ICYMI

The new AI agents from Meta and OpenAI have one thing in common: they look like children’s cartoons. At the same time these companies are warning that AI will kill us all, they’re trying to convince users to try even more products by making them look as cuddly and innocent as possible. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by writer and Slate columnist Steffi Cao to talk about just how much access these AI agents want in our lives, and what they’re hiding behind their fuzzy facades.This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

Ten years ago, the world was gearing up to welcome the first female president. Instead, Donald Trump’s surprise victory went on to alter America’s entire political landscape. It’s exactly what the people behind the Pussyhat Project feared. And yet, the pink knitted hat that took over the first of many Women’s Marches has gone on to become the opposite of the feminist symbol it was intended to be. Now, it’s a relic of white feminism, enacted at the expense of trans women and women of color. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Anjali and Alison, the hosts of the Two Women Yelling About Knitting podcast, ahead of the Pussyhat’s ten-year anniversary to discuss what went wrong and what digital craftivism should look like. This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

As soon as Jane Doe filed her civil suit against Cornell University, the internet was up in arms. Everyone from Florence Pugh to Love Island contestants took to social media to share their disgust, imploring men to do better when it comes to preventing sexual assault. For those who lived through #MeToo, it all feels eerily familiar. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by writer and creator Kat Tenbarge to talk about how the internet is organizing in response to this news moment, and how we can avoid repeating #MeToo’s mistakes. This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay, with help from Kevin Bendis.

What if I told you there was a machine that, using powerful energy and frequencies, could cure everything from common colds to cancers to missing limbs? Well, I’d be lying. And yet, a not-insignificant part of the internet is waiting with baited breath for the arrival of “medbeds,” a QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theory that President Trump has even acknowledged himself. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Slate staff writer Molly Olmstead, who spent a year investigating how the myth of medbeds came to be, and found the man behind it all. He regrets everything. This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

There are some controversies that can only happen on Threads. Discussions about mermaid trauma, for instance, or Pepsi having to apologize for their post about Wild Cherry. The platform is home to particularly unhinged users, but why? On today’s show, host Kate Lindsay is joined by creator, podcaster, and reluctant Threads lover Franchesca Ramsey to discuss why Threads got its reputation, and how it still manages to be the best alternative to Twitter.This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

Comment sections are dying. At least, when it comes to digital media. Platforms like Twitter have become the new place for discourse, and apps like TikTok are changing what the comment section is even for. Slate’s comments, however, are special. On today’s show, host Kate Lindsay is joined by staff writer Luke Winkie, who dove into the lore of Slate’s decades-old commenter community, and even called up his biggest hater to find out what keeps him coming back. This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

Dumbphones are a popular recommendation for people looking to reduce their screen time, but it’s not as simple as it looks. When writer Stephanie Murray made the switch, while she found it did solve many of her problems, it created them for pretty much everyone else around her. On today’s show, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Murray, who wrote about her experience for The New York Times, to discuss how the outside world is also too smartphone-dependent, and what people should know before taking the dumbphone plunge. This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay, with help from Kevin Bendis.

Like clockwork, another article has created a moral panic about so-called “sickfluencers,” or people—usually women—who share online about their illnesses and disabilities. Critics argue that the rise of these diagnoses and creators is some kind of social contagion, with participants faking their symptoms for social media attention. But these fears are not just overblown—they’re harmful. On today’s show, host Kate Lindsay is joined by social psychologist Devon Price, author of Unmasking Autism and Laziness Does Not Exist, to discuss the realities of this trend, and why so much of the criticism is rooted in sexism. This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

A former Anthropic employee claimed AI would lead to the end of humanity, and soon. In the weeks since, the “whistleblower” has done a full press tour, with even Anthropic and OpenAI themselves seeming to cosign this claim. As a result, hysteria has ensued—and that’s exactly what these AI companies want. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Better Offline host and #1 AI Hater Ed Zitron to debunk the doomsdayers, and explain why, exactly, these companies are so interested in the end of the world. This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.