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- [00:00]
Narrator/Host
This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for, from a browse to a bike ride this summer. Find more on Facebook.
- [00:30]
Commentator 1
Get a room, dude. Get a room.
- [00:35]
Main Commentator/Analyst
Yep, that's me.
- [00:37]
Sponsor Voice/Ad Presenter
You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.
- [00:40]
Main Commentator/Analyst
Well, guys, it is official. Almost exactly a year to the date after the now infamous Coldplay affair, we have the Coldplay Kiss Cam 2.0 on our hands, but this time it's between two lawyers in New York City found kissing in Central Park. And while, yes, you know, we can talk about the ethics of this relationship, we can talk about how gross and disgusting cheating scoundrels are, maybe today we should talk about the fact that thanks to social media, we are now living in a surveillance state. I mean, who needs President Bush and the Patriot act when you have TikTok? This entire scandal started about four days ago when Jay Guapo, who is a tiktoker, a creator who does pranks and viral New York City street interaction videos. He posted a video that he had made about two people kissing in. In Central Park. Now all hell broke loose from there. Here is that video in full.
- [01:31]
Commentator 1
Get a room, dude. Get a room. No, there's kids around. No, sorry, there's kids. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. If you touch me, I have to touch you. Come on, get a room. Y' all was making out and his kids. No, I don't record. I'm so confused. What's happening? Yada guys making out, not me.
- [02:07]
Main Commentator/Analyst
All right, so obviously, this video could also win the award for the most uncomfortable, confusing video of 2026. You see a couple, you know, they get spotted making out in Central Park. Obviously, they don't want to be recorded. This guy is saying there's kids around, even though, I mean, maybe there are kids around. But it does look, they're sort of in a private area of the park, but also, people do worse things in public. It's two adults kissing. We'll get to that. We will get to that. But then the other thing that struck me the wrong way is that the woman is saying, please don't record us. He goes, I'm not recording. Obviously, the guy is recording, but he is Getting clicks off of these people's discomfort, their embarrassment, humiliation, whatever it is that is this type of content. That's what I mean when I say, like viral New York City street interactions. This is not an uncommon type of video for this creator. And don't worry, we are gonna get into the surveillance state and him filming people without their consent, et cetera, et cetera. But immediately, just talking about the social media, media response to this video. Just because of the couple's demeanor on camera, rumors began swirling about the pair. Speculations about it being an affair, their age gap, them working together. You know, they both are in business, professional attire. Everyone on TikTok was convinced that they knew everything about this couple. Like, one person said, oh, they are having an affair. Another person said, that's definitely her boss. But at that point, nothing had been confirmed yet. However, because it's TikTok, everybody moves fast. You have the girls sitting at home rotting in their beds with their FBI caps on. They got to work, and soon their entire lives were being aired out online for people to analyze. For example, one woman commented and said, if his name is Nathaniel Cullerton, his wife is Moira Penza. She prosecuted Keith Ranieri, who is the cult leader of Nixxiom, which, by the way, if you don't know that story, crazy, crazy cult. There is a great podcast series about it. So if you want something fun to listen to on a car ride, you should go listen. Anyway, that's just an aside, but I did enjoy that series. Okay, getting back to the point. Feeling a little add today. Anyway, moving on from that aside, back to the point at hand, TikTok quickly found out that both of these individuals work for a top law firm in New York City, where Nathaniel is a partner and Kelsey, the woman in the video, is an associate. As you can see here on their website, and as you can also see here in those screenshots, they both work in the litigation department. So that commenter saying that maybe this is her boss, maybe that woman is correct. And interestingly, both of them worked closely on Elon Musk's civil lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI back in the spring. And so there actually is a Daily Mail photo of them together walking into that Altman Elon Musk trial back in May. So these people, unfortunately for them, were already on the Internet. They had digital footprints. It was not hard for TikTok to find out who they are. And it seems like that initial commenter was correct because Nathaniel. Nathaniel, you dog, is allegedly married. Although commenters were quick to point out also that he was not wearing a wedding ring in that video. So who knows, maybe it's old news that he was married. I have no idea. Kelsey has had a boyfriend according to her social media, but the New York Post said that they recently split. They got a quote from her ex boyfriend via an anonymous source. Who knows? I am just reporting on what is swirling online. So maybe they are both newly single. Maybe they are having an aff. Who knows. Like we genuinely have no idea. But TikTok seems very concerned by that. They're concerned about their partners and why they were kissing and who they are and if they were kissing in public and if there were children around and how gross it is, whatever it is. But personally, maybe you'll think this is crazy, but I am more inclined to be interested in the conversation that is happening over on X. Not to say that an affair is not interesting or worth discussing and obviously condemning, but this conversation that I'm interested in is just a little bit more broad and it is a totally different discussion. So over on the Bird app when the New York Post picked up the story and posted about it on X, nobody really seemed to care who the people were in the video or what they were doing in their personal lives. Maybe it's because they're mostly right leaning people on X these days. It's like stay out of our business. I don't know. That was just the tone. And instead they more so cared about the fact that this random tiktoker felt totally comfortable and empowered to literally accost and film people in public without their permission, lie to them about the fact that he was filming. And it started an entire conversation with about our modern surveillance state. For example, one girl tweeted and said if the take is anything besides we live in a society that is normalizing surveillance culture and rewarding freaks for invading people's privacy so we fight it less when our government does it then I am not interested. Another person said genuinely, why is a major publication reporting on two random people sucking face in a park? What business is it of yours? And most importantly, who effing cares? Are you going to run a story about the shit that I took this morning next? I mean, touche, touche. It is a good point. Now obviously this entire story is reminding people of the Coldplay kiss cam affair that happened last year. Literally happened this week last year where two other colleagues were exposed for cheating on their spouses in a now viral video which you can see up here on the screen. But in terms of surveillance surveillance culture and the conversation that's being had over on X. I don't think that this recent story in this recent video even compares to what we saw at that Coldplay concert in Boston. Considering that people catching that awkward moment at the concert was purely accidental when this encounter was intentional and it was designed for content like cheating or not just removing that part of the story out. This tiktoker knew that he was going to go up to these people, film them and embarrass and humiliate whoever pulled away from the kiss and looked at his camera. That was his goal, explicit goal was to create content and entertainment at the expense of random people who he did not know, who had never done anything to him. And he felt totally comfortable with that. And that is actually legal in New York City because New York is a one party consent state for recording. So as long as one person in the vicinity consents like that can be you behind the camera talking and filming, it's legal. Even though he stood there and said, I'm not recording, I don't know what you're talking about, it was still legal because he, as the recorder consented to that taking place. I mean, that is just crazy to me and I'm sure that there are reasons for that, but the psychology behind why somebody thinks that that is so appropriate is even more insane. Like I wonder if GCU has a course on why people do this. And obviously when I say gcu, I am talking about my academic partners over at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. Now, GCU does not settle for just the status quo or average. They shatter it with academically rigorous, industry driven programs that are built to move at the speed of relevance with practical skills, career readiness and opportunity for recognized for excellence in academics and in campus life. GCU's vibrant campus was actually ranked in the top 20 best college campuses in the country by Niche.com for 2026. What I love about GCU is that they believe that education should not just be a privilege, but an affordable path forward for all. Which is why guess what? They froze their tuition costs back in 2009. With some 380 programs including 153 degree programs, 180 emphases and 56 certificate programs, online, hybrid and in person options. There truly is a path for every type of student. Grounded in Christian truth, GCU works to empower the next generation to lead with integrity, serve with purpose and help transform their communities and build a future that matters. Take action and find your purpose today at gcu. It's private, it's practical, it's Christian it's affordable, it's nonprofit. Visit gcu.edu to learn more today. And when you're at GCU and you're taking a study break, you might want to watch a good new show. And you can do that with Fox One. Now, Fox One is just $19.99 a month and it includes all of your Fox favorites in one place. Yes, you will get the 24. 7 news coverage, but you are also getting the biggest sporting events and hit shows like MasterChef and Farmer, Once Wife, the Master Singer, Hell's Kitchen, all streaming live and so much more. And honestly, if you know me, Farmer wants Wife alone. Makes that subscription worth it for me. But Fox one goes way beyond just one show. Between breaking news and major sporting events like the FIFA World cup and the kind of can't miss content that keeps you hooked, it gives you a reason to cut the cable and just rely on them. Like why would you have cable when you could have Fox one? And you can watch all of these shows live as they're happening. And the best part is there is a three day free trial so you can try it out. Obviously you'll fall in love with it and then you can move on and enjoy finally having it. Just go to fox.com to start streaming anywhere, anytime and on all of your fans favorite devices offer subject to change. See Fox one for complete terms and conditions. All right, now jumping back into the story. Before we continue on, I do wanna offer this disclaimer because do I think that this man is an asshole if he is cheating on his wife? Obviously, yes, I should not have to say that, but it is the Internet so I feel like I need to. And guess who also was a couple of assholes, the execs smooching at the Coldplay concert, cheating on their spouses. And for those people's spouses, I hope that all of this is a blessing in disguise because I'm sure it was embarrassing and humiliating, but yes, obviously that is bad behavior. However, I do still agree with all the tweets that I read at the beginning of this episode, especially because we do not have all the facts about these people's lives and honestly, we are not entitled to them. We are not entitled to know whether this man is divorcing his wife, is divorced, is married, whether the girl broke up with her boyfriend last week or two weeks ago, or whether she is still in a relationship. It's not our life. Like, why does the Internet suddenly think that we need to know all of this? And if people are adults and want to consensually smooch in Central Park. Go for it. I mean Honestly, in 2026 we could use a little bit more romance and spontaneity in the world. Just hopefully it is consensual and outside of an affair is all we are asking now on that point of romance. This was actually something that a lot of people brought up in the comments saying that people these days feel inhibited in love because people, AKA the Internet and people's phones are always watching and waiting to judge and dox. For example, one man said the fact that you can't even make out on a bench in Central park without somebody recording you on their iPhone and then posting it to social media as some kind of bit is everything that is wrong with society. And I'm not joking. The surveillance state administered by an actual state or by the millions of people with their phones who want to embarrass people people on their timelines is essentially the least romantic thing imaginable in both the love sense and in the living sense. It is anti romantic and anti life. Part of the reason why the before world was fun was the fact that you didn't have this kind of thing. The ability to do something without it being documented and recorded is the difference between being free and being an animal locked in a cage. There is a direct correlation between everyone constantly being afraid that somebody is going to record them and then post it somewhere in society becoming more neurotic, less fun, more boring and less alive. The self administered surveillance state is the enemy of life. I just like could not agree more with everything that that man just said. Now on that note, somebody else jumped in. It was an author and she said that she had actually written an article about this exact thing last year and it is so relevant to so many things that I've been seeing online. So let's talk about it. So the title of this article was Bringing Sexy Back. Internet surveillance has killed eroticism. We need privacy to reclaim it. In this article she writes about what she has observed with her friends in her personal life. For example, she writes, there was who felt entitled to posting screenshots of intimate conversations on Twitter after a messy breakup so that she could get a ruling on who was the crazy one. Then there was the friend who bitterly described a man he was dating as a f boy because he stood him up. Claiming that they're having enjoyed sex together beforehand was emotionally manipulative. When I dug a bit deeper, it turned out that the man in question had just gotten out of his seven year relationship and realized that he was not ready to be sexually intimate. And while he was rude to stand my friend up, it shocked me how quickly my friend was to categorize his rightfully hurt feelings as something pathological or sinister in the other person, and that he did this in order to preemptively shield himself from being cast as the villain in what was a multi party experience. This last friend, I asked, who are you defending yourself against? To which he answered, to my astonishment, I don't know the world. The fact is that our most intimate interactions with others are now governed by the expectation of surveillance and punishment from an online public. One can never be sure that this public, or somebody who could potentially expose us to it, isn't there always secretly filming, posting, taking notes, ready to pounce the second that somebody does something cringe or problematic as defined by whom? To claim that these matters are merely discursive in nature is to ignore the problem. Because love and sex are so intimate and vulnerable, the stakes of punishment are higher and the fear of it penetrates deeper into the psyche and is harder to rationalize away than, say, fear of pushback for tweeting a divisive political opinion. And then she continues on, and this will be the last paragraph I read, but she goes on and she says, but that link between sex and fear is operating in more benign or common modes of Internet practice. There is an online culture that thinks nothing of submitting screenshots, notes of videos and photos with calls for collective judgment. When it became desirable and permissible to transform our own lives into content, it didn't take long before a sense of entitlement emerged that extended that transformation to people we know and to strangers. My ex sent me this text. Clearly she's the crazy one, right? Look at this dumb, funny cringe hinge profile. Look at this note some guy sent me. Is this a red flag? Look at this random woman I photographed buying wine, coconut oil, and a long cucumber at the supermarket. I mean, she is spot on. And I'm sure you guys in your minds are thinking, brett, we've been talking about this for years, but we have just in the political sense, we have talked about the dangers of people sitting on old texts and screenshots and Snapchats or things that you wrote in a Google Doc when you were in high school, just waiting for you to take a wrong step and then feeling entitled, actually feeling like it is their moral right to. To put that out into the world to then hurt you. We're kind of dealing with the same thing here, where people feel like they have a right whether it is for some kind of, you know, doing a moral good by harming your reputation because you have wrong think or because they want clicks because that is so, you know, valuable in our current society or whether they need validation in our lonely society. Whatever it is they feel like they have a right to. Private parts of your life that you shared either you know, accidentally or intentionally with confidence. And this isn't just happening with you know, this interaction in Central park or politics or the Coldplay cam. I see it all over my social media and I'm sure that now as you guys are thinking about it, you do too. Like all over my TikTok I see private exchanges. Not funny text between friends, you know, consensually shared because hahaha it's a funny laugh but airing out dirty laundry. Intimate moments. Intimate moments of strangers either for validation or purely clout. And it actually reminded me of two TikToks that I saved last month that I actually wanted to do a video on for this exact reason. Women posting full multi minute long screen recordings of voice memos that men have sent them purely to mock them. Just watch.
- [15:33]
Guest or Interviewee
You seem like normal and nice and cool. That would be cool. But I'm.
- [15:37]
Sponsor Voice/Ad Presenter
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- [16:09]
Guest or Interviewee
Hear that?
- [16:10]
Main Commentator/Analyst
That's now crispy and McCrispy strips meeting creamy Caesar sauce sounds extra crispy caesar sauce at McDonald's for a limited time.
- [16:24]
Guest or Interviewee
Like could you come with me to Kauai in like a week? I just need to go there for like two days and come back. So I'm an international real estate developer and got a little bit of an
- [16:35]
Narrator/Host
international
- [16:37]
Guest or Interviewee
business ping pong ball but I have seven nieces and nephews and I'm the youngest of four brothers and they're all married with kids and then I exist. Anyway yeah had a good time tonight.
- [16:56]
Commentator 1
Definitely think you are lovely. However, I would love to if we're gonna go to your place on Thursday I Mean, I am looking to have that physical intimacy right now.
- [17:08]
Main Commentator/Analyst
I'm just gonna pause there. But you should know these videos go on for a long time and there are so many like it. Now, if you listen to those TikToks in full, there is a lot to unpack there in what the men are saying to these women. But in the moment, again, compartmentalizing. Who cares about that? I care about the fact that these men sent private messages to women that they were seeing. And then suddenly, literally millions of people had heard and commented on things that they did not consent on being publicized. 600,000 likes, tens of thousands of comments, ripping them apart, trying to analyze why they said what they said, laughing at them. That is not normal. And yet it has become completely normalized in our society again to the point that people believe they have a right to do that. Now, another great example of this, this happened last year is when a random person on TikTok outed the founder of Crumbl, or I guess I should say one of the co founders of Crumbl Cookies, for being gay. When actually in his private personal life, the man had been actively navigating the process of realizing that he was gay and trying to come out to his very conservative Mormon family. He was going through a serious thing, trying to work through that. And then suddenly, video upon video about him started coming out, picking apart every aspect of his life, going, obviously, he's gay. Look at this, look at this. The entire world quickly just assumed and decided that he was gay. They exposed that he had a secret boyfriend. The Internet even mocked him for not realizing that about himself sooner. Again, not. And as I was going back and looking through those old videos in those comment sections, I didn't see one single person who thought, maybe he doesn't want to come out yet. Maybe he actually isn't. Maybe he's straight, and now you're just mocking this guy. Maybe it's none of our business because he's never said anything about it. This wasn't somebody who had hinted at things or, you know, done a little like, ooh, I want to tell you these things, but I'm not going to. I'm going to, you know, be alluring and secretive. He literally had said nothing. He was a random CEO. It was nobody's business. And yet millions of people then felt entitled to his personal life. And then after it all came out, he ended up coming out on Instagram saying, you know, I saw everything online. I didn't intend to do this, but yes, I am gay. After that, this was the original creator's apology, if you want to call it that even.
- [19:07]
TikTok Creator/Apology Speaker
Hey, guys. So I just got word that the Crumble co founder just came out. This was not my intention to ever out somebody in this way, but, girl, I am so happy.
- [19:18]
Main Commentator/Analyst
Hurry up, our train's coming.
- [19:20]
TikTok Creator/Apology Speaker
Girl, I'm so happy for you and so proud of you. You are, and you are going to live your best. Open out.
- [19:26]
Main Commentator/Analyst
It is insane that this man says, it was never my intention to out you like that when in his original video he was like, I don't care. You probably don't know that you're gay, but I know you're gay. It's genetic. I can tell you are like. The entire video was like two minutes long of him outing this man saying, I know everything about you. And then he's trying to backtrack this by saying, oh, I never intended to do this. I mean, come on now. Redirecting back to the main point here again, I see this all over social media. Add into this men's fear of, you know, being accused of sexual harassment, of being me too'd and doxxed. No wonder young people do not go out and date. No wonder it is so hard for young men to go up and ask women out. No wonder it is so hard for them to even send a witty, clever message on Hinge. Because God knows it's probably gonna end up on some girl's TikTok. They already know that the girls are sending it around to their friends in group chats, commenting on it, talking about it. Now it's all over TikTok for millions of people to see. It's insane. The world is. Is crazy. And everybody is watching. We're all being watched. Even if you are a private person, if you're not like me, if you don't put yourself online every day, people are still watching you. It is no longer just the people who intentionally put themselves on camera or become celebrities or whatever it is. It's everyday people. And we are dealing with ramifications of that. Somebody else over on X said, this is why barely anybody dances at clubs or gets really excited in public or really tries to express themselves other than online. Some antisocial person with a smartphone is on standby ready to capitalize on it for clout or a dollar of revenue sharing. Spot on. I don't even know where to go with the rest of this episode. Like, I wish that I had something hopeful to say about, you know, how we challenge this and how we stop it. But this, unfortunately, is just the world that we live in. Like, there really is no way to stop the train of social media and AI being able to look at a photo and determine where you are and who you are and connect you back to your digital footprint like that. It's already happening. And so I guess now in our personal lives we just have to decide what our lines in the sand are. You know, what access do you give your children? What do you teach your children about privacy? What kind of privacy do you try to maintain in your personal life, even though you know that people around you are watching? And you know, on a higher level, maybe it is getting rid of single party consent laws for recording. I don't really know what that entails, what the ramifications would be, but the fact that that is legal is just insane. Maybe it's, maybe, maybe it's just having some common decency and respect for people's privacy when you were recording your TikToks. Crazy, crazy idea. But I will say, as have been reflecting on this, suddenly all the grandmas on Facebook that we've seen over the years posting things like, I do not consent for meta to steal my data. I don't consent for Mark Zuckerberg to look at my photos, suddenly they make a lot more sense. Like, I mean, between big tech and Mark Zuckerberg and the government and now TikTokers, what privacy and data hasn't already been stolen? That is the black pill question. But anyway, but anyway, but anyway. That's just an aside. My mind was wandering. But anyway. Oh my God. Okay, sorry, Max, I'm los it today.