Blocked and Reported Episode 297: "Throuple Trouble" (with Helen Lewis)

Date: February 28, 2026
Hosts: Katie Herzog & Guest Host Helen Lewis
(Jesse Singal absent, referenced)

Episode Overview

In this episode, Katie Herzog welcomes back Atlantic staff writer and author Helen Lewis to discuss a variety of provocative, controversial, and darkly funny internet stories, both American and British. The main topics include a UK Tourette's scandal at the BAFTAs, the controversy around British "grooming gangs" and media coverage, and a deep-dive into Lindy West's new memoir on polyamory and contemporary feminism. The show features the pair’s trademark sarcastic, culture-war savvy banter and liberal use of gallows humor, with memorable quotes and thoughtful pushback on prevailing internet narratives.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Helen’s US Trip, San Francisco, & Housing Dystopias (00:09–03:10)

• Helen’s impressions of San Francisco’s changing street life, from “post-zombie apocalypse” emptiness to recent attempts at revitalization.
  • “The downtown looked like a kind of post zombie apocalypse... apart from these really disturbed and troubled people.” (Helen Lewis, 01:13)
• Notable issue: Tech workers living in RVs on the streets due to unaffordable housing.
  • “These are not...homeless coders.” (Katie Herzog, 02:06)
• Comparison of London vs. San Francisco housing prices
  • “The average house price in Marin county… is over $2 million… The average British house price, even in London, is £500,000.” (Helen Lewis, 02:50)

2. The BAFTA Tourette’s Scandal & The Cross-Cultural Panic (04:09–26:07)

Incident Recap & Tourette’s Explanation

• British man John Davidson (with Tourette’s and the rare symptom coprolalia) involuntarily shouts a racial slur at Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo while on stage at the BAFTAs.
• Helen contextualizes Davidson’s long public profile, explaining the mechanics and devastating social consequences of his condition.
  • “It's a...not only is it an involuntary tick...but also the whole point...is you say literally the worst thing you could possibly say.” (Helen Lewis, 05:11)
• Classic British Tourette’s documentary “John’s Not Mad” (BBC, late '80s); Davidson's decades-long presence in UK culture.
• Tourette’s media portrayal—humorous but tragic, disturbing, and stigmatized.
  • “If you get a lot of people with Tourette's together, they can kind of set each other off. Like a little chorus.” (Helen Lewis, 07:47)
  • “Your dog's got ginger pubes!...your dog's got tits!” (Helen Lewis, 07:54)

Media & Celebrity Responses

• Many observers, especially Americans, misunderstand the involuntary nature of Tourette’s, leading to accusations of intentional racism.
  • Jamie Foxx: “‘Out of all the words, you could have said Tourette’s made you say that? Nah, he meant that shit. Unacceptable.’” (Jamie Foxx on Instagram, quoted at 13:22)
  • Katie: “This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what Tourette’s is.”
• Helen explains the neurology ("two communication systems in the brain"), and how extreme tics emerge.
• Many UK observers and disability activists see the panic as lacking nuance and context.

Cultural & Editorial Handling

• BBC’s controversial failure to edit out the tirade from the broadcast—differing standards versus the US.
• No clear “good” solution: either confront Black celebrities with abuse, or cloak disabled individuals from public life.
  • “There are two things...either we tell black celebrities...they've got to put up with...having racial slurs shouted at them, or...tell a disabled guy that he has to be locked in a cupboard...” (Helen Lewis, 11:12)
• Satirical online responses (“If I had Tourette’s I’d just shout ‘trans rights’...because I’m a good person” (Helen Lewis, 24:12)), accidental hilarity (Google blurb: “See more on n-words”), and the complexity of public accommodations and disability.

Broader Lessons

• “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” (Helen Lewis, 36:55)
• The segment underscores the cultural gap between US and UK discourse on race, class, and disability.
  • “Americans took the racial insult as being the most important thing, whereas Brits...were more likely to look at it from a class-based perspective.” (Helen Lewis, 18:16)

3. UK Grooming Gangs Controversy & Internet Reactions (27:40–47:46)

The Allegations

• Viral statement from MP Rupert Lowe’s “rape inquiry” making wild claims: extreme gang rape, torture, murders, and forced bestiality by police-protected Pakistani-heritage gangs.
• Katie’s initial reaction: skepticism ("My first thought...what kind of dog? And B, there's no way this happened. And yet no one on X seemed to be displaying the slightest hint of doubt." (Katie, 28:47)), concern about “satanic panic” vibes.

Helen’s Contextualization & Analysis

• Helen details the murky nature of UK inquiries and skepticism about the reliability/ulterior motives of Lowe’s project (a right-wing figure with ties to Musk/Farage).
  • "[Rupert Lowe] both claims that the media won't cover it, but he also won't let journalists into any of the sessions." (Helen Lewis, 32:33)
• The distortion of statistics on rape in England; conflation of reporting/legal reform with actual crime increase.
• Deep issues: media amplification, far-right focus on immigrants, social media incentives for sensationalized, unverifiable stories.
• The risk of undermining real survivors: “By putting this out there...he’s diminishing the seriousness of the actual rape gangs themselves.” (Katie Herzog, 37:13)

4. Immigration, Cultural Difference, and Internet Racism (41:38–46:12)

• Hostile and misleading anti-immigration narratives online: conflation of crime with shifting demographics.
• Power Bottom Dad’s viral post on UK rape statistics is debunked.
• Context on UK vs. US immigrant demographics, integration challenges, and how stress, insularity, and social conservatism among some immigrant communities increase interpersonal and intergenerational difficulties.
  • “Some British Asian communities score higher on social conservatism and religiosity than their origin communities back in Southeast Asia.” (Helen Lewis, 44:26)

5. Fat Positivity, Polyamory, and Lindy West’s New Memoir "Adult Braces" (49:56–81:17)

Setting the Scene

• Lindy West: Former Stranger/Jezebel/NYT writer, prominent 2010s fat acceptance/feminist voice, memoirist, and TV showrunner ("Shrill").
• West’s prominence in Seattle’s cultural scene, her family’s local celebrity, past controversies (with Dan Savage, with other media figures including Katie herself).

Memoir Dissection: Polyamory & Relationship Dynamics

• Memoir reveals Lindy’s “fairy tale” marriage was always non-monogamous, initially at husband Aham’s insistence.
  • “Her father died. They reconnected. He had a stipulation…their relationship had to be non-monogamous and she didn't want this. But she grudgingly went along…” (Katie Herzog, 55:34)
• Throuple situation emerges with Roya (slim, conventionally attractive) as third member. Book shifts from defiant positivity to a more bleak, muddied reality of unmet emotional and financial needs, chronic disappointment, unreciprocated attraction.
  • “He's got a wife who's got the big high powered job and then he's got like the sort of wife for fun and who quit her job.” (Helen Lewis, 65:08)
  • “Dude, my culture is not your costume. If you're going to talk like that, if you're going to call yourself queer, put a dick in your ass. Having two girlfriends doesn't make you queer.” (Katie Herzog, 66:43)

Money, Identity, and Memoir Reliability

• Recurring themes: financial instability despite public success, confusion around identities (Aham’s pronouns, sexual orientation), and journalistic skepticism about memoir "truth."
  • “If you write a memoir and your memo reveals...everything that you said before was maybe not entirely true, why should we believe you now?” (Katie Herzog, 71:13)
• The problem of influencer confessionals vs. actual reporting/detail.
  • “But she's basically an influencer, isn’t she?...they’re doing PR for the version of themselves." (Helen Lewis, 73:07)

Fat Positivity & Ozempic Era

• Intimate, at times painful reflection on fatness—paradoxically both a source of stigma and a career asset in the current cultural moment.
  • “She has benefited from her fatness in a way that she wouldn't have if she were born 10 or 20 years earlier…being unapologetically fat brought her fans and attention.” (Katie Herzog, 61:02)
• Skepticism from both hosts on Lindy’s principled refusal to take weight loss drugs (Ozempic et al.)
  • “Her view, which is that they’re kind of immoral...if you really believe that the side effects for GLP1s are that bad, you also wouldn’t vaccinate your kids.” (Helen Lewis, 62:34)
• Comparison to addiction models and resistance to pharmaceutical solutions.

Reflections on 2010s Feminism, Online Culture, & The Limits of Auto-memoir

• The “first-person industrial complex” and why culture-warring, navel-gazing memoirs feel so played out.
  • “It is not a nourishing way to be...imagine driving all the way through [America] and not being super interested in other people.” (Helen Lewis, 74:22)
  • “You go on a road trip across America, come back with the conclusion that you were right.” (Helen Lewis, 80:18)
• Both hosts express empathy for West’s struggles but skepticism about the stated happiness in her "throuple" and doubts about whether her journey is empowering or simply tragicomic.

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “I think it's podcasters disease in many ways.” (Helen Lewis on Tourette’s, 05:53)
• “It was one of those classic things...why won’t journalists just take this on trust and uncritically report it?” (Helen Lewis on the rape inquiry, 32:56)
• “If I had Tourette’s, my tics would be shouting ‘trans rights!’...Because I’m a good person.” (Helen Lewis, 24:12)
• "[Lindy’s husband] seems to treat polyamory as though it's an orientation rather than a lifestyle...I'm poly, not I made the choice to fuck other people." (Katie Herzog, 58:20)
• “If you write a memoir and your memo reveals that everything that you said before was maybe not entirely true, why should we believe you now?” (Katie Herzog, 71:22)
• "Being unapologetically, unapologetically fat brought her fans and attention." (Katie Herzog, 61:02)
• "She should find herself a nice young man who will love her just. And just her. And if she just needs to be a boring, monogamous, straight woman...be subversive. It's fine!" (Helen Lewis, 80:24)

Important Segments – Timestamps

• SF, housing & tech: 00:09–03:10
• BAFTA Tourette’s incident: 04:09–26:07
• Grooming gang allegations: 27:40–47:46
• Stats, context, and internet racism: 41:38–46:12
• Lindy West, 2010s feminism & Throuple Trouble: 49:56–81:17

Episode Tone & Language

• Blunt, sarcastic, analytical, and irreverent
• Willingness to poke fun at both themselves and the culture-warriors around them
• British/American cross-cultural humor and snark
• Unfiltered talk about sex, disability, and social taboos

Conclusion

The episode offers a witty yet deeply skeptical snapshot of modern culture-war internet, with much-needed context about both British and American public life. The hosts tackle outrage cycles, the dangers of sensationalized reporting, the messy reality of polyamory, and the limits of social justice-driven personal storytelling—always questioning surface narratives, and always with an eye for the absurd.

Further Discussion & Q&A (For Primos)

Helen sticks around (post-episode) for primo subscriber questions on these and related topics. Join at blockedandreported.org for bonus content and community discussion.