There Are No Girls on the Internet - Taylor Swift vs AI Scams; Epstein friendship w Peter Thiel; Andrew Tate loses lawsuit - NEWS ROUNDUP

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

There Are No Girls on the Internet is an independent media company covering tech, power, and who gets left out. We produce a weekly podcast, viral social content, and in-depth reporting on the tech stories that matter — especially the ones that don't get enough attention. Host Bridget Todd and her producer Mike have been covering these issues for over decade. Bridget's forthcoming audiobook with Simon & Schuster, Love At First Prompt, explores AI, sex, and intimate relationships. Pre-order it at LoveAtFirstPrompt.ai. If you found us through our Instagram carousel, welcome! Here's everything we covered this week with links to the original reporting: 🔗 A man sued his female JPMorgan boss for sexual coercion. It went viral, AI harassment videos followed, and the lawsuit has since been pulled from court records. AI-generated videos recreating the allegations spread on X before anyone verified a single fact. More on the AI component here. 🔗 Taylor Swift is trademarking her own voice because AI scams are out of control Scammers are using AI-generated versions of celebrities to steal people's personal information — and the platforms aren't stopping it. 🔗 Cops are using Flock surveillance cameras to stalk their exes A new Institute for Justice report found at least 14 cases of police abusing license plate readers to track romantic interests. 🔗 A university destroyed an Asian American scientist's career in a racist federal witch hunt that found nothing Jane Wu's family is speaking out one year after her death and has filed a lawsuit against Northwestern. NBC News coverage here. 🔗 Men built a business turning women's Instagram photos into AI porn — and taught other men how to do it Three Arizona men sold a course teaching subscribers how to scrape and sexualize women's photos. Three women are now suing. 🔗 A new UN report found AI is making online violence against women dramatically worse Nearly a quarter of female journalists surveyed have been diagnosed with anxiety or depression because of it. 🔗 The Oscars just banned AI actors and AI-written scripts from winning awards The Academy's strongest stance yet on AI in film. 🔗 Andrew Tate sued Meta for banning him and lost A federal judge threw out his $50 million lawsuit. The First Amendment doesn't apply to private companies. 🔗 New reporting reveals how close Peter Thiel and Jeffrey Epstein really were Private emails show Epstein was actively coaching Thiel on how to get embedded in Trump world. 🔗 A murder suspect allegedly used ChatGPT to research how to dispose of a body. OpenAI had no comment. Prosecutors allege he asked ChatGPT about disposing of a body three days before two doctoral students went missing. New to the show? Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow Bridget on Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Bluesky See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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as a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. You know how I know that this audience, these listeners, the people listening to my voice right now, really get me and see me. Mike, do you want to know how I know that is the case? I do because that sounds like a really nice way to feel. It is a nice way to feel,

and the reason I am so sure of it is because, no less than five different people via Spotify comments, emails, DMs, just general reachouts, have asked me what I think about Lena Dunham's new memoir, famed sick. And the fact that Lena Dunham has a new memoir out and that people knew enough to be like, what does Bridget think about it, how she read it, is it on her radar? That makes me feel very seen. And it makes me feel like y'all really get what I'm about. You know the Who Weekly tens of people want to know what's Rita up to?

To answer the fives of people who asked me about this, yes, Lita Dunham's new memoir, FAMSIC is on my radar. Yes, I have it. Yes, I am reading it. And yes, I intend to do an episode about it. Well, Bridget, I'm glad that you address this because people have been asking. And hopefully this puts a little bit of it to rest, or at least people's anxieties to rest. How are you going to approach this? Okay, so this is where I need to do a little bit of pre-homework, I guess you could call it, and I need the listeners help.

So I'm in the middle of the book. I have lots of thoughts. I'm not even near Dunham. I already have lots of thoughts. The question that I want to pose to the audience is this. We could do a deep dive episode about Lena Dunham. You know I've already done a two-part deep dive into Lena Dunham and allegations around whether or not Lena Dunham did something horrible to her sibling. Spoiler alert, she did not.

So I fully intend to do an episode about this book as kind of a follow-up. However, this is the question for the listeners. Would you rather me do a solo or even with a guest deep dive kind of celebrity, memoir book club style where we're just going deep on Lena Dunham, going deep on this memoir, or would you rather me try to get Lena Dunham as a guest to talk about the memoir? Because I think I could get her. Because like I, we used to sort of travel in like similar-ish circles. She's done, she's doing the media circles right now.

She was just doing a thing with a podcast I love Who Weekly that I quoted earlier. I think this is an achievable goal if people want to hear from her. Okay, wow. So this is like a Choose Your Own Adventure Tangoti kind of episode. Yes. I've kind of gone back and forth. I do think booking her would take some like a little bit of elbow grease, but I got it in me. I think it's an achievable goal.

But also sometimes when there's like a juicy memoir, sometimes you want to hear a podcast episode about it where the author is not there. Right? Like sometimes you can really like, I don't know, be more candid. There are probably opinions that I have that I would not want to say in front of the person who was like in front of me, you feel me?

Oh, yeah. It would be a very different episode if she is like part of it. Partably because of the way that you just approach the show and guests in general of wanting guests to feel comfortable, you know, just a very different approach than if it's a sort of third party talking about somebody.

So I get that. But it would be pretty cool to have her on the pod. You think you could get her, huh? I think I could get her. And the comparison I'll give is when Lindy West was making the rounds for her memoir. I listened to a bunch of podcasts about it. And we made a podcast episode about it. I listened to episodes of podcasts that I really like where she was the guest.

And I do, they were good episodes. Like, I think Lindy West is like an interesting person. But I think the episodes where Lindy was not a guest and the whole, host had clearly done a deep dive into the book and her work were like meatier for me. So if I'm going to say like which style of podcast episode I personally feel like I got more out of and like benefited more from and felt more nourished from, it was the ones that did not include Lindy West. So that kind of makes sense.

Yeah. Okay. So it sounds like maybe that's where you're leaning then. I don't know. I want to, I genuinely I want to hear from the listeners. I will, I will, I am but a humble servant. We'll tally up for the five, for the, for the, for the, for the, for the fives of people who wrote in about this, we will count one, two, three, four five. It's a, it's not an even number.

So we'll be able, they'll be, there'll be a clear consensus. So let us know, you can leave it in the Spotify comments. You can email us at hello at tangoini.com. You can DM me on Instagram at Bridgett, Marine, D.C. You can skeet at me. Are we still calling that, calling it that? You can blue sky at me. I don't think we are.

No, I think it's only per. who are still calling them skis. Okay. Well, you perverts can speed at me. Oh, that sounds horrible. Everybody else can blue sky post me. You can thread to me. Whatever way of getting in contact with me that you have.

And we will do whatever. And if having Lena Dunham on the podcast is what wins, it might take a little bit longer because I actually produced an episode of a podcast that she was a guest on and like getting schedules aligned and this and that like was a lot. And so, you know, it might be, it might take a little. little bit of time, but I will do my damnness to make it happen if that's the will of the people. It's just so responsive for the will of the people. I love it. All right, Bridget, what have we got for this week's News Roundup? Well, speaking of Lena Dunham, remember when she was BFFs with Taylor Swift

and was it part of Taylor Swift's Girl Squad that would come up on stage during concerts? Oh, yeah. That was like quite a while ago. There have been so many Taylor Swift and separately Lena Dunham arcs since then. That is right. So Taylor Swift, I've said this before, she comes up a lot on the podcast. She, how, like, like, I don't know what it is about Taylor Swift. There is something where she just intersects with technology quite a bit. Y'all might recall that even before GROC was a thing, even before earlier this year when GROC was being used to generate just a flood of non-consensual AI generated deepfakes, AI generated images of Taylor Swift went violent. on X. So it makes sense now that Taylor Swift is taking legal steps to protect herself from this

kind of AI exploitation. And for her, that includes filing three trademark applications this week, one covering a recognizable concert photo of her holding a guitar wearing this, I guess, this iconic for her, like, pink, I don't know, like shimmery rhinestone dress. And then two other trademarks for her voice specifically saying these two frames. Hey, it's Taylor Swift and hey, it's Taylor. She's trademarking those phrases. Okay. Why is she trying to do that?

Can she do that? And like, why did she want to? She can, and she is. And the reason that she's trying to do that specifically is to try and combat celebrity AI scams. This is, this timing is not a coincidence. According to this new report from the AI detection company copy leaks, Scammers on TikTok have been running these sponsored ads that use deep fake versions of recognizable celebrities,

so Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian to promote fake rewards programs. Basically, these ads run AI-generated versions of these celebrities in what look like a talk show or a red carpet setting, where these celebrities are supposedly pitching a TikTok pay program that promises anybody can make money just from, watching videos and sharing feedback about those videos. Unsurprisingly, it is a scam, y'all. Don't fall for it. When you click it, you're directed to a third-party site that basically just prompts you to hand over all of your personal information.

Wow, so there's not a way that people can get paid to watch social media videos on, like, TikTok. I am shocked. I'm shocked. Yeah, even if Taylor Swift tells you, and she's like, hey, it's Taylor Swift. I've got a great opportunity for you. it's not legit. Even if that was a real job, that would be the saddest job

I might be able to imagine. Just like staring at your phone, watching brain rot AI slot videos all day. Oh, I feel like I could do it. I feel like I could excel at a job. You'd be a top performer. I do it for free sometimes.

Like a sucker, I'm doing it. I'm not even getting paid from Taylor-Switrethor Rihanna. It might be one of those things Once they start paying you, it loses all appeal. Maybe that's how we can help people get over social media addiction, if it is real. So the thing is, it's not just this, like, one AI celebrity Taylor Swift scam, and it's really not even about Taylor Swift. This is all part of a broader and growing problem with these kinds of scams on social media.

The FTC has reported that these kind of scams are surging right now. Can you guess which platform is the leader in these kinds of scams? Does their name rhyme with Facebook? It does. It does. Wow, I can't believe you figured it out. They are the leader. And just last week, a consumer nonprofit sued meta saying the company has been profiting by letting scam ads, the kind of thing that we've talked about in a previous news roundup run rampant on its platforms. And it basically has been.

Like, all the reporting is like, yes, Facebook is making money from these ads for these kinds of AI-generated scams. They have AI scams where it's like an AI. Elon Musk that is like, click here for my financial and investing advice. And surprise, surprise, it's not actually Elon Musk giving you financial advice, although I would have put it past him. So obviously, this move from Taylor Swift is only protective of Taylor Swift's likeness and voice and those two phrases that she's trademarking. However, I do think that these scams are kind of using celebrities like Taylor Swift to target regular people who are then getting their personal information stolen by like a fake Taylor Swift or a fake Rihanna. And so platforms are not only not

doing anything about it or not fixing it. In the case of meta, they're actually profiting from the ads for these scams. And so I guess I kind of say like good for Taylor Swift for trying to make it so that people are not just getting scammed by AI Taylor Swift over and over again. However, not everybody can file this kind of trademark, this kind of piecemeal solution that is only really accessible to people who have money and time and attorneys doesn't do it for me. Like we deserve an internet landscape where regular people are not being served up by our digital platforms to be taken advantage of and exploited by these kinds of scams. Totally agree. This kind of solution is not available to normal people, to

regular people who don't have teams of lawyers. And it's not like these phrases that she's trademarking, hey, it's Taylor, are some sort of like, super special thing. It's just her name, right? Like having to use trademark law to protect her own name for being used and scams impersonating her. It just seems ridiculous. And like you say, it really highlights the extent to which ordinary non-famous, non-wealthy people

just don't have access to protections against these sort of very basic scams targeting or identity. And I guess, you know, nobody is trying to use my identity to sell people on video scams. But there are plenty of other types of scams where ordinary people's identities aren't hijacked every day. And wouldn't it be nice if we had some protections that applied to everybody that were available to everyone to not have their identity impersonated? Yeah. Wouldn't it be nice? Okay. So, you know that we keep our foot on the surveillance camera company Flock's neck on this podcast.

Oh, yeah. So it's my new pastime. So Flock is this network of surveillance cameras and license plate readers that are used by both cities and police. We've talked about how they were used to surveil gymnastics classes and the pool in Georgia, how they almost got an innocent woman in real legal trouble simply because flock cameras showed her driving through a town where a package theft also happened to have happened, and how flock cameras were used to track down a woman who police say they were considering charging for a crime after they suspected that she had an abortion.

And just how they are a creepy system of consumer-funded mass surveillance that has been very effectively packaged and sold back to us as like, good for us, safe for us, good for your safety. They solve crimes. They keep community safe. Yes. That is one of the parts about it that I've had most objectionable. Like, I get it that the Uber capitalists and elites want to establish a system of mass surveillance to keep tabs on everybody. But the idea that, like, ordinary people are funding it by buying these things and setting them up in their own homes, contributing to this system of just mass cameras.

and microphones all over the country that law enforcement can just tap into pretty much whenever they want, definitely without any sort of warrant. It blows my mind that people are contributing to this thing. So why are they in the news this week, Bridget? Well, new reason to hate flock just dropped,

and that is a report from the Institute of Justice. They found that there are already 14 cases across the country where cops are alleged to have used camera systems like flock automated license plate readers or A-L-P-R, that's what Flock is, to follow spouses, exes, and even complete strangers. Yeah, of course. Why is that not surprising, right? Anytime there's some sort of surveillance system that people are flagging like, hey, there might be the potential for abuse here.

It's almost a sure bet that the first abusive use case is going to be somebody spying on their domestic partners or people in their immediate life? Yes. Nearly all of these officers were criminally charged and lost their jobs either by resigning or getting fired when their use of this kind of technology to stalk their exes and wives and partners and strangers was revealed. And it goes back to what you were saying. Surveillance technology and the creeping rise of this kind of technology being normalized both by police for law enforcement reasons and by cities and towns and municipalities is a gendered issue because men are already using it to track and surveil the women in their lives. And not even the women in their lives. Some of these women were just strangers that these cops just saw and was like,

that girl's pretty. Good thing I have access to this camera that will give me real-time information about her whereabouts as she goes around the city, this stranger. You know how every love story starts that way? So as futurism reports that this timing is striking, with the majority of stalking cases coming after 2024, the year when Flock initiated a massive expansion into over 4,000 U.S. cities, side note, if you're listening to this and you're like, maybe this story doesn't have anything to do with me, look up your city because it's entirely possible that your city has some sort of a contract with Flock. Though Flock claims to have internal safeguards that prevent this kind of abuse, the bulk of the 14 cases were uncovered by the victims as opposed to the company or internal police investigations.

So it's basically like that same thing that we saw in Georgia where a parent had to do a FOIA request on Flock cameras that were in his community while the city was deciding whether or not to renew the contract with Flock. That FOIA request showed that Flock staff had been accessing these. cameras inside places like the gymnastics class and the pool, but the city ultimately did renew that contract. So again, it's not like flock is coming forward or the police are coming forward. These people are just finding out themselves that they have been, you know, stalked or surveilled in this completely fucked up way by law enforcement using flock cameras. And it is honestly terrifying. And if that's the main way that we are learning about these cases, That suggests that there are many other cases that we don't know about, that people don't know about because the people who are the targets of this surveillance haven't done the FOIA request to be able to discover that they were a target.

Futurism reports about one of these cases in Milwaukee were an eight-year veteran of the police department allegedly used flock to track not only his romantic partner, but also that romantic partner's ex almost 180 times over. over just two months. And the two victims only became aware of this because they looked up their license plates on the auditing site, Have I BeenFlocked.com? Two other Wisconsin officers were accused of using flock in stocking in the past year. In Manasha, Wisconsin, an officer was placed on leave and charged with misconduct in office after his ex-girlfriend filed a complaint with another police department. In another part of Wisconsin, a sheriff's deputy resigned after internal investigations found that he used the department's flock system to keep tabs on a co-worker that he was romantically involved with. That sheriff's office, even though he resigned, still gave him

severance pay. So taxpayers just paying for this guy's severance. In at least one instance, an officer used flock to stalk a stranger that they wanted to pursue romantically. And earlier this year in Florida, a sheriff's deputy allegedly used flocked to track and eventually pull over a woman that he met while providing security on a television set. He probably thought it was cool. I bet that these guys thought that they were doing some kind of a grand romantic gesture and not something incredibly fucking invasive and creepy, right? Like, oh, I was moonlighting on this television set.

And I met this woman, didn't catch your name. So what did I do? I pulled her over a week later using Flok's license plate reading technology. I guarantee you he thought she was going to think that was a meat cue. The fact that these are the people who are sensibly meant to be keeping women safe, and this is how they're tweeting women, should really tell you a lot. Also, keep in mind that this list does not include the police who use flock to harass strangers, which frankly they also be doing, like the Georgia police chief who was arrested for using flock data

to stalk and harass multiple unidentified people. Basically, it's almost like if we give the police unlimited access to anyone they want using this technology, they can access it without a warrant or any kind of meaningful paper trail, surely they won't use it to abuse, stalk, and harass the women in their lives. Yeah, it's an absurd proposition that so much power and information could be made available to so many people without any meaningful checks on them. And of course some are going to use it. I don't know that we have a whole lot of listeners who work in law enforcement,

but if, you know, we have a lot of listeners, and so maybe there's some, and I can imagine they might be annoyed and frustrated by this story because I think probably most of them don't do this kind of stuff. But when you've got such a huge system at such scale, making it available to so many people, of course, like, whatever the opposite of cream is, is going to like rise to the top and take advantage of it. It's just like too much power to not have meaningful checks on it. Yeah.

I'm heated. Let's take a quick break for me to cool down. My SUV is worth more than ever. Time to upgrade? There's never been a better time. At Plaza Auto Group locations get top value for your trade and shop hundreds of new and pre-owned vehicles across 11 locations. And if you can't come to us, we'll come to you.

With best in class pricing, unbeatable trade values, and 70 years of trust, it's easy to see why families choose the Plaza Auto Group. Plaza Auto Group, celebrating 70 years family owned and operated. Visit Plaza Auto Group.com. 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, I hearts 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 844-8-4-4-I-Hart. 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 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 MyCultura 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 IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, we are back. And I have to give a trigger warning on the top of this story for death by suicide.

This story out of Northwestern is absolutely heartbreaking. And I think it really shows the human cost of some of the more in draconian policies coming out of this presidential administration. So I want to tell you about Jane Wu. She was a Chinese American neuroscientist who spent nearly two decades. building out a career at Northwestern University, where she was a principal investigator on 31 NIH-funded research projects. For people who maybe aren't, like, super familiar with the academic research world, 31 is a big number for NIH-funded research projects.

That is an impressive career. Yes, I'm glad that you added that, since that's sort of the world that you come from. Yeah, that's right, you know. I could only aspire to be a principal investigator on 31 NIH-funded research projects. That is a truly impressive CV. So in May of 2024, Wu's lab was suddenly shut down in the middle of a federal investigation into her alleged ties to China. She was never charged with anything. She was 60 years old.

And a few months later, she died by suicide. Now her family is subing Northwestern University, arguing that the university, arguing that the University pushed her out, had her involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility, and kept on punishing her even after investigators found nothing. They say all of this contributed directly to her death. This week marks one year since she died and her daughter, Elizabeth Rao, is speaking out publicly about this for the first time. So here's the background of what happened here. So back in 2019, during the first Trump administration, NIH started to look into Wu's international research contacts as part of this sweeping effort to so-called root out foreign influence at American

research institutions. What I find interesting there is that, you know, today in 2026, we're, like, we're very used to the idea that the Trump administration is, like, undergoing these very invasive over-the-top efforts to root out anything that they deem as, like, essentially anything that's, like, not white men, essentially, like white, straight men. This kind of thing seems commonplace now. I feel like in 2019, it wasn't getting a lot of coverage. It really wasn't. And they weren't doing it as effectively as they are now.

It is worth reflecting on how quickly we have come into this new world where the Trump administration and the worst people are controlling things like, NIH and NSF and taking all of that apparatus that used to fund some of the best science in the world and are really

bending it towards their own political ends and making capricious decisions like this that ruin people's careers just for xenophobic and racist reasons. Exactly. So it is xenophobia and racism.

Wu's international collaborators were spread out across multiple countries. So China was among them, but also Britain, Canada, Argentina, and other. So to be clear, nothing ever came of this investigation. She didn't do anything wrong. No charges were ever filed. But Northwestern sounds like just like did not let it go. According to this lawsuit, the university continued restricting her work even after this

probe concluded, limiting her lab access, breaking up her research team, and reassigning her grants to white male colleagues. Then in December 2023, Northwestern was formally notified that the investigation into Wu had closed. And yet, five months later, they still shut down her lab with no explanation given. The dean of the medical school had already cut her salary and added new conditions that she was going to have to meet if she wanted to get back to her funded research. So this is where stuff really gets, like, if that's not already horrifying, this is where stuff really takes a turn. So understandably, the stress of all of this, basically being accused of being like an agent of a hostile adversary, was a lot for her. Her health started to take a serious toll.

She suffered a stroke and was showing signs of depression. The lawsuit says that the university used her understandably not great emotional state as a justification to have her physically, as in people put hands on her and put her in handcuffs. removed from her office in handcuffs by law enforcement and then had her forcibly admitted to a psychiatric facility without ever notifying her family or consulting with any outside doctors. Two weeks after she was released from that psychiatric facility that they put her in, she died by suicide. What a horrible, sad story.

It's really hard for me to see this in isolation. In 2018, again, under the first iteration of the Trump administration, NIH started sending letters to universities asking them to investigate grant recipients with any kind of tie to China. Most of them were of Chinese descent. By 2020, lawmakers were investigating both NIH and the FBI over what critics called the racial profiling of Asian scientists. Several of these cases that became pretty high profile ended in acquittals at the time. including Gang Chen at MIT, who was arrested in 2021 and had his case dropped entirely in 2022. When Chen was going through this ordeal, MIT provided legal support and financial support,

and his colleagues all rallied around him with this now famous letter that closed with the phrase, we are all gang Chen. So, conversely, Wu's lawsuit alleges that she received no such support, from Northwestern. And the broader academic community is taking notice. Earlier this year, more than a thousand academics from across the country signed a letter demanding that Northwestern apologized, accusing the school of disregarding the basic principle of innocent until proven guilty. And that letter went to the university president and the dean of the medical school. What a terrible story. What has the university had to say about its behavior in this case? Not a ton. Northwestern says that their, you know, their heart goes out to whose family.

but they flat out deny the allegations and they plan to seek the dismissal of this suit in court. And Wu's daughter, Elizabeth, says that she hopes this lawsuit delivers justice for her mom and just basically wants to make sure that nothing like this happens to another scholar again. This was somebody who had 40 years in science. As you noted above, she had a kind of storied career as a scientist that a lot of scientists would hope to have. and she's being treated like a suspect, like an adversary, simply because of where she was born and really had all of these things that she spent her life building

taken away from her. And I, yeah, like, this is the human cost of what these kinds of racist xenophobic policies actually look like in practice. Speaking of terrible people doing terrible things years ago that are still haunting us, today, what's new with Peter Thiel? Oof, do I have some Peter Thiel tea for you?

We have talked about Peter Thiel quite a bit on this podcast. Billionaire, super villain, funder of right-wing extremist causes, builder of tech, founder of PayPal. Great place to mention our old nemesis, the Hallow app, haven't forgotten about y'all. Teal is one of the funders of the Hallow Prayer app. Well, Teal also maintained a closer relationship with convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein than we previously knew, thanks to new reporting from Jacqueline. Here's how Branko-Marquette put it in his piece. Teal's close relationship with J.D. Vance and other young right-wingers all but ensures the tech billionaire will continue to shape politics and policy for many years.

decades if his technological plans to extend his lifespan workout, gross. And in spite of Jeffrey Epstein's mysterious death seven years ago, it ensures the same for the quiet influence of the billionaire pedophile, who private email show was not only good friends with Teal, but encouraged Teal's involvement in right-wing politics. So this piece, which it's like very meaty, I definitely recommend folks read it. We'll put it in the show notes, of course. The piece makes it clear that Epstein and Peter Thiel had a mutually beneficial friendship. Epstein handled favors and gave financial guidance and advice. It sounds like reading between the lines of some of their emails, it kind of sounds like maybe some interesting tax-slash-accounting tits were being traded back and forth, while Teal offered investment knowledge and let Epstein a degree of legitimacy by association. When Teal started getting interested in global politics, Epstein was really nurturing that by connecting Teal with influential figures in government, both domestically and internationally.

Once Teal got involved in Trump's 2016 campaign, Epstein really pushed him to deepen ties with Trump and guided him on how to expand his foothole in that particular political circle. Oh, that's interesting because I think Trump says that he, cut Epstein out of his life years before that, right? And Epstein says that Trump was, quote, his closest friend. So you tell me, I don't know. Yeah, maybe the truth is in the middle, or maybe one of them is lying. So I found this kind of interesting. According to the piece, Epstein was really interested in connecting with Teal because

Teal, of course, founded PayPal. And Epstein wanted to create a new financial system that he described as Facebook friends being able to trade favors for each other and also it's crypto and that like that would be a new financial system. I wish that listeners could see Mike's face. The face you just made while taking that in while processing what I've just said was priceless. I wish people could have seen it. That's like of course that's what he would try to devise some sort of. Facebook meets crypto favor trading that both like doesn't really make a lot of sense

and also sounds dystopian and just like set up to facilitate scams. Yeah. And crimes. Scams and crimes. It's on these people's goddamn crests. The Jacobin article is like just a good read. It also has so many, like, sassy parenthetical. So about this new financial, this like scams, crimes, crypto, favors, Facebook financial system, Epstein wanted to set up.

Epstein emailed Teal and said, quote, the idea is now is the time for a new financial alternative. That is what PayPal started as. Parentheses, Jacobin has, as usual, cleaned up Epstein's often borderline incomprehensible grammar. I got, I'm like so curious what Peter Thiel's reaction to that was, just like the rantings of a super villain being like, let's start a new financial system. No, dude, he didn't seem not into it. Like, that's the thing. You have this idea of these guys, these like billionaire guys is these like savvy people who like, if somebody wants to be financially or business wise like in the mix with them, one false move and they're like, I'm out. I'm scared off.

No. It doesn't seem like he like. was like not into this. It seemed like he was into this. What's interested, was curious, kept emailing back and forth. I think that's important to note, if anybody sent me an email like this and it was also riddled with typos,

I would never want, like, you know, I would be like this guy does not seem like he's on the money. Yeah, it's like, let alone him already having pled guilty to sex crimes against minors. Yeah, it reads like a lunatic ranting on social media. Exactly. The piece also does a very good job of just sort of in the background, making it clear just how much of the architects of our current tech landscape and political landscape, the people behind AI and Microsoft, just how much those people were deeply connected to Epstein. On stuff Mom Never Told You, we're actually prepping to do a podcast episode.

We're taping it tomorrow where we rewatch the movie The Social Network with Jesse Eisenberg. So I rewatched that movie this morning. In that movie, we've got two different Epstein buddies portrayed in that film. Both Peter Thiel, who was portrayed in that film because he comes on as an early investor to Facebook. And Larry Summers, who at the time in the film is the president of Harvard University, that's the figure the Winkle-Loss Twins complained to when they say that Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from them while they were students at Harvard. crazy that it's like two different Epstein. Like Larry Summers and Epstein were like homies.

They were like road dogs. They did not have a casual relationship. They were tight. Yeah, isn't that interesting that this movie about super elites, so many of them mixed up with Epstein? Another mutual acquaintance, computer scientist Ben Gortzel, who was an early champion of AI, dangled the prospect of personally interacting with Teal as a way to get Epstein to the Singularity Summit, a yearly gathering of AI superintelligence enthusiasts in October of that year. Teal, quote, wanted to start his own currency outside of the scope of nation states, Gortzel told him.

So Larry Summers, who we know used to be the head of the U.S. Treasury under the Obama administration, is being described here, quote, Larry Summers is now on board with rethinking the financial system, digital currency, etc. He will join us in concocting a plan. Fun, Gortzl wrote Teal. I love that they're just flinging around. Yeah, the former head of the U.S. Treasury is on board with rethinking our entire financial system and digital currency because Jeffrey fucking Epstein wrote him a typo-laden

3am like email that's got all kinds of weird fucking emojis and shit in it. Yeah, no problem. Cool. Fun. He's going to help concoct a plan. We're going to create a new currency outside the scope of nation states. We're going to put it all together at the Singularity Summit. It's going to be great.

Yes. I mean, like that's what really gets me is that you can just see how much of our current financial, technology, political systems are just like one old rich creep, sending a typo-laden dashed off email to another more rich and more powerful creep. And that's our whole fucking system. No wonder it's all built on scams, crimes, and fraud. Yeah. And all connected through this maven guy who runs an island designed to traffic children. So this line is just, I have to read it. Epstein's interest in Teal was undeterred by the fact that several of his acquaintances were far from impressed by the PayPal founder.

Brockman warned him that Teal disliked democracy and considered the granting of voting rights to women and the poor a mistake. Another contact told him that while she had once found Teal, interesting. After seeing him speak about singularity, she decided she, quote, didn't think he knew what he was talking about and lost interest. Of course, the woman was like, actually, now that I see him speak. Yeah. Now that he's talking about something I know about, the singularity, I've lost confidence. So it sounds like Teal and Epstein kind of danced around each other for a while. Will they, won't they? But eventually, they get connected by Reed Hoffman. the founder of LinkedIn, and among one of the first donors to Open AI, the company that, of course,

makes chat GPT. Reid Hoffman, whom a former British fixer, Ian Osborne, who was like pretty well connected and well invested in Silicon Valley, had once charmingly described Reid Hoffman to Epstein as, quote, the fatty at LinkedIn. And I wanted to include that because when I first read that line, this so quicked my brain is. I was like, why is he describing this guy's ass? And I was like, oh, that's not. What are you saying?

Yeah, I don't think it was a compliment. So once Teal and Epstein met through Reed Hoffman, they quickly became close. They were in frequent contact through calls, in person meetings, and emails. So there is a paper trail. They collaborated on business deals while ranging across topics like business, investment, and science. Bear in mind that at this point, as I said, Epstein had already pled guilty to child sex crimes. And it wasn't like this was like an under the radar thing. these crimes, him pleading guilty to these crimes, had become global news at the start of 2015 after Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz were named in a lawsuit against Epstein that he had been running a child sex trafficking ring.

We talked about this in the follow-up to our episode about the Hallow Prayer app, but we know that Peter Thiel just didn't really have any kind of problem with the fact that Epstein had pled guilty to sex crimes against minors. At one point, Epstein asked him, Does my bad press give you pause? Teal says, if I was intimidated by bad press, I would have gotten anywhere in life. But I do hope that you're holding up well and that the cycle won't go much further. I love that this is just like a bad press cycle,

not crimes against kids that this guy pled guilty to. He did it. He said he did it. Yeah, no concern for the kids, no concern that this might be an unscrublez guy to work with. just really tells you a lot about how Peter Thiel thinks about the world. Also, the fact that when they were discussing this, Teal asked,

do you have any sense on whether this press cycle is going to keep escalating? I guess he means escalating, but he spelled it wrong. It will be good to compare notes at some point on strategies on this sort of stuff. So they're just like, what if we just got together and compared notes on how we weather the storm of stuff we actually did? Yeah, just comparing notes on how to do unsavory stuff, and get away with it. As Teal got more involved in politics, Epstein was sending him advice on how to basically

play Trump and like manipulate Trump. BuzzFeed reported on some unflattering comments that Teal had made about Trump. And Epstein reached out to Teal to say, read the article, be careful. Donald is vindictive, especially when it's pointed out that he is not the smartest person in the room or it is just made obvious. So they were sort of like trying to be like, oh, here's how you play Donald. Trump. Make sure that he feels like he's very smart. Sounds about right. That part tracks.

Yet for all of the work to connect Teal with that like Trump world, Epstein also did seem sort of like disdainful toward Teal. When Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard, which is at to Epstein and it's like, hey, you've got any idea for

possible Treasury Secretary picks for the Trump administration? He floated Peter Thiel. Epstein dismissed the inclusion of his so-called great friend writing, quote, Peter Thiel, autistic, comma, no global sense. Well, just like throw his buddy under the bus. I wonder if he, like, that's actually what he thought of if he was just like playing all of these guys against each other. I mean, who could ever know? Also, I don't know if Peter Thiel is autistic. However, I know my fair share folks who have autism.

Of all the things that would be disqualifying why Peter Thiel would not be a reasonable, you know, Treasury secretary pick, the fact that he's autistic, I don't even, like, that's just not be on the list. Yeah, that's a good point. There's so many other things that should be so much more disqualifying. So this piece, again, I really think people should read it. It's not just a gossipy, like who knows who.

I think it really is highlighting how much of our current techno-political. landscape came to be by this small handful of horrible nightmare humans. The ending of the piece, I feel, just really nails it. Teal's relationship to both Trump and his vice president now leaves the tech billionaire well positioned to shape the Republican Party at a future GOP presidency. And to enact the vision he and Vance planned out many years ago of a political takeover by an aristocracy of right-wing business elites. Meanwhile, we're seeing in real time what it looks like.

like to have a Peter Thiel interested in and able to influence geopolitics, with the billionaire supplying and ardently defending the Israeli genocide and his firm aligning itself with an interventionalist pro-war Washington foreign policy. For many years, Jeffrey Epstein shaped our world in ways we never knew. He may well continue to do so even in death. And boy, did that kind of paint a grim portrait, but that is so true. So we've talked a lot about you know, politics and tech and finances, but also other parts of just our culture. Like if you are a millennial like I am, Jeffrey Epstein has shaped so much of your culture. You know, back in the day, I don't know if I've ever said this in the podcast.

I know that you know this about me. Like, I was like, I had a brief stint as like a child model. You've told me that before. And that is not a thing that I have any experience or friends. of reference. Well, the brand that I was a child model for almost exclusively was limited to. And the limited, I don't know if younger folks know what that is, it was like a very popular women and girls clothing brand. That was all Jeffrey Epstein, right? Jeffrey Epstein had financial ties to Les Wexner, who owns Victoria Secret, The Limited, all of that. Also comes up in the social network,

although briefly, in 2000, Les Wexner, transferred. control over the brand limited to, which was like exclusively for teenage girls, to Jeffrey Epstein. When I was a kid, the look and the feel of teenage girlhood that I was growing up in and steeped in and buying catalogs out and like walking down runways to represent, that was architected by Jeffrey Epstein. It's like the various ways that Epstein really had his hands in culture and really kind of designed so much of what we all kind of like live through, whether it's culture, fashion, politics, tech, finances, education. It's stunning.

And you, and like, it's baked into the infrastructure. You can't throw it away. It's like the infrastructure that we have. You have to, like, tear it down and start over to make a change. Jesus, it's really chilly when you talk about it like that and think about the influence that he had and the people that he was working with and how so. So many of those same people, including it seems like potentially Peter Thiel, are still carrying his legacy forward. It is so depressing.

But I do have one tainty, tiny, tintsy little bit of news that's a little bit good. Do you want to hear it? I do. Can we take a quick break first? Sure. Let's do it. My SUV is worth more than ever. Time to upgrade?

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Call 844-844-I-Hart to get started. That's 844-8-4-8-4-4-4-A-Hart to get started. Eyeheart. 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 IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get right back into it. All right, Bridget, so you said you had some good news for us? I could use it. Andrew Tate lost his lawsuit against META this week. We talked a little bit about this off, Mike, but I was like, well, I hate META and I hate Andrew Tate. If only there was some way for them both to lose a lawsuit, I would like that.

But I'm also happy that Andrew Tate lost. So Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate sued META after Instagram permanently banned six of their accounts, claiming that the removals violated their legal rights, and they were seeking $50 million in damages. A federal judge in California threw their cases out. Meta said that they banned the Tates for promoting dangerous individuals, and inciting misogyny. But the Tates were arguing that the bans were not a neutral enforcement of Instagram's rules,

but instead tied to the international tension around their arrests in Romania on human trafficking and sexual exploitation charges. The judge simply was not buying this. She ruled that Section 230 shielded Mena's decision to remove their accounts, since banning users is just considered a content moderation decision. Also, the Tate's could not point to any specific promise in Instagram's terms of service that guaranteed them a right to keep their accounts or appeal a ban. They also tried on First Amendment grounds, which also failed since that protection only applies to government action. And obviously, META is not the government. Not yet. They're still a private company.

So it sounds like they were just throwing everything they could against the wall and none of it stuck. Yeah, and I think it's kind of funny because Andrew Tate's whole thing is, oh, a man, you know, his whole brand is built around telling men that they don't have to answer to anybody, that they are just, you know, alpha, they can do whatever they want. And then go to court and basically beg a private company to please give me access to Instagram. I need my Instagram. I just love that. And I think there is an irony in there. And of course, the judge disagreed, the law disagreed, Instagram's terms of service disagreed.

We hate Instagram. We hate meta. We hate Mark Zuckerberg. But I guess I'm going to call this a win. Yeah, we'll call it a win. Yeah, a world where the Tates get their Instagram, get $50 million, and then get to do a victory lap with those stupid little sunglasses while smoking a cigar. I'm going to call it a W on this.

one. Yeah, bad guys lost. So before we sign off, I just have a little thing I wanted to say, you might have noticed that this episode did not sound the way our episodes typically sound. That is because we have had some shakeups here at the podcast. Anybody who's been paying attention to what it's like working in media right now is probably used to hearing a about layoffs by now, but just because you're used to it doesn't mean that it doesn't still hurt. And I have been so beyond blessed with the team that I have to make this podcast. And, you know, it hurts. I really feel strongly that the team that makes the show is what makes the show great. It's not just me. It's it's a group effort. Media layoffs hit close to home and folks who have

been such strong members of making this show something that you like are pushed aside. And I hate that personally. It's a super tough time in media. It's a tough time in a lot of sectors, but especially in media. It sucks when people aren't able to continue making something that they feel passionately about, that they're good at doing. Our hearts are with everybody who was affected by recent layoffs and yeah, I don't know how to land this. If you listen to podcasts, there is a strong possibility that someone who helps make the shows that you like is being laid off. And it's just a reality of our current landscape. I know this sounds very cryptic.

It does, yeah. And we're being cryptic because we don't want to name people if they don't want to be named. and, you know, that's not our story to tell. It's a tough time here. We are so privileged to have spent the time with everybody that we have, and, you know, we're going to continue making this show, and I know that people who have recently been laid off are going to be doing incredible things. Yeah, and, you know, I've gone through media layoffs,

And if you or someone you know, someone you love has been laid off or is even just doing the thing where you wake up and you don't know if today's going to be the day, you're hearing news, I see you, I hear you. Like, it's not a climate that anybody should have to show up in and like just trudge through. And I know it sounds very cryptic, but I just wanted to take a moment to say how blessed and lucky I am to have everybody who has ever worked on this show be part of the. show and how much respect I have for everybody and all of their work to make the show work because they're all so smart and so talented. And I'm really, I have a lot of gratitude. Yeah, well said. So, you know, we'll stay in touch with everybody. Listeners can stay in touch with us. Send us an email. Hello at tangoody.com. Leave us a comment on Spotify. Follow Bridget on Instagram or TikTok at Bridgett Marie in D.C. Thanks for listening to the show. Keep listening, please.

Keep telling your friends. Let people who you think might like it. Let them know because that's how the show grows. That means so much to us. And yeah, thanks again. Bridget, you got any final words? No. I didn't have anything to be queued up.

I'll just say, if you have thoughts on the style of Lena Dunham episode, you think we should do, whether you want me to try to book Lena Dunham. I will try that if you want it to just be. Just as friends. That's fine to you. Be sure to let me know in the Spotify comments or via email at hello at tangoity.com. Thanks for listening.

I 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 tangoody.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 IHeartRadio and unbossed creative. Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer Taray Harrison is our producer and sound engineer Michael Amato is our contributing producer I'm your host Bridget Dodd If you want to help us grow Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts

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