We’re joined by journalist and author Bridget Read, to talk about her new book, “Little Bosses Everywhere : How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America”. 

Bridget talks to us about the long history of Multi Level Marketing (MLM),  its place in American mythmaking and how the Direct Selling industry was able to acquire political power and influence, which continues to help them evade regulation, as well as shape social and economic policy. We also talk about why MLMs aren’t simply alternative business models, but rather, structures that rely on coercion and at times, manipulation, in order to function. We also talk about how MLMs have been exported out of the US, targeting communities around the world, including in countries like the UK. 

Get a copy of Bridget’s book : https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/715421/little-bosses-everywhere-by-bridget-read/

Follow Bridget on social media: https://x.com/bridgetgillard

Read Bridget’s reporting, here: https://nymag.com/author/bridget-read/

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PHOEBE ALERT

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

This is a preview of a bonus episode! Check it out on our Patreon!

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June joins us this week to talk about their life in posting, and goes through just some of the ways posting has shaped their lives, for good and for ill. We talk about the relationship between posting and loneliness, how the internet has created complex pathways to radicalisation that are difficult to regulate, what to do if your family get doxxed by online oddballs, and the virtues of meeting your online friends in real life. 

Listen to Western Kabuki : http://www.westernkabuki.com/

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

We watch the first episode of the HBO series “Paul American”, a documentary – sort of – about Jake and Logan Paul.

We talk about the relationship between the Paul brothers and prime time TV shows, what happens when you age out of content economy but can only think in terms of virality, and try to figure out what this show is actually trying to say, and to whom.

We also find some time to talk about Kemi Badenoch’s addiction to doom scrolling and mobile games, and Phoebe tells us a new theory about Hawk Tuah.

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PHOEBE ALERT

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

This is a preview of a bonus episode. Check it out on our Patreon!

Friend of the show Josh Boerman returns to the show to talk about “CARELESS PEOPLE: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism” by former Meta staffer Sarah Wynn-Williams.

We talk about the controversy surrounding the memoir, the pretense that nobody at Facebook knew what they had created, and how the platform’s ambitions to become the entire internet was undermined by the its inability to create any other product, or understand what people wanted.

We also talk about Zuckerberg’s innate weirdness, which culminates in an awkward attempt to get President Xi to name his child, for some reason. 

Check out The Worst of All Possible Worlds here!

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

Architect and urban designer Fred Scharmen joins us this week to talk about Jeff Bezos’ recent Blue Origin space flight, and what it tells us about how billionaires think about space exploration and settlement today.

Of course, we also spend a lot of time trying to figure out what why Katy Perry went to space at all, and whether the Katy Perry who returned is an extra terrestrial doppelgänger

Read SPACE FORCES, published by Verso, here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/710-space-forces

Follow Fred on Instagram and Bluesky : @sevensixfive

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PALESTINE  AID LINKS

PHOEBE ALERT

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

This is a preview of a bonus episode- check it out on our Patreon!

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Designer Michael Oswell joins the show this week to talk about his work in graphic design and typography. Michael talks about how he got started in design, at a time when work was still drawn by hand first and tailored to print mediums – and how the expectations of social media platforms and digital first technologies has diminished the importance of drawing. We also speculate over contemporary fascism's penchant for Serif fonts, what the decline of original imagery tells us about culture's lack of imagination, and whether modern design's inability to inspire is the fault of the Adobe Creative Suite.

Follow and support Michael's work, here: https://www.instagram.com/michaeloswellgraphicdesigner/?hl=en-gb

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

Writer and podcaster Gareth Watkins comes on the show today to talk about his essay, 'AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism'.

We talk about the shifts in what we is considered to be the 'aesthetic' of AI, why so many on the right, including those obsessed with 'classical' beauty, seem to love using it, and  what it tells us about the way political messages are distributed and received.

Gareth also explains that the best way to challenge those using and promoting AI images over those produced by human artists, may not be an appeal to environmental protection, but rather, to keep telling people the images look horrible until they stop.

Read Gareth's essay here: https://newsocialist.org.uk/transmissions/ai-the-new-aesthetics-of-fascism/

Listen to DEATH SENTENCE here: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence

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PALESTINE  AID LINKS

PHOEBE ALERT

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

This is a preview of a bonus episode! Check it out on our Patreon!

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This week, Josh Boerman from The Worst of All Possible Worlds returns to the pod to catch us up on everything happening in America, as it decides to self immolate for no other reason but to own the libs.

We talk about how Everything Is Computer, and what that actually means in practice, Elon Musk stealing tricks from Mr Beast to (try) and do political corruption, and we briefly touch on the leaked Signal chat that once again proves our thesis: that everything that happens in the world is a direct cause of posting. 

Emma Garland’s HUCK essay: https://www.huckmag.com/article/donald-trump-everything-is-computer-is-he-right

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

Ed Campbell, Correspondent and Senior Political Producer at PoliticsJoe, joins us this week to talk about the morning routine and sigma grindset required to nearly win Britain’s favourite game show, The Chase.

We talk about ice bowl dunks, getting evicted from your apartment for leaving too many banana peels on the floor, before moving onto Ed’s experience on The Chase.

Ed gives us an insight into how the show works, the strategy he developed to take on each potential Chaser, and an exploration into the fan communities of quizzers who study the game show as if it was a science. 

Follow Ed on X and Instagram at @Edcmpbl 

Watch the PoliticsJoe podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@PoliticsJOE

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PALESTINE  AID LINKS

PHOEBE ALERT

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

This is a preview of a bonus episode. Find the whole thing at our reasonably priced patreon!

This week, we talk to independent film producer, director and actor Jonathan Daniel Brown. Based in LA, you may know him from his acting roles in Kid Cannabis and Project X, or as a former co-host of the podcast Struggle Session.

We talk to Jonathan about his early experiences trolling on forums, his early introduction to cinema via rental stores, and the ways the industry has changed as a result of streaming services determining what films get made and distributed. We also talk about the legacy of Project X, and how the film can be seen as depicting a long-gone era of social media, in which platforms were used to organise and enhance real life social experiences.

Follow Jonathan on Instagram here!

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PALESTINE  AID LINKS

PHOEBE ALERT

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Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).