0:00

Hello, hello!

0:16

Welcome to HiBrow. I'm

0:19

your host, Mina Le. And

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happy, happy holidays! It's

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December. It's early December. So we are in

0:26

the holiday season. We are

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deep in the holiday season, one may even say,

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if you count the day after

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Thanksgiving as the time when holidays start. But I

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actually know a lot of people who now count

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the day after Halloween as the time when holidays

0:38

start. So depending on your

0:41

definition, we are deep in the holiday season.

0:43

And look, I love the holidays. I

0:46

feel like, especially in New York City,

0:48

it's just very beautiful and festive. And

0:51

the streets are decorated with

0:54

lights and trees and bows.

0:57

Okay, honestly, I

0:59

do not love bows. I feel

1:01

like with all the

1:03

fashion industry clamoring over bows

1:05

in the last several months,

1:07

I've grown really, really tired

1:09

of them. I cannot look

1:12

at them any longer. I don't want bows on anything

1:14

anymore. And I'm really glad that I didn't

1:16

end up falling for any trend of

1:19

buying clothes with bows on

1:21

them because, yeah, I just

1:23

don't have anything with bows on it. But

1:26

bows have just gone too far. And I apologize

1:28

if you're someone who is very into bows. It's

1:31

not you. It's just I feel like

1:33

there's an oversaturation and I

1:35

need some other type of stimulation

1:37

visually. But I

1:40

really lost it the other day because

1:43

I saw these candles on

1:45

sale. And the way

1:47

that the candles were decorated, they're like these

1:49

long tapered candles, super elegant, the ones that

1:51

you put on a candelabra that are really

1:53

popular. And they

1:55

were tied with a bow. And

1:59

it was like part of the whole thing. of the style

2:02

of the candles they were

2:04

selling, like they were selling them

2:06

with bows on them. The literal

2:08

product description is paper candle with

2:11

lace bow. And the bow

2:13

is a satin and lace bow. And

2:16

I'm like, this is ridiculous. It's

2:18

also $42 for this singular candle.

2:22

That's an extreme fire hazard. I'm like, okay, the

2:24

candle's like melting and it drops on the bow

2:26

and the bow just goes up and bursts into

2:28

flames. No, thank you. I do not want my

2:30

dinner table to catch fire this holiday season. So

2:33

yeah, I think the

2:36

bows they've gone too far, we need to know

2:38

there's a time and place for bows. And there's

2:40

lots of times and lots of places for them

2:42

in the holiday season. They've been a Christmas favored

2:45

decor for a while now. But again,

2:47

there's a line. No fire

2:49

hazards, please. What

2:52

was I saying? Holiday

2:54

season. Yeah, I'm interested

2:56

to know if anyone has a particular

3:00

thing on their wish list that they're looking to

3:02

acquire this holiday season. I ask

3:04

because I feel like I'm always the

3:06

worst person to come up

3:08

with a list of items that I

3:10

want for Christmas. But then I'm also

3:13

someone who's very particular about the objects

3:15

in my home. So if I don't

3:17

like the object that you've gifted

3:19

me, it really stresses

3:21

me out because I feel like I can't

3:23

throw it away. And I feel like I

3:25

can't re-gift it, but I also am so

3:27

aware that it's just going to sit in

3:29

my apartment unused. And so that's why I

3:32

try to procure a Christmas list. But

3:34

my only problem is I just

3:36

generally don't know what I want

3:39

or the things that I want

3:41

are not really exciting or exciting

3:45

for someone to give to someone over Christmas. So

3:48

for instance, what I'm really looking

3:50

for this Christmas is a knife

3:52

sharpener or something that's

3:54

just useful that I know will get

3:56

used in my home. But

3:58

yeah, I... I feel like my

4:01

Christmas is this year. I've mostly just been

4:03

filling it with books because I could

4:05

always use another book, I guess.

4:07

I love books. I also

4:10

love food gifts because they

4:12

can be consumed and

4:15

therefore they just don't take up space. I don't

4:17

know. Is this like a weird thing

4:19

for me to be so obsessive about

4:24

the things in my space? But I

4:26

feel like it's because I live in New York City

4:28

and I feel like I always talk about this a

4:30

lot, about just not having a lot of space. But

4:32

it's really different living in a

4:34

house, in a suburb, where you can just like

4:36

shelf things in closets and forget about them for

4:38

years or shelf things in a basement or an

4:40

attic and forget about it for years. But

4:43

in an apartment, you're just really aware because there's

4:45

not that much hiding space. So

4:47

it's really in your vicinity. You can't forget

4:49

about these things. And in a

4:51

good way, it means you're actually

4:54

using the items in your

4:56

home, but in a bad way, if

4:58

you get a gift, you don't like, what are you supposed to do? Say

5:02

on my list, knife sharpener,

5:04

those tinned fish bundles, because as I've

5:06

said before, I have an obsession with

5:08

tinned fish these days. I

5:11

don't know, I just think it's so yummy and so easy

5:13

to repair. So if I

5:16

die of any kind of mercury poisoning, I die.

5:18

And I've just accepted that. But

5:21

a lot of websites, they'll do

5:24

these tinned fish subscriptions or these tinned

5:26

fish bundles and they'll curate a bundle

5:28

of, I don't know, anywhere

5:30

from four to eight to 12, depending

5:34

on how much money you wanna shell out on

5:36

it, of different tinned fishes from different companies. And

5:39

I think it's a great gift

5:41

for someone who is a foodie.

5:43

And also the way that tinned

5:45

fish companies design their packaging, it

5:47

has been really nice. I

5:49

don't know if it's always been like that or if

5:52

it's just recently as of late because tinned fish has

5:54

become more popular, but it makes for a very pretty

5:56

gift as well, which I'm a

5:58

Libra, so that's important. I

6:01

was talking to my friend Jamie

6:03

who is also a food vlogger.

6:05

Her username is

6:08

food jars on Instagram and she's also

6:10

an immaculate chef and made my birthday

6:12

cake a couple months ago which was

6:14

super delicious. I would definitely support her

6:17

if I were you. And

6:20

she made like a TikTok suggesting some gift

6:22

ideas and one of them really stood out to

6:24

me. She was like

6:26

saying every person should carry

6:28

around a pack of cards.

6:32

And so now I have vintage cards like I

6:34

said a vintage playing cards on my gift wish

6:36

list. But

6:38

her mentality is like cards are

6:40

just the perfect icebreaker. If you're

6:44

just you know feeling like the conversation

6:46

is kind of lulling and you're in

6:48

like a small group setting you

6:50

can just like whip out some cards and it

6:52

gives you an activity to do. With another

6:55

person with a few other people

6:58

or honestly just like by yourself too like I'm

7:00

a huge solitaire fan or I was when I

7:02

was a kid. And I think

7:04

it's just like a really cool girl idea like who

7:07

in this day and age whips out some cards

7:09

out of party. I mean if someone did that

7:11

I'd be like I need to be her friend

7:13

immediately and I would even force

7:15

myself to listen to her

7:18

explain the rules to me even though I

7:20

feel like learning the rules of a card game is a

7:22

good thing. The rules of a card game is so like

7:25

is universally an extremely difficult experience

7:27

but I would do it because

7:29

I'm like anyone who carries

7:32

around cards I just know I would want to be friends with them.

7:35

It doesn't have to be playing cards. We

7:37

were talking about Monopoly Deal which is a

7:39

fire card game. It's basically like Monopoly but

7:41

it's through cards and it's kind

7:43

of hard to explain but it's a lot

7:45

quicker than Monopoly. You

7:48

can run a whole game in like 15 minutes or so so very

7:50

friendly at a party

7:53

or gathering and then also

7:55

Uno. Okay

7:57

Uno is a personal favorite of mine but

7:59

I also. that like even though the

8:01

deck itself is not as beautiful as

8:03

just like a pack of playing cards,

8:05

the benefit of carrying around Uno everywhere

8:07

is that virtually everyone knows how to

8:09

play Uno so you don't have to

8:11

like spend time explaining the

8:13

game to people. You can just start

8:15

playing. So yeah

8:18

now cards are on my

8:20

wish list and

8:22

okay this is not necessarily

8:24

that different from a book which is

8:26

what I talked about earlier but if you've

8:28

been on the A24 merch website like

8:32

it's just their website but there's like a merch page and

8:35

they sell a lot of like merchandise that's

8:37

film related obviously

8:40

but like you know hats t-shirts

8:42

whatever. Don't really care

8:44

about those if you're into that that's

8:47

cool but what I do really care

8:49

about a lot personally is they have

8:51

these beautiful screenplay books. I

8:53

don't own any of them myself and there's not

8:55

that many to choose from at the moment like

8:57

I think there's maybe only like five or six

9:00

different ones but I think

9:02

what it is is like the entire

9:04

screenplay but it's filled with like photos

9:07

and it's packaged in a

9:09

really pretty book that also doubles

9:12

as a coffee table book and I think

9:14

it'd be a perfect gift for someone like

9:16

myself or for someone who's

9:18

just really into A24 or films in

9:20

general. The one thing that

9:22

I'm kind of annoyed about so

9:24

I purchased the Sofia Coppola

9:27

archive book and

9:29

I purchased it like months ago but it's it

9:31

sold out immediately and so my book was on backorder

9:33

and I just received it and

9:35

I feel like the book is mostly

9:38

photos and I'm someone who prefers

9:40

text in a book like

9:42

I don't really love it when there's

9:44

mostly photos so I

9:47

think if you're trying to buy a

9:49

book for a friend especially

9:51

if it's going to be like a coffee table book

9:53

like a very luxurious nicely designed

9:56

book you should think about

9:58

whether that friend is someone

10:00

who is more into text or is more

10:02

into photos because there are a lot of

10:04

coffee table books that are very informative but

10:06

so many of them are not and

10:09

yeah speaking of

10:12

art books and New York I

10:14

went to the Met Museum

10:16

this morning because I was

10:18

invited to their preview of the Costume

10:21

Institute's new exhibit, Women Dressing

10:23

Women and it is an exhibit

10:25

about women designers and they've

10:29

created like a companion book which is

10:31

really pretty my friend brought it who

10:33

I was going with it

10:36

was a little bit too photo heavy

10:38

for me as I find a lot

10:40

of like exhibition books tend to be

10:43

which is like totally fine but again like not personally

10:45

for me anyways I went

10:47

there this morning and it's a really

10:50

cool exhibit for sure there's

10:53

lots of beautiful dresses I

10:55

would say it is more

10:57

visual than like

10:59

specifically like historical or

11:01

theory focused because

11:04

the whole point of the exhibit is that

11:06

it's featuring like a bunch

11:08

of women designers so you have stuff

11:10

from Chanel and

11:12

Scapparelli from like the 1930s

11:15

all the way up to Maria Garcia Curie

11:17

they have a look from Dior's

11:21

2020 show featured in the exhibit

11:23

so it covers the entire

11:25

spectrum of the 20th century and

11:27

because of that there's not room

11:29

to explore like the contributions of

11:31

every single designer specifically but it

11:34

is like a good overview and

11:36

a good introduction for anyone who

11:38

just wants to learn more about

11:40

women designers throughout history and just

11:42

to jot down names and notice

11:45

the differences between different

11:48

female designers because there were a

11:50

couple speakers who were talking

11:52

about the exhibit and one of

11:54

the speakers Melissa she said that

11:57

what they really didn't want to do is try to

12:00

say like all women designers prioritize this

12:02

or make any kind of like generalizing

12:04

monolithic statements about women designers because there

12:06

are so many of them who were

12:09

super artistic and

12:11

were inspired by different things. And

12:14

so yeah, I think the exhibit is

12:17

a good introductory course or introductory like

12:19

exhibit to someone who isn't too

12:21

familiar. And even for me, like I would say I'm

12:23

pretty familiar with a lot of 20th century designers, but

12:25

there were some designers who I've never even heard of

12:28

before. And I was like, damn, her legacy has been

12:30

lost. And that's kind of

12:32

the point of the exhibit is to

12:34

bring awareness to not only the fact

12:36

that there are lots of women designers

12:38

who have a legacy and who have

12:40

thrived such as Murcioprata and Vivian Westwood,

12:42

but there are also lots of

12:44

female designers who kind of disappeared into the ether.

12:47

The negative side to the exhibit,

12:49

once again, I just think it wasn't very specific. And

12:51

that's kind of like not the point of the exhibit

12:54

was to be specific. But I think

12:56

for me, I prefer exhibits that are

12:58

more focused on a specific theme. I'm

13:01

really excited for like Sleeping Beauties, for instance,

13:03

because it's more focused on the theme of

13:05

like construction. And then

13:07

I'm also someone who is

13:10

more interested in like deep

13:13

dives into specific designers. And I think

13:15

because there were just so many designers,

13:17

it's not really possible to be able to

13:19

do that with one exhibit. But yeah, I

13:22

would definitely check it out if you live

13:24

in New York City, or if you're visiting

13:26

New York City between now and March, I

13:28

believe is when it ends. Like

13:32

fact check me on that because I'm not sure.

13:34

But it's really beautiful. The

13:36

dresses on display are in immaculate condition.

13:39

And yeah, it's located kind

13:41

of like you have to walk

13:43

through the Egypt exhibit and then make a right and then

13:46

go down some stairs. I do feel like

13:48

it's kind of like hard to get to. It's

13:50

kind of hidden. But you

13:52

know, the Met employs tons of people. And

13:55

there are many people there who are willing

13:57

to guide you in the right direction. I

14:00

love the Met. I think it's a great resource. I

14:03

don't know if this is still necessarily true. I got a

14:05

press pass, so I didn't really do, I didn't like have

14:07

to do the same check-in as everyone else, but I

14:10

think that it's like donation based still for

14:12

New York residents. And they're

14:14

pretty relaxed, or at least the times that

14:17

I went to in the past, because I

14:19

haven't switched my ID to a New York

14:21

ID yet. I just, I don't know, I've

14:23

been putting that off. And

14:26

I'll usually just like show like mail, confirmation

14:31

emails of packages that

14:34

were sent to me to show that I'm

14:36

like living in New York City, and they're

14:38

totally fine with it. On the other side

14:40

of the fashion industry, the less academic side,

14:43

but still touching the influence of

14:47

Anna Winter is Balenciaga's

14:49

pre-fall runway show that

14:54

occurred in Los Angeles recently.

14:57

And I got a lot of buzz because there

14:59

were lots of celebrities in attendance, also Cardi B,

15:02

and I think other celebrities were walking. I

15:04

didn't really watch the show. I looked at

15:06

a couple of these photos. I'm

15:09

not someone who's like loved the pivot that Balenciaga

15:11

has done in the last couple

15:13

years. I feel like they've leaned

15:16

on creating like viral

15:18

moments over creating beautiful

15:21

clothes. And I think

15:23

that still stayed the case with this

15:25

show. I

15:27

don't know, like it was clearly based on,

15:30

or supposed to be a mockery

15:32

of celebrity culture, but it

15:35

just didn't really seem funny

15:37

because I don't know, it

15:39

felt like a massive inside joke

15:41

because there were tons of celebrities

15:43

in attendance. There were celebrities walking.

15:45

Balenciaga also I feel like has

15:47

a strong celebrity presence, like a

15:49

lot of celebrities by Balenciaga. And

15:52

as someone who's not a celebrity and

15:55

who doesn't really buy

15:57

Balenciaga, it just felt like a

15:59

massive. weird for me to see. Like

16:01

I couldn't really see what the statement

16:05

there was. And especially

16:07

with the Air1 collaboration, Balenciaga

16:10

and Air1 collabed. And I

16:12

think, I don't know, the company

16:14

is just getting kind of lost in the sauce.

16:16

Like I think previously like they've tried

16:18

really hard to strike a

16:21

sense of irony in their

16:23

designs. I kind of poke fun at

16:25

establishments. I was talking

16:27

to my friend about this and

16:29

he was like, yeah, I mean

16:32

previously Balenciaga back in

16:34

2017, I believe it was,

16:36

they released a jacket that

16:39

had a Balenciaga logo

16:41

that was stylized like

16:43

the Bernie Sanders campaign logo. And

16:45

it was poking fun at the

16:48

idea of politicians merchandising their platforms.

16:50

Which is something that actually happens

16:52

and is true. But Balenciaga does

16:55

not actually like sell or specifically

16:57

it doesn't market itself to politicians.

16:59

Like that's not their target audience.

17:02

And so there was clearly like

17:04

a statement being made there. Whereas

17:06

with this runway it's like, oh

17:09

we're creating a lot of

17:11

designs that are making fun of celebrity culture. Like

17:13

they're obsession with Air1 and they're

17:15

obsession with tracksuits. And

17:18

it's just like a little weird because this

17:21

is also their client base. And so I'm

17:23

like, you're not really making a

17:25

statement that lands when you still prioritize

17:28

these people and you're

17:30

still marketing towards these

17:32

people. Okay so those are just

17:35

my thoughts on Balenciaga. But let's

17:37

go back to New York because I

17:39

have been thinking a lot about third

17:41

spaces or third places. I

17:44

forget the term exactly but these places

17:46

that are supposed to exist like outside

17:48

of your home but still feel like

17:50

a home. A home away from home.

17:52

Oh here we go according

17:54

to Miss Wikipedia in sociology the third place

17:56

refers to the social surroundings that are separate

17:58

from the two usual social environments

18:00

of home and the workplace. Examples

18:03

of third places include

18:05

churches, cafes, bars, clubs,

18:07

community centers, public libraries,

18:09

gyms, bookstores, makerspaces, stoops,

18:11

and parks. Very

18:14

nice. So I

18:16

bring that up because I feel like there's

18:18

a lacking of third places in New York

18:21

and just in America in general. I

18:23

was watching on TikTok this guy kind

18:25

of breaking it down. I think he

18:27

was moving to Europe because he was

18:30

saying that Europe has an abundance of

18:32

third places and America just

18:34

doesn't or the third places that do

18:36

exist in America are not well-kept or

18:39

have very high cost barriers to entry.

18:41

So for instance like a

18:43

lot of parks in America we have

18:46

very uncomfortable park benches because the government

18:48

doesn't want houses people to sleep on

18:50

these park benches and therefore they make

18:52

them so that they are kind of

18:54

like unfitable and

18:58

you know they're just not places you want

19:00

to sit down because they prioritize oppressing

19:04

houses people over creating beneficial

19:06

infrastructure for the community. And

19:08

then in terms of like

19:10

high cost barriers to entry

19:13

like there are lots of

19:15

social clubs in New York specifically. I

19:17

have a couple friends who are members

19:19

of Soho House and I've been to

19:22

Soho House a few times like with

19:24

them. It's a nice environment like

19:26

it's cute.

19:29

I don't know like there's not really much

19:31

else for me to say about it because

19:33

especially living in New York City like there's

19:35

tons and tons of bars and clubs

19:38

or whatever that you don't have to pay

19:40

membership fees for so I've never particularly felt

19:42

the need to become a member

19:45

at Soho House but I guess like a couple my friends

19:47

who are members they travel a lot and so it makes

19:49

sense for them because there's like Soho

19:52

House is like in LA and in London or whatever

19:54

and it's just like an easy way for you to

19:57

have a place to work like I get it

19:59

but It's baffling to me

20:01

that there's like a membership fee

20:03

and then also The

20:06

drinks and the food cost so much. It's like

20:11

$20 or something for a cocktail and

20:14

sure there are plenty of places that

20:16

charge that for cocktails,

20:19

but you can also

20:21

find tons of cocktails in the city for

20:23

like $15 and then you would just think

20:25

that if you're paying a membership fee already

20:27

that The food and

20:30

drinks would just not be as much

20:32

like okay to put in perspective No,

20:34

the Delta Sky Lounge

20:37

or whatever I'm not a

20:39

Delta Sky Lounge member, but the

20:41

few times I've been flown out

20:43

for Business the

20:46

client will pay for my flight and they'll usually

20:48

pay business class, which is very nice and

20:50

so it's like complimentary with business class and I've been

20:53

in those lounges and the

20:55

food is free like the champagne the alcohol

20:57

is free because the

20:59

idea is you're Paying this

21:01

much or you're like, I actually don't know how you

21:03

become a member of Delta Sky Lounge other than like

21:05

getting an American Express Credit card,

21:08

but if that's the case, like you definitely

21:10

have to pay extra for American Express But

21:12

then you get all these

21:14

benefits that are complimentary that come with

21:17

your membership fee So yes, I

21:19

think it's just ridiculous a little bit

21:21

how there are Tons

21:23

of like social clubs or whatever where you have

21:25

to pay membership fee and then on top of

21:27

that pay like drinks and beverage And whatever fees

21:30

and then even like not

21:32

like I would say membership clubs are kind of like

21:34

on the high uppercrust Part

21:36

of third places for New Yorkers, but even

21:39

just going to like a coffee shop a

21:41

neighborhood coffee shop It's

21:43

gotten so expensive to get like

21:45

a lot. Hey I

21:48

moved to New York in 2019 I feel

21:50

like at that time and maybe this is just

21:52

like my botched memory But I feel like at

21:54

that time like five dollars was like kind of

21:56

standard for a lot Hey, we're like for any

21:59

kind of like drink ice

22:01

drink and this is with like a

22:03

milk substitution too and

22:05

recently like I've been to cafes and

22:07

they're like that's gonna be $9 like

22:09

what $9 and then

22:12

I'll see

22:15

on the little breakdown chart and it's

22:18

like a dollar extra for oat milk

22:20

or it's like even like a dollar

22:22

fifty for oat milk it's

22:24

highway robbery and sure in

22:26

the grand scheme of things

22:28

$9 that's probably like on

22:30

the upper side and that's including tip right

22:34

but I would

22:36

say it's still like up in New

22:38

York like the low end of Alante

22:40

with a milk substitution with tip is

22:42

probably $6 and

22:45

that's just not feasible of a

22:48

third place cost especially

22:50

when you compare two countries in Europe

22:52

like when I was in Italy I

22:55

could get a cappuccino for like

22:57

a dollar or two dollars I get

22:59

a pastry for the exact same and

23:02

I could get wine for also

23:04

like an extremely cheap price when I was

23:06

in Paris like these are way lower

23:09

very cost to entry and

23:12

the result is that people spend more time

23:14

in third places than they would in America

23:16

where it's like going out for a $7

23:20

latte is going to be considered a treat

23:22

and is not going to be a regular

23:24

practice for the average citizen and

23:27

obviously there are negative ramifications

23:29

that the lack of affordable

23:31

accessible beautiful beautiful I

23:33

feel like we never really prioritize

23:36

beauty but that's important the lack

23:38

of beautiful third places is

23:40

that there's a lack

23:43

of community and the communities

23:45

that do exist are just

23:47

super class-based I don't

23:49

I want to say like let's

23:53

be real like a lot of these establishments

23:55

if you're going to be paying like $200

23:57

a month for a membership you're

24:00

only going to be around people who also are

24:02

able to pay $200 a month

24:04

and therefore probably in a similar income

24:06

bracket to you or who are just

24:08

really bad at managing their money. But

24:10

regardless, it's like you are exposing yourself

24:12

to only one certain group of people

24:14

versus if there was

24:16

an investment in a prioritization of

24:19

building up community spaces that are

24:21

accessible to all, we would all

24:23

be interacting with like tons of

24:25

different people who live completely different

24:27

lifestyles, of different economic statuses, of

24:29

different upbringings, different backgrounds, you

24:32

know just like different and more diverse

24:35

groups of people. And

24:37

it is also really brutal because I feel like

24:39

what ends up happening is if there's like a

24:42

lack of a you know nice public space what

24:44

people end up doing is investing if they have

24:47

the money they will invest in creating

24:49

a private space that makes up

24:51

for the lack of that public space. So for

24:53

instance, if you don't have like a pretty park

24:55

near you and you have the money you're going

24:58

to try to build up a nice garden for

25:00

yourself, a nice private garden or if you don't

25:02

like the community pool you're going to build up

25:04

a nice pool in your backyard

25:06

or an indoor pool or whatever and if

25:08

you don't like the movie theater near you

25:11

you're just going to build up a movie

25:13

theater in your house. And

25:16

these are all nice if you know

25:18

for yourself but they don't offer like a sense

25:20

of community and what you end up doing is

25:22

just spending more time at home and being more

25:24

isolated which is also why I feel like a

25:26

lot of people complain about a sense of isolation

25:29

and alienation these days it's because our

25:31

communities are built in that specific way. And

25:33

what also really sucks is I feel like

25:35

the people who are able to afford to

25:38

build these types of infrastructures within their

25:40

own homes are also the type of

25:42

people who could afford to really help

25:44

fund or community

25:46

build around like building up

25:48

a public park or a public pool or a

25:51

movie theater or etc. like they

25:53

have the capabilities of doing so

25:56

but because American culture is so

25:58

focused on like building

26:01

up your own personal nuclear

26:04

family and hoarding wealth and

26:06

not caring about your community,

26:10

we just don't get enough like rich people

26:13

caring about public infrastructure. And

26:15

if the government is not going to do it and if

26:17

rich people are not going to do it, then like the

26:20

public parks are going to look not that great.

26:23

So I just want to share this. It's

26:26

not necessarily an article, it's a sub-stack

26:28

that I am subscribed to. It's called

26:30

the trend report. It's written

26:33

by Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick and

26:35

it's like a newsletter that compiles like

26:38

a bunch of like really interesting links

26:40

or topics online.

26:42

But he did write a

26:44

little blurb about children

26:47

these days and I feel like it all

26:49

kind of like ties into what I'm saying.

26:51

So this also goes back to an old

26:53

podcast episode old. It's not

26:55

that old. Like a couple episodes

26:58

ago, I made a podcast episode about

27:00

how no one's reading these days and

27:02

so he also references that conversation. I'm

27:05

just going to read the circuit. The

27:08

kids can't read trend paired with how

27:10

rude and bad kids are today. See

27:12

the viral ballet teacher calling out parents.

27:15

Theories are emerging as to why kids are so bad

27:17

today. Is it COVID? Is

27:19

it the government defunding schools, pushing

27:21

kids towards independent learning in libraries

27:23

or child labor? Is it

27:25

that Gen X or millennial and Gen Z parents are

27:28

not good? I think all of these things

27:30

and none of these things are the answer. My

27:32

theory, which is related to parents, is something we

27:34

all experience and know and deal with every day.

27:37

Shit rolls downhill. In our jobs,

27:39

more work is placed on us for less money as

27:41

people at the top seemingly profit off of our labor.

27:44

In our free time, we watch videos and

27:46

play games and don't have any time to

27:48

read. We bully each other across generations for

27:50

whatever reason, resulting in a ridiculous this is

27:52

in, this is out cycle. We don't have

27:55

time to have our own lives. We don't

27:57

have time to parent. Imagine

27:59

then when it means to be a kid today,

28:01

to observe and learn and witness all this. Imagine

28:04

then what becomes the children who like

28:06

any living creature are a collage of

28:08

their surroundings. Why would kids be

28:10

readers when the world we live in isn't

28:13

increasingly without readers? We may complain

28:15

that we want kids to read, yet

28:17

intellectualism, thinking, and higher education are increasingly

28:19

being met with contempt and hate. This

28:22

behavior leads to be educated fleeing

28:24

from rural areas, which means teachers

28:26

and nursing and accounting shortages become

28:28

these rules that feel like service

28:30

work but require education or undervalued

28:32

and treated like shit. Given

28:35

this context, is it surprising then that kids can't

28:37

read? They're the actors in the play that our

28:40

times are writing. We wonder how

28:42

we ended up with something like Skibitty

28:44

toilets when, as explained years ago, YouTube

28:46

is a sandbox for children, a babysitter

28:48

that teaches you visual and cinematic gestures

28:50

while passing time. This is why kids

28:53

prefer videos that are multi-layered narrative meme

28:55

compilations. We share memes for laughs, which

28:57

is why they share memes for laughs. Gen

29:00

Z are mean to millennials, so of course Gen

29:03

A are mean to Gen Z. Monkey

29:05

C, monkey do the same thing but worse.

29:08

You can trace this to many cross-cultural

29:10

ways, AI at work meaning experimenting with

29:12

AI schools, where students are taught by

29:14

AI teachers, employee surveillance, which means kids

29:16

brains will be monitored to prevent daydreaming,

29:18

but it all leads back to our

29:20

behavior. The shit is rolling downhill to

29:22

them. They are doing their jobs by

29:24

reflecting back our culture. If we don't

29:26

like what we see in these human

29:28

mirrors, we need to change. So

29:31

I thought this like little essay

29:33

is just you know really

29:35

encapsulates everything that I think has been

29:37

happening in terms of child

29:40

discourse like Generation Alpha discourse.

29:44

Yeah, I mean like once again I

29:47

stand by that I think parents

29:49

unfairly take on a lot of

29:52

the blame when people are complaining and sure there's a

29:54

lot of issues with parenting but I think like the

29:56

reason why there's issues with parenting is that they're not

29:58

going to be able to do that. is

30:00

because there are other systems in place

30:02

that prevent or that encourage parents to

30:04

parent their children in this way. And

30:08

bringing it back to like third places, like I think

30:10

when I was a kid, I was

30:12

always playing outside. I didn't even like playing outside.

30:14

I was just sort of like forced to play

30:16

outside because as I think I said before, I

30:19

was afraid of dirt for a while. But

30:22

I kind of got over it by the time I was

30:24

in middle school and I was still playing outside and I

30:26

was having fun. I would like bike with my friends and

30:28

we would go to like playgrounds and parks and stuff. And

30:31

I think that's like

30:33

really healthy and really important

30:35

for children to have that

30:37

access to nature because oh

30:40

my God, like another statement that

30:42

what I hate, especially how like

30:44

boomers and Gen Xers, they'll like

30:47

push the problem of climate change

30:49

onto millennials and Gen Z and

30:51

Gen Alpha by extension. They're like,

30:53

oh, the younger generations are going

30:55

to fix this. And it's

30:57

like, okay, first

30:59

of all, you still are alive. So therefore

31:01

you still need to be doing your part.

31:04

But second of all, it's like if children

31:07

are not taught to appreciate nature

31:09

and appreciate like the earth, then

31:11

what makes you think that they

31:13

will step up and like do

31:16

anything to save the environment? You

31:19

know, like that's kind of

31:21

a baseline level of comprehension

31:23

you have to have before

31:25

being an activist. Like you have to

31:28

care for what you're trying

31:30

to defend and what you're trying to save. But

31:32

if you have no connection to ever

31:34

playing outside to, you know,

31:37

touching grass, like not to be

31:39

regurgitating like memes speak, but

31:42

like if you literally don't touch grass, then

31:44

I don't think you will care about what's

31:46

happening to the environment. And that

31:48

might be like a really big rage, but I don't think

31:50

that sounds crazy. And sure, I

31:52

think why kids don't play outside as much like,

31:54

yeah, part of it has to do with

31:57

parenting for sure. a

32:00

lot of parents are way more paranoid

32:02

about what's gonna happen to their kids

32:04

if they let their kids just like

32:06

roam around outside. And I don't know

32:08

if that's necessarily like because of social

32:10

media, I feel like it is. I

32:13

feel like we're so aware of

32:15

all the devastating things that could

32:17

happen to really

32:19

anyone living in this day and

32:21

age. Like my boyfriend

32:23

was biking a couple

32:26

of days ago. Like he was doing

32:28

a long bike ride and he said

32:30

that he biked past this like pool

32:32

of blood in the bike lane and

32:35

there wasn't like anyone there or anything like

32:37

it happened earlier that morning because it rained

32:39

the day before so it didn't happen the

32:41

day before. But he was talking to

32:43

his friends who were also like biking along that bike route

32:45

and they just assumed like

32:47

someone was stabbed. You

32:50

know, which is not lovely. Like

32:54

it's, and sure

32:56

there's like lots of like freak accidents that

32:58

happen and lots of crazy

33:00

things that happen out there but the world

33:02

is actually like way safer than it was

33:04

like back in the 70s when our parents

33:09

or if you're a millennial or Gen Z

33:11

like our parents were growing up and

33:14

they were all like playing outside and you

33:16

know, just being hooligans unsupervised. And

33:18

I think it's because there was no,

33:22

there's no social media that would

33:24

like highlight these kind of fearful

33:26

scenarios. And so they were just

33:29

like allowed to do whatever they want. So yeah, I do think

33:31

like parents, the psychology of parents

33:33

has changed a lot. There's also a

33:35

lot of like doting that parents do

33:37

these days like a lot of like

33:40

gentle parenting which I

33:42

am anti like physical

33:44

punishment. I was never punished physically

33:46

as a child and I don't believe you should

33:48

do that. That's just what I

33:51

sincerely believe. But I mean like, I

33:54

think a lot of gentle parents they

33:56

don't believe in teaching their children consequences.

33:59

And. And you see that a

34:01

lot with the way that kids

34:04

don't really have a respect for authority.

34:07

And I don't really think kids

34:09

ever had that much respect for

34:12

authority. I had a substitute

34:14

teacher. She was very beloved

34:16

to me in elementary school. And

34:18

I remember on the last day of

34:20

fifth grade, she made an announcement that

34:23

she would not be substitute teaching

34:25

in our middle school that our elementary school

34:27

would feed into. And we were

34:30

all like, why, why not? Why

34:32

won't you come to the middle school? And

34:34

she's like, because middle schoolers are mean. And

34:37

she was really right for that. Middle schoolers are foul. And

34:40

so I think there's a

34:42

certain level of rebellion among young

34:45

people, but I think

34:47

it's just gotten really bad where

34:49

it's like kids, small kids won't

34:52

even listen. I think, you

34:54

know, back in the day, a

34:56

lot of middle schoolers, like 12 year

34:59

olds, 13 year olds would act out

35:01

because they felt like they were rebelling

35:03

against a system of having to follow

35:05

authority that they've been conditioned to believe

35:07

in. But I think for a lot

35:09

of small children these days, they've never

35:11

been taught to follow authority

35:14

in the first place, which,

35:17

you know, I'm all for like children having boundaries. I

35:19

think that's like really important. And I think a lot

35:21

of parents are really

35:24

prioritizing that, which is good. But

35:27

the reality is like

35:30

you need to have some sense of

35:32

respect for other people to

35:35

survive or to

35:37

thrive in this community, like

35:40

prioritizing your wants

35:42

and your desires all the time is

35:44

not the same as having personal boundaries.

35:47

And unfortunately, I think those two things

35:49

are getting conflated with a lot of children these

35:51

days. So those are the parenting

35:53

things. But in terms of like just like infrastructural

35:55

stuff, and you can argue like even parenting psychology

35:57

is rooted in some kind of like infrastructural system.

36:00

that's being pushed upon us, but you know like

36:02

kids these days are just like on iPads in

36:04

school and there's an

36:06

addiction to our phones that adults

36:08

have that I don't think is

36:11

the fault of any adult who's addicted to their

36:13

phone. I think it's a fault of these companies

36:16

and manufacturers that create addicting

36:18

apps and addicting platforms, but

36:21

regardless they are addicting and

36:24

when it's normalized for adults and

36:26

parents to be addicted to their

36:28

phones it's a natural progression that

36:30

children would also be addicted to technology.

36:33

But and as I've said before I

36:35

feel like technology is a very individual

36:37

isolating experience. You know like you're just

36:40

like on your phone and

36:42

you're not engaging with your surroundings, you're not noticing

36:44

the people around you, you

36:46

can be engaged in a conversation on

36:49

your phone, but you're not engaging with

36:51

the people in your physical vicinity. Like

36:53

the people in your physical worlds are

36:55

separate from the people in your digital

36:57

world, but the less third places we

36:59

have the more wait is it third

37:01

spaces or third places? I don't remember.

37:03

Third places okay, but

37:06

the less third places that

37:08

are available the more you seek

37:11

out just like individual forms of

37:13

entertainment which is your phones,

37:15

your streaming services, your subway

37:17

server. So yeah all

37:20

of this is to say is

37:22

I think there's a large connection

37:24

between dependence on technology and lack

37:26

of community infrastructure and also

37:28

why I don't

37:30

love America. I mean I don't love

37:32

America for a lot of reasons. I

37:34

also do obviously love America for certain

37:36

things because I live here still, but

37:40

every day I'm like should I just be living

37:43

in a place that actually prioritizes community because

37:45

I know they're out there. There's

37:48

just not many areas of that in this

37:50

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all out of the ordinary. Okay,

39:17

the last thing I want to talk about

39:20

today is milk because I

39:22

feel like dairy has become such

39:24

a contentious topic. I mean I even

39:26

alluded to it by the fact that

39:28

like oat milk is

39:30

sold in some places at $1.50. Once again, abysmal. I

39:36

came across this report published

39:39

by AG Funder News and

39:41

it was published in August so it's a

39:44

little like not super

39:47

recent but the title is US

39:49

retail sales in

39:51

latest quarter after years of explosive growth

39:54

and I don't want to get too ahead because

39:56

I do think that plant-based milk is

39:59

like still very

40:01

popular among younger generations. I

40:03

myself am an oat

40:05

milk drinker. I am also like kind

40:08

of lactose intolerant as many Asians are.

40:12

So I try not to drink too much milk

40:15

in general, not because I'm like super

40:17

adverse to the taste but because of like digestive issues

40:19

I try not to drink too much of it. But

40:22

I feel like I've been kind of

40:24

psy-oped when it comes to coffee and

40:26

feeling like I need to have oat milk in

40:28

my coffee because there's a

40:30

pie place that I really love

40:33

and they sell coffee there

40:35

but also all their pies are

40:38

made like with whole milk like they don't

40:40

make vegan pies and it's just

40:42

like really hit me like the hypocrisy

40:45

of ordering a slice of pie and then being like can

40:47

I have a cappuccino with oat milk to go with that.

40:49

On one hand

40:51

yes I am lowering my overall

40:54

intake of milk but I think

40:56

there's just something like very uncool

40:58

about ordering a coffee

41:01

with whole milk that has

41:03

been programmed into my brain. And

41:06

you know what I'm not even alone because

41:08

half of Gen Z reportedly feel ashamed to

41:10

order milk in public. And

41:14

milk consumption has decreased among the youth over

41:16

the past 10 years with

41:18

research indicating that Gen Z

41:21

is consuming 550% more dairy-free

41:23

milk beverages compared to previous

41:25

generations. Back in 2018 Andy

41:29

Kriza wrote for

41:31

The Thrillist an article called We Need

41:33

to Talk About Milk Shame, the bane

41:35

of dairy-loving adults everywhere. It's more

41:38

of like an essay piece about his own personal

41:40

experience as being a milk lover and being shamed

41:42

for it. He talks about

41:44

how actually I'm just gonna read this. Milk

41:47

shame is real friends and it's ruining the dairy

41:49

loving experiences of so so many people. Have you

41:52

ever gone to a restaurant and ordered a tall

41:54

glass of milk to go with a steak? I

41:57

have and you have thought I ordered a New York

41:59

strip extra Well done when the waiter brought it

42:01

over with a side of stink eye Have

42:03

you ever in adulthood asked for a glass of milk to

42:05

go with a slice of pizza? I

42:08

have it's actually my favorite pairing with pizza and

42:10

yet each time I've ordered it I've been denied

42:12

to the point that I'll sometimes go to a

42:14

convenience store and get a little bottle of milk

42:16

to drink shamefully with my meal. At

42:19

places bougie and lowbrow it's always the same.

42:21

My only safe haven has been diners and

42:23

even there Waitresses will usually deliver it with

42:25

a where's your kid? Now

42:27

that I have a kid she drinks soy milk.

42:29

She thinks the real deal is weird, too I

42:32

have a toddler who was predestined to throw milk

42:34

shade. I feel a lot of like

42:36

the public shaming towards

42:39

milk products is One

42:41

a lot of like really

42:43

creepy characters in movies are shown drinking

42:46

milk like adult characters. I think there's

42:48

something very nostalgic

42:50

and very like Relating

42:53

back to childhood specifically about

42:56

milk drinking because Big

42:58

milk told us that we had to drink this

43:01

many glasses of milk to get the right amount of

43:03

nutrients I talked about in patreon episode

43:05

I released last month about how Milk

43:07

during the Great Depression was marketed as

43:10

like the best food or

43:12

you know best drink That

43:14

you could have for your body and it was

43:16

like just a powerhouse of nutrients That's how it

43:18

was marketed and that's how it was kind of

43:20

been marketed since the 1930s. I was never a

43:22

milk drinker I hated the taste of milk. I

43:24

never wanted to drink it I would like sit

43:27

at the table the dinner table for like an

43:29

hour after I finished my meal Because

43:31

my mom would be like you can't leave until

43:33

you drink your milk and it would just take

43:35

me so long because I would Just be sipping

43:37

it in tiny little sips because they hated the

43:40

taste of milk Okay, but yeah in

43:42

saying that I think like every child especially

43:45

in America was told they had to drink

43:47

milk If they wanted to grow their bones

43:49

or whatever And I

43:51

think as an adult because you no longer are

43:53

growing There's this idea

43:55

of like why are you drinking milk? And

43:58

as I said in like a lot of like the media it's

44:00

been framed as like a really creepy thing so

44:03

I believe that in the

44:05

movie a Clockwork

44:07

Orange the main guy who

44:10

is a straight-up villain like you're not really

44:12

supposed to root for him he's like shown

44:15

drinking a glass of milk in Inglourious Basterds

44:17

which I watched for the first time recently

44:19

the Nazi like the

44:22

head Nazi villain character Hans

44:25

in the early scene sort of like depicting

44:27

who he is he's shown drinking a glass

44:29

of milk and

44:31

in Get Out the white girl is also

44:34

drinking a glass of milk she's like eating her

44:36

cereal deconstructed but yeah milk

44:39

nonetheless so there are definitely

44:41

like negative villainous depictions of adults

44:44

drinking milk another

44:46

reason why I think milk shame exists

44:49

is because I feel

44:51

like dairy has been kind of

44:53

the scapegoat for sustainability and ethical

44:55

issues in the food industry like

44:57

let's be real the food industry

44:59

is really messed up and if

45:02

you haven't read The

45:04

Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan I highly

45:06

recommend reading it he covers a lot

45:08

of pretty grotesque practices that

45:10

are happening in the food industry but I

45:13

think it's really important to know what's happening

45:15

because I think we should all be aware

45:17

of what we're eating and where food comes

45:19

from to the best of our ability even

45:22

if it makes you lose

45:24

your appetite like I think it's just important to know

45:27

anyways there's just like a lot of really

45:29

messed up practices I read

45:31

an article recently about squid

45:34

and the unethical

45:36

fishing industry

45:39

in the article it was mainly talking about squid

45:41

but just like in general of like these Indonesian

45:44

migrant workers who were

45:48

stuck on these ships and they were

45:50

sort of like forced to work against

45:52

their will and just fish for

45:54

squid all day and they were dying

45:56

of diseases because

46:00

They were not given proper diets. They

46:03

were getting sick and being withheld health care.

46:05

It was a really messed up situation, but

46:08

I recommend reading the article if

46:10

you're a big seafood consumer like

46:12

myself. Once again, it's extremely bleak,

46:14

but it's also really important to

46:16

know what is happening and

46:19

how your food is getting to you. So

46:22

all of this is to say, there's a lot of

46:24

unethical practices that are happening all throughout the food industry,

46:26

but I feel like big milk has really faced the

46:28

brunt of it, in part because

46:31

we all have had a relationship to milk

46:33

thanks to aggressive marketing, but

46:36

also because it's relatively easy to cut

46:38

milk out of your diet. And once

46:40

again, what I've noticed for a lot

46:42

of people is they don't commit to

46:44

the full veganism thing. They'll still consume

46:47

butter, they'll still consume yogurt, they'll still

46:49

consume bread and cakes

46:51

that are made with milk. They

46:54

just won't drink the milk

46:56

in their coffee because it just, I don't know,

46:58

at the end of the day, you're not doing

47:01

that much to change your overall

47:03

consumption, but it feels like one small step.

47:06

And it's one step that's made relatively easy

47:08

by a lot of coffee shops because most

47:11

if not all coffee shops these days offer

47:14

milk alternatives. And in

47:16

a way, it just makes you feel a little bit

47:18

better about yourself and a little bit better about your

47:20

contribution to environmental

47:23

activism. I

47:25

don't know, maybe I'm just projecting, maybe this is just my

47:27

experience, but I feel like it's

47:29

what I can theorize as

47:31

to why so many

47:33

young people are aggressively anti whole

47:35

milk, but still able

47:38

to consume whole milk derivatives

47:40

or consume other

47:42

types of unethical food

47:45

products. Emily Sundberg

47:47

actually wrote an article about whole milk

47:49

mounting a triumphant comeback in

47:51

2021 and she cites like

47:53

a potential other reason. She

47:56

spoke to Caroline Hess, a manager and

47:58

cheese authority at Crown Family. case in Brooklyn

48:00

about how and why so many of us turned

48:02

our backs on dairy in the first place. And

48:06

Caroline's answer edged on

48:08

spiritual fulfillment. She said, there's this quest

48:10

for absolution in the foods we eat.

48:13

I think consumers were fed this lie by what

48:15

I call the goop industrial complex, that if

48:18

you cut dairy from your diet, you will

48:20

have more energy, clearer skin, and you will

48:22

never ever fart ever again. But

48:24

the case against dairy ignores many of the

48:26

complexities of our food system. And I think

48:28

people are starting to realize that. So

48:31

the idea is like, with more

48:33

and more people recognizing that like

48:35

choosing plant based milk is not

48:37

really absolving them from the faults

48:40

of the food industry. And

48:42

it's not actually granting them

48:44

these magical promises that perhaps

48:46

like veganism has championed that

48:49

they're reverting back to whole milk

48:52

just as like, I

48:54

give up kind of stance. Emily

48:56

concludes her article with another quote from Hess,

48:58

who says, sometimes all people need to be

49:00

convinced that dairy is fine and even good.

49:02

Is that one friend who made the switch

49:04

to announce that after they did, nothing terrible

49:07

happened to them. And once people try it

49:09

themselves, they realize how hungry they've been at

49:11

this entire time. I do

49:13

wonder because I think

49:15

that Emily's article

49:17

was tackling like a specific niche, perhaps

49:20

European summer girlies who

49:22

were bringing back big

49:24

dairies. But I haven't seen

49:27

that be reflected like on

49:29

a wide scale basis. And I don't

49:31

know if there will actually be like

49:33

a turn towards dairy again. I do

49:35

know that big dairy

49:38

is trying to stage its own

49:40

comeback. Hence that like, really weird

49:43

Aubrey Plaza got milk

49:45

add. I don't know if you all remember that. But

49:47

it was like a parody video

49:50

where she's like putting down wood

49:53

milk, which is not like a milk that actually exists,

49:55

but it's like a satire of

49:57

like oat milk and almond milk and other

49:59

kinds of like, like nut milk, but

50:01

she was like, wood milk is

50:03

blah, blah, blah, blah. Like who would drink

50:05

wood milk or whatever? And

50:07

it's an ad for whole milk. So

50:09

they're definitely trying to bring over Gen

50:12

Z. I just don't

50:14

necessarily know whether that will be

50:17

an actual change that we see in the coming years.

50:19

I don't know, I think a lot of

50:22

it will have to do with like influencers

50:24

because I feel like part of

50:26

the reason why alternative milk is really

50:28

popular among millennials and zoomers in

50:30

the first place is because of

50:32

influencers. I

50:35

mean, off the top of my head, I can

50:37

think of like Alex Earl and before her, Emma

50:39

Chamberlain, who made a

50:41

lot of content promoting almond milk, just like out of

50:43

the goodness of their own tastes, like

50:45

not like sponsored by almond milk, but

50:47

because they genuinely like drink almond milk. And I

50:50

think this content kind of normalized almond milk among

50:52

younger generations and also made it sort of like

50:55

aspirational for their fans.

50:58

And I don't wanna say like it all

51:00

pins down to influencers because I know some

51:02

people are gonna be like, you're giving these

51:04

girls too much credit. There

51:07

was already a movement happening, but

51:09

I feel like they definitely, well,

51:12

I would say Emma Chamberlain specifically was

51:14

definitely like a pioneer for

51:17

a lot of trends that were happening already.

51:19

She really just like pushed

51:21

them further. And I

51:23

know that Emma Chamberlain is a kind of a contentious figure

51:25

right now. And some

51:28

people might not like what I said because

51:30

it comes across as worshiping her or

51:32

giving her way too much credit. Believe

51:34

it or not, I'm not like

51:37

an Emma Chamberlain stan or

51:40

hater, she's younger than me and I've just

51:42

never really been interested in

51:45

whatever she's doing. Like I

51:47

don't not support her. I just like, it's

51:49

not my, I'm not the target audience. Okay.

51:53

And I think it is interesting that she's

51:56

been able to like leverage herself into being

51:58

a high fashion girlie. and

52:00

I think that's respectable, but. Okay,

52:02

also just like another little quick thing. I

52:04

was aware of like the discourse about whether

52:07

or not she should go to college, which

52:09

I think is just really strange discourse to

52:11

be having about someone. Even if it's someone

52:13

who's like making content that you consume, it

52:15

just felt like really condescending for people to

52:17

be saying that. And this is

52:19

coming from someone who did go to

52:21

college and who does not regret going

52:23

to college. But I

52:26

just think it's like a really weird

52:28

thing to say about someone because in

52:30

the same breath, as we were saying,

52:32

this person should go to college, it's

52:35

like what about all the people who can't

52:37

afford to go to college, or

52:39

the people who didn't feel like

52:41

college was the right learning environment for them?

52:43

Because college does have a very standardized type

52:46

of learning environment that is not suitable for

52:48

everyone. And so if

52:50

you were saying that someone needs to go to college,

52:52

you were saying like, this is the only legitimate pathway

52:54

for you to be able to get an education, and

52:57

it inadvertently puts down people who

52:59

have chosen or who have not been

53:01

able to go to college. So that

53:04

was like my whole thing. I

53:06

haven't listened to her podcast, so

53:09

I don't know what she quote unquote

53:11

needs, but I

53:14

just had an issue with the framing of

53:16

that conversation and having college

53:18

be like the be all end all answer.

53:22

Anyways, it seems like Bigdairy

53:24

is kind of catching on

53:26

to the influencer influence.

53:29

It's not telling us to do with that, that's the influencer

53:31

influence. But they're funding this

53:34

organization called MilkPEP, which is short

53:36

for the Milk Processor Education Program,

53:39

which is trying to really draw in Gen

53:41

Z audiences. And they've

53:43

been like launching campaigns with influencers

53:46

like Charlie D'Amelio, who is a

53:48

known dairy milk drinker. But I

53:50

don't know if that's going to

53:52

be enough to sway people to

53:54

switch over. And I've been

53:56

thinking about this, I've been thinking about the

53:58

influencer landscape. I feel like Emma

54:01

Chamberlain was very special

54:04

in the sense that she blew

54:06

up at the right time and

54:08

the influencer landscape wasn't as oversaturated

54:10

as it is now. And I

54:12

also think that the way that

54:14

YouTube builds an audience is very

54:17

different from the way that TikTok

54:19

builds its audience because I

54:21

find that a lot of the times on

54:24

TikTok, you're not like necessarily following

54:26

a specific influencer in a parasocial

54:28

way. I'm sure that's not the

54:30

case for everyone but in my

54:32

personal experience and noticing

54:34

other people and their behaviors online,

54:36

it's like we care

54:39

about TikTok for the video content less for

54:41

the creator and that's also patterned by the

54:43

way that TikTok operates. Like you're on your

54:45

For You page more than you're on your

54:48

following page, at least I am. So

54:50

half the time I don't even see what people

54:52

I'm actually following are posting. I'm mostly seeing what

54:55

the algorithm is pushing to me which nine times

54:57

out of ten are cat videos.

55:00

So yeah, I think

55:02

the way that we interact on TikTok is

55:04

so different from YouTube and YouTube just like

55:06

is able to foster like a more parasocial

55:09

relationship because of length,

55:12

because people are more likely

55:15

to check their subscription boxes. I

55:19

just think there's more of a cult of personality

55:21

that can be fostered through YouTube. And

55:24

I think that's also evident by the fact that like

55:26

a lot of TikTok people that are

55:28

big, I feel like they've kind of fallen off

55:30

like their influence is kind of like papered

55:32

off in a way that I haven't seen with

55:35

figures like Emma Chamberlain that

55:38

blossomed on YouTube. And I'm not saying that

55:40

everyone on YouTube is still like as relevant

55:42

as they were in their peak, but I

55:45

think like there's more

55:47

longevity to a period of relevance

55:49

on YouTube than on TikTok because

55:51

TikTok is like pretty new. Like

55:53

a lot of the people who blew up blew up in

55:56

like 2019 and they've already kind of

55:59

like fallen off. and

56:01

it's only been a couple years.

56:03

Like I actually cannot name any

56:06

TikTokers who I think are

56:08

cruising at the same height of popularity

56:10

and relevance as they did when they

56:12

first started like in their first few

56:15

years. And I think that's really wild

56:17

considering their careers have only

56:19

been four years so far. And I'm not

56:22

saying that they're not making a lot of

56:24

money and that they're not getting like lots

56:26

of opportunities. I just think that on a

56:28

purely parasocial level, it's a lot different than

56:31

what YouTube has been doing for the

56:33

past 15 years. And also

56:35

I think again, like the influencer

56:37

landscape has just changed so much. It's

56:39

really built out as an industry. Like

56:41

when I was watching YouTube, there were

56:43

only so many content creators that people

56:46

watched. Like I'm

56:48

trying to think, I was never like a huge, huge,

56:51

huge YouTube person back in the early days, but I

56:53

did watch Charlie is so cool

56:55

like for a couple years. I

56:59

feel like he was the only one. Why?

57:01

Why did I choose him? I

57:04

don't know what he's doing now, but I hope he's doing well. Editor's

57:07

note, I recently learned post recording this

57:09

episode that Charlie is so cool like

57:12

is still doing well, making content. And

57:14

she came out as trans and now

57:16

her pronouns are she her. So

57:18

I'm really happy for her

57:21

and fucked her. I

57:23

mostly use YouTube to watch and these.

57:26

So if you don't know what

57:28

that stands for, it's anime music videos. And you

57:31

know what, I'm not ashamed of it. So you

57:33

can't weaponize that information against me. But

57:35

just going back to the idea of like

57:37

there being a monoculture back in the early

57:39

days of the internet and now there's like

57:42

not really monoculture anymore. There's just too

57:44

many influencers that I feel like no

57:47

influencer really has like a chokehold on

57:49

a majority audience. I think Alex Earle was

57:52

probably like the anomaly in the last year,

57:54

but yeah, I mean

57:56

even now I like don't hear much about her and it's

57:58

only been a year. maybe my algorithm has

58:01

just like fully done a 180 on me and

58:03

they're like cats only like we get it like

58:05

you don't want to see any people anymore you

58:07

just want cats and we will make that magic

58:10

for you and therefore i'm not

58:12

programmed to think like this is the reality

58:14

for everyone so i would actually be really

58:16

interested if you want to

58:18

write in like a response about influencer

58:20

culture and how you feel it's changed

58:22

over the past couple years and if

58:25

you think i'm on to something or

58:27

if you think like i'm like completely

58:29

bananas and your experience is totally different

58:31

and everyone is obsessed with like a

58:33

particular influencer in your social circle okay

58:37

thank you all so much for listening

58:39

today if you like this

58:41

podcast if you want to support it

58:43

i have a patreon it's patreon.com/highbrow by

58:45

mina and i also

58:47

have an instagram page called

58:50

highbrow.pod i will be

58:52

skipping the next episode

58:54

slot because it's the holidays and i'm

58:56

taking some time off i'm taking a

58:58

break but i will come back to

59:01

you after celebrations

59:04

as usual this episode was

59:06

edited by sophie carter music

59:08

by olivia martinez and cover

59:10

it by lindsey mitz The

59:27

holidays start here at Kroger with a

59:29

variety of options to celebrate traditions old

59:31

and new. You could do

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a classic herb roasted turkey or spice it up

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creamy mac and cheese or a spinach

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cheese. No matter how you shop, Kroger

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has all the freshest ingredients to embrace

59:53

all your holiday traditions. Kroger. the

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