A (0:00)

You're a nosy. You want the full sitch? Come to Pop Culture Thursday. Hello and welcome to the J Train Podcast. This is J Train Jared Freed coming to you live from Manhattan, New York. That's right, every Thursday is a Pop Culture Thursday where I go to Page Six, I read the headlines and I riff on the article. That's the show. If you have a pop culture story you want read on this version of the J Train podcast, send it in J train podcastmail.com title your email pop Culture Thursday and we'll get to it. Also, if you want to send it over dm, you can do that as well at J Train Podcast on Instagram. This is going to be a pretty lean episode. There's no ad, so I'll do an ad for myself, which is to join the Patreon. It's $5 a month. And every Friday you get Coffee with J Train, which is basically my personal diary. I tell you stories from the week. It is very personal. I, I think I open up a lot there. And if you go sign up now, you can get years of coffee with J Train. There's not just this week's episode, but there's every week prior to this week. And you can kind of dip in and out of my life if that's of interest to you. Also, you get first dibs on ticked off Tuesday. Ticked off Tuesday. We take the comments on Coffee with J Train and they get front of the line access to complaining that week. So patreon.com jared free the link is in the description of the episode. Also, I'm going to ask you to go follow and subscribe on YouTube. Just type in Jared Freed. My channel will come up. I'm putting up standup clips every Saturday. This Saturday I'll have standup clips. Last Saturday of standup clips and it's all like the crowd work, kind of the awkward parts of shows. So which that to me, putting out Coffee with J Train is easier than putting out the standup because someone could watch that and be like, well, this is kind of weird. It is kind of weird. I would love for you to comment on those videos and let me know what you see, what you like. But the other reason, this is going to be a lean episode. And also I have shows Providence, Rhode island, this weekend. Two of the shows are already sold out. Winnipeg, Kansas City, Richmond. I have so many dates on my calendar and I want you to assemble the group chat. It is like, you know people, I hate when people say I'm going to come to support no no, come. Because there's an exchange of goods and services. Like I bring the funny. Duh, funny. You laugh, you get entertained. That is an exchange. There's no favors being done. If you want to do a favor to your friend and podcaster, Jared Freed, get the tickets early. That helps us. That, like, gets people moving. That gets the person that might not buy tickets early to buy them early. You know, when you have two sold out shows in Providence already this weekend and it's Wednesday when I tape this now, that changes the dynamic of when people buy tickets and all that stuff. So that is very helpful. That is what I would call true support. Coming to the show. We're supporting each other. You're gonna laugh, I'm gonna make the jokes. There is exchanges going on. No favors. A favor would be, hey, we got it a month ago and now the shows are sold out. So that the person who goes online that weekend goes, oh, we better hurry up and get tickets. Now. That is, you know, to be a nudge. I'm being annoying. I agree. Jared, enough. Okay. Jaredfree.com for the tickets. Now here's the thing. The reason this is going to be a lean episode is there's one story. Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift get engaged. And that became the week because you go to page Six every article. So I'm going to read every article and give. That is all. This is a page Six, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelsey themed episode. What I think is we have to say up front with a Taylor Swift. It's a Taylor Swift episode. Guest starring Travis Kelce. That is the wedding. The wedding is Taylor Swift is getting married. And if you're annoyed at Taylor Swift being in the news, I just think you sound bad. This is the problem with the Taylor Swift of it all is that she is one of the most famous people in the world. You have to admit that, like, to be annoyed that she's even being talked about. Her wedding's being talked about. You're just, you're not really getting it. You're not. You're a miserable. You're revealing how miserable you are. Because celebrities and celebrity talk and pop culture does influence the world, does become part of the environment you live in. You know, you wouldn't say that about Michael Jackson. Looking back. Oh, Michael Jackson had the biggest tour of all time, the Thriller tour. That is a. That is. And then, you know, who was beaten by the Eras tour. So. And I know what happens is there's cause and effect. Like even me, I'm going to talk about Taylor Swift and all These articles and all of them have to do with her engagement. I'm going to be annoyed at Taylor and at how this is being positioned. In the same way I would be annoyed at a friend who sends me their wedding invitation and it says something annoying on it. When I saw her post and the caption was that, you know, your gym teacher and your English teacher are gonna get married, I rolled my eyes because that's a. I. I just. If a friend did that, I'd be like, get out of your loser. And then you get you. I come to find out, again, I'm not, like, up on the Taylor information as much as, you know, the. The biggest fan would be that it's a lyric from one of her songs. And I roll my eyes again. You're gonna quote yourself in your caption. You're a writer. You're one of the greatest lyricists there is. You can't write a new caption for this, something you've prepared for your whole life. Don't act like it was just, oh, well, I guess we got engaged. That is the thing. And here's the thing. Anytime you're critical of Taylor Swift, it is annoying that you get turned into a monster. I. In the way that salsa. Salsa's like, you know, they say, what's the number one condiment? And they go, salsa. You never got that answer, huh? And you're like, well, that's not a fair question. I don't think of salsa as a condiment, you know, but. But I will acknowledge, fine, if that's how you want to say it to me, I would go, okay, Salsa. Yeah. I. I have to admit, I'm. I'm not. I. I see it more as a dip. And I. And I like it, but I would never put it on a sandwich. Maybe I would if given the option. You would. And then I would discuss it. And if someone said I was anti salsa or hated salsa, that would be a bad actor response to me saying, I don't see it as a compliment. In my world, Taylor Swift is a huge artist who. Who has impacted every single person's life that is listening to this podcast. If you can't admit that you are not living in reality, you are. You're angry at something. You're angry at yourself and where you're at in life. You're angry at the fans of Taylor. And here's the thing. The fans of Taylor are annoying, and they're annoying because Taylor, to get as big as she's gotten, you have to make yourself a cause. You have to make yourself somewhat of a cult leader. Now, the cult of Taylor is I am a young woman looking for love. And now you have connected with a group that is passionate. So all of Taylor's songs, they're mostly women see their experience through her, through her words. So the thing is, when you create an audience based on this, like, rags to riches tale, I don't have a boyfriend. Now I have a boyfriend. Oh, my God, I'm engaged. A lot of people are seeing that through your eyes and are being. Are emotionally invested. So any critique of Taylor is a critique of them. So they get. So they lash back out of you. So, and I call it the Dave Matthews Theory. The Dave Matthews theory is that Dave Matthews Band is a good band. They have good songs. They got catchy tunes. Nobody hates the music of Dave Matthews. They hate the fans. It's the fans they can't stand. I would say this is the same applies to Taylor Swift. You don't hate her music. You might. It might not be for you. That's a more reasonable thing to describe Taylor's music. It might not be your taste, but you would have to admit that it is culturally significant. You know her songs, even though you never asked to know her songs. Same with Dave Matthews. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. There you go. It's in your head now. So Dave Matthews is culturally significant. So this is all to say, this is all like, get in front of like, you hate Taylor? No, I love. I think she's great. I think she's interesting. But I'm going to critique these articles on this Taylor Swift edition of Pop Culture Thursday, the first one. This is Page Six. We. This is what the show is. We go to Page Six, we look at the titles, and then we click on them and read and riff inside Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's plans for a private, casual wedding ceremony. That's annoying. That's immediately annoying. Nothing about this wedding is going to be private and casual. Now they have it in quotes on the headline. Whoever called it private and casual is a liar. Because Taylor, part of her lore, part of her thing is she's very well aware of the Internet. Again, that's why she's so relatable. She's aware of the Internet in the way any person is aware of their own Instagram footprint, in the way, you know, a post did well versus a post didn't do well. When your parents are like, oh, my God, we're blowing up on Facebook. And you see they have like a hundred likes on their Facebook posts from their crew cruise. And you're like, yeah, good for you, mom and dad. No, that felt good to them. That was a good post for them. So in the same way your parents notice that stuff, Taylor is way in front of this stuff. She knows everything. So the idea that she's gonna have a private and casual wedding, if it's casual, the way they're getting to this wedding won't be casual. The way people get invited and the secrecy of it won't be casual. Yeah, it's going to be private because it's going to be protected by armed guards. So don't tell me this is a again. And this is where wedding talk comes up. Like, I love wedding talk because it's debatable and it kind of shows who you are. I don't know who said this, but whoever said it is annoying. Swifty should not expect a royal wedding for Taylor Swift and Travis. Kelsey. No, it'll be done royally. It might not be her. A gown with a crown on, but whatever they do will be copied by all and will be done to the nth degree. Page Six exclusively hears that the singer and the NFL star plan to have a private ceremony. Well, what are they going to have? A public. What was going to be on abc? Private ceremony with family and close friends. When they eventually tie the knot, it will be more casual than people think. I don't know who thought it would be anything, but a source told us Wednesday following the couple's exciting engagement news one day prior. Here's the only thing you can be annoyed about if you're just rando annoyed at Travis and Taylor getting engaged. They did it before a long weekend. A long weekend is when people get engaged. So if you're a guy who's been dating his girl for the same amount of time as Travis and Taylor, and you're like, okay, Labor Day, here we go. Your engagement has been ruined this weekend because Travis and Taylor decided to do it on the Tuesday before a long weekend. Now your girlfriend is bullshit. Now she's looking at you. Oh, they've been dating the same amount as us, I guess. Guess they beat us to it, huh? And your whole weekend that you were already planning is ruined. That guy should be annoyed. Swift and Kelce, both 35, sent fans into a frenzy Tuesday when they announced they were engaged after two years of dating. English teacher and your gym teacher again are getting married. They captioned the joint Instagram post featuring several photos from the dreamy proposal. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end got down on one knee. Okay, we don't need to go through the. We. We know the story. Here's another story. Here's another exclusive. Page six is all over this. Here's how long Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have kept their engagement a secret. Here's the thing. They should have done it the Tuesday after Labor Day. People are back in school, back at work. The engagements from the end of the summer would have been done. No one's getting engaged. The, you know, September 5th, you're getting engaged that last Labor Day weekend to close out the summer. Now we spend the fall dreaming of our fun wedding. They screwed the guy who's 35 who was getting engaged this coming weekend. So how long did they do it? Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. And it's also annoying. There are people out there, they're like, it was staged. They have to do a production for their engagement. The idea that they were just going to get engaged like and post it on a story like, no, no, no, no, no. Their lives. They are a business, a public business. We are the children. Whether you want to admit it or not, we are the ones watching their movies. So, yeah, of course they're going to have to plan out. Will it be, you know, will it be a joint post? Will it happen on Tuesday? Should we have the podcast come out first? I would, you know, they. If they want any of life, they have to acknowledge that the world is watching them. If they don't acknowledge it, then their lives are ruined. T Taylor Swift and Travis cows kept their engagement under wraps for a while. Page six is learned Source exc A source exclusively told us the Kansas City Chiefs tight end actually proposed to the pop superstar a couple weeks ago. He they should have revealed it next week. The exact date of the proposal is not immediately noted. It's unclear if it happened before or after they in her episode of the New Heights podcast. I think they did it after. I think you go on his podcast where there's financial boon to him after you've assessed that this is a committed relationship for the long, long lifetime term. You know, when you're getting engaged, it's a lifetime commitment. So I think you go on the podcast after that lifetime commitment has been made. But that's my. That's my opinion. The slideshow also featured images of Kelsey getting down on one knee in a beautiful garden to pop a question with an old mind. Brilliant cut sparkler that was co signed by Kindred Lubeck. The post was set to Swift's track so High School, which the songstress has confirmed. She wrote about her now Fiance. So is it a new song? Or maybe she wrote it back then and it was about her fiance. Okay, now this, this, this headline really annoys me. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't pee on me and tell me it's raining because this is just not true. This is. This is where I get annoyed at the whole swifty group, the fans, because this is what the fans want. All the details on Taylor Swift's engagement ring designed by Travis Kelce. That's just not true. I don't think Travis sat with a big notebook and his pencil and etched out his dream engagement ring for Taylor. That didn't happen. Let me. Let me just put all my money on not happening. Because what this, this is. Let's not. Let's not ruin all the men of America by propping up a man too much. Because this didn't happen. Because here's how a guy picks out an engaged ring. The. The woman he's engaged to or going. The woman he's going to get engaged to tells him exactly what she fucking wants. Or a friend or a sister or a mom says, this is what you're getting. Here's where you get to color in the coloring book, but stay within these bounds. Don't tell me he designed the ring. If Travis designed the ring, it would be like that stussy. It'd be. That s. That you do the three lines over the three lines where you connect it and that's. That's a ring. That would be his design. Don't sit here and tell me, oh, Travis designed it himself. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, he didn't. Travis listened to her mom, listened to her best friend and said, I'll pay for it. That's what Travis did. That's no paper ring. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce jointly announced their engagement on Instagram Tuesday, sharing photos of the romantic garden proposal along with a close up of the superstar's stunning diamond ring. Her old mind brilliant. Her old mind brilliant cut sparkler was designed by jeweler Kindred Lubeck of artifice Fine. In collaboration with Kelsey. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Stop it. That sentence should be her old mind brilliant cut. Her old. That sentence should be her old mind brilliant cut sparkler was designed by jeweler Kindred Lubeck of artifacts Fine. By themselves. And was given a giggly thumbs up by Travis Kelsey, who happened to be there and then gave them the credit card. That is what that sentence. Not that he designed it in collaboration. What an insult to the person who Made the ring. It's an insult to the men of America who aren't designing rings. None of us are. You're. You're ruining other people's engagements. You're. You're giving young women this false impression that they're gonna make. They're gonna feel bad. I'm totally serious about this. You're gonna make people feel bad that they had to tell their husband, here's what I want. Well, Travis designed his. I wish you were more like Travis. And then you would start designing rings. Like any of us give. Like any of us have any idea what goes into a ring. I don't even. I know the word setting. I don't know what a setting is. I know you have to buy it separately from the ring. And I. That for my brother who was like, can you believe a setting's ten grand on top of the ring? I said, I never would have known. This is. This is where I get annoyed. And honestly, I don't want to put this on Taylor. I put it on Travis a little bit, but honestly, they should. If I were. The right thing for Taylor Swift to do is to come out and go, hey, thank you for all the attention on our engagement. We are humbled. We can't believe that people are so invested. I. I'm. I'm so happy. I'm so proud of. Invested. They followed my love story my whole life. I just want to also acknowledge people have been writing that Travis designed the ring. Can I please let people know it's not that romantic. He wasn't sitting under an apple orchard tree drawing out sketches of a dream ring for me. He didn't get it exactly right. I asked him for this ring. Old mine cut. He thought was like a mine from the San Francisco 49ers days during the gold Rush. He didn't even know what that meant. That annoys me. Okay, let's go. Here's another. I mean, I told you there's a lot of headlines about the engagement. It's all Taylor. Taylor Swift was getting antsy for engagement. Travis Kelce's dad reveals. I don't like that headline. For Taylor, two years appropriate time to date at 35. That's appropriate. All the getting antsy makes her sound like this, like, ring hungry engagement, hungry woman. Which she. It didn't really feel like she was. And for the dad, I don't know. That's a. That's a bad quote. Taylor Swift was eagerly awaiting Travis Kelce's proposal. The NFL star's dad, Ed Kelsey, revealed on Tuesday. Ed confirmed Page Six's exclusive reporting that Travis and Swift got engaged almost two weeks ago, sharing that the Kansas City Chiefs tight end almost delayed the proposal, even though Ed and Taylor's father, Scott Swift, told him not to. He was going to put it off till this week. Ed told Cleveland ABC News 5 was just talking to anybody. I think she was getting maybe a little antsy, but he was. Well, this to go back to Taylor, to Travis designing the ring. Why would she get antsy? How would she even know? It's because she told him exactly what fucking ring she wanted. But he was going to put her off until this week to, you know, make some grand thing, to make it a big special event. It was a special event. It is a grand thing. What is this? What is Ed talking about? And I told him repeatedly, you know, you could do it on the side of the road. Do it any place that makes it a special event. And when you get down on one knee and ask her to marry you. He added, any place makes it a special event when you get down on one knee to ask her to marry you. I agree with Ed there. Ed said he already knew Travis was planning to propose months in advance, noting that he. He's never seen his youngest son happier. We actually went to a thing in Kansas City Sunday night, which was an ESPN airing of the Kingdom. And his mother and I went with him back to the house for dinner, where Taylor made dinner. And we had a wonderful dinner with them outside on the patio just to watch the two of them just crazy about each other. It's truly kind of neat. That's the quote. That's the one that the fans should love. That is. That's the. That's the beautiful quote. Not. She was getting antsy. What a thing. Why would you say that? I love this one because we get into the business of Taylor and Travis's wedding. This is a big business. I think there's. I think what people need to realize is there's lots of money to be made in this. The private, sentimental location of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's engagement revealed. Whatever this place is, if it costs money to get into it, it is now making tons of money. This place. This is like, you know, the. Like, what is. What's the road that the Beatles were, like, taking picture of where they're in the crosswalk? Like, this becomes immediately a spot for a tour. This becomes a spot that everyone gets engaged. Travis Kelsey popped the question, and this is the thing about their wedding, that whatever they use at their wedding will become like, oprah's. Favorite things, Oprah's book club, when that was a thing that would like just immediately make you a millionaire. Whoever has this garden, whoever holds the key to this garden now holds a key worth millions of dollars. Photos of the exact location where they posed after the big proposal appeared in an outdated listing for the NFL star's mansion. The the athlete purchased the home, which features extensive grounds in 2023 for more privacy amid his blossoming romance with Swift. So it's at his mansion. This means the mansion goes up in price. So we got Travis lining his pockets. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end and the cruel summer songstress took the Instagram to announce the news on Tuesday. We know, we know. We, we did this already. They Repeat the article 700 times from an outdated listing for the home show the exact spot. So this is in his backyard. Huge home. I mean this house now is worth, it's like, you know, becomes like Dollywood Neverland. This is, he's got to name the house. That's the move. Yeah. So this is a big, this house now worth more money. Again, this is the business of it. Taylor, you know, when she goes dress shopping, whoever that person that gets the ring maker. We just talked about the ring designer, Travis Kelce is going to be a big ring designer now. No, he's not. It's going to be that other person. Kindred. Got a couple more stories. Again, this is a Taylor themed episode. I mean this is the story of the week. Travis Kelce's True Colors launches collaboration with American Eagle. Ok. American Eagle, the company that had all these issues with the jeans ad. Oh, all is forgotten attached to Taylor. Taylor Swift's engagement ring isn't the only thing Travis Kelce has co designed lately. Okay, if they write that he co design that. I am absolutely enraged at the disservice that this whole co design thing is doing for the men of America. It's not right. It's not true. A day after the couple's engagement, Kelsey's True Colors brand dropped a collaboration with American eagle featuring over 90 pieces. So yeah, it's very denim. It's very fall. He's in the, he's in it. He's modeling in it. I mean nobody even bringing up Sydney Sweeney controversy. Now American Eagle, we move on. Ranging from sporty varsity jackets and tees to wool coats and cargo pants. It looks very fall looking. I've had to keep my excitement about this collab under raps for nearly a year. This is the day after he gets engaged. I'm really excited about this. Oh, oh, about your engagement? No, no, no. The collaboration I have with American Eagle, kelsey said in a press release, noting that his fashion label is all about showing up authentically and having fun with style. The NFL star also modeled the Fresh Drop alongside a group of athletes that perfectly represent the collaboration. Suni Lee, Anna Frey, Azzy Fudd, Drew Aller, Jeremiah Smith and Keon Anthony. While a second Drop hits the site on September 24, the first limited edition lineup line is sure to sell out fast. Below a shot a shop select shop a selection so now they're listen the day after the engagement they're like, yeah, why don't we do like half of it today? Really? You want to do it today? Yeah, I've yeah, I think we'll do it the day after the engagement. Again, big business. This kind of goes back to my point of like she definitely went on that podcast after they were engaged. Like, I just think as much as you trust someone, the excitement kind of like the look in her eye. I don't know. I mean, what am I saying? I sound like a fucking crazy person. The excitement, the look in her eye. Like, I fucking know. Okay, let's now we get to the tough part of this story. Kyla Nicole Kayla or Kyla Kyla Kayla Kayla Nicole shares cryptic message about choosing Joy as ex Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift's engagement breaks Internet I read that horribly as as ex Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift's engagement breaks Internet. So this is Travis's ex. If I'm the ex, I don't know what's in it for me to post within the week of them getting engaged. And my first post is just me living my life, having fun. I don't know. The media personality took to our Instagram stories Tuesday to reshare a video of actress Tracy Ellis Ross sharing a power reminder on experiencing joy. I work at it, the Blackish star said in the clip. I think joy is different from happiness. I feel like happiness is something you can get at 7:11 and Joy is something that you earn and work for and takes practice. Well this isn't fair, I guess. Yeah, I feel for this person because you post something about joy and they're like, well oh, someone, someone has an opinion on Travis and you know this is the, the news making and let's say it is. Let's say she is posting this to like be like I got joy. I don't need Travis anymore. It's annoying for them for people to paint to this way. I feel like joy has legs. Okay, well they have the whole quote. Nicole, 33, also reflected on her own journey with joy writing. Read about this concept. Read about this concept years ago in a book called Choose Joy because Happiness isn' referring to the K. Warren self help book I aspire. She continued. So, so good. I don't know. This is a loose connection, but it does suck to be the ex. I mean, like someone some people have brought up, like Taylor's exes because she made the songs about them. It is my opinion that maybe Taylor's exes, she does like a song like thank you for the exper. Like, I think. I think a thank you song from Taylor to her exes would be a class move. To be like, I'm here where I am with the person I love the most because of the experiences I had with you. Wouldn't that be a nice way? And especially her fans, I don't know if they would like that. They'd be like, wait a minute, we fought for you in the comments section of all these posts. And it's like, I don't know, I do think, like when you get engaged, like, isn't it like your soul is free? Like, it's like kind of like in Ghost when like all the ghosts come out of like, you know, wasn't that like at the end of Ghost, you know, the bad guy, they all the spirits, you know, fly away. Like, wouldn't that be. Isn't that kind of. Isn't this the. The Disney fairy tale moment where you go and. And my, my. My curse is finally broke and I found the man of my life, you know, like, why is there no forgive and forget from the woman who was been, you know, dumped or did the dumping of the men in her life? I don't know. I'm a more empathetic person with that stuff. Like, why not do like a Jake Gyllenhaal? Hey, all's well. It ends well. Sorry about the 11 minute song. Last one. What's at stake in a Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce prenup as popstar has more to protect with $1.6 billion for fortune experts. Now, this is basically saying. Experts are saying Taylor's got a lot to protect, which of course she does. There is a certain type of miserable person who like, gets off to the story. I think like male, female. I think for men, a miserable man loves the story of rich woman losing half her money in the divorce to the man because that never happens. I do think there's a miserable version of woman who likes hearing a woman having a prenup because they like hearing about a man, a man getting, quote, unquote, emasculated by a prenup, which I don't believe it to be. I mean, he's a hall of fame tight end. To look at it from that way, you're miserable, which is why Page Six is posting about it. There are people that want to hear all they care about. They'll. There's someone in your life. All they'll talk about is a prenup and how Taylor needs a prenup and how Taylor's got to get a prenup from this loser. And it's like, if you look at the world that way, I think, like, people who talk like that, like, like, we should. They should, like, lose the right to vote. Like, they're too emotionally, like, screwed up to be a part of, like, societal stuff. Like, that should be. There should be, like, these secret tests that, like, oh, if you bring up the. Like, of course she needs a prenup. Of course. She's huge. She's, like, the biggest in the world, Travis. Like, you know, like, the. The financial part of this cannot be ignored. But, like, to say it in this way of, like, that's right, girls, or that's right, bros, you know, I don't know. He's like. He's got his own resume that any man would go, yeah, that's awesome. Hers, too. So. All right, Pop culture Thursday. Back next week. Boom.