← There Are No Girls on the Internet
There Are No Girls on the Internet
Elon's Election Interference, JP Morgan's 'Sex Slave' Lawsuit, Charlie Kirk Facebook Post & Take It Down Act Explained — NEWS ROUNDUP
01:07:03
Loading summary
Transcript167 lines
- [00:00]
Bridget Todd
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Dr. Joy
Guaranteed Human
- [00:06]
Bridget Todd
during Memorial Day at Lowe's Shop Household must haves for less.
- [00:10]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Save $80 on a Char Broil Performance
- [00:12]
Bridget Todd
Series 4 Burner Grill to chef up something special plus get up to 45% off. Select major appliances to keep things fresh.
- [00:19]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Our best lineup is here at Lowes Lowes.
- [00:23]
Bridget Todd
We help you save valid through 527
- [00:26]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
while supplies last selection varies by location. See Lowes.com for details.
- [00:29]
Bridget Todd
Visit your nearby Lowe's Foreign.
- [00:36]
Kal Penn
It's Kel Penn I'm inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with my podcast Hearsay The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. Every episode I nerd out with amazing guests and dive into the best new audiobooks available on Audible. It's the book club for your ears. Listen to Earsay the Audible and I Heart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:04]
Dr. Joy
This is Dr. Joy from Therapy for Black Girls. A fresh sparkling kitchen. Yes, please. The scrubbing it takes to get one Not a favorite. That's why you'll love Dawn Power Wash. Just free from everyday dishes to the toughest messes, it makes cleanup twice as fast. Less scrubbing, more living. Find Dawn Power Wash Dish Spray at your favorite retailer. Dawn is a proud sponsor of the Elton John Impact Awards, honoring those who have helped shape a more inclusive and compassionate world with their artistry, advocacy and unwavering commitment to equality. Don't miss the Elton John Impact awards podcast, available June 1 on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere podcasts are heard.
- [01:43]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
When you own your own business, you need to keep things moving. Need to book a last minute flight? Earn a $300 travel credit to cover that? Need to take a meeting before takeoff?
- [01:53]
Malcolm Glebel
Do it from the comfort of the
- [01:54]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Chase Sapphire Lounge by the club. Need to catch your breath before you board? Done. Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business the business card that gives back all you put in. Visit chase.com ReserveBusiness to learn more. Cards issued by JP Morgan Chase Bank. Any member FDIC subject to credit approval terms apply.
- [02:17]
Bridget Todd
There Are no Girls on the Internet is a production of iHeartRadio and unbossed creative. I'm Bridget Todd and this is There Are no Girls on the Internet. This is There Are no Girls on the Internet a podcast where we cover tech power and who gets left out. And this is another installment of our weekly news roundup where we dig into the stories that you might have missed online this week so you don't have to. And a little bit of a change here. I can actually start with a little bit of free advice for listeners. If you happen to be giving the speech at a graduation or a commencement ceremony in the next few weeks, maybe don't mention AI because AI is ruining college graduations. Right, Mike?
- [03:04]
Mike
Yeah, it seems to be a common thing across graduations. I've read a bunch of stories about it.
- [03:10]
Bridget Todd
Now I saw this video from Glendale Community College, their commencement, where the person running the commencement ceremony realized that a bunch of graduating students, their names had not been called. And she said, oh, well, it was a screw up because we're using a new AI system that glitched. So those graduates that did not get their names called just did not get to walk across the stage to get their diploma in front of their friends and family that were attending the ceremony. And there wasn't enough time to like redo it. So the person running the graduation just said, sorry, that's AI. What are you gonna do? And the choir of boos that followed was pretty epic.
- [03:51]
Mike
Of all the things that you might use AI for, I really struggle to understand how just like a list of names would be part of it.
- [04:01]
Bridget Todd
How is this better? I mean, this is not to even get off topic from the first banter bit, but it reminds me of, I need to speak carefully. Cause I don't wanna put anybody on blast. Nobody that I work with in putting this show together. This is not a story about anybody who has anything to do with there are no girls on the Internet. But in another part of my life, people are very excited about AI and somebody said, oh, I'm having Claude do this task that usually I have to do every day to start the day. And I said, oh, how is it working? And they were like, well, I have to spend a lot of time correcting it. And actually more time than it probably would have taken. But Claude did it and everybody was so impressed.
- [04:42]
Kal Penn
And.
- [04:42]
Bridget Todd
And I was kind of quietly the grumbly person thinking, if it actually took you more time to fix what Claude messed up, did it really save you any time? And why are we applauding it? Just because they figured out a way to have AI do it? Like, are we all listening to ourselves? In any event, Mike, your point is taken of why is it better to have AI read the names than just having somebody at the college read the names?
- [05:07]
Mike
Yeah, you got me. I feel like we have reading names off of a list technology down. Like, we don't need continued innovation in this area.
- [05:17]
Bridget Todd
Yes. And even beyond reading names from lists, a handful of people were Also booed at college graduations for bringing up AI. In their speech at University of Central Florida, a real estate executive got booed after calling AI the next industrial revolution during a speech to arts and humanities graduates, which, yeah, unsurprising, that was not an audience that wanted to hear about AI. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was really booed at University of Arizona at their commencement on May 15th when he said, quote, the question is not whether AI will shape the world, it will. The question is whether you will help shape artificial intelligence. Steve Borchetta, who is not a name that I knew before reporting this story, but he started Big Machine Records, which I think at one point was Taylor Swift's record label. He might have actually been the person who, quote, discovered Taylor Swift, but don't quote me on that. He was giving a speech at Middle Tennessee State University where he said, we are the agents of change and the agents of next, and this industry will change on you in a heartbeat. It has already changed more in the last 10 years than in the 50 years prior. AI is rewriting production as we sit here. So when the graduates all booed, he spoke over the boos and said, hey, like I said, you can hear me now or pay me later. As they continued to boo, he said, then do something about it. It's a tool. Make it work for you.
- [06:47]
Mike
Oh, man, I. I love the, like, getting hostile with the crowd. He's fighting back.
- [06:54]
Bridget Todd
Yeah, I. So first of all, I kind of, like, will give it to him that he kind of went. Was like, I'm going down with a ship on this one. Yeah, he's giving it to him like, like Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty Style. Your booze mean nothing to me.
- [07:11]
Mike
Yeah, yeah. I mean, he probably thinks he's hot shit and he's getting booed by a bunch of college kids. Bunch of brokies.
- [07:20]
Bridget Todd
Yes. The reviews are in. College students do not want to hear about AI at their commencement. I. I do think there's a connotation that all college kids are just using ChatGPT to do all their work. But young people are not that into AI even as they use AI. I was looking at this poll from Gallup, the Walton Family foundation, and GSV Ventures, which is a venture capital firm that works in education technology. The poll found that the percentage of respondents aged 14 to 29 who said that they felt hopeful about AI declined sharply since last year, down to 18% from 27. Young adult excitement about AI also dropped. Nearly a third of the respondents said that AI technology made them feel angry so that poll really aligns with the boos that are being lobbed out at these commencement speakers who use their platform and their time to speak to champion AI.
- [08:21]
Mike
It does. And it's notable that neither of those questions suggest that the people aren't necessarily using AI. Right. I would guess that a lot of those graduating students who were doing the booing probably do use AI. Some of them probably, like, all the time. But that doesn't mean that they want to hear about it in their graduation speech. Right. Like they're graduating from college, about to go into the world as adults and make their way. And if the main thing that commencement speakers are offering to them is the opportunity to not get left behind by some technology that threatens to grind them into dust, it's hard to imagine a less inspiring message.
- [09:05]
Bridget Todd
Yes. And read the room. They're graduating into a pretty dismal economic situation, a pretty dismal job market. Do you think they want to, after their accomplishment of graduating college, do you think they want to sit here and listen to you talk about how great the technology is that is potentially making it harder for them to find a job that is making the landscape in which they are graduating into more difficult for them economically? Like, they're like all of that is happening and you expect me to applaud it, that graduation speech on top of it. I can understand why these young people are angry. Also, here's my thing. At this point, we have already seen these speakers be booed for mentioning AI. Like the Eric Schmidt speech happened this week, a full week after that real estate person was booed in Florida. At this point. Why mention AI at all? The reviews are in. People don't like it.
- [10:03]
Mike
Yeah, people don't like it. They don't want to hear about it. Not at something like that.
- [10:07]
Bridget Todd
It takes me back to an earlier, perhaps simpler time when people were booing at a graduation back in 2015. Do you remember the incident where I shouldn't laugh, but it really tickled me?
- [10:19]
Mike
Oh, no. I know exactly what you're going to do.
- [10:22]
Bridget Todd
All the black people, I've never seen. If y' all have not. If y' all don't remember that, I can't even do it justice.
- [10:32]
Mike
We will put it in the show notes.
- [10:34]
Bridget Todd
Oh, and you. It. It needs to. You need to see it to believe it. Because I've never seen a more collective response. Independently, everybody collectively stands and boos. I've never seen anything like it. Basically, the graduation ceremony gets messed up. The woman who is white, who is doing the ceremony comes back on to try to restore order. Because they're like, oh, the ceremony's been messed up. This was human error, by the way, because this is back in 2015 as like a kid is trying to give a speech after the graduation ceremony should have ended. People, I guess, are getting up, they're like, we're not listening to this speech. This woman tries to restore order, and she's like, it's my fault that this young man was missed on the program. Y' all are being so rude to not listen. Stop. Like, stop leaving. And then as everybody continues to collect their things to leave, she says, oh, look who's leaving. All the black people.
- [11:25]
Mike
We shouldn't laugh. I am appalled.
- [11:28]
Bridget Todd
I shouldn't laugh.
- [11:29]
Mike
Yeah. I mean, that was also a message people didn't want to hear.
- [11:32]
Bridget Todd
People didn't want to hear it. And the response, I've never, to this day, I don't think I've ever seen a clearer. With 100%. Like, I've never seen a clearer collective response where everybody immediately got the memo. We're standing and booing collectively together in unison.
- [11:51]
Mike
Yeah, you know, we're really coming down harshly on that woman. But she probably did more to inspire racial harmony in that school at that time than anyone before her.
- [12:02]
Bridget Todd
Y' all probably watched that clip a hundred times. The day that I saw it.
- [12:08]
Mike
I bet she really regretted saying that.
- [12:10]
Kal Penn
Oh, my God.
- [12:11]
Bridget Todd
I want to know where she is now. You can sort of see from the clip that she kind of puts her face to the mic. Like, should I say it? I'm not going to say it. It. I'm gonna say it. Like you can sort of. You can sort of see her thought process in real time. And this was in 2015. We didn't get a lot of viral videos like that back then. This was like, if you got one and it made you laugh, you were lucky. It was just a simpler time.
- [12:35]
Mike
We do need a Where are they Now? On her.
- [12:37]
Bridget Todd
Oh, my God. I would. If anybody is from that town. Let me see what town it is. If anybody is from Stone Mountain, Georgia, and you know about the 2015 graduation ceremony at TNT Academy, you know, Principal Nancy Gordick, let me know because I. I need a follow up. I need a Where are They Now. I would listen to a, like a three episode Deep Dive podcast on it.
- [13:03]
Mike
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that she's working in AI now.
- [13:08]
Bridget Todd
What if it looped back around? She's giving a speech about AI and she gets booed.
- [13:15]
Mike
Look who's booing all the humans boo.
- [13:20]
Bridget Todd
Let's leave. Oh, my God. Too funny. So y' all might have seen this story about a J.P. morgan executive who was sued a few weeks ago by a former co worker who accused her of sexual harassment, sexual assault, drugging, blackmail, and racial discrimination. So to be clear, a male J.P. morgan employee was accusing a female J.P. morgan employee of sexual harassment, assault, drugging, blackmail. The allegations were very graphic. He claimed that shortly after joining the team, this woman told him, quote, if you don't fuck me soon, I'm going to ruin you. Never forget, I fucking own you. If you don't fuck my brains out tonight, I'm going to sabotage your promotion. Things like that. He also claimed that she drugged him, made racist comments, called him a slur, and essentially, according to the lawsuit, made him her sex slave. That's. That's a direct phrase from the suit. The way that the suit describes the allegations, it's almost sort of written like pornography. The details are very salacious. At one point, the lawsuit claims that she told him, does your Asian wife have these cannons while exposing her breasts? The way that it's written is full of very salacious details. So when I first saw this story, it was because all of these manosphere adjacent big accounts were on it, like really, really sharing it deeply. And it makes sense why they would, because it sounded very much like an example of a man being sexually abused by a woman and then perhaps not being taken seriously. I want to be super clear here. Obviously, men can be sexually victimized by anyone. You know, anyone can sexually victimize anyone. When we talk about it, I'm often talking about people who are not men, but men can absolutely be victims and survivors of sexual violence. And I also want to be clear that, you know, I'm not a lawyer. I don't have any kind of inside information here. If I sound like I'm speaking about it very carefully, it's because I am. I don't want to make it seem like I know for certain what's happening, because I don't. And so I'm just trying to be very careful.
- [15:49]
Mike
That's very responsible of you.
- [15:52]
Bridget Todd
Well, part of it is just the way this story has been written about is so salacious. For instance, before any of this information was verified or, you know, anybody had their day in court, I saw AI generated videos and images that showed these two JP Morgan employees together. I saw a video on X that purported to show them, like, sipping wine, like being cuddled up in a cafe and saying, oh my God, it really happened. These videos Got millions of views. Even though they're AI generated, they're not real. So why I'm being really careful is that, in my opinion, it does seem like this case is very suspicious. Not suspicious in the way that, you know, a woman would never sexually abuse a man. So that's why this case is suspicious. For instance, the lawsuit was pulled from the court records for corrections. JP Morgan said that the claims had no merit after doing an internal investigation. To be clear, I don't put a lot of merit into who internal investigations like JP Morgan saying, oh, we looked into it and turns out nothing happened. That was untoward. Everybody can go home.
- [17:12]
Mike
Just earlier this week, we were talking about ebay's internal investigation into the stalking incident with the Steiners. Right. An internal investigation is designed to protect the company.
- [17:22]
Bridget Todd
Yes. And that ebay story is a great example of the fact that, like, you really can't trust companies and corporations. They will. They will do a lot. They will go to extremes to protect themselves. And so I'm. I'm not one to take JP Morgan at their word because they've done an investigation and they say it's case closed. Her lawyers denied everything, saying that she never dated this individual, never had a sexual or romantic encounter with him of any kind, never gave him drugs. In the investigation, one of the things that came out was that in the suit, it said that she told him that, oh, if you don't have sex with me, you won't get your promotion. But that in the structure of J.P. morgan, he did not report to her. Like, she had no control over his compensation. They didn't report to the same people.
- [18:11]
Mike
All right, maybe. But I've worked in big corporations where maybe I didn't directly report to my boss's peer, but I definitely wanted to stay on that person's good side.
- [18:21]
Bridget Todd
Totally fair. Totally fair. Again, that's why I'm trying to be cautious in talking about this. But I will say, the way that this woman is being digitally dragged through the mud, I have seen so much AI generated garbage that is, like, very sexualizing about her. I've seen AI generated images that purport to show her JP Morgan headshot. But they're, you know, they've been digitally edited so that they show, like, a lot of cleavage. So the point that they're trying to make, obviously, is that, oh, this woman in her professional headshot was, like, showing her cleavage, which is not. The images are fake. And so I say this to say they're going to have their day in court. And so, you know, We'll. We'll know more. Even still, the way that big manosphere adjacent accounts have jumped on this case and used it as an excuse to sexually harass this woman is despicable. But I think that's kind of where we are now. Like, I was listening to the podcast, good noticing when this case first came out, and they put it very well that these kind of anti feminist manosphere accounts get to essentially use AI to sexually harass a woman and feel like they have the moral high ground to do so because this woman has been accused of sexually abusing a man. And so they get to feel like, oh, we're doing, like, men's rape survivor activism by digitally harassing this woman when we don't even know the truth yet. We don't even know what happened yet. And so now she is fighting back. She filed a countersuit this week accusing this guy of defamation. And her attorneys are not pulling punches. They're calling his allegations entirely false, malicious and fabricated, and accusing him of trying to destroy her reputation for leverage to extort millions of dollars. So that extortion piece is rather important. Her legal team is alleging that this is not the first time this guy has done something like this. According to her filing, this guy made what her attorneys called, quote, an eerily similar fabricated allegation of sexual misconduct against a supervisor at a prior place of employment. Specifically, he claimed that he was sexually assaulted, drugged and raped by that supervisor, too. In addition to that, this is a little bit of a strange thing. Her team also claims that he once falsely claimed that his father had died in order to obtain bereavement leave when his father was and still is alive. So it sounds like her legal team is just saying, like, oh, this is a person who fabricates stories in the workplace. Also interesting is that the New York Times reported that after he filed an internal complaint at JP Morgan last May, he was put on paid leave and then later offered $1 million in a settlement, which was roughly two years of his salary. JP Morgan says that that offer was made to avoid litigation and to protect an employee facing reputational harm. But his attorney pushes back on that framing, saying, quote, in my 30 year plus career as an employment litigator, I have never had an employer defendant make such a substantial offer if he truly believed the allegations have no merit. So what her attorneys are alleging is that essentially this guy is an extortionist and that he was trying to extort both J.P. morgan and other previous employers out of money by saying, hey, I will say this happened. If you don't pay me off.
- [22:05]
Mike
Which to connect it back to the manosphere is an accusation that is often thrown against women who complain of harassment or sexual assault in the workplace.
- [22:18]
Bridget Todd
And yeah, they, they really nailed it very well. And on the good noticing podcast that I think that the reason why the manosphere seized on this like they did was because either outcome is kind of a win for manosphere types, right? Either A, this is an example of a woman sexually abusing a man and the man not being believed. And that's why feminists are bad. If this guy is not telling the truth, well then it's an example of false accusations. And this is why me too, went too far. Either way, they get to do what they actually want to be doing, which is using technology like AI to create these porn scenarios to sexually harass this woman off of the Internet. I should also say that his side is not backing down. His spokesperson responded to her countersuit saying defamation requires the statement to be false. Truth is an absolute defense. His statements are true. This will be proven in a court of law. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 26th. So this is far from over. And again, I'm, I'm trying to be sort of careful about how I speak about this because I don't know what I, I mean, I have, I have my opinion about what I think happened, but I don't know for sure. And so I don't want to be saying definitively this is what happened because I genuinely don't know. But whatever the court decides, whatever the truth turns out to be, the AI harassment machine and the Internet and the manosphere did not wait to find out. And it's concerning to me how they're turning around the language that people who care about survivors and sexual violence will say, like, oh, we should believe victims. And saying, oh, well, why aren't people believing this guy? And I just hate how disingenuous the conversation is online, and I just hate how easily we have made it to smear and digitally harass people like this. In her court filing, she describes her daily life as, quote, a daily living nightmare, citing severe harm to reputation, career relationships, and emotional well being in what she calls an increasingly permanent digital environment. And I, I'm not saying anybody's name on purpose here because, like, she's right. Like, she's right that when you Google her, you know, and like, part of it is like, okay, well now you've filed a countersuit, so, like, it is part of the public record. But when you Google her, from now on, this is what will come up, like, whether or not it turns out to be the truth or not. I don't think that she's wrong, that we do live in an increasingly permanent digital environment. And when I searched her name on X, all I saw was essentially AI generated pornography about her. So we'll stay on this case, and once they have their hearing, we'll let you know how that goes. But, yeah, just a really tough situation. Let's take a quick break.
- [25:28]
Malcolm Glebel
Hello. Hello, this is Malcolm Glebel from Smart talks with IBM. Today. We're diving into a fascinating conversation with with Stefano Pallard, head of fan development for Scuderia Ferrari hp.
- [25:39]
Stefano Pallard
Your pronunciation is strongly American. It's more Scuderia Ferrari.
- [25:45]
Malcolm Glebel
I'm still working on rolling my R's, but what I was able to learn from Stefano was the importance of engaging the Tifosi, the Ferrari superfans in the digital age.
- [25:55]
Stefano Pallard
Ferrari fans and super fans want to be part of something, want to belong to something. So they want to be part of a community, and ultimately they want to be part of a winning team.
- [26:06]
Malcolm Glebel
You've got Ferrari, which has a long history, design history, and now you're interacting in a kind of digital space. I'm curious how you balance those two traditions.
- [26:20]
Stefano Pallard
When it comes to fan engagement, it's really digital technology. And digital channels, are they enabled to create a deeper connection, connection with our fans?
- [26:28]
Malcolm Glebel
To learn more about how Ferrari and IBM are using technology to build deeper connections with fans, visit IBM.com Ferrari
- [26:39]
Bridget Todd
this
- [26:39]
Dr. Joy
is Dr. Joy from therapy for black Girls. If you could enjoy a spotless space without so much scrubbing, wouldn't you? Of course you would. Well, I've got you. Dawn Power Wash dish spray cuts through the mess and gets everything clean in half the time. We're talking about both the toughest messes in everyday dishes. Plus its work goes beyond the sink. Like to clean counters, stoves, grills, and to remove stains on laundry. And it's really good at getting those hard to clean dishes. So basically, Dawn Powerwash cleans everything from dishes to grills, removing all the grease and grime, and does it twice as fast. Not bad. You can find Dawn Power Wash dish spray at your favorite retailer. Dawn is a proud sponsor of the Elton John Impact Awards, honoring those who have helped shape a more inclusive and compassionate world with their artistry, advocacy, and unwavering commitment to equality. And we like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of this year's deserving honorees. You won't want to miss the Elton John Impact Awards podcast, available on June 1st on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere podcasts are heard.
- [27:42]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc, SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available@public.com Disclosures hey everyone, it's Kal Penn.
- [28:45]
Kal Penn
I'm the host of Irsay the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. This week on the podcast I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook project, Hail Mary Massive sci fi adventure about survival and science and what happens when you wake up alone, very far from Earth.
- [29:07]
Ray Porter
I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections and it's like okay, yo yo yo, is this indulgent? And I really thought about it. I was like no. At this point it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it. But there's places in this book that that deeply emotionally affected me and I left it on the mic. That's great cuz it served the story. People will say like oh my God I cried at the end. It's like yeah dude, me too.
- [29:39]
Kal Penn
Listen to Irsay the Audible and iHeart audiobook club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [29:53]
Bridget Todd
And our back. So let's talk about the Take it Down act because I have been a little bit hesitant to do too deep of a dive into specific pieces of tech policy, unless it's tech policy that I feel is objectively and obviously horrible. And there is a lot of legislation like that out there, such as legislation to age gate the Internet in specific ways. That's not the kind of thing that I support, and I'll talk about it all day. But mostly why I kind of am a bit hesitant to get into policy is that I'm not a policy professional. And the times when I did work with platforms to design and recommend and advocate for policy changes, not laws like their internal policies, I really saw firsthand how complex policy can be. When you're talking about the Internet, we would run into situations where you would advocate for one policy thinking, oh, this is going to alleviate harm, but that policy would actually end up creating harm for a group that you had not fully considered. And so my work was a lot of that kind of thing. And like, working in coalition and talking to people and talking to, you know, different marginalized communities about policies that they wanted to see enacted. It was very complicated work. But from doing some of that work, it made me see, like, actual legal tech policy as sort of above my pay grade. I have opinions about them, but for the most part, I think we should listen to people who are smarter about actual law and policy than I am. However, I do want folks who listen to the podcast to feel informed, and so part of that is having conversations about policy. As a side question, I actually would want to know if listeners want more discussion on policy. Again, it comes up sometimes, but I try to not get too deep into it. I have my opinions, but there are sometimes situations where more opinions from people who are not policy professionals are not what's going to help people understand the situation more clearly, if that makes sense. So, like, I'm just very aware of that. But if folks want more of my take on policy, I'd be happy to give it. I just don't want to be the person that's like, here's my uninformed opinion. Everybody should just take it.
- [32:16]
Mike
Again, very responsible of you.
- [32:20]
Bridget Todd
And Mike, you and I have a lot of conversations about tech policy and tech law on mic, off mic, in all the ways in the comment section of our. Of our research docs.
- [32:33]
Mike
Yeah, there's a lot of nuance. Like you said, when you solve one problem, often you open the door to two or three additional problems that maybe weren't even on your radar. It's a nuanced, challenging space.
- [32:49]
Bridget Todd
Yes. And I was lucky that I was always doing work in coalition with people that I did not always see 100% eye to eye on everything with we all kind of like broadly want the same things. These are all like reasonable, smart, thoughtful people. I think when we're talking about the Trump administration and their crooners I start to be like ooh, like are these reasonable people like you know, who are talking about reasonable enforcement of reasonable law? So let's talk about the Take It Down Act. It has come up on the podcast before when we were talking about how GROK was being used to generate AI non consensual images of women and girls. Take It down act was first submitted to Congress back in 2024, then ultimately was signed into law by Trump last May. It had multiple co sponsors from both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. It has two main components. One a criminal prohibition on sharing non consensual intimate images or NCII real or AI generated, which many states had already addressed through their own state laws. Which by the way separately. Remember when the Trump administration was trying to curb states abilities to put forth any of their own state level laws on AI?
- [34:03]
Mike
Oh yeah, they really love power and having a monopoly over it.
- [34:08]
Bridget Todd
They sure do. The second part of the Take It down act is a broader takedown requirement, and that's the piece that kicked in this week on May 19, 2026, a year after the law was signed by Trump. So that means as of this week, under that provision, online platforms must remove flagged content within 48 hours or they could face penalties. The Verge reported that Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson sent letters to over a dozen tech companies ahead of the deadline, a list that included Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Automatic, Bumble, Discord, Match, Group, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, SmugMug, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok and X. It told platforms that they needed to offer users an easy takedown request process and remove offending content within 48 hours, as well as any known identical copies. The FTC, which is the agency tasked with enforcing the law, reminded companies that violating it could result in civil penalties of more than $53,000 per violation. All of the big social media platforms all supported this bill. Major platforms including Meta, Microsoft, Google, TikTok and Snap all supported it and all expressed confidence that they could and would comply. I know what you're thinking. How about Elon Musk? Well, even X supported the Take It Down Act. So this is my issue with a lot of tech legislation in general. I have no trouble believing that this law will probably do some good, that people will get their non consensual intimate imagery taken down. And I really hope that is the case. And I guess I don't want to sound like a Debbie Downer here, but I am just incredibly suspicious of this kind of legislation. So I'm not fully ready to say this is a definite win for Internet safety. I have some concerns about the legislation. I would welcome the thoughts of listeners and how this is landing for people. But there are a few issues that I take with this legislation. One is that the way this legislation works still puts quite a bit of the onus on the victims to find the offending content or image to report it to the platforms to really do the work of getting this taken down. Mind you, as we saw earlier this year when GROK was being used to flood X with non consensual intimate imagery, a lot of that imagery was of children, youth, teenagers. And so I don't think it is a reasonable dynamic to expect teens to be doing the work of trying to get platforms to take this kind of garbage down. It should be on the platforms to make sure that garbage like this is not on the platforms. And I don't really love the dynamic that says, okay, like a high school girl is now tasked for doing the job of people like Elon Musk. For him, these platforms have people who are paid to keep the platforms free of illegal offending content. And the fact that a high school girl would be taking it upon herself to have to do the work of, of the platforms for them doesn't sit right with me. So that's again, I'm happy that that creates some kind of a mechanism for that to be done. Whether or not that, you know, the jury is out on whether or not this will be a reasonable mechanism to actually do that. The fact that we had no requirement to have a mechanism to easily report this kind of content is absurd. But there you have it.
- [37:54]
Mike
And as you mentioned, a lot of states already have laws on the books prohibiting and making criminally illegal non consensual intimate imagery. Both minors and adults already had some form of legal recourse. And I think that's one of the big criticisms of the take it down law is people arguing that it's not necessary because it is just further criminalizing something that in many cases is already criminalized. I've also seen supporters of it argue that it opens up some additional opportunities for victims to seek recourse. And the fact that it is a single federal law creates opportunities for victims to pursue violations that cross state or country lines. But particularly in the case that you just described of minor, I.e. content that is already criminal in, like, multiple different ways. It's my understanding. Again, not a lawyer.
- [38:55]
Bridget Todd
Yeah, it is criminal in multiple different ways. And the European Commission said that the stuff that was being generated by GROK on X, they deemed that unlawful. And yet when Elon Musk was summoned by French investigators about this, quote, unlawful content. That's not me saying that. That's the European Commission saying that the American Department of Justice said that he didn't have to go and that he was being unfairly politically persecuted and that they were going to have his back if he decided to not show up for this investigation. So he just didn't go. He just ghosted them. He just didn't show up. It's hard to talk about because we're talking about stuff that already is illegal, and yet if that illegality is not really being meaningfully enforced, what does that really mean? I'm concerned about the fact that the FTC is the body that would be enforcing all of this. Back when we were first having a conversation about GROK being used to generate these non consensual images, friend of the show Kat Tenbarge had a great piece at her outlet Spitfire News, where she spoke to Dr. Marianne Franks, who drafted the template for several laws against non consensual distribution of intimate imagery, who said the FTC has made it clear that they're fighting for Trump. It's actually never going to be used against the very players who are the worst in this system. X is going to continue to be one of the worst offenders and probably one of the pioneers of horrible ways to hurt women. Marianne Franks was saying this before this provision was enacted with the Take It Down Act. She spoke to the Verge about this more recently and basically said that she wondered if the reason why the platforms were supporting this legislation is because they knew that it was never actually going to be applied to them in the first place. So why wouldn't they, you know, get some good PR points by being seen publicly supporting it? She also made another good point, which I think to me seems pretty obvious that this law could be set up to selectively be applied to platforms that don't play ball with the administration. This is what she told the Verge. I think what is the worst thing that can happen is it turns out to be a paper tiger against the companies that are actually doing the worst and turns out to be a way to penalize and to actually truly go after unpopular platforms and a censor speech. She goes on to say that that speech could include things like LGBTQ expression especially as gender affirming care for trans youth is already currently being targeted by this ftc. Quote, I'm very worried about that being used as a pretext to crack down even further on either consensually sexually explicit material or specifically on educational materials for kids who are exploring their gender identity or exploring their sexual orientation. And the Verge reports that even if a court decides that that is not within the scope of this law, it would send a very clear message to the platforms about how this administration, including the ftc, expects them to moderate. And we don't even really have to sort of glean this because Trump more or less said this explicitly, that he intended to use the Take It down act himself potentially as a way to crack down on his perceived political enemies. At the State of the Union in 2025, when talking about the Take It down act, he said, quote, I'm going to use that bill for myself because nobody gets treated worse than I do online. At the signing ceremony for the Take It down act, then ex CEO Linda Yaccarino, remember her well, she was there at the signing and the Trump administration praised her for doing a great job. And so it's hard for me not to sort of see the signals of which this could easily be just being used to give Trump allies like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg a pass, and perceived enemies this being used to crack down on them. I am of the belief that when Trump says things, I know he lies a lot, but I don't like when people say, oh, he just says that he's not going to really do that. When people show you who they are, believe them. Like that's an axiom that I find useful when dealing with Trump.
- [43:08]
Mike
While there is every reason to believe that the Trump administration absolutely will exploit this law to enrich its buddies and pursue its perceived enemies and abuse it in that way. The national association of Attorneys General also points out that there is a huge opportunity for abuse of this law by just random people on the Internet. Others have pointed this out as well, like the Electronic Frontier foundation, that the law requires platforms to take down reported violations within 48 hours, but offers platforms very little protection for situations where something is reported as a violation fraudulently, where no real violation has occurred. So the way the law is set up, it really incentivizes platforms to just take everything down immediately when it is reported, without any sort of investigation into whether it truly is a violation or not. And I think there is huge concern about that being abused. And it's not even a question of of if right. It's a question of when. Both of those organizations, the national association of Attorneys General and the Electronic Frontier foundation, and I assume many others, have compared the Take It down act to the Digital Millennium Copyright act, which many of our listeners will be familiar with, is a 1998 law that protects against copyright violations and it's often criticized, often fairly, in my opinion. We've criticized it many times on this podcast. But in this regard, the DMCA actually has stronger protections against that kind of fraudulent reporting abuse than the Take It down act has, which is a huge concern and speculatively is probably one that is going to have to be fixed in the future with future legislation, because it just seems like a huge problem.
- [45:11]
Bridget Todd
That is such a good point. And you know, you don't have to spend that much time on the Internet to know that very motivated collectives of people on places like Reddit already are self organized to brigade online spaces. I agree with you. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. There are they already do that in other pockets of the Internet. Also, this law is pretty specific. Here's how the 19th describes it. The definition of sexually explicit content builds on previous federal code and includes, quote, the uncovered genitals, pubic area, anus or post pubescent female nipple of an identifiable individual the quote, display or transfer of bodily sexual fluids, graphic sexual intercourse, bestiality, masturbation, sadistic or masochistic abuse and graphic or simulated lascivious exhibition of anuses, genitals or or the pubic area. Synthetic images or digital forgeries as the bill labels them, must be indistinguishable from an authentic visual depiction of an identifiable individual. And as the 19th puts it, the definition that this bill uses is tailored to not apply to all instances of what you might consider to be non consensual AI generated intimate imagery, even the ones that might seem sexually explicit on the surface. And so if you're hearing that and you're like, what are you, what do you mean? What you're talking about? This is the thing that really shocked me about this law, which is that we did so much reporting about the non consensual images being created by Grok on X earlier this year, according to this piece that I read in Verge, which again, I am no lawyer. What shocked me is that this law might not even cover those kinds of images. Like what you think of when you think of non consensual AI generated images. Those kinds of images might not even be triggered by this law because Technically, the people in those images were depicted wearing clothes just very skimpy or very or like see through AI generated clothes. Here's how the Verge put it. The law may not even cover what might seem like cut and dry digital violations of consent. Some of Grok's non consensual sexualized imagery, for an instance, might not count as sexually explicit enough. It's unclear whether AI tools like Grok count as creators of non consensual intimate imagery whose owners could bear criminal liability. And if the images are produced privately, it's not necessarily clear if they are subjected to takedown provisions either. So that to me is a problem. I want to celebrate good legislation that makes a meaningful impact as it pertains to making the Internet a safer place. I genuinely don't want to make it seem like I'm crapping on this legislation. If this legislation has the possibility of making it easier for people to meaningfully get justice and meaningfully have a pathway for taking this kind of garbage down, that is a good thing. I am just I've been burned before. I get very skeptical when all of the men who run every major social media platform are publicly supportive and putting money into a piece of legislation passing that just gives me pause. And I want to be clear that I want there to be good legislation. If this law helps somebody get justice, that is truly a good thing. But my concern is that women and girls who are being targeted for this kind of abuse are sort of being used by tech leaders and elected officials to make it seem like they really care about protecting us, when I don't think that they actually do. When Elon Musk was asked directly about people using Grok to generate these kinds of images of women and girls children on his platform, he made a big joke out of it. He literally laughed about it and took a public victory laugh about how great Grok was going. And so you're not going to get me to believe that he genuinely cares about women and girls being harmed by his technology, or when given the chance to demonstrate that he cares, he fails to do so in epic, dramatic ways time and time again. I am concerned that people like him are banking on him being supportive of this legislation, making it look like he really does care when I know the truth that he does not. The 19th has a really good breakdown of the legislation and how victims and survivors of this kind of abuse might use it to get justice. By Jasmine Matheny I've never met Jasmine, but I read a lot of her work and she's always really on it. We will put that piece in the show. Notes more after a quick break.
- [50:08]
Malcolm Glebel
Hello, hello, this is Malcolm Glebel from Smart talks with IBM. Today we're diving into a fascinating conversation with Stefano Pallard, head of fan development for Scuderia Ferrari hp.
- [50:20]
Stefano Pallard
Your pronunciation is strongly American. It's more Scuderia Ferrari.
- [50:25]
Malcolm Glebel
I'm still working on rolling my R's, but what I was able to learn from Stefano was the importance of engaging the Tifosi, the Ferrari superfans in the digital age.
- [50:35]
Stefano Pallard
Ferrari fans and superfans want to be part of something, want to belong to something. So they want to be part of a community and ultimately they want to be part of a winning team.
- [50:46]
Malcolm Glebel
You've got Ferrari, which has a long history, design history, and now you're interacting in a kind of digital space. I'm curious how you balance those two traditions.
- [51:00]
Stefano Pallard
When it comes to fan engagement, it's really digital technology. Digital channels, are they enabled to create a deeper connection with our fans?
- [51:08]
Malcolm Glebel
To learn more about how Ferrari and IBM are using technology to build deeper connections with fans, visit IBM.com Ferrari
- [51:20]
Dr. Joy
this is Dr. Joy from therapy for Black Girls. If you could enjoy a spotless space without so much scrubbing, wouldn't you? Of course you would. Well, I've got you. Dawn Power Wash Dish Spray cuts through the mess and gets everything clean in half the time. We're talking about both the toughest messes in everyday dishes, plus its work goes beyond the sink, like to clean counters, stoves, grills and to remove stains on laundry. And it's really good at getting those hard to clean dishes. So basically, dawn powerwash cleans everything from dishes to grills, removing all the grease and grime and does it twice as fast. Not bad. You can find Dawn Power Wash Dish Spray at your favorite retailer. Dawn is a proud sponsor of the Elton John Impact Awards, honoring those who have helped shape a more inclusive and compassionate world with their artistry, advocacy and unwavering commitment to equality. And we'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of this year's deserving honorees. You won't want to miss the Elton John Impact Awards podcast available on June 1st on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere podcasts are heard.
- [52:23]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Support for the show comes from public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt from renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers, growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosure is available@public.com Disclosures
- [53:24]
Kal Penn
hey everyone, it's Kal Penn. I'm the host of Irsay The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. This week on the podcast I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook project, Hail Mary Massive Sci Fi adventure about survival and science and and what happens when you wake up alone, very far from Earth.
- [53:48]
Ray Porter
I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections and it's like okay, yo yo yo, is this indulgent? And I really thought about it. I was like no. At this point it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it. But there's places in this book that that deeply emotionally affected me and I left it on the mic. That's great cuz it served the story. People will say like oh my God, I cried at the end. It's like yeah dude, me too.
- [54:20]
Kal Penn
Listen to Irsay the Audible and iHeart audiobook club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [54:33]
Bridget Todd
Let's get right back into it. We have been covering the way the Trump administration is cracking down on companies who really do anything having to do with minoritized people, women, people of color. I have been seeing this story about PayPal reported in pretty dry terms, but it is actually a story that deeply infuriates me. So here's what's going on. PayPal just settled with the Department of Justice over a program the company launched back in 2020 called the Economic Opportunity Fund, which was a $530 million commitment to support black and minority owned business. It was created in the wake of George Floyd's murder when all those corporations were making public commitments to address racial inequality. And I don't know, people were buying how to be an anti racist from their local black owned bookstore and then like not picking it up. Remember, Remember that era?
- [55:27]
Mike
I do. Boy, that seems like a different era than we are in now.
- [55:32]
Bridget Todd
Nancy Pelosi taking a knee wearing kente cloth. It's like a fever dream that any of that actually happened.
- [55:39]
Mike
Yeah. And set in motion the current fever dream that we are all living through.
- [55:43]
Bridget Todd
Oh, my God, tell me about it. So the Trump Department of Justice decided that the program constituted, quote, a legal DEI and that trying to help minority owned businesses was itself a form of discrimination. So what does this settlement look like? PayPal will waive processing fees on $1 billion in transactions. That's about $30 million for small businesses that are veteran owned or operate in farming, manufacturing, or technology. Interesting to me. I mean, I feel that there is some stuff being implied there about who veterans in this country are and who farmers and manufacturers in this country are. Basically, what I think they're saying is you will give money to white people and white people are the only people who work in manufacturing or farming or are veterans.
- [56:38]
Mike
I don't think it's true, actually that the majority of people in those industries are disproportionately white.
- [56:45]
Bridget Todd
No, of course not. That's what I'm saying. Basically, it sounds like the Trump administration is like you gave black people money. Well, the analogous to black people is veterans and farmers because none of those people are black. But they are. What I'm saying is they've tried to create a very stupid racial binary where no real binary exists. Where you gave black people something, now you've got to give white people something. And to translate that into policy, it's going to be veterans and farmers. Because the Trump administration is really stupid. So they don't know that all veterans and all veterans, all veterans and all farmers and all manufacturers are not uniformly all white people. They think that they are, but that's actually not correct. The thing that gets me about this is that it's so simplistic. It assumes the world works in this tit for tat way when it just doesn't. And I know that on paper, some people might say this is a win for PayPal. And it's financially, it sort of is. They don't have to pay any kind of cash penalty. The Department of Justice made no actual finding that PayPal broke the law. So to be clear, the DOJ does not say PayPal broke the law or did anything wrong. PayPal explicitly denies any liability. But we should also be clear what happened here, which is that the company voluntarily created a program to help close the racial wealth gap, which is a real thing that exists in this country, and the federal government came after them for it. PayPal did not lose a court case. They just got pressured and investigated until finally they were like, okay, we'll kill the program and replace it with something that helps veterans and farmers. So to me, even though it's kind of a legal victory for PayPal, it's also very clearly a shakedown. And the Trump administration is basically saying that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is worth mentioning, is Trump's former former personal attorney, celebrated this settlement. The statement saying, quote, american corporations are on notice. You will face our aggressive enforcement if you use race or national origin to discriminate against qualified Americans. Which, come on now. What he means is white Americans, because in their understanding of the United States, the only people who are ever qualified are white people. The fact that black people are non white people or women would get anything is giving something, taking something away from qualified Americans, hint, hint. And giving it away to a group of people who don't deserve shit. That's, that's, let's, let's keep it a buck. That's really what he's saying.
- [59:22]
Mike
Yeah, It's a funny phrase, qualified Americans, because he doesn't specify like qualified for what, just generally globally qualified. Yeah. I mean, come on, you get it.
- [59:34]
Bridget Todd
Yeah. You're picking up over putting down. So it's been a minute since you've asked me. You want to ask me the question that I know is on everyone's minds.
- [59:47]
Mike
Oh, it has been a minute. But Bridget, what's Elon done now?
- [59:52]
Bridget Todd
Well, according to the mother of his child, Ashley St. Clair, possibly rigging the 2024 presidential election. Question mark. We have covered Ashley St. Clair before. She's that right wing influencer who had a baby with Elon Musk, turned down a 15 million NDA offer and has been in a nasty custody battle with him ever since. We did an episode about her after she apologized for her past comments about trans people. And the episode was really about whether or not folks should buy that apology. Well, she's back and she's saying that Elon Musk maybe sort of rigged the election. On a TikTok video that she posted this week, she says that one night she and Elon were alone together. And he told her that he had lasers in space ready to create what he called, quote, an anomaly in the Matrix during the 2024 election. She says that immediately she told him stop talking about this because she did not want to be deposed about it later. Which, if that's true, I will like. Good on her. So we. She never actually got to find out what he meant. Exactly. She also claims that Musk was sending her real time data during the campaign that she does not believe that he should have ever had access to, given what she knows about political canvassing. She said that on election night he bailed on her at Mar A Lago, texting that he had to leave because his team had numbers showing that Trump was going to win because his team had, in his words, the best real time data. Not for nothing, this does sort of jive with how Musk has talked about the election publicly before. She closed the video by saying that she could take a lot of hush money from Musk right now, but she won't because she is not motivated by her own self interests.
- [61:38]
Mike
So what did Elon have to say about these allegations of space lasers and election rigging?
- [61:45]
Bridget Todd
Well, a source close to Elon Musk told tmz, quote, this is total nonsense. The laser sky thing is just a three dimensional chess metaphor, which she just doesn't understand.
- [62:00]
Mike
I love that they're like, it's a three dimensional chess metaphor, which, like, I believe three dimensional chess is also serving as a metaphor in that statement.
- [62:10]
Bridget Todd
It's a metaphor within a metaphor. She's just too stupid to understand it.
- [62:15]
Mike
Like, how deep does this thing go?
- [62:17]
Bridget Todd
It's all metaphors the whole way down. Metaphors.
- [62:21]
Mike
So what, what do we make of all this, Bridget? We have Ashley St. Clair accusing Elon Musk of rigging the election. I feel like we have reason to view both of them with, let's say, skepticism. What do you think?
- [62:40]
Bridget Todd
I think that's a good rule of thumb. You know, to be clear, I am not endorsing what she is saying, although I do think that the claims about him, more information about the election and more, more access to real time election data than he should have had. That to me sounds substantive and sort of worth taking seriously and kind of, again, jives with what we know about what Elon did during his time in the federal government with Doge. So I think that's worth, like taking. Like taking seriously. But in any event, it is clear to me that Ashley St. Clair is like done being quiet when it comes to Elon Musk and whatever you make of her specific names. I think the broader picture is really clear that we're talking about a guy who tried to silence her and when she would not be silenced, retaliated against her and is now fighting for custody of a child that he reportedly barely knows. So whether or not you buy these claims that she said about what he said about the election, like that part's not in dispute.
- [63:44]
Mike
Let's, let's talk about some Florida man grooming.
- [63:47]
Bridget Todd
Oh, my gosh. More after a quick break.
- [64:00]
Malcolm Glebel
Hello. Hello, this is Malcolm Glabel from Smart talks with IBM. Today. We're diving into a fascinating conversation with Stefano Pallard, head of fan development for Scuderia for rehp.
- [64:12]
Stefano Pallard
Your pronunciation is. It's strongly American. It's more Scuderia. Ferrari.
- [64:18]
Malcolm Glebel
I'm still working on rolling my R's, but what I was able to learn from Stefano was the importance of engaging the Tifosi, the Ferrari superfans in the digital age.
- [64:28]
Stefano Pallard
Ferrari fans and super fans want to be part of something, want to belong to something. So they want to be part of a community. And ultimately they want to be part of a winning team.
- [64:39]
Malcolm Glebel
You've got Ferrari, which has a long history, design history, and now you're interacting in a kind of digital space. I'm curious how you balance those two traditions.
- [64:52]
Stefano Pallard
When it comes to fan engagement, it's really digital technology. And digital channels are being able to create a deeper connection with our fans.
- [65:00]
Malcolm Glebel
To learn more about how Ferrari and IBM are using technology to build deeper connections with with fans, visit IBM.com Ferrari
- [65:12]
Dr. Joy
this is Dr. Joy from therapy for black Girls. If you could enjoy a spotless space without so much scrubbing, wouldn't you? Of course you would. Well, I've got you. Dawn Power Wash dish spray cuts through the mess and gets everything clean in half the time. We're talking about both the toughest messes in everyday dishes. Plus, its work goes beyond the sink. Like to clean counters, stoves, grills, and to remove stains on laundry. And it's really good at getting those hard to clean dishes. So basically, Dawn Power Wash cleans everything from dishes to grills, removing all the grease and grime, and does it twice as fast. Not bad. You can find Dawn Powerwash dish spray at your favorite retailer. Dawn is a proud sponsor of the Elton John Impact Awards, honoring those who have helped shape a more inclusive and compassionate world with their artistry, advocacy, and unwavering commitment to equality. And we like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of this year's deserving honorees. You won't want to miss the Elton John Impact Awards podcast available on June 1st on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere podcasts are heard.
- [66:15]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc, SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available@public.com Disclosures
- [67:16]
Kal Penn
hey everyone, it's Cal Penn. I'm the host of Irsay, The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. This week on the podcast, I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook project, Hail Mary Massive sci fi adventure about survival and science and what happens when you wake up alone, very far from Earth.
- [67:40]
Ray Porter
I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections and it's like, okay, yo yo yo, is this indulgent? And I really thought about it. I was like, no. At this point it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it. But there's places in this book that that deeply, emotionally affected me. And I left it on the mic. That's great because it served the story. People will say like oh my God, I cried at the end. It's like, yeah dude, me too.
- [68:12]
Kal Penn
Listen to Hearsay, the Audible and iHeart audiobook club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [68:25]
Bridget Todd
Let's get right back into it. This Florida man grooming story can't make this stuff up. Okay, so a 61 year old Florida man named Andrew Sheets was arrested after he was secretly recording men in the bathroom at the Naples Pride Fest back in April. So why was he doing this? He claims he was there to catch so called quote, grooming. Let's back up. Sheets showed up to this Pride event wearing meta smart glasses and posted a 40 minute video that he took with those glasses to YouTube. The video included footage of men using the bathroom. He titled the video something about documenting grooming at a quote t slur event. A slur for trans people. And then he put it up on the Internet. So here is the real kicker to this story. The people that he filmed going to the bathroom just happened to be two undercover police officers, only in Florida. So these police officers said that they felt shocked and embarrassed when they found a video of them using the bathroom had been posted on YouTube for the world to see. No shit. They felt embarrassed about that.
- [69:51]
Mike
I don't know. What are they trying to hide? Are they. They trying to do some grooming in there?
- [69:56]
Bridget Todd
So this guy was trying to defend himself in a local news outlet. He said, my intent was not to get expletive picks. I don't know what expletive they. They took out there.
- [70:06]
Mike
I was trying to figure that out too. It's like in the quote, it's just in brackets, the word expletive.
- [70:11]
Bridget Todd
What Kind of can't even guess. Like knowing what I know about this guy could be literally anything.
- [70:19]
Mike
Yeah, like horny pics or naked pics, but like neither of them would be removed out.
- [70:26]
Bridget Todd
Yeah, maybe it's also a slur.
- [70:29]
Mike
It's probably a slur. He seems like a slurry kind of guy.
- [70:32]
Bridget Todd
Yeah. My intent was not to get slurpics. Like they're trying to say, if it was illegal, why didn't the cops have it taken down? He's now been charged with video voyeurism and video voyeurism dissemination. But it actually gets worse with this guy because detectives apparently were already keeping an eye on him during this Pride event. And for good reason. He initially had tried to enter the Pride Festival with a handgun. When security stopped him, he went back to his car and then allegedly returned later trying to bring an AR15 style rifle into the entrance.
- [71:09]
Mike
Yikes. This guy sounds like a menace.
- [71:13]
Bridget Todd
Naples Pride really put it best in their statement saying, a man who publicly accused our community of grooming now stands accused of unlawfully recording people in a place where privacy is expected. The projection is truly something. I love this story and I am thrilled to talk about it. Mike, do you remember a while back on a roundup, we talked about a man named Larry Buschaert who was a 61 year old retired cop from rural Tennessee who spent 37 days in jail over a Facebook meme?
- [71:50]
Mike
I definitely do. I love that story. I felt inspired listening to it. Do we have an update?
- [72:00]
Bridget Todd
Do I have an update for you? And it's a good one and it's a great story to end on. So for those who missed it, quick recap. After Charlie Kirk was killed last September, Larry Bushaert posted a meme on a local community Facebook page, one that quoted Donald Trump saying, quote, we have to get over this. After a school shooting that happened in Iowa, he posted this meme with the caption, quote, this seems relevant. Today. He posted it in a thread about a Charlie Kirk visual that was being organized in Perry county about 30 miles from his home. Now, Larry, by his own description, is like a rare outspoken progressive voice in a deeply conservative part of central Tennessee. He called himself a Facebook warrior who relished con. Relished confronting acquaintances and strangers alike online over their political opinions. I gotta say, I really identify with this because that used to be me, but now I have a podcast. Larry should start a pod. Larry is welcome on the show anytime. But Larry should start a podcast. If you are someone who is like lighting up the Facebook comments over politics, do it in front of a microphone and make it, make it your job, you know. So it sounds like, yes, Larry knew exactly what he was doing, like spreading progressive cantankerosm on Facebook. But like, what he's doing is legal. It is nothing. There is nothing illegal about it. He's allowed to have opinions on Facebook, except for the fact that Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems, who had been publicly mourning Charlie Kirk's death on his own Facebook page and also promoting this visual, decided that that meme was somehow a threat against a local high school. So what did Sheriff Nick Weems do? He contacted the police and Larry's hometown of Lexington and had the police go pick Larry up. The body cam footage from that visit is wild. Basically, it's just the police showing up and Larry is just confused. And mind you, Larry himself is a former police officer. The police officer who showed up at his door told Larry, I'm just going to be completely honest with you, I really have no idea what they are talking about. And Larry laughed because he was like, I know exactly what they're talking about. And he told the officer the post was obviously referring to the School shooting in Iowa, not anything local to Tennessee, where he lived. The officer essentially shrugged and said, I don't care. This has nothing to do with me. So Larry told that officer that he was not going to take that post down, and that was that. Or so Larry thought, because the cops came back later that night and arrested him. He was charged under a Tennessee law making it a felony to threaten violence against a school and hit with a $2 million bail he could not afford. So he sat in a Perry county jail for 37 days before the charge was eventually dropped. Importantly, the whole thing was an obvious setup. Sheriff Weems later admitted on a TV interview that he and his investigators knew that that meme was referencing the Iowa school shooting because it was obvious and that it had nothing to do with anything local to Perry County. But he claimed that he pushed for the arrest anyway to calm fears in the community, because the post had created a panic and created hysteria. But Larry's lawsuit said that there was no evidence of any community hysteria to speak of. Matt Neri, one concerned citizen, had flagged the post to police. The local school district had, quote, no records at all relating to Larry or his Facebook post. And none of the commenters on the actual Facebook thread had said anything about having interpreted his message as a threat. So Sheriff Weems just made up an excuse and lied about it. It sounds like he had a boner for Charlie Kirk and used his authority as an agent of the state to squash free speech. Honestly, just like Charlie Kirk loved to do
- [76:05]
Mike
that is what it sounds like. It's so funny that also, like Charlie Kirk, he apparently loved attention and spotlight because he went on TV to talk about it. Probably not the smartest move, considering that he probably should have anticipated some kind of repercussions.
- [76:25]
Bridget Todd
Oh, my God. Also, how glad are you that that era. This is the era where Charlie Kirk was killed, and everybody was like, it's time to arrest anyone who is not sufficiently sad about it. And now I feel like a lot of those same people are like, Charlie Kirk, who?
- [76:41]
Mike
Yeah, they move on. They have short memories.
- [76:44]
Bridget Todd
I mean, there are videos of people going to Starbucks and ordering Charlie Kirk's favorite drink and then writing, I am Charlie Kirk on the cup. And if the barista didn't say, I am Charlie Kirk when the drink was ready, like, flipping their shit and getting a video of it, like, what a time.
- [77:01]
Mike
Yeah. You know, they just really cared about free speech.
- [77:05]
Bridget Todd
Yeah, I'm gonna get that barista fired for not saying Charlie Kirk. Okay, so Larry gets out of prison, and he's like, okay, bet it's lawsuit time, motherfuckers. According to the lawsuit, Weems allegedly collaborated with an investigator named Jason Morrow to leave a critical detail out of the arresting affidavit. The fact that the meme was referencing that 2024 Iowa school shooting. Why does that matter? Well, including that detail might have led the reviewing magistrate to realize the cops were trying to arrest someone for what is obviously protected speech. So they just didn't include it. Larry filed a federal lawsuit in December, and this week we got the resolution. An $835,000 settlement with Sheriff Weems and Perry County. I will say the sad thing here is that just knowing what I know about how these things work out, it is likely that this settlement might be paid by the taxpayers. So if you live in Perry county, let us know if you think Sheriff Weems pathetic little power trip was worth almost a million dollars.
- [78:17]
Mike
Oh, man, that is so sad and like, infuriating. I'm curious if Perry county is one of the counties where sheriffs are elected. I can't imagine that this is going to help Sheriff Weems reelection campaign. Or then again, maybe it will.
- [78:34]
Bridget Todd
I mean, whoever. If they, if they are elected in Perry county, whoever runs against him. Perfect opportunity for an attack ad like this. Motherfucker's boner for Charlie Kirk. Cost you a million dollars. You're going to vote for him again.
- [78:48]
Mike
Yeah, but you know, counterpoint, this guy loves Charlie Kirk.
- [78:53]
Bridget Todd
Hey, and aren't we all Charlie Kirk after all? So what's interesting is that Larry is not the only person who has won a payout in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's death. A professor at Austin Pei State University settled for $500,000 after being penalized for his comments about Charlie Kirk's death. A public defender in Iowa was rehired and paid $125,000. But Larry's almost $1 million appears to be the largest settlement so far. So Larry did lose his post retirement job through all of this, but he said that he did not regret the post, but he did regret the toll that it took on his family. He said, I could have been more dignified, classy. But hell, we all could be. Larry, you're my dude. I've never met Larry. Something about the way that he. His comments read. I'm like, I feel like Larry and I would get along.
- [79:46]
Mike
I bet you would. I'm also very intrigued by Larry. Maybe we should try to get him on the show.
- [79:50]
Bridget Todd
Oh my God, Larry. His attorneys did send us a statement back when he was first arrested, which is why we ended up covering this case and why it was on my radar in the first place. So, yeah, Larry, you don't know me, but you're an official friend of the show. Come on the podcast anytime. And this is what I love. In a rare moment of compromise, Larry promised his wife one thing when it was all over, that he would stay off Facebook. Honestly, just good advice.
- [80:18]
Mike
Just good advice. Yeah. Just in general. Well, Bridget, before we wrap up, do you have any updates about the forthcoming audiobook Love at First Prompt?
- [80:32]
Bridget Todd
I sure do. Thank you to everybody who has pre ordered Love at First Prompt. It comes out July 14th. Is that right?
- [80:40]
Mike
It does. It comes out July 14th. We haven't mentioned this in a little while, but we are still sending stickers to people who pre order. So if you pre order the book, you can get it at loveatfirstprompt, AI or anywhere you get your audiobooks. Take a screenshot, email it to us@hellotangaody.com and we will so happily mail you a There are no girls on the
- [81:03]
Bridget Todd
Internet sticker, even if you live abroad. We have lots of listeners abroad that we love very much. You can get the stickers in Iceland, you can get the stickers in Sweden.
- [81:13]
Mike
And to sweeten the pot, since we're spending so much on shipping for them anyway, I usually stick an extra sticker in there.
- [81:20]
Bridget Todd
Oh, the Nordic countries show us so much love. So we got to show love right back. Mike, thank you so much for helping me run down these stories and thanks to all of you for listening. I will see you on the Internet. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech or just want to say hi? You can reach us@helloangodi.com you can also find transcripts for today's episode@tangodi.com there are no Girls on the Internet was created by me, Bridget Todd. It's a production of iHeartRadio and unbossed creative. Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our producer, and sound engineer Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Dodd. If you want to help us grow, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Foreign. What's up cousin?
- [82:23]
Malcolm Glebel
I want a new phone.
- [82:25]
Bridget Todd
Have you seen any good deals? Everyone has free phones, but when I switched to T Mobile, I got more value and so much more. Like streaming included and travel benefits.
- [82:34]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
And the best part, the price of your talk text and data is guaranteed for five years. Get more benefits and more value. AT T Mobile Family Save and get a 55 year price guarantee. Switch now@t mobile.com Qualifying plan requires price
- [82:48]
Bridget Todd
guarantee on doc, text and theta exclusions like taxes and fee supply. Ctmobile.com when you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products products and fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Did you know you can get your prep for free? MSR provides 100% free prep and doxy pep prescribed online and delivered right to your door discreetly whether you have insurance or not. Mistr's got you covered in three easy steps.
- [83:38]
Mike
1.
- [83:38]
Bridget Todd
Sign up@mistr.com 2. Consult with a doctor online. 3. Complete your at home test kit and then your prep and doxy pep come right to your door. No doctor's office, no needles, no paperwork, easy judgment.
- [83:53]
Mike
Free and totally online. Head to mistr.com and get started today.
- [83:58]
Bridget Todd
Hear that? That's the sound of your skin silently crying out for hydration. Luckily, Dr. Teals has just the thing to get you glowing in no time. Meet Dr. Teals Skin renewal Deep Hydration made with a proprietary triple magnesium complex plus skincare actives for 50% improved skin hydration after just one bath, the words dry and dehydrated are about to be wiped from your vocabulary. Find Dr. Teals all dressed in blue in your local bath aisle. Dr. Teals Yep, you needed that. This is an iHeart podcast.
- [84:31]
Dr. Joy
Guaranteed human.