Culture Club - Sorry, but Emily in Paris is 'Ringarde'

00:00:00.000 Rihanna's Fenty show stirs controversy, Bon Appetit loses another star and we have a million

00:00:13.480 thoughts about Netflix's Emily in Paris. We're media slashies Maggie and Jasmine and you're

00:00:19.860 listening to our weekly chat about pop culture, current affairs, the internet and our lives.

00:00:24.940 we would like to acknowledge that the Wurundjeri, Turrbal and Boon Wurrung people

00:00:31.680 are the traditional custodians of the land upon which we live, we work and record this podcast

00:00:37.500 we pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty

00:00:43.700 was never ceded, always was, always will be Aboriginal land

00:00:48.260 okay so just before we got on this podcast i found out some news and i'm i feel so shook

00:00:57.920 did you know that bindi erwin is pregnant uh yeah she's been pregnant she announced it like

00:01:03.660 a month ago or something what she is like my age so she's 21 i'm pretty sure or just 22 i think

00:01:12.620 yeah oh yeah and she that's so weird she got married during um corona lockdowns at the zoo 0.96

00:01:19.580 yeah yeah I saw that and that was quite trippy seeing her like you know being engaged and

00:01:25.060 and stuff like that I just feel like she's still I could picture her as a toddler so

00:01:30.720 it just makes me feel strange yeah me too especially being a few years older than you

00:01:35.200 like yeah I remember her being a child like at her dad's funeral and stuff but hey we're all

00:01:42.740 getting older we're all growing up happy for her and her husband it's a little girl how did you

00:01:48.940 miss this news like a month ago where were you I know I'm really late with pregnancy announcements

00:01:55.220 for instance we both love and follow Liv Purvis from um England or somewhere yeah she's from

00:02:01.780 she's british but um yeah and she's pregnant now and how exciting i saw a little baby bump

00:02:11.360 so that's nice yeah i love her work and her content she's so cool her instagram feed is

00:02:18.560 yeah what we both aspire to be actually she's so cool i've followed her for like years like

00:02:23.260 seven years probably what that is so long okay i haven't how's your week been

00:02:30.660 same old same old honestly I don't remember I had a bath which was nice that was like the standout

00:02:37.480 of my week how sad is that and like it made me sleep so peacefully so that was a very nice

00:02:42.780 very nice time that's all what about you it's like Victorian England like the highlight of my

00:02:48.880 week of my month was having a bath no that's nice I wish I had a bath but I don't um yeah the same

00:02:56.120 Been on a few walks.

00:02:57.580 Oh, I was on a guest on Superficial Podcast that came out this week.

00:03:05.640 So that was fun to be on the other side of the microphone

00:03:08.660 and get interviewed.

00:03:10.160 It's like my first interview, I think, as a journalist.

00:03:14.040 So that was nice.

00:03:15.800 We spoke about toxic positivity and girlboss culture

00:03:18.100 and grind culture, which are all things we've brought up

00:03:20.360 on here before.

00:03:20.900 So it was nice to expand on those a little bit.

00:03:24.340 yes I've been meaning to listen to your episodes because I've also seen that they've interviewed

00:03:29.020 our Instagram friends like Bianca Hill Hannah English and Kitsch Catterall so can't wait to

00:03:36.880 listen yeah it's all things that we've spoken about on here but it was nice and the girls are

00:03:42.640 really great interviewers so if you want to hear my voice even more my opinions even more go have a

00:03:48.720 listen

00:03:54.340 one thing we have both been loving hating watching with the rest of the internet this week

00:04:02.300 is of course Emily in Paris lots of thoughts on this um I wasn't going to actually watch it this

00:04:10.680 week it's so funny so I ended up watching a couple episodes because I wanted to watch it

00:04:16.140 with my friend Emily um no coincidence with the name or anything um but so I ended up watching

00:04:23.520 the first two episodes on Friday even though it came out quite early on in the week and it had

00:04:28.280 already been in like the new cycle beforehand um and then after that yeah I finished it within like

00:04:34.740 a day so I'm all up to date now have you finished it yeah I literally finished it that was like my

00:04:43.080 homework for the podcast which was very enjoyable tray enjoyable as Emily would say oh gosh yeah I

00:04:51.240 was um refraining from texting you all week because i was like we have to talk about this

00:04:55.520 so many conflicting thoughts so everyone if you haven't heard um or you have no idea what

00:05:02.460 emily in paris is about i'll give you a little recap so this week netflix dropped the comedy

00:05:07.840 drama it is about a 20 something called emily cooper who's played by lily collins and she's

00:05:15.440 a social media marketer who from chicago who gets given a one-year job in paris at the same company

00:05:23.980 so like her company buys the paris office or something it's 10 episodes which sees her

00:05:29.020 struggling with the french culture meeting gorgeous french men wearing designer clothes

00:05:33.820 and trying to get ahead in her job so the show was produced and directed by darren starr who's

00:05:39.560 best known for being the creator of sex in the city beverly hills 90210 and then younger with

00:05:44.820 Hilary Duff have you seen Younger yes I have we have to talk about that when he comes back as well

00:05:49.540 I've only seen one episode so I should probably catch oh yeah I mean it's it's it's strange but

00:05:55.000 it's fine it's like two I feel like there's been multiple series it's just her like fighting

00:05:58.900 between these two guys for the entire like whole show anyway what do they say um wait what's that

00:06:05.960 word that everyone keeps using on their podcast I digress I feel like everyone overuses that but

00:06:12.240 i digress so this week it's received incredibly mixed reviews um with some people saying that

00:06:20.220 it's like a really fun fantasy filled rom-com that we really need during these times um but

00:06:26.120 the french in particular and other people have said it's just a show full of stereotypes and

00:06:31.800 that emily isn't particularly good at her job she's just good looking i want to hear what your

00:06:37.180 thoughts are on it before we go into what some critics have said so overall you know we see that

00:06:45.340 Netflix releases a tv show that's about a fun 20 something year old girl who goes to Paris the

00:06:51.820 trailer itself is super upbeat and fun and like colorful like we know it's not going to be like

00:06:57.180 an Oscar nominated work of art you know everything that Netflix releases is always kind of this

00:07:02.940 trashy type show but that being said that's entertaining like I personally I've said it

00:07:09.720 multiple times on this podcast like I don't have a good taste in tv shows and movies I just watch

00:07:14.420 things that are enjoyable so I actually enjoyed watching this what about you I watched it for the

00:07:19.120 hype basically because everyone was talking about it and I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff I think

00:07:22.840 it's a show I would have loved like really really enjoyed when I was about 15 but watching it now I

00:07:28.320 feel like it kind of lacked weight if that makes sense yeah of course but in saying that it is

00:07:36.240 a fluffy beautiful show to look at and it makes you forget about your stresses and the stress of

00:07:44.020 2020 for a hot second so I think anything that is a distraction or just like a bit of escapism 0.94

00:07:50.460 is nice but I do wish that something more drastic had happened to her for the twist in the show I

00:07:57.840 I feel like every time something went slightly wrong, like even slightly, she would just

00:08:03.940 solve it in 10 minutes.

00:08:06.620 I think that she only got ahead in her job or she got certain things was because of her 1.00

00:08:11.820 looks, not because of how she did her job. 0.80

00:08:14.960 Like basically she was pandering to all the men around her, like whether it's business 0.99

00:08:19.040 or her neighbor or whatever, to help her fix things in her life.

00:08:23.500 and she'd just kind of bat her eyelids and then her eyelashes

00:08:26.300 and then she'd get away.

00:08:29.600 Yeah, she'd blink at them. 0.77

00:08:32.840 Okay, yes.

00:08:34.500 This is probably my biggest takeaway from the TV show

00:08:37.280 and probably my personal biggest critique is just the lack 1.00

00:08:42.240 of awareness about her own pretty privilege. 1.00

00:08:45.120 Like I think it was rampant and it was, I mean,

00:08:49.120 I always have to check myself when I bring up things

00:08:51.140 like pretty privilege because I'm like, oh,

00:08:52.720 am I just jealous or like you know is this internalized misogyny but I just think that

00:08:57.620 the fact that she didn't realize that where she is today or where she got in the tv show was because

00:09:04.880 predominantly because of her looks is just so frustrating you know I don't even know if she

00:09:10.720 would actually end up in Paris like to be chosen to go there if it wasn't for you know her appearance

00:09:16.040 and the way that kind of I don't know I don't even know how to describe it I know what you mean

00:09:21.760 yeah I think um she was enthusiastic and that's always a good way to create opportunities for

00:09:29.220 yourself is just being positive and enthusiastic and like I do think she was quite focused but um

00:09:35.620 yeah whenever she got in a jam it would be like who can I like look to for help oh this like

00:09:40.460 sexy French man help me can we please talk about the fashion well I saw an interesting analysis

00:09:46.300 that if it was made in the 2010s Emily would have been a fashion blogger if it was the 90s or early

00:09:51.280 naughty she would have been a fashion journalist but because it's 2020 she's a social media

00:09:55.160 marketer so many comments on the internet were like how is she dressed head to toe in chanel 0.62

00:10:00.840 on like a mid-level social media salary like that green coat which is one of my favorite outfits of 1.00

00:10:06.560 the whole um season is like six and a half grand for that one coat and it's like how much money

00:10:12.300 are you making her fashion just confuses me i was just honestly perplexed for i think half the

00:10:19.460 season like sometimes she'd come out in these killer looks and I'm like yes and other times

00:10:24.800 I'm like what in the world are you wearing and half the time when that happens I'm like

00:10:30.120 you know that um kind of meme or tiktok and it's like um you know is she stylish or is she just 0.95

00:10:35.980 skinny and some of the things I'm like wow you're really only pulling that off or you know she's

00:10:41.080 just wearing that with confidence and ease because of her body type and I'm just I'm thoroughly

00:10:45.460 confused and I think her fashion did improve as the like episodes progressed I don't like I think

00:10:51.380 that was on purpose but I just didn't know what to think I'm pretty sure the costume designer on

00:10:56.800 Sex and the City was the same as Emily in Paris so that's interesting I also think yeah the

00:11:03.040 comparison of between Sex and the City and Emily in Paris is so interesting because they're created

00:11:08.500 by the same man Sex and the City would feel like obviously it's really dated now in like some of

00:11:14.700 their views but it just felt so much more zeitgeist changing and this just kind of feels like candy or

00:11:21.780 something like something sweet to look at um rather than something that really resonates with

00:11:27.240 a lot of people but maybe that was the aim to just like create a fun show and all that um but

00:11:33.480 it's really pissed off a lot of French people yeah tell me about it premier's critic Charles 0.74

00:11:38.840 Martin said that in Emily in Paris the French are all mean and lazy and never arrive at the 0.94

00:11:44.800 office before late morning and that they are incorrigible flirts with no concept of being 0.95

00:11:50.300 faithful they're also sexist backward and of course have at best a fitful relationship with 0.97

00:11:56.240 their showers frankly watching Emily in Paris there's plenty to feel insulted about when they

00:12:01.620 decided to caricature us the authors didn't hold back oof there's also been a lot of feedback

00:12:08.800 over her job so people have come forward being like this isn't what a social media editor or

00:12:16.160 marketer really does people have been saying that it makes that job look really easy and kind of

00:12:21.800 diminishes it a lot so I read an article for InStyle magazine by Sam Reid who said the portrayal of

00:12:29.720 what performs on social media and Emily's knack for the platform is honestly disrespectful to

00:12:35.000 anyone who has ever been tasked with creating content is it camp satire or is the show written 0.65

00:12:40.840 by a bunch of gen x's or boomers whose profile photos are selfies taken in low light as they

00:12:45.940 gaze down at the camera phone in their hands because one thing's for sure emily's social

00:12:50.000 content like the show itself is bad i have another theory for why emily's social media accounts 0.98

00:12:55.540 garner thousands of engaged fans after she posts photos of pooping dogs and a marble 0.99

00:13:00.140 statue that she captions tiresomely chisel abs she's hot so that's also saying the same thing

00:13:06.380 we were that is so funny i saw so many comments like she had 42 followers in the first episode

00:13:13.960 and the social media editor was like my grandma has 150 followers like how are you a social media

00:13:19.880 marketer with 42 followers and then she posts pictures of like random children playing by

00:13:26.400 fountain and like women oh did you see the one where she um takes a picture of someone's hamburger

00:13:32.000 on another table and then uploads that yeah and it was like pristine quality as well that's quite

00:13:38.140 funny and then by the end she's got like 40 000 followers or something it's just a bit of fantasy

00:13:43.220 isn't it what i would have actually liked though is to see because you know when after a tv show

00:13:48.060 a movie is um created they create like an instagram account to you know go side by side to promo it

00:13:53.520 i actually wish they um because the handle is also emily in paris and i wish they actually

00:13:58.500 actually created her instagram feed for that promo i feel like that would have been engaging as well

00:14:03.720 but no unfortunately i didn't do that um but yeah it's quite funny just seeing her like likes and

00:14:09.500 followers just spike up and her just being like the only thing that we get is her like mouth drop

00:14:16.720 sometimes she would just be like like oh my god my followers are going up but she hasn't done

00:14:20.820 anything i don't know yeah pretty ridiculous but in that article sam asks some social media people

00:14:28.100 what their thoughts on emily and paris are and hunter harris who's a staff writer at vulture

00:14:32.360 said it feels realistic that a white girl with dark lipstick and soft curls can say the words

00:14:37.880 social media and convince boomer that she knows what she's talking about this girl walks around 0.93

00:14:42.720 typing out hashtags and saying the word engagement and these french people just let her rock sounds 0.99

00:14:47.860 about white speaking of race though um let's chat about the lack of BIPOC in this I mean

00:14:54.300 apparently Paris I have never been to France or Paris and apparently it is very multicultural so

00:14:59.540 I saw some critics that were like yeah that wasn't an accurate representation of it so we 0.54

00:15:05.380 obviously had her co-worker who's this black slamboyant man who's there for sassy comments

00:15:10.640 and then we had her Asian kind of best friend sidekick who was quirky but also very very rich 0.96

00:15:16.180 so playing into that like crazy rich Asian stereotype yeah so I mean I'm not surprised

00:15:22.100 nor am I like that mad about it but I think it's just interesting yeah I agree um I saw a comment 0.70

00:15:30.320 that was like I think it was in that Vogue article with the Canadian woman she was like by the way

00:15:34.860 where are all the people of North African descent because that's really what Paris is like more

00:15:39.320 multicultural so yeah all in all lots of thoughts I kind of hate watched it but also enjoyed how 1.00

00:15:46.920 ridiculous it was I was like laughing at it but sometimes it was entertaining beautiful to look 1.00

00:15:52.640 at clothes were amazing so in my opinion I think if you want something that's like light fluffy

00:15:58.520 something to distract you from 2020 go for that but not if you want any substance yeah as a side 0.93

00:16:05.160 no like she literally had sex with a minor are we just going to just skip that i forgot about that 1.00

00:16:13.640 oh my god and then the mom interrogates her like is my son a good lover what the hell and it's just 0.91

00:16:21.300 like skipped past that was odd what was the point of that right it was like unnecessary like it

00:16:28.400 didn't really add anything to the plot it just made it so uncomfortable oh my god yeah hopefully

00:16:35.260 we're not spoiling anything but you know we don't know who it is exactly the minor you know

00:16:42.840 we'll keep that one secret scandal so another thing that was making the news was rihanna's

00:16:50.300 savage fenty show and i think you made the news for all the right reasons you know she had an

00:16:55.700 incredible lineup of dancers featuring nine dancers of Maori and Pacifica descent. And her

00:17:01.360 show was choreographed by this New Zealander called Paris Gobelle. So yeah, did you see all

00:17:05.880 the good stuff that was floating around? Like she had an incredible screenshot from when she was

00:17:10.480 selling the collection and it featured kind of plus size men and everyone was kind of celebrating

00:17:15.640 that body diversity that we haven't really seen before. Yeah, that was so refreshing to see a

00:17:20.680 plus size male model you rarely ever see them so that's nice for that diversity and i shared a

00:17:26.800 great picture on my instagram story of the victoria secret show um next to the rihanna

00:17:32.200 fenty show the diversity is amazing and it feels so exciting to like see that change happening in

00:17:38.960 real time and sorry not just to rain on our parade but there was um some backlash that was

00:17:45.160 spark from this so in the show she had used a song that contained an islamic verse the song is doomed

00:17:52.660 by artist cuckoo chloe and it samples islamic scripture called a hadith according to the source

00:17:58.200 we read which is buzzfeed news who's linked to a scripture the hadith is about al-hajj a moment

00:18:04.160 near the end times i'll read you a quote that someone called zara posted on twitter just

00:18:09.460 explaining her point of view because neither of us are muslim it reads unless you're muslim

00:18:14.620 no one can tell us lot what and how to feel about the Rihanna situation even if she didn't pick the

00:18:20.620 song every smart person listens to it beforehand so get educated Islam is not an aesthetic it's a

00:18:27.040 religion this isn't the first time and with the tweet she kind of has screenshots of other times

00:18:33.060 Rihanna has participated in I guess some problematic cultural appropriation so on Instagram after this

00:18:40.920 she posted a public apology on her personal stories and also on the Savage Fenty Instagram

00:18:46.560 account. We'll read out a little bit. I'd like to thank the Muslim community for pointing out

00:18:52.160 a huge oversight that was unintentionally offensive in our Savage X Fenty show. I would

00:18:57.180 more importantly like to apologize to you for this honest yet careless mistake. We understand

00:19:02.160 that we have hurt many of our Muslim brothers and sisters and I'm incredibly disheartened by this.

00:19:07.400 I do not play with any kind of disrespect toward God or any religion and therefore the use of the

00:19:12.580 song in our project was completely irresponsible moving forward we will make sure nothing like

00:19:17.480 this ever happens again thank you for your forgiveness and understanding so because

00:19:24.160 neither of us are Muslim of course this is not our apology to accept but I do appreciate her 0.98

00:19:28.940 accountability and honesty here she fesses up to the mistake and promises to do better what are

00:19:34.280 your thoughts on it I think that this moment just shows that if you have diversity or just because

00:19:41.320 you have diversity on the runways you need to have diversity behind the scenes because

00:19:45.940 if there was a person from that community who had run through the music then maybe this would

00:19:52.820 have been caught and you know people wouldn't have been rightly offended like using religion

00:19:58.000 in a situation like that I don't know might not be the best idea so you can tell it was an honest

00:20:04.580 mistake in my opinion but I think it's just more proof that we still have so much work to do for

00:20:10.760 true diversity across the board and it's more than just who you're presenting on the runway

00:20:15.760 it's who's behind the scenes who's looking over stuff all that I reckon it is a hard like balancing

00:20:21.800 thing because she was definitely praised and for good reason for having like a great castle Maori

00:20:26.280 and New Zealand talent on stage with her so it's hard like how many like do you have everyone from

00:20:31.020 every single culture for instance this pissed me off I bought the September issue of Vogue and

00:20:35.280 there was like an ad for I don't know some makeup brand and it was like a foundation or something

00:20:40.620 and in like their copy they were like tested on every ethnicity and I'm like no you didn't there

00:20:46.820 are like hundreds like what do you mean you tested on like probably four you know what I mean so

00:20:51.340 So I hate, like, I think it is hard to cover.

00:20:53.920 Sorry, this is such a sidetrack, but I agree that like diversity should extend behind the

00:20:58.200 scenes, but it's like, oh my God, that's a lot.

00:21:00.280 Like it's, it's like when you try to cater for everybody, you kind of have a shallow

00:21:04.640 attempt of representation.

00:21:06.700 Yeah, me too.

00:21:07.440 But I also think if you're using something so blatantly from another culture, you should

00:21:12.620 at least have someone look over that song.

00:21:14.260 You know what I mean?

00:21:15.500 If it's in another language, you want to make sure that it's, you know, not offensive,

00:21:20.700 rather than just using that language or religion for an aesthetic is what I think happened is like

00:21:28.320 it could almost be seen as tokenistic in the way that she's been like okay cool we just use this

00:21:33.760 song and include this community but then not gone deeper and thought okay well what if someone from

00:21:40.260 this community actually looks over this and you know gives it the go ahead on if it should be

00:21:44.640 used in that context or not you know what i mean agreed so speaking of public apologies as well

00:21:50.980 there's been um a few happening over at food publication bon appetit i am not a consumer of

00:21:59.780 theirs but i know you are so do you want to give us a rundown on that yeah so i only started watching

00:22:04.800 bon appetit's youtube channel like earlier this year i think probably when like lockdown first

00:22:10.940 started because you know you just need something homey to watch and their cooking videos were

00:22:14.640 very addictive. So a quick roundup of what the whole drama has been like in the past few months

00:22:21.200 this is from Insider. So Condé Nast and its food publication Bon Appétit have come under fire as

00:22:27.340 high-profile staff members have made or been subjects of allegations of racism among other

00:22:33.020 things. So there have been countless social media posts and exposé in which employees of colour

00:22:38.000 described a toxic work environment and the resignations of executives. So this like blew

00:22:43.940 up I think in August and it's just kind of still trickling down with the after effects. The reason

00:22:50.100 why we're talking about it now is because arguably one of the most famous members of their cast,

00:22:55.760 Claire Saffetz, known for a gourmet make series, just announced that she is leaving. In 2020 fashion

00:23:01.980 it was done over an Instagram post like every other celebrity and basically I'll just read a

00:23:07.160 short snippet of it again. Hi friends, a note to share with all of you. I've taken the past several

00:23:12.060 months to process and make thoughtful, deliberate decisions about my future. My formal relationship

00:23:17.460 with Condé Nast Entertainment ended in March of this year and I've decided not to continue the

00:23:22.620 relationship. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm grateful for Bon Appetit and CNE for the opportunity

00:23:28.460 to build my career on their platforms, but this opportunity was not granted equally to all. I

00:23:34.500 I respect and support the decisions of many of my colleagues to blaze new trails.

00:23:38.780 I look forward to following all of their great work.

00:23:42.360 So when she's talking about the opportunity not afforded to all, she's talking about how

00:23:46.940 the BIPOC staff weren't actually being fairly remunerated in comparison to their white counterparts,

00:23:52.660 which is obviously like a massive cause of concern.

00:23:57.060 So yeah, she follows suit at least seven of the on-camera talent who announced that they

00:24:03.240 were no longer appearing in videos earlier in August I find it quite interesting that she

00:24:08.000 announced her departure now because she's releasing her own cookbook in less than a

00:24:12.300 fortnight so you know lots of eyeballs on her Instagram page which is maybe me being cynical

00:24:17.340 but also maybe a good move on her part uh any publicity is good publicity right and yeah I just

00:24:22.920 found this like an interesting case study to look at because we've just seen the fall of an incredibly

00:24:28.220 successful publication that you know as we're talking about like the the demise of print

00:24:33.420 magazines we've seen them pivot so successfully into the digital sphere so for instance their

00:24:38.860 youtube has almost six million subscribers and almost four million instagram followers i just 1.00

00:24:45.060 find it incredulous that you know this came to a front when black lives matter was at the height 0.85

00:24:50.040 this year the fact that they can't just sort out contracts and pay their workers fairly is 0.88

00:24:54.360 so perplexing to me like this has caused such bad PR I don't understand what's going on it's also

00:24:59.460 odd that it's Condé Nast but like none of the other Condé Nast publications have had this like

00:25:05.000 domino effect of like downfall like Bon Appetit has and I don't know why and it's also interesting

00:25:11.900 just to see how their fans have reacted and some are pointing fingers to the white talent like

00:25:17.140 Claire and like Brett and like Molly who are kind of some of the main figureheads here but it's

00:25:22.620 interesting because I'm trying to think about it from their perspective like their co-workers of

00:25:26.880 these BIPOC people they're obviously not in charge of setting rates and money and you don't really 0.86

00:25:31.420 ask your co-workers I don't think like hey how much are you making for this video you know so I 0.58

00:25:36.320 don't really know how I feel about that I think it's slowly becoming more normalized and I think

00:25:41.540 especially this year it's become yeah people talking about that stuff more for some reason

00:25:46.940 I don't know maybe people are fed up of like the secrecy of like big companies like that 0.95

00:25:51.380 but yeah it's such an odd story it's like why can't they just get their shit together and pay 0.88

00:25:56.580 people equally like it's 2020 but you know that is another conversation of systemic racism

00:26:02.080 will you buy the cookbook uh no i don't follow physical cookbooks much i don't know every time

00:26:08.240 i like look at a physical cookbook i feel like the ingredients are always like super

00:26:11.940 difficult and you have to like buy it or like ship it from like armania or something like that

00:26:15.940 you know what I mean it's just so so difficult I will stick to like my BuzzFeed tasty videos

00:26:21.960 all righty Jazz so what have you been reading watching or listening to this week this morning

00:26:35.540 actually I read a really great article by Maureen Dowd for the New York Times called James Murdoch

00:26:43.220 The Rebellious Sion. So this was written by Pulitzer Prize winner Maureen Dowd who won the

00:26:49.660 Pulitzer for her columns on the Monica Lewinsky case back in the 90s. It's an interview with

00:26:54.880 media magnate Rupert Murdoch's son James and he resigned from the News Corp board earlier this

00:27:01.160 year. I found it to be a really interesting interview about why he's leaving his reputation

00:27:05.840 as being the kind of rebellious more left-leaning son compared to his brother who's apparently a

00:27:11.960 lot more like his father. Also, what James plans to do with his fortune now that he doesn't have

00:27:16.660 a say in News Corp anymore, or as much of a say, obviously. He left after, quote,

00:27:22.800 deepening estrangement with his father and brother and growing discomfort over the toxicity of Fox

00:27:27.640 News and other conservative News Corp properties. And I chose this piece this week because I think

00:27:34.760 it's an interesting look into one of the most influential families in the world, but also

00:27:38.940 because yesterday i don't know if you saw but former prime minister kevin rudd launched a

00:27:43.440 petition calling for a royal commission into the domination of news corp in australia so it's only

00:27:49.280 been out for just over 24 hours and this morning it had 38 000 signatures so it's obviously something

00:27:55.620 that people are very aware of and especially considering 70 percent of australia's print

00:28:02.080 readership is owned by one man rupert murdoch which is just disgusting so this petition calls

00:28:06.960 for a commission to quote ensure a strong diverse Australian news media in the face of new business

00:28:12.740 models that encourage deliberately polarizing and politically manipulated news have you seen

00:28:19.620 the petitions today yeah I've seen the screenshot of Kevin Rudd giving his little speech about it

00:28:25.080 and I'm yet to watch it but I'm so glad that something like this is happening it's so important

00:28:30.140 for like a healthy and fair media system in Australia it's actually scary how much he

00:28:37.160 controls I think it's I think it should be illegal but what I found interesting about the interview

00:28:42.360 with James is that you'd think that if he had more left-leaning or more democratic views that

00:28:48.940 he'd want to stay in the company and have change from within and like when his father dies maybe

00:28:53.000 have more of a say with his brother but he's left and he's invested in quite a lot of things

00:28:58.700 um he's really interested in investing in debunking i guess those deep fake videos you know

00:29:05.700 deep fakes when they yeah the politicians faces can they can make them say anything they want

00:29:09.820 so it seems like a very interesting man and um even though he's been complicit in his father's

00:29:15.720 empire for years and like he's still a billionaire a white man like i think it's important to yeah

00:29:22.480 hear what one of the most influential men in the world is doing with his money and his time

00:29:27.640 Maureen also interviews his wife Catherine and that's interesting as well so if you're into like

00:29:33.020 a bit more of the backstory around the Kevin Rudd petition and the Murdochs in general I would

00:29:38.620 recommend that. What have you been loving recently? Yeah so last week I finished another book and that

00:29:46.640 was Pandora Sykes book of essays and it is called How Do We Know We're Doing It Right?

00:29:52.160 So we both kind of picked this up at the same time because she is a co-host of a podcast that

00:29:57.200 we really look up to which is The High Low and I think oh was it a year or two ago when the other

00:30:03.760 co-host Dolly Olderton released her book which was more of a like memoir would you say yeah yeah

00:30:10.880 and in comparison this one was like a very well researched and hard-hitting book so less of like

00:30:17.320 a fun and easy and personal read like Dolly's was. I'm just going to read a little bit of the blurb

00:30:22.560 so we can know what it's about. From faster than fast fashion to millennial burnout, the explosion

00:30:28.020 of wellness to the rise of cancel culture, Pandora Sykes interrogates the stories we've been sold and

00:30:33.540 the ones we tell ourselves. So it kind of just like encompasses a lot of different topics that

00:30:38.980 kind of affect the average millennial woman. It was interesting. So I would say that it gives off

00:30:44.980 a university reading vibe. There's lots of references and other people's opinions. It kind

00:30:50.320 of likes pandora's personal views and there's not really like a storytelling thread that connects

00:30:55.400 all of the essays so it's almost like you can read whichever in whatever order yeah so we both

00:31:01.000 had to read this for fashion journals book club a few weeks ago actually a lot of the people on

00:31:05.720 the book club including our editors felt the same way in that that it was very relevant to the

00:31:10.720 culture like right now like 2019 even considering the events of 2020 have changed our culture and

00:31:17.320 society so much um even now it feels a little bit outdated also i think working in media a lot of us

00:31:24.240 said that we feel too close to the stories like we think about those topics all the time and we

00:31:28.740 write about those topics so i don't know if i would have enjoyed it more if it was um if i

00:31:32.360 didn't work in the industry what do you think yeah that's an interesting one because i think

00:31:36.380 what we also said about the in the book club was like oh we probably only recommend this to our

00:31:41.540 friends that were interested in like the media industry or these topics because she does really

00:31:46.040 go into depth and kind of look at them quite critically so I agree that it kind of felt like

00:31:52.360 very long articles of things we would have read online anyway and yeah I agree about the lifespan

00:31:58.300 I was saying that like its relevancy maybe would last within five years but apart from that you

00:32:04.920 know some of the references in the book are already quite outdated and a lot of criticism

00:32:09.060 has arisen because like it feels tone deaf in 2020 which I agree like you know just so much

00:32:15.400 changes happened this year so that must have been difficult for her in conclusion I would say I like

00:32:20.980 it for the cultural commentary but it's more of an informative read than anything else it's also

00:32:25.980 quite pessimistic which is quite interesting I never really picked that up with Pandora's

00:32:30.120 personality but now since reading this I've kind of picked it up in the podcast but it is also

00:32:35.260 quite a thought-provoking book so like I did learn quite a lot and I underlined a lot as well but it's

00:32:40.360 not an easy read it's quite draining almost sometimes I think it could be draining because

00:32:45.780 we are the people she's talking about and so like when you're reading it you're also analyzing

00:32:50.180 your own actions and you're like oh do I do that do I play into that I think it would be a good

00:32:54.660 time capsule if we have teenagers one day and they're like what was life like in 2019 like

00:33:00.200 what was Instagram like you could just give them that book and they'd be like whoa like it's a very

00:33:04.400 much product of its time yeah oh and speaking of time we're out of it today nice one thank you

00:33:12.460 if you liked what you heard today it would mean the world to us if you could please leave us a

00:33:17.000 review and a rating on apple itunes because it really helps us out and means more people can

00:33:23.080 listen to us thank you so much again for tuning in you'll catch us in your ears next week bye see ya

00:33:34.400 You

Culture Club - October 12, 2020

Sorry, but Emily in Paris is 'Ringarde'

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