There Are No Girls on the Internet - Joe Rogan has Trump Regrets; Linda Yaccarino says bye Elon; Jeff Bezos Eyes Vogue?; NYT Helps Smear Mamdani – NEWS ROUNDUP!

Episode Date: July 12, 2025

The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: Capturing The New York Times https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capturing-the-new-york-times/id1570901784?i=1000620995068 Listen and subscribe to the new season of Afterlives spotlighting Marsha P Johnson: https://www.afterlivespod.com/ Listen to Outlaws: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-outlaws-with-ts-madison-273947965/ Joe Rogan is SHOCKED that Donald Trump, whom he helped elect, is doing the awful things he consistently said he was planning do: https://gizmodo.com/joe-rogan-feels-trump-betrayed-him-on-immigration-2000624426 Is Jeff Bezos buying the iconic fashion magazine Vogue as a gift for his new wife? Our intuition says, "maybe!": https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14878623/Jeff-Bezos-Vogue-magazine-wedding-Lauren-Sanchez.html A new Virginia law to protect privacy is causing some online stores like Walmart.com to display a pop-up that asks shoppers to surrender their privacy or else shop someplace else. Progress? https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/pop-up-on-walmart-website-warns-virginia-shoppers-about-their-sexual-health-data/3952472/ The NY Times loves helping racist villains like Christopher Rufo disingenuously smear people, even if it means breaking their own reporting standards. This time, they're helping smear NYC Mayoral candidate Mamdani: https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1942057201327353964 Linda Yaccarino, former CEO of X, is calling it quits. Elon gave her a frosty goodbye and took away her blue check: https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/09/xs-ad-business-improved-under-departing-ceo-linda-yaccarino-but-its-still-tough-times-ahead/ If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [e-mail]! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternetSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Call 844-844 IHeart. Hi, everyone. I'm Cheryl Stray, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. I'm excited to share that I have a new podcast called Mind Over Mountain. In each episode, I interview athletes, adventurers, and adrenaline seekers to discuss the inner landscapes that informed and inspired their extraordinary feats. So we too can better understand how to face our own seemingly insurmountable challenges. Listen to Mind Over Mountain every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on

some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Markeep coming to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs.

This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There Are No Girls on the Internet is a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. Thanks for tuning into There Are No Girls on the Internet. internet where we explore the intersection of technology, social media, the internet, and identity. And this is another installment of our weekly news roundup, where we dig into all those stories

on the internet that you might have missed so you don't have to. I am so excited to welcome back our super producer, Joey. Joey, it's been so long. How are you? Hello. Yeah, oh my God, it's been forever. I'm good. You know, we're moving along. Life is happening. things are happening in the world and we're coping with those things happening. Life is continuing to life. But I do know that you've got some exciting like podcast projects going on, right? I do. Yes. There's a show that I work on that's called After Lives and season two just came out recently. I believe you're on episode five when this show is going to drop. But yeah, episodes are still dropping. And this season is about Marshby Johnson and her,

life and legacy. So if you are interested at all in like queer history or New York City history or just like cool things that have happened and also very sad things that have happened, you should check out afterlives. It's such a good show. I cannot speak more highly of it. We are fans of it very much here over at There Are No Girls on the Internet. Yeah, listen to that show. Okay, so from that sort of beacon of light to a, I'm going to say Beacon of Dillon of Dubeken. dark, although that might be an overreaction. But Joey, do you remember how Joe Rogan had Trump on his podcast right before the election after swearing for a very long time that he would never have Trump on his podcast? By the way, I did win a $100 bet on that. I bet that Joe Rogan would have

Trump on his show before the election. And he did. And I won $100. I've still not gotten the money from that bet, but I did win. I'm shocked that somebody would bet against that. Like, I feel like that was a given that it was good. Yeah. But yes, I do. I do remember. And then after Trump was elected, Rogan said that he felt that he was personally the reason why Trump won. Well, now Joe Rogan is looking at what Trump has actually been doing and saying, I didn't vote for this.

Even though I feel that Trump could not have been clearer that he intended to target immigrants the way that he has been doing. On his show, Rogan has been calling out Trump or his handling an immigration saying, there's two things that are insane. one is the targeting of migrant workers, not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers, just construction workers showing up at construction sites, raiding them, gardeners, like really? The Trump administration, if they're running and they say, we're going to go to Home Depot and arrest all the people at Home Depot, we're going to go to construction sites and we're just going to like tackle people at construction sites. I don't think anybody would have signed up for that.

The Washington Post reported that these comments came after Rogan personally sat down and discussed immigration policy with Trump at a private dinner, and pushed back on him deporting workers who have not committed crimes. Both Joe Rogan and Dana White, a friend of both Rogans and Trump's, who was the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, had dinner with Trump on June 30th, according to the Washington Post, who quoted somebody who had knowledge of this meeting.

First of all, the whole thing is just sort of like, topsy-turvy that we have Joe freaking Rogan having a private sit down to talk to Trump about immigration policies. I just will never be over it. Yeah. and the CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship. I love, I mean, I, not love, love, love is the wrong word. I find it, like, kind of amusing how much, like,

WWE and, like, professional wrestling stuff has been involved with this administration. Like, I don't know. There's just something so, like, like, if this were in a movie, like, that would be too much of a metaphor. Like, I would be, like, too heavy-handed of a metaphor. I love how many people are, like, taking credit for, like, didn't Elon Musk also say, like, oh yeah, I'm the, I'm 100% the reason he runs. Like, who's going to be next? Like some random person, like every single white dude with a podcast is going to pop out and be like, it was me.

I was responsible. I'm sorry. It was Joey. Yeah. And I think, I mean, I'm weirdly torn on this. We did an episode where we're talking about how the podcaster, Theo Vaughn, who also took credit for Trump. getting re-elected. That was a rough one for me to edit.

I actually, I only knew Theo Vaughn from his, like, clips that would be on TikTok. Like, people would, like, lip-thing to them on TikTok. And I was like, oh, this is funny. I had no idea that he was, like, that big. This is actually, I mean, it does say something about the short-form content culture, because I knew Theo Vaughn from, I'm sorry to say, MTV's The Challenge. Then I never knew about his podcast. I learned about him from super short form YouTube TikTok stuff.

And I was like, oh, this guy's funny. This guy's funny. Like he's really a funny, personable guy. He got me. That's how they get you. It wasn't until sitting down and listening to his long form content, which I do think is sort of, he definitely knows what he's doing. I think he is coming off sort of, ah, shucks, gee whiz.

But I think he's pretty smart, educative guy, very intentional about how he is presenting. himself. But a while back, he used his show to speak out about what's happening in Gaza, which a lot of people were like, that's great, any platform. However, he did that just a few, like a week after going on a military trip with Trump. He's close personal friends with the Kushners. That is difficult for me. Like I understand people who say, anybody who's using their platform to convince the average person that what's happening right now is not great is doing a good thing. And I am very sympathetic to that argument.

I absolutely get it. But it is tough for me, the same way that it is tough for me to have someone like Joe Rogan say, this is not what I wanted, this is not what I voted for, this is not what I advocated for. Joe Logan lives in Texas. I have a hard time believing that news of what Trump intended to do, when it came to immigration, didn't make it in to Joe Rogan's, you know, to his, to his understanding of what was going on. I guess maybe you could say, I assumed that he was going to be doing all of this to immigrants who committed crimes, like cartel members and rapists and gang members.

But I just don't believe that Joe Rogan is that stupid. I think he's a savvy guy. I have a hard time personally believing in when he says, well, I wouldn't have signed up for this. I didn't vote for this. I think it's possible that maybe he did not actually, like, sit down and conceptualize how ugly and odious these kinds of policies would be, you know, going after people who are showing up to work, going after people who are showing up to, you know, legal court appointments and stuff, like, quote, unquote, doing everything, right? I don't think that he, it's possible that maybe he didn't think through what that would be like. But, like, you know, ISIS budget is now $170 billion.

over the next few years more than NASA, more than public health, more than education, more than anything. It's the most well-funded police force in the country now, and they have this vastly increased surveillance network that we're all going to be subjected to now. And I, I mean, this is what Joe Rogan helped usher in. Yeah. Yeah, no. I, it's weird. And I agree. I do feel really torn where part of me is like, yeah, no, like Joe Rogan's a really savvy guy. He knows the media ecosystem. Like that's how he got where he is today. Also, I do believe people are kind of stupid.

And like I think a lot of, because it's like, this is something you keep hearing. Like I feel like I keep hearing this statement where people are like, oh, but I didn't realize he like really meant that or whatever. And I'm like, oh, like, there's this cognitive dissidents happening where like people can, I don't even know. I am not, I am far from a psychologist. So I don't listen to me on this. But it feels like it's one of those things where it's like people.

get so caught up in like the messaging that they don't actually listen to like what they're saying and then they want to act surprise when what was being said actually happens and this is like another instance of that. So part of me is like I don't know. Is he being genuine in saying like, well, I didn't realize this was it going to happen or is it just like, yeah, I know your like cash grab didn't work out the way you wanted it to and you're backtracking. Who's to say? Yeah, I saw this really compelling post on, I think, threads where someone was like, the people with big platforms, forms who advocated for Trump and are now saying, well, I didn't vote for this and are backing away from it, they probably crunch the numbers and said, listen, the stuff that is happening

right now is odious and indefensible and horrible, and audiences don't like it. So let's backtrack a little bit. Let's not align you publicly with this anymore, which I thought was very compelling. And I mean, just like with the Theo Vaughn argument, I don't want to discount that it probably is good to have these everyday messengers like Joe Rogan and Theo Vaughan speaking up against ICE in these common sense ways because you know anybody who is getting that message out I think is probably it's like doing a good thing a lot of these people would never listen to a podcast like mine they would never listen to a messenger like me totally get it however like for instance

would I as a black woman be allowed to be so spectacularly wrong in public and have people say well at least she's getting it right right now. Like I'm just very curious how we got to a position where you can be so loud and so wrong for so long. But then if you like eventually get to the right position, everybody's supposed to be like, oh, well, at least he got there. At least he's doing the right thing now. And not for nothing, I feel like somebody that has a big, as big of a megaphone as Joe Rogan does, does kind of have a moral responsibility to understand what they are doing when they promote a candidate. So even if we take him at face value and accept that like, okay, maybe he truly did not think it through and didn't realize that Trump was going to do exactly what he openly said he was going to do what he campaigned on, I just, I don't know that I didn't know is a good enough excuse.

And I feel the thing that gets me is like, why not say I personally got this wrong? I made a mistake. I let down the audience who comes to me for information because I didn't think it all the way. through and I led people to make that same mistake. I kind of bragged about it too for a little while. This is on me. Bridget, men can't do that. They're not allowed to do that. Yeah, I think that thing that gets me is like that that like inability to just say like I've said things I wish I hadn't said on this podcast. If somebody asked me what those things were, I'd be happy to tell them. The kind of way that they talk about it with this kind of how long after the election he was like,

I personally did this. I personally got Trump in office. And now there's just this passive happenstance of like, how could Trump be elected and do these kinds of things? That is the quality to it that gets me that I have such trouble with. Just be honest about it. You got it wrong. You made a mistake.

You wish you hadn't. What's happening now's not good. And go from there. I just don't like the passivity of it. And people who are like applauding these guys for, you know, looking around and being like, yeah, it's not great. What's happening is not good. Like, that's the bare minimum.

Obviously, this stuff's not good. Like, look at what has happened in LA. Obviously, that's not great, right? Like, that's the bare, like, you would have to be either completely unempathetic or a complete moron to look at that and not get to the conclusion of like, yeah, it's not good. Right. Yeah, I don't think they should get a pot. I think, again, I agree with you where it's like, there's some argument

that like yeah maybe this is good it's maybe this will like get a handful of people to be like oh maybe Trump is bad or maybe ICE is bad or maybe what's happening in Gaza is bad

but like it is doing the bare minimum and you shouldn't be like this is the exact same thing that was happening when Elon Musk first also was like actually friendship over with Trump like there were a bunch of you know

there were like these Democrats that were like, oh, is he on ours? No, he's Elon Buss. He doesn't, like, it's like, no, he's still, he's still Joe Brogan. Like, he's still a terrible human being. I don't know. I do think, I mean, I think, again, people in general have a hard time admitting that they're wrong. And if you're somebody with like an ego this size and a platform this size, that only makes it worse. So it makes sense that you would want to twist that. So, like, even if you are seeing this and you are so appalled by it and you're like moved to speak out, you'd have to twist it in a way that was like, no, actually, I'm the victim. Yes. I was lied to. I would have never done that. I'm the real victim here. Yeah. I mean, to your point about Elon Musk, I do feel like people really show you who they are.

Like, Andrew Yang coming on board with Elon Musk's new political party. I'm sorry. Somebody who gets out of stage and does a Nazi salute. twice. I don't care what the situation is. I'm never aligning myself with them. Like, that's it. And I, there's, there's never an argument to be made where I would. And so it's telling to me the people who rushed to be on board with that. I just, there's, I mean, I just think it says a lot about who you are as a person. Definitely. Oh, man, I forgot that he was, I had, I was like talking to a friend about this yesterday because they were like, what do you

things going to happen with the Republican Party. Like, it seems like all these people are chitting it does. And I was like, it's probably just, we're going to end up with two really bad parties now. Like, it's, yeah, there's going to be some split, but it's like, and then we're going to get, it's like, you're going to get the two hydroheads instead of the one kind of situation. And maybe, like, I don't know, maybe that'll fuck them over in, like, voting situations. But it's like, oh, great, then we're going to have to deal with, like, the Elon Musk, tech bro Andrew Yang party on one side and then like

Trump and like Mitch McConnell or whoever on the other but yeah oh my god do you remember when Andrew Yang was running for I think was it mayor of New York there's a moment in his campaign that like lives rent free in my brain where because he didn't actually live in New York he didn't live in New York and he was asked about it and he was like his response was like me live in New York Ugh, disgusting. I would never. Can you imagine that? You know what? At least he said it. At least he said it. Like Cuomo was pretending. Quomo was pretending that he lived here. What everybody knew he lived in Westchester. And at least Andrew Yang was like, ew. This shi-h. I would never ride this tub. Can you imagine? Disgusting. I think that is a moment I think about like, I probably once a week I think about that moment. I'm going to be real. I forgot about Andrew Yang as like a political figure.

Like for the minute he emerged, I was like, this, this, this is going bad. This feels like it's going bad. Yeah. Tech growth. And here we are. Surprise, surprise. Let's take 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 acapella 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 herds, right? That's the name. The Harvard Yard, but 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 Smygel 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 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. Let us show you at iHeartadvertising.com. That's iHeartadvertising.com. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is out of level that we've never seen before.

And he knows, without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing

That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers Why he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body. having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of

turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our relationships. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. Listen to a slight change of plans on the I-Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. At our back. Well, speaking of New York politics, I know you are our resident New Yorker. I am a former New Yorker. So obviously, I had lots of opinions about New York's mayoral race. I bet as in New York, I mean, like, people in New York always have big opinions about

whoever's mayor. What were your thought? That was, you know what? That day that Mom Donnie won the primary, that is the most hope that I have felt in a long-ass time. And like, yeah, sure, okay, he has not won yet. There's so much stuff that could happen. But, like, you know what?

I think this was a nice moment. Felt really good about it. I, you know, I voted for him. supported his campaign. I think seeing just like the numbers of people that came out to support him has been really encouraging and like, you know, a good reminder that it's like, yeah, no, people do want to see like a better world in a better New York City. So yeah, I do. I welcome the People's Republic of the Communist Takeover. When people were like, he wants state run stores. In Virginia, they already have that they're called ABC stores. They're run by the state. Like, it's not like, give him.

Get a grip. I don't think a great idea. Yeah. Get a grip. Cool. I would love that. Like I saw the Fox News Chiron that was clearly meant to be scary. And it was like, look at all the things.

Mom Dani supports funding public transit. Child care. Like it was. New York City, famously a city that hates public transit. You know, everybody in New York City has a car and drives. Oh, yeah. I drive. I'm in my car right now recording this.

That totally exists. that I totally own. Okay, so I have to talk about this story that popped off over a Fourth of July holiday. I actually, this story kind of like, if I'm being honest, wrecked my vacations. I took the fourth off. I was off the beach. I saw this story while I was literally at a beach bar drinking a cocktail and I sort of like stewed on it. You know what's funny? I also had a moment like that, but it was with a completely different story. Ooh, what was the story? Do you feel comfortable saying? It was about, no, it was about Trump passing the Big Beautiful Bill because I, like, hadn't been looking at my phone. And then I, like, went to go to the bathroom at one point.

And I, like, turned and I opened my phone. And that was the first notification. And I was like, I'm like at my friends Fourth of July party. And I was just like, like, five beers deep, probably. Like, just like, oh, my God. What's happening? Like, you can't have a moment of peace. Like, which story ruined your day on Fourth of July?

I know. Yeah. If listeners, write in and tell the story. If you were trying to enjoy your Fourth of July holiday and be offline for one goddamn day, what was the story that pierced your little bubble and was like, oh, that's right, we live in a hellscape. Can't forget it. Oh, it's got to be plugged into it. Okay, so as we know, Mamdani won the Democratic primary in New York's mayoral race.

He managed to upset the Democratic Party machine and defeat the former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. A sex pest who I personally had a hand in pushing out of office. He's just Italian. He said, hey, I'm expressing. Listeners, I'm Italian for the rec. I'm Italian. I speak with my hands. I'm expressive. I touch people. I touch men. I touch women. I touch children. That was his big defense, was that he was an Italian-American. So, of course, he's handsy. I literally remember when he said that line. I was like, I'm pretty sure that literally was like a joke in the bear. Yes. I mean, I hate this guy so much. I hate this. And it was, I remember in the second it was yesterday because I had to watch the, presser where he resigned. And he was saying, like, I'm an Italian American. I'm very handsy.

And then a screen lowers behind him. And it's all these videos and images of him being handsy with people across the gender spectrum. So it's like, oh, you're going to crucify me for putting my hand on the small of somebody's back, which, by the way, that was not what he was accused of. He was accused of, like, legit, like, he really did a good job of, like, muddying the waters at not what he was accused of. It's not like hugs and touchiness that was misinterpreted. That's not what he was accused of. But it's a slideshow of him being handsy with all kinds of different people. Yeah. So I will never forget it. It was such a weird moment in politics. Our first. Actually, probably not first. I was going to say our first bisexual, pervert in office,

but there definitely have been others. Like, I don't know. I'll win. Diversity wins. Yeah, diversity wins finally. This guy has assaulted everybody. Everybody on the spectrum. An equal opportunity harasser. So in any event, Mamdani won. And the establishment Democrats and, like, right-wing extremists have sort of joined forces to smear him. And luckily for them, the New York Times is a newspaper that exists to help.

So the New York Times published a bombshell piece on Fourth of July. Basically, the big story. Here we go. 15 years ago, back when Mamdani was like a 17-year-old high school student applying to Columbia University for college, a school that he did not get into, so did not attend. He checked the box on his application indicating that he was both Asian and African American because he is of Indian descent and he was born in the African country of Uganda. That's it. If you're waiting for more, there is not more. Like that's the big bombshell story that the New York Times, disson.

had to publish over Fourth of July break. Wait, so, like, is this, does this mean that the New York Times is now pro-affirmative action? Because I thought, I thought that was bad and we were just getting rid of it. Yeah, they can't even keep their own horrible ideology straight, their horrible value straight. And the question is, where did the New York Times get this information? It was part of a hack of Columbia's records. So the Times article, I will say they did note that the story revolved around documents that had been hacked from Columbia's computer systems that had been provided to the New York Times by what the paper called

an intermediary known as Cremew. The Times just identified this person as, quote, an academic and an opponent of affirmative action. However, Cremu is actually like a very well-known publisher of white supremacist and race science content online. So the New York Times essentially kept this source anonymous because they did not publish his real identity, which has been known for kind of a while. They just published his online pseudonym. So I kind of get what's going on here. The Times is really trying to whitewash what they've done. And they're sort of being like, well, we'll just let the readers decide what they think

or if this is newsworthy or important or not. But what they're not doing is actually being clear about where they got this information, this hacked information from, because the person who gave them this information, this intermediary, is a well-known purveyor of white supremacist and eugenicist views whose public identity has been known for months. So I should say, the Times did update the article to say,

Cremew, quote, writes often about IQ and race, which I feel like that's a real understatement. Well, that's the New York Times' favorite thing to talk about. They love, they love, you know, uplifting writers that write about

IQ and race. I mean, I feel like they're really doing their readers of disservice. It's like, you know what it is. Figure it out. He writes about race and IQ. Do you think it's good? It's not.

Wink, wink, wink. It's really wink, wink. And their editor, Patrick Healy, publicly defended the position to publish the story and then grant the source anonymity. So that's bad,

but it gets worse because Seymophore reported that the Times published this because they were trying to avoid being scooped by enemy of the show, Christopher Rufo. You know,

Christopher Rufo, the man behind the attacks on DEI, the man who was behind the attack that pushed Claudine Gay out of Harvard's leadership, the man behind the attacks on critical race theory, and the man who openly and publicly continuously brags about how he is able to play the New York Times, like a goddamn fiddle, to push these attacks. Like, he is not hiding any of this. He goes on Twitter and says things like, I intend to manipulate the New York Times into doing my racist bidding. and the New York Times is like, please, Daddy, let us do your racist bidding. Like, that's essentially what's happening.

I don't know. It's so, like, it's so depressing because so many people still read the New York Times and look to the New York Times as this, like, you know, prestigious, journalistic institution. But it's, like, insane. It is absolutely insane, like, the kind of stuff. Because it's, like, it's not just it, like, it's the same stuff with them. Like, they've been, like, platforming, you know, like, turf arts. arguments and trans-public arguments that have like zero scientific back for years and they've been doing this they've been doing all of this they like and it's the same thing where then they turn

around and they're like how did this happen oh my god absolutely it's crazy i mean this was what happened with everything that's happening in gauza it's like every single they they don't miss they don't miss a single issue it's like you know how people say um you all remember okay like when glee was on and they would cover like every single issue they possibly could, but in, like, the worst way possible. Like, they managed to be racist or, like, whatever, like, to everybody, they would not miss a single group.

Like, this is what the New York Times is doing. New York Times is the glee of journalistic institutions. Put that on a T-shirt. You can quote me on that. Yeah. Put that on a bumper sticker. Yeah, there's a really good... I want to say it was the podcast,

Cancel Me, Daddy. Don't quote me on that. But there was a really incredible episode about the transphobic attacks in the Times. And like, you know, it was like a real deep dive into where they came from, where they started horrible, horrible, but very informative. And one of the points that the person going through, I can't remember who it was, but one of the points they made was like, it matters that it's the New York Times. Like the paper, like the, like the, the gray lady, the most important paper that the United

States really has, or at least was at one point, it matters that like your average American this is the paper that they go to and feel they can trust. It is incredibly important in terms of establishing the temperature and the tide of the country. And if they are pushing incredibly inflammatory, not to mention full of lies and misinformation, if that's what they're pushing, they have this incredible power to shape the public perception of like your average moderate American. And so it matters what the New York Times, like what, where they land on these. And what makes me so angry is how they would probably say, like, oh, like the whole journalistic question of like bias and being unbiased, it's not unbiased to get information

from somebody who is like a known purveyor of white supremacist and eugenicist content. That's not unbiased to publish information that you got from that person and grant them anonymity. Like, I'm not like, like, what are we doing here? I mean, it's unbiased if you yourself are also coming at it from like a white supremacist viewpoint, which maybe is part of the problem. But yeah, it is ridiculous. I personally, I have my own beliefs about the idea of like objectivity and like not being biased. I think it is like near impossible to actually do that.

But like there is a difference from like trying to report all the facts and like reporting something that's clearly through a specific agenda that they're trying to push. Yeah. If people also, if people are interested in learning more about like the New York Times and the history of transphobia there over the last like decade or so, I would definitely recommend the podcast. Anti-trans hate machine. They have an episode about the New York Times and they interview somebody who had worked at the Times for a while. and they like it was a very good sort of breakdown as to like what the specific problems are and how it's happening and why it is like bad for all of our you know mental states and the idea of truth and all of that but yeah yeah that might have been the epist the podcast that I listen to it just it makes it's bad for everyone it's especially bad for trans folks but like it makes us all less informed it makes us all more of like divide. Like it's, it's not good for anybody. And I guess what really pisses me off about the the MAMDani thing is that the independent reported that after it became public that the reason

why the New York Times published this is because they did not want to get scooped by Christopher Rufo enemy of the show. The independent reports that in an apparent effort to tweak progressives and spark additional backlash against the paper over the Maldani story, Christopher Rufo applauded the New York Times for its report and suggested that they were on the same page. He said, bummer to get scooped, but kudos to my friends at the New York Times for being the first to publish this story. So if the cowards at the time had any gumption at all, they would see how horribly embarrassing it is, that Christopher Rufo is saying, me, right-wing shithead blogger with a substack, is on the same level as the goddamn New York Times.

And he's not wrong. Like, if they had any gumption at all, they would be embarrassed. But I think that they're like, yeah, we are on like, that is who are contemporaries are Christopher Rufo's substack is a peer to the New York Times now. I just don't understand how they're not so horribly, horribly embarrassed by this sort of events. And it kind of goes back to your point that, like,

at a certain point, they're not embarrassed because Christopher Rufo is not wrong. Like they are like they do share these values. They are kind of like that's the only thing I can think is like when you get played by this guy who

makes it clear his intention to play you at a certain point you're not getting played. You're playing together your teammates. Right. Like I don't know. I feel like there's the like on people left you on Twitter and

whatnot, you know, use the like, oh, scratch a liberal on like a fascist fleeds kind of quote. I don't know. I'll much to agree with that. Anyways, whatever, it's complicated. But I do think, like, to a point, like, just seeing the amount of, like, centerous Democrats or, like, progressives, which, like, yeah, let's say the New York Times, let's call that, like, a centerist progressive, quote unquote, publication. Seeing how many people with that and within that sphere are, like, freaking out about the

mom donnie win and acting like somehow like you know going back to the first story about joe rogan like the democrats love to talk about how like oh we need to like joe rogan on the left we need to joe they don't actually want to listen to the constituents and like every time this is not the first time that this is like this has kind of been the thread throughout the past 10 years is whenever there is a political figure that emerges that has more left-leaning beliefs the like the centerist part part of the party freaks out and then is surprised by the fact that they're not winning. And at this point, it's like, all right, so you are aware of what you're doing. Like, either you're just so in your own little world that you're, like, stupid.

Or, like, you're aware of the fact that you're like, like, you'd rather blow up your own ship than let it change in the slightest. You know, I don't know. A thousand percent. And I feel like establishment Democrats should be taking notes from his campaign. When you look at the different demographics, he was able to get out to the polls with enthusiasm. Like, you all should be taking notes and replicating what he does. And they talk all day long about, oh, we need a candidate that's going to get people excited. You have a candidate that gets people excited.

And they're like, no, no, no, not like that. Not like that. Right. Like, I mean, I've had conversations with, like, people in my life that are kind of, like, older, more, like, Democrats that were, like, very much, like, Obama, Glenera Democrats that, like, are still sort of pressed about the fact that, like, oh, people didn't show up to vote for Kamala Harris. And then don't seem to understand that it's like, yeah, but like things are getting those, like, if you can get mad at young people, you can get mad at whatever all you want. But then you're seeing these groups show up for somebody that's actually promising something. It's like, maybe that's the solution.

Maybe that's the, like, do you want to just keep complaining about the problem or do you want to fix it? And I would like to fix it personally because I don't want to keep living in a world that's falling apart. But that's just my opinion. You know. Joey says fix it, y'all. I think crazy. Go on. Get your shit together, guys.

Yeah. And I will say, like, I hated so much about this New York Times piece. But I will say one thing that made me a little bit happy was that I think most mainstream news outlets could have just repeated. Like, they didn't. take debate. Like most of what I saw was, rather than acting that this was a notable, real newsworthy story, they were talking about how

bad of a move and how bad of a look it is for the times. It's very clear to me that the thing that they're trying to push, and by they, I mean the Democratic establishment, right winged rifters, and then they're using the media as a tool to do this. It's very clear to me that the

narrative they were trying to push was like black folks against Mom Donnie, right? Like, that's what we're trying to make happen. And so I was very disappointed, like, a black-owned media outlet, the griot, which is like an outlet that focuses on the black community, they reported on it in a kind of way that was like, fam, are we bothered by Mamdani saying that he's black? Rather than the, I would argue, the much more important story that is certainly more impactful

to the lives of their readership, which is like, fam, are we bothered but that the New York Times is working with eugenicists and white supremacists? Like it just really, yeah, I mean, it's fine. It really, yeah, it pissed me off. And it just like goes to show how many in media. Like, I just wonder, like, what are you doing? Like, who are you serving? Who are you trying to educate?

Like, did you see that the New York Times columnist, Jamel Bowie? He had to delete several blue sky posts that were criticizing the New York Times for this post. And basically his tweet was, you should tell readers if your source is a Nazi, which I feel like doesn't seem like an inflammatory thing to say to me, but obviously the New York Times made him take that post down and say, oh, sorry, that violated the New York Times' social media guides. So sorry, so sorry.

Like, I don't know. I mean, do you- Yeah, everybody knows it's more offensive to call somebody a Nazi than it is to do Nazi shit. Exactly. Like, it's worse to accuse somebody who's doing Nazi should of being a Nazi than it is to actually do the Nazi shit. That's exactly the vibe here.

And I think what's also annoying is that there is a like interesting meaty conversation to be had about why Mom Dani would check both Asian and African American on a college application. Like, you know, he basically said like, oh yeah, 15 years ago when I was applying to college, there was no box to check for being an Indian American who was born in Africa. That, that is interesting, right? Like, I think there was an interesting conversation that we had about the limiting way that we think about and talk about race in the United States. But rather than like lift that actual substantive, potentially interesting, useful conversation, it's like the New York Times is only allowed to elevate these very small grievances of right wing race science pushers. Like we had an opportunity to like have an actual interesting conversation. and they were like, nah, what about this like weird petty thing from 15 years ago? Let's just blow that up instead.

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 head writer Streeter Seidel, help an acapella 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. 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. Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Huber 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, IHeart's 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 844-844-I-Hart to get started. That's 844-Ey-Hart. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game.

His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the. game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall.

And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball. But after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plan. a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our

relationships. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us like. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get right back into it. So, Joey, you and I, actually, I think you were the producer on this show when Linda Yaccarino first was announced as the CEO of X. And that, right? I'm remembering that correctly.

Yes, I think so. Because I remember having to re-edit you saying Yacarino multiple times. And our producer, Mike, had to be like, think Linda Yacorino, not. 911. And I was like, oh, got it. Because I kept saying it wrong. Linda Yacarino, it actually doesn't really matter now. I'll probably not be saying her name again after this episode. Because Linda Yacarino has officially stepped down as the CEO of X after two years at the helm. You might be thinking, who the hell is Linda Yacarino? I don't know that name. It is because you didn't really hear a ton from her. Like, even when she got named as the CEO of X, Elon Musk was

certainly still the most public-facing person at X, even though she was meant to ostensibly be the CEO. She would pop up a few times, mostly just sort of smooth over some bad thing that Elon Musk had done or, like, explained why it was actually good. So one of my favorite things in tech, and media and all of this is when people leave companies, how they leave, that generally gives us some sort of insight into like what might have happened, what's going on. Like if somebody leaves a company and then somebody else in the company says, oh, we wish them well in their future endeavors, but doesn't say anything about their accomplishments or anything.

Like, you basically know they were fired and are being able to say they resigned, but it was probably messy. Like, I would not wish my worst enemy well in their future endeavors. If somebody wishes somebody well in their future endeavors, shit is messy, shit is bad. They fuck, there's bad blood there. So let's talk about how Linda Yacharino left X.

she posted a very nice message about how she shared Elon's vision for protecting free speech and making X and everything app. Musk responded to her resignation with a succinct, you might even say a little bit icy response. Thanks for your contributions. So that, I mean, I don't have any tea there, but that if I was a betting woman, I would say there's some drama behind the scenes because typically when somebody resigns, and they're like, here's a glowing, lovely post. The other person in leadership there generally is like, oh, we're so thankful for their contributions, like this thing and that thing and this thing. Like there's some exchange of glowing, positive back and forth.

I will say Elon Musk's response, little terse. So I find that curious. Wow. Elon Musk being weird about other people in power and like crazy. Who would have? thought, yeah. Who would have not? That is giving like, like I definitely have set texts similar to that,

but it's been like, all right, thank you for like, like the passive aggressive, like, aha, leave me alone now. Like, we're done, we're done. I will say a day after she announced her resignation, her blue checkmark was removed. Her verified checkmark was removed from X, which petty, petty, petty, like, come on.

So that, that I feel like, says more to me than Musk's terse little statement, I think. So I think there's drama here. And I think we're going to, you might get more information later. But I don't know that I sense bad blood. However, I do have thoughts. You know, Yakarino, she came from the ad and media world, specifically NBC Universal. She was really brought on to revive X's doomed ad revenue. It turns out nobody wants to spend money on a.

a Nazi website when like the head of that website is going on TV and being like, screw you advertisers, I don't need your money. We did note in one episode that a lot of her success wooing back advertisers was essentially extortion where they would threaten to sue brands who did not advertise on X. And those brands basically were like, okay, we'll rather pay this bribe than get involved with a legal back and forth with these ghouls. And so it turns out extortion, there's a reason why criminals use it. It's very effective.

I do love how like, shocking. Yeah, their big innovation is always like low-key criminal behavior. Like, Musk is like, oh, what if? What if we bribe them? What if we did extortion? Has anyone considered crimes? Gene, that is why Elon Musk is the super genius that he is. Real life, Tony Stark.

Sorry, this is a tangent. The first time I was introduced to Elon Musk as a figure was this was way back when he was still the Democrat, darling. Oh my gosh. And it was in an interview. I think it was like, it was one of the late night shows. Like it was like Stephen Colbert or something. My parents were watching it. And my mom was like, oh yeah, no, I really like him.

He's like, he's like Iron Man in real life. And so my brain is always like, see, and I hate Iron Man. So clearly those movies suck. And this is what led us where we are today. This is all Robert Downey Jr.'s fault. I'm with you. One day I'll do a full episode about. Oh my God.

I have to admit, I've never seen Iron Man. They're, um, I loved them when I was a kid. They're great, like, superhero movies. I did watch them again in college at one point with my friend, because his girlfriend hadn't seen them forever. And, um, they're, they are super racist movies. And, um, that was not something that stuck with me when I was a kid. Um, and I think hearing my,

friend's girlfriend be like, so they're speaking the wrong dialect of Arabic and here's what? I go through the specific, like I was like, oh, you know, you might be, anyways, I think there's a, there's many, most superhero movies you can argue like they're bad, they're part of the military industrial complex. I have my own specific thief with those movies because they are literally like, that is number one. Like that is peak military industrial like post 9-11, like, yay. Anyways, uh, But, yeah, my theory is that is why we have Elon Musk or he is now. And he's so wrapped up in the military. Like, it does.

It tracks. Because I think he got to his head. I think he's got the ego now because that was the thing was like they brought him out on this show and they were like, see? Like, I think they made him think like, yes, I'm this like superhero, super genius dude. Anyways. So you're definitely coming back and we're doing a whole episode about the connection between Ironman and Elon Musk. For sure. Sure. It's all because of Elon Musk.

So you could maybe argue that Yaccarino had some success moving back advertisers in their low-key criminal way. TechCrunch reports that ad spending was up 62% year over year in the first half of 2025, mostly due to election-related spending, though they never reached pre-musk advertising spending on the platform. So maybe you say, okay, well, she had some successes. But friend of the show, Nora Benavides, one of my favorite humans in the world, senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights for free press, said in a statement, it is as ludicrous as it is offensive for Yakorino to frame her time at X as a win for free speech.

Musk hired her to lure back advertisers fleeing the platform after he turned it into a cesspool of hate and disinformation. Yakarino's legacy is her failure to manipulate companies to advertise at previous levels, and now she's trying to mask that failure in First Amendment rhetoric. No one is buying that X is a free speech platform. It's a megaphone for bigotry, conspiracy theories, and bullying people into silence. Musk has no interest in upholding free expression or protecting platform users. It's essential to name the harm clearly and reclaim free speech as a force for truth and democracy, not a shield for those who profit from undermining it.

Ouch, Nora. Mike drop. Yeah, can't say I disagree with that. Oh, that was written like a, like a Kendrick Lamar-style disc track. So, Yakramino's departure comes after X's chatbot Grock, who they built to sort of rival woke chat GPT, went full on like Nazi rapist. So this is not me saying this. This is Grock saying this. Grock now is referring to himself as Mecca Hitler.

So this is not me putting words in Grock's mouth. I'm just telling you what Grock told me. I can't. This is like, I, like this, if this were a movie, it would be too heavy-handed. Yes. Like, what do you mean it's Mecca Hitler? What do you mean? Elon Musk's chatbot is calling itself Mecha Hitler.

I wish I wish I could get in a time machine and go back like 10 years and go to like 15-year-old me and be like, one day, you're going to have to deal with me. Mecca Hitler. Like youth Joey would be like, what are you, what are you saying? What the hell? So basically, you know, it's no secret to anybody that Musk was annoyed at what he perceived as liberal, woke mind bias in GROC. So he had his engineers restrain it on new data that favored sites like Fortune,

which is full of hate speech, as they say, garbage in, garbage out. Musk said, we have improved GROC significantly. You should notice a difference when you ask Brock questions. So, yeah, a day later, this chatbot was calling itself Mecha Hitler. Elsewhere on the platform, neo-Nazi accounts were goading Grok into, quote, recommending a second Holocaust. Grock was giving out specific instructions on how one could break into the home of Will Stancel, a former Democratic candidate who ran from Minnesota's House of Representatives last year, and how one could sexually assault him.

Minnesota is a state where the Speaker of the House was recently assassinated, so that's particularly vile. Grock also sexually harassed Linda Yacarino herself. It produced a revolting sexually explicit exchange, which I won't get into here, basically about Yacarino having sex with black men. So yeah, I guess Grock and Twitter really is the Everything app because it does racism, anti-Semitism, and misogyny. So people were sort of saying like, oh, we bet this ugliness with Grock is why Yacarino quit. For what it's worse, the journalist, Curie Swisher, who's pretty play.

plugged into the tech industry, does not think that Yacarino stepping down had anything to do with Mecca Hitler. She said, the Mecha Hitler controversy was not it, by the way. I guess she sided with Trump over Musk. And also without the Trump card, it was likely going to be hard to shake down advertisers with threats of lawsuits. And finally, threads is close to being as big as X, along with new competitors like Blue Sky.

It was also reported that Yacarino had already talked to people internally at X about stepping down before Grock wet full Nazi rapist. Yeah, I mean, I feel like at that point, if you're, if you're hanging on right up until Mecca Hitler, at that point, you're just endorsing Mecca Hitler. Like, you were, you were like, I'm fine with all of, like, now that we put a name on it, it doesn't make any difference. It was still, like, you know, Grock has been doing this for, what feels like decades now, I think, has only been a couple of months. It feels like decades.

It does feel like decades. I do want to bring up really quick because I saw this post on Tumblr recently and it made me think of this show. Just thinking about all of the shit that's gone down in like 10 years and like how ridiculous stuff is now, there was this post somebody that I saw. I'm going to read the post and then I'm going to tell you the date. It says, okay, this is from Tumblr. internet politics and real world politics have gotten so separated and pretty soon all of this internet weirdness is going to come crashing into real life and politicians are going to start throwing around words like SJW and anime communist and dark enlightenment and it's just going to be the most

ridiculous fucking thing. This is from April 13th, 2015. Wow. This was 10 years ago. Like the prophecy. And like somebody like somebody like somebody put the like the giff of like bed afflack smoking and looking like dead. But it was like, oh, like, yeah, you're, I don't know. This is something I keep going back to because you brought up like 4chan and stuff like that. Like, we've talked about the show. I grew up very on the internet. Like, I was really in the Tumblr at that point. I was a teenager. I knew about all this shit because I was on Tumblr and it was like the other side of it. See people making fun of people on 4chan and whatever. Now all of this stuff is just mainstream politics. Yeah. And it is sort of like, why is all the weird like niche? Like, it's all the

weird kid stuff from that era that now for some reason is like this. Anyways. But yeah, I just think it's something to think about when we think about the social media and politics. 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, 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. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle-aged. One erection Listen to humor me with Robert Smygle and friends On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast Huber 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 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 844-844-I-Hart to get started. That's 844-Ehart. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game.

His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall.

And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball, like,

after you go through a training camp with that, I said, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance.

And then there's your, body having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our relationships. I wish that I hadn't resized. resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes.

Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get right back into it. Okay, so really quickly, if you have been online shopping at Walmart or Costco in the state of Virginia lately, you might have gotten a warning pop up on your web browser that said, quote, Virginia law requires your consent to collect or use information about your potential or actual purchase of reproductive or sexual health products or services. It goes on to say that viewing, searching, and buying all constitute consent and ends with, if you do not consent, please avoid viewing, searching for, or purchasing these products, services, or features. And that is because

new Virginia state legislation took place on July 1st that prohibits a painting, selling, or disclosing, or sexual health information without consent. So this covers things like pregnancy tests, birth control, and abortion medication. So I'm from Virginia. I live in D.C., which is basically Virginia, like northern Virginia in some ways. So I saw a lot of my Virginia friends posting about this and asking questions about it, assuming understandably that this was like big governments spying on their intimate reproductive and sexual health purchases. But actually, this law prohibits stores from collecting information about your private purchases without your consent. So essentially, Walmart has always been doing this.

Costco has always been doing this, but this new law now requires them to tell you that they've always been doing it. State Senator, Virginia State Senator Barbara Favola, who sponsored this legislation, said, these are intimate purchases. These are purchases that nobody should know what you're doing, what you're buying, or why, and I want the privacy insured. She basically said that this legislation was needed in states with

strict abortion restrictions because there is concern that private information could be used to prosecute somebody obtaining abortion medication out of state. She said, we wrote the bill in a way that we thought could be easily honored. I don't think anybody had inside knowledge on how Walmart or Costco or other big retailers are collecting the data, how they're storing it, and what they're doing with it. So, as weird as it is to go to Walmart.com and get this kind of pop up, I do, I am like very supportive of the spirit of this law. I'm a little bit strong. skeptical about the impact because it's not like people can opt out from having their data stored. That data is just like very, very valuable for online retailers.

And I guess it's sort of telling to me that Walmart would rather lose you as a customer by telling you, oh, if you don't consent, don't make this purchase here, then provide you an easy way to opt out from having your data about your sensitive purchase or searching tracked. Like, I have not seen any data about this, but I would imagine that people who say, all that pop up, probably just dismissed it and continued to purchase. But, you know, saying like, oh, we, it's fine. If you don't want to buy from us, that's fine. Just, you know, go on your digital way. I feel like that's really telling to me that the data must be worth a ton for them. Yeah. Yeah. It is like, like, I agree. It is like one of those things where it's like,

okay, I guess this is better than nothing. Like, it's good that they're at least saying something, but still it's like, oh, that's not. good and I do not I don't know yeah the whole this is making me think too like this was like this was a story from like a couple weeks back but like have you like Bridget I'm sure I I use like part of all a lot for like yeah organizing events and stuff and there was like a whole story that came out that it was like run by the same guys like the panel and like it was one of those things where I saw a lot of people being like oh right like if you're you have this free service like you are the data that they're you're using this free service. but it makes sense when you think about it. Like this is a great way to track people and track their movements and track their connections and whatever. And it's like that was a thought. I had a moment right to like think and be like, or things like Venmo.

Like you know people all the time will use like they'll put like stupid jokes and they're like in Venmo requests. And it's like that can turn into something that somebody could use as like evidence against you. It could be a part of full. And like I don't know. Like I was like, I'm not going to lie. I am the kind of person that I totally would like send up a, you know,

like abortion party. Got. Y'all come to Joey's abortion party. To the FBI man listening. That's not happening. It was canceled. It was canceled. Yeah.

I just did an episode on stuff I never told you all about whether or not WhatsApp is secure. And sort of, long story short, it's mostly secure. It's probably fine. But if you are talking about anything at all sensitive, you should be using signal. And, you know, it is like, you know, if you're, if you're making any kind of purchase like this that you, that might be broadly considered in, in this category of sensitive stuff, use cash. Like, whenever we talk about this kind of thing, people listening are like, oh, well, they already got me. Like, what, like, what difference does it make? It's called

digital nihilism or surveillance nihilism. It's a, it's a, it's the wrong attitude to take. I fall into that a lot, too. I mean, I'll be really, like, I have had a lot, but it's like, Oh, there's also specific things where like, yeah, I mean, I mentioned I don't use period tracker app. I, like, there are certain things that I'm like, I know I need to have cash on hand just in place. Like, you never fucking know. And again, this is all like, for the most part right now, like, you know, cautionary. Like, luckily I've not been in a situation where like I've been in danger. But I mean, you brought up the in the last story that the Minnesota shooting too where like that occurred because of. publicly, like, information that was available, like, data that had been bought by data brokers. This is a reality. Like, we live in a surveillance state that is never before been possible.

Exactly. And it doesn't take much. And most of these, like, it, like, signal is free, right? Keep, like, not having a period tracker and it's using pen and paper. That's free. It does not take much to do basic steps to protect your data, protect your privacy. You know, there was an old adage. it's like, oh, well, you wouldn't have to do that if you have something to hide. In 2025, all of us has something to hide. If you've got something to lose, you've got something to hide, something to protect. It's not being paranoid to take basic steps to protect your data. And I think in 2025, we all should be taking basic steps to protect our data,

especially when it's like you probably don't have to take more involved or expensive measures. If you do the free, easy, common sense stuff, you'll probably be good. Like, there's just no, in 2025, we cannot, nobody can afford surveillance or digital nihilism. We have to like do what we got to do to protect ourselves and our communities. It's like the baseline of what we, we shouldn't have to do it, but unfortunately, we do. Exactly. I mean, it's, yeah. I was like thinking of this recently because like, I'll be real.

I love find my phone. I love having my friend's locations and getting to see. Wait, is this? I read that young people, they always have their locations on with their friends. Is this true? Yeah. I'll be real. Like, I was kind of resistant to the idea.

At first, like, I would only really share my location. Like, if somebody needed my location for, like, to find, like, we were, like, trying to find each other, like, a crowded thing. I would give it to them for, like, a day. And then that was it. And then eventually, at some point, I was like, oh, well, I don't know. What the hell? It's, like, my friends. It was also, I think, like, I live with the room.

mates and it's nice to like be able to check in with each other and stuff like that. But like, yeah, I mean, I think the like the benefit of it is it's like nice sometimes to be able to like if I've out at a party with some friends and people are leaving at different times, it's nice to be able to check that like people got home okay. Aw. Or like my, I don't live in the same stage as my parents. So I know like my mom likes that she can, you know, check to make sure that like me and my sister are home and safe and not, you know, floating in the middle of the Hudson River or something.

But also it is objectively weird. Like, I don't know. It's, like, I think it is useful and I do it. Like, I do have my location shared with a lot of people. At least with iPhones, it's sort of like, I know that, like, if I were in a situation where, like, I didn't want to be tracked, I could just leave it at home or, like, turn it off or something. So there's that. But yeah, it is like objectively kind of weird. But it's nice. It's nice to just like to know where people are at. Well, how do you lie about I'm on my way to meet you and you're really in the shower? Like if you search your location.

Well, I'll live my friends that have my, if you have my location, if we're close enough friends to have my location, you know that I will be like two hours like. Okay. So, um, so that if that if you're mad at me for saying I'm on my way and you're like you're still home, that's not you. I, yeah, this is. But yeah. But yeah, no. I mean, I do say all of this also acknowledging that it is like also weird and like definitely a product of the surveillance state and like how much surveillance has been normalized. So I don't know if I'm like super glad that this is a thing that exists that is like the norm. But I do participate in it. So I don't know. Yeah. I mean, it's just another reason why like like basic free.

digital best practices. I think we should all be doing them. If people want to know where they can start getting touch to me, I'm happy. It's like a thing. It's like a thing I love talking about. So like, yeah. I feel like I should hit you about this because I definitely have too much information out there that not the fun kind, the kind that would get me doxed. But I mean, I hope not. Don't, no one docks me. Yeah, people listening. Don't back to Joey. Please. Please don't. Well, Joey, can I hit you with just the pure, can we end with just some pure unsubstantiated rumor? Oh, please. I love unsubstantiated rumors. Favorite thing. Okay. So last month, Lauren Sanchez was on the cover of Vogue. And I remember seeing this and thinking, that's surprising. This is a surprising choice. I did not. I never thought I'd see the day when Lauren Sanchez famously, recently married to Jeff Bezos. So I found all this surprising.

And when I saw it, I remember thinking, is Bezos about to buy Vogue? I had no insight information. This is just my gut, just a thought that popped into my head when I saw this magazine. Then Anna Wintour announced the last month that she was stepping down as Vogue's editor and sheet after 37 years. She'll remain in control of global operations. So I also found this surprising because Anna Wintor seems like somebody who would like die in her office rather than give up one iota of leadership or power.

that seems to be her vibe to me. She has kind of a Pope energy. She does. My favorite Anna Wintour's story is that she, if you, she's based on the movie, the book, The Devil Wars Brought out.

She's supposed to be like, she's an Amanda Freely type. I'm going to say Edna Mode from Incredibles, but also that. Yes. Yes. Same hair. Yeah.

I was like, of course, the most famous character she's based on in Merrill Street. So the story is that, so like, Anna Wintor is not, is like, kind of known for being,

not a nice person. I actually don't like Ano Ventura if you've read Andre Leontali's memoir. I was like, I will hate her forever. Oh, same. The Condé Nass Firing's when she like didn't even take her song glassed off. That was like the nail. I already didn't like her, but I was like, oh, so you're like evil.

Same. Like, it's, I don't think that you have to be, like, I think that to rise up in leadership, you have to be decisive, you have to be confident. You have to be assertive, maybe aggressive. Sure. You don't have to be an asshole. Like I guess I just don't like this idea that, oh, can you believe, like she's so cold and mean and unempathetic. It makes her a great leader. No, you can be a good leader by being an asshole as a choice, not taking off your sunglasses when you're firing people and laying them off. That's a choice. You don't have to, that's a choice to behave in that way. So, you know, they used to call Condé Nast, Conday nasty, because that was the attitude that permeated from the top. And my favorite. story about this is that apparently, allegedly, at a Condé Nast Christmas party, everybody knew that you weren't supposed to look Anna Wintour in the eyes. And so if you saw Anna Wintor, you were meant to like avert your gaze and basically ignore her. And that at a

Christmas party, Anna Wintor had a bad fall. Like she fell over or tripped over something. And like, it was one of those falls where it was very noisy. Like maybe she took down a tray of drinks as well. But nobody, so if you had that kind of fall, people would rush over and help you and be like, are you okay? And nobody said a word. Everybody just pretended like this, this loud calamity of a fall did not happen because she had set the agenda of like, do not approach me. Do not look at me in the eye. A part of me is like, oh, it looks like you reap what you sew. No one's going to help your ass up because you've been so mean to everybody the last few years. Yeah, I, you brought a devilware's Prada, which you know what, maybe this is just a giant publicity stunt for Devil Wears Prada, too,

which is apparently happening. Oh, I'll watch that. I'm sure it'll be terrible. I'll watch it. I'm sure it's going to be awful. But I have a love-hate relationship with that movie because, like, I think it's a good movie. I saw it not long ago. Like, I didn't see one it came out. I saw it like a couple years ago. And my first, because I had heard all the like, oh, the boyfriend's the real villain. Like, she's that. And then I watched it. And I was like, oh, this is a movie about an abusive boss. Like, what do you mean? Like, I was like, sure, yeah, the boyfriend's not great. Like, whatever.

But I was like, yeah, I also would be, or like her friend. Like, I was like, I would be concerned if one of my friends was in this situation. Like, I probably also would be like, yeah, like, are you good? Like, do you, like, are you sure this is the past? I don't know. Like, I was like, I don't know. To me, that's, I was like, she was awful. Like, I was like, the whole point is narrow Streep's characters.

Terrible. Like, I was like, she's not like a girl boss. Like, or she is a girl. She maybe is like the epitome of that girl boss demonism stuff, which is not good, which is still bad. Maybe the real villain of the movie is the person who's flinging her coat in someone's, in her underling's face every single goddamn day. But maybe in the new one, Jeff Bezos will be the new Miranda Presley and then it'll be a totally new tape. I don't know. It could be Jeff Bezos, who, I mean, I, I, to see.

I was like, I think he might be about to buy Conday Nest. It could be Lauren Sanchez. So again, I want to say, this is all rumor. However, Stylecaster quoted an anonymous source, so take it with a rain of salt. The rumor is that Jeff is going to buy Conday Nast. It is all anyone's talking about in the fashion industry and Inside Vogue, adding, Lauren Sanchez is such an unlikely cover star. And the word is that she landed the July issue, partly because the Newhouse family,

who currently owns Condonast, wants to butter up Bezos. In New York, they're slimming down the business, which is exactly what companies do before a sale. And that is not all. Anna Ventura is said to be directly involved in a possible sale. The source says, Anna is said to be the one brokering the deal, so that's why Lauren was on the cover. Anna has equity in the business,

so she has a lot to gain from a sale. So, who knows? Lauren Sanchez does have a background in, like, I guess, like entertainment media, entertainment journalism, I guess I'll call it that. And so if he did buy Conday Nast, it would stand to a reason that she could be the person like the new Anna Wintour, running vogue.

God, can you imagine? Background in entertainment journalism is like a cursed thing to have. As some, as two people who have delved into entertainment journalism. Joey, I don't know if he did. Let me tell you. I could tell you, I could tell you, I could tell you. I actually brought up a story about a specific celebrity that I crossed path with in my time doing celebrity journalism and celebrity media. I'm trying to decide if I should cut it out of the episode.

If folks are curious, it's the episode. I guess I'll do a little bit of a plug. I'm talking to Ashley and Claire of the podcast Celebrity Memoir Book Club in a recent episode. And I tell a story about one specific celebrity who her antics almost cost me my. job. She has fallen way out of public favor, like had a very, very public downfall, and I'm wrestling with whether or not I should cut this anecdote out because I don't think I've ever shared it publicly. If I will tell you who it is off Mike, I want to know. If folks want a hint, I will give one hint, cucumber. If you know, you know, that is a big hint. And I'll just

leave it at that. So I do think that, like, Lauren, the idea of Jeffrey Bezos buying Condé Nass and then bringing his wife, Lauren Sanchez, on as editor-in-chief of Vogue, it does kind of fit with this idea of them really trying to buy their way into a certain kind of class and status and influence. I think part of that whole space mission, like he also set Lauren Sanchez in addition to Katie Perry that, you know, ultimately was like not, good. I think that they're trying, I think that he really wants to be like, we are a dynamic, worldly, classy, influential couple. But like, it doesn't matter how you can be a billionaire. You can't buy that. Like, you can't buy your way into people thinking that you're, you know,

someone with depth and class. Wow. I cannot believe the show. There are no girls in the internet is taking down women for the all-female. What was it? It was like blue earth or some weird thing. Wasn't it? Blue origin. It's, it is like my, Harry. It is my Roman Empire. Somebody, I don't remember where I read this, but somebody was like, I want to see a VEEP style show where a Katie Perry figure is like, has like fallen in public favor and she keeps trying to like do stunts to get back on everybody's good side, but they keep failing in more and more spectacular ways. I'll watch that show. I will watch that show. We didn't. It's a, it's a woman's world and we're whatever. didn't work, so she was like, it's a woman's universe. It's a woman's galaxy. It's a woman's galaxy. I also do think it's funny that like all the celebrities that went to that wedding got sort of shamed and clown for it.

That was something where I was like, you know what, I have hope for humanity. Seeing all of the protests too, like shout out to the people of Venice. Like, you know what? Y'all showed up. Y'all also like pulled up talking about the real like environmental impacts. of all this stuff, which yeah, like, I mean, if you know anything about Venice, it's sinking. Like, it is going to be like a soon casualty of climate change. And, uh, yeah, no, like, good for the people of Venice for actually, like, being like,

fuck these guys. Um, if they choose to do with the wedding here, like, we're going to make it miserable. Absolutely agree. I guess we'll end with friend of the show. He's never been on, but has an open invite. Luan de la Seps of Real Housewives of New York, Countess Louan. money can't value class elegance is learned absolutely joey this has been this you're so fun to talk about like random internet stories with thank you i i do spend a lot of time online so me too yeah

yeah yeah you're probably the only person that i think is as online as myself and it's i really appreciate it like i feel yeah it's like i'm like somebody else gets the we could do well one day do like a panel of like the millennial gen z find more people to do the... Ooh, you know, what's funny. You're Gen Z. I am Gen Z. Very online.

I'm a millennial. Very online. Producer Mike is Gen X, not online. Isn't that interesting? Interesting. You know, I think that really is... So maybe that should be... We'll do an episode at one point and it'll be the two of us.

Oh, that's good. It'll be like a cross-generational... Gen Z to... Gen Z to Millennial to Gen X. trying to understand different internet shit. Like I'm always having to explain to Mike like the other day I'm like,

did you see this woman on TikTok bought an anti-a-pasto salad of the 4th of July cook at? And they were so mean to her and he'll say like, well, I don't know what you're talking about. Who are these people? I had a, I have like, boomer Gen X Cuss parents and my mom message in a recently on Instagram

with this like New York Times video that was talking about vertical content. And she was like, what is this mean? What is vertical content? and I sent her like multiple voice vet because also I was like this is the stuff that I love like I was like I was like this is the stuff I heard out about like I will totally I said her like multiple voice messages about it and she was like okay yeah I get it like whatever I was like yeah I was like no but I was like you asked me like I was like anyway that was a moment where I was like wow I get to explain this to you're welcome love having to be the person who explains internet shit to people who think they want to know but maybe don't really want to know that like all the meaty details that you and I would surely provide. I needed a two-sentence answer. I need the whole breakdown of the sociopolitical impacts of all this.

And I think I sent a whole thing to me like, and this is how it's changing the way that movies are shot. And she was like, I was asking about how it's political campaigns. I don't care. But, you know. Joey, where can folks keep up with all this cool shit that you're are doing on our chronically online internet. Yeah, well, yeah, if you want to find me chronically online, you can find me on, I'm on Instagram at Pat Not Pratt, also on Twitter slash X. I saw

somebody refer to it recently as like, like Twitter, like they wrote it like with an X and like XI I don't even know how you'd pronounce that. Anyways, I hate it. But I'm still going to call it. You could find me on Twitter or on Instagram at Pat Not Pratt. That's P-A-T-T-T. I don't P-R-A-C-T. You could also check out my other shows that I work on at After Lives. Season 2 is out now. It's all about Marsh v. Johnson. And you could also check out-outlaws, which is another show on the Unspoken Network that is hosted by the iconic T-S-Madison.

Definitely some housewives crossover at some point. But, you know, I've had to learn a lot about reality TV working on this show, which has been a big thing for me. But, yeah. If you ever need a crash course, you know where to find me. Absolutely. First call. Well, thanks so much for listening, y'all, and we will see you on the Internet. 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 tangoity.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 Dodd.

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