Vivian Jenna Wilson first made headlines in 2024 as Elon Musk’s estranged “transgender daughter,” a reductive framework that much of the mainstream media continues to use for clicks. Wilson is newsworthy for all of who she is: an outspoken critic of Musk, an advocate for trans rights, a college student, an aspiring model, a gamer, and a “RuPaul’s Drag Race” superfan. Don’t come for her on Bluesky if you can’t handle a clap back. This is the Vivian Jenna Wilson that Teen Vogue introduced to the world in the magazine’s March 2024 cover story.

This week, Katelyn and Christine chat with Teen Vogue editor Lex McMenamin about the making of the cover story. Teen Vogue often sets the bar for political coverage that doesn’t play both sides when one side is full of—you know. *side-eye emoji* Katelyn, Christine, and Lex demystify and define journalism standards amid a larger discussion of how to improve trans media coverage under Trump 2.0. 

Links:

• Ella Yurman for Teen Vogue: Vivian Jenna Wilson on Being Elon Musk’s Estranged Daughter, Protecting Trans Youth and Taking on the Right Online
• Follow Lex McMenamin (they/them) on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/leximcmenamin.com
• Follow Ella Yurman on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ellayurman.bsky.social
• Follow Vivian Jenna Wilson on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thevivllainous.bsky.social
• David Ingram for NBC News: Elon Musk's transgender daughter, in first interview, says he berated her for being queer as a child

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Former NFL player and Barstool Sports alum Pat McAfee didn’t have to name the Ole Miss freshman at the center of ongoing online and IRL harassment on the February 26 episode of his popular ESPN show. Following the Barstool playbook, he gave just enough information about the false internet rumor for his millions of viewers and subscribers to further slut-shame the teen, turning her life into a living hell. She already wasn’t safe on campus, and her mother’s house was swatted the morning after McAfee’s remarks, which he made on an episode that was supposed to be discussing the NFL’s annual college scouting showcase. 

This week, Katelyn and Christine chat with award-winning independent journalist Frankie de la Cretaz about the disturbing story—a cautionary tale that could put any one of us in danger. We also encourage you to listen to our recent episode about online harassment that can quickly move offline, and learn how we can protect ourselves and each other. 

Links:

- Subscribe to Frankie de la Cretaz’s newsletter, Out of Your League

- Follow Frankie on Bluesky and Instagram

- Listen to our recent episode about online harassment with Tat Bellamy-Walker, PEN America’s digital safety officer 

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California governor Gavin Newsome apparently thinks that he can be the Joe Rogan of the left, and he's out with a puzzling new podcast in an attempt to prove it. Except his idea is to apparently do softball interviews with some of the most grotesque voices on the right. In his first episode he ends up agreeing with professional bigot and right wing activist Charlie Kirk's extreme views on trans issues.

Katelyn and Christine question who this podcast is supposed to be for, and why the Dems are feeling so inept lately (and an extended riff about Chuck Schumer).

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Why should you care about private equity? It is affecting all of us in the U.S., even if we don’t realize it. Private equity money promises to invest in a growing list of our workplaces, often to sell them off for parts. Journalist Megan Greenwell knows this experience all too well as the former editor-in-chief of Deadspin, the acclaimed sports website that experienced private equity’s familiar slash-and-burn cycle. And the cycle doesn’t stop with our livelihoods, Greenwell writes in her forthcoming book, Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream. Our lives—our hospitals, our housing, our food, and our water—are increasingly under the control of private equity. 

This week, Greenwell joins Katelyn and Christine to define the problem that spans presidencies and propose solutions that will outlast the ever-tightening broligarchy. 

Citations:

• Follow Megan on Bluesky @greenwell.bsky.social
• Preorder Megan’s book, Bad Company, via The Flytrap’s Bookshop.org affiliate link or your local independent bookstore
• Megan Greenwell for Deadspin (RIP), “The Adults in the Room”
• Anna Merlan for Mother Jones, “How Elon Musk and His DOGE Goons Are Following the Private Equity Playbook,” Q&A with Megan

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From Mark Zuckerberg at the inauguration to Elon Musk in the oval office, the tech broligarchy is upon us, shaping policy to erase trans people, Black people, and “childless cat ladies” from the Internet and ultimately from public life. “Cis” has been a slur on Twitter since 2023. More recently, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, put an end to third party fact-checking, reduced automated content moderation, and loosened hateful conduct standards. 

Guest Tat Bellamy-Walker joins Katelyn and Christine on this week’s episode to identify and clarify Meta’s three-pronged attack. Bellamy-Walker, a longtime journalist turned program manager of digital safety training and resources (media) at PEN America, provides us—and listeners—with tangible steps to protect ourselves and each other online. Listen and learn about digital hygiene, counter speech, resources, and more. 2FA all the way!

Citations: 

• Follow Tat Bellamy-Walker on Twitter: @bell_tati
• PEN America’s Online Harassment Field Manual
• Extensive safety resources geared toward women and nonbinary journalists at the International Women’s Media Foundation
• Donate to the Black Journalists Therapy Relief Fund
• Delete Me and other subscription services to scrub your personal data from the Internet
• Donate to the Trans Journalists Association

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Comedian Gianmarco Soresi is a rising comedy star with nearly 950,000 subscribers on YouTube alone. You have likely come across one of Soresi’s sets if you’ve been scrolling through social media as a brief escape from our current reality. *stares directly into camera* But this self-described “matza pizza” skewers rather than ignores our current reality, bringing his full self—Jewish, Italian, leftist—into his routines and crowd work that address the war in Gaza, transgender rights, and other quote-unquote issues that leave other comedians crying “cancel culture.”

This week, Katelyn and Christine conduct a wide-ranging interview with Soresi about politics, comedy, art, media, and, of course, cancel culture. When comedians like Dave Chappelle say they can’t try out new material or blame marginalized groups for hemming them in, the joke’s on them. Trust us—listening to this episode is a must. And Soresi’s a comedian to watch.

Citations: 

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January 6, 2025 marked two grim occasions: the four year anniversary of Donald Trump inciting his followers to take over the U.S. Capitol and the present-day Congress certifying Trump’s 2.0’s presidential election victory.

This week, Katelyn, Christine, and special guest Meredith Shiner compare and contrast their experiences as congressional reporters on Capitol Hill. Meredith, a communications consultant and journalist, is the preeminent critic of the insurrection that aired live and what she calls the “polite coup”—the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. Biden and the Democrats abdication of their responsibility to any timely or enduring accountability and the mainstream media’s passivity, exacerbated by consolidation under their billionaire owners, are recurring topics. But the discussion does not get mired in cynicism. This episode’s energy is what we all must hold on to heading into next week’s second Trump inauguration, and whatever comes after.

Links:

Greg Owen for LGBTQ Nation: Trans & wildly popular “Oprah of China” suddenly blackballed by Chinese government

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“Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands,” Melissa Nathan—the crisis public relations expert who preserved alleged domestic abuser Johnny Depp’s public image—texted behind the scenes of her latest smear-campaign-for-hire. The New York Times called Nathan’s bluff. publishing the extent of her actor-director client Justin Baldoni’s alleged retaliatory social media operation to turn public sentiment against actress Blake Lively, the target of his alleged workplace sexual harassment on their film “It Ends with Us.”

This week, Katelyn and Christine discuss the coordinated campaign against Lively, perpetrated by our old enemies behind the Amber Heard defamation allegation. We highly recommend you check out the links in the show notes for the context that Cancel Me, Daddy has been providing since its beginnings with Oliver and Katelyn! Revisit the 2022 “Depp-ception” episode with guest and “Cancel Gunkle” Michael Hobbes, who returned in 2023 to cancel The New York Times over spurious and harmful reporting about trans kids. We’re still side-eyeing the paper and the byline.

Links:

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The health insurer horror stories haven’t stopped coming in the two weeks since UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed by alleged murderer-turned-folk hero Luigi Mangione. And the ruling class is not having it! Elected officials, corporate CEOs, and the mainstream media with the power to change or buck the system are hell bent on protecting it, at the expense of many more lives.

This week, Katelyn and Christine discuss the sudden, ongoing suppression of free speech, sharing each of their experiences with health insurance, censorship be damned. Their conversation spans UHC’s denials and demands for Christine’s mental health records in 2024 to Kate’s gender-affirming surgeries, which she crammed into one year to meet her deductible under one of the various insurance plans that Americans will have in their lifetime. Thirsty Internet assassin boyfriend memes, of course, rise to the top. And Kate asks Christine to name the greater Italian American—Christopher Columbus, or Luigi Mangione? Tune in for her answer!

Links:

Your Ombudsmon's Corner: Marisa Kabas skeet critiquing Semafor Editor in Chief Ben Smith defending Bluesky’s apparent welcome to transphobes and trolls

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Last month’s Loser Election prompted an X-odus from Elon Musk’s crumbling app to Bluesky, which grew by 1 million users per day toward the end of November. Despite the grim news cycles, Bluesky is far from all doom and gloom. It is, in fact, putting the social back in social networking.

This week, Katelyn and Christine chat with Faine Greenwood, who created the “Alf hog” meme that caught the attention of everyone from AOC to Jeri Ryan to Jake Tapper in the early days of Bluesky. Katelyn, Christine, and Faine have fun with verbal shitposting and Internet shitposting and give credit to the nascent trans accounts that helped shape Bluesky, which they hope will remain a safe and fun space amid an influx of anti-trans and anti-abortion trolls.

In Flytrap news: Subscribe to read Christine’s first essay about her colonoscopy for Christ, “The Red Mass Went Up My Ass,” edited by the inimitable Katelyn herself!

Links:

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Cancel Me, Daddy is a Flytrap Media production. Edited by Maria Paleologos. Graphics by Eden M-W, music by D Peterschmidt.

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