The Poop Song Conspiracy

Summary

Episode Summary: "The Poop Song Conspiracy"

Podcast: Twenty Thousand Hertz
Host: Dallas Taylor
Date: May 11, 2026
Theme/Purpose:
This episode delves into the bizarre yet surprisingly emotional world of personalized “poop songs” found on streaming platforms. What begins as a family’s running joke—poop-themed songs with their brother’s name—evolves into a deep dive: Are these songs AI-generated or human-made? Who is behind them and why? The investigation traverses the world of online novelty music, AI’s growing hand in music production, and the story behind one of the world's most prolific songwriters, revealing unexpected insights into creativity, technology, and human connection.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Poop Song Mystery Begins

• [01:34] Dallas Taylor introduces the conceit: Imagine discovering songs about an embarrassing moment—using your name—circulating online.
• [02:21] Introduction of Manon and her brother Ethan, whose close-knit, international upbringing sets the stage for their playful family dynamic, deeply rooted in juvenile humor.
• [05:29] The Investigation: After Ethan embarrassingly soils himself en route to a bathroom, a wave of "Ethan Pooped His Pants" songs appear on Spotify, prompting familial teasing and curiosity.
  • Manon (08:46): “Is it a human? Is it AI? Maybe someone’s finding a way to make money out of this... but how does the decision making process happen?”

2. Are These Songs Human or AI-Created?

• [10:36] Amor Yates plays several “Ethan Poop” songs to Alex Goldman, investigating their origins:
  • Notable descriptors: poppy beats, auto-tuned vocals, copious fart noises.
  • Alex Goldman (11:46): “I like the autotune, though. It kind of had a T-Pain vibe to it.”
• [12:58] AI or Human?
  • Alex Goldman (13:02): “This, to me, sounds like a person just having fun... AI’s getting served a billion songs, and then it’s supposed to regurgitate something that sounds like the sort of aggregate of those songs rather than something intentionally bizarre.”

3. The AI Music Black Box

• [16:22] Enter Ben Jordan—musician, scientist, and AI skeptic.
  • Ben Jordan (16:22): “It’s a magic trick when you first type in a prompt and then a song is made... but as an artist, how are listeners supposed to know what’s human and what’s not if the streaming platforms won’t label it?”
  • AI’s Economic Threat: Ben details how AI-generated music (via platforms like Udio and Suno) doesn’t just imitate genres, but can also train on individual artist names and styles, threatening artists’ incomes and muddying the music ecosystem.
  • Human Detection: Ben discovers that AI-generated songs often carry distinct compression artifacts due to how AI is trained on compressed audio files.

4. Testing: Which Ethan Poop Songs Are AI?

• [22:50] Ben analyzes Manon’s collection of Ethan songs. Outcome:
  • 3 out of 4 Ethan Poop songs were human-made
  • The song “Ethan Smells Like a Llama (Ethan Poop)” by Super Poop was AI-generated.
    • Alex Goldman (23:02): “Maybe the only one that I was like, ‘This is not terrible’, was the Smells Like a Llama song... which ended up being the only song that pinged as AI.”
  • The song’s playful nonsense and word choices—even “smelliny”—fooled human listeners.
  • Spotify is now starting to label AI content, bringing new transparency to this murky area.

5. Unmasking the Human Prodigy: Matt Farley

• [30:00] Interview with Matt Farley, credited as the world's most prolific songwriter (over 26,000 tracks).
  • Matt’s ethos: write “songs they can’t ignore.” He produces massive volumes—many are novelty tracks about people’s names and, of course, poop.
  • Matt Farley (31:07): “It was always my instinct to write tons of songs... make so much music they can’t ignore me.”
  • Going viral: Matt notices that children and adults alike gleefully seek out songs with their name and the word “poop.” This demand transforms into a running “business model” and TikTok virality.
    • Matt Farley (32:19): [Chanting names over a poop-centric beat] “Kayla. Poop. Kayla. Andre. Poop. Emily. Poop.”
  • Financial Realities:
    • Matt Farley (34:29): “One song in a year could earn $5,000 plus, and then many songs in a year earn $0.05 minus.”
  • Farley inspired a slew of imitators like Poops (with a Z), Reckless Otter, and Super Poop.
    • Matt Farley (35:43): “It’s all my fault, by the way, that these other ones have sprung up.”

6. A Song Beyond the Joke

• Ethan’s quiet complaint: all these songs reduce him to a single moment—pooping his pants.
  • Ethan (37:11): “Maybe the solution is to have more of those... what else does Ethan do?”
• [37:30] Alex Goldman asks Matt Farley to write a new, sincere, personalized song for Ethan, not about poop.
  • Matt agrees, quipping: “I’ll do anything for you.” [37:37]
• [38:07] Premiere of “Ethan (Not About Poop)”:
  • Cheerful, heartwarming: celebrates Ethan’s New York life, his relationship, his quirks—moving from one-dimensional joke to genuine affection.
    • Matt Farley (38:18): “Ethan, you’re so great, and you make people smile. Yeah, Ethan, you’re a genius. A flavor profile at Caledonia.”
    • Manon (39:01): “I love it. I love it so much. All of the details... just, yeah, yeah, yeah, Ethan. It’s great.”
  • Serves as a touching bridge for a loving, geographically scattered family.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Amor Yates, pre-show warning ([01:20]):
  “Warning. This episode contains juvenile poop jokes and over-the-top fart noises. Listener discretion is advised.”
• Ethan ([06:28]):
  “For some reason, most songs that have my name in them end up being about Ethan pooping his pants.”
• Alex Goldman ([11:46]):
  “I like the autotune, though. It kind of had like a T-Pain vibe to it.”
• Ben Jordan ([18:42]):
  “So economically as an artist, I’m just like, well, I don’t need to do—I'm just not going to do this anymore. And I just stopped releasing music for a while because I was kind of fed up with it.”
• Matt Farley ([31:07]):
  “I want more praise. I want more glory. You know, when I walk down the street, I’m looking around and being like, do you people know who I am?... I’d like to be mobbed by fans, stuff like that.”
• Matt Farley ([36:23]):
  “I do sometimes feel there’s a lack of humanity to a lot of the other people’s named poop songs where it sounds very robotic. Whereas I think mine sound very full of life in that it’s an actual person singing the words.”
• Matt Farley ([35:09]):
  “I invented a new phrase. Like people say like, ‘I'm making $10,000 plus.’ Right? But do they ever say, ‘I'm making $5 minus’?”

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• [01:20]: Warning for “juvenile poop jokes and over-the-top fart noises.”
• [06:28]: Discovery of personalized poop songs—Ethan’s name becomes a meme.
• [08:46]: The investigation: Are these songs AI?
• [13:31]: Differentiating “stupid humanity” from AI in music.
• [16:22]: Ben Jordan explains the difficulty of telling AI from human-generated music.
• [18:59]: Economic and ethical implications of AI music.
• [22:50]: Test results: which songs are human, which are AI.
• [30:00]: Matt Farley, the human behind the vast poop song library.
• [32:19]: Name-poop songs montage and TikTok virality.
• [37:30]: The creation and debut of a new, non-poop Ethan song.
• [38:07-39:59]: Song reveal and emotional resonance for Manon and Ethan.

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Conclusion: Episode Takeaways

This zany investigation into “Ethan Poop” songs went far beyond bathroom humor. It exposed the rising tide of AI in pop culture, the economic pressures and creative drive of digital-era musicians, and how silly viral trends can unexpectedly draw families closer and breed new creativity. At heart, it’s about finding humanity, even in the silliest corners of the internet, and about how technology and art are locked in a messy, sometimes beautiful, sometimes smelly, but always fascinating dance.

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Further Listening & Links

• Matt Farley’s custom songs: moturnmedia.com/custom-songs
• Listen to the new Ethan song on Spotify (linked in show notes)
• Follow Hyperfixed for more quirky mysteries

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For listeners new to Twenty Thousand Hertz:
This is a great example of the show’s trademark blend: quirky, sound-focused storytelling that is as insightful as it is entertaining.

Transcript

[Dallas Taylor]

Calling all audio storytellers. This is a reminder that our Listener Stories competition is running right now and submissions are due on May 31st. This is your chance to make a mini 20,000 Hz episode and share it with over 100,000 fellow listeners. The winning stories will play in a special episode series starting this summer and the top creator will get a $500 credit to our online store. To read the rules and submit your story, visit 20K.org 2026or tap the link in the show. Not Summer is when we share more time, more memories, and More photos at, at and T. The iPhone 17 Pro is your summer essential. Its center stage front camera auto adjusts the frame to fit everyone into group selfies. You don't even have to turn your phone and ATT makes sharing those pictures with everyone easy. Right now at, at and t ask how you can get iPhone 17 Pro on them with eligible iPhone. Trade in any condition requires trade in of iPhone 15 or higher excluding iPhone 16e and 17e requires eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply. Subject to change. Visit att.comiphone or visit an ATT store for details.

[Ben Jordan]

Warning. This episode contains juvenile poop jokes and over the top fart noises. Listener discretion is advised.

[Dallas Taylor]

You're listening to 2030,

[Matt Farley]

the stories behind

[Dallas Taylor]

the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds. I'm Dallas Taylor. Think about the most embarrassing moment in your adult life. Now imagine finding a bunch of songs online with your name in the title and the lyrics all reference the embarrassing thing that happened to you. If it were me, I would question my sanity. But for one New Yorker, that's exactly what happened. And it led him and his sister down a rabbit hole that involved AI music, lots of poop jokes, and arguably the world's most prolific songwriter. This story comes from one of my very favorite podcasts. It's called Hyperfixed, and it's hosted by Alex Goldman. Here's Alex.

[Alex Goldman]

So, a few months ago, Hyperfix producer Amor Yates sat down with a listener who is no stranger to bad Internet.

[Amor Yates]

Oh wait, wait, here she is again.

[Manon]

Hi. Hi. Okay, I'm back. Is it better now?

[Amor Yates]

I can see you and I can hear you.

[Manon]

Okay, that's great progress.

[Alex Goldman]

This is Manon. She's half French, half American, and she's a journalist currently based in Liberia in West Africa. Manon finds a lot of meaning in her work, but she's always far away from family, and that's what she always expected.

[Manon]

We knew that we were probably not going to be in the same country as our parents because we Knew that our careers were probably not going to end up in the same place as our parents.

[Amor Yates]

Yeah. When did you realize that was like a foreseeable outcome?

[Manon]

Probably middle school.

[Amor Yates]

That is so young.

[Alex Goldman]

Growing up, Manal and her little brother Ethan moved around the world like the Wild Thornberries, except their parents weren't documentary filmmakers and they didn't adopt a feral child named Donnie. Instead, their dad's a biogeochemist and his research took him around the world to study climate change, forestry and soil. So by the time that Manal was 18, she'd lived in Kenya, Indonesia, the US and Brazil. And moving so frequently like that, Manal and Ethan built an unbreakable bond.

[Manon]

You're going to a lot of places where you don't know other people. And so in those initial days before you start making friends, it feels a little safer to have your sibling there at school with you. We can understand each other and each other's experience because we share so much of it and ways that, like, other people can't.

[Alex Goldman]

Like the time a 14 year old Ethan rocked a very specific haircut.

[Manon]

We were living in Indonesia at the time. He had the droopy, like, side hair thing that Justin Bieber had. And packs of young girls, maybe high school aged girls would want to take photos with him and my whole family would tease him about it. It was happening all the time that people were like, oh, Justin Bieber, Justin Bieber. And he didn't like it. Ethan was more into metal music at that age.

[Alex Goldman]

These days, Ethan is living in New York City with his girlfriend Rachel. And Manona and Ethan at this point are pretty used to the distance. They've basically created their own language. Every day, sometimes every other day, sometimes once a week, Manon and Ethan will send each other animal memes or the occasional poop and fart joke. Because, you know, that's the humor they grew up with.

[Manon]

I mean, in the family in general, we always have, like, if someone's mentioning that they're going to the bathroom, the joke is usually like, don't fall in or mention my name. You'll get a good seat.

[Alex Goldman]

See? Why can't I have a family like this? I'm so jealous. Anyway, bathroom jokes, dad jokes, general teasing, this is all part of their long distance sibling love language. And that kind of humor trickles into their daily lives even when they aren't together. In fact, the reason Manal reached out to us in the first place is because of Ethan. And it all started with a prank that he pulled on a colleague

[Ethan]

a couple months ago. The Spotify on our iPad at the bar went out and we couldn't get in contact immediately with the owner of the bar to get his login to re log into Spotify.

[Alex Goldman]

That's Ethan. Before his sister reached out to us, he'd never heard of Hyperfix. He's just not much of a podcast person. Instead, Ethan, he's more interested in making craft cocktails at the Whiskey bar he works at on the Upper east side and occasionally acting as the bar's dj.

[Ethan]

And as a prank, I decided to start looking up songs that had his name in the title and play them throughout his shift, hoping that he would just think something weird was going on with Spotify.

[Alex Goldman]

And as Ethan's playing these songs with his co worker's name in them, his girlfriend Rachel, who also works at the same bar and is definitely sort of like a yes and kind of gal and would never say no to a good bit, she does the same thing to Ethan. She goes to Spotify, types in the name Ethan, and selects a song with his name on it and presses play.

[Ethan]

And for some reason, most songs that have my name in them end up being about Ethan pooping his pants.

[Manon]

And, well, it's hilarious. I don't think my brother's as amused as me and his girlfriend are, but we've had a lot of fun with it.

[Alex Goldman]

Now, like any older sister, even one as accomplished and mature as Manal, these songs were hilarious, but it was even funnier and more uncanny because of something that happened to Ethan earlier this year. So Manal and her husband were visiting Ethan as a girlfriend in New York City when one day we're just driving

[Manon]

in New York City. I think we'd gone towards Rockaway beach, and we just stopped on the side. Like, we were just hanging out, taking a walk, trying to find a trail to walk down. And then my brother had to run to the bathroom and.

[Ethan]

And you know, I'm maybe five, six steps away from that restroom when it just happens. And I.

[Dallas Taylor]

He did exactly what you think he did. He pooped his pants.

[Alex Goldman]

Ethan tossed his soiled underwear in the trash in the public restroom. And when he was done, when he was done hiding the evidence and his shame, Ethan met back up with his family and his girlfriend. But he didn't tell them that he pooped his pants en route to the restroom and that he'd gone commando because his soiled underwear was now sitting in the trash can in said restroom. No one was the wiser. That is, until Ethan told Rachel what happened back at the house.

[Manon]

Rachel Just announces, ethan pooped his pants. And Ethan's like, Rachel. And she was basically like, I had to tell him. I couldn't not know. So we only found out once we got home.

[Alex Goldman]

So given everything you know about Ethan and Manon and Rachel, it will not surprise you at all that as soon as she found them, Rachel sent these songs to Manon. And Manon, predictably started teasing Ethan with them. But she also had some more serious questions about who made these songs. I mean, she is a journalist, after all.

[Manon]

I mean, is it a human? Is it AI? Maybe someone's finding a way to make money out of this. But even if they are, like, how does the decision making process happen? Is what I'm really curious about. And then I think one thing that was weird to us as well is that one of the titles says, like, poop your pants or go to France. But we're half French and my parents live in France. So we were like, it's a coincidence, obviously, because I don't think whoever made these songs knows my brother. But it's funny, it almost feels like

[Amor Yates]

they're talking about your Ethan.

[Manon]

Right, Exactly. That's exactly what it is.

[Alex Goldman]

As crazy as it sounds, for Manon, these songs feel personal. And she couldn't shake this feeling that there was more to these innocuous poop tunes. But as far as Ethan's concerned, he's not too bothered by the existence of these songs. What he is bothered by is the fact that there just aren't enough Ethan songs out there in the first place.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I mean, maybe the solution is actually to have more of those. But what else does Ethan do?

[Alex Goldman]

You know, all of Manal's questions boiled down to why. Why are these poop songs a thing? Why are there so many? Why do they exist? And why is someone compelled to make them in the first place? And for Ethan, the songs serve as a reminder, A reminder that there aren't enough Ethan songs. Because there is a lot more to Ethan than the time he pooped his pants at the beach. No matter how many times I remind you that he did poop his pants pretty recently. Ethan is much more than just the poop he left in the public restroom in Long Island.

[Amor Yates]

Hey, Alex.

[Alex Goldman]

Hi, amor.

[Amor Yates]

Okay, so I spoke to Manon, and her questions were largely around like, why do these exist? But also, are these human or are they AI? Before we get started on this journey, I wanted to play these Ethan songs for you. Do you want to hear them?

[Alex Goldman]

I absolutely do.

[Amor Yates]

Okay. I have them queued up here, so I'm going to play the first one.

[Alex Goldman]

I'm so excited.

[Amor Yates]

Okay, here we go.

[Alex Goldman]

I got to admit, the. The drum loop's kind of sick, though.

[Manon]

Yeah,

[Amor Yates]

I like that. Derek, too.

[Alex Goldman]

Are there lyrics or is it just farts?

[Amor Yates]

Oh, there will be lyrics.

[Alex Goldman]

You so bad, baby. You so bad. You're so bad. Oh, baby. Hey, Ethan.

[Dallas Taylor]

You heard your stomach rumbling and then the poop came tumbling. You never stood a chance. You just pooped your pants.

[Alex Goldman]

I like the autotune, though. It kind of had like a. Like a T pain vibe to it.

[Amor Yates]

I'm going to fade out of that because it just. It's much of the same. But when you hear that, do you think it's AI?

[Alex Goldman]

I honestly cannot tell. I mean, I would think that AI would actually try to go for something that sounds more realistic. So, like, that, to me, sounds like the decision of a human to use, like, a voice that robotic or. But also the robotic voice gives me a little pause. You know what I mean?

[Amor Yates]

Yeah. So that's by an artist called Poops with a Z. I'm going to play another one for you.

[Alex Goldman]

Okay. You smell like dooo poo poo. Like a dumpster. I love the fact that. That all these songs are like pop songs. They, like, just want people to dance and hear fart sounds.

[Amor Yates]

Yeah.

[Alex Goldman]

Honestly, that one also, like, it has too much humanity, like, too much stupid humanity to it to feel like AI. To me, it feels like a. Like a person being silly.

[Amor Yates]

What does stupid humanity sound like to you versus AI?

[Alex Goldman]

When you create a song that's AI, it's meant to sound like real music, like good music. And this, to me, sounds like a person just having fun. Like the way that the voice has kind of slowed down and stuff. Like, AI's getting served a billion songs. And then it's supposed to regurgitate something that sounds like the sort of aggregate of those songs rather than something that's intentionally bizarre.

[Amor Yates]

So on the spectrum of AI to human, you're leaning towards human?

[Alex Goldman]

Yes. I have a hunch that these songs are made by people, but I truly have no idea.

[Amor Yates]

Okay, this is another artist called Super Poop.

[Alex Goldman]

Every one of these starts with a fart. Sounded so stupid.

[Amor Yates]

The fart is a very powerful musical instrument man made.

[Dallas Taylor]

Hey, Ethan, if you don't stop pooping in your pants, we're gonna make you move to France.

[Alex Goldman]

Pack your bags and buy a beret

[Manon]

when you go away we'll all say

[Dallas Taylor]

hooray, poopy pants are a felony. We don't want a smell any a smell Any.

[Alex Goldman]

See, that can't be AI because AI would never come up with a word like smell. Any. I just don't believe it. I just can't believe that being in the kiss.

[Amor Yates]

Okay, so to you, this sounds human?

[Alex Goldman]

Yeah. Yes. I would say the word smelliny is a dead giveaway. Unless you were, like, compose a song about Ethan farting or pooping with trap beats and, like, Lewis Carroll style rhymes. Because, you know, Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, he used to make up a lot of gibberish words and stuff. It just doesn't seem like this could be AI.

[Amor Yates]

Okay, so again, that was super. Poops, Ethan smells like a llama. Parentheses Ethan poop. Okay, so one of the other things that Manal was wondering is if any of these artists had, like, some kind of secret vendetta against Ithan. Because obviously there are several Ithan poop songs, but I don't think there is any vendetta against her, Ethan, or any Ithan for that matter. And that's because all of these artists are making songs with other people's names in them. So Poops, who I played for you first has lots of songs like this. He has Andy pooped his pants, Aaron pooped his pants, and Alex pooped his pants again.

[Alex Goldman]

Oh, okay.

[Amor Yates]

That's also the case with Reckless Otter. Reckless Otter has a whole album called Cowboy farter that uses 50 different names. And the other thing that Manal was particularly struck with is this fact that these poop songs seem to have kind of like an uncanny resemblance to her brother's poop experience. And also the fact that one of these songs makes mention to France, and Ethan is French. But I think it's pretty clear that France is mentioned because it rhymes with pants.

[Alex Goldman]

That's right.

[Amor Yates]

Yeah. But the thing I was hoping for, instead of just playing these songs for you and asking if you think they're AI is to see if there's some way to truly determine whether or not they are. And so that's the thing we need to figure out first. So I don't know. Alex, do you have any ideas on how we can figure this out?

[Alex Goldman]

Okay, believe it or not, I know exactly the person to answer this question.

[Ben Jordan]

It seems like it's a magic trick when you first type in a prompt and then a song is made. And it is. It's a pretty rad magic trick.

[Alex Goldman]

This is Ben Jordan. He's a musician, a freelance scientist, and a YouTuber. And a lot of his videos are based on his research and study of sound. And, you know, as a musician himself, Ben thinks a lot about the role of AI in music. And to some degree, he's right. AI is a magic trick, one that's constantly getting better and has gotten so good that it's harder than ever to figure out what's AI and what isn't. And if I can show my hand a little bit. I am not a fan of AI Generated art of any kind. And the reason I think that it's important that we know what's AI and what is made by people is because AI songs are growing in popularity and volume. And if human artists have to compete with AI which can generate music at an alarmingly rapid rate, how are listeners supposed to know what's human and what's not if the streaming platforms won't label it? A good example of this is an AI Band that went viral earlier this year called Velvet Sundown. They put out two albums right away and then a third album within three weeks, and quickly got 1 million streams on Spotify. It only came out that they were actually AI when they released a band photo. And the band looked kind of fake, sort of like cartoon characters, not very realistically rendered. But what's even scarier than the writing speed of an AI band like Velvet Sundown is what happens when AI is training on your sound. And that's exactly what happened to Ben when he typed his own name into an AI Music generator.

[Ben Jordan]

The thing that kind of made steam come out of my ears with AI Music was not so much knowing that my music was being put into the pool of things that were being trained in general. Like, if somebody types in a prompt that says, you know, glitchy break horror. And if some of my stuff is in there, I don't care. But I did have the misfortune of inputting my own name into UDIO and then hearing really crappy music that sounds like it's inspired my mind, which is.

[Ethan]

Mm.

[Ben Jordan]

And now it's being. You know, that's being sold as a service while my royalties go down on streaming networks every single year.

[Dallas Taylor]

And.

[Ben Jordan]

And all these things are now being put up on those streaming networks to compete with me. So economically as an artist, I'm just like, well, I don't need to do. I'm just not going to do this anymore. Like. And I just stopped releasing music for a while because I was kind of fed up with it.

[Alex Goldman]

AI doesn't live in the world we live in. It doesn't have groceries, car payments, rent, or aging parents. It doesn't need the money that Ben needs when he handcrafts a song and releases it into the world. Ben gets paid when people push play on his music. But if people are pushing play on a song that sounds like Ben because it was inspired by him, Ben doesn't get any of that money. And right now, the companies who are distributing the music aren't empowering consumers to decide who they want to support with their click. A three dimensional man or a program that was trained on songs made by that three dimensional man. But that's way easier said than done, because according to Ben, an AI program like Udio, the one that he typed his name into, or another one you might be familiar with.

[Ben Jordan]

Suno, everything that's going on inside of it is a black box.

[Alex Goldman]

And that's because no one really knows how AI comes to its conclusions. Even the people who make AI aren't sure what's going on in AI. For instance, about seven years ago, Google used an AI to scan medical records to help predict patients, future diseases and when they might die.

[Ben Jordan]

They were able to figure out with some high degree of accuracy that was really, really insane. And of course, doctors were like, okay, well, how did it figure this out? What's the underlying cause? We could actually solve a lot of these problems for these patients, and they're like, oh, yeah, sorry, it's just ones and zeros. We have no idea.

[Alex Goldman]

That's so crazy. Yeah. Okay, so AI is this impenetrable black box. No one knows what it does or why. But despite this black box problem, Ben has figured out a way to identify songs with reasonable accuracy. And in order to understand how, I'm going to need you to take a little detour with me. Okay, so when songs are uploaded to Spotify, they are compressed. That means they try to make the song sound as good as possible while making the file as small as possible. So they aren't sending massive amounts of data over the Internet every time you want to listen to, like, Andrew Lloyd Webber or whatever. And the engineers at your favorite music streaming platform have gotten very good at this. They've managed to compress files to about 1/7 to 1/10 the size they would have been if they were uncompressed. And you'd think in losing all of that data, you'd lose a lot of the sound quality, because with an audio file, the data is sound. But they've figured out ways to just discard the imperceptible audio that's hard to detect with the human ear. Anyway. Anyhow, the point of this explanation is that when these files are compressed, the compression leaves traces of that process in the data of the audio file. And the point I'm trying to make here, albeit in pretty broad terms, because this stuff is very complicated. Way more complicated than I could comprehend, is that this compression process is how Ben found a way to recognize an AI song. Because these AI music sites like SUNO and Udio, they're being trained on these compressed versions of songs. And when Ben realized this, he had his Eureka moment.

[Ben Jordan]

What if we just look for that to see if there's a bunch of these artifacts that are in this music? Because that was in the original training data.

[Alex Goldman]

Once Ben figured this out, everything came together very quickly. He designed his own AI model that could analyze songs and recognize files created by SUNO based solely on the compression patterns of data in the audio file. Something that a human ear simply couldn't do with any real level of certainty.

[Ben Jordan]

That's because our human ear is not a very good scientific measuring device. It's something that is interpreted by our brains. Our human ear is just turning pressure waves into sounds in our brain. So it's very subjective. And so, I mean, that's why when you're creeped out, you start hearing all these weird sounds in the house, you know, when you wouldn't be hearing them otherwise.

[Alex Goldman]

So, of course, I sent Ben all of the Ethan Poop songs that Manal asked us about. Did any of them ping as AI?

[Ben Jordan]

Yep. So three out of the four are not AI. And Ethan Smells Like a Llama, Ethan Poop. That one was made on suno.

[Alex Goldman]

You know what is so funny to me? I listened to all of these songs, and I think this is an indictment of my taste in music. Maybe the only one that I was like, this is not terrible, was the Smells Like a Llama song. I was like, this isn't awful.

[Manon]

Yeah.

[Alex Goldman]

The rest of them were really, like, discordant in a way that I was like, well, it's very reasonable that this could be fake for AI.

[Matt Farley]

Yeah.

[Alex Goldman]

So to confirm, Poops and Reckless Otter are human and Super Poops, the person who did the song, that's Ethan Smells Like a Llama. That is AI.

[Ben Jordan]

Yes. Yeah.

[Alex Goldman]

So the one song that I liked, the one that I thought was, like, too good to be AI because it used the word smelliny, which I thought was just peak fart songwriting, ended up being the only song that pinged as AI in Ben's model. And I think that's a testament to just how good AI's gotten. Shortly after we chatted with Ben, Spotify announced that they will start labeling AI music and that they will account for songs that are partially made by humans and AI, which is great news for artists and consumers to finally have this level of transparency going forward. And now that I know most of these artists are in fact human, I need to cop to something because back when Amor played me the Ethan Poops songs, there was one song that she played me that was by an artist I was already very familiar with.

[Amor Yates]

Okay, Alex, I have another song to play for you. This is another Ethan Poop song that Manon sent us.

[Matt Farley]

Ethan. Ethan. Ethan.

[Alex Goldman]

Okay, well, this is definitely not it guy. Okay, so I actually know the guy who wrote this song. One of the first radio stories that I ever did was about this guy.

[Amor Yates]

Oh my God.

[Alex Goldman]

After the break, the man behind the music. Poop, poop. Poop.

[Matt Farley]

Poop.

[Alex Goldman]

Poop. Poop. Ethan pooped. Pooped. Poop. Poop. Poop, poop, poop. Pooped. Ethan pooped. Pooped.

[Dallas Taylor]

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[Alex Goldman]

Welcome back to the show. So this week, Hyperfix listener Manal reached out to us to investigate all of these Ethan Poop songs on streaming services. And more than anything, she just wanted to know why they existed. And fortunately for her, I knew the answer to that right away. And it's entirely because of this guy. Are you. You're recording on your end? Are you rolling?

[Matt Farley]

We're rolling on my end.

[Alex Goldman]

I've known Matt for over a decade. He's the kind of friend that I Text about horror movies and you know, about his music. And he's the most prolific songwriter on earth, as far as I know. And by that, I mean he's written and published on Spotify over 26,000 songs throughout my career. I have brought Matt in several times on projects I've been working on, mostly because the number of songs he's written isn't even the most interesting thing about him. For example, he's never uttered a curse word. He didn't have his first hamburger until he was in his 40s. He is a fan of taking very long walks, sometimes dozens of miles. In fact, he used to have a newsletter about his walks, of which I was an eager recipient. And if you're just curious about him and want to give him a call, well, you're in luck, because not only does he have his phone number, in his Twitter bio, he frequently puts it at the end of songs. And if you call him, he will pick up, and if he misses your call, he'll call you back. But the thing that he's become most famous for is his music, especially the rate at which he produces songs.

[Matt Farley]

It was always my instinct to write tons of songs, and then at some point, amidst my lack of success, I kind of was like, you know what? I'm just gonna make so much music that they can't ignore me. You know? And so it feels good. I want more praise. I want more glory. You know, when I walk down the street, I'm looking around and being like, do you people know who I am? You know, I'm saying that in my head, but I'd like to be mobbed by fans, stuff like that.

[Alex Goldman]

Matt hasn't been mobbed by fans in real life, but last fall, he did experience the online equivalent of a mob when he went viral on TikTok for his poop songs. Because as it turns out, people like poop songs, and they like songs with their names in them. You see, while Matt writes songs about all kinds of stuff, he has found that people look for songs about stuff they like or find funny or just have their name in them. So he has albums worth of songs about celebrities. For example, he recorded an album for every state in the US under the name the guy who sings about cities and towns. And as every parent knows, the first thing a kid does when faced with a computer prompt is to search the word poop. So when people on TikTok started to notice that if they typed their name and the word poop, depending on how popular their name was, they could find a song that included their name and Poop.

[Matt Farley]

Kayla. Poop.

[Ben Jordan]

Kayla.

[Matt Farley]

Poop.

[Ben Jordan]

Kayla.

[Manon]

Kayla.

[Matt Farley]

Kayla. Andre.

[Alex Goldman]

Andre.

[Amor Yates]

Andre.

[Matt Farley]

Poop. Andre. Andre. Poop. Emily.

[Manon]

Emily.

[Matt Farley]

Emily. Emily. Poop. Poop. Poop. Danny. Danny. Poop. Danny. Danny. Danny. Poop. Danny.

[Manon]

Danny.

[Matt Farley]

Danny. Poop. Poop Danny.

[Alex Goldman]

And while it might seem weird that people are actually listening to these poop songs, the fact that we're sitting here talking about them is proof that they

[Matt Farley]

work, because they went viral. I was getting message after message from people saying, you haven't done my name. And so I have about 1200 names on a list that I'm just trying to slowly.

[Alex Goldman]

Does it ever start to feel like a slog, or is it always a delight to crank out another poop name song?

[Matt Farley]

Oh, no, no. It's a slog. Everything. I mean, I'm sure you feel the same way, too. You love being a podcaster, but it's that, like, getting the momentum, getting yourself off the game, you know, getting yourself psyched up for it. But it's the same thing with, like, a marathon runner. Like, marathon runners, most of them, they don't always love running, they don't always love training, but they love accomplishing the marathon. And so they have to fight through the times when they don't want to do it.

[Alex Goldman]

And Matt is just really good at fighting through it. Time and again, he gets off his couch, sits at his keyboard, and makes his way through the list of names he's got to write about. So the day he wrote the ethanpoop song was like, any other day. No vendetta, no AI, no secret portal into Ethan's life. Just a man with a consistent process.

[Matt Farley]

It's not like people think I do, like, market research or something, and, like, I don't even know how to do market research. I just think, oh, wouldn't it be funny if I put out an album about this or that? Then I do it, and if I notice one thing's doing real well, I might do more in that direction.

[Alex Goldman]

So I don't know how you feel about talking about financials, but, like, how much does one song make for you? Or does it vary wildly because different songs have different. Different popularity?

[Matt Farley]

Yeah, it varies wildly. You know, one song in a year could earn 5,000 plus, and then many songs in a year earn $0.05 minus $0.05 minus.

[Alex Goldman]

Those are the songs that get no plays and they just cost a lot to put up.

[Matt Farley]

Oh, no, no, no, no. I was just. When you say 5,000 plus, it means 5,000 and above. Then I was saying 5 cents minus meaning 5 cents. Or less. Oh, not. Not negative. I think I just. I invented a new phrase. Like, people say like, I'm making 10,000 plus. Right, right. But do they ever say, like, I'm making $5 minus.

[Alex Goldman]

No, you have invented a new phrase. No wonder I was so confused.

[Matt Farley]

This is. They're going to trace it back. When it enters the vernacular, they're going to trace it back to this episode.

[Alex Goldman]

I know. That's great that. Finally I'll be on Wikipedia. Can you believe this guy? He's inventing whole new business models with streaming audio and just throwing out phrases we're all probably going to be using in six months. I told Matt that Ethan's sister Menon wanted to know why these Ethan Poop songs were so popular and why all these other artists were writing them too. There are artists named Poops, Reckless Otter, Super Poop, and then you.

[Matt Farley]

It's all my fault, by the way, that these other ones have sprung up, I'm pretty sure.

[Alex Goldman]

Can you elaborate?

[Matt Farley]

Yeah. Well, let's see. When did Poops. I'm just looking up Poops for the first time, you know, when did Poops start releasing music?

[Alex Goldman]

It's Poops with a Z, by the way.

[Matt Farley]

Oh, yeah, I see it. 2023, you know, and it was definitely. I was at the forefront of the name poop trend. But yeah, it's that and all respect to poops get out there. I don't own the right to singing names and poops. And may the best name poop song win is what I say.

[Alex Goldman]

Have you heard of any of these artists? Do you have, like, a stiff competitor in the poop song field that you think of as like your poop song rival?

[Matt Farley]

No, no. I mean, I see it here and there, but I just stay in my lane, do my thing. And I don't want to get petty, but I do sometimes feel there's a lack of, like, humanity to a lot of the other people's named poop songs where it sounds very robotic. Whereas I think mine sound very full of life in that it's an actual person singing the words. You know what I mean? I like mine better.

[Alex Goldman]

I know I'm biased, but of all the Ethan Poop songs, I think I like Matt's best too. So by this point, I felt confident that we had answers to all of Manon's questions. But Ethan did have one request, if you remember. It was clear that he wasn't upset by the poop songs, but he was disappointed that they all represented him so narrowly.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I mean, maybe. Maybe the solution is Actually, to have more of those. Like, what else does Ethan do? You know?

[Alex Goldman]

So I wanted to give Ethan one more song that, unlike the others, was really meant for him and didn't include any mention of poop. So I asked Matt if he could write a new song for Ethan. And fortunately, Matt was sympathetic.

[Matt Farley]

Poor Ethan.

[Alex Goldman]

Also, even if he wasn't, I have him on record saying this, I'll do anything for you.

[Matt Farley]

Hey, can I release this on Spotify when it's done? That would be kind of fun, huh?

[Alex Goldman]

A month later, Matt sent us the new Ethan song that had nothing to do with poop, but had everything to do with Ethan. So on one summer day on the Upper east side of Manhattan, in the same whiskey bar where Ethan and his girlfriend Rachel work, it made its world premiere. This is the song for Ethan.

[Manon]

Yeah, you, Ethan, yeah, you.

[Alex Goldman]

What is this, Ethan?

[Matt Farley]

New York City and your life is terrific.

[Ben Jordan]

Yeah, it is.

[Matt Farley]

And now I'm gonna get even more specific. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ethan, you're so great, and you make people smile. Yeah, Ethan, you're a genius. A flavor profile at Caledonia.

[Alex Goldman]

And while Ethan and Rachel listen to Matt's new Ethan song in New York City, in Liberia, Manal and her husband listen, too.

[Manon]

I love it. I love it so much. It's like, that part, like, I'm gonna get even more specific. It's hilarious. I love all of the details that were able to be fit in and just. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Ethan. It's great.

[Alex Goldman]

There are days when Manal wishes she lived closer to her family, closer to her little brother Ethan. But over time, she's come to terms with the fact that their lives may always be thousands of miles apart, with cultures and oceans in between them.

[Manon]

And it's just sort of nice to create special moments even when we're not together, which is a lot harder to do. Usually, like, you're either just, like, forwarding each other memes or you're on a call catching up on life. You're not, like, creating new memories and new moments and new things to bond over as easily. So I definitely think that I really. I really enjoyed that. And I think it's not just me and Ethan. It's also, like, you know, Rachel and my husband, like, all four of us, because all of us have really been into it since, you know, the day that Ethan pooped his pants. You know, it's just been, like, compounding on itself, especially now that the music is here and now having this song. Yeah, we'll get on, like, group calls with the four of us. To talk about this.

[Matt Farley]

It's nice when you tell jokes, it evokes laughter. On a film set, you're always an excellent gaffer. You got a girlfriend named Rachel. You've got a sister Manon. Life is good for you, Ethan. You have got it going on. Oh, yeah, Ethan obsessed with outer space.

[Alex Goldman]

We have it on good authority that Ethan is now, in fact, a podcast person. If you want Matt Farley to write you a custom song, check out his site, moturnmedia.com that's M O T E R N media.com custom-songs and if you want to hear Ethan's song, it's up on Spotify. We'll include links to both of those in the show notes.

[Amor Yates]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farley]

Oh, Ethan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Ethan.

[Dallas Taylor]

That story came from Hyperfixed. In each episode, listeners ride in with problems, big or small, and Alex solves them. Or at least he tries to. Over there, he's investigated a missing Bob's Burgers episode, a stolen website, and the black market for pet medicine. It's always quirky, relatable, and full of surprises. Follow Hyperfixed right here in your podcast player. 20,000 Hz is produced by my sound agency, Defacto Sound. Hear [e-mail] or by following Defacto Sound on Instagram.

[Alex Goldman]

Hyperfixed is produced by Amor Yates, Emma Cortland and Sarisofer Sukanek. This episode was edited by Meghan Tan. It was engineered by Tony Williams. Music is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder and me. Special thanks to Ethan's girlfriend, Rachel for recording and leading the Ethan Song reveal at Ethan's Bar.

[Dallas Taylor]

I'm Dallas Taylor and you can also follow me around the world showing cool sound stories over on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok under the moniker Dallas Taylor MP3. Thanks for listening,

[Matt Farley]

Dallas. Dallas, dallas, dallas.

[Dallas Taylor]

Just a reminder that there's only a few weeks left to enter our listener story competition, which is running right now through May 31st. Don't miss this opportunity to get your sound story on 20,000 Hz. To see the rules and submit your sound story, visit 20K.org 2026or tap the link in the show notes. Thanks.