ICYMI

On Wednesday, Britney Spears spoke in court against her current conservatorship, which began in 2008. In recent years, fans have speculated that Spears was being controlled against her will by her father through this conservatorship, and started the #FreeBritney movement in an attempt to break her out of it. On today’s episode,  Madison and Rachelle break down the history of Spears’ conservatorshi...

What do Chloe Bailey, Nina Simone, and Vice President Kamala Harris have to do with one another? We’re here to help you figure that out. On today’s episode, Rachelle and Madison talk about how a cover of Simone’s “Feeling Good” turned into a story that ultimately felt anything but . But first, they examine Rachel Lindsay’s recent comments about the Bachelor franchise .  Podcast production by Danie...

From “woke bae” to “woke-a-cola,” the word woke has taken the internet and mainstream media by storm. But how many people who use the word actually know what it means? On today’s episode, Rachelle and Madison (but, really, mostly Rachelle) explain the decades-old origins of the word, and how its meaning has evolved as it’s gone from Marcus Garvey to being sung by the likes of Erykah Badu and Child...

On today’s episode, Madison is joined by producer Daniel Schroeder to talk about people accusing Billie Eilish of queerbaiting on Instagram. They then discuss the way TikTok seems to be replacing Craigslist as the spot for finding missed connections—but are the videos real? To find out, Madison interviews Val and Kaycie , two women who had a serendipitous encounter on a rooftop bar, only to lose t...

On today’s episode, Rachelle  and  Madison explain the latest drama surrounding online provocateur Trisha Paytas. They recap Paytas’ history online, how they’re connected to David Dobrik’s Vlog Squad, and why their podcast Frenemies is in predictable turmoil. Then, two new High Speed Downloads, first on the grifting of internet chef Darius Williams (aka @DariusCooks) and then on the woman who got...

On today’s episode, Rachelle finds out that Madison is an anthro-paul-ogist. Internet star Logan Paul faced off against Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match this weekend, so Madison takes Rachelle through the troubling origins of the Paul brothers, how they’ve been able to maintain their internet fame across multiple platforms despite a series of serious allegations, and why this fight is nothing mo...

On today’s show, Madison  and  Rachelle have a short discussion of the recent beekeeper drama on TikTok. Then, they’re joined by Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber , hosts of the Who Weekly? podcast, to discuss Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez getting back together. They talk about what it was like when the pair first got together in the early 2000s, why it feels so exciting to see these two stars indul...

On today’s episode,  Madison  and  Rachelle  examine a case of mistaken identity. One of TikTok’s best features is its algorithm, which specializes in surfacing videos seemingly tailor-made for the user. That is, until the algorithm gets an idea about the user that’s very, very wrong. They discuss why TikTok is convinced Madison is an ex-Mormon and Rachelle is a Marvel fanatic, and then field a nu...

On today’s episode,  Rachelle  is joined by producer  Daniel Schroeder  to discuss the online legacy of  Keeping Up With the Kardashians . After 14 years and 20 seasons, the series is finally coming to a close, so Daniel and Rachelle look back at its infamous origins, trace the show’s evolving relationship with social media, and look ahead to what life might be like for all of us after the series...

On today’s episode,  Madison  and  Rachelle  open with High Speed Downloads on two viral stories: the photos of Tessa Thompson, Rita Ora, and Taika Waititi sharing an apparent three-way kiss, and the journey of the woman who live-tweeted her cross-country flight to pursue a man who might be just not that into her. Then they examine how the song “Castaways” from the Nickelodeon show  The Backyardig...

On today’s episode,  Rachelle  and  Madison chronicle the long, complicated life of Shrek online. They argue that the film, which premiered in 2001, was primed to become an internet meme before Shrek fans even got their hands on it. And then they explain all the different iterations, some funny and some downright creepy, of Shrek content that have kept the green ogre alive on the web for 20 years....

For the past week, while the violence between Israel and Palestine has escalated, a separate battle has accelerated on social media, one fought with rocket emojis and celebrities like Israeli actress Gal Gadot and Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid getting involved. If you don’t post, are you tacitly anti-Palestine? Anti-semitic? If you do post and you fumble some of your history, are you noth...

On today’s episode, Rachelle and Madison discuss the latest news about Chrissy Teigen and Courtney Stodden. Earlier this week, Stodden, who rose to fame as a teenager in the early 2010s after marrying middle-aged character actor Doug Hutchison, came forward saying that they had been harassed on Twitter by Teigen, who sent tweets wishing for their death. Teigen has since apologized, but this news h...

Rachelle  and  Madison  discuss Elon Musk’s episode of  Saturday Night Live . Specifically they break down the ”Gen Z Hospital” sketch , where everybody seems to be speaking in internet slang, and the backlash to it. Rachelle explains how all the language used isn’t just from the internet or from Zoomers but from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). This isn’t a new thing, of course—white A...

On today’s episode,  Rachelle and Madison discuss Facebook upholding their ban of Donald Trump from their platform—sort of. Then they interview someone about their own experience getting banned: legal journalist Rachel Stone, who was banned from Twitter after she jokingly threatened the man who cautions you to take a break from scrolling through TikTok. Finally, the debut of our new segment Galaxy...

On today’s episode,  Madison  and  Rachelle  answer a couple of listener questions in a new segment we’re calling Read Receipts. First, they explore the origins of the “this shit bussin’—sheesh” meme that’s all over TikTok and why teens are getting their parents to do it. Then Rachelle digs into the drama currently embroiling the fan-fiction website Archive of Our Own, explaining whether the nonpr...

On today’s episode,  Rachelle  and  Madison  explain the controversy surrounding an NFT of Chadwick Boseman’s head that was connected to, but not sanctioned by, the Oscars. Then they run through a series of High-Speed Downloads covering why Ryan Gosling trended last weekend,  Mark Zuckerberg’s sunscreen photo , a flash of  TikTok drama  involving  Doja Cat , and the celebration of  Ed Balls Day ....

Madison  and  Rachelle  pour one out for Yahoo Answers. To remember the site’s important place in internet history, they’re joined by J.T. Sexkik, the creator of the infamous video “ How Is Prangent Formed .” They talk to him about his earliest memories of the question-and-answer forum, its wildest moments, and what the internet is losing with its demise. Plus, we exorcise our IKEA shopping demons...

On this episode,  Madison  and  Rachelle  discuss how the phrase “body positivity” has lost all meaning. They talk about how the body-positivity movement started as a way to advocate for fat acceptance, including with respect to such tangible issues as healthcare and employment, but how the phrase has been co-opted into memeable soundbites on TikTok and Instagram that serve no real purpose beyond...

On this episode,  Madison  and  Rachelle  talk to Rolling Stone senior writer  EJ Dickson  about PissTok, a new TikTok trend in which people are making jokes about urination kinks. She  recently reported on the videos , which have attracted tens of millions of views, for her magazine. They discuss how kink has become memified, what this says about the rise of sex positivity in mainstream discourse...

In this episode, Rachelle Hampton and Madison Malone Kircher discuss the latest development in the world of  The Bachelor  and how it all plays into the show’s relationship with social media .  First they dig into the news that former Bachelor Colton Underwood has  come out as gay  on  Good Morning America . Then they get into the show’s love-hate relationship with Instagram, examining how the ser...

On this episode, Rachelle Hampton and Madison Malone Kircher look at the way the COVID vaccines have seemed to develop online personalities. They discuss how the memes and merch inspired by Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson can actually encourage vaccine hesitancy—which is all the more disappointing since there are actually some pretty  informative TikToks  out there about COVID-19. Next,...

In this episode, Rachelle Hampton and Madison Malone Kircher start with a couple of High Speed Downloads: Madison summarizes the latest online drama surrounding self-help guru Rachel Hollis (featuring Harriet Tubman), and Rachelle chronicles the Kardashian fury that was unleashed after somebody posted an untouched-up photo of Khloe. Then, an exclusive interview with  Dion Beary , a writer and onli...

On this episode, Rachelle Hampton and Madison Malone Kircher report from the latest front in the battle between millennials and Gen Z. First, they trace the conflict back to its origins in skirmishes over middle parts and skinny jeans. Then they speak to culture writer Jenny G. Zhang , who recently encountered the fury of thirtysomethings when she tweeted about what using reaction GIFs says about...

On the latest episode, hosts Rachelle Hampton and Madison Malone Kircher talk to Mya Johnson and Chris Cotter , two teen TikTok stars who created a dance challenge set to Cardi B’s No. 1 hit “ Up .” Fellow TikTok creator Addison Rae appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to perform their dance , along with seven other popular TikTok dances, without giving credit to any of the creators. A T...