There Are No Girls on the Internet - Heated Rivalry's Podcast Drama; White House Posts AI Altered Crying Arrest Photo; Morally Dubious Florida Candidate Dislikes Only Fans - NEWS ROUNDUP!

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

In this week's News Roundup, Bridget and Producer Mike cover the tech & culture news stories you might have missed. . Oscar nominations are out, and Bridget has opinions! . The Internet is consumed with controversy over two straight hockey podcasters' embrace of the hot and heavy queer series Heated Rivalry after text messages shared with Alex Reimer at Queerty suggest it's all an act. This is the low stakes, high drama Internet conflict we live for. https://www.queerty.com/do-hockey-bros-actually-like-heated-rivalry-or-are-they-just-performing-for-views-20260121/  . The White House social media team posted an altered photo that used AI to darken a protester and civil rights icon's skin and make it look like she was crying, hours after they had posted the unaltered photo that showed her looking badass and defiant. When faced with a choice between "despicable" or "incompetent," this administration once again grabs for both. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/22/white-house-ice-protest-arrest-altered-image . Florida man, manosphere podcaster, and Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback is running on a platform of attacking Only Fans models, but less interested in talking about dodging lawsuits from his former employer or his alleged affair with a girl who worked for him when she was 17. . Soledad O’Brien on the now Oscar Nominated documentary Perfect Neighbor: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/soledad-obrien-explores-stand-your-ground-in-netflix/id1520715907?i=1000738453445 Gloria Richardson’s iconic side eye: https://www.grunge.com/465629/the-untold-story-of-gloria-richardson/ We Watched Amazon Prime’s War of the Worlds So You Don't Have To: https://omny.fm/shows/there-are-no-girls-on-the-internet/we-watched-amazon-prime-s-war-of-the-worlds-so-you-dont-have-to   Let us know what you think by emailing [e-mail] or leaving a comment on Spotify.  . Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media!  ||  instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc ||  youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet || bsky.app/profile/tangoti.bsky.social .  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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where we explore the intersection of technology, social media, and identity. And this is another installment of our weekly news roundup, where we talk through all the stories that you might have missed on the Internet this week, so you don't have to. I hope I'm not opening up a can of worms on this one, because I think it's going to be one of those topics that people have a lot to say about. Leave it in the Spotify comments. I read them all. I want to know.

Don't come for me. But let's just get into it. So there are two former hockey players who are brothers, Dan and Chris Powers. They have a very popular hockey podcast called Empty Netters. As far as we know, they are both cis straight white dudes. They have been covering the show Heated Rivalry. We talked about Heated Rivalry a little bit. It's about two male hockey players who have a romance, and it's very horny.

It is a very horny show. So I don't listen to the podcast, but in a piece for Queerty, writer Alex Riemer describes the podcast's coverage of heated rivalry like this. Instead of breaking down games and chattering over penalties, dudes sporting sweats and sloppy stubble

started reacting to the lascivious scenes and intimate interplay between the two male leads. Their efforts resulted in hundreds of thousands of views and unforeseen popularity. So it sounds like these two straight hockey podcast guys have gotten a lot of popularity from covering this queer,

steamy, sexy show specifically breaking down the sex scenes, which there are a lot of because the show is super horny. So the question that Reamer poses in this piece is whether or not this should be celebrated as straight men, you know, paying attention to queer media

that is not necessarily for them or if it's performative allyship. You know, in a culture where people like Ben Shapiro are demonizing really any portrayals of sex and sexuality, but specifically also queer sex and romance. So if you've got these white, straight, cis, heterosexual guys celebrating like horny, queer romance and sexuality, that's great, right? However, they're also getting lots of downloads and popularity and like tangible monetary benefit from doing this. So are they really celebrating it, or are they just kind of pretending to celebrate it to get that money?

As Reimer put it, it is wonderful when straight guys embrace queer art. Despite right-wing grievances, they are still the dominant force in society. Their support goes a long way toward normalizing gay love stories that feature far more sex than tragedy. But it's hard to take their efforts in good faith when they're monetized for views and downloads. Their exaggerated reactions, yelling, screaming, jumping up and down, pulling their hair, openly weeping, can also be obnoxious. Take the empty netters guys, for example. The backward hat-wearing hosts live streamed their performative reactions to every episode. During their season finale show, which netted nearly 530,000 views, the host squealed and squirmed.

So I actually saw on social media this piece got a little bit of backlash from fans of of the Empty Netters Hockey Podcast. You basically said, oh, this is silly because the hosts speak so glowingly about this show all the time. They clearly really like it. Why are you getting upset that these straight guys are enjoying queer media?

That should be exactly what we want. But the plot thickens because now we have a piece in the outlet out sports, an LGBTQ sports outlet by Sid Zeigler, titled, Like, Just Get a Load of the, this title. Empty Netters host

privately called heated rivalry trash. Show creators, losers and cowards, subtitle. As he publicly

praised heated rivalry, one empty netters host privately trashed the show. OutSports has seen the texts. They have received. They've seen the text.

This is such a wild story about a podcast talking about a TV show, but then there's like the text have been leaked and now they're getting called out for talking about it in an inauthentic way.

What a story. Mike, we have the smoking gun. We have the receipts. One of the hosts hate, doesn't just dislike it, hated heated rivalry and said so very clearly in text messages. So all while they were gushing about this show and enjoying a nice bump in listeners and probably like as podcaster to podcaster, money in pockets. from talking about it and gushing about how much they liked it. He privately hated it. This is from the piece.

So they would gush about this show, yet in a series of text messages sent to multiple recipients and seen by outsports, one of the podcast hosts, Dan Powers, was highly critical of the show while at the same time the podcast and Dan personally were publicly effusive in their praise. This guy really is not fucking with this show.

Here are some of the text messages, is, quote, I think these losers who made this show are a cowards. Cowards. They're making a television show. No, they're cowards. bemoaning the fact that the producers are, quote, Canadian for crying out loud, which part of me is like, what does that mean? What does that mean?

Is it like, are these guys Canadian? Are they, like, Canadians should know better than to make gay content? Or, like, these guys are Canadian? we shouldn't respect them. Obviously, they're cowards because they're Canadian. Like, what does this even mean? I think it's that they're cowards because they're Canadian. The show is Canadian.

I will say Canadians are very proud of the show. It's a show that they have. And a lot of people, because it's on HBO here in the States, a lot of people will be like, oh, the HBO show. And if you said that on social media, there would be a Canadian in your mentions. Rightly so and correctly being like, actually, it's not an HBO show.

It's Canadian. So I think that, What he is saying is that Canadians are just by their nature cowardly and cannot make media that should be taken seriously. Okay. Wow. This is really escalating. That's not me saying this. That's him. I'm just trying to get a handle on what he's saying. Here's another text message. Quote, this is the trash they make because it panders. It's provocative and it checks inclusivity boxes. That one I feel like is like a lot, it kind of gets at the heart of the matter a little bit more,

that he is talking about how great this show is in a very over-the-top, effusive way, when in reality he thinks that it's just the reason why it's successful is because it checks inclusivity boxes. To me, that is the most revealing of the text because, you know, heated rival, like, as one of the pieces points out, I think one of the reasons why it's successful is that,

It's a queer story that does not have deep tragedy at the heart of it. Like, you know, so many queer stories. I mean, it's a trope, right? The barrier gaze trope where at the end, you know, somebody has to die. They have to experience some sort of trauma. If you've read a little life, like, like the worst things that can happen to somebody have to happen. And this is not a show like that.

It's also a well-acted show. It's also, like, very sexy. There are so many reasons why this show is successful. to just boil that down to, oh, it's because they just, like, forced it to be a gay show and it's just like checking the inclusivity box. I feel like that's the real revealing text message here to me. And if that's really how he feels, then how do you think he feels about himself on this show performatively

talking about how much he loves it, right? Like if he thinks the whole reason he did rivalry is successful is because it's pandering and it's checking inclusivity boxes and he thinks that's bad. And then he himself is duplicitously saying how great it is. That's getting a little like twisted there.

Let him know, Dr. Romato. Exactly. Right? Like if heated rivalry is pandering to the like queer progressive to just check inclusivity boxes, then what the hell are you doing? on your podcast. Very good point. Yeah, and also backing it up. What the hell are you doing on your podcast?

What the hell are you doing on your podcast? The article also says, quote, in fact, in the early days of the public reaction to heated rivalry, he was so incensed by the positive response to the show that he bemoaned the gushing response was, quote, making blue hair Twitter happy. So these are the same people that he is essentially cashing in from by attracting to his hockey podcast. by talking about how much he likes this show. So it really is, I mean, if this is how, if you have such disdain for these people, why would you want them? Why would you be trying to be in community with them in this way? You know what I mean?

Yeah, it's like pretty puzzling. I mean, maybe they feel like they stumbled backwards into a way to get a bunch of downloads and make a bunch of money, I guess. Like, is this the equivalent of how, you are always threatening to sell out and like go maga. And I'm sure you would make a fortune, you know, if you got up on the stage of CPAC and like denounced everyone that you've ever cared about.

They would eat that up, right? You can go on Tucker Carlson or maybe an actual show that like has advertisers. Is this the right wing equivalent of that? Oh, I don't know. about that. I think that he doesn't like this show but wants money and acclaim, so we'll say whatever. I think that's... Okay, that's probably right. But I see your point, though, that like, isn't that the same thing? You know, I've always

said Candace Owens is the reason why I'm obsessed with her is that she is my shadow self. I look at her and I see a sort of what-if inverse fun house mirror of, like, things that could have been. Yeah. But I guess you're right. Like these backwards hat wearing hockey players, like no shade to backwards hat wearing hockey players, but you know, they're, maybe I'm overthinking it here. Maybe they're just trying to

get some engagements, make some money. I don't know. You and I had a very long talk about this before we started recording. I have so many thoughts. My first question is just how did outs, because the outsports article, they go out of their way to explicitly say several

times, including in the title, we have the text. How do they get And they say, this person was sending texts to multiple recipients. How did they get these texts? I am so curious. And this is a little bit of a nightmare scenario of mine. What I think, I mean, I love it when it happens to somebody else, but it's also my nightmare of it happening to me.

When you're reading texts or communications from someone who clearly never thought they would be read by the public, it's my favorite thing in the world. but it's also the idea of the text that I send just to my friends when I don't think anybody else is going to read them it happened to Taylor Swift and Blake lively this week too like I like it is my nightmare how do you think Altsports got these texts? I mean I have no clue

but I have to assume that somebody who was receiving them didn't think what was happening was cool and forwarded them on to a reporter. Or it could be like a Pete Hankseth Signalgate situation and they just inadvertently added the editor from their fat thumbs, right?

Like, didn't mean to, but that seems unlikely. I feel like this was a deliberate communication to journalists. I agree. I will say, kind of back to the point we were making earlier,

I have kind of been silently hating. I never put it in text message, but I have sort of been silently hating about just some of the discourse around heated rivalry, kind of straight dudes getting a lot of credit for liking a queer show. I saw this piece in New York Mag about how straight men were watching it and how it was like this great pushback to heteronormative culture. And I was just thinking like, come on, y'all, watching a television show is not activism. It all just kind of made me roll my eyes.

I was always sort of looking at that with a little bit of side eye and skepticism because it's a good show. It's not for everybody. If you watch, like, I was listening to Watch What Crapins, you know, I love my boys on Watch What Crapins, and one of them, and they're gay men, and one of them was like, it's not really for me.

You know, I, I just hate this idea that, like, straight men are saving the world by watching this very popular piece of interest, entertainment media that everybody else is just watched like they're clocking in and and taking one for the team and helping society everybody else is just voluntarily pleasure watching it i just i just never liked that dynamic i guess i'll say there's been a lot of discourse about the show uh i feel like so many people in my life are talking about it i i admit i haven't seen it i feel a little culturally negligent that i haven't but it's it's interesting to see like such strong feelings that people

have about a TV show that I haven't seen, but everyone who tells me about it, the main thing that they emphasize is that it's like, haughty and gay. Yeah, I mean, but also it's like a, it's like a good show. Yeah, I mean, I've only seen one episode, so don't come for me, but like, yeah, it's, it's a good show. We talked on the podcast about how it's a show that really rewards careful viewing that you can't really watch it while you're on your phone and get the full, the full scope of the thing, which I think shows that it's a show that is a bit challenging and also trusts the viewer, which I feel like in this day and age, there's not a lot of media that trusts their audience. So it is a good show. I guess that's what I'm saying. I don't think that straight men

should be getting credit for like being agents of social change or something by watching a good show. Like watching good TV is like its own reward. I just, I don't like the precedent. that set up. And not just with this show in general. Anytime that I feel like there's a whiff of something that it's like, it is your cultural duty to watch this movie, I could tell you movies where I felt like the marketing campaign was a little bit like that. I reject that. I think that people should watch what they like. People should be culturally, you know, expanding their diets. But consuming media is not activism. I just like patently don't. like the idea that we're conflating the two.

Well, it's not activism, but commenting on media, you can get paid for that, right? Like these two guys. What I do is activism. Oh, yeah. Talking about movie. We're changing the world here.

Am I? No, I'm just, I'm completely kidding. Please no one to think that I'm not kidding about that. I will say, now we looped around to my favorite part of this whole thing, which is that because people are like, if these two straight hockey dudes are so progressive, let's take a look back at some of their other takes from a podcast, shall we?

Oh, no. And that's not going well. I'm going to play a clip for you that was from their podcast. Like, it's just, dude, if I go, if I am paying 500 bucks a month for a membership at a fucking bar. Yeah. and I don't get a drink on my table the second I sit down, accompanied with a fucking spit in the hand tug job,

then your establishment sucks ass. And I just can't believe that we're letting, we're just letting all these places exist like this with these pretentious wannabe tic-talking cunts serving me poorly. And everyone's just like this, hey, you're at Soha House, baby. I'm like this, well, this place is fucking terrible. Like it's just.

Okay. So. Oh my God. So I want to say it's not cool to refer to young women with the C word. Like that's not cool. $500 for a membership to a bar? That's crazy. I'm already on his side.

Okay. We talked about this off, Mike. So there's some listeners who are like getting, who are like about to leave you mean comments. I've, so I don't know if they live in L.A. or New York. I've been to Sohoas, New York. New York. And I, I, fuck this guy for that comment, but I know what he's trying to say because I've been to Soho House, New York. And it is like, I mean, I'm not a member of Soho House, but I was a guest to somebody who was a member. And the service there is bananas. Like,

I can't understand it. And it's so expensive. Everything is overpriced. But my thing in this, in that clip, I get what he's trying to say. However, I don't understand how he doesn't get how the asshole in the situation is him, right? It's like, you're the, you're the person that's paying this amount of money to for the exclusivity of being a member of Soho House, which I folks don't know what that is. It's like a member's only exclusive social club. You are the one who is paying $500 a month to have this, quote,

exclusive experience that actually kind of sucks. So in my book, you kind of get what you get. You have the service in there is slow. It's not, people aren't paying that amount of money for the service. don't get like the complaint he should be delivering that complaint to a mirror why do you can continue to spend five hundred dollars on this experience that is no good that's on you sir not on not on these quote pretentious tic-tock see words i had no idea that this was a thing this it like so how yeah like i i guess i just live in a totally different world from so many people certainly

these guys but like you had to you had to describe it to me yeah it's absolutely it's absolutely terrible. Like, why would a person go there? It sounds like a country club, right? Like you're paying a high fee for exclusivity to keep the riffraff out. And I think the riffraff is me

because I would never pay $500 a month for membership to a bar. Are you kidding me? It's supposed to be a high end. And my understanding of it was and I only went once and I was a guest of somebody. I think there was a

time where it had more cachet. My understanding is the cachet is kind of borne off. When I lived in New York, it was sort of a like free-frew-frew thing. It's a, it's a social club. So you go there, you can co-work. They have, you know, events, da-da-da-da. If you

remember, this is really outing me as a millennial, a recovering millennial girl boss, but I got a comped membership to the women's only social club, the wing. and that was like a I don't know how you would describe it

it was like a co-working place where they had events at a bar at a restaurant and showers and locker so basically if you were a busy gal on the go a girl boss you could go there and you could go there and like blow out your hair

with a good blow dryer and take a shower if you went to the gym and had a meeting after basically they had one in D.C. I quickly was like I don't have the kind of life. The lifestyle that I have as a podcaster who very rarely leaves my apartment,

I don't have the kind of life that warrants a membership to any kind of social club. Soho House is really, and also if you were like a crypto grifter or something, it would totally make sense to have a membership there because it's like, oh, dummies with fat pockets

and money to spend who aren't really that discriminating about how they spend it. I think there's a world where it would make sense for somebody to pay for, $500 a month for Soho House. Yeah, if you're like a crypto bro or like a Wall Street trader and you just have like piles of money that you don't know what to do with, sure, that probably makes some sense. You go, you get mad at the servers for not caring about you. No, no, not just not caring about you.

As he puts it, not giving you a spit in the hand, bug job. I cannot believe he said that shit on Mike. Yeah, so people are just going through digging up these guys' clips. I actually find that so less egregious than lying about

enjoying heated rivalry. I don't know. I guess this segment isn't supposed to be about my preferences and reactions here. Well, that was the thing. We had this whole conversation before we started recording, but do listeners of podcasts

expect to get the host's real opinions and feelings about things. It really reminds me of the advice slash curse that I think Tina Faye put on Bowen Yang of the podcast Lost Culturistas, which you know, I love. I love Bowen Yang. But Tina Faye was a guest on that podcast, and they have a segment every week called I Don't Think So, Honey. And her, I don't think so, honey, was, I don't think so honey to Bowen Yang giving his real opinions about things because he's too famous to do this.

that now. And then she said, like a year later, Bowen Yang and his co-host, Matt Rogers, said some stuff. It turned into a whole thing online and it was like, oh, Tina Faye, she kind of really saw it coming. But it made me wonder,

like, I don't know. I'm curious for your thoughts. Listeners, I'm curious for all of your thoughts. I feel like I try to be pretty authentic. There are definitely things that I would maybe hold back on, but I would, I care so seriously about media and books and film and shows and television that I would never say something.

I would never say that I like something if I truly didn't. So like I might hold back on certain things for particular reasons. Sometimes it's like my opinion is maybe not that it's good or, you know, not that interesting. But I would never effusively he praised on something that I didn't like. Just a little example. last week in our episode with Joey I just casually offhand mentioned Rupal's memoir and I said

oh I read Rupal's memoir it was pretty good then after the episode I remember it actually I was getting it mixed up with a different memoir I actually didn't really like Rupal's memoir so I had to call up Joey and say can you edit out me saying that I enjoyed Rupal's memoir because it was

important to me to be like I don't want somebody to read this memoir and be like well Bridget liked this and I remember I was like I didn't like it I thought it was full of platitudes and it sounded like an Instagram caption No offense to RuPaul, didn't love the memoir. So I said to say, I can't see myself pretending to really enjoy a piece of media that I did not. That's not the same thing as holding back my feelings.

I don't know. What do you think? Is any of this making sense? It is. Yeah, we talked about this and thought about it. It is an interesting question. And I think you really hit the nail on the head that, or as far as I feel at least, that there is a big difference between. holding back because for whatever reason you think people don't want to hear your opinions

and actively saying something when you believe the opposite, those feel pretty different to me. Yeah, I mean, I would never, I would never, even if I'm trying to think of it. I just can't, I just can't see myself ever doing that. Anyway, y'all, let me know what you think in the comments. Do you think that these hockey bros are just performatively pretending to like this queer show to get money and more listeners? And, well, yeah, what do you think about that? I have so much to say about it and I'm curious what other people think. Yeah, also curious what listeners think about authenticity.

Because we hear so much about authenticity being so important. But I feel like the example about Bowen Yang. that you gave is a pretty good one that Tina Faye's advice to him that he needs to be careful about what he says because he's so famous. I think most people probably get that. And so there's like this duality of expecting authenticity, but also recognizing that when you have a big platform, maybe it's not actually good to just say whatever it comes into your head. Right? Yeah. Yeah, that's a thoughtful way to put it. I mean, it would be such a curse for me personally. To talk about Monkey Paw to be, you know, I want to be successful. I want the show to be successful

because I care about it. If I ever got to the point where I can't say what I actually think, that would be a curse. May I never get famous enough that I cannot speak my mind? And if, you know, and I get it, Bowen-Yang, he's friends with Ariana Grande. He's friends with the guy who plays SpongeBob. Like, he's famous, famous now. And I've been listening to his show since it first started. It's like you really see the trajectory of just getting somebody's unvarnished takes. And that's what, like, made me fall in love with their show, Lost Culture East is.

But then when you get to a certain level of fame, it wouldn't be a good idea to be so authentically, you know, as Tina Fey put it, authenticity comes at a price. And I understand at a certain point, when your career gets to a certain point, you don't, you don't want to pay that price. want to, if somebody calls you up and wants to put you in a movie, you don't want there to be a track record of you talking shit about them forever. I basically accept that I'll never, I, before I had this podcast, I worked at a tech company. I worked at Medium.

That was the best job I ever had. It's a company that I will ride for. I've accepted that I will never work at another tech company probably until the day. And for as long as I live, because I've talked shit about so many of them. But like, I got to call it like I see it. I have to, I have to call out companies that I think are bad and people that I think are bad leaders and people that have made bad choices. I don't have much in this life.

Like, I need that. Give me that. Yeah. You know, people value different things. Some people value money over everything else. Other people value the freedom to say what they want, do what they want. I know which side I'm on. Yeah, you're like, you'll never own a home,

but you will be talking shit into a microphone in your kitchen until the day that you die. You can say whatever you want. More after a quick break. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. There's the worst singer in the group. The worst? Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, uh,

you only got in because you're, parents made a huge donation. The group. The yard birds, right? That's the name. The Harvard Yardt Yard. They're open. Do you have a name suggestion?

We're open. Since you guys are middle aged, one erection. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Humor me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than

ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IHearts twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only IHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business. Think IHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Call 844-E-Hart to get started. That's 844-844-I-Hart. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered.

SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. it grotesque, others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get right back into it. Okay, so switching gears, we have talked about this in the podcast before, but the White House their social media is such a cluster of the worst, most gruesome content that you've ever seen in your life. It is truly ghoulish stuff. I sort of stopped paying attention to it, which I think is exactly what they want. And I think it's the kind of thing that, in my opinion,

even among their supporters, like even if you were a Trump supporter or like a Trump voter, the kinds of content they put out is, I think you would have to be a real ghoul to want to see, right? I remember they were putting out videos of like stacks of migrant men all like it's just like you would have to be a sicko to want to see this. Yes, they are actively engaged in a campaign to desensitize Americans and make us all more cruel and indifferent to the suffering of others. They want to celebrate the suffering of others with a capital O. Exactly. Exactly. And that's why so that's why so. much of this administration has been about

creating content, you know, and they create the content that plays with the worst and also the most stupid people on the internet. I remember you and I talking about the video of, I think it was Pete Heggseth and Sean Duffy doing chin-ups in an airport. And it's like

what kind of person is like, yeah, this is what I want to see. I mean, at least that was... The stupidest person. At least that one was just stupid, right? Like no one was having their life destroyed or their body injured. Right. They'd give me more that stupidity.

I would take that any day over the cruelty and depravity that they push on us every day. Totally fair. And it's, you know, one of the reasons is now the White House is asking ICE to make their own content. It's why when Renee Good was killed in Minneapolis, the officer that stopped her was also filming on his personal cell phone, right? And so side note, do you remember in Chicago when ICE and federal agents used helicopters to break into an apartment building

in the middle of the night, where they zip-tied residents, including kids and elders? You remember that? Yeah, I definitely remember that. And it's a real testament to these insane times that we live in, that that is an event that, like,

came and went, and it's not like a continuing national embarrassment. Yes. And based on reporting from ProPublica and PBS, none, zero, not a single

of the 37 individuals arrested during that raid were charged with a federal crime. Despite that operation initially being framed as this big, high-profile anti-terror action where they were going to like,

you know, take down these high-level big-deal criminals. The detainees who were, primarily Venezuelan nationals faced administrative immigration violations rather than any kind of criminal charges. What they ended up doing in that

was just getting super cool footage of helicopters breaking into people's homes and windows at night that they put on official White House social media channel. So they basically just terrorized an entire community for a video shoot. They didn't get any high-profile, you know, big deal terrorists or bad. bad guys at all. Zero. Not a none, not one. Yeah. We are all just props in a collective glamour shot

of Trump portraying him as like some big tough guy. It's really despicable and bothering. Can we just talk about like the gay hockey again? I know. So you might have heard that this woman, Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was an attorney and an organizer and the former president of the NWACP's Minneapolis branch, she was arrested during an action that disrupted church services in Minnesota. So she and protesters entered the city's church in St. Paul. And at this church, an ICE enforcement official serves as the pastor of this church. So to be clear, there was zero violence and zero property damage of any kind during this action. literally they just came into the church, said an anti-ice slogan, and that was it.

So there's not even any accusations and anything beyond that happened. All parties agree on this. However, she was arrested by federal officers. You might be wondering, like, what are the charges? It's not even clear. This is from the Minnesota Public Radio News. It was not immediately clear what charge she would face. Justice Department officials have said in recent days,

they were considering charging the protesters under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. If you're wondering what that is or if it sounds familiar, that's the Faith Act and it prohibits physically obstructing or using the threat of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services or seeking to participate in a service at a house of worship. So basically, it's a policy that is really intended to allow folks to get to reproductive of health services. And the administration is trying to be like,

oh, maybe we can charge them under this act to say that they physically block people who were trying to participate in a church service. The people were already seated in participating at a church service, though, I don't know. Again, I'm no lawyer, but like, that's what they're saying. It's like the creativity of morons who think that they're, like, really thinking

outside of the box, and they're not. They're just, like, having stupid thoughts that don't make sense. Initially, they tried to charge journalist Don Lemon, who was covering this protest, but ultimately those charges didn't stick. A magistrate judge rejected federal prosecutors bid to charge Don Lemon related to the church protest. So Lemon said that he was there as a journalist, not a protester. Like I saw the footage that he took, and it's just like very obviously he was there as a journalist. He said, once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was to rapport on it and talk to the people involved, including the pastor, members of the church.

and members of the organization. That's it. That's called journalism, he said. So they arrested Nakima Levy Armstrong, and the White House published an AI-altered image of her on social media. According to The Guardian, the White House used AI to darken her skin and make it look like she was hysterically sobbing with like tears streaming down her face. We'll put the image in the show notes. In reality, during her arrest, she looks to,

completely composed. The altering of the image on the official White House channel also just made her look worse than she actually looked. They made her look older. They made her look kind of more disheveled. They darkened her skin. They made her look heavier. So originally, the White House posted the real picture. The Homeland Security Secretary Christy Knoam posted the image of Armstrong's arrest at 1021 a.m. on Thursday, an hour after Pam Bondi's announcement that she had been arrested. The image, the unaltered image, shows law enforcement blurred out, escorting Armstrong who appears to be handcuffed. She's dressed in all black and she appears to be composed in the picture. But then, I guess the White House was like, nah, this isn't inflammatory enough. So 30 minutes later,

the White House posted another image of her arrest in which she is crying. White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt reposted this image and the image posted by the White House, the guardian analysis has been altered. Yeah, I mean, it just reminds me of how much the Trump administration really goes out of their way to deeply disrespect black women. It's misogy noir, it's racist, it's sexist, it's gendered, it's racialized. And I think that they had to know that the, you know, the image of this black woman composed and defiant

while being arrested by federal agents for this very low-scale protest in a church, they had to know that the image of her looking defiant and composed was not going to play. So they were like, we have to use AI to create this reality

where in fact she looks terrified and disheveled and was sobbing because that's what's going to play with our base, especially because it's a black woman. Totally. That's what they do. They have no regard for truth or reality. They think that they can just create reality and push it on the rest of us and alter images, say lies. And especially if it's about a black woman, absolutely right.

It's so despicable. It like boils my blood. Everything going on in Minneapolis is so offensive to human dignity. and the sense of what it is to be an American. It's really like pushing people's boundaries. I think they're trying to. They're trying to push the limits of what they can get away with. It's despicable.

I don't even have a deeper point. Yeah. And, you know, I'm really reminded in my home, I have so many, like, images around my home of all of the powerful and arresting images, that we have from, you know, the civil rights movement, the black arts movement, all of that. There's this one iconic image,

and I'll put it in the show notes of this woman, Gloria Richardson, who was the leader of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee. And it's this image that folks have might have seen where she is really giving a heavy side eye to a national guardsman who was holding a rifle in her face. And she's taking her hand and she's like physically pushing the rifle out of, like out of her face. And she looks so defiant, right?

And the look that she's giving, I can't really explain it, but if you're a black woman or you are around black women or if you had a black mom or you know, like it is a particular look that she is giving this National Guard's guard member and that rifle that I've seen from my, I saw her my own mom a million times.

I can't even really put it into words, but I know exactly what she is communicating via her look. And my question is, that image is arresting because she's using the gifts and the tools that we as black women have

as a tool of in the face of being threatened with a gun, right? It's like, you may have a gun in my face, but I'm a black woman and I have a withering fucking stare and that's enough. No one's going to remember

the name of that National Guard member putting a gun on her face. This image, you see it, you'll be like, oh, iconic, right? So what I guess the point that I am making is that I think this is the administration using the tools at their disposal, which are, of course, AI, because they're lazy, stupid morons who don't care about anything original and don't have anything original to offer anybody.

They're using these tools to try to take away our, like, God-given abilities to resist, right? We as black women, one of the gifts that we have is the ability to, to, to, to, you know, keep it cute, have composure, look defiant, look iconic, even if we're being arrested, like this sister was being arrested, right? And so the fact that they are using such a lazy fucking moron trick

of make her look bad and disheveled and crying and scared, when in fact the sister was composed in the face of this arrest, this federal arrest, I think really says a lot. I'm like, what if, like, what if all of the iconic images

of people, throughout the years resisting, somebody went in and used AI to try to make them less defiant and less iconic. And again, I did something about this image. They have nothing real to offer, so they have to use the lazy morons trick

of making her look bad via AI to obscure the reality that this woman was confident, composed, and defiant. She might have been scared inside. I get that. But trying to use what they can to strip away the power of her composure using AI, I think, really says it all. And, you know, the reality is we've all seen the original image. They posted the original image.

I think the original image, she looks too, sis, look too bold. They were like, we can't have this be the official image of this woman, you know, eaten us up, serve in a face while she's getting arrested. we need to use AI to make this image fit what our base is going to like. And it really, I just really says a lot to me. Do you know what I'm saying? I do. Yeah, you really said it well.

You know, they don't have anything real to offer. They depend on making people afraid. They depend on immigrants being afraid. They depend on Americans of color being afraid. Like in Minneapolis, people, are not going out. It's like a city under siege. I saw a video the other day

of a 12-year-old boy getting stopped and arrested. He was on his way home from school. There was a woman. She was a black woman cop like on the Minneapolis Police Department. She was off duty. I don't know what she was doing.

She got stopped by. It was either ICE or Border Patrol. I saw that. It's just like, American citizens going about their business, children coming home from school, all of them, this administration wants them to be afraid. And they know that most Americans find what they're doing repugnant. And so they have to use AI and fakery to create this illusion that people are actually afraid because people are afraid, but also. like Nakima Armstrong, people are standing up against this tyranny despite their fear, right?

Like some things are more important than being afraid. Some things are more important than our own physical safety in the moment. A lot of things are more important than like getting arrested for a protest, you know? Like it's not great, but whatever. I don't know her whole backstory, but like what I do know about her, I'm sure she's been through far worse than spending an evening or even overnight in a holding cell. Oh, yeah. You know, and that is what I think is so completely unacceptable to these would-be tyrants that people are not afraid of them.

And so they have to digitally edit things to make it seem as if people are afraid when they're not. People are disgusted. Yeah, oh, that's such a good point. When the Guardian asked the White House whether or not that image had been digitally altered, the White House responded by sending a post from X from Kalin Door, the deputy communications director, that said, yet again, to the people who feel the need to reflexively defend perpetrators of heinous crimes in our country, I shared with you this message. Enforcement of the law will continue.

The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention on this matter. So you know you're a serious administration when you say the memes will continue. continue, but also that doesn't answer their question at all. So they obviously did that shit. The memes will continue. That should be the tagline to this second Trump administration. Yes, it absolutely should be. And I'll just leave y'all with this. If they will use AI to manipulate images, especially when the images exist in the original and that they put the mouse, the public has seen them, on official White House communication channels, they will do absolutely anything.

Right? Like there is no, I mean, not that I needed to tell anybody this, but there is no reason to believe anything coming out of this White House. And I don't think that they understand that when you use AI to manipulate reality in this way, what you are admitting is that we are liars. You cannot trust anything that we say. Not that anybody needs, not that that's a newsflash to anybody listening, but like, I don't know that they're aware that they're just making it clear that no one should ever take them at face value about anything ever. If they'll do this, they'll do anything. you make a good point that like this is so hard to talk about because you're right that's not a new point everybody knows that they lie constantly they will say anything they will make things up their relationship to the truth is non-existent like new phone who it is like they don't even know and like what do you do with that it's but it's clear that anybody who does take anything they say as a fact or something that might be true is playing along, is carrying water for these authoritarian. And just like those podcast hockey bros, you know, we have to ask like what, how important is authenticity? You know, how much are we going to let people get away

with saying things that they don't believe that they know are not true? I don't know what the answer is there, but I, you know, it seems like a big question that we need to sort out as a society. Couldn't have put it better myself. More after a quick break. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guide, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an Acapellabella

band with their between songs banter. There's that worst singer in the group. The worst? Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, you only got in because your parents made a huge donation. The group. The yard birds, right?

That's the name. The Harvard Yard. But they're open to change. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle aged. One erection. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel.

and friends on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hulmer me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IHart's twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only IHart can extend your message to audiences across broadcaster.

radio. Think podcasting can help your business. Think IHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Call 844-844-I-Hart to get started. That's 844-844-I-Hart. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source. the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real.

From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get right back into it. Okay, so really quick, let me tell you about this guy, James Fishback.

I know what you're thinking, who? Never heard of him. But he is a Republican running for the governor of Florida. And this guy's background is something. First of all, financial messiness. A hedge fund that I used to work for successfully sued Fishback for more than 200,000 which he told the court that he's not able to pay. So great start for somebody who is throwing their hat in the ring to manage a state's budget, right?

Then there is the political company that he keeps. He has openly defended supporters of the far right commentator Nick Fuentes by saying, quote, I found the audience of young men who follow and watch Nick Quentes to be actually incredibly informed and insightful and very patriotic. Just for context, Nick Fuentes is like a straight up Nazi. he was just in a club in Miami bop into that Kanye West song, Heil Schmittler

again I will never say that in on no one will ever have a record of me saying that because I know the second that I do someone's going to clip it so but you know you know who I'm talking about so I'm not trying to derail this but when I read that in the notes for this episode

I just needed to look into it I was like what kind of club would possibly play that song it turns out it's some Parisian themed club in Miami that was hosting Fwentes, the Tate brothers, and a bunch of other Manasvier Chuds

who all arrived on a big party bus that was blasting that song over its loudspeakers because they love it so much. After the fact, the club put out a statement that they had fired three people from their staff who were involved, which

I guess is good. Like on the one hand, I feel even more angry at these dudes for getting a bunch of workers fired. But then again, if those workers were cool with this song and thought that it was going to be like a fun joke to play it or maybe not even a fun joke, maybe like a fun affirmation of their values, they can get bent. And my solidarity for almost all workers does not extend to straight up Nazis. So sorry for that diversion, but I just had to share more about that.

story because I cannot believe that that happened in Miami of all places. We talked about this in the episode that we did this week with Parker Malloy briefly. That was such a weird situation. I saw some footage of it and they were in a sprinter van playing Heil Schmittler beforehand. And I think Sneco or one of them had an image that was like, we're driving around in the sprinter van with college hot. And it's an image where that the in-cell

right-wing dudes are up front and then the girl, it's like, it's like a group of girls just in the back. And it's like, I can tell that you all just paid these women to come in the sprinter van because if these were, like, the girls are just talking amongst themselves. It's like, the girls are just props. Y'all aren't even like, taught, like,

embedded with or talking to or engaging with the girls in any capacity. Just like, and there's some girls in the back. I don't know what they're doing. We're not even talking to them, but we're up front doing this. And then also, funny enough, I saw a video of Andrew Tate after the fact, basically being like, I didn't request the song. I wasn't singing the song. It just happened to play. Da-da-da-da. And I was like, you're supposed to be this big alpha. And after your big stunt, you can't even stand 10 toes down on it. You're going to be like, I just went into the club and this song, Schmiel Schmitler that we had just been

filming ourselves bop into in the sprinter van they just happened to randomly play it I didn't even dance to it. It's like you I just was like you're the big scary alpha you can't even like commit to the bit my God. I mean talk about distorting reality

these dudes who are all like they just live to like bench press with each other and like be up at the front of the bus while all the girls are in the back Yeah, it's also funny because I'm curious what the deal was, how the song ended up getting played in the club. I am a former DJ. I DJed all through college. If somebody came up to me and was like, hey, play this song that references Hitler positively, I would not do it. I mean, somebody, I have no recollection of this, but when I was in college, it was like 19. I was DJing a party. And I must have been blackout drunk because I have no recollection of this. Somebody came up. to the DJ booth and requested a song and apparently I flicked the lit cigarette at them

and said no requests. I have no, I have only heard about this from other people. I have no recollection of it actually happening, but fuck no, I wouldn't have played this song. I would have flicked, at the very least I would have flicked the lit cigarette at him. He would said no requests. There's a lot of the things in this world that I feel were like missed

opportunities and make me a little sad. I feel like the fact that the world did not get a a better glimpse of 20-year-old Bridgett, like flicking lit cigarettes at people from behind a DJ booth. This is a real tragedy. The people who were there,

I hope they understood what they were witness to. Oh my God. I just thank God that unlike Sneko and Nick Quintes, there's no footage of this because this was all happening at a time before that was ubiquitous. Also, a dude's name is, Sneako? Sneako, yeah.

He's one of the chuds. Sneako. Okay. Okay, so back to Fishback. So Fishback, he's running for governor of Florida. He also freely admits that he spends three to four hours every day on X, just like posting content and like doing content, YouTube interviews, gaming streams. He's basically a rage bait candidate, y'all.

As Democratic political consultant, Steve Shale put it. he's shown absolutely nothing to demonstrate that he's actually a serious candidate for governor, but instead of languishing and obscurity, this is according to the Miami Herald, like the nearly three dozen other political unknowns running for Florida governor, also three dozen people are running for Florida governor.

That is, that is some Florida nonsense right there. One of them is a gator. Like a literal alligator. This time, the gator bites, gators bite back. His policies are socially conservative, financially liberal. And he will bite you because he's a gator. Okay, I'm sorry, where was that?

Instead of languishing an obscurity, like the nearly three dozen other political unknowns running for Florida governor, his nonstop social media outrage machine has raised his profile enough to force the Republican establishment to deal with him and the white nationalists that he's been courting. So here's a detail about him that connects with why I would be talking about this turd at all. He used to run a debate program for young people, for kids. How did that go? Well, four years ago, the Broward County School District in Florida had to cut ties with fishback and his organization incubate debate following allegations that he had an inappropriate romantic relationship with a then 17-year-old girl employed by incubate debate.

These allegations led to the resignation of an incubate debate board member. Fishback also threatened the parents who made this allegation with legal action. So here's what we know. Fishback and this girl moved in together in the spring of 2023 after she turned 18. They were briefly engaged in 2024 before publicly breaking up. Now, Fishback has denied any inappropriate contact prior to her turning 18 and reaching the age of consent. this is a denial that she disputes. She said that they did have inappropriate contact

when she was 17, when she was a minor. The Broward County School District says that they cut ties with his debate program after concerns about his, quote, failure to follow district safeguards with students. So... Don't fuck them. This is, yeah, this is the kind of guy who wants to dictate morality to women.

What do you think about that? He's definitely the kind of person who I think, like, needs to be. When I think of somebody who is morally upstanding, it's guys like this. So just to recap, not only was she 17 and part of this student group thing that he was running, but she was also his employee. Correct. He's just like, maybe he has a fetish for anti-ethical behavior.

I mean, he never paid back that 200K. So one of the major planks of his campaign is. is what he is calling a syntax for OnlyFans creators. He says that if he's elected governor, he will push for a 50% tax on income earned by OnlyFans creators in Florida and that that money will go to support the schools. Listen to how he talks about this.

He said, quote, my message to the owners of OnlyFans is to get the hell out of our state. I hope you go bankrupt. Don't you dare come to my state and try to exploit and abuse young women because that's my job. Just kidding, he didn't say that.

I added that. My message to the men buying this content, stop. My message to the women who are being exploited, stop. So this is just more like rage bait from this dude. His policy even called out a specific only fans creator by name. He says, my proposal as Florida governor is to raise the tax on OnlyFans models income to 50%. So for someone like Sophia Rain, she would end up paying Florida $42 million in taxes. And Sophie Raine, the only Vince creator that he specifically named was like,

I don't think so, honey, to quote Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers from Las Coltraneistas, I don't think so, honey. So she clapped back, she said, never in my whole life that I think that I would wake up and see a Florida politician trying to start beef with me for clout. She pointed out that she and all the other only Vince creators already pay significant federal taxes. We would have to pay 50% to the state on top of the 37% I already pay to the government. And I would be more than happy to pay that if multi-billion dollar corporations were also being properly taxed. But surprise, they are not. So, listen, one thing you say about Rain, she pay her bills

because this guy was like, listen, I owe you 200K. Guess what? I can't pay it and I'm not going to pay it. Right? Like, she pays her bills. Honestly, she sounds like she would make a bill. better governor of Florida than this guy. Yeah, I mean, I think that fictional alligator candidate would probably be a better governor. He might bite you, but at least he's not this guy. Yeah, at least you know where he stands. Yes, biting. And I just think that people like fishback, they, I mean, I think that like Sophia Rain is exactly

right. He is trying to clout chase by talking about her, mentioning her name. She's a very popular creator, you know, makes a lot of money. And so I think that she is spot on. But I also think that it's really the fact that folks, especially women who are doing sex work and have been able to find ways to profit that might be less exploitative

and give them more control, that is really what the beef is with him. Now, just to be clear, only fans, I think, does take like 20% off the top. So it's not like, you know, they're not getting 100% of the money. But forgive me if I think that a man who was in a relationship with a minor,

according to that minor, is genuinely worried about the sexual exploitation of women and girls. It's about control. It is about him being uncomfortable with women's sexual and economic agency and autonomy being in the same place. And yeah, shout out to Sophia Rune, because I think that sex workers have been involved in the labor rights movement, every fight for, like, body autonomy, and they're instrumental to the fight for and conversations around things like economic justice, right? Like they organize, they advocate, they protect each other, they advocate for things that end up

protecting all of us. Meanwhile, politicians like Fishback are too busy not following district safeguards with young girls. So, yeah, I'll just leave it at that. Let's take a quick break. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guide, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman,

help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an Acapella band with their between songs banter. There's the worst singer in the group. The worst? Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard,

you only got in because your parents made a huge donation. The group. The yarn herds, right? That's the name. The Harvard Yard. They're open. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open.

Since you guys are middle aged, one erection. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Humor me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming music from Spotify and Pan Dura. And as the number one podcaster, IHearts twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message.

Plus, only IHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business. Think IHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Let us show you at iHeartadvertising.com. That's iHeartadvertising.com. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you,

exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. At our back.

Mike, you know I'm excited because the Oscar nominations dropped this week. I want to, can we talk briefly about it? Because you know I'm the kind of person who waits for the Oscar nominees to drop, watches a lot of the films, has takes. Can we talk? a little bit about it? Yeah, absolutely. I know that you love talking about the Oscars. I have even seen several of the movies this year, so I feel like I can contribute to the conversation. And quite a few of them, I think, are actually relevant to the stuff we talk about on the show.

So yeah, what do you think about the Oscar nominations, Bridget? Well, first of all, I have to say, I think the reason why you've seen more movies that are nominated than you usually would is the positive effects of my bullying of being like, no, you gotta see this movie or no, we're gonna go see it. Let's see it. Let's see this movie nerd. Yeah, I'm taking credit for that. Y'all know, I have said this before. My dream is to have like a movie culture podcast on The Ringer,

a la The Ringer where its tech culture meets movies. Kind of the way that on the Ringer, they talk about movies and TV, but their lens is really sports. and I feel like the lens through which I see the world is technology, that is my goal in life is this whole tech podcast thing is just an excuse to talk about movies and television and culture.

So all things that are very important to me. Yeah, the nominees were about what I was expecting. There are a couple of notable snubs. I don't know if you saw it was just an accident. A little surprised to not see that get a shout out in Best Picture. Sinners, a movie that you and I saw together in the theater, got the most nominations of any movie ever with 16 nominations. So this is not just the most nominations of any movie nominated in this Oscars.

In the history of the Oscars, no movie has ever been more nominated than Sinners. Major shout out to Sinner's cinematographer, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who also made Oscars history as the first ever woman of color nominated in that category. This is kind of wild. in the history of the category, no woman has ever won the Oscar for cinematography.

I have a feeling she might change that if she wins, just I think she might. And only three women ever, in general, have been nominated. Rachel Morrison for the 2018 film Mudbound, Ari Wedner in the 2021 movie The Power of the Dog, and Mandy Walker in 2022 for Elvis. It's really one of those things where I want to celebrate this as an achievement, but also it's sort of bittersweet

because I can't help but hear the small handful of women who have ever been nominated ever and be like, it's unbelievable that it's taken this long. It's unbelievable that it's 2026 when we have our first ever woman of color nominated in this category. That is wild to me. Yeah, that is surprising. I feel like it's a fact that women are underrepresented

just in cinematography across the board, like as cinematographers? Is that right? Do you know if that's the case? I mean, women are underrepresented in filmmaking and all aspects of entertainment writ large. So it would not surprise me to find that cinematography. That is true for cinematography.

Of course, there are so many amazing women cinematographers and women filmmakers. And I want to be very clear, it is not that they don't exist. because they're there, I could name off some. But it is true that they don't often get to support the representation, you know, the placement that they deserve. Well, that makes Autumn Duralar, Archipa's nomination even more impressive then.

Exactly. So the best film nominees this year are sinners, one battle after another, Bologna, Marty Supreme, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, and Train Dreams. I've seen a lot of these films already, but not all of them. I still have not seen Marty Supreme. Mike, we had a conversation about this, like maybe a month ago.

I was trying to get you to come see it with me, and you were like, oh, Marty Supreme, I've not heard of this movie. What's it about? And I said, it's like Rocky meets uncut gems, but ping pong and Timothy Shalameh. Surprise, surprise, you were not sold.

And then you were like, well, who is the director? What's going on with this movie? and I said, oh, it's a Softie Brothers movie. Do you remember when I watched the movie that was also directed by the Softie Brothers Good Time? And I told you that I had to watch it while taking long breaks because it was such a stressful, stress-inducing movie experience.

So I genuinely thought I might have been having a panic attack and that I've never had a more physically uncomfortable movie-watching experience in my whole life. And then you were like, well, how was the movie? And I said, great, I loved it. it's like that basically I was not selling none of this was selling you

on going to see Marty Supreme with me no and multiple people have tried to talk to me about this movie which I have not seen and they all do an equally terrible job of communicating to me why I should watch it like I am sort of intrigued

at this point just because it's like I clearly don't understand what it's about like I was talking to a different friend the other day and she asked me if I'd seen it and I said no she was like oh I'd never seen a movie that I appreciated so much and enjoyed so

little and I was like what does that mean like why why does every take on this movie inscrutable I don't know I guess it does make me a little bit curious to see it I've since gleaned that I guess part of the appeal is

that it provokes a lot of anxiety in the viewer, and I guess that's supposed to be fun because it's cool to feel something for a change? Like, is that part of it? That is a Softie Brothers vibe of making movies and shows that are so anxiety-provoking that the viewer, the point is that the viewer becomes physically uncomfortable and perhaps distraught. That's how I would describe it. And then afterward you're like,

what a great experience. That was, I sure felt physically distraught. Yeah, I mean, I generally try to not feel physically distraught. I did really enjoy uncut gems and Boas Afraid, both of which are movies that made me feel very, like, edgy. Bo was afraid, I feel was like kind of ridiculous and silly in a way that allowed me to keep a little bit of emotional disarrant. from the anxiety.

I guess I'm going to have to watch Marty Supreme. Yeah, I think I would like to see it. I remember inviting my friend Nico over to watch Shoah, which is the 10, if you haven't seen Shoah, it's like a 10-hour documentary about the Holocaust. And after it was over, we watched all 10 hours. When it was over, Nico turned to me and said, they really did a great job of really making the viewer feel like they were there.

Like you really feel what it must have been like because the movie is like it's long. I love the documentary, but some might describe it as torturous. And that is not, that is very much with intention. So I say that to say, movies where the viewer

is meant to experience a challenging sensation or some kind of discomfort or for whatever reason are my kind of movies. You should maybe investigate that. Point taken. Yeah. Okay.

So what else was nominated? What else you got here? I did want to shout out two of the noms for Best Documentary. One is Perfect Neighbor was nominated for Best Documentary. We interviewed Soledadad O'Brien, one of the producers of that film

and a personal hero of mine for an episode that aired on November 25th. It was around the Thanksgiving holidays so folks might have missed it. I will say Perfect Neighbor is a bit of a controversial documentary. I was listening to The Ringers movie podcast, The Big Picture, where they were breaking down the Oscar Noms.

And one of the hosts was talking about how he liked the documentary when he first saw it on Netflix, but then the more he thought about it, the kind of like queasyer it made him. And Soul Dad, O'Brien and I in our interview, that was one of the reasons I really wanted to talk to her because the documentary, if folks haven't seen it, it's about a horrible murder that happened in Florida

where a woman killed her neighbor and tried to claim that she did so because she feared for her life to get protection under the state stand your ground laws. And so the entire film is shot entirely through surveillance footage, so police footage and, you know, ring camera footage. And it's a pretty rough watch. There's like one scene in particular that is particularly hard to watch and controversial. And so I understand the feeling. of this is queasy,

should this have been air, one of the ethics of this. And that's exactly the conversation that Soledad O'Brien and I had in that interview. We'll put the conversation in the show notes, but it's a conversation

that I'm very proud of and Soled out of Brian is just a very cool person and she's one of my personal heroes. And so it was cool to talk to her about it on the podcast. Yeah, I did see that one. And I also really enjoyed

listening to that interview that you did with Soledad O'Brien. You two talked about, I guess, the controversy around the film and the ethics of using surveillance footage and the ethics of some other aspects of what was included that I won't get into because I don't want to spoil it for anybody. And I thought you two had a really thoughtful, interesting conversation about it. I guess I personally feel like a lot of the sort of vexed. vague queasiness that people are expressing about it, I don't totally get. Yeah, I guess I don't totally get it. It feels a little avoidant to me.

So I get it. When people are talking about why that movie makes them uncomfortable, I completely get it. I just don't happen to agree. You know, I also felt very uncomfortable with what we see in that documentary. And if you haven't seen it, it's something specific. If you have seen it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I understand, I experienced the same discomfort, the same queasiness, the same sort of going through the ethics of it. But, and especially after that conversation that I had was sold Ed O'Brien about it, it is clear to me why the movie is the way it is.

It is clear to me why the team made the choices that they did ethically, editorially, visually, all of it. All of it is very clear to me. And I think folks should see the documentary, if they haven't already, it's on Netflix, and they should, listen to the conversation that Soled Ad O'Brien and I have about it because to me, they pair very nicely. And I guess I'll just leave it there because I feel like we're talking about a movie that people are probably like, what are you talking about? But it is definitely a good documentary and I think folks should check it out. I also wanted to shout out another movie nominated for Best Documentary, Come See Me in the Good Light, which is a documentary produced by the comedian Tignitaro

about the life of the late Colorado Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson, who was one of my favorite poet. who died of ovarian cancer over the summer. Mike, one of your favorite musicians, Brandy Carlyle, who I know that you really like, wrote an original song for that film. I know. It's great. I love it. Oh, you're already, I'm not, you're like, tell me something I don't know.

No, I'm up to date on Brandy Carlyle's work, yes. Okay, here I thought I was going to be able to tell you something. Listeners, y'all have no idea how into Brandy Carlyle Mike is, honestly, though, if I can, like, embarrass you just for a moment, people would be very surprised to look at Mike Spotify. I'll just say this. If you are a woman with a guitar and, like, a wounded soul and a song in your heart and a twang to you, Mike is spucking with it.

Am I lying? You're not lying? No, that's a wounded soul in a guitar and a song in their heart. Yeah, that's a person I want to live. listen to. That's what I want out of art. Yes. So I'm actually surprised that the Brandy Carlyle song was not nominated for Best Original Song. I was surprised. But this documentary, I'm glad that the documentary got a nomination. It's on Apple TV. It is beautiful. It'll make you cry.

Andrea Gibson was just one of those uniquely talented people. And we were so lucky to have them. I feel personally lucky that Andrea Gibson put their voice into the world and their perspective into the world. So it kind of was a sleeper film. I really was surprised to see it on the nomination list, pleasantly surprised

because it didn't get a lot of press and attention when it burst came out. Curious that it's a documentary from Tignato. I didn't know that Tignataro was making documentaries. Oh, Tignitaro, multi-hyphen-it. Also, podcaster. Really does it all. Okay.

So those are some of the high points for film in 2025, 2025, 26. Oh, we're going to go through the low points? Well, I just have to shout out, you know, our favorite. So if the Oscars are out, that means the Razies are out. The Razies celebrate the opposite end of the spectrum, the worst movies. Guess what movie snagged a nomination for Worst Movie of the Year? Oh, man. If they had an award for Worst Movie of the Decade, I think it would be a strong contender.

War of the World, which folks might remember, we talked about it on the podcast. I told producer Mike if I think it was at least five people wrote in and left comment saying that we should do a rewatch episode of it. We would do it. Five of y'all, I don't know what was going on with you all, but five of you knuckleheads actually wrote in, so we did it. This is like a cursed monkey paw version of your dream to have a movie podcast.

on The Ringer. It's like, you can have a movie podcast, but you only get to review War of the Worlds. Every day I wake up and have to do. Yes. So in this universe, they keep making sequel after sequel after sequel, and I'm just like,

Twilight Zone stuck in reviewing it. Battle of the world, skirmish of the worlds, war of the planet. And it's all the same footage shot in front of a green screen. Oh, my God. What a masterpiece.

piece. Well, I mean, we'll put it in the show notes. That episode was actually, we've done a few movie rewatch episodes of the podcast that I force on you and all the listeners. That one was difficult because the movie just patently makes no sense. And so usually when you're talking about a movie on a podcast, the plot follows a certain structure. You can break it down for people even if they haven't seen it. Maybe it's, maybe it's interesting to listen to. War of the world is like off the fucking charts. Like I remember being like like the notes that we took

looked like the Pepe Sylvia always sunny diagram it was so gnarly. Yeah. I watched a video after the fact of somebody just putting together a composite of Ice Cube just

delivering takes to the camera and they were arguing I don't know if they had evidence or not that this was actually what happened but it totally fits, they were saying that like he didn't even know what the script was going to be. He just like sat down in front of a green

screen and recorded a bunch of takes of being like, that's crazy. Oh no. And then they stitched that together and called it a feature film. That's what they did. That's what they did. It's a wild approach

to making movies or entertainment. And we watched it. And we sure did. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech or just want to say hi? You can reach us at hello at tangoati.com. You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangoody.com. There are no girls on the internet was created by me, Bridget Todd.

It's a production of Iheart radio and unbossed creative. Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, write and review us on Apple Podcast. For more podcasts from IHartRadio, check out the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite.

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