If you were a teenage boy in 2008 and you didn’t have a “God Bless Sasha Grey t-shirt”, did you even exist? Ever since indie sleaze darling, Sasha Grey, burst onto the porn scene in the mid aughts, its become a bit cooler to say hey, “I watch this.” But while Sasha represented a feminist shift in the industry, her fringe sexuality may have played into a dangerous trend in internet porn. In this episode, Hannah and Maia ask the important question: should Sasha be The Pied Piper of Porn™, or can we find a Sasha grey area? Listen for tangents such as: the Tina Fey-aissance, and Stanley Kubrick’s lost film: “Squirt Gangb@ng”. 

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Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

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SOURCES:

Dave Gardetta, “The Teenager & the Porn Star” Los Angeles Magazine (2006).

Stephen Heymen, “Grey Matter” New York Times (2011).

PopMatters Staff, “The New Breed: Sasha Grey, Atelecine, and the New Morality” PopMatters (2010).

Rebecca Saunders, “Grey, gonzo and the grotesque: the legacy of porn star Sasha Grey”, Porn Studies, vol. 5 (4) (2018).

Karley Sciortino, “Going Deep with Sasha Grey” Slutever (2014).

Eran Shor & Kimberly Seida, ““Harder and Harder”? Is Mainstream Pornography Becoming Increasingly Violent and Do Viewers Prefer Violent Content?” The Journal of Sex Research (2018).

Brandon Stosuy, “Sasha Grey: Dawn of the Porn Star” The Fanzine (2006).

Before Paris or Kim, there was Pamela. Original martyrs of the sex tape leak, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee are only now receiving their apology (via Hulu miniseries). But who knew that this “voyeuristic dive into the guileless intimacy of two tabloid darlings” would change the way we consume p*rn forever? In this episode, Hannah and Maia track the decline of p*rn, from its high culture “p*rno chic” days, to its low culture era on VHS, and the way Pamela’s sex tape kicked off two decades of peeping Tom culture on the internet. With the rise of vlogging today, the question arises: can a life be p*rnographic? Or better yet, without Pamela, would we have Emma Chamberlain? Special tangent includes: Maia getting excited about “Bob Marley: One Love”. 

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Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

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SOURCES:

Pamela, a love story (2023), Netflix

Amanda Chicago Lewis, “Pam and Tommy: The Untold Story of the World’s Most Infamous Sex Tape” (2014), Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/pam-and-tommy-the-untold-story-of-the-worlds-most-infamous-sex-tape-194776/ 

Hillyer, Minette “Sex in the Suburban: Porn, Home Movies, and the Live Action Performance of Love in Pam and Tommy Lee: Hardcore and Uncensored.” (2004), Porn Studies

Chuck Kleinhans, “Pamela Anderson on the Slippery Slope” (2001), The End of Cinema As We Know It .

Mark Gimen, “Sex Sells, Doesn’t It?”, Salon (1999)

https://www.salon.com/1999/12/01/ieg/ 

Frank Rose, “Sex Sells”, Wired (1997)

https://www.wired.com/1997/12/sex-3/ 

Susie Bright, “Pammy and Tommy’s Honeymoon Video”, Salon (1997)

https://www.salon.com/1997/12/05/pamela_2/ 

Erica Gonzales, “Pamela Anderson Writes a Plea Against Porn”, Harper's Bazaar (2016)

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/news/a17495/pamela-anderson-porn-op-ed/

When Vine died, the angels cried. No but seriously, in this era of late-stage internet, when it feels like politics, groupthink, and all around bad vibes are all exploding at once, it makes sense that we’re yearning for a simpler time. Who wouldn’t miss the innocence of silly, 6 second videos made for no reason other than to make us laugh? But was Vine as awesome as we remember, or are our memories a bit rose-tinted? In this season 3 finale, Hannah and Maia are joined by Izzy from Be Kind Rewind (otherwise known as Bestie™) to reminisce about Vine’s cultural impact, and Izzy’s experience working for the company. Digressions include: a debate about whether Vine is the Quebec of social media giants, Maia trying to explain jokes to listeners, and Hannah’s “continual brain farts”. 

SOURCES

John Herrman, “Vine Changed the Internet Forever. How Much Does the Internet Miss It?” The New York Times, (2020)

Janko Roettgers, “Twitter is Shutting Down Vine” Variety (2016)

Julia Alexander, “The golden age of Youtube is over” The Verge (2019)

Brian Patrick Eha, “Why Vine Was a Bad Match for Twitter” The New Yorker (2016)

Mike Isaac, “Twitter’s 4-Year Odyssey With the 6-Second Video App Vine” New York Times (2016)

Hua Hsu, “Vine and the New Gatekeepers of Self-Expression” The New Yorker (2016)

Katie Rogers, “5 Vine Stars Share Why They Loved, and Outgrew, Platform” The New York Times (2016) 

Romano Santos, “In Memory of Vine, Which Crawled so Tiktok Could Fly” Vice (2022)

Mat Honan, “Why Vine Just Won’t Die”, Wired (2013)

Lizzie Plaugic, “Vine was an underrated source of joy on the internet. Is it me, or does the internet feel less happy today.” The Verge (2016)

Taylor Lorenz, “A Vine Reunion? Video Apps Clash and Byte Join Forces.” The New York Times (2021)

Aja Romano, “You may not have understood Vine, but its demise is a huge cultural loss.” Vox (2016) 

Brian Feldnman, “The Untold Story of What Happened After ‘Back at it Again at Krispy Kreme,’ The Best Vine of All Time”, Intelligencer (2016)

When you think of “hard news”, a company that once published an article called “13 Potatoes That Look Like Channing Tatum” probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Yes, in this episode Hannah and Maia are tackling Buzzfeed - the millennial fluff aggregator that managed to be on the cutting edge of digital journalism for a bit there. And in the process, changed the way we consume news, and maybe even the societal flow of information altogether. Journalism is in crisis… and is Buzzfeed to blame? Listen for riveting discussions such as: the digital media gold rush and its inevitable demise; is Trump the attention economy personified? Is Justin Bieber one of the four horsemen of the news apocalypse? And… does Anna Wintour really have a f*ck ass bob? 

SOURCES:

Jill Abramson, “Why BuzzFeed and Vice Couldn’t Make News Work” Vanity Fair (2023).

Domagoj Bebić, “Viral journalism: The rise of a new form” Medij. Istraž, vol. 22, (2016).

David Elliot Berman, “The Spaces of Sensationalism: A Comparative Case Study of the New York Journal and BuzzFeed” International Journal of Communication, vol. 15 (2021).

Ken Bensinger and Miriam Elder, “These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia” Buzzfeed News (2017).

Kathryn Bowd, “Social media and news media: Building new publics or fragmenting audiences?” in Making Publics, Making Places, ed. Mary Griffiths and Kim Barbour, University of Adelaide Press (2016).

Bob Franklin, “The Future of Journalism in an Age of Digital Media and Economic Uncertainty” Journalism Studies, vol. 15 (2014).

Josh Gerstein, “BuzzFeed Deletes Post Critical of Dove, a BuzzFeed Advertiser” Politico (2021).

David A. Graham, The Trouble With Publishing the Trump Dossier” The Atlantic (2017).

John Herrman, “The News Went Viral: The media bet its future on Facebook. Did it learn from that mistake?” New York Mag (2023).

Nathan J. Robinson, “The Collapse of BuzzFeed News Shows Why For-Profit Journalism is a Disaster” Current Affairs (2023).

Rachel Sanders, “BuzzFeed Doesn’t Deserve Its Newsroom” The Nation (2022).

Mia Sato, “The unbearable lightness of BuzzFeed” The Verge (2022).

Alyson Shontell, “Inside Buzzfeed: The Story Of How Jonah Peretti Built The Web's Most Beloved New Media Brand” Buzzfeed Insider (2012).

Ravi Somaiya, “BuzzFeed Restores 2 Posts Its Editor Deleted” The New York Times (2015).

J.K Trotter, “BuzzFeed Deletes Post Critical of Dove, a BuzzFeed Advertiser” Gawker (2015).

For one brief, beautiful moment in history, the social media sleuths were right. When Britney Spears’ fans began to decode strange messaging in her quirky Instagram posts, it became clear that the formerly maligned popstar was living under the control of her abusive father by way of a particularly oppressive conservatorship. This resulted in a nation-wide movement to liberate Britney from her family and, by extension, the predatory industry that has exploited her for over two decades. But, well-intentioned as #FreeBritney was, did the movement have unintended consequences? Discussions include: the 2000s as the dark ages for popular culture, Vegas residencies as the death rattle for celebrity music careers, and the ongoing question of “agency” that seems to follows Britney Spears throughout her lifetime. Digressions include: Maia’s irrational fear of Babe the pig and a chat about the emojis that define us. 

(NOTE: We refer in this episode to Cara Cunningham as Chris Crocker, which is her dead name.)

Support the Patreon and get juicy bonus content!:

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Intro and outro song by our talent friend Ian Mills:

⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

SOURCES:

“Britney Spears conservatorship dispute”, Wikipedia.

Natalie Finn, “Jamie Spears Squashes Britney Fansite” ENews (2009).

The Associated Press, “Who is Sam Lutfi?” Los Angeles Times (2008).

Ronan Farrow and Jia Tolentino, “Britney Spears’s Conservatorship Nightmare”  The New Yorker (2021).

"Framing Britney Spears" documentary

"Controlling Britney Spears" documentary

Julia Jacobs, “‘Sorry Britney’: Media Is Criticized for Past Coverage, and Some Own Up”  The New York Times (2021).

Toyin Owoseje, “Britney says she ‘cried for two weeks’ after ‘Framing Britney Spears’ documentary” CNN (2021).

Sandra Song, “Inside #FreeBritney: A Stan Movement to Help Their Pop Savior” Paper Magazine (2021).

Jeevan Ravindran, “‘You guys saved my life,’ Britney Spears tells #FreeBritney movement” CNN (2021).

Ronan Farrow and Jia Tolentino, “How Britney Spears Got Free, and What Comes Next” The New Yorker (2021).

Rebecca Jennings, “‘Where Is Britney Spears?’ After her conservatorship ended, some of her fandom latched on to a new theory: What if she had never been freed at all?” Vulture (2023).

Caity Weaver, “When Britney Spears Posts on Instagram, a Thousand Conspiracies Flower” The New York Times (2019).

EJ Dickson, “Matt Gaetz, QAnon Followers, and the GOP are Exploiting the #FreeBritney Movement” Rolling Stone (2021). 

Morgan Sungm “On Tiktok, #FreeBritney conspiracy theories run deep.” Mashable (2021). 

Britney's Gram podcast.

Cover this podcast in prayers, because in this highly-requested episode, Hannah and Maia discuss the most political event on the internet to date: Tati Westbrook’s public disowning of James Charles. In this clashing of beauty guru titans, 38-year-old Tati Westbrook disavowed her 19-year old friend and mentee, James Charles… over a bunch of hair vitamins. But hindsight reveals that Tati may not have been working alone, and that Bye Sister may never have been about vitamins all along. Tea and squabbles abound, this event may have brought an end to the beauty guru regime… for good! Digressions include: a reopening of the case on “grooming”, Hannah and Maia’s “would you, an alt man, date Kylie Jenner” poll, the horror of naming a fanbase, and Rehash’s declaration of war against another… very famous… podcast. 

Support the Patreon and get juicy bonus content!:

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Intro and outro song by our talent friend Ian Mills:

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SOURCES:

Valeriya Safronova, “James Charles, From ‘CoverBoy’ to Canceled” The New York Times (2019).

Jean Kelso Sandlin and Monica L. Gracyalny, “Fandom, forgiveness and future support: YouTube apologies as crisis communication” Journal of Communication Management Vol. 24 (1) (2020).

Rachel Strugatz, "The Morphe Beauty Saga Isn’t Pretty” The New York Times (2022).

Elizabeth Whitehead, “An Awkward Look at the Excessive Makeup Trend of the 2010s” Punkee (2022).

Has the sun set on the Me Too era? If you were following along with the Depp v. Heard defamation trial last April, it seems like it did. When Johnny Depp took Amber Heard to court for three vague quotes suggesting she had been abused by him, the world was in a frenzy. Has this hot, blonde, bisexual woman really been abused… or was it the easier answer? That she was an evil psychopath who pulled a Gone Girl on everyone’s favourite fictional pirate. In this episode, Hannah and Maia are finally ready to talk about this blight on cultural history. Discussions include: the popcorn consumption of televised celebrity court cases, TikTok’s true crime cottage industry, Johnny Depp’s hideous hats, and the societal Basic Instinct-ification of hot women. Will Amber Heard be redeemed as a maligned women when the fog clears in a few years, or did Depp v. Heard reverse Me Too for good? 

Support the Patreon and get juicy bonus content!:

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Intro and outro song by our talent friend Ian Mills:

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SOURCES

Amber Heard, “I spoke up against sexual violence - and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” (18/12/18), The Washington Post

Simmone Shah, “What to Know About Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s Defamation Trial” (05/05/22), Time,

Rajeev Syal, “Why did the Depp-Heard libel outcomes differ in the US and UK?” (02/06/22), The Guardian

Anya Zoledziowski “Did Social MEdia Sway the Johnny Depp Jury?” (03/06/22), Vice,

Nathan Buck, “The use of juries in defamation proceedings in America and Australia” (27/10/22), Kennedys Law

Constance Grady, “Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, and their $50 million defamation suit, explained” (03/11/22) Vox  

Anya Zolediowski, “Why Does It Seem Like the Entire Internet is Team Johnny Depp?” (25/04/22)

Antoinette Bueno “Amber Heard Alleges Johnny Depp Abused Her Throughout Relationship: ‘I Live in Fear That Johnny Will Return”, ET Online (27/05/16)

Gene Maddaus, “Why Was Depp-Heard Trial Televised? Critics Call It ‘Single Worst Decision’ for Sexual Violence Victims”, (2022), Variety.  

“Jury Sequestration”, US Legal.  

Lillian Gissen “ Amber Heard is accused of COPYING Johnny Depp's courtroom outfits in a sartorial 'mind game' as spectators spot multiple similarities between their ensembles - and even their hairstyles - amid $100M defamation trial”, (2022), The Daily Mail  

Alex Peters, “Milani Cosmetics faces backlash after wading into Depp V Heard trial”, (2022), Dazed,

Alice McCool, Manasa Narayanan “The Daily Wire Spent Thousands of Dollars Promoting Anti-Amber Heard Propaganda” (2022), Vice

David Mack, “A Juror Said They Didn't Believe Amber Heard's "Crocodile Tears" And That She Made Them Uncomfortable” (2022), Buzzfeed News.

Daniela Avila, “Judge Strikes Down Marilyn Manson's Defamation Claims in Evan Rachel Wood Case” (2023), People Magazine

Jennifer Peltz, “Kesha and producer Dr. Luke settle legal battle over rape, defamation claims” (2023), Global News.

Remember when everyone freaked the f*** out about that French movie on Netflix? No? Well everybody, let us introduce you to: Cuties. In this episode, Hannah and Maia discuss Maïmouna Doucouré’s quaint 2020 coming-of-age film and the all out moral panic that it spawned on the internet - which culminated in a real life obscenity lawsuit against Netflix. Discussions include: the thin line between depiction and endorsement, America’s many moral triggers and paradoxical attitude towards sex, the weaponizing of children as a political tool, the cultural consequences of Jeffrey Epstein, and Netflix… actually... defending… art? 

Support the Patreon and get juicy bonus content!:

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Intro and outro song by our talent friend Ian Mills:

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Sources:

Caira Conner, “Watching the Outrage Over Cuties as a Survivor of P*dophilia” The Atlantic (2020).

Maria Cramer, “Netflix Is Charged in Texas With Promoting Lewdness in ‘Cuties’” The New York Times (2020).

Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: Culture, Politics, and Social Construction” Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 20 (1994).

Zack Sharf, “‘Cuties’ Director Speaks Out Amid Backlash Film Sexualizes Children, Netflix Stands by It” Indie Wire (2020).

Alissa Wilkinson and Aja Romano, How Cuties, a French movie on Netflix, became part of America’s culture war” Vox (2020).

Remember when Kim Kardashian invented butts? Paper Magazine sure would like us to. When they released their scintillating cover issue of Kim K in a sequinned dress, balancing a champagne glass on her formidable silicone buttocks, Paper Mag declared: “Break the Internet Kim Kardashian” And break it she did. In this episode, Hannah and Maia trace Kim Kardashian’s transformation from trashy reality star to fashionista de jour. Since the Paper cover, and with the help of Kanye West, Kim’s body has become the subject of a twisted performance art. But it’s also generated controversy - creating unhealthy trends, grifting from the natural features of Black women, and now disappearing into what we everyone has deemed a “skinny renaissance”. Digression includes: Maia getting riled up about Timothée and Kylie’s fabled romantic union. 

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Intro and outro song by our talent friend Ian Mills:

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SOURCES

Men used to go to war. Today they are keyboard militias, defending the sanctity of video games and the Gamer™ identity from hysterical women and their evil feminine wiles. ... If you didn't know about Gamergate before today, we're jealous. In this episode, Hannah and Maia provide an excruciatingly detailed breakdown of the 2014 mass harassment campaign which led to the abuse, threatening, and doxxing of countless figures in the game development, journalism, and academic industries. Was there really a feminist conspiracy against video games? Was it just a bunch of men feeling threatened by the fact that, surprise, games are fun for everyone? Or was it just faceless trolls throwing stink bombs all over social media? Listen for an illuminating interview with special guest Fūnk-é Joseph, who offers some much needed insights into just what the hell happened with Gamergate, and what the hell it did to ~the culture~. 

Support the Patreon and get juicy bonus content!:

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Intro and outro song by our talent friend Ian Mills:

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Sources:

Shira Chess and Adrienne Shaw, “A Conspiracy of Fishes, or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying About #GamerGate and Embrace Hegemonic Masculinity” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media (2015).

Caitlin Dewey, “The only guide to Gamergate you will ever need to read” The Washington Post (2014).

Zackary Jason, “Game of Fear” Boston Magazine (2015).

Torill Elvira Mortensen, “Anger, Fear, and Games: The Long Event of #GamerGate” Games and Culture, vol. 13 (8) (2016).

Stephen Totilo, “A brief note about the continued discussion about Kotaku's approach to reporting.” (August 26, 2014).