay. So one more. Uh, two more actually. Sorry. Uh, watched this recently. And am I did illusional? I feel like Nikki showed a ton of signs she was interested in in the beginning of the movie, but everyone seems to think she 100% wasn't into him. Watch the movie. Of that one scene, was this scene considered a rape or both of them agreed to have sex? Hashtag obsession. There are hundreds of tweets like this, where it's like either misses the point or gets to the

point in a way that makes it seem like they're like, they have special knowledge or completely misinterpreted a scene or just say like, what was your favorite thing about obsession? and then all these quote tweets being like my favorite thing was that it's not a movie or whatever like just nonsense and it's a song actually it's a song actually if you go to any of these profiles they're all from nigeria it's all scam accounts together doing engagement bait stuff and quote tweeting each other do you think they're hired by the production company i don't know what like i don't know if it's like it it's just uncanny like if they're blue check that's just like, they're blue checks. It's literally just, as much engagement as possible for the money. As much engagement as possible, and they've learned that much like with the Odyssey with obsession, a popular movie, if you just tweet out the wrongest thing in the world or the dumbest thing in the world or the most correct thing in the world, but that only you get, then you will get engagement. You'll get people quoting how stupid you are. You'll get people correcting you. You'll get people saying like, did you watch the movie? And then you get those same accounts that were wrong and dumb reply to every single reply going, wow, good point. point or never thought about it like that and they're opposing views it's just nonsense they've incentivized bad discourse generation like that's what the incentive is on the platform so they're like intentionally insidifying it in that regard and that that's just like independent of all the nazi stuff yes oh yeah no this is a separate problem that was invented just by Elon musk for his bad

website where just any movie that comes out and this is more just sort of a warning for folks and for like if you see a bunch of people who are wrong about movies, half the time, it's their first movie. They're new. They're new to movies. They're figuring it out. It's fine. And the other half, it is just fake bot accounts, just trying to get engagement.

It's a good thing to keep in mind in general for everything. This is also happening with this new Spider-Man movie. It's very funny. Half the people are like thinking too much about it, thinking too deeply. And the other half are fake trying to get engagement. and there's an interpretation of the ending of the movie. I will not spoil it. I think it's very good.

I like the ending quite a bit. There's an alternate interpretation of it that is not just obviously wrong but bad. It would be a bad ending to the movie. And then there are all these accounts saying like it was actually intentionally ambiguous. I love how they like keep us guessing. Oh, we can't wait for the next one. It's not ambiguous. It couldn't be more clear throughout the entire movie.

They are leading you to this ending and this conclusion. to create a feeling. And the feeling you have is genuine and it's good. And what a great ending for this movie. Feel that feeling. But if it's intentionally ambiguous, then the movie doesn't want you to have a feeling at the end. It wants you to be kind of like confused

and not know what's going on and have to like wait a few years to know what happened, which is bad. That would be a bad ending for the movie. That's stupid. Having not seen the movie, do you understand why they think, it's ambiguous or is it just like,

this is something visual that you just missed because you're not paying attention? It's a little of both. There are two lines in the movie. One is said that, I guess they should have cut it because it confuses things slightly, but there is overwhelming evidence beyond that.

And the other thing is like, but this person said this, and the person who said it is the villain in a scene where they're fucking with everybody. So I don't trust that. It's just like, people need to watch movies better, is my point. Media literacy in general, and then the long form thing, I guess I'm just going to be a cranky old man and be like, everyone's just looking at TikToks and no one knows how to absorb the long, you know. It's just, and everyone's like, what's the lore?

What's the lore? Feel feelings. Watch movies and feel feelings. It's okay. You don't need to know the lore behind everything. Movies are only recently back and people have lost their, they'll get it back. I do think there is something that's like we're trying to like. I think facetia.

No, like, there's like, just like watch more movies again. Go on the theater. Remember what it's like to be out in a social setting and to experience art and then like, you know, talk about it. Ambiguity is intentional sometimes and you know when it's supposed to be like that. The ending of inception is like that intentionally so people can debate and make up their own mind and judge from the evidence of the film what is happening. This movie, it does not set you up for ambiguity.

It sets you up for the feeling. that you have when you watch the end of the movie. I'm, it made me lose my mind. And now, I'm sorry, now the director and one of the actors is out doing interviews and being asked like, it's ambiguous. And they're like, yeah, it's a little fun. You didn't, you didn't think it was ambiguous.

You're just playing along now because you know it's happening, whatever. Okay, moving on. Moving on. You know a streaming channel has to be good when I tell you to watch it while you're literally watching something else. Isn't that wild?

You theoretically could always be using the product I'm talking about while you're watching me talk, but in this instance, you can't because you're here, not on Pluto TV, but anyway, I digress. You should definitely go there instead of here, eventually, not now. After we're done recording this, after you're going to watching this, but soon you can go there so you can glop up straight glup, like Top Gun, Maverick. Transformers, Rise of the Beasts, Dungeons and Dragons, Honor Among Thieves,

and award-winning films from international and art house filmmakers like Whispers of the Morning, screams of an afternoon, the marriage of Maria Menuno's, Golly, Fear sure does eat the soul, Eraser But, Y, E to Lama's Tompian, Jules and Jim and they clash me outside How Fada lady 8 and 2 thirds Yo Jimbo

G for Ginger Snaps Betaville Betaville My cat is a wife now Richard Geared the wrath of God A grok work white Last year at Marion Alago

And soft Stream all the goodies After you do the goodie goodie streaming here. But do it. Regardless. Just go ahead and do it. Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never. Finish watching this video first, though. We won't get as much out of my topic because neither of you have read the book that I'm going to bring forth today. And the book is called yesteryear. If the Beatles never existed. This book was brought to my attention from somebody from our Patreon.

Shout out Molly. And essentially yesteryear is about tradwives. It's about a trad wife, a social media tradwife. Specifically social media traddwife.

Yes. Specifically somebody that has designed their social media presence leaned into the tradwife thing and then finds themselves transported back into the 1800s where they have to actually live this trad, wife, life. And you jump in between that point in time with the social media time line when she was building this

present. Her own company, probably. Yeah. Voting. How do I talk about this in a way that doesn't spoil it? Okay. There are people either love it or hate it. When I posted about having read it on my.

Instagram stories. I had so many people being like, yes, loved it. And so many people saying, I hated it. And I was very curious. And I think that the criticisms are valid. I do. That said, I very much enjoyed it. I think that if you need a book to get you just totally gripped and you want to knock it out in a couple days, this will carry you along. Get back in a habit. But it does go along with the theme of be careful what you wish. for because the reality of living the idea of a traditional life is far more unpleasant than anybody lets on or suggests in their social media profile. But it also brings up lots of other interesting conversations in my mind, such as the social mediation of ourselves, of needing to or the

desire to become famous, to use your children as props. What are the effects of this on children when they don't have the agency? They don't know. Your life is totally constructed based around what your parents allow into your world and what brings, you know, and you can mold these creatures to a certain point, but at a certain point, they're going to realize what it is that you have done to them. A lot of the criticisms I've seen. are in the fact that this person is a little cartoonish. It is a satire. It is funny.

It is fast-paced. I push back on the idea that that's the only representation of conservative women presented in the book. You know, people say, like, well, this is only, like, that's not a fair representation. And maybe that's true. I mean, I would not be surprised if there are absolutely women that are very much similar to this woman. But this is a first person story. And I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that this is an unreliable narrator. So you have to read this book or presumably watch the movie when it

comes out with that ones, that everything is filtered through her. And so the representation of other characters in her life is 100% through her judgment. And she hates everybody. She is disdainful of everybody and unkind to everyone. And so there actually is representations of different versions of conservative women that are kinder than her. But this is specifically unpacking kind of the mental illness around our social construction now of this idea that we can make money off of your attention. I can make you feel worse about your life by making myself look a certain way. And this is very difficult to have this conversation because you guys haven't read the books. Well, it sounds no.

I mean, because you're talking about this sort of like, yeah, you're presenting, you're branding yourself and presenting yourself as aspirational when actually, well, you're miserable. You don't really understand things. And you're like, you have this other like part of yourself. I'm curious. What are some examples of the cartoonish stuff? Because to me, a tradwife influencer, specifically influencer, is already a cartoon. Right. Right.

They're presenting, like, they're doing an exaggerated version of the thing that they're harkening back to anyway. Exactly. And they're presenting, like, and the tension between women shouldn't have rights and should just do this. And I'm a business owner and social media figure telling people what to think are, like, there's tension there. So it's intrinsically comedic. Yes, exactly. I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm like, I see you.

I see your point and I don't disagree with it. But I do believe that that is hard to avoid if you're telling a story like this because everything that this person is presenting is fabricated and it is a lie. Especially if there are other conservative figures that are treated with more respect throughout. That said, I mean, everything is this. It's not first person omniscient. It is all first person. And so you are seeing the mother-in-law, her mother, her sister, her husband. through the filter of somebody deeply unlikable.

And that's interesting. And like, yeah, yeah, I mean, but it's funny, too. It made me laugh a lot. Is she, like, internally, she actually really wants to be a tradwife, or is she a grifter? Like, at the beginning before she's transported. She is a grifter. She doesn't have a bullshit. And I'm not spoiling anything.

It's, like, from the get-go, this is somebody, as you're, you're, You're seeing how she gets up to this point. And at no moment in her life does she fit in at all with anybody with her community? She's hated. Nobody likes her. Her mom always says, why can't you be kind? Why can't you just be kind? And but there's no.

Be normal. Be normal. Yeah. And yeah, 100%. But she hates everybody. And for her, it is about how can I show. everybody that I'm better than them. Her whole life is that.

When they go to college, I'm better than them. They don't understand. It's judgment. This person, she becomes hyper obsessed on one person that might have slided her or her perception of slighted. Because they're jealous probably to her or whatever, right? So I just think that you have to understand that that's the journey you're on. And it's not the story that's being told.

A fair account of what all conservatively. women are like, no, that's not the story that's being told. But if you read it properly and if you pick up on it, you will see that this woman isn't meant to actually represent the reality of conservative women. Right, because she's not. It sounds like she's just not a conservative anyway, so it's not a parody of conservatives even. Or she's a conservative, but she's grifting in this respect. I think the thing that maybe is true is that she is genuinely, no, I don't know. It doesn't talk about like going to church. I was going to say genuinely. is Christian.

She always comes back to, well, that's not the, like, you know, like, if I was in the Bible, don't look back. You don't turn back. You don't look behind you. Like, she'll try to take what she wants from the Bible to justify her actions or what have you. But ultimately, at her core, doesn't believe in anything at all. And this isn't even getting into the bizarreness of the last third of the book. And I'm not going to touch it.

Minions show up. Yeah, the minions show up. Kind of. I will say that people think that it's silly, maybe, or, I don't know, that people are polarized. Either the ending was satisfying or wasn't. You guys are going to have to wait a year or two to find out for yourself. One of my friends and I talked about it briefly over Instagram DMs, she responded, saying that she really liked it at the beginning and then was really turned off by certain plot points.

and I see that. I agree with it. One thing she mentioned was, from her own personal perspective, that she feels over the trad wife discourse in general. She's like, yes, it is a grift. Yes, it's whatever. But like, we don't have to pay attention to it.

I can choose to not engage with these social media accounts. And I just feel like the trad wife discourse in general is another opportunity for society to shit on women. And you know what? I see that. I do see that. I mean, like, I have the agency to not follow this account. I have the agency to not engage.

Also, any time there is, like, whether it's an industry or a figure or some sort of cultural thing that is female-centric or predominantly about women, there are, like, half of it is just like an excuse. for people to be misogynist or be sexist. It's like, oh, oh, what an opportunity. We can, like, shit on women. Like, because the thing they're doing is stupid and bad for society. Therefore, we have this excuse sort of built in to participate in it. It's the same thing as a lot of the men's influencers, right? It's all k-fabe presenting, you know.

Yeah, it's the same bullshit with the weights and the protein and all that stuff. I should say that they also touch on Manosphere in this book and like this woman's husband and the different rabbit holes that he goes down into that she kind of nudges him into to help with their life. But then it spins out of her control and they talk about the Manosphere. That's a part of this book as well. But yeah, I thought that was an interesting point

and a well-taken one from my friend that I agree and disagree with. Because in general, we live in a society and culture with social media and it's not just about trad wives or Manosphere. It's about our politicians, about movies. It's about whatever. there's engagement online. It doesn't really matter. They want your clicks. They want your attention. It's an attention economy. What is our role here? We can call out Donald Trump and Elon Musk all we want.

Are we taking away their power or are we adding to it? I still think it's important to point out the things that are going on. But we are giving them more attention and where we're giving them more oxygen, the fire burns brighter. If everybody was to just ignore the trad wives, all of a sudden they wouldn't be making the money that they're making and they would have to move on from this grift. And in fairness, it may be kind of over for them. Yeah, it might be. It might be. But this is just a good example. But I'm going to spin this out even a little bit further because then and that made me think of the Ariana Grande discourse right now.

And here I'm bringing in just a little bit of news adjacent stuff. I don't really want to unpack whether or not she's dying and is sick or is in the throes of a horrific eating disorder. We can all, we all have eyeballs and can see that she doesn't look healthy. And there's a lot of chastising on social media of her, of her team. And there's also a lot of chastising of people pointing out that she looks unhealthy. And there's a conversation about, is it important? Do we need to be having this conversation? Do I need to be sitting here saying she looks unwell so that some little girl that is looking at this at home sees the comments and says like, actually, I don't think it is cool to be super skinny anymore.

Am I protecting them or am I keeping this discourse in the zeitgeist and triggering other people's eating disorders? And I don't have an answer to that. But I think it's something to think about. And I think that it applies in all areas of our relationship to social media. And so while I agree with my friend about we don't need to be bashing women, finding other excuses to bash women. I also think it's valid to say to somebody that's just sitting at home, you know, it's not that easy. You don't just get to go off grid as easily. You can, but you're going to be sacrificing here.

hugely. Yeah, I agree. I think it's okay to talk about that stuff. I do agree there is, there are elements of like, I, like, I definitely empathize with the feeling of like, I'm just so over it. Like, we don't need to give them attention. Like, you know, like, let's not feed into it. But it exists. It does exist. I think, well, I think also like when you're like, specifically about like the news and stuff, that's going to happen no matter what. That has oxygen. That has oxygen by merely existing. So it's not like, there's certain things that can't be ignored away. I think culturally there are some things that probably can, but it would take like literally

everyone to be like, we're just not watching that anymore. And I think to your point, it can be helpful to like points things out. Maybe somebody sees something that actually like helps them realize something about, about that world or about their health, about their relationship with their body and things like that. But also acknowledging, she also, like, you know, hyper-focusing on, like, female pop stars is a problem we all have as society, like, collectively. And it certainly hasn't, like, bared out that it's helpful to them. You know, like that obsession isn't necessarily helpful to these figures.

It might be helpful to give them. but I don't know. Because in the 90s, when I was getting my eating disorder and almost every woman that I know can relate to this, the conversation around the emaciated women that we saw on screened in in magazines was not, she doesn't look well. No.

The conversation around it was, this woman has self-discipline. She's down to 100 pounds. Isn't that great? How can you eat fewer calories? Don't you want to look good in your low-rise jeans? and there was literally no conversation about what's unhealthy, at least in my memory,

and I think women will agree with me. And I do not want to live in that reality. Yeah, we can't go back to that, yeah. But to the outpouring of people needing to say the same thing over and over again about Ariana Grande, I don't know that that's helpful either, except if I was, 12 years old and seeing that. And then I saw the comments.

Maybe I wouldn't glorify it in the same way. I don't know. I don't know. But I don't think it's helpful for Ariana Grande in the slightest and in fact might be encouraging it. So the one last thing in the book,

Natalie, the character, the main character. Natalie Heller Mills. Yep. references the angry women a lot, the angry women in the comments. It gives her a lot of glee. So I'm just putting that out, and I believe that.

Because at the end of the day, those angry women, it doesn't matter if you like what she's posting or not. You're giving her your money by your attention, and she was fueled by the angry women. So it's just something to, I think that that's an interesting thing to keep in mind as we're engaging on social media. If we really think we're sticking it to them, no, same with these bots wanting to make money.

Yeah, they just want reaction. Whatever it is. It's all part of the grift. And so you're not helping it go away, as my point. Yeah, money is attention and engagement. And it doesn't matter if it's positive or negative. For a lot of people, I think some people are probably affected by negative comments, but the people are in that realm that are this type of person.

Because the other thing, I understand being like, I'm tired of the trad wife discourse, and I don't want to, you know, contribute to this sort of, like, anti-woman, like, sentiment directed at this. And, like, if we just ignore it. But it seems like the book is, obviously, like, it's about her, and she's, like, this sort of tradwife grifter,

but it seems less about trad wives and more about that social media, like, engagement and stuff. and like the type of person, like a character study on the type of person who gets into that world not about like trad wives. Although that is obviously

disgust in the vessel through which they're exploring these things. But it's a book, you know, it's about a lot of stuff, I assume. It's about a lot of stuff. And again, all filtered through

one person's perspective, an unreliable narrator that you have to kind of read between the lines. And also, it's just kind of fun book. That's the other thing I was going to say.

It's like, it's fine to write books. It's fun. Go read a fun book. It's fine. I hope you guys have enjoyed this episode of Wayless News. I did. Yeah, it's fun. Good.

Me too. Let's talk movies and books. Yeah, we should talk about books. And just some housekeeping, we will be dark next week. And by that, that's some industry. speak for, we're not going to be released. We're going to be in, like, real, podcasts. Yeah, we're going to be in a really dark space.

So all of your emotional support would be helpful. No, we're going to take a little break for one, for one week. It'll be okay. We're all going to be okay. Listen to past episodes and all the ads and whatnot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you'll get your fill. But then we'll be back the week after. So I'm going to say this now, and I mean it sincerely,

and I want you to remember this next week. while we're gone. So I don't want you to forget. We love you very much. Oh, much. No, you're right.