Isn’t it so annoying when your partner can’t be therapist, lover, parent, and nutritionist all at once? Enter…ChatGPT! After a somewhat inflammatory study released by the nonsecular, ultra-conservative Wheatley Institute found that 1 in 3 young adult men and 1 in 4 young adult women reported having chatted with an AI boyfriend or girlfriend, the think pieces started rolling. And while these numbers might be a little funky, it is true that people in at least the tens of thousands are engaging in romantic and sexual partnerships with their AI chatbots. In this episode, Hannah and Maia, joined by Carrera from Internet Anthropology, scour the r/MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit to glimpse into the psychology of such people and ask some pressing questions. Are we dating AI because we’re tired of men? Because of covid and our increasing comfort with never being touched? Because the attention economy has made up gluttonous for constant validation? It would be cruel to demonize these people, but when a simple software update can kill your boyfriend in the blink of an eye and chatbots called Daenerys Targaryen are pushing lovesick children towards self harm, you’ve gotta wonder whether these AI companies are actually trying to solve the loneliness epidemic, or worsen it. Tangents include: Maia’s mysterious allergies and drinking culture in the UK. 

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Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

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SOURCES:

“COUNTERFEIT CONNECTIONS: The Rise of Romantic AI Companions and AI Sexualized Media Among the Rising Generation,” Wheatley Institute (2025).

Cathy Hackl, “Confessions Of A Futurist: I Dated Four AI Boyfriends To Explore The Future Of Dating, Love, And Intimacy,” Forbes (2025).

Kashmir Hill, “She Is in Love With ChatGPT,” New York Times (2025).

Carrera Kurnick, “Internet Artifacts on Digital Companionship,” Internet Anthropologist (2025).

Kevin Roose, “Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide?,” The New York Times (2025).

Slavoj Žižek, For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor, 2nded. (New York: Verso, 2002).

When Ariana Grande apologized for licking a doughnut in a doughnut shop display ten years ago, she had no idea she would be changing the world forever. Using the familiar notes app, Ariana broadcasted to her fans both disappointment in her own behaviour, an expression of patriotism, and a PSA about healthy eating in a more intimate way than ever before. Soon to follow were a slew of other notes app apologies from naughty celebs like James Charles, Justin Bieber, and Taylor Swift. But is the notes app apology really as sincere as it appears to be, or is it a carefully curated mending of one’s own self image? Do we really care about celebrities becoming better people, or do we just enjoy throwing tomatoes? In this episode, Hannah and Maia discuss the notes app apology for what it really is: a come-to-Jesus moment performed by celebrities who have been coerced by their publics into saying they did a bad bad thing. Tangents include: loved ones getting got by AI, and Hannah delivering her own personalized, oral notes app apology to Maia.

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There is no greater candidate for a job with the FBI… than a woman with a crush. A recent study found that Gen Z and Millennials have “alarmingly relaxed attitudes towards online stalking.” But considering we all do it…why wouldn’t we? The term “stalking” (also know as “creeping” or “lurking”) has now take on a colloquial form, as all sorts of people use the internet to gather information about other people: ex partners, future partners, the ex of an ex, prospective employees, people they think are hotter or cooler than they are. But even if “creeping” is not stalking in the technical sense, even if it’s something we all do, why are we so ashamed to do it? In this season premiere, Hannah and Maia ask whether creeping is inherently creepy, and discuss the different affordances of social media that make it the perfect breeding ground for nosiness. As these “mass personal” channels of communication facilitate parasocial relationships of even the closest kind, have we become private celebrities to each other? Or are we all, as we always have been, just massive creeps? Tangents include: Maia’s evil ex-landlord, Hannah’s sorely misunderstood Baby Jane halloween costume, and dramatic readings of some truly diabolical “creeping” anecdotes from the lovely listeners. 

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

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Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

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SOURCES:

Amelia Abraham, “12 People Admit To Their Social Media ‘Stalking’ Habits,” Refinery29 (2016).

“CMV: It's not "creeping", "snooping", or "being a creeper" to browse social media content that presumably was put there for exactly that purpose.,” Reddit (2015).

Frampton, J. R., & Fox, J, “Monitoring, Creeping, or Surveillance? A Synthesis of Online Social Information Seeking Concepts,” Review of Communication Research, 9, (2021).

“Gen Z and Millennials Accept Online Creeping and Stalking as Part of Dating Culture,” GEN Digital (2023).

Laura Pitcher, “Are You in a Parasocial Relationship With ‘the Other Woman?’” Digiverse (2023).

Morgan Sullivan, “A Love Letter to All My Exes’ Exes’ Instagram Accounts,” The Cut (2022).

Taylor Swift has entered a new era: Wifey. Rather than take a (much needed) vacation following her world tour, she’s announced not only a forthcoming album but also a forthcoming wedding to football superstar and HIMBO of the decade, Travis Kelce. But the couple, who very publicly began dating in later 2023 are not without their detractors. Along with the typical “PR relationship” accusations, speculation of a far more sinister plot is being thrown their way. Long time listeners may recall that we covered subset of Taylor Swift’s fandom who call themselves “Gaylors” in our second ever episode. Well buckle up, because we’re back at it again. But this time, we’re going to address the theory that Taylor Swift is secretly queer for what it really is: a CONSPIRACY theory. One that goes all the way to the top…. of the NFL. Put on your tinfoil hats, pop in your headphones, and take a listen. Tangent include: George Bush’s alleged role in a celebrity death, Naomi Klein’s Doppleganger, and Miley Cyrus’s 2012 fashion era. 

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In a time where Sydney Sweeney is spreading her legs for a popular clothing retailer in the name of eugenics, it’s not so far-fetched to imagine that Sabrina Carpenter would also upset people with her latest album cover. Hair blown out, kneeling at the feet of a suited man, and captioned “Man’s Best Friend,” this image of Carpenter sent shock waves across the internet for provoking an already fraught political moment. But was the outrage justified? In this very special bonus episode, perhaps the best one yet, Hannah and Maia ~unpack~ their complicated feelings about the controversy. Was Carpenter’s team, like Sweeney’s, engaging in a conservative grift, or was this another instance of the public’s paternalistic impulse to whip female figures into shape? Is this just another transgressive breakthrough from a popstar, or is there something more nefarious at play? In our image-addled society, why did this one cause such a stir? And did Andrea Dworkin really have a point after all? All this and more on Patreon. Tangent includes: a postmortem on And Just Like That. 

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https://www.patreon.com/c/rehashpodcast

Why isn’t “airbrushed skin for all” written in the constitution? For years, photoshop was a professional’s game, gatekept, if you will, from the masses. But then Facetune came about and forever changed the course of history, democratizing photoshop to the dysmorphic masses. The promise of a user-friendly photoshop experience, where anybody could fabricate their appearance, was more seductive than anything because, by the year 2017, Facetune was the most popular paid app around. But as people begin to hide behind their social media avatars, and as our avatars become less realistic by the day, we can’t help but wonder whether Facetune has damaged our self-perception forever. In this finale episode, Hannah and Maia discuss the impact of Facetune - from the advent of “no face,” to Celebface turning “facetune-spotting” into a sport, to plastic surgeons using it as a conditioning tool. Has our vain, over-stimulated visual culture raised the ceiling so high that we now aspire to look like aliens? Tangents include: Lena Dunham’s new show, and Mary M. Cosby’s photoshop skills. 

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Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

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For those of us whose “smokey eye” and “blending” skills fell short during the beauty guru makeup regime, Glossier was our saviour. Founded by “super intern” Emily Weiss (who has a brief 3-episode run on The Hills as Lauren Conrad’s more competent counterpart at Vogue), Glossier popularized the “no makeup” makeup look of the mid to late 2010s. With its minimalist branding, it quickly became a cult brand. Glossier was what Apple was to tech, what American Apparel was to fashion. And even better, it was feminist. Rising from the ashes of the beauty guru was the “Glossier girl” - an effortlessly beautiful cool girl who spent all that time she WOULD be doing her makeup…reading. But, in this episode, Hannah and Maia ask whether Glossier was really all that great. Can a makeup brand actually be feminist? Tangents include: the tyranny of “alt” stuffed animals.

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Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

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In 2021, a flight to Atlanta was delayed for two hours to accomodate for 24 wheelchair-bound women who had just received a little procedure known as the Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL). This was not an isolated incident. In the mid-2010s, the number of luteal fat grafting (BBL) procedures increased by 103 percent, as did BBL-related deaths. It was ass-mageddon. So, in this episode, Hannah and Maia trace the history of the BBL back to its very sketchy origins in Brazil under the purview of superstar plastic surgeon Ivo Pitanguy and a prominent eugenicist named Renato Kehl, and the impact that the country’s national mythology has had on the prevalence of the BBL today. From Miss BumBum contests, to Kim K’s reality TV butt X-ray, to Antony Bumba’s viral parodies of the BBL on TikTok, how exactly did we arrive at a culture where lives are risked for the sake of having a large dumpy? Tune in to find out. 

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠

Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

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SOURCES:

Carmen Alvaro Jarrín, The biopolitics of beauty: Cosmetic citizenship and affective capital in Brazil,” College of the Holy Cross (2017).

Cansancao et al, ““Brazilian Butt Lift” Performed by BoardCertified Brazilian Plastic Surgeons: Reports of an Expert Opinion Survey,” Plast Reconstr Surg, 144(3) (2019).

Dara Greenwood, “The BBL Bubble: How Social Media Fuels Body Modification,” Psychology Today (2021).

Rebecca Jennings, “The $5,000 quest for the perfect butt,” Vox (2021).

Banseka Kayembe, “Are we witnessing the end of the BBL era?” I-D (2021).

Daniel F. Silva, “The hidden anti-Black history of Brazilian butt lifts,” Washington Post (2022).

Mimi Thi Nguyen, The Promise of Beauty, Duke University Press (2024).

People have been trying to reverse the effects of aging since ancient times, and bored rich people have been trying to live forever since, well…forever. But historically the practice has been targeted to people who are actually “aged.” So how did we go from Jane Fonda selling us miracle creams, to retinols marketed towards actual children? As the anti-aging “cosmeceuticals” market explodes before our very eyes, children overrun our locals Sephoras, and millionaires inject litres of their progeny’s blood - it seems the beauty industry has tapped into our collective, all-consuming fear of death, and exploited it to the very last drop. In this episode, Hannah and Maia discuss the emergence of cosmeceuticals and anti-aging “prejuvenation” procedures (preventative botox, morning shed routines, and the retinol epidemic), and their dastardly effects on the human psyche. Tangents include: neighbourly etiquette, Canadian pride, and crying in public. 

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

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Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

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SOURCES:

Charlotte Cripps, “The rise of the skincare tweens: How retinol serums and eye creams took over childhood,” The Independent (2025).

Haykal et al, “Prejuvenation: The Global New Anti-Aging Trend,” Aesthetic Surgery Journal Open Forum (2023).

Katie Kilkenny, “How Anti-Aging Cosmetics Took Over the Beauty World,” PS Mag (2017).

Lauren McCarthy, “Zoom Face is Real - Here’s How to Fight It,” Nylon (2021).

Stefan Odenbach-Wanner, “The Biohacking-Code: An Eternal Pursuit of Perfection - The Myth About Living Forever?! From the Fine Line of Self-Optimization to Self-Destruction,” in Innovations in Healthcare and Outcome Measurement: New Approaches for a Healthy Lifestyle, Springer, (2025).

Sarah Radin, “The ‘Sephora kids’ aren’t going anywhere,” Vogue Business (2025).

Orianna Royle, “Tech billionaire who spends $2 million a year to look young is now swapping blood with his 17-year-old son and 70-year-old father,” Fortune (2023).

Danielle Sinay, “Leave TikTok’s ‘Morning Shed’ Trend Alone,” Glamour (2024).

Sarah Spruch-Feiner, “Glossy Pop Newsletter: How TikTok democratized retinol,” Glossy (2022).

Lauren Valenti, “Why Preventative Botox Injections Could Be Aging You,” Vogue (2025).

From the man who introduced self love, and even “love itself,” to the beauty and fashion industries, David Kibbe, comes a scale which can determine the very essence of a person using the scientific measurements of “bones big, bones small.” The Kibbe Body Type test came about during the self-help era of the 1980s, but has found new life online, as people rush to sort themselves into arbitrary physical categories. Is Kibbe water for lost souls wandering through the late capitalist desert, or simply a mirage, revealing how little we trust ourselves today? Tangents include: Mrs. Incredible’s Kibbe body type, Marlon Brando smashing every eligible bachelor in Hollywood, and the worst episode of Sex and the City. 

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

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