Where do you go from pivoting your brand to nihilism? Horny, my friends. WILDLY horny. In our final installment of the Sentient Horny Brand series, Jamie speaks to the mind behind Duolingo’s chaotic, wildly horny social media presence Zaria Parvez. Remember when you couldn’t get the owl giving birth to sponges off your feed? Remember when you didn’t even WANT to? That was her, and getting there was a wild ride.
We talk about her journey from nearly taking down a Christian school to changing the way that Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumes advertising, one shitpost at a time. 

Follow Zaria here: 
https://www.instagram.com/zariaparvez

Join us on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SixteenthMinute/

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Picture this: it's 2020, you're clinging to sanity, and a frozen steak your mom used to eat after school called SteakUmm is now tweeting in the hopes of turning you into a socialist. But... what? Can one be radicalized by hot dog grade meat? Is what's being sold here an idea or microwaveable meat slop? In our penultimate installment of the Sentient Brands series, Jamie gets into the weeds with the mind behind the SteakUmm account, writer and social media director Nathan Allebach. Spoiler alert: we do, indeed, live in a society.

Follow Nathan here: https://beacons.ai/nathanallebach?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaaw8UJ_ctC-xxP2HrkYDPA5-9p2LBtn_w_NQsXsZhvZeBBYwiEzyZ6LooY_aem_Dm_8G9fFWhqyK0YAyD1JzQ

Read Nathan's history of sentient brands: https://www.vulture.com/2019/06/brand-twitter-jokes-history.html

Follow Yedoye Travis: https://www.instagram.com/yedoye_/?hl=en

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In part two of our 'Sentient Brands on Social Media' series, Jamie speaks to the GOAT of online joke writing -- the great Amy Brown, who defined the Wendy's brand on Twitter, then got radicalized and left Twitter in a blaze of bullying Elon Musk. We take a look at the brief moment where getting replied to by a cheeseburger could get you on the national news, and take a look at how a girl from Ohio goes from "Amy from Myspace" at the mall to a generation-defining social voice. Next week: nihilism and piss!

Follow Amy here: https://bsky.app/profile/amybrown.xyz

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In part one of our ‘Sentient Brands on Social Media’ series, Jamie speaks with Serenity Discko, the original media writer behind the teenage edgelord Denny’s Tumblr account. But worry not, we go DEEP — Jamie sets the stage by tracing back our history of parasocial relationships with brands all the way back to World War I. Buckle in, the brands are getting angry, the brands are getting horny, and the brands want to be your best friend.

Follow Serenity’s work here: Serenity Discko

Watch The Century of the Self by Adam Curtis: https://youtu.be/eJ3RzGoQC4s?si=_eHsM0hadnUQA3Cr

Read The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu:  https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-attention-merchants-the-epic-scramble-to-get-inside-our-heads-tim-wu/8632123

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This week, Jamie talks with Adam Aleksik aka The Etymology Nerd about how relying on algorithms to communicate is changing the way we talk and scream at each other, and the inevitability that your nephew is going to grow up to say "seggs" without a shred of irony. 

Learn more about Adam's work here: https://www.etymologynerd.com/

Pre-order Algospeak: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/468266/algospeak-by-aleksic-adam/9781529949148

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Jamie continues her conversation with Liam Kyle Sullivan, AKA Kelly of "Shoes" fame, Mrs. Cunningham of "Muffins" fame, and an actor and comedian workshopping a show about what it all means. Bonus: Jamie's cousin Chloe stops by to explain why kids from New England had no idea Mrs. Cunningham was "doing an accent."

Come to The Bechdel Cast's Oscars Spectacular Celebration this Sunday: https://www.dynastytypewriter.com/calendar-squad-up

See Liam's show in Los Angeles this Thursday: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-liam-kyle-sullivan-show-work-in-progress-tickets-1248665595409?aff=oddtdtcreator

Follow Liam: https://www.liamkylesullivan.com/

https://www.instagram.com/liamksullivan/?hl=en

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This episode rules. This episode does not suck! Jamie meets up with Liam Kyle Sullivan, one of YouTube's earliest stars with his character Kelly of "Shoes," "Muffins," and much more, before he workshopped his one-person show in Los Angeles. Nearly two decades out from Shoes, Liam reflects on learning what YouTube was by becoming famous on it, how Hollywood struggled to translate internet fame to conventional media in the 2000s, and how his relationship with Kelly has changed over the years. Do these two still have their New England accents? Well, yes.

Come to The Bechdel Cast's Oscars Spectacular Celebration this Sunday: https://www.dynastytypewriter.com/calendar-squad-up

See Liam's show in Los Angeles this Thursday: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-liam-kyle-sullivan-show-work-in-progress-tickets-1248665595409?aff=oddtdtcreator

Follow Liam: https://www.liamkylesullivan.com/

https://www.instagram.com/liamksullivan/?hl=en

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Zoë Roth was four years old, her dad snapped a photo of her in front of a neighborhood home being burned with its owners permission to clear the land -- and the rest is internet history. This week, Jamie goes in depth with Zoë twenty years later about becoming a meme just as she started to form memories, how she's chosen to interact (or not interact) with it over the years, and why she chose to forge her own path. Also, a deep dive into meme managers, and why there are so many dead cats with representation.

Get tickets to the Bechdel Cast show at Dynasty Typewriter here: https://www.dynastytypewriter.com/calendar-squad-up

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our weirdest episode yet? Let's GO. This week, Jamie gets to the bottom of the backrooms, one of the most famous images on the internet -- posted to a horror-themed 4chan board in 2019, one blurry picture of an empty expanse of offices inspired teenage horror fans, online sleuths, and adults sinking into existential dread alike. We're looking at all three corners of the backrooms' history, from its legacy as a monster-filled creepypasta for the teens, a 'liminal space' for doomscrolling millennials, and a place to be tracked down by the detectives entrenched in lost media. Spoiler alert: the REAL backrooms are alive, well, and started a GoFundMe in Wisconsin.

Give to the Backrooms GoFundMe here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/https-gofund-me-405dafe1
Follow Sara Bimo's work here: https://yorku.academia.edu/sarabimo
Follow Peter Heft's work here: https://www.peterheft.com/
Watch Kendra Gaylord's video on the backrooms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3cTIn2Z_Ck
Watch Farrell McGuire's video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqsdKi59VrE&t=1082s

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In honor of the ten year anniversary of the left shark moment at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show in 2015, a very special rerun!

Sixteenth Minute exclusive! We’ve got the first in depth interview with Bryan Gaw, aka the Left Shark himself. 

This week, Jamie revisits the 2015 Super Bowl saga that was Left Shark — the costumed cartilaginous fish that went rogue in 2015 beside Katy Perry during a chorus of ‘Teenage Dream,’ capturing the world’s heart. The person inside is just as lovable, and Jamie takes the bus to West Hollywood to meet dancer-turned-celebrity-stylist Bryan Gaw to revisit one of the internet’s few wholesome moments. 

Plus… ELLLLLVIS PRESTOOOO

Follow Bryan Gaw here: https://bryangaw.com/

And here: https://www.instagram.com/bryangaw

Original Air Date: 9.3.24

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