The Raygun Musical was shutdown before it even began, so is it ok to make fun of celebrities? How much do people in the public eye get to control their image? And if we can recreate dead celebrities with A.I., who controls that story?

Also Syria is back in the headlines as Syrians across the globe celebrate the end of fifty years of the Assad regime. Jules and Jez take a closer look at what's happened and what it means for the Middle East.

SHOW NOTES

The Celebrity Machine Never Dies https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/12/ai-dead-celebrity-estate-profit/680873/

Jules' pick: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/us/fake-bear-insurance-fraud-charges.html

Jez's pick: https://www.smh.com.au/national/one-of-the-worst-people-i-know-got-an-oam-so-i-ve-decided-to-act-20241129-p5kujr.html

Jez had an idea to make a playlist with all the songs he loves to dance to. When he asked for song requests, so many of you got in touch. Jules and Jez chat about some of the songs you love to dance to and why you love them.

You can find the playlist here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/36xBCBL6jCrPJe6J8drjYe?si=BF6PCTj-QCK-nIDa1LTPTg&pi=a-CpIDFEEDROGt

And if you have other suggestions, you can get in touch at [email protected]

Has your year been: a) brat b) demure c) enshittified? Join Julia Baird and Jeremy Fernandez as they chat about the words of the year. Plus why is it so hard to cap the amount of plastic produced globally? And would you eat a $9 million dollar banana?

SHOW NOTES

NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ABOUT THE PLASTIC INDUSTRY

 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/climate/plastic-industry-internal-documents.html

MACQUARIE DICTIONARY WORD OF THE YEAR SHORTLIST: 

https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/WOTY_2024_shortlist_FINAL-1.pdf

 JEREMY'S PICKS

https://hbr.org/2024/11/lets-end-toxic-productivity

https://hbr.org/2019/07/making-joy-a-priority-at-work

JULIA'S PICKS

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/crypto-executive-eats-banana-artwork-bought-for-9-6-million-says-it-tasted-quite-good-20241130-p5kus4.html

Jules got a tattoo in New York after some particularly strong margaritas, so we asked you for your tattoo stories. And boy did you deliver. Join Jules and Jez as they read through some of your emails about weird and wonderful tattoos. You can always get in touch at [email protected]

Donald Trump's White House picks have many questioning whether the #metoo movement is dead. So is it? And here in Australia, executives from Coles, Woolworths and ALDI have appeared at the ACCC’s supermarket inquiry, so what have we learned and is anything going to change?

SHOW NOTES

Please do our survey! Link here: https://forms.office.com/r/XCJvrKqCkd

JULES' PICK

Jesse Krimes Exhibition https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/jesse-krimes-corrections

JEZ'S PICK

Nadal Retires. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zka2KlZ_-GM

Jules is in the US talking about grace and forgiveness and it is a tricky topic in the wake of the election result. So what reaction has she been getting?

If you can, please fill out our listener survey. It's anonymous and will only take a few minutes.

SURVEY LINK HERE:

https://forms.office.com/r/XCJvrKqCkd

Veteran broadcaster Alan Jones has been charged with historical indecent assault and sexual touching offences and Jules and Jez chat about what we know about the charges. And Jules is still in the US and everything is so expensive. We talk about how Donald Trump says he will fix the economy and what impact the economy might have on the Australian economy. You can always get in touch with us at [email protected]

SHOW NOTES

The Not Stupid Playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/36xBCBL6jCrPJe6J8drjYe?si=BF6PCTj-QCK-nIDa1LTPTg&pi=a-CpIDFEEDROGt

Jez's pick about aliens: 

https://www.themandarin.com.au/281675-aaro-releases-annual-uap-report/

When Jules and Jez spoke about Tim Winton's novel "Juice", they spoke about communities trying to do their bit to address climate change and we wanted to hear from you. Lots of you got in touch and we discuss a few of those emails. If you have more stories, please get in touch at [email protected]

When Donald Trump won the US election, sexist, racist and misogynistic comments exploded online. Julia and Jeremy look at what happened at why. And here in Australia, the Government plans to stop misinformation, but will it work?

Jeremy's Playlist

Dancing may be better than other exercise for improving mental health - The University of Sydney

It has been a big few days in US politics and Jules is about to head to the US. She'll be there talking about grace, after a very tumultuous and divisive election campaign. So will there be any grace on display? Also Jules talks about meeting Donald Trump in 2016.