So I was Told

This wasn’t supposed to go here, but it did.

What starts as a continuation of our Smash Bros conversation turns into something bigger: what actually makes a movie hit, why original films feel rare now, and how we’ve drifted away from the experience of watching something together.

We talk about the kind of characters that don’t belong in Smash, the line between fun crossovers and complete nonsense, and how quickly things fall apart when IP becomes more important than intention. But somewhere along the way, the conversation shifts into AI, Hollywood’s obsession with familiarity, and into the question no one seems to be asking:

Do we even remember what movies are supposed to feel like?

This episode is less of a Part 2 and more of a pivot. A realization. A reminder that when you strip away the spectacle, what people actually crave isn’t bigger franchises or smarter tech, it’s something human. Something shared. Something you can’t replicate alone on your couch.

What started as a joke turned into a very real question: if Nintendo is actually building toward a Smash Bros-style movie…do we trust them to pull it off?

In this episode, we spiral through the idea of a Nintendo cinematic universe, making our own fancasts, and breaking down what makes these characters actually work. From Fox and Falco to Ganondorf and beyond, we start building our own version of a Smash Bros movie… because if it’s going to happen, it might as well be done right.

But underneath the jokes is a bigger conversation: what happens when something we grew up with gets handed off to mass-market storytelling? Does it evolve, or does it lose what made it special in the first place?

This is Part 1 of a two-part episode where we question, critique, and lowkey rewrite the future of Nintendo on the big screen.

What starts as a conversation about the show, New Girl turns into a reflection on the kind of TV culture we grew up with, what it meant to wait for a new episode every week, and why so much media now feels disposable the second we finish it. We talk about sitcoms as time capsules, the slow death of shared cultural viewing, and how streaming, overstimulation, and algorithm-driven entertainment have changed the way we connect to stories.

Also: dopamine, nostalgia, burnout, books, gaming, attention spans, money stress, and the weird intimacy of putting a mic in front of two people who are usually much more normal when nobody’s recording.

WW3 or nah? This episode is about what it does to your brain to live through one global emergency after another and still be expected to clock in, pay rent, answer texts, and act normal. We get into the fear around “World War III,” the confusion and misinformation spreading online, the way propaganda muddies everything, and why so many of us feel too burnt out to even panic properly anymore. More than anything, this is a conversation about crisis fatigue, political distrust, and what it means to try to think clearly while the horrors persist.

This episode picks up where we left off: the internet didn’t just “change,” it got redesigned around attention, anxiety, and endless consumption. We break down the difference between the old internet and the new internet. From there, we get into the “Amazonification” of everything i.e. platforms trying to become the one-stop shop, removing friction with autoplay, infinite scroll, and convenience that never lets you feel done. We end with the real question: if we’re not trying to time travel, what are we actually trying to get back and what would a human-sized internet look like (verified spaces, smaller circles, better design, and yes…better parenting)?

Remember when the internet had a bottom? In this episode Kirbs and Crispy talk Vine, the never-ending “MySpace comeback” rumors, and why nostalgia keeps lying to people who weren’t even there. We get into why Instagram/TikTok aren’t really “social” anymore and how infinite scroll turned every app into an attention casino.

Time for a fun episode! For the first time on So I Was Told, we step into the internet’s courtroom and start reading Reddit’s Am I The Asshole?

We get into a birthday party blowup over a nut allergy cake (boundaries vs entitlement), a bride who tries to bench a 98 year old grandma from the reception (ageism), a sister who sells concert tickets for coke money (addiction, resentment), and a gym situation where a woman keeps filming and then flips the script with weaponized therapy language when she’s called out.

We also talk consent, accountability, group chat literacy, and why some people will do anything except simply adjust the tripod.

When people who have lived with relative safety (usually white Americans) feel instability for the first time, something strange happens. Fear gets loud, processing becomes public, and conversations that were meant to challenge systems start orbiting around personal discomfort.

In this episode, we talk about what happens when fear gets misnamed as danger, how privilege shows up in moments of crisis, and why neutrality isn’t as neutral as it feels. Living in Minneapolis has made these conversations impossible to ignore. But this isn’t just about one city. It’s about who gets to panic, who gets to process out loud, and who has been living with instability all along.

We also dig into protest art, collective action, and the difference between feeling something and doing something. Discomfort can be a signal. It can open doors. But only if we’re willing to listen instead of recentering ourselves.

Recommended pages on IG to educate yourself:

riseabovejusticemovement

mnicewatch

thegeneralstrikeus

ocjusticeinitiative

peopleoverpapers

populistsriseup

dear_white_staffers

50501movement

With a new album on the way, we take the long route through his career, his timing, and why his trajectory matters in hip-hop and pop culture. This isn’t a review or a reaction, but history.

We talk about where J. Cole came from, how he navigated the industry without abandoning craft, and why The Fall Off isn't a comeback.

Whether you’ve followed his career closely or only know the headlines, this episode is meant to set the stage before the album drops and explain why people are paying attention.

We heard the whistles, heard the screaming, watched people run, and walked toward the scene before we fully understood what was unfolding. What followed wasn’t a headline for us. it was bodies in motion, armed agents in plain clothes, flash-bangs, tear gas in the air, neighbors helping neighbors, and a day that stretched into something unreal.

In this episode, we share what we know without pretending we know more than we do: the timeline as we experienced it, what it felt like to stand face to face with armed men who looked like a militia, how quickly it escalated, how the neighborhood organized in real time, and what it’s like to go back inside your own apartment afterward.

Content notes: state violence, death, protest footage described, tear gas/chemical irritants, anxiety/fight-or-flight, harassment.