"Them With a Heart of Who" (w/ Bobby Finger + Lindsey Weber)
1h 54m 33s
The podcast delves into the evolving dynamics of celebrity culture, introducing the concept of "them" versus "who" to explore how fame is perceived and internalized. A "them" is someone widely recognized and constantly under public scrutiny, while a "who" is less defined, offering freedom but less visibility. The discussion reveals that fame often comes with emotional discomfort, such as unwanted attention and online backlash, especially when one's private life is exposed. The conversation highlights how media and cultural platforms shape these identities, with celebrities like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Rita Aura serving as case studies. Rita is presented as a model of authenticity, resisting fame's pressures and maintaining personal autonomy. The podcast critiques the current celebrity economy, where attention is commodified and personal boundaries are eroded. It also notes the cultural shift from traditional to digital fame, where visibility is fleeting and often tied to viral moments. The hosts reflect on the emotional toll of fame and the growing complexity of celebrity identity in a media-saturated world. Ultimately, the discussion suggests that while fame offers visibility, it also brings isolation and performance—making the journey from "who" to "them" a deeply personal and often unsettling experience. The podcast concludes with a sense of cultural evolution, acknowledging that new stars emerge rapidly, and the cycle of attention continues, often leaving behind a legacy of fleeting visibility.
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Hey everybody, it's me, Matt, and my tour is on sale now.
This time, it's really Christmas.
You can go to www.me.
MattRogersOfficial.com.
Podcasts are a visual medium.
If you're not watching me right now,
I am holding in my hands my vinyl.
It's called Have You Heard of Christmas?
The answer to that question is coming.
At this time, it's really Christmas.
I'm playing all over the country and in London and in Canada.
That makes it a world tour.
Harry Styles, you're on burn notice.
I'll see you soon.
I'm gonna mix up cottage cheese in a blender
and I'm gonna say that it's cheesecake.
Uh-huh.
That's not what that is.
It's offensive.
It's gaslighting.
It's making a costume out of cuisine.
Drag balons and gay bars not on my plate.
Look, Matt.
Oh, I see.
Wow.
Bowen, look over there.
Wow.
Is that culture?
Yes.
Wow.
Las Culturistas.
Ding dong.
Las Culturistas calling.
Did you hear what I heard before
while we were changing to get ready for this episode?
Rachel has never tried Diet Coke.
Oh, yeah.
You guys, don't worry about it.
Leave her.
Leave her alone.
Wait, Rachel, head of photo, has never tried Diet Coke?
What does head of photo have to do with that?
I'm just saying.
I didn't try my Diet Coke.
What do you think?
What did you think?
It was okay.
It was okay.
She doesn't drink coffee.
That's great.
Okay.
So was it bullying that got you there, or?
Yeah.
Is there something about caffeine just as a molecule that is tough?
Yeah, I mean, do you want, like, the personal story and then the real problem?
Oh, my God.
Okay.
Wow.
That's what I thought it would be.
See, and this, can I ask you something?
I knew it was gonna be this.
Let me tell you something.
This actually speaks to a larger issue,
which is this is why you don't follow up on a podcast.
This is why when you have someone come on the podcast,
you just let them say whatever and you don't follow up
'cause you don't know what you could be uncovering.
Someone could have a heart problem.
There's reasons why.
There's always a reason.
It's like--
She was not avoiding it out of spite.
No.
And I hope you guys feel a lot of shame--
You brought it up.
--for what you've done.
Oh, God!
I also have a heart problem.
I drink a lot.
And you love it.
We can't talk about that right now.
Sense and sensibility, I'm telling you.
That's what it is in play right now.
She has a heart problem and sense and sensibility.
One of them is like, I shan't--
yeah, exactly.
That's what the movie is about.
I shan't try Diet Coke because you have to act within reason.
One must--
If I were to-- one must not sip caffeine.
One must be all together.
You love one must culture.
You are so one must.
I have never heard you call out--
My love and lust for one must.
Matt dips into this sort of register.
One must.
He loves to play like--
Stop it.
--a woman.
No, I'm just going to say a woman telling, being didactic,
being like--
Thank you.
We were trying to come up with a genre of film.
And maybe our guests can help with this because I'm just
going to say--
They know it all.
Well, before we bring our guests in, everyone calm down
because they think--
everyone, our listeners, people beyond our listenership
think that we are trying to be--
to be actual cultural critics and have
any salient cultural thought.
The premise of this podcast is that we don't
and that we are not qualified to talk about it.
I don't know.
I think I give really salient takes.
OK.
But Matt and I were trying to come up with the genre of film
last night with a fellow podcaster, Amy Poehler,
because she was like, what is it called when--
it's "Notes on a Scandal," it's "Doubt," when like--
Yes.
Like, you know--
a woman, sort of like a buttoned-up woman,
is wagging her finger going, I see what's going on here.
A finger film.
We called it a finger drama.
Finger drama.
A finger drama.
A finger drama.
A finger drama.
One where it's like, you are not young.
It's like, that's a finger drama wherein Dame Judi Dench type
waves a finger.
And then what happens is that woman
gets a finger waved in her face by the end of the movie.
By society and culture.
By society and culture, for sure.
Think about that.
Think about that.
Anyway, we're all jacked up on caffeine behind and in front of the camera.
And we're so excited because--
I wonder if this has ever been said to them before.
Your favorite podcast's favorite podcast, in the words of true them,
"Chaperone," based on them-y drag queen, Sasha Colby's original,
your favorite drag queen's favorite drag queen,
she being a who to maybe some of you, Katie's out there.
But a them to--
I would say Sasha is a them to them.
She was a them to Chaperone, and that's all that really mattered at the end of the day.
There you go.
They host Two Weekly, the podcast where you learn everything about the celebrities you don't.
True legends, true beautiful minds, very authors now.
Yeah, show it.
This is-- I want to be famous.
Yeah.
I want to be famous when everybody and nobody's a celebrity.
Oh, shit.
That's exactly how you read it.
Yeah.
No, that's it.
I love chapter six.
That's how you do it.
I actually opened to chapter 10.
OK, all jokes aside, this is--
as Matt and I are writing our own book, we go, oh, this is how you're supposed to do that.
Bowen goes, I think we have to stop and write the book better.
And I was like, huh.
No, not that we're not doing--
no, I read this book, and it's honestly, it's inspiring and motivating.
In the sense that I'm just like, right, we owe it to ourselves to write a great book like this.
Yes, and the reason we're inspired by it is because it is not only funny, it's super smart.
It's exhaustive.
I mean, it's sourced.
This is really--
I mean, it's the pop culture book of the year in terms of my--
what I think and my culture critic brain.
Who the fuck am I?
Hey, but you know what I mean.
Who them?
He refuses to accept that he's a them.
And I need you guys.
I don't think our guests would say that I'm a them.
Well, let's bring them in.
You're a lucky day.
Everyone, please welcome alphabetically--
Yes, Bobby Finger and Lizzy Webber.
Bowen, you're kind of a them.
He's a full them.
But you know what that means?
We can't talk about you on the podcast.
Yes, it's over.
And that's so beautiful.
No, no, no, I think this is what I want to present to you guys.
And I read it by Matt and by the people in this room.
I am-- I might be a them to who's--
and a who's to them's.
And you guys have explored this.
A them to who's and a who to them's.
To who's I am a them, maybe, and to them's I am a who.
Interesting.
You've come across them's in which you are a who
in those situations?
Never.
He has never come across a them.
Reese Witherspoon flagged him down at the Emmys.
You were with Amy Poehler last night, you said.
Both of us were.
Amy Poehler, I think, would call you a them.
And I think you know that.
Because we were-- we had the same job.
You know what I mean?
Well, no, no, no, no.
And your job was what?
What?
What was the job?
Being a podcaster.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
A podcaster.
It is an interesting phenomenon, though,
to be in the position-- and by the way,
can you just break down what's a them and what's a who
for those who have not been able to read it?
The diagram is a circle of our relationship.
But you guys-- you guys go ahead.
OK, we kind of use a dated metaphor at this point.
But picture it.
You're at the grocery store in, let's say, 2001.
Yes.
Or you're at a Hudson News in the airport.
A Hudson News in the airport.
Today, in 2026.
They have more magazines.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're getting a $10 bag of--
of Guardettos or Chex Mix.
Yes.
And to your left, you see a wall of magazines.
On the cover of those magazines are celebrities.
The celebrities that you go, oh, them,
like Denzel Washington, Jennifer Garner, Bowen Yang.
Those are them.
Oh, I know who that is.
I love them.
Most of the celebrities, though, you will not recognize.
And those are the who's.
Those are the ones that make you go, who's that?
Yes.
They're clearly prominent.
It is obviously relative.
Yes.
It's obviously an answer to kind
of our splintered celebrity landscape.
Again, people will think you're them who pay attention
to the stuff that you do.
But then sometimes you break out of them-dom,
and you're Tom Cruise.
Right.
And everyone knows who you are.
Exactly.
Or you're Jesus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think it's them.
It's them.
Jesus, Beyonce, Taylor Swift.
Jesus, Beyonce, Taylor Swift are basically the them-iest them.
Kind of.
And so my argument was that Bowen Yang, like, he,
in several ways, is now firmly a them.
But it is interesting because there is a self-consciousness.
That comes with that that I think is based on your humility.
But it is interesting because it is inarguable
that you have crossed that threshold into them.
Whether or not that's true, I think
this is what maybe I would say to you, to all three of you,
which is--
and I wouldn't even say--
to call it imposter syndrome feels too simplistic.
It's like, if it is true, let's say I am a them,
I will always think of myself as a who.
Yes.
And I think that's why--
we're obsessed with seeing like your
Tina Fey moment or kind of these little things like Owen Teal on the plane like fascinating
moments where obviously the person is like I'm fun I'm still talking to the people I'm normal
but then everyone else is like you can't just say Andrew Garfield's on the plane yeah like that's
like you're too famous for that because now so many people are seeing that and it's a little weird
and it's like yeah but you're at this space where you're kind of like in between you're just trying
to be yourself and that's why but in that moment for owen i think that kind of shot him into like
a little bit up the them ladder totally because i think he realized like oh god i am in the headlines
yeah i'm the headline now i have the ability to create culture by doing something doing literally
existing existing like the plane came down here i am right and it's funny because it's like a lot
of i think our generation but just because of like exactly what you write about the way the
attention attention economy works the way that like media works etc we all sort of cut our teeth
looking at the thems and sort of pointing at the thems yeah and then in doing that because that
medium became very popular you sort of become the thing where something odd will happen sometimes
where like we'll say something on this part like there's never been a who we are thing than this
i said i auditioned for it ends with us
and i
i said i said it was a weird audition for me because i had to cry and be straight it was so
funny for for blake lively because i was reading for i i that's the who who plays the guy who's the
lead of the movie that's not justin baldoni oh the oh the other guy brendan brendan brenner
so very hot right so this is a the who is thing i've ever heard so and i i said that this for you
people magazine my god people magazine people magazine people magazine people magazine people
magazine said what did rogers said he had to cry and be straight before it ends with us
incredible headline and i was so yeah it bummed me out because it's deliberate it bummed me out
because it called out a who-ness which was unbecoming for me and it embarrassed me so i
understand when you say god don't put me in that position of being perceived because it's so much
more comfortable i know to be on this side of it when the perception was not what you wanted to be
what you wanted was to entertain people and then the story you told was very funny right uh relatable
maybe for some yeah right and of course now unfortunately your show is being watched on
1.8 speed yes by people magazine writers right and that's kind of a privilege hunting and a
responsibility oh they're transcribing they're not they're using ai they're not they're not
listening remember when they used to have to watch two speed oh yeah like really i used to do that i
used to do that i used to do that the only thing better than being a who because we do both i think
firmly believe that is the like peak of celebrity totally it's the most freeing you can be as a
famous person but the only thing better is being a them with a heart of who yeah with the heart of
who if you have a heart of who i think that that's like still very title of that them with a heart of
who oh my god yeah well what's brilliant about the the the binary of of them and who is that it is
like a grim index as to like they're not being a middle class anymore with an
entertainment literally yes yes fuck it is but it okay but the positive yes is that because
everybody is a them to somebody so many more people can uh work in entertainment yes like
absolutely us all of us here anyone you know right yeah so you can create your own audience
yeah forever right exactly they'll follow you and do whatever you want to do it's just it's it's i
really love and when i say exhaustive i do mean that because i feel like we know a lot of people
a lot about pop culture but i didn't i hadn't really thought about the advent of the tabloid
industry you know what i mean it dates back to like luella parsons and yeah head of hopper and
the fact that they i obviously was us on the book okay yeah i watched no you're no i can tell you
read it i can tell you read it i can tell yes i mean we're scholars of this uh now um but when i
i watched feud and obviously i understood a little bit more through that um seminal text but it it was
interesting to think about it as something that was not there was no shame in it you know what i
mean because it it was a it was a necessity whereas now there it's it's because it's become
what it's become there's a lot of shame in it and the shamelessness of a who is i've i had never
heard it in like you did in this book like it was like respected like you know what i mean yeah like
our culture has kind of just folded in on itself where we're now like get the bag and we don't
really care necessarily as much i mean also more famous celebrities are doing more shameless things
because they're making less money elsewhere or they're like seeing influencers take their jobs
and they're like no no sweetie like i'm selling the coffee like you are not yeah right and they'll
i'll go eat the chicken totally the chicken was beneath them 20 years ago now they're like i can't
get enough chicken i'm gonna go eat the chicken is eating the chicken yeah you ate the chicken
i ate the chicken but unless i got a lot of flack for it and i did the who version of chicken
which is chicken versus they won't even let you eat the main chicken no he was kind enough to so
he did the demi chicken chicken moment organic chicken because someone dropped out at the last
minute is that actually true well i yeah well i don't know they didn't tell me was it someone from
wicked no okay i just the chicken we've talked about this recently but the chicken thing has
really turned for me and i don't mean like it's gone rotten but although that's a pretty good
that's good whatever um it used to be like i'm so delighted by the chicken we're seeing a new side
i'm like we're torturing them yeah we're torturing them because we cannot um get them to say anything
or do anything anymore no profiles all that stuff all the fun stuff we used to love now we have to
put them on a show in which we torture them until their uh defenses are down and they're choking
yeah and then they maybe say something do we think that the pendulum has swung back the other way so
hard in that podcast like this or like friendly spaces for celebrities to come and not be asked
hardball questions like i think like and maybe it'll just keep like just swinging back and
forward yeah
anyway i think now what you guys start off the book by saying um you know 2010's killed the
cover star right that's chapter two one we're talking about megan markle that's right oh
fabulous which is again your book ends to you know megan and rita are just perfect two icons
well you have the permanent who at the end rita yeah and then you have the most i think iconic
and notable and recognizable story of someone that went from who to them yeah in an instant
right in a span of like two years yeah and then you have the most i think iconic and notable and
that's right yeah and then and i don't know and this on this day october what is it 20th
yeah um 2026 it's like i was thinking about this it's like well is megan markle like
straddling the line a little bit no i think she's she's always gonna be she's always she's always
she's royal she's royal she's royal but i think people have a lot to say about what she chooses
to do that's right and that is kind of the who them thing that we're obsessed with yes should
is she like is she too themmy to do this
and it's like she's gotta do what every other celebrity's gotta do that's right yeah but just
i think we can index the things like her her little like bag moments where you're just like
oh well she's choosing like edible flowers you know what i mean like that's what yeah now we're
getting like we're drilling down into like well does the thing does the commodity that's being
pushed is that who we are is that themmy right it's not even just doing spawn it's what is the
spawn for exactly and why is this like why are you selling the edible flowers why am i trusting you
that these flowers are indeed edible you know
yeah i have a lot of faith in her you don't believe the flowers are edible i do but then i
find myself wondering why do i believe that yeah and why am i thinking about this and why am i
thinking about it yeah i feel like that's that's like another thing that speaks to i think themminess
and the thems is usually it is 90 conjecture about them because they exist in our minds already
it's like once you become a them you become a part of someone's brain
and i think that with the thing with megan markle is she's now a part of our brain like you could
say her name out on the streets and like 15 20 people around you would turn around and so because
they all have ideas about what that might mean and so there's a lot of like projecting there's a ton
of projecting on taylor swift there's a ton of projecting on beyonce there's a ton of projecting
on jesus totally you know what i mean whereas not really no whereas like with who's they're
constantly trying to give you information yeah they're constantly trying to give you information
yeah yeah yes and that's you know why we love them that's because that's who we're stuck with
in terms of like the celebrity ecosphere that we love from our youth like the magazines and like
the profiles and like i love that yeah like we're obsessed with that so with chapter two it's like
i think the magazine cover and the profile is the function that it's serving is that it's just a
trophy for the person and not necessarily the vehicle for like more press or more or for them
to be more knowable it's not like developmental for this person as a star it's like well tom cruise
is on the cover of gq for digger but it's already like what do we not know about tom cruise you know
what he's also not going to give anything exactly he doesn't in that way and and what he gave
ultimately that became the narrative was the picture right yeah a very strange picture a very
strange picture and so it's almost like okay now we have this it's almost like when a celebrity
like you talk about um denzel giving and from giving advice to michael b jordan yeah it's like
when a huge massive celebrity of that time gives it
gives advice whether it's just by you know like symbolically we glean everything from the tom
cruise picture which is kind of like showing people he's showing people how to be he thinks
and denzel is literally telling this younger you know generational talent that he sees himself in
like this is my advice meanwhile it's like i don't know would it be better for michael b jordan to
only appear in acting maybe he is an exception to the rule maybe he is now in his oscar winning
era box office marquee era maybe he can still do that and live the denzel way and do the denzel
version of fame but i think that what's so clear is that that's disappearing i mean you could
probably list on one hand now yeah the actual people that like all of our parents would know
oh yeah that's under 30 i don't even know if my dad would know who sydney sweeney is
and she's kind of made for him well it has
long island right yeah
it would have to be like oh we do watch the diplomat right we love carrie yes carrie russell
carrie russell my parents know carrie russell and i think that's the thing where it's like you know
my dad also surprises me but then i realize he's watching every apple tv show and i'm like oh i know
exactly who he knows yeah but that is kind of weirdly this like little silo apple tv show
that i don't watch yeah who did
yeah my dad yeah like that's his knowledge base right that's who he considers to be
famous or whatever right we also have a gajillion tv shows now right that's also kind of the problem
or whatever is it is it a is it a little scary to like uh assign who and them to like let's say
a platform because you go because apple tv has all of the thems yeah but no one wants but all
the shows are whose yeah for sure i mean yes like is that is this a bridge too far like do we well
it's like prestigey right like being prestige is like that prestige who is like a great place to be
absolutely an apple tv prestige who platform yes 100 because it's like it's it's all the thems in
shows you've never heard about it's like jennifer connelly is in i think a hundred seasons of a show
that i have never watched right that's crazy that's crazy you know what's been on for a really
long time and gets critical acclaim up its ass and the people that love it love it and maybe not
even everyone in this room knows what it is slow horses i know you were gonna say so horses i love
so much so it's a them show to you to me it's a them show but that's the thing but it's on the
who it's on the who platform talk about you try you enter a room and you say who's watched the
horses they look at you like you're a psycho yeah and it's like i just want to talk about how good
jack loudon is this season but i have no one to discuss it with right you know and that was what
and yeah as we're all like culture lovers like that was that's what i miss the most is like
literally yeah if i had known you would have been like oh my god i would have been like oh my god
back during peak race anatomy oh god we would have we don't know and yet there's just not there
isn't that ubiquity anymore where it's just like like we one of our first performances we ever did
together was called gray's anatomy drag and it was just it was in gray's anatomy improv drag
we came like hospital so i was christina and he was meredith and we were just christina meredith
he was in like a like a like a curly black wig and i was in my blonde wig it really was giving
more izzy but that is he is he is he christina wasn't legible like
christina so we did bad improv to it and i think that we got away with how bad it was
ish because people could at least recognize the concept whereas now it's like what from
television do you say is outside of heated rivalry you know what i mean like i mean housewives it's
different like it's different hubs right like it is there is enough house obviously there are
enough housewives people to do anything involving that and people will show up right like that's
true what's gagging me right now is the nathan fielder of it all
i know this guy the most famous guy on the planet like it's crazy he's such a them now what happened
i mean it's incredible to see like that's the conversation right now yes yeah did you guys see
the movie oh yeah great we had to tell trevor to walk out of the room because we discussed it
earlier but we i'd avoid spoilers you're gonna love it you know he's gonna love it it's made
for you're gonna love it the way that sydney sweeney is is made for matt's dad is the same
of course you know what i'm gonna text my dad right now if he knows who sydney's okay great
i hope he does because now it's sort of a thing i'm just gonna say dad she's kind of like a dad
do you know represents a lot too she might you know of course she does represent yeah she kind
of is in our culture in a very specific way yes aside from what she's in and she was such a who
in white lotus yeah but i always forget that she was in it yeah yeah but now i think she's like
she's were you saying that she's a them like i think of her as a them in a sort of expansive like
it goes back in time like it's like an anne margaret all the way up to like a pamela anderson
yeah it's like a lindsay lohan you know like like it right it's a them i mean she is quite prolific
and like i love the housemaid but she's more of them in that she causes so much conversation
broad conversation across networks across like information silos then she is of them because of
her work and that's no disrespect to the work but it's like she does anything and fox news is like
we have to spend an hour talking about right right you know right you'll get a new year times alert
about girl whatever she did you know it's ridiculous this ad is sponsored by vive healthcare
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do you think that there's an intrinsic um controversiality in being a them like do you
think it requires a bit of polarization people have to have a preconceived notion of who you are
and they're gonna narrow it down to who that is to them so i think that's like the scary part of
it that people don't realize like like in reading the book as a who i was sort of like thinking to
myself like all the things that make me uncomfortable about the ways in which my life is going to be
uncomfortable about the ways in which my life is going to be uncomfortable about the ways in which
my life is going to be uncomfortable about the ways in which my life is going to be uncomfortable
about the ways in which my life is going to be uncomfortable about the ways in which my life is going
uncomfortable about the ways in which my life is going to be uncomfortable about the ways in which my life is going to change all have to do with
to change all have to do with
to change all have to do with unwanted attention and perception
unwanted attention and perception
unwanted attention and perception and so as i was reading and i know that
and so as i was reading and i know that
and so as i was reading and i know that we've talked about this too like that's
we've talked about this too like that's
we've talked about this too like that's like something that's been
like something that's been
like something that's been uncomfortable for you as well like you
uncomfortable for you as well like you
uncomfortable for you as well like you know what i mean like it's not
know what i mean like it's not
know what i mean like it's not fun and i wonder in reading it it sort
fun and i wonder in reading it sort of feels like a little bit of a weird
of feels like a little bit of a weird
of feels like a little bit of a weird trap because it's like you know you have
trap because it's like you know you have
trap because it's like you know you have to participate in order to do the thing
to participate in order to do the thing
to participate in order to do the thing you want to do which is entertain more
you want to do which is entertain more
you want to do which is entertain more people and like you know do the thing
people and like you know do the thing
people and like you know do the thing that you love however
that you love however
that you love however it comes with these side effects that
it comes with these side effects that
it comes with these side effects that you know are coming but don't understand
you know are coming but don't understand
you know are coming but don't understand are coming yeah you know what i mean and
are coming yeah you know what i mean and
are coming yeah you know what i mean and then it's and so i it was like a real
then it's and so i it was like a real
then it's and so i it was like a real mind reading it as someone who like
mind reading it as someone who like
mind reading it as someone who like you know has been in a picture with my
you know has been in a picture with my
you know has been in a picture with my bravo star x with the cut down the
bravo star x with the cut down the
bravo star x with the cut down the middle yeah you know what i mean like
middle yeah you know what i mean like
middle yeah you know what i mean like it's like it's like that felt really
it's like it's like that felt really
it's like it's like that felt really crazy to me because it's like that's
crazy to me because it's like that's
crazy to me because it's like that's something i would make fun of and yet i
something i would make fun of and yet i
something i would make fun of and yet i have to go on right because you're
have to go on right because you're
have to go on right because you're culture lovers so you grew up like
culture lovers so you grew up like
culture lovers so you grew up like seeing that rip photo right with people
seeing that rip photo right with people
seeing that rip photo right with people who were really famous to you and then
who were really famous to you and then
who were really famous to you and then it's and then you've been ripped and
it's and then you've been ripped and
it's and then you've been ripped and then it's you and it feels like it
it's you and it feels like it
it's you and it feels like it cheapens the whole thing of course you
cheapens the whole thing of course you
cheapens the whole thing of course you know what i mean like it's like
know what i mean like it's like
know what i mean like it's like suddenly when it's you it's kind of like
suddenly when it's you it's kind of like
suddenly when it's you it's kind of like it's like oh
it's like oh
it's like oh it's me
it's me
it's me ah this isn't real okay question does
ah this isn't real okay question does
ah this isn't real okay question does that make you enjoy
that make you enjoy
that make you enjoy culture less celebrity culture
culture less celebrity culture
culture less celebrity culture probably you know what which is which
probably you know what which is which
- So that's an interesting question.
I feel like-
- Are you gossiping about celebrities?
- Part, but that part of it, it makes me enjoy less.
- So yeah, I think we just do it less 'cause,
and I think our listenership kind of might
take issue with this like we sometimes will you have to meet them humanize them in a way
no that's good that's no that's good i mean i think how we and meet them of course that's
yeah whatever we how we deal with this we're not famous but like you but whatever what i'm saying
how we deal with this is is that to us a lot of the who mechanisms are people who want press they
want attention they seek it out for their work and when they get it it actually helps them make
more money do more projects whatever whatever so in our mind that's how we that's why we cover
who's and not them and that i think is something that we we also i don't can speak for you but i
feel like because we're obsessed with the media of it all a lot of the times we're trying to figure
out what's being reported why it's being reported why it's being reported that way is the person
being taken out of context is the person on a podcast and they're just blabbing because no
i don't know what's going on with them and they're just blabbing because no i don't know
because no i don't know what's going on with them and they're just blabbing because no
like they're just too comfortable right you know yeah um we call that podcast mouth like that's
like these symptoms of like new media but from early on like i think it was by no means the goal
initially but then we realized it was sort of our way out because we are not in the business of
breaking gossip people sometimes send us stuff but we're not going to talk about it like we just want
to talk about stuff that is being talked about why it's being talked about and also about people who
want the attention it really is not it's kind of to your point it's like it's less fun to talk
down and don't want the attention exactly you want to talk about the person that's like jesse
james jesse james ecker yesterday was like i'm partnering with fresh express and i have to talk
to you about bagged salads i'm like i have to listen and i have to regurgitate it that's so
funny it's like it is so much more joyful to talk about people who are taking joy in the stupidest
stuff imaginable right like it's not it's not fun to air kind of dirty laundry right yeah but it's
it is interesting because i find i do like the press part of it like i like the
the i like the performance element of all of it it's like the unwanted ugly social media stuff
which is a symptom of recent stuff and also like when people are just wrong and they get to say
whatever they want you like the agreed upon terms exactly and i think that that's something that
that's that's it's off the table are you still in a place both of you actually are you still in a
sidewalk hello yeah like that hasn't started to bother you no right no no no i think that's that's
like such a good you know it's like a free drink at a bar i'm just like oh yeah these are the cool
perks it's like someone comes up to you and says love what you do yes that's awesome so that's so
nice that i love feeling like nice interactions from people because here's another aspect of it
which is i think it's you talk about it but also it's really felt when it's you the
vitriol from online that doesn't match the energy in real life yeah oh yeah and that's very story of
your life you know what i mean it's like yes it's like when you are when what they have to say about
you is like i don't know what the fuck he thinks he's doing he's not even like we don't care yeah
and then you're like uh maybe people don't care and then you go out to the streets and people care
it's like that's the part that's like a little mind fucky so it's almost like as a who i would
imagine there's a lot of like not death march towards themdom but it's like what's this all
for if i don't become a them you know what i mean like if i'm existing in this middle place of who
ness where people aren't really sure what to think of me and so i'm not shouldn't i just march forward
into themdom or just go fully back to nah no and i think that i think the joy and this goes back to
them at the heart of who i think the moment you are a them lindsey correct me if i'm not
if i'm wrong never like the moment you are a them it's sort of like this weird paradox because then
you are reduced to like one thing yeah you are firmly in a lane everyone recognizes you in the
specific lane when you're who you can do whatever the hell you want you can be all sorts of things
and you can and you can like make decisions on the fly are doing more things yeah they do
who is your patron saint of the podcast and the subject of the final chapter of this book and i
have always been upset
with her that was our favorite that's my favorite it was definitely my because it was something we
were always going to write yes and we weren't sure how we were going to write it but ultimately like
we've been covering her for 10 years yes so we are the ultimate rita aura fans you are like it's
crazy has she reached out ever no and like that's kind of our beautiful relationship we're like
no i'm serious no i agree i think she probably gets it i think that means she gets it because
i think she knows because she's a genius about this stuff and
her pr people are too that like it ruins the ecosystem like we like to let us do our thing
is the best gift that she could give us if i ever found out that she was upset about it
first of all we would know by now but if i ever did find out that she found it very hurtful
i would i would dig a hole and crawl in it yeah like i would feel terrible oh yeah so but i i do
think that she either knows it exists and just ignores it and says whatever but you know what
or she knows it exists and thinks that's kind of charming that's what makes her the perfect who
because she is able to ignore stuff like us i think that's why she lives in this perfect place
of doing whatever the hell she wants because she knows that she can always get a job she's
supremely talented on multiple levels the industry likes children are obsessed with her yes
because descendants and like and detective pikachu literally where she played a scientist
incredible role yeah she passed she dies she blows up or something yeah she blows up you
it's good i have these cultural blind spots it's good within the pokemon ecosphere we should watch
that we will read and i was really pleased i was like damn i'm really nice she's not in it for a
long time but she is in it for a good time which is kind of how she lives her life 100 i mean what
her function in the movie is crucial yeah wait you gotta have her on the pod i feel as though i feel
as though she is a perfect person she would be so fun just the way you guys write that final chapter
is just triumphant like it was just it was just no i mean it was i know that's really nice i because
you know what i was thinking i think you guys do call her like a bon vivant bon vivant she literally
was out on the town with her friend dave a couple weeks ago oh yeah i saw i saw that friends of ours
went out to dinner with her because and literally it was so funny they said they met her through a
friend and they were all supposed to have dinner together with the friend and the friend had to
bail and they texted rita and were like hey friend had to bail if you want to do it another night no
no no i'm coming for sure hung out with her for hours she was a jam and they had the best time
with her and she was like i'm coming for sure i'm coming for sure i'm coming for sure i'm coming for
sure they texted us after like rita aura should become a part of our permanent friend group
and you know what she would love that and apparently and j and then jared was with her
at the emmys last year because and then and then jared facetimed me from the chateau like this is
the most la sentence if anyone had a negative thing to say about rita or it would have been
guess who would call me and i would have to grapple oh not once not once have we ever heard a
thing about that woman and you know like you think about celebrities and it's it's mostly i think
aligned with taylor swift but you think about celebrities like big thems where they have their
famous friends yeah and it's like oh they're a famous friend with this person for a year and
then they kind of go away and they have a new famous friend i can't think of someone who's like
i love rita who is then sort of mia in her life right she keeps her friends people and i think
that that says a lot yeah you know we we cite a an article where charlie xcx says rita is a great
time yep and i and i think that's a great time and i think that's a great time and i think that's
a great time and i believe it and i'm like she would know she's been in a loving marriage for
four years now i have to say also thank you for really incredible thank you for shouting out like
the catalog of songs because i really feel like it has to move beyond like gay guys and women who
get it who love rita like i'm telling you i'm waiting for the last time for you hey no literally
oh my god it's so devastating
but what's not devastating is the music uh just seriously stream phoenix honestly also i will
never let you down is truly about how we do parentheses party that was where it all started
she has songs and also she still will put out good songs kind of randomly yeah just to give you a
gorgeous song well she's an amazing singer yes like and that's i think sometimes well and we
we were saying like what did you say what you said i was just saying quickly and we all know this but
talking about her in such an enthusiastic ways because she is not beholden to any of the bullshit
of modern fame go she can release a song for the descendants she can release a pops like it doesn't
matter no matter what i agree and the other thing is i actually think that she's reaching a point
where culture is gonna meet her because i believe this whole narrative about the kia asylum kaya
which you guys pronounce correctly on the kaya asylum of course so but what i think happened
is in in 2024 that was charlie in 2025 it was zara in 2026 it was tanasha i think that it all shuts
down for good in 2027 when rito breaks out of the asylum and is an a lister asylum is like this
irrelevant thing to us because it's like it's about siloed like tanasha zara who was who'd you
Charlie all had incredible careers.
- Sabrina was in there.
- Yes, Sabrina was fully in there.
of fans putting out albums don't whatever going on tour no problem like before we when we were
saying they're in the asylum so the idea that like and honestly maybe their lives and their
well-being was better when they were in the asylum now it's like they get to receive all this them
attention we're like yeah you made out of the asylum whatever so proud of you and i'm like do
they really want to make it that's what music fashion film is like about totally you know what
i mean it's about how the end of that album with just kind of devolving into nothing lasts forever
nothing lasts forever like that's it's scary it's haunting and you can tell it's like it was charlie
is one of the great scholars of the who to them she's so self-aware she projected so much onto
them very interesting the them of it all yeah and then she became then she very much became a them
and now it's like you get a sense that there's like a little bit of paralysis in there which
she is like really sort of like
you know in a very charlie way trying to dive into but it's interesting it's like
when you've done the thing where you fought through the wholeness because you were positive
that the answer was to become them it creates this other dimension also she's so thoughtful
she's so thoughtful she's so smart and she's thinking about all these things that we're
talking about and having to process that within her own life which i'm like i can't imagine that's
fun or easy no no i mean it's it's wanting them dumb while
i'm not understanding like the emotional reality of it i mean yeah i mean this is this is all yeah
this is all quite um obvious i i was gonna say like the book is i mean it just came out a few
weeks ago um i was kind of just like i was amazed at how like modern it was i just i just felt like
the references were so up to date and i like like when did you what was like the deadline for edits
for you guys the last thing we added oh that was major was post oscars earlier this year yeah
because we had to say timmy lost and michael won right because that was kind of important as a
button that's right but like that was like where the timeline ends uh-huh and that's something that
we kind of would go a little nuts over because it's sort of like you're writing this thing but
it's not a living document it's like it has to end somewhere and is that going to frustrate people so
it's as current as it can be but it's like this is about a 10-year span in time more or less
period that's the end and if more happens then like another book will happen yeah this is a
dense 10 years you know what i mean everything changed
everything changed okay so do you guys know that we started our podcast at the same time yes yeah
like basically like a month 2016 which is crazy because if you think about it like
when we started we were like oh podcasts too many of them
literally why we almost didn't do it literally who wants this shit it's too much whatever
we don't know what microphones are we sound like shit whatever this was a whole thing
it's crazy that we had this confluence of like you guys and us we were like culture needs
talking about yeah us and you've experienced the same 10-year swath of culture which is why i think
this hits for you because this is the 10 years that you've been talking about culture sure yeah
and it's isn't it crazy when you watch an entire media landscape change and it's like when you
plant a seed and then stare at the same thing and oh fuck it's a huge tree it's like oh my god
while working in it which we're not so that's totally mind for you yeah well i'm sure i think
that's what keeps us like i don't know that that's why we like we've had to like go to video and you
guys get to do it like i'm saying like i i love it it sounds awful but i'm just like i i i yearn
for that you know what i mean it's like come on back it's great oh my god i mean you lose the
you lose the like wheels virality but like who cares so much like peace like being in a cardigan
the reed does it too the reed refuses to go video
i know because you know what i will say like in in speak you speak all about you know podcasting
and uh it was really kind of so when you are on camera you're just different you're just different
and i i i used to be really sensitive like about three four years ago when it felt like there was
a bit of a turn where this podcast went from being like niche favorite to i think it became
an actual thing yeah and people
were like they changed and there was like a whole like i think it was a vulture article we
participated in like an interview and it was the bent of it and it's jason frank who's very good at
what he does but you know he's messy and he is but and we love him but like he wants he wants
the story and he gets the story and i was frustrated because i was like i feel like
people think we changed but like it all changed yeah yeah it all changed yeah like and i and i
think in real in relation to the way it all changed we didn't change that much well like
the fact that mariah carey wants to come on your podcast is the change yeah right like you didn't
you didn't change the culture change and therefore you were there to catch the culture
right because you're the thing that people want to watch and we're attention seekers
in our own way and celebs want to talk to you and we go oh sure like it's it's all
yeah i mean it all it all sort of your hand in each other it goes hand in hand
well it's funny that like we when we first didn't pivot to video when everyone was
the question the question was you know when you're gonna do it uh-huh like is it happening
when you're gonna do it and now it's what you said it's like you're so lucky i'm so i'm so
i'm sorry my tone but i i genuinely mean that no i and i believe you and receive it yes yes i'm
i hate that i'm sorry i'm sorry the fact is we have a tv show now that's that's
just that's what it is you are disney this is tv and isn't it funny because it was i'm like
and now it's it's interesting i think because of course then like when you get to a certain
place in your career and like especially like you know you leaving snl like me having like
the tv credits that i have like we're a recognizable brand and so they say well
why don't we now pitch a tv series and then you do that and you realize what a nightmare that is
and how annoying it is and how great this is just why would i and i said that's also why your award
show is perfect right because it responds to your show it's a natural extension you can use all your
new best friends the celebrities and they will be so happy and they want to be there because they
love but i guess what i mean is like that's one thing and because it feels like an extension of
the podcast we can do that but i guess what i'm talking about is like i'll just say we had we
had a show where we were developing a show at one of the one of the big ones one of the big guys
and it became very clear that it was going to be really needlessly difficult and not necessarily
going to pay off and you talk to people and ended up being an enormous waste of time a big enormous
waste of time and i think made a good idea worse and at the end of it when it came time to think
should we pick up and like do it somewhere else
my instinct was no yeah yeah this is why you don't work with brit box
you shouldn't work with brit box no they have nagella the finger point genre was gonna be you
you're just gonna have judy dench here finger drama finger drama finger drama oh yeah do you
guys like finger drama what do you guys love it love i love a period yeah i love sense and
sensibility i just saw it it's fab and someone did have to call our pod and be like yes it's
in the title one has sense and one has sensibility right one's feeling and one is sensible and i said
oh yeah that's right i read it too it's actually even clearer in sense and sensibility than it is
in pride and prejudice because pride and prejudice is more of like a sort of like idea whereas like
sense and sensibility is literally the characters one girl another girl yeah yeah no i loved it
fabulous it really was good and i think daisy edgar jones should be a them i think she has a
lot of names so many names does that gum up the works to them sometimes it is hard to remember
the name sure i mean scherzinger
scherzinger stands out you know scherzinger stands out but wouldn't you say that she's like
sort of like uh like an alternate universe rita aura she felt like a rita aura to me for a long
time and then with sunset boulevard made her a them on broadway it made her them on broadway yeah
she won the top the top thing you could get yeah in that field yeah everyone was celebrating her
left and right for basically a year because she did something astonishing and everyone was like
you were getting this award there's no question about it you're gonna win this award you're gonna
win this award you're gonna win this award you're gonna win this award you're gonna win this award
and then she's burning herself backstage at a doll's concert in like poland it's like this is
so strange wait tell us about weird she spilled like hot water on herself she made tea she spilled
hot water on herself and it's like you were touring with the doll no no no no no no no no
oh my god totally accidental this is a this is from a place of deep deep concern yeah yeah but
it's like the next big thing she did after that was do a reuniting tour with the dolls
it doesn't sell well enough in the united states so it's european only
i'm sure she has wonderful fans in europe but it was like that was bad press and that must
be really difficult because she left that silo where she was like number one then yeah into the
broader you think you think it's one vector that just goes just outward and up i think theater's
tough yeah yeah theater's like hard yeah um i on the on this sort of up-to-datedness of the book
which i don't think you should ever worry about because like you're saying it is like the past 10
years and i don't know even like as we're talking like like matt and i were talking today on the way
in about like oh my god like the elizabeth hasselbeck stuff is like perfect i loved that
you guys covered her um and i'm sure you have a lot to say about that but i just want i'm curious
to know have you guys talked about like the connor story hudson williams of it all like yeah
that's the most recent example of like stratospheric
who to them yeah I love watching
them in spaces
and see what their deal is I think
they both are so eager to be
part of it and it shines through in a way that is
actually really nice yeah I'm sure they're both
having a hard time with the rest
but yeah I think they're both enjoying
their time in
this space now it seems like
yeah doesn't seem like to you and fleeting
interactions with them yeah it
just seems like
they are they are meant for this they are
so good at being yeah these stars
yeah and yet I can tell
like this is complete as it
cannot be anything else it
is so overwhelming and so
destabilizing yeah and obviously that's
something that it gets us really excited when a
new person shows up like we're all we
we're all about new people we're trying to
we actually want people to come in
and stay the problem is when we talk about someone we never hear
from them again that's so bleak for us it's like
we want yeah when somebody new comes
along we want
to them to be part of culture yeah
for longer yeah and usually when you get
the new
under 30 youngish star like
actor specifically
they don't typically come
out of nowhere like you got your Indy
Navaretti and your Connor story and your Hudson Williams but usually
it's more of a Zendaya and a Timmy Chalamet
where it's like kind of a slow and steady
upward trajectory yeah either a contestant
on Dancing with the Stars you come in second to
Kelly Pickler Daisy Edgar Jones
like if there was like an actor Kaya Asylum
like that would be like the best way to do it
would be like yeah there's a lot of girls and
there's a lot of them and so there's always like press where it's like meet
the next big thing GQ's like you'll never leave the next big thing and you
never hear from them again right so Connor and Hudson were exciting because
it was like meet the next big thing and they were right undeniable you know it
was it was really surprising yeah is there a who that got away what say more
like that was looking like they were gonna become a them that like a who that
you were excited about there's countless yeah I mean we're still like Alden Ehrenreich
oh yeah oh but he keeps winning I'm so proud of you I can't even think about it
he's coming back but like yeah he was a who that got away right he he it was like oh god and then
it's like he went away to do something interesting and now he's back because he did something
interesting right yes that's fabulous hey he runs a theater in LA it's like the coolest thing you
could do well that's he's in a Carly Rae Jepsen music video what else is there again but I'm
thinking Kaya asylum but like Tinashe yeah yeah for sure we're just the amount of press that she
got for so long that was like here it comes because we were big fans of the song flame
which I know she does not like oh right you're obsessed with it yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
we were like flame here we go major a major record uh major uh label release yeah awesome song we
love it she was like hate it it flopped and now but it's great there you go we found our place
we she found her place back sure I think my who that got away Lacey Chabert oh Lacey Chabert you
think she could have made it I think she could have been a big star because of Mean Girls I
think because I think when you look back at Mean Girls and you yeah you look at the Mean Girls
right because and you've got your Lindsay and your Amanda yeah yeah yeah and Rachel
McAdams and then you see Lacey and you watch that movie she's Lacey's my favorite thing about it yeah
and I'm like what happened yeah that why these girls not Lacey right she fell into the Hallmark
Lane she did she definitely comfortable in it I think she's quite successful right you know but
it is kind of incredible that most of those girls a list yeah a plus list my conjecture is that you
know devout Christian is like oh this side I don't it's the it's the even just thing that you guys write
and she's like I don't want to fight for these parts I'm gonna sell sponges yeah you know what I
mean it's like and there's I think there's nothing wrong with that no but I think we'll always want
her to do stuff because we love her and we love culture and so we're like come back and do it and
it's like she's like no not worth it yeah it's also funny when you when you see someone return
to themdom and they're surprised by it and you're delighted by it and I feel like the best example
of that over the past year is Jennifer Garner oh yeah Jennifer Garner being in the five star weekend
and how many texts did we all send to our friends being like I forgot she's so good she's so good
we liked her for a reason yeah and then you then you start to think about it and you're
like she was always so good it's just that she had different priorities and a crazy situation
that I think people because she's so likable um people forget that they are they separate the idea
of her likability or they it's confusing that she was such a tabloid fixture because and she's
recently spoken about just how intense and uncomfortable it was to be there that almost
like doesn't matter what y'all want like I'm gonna do Capital One because I'm gonna provide
for my family and be low lift and charming in this thing later on maybe and the second she
decided she wanted it again top of the charts season two incoming yeah I think they're like
almost I think they're like almost done writing it another weekend yeah just write another weekend
there's always more weekend they're gonna pump that out yeah yeah after how successful it was
for sure yeah I loved it you probably think dressing well takes lots of money or lots of
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terms and conditions apply Bank of America and a member FDIC okay I think it's time to ask Bobby
Lindsay the question yes which is and you guys can answer this however you would like as many
answers as you would like
Bobby finger Lindsay Weber what is the culture that made you say culture is for me
do you want to go you want me to go you go I like what I do the last one I told you do them all do
them all okay well we're gonna do a shared one but then we decided to separate cultural moment
that we both really overlap with that I think comes up and it also plays in my head from the
VH1 behind the music TLC um Lisa burn the house down burn the house that is a big um thing for us
that whole episode
incredible incredible clip but for me personally um was definitely when I knew culture was for me
was I was at a bar mitzvah and I won a prize and the prize I know what's coming the prize was a
single number two singles yes and the single was for Monica and it was the song um don't take it
personal one of them days a single of don't which is not even her kind of no not even like a monica
single I was like you have to be saying Angel of Mine and you know or for you I will great songs
great songs I never heard them at that point because I just had the single and that was her
first exposure to Monica like who is this person totally and also kind of the idea of having a
single and like and like having an item and having a cultural item was that was big because otherwise
music wasn't as it was yours but also I was kind of like I rep this song this is my song yeah I am
the like I'm the I'm the critic I'm going to uh tell everyone about this song and how great it is
and it was a prize it was a prize I was chosen to a disciple that song you were given the assignment
from culture to be the disciple for this single great song still oh still let's do it last night
I was like damn it hits uh also we're obsessed with that MacBook that MacBook follow-up follow-up
to the boys to me do you guys remember that to me did you you heard this it is the spiritual
successor to the boy is mine and it is phenomenal yeah I'm not familiar with this okay I mean thank
you for incredible there's a part where they say that Matt well it's and it's like them being like
that MacBook belongs to me but they're both like scorned lovers of the same man yeah they're both
sort of like complaining in like friendship yeah about this awful guy and they're like they're like
they're both like scorned lovers of the same man yeah they're both sort of like complaining in like
friendship yeah about this awful guy and they're like empowering each other in a way that sort of
the tables on the original.
- Sure, and they really thought it was gonna be
this huge thing and it unfortunately wasn't,
but those of us who were there said this is a great song.
- If that says anything.
- Yeah, okay.
- And we come to you as supplicants to VH1, truly.
- That's how we, that's all we know.
We both worked there.
- You guys worked there at a very interesting time.
- Yeah, we sure did.
- A very kind of transitional time.
- Pivotal time.
- From when it was going from like,
'cause when I was watching it as a young person.
- Cool to uncool.
- Exactly, it was sort of like advanced sexuality
and sensuality, it was like when MTV was trash,
like you could go to VH1 and you could see like,
they would play like Natalie Merchant.
- Sure, and like You Oughta Know artists
were like a big part of our culture, Adele,
all these incredible people they really knew
were gonna be played in Starbucks near you,
but like, but by the time we worked there,
it was kind of like the grass.
- It was transitioning to Mob Wives.
- Mob Wives.
- It was Mob Wives, Love and Hip Hop,
it was their reality sort of Bravo chasing.
And the behind the music was going away.
You Oughta Know was going away.
- Best Week Ever came back.
- And it flopped.
- And it flopped.
- Sad.
- Oh my God.
- Could have been us, all of us.
- Could have been us.
I would have been thrilled.
- I would have killed on that.
- And then you guys really give.
- You know what's crazy?
You wouldn't have had a podcast,
you would have just gone on.
- Exactly.
- No.
- We would have been House Sparks.
- You would have been House Sparks.
- When I saw, I, being a kid and watching House Sparks
on that.
- Michael Ian Blatt.
- Everything, everything to me.
- They were so good and I was like,
wow, that would be amazing.
My dream would be to do that.
- And you are doing that.
- Sort of, I guess.
- You are.
- That's what you're doing.
- You are.
- In a way.
- In a way.
- But you guys really like pay respects to
I Love the 80s, I Love the 90s.
- It's everything.
- Yeah, it's everything.
- It is really crucial.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- They did such a, you look back on it
and they really did do such an amazing job producing that.
- Edutainment.
- Like, edutainment.
Yeah.
- Honestly.
- I'm dead ass.
- Dead ass.
- No, totally.
We don't have stuff like that, really.
- It was school.
- Edutainment of all time, it was school.
Actually, that's rule of culture number 15.
I Love the Decades was the best edutainment of all time
and it was school.
- Oh, that's incredible.
- Love it.
- It's so true.
- That's really true.
That's so true.
- Okay, your culture.
- I haven't told you this yet.
But when I was thinking of it, I was like,
what's it gonna be?
'Cause it really did go to I Love the 80s first.
Best week ever.
But then, I'm just gonna say it.
Water world.
And it's not.
- The ride.
- Okay, and I'll tell you.
And it's not because of the movie,
which I did not see until like two years
after Water World came out.
- Oh, keep talking.
- The show.
- Water World is what got me into Entertainment Weekly
because I was like a little kid and I was like,
I cannot believe how much money they're spending
on Water World.
This is gonna flop.
And then I was like, this is--
- God, that's so you now.
- The narrative of--
- It's like the first--
- It's like my own, the town Matt Bellany obsessed ass.
It's like, it was the origin story of that
where I was like, how could they give Kevin Costner
this much money for this movie?
Like they're building an entire place to film the boat.
Like it's, it was like, I was so invested in this movie
that I could not even see because my parents
would not let me see PG-13 movies until I was 13.
- But you were obsessed with the--
- And I was obsessed with it.
- Kind of logistics.
- And it got me to, I got them to let me subscribe
to Entertainment Weekly.
- Yes.
- Because I was like, I have to follow
the Water World saga.
- Yes.
- And it like, it really, when I,
I'd never really thought about it until last night.
I was like, wait a minute, this like,
this really didn't form so much.
- 'Cause all of a sudden you were like
box office minded.
- I was like, I care about this thing.
- You became a box office guy.
- Literally.
- The economics of--
- Yeah, and it's like, I can't really, I can't engage.
And it sort of came as a concession prize.
'Cause I was like, I can't engage with this movie
the way I want to, which is I can't see it,
but I can read about it.
And I can like--
- That's real.
- Think about it in my bedroom.
- Yeah.
- About like, ugh, I hope it doesn't flop.
This will be bad for Universal.
- Yeah, and also start forming a cultural opinion
on what maybe would be deserving of that kind of money.
Understanding it as a hierarchy in that way
is like-- - Oh.
- Really, I think, important for someone
that's endeavoring to be like involved in all of this.
It's like, that's like, that is truly, I mean,
this is basic building block stuff.
If you're gonna be sitting here,
you have to know about Waterworld's historic bomb.
And the fact that it is an enduring legacy property
because of the stunt show at Universal Studios.
- That's what I was thinking you were gonna say,
'cause that's my fave, Waterworld.
- That's one of my favorite like hypocritical situations
in the history of pop culture is that--
- It failed and yet it gets a showcase.
- It is the most popular stunt show in theme park history.
- And it didn't actually bomb.
- Really?
- Which in Entertainment Weekly taught me
like a year after it came out.
- Talk about that.
- People just thought it bombed.
- There was a, and I've actually considered
going on eBay and getting it
because I have like this vivid memory of like,
the cover is someone, it's like Denzel or Julia.
I feel like it's like Pelican Brief season.
And there is a call out in the top that's like,
"Surprise, Waterworld did okay."
So anytime, I don't know.
I think of Waterworld, I'm like,
"It did okay according to Entertainment Weekly in 1997."
- So then does this change anything for you
in terms of the prevailing narrative around Waterworld,
which is that it was a big bomb?
- I mean, for me, it's like,
it doesn't even matter factually and logistically
what it is.
It exists in the fabric of pop culture
as this enduring thing
because people had conversation about it at all.
I would be very interested
to see what the top 10 movies of that,
what was that?
90?
- Six.
- 96.
Wow, I thought it was way earlier than it was.
Something in there.
I would be very curious to see
what the top 10 movies of 1995 were
and if they are discussed, revered,
culturally observed in any way like the movie Waterworld.
- No, totally.
- Which has something people think about every day.
I think about that all the time with theme parks.
Someone is, someone is experiencing,
- Right now.
- That cinematic culture.
It's happening thousands of times a day every day.
- Are they gonna go watch Waterworld now?
No.
- No?
- No.
They're just gonna know the idea
of something called Waterworld.
They won't even know who's in it.
- Right.
- Right.
- But they'll know that it's probably having to do
with a water world.
- Like Avatar 2.
- Right.
The Way of Water.
- The Way of Water.
Waterworld.
- Perfect title because it was Avatar, but Waterworld.
- Yeah.
- They were in Water Region.
- Which is an iconic thing where you just take your thing
and you put it in water.
- If you have a sequel,
all you have to do for the sequel title is just like,
either put it in water or if it's not in water,
just describe it so that people can understand it
as if it was in water.
- Yeah.
- Like fire and ash.
Like, you know, it's gonna be like,
there's gonna be like fiery, ashy.
- Yeah, 100%.
- What you can expect from the water,
you're gonna get from more fire, more ash.
- It's the James Cameron thing of like he wants people who
speak the language of English.
He wants people to watch any of the Avatar movies in English,
even if they don't understand English.
- They get water.
- To understand the movies at all.
- Water.
- Water.
- Period.
- Visually, you get it.
- They almost drowned Kate Winslet.
It better have worked.
- I know.
- And I think we know where the next five star weekend's
gonna be.
- Water.
- In the water.
- Water in the water.
- Jennifer Garner could hold her breath for seven minutes.
100%.
- Absolutely.
- If she put her mind to it.
- Absolutely.
- Alias training, so real.
- She is limitless.
- I believe that.
- And I've known it
until 13 going on 30.
- I believe it.
- And people might yell because they might say,
well, we've known it since Alias.
But we didn't really know it until 13 going on 30
because 13 going on 30 is a more difficult performance
to give than Alias.
- Speak more.
- Think that not, I mean, you'll notice that when someone
like gets into a place where it's like, wow,
you've really conquered like dramatic television.
Maybe you're a charming, romantic,
comedy heroine.
That is really hard to do just to be like guileless
and charming and like, you know what I mean?
On screen to carry that and play a 13 year old.
The best scene of Jennifer Garner's career to me.
- You love this.
- Well, honestly, I haven't seen every scene
in Jennifer Garner's career,
but it's the end of 13 going on 30.
When a young Mark Ruffalo is like,
has moved on and got married and stuff.
He has, he's getting married.
And she's brought her doll house.
And she's like, I love you, Maddie.
You're my best friend.
And I'm like, oh, this woman is eating it up.
And not everyone can do that.
- We love you, Jennifer.
- It's like when Sandra Bullock receives,
no one is better.
- At receiving a monologue.
- Than Sandra Bullock.
- That is usually about how the person is in love with her.
Then Sandra Bullock, the end of the proposal,
the score tries to fuck it up.
The fact that they did reshoots
and her hair is parted differently
in every single shot they cut to her,
tries to fuck it up.
- Can't stop her, can't stop her.
- The fact that the extras are all doing too much
threatens to fuck it up.
- But no.
- Sandra lands that emotional plane so well.
And all you can say while it's happening is she's doing it.
She's doing it.
She's being a movie star.
- She really is a movie star.
- She is.
- Every time she comes back, we're like, she's back.
She's back.
Our movie star.
Our movie star.
- Also about the summer of Waterworld, The Net.
- The Net.
- The Net.
- The Net.
- The Net.
That's my Waterworld.
- That's real culture number eight.
The Net, that's my Waterworld.
- Imagine how scary a stunts The Net would be.
- Oh, get out.
- Stunts show The Net.
- Oh, God.
- You're getting hacked.
So scary, so realistic.
- I think The Net is the reboot we needed
over Practical Magic.
Not the reboot, like the sequel.
- It'd be more topic.
- It's happening again.
- It would be more topical.
- Oh, my God.
- Think about that.
AI The Net.
- I like that as the tagline.
The Net.
It's happening again.
- Should we write it?
- Yeah.
Who owns that?
- Oh, God.
See, this is the part that sucks.
- This is the part that sucks.
- I know, I know.
- Like, on this podcast, we can be like,
what if it's The Net 2?
It's happening again, and we can have fun.
with it you bring it to a network they're confused they don't get it we gotta talk to so and so it's
like i wrote it on a podcast i wrote on a podcast take it allison's gonna love it we'll need sydney
sweeney to be angela bennett it's gonna be tough fine fine she would kind of slay she might slay
she might eat that did your dad text back yeah oh my god wait my phone is buzzing i heard a buzz and
i said dad dad texted what do you say okay my mom is texting me oh well tell her to land it which
means they just got off a plane okay great okay it's gonna take a while to think about did my dad
respond okay ask dad if no now mom has to ask i'm gonna say well i'm gonna say yay because it's good
for them to know that you're happy totally totally yay ask dad if he knows who sydney sweeney is
okay i bet he does yeah do you think he would lie social experiment i'm not even gonna say it's a
social experiment it's quite honest honest upstanding and be honest that's that kind of gives the taste
okay
do you know who do you know who sandra bullock is and do you know who sydney sweeney is those have
very leave different tastes of course yeah you know sandra bullock was my dad's crush in the 90s
pretty good she looks like my mom when she was young ish okay maybe ish this is like after after
speed or after this is like i'm sure around speed because what person isn't watching that film being
like that's my crush right yeah yeah but i feel like congeniality was where everyone else where
the full culture envelops she's falling down all the time i love that are they making another one
they really should i mean okay first of all arms and fabulous don't play with me about arms and
fabulous you don't like it i don't like it am i playing with you it's i always it's bad i didn't
see it it's bad but it's yeah regina deserved better you know what you can play with me about
it it's bad okay okay mom lol he is googling her now he said he's heard of her oh are you asking
because of the commercial that she does lol yeah this is every all the commercial this is what i
needed to know they're seeing her name in headlines and on the news work yeah yeah they didn't see
anyone but you it's not about it's not about the work no and i think what them's ultimately want is
for the for
is to be recognized for the work i know which is hard because it's conflicts with like the work you
have to do sometimes to make money exactly and live and pay a stylist and there are just so many
things that like the rip like the tear down the photo of you there are so many things about the
experience of it that just cheapen the whole thing yeah yeah and that's what's i don't know
it's just uh yeah bums you out you know who else is like a perfect case study who you also
discuss in this for so many elements of this is jamie lee curtis oh yeah jamie
lee curtis has gone from them to who and them to who and even though she still remained like like
the hooeyness of doing the activia ads that was like the start of something yeah that was like
the start of like shame going away i think like what could be more vulnerable than yeah yeah well
remember when like movie stars being on tv was shameful right or hooey or whatever and now it's
literally every movie stars it's all we want it's all we want yeah it's all we want and
and they're happy to do it because the money is there as well and there's like money in tv to like
make them look good apple tv etc yeah but it's like there are so many things that where it took
one person to break that and then it's like now it's fine anyone can do it yeah maybe jamie lee's
yogurt like opened the door yeah for everyone else that was who did the kristen wick kristen
wick was the activity like those were such a joke yeah so long and she never stopped
she did them forever yeah and i think that she was kind of ahead of the curve
and like i don't care what you say this is a good check and like it's keeping me in the public eye
and she laughed all the way to the oscar stage ultimately all the way to the oscar stage you
also mentioned that she did a podcast for like 30 episodes which i remember i remember now the
who is thing you can do as a celebrity is start a podcast and abandon it and not say a word ever
again about it yeah it was like jamie lee curtis's good friend that's what it was called or whatever
and it was like let me talk to my good friend yeah and then all of a sudden it was like leah
michelle and jonathan groff it's like i think they were doing press yeah yeah yeah yeah so
anyways that's my new determiner i know i know i know we have i know we're like we've branched off
in different slightly different directions in terms of despite starting at the same time and
we've branched off in slightly different directions in terms of podcasting but i do feel especially
after reading that chapter i do feel this sort of like i'm gonna say pride and just sort of
like protectiveness over the medium i'm like wait like this is important and story of your life
catherine desert morton it's like she writes about how like you know social media is all
about capture and something like podcasting or just conversations where you know there's no
i let's just say like there's a conversation without cameras and microphones it's all about
um release or something it's just about like
letting your thoughts unfurl and taking things back and then walking and but then pushing things
forward and then talking over each other and there's just something about not to like lionize
what we do too much don't do it there's just something there's there's an antidotal aspect
to what we do i think yeah do you think kind of the long form free form nature of podcasts like
will bring how am i saying this will like make people more aware of what they're saying and then
they'll like want to say more interesting things or something it challenges i do think it's kind of
the last place where you're gonna get the interesting nuggets that they stopped giving you
in the profiles because you talk about the self-awareness of the subject receiving the
profile and i think a way that was starting to become like it literally was parodying
itself it's like after how many times can you read an article that's like
gwyneth paltrow walks into cafe jetain wearing a simple white button down and she effortlessly
tosses a cashmere sweater across the table i love this place she says like as as someone sweeps over
and this is good i want to read that people figure it out how to do that so well i don't want that to
happen with this i don't want someone and it's happened a couple times with celebrities that have
come in here where i'm like you're doing you're treating it like press i'm sure and i it it makes
me itch because we don't like doing it and also i don't want to do it because we don't like doing it
and also i know the readers don't like listening well they see through it they do see that they're
smart they're smart they are smart they're smart they are smart we repeat it 50 more times they're
smart they're smart they're smart but i think i think what is what i'm kind of like ensconcing
with us let's say is like the on a fundamental i think our podcast and your podcast will never
change because of the friendship yeah i think that's right i know that sounds so corny and stuff
but it's like honestly like that is what keeps it that is like the binding agent of the whole thing
like i like demi lovato is not going to post her podcast anymore because she she wants to do she
does this is not right it's like you it's like i'm always like wanting to talk to bobby about
some like celebrity stuff like whatever it is whether or not you guys on mic off mic it doesn't
matter and also people can tell when you're not being yourself feeling that whatever i mean this
is all i don't know about you guys but like half the we say is like group chat it's like
from the group chat we've already talked about it what everyone think about this is this interesting
to everyone it's like it's group chat research i think that like obviously another huge difference
between like what both our podcasts do is like we have had guests from the very beginning like our
we had our first episode that was us and then every single episode we had a guest
until the pandemic and we started doing really just the things with the two of us but the thing
when you have a guest of a certain magnitude of course you think i what we hope every single
time is that it just feels like this yeah you know what i mean and i think we started to think
of it as a little bit of a challenge like can we get jennifer lopez in here and get her to talk to
us like this and i think we have varying degrees of success it's but it's it's interesting because
it feels like the assumption that's being made is oh they just want to bring famous people in but i
think the goal is every single time is to have it feel like this it's a challenge yeah and so and so
you're like how famous can we get them and how real can we get the famous people because sometimes
you hit a home run and you get like someone like jennifer lawrence chicken right exactly without
having to torture right by just by nature of the atmosphere and being what it is and obviously in a
media landscape and in like a medium that is changing along with us we can't tell what that's
gonna be and we're still learning and we're still learning and we're still learning and we're still
learning like 10 years in i'm sure the ways in which you guys are still learning about your
podcast and the dynamics of it but it's it's exactly like you said like as it's changing
alongside you you can't prepare for how it's all gonna feel you know of course so we had guests two
or three times yeah and we said we don't want to do this anymore right yeah great and because it's
a different show than yours and we were like if we're gonna if we're gonna comment on what you are
doing in the media specifically we don't want to be that media totally it it ruined the magic it's
the same reason like we've had a couple of opportunities not through her official channels
but through like media some publications they were like would you two want to write the cover
story on rita aura for x magazine and we're like no no absolutely not because that that breaks the
fourth wall it breaks the seal it's
It's like we want no part of that.
- But what we liked when we did do interviews
is that we, and these people you run out of quick,
we realized, is we would choose people
who were like kind of self-aware about their own fame.
Busy Phillips, Spencer Pratt.
Before, eight years ago, Ashley I.
People who-- - Wow, Ashley I.
Isn't it funny to watch what's happened there?
Because she was a real favorite
of Bachelor Nation watchers.
- The crying just has been there from the start.
Really, somebody who is so utterly herself
and can't help it.
We would, that's who we wanted to talk to.
And then we realized very quickly
that we would run out of those people.
- And for every busy, there would be 50 celebrities
who weren't as down and weren't as open
or even like aware of their place in fame.
And not in a derogatory way.
It's just like, they never really had the opportunity
or time to take a step back and realize where they were.
And it might be better that they don't think about it.
- It might be better for them
that they're not processing, processing.
- And it wasn't, we worried
that it wouldn't be fun.
- Yeah.
- No, that's a huge consideration
that you guys I think should be very proud of.
I think we are not just quite as discerning
because literally all we, our only guiding principle
in terms of booking people is,
oh, this is just somebody we wanna talk to.
- Yeah, I mean, I think our thing is like,
do they have like an identifiable cultural identity?
And are we both excited about it?
And do we feel like there's a good chance
we could provide something fun and nutritious
for the readers of the podcast?
And I think if we've ever like,
- There's been a couple of times
where we walk in the room after it and we're like, fuck.
- Yeah.
- But almost never, like that's the thing is like,
we enjoy it.
- And I feel fine being lumped in with like the other,
like cushy, friendly, celeb podcast spaces.
I think there's more to us than that,
but that's just us sort of self-preserving.
- Right, it's also your brand.
- Yeah.
- You're established.
It's not you guys for GQ, it's not you guys for Vogue,
it's not you guys.
That's what I'm saying is like that presentation,
I think is when people are like, ask a question, please.
Like a real question, like this is your brand.
Like you are deciding the temperature
of your conversations with people.
- Sure.
- And they wanna have fun.
- We try, it's just that it's so hard now with Hulu
because they-
- Totally, blame Hulu.
- It's so difficult.
- Yeah, I know.
- They have constant notes.
- Yeah, Hulu, totally.
- They want our episodes to be six and a half minutes.
They're quibby.
- Time for some prep wisdom.
- But first, some common sense, people.
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Yes, even your situationship.
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- Did you know there's more to consider
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Also, why you wanna take it matters.
Your lifestyle matters, your routine, your chaos level,
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All of it counts.
- Basically, talk to your doctor.
Have the conversation, ask the questions,
be a little nosy about your own health.
It's allowed, encouraged even.
- Okay, did you write all that down?
- No, don't worry.
- Just head to getprepwisdom.com
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- It might be time.
- It might be time.
- It might be time for I Don't Think So, Honey.
- We came in, we've been trying to do secret bits
with all of our guests.
And the one today was just gonna be holding up
the book upside down every time.
But you guys caught on.
- We didn't.
- I liked it.
- I wanted to be like, but you're.
- I liked it.
- Oh, I see what you're doing.
- I got it.
- That was the thing is I think note for us
is we have to find ways to less obviously lean in
and enjoy our own bit at the top.
- It was funny.
- 'Cause we did that in unison.
'Cause I think sometimes we can't help it.
- It was too obvious, it was too choreographed.
- What?
- I don't think so, honey.
A little hair in the book.
- Oh.
- That's in there.
- That's supposed to be there.
- It's in there.
- It comes with every book.
- Yeah, it was supposed to be in there.
- It's Rita Ora's, it's fine.
- It's Rita Ora's.
Okay, well, this is going to be, I don't think so, honey.
This is our 62nd segment wherein we tear something up
in pop culture or at large in culture.
I also will say, this has been one of my favorite episodes
we've done in a very long time.
- Ever.
- That's so nice.
- I said ever.
- Ever.
- I just feel like it's also been a long time coming.
- A long time coming.
- Because I think our listeners were like,
are you guys even friends?
Like, why haven't they had you on?
And I'm kind of like--
- We get a lot of, do you hate them?
- No.
- Yeah, yeah.
- What are you talking about?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- As if we're supposed to, you know, like, be back in time.
- You know what, it is that thing though.
- 'Cause I think, 'cause we're, you know, we're brothers.
So it's like, people are kind of like,
you're having the same conversation sometimes.
It's like, you should be having it with each other.
And I'm like, we should.
The positive way is more just like,
you guys, you have the same listeners.
Like, we love them.
So why are you not hanging out with them?
- And also, we don't go on podcasts
much. - No.
- But now we're promoting this book.
So we're doing it a lot.
- Yes. - Yeah.
- No, I'm saying, and I mean this is like,
I'm so pleased that we finally did it.
- I know.
How was your experience in the clubhouse with Andy?
- Incredible.
What a professional.
- Oh yeah, he's--
- What a professional.
Also, when he took a photo of us,
I was like, cardboard cut out.
I mean, he's perfect.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- He's perfect.
- He's a perfect celebrity in the words of Lady Gaga.
- Perfect.
- I know he's a reader,
and I would love to believe that he read it.
But the way, I assume he didn't have time, he's busy.
When he told us that he liked the book
and thought it was so smart backstage--
- It was really nice.
- I found myself thinking,
I both don't believe that you had time to read this book,
and also, that is the most wonderful compliment
I ever could have, like you are so good at delivering this.
- If that's what he said, I believe that he read it.
- Yeah.
- I think I 60% do.
- To get it.
- To get it.
- And it's fully not about that.
I know he's a reader, he's a writer.
I'm just like, I don't think, he does so much.
And I'm like, how did you have time for our book?
- But talk about a show.
- But I trusted it.
- A perfect show.
- Perfect show.
- I love watching that live.
- A perfect show, snappy, gets people to say stuff,
people feel comfortable, they're drinking,
they're having fun, the audience is small,
they're reactive.
I'm just like, that's a perfect show.
- And also, if there's any book that is up his alley,
it's this.
- I absolutely think you read it.
- It's the best week ever silliness that we respond to.
- I know, the best part about writing a book
about celebrities is that the people we talk about,
I hope that maybe some of them will read it
and be like, useful.
Like, oh, okay, cool.
- Honestly.
- I'm using it, or I'm thinking about this more.
- Oh.
- It's--
- It's given me such a frame,
like a new framework on just thinking about fame.
- Yeah, and like, positive, hopefully in a positive way.
- Completely holistic, the great, the bad,
the everything between the good and the bad.
- Because it makes you laugh at it again.
- Yes.
- Because sometimes it--
- It's so silly.
- Sometimes when it's uncomfortable,
and it feels like the perception
is that you're cravin' about it,
it gets to be a bummer, and then you're like,
my God, this is so dumb, like, you know what I mean?
Like, it's just--
- Like, I'm laughing.
- It's chicken show.
- Chicken show.
- Chicken show, it's like, we're pals with him,
it's like, I laugh about Ben Platt being on the Wicked Forum,
you know, just being like, hi, my name is Ben Platt.
- One of the most important kind of screenshots of our time.
- Truly.
- And that's important that he should know that.
- Like, there's, like, it's all, it's all in the matrix.
- It's culture.
- It's culture.
- It's culture, sorry, okay, now you need to be here,
I was interrupting.
- No, no, no, it's really important.
- This is Bowen Yang's I Don't Think So, Honey,
and his time starts now.
- I Don't Think So, Honey's saying,
oh, well, that kind of food doesn't travel well.
- Food is not meant to travel at all.
It's supposed to travel from the kitchen
to the fucking table.
Yeah, it's gonna come, it's gonna be a little mushy,
it's gonna be, it's not gonna be optimal,
but you're gonna eat it with a plastic fork anyway
at your job, it's okay.
We have no, there's no need to be sanctimonious
about the integrity structurally about food.
We're all bull slop, trough, pigs, it's okay.
- 30 seconds.
- We don't have to be fastidious
about the way food is presented,
unless you're at this gorgeously curated dining room.
It's a dining experience.
Being a little persnickety about like,
oh, let's not do soup dumplings doesn't travel well.
Just get a spoon or sip the broth from the plastic tub
like the rest of us.
You don't need to be all buttoned up about it.
There's no etiquette when it comes to this.
Travel well is a farce.
It ends up being, it ends up limiting your options,
doesn't it?
- And that's one minute.
- So order whatever you want.
- As a crab lover, like.
- As a crab lover.
- Yes, say that.
- You know what I'm saying?
- No, yeah, say that.
As a crab lover.
- As a crab lover, this is something I think about.
- Just order it.
Doesn't matter.
- I did one time, and then, the thing about it is it. - Wait, how did it come?
- You're saying it doesn't travel.
- It doesn't travel.
- It doesn't travel.
- How did it come?
- It just came in like a bag.
- And how far did it go?
- It comes in like a hot plastic bag.
So they deliver it in a hot plastic bag,
you open it, it steams out the bag,
and then you do have to like put it in the,
it's like, you know, it's a thing.
- Wow, that, mm.
- I just think, I just think, just order it anyway,
and just accept the fact that it's not gonna be,
it's not gonna be, it's not gonna come out
like fully plated with a fucking--
- No.
- Yeah, it's fine.
You chose to order in.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Take responsibility.
- Well, I just think, you know, a lot of my conversations
right now at work are like people being like,
"Oh my God, let's order this thing and this thing
"and this thing to the theater."
And then people being like, "Well, no, that doesn't travel."
I'm like, "What are you talking about?
"Just order it."
- Well then, and also,
like then fine, like why, I wonder why it's an option then if it doesn't
travel it certainly would have been taken off the menu you know what i mean and restaurants are
coming up with a great new innovative ways to to you know set you up for success yeah new packaging
new packaging oh let's put the noodles and a broth in separate i love when they do that
genius i know it's extra plastic but you know but you know um i have one i just realized i have and
i think it's i love when you just realize it's relevant okay mine wasn't no no yours was super
relevant yours is relevant i'm just i'm happy i'm happy and enchanted okay that it's relevant
i didn't think i'd have a relevant one today oh you're always relevant this is matt rogers i don't
think sony's time starts now i don't think so honey you can't say yes to giving a positive
sign on every single book jacket when when people reach out to you you have to be discerning
because sometimes i see blurbs from a lot of the same people gia tolentino no oh
i see you in a lot of blurbs she's a i know you love this book but you were also on the the story
of your life she's gonna be just saying how dare you 30 seconds i'm kidding with her she's gonna
love this she's gonna love it we're gonna write a book and we are gonna send it to you and we want
you to be honest and if you come back and say no that i will respect that i will respect that but
if you say yes i'll be like will you say yes to every book i see you on every book jacket
gia tolentino i don't think so honey and i'm here's what i'll say every single book i've seen
you on has been delightful and that's what makes you gia tolentino don't listen to me i hope you
never do and that's one minute oh my god she's gonna love that she's gonna love it oh she's
gonna love it one of the most brilliant one of the most brilliant honestly and by the way the
collection of people you have book jacketing we're so that's the best part let us go crazy that's the
best part well it's like you've you've you've are you like done you're doing this now you're doing
this now we are
especially after um we've read your book we're gonna take more time but when you're done you're
like oh it's done and then you have to start doing that and you feel like it's gonna be a
piece of shit and it's not until other people start reading it and they're like this was really
good and you feel like no no it wasn't what are you talking about and it's like the best feeling
in the world like our blur like we that's those are the best people these are really good
and lena dunham and i love that it says author of fame sick not creator of girls etc author of fame
when you're putting this together that book had just come out was doing incredibly remember like
this rocks like this oh yeah perfect and i will also say i love that you guys shared a bio on the
jacket you guys can do that that was a conversation yeah that would be nice for us i think it'd be nice
for us to share also our photo just a party photo i know i know because we didn't fucking care because
we didn't care and guess what i love it one less photo shoot great by me one less photo shoot with
less of a risk for glaine maxwell's name to be on the to get a photo you know what it should be it
should be uh so rogers and bell and yang are the hosts of lost culture east us and got their start
doing gray's anatomy drag yes oh yeah yeah yes yes just that yes that it should people know your
bio they don't even know where you're from with the bio where you're from anywhere um who wants
to go first you pick you go first okay i wanted you to pick because i knew you would mine is kind
of in conversation with
with our conversation oh okay yours is a better finale okay mine is in conversation with bowen
sort of okay and that it's related to food and i can get started um okay this is bobby fingers i
don't think so honey it's time starts now this is a product of my horrible algorithm but i don't
think so honey pretending food is something else oh every time i go on instagram there's a product
of protein culture they're telling me that greek yogurt is cheesecake they're telling me that dates
are snicker bar snickers bars i watched a woman from scotland last night in my bed
crush up a baked sweet potato and say it's a reese's candy bar and i was like no i reject that
i'm i'm rejecting not beyond burgers not zoodles desserts yeah it feels especially egregious when
it's desserts when you say oh i'm gonna mix up this tub of chobani with jello pudding that's a
trend and i'm gonna call it soft serve i'm gonna mix up cottage cheese in a blender and i'm gonna
say that it's cheesecake uh-huh that's not what that is it's offensive it's gaslighting 15 seconds
we're talking about ai we can't trust anything i want to be able to trust what's on my plate yes
it's making a costume out of cuisine drag balons and gay bars not on my plate
it's almost like hot ice cream hot ice cream exactly late late which we tried
was so crucial absolutely by the way you tried it how was it it was hot chocolate it's mush
it's liquid chocolate and they kept saying god bless tyra banks we got to see her stunning in
person never seen her in person it was unbelievable greatest moment of my life in the 90 minutes
before that they couldn't get the hot ice cream thing to work yeah and i was like which i think
they were melting ice cream chocolate and milk i think they were melting the ice cream what is more
um what what is what is more appealing hot ice cream or uh serendipity frozen hot chocolate
serendipity because they've been doing that for years they got that down
yeah
that is people are traveling for that it's delicious it's gorgeous hot ice cream paper
cup melted puddle there's no i gotta go to australia it makes no sense it makes no sense
but then it also that speaks to tyra's brand right yeah she's incredible you know she's
recording the audiobook of model model and yes we saw uh oscar montoya would do his i think it
was a podcast or for an oscar would read a chapter from monoland every every single episode i think
somehow he got away with it because i guess i love this and it goes all the way back people
are discovering it now but we've lived with this book in our lives forever i didn't realize they
were actually desires to make it a real physical space i think oh yeah yeah it ruined it yeah
covid covid is why hot ice cream exists because she because she wanted to do a model land theme
park covid they were like no in-person stuff and she literally said i have to pivot to ice cream
we need jenny nicholson on the case now are you guys familiar oh my god a six hour well she's
the youtuber
she's so good
journalistic sort of she has bona fides yes body pulitzer nobel macarthur
i've never seen anything like the star wars hotel four and a half hour video or the evermore um park
in utah three hour takedown where she does go into the lawsuit with taylor swift it is stunning
i've never seen that one it's you're both gonna love it um bobby the food you're right if you if
you're gonna call that soft serve then words lose meaning
that's thank you it's a semantics it's a semantics issue and it's like
and i don't have a problem with the beyond burger i don't i like sure yeah also beyond burger feels
like any sort of like fake plant feels like an attack on vegans right yes a burger is a patty
between buns dessert implies delicious and i'll tell you what's not delicious chobani mix with
jello pudding yeah that's a big my algorithms are a total nightmare but it's like they're all
mixing chobani pudding with sugar-free jello mix uh-huh uh-huh sugar-free jello pudding
mix and then putting in like rainbow sprinkles and being like you made ice cream and you can
eat the whole tub and it's only 500 why would i why would you but explain the potato and theresa's
pieces uh reese's peanut butter cups oh sorry sorry not the pieces although i'm sure there's
a recipe they bake the sweet potato they mash it down in a uh like a loaf pan yeah and then
they drizzle some special chocolate and no peanut butter first which is probably like a bad peanut
butter and then chocolate and then they cut it into circles and they're like it's reese's peanut
why is it circles
it's not that so much why is it circles sweet potato just eat it i know why is that to be
circles i just feel like it's it's way more offensive than fake entrees yeah i agree and
it seems like a different thing too than like the is it cake of it like yeah it's that seems like a
different thing too it's also meant to deceive and it's all going back to like the protein craze
which i find a little bit nauseating at this point yeah it's like we don't need
to make every meal that we have have 50 grams of protein in it right well it's also it's
it's only to sell it because people are still people haven't questioned why you know what i mean
it's just like oh it's high in protein i'm told to do this well have you seen i'm i'm sorry to linger
no it's it's instagram influencing food influencing but have you seen the tables are already turning
now all the fiber girlies are like now's my time to shine girls because they're like this protein
needs a compliment and that's beans the five girls are coming for the program i actually wonder i
wonder culturally how we're doing in terms of fiber not well i don't think so i'm doing great
yeah you are i've been so happy i know you never heard i know i never stopped i know it's a bean
house it's a bean house i wish i had eaten those we had we had a dinner last night and there was
tons of beans beans i don't want to eat that i'm only eating the fish and then now where am i i'm
at a loss fiber wise you're at a loss you're at a deficit i'm in a fiber deficit you know what one
time i bought off shark tank fried chicken ice cream and how was it it was maple flavored i vanilla
like ice cream with in the shape of a chicken oh my god and it was like um they were not it was like
crunchy crumbs and crunchies on it and so did you and it look you know what it was fine but it
existed for the conceit yeah not because it was very good it was like yeah someone was like oh it
might be a fun idea to have ice cream look like chicken like speaking to the is it cake of it all
tank we used to invent scrubs i know amazing sponges sorry yes yes yes we used to uh innovate
sponges now we're we're not doing that anymore
it doesn't seem
I think Bethany broke it
yeah
you could say that
about a few other things
and I do
Burning Man
Burning Man
Burning Man
she broke crabs
as a crab lover
dating tuna
yeah totally
chicken salad
I mean you can't go
to a seafood restaurant
anymore after she ate
she bit through the
through the
through the
crab claws
we had
we had an awkward
encounter with her
on the way to Canada
it was not fun
on the way in here
no on the way to
we each got
we got separately
flown out to Cannes
for this like
you know
advertisers
for Cannes Lions
for Cannes Lions
and we were
kind of corralled
into the same
like waiting area
to wait for our bags
to come out
did she confront
she did not confront
but she could tell
that we were not fans
like she
she knew him
because he's a them
yeah
and then
he goes Matt's here too
and she looks at me
half smiles and goes
I kid you not
she goes
oh that's you
that's kind of iconic
I love that
that's a good one
I love that
I was just like
yep
and then we had like
small
small
talk about
it was of course
she was
she went on about
some grievance
about flying in airports
and we were like
totally
listen
if that wasn't the case
with some people
then you really
would be too far gone
with this podcast
because you
you're still
expressing your
well here's the thing
here's what I
here's what I respect
about her
yeah
same thing
I hope to say
about myself one day
yeah
she never
fucking
changed
for anyone
she was
maybe she got
more extreme
but she
Bethany
is Bethany
and is gonna
Bethany
and will
will always
be Bethany
and she was Bethany
in that moment
she was so Bethany
and also
it actually
we never really
talked about this
but I actually
kind of enjoyed that
because it reminded me
of when I really
loved Bethany
she knew what you
wanted kind of
well she was doing it
whenever someone is in front of you
and they're doing it
it's like the
Sandra Bullock of it all
Bethany was talking about
like yeah well you know
the reason why
these rooms are a little smaller
is because well
you've heard about this
and you know
I really didn't enjoy that
and she
kind of was going
the whole looking at me
and going oh that's you
she was doing it
and not to
not to be
like I would be so overwhelmed
if that happened to me
and it gave me a model
which is what like
in it's best moments
Housewives gives us
it's like a model
for like conflict
and resolution
where if I were
now I kind of know
I would try to be inspired
by that behavior
if I were to run into someone
who like I
and this has happened
a few times
where like I know
someone's talked shit about me
and I'll be like
oh hey that's you
that's a great way
to just diffuse it
like Bethany taught us
something in that moment
there's always
always been
always been
I mean even
predating Hollywood
in industry
there like
throughout civilizations
there has been
gossip
and like
didn't
did you define gossip
in this book
I think so
didn't we
I think we define it
we define
but you just
you quote Capote
which is all gossip is
that's what it was
what is it
literature
gossip is literature
yeah I love that
yes and I
it sort of made me
rethink him in a way too
because it's like
what exactly did these women
think
he's like listening
for the story
right
he would have told that
to the group chat
that would have been
an incredible voice note
but he's Truman Capote
so he exactly knows
but these women
see him as something
serviceable and useful
someone who is useful
to them
so they were telling
somebody who they knew
could tell the story
in an interesting way
which is what profiles
should be
why your podcast
is great
like all that
sort of that you can see
everything of it all too
it's like I'm inviting you
I'm still
I'm still processing
we just talked about it
for an hour and a half
we still know
yeah
but yes you're right
that's totally it
are you ready for
I don't think so honey
okay I want to be clear
I thought of this
before our conversation
but I'm so happy
it's relevant
okay amazing
it's so relevant
this is Lindsay Webber
I don't think so honey
your time starts now
okay
I don't think so honey
pivot to video
yeah
gorgeous set
yeah
everyone looks fabulous
you are camera ready
don't
don't mistake me
whatever
but gone are the days
yeah
where we could just
speak so
directly into our
microphone
directly into our
to the parasocial
nature of our audiences
yeah
we could be in pajamas
we could do things
at our leisure
I'm really just like
speaking to you guys
at our leisure
you know I just feel like
it's hearkening back to radio
now we've taken it to TV
why do we need more TV
we don't need more TV
we need more radio
and in this way
I feel like we also
could use more podcasts
but now I'm like
only podcasts
that are audio only
right
the celebrities
are taking over
they love TV
they love to be on camera
but us we don't
and that's how we do it
we're different
yeah
and that is literally
all I have to say about that
and that's one minute
honestly
thank you
it's so funny
because like
I think it's like
it speaks to this idea
that the celebrity podcast
is so cyclical
because they realize
they don't want to do it
they just wanted to
make easy money
in their purview
and be on camera
but that's why I love
our 10 year
like we know
what it takes
and we're listening
and we're editing
and we're thinking
and we're adjusting
and we're doing
and like they don't
they can't do that
they can't take that from us
I know
and like part of me
wants to just like
like do it like
I mean you guys are doing it
like the Marin way
he's like
don't ever bring a camera
a video camera
into my fucking garage
like
he fully
it's interesting
that he fully stopped
he just stopped
he saw it turn
and also he was
he became another
he was so early
he was so early
I was lucky enough
to like be like
one of his last episodes
and we
it was just
I just went over to his hotel
and then we just
we just
a dark
unlit hotel room
and it was kind of like
I was
it was a little bit entrancing
I was like
oh I'm
I'm not used to this anymore
right
a podcast
like it's so
so
cause
and now it just feels
kind of stupid
to see the mics
in front of us
you know what I mean
it's like
no it feels great
you know what I mean
everyone did a great job
no no no
I love this
I love this
I love all of this
every single person
in the room
is looking down
at their phones
and we're like
we're talking to them
and they're not looking
they don't care
here's the thing
are people even watching them
or are they just listening
to them
so get this
they are
they
oh we got the stats
they are
they are
but it's funny
because now you start to see
the conversation
take hold online
which is like
what is happening
when this
part of the podcast
went down
and it's like
oh right
because we were a visual
we forgot about the audio
and we used to joke
podcasts are a visual medium
that was like
a bit that we did for years
and now it's like
video killed the radio star
again
again
again
again
see this is a trap
this is the trap
and I hope
and I'm not even saying like
I want this to happen
but if it eventually does
as we know it's cyclical
when the cameras turn off
that you two
go right back to audio only
oh yeah
we'll be fine
absolutely
we're gonna survive
because we'll still be here
we'll be here
so will we
waiting for you
oh my god
we'll be there
we've been talking about it a lot
and I feel like
it's kind of high time
that we sort of
acknowledge the fact
that it's all changed
yeah
because it does feel like
this weird elephant in the room
and so that's another reason
why it's been so nice
to talk to you guys
specifically about all this stuff
is because
it would be weird
to not
we talk about like
pop culture
in our industry
and we have all been doing it
for a long time now
over a decade
so to be able to talk about it
with people that get it
and that have lived it
and are living it
and it seems like
seeing it happen
is like really nice
and refreshing
and makes me feel
less self-conscious about it
I think you go
where your show takes you
yeah
you know what I mean
and we wouldn't be able
to do the show
the way that we want to do our show
because we edit it
and it's so topical
and we don't have
yes it's just us
or whatever
we wouldn't be able to do it
unless we were taping it
at 9am
on like Mondays
and Thursdays
like in our underwear
with cans on
like at our own houses
we just wouldn't be able to do it
and that's the nature
of why it's audio only
yeah
you gotta get it
you gotta get the book
you gotta get the book
no but for real
it's I wanna be famous
when everybody and nobody
is a celebrity
by these two
and be listening
to the podcast
it's
and as Lena Dunham says
on the book jacket
come for the laughs
and incredible
cultural deep cuts
stay for the exegesis
exegesis
yep
exegesis
and that's why she
exegesis
that's why she's Lena
that's why she's Lena
on how we wound up
dot dot dot here
before we go
thoughts on the girls revival
we talked on our episode
about our last episode
about what we wanna see
hopes and dreams
for the five episodes
what do you guys wanna see
from the five episodes
I'm nervous
but we loved
In Just Like That
yeah
we loved it
copy
so if it's anything
in that realm
sure
I'm happy to see it
yeah
which is to say
it can do anything
it can do anything
and you will be happy
it can be anything
also five episodes
yeah that's what I wanted
I wanted something limited
and I want something
that visually looks like it
yes
because I think
one of the jarring things
about In Just Like That
is it doesn't look like sex
I know
it's jarring
aesthetically
and if it looks
like girls
like we're just back
to the same old look
and vibe
same color grade
same cameras
I'll be really happy
exactly
so as long as all the girls
are there
yeah
and they're gonna be there
if the girls all agree
then we will be there
I think we're getting
the girls and Andrew
Rita Wilson
Rita Wilson
Rita Wilson
which I think
says great things
about Marnie
the fact that
Rita Wilson is in it
means that she's still
in a weird
codependent relationship
with her mother
who was
one of the
most underrated
characters on that show
yes
and why Lena
and Rita
Wilson
are such
close friends
which I'm obsessed
with
I love it
I hope they're
at the Chelsea Cafe
right now
I believe it
brainstorming
we'll take more girls
you know Rita
has ideas
come on
unwanted ideas
wanted ideas
talk about a triple threat
she's filled with ideas
she's our queen
have her on the pod
honestly
at this point
yeah
have her on the pod
cameras off
accosted her
in public once
and she was just like
totally fine with it
I was like
I'm sorry
can I say hi
and she was like
yes
I love her so much.
Because one thing about her is she's the mother of Chet Hayes.
One thing about her.
But isn't it Chet Hayes?
Oh, Chet Hayes.
It is Chet Hayes.
Chet Hayes, Chet Hanks.
And that's his stage name.
He might get mad at Hayes these days.
I think he doesn't like being reminded of the Hays.
Okay.
He's Hanks now.
Oh, because he's sober now?
Well, it's not necessarily a sobriety thing.
It's like that's an identity that he's trying to distance himself from.
Oh, sure, sure, sure.
And we should respect that.
He's like a pro.
Respect him.
Yeah.
Everyone out there, let that be the last thing you hear.
Respect Chet.
It's actually a rule of culture.
Number 49.
No, don't do it.
Respect Chet.
I think he's worthy of respect and dignity.
My favorite episode of Z-Way ever.
That's for sure.
See, and he did like that show.
He put himself in the line of fire and he said, I get this.
I get what's going on here.
I'll do it.
I will say this.
I don't watch and consume all of our peers' stuff.
I watch every episode of Z-Way.
I love her.
That's one of the original torturies.
I was one of the first torturies.
Yeah, and that.
Brave.
You had no idea what you were in for.
Never could have known.
Those are the funniest episodes.
I would be a part of culture.
And he spelled Colin Kaepernick's name perfectly.
K-A-E-P-E-R-N-I-C-K.
There you go.
We end every episode with a song.
Oh.
I will never let you down.
Whoa.
And thank you also for shouting out this one.
I'm grateful.
Stream Rita.
Bye.
bye last culturist this is the production by will ferrell's big money players and i heart radio
podcasts created and hosted by matt rogers and bowen yang executive produced by anna
hosnier and produced by becca ramos edited by hot dog sandwich and our music is by henry kabrowski
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Podcast Summary
Key Points:
The podcast explores the cultural concept of "them" versus "who" in celebrity identity, highlighting how fame shapes perception and self-awareness.
Being a "them" means being widely recognized and subject to societal judgment, often leading to a sense of performance and discomfort.
The transition from "who" to "them" is influenced by media exposure, public attention, and cultural trends, with many celebrities navigating this shift through visibility and controversy.
The discussion emphasizes the emotional toll of fame, including unwanted scrutiny, online vitriol, and the paradox of being both celebrated and isolated.
A key theme is the cultural evolution of celebrity, particularly how media platforms now define fame through curated narratives and performance.
The podcast critiques the over-commercialization of celebrity culture, where attention is weaponized and personal boundaries are blurred.
Rita Aura is celebrated as a symbol of authenticity and independence, resisting fame’s demands and maintaining a grounded, self-aware presence.
The conversation concludes with a reflection on the future of celebrity, suggesting that cultural attention cycles will continue to shift, with new stars emerging and fading rapidly.
Summary:
The podcast delves into the evolving dynamics of celebrity culture, introducing the concept of "them" versus "who" to explore how fame is perceived and internalized. A "them" is someone widely recognized and constantly under public scrutiny, while a "who" is less defined, offering freedom but less visibility. The discussion reveals that fame often comes with emotional discomfort, such as unwanted attention and online backlash, especially when one's private life is exposed.
The conversation highlights how media and cultural platforms shape these identities, with celebrities like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Rita Aura serving as case studies. Rita is presented as a model of authenticity, resisting fame's pressures and maintaining personal autonomy. The podcast critiques the current celebrity economy, where attention is commodified and personal boundaries are eroded.
It also notes the cultural shift from traditional to digital fame, where visibility is fleeting and often tied to viral moments. The hosts reflect on the emotional toll of fame and the growing complexity of celebrity identity in a media-saturated world. Ultimately, the discussion suggests that while fame offers visibility, it also brings isolation and performance—making the journey from "who" to "them" a deeply personal and often unsettling experience.
The podcast concludes with a sense of cultural evolution, acknowledging that new stars emerge rapidly, and the cycle of attention continues, often leaving behind a legacy of fleeting visibility.
FAQs
Different injectable options vary based on your lifestyle, routine, and personal preferences. It's important to discuss with your doctor how often you'd receive the injection and how it fits into your daily life, including your energy levels and chaos level.
Not all injectable options are the same. Your doctor can help you understand the pros, cons, and potential side effects, ensuring the option best aligns with your health needs and lifestyle.
The 'them' refers to celebrities who are widely recognized and often the subject of public attention, while 'who' refers to individuals who are less known but still influential. This distinction highlights how fame and public perception shape cultural narratives.
Being a 'them' brings intense public scrutiny and constant attention, which can lead to feelings of pressure, vulnerability, and a loss of personal autonomy, even if they are comfortable with fame.
The rise of tabloids and social media has amplified public focus on 'them,' while 'who' figures often remain in the background, creating a culture where visibility and attention are highly valued and sometimes sought after.
The book examines how celebrities navigate identity, public perception, and fame over a decade, using real-life examples to show how fame can shift from 'who' to 'them' and the emotional toll it can take.
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