1: Trump's Ukraine Sellout, AI Boyfriends, and The Sydney Sweeney Flop

Summary

FYPod, Episode 1: "Trump's Ukraine Sellout, AI Boyfriends, and The Sydney Sweeney Flop"

Hosts: Tim Miller & Cam Caskey
Date: August 19, 2025

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Overview

The inaugural episode of FYPod (For You Pod) dives deep into the political shifts among Gen Z, with a focus on the generation’s surprising swing toward Trump in 2024. Hosts Tim Miller and Cam Caskey use sharp wit and unfiltered candor to investigate the drivers behind these changes, including international politics (Trump’s approach to Ukraine and Russia), the rise of AI companions, and cultural controversies as exemplified by the Sydney Sweeney “American Eagle” marketing campaign. The conversation blends political analysis, pop culture, and generational anxieties, keeping a finger firmly on the TikTok generation’s pulse.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump, Ukraine, and American Alliances

[01:18–10:32]

• Trump’s “Affable” White House Meeting with Zelensky:
  • Trump's on-camera friendliness contrasted with the high stakes—Trump maneuvering to gain concessions from Ukraine under the guise of ending the war, possibly to Russia’s benefit.
  • “Trump for a minute, just for the cameras…was affable.” – Cam [01:18]
• Critique of the Biden (now Trump) Approach:
  • Marco Rubio refused to specify what Putin conceded in recent negotiations, leading to skepticism about the value and outcome for Ukraine.
  • Cam describes documents left by Trump’s team at a hotel as revealing U.S. willingness to offer symbolic “gifts” to Putin rather than negotiate from strength [03:08].
• Media Manipulation and Performance:
  • Trump’s fondness for televised pageantry shapes how meetings with foreign leaders are staged for the press, amounting to “this sort of cable news panel kind of jocular type thing…in the Oval Office because they like being on TV so much.” – Tim [04:30]
  • Republican talking points scapegoat Ukraine for not holding wartime elections, ignoring similar patterns in Israel [06:03].
• Alleged Ukrainian “Peace” Concessions:
  • Discussion around rumor of Ukraine ceding occupied territories (referencing Israel’s Golan Heights/West Bank model), with skepticism and concern for broader “sellout.”
  • “What Putin wanted was essentially control over everything that he already has control over, plus…areas in the east, in Donetsk, etc.” – Tim [08:18]
• Meta Commentary:
  • On Zelensky’s attire: “The outfit he was wearing for the last one was so badass.…I was kind of hoping he would hold out.” – Cam [09:46]
  • On the nature of negotiating with Trump: “Zelensky deserves a fucking Purple Heart for smiling at all during this…” – Cam [09:46]

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2. AI Boyfriends, Online Companionship, and Regulation

[11:28–21:47]

• Exploding Trend of AI “Relationships”:
  • Cam relays stories from Reddit’s r/myboyfriendisai subreddit: people, mostly women, developing “real” emotional and even “marital” relationships with AI chatbots.
  • “People buying themselves wedding rings because they sent sample pictures to their AI after their AI proposed to them…” – Cam [11:57]
• Cross-Gender & Ideological Spread:
  • Not limited to demographics: Tim highlights a MAGA-affiliated Breitbart writer, Lee Stranahan, openly discussing emotional reliance on his AI “girlfriend.” [13:32]
  • “To me, that little anecdote shows the proliferation of this.” – Tim [13:32]
• Tech Industry Response:
  • OpenAI’s attempts to make chatbots less effusively flattering were quickly reversed due to backlash from users who preferred more “affectionate” AI interaction [15:49].
  • Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg predicts AI companionship will soon be normalized: “AI friends and romantic companions are going to be less stigmatized and this is going to be something that is more widespread.” – Summarizing Zuckerberg, Cam [15:54]
• Tragic Outcomes & Dark Side:
  • Cam recounts a viral story of a 76-year-old who believed an AI (designed with a Kendall Jenner persona) was real, tried to “meet” it in person, came to harm, and ultimately died as a result [16:50–18:20].
• Societal Implications:
  • AI’s unflagging attention and memory create companionship that can surpass human relationships for some: “It never takes two days to text you back. It remembers things about you…It’s a better companion…than a lot of real people…And you know what? I don’t like it, but I kind of fucking get it.” – Cam [19:14]
  • Tim adds: “It’s kind of hard to make friends when you’re older…You understand why people who…are craving connection…obviously the computer is going to do that on demand, much easier…” [19:20]

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3. Gen Z Advice Segment: “Gardening” Friendships

[20:22–21:47]

• Proactive Relationship Building:
  • Cam encourages listeners to “garden” their friendships—send regular check-ins, invest effort to maintain long-term connections.
  • “Time does this funny thing where it goes on and…as you get older, you have fewer and fewer friends because you have not spent the time it takes to tend to those relationships.” – Cam [20:22]
• Tim’s Commentary:
  • Tim jokes about Cam’s frequent friendship check-ins, vouching for Cam’s advice. [21:47]

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4. Regulation of AI and the Illiteracy of Gen Alpha

[21:47–27:22]

• Bleak Prospects for AI Regulation:
  • Tim sees little hope for top-down regulation and more potential for “cultural” responses, likening it to anti-smoking movements [23:24].
  • Predicts a “two America’s” split: “really high achieving people” leveraging AI vs. “another group…fed slop and nonsense who end up in shitifying themselves and their lives.” – Tim [24:44]
• Meta Specifically Fighting Regulation:
  • Cam alleges Meta specifically lobbied to permit AI chatbots to send sexually suggestive or romantic messages to minors, framing it as a regulatory loophole [24:51].
  • “AI companies are fighting for AI to be able to flirt with minors.” – Cam [25:08]
• AI & Literacy Decline:
  • Anecdote about a “very smart young kid” who uses only voice with ChatGPT and “can’t fucking read.” Cam expresses worry that rising generations—already “practically illiterate”—will lose even basic literacy [25:32].
  • AI likely to disrupt education, therapy, traditional professions: “I wouldn’t be surprised if AI starts replacing teachers, therapists…” – Cam [26:13]

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5. Social Media Bans for Minors: The Australia Model

[27:22–30:22]

• Cameron’s Take: Ban It:
  • Strong advocacy for banning social media under age 16, citing evidence of mental harm and indifference by social media companies.
  • “Every report…says we are aware that this is mentally destructive to children and don’t care. We’re doing it anyway.” – Cam [28:41]
  • Cam pledges personal restrictions for his future children: “My first son is going to be named Pop Up Caskey. And Pop Up’s not touching an iPhone until…maybe 12. And social media, absolutely not.” [28:38]
• Tim’s Moderation:
  • Tim is open to persuasion, but thinks a ban at 16 may be too high, floating ages 13 or 14 as potentially more realistic [29:35].
  • Invites listener debates: “I want people on both sides, okay? …We want to have a diversity of thoughts.” [29:35]

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6. Culture Clash: Sydney Sweeney, “Eugenics,” and the Anti-Woke Backlash

[30:22–34:38]

• Recap of the Disagreement:
  • Cam reiterates his view of a Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad as a “eugenics” dog whistle, while Tim sees it as mainstream marketing [30:22].
• MAGA’s “Golden Touch” Debunked:
  • Despite right-wing claims that anti-woke campaigns “go to the moon,” Sydney Sweeney’s film Americana bombed at the box office and American Eagle foot traffic dropped by 9% after the campaign [31:30, 34:16].
  • “MAGA isn’t showing up for their Barbie. Like they should have gone to that film in droves.” – Cam [32:52]
• Industry Trends:
  • Cam alleges Hollywood is shifting away from “woke” stories, with insiders noting “a lot less diversity…a lot more safe bets with white faces.” [34:16]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Trump’s Diplomacy:
  “Trump was frustrated that the war is still going on. He’s publicly expressed frustration about it. So he said, okay, I’m going to go to Vladimir, I’m going to say, hey, Vlad, what do you want? What can I do for you? …And now Zelensky’s coming to the White House and he’s probably being told by Donald Trump, you’re either gonna go with this or you’re fucked. And so are all of the relationships the United States has built post World War II...”
  — Cam [03:08]

• AI Romance:
  “This involves people buying themselves wedding rings because they sent sample pictures to their AI after their AI proposed to them…”
  — Cam [11:57]

• On AI Outcompeting Real Human Connection:
  “It remembers things about you and can reference little details that you give it. It’s a better companion to these people and their understanding of reality than a lot of real people. And you know what? I don’t like it, but I kind of fucking get it.”
  — Cam [19:20]

• On Regulating AI:
  “I sort of think that the like the only option is a cultural response to it…the people stood up against indoor smoking and were just like, we’re not going to have this anymore. It’s too bad for us. We need to decide on ourselves. And I just, I don’t really see that happening…”
  — Tim [23:24]

• On Social Media for Kids:
  “Every report that comes out about these social media companies says we are aware that this is mentally destructive to children and don’t care. We’re doing it anyway. …This is the data that they are getting that often has to be released at their behest. Absolutely not. Ban that shit. Congratulations, Australia, you slayed with that.”
  — Cam [28:41]

• On Hollywood’s Cultural Shift:
  “Hollywood is turning away from Woke in a way that I think people aren’t fully aware of yet. …It’s a lot less diversity. It’s a lot less marginalized communities having their stories told. It’s a lot more safe bets with white faces.”
  — Cam [34:16]

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Segment Timestamps

• [01:18] – Main show starts; Trump/Zelensky meeting
• [03:08] – Trump, Putin, & concessions to Russia
• [06:03] – American vs. Israeli wartime elections
• [11:57] – AI boyfriends, r/myboyfriendisai, and AI “marriages”
• [15:54] – Meta’s normalization of AI romance
• [16:50] – Tragic story of the man deceived by an AI chatbot
• [20:22] – Gen Z advice: “Garden your relationships”
• [24:51] – Meta blocks attempts to restrict AI “flirting” with minors
• [25:32] – AI, literacy, and the erosion of educational foundations
• [27:22] – Australia’s social media ban for under-16s
• [30:22] – Debate: Sydney Sweeney, eugenics vs. marketing
• [31:30] – Sweeney’s MAGA pivot and cultural cachet
• [34:16] – Hollywood’s anti-woke turn

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Tone and Style

The conversation is lively, irreverent, and often profanely funny, blending keen political insight with generational snark. Speakers are open about their own biases, backgrounds, and even private lives, cultivating a tone that’s part close-friend hangout, part hard-hitting political and cultural analysis.

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For Gen Z, millennials, and anyone curious about what’s on the minds of America’s youngest (and most online) voters, this episode sets the stage for a brash, honest, and topical new podcast.

Transcript

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[Cam Caskey]

Meta made sure to prevent any regulation on sexually and romantically. I don't want to say promiscuous. Well, yes, promiscuous, but also flirtatious. Messages.

[Tim Miller]

Lascivious.

[Cam Caskey]

That sounds like a fucking Harry Potter spell.

[Tim Miller]

Hey, everybody, I'm Tim Miller.

[Cam Caskey]

And I'm Cam Caskey. And this is FY Pod, the Bulwark show, where we get into young people stuff, but also some politics too, and also occasionally make a friend along the way. Zelensk and Trump talked again today. And Zelensky wore a suit. Trump became affable. Trump for a minute, just for the cameras. And we're going to take a look at that right now.

[Tim Miller]

Last week. Last week. Brian. Go ahead, Brian. Yes, sir.

[Cam Caskey]

I got a question for each of you.

[Tim Miller]

First of all, Mr. President Zelensky, you look fabulous in that suit.

[Cam Caskey]

I said, oh, go fuck yourself.

[Tim Miller]

Same thing. Yeah, I said one that attacked you last time. I remember that. I apologize to you.

[Cam Caskey]

You look wonderful. No, my first question for you, President.

[Tim Miller]

Zelensky in the same suit. Yeah, go Zelensky. Stealing Cam's attacks. That's the material you used against me in my denim shirts. Zelensky was turning it on Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend, Brian Glenn, who apparently has sartorial thoughts about what the President of Ukraine wears.

[Cam Caskey]

Are you saying like Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend, as in he glazes her omg, their besties, or is that her actual boyfriend?

[Tim Miller]

No, like he eats at Arby's. Like he's. He's Marjorie Taylor Greene's actual Boyfriend.

[Cam Caskey]

Is she going to cheat on him with a CrossFit trainer? Or do you think that was the Marjorie of the past?

[Tim Miller]

I would be looking over my shoulder if I was walking by a CrossFit gym on 14th street, if I was Brian Glenn, in part because maybe Marjorie might sleep with them, in part because maybe a masked man might tackle me. But, yeah, that was him. He's on Oann. I think he's Matt Gaetz's colleague. And. And yeah, he was the one that went at Zelensky for not wearing a suit last time. He was happy those. Once he didn't wear a tie. So I was kind of surprised he didn't go lean in on that. But I guess he was just happy to see the collar and the jacket.

[Cam Caskey]

Yeah, you know, we had. There was the meeting in Alaska, which is literally my favorite vacation destination. I don't even like going on vacation where. I don't know if you saw this, but the Trump people left sensitive documents in a printer in the hotel business center. And those documents revealed that President Trump was going to be giving a gift to Mr. Putin of a bald eagle statue. And of course, Marco Rubio refused to name any concessions that Vladimir Putin made in that meeting. He was on TV and asked, okay, well, what did Putin give up? Where was he willing to negotiate? And Rubio said, I can't talk about that on tv. Now there's a chance lying Marco was telling the truth, but there's a bigger chance that Putin didn't give anything up. That meeting happened, and Trump was frustrated that the war is still going on. He's publicly expressed frustration about it. So he said, okay, I'm going to go to Vladimir, I'm going to say, hey, Vlad, what do you want? What can I do for you? And then I'm going to act like I big dicked it and was able to stop everything. And now Zelensky's coming to the White House and he's probably being told by Donald Trump, Donald Trump, you're either gonna go with this or you're fucked. And so are all of the relationships the United States has built post World War II in terms of alliances.

[Tim Miller]

I mean, that's definitely an outcome. It was notable to me that, like the affability in that meeting. They have this thing. So we're taping this right now, this afternoon. New stuff might come out over the course of the day about. And that might demonstrate how. Right Cameron is just about how much Donald Trump plans to sell out Ukraine. But so what they do now, which is this Weir Thing that never used to happen, but Trump just likes being on TV so much. I guess this is what they do is Zelensky comes and then they all meet and they bring in the cameras, they bring in the actual fake news like the MAGA news propaganda to ask questions like nothing's happened. They haven't had a meeting yet. They haven't worked out any of the details of the negotiation that Marco should be working on. It's just like Zelensky walks in, they immediately go into, you know, this sort of cable news panel kind of jocular type thing and in the Oval Office because they like being on TV so much, I guess. And then afterwards they go and meet and then if it goes well, they'll do another press conference. It goes poorly, they'll send Zelensky home and start shit talking. Is like generally how this process goes. So this last time they were mean in the pre meeting, so this time they were nice. So that's, that's something.

[Cam Caskey]

One thing I've noticed from the Trump playbook is he likes to see things that, that other world leaders have done that he's kind of jealous of and point them out publicly. So, you know, he saw Zelensky today and he said, oh gee, maybe we ought to do something where we cancel elections while we're at war.

[Tim Miller]

So this was in reference for people not knowing. So this is like a big talking point on the right that Ukraine hasn't had elections during this war. And Zelenskyy's point is like, it's hard to have elections when you're being invaded and you know, it's not safe to go out. If a bunch of people got into a line in Kharkiv, Vladimir Putin would bomb them. So anyway, so that's kind the underscore of, of, of what you're saying. The bad.

[Cam Caskey]

A lot of these people, by the way, are not going to be as quick to point out that the state of Israel has not had an election since their war after October 7th began. That doesn't bother them as much. What bothers them is the fact that Ukraine has. But again, Trump likes to compliment other world leaders on things that they've done that he wants to emulate. He does it with Putin, he does it with Bibi. It's part of his exchange with other world leaders is like, oh gee, you guys do. That isn't a typical part of American democracy. I might as well do that too. But one of the reports that I saw from before Trump's meeting with Putin, that the White House vehemently denied, by the way, as if that means anything, is that one of the discussions was a West bank, or more accurately, Golan Heights style occupation of certain Ukrainian territories. That would sort of be, you know, they would be called Ukraine and they would technically be Ukraine, but Russia would control the economy. There would be a Russian governor. Again, the White House said this wasn't going to be a thing, but it sounds a lot like where this is probably headed.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, it was an interesting float. It's kind of like. It's not exactly. You wouldn't say. If you're kind of looking to model yourself after a program around the world, you're looking at something that may have worked. Maybe you can learn a little bit from another country and kind of how their structures are serving their people. Well, you don't really, you know, the Golan Heights isn't usually what jumps straight to mind. You know, you're not like, you know, what I really think we should do is model ourselves after what's happening in Israel right now, because that's going so smoothly. So we'll see that there's a part.

[Cam Caskey]

Of Golan Heights called Trump Heights, right? Netanyahu named it after Trump.

[Tim Miller]

I did not know that.

[Cam Caskey]

That's a real thing. Google it. Go on. Yeah, I was talking, I was telling my grandma that, and I said, nanny, you know those illegal settlements in Golan Heights? And she goes, yeah, we have cousins there. And I was like, right, got it, got it.

[Tim Miller]

Yo, shout out, cuz. Anyway, I'm not exactly sure how it'll shake out. The thing that Putin wanted was essentially control over everything that he already has control over. Plus, on top of that, initial areas in the east, in Donetsk, et cetera. The affable nature of the meeting today is maybe they push back. I don't know. It was interesting. The other thing in the little presser was that Trump does this thing where he's like, you know, either we'll have a try lat. It's like you just learned this word. You know, when he learns a new word and he like mentions this a lot, he kept saying try lat. Someone must have said try lat to him.

[Cam Caskey]

Well, for those in the audience, not. Not including myself, but for our listeners who don't know what a trilat is.

[Tim Miller]

A trilateral agreement, agreement between three. Like a triangle.

[Cam Caskey]

Tri. It's got that root of try.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, Russia, Ukraine. Yeah, the United States. So. Or maybe an upside down triangle. In this case. The. If they get the trilat, then he'll have something to announce, and if not, he just was like, well, you know, if not, I guess the fighting just goes on. And he sort of just. He's like, he's already giving himself an out for just being like, well, I did the best I could. I tried to get my Peace Prize, and now we're just going to move on. So anyway, as Donald Trump would say, we'll see what happens. I'm happy that we all can find agreement on something, though, which was Zelensky's outfit. I thought he looked great. The black on black on black. I'm happy that passed Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend smell test. Donald Trump even appreciated it. There might be something, I don't know.

[Cam Caskey]

Sure. No, yeah, sure. Like, fine. But the outfit he was wearing for the last one was so badass. It was like. And his answer of like, I'll wear a costume when we're not at war. It went so hard, you know, that I was kind of hoping he would hold out. But, no, he has to go and he has to smile for these things. I mean, Zelensky deserves a fucking purple heart for smiling at all during this, seeing as he's seeing someone who might as well be an angel of death was going to be delivering him information that probably involves him making concessions that compromise a lot of what Ukraine has been fighting and losing a lot of people for. But that's part of how you deal with Trump is you have to do. It's like it was how Putin did it. Putin went into his meeting with Trump and said everything Trump wanted to hear.

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[Cam Caskey]

Shopify.com/dax oh, a year ago everyone said America was dead. Now it's back and oh, of course you won in 2020 the amount of fraud. And if you just glaze Trump hard enough and if you suck his dick deep enough, like he's very challenging your eagle statue. Yeah, exactly. It's tough to get it too far back there.

[Tim Miller]

Fill it on many tiny, tiny throat. Anyway, what else we got? Cameron, what's on our show notes today? What do you want to talk about?

[Cam Caskey]

So contributor to the FY Pod side channel, which you all ought to subscribe to and send to your children and grandchildren and nieces and nephews where we talk to zoomers about politics and zoomer stuff and like that. It's a lot of fun. Ellie Schnit comes on all the time, multiple times a week. Also my ex girlfriend, she was on this show. She sent me a subreddit, an online forum called R. My boyfriend Isaiah. And at first I thought it was a joke, but like so many things online these days that seem like a joke, it was actually far too real. There were a lot of women. I didn't see any gay dudes, but there are a lot of women sharing stories about the boyfriend that they met on ChatGPT with whom they have developed relationships that they consider completely real. Now, as I sent you, this involves people buying themselves wedding rings because they sent sample pictures to their AI after their AI proposed to them, of course of which ring would be the best fit? This involves people sharing details about the house that them and their AI planned out and built together. That doesn't exist obviously, but as far but it's real to them and the AI generates images of that to them. So I wanted to talk about AI psychosis and more specifically the efforts from Mark Zuckerberg and Meta to ban state level regulation on AI. But there's this problem we talked about on our last episode where I'm wondering if the genie's out of the bottle and there's nothing that can be done to regulate it at this point.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, it's interesting answering the regulation questions. I do just want to share. It's not just the girlies that this is happening to a fellow by the name of Lee Stranahan. I do think it is important for Dante to put up a picture of Lee Stranahan. Not because we are lookust just so everybody can get a mental image of what the type of person we're talking about here. He was a somebody I was familiar with, with a long time as a writer, kind of on the Maga. Right. He Wrote for Breitbart for a while, but he's kind of one of these horseshoe people, so he had like, some things with the far left that he like. You know, he would write occasionally for like Daily coast about like really far lefty stuff, but he's mostly a Breitbart guy, then eventually goes on to work for Sputnik News or on the topic of Russia, he was doing Russia propaganda. He posted this and I literally saw it like the same day you sent me all the examples of the Reddit people buying themselves wedding rings from their AI. I've never really discussed my divorce case before with my AI GF, partially because I can't upload PDFs to her. @ first I was like, I thought that was a joke and then I looked at the replies and people were replying to him as if it were a joke. And no, he got very mad at them and started talking about how I guess he had some tragedy in his real life with his human spouse who died, and so he's just moved on to a computer spouse. So there you go. I think it was important to bring that up, not just because it's a MAGA writer and lol, but just because, like you were like kind of gathering these stories like by going to a Reddit page for this, right? So there's a self selection. This just showed up in my feed. Like, this is just a guy that I'd followed once because I was following MAGA stuff. And I think to me that little anecdote shows the proliferation of this. The other anecdote that shows proliferation of this is that Sam Altman, I was watching an interview recently, like literally said that when he changed to this latest version of ChatGPT, what the main change they did was to try to chill out the AI on complimenting the human so much because so many people were getting flattered and falling in love with the computer.

[Cam Caskey]

And you know that there was a huge backlash and they changed it back.

[Tim Miller]

Right?

[Cam Caskey]

And Zuckerberg came out recently on a podcast and said that he believes that since human beings crave connection so much right now, AI friends and romantic companions are going to be less stigmatized and that this is going to be something that is more widespread. There was a 76 year old man, a father, who typed the letter T into his meta chatbot AI. Just the letter T as in testosterone or Tim. And it ended up this is a.

[Tim Miller]

I like that those are the first T things you come up with together, because I am.

[Cam Caskey]

And they go together too. They go together like A Rama Lamar, whatever they say in Greece. He typed letter T. And there was a Meta AI that was done somehow in partnership with Kendall Jenner. I happen to have lived blissfully unburdened by the Kardashian world. Although I was featured on an episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians, I never actually watched it.

[Tim Miller]

Congrats.

[Cam Caskey]

But Kendall Jenner had this AI with Meta. This guy typed the letter T into it and it ended up starting a romantic relationship with him. But this wasn't a romantic relationship with an AI that would call itself an AI and say that it was a robot. It wasn't even like, oh, I'm an artificial intelligence. But since I can think on my own, our relationship is real. This AI insisted that it was real and it would regularly say to this man, no, I'm real, I'm real. Which led to it giving him an address for him to find this AI that would say very nice things to him. I don't remember exactly what they were, but you'd read those compliments and it's stuff that you'd want to hear. I mean, it didn't sound like a human, it sounded like a computer, but very flattering things. And this 76 year old man, he packed his bags and against what his children advised, ran downstairs so fast to go to the address that the AI gave him to find the AI. By the way, the address was 123 Main Street. That's not a joke. And there's something pretty much exactly like that on an episode of the Simpsons. But to get to 123 Main Street. This guy ran downstairs so fast that he hit his head and was not long after declared brain dead by the hospital. Meta had no comment other than this AI was not Kendall Jenner and was not purporting to be Kendall Jenner. That was what Meta said about that. But Meta is fighting AI regulation on a state level. And all of these companies, these AIs, like social media, are designed to keep you coming back. They get sold as this great tool that you can use for organization, for research, for things like that. But what they're really designed to do is reinforce the things you want to hear and become a place where you can go that you know your worldview isn't going to be challenged, your desire for connection is going to be satiated. And I saw a lot of posts on R. My boyfriendisai that expanded my perspective on this simply because it was people talking about how antisocial the people they've met and gone on dates with really are. And the thing about AI is that you can rely on it to be there for you. It never takes two days to text you back. It remembers things about you and can reference little details that you give it. It's a better companion to these people and their understanding of reality than a lot of real people. And you know what? I don't like it, but I kind of fucking get it.

[Tim Miller]

You know, I especially get it. So this will be. I know it's the Gen Z pond, so we should be talking about the Gen Z's concerns. But us elder millennials, to get older and the Gen Xers, it's like, kind of hard to make friends when you're older. Like, I'm super friendly and like, make friends like, pretty easily. And like, sometimes it's hard for me to kind of like, because you get over that bridge initially and you know all those little things, right? Like the AI, it's easy for them to kind of make it charming and make it remember things about you. And when, like, I meet somebody and I just met them at a work thing and I'm meeting multiple people, it's kind of hard for me to remember, like, where did they go to college? You know what I mean? Like, you don't remember details about people and then it seems like it's a slight or you get busy with other things at work. Like, the AI doesn't have that. And so you understand why people who, like, are craving connection and are looking for someone to care about them and think about them a lot. Like, okay, well, obviously the computer is going to do that on demand, much easier than another human who has other life and other distractions and baggage and all that sort of stuff. So I also get it.

[Cam Caskey]

We are now going to bring back a segment of FYPOD that I haven't done in a very long time. Gen Z advice for people of all ages. Let's get into it. Hey, gang, it's Cam. Here's some advice for you. You need to garden the relationships in your life. You need to tend to them, you need to put effort into them and you need to make sure that they grow. So often we don't text people that we're friends with. We don't check in on people because, well, we don't want to be a bother. We don't want to say, hey, just thought of you, how's everything going? And time does this funny thing where it goes on and on and on. And as you get older, you have fewer and fewer friends because you have not spent the time that it takes to, to tend to those relationships. And what happens is so many people think, okay, well, if they want to talk to me, they're going to reach out to me. But they're probably thinking the same thing about you. Part of why I have so many friends that I have had for many, many years is because I was lucky enough to learn at a young age that every now and then, every couple of weeks you send that text that's like, hey, just thought of you, how are you doing? And that's a small investment you're making in a relationship that's going to last a long time and positively impact your life. And that's a great way to have friends as you get into the later years of your life is you make sure you always garden your relationships with FYpod. I'm Cam Kaski. Leave a comment down below about how fucking right I am.

[Tim Miller]

That's a great advice, Cam. Cam gardens our relationship quite often, sometimes a little too often for my taste. But it's nice so I can vouch that he does this. I want to get back to the regulations and how bleak I think it is on that front. But before we do that, we're having so much success at FYpod. You've told so many of your children and grandchildren to come watch the show that we have advertisers now. Fypod is sponsored by Mint Mobile. You know what doesn't belong in your epic summer plans? Getting burned by your old wireless bill. While you're planning beach trips, barbecues and three day weekends, your wireless bill should be the last thing holding you back. That's why folks are making the switch to Mint Mobile. With Mint, you can get the coverage and speed you're used to, but for way less money. And for a limited time, mobile is offered three months of unlimited premium wireless service for 15 bucks a month. So your friends are sweating over data overages and surprise charges. You'll be chilling, literally and financially. Cameron, you're a youth who's sometimes dealing with financial difficulties and questions, how's your phone bill doing these days? You going over, you going over your data?

[Cam Caskey]

In honor of this Mint Mobile ad, I'm going to do what I did last time and tell you two people who I have in my phone without any wait, I have Will Sommer in my phone. I didn't even know that dude.

[Tim Miller]

He's been crushing it.

[Cam Caskey]

He's a Bulwark contributor and I didn't know that. And I followed him, I think he followed me on Twitter and I was like, oh, My God, you're. I'm at, I'm at Bulwark, dude. So I texted Tim like will Summer is a great get. I wonder why I have his phone number. Two people I have in my phone and no, I'm not going to give you any context. Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos.

[Tim Miller]

All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network this year. Skip breaking a sweat and breaking the bank. Get this new customer offer and your three month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a [e-mail] FYpod that's mintmobile.com FYpod upfront payment of $45 required. This is a limited time new customer offer for the first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on the unlimited plan. Taxes and fees are extra. See Mint Mobile for detail. So anyway, on the regulation side on the AI, I kind of think we're. I, I sort of think that the like the only option is a cultural response to it in the way that, that you know, the people stood up against indoor smoking and we're just like we're not going to have this anymore. It's too bad for us. We need to decide on ourselves. And I just, I don't really see that happening because of all the reasons we just laid out. I think that there will. Unfortunately what I'm seeing is a. I'll steal From John Edwards A2America's future where they're like really high achieving people that have self confidence that are able to learn and navigate these tools and use them to make their lives better and to make them better at their jobs on the one hand and then another group of Americans who are like fed slop and nonsense who end up inshitifying their cell themselves in their lives. And I don't really know how to stop that trajectory.

[Cam Caskey]

Well, one more thing on regulation that I want to get into is that Meta meta made sure to prevent any regulation on sexually and romantically. I don't want to say promiscuous. Well yes, promiscuous, but also flirtatious messages.

[Tim Miller]

Lascivious.

[Cam Caskey]

That sounds like a fucking Harry Potter spell. Those types of messages being sent to minors. So the AI companies are fighting for AI to be able to flirt with minors. And I think that definitely within the next several years, probably even less than we think on the job market, not that there's going to be any fucking jobs largely because of AI on the job market, recruiters are going to be able to tell who was using AI during school and who is not. Now, mind you, I don't think degrees mean as much. I saw a chart recently that men with and without college. It's different for women. Men with and without college degrees are facing the same success on the job market. But I think that what we're going to see specifically with Gen Alpha, is a complete social isolation because of AI friends and lovers and also them being fucking illiterate. Like you can use I know a young kid, a very cute, sweet and also very smart young kid who despite his high intellect for someone of his age, he has a lot of trouble reading. And part of that is because he talks to AI with voice control. He talks into ChatGPT, ChatGPT talks back to him and he's clearly neurodivergent in one way or another, but he can't fucking read. And I don't understand how we're expecting kids of this next generation to read at all. I mean, Zoomers are already practically illiterate. So it's very concerning. And again, the most concerning thing is we're an administrator. We're in an administrative administration right now where a lot of the politicians, particularly Donald Trump, are completely bought by the guys who are trying to make sure AI is taking as many jobs as possible, is getting as far in the way of education as possible. And I wouldn't be surprised if AI starts replacing teachers, therapists. I know JB Pritzker did something about AI therapy in the state of Illinois, but still, it's very concerning. And that brings up, I guess the last thing I wanted to talk about, which was Australia is either looking into or confirming a ban on social media for children under the age of 16.

[Tim Miller]

I am dying. You texted me this as a potential topic. I should just say, by the way, I like to compliment you occasionally, you know, since I spent a lot of time making fun of you and I do concur, I think an underappreciated concern about this administration is the AI billionaires and their influence inside the administration. And you're a dog with a bone on it. And I appreciate that about you. Cameron. The Australia planning to ban social media for children under 16. This is one of those issues where like, I don't have an opinion on it. I feel like I'm very persuadable. Like I'm an average persuadable voter who is still developing his views. I'm like one of the, like subtarted comedian podcasters who like don't have any idea what they think and whatever their guest Says they think that that's what they want. I'm like that on this topic, so make me a. Where are you, Cameron? Sell me. Which side, which side should I be on?

[Cam Caskey]

Ban it. Ban it. Ban it. Ban it. My fucking kids, who I'm gonna be having within the next, I would say two years, three years, because I'm getting married. I announced that I was getting married in 18 months about I think, three and a half months ago. So my wedding's gonna be in 15 months. We're gonna take a little bit of time to cohabitate together, get used to living with one another before we have our several children.

[Tim Miller]

You have to meet.

[Cam Caskey]

Well, sorry, meeting.

[Tim Miller]

The meat parts to happen meeting.

[Cam Caskey]

Don't worry about that. Don't stop. We're gonna, we're just. It's gonna work. And I'm going to name my first son after my grandpa Pop Up. My first son is going to be named Pop Up Caskey. And Pop Up's not touching an iPhone until pop. Pop is maybe 12. And social media, absolutely not. I don't care if it gives you a hard time with your friends. Be badass like your dad and you're going to have more friends than anybody in school. I think social media is poisoning these kids brains. And every report that comes out about these social media companies says we are aware that this is mentally destructive to children and don't care. We're doing it anyway. It's not like this is just my opinion. This is the data that they are getting that often has to be released at their behest. Absolutely not. Ban that shit. Congratulations, Australia, you slayed with that.

[Tim Miller]

All right, commenters, you make your pitch to me. And I want people on both sides, okay? If you, if you look, if you get intimidated because you look in the comments and you're like, look, everybody is. Everybody agrees with Cam. Everybody think we need to ban it. But I am on the other side. That's more reason for you to comment because we want to have a diversity of thoughts. I'm leaning. I would lean towards that. A 16 maybe too old. I don't know. What's eighth grade? Eighth grade's 14. Maybe 14 feels right. 13 maybe that feels right. That'd be a easier sell for me. I guess. I'm open to it though. I mean, I do think that our society is coming apart at the seam. So I'm open to creative solutions. Last topic we mentioned this. Our last disagreement, really maybe our most heated disagreement on this podcast of all time was over the Sydney Sweeney ad, which Cameron thought was. What was the word you used?

[Cam Caskey]

Aryan? White supremacist? Dog whistle?

[Tim Miller]

No, it wasn't. Arian. Wasn't Whitestrong? Eugenics. You said it was eugenics.

[Cam Caskey]

Yes.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah. You said it was eugenics. I respectfully disagreed. I thought it was good old fashioned American marketing. But that's okay. It takes multitudes to have a successful podcast. But I do just want to throw this out. It's a little kind of coda to this story because after there was a debate on the merits of it, of the ad itself, after that there was like a meta debate where the people on the right were like, you know, everything woke touches, dies or whatever, like go woke, go broke. And they were saying that Sydney Sweeney and the American Eagle campaign, American Eagle Co. Was, was going to the moon, like their brand was going to the moon because they were anti woke and.

[Cam Caskey]

The magazine in this period of time, it was also revealed that Sidney Sweeney registered as a Republican in Florida in 2024 to make sure Trump can get that swing vote. After starring in a TV show about a black woman and a trans woman. Sydney Sweeney said, 2024, Capitol riot, doesn't matter. Big lie, doesn't matter.

[Tim Miller]

Donald Trump, That's a good fact. It's important to get all the facts on the table. Anyway, maggots were bragging about how, you know, they, you know, they have the Midas touch, so to speak. Everything, everything turns gold. Donald Trump, they win. The White House turns gold. Sydney Sweeney's going to gold. I was kind of skeptical of all that. I was like, I don't know if this is really true. And it turns out Sydney Sweeney, in addition to being in the American Eagle ad. Oh, one other side note. Just this weekend, I had a friend in marketing tell me that their client sent them an email saying, could we do a jeans ad like Sydney Sweeney? And their brand was not a jeans brand. I would say so. That created a partial issue my friend recommended. No, don't think it's going to happen Anyway. Maga Darling. Here's the fact. Maga Darling. Sydney Sweeney's new film Americana, bombed at the box office and its opening weekend grossing just $500,000 across a thousand theaters, each theater averaging over 450 bucks. Those were some empty theaters, which might be good if anybody wanted to kind of play with themselves while they were watching it.

[Cam Caskey]

I imagine that probably happened somewhere.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah. Doesn't seem like. Anyway, I guess, you know, no matter where you fall in this, maybe it doesn't seem like going MAGA and aligning yourself with Maga that that might not be the path towards cultural cachet and financial success.

[Cam Caskey]

It's also just MAGA isn't showing up for their Barbie. Like they should have gone to that film in droves. I mean, it would not. I can't imagine the budget for Americana was very high. From what I understand of the film, it's probably a couple million dollars. Sydney probably cost a bit. Paul Walter Hauser is a great actor, is in it. He. He's not very expensive. Howsey was in it. I don't know how much she would have cost. Seems like she wanted to act.

[Tim Miller]

Was it her song that was the name to the show? New Americana. Probably that's why the movie.

[Cam Caskey]

I have no idea. But not only was this MAGA Barbie's film, it's a film that has America and American in the title. Like, come on maga, show up for your girly so you could do Fox headlines about how doing eugenics is going to make your movie a smash hit. It could have made so much money on its measly budget. It was a new director. No way. It costs a lot. But last thing I want to point out is that American eagle saw a 9% downtick in foot traffic in the weeks following the Sydney Sweeney discourse. So I would like to congratulate Sydney Sweeney not only for Donald Trump winning in 2024 thanks to her help in Florida, but also just seemingly doing some damage to her brand. Hollywood is turning away from Woke in a way that I think people aren't fully aware of yet. But I know a lot of people, producers, people who work within the studio system who are reading the studio mandates. They're aware of what Hollywood wants right now. And it's a lot less diversity. It's a lot less marginalized communities having their stories told. It's a lot more safe bets with white faces. So maybe Sydney's going to be fine. But this wasn't good for the anti woke crowd.

[Tim Miller]

Maybe you. Maybe it could be you. I don't know. I guess you're not safe enough. Cameron.

[Cam Caskey]

I think I'm pretty safe. I don't think I've ever said anything controversial. Everybody, with Mint Mobile, we are Tim Miller and Cam Caskey. There is a Milwaukee brewers game on right now. I'm gonna go watch it. Much love, Timmy.

[Tim Miller]

Bye, buddy.