There Are No Girls on the Internet - Mark Zuckerberg's AI Era Has a Woman Problem. It Always Did.

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

In 2026, Meta is racing into AI with all gas and no brakes — and it's giving us serious déjà vu. We invited Samantha and Anney from Stuff Mom Never Told You to revisit The Social Network and examine what the film got right, what it glossed over, and how its treatment of women tells you everything you need to know about tech culture then and now. Plus: the reported sequel centered on Frances Haugen's findings inside Facebook, and why that story might be the one that actually matters.   If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there to let us know what you thought about these stories, or email us at [e-mail]    Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media!  ||  instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc ||  youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. It's 2026, and Facebook is back in the discourse. This time, because meta is throwing everything it's got into AI. New products, new models. Full speed ahead, no brakes. And if this sounds a little bit familiar, it should. because the story of how Mark Zuckerberg got here and who got left behind, erased,

or just plain lied about along the way, well, that's a story that hasn't really changed much. I sat down with my friends, Samantha and Annie, from the podcast Stuff Mom Never Told You, to revisit a movie that we like talking about a lot, the social network, a film that somehow just keeps getting more relevant. We're digging into what that movie has to say about the misogyny

baked into the founding myth of one of the internet's most powerful companies. And also, looking ahead to the sequel, centered on whistleblower Francis Howgan's findings about how Facebook knowingly harmed women and girls. So on the one hand, it's a conversation about a film that came out over 15 years ago. But on the other, it's also kind of a movie about everything happening right now. We didn't anticipate when this episode was going to come out. You know, we've been hinting at it for a long time.

But it is coming out at a time where I think we need to take a fun break. I think a lot of people need that kind of fun break right now. I would say it is a fun break, but at the same time, like, we're still going to talk about issues. But it was way too. I'm like, yeah, I think of doing some things. Yes, we are. Absolutely. It's a fun break, I guess, for us.

Maybe listeners will be like, oh, no. Well, I feel like the lens through using movies as the entry point to talk about things that are real or rough, I think is great because your brain is like, this is all fictional, even though another part of your brain is like, no, this is real. You get the, you, you, I don't know if other people feel this way. It kind of lulls me into feeling like, oh, this is not scary or upsetting, even though it is real because you've got that thin veneer of, oh, this is a fictionalized. account. Yes. And as listeners know, if you look at the title, we are talking about the social network today and I have to say to your point, Bridget, I kept when I was like just writing my random thoughts and notes, I kept referring to the, like they were characters. I was like, oh, then Mark did this or whatever. And it was so bizarre because I know that's a real person,

Mark Zuckerberg out there. But I was referring to him as if he was like, a character, which I do know there is some debate about, you know, how dramatized this is, you know, how accurate it is. But I did catch myself doing that several times. To me, Jesse Eisenberg is more Mark Zuckerberg than Mark Zuckerberg at this point. When I imagine Mark Zuckerberg in my mind, I'm actually picturing Jesse Eisenberg. That's how much he became Mark Zuckerberg, or maybe is a... Zuckerberg type. I don't know, but

yeah, they're one and the same in my mind. I wonder how he would feel about that. Honestly, like, win for the real Mark Zuckerberg that when I picture him, I don't picture the actual dweeb that is Mark Zuckerberg, I picture Jesse

Eisenberg, somebody who I actually like have a fondness for. Right. And think it has a little bit, has like, charm. Yes. I think this movie was very kind to all of the individual people with the character, with the people that represented them. I was like, how is Justin Timberlake Sean? Totally agree. Totally agree.

No. Nope. I had a lot of questions. And yes, like Jesse Eisenberg is definitely like endearing seemingly like he has this persona of being endearing. So having an endearing person portray you did him favors, even though from my observation of this movie, I was like, okay, so what I'm understanding is Zuckerberg is an autistic, could have been in some. had he not had this route? Like, that's what I found out. The way that misogyny, and I know we're going to talk about it,

but the way that misogyny bookends the film and then is this thread throughout, even, you know, obviously with how Zuckerberg starts getting these ideas for Facebook, but even in ways that are not connected to the digital world, the way that these college campuses are sort of portrayed as like misogynistic meat markets where women are just commodities.

I think the movie is trying to illustrate how like Zuckerberg didn't invent that. He just put it online and made it scalable. Oh, yes. We have so much to talk about. So I hope this is the first of a series where we do tech movies and we have these conversations. I know that you have some. You've mentioned before you want to talk about Bridget.

But yes, I think this is a good one to kick it off with social network. So I'm going to give a brief rundown of it. And then I'll ask you if you can give a brief plot description of it. I sure can. I sure can. Excellent. So the Social Network was a 2010 film based on the book, The Occidental Billionaires, which was written by Ben Mezric.

It was directed by David Fenscher and written by Aaron Sorkin. And it depicted the origins of Facebook, how Facebook came to be. So yes, we got Jesse Eisenberg playing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield playing his friend and business partner until they weren't. Eduardo Savran, Justin Timberlake is Sean Parker, the founder of Napster, and a mentor to Zuckerberg, and Army Hammer as the Vinklevostens twins. Which I remember when this came out, I watched like a special on how they did his, how they did the twins. And if you noticed, one of them is usually wearing like a bandana or something.

And that's for the face scanning. Oh. Oh. That makes a lot of sense. Yes. Yes. This film was a critical and financial success. In 2024, the Library of Congress named the Social Network as, quote,

culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inducted it into their national film registry. Of note, a lot of people depicted in the film were very adamant that this was not an accurate portrayal of events. And I also just have to say, the kid from Jurassic Park, who I had a crush on when I was a kid was in this movie. Who is he? Dustin Moskowitz. He's the roommate Coder. Yes.

That's the kid from Jurassic Park. I would have never picked that up. And also, sign out, of course, you had a crush on that kid. I know. So me. Oh, my gosh. All right. So, Bridget, can you run down the plot for us?

I can. So the movie opens up in 2000. 2003 with Mark Zuckerberg. He's a sophomore at Harvard. He has just gotten dumped by his girlfriend, Erica, who is fictional, like the Erica character that we see that book ins the film, is not based on a real person. He is at a bar with her.

He's being very dismissive and condescending to her. She breaks up with him. He goes home, he gets drunk, and he writes a nasty blog post about her. And in a fit of bitter energy, hacks in to the Harvard student director, to build a site called FaceMash to let people rate the female students in all the dorms against each other.

He said that he was initially thinking about having the girls' pictures next to farm animals, but then he decided not to do that. That is not fictional. That is a real quote from what a then college sophomore Mark Zuckerberg wrote. So he ends up making this site FaceMash. It's so popular that it crashes

the university servers overnight, becomes a complete sensation, and it lands Zuckerberg in some campus disciplinary trouble. All of this hubbub catches the attention of the twins that you just mentioned before, Cameron and Tyler Winklewurst, and their business partner who recruit Zuckerberg to help build out a plan that they had for a Harvard-only social network that they were calling Harvard connection. Zuckerberg agrees. There's definitely a dynamic where they are these tall, guys on the rowing team and Zuckerberg's this big nerd

and you've got these big these big strong like men about town like men on campus recruiting who were meant to understand as like this like kind of like mousey neurotic you know beta to use language that I'm sure that they have used

amongst each other so Zuckerberg ends up kind of besting these two he just sort of he agrees he takes their money to build the site strings them along for doesn't do any real work, and then launches his own site that kind of is a very similar idea, the Facebook.com. The site explodes.

Zuckerberg's best friend, Eduardo, becomes his co-founder and puts up the initial money. Then, a Napster co-founder, Sean Parker, who is played by Justin Timberlake, breezes into their lives, instantly charms Mark Zuckerberg, and gradually pushes Eduardo, who up until this point had been this, like, loyal friend to Zuckerberg, although they did have some, like, tension, ends up pushing Eduardo out of the company while pulling Facebook toward Silicon Valley and toward Sean Parker and the investment of Peter Thiel.

The whole story is kind of framed around these two simultaneous lawsuits, the Winklewurst twins suing Zuckerberg for stealing his idea, and Eduardo, Zuckerberg's previous best friend, suing him for pushing him out of the company. and diluting his shares down to almost nothing. In the end, both cases end up settling. The movie, I said, it starts with Zuckerberg, having problems with a woman in his life. Well, the sort of Finnisian Cain reveal at the end of the movie is Zuckerberg sitting alone,

refreshing his ex-girlfriend, Erica's Facebook page, just waiting to see if she will accept his friend request, and she does not. The irony is very clear. Facebook has 500 million friends. Zuckerberg doesn't have a single one. I love the ending so much. It's so good. Because he's so sad and so alone. And he just keeps refreshing the page.

And it lingers on that moment. It holds. And he has this conversation with Sean Parker. Sean Parker says the reason I started Napster was because there was a girl I wanted to get her attention she was with someone else

and Zuckerberg asked him like do you still think about her or do you still think about that girl and Sean Parker's like no but you've got Mark Zuckerberg who's still hung up on oh she broke up

with me he tries to have that conversation with her later to be like oh I made this website have you seen it? Maybe you've heard of it. And she's like, good luck with your video game. Yeah, that Sean Parker scene really stuck with me. He's like, oh, you want to know why I'm in a Napster?

The girl I loved in high school was with the captain of the lacrosse team. So I wanted to take her from him. So I started the next big thing. And he's like, he's like, oh, I saw your face smash blog. And Zuckerberg is like, oh, like that was just me, you know, playing the trolls and basements online. But Parker is like, no, no, no, I wasn't dismissing it. I loved it.

Like, isn't that what this whole thing is about? You know, this is our time. And I think, like, it just really points to the ethos of technology being that gross, childish, toxic men with a misogynistic chip on their shoulder. And clearly, for Parker, it was not even about that girl, really. He's like, I don't even think about her at all. It was about the girl was just a through line to make himself feel. more important than this like jock on the lacrosse team who he feels like bested him. And so I said that to say, you see how much of our current tech infrastructure is built by

deeply personal animus and misogyny. Yes. I mean, the whole idea that Facebook started, in the movie, at least, he gets broken up with, goes straight home, makes this based on makes this being raised. two pictures of two women. And then there's a scene that follows, like a montage scene of a bunch of college dudes, like laughing and raiding the women. And then also there's a through line we're going to come back to,

but of exclusivity. And Zuckerberg really wanting to get into these final clubs. Let me get it right. Final clubs. Okay. which are I don't know they sound like fraternities where you get

hazed and I guess they're really fancy and well known but he really wants to get into them and does not but you so you have a scene of those final clubs where there's a bus picking up young women

and the men are watching them like strip and kiss and all of this stuff and then you have like shots of women seeing face mash and being like, oh, this is so pathetic. This is so sad. And then you see Erica kind of finding out Erica, the girl that broke up with him, finding out what she wrote about him and being mocked for it. And so I thought that was a really interesting, like the way that montage breaks down of seeing how this plays out online, because Zuckerberg makes the point several times

we're trying to put college life online. But also how it is playing out in real life in college, like outside of the internet in college. Yeah, there's the scene where you just described it where Erica is in her dorm. And Mark in his angry blog after she dumps him says like, oh, she may seem like she's got a decent body, but she's getting a lot of help from padding

and Victoria's Secret. Two guys bust into her dorm room to berate her about this, shaking bras at her. And I think it really shows like just the climate of casual massage and these women are existing in, both online and off,

but once that world is transferred to the digital realm, how it becomes supercharged, right? And, you know, Mark has this line in the movie where he says, what we want to do with Facebook, it's like building a finals club,

except we're the president. Because in the movie, you see both Mark and his friend Eduardo having a lot of like rivalry, intention and anxiety about whether or not they're going to get into the best finals club. That argument with Erica at the beginning of the movie, it starts with her saying, you should try out for the easiest to get into club. And he's like, what, you think I kick it into the harder to get into clubs? And so, you know, I really think that idea that like, what if we use the internet to build a world that is all about the exclusivity and, you know, gross parts of frat life only were in charge of it?

Like that really is when I am on Facebook or X or Instagram, I feel like he really did. That really does nicely summarize, I think the tech landscape that we're all in now. It's like a finals club, except it's run by people like Mark Zuckerberg. Yes. Yes.

And he also has a line in the beginning when he's talking with Erica about so condescending where he says, you know, you should really be more invested in this. because I'm going to be opening the doors for you, essentially. You're going to meet a lot of people because of me. And that just reminds me so much of a lot, what is going on with our, a lot of things. But in this instance, the tech industry is, you know,

you can, women, marginalized folks, you can come in, but we're the ones going to open the door. You have to exist within our framework and within our rules. And I feel like we've just, seen that at so many, there's so many lawsuits, like the lawsuit with Blizzard is one that comes to mind, where it feels very like,

you can come in, but we can kick you out just as easily. You need to exist only for, only in the way we think that you should exist. And when we see the montage of all the different guys that are around, it's like, these are the people she's meant to be thanking you

for putting her around. These guys all seem like animals. You know, Like these like drunk guys We're like hooting at women to take their clothes off. I'm supposed to be like, oh yeah, thanks for getting me into this world. This is what I've always wanted. Yeah.

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Soccer. Football. It's home. Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breed? I inherited that fandom from my mom. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force.

From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. We go beyond the game to the people and the stories that make it great. A soccer game is a festival. It's not just a game. It's your culture. I took an elbow to my head, which cracked my skull. It is an American game.

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I've only seen like previews or like excerpts of it. So there was a lot of fascination because this is also putting me back into the beginning of Facebook because I was in that error. I was at the beginning remembering you had to be an EDU. It had to be an EDU in order to register into Facebook to begin with. And it only really stuck with you in that university. That's the only way you could get into Facebook. Like I was in that era. So seeing all the beginning of this and then seeing the beginning of Silicon Valley.

and like we didn't know what that meant at that time as this was beginning in the year of 2005. By the way, I found out I was older than Zuckerberg at that moment and I was like, I hate everything right now. I hate it. Like when you start like referencing timelines, I'm like, God, okay, fine. Anyway, but seeing all of that, seeing it unfold,

and then them not exactly, us not exactly realizing what this would end to, but seeing this in an entertainment value. also in the rhetoric of like Dawson Creek era of monologues or dialogues that I was like what is what is this that's fucking baby yes it is like the arie macbill days of dialogue and conversation and caricatures I was like wow wow this movie really is what's the beginning of a whole new like subplot slash like ideals and plot lines that would become stereotypical now.

It's so funny to hear you say this. I'm re-watching Dawson's Creek. And boy, do those kids make a lot of dramatic monologues in public to each other. But that was Sorkin. Sorkin, I don't know if you ever watched the West Wing, which I loved, or the newsroom, which is like a terrible show, but I secretly have seen every episode and love it very much.

But like the amount, like, in Northern. normal life, how often has someone stood up on a plane and made a dramatic grandstanding speech? In Sorken world, it happens like every other beat. Yes. It is kind of satisfying to watch. Oh, I love it. I love it. I'm such a sucker for, I'm a sucker for so many of the Sorkan tropes, the speeches, the walking

quickly while discussing something. West Wing did that. It's just like something in my brain. I'm like, yes. Show me two people. quickly strutting. They couldn't take a minute to discuss this thing standing or like just get

book time on my calendar. May I have a meeting. No, we're so busy we got to like do a walk and talk. I love a walk and talk. Yeah, I remember when Facebook, so I was in college when Facebook became big. I remember when I started college before

Facebook was invented and I graduated when Facebook was a thing. I was a scene kid, an alt kid. So I was like a MySpace girl, a live journal girl, like if you were alt, those were your platforms. When Facebook came,

I remember the girl in the dorm next to me, she claimed to have been the reason why Facebook came to our college. Because I think you had to like advocate for you. At this time, after all the exclusive Ivy's got Facebook, you had to advocate for your big public

university to get it. Right. To have for Facebook to to Dane to be there. And this girl who lived next to me was like, I'm the reason why Facebook came to East Carolina University. I remember thinking it was kind of passe and that MySpace

was where all the cool kids were because you can put music on your MySpace profile. You could like customize your MySpace profile. And it's so funny how obviously MySpace did not have staying power. You know, MySpacecom is not

the like, is not meeting in the Trump White House and like disrupting our democracy. Not to say that MySpace was all good because it wasn't, but it's just funny how if I had to guess which one of these platforms would go on to entrench itself in power, it would not have been Facebook. Yeah, yeah.

No, I had to look up because now that I'm like, oh, there was a, there was a, I guess, a tear in how Facebook would allow which universities. I had to look up my school. It was mainly late 2004, 2005. Wow. We were pretty early on and we were not Ivy League. No, no.

Okay, I have to look this up. UGA. It was UGA. So, like, It's a really good school. It's a good school, but we're not Ivy League. Come on. You, like, come on.

But like, like, I was like, because I remember me, I think I started, I think I became my count in 2005, 2006. Okay. I think my school was in the same. I just looked it up and it said, ECU, East Carolina University,

where I'm to college. A much worse school than UGA, I mind you, got Facebook around 2004, 2006. So I would have been, yeah, that would have been like around junior to senior year for me. That sounds right. I feel like I, Facebook came out. I was never on MySpace. I wasn't on anything like that. So I just didn't join it.

And my friends kind of got on it. And then in 2010, 2009. Oh, it had to have been earlier that. that. I would say eight, 2008. When I went to Australia, whenever that was, my friends made me sign up for Facebook so we could share pictures together. And I have to say, that's pretty much what it's remained as this since then. It's just where I put some pictures sometimes. Now it's pretty much dead. That is another thing. And this is kind of a transition into one of the next things I want to talk about is it was fascinating watching this movie. because now they have this whole conversation about how Facebook is so cool, we can't make money because it's so cool, that would ruin the vibe.

And now it's like pretty uncool. Yeah. But in 2010, it was still pretty cool. But I wanted to talk about some of the takeaways watching it now versus when, like Bridget and I saw it, I saw it when it first came out. Oh, same. I was hyped for it.

We too. We talked to the trailer. Remember the choral version of radio hits creep? Y'all don't, if y'all weren't there, you all don't remember. I was hype for this movie. It was so, the trailer was so arresting. I must have watched that trailer half a dozen times. The tagline, you don't get to 500 million friends, not making a few enemies.

Like, Annie and I were on the same way on this one. I would have never thought I would be at the theater to see it. Because I wasn't like big into Facebook or anything. But I saw that trailer and I was like, that music, I got to go. Which we are going to talk about the music later because the music is amazing. But yes, I just wanted to discuss. And you know, Samantha, as a first time view, it might be interesting. You might have some different thoughts.

But it was weird watching it now, especially because we've discussed in several episodes, but the one that comes to mind that I didn't know about. People show up that I wasn't expecting to show up. So Larry Summers, you talked about how Larry Summers was in the Epstein files. He's a character in this movie. I forgot about Peter Thiel. I have to say, I remembered this movie pretty well. Maybe I just didn't know his name, but I was shocked when that name was dropped.

Fellow Epstein but friend. It's funny, like two different deep, deep collaborators of Jeffrey Epstein in the same movie or portrayed in the same movie, Larry Summers, former president of Harvard and Peter Thiel. I do think so. I just recorded an episode of my podcast or other girls on the internet about Peter Thiel

and his connection stepscene. And like, it's just a good reminder how much of the infrastructure of technology and the internet, Peter Thiel has been, has had his hooks in and hands in. You know, whenever you hear about something

involving like extremist, or just just know that like Peter Thiel's got his grubby little hands in there somewhere. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was kind of interesting to see in this perspective of like, we don't want advertising, we don't want to be that and cool, but we will take a big investment from a really giant corporation. That's okay. I'm like, I feel like that's one and the same.

And this is a weird compromise, except for the fact that it was thought up by who, I guess, I'm assuming this was true that Zuckerberg really did love Sean Parker that much. Oh, yeah. Was that true? Okay. So I, can I make a quick diversion?

I just love that scene so much. The scene where Sean Parker, portrayed by Justin Timberlake, takes Zuckerberg and Eduardo out to dinner to talk about Facebook, the way that Zuckerberg just instantly is in love with Sean Parker and everything Sean Parker represents so quickly.

Eduardo basically watches his friend just like become enamored with this man. It's almost sexual. There's a scene where Sean Parker has suggested to Zuckerberg to move his operations to California and a ditched Eduardo. Zuckerberg does that. In the scene where Parker is told this information, they share such a meaningful, charged glance.

it almost seems sexual to me. I guess I'll just put it that way. I'm curious what you all thought. Okay. Fan fiction note of the episode. I have to put it in here. I wasn't even looking for this. I was not looking for this,

but apparently it's a pretty big ship to ship Eduardo and Mark from the movie. There's social networking. There's social network fan fiction? Oh my God. There's fan fiction for anything you can imagine. But it came up in it.

I was researching something completely different and it came up. I was like, this must be a pretty significant ship for it to be mentioned in this random article. But I bet I didn't see anything about Sean Parker and Mark Zuckerberg shipping. But I bet he's like the one that kind of ruins their relationship and then they have to get back together. Like maybe he's the one that Mark is like a flame. So attractive to has to. Yeah, and then realizes he's terrible. You're making up a scenario right now, Andy, as we say here.

I've read this story with different characters. I can see it, is what I'm saying. I can see it too. No, I totally see it. And I remember when Trump was reelected, there was this, like, micro moment where people talked about, like, Mark Zuckerberg having a, quote, like, mask off moment. And I think the social network pushes back on that frame. because I think Mark Zuckerberg is not wearing a mask.

He is the mask. I think that we see it in that scene with Sean Parker, how quickly he just becomes enamored. I think that, like, people were like, wow, Zuckerberg really just fell in line with Trump. I don't think that's, I think that Zuckerberg, when somebody with power is standing in front of him,

I think that he just falls in line. I think he's completely spineless, has no internal morals or values or drive of his own. he is entirely dictated by people around him. I think that's what Eduardo is seeing about his friend in, like, clearly in that scene with Sean Parker. I think we see it in how Zuckerberg falls in line with people with power today in 2026 as well.

It is interesting because you note that he is found, he finds everyone in his age range in Harvard in that area to be inferior to him, even though they are outdoing him in ways. And that makes him even angrier. like Eduardo being more of money and getting invited into these final clubs when he is not seeing the Winklewoss twins who have come out to be, oh no, the rowing people that he feared because his girlfriend actually mentioned possibly want to be with a rower.

Like that was that catalyst of like, oh, let me screw these people over to show her, these people are not better than me. Like this level, but then the one person who is super cool and against the system supposedly it complements him. That's all he had to have. in order to, like, crumble and be like, yes, let me follow your lead. Because, like, Parker knew how to manipulate those desperate for that type of attention. Exactly. And, like, we see the way that Zuckerberg is so easily manipulated along the lines of his own insecurities.

And in that scene I was describing earlier where Zuckerberg is like, oh, I only made face smash to, you know, appeal to the trolls online. And Sean Parker is at, no, like, I thought base smash was good. Parker tells him, you know, when I started Napster, I, like the grown-ups in the room wanted to take it away from me because I was one of those trolls. Like, I think he's using language that is like, we, our, like, those are our people. And now this is our time to rule. So I think you're exactly right, Samantha. That's such a perceptive point that, like, the whole thing is about inverting who has power. Let's take the, let's, these, like, rich, not that Zuckerberg wasn't rich, but these, like,

jock guys who get everything, let's invert everything so that they don't have power and we do. This is our time. The grownups aren't running it. The jocks aren't running it. It is people like you and me and that's who's running it. That's what we're building a system around. And that system is built on masagony and personal animus and insecurities. Yeah.

Yes. And it reminds me of our current political climate, it's obvious how much is run by personal vendettas. It's not even being hidden of these men being like you know what? You wronged me once in my opinion and I'm going to remember this and punish you forever. Summer is on at base 31. The drill hall RBC stage is packed

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I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. We go beyond the game to the people and the stories that make it great. A soccer game is a festival. It's not just a game. It's your culture.

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Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. Together, we're going to have meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer. And that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartner depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

One of the things I do love about the ending, though, is, you know, even then he's never going to be happy. He's never going to be happy. But something else that my mind caught on watching this, rewatching this now is the line move fast and break things. And that reminds me of the conversation we're having about AI because I was watching some interviews with the people who are behind those companies. And they were saying like, oh, well, it's happening now, even though it's not ready. So we're just going to put it out right now. and whatever the damage is, we don't really care. So seeing that and the music, which I cannot stress enough,

I love it is by Trent Rezner and Atticus Ross from Nine-ish Nails. And it's like so droning and full of dread, but it also has like these melancholy notes. And it feels like what's coming. The music to me feels like this is happening. This is inevitable, whatever this is. And so I have this quote from IndyWire that I love, The Social Network is both a thrilling, queasy exploration of how Facebook came to be

and a searing indictment of what it would inevitably become. Yeah. Yeah. That is so true. And, you know, remember this movie came out in 2010. in the 2010s, we were still seeped in a certain kind of techno-optimism, right? Like, we still had this idea. Like, I think that Google, their motto was still, don't be evil,

a motto they would later officially drop. I guess their motto is like, a little evil is okay as a treat. But, you know, I think that this, you could have a little, you know, this movie, I think, really just cut through and gave us a different peak at what ultimately would be the future. I think a lot of media about technology and the climate around it was very positive at this time. I think this movie came in and was like, actually, the reality is going to be something a little, like, that sounds like a melancholy Trent Resner score.

It's not going to be that positive, actually. Yeah, and one of the things you said that also stuck out to me, and I found interesting reading reviews about this movie from 2010, was that there is this idea of, You know, we're the ones in power now. We're the ones making decisions. We're the ones deciding who comes into the club, what have you. And there is a very kind of like nerd versus athlete vibe.

And I love Erica's line where she says you're going to go your whole life thinking people hate you because you're a nerd, but it's actually because you're not. All time. All time I kind of line. I have to say, she handled that fantastically. That whole breakup scene. She says the kind of thing that you wish you could say in your head, and she actually says it. That's a line that would haunt me until I would be thinking about this. Somebody laid some shit like that on me.

I'd be thinking about it on my death bed. Yes, absolutely. Oh, so good. But one of the things that stuck out to me of watching this now, and there's a quote, I can never find it. I believe it was a John Oliver stand-up bit. But he was basically saying like nerds stop being so angry, you inherited the earth. You're like, I don't know why you're still having all of this rage when you're the ones that are controlling so many spaces and making so much money.

So that was kind of interesting to watch because a lot of the reviews at the time were saying that this movie was very anti-nerd. And I didn't get that take at all. I thought it was, if anything, sympathetic to Mark Zuckerberg. Like, not too sympathetic, but more sympathetic than I would think. I didn't think it was anti-nerd. I thought it was like, look at this poor guy. Can't get any friends. Yeah.

I mean, Sean Parker is like the nerd king in this movie who sleeps with Victoria's Secret models, always has drugs, always has young, probably cutting it close, young women around. That's actually based in some rumor that is not fictionalized. I cannot confirm nor deny, but you can do your own research there. But then in the end,

he also is somebody who cowers when Eduardo goes to punch him. He's somebody who has lots of allergies and asthma. Like the movie, I think the movie is trying to show a more complex portrait. I do agree with you that it's a more sympathetic, complex portrait than just like the nerds are bad.

The nerds aren't winning. The nerds are rich. The nerds control everything. The nerds are building their tech infrastructure. The nerds have all the power. And they're also pathetic. Like I think that's what it's trying to say. Yes.

Yes. I agree. I guess it's the lawyer at the end, I feel is the most sympathetic big. Otherwise, I wouldn't have noticed it at all. But when she's like, you're not an asshole. You're trying so hard to be. I was like, but maybe he is.

Maybe he feels like he has to be. And, you know, you put something in the outline that I hadn't thought about before, how in the movie, the only person who is trying to get in the way of this meteoric growth at all costs is Eduardo, Zuckerberg's good friend. And I do think it like,

I know how we treat people who are moderating voices, people who are like, let's pump the brakes, let's do more research. Here's research that I did showing that this thing is harmful. how tech spaces deeply marginalized and silence at best to those people. At worst, they do, like, that's the best, typically the best case scenario, those voices are silenced or marginalized.

And I think we see it in Eduardo. I think we see the voices who have anything other than move fast, break things, balls to the wall, do what needs to be done, win at all costs. Like anybody who might present any kind of challenge to that ethos is quickly,

labeled as a hostile enemy. Yes, and it reminds me of a lot of the conversations we've had about guardrails with AI. And Eduardo kept being like, you know, maybe is this legal? We've got a cease and desist letter. Like maybe just having all these concerns and being completely dismissed, which I have to say in the movie at least, Zuckerberg does not listen to anyone but Sean Parker, I suppose. But he just doesn't listen. He's just like on his own. wavelength. But it reminded me of how we've seen that in tech time and time again. Let's just

don't worry about that. We don't need to care about that. Not listening. Like I just reported recently on the scores of global women's groups and advocates begging Mark Zuckerberg and meta, not to put facial recognition technology in meta glasses, basically saying we already know from all this reporting about how meta glasses are already right now being used to harassed to rail and stalk women, right? That's going, that's happening now. If you add facial recognition technology,

you are going to supercharge this. This is going to be, you are going to be making it so much more dangerous. And like, first of all, obviously, like, I don't even, I don't even think that you would need to be a researcher to show that. But just the way that like, I've seen this movie before,

they're going to do it. And then they're going to be like, oopsie, we didn't know. Like, we need to like, oh. And it's like, no, you did know. You just didn't listen. You did know. You just decided to do it anyway because you saw a way to make more money and get more power.

So, yeah, I think, I think we're just seeing the same dynamic with Eduardo and guardrails in the way that meta moves today. Yeah. And that relates to something else that stuck out to me in this movie is when Sean Parker says, privacy is a time gone by, which felt so strange because that was in 2010. That was such a different time when it came to that when it comes to privacy. And now, because he's saying it more in the sense of he was very paranoid. People were following him. You know, somebody planted the cocaine.

It wasn't mine. How'd the Coke get in there? Do you think it was Eduardo? Or maybe it was Zuckerberg. I don't know. At the end, they make a very compelling case. Yes, I agree. But, you know, that idea of Zuckerberg hearing this person, he idolized having this, you know, privacy is the time gone by.

They're going to be trying to destroy you, trying to find anything to destroy you. And then him having this company that just erodes all of those privacy protections for everybody. Yeah, it erodes privacy protections. and figures out a way to turn people's data into a commodity that they benefit from and profit from. Like the scene early on when somebody comes up to Zuckerberg and he's like, do you know if so-and-so from your such-and-such class has a boyfriend?

And he's like, it's not like people wear a sign around their neck that says single or married or taken or interested. And he's like, oh, wait a minute, I should invent that. And then I would profit from it. Like privacy, and I agree with Sean Parker's assessment. like privacy is dead and people like Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker have figured out a way to cash in from the intimate parts of people's, of who people are. Like it's dead because they broke it to make money off of it. I did find it interesting because they try to portray Sean Parker as if he was just completely paranoid about these are the things that are happening.

And I'm like, actually, now that I look at it, if I had watched it, then I would have thought he was paranoid. watching it today, I was like, no, it was probably true. Part of that was probably true. They probably really were watching you, to be honest. Yeah, I don't think he was being. I mean, cocaine does make you paranoid. Right, right. I think he won't,

but he's not completely wrong. Yeah, I think he's, I don't think, what's the X-Files quote? Like, it's not paranoia if they actually are out to get you. Is that it? Like, yeah. Looking back, knowing where we are today without, like, 2010, I would have not guessed this is where we would be. Like, this is a 16 years.

down the road of like, wow, this is progressed in such a way. And looking up Sean Parker, because I was like, what's he up to today? Turns out he's an AI. All these guys are. Yeah, like, I'm like, he really jumped into everything. He jumped to the Spotify. He jumped into all these things knowing that, yeah, like he knew things were coming and he understood the groundwork.

But seeing all of this from that perspective to this. And then also linking to them, like, were they all on the Epstein list? Yes, because that group knew who these. kids were going to be at that time and who was going to be able to control what on top of when they had that conversation about Victoria's Secret. I thought that was a really interesting tidbit, not only because they were marketing off of like the bodies of women, but because this corporation took something and made it be like not a big deal into something giant that grew into this network that became really insidious

behind the scenes. and they are all linked together. It's such an, like, mind-blowing moment. I've seen that from the past. Speaking of Victoria's Secret, the person who was briefly mentioned at that scene when Parker is talking about Victoria's Secret, Lex Wexner, guess who Lex Wexner gave a significant portion

of his operations to run Jeffrey Epstein, including limited to a queen girl store. So when you talk about the ways in which these guys really did design what it meant to, like, what my girlhood felt like, looked like, what I existed in. That's, I mean, like, it, I mean, I cannot, I cannot overstate the level to which exactly as you said,

it is a connected network. Like, you know, Peter Thiel's funding it. Jeffrey Epstein's funding it. It's like they're all connected. And, you know, when we, when people say things like, oh, we need to like, you know, like all of this toxic stuff is baked in. This is what we mean. In my opinion, there is no reforming this.

We need to, the only way, like, we got to tear this system down because all of these things are built in by intention from the very beginning. So when I say that, I feel like sometimes it sounds like, you know, just a grandstand. But this is what I mean. I mean it very literally. Like when you look at the names that are being dropped, you look at the circles that they are in, how they brought people in, who in best at what to create this thing. Literally, they have Victoria's Secrets, where they have the models where these models are kind of filtered out to these young people who are like, I've always dreamed of dating

a model. Like it came, like, came into a network of like, what is happening on top of the fact of creating young girls' mindsets with these companies, like limited to Abercrombie and Fitch and Victoria Secret? We were very heavily influenced by what this was, femininity. And this was also being a successful woman is to be in these types of clothing to look like these types of people that was created by groups that also funded this and who are now in charge. Exactly. Yeah.

Another thing that we've been meaning to talk about this in an episode for a while, I don't think it's news to anybody, but is the kind of, you know, the male super genius who is an ass, you have to let him be an ass, because. he's a super genius. But not always. Like a lot of times there's a lot of mythos of that. And even if there isn't, I just don't think we should allow assholery against like people you work with, people who work for you just because you're a genius.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves in media. How often we have normalized the idea that if somebody is good at something, they get to treat others like crap and that oh well treating people like crap is actually why this cool thing happened no you can make good stuff without you don't have to be an asshole

and it's also very gendered because the research is very clear that we're much more likely to tell men that they are geniuses than women and so it's like who gets to just who gets to like who gets the runway to treat people like crap and then it's just fine

if the thing they're making is important or it makes a lot of money or it's a really good movie or a really good show. You know, I agree with you, Annie. I think that we've had so much media portraying, you know, these delicate male geniuses as people who shouldn't be allowed to do whatever they want

if it means that they build things that are good. I don't agree. I think that's a, I think that's like, that sentiment has done a world of bad, even if perhaps it is like, also maybe like lent itself to like a really good movie or something or a really cool platform. Yeah.

And also, a lot of these tech companies don't actually make money or haven't made money yet. But we're like, oh, yeah, no, he's a genius. He knows. And I'm like, does he? I don't know. We should be giving him that blank, blank check. I don't know. Oh.

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Think IHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Call 844-8. 4-4-Eheart to get started. That's 844-844-Eheart. I love the sounds. The buzzing from the stadium, the chanting from the fans,

the announcers calling the place soccer, football, at home. Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breed? I inherited that fandom from my mom. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force.

From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. We go beyond the game to the people and the stories that make it great. A soccer game is a festival. It's not just a game. It's your culture. I took an elbow to my head, which cracked my skull. It is an American game.

The Brazilians don't like hearing that, though. Are they the only ones that don't like that? Nobody likes that. As we get ready for the Men's World Cup this summer, listen to American Football as part of the My Coutura Podcast Network, available on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby.

Together, we're going to have meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people, like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartner depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. One of the other things I just briefly wanted to touch on is, does succeeding in a capitalist economy at this level necessarily involve backstabbing your friends, are using people only for what they offer you?

Because I feel like Zuckerberg in this movie is very much, I can use you for this and then I'm going to drop you. I can use you for this and then I'm going to drop you. And he has this whole, he wants to be cool. He wants Facebook to be cool and exclusivity vibe. But I don't know. There was just something about how I saw that in all of his relationships, whatever they might be. be of, you know what, I'm going to get what I need out of you and then I'm going to drop you because Facebook is my life and that's it. He certainly did it to Cheryl Sandberg in my opinion.

You know, Cheryl Sandberg came on as the first ever COO at Facebook. She came on at a time when there was a lot of bad press, a lot of bad behavior, a lot of wrongdoing. And the sense was, oh, we were bringing in a woman to sort of be the adult in the room for Mark. And Mark got a lot of cachet out of that of like, oh, well, don't worry about my erratic decision making and erratic behavior and like bad business practices. There's a woman around who is supposed to be helping when Cheryl, so like she came to Facebook with like so much fanfare. She wrote Leanin. It was like the book that was supposed to be a defining book of like what it meant for women in the workplace, yada, yada, yada. Cut to her leaving Facebook with hardly even a peep. There was like very little

fanfare. And then in the early days of the second Trump administration, Zuckerberg completely threw her under the bus. He met with the Trump administration and said, oh yeah, all of that content moderation and fact checking and diversity stuff, I wasn't into any of it. All of that stuff was Cheryl Sandberg.

You know how women are? And there was a little bit of like PR dark arts where she were like he made a Facebook post about like, no, actually we respect Cheryl Sanberg. didn't walk back any of the things that he said about all that stuff being, quote, her fault. But it just goes to show.

Like, he is somebody who will, when he needed to signal to people that the company had a woman in charge who was a grown up, who was moderating him. Cheryl Sandberg was his ride or die. When the tide turned and Trump wanted, you know, there to be less diversity, less inclusivity, less guardrails, he threw her under the bus so quickly. And so I think if you asked Mark Zuckerberg that you should be using people only for what they offer you and people who are in his orbit should understand that that runway is very short.

That is not what I believe. I think that you, if he wants to be cool, I don't think ditching your friends is cool. But I also do think, like, I'm not even really sure how to describe this, but like we are at a time today where acting like this has been rebranded as cool. When I was coming up,

the cool kids stuck by their friends. The cool kids had values. They had morals. They had backbones. I think today what we've repackaged as cool and sold it to a generation of young men and boys is you are a lone wolf. You are an alpha. Money over everything. Your success over everything.

You are not part of a community. You don't even need to think about stuff like that. The only thing that matters is cash and power. And so like I guess I hate to say it, but I feel like Mark Zuckerberg was kind of on the upswing of this wave of that. new sentiment that I do think is very commonplace today, I guess. Does that make sense? Yes.

I completely agree. One of the things I was thinking about when I was rewatching this was, I think the first, because you can join Facebook and not know who Zuckerberg is, especially in the early days. So I didn't know who he was, but I think the first time I heard about him was some news piece about how he I don't know wore sandals at a meeting and like wore t-shirts and it was like oh he's changing the game and like it was such a

look at him he's a maverick and it that has stuck I was thinking about how you know in Silicon Valley now it is kind of the the office has got to slide and like it's a very the impact he had I think of that mentality of that kind of,

I'm a lone wolf, I'm an alpha, I think has had a really lasting impact and you can see it reflected in a bunch of other companies. Oh, yes. And I think it's important to note, like, who kind of gets away with that because I don't think if I, if like a founder that looks like me rolled in

wearing a bonnet, I think they might feel very differently about it. But even look at people, like Elizabeth Holmes, she very intentionally styled herself to look bad. Like she, this is a known thing. She intentionally styled her hair to look undone to signal to people like, oh, I'm the kind of founder that's way too busy focused on my business to worry about things like brushing my hair or proper hair care.

And so you see how like this just becomes another piece of artifice to build your mythos around. Like that scene where Zuckerberg shows up to a hearing in pajamas or, you know, something or like sweats, I think. It's like, it just becomes, they're like, oh, this is, I must being my authentic self, but not really.

You're actually using this as a kind of artifice or costume to signal something to others about you. So like, it's not even any more authentic than somebody who wears a suit to signal that they're professional, you know? Yeah, because this whole thing was like, I'm breaking the rules. I'm not.

A maverick. Exactly, but you're not really breaking the rule. You are the whole thing. thing now. Well, he also had to make sure he had to thumb the authority in some way. And like me, like his whole speech about, I'm not paying attention to you. I'm giving you the minimal attention that I have to because I'm here. But to understand, I don't want to because I think you're irrelevant.

I think this is irrelevant as well as the way he dressed. This is not, this is all for show. And I'm better than y'all. Like, this is that continuation of having to prove himself beyond his, like, making sure that he's meeting his worth and meeting their worth. And he needs them to know where they stand because he's so effing and secure. Like this level of understanding of who he is because he has to establish himself somehow. And this is the only way he can have power.

We still see it today in hearings when Zuckerberg is like hauled before Senate or Congress for inquiries in hearings. I think that it is that exact personality dynamic where I'm better than you. I don't have to answer to you. I have seen him try to moderate that because I think that really is who he is. He really does think that he's better than everybody, smarter than everybody, should not have to,

why should he have to answer to anybody? Why should he have to answer about people that he's harmed, women and girls that he's harmed? Why should he? Who are you to be asking him questions? You know, you're just a senator, but, and I've seen in hearings, in my opinion,

him trying to moderate what I think is his natural inclination toward disdain for others. Yeah. On the side note, there was a random moment of like that popped up. As an Asian person, I'm not going to, as an Asian woman specifically, I wouldn't have very much noticed this. Because in my mind, I thought Brenda Song, who plays one of the girlfriends and the character, Eduardo's girlfriend. I thought she was actually the wife that Mark Zuckerberg eventually marries. Oh, Sean Zuckerberg?

Yes. I had no idea who she was actually the wife. was because I'd never seen the movie. I just knew there was an Asian woman in there, and I have really thought this was going to be the revelation of, like, his wife. But then the conversation came in about how Asian girls who can't dance like nerdy Jewish boys, they are like attracted to each other. And then all these things that I was like, oh, what is happening? And then knowing later on that Mark Zuckerberg does have an Asian wife that I'm like, there's something odd in this conversation. I don't know what Sorkin was thinking

in putting this specific scene and then predicting like he getting married to this Asian woman who, by the way, is a philanthropist as well as a pediatrician. Like, what the hell? I'm so glad you brought this up and I feel like the movie is trying to say something

or do something as it pertains to Asian women. What are your thoughts on how Asian women are portrayed in this film? Well, obviously between her being super crazy as he notes and she sets fire to his bed, essentially. And then also that they are so fetishized by a whole community,

which I had gotten that line from a Jewish dude one time that tends that to me. I kind of was like, what? I've never heard this. Is this your pickup line for me? Because I got to go. Like, it was a weird moment. But now that I've seen this movie, I'm like, oh, maybe that's where he got it from. I don't know.

But all of that to say is, like, it felt very much like in this realm of worlds, like there is, first of all, women are not respected in any way. There are secondary characters. Obviously, the secretary, we saw that with the girlfriends, with the groupies, as they called them, and then with a girlfriend, like all of these things. And even Anne from Parks and Rec, what's her real name? Rashida Jones. Thank you.

I know Rashida Jones. Even her placement, even though she was a little more significant, they were all their secondary characters to fulfill this narrative that the men were all in playing for power, that it was interesting. Of course, like, there would be a fetishized person, but immediately had to be an Asian woman, and I felt like it was targeted. But I can't really grasp it,

but I obviously very much noted it. That was my sense to, honestly, as much as I love this movie, I think the movie's, the thread of race only really, like, other than Asian women, like, race is present because they're all like upper crust white folks

and it's certainly very exclusive to non. white's but the only real way that race is handled is through these Asian women and I think it was a little clunky like I think I think that like they're going for something and I don't think it was fully explored so it just comes off as like what are they trying to say here right oh you really was like that very throwaway line the very throwaway characters that it was just kind of like what is what is this supposed to be a joke in this movie at the expense of these women well I yeah And I didn't know that about Mark Zuckerberg. I actually was going to ask about his current relationship status.

To bring up a Facebook term, I didn't know. It is interesting to me that that was the thing that when he heard, Dustin was the one who asked, you know, do you know if this girl is single? That's when Mark had the idea of like, oh, we'll add relationship status. And that's when it's done. Yeah. Because that, yeah, it is, I mean, that is a big part of college life. But just to go back to that whole, this was rooted in misogyny.

But it's also interesting because they also hit on the point that they became descriptors. Facebook me. Facebook me called me. Like, I'll friend you. Like, they were so excited by that. And then also that whole, like, why is your status single? And that was such a big deal at the beginning of Facebook. like to say your Facebook official.

Yes. It's relevant. It was relevant. Did you ever do the thing where you became like, I'm like in a relationship with a friend of yours or a buddy of yours for some reason? No. I think I put it's complicated one. Yeah.

I wanted to see what it would do. You did it's complicated. There was no one there. It's complicated. I'm single. Okay, that's fair. It's actually not complicated. Yeah.

but yeah, but yeah, no. Did you do this, Bridgett? Did you do that? Oh, yeah, this was like, I don't know why it was like you would, you would become in like a complicate, because like you could also tag a friend or it would be like, Bridget Todd is in a complicated relationship with such and such, like, I would do that with my friends for some reason.

I don't know why. Don't even ask me why. But like, to your point, I do think the movie, one of the undercurrents of the film is how, just how much of, just like you were saying, Sam, that how we understand and talk about digital relationships and behaviors was started by Facebook.

Like, this is a small, a small scene, but it really stuck with me. While all the lawsuit stuff is going on, Zuckerberg is still in school at Harvard, and he's trying to prep for an art history final, and he does it by starting a Facebook group with an alias, posting pictures and then asking people to comment.

And he's like, oh, yeah, I just pop in every now and then, and leave an incidiary comment to stir the pot to keep the conversation going. And I feel like that really mirrors our current tech landscape where, you know, incendiary content gets better engagement than other types of content bots

and like conflict entrepreneurs are able to just like manipulate people into giving engagement to these platforms and just, you know, putting money in people's pockets. I'm like, it's such a small thing. But that one little seed would go goes on to be a significant. part of the experience of being online today in 2026, which is fascinating to me.

Yeah. Also, side note, I don't know if your colleges were like this, but the one I went to were very clear that if you invented anything at the college while you were a student, they owned it. So... Really? Yes. Absolutely. So people drop out.

So that makes sense. Yeah. People drop out if they thought the head idea. The only thing, I mean, the only thing. that came, I mean, I invented some unique ways to smoke weed out of devices. Some interesting water pipes.

East Carolina University call me. Oh, no. Some interesting paraphernalia and other devices for debauchery were definitely invented. They've got the rights. That's amazing.

Oh, no, Bridget. I'm curious just briefly, because I know you have worked with Facebook. How is it watching this movie as somebody who's kind of worked with them? Oh, what a good question. I would say my work with platforms was like meeting with them and being like, your platform is harming women in XYZ kind of way.

There's a better way to do it. What do you say? Some platforms would be more receptive than others. I would say Facebook was probably. Actually, this was before Elon Musk bought Twitter. now Ivan Mosca, or X is definitely the world would be the worst. But like, back then I would say Facebook was the most challenging because all of this stuff is really entrenched.

Like they would take the meeting. They would like listen to the presentation and all of that. But like nothing really ever got done. And I guess it was, it's, it's, I don't want to sound too cynical, but I do believe that like Facebook is a platform where they're just not, they're just, they just don't think about this kind of stuff the same way that you or I might. I don't think that they, you know, like when you, like when you, taking it back to the way the company was founded

and the origin, it's no surprise that they are so hostile to even the implication that their platform should be a place that is not hostile to women. Like I think that like, it's just not terribly surprising to take it back to the origin and be like, oh yeah, well,

this is like their bread and butter. Why wouldn't they want to make a space that's not hostile to women? Right, right. Well, we could go on and on. I know. Are there any, like, final thoughts you wanted to share Bridget. Well, I'm really excited about the sequel. Yes.

The social reckoning. I did read it. So I've been calling it a sequel, but I read that Sorkin has described that as a companion piece rather than a sequel. And it's, I do feel like the social network is the seed that was planted. We're like, hey, these guys are all massive misogynists.

And I'm hopeful that the social reckoning will be like the flower that bloom. It's really, according to Sorkin, it really focused. This is on Facebook whistleblower Francis Howgan, who we know revealed so much about how Facebook knowingly harmed women and girls based on the 2021 Wall Street Journal Exposé of Facebook files. And so if the social network is like, Zuckerberg really was a misogynist who his personal animus

and difficulties with women led him to build Facebook, I am hoping that this movie is like, and here's what that means for your daughter. Here's what that means for the women and girls in your life today. Yeah, when you told us that that was the topic they were going to be handling, I was like, oh, that's going to be intense. You're definitely going to have to come back for that, Bridget, when we have our reactions.

Oh, yes. Go ahead and put it on your calendar. The movie's coming out in October, so I will be back. Okay, perfect. Perfect. Well, thank you so much. This was so much fun. I can't wait to continue this series.

We'll come up with a good name for it. But, you know, movies about tech. It's going to be fun. Because this also was kind of the start of, like, a lot of the shows and movies around Silicon Valley. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a lot for us we could tackle.

But in the meantime, Bridget, where can the good listeners find you? You can listen to my podcast so there are no girls on the internet. You can find me on Instagram at Bridget, Marie, D.C., and on threads also at Bridgett, Marie, D.C. Big Zuckerberg. It is always so strange, isn't it, when we do these episodes and then at the end of like, you can find me on there. Yeah, well, thank you so much, Bridget.

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